City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. one's graduating in April and going on to grad school physical therapy and then she plans on moving back to this area and

working for Providence. Yeah. And then our son, I don't know what he's going to do. He's a freshman in college. So that's okay. They're supposed to Yeah. You're discovering. So there's they're still my first job. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. But now I have I you know I think God just lined it up because right when they were like leaving I had to go back to the mall and I then I inherited 15 new kids. So and I love each and every one of them. So I got I got some adoptive ones now. Good deal. And I don't know. You have any questions for me? Why do you want to be on the tourism board?

I think it would be fun. I think that tourism is the most vital thing for our economy here and I have spent my time in vacation rentals and you know with my kids everything tourist everywhere and um you know at the mall I mean I we wouldn't survive without a tourist and love I love seeing them I love seeing the families come through especially on the carousel when I'm short and I'm working the carousel and if I'm ever having a bad day I go down there and these little kids come and they get on and just have this big smile, you know, and it's just so pure and it's just so fun to be able to like capture that moment over and over again. I love it. Kids

Yeah, some of them. But Yeah. Yeah. Some Some of them try to jump the fence. Yeah. Some of them are kind of naughty. Yeah. No, but it's fun and it's just I think it'd be a really fun thing to do. I promised Susan and everybody else that kept asking me to get involved. I promised them that when my kids were done, which the last one just left in September, that I would start getting more involved. So, yes, the tourism advisory committee meets every third Wednesday at 3 p.m. Do you think that would be an issue for you?

No, that would be a great day for me. Yeah. Have you thought of anything that in your time as a tourist and a business person here and rentals that you would like to influence that you think might maybe should be a priority on the tourism committee that is,

you know, I'm not really familiar with everything, so I'm excited to learn. But one of the things that I think is amazing and awesome and I would like to advocate for is the PBL. It really draws families in all winter long where we would I mean it really helps our economy during the winter. So it's the ones that it's kind of like feast or family. You guys know how it is around here. So I mean they do it's a great organization. It's a great thing going for this community. So I don't know if it already is giving. I I don't know. But I know that I donate at the mall. They're one of my biggest things I donate to because they just really it helps our economy here.

What do you think about fireworks? I like fireworks. That's a pretty hot topic. I have heard. I haven't gotten too involved. Nah, I don't know. Yeah. I can't believe how expensive they are. But yeah, that's crazy. I don't know. But yeah. Do do you go down and watch fireworks every fourth July? Yeah, it's tradition. Yeah, of course. And they do the parades. Yeah. So, we don't eat the candy anymore. Yeah. Love Fourth of July. Any questions for us?

We have one other candidate and uh may or may not make a decision tonight. We'll see. I'll let you know. Yeah. Well, thanks for your time, you guys. Thank you, Christie. Have a good night. Good to meet you.

We have u two of the keyboard members sitting here in the audience as well. I haven't decided whether I want to let them say anything or not. So, we'll see how well they behave. Please, if if you think you have a question that really should be answered, give me a high sign or something. Okay, this is Stephen Christopher. Um, I uh I Well, he coralled me actually first and then I uh as you all ought to be doing saying, well, we got openings on boards and committees and commissions and it was evening crowded me. news actually about trees. So I said, "Guess what? Introduce yourself."

Um, so Stephen Christopher. Um, I uh run the Whistleville Market and Henry's Chief Guitars just on 828 Ocean Way and um I do a lot of uh redevelopment work in Connecticut. So, I have a history of that and I'm actually doing tree plantings there as we speak now for uh spring and um yeah, so there was an opening and I'm a nature lover. I'm a tree lover. So, um I thought it would be a great way to um contribute and give back to the community. Were you raised in Connecticut? Yes. That's where my mom's from. I'm from Norwalk. She's from um Waterbury.

Okay. Yeah. Just up the line. Yeah. Yeah. So, you say you're involved right now in tree plantings in Connecticut. So, are you with an organization? Is this something you do on your own and what's your expertise? So, um so my background is I'm a realtor, musician, realtor. So, that's my expertise. Um but you like trees.

Yeah. Well, I love nature. I'm an English literature guy. That's what I went to school for. I should have been a teacher. I went the wrong way. Um so, uh well, um as we speak, we're just now finalizing the Whistleville Neighborhood Association. So, part of what the shop is called the Whistleville Market. That's because that's an area of Norwok that I've been working to redevelop for the past like seven years. And before that, from 2004 to like 2009, I worked with the Golden Hill Association. That's where I'm from, Golden Hill. And we did um there was the um and I forget the initials exactly, the mayor, the RGBD grant, right? There's a grant that's a federal grant that came down through the states that says if you're a community and you can agree upon a plan to improve your area, there is funding for it. So, we actually got that grant as a neighborhood association and for it's a eight-year project

and um we got the um the whole street redeveloped where including the infrastructure of the drainage and everything underneath. We added 20 parking spaces. We added historic lighting, tree planting, historic sidewalks. Uh uh we changed the zoning. That took me two years to do. Um so that we could build to the street and be like the other zones of a small neighborhood. So yeah, and now in Whistleville, um that was an area that was similar to Cedar Street where it had reached its decline in the real estate cycle. So now if you look at it in Google map, it doesn't look like much, but there's a lot going on. We put new sidewalks in, which as you know is very hard to do, right? And that's a big street, so it's like very expensive for the sidewalks. Um we have um hanging flower baskets. We got the brackets put in for that. We have the street banners put in. But now that we have the neighborhood association, um, we can really have an impact because there's a lot of development going on. So there's probably four or five hundred buildings going on all around it. So there's a lot of activity and now the residents can have a voice.

So it sounds like you split your time between here and Connecticut to some extent. A little bit kind of, you know, like wherever the work takes me. Got it. Got it. So, the tree board meets right after the tourism advisory committee on the third Wednesday at 400 pm. Do you think you can be there for those meetings? Yeah. Yeah. I don't see why not. I mean, I might be traveling or whatever, you know, at some point, but yeah, for most of the time we should be able to attend. Do you have any questions for us? Um,

sure. and speak loud. In fact, why don't you come and stand next to him so that the mic can pick you up. Steph, hi. Hi. I'm Victoria. Nice to meet you.

Um, so I'm the current chairman of the tree board and uh we um have been looking at our schedule as far as when we meet. We only meet right now every two months and we're finding that that's perhaps not enough if we have a particular project which normally we don't have projects but we're just finishing up the arboretum work that is alongside the seaside maid history museum

and um so we do find it necessary on occasion I don't know You knew that we only have been meeting twice every other month. I'm sorry. Every other month. I'm I'm aware.

Did you read that? Okay. And so right now we have a blurb in our ordinances that says you can't miss more than three meetings in a year. So, plus the fact that we are looking at increasing the amount of time that we need as far as frequency to not every month, but being able to call a meeting in case we need it and everybody will try to jump to. Um, and there's another item that uh I'm interested in is that at this point We require everyone to be a citizen, have a residence in Seaside and be

Victoria, you can be a business owner as well. Okay. Both. Okay. All right. Um, just Connecticut's a long ways away. You got this thing called Zoom now. Yeah. But but I'm I'm I'm I'm here a lot of the time. So in if you're worried about me attending, that's probably the least of it. Yeah, I'll be I'll be attending. That's good. That's good. I wouldn't sign up not to

over the few years that I've been here that we've had a lot of trouble with people not attending and we haven't done anything about it because we're so desperate for volunteers that we really haven't complained. So, as long as you're Well, I'll tell you also one of the reasons I wanted to join because I wanted to see if we could start maybe planting some trees on Oceanway. So, I had an initiative I wanted to start and I'm already doing my own plantings on the property. But, sure, you know, so I was thinking um there's no trees and you know, they add so much. So, that was my first, you know, idea is Ocean Way. It's right over here. It's like two blocks. First one.

Yeah. So, you're familiar then with what kinds of trees work well in um a beach a coastal town? No, I'm not an expert on trees or things like that. I just know I love them. So, I usually like my field is not like picking the trees or planting them. Just helping them get planted, you know, doing that other work. And then the people that are good at it, they recommend. And I don't usually get involved with that. I guess I will say I like his initiative and and his can do attitude. I think that's great. Thank you, Victoria. Yeah, thanks.

And person said next door is an exforester. So that kind of helps to just not working. Not working. Okay. Once it's forester, always a forester. There you go. Okay. All right. Any other uh comments, questions from you or from the council? Yeah. Do you have questions for us? Um no, I'm just curious to learn and and you know um start attending the meetings and just follow the procedure and and be as useful as I can be. And actually to your point, I would like to learn more about trees. So if there is that educational part of it, then that would be

great. And and in Norwalk they they talk about I can't remember them when they talk about it but the the arbur they come or they do it they mention about the same thing certain heights and you know um so I you know I do like hearing about it. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. We'll discuss it during our council meeting.

All right. you noninancial people here's uh maybe one of your favorite subject maybe not it's been uh part of something that's been long time coming so I'm excited to hear about it me too

yeah well evening everyone so um we're here tonight to talk about a couple things um the first and uh I I won't say the most pressing but it's uh high on my priorities list is um is consolidating our fund structure. So for the past three years I have made no secret I've kept no secret that our fund structure is overly complex. Um what's happening? Sorry.

You're good. You're good. Um, so when you look at our current fund structure, this is it. And that's as big as I could make the font without without um without one. Yeah. Keep it on one page. So, you don't have to pay I I've got a I've got a takeaway for you here. So, you don't have to pay too much attention to that. But um it's it's small and I it's like that for a reason. One total. Yeah.

And what this does is it creates a system where one fund has to pay another fund. That fund has to then pay a third fund and so on and so forth. So what it does is it inflates our overall operational budget to the well I'll show you on the next on the next slide. So this every every line and arrow on this um on this page here is a transfer from one fund to another fund.

And when you add all of those arrows up, it increases our budget by about 19 million. So um that's why when someone every year we say okay well what's you you all appropriate somewhere between 90 and 100 million. What's our actual operational budget from that is a harder number to get at, but you have to you have to compensate for this when we're doing it. Well, it doesn't actually increase our budget. It just the way you're That's correct. I think we need to be clear about that. It doesn't actually increase the budget. It just looks like it does. That's correct. It's all So, you don't know what number to use, you know, depends who you're talking to.

Yeah. And so, uh, I spent a little bit of time taking a look at at the, um, I guess the use of each of the funds. Do we still need them? Are they, um, you know, a lot has changed in the last three years since Spencer and I got here. So, uh, is this structure still necessary? And to if, if so, you know, to what extent? So um as I mentioned um the current system of of um of our our fund structure is overly complex difficult at times to interpret. Um with that many funds there's a a higher risk for error on everything. It's more expensive to audit. The our auditors have told me you guys are paying too much for your audit every year because you've got so many funds. Um, they were excited to hear that I was going to pitch this at you guys. Needless to say, um, it it limits our our ability, our our flexibility to an extent. Um, financially, um, here's here's one that I stumbled face first into when I got here.

Uh, institutional knowledge risk. So, uh, what that means is at some point someone knew that, you know, this piece of of revenue that we received was supposed to go to this place.

And when that person moves on, now someone new has to make that determination. And I've I've made a mistake more than once. So, um, and then, like I mentioned, it it makes our our budget look inflated while it's not set through right. It's not a um actual operational increase to our budget. It makes it look like it like it is. And so now we get to the to the fun part, at least for me. So, um I would propose so uh a little bit of disclaimer on on this before we get here. This is this is what I would propose today, right? Um there there may be some stuff um I'm thinking specifically on the fire equipment funds, the two on the bottom of the general fund. There may be some um language in the resolutions or in the ballot measure that that stop us from doing that and they would have to stand alone.

Um and there there are various reasons to either combine something or not to. There's there's other things as we go through this. You'll be like, well, why why not just put that into the general fund? Well, it's probably something in the legislature that precludes us from doing that. So, within the general fund, I would uh propose that we combine all of those uh items on the left into one general fund. And what what that would do um is we would then create departments for those. They're not going away. They're just functionally moving where they are. Um, can I ask a question?

Absolutely. Um, number 112, Visitor Bureau. Yep. It's been an enterprise fund. It's been my understanding that an enterprise fund is like our uh water fund, our sewer fund. It has to pay for itself. So, was this maybe misnamed and misaligned at some point in time? Because I would not think of the visitors bureau as an enterprise.

I don't know that I would either. Um because it it doesn't it's it's pretty easy to draw the I liken it like if it can operate like a business, it can be an enterprise fund. The visitors bureau does not bring in revenue, right? So, and so I wouldn't I wouldn't consider that at least directly, right?

Um I wouldn't consider that an enterprise fund, but at one point someone did and our auditors said, "Okay." And so, um, the the second item, uh, that I would mention about the visitors fund specifically, uh, is that in order to do this, we would have to liquidate the fund balance to somewhere because the funds within the visitors bureau are restricted. Um, and so we would have to put it in either the convention center or the tourism activity fund or somewhere else where those funds are still restricted. convention center is kind of the same to TA's point. I mean, it brings in revenue, but it definitely doesn't pay for itself. So, I don't know why those would be enterprise,

but the but the convention center has the ability to. Yes. If if we really got back into a corner, it could. Um, but you're right, it doesn't. Right now, it doesn't directly pay for itself either, but it does bring money in, right? That's what an enterprise fund does. So, in some of these cases, you're also going to be having to figure out how to track the money from one fund to where it needs to be so you can do what you need to do, the liquidating and the reassigning, etc., etc.

Yeah. And that's that's going to be the the really laborious and meticulous piece of this is that you know as you close one fund out it like everyone's got to be on the same page or all of a sudden you're still putting revenue in this fund and you stumble on it when the auditors say well I thought you closed this out or when you're reconciling that. So um are each of these funds associated with a bank account? No,

no. We only have um functionally we use Wells Fargo for nearly everything. Um we have two, three, probably four different bank accounts. One with the state, one with US um US Bank. They facilitate our bond payments. Um one with Wells Fargo, and then um maybe there are just three functional But and I can't remember the name of it, but the state one is the one that um we hold money in. Correct. It's currently paying like four and a quarter. Yeah, it's down to 3. No, maybe it's 4.1 still. Yeah.

Um I I think I forecasted it three quarters. I assumed that it was going to come down, but that's a that's a good problem to have as opposed to a bad Really, you're just proposing an accounting change. Yeah. And functionally, yeah. Um because like from a um transparency standpoint, we the way that we budget, right, we budget by the line item. So you're not losing any functionality or any um visibility there. The only

con that I've been able to think of with when you put a pros and cons list together is that once you once you consolidate these funds into one, they no longer have fun individual fund balances. it all boils into one too. So, um, so we would have to collectively be okay with that. Zach, what is the general fund fund as opposed to the general fund fund type? Uh, and I see Spencer smiling back there.

That's that's a great question. Um, I don't know. It was just set up that way. And so, uh, our general fund is this building. Um, the library, the library, the community center. Um, city attorney was paid from there at one point in time. Um, can we rename it? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Takes a resolution, but we could absolutely absolutely do it. But but to clarify there, Zach, that goes away. So, right now, we have a general fund within the general fund. When this is all done, we just have a general fund. Yeah. And when our which is which is which is which is standard for all government

entities the little general fund general fund has lots of stuff in. So we would have individual departments within there like like the mayor like mayor and city council city manager's office finance department and things like that that you would normally find. There was a breaking of that already in the little general fund, but we'd we'd have now a public works department, public police, fire, and stuff like that all in one place.

Yeah. And I I suspect when we had some accounting limitations, this made it easier to keep, you know, bucket A separate from bucket B from bucket C. But um we're we're stood up enough and and advanced enough with our accounting system that this would make it easier yet. So So that's the general fund proposal. And as you go down the list, uh we would consolidate parks uh and street construction and then the special assessments fund into a general fund capital fund. Um, and I'll show you in just a second. That makes sense.

Um, and then there's a tourism capital fund as well. And the reason being we go back to that restricted money versus unrestricted money. That's why I I actually talked to Spencer today about what if we only did one capital fund and then we're like, well, that doesn't make a ton of sense, I guess. Yeah. And then we get into the enterprise funds. So you have water, sewer, and um the convention center. Each of them when they were set up has a operational fund and a capital fund. I would just propose that we collapse those and it just operates as as one and each one of those supposed previous funds are actually become a department.

Yes. Yeah. You could make it you could make it its own department or you could just make the because there is um there are capital expense lines on each of the water sewer convention center funds. So I I am open to either option. We can do either um and this still provides us enough flexibility to drill down if we want to analyze how we're using our money. Yep. Okay. Absolutely. Are there any rules around the expenditures of operating versus capital?

Not that I've been able to find. That doesn't mean they don't exist, right? But when I I sent this plan to our auditors to look at before I sent it to you guys, uh, and they were they saw no issues with and the only question that I got from him was the visitors bureau. And so I I described the change that's happened over the past three years. And he's like, "Okay, that makes sense. And this proposal doesn't have to go to the state at all for their blessing. However,

it will not for their blessing. It will go to them once we publish the budget book because they send a copy to them every year. So they they will see it eventually. I don't know if they will notice that we've made a change. Uh but they will have the stamp and file it, right? You only pay attention if you don't send. Yeah. Then they get very upset. Uh, this is another one where where this may or may not be allowed. Um, so this is we've got three separate bond reserve accounts and I need to look at the bond I haven't looked at the bond covenants yet to see whether that

whether they need to be in their own separate segregated fund or if they can be in a consolidated debt service account. Um, I think as long as we can justify that we've we've properly separated the three within our accounting system, I think they'll be okay with it. But that's just one more thing that I need to make sure of on that front. Um, seaside urban renewal. So, um, this one, so for all the urban renewal funds that I've come across, um, they've got a debt side and then they've got a construction side. Maybe I I don't know why you would do it that way. I'm sure there was a reason at some point in time, but um, I don't see a reason to continue with that. Um, so I would just suggest that we collapse the So this is just the southeast, the current uh urban renewal fund. The other one, uh, we can probably phase out or close. We're still receiving um, a trickle of revenue from that. Now, at some point when we decide to either close it or not close it, um we we should it's got a material amount of money in there. So, we should see if there was anything left from the plan that could that could still be spent on other

give that money if there's nowhere to spend it. Send it back to the county and they redistribute it. So, we'll find a place. We'll find a place to spend it. Uh then these these ones would these funds would continue to operate independently because they're because of legislative language or the setup or um

or what have you. Um they've all got their own special special quirks. Um the road district has to be se segregated. It's its own budget. Um the airport that's that way because of grants that we might someday receive, fingers crossed. Um 911 special revenue that that must be its own fund. Downtown maintenance is an assessment that makes accounting for that um easier. So there's a reason for all of those to stay by themselves. And then I would propose then that we would either close out, inactivate or phase out the library trust trust u the American Rescue Plan. We won't get any more money from that. That that can be effectively closed, but it's got to stay open on our budget for the next year because we we can't have made expenditures on it for three years by the time it's clo since it's closed. And then the greater seaside urban renewal fund we talked about a little bit before

and I've talked to you about the library trust fund which is not a trust fund. Right. Right. What is it? It's people sending checks into the city saying this is to use for the library and it's been basically gone. It's gone into the general fund more than anything else. So, so in its totality, what we would do if if we did the did we went through the research and then went through with all of the proposed changes, we would reduce our 39 funds plus another 12 that we still have out floating around that um we would reduce that down to 18 funds.

Great. How long do you think this would take? I knew that question might come up. Um, I don't have a good answer for you. Um, I would I would love to say that it would take two months, but it depends on what the workload, what time of the year it is, whether there's anything special going on that I've got to divert my attention to. Um, well, there might be something coming up. Yeah, it's it it needs to happen in one fiscal year. That's that is the that is the thing that has to happen or start the new fiscal year out,

right? Or you have to get at least to a point where you can stop. You can't um move something halfway and then all of a sudden the fiscal year changes and now now you're No, but you can move several of them and then go to the next. Okay. But it seems it would be a good idea if you could start the new fiscal year out with the new uh arrangement, right? The the only problem with that because we've talked about that is that means the budget now as we're preparing it has to be done the new way, which this has got to be done first. And so that's what we're trying to put all in order.

Like if we could get this year into the new structure, then we'll have prior year numbers for the next year match because you got to be able to compare apples and apples. And so in the budget book, it would continue. I mean, there would almost be two separate budget books because you have to leave for three years. You have to leave the old funds

kind of as they are so that you can demonstrate that, hey, this is closed. It's moved here. So, so more to come on this. Um, I just wanted to gauge everyone's um get everyone's feedback, I guess, on this. Doesn't seem like there's a ton of opposition. No smart easier for us to read it as well as the public. Okay. They really care about the state. Great. Great. As long as it meets their regulation, they stamp it and put it in a file somewhere

in the vault. And would doing this in effect remove the necessity of borrowing from one fund, you know, one department borrowing from another department or one and then paying itself, paying back. Um, but I could still see scenarios where that might be useful because at least in a bigger picture because we get to de we get to Exactly. we get to determine what the interest rate is, right? There's nothing that says, "Hey, It has to be a prevailing interest rate. We can say the interest rate is zero when I'm loaning from here to here.

Typically what we've done is when we've carried a significant balance, say in the convention center, instead of going out and borrowing funds and paying the interest back, we borrow from ourselves. And so where that would still be its own thing and that's likely the only place where we would have proceeds like that. That that would still continue. But that's a that's rare and you know kind of a one-off here. not not and it's not for operations or anything like that. Right. I just note that the urban renewal and the road district are actually completely separate budgets. Yes. They are not part of the overall seaside budget. Correct. So you're talking about separate books.

Two of them little already pretty easy to understand. Yeah. And two of them this body has full control over. The third one, we would have to include some more people. But, right, if the council were decide this is a good idea and approved it, could this be done by this year's budget? I don't think so. I I would love to say yes. I would love to. I I would I don't think I have the the the personnel time to be able to say this is what we're focused on now for the next three months to get it done. This is kind of a hands down. Yeah. Eight hours a day, right? You know, five days a week for a certain amount of time. Yeah. Because

if you lift your head, you kind of forget where you are. Right. So, I would love to say yes, but I don't think that's realistic. Any more questions as it goes?

Yes. Okay. Now, everyone's favorite uh discussion. So, the grant the grant documents um the the nonprofit requests that we send out uh right about this time every year um are I I don't want to say they're due, but I they're they're not due for another month, but they are um we're coming up on the time where I normally send them. So, what I wanted to do was uh talk to this body and see if the sorry, the one on the right is what's on the on the document.

The items on the left are what the required attachments portion is. And so, um I wanted to pull this body and see if there's anything else that we would prefer to request, if we would prefer to alter any of this. um standardize any of this. The one the one thing that I had uh Spencer and I had spoken about was rather than requesting their their budget and um actuals that they've got to then put together um to what I would call varying degrees of success uh every year. Maybe we just we just u request their tax return. Whatever the most recent tax return is that they've submitted to the federal government.

Not and not not tax return document. Yes. T tax report 990s. I brought a few of those. I didn't I only brought five of them. So So I didn't want to burn down the printer. Seen them and done them. here. Yeah. If anyone else wants one. Um, and this is something everybody anybody who's a nonprofit has to do.

That's correct. With one caveat. So, um, if your organization, my understanding is that if you receive less than $50,000 worth of contributions in any given year, you can fill out basically a postcard version of this. except this is for my experience if you're in the state of Oregon. Oh, you basically have to create the 990 anyway because the state of Oregon requires it. Okay. So, anybody that's in Oregon should have one regardless of size.

So, I printed out um class community action. This is from 2022 um just so that there was a in I only printed out the first 12, but in total there was probably 30. Um, but it starts with supplemental stuff after page 12. So, so instead of being forward looking, this would be the previous year they've done in theory. Yes. How do you feel about that, Tina?

Well, what it doesn't tell us is what do they what are they planning to uh use in the next year? what what are they looking for for income, for revenue, for expenses, etc. Um, I think in the past what we what we've had issues with has been um that people are on various uh budget years and so we get maybe their budget from their last year, which is two years ago. So, we don't really get something current. Um, I've talked to Zach about 990s and and um I think it's a good idea. I would, but I I just can't think of any nonprofit that doesn't at least have a one sheet of paper that says this is what we want for income and expenses next year. And um I don't I just I I would still like to see what's your what is your planned budget for for the the year?

Yeah. Because don't they usually submit a proposed budget? Well, yeah, because they're required by the state to have an approved budget by their board by the month before their budget, the the start of their their um fiscal year. I every nonprofit I've worked with operates from that perspective. I've never heard that state. I think just business sense that that you have some kind of budget. Yeah.

And then you know a lot of people that you know the museum again um the trolley associate whatever sometimes you got to adjust it. So it may not be the same budget you end up with when they talk to you next year, right? So basically, but it's just a proof that we can look ahead and see what we're doing. Um some entities where they're just going to use these dollars for a specific purpose. U you know, if they don't do that and don't approve it the next year, then they go get no more money. Our tourism advisory committee did that. somebody.

Well, with tourism advisory, you ask for a set dollar amount for a grant. Yeah. And then you have to report. And I think with tourism now, the reports are twice a year, halfway through and at the end. And if you don't report or you you you're not going to be eligible for money in the future. But if you don't use it all, it's up to the tourism committee to ask for money the money back, the excess back. They actually require you to file the report at the end of the month after your events.

I know because I do that one too for consulting and pay back whatever you don't use. But if you don't file the report or don't pay back, then you're not eligible the next year. And that should be pretty easy to follow up. But

and I've tried to do so the the organizations that we um award out of the general fund have been have gotten better at sending me a report after their whatever it was that they were using the funds for uh is finished. So um we have something similar. I I don't know that we have any language in any of the agreements that say we're going to claw this back if we don't do this. Um, but I one thing I would think about is not making the one page of supporting metrics and analysis optional.

Okay. Um I think that that should be required and you know it might be baby steps to try to get to where to how to measure things but eventually I think it's a good way to say you know we increase the service by this widget or this many people or this whatever and just to start thinking along those lines. I think that would be good.

Okay. seems to be we had more than one of our grant recipients this year receive the grants and then shut down and so having a built in for how to deal with that would probably good idea should come up

and actually the state law requires or excuse me, the tax law requires that if you shut down as a as a nonprofit, you are required to give your money to a similar nonprofit. You must designate who that is. Okay? So they either give it back to us or they I would prefer giving it back to us because we don't know whether that nonprofit is even local and would be using it for the needs of Seaside.

I think if we're giving away taxpayer money, we just need to be very very thorough. I don't understand the nonprofit world as well as I think some of you, but it makes sense to me. That's the big that's the thing. We're stewards of the of the taxpayers money. You're right. Okay. Anything else that we should add to this besides the couple things that we thought about and did we decide um or is there going to be a discussion? I know there was some discussion at some point not to have the presentations I'm open to that. And that changes the next slide a little bit, but Oh,

okay. All right. I know we've required people to be there and then we've made exceptions. And then I know I think last year there was some discussion about why even make them come and make a presentation. Although it's it's sometimes harder to make a decision, but on the other hand, sometimes the presentation is just lobbying. My only concern with the presentations, I feel like that takes up such a big block of our budget time that we don't get into discussing a lot of the other meat and potatoes of the budget. We kind of rush through the presentations take up so much time and then we push through the whole entire budget in just a meeting or two. So, that would be my only concern. else.

I'm fine evaluating the applications as they are without seeing a presentation. And if we need to, we can ask questions and you can find answers. Okay. Okay. That would be a nice two and a half, three hours to get back. That's right. All right. So then with that, uh, disregard the second bullet point there. Um, so I'll strike the that from the application. Um, I wanted to bring this up to make sure that I'm not trying to schedule over a LOC meeting or something where

a lot of people are going to be out of town for some reason that I'm not aware of. We're looking at really only the last week, the last Wednesday of February and the last and the second Wednesday in April. Well, the department head meeting that's with the budget committee, right? Is that what you're budget committee can be at that? Yeah. Yeah, they can be. Well, in fact, they're in all and April the 8th is a Wednesday. Is it just that one day or is it

It's that second Wednesday of every month. I've got the full Okay. All right.

City Council meeting for January 26 will now come to order. Please be seated. Once you're seated, please stand up for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance. One nation.

Kim, please call the role. Mayor, councelor McVey, here. Councelor Monttero, present. Councelor Hoffman here. Councelor Baker here. Council President Moresy here. And Mayor Wright here. Thank you. I have a motion for the approval of the agenda. So moved. Second. It's Council President Morsy, Councelor Baker. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Tonight our first proclamation of 2026. We have uh Tina Toyus um coming up to introduce our proclamation. This month it is career and technical education month and uh yeah just tilt it up there and and tell us uh why are we doing this?

So I'm Tina Toyus. I'm provost vice president at ClassUp Community College and we are empowering our North Coast workforce with our CTE programs. Um, good evening everyone. At Classic Community College, our career and technical education, referred to mostly with an acronym CTE, programs, serve as the vital bridge between education and our local economy. Whether it's nursing, medical assisting, welding, fire science, EMT, historic preservation, criminal justice, maritime science, automotive technology, and other areas of CTE. We aren't just teaching students. We are training the next generation of essential professionals. Right now, our classrooms are buzzing with activity. We are currently navigating critical updates to ensure our curriculum meets the highest standards and such as our ongoing collaboration with the HEC, which is the Higher Education Coordinating Commission of Oregon and our NWCCU. This ensures that every credit earned at CCC translates directly into values for the student and the employer. Beyond the classroom, our faculty and staff are working tirelessly to remove barriers for education. From addressing facility needs such as the current efforts to maintain our campus infrastructure to providing flexibility and learning options such as our canvas online learning platform or our highlex courses. We are con committed to meeting students where they are. When you support CCC CTE programs, you're helping students who are working through co challenges to gain new skills or students who are mastering the practicalities of health, fitness, and other areas. You're investing in a stronger and more resilient North Coast. We invite you to join us in this mission, empowering all students to reach their full potential.

Thank you.

Thank you. We uh appreciate that there is a a South County campus and that especially a lot of the students that are attending uh Klatsup community are going to actually end up working in the area. I think especially of the uh nursing uh students. So I've asked uh councelor Bakerker to read tonight's proclamation. Whereas February 1st through the 28th, 2026 has been designated Career and Technical Education Month by the Association for Career and Technical Education. And whereas career and technical education offers students the opportunity to gain the academic, technical, and employability skills necessary for true career readiness. And whereas students in career and technical education programs participate in authentic meaningful experiences that improve the quality of their education and increase their engagement and achievement. And whereas career and technical education at community colleges will prepare or Oregonians to secure family jobs in the state's industries and workforce. And whereas leaders from business and industry nationwide report increasing challenges related to addressing the skills gap and connecting qualified professionals with available careers in critical and growing CTE related fields including healthcare, energy, advanced manufacturing, cyber security and information technology. And whereas leaders from business and industry nationwide report increasing challenges related to addressing the skills gap and connecting qualified professionals with available careers in critical and that paragraph is on here twice.

Oh,

so I'll I'll move on to the next. Whereas career and technical education programs ensure that employers have access to a qualified and thriving workforce, ensuring Oregon has a strong and competitive economy. Now therefore, I, Steve Wright, mayor of the city of Seaside in the state of Oregon, do hereby proclaim the month of February 1st through the 28th through the 28th, 2026 as Career and Technical Education Month. And be it further resolved that the council encourages all citizens to become familiar with the services and benefits offered by the career and technical education programs at Klatsup Community College and to support and participate in these programs to enhance individual skills and productivity and to help Oregon's econ economy thrive again.

Thank you, counselor. We'll have to fix whatever went wrong there. Are we still working on public comments? No public. Anybody signed up?

Okay. Uh, this is time for public comments. Uh, members of the public may use this time to provide general comments on matters not scheduled elsewhere on the agenda for public hearing or public comment. Individuals wishing to speak should have completed a public comment registration card. that's over on that table and submit it to the city recorder before being called. This time's 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 allotted three minutes. So, if there are none uh just general public comments, we'll move on. Does any counselor wish to declare a potential conflict of interest? Hearing none, uh, may I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda?

I would move the we approve the consent agenda. Second, Council President Morsy, Councelor McVey, uh just a note, if we have time tonight, we will get a special update about the new uh financial report that's in your packet, but we're putting it on the consent agenda for now. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We have special guests. U come on up. I don't How many years is this now that that you have been coming to visit us? Oh, yes. Thank you.

Please introduce yourself. Mayor, right, city council. My name is Dan Floyd and I'm with Huda Coast Ray Series to answer your question. I've been coming down here since 2014 and so for me

and we've seen various versions of this and former counselor Frank can attest to that. Uh and we're we're happy to be here in this current version of Hood Coast and with the current relationship with the city of Seaside. Uh brought a check here. We're a little bit later in the the season um going into this race year. Uh we we can mail this in the future, just so you know. But we're happy to we're happy to be down here. We can mail it earlier and and come down and talk about the race. um specific to the race for many of you have heard this many times, but there are a few things I do want to to be on the record and for those who are possibly uh new to um hearing us and hearing about Hoodikos. Um this is our finish line of course, but it's a 200 mile race that starts at Timberline and goes through many communities in Oregon. There are 20,000 participants and then another 40,000 participants that are on a waiting list every year. They come from 50 states and 30 plus countries. So, it's an amazing opportunity for us, not just our event, but the various communities along the route to showcase what Oregon has to offer to really the rest of the world. And we have quite the platform as well, the 100,000 people that are on the database. And they continue continually hear about Hikos, which means of course they're hearing about two very important places. is one timber line and of course the finish line where most that's the uh where we have the most people 60,000 plus people are here throughout that weekend. So a great opportunity to showcase seaside. We hope that many of them also come back to seaside. The 2025 event was a great event. Uh went smooth. I don't know if you remember but there were 100 plus degree temperatures in the Portland area. So people were very happy to get to the coastal mountains and then eventually here where it was a lot cooler. Uh things were smooth. Uh very few calls to 911. Um and they were not necessarily heat related. It wasn't anything that was more or less than previous years, believe it or not. So

participants do listen. They do follow some direction as do we. So we look forward to your your feedback. Um we want to of course point out that the event raises over $950,000 for the Providence Cancer Institute. All that money is raised from our participant base throughout the world, but stays 100% of that stays within Oregon. So, it's uh it's pretty cool to raise it from outside the state, keep it here. Um, additionally, just a reminder that we want to thank you, the city council. Of course, our relationship has evolved to the point where it is right now because of Spencer and John, uh, Chief Daniels and Chief Ham, and our relationship with the Chamber of Commerce. We can't do it without you. So, thank you for that. Um, not just the Providence Cancer Institute, but our opportunity to be here is an amazing opportunity, but also a way for us to partner with this area, the North Coast area. We are able to raise money for Oregon State Parks. We work in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce to produce the Finish Party in the Beer Garden, the Sunset Recreation Center, Neanakim Watershed Council, and the South Clatsup Food Bank. So, we look forward to to pro to you partnering with all those all those groups that I listed. And 26. And finally, I know it says date on there, August 28th and 29th, 2026.

Weekend prior to Labor Day as usual. Yes. Yes. Uh very pleased seeing all of the u local groups that you've brought in and incorporated into your festivities. It's a uh very busy kind of last of the summer event and uh it's great to be known, you know, basically worldwide that it finishes up here in Seaside. But counselors, any other comments?

I think over the years we've implemented a lot of changes and I think the event just keeps getting smoother and smoother. Is there any plan to bring back the bridge or is the bridge gone for good? I'm looking over here too. So there all those groups that I listed, the fire, police, Spencer, John, everybody would be involved involved with with a discussion like that. The feedback that we've heard from a lot of the people that are in this room is that the removal of the bridge and the the um the adjustments that we made with volunteers and um and being safe and making sure that traffic was not going to be an issue did not cause problems with runner safety or uh vehicle traffic. So, I think the short answer is I'm speaking for this group right now saying probably not. Um but we are, like you said, we've gotten better throughout the years. We're always willing to listen to feedback and if that needs to be a discussion between now and August, we will have that discussion.

Thank you. It's been two or at least two years that we haven't used it. I think I thought it was one, but has it been two? I think two. At least two. Yeah, I think it's two. Yeah. Do any Do any of the runners complain? John and I are saying three right here. Okay. Yeah, it could be. Do any of the runners complain they have to stand there and wait for the stop light? I thought you were gonna say, "Do any runners complain?" Stop. So, especially the fast ones.

Uh, no. I I'm trying I'm trying not to be funny right now. The the amount of complaints that we get are are uh there aren't a lot, but they're they are pretty funny. Uh, no, we do not get a lot of complaints about this right here. They may complain about uh the sand not being paved when they get to the last 100 feet of this race, uh, but they're not complaining about this intersection. Yeah, we need a movie. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you for the money. We always appreciate that. Thank you. The support uh you know the chamber as well because uh I think their money goes to like the food bank. So you're again supporting the local operations.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. No pictures. It's funny. Drive safe. Okay. Uh boards, commissions, and committees. Uh we still have uh one vacancy on the airport advisory committee. We had a U interview tonight with Stephen Christopher. Uh he would like to join the city tree board. What is the council's uh preference? I nominate Stephen I nominate Stephen Christopher.

He's been nominated. Uh I make a motion to appoint Steven Christopher to the city tree board. I'll second. That's councelor Monttero and councelor Hoffman. Any further discussion? It's always great to have volunteers. All those in favor say I. I.

I. Any opposed? Motion carries. I don't know if he's still here or not, but uh thank you very much, Stephen, for applying for this. We have uh two vacancies still in the community center commission. We have one on the planning commission and we have one on transportation advisory. These have been there for a while. So, counselors and residents, get to work. We uh also um at our last meeting interviewed David Pasolski uh for the tourism advisory committee. Tonight we interviewed Christy Pool. And what is the council's preference?

I think both Christine P and David Pzowski would make great members to the tourism advisory committee and I hope at one point we can expand it to seven members to accommodate both of them. But at this point, I would like to move to appoint David Pazoski to the tourism advisory committee. I'll second. Um, let's see. Generally, what we do when there are two people, um, why don't we have a roll call vote? Just to make it very clear. So, just stating the name of our Just state the name of the person that you would like to appoint. Can we pick them both?

I wish. And uh you know whichever one isn't chosen uh that's definite possibility. Expanding the uh the group as well as anybody is more than welcome to go to any one of these committees because this is all of your business the things that these folks are doing. So they all would dearly love to have public input and then you'd see what a great group they are and you know join them. Go ahead, Kim. Councelor McVey Christy P. Councelor Montero,

I think in bringing new blood to um the tourism committee and also knowing that um she was endorsed by David when he uh took his uh did his interview. I'd like to cast my vote for Christy Pool. Councelor Hoffman, I agree. New blood is good. Christy P. Councelor Benker, both candidates were fabulous. I do wish we could uh appoint them both. I will say um David applied first and I think he'll be great. So my vote is David Pasowski. Council President Moresy, David Pulzoski, Mayor Right.

Again, this is another tough decision, but um David has been here just a bit longer, so I'll vote for him. Okay,

that's a tie vote. Anybody want to change their vote? Okay, I will. I'll vote for Christy Pool. And we will discuss council ward four later. Um Spencer and I didn't talk about this, but uh we're going to talk about transient lodging tax legislation. Uh this has been an ongoing situation. Uh I've been involved with working on this u for about 7 years now. I guess finally got to the legislature last year. um League of Oregon Cities uh which is how I was um involved with this had this as a topic of discussion back then and finally got it to one of the top priorities for u all cities and so we had a really great lobbyist that went out and worked on this. Uh unfortunately she moved on to somebody uh some other department now so she's not there but um we came to uh with a proposal to start with and I don't know how much you have on this slide so you want to take over from here.

Sure. Uh I understand this is why everyone's come tonight so I'm excited to talk about transient lodging taxes. Um, as the mayor uh said, um, this came up last year, had a lot of momentum for the first time in the legisl legislative history. And so, um, it appears there's enough momentum to come back during this short session. So, the purpose tonight is to um provide you with it with an update uh to the city council and to the residents of our community, talk a little bit about what's what we expect in the upcoming legislative session, and then just uh ensure that we are on the um the right path uh moving forward, that our interests this year um align with those of last year. Um very brief history. Um what is the transient lodging tax? These are taxes that are paid by visitors to our community who stay uh less than 30 days. And this applies to all hotels, motel, campgrounds, short-term rentals. And it's collected by the the hotels who um then uh turn that over to the city and uh they're able to keep a portion of that for their uh administrative costs. Um we have had uh something on the books going back uh many decades. However, the law was significantly changed by the state in 2003. Um we saw a real push to promote tourism across the state. Under those guidelines, um at least 70% of the taxes must be used for tourism promotion or tourism related facilities and the remaining 30% is discretionary for uh general government use and um it spec specifies that they can be used for tourism promotion and tourism related facilities. And there

are some narrow definitions um of that. And so Seaside, like many of our coastal communities, experience year-round tourism impacts uh far beyond the peak season and far beyond um just what what we are able to do uh within those narrow definitions. So the why are we seeing changes now? So tour volumes uh are tourism volumes are already strong and so marketing is not the limiting factor. Um here in Seaside especially uh we do see strains within our infrastructure and our roads and sidewalks, parks, restrooms and beaches, police, fire, other emergency response, water, sewer and other public facilities. So there's there's quite a bit of legal uncertainty and there's been quite a bit of past litigation as well around um how these funds are used, which is why we're very careful with that. and the local needs in 2006 are very different than what they were in 2003. Um, so proposed changes. So, um, we haven't seen language of a new bill yet, but um, or at least I haven't. Um, but if we're going off of, um, what, uh, I'm kind of presenting this as if it mirrors what was in the session in 2025. Um right now we understand it's being rebranded as the local act, local opportunities for community advancement and livability. Um that would mirror last year's legislation. So right now the split is 70% to tourism and 30% for general purpose and that would be changed to 60% discretionary local use and 40% to tourism promotion and tourism related facilities and doesn't mandate any changes but it does and it keeps the

decision at our level. So the the philosophy that we have been discuss discussing for quite some time um is to improve the visitor experience. So the goal the goal has always been to attract visitors and that will continue. But we also want to expand that to be uh to improve their experience while they're here. Instead of uh trying to obtain or get new people to come, we want to make sure those that do come have a good experience. So, we'd be able to focus on uh improving their experience, encouraging repeat visitation, and reducing the negative impacts on residents. And we believe that well-maintained infrastructure will support both the residents and the visitors and is a more of a sustainable tourism model that will benefit um everyone. Um that kind of goes along with what what we've said. Um this is the uh some of the points that we were brought out last year. Um we had we submitted testimony and we submitted written documentations for the bill. Um so the key themes are um that tourism as is at the core of seaside's economy that the current law is outdated and that infrastructure and services are overwhelmed by visitor volumes and that the local act would would strike a good balance of that. Um and this we think this is a good compromise and not any kind of abandonment of uh of our support of tourism. I think more than anyone, we recognize how dependent we are and we think there are some opportunities um that it can be used to, as I mentioned, benefit everyone. So, uh some of the points that we that we brought out last year, we'd want to continue to bring out. Um we want something that reflects today's

realities, not what they were uh 20 years ago. Uh we want to we want to be able to have uh and maintain and have greater flexibility and local control. Uh more transparency and accountability. Uh ensure that tourism remains an important stakeholder here in Seaside. We believe this aligns with voter sentiment both statewide and here in seaside and um it would help not just seaside but all coastal communities manage the yearround impacts. So the short session is coming up the beginning of February which is why I wanted to have this discussion tonight. We expect things to move quickly. Well sometimes they move quickly and then they sit for a long time. So uh

they have a uh another issue that's kind of big right now. um regarding transportation. So, I've heard I've heard a little bit about that. I've heard a little about that. Yeah. Um so, hopefully this doesn't get attached to that bill, but um well, I'll talk about that in a minute.

The League of Oregon Cities and the Association of Oregon Counties are both actively uh coordinating their support. Uh last year, both our um our House and Senate representatives co-sponsored the bill. So, we anticipate um their continued um support this year. And so what we're asking, what I'm asking for the council tonight is confirm the council's continued support for the increased flexibility. Uh verify that nothing's changed. Um ensure that our that we're aligned and really seek any guidance or if there is any any um changes or comments or discussion that city council wants to have on the on the topic before we go into it. Um, I anticipate we'll submit uh more um testimony in writing. I don't think it'll change significantly from from last year and I know the mayor had an opportunity to testify last year that that may or may not present itself again. So, we want to ensure that we're representing the the wills and wishes of our council.

Couple other things just regarding what happened last year. you know, theoretically in a perfect environment, this would have already been taken care of. Um, it went through kind of an odd committee, but eventually got to the right one and was passed out of committee, went to the floor and uh was passed by the house. Uh there was um kind of some iterations in between where the wording changed and there were about three or four different bills floating around. Um part of the uh concern upfront was the definition of tourism promotion and and facilities was uh very broadened and uh u hotels and such u other agencies really were concerned about that and I I kind of agreed with them. uh that kind of definition would leave it to the city to basically say anything is a tourist um uh something affected by tourism. So, um, our lobbyist and, uh, the people that were, uh, legislators that were sponsoring the bill got together and said, "Let's just make it simple. Change the percentage by 30%." So, it's 30% more to the city, 30% less to tourism, promotion, and facilities. Um, that and like I said, that passed out of the committee and passed the House um, with a sizable margin. Then it went to the Senate and this was towards the end of the session and again transportation came up was a big issue. Um you may remember all of the problems that were going on the head of the

Senate Revenue Committee got kicked off and um the transportation committee and he wasn't real happy about that and so they did that. so the transportation bill could pass out of the transportation committee. Unfortunately, because he was the head of the revenue committee, he decided nothing was going through revenue at all. And so we went and had plenty of opportunity to testify and um was kind of upsetting because he said, "Thank you very much. There'll be no questions." And it died in committee. uh the whole focus of the last couple of weeks of the uh legislature was strictly on the transportation bill and now we're here again and it's still a problem. So um we'll see the uh the focus that I think is that we need to be concerned with is that we are not in any sense of the words going to reduce our tourism promotion. We all know our businesses depend on tourism. Uh we wouldn't have much of a town if we didn't have tourists coming here. The focus needs to be on getting the experience, like Spencer said, the tourism experience is getting um worse in some areas. And my favorite thing to point out is our roads. And uh I will always strongly uh support trying to fix our local infrastructure with any changes we have with this. the uh bulk of our money now that goes to general fund goes other than transportation stuff um or not transportation tourism side goes towards

supporting our police and fire. Public safety gets the bulk of our tourism money uh that is allowed to be spent uh in our general fund. So, we will continue doing that and um you know those costs are going up year after year and our property taxes are only going up 3%. So, that is a big gap that's getting bigger. And if you're interested in knowing more about that, there's another opportunity for you to get involved. Come start joining our budget committee meeting so you can find out all that cool stuff. The more I think our residents know about what goes on in this city and the decisions that we make here and our boards and committees um budget committee for instance makes the better educated you are and we get a better feel for what the uh public really wants to happen. So um right now you know changing a little bit uh the new lobbyist for that's working for us is the senior lobbyist that is at LOC. I haven't had a chat with him yet, but I'm sure he's up to speed and we'll get uh what we can get done. It's going to be really tough with this short session, though. Uh but I'm just looking for your support to say, you know, go for it. Do the best you can. Uh so we can present a unified saying this is what the city of Seaside really wants. Spencer, can you give us an update on how many how much unspent funds are in the TLT currently? I mean, it could be an approximation.

So, um, the last I checked, which was a couple months ago, was about $1 million. Um, one of the things that I've been working with Zach on um is to identify um what if if this were to go through under different scenarios what that might look like for our general fund. um with the provision that we would not reduce the budgets for the visitors bureau or the convention center. And what it shows is that we can um fully utilize that 60% without affecting their budgets because we are setting aside uh a significant amount each year that is beyond what our tourism needs. Um the $11 million we have now is not typical and it's not indicative of what we get extra each year. Um the one of the main reasons for that is that we shut down operations of our convention center during the pandemic and continued to see significant revenue coming in without the operational costs to to run that department. And so, um, we kind of have a a one-time, uh, amount that can be spent there, and we have several, um, ideas and proposals that when the time comes, um, that we'll bring back to the council. However, certainly this would make that easier. Um, as written, um, the legislation also says that any fund balances, uh, that have been built up, um, prior to this would also be subject to the 60/40 split rather than the 7030. So, as the mayor said, there's a lot of infrastructure that uh, this would go a long ways for.

I would just say that I think it's important for residents and business owners to know that we don't plan to reduce the amount we spend on tourism. because we have this excess. So, thank you for explaining that.

I see that the ability to use this money in other ways supporting tourism that have not been available to us so far only goes to improve that tourist experience and improve the whole thing. It's it it raises all the boats and you can't keep doing this and letting this slide. This has to come up so that it can support this. And um I fully support um the changes. One other piece that took place here recently after last year's thing didn't happen, the county raised their rate by 2% um effect and it went into effect January 1st. As far as I understand, they did that so they could simply get the 30% portion to help fund our county jail. um they had determined that 30 actually more than 30% of the people that were using um using their facility uh were not from Clatsup County and it seemed like a fair way but that means you know the rate is much higher than it needs to be and I have uh full confidence that if this bill goes through they will uh reduce that rate to whatever it the number is that they need and it won't be uh the full amount that it is now. So there is more uh for you know depending on what they decide to do with their excess in the past they've given it to the city which has also helped increase our surplus. Uh we already have surplus and the county's portion has been coming to us as well. I don't know if they'll do that with this new one or not.

So, um, do I get a consensus that we're all for this and appreciate your efforts and keep going, keep, uh, making trips to Salem. Yes. Okay. Thank you. We're bringing back uh rewritten version of ordinance 2026-01, our first ordinance for 2026. Ordinance of the city of Seaside establishing the authority of the mayor to declare a local state of emergency. Spencer,

thank you, mayor. Uh this was uh first introduced at our last city council meeting. Um and so um what I'm what I'll talk about tonight are just the changes uh since the last meeting. But for for some brief background, we have an emergency operations plan um and that guides uh our actions during a local emergency but doesn't grant authority. So, a current city code uh lacks the authority for an a formal emergency de declaration process and to and it does not define the authority duration and the oversight provisions. Um, and Oregon law requires each city to um if we if we have a declaration to um it requires us to include in a declaration um any activation of emergency powers. Um we need this to coordinate mutual aid and to engage with county, state, and federal response systems. one of the the biggest being it it it it can often affect our ability for reimbursement under uh FEMA's rules. So, um just to talk about the changes uh from the last one, um we I reordered the and clarified the authority section. Um it was um kind of uh confusing and not everything in the right place. So the mayor is identified as the primary authority to declare a local emergency with the succession list being as follows. Uh the council president, then the city manager, the assistant city manager, fire chief, police chief, any available member of the city council, and any department head. Um I should back off say the the authority always rests with the city council. The purpose of this and as described in there is if the city council can't be readily uh

made available uh with a sufficient quorum to make a decision and there are times when certain authority needs to be in place uh quickly. Um but we've added uh certain safety protocols in here to ensure that uh our mayor doesn't get carried away with any new authorities. So ratification duration and extension. So the ratification requirement is clarified to occur as soon as practical practical but no later than seven days. Um the initial emergency duration um is always set at 7 days uh following the issuance. Um then there is the extension authority. it's granted to the city council that you can um extend it in increments of up to 30 days. I think my draft last time had seven days and I realized um if it were the COVID pandemic and for whatever reason we needed to continue that, you wouldn't want to meet every week to continue it for 7 days. So um let's hope uh we don't have any extended kind of uh slow burning ones. Um but uh uh you do have the authority to extend it but again it's automatically terminated if it's not ratified or extended by the city council. So it can't just keep on going and it can't continue just uh based on any one person's authority. Uh again kind of aligned with that on the termination um I've realigned that and re revised that. So basically uh in order to terminate it uh a declaration it happens in the same order as the individuals authorized to declare it again mayor is first identified um and then it would go down through that same chain of command. Uh also with the automatic termination provisions that

will always be in place. Uh there was one question about um the public notification. So we revised language to say um that we've identified some methods in the ordinance, but we're not limited to just those um those methods. So it would be any means possible to notify the public. Uh under the emergency powers, uh this was brought up last time. We've expanded the definition to include acts of terrorism. We've added the authority to remove debris from public and private property. Um added the authority to restrict or limit water and other utilities during a declared emergency. And um all other um authorities and powers remain unchanged. And so I think that uh represents all of the changes requested by the city council. the request is to come back with a clean copy after the discussion last time. So, if you're ready, um, uh, staff has prepared for a first reading and then it's your option if you'd like to have a second reading. Okay, first we'll open it to the public. Anybody want to comment on this? Nobody's scared of me having some ability to issue a emergency declaration. I like to tell everybody that's probably true. If it's the tsunami is the problem, um I'm I live in about the worst place you can live. So, I'm the farthest away from any safe spot.

Yeah, I don't know. I might be further. Okay. Hey, if there's no public comment, we'll close public comment. Councilors,

my concern at the last meeting was section 4A and the city council ratification, and it looks like that's been resolved. Um, so I'm I'm comfortable with this. I also thought that you had some concern um where uh section 3A um it it launches right into the mayor is authorized to declare a local emergency. Um and then you have to read further to say when the city council is not in session. Um it it might be more comfortable to say the first sentence being that um the city council has the authority but if unable to convene in a timely manner that authority is goes to the mayor because it it's sort of an afterthought here. Do you see what I'm saying there Seth? Mhm.

I can I can take it either way, but it's um it doesn't really say in strong terms that the authority lies with the city council. The way I read it is it's only when conditions require immediate action. So, I'm assuming if there was an emergency that wasn't immediate, let's say we had a day, would the council be convened at that point? Yeah, I think under this um it's this only grants authority to the mayor if the city council cannot be convened. So um it is always the first um the first choice is to convene the city council.

I think we all agree with that. I'm not sure it says it strongly enough, but um if the rest if nobody else is worried about it. Okay. Um I also it this just kind of was a a weird thought for me. If you look at section three uh EB, it said that it must be re issued in writing and filed with the city recorder or with the city manager if the city recorder is unavailable. So what that also says then is the city manager can file it with themsself.

I think the point of this is that there needs to be something in writing. Okay. All right. Just want to be sure. Um, and I know we talked about a time frame. Section 4A says ordinance shall be submitted to the city council for ratification as soon as practical, but in no event later than seven days. And we talked about the seven days. um as soon as practical does leave some slide around. Yeah. Why was that word chosen instead of possible

semantics? I would say one of the one of the things you may as an example if the mayor were to declare a an emergency in the morning and we could convene a meeting in the evening if it was a choice between well we can get the bare minimum of a quorum together or we could do it the next day with this full city council. Those are considerations we would try to make. Is it more beneficial to have the city council um as with fewer members approve it or the entire city council? So, those are some of the this the um issues that could arise that we'd try to decide what is the best timing, but ultimately the goal is to have the city council um ratify it as soon as possible as as soon as practable. Does the word possible there make its own sound better?

I think so. And that's such a minor change. It's not it's not a big change. Yeah,

they both imply the same thing to me. I think all the uh from what I've seen, everything that we brought up the last meeting about this seems to have been addressed. So, I'm happy with it. The only thing I see, you know, the reason for this really is if there is something is of some kind of critical nature and you know, you you need to get it done as fast as possible, that's where this will come into play. Um, most emergencies, I think people will be available and we'd be able to get it together. But if there's, you know, something that needs to be done immediately, you know, let's say shutting the water off or I I I don't know, that's the kind of things they cover in the emergency plan. And, you know, maybe we need a lesson on that again uh to figure out uh what all is involved. And I know we mentioned last time they go over this um every month. Every

It was Yeah, every month. uh we have our emergency preparation meetings monthly.

So they are the ones that are aware of it and they're not going to ask for it unless it is a dire emergency. So, um hopefully particularly in my term of office, this never comes up, but if it does, then we have everything listed out here in uh accordance in accordance with what's required by um you know, FEMA or the county or the state or everybody. So, I think um when you get to the point there's an emergency, you're going to pull out this playbook. And that's the way um everything works in an emergency. You go buy the book because nobody has it memorized and it's big. So, and they get to practice once in a while going through it and so does the county. I would like to also though go to section seven termination of emergency and it says that the emergency shall terminate and the first order of business is upon the mayor's written order. And it's only number B that says upon adoption of a resolution by the city council. And if we're giving the city council the first authority to create or to declare an emergency, they should be the first place that uh terminates the emergency rather than the mayor can terminate it and later on maybe the city council would adopt the resolution.

I don't see I think it should be in the same order. I don't see terminating it being as urgent as declaring it. So, I think that makes a lot of sense to have the council do that.

It It would only be that way if you had a and this is we're looking in the future at nobody who we know, but if you had a mayor who decided, oh, it's not an emergency anymore. I'm going to say it's no longer an emergency. We're not going to do anything anymore. And you have a majority of city councilors who say, "Wait, wait, wait. We still have an emergency going on. We need to be still operating as an emergency. It's sort of a chain of command thing for me. So would you have a be the city council?"

Yes, I would. I would. And again, it would be adoption of the resolution of the city council as soon as practical or as possible. I uh read this as you know either A or B or C or D. Uh the word or is only after C, but that's kind of the way it reads to me all the way through. It's or any of these can take place.

Yeah, that's I I agree with the mayor as I've taken the time to re read this is basically there are four ways it may terminate. It's not in that order. It's with any of those.

Section A appears to explicitly put it on the mayor. uh upon the mayor's written order provided, however, that if the mayor is unavailable, then the declaration may be terminated by the highest ranking available official authorized to declare the emergence pursuant to section three. That puts it specifically on the mayor first and foremost. It's only if he's not available then that it would fall to the next person in line. I think what that means if the mayor is unavailable to declare it, the council president could declare it and then say two days later the council president that same individual when the mayor is not available also has the authority to end that declaration.

It's not however what it says. Well, uh, section three that refers back to is the same kind of order of declaring the emergency. So, it was just supposed to tie those back together.

And, and that's what I'm referring to is if we're going to tie it back to the order of authority for declaring, it should be the same order of authority for um, terminating. I think this one gives you more options, but that's totally um up to you. a as an example. Uh part of this is if there is um the ordinance hopefully we don't have to use most of these provisions or any um but there are some um there's pretty significant authorities that are granted to the city when this is done. And so part of this is also just as urgent as it is to be able to declare it is that we want to um be able to end that um and not necessarily have to wait um for the next council meeting or to convene. But if there's a reason to end it um sooner and um then those um somewhat um expansive authorities are you know removed or go away as as soon as possible.

Well really shuts the clock off on the funding. So I mean we are required to terminate it when we should when it when it has ended. Right. Yeah.

So to me that should happen when it should happen meaning if council's not available the mayor can you know end the declaration. Well, theoretically, the way this all reads is that the council could put in a 30-day extension and the mayor could turn around and terminate it.

Yeah. And if that's something you're concerned about, then you could just strike a and just say it only uh goes away by resolution of the uh city council or um automatically if it's not extended or if it otherwise expires. And I I don't think I would say get rid of A. I would say put B in front of A. Adoption of the resolution. And then if you if you don't have a quorum able to do that just just like the uh the declaration of an emergency it's in the same order.

Yeah, I'd be I'd be fine with that. I think these are very extraordinary powers and I think it's best to spread out and have as many checks as balances as possible to kind of safeguard the city in the future. So, I would be fine with swapping those. I'm more concerned about the declaration than terminating it, but at the same time, it doesn't keep it uh the same as the declaration.

You have public comment. I didn't uh really see any difference in either one of them, so I don't have a problem with it. Hang on a second. Anybody? That won't change um anything as far as reading the resolution or the ordinance. Um if we read by title only, it's not a big deal. I already closed uh public comment. Is okay if I reopen it? Sure. Yes. Okay, Miss Rosemary,

I'm sorry. I'm having flashbacks from when I was mayor and I was mayor during 911 and I got a call uh from the city manager in the middle of the night because I wasn't in town that night asking if he could do some things like close the airport. And um I gave him I said, "Yes, please tie the plane to the ground." And then I said, "Have you checked all the bridges?" Because they did find some copycat things happening in town at that same time. And my authority only extended until we could convene the first possible moment we could have a council meeting so they could get everybody else on board and have a vote. And so for me in a state of emergency like that, I think it's good to have an option with your mayor uh to make something happen. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Spoken like the voice of experience. Yeah. Sad experience. Okay. So the only change is just to flip those two A and B. All right. Can I have a motion? Um read ordinance 202601. First reading by title only. I will move to for a first reading of ordinance 2026-01 by title only. A second.

It's council Montero. Councelor Baker. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Spencer. Ordinance number 2026-1. An ordinance of the city of Seaside, Oregon, establishing the authority of the mayor to declare a local state of emergency, providing for council ratification, emergency powers, and public notification, and aligning with the city's emergency operations plan.

Thank you. Any further action on this item, council? Hearing none, we'll move on to item C 11C. I've got a few comments before we open it up for public comment if anybody has any. I've invited the two candidates to come and uh make their own comments. been um concerned about u the title I read in the paper about the the fight or discussion is moved on to online with this uh discussion and I just for my personal preference do not believe that is where that belong. I firmly believe that you should be basing your opinion solely um on knowing the person, not solely on something on Facebook. Again, these are my personal opinions. I know the rest of the council may or may not agree with that. Granted, some of you don't believe that and yeah, and that's okay. Just don't put down those of us that feel differently. Don't depend on it as your only source of news either. make sure that um you go out and see all sides of the story. Um I personally only u allow people to be uh friends of mine are people that I've actually met. That's a pretty hard and fast rule. There's a couple of exceptions uh because sometimes there's people that are saying I want to be your friend and I have no clue who they are and they may not even be real people. Who knows? Overall though, I want you to make sure that you validate everything. No matter where you get the information, uh whether it's Facebook or uh talking to someone and they say something, um you

don't want to have egg on your face later on something particularly on Facebook that you find out later was faked. And today it's so hard to tell whether something is true or not. We've received many comments and many seem to agree that both of these guys would do an excellent job. I greatly appreciate especially those that took time to share with us thoughtful personal comments of their dealings with one of the or possible both of the um candidates and didn't simply bash the other candidate. I can uh guarantee that I will not agree with Mr. Craft or Mr. Transbro all the time. I don't even agree with all of the people up here all the time. I don't agree with Spencer all the time. I'll save the rest of you. Um, and you will definitely not always agree with me. Not going to base my vote on any one thing about any candidate, but on the overall positive traits that I see and know personally. Finally, uh please remember that the decision, if it's actually ever made by this council, is going to be temporary. Both candidates know that and I'd guess that we will have a really good uh election run for this office in the fall. So, we are going to open up um and I chose randomly which one did I write down? Um, again, we didn't have any public comment registered for this item. So, I'm going to um start with um uh Mr. Craft. You can come up and um we are not u putting the limit uh the threem minute limit on

this, but you're welcome to share with us uh whatever you'd like to share. You have the agenda saying open. Yeah,

we'll see. Yeah. Good evening, council. I would like to begin by making by stating my approach clearly. I'm here to address behavior and statements made on public record and what this false narrative has caused against me. I think recent events are perfect examples of why we have so many vacant seats in our local government. What I experienced since January 12th is something that no one should be put through, especially by elected leaders that were supposed to trust. During my time being questioned by the council, I communicated that effective governance requires factf finding, open communication, and respectful dialogue, and that remains my per uh position. Allegations raised by counselor Hoffman. Counselor Hoffman publicly accused me of being homophobic. That's a serious allegation. The term homophobic implies that an an irrational fear, hostility, or prejudice towards gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other non-heterosexual individuals, often expressed through discriminatory behavior or exclusion. That description does not apply to me. Counselor Hoffman does not know me personally and outside of Facebook has never contacted me directly to request conversation or clarification on this topic. I've stated publicly that I support the June proclamation for Pride Month and the mayor's established processes for proclamations. I have no issues with the LGBTQ community. Councelor Hoffman further stated that I distment demonstrated bigotry and a response to councelor President Morrisy's Facebook post. Bigotry is defined as an unreasonable or obstinate intolerance towards individuals or groups based on identity or belief. Publicly labeling someone with such terms without engaging in dialogue or

establishing facts is inappropriate and inconsistent with the principles of respectful governance. Additionally, the statement this city the statement this city is not just for straight white business owners was also made by the counselor on the same posting. That statement, as phrased, introduces race, sexual orientation, and prof and profession as exclusionary criteria for a candidate for city council, not based on merit or qualifications. As conversations online unfolded, I chose not to engage with the counselor. Doing so, I believe, revealed true motives and position. I do not accept the characterization, and I'm moving on on topics that relate to city governance. I'm willing to have open dialogue. More significantly, the issues uh issue concerning the statements made by councelor McVey on January 26th or sorry, January 12th, Council McVey stated on public record that he could not quote vote for someone that is on a government watch list. That statement was of course made in reference to myself. The assertion is false. To my understanding, placement on a government watch list involves reasonable suspicion of involvement in terrorism, serious criminal activity, or association with known threats. Suggesting this publicly without evidence is not a casual remark. It is defamatory and slanderous. Such a statement could have real consequences for my family, my employment, my reputation, and my personal well-being. After requesting additional information from the city, I was provided the email from the resident who raised concern. That email seemingly originated from an individual who with whom counselor McVey has a personal relationship. The concern itself referenced the Facebook post I shared in November of 2023, and I believe we've all seen it,

and I'm going to read it out loud. Roses are red, violets are blue. I love being on a government watch list with all of you. It was clearly satire shared in response to a friend whose social media accounts were repeatedly suspended regardless of content. It was not literal. It was not an admission. And it was not connected to any illegal activity. For public record, I have no criminal record. I've never been arrested. I'm not associated with any terrorist or illegal organizations. My only citation consists of a dismissed speeding ticket at age 18 and a parking ticket approximately 10 years ago in Portland. That's the full extent of my legal history. I do not object to members of the public asking whether I have a hidden criminal background. Those are fair questions. I do object to an elected official presenting such an inquiry as fact on public record. Councelor McBase later stated in the same meeting that they are both very qualified, but he's not on a watch list, referring to the other candidate, Mr. Ansbro. That framing reinforced the false implication that I was. To my knowledge, there's no pro there was no prohibition preventing counselors council members from contacting me to seek clarification. Councelor Hoffman did uh did publicly on Facebook. The email raising concern was sent approximately 2 and a half days before the meeting and I was never contacted. On September 22nd, 2025, Councelor McVey publicly defended himself against a recall efforts that stated that anyone seeking clarification about the accusations against him could have asked. That same courtesy was not extended to me until after the accusations were made public. I did not have all the information at the time, so no, I did not engage. Additionally, Council McVey public um publicly referenced me posting to an quote extremist website. That language did not appear in that email. I don't know if it appeared anywhere else, but

that characterization was later published by the Atorian on January 14th, 2026. Lucky me. Come to find out that that extremist website was in fact that post from Facebook. Fast forward two weeks. The rhetoric towards me fueled outside accusations online. Some push back even coming from quote anonymous users posting hatred towards me from the unsubstant unsubstantiated claims. One such post alluding to using force and getting someone like me removed from the city. While I do not put any stock in these posts or claims, it's very concerning and it could have all been avoided. Councelor McVey was sworn into office on January 13, 2025, pledging to, and I quote, faithfully and honorably perform the duties of the position. Making unverified and damaging statements about any citizen on public record violates that oath of office. I believe this conduct to be purposeful and inappropriate. It reflects failure of judgment and ethics. My expectation is that the council renounce the claims against me and councelor McVey consider resignation. And for the record, Netflix is my only watch list. Councelor Montero, I respect and appreciate the merits that you applied in your decision-making process. I've been told by several people, including Mr. Pazolski, that you are willing to hear different perspectives to form your position. I want to clarify my involvement uh involvement in ever evolving stance regarding the TLT. I hadn't I didn't have a chance to look at what was put up today prior to the meeting. So that's something for me to dig into. As a hotel year of 18 years, I naturally pay close attention to the Oregon Restaurant Lodging Association's positions, giving that its role is primary advocacy organization for Oregon's lodging and restaurant industries. And that's kind of my life. Initially, Orda's perspective on TLT restrictions seemed reasonable from an

industry standpoint. After hearing local feedback and concerns from city council and community members, my personal understanding evolved. That is the value of healthy debate, listening, gathering information, and adjusting positions when greater clarity is gained. Out of those discussions, I felt it was important for the city and ORA to meet directly. I was able to facilitate a meeting last year between Orla CEO, the mayor, and the finance director also attended. I just sat like a fly on the wall. was about about an hour meeting. The conversation highlighted Seaside's unique circumstances as a heavily visited coastal community and open the door for stronger working relationships moving forward. I would say probably the most heavily visited coastal city in summer. Last year, I was able to meet with Senator Suzanne Weber, who co-sponsored uh who was a co-sponsor of last year's original TLT bill, encouraged the refining of that bill's language from community infrastructure to tourism related infrastructure. This distinction would have protected lodging tax revenues from being overly broad while still allowing critical investments such as infrastructure, streets, and sewer systems to be utiliz the many to be utilized for. I presented the same discussion in a town hall with Cyrus Javati with yourself and the mayor present. Additionally, I've suggested um in conversations with uh other order members that uh a sensible allocation model, perhaps a 603010 split with a 10% dedicated to law enforcement. This approach would free up financial resources on general funds to be allocated to better use. I think I personally think the sum of July and and August police department budget should be all out of the TLT, but I'm going to keep that. Um, and and I haven't received clarity on that yet if that's a possibility, but I I do think that that money should be used heavily in the summer.

I'm also interested in exploring whether sees could access um uh access that direct TLT reserves which um Mr. Kyle said I believe in this legislation it would allow us to dip into that. The original legislation I don't believe allowed um the it to be retro to those funds. I'm not quite sure on that but I have advocated for accessing those funds. Beyond this, I have proposed ideas that a a portion of TLT should support emergency preparedness, including facilities, supplies, reliable communication infrastructure such as local ham uh radio network to accommodate large sums of visitors if a disaster were to be follow peak season. I have also supported discussion around creating tourism specific districts to better justify targeted maintenance and investment in high impact areas for TLT use. I was made aware of last year that that is a very sensitive topic uh not very well welcomed um and the ta the discussion had had been has been tabled but my goal has been to try and identify items that we can legally use TLT for that will free up for general funds as a long-term hospitality professional combined with relationships I have built the local and state level I feel I'm better positioned to contribute to this role and advocate effectively for seaside's interest while maintaining protections for the industry as a No matter what today's outcome vote is, I'd love to sit down face to face and answer any additional questions. In closing, I have been asked whether I intend to continue pursuing public service. I've received numerous messages encouraging me not to give up and uh going for the seat and to stay strong. I want to be clear as a city councelor, I would never conduct myself in the manner demonstrated here. Elected officials should not use a position to advance seemingly personal or political agendas or to make unsub unsubstantiated claims.

Their obligation is to residents, local economy, safety and security of the city and to foster an environment where business can thrive and create jobs and to make our city welcoming for visitors. Accordingly, I am still considering running for the Ward 4 city council seat in the upcoming general election. Depending on future circumstances, I might also consider other leadership roles. Seaside is a community with diversity view points and perspectives. Debate is healthy. Personal attacks and misrepresentation are not and misuse of authority or not. We all know the phrase a house divided against it still cannot stand. I've seen the city council become divided and it saddens me. This isn't who we provess to be as a city. friend spoke to me the other day to get some clarity on some things. The only person in the community that's actually told me face to face and air their grievances with me personally in a civil manner to come to an understanding. We might disagree at the national level, but I felt that we did agree that partisan politics don't belong in city level and neither do defamator defamation and slander. Honestly, that is the making of a true friend. when we can be honest and disagree but at the end of the day can hang out hang hang out and grab a beer. Finally, it was stated that one of the candidates wasn't able to articulate better than the other. I get that. I prepared I prepared by having my wife quiz me on potential topics and questions that might come up, formulating the answer I would give, refining it in my head in hopes that my nerves wouldn't show too much. In hindsight, my unscripted approach made me quote equally exqualified for the position. I'm curious to see how I would have done with notes handy. Lesson learned. In the end, the standard of the city council should be honest discourse, fact-based decision-making, and nonpartisan. Seaside is a place for the people to get away from the world. That wouldn't that be great for the residents

that they can open the historian the signal or go online to see progressive uh positive progress, problems being solved, mutual respect, and more positivity. That's the seaside I want and we could make that happen as a city council. Thank you,

Councelor Hoffman. Any statement?

Yeah. Every time I speak, somebody seems to get upset. That's nothing new. Um, I was concerned about Mr. Craft's statement to R.J. Max. He said something, and I'm paraphrasing. I don't have an exact quote, but something to the fact of he's fine with the LGBT community, and if that's the lifestyle you choose, he'll have to accept it as long as you don't force it down his throat. Now, I typed that phrase into an AI search engine and asked it if stating that being a member of the LGBT community is a lifestyle choice would be considered uh prejuditial or bigoted. Let me see. According to the AI overview, calling homosexuality a lifestyle choice is widely considered to be a form of bigotry as it contradicts scientific consensus that sexual orientation is not a voluntary changeable choice, but rather come on but rather a complex, deeply rooted aspect of identity often linked to biology. The phrasing is frequently used to justify discriminatory, homophobic, or prejudiced attitudes. The choice narrative as prejudice research indicates that people who believe sexual orientation is a free choice are significantly more likely to hold homophobic and heterosexist beliefs. The term lifestyle implies it is a preference or hobby that can be changed which is often used to promote discrimination or to suggest that

individuals are responsible for the prejudice they face. Critics argue that referring to it as a lifestyle is a myth that reduces the person's identity to I guess I cut that one off. uh reduces a person's identity to a usually negative stereotype. In essence, because of the assertion ignores scientific evidence and is used to justify prejudice, it is generally considered bigoted. I did ask Mr. Craft on Facebook if that quote was accurate. He responded with much the same language. So, I asked Mr. Then at what point did you choose to be heterosexual if you think it's a choice? And when has anybody in the LGBT community ever forced anything down your throat? Didn't get an answer to that one. So yes, I still have concerns about Mr. Craft. Thank you, Mr. McVey. Any comments?

I realize my words are taken however they're taken. I can't force anybody to receive them any way they don't want to. Could you get up to your mic a little closer?

I can't force anybody to hear my words any way that they don't want to, but I I suppose it's probably worth clarifying I asked a question based upon multiple contacts of people asking about that that one of them happened to send in an email as a comment in no way negates the other contacts that were made the other people that asked me about that. Do I have anything against Brandon personally? No. I'd never met him prior to this. I didn't know he existed. So having that preconceived notion that I've been accused of, I'm not sure where it would have come from. Asking is kind of the responsibility that we have up here to find out. I understand that when I have something coming before me as a counselor that's going to require me to make a decision, if I go outside of the normal bounds in order to find out about it, I may have to recuse myself for it. Since that's not something I want to do, I'm going to wait and see what's presented. If that understanding is wrong, I can accept that. But I'm still going to ask the questions because that's the job.

Kim, Council Monto, anything?

My comments were based on fact. My comments were not based on an interpretation of um of what other people said. My comments were talking about transient lodging tax. I am not sitting here to argue that point. And as far as I'm concerned, what I have to say is what I will be saying when it comes time for me to vote. Anybody else on the council? Um my uh plan here was to uh also make sure that you all are aware that if you want to add anything to you know I know uh some of you have already done uh written comments uh but our agenda does say it's open for public comment and you can come up to the mic and identify yourself. You have two minutes.

Um, three minutes. Sorry. Please identify who you are and your city of residence.

Certainly. Uh, mayor, city council. My name is John Byer, 1646 Whispering Pines, Ward 4 Seaside. Um, since my wife and I moved here, we've really been impressed at how wellrun a city seaside is. And I know that's due in in large part to the work that all of you around the table do every day. So, thank you for all that you do. But of course, you have a vacancy and um just in the few city council meetings that I've attended, it's pretty clear there's some strong opinions around the table. Nothing wrong with that. I'm sure I take it on faith that every single one of you believes that you have the right and appropriate solutions to make seaside a better place and there's plenty of room for uh spirited debate. I am here to advocate strongly for Patrick Ansro uh to fill the vacancy in Ward 4. Uh Patrick is I believe will be a unifier. believe he's the kind of man who will reach across the aisle, make sure everyone is heard and help facilitate consensus so that you can move together with practical solutions. He has an experience as a project manager working with budgets, timelines, and having to build consensus and move a project forward. seems like the kind of experience that would be very useful given the kinds of uh issues and practical solutions needed to run a small city. Just in closing on a personal note, I've known Patrick for 5 years. Uh he is a man of the highest integrity. He has friends from all walks of life,

from all political persuasions, all sizes, shapes, and colors. Uh he doesn't look at individuals as a label. He looks at them as human beings. I believe he will bring that same positive, helpful energy and even temperament to joining you in the good work of the city council. and I would strongly advocate uh for his appointment to the ward 4 vacancy. Thank you very much, council and mayor, for all your good work and for your time tonight. Thank you. Ty,

why are you doing public comment between Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot about Patrick. I didn't ask him. Do you have anything you want to say? That'd be nice. Jeez.

I'll make it brief. Go ahead and have a seat. You have as long as you want to talk. Well, thank you. Uh, good evening, Mayor. You can sit if you want. I can sit down. Yeah. I you know uh take that long. Okay. I I feel good standing up. I really do. I agree.

So um thank you uh for this opportunity to speak again. Uh Mr. Mr. Craft and I have had two interviews so far and I know I spent a lot of good time getting prepared for both of them. Uh actually I'm not sure what else I can say. So I'll be brief and plain about why I'm here. Uh, I think we all want the same thing. We just have different ideas about how to get it. I'm here because I believe seaside works best when people can disagree and still treat each other with respect. I've spent my life in service in the Navy, then in community work, uh, professionally as, uh, managing projects where money, safety, and accountability really, really matter. In those settings when things get tense, the goal is not to win the moment. It's to solve the problem at hand and keep people working together. That's how I that's how I will approach this role. I will listen. I will do my homework. I will ask questions. And I will keep my feet on the ground when conversations get heated because city council decisions, they affect real people. If chosen to represent Ward 4, I'll focus on practical issues. Uh the issues that I've iterated previously, housing, safety, infrastructure, business, and tourism. I'll do my best to make sure that residents feel heard, that they feel respected. I'll show up prepared. I'll show up ready and willing to work with anyone who wants to move Seaside forward.

We won't need more heat right now. I am someone who will stay calm, be fair, and focused when things get tough. That's what I'm offering to bring to the table. a willingness to be of service to this community and to listen and be respectful. Thank you very much. Thank you,

Satie.

Satie Mercer. Um, I am a resident of Seaside. What other information did you need? That's it.

Okay. Very good. Uh so I attended uh both of the candidate forum meetings and uh I was really upset after the last one. Um I was left feeling very unsurprised that we have trouble filling um other candidate forms and I myself considered a run for W 4 as I'm I'm in the same neighborhood as Brandon. Um I uh after seeing what has happened in the past couple of years uh for for city council and uh the discord that has come from it uh I really um it's really a turnoff uh to to see this continued in action tonight. Um, councelor Hoffman, councelor McVey had a great opportunity to uh simply apologize for the words in the place and manner, but instead there was additional attacks and that just blows my mind. Uh, I just cannot believe that in city in c in seaside of all places that we cannot find civility for a couple of meetings and while we're deciding on a candidate. It just is really surprising and really disappointing. As far as Brandon Craft, I feel like he is the best candidate for this position. I think he is best poised to uh bring us into the future for our businesses and I think it's important that we um have his perspective on the council. That's all. Thank you.

Tim, three minutes. Uh TMA Manel 755 North Wana. Um I just want to say I am a W4 resident. I think uh both candidates actually care a lot about seaside. I this is a nonpartisan office. I don't think any national watch list or extremism should have ever been brought up. I really really don't think the LGBTQ the homophobia had any place in a in a city position. It's what what relevance does that have to this you know seat. Um I think that Brandon being on the planning commission um gives him some more experience. Planning commission I think does my opinion does as much or maybe more than the council and a lot of decisions shaping seaside. Um, like I've said, I would be happy with either one in my word, especially that it is a temporary position until the election in November and then the voters can decide that. So, I would say Brandon Craft, but I still think that the rhetoric needs to get toned down with the, you know, Heidi and Councelor McVey. So, and don't don't rely on AI to tell you what something means. AI is getting better, but it's not perfect. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Okay, we'll close public comment. Time for the council to discuss any comments you want to make. And if we want to move to a motion to appoint um W 4 vacancy I've spent the last two weeks thrilled by the increased engagement that this city has had over over my first year. It's been a lot of if we get anything, it's just kind of trickle in. Maybe that's just me, but seeing how much people care about this, I think that's awesome. And and kudos to everybody in this room for coming and speaking up in as much as you showed up, which is whether we get a lot of nights. Um, that said, the content of some of what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, ranging from thinly veiled threats to complimenting the candidates of your choice has really run the gambit. Um, I'm going to echo what Tim Mansil said. All in all, we really got to bring the rhetoric down. This is It's getting out of hand. When When we're showing up for each other, that's awesome. When we're showing up for each other to try and intimidate a po a point, that's when it crosses a line. So, kudos to everybody for showing up.

Chris, respectfully, I agree with you that the engagement is great, but it's been ugly and I feel like you started it. Well, I don't have to, but um Is that funny? I think it is. Yes, I amused by it. You You're right. You don't have to. And I didn't say you did. Let her continue, please.

Thank you. I'm used to you laughing at me, Councelor Hoffman. When you are not on your phone, you are laughing at me a lot in these meetings. So you might want to take a chance to go back go back to what

not approp back to previous meetings and watch the video. It's not appropriate. I don't appreciate it. So I'll guess I I'll start with I'm very disappointed obviously about what happened two weeks ago. I expressed that after the meeting two weeks ago. I actually made an apology to Mr. craft during the meeting because I was embarrassed about what happened. Um, it appeared to be a planned event to discredit the candidate. That was not the choice of counselors Hoffman and McVey and the rules of procedure and conduct guide guidelines that we agreed to as a council were violated. While Mr. Ansbro was treated with dignity and respect as he should have been. Mr. Craft was personally attacked and not even given an opportunity to respond during that meeting. In addition to the rule rules that have already been cited by Council President Morrisy around our rules of order and conduct guidelines, I'd like to call attention to rule 13.4, four, which governs the conduct of council members when representing the city through media and public platforms. And this gets back to the ugliness that's been on social media. The rule is clear. Council members must present the majority position of the council and personal opinions may only be expressed when explicitly stated as such. This did not occur following the last meeting and it's not an isolated incident. When you are commenting on social media around your personal opinions, you have to state that you are commenting and

this is your personal opinion when it involves uh city council matters. I've intentionally refrained from commenting publicly despite holding very strong views because I maintain only a personal social media account and believe it's inappropriate to use that platform for council matters. The standard around rule 13.4 has not been consistently followed by all counselors. But what concerns me most is the broader impact of this behavior. The public nature of these actions reflects poorly on the city of Seaside and undermines trust among our residents, prospective residents, businesses, and visitors. And our reputation here in Seaside matters. As council members, we have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of this city. We're held to the highest standards of civility, professionalism, integrity, and respect. We represent the city of Seaside, not our personal beliefs, political affiliations, or agendas. It is time to stop blurring those lines. The city always comes first. Seaside deserves a city council focused on improving quality of life, supporting essential infrastructure, and preserving the safe, fun, clean, and familyfriendly friendly community we value, not one distracted by conduct that detracts from our mission. I want to publicly acknowledge the contributions of Mr. Ansboro and Mr. Craft. It means a lot to come to these meetings and to be interviewed and to reply to questions and it it takes a lot and I really appreciate you putting yourselves out there and putting yourselves forth uh forth in this process.

Finally, Mr. Mayor, I respectfully ask what the consequences are for violations of our rules of procedure, and I request that those consequences be clearly articulated and consistently enforced. I had already UM I'm going to address that at the beginning of our counselor comments. It was already on my plan to do so. Thank you,

Councelor Hoffman, if you want to say anything. Yeah.

I guess the the message I'm hearing tonight is don't believe your own eyes. Don't believe your own ears. just take whatever someone is claiming to be and don't look any further and make sure the rules apply to Seth and Heidi, but they don't or to Sheamus and Heidi, but they don't apply to the council president who also went on Facebook and made inappropriate comments. And then we have uh Mr. Bazolski out there and there and the little club that's all wearing the same t-shirts. You know, it's like, we get it. That's the guy you want. So, you went on a Facebook campaign to dismerge anybody who doesn't want him. Okay. As far as personal attacks, Mr. Craft, you have no idea. When I when I spoke out in council about the transgender awareness, someone probably someone in this room uploaded my comments onto a lovely right-wing hate group. I got threats against me. I got threats against my child. I I got emails. I got voicemails. Nobody said a word. None of y'all cared about that. But God forbid somebody say, "What do you mean it's a lifestyle choice?" And what do you mean they're forcing it down your throat? Somehow that's inappropriate. If if you can't take the heat, don't come. People are going to disagree with you. And yes, you do represent when you're up

here. Everybody, minority groups get representation, too. The same council that sat by and said nothing when all these people came in to complain about the ICE raids are now up in arms over this man. That's called hypocrisy. Councilor Montero. I want to reflect back on your first words tonight. Um, and I think you you put it very well and I agree with what you said to prepare myself for tonight. I went back and downloaded a transcript of the questions and the answers um and also on what each one of us said we were looking for in a counselor. So I am concentrating on not on the how but the what. So, I'm going to start with the things that reached out to me as I went through and read everybody's comments from the last meeting. So, um, our mayor said, "I want someone that is going to be able to respectfully talk about their point of view and not putting down any other counselors or other people in the audience. willing to put in the time and effort necessary. We are responsible not just uh for our own ward. If you are a

counselor, the whole city, you need to make sure you're doing what's best for Seaside. And I think that's important to be involved in various activities around the city, meeting people, having conversations, seeing what's going on. I think it's important to keep a good balance of representation on the council between the three groups that we look at in our strategic planning and that's the residents, the businesses and the visitors. I like seeing a good record of service. Council President Morrisy. And I'm taking out what what struck a tone with me or struck a a chord with me. I'd say pragmatic, thoughtful, respectful, knowledgeable. Um, what matters most to me is longevity in the community and the service they've put into the community. um more involved on relevant boards. Um he said David Palski and who he's endorsed because this is his seat. He vacated it. So that was important to me. Keeping the balance on the council and having a voice for the tourism and business community. This is what I said. Being able to see the big picture, to see past themsself and their own situation and seeing the big picture. Flex, ability to have flexibility of thought, someone who puts in effective communication as high on their list. but working behind the scenes where people don't necessarily know that you're the person that has been working to make

something su successful or that you're the person who's been pushing along an idea. I give a lot of credence to being involved in things like the Elks and the Legion and the Rotary, the Rotary especially because the Rotary touches just about every aspect of our community. someone who's able to work together in all things that we need to work on. Counselor Baker really focused on being a resident here and being the business component of being part of the business community here and then caring so much about tourism. The triad is important. Collaborative nature of the work that we do here. someone who's willing to collaborate and who's willing to put disagreements aside and have respectful and open dialogue and really focused on what's in the best interest of the city itself. Councelor McVey um one candidate was better able to articulate answers to the questions that we gave him tonight. Councelor Hoffman. 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. Um, I think I covered that. So then I went and I took all of the questions and answers and created, as I do often, a spreadsheet um where I put each question and the answers next to each other and

highlighted for me what what seemed to uh res resonate with me. So, the first question was, "What do you want us to know about yourself?" And um I think we'd all agree. Um on just about all the questions um uh Mr. Ansbro took more time. He told us he's Irish. He talks more. So, I had a lot of things to go through. But he says, "I learned teamwork, responsibility, how to stay calm when things go sideways. Later in life, I learned I worked in the hospitality industry. So in Pensacola, Florida, I understand what a comm community what a beach community goes through with regards to tourists. Member of the Elks Lodge and the head of the veterans committee and very and every for the past two years I've put on the Veterans Day event. I'm also a member of the Seaside Rotary and the American Legion. So, I'm out there in the community. You may not see me because I'm not visible, but I'm volunteering. I worked with shop with a cop. I've worked with Santa's workshop. Done a lot with the veterans. That's how I show up in the community. Communities work when people feel seen and heard and respected. The city council's top three. Uh, okay, that's question one. Let me go back to Mr. Craft on question one um telling us about himself. I mentioned prior that I see a city working just like a hotel. You have your infrastructure. You have your residents or your guests and you have to deal with red carpet items. You have to deal with budgets big

time. And I'm just going to take an aside there. I do not see our city as a hotel. I see our city as a place where our residents reside. And it's it without our residents, we don't have businesses. Without our businesses, we don't have tourism. Without the workers here, we don't have residents and tourism. It all goes together. It is not a hotel. He went on to say, "So I feel that my life experience and my experience professionally and as well on the planning commission that would suit me that that this is seaside for this seaside city council. Um I'll make a comment right now um about what Mr. Craft mentioned earlier. He's he's lived here eight years. Um, and I guess I would say on the planning commission, um, I'm not sure he read the room because having lived here for 22 years, I know that merchants don't want to hear about design review committee in the downtown area. And that's exactly what he was proposing for the planning commission to take uh to undertake. Um, so we go to question two.

Thea, are you gonna go through?

I am going to go through all this. You said take all the time you want. I'm going to tell you how I got to my decision because I think we all need to be reminded not of what all this stuff that went on the last two weeks but what did people actually say and how did I make my decision based on what I heard people say. I am going to go through it because I think we all need to be reminded. Um, so the second question had to do with um if you if you got a if we got a grant and um the council's top three priorities for 2026, this is Mr. Ansbro. Let's see. Housing affordability for local workers, I would think would be the number one. And if the workers can't live here, then Seaside becomes a resort town with a staffing crisis. My job would be to make sure that we build housing and build it responsibly because there has to be taken into account traffic flow, utilities, and clear communicate uh and utilities. Later on, he talks about clear communications. Then he talks about emergency preparedness and its um importance to our city. Taking care of the survivors. Um vertical evacuation structure. Um 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. Tourism is part of Seaside's lifeblood. There's got to be a balance. There is infrastructure that needs to be taken care of. I don't think it's a fair balance with the way the lodging tax is currently structured.

Much needs to be a more fair and flexible taxing aotment. the taxes that go to tourism need to be balanced a lot more on supporting tourism which as we see was an important thing for many people on the council tourism um with that question Mr. craft in the middle of the comprehensive plan, ironing out this and that, getting that approved. I believe there's a work session coming up, getting uh getting that ironed out for the next 10 years. uh discussions recently about roads and improving roads, trying to find and allocate funds to repair roads, working on infrastructure, roads for the locals and the tourists, traffic control on Highway 101. A lot of talk about discussions, rulings from the city council on the homeless situation. Um, safety and security is definitely a top should be a top priority for any city council. So, roads and safety and I forgot my first topic. So, we get to the third question and that is having the uh grant. Um what I would see is that uh what was very much on Mr. Ansbro's side had to do with human services and what was very much uh said by Mr. craft um was uh majority of time it would go to deferred maintenance or preventive maintenance or deferred ma or deferred

preventive maintenance projects that I know are in the greater community that I have heard have been tabled um the and he talks about the waste rainwater runoff uh up in the hills three priorities are your roads and focusing on infrastructure. We're hearing infrastructure from both people. We're hearing a lot of the same messages from both people. Um so the the question um how do you justify or work with people when a decision is made that they don't like? Mr. Ansbro, you're trying to balance that out with the good of the community. You talk with the city planners. You find out the laws. Find out where you can be of assistance to the community. You listen to the community. That at the very le least, the community needs to be listened to. They need to feel like they've been heard and not just brushed off. On uh with Mr. Craft, I would go back to the planning commission where the Pacifica project was housing. Um and there was a lot of push back. Um Annie talks about what the a little bit about the planning commission. It was the only logical move forward. I do sympathize, but I feel the greater need um from my end was the need for this housing. Myriad of reasons you could personally dislike something I voted for or against things that um necessarily are in the greater interest and the greater good. Um, I'll stop there, but I will go on to

something else that Mr. Craft brought up, and that is the to the um transient lodging tax. Uh, last year we worked on transient lodging tax and we supported and the mayor sent a couple letters. I sent a letter. The mayor um uh testified and um the uh the reason I brought up the transient lodging tax was because I had recalled something that Mr. craft had talked about at one of um Representative Jav's sessions and then I recalled that he had sent a letter uh to uh the to the legislature opposing any changes on the transient lodging tax with um but with everything that I see and this is as I've looked at everything with Mr. Craft. What I see is he talks about the community a little bit, but everything I see is about downtown, about businesses above everything else. Not equal to, but above. People forget that I was a downtown business person. I was on the SDA board for many many years. I was the chamber president. So I have this experience and I can talk from that. And we have to put everything on an equal footing. It and for the 22 years I've

lived here, I have heard repeatedly all the council cares about is downtown and tourists and they put that above everything else. What I have seen and heard is, and they're both very capable, but what I've seen and heard is someone who would put downtown and business above everything else, as opposed to someone who I know I don't agree with on everything, as opposed to someone who would think it through and I believe would put everything on the more equal footing. That's how I came to my decision.

President Morris.

Thank you, Mayor. So, we've received very significant feedback on both candidates with support uh and criticism for both. U we've also received significant feedback regarding both candidates in their social media posts. And my position is that both individuals have a first amendment right, first amendment right to speak freely on social media. They may have very strong partisan political issues, but my primary concern is can the candidate serve the city professionally and put partisan issues aside for the good of the community. And when uh Mr. Ansboro did his interview, he actually explicitly stated that. He said that he knew that was important. Um I've also worked with served with Mr. craft on the planning commission and he was always uh very professional. So, I'm very confident that both candidates would do a very good job in this role and represent W4 residents well. Uh with that being said, when considering council expertise as a whole, it's important to have a variety of backgrounds and skill sets. And I've already mentioned this at the last meeting, but the missing piece on our current council is someone actively in the tourism industry with deep knowledge of our local economy. And that's why I think Mr. craft is the right fit for this role.

Okay, thank you.

I have um well and was already uh you just heard what I said before and what everybody else said. So I haven't changed my mind. I am still very um um in favor of both both guys. They both have different strengths that they bring and um you know different uh things that uh are important I think to the city of Seaside. I um recognize and I think Brandon did too that you know he's not as uh well spoken if you want to put it that way. I he wrote something very nicely and and did a good job with that. Um part of that probably now don't take me wrong here but you know I' I've got not much hair gray hair the rest of the way. So, you get a little older, you're able to uh express yourself perhaps a little bit better. And u I don't want to get any age complaints out of this. Okay. Uh we have a variety of people on this council and obviously uh given what's uh particularly over this last year, we've had many disagreements. One person does not have the say to direct anything that happens here. Um uh that includes the mayor obviously. So um this is this is u comments that um uh the ones we received u were pretty uh overwhelmingly saying these guys are both really good candidates. And then um I just have to call out uh Andy Mercer's comments just u saying you know they're

both great. I know happen to know Brandon well um you know across the back fence or whatever it was but there was nothing negative in that at all. And I think that is the uh problem that we've had here over the past um year or so that we just automatically turn to the negative and don't uh focus on the positive. Um, I already mentioned that, you know, I'm not going to always agree with everybody and that's okay, but once a decision is made, that decision stands and that's what the council needs to do and needs to follow. So, um, my vote won't be anything about one thing about either candidate. It's the overall uh basis of who they are and uh what I think that they could do for the council at least in a uh what would it be 11 months that are left uh on this term or this appointment. It's kind of a unique position that we're in. Um, this fall, the voters of Ward 4 are going to tell us whether we were right or wrong of whatever decision we end up making, if we end up coming to some kind of conclusion. So, um, you know, I I really appreciate you guys sitting here through all of this, uh, and politely paying attention. That's great. So, um I will go through again and call for a roll call vote unless there are any more uh comments. Kim,

thank you, Mayor. Councelor McVey. Patrick Ansbro. Councelor Monttero. Patrick Ansbro. Councelor Hoffman. Patrick Ansboro. Councelor Baker. Brandon Craft. Council President Morrisy.

Brandon Craft. They're right. As mayor, hard decisions come down to me sometimes. I want to make it clear that um my vote um is going to be for Patrick Ansboro, but absolutely it is not a vote against Brandon Craft. Understand that. And I will be making some comments later about this activity that we've gone through to get to this position. Um it seemed to me all of this u the negative comments um were completely unnecessary at that original juncture of when we voted. Uh it was pretty obvious there was going to be a tie vote and I was hoping we'd have just a good discussion about it rather than immediately going negative. So I will um take flat I assume from some that favored Mr. craft. But keep in mind that this is simply a short-term decision. Um, I guess that's why I get paid the big bucks. I vote uh for Mr. Ansbro.

Got it. Thank you, Mayor. That means uh Mr. Ansbro is our permanently for the rest of the year u counselor for Ward 4. Kim, will you issue the oath? need to come. Needs to come forward. Yeah, Patrick, come up.

Then we can pick you up. Just face this way. Okay, we're gonna just do Can you get up nice and close to the mic, Kim? All right, get up. or Yeah. Can you hold the mic and get close to you? Yeah. Read. You want me to hold it for you? I got it. Raise your right hand. Okay. I state your name. I, Patrick Ansbro, do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution and laws that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Oregon

of the United States and the state of Oregon and the charter ordinances and rules and the charter ordinances and rules of procedures for the city of Seaside of procedures for the city of Seaside and that I will faithfully and honorably that I will faithful faithfully and honorably perform the duties of the office perform the duties of the office for which I'm about to assume for which I'm about to assume. Congratulations. Thank you.

Patrick, sir, have a seat up here. Oh, I don't know. You really want to? Absolutely. Okay. She's the biggest part of my team. All right.

All right. We're um done. Uh there's no new business. Uh comments from city staff.

Hello, Chief. Hi, everybody. I wonder what you're going to talk about. Counselors. Just a reminder, I brought it up last meeting. uh February 5th, 6:00 here at the city council chambers will be our 10year anniversary losing Sergeant Jason Gooding and invite the public to come by and uh celebrate him. Thank you. I'll be there.

Hello, Chief. Mayor Council, how you guys doing? So, I just want to thank you. I've never been accused of being quiet, but I just want to thank you. We've been working on projects. You guys have approved. I've been doing uh some of the stuff for the emergency management because I'm kind of taking the lead on that now in our department. So, up at the emergency operations center, we put our generator in that you guys approved with our transfer switch. So, we're moving forward on getting fully self-sufficient if we have that major emergency. So, thank you. Thank you. He he gets clap. Yeah. I was hoping that was for me. Uh sorry, Zach.

Everyone loves a firefighter. Uh all right. So, um in your packet this time is the first iteration of our financial update. Uh which I've already got to apologize for it being slightly incorrect. Uh the numbers the numbers on it

the budget and actual numbers on it are correct. The percentages that they add up to. So, the context is I got this into Kim two minutes before she needed to get it out to you and it was only because I figured out the the gibberish on the back end of the system. So, I fixed that already. It'll be better the next time, but uh I wanted to apologize for that. Um but uh like I said, first iteration. If there's if there's anything that you guys like to see there or any improvements that you could suggest, um you know how to get a hold of me. So, and our plan is to um put this out once a month, right? And then quarterly have you come and get it a little more into detail.

Yes. So, for the one that's in the packet for the public, just ignore the right hand column. You can figure out your own math. Yeah. Yes. So, but it's great. I really appreciate uh finally having something like this for us to look at and to follow along and help us learn. It's going to help us a lot when we get to budget time, right? Because we'll have been watching it already. Thank you. So, thank you, Zach. Thank you, Zach. So, could we expect it like the second meeting of the month and it would be to the end of the previous month?

Yes. So, it'll always be the second part of what we will learn. Yeah, it'll always be the second um the second council meeting because we need to allow for payroll to post and that won't happen until the beginning. Sometimes it'll be before the first meeting, sometimes it'll be after. So, it's easier to just have it the second council meeting, good through the end of the previous month. Perfect. Perfect. But there will also be other things that aren't necessarily through that date because the collections haven't been made yet or we don't know the numbers yet and things like property tax are different. So again, lots of budget stuff, right? Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you all.

Oh yeah, clap for them. Come on. All right, this is great. Yeah. Anybody else want to be clapped for? Oh, okay. John.

Okay, Kim, thank you very much and sending out the uh notice about the uh spring conference coming up. We have warnings to be thinking about that. Spencer. Nope. Okay. All right. Um I'm going to take a few minutes here to do what um actually uh a couple of people asked me to do. Every once in a while I have to remind us of the rules and procedures and conduct of council members. It appears to me another reminder is necessary. Council section 16 in particular councelor protocols definition of protocols just in case you're not aware the official procedure or system of rules governing affairs of state. 161 covers. Uh, these following protocols are intended to set expectations for members of the seaside council and provide a model to guide the conduct and working relationships of council members. While some protocols relate specifically to council meetings, others are meant to apply broadly to the full scope of council members official interactions. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, may be augmented or amended by future action of the council. Um, please remember that statement. Next section is respect. Council members agree to use respectful speech and positive body language when interacting with each other, staff, and the public, and will follow meeting procedures and protocols as established by the council. Remember that we put these together. Civility. Council members agree to demonstrate civility in their professional interactions both within and outside of the city organization.

Comments during meetings will remain thoughtful and measured, avoiding exaggerated, provocative, or personal remarks. Compromise. Council members agree to practice open-mindedness and active listening during deliberations in an effort to pursue compromise whenever possible. Tolerance. Council members will endeavor to respectfully agree to disagree in the event compromise isn't possible. Brevity. Council members will ensure their comments during meetings are succinct and relevant to the topic at hand. I think this is the most important one. Public unity. Out of respect for the institution and the process through which policy is made, council members will refrain from publicly denigrating council decisions once they are made. And I would add to that actually as they are being made. These rules are a matter of common sense, courtesy, and decorum. You are in the presence of an audience now, a lot more than usual. Uh sometimes there's just very few here, but keep in mind you are also being recorded and those recordings will last forever. Please be engaged in the entire proceedings. Please do not use your phone indiscriminately. I note that the Portland City Council recently got the negative limelight for half of them texting each other during meetings. Turned out it was not a problem with eth ethics because it was filed too late.

Um it could be a possible breach of ethics uh rules as well as if you have information regarding the subject at hand that is not shared with everybody. I shouldn't need to suggest putting it away. Look what we did at the high school. Please don't exaggerate. Also have tolerance for those you don't agree with. You should be setting example for the p how the public should interact with you. Also, please make clear that you make sure that you're clear about speaking for yourself when you're out in the public. And I would include that in the online arena unless it is something unless it is something agreed to by the council. Other words, we we spoke with one voice. Um, one of those items we talked about tonight, the lodging tax. I use the word arena on purpose kind of unfortunately. Uh, sometimes it is looked like a Roman gladiator tournament up here. Another topic I want to cover is the idea that the mayor has any actual power to censure or to call out a counselor for disregarding these rules from our charter section 18 functions of the mayor at council meetings. The mayor shall chair the council and preside over its deliberations. The mayor shall have a vote on any question before the council. The mayor shall have authority to preserve order, enforce rules of the council, and determine the order of business under the rules of the council. All that has to do with how the meeting operates. The uh standards and the protocols did not give me any ability to censure a can a counselor. Um I'm not sure you want to actually

give me that authority. Um, and if you did, I would still use what uh I learned in my uh human resource uh jobs over the years is that you need to have an individual talk with people and work out a plan of action that they will take care of that uh issue. So, I hope that uh this remebrance to you will help when um any of these items that we've discussed tonight come up again. I would hope they would not. Um, we discussed uh this section actually made it a lot shorter uh for what uh we thought we wanted to put in this section and I think we just ended up using the League of Oregon Cities rules that they specified uh which again do not necessarily include any items of uh actual censure of a counselor. here. Obviously, these rules have to be looked at in light of free speech. That's obvious. But more important to me, in the light of working together for what's best for the city of Seaside and its operations. None of what's going on between counselors, not just in this matter, but several other issues over the past months, have painted us in a poor light. I don't think that it's productive to immediately call out anyone by name, although I probably uh don't need to. Please don't automatically assume your position on an issue is the only correct one. This goes to everybody, including our new counselor. Don't immediately condemn others when they disagree with your proposed course

of action. That goes both ways. Find common ground. we can do better. All right, at this time we have counselor comments. Let's hear from our new counselor on the hot. We usually start with uh yeah the uh the newest ranking one.

First of all, learn how to use the microphone. Um, I want to thank you all and I I take this uh honor uh very very seriously and I hope to do and help uh create good things here for Seaside. Thank you, Councelor Hoffman. I think I've said enough. Councelor Monttero.

Um, just to let you know, uh, time flies, so I'm, uh, I was really pleased today that, uh, two members of the tree board came to be present and, um, participate, um, in the, um, uh, the interview for a new treeboard member. Um that's I think that's a first that we've had. Um but they can always come. Anybody?

Yes. Anybody can come. Absolutely. Um the tree board is collaborating with the seaside museum. We will be celebrating Arbor Day on April 5, April 18th at the um Seaside Museum for the new Arboritum at the museum. So want people to put that in their calendars. Um, all of the activities have not been decided yet. I will have my next coffee with a counselor on February the 11th at 10:00 a.m. at the Ocean Cafe at the Best Western. And just to remind us all, um, next week between, uh, February 5th to the 8th, this town is going to be overrun with elected officials because the se special district um, association of Oregon is having their uh, conference here and these are all elected officials to water boards, transportation boards, recreation, school boards, healthc care boards towards um elected officials from all over the state and they're looking forward to being here. Thank you,

Councelor McVey. I think I'm actually going to pass tonight in the interest of uh brevity. Thank you. That was pretty long. Uh two quick things. One, very excited. I had the pleasure of meeting with a group today called uh Villages Northwest. Thank you from uh the referral from the mayor. Great.

Um it is an organization, a nonprofit organization um of neighbors helping neighbors and they're specifically focused on older adults. So villages are community-based nonprofit grassroots organizations formed by caring neighbors to support aging in place. They connect older adults to practical services and social opportunities helping them live independently and with purpose. These have been formed over 300 of them across the United States and there is a group of very excited women who want to bring one to Seaside and I met with them today. Um and so there's a lot more information. I'm learning a lot so I'll be providing more information but we're really looking for founders. They call them anybody that wants to volunteer at the kind of beginning of this effort. Um we're looking for about six to 10 people. So if you are interested, you can reach out to me. You can email seaside atvillgesnorthwest.org. Um you can look at the villages northwest website if you want to get some more information or just reach out to me. Anyway, coming and really an exciting thing for um our uh retirement ageely politely retirement age residents here in Seaside.

And then my coffee um with a counselor is the first Saturday of every month at Seaside Golf Course. So that will be February 7th coming up. Just a note on that. I'm very excited about this program. It sounds great. And I'm also even more excited that when I asked Chris to to be the liaison from the council that she said yes. So what's your email address? Uh uh oh I have my C. Baker, right? Yep. At city of seaside US. Thanks guys. Overwhelm our mailbox please.

Yes. It's on the website right? Yes you can find it on the website. Council President.

Thank you, Mayor. So, I was going to read my statement. I think everyone in this room's probably read it. So, and and actually every point that is in this statement has already been made by people, including yourself. So, I I think it's redundant to read it. I'm just going to submit this to Kim for the record if that's fine. You can find it on my official City of Seaside Facebook page if you'd like to read it. Uh I am going to read and address something that councelor Hoffman said and that has been said by a constituent. I want to address a constituent comment claiming that posting a statement on Facebook violated our council rules. This is categorically false. All ru rules and procedure of conduct guidelines are clear. Posting my statement violated no council rules, neither in letter nor in spirit. The only rule addressing councelor communications through media is section 13.4, four, which states, "If the mayor or a councelor represents the city before another government agency, before a community organization, or through the media, the council member should always present the majority council position of the council. Personal opinions and comments may be expressed only if the counselor clarifies that these statements do not represent the position of the city council. My statement fully complies. I clearly identified it as my personal statement using first-person language throughout and presented it as my official statement, not the council's position. The content was my assessment of conduct and I believe violated our rules and my call for accountability, not council policy. Importantly, the statement was posted on my official Seaside City Councelor Ward 3 and four Facebook page, my primary official tool for communicating with constituents. Section 13.4 Four explicitly permits personal opinions when counselors clarify these don't represent the full council. No reasonable person reading my statement on my official counselor page would conclude it represented the official position of the entire council. Section 16.1.6 on public unity doesn't apply. That section addresses publicly denigrating

council decisions once they are made. I wasn't denigrating a council decision. I was addressing individual counselor conduct during a meeting. More importantly, my statement upheld our rules rather than undermining them. I cited violations of section 16.1, respect, and section 16.1.2, civility. As council president, I have a responsibility to ensure we operate according to our established standards. Addressing public rule violations publicly is appropriate and consistent with my role. The spirit of our rules is to ensure transparentity, transparency, accountability, and respectful conduct. My statement advanced all three. The coun the conduct I addressed occurred in a public forum and violated public established rules. The community deserves to know that such conduct doesn't reflect our standards and that this council will hold itself accountable. I remain committed to following all council rules and ensuring the council operates with integrity, respect, and professionalism that the people of Seaside deserves. Okay, is that it?

Coffee with a counselor. February 3rd, 9:15 a.m. at Seaside Coffee House. You could come talk to me. I'll be there.

I'll try to uh please hold. Um kind of odd, but um some of us met with both senators uh within the last week. There was a lot of the normal usual um talk about what's going on. It does seem that they're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, especially regarding ICE, especially after this last weekend. We see greater concern across our bad partisan divide about the over-the-top uh recent actions. This is going to be covered at the state level as well during uh some of the Salem U starting Monday. the the session uh starts it's limited to 35 days. So between the uh transportation package and uh talking about um you know requiring no masks and things like that the uh this 35 days is going to be packed. Also make note that the coastal mayors met and agreed with Newport that we don't want ice station on the coast. uh this um I'm I'm just upset about the vindictiveness that seems to be out there. Um it's just not not the way the US operates. My annual report for 2025 will be presented at the SDA meeting on Thursday morning. You're welcome to come if you want. Uh but I will be posting it on my mayor's page on the website um soon as well. upcoming events. Um, remember what this oh counselor with the mayor and the or coffee with the mayor and with the counselor. I follow uh Seth at the coffee house next Tuesday. Our county housing task force restarts its meeting on Wednesday at the Chisum. Melissa Girtler, our county housing manager, has moved on, unfortunately, to a different job. So, we're going to just

stand back and take stock of where we're at. We've done a a lot of great things over the past uh couple of three years and we're going to figure out how we're moving forward. Our three mayor kicking off of the annual if I were mayor with fourth the fourth graders at Pacific Ridge is also next week. But I wanted to make clear that even though it's only the fourth grade teachers that are using this as a teaching age about civics and government, the contest is open to all students from fourth grade through seniors. So contact me if you know someone or you are someone that would like to participate. And there's actually a chance for cash prizes. Um I don't see anybody in this room that is eligible. Sorry. And uh again, Chief, thank you for the reminder about U Sergeant Goodings Memorial here. Um it will be a week from Thursday at 6:00. And counselors, remember the uh League of Oregon City President's Regional is on the day after that on Friday the 6th. You have a choice of an noon time meeting or an evening meeting

at the library. It's over at the library. Yes. Um my quote seems approp appropri appropriate to tonight's discussion. This is attributed to Will Rogers. Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip nowadays. Maybe that needs to say Alexa or Siri or Google or whatever, but some of us know who Will Rogers was. We're adjourned.