City Council - Regular Meeting

maintain and repair that system. Um there was a work session on 1117 of 2025 regarding Lucas Ditch and just want to state that I'm disappointed that since I had come before the council and had worked with city staff extensively before that time that I was not notified that that was going to be on the agenda. Um work sessions are open to the public. I realize I wouldn't be able to have comment, but I think I should have at least been informed so I could have been at that meeting. Regarding Mr. Buchanan's proposal, I personally have many questions I would like to have addressed regarding the estimate of cost to maintain the detention pond page portion of Lucas Ditch that passed through the wetland. His proposal also seems to expand the scope of of uh the project from just our wetland to the entire ditch from the start of high south side of highway 22 to the confluence of Lucas ditch with Mil Creek. Will the same offer that's been made to us be made to all those other homeowners? I was informed the city cannot complete work on private property and yet the city trapped beavers and other animals and worked on property owned by the retirement community on the west side of Third Street. Mrs. Hadrick's email sent April 20th implies bids from contractors who's going to pay the contractors. It would seem that the city can work on private property. Lastly, I'd like to state that in the information that you were given by Mrs. Hagic today, u my name is misspelled. It's s t hen. Anything having to do with Lucas Ditch and the village of Silvin Springs and it has that spelling, you can probably be assured it's me.

Okay. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Denise. 108. Okay. All right. With that, we'll move on to consent agenda. Um, April 6th, regular city council minutes. What does council like to do? Mr. Mayor, Councelor Sims. Uh, make a motion to approve the consent agenda as as, uh, published. I second. Okay. There's a motion, a second to approve consent agenda as submitted. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

I. Motion carries five to zero. Any presentations tonight, Julia? Public hearing? There are none. Moves us down to general business. Uh, resolution number 26-009 approving an extension for the property tax exemption for the Sanm Heritage Foundation. Julia,

thank you. In front of you is a resolution uh to extend the tax exemption for the Sanm Heritage Foundation, also known as the Brownhouse. They received their initial extension or their initial um waiver in 2006. It was um supposed to be 10 years. Um it didn't come back. They recently were informed by the county that their tax exemption status would expire at I think at the end of April or May, March, sometime very soon. and that they needed to get an extension if they wanted to maintain their tax exempt status. So, what's in front of you is essentially a staff report that would uh do that. We did look at the the OS that provides the the parameters for uh issuing the tax exempt status and in your staff report, I'm sorry, somebody's calling, I'm trying to hang up. Uh in your staff report, it highlights the sections that staff believes they they meet that criteria. Preserving historic sites, promoting the reservation of land for public parks and um affect any other factors relevant to the general welfare of preserving the current use of the property. We did it has been a tax exempt for quite some time. So we don't have the assessed value information but we have the real market value information and using this a similar formula to how we know the assessed value works in in other in and other areas um I estimated that the assessed value would be roughly 296,000 and if that were the case the city tax would be about $1,444 a year and I We haven't had that um

revenue in 20 years and I think that we will be able to continue to manage without that if council chooses to pass this resolution. Happy to answer any questions and there are um folks from the Brownhouse here that I'm sure would be happy to answer questions as well. Okay. Okay. Thank you. It's an opportunity for public comment on this agenda item. Okay. Council discussion,

Mr. Mayor. Counc. Yeah, I just wanted to say I um I didn't realize actually that we were doing this uh for the Brown House and I was happy to see that and I'm happy to see it continue and that's all I was going to say. Okay, anybody else? I guess I have a question. And I appreciate the transparency on this, but on the page 204, it talks about the property use. They're making a declaration that they have a lease as of April 1st for looks like a business. Was there a business operating in this when they got the tax deferral the first time?

Uh, I do not believe there was. Uh, and I know that that was a question that they had they might have for the tax assessor's office as well. I don't know if if anybody is able to come up and speak to that. I'm looking at at Wendy Stone. Um, because it it might be that a portion of the house could be assessed and I don't know if you've gotten information on that. Yeah, that's why I appreciate the transparency. Like I said, that that begs the question for me, so that's why I was asking. Go ahead, Wendy.

My name is Wendy Stone. I'm the president of the Sandy Heritage Foundation. Um, in 2006 when the first exemption was granted, the house was not in any shape for us to even hold events, let alone lease anything out to a business. The only reason we're able to at this point is because we just finished the second floor finally. Took us 25 years, but we did it. Um, we did it without going into debt. Um, I don't know if that will play on it. I I certainly have had some of those same questions when we got the information from Marian County. Um, and I I I other than tell you that um she's going to start it's a pediatric counseling uh business that is uh a woman that is in the Salem Kaiser School District right now uh as a counselor has just gotten I believe it's her master's degree and is branching out. Uh I don't even remember if she's told us if she's going to continue with the school in addition to the private business. Uh but it is going to be pediatric counseling. Uh the name of the business that she's selected is Tulip Tree Pediatric Counseling. Uh it will be put on the uh sign that we have erected after getting a permit from the city to do so because we're on a corner. we get to um on the high street side. Uh other than that, I I can't shed any light on I I can tell you why we weren't we didn't lease we weren't leasing the house in 2006 and why we are now.

Yeah, fair enough. Thank you. I just want to make sure it doesn't change the

Fair question. Yeah. And I'll also add my understanding is is that they're leasing this um the the upstairs they're they're hoping to um to lease offices upstairs and that is essentially helping them fund what they need to fund. So as she was talking I was thinking it's not unlike you know a coffee shop in a museum you know it that's helping to go back to that. So, I don't know. They're not making money off of I mean, they're I guess they're making they're not making a profit off of the operation of the entire Brownhouse. And the other thing I'll mention is um none of the board of directors um um gets any financial gain from this. We're a nonprofit. Uh the board of trustees is all volunteers. We have no paid staff. Uh what we will be using the money for is upkeep of the house so that it doesn't fall into disrepair again.

Uh and look like it did 25 years ago when we started this whole process. Okay. Go ahead, Steve. Sure, Steve. Sorry. We want people at home that are watching to be able to hear you. Sure. Uh Steve Poison. I live at 1750 East Pine Street and I'm the vice president of Sanam Heritage Foundation. The one thing I wanted to add was we researched what effect the rental has on our nonprofit status

and according to the IRS code, nonprofits are allowed to rent real property without affecting their nonprofit status. real property defined as space, offices, land, whatever. So, I think it keeps us in the same ballpark. Great.

One more thing I'd like to add. Um, we will still make the house available for private events. We will continue to have events ourselves that we hold for the community like the series that we're doing right now which is the history talks that we got grants for. Uh and as a result we are offering to the community for free. Uh anyone can come and listen to those. Uh and there it's a collaboration between us and eight other uh historical area uh organizations. Uh we've got people from SCIO and Silverton and Mel City and Turner and Sublimity and I've probably missed one Jefferson um that are coming in and once a month roughly doing a talk of their choice and then they get part of the grant monies that we were given. Um so it's those kinds of activities will continue on the first floor. Uh, this is just the second floor that we're leasing.

Okay. Thank you, Wendy. Mr. Mayor, Cerry, go ahead. Wendy, Steve, I want to say from me to you guys, I appreciate your compassion for this and your steadfastness to keep this going. I was in the house eight years ago, maybe nine years ago, when you took Amy and I on a tour. And I'm excited to see what's happening now, but I I appreciate the drive that you guys have to make it what it is. You should come see the upstairs floors because we can still show them. They're like 123 year old brand new floors. Beautiful. Thank you. All right, council. Continue discussion that should lead to a decision.

Mr. Council work. I move to adopt resolution number 26-009 authorizing extension of the te tax exempt status for the Santium Heritage Foundation. I'll second. Okay. There's a motion and a second to adopt resolution number 26-009 approving an extension of the property tax exemption for the Sanm Heritage Foundation. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I I opposed. Say no. Motion carries five to zero. Next item on our agenda is Millet Creek property lease. Julia.

Thank you. Uh this was requested I think at the last meeting or one of the mo more recent meetings to have a discussion of the lease of the teen center. It's I'm referring to it as the Mil Creek property um lease. In your packet, you've got a copy of the existing lease. uh with basically information. So, it's really for you to have the conversation. I did outline some some basic information. The current lease is $12 per year or a dollar a month. The tenant is responsible for the interior maintenance and the city is responsible for exterior maintenance. Uh over the past year, that actually has resulted in um quite a bit of incurred cost to the city, about $1,500 a month. Uh so that's something that maybe if we are talking about um fee changes that might be something we want to talk about but it's also within your purview to uh provide subsidies for things that you feel are of value to the community. Uh some policy questions that if if you wanted to have them um in the course of this conversation is just how the city wants to continue using the property or use the property differently. uh if you wanted to continue to use it for a teen center, what level of support um you would want to have, what kind of model would you want to see, if anything different? Um and so just kind of outlining that for council if if you want to have those discussions, but I'll just leave it to you at this point.

Okay. Thanks, Councelor W. Mr. Mayor, I apologize. Before we start, I um did not I need to declare that I had a conversation uh with Denise Bush about the teen center, just about um like what's going on with the teen center and where they're at and how things might be able to move forward. So, okay, I just wanted to declare that. Tonight, it's just a discussion. So, there is no decision- making today.

Fair enough. Um before I go to councel, I'm opportunity for public comment and Denise signed up. So Denise, come on up if you want. Hello. So I'm Denise Bush, 1435 Highland Drive. Um I have been involved with the teen center since before the teen center opened. Um I think I'm the last person actually that's still somewhat involved um from that era. But um first I just want to thank you guys for your support of it. Um I didn't realize about the expense that's out there. Um you know they've had there's been kind of some rough last few years. Um I've been involved kind of on and off. Um, the main concern that I think has been noticed there is that we're not seeing a lot of progression with the teen center and what it offers. I know that things are talked about. There's been a lot of community support, volunteers come and go. Um, we were approached uh probably about a year and a half ago by a company, a a nonprofit called Valor Mentoring. They actually run um some teen facilities in Kaiser and um they were showing they were already out here having some conversations. I met uh Tim Davis at Rotary and just bells started going off and so had a lot of conversation. I think you guys have learned a little bit about Valor mentoring. Um and I just uh truly feel that that might be a direction we need to start looking. I mean, I know that you can't control the business that's in your building. Um, but there is a partnership there with you guys and there is a certain expectation and um I just don't feel that this community can support that anymore. Um, the current

board's very motivated. They do they have some existing board members that have been there. They have some new ones. I know I've been there. You get excited, but there's just so much you can do. We're limited on space. Uh, one thing that Valor would bring in is um they've proposed a transition. They're not really into partnerships, but they are offering to do that for us. So, they're going to start coming in um he announced publicly at Rotary last week that they're going to start coming in once a week and also into the schools starting in the fall and start building and just getting familiar. Um that location is not ideal. um he would be looking at moving the teen center to something closer to town, especially something closer to the schools. They are they're set up to be community- based. Um he would probably in this area do what he did at the Kaiser wreck. Um and it would be probably like a coffee uh based um meeting spot. So the community can go in and have meetings for free. You can order coffee. any money that they bring in um goes right back into supporting what's there. So, um I just wanted to to show that I know, you know, the lease is on an auto rotate right now or auto renew and and I just think it I truly strongly feel that it's time to really look at that and um and just maybe some options you may have.

Okay, look at that. Look at that. You are. Thanks, Denise. Sorry I didn't give you the opportunity. Yep. Um, Julia, uh, was anybody on the the board of the TN Center aware of the meeting tonight or the topic? I did not personally invite them. No.

All right. Uh, council, what do you want to talk about on this? I will tell you just in full disclosure, I've also had a discussion with both Trisha and uh, Tim at Valor Mentoring. I talked to Trisha on last week at the Sanam gathering at the hospital and it sounds like they are trying to work collaboratively. So just throwing that out there for council for awareness. Councelor Sams, go ahead.

Mr. Mayor, uh yeah, I I've actually had some discussions with uh Denise Bush and Tim at our mentoring and I uh tried to go to the board meeting for the teen center this month, but that wasn't it was a closed meeting, so I wasn't able to attend. But uh I think the teen center did need to move forward as far as with uh what they do for the kids. I think it's a really good program and I would like to see it continued and then and getting Valor mentoring in there one day a week I think is a pretty big move forward. I think that's a step in the right direction. So that I do like to see there. There's I would like to see you know I I do volunteer at the teen center so I see what goes on there and and I would like to see uh you know more mentoring and you know more educational type of stuff. They play a lot of games and play on the phone and play on the computers and eat a lot. That's kind of what what happens at the teen center right now. So, I think that would be a good move in the right direction as far as, you know, the mentoring piece and the education piece that could maybe help them out in the future. So, I think it's a good start. I I do like I am happy to see that. So, that's that's good.

Council Kerry, Mr. Mayor, I'm going to piggyback on what Steve had to say. Uh we met with the uh teen center board uh handful of us and shortly after that Steve and I went down and met with Tim at Valor and I think what the vision they have compared to what the vision we have here we're stuck and we need to see something happen. We can't stay status quo and we need something for these kids. We need some excitement for these kids. Um, and the mentoring part's huge. And I think the closer they get to the city, the more benefits it benefits the city and the schools better than being out offkindle. So, I'm totally in favor of Okay. I'm coming out at least once a week.

Okay. Anybody else? So, Julia, maybe we should move this to another future agenda item at some point. Yes, this was on the agenda because council wanted it on the agenda. If council doesn't want to provide any um direction to staff, then we can not move it forward until um you want it back on or we can move it to a specific date. Sure. I think it's important to have it have it designated a date and time especially since the we're talking about the actual renewal or or whatnot of the contract the of the lease. So would council I would like to have somebody from our existing teen center.

Do we have room to put on the next month agenda? which out of the two months out of the two meetings I I will look I I'm sure we have some some are full some aren't so I if maybe if we shoot for some time within the next two months and I'll we'll find a meeting on that or do you want it next meeting to have a conversation up to council what would you all like to do uh sorry I just had a clarifying question um I heard somebody say something about Valor coming to town one one day a week would they be in the teen center. Is that what that would look like or

That's my understanding is that they're coming into the teen center once a week. And I guess I need direction. What if council wants to discuss the lease and and potentially having others come in as a teen center? Um I think that needs there needs to be a more thorough process of sort of discussing and and determining what that looks like. Um, so we can absolutely continue this conversation, but I'm not clear on what exactly the conversation is.

I personally would be in favor of inviting Tim with Valor mentoring and then inviting the existing organization and hearing what they have to present as far as their visions and and whether or not that would be compatible with the current existing facility. Mr. May council work I have a so I have a clarifying question of is the the purpose of this is are we going to are we deciding if we're going to continue the lease with the current well that's again council wanted to have this on the agenda so I don't know I think that is part of the question is do we want to continue the lease

sure I think right now they're at a crossroads with both people offering to help come in here I think you need clarification as far as who's doing what, who's going to run the facility, and who eventually would be signing the lease. So, however council wants to address it that way, I think that's the most important. I think councelor Patty's right. Um, so we've had multiple interactions with both of those uh board, the board there and then with Tim. Let's get them together and have that have a discussion so we get it all laid out on the table and see what's what. And may I suggest a work session? Yeah, I was going to say, does it look like a work session? you can and then scheduling it with a time that works for all parties.

Yep. Well, let's do that. We can put that on the agenda. That be on the on the on the calendar. That'd be great. Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I I I agree with councelor Patty on the I would like to see the current board and Tim from Bower Mentoring get to, you know, get with us to discuss this issue, but but also on the the other side of that, if they're going to progress and move forward with some, you know, some of the things we think they should be moving towards like the mentoring piece and the maybe some adult educating piece, you know, that sort of thing. I I would like to see how that develops over the next few months. So a work session would be great

beneficial I think too. So work session it is Julia if you could find that. Thank you. That moves us on to the Lucas ditch update. Uh Barry or you going to Julia is going to take Well, I think I'm going to start but I'm going to make him come up so that he's in the hot seat too.

Barry. Yeah. Over there. Uh and first I I want to apologize. I have I did create a timeline that referred to it as Silven Springs Village at Silver Silven Springs. Very very sorry and I will make sure that the um the name is spelled correctly. I'm apol I apologize for that as well. Um so I handed out before this evening. I emailed you earlier and I also um emailed um Mr. Falconer and Mr. Spangler uh as well as Mr. Centuri Centani who's back there as well. um a copy of the timeline and the materials that were handed out um to council at the November work session and then also to um representatives from the S village at Silven Springs HOA in November. Um so the council did receive a presentation from the um village at Silven Springs HOA back in June um of 2025. And you know as shown in the timeline there was some back and forth some information um gathered and also at that time there was also a a an issue with the overall flow of Lucas ditch beaver issues storm water issues um that we were also working on addressing. But I guess the the highlight that I wanted to point out for the council as well as for um those in the audience is that when we met with the council in November, Barry presented um his his packet of information and a proposal for some cost sharing that would allow us to take over the the maintenance of their facility. Um and the council said that sounds like a great proposal. go talk to them and

and see what they think. And that's what he did. Um, and then we had not gotten a response. And it sounds like maybe there's there was some confusion in terms of like they were expecting council to formally respond to the request. Um, so that's that's kind of where we're at is that there's been a lot that's been going on. Um, Barry prepared a lot of detailed analysis and and can provide any information you have on this. um we we had a proposal that would allow us to incrementally take over the maintenance of that facility and we haven't heard a response back as far as whe it sound whe whether or not they were interested or whether or not additional negotiation or conversation needed to happen. So I'm glad that they're here and um that's that's kind of where we're at. I'm happy to answer any questions or defer to Barry to answer any questions on on the status of that. Anybody? I guess I'll start. I think Mr. Spangler laid it out for me. I want to make sure that I understand what he was asking. So, it sounds like to me the two issues have been conflated into one. Is the Lucas ditch separate from the homeowners association request? I I I will in the in Barry's information I mean they they are one but they also were evaluated separately. I believe that that the fiscal impact and the proposal for the the phased in takeover was just for their facility not the overall maintenance of the Lucas ditch. Barry can you confirm or deny

that? That is correct. The two pieces were looked at uh independently. The cost associated with the um the excuse me the storm the storm water control basin is separate from the overall cost and associated with Lucas Ditch. In actual fact, in the report that's been presented to both uh the work session and to the homeowner association uh only included pri costs associated with the taking over of the storm water facility. The prices for the Lucas ditch have been discussed with council separately and additionally over and above the report. And just to reiterate, the the proposal from Barry for the cost phase in was based on information um obtained from the HOA on what they had been spending both in in labor as well as true, you know, true costs and it was roughly $30,000 a year. And that's where he got to um following a bianial budget um at 100% 76,000 and then slowly um incrementally over a six-year period transitioning down or six I guess not a six-year period a 12-year period because it's a bianial um transitioning down so that they're paying nothing and we're taking um on more and I think part of that is over that period of time we'll be doing utility rate updates and storm water master plan updates and and there will be more information that we'll know and be able to to fold into our operations. Oh, sorry. I should not have had that drink before I started. Um, that is correct. J,

I I have a question and this is just Gways. Why are we yanking raccoons out of there? What's going on with that? I thought it's just the beavers and the nutria that we're worried about. We unfortunately caught one raccoon in our traps um when we were doing the beaver trapping. Uh one raccoon got into the trap and as such uh it was dispatched so that we could actually get it out of the trap. It was not intentional.

So Barry, I wasn't at the meeting that you went to the neighborhood. You presented them with a solution to their presentation. I presented the same presentation to the um home is I presented to you guys at the uh workshop at the council workshop as directed. Okay. So, you left that meeting hoping that they were going to give a response to that presentation. That was the intention. That's the intention understanding that I left that they were going to give us a response uh evaluated at their next homeowners meeting and come back to us and discuss it. I have not heard a thing. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, go ahead. councelor. Casey, did you have more you wanted to add along with your email? That's what I'm kind of waiting for right there. Okay. I'm just I'm waiting for that. That's that's what I'm impatient for.

Got you. Public comments coming up in a minute. Any other questions for staff before we move on to public comment? I just want to make sure that I understand that there's two distinct issues here and then they're not being conflated together. I can reassure you counselor that the two issues are not conflated together in terms of funds but they are in actual fact and strippingally l linked together because of the operations of the ditch and the operation of the detention basin running into the ditch because the log jam if you will for lack of a better term is going to back up into their ponds that are behind the No, it won't.

No, it does not back up into their ponds. The blockages that have occurred in the uh Lucas ditch do form backwater. There is no question about that. But they are not controlling the outlet from their pond. But the beavers that are in their ponds could be having the same effect that the Lucas ditch has. That is possible. Yes. But I don't know of beavers actually in their pond or associated with their outlet. Prior to your arrival, that was the case. Okay. Anybody else? Council, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, Barry. So, we're I'm trying to figure out where we where are we at right now. So, we have a proposal and we're still discussing this proposal with the village at Silivan Springs or I'm just confused. I I didn't have I mean, we got this today, so I really didn't have a chance to look through it very carefully, but

I'll I'll respond. So, yes. So the the request was for a status update to council. So this we're giving you a status update of kind of what's what's been happening with the conversation. Um in November, Barry presented what he presented to council in November, which was a proposal. Um and we have not heard back from them on that. Uh so we're not discussing it because there hasn't been discussion. We're happy to have conversation about that. the the original plan after that work session was that we were going to hear from them if there was agreement then we would bring forward an agreement to council at some point in the future but so we haven't drafted that yet. Um so that's kind of that's that's where we're at. I I I too am curious to see what um what Casey has to say um to see if if we're able to move forward, if we're still having conversation or where we're at.

All right. Thanks, Julie. Anybody else? Council. All right. Opportunity for public comment. Casey, I'm sure you have something to say.

At the January, I believe it was January 15th uh public meeting that uh Barry put on. I informed him at that time that that the proposal that he gave to us, I was going to take a a backseat to that until he figured out the entire ownership issue and he said that the attorney was looking into that. That's why there's been a big pause on this. We've been waiting to hear for that. At the last meeting, I believe it was last week, two weeks ago, uh Barry mentioned that we're gonna have a a large meeting with all the state agencies, federal agencies, what have you. Um, at that point, I got to thinking, I would really like this proposal off my plate when that time comes because I do feel that there are two separate issues going on here. The the beaver issue came up after our proposal. It it it is directly direct uh involved with this whole thing but that's was not our proposal. It was not our complete proposal. It was not just the storm water management facility. It was the property behind the houses uh on the north side of Sunrise all the way through the wetlands. So, while the storm water facility is an important issue for the city to consider, it's not the only issue and the numbers we highly dispute. Yes, I personally have put a lot of free work into there along with other people. Um, as some of you know, a lot of that work was a direct result from previous public work director that that caused us

a lot of trouble out there. Um, the water is flowing fine now. There is no issue out there now that the Beaver Dam has been removed further down. There's a lot of things I could say. I I feel I don't want to get into any type of anything that makes it sound like a personal attack. I have no personal hard feelings towards Julia or Barry. I know they have a very important job and this is very convoluted situation, but I do feel that this has gotten way over overanalyzed for our request. and if we need to put it on the actual agenda so that myself and Steve could come back to answer more direct questions from you since you did just get this information this this afternoon that we were going to discuss this. Um I'd be happy to come back at any time with that.

Okay. Thanks Casey. Anybody else? All right.

Go ahead. Steve, come on up. Steven Spangler 838 Sunrise Drive. Um the statements in um Julia's document, Silvin Estates storm water system. It's the top water level. This is on the second page on the back. Uh there is some confusion as to what happens when Lucas Ditch is filling with water and the pond is filling with water. And I think that it needs to be looked at as the total flow rather than just looking at water flowing because when if the ditch is empty, if Lucas ditch is empty and water is simply flowing into the detention pond, the water can exit the detention pond more rapidly than if Lucas ditch is full of water already. So again, it wasn't really designed properly. So if Lucas Ditch is full of water but still flowing because of beaver dams downstream, then the pond fills up higher than it would and you can reach the point that it tops the burm which can then cause serious problems, damages, and flooding downstream. That's what I believe we're all trying to avoid and trying to address for any future issues where there are major storms. But that's what you have to keep in mind. It's sometimes it's mentioned, well, if the water's flowing, everything's okay. That's not necessarily the case because if the ditch is full, the water cannot flow at the rate that it would if it were lower. So, that's one. Um, with Mr. uh,

Buchanan's proposal, uh, I want to state I am currently not a member of the board. Neither is Casey. Um, the people you really want to deal with are the board members. I tried to get them to come here tonight and fortunately they didn't. I'm disappointed in that. But there was a meeting where I was a board member held at my house and that is where Mr. Buchanan presented his proposal. We as um Homer's association had a meeting subsequent to that on December 10th. At that meeting, I'm not speaking as a board member now. I'm just speaking as a person who was at the meeting and who was a board member at the time. At that meeting, everyone present felt that the 37 homeowners cannot afford $250,000 approximately over that time period. You're talking a significant financial impact to those 37 homeowners. It's not just a doubling of what the dues are. So the feeling was that we couldn't afford it. Uh I would like to see more conversations with Mr. Buchanan because I have some questions in regards to his proposal as to the costs. I presented the information to him. I gathered it and presented it on what our cost as the HOA were to maintain that

and there's quite a discrepancy. So if there's some way that we could have a meeting with Mr. Buchanan or someone to address those issues. It might help to come to a common ground where maybe we could say we feel that this is a more appropriate figure. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. All right, Mr. Mayor. Another public comment, Mr. Mayor.

Hi,

afternoon. Trisha Ziniga, 923 Sunrise Drive. I'm currently one of the board members. Um, and I am present and I also serve as the treasurer for the HOA. And so, as Steve mentioned, our board uh neighborhood consists of 37 homes, many of which are occupied by retirees and middle inome households. Uh we are a very small HOA with limited financial capacity and we work hard to maintain the affordability for our residents. After carefully reviewing the proposed cost of approximately 256,000 over the time of eight years, we um must respectfully share that this amount is beyond what our HOA can reasonably absorb. When distributed across our homeowners, this would represent a significant financial burden that many of in our community could not be able to handle. Um uh although we remain committed to working collaboratively with the city to find a solution um that addresses the maintenance and long-term stewardship with the wetland and the detention pond. Our goal is to ensure that the area is properly managed in a way that supports both environmental needs and the surrounding community. Uh we are open to continued discussions. Um and we would greatly appreciate exploring alternative options whether that includes uh phased operations other than the one submitted. Uh shared responsibility models, possibly grant opportunities and

other creative solutions uh that may be more financially feasible for a neighborhood our size. We just can't really afford that. Awesome. Thank you very much. All right. So, several revelations tonight. May I ask one question? Yeah, go ahead. Council car.

Um, looking back on this um August or September 2nd, 25. There's a statement down on the bottom. It says, "I've contacted Marian County regarding the pond outlet wall and I'm waiting for confirmation." Has there been any confirmation from Marian County at all over this time? Uh we've spoken to Maring County two or three times and they were are intending to come to the next meeting that I talked to Casey about in May. Um they there is uh no definitive answer about the wall being correctly operated or not. Um, the county has in actual fact not been able to find the construction drawings as it stands at this point in time or should I say they might have found them but they I haven't got them as yet. And also while we're trying to keep the issues separate even in the course of conversation they're not you know the flow of the of Lucas Ditch is intrically um connected to the the storm water facility. So um Barry is doing a lot to bring the different parties together and trying to manage that issue. Um, and there's the issue of a private storm water facility that unfortunately is the responsibility of 37 3727 37 homes. Um, that is not currently part of the city's rate schedule or responsibility and the request to council is do do we take that over? um that is not something that we can just take over without a financial impact and that's why we were proposing a phase in. Absolutely. I think um we can have additional conversations with the with the the parties to see if if

there's different ways to to get there um to get that cost down. But ultimately at at the end of the day right now that's their responsibility. Um and I I don't I think they got a bad deal. I mean, I'll I'll be the first to admit that it it's not um it it doesn't seem fair, but it's not ours. And and I think what we're trying to do is help identify a path to get them out of that responsibility in a way that isn't going to drastically impact um the finances of the city right now and the rate payers that we built our rates upon are based on.

Mr. Mayor, go ahead. Look, I I'm been waiting for you guys to in actual fact come and talk to me. Um so the door is open. I am more than happy to talk about the overall proposal, what alternatives can be looked at and how we can move forward to an actual fact solve this problem. Um without your input or you coming to us, unfortunately I can't do anything at this point in time. Mr. Mayor, councelor or um it was mentioned that the 37 homes in the HOA pay pay a fee right now um for

they pay the storm water fee as as everybody else does to us. So it's just it's just the storm water fee. That is that's not there's there's no additional additional fee for their system. They internally pay for their system by volunteerism or bringing in contractors contractors to operate their system. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I thought you were saying that they pay an additional fee. I I think in their minds they do because they pay to maintain the facility and they pay their storm water fee.

Sure. Okay. And then another question. Um it was also mentioned that the storm water facility itself was not um made correctly. Is that the is that a fair assertion? That's a statement. Statement and I I tend to agree with their statement. Okay. But I'm not going to criticize the design. Who was the one who the contractor? It was a contractor. The contractor but developer who signs off on that devel the developer of the property had that designed way way back.

The the city approved it and it was installed as per the design that was initially put together. But I will agree with them. I believe the design is problematic and we have and I do have solutions ideas for solutions on how to remedy that problem but it's expensive. It's a capital capital program that we would have to implement. Are there any opportunities for us to look even like at the county level um or at the state level for some funding for something like that so we can

I believe there is yes and that's something that I'll be more than happy to talk talk to the association about that's still that that could solve some issues but it doesn't solve the problem of of them wanting the city to take it over that that's going to incur for some cost regardless of whether or not we're able to get grants um to to help bring it up to a better condition. The grants would Sorry, Julia. The grants would pay for capital works, but the grants won't pay for maintenance ongoing operations and maintenance. Okay. I have a question about that too because in the third is okay. Go ahead.

Okay. In the third phase of um Oh, goodness. Philip Estates like um it was mentioned that they have green spaces that are actually like I don't know they're not actual green spaces they're water retention areas I guess green spaces and then that we are eventually going to take those over. How do we m I feel like we're in the same situation. How do we maintain those or or who who's paying who's paying for that maintenance then? Like it's it's a similar situation and if we're going to take on Philip Estates,

it's the way the contracts are set up initially, the way the agreements are actually under the development um agreement with the city. Um this particular developer unfortunately and I agree it's an unfair process. um the developer and nature back took on themselves that they would have the internal homeowners look after and maintain maintain the detention facility in the Philips estate that's being transferred to the city once the project is in actual fact complete under the development agreement.

But are we are they giving us more money in order to do that? Well, the I would the homeowners will be paying into the storm water fees that would then be going into the maintenance and and there would be I'm sure there will be some sort of a phased development agreement maintenance where they have to maintain it for a certain amount of time. Um and then we will evaluate our rates and fees. The idea again I think Barry and I are both on the same page that the city we believe should be responsible for maintaining all of the storm water facilities in the city. The challenge is this isn't this right now. We don't have the funding to take over maintenance of this private storm water facility and we just want a way to phase it in. Is that correct?

Yeah. Can I ask a clarifying question about that though? So you're saying that the rates the sewer rates will pay for water. Apologize. The storm water rates will pay for the detention ponds over. I'm talking about Philip Estates over here. I feel like you're going to go you're going to be coming into the same situation where you're going to have just a handful of houses that are going to now be in charge of this whole storm water area for for the entire area similar to what we have over on the other side of town. And then you're gonna ask them to pay another $250,000 to

to So with Phillips, what we're envisioning is that

going forward there wouldn't be these private storm water facilities and as development occurs, those homeowners are just paying the storm water fee. and the rates in the citywide storm water fee are such that it's paying for the operation and maintenance of the stormwater facilities that exist andor are created over time. I think that's where we want to get to. Right now, we're in this transition period where we have this private storm water facility that we don't have the ability to just take over maintenance without an impact on the existing storm water rate payers. That's why we want to phase it in over time so that we can not have a sudden increase for the existing rateayers to have to take on the responsibility of the maintenance of this private storm facility.

It's all about planning. So, unfortunately, they had a bad grandfather and the grandfather that approved that put him in a bad bind. And right now the step that we're taking this place going forward with development, we're trying to avoid this very issue. That's correct. Are you done? Clarifying question. Sure, Sims.

Mr. Mayor, I think this is more for the HOA or the residents this question. So, how are you paying for the repairs for your current for the storm water facilities? Is it through your HOA dues or I'm just trying to get a idea how much what the cost is for Yeah, please. That'd be great. So, that's actually one of my questions to Barry. To my knowledge, I've been there for 10 years. Uh Damen's been there much longer. Uh we've spent very little money in maintenance. The in the email that I spoke of. I don't know if it's a and I'm not trying to begrudge anybody, but it to me it's not a facility. It's a hole in the ground there. There there's no moving parts. There's there's nothing. We don't maintain it other than we go out and make sure the weeds don't get overgrown and we make sure that the grass is not bound up next to the next to the weir, the concrete structure that's permanent. That's it. So there there is no maintenance costs. One time about six years ago, we did throw a little bit of gravel in there. That's it. That's all we've done. So I I'll say from an engineering standpoint, from a public facility standpoint, it's a facility. I understand what you're saying, but it's a facility. Um uh and I think that the costs that Barry had which is pa um page 14 to 17 of the Lucas ditch report and the table from 4.34 the annualized cost summary. I think he took that from information that he got from the HOA.

There was two things.

Okay. Go ahead and explain. There was the HOA input and there was also the city had actually done work itself in the in the facility and there was also volunteer time that I change transferred to actual work time. Um we don't volunteer. Uh the city in actual fact gets paid for its work. Um and I also estimated the amount of work that it no disrespect to you guys now um what it would be done to in actual fact maintain the facility in a good working order. Um I I I should say I should go back and look at the numbers and make sure that they're all correct. That there's no problem with that and I'm prepared to work with you guys to do that. That's that's not an issue. Um but that's where the numbers came from. It was a combination of what the home owners association had paid out, what they were doing as far as volunteerism was concerned and what we had put into it as capital work and what I estimated it would cost to in actual fact maintain it in good working order from our perspective. So part of those volunteer hours were also as whoever came on that tour when we started down at Sanm Park and walked all the way down there was a spot there that the village of Sen Springs took care of all the way over to our property. We found out that hey that's not our property that's

that Bomb Hoffner that's a whole other issue but we were taken care of. So our volunteer hours were included in that that we did that. The volunteer hours I feel were also a culmination of I'm a German electrician. I go out and work all day. Once every two weeks I go out there and do some landscaping, do some yard trimming. And I shouldn't even say two weeks. It's probably less than that. Maybe once every few months. And it's more of a job just like any maintenance like on your car. If I feel strongly that if the city were to take it over, and I agree that it is a financial something, it's going to cost the city more for sure, but if we maintain it, mow it every couple weeks in the summertime, keep the trees down. The HOA has spent three to$4,000, and Trish might be able to speak a little bit closer on that number, but three to $4,000 a year for 15 years. That's for entire maintenance, yard maintenance, including Fern Ridge Drive.

Yeah, I just did the numbers for the first two years. If you for 37 homes, $76,000 bill, that'd be $2,54 each over two-year period. So, that's a pretty substantial amount for the H. And like I said, you know, our dues are $250 a year per household, right? Which covers all of our fees. I think there's been an offer from the city and to uh review this some further and make sure everyone's looking at the same apples to orange comparison and I think maybe a work session's in order on this that way we can have these folks join us council can be in a room and focus on this topic solely.

Yes. And I would actually propose I was going to suggest that um we have a meeting you know a working meeting with staff and the HOA just to understand the numbers and then have we can come back with a work session especially yeah to discuss it more especially since the the composition of the HOA has changed. So, if I if if I could get a list of the HOA the current HOA board and anybody else that would be interested in I mean being part of a meeting that would be really helpful.

Um I just wanted to add to that. I'd love to see like I I know we talked about it, but I in that meeting some collaboration with the city on helping the HOA find opportunities to alleviate some of this, either all of it or some at least some of it. Um, I think there there's a way to get to yes that doesn't burden 37 homes that are actually taking care of um a system that that really helps the entire city, including 200 homes surrounding them, more more than 200 homes surrounding them.

In in all fairness, I I agree with you, Jordan, with that. In all fairness, the I just I just I just don't I it doesn't sit well to me to say like, well, you got a bad deal. I It doesn't sit well to me. I if we're a community, I'd really like I get it. I know I know you're like where you're coming from, but I and so I'm not saying like we should accept all the burden. I just want to figure out how we can

and we'll work on that. I I think the other part though is that we don't want to say okay every I mean I I don't know what that would look like to everybody's bill if we were to we need to look at it a little bit more closely and see okay what kind of increase does that mean to the storm water rates um because people not everybody else is going to want to chip in necessarily either if it's a big number if it's a penny then let's talk about it

we have community we have our community, you know, grant we have we get grants from the county all the time. There's money feel like there should be money out there that we can um try to utilize. That's that's all I'm saying. I'm not I'm not saying that we burden the entire system. Seriously, we That's all I'm asking. I have one more request. Okay. I don't remember if it was you, Jordan. Somebody asked a little bit ago, who signed off on this? When I got involved with this eight years ago, that was the direct question that I asked public works at that time.

I got less than a good answer. Barry, if you could find that out, I don't know if that's going to change anything, but I agree that it was not built correctly and the plans that I saw were not complete. There was supposed to be a pass bridge walking bridges and that was my question too is who signed off on this and made it our problem. I was told that that information is not was lost in city hall. That's just the information I got. I I will look at the moment I can't answer the question

and I didn't ask I didn't expect an answer. I just information that's where we stood at at some point when Jordan asked that question. I asked that. Yeah, there there is a cascading effect though in your case that it was a three-stage development and it went from basically 200 properties to 37 properties. 200 and something properties. I can't remember the number exactly, but it went from a 270 odd property way uh storm water system to a 37 property ownership issue. And I don't know how that again was the question I asked because it didn't seem right.

And unfortunately, like we got stuck with a bad deal. Sometimes you get stuck with a bad deal with your predecessor. All right. I appreciate everyone working towards some kind of discussion in the future and hopefully resolution. So, we will do that. Thanks, Case. I appreciate it. All right. I'm going to move on from that one. And that leads us to communication from city staff, Julia.

And I actually have quite a bit, but a lot of it is other people. So, I'm going to start with Howard. He's going to come up and talk to you about an initiative that we're going to be launching, I think, tomorrow. All right. So, thank you, Mr. uh Mayor. So staff are excited to announce the Stton's America 250 challenge tonight to celebrate both uh 250 years of America and also the community of Stton. Starting tomorrow through June 30th, community members are invited to come together and give back through volunteering. So the challenge is pretty simple. Um contribute volunteer hours. Um, ideally these are service hours that are above and beyond regular um, volunteering hours. So like not meetings and uh, not regular stuff like that. Um, and I want to be precise here. So the prizes that people get um, the top volunteer with the most hours submitted will win a $50 gift card and also a spot on the city's Fourth of July parade with a with a guest. You got to bring a guest, too. And uh the volunteer who submits the greatest variety of uh volunteer opportunities will win a $50 gift card and of course uh bragging rights uh there as well. Um the poster in front of you includes a link to a web page and that's going to be live tomorrow where folks can uh log their hours and uh on the web page there's going to be um a list of current volunteering opportunities. So, at the moment, uh we've worked with community partners to

put together around 20 um really great opportunities. Um and it's broken out um under like upcoming opportunities, longerterm opportunities, and even um ideas to create your own opportunity there as well. Um a couple opportunities that you're going to see um include helping the city and parks board plant trees this Wednesday on Earth Day. um a cleanup of historic state in downtown this Sunday, helping out at the the chamber awards. Um and cleaning up a clothing closet at Sanium Head Start, signing up to do yard work for those in need with Sanium service integration or helping out at the senior center with their annual rumage sale. So, um that's just a quick sampling, but uh there's around 20 um that you'll see there tomorrow. So staff are excited to see Stain come together for this challenge and uh we're going to keep uh listing volunteer opportunities as we come across them and we're hoping that the web page becomes an important resource um in the community to help drive civic engagement and hopefully um at least throughout the duration of the of the campaign. Um so look out for communications tomorrow. If you know of any volunteer opportunities are not listed, please let us know. Um, and uh, aside from that, oh, April is also volunteer month. So, just wanted to point that out. So, uh, in good alignment with our uh, program here. And otherwise, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Mayor, that's car. Just real quick, this is awesome idea. I wish I'd be here for the 4th of July this year, but I won't be. I'll be in Italy. But on the bottom down here, it says participants are encouraged to submit new service hours that go beyond regular volunteering activities. What's that?

Yeah, we wanted to um ensure that the amount of hours that we're submitting to America 250. So once we get like a final number, we're going to submit that to America 250 like the national program. We just want to make sure that number is high quality. So we don't want like people just to like dump hours into this. We want it to be like a meaningful reflection of um Stton's actual I guess in a way net new volunteering. So, and I'll just So, it's not you volunteer when you come to council meetings, but we want you to do more. So, that's the idea.

Council work, can you tell us a little bit more about the tree planting on Wednesday? Yeah, for sure. Um, it will be at 1:30 and uh just going off of memory, it's going to be at Community Center Park. It's going to be at Quail Run Park and Westtown Park. So, I think the the plan there is to plant between two and three trees at each park. Um, and I think starting at uh Community Center Park, but we're going to publish all of that information tomorrow in case I got any of it wrong. But, uh, that's the idea. And it's also, um, the park board is a part of it as well. Great. Thanks, Howard.

Awesome. Thank you. Wait, before you go, can you briefly talk about the um heritage tour as well?

Oh, yes. Um so on April 29th um which I think is a Wednesday um Oregon Heritage um I don't remember the the organization's name, but Oregon Heritage Society perhaps. um they're going to make uh a stop as part of a uh conference that they're having in Woodburn. So, um one of the activities is a uh tour of downtown Stton. Um and that starts I think at 8:00 a.m. if I'm not mistaken. I can send that information out again. Um

yeah, I think it's Yeah. Yeah, you're down for that. Um and uh basically what it is uh it it starts at Brownhouse. So a quick tour there and then a quick tour um up Third Avenue and uh across and just to see um all the great uh great historical buildings in in the city. It's um I think around 3 hours long and uh for council um if you guys want to attend, I'm sure that the participants there would love to uh have you guys there as well. Steve, um you've signed up, you were mentioning, and then um Brian, he's going to be providing um the mayor will be providing opening remarks as well.

Thank you. Next up is um James and he's going to give you an update and then Gwen will be next if she wants to position herself. I wanted to update you on a couple things and this has been in the weekly reports that you've been getting, but just an opportunity for some feedback or discussion if you want, but the city is trying to form a partnership with government portfolio advisors. This is a group that I've heard a couple presentations in uh my conferences for the government finance officers association. Um so most recently this last March they did a presentation and walked up to them after the after uh their uh presentation and um what they do is help governments invest their excess cash. So right now all of our cash is in the LGIP the local government investment pool which is earning a very very fair return right now and we're happy with that. Um but we're anticipating that rate to go back to more normal which is much lower than it is right now. So, we're looking at uh opportunities to invest more long-term. Um the investments would be in bonds and mostly treasury bonds with the US government. Um very low risk historically. And so before we do that, we would have to get an adjustment to our uh investment policy. Um, so GPA will help us rewrite that policy and that would come before you for your approval before this could advance any further. Um, so just giving you a heads up that that investment policy change uh will be developed and come before you fairly soon. Um, so any questions or concerns about that?

Mr. from here. Go back. Yeah, thanks for presenting this to us. I appreciate it. I'm just kind of curious um like you know I hear you saying long term um you know if we have a good rate of return on this current pool why are we moving away from it?

Yeah. So historically the LGIP has given um a return of around 1%. Not not great. Um, recently it's at 4% right around there. Um, with rates as good as it's been. Um, we anticipate that to go back down to more of a normal rate. Um, but LGIP has done what they can do. Um, they're limited to investments of 18 months. So, right now the the shorter term investments have been doing fairly well, but typically longerterm investments earn more than short-term investments. And that's kind of the yield curve that is normal and is anticipated to happen in the near future.

So secondly, um we did an RFP for an auditing firm. We've been with Singer Leewack for uh I think six or seven years now. And before that was Bull Carile Smith, which Singer Leewack bought. So we've been with the same auditing firm for um about 10 years. and it's just good practice to change every now and again. So that's the reason why we did an RFP. We have no no problems with Singer Leewack. They've done very well um with us, but I wanted to do an RFP and so um we set up some criteria um some weights, how we was going to score it. Um, we got five bids back and I scored them um, in terms of minimum qualifications and they all passed the minimums. So, we had five qualified bids. Um, a team of three of us scored them independently and the top two scorers were Senior Leewack, they were one of the biders and a new uh, firm to us called Aldridge. And so, um, they both scored very similarly. Um, we did some follow-up with Altridge. I called uh the finance director from the city of Independence who's used them for a number of years and is familiar with them and she had very good things to say about them. And so no red flags were um discovered. I should note that we're still in the oneweek um protest period of an RFP. So, um, we haven't formally signed anything yet, but, um, Aldridge was chosen from our team and so we're hoping to go forward with them fairly soon. So, I wanted to let you guys know that and that this would begin with the next audit, which would start um, next month, but it would be for the fiscal year that we're closing fairly soon.

Thanks, James. And then if there's no questions for James, I have a question. Oh, go ahead, Council.

Um, does it cost us more money and or manpower to switch firms and is that accounted in how much it costs? Um well I can give you an example that Singer Leewack came back with a bid a little bit lower than what we paid last year to them. So I think the costwise um it's a little better probably um than what we paid this last year. Um in terms of manh hours or work hours, it will be more the first year whenever you change auditors. there's going to be a more work involved in getting to know them and seeing how they do things. So, I do anticipate working more. Um, but luckily we didn't build a budget this year, so we have some energy um to pour into that. And then year after year, it should get a little bit easier with the same auditor.

So, not quantifiable really, but it's the kind of work that I'm more interested in hearing and working with them. uh another set of eyes looking at us, asking a little bit different questions and helping us refine processes and things that maybe we weren't thinking about. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Thanks, James.

Um mayor, counselors, and staff, I just want to give a hiring update. So, I know you met Sergeant Tilman and he's out there doing well and um like his energy and like his direction and what he's uh interaction with our staff. And you've met Officer Hagen. He's now solo and covering his own shift. He's on a day shift. And then today, Officer Blicker had his first day. So, he has some experience with Lynn County and um has attended the academy. So, that's a benefit to us. um he'll be starting FTAP as soon as he gets through orientation and some of the basic skills training that we um are required to do before we can put someone in uniform. Um also part of our hiring push, we are attending Lynn Benton County, sorry, Lynn Benton Community College uh career fair and ChmeCoda Community College uh career fair. So, we haven't done these in the past, but we're kind of excited. And we feel like even if it's not um the push for a hiring currently, had had we uh had some of these in the in the past with high school and college students encouraging them to um apply for us in the future, we know we're going to have future openings as well. So, um these are just kind of fun, exciting engagements that we're looking forward to. Um, with it being volunteer appreciation month, we just want to do a shout out to our two volunteers, Brian Leaper and Jenny Butler. They both um do a fantastic job for us and um put in a a fair amount of hours for us. Um, just wanted to talk about a recent case that was kind of in Facebook and and uh crossed over a few different

jurisdictions. So, Friday, I believe it was, um we got a report of a tire slashing. Um someone called in and said that all four tires on their vehicle were slashed. Our officer immediately um got some video. uh our records person brought up some of the cameras that we have access to in the city and between a still uh footage and some video, we were able to piece together a little bit of a timeline and match the person with a car. Um, and then just some good intel working across a few different agencies matched up that this person was also then down in Scio area, Mill City, um, and Sublimity and responsible for damage to several vehicles. Fun and an interesting case to put together through info sharing, really good reporting from the public. um before the shift was over in our parking lot, we had Lynn County, Marian County, um our agency, and the suspect all um following up and clearing the cases. So, um it was a neat culmination of some good teamwork and really good public input as well that made that um come to a good conclusion. Uh, our citizens academy has completed its third week and um having a lot of fun with it, a lot of engagement, a lot of really great feedback. Uh, the group got to meet with our chief deputy district attorney from the DA's office who will be our future DA. Um, got to hear from dispatch and um, last week dealt with patrol and investigations. And then this week we'll be dealing with um use of force and um actually we'll have some uh demonstrations with the taser and the wrap. And so uh yeah,

we've already had some good uh contributions from our participants on who should be uh the demo person. Um but it's a it's honestly a neat um atmosphere. Like my hope of it is not only are we educating about what we do as a police department, but I've seen where this group of participants, they're becoming a much stronger um bonded group. So there are people from our community that have different um contributions whether it's from the hospital or city council staff um business owners. And so it's just a neat um opportunity for them to be stronger, for them to be stronger with city staff and with our police department, and then also educate about what we do, why we do, and all that good stuff. So, so far, um we're having lots of fun and and we're going to be pushing out some uh social media about what we're doing and and why we're doing that. And then um some questions have come up in the last week both at um citizens academy and otherwise about I guess partnerships and hey if we invited the police department to come to this would you come and absolutely if it fits in our schedule always our priority is shift coverage but we love our partnerships. So, if you've got something you want us to come to, uh whether it's a meeting or an event, um if we can fit it in, we will. Uh we've got a fun, uh partnership event tomorrow with the library, Coco with the cops. Um so, we get to participate in story time with the kids. And then um lastly, I just wanted to comment on uh uh we heard from Sunrise tonight about maybe some activity over there. So, I'm always

going to say if you have a problem and you feel like um it could be a police issue, uh give us a call. Uh our dispatch does a good job of getting that information to us and as we prioritize calls, we're going to send officers to that. So, if we can't help with it, if it's getting animal control involved, um, but for sure a safety issue with dogs and stuff, we're going to come. So, uh, report to us so we can we know of the problem and we can address it. And I've already, uh, advised my staff that we need to be doing extra patrols down there. Mr. Patty.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I was really glad that our uh neighbors on Sunrise brought this up because I was on a run on Saturday and I got attacked like twice by different off leash dogs. And so my my thought on this is that this seems to be a continuous issue around town, especially in our parks where folks are just walking around leaving their dogs off leash and it's not being addressed. I'm wondering is there any kind of preventative things that we could do as far as why Wednesdays bulletins as far as leash laws in Marian County, things like that? because I could go ahead and call it in every time this happens to Satan police when my dog gets nipped or I get nipped by a a loose dog, but at the end of the day, people are very kind. They come and get the dog, but I think just a reminder to folks that they need to leash their dogs and they're responsible. I think that would be really helpful. Mr.

Mayor, I'll go ahead. Uh I just wanted to comment that uh two people uh from the citizens academy have mentioned um to me that they are really enjoying um being on it and the information they're getting and um and it was like two different instances as well. So um it's going really well. They're not just giving you fluff. They're actually like

Well, very good. I appreciate that feedback. Yeah, it's it's created some really genuine and organic conversations and um we end often with uh opening to questions and comments and um if we don't have time we we have paper questions and we go through those and they all had fun trying on the vest to see how much we actually wear when we're on duty. It's a lot between the boots and the vest and the belt and all that. It's usually another 25 pounds. So, um, but it it's been great engagement for sure.

Chief, just two things. Congratulations on being a grandma. And the other is, uh, we were opening up for our food truck gathering on Sunday and Officer Heagen came by before we opened. Very professional, engaged very well with the some of the people from the community. So, he's he's a good addition to our department. Thank you. I appreciate hearing that. Coun Sims.

Uh, Chief, I just wanted to say, you know, I'm a part of the Citizens Academy. I I really appreciate the good job that you're doing. Your you and your team have obviously put a lot of work into it, put a lot of hours into that. So, uh, thank you very much. Bravo, Zulu, which means good job in Navy speak, but, uh, but you you've done a really good job and I know everybody's working really hard to put out a good product. So, good good job. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Chief.

All right. If there's any other questions for Chief, I've actually got two more things. So, um and before I actually I wanted I'm not going to put him on the spot. I'm not going to make him come up, but I see our um planning intern, Riley Nice, is in the back. I'm sure he's here just observing public. Um but I just wanted to give him a shout out because we're very happy to have him. I think I've mentioned to you the work that he's helping Jennifer with. So, that's wonderful. Good to see you here. Um, okay. Two more things. Um, we received a legislative bulletin from LOC about um, House Resolution 2289. It's regarding the American Broadband Deployment Act. Um, and I've drafted a letter, but I I think um, Brian would love to get your your feedback and your blessing to um, to sign it on the council's behalf. guys certainly could um could sign it or he I know you guys have given him the authority to do things, but it's um I think it it might be a little bit more compelling um if if council as a whole has said yes, we support this. So, um, this essentially is federal legislation that could undermine our ability to, um, charge permits to the amount that they actually cover what needs to be done and and affect our ability to regulate what's in our rightway. Um, mayor, did you want to add anything to that or? Um, just briefly, Julia, I think we got heads up on this that it was taking place a couple months back and at that time we were told to hold on and wait for it and so it officially came out as Julia said today, this morning and um, essentially what it does for in my opinion is it removes our ability to regulate ourselves as a city again. Another another knock to home rule if you will. Um, you all know the number of complaints and we had about when the cable was being transitioned between our current provider and the national one that would basically

basically take that ability for us to regulate that out of our hands. And so I have some concerns about that and that's why I oppose it. So I asked Julia to review it and then share it with you all. So, I guess um I'll let you guys let the mayor know if you have any concerns and then he and I can get together and sign it and finalize it um based on that tomorrow. And last but not least, I wanted council input on signs, um election signs. We've gotten some um suggestions to have some lawn signs or signage in front of the pool and or parks that talk about our park and pool levy in a very neutral um manner. Um Melanie actually did some research and found that about 20 lawn signs would be about $300. I feel if we do something for our park and pool, we probably should at least do something for our charter. Um, as well, because then why are we picking one or the other? Um, and one thought would be if we did that, maybe we just do something for here's the local levies that are on the ballot, including the state and fire district levy. Um, but I wanted to get your input because it because it's $300. Um, and we could just leave it. Um there are signs and discussion going on in the community. people will get their voters pamphlet or we could do something um a little bit more just you know vote and that's all it would really be vote here's the the levy number probably a QR code to our FAQ um information on our website about those but it would at least kind of be another opportunity to get in front of people but I wouldn't I wanted to get some input from council before I do anything or don't do anything

do you know what the turnaround time is like if we said Yes. Tonight.

Okay. Okay. That would just be my concern is that if it's going to be worth it to if we have enough time to do it because we're still a month away from the election. So if we could get stuff out, you know, in the next week and just, you know, they'll be getting their voters pamphlets election. Just kind of making sure the people remember remember to vote and that there are local things on the ballot. How big are the signs? Are they lawn signs? We'd get 20 of each or 20 total?

We'd get 20. The thought is like we'd have one sign that's for all three measures and so we'd have like a couple in each of the parks and in front of the pool. That was kind of the thought process. Mr. Mayor, Councelor Sims. Yeah, I definitely like the idea. Actually, what my vision was I think would for the long term would be a large community sign maybe at the library or city hall or something that showed like each levy including the fire levy, including schools, um

you know, levy for parks and pool. So, we had all the levies that affect everybody in the community. I think that would I saw some designs for some other cities that look pretty good for that. I think that would be great to have a that would be for the future, you know, short term, you know, the law this lawn signs would be great. Councelor Patty. Yeah, Mr. Mayor and Julia, we've already talked about this over email kind of my suggestions and it sounds like they're similar to councelor Sims. I think it makes most sense to have one of these signs, you know, at the library where the ballot drop off is so they have the explanation of what these are and that's where people are dropping off their ballots. That was my thought. So, we will have to be thoughtful and careful and make sure that we're

um enough away from the election box so that we're not um impeding. Yeah. So, that that we'll defin we'll have to look at that and make sure that wherever they're placed is in compliance with that. I think you also want to get them before they get to the ballot box too, right? Yeah. I guess if they're at the ballot box, they've probably already voted, right? Oh, Julie, I'd have a question about placement. Um, if you're going to place those signs in the rideway and we don't allow other political signs in the rightway, then we have a problem. I would envision them on in the parks and they're really notification signs. So, if a candidate for office wanted to put their sign in the park, they could.

No, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Consideration. Mr. Mayor, wouldn't these signs be objective explanation of these measures? It's still a supporter of a of a position, but it's not. It It's going to be a neutral. It has to be neutral. It can't be I'm just I'm just I can see it being challenged.

And that's my honest honestly that's my concern is that there could be the perception that we're doing this and um I mean it would have to be exceptionally neutral and here's here's what's on the ballot and here's where you can find additional information um that's been vetted by our attorney from a neutral standpoint. Um, and then then it gets to, well, is that worth the cost if um if we're I'll leave it up to council. Sure. I'm good with that. I'm Yes. Okay. I'm Yes. Go. Thank you.

Yep. Okay, Julia. Um, it looks like Barry had something. I didn't know that he had an update as well. I thought that was it. Sorry.

Barry's going to take over for two seconds. Um, I thought I was meant to actually give an update today, but I'm obviously not meant to. So, so I'm not going to. I'm just going to hand out a paper that basically gives a full list of all the projects that public works have got ongoing at the moment. Um, I'll leave it to you guys. The first se four pages are explaining what Jordan asked about last meeting about how our asset management program is working and the rest of the pages are a list of the ongoing work and projects projects that public works have in hand. Um I'm more than welcome to I welcome you guys to look through it and come and discuss them with me at any time.

Thank you. Okay. Thanks Barry. council can look through that and ask away uh next meeting or outside of that. Anything else, Julia? I think that's all I've got. I think you've heard from every one of my staff tonight. Okay. Opportunity for communication from mayor and council. I'll defer to council as I always do. Mr. Mayor. Okay. Councelor Hayes. Yep. Finally, I'll say something today. Okay.

Okay. just some uh some updates, you know, from things. First and foremost, uh I guess uh the Lucas Ditch is such a such an issue, but uh at the Boulders, which is the uh um little development right across from the uh Methodist church, uh their culvert is finally about to go in. I have wonderful pictures of the old one pulled out that was completely collapsed. So just saying uh they're moving forward with a new new one on that um leaison to the historic downtown state association which you know that is the new name from revitalize anyway. Uh they were there was some current concerns and it's already kind of gone through the smoking ordinance and storefronts and parks. They're not seeing it enforced well enough and such. I believe that has been referred to Kendra just okay just trying to give you guys up a little bit of stuff here. Uh the love and oven is still looking for historical photos. I have referred that to the Sanm historical society museum. Uh they have been contacted and they're just needing to check on the size of the photo. they want to check their storage and also talked uh to other members in regards to the photo and ask how much possible square footage is needed. So anyway, uh then I got a pleasant surprise when I found out that uh they needed a rock band in August and I recommended one and they did book them. They are uh it'll be August 14th during the TGI Friday. They're called Blood on the Plow. No, they are not a metal band. That is uh they're a John Cougar Melon Camp uh tribute band and Blood on the Plow

just happens to be a lyric from one of their songs. So that's how that works. That's all from me. Thanks, Councelor Hayes. Councelor Patty.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I I just wanted to kind of bring the council up to speed on some history as far as the spoky ordinance consideration goes. You know, that's something that had been vetted pretty thoroughly before in past councils. And I just wanted to go ahead and say at least from this individual counselor's perspective, it feels like the state government has a sufficient hold on regulation of this item and this issue. Um I don't know that without a huge public outpouring of support for reconsideration of that issue. would be interested in having those conversations again because that took a lot of staff and council time just speaking from years of experience. Agreed. Anybody else? Councelor Sims.

Uh I just want to advocate please get out and vote for the next election. We do have the parks and pool levy on the May 19th election and uh it is pretty important to you know make your point on how you want to vote on that um for or against but just please get out and vote. I would like to advocate and I will say the the parks and uh wreck board they have uh they've done a really good job advertising for the levy. So they've they've gotten signs out there. If people want signs you can get them at the 505 and uh they have gotten the word out about you know the implications of the levy and what the cost is. And there's a lot of information out there on social media. So I will say parks and recck board they've done a really good job on getting the information out. Councelor Sims, if I can just clarify, I believe that is not the board, but board members because as a board, um, they're not allowed to be advocating for or against either, but I I know what you mean, but I just want to put that out there on the record.

I will correct myself. Yes, it is the board members and and uh there's council members that have gotten on board with that, but is not the board that's doing it. You are correct, Council Carrie. Uh, this is probably for Barry. Um, I see a lot of locating going on at first. When can we expect something to happen? What's going on? Uh, between uh Washington Street all the way down to uh Ace Hardware.

Yeah, I actually spoke with the county over the weekend. It sounds like they're doing core drilling for preparing to do the ADA ramps and construction. They're doing the design work first, which since we're talking about this, um, I've already called Julia and just my hope is that maybe you guys can collaborate and decide if there's any additional ramps that we can collaborate with the county for some kind of cost sharing agreement if possible. Okay, cool. Thanks. I just want to bring it to your attention, Barry.

Anybody else? All right. Um, if I appear a little crispy from the sun, which I do, it's because Saturday I attended a neighborhood meeting at the intersection of 15th and Bernett to have a discussion about the annexation pressures of the city. And we didn't talk about any one specific project uh because I can't. But in general terms, a lot of education about annexation, a lot of education about the charter and what was in our place in our charter and how that is no longer applicable because of uh Senate Bill 15. I always get this wrong. 73 from 2016. So, a lot of discussion. I think those folks are invigorated. They were surprised about processes. Um they will be seeing you all in the future, I'm sure. uh but just trying to have a engagement with the community and it was really beneficial I think in the long run and ended up having a potluck there. They had food and beverages and whatnot. So I appreciate Officer Hagen was there and so he hung out with me for a little bit and gave me protection. I don't need it but he he did. So that was fun. Uh but just just driven council an update because it is a a heavy topic that I get a lot of feedback in the community about. So I think uh the engagement piece is going to be stepping up. Um, and really there's the concerns that they share are valid and they want to make sure that they have a say in their and their voice in the direction of our community. So, just a little update for y'all there. Um, and Julia, we didn't mention the the the design of this building on Thursday.

Well, I included a picture in your weekly update, but it wasn't a very good Yeah, it didn't show it very well. Yeah, the hospital um Salem Health and Sanama um hospital did a meeting state of the region and I have never seen this room look like that. It was amazing. They had um so our tables were back here which you couldn't see because there was a huge screen, two ginormous um TV screens, flowers everywhere, beautiful round tables everywhere. It looked like a garden party and it was like it was just absolutely um thrilling to see that this room could look like that and I'm really excited to see how great it can look when we have new floors. Um but it was really cool to see for hopefully hopefully the pictures show you a little bit about what it looked like but it was kind of one of those you almost had to be here.

Yeah, it was very inviting. I think uh it showcased what this room could potentially be for those that are have creativity and are willing to put the effort into it. So, and I did send pictures to our our folks so that they can make sure that that's included in any um advertisements that we do. So, Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it.