Bend City Council Work, Listening, and Regular Session - January 22, 2025
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Bend City Council Work, Listening, and Regular Session - January 22, 2025
The Bend City Council held a hybrid meeting on January 22, 2025, beginning with a work session at 3:30 p.m. covering council liaison assignments, the 2025 state legislative priorities, and a community survey report. A listening session at 5:00 p.m. gathered public input on council goals, followed by an executive session and the regular evening session at 7:00 p.m. The regular session included a human trafficking awareness proclamation, public comments, consent agenda approval, adoption of legislative priorities, authorization for fire apparatus purchases, and council reports.
Consent Calendar
- Approved meeting minutes from December 18, 2024, January 8, 2025, and January 14, 2025 (Advisory Body & Council Goals Summit).
- Approved the OLCC report, Monthly Financial Report for November 2024, Engineering Q2 FY2025 Quarterly Report, a three-year GIS software agreement with ESRI not to exceed $262,800, and an agreement for a Komptech Topturn X4500 aerator not to exceed $482,491.
Public Comments & Testimony
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Listening Session (Council Goals Input):
- Robin Church (Firewise rep, Three Pines HOA) urged stronger wildfire hazard reduction ordinances, highlighting combustible fencing risks and citing the Marshall Fire.
- Lawrence Lemercier (Firewise rep, Skyliner Summit) endorsed Church’s message, noting unanimous support from the Project Wildfire Neighborhood Coalition and Deschutes Rural Fire District 2.
- Cheryl Stark (Chair, Summit West Neighborhood) reported a resident survey: 81.9% supported strengthening wildfire codes; top concerns were wildfire, traffic, and development. Lack of communication from the city was also cited.
- Jeff Conrad (Board, Auburn Butte Neighborhood) shared a survey of 262 members: top issues were wildfire, traffic congestion/safety, local taxes/fees, insurance costs, and utility costs. Residents requested firewise mandates, evacuation plans, and traffic enforcement.
- Tyler Nees (Gov’t Affairs Director, Cascades East Association of Realtors) urged maintaining UGB expansion as a priority, scrutinizing policies (e.g., electrification) for housing cost impacts, and adopting a pro-housing lens. He expressed continued support for housing production.
- Sarah Holcombe (Development Director, Deschutes Land Trust) and Matt Muchnus (Exec. Director, Envision Bend) presented Vision Action Plan priorities: innovative workforce housing, childcare access, student mental health, public transit, and housing coalition. Also urged core area investment, homelessness education, and neighborhood vitality.
- Harry (partner, Roos Development) requested city support for innovative financing (using the city’s credit rating) to spur missing middle housing in the urban core.
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Visitor’s Section (Regular Session):
- Garth Finley (Western States Carpenters Union) highlighted labor trafficking in construction and urged stronger enforcement, transparency, and training for inspectors.
- Keegan Chisholm (Bend High IB student) proposed a legal graffiti space to reduce vandalism, citing Redmond’s model.
- Jim Elliott (crossing guard, Bear Creek Elementary) requested full-time school zones (7 a.m.-5 p.m.), raised crosswalks, and tighter roundabout radii to improve safety for children.
- Jim Cristo requested that police review dash cam footage to provide expert opinions on fault in accidents.
- David Green, James Teter, and Doug Dryden advocated for raised bicycle crossings across side streets along the Franklin corridor, arguing continuous crossings would improve safety and prevent deaths like that of Trenton Berger.
Discussion Items
- Council Liaison Assignments: Council reassigned Steve Platt from the Community Building Subcommittee to Stewardship (swapping with Megan Perkins). Other assignments remained unchanged. The mayor will follow up with the Council on Aging on a potential ex officio position.
- 2025 State Legislative Priorities (Work Session): City Lobbyist Eric Canceler presented the draft agenda, emphasizing revenue reform (lodging tax flexibility, property tax, second-home taxes), shelter continuum funding, housing tools (including construction defect liability reform), sustainable transportation (geographic equity, maintaining city share of state highway fund, adding safety and wayfinding), water policy and infrastructure, public safety (Core III training facility), wildfire resilience, economic development (OSU-Cascades support, childcare, independent medical practices), and environment/climate. After discussion, council directed staff to add “geographically equitable” and “maintain or increase city’s share of state funding” to the transportation bullet, add “safety” to transit/active transportation policies, and include wayfinding/recreational immunity. These changes were incorporated before final adoption.
- Community Survey Results (Work Session): Michelle Nice (DHM Research) presented results from a representative survey of 400 Bend voters. Key findings: 81% rated quality of life excellent/good (up from 2022). Open-ended top issues: homelessness, affordable housing, transportation. Forced-choice ranking: affordable housing (50% as top), community planning, street maintenance, police services. Renters (85%) and lower-income residents prioritized affordable housing more than homeowners. Street maintenance concerns rose. On climate change, 36% rated it urgent/high priority; top preferred strategies were energy efficiency and reducing waste. An opt-in survey (1,335 respondents) skewed wealthier and more homeowner, showing more negative ratings.
- Adoption of Legislative Priorities (Regular Session): Council adopted the 2025 State Legislative Priorities as amended (motion by Perkins, second by Méndez), unanimously. Councilor Méndez declared a potential conflict but participated.
- Fire Apparatus Purchase: Chief Todd Riley and Chief Mike Hand presented the purchase of two Pierce Velocity Engines ($2,743,317 total) and one Pierce Velocity Tiller Ladder Truck ($2,254,139) from Hughes Fire Equipment, with a $520,000 contingency for specification changes. The new ladder truck will replace a 2003 reserve unit. Delivery is estimated in 51-53 months. Councilor Platt asked about electric/hybrid options; Chief Riley explained current models are hybrid, cost-prohibitive (≈$800k/unit plus $200k/station for charging), and not yet recommended by fleet. The purchase passed unanimously.
- Council Reports and City Manager Report: Councilors reported on various meetings: COCO (new mayors, water issues), Cleveland Commons opening (34 units, first east-side permanent supportive housing), Latino Community Association Know Your Rights event, Syrian community gathering, LOC City Day scheduled, Environment & Climate Committee (new members, 74 climate goals prioritization), DBBA liaison (Main Street America program request). City Manager Eric King announced a wildfire preparedness FAQ webpage and proposed a six-month extension of permit approvals for housing projects to address market conditions; council expressed support and asked staff to bring a resolution to the next meeting.
- Bend Urban Renewal Agency (BURA) Meeting: The agency approved minutes from December 18, 2024 and January 8, 2025, and approved reappointments (Corie Harlan, Dale Van Valkenberg) and new appointments (Dawn Cofer, Hank Kamakaala, James Teeter) to the Core Area Advisory Board.
Key Outcomes
- Adopted the 2025 City of Bend State Legislative Priorities as amended (unanimous).
- Authorized the purchase of two Pierce Velocity Engines ($2,743,317) and one Pierce Velocity Tiller Ladder Truck ($2,254,139) from Hughes Fire Equipment, Inc., and authorized the City Manager to approve up to $520,000 in unanticipated specification changes (unanimous).
- Approved the consent agenda (unanimous).
- Directed staff to bring a resolution for a six-month permit extension for housing projects at the next council meeting.
- Approved all BURA appointments and minutes.
- Heard community input on council goals from nine speakers and public comments from eight speakers.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, so we're gonna call to order the Ben City Council work session. Um, and we are starting just with a look at the council liaison assignments. So this is what we do every two years to assign folks to the liaison positions. I know there was one little switching of neighborhood association assignments, but unless there's any other feedback, this is how we're gonna be starting off our liaison. If something doesn't work for someone's schedule, we run into anything, we can always adjust these later. Council friends over there. Um yeah, I um would really love to be on the community building subcommittee because that's the committee that hears um project request, transportation project requests. Um I'm not the T Bok liaison, which is that's okay, but um yeah, community building just seemed more relevant um to my experience. My interest in service in council. So just make that ask. Sure, so we have um Megan Norris and Mike are also on stewardship, and then Megan Perkins and Steven are all on community building. So Steve, would you be willing to uh switch maybe to stewardship and start there? And again, we can make adjustments on these part way through the the biennium if we want to switch it around, which we have in the past. So I I mean, yes, if if need be that I had asked for community building for similar similar reasons. Yeah, we can adjust those test times have been um I would say pretty fluid on both the subscribe. Would that be okay for the order? I can adjust it. Okay. All right, we can make that switch. Is there anything else anyone wanted to talk about again? Just is there something that's coming up where you're not making the meetings or you want to switch in the future, just let me know. Did we ever officially do anything about council on aging? I know at some point we were gonna have some. They had asked for a lease onto their board, and um Barb was assigned to and I never um heard how that went. So what I'll do that's not really an advisory committee or anything, but I will reach out to them and see if they'd still like to do that. They just were interested in appointing sort of an ex officio counselor to be on their go to their board meetings. So I'll ask them, and if so, then we can throw that out to the group in the future meeting. Okay. What is the um schedule for the disuse forced collaborative? I mean, is it quarterly or is it just as needed, or what's the story? I have not been tracking it that closely. Um I'm not sure it's super regular. I think what would be good if you want to talk to Senator Bradman, who was on it before, and maybe get the info from him if you're interested. We just weren't sure exactly how much they were meeting, and we were kind of reaching out to them to get more information. I believe it was quarterly. Yeah, so we can come back on that one as well at a future meeting. Okay, great. Okay, so Steve's gonna join Stewardship. We're just switching one thing on stewardship and then we are good to go. Gina's good okay. So that will move us forward to the next item, which is our legislat discussing our legislative priorities. Yes, so I'll invite Eric Cancler, our city lobbyist, uh, up to the table, and we have uh just a few slides to get to. We also have um the legislative agenda posted to the packet, so you can uh go along in much more detail. Um let's Kate gonna provide a little more context and opening remarks to Eric's presentation, and then we'll interject with more information at the end around process and follow-up questions that you may have. And I'm so sorry, I'm not actually in the meeting. Morgan, where should I look for it? Uh the login is at the top of the agenda because we can put that in the panel next. Okay, there's a couple. And while Kate is uh bringing that up, Eric, do you want to just go ahead and launch in and just talk about process and just some opening remarks as to what we're doing with the uh agenda and what what is being used for to help guide us? Yeah, that sounds good.
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