All right.

We are gonna go ahead and call this city council meeting to order.

Oh one of us ran away.

So we will wait 30 seconds for Councilor Riley to come back.

Thanks everyone for being here tonight.

Okay.

So let's begin with roll call.

Um start with you, Council Platt.

Steve Plack again.

Megan Norris, she her.

Megan Perkins, she her.

Melanie Keebler, she her.

Mike Riley, excuse me.

Gina Franzosa, she her.

Ariel Lendez, he him.

Councilor Mendes is with us virtually tonight.

Okay, so we're starting with good of the order, and we have a couple of proclamations.

Our first is the week without driving proclamation.

Um, Councilor Mendez was gonna sponsor this, but he's online, so councillor Platt is gonna read this proclamation.

Okay.

I believe I start with reading, right?

Yes, read it first and then we'll motion.

Okay, great.

Well, good evening.

It's my honor to do this on behalf of uh Councilor Mendez in person tonight.

Um this is a proclamation for the week without driving.

Mobility is an essential component of the city of Benn's transportation system that supports the healthy and a vibrant community.

Improving access to mobility is one of the city's transportation policy goals.

It allows residents of all ages to connect to jobs, education, medical services, shopping, recreation, and social opportunities without needing to rely on a personal vehicle.

Providing safer and more convenient travel options encourages more people to choose to bike, walk, roll, and ride the bus to their destinations, which helps reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions.

Roughly 30% of Oregonians who can't or don't drive often experience barriers to mobility, such as incomplete sidewalk networks, a lack of vibrant transit option, or I'm sorry, viable transit options, and dangerous roads and intersections.

The City of Bend's transportation system must support all individuals, regardless of ability, age, or income to help strengthen communities and enhance the quality of life.

The week without driving initiative fosters increased awareness and understanding of the importance of providing safe, affordable and convenient travel options to get around town.

Therefore, we are asking community members to bike, walk, roll, carpool, or take transit at least one day during the week without driving initiative.

As a bonus, those types of things could trips can be logged to win prizes.

So the commute options get their challenge that will be held October 1 through the 14th.

Now there be it resolved that the week of September 29th through October 5th, 2025 is recognized as the week without driving in Bend Oregon.

And residents are encouraged to walk, roll, ride a bike, carpool, or use public transportation for their everyday travel needs.

Thank you, Councilor Platt.

Is there a motion?

I move accepting.

I move to accept the proclamation.

Second.

All right, move by Councillor Norris, second by Councillor Riley.

All those in favor.

All right, and Councilor Platt, we have a couple folks here.

We do.

We have Michelle Michelle Rhodes from the Ben Opine School District.

Hal DeShaw from the Central Oregon Community College, and Jim Elliott from Ben Bikes.

Well they're going to speak a little bit.

Oh, they're going to speak a little bit first, yes.

You can start any order you want, just make sure the microphones in front of whoever is speaking there.

Okay, I'll start.

Hi, hello.

My name is Michelle Rhodes, and I'm with Ben Le Pine Schools.

I'm the new active transportation coordinator.

It's a brand new role with Ben Lapine Schools.

Great.

And we want to commend the city council and the city in general for establishing these values and promoting this week through this proclamation.

Ben LaPine Schools is a significant trip generator in the community, as you probably already aware, including both employee and student transportation.

Of the 17,000 students enrolled in our school system, about 4,000 are uh reside in what we call the non-transportation zone, meaning they are not eligible for school bus transportation because they live within one mile if they're elementary or 1.5 miles if they're in secondary school.

And our most recent data indicates that about two-thirds of our elementary students are being transported to their school in private cars instead of walking or rolling.

And we want to flip that narrative, and that's why Ben Le Pine Schools have invested in my new role, which I'm again I'm so excited that we get to be amongst partners here with Ben Bikes and COCC representation on either side and the other community partners that we're working with.

Because our students are encountering some significant challenges, the ones that are walking and rolling to school.

They are encountering a lack of sidewalks or bike lanes, traffic congestion, speeding motorists, seasonal low lighting visibility, and inclement weather, which also includes sidewalks, private property owner, sidewalks not being cleared of snow and ice.

And we're also addressing parental perceptions of unsafe conditions for their students to walk or roll.

And so we again are pleased to be part of this initiative and supportive of it because we would like to see more students walking and rolling, and that's why we've established this active transportation program and want to also encourage everybody to be aware that October 8th is international walk and roll to school day.

So we'll be promoting that with our school system.

And so, especially on October 8th, be extra aware of students out there walking and rolling to school.

And so again, thank you again for not only this evening and the proclamation, but also your recent votes to increase significantly the funding for safety projects related to bike and pedestrian.

And again, all of you participating.

I want to thank each of you very much for that support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

Good evening.

My name is Hal DeShow.

I'm here representing Central Oregon Community College.

I'd like to thank the council, the City Council, for participating in the week without driving.

You all are going to have quite the adventure.

Perhaps walking many miles in the shoes of our fellow community members who do not have the privilege of being able to drive themselves to the places they need to go.

Fortunately, y'all will not be alone.

The leadership at Central Oregon Community College, including all of our VPs, our board of directors, and our new president, Greg Pereira, will be walking, biking, carpooling, and busing as well.

I hope you all cross paths.

Should be fun.

Honestly, I was surprised at how readily these very busy people said yes when I approached them about the week without driving.

But there's a simple reason for their participation.

Everyone at COCC puts student success first.

We know that many of our students struggle to get to school each day.

Most don't live close enough to walk or bike.

Many of our students can't afford a mechanics bill if anything goes wrong with their car.

And even if they do live close to a bus route, the bus service unfortunately is too infrequent for it to be a viable option for students juggling jobs in school.

So here's my dream for this year's week without driving.

As we are all finding our way around Central Oregon, we imagine what it would be like to have a bus system that actually served all of us.

A bus system that ran every 15 minutes with bus stops just a few blocks from every home and with enough transfer points that anyone could get anywhere.

I know that attendance for our students at COCC would increase.

I know that traffic congestion in our city would decrease.

And I bet we'd all be rather delighted at the feeling of real freedom of transportation.

Thank you all very much for supporting this.

I think so.

Good evening.

My name is Jim Elliott.

I'm resident of Bennett.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to comment on the week without driving, a week that focuses on the transportation needs of the over 30% of us in our city who are involuntary non-drivers.

I'm here today on a big group who are too young to drive, the children of Bend.

When I talk about this group of non-drivers, I often hear that the kids should not count because their parents can drive them wherever they want to go.

As a volunteer at Bear Creek Elementary since 2020, I've had the opportunity to assist in teaching students how to safely walk and bike on the large trail, the Coiner Trail, the neighborhood streets, and across the very busy roundabout at 15th and Northeast Bear Creek Road.

I've enjoyed watching kids graduate from holding their parents' hands or riding on the backs of a cargo bike traveling independently by walking or biking or scooting.

These kids are developing autonomy and independence and physical exercise through their independent travel.

I'm a crossing guard at Bear Creek, and so I have direct experience with it is kind of scary.

I understand why parents want to drive their kids.

You know, I'm bigger than a water buffalo, I wear a bright yellow coat.

And every day, you know, we encounter people that just don't want to stop.

But the well-known drop-off and pickup lines cannot be the only answer for Bend.

As an expansion of safe to routes to school, is a great place to start for our kids, and a partnership between the city of Bend and Ben Le Pine School District can help make that happen.

I want to note that in 2020, we averaged probably 16 kids walking and biking to school, and this year we were averaging 75.

They're talking about a bigger bike racks.

So when you do give the opportunities and you provide safer streets, it makes a difference.

So thank you very much for what you're doing to make our streets safer for all of us.

Thank you all.

All right, I'm gonna take a photo of Council Class.

Yeah, and if there's other members of your organization that want to be in the town.

Oh, yeah, there you go.

Thank you so much.

Should we hold it up in the front of the colour?

I think we're gonna be able to do that.

Okay.

Ready?

I thought that a lot of that is.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you.

Huh?

We didn't get a rhythm.

Okay.

So our next proclamation is for Public Lands Day, and I'm gonna read this one.

So this is a proclamation for National Public Lands Day.

Beautiful, accessible natural areas are part of Oregon's heart and soul.

From the coast of the mountains in the desert to the river, Oregonians enjoy an outdoor wonderland across the state.

We recreate, we hunt and fish, and we enjoy the birds and wildlife that these lands and their waters nourish.

In Bend, our public lands are beloved by our community and an important component of the well-being of our residents.

Public lands are critical places for individual growth and transformation, for creating lasting family experiences, and for providing our city with clean drinking water.

Ensuring equitable access to our public lands is essential to our way of life in Central Oregon.

Established in 1994, National Public Lands Day is held annually on the fourth Saturday in September.

Over the years, this event has brought together hundreds of thousands of volunteers to help protect and restore America's public lands.

Through this proclamation, we celebrate our public lands and all who enjoy them and encourage our residents to participate in appreciating, protecting, and restoring our natural areas and ecosystems.

We also acknowledge that the lands we now call public lands were once the territories of indigenous peoples obtained through both treaties and forcible dispossession, and we honor Oregon's sovereign tribal nations' continued connection to and stewardship of these lands.

We must also acknowledge that at this time in our history, our public lands are currently under attack.

We do not support proposed actions like selling off public lands for private profit, rolling back the endangered species act, and rescission of important safeguards like the roadless rule, which protects our wild backcountry areas.

On top of these actions, wildfire prevention and response has been threatened by federal cuts and firings, causing increased risk to our lands in our community.

Right now, we must all speak up for the responsible stewardship of our public lands and work to protect equitable access to the natural wonders all around us that are critical to our community's health, happiness, and prosperity.

Now, therefore, we, the City Council of the City of Bend, Oregon, do hereby proclaim September 27th, 2025 as Public Lands Day in Bend, Oregon, and invite our residents and visitors to join a local event in service of our public lands.

Second.

Alright, move by Council Perkins, second by Council Platt.

All those in favor?

Hi.

Hi.

Alright, and we've got several organizations here.

So we have Lace from Central Oregon Landwatch.

You guys can start coming up.

Sammy from Oregon Wild and Xavi from Vominos Outside who are going to speak.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Avier Borja, and it is an honor and pleasure to be able to be here before you and to accept this proclamation on behalf of Albanus Outside, an organization that I was able to found and start here in Central Oregon alongside a lot of other community organizations and community members.

Vamos outside, or VO, because we all love our alphabet soup, has a simple mission.

We actively strive to advance an inclusive outdoor culture in Central Oregon by providing outdoor recreation opportunities for our Latino community and communities of color.

By utilizing the outdoors as a mechanism for personal transformation, we will create a lasting impact on individuals and families here.

As stated in the proclamation, VO firmly believes that by carrying out our mission connecting underserved and marginalized communities into the outdoors, we are also cultivating the next generation of stewards.

By fostering a deeper connection to these places, we inspire a commitment to care, uh commitment to care for and protect the very places we share.

So again, it's a great with great honor and privilege that we accept this proclamation alongside other organizations.

Thank you.

Greetings, Mary Keepler and all council members.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here, and thank you for your public lands day proclamation.

My name is Lace Thornburg, and I'm here on behalf of Central Oregon Land Watch.

Landwatch is a nonprofit environmental group that was formed in the 80s as one of the many groups uh watching public lands.

Uh, and we're blessed to have so many here in Central Oregon.

Obviously, public lands are central to the Central Oregon experience.

I'm sure we all can think of some right of passage with our family or with our friends or with ourselves that we have taken part in that's happened on public lands, whether that's catching a fish in the Metolius or riding a bike on the trails out of Winoga or skiing at Tamalo Mountain.

I mean, we could go literally on and on and on.

Along with those rights of passage, uh, something that's very important as well with that public lands is to also participate in the physical stewardship of those lands and to speak up and advocate for them.

So with your proclamation, I think you're helping very much to make all three parts of that uh equation true.

That being a public enjoying public lands also comes with stewardship and advocacy.

So thank you very much for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh thank you, Mayor Keebler, Council members.

Uh, my name is Sammy Godlove.

I'm with Oregon Wild.

It's great to be joined tonight by Central Oregon Land Watch, Vominos Outside, uh, who are both doing such great work to celebrate and protect our public lands.

And public lands really, they really are the heart of Oregon and our city.

Uh, you know, we're so fortunate to be surrounded by public lands and such iconic landscapes.

It's why people live here, move here, uh, visit here.

And Lace was talking about the rights of passage.

I was born and raised in Bend, and my most memorable experiences growing up here all involved spending time on our public lands, you know, skiing at Mount Bachelor, uh, camping at Newberry National Monument, fishing and paddling on the wild and scenic Deschutes River, um, all these special experiences.

And our outdoor access to protected public lands like these.

That's why I moved back here as an adult.

But, you know, public lands, they aren't just pretty places to go explore.

Uh, they mean so much more.

They're vital to our health and well-being, they sustain our communities.

Uh, you mentioned in the proclamation, our city's drinking water is sourced from wild intact forests on public lands.

These lands also provide clean air for us.

Uh, they help fight climate change by storing massive amounts of carbon.

Uh, they support local businesses and economies, and they provide the best remaining wildlife habitat for wildlife to thrive.

Um, but as the proclamation mentioned, you know, from uh efforts to dismantle public lands agencies to attacks on bedrock laws and policies like the Endangered Species Act, like the Roadless Rule, and even to efforts to actually sell off public lands for private profit.

Uh, these places are public lands, they're under attack like never before.

And that's why it is so important and so critical to have uh local action, local leadership to bring awareness to these places and to defend these really irreplaceable areas.

And I know that Oregon or Oregonians and Americans nationwide, um, you know, time and time again, they've made it clear that they want to see more protections for public lands because these places uh they belong to all of us, right?

Not just those who wish to exploit them.

Um so with that, thank you again for this proclamation.

Uh, and thank you for this celebration of our nation's public lands.

Great.

Thank you all for being here.

Yeah, appreciate you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, we just have ahead.

So I think we're just thank you.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

We've got a couple more things to get through.

Um, one, I forgot at the top of the meeting, we have a new staffer at the Dais with us, so Eric.

So just want to welcome Trisha.

Yeah.

Welcome.

Welcome.

We'll be seeing her in meetings going forward, I'm sure.

Okay, one more item before we get into Council Action and Reports, and that is a brief statement about Hispanic Heritage Month.

Um, we don't have a proclamation, but I did want to recognize it, so I'm gonna read something that's about five minutes, but just highlighting some um some things around this month.

Um, this week actually marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, which is a month-long celebration of Hispanic and Latino history and culture.

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated each year from September 15th to October 15th.

It began as a week-long celebration in 1968 under President Johnson and was expanded to a month by President Reagan 20 years later.

The celebration provides time to properly recognize the significant contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans that they have made in the United States.

This month does not cover one single month, but um begins in the beginning of September and ends in the middle of October, and the time frame is significant because many Central American countries celebrate their independence days within these dates.

I invite our community to join with organizations like Latino Community Association to celebrate at some upcoming events, which I will mention at the end of this statement.

In honor of this month, I did want to highlight some important local history of the presence and contribution to our community of uh the Hispanic and Latino community by speaking about the Brasero program, and I'm gonna try to roll my R's, but I'm not great at it.

Um, and the Mexican farm workers who came to help the United States during World War II.

Um earlier this year, Leanne O'Neal, who's a board member of LCA actually presented on this topic on Brasero Program Day in collaboration with the Chutes Historical Society and the Dissutes Public Library.

And so I'm sharing information that she had gathered for her presentation.

You can see more about this at the Dissutes History.org/slash exhibits website.

So the Brucero program began in 1942 when the governments of the United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which Mexico would send farm workers to the U.S.

to help alleviate the labor shortage caused by World War II and to ensure continued food production during a critical period.

They were called Broseros, stemming from the word brazo, which roughly means manual labor in Spanish.

In return, the U.S.

is supposed to create a set of protocols to protect the Braseros from discrimination and provide adequate housing food, health care, and wages.

Over the years, Braseros endured exploitation, discrimination, withholding of salaries, and the threat of deportation if they did not comply with farmers' often illegal demands.

To this day, Central Oregon relies on migrant agricultural workers to support the success of our farming community, the majority of whom have legal status.

Farm workers in our community face many of the same issues the Braseros face, including health risks like extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and pesticide exposure, discrimination, substandard housing conditions, and fair wages and working conditions.

Domestic migrant workers currently are scared to travel from harvest to harvest for fear of unlawful immigration and customs enforcement detention, which is impacting farms in Oregon.

And seasonal foreign farm workers who obtain visas under the federal H2A program are getting held up at the border.

That's a program that has allowed agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to hire temporary workers since 1952.

So directly linking that program for World War II to how our farms work now.

Last year, just for numbers, about 4,200 workers obtained those types of visas to work in Oregon.

So to wrap this up, I wanted to share the statement that was given by Oregon House Representative Ricky Ruiz in honor of officially naming August 4th as Brasero Program Day.

He said their legacy continues to inspire us.

The Brusero program is a critical chapter in our state's history, reminding us of the sacrifices made by Mexican farm workers and their families and all the work we still need to do.

We must continue to recognize and support their contributions.

So this month, let us all take the time to learn more about the stories of the Bruseros, which it must be pointed out.

We only really know from the perspective of white reporters since no stories from the Briseros themselves have yet been found.

We can also celebrate in our community at several upcoming events that will showcase and honor Hispanic Heritage.

LCA is hosting Dance for a Community or Baya Parla Comunidad on September 28th at Silver Moon Brewing at 4 p.m.

This is on their website.

And there will also be a Latino Heritage celebration on October 4th from 3 to 7 p.m.

at Open Space Studios, and that's hosted by the Environmental Center and benefiting LCA.

And then finally, they wanted me to mention that folks should stay tuned for future information about Dia de los Muertos events here in Benn coming up in October.

Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the unique voices and experiences of Hispanic and Latino Americans and recognize their history, journeys, and achievements.

Through these celebrations, we can help inspire younger generations and bring our community together.

And I don't think you'd mind me saying, but I learned today that Zabi, who just presented here.

Oh, there you are, Zavi.

Um is your grandfather was a grossero.

And as part of that program, so I'm also served as a board chair for Latinal Community Association and try to get my grandpa to kind of talk about something saying that I think one of my older cousins, she has a lot of those stories.

Uh, but he was just one was in Texas, but also uh just couldn't get a lot of information.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure.

So just part of the program.

This is part of our history in Central Oregon, and it's still our living history today.

So was just excited to highlight that as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Thanks for giving me the time to bring that out to the public.

Okay.

Um all right, we'll move into the council action and reports section.

So first our committee updates for our subcommittees.

Yeah, so both the stewardship subcommittee and the community building subcommittee are really phasing out.

As we looked at the schedule and our kind of new work session schedule every week, I don't think we see a need for stewardship anymore.

Um we have one task left to complete for the uh community building subcommittee, and that's the septic to sewer applications.

We've been using that as the group that reviews the annual applications we received in the neighborhood, so we're gonna still keep that.

But I think from from this point forward, I think we feel comfortable just weaving in those items to the full council work session.

So, unless there's any objections to that.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think Septic DeSure is like so discrete that we'll probably create sort of an ad hoc community committee that meets once a year, basically for that.

But that's the last time we're getting on the docket.

And then, sort of uh I want to make sure that we are also sharing visibility on our public contracts subcommittee, which will be meeting on September 30th.

Um that uh agenda will include just a uh revisit of the area of the subcommittee's focus, a little bit of procurement 101, um, talking about alternative contracting methods and delivery, uh, and so the supplier diversity check-in and a roadmap for the subcommittee's future and topics to be included uh in uh um upcoming agendas.

Great.

Thank you.

Um council, this was previously sent out, but last week just kind of on a deadline.

There was a letter from a transportation um for America group around just advocating with our federal representatives to avoid rescinds or sort of not funding um under the bipartisan infrastructure act, some of the transportation dollars that had gone out.

So we joined on to that as that is in our interest and many cities' interest to see the dollars that were promised actually be spent.

Um, and then Councillor Platt and Councillor Riley worked on a letter to submit into the record about the EPA endangerment finding.

Anything either of you want to say about that real quick?

No, big thanks to Cassie for helping us actually get in out the door.

Right.

Yeah, so that is listed there as well.

Um, and we don't have any appointments tonight, so we'll go to council reports.

Um, start down on your end, Councilor Francosa.

Um so in the last two weeks, I did a watershed hike with um some members of the uh water department, public works department.

So thanks to the folks who organized that.

It was not six miles, it was eight miles for sure.

But um that's okay.

I've I've crowdsourced this.

We were also um some attorneys representing the Warm Springs Tribes, it was really some wonderful quality time to be able to talk about the importance of our watershed and the importance of our water resources.

So um, so thanks again for that opportunity, and I will do it again the next time.

So don't leave me off the invite list, please.

Um I met with uh some folks from Central Oregon Landwatch and Yimby to discuss um spurring neighborhood commercial uh businesses, how do we help to support those businesses get going?

And this is essential to complete communities, which was a central part of my platform for running for office.

So I'm grateful to those um community advocates for stepping up, and I think we'll be hearing more on that um in the coming months.

Um I attended the um co-act meeting, Central Oregon um kind of organizing group around transportation.

This is the downer of my update.

Um, ODAP presented some troubling information.

Um, they uh of course track accidents that result in serious injuries and fatalities, and it's actually increasing on our state highways by a lot.

Uh, comparing the last five years with the current five years, uh, we are up statewide 44% in fatalities and serious injuries.

So um when ODAT puts out uh requests for public input about safety on our roadways, I encourage you if you're interested to speak up about it.

Um there are some things I think it it requires a little bit of focus and a little bit of attention, and um and uh yeah, these these numbers are not good.

Um I also I've met with um staff, uh counselor and borough chair Mike Riley and Mayor Kepler to discuss um fiscal oversight for projects receiving uh public support, such as the site specific TIFF.

Um so more on that will be shared in the coming months.

And a bunch of other meetings with constituents and other elected officials, but uh yeah, I'll be there.

Any welcoming week events that you were able to make it to you.

Oh, Culture Jam was phenomenal.

Um the Central Oregon Daily did a really great story about it, so if you missed it, you can see that it was a couple minutes long, so it's like it was a really good, yeah.

Uh intro to what culture jam is, and then I'm gonna go to the uh movie night on Thursday.

My invisible neighbor, your invisible neighbor, I'm not something like that.

So, visible neighbor.

Great there as well.

So hope to see you there.

All right, Counselor Mendez, uh, we can come over to you.

Okay.

Um, yeah, I starting with Culture Jam.

Um, I was able to attend two welcoming week events before I came down with a cold, um, which is why I'm not there in person.

But uh yeah, culture jam was phenomenal.

The fashion show was excellent.

It was such a great opportunity to um talk with people, uh, learn about groups that I didn't even know existed, frankly.

Um so great opportunity.

I also had the opportunity to attend a bilingual family-friendly asana yoga session on Friday.

Uh for people who are interested in that.

The Ben Park and Rec District does offer more of those kinds of yoga classes.

And of course, there's lots more welcoming week events still.

So I encourage everyone to visit our Bendorgan.gov, I believe it is, slash welcoming dash week uh website to learn more about the upcoming events that are running through this weekend.

Um I also had the opportunity to attend a tour of Gerald Wen with uh Mayor Keebler and Counselor Platt.

This was organized by Edco.

Um I thought it was a really great opportunity to learn about a business that hopes to grow here in Bend.

In addition to the attention to the quality of these one of these uh windows that they make.

I think there was evident pride in their craft.

Um so that was a great opportunity to learn about this business.

And um we will be invited to tour other businesses.

I believe the effort is to have three counselors at a time join so that there's no concerns about whether um a public meeting is occurring, so it will be subquorum.

Um but those those invitations will be coming out from EdCo in the near future.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Councilor Riley.

Um first thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was I attended the um candlelight digital for those affected by suicide last Saturday that was part of Suicide Prevention Month that's going on right now.

Um and I want to share that suicide is something I've experienced in my own family, it's how my father died.

Um, and unfortunately with a gun, so it sort of mixes a couple problems together.

Um and I say that really just to bring it home that suicide touches many people in our community, and often people don't know about the story, and it's one of the problems with it.

It's often shameful to talk about and it's uncomfortable.

Um so that's why I want to talk about a little bit tonight.

Um it was sponsored by the Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance.

Um I wanted to just extend a big thanks to Mimi and Christine, and there are those are two of the people I met who volunteered to put it on, um, and many others who helped put on that event and the other events that are happening um this week, and there's something in November as well.

And to all those who attended, um, and then I just wanted to share a couple resources.

Um, if you or someone you know is considering suicide, um, there's a suicide and crisis lifeline you can call, you just dial 988.

And then there's one for youth as well, which is 8778491.

And if you or someone you know is grieving from some from experiencing suicide recently, um partners in care here in Bend um offers support counseling for folks at 541 382.

And I know after my father died, that was really beneficial for me personally to be able to go and just connect with other people who had that shared experience.

It was very healing for me.

Um I attended a couple uh welcoming week events as well.

Culture Jam on Saturday was fantastic.

The fashion show in particular was really fun with people of all ages and from all over the place.

Um I went to the Brothers Ivan concert on Sunday at um Cafe de Chutes that was organized by Art Sprouts and that was a celebration of Ukrainian culture, and then last night Tertullias did pelicula at the Tower Theater that was organized by Bendita's and the film that we saw in the music and the conversation afterwards.

So I plan to go to one or two more.

So again, I as Counselor Mendis, I encourage people to go and check it out on our website, the City Bend Oregon.gov and welcoming week if you don't see it right on the home page, you can search there.

And then the last thing I wanted to share is that myself and the mayor with some other community members went on a tour of the Newberry Crater geothermal project that Mazama Energy is working on, and it was really interesting to go to the site and actually learn about some pretty big progress they've made in terms of turning hot rock with some matted water into steam that could generate power.

Super hot rocks.

Super hot, yes.

Super hot rocks.

Super hot, very hot, super hot.

Like, you know, 330 degrees centigrade.

So it was really exciting, and just a big thank you to Alan Bonneville, who was the geophysicist, geoscientist that led the tour with us, a representative from Landwatch Came as well as two people from the environmental center to just kind of get up to speed on the project.

And it's I think something we may be hearing about in the not too distant future, and a pretty exciting opportunity for renewable energy in our community that also does come with some trade-offs because of location and stuff, but so we'll have to be talking about that as a community.

That's what I have.

All right, great.

Thanks, Councillor Berkins.

Um to start, I guess I'll talk about a couple of um meetings and uh had about homelessness.

Um I met with some people from uh Juniper Ridge and also a gentleman who runs the National Vehicle Residency Collective to talk a little bit about some ideas that they have for uh you know for the future Juniper Ridge and also just people living in vehicles in in our community.

And um also met with Holly Jukes um from the National Forest to just kind of talk about about what happened in China Hat and what is still going on in China Hat and how we can work together in the future to make sure that we have a really strong roadmap so that we are we are not you know traumatizing people who are having to leave an area that they've considered their home for for many years.

Um on the business side of things today we had um the this Bend Business Roundtable, um which is a which is a group of people that brought together um by Edco to kind of talk about um just local business issues and um they talked about the economic development strategy um as well as um the electrification um potential electrification fee.

Um BDAB met this this week as well and or last week and um they also had a lot to say about electrification.

There was a presentation by by Cassie and and by Cyrus and uh would really expressed that they really want to be involved in the formulation of this and um would like to make sure that we are um having as much data in our hands as possible when we're making these decisions.

Um and we also heard from Landwatch at that meeting to talk about what Council Francis had talked about with the neighborhood commercial, um and we got an update from Vest Bend.

And um I was able to go to the reception to welcome the new COC president to um our community, and we are very lucky to have him here, and I'm excited to see um all the things that that he does for our students and for our community.

And um last I just wanted to share um for those of you who don't know uh the Central Oregon Disability Support Network just lost a significant uh portion of their funding from the federal government because they believe that um doing disability services should be done equitably.

Um and just to share a little bit about for those of you who don't know what the Central Oregon Disability Support Network does.

Uh it was started in Bend in 2004 as a grassroots peer-led organization and has since grown to serve eight rural counties across Oregon.

They currently support over 4,000 families, helping them navigate special education and disability services.

They are the only federally funded parent resource center serving this region, ensuring that families in poverty, grandparents, raising grandchildren, and parents with disabilities have access to advocacy, training, and support.

Their services help youth with disabilities graduate, pursue higher education, secure employment, and live independently, reducing long-term reliance on state and federal systems.

And they have been a hundred percent compliant with federal grant requirements and have consistently exceeded program goals.

This loss of funding will directly harm families raising children with disabilities in our community and widen the gap in access to critical resources.

Um a personal level, uh, I reached out uh to Central Oregon Disability Support Network for someone in my own family having a diagnosis, and I cannot sh I cannot possibly explain to you how their support and their access to resources to me just helped helped me in a really scary situation.

And I know that there are so many other parents in our community that feel the same way.

So I would I would ask, they have appealed, they have already appealed this process, but I would ask if any of my fellow counselors or anyone in our community could could write to our federal legislators and express their support for the incredible work that Central Oregon Disability Support Network does in our community.

I'm happy to share some more information with you privately.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilor Norris.

Great.

I attended the Environment and Climate Committee, which I am the liaison to.

We got an update on we actually had our land use planning staff come and give a really comprehensive update on our climate-friendly equitable communities and the plan, you know, and all the updates, basically what they do.

We're gonna be updating the comprehensive plan or stateweight planning goals.

Um and I think it was a really beneficial education for the climate uh committee and just to understand the role that they will take in those endeavors as we move forward.

And then they also discussed that we still have um some spots for their grant program uh through ECC, which is looking to provide funds to companies making a positive impact in our environment that closes soon on the 21st.

So if there's any companies out there that um that are looking to seek funds that can help assist and are and are doing good for our environment, uh there are still some uh some spots available and funds available.

Um, and then yes, I look forward also to attending some of the welcoming week events and um especially I know there's a lot on the weekend, so I'm excited about that.

Great.

Counselor Platt.

Yeah, uh thank you, Councillor Norris for talking about the ECC.

I met with a couple of uh young voters and pre-voters uh uh in the last two weeks to talk about their ideas about electrification for our community.

Let me tell you they're fired up.

They want us to move forward on this.

Uh they also are interested in taking some time uh out of the school day to make a point.

I will tell you as an educator, I pleaded with them not to do that, but to uh go right after school and make their point at a city council meeting coming forward, but they are fired up and they are concerned about our our future, and it's just really energizing meeting with them.

I also had an opportunity uh last week to go look at some modular apartments that are here in our city, the step apartments, and uh we're looking at a variety of ways to uh fill our housing stock over the next 20 years.

We have to increase our housing stock by almost 80 percent from right now.

And let me tell you, that's a tall order, and we have to go look at a lot of innovative solutions, and I think modular building may be one of the parts, one of the tools in the in the tool chest that we use uh to make that happen.

I also had um the opportunity to go to the uh the tour Geldwin and I echo counselor uh Mendoz's um uh comments on that, and also David Abbas was was kind enough to go with me to uh north um North uh Mount Washington on the north side of Aubrey Butte and look at and educate me on the differences between what a chip seal looks like and a complete resurfacing of the road.

And and and the you know, you don't you get different treatments around the city as we try to maintain our roads, and one of the things I really took away from that is it's one sixth of the cost per mile to do to do a chip sale compared to resurfacing the road.

So sometimes you'll get the resurface and sometimes you get the chip chip seal, but you get about seven years out of that road once you do that, and at one sixth the cost, I'll tell you it's uh it's a bargain in my in my mind to make that done.

So I appreciate David Otto's for taking his time for that.

And then I've had the opportunity to go to a couple of uh the welcoming weeks events.

Uh I went with Councillor Riley on Monday night, and then also a really neat event with the Affordable Housing uh Homeownership Fair last night at the Large Purse Center.

So it was my honor to attend that as well.

Thanks.

All right, thank you.

Yes, as mentioned, I've been on a um a couple of tours with fellow counselors.

Um, also have been attending the Dissutes County District Mapping Advisory Committee that um will continue meeting on Wednesdays.

We just met in Sisters today.

I think we're meeting in Redmond next time, but we're moving around a little bit these first few meetings.

Um, just continuing to advocate for something that's fair, a process that's transparent and understandable to the public.

Um, and um talking about how Bend is going to be sliced up for that mapping exercise.

That's just no other way to put it.

So we'll continue with that.

I hope folks will pay attention to that.

Um things didn't overlap with other folks.

Um, Eric and I were at the Deschutes Um County, the rural fire board uh meeting yesterday, just continuing to talk about the growth in our area and how we're gonna start to formulate a plan for future funding.

Um we got a presentation from the county actually on some some looking at how they're planning for the future, and the takeaway was the growth is going to be in the cities primarily and not as much in the unincorporated areas.

So we'll be taking that data as part of what we talk about when we talk about what the service need is gonna be going forward.

Um also had the Central Oregon cities meeting on Monday.

Um we are gonna be doing um a water round table this this October with um basin partners to continue talking about the mitigation program and how to work on uh making sure that we can continue that and make it work for ourselves and the state.

I think um that's about it for now.

Um I do I I have a prompt here to update on the transportation package vote, and I'm very sad to say it did not happen.

There is still a very ill senator who was not able to come to Salem today for the vote, so it has been delayed further.

Um I also wanted to forward an announcement that came out today from the governor about the West Coast Health Alliance vaccine recommendations.

Anyone wondering about your COVID vaccines, please look for that announcement from the governor today and talk to your primary care doctor about how to access vaccines this fall.

Um and I think that's it for me.

Okay.

So that will move us to our visitors section.

Um so this is the time for us to hear public comment.

We have a two-minute limit.

We have one person online and a few people in person today.

Um we ask folks to uh come up to the mic, state your name and whether you live in the city of Ben, um, address us as a body, not as individuals.

No language or actions that will disrupt the meeting.

And if you have materials to hand to us, make sure to hand them to Ashley.

This is our timer.

That light will be green and then it will be yellow when you have about 30 seconds left.

So we um since we only have one online if you who's uh Mandy and I just sent you another email.

Oh okay.

We can start with online.

If there's two of them, let's just start with our online folks, and then we'll let's start with our online people.

Let's do it.

Yes.

I see that.

Okay.

So we can start with Mandy Bryant.

And Mandy, you should be able to unmute.

Okay, did I can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Good evening.

Thank you for your time.

Um, I'm here to speak with you tonight about Juniper Ridge.

I understand that from a certain perspective, this area is a financial drain and a problem that needs to be solved.

But I'm here today as someone who has been on the other side of this issue.

I am a former camper who was displaced by the China hat closure.

So I know firsthand what it's like to be swept from an area with nowhere to go.

The most important thing I can tell you is this sweeping and displacing people will not force them into housing.

It doesn't work.

All it does is push the problem out of sight temporarily at a tragic human cost.

There is a question I want to I want you to ask yourselves.

Why not try something new that we haven't done before?

The residents of Juniper Ridge have have long been viewed as a statistic or a monetary amount.

We are plan me and a group of people are planning an event for this Saturday that is designed to change that.

It will give them a voice and for the first time make them feel seen and valued as people.

This is a crucial step to getting them to want to go into housing.

The path to housing is not through a force or displacement.

And forced displacement is what closing Juniper Bridge will do.

It's through making people feel like they are wanted in the community and helping them reintegrate.

It's through things like the TSSA program, manage camps or tiny home villages, approaches that treat people with dignity and respect.

When you treat people like garbage, they eventually behave in a way that reflects that treatment.

When you treat people with respect, their behavior reflects it.

Closing Juniper Ridge will not solve anything.

There's nowhere for these people to go.

Another sweep would only cause a larger unmanaged, you know what kind of a show.

And it's a matter of life and death.

I recently learned about two people in San Jose who who took their own lives after being displaced by a sweep.

Displacing people is literally playing roulette with their lives.

In a place like Central Oregon, you can only sweep people around so many times before they come right back.

Let's not let the story of Juniper Ridge become another tragic statistic.

Please don't close it or at least postpone it until there's something in place to replace it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mandy.

And next we'll do Eric Gardy.

So oh, there you go.

Eric, you should be able to unmute.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can you hear me?

Yep, go ahead.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um, so my name's Eric Gardy.

I live in Primeville, but I do um for the past five years actually, um, in just a couple months.

It'll be five years of providing services to the unhoused community of Central Oregon.

And during that time, I feel like I've I've seen enough sweeps that I kind of know how the next few months may potentially go if the city of Bend does attempt to start a closure of Juniper Ridge in March of 2026.

Transparently, that's a lot sooner than I expected, knowing that funding potentially could go through the end of December 2026.

And I do think closure, even in phases would be exactly the wrong direction.

That would take us in the direction of following what just happened at China Hat a few months ago, and really would be leaving people with nowhere else to relocate to.

We need stability, we need services, and that takes time.

And so far, Juniper Ridge has been remarkably successful in maintaining a safe environment for people to camp and try to get back on their feet.

There have been individuals that have transitioned out of living at the temporary safe stay area into permanent housing, and we need to double down on those efforts, not eliminate the only place where people are allowed to camp for more than a day or two days or three days.

They need support.

In contrast to the experience with China Hat, there is a possibility where we work with the National Vehicle Residency Collective, the National Homelessness Law Center to learn best practices and what we can implement and tailor a solution that fits with our community's needs.

The National Vehicle Residency Collective, we meet with them every week.

They have the experts that we need to make this a successful project.

And with COTEX Bill HB 3644, there is potentially funding to help support this project.

So I would just urge you to be cautious and let's move in the direction that has not been attempted in the past because sweeps have been a failure throughout our community for many years.

Thank you.

Thank you, Eric.

And I think the last person is someone who's um presenting on an agenda item.

So I don't think that's a public commentary.

So we will move to in-person, so we'll have Chuck Hemingway.

Come on up.

Um good evening, uh Keebler, uh City Manager King Counselors.

My name is Chuck Hemingway.

I'm a homeless advocate.

I don't live in the city but engage in outreach shop in the TSSA.

I'm here to speak to speak against agenda item six that proposes to begin the phased eviction from the TSSA of people in increments of 50 to 60 people about every two months over a six-month period from March to October 2026.

There's no provision for where these people are going to go.

The city is setting up four sections with people to be evicted one section at a time, beginning with the northernmost section.

These are people living in undrivable, untowable vehicles with no capability themselves for getting their rigs towed or driven.

And again, to where that's the practical issue.

But more importantly, these are their homes.

You're going to be evicting them and putting them out on the street.

Let me remember remind you of what you as a council have adopted in your own homelessness response policy.

The City of Bend finds that each community member of Bend is entitled to a basic level of dignity, respect, well, and wellness, regardless of whether they are unhoused or housed.

It is the official policy of the city that responses to homelessness will be undertaken in accordance with these principles.

Agenda item six violates this.

A slide in your packet has to increase the land management budget by $500,000 to carry out evicting these 231 people.

That money is not ARPA money, tied to December the 31st, 2026, as I understand it.

So rather than spending the 500,000 on evicting all these people and forcing them to God knows where, I propose establishing a long-term visitor area, LTVA as a sensible, cost effective humane, and longer term alternative.

And I'm provided I've provided you with information on this approach.

You've already got the rudiments of an LTVA set up in the TSSA.

I respectfully request that you meet with service providers to talk about this approach before you decide to evict 231 people from their holds.

Thank you, Shark.

All right, next, uh let's do Peter Geyser.

My inquiries are the other mic.

Yeah, I so uh Peter Geyser and uh Michael Landris.

We uh I have sent you guys a petition on Sunday, so you mostly you have probably seen that.

It's um it's a petition related to amendment of code BDC section 3.6.500 point C point one.

Short-term rentals in areas zoned as commercial uh commercial neighborhood CN zoning.

And Michael and I are here representing uh 118 neighbors who have signed a petition we'll leave with you.

Um the um commercial CN zone in question does not merit a special exemption for short-term rentals, allowing special carve outs that increase short-term rentals uh runs absolutely counter to the city's stated goal of promoting long-term housing opportunities.

Old Bend is a small neighborhood that's already saturated.

We have 140 short-term rentals in our neighborhood already.

Uh let's see.

Our request is that you complete uh the amendment of the reference code to uh remedy uh what uh existing code error.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And did you want to speak as well?

Sure.

Okay, can you just fill out a form for us before you leave?

I was we we fell out our names on the same forms on the okay, their names are here.

That's fine.

You go ahead.

You can have two minutes as well.

Go ahead.

Thank you, counselors, for hearing our um our discussion tonight about changing the code and zoning for uh for the CN zone.

What's important to note is these are residential neighborhood properties.

Commercial use under this CN zoning has been recognized historically because of their historical nature, the type of services they provide, the um convenience services, coffee shops, grocery stores, et cetera.

Not because they're truly commercial and that's the best spot for a commercial type of use.

Um our neighborhood is already, as Peter said, flooded with STRs, which means they're they're um these are fewer long-term rentals.

Um the properties are often vacant, and when they are occupied, we don't get to know these neighbors.

Um in fact, I think we can all agree that the STR, though it is important as part of our economy within our small town, is that STRs do change the fabric within our community and lessens kind of the community aspect of our neighborhoods.

So uh my neighbors and I are asking that you complete the code amendment that uh uh will avoid making uh the problem we feel is even worse by allowing additional large clusters of STRs.

Above all, anything other than zoning requiring CN properties to play by the STR rules and become 100% regulated by the density within density limits within a neighborhood goes against the city's mandate to address the housing crisis and create long-term housing solutions, which we all want in our community.

Also trying to create any sort of incentive for developers to build housing units by anything to create housing units by allowing say anything like 25% of these units to be managed under an STR when already the densities are maxed, would not create the maximum number of housing units that are required for community and residences within our community.

Furthermore, this would be kind of unfair and special treatment that we don't think would be correct if for those of us who can't apply for STRs in our community because of the maximums have already been met.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And lastly, Sarah Odendah.

And if you want to hand that to Ashley, she'll get that to us.

Hi, good evening, Mayor, Council members.

Thank you for the chance to share a brief update on our ADU work.

So as you know, the chamber has been focused on supporting creative housing solutions and ADUs are part of a big part of that conversation.

Back in 2022, the leadership bend class created an ADU guide, which is currently on our website, step-by-step guide to help the homeowners understand how to plan and permit AD use.

We also hosted an ADU resource fair, which included representatives from the city after the launch to provide guidance to homeowners with in a venue to get questions answered regarding how to build an ADU on their property.

That project really kickstarted the chamber's focus on helping people add smaller, more flexible homes to their property.

So building on a foundation and with strong support from the city of Bend, the housing department, Simplicity by Hayden Homes, we're launching a pre-approved ADU design library tomorrow.

The design library supports the city's housing production goals by offering a offering a curated online collection of architecturally reviewed permit-ready ADU plants.

Homeowners can browse, choose, purchase designs that align with local building codes, enabling faster permitting, cost savings, and greater housing diversity.

So we've talked about some different kinds of housing options here tonight already.

But why ADUs?

So we believe ADUs are a key to tool in addressing housing needs because they use existing infrastructure.

They support intergenerational living.

They create attainable housing options for workers and families in our community.

Furthermore, the ordinance passed in June allowing up to two ADUs per lot that you all passed.

We'll make this resource even more impactful.

So a huge thanks to our sponsors at Hayden for their financial and technical support and kind of being the guinea pig of the library.

And to Carrie Bell and the housing department for working alongside us.

It truly is a public-private partnership helping homeowners and strengthening our neighborhoods.

So I encourage you to check out Benchamber.org and search pre-approved ADU design library.

It's actually live now, even though we're launching it tomorrow.

And hopefully we can build some ADUs together.

Thanks.

Thank you for that update.

It looks great, Sarah.

I'm looking at it right now.

It's mobile friendly.

Okay, so that will conclude the visitor section for tonight.

Next we have the consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

All right.

Move by Councillor Perkins, second by Councillor O'Reilly.

All those in favor?

I had one quick question about minutes.

Are we doing minutes for work sessions separately now?

How are we doing?

We'll approve them at the council.

Right, but we'll all be separate.

Okay, so I don't see the because I didn't see the minutes for our understaffed during that.

That's okay.

So Trish is going to have us catch up on the minutes.

Okay, cool.

I just wanted to make sure that those are gonna they'll show up listed as a separate work session minutes, but they'll be at our business meetings that we approve them.

Okay, that makes sense.

All right, that moves us to item number five.

This is the first reading of an ordinance amending defending municipal code Title 16 to update the city's requirements for post-construction site runoff control in compliance with the city's municipal separate stormwater service system permits.

Councilor Norris.

Um out of an abundance of caution, I'm declaring a potential conflict on this item.

I am an employee of paid in homes, and while this item may not have a financial impact on Haitian homes, it could have a potential financial impact on an affiliated company of Hayden Homes.

Although I'm declaring a potential conflict, I'm still permitted to participate in vote on the item.

Thank you.

All right, okay.

Let's uh share the screen here.

Okay, perfect.

All right, good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm Lori Feya.

I'm the environmental resources manager for the Water Services Department, and I'm joined by Elizabeth O'Keefe, who is our stormwater program manager.

And we're here to offer amendments to Title 16 of the municipal code.

It's specifically addressing stormwater management and particularly water quality protection of the river and of the groundwater.

Um in the city, it's also to address regulatory requirements.

So the city has two stormwater permits from the Department of Environmental Quality.

Um, and I'll just give you a brief little background on kind of some stormwater 101, and then Elizabeth will get into the details about the amendment.

So those two permits from the Department of Environmental Quality, one allows for discharge of stormwater and protection of water quality that goes to into storm drains and out pipes to the river.

The other stormwater permit is for the protection of water quality related to stormwater that gets discharged into typically dry wells that go into the potentially the groundwater.

And just real briefly, our stormwater program is uh designed to do a whole host of things that protect water quality.

And I'll just list a few examples.

So, for instance, we do operations programs like street sweeping and catch basin cleaning and pipe cleaning that removes sediments and pollutants before they might get to their saving waters.

Um we have code requirements that uh prohibit any discharges of anything other than clean stormwater into our stormwater systems that again discharge to the surface waters.

We also have development requirements so that new development or redevelopment, whether that be private or public projects in the right-of-way, both ways, um, both during construction and post-construction manage stormwater in a way that prevents pollution.

So that can be things like erosion control during construction.

It also can mean what's called post-construction requirements for permanent stormwater facilities that manage quantity as well as the quality of stormwater before it gets discharged.

Um the amendments before you that Elizabeth's going to get into now are specifically about post-construction and making some adjustments to better protect water quality.

And I'll hand it over to Elizabeth.

Alright, so as Lori mentioned, we're going to be talking about amending a section of Title 16.

And so getting into a little bit of the background, the permits that Lori mentioned, they're required under the Federal Clean Water Act.

And within our permits, we do have implement implementation schedules because we have a few different sections of the permit.

So the one again that we're talking about today is for post-construction site runoff for new development and redevelopment.

And this deadline that we have from the state is November 1st of 2025.

So that's why we're here today.

And so some of the goals for the updates to Title 16 are to first fit into the existing development permitting framework that the city has well as minimize the time and cost for the city and the development community.

So really not trying to add any additional burn it burdens, such as like new permits to building building in the city.

And then lastly, we our goal is to meet our regulatory requirements from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

And so when we're talking about post-construction in our permits, this really means the long-term management of stormwater runoff from new and redevelopment projects.

So this is different than say while we're construction constructing a project and we have temporary measures in place to protect water quality.

This topic is really all about what gets installed on site permanently to manage stormwater runoff and stormwater quality.

And so as Lori mentioned, she mentioned drywall drywells are one type of system used to manage stormwater, and they're known as structural stormwater controls.

So they capture runoff and infiltrate it into the ground.

Their goal is to reduce pollutants in stormwater, protect downstream areas from runoff impacts.

And really dry wells are the most common type of control used, especially in the right of way or in large commercial projects.

And then for more like residential type subdivisions, typically vegetated or rocked surface swales are used as well as infiltration trenches.

And then inbend currently developments are required to manage their private stormwater on site, and typically this occurs on each individual lot in a subdivision.

And so some of the uh the summary of the requirements from our permit are to apply a minimum stormwater management requirement to all projects that create or replace 5,000 square feet or more of impervious surface in total.

And what they mean by in total is that say you have a development subdivision development where you have multiple individual small lots that maybe 3,000 square foot each.

The trigger for this is the in-total impervious surface.

So you can't just come in with a small project and think that you're exempt from this requirement just because your individual lot is small when in when it's really the goal is to target everything in total.

Another requirement of the permit is to have development plan review of these systems that are getting installed, as well as ensuring the long-term operation and maintenance of privately owned structural controls on site.

Uh impervious surface trigger.

What we're doing with this code amendment is removing some existing exemptions that are in our code in order to meet our requirements.

Right now it's only new impervious surface, so we're going to also have to include replaced surfaces with which isn't currently in the code.

We're going to be removing exemptions for residential building types and remodeling types since it is based off a square footage trigger and not a type of development trigger.

We're also going to be clarifying the requirements for stormwater maintenance agreements on each lot and subdivisions and partitions.

So basically the agreements that say how these facilities need to be maintained and the rights that the city has to inspect and make sure that they're being maintained.

And lastly, we will be clarifying the stormwater volume retention requirement on lots to provide more of a numerical value that people can follow as it is currently a bit vague in the code.

And so for implementation and development process changes, we will be providing drainage templates that have simplified stormwater sizing tools so that the goal is to really minimize cost so that builders don't need to hire an engineer to design a lot of these facilities.

It'll be very structured and easy for people to implement.

And then we also will be implementing a more simplified maintenance agreement for residential lots to use.

For engagement and rollout, we presented to the Central Oregon Builders Association on August 12th of 2025.

And we will also be following up with them after the rollout of these new measures to check in.

Additionally, we we will have uh a website with materials and guidance documents for developer developers and builders, as well as guidance on um maintenance of facilities.

And then we are planning to provide additional information at the subdivision pre-application stage at the very beginning of projects to make people aware of different options for managing stormwater and large developments.

Oh, and back to me.

So I just that that's a summary of what the changes will do, but I also wanted to give a little bit more context about stormwater management overall that uh this really has relationship to.

You may be aware that the city's been working on a stormwater master plan update.

We've been working on that for about the past year and a half.

Um that plan is nearing completion.

In fact, the draft plan is available right now for public review on the city's website.

Um you can just search for stormwater master plan.

Um, but that will be coming to you for adoption hopefully in a few months, maybe around December.

And um, in addition to identifying large capital projects to address water quality and um flooding, we've also had a pretty robust discussion around um policies, including particularly the topic that we like to call drainage and density.

So the city's getting denser and denser, more of the developments are on smaller and smaller lots, and there's less room in landscapes to put these stormwater facilities that Elizabeth showed you some photos of.

So this work tonight is related specifically to a regulatory requirement.

It is going to, I think, clarify some things for individual builders of lots about smaller stormwater facilities, but ultimately there's going to be some topics that'll be presented to you that will help us moving forward to give more options to development for managing stormwater.

So I just wanted to mention more discussion coming on that.

And uh, with that, we're happy to answer any questions.

All right, council.

Any questions for staff?

I have uh go ahead.

Uh Amy and Lori, um, when you presented this to COBA, um, did you get any feedback on potential cost to comply with this code change?

So, one thing I should mention is that by and large, these requirements, it's already required that individual lots manage the stormwater on site.

So, this doesn't change that.

What it changes is that we need to pay more attention to it from our standpoint so we can ensure we're meeting the regulations.

So I don't anticipate that it will add more cost.

We didn't hear a big concern about that from COVID.

I think there are some concerns about just will this make the process longer or more difficult, and that's why Elizabeth particularly addressed that we're looking to create templates and simplified sizing um calculations for folks so that they don't have to like hire an engineer.

And I apologize, Elizabeth.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

I don't have a question and just a comment.

Um, I'm glad to see that there are drainage templates and things so that you don't have to hire an engineer.

That actually should save money and simplify things a lot.

I would just say as far as outreach goes, uh, see if you can do something to get beyond COBA because the COBA community are the you know, they're the more sophisticated folks, but there's a lot of like small scale and one-off builders that I know will find this as a surprise when they come to the permit counter.

So to whatever degree you can reach out to the rest of the definitely appreciated.

Um we already do that with erosion control, and we rolled out a year ago updates to erosion control requirements that has had us already interacting regularly with some of the smaller builders, so I'm hoping that'll help.

Thank you.

Um I have one question, and I maybe I'm asking you to repeat something, but in terms of the 5,000 square foot trigger.

So is that can be you know on a given lot, right?

If it triggered it, but and I'm assuming that's a combination of rooftop as well as like driveway and any other impervious services, right?

So that does include the rooftop of the house.

Yes, but it also can be for the neighborhood as a whole, and so some of the measures could be like neighborhood wide, not all necessarily concentrated on one property.

Yes, exactly.

And that's what the templates get at.

Yeah, so the templates will be about if if it's being managed a lot by lot, how to handle that because that's I think the folks that need the most assistance.

But the discussions around drainage and density are exactly what you're getting at, which is allowing more opportunities to see um subdivisions say handle stormwater at a subdivision level rather than on each lot.

Councilor Mendis has his hand up.

Uh my question was similar to Council O'Reilly's, but uh just to follow up then.

Do you anticipate that developers will try to um take steps to avoid triggering the 5,000 square feet trigger, or will they will do you expect them to uh just try to mitigate having met that?

In other words, do you think that how many how many of them are going to take advantage of these these templates as opposed to it sounds like going the mitigation route is much more costly?

So should we expect designs to change as a result of this?

I guess I would be surprised if I would see designs change.

Um, I think this is just going to clarify what the requirements are.

Um for to see people reduce the amount of imperviousness on each lot is probably difficult, right?

That that's that's talking about then significant reduction in say the size of the house.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Ready for motion?

I move for the first reading of the ordinance amending then municipal code title 16 to update the city's requirements for post-construction site runoff control and compliance with the city's municipal separate stormwater sewer systems permit.

Okay, move by councilor Francis, second by counselor plott.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you very much for the on to item number six.

This is an informational update on land management and housing focused case management at the temporary safe state area TSSA in Juniper Ridge.

Oh yeah, cool recently.

Yeah.

Ready?

Ready?

All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Matt Stewart, the real estate facilities director.

I'm joined tonight by Amy Freely, our senior program manager, Houseless, and special guest, Stacey Whitty, the executive director with REACH.

And tonight we're going to be kind of discussing the status and implementation of the temporary safe stereo in Juniper Ridge.

This is in preparation for the joint council board of commissioner meeting we have on the 29th.

We'll go over a brief overview, talk about how we got through collaborative efforts with the county.

We'll talk about the intent and the resolutions that were passed, the continued efforts we've made over the last six months, and then I'll hand it over to Aidney to kind of talk through the housing focus case management, some of our rules and the enforcement, and then we'll address the challenges that we see are facing today, and then we'll kind of get into proposed next steps and then open it up to discussion around what we want to discuss or prepare for the meeting on the 29th.

Just as kind of a reminder where the TSA is, it's about two miles north of the Cooley Road US 97 intersection, or it is a portion about 170 acres of city and county owned property.

Majority of the pink area there's that you see outside of TI that is now closed to the public.

That was closed on May 31st.

Then everything in the blue that is within the city limits, and that's where we've established a storage facility.

What we've done to date in September, we've had the first joint meeting with council and the board of commissioners where we brought this concept up, and council and the county commissioners both directed staff to put together the joint resolution.

In October, each body adopted those joint resolutions, and then in March, we officially sort of began the expansion of the TSA establishing it, the housing focus case management and expanding hiding stations and other security elements within the TSSA.

Just to go over the intent of the TSSA.

So in those joint resolutions, it is stated that the intent is to mitigate and improve the health and safety risks associated with unmanaged camping and to provide improved sanitation services and case management to facilitate people camping at Juniper Ridge, moving into safer shelter housing.

And in those resolutions, we outlined the goal of being able to reduce the area by 50% in year two, so 2026.

We also stated a joint goal between the two bodies that we would have full closure of the TSSA and everyone removed from the property and closing the property to the public by on or before December 31st, 2026.

So what have we done since then?

We've established five hygiene stations throughout the area, and we've established four hours of security patrol.

This is done in conjunction with the county.

So we have an IGA with the county to pay for and share in those costs.

We've done both both bodies have done infrastructure protection around COID and SWALE and making sure that their pipe infrastructure stays intact.

We've done fuels and fire mitigation work.

The city did a 200-foot barrier along the entire perimeter of Juniper Ridge.

The county did a lot more work on the interior, kind of limbing things up.

We feel like that has been successful despite some of the fires we've had, we've had really good response.

We've been able to put them out without much spread.

And I'll hand it over to Amy here to talk through the housing focused case management and then the rules and guidelines that we adopted to help enforce those rules and to establish uh the aura statute limitations.

So, excuse me, the level of engagement between the City of Ben funded service providers and people survival camping at Juniper Ridge has been much higher than anticipated.

More than 90% or 194 unique individuals have accessed some type of housing-centered case management services since we began offering them.

And this reflects the professionalism and the rapport building done by service providers and a desire of the campers to take advantage of these services and the opportunities presented.

Today I am honored to be sitting next to Stacy Whitty, who's going to talk a little bit about folks and services out there, the approach and the challenges before we get into some statistics and rules.

Thank you very much for your time.

I first want to acknowledge that I'm sitting at this table, but this is no means is a reach project.

There are so many individuals and social service agencies providing support, and there's a collaboration going on right now with our unhoused community members, our social service agencies.

Many folks right now are calling this home because they have not had a home for a long time.

If I sat here and told you this was a perfect scenario and there's no problems, that would not be very realistic.

We do encounter challenges.

One of our biggest challenges personally, I'm speaking for from our perspective, has been trash.

And that is something that has been a challenge.

It is something we're communicating and helping people to whittle down their belongings because often when we look at things, I think some of us see it as trash.

The reality is these are people's belongings.

I imagine our community of our house community removing the walls from our garages, opening our junk drawers, taking the roofs off the houses, and how many things that we accumulate.

And so we can only understand that when someone is unhoused, everything you own not only is with you, but it's exposed for all to see.

I cannot tell you the amount of times I meet people out there that have urns with family members' ashes that they have with them.

So I think it's important for us to acknowledge that yes, there is an absolute challenge.

We need to address it.

We need to help people to be accountable for that, but at the same time, having some dignity and grace around that.

Many of the folks that are out there are chronic medical conditions and vulnerable in so many ways.

With that said, we have so many people out there with so many skills and talents.

And we are engaging people in conversation constantly in terms of what other solutions, what would you see as a suggestion?

So we want to engage our unhoused community members because they are our neighbors.

And they want we want to co-create some ideas for future plans of what is going to happen.

One of the things that we're seeing, we first saw a lot more people than we had anticipated.

We have kind of a microcosm of our community out there.

We have folks going to school.

We have people working, we have people that are working on disability, we have people going for dialysis and chemo, and this is their home.

And what we've noticed is the stability to be able to start a process with someone to help them if they desire to get into housing or work on disability or get their kiddos to school.

We now have a place that we know next week we will find them, they will be there, and we can follow that process.

And that is a critical piece of that stability.

Um, my team goes out to uh TSSA on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

There are a myriad of teams going out.

I meet people off of the area for for gas propane to work on disability paperwork to get license registrations, tags for their vehicles, vehicle parts.

Those items are a kind of a gateway to a relationship.

It starts a conversation.

Um we are so excited to be partnering with the families out there.

Um the woman that's doing our outreach specialist right now, she just has a passion for the kids.

What's happened though is we've been able to bridge the gap between the children out there and McKinney Vinto and the school district.

So the buses are picking up those kiddos.

Um we had a child, and I'll just tell you really quickly a child that did not want to go to school at all this year.

We were able to talk with him and ask him with mom's permission what was going on, and he didn't want to go to school because his shoes were ripped and they were torn.

So we were able to help him pick out shoes and get those shoes out.

It sounds like a really little thing, but this is huge in getting some stability and normalcy to our folks out there.

Um I wish I had the answers to the next steps, but I really again want to acknowledge the support of the city because we would not be able to do this without the support of the city in terms of the ability to have the funding to assist folks, and we can see how many people have gotten into housing.

Um, the other thing we're noticing is as we've built up trust, people are more engaged with connecting with providers for medical.

Also, some people and not all are wanting to do what's called a heat assessment.

I won't go into a lot of discussion about it, but it's a continuum in our region to get people assessed and on list for whether it's shelter, congregant shelter, individual shelter, housing programs like Old Mill, Cleveland Commons, Franklin Stepping Stones, and we are able to then co-create with that person what is it that you are wanting for those next steps?

So the relationships have been incredible.

And again, my thank you to all of those individuals and social service agencies and security and code enforcement because it is complex and it's not easy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

We do have next slide.

It's the dashboard that'll be coming up ever so quickly.

Um you'll notice that it is through July with the end of summer, all of the data is due on the 15th of September.

But we saw many people on vacation and are getting kids ready for school, and so we will have that updated for August when we have the meeting with the county, but just know that there was just a little bit of a delay.

But you can see here that we've had uh 26 exits, and they're broken down there on the right-hand side, whether it was into permanent housing, shelter, or transitional housing.

And then, of course, the list of um City of Bend grantees.

This was approved by council in November of 2024, along with the award amounts.

Uh, since we're at stewardship, there was a slight change with Central Oregon Village.

You'll see that the percentage dropped.

This was because they secured end of the year funds for outreach, and so they backed out our grant because they could use it longer and use those last-minute funds, very similar to what um we did with some trash service at the very end.

Um, so we are on track, everyone is confident that they will spend down in the ARPA time period and neighbor impact just put forth their first invoice.

They have been using other funds as well to pay for that coordination service that is so important to the work being done.

Can you talk about the weekly case management?

I think so I I can't speak to how each agency does it, um, but we are going out, we interact with folks, um, and we're really we're approaching in a really gentle way to be able to build that trust and relationship.

But then we actually have a sheet that we take out to chat with people about you know what's going on, and sometimes we'll get people listing off.

I need 20 things.

So we're really trying to help people prioritize what is that one or two things that are essential for you right now and trying to dive in a little deeper of what that looks like.

Um, we've seen a lot of folks getting birth certificates and a lot of people getting other documents.

A lot of people are also nervous because they move from China Hat, so they want to make sure their vehicle is secure.

Um, they also are we're talking a lot about how do you get your vehicle legal so that it has tags and registration and driver's license so that you're not losing your vehicle and then purchasing another vehicle, which is a problem for the landfill and everything else.

So we the case management is really it's very individualized for each person.

And do you often when you when you meet with Neighbor Impact and the other organizations that are working out there, kind of share?

Yes, so there is a case conference call after the case conference call each week.

There is a specific small group that's involved out there that meets and it's a TSSA meeting.

It allows us to case conference, it allows us to problem solve, it allows us to be able to kind of acknowledge what the next steps and who is going to take that next step.

So it might not be appropriate for me to address something if someone's in a mental health crisis, so then we would you know connect with DCBH, for instance.

And what I will say is being a part of some of these meetings, the the providers and the county and are so connected and are talking not just once a week in that setting, which is a critical part of the program, but they're also talking daily, if not hourly, about specific clients and their needs.

So the TSSA rules, um, you may recall that it is specific to vehicle camping.

I will acknowledge that there are um some tents out there that have not been cleared because people are still residing in tents.

Uh construction, including vehicle additions and fencing is not allowed.

This has probably been one of our greatest challenges with folks and providers who've been working really closely with Jason and his team to address those concerns, um causing damage, injury.

I won't go through and um read them all.

But um, these are all things that we are striving to both enforce and work with providers to make sure they happen.

One of the big challenges is the pets on leashes.

Um Camp has been working with folks and just knowing that people who are working for nine or ten hours a day, then a dog may be on a tether, and it just creates some concerns.

So we're grateful to have them a part of the process.

There's a list here of when there is a notice to remedy, which is issued by Jason or his team, or if somebody is immediately removed.

And that's a collaboration point that I think is really important, that relationship.

So Jason will make sure that he reaches out, say I've I've put or or you'll reach out.

You know, this this is what we need to do to remedy.

So we can go out and at least be another support system and be very specific about what needs to be done.

And so it's that communication that I think is really key.

And then we pass that on to other agencies to assist as well.

So while we're on the slide, can we talk about fires and uh open flames if they're unsafe and what that looks like, you know, obviously the event this week.

Can you talk about how you enforce that?

Yeah, I think I want to clarify cooking open flames is deemed unsafe unless Benfire Rescue meets them.

The other thing is they can use gas stoves and other items for cooking for meals.

Those have to be three feet away from anything that's flammable.

So we do allow that.

Um it being summer, naturally, the incidence of fire tends to be reduced.

I think this weekend was an incident where we saw temperatures drop below 40.

We saw an individual in that case, they turned on the heater in their vehicle, which malfunctioned.

So that wouldn't fit under necessarily this category so we're not doing inspections of their facility or their their home, so to speak.

Um, but what we will be cracking on if people are doing open flame cooking outside, if they're doing sort of warming kind of items, that's what we're gonna look for, and if there's anything really flammable around that.

Um, some of the citations we've issued, the date have been because people are creating some flammable spaces, they're using dried wood clippings, things like that to kind of create their own sort of privacy and fencing, and that is what we're kind of going at, like that is a flammable item that if catch fire will only create spread.

Um, so we haven't seen too much necessarily in that kind of warming or cooking of ours, but mostly that's because it's been summer, but we do anticipate that that's gonna be uptick and what we're looking for as we move forward.

The other mechanism that's kicked in is for instance on this fire on Sunday.

Cindy from Bend Fire reached out to me to make sure we also had another individual that's been very instrumental in the community that reached out as well and was very helpful to this person.

But we also went through with Ben Fire like stoves, what we can and shouldn't give out in terms of safety.

We try to do that two-minute of make sure you're you know, hoses are formed.

Um we only, and I know it costs more money, but we will not take any donated stoves and then give them out just like car seats, things like that, because we want to make sure that they're in the box, they're brand new.

And um, I know Dan mentioned to me, I don't know the statistics, but that they did see a reduction since all the agencies are doing um carbon, we do a lot of carbon monoxide little battery monitors, um fire extinguishers, and that's across the board with all the agencies, really taking this as you know, it's scary for our house community as well.

Thank you.

Okay, so uh enforcement to date.

So we really when we sort of closed the east side and we're able to kind of redirect staff into the TSA.

In June, we really set out uh with our staff and using compass security as a way to educate individuals about the rules.

We have them post it up on signs and placards and on trees all over in the high foot trafficking areas.

Um so that began in June.

We did about 30 to 60 days.

In August, we began issuing notice to remedies for some of the more severe cases, and those as Stacy mentioned, we did have an incident where a camper was kind of in that case, the trash was part of their business in scrapping.

That became a big issue because they moved from the east side, and that was a huge cost to us to clean up.

So that was an individual we had to address.

But the other ones were around structures.

Um we did have someone who built built homemade structures.

We needed those to go as that is in violation.

So we issued about 10 notice to remedies in early September.

Those who didn't comply, we were did remove three in the last couple of weeks who weren't able to comply.

So they're we're we're beginning to sort of put that into enforcement as these numbers, but that is something we're gonna be looking for for help on, is our ability to be able to continue and enforce that.

So I think it's been stated, but some of the challenges we're facing on the population is the big one.

When we first initially set up the TSSA, we thought we'd be around about 100 and 120 people.

The closure of China had as part of the Cabin View project has pretty much doubled that in the amount of people that have relocated to uh Juniper Ridge and the TSSA.

Rules, compliance and enforcement.

Our staffing levels have been low.

We um did add two more staff to our health and safety coordinator team.

However, we've seen some shuffling going around, so we have not yet been fully staffed in that arena, which is a limit of the amount of time we've been able to spend out there.

Land managed costs to date, we're about a half million dollars we've spent today.

Obviously, those costs are front loaded because of the cleanup and closure of the east side.

Uh, to put that in perspective, to date, we've removed about 800,000 pounds of trash from Juniper Ridge and the TSSA.

Um, and then that goes into everything from the hygiene stations and our our agreement with uh the county and as well as just our staffing management and other items.

Housing shelters, there's there's the struggle for us to find places for people to go.

Uh we are doing what we can with the shelter beds we have, over 500 within city limits.

We are constantly, and Amy's team has been great in pushing for safe parking.

Um, so we that is one the ability to increase those exits is directly related to the options that we have available that we can actually put people to.

So, kind of tonight, um, sort of those next steps for us is if we're kind of maintaining what we've stated in the resolution and the joint resolution we have the county is really our ability to sort of increase those compliance and enforcement efforts.

We this is a large area, 170 acres, 230 people, uh having someone out there almost on a full-time basis or at least 40 hours a week between not only noticing but also managing the storage.

So if we do remove camps, we do have to store that for 30 days.

So coordinating those efforts as well as coordinating with our security teams, our cleanup teams, and with any of the service rides out there.

So that is looking we're kind of looking to increase is be able to have people comply in more effort around our rules and regulations.

The other is to bring up what is that coordinated closure plan look like for 2026.

Tonight I'll kind of review a concept of of phasing it, and that idea behind there is because of the staff limitations and because of kind of where the infrastructure was COID is, can we kind of slowly shrink that area of time, be able to close clean, close clean with the kind of the uh resources we have available and staffing available.

Going in all at once will be quite challenging because we just don't have the manpower or the ability to clean and kind of prevent people from going in.

Um, and that is why we're kind of proponing proposing this phase approach tonight.

What that would look like is kind of aiming for a full closure in October, November.

Again, the resolution states on or before December.

The concept here why we do it a little earlier is one grant time.

Should we have any ADA requests?

Two, this kind of puts us before winter and any challenges that may come through weather to be able to effectively close and relocate individuals.

This would kind of we'd start noticing probably in early March, uh, letting everyone know that there would be a full closure, and then we'd start issuing 60 to nine-day closure notices by each phase as we head south.

The reason why we'd have one and two kind of as they're designated is that there's a pinch point or essentially a crossing point that actually you get around the canal.

Um, and that is actually on CYD property.

We anticipate they will have something pro perhaps written to council and commissioners before the meeting on the 29th.

They have expressed concerns about individuals crossing on the properties, some vandalism they've experienced, and would like kind of I think this to be addressed.

So we look at section one and two because that is directly tied to that access point.

If we want to reduce the area, kind of bring them over to the west side there, which does improve our access, and we kind of work through closing it that way.

So our request kind of tonight is one we'd like to add an additional LTE.

We add one last year, and we've been we have an open recruitment right now for that position.

We'd like to add two, so that gives us a full staffing for our health and safety coordination team.

And then we may I'm gonna ask well, we're probably gonna need more dollars when it comes to time to close.

So we have the extra half a million we've budgeted.

I'm sorry, we budget in total a million dollars.

We've spent about half a million.

The rest of that money should be able to continue our efforts.

However, when we get to closure and cleanup, we are gonna need additional dollars to make that happen based on what we saw on the east side.

I do want to know, I did note in the staff report that we did receive a grant of 134,000 from CYC.

So that we're looking to use that money really to offset additional LTE since we have some savings in that cost.

And then of course, continuing with uh our efforts in creating other housing spaces and places where we can transition and keep moving forward with that and the commitment from council to keep moving in that direction.

And I'd just like to add my personal plea um is that we we know that there's not one solution to houselessness, and I think we're seeing an increase in shelter beds, we've seen increases in other programs.

Um we need high barrier, we need low barrier.

The reality is we need something else where people are going to feel safe, and I am so concerned about a c I understand the closure.

My concern is we don't want to move this just to another spot.

So I would I hope that we can all continue to brainstorm ideas that would work for the entire community and take um our unhoused community the dignity that we want to maintain for them.

Thank you.

Matt, can you go back to that last slide so we can hold on that?

Thank you.

All right, counsel.

So here are sort of the requests.

Here's the proposal from staff.

I think my goal for the conversation tonight is to come to as close of a consensus as we can about how we're going to um advocate um from the city's perspective at the joint meeting that's coming up, um, and to hear um ideas and and concerns and have a discussion about that.

So happy to open it up whoever wants to start.

I mean it's gonna be no surprise that I'm a post-star.

Um I yeah, I have no problem with with any of these requests.

I mean, I I I what I was wanting to talk about tonight is exactly what Stacey just said.

Um I I am not ignorant to what we said in the the IGA.

Um, I'm not ignorant to what's going on with the COID um area right now, but um we have 231 people living in Juniper Ridge right now, and what we're seeing is um a quick response to fire because they know where people are.

We're seeing um rules being enforced, um, we're seeing transitions to housing, and we're seeing a a lot of people, the vast majority of people interacting with service providers.

And to me, that's a sign that that something is working, and um I feel like we need to give it even more time to work.

And what I fear is if 231 people um are then spread throughout Deschutes County, um, what's gonna happen when someone ends up deep in the forest and starts a fire there?

What's gonna happen um when someone loses contact with their service provider?

Um, they for sure aren't going to be transitioning to shelter or housing.

Um, and and we need to be thinking about the not just the what we say in the IGA, but what this means for 231 people who who have been moved around a lot and who this is their home and are trying to majority of them are trying to follow these rules and and live in peace and go to work and raise their children um and get the services that they need.

So I would I would just urge us.

I'm not I would just urge us to think about that um before we go to into our meeting with the county because I think it's it's this is a significant decision that we would be making.

Thank you.

Can I ask you a question about your conversation with Holly Jukes?

Was there any mention at all of the Forest Service pursuing any kind of temporary or long-term visitor area or anything with the land where folks had been living before, or you some some sort of land that's less impactful.

You mean in the future?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Or they I would be flabbergasted if that was something that was ever brought up again.

Um, and you know, I mean, they they are encountering a lot of the same um issues with with land management.

I mean, they still have a hundred RVs that are that are um inoperable sitting there, um, and like 1300 propane tanks and and and a bunch of other things.

Um they there's still that that that directly impacted how Juniper Ridge and the CSS worked.

And um, you know, I think Holly acknowledges that, but there are also people that were in China Hat that were there because of of something that we did on HUDL, or something that some other community did as well.

And so I think we have to, you know, I mean we always talk about people moving from place to place to place, but at some point we have to we have to stop and we have to to really focus in on getting people um into a better environment and not just pushing the problem to somewhere else.

Other comments, discussion.

I mean, I I I agree with what um Mayor Pro Ten Perkins just said, and uh I think that's my um perception of the TSSA is it does seem to be working in many of the ways that we wanted it to, and I understand the timeline that we set up, it seems to me that we're we're gonna have to consider more, which I haven't heard so far, um, what how we might think about extending at least a portion of it into the future.

Um, not only for the 231 people who are there, or whatever that actual number is, but also because we are going to push the same set of problems into some other part of the community, whether it's right within or just outside the city limits of bend, or whether it is somewhere else in Deschutes County or further out into the Central Oregon region, and that sort of whack mole is not good for anybody.

And I think going back to what I think you were speaking to, Stacy is the stability that's provided for the families out there and the ability for them to start to get back on their feet, and I I really worry about undermining that.

Um so I don't, you know, this particular topic is very new to me.

I haven't had any time to wrestle with it yet.

Um, but my initial reaction is more focused on maybe we have to scale it down some, but how do we also keep at least a portion of it open for perhaps a longer period of night?

I know that raises a set of funding questions.

Um I think the other theme that I would just remind us about is that broadly speaking, I don't think we should be we're not gonna be looking to the federal government to help us with any of this, undoubtedly.

We're probably not gonna be able to turn for a whole lot more from the state.

So we're gonna have to figure out solutions ourselves here at the local level.

I see we're thinking we're gonna see this theme show up in a variety of places as we go forward, um, right at different topics not related to this, but um I think that is something, and I and I don't see this to be critical of anyone.

I think it's a probably the elephant in the room, like what does that look like?

But we have to really lean into that.

What are those other locations?

What are the what might the funding sources be?

What might we have to give up somewhere else to get something else done here?

Um, and spend some more time working through that.

I I guess I'm not a hundred percent sure about the the county commission joint meeting yet.

I have to think about that, but I think you know, but pushing this into somebody else's neighborhood where the same issues are gonna came up at Juniper Ridge or um and the neighbors adjacent there or in the China Hat area for the folks who are housed who live nearby, is is not gonna doesn't really help us in any way.

And I think we have as Mayor Pro Tim Perkins said, something that appears to be working in many ways that some of the other areas where people were living in wasn't working.

Thank you.

Counselor Mendis has his hand up.

Yeah, thank you.

I think um the the two things that really stand out here are that we we always knew the Steve the goal was temporary.

And um there's this question that councilor Riley had raised about what might a more sustainable future look like, and I recognize that includes a discussion of funding.

And my my question is whether there has been any consideration of asking people to shoulder some of that additional cost, and before people say, well, that sounds crazy.

I think when you look at the models that have been successful, like if you read about Finland, um formerly houseless people in Finland do pay rent and it's subsidized, it's usually on a scale of income and you know it we have RV parks.

I'm not suggesting that we compete with them, I'm not suggesting that we provide things like swimming pools or air conditioning, but it it does seem like there's a big missing gap between paying nothing and having to shell out you know nine hundred dollars a month to stay somewhere.

So if there was an opportunity to say, you know, pay something like 150 dollars a month, that could generate some significant funding that might contribute to something more stable.

So I'm just curious if there's been any discussion to try to meet something in the middle that's something in between, you know, sort of higher-end camping and paying nothing.

Yeah, uh to respond to that, and Matt, maybe this will go right to you.

Um, so we set this up as a temporary safe state area for vehicle camping under a certain part of the code.

I'm curious that if we start charging rent or becoming more of a land use change in this area, that that is going to have some other repercussions as far as requirements for us.

But correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct.

And then the statute that we use through organ revised statute is for temporary vehicle only camping.

So this is the lowest of low barrier that we could imagine.

Any sort of increased management would jeopardize our standing under that statute and look legal running behind me, they'll add more, but I think I got that right.

Anything to add, Elizabeth, or is that that's I can have the microphone.

Yeah, I think there's a question about fees and a question about something that I'll say more permanent or different outside of the scope of the authorizing statute that we use.

So doing something substantially different requires a different path that may be a land use issue.

I don't think the statute that authorizes this use speaks to the issue.

No.

I do want to add just sorry, go ahead and some context because I've heard we have contemplated scenario of reducing and shrinking the area.

As I mentioned, the kind of the section one and twos have that conflict with COID and access.

So there is we have contemplated like what it would look like if we can shrink this area again, cutting it by half, managing 230 people, that is a challenge uh just from all sides, getting it down into the 100-120.

We think that's more reasonable for how we've set things up, and then under that, we're definitely would estimate costs to be anywhere from half a million to a million a year, ranging on the level of support services and just the cost of being able to staff and maintain and provide that kind of enforcement.

So we have thought about what that would look like if we decided to carry on past 2026.

I think the challenge is the size of the area it is today, we could face other challenges that may force our hand to reduce it if we go beyond 2026.

Um, but there we have contemplate like what that might look like if you decided to expand that what we could do in the area that we have.

So we'd probably be looking at around 60 to 70 acre size, probably 100 to 120 people, probably more realistic.

Got it.

Okay, Councilor Francis.

Thank you.

I um I guess I want to second Councilor Riley's um comments.

What what I would really love to see is um is brainstorming around a solution of what it looks like, what a look what it looks like to help transition the folks who live in Juniper Ridge who can and are willing to be in housing get there.

Um, how many are how many permanent supportive housing units are needed?

How many ultra-low income housing units are needed?

Um is there and then also what as part of that, what would a you know, what size of a managed camp?

I mean, I believe that a managed camp probably is gonna be needed.

Um I don't but I don't believe that um I don't believe that you I'm not sold that Juniper Ridge is the safest place for there to be any kind of camp managed or unmanaged.

It's very far from services, it's on a very busy highway.

Um the landscape is makes it difficult to access all um of the the camps um and provide services.

So um I'm I'm glad we're having this discussion now.

Um I almost wish we would have started it six months ago, but six months ago you were setting it up, right?

So here we are.

Um and and I and I hope we can have this dialogue can be um ongoing and kind of fast moving so that we can kind of come up with a vision for what it looks like to to bring this um camping area to a size that is is reasonable and manageable, what it looks like to get folks into housing, um, and and then we can start looking at what that costs and how we come up with money for it.

Um yeah, that's I guess that's thank you.

That's right, yeah.

Wonder if I could ask because you meant you mentioned the case conferencing, so like and you identify needs.

Do you have a just a general sense kind of responding to Council Francosa about you know the various housing the demographic demographic kind of needs?

Um I'm just trying to think um so in terms are you asking like what are the most of the needs of the folks that are out there?

Is it more in the PSA?

From a housing standpoint, it's it's very mixed.

So we have some folks that are really experiencing chronic health conditions that are looking not so much at a congregant shelter, but more like a stepping stones or Franklin model, like the hotels that have been purchased and made in.

Um there is some privacy there, there's some dignity, especially if you're going through cancer treatment or dialysis or recently have you know been had amputation.

So I think that we definitely know that we need an increase.

Um Bethel Hemin fits a need for many people in a higher barrier environment.

Um, but we know that we have folks that are going to be a lower barrier.

Uh doesn't mean that they're not going to progress, but um, when we put too many restrictions up on people with backgrounds and things like that, then it limits and pushes people outside.

Um, and I wish I had a number for you, and I don't know if it's a good idea.

But it's something but I think it's really a kind of a full view of different models.

It's like if someone told all of us you can only live in an apartment, you have no other choices.

That doesn't fit the needs of everybody, and of course, we're looking at a complex population that if many have income, but what do you do with seven or nine hundred dollars a month in our housing market in this region?

Which is really tough, really difficult.

Yeah.

We can as a part of our next meeting, can maybe pull some more just anecdotal demographic information and need and and have that.

I think that would be helpful.

The one other key, and I'll just say it really quickly.

We have to remember all of us that when we help someone to get into housing, it can't be here's your key, we're done.

Yeah, because many folks have not been housed for years, so we need to really partner with them and support them so that we can retain their housing.

So I think that's a key thing we have to do.

I do want to uh remind council at the joint meeting.

We actually added an item to get an update on the Gales property, which that's been talked about, and that was uh CHRO has uh helped assist some of that.

I think we'll there's there's definitely more need for permanent supportive housing, and there's some efforts underway there.

We of course have our safe parking goals and our um and then you know, I think as Stacy mentioned too, just the more um non-congregant living too is needed.

So I mean, I think that's helpful for us as we look to what are the needs.

We had a big boost with cares with cares and then ARPA funds.

We don't have that same future anymore.

We have some state shelter funding that's basically just paying for what we have.

Alright.

So finding new things is was really a big challenge for us in terms of fun long-term sustainable funding.

Yeah.

And what is the stance?

I mean, I know we'll probably get into this with the county, but their uptight for helping with sharing in some of those funds if we do decide to go.

Well, I mean, I think I was gonna I want to speak to that a little bit.

I mean, I know we can just sort of say frustrated with the federal government, but I think it is a complete failure that we did not get coordination from the Forest Service or support for any of the folks that they displaced, understanding what they were doing with that project and why that needed to happen, there was not that coordination, and so that has impacts like we are seeing here.

It is absolutely the rule of the federal government, the state government, the county government to address this issue and pass failures to do so, or why we're here.

And so I know we all really want to lean into this, but I just want to make clear that we cannot solve this problem with City of Bend's governance budget and jurisdiction.

We cannot.

Um, and so we have to, I think part of going into this meeting is we have got to have collaboration and buy-in from our county partners, and I think we are gonna need to ask them what they're willing to do here because what they've agreed to is closure at the end of next year.

Um, and if we're gonna talk about something that's different than that, if they don't agree to that, that's that's going to be an issue.

So I think we just need to think about that when we're moving forward.

Um, if you go back to the map, Matt.

So I agree with Councillor Franzosa on manage outdoor shelter is needed.

Is this the best place for it?

I I don't think so.

I I get really concerned.

I've seen it personally myself with people walking, biking down the side of 97 as people are going 65 miles an hour, crossing that road.

Um, it is dangerous.

So I I still in my mind think of this as a temporary solution.

A lot of it has to do with that fact and the and the being far from services.

Um I'm I think I'm I like the idea of talking about reducing, but then seeing is some part of it could maybe continue on longer to help people have that stability and try to connect to housing.

Um I would propose that when we come to the county, if we have agreement here, we talk about um that property that's only accessible over the canal, that that is the priority to help folks get moved out of um and to get that that part closed so that we do not have the issue with the canal access and that we can focus on the other part um and and still have access there with that jug handle that is off of 97 um and and reduce one of those access points to 97 as well.

That's kind of what I would come forward with, and then maybe an ask in a discussion with our county partners on willingness to extend this a little bit, still in a temporary status, but extend it a little bit to allow the service providers to continue to do their work to continue to fund you to do that work and to continue to fund proper enforcement.

I think um we need to have enforcement across our property and county property that's consistent and clear.

I think that's good for folks instead of inconsistent or unclear rules.

Um and if there are folks that are a problem that are a safety problem, we need to be able to take care of that for the sake of everyone living there and nearby.

So I think that's where I'm at with this.

Still seeing it as temporary, willing to talk about and see if we can urge the county to go with us and think about ways to extend it so that we can give people the chance to make those transitions.

How do we make sure that doesn't impact the progress that we've made here?

Um and overwhelm our staff again.

I that's something I worry about.

So it's happening.

And it's happening right now.

Yeah, Steve.

Um, for the three of you right here, I I'm understanding that the phase closure uh plan in part is driven just by a manpower limitation turns to execute that game plan.

If there was a way for the city or the city and the county to remove that manpower restriction such that we could have some kind of a surge of manpower towards the end.

Am I understanding that you would prefer that option based on the raft of services that are interacting with folks and the movement out, or do you want to move this not just for manpower, but also to have a smaller number.

Uh I'm trying to get your temperature on this, the three of you.

Do you want to go first?

I I think for me it's it's it's I think I'm gonna know what Stacy's gonna say.

I'm gonna look at it from our ability to secure the property afterwards and clean and the phase approach would allow us to be able to sort of indicate closures and be able to sort of enforce that portion of a closure and sort of draw people in.

So for me, it's the phase closure.

Well, we may displace people earlier who choose not to perhaps move to the other area, and that's a discussion too.

Are they permanently removed?

Are we asking them to go to a different area?

Um this allows us to kind of get in there, close that off and kind of create that sort of messaging and consistency over six to nine months of what we're looking for.

I get it, man.

But it is a logistics challenge, right?

You're trying to work the logistics problem here, right?

Yes, and if we went all I I think I'm looking at, we have an example of going in all at once, just trying to say, I don't want how do I do that better?

And I would say probably go probably notice 90, 120.

We'd give more notice, but I you still have the challenge of day day zero, right?

Uh, and is everyone ready?

And and how do you that?

So that would be me's that would be my take.

We are we have a bad example that didn't work out, and how do we do that?

So this might be an alternative, but uh please check.

No, and I just always look at not I mean, we can put all the effort into this move, but I still go back to where are people going to go.

Right.

And and I know that's not an easy thing.

Um, we just look in those eyes every day, you know, when someone's looking with three kids and it's like, where do I go?

And and it's brutal.

And I I think it's brutal for the police.

I think it's some people don't think so.

I think the police that's terrible for fire police, you know, your team code enforcement.

I mean, it's it's lousy.

Um, and so it's a really difficult thing.

So you'd prefer to stay, Stacy, as long as you can.

I I I we I'm not committed or I I this space, this dirt is not the one I'm I'm gonna say we have to have, but I do say we have to have somewhere because all I see is impact on businesses, people are now parking in residential areas because they have nowhere to go.

And so I think it's gonna impact our businesses, our you know, our tourism, our community members that are housed, and of course, you know, our unhoused neighbors.

Um so I don't see that as a good solution without something.

Council Francis.

Yeah, I just want to ask another question back to the demographics for a second.

You mentioned um I see that there are folks who are transitioning out into housing.

I know that part of that is a limitation of the available housing.

Um, but how how many folks are getting into did you call it the heat?

Oh, the heat assessment is an assessment we do, it's a vulnerability assessment.

I will tell you that prior to the TSSA, I personally felt that most people were resistant.

They didn't want to get involved with this.

What I think a lot of people are seeing is their neighbor out there got in somewhere and is now has a shower, or maybe their their medical condition is more stable because they have that stability.

So people are feeling safer as they build relationships to do this assessment.

Everyone goes into what's called coordinated entry, it's a continual care for our region, and then that is staffed, and in theory, what happens is the most vulnerable are going to be placed first, and it's gonna depend on the criteria of each of each program is a little different.

That's where our lower shelters are so full is that it's taking those people that are it used to be this bad and so the people with the highest vulnerability get their first bed available for spot.

Exactly on it.

And so how many folks who are in the TSSA are now in the heat assessment.

I will be very I would have to get back to you because we do know that number.

Um and we track that for our agency, and I don't want to throw a number out without sharing that.

And I think we can pull that pretty easily of how many people have actually completed a heat assessment.

You know, the challenge too is for those folks that are working and maybe be higher functioning, maybe they didn't, because I think we sometimes think, oh, everyone out there has a drug problem or a criminal history, and that's by far not the case.

So for those people that are have the stability of work and are really doing what they need to be doing, the challenge is the system puts them lower on priority, and then it's hard to sustain your job, you know, and so that's where uh we're we're trying.

And I think we have more programs than we've ever had in the past.

Doesn't mean it's all fixed.

But I I don't agree when people say nothing's happened, because I I think that's a false statement.

Um, and I think we need to ri remember that.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm just trying to wrap my head around like, you know, what what does that picture look like of you know what are the facilities that folks need, you know, in order to feel stable outside of that area.

Um, right, yeah.

So just thanks for that information.

Absolutely.

And maybe while just while I have the microphone, I want to second counselor Mendez's um thought about even a small amount of rent to maintain a a managed camp.

Um, I know that folks who go into permanent supportive housing do um pay out of their Medicare or Social Security to support um those facilities, and so I I think that's an interest an interesting idea, and it's not out of lack of you know, care or altruism, it's simply to help help piece it together.

Piece the funding.

The biggest question is who's gonna be quote unquote the landlord.

I I don't know what term to use to collect rent, you know, and um you know, I think that so many if someone said, Oh, I need five dollars for something, I'd say, okay.

I I literally we see people 50 people a day that may not literally have a nickel or a dime in their pocket.

Yeah, and then I worry a little bit.

Some of the models I've seen that have worked really well up in the Washington state area, is where you don't pay rent, but you actually are committed to doing cleanup or security or helping.

There's different things, and I don't mean security in terms of taking over security guard that gets into some challenges, but what else can you contribute to your community?

And I know we have people that are helping people with vehicles and car repairs, and that but that's a lot of coordination, and we have to remember the city is not a social service agency, right?

So we need to make sure that uh but we do play a really big role in housing.

Oh my gosh, that's why I think we're having this conversation today.

And that's why I'm really committed to this conversation.

I I um used when I lived in Portland years ago, Dignity Village was down the road from my house, and I mean it was a great amazing stepping stone for folks to move from homelessness into stable housing.

It provided an address where they could receive mail, provided a place where they could cook and have a show.

We had Tent City and that was operated by share up in the Washington area.

Yeah.

One thing we might want to think about kind of to that point is if we do shrink this and we want maybe a longer term situation, we might want to change our contractual relationship to have a single provider instead of what we have now, right?

So I think that's this is that's what's really different about this model versus our other contractual relationships where we have a contractor running a facility.

That's not what we have here.

We have providers going to people, and I think it's it's uh proved as an interesting, you know, kind of sort of case study to see, and I think that it really works well because of such of the the diversity of the needs, but as we get to know the population a little bit better and the needs, there might be an opportunity to you know move to that model as well.

Okay, so to sum up, and you know, nothing is being voted on or decided tonight, but I feel like there's general consensus and understanding around that area east of the canal that that probably needs to have a plan for closure, whether it's having people move to the other side or having them move to housing if we can get it.

Um, that that is the more priority for foreclosure because of the access issues, but that generally we're interested in talking with the county about the other area, how could that potentially be still temporary but extended?

Um, and and what does that look like?

What does it cost?

How would that run to allow people more time to make those transitions?

Um then along with what Matt had said about having the proper staff to make sure we're able to do compliance and enforcement out there of the rules that do already exist.

And I don't know that I'm in favor of extending the closure deadline past the end of 2026.

I just feel it's this is not safe for many people.

So I'd really really like to push us to kind of find a plan and and transition folks if we have to transition them from this area to another area that is safer and can be where more easily serviced.

That's the problem, right?

I mean, there's no area where we can fit 231 people in the city and or in the county that I can think of right now.

Well I think that's the challenge of you know, if we're I mean, if we're closing the first part, those first two sections, I mean we are consistent being consistent with wanting to shrink the area a little bit and then it maybe that the size of the population, maybe that's to be part of the discussion, how much of a population can we support in the remaining area.

Um gives us some time if we do extend it to be able to get some other places ready to go.

And I I agree overall this is not the best location.

I I've seen the same thing with people walking at night and that came very close to somebody once and it was quite shocking and scary.

Um but we need to be able to find those other places and you know the pace of things takes longer than we all might like.

So it might be why having it open for some period of time buys us some time to if it's Gail's property or something else like that that comes up.

Um, that where we're able to move that forward.

So I think that's the reason is you know to CC's point, we've got to have somewhere else.

Um is there anyone else that really wants to stick with that 2026 or other people okay, at least discussing with the county a potential of holding some of it open longer to allow for some of these other solutions and the service providers?

I'm okay with extending looking at extending.

I mean, and we're all we'll all be at the meeting, so we can all participate in the discussion, but I think generally that's what we're thinking.

I think otherwise it sounds like aligned with some of the other things I said about that one and two kind of being the priority.

Yeah, okay.

Can I can I also add on then on the next steps?

I mean, I think what we talked about or what I'm advocating for at least is is really to kind of have an understanding of of what uh what the picture looks like and then putting numbers to that so we understand what the financial needs are.

Um so that we can start working on that.

You know, um the heat the number if we can if we have even more numbers available at the next joint meeting, I think that would be really helpful.

If some just rough estimate of you know ranges of like what types of housing is really needed, you know, I think that would be helpful for that joint.

We'll get it by next week.

So you have an opportunity to review it before that would be around the 29th.

And when we do our case conference call, what we do is we have already asked someone what programs are you interested in.

So when we're going through their heat assessment, we give the heat assessment score.

Are they chronically houseless?

Do they have medical conditions?

And which of these programs so that we can then have a conversation?

You know, some programs are going to do drug and alcohol testing, some are lower barrier, so we have that conversation with folks ahead of time so we can for lack of a better word, advocate for them for which housing model works best.

Sorry.

And I I just want to make sure you all hear it, at least from me that and I think other counselors as well.

Is it just I appreciate so how so much how hard everybody's working out there to make this work, whether that's city staff, you know, all of our service providers, um, and making us able to be able to talk more about how this is actually working in ways that maybe it hasn't worked as well before and what we're learning, not trying to gloss over any of the challenges or problems, right?

But just as thank you for all of that hard work.

And you know, the people who live out there have also really helped with some of the fires that have happened.

I think we've seen a more effective response thanks to the clearing that's happened, the services it provided, the fire extinguishers, but also their willingness to dig in in the property where they live.

So um thank you for that acknowledgement.

It takes a village, that's yeah, that's really true.

All right.

Well, I think we have a little more preparation for our meeting with the county.

We'll continue to receive more information.

Um and we'll have that conversation with our county partners.

Again, we're we're really gonna need to collaborate in this area with both own properties.

So I'm hopeful we can have a a good productive conversation about this and take in this this information into that meeting.

So thank you for being here.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks.

Um we're gonna take like a five-minute stretch bathroom break and then we'll be right back.

All right, we are back um for the Bend City Council meeting, and we are on item number seven.

Thank you.

My name is Mike Grant, the chief of police city of Bend.

Thank you for having me here tonight.

This is uh after a topic that you just got through, a very heavy topic.

Hopefully, this is a little change of pace.

I'm uh excited to be able to present this tonight.

Uh with me, I brought Lieutenant Julie McConkey in case there's some questions that I can't answer.

Uh, she's the program manager over the automated enforcement system, she's the lieutenant of the traffic division, and um she can potentially help us out if there's anything that uh we need to get a little deeper on.

I also have um a representative from the vendor uh on the call who, if there's something more technical that we can't get to that may come up, uh we could invite her on as well to answer that question.

So tonight I'll be presenting the automated enforcement contract for vendor veromobility.

It's a three-year contract with the not-to-exceed amount of two million three hundred and forty thousand, a total potential cost of up to 780,000 per year for program costs.

Uh so as we move on, uh this program automated enforcement on January 17th, 2024 was directed by city council uh staff for staff to move forward with planning of the implementation of the automated traffic enforcement program as part of the city's 2325 goals, which then carried into the 2527 goals.

Uh one of the exciting parts about this is that this is the use of technology to continue to help keep our streets safer and approve community safety.

And this is in a piece of it enforcement.

When we talk about traffic safety, we talk about the three E's, the three-legged stool, the three E's, enforcement education, and engineering.

Uh so automated enforcement is a proven tool to help in community safety.

It is an augment for having police officers out there doing enforcement as well.

Uh through a competitive uh RFP process to see selected very mobility as our vendor.

The vendor will install operate and maintain the automatic track automatic traffic enforcement system for the city of Bend.

This is a three-year contract request with a not to exceed amount of 2,340,000, a total potential cost of 780,000 per year for program costs.

And now when I say total potential in the contract, it's built out to have up to ten systems.

Uh, we will start with much lower amount to start with and then build into the systems as we uh as we continue through the program.

Um the program's generally designed to generate revenue to offset the cost of the city uh to the city of Bend with the goal of self-funded program as directed by city council that uh that is a net zero cost to the city uh ultimately.

The city's obligation to pay our vendor begins once the camera systems are installed, activated, and begin issuing citations.

There is a uh warning period of 30 days to start with.

That does not count in that in that time period.

And there will be a staffing impact uh in order to alleviate some of that.

Council approved one additional traffic sergeant in 2024 as part of our uh uh FTE count process.

That traffic sergeant hasn't been filled yet.

We'll we'll implement those, we'll scale those positions as we scale the system.

And that traffic sergeant will have the responsibility of the day-to-day operations supervision of the program and the uh the employees as part of it.

The police department also received authority to hire two, if you remember, automated traffic enforcement agents in the 25-27 budget.

Again, those positions are not filled yet, but it will allow us to scale as the system scales.

Municipal court is anticipated to need one additional FTE as well as added judge and bailiff time to accommodate for an increase in court dates and time.

That funding is expected to be tied to the projected citation revenue, and hiring will be timed again as the system scales, trying to keep it close so we're not having employees in place prior to the system actually activated and working.

Quick quick overview of why.

We went over this uh in January 24.

Why automated traffic enforcement matters?

It's just a reminder that reducing red light running crashes is the goal with more than 136,000 people injured in over a thousand killed in crashes involving red light running annually in the United States.

We know that speed violations are a major contributor to nearly one-third of all fatal crashes in the US.

And the intent of the automated enforcement system is to change behavior.

That's that's the goal.

Um, it is not to just create a citation uh process, it is to change behavior and change people from running red lights and and from speeding through primarily intersections with these programs.

Photo enforcement of both speed and red light violations does increase compliance and it decreases violations, but not only at the intersection.

Um anecdotally, I spoke with Tiger Police Department, who has a number of these on highway 99.

If you've ever driven there, they've noticed an immediate reduction in the intersection itself, but also one mile radius around of reduction in speed, reduction of red lights, and reduction of crashes.

So it has a people think about it more, and it has an impact.

The goal of the installation of an automated system is to increase safety on our roadways, reduce uh crashes, reduce damage, retrease injury, and reduce the fatalities.

That's the ultimate goal.

Make it safer.

What is our rollout plan?

So once the contract's uh finalized, which we hope to finish through tonight, we'll move forward with providing initial four selected sites, and for installation of the camera systems.

Um I mentioned slightly it's set up for 10 systems.

One camera is considered a system.

So an intersection, if we were to do all sides, would essentially be four cameras for systems.

Uh we'll move forward with the initial four selected sites from slation.

The general timeline, as you can see, begins now in September, approximately six months is what um Vera Mobility has estimated for installation and activation.

Save the permit process.

Um so if that permit process is a lengthy, there's right-of-way permits.

I'm sure, I'm sure there's electrical utility permits of some sort.

Um, so that they handle all that, but that process will take whatever time it is, and that will add to this ultimately end um process.

Okay, yeah.

There's a number of permits.

I don't do the permits.

Um, and the first 30 days will be a warning only period that's intended to educate folks and inform people.

This is where it's at.

Again, like what we've talked about several times, these are not secret locations.

We're not trying to keep them secret, they'll be on our website.

I'm sure we'll talk about them here.

There's warning signs and entry points to the city that we use photo enforcement.

There's um photo enforcement notification signs within a certain distance of each uh each system.

So that the idea is to inform people, get them aware to not do violations.

That's the at the end of the end goal.

And so this is the part um that we've had a lot of people ask about.

Um, no, they are chosen.

Not yet.

Uh, but this is the part that you know everyone wants to know.

Um so uh we have initially selected four locations that we're gonna recommend to our uh vendor uh through we'll finalize these.

There's not finalized yet because our contract's not in place yet, so really we can't work with the vendor quite yet to get these to get these um finalized.

But what we believe based on data, crash data, and um some traffic studies that have been conducted is that the first four launch locations would be Reed Market at 3rd Street Westbound, 27th and NEF South and West.

So both of those, and powers and South Highway 97, which is business 97 northbound.

There's a number of other locations that we're interested in based on our data, but we what we're doing is working through additional studies as we continue to build an iterative process.

If we start with these four, we build into you know how that workflow happens in the organization, how our employees adjust to it.

Do we then start hiring those positions that are authorized?

So we're trying to do an iterative process to build into it, as well as that some of these locations that we are interested in are ODOP property or ODOT controlled, and that requires us to work with the region manager for approval to then work with headquarters and Salem to get approval through that process.

And it's um it's not a quick process, so we wanted to get started on our our first uh part of this and then build into those in the future.

Chief Grants.

Yeah.

And are these locations all red light?

Are inner intersections, so we're not looking at any stretches of road where people are known to speed.

Right now, we're starting with all intersections for red light and speed on uh some people out speed on red, some people on speed on green.

I'll just say intersection speed.

Um, so it'll have both built into those four locations.

We would look in the future to see what our challenges may be around, for instance, I'll say Mount Washington, a posted speed sign.

However, we're comparing that with what ORS allows us to do.

Um, there may be some need to work with legislature in the future to change some of the some of the current wording.

Um so we're continuing to to view those.

And the same with our mobile system.

We want a mobile system that we can take to school zones, residential, and construction zones.

Um, but again, there's some question how we're gonna um how that will currently be allowed or not in RS.

But again, that's an interim process we build it in.

So I know a state senator that would be super interested in helping us fix this problem.

It feels very strongly about automated traffic.

Yes, so this current um contract does not include a mobile.

It does include um, it includes the ability for us to have a mobile if we select.

Um may cost a little more.

Um in fact, it's written in there, it's a slightly higher fee.

But our challenge right now is to make sure we have the RS behind us that we can actually use a mobile un, I'll say an with no one there.

Um, the the existing mobile units that you used to be used that we've seen a lot have uh, for instance, like a van where police officer has sit in it and then observe the violation, document that still is a photo system, but it was an observation requirement.

Where now what we saw that change in law allowed for these intersections, um intersection cameras and and a traffic enforcement agent to view it afterwards on the computer, approve and verify.

So there was a change that really helped that piece, but we're looking at some of the some of the ways and workings of the other things that we'd like to have in the city as well.

So if the law changes this contract, doesn't need to be updated that we're ready to put those out if we feel that the law is allowing it.

Okay, great.

Councillor Mendez.

Yeah, thank you.

Um could you just assuming that there is the legal framework for the the uh the in-cabinet mobile cameras?

Could you say a little bit more about what the difference is between the fixed cameras and the the mobile ones, and then if you could also say a little bit more about what makes for a good candidate location, like how these were selected and what we might expect for future locations?

Yeah, so um for space around mobile, um the difference is and again the law uh allowed mobile in certain zones only construction, school, and residential.

So you don't take mobile on you know third street, um, unless it's meets that residential zone in some areas potentially.

Um think it does, but so it's it's restricted around where mobile can be used, um and specifically about some of the data of selection.

I'm gonna have Lieutenant McCocky come up and she can come up to the table as well and talk about some of the why these locations were selected.

And I don't want to steal Lieutenant McConkey's thunder, but the contract says considerations for location should include collision history, community safety, approved traffic safety surveys, and city provided data.

So reserve policies.

That's correct.

Yeah, the chairs are not friendly first.

Uh if you have anything specific about these locations.

Um the locations were chosen because talking to our traffic safety team, um, they noticed some anecdotally, these are the places that we've gone to for crashes and speeds, um, red light running.

And so then we worked with uh Vera Mobility who did the surveys, and so they came out and did surveys on those top four right there, not the Southeast Powers and Highway 97 or south, highway 97, but the other ones um primarily, and so those were the highest numbers, and that's what we were looking at to start, and they were the city owned, not ODOT.

Yeah, the challenge definitely came for us.

There's some ones that we think would be well uh placed to have these systems, they're ODOP controlled.

20 and 27, Greenwood and 8.

Yes, absolutely.

Greenwood and 97.

There's there's uh rear and center third, um, yeah, powers and parkway, and there's several that we are more concerned about, but those will take us a little more time to work into those.

And it's it's not a no from ODOT.

It is it is, I mean, as we saw Tigers was successful in getting on highway 909 99.

Um it's just that it takes a lot longer.

Yeah, so let's get started.

Okay.

Chief Gramps, what does it look like during the um during the warning period if you get a violation?

Yeah, so it'll be very similar to how the process will work.

Um we will uh get that information forwarded to us through the computer system through the uh interface that uh the variable provides.

Our officers will verify it just as they would.

So basically, it's also a learning process for us, and a a letter will be sent.

This is a warning a physical letter, physical letter, um, very similar to what a citation would look like, but it's just a warning and explains the the warning piece of it.

Okay.

And that's 30 days.

It's 30 day warning.

Okay.

Do you have more slides?

Sorry, we kind of stopped there.

That was it.

Questions.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

All right.

I move to authorize a three-year agreement with American Traffic Solutions Inc., doing business as Vera Mobility, and substantially the forum presented to council for an automated traffic enforcement system in an amount not to exceed $2,340,000, and to authorize the city manager to renew the agreement in accordance with the terms of the agreement for up to two additional years in an amount not to exceed $780,000 per year.

All right, moved by counselor Perkins, second by counselor Riley.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, unanimous.

Thank you so much.

Really excited to get this tool on the streets.

Um get some safety.

Yeah.

All right, moves us on to item number eight.

Council is asked to approve the human rights and equity commission HRAC work plan.

And before Andres is or he's getting set up, I just want to take a moment to recognize Andres Portella.

Um he uh notified us late last week that he'll be leaving the city after his two uh years as our equity and inclusion director.

Um just want to take a moment to thank Andres for his service.

Um and really during and acknowledge his accomplishments over the past two years, which are are long.

It includes items like uh the city's first ever DEI A glossary, uh, which is an opportunity for us to have a shared language that grounds our work and clarity, accountability, and understanding, um, a citywide equity statement um where we defined equity as a vague concept, but then shared a shared commitment that we can build together.

Um not as we just should we defined it not as a vague concept, but something we can share together.

Uh the co uh supporting human rights and equity uh commission, uh really creating a foundational body that helps us do our work, and I think you you heard from them uh during the presentation a few weeks ago.

And really, what I'm very excited about is the AIM tool, which is part of this uh work plan that you'll be approving tonight.

We had a presentation at our leadership team meeting.

I think it's really the long-lasting impact of having better decision making in the city of Bend and all things that we do, and then some of the internal work uh as well with our DEIA advisory committee and just the maturation of that group and the the structure that's been put in place, uh, our launching our DEI training uh citywide.

Um not only just the what that Andres has done, but I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Andres as a person who cares deeply in the people he serves.

He cares deeply in the people in the work and just his general approach to life.

It's deep, and I'm I've been very inspired by um this approach and my sort of day-to-day jug ball juggling chaos, and I've I've been learned a lot from Andres about just slowing down, having some patience and going deeper.

And I just thank you, Andres, for that inspiration, and um really for putting human at the center too.

I think sometimes I can get like oh, my structure and process, and Andres is always what's the human being.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Um I do have something to say after I'm done with the ATEC updates to really talk about my time at the city, but I'd like to focus on ATEC first.

Let's go ahead.

So uh first, thank you, Dick.

Um I I also want to start by thinking of the my parents used to say this thing, always thank the hands that prepared the food.

Um, thinking about the HRAC um work plan, I want to thank the folks that prepared the food.

Um, HREC itself, um, Stephanie Benderidge, Cassandra Keho, and Lisa Larson.

I also want to thank Ian and Mayor Pro Tim one for seeing this dynamic group um and saying and all our difference and all the things that we want to bring to the table.

Let's refine this and get something that we can actually work on and say there's gonna be some big wins.

Um I also wanted to thank council for giving us direction last meeting.

We talked about uh all the all the different things that were layered in this work plan, and you're gonna see a lot of different things.

Um but what we did was we took this and refined it quite a bit.

We went from the four work, uh the four focus areas to two focus areas focusing on policy and community.

We also shifted how the document reads to better align with council goals, but additionally, um we overlaid uh council goal presentations.

So, right when we're gonna get a council presentation as counselors, uh, HTREC will also be figuring out how they lay within that line that timeline.

Additionally, uh, we added the AIM equity tool to the appendix.

Um, and I hope this is something that you've all had a chance to look at.

I'm not gonna quiz you and ask you to look at it now, but I will say uh it allows us to identify our assumptions, identify a measure.

I'm moving forward too quickly.

Assumptions identify and measure, uh, and ultimately come out with a better way to communicate how equity is informing our processes with that.

Um there could be a motion, but there is that is all I have uh on the HTREC work plan.

Yeah, hopefully folks have a chance to check out just the kind of updated document that was provided for us, and I think it's great.

I move to approve the HREC work plan is substantially the form presented to council.

All right, moved by Council Perkins, second by counselor Platt.

All those in favor?

All right, unanimous.

Solid Andres, we have we have some things for you, but if you would like if you want to go first, go ahead.

Yeah, um, so I want to take a few moments to talk about the last few years.

Um, when I started at the city of BIN, I inherited HREC, COVAC, um, supplier diversity, all the different projects, and really um and uh resources for hate speech and discrimination and all of that.

Uh it was quite a bit.

And we said, how do we want to sit in our approach?

And essentially, I said, uh, when folks from the community and and and the media would ask, how are we gonna start this work?

And I said, I don't know.

We'll figure out what what staff is gonna tell us, and essentially that's the process and journey that we've all been on.

Um, additionally, uh, I want to thank um this group and this body for making sure the human rights and equity uh commission have a meaningful seat at the table.

When I first got here, that I was the most nerve-wrecked after um, I think I I told y'all I watched every HREC video to get up to speed um before even starting the role, and so I was extremely nervous about uh presenting to them.

And and a lot of them showed me grace, and a lot of those folks um have either moved on but also some have stayed on.

Um, and then uh council has shown up uh in a variety of different ways.

Um when I invited y'all to come to welcoming week, y'all showed up.

Um, when I asked for you to talk about equity and engage uh meaningfully in this space, y'all showed up.

Um, additionally, when I asked y'all to come to some trainings around equity, y'all showed up as well.

I also want to talk about a massive win that we had together, which was defining equity.

I know it was a goofy exercise at first.

We were like, how are we gonna have a conversation very openly about how we define something?

Um, but it landed.

Um, equity isn't something equity means ensuring everyone has uh what they need to succeed and not treating them the exact same.

Um it's also about addressing the disparity and thinking about our historic context.

Um to name a few disparities that I I want to challenge us to think a little bit deeper on is black and Latina community members are underrepresented in our home on our home buying process and home ownership process, they're overrepresented as renters, indigenous community members are disproportionately relocating out of then, and our two SLGBTQ, BIPOC and Indigenous neighbors are facing continued hate discrimination and stigma leading to othering.

Uh and so all of that to say uh equity requires a consistent challenge.

Um it's not just once, it's constant and intentional.

Uh and there are major opportunities coming up for y'all to do some things.

Um, specifically with the growth plan, they've embedded the equity framework, uh, the aim equity tool into their work.

Um, and housing the housing team is willing and ready to be uh honest partners in that work as well.

As most of our staff, um, and there's tons of opportunities to think about um how we incorporate these considerations in housing supply, understanding gaps, affordability, and ownership.

Um, but I also want to recognize something you don't know about, and it's a massive win for all of us.

Last week I was having a conversation with OCF, uh, Oregon Community Foundation, um, and I think y'all have uh saw last year that they were a co-sponsor for welcoming week.

They invited John A.

Powell, um, the director of the othering and belonging institute to come speak to their staff, and he mentioned Ben's welcoming week.

That recognition was an honor to council.

Uh it reminded us that our work is not just here, it's being uh shown nationally.

And so uh I want us to own that and recognize that, but also use that same momentum to talk about our supplier diversity program, our resources for hate and discrimination, how HREC is going to influence the space, and then welcoming week moving forward.

That's all I got.

Thank you so much for that.

Of course.

Thank you.

Um I'll turn to the HREC Via's on first, I think.

If there's and no requirement, but if anything anyone wants to say anything to Andrews.

It's I was I was thinking about what I wanted to say to you, and the first thing that popped into my mind was the first time I saw you, which is when you were interviewing for the physician.

And I remember just going, you know, when you walked out of the door, I was I could not have been more impressed.

And I remember when Eric told me that um I remember this like really really distinctly, like when Eric said, you know, he accept the offer, he's gonna come here.

I was like, I can't believe he's gonna come here.

Like it was just like we were just blown away.

We were so excited that you chose Ben.

And I know that Bend is not um an easy place to to be in.

Um you moved here, you you started a family, what like two weeks after you got here or something, like a week after you got here.

Um, and I know it it's it's a ha it's a hard place to come into, and um I am so impressed by um how um so how fast you grew into this role and also how fast you were able to um to really find some community and work and work with community, and um just something else with with HREC that I really noticed is like you came in, you had watched all of the meetings before, you didn't come in and start dictating, you listened and you learned for a really long time with HREC, and I think that only made HREC better.

Um, and um I just I really respect that.

And and similar to Eric, I think sometimes I kind of just need to slow down and listen and learn.

And that's something that you've taught me, and I hope that I can do better with in the future.

Um and I'll just I'll miss all our talks on on all things equity and just in our talks, and and uh I just I really admire what you've done here, and um, I think that your um your legacy is going to be felt for years to come.

So thank you for appreciate that.

Yeah, you're here.

Oh, so uh something I share with the DEI advisory committee is as y'all are sitting in this space, notice how your body's sitting, your shoulders are tight, your jaws tight.

Um that's something I share with both ATRE and the DEI advisory committee.

So hopefully uh you feel equity throughout all your life.

Thank you.

Yeah, I I'd like I'd like to say um you're one of the first staff people who reached out to me when I started working or joined city council, and you um really got me up to speed really quickly on the human on human rights and equity commission and all the equity work the city is doing, and it's it was an area that I care deeply about, but I had no idea what was going on really when I ran for office.

So I appreciate the time that you took with me.

And then I came to find out how authentically and quickly you engaged with the community and the strength of relationships that you formed with people.

So I want to commend you on that because I think um I think it really benefited the city.

Um I think it it really uh strengthened relationships um and the city benefited from that.

And some of sometimes those relationships with some groups and members of our community have been strained.

So I think the work that you did um was really really important, and I'm gonna miss you.

Um and I'm also I just want to say too to my fellow council, like I'm and to Eric.

I'm I'm concerned, you know.

I'm really concerned that Andreas' departure um on top of a reorg of the equity department, um, is is not leaving us uh well positioned to meet council's goals on equity.

Um and so I hope I hope we can have a discussion about that soon.

Um and um and yeah, and I plan if you have time before I know you're leaving town.

If you have time before you leave town to get together to just chat a little bit further, I really appreciate you sharing the insights that you did share tonight.

But um, any other insights I I want to glean in before you go.

So thank you, Andreas.

Thank you.

Just one excuse me.

Um, I really appreciate the time and effort you put into to supporting and kind of building and keeping welcoming week going.

I think it's been um I have appreciated the event more and more as time has gone on, and I know that that's you've been part of making that happen as well as so many community organizations, obviously.

Um I really appreciated how well you listen to people and learn.

And I think you already heard some of that from the Mayor Pro Tem, and I just won't witness that in a variety of settings, including um some of the work we did earlier this year on proclamations and and um particularly with the LGBTQ plus community.

I just appreciated your time and effort and presence as part of that process.

And I think we had a much stronger uh product and an outcome from that.

Um I also appreciate your de-escalation skills, which I got to witness a little bit this weekend at one of the events.

So um thank you for that.

Thanks for being part of our team for the last couple of years.

Yeah, many hands.

Yes.

Yeah, I'll mean I'll just conclude by saying I agree with everything that's been said before, and I think especially you know, the legacy that you'll leave here will be continue to be felt.

And I think um I too was very excited that you had chosen Bend, and you know, your journey is taking you onward elsewhere, but um, we will always have the effects of what you have helped us create here going forward.

So thank you.

Yeah, looks like Councillor Mendel.

Yes, Councillor Mendez, you want to close this out.

Yeah, thank you.

So I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to say, Andres, I have not only enjoyed working with you, but I have learned so much working with you.

I feel like you have left your mark on the city of Bend, and we're all better for it.

And because of that mark, we're gonna continue to be better for it.

So I appreciate that.

And um, wish you all the best in the next chapter.

Perfect, thank you.

And um just bringing us all together, and it's gonna be felt for a very long time to come.

Best of luck in the future.

Thank you.

All right, okay.

That brings us to our city manager's report.

We already did the motion.

Yeah, yeah, sorry.

Yeah, okay.

Um just uh a couple updates.

Uh I think I've mentioned to a few of you uh we we've been in contact with the um the attorneys that are that represent the tribes you mentioned the watershed hike, and there's been some follow-up work and uh we're scheduling a lunch with the new tribal leak tribal leadership.

We'll be looking to kind of resolidify that relationship.

There was a tribal uh council election in May.

There's been some changes, so we're re-establishing that.

Our priorities of roundabout art, of the uh the commitment to an annual meeting uh for our MOU, um, our focus on water, all those things are gonna continue.

In fact, our first event will be a water summit that we are planning for in uh mayor mentioned that in October.

Yeah, so um just uh reminder that the Butler Market project is uh uh officially detouring westbound traffic at Brinson over to Boyd Acre starting Monday, September 22nd.

Um that will enable the first phase of the construction of the roundabout at Butler Market in Wells.

Um so just wanted to remind folks of that, and then just to emphasize too, there's quite a few events left for welcoming week.

So just really anticipate or and uh encourage folks to go on the website and look at all of the events um and uh really get a chance to know community, you know.

And that's I think that is one of the things that I take away of like really feeling in this place right now of all this division that we're actually creating a space where people are coming together and learning from each other, and like we need more of that.

So thank you.

Okay, all right, that's it.

We are adjourned.

Thanks everybody.

Yeah,