Bend City Council Meeting: Wildfire Update, Compensation Committee, and Reports - August 16, 2023
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Bend City Council Meeting: Wildfire Update, Compensation Committee, and Reports - August 16, 2023
The Bend City Council held a work session starting at 5:30 PM with a wildfire update from Fire Chief Todd Riley and Emergency Manager Carrie Carl, followed by an executive session on real property transactions. The council reconvened at 7:00 PM for a regular business meeting. Key actions included approving consent agenda items, adopting a resolution to create an independent committee to review council member and mayor compensation, and receiving council and city manager reports.
Consent Calendar
- Approved minutes from the August 2, 2023 work session and regular session.
- Received the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) report.
- Authorized a Cooperative Improvement Agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for the US20: 3rd St. to Purcell Project in an amount not to exceed $235,636 for water utility relocates (25 water meters and 4 hydrants). Councilor Campbell inquired about sidewalk improvements; staff clarified the funds were specifically for water utility relocates, but the project includes broader mobility and safety improvements.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Ron Buza spoke in support of higher council compensation and expressed interest in serving on the compensation committee. He advocated for considering ranked-choice voting and broader charter reforms.
- Andrew Austin (via Zoom) thanked council and also expressed interest in the compensation committee.
Discussion Items
- Wildfire Update (Work Session): Fire Chief Todd Riley reported on three major wildfires: the Flat Fire (nearly 34,000 acres, 58% containment), the Bedrock Fire (nearly 26,000 acres, 20% containment), and the Lookout Fire (nearly 4,000 acres, 0% containment). He emphasized extreme drought conditions in Deschutes County and the need for community preparedness. He presented the "Own Your Zone" campaign with three zones for home hardening and explained evacuation levels (Level 1: be ready, Level 2: be set, Level 3: go now). He urged sign-ups for Deschutes Alerts (49,000 registered users, ~50% of households). Emergency Manager Carrie Carl introduced the new emergency management department, outlining a whole-community, all-hazards approach. She discussed mitigation planning, continuity of operations, and community preparedness, including the need for two-week self-sufficiency. Councilors asked about home hardening policies, collaboration with Pacific Power on public safety power shut-offs, and coordination with the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project.
- Compensation Review Committee Resolution (Regular Session): Council adopted a resolution creating a temporary independent advisory committee of 7-9 members, including up to three former council members or elected officials, current city committee members, local community organization members, individuals with HR/finance/business backgrounds, representatives of underrepresented communities, and community members at large. The committee will review and recommend changes to council member and mayor compensation, including stipend amount and method, using a data-driven approach and considering the council goal of accessible and effective government. The resolution passed unanimously. Mayor Kebler stated that any changes would take effect only after an intervening election. Staff will open recruitment immediately, with Councilor Perkins assisting in selecting committee members.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Agenda Approved: All three items (minutes, OLCC report, and ODOT agreement) were approved. A motion to approve items A and B was passed, followed by a separate motion to approve item C.
- Resolution Adopted: The resolution to create a compensation review committee was adopted unanimously.
- Wildfire Update: Informational; no action required. Council directed staff to explore fee waivers for dumpsters to assist neighborhood cleanups; City Manager King indicated he would bring a request to the next council meeting.
- Council Reports: Councilors provided updates on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (hearing on renter burdens), transportation utility fee roundtables, Deschutes Collaborative Forest, safe parking sites, Medicare Advantage concerns, Dutch design experts' recommendations (complete Bend Bikeway, invest in base network, take advantage of projects for safety), and the upcoming State of the City event on September 8.
- City Manager Report: Provided updates on the septic-to-sewer project completion ahead of schedule (Pettygrew and Bayou, opening August 25), next round of septic-to-sewer applications, and planning for managed camps with the governor's office. Noted efforts to partner with the county on identifying sites for alternative outdoor shelters.
Meeting Transcript
The Ben City Council work session. Mayor Keebler will be here for the business meeting. First up is the wildfire update from Todd Riley and Carrie Call. Good evening. Just to introduce this topic, I think this is somewhat timely. Yes. We we are in the routine now of providing a water update in the springtime. And I think we want to get in the habit uh just with uh I think past history of we we are in a perpetual kind of fire season with an amplified um and uh you know with this with the smoke and just more fires and with climate change. So we we felt like it was really important for council to understand what's happening on the ground, the fires that are occurring right now, where our resources are, uh, what can the community do to and what you know we all sort of own pieces of being prepared. And we want to use this opportunity to introduce Carrie Carl, who is uh new with the city. She comes to us from Eugene uh as our emergency management director. Um so we're gonna talk more specifically about her role, how it ties into council goals, and really talking about preparedness on a broader scale beyond just fires. Um, this is informational. Uh, there's no direction or anything needed from council, but we do want to entertain any questions also in helping our educate our community. We see you all as ambassadors to help with that effort. So I'm gonna turn it over to Chief Riley and he'll get us started. Thank you, Eric. Uh introductions, of course, Todd Riley Fire Chief. I'm joined by Carrie Carl, emergency manager. We have this is a two-part presentation. I'll start. Carrie will pick it up at the end. And my portion, I'm gonna talk about some fires that are on the landscape right now, and then also a couple of programs that we are actively engaged with in the community just to keep that um in front of everybody's mind. Major wildfires in Oregon. Right now, there are three. The first one is the flat fire, it's the biggest one, it's just under 34,000 acres. It's the one in Southeast Oregon, near Agnes and Gold Beach. It's burning in some very uh rough terrain, steep, in hard to access. There is 58% containment, but due to the terrain and size of the fire, this is most likely will be fully contained once Mother Nature decides it's time to put it put it out. Next one is the bedrock fire. It's just under 26,000 acres, and it's in between Eugene and Ben. This was the one that was responsible for the smoke in town a couple of weeks ago. Um we have a pet two incident management team on it. 20% containment. The cause to that is undetermined, and again, that's outside of the town of Lowell. Most recent fire started on August the 5th by lightning. It's the lookout fire. Um it's the one that we are experiencing the smoke from right now. It's just under 4,000 acres currently, but you can see with 0% containment that fire is going to grow, especially they're looking at this weekend and with the weather that we're having. They will experience significant growth at easily by a thousand acres a day. Um we have a type two incident management team on it. One of our chief officers is on that as the safety officer. We also are supporting it with a type three engine with three firefighters. They're part of a strike team that we sent over there. Um it was declared a conflagration by the governor, so that allows us to send resources and and obtain reimbursement for that. And that's outside of McKinsey Bridge. The resource question is always one that comes up, and depending on what fires are on the landscape, it can really influence what we have in town. Uh just a couple of weeks ago, we requested two task forces come over to Central Oregon, and they came from the coast and the valley region because our threat was greater than their threat. And so we asked them to pre-position over here as a statewide resource. But in case a fire started here, we had those additional resources here.
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