City Council - Regular Meeting

Are you ready to go in the back? Okay? Okay. We're ready to go. I'll call to order this, city council retreat. Happy Friday, everybody. It's nice to have some, sunlight coming in through the windows. A beautiful day outside, and we're in here doing the important business of the city. And so with that, I just will note for the record that the whole city council is here along with many of our, city staff, directors, and others. And I'll turn it over to our facilitator who will kick off the the day.

Great. Thank you. John, do you wanna say anything before we get going? Alright. Great. Well, good morning, everyone. To those of you I haven't met personally, my name is Ashley Sonoff. I'm a member of the SSW consulting team, so I work with Sarah. I've been supporting the work that's been happening with our firm and West Linn over the past few months, but more in the background. But today, I'm here in person to help lead the first half of the city council retreat.

So I'll be guiding you through right now and through lunch, and then Sarah will be joining us during your lunch break, and she will take you through the second half of the agenda. So I'm really happy to be here. Thanks for having us. We're gonna have a really great day. It is a beautiful day, but it's also a beautiful day to to do some awesome work.

So so we're we're channeling that. Sometimes it's easier to do a council retreat when it's really rainy outside, but we don't have control over that. So we can with a nice natural light that's flowing in here. So today is really about taking the next step together as a team and as a city. Over the past several months, you've done a lot of work thinking about your financial priorities, priorities, kind of different funding funding options that you can explore together.

And so today we're going to continue to build on that. So specifically, we're going to talk about your priorities, your council priorities for 2026 to 2028. And then we're also going to talk about the framing our future with the proposed work plan for the community engagement for this work. So so it's about building on that work. And our goal today is so by the end of today, we're gonna have clear direction on your council priorities for the next two years.

Through through that process, we may identify some items for future council agendas. So that's what my handy flip chart is over there for so that we can capture those along the way. And then we're gonna be discussing and providing direction on the framing our future program. And then if time allows, we can discuss is it it's community advisory groups. I got that acronym right? Okay. Cities all over do it a little bit differently, so I wanna make sure I got that one. So community advisory group work programs. So if time allows so we have we've built a little bit of flexibility into the agenda. It's your agenda, and so we can flex as needed.

But that's really outcomes for today. And so in terms of how we're gonna get to these get to these outcomes together, we're gonna do a quick warm up here in just a moment, which I'll explain. And then at 09:30, we'll jump into the council priorities refinement discussion. What that's going to look like, staff is going to provide updates on different priorities. We'll check-in with council if they need to be paused, adjusted, elevated, and provide that direction.

Again, that's an opportunity. If there's anything other topics that come up, we'll capture them for future agenda topics. We have a nice break at nice fifteen minute break to look forward to at 10:45, so we'll take it then. And then at eleven, that's when we're gonna jump into the framing our future discussion. So this first part of that discussion, what that will look like, staff will provide an overview of the proposed approach.

I know council has received and has had some discussions on it already, and so it's an opportunity to dive a little bit deeper and to hear from staff on that proposed approach. And then we're gonna have more of a structured conversation to see how council is landing on that proposed approach. What what excites you? What maybe questions you have if there's anything missing, and how you're feeling about moving moving forward with that, what adjustments need to be made. And that's gonna be really helpful to provide staff that direction on how to move forward.

So after we have that discussion at 12:30, we'll break for lunch, and that's when Sarah and transition over. So Sarah will come in, and she'll take you through, starting at 01:15, part two of this discussion. And so she's going to guide you in a fun visioning exercise, which will really be focused on your role as leaders in the community in the framing our future effort. So thinking about your unique strengths, your networks, your contacts, and the role that you can play in engaging the community in these important conversations. Also, we'll talk about staff's role too and kind of flush all of that out.

And then staff will be able to propose a potential timeline. Again, there's a lot of flexibility that's built into intentionally to make sure that it aligns with council's direction and kind of where everyone's feeling comfort in in terms of moving forward. So a proposed approach, we can and more discussion around that. And then, of course, if time allows at 02:30, talk about the CAG work programs, and then wrapping up at three 03:15, and then finish up at 03:30 so that you can still hopefully enjoy some sunlight in the rest of the day. So that's our plan.

That's our plan for today. You've already done a lot of work discussions together and deciding about how you want to work together in framing these discussions and moving through these discussions together in your guidelines for success. So these are the guidelines that you developed in your first workshop several months ago with Sarah. So we're gonna lean on these again today. So everyone participates and shares perspectives.

That's on me, but also on you too. So we'll make sure that if I need to bring in any voices, I'll do that. Sometimes a good rule of thumb is like, you know, speak once and then kind of wait and see if there's other voices before you speak twice. Work towards something tangible. We wanna make sure that whatever we do today feels really realistic within that we have. Consider all funding options. So there's flexibility, creativity, innovation, openness here. That's kind of the subtext here. And then also dream big. You guys are doing some really exciting work.

There's awesome opportunities on the horizon. And so trying to keep an open mind and thinking about, you know, positive outcomes for this team for and for the future and for the people who call West Linn home. There's one guideline that I'd like to propose to the group because we're going to be specifically talking about your council priorities today. And so staff needs this direction, and so I will be specifically asking as needed if there's either council majority or consensus to move the council priorities forward. So so if that's okay, I'm gonna just write that on the board.

Is everybody okay with that? So our priorities move forward with majority or consensus. Okay. Alright. Alright.

Alright. So before we jump into our main our first main topic of council priorities, I wanna do a

quick warm

up. And so I want you to think about the future of this community. I want you to think about where you're headed over the next several years and for this team, for this community, and just thinking one word, I want you to think one word of success. What does that look like when you think about the future for West Linn in this community? So we're just going to quickly go around. I'll jot them down. You don't have to provide explanation at this point unless you feel really inspired. Why don't we just start there, and I'll go around.

So the task is to identify one word for

success Mhmm.

Success to the community. Prosperity.

Prosperity. Okay.

My one word would be unity. Unity?

So mine was gonna be connectedness but maybe now I'll say engagement.

Engagement? Okay. Trust. Trust.

Does anyone in this room believe I can use one word? Yeah. I don't think so either. But I'll go with utopian.

Utopian? Utopian? Yeah.

Thank

you. What about from staff? We could start with John.

Well, mine was gonna be trust. I will say cooperation.

Cooperation? Alright. It's okay to read. Yeah. Alright. And then let's hear

let's hear from Steph

up in the back. Maybe we could start. Oh oh, sorry Lauren. Forgot that you're there.

I have to go with the finance theme, so stability. Stability. Okay.

Alright. I'm gonna start over here. Connected. Connected? Alright. And then you guys can just shout just shout them out.

Pride. Connected. Pride.

Focus. Yeah. That's fine. Which one is it? All of them. Okay. Great. Community? Okay.

Clarity.

Projects.

Someone's gotta do the work. Someone's gotta get it done. How

about transparency?

Transparency? Okay. Alright. You you already had your word. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna put it on there. Okay. And then okay. I'm gonna cut us off because we're gonna we're gonna build on this a little bit. So as you can see, there's already you guys oh.

Oh, Kathy. Thank you. Fun.

Fun. I think it's okay to have fun. Right? That's why people move that's why people they they move here. Enjoy where they live. Alright. So as you can see, you guys noticed it already while you're saying like, oh, was gonna say this, but then it's already up there. So I'll just so you you can see there's already just some themes, common threads already emerging around unity and focus and cooperation, feeling connected and community and clarity. And so now let's just take it one step for one step further. So what I'm gonna do is I want you to think about the future of of West Linn in 2035.

So imagine it's nine years from now, and Citi has made a lot of important decisions. You've made investments, and you're starting to see the results of that work. So I want you to develop a headline for a newspaper or a title story. So maybe it could be something in the Westland Tidings. Maybe it's something in The Oregonian. Maybe it's something in Time Magazine. This is your headline. You can dream big. But I'm gonna pair up I'm gonna pair up a council so that you can develop a headline together. And then staff, you can pair up as you as you would like.

I wasn't quite sure who was gonna be coming in and out, so I've prepared pairs for council. But you guys get to have you can decide. You can choose your

own

adventure. So what I want you to do let's see where are

my are my pairs here?

Let's see. I've got mayor and counselor Brick. Bright, Bright, Bright. Thank you. Counselor Bright. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Counselor Bright and mayor together. That's a pair. And we'll have council president Baumgartner and counselor Groener. Groener. Okay. We'll have you two together. And because there's five of you, I'm gonna have councilor Bonington with John.

Last name?

Uh-huh. You can do you can be with John and Lauren. And then and then staff in the back, you can, again, can pair up. You have you can assemble how how you wish. So I just really quick, two minutes, think about a headline that you'd like to see.

It could be something like, you know, city maintains quality of life with limited resources, or city grows while maintaining small town characters. Something where you're thinking about building on the outcomes and kind of success that you want to see here. All right. So just real real quick. Okay.

Do you guys have your head do you have a headline or beginnings of a headline? Alright. Mayor and councilor Brike are ready. What about everyone else? Doesn't have to be totally wordsmithed.

Alright. Who's feeling who's feeling brave and wants to share their community headline first? Yes. What did you what did you come up with?

Council decides to lower frequency of meetings to once per month for lack of anything to work on.

I'm gonna sub I'm gonna I'm gonna summarize that. Hold on. Just because I don't know that I'll have enough space.

Not because they're lazy.

Okay. Say one

more Everything's working.

You said council moves to one meeting per month? Yes. Okay. Okay.

Alright.

There's nothing else to do. You've already been so productive. Alright. Who else wants to share?

Ours was Willamette Fall second Willamette Falls Main Street opens with record attendance.

Okay.

Second Willamette Falls Main Street. Main Street.

Opens.

And record attendance. So you've gotten engaged. We

we couldn't call it Willamette Falls Main Street because we already have a we're the plan is Second. To have a second one down by the Great. Bridge.

Thank you. Alright. What do you guys have?

Falls World Heritage Indigenous Center says retail tourism records.

Oh. Okay. You guys are you guys are wert. You guys got a lot of words. Okay. So say say it one more time so I can capture capture. Okay. Okay. You guys know. Open with rec okay.

Center sets. That sounds good. I wanna I wanna go there. Alright. Staff, did you come up with something you'd

like to share?

I have limited space here. Okay. You gotta have that hook, and then it's like then it's like subtitle. Yeah. Community part. Community solves

oh, sorry. So community solves long term funding needs of cities by banding together to create an outreach.

So long term funding needs. And then you also said through trust and transparency. Okay. Okay.

So through

trust and transparency. Okay. Great. Alright. What else?

Okay.

Alright.

Westland Utopia after nine years of stability and trust.

All

right. Okay. So Westland recognized as a world model. Okay. Worldwide model for I missed that last part.

Community health.

So for community

health,

belonging, and sorry, you're fart. And livability? Okay. Alright. So looking at these headlines, what stands out to you?

Ambition.

Ambition. Yeah.

Yeah. What? Hope? Yeah. Hope and positivity.

What else? Anything else come to mind?

There's a theme of, like, how things are going rather than what exactly happened. Right? There's there's this all of this trust and transparency, belonging. Council moves to one meeting a month. Right? It's all about, like

Process.

Yep. Sort of sort of process, but sort of like a sign that there's trust and cooperation. Mhmm. Some of these are not about a specific building opening or a trail opening. You know? And I and I like that.

So I'm saying trust in the process. And then I think what I'm also hearing or at least something that I was picking up is results. There's results here. You guys are getting you're getting things done. So that's exactly why that's exactly why we're here today because we wanna think about what success in the future looks like.

We wanna think about getting to those results. And so by discussing council priorities for the next couple years and where's where council is landing on those, discussing this proposed approach for framing our future and this robust community engagement process that really seeks to gather authentic input from community members with specific outcome in mind, but really truly bringing those ideas forward. As you think about moving through the priorities, as you think about that framing our future and that community engagement process, I want you to remember and and refer to this, and you can that throughout the day because I'm gonna put it over here. But think about what success looks like, thinking about what that potential future might look like, and hopefully that can guide you and provide motivation, especially as you're gonna be thinking about. So there's a lot of difficult decisions and thoughts ahead, and decision points ahead.

And so hopefully that will help guide you as you think about the future that could be in West Linn. Right? Okay. So I'm going to I'm going to move this board over to to that closet area, and then we will move to our first main topic of discussion, which are the council priorities for 2026, 2028. And so I know staff have provided some updates. And so we'll the way that this will work is that we're gonna be able to hear the updates on those items. And then what we're specifically looking for is council council directions. So that could look look a couple different ways. Continue on it's an ongoing continue, really no change. Just keep forging ahead.

Maybe there's something in there that might need to pause and and, you know, seek additional information. So we just need to pause it for the Maybe it needs to be modified or reframed, you know, refined in any sort of way so we can gather your input on that. And then also perhaps there's an item there that's really risen to the top over the past year in terms of priority. And so do is there anything that we need to elevate? So that's I want you to be thinking about kind of those four different categories of direction that you can provide to staff, and that's something that I can document as we move priorities.

So give me a moment. I'm gonna move my board to refresh our space. Just the paper. And so what I'll do thanks, Kathy.

Mayor Take the top one While that's happening, we have a public comment opportunity on

the agenda. I've got a system here. Oh, yeah. The height helps.

There is nobody signed up to provide public comment. So we did have it on the agenda. We just wanna make sure that it's noted that there was a public comment opportunity today.

Let me just look at that. So yes, around 09:20AM, there's a on the agenda is item number two. Comments. And so just confirming there are no I don't see any members of public in the room here, and then there's nobody signed up online. So

Mayor. Yep. I will just for the record

Thank you.

I'll bring out that we did get one public input specifically directed toward our retreat, which was from Jim Edwards

Thank you.

Emphasizing that kind of in support of the work we're doing for the waterfront project visioning and reminding us how what how Vancouver Waterfront could be used as a model and how it isn't isn't isn't a good model. So I appreciate Jim's consistent input about the Waterfront and his interest. Thank you.

Would you like me to start this or do you wanna do you have more intro?

No. I'm ready for ready

for staff updates. So mayor and council, our first our first business item today is our annual review of your priorities. In recent years, we have been doing these as a rolling set of priorities, often matched with the budget cycle. But in this case, we're not in a budget adoption year. So we thought we would frame these as twenty six to twenty eight West Linn Council priorities, and we do know that's actually thirty six months.

We didn't quite catch that in the title. Thirty six month time span from January 26 to December 2028. And I remember last year when we talked about priorities, I remember the mayor saying, it would be great to be even thinking longer term. We've made these that they're sort of concrete, semi project related, not not fifteen year utopian goals. That's not exactly what these serve as.

Council could adopt goals like that. These are more like how actually are you gonna spend your time in meetings, outside of meetings, and which projects are important for you personally to invest in and see move forward. So at your desk, have a printed copy of a proposed set of 26 to 20 council priorities in the packet is a red line from last year's version. So and if you need the red line printed, we can bring you that. But this was our best shot at, based on what we know you've been interested in and working on to to bring you a document to start from today.

Obviously, as it says right in the title, these are city council priorities. These are not this is not intended to be staff's priority list. These are the things that that if you're gonna spend time on them, they need to be correct. So this is entirely your discussion. Staff will be here to help you with it, and we'll capture the direction on here.

As as was mentioned already, it'd be lovely if we could bring these back and adopt these at an upcoming business meeting so that the community knows exactly what you're doing. And I wanna thank Dylan for putting this draft together. He always does a super job tracking what council's working on and thinking about how you might like it conveyed. So generally speaking, what we have here is a similar list to previous years. We have proposed deleting a couple entirely and adding one brand new.

And the the one to add is the financial strategic planning item. And we could have picked a number of different names for it, but that's what we thought we would call it. And we have suggested for strategies and a list of council roles and a list of CAG roles. It's not my intention as we go through these priorities to read every line to you, but rather to sort of convey the the the concept here and then have counsel discussion that we can capture. So I guess maybe I'll just actually stop there and say our based on everything that we have heard is that this financial strategic planning is perhaps the biggest thing that you wanna spend time on this year, and that you're looking for us as a department head team, me as city manager, Lauren as finance director, all of that to be spending time on.

We're going to spend quite a bit of time on it today. But we thought it would make sense to have this at the top of the list, but it needs to be worded and framed in the way that that works for you. So with that intro.

Thank you. And then just for the to note, there's a red lined version online too that you can see kind of some of the changes that was posted. I think this is just a clean version. Correct? So if anybody wants to look at the changes, you can look at the red line version. Okay. Any other comments on the proposed discussion from anybody? To start to kick us off or we can just dive right into the first priority. From yourself?

No. So I'm looking for if staff has any updates or if the priorities are maintaining or they're the same. I want to make sure that I Cathy, do you have an do you have the 2026, 2028? I have this from 2025. Okay.

That'd be great. Thank you. Because the first one here so it's it's the financial strategic planning. And so to John's point thank you. Oh, thank you. Perfect. Thank you. So to John's point, is this still I mean, I'm gonna say this a little bit tongue in cheek here. Is this still council's is this still a priority area in thinking about our different options or possibilities for direction, what's council looking to to do with this one?

Yeah. Just some clarification. Does this mean that there was no strategies strategic financial strategic planning in the last set of priorities? What's the meaning of red line here?

Right. This is in addition. So it was not on the list last year.

Thank you.

Alright. So under financial their then to do

And Since this one is new, we can also return to it at the end of the day since we're gonna be spending much of the day on it. But we're happy to do it either way. I see Kevin was just about to speak.

Okay. Then and then also Councilor Breck has a comment.

Yeah, can be kind of supplementary to this, but it kind of fits in with what was mentioned about thinking towards longer term future goals. Maybe I don't know that it fits into strategy, but committing to using the results of the community conversations and what we learned from this to, I don't know, facilitate or set a foundation to potentially do future planning. I imagine we're going to hear a lot of interesting thinking and beliefs about where the city should go and what it should look like in the future. And that might be a valuable secondary piece to this.

And I feel like we will maybe have more to add after we have our framing the future discussion. So I would be okay with, I mean I agree that this is a highest priority. It might be interesting to extend the timeframe on this particular goal so we're looking even further out. But I do think we might have a lot more comments, lot more to say after we've done a little bit of the framing our future discussion later today.

Does counsel feel like maybe just put a pin in it for now? And then as because there will be significant discussion. And there will be also additional opportunities for you to provide comments and ask questions and share some thoughts. But what I'm hearing in general is it maintaining a priority, but maybe it's just like the the how or the process. Okay. So let me let me document that here. Hopefully I'm hopefully I'm gonna leave myself enough space here. We'll see. Okay.

Not hearing any objections to having this added to the priority list and its placement. Think it's just

Okay. So we yeah. So we know it's a we yeah. So it's remaining would I heard someone say it's the number one priority. Is there a council consensus that that's the the main priority? Or are we not ready quite ready to say that that's our main priority?

I I would I would agree with that personally because everything else will be predicated on that.

Okay. I'm seeing a lot of head head nods. Yes?

And these haven't been ordered exactly in previous years. They haven't had a relative importance among them. But I think there's a value in showing this one first if if it's that important.

I'm just gonna capture more input to come because with today's work. Okay. Alright. So let's put a let's kind of pause on that one, and then we can move to transportation safety and funding. So in this version, there are some proposed changes. I don't know if staff want to walk through those or what feels most notable or helpful for council.

I'm happy to just say briefly this is a topic that council has continued to talk about through the course of last year and has arisen as part of conversations about finances. It's an item that you hear about from the community quite a bit. So there's a number of things bundled in here. There's still we propose still keeping statements about tolling since who knows? Might as well express the city's position in there.

Transit is an emerging issue for council discussion. And Highway 43, And then Dylan and Eric have added a a bullet here at the end, is about multimodal transportation, sidewalk connections, and the rest we proposed keeping the same. But we're happy to have this reflect whatever needs to reflect. And Eric can certainly come up and answer any questions you may have.

All right. So I tried to capture the main, yeah, the main pieces there. Any council concerns or comments around tolling?

Yeah. I do. I don't think we need to have tolling quite in this featured so prominently. For one thing, I guess maybe for me it's just a semantics thing, but I don't like framing things in opposition, in the negative. So I wouldn't be against re rephrasing that to somehow emphasize fairness in transportation infrastructure funding or something like that?

How about monitoring tolling proposals?

I I think it's just I just don't think we need to talk about tolling, quite frankly. But other people are certainly welcome to their own opinion on the matter.

Yeah. Other other thoughts from counsel on tolling and what feels right at this moment?

Well, it's certainly been the attitude from the legislature that it's not happening because they repealed the authorizations for the tolling on the Near Westland as part of that transportation package. Whether it's in here or not, I'm indifferent to it, but it's not like it's it's not as big of a threat as it used to be. So maybe it's not the first transportation strategy.

And obviously if the legislation changes to where that is brought up, we will jump right back in. I think that kind of goes without saying.

So I don't mind moving it to the bottom of the transportation list, but I still think we need to monitor it over time.

Maybe we could just have a rephrase of the language to be more a little bit more of a monitor monitoring focus.

Okay. Alright. I've underlined this monitoring focus. Okay. And then move to bottom of list.

I do like what council president Baumgartner said about fairness and equity in, you know, being able to move with throughout the region. Think that's very important. Mhmm.

Okay. Right. Council feels good about that. All right. What about this next one around transit? Emerging issue, advocating for transit improvements and within Westland as well as connections to areas to transit providers, and then thinking about there's different stakeholder groups here mentioned. Does that feel like something that council wants to see continue to move forward? Are we continuing pause, motivate, modify, elevate?

I think it's a continue. I mean, it's still trends definitely an issue in West Lend with the recent elimination of several of our bus lines. So definitely probably should be in here.

Okay. Anybody okay with it not continuing?

Okay.

I'm gonna mark it as that. So continue. And then Highway 30 or highway sorry. Highway 43. Excuse me. Advocate advocate for needed repairs and more significant improvements to state owned the state owned portions of Highway 43, investigate the possibility of transfer along with state funded improvements. How do we feel about these? Again, thinking about kind of these four four categories. We wanna continue? Modify?

I think it's this has been probably in Westland City Council's priorities for twenty years. So this probably will continue.

Continue? Okay.

Just

because it's still '43, we're always fighting for for improvements and funding, but there's not a lot of funding available right now for it.

Okay. I excuse the pun. I was like, you're just gonna oh, now I lost it because I

Lost your plan? Yeah.

It's a long road ahead is what I was gonna say. It's a long road.

It's a road.

It's a bumpy road. Alright. And then this final one, around multimodal transportation. So enhanced planning efforts, financial investments in multimodal transportation and sidewalk connections. So this is a proposed addition based on previous discussions.

I really like including that. And I know when we get to the vision 43 discussion that that's very connected with some of the community discussions around Highway 43, the vision 43 plan.

Okay.

And I would like us to keep in mind the importance for future planning of of multimodal because it supports tourism economy, tourism for people who maybe come into the area and want to use something other than a car to get around that we're preparing and planning ahead for that.

Other thoughts from counsel on this one? Is we're going to continue? Anybody not okay with it? So what my my direction here is that we're gonna continue. There's it's there's connection with vision forty three, supports the tourism economy in the future. Any other comments? Otherwise, I'll just keep us moving moving forward. Does that sound good?

On the council role part of this, there's the first one continues that tolling language. We could modify that accordingly. If council is not gonna be spending a lot of time on tolling this year, probably makes sense not to say you are. So we're happy to have that that part reflect the change you made above.

Mhmm. Yeah. There's also that too. Alright. Other comments on this priority area before we we move on?

Okay. Alright. This next one is it's all crossed out, but the explore feasibility of indoor recreation community center. Staff, do you wanna provide some context?

Well, so we we went pretty far down the path on an indoor rec center feasibility and ended up not feeling that it was a it was a project that could be undertaken yet. It's not something that we want to entirely put on the shelf, and there's some new ideas for what that property might be. It was not clear to us. So I guess our proposal was perhaps it doesn't reach the tip top of council priorities for this year. But we are happy to have a discussion with you today about whether you wanna keep that in here, keep working towards it, whether you wanna talk about that property, or perhaps financial strategic planning has has sort of taken the front seat for for right now.

Any thoughts? I have some, but I'll open the floor up. Go ahead.

Thanks, mayor. I just and maybe you're gonna say this, but maybe changing the language of that point to talk about use potential or pivot now for potential use of that same property instead of the rec center.

That's exactly what I was gonna say. I think it's still a priority to we own that site. There's some potential for some really cool things there that don't cost as much as a rec center. Talked to the parks board recently and was talking to them about it and potential ideas for Park Road. They were excited about working on that with us as well. So I think it's important to have something in there about that site. How about

Tanner Property?

Tanner Creek? Okay. Thank you.

Parker Road.

It's called Parker Property. I don't know. We've had different names, like an outdoor music venue kind of thing. Making the music in the park side nicer for a year round venue with some food carts and things like that.

So something like explore enhanced use of city owned property for recreation purposes.

Alright. Explore I wanna capture that. Explore enhanced use

City park or road property for recreational purposes.

You said of city owned property?

City Parker Road.

City Parker Road. Okay. Any

other thoughts?

Yeah. I I think maybe instead of totally deleting it, it could be appended to the end of the financial strategic plan perhaps with an eye towards not necessarily making it an immediate priority, but maybe targeting the future economic upswing where it's more feasible, not losing the work that's been done on it, but not necessarily trying to deploy it right away.

And I would say on that first line, the Tanner Creek property, typically I think call it Parker Road. Okay, that's That'd be take the Tanner Creek designation out of there. It is adjacent to Tanner Creek Park, but it's not the other piece of the property is not referred to that way.

Okay. I think what I'm so what I'm hearing, and let me know if this resonates, you're not quite ready to take it off the board, but there's just a lot of unknown pieces in terms of future. There's potential there, but thinking about the actual specifics of what it might look like if it's the outdoor venue or if it's something else yet to be seen. And so the work that's gonna happen to develop this financial strategic plan will help guide this. So so you don't wanna lose sight of it, but also it's not as not totally to the top.

And so I'm thinking about in terms of, okay, how do we capture that? Counselor Bryke mentioned, you know, this explore enhanced use, that's still very there's a lot of flexibility there and kind of some unknowns. Yes?

I think what we're saying is it's not a priority, so we shouldn't name it in our priority list. Doesn't mean we forget it. It's just not in our priority list.

Yeah. How does the rest of council feel about that? About removing it? But how do we and then somehow some way for staff to hold on

think it's covered under that bullet that you've already read. Well, that's one potential use of that property.

But that would be we're talking about putting this on the priority list. And I think maybe the title now needs to be changed because we're perhaps not talking about the same thing that we were before.

Right. This is a change Yeah. In So you changed the title here? So it's not necessarily the title as an indoor recreation community center. It's really just how how are we gonna use this property? Okay. Parker Road development or something like

that. Parker Road exploitation.

Okay. Does everybody feel comfortable about that change?

I like listing it as an in priority, I'm comfortable with that change.

Okay.

But I do also agree with counselors about that it's part of the financial strategic planning process also.

Yeah. And let's yeah.

It's something exciting to work on.

Or to show that it's a connection to that.

So just while I'm listening to everyone's thoughts, I'm thinking about it's almost I mean, they're related priorities and that they are community services. But the and and I liked what councilor Bonington said about we have all this information that all the work that was done about exploring the concept of a rec center. That information we can use in the future and we we're just kind of putting it on pause. But I like the priority of community gathering spaces because I would like to include in in our discussion of this what we're talking about is using this property with the city already owns on Parker Road near next to Tanner Creek as a phased approach for potentially also including a rec center, but starting with something that's much less expensive like this outdoor concert and gathering area and food carts, etcetera. But also we've talked about the potential for other future community gathering areas that we the city doesn't own property, but but maybe can be in a position in the near future.

So I'd like to have I had like to have this, and I don't know exactly how to express it and where to put it on our priorities list, but that the city is talking about. And and some of this might include going out for some kind of community funding measure on a ballot. But these are just all discussions we need to have, but I just kinda wanted to get those thoughts out there.

Alright. I'm seeing some head head nods.

As in there there could be other community gathering spaces that we wish to develop. Yes. And this could be one of them.

Waterfront is a potential community gathering place.

Exactly. We also already have some that could use a little attention. Yeah.

And we also have, I mean that's in the vision 43 plan as well, potential gathering places. Maybe we broaden the topic to community.

More than just

So that it's engaging the community, making space for the community to come together.

Okay.

Appreciate that.

City owned property development and utilization.

I'm not sure the waterfront is community owned yet.

Well, it'll have

to be.

There's space we're exploring. There's also space we already own. It's kind of like just a general thought on community

Okay. Gathering

Steph, do you feel like you have clear direction there?

Yeah. If that's the title, can work on that.

Okay.

I'm

happy to do that. Those kinds of spaces will help you deliver your twenty thirty five headlines. Well mean Alright.

I go to music in the park. We all and everybody loves music in the park in our city. And I went this past year and thought, this could be so much nicer and better and and just less a little less clunky. Why do we have to bring in porta potties? Why do we have to paint the grass with chalk when we could make it really nice, you know, and have an actual year round venue? You got to bring in food vendors that have to carry in their tents. We could have some food carts there in the neighborhood. Lots of options. Anyway.

Lots of options

to That's I digress, but it's an exciting project. It's potentially really cost effective because we already own the land, so there's not as much land acquisition costs.

Yeah. For sure. Okay. Alright. Let's move on to the next one. There's clarify community advisory group work programs. This one's redlined for removal. Is there additional context on that?

Yeah. This one's redlined for removal because that we feel like that has been done. Not that the not that they're not gonna change every year, but you have now a construct where you are creating work programs for each CAG. They are proposing them. You are reviewing them possibly today, possibly at an upcoming meeting. So we think that piece of work, is very, very important, is done and doesn't need to be a council priority on a stand alone. That's success accomplished last year, we think. Dylan thinks so, so I think so.

Well, agreed. We have a process so it's easy to update. We don't have to, we're not reinventing the wheel.

Yes, but I think we do need to monitor that process and enhance it. I'm not sure we should totally eliminate this.

Well, it's it's ongoing activities. So every year we get reports from the community advisory groups through that process. Through that process we can update and but I don't think it needs to be listed on this two year program because this is an ongoing thing. This is something we will do every year.

So you bring so you bring up a really good point in this kind of topic of discussion. This question comes up a lot of times in the different cities that we're working with when thinking about council goals or council prior It's like, okay. Well, we we can kinda completed it, and it's be it's implemented and it's running, and it's gonna continue. The work's not gonna stop. We've set up a process. So is it okay to mark it as complete as a council priority? Because it's ongoing now. It's been it's kind of implemented. It's operationalized. And thinking about your council priority list is, like, the additional things that, like, need needed need additional focus, but it's, this one's been taken this one's been taken care of.

So the question then becomes if council feels comfortable with that proposal to remove it because it has been completed and operationalized or if it's something that are you looking to change it or modify it in some way?

I don't think our work on it is done. Not because it's literally not done in terms of what was on it, but because there were a few things that are still worth pursuing. Things that come to mind are formal schedule or process by which council has joint meetings with these groups. And at the same time, I guess having some way of nurturing them to make them feel more included and better understand what's going on in the city so that they can truly be a pool of potential future leaders as I think they're really intended to be.

Other thoughts from council?

Yes. I think maybe this should be broadened to the neighborhood association relationship as well. Basically, define the roles of those neighborhood associations, what are how we respond to them and nurture them.

So that's kind of a proposal for kind of a shift in modifying it. Other, like, comments? Comments to that proposal to brought to broaden this to not for not just advisory groups, but for the neighborhood associations.

So we're talking about are we is this like giving a work plan to neighborhood associations or what? Is that or

is this

more just like

I think that How

does this interplay with the work programs? Because we've never given work programs to neighborhood associations and I wouldn't wanna do that. I don't think we

can. No.

I mean, for one thing, few of them are moribund and need to be somehow encouraged to meet and provide input and respond to their inputs.

And so so this strategy, the way it was originally written, provide clear direction to the CAG's in accordance with Westland Municipal Code. So my question then is this is complete, if it needs to be reframed, or maybe this comment around neighborhood associations, if that feels like what I'm hearing I'm hearing two things. I'm hearing we wanna include them and have and and strengthen that relationship. But then also I'm also hearing, but we don't we don't know, we don't say what they need to be working on. And so maybe it's like, is that one of those things where it's like a topic for a future agenda discussion, but not necessarily falling in the priorities category? That's

Well, it's another bullet in the priority is my view.

But then to the point though, but this has kind of been operationalized and it's like it's happening. And so there's you can not to say that council can't continue to provide guidance on what that implementation continues to look like with that process. Staff will continue to come to come and seek guidance as needed. But so thinking about if one, I think it I think there's two things here. Are we comfortable is counsel comfortable with marking this as complete and looking for consensus or majority? And then two, if there's an if there's interest in exploring how do we, you know, broaden or strengthen our relationship with the community or with the neighborhood associations?

I have a comment if I Thank you. So, I do agree that there is need for some mostly structure, I believe, and communication with neighborhood associations. And it is true that there are some of them are struggling with attendance and quorum and being able to exist at all. But this is not in my opinion the place to address that. So I think they're two separate but very important points.

And I think it's very important to the neighborhood associations from my experience with them and having served on a board. Neighborhood associations do not want to feel like they're being guided by city council although they do need guidelines, some of which are set by city council under which they are to operate. And that I don't I think right one of the issues that at least one neighborhood association is having right now is lack of specific expectations around how to function. So we and that is the council's responsibility to provide clarity so that neighborhood the members aren't in conflict with each other over unclear objectives or just lack of objectives in the structure that we're providing for them to operate under. But it they're two separate topics, think, from neighborhood associations and advisory groups.

Okay. What am I hearing from other thoughts? I'm marking it

here for now,

but but it can be moved. But I just wanted to capture it there.

I think if we want to look at this as a council priority, I would maybe have a broader priority of community engagement that would include the work plans for the community advisory groups. It would also include interaction with the neighborhood associations and assistance for those neighborhood associations that are not active. And that's, you know, it gives us broader opportunity to be out there in the community, but it also includes the specific structure of the neighborhood associations and the community advisory groups. And I think that that goes along with our future community things of engagement and community and connected and belonging. So I think that would be adding a new goal, but I think that's a goal that we should always be working on.

One that includes at least a past goal and a potential future one.

Feel like all of this ties into the financial planning discussions that we're having too. I mean, that's where we're going to have some real neighborhood community engagement. I mean, engagement in Westland, it can really be already have these vehicles for doing that through the Neighborhood Association, through our community advisory groups and then through broader community outreach. So we'll definitely be engaging the neighborhoods

Andrew, and you're thinking about your priorities for the next two years and how how much this is gonna be built this is, like, built on robust community engagement. So it's kind of to the point the mayor's point, is baked in there. So you could you could do it two different ways. So just for sake of time, so we can move on and and and cover the other areas. I just wanna see if we can get clarity. If we want to so there's proposals, we can mark it complete. It's operationalized. We know that that work's gonna continue going. Staff's not gonna drop the ball. They're gonna, you know, keep checking in and and refining it as needed with council's direction.

That's one option. The second option is to broaden and maybe, you know, this gets changed and modified more to a broader community engagement with neighborhood associations and the community advisory groups. But or the third one is like that also that kind of is baked into this piece. So neither of these would show up on your priorities, but know that they're going to be in here, which remember, we haven't really fleshed this out yet.

And that could be included in some of the strategies and the council responsibilities financial strategic Absolutely.

Why don't we just can we just quickly go around and you just tell me like one sentence kind of where you're where you are landing on this one so staff has direction? Do you wanna start? Councilor Bloomington?

Yeah. I I I still maintain that we have more work to do with community advisory groups, of a step two or phase two of of this original goal. Mhmm. And then neighborhood associations certainly are important, but are a separate item.

Yeah. Certainly, a rubric about community engagement is fine as a high priority. It's always something that could be deepened. But I've put a couple bullets there. One is monitor and improve the advisory group process and strengthen and develop associations. So I think that fits under that rubric. Okay.

Perhaps the third one in terms of meetings with the public or events. Okay. John, you had your hand raised.

If it helps, the way that I think about this entire document is these are the things that you want to spend your time on. And so if this is a topic that you want to spend counsel time, either in meetings or outside of meetings or both, then it and it's a significant allocation of time for you, then I think it should be on here, and that'll reflect that so that we know how to program your agendas, we know what to talk about, we know what things to be working on. If it's more like it's part of other things, then it can be separate. But really the utility of this document is to say how is council gonna be spending its time. And so if this is a thing, then I think we should leave it in here, it could easily be broadened in the way that's been described. I think it could encompass CAGs and NA's at the same time.

I feel like that goal was completed, but I think there's other community engagement stuff that we can do. And that includes the community advisory groups because that's where we have to generate new volunteers whenever there's an opening. But I feel that operationally city staff will bring to us information, updates to the work plans and we will have meetings with various community advisory groups as needed when they've got projects or specific things that are going on. Okay.

Alright. What about you two? What do you think?

Go ahead.

Go down the table. Go down the table.

Yeah. Go in order.

Thank you. I liked what the point, kind of the reminder point that John just was making about the purpose of this document. So I think that that's important. So I think we're naturally naturally going going to to be be doing doing this this work work about about the community advisory groups. I'm not sure exactly how or where to include it just specifically with regard to this document.

I I think maybe it as it's stated here, was completed. Mhmm. It doesn't mean we're getting rid of community advisory groups if that it's not on this list. So I'm comfortable with with the way the red line version removed that. But I'm happy to also entertain other people's wishes.

I tend to agree with what Mary just said, only in that the rest of the document for all of our council priorities has community advisory group roles section. So I feel like we're still clearly signaling that we want to work with community advisory groups. And we'll include them in all these different processes, but this to me was like making sure that we had a streamlined work plan work program so that we could provide from city council direction to the advisory group. But what we want them to work on, we're still gonna do that. Mhmm. So as as we're gonna talk about either today or another time. So we're gonna still get out of the work plan. So I'm okay with removing it, with the caveat that I still wanna work with the with the groups.

Right. Like it's okay to remove like what you're the two of you are saying, it's okay to remove knowing that community engagement continues, these work programs continue.

The goal was accomplished, I think.

Do we so again, do we feel like it's accomplished accomplished and it's just baked into what we're doing or we wanna keep it? I think you said you wanna keep it. Councilor Bonington wants to keep it and reframe.

If I think about the original intent of it which was really to make sure they always had something to work on and something that was genuinely useful. We've made significant progress, but I don't view it as complete.

Okay. And I view community engagement as something that always can be strengthened and engaged. I think a couple of bullets on that point are worth it.

Okay.

I feel like the structure of the council goals, which includes the community advisory group roles, helped define the work plans for the community advisory groups. And so as long as we maintain the structure, we'll have new things to add to their work plans that then the council would be approving.

Then I think we have that you guys were already pretty clear on I feel like I have direction from that. Okay. Remove. Remove. There's a little bit of there's a little bit of a split, but I'm seeing three and two.

I'm willing to stick some time to harmonize There's the no point in splitting in having to split over this.

I just I just wanna make sure that council staff knows what you mean what you mean by this. And also time check when we gotta probably need to move on if we wanna

This is not a hill I wanna die on. I we

we can try do a little wordsmithing on it to keep it in if if it's fine.

Okay. So we'll keep we'll keep it thinking about, you know, more formalized schedule of phase two and and including more. Alright. It's not the

hill any of us wanna die on.

And I think also, like, community engagement, it's a it's a value. It's it's it's really baked into everything that you're doing and the city is doing. That that doesn't go away. And those things, you know, they shift and they morph over time in terms of how you're doing it, but continuing to be a priority. Okay. All right. So next one. Just also thinking about our time. It's 10 almost ten twenty. We've gone through four of these. And I think I count one, two, three, four, five, six.

I think it may get easier.

You think it's gonna get easier? Okay. So let's so that's about five minutes per

So far, we've done adding a new one and possibly deleting two others. The rest are maintained.

Okay. Alright. So I just kinda wanna kinda frame frame the rest of our time together because we've got this break to look forward to at 10:45, and I know everyone's gonna be be looking forward to that. So alright. So I'm just gonna throw that out there into the universe. Alright. Fund drinking water system capital needs. So there's some potential additions here. Comments from staff. Again, looking for is this, like, continuing? Does it need to change, pause? Do we need to It's a great

example of what you've already talked about is that there's not a clear delineation between this and the financial strategic planning. And number one, you have to do financial strategic planning. But the purpose of this being in here over the last few years has been that the drinking water is incredibly important. And it's been a council priority. You're all very interested in it.

And I I don't see any reason to to to delete it as a as a separate goal. It stands apart nicely. It represents our interest in South Fork Water Board, in the Abernathy Bridgewater, and I I I think it's fine. We've proposed a couple of additional or changed bullet points in tracking Councillor Groner's question at the beginning. There always were some bullet points. These are slightly modified to represent where we stand right now. We recommend keeping it.

Okay. Staff has recommended keeping it. Does council comfortable with that?

Comfortable. Comfortable? Good.

Okay. Like water.

Alright. Continue. It's still priority. There's work to be done. It's connected also. I think I probably could do a lot of arrows over here. Right?

We can make

It all converges on the financial strategic plan. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

Alright. You guys make make me happy. Alright. For a timing perspective. Okay. Next one, Westland Waterfront Vision.

Again, been a council priority for a number of years. Had some big movement recently that is reflected in, for example, the first bullet, implement the recently adopted Waterfront Vision Plan. Steve Coper and Dylan and and others, I think, have suggested some language in here about the next phase of work. And we added a bullet about the locks, or or amended a bullet, I guess, about the locks. We seal still see a strong councilor role in this project. Given the importance of the waterfront, and it's already come up a number of times today, we recommend keeping this as a priority. Just reflecting that we've done some great work and have a lot more to do. That's our thought.

Alright. That's from council. Continue, pause, elevate, reframe.

Does anybody wanna take this out of the priority list? It's the main thing we've been working on.

The main thing. Awesome. Keep keep moving on. Alright.

I'll just say that I like the changes between the two, the red line, and and so I think we should keep it the way it is. It looks great.

Okay. Great.

We told you this would be a little easier.

Okay. That's well, I

was I was getting a little was sweating just a little bit. So alright. Thank you. Appreciate that. Alright. Next one, vision 43 vision 43 project.

See, now we can slow down again. Now we can get to more debate over

the last know for planning my space.

The vision 43, since it hasn't quite gotten to that next adoption step, is mostly the same. We still feel like it's a council priority. We still feel that having and again, as these are council priorities, we would expect to be coming to council quite a bit with updates and questions, and also that we would ask your involvement outside of the council chamber in in taking this out to neighborhoods, in taking this to open houses, all of that. So our thought is this remains a priority. I I am eagerly anticipating a question you might have on any of these that we could bring Steve up and put him in front of the microphone.

But if that's not the case, Steve will get some time later.

One comment. We've got community advisory group roles. I think, especially on 43, neighborhood association input is important.

Agreed. Councilor Bryke, any thoughts as the Robinwood neighborhood?

Throughout the two plus years that we've been working on this, there have been many, many meetings with the neighborhood associations. No formal vote or approval by the neighborhood associations for continuing on this path. And I would say in the last month or two, we have had a few individuals that are not particularly in favor of it. But I think overall in the thousands of people that we've spoken with that live both in Bolton and Robinwood which are right along the Highway 43 corridor that the majority of the people feel like we can do better and that it can be a nicer place to be. And I think this includes some of those community places.

There's a small piece of property that the city owns on Highway 43 right across from where Cedar Oak Drive hits that could be just nice little bench viewing place and also community gathering. I think that for the most part we're on the right path and it's really gonna come down to the details of the zoning and the requirements for the mixed use and what buildings can look like adjacent to residential properties. Yeah. It's precisely those last

details that we wanna get

input from the neighborhood association. Right. And we had we had a so hitting both neighborhoods but not neighborhood association meetings. We had open houses at the Robinwood Station and at the library in the community room with really pretty great turnout and got a lot of feedback about what the proposed zoning and changes would look like.

I captured it as neighborhood association input. Is that accurate or is it more broader, like input from

It's already on here. It says it in the fourth bullet point of the strategies, ongoing engagement and outreach with neighborhood associations, residents, and commercial property owners. So I think we captured

it Okay. Perfect.

On here already. So yes.

You, everybody. Good good thoughts on that

Alright.

Topic.

Alright. Let's move on environmental protection and sustainable city operations.

This one has similarly been on the list for a while. We've we've added amended each year, as I recall. The the SAB has been certainly a leader in this area. I wanna commend Dylan again for his work supporting the SAB. You've talked with them, met with them.

We are always balancing the feasibility and cost of environmental measures with the benefits, and you have you have given us direction in those lines before. And I think the I think the way this goal is is worded right now reflects that there's a balance there. And also reflects that there's a council role. Although, I see we have phase in LED lighting upgrades at end of life of current lighting. I don't think that's a council role. We can we can put that somewhere else unless you all wanna come in on the weekends and help us with that. I do like I the move think we that one.

Alright.

Yeah. It it is in process. But so if this wants to remain a priority for council, I would say this is probably the one of all of these that has been the least the least amount of time spent by councilors actually in meetings. It's a it's a goal for the city, but it's a little this one's been a little bit less of something that you have said that you have spent time on. So it's it's a little bit of a misfit in here, I would say. But we're not opposed to it.

I would just comment that the existence of the sustainability advisory board and the fact that these are the kind of the goals that we have the sustainability advisory board has communicated kind of in council back and forth to each other council has reinforced kind of like what you're saying. I believe John, if I'm understanding you correctly is that we're already doing this work. So Mhmm. And as director Big John also points out, we're already doing this work. So I don't know if this belongs in here, but I'm certainly a huge champion of environmental protection and sustainable city operations. So

Question for question for the group. Does this city or does the council have organizational or council values, things that guide the way that you make decisions? Because things like environmental sustainability, community engagement, oftentimes, we see those things. Sometimes they initially emerge council priorities, and then as that then they shift more into values, which is this is the way we do business. This is the lens that we use when we're making decisions. So wasn't sure if Westland has the set of values that you use.

Yeah. Well, I was gonna comment that the sustainability part could be included in every one of our goals and things that we if we always include a little bit you know as we're looking at this proposal or this project is there a sustainability component? Can the sustainability advisory board weigh in on that? Can they make recommendations to counsel? It should be kind of baked into everything we do.

Because if not, you a couple of things on the list and you do them and somebody says, how are you doing on sustainability? You go oh remember when we got rid of paper coffee cups or whatever and it kind of stops. But if we look at things with that as one of the lenses then I think we will continually make progress.

And maybe the next item on our priorities is the same, has the same status or so that lends to that discussion.

Yeah. We often see, like, the DEIB coming up as a value too. It's really baked into every all the work that you do. Always looking at that So is this one then is this the type of thing where council wants to just see it stay on the list so we don't lose sight of it? Or is there is it kind of bring up this other topic of broader discussion on if you have it in a value, does it also need to live the the council priorities list?

I like that idea of introducing a values set that's separate from our priorities that we're working on. It makes sense to me.

Do remember the first year we developed this list. There was a little conversation about or else I'm completely dreaming this. But I think there was a little conversation about that some of them would be what and some of them would be how. And there was a sort of there was a talk there was a discussion about great communication and transparency and and environmental sustainability and and and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. It was a little bit of the sort of how we approach things.

We didn't end up doing that, and I'm not even sure that it completely matters, but I do like the I do like the idea of values. Every council business meeting agenda report has a sustainability section and a budget impact session. So there's a little bit of a sort there's a little bit of a window each time they have a decision to make that says here's here's what here's how that's reflected here.

Yes. You've already had that.

We try a little. But there's no statement of values that I'm that I'm really aware of that you've adopted. Other thoughts? And I think Megan had a comment that was a little probably more matter of fact about the environmental piece.

Yeah. Let's make sure we yeah. Make sure we give Megan the direction that she needs.

Hello, everybody. As far as the environmental protection, I wanted to weigh in on a need that's coming and is here now as far as our management of our natural resources and and specifically involving emerald ash borer and Mediterranean oak borer, looking at that community outreach, what the city is going to do on its own properties. And so I just wanted to call that out since it was mostly seeming to focus on sustainability, but that is a real key focus for me this year.

So I'm just trying to gauge it. Are we talking are we wanting to move this priority into something else and take it off the list or keep it on the list?

That's exactly that was exactly my question for this group. Because I I we talked about values and I saw a lot of head nods. But then also I just, again, wanna make sure that we're really clear and following our ground rules of what goes on the list, what comes off the list, that there's either a majority or consent or consensus or majority.

Well, maybe we have an entry at the end that says values and lists these under that category Mhmm. As accounts on our council priorities, but it's not a what. Yeah. So we have a how. Okay. Or it exists separate on a separate but I don't want to eliminate from record kind of out of out of coming out of our discussion today, I don't want to say, well, these no longer exist anywhere written down even if that's how we it's it's our mode of doing business. I think it's important to maintain them somewhere.

Mhmm. Yeah. And to John's point, like, the work is large it's it's largely being pushed forward by staff. And then the the role of the priorities is thinking about what's council's role in that. And so staff is gonna continue to come to you, you know, at points of needing direction or, you know, points of clarification. And so that's not going to stop. So

I just wanna add one more thing that

Sure.

I like what you just said because you brought up staff. I think the values I would like to have them not be just council values. I'd like them to reflect what staff is feeling and thinking and doing also.

So Mhmm.

It it's not just council in our own little silo holding these values.

Mhmm. Yeah. That's other other thoughts in terms of this is the point the question here is, do we want to leave these as written in the council priorities document? They are going to be continuing ward regardless. Or do we wanna keep these here?

I think it's not a bad idea to have a values document which would include these two items, but might actually be a little broader as well. Transparency, for example, being a value. On the other hand, I don't think in this meeting we should be discussing that. So I'm for keeping

those two items. Okay. So keep counselor Bonington, do you want to keep it as written as here or do you want to take it off knowing that its staff is continuing to move it forward?

I'm completely comfortable with with either direction. But if we do keep it in there, I think a third pillar of communication being a value should be added. But otherwise I'm completely confident in your staff.

Not today.

Just taking it forward.

I'm gonna capture here because I think there's a lot of interest. And then it could be that way it doesn't side you know, it's here for now. K. I'm I'm hearing maybe we just we keep keep it to or does any so I can say we can keep it. If anybody doesn't if anyone who wants to see these items removed from the list, let me know. Or if there's more just in comfort in, like, let's just keep it on on here.

If we don't have time right now to finalize how we want them to be maintained, leaving them in is fine with me.

Mhmm. The same.

Okay. I'm seeing head nods. All right. So I'm gonna I'm gonna capture that here as continue. You've got updates, proposed updates. Those look good. John, Megan, have your have your support. They'll continue to come to you as needed, and then it's here just to continue to keep it front and center. Okay. Alright. Let's go to the next one. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Which council president Baumgartner has already pointed out very similar. If we were to have a value statement at some point, this could probably move into there. We didn't actually have any changes recommended at all to this one. So I think it could be exactly exactly as as is. Is.

Well, how would counsel like to move forward on this one? Is this something that you want to keep on the list? Do you want to remove it from the list in knowing that it's gonna move into a values? Something that I mean, they're definitely coming out of this conversation. We can propose a list of values and then staff could come to you at a later council meeting for and you could adopt council values.

That's something where you could start. To your point around making it more broader for staff, doing a figuring out staff's values is usually part of a broader process of, like, a strategic planning process where you are looking more comprehensively at your organizational mission, vision, organizational values, and that process invites staff input too so that they feel like they have their fingerprints on it and that really reflects the way that they do that work. But an immediate next step is that you could adopt something for this council and then there's additional items to explore.

I think until we get to the point of adopting council values or city values that we should leave this on the list. I certainly don't want to ignore this important part of the work that we do.

Okay. I agree.

Alright. So I'm hearing, let's keep it on again to there's no changes from staff. It remains a priority.

Okay. Alright.

So we have six minutes to talk about the operations facility. It's perfect.

Good. And then as you just need that carrot of that break, that extra cup of coffee.

And I do wanna note that we haven't had a ton of discussion or much discussion about like other topics that should be on here that you want added on here. That discussion could be had. So we get through this draft and then see where we stand. But we do propose keeping the operations facility as a goal a little longer, perhaps in a year and a half or so. This could be taken off, but we still believe this is a council priority.

We have recommended some updates based on the status of that project, and it still includes communication with community and some it reflects the planning commission's role in this and the UAB's role. The SAB has provided advice on the sustainability design pieces. We proposed taking that out because now we're moving into construction and land use and construction. And so but we do propose keeping this on as a council goal a little while longer. It's gonna need your attention a little while longer, we believe.

Alright. How does council feel about keeping it as is? I see a I'm seeing thumbs up. I'm seeing head nods. Alright. So we're gonna continue. And there is some proposed, yeah, proposed changes. So we'll say continue continue with updates. And then John asked the question that I was gonna ask. If there's other items or that council would like to bring to a future agenda, or, you know, maybe there's something that needs to be added to this formal list.

Or are there other topics that you want documented to help John and staff guide the development of your agendas and how you spend your time over the next year? Knowing that a lot of this is gonna come up here too.

My my two things.

Okay. Councilor Breiker then then there. You guys got what it's saying.

So I've been talking about this for a while. I would love to explore public use zone for city owned properties. I know that in my neighborhood there's a particular property that's zoned residential that is zoning designation and would be mostly on public owned properties. So we would not be randomly changing zoning on private residential properties outside of the purview of the water front and Vision 43 but we would be looking at city owned properties and changing the zoning designation.

This is for city owned properties? Okay.

Mayor? Oh, I was just gonna say my the two things that I was gonna add on the priority list were already covered under the community gathering space prong of the list, the Parker Road property and then exploring other potential gathering space options.

Exploring. And that would be falling under this piece, this item?

Yeah. 10 the Parker Road property and then exploring other space options, land acquisition.

Okay. I'm writing it down here so I don't forget. Does anybody have a is everybody okay with this kind of proposed edition under under this item? Remember we're

options twice, but okay.

Oh, did I mark okay. Well, for just for the sake of not including not grabbing it. Alright. Everyone feels good with that? Okay. Other items that you were hoping to discuss as part of council priorities or things that you want staff to be able to provide information to for you in future council agendas? Yes.

I have I know we have discussed this before, but annexation of unincorporated properties into city into city limits. Unincorporated properties that are located within city limits.

So islands.

Yes. Also sometimes called islands. I have one more item that I would like to open up the topic of discussion, not to have a discussion right now, but open up the concept. And that it's kind of a big topic, but I would like to explore with staff and council the potential renaming of certain places or creating way finding signage that also notes indigenous names of places within city limits, indigenous name of Willamette River for instance. Just this is a big topic obviously, so and there's a lot of complications to it.

But I'd like to talk about that because naming places is a very privileged act and by its nature is can be exclusive, excluding of other people's histories. So that's some I don't know where to put this, but I'd like to have this discussion at some point.

Let me grab it here.

Thank you for raising that. Interesting point.

Well, started with my interest in renaming Willamette Park, which some people have heard me talk about to notice the Tualatin River as well as the Willamette River in its name. So, Tualamette Park, similar to Clackamette Park. But then I got to thinking Willamette is the colonizer derivation of the indigenous name of the Willamette River, which is Willamette. So it's very interesting to think about.

Okay. I've So I've captured the thoughts here under potential future agenda topics. Other items that you or things you want to discuss before we move to our break? Yes?

I've got two for that. Okay. One being looking at the city's identity branding Okay. And updating that to reflect where we're currently at and where we're going. That's pretty self explanatory. And then the the second one would be creating some sort of community academy or training pool of of future leaders leaders that allows people to get a look at things behind the scenes and potentially give us a really good group of people to select from when making appointments in the future.

Are you referring to like a a citizens academy Yeah. Or governance one zero one or something?

I guess a lot of other cities have them and I think we could benefit from that.

Okay. Perhaps think about internships as well. Okay.

I've seen Wilsonville has a nice Civics Academy, they call it.

Yeah. I was like, that wasn't quite right. Civics Academy. Thank you.

I was thinking Cowell University, but

Academy and then internships. Wear towels. Alright. Well, I feel I feel like the energy in the room, think, everyone's ready for our break. So thank you so much for your time and attention during the priorities. When we come back, we'll shift gears to talk about framing future. Framing the future discussion. Alright? So we'll come back at what did I say? 12:45. At eleven. Alright. Great.

Thank you. Renaming

Is this on now? Okay. Everyone can

hear me?

Okay. All right. Well, we're going to pick back up where we left off. I hope everyone had a really refreshing break, Got got your energy. It's amazing how as a facilitator, you can kinda see the energy in the room. Like, as you get closer to that scheduled break, everyone's like, okay. I really need this time. And then it can be a little challenging to kinda get bring to bring it back in. So I think everyone hopefully, you got a chance to get outside, get a beverage or a snack. We're gonna shift gears a little bit more into this framing our future portion.

And so just also just wanted to thank council for the work that you did in the council priorities. We covered a lot in a short amount of time. And so that really helps staff give what they need to move forward. And then also thinking about all of the work ahead too. So the financial strategic plan remains a priority.

And also, it's going to be the topic of the rest of the day in terms of a proposed approach. Staff, in a moment, I'm gonna invite them to share an overview of the work that they've been doing to provide some context in terms of potential timelines or a narrative or goals around different phases of this proposed approach. Knowing that this is a work in progress, it's not anything that is expected for, like, a rubber stamp approval by any means. That's why we've dedicated so much time in our agenda today to talk about it. And so what we're going to do the so what what we're gonna do between now and when we break for lunch, it's kinda two pieces.

So first, staff's gonna provide an overview of this proposed program approach. If you have any questions around clarity of what they're saying, feel free to ask. If you have other types of questions, know that we're gonna have a really big amount of space to be able to capture that discussion. So while they're talking, I I put them up on the board so that you know the things that we're gonna be talking about. As they're going through the going through that proposed approach, think about what excites you or inspires you about it.

If you have any questions and need additional clarity or if you feel like maybe there's something that's really important that's missing, take you can take notes. I've got I've given you markers and our big sticky notes, or if you wanna take notes in any way that works well for you, keep track of that. And then if there's anything that you're hesitant about or if you feel like it feels there's, like, a risk that we need to be thinking about and how can we mitigate that risk, if you're concerned about any portion of the plan, take note of that too because we're gonna have discussion about that as well. Alright. That's kind of our structure. So at this time, I can invite staff to to come and share share your proposed approach.

Thank you. And given the structure of this retreat, as you just heard, it is so good that you approved having the financial strategic plan be the top priority. Because if that had fallen apart an hour ago, then we would have had to call an audible on what the rest of this entire meeting was about. We have taken your your discussions of this topic for the last half year or so now and created a road map for the discussion ahead. You reviewed this briefly in February early in February at a work session.

Session. But even at the time, I said, and and you asked, that we spend more time on this discussion, because this really is the heart of the matter. We also another reason it's good that you approved that earlier is that we, as a department head team, spent the entire day on Tuesday talking about it. And we had a great discussion. We spent the entire day working on the team and the individual leadership and the work program needed to support this conversation that you've asked us to propose to you.

And I should say that this is, and the first words first words are road map proposal. This does result from conversations you've had, but it is a proposal. And I wanna particularly credit Doug and and Danielle for fleshing out a lot of this, and being willing to talk about the communications aspects of it, the messages, and you'll be hearing quite a bit more about that in the upcoming parts of this discussion. But we did spend time on it as a leadership team earlier in the week. And my ask to that group was that, or my proposal to that group, was this is incredibly important future of our organization.

It impacts every single department, and it is gonna be important to every single department. And so, to reflect the way that we're approaching this as a team, rather than me talking for half an hour about this, you're gonna be hearing from some of our department heads talking about each of this. So we have have Alyssa, Otis, Megan, and Steve who are gonna intro these four parts. Again, this is our proposal to you for how this conversation could take place, and how we would propose to talk about it. And there's a big part of the agenda of this meeting coming up about your role in it.

And so we really wanna make sure that you're invested in it and that it reflects what your needs are. And so that is the extent of what I'm gonna say at the outset of this. And Alyssa has graciously offered, or sort of offered to start us off here, and then she'll turn it over to Chief Rollins.

Well, thank you. I'll just reiterate that the objective here is for this road map is to match the city services with the community's desires and wants, and so we do have a phased approach. I'll be talking about phase one. We have it on here listed as March, so next week. But, obviously, that is open for discussion and direction from you.

So this phase one is really about what we've heard from the council is wanting to start with listening. Before we can talk about budgets, projects, or potentially difficult trade offs, we know the council wants to start by listening. So this first phase is about hearing what matters most from the people who live and work here. Every resident experiences the city differently as a parent, as a business owner, as a senior, commuter, renter, volunteer, and so we want to make sure that we are listening many different avenues as possible. But it's easier to talk about the future when we understand the present, and good conversations start with a shared understanding.

So it's our goal in phase one to make sure that we are providing clear plain language overview services as we currently provide. That will help ensure that everyone has the same understanding, the same starting point. So we will share who we are, what we do, and we will tell our story. And then we will ask the community, what are your expectations and your hopes for the city of Westland services and projects? You'll see that that is kind of the key open ended question that we're gonna be asking.

We're not asking people to solve the budget challenge in this first phase. We're talking about values before decisions. We'll be creating multiple ways to listen and understand the community perspectives. You'll hear later on from Danielle and Doug about a little bit deeper dive into those tools, but we'll be using social media, the weekly email newsletter, print media like our Owl newsletter, which is also coming out really soon, and make sure that we can reach the residents where they already are. And we'll use your westland.gov to gather information, share information, and engage conversations.

We will host or we propose to host a public listening forum or town hall with the city council. We will use all of our communication tools, pull out the whole bag, because there isn't just one tool that's gonna reach everyone. As I mentioned, Danielle and Doug will go over in more depth what some of those tools and mock ups look like. So the goal at the end of this phase will be that staff will carefully review and summarize what we hear from the community, and we will look for themes, shared values, and priorities. And then this summary will be provided to the council to inform the next phase of work.

So success in this particular phase, again it's listed as March as one month, but you know we will will take our direction from you and have a discussion about that. But that that success looks like building trust. It's about making sure that the people feel heard, and it's about grounding the next steps, the next phases with the community's input. Any discussion? Questions?

Yeah. So my understanding is you really aren't talking about fees and taxes until phase two. And I think for many people, they not only have hopes for the city, they also have fears for the city that it will impact them in their budgets. I'm not sure you can immediately just separate that from the benefits. So I have some doubts about waiting till phase two. Yes, people have lots of good items on their wish lists, but unless it's matched by some sort of budget constraints, I'm not sure that's valid.

The way I had originally envisioned that when we were putting this together and brainstorming it was that we weren't hiding reality and we're certainly an open book and willing to answer questions and provide context when people give their feedback about this. But the initial focus should be figuring out what we agree on, what's really important to us before we decide a plan to actually implement that to make that reality and refocus, reset city's direction.

Other

Sorry, here, I'll talk a little louder, so the video can pick it up. I think what we're trying to do is set the tone for the community to understand when you have a conversation with them, that they have a better fuller understanding of all the things we do in the city rather than just specifically focusing on one or two things that may be impacting us but understanding the city works collectively through lots of different spaces and letting the community know what those are and how we are doing about them will help set the tone for the bigger conversations when it comes to resources.

No, I think Doug said that eloquently. Let's ready for the next one though.

I think you raised a good point, Councillor Gurner, you've hit on kind of tension here that we've been trying to discuss our different meetings about how do we kind of roll out a financial planning discussion and not alarm people and just allow people to weigh in and share their thoughts on city services and projects. And then there's obviously budget concerns as well. And that's what everybody is focused on out in the community. So, you know, how how do you kick this conversation off is what we've been trying to wrestle with?

Alright. Thank you. Should we move on to phase two?

Any any other comments from council? Are you is this just overview, and then there'll be time for council for

So we're so we're gonna structure it as just hearing from staff and over overview so that you can receive the information, and then we'll have a structured conversation about these topics too. So if there are any points about about, you know, clarification or something that you may misunderstand about the approach or you wanna just make sure that that's clear, ask that. Otherwise, you can make a note and that we'll we'll capture it. Because I wanna make sure that we the two points that were brought up here, we're gonna capture

those also.

Exactly. And just to point out, sort of here's the preview of the next part, and you've got we've got basically an hour set aside for all of these pieces of, you know, what what could be scary, what could be hard, what could be great. So just let's let's note those.

Before before the chief begins, I just wanna say congratulations on your swearing in, and that was one of the highlights of my week going to that wonderful event. And I note that we've already got the Otis Rollins chief of police placard there already. So they were quick to order that. So that's good.

It's plastic. It's not the paper one anymore.

So Congratulations.

That's good. Thank you. I appreciate everyone everyone who is for making the time to be there on Wednesday. That that meant a lot. So appreciate it. Alright. So phase two. Phase two in our plan is slated for the month of April. And phase two is gonna build directly on what we heard from the community during phase one. The goal is to organize the community input into clear in a a clear list of priorities. And so we're asking three central questions in phase two. First question is, what does the community want? Question number two is, what is that gonna cost? And number number three, how do we pay for it? Right.

So the phase this phase here is all about clarity and context. It's not about final decision making. Right. So what we're doing is we're moving from broad ideas into practical considerations, making sure that the community expectations that we heard about in phase one are aligned with real services, services we provide, real costs, and and real funding mechanisms. Right? We're trying to help ensure that we continue transparency, fiscal responsibility, but just creating an honest discussion about the trade offs between those three main questions. What they want, what it's gonna cost, and how do we pay for it. So phase two. So here's what phase two is and is not. Right?

Phase two is a drafting and organizing phase. It's a financial context discussion. Opportunity to refine and clearly list out priorities and acknowledge the trade offs. And here's what it's not. It's not a final decision making stage.

It's not a commitment to any specific funding methods. And we're not trying to narrow options without public visibility. So I I think that the responsibilities in this phase as far as staff goes, really what we're trying to do is, again, organize a clear list of priorities, structure those so that they're easy to understand, they're thematically grouped, and then just provide a high level estimate of cost and possible funding mechanisms. That's so in short, right, that's what we're doing is we're grouping these things together. It's about alignment. It's about matching vision with reality, and then it's about preparing the community and the council to make informed decisions based on the information that we gather.

Alright. Any questions for clarity purposes on what the chief is presenting?

All right.

Sure I mean so far I'm kind of following this as phase one is the what phase right with the general education phase two is the how phase when we're identifying those real funding mechanisms as Chief Rawls explained. I know it's almost lunchtime, stay with us.

You got good things to look forward to. Alright, Megan's gonna come up and share. Thank you so much. She

Hello everybody, I'm here to talk about phase three and kind of going after Chief Rollins, he was doing the how and this now the next phase is about how we send that information that we've gathered back to the community for review and reflection. Timeline in that is set to be in May and June. And the main goal from this is to be able to make sure that what we've created and put together that the community, it really reflects what their what their priorities are and then share those funding options. As chief Rolland said, it's this is not a conclusion. This is like a check-in with the community and the goal is not to announce decisions but to demonstrate how their voices have shaped the priorities and confirm that we're aligned.

Before advancing further, we take a pause and just double check with them. This reflection again which is pretty neat that the coin phrase of one Westlin, this is really one West Linn in action. What we want to show is that the community voices are shaping the city direction. Leadership means listening and especially before major decisions are made. We want to make sure that our stewardship aligns with what has been asked for and ultimately trying to build that trust and transparency and follow through.

So the way we'll go about doing this is that we will ask to the community, are our priorities correct that we've heard from you? Did we get do we accurately reflect what you told us? Where are we in strong alignment? Or where do we need more clarify clarity or refinement? We wanna make sure that we we've really shown that we've heard them. So we'll be asking that you said and we've heard. The or the the comms team will be working through social media and weekly newsletters as well as working through council sessions and forums and then organizing that feedback that we get from this phase three to be able to move to phase four.

Thank you. Questions for Megan on Phase III? Questions of clarity?

Proposed to occur over July and August of this year. So this phase is about the council taking everything that we've learned up until this point from the community and deciding what should happen next. So the overall goal of this phase is to choose actions that match community priorities while also keeping the city financially stable in the long run. The final plan will explain the decisions clearly, show how community input shape the outcome, and lay out a road map for how the city will support services and projects over time. As far as roles and responsibilities in phase four, the council will look at the big question, what actions do we need to take to meet our community's priorities?

The council will also talk through ideas in work sessions and continue listening to the public and their input. And then by the end of this phase, staff will help the council create a financial strategic plan, which is basically a guide for how the city will spend money responsibly while supporting the things that people care about. So what needs to happen or what does success look like for phase four? That will include looking through all the community input and cost information to find realistic and responsible options that reflect shared priorities. It will also include giving clear direction to staff about what should happen next, both the immediate steps and then longer term strategies.

And then last but not least, success will include creation and publish publication of the financial strategic plan, explaining the priorities, the assumptions behind the decisions, what comes next, all so that the community can see how their voice has made a difference.

Very nice to hear from multiple department heads as part of the process. Good it sounds like a good retreat happened on Tuesday for you all.

It

is really incredibly gratifying to me to see our whole team involved. We we got buy in from the entire team. I think everyone here could stand up and explain why we're doing this and what the importance is to their own department. Because there's not a single department that doesn't have skin in this game. Even our internal departments are, you know, our general fund driven internal departments, have an interest in making sure that we have a stable and thriving general fund suite of services.

And so it's actually incredibly rewarding to me to see that part. At the risk of getting too emotional about that, I do want to switch to what in the world are these? We had a working lunch where we learned how to craft owls out of clay. And the important the reason we did that is that this whole exercise is gonna be about creativity. It's gonna be about doing some things that we don't always do.

It's gonna be about one Westland, which is all of us in it together, but not all of us all of us in it together with the community. And that's what the real together is. Right? So this is a conversation. I love Danielle's phrase of we're all sitting around the kitchen table talking about finances. Right? Ultimately, we're not starting with the finances. We're starting with our values and our shared interests, but it really is a one Westland thing. So it's it's super cool. And we are we are very excited. I'm so happy.

Yeah. Very cool. Thank you. Thank you, staff, for putting such a thoughtful presentation together. I tried to grasp, as you were talking, kind of the the key points of each phase.

I know that you have more detailed information in front of you that staff has really thoughtfully put together for you, but, hopefully, that kind of just serves as a a point to to summarize those the the key points from those phases. And so also, I just wanna acknowledge that, like, there's a lot here. And the point of this this discussion is really just to get a sense of where council is landing on all of this. Staff has put in a lot of work and thought into it, into this proposed approach, and they're anxious to to get your direction to see you know, to answer these questions. What does excite you about this process?

What scares you about this process? Or what or, you know, what what are you concerned about? Because having those honest and open discussions now, there's all of this opportunity built in to be flexible, to adjust to the approach, to add things as needed so that, again, it kind of falls under that theme of one Westland. So you feel like you're all you're all working together and and everybody's playing an important role in that process. So we're gonna have a like, more of a structured conversation so I can gather all of that input because I know staff is so anxious to hear what you have to say about it.

And so what we'll do is I'll start with capturing what excites or expire excites or inspires you about this work. If there's anything that's missing or unclear, let's capture it here. And then if there's anything that's scary, for lack of a better word, risks, concerns, what gives you pause, what makes you kind of hesitate about this, let's capture it here too. Because acknowledging it and talking about it is kind of the first step to figuring out how to fix it and how to move forward. Okay? Does everybody everybody feel good about that structure?

And I I thought it might be valuable just to reiterate sort of what is the after lunch part. So, like, what is this and what is it not? Yeah. How does it tie it counselors know, like, if I have a thing about this, where does it fit in?

Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely. So I so when Sarah gets here in lunch and when she kicks off her part two, that's really a discussion around what does what does your role look like as counsel, and and how does what is staff gonna be doing? What can what can counsel be doing?

And so she'll be leading you in a visioning exercise around thinking about, you know, what are the unique strengths and networks individual counselors to do that robust community engagement piece. So what groups are you already networking with? Who are you connect who are you connected with? What groups are you working in? And how can we kind of plant seeds around what the city is doing in this work to be able to to then to get people to engage and gather their input, knowing that this is a really this is a long process.

It's gonna take a lot of time. And, unfortunately, with marketing and communications, you have to say it five different way at least five different ways, five different times by five different people. And so you as counselors are in strong positions of authority, but also, like, just the connection points that you have with your community members and your constituents. People look to you, and so having a conversation around what that might look like. I'll share just a small example.

We're working with another community and developing a strategic plan. And as part of that process with the community engagement, we're doing a survey to gather input. We're having a we're doing staff was working so hard, doing a lot of different mechanisms to try to get people to answer the survey or participate and give their input. And then we decided to do a friendly competition with counsel, and we made custom links to the survey and gave each counselor a custom link and a little quarter page flyer and said, let's have a friendly competition. Whoever can get the most survey responses, you know, gets bragging rights.

And it was pretty amazing. Between all of them, they got more than half of the total survey responses, and it changed the demographics of who we heard from. So traditional methods or what staff was doing was hearing from one portion of the community. But you just you wield a lot of influence in your perspective, and it's really valuable. And so with this goal of this really robust community engagement, thinking about, you know, what role can you play?

What strengths can you bring to it? So Sarah's gonna be working through that discussion with you and hopefully to bring clarity to, you know, what is council doing in this in this space, what is staff doing, so it's really, really clear. And then also it brings the question up is, like, are there areas where you might need additional support or help to be able to advance your goals together so that you really get it that you get it right because so much is in so much is going into this effort to get it right. And then staff can come back and share a little bit. They touched on proposed timelines.

It's just a proposal at this point, really looking to get your input in terms of what feels right in terms of timing. And then thinking about that will help inform kind of the the next steps about how how we put this plan together. So that's about did I miss anything, John? Danielle?

I'm since we've gone over some of the the what has been proposed, would it be helpful for counsel for me to speak a little bit about the how of the communications portion of this now rather than after part two where we are getting into more specific examples and resources? I could do like a quick overview if that's helpful for the discussion.

That would be helpful I think and I just have to say if we did that sort of competition where each counselor got their own link I don't think any of us could compete with counselor Bonington. We'd have to be like in golf where we'd get some some strokes on him to start.

Oh, I would recuse myself.

It would only be fair. It would only be fair.

He'd get way too many link way too many views versus us.

Okay. Okay. Well, in all fairness, there was one counselor that got like 700 they just got like seven seven hundred of the of the of this 1,800 responses.

Can you introduce us?

Sure. You have a looks like a like minded

I just had to make that joke because he's doing a great job on the Facebook engagement with the community. You you could add whatever you'd like to the conversation Danielle. You're our community relations coordinator so that's gonna be a key role in this whole community engagement endeavor.

Well, that's true, but it really does take a village. And I wanna echo what John said about staff being all in on this, all hands on deck. I think I was really impressed and grateful for the attitudes that everybody took at the retreat and trying to embrace this. And we're all affected by it. The whole community is affected by it.

So we need to be in this together. So just to speak really briefly about the brand of framing our future and what we're trying to how we're trying to shape this conversation. As the city looks ahead to this series of decisions over the coming years there is an opportunity to ground those conversations in a consistent values based framework. A strong brand framework is not a slogan. It is a way of organizing how the city explains why services are needed, what they support, and how individual decisions fit together over time.

The goal is clarity and consistency rather than persuasion. This framework is intentionally study and inclusive. Framing our future emphasizes responsibility, continuity, stewardship rather than any kind of urgency or crisis. It reinforces that this work is about both maintaining the services and spaces residents value today and planning responsibly for future needs. This framework is broad enough to apply across departments and topics, flexible enough to evolve over time, and aligned with the one West Lin ethos of shared responsibility and collaboration.

A central purpose of this framework is to guide how the city communicates with finances about finances with clarity, honesty, transparency, and collaboration. Under framing our future, the city commits to explaining how finances work in plain language, connecting funding decisions directly to services and outcomes, and being clear about constraints and trade offs. Phasing conversations to avoid surprise or fatigue, the four phase approach is intended in part to help with that, and inviting understanding and dialogue before decisions are finalized. This approach is intended to build trust over time and support informed community engagement. As additional needs are evaluated including facilities infrastructure staffing sustainability long term capital planning whatever else council may find on their desks framing our future provides a consistent lens for discussion.

It allows individual decisions to be understood as part of a coordinated transparent approach rather than isolated actions. This framework also creates space to explore potential strategies over time without presuming outcomes or timelines.

You, Danielle. Alright. Does that help kind of provide a little bit additional context? Okay. Well, let's kick off our discussion. Just first off, I want to gather initial feedback about how this plan is landing with you and what excites you about it or what feels inspiring or excites you. We're going to start with that. Don't worry, we'll have all the space for all of the feelings.

Well, I absolutely love this approach and going back to my career finance in government, the timing on this couldn't be better because provide a pathway in creating the next biennial budget. So all of this information should be consolidated, discussed, approved before that budget process gets started. So that's great. And I know the education part is really important. Part of that has to include what's non negotiable.

We have to be able to deliver water to people's homes 20 fourseven. So there are things that we have to spend the money on no matter what. And there's also that communication about you can't say well we wanna take the street money and we want to build more park facilities. So those are the kinds of things you know, with my finance and governmental budget brain that I think of, that the public doesn't necessarily look at the way we spend money or the funding that we have in that way.

Okay. So the timing feels really good, especially given the budget development, and then having that community education on what the city has to do and how pays for it, because it is complex. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. What else comes to mind?

Perhaps this is in risks and concerns, but I think the citizens of West Linn have many levels of engagement with the city. For some, it's yeah. They'll read some headlines or they'll hear their neighbor talk about it. And that's about their source of information. Others will look at our whatever 120 page budget document and peruse it carefully. And there are a lot of people in between who might read an article or public media articles. And I we think have to address all those publics.

Mhmm.

So one of the items I when I was working as an engineer, we used to talk about elevator pitches, which is about a one minute summary of a project or or an issue. And I think we have to have that level as well as the more detailed levels of communications.

Okay. So various levels of engaged public need to reach all.

Thank you so much Councilor Rohner for bringing up that point. I think that's really important to meet people where they're at even if that is at many different different levels of engagement. I think one thing we're going to want to do, and we can talk about this a little more in part two today, is mobilize some ambassadors, some citizen ambassadors, to have the power to talk amongst themselves, to talk directly to the city, to be able to easily share snippets, sound bites, bits of information and news in each of their own circles. We really do need to depend on the entire community to talk to each other in having this conversation in order for us to be able to to fully hear the whole community about where they're at.

Thank you. Yeah. Councilor Groner, can I put you on the spot? Are you what excites you or inspires you about this proposal?

No. I I think this whole process, I I agree with councilor Bryke, is the right process of kind of gradually building public consensus to what we must do.

Thanks. Just trying to make sure everybody we hear from everybody.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Go ahead. Go ahead. President.

Thank you. I really appreciate the input, especially from Danielle about kind of how you framed this campaign of information outreach. I've also been thinking about ways that I can help specifically. Sometimes I ask myself am I doing enough about taking this role and utilizing my voice and my listening skills. So I'm excited about making a plan of engagement and being a part of it and reading all of the steps along the way is exciting to me.

Absolutely. And I'll say to counselor Groner's point too, like there's connection there. So people receive their information, they engage in different ways. And so whether it's a citizen ambassador or counselor, who are they hearing information from? Are they reading it, seeing it on social media, attending an event, having a conversation? Like, there's just a lot of great ways to be able to to connect with people. Doug? Yeah. I'll share mhmm. Yes.

And so yeah. So that's kind of that visioning exercise that that Sarah will be guiding you through around, okay, what, you know, what strengths or what networks or what can I do? What excites me? What do I feel comfortable with in this process? And exploring that little bit more and sharing that together. Alright. Who else haven't we heard from in terms of what excites or inspires you?

I can go to if you want a minute.

I mean,

obviously I love the plan because it helped make it, but you guys took a seed of a concept and presented it so much better than I ever could have. And that was really special to watch you present that in that way. So thank you for that. Obviously, I'm fully in support of it. I think it's the main benefit to it is that it it approaches it like a conversation with a friend or family not coming in heated and alarmed and triggering all of the same kind of defense mechanisms that you might otherwise see in a similar situation in another city.

It helps us get on the same page about what we all can agree on rather than starting it off by bickering and fighting and arguing over things that don't move us forward. So I I really like that particular approach and it's very much in line with our commitment to engagement and really making decisions as a big twenty seven thousand six hundred and one person family.

Feels and like the subtext of that is like it just feels really transparent and inclusive. Do think that would be a good summary?

Okay. I didn't want anyone to be able to come back later and say, well, I wasn't part of this. Everyone should have the ability or the opportunity to weigh in even if they don't have a deep level of knowledge about the city. Just you don't to have a well educated opinion to be part of this for the phase one and then we take it from there.

Yeah. That's like the last that's like the last thing you wanna hear after you go through a huge event, huge campaign and initiative where it's like lots of dollars, lots of people, lots of time and effort. And then for someone in the community, like, what are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about. And so this is probably one of the most comprehensive approaches to creating a strategic financial strategic plan that I've seen.

And

so, hopefully, that will help with that. But, again, it's like kind of laying the groundwork for a really successful effort, though it will take will will take everybody working together and and doing it in a bunch of different ways. Thank you for sharing. Alright. Who haven't we heard from?

Remy? Oh, you went first.

First Yeah. Okay.

Well, I have two things that I'm that is exciting. First of all, hearing from a very broad group of the community, like broad community engagement, you know, getting out of our usual channels and trying to engage with a large swath of the public. And we want to hear from everybody, but hopefully we'll hear from as many people as possible who wanna participate and share what they wanna see from the city. That's one. And two is just being proactive about these conversations and not waiting until we get to a situation like we've seen other cities have to go through, you know, budget deficit, budget cuts, and then they get to that point.

And then they have to go through these really difficult conversations and make rash and quick decisions that aren't good for their city. But the proactive approach we're taking to these conversations, gathering data, engaging the community in a positive way is good and is exciting.

Does the word proactive then?

Yeah. Proact. Just being proactive about these conversations.

Very much. And in fact, I think it it's a credit to staff that we are able to identify this before it becomes a problem. And if if anyone's looking at it and going, oh the city's messing up again. No, that's the exact opposite of what's going on here. And we have this gift, this advantage of being able to solve the problem before it becomes a problem and we should take advantage of that clearly.

I really think that's a credit to this council and John likes to say you know this is a slow building, this is an opportunity right that's And we want to make sure that the public understands that this is an opportunity to realign their values and the services we offer before we are having those conversations about cuts and before something is a crisis. So we want to make sure from a communications perspective that they're well aware that those are our intentions and that we're glad to have this conversation together now as soon as we can.

I'd like to add something to the exciting part of this. And first of all, I'd like I was so happy that councilor Breck started off with the this is the the timing is perfect. I think I think all of you as counselors have an amazing through line story to tell about this conversation, is that immediately following the adoption of the last budget, during that adoption, you asked for this conversation, and you wanted to move forward to more substantive discussions. You spent spent fall. You had two workshops in the fall and spent council time in the off meetings talking about all of this, and now are potentially launching this public project.

So that more than one year in advance of adopting the next budget, right, I think is really, really important. And I've been describing it internally as as we're, hey, we're adulting here. Like, we're actually taking on a hard conversation earlier than the emergency time, which is which is really great. The the thing that I would like to add to the excites or inspires, and maybe this is just my thing, but I I am so proud of this organization. And these early phases and all the way through have an opportunity for tell for us to tell the story that I've been describing as who we are and what we do.

And I I just couldn't be more excited about it. Like, I wanna clear off everything else off my desk and just spend the whole next year talking to the community about what it is we do. You've already seen, like, just just in the last couple of days, you've seen some awesome communications from the police department with the information. And it's just the tip of the iceberg, I think, about what we're gonna do. And it's gonna be so fun to tell our story. And I'm looking forward to it because I think we have a lot to be proud of, and that's that's built into this work program.

Mhmm. And so I have a little thread that I noticed too. Councilor Bonington, when you talked about, like, a civ civics engagement or civics academy or governance one zero one or just more, know, general increase of awareness or understanding about, you know, what does the what does the city do? Who are we? That's really exciting. And that pays dividends not just for this process, but just kind of as an ongoing to have a really engaged and informed and well educated public in terms of what the city does and and, you know, where other responsibilities lie. Alright. So we've captured that. What about let's move over to what do you feel like it might be missing or is unclear? Where do you where are points where you need more clarity?

Something that might be missing. Let's just go around the circle so we hear our our u shape. Can start. We'll start with councilor Bonnyton.

This was intentionally left big, at least on my part, and I assume staff continued that theme. But the actual timeline of how we go about this is not, I mean none of it has to be set in stone or anything, but specifically that when we move forward with each phase, what the result of that is, if we have to put something on a ballot when that happens, that is unclear and missing, but kind of by design.

Yeah, staff any comments to share in response to that?

You have it partly on the agenda. We want we laid out a work program that is short for a government program, six months long. A phase being a month is actually incredibly fast. It may not be the right timeline. We set it up so that actually it was a thing that happened, and that in half a year we had an action plan.

If the community, if the council, if all of us need more time for any of this, that can happen. But the other the other driving mechanism, the other driving piece for the timeline was August is the required it's the drop dead date for putting something on a November ballot. If any piece of this wants to be on a November ballot, it would be in August that you would send it, so you would need this. If that is not a driving timeline, then it gives us all more time to do this. Not that I would really wanna draw it out, but, you know, phase one could be sixty days, could be forty five days, you know, before it starts moving into phase two.

But we'd be happy. And there's some timeline parts coming up later in the afternoon, I think, Ashley. Which is, you know, and we we can place some things on there to just to just to get those in our head.

I