City Council - Regular Meeting

Monday, July 13, 2026

The Tualatin City Council discussed the Downtown Revitalization Project, which received a significant grant, and reviewed an economic landscape analysis. The council also approved an intergovernmental agreement for the School Resource Officer Program and addressed a public comment regarding community-led public spaces.

About this meeting

Government Body
City Council
Meeting Type
City Council
Location
Tualatin, OR
Meeting Date
July 13, 2026

Transcript

163 sections

0:07Speaker 11

Good evening and welcome to July 13, 2026, Tualatin City Council meeting. I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. First thing on our agenda tonight is a Pledge of Allegiance now, tonight, led by Councillor Brooks.

0:19Speaker 12

Where were they?

0:20Speaker 6

Oh, it changed. Where's the flag? It's over here. Pledge of Allegiance.

0:51 – 1:27Speaker 11

Next item on our agenda is public comment. Public comment, it's an opportunity for anyone to address the city council regarding an item that is not on tonight's agenda. Please keep your comments to about three minutes. If there's anyone in the room who would like to address the council, I'll take those folks first. You don't have to be signed up. I do have signups, and then I'll switch over to Zoom if we even have access to Zoom. But with that, we'll go ahead and start public comment. I have a tag team coming up, Victoria and Christina. Welcome. Make sure to turn on your microphones, unlike what I did.

1:32Speaker 1

There you go. Okay, let me get my little timer out so that I don't.

1:36Speaker 11

Yeah, so you've got a total of six minutes.

1:38 – 7:56Speaker 1

Perfection. Thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor and Councillors. For the past several years, I have invested thousands of volunteer hours and significant personal resources into building something that I believe every neighborhood should have, and that's community. In 2018, after my child was born, I went from being a physically capable United States Marine to a new mother who was struggling to walk to her mailbox. The nearest place I could rehabilitate was the greenway behind my home, and there was nowhere to sit. Every walk became an exercise in pain, balancing my own recovery while caring for an infant. That experience has changed how I look at public spaces forever. About that same time, I accidentally ordered some textbooks. I thought they were like those other kinds of books that are like self-help. They were textbooks on community building. I laughed, I kept them, I read them, and then I bought more of them, and it's become a passion of mine now. Later, when I was asked to cover graffiti on my fence, I painted it with leftover rainbow paint from my child's playhouse. And when my child outgrew some wooden blocks, I set them out, thinking that maybe another child would enjoy playing with them. And they did. Something unexpected happened. Children started gathering. Parents stopped to talk. Neighbors met each other, donations appeared. The community itself began shaping the space. I posted questions about the community, what community means, how our values shape community, and I used those responses to put art upon my fence. That one small experiment of art, community questions, free resources turned into events, a pantry, a little free store, gardens, celebrations, and eventually to Walton Community Gather. Has a website, has a banner, and most importantly, we provide seating. While this was growing organically, I was attending every community organization meeting that I could find. I traveled to see community resources in other cities, and the things I was hoping to support and accomplish were not on the hyperlocal agenda. So I began my own adventure in mutual aid and community building. Now I pay for and organize community events, and I've been doing this for several years. As this project grew, so did some very specific hateful comments and complaints. And I have repeatedly asked the city for clarification and looked for ways to work collaboratively with the Parks and Recreation Department. Over time, that relationship has shifted quickly from conversations about partnership to conversations about enforcement. And how do we know this space matters? We know because children return to play. We know because neighbors donate food and toys. We know because people stop to talk. We know because volunteers help to maintain it. And even the broader community recognizes this space. It became a Pokestop, a location independently reviewed and recognized by Pokemon Go as a place that encourages exploration, exercise, or social interaction. It's not why I built it, but it shows you what I'm looking at every single day. Community is not something that appears because we write it on a strategic plan. It happens because people are willing to invest time, care, creativity, and trust into the places where they live. Unfortunately, much of the last several years has not been spent expanding these efforts. Instead, community features are repeatedly removed by the city. As I've asked for collaboration and provided information about existing community collaboration programs in the state, I have received silence. Not even the ordinance I was supposedly breaking by doing the community building efforts. I never intended to build a destination. I was simply trying to solve a problem that I was living in the space that was available at the time. Rather than asking how these community spaces could be supported, the conversation has too often focused on how they should be removed. This has been discouraging, not only for me, but for the many neighbors who have contributed donations, volunteered their time, or simply enjoyed the spaces. I had to listen to children crying when the toys were removed and when their rocks that they painted were removed by the city. I recognize that the city has legitimate responsibilities regarding safety, maintenance, and liability. Those responsibilities and community building do not have to be in conflict. Cities across the country are finding ways to support tactical urbanism, neighborhood stewardship, little free libraries, community gardens, parklets, mutual aid, and resident-led public spaces because they recognize something important – Social connection is infrastructure. It improves public health, neighborhood resilience, safety, and quality of life. Tonight, I am asking the city to choose collaboration over conflict, develop clear pathways for residents who want to improve public spaces, create policies that encourage stewardship instead of discouraging it, invite community builders into the conversation before those decisions are made. Most importantly, recognize that residents who invest their own time, labor, and resources into creating belonging are not the problem to solve. They are your partners. As someone living with disabilities, I experience public spaces differently than many people. A bench is not simply furniture. It can be the difference between being able to participate in community life or having to go home. A place to pause allows older adults, disabled residents, parents with small children, and people recovering from illness or injury to enjoy parks and greenways in ways that they might not otherwise be accessible. Likewise, community resources such as free pantries and shared items reduce barriers for families who may not ask for help in traditional ways. Accessibility is not only about ramps and sidewalks. It is also about designing communities where everyone has opportunities to rest, connect, belong, and participate. And I believe in these goals, and that's why I've spent years trying to help make them happen. The question isn't whether these goals are good. The question is whether our policies actually make them possible to achieve. If another parent, another veteran, another disabled resident, or another neighbor wanted to build community tomorrow, what path would they follow? Would they be encouraged or would they spend years trying to determine whether their efforts were even allowed? Community doesn't happen by accident. It happens because someone puts the first chair, plants the first garden, hosts the first event, shares the first toy, or stocks the first pantry. For the past several years, I have tried to be that someone. My hope is that the next resident who wants to build community won't have to wonder whether their efforts are allowed. Instead, that they will find a city ready to partner with them because the strongest cities are not built by governments alone. They are built by community. It's the end.

7:57 – 10:42Speaker 11

Thank you. Do we have anyone else who would like to provide public comment in the room tonight? Seeing none, do we have one? Is Zoom working? Do we have anybody in Zoom? Give you an opportunity, someone to raise their hand if they have something. All right. With that, we'll go ahead and move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda are those items considered routine. They will be adopted by one motion unless someone on the council would like an item removed and heard separately later tonight. Tonight, the consent agenda consists of consideration of approval of the work session and regular meeting minutes of June 22nd, 2026, consideration of resolution number 5978-26, authorizing the city manager to execute grant agreements with Washington County for fitness programs hosted by the Juanita Pohl Center for fiscal year 26-27. Consideration of resolution number 5979-26, authorizing the city manager to execute an intergovernmental agreement with Washington County for development of a natural hazard mitigation plan. Item number four, consideration of resolution number 5980-26, authorizing the city manager to execute an intergovernmental agreement with Washington County For participation in the Community Development Block Grant Program for 27-29. Consideration of Resolution No. 598-1-26 authorizing the City Manager to execute a reinstatement and amendment of an intergovernmental agreement with the Department of Land Conservation and Development related to the Clear and Objective Code Update. Consideration of resolution number five nine eight three dash 26 amending the city of Tualatin fee schedule and rescinding resolution number five nine zero three dash 25 Consideration realized resolution number five nine eight five dash 26 authorizing a city manager to execute an intergovernmental agreement between Washington County and the cities of Tualatin Beaverton Forest Grove King City Sherwood Tigard Hillsboro and to provide digital forensics investigators within the Washington County Digital Forensics Laboratory. And consideration of resolution number 5986-26, authorizing the city manager to sign an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Durham for police services. There's more. One last one. Consideration of Resolution No. 5987-26, authorizing the City Manager to apply for and accept local government grant program funds for the rehabilitation of the restrooms at Atfaladi Park. with any member of council like one of these items pulled and heard later separately tonight.

10:43Speaker 10

I think for me it's going to be resolution number 5983-26, amending the city of Tualatin fee schedule. I'd like to remove that outside of the consent agenda. Okay. All right.

10:56Speaker 8

I move that we adopt the consent agenda with the exception of item number 6. Ezra? Second. Second.

11:02 – 11:13Speaker 11

I have a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda as read with the subtraction of item number six. Any discussions on those motions? All in favor say aye.

11:15 – 11:45Speaker 11

Opposed? Abstentions? It's unanimous. All right, so we'll come back to item number six later tonight. That brings us to general business. First item on our general business agenda is a downtown revitalization project update. Sid and Quinn. Special guest speakers.

11:46 – 12:24Speaker 14

Mayor Bubanek, members of the city council, thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening. My name is Quinn Bruner. I am an urban renewal and economic development policy analyst. AND I'M JOINED HERE BY OUR URBAN RENEWAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, SID SINN, AS WELL AS TWO OF OUR DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION PROJECT COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS, CADEN EDWARDS AND BETH DITMAN. WE'VE GOT ABOUT A 15-MINUTE PRESENTATION FOR YOU THIS EVENING PROVIDING A HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS, AS WELL AS LOOKING AHEAD AT SOME OF THE EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS WE HAVE IN STORE FOR THIS FALL. I'M GOING TO TURN IT OVER TO BETH AND CADEN TO INTRODUCE THEMSELVES AND TO WALK THROUGH THE PRESENTATION, AT WHICH POINTS SID AND I CAN ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU AT THE

12:26 – 13:45Speaker 16

Good evening, Mayor and Councillors. Thanks for having us here. I'll go next slide. How do I remember it, Nicole? The Downtown Revitalization Project began, I did not tell you my name, but I think you all know me. I am Beth Dittman. The Downtown Revitalization Project began in May of 2025 with the formation of the Community Advisory Committee, or CAC. The work has been divided into three phases, as shown on the screen, or the infographic on the screen. Hey, thanks. In phase one, we worked with Sevilis Consultants to conduct extensive community engagement and develop a Downtown Identity Study, which was presented to the Tualatin Development Commission to TDC in December. This presentation marked the end of phase one. Phase two began last fall when we worked with our partners at University of Oregon through their Sustainable City Year program. I'll also do a shout out to the students at PSU as well. Over the past nine months, we've had eight courses and hundreds of students working on projects related to downtown. Today's course presentation marked the end of phase two. Phase three is slated to begin this fall. Three deliverables will come in this phase, an urban design plan, downtown design standards, and consolidated recommendations report. We'll tie all the input and recommendations we gathered in the first two phases into a coherent vision and an action plan for downtown.

13:50 – 14:46Speaker 4

Hello, council members and mayor. I'm Kayden Edwards, for those of you who do not know me. All eight projects included in partnership with the University of Oregon's Sustainability City Year Program are now complete. We held a celebratory event in May, marking the end of this partnership, as shown in the slide. During this, students and faculty representatives for each project highlighted their work. The CAC has spent the last few months reviewing the recommendations and renderings produced through this partnership. We have reviewed 66 recommendations and 14 renderings in all. Next slide. Thank you. The CAC developed five evaluation criteria at the beginning of this year, which is what we have been using to review recommendations. As a reminder, we are looking for projects that help make downtown a vibrant mixed-use area, distinct and magnetic, environmentally sustainable, navigable and safe, and supportive of businesses.

14:52 – 16:00Speaker 16

Links to the full repository of recommendations, scores, and our reactions are included in your packet, but we wanted to highlight a couple of examples tonight. We chose a recommendation that was pre-approved in the Core Opportunity Reinvestment Area plan and has been further developed through our discussion. For this example, we're looking at a recommendation to implement an Improve What You Have program for downtown business owners. This may take the form of facade grants, outdoor seating grants, window and lighting improvements, or other investments that help make existing businesses more easy for them to align their buildings with the new downtown design standards that we're developing in phase three. As you can see, the group sees this as a significant contribution to the district's vibrancy and activation, creating a distinct and magnetic identity, and being a boon for local businesses. It would not likely contribute, though, significantly to our sustainability or our multi-boulder transportation goals, which is okay, because we have other recommendations which advance those ends. There will be no silver bullet, sadly, to advance every priority. The point of the project is to match up the strategies to ensure all five priorities are supported.

16:02 – 16:40Speaker 4

In addition to scoring, CAC members also provided commentary to help further development each recommendation. Some of these comments included strategies and great ways to mitigate displacement of existing businesses also gives the downtown a more pruning and unified look or feel. helps existing business owners and additional building owners to encourage redevelopment or multi-tenant properties. Also comments such as Beaverton has successfully developed SUD strategies and it will also be great if this program also funded improving signatures or signage.

16:44 – 18:14Speaker 16

On the renderings front, we used the student designs and shared visual reference points, enabling us to identify design elements we liked and ones we didn't. For these, we broke into small groups and aggregated our comments. You're looking tonight at an example that got a lot of buzz for its creativity. the lily pad design. CAC members responded to this with comments ranging from all groups valuing its design that left room for the pumpkin regatta while using more of the lake space. One group shared that this design would really make the lake feel alive. Another cited that it could further activate the veterans plaza. Another universally valued attribute of this design was that it improved pedestrian circulation around the lake. It shortens the walk, for anyone who might feel like the loop around the lake is a little too far. And it helps connect businesses from one side to the other. Lots of the people within the groups thought that this liked the lily pad design. Some groups saw it as the kiosk structure in the middle, which you're seeing, which is the white structure near the tree, as a great retail incubator for event vending. There was an abundance of benches that were shown, which we all liked. The groups also cited that they liked the additional shade that was there and wanted more, either from a shade structure or additional trees. The additional of a play structure or other permanent things like a water-powered art structure or community art space were also suggested as additional opportunities for this design.

18:15 – 19:10Speaker 4

The larger building on the north end raised some concerns as if it would likely block the view from condos and north end buildings. Improving water quality was also raised as a priority, with the idea of including the addition of a water feature, as Beth mentioned, adding a circulatory system to the lake and automatic cleaning mechanism. Generally, members lauded the design as creating a destination they liked, then low profile of the lily pads, which kept the commons area feeling large and open. They described the curves of the lake pad as echoing the existing design of the lake. The natural materials were described as visually beautiful, selecting durable and low-maintenance building materials was phrased as important. Again, all of these ideas are starting points, not fully developed proposals. Building on the work we have conducted so far, we will translate the best ideas into the urban design framework updated downtown standards.

19:13 – 20:29Speaker 16

This work will be supported by consultants and fully funded with the Metro 2040 Planning and Development Grant. Because of the timing of this update, we get to be the ones to announce that the Metro Council has voted to fully fund this proposal at the amount of $740,000. Three months ago, Council opened the door for this funding opportunity with a letter of support. Thank you. This award at $240,000 more than staff anticipated at the time, which enables the project to include a parking study, very needed, a real estate market study, extended, expended, let's try that for a third time, shall we? Expanded developer outreach and bilingual engagement. All of these pieces serve to put downtown Tualatin in the best possible position for investment and redevelopment, ensuring that when our work is complete, we not only have a blueprint for a downtown that is a consistent regulatory landscape, but we also have a broad-based community support and substantial developer interest. I'll add as a side note that this is a great example of how city funding, be it through a fee, a bond, or a tax increment finance system, can serve as a leverage point and access to additional funding, but sometimes it has to come from the city first.

20:29 – 21:18Speaker 14

And then just looking ahead a little bit here. So at your next meeting, we have an IGA with Metro to formally accept this grant. So that will be considered on the 27th. And then we have opened an RFP for an urban design firm. We opened that last Monday and have already been receiving lots of inquiries. We closed that before the end of the month and will be in our selection process through August with the hope of having an urban design firm fully on board by our October CAC meeting. So we anticipate the next update to council being some, we'll probably be back a couple times with some intermittent updates regarding contracting. But then we hope to have an urban design consultant team ready to introduce to you in October who can provide an in-depth preview of our phase three work, which will extend from fall of 2027 all the way through completion of the downtown revitalization project in the spring of 2028.

21:18Speaker 4

We have exciting work ahead and are grateful to be a part of this project. We look forward to answering any questions you may have at this time.

21:29Speaker 11

Questions? That's right.

21:32 – 22:06Speaker 5

Thank you, great presentation. I'm curious in the design, and I know you're showing us preliminaries of the design, were there any, like, CONSIDERATIONS FOR LIKE RESTAURANTS OR BUSINESSES AROUND THAT AREA OR OTHER LIVING SPACES MAYBE OR ANY KIND OF OTHER, IT LOOKS MORE LIKE OBVIOUSLY HOW TO UTILIZE THE LAKE BUT SURROUNDING AREAS OR MAKING IT MORE LIKE A DOWNTOWN OFFICE SPACE, MAYBE CITY OFFICES OR SOMETHING LIKE TO THAT EFFECT.

22:10 – 23:07Speaker 16

You looked at me like I needed to start. When we talked back a few slides ago about the five criteria, one of them as created by the entire committee was that we wanted it to be a vibrant and mixed use area. And with that in mind, as we looked at many different, the top of the top selections tonight, that mixed-use design is there. Whether or not we'd identify it as specifically as a restaurant or as commerce or a place to live, yes, we were seeing designs that met lots of those, and we saw lots that we liked or had tweaks to, and then there was one that looked like the Death Star. I think it was the one that we could all universally agree we did not like. The short answer to your question, Councilor Reyes, is yes, we did see things. And that's part, as you can see, it's actually the first priority of the committee that we want to see this as not just an improvement of the lake by the look, but rather actually a utilization of the space to be more engaging for everyone.

23:08Speaker 14

That was a great answer.

23:10Speaker 11

Other questions? President Pratt and Councilor Brooks.

23:17Speaker 8

Well, I should go second, but I just wanted you, you said you will be going into phase three and just explain what phase three is.

23:26 – 25:06Speaker 14

I can take that one. So the way that we've kind of conceptualized this, right, is phase one was focused on doing extensive community engagement and really hearing what residents in Tarleton want downtown to be, right? So for the CAC, that was a lot of listening, a lot of taking new information in. It culminated in the creation of our downtown identity study produced by Seville's consultants and shared with the council in December. We then kind of turned the corner at the beginning of this year into phase two, which is this partnership with the University of Oregon Sustainable City Year Program. And the way I've thought of that is the CACS role shifted from hearing information to responding to information. So that's where we've had the 66 recommendations and the 14 renderings, and every single one of them we've brought before the Community Advisory Committee and asked, like, does this meet our criteria and what does it take to make this idea work? Or do we just need to take this off the table, right? And so we've been able to complicate and further develop these ideas. I almost think of it as like we've been unpacking the box, right? And now phase three is where we start putting things back into place and start making real decisions about how these pieces fit together. Like Beth said, there's no silver bullet for this project, right? And so we know that we can't just do one project downtown and have all of a sudden things start booming, right? It's all about how we fit these puzzle pieces together to create a whole bunch of features that work together and that support one another. And that's kind of the essence of this urban design framework piece where we're creating a blueprint that charts out how the different interventions that we're thinking, how all these good ideas fit together and work together. And so on top of that, then we're translating that blueprint into code standards, which will ensure that our blueprint is enforceable and also that it provides a coherent look and feel as new development happens in downtown.

25:13 – 25:25Speaker 7

Thanks for the presentation and the work on the committee. So this is specifically for the Lake of the Commons, and then we move from there, is what you're saying?

25:25 – 26:20Speaker 14

Well, I'll just clarify. So we are, so I guess I'll, I think, sorry, I might went in two directions at once there. So the examples that we're sharing today are focused on a whole, probably about a 300 acre area that we're considering for our urban design framework, right? So when we talk about downtown, We know there's this area surrounding the Lake of the Commons. That's about 70 acres, which is really our downtown core. And so we've been considering interventions and all those different different parts of that 70 acres. So we know that's going to probably be the area that can move first. But we recognize that we have a 30 year urban renewal district and we need to be thinking long term about how all of these different areas in our community core fit together. And so our recommendations are also thinking about the areas surrounding our downtown core. So our hope is that as we get into our urban design framework, we can begin thinking how these different sub areas start interacting with one another today.

26:21 – 26:32Speaker 7

So and then my next question was when you said that the two pieces were taken off the environmental, what was the other one?

26:33 – 27:32Speaker 14

Oh, so on that one, that was just, so one specific example that we were looking at with environmental sustainability, we were looking at the recommendation related to facade grants, right, or improve what you have programs. And so that's one of our 66 recommendations. And what this community advisory committee has done is they've scored based on those five criteria to see to what extent that specific intervention would advance our five priorities, right? And we know that that specific project would probably advance creating a vibrant mixed-use area. It would create a place that's distinct and magnetic and would support our small businesses. And it probably wouldn't be a huge contributor to our sustainability goals or to our multimodal transportation goals, but we have lots of other recommendations that will advance those priorities. And so our big mission in phase three is to find the right pairing of recommendations that advance all of these priorities together. But that wasn't to say that those are not priorities for our downtown, and those numbers were not cumulative for our slate of recommendations.

27:32 – 28:29Speaker 7

Okay. I just keep thinking about how much heat comes from buildings and commercial buildings, and there's some very light touches that can make a big impact. So I'm hopeful to see some research on how we can build out something that feels like the future instead of the past. But I love the work, and I really appreciate all the effort and the work of the students. I do want to say, I forgot to mention I was at this other committee meeting that I'm new on, and the gal that was working with the councilman from, he's a chair, Pat Farr from Lane County was one of the students that presented in the projects, and she's just like, I love Tualatin. I would live there, you know, and she's from Eugene and whatever, so it was really adorable and cute, so I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for the work.

28:30Speaker 11

Other questions? Ms. LaHillier.

28:32 – 29:11Speaker 6

I don't have a question, just a comment. I'd like to say thank you to the entire committee. I know it's been hours and hours and hours and hours of paid and unpaid time, and the payment will come in the form of our community being a better place. And so thank you so much. call out my appreciation of the diverse different ways that you're looking at the puzzle pieces that are going together in this. Each of your theories that you're testing may not hit all five categories, and that makes great sense to me, and I appreciate that you're being so strategic and taking the time to be sure that you do choose the right pieces. So thank you very much.

29:14 – 29:42Speaker 10

Thank you very much for the presentation. I'm going to echo Councillor Hiller's comments. Thank you very much for being thoughtful on all these steps. I'm very excited about the possibility of clean water in that pond. I mean, that's going to bring so much life into that place. If you could actually roll your pants up a little bit and just put your feet in. Or kids can just throw a splash around. I mean, that's super exciting. If that gets fixed, that makes that whole lily pad experience even just that much more greater. So thank you very much.

29:44 – 31:55Speaker 11

in the comments well thanks for the presentation uh... council here mentioned three of us have the privilege to be on the committee and interact with great folks in this committee and as was mentioned before the committee's really gelled here for phase three good team working together no one's shy anymore about given your comments and stuff, so it's terrific. Yeah, imagine that, Beth. Yeah, most of the people. But it's been, and we've had some turnover a little bit, but the replacements have come on, have been fantastic replacements for people who had to move on. But very much appreciate all the work going into this. Looking forward to the discussion in August about the lake itself. As Councillor Gonzales was saying, an open discussion of what the committee feels about the lake and what should be done with it and what are ideas. And then we'll transition in September, as Quinn mentioned, when the consultant is put on board to get into this. The hard part of phase three here is taking these great ideas and great designs and the things that the committee really liked and try to put that puzzle together, like Quinn said. I don't know what a code framework that is attractive to developers. As Quinn is fond of saying, give certainty to developers that if they come in and build a building up to our standard, the next one will have to live up to that standard, and we'll get the downtown the way we want it to look and feel that those standards will be there and enforced. Thank you for coming tonight. Appreciate it. sitting sitting quick don't think go far alright our next item up is that walking economic landscape analysis and land industry cluster analysis welcome back to it need to catch my breath and exhausted from all the speaking it

32:00 – 35:06Speaker 12

Good evening mayor Bubanek and members of the council. I'm a citizen urban renewal Economic development manager and with me this evening is Matt Craig from echo Northwest So we're excited tonight to share some findings of this economic development and landscape analysis and it is a little bit focused on kind of our key cluster industries and So before turning it over to Matt, I just wanted to provide a little introduction, provide a little context as to where we've been, where we are now, and how we're going to use this information as we move forward. As you all know, in 2019, the city adopted Tualatin 2040, and that was a visionary plan. plan that kind of outlined and guided the development of Tualatin for the next 20 years. As part of that adoption, the economic opportunities analysis as well as some economic development strategic plan strategies were adopted with that. It's been seven years. Since we looked at that document, a lot has changed since then. We made it through the pandemic. A lot of businesses are dealing with some economic uncertainties. Certainly geopolitical events around the world are affecting us locally here. So what we're trying to do right now with this landscape analysis, it's our first step in a multi-year process where we're looking at our local economy. What are the different strategies that we can use as we're kind of facing new challenges? And especially, how can we improve our attractiveness for businesses? How do we retain and expand and recruit them? So those additional steps, we're doing the landscape analysis now. Our next step into the summer and fall, we're going to be looking at indicators related to those key industry areas. And those indicators we're hoping to use as opportunities to use to maybe help focus our limited resources for recruiting businesses, retaining and expanding those businesses. After that, early 2027, we're looking at doing an update to our economic opportunity analysis. Following that, end of 27, maybe 28, looking at developing strategies, our economic development strategies. And as far as timing goes, this is a great time to do it now. We're also partnering, or we're communicating and engaging in with Greater Portland, Inc., which is our regional recruitment team. partners in their process to update their five-year comprehensive economic development strategic plan. So that plan I think terminates end of this year. They'll be adopting a new one over the summer and they're doing a lot of engagement in this process. So that'll help us inform our process as well. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Matt.

35:08 – 56:12Speaker 15

Great. Thank you, Sid. Good evening, Mayor Bubanek and city councilors. We're going to go on a little bit of economic journey here on a Monday night. I know it's 8 o'clock. I'll try not to bore you too much. There is a lot of information in here. I do have a tendency to talk fast, especially when I'm talking to a city council. So please raise your hand, ask questions. Happy to jump into the data here. Like Sid said, this is an economic landscape report. So this is really exciting. I got into economics because I love economic geography. I love learning about kind of why a place is where it is and what makes it tick. And so what this report is is, We're digging into data from national sources, from state sources, from state sources that pull information from local companies to really understand the composition of your economy. So this is telling the story of the economy of Tualatin here. So it's setting up that foundation for all the great work that Sid was talking about that you're going to go and do in 27 and 28. So we're going to run through a few things this evening. We're going to start with just a few high-level macroeconomic trends, and then we're going to spend most of the time talking about what's happening in your local industries and industry clusters, and I'll describe what that is. in just a minute here. But just a little bit of macroeconomic trends to orient the conversation here. So Tualatin is growing. It continues to be a city that grows. That's not happening in all communities in Oregon. Actually, if we just look over the county boundary in Multnomah County, we're starting to see some numbers where communities are not growing as much. The natural cycle of births and deaths is kind of flip-flopped, and fewer people are moving in. While you have 0.06 annual average population, 0.6, excuse me, growth from 2014 to 2025. That's not a huge number. It is still a growing number, and the community has grown. substantially over 1,700 new residents over the past 10 years. So that's great. More folks in the community, that means more folks to go to coffee shops and to go to parks and everything. That's a good place to start. You can see on this slide here, taking a look at the comparison of Tualatin's growth with other geographies, so the Portland metro region, so that's the three county region, Washington County and Oregon. I wouldn't get kind of too hung up on Tualatin being the one below the other ones there. Again, they're all kind of tracking similar and a similar pattern there as well. We were looking at labor force participation. We're starting to look at some trends over the past 10 years. And it's fun to kind of take a look at this data of, oh, the past five years or the past 10 years. We talked with Sid and Quinn about making sure that we're going before the pandemic, because of course, and you'll see some more data here in just a minute that really show that shock that happened everywhere globally. And you can see that dip here as well in 2020 and 2021. in labor force participation, and then the rebound that happened in 22 and 23. Sid did also mention that there are some global, national, and to somewhat extent, regional macro effects that are putting pressure on labor force. And you're seeing, we're starting to see at all of those different levels, unemployment starting to tick back up. If you see the unemployment rate there in Tualatin, you're still tracking with the rest of those comparative geographies and doing well. That's still a healthy unemployment rate generally. This slide I want to come back to actually at the end of this because I think we focused so much of our work, we had so much conversation on the industry clusters and what's happening in the industries. But I think these data are some of the most fascinating data in the whole set here. So there's one little line, I know this is a little bit dense, a lot of text in the slide here. So commuting, of those who work in Tualatin, only 6% live in Tualatin. So we're going to take a look at all of these industries. You have a lot of high-paying industries in Tualatin. It's really terrific, doing really well. This is a community that builds stuff. This is a community where there's a lot of construction companies that are moving all across the region building buildings. But only 6% of those folks are living and working in Tualatin. So you'll be able to rebalance that. And we're not talking about policy recommendations here at all. I'm just kind of stating some of the analysis here today. But you've got a real opportunity there with projects like the downtown revitalization project that you're about to embark on to try to capture more of those folks within the community. Moving into employment growth, again, you can see a little bit of the COVID years there in the middle, whereas growth was going up until 2019, and then private employment dropped a little bit, but then tracking well. Again, these are really positive numbers. It's outpacing population growth. This is great to see. Any community would be happy to see a 2.1% average annual private growth rate, so doing well. And there's the big COVID shock, of course. My gosh, we remember those years, all those virtual meetings there. And then you can start to see some of the trends that I had mentioned too in 24 and 25. And really those are macro trends that are putting pressure on employment and starting to see a little bit of unemployment start to tick back up there. But again, Tualatin's doing well here with the employment growth context generally. Average wage per employee has been growing. More positive news here. So almost 5% average annual growth rate there, starting at about $50,000 in 2014, up to about $80,000 in 2024. That's the latest increase. year that the data is available. This slide here talks a little bit about wage growth. You'll see that the average annual wages in Tualatin are a little bit less than Washington County, around the same amount as the Portland Metro, again, the three county region, and then above the Oregon numbers. That's not surprising. $80,000 a year is still a high average annual wage as you look at data across the nation. Washington County's numbers, of course, are being pulled up because of Silicon Forest, yes, being here in Tualatin, but really being concentrated in western Washington County and Hillsboro and to some extent unincorporated areas in Beaverton. So really healthy numbers here overall. And cumulative growth there, the chart on the right, tracking well, Tualatin of course leading the pack there as well. Okay, industry employment growth. So one thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna take a look at industries and then we're gonna get into industry clusters. And so with industries, and so what we're looking at here is these are data from what's called NAICS codes. These are all of the companies across the nation have to report the number of employees they have and the wages up to different levels of government. And then we were able to kind of take and analyze those. and then they're grouped into these different buckets and they can be really kind of wide buckets around like all manufacturing and then it kind of shrinks down to like, oh no, we're just talking about breweries, brewery manufacturing, right? So at this level, this is kind of a high level look at kind of major cluster categories. So across the top there you have manufacturing, you have retail and services, going down the chart there on the right, excuse me. Professional and business services, healthcare, construction, wholesale, and then we've got a few acronyms down there. TWU is transportation, warehousing, and utilities. And then FIRE, I wish it were kind of more of a fun thing. It's finance, insurance, and real estate, but that's what FIRE stands for there. So you can see here over, again, the 10-year period how these industries, and this is employment that we're looking at, have tracked. Retail services, of course, that huge dip there, and not much of a recovery, too. And this happened kind of everywhere in retail following COVID. And it kind of dropped down and continued to kind of maintain at that lower level. Manufacturing, you see that kind of dip there at the end there, but if you look at the beginning to the end, and if I find my right notes here, and I made these way too small, Maybe it's in the next slide where I have that number. Manufacturing employment is still up. I wouldn't be too concerned about the kind of the downward trend there in 2024, still seeing a growth in manufacturing there as well. Make sure I didn't miss a point there. Definitely at the point where I need reading glasses or to print these things a little bit larger for sure, so. So on this slide here, we're taking a look, same data set, just a different way of looking at it. So this is looking, again, at the 10-year industry employment growth. Manufacturing has really stood out, of course. I think it's 8,600 jobs, excuse me, in 2024. That's a 3% growth rate over 10 years. That's absolutely phenomenal. There's a couple other ones that really stand out here. So professional scientific and technical services, that's 7% over the 10 year period. And then also construction, which is the second fastest there at 5%. One note about construction when we talk about it here is that's the construction industry. So that's not saying people building buildings here in Tualatin. Those are companies that are within the construction code right and then build elsewhere so you have a number of prominent contractors and construction companies based here that are building stuff elsewhere so all very exciting the city-wide average growth rate is two percent as i mentioned earlier again that's It's really terrific. Some of these industries are really resilient to market cycle. High tech can be somewhat resilient. Construction is a little bit more vulnerable to, of course, market cycle as markets fluctuate and change. Those go with the cycle there. But generally, some really strong traded sector industries here within Tualatin. Let's see, industry employment concentration. So this is taking a look at the concentration, the specialization of these industries within Tualatin. So the number here, the graph on the right is your location quotient. And a location quotient basically compares a local industry's share of employment to another geography, typically the nation. And so if 25% of employment in the United States were doughnut makers and 25% of the employment here were doughnut makers, you'd have a location quotient of one and that would be a wonderful world to live in. But so you can see here this is showing again that kind of share compared to the nationwide level, right? So manufacturing is like off the charts basically. The manufacturing location quotient is three times the national average, really phenomenal numbers. And again, we'll talk when we get into the clusters too about how a lot of that is high-tech manufacturing, which is really terrific to have. Other ones that stand out there as highly specialized within Tualatin, wholesale trade, construction, management, educational services as well. But these are pretty unique numbers. We do these for communities all around the Pacific Northwest, and manufacturing is almost never, never that high. So I think that's pretty exciting. Okay, so getting into the industry cluster profiles. So what we're trying to do here is we just took a look at employment with all those industries, with all those kind of the higher level bins. And now we're kind of taking all those different pieces and we're shuffling them around and we're dropping them into different bins. And you can do this a number of different ways. Sometimes it's done kind of a narrative way of like, oh, well, we've always had, you know, this health and wellness cluster. And so let's take jobs within, you know, like, you know, hospitals and vet services and let's kind of push them together and things that make sense. And that's an okay approach. What we did here was try to let the data drive a little bit more. And so I know that the city has done this analysis in the past. These are a little bit divergent from the clusters that they've used in the past. So we took the employment across all of the different industries. We looked at employment scale, so the number of folks within each of these industries, concentration growth, And we did try to align as much as we could with some of the past clusters. So altogether employment within Tualatin, about 70% of the employment in Tualatin are within these seven clusters here. So the clusters that we've identified are high-tech manufacturing, building systems, that's some of the construction that we talked about there, health sciences, corporate and business services, material goods and manufacturing. So that's a little bit of the kind of pulling apart manufacturing and making some decisions around Okay, which are the companies that are like high tech, they're part of Silicon Forest, and then which other companies are doing manufacturing, yes, but are maybe doing some materials work, work that might go into construction, metals, things like that. So that's kind of taking manufacturing and looking at it a couple different ways. Commerce and logistics, so that's getting back to the TWU, the transportation warehousing utilities that we talked about there. There's certainly a cluster. You've got a major highway running through the community, right, or running by the community. So definitely have that cluster there. And then food systems as well. Food systems is one of the smaller clusters here. There are some prominent firms here within the community. I know at Echo Northwest we have Dr. Brew Kombucha, which is a toilet thing on tap, which we love very much, and we go through those kegs quite a bit there. But that was one of the legacy clusters that we wanted to put in there, even though it's not a substantial cluster from an employment standpoint. So here you go, here's taking a look at some of these clusters. Again, you've got that food systems piece is pretty stable, but you have a lower levels of employment there across the bottom. High-tech manufacturing is very exciting. It has grown quite a bit from 2014 to 2024 there. So good stuff. And let's see, building systems again is another one that I wanted to point out. Again, really substantial growth and substantial growth coming out of the pandemic as well. So taking a look at wages here within the clusters, Again, this is about, the clusters represent about 23,000 workers here in Tualatin. The cluster wages are around $92,000. Again, so these are some of the higher wage industries within the community. And this grew by 92% since 2014, which outpaced other other industries, so really substantial growth. Most of your growth you're seeing within these clusters is another way of thinking about it. So getting back to that location quotient, no donut makers here, but the high-tech manufacturing, again, is completely off the chart with really, really high specialization, followed by building systems and then that materials and consumer good manufacturing that we talked about there as well. And this chart, this is another way of taking a look at specialization here. So you're looking at the location quotient, and this is a location quotient growth matrix. And so it's creating a quadrant that is dropping each of these clusters on there which shows either clusters that are mature, so that's high concentration and slow growth, Growing ones that are high concentration and high growth, so those would be rapidly expanding ones. Transforming, so a low concentration and low growth, so maybe there's something happening within that industry cluster that's meaning that it's transitioning or it's moving into something else. And then emerging, which is low concentration and high growth. With emerging, one example there within the Washington County context is biolife sciences. Biolife sciences is primarily concentrated in the Boston and San Francisco areas in our nation. But there are emerging industries in the Pacific Northwest and here within the region. There's just a couple. I know that's not a cluster, but I'm just using that as an example of an industry cluster where you might want to be like taking a look at, oh, okay, we don't have a lot of employees there today, but there's a lot of potential for growth there as well. And so, again, a high-tech manufacturing stable right up there with a high location quotient. Here in the back end of the presentation, just want to take a look at three of the clusters here. These are the largest clusters. So high-tech manufacturing, almost 5,000 jobs, that's 15% of citywide employment. And this is the highest cluster wages of all six figures, $125,000 a year. as the highest wage there. Grew 64% over 10 years, so again, growing really well. Some major employers there will be no surprise to you all, so Lam Research, CES, I-Corps, JEE, some companies that have been here and invested in the community for a long time. Within building systems, again, a little bit smaller than high-tech manufacturing, about 4,300 jobs here within the community. That's 13% of citywide employment. Again, still really high wages around $95,000 a year. This was the fastest growing over the past 10 years. Remember, it took a little bit of a dip there in COVID, but then started to shoot back up. And again, there we have some major employers, so Perlow Construction, Renewal, and other ones that you'll recognize. And then here in Health Sciences, so this is a little bit less than 4,000 jobs, so about 12% of city employment with an average wage of $91,000 a year. So steady growth, Health Sciences is growing nationwide, especially as the national population continues to age and there is more of an increased demand for health services. And so you'll notice some of the companies in there like Kaiser, Providence, and Legacy. So that's a big run-through. That's the snapshot of your economy there. Happy to try to answer any questions that you have. Yeah, and thanks for inviting me out this evening. Questions?

56:14Speaker 11

President Pratt.

56:16 – 56:31Speaker 8

I have two. First, if like our high-tech manufacturing, if something were to happen that really hurt that industry, how big of an effect would it be on our city? Like we lost half those jobs.

56:32 – 57:11Speaker 15

Yeah, great question, Councilor Pratt. Yeah, that would be a substantial, that would be a substantial hit. Yeah, as the data show here, the high-tech manufacturing cluster is highly specialized here in Tualatin. A location quotient of five, again, is phenomenal. I think I have my cheat sheet right here. Fifteen percent of citywide employment is within that cluster, and it also provides some of the highest wages in the community. So if there were a market change, a disruption of some kind, that would have a substantial impact on the local economy.

57:12 – 57:41Speaker 8

The question was about this always kind of fascinates me that a lot of other suburbs are like us with that same the demographics of the people that leave the city and the people that come in. And I think part of it's got to be a job match because I've tried to work in 12, but. So like our economic, our development of our downtown and making it a more attractive place, what effect does that have? Or is there always going to be a pretty big outflow and inflow?

57:41 – 58:31Speaker 15

Oh, I think it could have a huge effect. And I don't want to get ahead of Sid and your strategy that you're going to work for here in the next couple years. I think making sure that there is a diversity of housing available for folks and jobs as well. I think policies at the city level can make a major change. In that commuting slide, there was some data about how far folks are commuting. I think it was 44% are commuting within 10 miles. And so, you know, I think if you are making space for, so providing housing units and doing some of that placemaking also that you're going to be working on here in the downtown for folks to say, oh, I don't need to drive, you know, on Boone's Ferry and I can come down here and live within the community. I think that you could have a real impact.

58:32Speaker 8

Okay, great. Thank you.

58:34Speaker 15

Other questions?

58:38Speaker 11

Councilor Rice.

58:39 – 58:50Speaker 5

When you said construction with... Would marine lumber be one of them or car lumber? Those are part of the construction or what industry would they be?

58:51 – 59:26Speaker 15

Yeah, great question, Councilor Reyes. Those companies, I can always double-check here, but I'm pretty sure that those companies would be within the construction and build, because the cluster is construction and building systems, and so what we're trying to do with the clusters there is put like companies or companies that are within the same supply chain together, because it's like, well, Perlow always works with this lumber company for building something, and they're there, so it makes sense to... to put them together. So I could double check, but I'm pretty sure that the ones that you described would be within the building systems cluster.

59:27Speaker 15

Ms. LaHellier.

59:30 – 1:01:25Speaker 6

Thank you very much. It's very interesting. It's fun to hear scientists talk. So I hope this question will come out the way my brain has made it. So I'm looking at the and referencing Council President Pratt's comment regarding the diversity of jobs already in our community and the match because I see that eight percent OF RESIDENTS, WHERE DO RESIDENTS WORK, 8% COMMUTE MORE THAN 25 MILES. AND OBVIOUSLY IT'S WAY OUT OF WHACK WITH WHERE DO COMMUTERS LIVE KIND OF THING. BUT I WONDER IF WE HAVE SOME SORT OF IDEA, WHEN I GO THEN TO YOUR PODS, IF YOU WILL, CLUSTERS, EXCUSE ME, IT'S LIKE, IT SEEMS LIKE THERE WAS There were more, you just chose those, but I thought that I saw, oh yeah, sorry, then on slide page 372, I have no idea, industry employment concentration, sorry. When we look at that, is that really kind of, as we're looking, or maybe it's the page right before, are those, different services things that we as we're going to listen and learn from sid and move forward are those the sorts of um businesses we want to attract to our community because we want to keep people in the community like i'm trying to make the connection of what it what it where is the whole and how do we help HOW DO I MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE TO ME? I'M SORRY. I'M JUST NOT AN ECONOMIST.

1:01:25 – 1:03:26Speaker 15

I THINK I KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING. HOW DO WE TAKE ALL OF THIS DATA AND YOU HAVE LIMITED STAFF RESOURCES, LIMITED CITY RESOURCES, HOW DO YOU MAKE DECISIONS AROUND BUSINESS ATTRACTION, BUSINESS SUPPORT FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES, BUSINESS EXPANSION? And I think there are a number of different ways that you could approach that. So the slide that I've showed here is slide 18 where, again, we're looking at some of these clusters. You're looking at high tech, again, which has a high location quotient. It's growing, but it's not growing, you know, it is over the line there. is the decision, wow, we're highly specialized in high tech. We need to make sure that these companies stay here and that they're happy. That could be a strategy. Another strategy could be going to an emerging cluster and saying, let's pick health sciences, health sciences in the emerging cluster. So low concentration today, but high growth. So another strategy could be, let's go to some of these, let's identify the companies where there's the most growth potential, whether they're here in Tualatin or they're elsewhere, and see what they need to continue to invest and expand within our community. And so I think both of those strategies are valid, but again, I think that's gonna be Sid's role. When you get to the strategy project, of making that decision around you have finite resources in staff and in money and in tools that you can deploy to say, okay, well, where do we, you know, which strategy do we use here? And, you know, you have to do a little bit of both. You know, to your point, Counselor, you want to make sure that the high-tech manufacturers are doing well here. and continue to be a stable part of the local economy while also keeping an eye on some of those that have the potential to grow a lot.

1:03:26 – 1:03:54Speaker 6

And yes, thank you. And as part of that picture, the overlay of the community, like whatever jobs that people are leaving our community to do, like is there an assumption that that's a gap? if you will, when people are driving 25 miles or more outside our community, 8% people say they're leaving. There's some way to capture even those 8% of those people. Like, do we have any idea what jobs, types of jobs they're going to?

1:03:54 – 1:04:30Speaker 15

Sure. Yeah, no, I see where you're going with that. And I think that's something that you could definitely, you definitely take a look at within the strategy project, I would say, to dig deeper into, well, where are people going? What kind of jobs are there? Some of them are going to be unique, right? So let's say people are boat building, like... No one's doing boat building on the Tualatin River, right? So, you know, the boat builders are going to go somewhere else. But there could be the potential for, you know, professional services, you know, that might be looking to relocate. And like, oh, how could we attract some of those folks? So definitely something to explore further in another project.

1:04:30Speaker 5

Yeah, thank you.

1:04:33Speaker 15

Other questions? Go ahead.

1:04:35 – 1:05:48Speaker 5

I don't want to lose track of what she was saying. So for instance, if they're working in like Hillsboro, like Intel, that they're way on the east side of the county and they perhaps want to have a campus here so they can attract the, not just here in Tualatin, but also like Wilsonville then Wesleyan which you know another way to Hillsboro will makes so those kinds of because it is a high manufacturing or high-tech manufacturing and Perhaps a lot of these in individuals that live here have to drive all the way to Hillsboro to for work and if they want to say propose A CAMPUS OR SOMETHING HERE, THAT'S THE KIND OF THOUGHT PROCESSING THAT YOU'RE SUGGESTING? I'M JUST KIND OF WANTING TO FOLLOW WHAT SHE WAS SAYING. YEAH. PEOPLE LIVE HERE ALREADY, THEY WORK IN INTEL, BUT IF INTEL WANTS TO DO SOMETHING HERE, CONSIDER IT SO THAT WAY THEY CAN STAY WITHIN HERE AND ALSO WORK HERE AND LIVE HERE. YES, COUNCIL RAISE. I'M LIKE YOU, NOT MAKING SENSE.

1:05:48Speaker 15

No, I get where you're going around understanding where people are living and working and what opportunities there are to attract some of those businesses to here.

1:05:58Speaker 13

Because they're already living here. Yes.

1:06:01 – 1:06:14Speaker 15

Yeah, no, I think, and that's, you know, in this project, we're just looking at these industry clusters and not kind of doing some of that spatial analysis or looking elsewhere, but I think those are great questions to be asking and certainly something that you should explore in the strategy project.

1:06:15 – 1:06:27Speaker 11

Thank you. Other questions? might be more, this is the challenge for Sid. Oh, because you've had it on the whole time. Go ahead. Oh, I raised my hand.

1:06:28 – 1:06:46Speaker 7

Sorry, I didn't realize I had it on. My question was, thank you for the report. I appreciate it. I had two questions. One, when you're talking about health sciences, you're not talking about health care. You're talking about Technology?

1:06:46 – 1:07:21Speaker 15

Both. Yes. Yes. So terrific question. And we actually, in the full report, we have a list of the industries that are within each industry cluster. And so you can take a look at which ones are within that bin. So within health sciences, there are both companies that are doing like med tech or devices. and health services providers, so the Providence's, the Kaiser's, the Legacy's as well, as well as veterinary services. We noticed that you have a strong concentration of vets in this community. Yeah, so, yeah.

1:07:21 – 1:07:35Speaker 7

And then my next question was exactly that, the full report. I clicked on this and just keep getting the same slides. So I'm just curious if we could get the link emailed to us so we can read the report. Thank you.

1:07:35Speaker 12

Yeah, absolutely.

1:07:39 – 1:08:38Speaker 11

Other questions? The question I started on was this is great research to have for CID with GPI and stuff, but then I don't know if it's addressed in the report because I didn't read the whole report yet. The ability to say, okay, these are the sectors we're going to focus in on and try to attract companies to come here and relocate, but the challenge of land use And availability of land and land availability is readiness. It's going to be the challenge, I guess, for him, not you, for him and GPI that when we do want to attract more high-tech manufacturing and they are interested in Tualatin, the challenge we're going to have is do we have the land and the infrastructure for them to build on? And I guess that's phase two of this plan of here's what we're going to focus on. Now we have to be able to say, okay, if you do want to locate here, Here's our terrific site ready for you to go here in 12th.

1:08:39 – 1:09:18Speaker 12

Yeah, certainly it's an ongoing challenge, not just for this community, but region-wide. Our 2019 strategies identified availability of land, making sure there's services and utilities available there. all of those things, and coordinating those utilities and public services in the different parts of our community. So we continuously do that through our land use process. The other thing is, I'll just draw a blank on that. It'll come back to me in a second. Why are you thinking about it?

1:09:18 – 1:09:49Speaker 11

Because it ties into the work session. Working with Thorne Run, it ties into our priorities and our themes that, you know, if we want to attract, expand, and have people live, work, and play here, we've got to have that land use or the land availability, I'm sorry. And then, given that we do have the land available down in the urban renewal zone, our Basalt Creek, but the funds to build out the infrastructure to get these guys to come and locate on those 70-odd acres, I forget what it is.

1:09:49 – 1:10:38Speaker 12

Yeah, that was the second point that I just remembered. We've got urban renewal, right, in both the Corps and our SWERG. A little more applicable in this word area for our industrial area, but certainly this word area, a lot of projects on infrastructure, transportation, et cetera. And as the council probably envisioned that, you know, this word area would be very similar to the benefits and success that we've seen in Leviton Urban Renewal District as well. So we're certainly on our way. We've got the 50 acres that were recently annexed. We're looking at expanding some of that infrastructure out there now part of our work program for the next fiscal year for active urban renewal is looking at how do we start deploying some of those that the TIF revenue to really begin to start planning for all those areas.

1:10:39 – 1:11:18Speaker 11

And then the last question I got was I was kind of surprised that we're below the quota one for manufacturing for distribution and warehousing. I find that hard to believe with all the facilities we have on Tualatin and Sherwood Road. That one... It was earlier. Compared to the United States, I was like, what? Oh, within the industry employment concentration, Mayor? Yeah, transportation and warehousing that were below. I'm like, I think we'd be above considering we're a mecca for warehousing and distribution here. It caught me kind of weird.

1:11:19Speaker 15

It's pretty close to one, but yeah.

1:11:21 – 1:11:44Speaker 11

We have the facilities, but not the jobs in them. That's the problem. These big warehouses take up a lot of land, but the amount of people working in them might not be. I appreciate it. Anything else? Thanks for coming, Matt. Great. At least you're delivering a positive message for a change versus some of the doom and gloom sometimes you tell us. I would say this is terrific news. Yeah.

1:11:44 – 1:11:56Speaker 15

Well, yeah, maybe that's the fine point on it, Mayor, is that, yeah, your economy is doing great. So many communities would be jealous of the economy and the companies that you have here within Tualatin.

1:11:57Speaker 15

Thank you for your time this evening. Thanks, Sid.

1:12:02 – 1:12:19Speaker 11

All right, that brings us to item number three under general business, consideration of resolution number 5984-26, authorizing the city manager to sign an intergovernmental agreement with Tiger 12th and school district for our SRO program. Welcome, Chief and Brian and Daniel. Welcome.

1:12:20 – 1:13:31Speaker 9

Good evening, Mayor and Council. We're here before you tonight to discuss the IGA with DTSD. So since 1988, The Tualatin Police Department has partnered with the Tiger Tualatin School District by assigning SROs to Tualatin schools. So I was a fresh young eighth grader when Officer Randy Kafis of the Tualatin Police Department walked into Tualati Junior High back then. And that was my first experience with an SRO. And since 1988, Tualatin has provided SROs to Tualatin schools. So for nearly four decades, the SRO program has really been a cornerstone of our community policing for the department. SROs are more than just school security. They're trusted mentors for students. They're problem solvers. They're educators. And they truly are the bridge between the schools, the families, and law enforcement. So now I'm going to introduce Officer Brian Miller and Officer Daniel Hernandez, who have a short presentation that they presented to the school board a little while ago, but we wanted to present it to you as well. And then we'll talk about next steps.

1:13:35Speaker 13

Thanks for having us.

1:13:37 – 1:15:04Speaker 2

I don't know if you guys want me to go through every slide word for word, but we'll... work through it. And if you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. So as Tualatin SROs, we're dedicated to making a difference in the lives of every student, supporting the staff and community, interacting with students in a positive way every day, promoting an open door policy every day. And I missed that last one. So this is just a look into some of what we handled and were involved in this school year. So a variety of attending football games, back-to-school dances. I'm on the coaching staff for football. We had some cultural competency work. Attended basketball games, shopped with a cop. We really try to get involved in the school as much as we can, as long as the school wants us to be involved. And then we're going to go into a little bit on our referrals and criminal reports that we got involved in. And we're a very reactive police officers in the school. Everything that we get involved in is all generated by either the school admin, parents, or students themselves that are initiating reports that they want to speak to.

1:15:06Speaker 9

Yeah, these things fly through. You've got this timed out here.

1:15:10 – 1:18:29Speaker 2

I wasn't in charge of this PowerPoint, but I've got an expert at the office that helps me out. So we had 43 offense reports, and I'll go through those here in a little bit. We had 16 arrest reports, one missing person, 33 supplemental reports. And 33 supplemental reports basically are just additional reports that are tied into the offense reports. This past the slide, this is just very tiny. So this is actually what that last slide, kind of a deeper look into what we handled. You know, we had a variety of assaults. We had an arson, sex abuses, strangulation. We had school threats, distribution of intimate images. We had DHS referrals, public indecency, harassment, custody issues, concealed weapons, only one MIP alcohol. This is a breakdown of the race and the victim's race. The unknown is two or more. And this is for the referral data as far as the arrests. This is a breakdown of sex of the victims as far as who's reporting parties. And here's a five-year trend of our arrest by race back to 2022, 2026, so a little decrease this year. And, you know, a lot of times we can get, working in the schools, we can get really creative in... how a lot of times families, we can work with families and kids within the schools and not make referrals to the juvenile department. Sometimes the parents are adamant that they want this person referred. which isn't a bad thing. Our juvenile system is all about reformation and changing kids' behavior. So sometimes a referral for an individual student might be a good thing, because it might get the support that they actually need to get them kind of on track. So as 1210SROs, we're committed to every student soaring to their highest potential. And that's absolutely true. We want to make sure that every kid is successful in that school. This is a picture of Daniel with some of our camper kids during our summer camp. Any questions?

1:18:34Speaker 11

Any questions? Okay, go ahead.

1:18:39Speaker 8

I've been at a couple of events with Officer Hernandez, and I just think it's great how those kids know who you are, and they come up and talk to you, and they feel very comfortable.

1:18:50 – 1:19:14Speaker 9

So these two don't take the opportunity to gloat very often about what an impact they do have in our community. So Brian mentioned it a little bit, but they are both actively involved, not only at the school, but outside the school as well. I was hoping Brian would bring the picture, but I'm gonna ask Brian to tell a story from a student from the high school that he experienced in this last school year, so.

1:19:17 – 1:20:24Speaker 2

I had a student that came into, she was a senior, and she came into my office her last day of school. And she, in one of her classes, she was instructed to create something that reflected something that supported her throughout the school, her four years at the high school. And so she took and she created a painting. And it's absolutely beautiful. I should have brought it. But it's a painting of a police car. And it's basically a softer version of a police car. She basically kind of made me hair on the back of my neck stand up, but she said, you know, Officer Miller, I really appreciate you being here all four years and being here every day and protecting us and being such a genuine person. So I thought it was hanging in my office right now, and so it's pretty cool.

1:20:26 – 1:21:01Speaker 9

And that's just one small example of the impact that our officers that are in the schools have. have on our kids on a daily basis. And again, they do become that trusted mentor and in a lot of ways, trusted friends, which is a huge impact that we have. So before you is consideration of resolution number 5984-26, which authorizes the city manager to sign an intergovernmental agreement with the Tiger-Twelton school districts to continue the school resource officer program for the 26-27 school year. Is there any questions that the council has? That's right.

1:21:02 – 1:21:16Speaker 5

Thank you very much for your work and your service. Just out of curiosity, do you guys also go to Tiger or just in Tualatin? The school's in Tualatin.

1:21:16Speaker 2

We just serve the Tualatin schools. But we support, I mean, we meet monthly with all the Tiger SRLs.

1:21:23Speaker 5

Do they also have SRLs?

1:21:26Speaker 2

They do. Yes.

1:21:26Speaker 5

Okay. Thank you.

1:21:31 – 1:21:56Speaker 10

I just want to say thank you so much for what you do. I know that for me, when I was a young kid, the school resource officer had a huge impact in my life and stability. So I just want to say thank you. I can feel some emotion in you a little bit. So I'd like to see that picture, if you can remember to bring it one of these days. I will. I'll bring it. Or just send a picture to all of us. That would be great. Yeah. Thank you.

1:22:00 – 1:23:35Speaker 6

Thank you. Well, thank you for being here. I am in full support, of course, of this. I think there should be even more funds because I think your salary should go up like 50% at least because the protective factors that you provide to kids in our community are second to none. I think that even the chief is completely underselling what happens and how you interact with students. And these numbers, I know, probably could be a lot different if we didn't have you doing the Heroes Camp and we didn't have you in the elementary schools engaging with families and kids to know that you are safe people to go to. And you're at every community event and the kids do know you and they recognize you and I think we have to do a better job of knowing you and recognizing you because the difference that you make for kids and families in our community is just exceptional. And so I just want to say thank you, and I hope you continue to be recognized. I know your conference is coming up this year, or excuse me, not this year, but here very soon at the beach, and I know you'll go and represent Tualatin very, very well in the School Resource Officer Conference, and thank you for your leadership. Both of you, I know, lead there, and I know, Chief, you have also. And I just, from the bottom of my heart, I see it, I feel it and I know that things could be way different if we did not have you in our schools. So thank you very much.

1:23:35 – 1:24:12Speaker 9

Just another comment with that. I had a meeting last week with the director of the juvenile department. and the assistant director of the juvenile department. And after the meeting, I was just chatting with them, asking for some real stats of what Tualatin looks like, because they actually had their policy analyst there who said they offered up the stats. We hoped to have them tonight, but we didn't get them in time. But one of the things that they commented on is that Tualatin, the city of Tualatin specifically, is one of the lowest, has one of the lowest involvements with the juvenile department with our youth. So again, I think that's another reflection of the positive influence that a school resource officer program has on our community.

1:24:13 – 1:24:56Speaker 6

Absolutely, and I think it shouldn't go without being mentioned that it's okay to have referrals. I think that's a really good point. I mean, when they're needed, those resources are critical because there are some. They're limited right here in Tualatin, and we know that, but sometimes that is the next step for some people, and so thank you for making sure the people who need those get those, and the people who you serve here in our community in the way that you serve them. are not, don't become a statistic in any way, right? And so I'd love to see those statistics as they come out, you know, for grant writing and other things, you know.

1:24:58Speaker 11

Do we have a motion?

1:24:59 – 1:25:41Speaker 7

I'll say thanks, too. We still miss you across the street. It's nice to know everybody well in our community. I have to say when I first came on council, it was weird because my high school, I'm from the way back machine, so we never had police officers at the school, so it was a little weird. Um, strange, especially since I don't have kids to like think about all that. Um, but as I've gotten to understand and know the program better and, um, and, and you three, uh, I, um, am really happy that they have the support that they do with you guys. So thank you.

1:25:45Speaker 8

I move that we adopt resolution number 59 84 dash 26. Second.

1:25:50Speaker 11

I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number 5984-26. Any discussions on those motions? All right. Councilor Sacco?

1:26:00Speaker 11

Councilor Hilliard? Aye. Councilor Reyes?

1:26:04Speaker 11

Councilor Gonzalez? Yes. Councilor Brooks?

1:26:07Speaker 11

Council President Pratt?

1:26:09Speaker 11

Chair votes aye. It's unanimously adopted. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yep. Yep.

1:26:16Speaker 13

Be patient. Have a fun summer.

1:26:20 – 1:26:41Speaker 11

All right. That brings us to items removed from consent. We did have one item removed from consent. That was item number six, consideration of resolution number 5983-26, amending the city of Tualatin fee schedule and rescinding resolution number 5903-25. It's just a simple vote.

1:26:41Speaker 10

I didn't want to vote yes for it in a group setting like that, so I think just wanted to vote no on it.

1:26:48Speaker 11

Okay. All right.

1:26:50 – 1:27:44Speaker 8

uh... for a motion no i just want to say that i just didn't want to vote on it i want to vote no on the increases well when i look at what this is for i mean we have to cover that labor materials these are specific things like developments, copying pages, they're just fees for services. I mean, there was an increase. I'm sure Don got it from a reliable source. And to me, if we don't pass these on directly to the people requesting these things, then either we're going to have to take it from other sources to cover the cost, or we're punting it forward, and then there's going to be a huge increase in future years. So I'm going to vote yes.

1:27:45Speaker 11

Other discussion? I have a motion.

1:27:52Speaker 8

When are we rescinding?

1:27:53Speaker 5

I'm trying to look at, because I'm trying to look at the...

1:27:56Speaker 11

The old fee schedule. So the new fee schedule is replacing the old fee schedule.

1:28:05 – 1:28:21Speaker 3

I... I move to adopt resolution number 5983-26, amending the City of Tualatin's fee schedule and rescinding resolution number 5903-25. I second it.

1:28:22Speaker 11

I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number 5983-26. Any discussion on those motions? Councillor Sacco?

1:28:31Speaker 11

Councillor Hilliard? Aye. Councillor Reyes? Aye.

1:28:34Speaker 5

Um, reading, yes, because it's the City of Durham agreement.

1:28:39Speaker 11

No. Item number six.

1:28:42Speaker 5

I'm looking at it. Can I come last? I just want to briefly.

1:28:52Speaker 11

Councilor Gonzalez. I assume you'll know for me. Right. Councilor Brooks.

1:28:58Speaker 11

Councilor President Pratt.

1:29:00Speaker 11

Councilor Reyes. Aye.

1:29:01Speaker 5

I didn't really have time to study this, so I'm just going to abstain. Thank you.

1:29:07 – 1:29:28Speaker 11

Chair votes aye. So we have six yes, one abstention. So the resolution is adopted. Oh, one no. I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry. You got me. Check my math. Five yes, one no, and one abstention. Thank you. All right. That brings us to Council Communications.

1:29:31 – 1:30:56Speaker 7

Brooks Since our little break I passed out There's more for the rest of you guys But what I thought was really interesting was the information about the emerald ash borer so I had the opportunity to talk with Tyler Peterson who's the program director for the invasive species program for 12 10? so water conservation district and We have thousand and nineteen trees that are going to be affected by this emerald ash borer and I was curious if the council would be interested in hearing from Tyler Peterson, the program manager for Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District. He's very passionate about his work and as a scientist and I think understands about best practices and also could be a good education for the community so that you know what signs to look for before a tree falls down. And then the possibilities around how people are mitigating pulling their their canopies. So it's one.

1:30:56Speaker 11

Okay. So you're asking to have it put on a work session or have him present?

1:31:01Speaker 7

Yeah, like a work session.

1:31:05Speaker 11

Councillor Hillier?

1:31:06 – 1:31:34Speaker 6

Oh, I think this is very important. I'm just curious if there's a better place in the community or a better sponsor in the community for it? Because I noticed the room isn't packed for city council and so I just wonder if there's a different natural partner to invite or is the goal to help educate us? I thought it was a community education.

1:31:35 – 1:31:59Speaker 7

No, I think the community education is a piece of it, but I also think that we are trying to do... what we call low-hanging fruit around our tree canopy, which isn't really low-hanging fruit when you have an ash borer running around. So I think to better understand the policies that we pass, it might be good to have a grasp of what we're dealing with in our community from a scientist that actually specializes in it.

1:32:00Speaker 6

Thank you for the clarification. I misunderstood. I apologize.

1:32:04 – 1:32:19Speaker 7

I just thought he was just so interesting. He also had turtles that were really interesting because we have invasive turtles too in our river. But he's a government guy. I don't know if there's interest.

1:32:19Speaker 11

Are there three other folks interested?

1:32:21Speaker 7

I see four. Okay, great, thank you.

1:32:29Speaker 11

It might be something you work with Dustin, maybe a joint kind of thing, because Dustin's the one having to deal with it.

1:32:35 – 1:36:51Speaker 7

Yeah, I have his card and stuff. And then if anyone's interested in more information for kids, if you're working with kids or working with other adults in other things, I do have his card. So if you guys are interested, they're right here. And then the other thing I wanted to bring up that I forgot during the... CHECK-IN WAS THAT I ATTENDED THE FIRST LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR HEALTH CARE, AND THAT ONE I'M APPOINTED TO BY THE LEAGUE OF OREGON CITIES ON BEHALF OF ALL THE CITY COUNCILORS IN THE STATE, WHICH I FEEL REALLY PROUD OF. AND IT'S ME AND A BUNCH OF MOSTLY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS FROM EVERY COUNTY AND THEN SOME people from different health organizations. The first meeting we had a social worker from OHSU that is working on helping get the HPV vaccine more promoted and I had no idea but it there's like a it's a way to actually stop cancer. So that was very interesting. And then the other conversation was pretty important from Naomi Adeline Briggs, who's the director of public health division for the OHA, and Dr. Dean Seidlinger, who's the health officer and state epidemiologist, who we saw a lot during COVID. And they both were talking about the fact that we only have one, nine and 10 people vaccinated for measles and that they're anticipating a possible outbreak in November. And I wanted to also let people know that nowadays there's two vaccines. So if you were vaccinated earlier, like in the 80s, that you would probably only have one of those shots. So as we get older, having the two shots is really important. And it makes a difference in risk. So as much as we can do to support not having an outbreak and to understand what the real impacts of measles are, I think is a important conversation as we're walking through our day. And then finally I didn't know if we had I know with Bates being gone we had talked about Reassigning the the alternate. I mentioned that there was no showing and I don't get notified when the person's not going. So I don't feel comfortable in that role of being the alternate for the AAC anymore. And I don't think that it feels right to be criticizing accounting around the library and Having people show up where they say they're going to be and then not having our representation going to the meetings so and not getting a phone call to the or an email to the Alternate so I just don't get them. There's been a lot going on in that committee and It's uncomfortable, and I feel like we've had this conversation a lot of different times, and I think the council needs to have a conversation about what we're doing here around committee assignments and showing up. I know it's in our council rules, but I've brought it up a few times, and nobody's volunteered yet to do it. Nobody's volunteered to step down. We can do it a very nice way, and... Keep bringing it up, but I am no longer. I'm volunteering to step off that committee right, okay?

1:36:53 – 1:37:21Speaker 5

Thank you I have a I Read now the and I remember now. Sorry. I was very confused, but can I change my vote I actually have a vote for resolution 59 83-26 Can I do that? Or is that my question to our... And thank you.

1:37:22 – 1:37:45Speaker 13

This has already been, the motion's been adopted. There could be a motion to reconsider, but that would be, I think, out of order at this time since it has been actually passed and I don't think there's much we can do under the council rules unless the council has a will to reconsider this and take another vote. It was adopted anyway.

1:37:45Speaker 6

It was adopted, but I just thought I'd ask. Thank you.

1:37:47Speaker 13

Council Hilliard.

1:37:49 – 1:38:00Speaker 6

I don't know what the actual process is to make changes midterm. I used to serve on that committee. I enjoyed it. I'm happy to move into either an alternate or a lead on that.

1:38:00Speaker 11

Okay. So you're volunteering to take Council Brooks' place as the alternate?

1:38:06Speaker 6

I'm volunteering to take either the lead or the alternate.

1:38:12Speaker 8

So it's in our council rules you have to go to these meetings or call your alternate. So if that's not happening, what is the procedure?

1:38:25Speaker 7

By members of the council, by council members. That's not what I understand from, okay. That's not what I understand.

1:38:34 – 1:38:55Speaker 6

So then have we heard the reports? So is there work being done that the council should know about it? I mean, is Councillor Gonzalez, do you want to give us a report?

1:38:55 – 1:39:34Speaker 10

Yeah, let me jump in. So there's been some things that I spoke to the mayor this morning when we met that I wasn't too sure what I could say when we had sessions, private sessions of what happened on the MAC. And so I wasn't sure. So I'll take responsibility for that communication lack of. I just didn't know that when we have private sessions, when we're dealing with hard issues at the MAC, that I could divulge those things to the council. So the mayor just said, do report, just say things like we had a special session that we talked about, things like that. So that was my bad on that one. I just wasn't too sure what I could share on those specials because there was some hard issues that had to be dealt with with the MAC. So I apologize for that.

1:39:36Speaker 7

And then I just want to say sorry about my tone, but I was like when there's no meetings to report, I had no meetings, then I was misunderstanding and I felt really uncomfortable. Thank you.

1:39:49 – 1:40:00Speaker 11

Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Any other council communications? Okay. Council Hilliard.

1:40:01Speaker 6

I move to adjourn. Second.

1:40:04Speaker 11

I have a motion to second to adjourn for this evening. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Good evening. Have a great night.

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.