Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right. Good morning, everybody. I'm going to open up this formal session of the Yamh Hill County Board of Commissioners at 10:00 a.m. And I would ask that Commissioner Sarah lead us in the flag. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for that. Item C is our calendar session. Is there any changes that need to be made?

No, I think so. Okay. D is public comment. If you're online, raise your virtual hand. If you're in the audience, raise your hand and fill out one of these TAN cards. Right now, I will call up um Phil can you uh Bailey, can you get them some cards to fill out, please? Uh at this time, I'm going to ask Rebecca Wallace to come up uh to start off our public comment period. name and address, please. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Rebecca Wallace. I'm from Newberg. I need to put my glasses on because I'm getting older. I want to publicly thank Commissioner Kit Johnston for identifying grant opportunities that can benefit Yamh Hill County and for helping make sure those opportunities are not ignored. For months, there's been a steady stream of campaign rhetoric from candidates running against Kit and from Commissioner King when he ran and currently claiming that grant money is being left on the table. That line has been repeated enough times that some may assume it is true. But now we have an opponent of Kit Johnston acknowledging that this board does in fact pursue and bring home grants that are utilized by the county. That acknowledgement matters. It shows that the campaign narrative has not matched reality. The county does pursue grant funding and I hope county administration will continue to make sure those opportunities are applied for when they're available and brought to their attention by county commissioners. Commissioner Johnson deserves credit for doing the kind of work that brings those opportunities forward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Welcome. Uh, name and address, please.

Thank you. Uh, John Linder, 836 Northwest Wintergreen Drive, McMinnville, Oregon. And uh so this is in reference to a past meeting where there was a brief read into the record uh by one of the commissioners. I believe it was the chair. Uh and I noticed um a pattern. I noticed a pattern that the name of this law firm that wrote the brief was actually quite familiar. This is a lawyer that costs $495 an hour. Let's call it 500. Uh there was a no bid contract for this particular piece of work. The work was conducted over less than a week and the total bill was over $14,000. So, I noticed the name. It was a Kellington law firm, Wendy Kellington. So, I I wondered, well, how how was that so familiar? Oh, this is the law firm that sued the county. Uh, and they had sued the county and represented big donors of two of the sitting commissioners. So, I looked up the contract and the contract had to do some serious gymnastics to get over the conflicts of interest that are inherent in a law firm representing the county that had sued the county and is currently representing interest groups within the within the county and which is rep are representing uh elements in the county that are big donors. to current commissioners. So,

uh I guess it's an analogy I'd like to draw between, I don't know, a doctor that is sued for malpractice and that doctor saying, "You know what? I'm going to engage that lawyer." That would never happen. Okay? You'd never see that. Right, wrong, or indifferent. It's just untored. And so I think this pattern of engaging friends and donors and donors lawyers and giving sweetheart contracts and ultimately uh you know feeding friends and family is something that should be examined in this race. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We had one Excuse me. We had one other, please. All right. Thank you. Um, if you're online, raise your virtual hand if you have public comment. Seeing none, and that's it for the audience until an agendum item. Uh, we are going to move on to item E, which is department updates. And we have our county clerk, Carrie Hinton, join us. Thank you. Good morning committ and staff. Good morning.

So, sorry. Okay, I'll wait. Proceed.

So, of course, the most uh happening thing right now is that we are exactly 40 days away from the primary election in May. Um, so we're in the middle of all of the pieces moving at once. So, as of this morning, we have 78,58 active registered voters. Um, and typically in a May election, we don't see a large voter turnout. We hover right around 40% in a primary. Um, but we are anticipating a much higher turnout this time due to measure 120 that was moved from the November ballot to the May ballot. So once again this year um we are offering um observer training. Uh we have scheduled additional training for staff and volunteers as some of our election workers have not worked in elections since last May. So it's been a whole year and so we like to refresh everyone. We do refresher training before every election but especially when it's been after an odd year. Um, so we are also this year offering additional training to cities because there are some rule changes that took place and we want to make sure that we're all on the same page. And I don't know if anyone has looked at the calendar, but um, as of June 3rd, uh, city offices, you can file for a city office as early as June 3rd for the November general election. So, we want to get out there and make sure that everyone is on the same page and we're following the same calendar and everybody knows what to do. trying to make it easy for candidates to file, too. So, because it gets really confusing, they come to us and we're like, "No, you have to go to the city to file." The city says, "No, you got to come back to the county to file for the voters's pamphlet." So, there's a lot of moving pieces and if you're a new candidate, you don't you don't have know the ropes yet. So, um so we're also uh adding additional security measures to our May election. Um there's just been an increase of threats to election

offices and so we are um adding additional security and layers of security to try to just do what we can to be prepared. Um so last week as most everyone knows the president signed an executive order uh which has caused much fear and concern to voters and just kind of all around. Um but as you know clerks we are not policy makers. We rely on established laws um existing court rulings and then state authority over the administration of elections. So as developments continue to happen we will be sure to keep the public informed. Um if any changes occur, they will be the first to know and how that impacts them. But our top priority right now is to focus on the May primary and to ensure it is safe, accurate, and fair. Um, and as of right now, since um, the executive order is being challenged in court, we are moving forward as normal so that we can make sure that we get this election off without a hitch. Um, regarding um the executive order though, one thing that I do want to note is that Oregon is already using barcodes to uh track every ballot that's issued. So, we are in compliance with that part of it so far. So, that's good. um we'll just continue to stay alert and vigilant with um all of the proven election processes we already have in place and that way we'll make sure that we have a good May election and it will be it'll be fine. So, um, one of the things that, um, I like to do when I come right before elections to remind everyone of all the timelines. And I know it's just a flurry of dates, but the last day to register to vote or change your party is April

28th. So, if anybody public or anyone is listening, make sure you're paying attention to that date because after that, you can't change your mind on what party you're in for the May election. Um, so we're already experiencing uptick in voter registration changes and uh we expect to see that continue clear up until the last day. So last Friday we made we mailed ballots out to our military and overseas voters. Uh absentee voters were uh those if you're going to be gone during the election, you can come in and request an absentee ballot. Those were made available u Monday. that was the dead the day we could start handing issuing those. Um, out of state ballots will be mailed on April 20th. So, if you are just going to be gone for a couple of weeks and you have maybe you're in Arizona for a few weeks and you have a a residence there, we can mail it there and you can use your residence here so that you can vote. Um, all of the main mailing of the ballots will begin on April 29th. That is also the day that we open all of our drop sites up so people can drop off voted ballots. And voter pamphlets should start to be mailed the week of April 20th. And those are mailed to every residents in Yamill County, but only active registered voters are mailed a ballot. So people will get a voter's pamphlet who may or may not be a voter because they're mailed to every residents. It's just a cleaner, easier way for us to get those mass distributed. Um we are many we are one of many counties that insert our portion of the voters's pample into the states and so our portion is already online. You can view that at any time. Um but the state one is not quite ready and but as soon as it is there will be a link on our website. So you actually could have access to that information before the voter pamphlets are even mailed out. So if people want to go look for that they can. So, one of the things that we are always trying to do is we're always

trying to educate voters and improve our website and access to information um for both voters and even just regular customers that come into our office because we offer a lot of other services. But um this election we are we've worked really closely and we've worked really hard for the last couple of months here with it to get an election dashboard put up on the uh website. So, that will be going live at the end of this month. Um, this is going to track ballot activity and it's going to track how many ballots we're getting returned each day, how many we're accepting. Um, recently the state was able to provide um a way for us to track the ballots that we challenge the signature on. So that means it a signature didn't match or it means that you forgot to sign your ballot. uh they we now are able to report the ones that we actually are able to cure or resolve. We call it curing, but it's cure or resolve that ballot. So, you'll be able to see that number kind of move. You may look one day and it'll say, "Oh, there's a hundred ballots that are not, you know, that have a missing signature or are not matching." And then you'll see the numbers of the ones that are being cured going up because that means people are getting back to us. We send uh letters out the same day. Um but they're getting back to us and they're resolving those issues so that we can meet that three-week period after the election. They have three weeks to cure their ballot. We can meet that period and still process their ballot and count it. So, we're really excited about the election dashboard because it's something that just an average person can look at and be like, "Oh, look, look what they're doing and this is how many voters we started with and this is how many ballots we've gotten so far." And I think it will just be something that's user friendly that anyone can understand. So, um, we will also be conducting our public certification test of the vote tally system. We call that our logic and

accuracy test on April 27th at 9:00 a.m. Um, and more details can be found on our website about that. Um we cannot conduct um an event of this magnitude without um our volunteers and staff and the dedication that they bring to this process and the integrity that they show and making sure that the process is just everything is followed strictly. Um and their hard work and dedication play a crucial role in every election, but even more so in an election where we're expecting a lot more turnout. So they we are very fortunate to have good volunteers and wonderful staff that make sure all this happens and everything happens like clockwork. But in two weeks I'll be back to present our budget. So I will save some of that conversation for then. But again, we are seeing counties being expected to bear the brunt of election costs. Um with the uncertainty of what is being proposed at the federal level, we will continue to have these unknowns and unfunded mandates. So, talk more about that in two weeks. But in other news, um our property recording alert service program is going wonderful. We have over 900 people signed up to um monitor their activity. Um we continue to be on the alert for fraudulent documents, but they are popping up around us and in other states definitely, but around us and we are being as vigilant as we can. Um, our concern is not just it's not just our concern now. It's title companies, lenders, uh, we're seeing other agencies who are detecting fraud that's then spilling over into the deed records. Um, and so while we do our best to stay vigilant and help in any way our can, any way we can, our office does not have the legal authority to determine the

validity or the authenticity of a document submitted for recording. Um, under Oregon law, if a document meets the statutory recording requirements, we are required to record it. So, um, in the last short session, um, the clerk's association, uh, was talking with, uh, Senator Gerard and he had in introduced a bill that didn't gain any traction. But we are continuing to work with him because there is changes that need to be made to law to help face this situation. And while it would be great to have things in place that would just stop it from happening completely, there is the chance and it has already happened where something has slipped through. And so we are also focusing um on getting as many partners and as many other agencies and title companies, assessor's office, everyone at the table to really shape something that would work for Oregon. And we want to also look at the back end of things when it does happen. So when it does happen, what do you as a property owner do? Where do you go? What resources are available to you? How do you resolve this? How does it how can you get this quickly reversed? And those are the things that we are really pushing for because when it does happen, it's devastating and it costs tens of thousands of dollars just to get through the court systems. So hopefully we'll have more news for that in the next session, legislative session. and hopefully something will materialize and we'll be able to really help people out when that does happen. Um, we are also in the process of getting our veterans ID program revived. So, we're reaching out to businesses. We've contacted pretty much everyone to make sure our list is up to date. We've also um ordered new stickers for their windows so that they can be a proud

sponsor of our veterans ID program and veterans can look for that and go, "Hey, this is a business that participates." So, we're very excited about that. Um, we had a successful PAVEAB session that um it just wrapped up this month, so that was good. Um, our civil ceremonies are up, but passports are pretty slow. Recording is static and staying fairly flat. Um, and um, the digitizing of our oldest records is almost finished. So, they've had our records for a few months now, and we're almost ready to launch that out. And I would have loved to have come in a month or two so I could show you how it all works, but next time I'll show you how it all works. But I think that hits all the high notes. Do you have any questions?

Questions for Carrie? I do. Uh, couple of things. The uh voter pamphlet statements, my understanding is is that not every county provides one. Is that true? Not every county uh produces a voter's pamphlet. That's true. So those are very expensive. So in terms of the cost for printing and mailing that comes out of your bottom line. There's no state um you know resource for that. No, there is not.

Okay, that's good to know because I was I was really surprised to hear that you know Yamhill County does but other counties don't. So, thank you for that and and thank you for the um um for the update on just addressing the fact that there's a lot of fraud out there, you know, uh title fraud. The other question I had was uh audits. Um I just remember year after year there has been a um a clean audit every year coming out of the Yamh Hill County um clerk's office. I remember when Secretary of State Dennis Richardson came and was really very impressed. So, can you give us an update on the clean audits and your work with the Secretary of State's office in terms of um fidelity, accuracy, and and their involvement with your office?

So, we continue to um provide all of the reports and all of the checks and balances that we do to the Secretary of State when an election is finished. obviously and then they are always, you know, overseeing kind of what we're doing. Um we also are part of a pilot program right now for a risk limiting audit that went very well last year, but we um due to the timing of launching that and then rolling it out to all counties, I don't believe we were able to pull that off for May. Uh counties can do the risk limiting audit. if you participated already, we can do it again, which I plan on doing. But, um, rolling that out to all counties is something that the state is looking at because that is a statistical a scientific statistical sampling of ballots that has been proven time and time again to um ensure that the hand count versus the machine count was accurate. So, we participate in that. We also do pre and post audits. We also do the logic and accuracy testing pre and post election. So all of those things are maintained and those are reported to the state each time that the audit results. We um are trying to work with some other counties that well counties are trying to work together because we post our audit letter that we get and that shows that everything was fine. Um but then you know as we get into the next election that kind of gets buried and so we're trying to find a better way to leave those results up so that people have more access to those so they can see that for themselves and how often we're doing it

complicated and very uh very critical work. So thank you for all you've done and your team. Do we see any particulars with the deed and title fraud that come in that we can use like as a public service announcement of hey this is what the scammers are using or doing maybe a process or is it still too new to really know

they get tricky. I do know that. But uh for the most part uh what we're what we've seen recently is cutting and pasting again which was apparent in the very beginning. It's an old trick, but they've revived it somewhat. Um, one thing that we're noticing right now, which we just had a big meeting with the state about with the notary division of the state is, um, notary fraud.

So, we are watching notaries very, you know, it used to be back in the day, uh, one thing you would hear clerk's offices say is we're not the document police. Well, in a way we aren't because you should know what you're presenting for recording is accurate and it's correct. But now we're having to look at more components of that document. It used to be if you saw a notary, you were like, "Okay, they got it notorized. That's a requirement. Move on." Now we're looking at them. And so there is a way now for us to report those to the state, which we have been doing. I think I've reported seven in the last two months. Wow. Do those title lock services do anything?

So, I've been told that the title lock services um you need to read the fine print of what you're agreeing to and paying for because that sometimes some of them offer some legal assistance if something happens to your property. I don't know what that all entails and I don't know how in-depth they get with that or how, you know, are they going to represent you in court or are they just going to help you out with a capped amount of legal fees. Um, but you should read the fine print with those because some of them do offer that component. Otherwise, they are just a alert system like what we offer.

Okay. Thank you. the voter pamphlet statements um as the commissioner said comes out of your budget. Uh you do charge for those, right? How much what is the difference between the you know how much more do you have to make up? I'm assuming that um it depends. So, um when we have a voter's pamphlet has a lot of arguments in it. Yeah. That usually helps make up the difference because those are costly to put in. They can be up, you know, 400 bucks, 300 bucks each. So sometimes we almost break even in those cases. Okay.

In the years where we are able to insert it into the states pamphlet, the cost to produce it is significantly less in a special district election and in a special November election. That whole cost we don't ever break even on those because it's us having to do all the

mailing, postage, printing. We don't get any discount for much of a bulk mailing. And um if you can clarify one thing for me because I've heard it kind of both ways and I've always wondered when you're curing ballots, can you cure your ballot when you notify um John Smith? You know, if he mailed in his ballot on the 29th or 30th and it signature didn't match, can he come to the clerk's office and cure it before the 19th or does he have to wait until after the 19th?

Nope. They can come anytime. We we like to send letters out as soon as we know. So as soon as you get that letter, it's in the curing. It's waiting to be cured. So you can come down before or after. You just have to have it done by three weeks after the election. Yeah. If you come in the day after that, I can't can't help you. Right. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Well, as usual, we appreciate what you and your team do and uh we understand you're under the gun for May 19th. So, thank you, Carrie. Thank you. Have a good day. You too.

All right, that brings us to F, our work sessions. And first up is 1A and it's a work session and planning department update on ordinance amendments for roads and exception areas. Welcome, Mr. Friday. Thank you.

Um, good morning. Just as background, in February, Clay Downing uh with CPRD requested that the board direct the county staff to complete zoning ordinance text amendments to add language permitting roads, highways, and other transportation improvements as use as a permitted use in certain zones. In response, the uh board asked for this update. Um, since this is a work session to discuss an ordinance that was tabled on June 22nd, 2023, uh, any deliberation on the specific amendments would need to be held at a future hearing. Um, the direction I'm seeking though today is whether the board wants our office to schedule that hearing on this issue. And the issue is fairly straightforward. uh when language was adopted in the farm and forest zones uh to allow roads and transportation facilities there was no corresponding addition of similar language to the exception areas uh in a remand regarding the west uh cider trail of appeals noted that transportation facilities were not listed as a permitted or conditional use in certain zones that the trail proposed to traverse. Uh the decision specifically noted that it was not allowed in the AF10 zone, the egg forestry small holding district. Uh and in that district and in other exception uh zones, it says uses of land and water not specifically listed in this section are prohibited. So the the takeaway is that uh roads would not be allowed in those zones. Uh the other exception areas listed um didn't contain that language. Um for these reasons I proposed uh in 2023 to incorporate transportation facilities in those zones. Um uh in April of uh 2022. So I guess I propose in 2022. Uh the planning commission reviewed the uh language and

decided to recommend adoption uh of the language as a permitted use in the parks recreation open space district uh the rural residential districts of VLDR and LDR. the public assembly institutional district and then add uh the roads as a conditional use in the mineral resource district, rural residential district of AF10 uh commercial districts of recreation commercial, neighborhood commercial and highway commercial and the industrial districts and the public works safety district and the public airport and landing field district. The board considered the planning commission's recommendation at the hearing on October 27th and then again on November 10th of 2022. Uh and on November 10th, the board voted to send the issue back to the planning commission for some further clarification. The planning commission again reviewed the issue at their hearing uh and ultimately voted to return it to the board of commissioners with no additional recommendation and it went back to the board on June 22nd of 2023 and the v board at that time voted to table the issue. Uh when the board tabled the issue it wasn't to any sort of date and time certain. So, uh, in order to bring this back, uh, if the board decided to do that, it would entail scheduling a hearing, printing a notice in the newspaper, and sending out notice to interested parties. And I I think the list of interested parties was about 50 people. Uh, and basically, I'm here to ask, are you wanting me to untab this?

I have one question. So, if if the board did decide to send it back to the planning commission, would public testimony be necessary? Uh, it's not necessary. Um, they've already taken testimony, but uh if you were sending it back to the planning commission uh for them to further look at, they could take testimony if they wished. So, it's optional and it's up to them. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. and it's already been back to them once already, if I understand that correctly. Um, and they and they tied uh on a recommendation and so then they voted I think it was 8 to zero to just forward it onto the board without any further recommendation,

right? And we'd have to have a public hearing anyway to address it our our level. Um, quick question. Uh, broad statement of VLDR zone. Um, I think we capped it the recommendation at 2 five I think just just for clarification. Um and we can correct that later. I think it's just a minor. We do have a public comment on this. So uh do you guys want to hear that public comment now or do you want to wait? Concern about public comment is this needs to go to a hearing and this is not um not noticed as a hearing. Okay. And so I would advise you not to take public comment because it it's not fair to the other folks that would have maybe been here to hear that. Okay. So,

do you get that, Ed? Okay. So, we're just going to we're going to table public comments on this and then it doesn't preclude you from coming next week and doing it just during general public comment when it's no longer on the agenda though. But since it is on the agenda, we'll have to table it for now. So, we do apologize for that. So there would be no deliberation at this point by the board other than to say whether or not whether we want to handle this with that. Got it. Okay. Well, I would make a motion to uh send it back to the planning commission. Is that

I think the the ask is that do we want to deal with this at the board level? It's already been back to the planning commission. Do we want to have a public hearing to address this and then start the honor in and start tweaking what it looks like? And it it does not have to go back to the planning commission. you can decide to have it go back to the planning commission, but it can just be brought back forth uh before the board of commissioners. Okay. So, so since it's not it's it's not mandatory that the planning commission see this again, then I would recommend that the board hold a hearing and and make a decision. Yeah. You need consensus or Yeah. motion. I think consensus is I think consensus is

so and I good. Yeah. Okay. So, sounds like we have consensus to do that. I agree. Also, um but timing wise, what are you thinking? Uh probably about four weeks to uh get the notice in and and get it out to the um the interested parties. Okay. And departmentwise, staff-wise, you're okay with that? I think so. And if there's a person who comment, I'd like to get their address so I can make sure that they're on the list. Okay. Okay.

Yep. We'll get Ed on the list. Um, and then, uh, we do know that this is related to partially related to CPRD. So, we do want to make sure that we do push it along in a fairly, uh, reasonable manner for them because they're sitting in the wings waiting in anticipation. So, all right, we have consensus on that one. Uh, let me Thank you, Ken. Thanks, Stephanie. Thanks, Tiffany. Thank you, guys. And again, we apologize for that, Ed, for not being able to comment on that, but definitely come back next week. Thanks.

If you want. All right, that brings us up to item 1 F1B, which is a work session regarding updating the Yamhill County zoning ordinance to reflect state law or administrative rule.

Okay. Uh we have a batch of ordinance amendments which are intended to just update our code to the present statutes and administrative rules. And Stephanie Armstrong is here because she's worked on this for actually a couple years now. Um, one item that is in this packet, uh, that's not required, uh, but the board had somewhat expressed some interest in, uh, would be changing the definition of bed and breakfast and lowering the number of rooms down from nine rooms allowed to five rooms. Uh, anytime the code gets more restrictive, we're required to send out notice to affected property owners, and that will be a big notice. Um, as I recall last time, uh, we had a measure 56 notice the cost was about $7,000 and this that was just in the farm zone and since this will be also the rural residential zones, the of VLDR and AF10, um, it'll probably be a little bit more than that. Um, plus, as you can imagine, once we send that notice out, we get a lot of calls and you're probably going to get some calls, too. Um, so there is a lot of staff time and um some resources that need to be expended to do this. Uh, I mention all this because I want to make sure that the board wants to go forward this before I send out any notice. Uh, so I'm kind of looking for a thumbs up or thumbs down specifically on the bed and breakfast changes. Um, but I also uh have, you know, this large packet of uh ordinance amendments. If there's any of these amendments that you want to talk about or you want to uh have acts, I'd like to know that. And I know this is a large packet and if you haven't had time to look through it, I'm totally fine coming back in a couple weeks to get that answer. I'd really want to make sure the board is comfortable with these uh amendments. So,

I think we can go through it now. I just had a question about the uh the bed and breakfast because this has been this has been one of those things that we've really wanted to get done because we were put in a position where it was a really difficult decision because based on our ordinances and our codes and everything else, we pretty much had to give a pass to something that

was very contentious. Yes. So, um, but I also want to take into consideration what's going on in your office. If we have the, um, the update on the ordinance for the roads and exception areas and then we have the, um, zoning ordinances, is it to your advantage for us to put this in the hopper for for the next time? Um, I I think we would be able to um uh you know, pace ourselves on the ordinance amendments and on the measure 56 notice. Uh, Tiffany's here because I'm would I'm going to have the measure 56 notice of the bed and breakfast be done separately because Okay. I don't want to have um uh a big crowd on multiple issues. I want to have, you know, if we're going to have a big crowd, I just want it to be on that one single issue.

Okay. So, we'll probably uh end up kind of pacing this. Uh, but I appreciate the the question and the observation and and yeah, it's it's getting to be our busier time of year. Um, so I am a little concerned about that, but I'd like to get this done because it's been hanging fire for quite a while. So, how many in this would you consider restrictive to we're going to require the same notice? Oh, just the the only one is just the one. Okay. So, it's not like we'd have to go notice for another 10 grand?

No. Okay. Um and and if there is something more restrictive that you want to uh discuss or or propose, uh this is a good time to do it because I'd rather have, you know, one notice go out than have have to do multiple ones. Um and Yamh Hill County has kind of prided itself on only being as restrictive as state law with very few exceptions. And and uh and I like that. and uh because then you can refer to state law. You know, our code is just supporting that. That's what we're trying to do.

Okay. Um we can go through this. Um I have notes almost page by page. Um I also want to discuss timing on some of this and how it's going to fit in because there's a couple other things that I have in the hopper that I'd like planning to start uh dealing with far as resonings on a couple different pieces of property. Uh but I want them county initiated. So there's I have quite a bit of stuff that I don't we need to figure out timing wise how that looks like for us dealing with and I need to get with Ken and just see how that fits into and Ken maybe you can remind um everyone on process what we'd be looking after this

when if we have an ordinance amendment we have to uh provide 35 days notice uh to the state prior to us even having the first hearing on it. And so, uh, even today, if we were to decide this, it wouldn't be at the May planning commission. It would be at the June one. Uh, and that's that would be the quickest that we could do it because we're well within the 35 days for May. Um, and I I honestly don't mind if this takes some months. I just don't want to take years. So, I know you don't either. So,

Yep. Okay. Well, I was just going to suggest that is there a way that we could do this peace meal? Is this something that the board would be interested in if we if we did because there are there's so much minutia in each one of these that we go ahead and just try to say, "Okay, we're going to go from from this to this and address those so that they're not getting everything at once." Right. And I think we should as we progress through this too, we should be getting county council input. Yeah. On a lot of this unless we've already ran it by them. No. Okay. So, there's going to be another I I mean it was run by, you know, years ago when it was originally written up, but Right. Yeah. Probably couldn't use a fresh set of eyes on it. Um, so that's another

Okay. Yeah. timing factor to this. Yeah. I'd like to hang on a minute just because I haven't had a chance to talk with council on some of you know on this yet as well and I don't want to make sure I'm in the lane of legal versus not legal if we're changing. So okay well I'll pause on my questions then I had at least and if you want want 20 blue tabs if you want to just email me questions I'll do my best to answer them. Actually Stephanie Armstrong will do her best to answer them. My questions are pretty benign. are just more of a how did we get what what happened that we got into this situation asking for a change. I see a lot of them are just OS's that changed that we need to update.

Um but there's a few interesting ones in there from dog kennels to whatever. So I just want to just want to check the backstory on it. Yep. Yeah. Back story why we're here. Yep. Yeah. So would it be more expeditious for us if we have a particular question about one of them to send it to county council? Oh and CC me maybe and CCU. Yeah. Whatever you think is going to be one less step for you guys. Yeah. All right. That'll be fine. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Cool. Very good. Thank you. Thank you all. Do you have direction? I think so. Okay. All right. Cool. Okay. Thanks, Ken. Thank you. Thanks, Stephanie. Thank you, Ken.

All right. That brings us up to G is consent agenda. We have some surplus law library and some reappoints. to the local alcohol and drug planning committee. Do I have a motion? So moved. So moved. Uh any further discussion? No. No. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

H is old business. We have H1's consideration approval to award and sign the construction contract with Roy Hulk Construction LLC for the 2026 North Valley Road Paving Project in the amount of $957,096. This was continued from April 2nd. The contract did make it into the packet. I would move approval. Is there any further discussion? None. None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion passes. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. Thanks, Mark.

That brings us to I is other business. I1's consideration of approval in the matter of resolution 26-04-09-1 recognizing April 30th, 2026 as Vietnamese American Remembrance Day. I would move approval. Is there any further discussion? No. None. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion passes unanimously. So, thank you. Item I2 is consideration of approval of a memorandum of understanding between Yamhill County and the Amity School District to use the former Amity Middle School for law enforcement training and related public safety activities. We have the sheriff here if you have any questions on that. None. I would move approval.

I would just say that I require an invite when you guys do that. Okay. The last one was uh where was that in McMinnville. What was the uh active shooter? It was at Newbie, right? Was it at Newbie or next? It was at Dunaway. No, it was very dramatic. It was very well done. So, is that the plan for this one? Also, kind of the same or is this different?

Uh, it'll it'll be um along those same lines as well as just some of our ongoing maintenance training, having access to a facility for everything from K9 teams to building search. um even just on the grounds to do uh unmanned aerial vehicle or drone training. Um it is a a relatively large campus. We can set up our physical agility course in the gymnasium. It just presents a lot of unique opportunities um in that partnership with AMD schools. Thank you. Motion. Yeah, you got it. Okay. Uh any further discussion? None. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

All right. Fantastic. That was unanimous. I3 is consideration of approval of a public body work order contract between Yaml County and DPI Security Inc. for courthouse security screening services in the amount of $767,8668 retroactive to January 1st, 2026 through June 30, 2028. Move approval. Motion's been made. Any further discussion? None. None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I

I motions passes unanimously. Thank you. Item I four is consideration approval of an intent to award the 2026 chip and scrub seal project to Sierra Santa Fe Corporation in the amount of $452,77. I would move approval. Is there any further discussion? None. None. None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Item I5, consideration of approval of the cooperative improvement agreement between Yamhill County and the Oregon Department of Transportation for the Oregon 99W corridor safety and intersection improvements project effective upon full execution. I would move approval. Is there any further discussion? Thank you for your work on this moving it along and uh this is very exciting. Yep. I'm looking forward to it. Is there any All those in favor signify by saying I. I I

I right. It's unanimous. Thank you. That brings us to Jay's public hearings. There is none. K is announcements. Commissioner King. Um interviews for the transit manager. I interviewed two of them. I think we have somebody that we're going to send an offer to. Not today. Maybe. Ken. Is that right? Correct.

Um great candidate for it. lots of public and private um experience, bigger, smaller. Um really hoping that he says yes. I think it would be a great fit. um had a lengthy conversation with uh speaking of transit with Cynthia check-in this week and just as she's kind of you can tell she's starting to download a lot of her her knowledge and concerns and um you know reiterated again of the you know she thinks that we should buy or at least try to buy the Durham Lane offer which I don't know where we're at on that part but but I'm excited for her and it was really a good conversation with Um AOC had a webinar this last week that I attended and just on assessing county um investments and and uh financing and just our overall inventory of properties and things we had. It was it was good.

They're are they they're going to have a follow-up meeting, right? Like on the I think so. There's another one coming up in two weeks or something. saw I think it but that one was more specific towards tie Washington and I think isn't it President Scar's update on the original meeting about budget? Oh yes, that was

uh Newberg Prayer Breakfast. Um huge attendance I think even bigger than last year it looked like. I mean it was packed in there. Um Newberg City Club missing middle housing conversation. Nathan Wildfire did a presentation on the hive project. Um I'm very excited about that. I think it's a cool concept and uh building kind of modular houses off-site and being able to kind of build 10 houses on site in I think they're projected in five six months. So really cool and and that's really the middle housing median income workforce housing um that is very much missing and shout out to Newberg for um they did fastest permitting process for subdivision in three weeks. So, um really cutting red tape um to be able to to do some of this and obviously that is really the crux of affordable housing or workforce housing is really just the red tape and um you know all the permitting fees and stuff that go along with it. So, kudos to Newberg um and Nathan Wildfire for doing that. uh meeting with Yamhill Tourism Partnership and just uh they do a monthly meeting, sat in with them. Uh lots moving forward and we have our uh WAMIT workforce partnership um is kind of joining up with them on just the needs of the hospitality industry um to be able to get more training for the hospitality is broadstroking that. Uh that's coming up on the 16th I believe. Um YCOM I'm going to put Matt this week. Uh Ken if we can get a work session. Um sheriff who he left gave me some homework just about the board seats for asking you guys about the board seats for YCOM and

potentially adding some board seats and just your opinions on the non direction. So, um, Newber City Council cancelled this week and, uh, Dundee had a lot of chatter online about a McDonald's coming to town, but very little actual people showed up to give public comment. So, um, I think the city's going to try to push back on the development of it. Uh, we'll see how far they get, but I think that that gets costly very quickly. So, that's it. All right, Commissioner Sarah. Thank you, Chair.

Saturday, the 40th annual Newberg mayor mayor's prayer breakfast. That was the day before Easter. On Monday, I attended the uh Northwest Senior Board of Directors meeting as a director. And the update is we uh we got some information on the US aging policy briefing that Northwest just had in DC regarding the Medicaid programs and protecting Medicaid home care programs because at at this point, one in four Americans are serving as caregivers. and we are trying to protect some of those programs to give them some help. 60% of the paid caregiver uh agencies are uh don't have enough staff. So, this is really becoming a burden for caregivers. the update on Medicaid and SNAP program forecasts. Everybody's talking about that. And the renewed contracts to provide legal services because Northwest Seniors, which is our our regional aging um services uh organization. Uh the contracts are provided for legal services for people who have domestic violence issues, people who have eviction problems, housing and consumer matters. These are folks who cannot afford u regular legal services. So these are provided through Northwest Senior and Disability Services. It's a great program. Met with the CC YCCCO CEO on changes to the Medicaid funding and impacts to the CCO which is going to be significant. The school-based health services and potential uh CCO structure changes which is is going to be is it could be rather significant. And we had an executive meeting of of the CCO uh on uh Tuesday. The governor's Medicaid advisory group is updating the governor with more and more information about some of those um proposals and the whole bottom line is we're going to have to do more with less and cuts are likely to be felt in the 27th fiscal year. got a peer services report from provoking hope and they gave us some numbers in terms of the types of drugs, the types of

services they're providing and apparently they are uh we're looking at the fact that what what types of drugs uh and what how is this broken down by gender. So, we're looking at the fact that uh you know who's more likely mo notably fentanyl use is stronger among women and alcohol is more prevalent among men. So, they're they're doing pretty good service encounter levels over almost 800 and they had about 20 new people enrolled. So, Provoking Hope is doing a a great great job. That was a Provoking Hope study or was that a It's a peer services activity report.

So, they kind of give us numbers. How many people did they encounter? How many are new? How many are coming back? And what are the services provided? A lot of it. And then they break it down by transitional housing or supported housing type of thing. Uh let's see. Oh, just in terms of housing, next week I've put on the agenda something I've been working on for several months, and that is the moderate income revolving loan. So, we're going to have OCS here, Newberg, McMminville, our assessor, and um a private developer to talk about that option for uh increasing a moderate uh income housing. Also met with Newberg Animal Shelter and uh the bottom line is is their situation is dire. Uh we're looking at numbers in terms of people who are dumping animals, abuse cases, and when you look at the numbers of animals that were uh were brought in to the shelter and the reclamation rate, uh ours is is is actually pretty embarrassing. So when people dump animals in the county and they're finding there are areas all over the county where they're doing this, our law enforcement cannot keep up with this and it is putting a terrible strain on the shelter. The animals that are coming in have been dumped. They are starving. They are in terrible medical shape. And what happens is after the stray hold is done, it becomes the shelter's responsibility. they have had to close their weight list for people who want to surrender animals. So, it's it's really very concerning. I hope that people we've had, you know, one dog's been in there for eight months. There are over 200 animals 200 dogs brought in from Newberg and uh 70% of them are reclaimed, but our reclamation rate is not as good. Um, OSP brings in animals that are along the highway, dumped along the highway. And what I would say to

people is there are so many adoptable animals that if you can instead of buying a breeder dog, this is just my editorial comment, there are so many adoptable dogs. Please go and look and please consider adopting one of those. But we are, you know, blaming the shelter is like blaming Juliet's house for child abuse or blaming our sheriff's office when there there are high crime rates. I think that our situation is we're doing everything we can. We're going to continue to do more and the shelter um they're doing everything they can as well. Also wanted to give an update for those who've been following the measure 114 saga that was the very very restrictive um gun bill that's been winding its way through the courts. uh that was modified and um basically measure 4145 miraculously which was a terrible terrible gun bill was actually gut and stuffed and now it came back with a basically an extension that said they're going to move out the requirements of of that awful gun bill um until I believe 28. So fingers crossed. It came as a result of a lot of Second Amendment people, law-abiding gun owners contacting our Republican legislators and saying, "Do not take your feet off the gas on this one." So they held the line on that and the state did um Renee um at this point. So fingers crossed these types of things continue to um to happen because that would that would have been a gamecher uh for Oregon gun owners. And there are a couple of Medicaid fraud cases in um that the Oregon Department of Justice has charged. One is a counseling service in Portland and another one is uh not sure where they are, but in any any event uh the Department of Justice is leaning on Oregon to take a look at some of the uh Medicaid fraud and they are doing it finally.

Was there dollar amounts for them yet? Um, dollar amounts are um, let's see. I was just curious if they posted the dollar amounts for the fraud. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in in the Portland counselor and the other one is um, yeah, they're not giving dollar amounts, but I can get those for you. Okay, great. It

all right. All right. Uh last Thursday I had uh MWACT uh we finalized our recommendation to uh the uh OTC, the Oregon Transportation Commission uh for our prioritization of transportation projects for the CIP. Um and it is what we originally were discussing over the last two to three months. It is going to be the Newberg Dundy bypass. It's going to be the Brooks interchange for Marian County on I5 and it's going to be highway 22 and 51 for P County. After that, there's 10 other recommendations. A couple of the projects are in Yammo County and then the rest are scattered throughout the rest of the region. So, uh long uh drawn out process for that, but uh we got it all finalized and those will be our recommendations basically setting the stage for the next 10 years of our recommendations to the Oregon uh transportation committee. So, uh, TVF&NR, uh, Friday morning I had a 24-hour, uh, community academy. We ran many different fire drills. Uh, we were cutting up anywhere from cutting up cars with Jaws of Life to putting out fires. Uh, watching their drone program that they have and what the hopes are that the drone program could be. I mean, they're talking autonomous having drones on top of fire departments to where as soon as an alarm hits, that drone takes off. So they survey pre-ervey as they're in route to know if they can either call off a unit or add units to it and it'll it just basically is going to make us way more efficient not putting you know three or four vehicles on the road at once if it's not needed. So that drone can immediately be hit. Now there's a lot of privacy rules that are going to go with that um over the next probably year or so as we figure it out but uh be interesting to watch. Um, and then I think the main part of it was staying overnight at station 21 in Newberg on

Springbook Road. Went on one call and I can tell you that these guys and McMinnville and all of our Yamhill County fire departments are all the same. Um, but I got firsthand knowledge with TVF&R and how professional these guys are, the stuff that they have to put up with and it's with without any lean. They are absolutely professional about it. As we would all be jumping out of our seats, be like, are you kidding me? Like they're this guy's faking it. You know, it's like, nope. You have to go through all the motions, hook everything up. And we had one scenario, and I won't get into any details, but it's very interesting and it's nice to see that what these guys have to go through on on a daily basis and get that firsthand knowledge. So, absolutely phenomenal. I did everything I could to finish up and do the debrief the next morning, Saturday morning. got out of there about about 9:15 and then I showed up sorry showed up late to the Newberg prayer breakfast but got to catch the last minute of that and it was phenomenal as usual and very well attended like Commissioner King said. Um uh Saturday um Saturday night was also the Dayton FFA auction. getting pretty light attendance on the Dayton FFA auction. So, that we're going to have to figure out maybe a little bit more uh community involvement for advertising that uh it's a little bit concerning, especially since it's my hometown uh FFA, but they're still doing great. Uh programs are hanging in there. I'm also part of a CTE program uh or committee to uh because our FFA adviser is retiring and so we have about a year to figure out what it looks like. our FFA. He was my FFA adviser when I graduated from Dayton High School. He's just now retiring. So, uh, he was the every aspect of that program that he developed was meant for him and his work ethic, which was like next level. So, now we're deciding on do we need two people to replace so that we can keep these programs plus pair down some of the things that we were doing and seeing

what it looks like. But, at least Dayton School Districts has reached out. they've stepped up a committee to help them guide through the process because they understand how important the CTE and the FFA and the agricultural programs are to Dayton. So stay tuned for more on that. Um Monday night uh was Dayton City Council meeting. Uh sheriff gave an update. Uh pretty much stable. I mean numbers are up or down a little bit over he gave a three-year um rendition on what's been going on date and it's pretty stable. So, nothing that's that seems out of the ordinary and those uh the city councilors uh were very thankful for the services that our sheriff provides to the city of Dayton. Uh very professional. um Tuesday night. Um it was great to hear I caught a uh chamber forum and it was great to hear uh yeah chamber forum that uh Shahalum and McMinnville both uh jointly put on and we had our state delegates show up. So it was uh Senator Star, Rep. Elmer and Rep. Um Sharf. It was nice to get kind of a their perception of uh a wrapup of the short session and kind of the ins and outs of what went on kind of in a bullet point format and it was good to kind of hear that and see it. It was very well attended to. I think there's uh 80 RSVPs and I think most everybody showed up. So

I thought full.

Yeah, they were full and and a great venue too at Still Water there. Um Wednesday uh got an update. was actually a an early morning meeting at CHMCA from Jessica Howard who's the president of Chamea. Um met at in Salem at their campus at 7:30 in the morning and it's very it's first time I've done it. Um even though my daughter goes to Chamea, you don't really get kind of behind the scenes um what they do and what they uh programs are and how involved they are and how technical they are. I mean, we did uh we focused on um health programs. So, the nursing program and the hygienist program that they had. And so, as we're going through the different programs, they have uh mannequins that they're using uh to have the kids test to put down uh feeding tubes and then they'll go x-ray to make sure that the feeding tube didn't go down the long. And so we're asking the kids questions on why they're here and they're like, "Well, Shmecha was just the most g had the most value for them for their education or they were close by or it it's amazing that the value that those programs give those kids." Um the last one that we did it was it's almost like you go into this uh ER room and in the middle it's got all these mirrored glasses. Well, behind the mirror glasses, there's somebody running these uh almost like auto animatronic uh mannequins. I mean, their eyes are blinking, their chests are moving, they're hooked up to uh EKG machines, and so you have and he can change any aspect of it to mimic uh u some form of health issue. And those kids have to go through the whole scenario and the checklist on what's going on. And it's like the closest real life that they can do with these live mannequins. And it's it's like freaky. I'm wait I'm waiting for one of them as we're walking out to like pop up out of bed and like it was

very interesting. Bye, Commissioner.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Bye. Come back soon. Um anyway, that was great. Um and then just quick updates on tonight is Ryak. Uh going to be a very interesting meeting. Uh I recommend that you come. It is open to the public. It's going to be at public works at 6 pm. This is where George Fox engineer program is going to give their recommendation of projects that they've been working on for uh over a year now of in the county on a county rideway on a county road. Uh what bicycle path or pedestrian upgrades could be made. And this is the one that they did a survey on uh to get to garner um information from the public on what areas they should focus on and what they should focus on. Uh it's going to be I had a precursor to what it already is. So it's going to be pretty cool. So if you have time, show up. Uh check it out. The other cool connection to this is that we have uh a fund that is specific to these projects. And I'm not saying it's for these, but it it's going to be nice that we can actually connect two dots. one for bike and path pedestrian fund that public works has that hopefully in the next four years will be a little over a million dollars with interest that can go towards these projects as recommendations or even the ones that we've recommended to add uh to the TSP. Do you know uh was it was 1.3 at one point uh in terms of that designated fund. Do you know what goes into that every year? Is it

about a 100,000 every year? What we're gaining on is interest cuz and I think prior board decisions uh to us uh that we wanted to just let it sit there and go because what are you going to do if let's say you spend 100 grand a year? There's not a lot you can do for bicycle and pedestrian safety for 100 grand. But with a million plus, now we're talking for a project. One of the projects in there um was right at a million dollars, one to $1.1 million to complete. So there is stuff that's within our our reach for those funds. Now, do we need to go is there projects that are more than that? Yeah, probably. And we can go address uh what it looks like to get grant funding for those. So,

it's going to be if you got time, it it'll be well worth your while. It's not. This is my third George Fox presentation. Um, their other ones typically focus on dangerous intersections in the county and we get what we get out of it is they they have their intern program that they need to show their work and we get 30% engineered plans which helps us when we actually go out for project now we already have 30% plans from them. So it really helps a lot and uh and it gives those uh those kids good learning experience. Well, those hands on

those forums in the past when I've gone, they've invited the public who were basically the ones who were the impetus for some of these projects and changing changing a variety of different things on county roads. And the the the presentations are pretty in-depth. I mean, these are not kids. These are these are engineering students and we do get our money's worth. Yes. Big time. Yeah.

Um headed out. Uh, Sheriff Ken and I are going to head out to Sheridan again. I looked at the vet clinic uh, last week when I mentioned it, I think that same day. We're going to head out and do a follow-up on that. Um, and then probably the f next week I'll just kind of give a rough update on what I think or the assessment of it and then we can decide if we want to have a work session on it. So, um, and then Lafayette City Council meeting tonight at 6:30. And that's all I have unless if I can one more I Yep.

Commissioner Ster jog my memory. We had uh several weeks back we had a couple of guys here um that are were in the recovery court program. Uh they were both of them Luke and Sam graduated this week on Monday. So shout out to them and it was fun to get to watch uh the whole court and you know everybody kind of leveling up that week and um and two two graduates. So shout out to them and all their hard work and the amazing peer support that they offer to their their peers going through that. It was uh was really great and you can see how proud that they are of working through the you know one of them did it in a year which apparently is very fast and the other one was about a year and a half. So it's it's a lot

and Judge Wilds. Yeah, Judge Wilds and he does a great job you know building relationship with them. you can tell and just in the year year and a half that they're you know kind of interacting um you know from the dis and uh yeah it was so it was really great um so shout out to Judge Wilds and and Luke and Sam or yeah Luke and Sam so sorry yeah no that's fine it's just it it's always nice to touch on those programs and those services that the positive yeah very comprehensive and between provoking hope and the uh the court services and the um the whole thing that goes on with with with uh our our services and HHS. It's pretty comprehensive.

Mhm. Anything else? Nope. Looked like you had something. No. Okay, cool. All right. Well, with that, thanks everybody and we're going to close it out at 11:09.