City Council - Regular Meeting

Order the work session for January 12th, 2026. We are in 2026, another year. First up on the agenda is a interview somebody we nominated earlier, Mr. David Salski. You come have back. This is one of the fastest turnarounds I've ever seen. I didn't want to leave. [laughter]

Um David has applied for an open position on the tourism advisory committee. Um you'll note in your packet we have one other person that we could nominate during the council meeting, not at this point. this as a point of information. So, it seems funny to ask you, you tell us a little about yourself. Sure. Why Why do you want to jump right back in, too?

Uh, I I have moved up the road, but I still have four businesses here in town that are involved in tourism, and they're a big part of my business. So being involved in decisions that help drive those industries is something that I of course am passionate about. What's been your involvement with this committee in the past if any?

I've been a a council liaison for the tourism advisory. So I've worked with uh Josh and the other members of the committee and uh seen the types of things that they talk about. And so I have I believe enough experience to be able to uh be an active member as a liaison. You don't make any decisions. You're kind of putting input and being a communicative member. And now as a member of that committee, I can help uh ensure that that money is being spent effectively. Slight correction. You do make some decisions. They do give them the authority to approve grants on the liaison as a liaison. uh as a member of the tourism.

No, I was saying when I was a leazison, I wasn't able to make the decisions. It was just their advisory. Yeah. So that's about the I think that's the only decision they do make aside from advisory choose who the grants go to for the various art projects and other things they're working on. Great. I think you know many of the members on there. Yep, I do. It's a good crew. Do you have a lens now that is different that makes you think about some priorities for that committee that maybe

I mean the the only thing that probably has changed is as we've gone through the process on budget committee in the past talking about how grants are awarded and the selection process. There's just some additional things that you know may or may not want to be [clears throat] looked at. I I haven't looked at it recently. uh not being the liazison on how those grants are being made. I know there was it was just announced that the grants for this year have been have been selected and so seeing how those work and how those move forward and um I know the budget committee the the repeat people that come year after year after year. Uh, I know that back when I had applied for those tourism grants, um, there was a limited amount of time that you could get them because the idea was to be a a seed money to get something going and off the ground. And so, you know, being able to see those just gives me a little bit of an idea of kind of what to look for and what I'm looking at.

You said you have four businesses. I know two. What are you? So, I've got tsunami sandwich, beach day coffee. Oh, okay. Which is right next door to it. All right. Krabby Oyster. That's yours, too? Uhhuh. Angelina's Pizza. So, if we were playing Monopoly, you'd have like the whole corner Broadway. [laughter]

So, I've always been an advocate of adding members to this committee, not because the members aren't great, but because I feel that there hasn't been a lot of turnover. So, we've had the same people on that committee for nearly a decade. And so, I've always been an advocate of bringing in some more voices. It looks like we have another great applicant. So, possibly we could take two at some point if we [clears throat] decide to do that. I think that's our next discussion, right? And that that part of the BCC conversations as far as structuring those. Yeah.

Yeah. No, and I've always been an advocate of being bringing in fresh blood that has new ideas and new, you know, new viewpoint uh on the committees and stuff and getting more people involved in volunteering for the city. So, you know, if it went the other way, I could see that because I don't know that I recognize the person's name, you know, moving forward. Do you have any ideas or recommendations how we could market the city better? Uh, I think I would want to see what's currently being done. It's been a a couple of years before I since I've been on uh advising the TAC, so I'm not sure what the current projects actually are. Does the TAC influence the TLT spend in any way?

Yeah. I mean, they spend TLT money, so absolutely. Yes. I don't know the exact portion they get, but they do get a portion of it. Okay. I thought you said grant, they influence the grant. So, the actual committee members get a vote on the grant, and their vote is final. The rest of what they do is more advisory. Okay. The grants are part of are funded by TLT funds, but the TAC decides who those go to for the projects. And they were basically designed for projects that would bring people here and put heads in beds outside of peak season.

And then since then there's been the art project which wasn't going on at the time that I was advising it before. So I don't know what those numbers look like. But yes, I think they're 100% funded by TLT.

Anything else? Okay, thank you.

Thank you. bringing back something from a year ago and we've been talking about boards, committees, commissions and committees. Um but most of our focus has been on discussions about the different ones that have been turning in things and uh most of you individually have been working with your liaison committees to uh start with this document and then find out what works for them. So as we talk about what goes with this document today, this is the original document from a year ago. Uh, no changes yet. Um, Spencer did mention that he sees some things that could have been done written better. Um, you know, you see those kind of things after years. So, um, I'm going to turn it over to him.

Give me one second.

I thought I had uploaded it here, but it looks like it is not there. So, I'm going to add it real quick. I've been carrying this copy with my notes on it since a year ago and occasionally going back to check and see what kind of things were in it. And it's my copy is really marked up. Um, can I email it to you or what's the best way?

Um, yeah, you can do that. I just got to run my office real quick. Could do this on my laptop faster. [clears throat] Yeah. Can I wait? Can I share this with what presenter? Yeah.

Where we're at right now is there are city ordinances that have been in effect um sometimes since the 90s when many of these were created that govern each individual board committee or commission. And what we're trying to do here is to we and we did do one goround um probably in 2018 or 19 where we cleaned it up somewhat. And u made it a little more consistent, but there's still some variations. And u what we've decided to do here is see if we can make one overall uh controlling document with whatever changes might pertain to individual committees.

All right. Apologize for the delay. Um, as the mayor said, it's been a year since we last introduced this, but we haven't discussed it since then. And I'll admit, uh, it was good for me refresher to go through it because it's been a year. Um, as the mayor said, even reading [snorts] through it today, like, [clears throat] okay, um, there are some changes I'd make today, but what I sent you is the, uh, unchanged from last year, although I started keeping my own red line, and we'll probably have some others. So, I think this was, if not the highest, near the near the top of the list of items the council wanted to um, start working on in the new year. So, we thought it was uh fitting to just do a refresher today on um what we're trying to accomplish and a refresher on this policy draft. Um, I think getting the this policy in a state where we don't necessarily need to adopt it, but it's ready for adoption that you've kind of signed off on it that um will help inform our decisions as we go through the individual committees. Um it will take some of the work out of that because there will be some things already addressed here and we can focus in on the individual committees the things that are specifically unique to each of them. So I think it will help inform those other discussions and they'll be more effective.

If I could ask a question on that. I [clears throat] think that the individual committees have also in their work made some proposals that actually would fit into this document as a more than into individual differences. And so at some point after we review this um I would suggest a review by staff probably of um of the documents sent in by the different committees that actually feed into what does the umbrella policy look like? What does the standard look like? Because I think a lot of them have said the same thing standard,

I'm sure. Um, okay. So, just a a refresher. Um, so tonight we're just talk about the overarching policy. Um, our focus is on the policy direction, your comfort level. We're obviously not talking about adopting anything and this policy is intended to be a framework and the individual committees would later be addressed through separate ordinances. So why are we talking about this now or why did we start talking about this last year? Uh current challenges uh so committees they exist in the code but many are not functioning as it as intended. So there is some confusion on what they're supposed to be doing, who they report to, what they're what authority they actually have. And the city code currently has separate section for each board committee, whatever think I've tried to call it committee, I call it board there. Um, and so uh they vary widely in structure and clarity. Uh there are some that have very detailed powers and duties and then some um like I think the community center says

they look for the concern of the community center or something as generic as that. And so

what does that mean? Uh so they lack clear powers, duties and expectation and there's no consistent guidance on the process or the roles for the for the different members. So the practical effect of that is uh our committees have become either inactive, unfocused and often frustrated. Um some committees take it upon themselves in to initiate their own projects and initiatives and staff and council are unsure how or whether to engage with the committees. And some boards persist even when their original purpose may have changed or faded. And so, um, I I'll give you an example of this and and I'm sure Council Monttero, you could feel better on this. Um, have the the TAC committee bylaws, have they changed since they were the TAC was originally created that you know,

the transportation? No, the uh tourism tour. Um, I don't know because I haven't kept up with it. I was on it before it was actually the TAC and then we created the bylaws and then I think I was on it afterwards. Um so I bring the way it was. Okay. I don't think they changed this. So one one of the reasons I um I bring that up and this may not be the case but if it if that was being run by volunteers

Oh yeah. and we and the when the bylaws were committed and we professionalized the staff but we haven't changed the bylaws, you know, that would be an indication of the bylaws are probably updated if they don't reflect what the current um efforts are of that department and whatnot. I'm not saying that's the case, but that's an example of uh the some of the purposes may have changed, but we haven't kept up in our bylaws. Um, oh wait, here we go. Okay. So, what's the proposed solution? One, overarching policy. So, establish a single consistent framework that applies to all committees. Sets baseline rules and expectations for purpose, authority, structure, communication, role, and responsibilities. And then follow up with individual ordinances. So after the council is comfortable with the overarching policy, each committee would be reviewed individually. Council would adopt a [snorts] separate ordinance for each one. These ordinances would define the specific powers and duties of that body and identify any exception to the overarching policy. So for example, residency, membership size, or anything else. Um so if it's not stated, then we default to the overarching policy. But if there's something unique. Um so in my mind the bylaws would mainly consist of two things. One, what are their powers and duties? And two, um what's their exceptions from the overarching um policy or ordinance uh core philosophy? So committees exist to support the city council not to operate independently. uh they are advisory only. Um clear expectations will then lead to better

engagement from their volunteers and more more useful recommendations to the council. Again, I think part of this is are they serving a purpose to you? Um now in some cases it would be recommendations that you look for and rely upon in making decisions. In other cases, it may be the council doesn't have the resources, the capacity to go as indepth on some issues and you do choose to delegate some of your authorities to them or the expertise

the expertise right um but that's done um very consciously by the council for example grants to the tech if if you want to formalize that then you have the uh ability to do do so but it's done officially and not just out of tradition or something. Our current philosophy

this is the philosophy as proposed in the draft uh clarifying roles and relationships. So role of the city council. So the city council establishes committees and defines their scope provides direction and priorities receives recommendations and reports. Staff leaison acts as the operational and administrative support. Helps committee stay aligned with city policies and procedures. Provides background information, technical expertise and follow through. Then the council liaison serves as a communication bridge uh not a decision maker. Helps convey council priorities and context. Ensures the council is aware of committee discussions and concerns. not so different here, but it really isn't articulated anywhere in our current ordinances or at least nothing more not more than just having a leaison. Same with the staff. So direction and reporting committees should not be left to guess what they should work on. The policy emphasizes receiving direction from the city council and reporting recommendations back to the council. some of those details. I think we would work out what's the right frequency. Does it make sense to have them report back on one year's efforts and have a discussion of the next year's? Do we do them all in January? Do we spread them out? There's lots of details, but essentially they get their marching orders from the council and they kind of return and and report to you and um and you can direct them from there or be ready to make a decision from there. So this creates a clear feedback loop and shared understanding uh between the committees and the council. Kind of touched on this already. So the default position that all committees are advisory only. Um so any authority

beyond that must be clearly stated in ordinance or specifically assigned by the city council. So this avoids confusion and unintended uh decision making. membership and structure. The policy establishes consistent baseline requirements such as the appointment process, the terms of service and attendance expectations and then again individual ordinances can adjust these where appropriate. Uh periodic review of committee. So the draft policy introduces the concept of a regular review. So this ensures each each committee is still needed and confirm that its role still aligns with council priorities. Um so this shows a recognition that these the needs and the prioritize priorities change over time and this is not automatically mean committees would be eliminated or anything like that but um there's an opportunity to review and to make changes. I think it's recommending on a every other year that those are are reviewed and and uh considered. So what this policy does not do does not eliminate any existing boards or committees. Does not immediately change powers or duties. Does not reduce council authority. Instead, it creates clarity, improves consistency, and sets the stage for thoughtful individual review. how the council input fits in. So, does this framework make sense? What concerns or refinements does the council want? And that that council direction will guide revisions of the policy and the pace and approach to the individual committee ordinances. I'll come back to this in a sec, but

just closing thoughts. So, we know our volunteers want to contribute meaningfully. staff want to support uh the committees effectively and the council wants use useful focused advice. I hope so. Anyway, so that we're trying to align all three of these. Um so coming back to this, I think this is where we could spend our time realizing that, you know, we're not ready to do a word by word, you know, go through the document. Um but I think what will be helpful tonight is clarifying anything from the 30,000 foot level um from the big space and then just discuss how we want to you know what the next steps are um in terms of how we want to go about um finalizing this uh policy. Um, I think my my own experience with the council guidelines is I think that took I don't know I felt like 18 months

to get through. Um, I I would hope we could have a a um more concentrated um streamlined process here. Um what does that look like? Um I think with the council guidelines, we went through it line by line in the work sessions, which um we can do if the council wants to do, but um what is the the best way to get from where we are today to a final draft that the council's ready to adopt?

How would you recommend we balance the board's committee and commission's feedback with your recommendations and then our own preferences? So, I think um the way I look at it is the this ordinance should reflect what the council wants. So, what I envision is that for each committee, you'll receive a recommendation. So, let's focus on the powers and duties. You'll receive a recommendation from each committee on this is what we think our powers and duties should be. You'll receive a staff recommendation. Um and those could be one could be saying we recommend adoption we recommend what they're recommending. We recommend police and we recommend these changes. The committee we recommend changing everything that's recommended but ultimately you receive a separate recognition from staff and separate recommendation from the committees. But then you just decide as a council that run the committees again. They should they should um exist just so the community need to be serving or the community in in some meaningful way. Um I could also see there may be uh opportunities where um let's say let's say the library board the library board could make a recommendation. You might get a slightly different recommendation from the library director and you might get a slightly different recommendation from me. Whereas Jennifer is going to have one point of view as the library director. I'll have a little bit different view as a city manager and ultimately it's it's about trying to give you all of the meaningful

information and options so you can make the the decision or the choice that works best for you as a council. The nice um what worked for this council may not work may not be what works for a f future council. Uh but a future council can um can make those changes. So are we awaiting any feedback from any committee ever? Do you have all of it?

I don't think we I have them all but I need to probably do an inventory. I think I probably have the majority at least. Um but they're kind of in their individual folders I just need to go through. So, my goal is to be thorough yet expeditious here. I have I am keenly aware of your reminder that we started this a year ago and I just think that's way too long that we're still talking about this. There are really bigger priorities for us to be spending our time on. So, I don't know exactly what I mean by expeditiously, but one thing coming to mind is you uh we have the chain I'll I'll take my example. The airport committee reviewed the document. They didn't have uh anything uh material perhaps on the overarching policy with the exception of they would like to participate in the interviews when we do an interview.

Okay. Other than that, they there's a question about um their um donations and how those are handled and potentially a couple other little nuances, but all in all, their updates to the bylaws from them are not that drastic. And I would say I think these are great, right? These are great recommendations. So, I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time reviewing those recommendations, socializing them again at another meeting. is that I would want council to have transparency and visibility to it, but how do we do this in a way that gives us some discretion over our own committees and making recommendations and moving this through a little more quickly. I am very sensitive to the fact that we have asked these committees to do this a year ago and we have not gotten back to them with the changes. The other issue we'll have is if this goes on through the midterm elections and we have a new council, which we probably will, and we don't finish it, then we're going to have to almost go back through it.

It's a great Don't let grape be the enemy of the good situation we are in here.

So, I would say it would not be that difficult. I think we could move quickly even with something as simple as how we present the information. Meaning for each of our we could have a consistent format for each of our committees with a list of current duties and then here's the proposal from the committee, the proposal from staff, and maybe anything else. and then um we could have a consistent format especially if we spend most of our time focusing on the powers and duties. The other things about being participating in interviews number of people on the committee I think that's easy stuff. The real heart of it is what do you want them to be doing? And I think I don't think that needs to take a lot of time unless there's a big difference of opinion and then in that case what I would recommend doing is bringing them in and having that discussion with them um if there is a significant difference of opinion. Having sat in on the discussions for three of the different committees, um what I uh saw was that most of them want to be talking about what what are our responsibilities, what are we here for, etc. And how they do it is um [clears throat] I think was a little more maybe puzzling and I don't know if that's the right word. um uh in some cases it's like what does the council want us to tell them? So um I would suggest that possibly taking the documents from that of all the input and throwing it all into a chat GPT thing as you like to do um and getting the what

is what is consistent throughout here. what and I I don't think you have to take staff time to do that because I heard a lot of consistencies uh in the house of things from during the discussions of those three committees such as wanting to participate in um the the uh selection just even if that's recommendations or sitting in on the interviews or and I think that that also gave people more uh owners ownership of the recruitment process and um and that kind of thing. So

I think it could be easy to um where their comments pertain more to this policy to bring that up and again if we're trying to be consistent it's um uh I think it's more is there something we haven't considered and it could be as simple as yeah that makes sense we can do that. So, as simple as we'd like to be participate in interviews, that doesn't [music] take much for the council to say, "Yeah, that's easy. Anytime we interview, we'll extend an invitation and they can participate or something like that." Now, if it's something a little more involved, like we want to vet all the people, you know, and you want to consider that, then there's probably some more work, but some of them, I think, uh, pretty easy to make those decisions. Um, one of the things that you talk about here is that they are uh they are advisory to the council and what isn't brought out here is that every committee, commission and board takes staff time and in some respects it's advising that staff person on the things that they're working on in some cases it's uh I I wouldn't want to see them coming to the council and advising the council on something that that hasn't been vetted through staff in terms of what does staff need to do and in some cases it's a lot of extra work for staff to staff those people commissions and so figuring out what's the balance there and again that goes back to what is the

purpose what what is the work etc. It's like um the council uh charged the parks advisory committee with doing the parks um master plan and but they don't do it by themselves. They're going to be doing that with the staff who is ultimately responsible for getting that in. So, um I think we just need to talk about this. Yeah, I was thinking about that when council Baker said, um I want to paraphrase you, but you can

wanting to move on to important things. We're getting through this quickly. The one thing I I will say is these committees do take up a significant amount of staff time for the preparation participation and um any time they they're they spend in these meetings they're not doing other things. Um and so that's the one thing I'm sensitive to is I want to make sure it's well used. Um and so that is on the staff side. It is an important thing to get this clarification because if we have a staff member devoting you know, even if it's three hours every month to something they isn't doing anything, that's not a good good use of their time. So, that is something that I hope um I know staff wants to get out of it is that it's increases the um you know, it's beneficial to them as well. The one thing I I will say and this is I think where in my mind at least some of the maybe the shift in paradigm if you will should come and that is I really want I really want this to be that they are advising the council rather than the department head uh unless it's something specific that the council has asked them to advise on. So, um, and I think that's where some of the confusion in the past has been. What I what I so what I don't really want is a department head not not sure who who they work. Do I take directions from this committee when they say they want me to do this or do that? Or um or oftentimes we have committees who are lay people and we have an expert in their field in a particular area and the people in the committee are like we don't we don't have any expertise that we need to advise this person on how or what to do. I think the other thing that

in some uh feedback from some of the department heads is and some of the I guess I would say some of the liaison is their feeling was well I'm here you know I'm trying to help them so this you know I'm providing them this this information this update um because it's important to them and those committee members are like we're listening to and accepting this report because it's important to that liaison and that goes back to if both are thinking they're doing it for the other, you know, kind of the what are what are we doing here? Um is this needed? And if so, let's focus in on what they should be doing because I think there is on some of these uh committees there's either some work that's being done out of tradition and some work that may be done um because uh again the other they they believe they're they're serving the other constituent and both are having the same opinion and that's one of the areas where if that's happening I think we should really get a grapple on so that it's an efficient use of time. If that's what's happening, that's not needed. And so then what what is needed? Um can I kind of pull back? Sorry, I know we're trying to move forward, but just a high level your philosophy on why the council should be directing as opposed to kind of spreading the authority, if you will, to these different committees. Is it because we're actor or what's your kind of because I've had a hard time articulating this to my what's your high level philosophy on that? Well, ultimately decisions of the city, especially on a policy level, should be made by the city council and even the work that we do as staff is directed and informed by this by the city council. Now, for a lot of things, there aren't things you necessarily weigh in and discuss because you've you've uh either through the charter or other ordinances

have delegated that, but for other things, we we take it um back to you. Um, and so the purpose of these committees should be helping you make better decisions by having a committee that can be more experts or spend the time necessary to get into the details of things that you just won't have time to do. I don't expect anyone here to be able to have the time to be the experts on managing an airport um that we would for staff or for that committee. And so you either are delegating to them to do some of the heavy lifting and then coming back to you with a recommendation on a policy because ultimately you need to be making those policy decisions. or in some cases where it makes sense to say we're actually going to delegate to you because you do have the expertise and we have the proper mechanisms and um checks in place that it's appropriate for you to make those decisions.

So aside from the committee updates that we all give, how is the council getting delegated that information that we should use to make informed policy decisions from all these committees? So uh I think that goes back to what you're asking them to do. So like for example the convention center, how are we being delegated that information for us to make decisions on that?

I think it starts with the first question is what do you want the convention center commission to be doing? And so the way I see it is um they would get a list of here here's what we'd like you as a commission to accomplish in this next year and or um we have these significant issues with the convention center. not issues with, but issues concerning the convention center that we want, in addition to getting the feedback from staff, we want a perspective on that comes from the downtown business community that you likely represent. And so it's it's very specific. So in the course of your next meetings, you're going to be discussing this, you're going to be doing some of the research, and ultimately you're going to come back for a recommendation. But if things if things don't originate from the council and then come back to the council, um that's where I think we start looking at how how important is this. If if Brian's reports were not of benefit to the commission and the commission's uh feedback to Brian aren't helpful. Um then we should be talking about you know what is the purpose of the convention center commission and um uh where are we needed I think you can likely articulate a reason for all of them and so what's the best way to make that part

seems to me the information from the committees is going to the department heads as opposed to the council and so we're not really seeing it I don't know except for the updates I don't know what's going on

so one of the things that um that um that the policy discusses is that they would have an annual meeting with the city council. So, they would come in, you'd have a discussion with them, they'd give you an update on what they're working on, and they would we we would come prepared to have a discussion of uh the council asking them this is what we'd hope you'd accomplish in this next year. So, um so for the convention center, is it increased booking rates? Is it significant renovations? What do we want you to come and provide feedback on that's concerning that?

And that also gives them it also gives the committee the opportunity to come up with their suggestions that the council might want to adopt because they theoretically are closer to it than we are. They're working decent. Yeah. And they're working with the department head. So [clears throat] it's not us telling them what we want but us asking them for their input for their suggestions so that we can then make the policy decisions or the cost decisions or that kind of thing. I I making better totally agree I think the annual reporting component of this is incredibly important.

Yes. And that should tie into the budget process and that's about strategy. My experience with the committees is the rest of the work is largely transactional operational. It's not setting policy. It's not you know there's they're they're sort of they have their work plan that is set for them annually as a department head. Brian knows he has budget to replace the HVAC. So I as a council member aren't weighing in on right that kind of that's just not happening in the committees and maybe mine are different than

but when it's at the budget committee level and that's when the counselors are weighing in and that's when we take into consideration the information that we get from our committees etc. So it makes the big picture. Over the years the council has in effect sort of ignored the committees and commissions in terms of what do we want from you? Why are you here etc. And some of them have floundered. Some of them have taken on authority that they were never given by the council. And so this is our opportunity to look at that and say, "Okay, do we want to give you that authority? If so, here's how we because that's a policy decision."

I do think and I agree. I was going to say the same thing on on the budget. Um, you know, in conversations with Zach in the last week, um, I remind him that we want to reach out to those, not all the committees have as straightforward a budget as say the airport and the community center, but we reach out to them and say, "Hey, um, are there a list of projects we should be considering this year?" Um but that is one of the ways they can be beneficial is um reviewing the um budget uh recommendations from the those departments in those areas and in that case them making their own separate recommendations to the council that maybe aligns or is slightly different from what the staff has. Again, it's giving you more information. So, it's not one opinion, it's two whether they're the same or they're slightly different. It's helping you to make a better decision in this ca in that case on on how you're going to um prioritize um budget request during that that policy.

I think the committee that's had the most clarity on all this has been the um the tourism committee because um the tourism director has had uh an amount of money that's been authorized to be spent and then has taken has had that authority to take it to the committee for the committee to look at the grants that have been applied for etc. They they probably have have the most sophisticated system in all of for all the committees from that perspective.

I agree. But I feel as a council we've been siloed away from even knowing what they're doing or having any say on what they're doing. It's almost it's kind of like the convention center too. It's like we don't make any decisions and those are some of the biggest things we do as a city and then other things like public works maybe we're really involved. So why is there that difference?

I think it's a difference because we don't have any of the structure around it and that that's what we're hoping to accomplish. And maybe that's a policy we want to say is that before it's announced or before it's finalized that it does come back to us for our blessing or something like that. Um I think the other example example I was thinking of is the library board because part of it is there's some there are some guidelines from the state for us to be an accredited library you need to have a library board and there are certain duties and things like that and the adopted bylaws of the library board you have delegated some um decision- making to them that came up last year when we were talking about um book reviews or uh requests for reconsideration that's been delegated to the library board. So, you have a non uh partisan, non-political decision-making body making um making reviewing and making decisions uh on things that come up where there's a disagreement with the library director or something like that's a good use of some expertise and a good use idea, a good example of where you've delegated some of that decision- making where where it makes sense. And I would see that for each for maybe not each of these but where it makes sense for for each of these but it would be would be helpful. Now there are some where there are um some departments are a welloiled machine and others have so many things going on that there's lots to talk about and so um whether or not they come to the council I guess I would say if there are if there are major things major department where more frequent updates would be beneficial we should have that discussion as well.

[clears throat] Okay, we need to wrap up the next step. Um, can you put together this Yeah, this thing. I I think I want to follow that input along with this and see where the matching points are.

Yeah, I'll try to see what I can do about getting both. We'll talk about scheduling, but I want to do probably another review of this policy and fine-tune it and then see if we can't come up with an easy way to um share the um uh or an easy way to go through each of the requests from from various committees. Maybe it's very straightforward, maybe it's controversial. I would say that right now all of us as liaison know whether our committee have submitted their documents. I think Spencer already said they have.

I have not I have not audited it. So I'll I have a whole stack of them in a that hasn't got theirs in. He will let you know soon so that you can get it in. Can't put it together if we don't have them. Yeah. Fine. Okay. All right.

and call the city council meeting for January 12th, 2026 to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

Again, please call the role. [clears throat] Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Monttero, present. Councelor Hoffman, present. Councelor Baker, here. Council President Morrisy here. Mayor Ryan here. Councelor McVey here. Thank you. I have a motion for approval of the agenda. So moved. Second. Council President Morse seeing councelor McVey. All those in favor say I. I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. No proclamations or recognitions. Public comments. Members of the public may use this time to provide general comments on matters not scheduled elsewhere on the agenda for a public hearing or public comment. Individuals wishing to speak should complete a public comment registration card and submit it to the city recorder before being called. This time is intended for the council to listen to public comments rather than engage in discussion. The council may consider whether issues raised during this time should be scheduled for discussion or action at a future meeting. Each speaker is allotted three minutes. I have uh was going to check. Okay, I have uh looks like three. The first one up is David Pasolski. uh want a topic of city council appointment.

Hi, this microphone's a little harder to speak in versus the ones up there. Um I just wanted to uh make my preference known. I watched the candidate forums. I think we've got two f you guys have two fantastic candidates uh to fill the position for Ward 4. Um, I made a comment in the past that I believed it was important for us to keep somebody in the tourism industry. As important as that is for our community on the council and being that Brandon Craft works in that industry, I would, if it was me, I would choose him for the position. Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly. You are a resident of Seaside.

I am. Yes. I was told to come here uh that you people had a lot of resources available that uh might help. And what I'm here for is to see if we can get some entity to start uh helping seniors with problems such as namely ladders. I had a friend get hurt really bad and uh there's nobody you can call. You know, we pay into LifeFlight and we pay into medics now and uh I haven't talked to any senior that wouldn't be happy to pay into a program where they could get help once in a while. And uh so anyway, I thought maybe we could start here in Seaside to maybe get something like that started. You know, there's a lot of seniors here, so there certainly [laughter] are.

Yeah. Yeah. And you don't think about these things when you're young. It's when you get old, you start thinking about it. [laughter] Okay. So, anyway, uh you have my name and number on the card. If anybody has any ideas, a way to I can make this progress along into something uh that that can be useful, well, uh please contact me.

Okay. Thank you very much. Great idea. And yes, some of us have been told we are not to climb on ladders anymore. We had a uh a u public comment request from Chuck Murphy submitted via email. Is Chuck here? Don't see him. Okay. Anybody else that didn't get a chance or Kim? That it. Okay, we'll move on. Um, any councelor wish to declare a potential conflict of interest with anything on the agenda?

I have a potential conflict of interest in item 13A. I have done business with them in the past, but we are no longer involved in uh any business dealings. Okay. So, noted. I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Before we go there for discussion, I um am suggesting a change a an amendment to the minutes. And that would be

that would be um the uh I look I look every uh meeting at the comments that are uh reflected the reflection of the comments of the different counselors. And um uh I do not believe that my comments uh as uh documented here uh that it's reflective of the comments that I made uh at the last council meeting. I discussed this with uh with um city manager Spencer and um he came up with a different way to do things. Can I turn that discussion back to you, Spencer, please?

Sure. Um, we've had different ways of doing the minutes since I've been here in an effort to both streamline and improve the accuracy. And part of that is linking hyperlinking um the minutes to the previous meeting so people can find the details. Um that has generally worked for most of the items on the agenda where my instructions to our city reporter Kim Jordan is um to list what's the topic discussed um who was present and what decisions uh were made or direction given anything outside of that um they can find that in the video recording. It's a little different when it comes to the council comments. That's the one area where I think I recognize there's there's still uh maybe some work to do in that there's no decisions being made, no direction being given. It is just your comments. And so the question is how do we how do we um accurately reflect your comments without a um transcribing them and b paraphrasing it in someone else's words? And so, um, what I did, uh, in fact, um, Kim came to me at after last meeting and said, "David's got a whole long list of things he talked about. How can I summarize that in one or two comments?" And so, for fun, uh, I took the transcript that was provided by YouTube, um, put it in through AI and said, you know, produce some minutes and it looked really accurate. And so, um, we did that just for his because I think his closing comments were a little bit different than the normal ones. Um, however, it was a very simple and easy process. So, when, um, when Council

Monto um, approached me this afternoon, uh, indicating that, um, she felt there were some some additional comments, uh, that were missing. Um, I did the same thing with hers and it u produced I think after just listening re listening to her comments I think it did an a very good job and so I've just sent that out to the council to review and so um I was going to bring it up at the next council meeting where I may present you with two different versions of the minutes. one very simplified and one that we allow um uh artificial intelligence to to pull out of the transcript and uh and put your comments together. They're a little more thorough. Uh but it's not where we we're charging any individual staff member with trying to rephrase your meaning, your intent, all those kinds of things that come into it. And so, um, so what you have in your email is is is, uh, that change. And so, I think, um, Council Monto could, um, amend the motion tonight to, uh, approve the consent, uh, agenda with the amended minutes. And then we'll save that discussion for what's the best format for the next meeting, but I think it can be.

Could you read what the revised sentence says? Can I read it? Yeah, just read it. The all the comments? No. Did you revise all of them or just just hers and just the one that she didn't like?

Um, what I would say is I just did hers and I would replace all of the comments currently in the minutes for council Montero with the revised one. So, it was a replacement of all of her comments, um, not any portion of her comments. So, council can feel free to amend the the minutes as you see fit or um well, I'll leave that. I'll turn that back to you. Well, I I'd like to have the um ch the new comments uh read into the record just so we know what they are without each one of us looking them up and then not reading them into the public record.

Would you like me to do that? Would you like counselor? Yes, please.

Okay. The updated uh minutes uh for council would be uh all in bullet points. Uh thank thanked councelor David Pazowski for his service to the city of Seaside. Reported that the community center commission met and completed its input regarding proposed changes to boards and commission documents. Reported that the city tree board held a special meeting and also completed its work on the same effort. Announced an upcoming coffee with the counselor. event scheduled for December 17th at 10:00 a.m. at the Ocean Cafe. Uh thanked members of the public who spoke regarding ICE related activities occurring in the community. Red allowed the city of Seaside's vision statement and stated concern that the city is not currently living up to that vision. Expressed concern that the city that city leadership is not adequately supporting the full population of the community. noted that impacts related to immigration enforcement are occurring now, not only during peak tourism seasons, cited information shared during the meeting that several seaside residents had been removed from the community and characterized this as unacceptable. questioned whether annual proclamations supporting the Hispanic and Latinx community are sufficient without accompanying action. Emphasized the importance of due process and stated concerns that that it is not being followed. Stated a belief that elected officials have a responsibility to speak when laws are not being followed or enforced appropriately. Expressed personal opposition to federally backed actions she described as illegal. urged fellow elected officials to take a public position in support of the community and affirmed solidarity with the Hispanic and Latinx community.

So, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Is there any change to that motion? Second to accept the consent consent agenda as it is. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed? No. No. Three to three. The motion does not pass. I'm sorry. What what was the I to change to approve? Uh I'm open to approving. So I'd be willing to change my vote on that. Oh, I was confused.

Approving the change. That's why I'm saying I need a a a change in your motion to say that cuz you didn't say it. I didn't make a motion. Motion to approve the agenda as amended. Yeah. We haven't had that motion just now. Okay. Do I have a second to that? I'll second. So this is to approve adding the comments. Adding those comments just on councelor Montero. Okay. All those in favor say I. I.

Any of those opposed. Motion carries. We will schedule that for a future work session. There are no reports and presentations. Uh city uh boards, commissions, committees have vacancies still. Airport advisory committee has one, city tree board has one, community center commission has two, planning commission has one, transportation advisory commission has one, and we'll work on city council ward 4. Tonight, um we interviewed David Pasolski for the tourism advisory committee, which has one vacancy. We also received a new application from Christine P. What is the pleasure of the council?

I would move to appoint David Pzolski for the tourism advisory committee. Second,

councelor Council President Morsy and councelor Bickker. Any discussion? The [clears throat] discussion I would have there is that I think we have a someone who has never applied for a position before who is very active in the downtown uh and a manager of um of our carousel mall uh who has put in an application and I think we need to give that person the opportunity to interview with us um so that we can um uh uh have an idea and so we can make a decision. I given that we have more than one applicant, I don't think we should just um ignore the other the second applicant.

Agreed. Agreed. We have a motion on the floor to appoint David Pasolski. Any change to that? All those in favor appointing David Pasolski say I I those opposed. No. No. So that was um who was the uh two eyes? One eye. Two eyes. Okay. Council President Morsy and Councelor Baker.

And then I would like to nominate Christine P for the uh uh tourism advisory committee. Uh that was councelor Montero and counselor McVey. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh see if you can schedule her for next work session in two weeks. And are we still in the process of scheduling um uh for the Stephen Christopher when he gets back in town? He's Oh, I didn't realize he was out of town.

Okay. No unfinished business. New business. Liquor license application off- premises sales for Seaside Chevron. Are the uh new owners here? Please come forward. Introduce yourself. Tell us about yourself. Hello. What uh what's happening with Dell Chevron? Yeah. Uh my name is Sadep Sandu. Um this is Singbar. my father tech techando. Um yeah, so we made a deal to purchase the right in front of the microphone, please. Oh,

yeah. Um so we made a deal to purchase the Chevron um a few months ago and currently in process um doing so. Yeah. U we've been in the gas station business for about 30 years or so. My dad started it um back in the late 90s and just been growing slowly since then. question from the council. Well, is the sale final? Is Yes. Okay. I thought you said you were in the process of purchasing. Oh, um yeah, the loan process. So, we have a final sale. Just um working on the loan. Okay. Yeah. Just making sure the license wasn't premature to the

sale. Got it. Has that Chefron had a liquor license before? Are you changing anything? No, we're not changing anything. Yeah. I have no issue. Any other questions? Where I one question, where are you currently located? Uh, we have stores. So, we have the stop and goes right here. That's right. Um, we have one in Atoria, couple in Long Beach, and then some spread out in like Napa, and then towards Vancouver area. So, you're you're in the region already? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

All right. I have a motion. Looks like Seaside Police Department did their background check and didn't find anything to disqualify them. So, I'd move to recommend the approval of the liquor license application for Seaside Chevron. I'll second. It's Council President Morsy and Councelor Hoffman. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Seaside. Thank you.

We have uh the first ordinance for 2026 on the table here. Ordinance of the city of Seaside establishing the authority of the mayor. Oh boy. [laughter]

to declare a local state of emergency providing for council ratification. So, um Spencer, you want to lead us through this. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh so, we briefly talked about this at the end of last year when we were prioritizing projects uh for the for the new year. This wasn't necessarily a top priority, but I told you it was lowhanging fruit that we could take care of. And so, uh, we were able to put the, um, attached ordinance together for your consideration. And it is, uh, important. And so, we're happy to, to get going on this. Um, so to add a little bit of context, pass me the keyboard. All right. So, uh, in terms of okay, the purpose, so it's to establish the legal authority for the mayor to declare a local state of emergency um to fill an existing gap in the city code that um the current um emergency operations plan um that it does not grant legal authority. So, I'll back up to say currently uh for the city to uh the city council to declare an emergency, it needs to be done by uh current ordinance says it needs to be done by the city council. Uh but our emergency operation plan, says the mayor, and that's uh more traditionally, and we'll get into why that's the case. Um, so we wanted to better align our emergency procedures with state law, FEMA and best practices and ensure the timely action, council oversight and clear public communication during

emergencies. So why this matters? So it's this uh change will strengthen seaside's position for FEMA reimbursement and inter agency coordination. In order for the city to receive any funding reimbursement during the emergency from FEMA, there is a very um particular um way to go about doing that. You have to follow their formula and one of those is you have to be acting under a disaster declaration and then it has to escalate to a certain level but if you haven't done that um you will not be eligible. Um and then there's some other provisions in there on a pra that have a practical effect um uh on the operations during an emergency. Um we do have a local ordinance. However, uh you can understand during a significant emergency getting together a quorum with the city council can sometimes take time and coordination. So the purpose of this is to expedite that project uh process. though without that um until the council is able to convene we can't legally activate any curfews or evacuations expedite emergency contracts for mutual aid formally request assistance from clats county or the state. So the key features that are in the draft ordinance uh so the mayor declares an emergency and then the council must ratify within seven days. the council fails to ratify, then the emergency uh ends at that 7-day period or the declaration ends. Provides for some specific powers uh that include curfews, evacuations, closures, procurement, relief, and zoning suspensions. before you get too concerned about zoning suspension, it's it's uh things like um allowing uh people to park in certain areas that traditionally are not they're not

allowed to park. It's things of that nature. And I believe the language is it's um it must these aren't broad. They have the declaration has to specify what specifically which of these powers are we are enabling and it needs to be whatever is applicable to the moment. We don't just uh invoke all of them. Uh requirement for public notification um through the website, social media and local media. requires a postemergency report to the city council within 60 days and um it's integrated with our emergency operations plan and the NIM's ICS protocols which is the are the FEMA requirements. It also provides for continuity of leadership. So if the mayor is unavailable, then the council president or the city manager may declare the state of emergency. And if none of these are available, there is a line of succession going to the assistant city manager, fire chief, police chief, any council member at that point, and then any designated department head in emergency operations plan. Um, and so this ensures that local authority is always available during uh during crisis events. um provides for county and state coordination. So a local declaration is required before the county or the state can act. Clatsup county consolidates the request and coordinates with the state. Uh the state may declare a statewide emergency based on local input and this layered process ensures seaside remains eligible for regional and federal support. And then lastly, I did get some uh feedback since the packets went out um from our um current emergency manager with three revisions. And so these are appropriate. I'd ask you to consider this uh within the def definition of

emergency to act to add acts of terrorism to the list of qualifying events. Um, two, under the section outlining emergency powers, add the authority to restrict or limit the use of water or other utilities if necessary to preserve life or infrastructure. And three, under the emergency powers, add the authority to remove debris from public or private property when necessary to restore public safety or access. So with that, the requested action uh action tonight is to do a first reading of ordinance 2026-01 with staff amendments by title only and then you have the option for a second reading.

Could you go back to the prior page? So first one's under section two, the first subsection definition. Yeah.

Acts of terrorism. The next one is under section six, water and utilities. Or is that the next one? Six. Both of them go under six.

Both of them under the authority to remove debris. So we have 10 items under section six. Okay. before um council about this. Are there is there anybody in the audience that wants to say anything about it? You understand as much as we do at this point? So, no public comments. Counselors,

my first question is why not convene the city council as the first option as opposed to just the mayor? uh just because uh if it's a significant event and roads are difficult to they're impassible and things like that, it can be sometimes 24 48 hours to be able to get a a um a quorum together and but we need to act sooner than that. Um, and I think the way it's worded is it's uh you have up to seven days for the council to ratify, but the council should ratify as soon as a quorum is put together. So the it's more about um quick response um rather than than anything else or really rather than taking authority from the council and giving it to the mayor. It's just for that uh interim time. In fact, let's say we had a um a mayor that was out there on his own and declared an emergency. Uh you and you could convene within a couple of hours. You could resend it at that time. So,

as far as the current system, the council would have to declare it. Is that correct? So, the last time the council declared an emergency, it was done by resolution. It was for the pandemic which that one's not as um likely not as you know timely but you can imagine a significant um

uh you know earthquake fire you know natural disaster things of that nature um where um speed was important as an example it allows the city we have current protocols that we have to adhere to for purchasing during state of emergency we can bypass that so we can basically ally without going out and seeking many different quotes during emergency. We can go and act absolutely procure what's needed to respond in that emergency at that time. Those are the kinds of things that we don't necessarily want a delay on. I'm curious um what if there seemed to be an emergency and the mayor decided they did not want to declare a state of emergency but um other people in the line of succession if you will or the council as a whole wanted to declare an emergency how would that work and is that addressed anywhere in here

so um I guess it's indirectly addressed Um it only goes down the line of succession if the mayor is unavailable. Um so if the mayor is available and decides not to declare then it defaults to it's the council's responsibility to do that. So that that is the default position. Um and at any time the the council has the authority to declare that. That's currently true and that would be true in this case. The only change here is that um the mayor can do it uh on their own. um quickly to get the ball rolling.

Is the council is the first step to try to convene the council or is the first step the mayor makes the decision and then we see if we can get the council together.

This doesn't um this policy doesn't try to dictate that. It provides the option that the mayor can do this. Um, the mayor has the authority to make a declaration without convening the council. Um, so, uh, I don't think it says in there, but we could, well, I'd have to go back and look. I'm trying to remember if it says if the council can't be convened, then the mayor can do it. Um, I'd have to go back and look, but that is something that we could put in there. Um certainly I mean I guess it's you don't want to say take our word for it. We won't have them do it unless it's absolutely necessary. So um it would be better to put that language in there. But that is something that we can review. That's the intent anyways is when the count when when um quick action is needed and the mayor's avail and the council's not available, that's when this would happen. And so um

you could even set a threshold. Yeah. If they cannot be convened within you know 1 hour I don't know what that time sure is the reasonable time frame would be you could even define the convening that it could be by telephone sure certainly could be I think that already exists today where yeah you have the ability to to do that could not be convened what about the EOP does this replace that does this complement that this makes the this would make our ordinance in line with the current EOP. The current EOP does state the mayor would declare an emergency. Um does

it's just that that was one of the things we did a training scenario and that was one of the things that was brought up is this is the process although our code doesn't actually allow us to do this. That was my hint to okay well [clears throat] let's up let's update our code. Uh and I think what we're looking at is a pretty standard practice. So, do we need to update the EOP too?

Um, yes, that is already happening. We have a um there is a a grant that we were approved along with the other cities in the county that we are all updating ours together with the same consultants. They're doing the counties and the cities all together so that they all complement each other. And so, uh I don't anticipate that this would change.

Fabulous. Thank you. So, um this it it states actually that um the city council would have to extend the emergency in 7-day increments by resolution. But if you go to section seven where it says termination of emergency, I think you need to add one more phrase. It says the emergency shall terminate upon the mayor or design's written order or upon council resolution or automatically if not ratified within 7 days. It that's the ratification that's not the extension. Do you need to add if it wasn't extended

to me for another seven days? To me extension would be a part of ratification. So ratify is just I would say any changes an exch and a change would be an extension

if that means the same. So the other thing that left me just a little confused as I was reading it. If you go to section three, A says the mayor is authorized to declare the emergency. B then talks about what the declaration must include, but then it suddenly jumps on item D to the chain of command, so to speak, that says that the mayor, council, president, and city manager are all unavailable. But we haven't even talked about those people yet until you get down to C. So, I'm suggesting that you need to re sort that section that says the mayor has the authority and then it's the um the um I'm sorry, the council president and then the city manager and then you need to add the D in. You need to separate out the sections that talk about who can declare it and the order and the section that says what has to be in the declaration. You've got it all mushed together. And it uh as I was reading it, I had to keep going back and forth and going, "Well, wait a minute. Where's the city manager in there? Where's that?" I just think it needs to be res resorted.

No, I agree. I would I would pull D out and be C and I'd move C up to probably be a part of A. So A is just who's authorized and then uh then B might be and if they're not available here's the succession and third would be so the information is all there I agree it's not in the right order

okay um and then uh and this might be too nitpicky but section 8 public notice um you have city website local media outlets uh proclamation official social media accounts. I because I think people don't think about it often enough is using our um movable signs on the highway. I So this is not supposed to be the exhaustive list. This is just the required list. Um

okay. All right. Uh, so we will do everything we need to. Um, and that, as you know, I I looked at this too much last week. Um, as I'm sitting here, I'm not sure what the bullet point proclamation of emergency h I'm not sure what the proclamation of emergency bullet point is even Yeah. [clears throat] doing there. Can Can we add language to section 8 indicating that this is including but not limited to

those those Sure, that makes sense. And then I noticed that um do we even have to think the emergency powers granted etc. Um, one of the things that came up for me is what's the effect on visitors and if we're in an emergency situation where we have to restrict this that and the other. um do we have to think about how this affects visitors and whether we restrict future visitors or or added visitors during that emergency period.

So that's what the emergency operation plan outlines. The emergency operation plan is really how we go about managing um an emergency. This is just strictly about making the declaration. Okay, good deal. Thank you. My uh main comment about this whole thing is that this is something that is to be done basically as quickly as possible. That's what brings this up and even an hour delay could be something that would be uh detrimental to people that are here.

Yes. So, um, you know, it's not like the mayor has any special, uh, control or special knowledge or anything. He's just being told that, okay, we need to do this immediately to, for instance, you know, in the worst case to save lives. So, we want to get it out there as quickly as possible by whatever means we can. And I'm sure uh, I've seen the plan. It's pretty thorough. You also uh update it quarterly. You have a meeting to talk about it quarterly. We meet uh we meet monthly to discuss emergency operation plans

um as department heads as our actually as our our EOC our is that our e- prep team. Yeah.

So it includes the department heads as well as our um some other individuals. So this is very active living document that we're talking about and this is just what is needed per that document to get it into effect basically as quick as possible. Um, I guess my question now is we've we've got two official amendments and then we've got some other wording changes that um don't affect the overall um text as such other than changing some words around. Do we need to just set this aside and come back with the final quote unquote document next meeting?

Um, uh, only if you want to. Um you can make significant changes between first and second um but the council guidelines say that you should only make um non-significant ones in between the second and third. I wouldn't consider anything um we're doing here to be significant. Um and so I think if you're comfortable um you can do a first reading. Um, I'd recommend since we are we know we're making changes, I'd recommend doing a first reading and then if there's no changes at the second reading, you could consider the third reading at that time.

So, I'm definitely not comfortable with doing a first reading. If you look at section six, the emergency powers granted, those are very significant powers that are granted to the mayor. And what might make sense is if it's a a speed is the issue, which it probably would be in a lot of cases. I still think that the council convening should be the first priority. If that can't happen immediately, then the mayor could maybe temporarily do it. But a 7-day lag from the council convening is too long in my opinion. So, let's say there was such a situation where the mayor had to immediately do it. Maybe that's available to him, but within hours the council should be convened to ratify that in my opinion. I don't think it should be 7 days down the road cuz we're I trust the mayor fully, but you never know who the mayor is going to be and you want to make sure that the power is spread out as much as possible. So, I'm concerned not having the council convening as the first priority and the first uh thing we do uh to get this thing going. So, that would be my recommendation.

Would add I would go ahead. Would adding a statement about uh having the council convene as soon as possible before 7 days cover that? I don't get this to say that you have to wait seven days for the council. But if you add that and if you also add what Christine was talking about and that is you're attempting to get the council together first and if you can't within a defined length of time then you default to the mayor and then you're trying to get the council together as soon as possible.

My thoughts are a lot of you know instances where we would invoke this might not be urgent within 20 minutes. let's say we have to have it happen. So having the council being the first um person that you try to get here, the first group and then the mayor would be second I think is fine as long as there is some clause within it where the mayor could do it if it's in that specific situation where it needs to be urgent. What would you say would be the t what would you say would be the time frame that we would want to set for uh getting the council together a quorum together to make this um and I think we have to look at it in different situations. If it was an incoming tsunami h that might be 15 minutes. If it was um something else, maybe two hours would be fine. But I think, you know, I'm I'm not disagreeing with you at all. Um I think it's a good place to put it, but I think the important thing is going to be what's the time frame we want to set.

Well, I agree, an hour could be too long, so I don't know the time frame.

So, I would say currently and even with this, the default is the council makes a declaration. So the specific wording here is the mayor is authorized to declare a local emergency when conditions require immediate action and the city council is not in session or cannot be convened in a timely manner. So the default is the council does it and the mayor would only do it in these uh conditions. Um we can easily add in there I think two things. One is that if the mayor does declare it, um the council should be convened as soon as a quorum can be uh composed. And um I think we can I don't want to I wouldn't to the mayor's point, I wouldn't put a time frame on there because it depends on the circumstances, but we can say um something along the lines of when there's a threat to life or property or something like that that that triggers it. So, um, or an immediate life, uh, immediate threat to life or property or something like that that would happen if if it were not if we had to wait. We can come up with some language along those lines.

If the default was to immediately convene the council as well, I would be more comfortable with saying that the mayor could uh, basically put the emergency into place and then we would immediately be convened at that point. Isn't that what it's already saying in the latter part of the I was under the understanding that you're saying within seven days? No. 3A.

So, the current ordinance already grants the council the authority to approve a state of emergency by resolution. What this is saying is if that can't happen, then the mayor has the authority under these conditions. Uh, but I'm sure we can clarify and keep the intent here and any safeguards that you want. Seems to me like it's already there. Yeah, I I would like to I I would like to see an update to to have us ratify it as soon as possible.

Yeah. But I I'm personally I'm I'm satisfied with the last part of 3A uh making it so that it's going to go to the council unless we can't be convened in a timely manner which I would assume is timely to the particular event and getting any more specific than that we're going to have to cover such a wide range of possibilities and figure out okay if it's a landslide we have 15 seconds if it's a tsunami we might have 20 minutes if it's you without having to get into the nitty-gritty. I'm I'm satisfied with what's there myself.

Well, I think you just hit on the key piece. What section 3A doesn't say or I don't understand it properly is that the council won't be immediately convened to ratify what the mayor has done. I don't think that's what it says. No, the that ratification part is further down within seven days. The 4A part, right? And and that's where I'm saying that's where we need to add in ASAP. And I would feel more comfortable if we did that. That's an that's an easy ad,

right? I still think with those changes, you could do a first reading and we'll come back with um with all these changes. It sounds like there's general consensus that we could come back. Um again, I think what we're talking about is not significantly changing the plan, but adding clarification so that we all have the exact same understanding of what the authority is and how far it goes. But I'll leave that to you guys side. If you're ready for a reading, we can do that. I mean, we've gone 100 years without this. So, um, it's up to you.

So, you just want to insert at 4A after city council as soon as possible, but no later than uh 7 days after its issuance. Yeah. Yes. Does that do it for you, Seth? Yeah, as long as we're immediately convened as well, I'm happy with it. Well, B says if it's not ratified, it automatically expires. But that's within seven days, right? Yeah. So, there's a seven window that has me concerned

only if the council can't be convened. [snorts] And I definitely like to get some public feedback on this one. Okay. What's your pleasure, council? Have we asked for public comment yet? Yes. I'd move for a first reading of 20261 uh as amended by title only

hearing no second. Um evidently it's tabled till next meeting. I'd like to see a clean ordinance. Okay. So we can really look at it. We'll wait for a clean ordinance. Okay, we're all scrolling to find the page we need to be on. [laughter] [snorts]

And mine's different than everybody else's. We don't have another page. Pass those down. Is there only two there? Uh, yes. Yeah, it's thick paper.

Yeah, use the good stuff. Okay. Um, we had a forum last week and we gave the candidates a list of questions and they had several days prior to that so they had time to prepare for them. They also heard each other's comments. So, um, tonight we change up the process. What we're going to do is I've selected and adopted questions from suggestions by the council and the city manager as well as my own. The candidates will be answering them sight unseen. Each candidate will also be isolated from the interview of the other candidate. Um, I flipped a coin and Mr. Ansbro will be first up. So, um, he can come up here to the table. Mr. Craft, will you please follow the city recorder and she will place you in the cone of silence with some uh music to listen to? Um,

can we get another set for craft?

Here is a uh list of the questions, so you need to refer to it. The uh process that we're going to go through here is the candidate will um have and there's no time limit on any of these. Um we have I think what I do five questions um an opening statement and then um as long as you want to talk about each one of these keep in mind that you know we're hopefully not going to be here all night but you know uh keep your answers uh to the point and um and then you'll have opportunity after the last question to wrap up with a closing comment. After that is done, uh, council, I will, uh, start, uh, offering a few thoughts and then, uh, just ask each counselor, uh, before we proceed to the vote, the opportunity to briefly state what qualities they believe are most important uh, in the filling this candidate in this filling this vacancy, and then which candidate in their mind best meets those qualities. We'll hold a roll call vote to make it official. We have two choices and then uh we'll see where we go from there. So, first qu uh well, opening comment first. Uh welcome Mr. Ansbro. Um you you uh answered a lot of questions on Wednesday night. And what else would you like to tell us before we start? Well, members and seaside community uh and thank you for this opportunity to

be here. I appreciate it. I I take this uh seriously. Um after last week's interview, I had a few people come on up and ask me uh they wanted to know more about me. So, I said, "Okay, let me uh tell you a little bit uh right now." But, uh, I knew I had another interview coming up, so I thought I would lay the groundwork, find out, you know, be able to offer a little bit more information to the community. Um, I've been working since I was 7 years old, uh, selling seeds and holiday cards out of the back of comic books. Uh, by the way, my favorite comic books are Daredevil and the Flash. Um, I shoveled snow. I trimmed hedges. My dad taught me how to trim hedges. He gave me a pair of clippers that were about the size of me. I went out through the neighborhood and started doing that, sweeping sidewalks. Uh basically anything that I could do for a buck, uh I did. Uh by 11, I had a paper route. Uh serving about 125 people, riding my bike around at 4:30 in the morning, delivering papers. And um on Saturdays I would go door todo to collect the money that they owed me for delivering the papers. So I had an opportunity to meet the people uh interact with the people collect money and it showed me about uh responsibility and act actually showing up and this paper out was seven days a week. Um, as a teenager, I uh did lawn work. I also worked at McDonald's. Uh, and then I became a male orderly for uh a senior care facility which really gave me some good insight. I mean, I was a teenager

at the time and then I'm taking care of these men who are uh in the final stages of life and that really gave me a very good perspective on what to expect later on in my life. And that's that's cathartic for a teenager to get to see that up close and personal. Um, at 18 I joined the Navy. I learned teamwork, responsibility, and how to stay calm when things go sideways. Later in life, I worked in the hospitality industry. I was a um at one of the largest well, let's just say one of the most well-known honky tons on the Gulf of Mexico. Um it's it's like the I would compare it to the bridge tender on steroids. it. Um, I started out as a janitor there. I, uh, became a barback, bartender, and then I end up being a manager. So, uh, in Pensacola, Florida, Pensacola Beach, I understand what a beach community goes through with regards to tourists. And I also for three decades, I uh, was head of a nonprofit that took care of families in need. and I'm very proud of that. I'm also lead singer and frontman for uh classic rock. It's called classic rock now. Uh classic rock and blues band. And I I love doing that. I've been doing that for about 20 years. It's called Rusty Mojo if anybody's interested. Um all of my roles have been in listening, problem solving, and showing up. Showing up is uh as we've all heard is

80% of success. Show up. I'm also a member of the Seaside Elks Lodge and the um I'm head of the veterans committee and every well for the past two years I have uh put on the uh Veterans Day event and celebration which I'm very very proud of and the major the mayor has spoken there too. Thank you very much. I'm also a member of Seaside Rotary and the American Legion. So, I am out here in the community and uh you may not see me because I uh I'm not visible, but I am volunteering. I worked with Shop with a Cop. I've worked with Santa's workshop, done a lot with the veterans, and uh that's how I show up in the community. Um, you know, you just look out there. Uh, the communities work when people feel seen and heard and respected. And that's the lens I bring with me tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Question number one, what do you see as the city council's top three priorities for 2026 and why? Well, uh, let's see. Housing affordability for local workers, I would think, would be number one. And if workers can't live here, then Seaside becomes a resort town with a staffing crisis. Seaside needs housing for the local workers. And those local workers include uh service workers, uh school staff, which includes teachers and caregivers and uh the hospitals. Uh all of those are really really important and the people need to be uh able to afford the housing in this area. Um I support the Pacifica project and projects like it. I I think it's a great start. I think we need to have more of that available here. My job would be to make sure that we build housing and uh build it responsibly because there has to be taken into account traffic flow uh utilities, pedestrians, um and clear communications. So that would be one of them. Uh I'm going to go to the one uh that is close to my heart and that is emergency preparedness and we just had a bit of uh conversation about that right now. I think that is huge. Um the um I'm trying to remember the name of the the acronym is uh

it's the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and they have some really sobering statistics. And not to scare anybody, but we live in an area that could be hit anytime with a tsunami. We also live along fault lines. It's important to take care of our community and have a plan in place so that they uh can survive. And once we have survivors, we have to have a plan in place for the people who are housing those survivors. I live up on the hill out of the tsunami zone. I gave a presentation recently to the Rotary about what happens, how are we going to approach taking care of the survivors? And according to uh the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, also known as Dogami, um this is pretty sobering. There's a possibility that approximately only 25% of the people in the on the ground in seaside in a tsunami event are going to survive. Approximately 25%. And that you know we've got tourists coming in, we've got the people who actually live here. 25% is not much. And so that's why I think the vertical evacuation structures are something we should really really look into. Also the clarity uh communication with regards to emergency management and emergency preparedness here is crucial. We want to save more people with the it's estimated that with the vertical uh evacuation

structures, we'll call them vees, okay? Uh you can save double the 25%. So at least approximately 50% of the population in the event of a tsunami will uh will survive. Those 50% that's amazing. That's a huge exponential difference. And if it goes up even farther if we have another one of those um our bridges need retrofitting. I mean, um, we had, what was it last year where we did a walk from the from the beach to the high ground and it took about 20 minutes to get there and we were we were walking. Uh, if in the event of something like this happening, I imagine people who can walk will be walking very fast and those who can run will be hauling butt to the highest possible place they can get to. Uh now we talk about seniors. There was a gentleman in here earlier and uh he's a senior and uh one of our community who is the vulnerable part of our community. They're never going to make it. They're never going to make it up the hill. They're never going to be I mean he's talking about just a ladder and we need to be taking care of our the vulnerable population of our community. we have the a ver uh center over here. How are we going to evacuate them? So, plans need to be in place. And I appreciate you bringing that to the table and looking at this because um Steve and I used to be on the uh um the the seaside community emergency response team and then that became disbanded and it became absorbed by the county. Um,

that's I'm not exactly sure how well that's working. I can tell you right now that communication is going to be key up and down the North Coast to implement any kind of emergency. uh whether it's um uh going to be tsunami, whether it's going to be a terrorist attack, uh whether there's a fire, uh earthquake, anything that's going to impact our community. Uh communication is crucial and I think that that's lacking right now. So, don't get me started on emergency preparedness. Uh, I I think we really really need more of that in our community and that um the communication is going to be key. I'd like to see that tightened up a lot. Um, okay. And the uh third one is uh tourism uh and the local community. Uh I don't want to say tourism versus local community because I don't think that's fair. I think it's tourism and the local community. Uh tourism is part of seaside's lifeblood. Uh but to be honest, tourism also drives wear and tear on our infrastructure. So there's got to be a balance there. Uh people are driving up 101. People are driving down Broadway there. You know, there is infrastructure that needs to be taken care of. Uh I'm in favor of transparency. uh show residents exactly where the lodging tax dollars go right now. I don't think it's a fair balance with uh the way the lodging tax is currently. I think a lot of that should be restructured and it also should go in

front of um our our uh regional and statewide legislators to get a more fair and flexible uh tax allowment because the taxes that go to tourism need to be balanced with the impact tourism has on our community. We I love tourism. I think it drives our community. However, there's got to be a balance with the amount of money that's being brought in and I think a lot of it needs to go to our infrastructure so that it can support better tourism and more opportunity for tourism in Seaside. So, those are my three things that I think uh the city council's top three priorities for 2026 and why. And I know that uh that there's been a uh uh an increase in the taxes for um lodging taxes the 1 of January 2026 and that adds pressure. [snorts] Question two, if a charitable foundation gave the city a million dollar grant that had to be spent within Seaside and fully utilized with by the end of 2026, what use would you propose for that and why? Um, luckily I've spent 30 years uh working in a nonprofit charity and when we get big donors, we've never had a million-doll donor, by the way, but we do get uh donors who contribute a nice amount of money. And some of it comes with a uh a tag that it should go to one particular part of what we do and others

say just use it as you think best fit. The first thing I would do is ask that donor or or find out what the grant is uh focused on and uh then I would use that money specifically for the grant. Now it's a if it's open and it can go anywhere well then I think a discussion needs to be had to where the most need is in the community and how we can uh spread it out. I would just, you know, create uh a priority list. Say, let's pick out three things that the money could go to and how would we be spent and then, you know, my put my project manager hat on is what's going to be the project, what's going to be the budget, what's going to be the timeline. Oftent times grants come with the timeline. You have to spend it within a certain amount of time. It also uh comes with other uh little factors that um with this I have no idea but you know we would find out when we got the grant

or when we apply for the grant. Uh if you're asking me how I use that personally uh I would uh support the food bank. the food bank is really uh having a problem now because uh uh they have a chunk of their money coming from federal uh support and that federal support has been dwindling and so I would put a chunk of it right there. uh another part of it I would put into uh helping CCA become uh uh in and that's the clatip uh community uh [snorts and clears throat] CCA clatip community action team. They are a wonderful asset to the community. I would do what I can to support them as well because they help the home homeless uh community here and I believe uh rising tide floats all boats. They're part of our community. Uh we need to embrace them and help them get a leg up in their lives. So those would be two first places I would go. And then if there's a uh another opportunity, I um I would look at helping people who already have a place to live but need assistance for um for other uh places in their lives that they find uh a need. You know, they may need uh a ride share uh to help their kids get to school. They may need some support with medical payments. They may need support with food. Uh maybe the house that they live in could use a better roof. So I I would look along those lines

there. Thank you. Question three is when you're sitting in a quasi judicial role such as an appeal of a planning land use decision, how do you personally separate neighborhood empathy from the legal record? Law, for instance, allows a project you personally disliked. How do you explain that vote to constituents afterward?

Well, I've seen that in my community in Ward 4 already. Um, it's tough, right? I mean, you all sit up there and you're looking at what the law is and you're trying to balance that out with the good of the community. You know, it it's not always an enviable enviable position to be in. You talk with the city planners. You find out what the laws are. You find out where you can be of assistance to the community. You listen to the community. That at the very least, the community needs to be listened to. They need to feel like they've been heard and not just brushed off. Um, and then this is similar to the question that we had before. how you know if I don't like it or my ward doesn't like what's coming in then what we have to do is be transparent. We have to say why we came to this solution or this agreement and it may not be everybody up there on the board. It may be a 4 to2 split or however it goes, but it it definitely gets passed and then I would have to speak to my community and say this is what happened. Your voices were heard. I'm sorry it didn't go your way, but this is how things work in the community. And I would suggest to them to definitely be more active in the community if they want their voice to be heard even more. It's tough. I get it. Not everybody's going to be happy with every decision you make, but you do the best you can with what you got and you work within the parameters of the law.

Thank you. Fireworks generate strong emotions on many sides. Families, veterans, pet owners, employees in our tourism industry. When no option satisfies everyone, what responsibility does a counselor have to prioritize one group's experience over the anothers? And how do you decide who bears the burden?

Well, as a kid, I love fireworks. I I was born on a military base and nobody had a better fireworks display than the military on a military base. It was phenomenal. Um, and in the military I did a lot with demolitions, which were just a lot larger fireworks. I loved that. Uh, when I got out of the military, I still love fireworks. I like lighting them off. Um, the community I lived in um seemed like a little Beirut at times. Things were going off everywhere and it was a little scary because I owned a house and I would be in the backyard and I would see and these would be eil illegal fireworks going off. Okay. The ones the aerial fireworks, the the big guns going off and they would be landing on my roof. So, I would be out there, you know, emergency preparedness, understanding what demolitions are like. I'd be out there with my fire uh extinguisher and a charged hose. And I would see things landing on my roof, still live, still smoking. And I'm going, okay, there gets to be a point where some of it's fun, but when you have to protect your house, that becomes less so. So, there's a balance that needs to be struck. Now, I still like fireworks. I think that there's a place for them in our community. Uh, I think like everything else, there needs to be a balance. I have recently had when I was out of town

for the 4th of July, I had some uh veteran service members who have PTSD and I understand PTSD. I have aspects of it myself and they go a little nervous when fireworks continue to go off, especially the large reverberating concussion fireworks because they trigger emotions that they had when they were in the military. So, we opened our house for uh for veterans to come in to at least distance themselves from the fireworks so that the noise is less up on the hill. It's a little bit less than being down on the front lines on the beach. The [clears throat] beach is a safe place, by the way, to do fireworks as long as uh you are using um precautionary protocols. I get it that uh fireworks uh bring people here. Canon Beach has a zero tolerance for fireworks and that includes sparklers and as a kid I loved running around with a sparkler. I mean it was just fun. It was that you I couldn't light off the fireworks but I had a sparkler and we draw our names in the air. It was just wonderful. Um so I'm not sure. I mean, I I understand that fireworks are are a big part of the Fourth of July celebration. I would say that Fourth of July would be a wonderful time to do it. You have to keep in mind that there are pe and not even to mention people's pets. I mean, I don't

know how many of you have pets. Uh, luckily, my dog is deaf and has been deaf since birth, so it doesn't really affect her. However, I have cousins and uh in-laws that have pets that just go off the hook and they don't know how to calm them down. I mean, they they use CBD. They go to the vet and get tranquilizers, but you know, you don't want to tranquilize your your pets all the time because of the fireworks and the noise that's going on in the neighborhood. There's got to be a balance. And the only other part of that that I would bring to the table is that if fireworks are constrained to a particular day, Fourth of July, New Year's Eve, my birthday, be just fine. But one day and don't have it engaged throughout a week long process because that just strings the emotional upset all the way down a lot longer than it actually needs to be.

Okay. Number five. Describe a situation where you would push back on staff recommendations as well as one where you believe council members should defer to staff even if they disagree. Two parts there. How and then to end up with how you define a healthy council staff relationship. Now, the way I interpret this is that we're talking about staff, city staff, okay? [snorts] Uh, city staff have their jobs because they're professionals. When I have a question, I always defer to the people who have the most knowledge. I don't have the answer to everything, nor would I ever suggest that I did. And so I do a lot. I do my research. I mean, I always come with notes. I take notes. I do my research. Uh I try to be as prepared as possible. And that being said, there are things that come out of left field where, okay, I don't have the answer, but I will go out and find the answer. If a constituent comes up to me and says, uh, why did something go this way? Or, do you have the answer for this? I'll say, I'm if I have the answer, yes. If I don't have the answer, I will get you the answer and I'll talk to the people who [sighs] have that information. So I defer to the professionals. All of you have been doing this for a while. You so you have a good relationship. You have built a team here. So you know each

other's picadillos. You know uh how people ride the fence or sit on one side of the fence or the other. I think it's important to keep that communication open. Build a relationship. you you don't know me, but you're getting to know me from the past interview and this interview. And some of you know me a little bit better than that. If I am honored to be up there on the stage, my goal is to get to know each and every one of you and build a common thread, a relationship so that we can do the community's business, so that we can move forward with progress for Seaside. it I if there is um a roadblock it doesn't mean that it can't be gone through around over or under. It just means that we have to look at things from a different perspective. I'll give you an example. My wife and I like to play Scrabble. Okay. Um Scrabble isn't necessarily about the words, right? It's about the point system. how you know and getting the most amount of points. Well, after a while the board is full and you're looking at the board and you're going, I've got all these letters and I have no words to make out of them. So, I'll look at it when it's my turn and I'll be looking at it and staring at it and I'll go, "Okay, I'm turning the board around." and I turn it all the way around upside down [snorts] and I'll stare at it. And if I don't see something there, I'll turn it sideways and stare at it.

Eventually, I'll be able to find a word. And that's what roadblocks are. you turn the situation around so you can actually see it from a sh a shifted point of view. It's a change in paradigm and we all have the opportunity to do that and um I think that's what we need to do and then when presented with new facts it's okay to change your mind. That's what you do with new information or a change of paradigm. There becomes an aha moment and you go, "Wow, I never thought of it like that. Thank you for helping me see it like that. Thank you for pointing me in another direction." But there should never be any animosity or any impass when you're working together as a team. And that's one of the things that I learned when I was in the military. You rely on each team member to follow through and step up and be responsible. Okay. Closing wrapping up comments. Yes, you're talking to an Irishman. I always have something to say. [laughter] Uh, I'm going to close with gratitude. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the city council and staff for the time and care you put into this process. I know it's thoughtful. And I also have a heartfelt thank to the 30 people who signed who took the time to sign my application. I knocked on

doors. These weren't all members of my family or or friends of mine. I knocked on doors. I went around in Ward 4 and I met people who I had never seen before. I honestly did not know exactly how far Ward 4 extended. And it was wonderful. And they asked me questions. similar to what you have asked me tonight. And I didn't have the answers, but I promised them that I would go out and find out more about these. Some of these are in the interview questions that you asked me. I've worn many hats throughout my lifetime. And what it all has taught me is that leadership isn't about the loudest voice or the perfect answer. It's about showing up consistently, listening, and doing the best you can to leave things a little better than they were before you got there. If I'm selected to serve, I promise to be available to work hard for Ward 4 and our community at at large. I'll always remember that this city council seat does not belong to me. It belongs to the people of Seaside. Thank you for the honor of being considered and thank you for your service to this community.

Thank you, Kim. You escort Mr. Strands, bro. To the con of silence. To the cone of silence. Do you want this back or leave it here? Um, yeah, I'll take it back. I'm sorry.

I'll take it back. Thanks. counselors. This will be a chance for you to stand up for a couple seconds. [laughter]

Time's up. Couple seconds. Yeah. Couple seconds. Hang in there. Okay. Uh we're going to start out with uh your opening comments. Whatever you want to say. Uh there is no time limit on any of this. So you can speak as long as you want to. All right. Go ahead.

Thank you. Uh thank you again for the opportunity. Um as I uh mentioned in my opening comments um last week, I've been in the community, Pardon. [cough and clears throat] Been in the community now uh in C. Well,

excuse me. Could you just lift the mic up there a little bit more? Yes, absolutely. Um moved my family, my wife and I here um back in 2013 to take over a hotel in Atoria. Um and I moved from I started out in the industry driving shuttle and hotels and uh it's been 18 years now. I moved my way up into from general manager to owner to uh regional manager or regional manager then owner uh in the hotels and I've been uh serving in hospitality here on the north coast uh in seaside specifically since uh 2014. We moved down here um 10 year about 10 years ago and um I love what I do and and as I mentioned prior I see um a city working just like a hotel. You have your infrastructure. You have your residents or your guests. You have to deal with red carpet items. You have to deal with um uh budgets big time. Uh I have uh experience 15 years now experience with budgets ranging from $2 million to $4 million depending on the properties and uh combined budgets as well outside of that. So, uh, also with my time that I've served on the planning commission, I feel that, um, I've gotten I've been able to understand some of the workings of Seaside. Um, and, uh, you know, I've experienced the, uh, the questions and answers and the public comments and, um, when you have something that's presented to you that a group of people don't necessarily like, you know, you have to learn how to handle that, too. So I feel that my life experience and and my experience professionally and as well as the on the planning commission would uh suit me for this the the seaside city council. So

okay question one there. Um what do you see as the city council's top three priorities for 2026 and why? Well, we are in the middle of the uh [sighs] yeah, I would say in the middle of the f the um comprehensive plan, ironing that out and getting that approved. Um and um I believe there's a work session coming up on that very soon on the planning commission. So getting through that um uh and getting that ironed out for the next 10 years is definitely on the top priorities list. Um when it comes to uh there have been lots of discussions uh recently about roads and improving of roads and trying to find and allocate funds to repair the roads cuz my understanding is the the uh grading the grade that our roads have here are somewhat subpar and that is uh something that needs to be f that should be focused on. Um I know that I I turn up Avenue S to go home a lot and avenue S is pretty bad. Um as well as a lot of the well a lot of the roads in Caya pretty much all of them are uh so working on infrastructure improving our roads um uh for the locals and for the tourists. Um along with the roads though goes uh I would go traffic control um on Highway 101 as well as the side roads and such. Um there's also been a lot of talk about uh discussions and um uh rulings from the city council on the homeless situation and there's been a lot of great progress on it uh over there by Avenue S has been cleaned up rather well. uh the ongoing conversation and concentrating on public safety for locals and for visitors coming to

Seaside. Um I think that um that is definitely I don't see seaside as an unsafe um location. I see it. There's always opportunities to improve that and um I like the direction it's going, but you know, safety and security is definitely a top should be a top priority for for any city any city council. So, roads um safety and I forgot my first topic. Okay. If a charitable foundation gave the city a million dollar grant that had to be spent within Seaside and fully utilized by the end of 2026, what use would you propose and why? So, [cough] pardon. [clears throat] In my experience with uh when you get an influx of cash flow or an influx of cash period, uh whether it be in my case a sale from a hotel, you have to prioritize where that goes. And I would say the majority of the time it would go to deferred maintenance or preventative maintenance or deferred preventative maintenance. So, there are projects that I know um in the greater community that are that I've heard of that have been tabled or that there aren't necessarily the funds for right now. Um, I know in the wards in my ward specifically back uh when the and I uh the Vista Ridge project when that came uh multiple times to the planning commission, the uh individuals in our ward that came to speak out against that the the project mentioned a lot of things in there, but they also really uh I think the biggest one of the biggest

themes that was talked about was the waste uh the rainwater runoff and how it backed up when it rains heavily up in that area. Um, so projects like that, projects like the, you know, the top three priorities, your your roads, um, and focusing on infrastructure. Infrastructure is a big deal. I I know here in Casside cuz we've we've had conversations um, at the planning commission and, you know, personally with me. So um I would you know deferred maintenance g get things done that need to get done that will help improve the community improve the lives of citizens and also um improve the perception of the tourists or guests when they come to town. Question three. When you're sitting in a quas judicial role such as an appeal of planning use uh land use decision, how do you personally separate neighborhood empathy from the legal record? The law allows a project you personally dislike. How do you explain that vote to constituents afterwards? I would go back again to the planning commission when the Pacifica project was brought to us. Um we all know that affordable housing, HUD housing, um is and that's not necessarily HUD HUDs, but affordable housing when there is that land that it's being built on currently was that was the only use for it. But we heard took the public comment about about the project and there was there was a lot of push back on it. Um a lot of um you know we would we we want it we

believe in the affordable housing but just not in our neighborhood. Um I empathize with that type of you know desire to to not have something come into your neighborhood at the same time. Um you know that's really what the land was only could be used for. Therefore, as a planning commission, as a planning commissioner, um that decision to vote for it was it was the only logical move forward. And I, like I said, I do empathize. I do sympathize. Um but um I I felt the greater need um from my end was the the need for this housing that everybody talks about. Um on the second question, the second part trying to make if I personally so if I personally dislike it because I I you there's a myriad of reasons you could personally dislike something. um I have voted for or against or for or against things that I don't necessarily like, but if it's in the greater um greater interest, best interest of the city, of the residents of the constituents, um the then I would probably vote I would probably go for it even though but expressing my dis you know dislike for it and actually sorry I was trying to think of of a thing I actually did that um with the FEMA biop um the the FEMA

buup rules that have come out um we I I would say the majority of the individuals that I heard talk about the FEMA buy up and what the requirements would be and what we had to, you know, vote for as a to to adopt a section uh or uh one of the options for the FEMA buup. I sat right where Councelor Montero is and I said, "Look, I don't like this at all. I think this is this is these are regulations that are ridiculous. We kind of all agreed to uh to that as a general general consensus, but we have to vote for one of these options in order to keep us in compliance so we don't lose the uh so we don't lose the opportunity or or the privilege I should say of getting the FEMA funding of getting the um keeping our uh the insurance um you know if we didn't adopt the FEMA BIOP then nobody would you wouldn't be able to be insured on property pretty much in in the city. I sat through that conversation uh up in uh I went to the the open forums about the FEMA biop up in in Warrington. I listened to Atoria's discussion as well on it um and the discussions here and um at the city council and um you know it was darn if you do darn if you don't but we're kind of forced and we're pigeonholed into this decision that we we have to we have to make this decision in order to keep seaside working. So yeah, um I I did I voiced my opinion from up here on the deis and many conversations um because it came down it comes down to as a hotel owner operator. It it affects me as well and what we're able to do. If we were interested in purchasing uh a property anywhere on the north coast or anywhere in Oregon, we have to now consider all of these new

rules and regulations. So it yeah it still affects me person. It affects me personally. It affects the the residents and you know operations of the city negatively but it had to be done. So I mean we were like I said we were kind of forced into it and I don't think any of us liked it but or like it.

Okay. Uh question four. Fireworks generate strong emotions on many sides of families, vets, pet owners, and employees in our tourism industry. When no option satisfies everyone, what responsibility does a counselor have to prior prioritize one group's experience over another's? And how do you decide who bears that burden? Is that bearing the burden of the bearing the burden of the decision is what you're referring to?

Okay. heated topic. Um I did [clears throat] sit through the conversation uh when the chamber was uh uh when Sadi from the chamber came up and discussed it. Um I did I also was on the chamber board for six years and so that topic did come up you know came up every year. um you know it is a mixed bag. Um, and I think uh weighing the options between do you know if we have the um you know me honestly being a mixed bag with that topic when CO happened and we didn't have the fireworks show um I would say that the fireworks that were set off however illegally which I don't condone um was a better show than I think the city's ever put on. I mean it was it was massive. Um then but controlling it we have to be concerned for the safety um of of the residents. Um and like you yeah like the question says there's no option that satisfies everyone. Uh we do have I think our first and foremost as a city council and as a city is for the safety and security of the residents. Um, and if the fireworks conversation is moves into, hey, it's not safe for this to happen. Um, then maybe we shouldn't let it happen. If we can make it safe and safe as possible, then sure, let's weigh our options. Do we go I know from the conversation, do we go with a bigger show? Do we go with a smaller show? Um, I personally, you know, my dad was in the Air Force for 20 years. I lived

abroad as I've I've presented and I've seen um massive shows. I love fireworks personally. They don't actually affect my dogs. In fact, we have two dogs, two cats. Our dogs sit out on our back porch and watch them with us and they actually just sit there and and they're content. Whereas, I know that down the street, our neighbors had big issues with their dogs and um they had to uh they've had to, you know, uh sedate them or do something for them to keep them comfortable cuz like it or not, even though people say they aren't, you know, our pets are are kids. Um, and we need to be able to take care of them, um, and keep them safe and how do you decide who bears the burden? That is a very tough question, mayor. Um I think be with a panel of of seven individuals with varying views on the topics. I think coming to the consensus that you that the city council did um kind of satis satisfies to a degree both sides of the story or of the of the discussion. Um you're never going to have a perfect solution. Um you you see it all the time on on Facebook. uh the the pros, the cons, sometimes more cons than pros when it comes to that discussion. Um you also have to consider the the financial impact and the financial ramifications um of of that for the tourists as well. Uh will if we didn't have a show um you

know during the year of co we didn't have a show but everybody was you know forced indoors and they wanted to get out and so they came out anyway. But if we didn't have a show, do we take the risk as a council and say we're going to cancel a show for a year and see what the financial, you know, ramifications are of this um and what the social implications are of this. So um you know there there is no easy answer to that and I fully understand I I get the I get the discussion but there is no easy answer whatsoever. And the uh last one is describe a situation where you would push back on city staff recommendations as well as one where you believe council members should defer to staff even if they disagree. And the followup is how do you define a healthy council staff relationship?

[snorts]

I'm trying to think in the last four years if I've had a situation where I've had to push or be the planning commission has had to push back on a staff recommendation and nothing's coming to the top of my head right now. Um I think that there has been healthy conversation. Um uh there's been very healthy conversation the time that I've served on the planning commission. I don't think that's become an issue. So I'm not 100% sure um really how to answer that fully. I do think respect and uh searching for the reasons why a staff recommendation has been made. Um were there laws behind it? Is it uh any is it based in fact? Is it an opinion? Um you know why is that recommendation being made? Um I think you know actually the great I think an example today on the discussion on the emergency plan where um you know Seth wasn't okay with a particular council Marcy sorry wasn't okay with a particular portion not being in there or being in there or uh councelor Monttero that saying that this this order isn't right. I think it's healthy discussion. Um I don't think there was push back. um on the recommendations for it. Um I I've not seen I haven't seen a whole lot of that exemplified in the council or in the planning commission to be honest with you. Um at least nothing pops to my mind directly. But again, um how do you define a healthy council staff relationship? It's respect, asking questions, not jumping to conclusions on when a statement is made or when a recommendation is made. um not jumping

to a conclusion that you know city manager Spencer is trying to usurp council rule or or whatever that's whatever the situation may be again I don't have an example of it but having that discourse respectfully and not not assuming we all know what that does not not assuming anything just having the healthy respectful discussion I mean I've seen the discussion between you know today and other times between the council with each other and and with the city employees and city officials and you know I feel for the most part it's done rather well um but um again it's respect communication I said it last week um that uh I believe it was that I tell my staff like 95% of workplace issues or even interpersonal issues come from lack of communication miscommunication, not finding out the facts, the motives behind things. So, I think that that is um I think that that would define a healthy council staff relationship.

Okay. Any final comment, statement, whatever? Not really other than thank you for the opportunity and I respect whatever decision the council comes up with. I'd love to love to work with the city council further and um thank you all for your time and your thoughtful consideration um on this process. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. [laughter] Yeah, there's one. Is he back? There he is. Okay. All right, counselors. Um, we've heard two very good candidates. It'd be nice if we had a position for both of them, but unfortunately that's not the way it works. Uh, reminder that this is a uh appointment that will only last one year. In fact, less than a year now. And um this position will be open for u you know the regular general election to whoever wants to run. Uh whether the the person that we appoint decides, you know, they've had enough of us and somebody else wants to run or what, you never know. So, um, what I thought I'd start with

is, uh, just offer each counselor an opportunity to briefly state what qualities they believe are the most important in filling this vacancy. Not not specific to a person, but then which candidate best meets those qualities. And um I thought I would start um I I want to see somebody that is going to be able to respectfully talk about their point of view and uh not putting down uh any of the other counselors or other people in the audience. Uh this is really important. Willing to put in the time and effort necessary to fulfill the duties of a counselor. that is uh you know studying the packet uh being very indepth uh before you uh get to the council meeting so that you know what the possible questions are and and certainly you coming with questions. Uh this is a big responsibility. we are um responsible uh not only just to our ward if you're a counselor or me the whole city um you need to make sure you're doing what's best for Seaside and uh I I think it's important be involved in uh various activities around the city meeting people having conversations seeing what's going on and that can take a lot of different uh avenues And uh we saw tonight that uh you know that is uh what is happening with both candidates. Um I think it's important to keep a good balance of representation on the council uh between the uh three uh groups that we um look at in our strategic planning and that's the residents, the businesses

and the visitors. I like seeing a good record of service. Um probably uh but not necessarily pri prioritizing the length of service with in any kind of city administration. Again, just remembering that this is a one-year appointment. Um I think both candidates have a great mix of these qualities and would be great additions to our council. Um it's really a close um uh conflict in my mind to say uh which one I would appoint, but um I lean towards Mr. Craft. Council President Morrisy,

just getting my notes together. You pulled a a fast one on me. All right, [clears throat] so you want us to say what qualities we're looking Yeah. what what do you think you would be looking for?

So, I'd say uh pragmatic, thoughtful, respectful, and knowledgeable. I thought both candidates uh did a great job there. Definitely a very tough decision we have in front of us. What matters most to me aside from those is longevity in the community and the service that they've put into the community. I think both candidates have put a lot of service into the community, but I think Brandon Craft has been more involved um as far as experience on relevant boards and commissions. So, you can be on boards, committees, and commissions, but there's certain ones that are very similar to what we do up here at the city council, and one of those is the planning commission. I think in a lot of cases, that's actually more challenging the decisions they make than what we have to do. So, uh that means a lot to me. I served on the planning commission with Brandon and so I have a lot of experience with him and just kind of how that works. Um and then it it it I put a lot of weight on what David Powski has uh who he's endorsed because this is his seat. He vacated it. Um so that was important to me. And then just as you said, keeping balance on the council and having a voice for the tourism and business community is important to me because we have a council that doesn't really have anyone in that industry currently and I think it's always good to have that represented. Council Monto.

Um, I think that all of the qualities that the two of you have mentioned have been uh are certainly uh on my list of qualities. Um the first quality though that I wrote down was being able to see the big picture to see past um themsself and their own situation and seeing the big picture and also the uh ability to have flexibility of thought. um someone who puts uh effective communication uh at uh high on their list. Um I think there's different ways that people have effect on our community and some of them are more evident than others possibly. uh being a uh working in the downtown business um is possibly more evident, but working behind the scenes where people don't necessarily know that you're the person that has been working to make something successful or that you're the person who's been pushing along uh an idea. Um, I give a lot of uh credence to uh being involved in things like the Elks and the Legion and the Rotary. the Rotary especially because I think the Rotary touches just about every aspect of our community and um and it takes commitment to be in uh

in the Rotary. Um so as I listen to both people um I uh I feel that the person who fulfills most of the uh who fulfills the what I'm looking for as we go forward during the next year to be able to work together in um all of the things that we need to work on. Um, my vote would be for um Patrick Ansbro, Council Baker.

I remember being here about a year ago and just want to say congratulations to both of you and thank you. Um, I know it's uh it's an anxious process to go through and um I just really appreciate your willingness to to step up for Seaside. So I want to start there. I remember thinking my secret sauce kind of a year ago was my experience with city operations. So I come from Denver. I worked for the city of Denver for 23 years. And that knowledge and experience of city operations I think was um part of what really helped me kind of on board to this position. I also think the passion um of the city itself is really important. Loving this place um being you know really focused on um being a resident here um uh the business component of of being part of the business community here and then caring so much about tourism like that that triad all very important. Um, I think that, um, what I have, what I appreciate is the, um, collaborative nature of the work that we do here. And I'm really looking for someone. I think this city council needs someone who's willing to collaborate and who's willing to put disagreements aside and have respectful and open dialogue and really focused on focus on what's in the best interest of the city itself. And um while both candidates are fabulous, I um have taken some feedback from the community as well. And I feel like Mr. craft um is really well rooted and connected in this community and uh very collaborative in nature and has

that experience with the planning commission and the passion for the city that I think can make him really successful. Councelor McVey,

you know, we had two candidates tonight that uh both presented very well. And so I have to look a little deeper. And one of the things I'm considering is uh as everybody's aware, I've recently had my own uh do we want to call it a scandal? Uh, and so I want to look at it in from the perspective of is there something that's going to bring potential backlash for the council? And with that in mind, over the course of the last few days, uh we did receive uh an email from a constituent who voiced concern about one of the con one of the candidates potentially being by their own posting on social media on a government watch list for an extremist group. To me, that would bring concern about what kind of candidate we're putting up here. All other things being equal, I would have difficulty supporting a candidate who by their own posting may be on a government watch list. Uh even leaving that aside, one candidate was better able to articulate answers to the questions we gave him tonight. Um that last question was really awkwardly worded, which that's just going to happen from time to time. That's kind of the nature of big and uh open questions. And I gotta say, I had a little bit of a difficulty getting an what the actual answer was out of one of them. With all of that put together, I'm I'm going to be supporting Patrick uh Ansbro

because he he was better able to articulate has they're both very wellqualified, but he's not on a watch list. So yeah,

councelor Hoffman, some of the main things that I want in a city council is someone with a history of public service, someone with a history of volunteering, someone with a wide variety of life experience, someone who shows concern for minority groups, and someone who takes the oath to the constitution of seriously. Um, I also saw the email that uh Sheamus is referring to, and it is concerning. It's that's not even something you should joke about. Um, in my own interactions with Mr. Craft, asking him some follow-up questions about R.J.'s article. I I I just think there's a a gap there um in his concern for minority groups in the city. and that uh [sighs] I don't I would not endorse putting someone on the council who I feel is openly homophobic. So, I'm going to cast my vote for Patrick Ansboro. Let's uh make it official then. Um we call a roll call vote.

Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Montero. Patrick Ansboro. Councelor Hoffman. Patrick Ansboro. Councelor Baker. Brandon Craft. Council President Morsy. Brandon Craft. Mayor Wright. Mr. Craft. Councelor McVey. Adric Annsboro.

We have a tie. And uh I'll reopen the discussion to allow counselors to state whether uh they have a new or changed perspective or wish to reconsider their vote. I would just say that I'm committed to giving the tourism and business community a voice. So I'm going to keep my vote. I think I'm here to represent the uh the residents of board three, not the visitors to town. And so I'm on top of everything already voiced, I'm going to keep my vote. I'll add that I think the priority on deferred pre preventative deferred and preventative maintenance and keeping the this city safe and functioning and the critical infrastructure work that needs to be done here. Absolute number one priority for me and I will keep my vote. Well, in the case we have a deadlock and everybody is set with their vote, um I don't know that we have much choice than to uh postpone this and put it to the next meeting and you have a chance to uh talk it over. I'm uh concerned about allowing in uh things about social media um uh that I consider uh hearsay and whether it is actual or not. There's no

um background that makes it a concern to me. that was um in a different administration and I don't know where it came from. U Mr. uh Craft is more than welcome to uh respond to that. Um right now though unless there is any other reason to do anything I would like to make another comment.

Yeah. Um I do feel that um one issue that is very important to our city has to do with transient lodging tax and I feel that Mr. Ansbro addressed that very very much [clears throat] from the perspective that we have been working already with our legislature and with the with the um uh with the legislature and with our own local legislature regarding our need to be able to use the transient lodging tax money for the infrastructure. So I feel that the whole um issue of putting infrastructure uh repairs was very well addressed by Mr. Ansbro and to the point of how we have been aiming for our for the state to change how transient lodging tax um is used and how we are able to access it better for the needs of our community to remain a good tourist destination. and also serve the needs of our residents. So from that perspective, I feel that um I that I got a much better um impression and answer from Mr. Ansbro regarding that. um and uh and and did

not hear uh anything that would uh cause me to think that um that Mr. Craft is of the same opinion that we need more of the transient lodging tax under our purview. Mayor, I've got another comment um or follow on comment. Um first of all, I'm really disappointed with the accusations made up here. I think that's really unfair. So, I apologize for that. Um, one of the things that stood out to me when I read some of the feedback that we got from it was open to anybody in Seaside to provide us feedback and one of the consistent messages um, I mentioned about the collaborative nature that Mr. Craft brings. But what I also heard is that he has not there were many comments where people said I don't always agree with him but number one he keeps politics out of the decisions and number two he's always willing to listen and he's curious about how others see issues and based upon what I have experienced in the last year I see that as really important for this council. Well, okay, we'll leave it at that. Um, I will bring it up. It will be on the agenda next meeting

and we'll see if we can uh come to any other conclusion. All right, move on to um comments from city staff. Good evening. Happy new year. Uh just wanted to make mention February 5th will be the 10y year anniversary for the loss of Sergeant Jason Gooding. And we'll be doing a uh our annual kind of memorial remembrance here at city hall at 6 o'clock. So everybody's welcome to come in and uh remember our friend and uh thank you very much. Before you go, can I ask you a question?

Sure.

Yeah. I didn't [clears throat] happen to be here personally over the um the New Year's. Um, I did see a picture uh that surprised me of Seaside, but in the meantime, I [clears throat] also received um quite a lot of input and questions about the illegal fireworks during New Year's. Can you tell me what that evening was like for the police department? Um the specific question I got from several people was I wonder how many um tickets were written for the illegal fireworks. So can you talk to us a little bit about New Year's Eve?

What I got briefed on was that yeah there was a period of time and from what I was told a fairly short period of time that the fireworks were going off at New Year's. we responded. Um, I want to say that there was a ticket written, but I'd have to double check on that, but I don't know that how many actual contacts were made. As you know, sometimes they go off. By the time we get there, you're not identifying them. But I was briefed on that. And the uh dispatcher that was on duty made it sound as though it was a relatively short period of time. you know, whether that's what other people would, you know, quantify it as or not, but yeah, we did respond to some fireworks down there.

Okay. Um, couple of people who live up near the school um repeated something that they told me over Fourth of July, and they said it again uh for New Year's, is that um there's a lot of traffic and a lot of fireworks going off up by the up on the school property. Is that accurate or not?

I know that we've seen it and I don't know for sure on that particular night. I didn't get briefed that um we were having that happening up there, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't. So, I just know that we were we had a I think an extra officer or two on that night and we responded to those kinds of calls, but it wasn't like a [clears throat] all night thing from what I got briefed on. Okay. All right. Thanks. You're welcome. Chief, you said the uh ceremony for the sergeant is at six o'clock.

6 o'clock. We'll get some more information out if that's going to change at all, but my understanding it's going to be here six o'clock. Uh the last year's has been, I think, closer to the 5:00 and we were getting some feedback that people getting off work weren't able to get here because usually we try to keep it fairly quick and and not long and drawn out. It might be a little bit longer this year, but yeah, my understanding six o'clock here at city hall. Uh, we'll get some flyers or information pushed out soon. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Come on up. Public works director. Uhoh.

Good evening, Mayor. don't.

So, during our recent storm events that we had in December, I'd kind of like to give you a summary of public works has been doing and what our folks Thank you. um have been up to. [clears throat] So, um our major response dates were the 9th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 29th. um which coincided mostly with the two major high precipitation windstorms and other things that we had. Um the 29th was more of a discovery of something that had happened earlier in the month. So we had sewer response at multiple locations due to mitigate flooding and overflows on the 9th sinkhole uh over a storm water line up in the hills. uh watershed road wash out uh major wash out. You'll see pictures of all of this uh shortly. Uh and of course removal of trees and limbs that fall into the rightway uh across the city. We also had log jams on Broadway A and G bridges. Uh and last but not least, the Crescendo. our main water supply line was uncovered due to erosion of the riverbank uh on the Mechanicum River uh just south of the Ken Beach Junction. So, I'll kind of roll through this chronologically. Um December 9th, and I didn't talk about this earlier, but this had to do with high water events. We've been running a test out there to try to mitigate uh debris from getting on. This shows you the um small fence that we put up to kind of show how much debris piles up on the airport uh perimeter taxiway and runway during high flood events. And this was one of our king tides here. And it actually gets even higher than this. That's the taxi way you're seeing, not the runway. The runway is slightly

higher than the taxi way, but it keeps out a lot of debris. And this is one of the FA and ODAV grants that we've applied for to put a small burm around the per perimeter to basically do the same thing that you're seeing here by the fence. Um so also on the 9th and I don't have pictures of it was uh the high flooding event and the sewer work that our collections folks so if you see JP Brian Cole or Logan thank them. Those guys were running around more than 10, 12 hours a day for multiple days in a row with the Vector truck. You see that Vector truck roll around? They are working and working and working and they do an exemplary job not just daytoday but on weekends, holidays on the first we had numerous people working um on the on Christmas and New Year's including myself. Um so here's a picture of the sinkhole uh that we've encountered in the middle of the month. Um this is just near the intersection of Alderrest and Hemlock. So that is the access road into the new development that was cleared out uh recently. Um there is a storm water line you can see in the right picture there that is crushed about the same location as the sinkhole. So we are looking at options to kind of deal with this and mitigate some of the geotechnical issues right here. And the fix for this, the permanent fix for this is associated with the development. So they're um required to uh mitigate this issue and run the storm water all the way down to the bottom of the hill. So this is there's a temporary and a permanent fix for this.

Can I ask a question about that? Um, I was told that that road was uh begun by the developers despite the fact that they did not yet have permission to do that. Is that true?

Uh, you'll have to talk to planning about that. Um, they did go in there and they cleared the property. Um, this is on private property, so that's not right away as of now. Um, so, uh, this has to be dealt with. they are on the hook for doing the the permanent fix for this, but as of now it is a a public utility and we're trying to deal with it. It'll still pass water through it, but um there is a geotechnical hazard here. So, we're going to try to mitigate that in the short term during the wet season. And are any of the residents up there being affected by this?

Um not to my knowledge directly. There are some downstream. Um but these would be associated with high water which we have no control over. Um this is a this storm system is in a natural uh discharge area but and it's been there for years. Um when this is mitigated uh more the storm water flow will bypass the area that it's being flowed to now. So, uh, the sooner this gets done, the sooner that'll be mitigated.

And who holds the, um, property owner accountable to get it mitigated quickly? Well, um, once they can get in there and start work, um, that would be one of the initial things to be done. Utilities are usually the first or nearly the first things that go in and this will be part of that utility work. So the sooner this gets moving forward, the sooner that that can be addressed. Okay.

So um uh my water department manager uh let me know on December 17th that one of our watershed roads washed out. Um, and the first picture on the left doesn't look too bad, but then you see the one on the right, and you can see that we actually had water come up, drop in a hole, and go underneath and carve out that road. And this was during that really high precipitation event. Um, the covert that's there now is 4T in diameter, but it's crushed. Um, and we're looking to mitigate this with a new poly uh 4 foot uh culvert and a two-foot diameter overflow. So that this even during a high flood event uh there will be an additional culvert to manage this uh that drop off on the left side of the left picture goes down about 15 20 ft. So it's a pretty steep drop right through there. Now, this road is on the upper side of the watershed. It does not impact our ability to get to our intake structure, but it is part of our water water quality program because this stream that you see, it drops down into our system and into the intake. So, and again, we always have trees come down and um around town and whenever we have a lot of rain and uh high wind events and even public works suffers and the one on the right, that's our perimeter fence at public works. So, we had to grab that tree and take it down ourselves. But the crews respond very fast to street crews. they get out there and they remove this stuff sometimes within an hour or two uh or even sooner than that. They're very proactive. So, um on the 19th we had some serious

log jams on Broadway A and G. Um this is the Broadway bridge and you can see um there's quite a bit of debris gets stuck up on this and this happens whenever we have high flow events that debris upstream is just going to flow down. It's going to happen. We've got several miles of river where this stuff collects and comes down. Um fortunately we have a crew that knows how to deal with this. Some of the logs in that picture are a lot larger than they appear. Some of those are probably I would say at least 3 to 4 ft in diameter and you're only seeing like the top 20% of them. So, and they get stuck up and then they everything backs up on to them. But you can see the guys in the boat out there. They've got a chainsaw with a bar that's at least I would say 40 42 in long. It's pretty long and they get that in the river while they're steadying the boat and using their pikes to move stuff around. So, they did a great job. They're able to clear that in just a couple hours.

They should have Yes, they should have a reality show about them. I watch them go by. I live on the river and yeah, I I watch them go by and and sometimes right out in front of the house. Yeah, they get dogs. It's amazing. They get a crowd of folks there giving a lot of good advice. Oh, yeah. [laughter]

Let's see. So uh the crescendo that is uh what we found on December 29th. Now this is part of the mechanic river just south of the Kenna Beach Junction. Our water supply line with that we get our raw water crosses this where that blue line is. The top picture is 2019. The bottom picture is 2024. Now if you look at the yellow line near the bottom of the bottom picture that's the current uh riverbank. It's cut out even more than that. Oh my.

So the channel which used to be clearly on the north side with the large gravel bank um changed and cut south when that uh log jam built up. And the log jam is was about twice as large as it is shown in that aerial shot. So you can see in that large red circle that's the log jam. um and the circle and the smaller circle uh show the area or extent of the current one that was just mitigated. So when we found this um we actually had uh fishermen that float the river um point out that our water line was now exposed because what had been buried uh under 30 40 feet of riverbank was now exposed because the channel had dug out u the riverbank. So now you can see um if you look in that picture uh the lower picture there's that structure near the middle bottom that's the cover you'll see in some of the pictures. So kind of giving you a an area. So oops. So, we're taking that left picture just um east of that structure looking up river. And those water meter boxes used to be 20 30 ft from the edge of the river bank. And now they're practically in the river. And you can see that deep water, that's the channel that was there um when we showed up. And in the right picture, you can see uh our 8- in clean water line that goes out to our customers on Highway 26. So, we have both the the 24-in raw water line going into town and the 8-in distribution line coming back in the same well, it would have been a trench at that point, but they were both exposed. Um because where that brush that you see in the right

picture on the right side um the riverbank used to be further out than that. So that shows you how much was exposed. So we had to uh start work on this immediately because anything could have come down river and just smashed that 8 in and 24 in line and just ripped them open. Uh so uh we contacted DSL and I will say Robert Pennington at DSL was exemplary. He was extremely helpful and cooperative and helped us get not only approval from DSL but from ODFW. Um I also contacted DEEQ um for their uh permit approval and the county. So, the county was very helpful also in getting this uh approval to basically move the log jam across [clears throat] the river um and put boulders in to fortify the riverbank to um naturally protect it um without increasing uh fill beyond the natural state that had been there. So, we wouldn't have a net rise uh in the flood event. Uh these photos here were taken up river looking down river and you can see the structure in the left picture. Um and how much of a log jam was there uh when we showed up. It was quite extensive. In fact, it was nearly impassible for floating for fishermen that float this. They had to literally get out of their float and walk down the center where the gravel bar still existed and then uh move around this. They couldn't float through it. Now the left the right picture shows the the exposed line further out where it turns into steel. Oops. So here's uh the first day of work. Um fortunately for us uh we

contacted a couple contractors. Um first one came in at 97,000. The second one came in uh somewhere around uh 45,000. Uh so we selected Keith Karen in excavating to do the work and uh he did an exemplary job. He mobilized nearly I mean we went from finding this to doing this work in two days. That's how fast we got an emergency permit and work done. Um Kevin Nagel was instrumental in this work along with some of his other crew uh who have been very helpful. But these are show photos showing uh Keith out in the river uh pulling the log jam across and setting it on the south river bank to protect our lines. Um it seems a little funny to see the excavator in the middle of the river, but that's where the edge of that gravel bar still existed just under the water. But there were times when uh it got a little uh scary watching him, but he was extremely skillful and did an exemplary job. Um, fortunately we had fairly good weather as you can see blue sky in these pictures. So we got very lucky with the weather. Um, and he was able to move that whole log jam in basically one day. Um, and then we were able to get rocks uh right after the new year. So this is a picture of what the site looked like uh today. Uh at the end of the projects, they came in, mobilized and placed boulders that were approximately 2 to three feet in diameter uh in the in the along the uh pipeline with gravel to back it up, to secure it, to armor this area so that not only would water possibly damage it, but it's more the debris and the logs that are in the water that could smash this. So, uh, again, uh, my crew and

Keith Karen's crew did an exemplary job out there. They responded quickly, economically, and completed the work, uh, in in a timely manner. So, this is basically buttoned up today. So, just to kind of summarize some of the costing associated with this with these events, um, and we've applied for reimbursement for these two, uh, approximately $112,000 on, uh, both internal and external costs.

So, if you see any of your public works guys, thank them. They work very hard and they work in some of the worst weather out there and they do it with a smile and I can testify that you have a great crew. We uh appreciate you sharing that story with us. We don't see those kind of things very often and uh yes, pass on our thanks. That uh is great to know that our water was in danger and now it isn't. The guys did a great job working for granted quickly. Thank you, council. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this with us. Definitely. Any other staff back there?

Oh, the finance director. Okay. Evening, mayor and council. I hope everyone had a um a merry Christmas, happy new year, happy Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate. Um, as some of you may know, uh, Wendy Bradwell Miller has, uh, opted to retire after 17 incredible years with the city.

Um, so we all wish her her well in her ne next phase of her life. Uh, and taking her seat um, and trying to fill the the large shoes that she left, uh, is Kaisa Yoshino. uh she joined us from the University of Oregon is a seaside grad. So if you have the opportunity uh swing by and say hello and introduce yourself. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thanks. Convention center community development. Okay, John.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll be brief. Um just a couple things on Zach obviously mentioned the hiring of Kaisa and um then we're currently in the final stages of hiring uh utility one with the wastewater department. You remember when we expanded that department um we're finally now fully staffed at that because of how things kind of transitioned. We're now at that fully staffing level. Um and we'll hopefully have that person starting in the next week. And then we have two um we have a patrol officer position that's looking close to being filled. That'll leave one vacancy there. And we have our admin assistant and police moving into dispatch. So we're kind of shuffling shoes over there as well. But um that's all. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you, Jim. No, thank you. Okay, Spencer. All right, Heidi.

Um thank you, Mr. Mayor. went to the library um board meeting and they are crazy busy at the library. They've got stuff going on almost every single day and they keep coming up with new programs to entice people in with their movies and their different book clubs for the different age levels. They're doing a new book club with crafting going on at the same time. It's amazing. I I gotta hand it to Jennifer. She's she's a mover and a shaker over there. Um, [sighs and gasps] someone some of you may have known noticed that a few days ago was uh National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and I for one appreciate the good officers that are out there doing their jobs every day and protecting us. And I don't think there's anything that precludes us from celebrating the good peace officers and also pointing out the ones who are mistreating people. It's not an all-in situation. I worked in internal affairs. I showed some people the door because they were not good, honorable officers. So when I speak out about [clears throat] ICE or local police issues or national police issues, it's not because I hate cops. I was one for 23 years. I held them to a high standard. I held myself to a high standard. Excuse me. I'm coming down [clears throat] with something. So let's celebrate the good ones. Yes. Add a boy, add a girl to all the good ones, but let's not try to paint them all that they're saints or heroes

because there's a there's always a few bad apples in every agency and they ruin it for the good ones. So, thank you to the good officers who serve honorably. And for the ones who aren't, who [clears throat] are dragging people out of cars, who are shooting women in the face, shame on you. That's all I got to say. Councelor Montero, thank you. Well, since our Yeah, it's off.

It's off there. Um since our last meeting on December 8th, um one of the things early in the month or midmon in December, I did report two um areas that um I think need to be looked at in terms of code compliance. One is a lot on Colombia and E and the other on Downing and Fourth. And so I'm hoping that something will come of that report. Um, on the on December the 17th, I held my coffee with a counselor in the dark at the uh best at the um uh Best Western Ocean View Hotel, they were very hospitable. And unfortunately because that was the day that of the storm, the uh senior holiday lunch that uh was planned at the uh at Chisum Community Center uh could not be held and had to be cancelled. And so our local seniors were not able to have their holiday lunch. Um and um one of the problems is that there's no generator there. Um on the uh 7th of January, our community center commission met and they are making a strong recommendation that um Chisum Center be provided a generator so that this does not continue into the future. on the 18th of December um with a slightly different hat but still representing uh Seaside as well um the Sunset Empire Transportation District uh installed three new commissioners. Two

of those commissioners are from Seaside, Penny York and Kathleen Tele. And one of those commissioners you most of you know um Matt uh Stolberg who was on several of our committees here and who had to move out of the area. He also became a commissioner for the Sunset Empire Transportation District and we are now looking for um volunteers to sit on our transportation advisory committee. So, anybody interested, just go to the website for um Sunset Empire Transportation District. Um on the uh 8th, I visited uh Stepping Stones with uh Councelor McVey. Um I'll let him do a bigger report. Um the stepping stones was not full and it was sping wet due to all of the storms. Um however it was pretty clean. Um looking at the future, uh Wednesday, the day after tomorrow, I have coffee with a counselor at 10:00 a.m. at the Ocean Cafe at the Best Western Ocean View Hotel. And on the 27th of this month, um, Project Homeless Connect will be held at the convention center. That's sponsored by Clatsup Community Action. And that is when, um, we take our annual point in time count uh, to determine how many uh, homeless individuals we have in our county. Um that day will also be free

bus service for anybody uh a rider appreciation day and that's it.

Councelor McVy. So to touch on the visit to Stepping Stones um they they are not full as of you know last Thursday. Um things may have changed though I doubt it's been terribly significant. Um there's been a lot of improvements recently to how they're dealing with drainage out there so that we no longer have the large puddles of standing water. Um, we're still uh getting caught up. I believe uh our public works is caught up or almost caught up on the OSHA requirements so that they'll be able to take over with cleaning up um and and helping with turnover to help get people into the camp as opposed to still uh staying out, which is why most of the open ones were still open. Um hopefully uh everybody's caught up really quick that can get moving better. We can get people into the designated areas. Um the conditions are improving out there, but there's still um areas where where they could use some help. You know, uh unfortunately, it's kind of the nature of of that particular uh segment of the population is that it's it's kind of a constant need. Um, I I would encourage people to to interact with with our homeless population. Find out the amazing people that are out there. Um, they're more than the stigmas that they carry. you know, um we have some pretty amazing amazing people who just really get um stuck under the radar and out of view because of how they look or

how they smell. And that's unfortunate, but um I think we can get somewhere. Uh over uh tomorrow, uh I have coffee with a counselor at 10:00 a.m. at uh Controversial Coffee. I'm hoping people will come. Brandon, if you can make it, please come. I would love to talk to you and hopefully we can get whatever I'm misunderstanding cleared up. Um, if not, I would encourage you to reach out. Let's let's talk and figure it out. Okay. Um, I I hold no judgment. I want you to know that it's um over the next two weeks, both of our US senators will be in town having town halls. Um, your elected officials can't uh represent you if they don't hear from you. That's all I got.

Councelor Baker,

I've had some wonderful segways tonight. So, thank you to all of you. You'll you'll you'll recognize. Um, so, first of all, happy new year. I'm super excited about 2026. I'm sort of excited 2025 is over, but I'm excited to look forward. Um, so as I've been thinking about this year and priorities and, you know, kind of where I think um, I I'd like to help and contribute. Um, last year I I got some information from city staff. Last year we spent over $300,000 on the homeless camp. Um, and that's materials and supplies. That doesn't include labor and time from city staff. So, um, probably if you estimate that and add in the labor costs, that's probably over $500,000. So, just, you know, we can assume over half a million dollars spent on the homes camp. It was also on 14 of uh 14 agendas out of the 22 meetings that we had last year. And so, I'm saying this not in the context of that wasn't great work. It was check the box. Mission accomplished. I'm super glad that we've transitioned that into operations and that CCA is managing that camp. My point is I'd love to see us invest that kind of effort and time and resources into critical city services and our infrastructure and some of the things that I really think need to take priority. And I think it's this council's job to help support city staff in being able to do those things that they need to do. sewer system. We've talked about it. Um we have overflows. We have periods of time during the summer when it's the smell is intolerable for residents. Um we have city staff running around with

generators to keep stations uh you know alive and functioning. Um it's in bad shape and we need to get we need to put a focus on it. Um flooding. Perfect segue uh and setup from Paul. Um all this flooding that we've seen, you know, this year, last year, previous years, the the highway floods over, people can't get in and out of town. Um we have um you know, we have to look at it and see what it is that we can do. these things impact our residents foremost impact our businesses and when those two things don't function um you know our tourism doesn't function either. So um I think the other thing that comes to mind that I hear about a lot are our roads. We have a pavement management plan that we need to get underway. What can city council do to support moving that forward and doing the work on our roads that needs to be completed? Emergency preparedness and emergency management I think is the last thing I'll talk about. Um we should be we when the power goes out and it goes out and the city goes the city goes out the power goes out in the city. We have uh the chevron another uh setup for me tonight. We have the Chevron who remains open. We have power at the library and we have power at the fire station and city hall. our communication around that and what we can do and how to what we can do better for our residents and what more we can do in periods of time when we don't have power and we have emergencies and how do we maintain safety and how do we you know I I just think there's just a lot of work that we can do there to not only shore up the processes but to also

communicate better um about what is available and what we are doing and what we can So, I just think our residents deserve a focus in these areas. Our residents, our businesses, and our tourists all deserve that we put a focus on um these areas this this next year. And so, that is it for me. Thank you. Thank you.

To dovetail on Chris's comments on infrastructure, I couldn't agree more. It's it's not sexy. It's not exciting, but it's definitely one of the most important things we do and I think we owe it to future generations of the city to focus more in 2026 on it because it's critical and it's deteriorating. Uh happy new year. Uh ditto on uh National Law Enforcement Day. Um we appreciate everyone at Seaside PD. And then finally, the mayor and I had a very light turnout on coffee with a counselor and coffee with the mayor last week. It was just the regulars. So I'm going to double announce this one. Tuesday, February 3rd, 9:15 a.m. Seaside Coffee House. Please come and chat.

I did have one person show up at mine. Yeah.

Okay. Um, a few things that happened in December. Great things that are for Seaside affecting a lot of people. We have two new David's chairs now at the Elks. um much better shape, much uh improved. I have a little competition with uh both the cities of Newport and Florence mayors because um I'd rather we have more use out of our chairs than they do. So, be sure to get the word out. Again, uh this is all due to the Elks hosting it. Uh they've got a little shed there. Both of them are in there now and many of the volunteers are from the Elks, although anybody can apply for it. Um, and they're more than more than happy to have more people volunteer to help sign out the chairs. Another uh couple of things that are happening uh more than likely uh ideas for uh September 11th this come this year. It's the 25th anniversary and a citizen came forward, a resident, and said he would like to help lead a uh special remembrance for that day and our police and fire department said yes, that'd be a really good idea. We'd appreciate it. So, uh look for that on September 11th. Uh we also have a project to name the island that's in the mechanicum. uh we have submitted um uh between myself I happen to live right directly across from this island um the clatal tribe as well as the seaside library are all co-sponsoring this application it's actually been submitted already and I believe the geographic names board meets sometime in

like June or something like that the only other option that is out there and the reason uh we here doing this name naming it after a native woman is very important to the city of seaside's history um and her clatsupalum as well as I think she had some uh something of another tribe I don't remember is sikas s i k k a s very important particularly to the south part of seaside she got one of the first donation land claims of about the half of south side of Seaside. One of the great things I get to do, um, a couple of days ago, I did two civics classes up at the high school. Simple process of, uh, answering questions for, uh, the students. They had to come up with them. They had to ask the questions and I had to come up with answers on the fly. Uh, you know, kind of like what you guys had to do here. And mine was a lot more fun. um just to talk for a couple hours u with these two classes. Unfortunately, u we had scheduled as well the city manager and assistant city manager we would go up and uh visit a couple of government classes but they've had to cancel that. Uh but again related to school, this is fourth grade. Uh we're starting the process for the 2026 if I were a mayor contest. will be going out visiting the Pacific Ridge fourth grade classes. This is in conjunction with the mayor of Gearhart, Mayor Smith, and the mayor of Canon Beach, Mayor KN. And uh we'll announce some we'll have a contest and announce some winners probably in uh April. And then they will uh be eligible for the statewide contest sponsored by the Oregon Mayor's Association.

One final thing about schools. I'd like to offer my congratulations to twins, Shantrell and Brena Lee. Uh, seniors earning a four-year scholarships. I'd never heard of this, but it sounds great. The QuestBridge National College match scholarship. Uh, if you didn't read the article in the um signal in the historian, you really should go back and look it up. It was amazing. Um, I wasn't aware. Um, uh, I'm only aware of this Saturday Senator Mkeley is coming to town. He'll be at the Warrington High School at 6:00 p.m. Um, counselor should have gotten the invitation uh to the premeating of local leaders. When is Widen coming? Ron Widen will be at Seaside High School on the 23rd uh at 12:30 per email from his staff today.

Today? Okay. I must Okay. 23rd is a Friday. It is

the uh 17th. This Friday at 6 p.m. at Warrington High School. uh for you counselors. Uh Friday uh the 6th of February, the League of Oregon City Regional Meeting U from uh with the current LOC president will be here in Seaside at the uh library both at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. So, you have two choices. Um I guess it's first time they're trying that. And uh in case you can't make one, you make the other. I don't know if that means the mayor is supposed to go to both of them or not. We'll see. And then um counselors, again, think about the LOC spring conference is April 23rd and 24th in Pendleton. I'll be attending and I hope um several of you will. registration will open soon and Kim will be on us to decide whether we're going and uh what we want to do. So I think it's sometime in March that the registration opens. So be thinking about that and u respond to uh Kim when she asks. My quote for this year uh we're starting a new year. I am working on a I I don't have a good name for it, but a mayoral review of 2025 that I'll be presenting at a couple of different places around town. I'll write a report that will go on um my part of the website. But as we start a new year, um I want us to look forward carefully considering our actions, the things we do with this proverb in mind, a Japanese proverb. Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision can be a nightmare. We're adjourned.