The City Council meeting convened at 14:00 to address critical community safety, housing, and infrastructure matters, including the non-renewal of Flock Safety contracts, fiscal auditing, and the establishment of a temporary committee on electrification policy. The session featured significant public testimony regarding immigration enforcement practices, the preservation of neighborhood master plans in Petrosa, and concerns surrounding data privacy and local economic development initiatives.
Our meeting started. Thank you, Ashley. Um, let's do roll call down at your end, Counselor Black. Megan Norris, she her. Megan Perkins, she her. Melanie Keyboard, she her. Mike Riley, he and Ariel Mendes. Gina Franzosa, she her. Great, we are all here. Um, so we're gonna start with a presentation from Latino Community Association, and um Catalina Sanchez Frank is gonna come on up. Good evening, Mayor Tibler, City Council members, Mr. King. Thanks for the opportunity to present tonight. My presentation is an update about the current state of the Latino community in central Oregon. If I lose my breath, excuse me, because I'm recovering from a cold. Since January of 2025, we've learned of over 1,000 deportations statewide and 16 deportations locally. We know this number has increased since November from dozens to thousands in some communities up to 7,000 percent. We know that seven jurisdictions in Oregon have declared a state of emergency. We know that communities west of the Cascades like Portland or Woodburn have been hit the hardest. Two cases that have hit home include a freshman student at OSU who had to quit school to move back home in Woodburn, and helped his parents who had been terrorized for weeks to go to work in the fields or even go out to get groceries. Another one was a woman whose husband was detained in Eugene while attending an immigration check-in appointment. This means he was detained while complying with the law. This is racial profiling and in violation of sanctuary law. And unfortunately, as of tonight, a fatal shooting in Minneapolis. And we're grateful for your continued sponsorship and support for the this vital cultural celebrations. When families are displaced from outside of the state or from communities west of the Cascades, this influx of newcomers puts additional pressure on our resources. Either in providing services at no cost to families, like $3,000, $300,000 in legal fees, or $1 million in tax returns through our tax filing program. We also focused on developing developing immigrant rights training aimed to educate and protect Latina families in the event of a family member removal and neighbors and allies alike to learn to be legal observers or an accompaniment volunteer to immigration curt appointments as well as develop local and statewide partnerships because we cannot do this work alone. LCA also would like to thank the city council for your support to these two affordable housing projects. First for LCA that will bring close to 300 units to working families. In fact, we're breaking ground on the first of these developments verde pines next week, as you may already know. We know that housing affordability is critical for our community's stability, and we also want to emphasize the direct connection between these projects and the Latina workforce. In key traits as such as construction, landscaping and roofing, Latina workers represent the majority of the labor force, making them the backbone of our local development. What happens when they can't show up to work? At LCA, our priority is clear, protecting our families. We're entering this new year, facing deep uncertainty and a growing list of hardships impacting Latina communities throughout Oregon. We cannot sustain this critical work alone. We're here today to ask for the city's active support in protecting our community's future. We propose to continue the collaboration with the City of Bent Community Engagement Team, including dedicated staff at our Bent office, and to help coordinate recurring community conversations. This engagement will ensure that city leadership is consistently informed of the immediate needs and realities of the Latin community. We urge City of Bend to align with other jurisdictions by preparing a formal state of emergency declaration. Increasing financial support for LCA is a critical step in this preparation, as it will allow us to remain responsive and provide essential resources to impacted individuals as we navigate these foreseeable crisis. And finally, LCA author. Additionally, LCA is prepared to lead immigrants' defense rights, workshops for city personnel and partners, strengthening strengthening our collective ability to maintain a safe and inclusive community. And finally, I saw an update of the flock in Bent as the next agenda item. So I'd like to add a verbal request that the city takes into serious consideration the equity impacts and risks of the abuse of data by ICE and DHS. Thank you for your time and consideration. Gracias. Thank you so much, Catalina. And who and who is with you here?