City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I guess we'll get started. Welcome everybody to the March 9th, 2026 regular city council meeting. And with that, I would ask the city clerk to please call the role. Councelor Mclofflin here. Councelor Ring, present. Councelor Randall, present. Councelor Richardson, present. Councelor Renan, present. Mayor Ms, here. Uh, item three is pledge of allegiance. I'd like to call on Council Rod Renan to please uh please stand if you're physically.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tim, could you turn the flag so it's flying into the room, please? up to the wall. Thank you. Thank you.

Item four is approval of the agenda. We do have one change that everybody will be very happy with. Uh there is no executive session, item 11. And with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended. Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as amended. I'll second the motion. Been moved by council ring and seconded by councel Randall to approve the agenda as amended. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 5A, proclamation in support of the Dallas standown event. And oh, come forward. Hi. Introduce yourself. Hello everyone. My name is Chelsea Perro. I am your sit down. Okay. Sit down and relax. Okay. A while. Yeah. I'll I'll hang out a while. Um Okay. Good evening, council members. My name is Chelsea Parrot. I am your local veteran service officer here for Wasco County. Want me to go forward, please?

Okay. Um, so I am here tonight to ask for your support in um, this year's 2026 Veterans Standown. Um, the last time we did a standown was in 2024. Um, it was on a Wednesday and we had a very amazing turnout and we are hoping um, for 2026 to have it even bigger. Um, so more veterans and their families. We are definitely expecting more vendors and community members. We're asking to host this in Lewis and Clark Park. Um I believe the time is going to be from 11 to 1. I think that's a really good time after speaking with several people. Um our focus will be on medical, dental, housing, employment, education, and more. So the goal is to have vendors and community partners from each of those entities um there to help and service veterans. and we are in an outdoor space, so it's not going to be a lot of like one-on-one appointment times, but more of like gathering information and seeing what's available and then that way between the veteran and whomever, they can make an appointment or get together at a time that works best for the both of them. But I think it's important that our veterans and community members know what is available and what's out there as far as resources. So that's what a standown is is a resource event.

And we have a proclamation you'd like us to pass tonight. I guess you don't need a motion to do that, do you? You just read it and I got all that power. I can just declare it, right? Okay. I'll read the proclamation. Okay. Thank you.

All right. in recognition of the standown event. Whereas the city of the Dallas deeply values the service, courage, and sacrifice of our nation's veterans, active duty service members, national guard reser, and their families. And whereas standown events across the country provide critical support to veterans by connecting them with essential services including housing resources, health care, employment assistance, behavioral health support, benefits counseling, and community programs. And whereas the standown event in the Dells brings together local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, volunteers, and community partners to offer compassionate one-stop access to assistance for those who have served our nation. And whereas many veterans in our region face challenges related to housing stability, health, employment, and reintegration. And the standown standown event serves as an important step toward meeting these needs with dignity and respect. And whereas the city of the Dallas recognizes the significance of supporting veterans not just on a single day but throughout the year and honors the dedication of those who work to ensure that veterans receive the care and services they deserve. Now therefore on the 9th day of March 2026 I Richard A. A mayor of the city of the Dallas on behalf of the city council do hereby com proclaim in full support for the standown event in the Dallas and encourages all community members service providers and organizations to recognize the importance of this event and to join in honoring supporting and uplifting our veterans.

Thank you. You're very welcome. And if anybody has questions um they can reach me via email or at the veteran service office at the county building. Yes, sir. May I just ask one, please? Yes. When what is the date for that event? It's going to be May 16th, 2026, which is a Saturday. Excellent. Thank you so much. Of course. There any other questions? So Ryan, did you have a qu I thought I just a recognition that uh Chelsea is a Marine 17 years she served our country and I really appreciate that.

Oh yeah. Thank you. Um, and just a quick side note, if I may, I would really like to give special recognition to special community members who have already donated um, goods and services and have committed to supporting our standown. Um Tanya Brumley with Northwest Natural, Jared Snyder with All Seasons Carpet Cleaning and Restoration, Shannon Sheets with Gorge Legacy Law, Tammy Dirks with By Coastal Media, and Matt Herajes with Optimus Printers. So we thank them. Great. We thank them too. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay. Item 5B is the Brownfield RI Brownfield revitalization in the Dallas presentation. Mr. Jake Anderson. Thank you, Mayor Maize, members of the council. Um, thank you so much for having me this evening. Who I'm here to talk about Brownfield revitalization. This is one of our uh most successful grant programs we've been hosting here at the city of the Dallas for uh quite a few years. Not a problem. While things are being strange on the uh screen, I can tell you a little what are brownfields. So, you've got green fields and brown fields. Green fields are areas that are going to be developed. Um they've never been developed before. Um they're the places that are really easy to develop. Your brown fields are about the opposite. They are areas that have been contaminated, areas that have been built upon. Um it could be in the dowels, um areas that are over a hundred years old that have who knows what in the ground and in the buildings and in the soil. So what where us all started? Brownfield started with a $25,000 business or business Oregon integrated planning grant. And what we found from that planning grant was is that we have a lot of need in the Dallas for brownfield revitalization. Um so what we did is we worked with our partners the port and um the county and we had got a $600,000 um coalition assessment grant um and that was from 2020 to 2024. That grant was successful and we uh successfully did projects all throughout um the county. Um, McKED had then applied for a planning grant and they're continuing to do uh brownfield assessments over Sherman, Wasco, and Hudderber counties. And uh, there was such a need that the Dells we struck out

on our own and we applied for a grant in 2023. If you'd go to the next slide, please. Oh, we can go to the next slide, too. and we received a $500,000 U EPA planning grant. And part of the goals of this is um we want to do phase one uh ESAs and phase 2 ESAs. So that's your environmental assessments. Uh your site assessment on a phase one is looking at the historic uh historical record. So, our contractor, Stantech, will go through and look at the old um photos, look at the old uh maps from dating, you know, all the way back to the early 1900s. And we're looking to see if any of these sites that are that are looking that we're looking at have uh underground storage tanks, if there's anything inside the building like asbestous um that we could know of from that historical documentation. Um I would say the vast majority of phase one assessments end up having to go into a phase 2 assessment where we actually do on the ground um look. So on a lot of these projects um we'll have to do underground um borings to see if there's been a release. And that's what your phase 2 assessment is. If there's been um an an oil tank or a fuel tank that was in the ground cuz a lot of the downtown buildings were heated by oil at one point. Uh what we'll do is is we'll we'll pull the tank out and then we'll do the assessment and we'll check underneath the ground from there. So I guess what I what I should have started with is how do you get on the brownfield assessment list? And so online um anyone can go online and apply for their location um to do a phase one assessment or phase 2 assessment if they've already

had a phase one assessment done. And um what we're doing and the question is is why would somebody do it? And if you want to sell property downtown the Dows, you pretty much have to the the lenders will require you to have an assessment done. And these assessments are not cheap. Um it can for a phase one it can be 5 to 15,000. For a phase 2 it can be 15 to 25,000 real easy. And so when you're looking at selling property downtown, this grant program um goes a long ways to covering those costs um that someone probably far in the past created an issue that that now we know may or may not need to be cleaned up. We also need to do community meetings and community outreach. So thank you very much for allowing me to present. So this is one of the eight community meetings as well as um we're also looking at um regulated building materials. So, inside the building, um, we have one building that's interested, uh, business owner, building owner downtown that's looking at removing one of the buildings from the back of their lot. And in order to do that demo, they have to go in there and do a regulated building material survey. Um, this grant can help uh, cover the cost of that so that it's not borne by the person who's trying to do cleanup. Uh, we can go to the next slide, please. Here's a list of some of the projects that we have done to date. Um, I'm not going to read them. You can read them on there. The good news is is of uh of our goals and requirements to get 12 um phase one assessments done. We're already done with seven. Our phase 2 assessments, we're already six. So, we're already half of the way through where we need to be on a 4-year grant. And you can go to the next phade. Here's a picture of what it looks like. Um, in the real world when we're doing a

phase 2 assessment, um, when we know that there's a fuel tank, um, we can go in there and it's one of the few times, uh, we can actually fix the problem immediately. Uh, because what they found in the program is it's easier to just pull the tank than it is to drill through the center of the tank and then take your sample underneath it. Um, your phase one and phase 2 assessments are not cleanup grants. The goal is is to get us to where we know whether it needs to be cleaned up or not. Um I can gladly say that uh most phase 2s that we've been doing, we've been able to remediate the problem without having to work with the applicants or the owners to go through the cleanup program so far. Next slide. Here's where we're at. Um we have a $445,000 contract with Stantech and we've spent $164,000 So, we're doing a really good job of not spending a whole lot of money and working through our goals. We'll be able to uh do more projects with this program than we had initially anticipated, which is going to be good. Um, and we had a a large number that um we did last year in 2025 because in 2024 we had a gap year where we were able to get people who were interested in the Browns Fields program, but we didn't have the money to pay for it. Um it took a while to bring um the applicants on board. Um I think we skipped that one which is okay. And then we have our small and direct and city expenses of $50,000. Um if you go to the next slide, here's another picture of what it looks like. Um farm stand was a was a previous example of our program uh where we thought there'd just be a couple tanks and then we found out there were quite a few tanks in the ground. We got a lot of those cleaned up through the brown fields program and that saved the uh the new owners of the farm stand a

significant amount of money um so that they could go into business without having that debt on their books. Any questions? Questions for Jake? Council Renan. Just to clarify, and I think you just said it, these are grants. So, we're not going to be looking for payback by either a seller or a buyer their grants.

So, the Brownsfield program, we are paying we the the city are is paying for the contractor to do the phase one and phase 2 assessments. It is so there's no reimbursement. The the owners of the property don't have to pay anything. It's really simple. And then we submit to the EPA for reimbursement. So, it makes it a very clean process. There's no loans. There's it's correct. Yeah. So thus the savings economically for a business that wants to come in. Yes. Or somebody who wants to sell.

Yeah. And so you know from it it can be either side, right? You know the seller needs to to have that completed. Um if the buyer is going to get a bank loan at any time if you own a building downtown, you could do a private sale between you and somebody else with cash and you wouldn't have to do any of the environmental assessments. if there's going to be a bank involved. So, usually when a buyer wants to come and do something new, that's when the brownfields really kicks in. So, what I could ask from all of you is um sending out a letter um mass marketing for this program isn't successful. We found um the best way of success is through word of mouth, through talking to the the building owners and the business owners and any people that you know that are potentially thinking about selling in the next year or two. the time frame. Um, it's never good to apply for the Brownfields grant when there's a buyer in hand because that can add 3 months if you have to go through a phase 2 assessment. So, if somebody's thinking about selling in the future, it's best to come in apply now while we have the funds and then um you can you can have that checked off for your sale. Do they come to our planning department to find out if it's been done or how do they find out when the bank's asking for, you know, qualifications and whatnot? Where do where's the business owner, seller, buyer, go to to find out?

So, the the person who's um selling the property should know whether there's been one done. It should be in all their files. Um that is one way when we when we do find people will come to the planning department with questions about selling property um buyers can come in and then they will direct them to to my department. Um the the brownfield you know there's no online database where you can just go and look and see what unless you want to go through all the EPA files and start searching online deep in their archives. There's no easy way to find out. And so that's, you know, luckily we've we've done a good job training the the local realtors to to know like if you're going to have a buyer, this is something that you want to be included in.

Yeah. Council Ring. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Uh what's the timeline on the rest of spending the rest of the money? Is this is there a a date by which we can't spend any more of the funds? So 2028 is the end of the grant. we can um apply for an extension if there's any dollars left. Um what we found is from the first year I'm right on track for not having any money left. Anybody else? Thank you very much, Jake. Thank you.

Item six is audience participation. During this portion of the meeting, anyone may speak on any subject which does not later appear on the agenda. Interested citizens are required to sign up in advance to be recognized. Up to three minutes per person will be allowed. Citizens are encouraged to ask questions with the understanding that the city can either answer the question tonight or refer that question to the appropriate staff member who will get back to you within a reasonable amount of time. If a response by the city is requested and that response is not immediately provided, the speaker will be referred to the city manager for further action. Uh our first um person signed up out of three is Mr. Chuck Gomez who wants us give us an update on the beautifification uh committee and I would ask the city council to allow Mr. Gomez to uh to wave we wave the three minutes uh because of his service on the committee. Any objections?

How much time do you need, Chuck? Five minutes.

Fine. Uh, good evening, city council and ladies and gentlemen of the community sitting behind me. I'm Chuck Gomez from the Granada Theater making our first monthly report of the beautifification committee. The first thing I would like to address is the Westside grant, the state grant and labor grant that was made available from the program through the Department of Land Conservation and Development in Oregon. This was a $300,000 grant applicable to the west side of town uh for trees, for the labor, for the associated materials, and for ongoing labor maintenance. Well, we were able to reach several levels of acceptance, but ultimately did not receive the grant. However, the grant is recurring and we are in good place to apply and try for it again next time it becomes available. But before I leave the uh Westside Grant Program uh material, I would like to give a shout out to uh Deb Ferrer from our beautifification committee who worked tirelessly uh literally dozens and dozens of hours in Zoom meetings, in personal meetings, in telephone calls, in hundreds of emails and research putting this grant together. and it was her due diligence that really brought us right up to the goal line in receiving this $300,000 grant. So, we all in the community owe Deb a big thank you uh for her endeavor on this grant approach. Uh, as far as the community and beautififications tree giveaway program, we had a little money left over in the budget and we have voted and decided to

use those funds for the purchase of trees that are going to be installed and planted at our grade school and at the Fort Dale's Museum. So there was a need in both of those municipal places and historic locations and the beautifification committee has stepped up to the plate to spend the rest of their tree grant money for trees a little larger than the ones that normally go to the community and to purchase trees for those two locations, which I again think is a very uh honorable and dedicated program. And as we drive through town, you know, the beautifification committee worked tirelessly last year on the Trev triangle. Have uh has anyone noticed how beautiful that triangle is looking? It has really stepped up. What a great asset to the community and beautifification for our town. And with that as our first example for a uh triangle com um commercial renovation, we are now working on the roundabout at the Louiswis and Clark Park uh at the east end of the park parking lot area. There's a small roundabout of about 33 uh feet in diameter and uh it already has water for irrigation, I believe. And we hope to have as as uh wonderful of a a final product uh at the roundabout at Lewis and Clark as we did at the Trevet Triangle. So that is good news on the horizon for the beautifification committee. And uh from a personal note, I am very proud and pleased and honored to be on the beautifification committee. Now, on a side note,

uh there seems to have been uh from uh neighbors of the Granada Theater discussing it with me, there seems to have been a rise in the rodent population downtown, mice, rats, rodents, and things. And uh before the uh city uh addresses a concern about that and maybe adds more poison boxes or rat traps or something, I would think and more of a environmental approach that if we were to install 30 to 50 owl boxes in the trees on rooftops in the community, a small project that I think the uh uh the community college could help with building boxes. There are 14 types of owls that are uh indigenous to Wasco County. One owl uh accounts for approximately 3,000 rodents, mice, and rats a year. If we could get 30 or 40 owls living in the downtown, it's literally invisible because they're mostly out at night. The boxes are hidden on tree uh in trees and on rooftops. And I think this would be a very environmentally friendly way to keep and maintain a rodent population uh at its lowest numbers in the downtown area. And speaking of owls, I'd like to just in closing address our hootfest that we had the other day. So the Granada was a small part of the hootfest. uh and I'm not going to take any thunder away from the uh director and organizer who was here to speak on it also, but the Granada had uh 400 registered attendees for Friday night,

400 registered attendees for Saturday night for a total of 800 people into the Granada Theater for a totally free concert that people came from all over the country and Europe to attend this event and visit our great community of the Dells. Now, we had the fire chief in the Granada ahead of time to walk through and make sure everything was acceptable and up to code that we wouldn't have any issues. We had extra security. We had extra ushers, assistance, and fire spotters in the theater. And then on Sunday, yesterday, we had the US, the United States Air Force Band, brass band of the Golden West perform free of charge a veterans dedication concert at the Granada, which saw nearly a,000 people for free concerts over that 3-day weekend. And that absolutely is a benefit and a boost to the tourism efforts that I and many people in the community have been working towards and addressing. So, we had 110 many veterans and uh friends and family of veterans for the brass band yesterday. And I have to say it was absolutely glorious to hear those men performing uh much patriotic and programmatic music in the afternoon at 2:00. And that concludes my report to the uh to the chamber. And thank you very much.

Any questions for Mr. Gomez?

Yeah, I do. Downtown trees, how are they looking? You know, we did replant. We had some problems with uh trees dying and we replaced. How's that program going? Well, they have been replaced. Uh and that was uh those concerns were addressed in the replacing of many of those trees and uh and let's not exclude the old growth trees that we have along the sidewalks. And I have sent an email to Matt uh previously a month or two ago that some of those trees are doing so well, the older trees. Look at the trees along the Granada on Washington Street. Some of those are in need of pruning so they don't get too tall, so they don't overhang and become a a safety hazard onto the sidewalk. But uh I think the the uh the arborists that plant replaced those trees have uh really stepped up to the plate the second time around and the trees seem to be doing much better and they're they're budding out well and I hope they continue but we're keeping our eyes on it and hope to notify uh the company if anything looks a little um uh down and out before it gets too out of hand.

Mr. Mayor, if I may if I may add.

Sure. Um, so we have uh we had to to build upon what Mr. Gomez is is is adding here, we have a three-year contract with Davy's Trees who uh installed and replaced the trees and then were charged with maintaining those trees for a three-year period. This will be the third year. And so we are working to uh procure equipment and whatnot needed to continue maining maintaining the downtown street trees. Um, we also have the First Streetscaping project moving forward which will also have street trees and as Mr. Gomez noted, there's a few trees in the downtown area. Um, the first street parking lot and a few others that we need to continually take care of and trim up uh as they grow. So, um, it's a good problem, I guess you could say, that we are increasing the tree canopy in the downtown um because we'll have to have more resources to maintain and take care of them. But ultimately that's uh one of the objectives for that downtown core to have that nice shaded environment, a more pleasant and welcoming downtown, a little bit of a softer downtown with, you know, a more concrete kind of environment. So with the support of the beautifification and tree committee, um I have I have high hopes that we'll continue to see them improve over the years.

When and we have lost some trees that were cut down in the small sitting park area uh right around the corner from the bakery. uh from uh Angel's uh uh b uh bakeria uh right there on the alley and uh there were some trees who were cut down at the parking lot on Washington and first and in the email to Matt I did uh bring that up and was informed that as the first street project continues hopefully those trees are in line for replacement those trees that were cut down to be replaced. So, we look forward to all of those uh new plantings to take place in the town hopefully this year. Council Ring.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um quick question for the beautifification committee. Last year downtown, you guys had um a selection for downtown businesses to get uh like more I think it was uh planter boxes and things. Yeah, the sidewalk grant.

The sidewalk grant. Um is there I'm curious. Is there another evolution of that this spring? And is there a way to identify those businesses? I I walked downtown from time to time and I've it, you know, was scratching my head like which businesses were doing stuff on their own and which ones, you know, were bolstered by the beautifification community to put some some greenery outside their their shops and whatnot. Well, uh, last year we brought up the, uh, uh, the efforts for sidewalk grants downtown, and we asked for $3,000 to be budgeted and received that. And, uh, we set a limit of $300 for pots, uh, soil, wood chips, plants, watering, offset your water bills, whatever the case was, a $300. And uh being the skeptic that I am or was on that situation, I thought, you know, guys, committee, we're going to get three or four people to apply for this. Oh, silly me. We had $3,000, 10 grants at 30 $300 each and receive 23 applications.

23 applications. So, we hope we can increase it this year. And we do want to continue with that. And we are about to request those business owners that did uh receive those grants to send us an update photograph that we can put and post on the website to show our our um our progress with those trees. And uh as we're talking about that or of those potted plants on the sidewalks and as we're talking about that I will say that we are continuing with our recognition of residents gardens that are visible from the streets and sidewalks and recognition of monthly garden of the month. Uh it's our 10th year for that and we hope to uh have many beautiful gardens receive those awards.

Anybody else? I've got a I have a comment. Oh, go ahead. As I was driving through the Dallas Friday night, I saw all of the cars parked on Second Street, side streets. It's refreshing to see the Dallas once again revitalized. And whoever did that, thank you. Kudos. Yes. You'll hear about that in a moment. It wasn't just the Granada. it was uh uh many uh venues throughout the town had uh collective uh hoot uh performances taking place all over the community. So uh I'll uh on that note I'll I'll conclude and we'll leave it up to Ryan to discuss the hootfest. Thank you. Right there.

I got I just had a quick question. What um you mentioned the tree giveaway at a grade school. Which grade school was the recipient of that? I I think it's Colonel Wright. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Ryan Beach wants to talk about the Dallas Hoot.

Evening. Uh Ryan Beach. I am the what am I? Vice president of the Dallas Overground and the co-director of the Dallas Hoot, the festival that we just had this weekend. And I'm excited to um be in front of you guys for a positive thing because the last few times I was here, it was my neighborhood which you guys have done an excellent job of improving and we've had years I think I can't remember how many it's been years now though of um an amazing neighborhood come back to life. But I just wanted to give um we need to spend some time doing an afteraction plan and do some economic analysis and hopefully we can present that to you in a few weeks. But I just wanted to do a quick thank you to this community. Like people came out. It was busy all weekend long. Um all the venues were full. Um like um Tim said, you know, parking was was rough, but it was for a good reason. Um and we had um you know multiple sponsors that trusted in us this first year, multiple community sponsors, um businesses that that um trusted in us this first year um bought into our concept. Um we had over 40 volunteers helping us out. Um uh so you know, seven venues going, over 20 performances, um 400 over 400 each night in the Gana. Um, and I think there was a heavy economic impact here. We had people from everywhere and the I haven't had on very little sleep at this point.

It's for good reasons. Uh, but we've had, you know, the the the um positive words I've heard from out of town folks seeing the dowels for the first time or seeing the dials in a new light has has been we'll have all those to present at another point to you guys as we're collecting them. Um, we also did over 10 video shoots with the artist each day in different places around town that we'll be once we get those edited and um, looking good, we'll be putting those up on a YouTube channel to highlight the community. Um, we've got hours and hours of video footage um, photo galore. So, uh, there'll be a lot more to share. I just, but I wanted to thank everybody in this community for embracing um, a new event.

Thank you for all the work. Does anybody have any questions for Ryan? Briefly, I do, if I may. Ryan, would you consider the first year of the hoot a success by your by your hopes? And yeah, 100%. We we had um we would didn't we didn't it was a free event. We had to register for the Granada and I think we sold out shows. We sold out Saturday almost a month ago and we sold out um Friday a couple weeks ago and then we encouraged people to uh turn their tickets in if they couldn't come. And it was it was fun to watch me put the tickets out and then they immediately would go so people were watching it. So there was an excitement. Yeah.

Um yeah, it was success on all accounts as far as our organization went. Be interesting to know how many of those folks stayed in town. We sold out. I talked to the the Dows or Yeah, I put all the artists we put all the artists at the Dows in. So I had been in close contact with them about logistics and they said it was their busiest um weekend since a high point in the summer. Um everything was sold out on Expedia. I don't we didn't sell out the whole town, but there was there was a lot of um Well, there's next year, right? Lodging. Yeah. Are you inclined to uh make this a a annual thing? You going to do it again?

That That's the goal. We got a um one of the um one of the key points we did this year was made sure we brought in um people that could do media during the day of the event. So we hope to be able to use that for bigger grants to, you know, show some success and what we were able to do the first year. So yeah, we can keep raising money. We'll do it forever. Thank you so much. It's great to have uh people with energy and passion for this town and and to Chuck as well. And there's there's many folks that do, but this was u this was a particularly unique and exciting kind of weekend. I like the owl idea, too. I mean, you can really really tie all that in. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. Okay, finally, we have Aaron Willis who wants to talk about the Dallas watershed.

Hi, Mayor Counselors. Oh my gosh, the hoot was amazing. I it like kind of snuck up on me. I didn't realize it was happening, but I was there at the Granada and River City afterwards. Both nights. Such good bands. Thank you so much. Like the Dallas got way cooler this past weekend. Okay, so um I consider myself a fan of the city of the Dallas. So I wanted to let you guys know that we are trending on social media in not a good way. So this there's this post. It's about the Dallas wershed and um I was here a few weeks ago or a few sessions ago when you guys brought the public works guy back to talk about the OPB article and his refute of that and I think it's like the same thing. I actually sent this to the city of the Dallas uh Instagram account. I don't know who runs that but um I just wanted to read the caption of it now um and get your feedback. Uh if I had better time management, I would have like I don't know read that letter from last session and read this bill that they're talking about. But I'm hoping just to get some heavy some quick points from y'all. Okay. It says, and this is like tens of thousands of shares and likes and things like that with a very like ominous music in the background. Okay. The city of the Dallas is trying to seize 150 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest to use the Dog River as a coolant for the halfozen massive Google data centers along the banks of the Columbia River. Proponents like House Representative Cliff Bence, who wrote the bill, say the water will be used to serve the city's growing population, but the city's population has declined since 2020 in the same time frame that Google's water needs have risen exponentially. The bill would give the city 150 acres of land to fill the Crow Creek Reservoir

with water piped in from the Dog River. The reservoir would be filled to three times its current size. Historically, when cities choose a municipal reservoir on Mount Hood, they close off the entire valley around it, much like the Bullr Run reservoir that feeds Portland. This would cut off public access to potentially much more than the 150 acres since there are already several similarlyssized metro parcels in the area. Uh the bill HR655 passed the House without any public review or comment. Its passage would harm five endangered species act listed runs of salmon and steelhead in the watershed as well as all species migrating in the Columbia River. Uh the bill would have the land and water gifted to a corporation that already received over 260 million in tax breaks for facil for its facilities in the Dallas. So it's like call your senators and uh it's like a call to action. Uh yeah, I could spot a few things, you know. Um but I just wanted to get uh your yeah to let you know this was happening and to get your feedback or like you know fact check this. I I didn't comment, but I'm ready to you know what what you guys say or what's

you wrote that is there a a a name associated with that u rather inaccurate uh diet tribe? Yeah, there is a um it's actually from a nonprofit organization bark for Mount Hood and this person who I don't know Rowan Forest who I think is a Portland person but it's like a nonprofit like advocacy group like protecting Mount Hood. just like quick I just like quickly looked at the accounts. It's like posted by two. I'm a little familiar with Bark and they never contacted the city and to my knowledge to get our point of view on this and the first sentence alone had three inaccuracies that you just read.

Um I I I think we don't have enough time to get into all the inaccuracies that we've encountered here at the city regard regarding House Bill 655. Uh there was plenty of public comment. and I was in Washington DC to testify in myself. Um, the fact that our population has declined since 2020 is not true. Um, like I said, there's so many things to address on that that are just not accurate that are really I'm not sure what more I can say about it. Um, yeah, like this 150 acres isn't my city being given to Google.

Yeah, that's that's totally that's totally inaccurate. I mean, it even even within the caption, it like contradicts itself a few times, you know. But anyway, uh yeah, I don't know. Well, we appreciate you coming here and um uh addressing this because a lot of people make up their minds without getting our side of it. So, and I'm glad you read Mr. Anderson's four-page letter in response to the OPB article. So, yeah, I was here when you read it. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, uh, we're we're trying to, uh, our city manager is going to be addressing this issue, okay, when the city manager's report comes up, which is next, I believe, on the agenda. Okay. So, I'm sure he'll go into a little more depth than I have.

Okay. And just uh, so this I'm sure this will continue, you know, as like the as Google continues to grow here. And I remember like just I am interested in more in learning more about this and well it's I guess just some kind of Google interest group. I think I asked about this before and and and y'all sent me to Mr. Fleees and I think we never actually had that conversation but is there a a group like that or a committee subcommittee a Google interest group like what's going on with Google? We you know everybody wants to know.

Yeah. I don't know of any group like that at least locally. I think that would be a fascinating public conversation. Absolutely. A meeting where just like, you know, Google 101 and we're going to lay out everything. Um, but thank you. I'm my tongue is sore from being bitten over that post. Uh, so somebody who works in uh water and stream health and endangered species and all that, uh, and a fan of all those things, it's it's really frustrating to have our come after us willy-nilly. uh and just get so many things wrong. Inaccurate. Yeah.

Um you know, the water's already closed to recreation. It's it's our water source or a big part of it. Like it's not Portland's water. It's not connected to Portland's water. It has nothing to do with Mood. It's maddening. Yeah. Yeah. One quick tip. I'll exit. Whoever do you do the social media? You like stitch that it'll I bet it'll go viral with like the city's response or whatever cuz like lots of people are sharing this like who cares about people far away or whatever but I've I've seen it on so many local people's uh like stories and you know commenting on it. People are believing this you know. So yeah it is frustrating that people would believe it without checking with us or at least getting our side of it. And uh

this is the age we live in you know. Yeah. Mhm. Well, I thank you for coming and um please keep your ear to the ground and I'm sure you'll be hearing more hopefully more positive news coming out on this issue. So, thank you. And with that, we'll go to the city manager report number seven.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a lengthier city manager report than normal here, so please uh bear with me. Um, first and foremost, I wanted to provide an update to the council that under our prior strategic plan, one of our actions under our public relations goal, action 6.6, was to develop a new brand for the city. Uh, we've had a cross functional team of staff uh, working on this with a contractor to develop a new proposed uh, logo and brand. Uh, survey has been sent out to all staff in the city council to solicit that feedback, which is now being used to make some of the final changes. Once completed, uh we'll uh unveil that and we'll be issuing uh new items such as new business cards that will incorporate the new logo and style as well as our updated email handle which is uh much shorter than the prior one and I think is appreciated by many uh who have to repeat it over the phone at times. So that's coming down the pipeline. I'll be joining uh the Dallas community outreach team uh trip next week to Washington DC. And I want to let the council know that I may be absent from the March 23rd city council meeting due to a spring break planned uh with my family. Um I'm traveling home that day, but my hope is to be able to attend virtually at the least, but wanted to uh put that on the radar. Uh I had an update with the Wix water treatment plant and its uh replacement efforts. This is a generational investment needed uh within our community and was identified in our recent water master plan update. We will be conducting a procurement process to bring on what's called an owner's adviser to help us navigate and decide the different uh contract delivery methods that may best serve the city in delivering this project. Um those some of those different project delivery options include uh construction manager general contractor form of project uh standard design bid and build or a progressive design build. Uh as some of the councils may recall, we had a positive experience with the wastewater

treatment plant under a progressive design build approach uh which is a two-phase project delivery approach or method where we have a uh designer build builder early on in the process that really works with us works with us throughout the whole process uh to get an ideal project completed. The owner's adviser itself will represent the city's interest from project initiation through project completion and they'll provide technical, financial, regulatory and programmatic support through all phases of the project. Um, this is a project like I like I mentioned in the beginning that we haven't seen in a generation and we want to make sure that we are allocating the the resources and the expertise to support city staff uh through the whole thing. Um, this is a critical first step to replace the Wixwater treatment plant and we will likely be bringing that back to council for award sometime in July. So, planning for the year ahead. Want to give you a heads up. Uh, similarly, the clerk will be sending out a calendar invite for a few special meetings. Uh, we have one tentatively slated for June 25th and August 10th. Um, so please mark those out on your calendars or try and make time available. Um those special sessions will focus on the wastewater master plan effort that is currently underway. Um prior to one or both of those meetings, we wanted to see if there was interest from the council and having a tour of the wastewater treatment plant ahead of those meetings. Um or ahead of those work sessions, I should say. And so I wanted to see if there was interest around the dis here. And if so, we can get some some dates uh over to you and see which ones might work best for everybody. Maybe a show of hands might be best for the city clerk. but not too early. 8 o'clock sharp knew that

I also wanted to mention that I appeared on KODL last week and one of the items that we discussed in depth was House Bill 655 introduced by Congressman Bence. Um we're continuing to answer questions and clarify what this bill does and does not do. Um and some of the concerns that have been expressed around data centers and their development. Um, couple bullet points here that I wanted to highlight is that the bill will transfer 150 acres from the US Forest Service to the city of the Dells for municipal purposes only. Uh, this is less than 1% of the entire 22,000 acre watershed. This will better allow the city to operate and manage the water system, manage our wershed, accommodate growth, and address decreasing amounts of snowpack. This year in particular is a very uh good example. It does not change or impact existing water rights owned by the city. Does not increase them or change them. And it does not authorize the actual raising of the height of the Crow Creek Dam, which is a project that's years into the future. Um, raising the height of the Crow Creek Dam is a project that was identified in our water master plans in the as early as the 1990s um and predates Dennis Center data center development here in the Dallas. This is a project that um we have been talking about and thinking about for for many years and is designed to serve the entire system that we have here for our community. Um we have developed an FAQ um correcting uh many of the CR claims that we've received about that the House bill actually does and again does not do. We have a couple of maps to kind of give you a sense a better idea of where these acres are located, how they're kind of broking up broken up around the Crow Creek Dam and the reservoir associated with that. and that we'll be posting that hopefully before the end of the week. Um, if Amy if Amy has time to do it all. Um, but I'm hope hopeful that some of that information uh will be helpful in addressing uh some of the narrative that's out there and bring a little bit more clarity over what we're doing and why and why it's a good thing for the city of the Dallas and its community.

Um, a few other items here. Uh the uh Dallas Art Center in the city are partnering to move forward a art project at the roundabout over near uh Sunshine Mill on the east side of our downtown. This is a art project to replace the faded murals that are at the center of that roundabout. Uh if you go on Google Maps and go use the timeline feature, you can go back in time about 15 or so years and see those murals because you cannot see them today whatsoever. And so this is through an existing contract that we have with the art center to facilitate projects such as this. and they've been able to uh leverage a private grant, some additional Google dollars, and city funds to complete this project uh that we hope to see move forward this spring and summer. Um the uh that's already kind of been talked about, but I attended several of the venues uh during the hoot this weekend and I can say that it was a tremendous success. It was very busy in the downtown and my hope is that it also turns into an annual event. Congrats and thank you to the event organizers and volunteers. And then finally, as you may have heard, the Cherry Festival is still moving forward. The carnival will be at the Louiswis and Clark park and all other events such as the cherry run, the parade, carve show, live music, vendor market, and everything are still go. I want to thank the Dallas area Chamber of Commerce, local businesses and community for continuing to support the event in its new location and format um as the city's first street streetscaping project goes forward. So, a lot of uh investment, a lot of activity in our whole community, a lot of people coming together to continue these traditions and start new ones. And uh it's great to be a part of it. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Questions for the city manager. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to council reports. We'll start on my left with council Renan. Uh just that I attended the Mid Columbia Veterans Memorial Committee meeting today prior to uh Chelsea coming here today to talk about the standown. That's it. Council Richardson. No report tonight, Mr. Mayor. Council Randall. Uh, also no report this evening. Thank you, Council Ring.

Uh, I attended the Sister Cities meeting. Um, and we're actually there's a trip uh June 14th to the 20 I think the 24th if I'm not mistaken. Um anyways, there's several high school students that have been um selected to join us on the trip to our s sister city in Moshi uh city, Japan. Uh it's much like the Dallas. I encourage you to, you know, perhaps look at the the Dallas sister city or website and whatnot for more information. Um, and I do plan on actually per uh going on that trip and uh being there representing the city. Um, we had a a meeting as well to update on our our current uh houselessness and homelessness um perspective and that was it. Thanks.

Thank you, councelor Mclofflin. No report. Mr. Mayor, I I've forgotten. I should mention I did go to the city police department today. I don't know how I could forget that. And uh met with uh our codes enforcement officer regarding the two abatements on our issue on the menu tonight. and uh the police chief was out at that time, but I caught him be a little bit before our meeting and just had a discussion with him as well about a letter that we have received uh regarding motorized bicycles in the community. So, thank you.

Thank you. Item nine is the consent agenda. Items of a routine and non-controversial nature are placed on the consent agenda to allow the city council to spend its time and energy on the more important items and issues. Any councelor may request that an item be pulled from the consent agenda and be considered separately. Items pulled from the consent agenda will be placed on the agenda at the end of the action item section. Tonight we have three items on the consent agenda. First is the approval of the February 23rd council meeting minutes. Second is a resolution assessing real property um located on East Second Street for the cost of nuisance abatement. And third is a similar resolution assessing real property located on West 7th Street for the cost of nuisance abatement. I believe we have some uh pictures of the um the properties on items 9B and 9 C on the deis. And with that uh I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'm going to ask this question before we do.

Um, are the property owners in attendance tonight? Okay. Thank you. Okay. With that, uh, would anybody like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? Mr. Mayor, I'll move to approve the consent agenda. And I'll go ahead I'll go ahead and second. been moved by councel Randall and seconded by councelor Mclofflin to approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 10A is an ordinance amending our municipal code to enable the Oregon Department of Revenue Administration and authorizing the city manager to execute an intergovernmental agreement. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Cara.

Thank you very much, Mayor Mays. City Council, you have before you here tonight uh general ordinance number 26-1426 to amend the city's transient lodging tax ordinance. I just want to be clear right up right at the get-go, this ordinance, proposed ordinance for tonight's consideration does not change the city's tax rate at all. Um that number has been 8% since 2003 and it is not proposed for changing here tonight. The proposed changes are actually to align with the the framework that the state expects when uh local jurisdictions, of which there are about 35 throughout the state, um when they want to take advantage of an of a program that's been available since 2017, um to have the Department of Revenue, uh the state of Oregon, Oregon Department of Revenue, um take over and administer their transient lodging tax program um for local jurisdictions, exclusively cities and counties. And so, uh, the ordinance here tonight is the very first step in a series of steps, um, to make this ordinance, uh, do administerable. Um, and I'll go down a list of some of the changes that are being proposed, and then I'll, um, I'll defer to our finance director to fill uh, council in on some of the more uh, day-to-day impacts that this proposed change might have and and hopefully all of the improvements associated with it. Um, some of the principal practical changes are bulleted at the bottom of the agenda staff report of which I don't see a page number, but um, it's page

62. See a page number on your copy. Mine doesn't have that. That's interesting. These bullet points here.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the one. Um, returns and payments would be filed with the Department of Revenue on a quarterly basis. And that would be a shift from what currently occurs, which is returns and payments being filed with the finance department on a monthly basis. The Department of Revenue would apply uh some of its state law exemptions and procedures to the to the city's transient uh lodging tax. Uh obviously, those are all um through state law. uh disputes if if any and and deficiencies and redeterminations, all of those would be handled through the Oregon tax court rather than u the city's appeal processes. And and candidly as as the city attorney for the last 6 years, we haven't had a tremendous number of disputes that have elevated beyond the finance department as far as I'm aware of. I think I've been involved in all if not nearly all of them. Um and I I can imagine it's about five in the last 6 years. And the final bullet point is uh that the department of revenue would transfer its net receipts to the city um after deducting and reconciling some of its administrative costs. And so um the city would retain its authority to impose our TLT and to set the rate by ordinance and we would continue to decide how all the money that is collected is spent. But just day-to-day processing and and most of the enforcement frankly would be taken into the department of revenues uh offices in their business division. And the state already has a uh a robust business division that's focused on a number of different matters including the state's own transient lodging tax which I believe is 1.5% this year. Um, and so they already have these systems set up. And so in 2017, the legislature decided to to further incent throughout throughout the state of Oregon and its many jurisdictions. Um, in recognition of the fact that uh a number of smaller jurisdictions particularly have have have had a hard

time to administer their own local tu uh local lodging tax program, the state decided to uh offer this effectively at cost um uh for any city or county that wants to join. And again u one of the conditions is that the ordinance contains the ability basically opting in to having this uh the state step in. And so that's what is before you here tonight, a list of all of the changes are included in the red line. Um, and I'm more than happy to answer any questions on on any particular language. I I also before I um pass it over to our finance director, I just want to mention here on the DEAS and I I provided a copy to the city clerk digitally, there is a a lastm minute addition um in red line um for the council to consider. Um just on Friday the short session ended and HB4148 passed and was enrolled and and it hasn't quite yet been signed and and that's okay. It's only been well one business day. Um but it seems extremely likely that it will be signed and when it is signed um it will take effect on January 1st, 2027. And uh I think everybody up here on the DEAS is might be familiar with the um the historic split of um tourist promotion services versus general services that the state requires for the expenditure of TLT funds by all cities and counties. The Dallas has historically uh navigated that with a grandfathered in um 55.4% 4% uh as opposed to nearly all other jurisdictions frankly who have been locked at 30% um for uh general services uh expenditures and 70% of it has gone to tourism promotion. The Dallas has had 55.4% for tourism promotion as as a result of having an early uh lodging tax

ordinance. Um effective January 1st when this bill is signed into law um that split will now be 50/50. Um, so 50% of all TLT collected will go to tourism promotion services and be eligible for expenditure there, while 50% will be available for cities and counties to use in their general fund for general fund purposes and general services generally. Uh, and so this all happened on Friday. The short session was a bit of a whirlwind, frankly. Um, and so I I didn't have a chance to incorporate this provision into the published version of the ordinance. And so the there is an amended motion language as well at the bottom of that uh one pager and again the city clerk will include this in the minutes for the next packet in all cases anyway. Um but with that that's my spiel on the legal side of things.

Thank you. Mer is there you'd like to add?

Uh yes I'd just like to speak a bit on the administrative side of this ordinance. um by choosing to exercise the option for state administration, which this ordinance is not entering the city into at this time. It's giving the city the option to enter in at a later date if they so choose, but the city could significantly alleviate the administrative burden currently placed on staff. Under our current local system, the finance and legal departments are responsible for the full life cycle of the tax management. But state administration would shift the following backdoor tasks to the department of revenue. The processing of returns and payments. As the city attorney said, this would shift reporting from a monthly to a quarterly filing cycle managed entirely by the state. It would also shift enforcement and collections to the Department of Revenue. The Department of Revenue would use its statewide systems to identify non-filers, issue demand letters, and pursue collections through tools like leans and garnishments. The state would also perform in-depth audits, leverage leveraging its broader data to ensure correct reporting. It would bear the burden of conducting the local hearings and appeals as any tax disputes would shift to Oregon tax court instead of staying local. The Department of Revenue would also handle day-to-day inquiries and provide filing instructions for lodging providers. So, that's some of the administrative work that's currently um being held within the finance department and the legal department right now that

could potentially shift to the state if we were to enter into an IGA. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Meyer or Mr. Cara? Just to uh clarify, there is a fee scheduled with the do, but the idea is that that that fee is projected to be much less than what it's costing to take care of all these records ourselves. That's correct. Thank you. Oh, Council Ring, I'm sorry, Council Ring and then Council Richardson.

Sure. Um, if this ordinance gives the option to enter into the IGA, who makes the final decision if if this ordinance passes tonight? To city council or does

So, the city council will be authorizing the city manager to enter into an IGA. We haven't reached that step of the process with the state yet. Um, we've seen template IGA, but we haven't sat down and negotiated. We're not actually able to sit down and negotiate until we adopt this ordinance. Uh it's sort of a it's it's a high bar. Um but once we get there, we're confident um that it'll work out in our favor in a collaborative way. Like not that we're going to hoodwink at them or anything. Um the every other IGA, all 35 of them are available online and they're nearly identical. Um and in the ways they do differ, they're not really material. Um there's no difference in, for example, what one jurisdiction uh pays the state. It's always the same. It's like this is this is our rate. Um and I think without exception, everybody seems to be just fine with that. Um and so tonight's motion actually includes that additional authorization um to authorize the city manager to to enter into that IGA um in a form that's approved by the city attorney for legal things, not for business things. But the business things are all handled by the state more or less take it or leave it already. Yeah. And if we if we've only had five or six disputes in the last however many year, I don't remember the exact time frame that you gave, but if there's only been five or six disputes in that amount of time, um most of the savings you're saying is related to just general office staff time.

Managing the record, not so much managing disputes. I would say I would say um my five or six example just in the last six years would be things that have formalized into an official dispute gone down the official pathway. By and large in my experience and I'll I'll defer to our finance director for current day experiences but by and large in my experience it's people not filing their returns. Um and it's basically uh I'm like a collections officer effectively. I have to keep sending threatening letters and to justify why we think that they owe X when they think they owe much less than X. Um and eventually before it sort of develops into a us versus the city kind of appeal um of which there have been like you know a small handful um there there's been a lot of problem uh payers over the last six years and it's candidly a tremendous amount of staff time at least in my office. I can't imagine how much is in uh the finance department.

Okay. And we're saying that this IGA or having the Oregon Department of Revenue um take over the the collection of the taxation, they would be doing that work for us. Yes, that's correct. They would send us a remittance quarterly. Okay. And then what do we do? um like what do we do if there's somebody locally with like a I don't know a short-term obviously a new hotel we're going to know is going up right but

if there's a a short-term rental or something like that that you know we discover along the way how do we how does that get how does how does this allow the city or the state to resolve that which who's who's the

that's that's a great point um so currently the city subscribes to a service known as host compliance I think for like 20 something,000 a year. Uh all of that the the the gotchas and the hey you should have had a permit and hey you should be paying your taxes. All of that transfers to the state. The state has a tremendous amount of information on all of the users of of those systems um that the city frankly is not in a position to have. Um all of it's given to the state. they take the wheel. Um, if there's any enforcement that needs to happen, they're the ones who enforce our ordinance, which is why the ordinance needs to be amended in a way that can be enforced by the state. Um, and so, uh, the city would also, and I I kind of just thought about this, I'm a little embarrassed to say, but we wouldn't really need host compliance anymore, which is another savings of 20 $25,000 a year because the state would be handling that enforcement as well. And um, so that's a great point. Thank you for giving it to me. Yeah.

Trying to think out loud. Yeah, I loved that. Can I add that's part of that assessment as to, you know, the cost of the service versus the benefits, the cost savings to the city, savings in staff time. And it's a, you know, a decision that could be made, you know, shortly in the future as we do that assessment. It also could be done uh far into the future if we have other circumstances that come up and we need additional support or we need to offload some of that work with a major profit uh project or a staff transition or or something like that. So, this positions us nicely to to be flexible as things come down the pipeline.

One one last question. Are there examples of things that the finance department staff would be able to focus on more readily if they they weren't chasing things down, so to speak? Sure. There um I mean there's there's a number of things, but in um in part um we're working at um several software improvements and so making sure that staff have the time available to fully implement software improvements as well as um honestly even scanning takes a lot of time and so freeing up staff to maybe go towards a more paperless All of these things take time and freeing up time from this help.

Okay. And is is there one last question? Are there other ordinances that would be impacted by this? In other words, last year or not last year, but the year before I was on uh city council's uh 2014 there were changes to the short-term rental ordinances and things like that. Does any of this impact that in the future? Are there follow are is there a ripple effect or follow on? Yeah. No. Things that we need to take care of?

Not not in any material way that would result in a a subsequent ordinance um amendment. There might be some procedural hoops that we um we will work out with the state when it comes to the way that um the the information that they have is shared with us. Um, one of the things that that has come up a lot in in our understanding of the transient lodging tax program generally is that um, the information that is gained from it really can only be used for transient lodge tax enforcement. So, um, the information as as our finance director knows and as our city manager knows, um, the financial information of of the uh the hosts, all of that is under pretty strict lock and key. It's all confidential and and exempt from public disclosure. And so the the only to answer your question very candidly, I don't believe that there's any other council uh ordinance amendments or anything that would involve the council in the future that would be a ripple effect from this ordinance. Uh it seems pretty um uh quarantined just in this one chapter of our code. Council Richardson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I appreciate and support the relieving of staff of uh sort of unnecessary uh administrative burden so that we can focus on things. My concern is uh or question I should say is whether staff has gamed out and thought through whether this change would transfer or increase the burden on the lodgings's owners, right? Like does it make it harder on the people running a small business in town to have the state enforcing this? I mean, I think I think and I'll, you know, if our finance director has any comments, please. But I I think having a quarterly return might be a benefit to all if or nearly all of the current transient lodging tax providers. We currently require it monthly. And if somebody told me I had to do something four times a year instead of doing it 12 times a year, I might say, "That sounds great. Let's do it four times a year."

Fair. Fair. As far as enforcement goes, I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it. Um, but it I'd also like to think that it wouldn't take me as long as it does, but it it inevitably does take me quite a while to do it. Um, so some of them may not appreciate some of the enforcement if there is a need for it, but maybe they will um figure out that the state's here to collect their taxes, right? Perhaps I should know this. Is there a burden imposed by having to go through the Oregon tax court rather than the city appeal process? I have no idea. I've never been through either because it never come up. There was an Oregon tax court. I have to say I Yeah, I've never There's an Oregon bankruptcy court as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Um I I believe the Oregon tax court is I could be wrong. I believe that's where uh the Board of Property Tax Appeals lives and BAPTA and through the county's property tax system as well. I could be very wrong about that, but that's my understanding. I think one one additional element that doesn't directly answer your question, but if we did enter such an IGA to have the state conduct some of these services, we can exit it too. We're not locked in at some point if it becomes, you know, ownorous to, you know, operators or not in the best interest of the city. So, there is that option there.

Yeah. Do you think it's worth spending a little time to think through or find out or formulate an answer to that question whether it would impose a burden on our small businesses or not? Uh for me, I think that's a that's a great question and I think um will certainly be considered when we're deciding whether or not to enter into the IG. I'm wondering if it's worth asking prior to us giving you authority to enter into an IGA.

I can also tell you that I will take it into consideration if that helps address your concern there. Um I think as the city attorney mentioned a moment ago, um this ordinance sets us up well to engage with the state and explore these different options. Um and uh you know with this commentary and and feedback from council as we go through that decision, we will evaluate that question with them. So, you're sort of you'd sort of be taking on the responsibility of that sort of unanswered question yourself rather than bringing it back to us and putting it on us. I Yes. Yeah. I'm just saying that you're willing to heft that onto your shoulders and and take responsibility.

Well, I agree with you that it's an important aspect of of taking that on or not is not only on the best interest of the city, but on the short-term operators that we have within our limits.

Yeah. Exactly. So yeah, I I guess I would say if I were personally to support the package deal, so to speak, the ordinance and the authorization to execute, uh it would be with the um explicit understanding that you would hash out what it means to go to the Oregon tax court. And you know, I'm just envisioning u somebody instead of coming down to the city and saying, "I've got a problem. I need to iron this out." um being sent through uh you know a 43 um you know button response on a phone tree and then ending up having to go to Salem or something.

So council Richardson, Mr. Mayor, may I just respond to that point? You know, we just a few uh moments ago we had our trial court administrator Ryan Beach here and he administers the seventh judicial circuit for the state of Oregon. Very frequently in my role as the city prosecutor and and in this very room we'll have our municipal court. will have people sitting out here for 20 or 30 minutes in front of Judge Cory before uh they realize that they are not in the right place and that they need to get across the street to the to the Was County Circuit Court. Um and and to give you an idea, we get that all the time. People will come here and people will go there thinking that they should be there too. when when the city's judicial court, right, which is in a lot of ways what we're talking about here when we're talking about an appeal in the city. Um, in a lot of ways, it's sort of it's much easier to think about it like going down a 43 point phone tree. But at the end of the day, um, they they should end up in a court. Whether the court's administered via phone, I I I don't think it would be the case. But um people have no problem it seems getting down to uh Washington Street or or the the courthouse as opposed to coming to this to the city. And again, in the last 6 years, it hasn't happened once that it's even come to the city council for an appeal. Um not that I don't think that that could happen. Sure. Um but just wanted to give you a sense of perspective on what we're talking about. It seems awfully rare and the state has been doing it for a lot longer uh a lot more effectively than the city I think. So

I appreciate that. That's bit of perspective. Thank you. Yeah. Um the only other comment just real quick is uh the host compliance software cost is a little over $4,000 as in our budget. Just to make that clarification. I understood it it to be a lot more. I apologize for that misinformation. I didn't know that. We happen to know if the governor is going to sign this Has anybody heard one way or the other? I'm pretty in tune with what's going on. I haven't heard anything on this. I haven't heard any reason to believe that it won't be signed into law. But I just couldn't I couldn't tell you that because technically it as of one business day after it was enrolled it, you know,

we have this meeting. So, um yeah, I see no reason why it won't be. This was a contentious bill in the last session. Um and it squeaked in in the short session um with the support of LOC and um the local interests lobby. Yeah, I think there was there was a lot of back and forth between those different uh parties and I think there's there's generally broad support for it. I think it would be unexpected if she doesn't. Okay, we'll hold you guys to that. Mr. Mayor Council Ring.

Um, Manny, you know that I'm like pretty sensitive to small business and making changes or, you know, they can be, uh, pretty burdensome. They don't seem burdensome to the rest of us because it's like, you know, you have to fill out another form or, you know, pay a $20 fee. It doesn't seem that burdensome, but I know that it is. It can be. So, one of the concerns, one of the I guess one of the things that I would ask is that before is there a world in which we could pass this ordinance, authorize the negotiation, get the information, provide our small businesses more time to provide us input as a city council and before we execute the IGA, the IGA come back to city council for consideration, allowing us to

absolutely I I think I would not to, you know, anybody's thunder I think it would be responsible of us as a city council to our small business to, you know, stand up and say, "Hey, we we

we recognize that I think it supports both our small business in the Dallas. It also supports our our city staff. We recognize that it it it is burdensome, right? We need to find a solution. I would hate to, you know, a year from now, I would I would hate to have a small business owner come back and, you know, it's like, hey, uh, you know, the here's the result of this. And we get into another discussion about, you know, not not to pick on something, but short-term rentals and things like that, right? These are folks that are not, you know, multi-millionaires going out and and conducting business in the city of the Dells, right? Some of them are.

Well, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. But but I think it would be I think it would serve them well and I think it would serve city staff well if we could come back and

Yeah. I wrote this in such a way that um if adopted tonight, it can be going into effect and we can proceed independent of the IG's authorization. Um, in fact, literally baked into the ordinance and nearly almost all of my changes, uh, proposed changes will say something like if do is the administrator then or if the finance director is the administrator then. Um, and so it was written for that uh, prospective ability for the city to pull out of that as well as to sort of address this dynamic here.

Um, absolutely. So, um, a revised motion would be if anybody wants to make one at any point. Um, uh, I just looked at it on the mayor's copy. I'm sorry, Rich. Um, if you just want to, you know, be move to and then you get rid of everything after. So, everything that starts with authorize and ends with and you basically just want to jump to adopt general ordinance. So, move to adopt general ordinance and then everything else is the same, which is the third line down. Yeah. you to skip over the first authorization of the IG.

Oh, Council Runan.

Um, it's not that I don't trust the state, but quite often I've been proved correctly, especially in my previous life as a county commissioner. Um, I'm going through all the paperwork here and one thing I would like to see somewhere is there in the actual papers if this went forward is there a method of termination if we decide the state is not keeping their promise and is charging more than is reasonable. I mean, it looks like 5% now, but you know, they might need another road tax. Who knows? Um, so that's that's the one thing I was looking for. What would be involved if we were wanting a future council even would want to cancel this agreement? What would do we just bring it up simply as a an ordinance resolve situation or how does that happen? So I think that's an important thing to have in any document we sign into is how do you get out of it and we often see that in things brought to us. So that that's my thought. It's a 90-day notice for termination.

What's that? It's a 90-day notice for termination as been as it's been presented in um was not in any of these papers. It wasn't. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Other than that, I think Council Ring had some good thoughts there. I'm not sure how we resolved that tonight, but I'll let Smarter Heads figure that out. What What's the timing on this? says, "Can it easily be moved to the April April or March uh 23rd agenda or April 9?" Is it I think what the city I think the city attorney was proposing that we can move forward tonight.

This can be adopted tonight. striking those first few sentences uh which would require staff to come back and receive authorization from the council before entering into the IG still accomplish position positioning ourselves to engage the state as as needed and making the adjustments considering the house bill that was recently enrolled last week. Correct. Okay. Which we would still like to pursue we'd like to see that happen tonight. Okay. Does everybody understand uh our city attorney's recommendation to revise the motion? It's just to adopt the ordinance um as amended, right?

But the language, somebody's going to have to read it correctly. So, it read move to adopt general ordinance number 26-1426 blah blah blah. striking everything from authorized through uh the word two. It's option three, right? Alternative three.

No, it's on it's on the supplemental um one pager that I left on the desk. I handed a copy of right before the meeting started. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to ask again. Does everybody understand what the city attorney has recommended it to revise the language on the motion? Does everybody understand it? Does everybody get it? Okay. So, does anybody want to make such motion?

Mr. Mayor, like to make a motion to um move to adopt general ordinance number 26-1426 as amended by title only after revising the Dallas Municipal Code 8.04.160A 04.160A to provide that all money received by the city from the tax is deposited into the tourist promotion fund and that at least annually the tax administrator transfers to the general fund all amounts not required by Oregon law to remain in that fund with the amount retained in that fund not to exceed 55.4% unless state or federal law requires otherwise. Well done councel Randall.

I will second that. It's been moved by councel Randall and seconded by councel Richardson to adopt the ordinance 261426 as amended by title only. I caught that. Does anybody want to u does anybody want the ordinance read in its entirety? No.

Good. Would the city clerk please read the ordinance by title only? General Ordinance number 26-1426, an ordinance amending the Dallas Municipal Code Chapter 8.04 transient lodging tax to enable Oregon Department of Revenue Administration under OS 305.620.

All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Is there any other business to come before the city council?