City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello. Is council member with us? Yes, sir. Yes. 3 a.m. That's dedication. It is. That's amazing. Can you hear us? Yep. Okay. Got it. Got it. All right. Perfect.

All right, here we go. Let's call the meeting of May 4th to order and please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you. Can you do a roll call, please? Yes. Councelor Ninger here. Councelor Bashard here. Councelor Reynolds here. Mayor Bur here. Councelor Saski here. Councelor Chris here. Councelor Alire here.

All right. Thank you. And we have the minutes for March 16th, regular 7. Ready to go over those? We're seeing move we take them as they are. Second. I moved and seconded to approve the minutes. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I opposed. Motion pass. Mayor you could give council member an opportunity where he's online. Sorry. Say hi.

I'm good. Thanks. Thank you. That was an I. I. Yes. I Thank you. All right. Now we have a proclamation for National Day of Superar. You like to read that please? I will. Thank you.

Proclamation Day of Prayer. Whereas the National Day of Prayer is a tradition first proclaimed by the Congal Congress in 1775. Whereas the National Day of Prayer was established as an annual event by a joint resolution of Congress in 1952 and signed into law by President Truman. The word is supposed to go there. L the law was amended. The proclamation was amended in 1988 and signed by President Drake designating it as the first Thursday in May each year. Whereas recognizing April as sexual assault assault awareness month provides an opportunity for members of the community to celebrate the voices of survivors in the fair. But it seems that's that seems to switch topics.

Certainly did. Well, it's on here. That's what it is. Yeah, it's on there. I lost our spot here. I touched the wrong one. It's my fault. I'm sorry. Well, how about we amend it to say that where is recognizing the um second or the first Thursday in May in this case would be May uh 7th uh 2026 as the national day of prayer. Um

well, let me finish because that is here. Yeah, he does. The next paragraph in the next paragraph. Now therefore, we the mayor and council of the city of Telen, Oregon, hereby proclaim Thursday, May 7th, 2026 as a day of prayer in the city of Tilmore. And we invite citizens to observe this day in ways appropriate and significant to their faith. We won't sign. Yeah. May I uh correct it and have you guys sign it? Correct. We'll see. Thank you. We apologize for we'll get it done right.

I had a couple of things tomorrow that perfect. Yes.

So, we've been doing National Day of Prayer and I believe it's since 1996 and but we've been doing prayer as a county since 1997. And uh I just I want to I want you to know that we really appreciate the work all of you do for us and we're very thankful for you. We pray for you regularly and we try to pray for you daily because we have and I just wanted to share some of the prayer guides that we use that have your names in them and we um this is I'm afraid it's the January to March edition but anyway I want to give this to you and I also would like to give you a 50 days of prayer book in which we're also praying for and the churches all over Tulmont County are lifting up the needs of the community and the the cities the n and our state nation. So I hope that you'll find this is a support because we we pray and love. So I'd like to share I didn't bring enough for I brought enough from the city councilors and if anybody wants some I'll get you more. So,

mayor, if I may, while just passing this out, um the national day of happening on Thursday, there is an event planned. I think Linda can give you the the times and dates of that.

And then, um just so you know, in my role as city manager, we are waving the permit fees for amplified sound for this one. Thank you. You guys pass it. Go ahead. And I also want to share something. One of the things that our group here we can pass these around and let others spend 11 time. We're working on unity

in every area of our we pray for unity in our our government and we pray for unity between the churches and the services that take care of people. And this last year, actually this is the third year, we've done a resource guide to build bridges between services so that people can help each other. And this actually has a QR code that I just learned not too long ago thanks to Elen at First Christian. And this can be uploaded onto your smartphone. And you can find all kinds of resources for people that need it. And I just would like you guys to have a copy. You're you're here helping people. And I'll

Thank you. Oops. It looks like I didn't bring in. No, did I miss? Thank you very much. So, the one thing we didn't do is introduce Linda. I'm Linda Henrik. Thank you. And what's I'm the president of the Tul County wife since 1997. I've been at it for everything you do. And what time of Thursday?

Um 12 noon. Just walk across the street. And we're going to have um the the children from Coastline Christian and uh Hope Inspired School that will be leading the worship. And they're really really really cute, I can tell you. And then we are loading the everybody on the bus, all the kids, and we are going to take them to the National Day Celebration in Salem where they're going to be singing in in the um Oh, rotunda. Yeah, the rotunda and right next to the National Guard Band. So, I'm really proud of our our little practice.

Yeah. Um David and Bucket, it's somewhat related, but I don't know who to bring it up to now or later, but uh it used to be a tradition and it's been since preco we have kind of stopped it. There was a balorate. Yes. For the graduating senior class. Um We've dropped the ball on that. There hasn't been one in a while and I'm just wondering if there was anything in place. I know the graduation is not happening. So should never have anything. So I'll take that on. So maybe get not let that used to be the responsibilities of the factory. I know it went through the problem.

Yeah. Thank you. All right. Next is public comment for other than public hearings. Any person may address the council after being recognized by myself. However, topics which are vendor appeal or legal in nature cannot be addressed. Please state your name and address for the record. Time is limited to 3 minutes for person. Does anybody have anything to bring in? I'll start. Come on.

Hey, I've got two quick things. Terry Phillips. Um, the sewer race. A lot of discussion a couple of weeks ago. Um, a lot of numbers thrown around. Um, some accurate, some probably inaccurate, but I just I just feel like we need to put a lot of effort into how we move forward. I mean, I'm good with an increase initially, but I think for that big bulk of money, we really need to do some homework. We need to have some workshops. We need to have input. We need to think about this. You know, for my money, you were a big advocate of the increase versus a bond, which would go on our property taxes. We were debating about which would be more, how it would affect us on a yearly basis. But let's keep in mind that bond disappears. Advantages in 20 years. You know, when it's paid off, it's gone. Those sewer rate increases over 20 years going anywhere. We we we and I just think that we need to think long and hard about all this parking. And late last year, we talked about parking. Going to rewrite some ordinances. We're going to put up new signs. We were going to work with downtown merchants to solve our parking issues. That was the game plan we had. A few months passed, nothing happened. Then we decided we could enforce what we had. By darling, we we enforced what we had. And now we've decided not to enforce it. So, we're back to not enforcing parking in downtown, which is concerning to me. I'm a small business owner. I've got a lot of friends, neighbors that are small business owners. Those parking spots are very valuable to us. They're valuable. I mean, with without our businesses downtown, we don't have anything. They're not going to be able to increase

sewer rates. They don't exist. So, I think that it's prudent that we revisit how we're going to handle downtown parking. Um, I mean, we were doing a good job for a minute and I I believe that I'm mad in the fact that we've elected not to enforce anymore. Am I right? No, actually. Okay. Well, I hope I'm wrong because that's the word I got. It was that we had decided that we couldn't. What's the real story? The real story, if I may. Um,

the real story is that nothing has changed from the time of a couple months ago. Our code enforcement is still making regular rounds. Whether you see them or not, they're still making regular rounds. Um along with that on Thursday, May 13th at 10:00 a.m. um we have we're going looking to send invitations out, but on May 13th at 10:00 a.m. at the Coliseum Theater, we are going to invite everybody in the downtown district to a parking summit where we will talk about um parking. And we've secured the venue. We've secured some of the things that we want to talk about where we will bring different options and different things but uh talk we want to get the uh business community as a whole because over the last several months what we found is that there are some people aligned one way about parking and some people aligned another way about parking and we get conflicting reports from both of them. And so we kind of want to bring everybody together, have some interactive features where you can get on your cell phone and provide us real time input. Um, and so we're gonna we're going to do this and then the folks at the Coliseum Theater have been uh very gracious to give us that menu for free for an hour or so on May 13th. So we were going to announce that tonight and email invitations are going on to our business license list uh tomorrow, I think, is what we're working towards. Um, and so that's where we're at

at 10 a.m., right? Yep. And we will have a resolution of what we are going to actually do by when it depends on the outcome of that meeting and what what comes out of this settlement. This is a conversation that we started last August or September. Mhm. And we are looking at summer squarely in phase. Mhm. I'm sure we'll handle it, right?

So, is the concern like trying to set whatever how we're going to set the resolution or what we're going to enforce and then like let people know with mailings and then we're going to start enforcing these rules on this date or what what's the idea of going forward? The idea going forward is we have several different options. Um we can keep the status quo. We can uh levy fees for more enforcement. We can go to a we looked at a paid parking model with validations to see how that might work. Um we've looked at several different things. I don't want to

give the whole thing away, but we're going to talk about the different options and let the business community give us a thumbs up or a thumbs down on whether they like this option, that option, or whatever. And then we can come back and and say based on what we've heard from the business community. But so far what we've seen is there's some members of the business community on on one side of the issue, some members of the business community on the other side of the issue. And we're only hearing from two or three people and we want to hear from a broader perspective. So in theory, we should be able to have this meeting, get the ideas, and maybe by the the June meeting hear some kind of

I bring some resolution back and and have some thoughts. But and again it depends on what we hear at that meeting and what the data brings out. I just want to kind of put a timeline in there for and you're advertising it. How we're through our business license registration. We collect emails for every every business owner. So we're going to send them an email invite um to to anybody else. Do we have anybody online? I'm just council offering.

Yes, sir. All right. You're next. Just state your name for us and address 9540 road. Um recently we started the coffee shop at Napa Park. So kind of have a vested interest in downtown now. Uh we own uh SW Transport. Kids now own it. We worked for the city in historic areas from clear back in the early 2000s. We used to do video tapings. So we had videos. We did the whole city at one time. So you know 12 15 years ago the city had bad sewer lines and I can only imagine there were. My concern is that there's not enough research done on how to raise the rates, how to get your money for fixing the sewer lines. As a business owner, housing for employees is hard. So, we aren't going to get more housing until we get some infrastructure in the sewer line. How are we going to do that? To me, that's very important because we have drivers come in from out of town that can't find housing. Small businesses in town, you know, every penny counts and I don't feel like the city, in my experience, working with the north town businesses. We do the lift stations down there, offer 24 hours repair service or pumping services, do the grease trash down there. It's really expensive to do that and there's some infrastructure out there that can needs to be updated everywhere. But I think it's prudent if you guys do enough research to know the cheapest way to move forward and keep the cost down business people or we're going to lose

businesses and business is the infrastructure. Business is what keeps communities alive. So, I just hope that you guys do due diligence and a lot of research and do the math. And I think if you educate the public on what's going on, you're in a situation where you're going to have to do something no matter what. Once people know that and they can see there's different methods to go, they're going to vote for the one that is the best cost effective and you'll get the community support. You got to educate the public. People don't know where sewer water goes. They don't care where it goes until they don't. Sure. No. And uh so that's my input right now.

Thank you very much. Anyone else?

All right. Last chance. All right. Next we will move on to presentations and our first presentation is still revitalization report. So and I believe

so um well she's bringing up I'm Cynthy Casey. This year I was voted in as president of TR. Last year I was vice president and the the goal is you just kind of move up um and your legs introduce herself with that. I'm Hershey Ran and I am the treasurer. It's my second year and we're hopefully she stays while um because that's a del position now. So you can um so go ahead and click the next one. This is just our annual update. Um every year I think this is probably our this is my second time coming. This is our fourth or fifth time coming and doing presentations at a T.

If you prefer me to back this down just so I can see it. Um, so this is just uh our mission statement which you guys should be aware of. And then the different officers currently we have a vacant secretary position um that has been a position we haven't been able to fill in the last few months. We've put feelers out. Our social media person takes care of it but nobody has really come forward to take minutes. So, we kind of take turns taking minutes. Um, these are the individuals who are sitting currently on our 2026 board. I put their business logos up there to kind of represent the different businesses that we have gotten in there. Um, so we have Christian Lombard Pottery, Blaine Timber, Pelican Brewing, Malines, East on West, West Elliot, and Reed Current. So, those all those individuals hold board positions. We also for one of the first times with TR, we actually have more people that come to the meetings too. So, we're actually growing out of the space above um the bank. So, we use the banking boardroom and sometimes it is standing room only. So, it's kind of nice to see it growing um to see more people wanting to take an interest. There we go. Um our 2025 events that we did last year and one of them is going on right now. So, one of them is the charming mother's event. So, if you of any age and whoever can go to local businesses, there's a little map on the back and you get to go pick up little charms and make a bracelet. You do need to start at Recurrent because Recurrent has the bracelets. Um, I was in Recurrent on Sunday afternoon and she was already after the first three days out of bracelets. She had to order them. Um, so that was a great thing. So, it was a big hit last year with people. Um it's kind of a little scavenger hunt. You get this and it gets people businesses have the opportunity to sign up. Um little kids, I took my little three-year-old grandson last year. We went to all the businesses and he picked out you get a pick out of be a bracelet and then he gave it to his mom. So

again, it was a way to get people to go into local businesses um to help support them. August is Moonlight Madness. Um last year was a disco theme. This year we are opening it up. Um, we have two, I believe, individuals that have come to meetings who are going to give us presentations and head the chair chair that position. Um, we kind of wanted to open it up to other community members. In the past, we've had one individual who has ran that event. Um, and she's now taken on a full-time job, so we thought and some other people came forward last year and said, "We'd kind of be interested." So, we just put it out there, come present a budget to us, what you would want to do, what theme you would want to do. Um, and so we'll see what happens there. October, um, Christy Lombard came up with what we call Spooktacular. So to go along with the, um, downtown trick-or-treating the month of October, we encourage businesses to sign up, decorate their, um, business for Halloween with the theme. And then we had impartial judges go around and judge. And this year, I think we had a couple ties, I believe. Yeah. Um, so it was kind of fun. So all those businesses are going to decorate up. December we do Santa Land. Um we've had it at Pacific Restaurant. Different vendors come in. There was wreath building, cookie, gingerbread making and then of course pictures with Santa. So those are the themes the four main events that we do and each of us kind of um head up those. So not all one person is doing it. We are also very open to if somebody has an idea and they bring it to us, we can talk about it and we're always willing to do more events, if somebody wants to head it out. Oh, wait. Ah, wait. Oh, there we go. Um, 2026 planned events. We have our elections in January. We have at the end of January our annual meeting. Um, we always our goal has been with this current board and the board we had last year to have

an event kind of each quarter. Um, we don't really have anything in the spring. We have done a treasure hunt before. We just haven't had anybody spirit of that. And again, it's going around to local businesses. Kids go on a treasure hunt. Um, so we have Charming Mothers of May, Moonlight Madness, The Housing Window, and Santa Land. So those are again the current ones that we will stick with until somebody brings something else forward they want to do. We did the chalk your art out a couple years ago which was great but then we did it on Mother's Day weekend but it's always a 50/50 chance that it's going to rain or not and that's an event that we'd like to see somebody take it on and maybe do it later in the year. Um our community um work we will continue our events downtown. We're also the what would you explain are we're the holders the keepers of the veterans memorial we're the holders of the funds for the veterans memorial as they need funds to update or do maintenance they come to us and then we release the money um we're trying to make a bigger social media outreach we actually have one board member who has taken on the social media this year to get things out on Instagram and um Facebook to just kind of get things out there take things around the business owners who might want to know more of what we're doing We do have the TR website you can go to and it is updated um every month I update that with what's going on and with our sword conference out there and then we constantly are asking members to come. That's how we've gotten more board members just we talk to people about meeting. So and it's great because the bank is a big help in that because a lot of businesses bank there so we kind of like ask them to be part and our finances. There you go. It's it's pretty black and white on that. Obviously, um our expenses were less this year, which was nice. Um so, we have a little bit of pot there to spend on our events and things that

people bring forward to us. So, and I think we were part of with the chamber, the city, I believe, the banners that were going to be on the light poles and then that kind of it it didn't happen. So that account was closed and that money was moved back into our general fund account and that's it. That was the questions. Next meeting is Wednesday night. Yes.

When is midnight m 31st of July? The um typically yes will be the 31st of July. Um, but whoever heads it up will come to us and say, "This is the date we want to propose." T historically, if you are been here a while, it has always been the first Friday of August. Well, this year, the first Friday is on fair, but I'm pretty sure we did midnight madness and be fair. No, it would be downtown. So, it's going to be that. And the one time we did that, we did it at the end of August, which I didn't feel was perfect. There was not good participation. Um, so I think you're gonna look it from July 31st this year. I was just curious.

Yeah, it's just like whoever decides to come to us and say, I want to do Moonlight Madness and I want to do this thing, then we'll sit down and do a date. We had to do that. The other thing that I guess I just found out tonight that I need to ask is I guess our resolution needs to be I need to ask for an extension because I didn't know that it expired. Um, so we will work do that, take care of that Wednesday night at our board meetings. Is that what I needed to? What time and where? Uh 5:30 Wednesday night of the first um security night.

Go ahead. Sorry. I was say I'm a big supporter of the TR. I think you guys do a great job. I'm big supporter of the downtown. So I just say keep up the good work.

All right. Um I will try to attend your board meeting on Wednesday. Um we'll work on getting you. So just for the council for maybe some new people that don't understand as part of our business licensing we collect $25 that has traditionally been earmarked for TR from every business license. So um we've been collecting that. It's a pass through account. We just need to update the terms of that. Uh we've got some recent advice from the attorney's office on how to make sure that we update that so that it works better for legal reasons and we will be I I will take a look on that and meet with TR and then we'll bring that back to the council when it's ready to go.

Thank you. Thank you very sanitary. Oh, wait. Sorry. Did I miss? Yeah, let's take off. See what's going on.

I can hear you. I can also still see you if that matters. You guys can't see

Yeah. That makes more surprising. All right. Are we ready to start back? All right, let's uh get this going.

Oh, sorry. He's coming back.

Pretty sure.

We're pretty sure. Okay. Uh I'm uh Robert Clappy with City Sanitary Service 23031 Street. We are one block to the east of the PUB office. Uh since I see at least one new council person since I've been here last, I'll give a quick overview of why I'm here and why the city council is important to our business. Uh city sanitary service has the exclusive solid waste franchise for the city of Tulma. So, what that means essentially is we take care of any waste that's not liquid waste, which is the uh much more controversial waste in the city lately, it seems like. So, lucky for me, it's not what we're doing. I kind of thought Ben and Nada might be here to ask for an exclusive franchise to deal with the liquid wasting. That is not what he was here. Um, so what that means for the city council is any issues with solid waste to come to me and I get to take care of those. But in order to ensure that all of the citizens of uh the city have the ability to get garbage service, you guys get to review our finances and make sure our rates are uh in line with the going rate for garbage service. and we apply those rates evenly to all of the citizens of the city. So that is the system and why I'm here today. Uh so the cover letter just goes over uh I was here Terry reminded me not very long ago in about November just to give my annual report. Uh we did not ask for a rate increase in uh last calendar year. Uh but this year we are asking for an approximate 5% increase to all of our rates for residential, commercial, and

dropbox services. Um there's basically three main reasons for that. Uh just cost of living increases. It's been about 2 something% the last two years. And then uh the dump fees have increased both last year and assuming the vote passes on Wednesday at the uh commissioners meeting, it will go up $3 a ton uh at the county transfer station. Um and then our other rates that are kind of going up faster than normal will be labor costs. So those those combination of expenses are kind of uh leading us to the need by about 5% increase say in our allowable profit margin and yeah so the first page just cover letter explaining all that. Then the second page is a sample notice to our customers and we want the effective date for that to be July 1st uh pending your guys approval. And then I just have the our rate sheets that go over each specific type of service and what that rate will become. And then the last couple pages are our finances for our overall operation is on the green side. And then uh the breakdown of just our city um estimates are on the right. Um look over our finances. is about the only thing that changed from last year is our um truck weights in the city were quite a bit more. Our split between our tonnages are usually about 40% in the city, 60% in the county. This last calendar year they were about 50/50 because there was a bunch of or big construction projects in the city limits. The uh junior high had the seismic retrograde, new roof, bunch of new stuff. Same with the fire

department. And then the uh Champion Park apartments had a full um exterior remodel, all siding, decks, roofs. So those were three pretty large construction projects compared to the normal year. So is there any questions about any of the or any of the information? Thank you, Robert. So as you probably noticed, I'm new here. Um could you give a brief history of city sanitary rate increases over the past several years?

Uh last year like I said we did not raise rates and the year before that we had a 5% I believe rate increase and that was the first time we've done that in two years as well. So over the last four year period um pending the approval of this one it would be about a 10% increase uh since I would say the two early 2020s. I can't remember back off the top of my head that far farther than that but so two rate increases over the last five years that I can remember.

Got it. So, you guys typically don't have like a yearly a yearly schedule that you stick to or a matching CPI or if uh as I like to not have to raise the rates every year just because it creates a lot of paperwork and stuff. So, we I try and do it every other year. It's pretty

um and it usually follows the CPI pretty closely. Yes, I experience unless um there's some sort of event which just to put this on your radar in the future so you don't think that liquid waste is the only waste that has issues in the economy. Uh all of the trash from Toma goes to a coffin view landfill in Corvalis and I don't know if any of you have heard about this in news cuz they're probably not as interest in solid waste as me but they are potentially running out of room there and the county commissioners there have not approved opening up new cells. So, if that was to be considered filled up and closed, we would have to then ship all of our trash probably out to Eastern Oregon to one of the landfills out there, and that would escalate the prices quite dramatically, potentially quite dramatically. Um, so that's the only thing on the horizon that I would say with uh something like that that would cause there to be a rate increase that wouldn't stay in line with the CPI something like that infrastructure issues for solid waste. That's the only potentially future. Anybody else have any questions?

Thanks. Thank you very much. Don't stay on business for

we we don't have a resolution prepared for this. So this is if the council wants us to bring something forward next time and it's open for discussion. Um it is I'm just going over the franchise agreement as we're sitting here. It is just a resolution by the council. So if you want to direct us to bring that back we can. If you don't we won't I'm good with consensus. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I I think I saw a thumbs up from council member Aler we'll bring we'll bring something back for the next meeting Robert I can work with you on that in the next couple weeks.

Thank you. All right. Next is resolution number R202611 resolution adjusting surveys for the city of TW establishing updated uh rate schedule effective July the 1st. Well, this is the popular one, right?

This is okay. Let me get to the right page here. Um, so at the last city council meeting, um, we brought to the council, staff brought to the council, uh, three different resolutions. Two relating to sewer, one relating to water. Um, I want to address the water real quick just so that that is completely taken care of. We did confirm with the folks at Business Oregon that the loan that we have acrewed, think of it more as a line of credit, right? We don't need to start paying on it until um we have we actually used it. We have not used a dime of that loan. So based on the advice of of business Oregon, there's no necessary need to raise water rates this year. So we did not bring back staff did not bring back a resolution do water rates. To be clear though, the last resolution passed did authorize uh the raising of water rates based on a CPI uh consumer price index. Um I think for this point, we're not going to do that this year on water. just from what we've heard and and the increase that we got last year. Um we we can revisit that as we get closer, Jamie, but I think the decision was to not do anything, right? Or the re sorry it's not our decision. The recommendation of staff is to not do anything with water this year. Fair enough. Okay. At our last city council meeting, um the council discussed the the different uh resolutions that we had. There was one resolution that was anticipated to be a um

uh 30% increase. Um and then another that was proposed to be a 40% increase. Um the uh motion that was made was to um do a 35% increase and for staff to bring a new resolution back to the council with a 35% increase with a moratorum on any rate increases uh between now and basically January 1, 2028, which would give us the entirety of the remainder of 2026 and all of 2027. Staff is also instructed to begin the process of uh looking into a general obligation bond um that would go to the voters and we anticipate that that would go uh before the voters on the November ballot of 2027. I want to be uh very very clear and especially for public spoken today. Um included in the packet is the draft wastewater plan that has gone through many uh work sessions here at the city council um and with staff. Um the rate increases are recommendations of the experts that have worked on that plan. Uh we've had lots of public meetings about it. Prior to the last city council meeting, there was an open house here at city hall where we had the the boards up and talked about and and invited everybody to come in and take a look and ask the questions about the sewer rate increases and and what to do. Um the decision uh that staff was given by the city council was to bring back a

rate increase of 35% to stabilize the fund this year with no rate increases. We've drafted a resolution that that matches that almost uh verbatim to uh council member Alen Meyer's motion that there be no rate increases until resolution of a bond election or January 1, 2028. We did include a clause that is included in all of our resolutions related to rates. Um that was in the two previous resolutions and is the resolution now that allows for updating if nothing else is done that the rates could increase by CPI uh following that. But there would be no rate increase until January 1, 2028 at the very earliest based on the resolution that is written in before you today. So that's that with a bond. There are lots that will go into that. Um the first thing that we have to do is hire bond counsel. This is a specialized attorney that that works you through the bond process. The bond council will work with base. We will have interviews with bond counsel. Um, we have a working relationship with with with bond council already that we can utilize that we're already under retainer with them or we have or we would have to do a we'd have to go out to the procurement process on that, but we've got a really good relationship with one that we like. Um, two, when the banks come in, we would have educational sessions with city council to talk about what we can and can't do with the fund. When we gave numbers two weeks ago, we kind of cold called a couple of banks and said, "What if?" Now, these are very regulated industries. They don't just like answering hypothetical. So, they kind of did a back of a napkin. Here we go. This is what we can do. with the resolution

to go forward with the bond. Staff would then be able to bring forward these bankers, enter into agreements, enter into those contracts where they would dig deep into our financials, dig deep into our plans, dig deep into what we want to accomplish, and then give us very specialized and detailed information about costs, about payments, about how that looks, right? We talked two weeks ago about the two types of bonds about a general obligation which goes out to the public and the public votes on. We talked about uh revenue bonds which we don't have to go to a vote but the council can do based on the revenue that we get for breaks. Um the council is very clear in their direction they want to go to the general obligation bond. I think that over time, that's why we asked for a year and a half basically to go through the bond process is so that we could educate the council and the public and be very open and transparent about everything that goes into that general obligation bond process, the costs, the the financing of it, the how it works, what you know, just everything that go that goes into it um would be brought before the city council on regular agenda items over the next year before we get into the deadline to put it on a ballot and then have the people decide. So that is what the the plan um from staff is and I think that's the plan that the city council has asked us to do and that's what we would like that's what we are proposing in the resolution that is before it. So the the resolution that we have is a 35% increase and with this resolution we included the rate chart that was updated um to show you what those would be on all of our rate categories and again with all the number of customers. There is no future plans

of of rate increases because I think what will happen and I'm a little bit of guessing and conjecture on my part is one of two things. one, if we do this 35% rate increase and we take this to the voters on the bond and the voters pass a bond, then we will take that money from the bond and the rates will stay basically where they're at. If the bond fails, we will come back to the council and say, "What do you want to do next?" Because it doesn't fix the problem. We still have the same problem just later on down the road and we'll have to find another solution. I don't think that the rates are going to change or do anything in that year and a half because we're we can't. So you're going you're likely to pass a resolution that says I can't arbitrary to change rates that comes from the city council. So if the council says that we're going to raise the rates 35% and we're not going to touch them again till January 1, 20, 2028, then that's what staff will do.

Thank you. Any other questions about that? Any questions? Alex, I have a question pertaining back to the water. So um if we were to start drawing on our line of credit with Business Oregon, is there specific rate increase that they asked for? like how did we get to the 18% that we reduce it to?

So if we started using that loan but the recommendation from business Oregon wasn't a condition of getting a loan is that we had to raise the rates 18.5% to meet what the full obligation I think they're assuming that we would spend that $7.2 million down but we've gone a year without touching it. So, we've got that 18.5% that we've been collecting for a year with no um no need to pay down debt service. So, when we start to use that debt, then we will re-evaluate the debt service that is needed and we can adjust rates if need be at that time. But for right now, we're just saying we collected 18.5%. We were lucky and that we didn't have to use any of that loan. Let's not burden the residents and the businesses anymore on the water side. Period.

Okay. Clarify for me. If we do a 35% raise, does that 35% plus a CPI or is it only 35% because we're doing a raise? 35% 35% no CDI. The CPI is a fail save. If after June 1, 2028, nothing the C if the council has not made a decision, then we could raise rates based on the the CPI which and that generally goes between 2.5 and 2.9%. Correct.

Somewhere in in that and we've talked about different different things on that about maybe we need to adjust the resolution to have a floor and a cap, right? So that that we know that it's going to be between a certain percentage or uh anything. But we didn't or what date do we look at the CPI to say this is the date we will look at it to get that rate on on that date certain. We didn't put any of that in because that was not part of the motion was made by council member Hopier and we want to bring the resolution back as as close to that motion as was requested because that's what we do. So just clarify CPI only goes in effect if there's no rate raise increases by the council. No rate raises by the council and you choose to do it

or is it automatic? There's no way to increase CPI. Does it always go? Is it always used? No. We would bring it to the council and say, do you want to follow the CPI or if nothing we So, you don't have to do any resolution on that. It just says if the council takes no action following the resolution of the bond for January 1, 2028, then that is the default raise that we could do. But I I would think that we would bring it back before the lang the language actually says uh schedule adopted here in shop automatically be adjusted automatically adjusted annually.

So it we don't have any say in it once this goes through. Well, you're you're saying well we well to now we but you know um that's assuming we're all still here in 20 there could be a complete voter recall of all of us and money but I think council could change it at any time if the next council realizes it's in here. Mhm.

So I don't know. I'm I'm a little skeptical of adding that in when across the nation the typical method it's it's more typical to go with the rate analysis and and that than for cities to automatically use a consumer price index adjustment. So I' I'd be in favor of passing the resolution without the CPI in here and address that if and when the bond fails without the automatic without the automatic. And if we change it from automatic to may with council approval, then I would be okay with the CPI in that, but not an automatic increase.

I'm okay either way. The automatic increase is something that we did with the with the water rates a couple years ago, this council did and has been in resolutions going back that just passes through as as we go as a city. My curious with all the rate increases happening across the board, water, sewer, um, waste.

Sure. that I I I think we need to be more critical about this and and instead of having automatic athletes, it should be more thought provoked and and I I think that we should address that upon need rather than all right, let's just go ahead and do it again. Um, are you comfortable after let this proposed scenario happens and let's say it all goes swimmingly we have enough money to fix the stuff under the streets or not and when can we keep that going? That's that's what got us into this is that need there are

so again the 35% is is a stabilization immediately right of the fund. We are we are upside down on that fund right now because of the breaks that have happened. Per the the motion that uh council member Optim made that goes into our line item of capital improvements. Repairs are capital improvements that that can last longer because we can repair that line and then we don't have to improve that line later on because it's already been upgraded in a matter of speaking. So that does go into the line item under capital improvements that we we have in the budget. Um if you look at the budget, there is a section in the sewer fund for capital improvements. There is a line for system upgrades. This 35% yes to answer directly answer your question, yes, I'm comfortable that for one year, this would help us stabilize. It would give us the funding that we need to take care of the the stabilization, take care of hopefully cross our fingers and toes that we don't have many repairs that we have to do in the next year. Um, but then get us set up for the bond that the council has asked us to do and we can educate the public and get get the the bonds passed which which we hope happens.

Got it. So, I'm interviewing with you. I think it'd be better. We're going to be on camp. I have a feeling, you know, kind of a lot this year. So, uh, it would be good for us to have that on our table or whoever is sitting here each time that we have to do a radio rather than just snap it up. Uh, even in for example, even the water has shown us that was unnecessary to have a an automatic. Sometimes things actually roll over, which is pretty cool. So, that would be my I would agree with you on that, Jasine. Um, the other thing would be just to clarify for the public who are listening based on what you just said, there really will be no improvement on the sewer line until the bond is finished. Is that right?

Yeah. This is just a holding matter until we get to the bond. Is that what I heard you say? Okay. Yes, sir. Want to clarify. I I'm I'm a simple guy, so I was the one down the terms that I didn't actually get my head around. So, Anybody else? So with the question here, um, can we still pass this tonight? You can or do we have to have a new version come forward? No, you can just amend it.

You can amend this with with the edits. We we are prepared to to draft edits and make those. And we're also prepared to go back in the back after the meeting and print it out and get it signed so that we can move forward. There's no no reason to in my opinion no reason to bring it back to another meeting. We can this is an easy easy change in the document that we can make quite prompt if Chelsea nods to that. I think we've discussed this and that's what staff is prepared to do for announcement tonight. Go ahead.

Yeah, I just wanted to throw in some input on I'm I'm with councelor Reynolds. Um, however, I mean, if it's changed from automatically, uh, just from a a pure, it it doesn't serve a purpose in here if if it's changed from automatically because it would always come to any increase would come to the council. So I mean if I was looking at this I think from my support I would want to strike uh the last sentence of section five of the of the resolution starting at following that period till the end. Um, I think that's just cleaner. And I I think leaving this in there almost implies if I mean it almost implies that we're going to increase rates uh you know by CPI, but the reality is if the bond doesn't pass, this is coming back to our table anyway and we're we're going to have to increase a lot more than CPI. So, it's really a moot point uh once that automatically uh term is removed. So, I would support uh passing the resolution uh once that line is struck.

I second that. All right. I'll make a motion then. I make a motion that we pass uh resolution number R2026-011 with the striking of the final sentence under section 5 future room adjustments starting following that period. Second second by Sanduski. Any further discussion? Question. Questions call. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I thank you. Motion passes. I keep forgetting this is still

Thank you for being up at 3 now. Is it four? It's four now. for dedication. All right, I have nothing tonight. City manager comments.

Okay. Um, just a couple of things. Touch truck tomorrow beginning at 400 p.m. Right. Um, this is one of our best events that we do as a city. So, bring the kids, let them climb it in in the the rates. We'll have lots of trucks here. It's always just a fun event. So 4:00 tomorrow right out front of city hall is touch a truck. Um had a chance to attend the League of Oregon Cities uh small cities regional legislative update on Friday up in Manzanita. Um we got some good input uh from there. Um not too much has changed that we didn't already know about. It's always good to to meet with the league and get that that input uh from them. So I I took care of that on Friday. Um today, uh Chelsea and I attended the um elections, uh kickoff with the county, uh county clerk part, right, Chris um uh put on a training for elections officials. Um believe it or not, the election deadlines will be coming up sooner than you know. Uh we have five seats that will be up for election on our city council. Four well four city council seats and one mayor seat. We have um three four-year terms on the city council and one year term on the city council. That'll be up. Um and so we will start to publish those deadlines and such, but but the the deadline of of candidate declaration will be in June. So we're you know roughly six weeks away from um when those when we'll start advertising and and getting those out. So um tell your friends and neighbors. Um this week is public servants appreciation week. Is that what it's called?

Um so um thank you all for your service to the public and and know that you're appreciated. And we uh the staff got some donuts this morning which was was great. So thanks to put that on. Got some other things planned. uh this week for for that. Um I don't think I other got other things. That's where it's at. So that's my report. Okay. Quick question for Sean. Are you bringing the uh what my daughter's called the boot camera? Uh broken.

That was that was pretty fun. So new sign is pretty generic. It was always the top of it every time. Yeah. Thank you. All right. All right. Council comments. We can start on the computer.

Uh I also look forward to the touch truck. My 10-year-old enjoys it very much. Um I would like to uh little recognition from city manager Lewis. I think uh the Tuesday updates are really well done. Not everything up here is rosy and perfect all the time as you can see. So I appreciate your transparency to the public on those and kind of letting people know how things are going and you know nobody wants to raise rates but that's what we're doing and I appreciate you went on there and tell people about it. So that's all we're done today.

Yeah. A couple of things I remember. First off, I'd like to thank uh uh Chief Tropel and our school resource officer, Trent. Uh this past week, they worked hard with our students, two students particular, did a senior project to put on the every 15 minutes program at the high school. Um this year, the feeling was especially poant and and well done. Um it's a very it's a hard-hitting program that gets right and uh it couldn't be done without the help of our local officers. Um not just city but sheriff and state who are also involved and u that support is saving kids lives and it's much appreciated not just by the high school community but I hope by the community as a whole. Hey uh second uh just to throw a nod at my colleagues uh across the state. This is teacher appreciation week and uh having done this for 31 years. I don't need your things, but my colleagues do. And uh it's a tough job sometimes. Um and it's a rewarding job, but it is also nice to to hear some positives instead of the constant negatives and gripes that sometime come with being in this position. We love your kids. We love serving you and your kids and we'll continue doing it. Um, and then third and last thing here is with the upcoming election, um, a lot of people look at this and say it's just a primary, government doesn't matter. Every vote matters. Every occasion of a vote matters. Um, I teach government at the high school and I teach the kids about the election process and and the civic engagement that they should be involved in. And uh one of the things that I try and encourage them to do is to vote without

partisanship, to vote what is right and to vote uh to vote what's best for our community and our state long term and also what's best for econom prosperity. And sometimes that means you don't vote the letter behind your name one way or the other. Open your eyes, look at the candidates, see what they believe, see what they're going to bring to the table. Not just the candidates, be the uh the issues that we're voting on as well. And do what's best, right? We want a secure, we want a prosperous Oregon, a prosperous settlement county vote. And if it doesn't go your way, then you're welcome to complain. But if it doesn't, and you didn't vote, hush. It's my That's my piece.

Well, I have to disagree with you because I think you do need to thank you. So, thank you for everything.

I just a reminder uh I've been a part for about the last 12 13 years uh for our Memorial Day ceremony up at Sunset Memorial at 11:00 that Monday 24th and we usually have 10 500. Okay. We we try to we keep it at an hour and we encourage you to bring children say we try to make sure that it's it's it's a ceremony. It's it's thick and rich and all that but also it's been great to see the increase in the number of young people. So you all come nothing for me.

All right. Oh, I forgot something. We're not done yet. So go ahead. Um and thank you foring my personal preference. Um tonight marks the last meeting of my first year of your city with the city manager until it's pretty. So it time flies when you're having fun. Um just want to get a nod from the council. It would be appropriate to schedule an executive session sometime next couple meetings to go over performance review and evaluation should be coming up.

Just a reminder with that I move that we authorize to pay the bills. I have been second to pay the bills. Hi, Councelor Bashard. Hi, Councelor Reynolds. Hi, Councelor Sand. Hi, Councelor Chris. Hi, Councelor. Hi. All right. Thank you. Passes by the council seated with that. Thank you again. Have a great night or day. Have your