City Council - workshop

I'm going to hold off for a moment.

Six months? I said one.

Do you want to call it to order? She said we're recording.

ready to go all right all right good evening and welcome to the july 13th 2026 12th and city council work session we have some it issues uh with i don't know are we streaming or no yes okay we are streaming all right uh we are working out some it issues but we're going to change the work session um Subjects, we're going to swap them. So the first thing up tonight is our 2027 legislative agenda development. The discussion will be led by Megan George along with our team from Thorne Run. Welcome, Megan.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. I'm Megan George. I'm your deputy city manager, and I've got a whole team with me here today. So in addition to myself, we've got Cody Field, our policy analyst at the city, and then three members of our lobbying team from Thorne Run. So Dan, Leah, and Tyler. We're gonna do a bit of musical chairs since five is too many to fit at this table So you'll see me and then you'll see them and then you'll see Cody and then you'll see me and then you'll see them again Just to let you know where we're going and why we keep dancing so we are here this evening to talk about the 2027 legislative agenda um cody and i were here a couple weeks ago to begin that discussion specific to funding requests to include on both of our agendas and at that time we explained why even though it is only july or june at the time we are already beginning to talk about our priorities so for tonight's presentation we have two sections the first section is on that 2027 legislative agenda And within that, we'd like to talk about themes, priorities, bringing back the funding requests, and then draft timelines, which are versions of what you've seen previously. So that's the first part of the presentation. Our goal is to collect input and initial insight from council on those lists, but not necessarily to finalize the lists. We will be back before you in early August with the draft of the state agenda based on tonight's discussion. And in between now and then, our team at Thorn Run will be having conversations with our various representatives so that we can get a more refined look at the project specifically. The second part of our presentation this evening has to do with the League of Oregon City's legislative priorities. So at this point, the League of Oregon Cities has sent a ballot out to all 241 cities in Oregon asking for their top five priorities for the League's board to include on their list of priorities entering into 2027. So we'll show those on the screen, I think, at some point. If not, they're in your packets. If you can access those via our website. And we'll review those and get some initial insight from Thorne Run and allow council time to discuss initial thoughts with again the idea being that this will be the first conversation but that will bring it back in early August for you all to continue that discussion. So that's the plan for this evening. I'm going to invite Dan, Tyler, and Leah up to the stage now and I'll be close by.

Well, good evening. Oh, you have it. I do have it. Thank you. We came with paper. You're not the only ones that struggle with IT. We often struggle with IT ourselves. So thank you. It is music to my ears to hear the work that's being done in advance on legislative agendas. If it is a goal of my professional life, it is to get clients thinking early and work hard towards a legislative agenda. It makes all the difference in the world. Most people assume that our work is in session work or while Congress is in session. And the fact of the matter is that good work is done in the interim. And so this type of a session, the work that we have is really critical. And I thought I might, too, Oh, we're still working on it. So there's a themes page in your deck that we'll get to that I thought might set the table a little bit about why do we have legislative agendas generally. In some ways, they are sort of blueprints. In other ways, they are vision documents. And so it's a little bit of both in that regard. It's really important for us as your team to understand the themes that most motivate you in the legislative context Both at the state level and at the federal level that allows us to evaluate look for opportunities looks for liabilities In ways that we know that you've set the direction of this is where our interest is. This is what we care about in other areas Where we may monitor we may let the the team know here at the city what's going on, but we won't be focused it allows us to to really pinpoint, to make sure that we examine everything, to narrow it down and show you the different pieces around it. Everything from how we track legislation, there are thousands of bills, and we'll mark which of them we think are of particular interest to Tualatin. You know good, it does us no good if all of them are of interest to Tualatin. It also makes very little progress if we don't have a good sense of what's most important to the city. And so that's why these themes are really important. And that's more of the vision document. There is nothing that is set in stone. As new issues emerge that we may not have talked about this summer or even this fall, we'll bring them back to the city. We'll say you need to consider this, think about it, opportunities. So it's not a set in stone type of document. On the other hand, in the process that you've already begun that you'll continue to move along towards is really around projects. And one of the reasons, whether it's a project or if there's a particular policy issue that it looks like the city needs to be the sole leader on or the primary leader on, we start that work early. You socialize a project. You make sure that it's ready to go in terms of its advocacy. You build the material. You talk with the stakeholders. You do that with a policy issue if you're going to run a bill as well. You go find sponsors. You do all that work that if you wait, until January for a state, or you wait until January for a federal, you're going to be too late. You're going to be scrambling. You won't have put the effort you wanted to forward. So in some ways, these legislative agendas help direct on the pieces that need to be set in stone what it is that the city is pursuing in a really specific way. And so it's a little bit of both the blueprint and the vision statement. And that's the big sort of overall view on those. We're gonna walk through a few slides and talk about the different themes that we have had in the previous years, and you should be considering which of these do you want to continue? Which do you want to carry over? Are there some that are still relevant? Are there some that are more of a prioritization? And then are there new themes? And we'll talk a little bit, we'll go back and forth a little bit between the different pieces on what is relevant moving forward that may be slightly different, but also what has maintained the same momentum, and you can sort of rip off of that a little bit. All right, we're now, I think, on slide four to catch everyone up.

If we're moving, and I'll turn it over to Tyler. Thank you for having us tonight, Council. Tyler Janssen, Senior Vice President with Thornton Partners. Want to speak with you a little bit about your adopted 2026 themes. It is not shocking to me as a city government that your themes that you adopted in 2026 are quite far ranging because the services you provide are quite far ranging. To opine a little bit off of what Dan just mentioned, these themes are really helpful to us in three key ways. It helps us know where we can be opportunistic on your behalf. So often sessions, by virtue of the state having 4,000 plus bills in an upcoming long session, no legislator has the capacity to know all things about any one topic area. And so they tend to piecemeal those. And you might end up with a work group that is meeting on something like for example, serial meetings, right? We might know just having this broad array of themes and some sort of lanes that we sort of have the bumpers around on how is Tualatin feeling about that particular topic gives us the flexibility and the direction that we need to be your advocates when those opportunities arise. So having this larger list is helpful and then working with Megan and Cody on your behalf to figure out where those bumpers are for where we might be able to go, it's helpful as well. The other two areas where these broad themes help us are, and Leah will speak to this a little later in the presentation, is with the tie-in to the League of Oregon Cities and their priorities. It is helpful to know where Tualatin might want to amplify some of those efforts, where you might want to be gently pushing back on some of those efforts, where you might want to be going in a different direction. And then third, these themes really help us figure out where we need to play defense on your behalf in Salem. So recognizing when and where something might become a third rail, For example, in transportation, if the state were to kick something like revenue sharing with local governments out of a package, that one is fairly obvious. We know we would spring into defense on your behalf. But for some of these other themes, as you work internally with your team to flesh out a little more detail around what these mean, that guidance is very, very useful to us. There is nothing in reviewing your 2026 themes that I see as no longer relevant. You are still a city government. You're still providing all of these services to all of your community members. So it really is just coming up with a little more focus on what are the maybe priorities within that theme or what are the things that are keeping you up at night within that theme. And all of that is helpful to us as we are your advocates. Think of this as sort of the peripheral vision, and then we want to stay clear-eyed in moving forward on the priorities that you identify. And I know we're going to be speaking about your capital project list in just a moment. Moving on to the next slide. On priorities, I want to speak a little bit about sort of the zeitgeist of what we're seeing in Salem, and I'll kick it over to Dan to talk about what he's seeing out of D.C. In Salem, three major, major themes that are emerging, and they in fact line up exactly with your 2026 state agenda. Transportation package continues to be the driver of all politics in Salem. It is the topic that the legislature wished they could quit and can't. So I will just say the dynamics as we sit approaching 2027, having started this conversation in Salem in 2025, what was just demonstrated through the, if you'll recall, the short history was passing a package in 2025, or failing to pass a package in 2025, I should say, a special session where a package gets passed, quickly having to process the governor asking that that package be canceled, the legislature being unable to do so because of the Secretary of State ruling, passing an abbreviated version, and Republicans led by Senator Bruce Starr and Representative Ed Diehl successfully gathering a flurry of signatures on short notice, referring the package to the voters, and then it going down, I think, 87%. uh... the legislature still recognizes that they have a fundamental transportation problem on their hands and what has been demonstrated through all of that is that this has to be a bipartisan package With all of that in mind, there are a few things that keep local governments up at night and keep me up at night on your behalf. The first is in a world where nobody's going to get everything they want out of a transportation package, it remains really critical that revenue sharing with local governments be maintained. As much as you might hear everybody say that it's not on the table, it was put on the table at one point in 2025. So you have to remain diligent and trust but verify and make sure that you are ready to spring into action on a moment's notice if we hear anything different. That is the dynamic that is happening with transportation. They are at a stage right now where they are determining the contours of what counts as core service for the state's responsibility of transportation and what doesn't. There is a work group that was convened by Governor Kotek, this visioning work group, which is meeting and is supposed to deliver a final set of recommendations in December. about what to do. So it's a set of recommendations from this work group to the legislature encouraging them on what they might wish to do and to the governor on what the direction they might want to take. I will flag from an expectation management standpoint one of the challenges with the prior effort on transportation funding was how late the package itself got unveiled. And this feels very eerily similar. in terms of a timeline. But with that in mind, I will say all of us have met recently with Senator Bruce Starr, who appears to be heading the Republican side of that negotiating table, and he remains very clear that he wants to see a package across the finish line. He just wants it done in a bipartisan fashion that addresses some of his caucus's concerns. So he has been very consistent. So that's transportation. The other big two priorities that are going to be facing Salem, really it's budget, but the way that that is manifesting is what the state is going to do about its Medicaid budget in particular. There was a really good breakdown recently in OPB where an advisory committee was put together to sort of examine how you might go about balancing the Medicaid budget, and there are no easy answers. Implementation of HR1, I think, in the biennium that is upcoming is expected to cost the state something like $420 million. That doubles by the time we're in the next biennium in 2029. So there are really challenging choices about who gets covered or the level of benefit of what that might take. If you read through that article, those are choices like dental care. and what is the level of that benefit. The reason that this is so challenging is that Oregon really expanded as much as it was possible under federal law to cover the Oregon health plan. Now with those federal supports going away, there are really, really difficult choices to be had in Salem. What that means globally is that In prior sessions, when there were more abundant resources, there was a little more siloing of general fund and lottery fund, and you could afford to play with the color of money a little bit more. From the recent conversations we've had with the co-chairs, they really are seeing every dollar, the but-for question being, what could this mean for the Medicaid population? So it is going to be... tremendously difficult budgetarily this session, and will grow so to be even more difficult in 2029. And that is the fundamental problem that they are grappling with. The third major priority that we're seeing out of Salem, again, there was another large published advisory committee on this effect. The Prosperity Council has been taking a hard look at economic development. That is really the governor putting together a committee to look at how to expand Oregon's tax base. That stakeholder group that had representatives, largely business representatives. There were some labor representatives there as well. put together a list of ten recommendations, I think at a very high level. Those are things like targeted tax relief, industrial site readiness investment, which I know Tualatin has been supportive of in the past, replacing Oregon's climate protection program with a cap and invest program, looking at some sort of targeted regulatory relief. That Prosperity Council report just came out at the end of June. It was delivered to the governor It's sort of unclear at this point which pieces of it she may take and run with, which pieces of it she may task the legislature or legislators to run with, and which pieces groups may want to run with on their own. To the extent that it is going to be a large theme in Salem, it may behoove the council to take a look at those recommendations and determine if, like, I suspect perhaps industrial site readiness might be something that Tualatin might be supportive of. But taking a look at that recommendation list and figuring out if there are areas where the city may want to spend some political capital as part of a coalition pushing those forward.

Briefly, in Washington, D.C., there's never a shortage of news. And with... sudden passing of Senator Graham of South Carolina over the weekend. The status in the Senate remains even more uncertain.

His sister was appointed to replace him for the rest of the term.

In a close... incredibly closely held Senate and even more closely held House. It is, again, each of these new cycles produces some level of uncertainty about what the future may hold. I'm gonna sort of speak, largely in some big issues, give some updates, sort of prognosticate a little bit. But really, it's an election year. Very little typically happens in Congress in election years. There are very few legislative days left in this year. And so the work that we have to finish is important. We'll continue to spend time on that, but building towards the future ends up being really important. And because there is this November election in which what is on the other side of it is unknown, I think we prepare for all kinds of different scenarios as we think about the city's agenda. But big picture, there are some important pieces that are supposed to happen this year. You'll recall the bipartisan infrastructure law is now up for expiration. It expires September 30th. which was a historic investment in transportation and larger sets of infrastructure. I think by all accounts, we expect it to be a much smaller package regardless of who wins in November. We don't expect the present Congress to actually finish this work. We expect there to be an extension that moves it into the next Congress. Regardless of who controls the chambers, it's going to be a smaller package. It was a historic package. It will be narrower in scope. The House did clear out of committee its version of the bill, which they called Bill 250, in honor of the 250th anniversary. By and large, local governments responded somewhat positively to that draft. It was better than I think many expected it might be. It included, continued some programs, the Safe Streets for All, included a build program, which local governments have historically liked. There is more attention on directing as many funds to local governments as possible There there is some mixed reviews on on trans of it overall a smaller package and by and large Not there was a thought that a lot of the programs that local governments benefit would have been eviscerated they are not there's still progress it is It is a starting place for the next Congress. No one expects this bill to pass. The Senate is a long ways away from considering it. But it is one of the pieces that will be a dominant theme in the next year and two if we're lucky in that regard.

Sometimes it takes even longer than that. We have longer extensions.

Some of the news that on H.R. 1 it is ruled out. Tyler mentioned a little bit about its impact on the state. Another area besides Medicaid that we've already seen some numbers is in SNAP. Oregon reported in the last legislative days that roughly 10% of those cases had been reduced. So there was about a 70,000 individual drop in SNAP participation. I don't think we really understand who those 70,000 are yet. I think folks are working on that. But it is already beginning to To affect Oregon, that is becoming a theme. The Medicaid snap, as folks look at the election and seeing what's going to happen and the consideration of what the agenda will be, H.R. 1 sits in the backdrop there. And depending on what the election looks like, it could be a dominant theme. either unwinding some of that a remedying what happened So that really that's gonna be election dependent, but it is a big issue in that regard One of the pieces I think will end up being the signature piece of this Congress actually just quietly passed over the weekend without assigning and that's the road to housing the 21st century road to housing and which was a really remarkable bipartisan legislative effort that required a lot of sacrifice, actually, not just bipartisan among people that disagree, but also between the two chambers, the House and the Senate, which also disagreed significantly on that because of some of the politics around the the SAVE Act, which is the election legislation that the president has demanded. He refused to sign the bill out of protest, which means it passed without a signature because a certain amount of time passed. But it's something that we'll want to continue to monitor from an implementation perspective and see if there are pieces there that are of interest to the city. There there's there's gonna be a lot of rulemaking that happens as a result of that So it's it's still not clear how those programs will will roll out roll out but that that ended up being a significant piece of sort of really the last two years and It's it's actually a shame that there wasn't a ceremony over it because it really was it marked a

AN UNUSUAL AGREEMENT.

ANOTHER AREA OF SUCCESSFUL BIPARTISAN WORK IN THE LAST FEW YEARS HAS BEEN IN THE APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS IN WHICH MANY OF THE BILLS HAVE GOTTEN DONE AND PASSED This year, we're a little bit slower. And again, I mentioned the election year. It makes it more difficult in election years to pass these. The House has cleared virtually all of its work. The Senate is very slow to find agreement on this. I don't think any of us expect that this will be wrapped up by the end of the fiscal year, September 30th. All of this extension ends up putting a lot of pressure on the lame duck session of Congress, which occurs after the election. There are always predictions on how how meaningful that will be how? or not and and I would say is you'll know after the election and It could be a meaningful time of getting work done It is it looks a lot different when you don't have a presidential change But we'll see what happens there, but a lot of that whether it's I don't think anyone thinks that transportation we get done in a lame-duck session But something like finishing the budget could get done in a lame duck session. But the issues that DC is really talking about right now that will continue to be in the news, whether it's immigration, Iran, The AI is a dominant in data centers, a dominant conversation like it is here in Oregon. You know, the country continues to be thinking about housing, and then there's a lot of work around and questions around inflation and affordability context. Many of the themes that you feel in Oregon are themes that are sort of really beginning to dominate in D.C., And that's really what we're looking at as we're moving into this next session of Congress. That's the two surveys of where we are. I'm happy to answer questions around those, and I don't know whether we do that now or later, but it's also, I think it's in that context you should think about the themes for your priorities that you consider.

Turning now to the 2026 state legislative agenda that you all adopted. I'm going to be brief because your state legislative agenda that you adopted in 2026 really does align quite neatly with the state priorities that I just opined on not too long ago. Transportation funding, housing and human services, and support opportunities for economic development. All of those are still incredibly relevant. If I could add a couple of observations on each of those, I would say on transportation funding, that not only is the local government revenue sharing of paramount importance and finding a way for the state to actually figure out how to finish the major projects it committed to in 2017, I would put on your radar somewhat significant wouldn't say disturbing is too strong a word, concerning rumbles about accountability. So what I have heard from the governor's transportation visioning work group, from the chair of that work group, has repeated in multiple settings, multiple ways, that if local governments are getting 50% of the state highway trust fund, what is the state doing to ensure the sanctity of those dollars, how are those going out? What I think a lot of legislators don't realize, and which any local government lobbyists will be educating them to, is that in 2017, the last major transportation package, there actually were a number of reporting requirements. So the League of Oregon Cities and the Association of Oregon Counties have roads departments that are responsible for reporting back to the legislature and to the transportation committees exactly how those dollars were spent, where they were spent. I AM HOPEFUL THAT THIS COULD BE AS SIMPLE AS AN EDUCATION CAMPAIGN TO BRING TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS WHO MAY BE NEW, WHO MAYBE WEREN'T AROUND IN 2017, IN FACT, MOST LIKELY WERE NOT. THERE'S BEEN A TREMENDOUS DEGREE OF TURNOVER. BUT BRINGING THEM UP TO SPEED ON THOSE MEASURES AND AT THE WORST CASE SCENARIO THEN WOULD BE HAVING TO MOBILIZE A DEFENSE AGAINST A VERY PERHAPS WELL INTENTIONED BUT ONEROUS REQUIREMENT WHEN IT COMES TO ACCOUNTABILITY. FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDS. SO SOMETHING TO BE AWARE OF. NOT PANICKED YET, BUT YELLOW FLAG, NOT RED FLAG. ON HOUSING AND HUMAN SERVICES, EVICTION PREVENTION DOES REMAIN A TOPIC OF CONVERSATION IN There is a strong stakeholder group that is advocating continually for more eviction prevention dollars. I think there is a wide-held belief among the housing committees that the most cost-effective use of their limited resources is keeping folks who are currently housed from becoming unhoused. So that remains incredibly important. I would also flag that as a city government, Walton may want to consider housing infrastructure as something you might want to advocate for. There was a $10 million appropriation in the last long session for a local government housing infrastructure fund. Governor Kotek, in her first proposed budget, had proposed something like $100 million for local government infrastructure to support housing development. That got narrowed in the legislative process to $10 million. Those funds are all allocated and not out the door yet, but have at least been allocated for it. It is, I think, unlike eviction prevention, which has a stakeholder group that is much broader, infrastructure tends to be carried by local government, and it may be worth calling out as you think of ways to be opportunistic with your legislative agenda. On the note of economic development, I talked a little bit about Prosperity Council. Taking a look at those recommendations and figuring out which to put your weight behind would be a good exercise. and would again give a plug for site readiness. Similar to housing infrastructure, if local governments aren't asking for the industrial site infrastructure, there are a few who might be advocating for that in Salem. Pause there.

Next slide is the last federal legislative agenda, which if you think other than the funding requests you may do in appropriations working in a two-year cycle, by and large, many of these remain relevant. So the transportation piece will continue to be an ongoing discussion. CDBG will continue to be something that you all be looking at supporting. I think the municipal bond is probably less in the crosshairs unless there's a new reconciliation, which has become the new tool in Congress to pass something without bipartisan support. And so as that is in development, we'll constantly be looking at that. But I don't think it has the same level of ferocity around it right now. While this administration is still the administration, changes at FEMA are an ongoing battle. You know, the opposed cuts to programs, I think, is largely a reflection of what was coming in the reconciliation. At this point, it is still continuing to keep the fight up in that regard and new initiatives, but that just has a different quality in the implementation side, which is where we spend a lot of our time right now on H.R. 1. Community fueling infrastructure is a an ongoing it's stuck in litigation at some level and and stuck in the black hole that's administration stopping a lot of different programs And in will continue the crosshairs The OMB has published a rule that is essentially gives the administration the ability to stop any funding that's awarded on almost any grounds. It's been out for a public final notice. There will be litigation around it. I suspect fully that, I don't want to play lawyer, There have been far less draconian efforts that have been stopped in the courts, and so there will probably be some courts that uphold it, others that don't, and we'll be in the unknownness that we are right now on that. It changes everything if it actually goes to final in that regard, and I imagine would be rescinded by the next administration. but puts things in a...

I mean, it takes a long time to do one of these rulemakings.

And so even if you want to go back and preserve or undo it, it can take time, which in extraordinary disruption. So I think 150 members of Congress signed a letter. There were over 60,000 comments on that rule, most of them opposed. There was a massive effort in opposition around it. But it's that type of... endeavor where there are mostly administrative rulings and implementation of laws that have passed that become the vigilance of the moment for local governments on a lot of these issues. I think we're going to go to Cody next.

Hello, everyone. So I'm just going to breeze through these projects really quick since we went through background last time, I think. We're on the next slide. Yeah, there we go. Oh, actually, can you back up one? So just as a reminder, we want to make sure that these projects line up well with the legislative funding cycles. We're ideally targeting funding that would be the last dollars in, in terms of, you know, putting a capstone on a project, not funding maybe a whole project. We want them, obviously, to be reflective of the community's needs and, as Thorne Rudd mentioned, what is in the legislative zeitgeist and make sure that the funding request is reasonably sized, so not too small, not too large. Next slide, please. Okay, so just a few notes about this list. The riverfront park construction, the request was to specifically target state funding there, not go back for federal funding on that one. We have the Tualatin River Greenway Trail. No specific comments there. Tualatin-Sherwood-Teton intersection improvements. This is a traffic and safety flow additional turn lane project. We will take a look at this unless it looks like we're going to be allocated Mst IP Financing the Nyberg Creek Trail. That's a trail extension the Tualatin Sherwood Road railroad crossing Specifically looking at design funding to the railroad crossing elimination program there the Basalt Creek area sewer planning and construction This one had a little less interest just because we think we have plenty of clean water services STCs available for this, although there is that infrastructure for economic development nexus there. The A1 reservoir upgrades recommendation was to remove that from the list because it's more of an operations and maintenance project, probably not of interest. The library city offices and solar that would install solar panels on the roof of the library and potentially the canopies covering the plaza. We have the Tualatin City Services microgrid. A little bit of concern there. That would basically extend our microhydroturbine project to install a grid here at this building. And then finally, the project that we had not initially added to the list but we did after the meeting was the shade structure at Veterans Project. We thought it would be worthwhile to revisit that project and maybe consider it for federal funding.

What did you say about the microgrid?

I think there was some concerns about the technology maybe not being far enough advanced or not being able to maybe implement this in a timeline that would take advantage of the shifting advancements in this technology. It may be a little bit undercooked in terms of our ability to implement something like this, if I remember correctly.

So I think we're gonna pause. What we're hoping to talk about is the themes, the priorities, and then the project list at this point. kind of three chunks, similar questions for each. Those questions being, do you want to keep anything? Do you want to add anything? And then on this project list specifically, so Cody summarized your initial feedback from the last meeting. The team from Thorn Run may have some additional comments on specific projects. If there's a lot of interest from council on one of those projects, I think we'll call them back up to give that feedback. What we're looking for on the project list at this point is any additional prioritization since that first discussion. Board and run is going to go back to our state team and our federal team and have conversations with both of their offices on the list of projects to see what feels like the best fit. And they'll bring that feedback back to the city council at the point in time that you're looking at adopting your lists of priorities for the year. So at that point, we'll have tangible feedback and have begun the vetting process on those projects. So again, feedback on themes, feedback on priorities, and on this list of projects, is there anything that really rises to the top that you definitely want to go after? And do you have questions about any of these that Thorne Run can weigh in on from their perspective at this moment in time? So we'll pause there.

Okay, so let's start, since it's up there, let's take the project list first. And to go back to the other two items. So...

President Pratt I had mentioned last time I was wondering that shade structure for veterans plaza if we could somehow tie it in with the shade structure over by the splash pad and by the businesses because We have so many parents just sitting there in this hot Sun and I'm wondering I'm not gonna get into it now But just if we could tie it into kind of economic development to you and have so people eating their food could Also have a shady area over on that side of the plaza

To go with that, do we expand beyond Veterans Plaza to Council President Pratt's point? Because most of these projects that get support are somewhere between $1 million to $3 million. One shade structure is not that. But if we can make it into a shade structure program somehow throughout the city, I don't know. Because, again, we know it's $1 million to $3 million, and it's for capital that they're interested in. And if we could roll out, because we hear about all different parks need more shade structures, public plazas and stuff like that, maybe some kind of citywide rollout of shade structures, tying in maybe with the solar panels on top that they're requiring for CFEC and stuff.

Quick comment on that project. So we did have discussions with Greg, who's in D.C., and one of his comments was that while Congresswoman Salinas has mentioned that an attractive project for her is in the $1 million to $3 million range, many of the projects that she submitted last year that did receive funding were actually in the $250,000 range, including ours. This is a great project to have further discussions with her team locally on so that we can suggest, hey, we've got this project that's around this funding level. It seems like it's getting funded, but we've heard feedback from you that you want something larger. Could we add to it? Work on strategy with her. So I think absolutely for both of those points.

Others? Other ideas on the list? Because we talked about the railroad crossing. Again, that's not a capital project. Do they even fund planning projects? They do.

They do. It's a specific component of that grant specifically. Right.

Because, like I said, I... We're going to have to come up with more than one. We know that. Ms. Salinas' office told us we could show us three plans, not just one. So we had three suggestions to bring to our representatives locally before heading up to D.C. and stuff. But going with one is we've got to have three at least. Councilor Gonzalez.

Thank you. Thank you. Regarding the sheet-covered areas and that water area, what about duct control systems? uh... he's control and the mechanisms around that for economic development is you really can't put a picnic anywhere near that area because of all the peace is that a possibility of a product that we can ask that list

I'm not sure it's a good fit for this funding cycle. We pulled these projects with the exception of the shade structure from our capital improvement plan. So they're projects that have been in the work and have some degree of planning and cost estimation completed as part of it. My understanding of that particular issue is that we still don't know what the solution is. So it's something we can put on the list to brainstorm about in future. One other follow-up comment on the federal side of asking. Greg also submitted that perhaps the solar on the library and the microgrid would not be the most attractive type of projects for federal funding at this point in time because of the politics.

So on the two trail projects, what's the temperature on those?

I don't think we have specific feedback on that now unless I'm going to look over my shoulder at Dan to see if he's got a specific note. He does not. So those are things that we could run past her office.

Yeah, because I'm trying to remember her list of things she thumbs up for the last cycle. Or some trails were on there.

Yeah, the nuance, it seems, will be whether they fall into the parks category, which she has indicated she does not want to move forward, or does it fall into the transportation and other advantages category.

And economic development. Then you can tie that into ED also.

The one thing that I would offer, which is I think it is absolutely wise to do multiple projects for the reasons we discussed. It is good to have a diversity of those projects. There are certain accounts that are oversubscribed, and there are others that are less. And if you have multiple accounts, you have a much better opportunity. So for example, one trail project, not two, would be... probably just one transportation, not two. Think along those lines.

And then, based on the conversations I had with the local rep, you know, and couching them into the lower-subscribed kind of projects and thinking how you can check the boxes for those lower-subscribed types of projects.

One additional note from Greg that I can share is that the reservoir project, while it does feel like an operations and maintenance project, he thought it might be worth having a discussion with Congressman Salinas' office about it.

With the riverfront park construction, is that the one, whether you, we don't know whether that will be part of construction, like part of transportation or... It's not economic development or anything like that?

Actually, so that project, because we submitted it for federal funding last year, we don't feel like it's a good option this year because we got a no once. But we do think it would be a good ask on the state side, and in particular with the timeline of receiving those funds as well. Councilor Brooks.

Well, I like prioritizing the Riverfront Park for the state, especially if there's any question about some of the funding that we get from Metro. And I also think that the access in the community partners are two things that are good on that for accessibility for people with different abilities. So I'm not sure if that's what part of the funding is at question at this point. My other question is around the CORA planning and the new housing bill that some of that money from what I understand is going to be for middle income housing. And so is there an opportunity there around any planning money or anything that would help us in the CORA for our mixed use That's my question. The home, or with the legislation that just passed.

I don't know whether there is funding available for planning efforts, so I'll defer to you.

There may be. I think the rulemaking, it's going to be, it'll be some time before we see the rules on that, but we'll make sure that we're monitoring for those opportunities.

I just think that's a good thing to keep our eyes on since that is a big shift in that kind of historic shift. And I think studying the railroad crossing is important.

So, interesting, I'm going to keep moving along. So it sounds like, I like Dan's suggestion about three different types of projects, obviously, so looking at that list, and basically to me, you pick one of these trail projects that might be of interest, and then the idea of a lower ticket item, a lower cost item. I kind of like the shade structure that we don't ask for a million if we're asking for a half million. So to me, getting that list of three things that has three different kind of projects, maybe three different funding levels, and that address what As Cody puts it, the zeitgeist of the folks that represent us, they're interested in helping us put a cross. Because some of these things are off the list. And you mentioned the MISTIP thing, but MISTIP takes forever. Maybe put that at a higher priority because MISTIP could be 20 years away. Look at how long 12th Street Road took. Even though this moves at a snail's pace with federal dollars for this, it would be faster than 20 years. But then my concern there is what happened with 65th and Borland, that we get the money, and all of a sudden ODOT has to be involved, and we lose control. But I know somehow Sherwood figured that out to keep ODOT out of that bridge project. So it can be done.

That's one, too, that we thought might be a good target for state-level funding because of the potential for a transportation package this next session. I said potential.

Potential. I'm just going to go with the state with its funds and a transportation package. I don't have a lot of hope of dollars for stuff like this. We're on our own for this kind of stuff. Just present prayer.

Yeah, I agree with the shade structure, and then I'm wondering on the Nyberg Creek Trail, because that would go under I-5, can that kind of... I mean, that is economic development, because you're giving people access to where all our shopping is. I think that might be a good trail project, because Riverfront kind of didn't make it. And... Yeah, the Teton intersection, I just think that's a big safety one that could really make a difference in our community.

And the reservoir upgrades to me is something where a lot of people don't argue with them about resiliency and emergency preparedness. That might fly in terms of interest.

Okay.

I think we've got enough feedback to have those discussions with the respective teams. Do you have any outstanding?

No, that all sounds great to me. That's a helpful clarification.

And just to, I think Council Brooks kind of mentioned it, for the Thorne Run team, I love the email you guys sent out with the synopsis, if you will, of the housing bill and what passed. And what caught my eye was them poking at CDBG. And so... Maybe next time you come, that kind of gets me panicked when they're going to be tightening up or more rulemaking around CDBG that we have to keep on our radar. Council Hilliard.

Thank you. I also would like to ask the Thorn Run team, as I was trying to go through the housing, the new housing that... past there's discussion in there about creating the blighted building to housing conversion program and I know that that is and we talked a little bit about the core area that's not obviously for this time because I understand the rules haven't been made but I would like to get that on the radar as something for us to consider for the future please thank you and I think I mean we're talking the same thing the whole idea of the housing and opportunity zones

that bill because we're looking up to re-up our opportunity zones we're going to have an opportunity there for housing

Okay. So that covers the funding asks. I think we got a little bit of direction on the priorities, maybe a little bit of direction on the themes. We have exceeded our allotted time for this presentation. So I think we can wait on the LOC legislative priorities for further discussion, if that works for you, Mayor.

What's the next legislative days?

September.

September. So we'll know more of what's on the radar?

Yes. Yeah. We'll, we'll know more tomorrow theoretically, but yes. Um, yeah. So, uh, what we can do is we'll be back in August, um, to resume discussions of the agendas and potentially adopt them. If council feels ready, uh, we could also, um, schedule additional conversations. for more in-depth discussion on these items.

Where about the LLC?

Those are not due until October, I believe. So we can bring those back at a future work session for discussion and then a future general session.

I just want to put a technology pause for just a second, and we may have a little bit of a plan, but it would entail... continuing the code, the clear and present danger code, the clear and objective code. No danger, no danger. Continuing that, because we are streaming, by the way, but we just do not have Zoom, and we're not able to get sound through Zoom or from Zoom, and so our consultants will not be able to. We could probably get them to present through Nicole's computer, but then they wouldn't be able to hear your questions, and so... We're going to suggest that we delay the code update until a different work session. In that case, you would have more time to continue this discussion about legislative priorities. Did I get this right? Yes.

All right. Well, we'll make ourselves comfy then. All right. Okay. I think we're good on the funding requests. So next up would be the priority items and the themes for you to discuss.

Okay.

Bring that back up. So can we go back to where would you like to start, Mayor?

Let's do the themes.

Themes? That's your priority. Themes for 2026, towards the front of the presentation. Slide four, Nicole.

Back to slide four.

Back to slide four.

So discussion, thoughts on the themes, unless you had something else, Cindy, different?

I had just a quick request. I apologize. Thank you. Could you please send us a link to the prosperity reports to be sure that we're all looking at the same thing? Thank you so much. Absolutely.

Yeah, go ahead.

I've been doing some of the webinars with the, what is it, Kids in Nature. there's funding for that and I'm just curious if any of that those discussions that we're having around the shade structure and some of the parks would fit into some of that or if there's ways of adding funding into our

summer camps and things like that. I'm not familiar with that program. Is it a state program? It's a federal. Federal? Kids in Nature? I'll give you the information. Yeah, we can look into it. Okay.

So the themes... It's part of housing to me. I mean, that's the need for more housing. But it also ties into local control and unfunded mandates with some of the forced housing initiatives in the state that's down to us now. And we're starting to see that developers take interest on short-circuiting our system, if you will, and going with the state's approved methodology of implementing a development here in the city. They're tied to me. They both definitely need to be there. As I heard people say, I don't see much of a change in themes, but it just seems on the housing and local control that we're losing more local control from Salem in terms of things related to housing, and it could happen on transportation, stuff like that. Sure.

Thank you. I'd like to add to that conversation, too, because I think there are a lot of people right now very concerned about authoritarianism. And so when we're talking about local control, we're talking about from our perspective. But I also do want to say that we really want our community to have the opportunity to access our body in a way that's meaningful to them. So even if there's some things that we wouldn't move that much on, this way that we're doing things is incredibly frustrating to people. And I think that it's really, really important to discuss it in more than one way for local governments because At least this body, we want to hear from our constituents, and we want them to feel comfortable coming here and asking, and we want to be able to work towards solutions that feel good for everybody. And that's a lot of what we lose. And I think that some of the language, we sometimes lose that piece of, you know, what we're here for to serve our public. Thank you.

if I could go jump back for just a moment on housing the moment I wanted to come up for mayor you were speaking to a number of unfunded mandates from Salem in recent years and housing space that is real I also would suggest that I have found the most play in Salem when it comes to changing proposals that may be more or less on rails by the time that they appear and Housing production is not sort of the big thematic thing that Salem is doing approaching 27, at least thus far, that it has been in, say, 2023 or 2025. The legislature responds to the crisis of the moment and of the crisis of the moment that they are responding to it in this upcoming session is transportation economic development. That being said, there's still a number of folks who are deeply invested in housing production, everything from short-term rentals, housing tax policy. It's a perennial issue in Salem, and I have found that the local governments are most successful in advocating against those unfunded mandates, not by saying this is an unfunded mandate, but being very hyper-technical about why this is a challenge for a city to implement, and then offering solutions on it. And so I would say to the extent that you are able to volunteer, members of your planning staff, that sort of thing. It is an arena where the way to win is to get hyper-specific and hyper-technical.

Raffling with facts. Council President Pratt and then Councilor Reyes.

Yeah, to what Councilor Brooks was saying, what you're saying, like this clear and objective standards, yeah. The thing that really bothers me about this is we take such pride in outreach to our community and that's taken away in the whole process. Like we had no choice and that's the one thing we would want to hear back from our constituents and now the state said, oh, you can't do that anymore. So I don't know how we communicate that to the state, but the fact that We're local. We need to hear from our local residents and business owners, and we don't want that taken away. So I don't know how to put that in a factual way.

Local control. Yeah.

And if I could respond to that, Council President, two thoughts. There was an effort last legislative session around goal one, which is public involvement. I anticipate that that conversation will still percolate. There's probably going to be an opportunity about what does robust public involvement mean in 2027. So there probably will be a natural opportunity for that. And then the other caution I would flag is to some in Salem, there will be a knee-jerk reaction to saying more public involvement will be read in a way that could be read as trying to hinder development from needing to happen. That's stating the obvious. There is an inherent tension between public transparency and facilitated quick development. I think acknowledging that messy reality is the way to approach just calling that out and just naming it as attention and that it will forever be attention and they don't have to be diametrically opposed.

some of the new development standards that Requirements for notification of surrounding neighbors have been decreased, but you don't have to give these notifications to Streamline the development movement faster, but but we're the ones who hear about it.

Not them in Salem about when those developments occur Council of Reyes and then Council Hillier on that night when you were mentioning that earlier about the being careful on how do we, not careful, but be more strategic on how to approach the local control around funding mandates. Is that something that you're, I guess my question is that something that you are advocating for now, or do we have to write that to our legislative representatives? the one that's representing us here in Tualatin, you know, like Senator Wagner. They're also speaking on our behalf. So I'm thinking, like, when you're suggesting that, are you asking me to reach out to... I guess I want to do something about it, but I just want to make sure I'm going to the right person, right? Because I don't want it to fall on deaf ears if I'm going to say something like, I would like this, and who's speaking on our behalf?

At this stage, the purpose of the legislative themes is to give Thorn Run's team direction on what to follow and what to track and what to make sure that we are paying attention to. So things that show up on this list correspond to bills we might select to follow during the state session or types of things that Thorn Run puts in their email updates or even separate updates that they share on particular bills or issues that are percolating. So this does not necessarily direct members of the city council to speak on specific issues or general issues, so much as it directs Thorne Run's team on what we care about so that they can make sure we have access to information to then take action ourselves, whether as individuals or as a body.

Okay, that makes sense. I wanted to hear that. I do think, going back now on the themes, that on the economic stimulation, I... I feel that we're losing a little bit of business in our state. And what are those, I wouldn't want that to happen in Tualatin. I want us to continue to retain those jobs. So to me, I do worry about that. That does keep me up at night. Because there are people that are being fed. There are people that live, you know, the livelihood of people. So I always think of that. I don't know what my, the rest, but as I'm seeing this in themes and topics and priorities, I think of that, number one, because that is what helps our community continue to advance. Obviously the transportation and downtown revitalization, those are also, which still comes to economic development or stimulation in a way. But yeah, when I see this list, that pops into my forefront. And obviously other things fall within. So that's basically, I'm just speaking for myself, and when I see this and you're asking me what are those priorities, that's what sticks out.

Thank you. Especially, as was mentioned, the tie-in to the Prosperity Council's recommendations of what would Tualatin as a city, as Councilor Reyes is saying, would be if we think it's a fantastic idea for economic stimulation, to vet that out. Because there's some good stuff in there, there's some eh stuff in the proposal, but there's stuff that specifically with the array we'll see tonight, later on tonight, the kind of businesses we have here in town could benefit from it. To your point.

Yeah, and knowing that they actually, when they met, they met here in Tualatin. So I think that it should be a top of mind about the economic stimulation.

Councilor Hilliard.

Thank you. I agree with the priorities that we have. For me personally, priorities are the social services and specifically the eviction prevention. I'd like to find ways to lean into that. I'd also like to understand if there are kind of local coalitions of cities or just other than outside of the LOC or what are the other kind of? more regimented bodies around the state, would be that if we're trying to have a conversation around local control, maybe there are different ways to, through some coalition work, that could do that. So that's something I'd be curious about as we continue conversation.

Thank you. President Pratt.

Back on economic stimulation, we have such a large sector that's in the high-tech manufacturing, and I think we're at the federal level. I worry about what their decisions in tariffs and other things, what that's doing to that business and how much it's threatening the growth of that business. And then transportation at the state level, this is a little odd, I guess, and I heard Mark Gamba say it to the committee, and it's been my thing I've said to them, is we need to... Educate the public because right now they're not buying into any need for any funds for roads And so that's what I think they need to do at the state level and and that's only going to help us if people Understand how that's money's being used That's a Brooke I'm

about economic stimulation and our rate of vitalization and all the things that have been covered in social services. I'm very concerned about people losing their health care, and I know what that does to an economy. And I also know that a lot of times these larger programs kind of overlook people starting their own, you know, very small businesses and things that people can actually grab their hands around to still maintain some independence instead of working in a really tough environment. So I am always open to those conversations as well as far as ways to... empower people from the ground up as well as the top down. Thanks. I think we're getting a lot of top down right now. And my other question is, too, some of the things that we brought up with the federal, when they were looking at the federal transportation work that they were doing with NLC are ways of streamlining to get more direct funding to cities and local municipalities. And I think anything that streamlines some of that, because if there's an ask right now for a 40% increase, I'm sorry, a 40% increase to our military spending on top of what we're already dealing with right now, we are, I am very invested in the taxpayers of this community getting some of their taxes back to their community. So we just, anything that ties in with that for me is a priority because that's a stopgap measure and this is like we're bleeding out.

Priorities?

Yes, I think for themes we'll keep the existing list, maybe a few wording tweaks based on comments tonight. And yeah, we'll go from there. Thank you for the discussion. Priorities. We can proceed to I think slide six would be the state legislative agenda from last year. And same questions apply. Is there anything you'd like to carry over and is there anything new you'd like to add?

On housing and human services, we don't call out mental health. We're just ignoring it. And in my view in Salem, we're just ignoring the issue. And the city's mayors keep bringing it up. It just gets ignored. Police officers having to deal with this every day, having to scrape money together for mental health response teams. So on housing and human services, yes, rental addiction and that good stuff and rental assistance, but also we've got to address this mental health issue that ties into some of that housing. I went first, sorry, but others. Yeah. Yeah. And the third one, support opportunities for economic development. I applaud the state when it says, hey, we're going to allocate so many millions of dollars towards industrial site readiness, but $100 million for the whole state? Come on. Tawalta could use $50 million by itself. That got reduced to 10. Yeah, that got reduced to 10. We could use that in minutes here to fix some of the infrastructure here or to get our urban renewal zone down to Salt Creek to get it ready, get all the water and sewer in there. way over $10 million. So they're severely underfunding the opportunities for economic development for industrial site readiness, which brings the jobs.

Perhaps we also include specifics from the Prosperity Council's recommendation under this category as well, once you all had a chance to review.

Yeah.

Assuming all three of these items move forward, which I think there's support from based on your conversation, we would add our funding requests to the list of total priorities. Okay, we can go to slide seven. And it says 2025, it is 2026.

Yeah, the park comes off the list and we come up with another project we're gonna pitch them or projects Yeah, I'm saying we'd substitute that with three, you know multiple projects that we Bedazzle them in September when we go to DC that they say yes, we're on board. I And to Tyler and Dan, you're saying should we keep the municipal bonds? Are you comfortable they're not going to go after it or just have it in their back pocket in case there's a reconciliation bill?

Mayor, I think that probably fits into the category of the many things that we'll be monitoring. I don't know that you need to call it out in the same way. Okay. Reconciliation is now a perennial part of our future. Yeah. All right.

I mean, obviously, it's not a Tualatin problem. If they do go after us again, the whole LOC will fire up again and every other state organization. So are people comfortable taking that one off? Other comments on this list? What do you have with the rest of the list then?

Is that T-tone intersection on this list?

It's part of this project. Yeah, the earmarks.

Yeah, so to clarify, Council President, so we'll take that longer list of projects, which included the trail project as well as the transportation project and the shade structure and run it by Congresswoman Salinas's office, her local team, and see what they think might be a good fit based on what's going on and also what their priorities for the coming year will be. And then we'll narrow that from there for incorporation on the priority list with the goal being to have an idea in mind of what those projects are before y'all make the trip in D.C.

If I might on that point, one of the things, that conversation, we're not asking them to be directive because if we ask them, they will say we want to know what the city's top priorities are. And so it is really a dialogue around what are the things that they are interested in, which accounts and how they look at those, and it's more of an organic matching than it is a please give us direction.

Although direction would be nice. Yes.

Yeah, but I want everybody on board in terms of local representation, the local folks that are in the offices of the two senators and the congresswoman, that we get all their thumbs up before we bubble this through the process, we get everybody on board, and when we get to D.C., they know why we're there. hopefully just putting the icing on the cake or giving them those last pieces of information that convinces them to support it. Council Brooks.

I also want to add with the shade structure conversation, and I know we have new water stations, but I do think there's a piece around all the... vulnerability that people are facing where it could be also ways of having outdoor cooling opportunities and reducing the chance of mortality in our parks, which is important to us. And especially if we're gonna see more people be vulnerable with their health and with their housing. So I think that putting it in a way of sort of and sort of health and human services, even though it's a structural thing, is a really important thing right now to remind whoever we're talking to. Thanks.

Okay, solid. All right, us, do we have time to move on to LLC?

I was going to say, give us 10 minutes because we can do the council roundtable. It's up to 6.30.

Okay. So slide 12. Perfect. So I'm going to invite Leah and Tyler back up, but I'll just tee us off really quickly. So I believe this is a familiar process to all members of the council at this point. Every two years, the League of Oregon Cities convenes prior – policy committees on different topics full of elected and appointed staff from various cities from across the state. This year, we had two Tualatin staffers appointed to serve on committees. We had Don, who did his role on the Finance and Taxation Committee, and then I sat on the Transportation Committee. Those committees reviewed a bunch of information and presentation from state agencies and other relevant parties and then narrowed their list of potential topics down to three to seven, depending on the committee. And that is summarized in a long packet, which is attached to your packet. And they have sent that out to all cities in Oregon for every city to vote. Each city has the opportunity to pick five of those things that they think the LOC should put on their list of priorities. Those ballots are then summarized and given to the League of Oregon Cities Board of Directors, which I think is meeting in October at their annual conference. And as part of making their decision about what shows up on their list of priorities, they take input based on the voting results. Like Thorne Run, their lobbying team will focus on many things, whether or not it ends up on the list of priorities or not. But that's the thing that they put on their sheets. That's the thing that they walk in the door to various representatives' offices with. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Tyler and Leah. We've got two slides. Those slides include the long list of potential priorities that each of the committees provided divided into those different committees.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. As you consider which issues to prioritize for this session, we would encourage the council to not only prioritize those issues that are, of course, in alignment with the city's legislative agenda, but also issues that may take significant statewide coordination and political capital. those are likely to be the major policy discussions that we'll see in 2027 and where, um, LLC advocacy could be of the greatest impact. Um, but also another factor to consider is whether you may want to LLC to engage on, um, a certain space or issue that they probably haven't historically. Um, and so taking that framework, some of the issues that stand out to us would be of course the transportation package, housing production, economic development, and workforce development, as we've already talked about. But in general, the way that we engage with LOC is really looking for any opportunities of alignment, whether that's LOC supporting our priorities or us supporting LOC's agenda. And some of that partnership you'll see when it comes to protecting local control or addressing unfunded mandates. or even advancing policies that would be of benefit to local governments. And so with that, we look forward to hearing your thoughts and your final direction.

To my colleague, I would add that the other benefit of weighing in on LOC's priorities is also, again, thinking with a defensive mindset as well. There is power in something coming from 241 cities, and there is power in something coming from the community of Tualatin. And what Tualatin needs and those political capital pools can be similar but are different and just being cognizant of where the city may be spending its own political capital and where you may want to leverage the capital of 241 peers is sort of some of the litmus test that you may want to do as you're filling out that ballot.

Again, I told you it would feel like a dance. So just to clarify, our goal for this evening's discussion on the LOC's priorities is to begin the conversation and discussion at the council level, maybe pick out a few that you like or really don't like and see what's percolating so that when we come back in August to resume the discussion, we can narrow it at that point to the five for voting.

Okay.

So, well, back to you, Mayor.

Do you have a slide with the list?

This is part of the list. That's not the whole list. This second slide has the remainder of the list.

Yeah, because that's the list that we have to look at, yeah.

Yeah, so unfortunately, it got too small to put it on one slide, so we've got two slides that include everything.

There you go.

Oh. No. No. All right.

So I'm just asked if you haven't, take a quick read of this if you haven't looked at it yet, and then, yeah, as Megan's saying, start bubbling through your head what you think the top five items should be, because we only can do five, that we think are important to Tualatin and or the state to advocate at the next legislative session. There are quite a few. So take a moment to look at, you've got the list here. And then we're going to meet in August to pick the fives. Does anyone have any questions on some of the priorities you see? Or can you flip to the next one? Any burning questions on one of the things that is on this list that you'd like some clarification on in the meantime?

The finance, taxation, economic development. What would be an example? I know you say Don sat on it. What would be an example of what that means? What does that priority mean?

Those four bullets right there.

I see them, but I'm asking for an example or some kind of... an idea of a scenario, basically.

Sure. Maybe a bit more context about how the committee came to these. Yeah. So the committees are grouped on like themes, but they're grouped also by how LOC arranges their staff team to focus on different issues. So they have one lobbyist that's assigned to finance, taxation, and economic development. As part of the policy committee's work to develop what shows up on this list, they may have heard a presentation from the Department of Revenue at this state. They may have heard a presentation from another city that has been working on an agenda item for their own city that would like something to be considered. And that committee had discussions and brainstorms as well, and they refined it with the work of LOC's lobbyists to those four items that are listed there. So I can't speak in more detail about those specific items and how they were developed. And the packet from LOC includes a paragraph summarizing them.

Did that clarify? Yeah, no, it does. Yeah, I was just trying to think of, because how do they select a person to sit on that committee from 200 and something cities? Oh, sure.

So the selection process. Yeah, so LOC asks for applications from everybody who they deem eligible to serve on those committees. And eligibility, I believe, is either an elected official of a city or an appointed official of a city. Those appointments are made by the Board of Directors, I believe, to serve on the committees. And so they look for somebody from each of the 12 regions of the state as broken up by the League of Oregon Cities. And then there's also a special appointment as recommended by the Oregon City-County Management Association Board of Directors, the Oregon Mayor's Association Board of Directors, and I believe the People of Color Caucus also has a representative. There are also opportunities for ad hoc or non-voting representatives to join the committees, and then each of the committee meetings are open to the public as well.

Oh, wow. Thank you.

So the homework you have for tonight, or between now and August, is to go through this list, maybe read the LOC report, and see which five bubble up to the top for you, and then we'll assemble those together in August and pick the top five for us.

And just to clarify again, did Thorne Run have any, do you have recommendations of what might fall under the things that you were talking about that would be best leveraged that you would recommend pulling out?

Some of the issues that I pointed out were housing production, workforce and economic development, and transportation package. Those would likely require significant statewide coordination and political capital, and we would want to ensure that the city of Tualatin would have a voice in those conversations as well, but entirely up to the council on what issues to prioritize.

That's a good question. Go ahead.

I didn't realize my thing was still on. There's no health?

I think health falls under the general government category. Looking at the list, neither of those pertain specifically to health. It does also show up in housing, land use, and community development with relationship to homeless response and shelters.

Okay. I think if the insurance system changes as much as it might, I think looking at studying those impacts and being prepared for that as cities is an important consideration for cities. I don't know where that goes, but... And I know the county handles a lot of it, but we still have to educate our communities, work in conjunction, and we're so far away from the county and our transportation system is so tough. So I just think that that's a really important thing for us to stay abreast of in a meaningful way. Thanks, Councilor. Yeah, thank you.

There's your 10 minutes.

Okay. Thank you, Council. We really appreciate all the feedback this evening, and we'll be back.

All right. So that brings us to our agenda review, city manager's report, and our roundtable. I've got Councilor Brooks is up for the Pledge of Allegiance tonight. I don't think we have any proclamations tonight, so that's a little bit of a break there, but we do have a huge consent agenda again. So with that, we'll go ahead and we'll start the roundtable, and we'll start with Sherilyn.

Thank you, Mayor. So on July 1st, I attended the Washington County Manager's meeting, and the County Manager, Tanya Angie, briefed us on the changes being made to the administrative rules associated with federal grants, including the ability for them to basically cancel them at any time without cause. Um, very disturbing for, I mean, the county has what, $138 million worth of, of, uh, federal grants that they're, so they're very in tune to that. And they were, um, submitting comments. Um, I think they were due yesterday or today, maybe. Um, so I, we're thankful that they're keeping us, um, in the loop on that, but I think that was also in the thorn run, um, um, briefing. Last week I attended the Oregon City Manager's Conference in Ashland. I was telling some of you it was one of the best city manager conferences I've been to and I had never visited Ashland and Ashland was a great town. I know the mayor's going there for the mayor's conference. Sessions included public infrastructure projects. I spoke on a panel about community engagement in public infrastructure projects, strengthening city and county coordination in emergency management. There were several tours about fires, wildland fires, and how cities and counties can work together in emergency management. And then the keynote was Mr. Kajiyama, Chris Kajiyama, and he's written several books, but one's called For the Love of Cities. And just a an excellent urban strategist and talked about falling in love with your city, and it was fantastic. Of course, Saturday was Viva Tualatin, wonderful event, saw several of you there. I think it was one of the better Viva Tualatins that we've had from set up and take down to THE SMOOTHNESS OF THE VENDORS AND THE FOOD AND THE MUSIC AND THE PROGRAMMING AND THE MAYOR SPEAKING SPANISH AND ALL OF THAT. SO ON SUNDAY, I... COUNCILOR REYES SAYS I NAILED IT. On Sunday, I took a tour of the Squeak House. I know some of you did as well. What a wonderful treasure here in Tualatin. I'd been in it several times. The last time was in 2013, and it's remarkable the work that's been done on the house and curating all of the things. What a really cool place. A couple of other things to add, so randomly selected households in Tualatin will be receiving an invitation to complete the Tualatin Community Survey this week. The survey asks people their perception on Tualatin's livability and will give us data that we can compare with our previous survey results. We have been doing this six times since, this will be our sixth time since 2010. It asks about streets, public safety, the library, and much more. The survey will also be available to all residents to complete beginning the first part of August. So this first part is the statistically valid part, and then we put it out to everybody to be able to respond to, and then we compare those results to see how close they are. The IBAC CIO Community Involvement Organization Neighborhood Fair is scheduled for this Saturday, July 18th from 1 to 3 PM at IBAC Park. Applications are currently live for the Teen Library Committee. So teens entering grades eight through 10 are eligible to participate. They're due on July 31st, and interviews will be held after. As some of you know, the sidewalk backlog project has begun. It's starting in the southwest corner of town. They've hit about 40, they haven't physically hit, They have been working on about 40 addresses at this time, so good progress made. All seems to be going smoothly and those receiving the work, as far as I know, are thrilled. The annual water quality report has been posted. Hard copies are distributed around town. Key highlights in the report include information about the city's water source, how it's treated and tested, what programs exist to monitor water quality, and info about lead in the drinking water. The report is published in English and Spanish, and thanks to our team for working on that. Let's see. Our sub-regional transit survey request for proposals was sent out and it's due back next week, so we're excited to get that going. Our food cart pod code is well underway. There's a presentation to the Planning Commission on Wednesday night, and then that will be coming to Council in August or September after that. And then finally, the Martinazzi Sewer Project is scheduled to hold an open house next week on the 23rd from 4 to 6 in the library community room. That will be an impactful project, and we are very interested in making sure that folks know about it and know how to get in touch with us and stay involved in the timeline of that.

You have a question? Oh, sorry.

I think that's it for me.

Great, thank you. We'll start on my right with Councillor Sacco.

Thank you. I think we had the 13th CAC meeting where we reviewed and scored additional projects with members of the committee. And I think that we're really good at scoring projects at this point in time. It went really smooth, just great feedback. So I just wanted to shout out to Quinn, Sid, and Aquila for putting together a great group of folks that are just doing a fantastic job. We also had the CCAA and we were able to interview two brilliant students and excited to be able to bring them before council to see if we can appoint those folks. Thank you.

Council Hillier.

I have nothing to report.

Right. Council Reyes.

One official meeting in the CCAA and as Councillor Sacco said, two students. very impressive individuals, and yeah, we'll present them in the future. And I attended Viva Tualatin, of course, and the mayor did a good job speaking Spanish, so. I do have a question for you, Charlene, from something that's just been percolating and wondering what's going on. And I think it's part of the grant, the money that's being hold by federal. About the grant that we applied where we're going to do some It was like $15 million and we were planning to, we were gonna hold it for several cities. Is that part of those funds that are being held in federal, have not been released yet? I'm just wondering.

Well, no, what I was talking about were the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, is doing rulemaking on grant recipients and grant programs. Our CFI, Charging Fueling Infrastructure grant that we applied for and received but never fully finalized for $15 million. It is still wound up in the courts and are in, yeah, in the courts. And we have been advocating that it get distributed. It's still stuck.

Okay. Thank you for the update.

Dr. Gonzalez. I have nothing to update. Thank you. Dr. Brooks.

Thank you There was a

Ebola outbreak state of the cities webinar that I attended on the 24th on the 25th who's living in your pollinator garden which was all about what pollinators are around and then Thursday, that Thursday, I also attended the Explore Tualatin Valley picnic that was here, which was amazing, and I want to thank Mayor Beatty and Commissioner Snyder for coming, and all of the people who Presented information about exploring the outdoors and it was really nice that our city was highlighted as a place to explore the outdoors I also went to the discovery day. I have goodies for you guys. I'll pass them out that 12 to River keepers did but one of the really most interesting pieces around it was One of the tablers had information about the Emerald dashboard and things like that. So I have information about that. Then I went to the Asian Arts Affiliation. It was like an artist thing and But what was really interesting about it, it was hosted in the first fully sustainable building downtown. So it has its own electricity, its own, so somehow they have the technology. And I think that there's ways that we can utilize information in our own community to catch up with some of the ways that we can move forward. So I'll get more information on the exact name of the building and send it out, but it's really a cool thing to check out. And then last week, from the 7th to the 10th, I was in Louisville, Kentucky for the National League of Cities Summer Board and Leadership meeting so people that are on different councils there meet together to set the agenda for the year and find out what's been happening. So we went over a lot about the road to home. I'll just give you a really quick That's just explanation of where I was and what I was doing. So I attended the Council on Race, Equity, and Leadership meeting Wednesday morning, and then the first year Suburbs Council, which is changing their name finally to, I think it's the Municipal Suburbs Council, so just Suburbs. That council is interesting because they're focused on redevelopment, like what we're doing. So it was a good, robust conversation. The real council will have a, we broke up into tables and it will have some summary results from the meeting that will be reported out later. Just let's say there's a lot of pain in the community. Then during lunch, there was the attendee lunch and civility presentation. So we're encouraged as cities to sign the civility pledge. So I'll send out the information and then we can discuss if we would like to sign that. And then the community and economic development committee meeting, what was interesting about that is the The person that's the staff liaison for that is the head of lobbying for the National League of Cities and worked on the bill, the housing bill that we were just talking about, the federal bill. So we got to learn firsthand about that housing bill and the fact that they are adding workforce housing into some of that. And there was a lot of pride around how hard they had worked on it and that it was a bipartisan bill and then i already did that one let's see and then i intended the state of the city's um release report which basically summarizes where the national league of cities that is at the moment and you get this um thing that tells us where we're at and there this should be online as well So you can look it up. And then the next day was the, oh, I did the environment and energy environment and natural resources. They do the trips out like we do with the League of Oregon Cities. We went to botanical gardens. It was on a landfill that was amazing. They had a street tree canopy program. that I am going to send some information out and then I'll discuss with staff and bring back stuff that's interesting about it. And they have the opportunity of also working with the university of doing that, but they have some just really great arborists that help also replace trees and make sure that they're trimmed properly and all of that. and they also really encourage biodiversity, so a lot of diversity of types. And then I came back and we did Viva, which was nice to see everybody there, even though some people I just waved at briefly for a second, but it's always nice to get together with the community, and it was a safe, warm, family-friendly event. I love the kids' station and the big giant. doll that they had with the, it was just amazing. And I think the Peely group, according to Sherilyn, who I think she knows what she's talking about, made the dress for the skeleton. So I thought that was just very cool. And then Sunday, what did we do Sunday? It is something. Yeah. Oh, tour the Sweet House, which was really nice to also talk to Althea's daughters and see all the work they had done in there. And they're doing the work themselves. They'd really like to start a museum. And it was quite an amazing experience. And I will say at one of the evenings, the zoo trip was unlike any other zoo trip I've ever been on because there was a bourbon tasting, of course, because we're in Kentucky. And They just had all these animals kind of free for us to pet, so I got to touch a penguin, which was pretty cool. But I don't think it would be things that would happen here. So that's all I'm gonna say, thanks.

President Pratt.

Well, there was no C4 meeting. It was canceled because it was too close to the 4th of July, and they didn't think attendance would be great. And we have the two students we interviewed for CC. I have to say, some of these students, they interview better than the adults do. They're pretty impressive. And then we had the CAC meeting, and... I thought this group was finally starting to gel and that we got input from almost everybody in the group, so it was really nice to hear that. At Viva Tualatin, oh gosh, I met these locust ladies. They're the only lowrider women group in the whole state, and they were so cool, and their cars are so beautiful, so that was a lot of fun. And then I did tour the Sweet House, which Russ Baker is now telling us will be renamed Willowbrook, because that was the original intent. But it was really interesting to hear the history and to go to each of the rooms and Find out how they did things. And one of the stories I got was the one daughter, when she was a teenager, liked to sleep in the nursery, but she liked to sneak out on the overhang and then climb down the wisteria to go play out in the yard at night. And that's it. All right.

On the 25th, I attended the board meeting for the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce. It was the first meeting where Allie is now the interim CEO of the chamber. She did a fantastic job running the meeting and presented what her plan is for the next six months at the Chamber of Commerce while either we love what Ali does and she becomes a full-time executive director or we keep looking but she's doing a fantastic job so far so I have no doubt she'll end up being the executive director. Later that day I had the Metro Mayor's meeting uh... big discussion was a rose quarter closure or dot mentioned uh... representative closures are happening be where there's a closure for next few days uh... this week on i five uh... heading south uh... uh... and we get the impending five-week closure by five south uh... in september will be shut down pretty much between uh... vancouver ish Down to the Rose Quarter, there's a big segment of work they have to do, and so they'll be doing reroutes onto 405 over the bridge. So be prepared. In September, you've got to use I-5 South coming from Washington. There's going to be reroutes and a lot of traffic for five weeks. On the 30th, Oh, so I had a GPED meeting, and with the GPED, that's the Greater Portland Economic Development District meeting. A consultant is now working on the SEDS, which is the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, for the port metro area it has to be renewed and submitted to the federal government so that uh... the area can get federal funds for economic development for the region uh... they're working on that on the thirtieth i attended the first meeting of the freight subgroup of the governor's transportation vision committee uh... very great group of people in the freight subcommittee pretty impressive that the ports are represented rails represented air uh... uh... the environmental folks are there so it's a good A bunch of group of people. What was eye-opening to me is when you think of freight, you're always thinking about trucks and roads, but you also have to think about rail, water, air, and it's all part of the governor's subgroup here. So representatives are there from all the different segments of freight. We had our first meeting on the 30th, like I said here. We're having our second meeting this week where we start getting into the details of ideas and recommendations for her. We'll have meetings through September, then submit our stuff to the vision committee, then assemble and create a recommendation, as Thorne Run said, for the governor by the end of the year. Viva was fantastic, as was mentioned. I just want to thank all the volunteers, city staff, and the sponsors, especially the volunteers. You saw them all running around in the green shirts. I heard there was a critical need or a shortage of volunteers until the last minute, and people came through, which was fantastic. The weather was great. Finally, it was cool versus being hotter than heck. And then finally today we had the Washington County Courting Committee meeting. subjects to note is metro is starting their 2028 regional transportation program draft update this is a project that's going to span between now and the end of 2028 to come up with the regional transportation priorities, working with our partners, obviously the city being one. They're going to have significant public engagement on this plan. They have to keep their eyes on the 2027 legislative session on impacts of transportation funds because that will also impact what their plans are. But I was kind of surprised that, yeah, it's starting. They're working on it. They're starting it today, and it won't be a wrap until the end of 28 through all the hoops they've got to go through and public review, pre-approval. At least they're not rushing it through. That's one of the things I like about it. They're really looking at it. And what was specifically nice... When they go out for the call for projects from cities, they're extended the amount of time It's gonna be about a month and a half and it's usually a lot shorter than that. So we're gonna have time to respond Westside Transportation Alliance give an update. They just got a new three-year grant so long short on what Westside Transportation Alliance is Their whole idea, their whole purpose in life is to increase transportation options for people outside of using their automobiles. So they've got bike rentals, they've got All kinds of options for employers and for public agencies to basically get people out of cars into public transportation, onto bikes, onto scooters, alternative ways for transportation. Then the next subject today was Council Creek. That's a trail that's running between Hillsborough's Main Street train station and goes all the way out to Forest Grove. They're finally getting close to construction on it. It's a $20 million project. It's held up a little bit right now at the Federal Highway Administration, but they're hoping to get approval here soon as far as construction. It's a 15-mile-long trail between the two cities, so it's going to be impressive once it's done. It's a little bit north of Highway 8, and eventually they're hoping that the trail will be extended from Forest Grove all the way up to Vernonia and Banks. So it would be pretty cool. And then finally, folks who didn't hear about this or Washington County Commissioners did agree to increase the vehicle registration fee for Washington County. They've landed upon a five-year window of increases of $10 every other year. on the registration fee. So the fiscal year 27-28, 29-30, and 30-31 vehicle registration fees in Washington County will go up by $10. The reason for this is to provide resilient transportation dollars to the county for things like MISTIP, and it will decrease their reliance on general funds. It will, by the time it's fully implemented, it will double the amount of money that's available in Washington County for transportation. We also get 40%. We get a cut of that money, too. So we'll see increased dollars coming here over the next five years. One part of warning they put out there is that... It's a 60-40 split. It's allocated by population. So if your city population varies, your amount of money you're going to get from the county will vary. And also, it's also based on the amount of vehicle registration. So if they go up or down, it could have an impact. But they're having their first reading of this adjustment on August 4th. And they're going to have a hearing and probably vote on it on August 25th, if you want to track it. The other option was to do a one-time $30 increase, but the commissioner said they wanted spaces over the five years to help people with affordability, and they could predict when those rates would go up, they'd have more time to prepare and put those dollars together. All right? And that's it for me. So we've got a few minutes here. I'll go ahead and close the work session. We'll reconvene at 7 o'clock for our council meeting.