City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Well, with that, I'm going to call to order this pre meeting of the Westland City Council. It's Tuesday, 01/13/2026. And we can start with going over the agenda. The mayor and council report has a couple of items on it that will have the election of council president, which we can discuss in the meeting. We'll have the community advisory group appointment. At least one, I think. I'm not sure how many others there are.

Library and FAB is headed up.

Okay. Okay. So we can do one or both? Or is that does it both since we got do we wanna does anybody want to talk about those or does the library staff send in a comment about applicant for library board? And so that And so we can approve that person. And I haven't yet had a chance to look at the sustainability applicant. Yeah. She seems to be Good background. Okay. Then we can make the appointment. Yep. Hi, Doug. Danielle, welcome. Hello. Welcome to the pre meeting.

And then we have council liaison appointment. And if it's been if it was gonna require some council discussions during the meeting, we can, of course, move it to the end of the meeting and talk about it at the end of public therapy. So does anybody wanna talk about the council liaison appointments right now? I I I only received councilor Groner sent me his preference list. And I'm gonna pull that up.

So We haven't seen other people. No. I I everybody was asked to send them in, but if they had any preferences of changes or if you'd wanna keep your own, you didn't have to send anything in. I would prefer to keep my own. Keep keep keep reincorporate. Okay. Let me just and I will just go this out into the meeting. Councilor Groner would like to keep the sustainability advisory board, and he's open to changing up Arson Culture Commission committee. And on his list was transportation advisory board. And so maybe who's are you transportation I'm can give you transportation advisory board.

Okay. And maybe switch you into your into choice of arts and culture or library advisory board.

Either one. I or

let's let me check very quickly here when those groups meet. When did the Arts and Culture Commission meet?

It meets the first Wednesday of the month. First Wednesday.

And then library board?

It only meets we meet quarterly, and I think it's on the third

or fourth Tuesday of the month. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes, bud.

I'll be happy to do library. That's one of the ones.

That is one of the ones that he Right.

I had a very rowdy meeting.

Carol, do you have any references on the Arts and Culture Commission?

Sure. Can do that one.

And I recognize that if you that one, I'm signing you up. You're signing yourself up for several Wednesdays with Planning Commission and Arts and So you don't think about it, and you can confirm in the meeting whether you want to take that on. Okay. Because that would be planning commission, arts and culture, commission. But city council, city council, city council for your three weeks.

Okay? So then I

still know the week that I have time off.

South Park is on Wednesday.

So It's on the fourth.

And I'm okay. I can keep my own. Historic review board was I have historic review board. That's what I mean. So if you want Okay. You can take we can swap one or you that wasn't on your list, so I just figured I'd keep it. Alright. Fine. Unless you wanna swap one

of your groups for that. That's fine.

We always try to be accommodating here. Appreciate it. Okay. So we will make that one change of swapping the transportation advisory board from Mary to Lou, and then, we'll give Mary Library Advisory Board. And then Carol Carol is gonna think about the Arts and Culture Commission. And if not, Lou can skip that.

Okay. Yeah. I was wrong. Library by the report is third Tuesday. Third Tuesday. Nope.

That's okay. Well, that would that might conflict with the city council meeting. But Yeah.

And I think we just

talked about that a little bit

too. Legal was there. I'll have to check to see if they decided that they wanted. Think they did, though. They liked it at that time. They

and they can always reach out see if we have a joint meeting with them or if they're longing. Okay. Thank you, Doug. So we've gotten through that matter very pretty quickly. So we won't move it then. We'll just have the discussion and get both at that point in the meeting. K. And moving on then, we've got a couple of proclamations, one that was requested by councilor Groner. And I know I saw some language about a potential edit coming through. Did that get posted onto the the edited version, which was

It was changed. It had not it was not posted. We didn't think it counted.

The one that we issued will be Red. The one that The one that

you signed has been edited and the one that the rotor will read as incorrect.

So I'll let you read read that one. Okay. And if you can we can put a signature line on the there also if you wanna sign up and do it. Alright. Means that you do that.

Okay. So we've got the two proclamations, and then we have Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the second one. Anybody like to read that? Sure. Okay. Council president, you can read that one. We have an audit committee presentation, and I would expect it may not have been a form.

Yeah. There wasn't a form at the audit committee meeting, but we talked because it was only Carol there that we we went ahead and, like, just held the meeting with just Carol, and she said this is an advisory board to the, council. We would just the auditor would present it tonight, and then Carol said that, you know, the council accept the audit. It's not like we're approving it because

there's no Yeah.

Be done. So, the council decide if they wanna approve it. Okay. We just figured we'd move forward since she was here anyways and have a meeting.

Okay. And We don't have a citizen

number on that committee right now.

I think we're recruiting them. Right? Think we're we're try trying to get through application. Okay. Well, then that will take us to the consent agenda. There's a meeting minute, and we have a a business meeting with four items on there. First is a ordinance relating to the, street vacation process, and I think that the city attorney's office has worked very hard on this. So would you like to present that to talk about it? Yeah.

Actually, Kristen is gonna present that as one of the things she worked on and I oversaw, but it's just making it clear in our code. The CDC provisions of in the CDC group were repealed and so that it's clearly a policy decision that is decided by the council. And if it is appealed by an applicant, it would go to the third report rather than the LUBA. And so we're just making sure that's clearly stated in our code, which is consistent with other surrounding jurisdictions. It's more of, like, a clarity fix, but he, is that to you. So she'll give you the background on it and be available for any questions.

Any questions on that now? Okay. Thank you for that. And then we have the, discussion on the resolution for the fee schedule or the parts maintenance fee. Marco, would you like

to? Sure.

Thank you, Mayor. Please go ahead. Okay.

Yeah. This this is stems from your decision on the

full patent credit obligation at the

end of last year. There's a discussion at the time of adoption of that of considering changes to the parts utility fee, the first step to addressing the general fund component of the operations under project. Roughly $5 a month would generate these general fund share of the operation center. Obviously, that's only a small percentage of the overall cost of the operation center. Most of that project cost is being paid for by the other utility fee.

The over 80% of the utility fees that are in place would pay for that project cost. So this evening, what we thought we would do is describe that history of how we got to this meeting tonight. I'll be doing the introduction. Lauren has mentioned. Just a reminder, since we've all been away from holidays, of the decisions made in December of the cost of the FFPO and of what this proposal would do.

And then, Doug and Danielle are here because, they have been thinking quite a bit over the holidays about a communication strategy, not just for this item, but broader financial plan that the city council is working on putting together. So we thought we'd have a little bit of conversation about that. I understand that the council may not be ready to make a decision on this resolution tonight. That is a 100% fine, of course. We are happy to come back with more information.

We thought it might make sense to have a conversation about this, present what we know, and then get further direction from the council about, what what additional information you might need or what venue, what format would make sense to talk about this more as it will. There's two pieces that are included in here. One is the increase over the operation center and another is to catch the operation fee up with fully funding our parts maintenance expenses. Right now, we are is it 83, 84%, something like that? 30%.

83% is covered by the existing parts maintenance fee. So there was a discussion back in November and December increase the parts maintenance fee to catch that back up to a 100%. And we proposed phasing it out if you wanted to do both of those things. But this could just be an introductory conversation tonight. And I think I went too far for a premeeting, but that's what we're in that's what we're intending to have for you later.

Appreciate that.

Yeah. So if there's any you need from us, as always, we can research before the meeting. We're happy to do that. And I presume this kind of

rationale will go into the Yowl and made available to the tidings.

Not yes. And you'll be hearing a little bit from doctor Daniel about communication.

I intend to frame the conversation about what kind of inform what in extra information do you these two folks need to be prepared to make a decision on this topic, and I hope to schedule this for a work session very soon to kinda Okay. Have that whatever information need presented, and then we can finally give Yeah.

Discussion we had. Give a few minutes.

Firm firm direction to have it put on an actual city council meeting, whatever the council decides to wants to do. So that and appreciate obviously, it's a hybrid staff of this as well. Great. And it doesn't sound like there's a we can talk about this later in the meeting, but not a specific time pressure like this month. We need a decision.

Not exactly. We'll we'll share a little bit.

Thanks. Yep. Okay. Thank you. So that will continue on the agenda to the Pioneer Center intergovernmental agreement. I have to say that I had a great time. It's been about two years since I delivered Meals on Wheels with staff from Pioneer Center, Oregon City, and we went around to Westland residents and to deliver the meals, and it was an unbelievable one of the best things I've done since coming on city council, honestly. And so I'm very grateful to see this come up to continue to support the program because it really helps a lot to the interaction that that I had with them was kinda their only oh, sometimes their only interaction. With folks. So it's very powerful. Anyway, glad we're doing it. Great.

Yeah. And Megan will have a short, presentation on that. We thought, we thought it'd be good to highlight how this happens noting that it's not free. But it is a great cooperation, so Megan will be talking a little bit about that.

Yeah. Hopefully, we'll be here as well to describe the program to you all.

So we're not just partnered with Oregon City on Southport. We're partnering with them on this as well. Okay. Thank you. That that's good to see. And then we have the amazing thing, the first Heritage Tree nomination. We're gonna look at the heritage tree code from the city attorney's office. It seems like it has sparked an interest in having a new heritage tree. So that'll be a pretty routine matter. Megan, you can, any comments on that in here?

It's park tree that we're bringing forward, and hopefully, the public will see the synergy of it and wanna make trees within their on their property. So, yeah, we're excited for it.

Sounds good. The tree attending the meeting. Yes.

It will be. I approve it.

Anything else?

No. Those are all the new items for diet.

Well, there's a city manager report, but not Not in the distance. Anything anything else from Citi? Any other final questions from anybody? Councilor Bryke, I've attended some meetings on the East Coast before, and I think we'll be able to get you out before midnight tonight, I think.

Okay. That sounds good.

You've attended a meeting until about 01:00 in the morning at the end of the conference. We're not gonna do that to you. Yep.

Okay.

Enjoy your get back to your family in Florida. Thanks for attending. With with that, we are adjourned, and I think you can stay on the line there for the regular meeting.

Meeting of the Westland City Council. It is Tuesday, 01/13/2026. And the first item of business is to do the pledge of allegiance as it's stated on the agenda. So we will rise and face the flag and recite the pledge. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance

to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Oh, thank you.

Thank you for that. And I will just note for the record that, councilor Bryke is joining us virtually for the meeting. Thank you, councilor, for attending tonight from afar on the East Coast. And then first item of business is to approve the agenda. So I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

Thank you, mayor. I move to approve the agenda for the 01/13/2026 Westland City Council meeting.

Second.

So I move and second to approve the agenda for the Tuesday, January 13, Western City Council meeting. Any discussion? I see no discussion, so go ahead and call the roll for the first time of a few times tonight, I think.

Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Councilor Bryke?

Yes.

Council President Baumgartner? Yes. Council Groner? Yes. Mayor Bialystovski?

Yes. Thank you. So the motion passes and now we move to public comments. Don't any members of the public in the room signed up? And I know we have a couple signed up online.

Yes. We do.

Okay. Could could we move them into the make them a panelist or so we can see them if they would like to. Carrie Cummings? I we just put you made you a panelist, so you should be able to turn your camera on and unmute your microphone yourself. And I don't know if Carrie's with you there, but we have your name signed up to comment.

Can you hear me?

Hi. Yeah. Yes. We can. Looks like we there you go.

Oh, there there we go.

Now we can see you. Hi there.

We have one computer because one of the cameras is not working on our other computer, so we're both here.

I see you both. Hi. Welcome. And who would like to go first?

I'll go first.

Okay. Go

ahead. My name is Terry Cummings, and I'm a resident of West Linn. And a year ago well, actually not a year ago, but last year, we had the opportunity to refinance our home. And everything was going along just fine until we got a call from the finance people saying that there was a judgment against Terry or us or our home. At that point, Terry was actually a sitting counselor, she was being represented by the city.

This judgment, I can't remember how much it is. I think it was around $500. This was a while ago, and we did not hear anything about this judgment whatsoever. And it's at this point, I'm very frustrated because because we've been trying to, you know, get our house refinanced and and it's a no go because of this judgment against us. And I I I am very frustrated because the city should have taken care of this or we should have been notified at the time.

This was, like, four years ago. So I would I would like the city to, you know, take care of this issue. I guess I don't really have much else to say right now except this is where we're at.

That concludes your comment.

Yeah. I would like to, if possible, take my remaining minutes and and add them on to Terry's if that's possible.

Mhmm. Think so.

You probably have about a minute left, so Ms. Cummins, can go ahead and start your comment, and then we'll restart the timer, and you can have an extra minute if you need it.

Okay. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Terry Cummings, resident of Westland. Carrie and I have lived here since 1992.

And as you probably know, I was on the city council back in 2022 when case appeal of judge Brighthop's ruling prevailed in 2022. At that point, I wasn't on the council anymore. The case named me as a city councilor, even though the gist of the case was the apparent purpose and intent of the case was to change the traditional interpretation of what constitutes a public body. There was a disagreement about whether an individual city councilor was a public body. And Rory's case somehow established that even though it's kind of hard to wrap your head around.

The idea of an individual city council being an actual public body. That the purpose of that was to establish the personal notes taken for the convene by the city council for the convenience of being able to remember things. It's gonna have to be public record. So, anyway, last fall, when we got notice of this, I contacted the city. And it's been frustrating because we had an opportunity to get a lower interest rate, and no action has been taken.

And meanwhile, I I just think it's unfortunate that a person acting in the capacity of the city who had no control over how the case was named or so forth would would wind up with a lien on their property, their personal property. This wasn't a personal case. This wasn't the case against anything with me personally. In fact, Rory's supposed interest in my notes has never materialized. He's been he was offered to have my notes if they were redacted 12 times.

And even now, in 2026, I have yet I have yet to to have an opportunity to hand over my notes. I don't know what the city does with personal notes. I don't know how how much longer I'm supposed to keep them. And meanwhile, I would also like to take take an opportunity now to formally request that you release the executive session so that I can finally have the truth be known that I recused myself when the council majority voted to pursue this lawsuit in the interest of this. It wasn't to protect me.

It was in the interest of this city. And the the reasons why are are well laid out in the in the the case. And it's interesting to me to see that West Linn, the city that made this major radical change in the state's traditional interpretation of what is a public body and personal notes and so forth, the city, from what I can tell, has done nothing to help people that serve in this capacity to know what should be done with their personal notes. How should you take them? How can you protect them from disclosure?

How long should they be retained? Where should they be retained? Because from what I can see in the law, notes are supposed to be in the custody of the public body, not the counselor, but the actual government. And that hasn't happened yet. You have no advice or rules about that that I can see. And if you do, I'd love to see them. Meanwhile, like I said

Could you wrap up your comment? Yes. Time has expired.

Just reiterate, we'd like it's Rory's job to make an effort to have the city pay these fees, unless you think we should. By all means, please tell me why if that's the case. Otherwise, the court told us that the prevailing party has a duty to make every effort to recover the fees. That would be your job, Rory, to see that the fees are recovered from the city. And the city council, it's your job to see that the fees are paid, and I'm also formally requesting that you make the record of those executive sessions open to the public now because this was a major precedent setting case and the case has been settled.

And you can do that, just like we did with the Fesser case. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. And we learned about the judgment from the first time when you reached out to us. And I'm sorry that a lien was put on your house. And we're working on it with the city attorney. And I'm going to waive the fees entirely. And it was not my intent to have a lien placed on your house at all. So I'm going to get in touch with you tomorrow, and we'll get the process rolling to get that cleaned up, and we get that erased off your house.

To be clear, Rory, it's not your prerogative to waive the fees. So so you might wanna get some advice about that. It was not Thank you. The council's prerogative to waive your fees back when you owed them. That's what we were told. There was a whole article in the tidings about that.

Okay. Well So it's

not your prerogative. Unfortunately, I appreciate your grace in that, but it's not your prerogative.

Whether I can waive the fees or not, I'll figure that out and we'll get that taken off of your

home. I appreciate that.

Thank you.

We're working on it. Be in touch tomorrow.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments from the public?

There are no other public comments.

Okay. Well, with that, then we can move on to the mayor and council reports. The first item is election of the council president, which is required by the city charter every year to happen at the first meeting. And I'm so we usually take nominations for that, and I see that council Breich, is your, your camera's not on, but I see a hand. Were you trying to raise your hand for this topic?

I was raising my hand, and it looks like the video stopped. Let me try to start it again and see if I come back. Can you hear me? Yep. It looks like I'm back.

Now it's back. Now you're back. Okay. So you were recognized on this topic of Council President.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to nominate Mary Baumgartner to be Council President for this coming year.

And I would like to second.

Okay. It has been moved and seconded to nominate Mary Baumgartner as the city council president. Thank you for the nomination and second. Any discussion?

I accept the nomination.

Mary has stated she accepts the nomination and just grateful for Mary's service. She's an invaluable member of the city council and her work on regional committees and work just supporting what we all do behind the scenes has been very valued. So I'm glad you're glad

to call you part

of the team for the last

Thank you, mayor.

See how long has it been how long since we ran against each other as competitors in 2020 and became friends again since 2021. So five years. Wow. It's been a long time. So thank you, council president.

Certainly.

Of course, during the campaign, we were very friendly as well. Any other comments on the nomination and council president? Seeing no comments, so we can call the roll. Nominations remain seconded.

Councilor Bright?

Yes.

Councilor Groner? Yes. Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Mayor Bialystovski?

Yes. And did you vote?

I didn't.

You voted? Okay. Everybody's voted.

No. I didn't vote.

Oh, does she I

don't vote,

I guess.

I think you can vote to yourself.

Oh. Council. Council president Yes.

So council president Baumgartner votes yes, and the motion passes. And if you remember when we were a council of three for a while, that was an issue of who if you could vote for yourself. So I'm glad you got to get your vote in there. So the council president has been elected. It will be city council president Mary Baumgartner for the 2026 calendar year, and that will then take us to a community advisory group appointments.

And I will place before the council Clinton Springer to the library advisory board and Samantha Thorison and Amy Schauer to the sustainability advisory board. And would somebody make a motion to approve those appointments? Could you turn your So moved.

Okay. Second. Second.

It has been moved and seconded to approve the mayor's appointments of Clinton Springer to the library advisory board and Samantha Thorison and Amy Shower to the sustainability advisory board. During the discussion portion, I'll just state we have some vacancies out there that we should advertise in the council newsletter that goes out and and on our social media. Oh, our communications team's in the back. We have some vacancies on our community advisory board. So and I'm sure you've been promoting them already, but if we could I can even put a message in this week saying in the future just saying, hey, we need community members serving our advisory boards.

We can work on that. But we have vacancies for the audit committee, the budget committee, committee for community involvement, economic development committee, transportation advisory board, and utility advisory board. And we don't have applications at this time. So it's a good opportunity for those out there who wanna give back to the city of Westland and and help us do the work that we do. So we'll get that out soon. So with that, we can call the roll on the appointments.

Council president?

Council Bright, did you have a comment? Your hand is still up. There it goes. It was a straight hand. Okay. Go ahead.

Council president Baumgartner? Yes. Council Groner? Yes. Councilor Bomington? Yes. Councilor Bryke?

Yes.

Mayor Bialystovski?

Yes. So the motion passes, and this community advisory group members are appointed. And I know that we have a practice of sending out letters to folks who are appointed. And and maybe with the folks who applied to the library where we had one, two, three, five applicants to the library board in one spot. Perhaps in our the letter that I we send out, we could just note that we have some vacancies and to look online for the vacancies and if anybody wants to be reconsidered, they just have to check a new box on

the I'll add that to the letters.

We certainly want everybody to be able to get involved that wants to be. And there's a tremendous opportunity right now, it looks like. So thank you for that. And thanks to everybody for applying, and congrats to new members. And we'll get those other spots filled.

Continuing on with the annual tradition at the first meeting that we do every time, we elect the council president talk about liaison roles and appoint the community groups. So now we will talk about the liaison assignments. We I had a brief discussion in the pre meeting about this. And most counselors will want to keep their own advisory board appointments, and then there was a couple of changes. Councilor Groner will take on the transportation advisory board from council president Baumgartner. And then council president Baumgartner, you were gonna take on the library advisory board?

Yes.

And then I'm just I gotta get this straight in my council going to b two. And then councilor Bryke, you were what do you have any final thoughts on the arts and culture commission based on your schedule and limitations?

Or Yep.

I I should be able to take that on. That would be fine. Arts and culture.

Okay. And then it will conflict sometimes with city council meetings, but I'm sure you'll do a good job of connecting with the chair and working with the group. So

Yes.

So and then a c c two. So we have this. So everybody's gonna keep their appointments with the exception of the library advisory board will go to council president Baumgartner, transportation advisory board to councilor Groner, and the arts and culture commission to councilor Bryke. Because everybody how does everybody feel about that proposal? Okay. So I will place before the council reappointing everybody to their liaison assignments with the following changes. The library advisory board to council president Baumgartner, the transportation advisory board to councilor Groner, and the arts and culture commission to councilor Bryke.

I I move to approve the mayor's council liaison appointments.

Second. Okay. So moving a second to approve reincorporating everybody's prior appointments with the changes of the library advisory board to council president Baumgartner, transportation advisory board to councilor Groner, and adult arts and culture commission to councilor Bryke. Any discussion just for the sake of complying with the procedure? I see none. You can call the roll again, please.

Excuse me. Council president Baumgartner? Yes. Councilor Groner? Yes. Councilor Bombington? Yes. Councilor Breich?

Yes.

Mayor Bilastoski?

Yes. Yes. Thank you very much for that. And so with that, we can go to reports from community advisory groups. Would anybody like to make a report?

It's been a while since we met. I'll just start just quick by quickly by saying I had a great meeting with the youth advisory council in December. And they were discussing their continued conversations about transportation projects and pedestrian safety projects that they talked to us about. And I let them know there might be a chance in the near future to weigh in on which ones could be funded in a potential city bond measure if they're so they were very excited about getting involved in that process. And we had got a got a great group of young people from the YAC.

So with that, councilor Groner.

Yes. Thank you. So on January 7, there was an arts and culture advisory board meeting. Basically, holiday market went well at the adult community center. The parade apparently was somewhat disappointing.

The city of West Linn will be participating in something called the Willamette Arts what is it? Can what is that? Can't read my own writing. But basically, it is a combined group of Lake Oswego, Oregon City, and West Linn that will be doing arts along basically Route 43 coordinating their arts projects. And there is a need for a mural policy.

There was some desire to do murals, but apparently we don't have a legal framework for either on city property or private property who can do murals. So thank you. I did jury duty, which was really fun. It was a criminal trial. And there were four charges. The gentleman was convicted on two of those charges and exonerated on two. Very interesting watching a criminal trial.

That's thank you for your service on many levels then serving on a jury as well. Very very cool. Thank you, councilor Groner. Councilor Bonington, do you have anything to report? Then I'll go to councilor Bryke.

A whole month. It's been a while. Let's see. Last Monday, we we had a meeting of the economic development committee. They had basically completed their SWOT analysis and kind of launched into a discussion that's near and dear to my heart, which is all sorts of unique and unexplored revenue sources for the city.

So that was an interesting discussion to hear from the the more business minded people in town and we'll see where that goes. Thursday was a parks board meeting and most of that discussion was taken up regarding the fee that we will discuss later.

Thank you, councilor Bonington. Councilor Bryke, go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. As you mentioned, we have openings on the utility advisory board. We had to cancel the last scheduled meeting because we couldn't confirm a quorum. So we really need to get some people invested in the utility advisory board so we can have meetings.

Uh-oh. They so they've gone below the quorum are you saying they've gone below the quorum threshold?

If everybody could have been there, we would have had a quorum. We've got four people out of seven, but we had somebody that couldn't attend.

Well well, we'll get we'll prioritize that in the next few by the next couple of meetings, we'll try to get a couple of appointments. That's good to know.

Thank you. It's a fun group. It's a fun group.

You got a lot of good people on that group. I know that. Thank you for bringing that up. Council president Baumgartner.

Thank you, mayor. Councilor Bryke and I attended the Clackamas County Business Alliance twenty twenty six legislative summit and learned a little bit more about what is upcoming for this coming legislative session and got to visit with our legislators and meet other electeds from the area. That was very interesting. And I continue to have various regional meetings at the management and operations meeting for the Willamette Falls and Landings Heritage Area Coalition today and our legislative committee meeting as well. So and Thursday, I will be going to the Metro Visioning, fifty year visioning summit.

They're having these meetings and inviting electeds and other people to come and share the vision for Metro area. It's very interesting. So I'll report back.

Thank you for that, council president. Anything else to report from the city council? Alright. I see none. So we can move on then. Councilor Groner requested the opportunity to have a proclamation related to health care, and city attorney had an edit to that. And then, so we have the edited version, and he's going to, read the proclamation.

Thank you, mayor Dielostovsky. Whereas the city of West Linn recognizes that health is a fundamental human right and a prerequisite for a thriving, productive, and stable community, and the well-being of our residents is the highest civic priority. And whereas access to comprehensive, affordable, and quality health care is essential to sustaining the quality of life, economic vitality, and overall public health of all families, workers, and businesses within the city of West Linn, and whereas the current complexities and rising costs of health care systems place undue financial strain on West Linn families, small businesses, and individuals, often resulting in medical debt, delayed necessary care, and diminished economic security for our residents. And whereas Health Care for All Oregon is a statewide coalition advocating for universal, publicly funded, equitable, and sustainable health care system designed to cover every Oregon resident. And whereas the objectives of the HCAO align with the city's commitments to social equity, fiscal responsibility, and local empowerment by reducing individual financial burdens and supporting the creation of a healthier, more resilient workforce.

And whereas the city of West Linn desires to recognize the significant efforts of organizations like Health Care for All Oregon in striving to achieve health care reform that benefits all citizens of the state of Oregon, including those residing within our municipal boundaries. Now, therefore, the city encourages its residents and elected officials to engage in informed discussions regarding policies that strengthen access to comprehensive health care coverage throughout our state. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, counselor, for that proclamation. And then council president Baumgartner will read the Martin Luther King day junior Martin Luther King junior day proclamation. Excuse me.

Thank you, mayor. Whereas Martin Luther King junior was a visionary leader whose commitment to equality, justice, and peace left an indelible mark on the history of our nation, and whereas doctor King's steadfast dedication to the civil rights movement, his tireless efforts in challenging systemic racism and segregation, and his powerful speeches continue to inspire generations to carry forward his message of unity. And whereas the city of Westland recognizes the importance of commemorating and celebrating the life and contributions of Martin Luther King Junior and the significance of his legacy in promoting equality and social justice, and whereas Martin Luther King Junior Day is a national observance and an opportunity for communities across our country to reflect on the ongoing work that remains in the pursuit of racial equality, and whereas the city of West Linn is committed to fostering an inclusive community that embraces diversity and to promoting understanding, respect, and equality among all residents. Now therefore be it proclaimed by the city council of the city of West Linn that 01/19/2026 is Martin Luther King Day, and we encourage all community members to join together in honoring the life and accomplishments of doctor Martin Luther King junior and to participate in activities that promote unity, equality, and social justice dated this January 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you, council president. Thank you both for the proclamations. Moving on on the agenda then to item six, which is the audit committee presentation. I see Tanya Moffett here from Marine and Company. And mister Williams, would you like to kick this off? You bet. Very important part of what we do as a city

as Well, the really is and that's really the main thing I was gonna say. This is a hugely important part of our financial accountability practices, and we appreciate the work that the entire finance department does and Tanya and the and the entire firm. So great news again on the audit. I won't spoil the surprise that Lauren and Tanya are about to deliver you, but I'm very proud of the work that everyone does on this. And Lauren, if you could please introduce the topic.

Thank you. We're really excited to have a great audit again this year, and I don't have much say. I'm gonna turn it over to Tanya Moffett, the partner of Marina and Co.

Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. I'm happy to be here to present the 06/30/2025 audited financial statements. It's an annual comprehensive financial report, which is, like the gold star for financial statement reporting. We had a clean or an unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of financial statement report that we can give. The city did receive the GFOA, which is the Government Finance Officers Association's award for excellence for the 06/30/2024 audited financial statements, and we believe that they will also receive it for the 06/30/2025.

We also completed, the Oregon minimum standards report, which is a compliance based report that the Oregon legislature has some specific things that they want municipal auditors to look at, and we had no findings there as well. So overall, great audit. And, I'm sad to say this is our last financial statement audit for the city. We have appreciated working with you as well as city staff over the last several years. So yeah.

Thank you so much.

It's

very it it is it's very reassuring to have this information and to know that we're that you all are watching very carefully and that that we are in the right.

I think you're going to be missed by all of our staff. I know that they've really enjoyed working with you and your team. And sometimes it can be a painful process, but I think you all have always made it very collaborative and enjoyable for the whole finance department team and everybody else. And I know you've some I've even seen you in the building before. So thanks for being a part of our team, and we will miss you. And I I'm we have a new auditor coming on board, correct? Yes. As required by law.

Yes. As you remember, we had approved audit contract for Aldrich CPAs. So Marina was at the end of their contract term, and they're moving away from doing audits of government. So we are, like you said, mayor, we are very sad to see Tanya go, but I think that I and I hope that we'll have a great relationship with Aldrich same way. So

Thank you so much for the presentation. Look forward to reviewing the financial reports. So always good to have a clean finding as as we always expect. So, anything else from city council? Councilor Bryke, I know you're on the audit committee, but you recently got to share your thoughts probably about an hour ago during that meeting. So

Yes, that's correct. So good news about the audit, but absolutely what we expect. And we will miss having Marina and company in house to do the audits, but we look forward to working with the new auditors next year.

Thank you. Well, with that, I guess we can move on then. So thank you both. And Tanya, please pass along our regards to the whole team. I know it probably wasn't just you doing the audit. With that, we'll continue on the agenda. Moving right along at a good pace to the consent agenda, which can I'll entertain a motion to first of all, any objection to the meeting minutes? I always ask that because if you have an objection, we have to pull them off. So any changes or objections? Nope. Okay. Well, then you can make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Thank you, mayor. I move to approve the consent agenda for the 01/13/2026 Westland City Council meeting which includes the 12/09/2025 meeting minutes.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. It's moving a second to approve the consent agenda for 01/13/2026 Westland City Council meeting which includes the 12/09/2025 meeting minutes. Please call the roll. No discussion.

Councilor Gruner?

Yes.

Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Councilor Bryke? Yes. Council President Baumgartner? Yes. Mayor Bialystovski?

Yes. So the consent agenda is approved and, as always, Theresa, Cathy, thank you for your work on the meeting minutes. We can then move into the business meeting. Agenda item eight a, just ordinance seventeen sixty nine relating to the process for the vacation of a right of way, easement, and real property. I'll turn it over to, I think, city attorney Klein. Would you like to introduce Kristen?

Yes. I would like to introduce Kristen. She's been our wonderful honors attorney that's been working with me in the legal department, and she worked on this issue with staff. So I'd like to give her a chance to give you the background and explain

it to you.

So Chris Can

you make sure the mic oh, you

And then keep the mic pretty close to your mouth while you're talking. Thank you.

Okay.

It's official. You have a name tag at city council.

It's a little it's a little skills. No? No. That's close.

I'm getting there. Okay. Thank you. I've never had a name tag before.

Hey. Welcome.

Okay. Good evening everyone and thank you so much. I'm gonna talk through the memo you have in your packet. Please feel free to interrupt, ask any questions as I go through or at the end. Currently, neither the Westland Municipal Code nor the Community Development Code specify the procedural process for vacating a public right of way, easement, or other public property.

The absence of a clearly expressed process can cause confusion as to whether vacations are land use decisions or policy decisions. This distinction is important because if they're considered land use decisions they are appealable to Luba. If they are considered policy decisions, they are appealable to circuit court. Westland ordinance seventeen sixty three that we adopted in October 2025 repealed language in the CDC that indicated that street vacations were land use decisions, but it didn't add any clarifying language either in the CDC or in the Westland Municipal Code. So, given the silence and the intent behind order in 1763, it's currently arguable that vacations are policy decisions appealable to circuit court and not land use decisions appealable to Luba.

But the legal and planning departments have discussed and we feel that it is best practice and follows the practice of neighboring cities to clarify in the Westland Municipal Code that vacations are policy decisions appealable to circuit court. This proposed ordinance specifies that vacations in West Linn follow the process established by state law and our policy decisions appealable to circuit court. I can go into more detail on these requirements as there are questions but to quickly summarize the state law it's ORS chapter two seventy one this is attachment three in your packet. It's there in full. It establishes the process for both petitioner and city initiated vacations.

It has notice hearing and other procedural requirements and it directs the governing body to approve or deny vacations based on the public interest. It also explicitly provides that vacations are appealable to circuit court where the city is situated. And yeah, the whole attachment, the whole chapter is in attachment three and if there are any specific questions on that process or requirements please let me know. But in some, this ordinance clarifies that vacations are policy decisions appealable to circuit court and not land use decisions appealable to luba and it follows the process in state law in o r s chapter two seventy one. Both Tigard and Lake Oswego have very similar language and point to that ORS provision as well.

That's awesome thank you for the presentation any questions from the city council? Me look. Councillor Breich? Any oh, does look go ahead.

I I just wanna say I greatly appreciate the clarity that makes it so much easier to move forward and to make decisions as these things come up. So thank you so much.

The only question I have is what I and maybe it's unknown, but why would you wanna make something go to circuit court instead of Luba? So, I'm just interested in that.

Yeah.

Luba is a venue where practitioners are really land use lawyers are really comfortable appealing to. It's kind of a lower barrier to appeal to. So, it's more frequently appealed. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I think it's good to clarify one way or the other and our sister cities clarified a circuit court. So, we're following suit as state law allows.

Also, just noting that there's, as you all know there's a hearing requirement where public can comment. There's also for petition initiated vacations neighboring land affected landowners can object. There's a lot of notice requirements both on the property and in the newspaper. So we're comfortable that the process and the appeal to circuit court gives the public ample opportunity to voice their concerns.

Thank you. Thanks for that explanation. Being a legal nerd, I was just interested in that issue. Anything else? We're ready to vote on the ordinance? Okay. Well, and I wanna thank the legal department as well for and our planning department for all the work that went into this. I'm sure it was a long process to do the research and get this ordinance before us. So we always appreciate all that you both do. Okay. You can make the motion for the first reading and I'm assuming it will be approved unanimously. So we'll then move to the second reading.

I move to approve first reading for ordinance seventeen sixty nine relating to the process for vacation of a right of way, easement, and real property, and set the matter for second reading.

Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the first reading for an seventeen sixty nine relating to the process for a vacation of right of way, Eastman Real Property, and set the matter for second reading. Any discussion? Seeing

none,

can call the roll please.

Councilor Bright?

Yes.

Council President Baumgartner? Yes. Councilor Groner? Yes. Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Mayor Bill Lestazi? Yes.

So the motion passes unanimously and we can move to the second reading.

I move to approve second reading for ordinance seventeen sixty nine relating to the process for vacation of a right of way easement and real property and adopt the ordinance.

Second.

It's been moved and second to approve the second reading for ordinance seventeen sixty nine relating to the process for vacation of right of way, easement, and real property and adopt the ordinance. Any discussion on second reading? I see none. So we can call the roll again.

Baumgartner, probably say that. Councilor Brunner? Yes. Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Councilor Brake?

Yes.

Mayor Bilodoski?

Yes. So the motion passes. The ordinance is adopted and notice is given that people must go to circuit court if they wanna appeal a right of way vacation from the city council. So thank you for clarifying our code.

Thank you. Have a good night.

So with that, we can move on then. Moving right along to the agenda item eight b, which is a resolution twenty twenty six zero one, revising fees and charges shown in the attachment and updating the master fees and charges document of the city, Westland related to the parks maintenance fee. I know that city manager has a staff report to give on this item with some members of his team.

Thank you, mayor and council. And one meeting, one ordinance. I like it. We'll have about 60 ordinances at the end of the year at this rate. So we'll see what we can do.

This topic is being brought back at your request following following discussions you had in December, centered around the operations center project. In December, you held a work session and a business meeting to talk about and make a decision about funding for the operations center, center. And that decision was a approval of a full faith and credit obligation to provide the $45,000,000 in funding anticipated needed for operation center. That's the new facility on Saloma Road. And full faith in credit obligation is to be repaid from Citi's funds and largely through existing utility rates.

The storm water fund, the sewer fund, the streets fund, the water fund, each have a share of this. But about 17%, 18% of this project is associated with the Parks Department, which is funded through the general fund and largely funded through Parks utility fee. And in December, you requested that we bring back some options for increasing that parks maintenance fee in order to cover the general fund component of the project. So again, the item that we're talking about is about 17% or 18% of the total project cost. And as you know, and as we've discussed many times, the general fund has some long term stability issues that the council has been working through, figuring out how are we going to ensure that we can continue to provide the services that this community wants over the long term.

And increasing the parks maintenance fee to accommodate the parks share of the operation center would be a major step in that direction. And so the action you have tonight, a resolution you have tonight in front of you, which gives you the option to increase that parks maintenance fee. But it's a much more complicated picture than just that. We've been working through the fall, a much broader discussion of the city's financial needs and a long term financial strategy and engaging our community in communications about that financial situation. And so what we have for you tonight is a couple of pieces.

Our finance director, Lauren Breithaupt, is back and can have a little reminder of the decision you made on the full faith credit obligation, what that means, and how it's paid for. And then we also have Danielle Choi and Doug Erickson, who are our trustee communications team, who have been thinking about how we would discuss with our community, not just this one possible action, but also this broader need for communication on all of the topics that you've been thinking about. And then, of course, we have Megan Bigjohn in the back, our parks and recreation director. So we have the power team here tonight to have a discussion with you about how you'd like to move forward. You do have a resolution in front of you that proposes two different actions, actually.

Two different increases to the parks maintenance fee two different pieces of the puzzle, as Lauren will discuss. But basically, the two pieces are: one, paying for the operation center cost that we are that project we are working on and two, catching up maintenance fee with the full cost of providing parks maintenance services in the city of Westland. And so the resolution in front of you would do both of those things staged over time. We recognize that may not be the action you take tonight, but we are here to provide the information, have a discussion with you about what you would like to do moving forward on each of these pieces. So we're all here tonight.

I'm gonna introduce Lauren first, and then ask Doug and Danielle to come up and talk a little bit about communications.

Great. Thank you. So as the city manager mentioned, we have two components of this proposed fee increase. The first one being effective January 1. As you know, we generally increase half of our utility fees or utility bill fees on January 1 and half of them on July 1, and those go into effect for the February and August bills.

So it's about a did some calculations and realized that we are only covering about 83% of the parks maintenance expenses with the revenues that we're bringing in for the park maintenance fee. That difference there is about a $5 increase per month. So that first one, again, in here is listed as January 1, which would be effective for the bills that are going out next month. We just had bills that went out today for the January our January bills, so February bills would go out February if that was the increase there. The second part of that is on July we have it listed here on July 1.

Of course, these can be dates can be changed. But that's an additional $5.20 increase. And as the city manager mentioned, we are planning on issuing the full faith and credit that the council approved back in December, and we are planning on issuing that tentatively in March. Our first payment would probably likely be in December. So December 1 is when our first payment would be due.

Generally, have our interest our one interest payment due in December, and then our interest and principal payment due in June. So I calculated the parks portion of the interest payment that would be due in December of about 340,000. The total debt service for the year is about 3,200,000.0 on that on that bond. As the city manager mentioned, about 17 and a half percent of that is gonna be paid back from the parks department's revenues. And so that equals, you know, about, I wanna say, 561,000, I believe, a year.

So what we are proposing here is to cover that by an additional $5.2 increase, which would cover that $5.61 a year for the parks portion of the full faith and credit. The other portions of the full faith and credit at this point are gonna be paid from existing rates. As you know, you know, we're looking at this holistically, and so there may be other discussions later on about different fees in those departments too. Happy to answer any questions about any of that.

Questions from the city council at this time? Or should we get through the remainder of the

No. We can bring up we can ask Doug and or Danielle. I'm not sure who's coming up first. Excellent. Both going up.

Thank you for the presentation, Lauren, on the financials.

Thank you.

Thank you, counsel. Feel like my name tag needs to say more than library director. People might get confused. But we're we're thinking for the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about communications plan. Danielle and I have been working on this since before just before the holidays, I think.

And we've come up with some ideas on how this can be presented in the context by which people might be asking the questions about why now, why this amount, and how that feels relevant to what's going on in our economy and what's going on in our world at this time. Because I think it's important that as counselors, have an elected officials, you have the right information at the right time to share with people so we can be as transparent as possible. So maybe Danielle, you wanna

take a couple of minutes?

Good evening, mayor and council. We just wanted to come here tonight to let you know that we're prepared to support council throughout a long haul process, as the city manager mentioned, not just a single campaign or a single financial decision, but many of them. I wanted to speak a little bit to the what of a communication strategy as well as of how of a potential communication strategy. For complex issues like municipal budget, a two tiered system is recommended, meaning a bird's eye view, offering infographics, bullet points, summaries, key facts. The goal being to keep things digestible and easy to share, whether that's on social media or by word-of-mouth.

And then that should be complemented by a wealth of details to drill down into. That's where we have an opportunity with our OWL newsletter, long form content, detailed articles, press releases, supporting documents, everything that would be needed for someone wanting to do a really deep dive into each issue as comes up. Though everyone in West Linn can expect to be impacted by financial decisions, not everyone has the capacity or desire to engage, especially as decisions are made over a long period of time. Providing both a bird's eye overview and detailed view gives people the opportunity to choose their own terms of engagement and participation level for each item. It's a small way of showing respect to our audience and making sure the process is inclusive and accessible.

The next key strategy is to ensure all items are linked together so folks can have a holistic understanding of the relationship between each decision as it's made and a bigger financial picture. For the how of this strategy we've been informally calling it Funding Our Future. We've been considering it one project with many moving pieces. Meaning it could therefore potentially live at a central hub on our community engagement platform yourwestland.com and related projects could each have their own pages but all be linked to the main campaign and share common branding so that it's visually evident that there there's a connection between them. The key tenets that we really want to demonstrate with any strategy you know that we're adopting would be transparency and reliability.

Accuracy of information is of course the most important thing but getting information out in a timely manner as situations evolve is also important. As is putting out as complete a picture as possible without minimizing difficult news or trying to predict the future. The long and short of it is that we are fortunate to live in a small enough community that we can talk to each other, human to human, like families do when budgeting at the kitchen table. And we are ready to support council in each of these upcoming conversations. Thank you.

So I think that gives you kind of what we're thinking out from a broader framework. And then if we dial it in a little. So how do we get here? Right? What's why is there a need to request for money? So we started to do some research to see if there were some things that could link what our need is with what's happened in society. So let's just use, for an example, 2008 as the number by which we come up with the parks maintenance fee to help pay for parks. So in using that analogy, what's happened in the economy since 2008 all the way to the present time? So when you're asking for a increase in the second big increase after 5%, you did one in 2021 or council did at that time. And now this one, this was potentially sitting out there.

What's happened in the same framework? Well, there are some comparisons that we can look at. One of them is our CPI. So our consumer price index. What's happened in the consumer price index between 2008 and 2025? Well, it's gone up 54.1%. So when you're looking at that and you're looking at the relativity of what you're asking for from an increase, which is in the 40%, if you're taking those two numbers combined, 05/2020, you're seeing that, okay, well, our cost to do things, to purchase materials, whether those be for the parks and recreation or any space in our own homes has gone up that much. So the next great indicator is your ECI, your employee cost index. And what that has gone up in that same time, so what's it cost to hire an employee? And these are national numbers.

So they could be higher here or lower here, but it's a good place to start. It's over 57% for that same period of time. And I think what's really important to understand is your your c p is is excuse me, your your construction. So there's there's various ways that they measure non non residential construction builds. So there are some indexes that are based upon various organizations, both our state government and other independent third parties that do that.

And since 2005, the cost of building something that's that would be considered commercial or non residential has gone up 97%. So those are those are three factors that we can use in explaining the need for more resources just to keep up with the current thing. I also think that Director Big John can go into a lot of details about what they're actually doing in park maintenance, which I think is really impressive considering what they have. The number that I have to share is if you look at the average of acreage that you have, which is about 600 acres of open space and parks, what is the National Parks and Recreation Board or Association, excuse me, the governing or ones that create best practices in that field. I may have the acronym wrong or the name wrong, but I'm sure it can be corrected by by Director Bigjohn.

You're looking at what they would look to is about, we're about two to three times with the nine FTE that we have right now in parks maintenance compared to what they recommend in average. So two to three times more property for your nine folks that are working in parks maintenance against what the average is. So averages is around 20. You're looking at forty, fifty, sometimes up 60 acres per person. So you're doing a lot with a little, and I think that's a really other great way of showing to our community what we're doing every single day.

And that's just that's just talking about acreage. That's not even talking about the splash pads, the bathrooms, the play structures, all the infrastructure that go into our parks, whether there be walking trails or or or or jungle gyms or places where children are playing or swinging. So and all the things that people really like about our community, which is one of those main things is our parks. So I think these are some good data points that you can point to that we're happy to frame for you in infographics and other ways to be able to tell that story. And I think that story, those numbers can continue all the way through as you begin to understand and we begin to understand understand what our financial needs are going forward, not into just this biennium bienniums going forward, that there's a real national trend and we're trying to just keep up with what the conflated costs are.

We're not trying to expressly burden our community with more financial obligations, but there are real reasons for it. And there are real reasons we can show why these things are important and what our community values and what they might be considering to pay for.

Well, really appreciated all those thoughts that both of you shared on the communications. I'm so glad you're both on the team. Does anything else to add, mister city manager? Would you like to counsel at this time to begin our No.

I think even though it's a business meeting, I think our intention tonight is discussion. So we'd like to know what you think about the process moving forward, where you wanna go with this, and how we can help you get there. As we'll continue the work this winter, probably including a big chunk at a retreat, which I'll talk about later, your annual retreat, on that financial strategic plan that we've been talking about. And that will really lay out distill

a lot

of the discussions you've had, lay out a plan of action for the community to see. This will include what are our values regarding finances, what are the challenges that we're seeing, what some potential options? And what is the time frame and process for discussing those options with the community? And I expect that I hope that we'll be able to get there with your leadership in the next month or so to have that overview of what all those pieces are to talk about with the community. So with that, I'll turn it over to you for discussion.

Thank you. Thank you. And thanks for all the information you provided. And, you know, I had individual with counselors and quickly realized in preparing myself for the meeting that I think there was a divergence of how how quickly folks were gonna be ready to take a vote on this. And so I wanted to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and has the opportunity really as a council to share their thoughts on where with how they feel about the particular proposal.

And just my plan is to put this on a future work session and kind of have the usual sequence where we have a work session and then we have a business meeting following the following week and then we can take a vote on particular part of the fee increase or both both fees. And I have some thoughts, but I definitely want to open the floor up first for each each counselor to share where where they feel. Because this really is a big decision. It's the first time in in a long time that we've been faced with a fee increase like like this. So who would like to start?

And

councilor Bonington, we'll go to councilor Groner, and then we can go down the table. Councilor Bonington, please. Thank you.

This is an extremely important issue to me. I think it's probably the most important thing we will work on this year and probably take up a lot of our year and it may indeed be the most impactful thing we as a council take on entirely. I want to thank Doug and Danielle for their work on this and preparing for it in the last few weeks. I I've noticed we've been somewhat reluctant to strategize about how we're going to proceed with this in the open which is understandable, know, strategizing and in public view is kind of a weird thing but we don't we don't have any need I think to be reluctant about it. We need to be as transparent as possible with our reality of our financial situation.

And I think laying out our strategy for how we're going to deal with all of it for everyone to see from day one before they ever see a fee increase, before that ever becomes something that might upset someone or cause concern is the best possible way to go about it. Having that conversation because we don't have a choice about whether we're going to address this situation unless we want to see some very unpleasant effects amongst, I guess, what people see every day from the city.

The

budget shortfall that that's coming is real, but it's not anyone's fault historically or presently. It's just a situation that needs dealing with and it needs dealing with as a whole community. So I think obviously we need to fund the operations complex but making sure that story is properly told to everyone well in advance so they're prepared for it. They may not like a lot of this, but they'll understand it. And I think ultimately understanding it leads to a lot more support, which is exactly what we need.

Do you have any not to prompt you, but do you have any thoughts on for the the particular fee increases before us related to the parks maintenance fee? Any information needs that you have or request for staff to prepare for the work session. I'm gonna ask each counselor to this question. That just off the top of your head. And of course, if you have if folks think of other things that they need, we can always you can email those in to staff.

No. I I feel like I'm pretty completely prepared and and have the information I need regarding it. It is the public at large that I think could benefit from more information.

Thank you for that. Councilor Gruner, please.

Yes, thank you. Well, basically, we need to demonstrate that we are proper stewards of the public's money and that we're not arbitrarily increasing people's fees. One time series I think that might be interesting is staffing within the parks department. I believe we have not had any great increase in staffing. If anything, we've had a reduction.

Yeah, I'd let the Director Big John probably come up and answer those questions. I'll trade places with her.

Thank you. Welcome Parks Director, Megan Big

Hello. Thank you. I might need a little bit of help on this, but I do believe in 2016, there was a shift in the budget to where there was a reduction in leadership in parks and recreation and that money was shifted over to bring in two staff field staff members in the park side of the world.

Counselor, the the parks maintenance fee was raised in Lauren, which year was that?

2021, I told

2021 to facilitate the hiring of two more maintenance workers. But that's been the sum total of the change in the nine years that I've been here.

Okay. You.

Bryk, would you like to share any thoughts on kind of where you're, how you're feeling and what, any information you'd like to have presented at a future work session?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I really do believe that the increase in the parks maintenance to meet the maintenance cost is pretty important, For one thing, to ease the burden on the general fund for other things as well as to get us current with the cost. It might be helpful to see some charts that show where, what the maintenance fee on the utility bill is covering versus the actual maintenance cost within the department. One of the, to me, the urgency of this is to have things in really good alignment for issuing the full faith in credit obligations.

And so I don't think we have a lot of time to wait and talk about this. I do understand the need to reach out to the community, but I think that we need to kind of speed this process up to the extent that we can.

Thank you for that. Councilor Bryke, appreciate that. Listen, you know, we wanna keep the costs as low as possible for our residents, and I know that people are feeling an economic pinch in these times that we're in. And we also, as city council, have a duty to look after the city's budget and make sure that our funds remain stable. So I think that it's this I agree with the councilor.

I think this is really important topic for us to take up and just and we will go at the speed that the council is able to. And and it's just something that I take seriously. I think we all take it seriously, and I heard from counselors that they wanted to kind of take a dive into the into the financials of the Parks Maintenance Fund. And a couple of things that I've been thinking about for this work session is I'd like, you know, you mentioned communication strategy. Maybe we could have a few draft communications just so we can see it before we make take the vote.

So that's kind of ready simultaneously. And then perhaps just some we can discuss some options for different phasing approaches because right now we have a $5 the current proposal that we talked about last month was a $5 fee now I think and then a $5 fee in July. But perhaps we could figure out a way to discuss options to phase that in a little bit more over time so people don't feel an immediate pinch. And then I wanted to look at the legislative history from the parks maintenance fee discussion from 2007. I know that's where the there was a discussion in there that city council had about making sure that the parks fee covered the full cost of maintenance.

So I wanted to take a look at that. And then with regard to the operations center, I think it's an expensive project. I know the budget we have so many budget issues that the budget alone, I'm nervous about it.

I think

we all are nervous about it absorbing the full cost. So I just wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the financials about what that $5 would do and free up in the parks fund and why that's needed before we take the vote. So those are kind that's where I'm at. And appreciate the council's diligence topic. And I'll stop talking now and let the council president speak. So

Thank you, mayor. Well, the time frame is one of the things that occurred to me because it first, it sounded like we have a lot of time, but that didn't that didn't seem accurate to how I understand this to be. So while I'm very concerned with affordability and I'm also aware of the rent burdened community status that we have, so I might like to see how people can access any kind of discount programs or I'm sorry the word is not coming to my mind but

We have a low income utility assistance So

I would like to have that figure into how we share out information about this. All of that said, it's very important to me and I think it is our absolutely our responsibility to make sure that we are covering the needs of the city as far as fees. And if we aren't caught up at this point for the parks fee, think we need to get caught up. And nothing illustrated that to me more than serving on the South Fork water board and learning of the deferred maintenance of a very instrumental water line main water main for all of us that we drink out of. The main that comes out of the Glackamas River is decades old and then the costs all went up right when we needed, we all agreed we needed to replace that waterline and then everything tripled in cost.

So we don't have a choice of course. We have to make sure

that

waterline stays sound. But I think we have a responsibility to keep these fees doing what they are meant to do which is covering these costs and and that's why we're here. I mean and and yes, people will want answers. People will need information and so I appreciate everyone acknowledging that. And I am happy to and and we're happy to, I am ready to vote when we all feel comfortable doing it. And if that's not tonight, I think it should be sooner rather than later.

Thank you, council president, for those thoughts. And I agree with agree with you. Councilor Groner, please.

Yes. One thing that I would like to

see,

in the past, we've had comparisons of our fee structures with other towns in the neighborhood. I'd like to see that what that looks like with the new fee structure as well, how we compare to neighboring towns. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Gordon. I appreciate everybody for sharing what they need to get us closer towards this decision that plan to make in the near future. Councilor Bonington, please.

Something did occur to me that I I think I might benefit from and the rest of us might benefit from. When we first started discussing raising this fee, the first thought I had was why is this not already covering the cost of maintenance? It's it's pretty well understood, think, in this room that there's a lot of deferred maintenance, a lot of things that we'd like to be able to do with the parks we have. And some sort of mechanism that ensures that that is continuing to happen beyond this. And maybe an analysis of what it would cost in addition to this fee to actually start covering some of that deferred maintenance would be really interesting.

Just to understand if we're talking about doing $10.20, but $11.20 makes an incredible impact to what we have already and actually offers some things that people can see. I think that's something to look at, something to discuss, but I don't necessarily have that information.

Thank you. Thank you, councilor Bonington. That any other discussions Or any sorry. Any other questions or information needs from city council? We have the whole team here. It doesn't happen very often. So and, of course, like I said earlier, can email in if you think of anything else. I think we're in a good position, you know, thinking about what others a lot of other cities are going through this same conversation about their rates and being able to make keep up with the cost increases that Doug pointed out. I mean, it's things have gotten very expensive, and we don't we've just been adjusting our rates 5% annually over over the years. And so that's a good time to talk about that because, like, cost of construction.

I heard asphalt went up 300%. And so when you think about maintaining roads, maintaining all the things that we have to do with that, you know, it's just that's just one small anecdote, one small example. And and, you know, Wilsonville's having to raise their fees. We're talking about raising their fees, you know, I think 120%. And so because of the saving and because of the smart financial management we've deployed over the years, we're not in that position. So we're able to make sure it's more modest, moderate impact to the community for sure. So appreciate that. Anything else from council council president, please.

Thank you, mayor. I just was wanting to know what what would be the recommended time frame for this, I guess. Is does anyone wanna

Well, thank you mayor and council for that list. I I kept a running list. I don't know what everyone thinks, but I think we have most of the information that you just listed in hand. There's a couple of pieces that we don't have as good information as we would like. I would say one of those is the cost and scale of deferred maintenance is still a work in progress in the existing parks.

But most of the things that you requested, including how things have changed over time, what the fee has been over time, how our staffing has been over time, what other cities charge, all of that, I think we have. I feel like we could come back pretty fast on this. It'd be tough to put a packet together for next week, but we we actually do have time on the agenda next week. And if if it could be a conversation, we could probably do some of this next week, depending on how fast you wanna move things forward. There's a little bit of a there's, I think, some different opinions I heard about time frame.

For example, I heard council Bonington talk about, which we've talked about offline, to sort of wanting the whole picture first and having all those pieces in place first before we do anything, and then other counselors talking with a little bit more urgency. So I think that needs to be resolved. But I believe we could put together a conversation pretty fast for you. If not next week, then the first work session of February, I would think.

I think my plan would be to either have a work session next week or maybe the February to make sure that everybody has time to get all the information together. I don't want to have people scrambling to put together things and then we could have this on the agenda for the have a These couple of

folks know they can speak up if I'm wrong. There's no find dictator.

I think you're right. We do have Yeah.

Pretty much all the information pretty easily accessible. So we can do it as soon as we can do it.

K. So how do you feel about talking next week about it then?

I think we could talk next week about it. Okay. We may not have every piece, and we may not have it all ready for the packet a week in advance, but I think we could do a pretty good job next week.

Okay. Sounds good then. We'll do that, and then we'll plan my tentative plan is to have a vote on whatever there's a consensus on, whether it's $5 for the operation center or the the $5 for ops center plus the $5 to offset the basically, to cover the full cost of parks maintenance in February at the February meeting. So that's kind of where I'm leaning as to least have a that is the target date for a vote because I've heard from counselors and also staff that there's some timing there that need is important. So with that, anything else to close this out?

Alright. Well, we're not even done with the agenda, so we'll just move on. And I think we have another important topic to get to here. So we'll move on, and thanks to all of the team for being here to engage with us and look forward to continuing to work with you all. The next item is agenda item eight c, the Pioneer Center intergovernmental agreement for adult community services.

Thank you, mayor. Looks like we'll be bringing Megan back, and welcome. Good to see you. I this is a a great opportunity. We wanted to highlight this amazing service that's provided and provide a little information about how it's provided and what the costs are and our great partnership with Oregon City. So we're real proud to have a combined presentation here tonight on a topic that we don't talk about much here in the council chamber. So Megan, welcome, and take it away, please.

Hi there. Thank you for having us having me again. And I have Cecily Rose here from Pioneer Community Center in Oregon City who we've had an IGA agreement with Oregon City since 2008 for these services that we're gonna talk about today. She is a social services and community center manager for that center. And what we are here to do is to present to you the wonderful services that are provided to our community by her team, as well as you.

And, in a moment, she'll go over all of those services, but I wanted to make sure you kind of knew the overall heart of what is provided. This program provides essential services to our older community and residents with disabilities by supporting the health, independence, and overall quality of life for those residents in need of these services. This partnership allows Westland to provide a high quality service efficiently and avoids duplication of staffs between the two cities and resources and ensuring consistent care. So currently for when I got here, we had an IGA that was approved every year. But the new director in Oregon City we talked about being able to have that renewable over five years.

And so that's kind of that's the end of what why we also realized that IGA's need to be approved by council not just through the city manager's office, so that's why we're here to give you that presentation. And there the other benefit to this too is there would be the annual increase of the fee with the CPI annually, which keeps them where they need to be and at any time if we ever need to negotiate something different, we can. So, do you want to go ahead and go over your program? It's really a great presentation. I'm excited for you to see it.

Thank you. As director Bigjohn said, my name is Cecily Rose, and I have the honor and the privilege of being the manager of the Pioneer Community Center. We are a division of the Parks and Recreation Department for the city of Oregon City, and we are honored to partner in this unique and wonderful way.

Sure. Yeah.

There we go. Yes. The Pioneer was the Pioneer Center, excuse me, was established in 1979 and is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of adults and seniors, especially those with disabilities. Our mission is to provide engaging recreational activities, essential nutritional programs, social services that promote active, healthy, and independent living. Since 1979, the cities of Oregon City and Westland have actually partnered to serve both communities through collaboration.

Originally, this started very informally with another entity being involved. That was Loaves and Fishes, and the meals were cooked and delivered from the Pioneer Community Center to both communities. But over the years, those relationships have changed. We've had letters of understanding. We've had different collaborations and agreements.

And most recently, as director Big John mentioned, we have a formal intergovernmental agreement. If you've never visited the Pioneer Center, I encourage you to do so. We are located at 615 5th Street in Oregon City and just kinda kitty corner of the city library. As I mentioned, who we serve is seniors and people with disabilities residing in West Linn as supported by our IGA and also supported through our subrecipient agreement with Clackamas County Social Services. You'll notice here some great pictures because not only is this relationship contractual and formal, it goes deeper than that.

This is great photos of both of our mayors from the cities of Oregon City and Westland that actually participate in our annual campaign called Mayors for Meals as part of the national Meals on Wheels America March for Meals campaign. Most importantly, who we serve is the most vulnerable in your communication. For many of your clients and our clients, we provide the only meal or human contact that they will have each day. Our focus is to provide these vital vital services and programs to enrich the lives of those recipients. According to census.gov and Meals on Wheels America, in Oregon, there are one hundred fifty four thousand eight hundred and seventy three seniors who are threatened by or are currently experiencing hunger and food insecurity.

In the city of Westland, there are five thousand one hundred and fifty nine seniors, and five point nine percent of Westland residents have a disability. Oregon has over 100 thousand seniors living below the poverty line, and Westland has a poverty rate of five point two percent with a total of fourteen twenty three individuals living in poverty. Seniors above age 85 are the fastest growing demographic still, and one in six seniors are victims of financial exploitation. This is why we take these vital services so seriously. The social services that we partner in with the city of West Linn are nutrition.

Last year, the Pioneer Community Center provided 6,100 and meals for Westland residents on the Meals on Wheels program, and we also provided 253 meals through our congregate dining program. Those are individuals that we are transporting from the city of Westland to Oregon City to have meal at our center. You guys have a wonderful congregate dining program at your center as well, but it does run just once a week, and ours runs five. The need for those meals becomes apparent as we have people request rides to the Pioneer Center on those other days per week. We provided seventeen eighty seven transportation units.

Those are one way rides for those age 60 and over or for adults with disabilities that reside in West Linn. As part of our agreement with social service contract with the county, we actually have to provide case management, reassurance, and provide resources for those that are on the Meals on Wheels program. So, provided fifty six point five hours of time, specifically covering personalized based care to clients on the Meals on Wheels program for Westland residents. We provided 81 well-being and reassurance calls assisting vulnerable recipients in need. Those also often take a call to your local law enforcement to do formal welfare checks for the clients that reside here, and we provided 48 formal resource connections for seniors and disabilities living within your city.

We do provide additional social services and recreational services that many of your constituents take part in. Those include energy assistance, legal aid, support groups, tax aid, estate planning, foot care. We do have a pantry program that residents of Westland attend as well. We have Medicare information sessions, veteran benefit connections, long term care education, evidence based classes, and then on the recreational side, you'll see a little bit of everything. A lot of fun things that just help the aging population age well in health and wellness.

There are many additional health education and wellness programs that are offered seasonally or sporadically as well. And your residents, of course, are always invited to participate. How we are funded. The Pioneer Center is supported financially through the collective generosity of many organizations individuals. Of course, the cities of Oregon City and West Linn have a big part in that.

Again, have a social service contract through Clackamas County that does give us reimbursement for some of our programs and services. We do receive a very small amount of funding through the Older Americans Act. We are members of Meals on Wheels America, and through their revenue sharing, we can often seek grants and revenue share awards. In addition to that, we do accept donations from participants. We have partnerships and we have private and corporate corporate donors.

We accept in kind donations. We do reach out to local businesses and civic groups for their support as well. In addition to the older Americans act, is a federal funding opportunity, we do have state title 19 or Medicaid funding that sometimes supports the services that we provide. We partner with integrated health partners, and we do seek numerous grants. We also hold fundraising events and efforts year round.

An interesting statistic is that when this relationship formally started with payment exchange in 2008, the city of Westland was providing the city of Oregon City 38,000 per year, and the current agreement in place, the IGA, in 2025, that amount has only increased by a few thousand dollars to 41,000. And so, I just want to mention that it is because of this collective efforts, and the grant writing, and the things that we are doing currently, that those funds really haven't changed much at all. I think everybody is being incredibly good stewards of the finances, so that we can truly help the individuals to the best of our abilities and not have that be such a burden on our local constituents.

I would like to add that it is so great just to see how much they do when we have one FTE essentially that runs our adult community center, so the services that you provide to our community we would not be able to do without that. So, it's really a great synergy between the two cities.

And I wanted to mention the value of volunteers. I mentioned that we accept in kind donations and we cannot do so without pausing and thanking our volunteers. The Pioneer Community Center currently has 211 active and vetted volunteers. Last year, volunteers provided nine thousand three hundred and seventy eight hours of service at the center. We do have numerous volunteers that are Westland residents, and so we thank them as well.

This is a direct cost savings to truly both of us and directly to the center for the nutrition program in the amount of $314,069. Volunteers currently fill the vital roles of Meals on Wheels drivers, reception assistance, nutrition support, event support, legal aid experts, activity leaders, transportation chaperones, guest speakers and presenters, and community garden workers. And that community garden does support our nutrition program as well. And that is everything I had for you. Before I end my presentation, I do just want to thank you for the opportunity to serve your community.

It is a wonderful collaboration that I know I think we are all very proud of. It does really extend the dollars, as I mentioned numerous numerous times. Times. I think we're just incredibly good stewards for that. And I also want to thank your staff, both the director, Megan Bigjohn, is a delight to work with, and your team at the adult center that helps us provide these services very easily and smoothly, and it is an honor to work with them. So thank you. You. Any questions for me? Yes.

No questions. I just, well, maybe I do have a question. First of all, thanks for the wonderful presentation. And I was reflecting back in the pre meeting about how I enjoyed going on that Meals on Wheels delivery to the Westland residents. That was one of the most amazing things that I've done in getting to interact with those residents at at their homes was awesome.

And so my question was, I was thinking it would be a really amazing team building experience if other city councilors could participate in that process to edit maybe as a event at the community center going out and riding along with folks to some of the Westland residents house. Maybe we I don't if you could do it all at once or on rotations for different ones, but if councilors are interested, it really was wonderful experience, and I wanted to ask you about that. That's the only question that I had.

Yeah. No, that excites me to hear. I I would love that, and I can work with you directly. We do have that community champions week during March as the March for Meals campaign that we generally would reach out. It doesn't have to be that week. That's just the when the formal invite would normally come, but you are always welcome. This is your community. It is your residence we're serving. We'd be honored to have you.

We will we will connect and coordinate about that, and I'm just grateful for the continued partnership on on Meals on Wheels and all all the all else that you do. I didn't realize that there was you had five meals during the week rather than one. So I'm glad our people can go over there and take advantage of that and everything else. Council President, please, and we'll go around.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Thank you so much for the presentation on the partnership and the service you provide that's so important to both of our communities. I hear lots of great things from neighbors of mine who come over to the Pioneer Center on days that Westland Center doesn't offer. So it's a wonderful addition to our all all of the community for both of the communities. So thank you for doing that. And I would love to participate and volunteer. So that would be really fun. Thank you. Anything

else from other counselors? Okay. Well, that I think we have a we have an intergovernmental agreement before us. And as with all contracts, just wanted to check-in with city attorney. Are you comfortable with us approving the contract? I'm assuming you are, but just wanted

to Yes.

I am. I reviewed the contract.

Okay. Support. Thank thank you for that. And I would entertain a motion then to approve.

Thank you, mayor. I move to approve the intergovernmental agreement with the city of Oregon City for services provided by the Pioneer Adult Community Center including the revised budget and renewal options.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the intergovernmental agreement with the city of Oregon City for services provided by the Pioneer Adult Community Center, including the revised budget and renewal options. Any discussion? And I also wanna thank you for being here from the city of Oregon City and staying with us for the meeting to this point. Sorry we made you wait there for a little bit. No comments, so we can call the roll.

Councilor Bonneton? Yes. Councilor Bryke?

Yes.

Council President Baumgartner? Yes. Council Groner? Yes. Mayor Bialystok?

Yes. So the partnership continues. Thank you. So to the moving on then to the final item on the agenda of the business meeting is the agenda bill eight d, the heritage tree nomination for a wonderful tree in McLean Park.

Yes. And we'll just keep Megan Big John at the table, to present this last of her items tonight.

You didn't bring the tree. Did you at least bring a picture?

You know, there yes. You will see a picture. Definitely. I'm quite excited to be here to be able to share this this potential nomination for you with you. We did have some adjustments that when we're doing our technical tree update for the Heritage Tree Program.

And so I am really hoping with this designation in the park that it might create a synergy to be able to want to have other homeowners wanting to designate their trees. But because it's been a while since you received, I'm gonna attempt to do this, I think, Therese, I might need your help again. The Heritage Tree Program began in 1993 here to celebrate the deep connection that we have with nature and obviously we're a tree city as well. We It reflects a long standing commitment to our urban forestry and living features that shape the character of Westlawn. I mean, we love our trees completely.

To date, there are 10 trees that are designated. One currently in a park at Marius Stang and today we're talking about one at the McLean House. Thank you, sorry. This program is established and is through our municipal tree code under section 8.71. Heritage trees are designated by a city council for their historical and community value.

It supports a broader goal of protecting and maintaining and enhancing the city's tree canopy. Any individual nominee with with tree with written consent must have written consent from the property owner. The final designation does rest with the city and once designated, the tree becomes part of the property deed to ensure long term protection. Heritage trees cannot be removed without a public hearing and plaques must be installed with the identification for public education. So the evaluation process for a tree, there are several items that are listed within the code.

This is actually very specific to what is listed in the code and there are the categories of the size, circumference of the tree, the fact the location factor, the condition factor, and historical significance. The total points that would be added up are taking all of those criteria and multiplying them and the highest point that you can receive is seven fifty, but the tree must receive a 180 to be to be considered. So the process that goes into a nomination is sent in to the city arborist. They go out and do the evaluation of the tree. Once that evaluation is created and a presentation is made to to Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as our tree board, they're also doing the designation for city for Tree City.

Once they do the review, then it's obviously brought up to council, and then our goal is to be able to have a ceremony to designate that tree through Arbor month in April. As we had mentioned, some of the trees were previously designated prior to the code change, so those the maintenance of those trees are still under the the city's jurisdiction, but any trees moving forward would be managed by the property manager, but in this case, it would be us as well. So I guess we can get on to the actual real show. So the current tree that's being nominated is sits in the middle of McLean Park and it's a historical site as well. Estimated to be eighty years, which we're thinking might be closer to 90 based on the historical reference that we have and it's estimated to be over a 100 feet tall.

The crown spread, if you think of that, 57 feet is crazy big and the average circumference is 27 feet. So, when the arborist did do their evaluation, it came in at 450 which is well above the threshold. So here's the few pictures that councilor Groner was asking about. Prab did unanimously recommend this tree for designation on 11/13 last year. The tree is healthy, thriving, and is has a pretty good formation of the the form of the the giant sequoia is supposed to have.

There the historical significance that was presented to us is that it was thought to be planted in 1940 by doctor McClain's son as there were several other trees that were planted around the same time. So we are here to see if you would like to nominate this as our new heritage tree to add to our list for the year. And we would do that celebration in April for Arbor month.

Oh, wow.

I know. There might be cake.

That's great. Well, thank you for the presentation and your passion for trees.

Yes.

I appreciate it. As

our arborist. Are you still the arborist or we still have Mike Perkins?

I am a arborist. But we have a city arborist And as we've just hired on our our contracted arborist to take over that role. And Mike Perkins is still an arborist for the parks department.

Cool. Cool. Very thank you. Any first of all, let's get the nomination before the council, then we can have discussion.

Thank you, mayor. I move to approve the nomination of the giant sequoia at the McLean Park as a heritage tree in recognition of its historical environmental and community significance.

Second.

It has been moved and second to approve the nomination of the giant sequoia at McLean Park as a heritage tree in recognition of its historical environmental, and community significance. Okay. Any discussion from the council about this wonderful tree?

I would just also thank Megan for her enthusiasm, and I think this is an excellent addition to our heritage tree collection.

Okay. Thank you, council president. Any other comments? Or we can call the vote. I see no other comments. So, Theresa, you call the roll for the final time tonight. Thank you for all your work.

Councilor Bryke?

Yes.

Council president Baumgartner? Yes. Council Groner?

Yes.

Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Mayor Bialystovski?

Yes. So the motion is passed and the we have approved the nomination. So now what happens? When does the plaque get made? Is that unveiled at the

Tara is ready to go making a plaque with the date of today. And I do wanna give a great honor to our legal counsel who had reviewed our process as well as the application form which was very key. So if somebody else were to want to apply, they knew what the requirements were. So what we'll be doing now is planning an event during the Arbor Arbor month, probably the week, hopefully, where we'll be able to advertise and have a little celebration down there to to dedicate the tree and the plaque. So we'll keep you informed.

When we were going over the updating the process for the heritage trees, I thought I was gonna have to go out and find one. But somebody found one, so we got one through. So thank you. Thank you very another one. Okay. Well, it concludes the business meeting and we can move on ahead of schedule to the city manager report. And one thing came to my mind when Megan was talking, she mentioned Parks Board and we talked before the meeting about including the Parks Board in the conversation about the maintenance fee. And so I don't know with our this timeline we proposed of to me talking next week whether we could include them. But maybe we have to have a follow-up meeting with them before we take a vote. I just wanted to respect that.

Perfect. I think that's great. We can certainly notify them of the meeting and the opportunity to come talk with you. I don't think they have another meeting before before next Tuesday. But our our thought is to get them involved.

In fact, I was gonna bring up the parks board. I'll start with that because we are working on some of the follow-up from other discussions you had last year, including, for example, the topic of the Oppenheimer property and of the property here on Parker Road, what is going to happen there. And Megan and I were just speaking today about involving the Parks and Rec Board on some of that advanced planning. How do we move forward on those properties to fulfill council's direction on that. So I think we're very excited to work with them over the course of the year.

Obviously, lot of parks issues coming up. And from my experience, they really appreciate being asked. They really appreciate the opportunity, just like all our advisory committees do, to participate in the process. So we'll make sure to do that right away. So thank you for the reminder.

As always, I'll start off with your upcoming meetings. We've had a nice holiday break, but now it's back to work. Work session next week, the original agenda only had the discussion of Westlands marijuana prohibition on it. And so we will add in this discussion of maintenance fee and our parks maintenance program, and we'll pull together as much as we can. I've already sent an email to the team with our list that you came up with this evening for the things that we need to be working to pull together.

And I suspect Doug is back there contemplating it we speak. Does he look contemplative? He looks no. You're good. So then following that, the next meeting is at a work session on February 3, and it's my understanding, mayor, that we are looking to move the work session times in February and March to evening, the first work session of the month. Is that right? Or did I misunderstand that?

I think yeah.

Okay. If

if if it works for the council.

That would normally be at one, is it counsel direction to reset those for 6PM on those Tuesdays?

The first one was moved because of the there was two advisory board groups that we're having joint meetings with, and some of the members were working during the day. So that was the And then the March If if if people are comfortable with it. I I talked to each counselor as a scheduling matter, which is exempt from public meeting law, and asked them that question, and they were comfortable with it.

K. So we will move those two work sessions to 6PM. We're also looking to schedule your annual priority setting meeting, which could include some robust discussion of the financial strategic plan. We had, in consultation with the mayor, come up with two Fridays in February 13 and the twenty seventh. So I'd like to know if those dates can work. You don't necessarily have to have the answer to that right now. We can send out a doodle poll, but we're hoping those dates could work. Fridays work reasonably

The well for thirteenth or the twenty seventh. Is that what you're saying?

Thirteenth or the twenty seventh.

And this is we usually have a goal setting retreat, but we've had a lot of retreats lately, so we thought we'd just consider it a financial planning slash goal setting retreat that to accomplish that usual thing that we do at the beginning of the year.

Yep. So feel free to just drop me a line or Cathy or Theresa line, and we'll work to get that scheduled. Excuse me. On the work session on February 3, we have a discussion with the UAB such as it is water rates. The staff has been working with our consultant to follow-up on that long ago.

Water master plan and what are our how do our water rates look? We may have an initial discussion on that on February 3, but we have some we have a little bit more team discussion to happen before we make sure we can meet that date. And then also that day, the Police Review and Recommend Committee will be here to present their annual report. As you remember, they are directed to provide information to you once a year, hold two public meetings a year, but one annual report a year to counsel on what their activities have been and their observations of our program. So they were just meeting late last week to set up that report to you, and we are very pleased to to work with them on that.

Then February 10 is your business meeting, and there's only one thing I wanted to note is that we have been talking to the SMART team at the city of Wilsonville about their transit program. I think this is very well timed in light of Tri Med's service reduction proposals. SMART is going to come in and talk about their new proposed service on I 205. Everyone has been seeing the bus lane markings there on 205, and I think it's pretty my experience, pretty surprising when people find out that it's actually a SMART service, not a TriMet service proposed there. In fact, SMART is the only agency authorized to use those bus lanes on the freeways.

TriMet is not authorized to use them because they do not have the correct training. So in light of the service cuts that Tri Med has announced here in West Linn, which are pretty draconian, I think this will be an awesome discussion with the city of Wilsonville. We appreciate their openness to coming up here. So we'll look forward to that. Just let's see. One or two other calendar things. I'll be at the Willamette Neighborhood Association tomorrow night. I'm gonna try to hit all the neighborhoods over time this year, at least once each, all the ones that are operative. If anyone wants to join me at WNA, it's at the adult center. One fun calendar note I had not known about until I looked at our calendar.

I love this. This is the one West Linn thing, Doug. It is excuse me. Our school resource officer, John Remington, will be at the library on a grading day where students are off answering questions about police department. And talking about the SRO program, there's an invitation for families that have kids in kindergarten through fifth grade about that. And so I think that's a that's a super program. I really like that. I didn't know that was happening. One last thought is we have some awesome art again back in the council chamber. This is an artist we have had before.

This is Marlena Stoddard Hayes. You'll remember she was a Westland resident, sadly passed away. And we had a display of her art previously, thanks to her family. Her family agreed to let us exhibit some more of her art. And so, obviously, quite a loss to the community that Marlana is no longer with us, but we are benefiting from this lovely art. I love the scale of it in this room. Every month, we have a different program that I think these work really well in here, and it's a lovely legacy to see. So I think those are the items that I have for you. Thank you so much. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, and welcome back Yes. Everybody. I look forward to meeting with you more often again. Anything else for the good of the order? Alright. Well, then we are adjourned. Thank you, everybody. We will see you next Tuesday.