City Council - Regular Meeting

I don't want anybody to see him, so he's got to be back. Whatever.

We call our work session for June 8th. Our topic today is possible change in how we do strategic planning. Spencer is presenting it to us.

All right. Thank you, Mayor, Council. So I'm excited to talk a little bit about this. So I've been looking ahead. I had a reminder for myself this spring to go through and review the strategic planning that we typically do after an election because this summer, this fall is when we reach out to engage in those services. However, one of my recent conferences I attended, we had a presentation about having a strategic plan and I was really impressed by it and I was sitting at the table with the city manager from Albany and the assistant city manager and they'd gone through the process and they couldn't stop talking how great it was. And so the more I looked into it, the more I think it could be a great opportunity for us to basically build upon what we've been previously doing but maybe take it a few steps further. So I kind of want to walk through that and give you some examples today. So, let's see. So, here are copies of the city's strategic blueprint. Thank you. And I've got extra copies for Jameis. All right, whoever else from the public attends. So the thing I really like about this process is that we update it every two years. I think the timing is good where it's in January when most likely we have new people on the council so they have an opportunity right away to be able to give a voice to Maybe some of the things they ran on, some of the things that are important to them, and whatnot. So... So... Really what I mentioned earlier, I really want to build upon this, but make it a more strategic part about how we do the work, not just the city council, but down to the staff lines and how we make decisions. And so the guidance tonight would be a request, if you think this is a good fit for our city, is to authorize me to do a request for proposals, and we'd go out and solicit those proposals, with the idea being that we kind of hit the ground running in January, with possibly a different process. So I'll kind of walk through what that looks like. Okay, so hopefully you're all familiar, maybe Counselor Ethro may be a little less familiar because you weren't part of this one, but here we have our current strategic blueprint. We've done it every two years. We have our areas of focus, our priorities, our indicators. We've tried to do quarterly updates. Sometimes I think we've been better doing updates regularly. I can't say for sure it's been quarterly, but we try to do that. I think this is a good foundation for what I think we can build upon.

Okay, so what...

There we go. Okay, so we'll talk a little bit about what it adds. So really the way to think about this is the strategic plan will connect the council direction, well it connects the council direction to the staff, the work we do, the budget we implement, the decisions we make. So if we look at our current one, The current blueprint identifies priorities. The strategic plan will connect their priorities to operations. So that's one of the comments I've heard since coming here from a lot of departments is those are the council's goals, but they have no bearing on what we do. And that's fine for the council to have goals, and our departments have goals, a more strategic way to do it is that we all have the same goals we're going the same direction right and it's not that we're not going the same direction i think there's a way to help us prioritize and to get the most important results that we're looking for the current one shows what the council wants to focus on a strategic plan will show how the work moves through the city so starting with the council going well actually starting with community feedback going to the council and then going to what staff does and then following up. We were doing quarterly updates with the current one. The strategic plan would build in a reporting process into the overall structure of what we're doing. Current blueprint is good for short-term direction, which is the one to two years that we've been working on, whereas the strategic plan has a longer-term framework. At the same time, there are shorter-term goals contained within that. So here's kind of what it might look like. I put a start on here, but it's really a start and then it's really a cycle after that. So we would start with gathering citizen input. We may feel like we've been overdoing that with the comp plan and other things, but I think it's critical and we should build on the momentum we have with that. So we gather input. Based on the input we receive, we collect that, we present it to the city council. You go through your visioning exercises, which helps to prioritize, group things together. So some of the things that you'll be asking yourselves, what kind of a community is Seaside trying to become? What outcomes matter most? What broad priorities should guide the next several years? So then we take that and we implement as staff into different work plans. So we talk about timelines, budgets, so it ties directly into what we're budgeting for, which, you know, the sequence of the projects and how we implement that. bring that back to the council you would approve that or affirm that and then we move forward and start working on those plans that follows up with city council evaluating the progress but also provides opportunities to make adjustments so when things change priorities change, laws change, there's all kinds of things that can happen. It's built in that we come back with the adjustments, we gather some public input, we fine tune those, and then we keep going through that cycle. So I think the important thing here is this isn't just a one-time council retreat. It's not just a written piece of paper. It's a cycle. It's about how we operate and how we do things strategically in the city. And we'll get into some examples. I think that's always more helpful to me.

Okay.

Okay, so let's really talk about how we get there. So strategic planning process to look back at what's changed, understanding our community and staff input, connecting the existing plans and projects we already have, then asking some bigger strategic questions and identify the common themes before writing priorities. So if you'll think of this and think of those of you who have been in it, Council Member, you have been through a council retreat either, so you haven't done this. that's right because you were that was like a month that was right when you were right okay that's right okay i'm slowly getting there um so if i think about that i think each counselor probably comes prepared with the priorities that they have but there isn't this preparation to get there and so um you know one thing i've noticed that from time to time we have Maybe one priority that one counselor has we've done the little dot stickers and stuff like that And sometimes when we're gathering those goals and stuff like that We might have some goals to have a whole bunch of those green stickers and another one has one but sometimes that makes the list and so I think that rather than kind of coming in with here's all the things I think we should be doing I it's let's gather the feedback from the community and then you guys can go through that and then I think focus in on the most strategic things things that will move the needle the most for the community so in my mind it's a I hate to say it a more strategic approach I'm trying to think of a better way to say it without using the word strategy or something like that rather than a bit of a maybe a shotgun approach of here's all all the things continuous yeah um kind of gone through that. Let's see here. Yeah, so a stronger process starts before anyone drafts the goals. What changed? What did we learn? What is the community currently saying? What is staff seeing out there? What existing plans do we already have? And so I think building in some of those plans. And this is where, as we're getting into some master planning, those

Those won't be done before this is and so that's person once those get completed then we can incorporate them into the strategic plan But we do have other plans in place already If I can interject one of the plans that we do have that I think for the last Years a couple of years has sat on the shelf is the visioning that this community did When did that 14 14? And I really think that that's valuable to pull out and review and look at that and see what has changed since then. It can give us some good input because we have kind of left it on the shelf.

Well, I think that this would start looking at that, but I think the goal of this is to read vision. It would be helpful to see what it is now, but I think that's exactly what we're talking about. But then these documents and the budget and the work plans we do tie back to that. So again, so not just what goals we want on the list, but what are the common themes? What kind of city are we trying to become? And how should our existing work fit together? I'm moving two presentations at once.

It makes sense.

Yeah, that's the fly. That looked similar. Okay. Okay, so let's jump into this. If you want to start passing those around, you want to start passing those around. So I give two examples. One is Albany and one is Rockaway Beach. There you go. I think it's more helpful to see what exactly we're talking about, but I thought we could put it together. It's a little easier to do in paper. So let's open up the, so Albany was the one that, you know, talking with our city manager, I wanted to start with that because they were raving about the process they went through. But I also wanted to find an example that's maybe a little bit more comparable, coastal community, something our size. Rockaway Beach is a lot smaller than us, but I think I can division us, you know, Ultimately, it'll be catered to what our needs are, but this one, the Albany one's created for a larger city, this is created for a much smaller, and so ours will probably be somewhere in between, although it'll be whatever it is that we decide that we need, if that makes sense. So Albany may have four times the staff that we do to implement this. And so that's the kind of thing. Whereas Rockaway Beach probably is much, much fewer. So ours may be different in that way. Let's go to pages 9 and 10 in the Albany plan. So here, just like you were talking about, Council of Ontario, they've gone through and identified their mission, vision, and values. And we do have some of that, although I don't know if I could draw a straight line between our vision and principles to the areas of focus. And so I think that's what this is trying to do. If you go to page 10. So this is kind of a little bit where the rubber hits the road a little more. So for each area, they have vision areas, which is the vision areas outline the priorities for the next 10 to 20 years. They align with our mission to advance the vision. So from there, you get down to the goals. The goals are medium term, highlighting achievable outcomes for the next three to five years. Together, they advance their respective vision areas and help achieve the overall Albany vision of being your hub city safe, connected, beautiful. Clearly that part's specific to them. So they have three to five year goals. Then within those goals, they get down to the tactical objectives. Now, is it... Some of these is semantics a little bit, but you can see how it's going down a little bit deeper. So the objectives are more specific and measurable. They cover one to two year projects. So that's more similar to what we've been working on with our strategic blueprint. They detail how we will advance each of the goals and each will have a lead so they're assigned to a particular person or department and then anticipate a completion date so there's ownership and accountability. And then they do have measures of success which would be kind of like our indicator of success but I think they're a little bit different. We'll get into some examples in a second but one thing I noticed is The outcomes of the things you do is not the same thing as your indicators of success. So for example, let's say we wanted more police enforcement on traffic. We can show that by X, Y, Z that the police do. The measurable outcome is fewer crashes. What is it that we're trying to accomplish? That's more important than the thing you're measuring, but you have to have some things to measure to see if you're getting there. Does that make sense? We'll talk about that.

You're not going to measure by the number of tickets. You're going to measure by the hours.

We're successful. We wrote 500 tickets last year. That's not the goal. That may be something that helps us to achieve our goal.

Okay, so then let's go ahead to page 17.

as an example. So in this case, one of their One of their vision areas is a safe and resilient community. So they say, they have their vision statement there, Albany is a safe, inclusive, resilient community where residents' services and infrastructure are protected, supported, and trusted. We anticipate risks, reduce vulnerabilities, and are ready to respond and recover effectively. So we take that for safe and resilient community, and then they've developed Two, three, four, five goals within safe and resilient community. First one, enhance the security and resilience of Albany's information technology systems to protect residents and operations. I didn't notice that was the first one. Let's write your wheelhouse. It wasn't just to get your support. And that's where you have your specific objectives, who's leading that, and then the anticipated date. And then if you get through onto page 20,

You have some of the measures of success.

Percent of cybersecurity controls aligned with recognized frameworks. Don't ask me to explain that one. Pretentive audit identified security issues mitigated by improved controls. Vision zero index score. I don't know what a lot of these are. It makes sense to them. Major crime rates for the city of Albany. Overall crime rate. And so these are some of the measures. So I like the way it gets down to the importance. You can see where the council has set some goals and then it's worked with staff in the budget to say, okay, how are we going to do that?

What I find interesting about the measures of success, it's not telling you what the outcomes would be, it's telling you these are the things that we will measure. These are the criteria. It's scores, it's percent, it's average response time. It boils it down into numerics. It doesn't say what that outcome is. And that's, you know, when you say measures, and that's good. That's good.

Yeah. And I like here, like, if you look at the, you can know they've built into some of your survey responses because it's not just the crimes rate. It's do our residents feel safe in the community? And that's not going to be accomplished early.

change in a year or two that's an ongoing thing but that's a that's a good goal to have it's not a as objective as a crime rate but it is something you can measure the trends on and so what they've done is they've committed to surveying the citizens periodically and then looking at the percent of respondents that say a certain thing and again that's measurable

So to me, this is a good example that shows how we get to what can be really subjective, aspirational, and things like that, and get right down to where the rubber hits the road. You can see where there's the role of the council. the role of the city manager the role of the department heads and then of the employees in each of the departments and again this isn't exactly this may not be exactly how ours looks but it's example of the process that i think is helpful to identify and to build into

I like on page 31 the strategic budgeting that they talk about. What part? Page 31.

I like that they do a biannual budget.

I've heard about that more and more. It makes it a lot easier on staff.

We have some work to do to kind of, I think once we're a bit of a well-oiled machine in that area, that'd be something to look at. I think it would be good, but there's still some significant changes we need to make and stuff like that.

Do we happen to know how long it took the City of Albany to put this strategic plan together?

I think if it's this one in Rockaway Beach where she talks about what their process was.

Oh, here, page four.

Page five. Yeah. 22 to 2026.

Oh, this is older. They said in fall of 25 they partnered with a consultant firm.

Page five. Yeah, so September 25 to May 26. Or, yeah.

So that's a fast track. And that's good.

It just depends whether and how well, obviously it worked well, SSW Consulting did with them. They kept them on track. And they're the same ones that did the Rockwood.

Well, they are. Yeah. And what's nice is, same consulting, but the plans are, you can tell they're not cookie-cutter of each other kind of thing.

They started the process in spring of 24. It looks like they adopted it in November of 24.

So would this be done the same way we do ours with the day of retreat? Or did it take multiple sessions?

I think it's a six-month process. So I would say I could see us starting in January and by the summer having a strategic planning place.

And what that would mean is if we started in January... we would have that in the back of our minds as we're going into budgeting but we wouldn't have it in place until yeah I mean we could start earlier but I think with the likely number of

seats up on this election it doesn't make sense for us to start the process now it's possible that we could engage with the consultant and start doing the community feedback yeah so we could be doing that this fall so that we can hit the ground running with the work the council needs to do in january i think that's a good idea and that would That may lead to a process where we're closer to ready by spring or something like that.

And I think if you're looking at fall, because this is an election year, I think people tend to think more about what they like or don't like for their city. And so you may get more responsive people.

Yeah. And they may be good... be able to provide some good advice on if one of the things is to, I think Albany specifically does a survey every other year, and so that may be something we could engage with them and say, hey, you know, because we already have plans, we'd like to do that. Maybe we make sure that we are building into it the questions that will help us answer some of these, some of the things that need to be answered to create this. I don't want to do one now and six months from now again. No, I agree. And I don't think they're necessarily the ones that do the surveys, but they can help inform what's on there and things like that.

Cities are interesting in the sense that there's a lot that we all do the same. So there's the sewer, the water. across the board every city but then we each have a small you know specific things that are just for our city so it seems like you wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel here for every city you could take so if you look a lot of their suggestions it's the same stuff we're working on but then there's you know a certain subset that's unique to each city so i don't know how we do that to save time and money but there's obviously things we need to look at that they've already looked at yeah

I think where we operate the same things, the condition of our sewer system would be very different from the other cities. And so the challenges that may be faced and the goal we set around there may be different. Now, I think there's a lot of things, probably the vision, they're going to be similar. We're all going to want a safe community. things like that. What that means in each city based on the current conditions and sentiments of the residents and things like that are all going to be different. I think that's where the customization comes in.

I think the other big difference is the demographics of each city. We have a lot more senior citizens than they probably do in Albany. I don't know about Rockaway Beach. What percentage of people do they have in schools? What percentage do they have that's Hispanic, et cetera? And we need to pay attention to our demographics.

Yeah, we all have different priorities, but a lot of it is the same. So like our sewer system maybe is in worse shape than theirs, but they're working on a master plan for sewer water. I mean, you can almost take half of this.

age of the infrastructure and the current status of the infrastructure yeah so all of that is you could just use that as a part of a template for springboarding into the next one.

I think one thing that kind of just occurred to me as I was thinking about this and thinking about what makes us different than both of these is the number of visitors we get and so we have some goals about the livability and conditions for our residents. But we also have marketing goals for the Visitors Bureau for the city, and I think having this integrate those together so that it's not, some people see it as two competing things, or overlapping, that we have one strategic plan that addresses both the livability for our residents and the You know the economic engine for our community, which is which is Tourism I think one is a because that's where like the strategy comes into place because you can focus on one or the other to the detriment of the other and our Goal-setting one of the issues we have is we try to reinvent the wheel every time we just throw stuff up on a wall But there's these buckets that we should all be looking at and like what needs the most attention this two-year cycle

whether it's sewer, water, streets, whatever it is. But when we do our strategic planning, we just kind of throw ideas up there, and then whatever rises to the top rises to the top. So I think maybe a more structured framework would make a lot of sense. And I still think we would update those goals every couple of years, but within the larger framework that we've established. Well, we know what potentially the goals are going to be, 90% of them. There's a few outliers, but it's going to be certain things. And then we just look at what's the priorities. Are our streets in great shape or they're in horrible shape? Is our sewer in great shape or horrible shape?

But I like the breakdown that you've got the vision, and so you're looking further out into the future. Then you have the goals, and then you have the, what did they call it, tactical objectives. Because as you, when the goal is like two to four years, the tactical objective is one to two years. And that's where you're going to be looking at it.

I mean, that's the thing is I think we can get lost in working in one to two year goals. Yes. Or the longer vision can get lost. We can also spend all our time doing that and the stuff, the operational stuff doesn't happen.

But the beauty of this is, or this, is these go for four years. and once you do the four-year plan and you have a one-year technical work plan within each of these your quarterly updates are focused on the now the one year right i am just focused on this year and i think that's where we tend to get tripped up in this process is we look at all these things that we could be doing for the city, and it becomes too much, and people don't know what their priorities are, and we don't look at it on a frequent enough basis, and it's not connected to city staff necessarily. I'll just say, this is fabulous. This is an incredible plan. I had the privilege of working for my boss, Endeavor, was the guru of strategic planning, and I learned a lot from him, and this is a fabulous plan. This is really good, too. I do agree with you. We're kind of somewhere probably in the middle of these. What this is lacking is that more this is the owner of the task, The one-year work plan stuff should have the owner and the date. And that's the stuff that you keep updating on a quarterly basis and monitoring status on. I love it. And my last question is, do you think a competitive procurement or the competitive procurement, if we do one, could include a preference for a company that has already completed similar strategic plans?

I wouldn't... so the way we would do is request for proposals that we're not looking at like lowest bidder right and we're looking at their credentials um and i think we i wouldn't consider someone that hasn't done a strategic plan for a city because because we need we need people that are coming in and not learning what the council does um they are there are They're already up to speed on that and maybe are learning seaside particulars.

The other thing that this does, when something comes in that's not on the list, then you have a framework to make decisions about the list. Does that align with our goals? Does it align with our values? What are we going to take away off of our one-year plan in order to put this on instead? And you can actually have those discussions with a framework and data and all that in front of you.

So when someone, when I've had people ask me, you know, What it's like to be a city manager the the cynical maybe funny or whatever side of me will describe it as Do you remember I don't was like old vaudeville stuff or whatever, but you've got the person up there farmer Spinning plates on some poles and they're running around keeping them spinning that's what I can feel like my job can feel like sometime we've got 20 things going at one time and We're just getting a little momentum to each, but I think that that translates a little bit to what the council does is there's a whole bunch of things going at one time, and certainly we can be doing more than a handful of things at any one time, but we're much better off focusing on the five or six things rather than the 15 things that are kind of... of all over the place and I think focusing in it ensures that we get the most important stuff done first not that the other things won't happen but they take a backseat to whatever we determine is the most important well but those things that take a back seat you need to still be on

It's like a shiny object. It's like what we came up with at that meeting. That's our focus. But there needs to be these things that are always going to be on our radar that move along from plan to plan.

I think it's more the... I look at it more as the... An issue pops up kind of one time and we can address it, but... We don't let ourselves get unfocused from the main focus of what we're trying to do and, you know, put the brakes on this and start working on this. Now, there may be some major things that happen that we need to, you know, do a major pivot or something like that. But it's, I guess, again, there's so many things we could be doing. Resources are finite. What should we be doing?

to resources being city staff. We seem to have sufficient funds to get things done. We've managed that pretty well, but we don't manage time. And I think that's the big thing. I think we have all kinds of cool things on here. And I think we did better this last time figuring and getting staff involved with it. I know in prior years, we hardly worried what staff thought. We just said, here's the list, go get it done. And, you know, some got done, some didn't.

And sometimes it can even be they're on the list because someone ran in a campaign on a particular thing. And maybe that's before they even...

new what was happening what you know what what what what the all the issues are at the city you need to have the flexibility when something urgent pops up to be able to deal with it because it's not always just going to be the main staple things there's going to be issues that we can do oh yeah you do but we don't typically make choices around those things we typically say we got to add this to the list and that's where city staff gets Completely overwhelmed, right?

Yeah, they're going to say, okay, what do you want to take off the list?

Take off the list, right.

And depending, there are other things where we can just address and we handle rather than needing to take a longer... Longer period to review.

Well, I will say maybe part of the reason we're not getting through everything, as the mayor said here, is because we're much more ambitious in what we're trying to do. I think we have more than we've ever done right now. I mean, the agendas are longer than they've ever been. So I think we're getting through a lot, just maybe not everything we wanted to get through.

setting a lot of foundational stuff right now still. And that foundation is going to lead us to be able to do something I think like these because we'll have a lot of the things already in place to do it. We just need maybe a little help from somebody like this company or another one that has done a great job of doing this. Rockaway Beach, they're a town of It's around 1,000. 1,200 or something? It's not much. But they have done a fantastic job with their council and mayor all being on board for trying to figure out how to go forward. And have done a lot of things. One of the things they did recently is they bought a bunch of their watershed.

So would this group replace the current team? I think we would reach out to them as well to provide a proposal and then we'd select the organization that can best get us there. I haven't looked at the garage yard group we used before. I haven't looked specifically at whether they provide that or not. I imagine with the kind of stuff they're doing, that would fit right in, but I just haven't looked at their portfolio or anything.

They're in the program that's with LOC that's doing this kind of thing, sort of supported through LOC for cities.

My opinion would be I'm disappointed that they didn't guide us more down that path when we were doing this.

I also think it's... It's what we're asking them to do. And I think, to a certain extent, it's been, it's time to do this again. Let's do what we've been doing. I think this is the opportunity to step back and say, how far is that getting us, and is there a better way? I think the the cost for the consultant we can find the money for it'll be more than the one day one document but I also think that Over the course of several years, I think it will average out to be probably about the same. The other thing I was going to point to is if you go to page 29 in the Albany one, this is where I get back to the cycle. You can kind of see how this is their working document, and it's not just a document that sits on a shelf. that they're preparing for. I mean, even this plan anticipates when they need to start the next chapter of this plan.

Right. And when they're going to do surveys.

Yeah. So, you know, they're already planning in here to kick off the next plan of this. So you can see how it's not just too many times we adopt something and put it on a shelf and, you know, wait. 15 years to pull it out again. Okay, so just really quick, it sounds like we're on the same page. Here's what I've got looking for in ARC-V is how people review our current blueprint, reviewing what existing plans and projects we have. I want them to be gathering council input, staff input, include appropriate community stakeholder input. So that's going to be residents, businesses, partnering organizations, districts, community organizations. They would help us facilitate some of the planning and then help us develop the work plan and the implementation. Sounds like you'd say yes.

We're not going, but... Can we give direction at a workshop?

We are giving direction, but we're not... I hear a consensus to move forward. No negative comment towards this.

I feel like we have a lot going on, and we will have a lot going on, and so part of me is, like, nervous about the amount of work this will take, but I think this will inform the work that we will be doing the

I think for me bottom line it ensures that our focus was the council staff is on the highest priorities and so while we are going to have issues that flare up and come time that we deal with

The main focus of our work is on the more important things. I look at my day in my office is I could spend all day just responding to emails and never move the needle on any particular project or anything. And so I've got to do a little bit of both. And sometimes I spend too much area in one and not the other. But something like this helps us keep the focus and set aside the right amount of time for things that have to happen maybe but are a lesser priority.

Well, along that line, this would be next year, right? What can we as a council do to help with priorities for the rest of this year?

I think that would be let's pull out this plan as well as the kind of projects list that we put together and let's start talking about what we want to accomplish between now and the end of the year.

The capital projects list?

Yeah, except for I don't know if there's as much for the council to do. I mean, there was a Microsoft list that took a lot of these things and then had a list of everything else the council said. We should talk about this sometime or something like that. So let's take the same approach, general approach here and look at, okay, what can we realistically do and say the last six months of the year and where do we want council and staff time to be focused on?

Back to the strategic plan here, what would be helpful to not just for staff, but this could inform future councils on what even we're supposed to be dealing with and looking at. Like, Councilor Ansborough comes in and sees, oh, these are the issues that we've been working on the last five, ten years, and this is what we plan to need to focus on the next few years. I think that would be helpful.

I can see us, if we had something like this in place, I can see us even before we, you know, you know, this time of year we're opening up and taking applications for people who want to work for council. We can have an open house on what it's like to be a councillor and walking them through this. I would think that this would be more helpful.

The ideal candidate would be somebody that's already following it and being involved with it.

Well for you guys the staff is here and you're here through many councils and so you guys already have this knowledge but getting new counselors up to speed and not needing you know counselors like Montero or myself and Steve that have been here for so long and have all this knowledge this is something that could get new people up to speed quickly.

I think that you think Council Morsi you point out something important and that is It could be really easy every two years for the city to be zigzagging on things like now there is there is a balance of that because new blood, new ideas are important. And we can't just continue to do things because a council eight years ago said this. But how do we keep momentum in the right direction with some of the getting involved? So I think staff already plays part of that, whereas staff is more consistent often than the elected officials, depending on the city and the time. So there already is some of that. But this, I think, allows us to keep keep the highest priorities identified and the plan to get there while also providing opportunities for new people on the council to provide input and say so you know they're not coming in and feeling like they're just um carrying out you know someone else's priorities and agenda and things like that um but also i think go along with that which is a lesson for a lot of maybe some new counselors is also realizing i may have campaigned on these 10 things but I have one vote. I'm a part of a council, and as a council, we need to identify these things. It's not just seven people's top ten list. It's what does this group say? Because, again, it's the group that matters, not the one idea of one counselor.

And, you know, it also could help voters and residents as they assess whether they want to vote for somebody. Is that person... on board with what the city has said, is the person challenging it, that kind of stuff. So I think this can serve a lot of different populations, if you will.

Somebody could still challenge it if they think that's not the direction we should be going, we should be doing that.

No, I'm not saying it's a bad challenge.

At least they have read it and said, okay, the current council is is going this direction, I think we ought to go this direction.

I think also done correctly, the council has some protection that this isn't just what we've come up with. We pull this out of thin air. This is we've gotten the feedback from the stakeholders and it's informed this. And so this may be affecting you negatively in particular, but the overall priority from the community and the feedback is this. And that sometimes gives a little bit of cover when you're making a tough decision.

new comp plan on there.

Reviewed.

I guess it's kind of under 20 years. Reviewed the current plans and projects. So, yeah.

Okay. That's all I have.

Call the city council meeting for June 8th to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Kim, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mayor.

Here.

Councilor Montero?

Present.

Thank you. Councilor Ansbrough? Here. Councilor Benneker? Here.

Mike's working well.

Council President Morrissey? Here. Here.

I have a motion for approval of our agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Council President Morrissey and its Councillor Montero, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Move right into proclamations. First one up is Flag Day. We have Bill Montero representing the American Legion here today to produce what's going on. Right there at the microphone.

Thank you. Mayor, council members, and fellow citizens, thank you for recognizing Flag Day and the 249th anniversary of the adoption of our nation's flag. For nearly two and a half centuries, the stars and stripes have represented the ideals that bind us together as Americans, liberty, equality, opportunity, and service to others. It has flown over times of triumph and times of challenge, reminding us that while we may differ in our opinions, We are united by a common commitment to our country and our communities. As members of the American Legion, we are especially mindful of the sacrifices made by generations of service members who defended the freedoms symbolized by our flag. We honor those who served, those who continue to serve, and the families who stand beside them. On Flag Day, let us renew our appreciation for the values of our flag, represents our responsibilities to pass those values on to our future generations. Thank you for the proclamation, and may God bless our community, our veterans, and the United States of America.

Thank you very much, Bill. And I've asked Council President Morrissey to read the proclamation.

Whereas by act of Congress of the United States dated June 14th, 1777, the first official flag of the United States was adopted. And whereas by act of Congress dated August 3rd, 1949, National Flag Day was designated each year as June 14th. And whereas the Congress has requested the president to issue annually a proclamation designating the week in which June 14th occurs as National Flag Week. And whereas Flag Day celebrates our nation's symbol of unity, a democracy and a republic, and stands for our country's devotion to freedom, to the rule of all, and to the equal rights for all. I think that's supposed to be rule of law. Whereas Americans are a diverse people but are united by what we believe, that all people are created equal, that all deserve to live in freedom. And whereas we pay our respect to all the veterans who have served in the armed forces of our country, Now, therefore, Steve Wright, the mayor of the city of Seaside and the state of Oregon, do hereby proclaim June 14th, 2026 as Flag Day and urge all citizens of Seaside to honor our flag and nation on Sunday, June 14th and every day.

Thank you. We also have a proclamation for the celebration of Juneteenth this month on the 19th. fits right in with Flag Day, with equality for all. It took a little longer in this case, and we are still occasionally struggling with this, but it's a very important holiday, and we want to celebrate it as well. And I've asked Councillor Binniker to read this proclamation.

Whereas the Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, effective January 1st, 1863 that freed approximately 3.5 million slaves in the Confederate states. And whereas while President Abraham Lincoln had officially freed the slaves, enforcement of this order became difficult to enforce in areas where there were few Union soldiers. Texas in particular remained unaffected as it was geographically isolated from Union troops and thus was the last Confederate state to have the proclamation announced. and whereas many slave owners moved to texas looking to not be affected by the enforcement of the proclamation by the end of the civil war on april ninth eighteen sixty five the number of slaves in texas had increased by tens of thousands despite the proclamation And whereas on June 19th, 1865, major general Gordon Granger from the headquarters district of Texas in Galveston with more than 2000 union troops traveled to every county in Texas, informing the people that all slaves were free. And whereas the Juneteenth celebration was started a year later in Texas to celebrate the importance of June 19th with the announcement that slavery had been abolished. It was from this celebration that Juneteenth, June combined with 19th, was born. And whereas traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and Lift Every Voice and Sing, and reading of works by noted African American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou, as well as sharing of slave food delicacies, including the barbecue pit and certain foods that became popular and synonymous with Juneteenth celebrations, such as strawberry soda pop. Now, therefore, I, Steve Wright, Mayor of the City of Seaside, do hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as a celebration of Juneteenth and encourage all citizens to join with our neighbors and the African American community to celebrate this day.

Thank you very much. Public comment time. Members of the public may use this time to provide general comments on matters that are not scheduled elsewhere on the agenda for a public hearing or public comment. Individuals wishing to speak should complete a public comment registration card found over on that table and submit it to the city recorder, Kim, before being called. This time is intended for the council to listen to public comments rather than engage in discussion. The council may consider whether issues raised during this time should be scheduled for discussion or action at a future meeting. Each speaker is allotted three minutes. First up is Ken Norris, resident of Seaside.

That's a beautiful day in Seaside, despite the rain. Ken Norris, my wife, TJ, and I live over on 10th Avenue. Two weeks ago, from the animal shelter, Clatsop County Animal Shelter, we adopted a dog, a four-year-old, Lidley is her name. And so we've been parading her around town, socializing her. One of the places that we went was the city dog park and we appreciate that the city has that dog park. We also appreciate that there's a lot of facilities that the city has put up and some are in, you know, very good shape and some need a little love. And the dog park, the fence is in fine shape. There could be some repairs done to the gates. They've been broken a little bit. They're still functioning, but they're broken a little bit. But the main problem that we saw when we took her there was that there's a lot of weeds. And that's something that what TJ and I would like to do is to... just set up uh... a few weeks down the road a community cleanup day that uh... we can act i can publicize we can publicize we can get on the socials get some people there clean up some weeds uh... you know there's a there's also a berry bush that needs to needs to get trashed but uh... uh... i guess i just wanted to since it is city property it's not mine to say we're gonna do that uh... but i would appreciate now or later some feedback saying sure as long as it's not going to be staff you know that the only thing that might occur there is always a might is that whatever weeds that we pick up somehow or another help with disposing of those bags, shall we say. But like I said, the only real issue other than the weeds is that they have two sliding gates of the fencing. And both of them, the latches are non-functioning. You can close it. But a doggy pushes against it, it's going to open back up again. So I guess I just wanted to say that my wife and I would like to publicize that and do that in the next few weeks because we're at summertime. People would be using that. It's going to be right there by where the market is, the summer, Wednesday summer market. And like I said, I would appreciate now, later, sooner than later. Sure, go ahead and do it. Okay. Okay. THANK YOU.

I WILL GIVE YOUR INFORMATION HERE TO OUR CITY MANAGER AND HE WILL PASS IT ON TO THE APPROPRIATE PERSON. I THINK WE VERY RARELY TURN DOWN VOLUNTEER WORK. I THOUGHT SO. IT'S KIND OF SMART NOT TO TURN THAT DOWN. BUT HE WILL BE THE ONE TO TAKE CARE OF THAT AND GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU IF IT'S POSSIBLE. VERY GOOD.

THANK YOU.

I THINK IT SHOULD BE.

And next up, Seamus McVey out of Seaside as well.

At the last council meeting, I heard some things that I feel like they might need some correction given. One of them was that Pride is the only proclamation that's for a month. This morning, I went through all of the agendas for last year and found 11. were month long not just one um i feel like accuracy is important you know um there was also a a stated not understanding why it is that uh you would issue a pride proclamation but not a rededication to god and i feel like i don't want to speak for you mr mayor But from what I understand of government service, there are separations in place between this is church, this is state. I've only been in through a few of the doors here, but I've never seen a cross of Star of David or otherwise over any of them. Never found it on the outside of the building anywhere, which tells me it's not a church. I went looking through some old documents, and one of the ones I came across was Been seeing it a lot lately, this Treaty of Tripoli, which was signed by our second president, John Adams, who I'm pretty sure knew a thing or two about why and how this country was founded. That treaty was finished up with the line, the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion. I went and looked for some demographics to see what is our city made up of? According to Pew Research, it's only about half religiously affiliated at all. The other half is unaffiliated or non-religious. Got a lot of Christians, about 43%. We also have Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Hindus, Baha'i, various pagan sects. Now, I know when I was up there, my job wasn't to represent just these people.

You had 30 seconds.

It was to represent them all. So I appreciate that in issuing that proclamation, you weren't giving into the pressure to just represent the one segment, but to represent that we do have a very diverse community. So thank you.

Any counselor wish to declare a potential conflict of interest of anything on the agenda tonight? Hearing none. Seeing none. I have a motion for approval of our consent agenda.

I would move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

Council President Morrissey and Councilor Binniker. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Tonight we have another annual report. tonight is the convention center's annual report presented by the general manager brian owen welcome brian does it work okay

Hi. Hello. How is everybody tonight? Good, good. All right. Well, today I want to talk a little bit about what we do over at the Convention Center and some of our accomplishments and the year. First, I want to start out with what I will classify as my full Seaside Civic and Convention Center commission. I believe that I am the only commission that is full. I took very good pride in that. We've got Robert Fuller, who is our chair, and he's been a fantastic asset. Christine's been a huge help in making some changes within our structure of how our meetings are held and ideas of how we can move forward. Nancy and Dana, of course, have been just pinnacles. They have been here for quite some time, and they are my historians. Mr. Perkle and Eric are just two real steady individuals in history. And then our newest two, Tom Jensen and Mark Hotman. They're bringing a bit more energy, ideas, and questions, which has been great. My team is 11 strong. Tina is our sales director, Celeste event coordinator, and she truly is the hub. Every single thing that happens within our building around a event, she has had conversations with that event planner. And she is the one that then helps communicate out to our operations team, who is run by Andy. And Andy's been there for about 17 years now. And then Jennifer Bymont is our administrative assistant. She has the toughest job. She gets to work with me. And then John Stockenberg. I can't say enough about John. John's been with us for approximately 28 years, and there is just nothing that that guy has not been through. the teams rounded out with Frank and Keith and Max and Jennifer Travis and then we've got a new a new person Marshall Marshall's been with us for about a month and a half and is really fitting in well he's really enjoying it he is a Seaside graduate went off to serve in the I believe Air Force, and has then come home and is looking to establish his home here. So, as we all know, the convention center was designed as an economic driver for our I want to kind of take a couple little steps back here just so that we can move forward. Obviously, our most recent reno was in between 2018 and 2019. And you can see the difference between the two front entrances there. Just really, really good. But let's think about what we truly started as. This is of August of 1973. The convention center opened in November of 71. By the way, you can still see some of some of these walls within the building It's quite interesting but then 2018 we just tore a whole side off off the building and made it bigger and And yes, I did throw the September of 2019 photo in there because I am standing in that so That is back back when I was working with the Chamber of Commerce and Russ was the general manager of the Convention Center and now we've got a wonderful beautiful building and this is something that our building and its history really came out of business partnerships i was speaking with mr zach pool and we were talking about how that initial PARTNERSHIP OF ABOUT TEN BUSINESSES TO CREATE A CATERING COMPANY CALLED SEASIDE INVESTORS. EACH BUSINESS PUT IN ABOUT $1,000 AND THERE WAS TEN OF THEM. And that was a nucleus of what we now call Oregon Fine Foods. In 1984, the Poole family took over as the catering company, but they were really there from the very beginning. and the rest of the business investors moved on. And that's been a great partnership with us from the beginning here. When we start looking at this economic driving and what we're really interested in is attendance. We're really looking at how many people we can bring during the shoulder seasons. This is a fiscal year calendar here starting in July and ending in June. The blue, what do you call rows there, that's actually attendance. The purple is your number of event days, so how many days we actually had an event within the building. And then the orange is the number of events. And you can see that the number of events does not equal lots of people. we can have a event that will bring in two to three thousand people for four or five days and within that that month like let's say September there had 12 events and just over 4,000 attendees where November had only 10 and had a little over or just under 5,000 and So we really do bring in a lot of businesses during those shoulder seasons. And of course, December is a tough one just because there's so much going on. But we do have something interesting coming up for the next 10 years in December and February, which I'll be talking about here soon. Over the last three years, you can see the trend stays pretty consistent when we talk about attendance. Again, this is a fiscal year calendar, and there's no real surprises there, except if you look into May. You see May dropped there. We have a couple of events that come every three to six years So we can have a event or two that will really skew a year so as we as we start looking at at Trends we always have to take account for for those different events that THAT DIDN'T COME TO US. THEY CHOSE SOMEBODY ELSE. THIS IS A CALENDAR YEAR AND THIS IS THE ECONOMIC IMPACT AGAIN FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS AND THEN TO A CURRENT 2026 OF MAY. We typically range anywhere between $31 to $32 million a year in economic input. The amount of jobs that that brings to town is sizable. The key point here is that this influx of business truly is happening during the times that we need it, the slower traveling times. But that is changing. We are starting to attract more and more business in the summertime and during the wintertime. We do have a booking policy that if you have a certain size of event, if you have more than 300 people staying for more than two nights, you can book up to 10 years out. You can see clear up to 2036, we have two events, 2035, nine, and so on. This has been a huge benefit for us because we are able to keep some of these key events coming to us that may try and go somewhere else if in fact they weren't already contracted here. But the growth of our events and the changes to this industry has been significant since 2020. This year we have brought in a little more than 16 new events. We have done a lot of media, one being the national media around scooter, cannonball if you weren't able to come over and see it it was quite interesting it's something that will probably never ever have back but they truly is about 280 riders that started in Seaside Oregon and yes these scooters were little 50s all the way up to you know 250s or whatever whatever they are and they ended in it was South Padre Island, Texas. It was quite an interesting ordeal. They actually kept sending us back pictures and we were able to follow riders. They gave us the access so that we could follow individual riders. It was an interesting event. We did, and this is something that Tina is just really excited about, she brought some business out of Vegas and into Seaside. This was the Western States Organized Retail Crime Conference. A wonderful asset for our local businesses to be able to come over and to learn from some of these retail security firms that were put on by Target and Walmart and all these large companies, and it did allow our local business to be able to be a part of that. And then what I alluded to earlier, we have just brought in a new agreement with a cheerleading competition in December and February for the next 10 years. It's anywhere between 1,000 to 1,200 attendees, or I should say, cheerleaders, and their families. That's a great bit of business in some areas that we could really use it. Tina is still really active in MPI and the government service planners and a bunch of others. We hosted the government service planners annual conference conference here which was ODOT and OSHA all these different parts of our of our Oregon government which truly do bring back a lot of business throughout the year and then I do I really want to put a big thank you out to Oregon Fine Foods and Zach pool and Roscoe they've they've done a really good job of Being a great partner for us, it's something that is not easy. We bring in business, but yet not all business that we bring in actually have a catering component to it. And then, of course, I want to give my team a great thank you also. They really do have a how can we get it done attitude rather than do we really have to do this. So it's been fun. Priorities. A couple of things that I want to start to work on is one of the sections of the building that wasn't touched through our last reno was our second floor bathrooms. They don't have ADA access either, so we would like to, we have been working with a couple of different companies trying to figure out how we can get ADA in there and not move walls. I think we can actually do it. Digital security is always something that's high and then planning for potential replacement of our Wi-Fi system over the next probably two years here This year we're going to replace one of the oldest ovens. Thank gosh if we actually use this oven and we actually take we run the risk of Knocking our power out And then replacing the dishwasher this dishwasher has been there longer than John Stockenburg 28 years I think we got every penny out of it that we spent That is a project that I've got I've got some money set aside for all for some additional Wall repair and and as we start to pull pull that apart not really sure what we're gonna find so And then I've been working closely with Paul from our public works around our HVAC control project and replacement of different air handling units. Just continue to train the crew. We're getting a much younger crew. I've got a couple of people who potentially could retire within months, couple of years here. So trying to share as much knowledge across the team as possible. And then, of course, I want to hit my 20-year capital plan again. I did that my second year in this job, and now with a little bit more knowledge, I think I'm going to go back through that and just look at it with some new eyes. So thank you, and if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them.

One of the things I know you do is survey the conferences, the population, and the people who put them on. And so can you tell us a little bit about the results of those surveys over this past year?

Yeah, we really have kept right about that 96% positive. Lots of compliments for each individual. It's something that's just consistent. And I say just consistent, but it's truly something that the crew works at on a regular basis. And they love to see their name on any of those. So really working with the team to be a part of the event and not just be a service to the event. Thank you. It's been good.

Brian, it's such a pleasure to be the liaison to the Convention Center Committee. What a great group of volunteers on the committee, very passionate about the success. You and Tina and Jennifer and everybody, just very well organized, and I really appreciate the effort you put into maintaining that committee. Thanks. The other thing is that I have had the pleasure of attending a couple of events at the center recently. One as a guest, one as a volunteer, I guess I would say. And I always think about the civic part of the convention center, which I think sometimes gets a bit lost. But what an incredible asset we have here as a city to be able to use that facility for all these wonderful civic events. So I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team.

Great. Thank you.

One of the big barriers to getting business in the winter was always just getting people here across 26 just because of the snow and ice. It seems like we're booking more winter business now than we ever had before. Is that not been as big an issue to folks or what's the change there? Do you think?

If you notice what we're booking, it's more around youth and athletics. So whether it be dance, whether it be cheerleading, just like PBL, those parents get those kids to that game no matter what weather. So we're not booking a lot of conferences through those times, but we are booking more and more of that youth. Interesting.

Yeah.

What's interesting also is August is now starting to attract some actual conferences and we have been able to bring in a couple of attorney type education components and they have no problem bringing their families to the area during August.

Looks like the last two years, the income has increased. What are your projections for this year?

This year, we blew it out of the water. Our food and beverage sales were higher than we've ever, ever, ever sold. We're about $300,000 over what we thought, potentially even closer to $400,000. And One thing that we are looking at is redoing our economic calculator. I've been talking to a couple of different companies that do that type of work. So next year at this point, we may actually be talking a little bit different numbers. I'd like to find something that our team's able to input a few more data points so that we can get a little more granular with how we're truly supporting this community. It'd be a little more work for us, but that's fine. It's nothing hard.

One of the things that I've heard from League of Oregon cities is that they're very pleased that they're We're on their list now every third year, and when I go to meetings and they talk about how wonderful Seaside is, it's not only the staff, all of our colleagues who attend here. I'm also pleased that the Oregon Transit Association and the Special Districts Association, and by having those meetings here, that also provides our special districts an opportunity to send their boards and their staff at a reduced cost because they don't have to pay for someplace for them to stay. And so that's another added benefit for us.

It really is, yeah. And what's been wonderful in a lot of our marketing, we actually involve the community. So we're not just talking about the four walls that make up the convention center and the space that they're going to meet and they're going to have their educational piece, but also what they can do afterwards. And as Tina goes to a lot of these conferences to sell our our building, that's been our strongest hook.

One of the biggest things, I think, is simply that you can bring your family and come to a conference, park your car, and do everything here in town just walking around. You know, the conferences I go to, various places, quite often you have to take a shuttle bus to get anywhere. And it's a real, real big convenience, I think, and a big selling point for Seaside. There are a lot of towns that are really jealous of Seaside and you. That's just fun. And having this fantastic facility. I appreciate the history aspect. I had never seen that original picture. And I'm so old I forgot even what it looked like in 2018. You know, it was kind of dated looking now, and now it isn't.

What I really wanted to show there was not only has the building changed, but the consistency of the partnership with our business community and the center has continued. It started as an organization or an organized thought by our businesses and is continuing to be supported by the businesses, and we support the businesses. I'll leave this here, too. It's an old flyer. I'm not sure when, but I'm trying to get more and more of our historic documents around. Great.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Great job. Thanks, Brian. Thanks.

top it next year do even better keep setting the bar higher okay moving on to the boards commissions and committees airport we have three vacancies not really we have one vacancy and two that will expire at the end of this month and randall henderson and Roy Bennett have said that they would like to be reappointed. Their terms expire at the end of June.

I move to reappoint Randall Henderson and Roy Bennett to the Airport Advisory Committee.

I'll second.

Councillor Binniker and Council President Morrissey. I wholeheartedly agree, especially Randall. I know him better, and he's really something. He's amazing, and I'm sure Roy is too, a good person to be there. Well involved in everything that goes on. So all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. So we do have still one vacancy. We had one person apply, but unfortunately they did not meet the residency requirement. Mm-hmm. Community Center Commission, one person's term expired and didn't want to be reappointed, so we now have three vacancies there, which means the committee can't get any business done, so we need some applicants. And we do have an applicant for the Planning Commission. George Whitlock applied. Would somebody care to nominate George?

I'll nominate George Whitlock. I'll second. I'll second.

Councillor Montero, Councillor Binnicker, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion carries. Kim, please set up an interview with George. We have one vacancy on transportation advisory. And City Tree Board, we have two people that are, their terms are expiring, Stephen Christopher and Pam Fleming. Pam has been there forever as far as I know, and I just want to personally thank her on behalf of the council and the city for her many, many, many years of service. She was an integral part of the Arboretum project as well. so please get out there and beat the bushes counselors we got to get these boards filled and yes brian i don't see any vacancies for the convention center Unfinished business. Our unfinished business is that we still need to discuss the appointment process for, at large, Ward 1 and 2, as well as Ward 3. Do we have something up here? Okay. You want to take this, Spencer? Spencer?

Council's probably very familiar with this, but those of our public, we'll bring them up to speed. So we currently have two vacancies on the City Council. The City Council direct staff to open these up and collect applications through May 29th. And so this is our first meeting since those applications closed. We had a vacancy in Ward 1 and 2. And in Ward 3, for Ward 1 and 2, we received one complete application, and that was from Robin Montero, who's here tonight. And in Ward 3, we had no complete applications received. So my presentation is very brief tonight for the Ward 1 and 2 vacancy. So the decision for the council is, does the City Council want to move forward with considering Robin? Your options are to place her appointment on the June 22 agenda, You can use that time for a brief question and answer format, and or rely on the application materials and public discussion. I think she's probably very familiar to most of you. And then, as always, an option is to reopen the application period. With Ms. Montero being here, that is no slight on her. I'm just giving you all options available. So there is that. Let me really quickly talk about Ward 3. So the real question is, what do you want to do to reopen the recruitment? As a reminder to some of our previous discussions, The only way to fill a seat is through council appointment. So that's something the council needs to do. My recommendation would be to reopen the recruitment immediately, keep the application period open until sometime in July. We'd want to pick a date. and then plan for that appointment to happen after July 25th, 2026, which would allow that person appointed to serve through the end of the term in 2028. I think realistically, I don't think we can, it'd be a quick turnaround. I think I'd rather save more time to let people apply and see if the term being not six months, but maybe two and a half years, if that changes, who applies? That may be a consideration. I don't know. So I'll go back to the first one and turn it back to you, Mayor, and really looking for council direction on how to proceed. Two different decisions for each of these seats.

Yeah, let's talk about the at-large for Ward 1 and 2 first. I think at this point, because she's applied before and some of us were here at that time, we know quite a bit about her. She was the only one that applied that I'd like to put that on the next agenda. The question would be opening it up. I'd suggest that we open it up and say anybody from the public would want to send in comments or questions. They'd be more than willing to do that. And then an interview process for... us here if we want to do that. She's answered the questions about serving before and we can certainly provide that to you. So that's where we're at. We have a good candidate and I'm fine with moving forward at that point. Chris.

I agree. I'm trying to understand what you were suggesting about opening up the public comment. What would you mean by that?

Well, just telling the public at this point forward that this is the only candidate and if you have, you know, support or maybe not so good support reasons why she should be appointed go ahead and tell us rather than holding a public hearing now they could do that at the next council meeting as well okay during uh we would hold a public comment time for people if they wanted to

So the public could submit before the June 22nd meeting and we would get their feedback?

Or come to the June 22nd meeting and speak.

Okay. I am in favor of that process. I... think that uh we robin and i went through a question and answer session together not all that long ago and um so there's familiarity there and i think um we should put the appointment on the agenda for the 22nd what about um having uh is there any any question and answer back and forth that you think the council needs to do I think so, yes. I forgot that you had mentioned that part, but I think we should do it like we have held the other appointments similarly, where one counselor each asks one question or whatever that looks like.

What I was thinking on this one, because it's not a matter of, I was thinking more it would be just ad lib, right up front, but if each counselor came up with a question they wanted to ask specifically, let me know so I can make sure all the counselors are not asking the same question, then pose them to Robin at the meeting.

Okay.

But again, that's just the idea I had.

Yeah, I agree with everything Councillor Binnicker said. I think it's important, even though we have one applicant, I think it's important that we appoint to get someone up here as soon as possible, but also to get it on the ballot so we can have it for the fall ballot. So I would, even though we have one candidate, I would be in favor of moving forward on June 22nd and getting it on the agenda.

Okay. Councillor Monteiro, what would you like to say?

I'm in favor of moving forward with it, and I will be recusing myself, as I did in the past, on the advice of the Ethics Commission.

Thank you.

I think we should place it on the June 22nd agenda. I also like the Q&A. I think it's important to keep a process in place. That way, everyone who comes on board goes through the same process.

Okay, then I think that answers the question for the at-large, Ward 1 and 2. We'll put it on the agenda. You three counselors give me what you think you want to ask, and I'll make sure they're all different, or maybe suggest one you could ask in place of that, okay? And then we'll make a decision whether or not to appoint at that meeting. You will be at that meeting. Okay. You will be at that meeting. Okay, Ward 3. I think we do, as Spencer suggested, basically just open it up again, and if we get somebody, and theoretically it could, but like he said, I think it's very unlikely we would get anybody and get them in place before July 25th. Again, as a reminder, that's the date set in our charter that if we don't appoint before that date, they will serve the remainder of the term, which goes through the end of 2027. No, 28. That seat is up for election in 2028. So it is basically a two-and-a-half-year term. And that's a possible reason nobody applied for this one, I don't know. So let's start this in. Let's start with Councilor Montero. You can be in this, well, it depends who applies, but yeah.

I don't have any relatives that live in Ward 3. Okay. Yeah, I think that this is a reasonable process for us to follow.

And at some point, once we do get, and this will be completely dependent on if we get anybody. If we don't get anybody, we can just keep it open and keep it open. Mm-hmm. This seat theoretically could stay open until the beginning of 2029. If we don't get anybody that applies or, you know, it's possible that we would choose not to appoint people that apply too.

That's right.

So it's a very kind of unique circumstance. But we're hoping the fact that this will be for a two and a half year period rather than having to run again this fall. that will get more interest.

Come on, Ward 3. There's somebody out there. There's a few people out there. Come on. We'd love to talk to you.

Any further comments? You're all for that? You think that'll work?

I'd like to really see somebody come on out so that we could interview them before the timeline. Otherwise, we just follow the timeline if nobody shows.

I would say that we all need to probably do a better job of getting the word out, myself included, because I did speak to some folks right before the deadline that had not heard of it that were potentially interested. So I know we put it out, but we're definitely not reaching everyone. So I don't know how we do a better job of getting it out. But I'm all in favor of the timeline. Get someone to point it as quickly as we can.

I agree with Councilor Morrissey on the getting it out there point. I feel like not everybody even knows what Ward 3 is, and I know we have maps on the website, and you can go look it up, but I would like to see us push it a little bit harder. I think we need to open it up and keep it open until we get people. I feel a little guilty for jinxing this whole thing when I said piles. applicants at the last meeting so I feel personally personally responsible but I also was thinking of them I think the mayor of West Linn was 18 years old when he got elected or something like that right 18 this on yesterday yeah he's not 18 anymore no but you only have to be 18 right so this is open anybody and I'd love to see You know, anyone who has some interest in civic engagement and community participation, this is a very rewarding and valuable and necessary position, and we need help. So I'd love to see us open it up and keep it open.

Good. So any way we can, particularly on social media and those kind of things, to get, including a ward map or a description of the ward. When I think of this, I always think four quadrants and, you know, ward one and you go clockwise. so ward three is upper left or upper right and it doesn't work exactly right but it gets you kind of in the right area yeah chris you brought up a good point you know a lot of people don't know what ward they're in i've talked to a number of people they go i don't know so if you don't know call city hall ken would be more than willing to tell you exactly which ward you're in

So, Mayor, it sounds like this is an open till filled, or do you want to pick a date? My first suggestion would be pick a date, and if you don't have sufficient qualified applications, you could go back to open till filled. The one thing I will say is leaving it kind of more of an open till filled, people sometimes take their time to apply. A little push. i would i would recommend picking a date for closing and then the council can consider but you can do it open till filled ultimately if we really have trouble it's it'll be kind of like our committees where we wait till applications come in consider them does someone want to nominate them i could see a process like that but uh IT SOUNDS LIKE RIGHT NOW THE DIRECTION WAS KIND OF MORE OF AN OPEN-TAIL FIELD, BUT I THOUGHT WE SHOULD MAYBE CLARIFY.

COUNCIL HAVE ANY PARTICULAR DATE THEY THINK WOULD WORK BEST? END OF JULY.

I WOULD BE IN FAVOR OF PICKING A DATE. I THINK WE NEED A TIMELINE. AND THEN IF, YOU KNOW, MULTIPLE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW WHERE THE CUTOFF IS IF WE GET MORE THAN ONE APPLICANT.

Well, obviously if it is end of July, then it's definitely for the appointment for two years. Because it's past the date. I don't think I want to do it that early because we just did it and nobody applied.

Right. Our meetings in July are the 13th and the 27th. so if you said um the 24th of july then you'd actually have something to talk about at our council meeting on the 27th i was also thinking about the 10th of july recognizing that's a little over a month away but potentially before our first meeting in july i don't know that it

Can it hurt to have it a month and then reopen if we need to, and then have it another month? Like, I'm trying to think through.

Like it's always on the agenda for the first meeting of the month.

The month, yeah.

If you said the 10th of July, then we'd have something to talk about on the 13th.

Yeah, I'd be in favor of that. That's fine.

The one thing I may add is if you extend it to so that it for sure is appointed after the 25th date, you've changed what they're applying for. And so the question is, if you're not changing anything, what is going to draw more applicants? Now, if it really is some people didn't know, didn't have time, then I think that that is a good reason to have it closed before then and possibly an appointment. If you think the term has something to do with it, has an effect on it. then having it closed after will will give you a different pool so just throwing that perspective out there um it's easy for us to open and close these and so we'll look for your direction but i think i just want to kind of point out using july 10th we couldn't possibly appoint somebody before the 25th of july because july 10th oh we could they'd just mean a lot probably more extra meetings it could be a special meeting yeah

Yeah, if you did a special meeting, but we haven't done, that hasn't been our habit. Our habit has been to talk about it and then do the interviews or whatever at the next meeting. And the next meeting is the 27th, which is after that deadline.

So I think that would be helpful to point out, though, if you're picking a closing date and anticipating the appointment would be after July 25th, we advertise that and do the recruitment slightly differently. Let's recruit for what the position is and see if that gathers a different pool or different list of interested candidates.

So in order for us to appoint prior to July 25th, we would have to be ready to appoint at the meeting on the 14th.

Or hold a special meeting.

Or hold a special meeting.

On the 13th. 13th, okay. unless, again, we had a special meeting, which we're perfectly okay with doing. The last time we actually held a community meeting prior to our council meeting, so that was within five days of each other. So theoretically, we could do that if the date was, the deadline was the 10th. you could set up a meeting for let's say the 15th and or the 22nd and then no no you those are when you have yeah you'd have to have a special meeting sometime the week of the 20th my thoughts were to be to take one more shot at trying to get it done by the 25th by doing it i think it's the 10th you said having the cut off yeah

And if that doesn't work, then we can change the wording of what we're looking for and make it clear it's a two and a half year term.

I agree. And I agree with Tita. I don't typically love to go out of process from what we've done before, but I feel like we are in a very sort of unique circumstance here and it warrants an exception if we have somebody who is interested.

I think one of the things we can do then if we do the 10th, That still gives us time before the council meeting. I think if there's one candidate, you will know them because you should be receiving the applications. Actually, I think we're sending them out when we're getting them, right? It's different than the public comment thing, but once we have a complete application, we'll send them to you. I don't know why you couldn't then just appoint at that next meeting and not necessarily have to wait for a special meeting. We can invite whoever applies or if there's more than one candidate, we can invite them to apply and they can be interviewed and a choice could be made at that first meeting in July. That's a little bit of a faster process but again if it happens if the appointment happens before July 25th they're serving for less than six months and so I think the need for a more expansive process is lessened if the term is quite shorter and so we could kind of automatically have a placeholder on the council agenda for not just a discussion but an appointment if whatever the statement is, if it's the right person, if we have an applicant, things like that, and give you that option. Kind of like tonight, we have just a discussion. We could have on there a discussion and possible appointment and have it on there. And then you guys decide in that meeting if you're ready to go. But either way, we'd probably invite any applicants so that they can be ready if the council wants to move forward.

So I have to say that 10th is OK with the same. Just reopen exactly what we did before. Most recently. I can go for that, yeah, alright, let's do it. It could end up getting really close.

So what John saying is the system doesn't have a time of day. It closes. It's just the day and so it would be midnight on whatever day you choose. If you're choosing right now, is that a that's a Friday?

Yeah, you might want to get the pound until Monday. You might you might want to just.

Well, I think I might just put it Sunday night. I don't think we'd be updating. We wouldn't be updating the packet. I think it's it's just a matter of having a name ready for Monday at the Council meeting, so I would. say you might as well put it for the Sunday night and then the Friday meaning if we get an application at 1159 on Friday you're gonna receive it at the same time on Monday as if we got it at 1159 on Sunday so might as well give two more days so the 12th and then we'll have it on Monday morning the 13th and discuss it that

I think the 9th is a better day to do it, which gives staff one day to put together whatever they need to put together.

I don't know if there's that much to put together. We'll send you the application.

The council seems to think the 9th is a better day.

Sure, yeah.

okay so we'll close it on july 9th and include a ward map with it this time and kim's phone number yeah they did

no no we're talking about like on social media and stuff like that that we have a map with it so it's provided but you had to click on it it's easier when you're doing one recruitment rather than two yeah and the second one has and it's just one map it's it's three of the four maps so this will be a little bit more straightforward and we can be a little more specific okay

Moving on ordinance 2026-03 regarding downtown maintenance district. Kim?

I think the only update that I have for you is that at the last meeting we had the gentleman from the Promenade Inn and Suites come and talk about doing their little strip of land by the property that they have. His public comments. It was in the it have a talk with him because I went down and looked which felt like I kind of knew what he was talking about but I just want to make sure but it's a strip of land that's just right by the building itself it's not our property so I did send out information to him stating what the downtown maintenance district assessments are about it's not private property it's all the properties combined as far as the landscaping so not for Clearly out in front of his property. His property, yeah. But just, you know, all together in the downtown.

I thought you were.

Public property.

Yeah. And I didn't get anything back.

Okay. I thought your explanation told the story pretty well. Okay. Okay. I'll open up for public hearing. Anybody, you don't have to have signed up ahead of time for this. Seeing none, the closed public hearing. Counselors, have any comments? If not, I'll take a motion to read an ordinance. I move for a third reading.

Third reading of ordinance 2026-03 by title only.

I'll second.

I think he beat you out just by a half second.

Okay. Councilor Binniker, Council President Morrissey. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Kim, are you going to read it? I'll read it. Okay.

So she can take the minutes. Ordinance 2026-03, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Seaside, Oregon, pursuant to ORS 223.112-223.132, setting a public hearing extending the term of the Assessment District for Economic Improvement, known as the Downtown Maintenance District, repealing Ordinance No. 2025-03 and all ordinances in conflict herewith.

I have a motion to adopt.

I move to adopt ordinance 2026-03 by title only.

I second.

That's Councilor Binnicker and Councilor Ansborough. Can you please call the roll?

Mayor Wright.

Yes.

Councilor Montero. Yes. Councilor Ansborough.

Yes.

Councilor Binnicker. Yes. Council President Morrissey.

Yes.

Thank you.

2026.03 is adopted unanimously.

Can I ask a point of order because I'm a little confused. Item number eight is the consent agenda. And in that, we've got resolution 4084, which is the resolution amending and categorizing and levying the assessments of the properties in the downtown maintenance district. And then under unfinished business, we have the ordinance. How can we pass the resolution before we pass the ordinance? If we already pass the consent agenda, And this is true for three items on the consent agenda that are repeated as unfinished business as ordinances. And so I'm just a little confused. And it's a point of order. I'm not challenging it.

I think this one is a little different than the other two consent agenda items, and I had the same question, and Kim and I talked about it. So the resolution, the consent agenda is levying the fees, and the ordinance you just passed extends the district for one more year. I think the both happen each year. One requires a public hearing. One does not, which is why we've organized the way we do and the way we have consent before the new business or sorry, the

I was going to say unfinished business. That's the kind of way it pans out.

I think the result would be had you decided not to extend the downtime maintenance ordinance, the effect would have been it would have made the levy kind of null. It would have nullified it because we would not have that ordinance extending. And so WHERE IT MAY APPEAR OUT OF ORDER REALLY BOTH THINGS HAVE TO HAPPEN SO THE OTHER THING I WILL SAY IS I'VE STARTED TO LOOK INTO IT AND I THINK NEXT YEAR LOOK INTO A LITTLE BIT FURTHER I THINK THERE MAY BE WAYS RATHER THAN adopting a new ordinance each year doing away with the old one that we can adopt one ordinance let's say for five years and then each year just do the resolution on the fees where we've looked at the fees are they sufficient are they not sufficient and then move forward rather than this process i think There may be with some changes that have happened in the law and what I've been comparing it to, I think there may be a little more streamlined way to do it. I kind of started looking into that maybe too late in this process, but we'll try to head that off and just kind of cut out the busy work and get to the important part, which is assuming we want to continue with this maintenance contract. It's really just looking at what fees are necessary to support the contract and PROVIDES FOR THE SERVICE.

THANK YOU. MOVING ON TO ORDINANCE 202604, THE PROPERTY EXCLUSION PROCESS.

There we go. I won't take too much time on this because I think we've talked about this quite a bit. This is the third or fourth time we've discussed it. So we discussed the draft ordinance for the first time at the April 27th. council meeting you held the first reading at your last meeting on May 11th we have not received any more comments since the first reading and no changes have happened so tonight you've got on your agenda a second reading and an optional third reading with a possible adoption And for the public who are interested, this creates a new chapter in our code of ordinances, which allows a exclusion of individuals from public properties, from specifically city-owned properties, when there is a violation of Oregon law, the Seaside Code, or any adopted facilities or property rules. This would only happen when it's a repeated offense of the same crime or rule violation at the same property multiple times. So I think this will likely be rare, but it's an additional tool for our police department. So the exclusions are temporary in nature and specific to the exact location of the facility or public property. Why it's needed? Usually a warning or a citation addresses the violation, but it may not prevent the repeated conduct in the same location. So this is an intermediate tool for the police to use when the original citation or options of citations are not sufficient. So if a person returns during an active exclusion period, trespass enforcement can apply where they can be arrested for trespassing. And then we'd use the trespassing code for that. And the goal here is safe, orderly, and lawful use of public property. And we wanted to include quite a few limits and safeguards because this excluding someone, I think the public has a right to be on public property and so it's very limited when it should be used. Generally only applies to a specific property where the violation occurs. The broader exclusion has quite a few extra requirements for written findings and supervisory review and approval. Again, the exclusions are only temporary. Between first, second, and third offenses, it's 30, 60, 90 days, with the longest being 90 days. There's always or usually a warning and opportunity to comply first. I say there's probably on the practical level always an option to comply first. If we notice something and someone's asked to TO LEAVE THE PROPERTY OR WHATEVER IT IS, THAT'S ALWAYS THE FIRST THING WE WOULD GO TO. USUALLY A WARNING. I THINK THERE ARE SOME SEVERE CASES THAT DESCRIBES WHERE WE WOULD GO RIGHT TO AN EXCLUSION. There's appeal rights for municipal court and any notice would be provided with those details as well as the details of where they're excluded from. And then there's some exceptions for essential business. For example, if it were city hall, they would probably likely still have a right to come and provide testimony in a public hearing or possibly play a water bill or other things that are deemed a higher need than maybe casual... visitation. So the requested action tonight is for a second reading and then if you are inclined we can do a third reading and a motion to adopt or we can save that for a future meeting.

I'll open it up if anybody from the public wants to make a comment. State your name and city of residence, Seamus.

Seamus McVeigh, City of Seaside. I would just like to once again request that should this pass, it be brought back before the council and the public six months to a year to receive a report on how it's being applied so that we can ensure that because the policy says something that the actual practice of how it's used matches up with that policy and it's not being directed as a means of dealing with individual segments of the population.

Okay. We have the police chief here, and he can put that in his annual report, which should be almost a year from now, not quite. Thank you. Closed public comments. Councillors. Hearing none, I may have a motion to read Ordinance 202604 for a second reading.

I move for a second reading of Ordinance Number 2026-04 by title only.

Second.

Councilor Manninger, Councilor Ansbrough. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

ORDINANCE 2026-04, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SEASIDE ESTABLISHING A PUBLIC PROPERTY EXCLUSION PROCESS FOR VIOLATIONS OF LAW ON CITY PROPERTY PROVIDING PROCEDURE SAFEGUARDS AND APPEAL RIGHTS IN AMENDING THE SEASIDE MUNICIPAL CODE.

THIS WILL BE ON OUR AGENDA FOR A THIRD READING AT THE NEXT MEETING. ORDINANCE 2026-05, AMENDING DISTRIBUTION OF BUSINESS LICENSE FEE.

you had to have a lot of slides ready for this meeting didn't you i tried to make the repeat discussions shorter thank you while still informing the public and for this presentation i'm kind of presenting both the ordinance and the resolution which appears later on the agenda under new business but we referred to at the last at the last meeting So the tonight is a third reading possible an adoption of the ordinance as well as the adoption of the accompanying resolution They're intended to work together and no changes have been made since the first and second readings at our last meeting and So the current business license revenue formula, the current code directs business license revenue to the Community Development Fund, Seaside Chamber of Commerce, SDVA, and the Convention Center Capital Improvement Fund. The Chamber and SDVA currently receive a percentage of revenue up to a maximum annual amount. What the ordinance does, repeals the existing formula and deposits the business license revenue into the general fund. We'll say the community development fund is a part of the general fund, so really no change there. Does not change business license fees, does not change business licensing requirements, does not change who must obtain a business license. why we're recommending the change. The business license revenue is unrestricted revenue. Chamber, SDA, and convention center related expenditures are eligible for tourism related expenses. And tourism related expenses can be funded with transient lodging tax revenue. So this preserves our unrestricted revenue for broader community needs. The budget committee recommended this direction and the THEIR RECOMMENDED BUDGET THAT YOU'LL BE DISCUSSING LATER IN TONIGHT'S MEETING ALREADY INCORPORATES THAT CHANGE, AND THE DIRECTION WAS THAT APPROXIMATELY $580,000 THAT WE RECEIVE IN BUSINESS LICENSE BE REALLOCATED WITHIN THE GENERAL FUND TO PUT TOWARDS STREET MAINTENANCE. What the resolution does, it provides continued funding for the chamber and SDDA, directs the city manager to include those dollar amounts in the annual budget to the budget committee. These are the same maximum amounts that are currently provided under the current code formula. What it doesn't do, it doesn't appropriate funds, it doesn't guarantee future funding levels, does not increase funding amounts, and doesn't prevent the future council discussion. So I'm sure there can be plenty of discussions on those amounts, are the right amounts, or if changes are warranted. So future funding decisions would occur through the regular budget process. We did reach, so we've discussed this with the budget committee. We reached out to the chamber and SDA. I think there's, they are more than willing to discuss increased amounts, but they didn't have any negative necessary feedback on this proposed change. I think they saw the wisdom in using transient lodging taxes. We haven't received any negative feedback, and it, preserves our current funding levels, but it gives us much more flexibility. So here's your requested action. Right now, it's a third reading and adoption of the ordinance, and then we'll come back later for the approval of resolution.

OK, open for public comment. Anybody? We'll close public comment. Councillors? May I have a motion?

I move for a third reading of ordinance 2026-05 by title only.

Second.

Council President Morrison, Councilor Montero, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Spencer.

Ordinance 2026-05, an ordinance amending section 110.12 of the CSAT code ordinances regarding the distribution of business license fee revenue.

I have a motion to adopt.

I move to adopt. Second.

Councillor Montero and Councillor Ansborough. Can you please call the roll?

Mayor Wright?

Yes.

Councillor Montero? Yes. Councillor Ansborough?

Yes.

Councillor Benneker? Yes. Councillor President Morrissey? Yes. Thank you.

Ordinance 202605 passes unanimously. Moving into new business, we have a request from the Seaside Chamber of Commerce about a art project. You can sit if you want or stand, yeah? Hi, who are you?

I'm Sadie Mercer, Director of the Seaside Chamber of Commerce. Welcome. Thank you. Nice to meet you finally at last. So I'm here kind of presenting our idea for mural projects. Our Community Enrichment Committee, led by Robin Monteiro, is charging forward with new projects. As we wrapped up our trash receptacle art campaign successfully, now we're looking for new ideas. So the idea that we're presenting today is a mural on city property. And we're looking to bring more art to our community and identifying public and private wall spaces with significant visual impact. That means not the backside of a building that nobody's going to see, something that can be seen from a place where lots of public is. And we've identified quite a lot of spaces around town that we think could use some beautification and that we're looking to pursue. And our current status, we've identified those spaces and we've interviewed several professional muralists and we're evaluating quotes. The first project that we have in our sights is the north face of the public bathroom of the convention center parking lot. This is a virtually unobstructed space that is eight foot by 48 feet. This is the space at the moment. These are AI mockups. They are not the real images. This is not what I'm proposing to put on there. Just to be perfectly clear, I know everybody has an opinion. Art is subjective. But these are just ideas of things that similar styles of art that might go on the wall. And then based on the quotes we receive, we'll work with the chosen, oh, so this is how we'll decide. Based on the quotes that we receive, we'll work with our artist to design an image befitting the space. The goal is to lean on the artist's talent and not dictate to them what the exact image should be. Our community enrichment committee will decide on the image and we will present it to the city for a final sign-off. And we'll gather the necessary paperwork from the artist, which is the VARA, and sign an agreement with the city like we did for the trash receptacle art campaign. And so I'm asking for your approval to move forward on this project and beautify our community.

Chris.

Go ahead, Seth.

I was just going to say, I think that's a great location, very visible. And it's just amazing how much a mural like that adds to like the character of an area. So I think that's a great spot that really, you know, there's no other use for it. And I think it'll add a lot to it. So I'm all in favor.

I just wonder how you're going to incorporate that tsunami sign into the picture. The, um, What's the old roller rink up in Astoria commissioned something like that? Oh, the armory? The armory, yeah.

Yes, one of the muralists is the muralist that did the armory painting, yes.

It's something we point out as a trolley driver because it really incorporates a lot of Astoria. So now I can brag and tell the people in Astoria, go look at Seasides. It's better once you get it.

He's very good at his job. He's a teacher. He teaches commercial art in high school down in Newport. And that's Casey McEnany. He's really good. But we've interviewed several muralists.

I think it's wonderful to add art in our community. I have a couple questions. One is how much would this be costing and who's paying the cost? And the other is who will be responsible for the maintenance? I know we have a beautiful mural on the convention center. I don't know what that costs us to maintain. in terms of making sure that, you know, graffiti is taken care of and that it still stays vibrant. I know a lot of people like to take pictures there, and this gives people another place to take pictures and show off Seaside. But I want to make sure that what kinds of strings the city has to think about.

Sure. The funding, it is going to be funded through the Chamber. That being said, I will be applying for the Arts and Vitality Grant through the Tourism Advisory Committee to contribute to that. I cannot tell you what the price is going to be. I can give you a range of the quotes. They were from $6,000 to $25,000. A lot of that depends on the detail of the image itself. As you can see right in the center, that is... It's very elaborate. And that would probably be around 25. But yeah, they range so significantly. And it's going to come down to the choice of the artist's style, most likely, rather than the price, because they vary in their style as well. And so something we want to make sure that the artist is fitting what we're going for. And as far as maintenance, so in discussing this with the artists, I talked to Paul Stoll about this project prior to coming here and he said, well, let's make sure that we have the right paint. And that is one thing hiring somebody who is a novice at muralists, you would worry about the type of paint. that they use these muralists all are very specifically using exterior mural paints that are there for longevity and then in addition to that they have clear coats and graffiti coats as well so they they're they're well practiced this is definitely a very accessible like rather than the armory which is not very accessible without a significantly tall ladder this is pretty accessible and so there is a worry like anything else like we've had to remove stickers from the trash cans also. But I guess I would ask for the city's partnership in maintaining that with graffiti. It'll be a city property for sure. And so getting that graffiti cleaned off, but knowing that that graffiti coating is on there, that is with the full intent of knowing that there's graffiti probably will happen at some point and being able to manage that graffiti just like any other city property. For the vibrancy, the continued vibrancy of that, that would be something that the chamber would have to decide whether they wanted to continue to pay for that. Say it lasted eight years and after eight years it needed some refresher. We would at that point have to decide whether we want to continue with that specific mural piece or move on to a different image.

and spencer in the city will make an agreement like they did with the trash cans so ongoing maintenance and all those things will be in whatever you do i was just going to say i think the motion i put in your staff report is to

APPROVE THE GENERAL CONCEPT OF APPROVE THE GENERAL CONCEPT OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PUBLIC THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PUBLIC ART PROJECT AND AUTHORIZE THE ART PROJECT AND AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE SEASIDE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE THE SEASIDE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE TO ALLOW THE PROJECT TO MOVE TO ALLOW THE PROJECT TO MOVE FORWARD. FORWARD. AND SO MAYBE JUST ADD MY TWO AND SO MAYBE JUST ADD MY TWO CENTS REALLY QUICK. I think the success of the track program, the art on the trash cans, the art is more beautiful and interesting than I imagined it would be. So I think it's been a resounding success. So kudos to the Chamber and to Rob and to everyone who worked on that. It's fantastic and it's fun seeing new ones as you walk around the city and see trash cans you hadn't noticed before. um and so i think it also provides a good template for how to move forward how to work with the chamber and i think we would exercise a similar agreement that lays out the responsibilities so there's clear responsibilities and i think that like good fences and neighbors a good agreement is is great for us in the chamber and for a long-term relationship and so I have a lot more, not that I didn't have confidence before, but I have a lot more confidence knowing how well that project went with the project in this. You know, full trust in their ability to see the project through. If it goes the same way that the track program went, I don't see any concerns. I think it will be a great addition.

Patrick?

I love it. I think it's a great canvas there. I like the idea. And the graffiti cure coating is definitely going to be necessary. You got that under control. I love it.

I say let's move forward with it.

I was getting my teeth cleaned last week, and my dental hygienist was telling me the entire time, you know, I had stuff in my mouth and couldn't talk, and she was going on and on about the track art and how much she liked it. So it's such a huge success. I think it brings smiles to people's faces, and I'm just proud that you guys are going to continue that and try this. I think it's a great thing to try.

Just like the trash can project, not that our bathrooms are ugly, but you're taking something that is not exactly good looking and you're making it beautiful. Home run. I do have a question about preparing the canvas there. Can you paint right on that or are they putting something down first or how does that work?

Uh, I mean, putting something down to protect the sidewalk from drips. Yes, but I don't, uh, I'm not sure about the, um, uh, priming of it, but that is part of any sort of prep as part of the muralist quotes.

Okay. So when picking new locations, are you looking for a certain type of wall or can they just work with anything?

Yeah, I'm not fessing up to that. No, I mean, because it's rough. I mean, is that what you're asking? Because that's rough. So he's looking, we looked at, when I met with one of the artists, we met with two artists in person and one remotely. And when I met with the most recent artist on Friday, we looked at about 10 different locations in Seaside. uh, all varying surfaces for sure. You know, flat surface is easier, but, uh, they're, they're used to working on a variety of surfaces. Is that kind of what you're asking?

Yeah. So I'm going to make an additional comment, and if we have something beautiful on the bathroom, outside of the bathroom building, I would hope that the city would finally upgrade the little garden patch that is around the lighting stanchions, because that has looked like Second say the word and to have a nice impression here and then walk just not very far to Another part of the parking lot and see what that looks like really is counterproductive Maybe we can find somebody to adopt that like they're gonna adopt the dog park Okay any further discussion I

I'd like a motion.

Do we need a motion for this one?

Or just a general concept. Let's put it into motion.

I move to approve the mural project between, oh. I think there's a written motion. I move to approve the general concept of the Chamber of Commerce public art project and authorize the city manager to negotiate and enter into an agreement with the Seaside Chamber of Commerce to allow the project to move forward.

Second.

Councilor Benneker, Council President Morrissey. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much. We look forward to seeing the proposed mural. Okay, time to move into all of our financial ones and here comes our finance director first steps public hearing for resolution 4087 4087 regarding city's election to receive state revenue sharing

RIGHT, EVENING MAYOR AND COUNCIL. RIGHT, EVENING MAYOR AND COUNCIL. SO WE FIND OURSELVES AT THE SO WE FIND OURSELVES AT THE FINAL STAGE OF THE BUDGET FINAL STAGE OF THE BUDGET PROCESS FOR NEXT YEAR. PROCESS FOR NEXT YEAR. THIS YEAR WE'LL HAVE SOME THIS YEAR WE'LL HAVE SOME AMENDMENTS TO THE BUDGET NEXT AMENDMENTS TO THE BUDGET NEXT COUNCIL MEETING. AND THAT WILL WRAP UP THIS YEAR FOR THE MOST PART UNTIL WE GET TO THE AUDIT PORTION. AS A REMINDER FOR ALL OF YOU AND FOR ALL OF THE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD THAT ARE WATCHING THIS, THE BUDGET PROCESS IN OREGON IS THREE STEPS. Spencer and I and the department heads sit down starting in December And from the period of December to probably I don't know mid-march I would say Develop the budget that we recommend to the Budget Committee, which is step two in the process The Budget Committee has their their input and upon REACHING SOME SORT OF A RESOLUTION WITH THAT, THEY REACHING SOME SORT OF A RESOLUTION WITH THAT, THEY THEN RECOMMEND THAT TO CITY THEN RECOMMEND THAT TO CITY COUNCIL. COUNCIL. SO THAT'S THE STEP WE'RE AT SO THAT'S THE STEP WE'RE AT TONIGHT. HERE'S A QUICK AGENDA FOR TONIGHT. YOU'VE ALREADY DONE THE YOU'VE ALREADY DONE THE TECHNICAL PART WHICH WAS LEVYING TECHNICAL PART WHICH WAS LEVYING THE TAXES FOR NEXT YEAR. THE TAXES FOR NEXT YEAR. SO THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU SO THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU GET TO DICTATE HOW IT'S SPENT. GET TO DICTATE HOW IT'S SPENT. SO THE FIRST ITEM THERE IS SO THE FIRST ITEM THERE IS RESOLUTION 4087 WHICH IS THE STATE SO I PULLED THE REVENUE FIGURES THAT ARE INCLUDED IN THIS FROM LAST YEAR, AND YOU CAN SEE IT'S IN THE REALM OF ABOUT A MILLION DOLLARS BETWEEN THE FIVE ITEMS THAT THIS RESOLUTION AGREES WITH THE STATE TO RECEIVE, IN ESSENCE. CITY COUNCIL HAS TO ELECT TO DO THAT. Yeah, that's pretty straightforward. Any questions with that one?

This is one that's just a given, and I'm not sure really why anybody would turn down the money. So I will open the public hearing on Resolution 4087 if anybody has anything to say about why we wouldn't take this. Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Councillors, any comments? No comments, I would take a motion to read 4087.

I move to read resolution 4087 by title only.

Second.

That's Councillor Benneker, Councillor Ansbrough. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Spencer?

I got it right here if you want it. Give me one second. And now it just all closed on me. Let me read it right here. Resolution 4087 resolution for the city of Seaside, Oregon, declaring the city's election to receive state revenue sharing.

Motion to adopt.

I move to adopt. I'll second.

Councillor Benninger, Councillor Montero. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Resolution 4087 passes unanimously.

Okay, moving on. RESOLUTION 4088, IT DICTATES THE APPROPRIATION FOR THE SEASIDE ROAD DISTRICT, WHICH MUST BE APPROPRIATED SEPARATELY FROM THE MAIN CITY BUDGET AND THE URBAN RENEWAL FUND. SO THERE'S THREE ENTITIES THAT CITY COUNCIL AND OR THE IMPROVEMENT COMMISSION APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR, THE MAIN CITY BUDGET, THE SEASIDE ROAD DISTRICT, AND THE SEASIDE URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY. You'll see the seaside main budget later. This one's the road district, so it's the second one as the Improvement Commission has already passed the urban renewal budget. I SHOULD MENTION, THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TO FUNDING SOME OF THE ROAD PROJECTS THAT WE WANT TO FUND GOING INTO THE SHORT TO MIDTERM. SO THAT'S THE LARGE PORTION OF THE CAPITAL OUTLAY THERE.

I WAS DOING THE SAME THING AS SPENCER, GETTING BACK TO THE RIGHT PAGE. PUBLIC HEARING FOR RESOLUTION 4088. ANYBODY IN THE PUBLIC WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE ROAD DISTRICT? We'll close public hearing and cancel comments.

I have a question. Up there it says the total requirements are $1.772727. And what I see here is the staff analysis says the appropriating 1.866,428. Yes.

I'm wondering if I pulled that off of a previous version. Let me come back to this one. I'll do this one with the amendments for next council meeting. My apologies. I'm looking at the same thing and you're right. So I'll come back with this one. So to be continued here. Okay, resolution 4089. This is the main city seaside budget. So this one, there are a couple changes that are technical in nature. And then there's one request that I have of you all to discuss. So you can see up there the budget committee recommendation and the requested appropriation are different. The reason being there are two formula errors that didn't capture contingency funding within the sewer replacement fund and the 911 special revenue fund. SO ON THOSE TWO ITEMS, COUNCIL HAS TWO OPTIONS. THEY WERE IN THE BUDGET BOOK. THEY DIDN'T GET SWEPT INTO THE BASICALLY SUMMARY PAGE I USE FOR THE BIG NUMBER. SO WE CAN DO ONE OF TWO THINGS. WE CAN EITHER REMOVE THE CONTINGENCY FROM BOTH OF THOSE ITEMS AND GO BACK TO THAT PREVIOUS NUMBER, WHICH IS THE 12,826, OR WE CAN AMEND TO THE NEW NUMBER THAT INCLUDES THE CONTINGENCY FUNDING THAT WAS IN THERE, LIKE I SAID ON THE DETAIL PAGES, JUST DIDN'T MAKE IT INTO THE SUMMARY. THE SECOND ITEM IS WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO WRAP OUR HEADS AROUND, BRIAN ALLUDED TO IT A LITTLE BIT EARLIER, How to handle food and beverage sales at the convention center it is It is the biggest puzzle piece that I have to come I have to solve every year because food is getting more and more expensive and they're getting very successful at selling it and so because WE PAY FOR THE FOOD UP FRONT TO OREGON FINE FOODS AND THEN WE PAY FOR THE FOOD UP FRONT TO OREGON FINE FOODS AND THEN WE RECEIVE THE REVENUE ON THE BACK RECEIVE THE REVENUE ON THE BACK END BECAUSE THEY ARE SO SUCCESSFUL END BECAUSE THEY ARE SO SUCCESSFUL IN SELLING FOOD IT'S GOING WELL IN SELLING FOOD IT'S GOING WELL BEYOND THE BUDGET THAT HAS BEEN BEYOND THE BUDGET THAT HAS BEEN APPROVED IN RECENT YEARS TO BE ABLE APPROVED IN RECENT YEARS TO BE ABLE TO PAY FOR THAT FOOD. SO WHAT I WOULD REQUEST OF CITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS IS INCREASING THAT BUDGET LINE BY 500,000, WHICH IS UNDER THE 10% THRESHOLD THAT TRIGGERS EXTRA REQUIREMENTS, NOTICING REQUIREMENTS, HEARING REQUIREMENTS, THAT TYPE OF THING. to be able to make up the difference and not have to scramble at this time next year to solve this puzzle again.

So my question on that is that EXTRA 500,000 IN THE REQUIREMENTS SECTION?

YES.

HOW IS IT BEING BALANCED OUT IN THE INCOME SECTION, RESOURCES SECTION?

THIS IS ONE OF THOSE ITEMS THAT'S COMPLETELY BACKED BY REVENUE. SO THE AGREEMENT THAT WE HAVE WITH BRIAN IS THAT LET'S SAY THAT WE DO INCREASE THIS BUDGET LINE. And then we come in under budget next year, right? So if we go to 2 million and then we don't make it to 2 million, say we make it to 1.8. What I don't want to happen is for Brian to look at that bottom materials and services number and go, hey, I've got an extra 200,000 here to spend. because it's not backed by revenue, right? And so the agreement that we've come up with is that he will separate that from the greater materials and services budget so that he's not looking at that when he takes his budgeting into account, if that makes sense. So it segregates that in a way. so that it's not considered with the rest of his budget.

But by doing this, will the budget be a balanced budget for the convention center? Yes. Okay. And then I have the same question regarding those contingencies. What does that do to the balanced budget? If those contingencies are sitting in requirements, what's sitting in resources?

So they're offset, right? So the resources, the funds were correct on the detail page, right? So let's just say for, and I can pull it up right here. So the sewer replacement fund has, when I put out the budget book, the resources available are just over 2.5 million. And the ending fund balance plus the expenses are just over two point five million so they were balanced in the detail pages of the budget book they just didn't make it into the uh... into the summary that adds up that hundred and twelve million so technically then if they were already balanced in the detailed part of the budget and that and the budget is what the budget committee recommended to us

Technically, that's what they recommended, right?

In a way, yes. I'm just trying to make sure that all our bases are covered from the state's perspective. I don't think it's likely, frankly, that we use either of these funding sources anyway. It's just an effort to... BE TRANSPARENT. WELL, TO BE TRANSPARENT AND WELL, TO BE TRANSPARENT AND TO HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY IF WE TO HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY IF WE FIND OURSELF IN THAT POSITION FOR FIND OURSELF IN THAT POSITION FOR SOME REASON. SOME REASON. THE ONE BIG QUESTION MARK, THE ONE BIG QUESTION MARK, SPECIFICALLY WITH THE SEWER SPECIFICALLY WITH THE SEWER REPLACEMENT FUND IS THAT'S WHERE REPLACEMENT FUND IS THAT'S WHERE WE'RE FUNDING THE DRIER FROM. And so if for some reason, I don't want to get into that because there's litigation going on, but if some reason something happened, that could be a place where contingency might be appropriate. But I don't think it's likely.

But it's in there already.

Right. It's in there already.

It's just not in the summary.

It's not in that 112 million number, yes.

Zach, does the correction of the formulas actually reduce the appropriation and the additional budget to the convention center increases the appropriation so the net is really $240,000?

Yeah, so the net effect of the convention center is zero because what it does is it increases the budget, but then it reduces the ending fund balance. And so that one's actually zero. The $240,000 that you're seeing is the net effect of adding those two contingency items into that $112 million.

We're not talking about income at all here. We're talking about expenses only. That's what the budget requirements are. You don't talk about where you're getting the money to pay. You have to make sure it balances. But at the budget resolution that we make, we're only talking about the expenses, the requirements.

Agree, but if we're talking about appropriation.

And that's not what we're really spending either.

so one one one key thing is you're we're also appropriating the ending fund balance that's considered a requirement under oregon law and so as you as you increase a budget line for anything then the the end result of that reduces the ending fund balance all things equal it's it's our weird oregon budget law i get that but here just i promise fine point

Yes. On the convention center, let's pretend like we don't have to appropriate any changes for the formula errors, right? So we're just adding beverage sales of $500,000. Would your recommendation go up to $112,552,361 or $112,512,826? Wouldn't you be adding $500,000 to your appropriation? No. No, no, no. Because how do I say this another way?

Because those are already funds that are accounted for, but they're just accounted for in the ending fund balance right now. Does that make sense? So let's say for a second, under the current budget, without the extra half a million dollars, say the ending fund balance was $2 million. Then we increase that one line by a half million dollars. Now, that one line will go up by $500,000, but the other one's going to drop by $500,000. The ending fund balance is going to drop by $500,000. So the net effect is zero.

So you're not adding it to resources. You're debiting it from the ending fund balance.

Well, it's a little more complex than that. Right now, we're just talking about requirements. We're just talking about money out the door. Right, right. So the answer to both of your questions is technically yes, because yes, it will be backed by revenue. But just from the pure expenses standpoint, you're basically pulling from one. If you think of the ending fund balance just like any other expense in your budget, you're essentially reallocating funds between the two. Did I answer your question?

Chris, that works for you? Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay.

what do we have to do to so approve that or what so I can leave this up and you can discuss this is the this is the all of the different buckets that make up the city of Seaside budget sorry that ended up a little bit smaller than I intended it to be and that is the sum of all of these items do we have the actual budget number that we could display instead of the budget with all the transfers right there that one right there that does that include the transfers that in that includes the additions to contingency and uh and the increase in the convention center budget Now, I would suggest that you discuss those things separately. Because doing one doesn't necessarily give me authority to do the other.

Right, exactly. You know how people ask us, what's the city's budget?

That's, well, that's inflated slightly. What's the actual amount we plan on spending? I think we need both of those.

Without all the transfers, without all of that stuff.

Wasn't it 52 or 42?

Around there. It's in the realm of 35 to 40 typically.

But this one is going to be a little higher.

Because we added so many capital projects.

Give me a day and I will send that number out to everyone so that you know it. I just want to make sure that I don't mess up the formula or anything.

I think that would be something good for us to display every year just so the public knows what our actual expenditures are.

Well, just for context, this number last year was, I want to say it was $90,000. Three or so so that hundred and twelve the difference is the transfer the Trent was it 93 the the transfers to fund capital is what increases that so substantially so I

Okay, just stepping back for a second. I'm going to be very clear. We tabled resolution 407, right?

Council's okay with that. That's the road district? Yeah, the road district.

Okay, public hearing for resolution 4088, adopting and appropriating the road district budget. Any open public hearing? Anybody?

I thought we tabled the road district budget.

Because he was going to bring us the... That's revenue sharing, yeah. It's 4088 we tabled. Yes. We're on 4089. Resolution of the City of Seaside adopting and appropriating the 26-27 City of Seaside budget. Seeing nobody that wants to get up and talk about budget anymore, we'll close that. Any councilor comments?

Because of the information that we're just being given, I don't have a clear picture of really what we're appropriating. And you said you needed to bring some figures back to us.

I'm pretty confident in this main budget that that is the number that I'm looking at right here. You're right, though, on the road district budget, that wasn't correct.

Yeah, I'm not talking road district. I'm talking the city budget. Because we asked a couple questions, and you were saying YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD A NUMBER.

I THINK THAT QUESTION IS I THINK THAT QUESTION IS NOT IN THE BUDGET. NOT IN THE BUDGET. THAT'S A HOW DO WE DESCRIBE THAT'S A HOW DO WE DESCRIBE THIS WHEN WE TAKE OUT THE THIS WHEN WE TAKE OUT THE TRANSFERS. TRANSFERS. THAT DOESN'T CHANGE THE BUDGET THAT DOESN'T CHANGE THE BUDGET NUMBERS THAT YOU'RE ADOPTING. NUMBERS THAT YOU'RE ADOPTING. THAT'S NOT A NUMBER IN THE THAT'S NOT A NUMBER IN THE BUDGET BUT SOMETHING WE WANT TO

And you're saying we're adopting a budget of $112,252,361? That's correct. And that was what was advertised, the UR1. That's what's in, yeah.

I used a spreadsheet. I'm strongly, as I've done in the past, strongly encouraged us to buy this budget software and get it installed so we get away from the spreadsheets. But I had to check it because I just have to check. Then I actually notice that, okay, yeah, everything's there. So the number that we're approving is correct. And that's what the actual budget book, when it's finalized, will be. now we do have another meeting this month so if there's something that does come up we can fix it but i trust that you're very confident in this piece yes and the other piece is just simply the the number wasn't the same number as advertised so we need to get that fixed but is the same number as his resolution It is, but the number.

But just not what he was showing you up there.

Right, the number he's showing us. Here's a different number, so which one's right?

Well, and that was also advertised in the legal on the same as the resolution, so.

Yeah, so if it's wrong, it needs to be advertised again.

That's correct.

Right. Hopefully, just the number he showed us was wrong. What was advertised was correct. OK. I think I'm on the right one. Yes. Motion to read resolution by title only.

I move to read resolution 4089 by title only.

I'll second.

Councilor Benneker and Council President Morrissey. And that would include the amendments that have been made.

Resolution 4089, a resolution of the City of Seaside, Oregon, adopting and appropriating the 2026-2027 City of Seaside budget.

Move motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt. Second.

Council Ironsboro and Council Binnicker. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Resolution 4089, adopted unanimously. Resolution 4090, resolution regarding annual budget consideration for business and economic development partner organizations. As referred to earlier, there it is. I'll open again for any public comments. Seeing none, close. Councilors, I would like a motion to read by title only.

I move to read resolution 4090 by title only.

Second.

Councilor Bruneker, Council President Morrissey. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Spencer? resolution 4090 a resolution regarding annual budget consideration for business and economic development partner association organizations i have a motion to adopt wow okay councillor montero and councillor benneker all those in favor say aye aye any opposed Motion for resolution 4090 passes unanimously. Okay. Okay. Let's spend some more money.

Final item for you. Let's check on that spending of money.

Yeah, okay.

So April 1st, the city went out in collaboration with SEPRD, and we issued an RFP for audit services. As many of you know, Rick, who has been the city's auditor for... A LONG TIME, HAS SINCE RETIRED, AND WE WISH HIM WELL. I HOPE HE'S HAVING A BLAST. BUT ON THE HEELS OF THAT, WE NEEDED TO GO OUT AND FIND A NEW AUDITOR. SO WE PARTNERED UP WITH SEPRD THINKING THAT SINCE OUR OFFICE IS RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THEIRS, THAT IT MIGHT MAKE IT A LITTLE MORE ATTRACTIVE TO BE ABLE TO GET THE AUDIT SERVICES FOR TWO SEPARATE ENTITIES VERSUS JUST COMING TO SEASIDE FROM ELSEWHERE IN THE STATE. SO WE DID THAT. WE RECEIVED FOUR BIDS BACK. OF THOSE FOUR, WE INTERVIEWED THREE OF THEM, AND ULTIMATELY WE LANDED ON A COMPANY OUT OF BEAVERTON CALLED CLEAR TRAIL CPAs. YOU CAN SEE THE AMOUNT OF THE AWARD OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS. THAT EXCEEDS THE PURCHASING THRESHOLD THAT SPENCER AND I HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SPEND ON AND AUTHORIZE SOMETHING LIKE THIS. AS A NOTE OF TRANSPARENCY, WE INTERVIEWED THREE DIFFERENT FIRMS. THERE WERE REALLY TWO FINALISTS AT THE END AND THEY WERE FAIRLY CLOSE IN TERMS OF SCORING. One was a fair amount cheaper than the other. So the one that you're seeing tonight was the more expensive of the two finalists. And the reason for that was that it came down to a difference in philosophy between the two firms. So with the second firm, I'm sure they demonstrated they were qualified. We were pretty happy with the answers that they gave us. The concern that I had was that we would consistently be dealing with a different person year after year after year. Because what was going to happen was they were going to send out their junior folks to come in out of the city, which may be perfectly fine, right? But given the importance of this relationship and understanding the financial setup of the city, Clear Trail, their philosophy is similar to Rick's was, where I called Rick when I had a question. I didn't call whoever was next on the totem pole or call into a hotline to be assigned to anyone else. Ultimately, for full transparency, this is the more expensive of the two finalists. And I just wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page with the reasoning there. So with that, I'll take any questions.

So they have committed to sending out senior staff?

It's the partner, and he's got one specific person that he works with. He said those are the only two people we'll deal with.

And he's not so old that he's going to retire next year?

I wouldn't put words in his mouth, but no, he's committed for at least three. Okay.

It doesn't look too old.

I think continuity in auditing is priceless. I know. So I understand your rationale completely.

And so do I. I dealt with otters a lot, obviously, over 35 years. And if you had to change the person you were talking to every year, it's terrible. And because, well, this company does deal with a lot of cities, so that's a great experience. So I have no problem with it. And it's not much different than what we've been spending. Yeah, that was my question. It's a question about not spending much less or saving a whole bunch and putting a whole lot of work on our department.

So how does this firm compare to what we were spending previously?

It's about the same.

It might actually even be.

It was about $1,000 more.

Yeah, it's right there in the same ballpark.

Yeah, $1,000 higher than our last contract year. AND OUR CONTRACTS ARE COMPLETELY SEPARATE. SEPARATE. SO THERE'S A CONTRACT FOR THE SO THERE'S A CONTRACT FOR THE CITY, THERE'S A CONTRACT FOR THE CITY, THERE'S A CONTRACT FOR THE CITY, THERE'S A CONTRACT FOR THE URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY. URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY. URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY.

SO THE CITY CONTRACT WILL COVER SO THE CITY CONTRACT WILL COVER THOSE TWO ENTITIES, BUT SEPRD, THOSE TWO ENTITIES, BUT SEPRD, THEY'RE NEGOTIATING ON THEIR

There are no further comments. I thought we had a motion up there.

No, the next one is a thank you slide. I got one here.

Okay.

I move to authorize the city management to execute a three-year professional services contract with Clear Trail CPAs for audit services for the city of Seaside and the Seaside Urban Renewal Agency substantially in the form approved by staff and legal counsel in the amount not to exceed $185,250 for base audit services plus single audit services if required. Second.

against President Morrissey and Councillor Binnicker. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It's ordered to, what was their name, Clear Trail.

All right, Trail. Thank you, everyone.

Okay. We accomplished a lot tonight. uh keep our city functioning moving forward with spending money and time to move into our city staff comments anybody in the back there good evening everybody hi

Thanks for having me. I just wanted to kind of talk quickly about some of the things we've been doing here recently real quickly is just been doing a little bit of training for our guys. We've been doing some online CPR recertification and next week. the fire department personnel will be giving us the hands-on portion of that and then also last year we got approved for new tasers or less lethal equipment and those are physically here we've gotten our taser instructors their updated training for this new system And then there's been an online, some training with that as well. And then we're getting very close probably next week as well to do the hands-on training for that. So we'll see some new equipment hitting the streets here within the next couple of weeks. Additionally, and kind of a sad note, I don't know if you saw our post, but Bob Gross, chief of police here for about nine, ten years or so right before I became the chief, passed away in the first part of May. And our... THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE GOING OUT TO THE GROSS FAMILY THERE I DON'T HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON WHETHER OR NOT THERE'S GOING TO BE A SERVICE IF ANYBODY'S INTERESTED IN HEARING THAT WHEN I FIND OUT FROM THE FAMILY I KNEW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT NOT HAVING ONE IMMEDIATELY POSSIBLY JULY I'LL GET THAT OUT BUT I KNOW SOME OF YOU KNEW HIM MAYBE MORE THAN OTHERS OR AT LEAST THE WAY HE WAS RESPECTED AROUND HERE AND WE REALLY MISS HIM SO THANKS THANK YOU TOO

Hello, Chief.

We are not going to be the taser dummies.

I was waiting for him to ask if he wanted to volunteer. Brian's raising his hand.

That's fine. Anybody else volunteer? A couple things. If you guys got the note, the airport, we'll be out at the airport helping Public Works burn some piles. They've done a lot of tree trimming, so it's going to be a cost-saving. A LOT OF MONEY TO GET RID OF, SO WE'RE GOING TO BURN WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, SO THE PUBLIC KNOWS. IF YOU SEE A LOT OF SMOKE IN THE AREA, IT'S US. WE'RE ALSO GOING TO USE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SOME TRAINING WITH MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS. SO WE'LL BE OUT THERE IF YOU GUYS ARE OUT WATCHING US, WHAT WE'RE DOING. IT'S NOT BECAUSE It's controlled burn. We're controlling it. So fire season starts June 15th, a little earlier. Usually we wait till July. That's in partnership with Oregon Department of Forestry. They regulate it when the fire chiefs try to, or the county fire departments try to stay the same so it doesn't confuse the public. So we're not in the district different than in the cities. So we're going to go into the same time. I know it's a perfect day with this stormy weather to tell everybody that it's fire season. But we're expected 80 degrees this weekend. So the temperature is supposed to change a little. We do have guards on if you guys have been on the beach. Our staff have been working really hard getting those lifeguard vehicles together, put together, tower. It's all up in semi-fours. We help things public works because that tower is a pain in the butt every year to put up. But they did a great job getting that done. And there's a lot of permitting we have to do at state parks that seems to get harder and harder sometimes. So thanks for that partnership. Yeah. Other than that, you guys will meet our new emergency management coordinator on the 22nd when we do our end of the year review. He'll be with us. He's done a great job with Landry, but he's also sent you guys all an email. So part of our incident action plan for the 4th of July is having counselors' information in case something were to go awry, we could give Spencer all that information on where you're at. So if you have any questions, that's why he sent you that email. Please get that information back to him. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Either one of our business partners? No?

Okay.

Yeah. John? Okay. Kim?

Oh, I just feel like I should apologize to you because I wasn't meaning like that. I'm not going to put the applicants in your packets. I'm going to be out of town that weekend. Otherwise, you know that I would just be there for you. So that's why I was like, yeah, I'm not around to do that. I apologize.

Kim is more than willing to help you if you are applying for a position on this council this fall. She's got everything ready for you. Spencer. Spencer.

Just appreciate everyone who came out to the open house we had last week for the Broadway intersection. I'm sure some of you may comment on that. And then appreciate the Chamber and SCDA. I'll be able to present this week and next week to their organizations, continue to get the word out and encourage them and the public to review the documents and submit their comments. So ultimately at our next meeting, the council's ready to make a decision on that intersection. So we look forward to that. And then I know I promised many of you that we'd get an update on the sewer odor situation. And so I want to go through that really quickly. Our public works director, Paul, is out of town, but I also think that Um, some of this can be technical. And so if I can't understand it and explain it, we shouldn't be discussing it in a public meeting. And so our, our, uh, Walter, our sewer supervisor offered to come. And I said, no, we don't want, if we have to get to that technical of details, um, we we've lost something in translation, hopefully. So, um, Okay, first thing I want to start off with is current status as I met with Walter this morning. So the staff down there report that the odor event was essentially resolved about last Friday. The treatment basin that was causing the most of the concern has returned to the same color and condition as the basin that was performing much better. Staff's estimate is that this year's odor event lasted approximately 10 days by comparison. Last year's Memorial Day odor event took closer to four weeks to get under control. This does not mean that the odor was not real or disruptive. It was, but this year's event appears to have been resolved much more quickly than last year's. What this issue is and what it's not, this is an odor issue. It was not a sewer overflow. Sewage was not entering the river or other waterways. I should say untreated sewer. The city has no permit violations related to this issue that we sample and report regularly to the Department of Environmental Quality. There's no public health concern related to this odor event. The odor was unpleasant and disruptive, but it was not evidence of untreated sewage being discharged. So I thought I'd take you through the anatomy of our sewer plant. If you want to do a tour sometime, we can. Here's the aerial view of our sewer plant. Right there is our headworks. This is likely to be the most proliferous odor of the area. I don't know how to say that nicer, but this is where all the sewer lines come into the plant and is screened. This is raw sewage coming in. Over here we have the equalization or holding basins. So this works with the next part here, the aeration system, to... help so we're not it helps um control the amount going through so it's balanced a little bit more so we can have a more of a steady amount going in um to it to a certain degree um that that's what that helps with so it's kind of uh there's always um water needing to be treated in there but it can be raised and lowered depending on the amount of that that's coming at one time. If you think about it like this way I think about it maybe it's not correct a larger swimming pool is easier to keep the pH balances right when you're doing a public pool than a smaller one you know one contamination can send it off course really quickly. So we have more that we're treating at any one time. This is the aeration system. So the purpose of this is to add oxygen into the system. For those of you who don't know, the way this works is there are what we call in the industry bugs. They're basically eating what is coming through, and that is the main source of treatment, and they do an excellent job. In order for them to thrive and be healthy, they need oxygen. The more oxygen they are eating, their food is a waste. It's a great service they do. This was the area where we were having some troubles. The one on the south on the bottom of the screen was operating great. The one on the north on the top of that circle was struggling. And at about 50% capacity, it's got these big weirs that and stir up and add oxygen, and half of those were not in operation. That contributed to the situation we were in. Right here are the clarifiers. After it's been treated with the bugs, the treated water goes here, which separates the liquids from solids. The solids fall to the bottom. The clear water by this time overflows over the topping, so they get separated out. The water from there goes over here. This is our UV disinfection. So it goes here, is treated by UV, and then goes into the river. The solids that come out of there are transferred over here to our dryer system where they are dried. And then rather than paying for disposal, we have a farmer who comes and takes it away. Circle of life. Laughter

Does he feed it to his animals?

No, I think it goes on the land as a fertilizer enhancement.

And then it's fed to the animals.

That's the essence of how it works. Mostly what we're going to talk about is the aeration system. That's the part that was having the most troubles, but it's all ties together. Why this happens around Memorial Day? Memorial Day is an annual transition point for the wastewater system. During winter and spring, the rainfall and groundwater entering the sewer system create a higher volume and more diluted flows. SO WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE CAPACITY OF THE SYSTEM FROM A TOTAL VOLUME, THE WINTER IS OUR BUSIEST MONTH, EVEN IF IT'S OUR LOWEST POPULATION IN THE CITY. THEN AS THE WEATHER BEGINS TO DRY OUT OVER THE SPRING, THE WATER DROPS OFF AND THE WASTE WATER BECOMES MUCH MORE CONCENTRATED. Memorial Day brings a sudden increase in people using the system and that sends a much more concentrated wastewater to the plant over a short period of time. This can stress the biological treatment process and create odors while the plant stabilizes. So this is a biological treatment that they're always trying to keep within certain parameters and sudden changes that affect the biology stress and are difficult for the system. Why Memorial Day is different? So this is the important point. Not every busy weekend creates the same issue. It really is tied to Memorial Day. So staff, we've reviewed the prior complaints and both what the city's received and online and found the similar odor pattern occurred the exact same time last year, immediately in the weeks following Memorial Day. So it points specifically to after Memorial Day. So this is not simply a general issue after every major event. The 4th of July has a lot more people in town than Memorial Day, and we don't have the same issues. That's because we are up and running at the capacity and at the biology needed at that time. So some level of odor during this annual transition is expected and the city's goal is to reduce the intensity and the duration of these odor impacts and not suggest that it can be eliminated entirely. So the visitor spike has two effects. So it's helpful for the sewer lines and challenging for the plant. The sudden increase in the system use around World Day helps move accumulated wastewater material, I'll let you decide what you think that means, through the sewer lines. That can be beneficial for the collection system, which is our pipes, because it helps move the material along and reduces the risk of a localized sewer problem. Localized sewer problem is what we call a backup. If you get a backup in the line in front of your house and your house is the point of lowest elevation, that's where it's going to come out. And we definitely want to avoid those. However, the same process sends more concentrated amount of the wastewater to the treatment plant over a short period of time. In other words, the Memorial Day spike helps flush the sewer lines, but it also creates a short-term operational challenge at the treatment plant. Why the odor was so noticeable, so some of the factors. So as we've talked about, the treatment was already stressed by the annual Memorial Day transition. Some of this transition may happen, but without the spike, I don't think it would be as noticeable. Part of the plant's aeration system is operating with reduced capacity while a major improvement project is underway. Wind direction and weather affect odors, where odors are noticed. Two of the days last week I spent about a half hour in the early morning at the estuary and didn't notice anything, but as I looked the wind was blowing. towards Gearhart to the north. So some neighborhoods may experience stronger odors than others depending on the location, the wind direction, and the time of day. Odor impacts can be very noticeable even when the plant remains in compliance. what staff have done operationally. So they're actively working to stabilize the plants. So staff did not simply wait for the odor issue to pass. The available aeration was operated at a higher level than normal to add oxygen and support the treatment process. Normally, they operate at about 50% speed as they're turning things up, and they were at 100% for the whole time to speed up that process. Staff moved more waste material directly to the dryer for handling and disposal. So with the treatment, it's an efficiency thing, but they are able to move it through there quicker. But what that means is the solids aren't treated and taken care of by these bugs. Basically, we send less water to the river and more gets wasted into the dryer. And so it's a significantly higher cost to operate the dryer, which is energy intensive. But we were sending as much, especially through that northern aeration basin, as possible to just dispose of it quicker and get it off site. So it is more expensive, but it removes it faster. So these steps did help the plant recover more quickly and staff continued to monitor the conditions and make any adjustments as needed. So the major project for the aeration system is already underway. This has been an ongoing project of more than 18 months now. So this isn't a matter of ordering parts. This is engineering the materials, contracting, and custom manufacturing. The other project we did was the clarifiers, and those we were able to do quite quickly. That was order the new parts. When I say parts, they're huge, but you order them and can get them installed. They're not specifically engineered and designed for our system. So one aeration basin was fully operational, and the second one was at reduced capacity while some of these were getting worked on. And this isn't a temporary, like a few weeks. This is an ongoing thing. There wasn't really an opportunity to have it working during this whole time. And the remaining work is expected to continue through the summer when we think realistically by the end of July everything should be replaced. We say end of summer just in case there's some hiccups along the way. So there's also some questions about what we're putting in the river. And as I mentioned, this isn't a discharge issue, but I did have our staff go out and sample. So they went and sampled the water at Quatap Park, which is upstream from the discharge. The main thing we sample for is fecal coliform. It's a bacteria. The river sample came back with a result of 4.1. Our measurements were zero. We didn't detect any. I think DEQ requires us, I think they say if we have a level of zero, the minimum we can put on the report is one. The assumption is, well, maybe there's some somewhere that didn't pick up in the test. So we're not going to say it's zero, it's one, but we didn't find any in the test. So the treated plant discharge water is as clean or cleaner, I'll say cleaner than what's the water it's going into. And so just again, go support that this was an odor issue, not an untreated sewage entering the river. So for those who may have health concerns, the odor and bacteria are different issues. Sampling shows the discharge was not showing elevated bacteria. The plant is treating and disinfecting water before discharge, and we continue our regular monitoring compliance testing. I think they do testing, I believe it's three times a week. unless there is a known overflow in which they're testing daily or multiple times a day. Another question that has come up is capacity in new housing. So this was not the cause of this odor event. New residential units do add some wastewater flow. However, new housing did not cause the odor event. It's the Memorial Day seasonal shift, as that was discussed earlier. The city does have the capacity to serve the approved housing developments. And the sewer master plan that is underway will help to confirm what the future capacity is and the need for other improvements. So as we've talked with Paul, there are probably some improvements that can be made to the equalization basins to increase their capacity, which will help with the overall treatment. And then I think a big area for improvement will be continued addressing the needs of the issues of infiltration and inundation. So basically rainwater and groundwater that gets into our sewer, that's the cause of why the flows are so high in the winter. And in my mind, my non-engineering mind, the more that we can address that, and so we don't have a huge swing That should help, but I'll wait for our sewer experts on the master plan to identify that. But that will be one of the things that we want to avoid or at least minimize as much as technology will allow. So long-term planning, complete the aeration station system improvements. Did I miss one? Let me go back a little bit. I skipped over this one. So there is another issue, and that's the 12th Avenue lift station. So it's on the corner of 12th and Holiday. And that area, from what our staff say, kind of always smells bad. It's more localized, but it's always present. And so if you live close to that area, you're probably smelling both, and a layperson is not going to distinguish between, you know, exactly the source. So that's understandable. AND THIS IS A SEPARATE THING. THE STAFF DID GO PRIOR TO MEMORIAL DAY. THERE ARE SOME CARBON FILTERS FOR THE VENTING THAT COMES OFF OF THERE THAT THEY DID GO OUT AND SWITCH. THAT CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH. AND SO WE ARE ONGOING PROCESS. IT'S ONE OF OUR APPROVED PROJECTS THAT WE ARE MOVING ON to get a new, well, I can't say a new lift station built, but it reconditioned and kind of repurposed and redone so it can handle what's going on there in a much better location or much better capacity, but also, you know, 95% of the sewer goes through there. And so it's the most critical choke point. And so we want to make sure it's viable for a long time and addresses the issues of any odors coming out of that. And then we continue to work on the master plan, which we'll be looking at the system as a whole, including odors, but all other issues. And that is underway as well. Oh, sorry. I was kind of combining both of these. Let me go back. I covered all that. So summary, the recent treatment plant odor event appears to have been resolved. We'll continue to monitor. We believe it lasted about 10 days compared to four weeks last year. This is an odor issue, not a sewer overflow. Sampling supports that, that we're sending the water into the river cleaner than it came in. Well, cleaner than it is upstream. Some odor during the annual Memorial Day transition is expected, working on ways to reduce the duration and severity and major wastewater improvements are underway including the aeration project and the 12th avenue holiday lift station work happy to answer any questions to the best of my capacity i only have one i think um

Can we get, and you might not have it now, recognize, the 12th Avenue and Holiday Lift Station work? Could we get some timing? I think it would be, I think that is kind of gets conflated in this discussion, and I appreciate how you explained it here, but it would be nice to kind of give a general sense of timing on that work.

Yeah, you can probably do both that and the master plan update, and I can have Paul present that at the next meeting.

Thank you.

Maybe John can move this part of the YouTube video into its own section. We'll see how many likes you get. But it is the most thorough explanation I think we've ever seen, so it certainly should answer the questions. Thank you very much. Okay. Comments? Oh, I was going to let you start this time.

Okay.

Good to have.

Reach out to me about the Scotch broom that's taking over sections of the dune Specifically on the south end of the prom kind of in front of the salt works and I thought it would be helpful to discuss this at a meeting in the sense of is it something the city is It will actively remove North Coast Land Conservancy. I know it goes after it wherever it is, but is that a city policy that we focus on? Can residents?

I'm going to invite Jeff up because where we have a lot of restrictions on what we can do in the dunes, I think we have a little more leeway on the Scotch Broom. So while you're here, Jeff, tell us what you know.

It might be easier to do a little presentation on it. So the city has jurisdiction landward of what's called the statutory vegetation line, which was established in the 70s by the Beach Bill. Beyond that line is OPRD jurisdiction. So we have, while yes we can do scotch broom removal and we permit it quite frequently landward of that line, going beyond that it has to go to the state for approval. They have a little bit different philosophy on how that's handled. While I've let landscapers go out there with a mini backhoe and grab the large scotch broom and pull it out by the root, which is a lot more effective than just cutting it off, they don't allow mechanical means to be used to pull scotch from, at least they haven't permitted it yet. Whether they'll allow that in the future or not, I don't know. It becomes very costly if you can't go out there with a piece of equipment and actually pull it out of the ground. When we've monitored those projects with the mechanical equipment, the damage to the dunes and the beach grass is very minimal and a month later you couldn't even tell they were out there. It cleans it out very nicely. So there are property owners that have done it. They've gotten permits from us. They've hired their own landscapers who have gone out to that statutory vegetation line and depending on where you're at on the prom from about Avenue G north it's pretty much right against the prom wall. Avenue G south it fluctuates out to about 200 feet from the prom wall so it just depends on where the property is located on how far we have that authority to be able to issue permits so it can be done you can get permitted from oprd to do it however will they allow a mechanical a piece of machinery to go out there and physically pick it out they haven't let that happen yet. So I don't know if it's something they would consider in the future. When I've watched it happen, because that was something that was not traditionally permitted by the city to use mechanical means, working with the landscapers, they've all done a very, very good job of minimizing the impact to any native vegetation and going strictly after the scotch broom and blackberries to get the invasive species out of there. And the results have been better than I expected them to be. Does that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

We can have a further discussion about it. This is not the only issue.

And then Councilor Ansborough and I would like to request that we have a council-led discussion on the city's water fluoridation policy at some point, hopefully in the near future. So I'd like to request to put that on the council agenda.

Yeah, I support that wholly.

Okay.

The only thing I would add is I'm not asking for any staff preparation or input of this. I'd just be a quick council discussion. And if we do decide to move forward, then we could bring the staff in and notice the public.

We can just have a discussion. That's fine. Okay. Patrick.

I got an email from a resident with regards to PGE's LED lights. And I spoke up about that when they were in here before. She said that the light was, and she also put in a public comment as well. She said that the light that was replaced is significantly brighter than the one that was originally there. And she also would like to have some discussion on the dark sky policy. I support that wholly. The PGE lighting, lighting should not be brighter in luminance or color temperature than the previous lighting. ALL LIGHTING SHOULD HAVE SHADING TO DIRECT THE LIGHT APPROPRIATELY, AND I PROPOSE THAT WE SHOULD FOLLOW THE DARK SKIES POLICY HERE IN SEASIDE. THIS POLICY IS BETTER FOR OUR RESIDENTS, OUR TOURISTS, WILDLIFE, AND ENVIRONMENT. SO I'D LIKE TO GET THAT ON THE AGENDA. IF THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY TO SLOW DOWN OR PAUSE PGE FROM PUTTING IN LIGHTS WITHOUT MORE PUBLIC COMMENT, AND I WOULD LIKE US TO LOOK INTO THE DARK SKIES POLICY AS WELL.

We do have some dark sky ordinances already. I thought somebody was going to go find them and bring them and make them available to us.

So we don't have a dark sky policy per se, but our street lighting code has many of the components you would find in this dark sky ordinance. We just don't call it that. And so we can research and bring back what we have and maybe what's missing if that's something the council wants to discuss at a future council meeting.

Now the council would agree.

Where did we leave the discussion with Pacific?

Spencer?

That's sort of related, right? I can't remember where we left that.

The request at that time was to move forward with a retrofitting of LEDs, which we are going to move forward. I think part of that discussion got into dark skies and protection to residential homes and stuff like that, which... I think the direction is that where there, don't quote me on this, I'll have to go back and check the minutes, but where there is an existing shield, we would replace one, or if there is an obvious need for one, we would place one. But other than that, it's mostly just replacing what we have today for the new LED, mostly an energy efficiency project rather than anything else. And I think the design of the lights already lends itself to many of the dark sky features, such as you want to point it at the ground and not something that's spilling over everywhere. But I can circle back. So part of the discussion was the approval of that project and the budget. Part of the discussion kind of went on to street lighting and dark sky compliance in general. but the the uh the specific west was to put the in the budget the project amount the the cost to do that transition and that that was um green lit and then no pun intended and then uh approved in the budget tonight

Well, we revisit it and make sure that's what direction we had from that meeting. I don't remember anything needed to be done going forward, but that doesn't mean anything.

And I do remember Councilor Horning being quite an advocate about Dark Sky and bringing it to the council. And we did adopt some things, so it would be good to bring that back so that we can see exactly what was adopted.

The other part of that is that LEDs come in various color temperatures and brightnesses. And so I would like to take the community that these lights are going into into account because some of these lights are going in significantly brighter than the ones that were already in the community. In other areas, they may be just fine. But along the prom, too, things are changing there, and we want to keep the prom. like it was before, and not over-light the situation. So that's what I have with regards to PGE. Are these closing comments? Okay, great. All right. What's that?

Pacific Power.

Right, Pacific Power.

Yeah, not PGE.

Sorry, my bad. Pacific Power. Thank you. thanks for the correction so in closing head start tour that some of us were on that was a wonderful tour that we had and the services that they're providing for the families in our community are just amazing they're doing wonderful job and thank you for that it was also on the community pride walk that was wonderful caring and loving people they're sharing their voices and support in the seaside community Let's see, I'm at the weekly Chamber of Commerce and SDDA meetings. I recommend people attend these if they can. There are amazing business people out there in the community and you can learn more about what they're doing in the business community and also the fun events that are being planned to support and bring our community together. THIS COMING SATURDAY, THE 13TH, FROM 915 TO 1015, AT THE WINE AND BEER HOUSE. I AM HAVING MY COFFEE WITH THE COUNSELOR AT THE OUTLET MALL. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL THERE. AND FINALLY, I'D LIKE TO ANNOUNCE THAT I WILL BE RUNNING FOR MY SEAT IN WARD FOUR. I'VE ENJOYED MY TIME HERE WITH ALL OF YOU. I'VE LEARNED A LOT, AND I'VE GOT SO MUCH MORE TO LEARN.

Yep.

Do you? Okay. Well, I'll start off with my coffee with a counselor is this Wednesday, day after tomorrow, 10 a.m. at the Best Western Ocean Cafe at 4th and Prom. One of the events I attended was the tree board and the museum had a ribbon cutting for the new arboretum. And I think if you haven't been out there, go take a look. It looks so much nicer out there and it was a very nice event. The community center commission, the last meeting we did not have a meeting because we don't even have a quorum. But we had a really good conversation and one member of the public who has since told me that she is going to be submitting an application to be on the commission. She was there and she asked some very good questions. Our newest member did not attend, so we only had really one member of the commission there. um i attended the um well before i even yeah i i attended the uh presentation that odot had and first thing i want to talk about is the odot crosswalk at McDonald's. I talked with Bill Jablonski, who is the Area 1 manager, and talked about what's going on with that signal. And in the course of our conversation, he indicated that the holdup was getting the equipment, and some of that was the audio signal. So I asked about Why isn't it standard that ODOT, just wherever they put these crosswalks, put in the audio signals? Because that certainly is good for ADA compliance. And he indicated to me that cities have to ask for this. It is not standard for ODOT to just put it in. I asked then, are we going to upgrade the signal that's at the Taco Bell? And he said the city has not asked for it. So ODOT's not planning to put it there. So I am wanting to suggest that not only should we ask them to upgrade the signal that goes by Taco Bell. But I think that our city should adopt a standard that every crosswalk in the city that is signaled should not only have a signal that you can see, but should have an audio signal. because we need to provide for all of the disabilities that someone may have who's trying to cross the street. And I would like to see this incorporated into our transportation system plans as well as our comp plan. And I know that our comp plan has been, Commended by some people who've read it that it seems very ADA Sensible, but I think that we need to have this as a standard in our city that every single signal we have for Crossing the street includes the audio signal so that we can be fully Serving to our to our disabled populations. Again, having to do with the ODOT meeting that was here, it seemed to me that in my discussions with a few people that the timeline that ODOT has may not be as urgent as we originally as presented. I was told that they're looking at designing late in the year and they're looking at going out for funding middle to late So I don't think that we actually have to make a decision next council meeting. I asked if they would be willing to come to a council meeting and present in person because several of the people I spoke to were confused. Not everybody understands reading a description of what's going on. as well as they might understand a presentation made in person and a verbal presentation so that they can go through the steps and see the process and have the pictures explained. I also think it would be good to have a presentation because this way more people, because we didn't have that many people at the presentation, at the open house, because it wasn't a presentation. Nothing was presented. Only if you approach somebody from ODOT did you get to talk about it. I didn't see them going out and approaching people. But if we have a presentation, many more people will be able to see what the proposals are and able to evaluate those proposals. And not only just because they're watching the council meeting at the time, but then it's going to be on our YouTube and it's going to be there for more and more people to see and to go back and reference. So I am suggesting that we go and we ask, and I think Bill Jablonski as the area one manager is probably the person to ask, Because, yeah, and to have them come and do a presentation at our council meeting, either next council meeting or soon thereafter. I also want to talk about their proposed changes. We all have certain notions of what could work, what will work, what won't work, what's the outcome, et cetera. And I would like to see us try to validate some of those notions. For instance, The one thing that has been talked about and I talked extensively with the traffic engineers from ODOT and with Bill Jablonski about an option for the sequencing of the signal, similar to the sequencing up by Costco. And they talked about why it wouldn't work. A lot of it went over my head and they're talking about doing refuge lanes and this and that. The sequencing of the signals would not cost, it doesn't require equipment costs, it doesn't require construction costs. I think we have a really good opportunity to prove or not prove that sequencing would work. And I would like us to request a trial period for sequencing so that everybody can see what works, what doesn't work, and whether this option is really a viable option. I also think we have an opportunity to validate the beliefs that if that parking is removed, that the loss of the parking would be a major impact to the businesses at the east end of Broadway. And one way that we could try and validate that is a type of survey. where maybe our, I'm going to say the tourism department, formulate a survey of just several questions that is both on paper and available through a QR code. They provide it to the businesses and the businesses provide it to their customers and, you know, either here's a survey or here's a QR code. And basically we're asking the customers, where did you park? When, if you're using this business, where did you park? How long are you parking? There's several, you could do a very quick survey. And in order to get the customers to participate, maybe we give them a reward such as our cute seaside patches that we do. But something so that we can get some input. And this way we're, we're not only looking at will sequencing work we're also looking at what do we what does talking to customers tell us about where they park because right now you know those two beliefs are are at the two ends of the spectrum, and we can do something to help us understand if those are valid beliefs. So I would like for us to undertake something like that, and we can work with ODOT.

I like that. It gives it a test run.

We'll discuss it. WITH ODOT. WE HAVE AN AGENDA MEETING THIS FRIDAY. ALSO BE AT NORTHWEST ACT ON THURSDAY. AND WE COULD ASK BILL THERE. CHRIS?

IS TITA DONE? I AM. THANK YOU. OKAY. THANK YOU. I've got a few things. I'm going to run through them pretty quickly in the interest of time. The airport committee, so we had an airport committee meeting since our last council meeting. We had a presentation from the Oregon Motorcycle Training nonprofit organization, and they are interested. They're getting... Kicked out of Astoria Airport and are looking wanting to use the seaside airport for some of their motorcycle training. And they did a great presentation. The airport committee will be making a recommendation about that proposal to City Council here before the next meeting. I also want to give a shout out. That committee works really hard. They are a working committee, and I'm just very grateful for all that they do. It's a lot of maintenance, weeding, mowing, cleaning out the shed, bikes. They're prepping for grants. They're coordinating rugosa rose cuttings and replantings on Oster Road. They're very active in keeping that airport safe and clean, and I just wanted to recognize them since we had a meeting since the last meeting. I got to watch the Pacifica presentations and provide some feedback to five of the presentations. It was the first time since I've lived here that I participated in that, and boy, is that a jewel in the city. Unbelievably valuable. just very dedicated senior high students doing good things back for the community. And there is something to be said that it's a requirement, but boy, it sure didn't feel like any of them felt like that during the presentations that I saw. Just really a great thing that this community does. And I think we're very special because of it. So big thanks to the high school and everybody who keeps that program going. I had a villages meeting last week. We had about a dozen people come. For those of you who don't know, this is the nonprofit organization that we're trying to start in Seaside to help people age in their homes, to help seniors get... rides and support and things that they can't do for themselves through a volunteer network that we create here. And thanks to the mayor, he attended the meeting. We had some new people join who are interested. We're going to have another coffee chat coming up. And we're really now, we're a little bit past the storming stage. And I think now we're starting to form. It's going to be a while to norm, but I think we're forming. Um, I, Patrick mentioned the Head Start Tour, another thing that I am so impressed with in this city, what could be a greater thing than giving our young little ones in this city a head start. And the people that are running that organization are dedicated and talented. And I was very impressed. And I know we did that as a result of some negotiation going on over the building with the city and I just want to give my complete support to that organization. They do an incredible job. Carrie said the flower baskets are up. She's underestimating the work that went in and goes into that every year, so I want to give that a bigger shout out for her. I helped for maybe the third or fourth year in a row, and it is a group of volunteers that shows up very early in the morning. and hauls around heavy flower baskets around the city, and then a public works crew that somehow magically goes and puts them up high on poles and things. So it's just a very great process, and I'm just grateful that they make the city look so pretty. So thanks for the flower baskets. I've gotten some really good feedback about water fountains working in Seaside and being fixed and Moby mats extended on 12th Avenue and like some really positive. We're doing some great things to kind of prepare for the season. On a not so positive note, I've gotten a few comments about the prom and its condition and the cement and the crumbling and how it looked so great before the 100-year anniversary, and it doesn't look so great now. So I just wanted to mention that. I know on the list of a million things, and I am not going to add something without having a discussion about priorities. So thank you. That is all.

Well, I went to many of those same meetings, the Arboretum celebration and the Head Start. That's the first time I've really seen the entire thing. I've been there before, but the people are what makes it really great. And if they don't have to worry about their building, it'll make their job a lot easier. And one other place I was at was Pouring at the Coast, which was great, but I spent a lot of time talking with folks about Quatat Park, which is where it was held. And so that's just one more that's on the list of things that we need to prioritize. I agree completely with the prom. The prom is... Has some issues too. The prom is probably my favorite. It's a thing I talk about most when I go and visit people like I did on Saturday and wore this in a parade with about 50 other mayors. The grand floral starlight something or other, they combined both parades into one last Saturday night, and I joined about 50 other mayors walking. Actually, it turned out I walked the parade route about three times, so I'm barely moving again today. Oh, I've got a lot of steps in. But we had a great time. Mayor Wilson of Portland invited us. He said this used to be done. But what he was really doing, he's trying to cheerlead, showing that There's been a lot of good things happening in Portland. You hear about all the bad. But it was also really good just for the mayors to get together and support him and support each other. We had an amazing time. Like our parade here, although it's much shorter, I walk along there and I've got this sash on and people see Seaside and they say, I love Seaside. And every once in a while, I'm walking with the mayor of Rockaway Beach, and he's not getting any love. And the mayor of Lincoln City was over on the other side, and she's getting quite a bit, too. But every once in a while, I'd just stop, and somebody would say that, and I'd stop and say, okay, one, two, three, everybody say the same thing, one, two, three, and, you know, a big cheer goes up, so... People love Seaside, and I was very, very happy to be down there, even though I couldn't walk the next day. It's the 250th year of our country, the semi-quincentennial, if I remember it right. One of the things, actually, the director of the Oregon Historic Society, which is where we held the reception, encouraged mayors to go and set up what happened on July 8, 1776, when they read the Declaration aloud. So I'm encouraging anybody that wants to do that to read it at home if they want to. I'm going to ask the museum if they'll read it there. I think the Legion will read it at the Legion. We could set up something here in City Hall. It will be at 3 o'clock on July 8th. It's Wednesday. So try to let me know if that's something you want to be involved with. I've got copies of it. It takes about, depends how fast you read, 10 to 15 minutes. The declaration's not all that long, folks. And so far, I think there are, this is actually, it's funny, this idea was started by the 250 America, now this is the America 250 celebration, it's not the freedom one that our president is working on. This one's been working for a couple of years already. There's only like four or five places in Oregon that have signed up to do this. I'd like to have at least four or five in Seaside do it so we can be on the map. So just email me if you're interested somehow in being involved with that. So my quote tonight, we've talked about a new way to plan out what we do for the future of Seaside. We've enacted our budget for the next year, all these plans and these things. So I thought it was appropriate, these words. A lot of my quotes say they're by somebody, but when I go and look it up, it's usually just somebody said he said this, and it doesn't work out that way. These words are often attributed to George Washington, and it seems appropriate to close our meeting tonight. Leadership is not only having a vision, but also having the courage, the discipline, and the resources to get you there. We're adjourned.