All right.

The Benn City Council will now meet in executive session to pursuant to RS 192602 D to conduct deliberations with person designated to carry on labor negotiations and H to consult with legal counsel concerning the legal rights and duties of a public body regarding current litigation or litigation likely to be filed.

Representative of the news media and designated staff shall be allowed to extend the attend the executive session, except for the part relating to labor negotiations subsection D below.

Representatives of the news media specifically directed not to report on any of the deliberations during an executive session except to state the general nature of the session as previously announced.

No decision may be made in executive session.

At the end of executive session, we will return to open session at 6 p.m.

Thanks.

Mike Riley, he, him.

Melanie Keebler, she her.

Megan Parkins, she her.

Steve Platt, he him.

Great.

We are all here except for Councillor Norse, who is excused.

All right, we are gonna start right out with our uh Benn State delegation update.

We have Representative Krupp and Senator Broadman here.

Welcome back to the chambers.

Senator Broadman, if you want to come on up.

Um Representative Levy wanted to be here, unfortunately had a scheduling conflict, couldn't make it, so Senator Brom is going to talk a little bit about some of her priorities.

And we will give you the floor both to talk about um what you'll be working on in the short session.

Thank you, Mayor.

It's great to be back.

Uh greetings, counselor staff.

My name is Anthony Broadman.

I am the state senator for Central Oregon, Ben Redman Sisters, Black Beat Eagle Crest, most of Deschutes County.

I have the honor of serving with my two state representatives, Representative Krep and Representative Levy, uh, who both of whom form Senate District 27.

It's an honor to be back in the chamber with all of you.

And um I'm exactly one year into my term in the Senate, and I'll tell you I draw on the partnerships that we have working together over the last five years when I was on council every day.

Um really appreciate all of your partnership as we fight for Central Oregon for affordability for public safety.

Um I'll share a brief update on my work in Salem and update you my new committee roles.

Uh I'm now serving as chair of Senate Finance and Revenue Committee as well as budget co-chair for public safety, and um I serve on the audit and the judiciary committees in the Senate.

Those roles help me put our city and our region at the center of decisions that affect our entire state.

And um uh my priority remains making sure that Central Oregon is safe, affordable, and a great place to grow up and grow old.

Um I'll start by talking briefly about Central Caucus because uh I am very grateful for all of your work to help us form the Central Caucus with Representative Krupp, Representative Levy, Senator Mike McClain, Representative Vicky Brees Iverson, Representative Werner Reshke, and Senator Todd Nash.

And your input into the caucus priorities have been really important in delivering the resources on pediatric mental health care and housing and the policy bills that we work on with you.

So thank you for leaning in on the central caucus and thank you to the mayor for showing up in her capacity as chair of uh Coco.

My personal bills uh are um the public lands protection, uh public lands promise is what we're calling it.

Um and this bill prevents state and local governments from helping the federal government sell off our federal land to private entities.

It does not change um the city acquiring land from the federal government.

I want to be really clear about that, but our public lands are under threat now more than ever, and it's um important since they are a critical part of our wildfire resilience, our natural resources, our economic development and tourism and recreation, that we protect them and we stand up.

That's why I'm running the public lands promise bill.

I'm also running um a corner crossing codification bill with Senator Mike McClain.

Public access is a critical part to protecting our public lands, and some of our public lands are locked up right now.

Um this bill will codify based on a U.S.

Supreme Court case uh decision in the last year, codify our ability to access public lands from one corner of federal land to another corner of federal land.

Um the port of Central Oregon is a study bill that um I've really enjoyed working with city staff to ensure that it reflects um the needs of the city and the needs of the region when it comes to economic development and being resilient as we confront climate chaos and wildfire um pre-positioning.

So the concept for the port of Central Oregon is based on a concept out of Utah.

It's an inland port of governmental structure that really unites various resources from around our three county region to ensure that we're ready when it comes to wildfire resilience and disaster preparedness and also provide that um economic development arm that we need as a region.

We continue to be the fastest growing, healthiest economic development region.

We're growing jobs at a rate that we should all be really proud of as central Oregonians.

But our um our governments, our local governments, our state government, and our federal government need to be partners in investing in economic development and creating jobs in our region.

Um I will also be likely uh bringing a concept relating to protecting Oregonians whose constitutional rights, federal constitutional rights are violated by the federal government to ensure that Oregonians uh have a tool to um to confront violations of their rights when those rights are being violated by the federal government.

Will not touch state and local government.

Um I'm re-bringing my K Truck bill, which legalizes K-Trucks, an important micro mobility option that we've heard of time and again from Central Oregonians who want to have every tool available to them for affordable transportation.

And then happy to work with Representative Krupp and we'll continue to work with council on ensuring that our land use rules, land use laws reflect our goals when it comes to complete communities.

We've had a lot of community outreach over the last year regarding making sure that when we plan for complete communities in central Oregon that our land use laws reflect that.

And then finally, I'll just touch on finance and revenue briefly since this is actually the bulk of my work in Salem.

Um as finance and revenue chair, I'm squarely focused on a revenue system that increases affordability and is fair to households, businesses, and drives economic growth throughout our state.

As we respond to the Trump administration cuts to services, the tax cuts for billionaires, and the Trump tariffs, which are going to cost Oregon households about $3,400 per household if they are upheld by the Supreme Court any day.

Um we are confronting uh uh a generational crisis when it comes to our budget and when it comes to revenue.

Um our state revenue system needs to be one that supports the essential education, um, uh public safety and um and health care resources that Oregonians deserve.

So in the short session, we will focus on cutting tax loopholes for billionaires and out-of-state corporations while investing in the good jobs we need here to heat up our state's economy.

Central Oregon continues to lead the way on that.

Um and I want to emphasize that having served with five of you and knowing the other two of you, I really appreciate all of our teamwork when it comes to Redmond Sisters Bend, Deschutes County, and the three of us as your representatives in Salem.

It's an honor to serve you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You want to talk about Emerson's bills next or pass it to Jason.

I'll pass it to Jason, and I can we can close with the uh sure.

Uh well, thanks for having me here.

I'm Jason Krupp, state representative for House History 54.

I have the pleasure of representing a large part of Bend in the state house.

Um, but you know, I think all of us who work in this area sort of look us look at us as being sort of regional representatives, right?

Not only Band and Deschutes County, but work closely with Jefferson and Crook County as well.

So thanks to Senator Broadman for his work on uh Central Oregon caucus.

There's a lot of shared values within that caucus, even though we we are in different party affiliations, and there's also moments of disagreement that we work through as well.

Um, you know, I think the biggest challenge coming forward for us in the short session is a budget challenge.

We left session in late June of last year with as we always do a balanced budget, and then we always put money in uh in fund balance.

That's basically a savings account, and we actually put more money in that sort of session uh two-year budget savings account than when we normally do.

And then with the passage of uh HR1 about it uh two weeks later, that budget was about $800 million upside down.

Um so we are sort of um having to address that budget shortfall in the short session.

Um, and Senator Broadman talked about.

We're having all agencies look at what potential cuts they could have, and that ranges from cuts in the expenditure, state expenditures for health care, education, um, public safety across the board.

And so there's different tiers of cuts that we're looking at depending on what the budget gap that we have to fill.

We have a revenue forecast coming out in a few weeks that will tell us what that sort of final budget number is.

Um Senator Broadman talked a lot about um revenue measures.

We are connected to the federal tax code and and the that series of dramatic um tax changes uh impacted our budget.

Um make sense.

Um reductions in taxes on overtime and tips for our workers, and others that benefit the wealthy and corporations make a lot less sense, but have had a dramatic impact on our budget.

So I think that is the bulk of the work ahead of us, and also, of course, um, how do we maintain the level of maintenance we want for our roads?

Um, as somebody, well, our our region depends on safe roads, especially during the winter and our ability to get uh over the passes when it comes to the vitality of this area and the vitality of our uh economy.

So we are in the process of how do we have enough funding for maintenance uh and safe patches of those roads.

Um and so I think that is gonna be a bulk of our work.

And then a lot of work that's happening is also what is our response to some of the actions we're seeing from the federal government that are unprecedented, um, and sort of I think challenging our basic notions of what a um just society should look like.

So um working with other members uh in the House and Senate about how do we support our immigrant communities, how do we provide a level of privacy for the information that we have as individuals here from federal overreach?

Um, and now you'll see that as another large section of our work.

Um part of what we do this session when it comes to what our revenue system should look like and what our agency and um budget cuts are gonna look like are gonna set us up for the work that we have ahead of us in 27 and 29.

That that budget forecast right now is um more challenging than the forecast we have here, and a lot of that um comes from federal cuts to food stamps.

So that's for um food for people who have suffer from or have food insecurity and health care.

We have been able to um expand access to health care in the state in a dramatic fashion in the last 10 years.

We have I think 96 or 97 percent of the people in the state now have health insurance.

Um, you know, we have a lot of challenges in uh in this state, but I think those that has been one of the success stories, and the federal um cuts to those programs are gonna um put a level of put a high level of stress on that sort of fundamental service that we offer.

So not only the impact to individuals and their ability to access um physical health care and behavioral health care, but the dollars that follow that individual or what support our hospitals and our providers we will feel it here in this community.

Um arguably they will feel it more acutely east of here, where 40% of the people are on the Oregon Health Plan, including 50% of our the children.

So that is sort of the challenge that we have today and the look ahead that we have in the next couple years.

Much of my work is on public safety, and I've always prioritized and I've always said the beginning of a just criminal justice system is how we support crime victims and crime survivors and continue to work in that space, working on trying to find revenue, alternate revenue measures to support organizations like the Kids Center here in town and Saving Grace of programs that provide services to abuse and neglected children and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

And then I've continued to work in the gun safety arena.

We've um have work to do on the implementation of measure 114, which is uh banning large capacity magazines and making sure that people who own firearms pass background checks and so basically people who are um pass basic background checks and who are lawfully able to possess a firearm or the people who actually are possessing firearms here in our state.

Um and I think there's also a larger, you know.

I I I know a lot of my presentation is a little bit grim, but I also do think there is an opportunity here as we take a critical look at the uh our budget and the government and the services that we provide as a government, identifying what those core services are, those essential services, and making sure we're providing them.

I think does help us provide a governance framework for the next several biennium.

And we're embarking um on the state on like how do we support sort of what I think of as the next chapter in Oregon's economic development.

Um I've lived in Oregon for a long time, and even Ben sort of symbolizes that, right?

Our smokestacks were from um uh mills, and that was uh a really tough transition in Oregon as we went from sort of a um a logging-based economy.

I grew up in a in a small logging town somewhere to Ben at the time, and then transformed ourselves and how this community bounced back from the Great Recession.

And I think we're embarking on that sort of what is the next chapter of the Oregon's economic development.

So I I am uh appreciative of the governor's leadership on that, and I know all of us play a big role in that.

And I do think there's a number of lessons to be learned from Ben, and just in the short, you know, in a 40-year period, how we've reinvented ourselves a couple different times in our uh created a thriving community here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, you want to play Emerson next?

Yes.

Um these are uh Representative Levy's remarks.

She apologizes for not being able to attend.

She is teaching this evening.

In addition to the priorities discussed tonight, such as balancing the state budget, following federal cuts, reviewing the ODOP budget, and advancing our work on recreational liability waivers.

Representative Levy is focusing on three bills during this short legislative session.

One battery recycling, addressing fires in our community.

This bill addresses a growing public safety issue caused by lithium batteries entering our waste system.

These batteries are ending up in garbage trucks, transfer stations, and landfills, and they're causing fires.

In Deschutes County alone, we saw 54 fires last year linked to battery disposal.

Battery recycling programs differ from other producer responsibility organizations because the recycling process allows valuable metals to be recovered and resold, creating a natural cost offset for the program.

Her second bill is protecting vulnerable students, codifying McKinney Vento.

This bill focuses on protecting some of our most vulnerable students, those experiencing homelessness.

House Bill 4149 codifies the federal McKinney Vento program into Oregon law.

This program allows students who are experiencing homelessness to remain in their school of origin, if that's what they and their caregivers choose.

Last year during federal budget discussions, including conversations around HR 1, the legislature became aware that the McKinney Vento program could be vulnerable to federal cuts.

While the program was ultimately preserved, that uncertainty highlighted the importance of ensuring these protections remain in place at the state level.

Her third bill is regulating AI chatbots to protect kids' mental health and its legislative concept 282.

This bill is in response to growing concerns around artificial intelligence, particularly how AI platforms interact with children.

AI chatbots are now capable of having long personal conversations with young users, including about mental health, self-harm, and suicide.

These tools need to be safe, age appropriate, transparent, and supportive of healthy development.

We've already seen what can go wrong when guardrails aren't in place.

In a high profile case in California, when an AI chatbot repeatedly engaged with a 16-year-old's suicidal thoughts over months, providing information about methods, helping draft a suicide note, failing to consistently direct him to crisis support.

That kind of interaction is unacceptable, and this legislation is designed to make sure it cannot happen here in Oregon.

And those are representative Levy's bills.

I also just want to say from the three of us, we have uh two town halls Sunday for constituents, folks to come, make sure we hear from people.

The first one is at OSU Cascades.

I've left flyers out in the uh hallway here.

Um one o'clock at OSU Cascades, and then the second one is in Redmond at the Redmond Senior Center, and that's I think at 3 30.

But you can check on all of the um uh representative Levy posts all this pretty frequently, so you can check with with uh her social media if you need exact details.

This this is my 15th and 16th town hall of the year.

These are really important uh tools that we use to hear from constituents.

They form our legislative agenda, help us create um better legislation for central Oregonians, and so um we really really value the input that we get there and hope um hope constituents, counselors, uh anybody can attend.

Thank you.

Those are this Sunday, right?

Yes, sir.

Yeah, this Sunday.

Um, one quick question for you, it's not a super difficult one, but going off of the um the privacy concerns you were talking about, Representative Crapp, um we recently uh made a determination to end our contract with Flock and turn off those cameras with that company, and at that time also indicated support for some reform legislation around that issue.

Um, and I don't know if that's coming from your committee or from Senator Brazanski's committee.

I just want to know where that's where that's at.

Yeah, I believe Senator Kusanski's taking the lead.

Okay.

That yeah, and so I'm I mean there's been lots of work in the last several years about privacy, right?

The um motion of privacy is ever changing the last probably five or ten years, and much of the work had been done in beginning of my legislative career about the data that businesses collect and how they use or sell that data, um, our ability to opt out of that data collection.

Um those conversations are shifting to um protecting ourselves from what the federal government may or may not want to do with our personal information that we want to be private.

Yes.

Okay, and so later this evening we're gonna adopt our own legislative agenda, and so we'll be sure to share that with you all.

And there's already things we're working on together, like SB8.

Um, so we appreciate your engagement with us and your we've set up a regular meeting cadence, which I think is really great.

Um, but we'll continue to bring up those issues, and then you where where we're aligned, which I think a lot of what you said is we're gonna see we're aligned on, we're happy to help in Salem as well.

So any other questions, folks?

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Thank you for chance.

Yeah, thank you for inviting all right.

That moves us into our proclamation for seminars.

That's Council Rightley.

So I have the honor of reading this proclamation.

Um, it's a human trafficking and prevention month proclamation.

Um, whereas the United States was founded upon the principle that all people are created equal with the inalienable right of freedom, and in 1865 added the 13th Amendment to the Constitution making slavery illegal.

And whereas slavery within the United States today most often occurs as human trafficking, the illegal recruitment and movement of people for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labor.

And whereas victims of human trafficking are typically lured or coerced to participate in various forms of exploitation, including commercial sex acts, drug processing and distribution, and other forms of forced labor, and are subject to physical and sexual abuse, forced drug use, and other forms of violence to keep them under the control of traffickers, stripping them of their freedom and dignity and leaving them trapped in a cycle of exploitation and vulnerability.

And whereas the consequences of human trafficking can be devastating and long-lasting, including physical and psychological trauma, health problems, and social isolation.

And whereas human trafficking is a worldwide epidemic with an estimated 27.6 million people trafficked on any given day in 2021, and 6.3 million people are victims of sex trafficking, the vast majority of whom are women and many are children.

And whereas it's estimated that more than 190,000 people are trafficked in the United States each year, and Oregon has the 10th highest trafficking rate in the nation.

And whereas from 2018 to 2019, the Oregon Department of Justice identified 746 victims of human trafficking across Oregon, including 48 here in Deschutes County.

And in 2025, the anti-trafficking project provided services to 110 victims and survivors of human trafficking in central Oregon.

And whereas, due to its isolating nature, many individuals locally and across the globe are unaware that trafficking exists in their community.

And whereas we must all work together to end human trafficking and sexual exploitation around the world and in our local communities through education, awareness, protection, and support of victims and prosecution of traffickers.

And whereas several local organizations work to combat combat sex and labor trafficking in Central Oregon through education, prevention, intervention, and support services for survivors, including the Anti-Trafficking Project, Seroptimus International Bend, and in our backyard.

That now, therefore, be it resolved that the Bend City Council opposes human trafficking in all of its forms, encourages all Bend residents to learn about and do their part to prevent and intervene in trafficking, and does hereby proclaim January to be human trafficking prevention month in Bend.

All right.

Move to accept that proclamation.

Second.

All right, move by Councillor Mendes, second by Councillor Platt.

All those in favor?

All right.

And then I want to just emphasize that the importance of everybody under, you know, really thinking about this and reflecting and learning what you can that this stuff happens right here in our community.

It's not just something that happens in other places.

Um here in our state.

Um, three folks that are gonna come up tonight representing some of the groups that work on anti-trafficking work here in our community.

Brianne Barrett is the program director at the Anti-Trafficking Project.

Sharon Brown, Portland hub leader for in our backyard, and Jan Swander, the president of Suro Optimist International Bend.

So coming up.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And I'll turn it over to the three of you to go in whichever orders you want to.

Hi.

Well, thank you.

Um, yeah, thank you all for having me.

Um, Councillor Riley, and to the Benn State Council for recognizing January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

My name is Brue Barrett.

I am the program director for the anti-trafficking project, the program of J Bar J Youth Services, where we serve victims and survivors of both sex and labor trafficking across Central Oregon.

Human trafficking is not just a national issue, it occurs right here in Central Oregon.

Over the past year, the AP Project supported 110 survivors of sex and labor trafficking, many of whom are local youth, young adults, or people experiencing homelessness or fleeing unsafe situations.

Our team responds 24-7 to crisis responses, safety plans, provides case management, housing assistance, and outreach in the community.

We work closely with law enforcement, child welfare, schools, health care providers, and community partners who identify victims and ensure survivors have a real pathway to safety and stability.

We are grateful for our strong partnership in BEN that makes this work possible and for community that's committed to learning the science and supporting prevention efforts.

Survivors often share that the first time they felt safe was when someone finally believed them, and that belief, along with coordinated community response, is what creates a real pathway to safety and stability.

Thank you again for helping shine the light on this issue and for supporting efforts to ensure survivors in Central Oregon know they are seen, valued, and not alone.

Thank you.

Good evening.

First, I'd like to thank Councillor Riley and the members of the Benn City Council for recognizing January as Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

My name is Sharon Brown, and I'm a volunteer and the Portland hub leader for In Our Backyard, a nonprofit located here in Bend.

We are fighting human trafficking through awareness, prevention, and education.

Our freedom stickers offer a discrete lifeline for individuals experiencing trafficking by displaying the human trafficking hotline, connecting them to someone trained and ready to provide a pathway to services and healing.

We also partner with businesses, schools, and communities to provide education, awareness, and resources that strengthen our local efforts to prevent trafficking.

Through our Teens Against Trafficking program, our trained volunteers bring age-appropriate curriculum into middle and high school classrooms, ensuring that students receive accurate empowering information.

During the 2025 school year alone, in our backyard, educated 1,130 Central Oregon students to recognize the signs of trafficking and understand how to protect themselves and their loved ones.

We'd like to thank you all for linking arms with us and empowering our youth and community into staying safe and preventing human trafficking.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Jan Swander.

I'm the president of Seroptimus International of Bend.

And I too want to thank Meryl Mayor Keebler, Mike Riley for sponsoring the proclamation of human trafficking prevention, and the Bend Council.

Soroptimus is a worldwide organization of professional and retired women who stand in the fight to help survivors of trafficking.

Every year, thousands of women and girls fall victims to trafficking.

They are forced to leave their families, drop out of school, and they risk their lives.

As a result, they are deprived of what all of us deserve a future.

Many of whom have survived or are at risk of sexual abuse.

They go on to have better lives and often pay it forward to their communities.

So Optimus believes education is one of the keys of empowering women and girls.

In Bend.

And it will be very informative.

And I encourage you to take that one hour.

You may bring your lunch and come and attend.

Thanks so much.

One of the questions I got from the media that I thought it would be best for you all to answer rather than me is what are the signs people should watch for in terms of trafficking and if they do observe something that they're concerned about.

I assume maybe it's to call the hotline.

But is there something else they should do in our community that you can share?

Maybe you could speak to that, Sharon, since you do those classes.

Sure.

So the signs, is that what you were asking for?

Yeah, yeah.

Like what about how what do you might you notice?

That's like I maybe I need to worry about this.

Well, like a lot of times it's like your children maybe are on social media a lot, and maybe they're becoming very isolated, they're becoming depressed, they're withdrawn.

Um maybe they are have a new friend, maybe an older friend that is either the same gender as they are, somebody else, they're speaking for them, that they don't no longer speak for themselves because somebody is controlling them.

Um they're isolated a lot of times, they get tattooed.

Um, maybe their clothing has changed, what they wear.

Um, so if you do notice those things, you need to speak up and say something because one third of all people that are victims that are um survivors that are recovered from trafficking are recovered because somebody said something.

So if it's calling, if it's an emergent situation, call 911, you have the hotline number, um, or it you just call law enforcement to see what they can do.

Yeah, I would just say that the biggest thing that we teach people to do, especially with um kids and being a good positive role model in kids' lives.

Um, it's also national mentoring month this month, um, and I always encourage people to get involved and mentor a kid um and their community to be really create those healthy positive relationships.

And I think that is really truly one of the best things that can prevent human trafficking.

Um, and then also our program, the anti-trafficking project.

Um, please, if there's any questions, we are always happy to talk through situations.

Um, I talked to somebody the other day who just saw something that felt a little off and we talked through it and were able to decide what a better plan of action was.

Um, we don't always call law enforcement if it's not um warranted, however, uh sometimes it is, and so if somebody is in uh immediate danger, please call 911 and uh get them support.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great, thanks so much.

Thanks so much.

So we do a quick picture.

Thank you very much.

Let's come out here because we got some more peep so you can come up to our own story.

Okay, so there.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

All right.

That gets us into our council action and reports.

And first we're going to start with following up on the Latino Community Association update and request that they gave us about two weeks ago.

So I'm going to go through a little statement here and then we'll get into a couple of items that we can take action on.

Two weeks ago, LCA presented to us about very real fear that people in our community are experiencing due to the approach to immigration enforcement being taken by the Trump administration.

We saw and heard about stories like a person going through the process to become a citizen who was taken away at their immigration appointment.

Or as Council Council Mendez shared about a community member he knows who was violently deported after agents smashed his car window in.

We have all seen with our own eyes the violence and trampling of constitutional rights by federal immigration officers that's going on in Minnesota right now and has gone on in cities across the country.

But what we are seeing in our state and across the country is not law enforcement, but instead a campaign of terrorizing communities and acting in a way that is making everyone less safe and getting people killed.

I want to be clear that we support our local law enforcement.

But the type of activity that ICE and other federal agents are engaging in right now does not adhere to the high standards the men and women at Ben Police Department practice every day as they pursue community-based policing practices and work to de-escalate situations whenever possible.

In our city, our police officers will not even risk a high-speed car chase of a criminal suspect when they feel that residents may be put in harm's way.

And in our city, police officers who do not adhere to our high standards face accountability in our department and under state and federal law.

In contrast, when a federal immigration agent shot Renee Good through her car window and refused to let bystanders offer aid, our federal agency representatives unequivocally defended that agent and are refusing to properly investigate the killing.

All of us on the SIS took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and we respect the law and we respect and support our police officers.

But a paramilitary approach to immigration enforcement is only resulting in chaos and violence, and it's entirely unneeded in our cities.

Immigrants make up a vital part of our city and our economy.

Immigration in America is not a threat to be managed.

It is a strength to be protected.

So with that said, um, we got some pretty clear ass from LCA at the uh presentation that they gave.

Um I wanted to just give an update.

I had mentioned that there was an internal policy being worked on at that meeting.

That policy's just about finished, should be within a week should be in place, right, Ian?

Days, yes.

And that's just covering what happens on our facilities and how we react when when our facilities um are being potentially used for this type of immigration enforcement.

But I think we all agree we can do more to reaffirm our values and show our support for our community and respond to LCA's requests.

So I'll turn it over to you, Ian on uh first to start with talking maybe about a resolution that we might be looking at.

Yeah.

Um I've spoken with a couple of you about um sort of options for council um to consider one one is a resolution, these are documents adopted by a city council that can um express values, set policy direction, direct staff to do certain things.

Um other cities in Oregon and around the country have done this.

Um this is not totally dissimilar to a resolution that the council considered and adopted in May of last year expressing support for trans people in Bend.

Um that is largely an expression of solidarity, the city's values, the council's values.

Um it can also direct staff to do things, including um upholding state law and principles that we already have expressed, for example, through this new administrative policy.

So that's that's something council can consider.

Um there are some models out there that other cities have adopted.

Um you always want to look at what is right for Bend and what's needed in Bend, but if that's something council wants to pursue and wants to talk about um some things that can be in there, um welcome to do it.

You can give us direction and we can work on it if that's the goal.

And could that also include I know there was uh ask for some financial support?

Would that be where that could live that in the case?

Correct.

So you could state some goals, some values, um, your intent, and then the kind of the action items could be some additional resources.

I would also mention this topic was uh subject uh a subject of the previous uh human rights and equity commission meeting, and there was a lot of interest uh from HREC to to be involved, and so one possible um ideas that you can sort of take this concept um partner with HREC, and then I think on the resource piece, I think we can work on defining what that might the supports that uh LCA, the Latino Community Association might need and how we can provide um funding for that support.

So that could be something that comes out of this resolution.

Okay.

Council thoughts on this plan of action.

Yeah, I mean, this l like Eric just said, the human rights and equity commission is is um understandably um would like to be more intimately involved in um in helping um craft something, and so I think it's a great idea to to pass it along to them to provide input.

Yeah.

Council Meadows.

Yeah, I feel like um based on some of the questions that we get from the community that there is a desire for some clarity.

And I feel like this would be a good opportunity for us to remind the community that as you mentioned, we have all sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States as well as the state of Oregon.

The city of Bend upholds uh state and federal law.

Uh we do not have a role in enforcing immigration uh uh policies.

We do have a role in assisting and cooperating on criminal investigations and executing judicial warrants.

Uh those ultimately help keep our community safe.

Um so I feel like there's some people I think kind of would probably like to hear some clarity on where the city stands, and this this would be a good opportunity for that.

So I'm supportive of it.

Great.

I agree.

Okay.

I will say Council Norris couldn't be here today, but she didn't want me to pass along that she's very supportive of this.

So I think it sounds like we're all agreed.

Um so I think next steps would be then um HREC is meeting next month, and we could maybe get a draft of something to them to take a look at.

Right, and then I think uh so the soonest it would come back before you would be your second meeting in February, which I believe is the 18th.

I would also love to make sure that LCA and Catalina are involved and can hopefully be at that HREC meeting in some form or giving some input with them to help them understand what the needs are.

That would be great.

And I I I um think it is important that HREC is involved and has an opportunity to participate, and I want us to keep this moving forward.

That's time is of the essence on this, I think.

It's not something we wanted dilly-dally on, and um not that they're going to do that, but I think that we just need to be clear that we need to keep this moving.

And we're not gonna have an extended long process after that meeting.

Well, and to that end, could we bifurcate the the um funding question from the city as a as a separate effort that perhaps would come back to us a little more quickly?

Or is that or do you want to wait?

I was thinking that that would be part of the conversation with HREC and around the resolution, and I actually think there is a maybe a policy question there if we are giving funds for general purposes, or if we would really like to say we'd like you to use these funds, for example, to help families who have experienced deportation of a family member, right?

So I think I'm hoping HREC and LCA can help figure out that.

So I'm okay with a little more delay if if they're giving input on that.

But I think I I think we can get it done by the end of February.

Yeah, I think that's a good goal.

Okay.

Um next, I was gonna ask um Elizabeth to come up and talk about um a lawsuit where there is a request for amicus, which is not we're not part of the lawsuit, but we are supporting and explaining and also giving some facts um that the city's gonna join on to.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Mayor.

So Elizabeth O'Shall with the city attorney's office.

Um the case uh that there's a opportunity for the city and other local governments to join as amicus is um a case that Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St.

Paul have brought.

Um this is against the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others.

Um basically alleging a lot of what the mayor um discussed, that those actions of DHS and ICE have cost the state and the cities time and resources.

Um and our unlawful uh violating Minnesota laws, um, violating the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution by commandeering local resources for use in immigration enforcement and trying to coerce participation and acceptance of federal policy priorities.

Um they allege violations of the First Amendment, including retaliation against Minnesota and the cities for the First Amendment expression of the people in those um places and the policy preferences enacted by the elected representatives of those people.

The complaint also alleges violation of various federal laws, including excessive use of excessive force by the immigration officers, warrantless arrests, warrantless arrest and search farther from the border than is allowed by federal law.

And so the cities and the state are seeking an order from the court to stop these actions from going on in Minneapolis, St.

Paul, and the state of Minnesota.

And ultimately asking the court to declare all of those actions unlawful.

I do want to say that the lawsuits not asking because it couldn't, that federal immigration enforcement stop in these areas.

It's asking that these unlawful actions carrying out that enforcement stop.

And so there's an opportunity for the city to sign on.

You gave us some authorization previously to join lawsuits and to participate in litigation that relates to our funding.

This one's a little bit outside of that direction, so we wanted to come with you and the opportunity to sign on closes tonight.

And then the group that we'd be signing on with would file a brief on behalf of all of the cities and local jurisdictions wanting to participate tomorrow.

All right, so I think we should join that.

I think SAF is recommending that we do, so we just want to make sure that we brought that up tonight and made sure that we were all in agreement on that in sense that we are.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for that summary.

Thanks for bringing that to us.

All right.

I'm an opportunity.

Anything else anyone wants to say before we move on from this subject.

Thank you all, Council, for unanimously supporting these actions.

No, I I just appreciated a statement that you prepared, and I support what you said in that statement.

Thank you for that.

All right, that moves us um into letters.

We had one letter of support for lift home ownership fund that just want to make sure everyone's okay with.

Um that was a request from um I think it was from Pad House for Humanity making sure that we're just supporting that fund.

So seeing no objection to that.

And then we had one appointment that we need a motion for, which is to move someone who is an alternate up onto the HREC commission.

Move to appoint uh Navjad Hughes to the Human Rights and Equity Commission.

Second.

All right, moved by Councillor Perkins, second by Councillor Franzoza.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right, the appointment is made.

Okay, so that gets us into our counselor reports.

Councilor Franzosa.

Um I want to thank um COCC and Oregon State University for organizing some really fantastic events here at the start of Black History Month.

Um, COCC's events are uh under the banner of the season of nonviolence, and Oregon State has um in Corvallis anyway, has hosted a peace breakfast on MLK Day for 40 years.

Um but I think ours is only two years in, something like that.

So I heard Cleve Jones speak last night.

He was a young staffer for Harvey Milk.

Very, very moving.

Um I also attended uh and I heard Lakiana Yotama Drury, um, a nonprofit leader from Portland and a poet who's got some work out there that you might find impactful.

So I highly recommend checking out those lectures, those speeches, and seeing if you can watch them and check out the rest of the schedule.

But what I'm gonna share with council tonight is actually something that happened at the peace breakfast that um kind of really moved me to speak tonight, um, and that is the vocalization by members at that breakfast, expressing disappointment that the city is not taking seriously some of the missteps that have happened over the past several months.

Um, and I'm referring to the resignation of the equity director and how that was handled, um, the Juneteenth funding.

Um, and you know, this wasn't raised by people, but I you know, I think to myself our community engagement manager has also resigned.

And so I know um I uh I mean fundamentally, I think you know, our community is raising concerns and we're not responding to them, and I think that we should.

Um, and I say that not quite knowing what our response should be.

However, I think in part um it is listening and dialogue.

Um I also listened to the human rights and equity commission meeting where where there was also some concern that was expressed essentially council just not dialoguing over what are admittedly very difficult and sensitive issues around rights and equity in our community.

Um being a woman engineer, I'm also aware of some concerns about gender equity within the city.

So I guess what I want to say tonight is uh kind of put an ask to my fellow council members that we not ignore these requests for dialogue and change and accountability from our community, and that we meet these requests with respect and with an open mind and an open heart.

Um I know that we are gonna hear from a consultant next week, um and I'm very hopeful that that is the start of a of a dedicated effort, um, looking both um at internal practices as well as our external relations with community members.

Those are my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Mendes.

On January 16th, the Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board met and heard uh grantees report on results of some uh discretionary funding that they received.

Uh we also heard a report from the State Department of Transportation on congestion in the state of Oregon.

Uh the two messages that I think were worth really taking away from that report is first that we as a state have grown tremendously, both in population as well as economically, and we have not seen as much growth in congestion.

So lots of growth in people, lots of growth in the economy, relatively comparatively speaking, little growth in congestion.

So it is possible to grow without adding to congestion.

The second thing is that we have comparatively little congestion relative to the rest of the state, especially when we look at places like Portland.

Our biggest source of congestion locally is of course other drivers.

That's not uh unique, but within that uh signal timing was called out as a particular issue that could help alleviate congestion.

Um, and that's all that I have to report.

Great.

Great.

Um I wanted to do a quick um couple thank yous and gratitude.

Um first, I just wanted to thank all the people who organized and attended the various rallies and bigils these last two weeks in defense, I would say the defense of our democracy, of free speech, of the rights of immigrants, immigrants to be treated fairly and humanely and not live in fear, and the rights of the people who are also observing the various um immigration enforcement actions, and um some of it even to me felt more like thuggery.

Um I just really appreciate all the folks who organized and attended those various events in our community.

I also wanted to thank Mila Shelehoff, OSU Cascades and the other organizers of a concert that is gonna start in about 10 minutes at the Tower Theater with a group from Ukraine called Yagodi.

Um and just that's gonna celebrate UK Ukrainian culture and also the resilience of that uh people and that nation that's happening tonight in our community.

And I'm sorry I can't be there.

Um I wanted to just share I I participated in the tour that uh we had a couple weeks ago with um Blackstrap that Meal from Edco organized for us with along with several several other counselors and the Midway project, and it was just really interesting to hear about the success of the Blackstrack business and also the challenges they faced as a business in our community individually, but also that project in particular.

It's instructive to kind of see how things practically show up on the ground and the challenges they face.

Um I also toured the Burnside neighborhood with a couple of neighbors.

Um they asked me to come out and just see some of the challenges in their community in that their part of town.

Um, and that was really interesting and instructive, and learned about a few things I didn't know that were happening in that part of town.

And um I'm gonna follow up on a couple a couple things that some questions I have from that.

Um I also attended the HREC meeting last week, and I think that was part of my effort to actually listen, although it wasn't a that meeting was not a dialogue with me, it was an opportunity for me to listen and hear about the concerns people have, and I just wanted to share that.

I think for me as a counselor, this process has been difficult.

There's a lot of sensitive issues as Counselor Franciso mentioned, um, but I do think part of completing the process for me and learning and getting a whole perspective is hearing what we're gonna hear from the consultant next week.

We didn't hear his recommendations at HREC last week.

He asked for input and we got an overview of the work he's been doing, but I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more about his recommendations and asking some questions.

I also was at the MPO meeting along with um Councillor Mendez, and then um I just wanted to express my gratitude to um uh Commissioner Um Adair and Commissioner Chang last night for supporting the extension of the TSSA for an additional six months.

Appreciate their partnership on making that happen.

I think it's really important for the homeless people in our community, but also for the rest of us in terms of making sure that homeless folks have uh a better place to receive services.

Um I think the success of the TSA is partly proven the relationships that get built there, and also um, you know, we don't have a place for those folks to go.

We need some more time so that we can find some more options so that less people end up on our streets and or in our forests and uh potentially have greater fire risk in the future.

So I'm really pleased at the outcome we had last night.

Same.

All right, Councilor Berkins.

Um I guess I just want to talk a little bit about the human rights and equity commission meeting.

Um as you all know, I have been their liaison since the very beginning of this group, um, since the first group of people, um, since the first meeting, uh, that group has been through a lot.

And now this, and this is a really challenging time for our community.

And I think for the city too.

I think I feel confident saying that this has been a challenging time for the city.

I will say that in no conversation that I have ever had with anybody with the city or on council have we ever talked about stopping this work.

And I think that is the most important thing to say tonight.

This work is going to continue, even in the face of a lot of controversy and a lot of misunderstandings.

But also in the in the face of a community that is really reeling from a lot of things that are going on right now that are outside of our control.

Ben Duncan hire the equity consultant that is gave the presentation to HREC showed a body of work that the city is doing that is a dedicated effort that has never never stopped since it began.

And I think it's it's to say that it's not a dedicated internal effort.

Are there gaps in that work?

Absolutely.

Is this work easy?

Absolutely not.

Is it done?

Absolutely not.

Have there probably been some missteps?

Absolutely.

But it's going to continue.

And I just want the community to know that.

And I know that I stand committed, and I know every single key person on this diet today stands committed to wanting our community to not feel fear for being black and brown and wanting to support and take any steps that we can to make sure that people feel safe in our community.

So I'll just leave it at that.

All right, thank you, Councillor Platt.

Great, thank you.

Um I wanted to echo uh Council Riley's comments about the Blackstrap Tour.

That the thing that I really appreciate about these tours that Don is set up and that we've been able to go through is to listen to the folks that are the economic engine of our of our community and the challenges that they have, the challenges that they have to find the workforce, the challenges that they have to pay the workforce, the challenges that the workforce has to live in our community, and it all brings it really, really to home to me.

So I find those conversations to be interesting and informative.

I also find the conversations that I've had, I've had a number of them over the last couple of weeks with folks about electrification for our city.

And I want to make clear that I will continue to talk to folks and listen, listen to your concerns, listen to your questions, listen to your interests.

I'm going to make a case for you for that at the same time, but I'm always willing to listen and to acknowledge the concerns that you have as we approach some kind of some large changes that we're talking about for the city.

It's been my opportunity also in my in my uh it's my enjoyment to attend a couple of these committees, uh, the the plan commissioning landmarks committee for the last couple weeks and to see Ian uh sort of bringing on board the new folks into our committees that we've approved at the beginning of this year, and for them to sort of take on the weight of public service and what that means or what their role is.

And so Ian does a really good job of explaining to that and to see folks wrestling to that, uh wrestling with that.

It was also my honor on Martin Luther King Day to uh write a couple of Valentine's veterans that's uh down at the White City Hospital, uh, just with a group of folks there that are just good hearts and are really really care to serve.

Uh and the last thing that I want to add is going on with uh Maria Pro Tem uh Perkins um comments.

You know, I spend a lot of time serving in the protector role for our country, um, do defending democracy.

Uh now that role has been passed on to other folks who are in a really difficult place right now.

But I think about our first line responders that are doing that every day in our community here, and I want to acknowledge the challenges that they have in that role and that they are they are pulled in different directions, and we support you and we acknowledge the struggle that you have, and we know that you're making the right choices for that.

And I want to remind all of us here on the dais that that's one of the roles that we do, and I really have confidence in the roles that we are doing uh at this level.

So thanks for what we're all doing.

That's it.

Thank you.

Um, all right.

I also was along for the Blackstrap Tour, which was really great, and I think um our small business owners are really appreciating these tours that have been set up and getting a chance to talk directly with um city councilors.

Um I was elected the chair of the Central Oregon Cities Organization, COCO for this year, and Mayor Letz of Sisters is the vice chair.

So we will continue um meeting as that group.

We are focusing on kind of firming up the legislative priorities of that group and also working really closely with the Central Oregon caucus that council our Senator Broadman described earlier.

So we'll keep working together on that.

There was an excellent town hall with Senator Wyden and Representative Vynam last weekend, very well attended in sisters.

People very concerned about what their federal government is doing right now, how that's going to affect us in Oregon and how people's rights are going to be upheld.

So thank you to everyone who came out for that.

On MLK Day, I did a little bit of volunteering at Mountain Star Relief Nursery.

They needed a big cleanup of their whole place, and we were willing to do it.

And there was city staff named I won't mention who were there as well volunteering.

Great to see a lot of people out there.

And then I stopped by Smart Reading program where we actually sat and fixed up books to try to get them back to gift quality so they can be given away to kids.

Very zen fun activity if you want something to do.

But really nice to see their work on uh early childhood literacy and how having those books available really helps kids be able to learn.

Um and then I excited to say um met with uh Marcus Legrand over the over the break here, and he is the Afrocentric program coordinator at COCC.

Wanted to touch base with him about Black History Month.

Um COCC was able to actually apply for some sponsorship funds from the city.

So we're actually going to be helping support that great event, um, including the season of nonviolence events that are coming up.

Um, and thank you, uh, Council Friend Zoo for highlighting those incredible speakers.

Um, I think something that we might we're working to do for Black History Month statement this year is to highlight that program, how long it's been going, who founded it, because it's been a really essential part of helping these conversations happen in our community.

So, and we're also gonna try to promote those events and make sure people know that they are available.

And um uh Marcus wanted me to emphasize this is for our community.

This is not just for uh black people to attend these events, this is for us to attend these events and to have dialogue and to talk to people.

Um, and so I'm really glad that we could help out with that and more to more to come at our next meeting on that as well.

Okay, I think that gets us through our counselor reports, and we will go on to our visitors section.

Okay, so we've got a few folks here in person and online.

Um, we are gonna do our two minutes each for visitors section.

Please address us as a body and not as individuals.

I've got a few people in person and a few people online.

I think we'll start with our online folks and then go to in person.

If you're in person here, you'll see the timer here that Ashley's putting up for your two minutes.

Um means you have about 30 seconds left.

Please know disruptions of our meeting with language or behavior.

I don't think we'll have a problem with that tonight.

And we'll start with our online folks.

I think we had four, and we'll see who is still online.

Do you want to just go through that ahead and column if you have the list handy?

All right, we can start with Beth Hoover.

I'm going to allow you to talk.

Okay.

Um, yes, I'm Beth Hoover.

Um I am a native of Bend.

I've lived here now 78 years, and I wanted to comment tonight on the city's commitment to the Human Rights and Equity Commission and DEI and underscore how important that uh commitment is to the residents here in Bend.

Um, citizens in our community are suffering daily from racist dog whistles from our national leaders.

ISIS terrifying people of color, citizen and non-citizen alike, and they're doing pretty good job of terrorizing the rest of us.

In that atmosphere, um, it's difficult to hear the allegation that the city has created a toxic workplace for employees and volunteers.

Um the serious nature of this allegation warrants a complete investigation, which should include a chance for citizens input, more than a two-minute comment at a public meeting.

Um I would also make the um plea for a clickable link on your agenda so it's not so difficult to get into your Zoom meetings, and I would encourage you to have uh increased commitment to citizen participation.

Um, thank you very much for the opportunity to testify.

Um I appreciate the work that all of you do on behalf of Bend.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I think it looks like we got our online timer working now.

Okay, great.

Okay, next, Haley.

Okay, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Mary Keebler and members of the Benn City Council.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Uh, my name is Haley Watson, and I'm with the Oregon State Building Trades Council.

We're an umbrella organization comprised of six regional local councils, including Central Oregon, uh, collectively representing tens of thousands of union skilled trades workers throughout the state.

On October 23rd, we submitted a letter uh sharing our concerns regarding the proposed appliance fee and included several questions.

I understand that you are voting on directions to staff on February 11th, and we are asking that you please postpone that vote as we are still needing uh our questions answered before the council issues any directions.

Regarding the October presentation, we are still wanting to know how we can get an uh accurate information on what emissions are coming from direct use natural gas versus from electricity uh from coal and gas.

And can this be broken out into all of the sectors residential, commercial, and industrial?

And then uh from slide three in the October presentation, it appeared to reach a conclusion that electrification guarantees decarbonization.

And we ask that you please take it from the people who are doing the work.

Electrification does not equal decarbonization.

Policy goals that have yet to be delivered guarantee nothing, especially any rapidly changing economy and rapidly expanding energy needs.

We ask that you please reconsider your timeline for your vote on February 11th until more work is completed, including answering stakeholder questions and incorporating data from the new PUC findings and public outreach.

I will submit my comment in writing and look forward to a response to our questions, and I thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

And Kelly Good evening.

Uh my name is Kelly Fuka.

I am the CEO for the Northwest Gas Association.

I represent the three natural gas utilities and two interstate transmission pipelines that serve two million residents and 85,000 businesses across Oregon through 31,000 miles of safe and reliable infrastructure.

I'm here to respectfully oppose the consideration of the proposed fee on new natural gas service.

While we support the effort to reduce emissions and promote efficiency, this fee risks unintended consequences for both energy reliability and household affordability.

A recent analysis by E3 shows that our energy system is already under significant capacity strain.

The electricity demand is projected to grow rapidly due to building and transportation electrification and new industry growth.

Yet construction of new transmission generation and renewable projects are delayed.

This creates a real risk of shortfalls during peak winter and summer seasons.

Through our gas and electric coordination initiative with the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, we emphasize that as we transition, the need for natural gas infrastructure, direct use of natural gas and gas fire generation remains essential.

It keeps the lights on, it heats homes, and it fuels businesses, especially when the renewables aren't available during multi-day cold snaps or heat domes.

Both systems are and have been increasingly interdependent.

Without a regional coordinated planning and infrastructure investment, the risk of energy disruptions and affordability concerns grow.

The challenge we face is significant and regional in scope.

It's not limited to one municipality or jurisdiction.

We cannot continue to address these issues piecemeal.

Solutions must recognize the contribution each part to the whole system plays.

Without that broader perspective, local policies risk shifting costs without solving the underlying reliability and affordability problems.

We encourage you to pause this effort as our regional energy providers continue to work to and collaborate to realize our shared goal of a decarbonized energy future.

Thank you for your time and appreciate the opportunity to provide comments.

Thank you, Kelly.

Was that it, Ashley?

That's it.

Okay, great.

All right, so we'll move to in-person.

And first we'll have Roger Gray, and you can just come sit right up here and just um state your name and whether you've been in the city of Bend and then begin your comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening.

My name is Rosie Gray, and I'm a Bend resident.

I'm here on behalf of myself.

I retired from the electric utility industry after 40 years.

I'm here this evening to encourage the city not to enact the climate fee or incentive program.

There's effectively a gas ban.

Let me explain why.

It's important for policymakers to understand the objectives and the intent, but also to be mindful of unintended consequences.

Personally, I support carbon emissions reductions as a policy.

However, when it comes to critical services like electricity and natural gas, I think we must have three main policy objectives.

One is carbon reduction, two is cost and affordability, and third is reliability and public safety.

We can't blindly pursue one objective at the cost of the other two.

We're already seeing major rate increases in Oregon caused by the pursuit of such pursuit.

We now have a very fragile grid that is experiencing more frequent near misses, meaning we're very close to blackouts.

Here are my specific concerns about the draft policy.

Cost.

This policy will increase upfront home cost in the form of construction and forest electrification will accelerate electricity rates in Oregon that are already too high.

Number two, reliability.

We're already moving green policies on electrification faster than the grid can keep up.

Most people do not understand that the overwhelming majority of heat in Oregon and in Bend comes from gas furnaces and not electricity.

Which brings me to the last point, carbon emissions.

This is somewhat paradoxical because many people assume electricity is always clean.

Producing electricity takes fuel, and the marginal fuel cost for the heating season is often electric electricity produced by natural gas or coal.

This has been true for many years and will be true for at least 10 years and more, in my opinion.

This means that we potentially increase emissions by these kinds of policies.

If we go, it's just we're gonna increase it.

I support carbon reduction, but this is potentially a lose lose lose proposition.

Thanks for your public service and for my opportunities.

I do want to email us your comments too because I need to be great.

Okay, Dave Berger.

Thank you.

And I took my wife's advice and had a haircut before I came into speaking.

Thank you.

Um Mayor Keebler, City Council.

Uh, my name is David Berger.

I am a Benn City resident.

I'm an agent organizer for local 290 plumbers and steam fitters.

Uh, just wanted to speak to you tonight.

Um, the Oregonian has recently published several in-depth stories about energy problems in the Pacific Northwest.

The first headline was a nine gigawatt problem.

Northwest's soaring energy demand, supply constraints could spark new power crisis.

Last Sunday's story was on cost.

Here's a key part.

In a filing with the state regulators last week, Pacific Court provided eye popping estimates of its cost to comply with the emissions mandates between 135 million and 2.5 billion a year for the next two decades.

It said that that would translate to an average incremental rate impact between 10 and 140% of its 2025 costs.

Bend residents will get a 10% to 140% annual electricity rate increase for Pacific Power.

The utility filings are saying 10 to 140% electric annual electric rate increases with the city of Bend is only estimating 2% annual rate increase increases.

I respectfully ask why.

Um, when staff is doing the work of incorporating information in the public utility commission filings into the local modeling.

And when can we expect a public briefing on the cost of electricity and electric appliances?

The city of Bend is not acting in the best interest of its constituents in trying to create new regulation and costs.

As for the work session on February 11th, please postpone all votes and direction relating to the electrification of fees.

Please take the time to do the math and communicate clearly and transparently with the public about the costs you are signing them up for without their vote.

I have one last final statement.

Um on Monday with the Benn Chamber, Central Oregon Builders Association, Cascades East Association of Reloaders, and Local 290 to urge the city council to include Pacific Power in information before making any decision.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Brad, archie later.

Good evening.

Mayor Fueler, appropriate Mayor Perkins, Council members.

My name is Brad Arts Lad, I'm a business agent organizer for local 290 kilometers and steam fitters, pipeline and gas distribution workers.

I represent 5400 members from Southwest Larson all the way to Northern California for the Pacific Ocean, two-thirds of our state.

Um, 36 years plus in the trade.

I've worked in pretty much every aspect of our trade from um paper mills, powerhouses, one of my dad's sayings uh outhouses to powerhouses.

I know you'd have a lot on your plate as city council, but I'm here tonight to ask you to direct your attention to the appliance tax discussion we saw in December.

UAT ID has been showing up at these meetings, and we're going to keep showing up at these meetings.

The council appears to be on the verge of asking staff to develop a plan that will cost our members money for their homes and their in some cases potentially cost them their jobs, with no reduction in carbon, less energy reliability, and very little public support.

I'm asking you to postpone your decision on issuing staff direction until you have spent more time in the community with our members and understanding the severe implications of trying to create a patchwork system of energy regulations.

Now more than ever, as Oregon faces serious challenges with energy generation, transmission, and storage, we need every policymaking space to center open and transparent processes that are focused on inclusive community engagement.

A Rust process that is taking isn't taking into account the existing statewide energy planning will not move us forward.

It's going to cause controversy and set us all back in our joint work.

Please postpone future votes, including votes on directions about electrification or appliance taxes until you have spent more time with the community on this.

Local 290 members would be happy to talk with you before these decisions are made.

Thank you, and I appreciate you let me speak tonight on the opposition of this appliance tax.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Brian, and you're gonna have to say your last name for it.

Agree.

Okay.

That's all right.

Please bear.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor Giebler, and uh City Council.

I appreciate it.

I'm from the other side of the mountain in Southern Oregon.

I take care of there.

I take care of it for uh local 290.

I'm a business agent, and I also uh run the training center for our pre-apprentices and our apprentices.

Um my name is Brian O'Guri.

Um 39 years in the industry, uh keeping people warm.

Um I work in the design build uh with gas efficiency.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Uh in the uh extent of the city of Ben and looking into Ashland's gas appliance fee, 100% appliance tax on new construction as a model.

I respectfully caution the council against doing so.

You should know that the growth trends in Ashland are very different than Benz new construction opportunities here.

Ashland is nothing like the volume of new construction that everyone is anticipating to experience.

Ashland Electric is nearly all hydro.

Bend is not.

According um 30% of Ashland's residents work in the city, while 69 of the local jobs are filled by commuters.

Literally nearly twice as many people have to commute into Ash and more than jobs and workers who can afford the to live in the city.

I don't know.

Uh but my guess is that Ben wants something different, a city that can you uh that can house their workers.

We um we also know that land uh excuse me, that the land inventory and development or even the redevelopment is just completely different issue in Ashland.

There is very little, uh, very limited on building out.

Uh if there are people telling that the city council that implement the implication of the appliance tax in Ashland uh has gone smoothly.

Uh I would say we simply don't have the data and it's not.

Um Brian, that's the end of your okay.

Uh thank you very much for letting me speak.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Thank you for that perspective.

Thank you.

All right, Morgan Greenwood.

Thank you, Mayor Keybler, Counselors.

Uh good evening.

My name is Morgan Greenwood, government affairs director with Cascades East Association of Realtors.

Um we understand that representatives from Pacific Power and Central Electric Co-op have both been asked to brief council on current and future electorate grid capacity in Bend, including the uh impact of projected housing growth on system demand.

We are concerned that this presentation may be scheduled for after the council's planned February 11th work session on the proposed fee, and respectfully urge council to schedule these presentations prior to deliberation on any fee.

This information is fundamental to ensuring that city policy is grounded in operational reality and does not inadvertently undermine utility affordability, housing affordability, system reliability, or equitable access to energy for Bend residents.

Last year, Pacific Corp increased rates by nearly 10% for residential customers and Central Electric Co-op increased rates by 8%.

These increases come on the heels of prior rate hikes and are already placing meaningful pressure on household utility bills across Central Oregon.

Given this context, we strongly encourage council to prioritize the collection of local Bend specific data on electric utility rates, grid capacity, and infrastructure readiness before advancing a new electrification fee.

To do so, I respectfully request that council consider establishing a pilot project to partner with builders and utilities to analyze the real world cost to design, build, and operate all electric homes.

During the pilot period, we urge city council, uh we urge the city to deploy non monetary incentives to encourage all electric construction and to gather performance cost and energy use data.

This approach would allow council to evaluate the effectiveness of electrification strategies in achieving the city's stated goal of a 20% per capita reduction of GHG emissions by late 2027 while avoiding unintended impacts to housing affordability.

Thank you very much for your consideration this evening and for your continued leadership on Benn's uh growth and infrastructure challenges.

Thank you.

Sarah Odendol.

Okay, good evening, Mayor Councillors for the record.

My name is Sarah Odendahl, CEO of the Bend Chamber of Commerce and a resident of Bend.

Wouldn't be uh a Wednesday if we weren't here to talk about electrification.

So I do want to touch on two issues though before you um so first and foremost, you've heard um we submitted a joint letter earlier in the week, and I just wanted to underscore um the importance of this, the request being straightforward that good policy depends on good data in the right order.

Understanding current and future great capacity, especially in in light of Benz housing production goals, is truly essential to avoid unintended consequences for reliability and affordability.

So we really appreciate your consideration of sequencing these conversations so they can be grounded in complete and accurate information.

Secondly, looking ahead to your discussion later on about your 2026 legislative session agenda, I just wanted to highlight the strong alignment between the city's draft pilot policies and the chamber's legislative agenda that includes shared support for housing production, infrastructure investment, economic development tools, specifically the recreational liability waiver reform piece, which is critical to Central Oregon's broad recreation economy and workforce.

We truly appreciate Levy addressing this issue as one of her priority bills this session.

We also see important alignment around advancing regional economic development opportunities in partnership with the Central Oregon Caucus that you heard about earlier tonight, the regional business alliance, and then COCO, the Central Oregon Cities organization.

When the city, the business community, and our regional partners are coordinated, Bend is form far more effective in Salem.

So we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively to advance policies that support support a resilient economy, attainable housing, and the infrastructure that our growing community depends on.

I also wanted to highlight we have a great partnership with your contract lobbyist.

He's a delight to work with.

So thanks.

Thanks, Sarah.

All right.

Well, that will conclude our visitor section, which moves us to item number four, which is our consent agenda.

I'll move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

All right, moved by councillor Perkins, second by Councillor Riley.

All those in favor?

All right.

Um that will bring us to item number five, which is the just mentioned legislative priorities discussion.

No, you should I'm not sure.

Yeah, why don't you go ahead?

Yeah.

Well, you're taking your seat.

So I need to decline a potential conflict of interest.

Um, I've taken a new job recently.

Um, and I it there may be a potential conflict.

So the law allows me to participate in the discussion and vote and vote when a potential conflict exists.

Um I will be working for I'm working for a lobbying and TR firm.

I don't know all of the specifics about the bills that I will be working on and whether or not the city of Benn will be taking a stand on them.

Um but I will uh commit to working with Kate a little bit more closely than I have in the past because I don't always know what the city will be taking an interest in.

So looking at our legislative agenda, I think I can forecast some alignment on housing issues, um, but that's all that I can have for now.

All right, thank you for that.

All right.

Okay.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm Kate Schneider, executive policy officer uh in the city manager's office.

With me is Eric Cancler, uh the city's uh contract state lobbyist.

Uh thank you, Sarah, to the excellent warm-up.

Um we're here tonight to ask council to approve the city's 2026 state legislative priorities.

These priorities um set the policy direction for how the city will position itself and advocate on issues and play defense as well as play defense when needed during the upcoming legislative session.

Approval provides staff clear direction on as we engage during the session, gives us the ability to respond to bills as they evolve and advocate consistently with council's goals and the city's needs.

Um before we jump into the document, I was gonna have Eric provide just a little session overview for you and ground setting.

Go ahead, Eric.

Yeah, thank you, Kate.

Good evening, Mayor Keebler, members of Count for the record, Eric Councillor.

Your contract lobbyist.

Um background on me for those that don't know me.

I am a Bend resident.

I think I'm the only full-time contract lobbyist that lives in Bend.

There was another for a little while, but he uh changed careers.

So uh I've been here for over 20 years, and I have represented the city since 2014.

Amongst my other clients are the all the county assessors and tax collectors in the state have represented them since 2019.

Represent the Northwest Youth Council on community wildfire, uh community risk reduction and wildfire.

Represent a very broad uh recreation coalition of users and providers working on recreational liability, which is on the agenda.

And lastly, I represent a couple of landowners in the Metolius Basin trying to resolve a long-standing issue that I've been part of for a long time.

Thank you.

So I think we were gonna just start with a little calendar preview.

This is from the state.

I apologize it's not pretty.

That gives you an idea of how short the short session is.

Yeah, so I think everybody knows we're on a biennial cycle in Oregon, and we have a five-month session in the odd years, and we have a five-week session in even years, and we are heading into our even year five-week session.

It is really a sprint from start to finish.

Uh last week we had three days of informational hearings in the Capitol, just a preview on committee bills and session priorities and and so on and so forth.

Uh session really, although I should say all of the bills for legislative sessions for the short sessions have to be filed ahead of time.

And so instead of 3,000 some odd bills, like we have in a long session, we'll have 300 some odd bills.

Not quite sure.

They will drop probably within the next week.

We will learn what they are with bill numbers, of course.

We'll put them in our tracker, work with staff as we always do in council and um figure out what we need to track and how we need to act in light of our our priorities.

So the first official day of session is Monday, February 2nd.

That's when committees go into action.

Uh public hearings are held, vote votes can be taken.

It's a very quick turnaround.

Uh for policy bills that's that start that in the committee that they start in, they really just have one week to be posted for a vote.

And if they're not posted for a vote, they're dead.

They have another week to be passed out of the committee origin, the committee of origin if they don't pass out again, they're dead.

And then they rapidly advance to their second chamber committees.

Similarly, you've got just a few days to post for a work session, and then all bills have to be out of policy committees by February 26th.

There are a few uh exceptions to that.

The ways and means committees and the uh revenue committees, and then the rule committees are open without internal deadlines all session long.

That's sort of the important top-level business.

But the policy bill process shuts down on the 26th, and then the rest is just trying to balance the budget, get out of session, and get out.

We have to be done by the 8th by the Constitution, 35 days.

Um, so you have the document you have our proposed 2026 legislative priorities in your packet.

Um, as you'll as of sure you've seen, they address seven policy areas that closely align with the council's adopted 2025 to 2027 goals.

Uh, where Eric's going to highlight some of some of the priorities in each area, but first I just wanted to note that we've identified two top priorities for this session.

Um, it's the short session, so we're trying to have a pretty focused legislative agenda.

Um, but our top priorities are local lodging tax flexibility is a continuation of our work last year.

Um, and second, protecting Oregon housing and community services fundings funding for shelters.

Uh, these priorities were developed over the last uh couple of months with input from our staff subject matter experts, Eric, um, and of course, aligned with council goals.

They are meant to reflect issues we see as likely to be um of interest or advanced in the short session, as well as some standing positions and values of the city.

So, with that, I'll pull up the document.

Sorry, full screen.

Great.

Okay, let's do a run through.

And um probably also makes sense to have a little bit of a sense of what's coming.

Yeah, uh, broadly setting stage.

I think everybody knows then our legislative delegation members uh did a great job of overviewing uh the high level stuff, obviously a lot of budget reconciliation to handle um a fascinating transportation politics and obviously incredibly impactful and critical issue for uh everybody, all of us out here.

And um the governor has a very strong economic development agenda, a roadmap to prosperity, uh it's been called, and so economic development and economic incentives will be a top-level item.

Housing is always an issue.

I don't think it's as much of a housing forward session in light of the bigger issues that have to be dealt with now.

But uh, I think so those are some of the top level items and narratives we'll be reading about every day as we go through the process.

So back to the city of Bend, and as Kate mentioned, our very top priority amongst uh all of the policy issues actually is lodging tax flexibility.

There was a bill that moved through uh last session that almost made it through all the way through the process.

I believe it's an identical bill that's uh gonna be introduced this session.

We were supportive then, we'll be supportive this time, assuming that the priorities are adopted as such.

And um that is a it's a big fight, I think as everybody knows, but important flexibility for transportation and for uh public safety in a way we're really looking for more creative ways of using that revenue to benefit the tourists and the community alike.

So also under revenue and home rule authority, we're always looking for opportunities to increase our our revenue options.

Of course, lodging tax is one, and we are always looking to protect existing local government uh revenue generate generating uh tools that we already have in the toolbox.

Um sometimes those things come under pretty significant threat.

So that's really a matter of vigilance and ensuring that we're ready if uh we see legislation that threatens those priorities.

Always looking to figure out how to reform our property tax system again in the name of uh sustainability, fairness, and uh sufficiency.

That's a very difficult uh political task, no real action that we expect in the short session, but I'm sure there will be continued conversations.

Uh any questions on the first trunche of issues.

I do yeah, go ahead.

I mean, I have more of a comment, I guess.

Um the second bullet there.

I um I I would love to see that a little bit more specific, frankly.

Um I mean, I have some specific proposed language, but it doesn't seem to really articulate clearly to me what we're asking for, which I think is you know, complete communities is nice, but I think what we're after for is a protection of neighborhood commercial in particular.

Are you talking about the housing section now?

Yeah, I'm sorry, you just yeah, did I jump ahead?

No, it's okay, so okay.

I'm sorry.

Okay, move on to the house.

Let's move into housing.

Let's go ahead.

Yeah, and we'll talk about that.

Yeah.

So housing production and houselessness solutions, always a top priority for one of the fastest growing cities in Bend and amongst those in the nation.

So as Kate mentioned, one of the our top priority, really and really our top budgetary priority, I would say, is the protection of what we were given statewide in uh the last long session, 207 million dollars overall to support the most critical elements of the shelter system in the communities that have them throughout the state, and really every dollar of that is needed.

So we're gonna be incredibly vigilant about that.

Uh getting into the housing space, there's a couple specific things, and and I'll just relate them to you in in the context of more detail.

So there are there will be a bill about organ housing needs analysis, the big rulemaking that just was completed, and the ability of cities to establish urban reserves.

There is an ongoing conversation about UGB pilot expansions, of which we already have three.

I'm not sure we're angling for another one.

And um, I think the thing that maybe uh at this point in time is is our biggest initiative is going after the complete community goals of the of the community.

I think we know that we put a lot of effort in trying to plan for the communities that people want to live in.

They're more climate-friendly, they're walking, they're biking, they're more transit-friendly, and they give people this neighborhoods that they want.

Um there's uh a lot of work that goes into turning those plans into reality.

So we are working with some of our community partners, uh, and we are trying to advance a legislative concept that would help address some of the threats that we're facing.

I don't know, Councillor Riley, if you or others would like to get into the details.

Yeah, I mean, if you have suggested language, I can go ahead and subject.

So, yeah, I mean I just I would like to be a little bit more specific.

So, what I was proposing is that we edit because I think that you know this is partly an articulation for the community about what we're gonna be working on.

So I'd like to see it.

Um I don't have it right in front of me, but where it says I'm what I'm gonna do, so I'm gonna edit on the fly so yeah, let's pull it up.

But yeah, here's that one.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Um where it gets to deliver housing and then um deliver housing and protect local government's ability to plan and build complete compete communities that include neighborhood commercial uses.

So I just I think it's maybe you can email that to Eric and then he can put it in.

It speaks more specifically to what's really going on here, and I think what we're after.

Sure.

And it sounds like that would capture not only our specific priorities but our our you know opportunities and challenge that we see along the way.

We don't always know what bills are gonna uh right.

Yeah, so we'll be ready, we'll have flexibility there to be responsive.

Everybody okay with that?

Sounds good.

Okay.

Um to economic development.

Sure.

Um, and while there was one more bullet in there, uh infrastructure.

Yeah, always looking for infrastructure on the infrastructure thumbs up all around, I'm sure.

Okay, economic development.

And again, as I mentioned, and as you heard from our delegation, economic development and commerce, frankly, is a really big theme of this short session.

There are be a number of big bills.

I think the big bills around enterprise zones and whatnot are gonna be less focused on us, but there will be a lot of opportunity.

Um that's mentioned here, the state economic development strategy framework, which I think is somewhat synonymous with at least the governor's high-level goals.

Um, a lot of look into the various programs that business Oregon offers.

They have a variety of different programs, and we will see what people introduce in terms of uh specific commerce, economic development, and business legislation will take them in, review them and weigh in, of course, uh, as appropriate.

Uh, you heard Senator Broadman talk about legislation to study an inland port for Central Oregon.

That's obviously a conversation that it's in its early stages, but one we're trying to build momentum on, and I think it's a fascinating one.

Um always looking to be supportive of daycare, and in this case, uh continued funding for employment related daycare, which is an ongoing uh conversation in Salem, uh, as mentioned before, the uh support for the recreation community's efforts at liability reform, of which I work uh on behalf of another client directly on, as you all know.

And then sorry, Eric said.

I was gonna try to edit this real quick.

Oh, yeah.

Do you want me to read it?

OSU Cascades support for the commission district and their needs, and then if it's you know, again, we're just listing here infrastructure funding as part of economic development as well.

Yeah.

Any questions on economic development questions about comments?

If I could put a star next to something, um, I would just like to again highlight the the rec liability.

Um we've heard a lot about it tonight.

Um it's this is something that's on the the legislative agenda for both the chamber and the regional business alliance.

Um as we know, the the recreation outdoor industry is absolutely critical to our economy, it's one of our target sectors.

Um Rept Levy has done a really great job of crafting a sort of a real balanced bill that kind of crafts like normal use versus gross negligence.

I've been reading all about it.

Um just want to give her um a lot of praise for all the work she's doing, and and glad that we're also supporting this.

Okay.

Transportation.

Yes.

Um this is a this is quite an issue, of course.

And uh the press release went out earlier today about the uh the referral to the voters happening in May rather than the November election.

I think that's probably news to a lot of people.

Uh but it's happening rather rather quickly.

It is really impossible to say what the legislature is gonna do on this issue.

Uh there is a notion that the historic percentage of 50, 30, 20, where the state gets 50 percent of the highway fund, um counties get 30 and cities get uh 20 percent.

It's a holy grail.

We're hearing a lot of folks wanting to disrupt that, and I think that's a grave concern for local governments broadly.

We will are always and uh will remain involved with not just the League of Oregon Cities, but the association of Oregon counties and and working to ensure that our needs and our voice is heard within that conversation, obviously advocating for our needs directly with our delegation as well, and just tracking everything as closely as we can uh doing what we're I saw that about the 50-3020, and I'm wondering if we need to explicitly say here that we want that to be maintained.

So I would support me just um however you want to word that, Eric, but just that we would want to maintain the 50, 3020 in any changes that might be on the table.

So you're saying that the um the state has decided that it's gonna put the legislature's gonna refer it to May.

The legislature will do that instead when they convene.

Yes, the way that it's that it seemed to have played out is they don't enjoy a clear ability to unrefer it, and they've just they've decided well, the intention, the announced intention, I think from democratic leadership is to do it in May instead.

I'm sure there will be they have to actually pass that all the way through and refer it and then re-refer it, and that'll be a fun one, of course.

Because the deadline for the ballot is like right at the end of the session, right?

Yeah, yes, like a day later.

Yes.

Yeah, um that looks great, yeah.

And then we have a pretty distinct sub-bullet which uh uh involves COIC and uh Caskies Cascades East Transit and the ability to get um I think we're talking payroll payroll tax rooted to transit, getting it straight to our uh our transit provider rather than laboriously working through pass-throughs and just making the whole process quicker and more efficient for our transit provider.

And there is legislation that is being proposed around autonomous vehicles, and there is uh possibility of local government preemptions on our ability to establish regulations that work for the community as well as the ability to uh set fees.

So I'm not sure what the chance of that legislation is, but it's not one to take lightly, and we will, of course, look out for the needs of our community.

LOC will look out for the needs of cities broadly to ensure that they can set policies and rates that work.

All right, anything else on this section from anyone?

Okay, water and infrastructure.

Okay, there are certainly long-term water need issues coming up.

I don't think there's going to be anything of significant uh of real consequence in the short session, but uh for the 2027 session in light of the uh the schedule at sunset of the dispute space and mitigation rules, the need for mitigation credits and affordable mitigation credits, and to serve our community.

There are a lot of very important conversations that are starting to take place and will continue to take place.

So I think one of the things we will do is continue to educate legislators and others as is appropriate when opportunities arise, so that this isn't a surprise to them when we need to get to the issue that there's already a recognition of the importance and what we need to accomplish.

So, really on that first bullet, more education and uh stage setting for the future.

And then I think that we're always looking.

This is a city that's done very well in terms of water use relative to growth.

I think it has very impressive metrics.

It's a it's a city that's always taken conservation seriously and always will, and we'll be looking for more opportunities to help uh you know incentives and funding opportunities.

Um a lot of cases it's about best practices and ensuring we're on top of uh backflow testing and things like that.

So we're always uh we're always looking for ways in which the state can help support our local conservation efforts, and then again somewhat synonymously with basin level needs is the ability to do integrated uh supply prime supply planning projects, a little bit of a of a tongue twister, and as any city would look out for the long-term needs and the resiliency of our municipal water supplies.

That's a pretty general bullet.

Again, this is just a broad issue of importance, but uh not something that I necessarily expect that there will be a specific piece of legislation on, at least not something that we're aware of and anticipate at this point in time, more of an evergreen sort of policy, I would say.

All right, any questions on that section?

Eric to that, are you sort of hinting at like a water banking type effort there within the basin?

We've kind of already got that going from the last session.

I think we're just wanted to watch out for things that have water since it's a big issue.

Yeah, and I think you know, we've seen a lot of um really bipartisan water efforts in the legislature, a lot of them led by Representative Ken Helm, Democrat and uh Representative Owens Republican, they've had a wonderful partnership.

Representative Helm has announced his retirement, so we will see who steps into his role and build quick relationships there.

Great.

All right, public safety and wildfire.

Uh core three, uh, obviously a big success in terms of funding in the last session.

Uh our delegation, the city, COCO, a bunch of others have done a lot of work to help uh ensure that funding for that project has been uh secured by the state, and that was a success, and I think one that many people are very proud of.

And so we will continue.

I don't know that there's a particular line item right now, and this is not a session when uh the state has a lot of money in the handout, but we'll anything that we need to do to continue to advance that project, we will do.

And um last session there was a bill uh 3940, it was a big wildfire funding bill, and it really hit a fraction of what state leaders determined that we need to do forest management, uh, wildfire response, wildfire mitigation, and community risk reduction.

Basically, they did a lot of good things, but there is a lot more still on the table.

It's a little bit uncertain what this session will look like in terms of additional investments, but I think we'll be ready to promote the things that we need should the opportunity arise.

Can we pause there for a second, Eric?

Because I think Mike, you have a suggestion around wildfire topic as well.

Sure.

Um, so I sent something to you, Eric.

Just put it on there.

Yes.

Okay, so it's what's there.

I read about a bill that Senator Golden is going to be introducing, and while I realize it's the first time, and you know, the devil's in the details, right?

This seems like it's a pretty important thing for us to support in terms of we know that um insurance premiums are going up, they've gone up 27% across the state since 2020.

And this would be about people who take efforts like home hardening a defensible space um around their home and be able to get you know the insurance have to um calculate that into their premium and give them some kind of a discount or incentive.

I think we should be supporting that in part because we may be passing codes that are encouraging people to do that or even eventually requiring that, and um we want to have these kind of financial incentives in place.

So I'd like to see that added.

Yeah, counsel, any objection to that?

I think that's in line with the wildfire work we're trying to do.

So thanks.

Oh, just real quick on the other bullets.

Um, there, I think we didn't get to um PR, the ALPR, which we sort of mentioned before, and I think has some some movement statewide.

So I think that's that's moving forward, and I think we should support that for sure.

Okay.

Okay.

And then uh finally, and I think these are probably more evergreen sort of priorities as well.

I don't yet know what legislation, if any, we will be looking at that has a direct nexus with our local goals.

Um, again, whether you know, um whether through land use planning, transportation, or other means to reduce greenhouse gases, and obviously uh clean, resilient and affordable energy systems.

It's a mystery to me whether we'll have an opportunity to engage in that this session, but clearly uh longstanding important priorities for the city and important too.

Yeah, and then the governor just convened a an advisory group on data centers today, which is part of the grid.

I was in in that meeting uh business round table today with uh Melissa from Pacific Power, and they sort of have one spreadsheet for data center demand and one spreadsheet for everything else, right?

And there is a big, you know, a big chunk of that is the data center.

So maybe that I'm wondering if that may be the issue that comes forward the source lesson, but we'll have to see.

And that'll be an interesting one to watch because on the one hand, the state is looking to incentivize data data center productions in enterprise zones while considering the impacts of data in Africa, yeah, uh, in terms of energy, you know, electricity use and and things like that.

So it'll be interesting to see how the state legislature wishes to balance those interests.

Yep.

I was gonna ask um because these are sort of general statements, and we are talking a lot about electrification, and during our conversations, we've kind of said there is a lot of that is out of our hands.

Um, and so I'm wondering if um this is an opportunity to maybe be more specific about the things that we would like to see or ask or advocate for um in the legislature, and I don't have anything prepared, um, but just as we're talking about electrification and grid reliability.

Well, I was I mean, I think everybody shares the concern about the reliability of the grid, so maybe that word ought to go into that second bullet at least.

Reliability, yeah, it's maybe a little different than resilience if that's about dealing with disaster fire you know, impacts and all that um because that is really something the state has to take the lead on planning for all of that, and I think it's part of the regulation is another discapacity.

Okay, so that'll be one of those things that of course, as we scan through the 300 some odd bills, keep an eye for and yeah, let you all know what we find.

Okay, questions, Steve, and then Gene.

I was just gonna add there that are growing to meet are growing to meet current and future needs.

That's a good way to say that.

That's kind of why I wanted on there, and then I was gonna ask to change the lead word in both of these sentences to promote rather than support.

Um, just because it feels more active to me in these two cases.

I I would certainly support if you wanted to put promote elsewhere in this documentary.

But in these two but in these two cases, I really feel like that's us leaning in.

Yes, I agree.

So one point of nuance for your consideration and deliberation is typically the word promote would be taken in the context of us trying to advance a specific thing as opposed to the possibility of okay, where the opportunity may exist on legislation that is otherwise out there in responding and weighing in on that legislation.

We wish to promote the things that are important to us.

So think about it.

It's a got it just advocate for us, or is that okay?

I I mean I think I think what Eric's saying is like we don't have specific bills we're gonna run on this.

These are pretty big, but we want to be in the conversation.

You I I think that works, but I think it does raise questions that are important to clarify.

And I and I lean on your experience right here.

You I'm trying to give you the sense here that we're really trying to tip in.

I agree.

Gina, did you have a comment?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was just wondering if you could prognosticate what do you think the chances are of those our two top priorities actually uh lodging packs and shelter funding.

I'm not too concerned about shelter funding, but it's not something to be like a daisical about.

I think we will there's a lot of commitment from the governor's office, uh House Housing Chair, Pam Marsh, and others, they have spent a lot of time investing and developing the framework that I think they want to see play out.

So I don't think there's a there's a grave threat to that funding.

There's always the possibility of losing a little bit of it.

And as I mentioned, it is so carefully balanced.

You need every dollar really to provide the facilities and the related services, which is something people forget.

It's not just beds, it's a place it's it's a safe place, but it's opportunities then to you know work your way through the housing spectrum and the overhead for the not the organizations that are running and providing the services.

So I'm not too concerned about that, but I I don't think we want to see any reduction because as soon as you get a little reduction, it has the potential to create some chaos.

Lodging tax is on the brink.

Um I'd say that's a really tough one, but there absolutely is an opportunity.

And that will provide flexibility for us with the as the current resources we have and the current allocation, we don't have to increase before any of this new stuff approaches.

The way the LOC bill is written, yes.

So there are other concepts out there that may be more around that concept.

The LSC and the AL and the AOC bill basically would do two things for historic allocations.

If you are below 6040, uh, in terms of so um sixty percent you can use in your general fund, 40 percent would be earmarked for marketing uh promotion and tourism facilities.

If you're below that threshold, you could move up to it.

We're already a little above that threshold.

The second part is uh prospectively, if a city wanted to pursue at the ballot or otherwise increasing their lodging tax, instead of having to devote 70% to marketing, you could devote as little as 40%, but you can always devote more to it as well.

So it creates flexibility for the consideration of a future tax if somebody wants to consider that, but a lot of communities won't.

So for Ben, it would be that ladder where we just nothing about the current flexibility for the future if we wish to consider that, yes.

And we're in coalition with our coastal cities who are not in the same position we are as far as they're split.

And so sort of fixing both the future and the and the present is sort of the idea of that bill.

Right.

Yeah, then one more question um related to what counselor Riley was asking about earlier, related to complete communities.

I thought we had a legislative concept that we were actually trying to advance, so maybe that should be sort of changed to a top priority past legislation, blah blah blah blah.

I don't have a concern about that.

And um just and to clarify, we don't have a bill of our own for that, but we have a legislative concept and a willingness to have it drafted and considered.

Uh and there are plenty of vehicles in the housing committees.

Um it's never you're never a shoe-in when you're drafting a concept for a bill that already exists, but I personally think there's some natural fits.

Yeah, to want a member of our delegation agree to be a sponsor for that.

Uh what I heard was that either between uh well, between Senator Broadman and Representative Krupp.

It sounded to me like one of them will be willing, I'm not sure.

Yeah, which and I'm not yet sure whether it's advisable to do it in the Senate or the House, and not sure.

Yeah, we will work through that with the housing chairs, vice chairs on our delegation and figure out what's best.

Yeah, and we've been developing good relationships with the housing chairs um on all our work on housing.

So hopefully we can come to them with this request and get a good idea.

Yeah, and we have strong community support, which is always critical.

It's uh I've been fond of saying in the past we do a lot better when we don't show up as uh just a municipality, but we're partnered with the community in this case, we very much are.

So, did you propose to change that to say pass legislation to improve?

I think we're just making it top priority priority.

Top priority be consistent with the other ones.

Yeah, okay.

That works.

Okay.

Okay, so just to review.

So I highlighted what you all suggested as changes.

Just talked about that one.

Uh, and then Mike, your suggested more specificity.

The maintaining the 5030s 20 split.

Thinking.

All right.

Oh, there it goes.

Uh, and then the wildfire protection insurance uh center holdness proposing that.

And then just a little more prescriptive.

Yeah, looks good.

Okay.

All right.

Um, I think we have a motion on this to approve.

I move to approve the 2026 City of Ben State Legislative Priorities as uh amended and discussed at this meeting.

Okay.

All right.

Motion by Council Riley, second by counselor Platt.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for being with us, Eric.

Thank you for all your work.

Thanks for having me.

And we'll be back to do uh a formal report out at the end of session at your March 18th.

Awesome.

Like really close.

All right, that will move us on to item number six.

Council has asked to provide direction on the future of the commercial parklet program and potential municipal coordinates.

And council tonight, this is this is more akin to a work session.

We're not um proving any code changes tonight, but council's gonna I mean staff is gonna have some questions for us to give them some direction to come back with some potential changes.

Yep.

So good evening, council and mayor.

Uh Russ Grayson Chief Operations Officer here, Cyrus Mooney from our economic development department.

Um, we're here.

I'm just gonna give a quick overview of why we're here, and then Cyrus is going to go into the details.

Really, we're seeking direction from council regarding the parklet program.

It's currently around downtown.

Again, Cyrus will go into more of the details of kind of how the rules of engagement are.

But we are there's been as you I think council's aware, there's been several conversations and there's varying opinions about the program depending on who you talk to and the desires of the community and also downtown.

Um, so really we're seeking direction from council.

One, do we want to continue the program?

Um, just so council's aware it's ours with one of those.

We are locked in, permits have already been issued or licenses have been issued for two to 2026.

So any changes we're looking at would be for calendar year 2027.

Um, and we're really wanting to say, or do you want does council want to continue the program?

If you do want to continue the program, then we have some policy questions for you in terms of potential changes that staff has, but also just general questions to council around you know seasonability of this.

What do we what's the difference between their when they're active in the in the summer season versus the winter season?

Standard of care uh that we want for operations and maintenance of these things and some other items that Cyrus will come over.

And yes, we're just seeking direction.

Council also wishes us to engage with some of the stakeholders around this.

There is time to do that.

We just need to get the code changes in place by November of this year so that we are have a new rules of engagement for the next year round about that.

I'll turn it over to Cyrus.

That's good.

Thanks for us.

Um, gonna start with just some of the current program highlights to get everyone set with where we're at now.

Um, this program was implemented in May of 2021, a little bit of a hectic time for the city, and I think that this was a greatly appreciated alleviation for some of the businesses in our downtown area to get some more uh commerce activity going at a really challenging time.

Uh currently we have 10 operators that are all downtown.

Um further requirements that are currently in the code, a maximum of our five percent of downtown parking inventory can be utilized for parklets.

Um, out of that requirement, we have 25 spaces out of 2,500 plus, so that's roughly at one percent of that inventory that's being utilized.

It does require an active business registration, and as Russ mentioned, our licenses have already been renewed for 2026, so any changes would not occur until calendar year 2027.

Revenue generation, um, we've raised less than $70,000 uh for this program since it's been implemented, which puts us around 11-12,000 annually uh since uh it was implemented in 2021.

Tyrus, quick question that 2500 plus parking space number that includes the parking garage.

It does.

Okay, yep.

And we'll get into some parking utilization numbers.

It's all public basically public related spaces in the downtown area.

Okay.

Um, just some pictures of what it looks like when it's active and humming in the spring, uh, summer, early fall time periods, and gives you an idea of some of the different aesthetics as well.

Um, we don't have a lot of consistent requirements across the board for how these are constructed or maintained.

And so that's something that we would like to talk through with council and see if any changes would be recommended by this body, given um how the program has unfolded over the past several years.

The parking utilization rates, um, the gray bar is at our peak periods, which is between uh noon and two p.m.

The blue bar is average occupancy, which is measured from 8 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

So very wide ranging, and we have numbers for the centennial garage, which are those two bars on the left for 2024 and 2025, and then the broader downtown core parking is the two on the right.

Um, as you'll note at the peak periods, even we're maybe just over 60% of utilization.

So there is significant capacity at any time in our downtown core.

Uh and this was pulled by our parking division staff uh today, so it should be as current as we have it.

So sorry, a downtown parking is that on street or is that the parking lot?

No, that's on street, but I think what some of the I would say kind of discussion points around these are taking up what we call you can almost call the prime parking spaces directly in front of the businesses.

I think that's some of the kind of the comments that we receive, but it this includes all the parking area, all the parking around downtown.

So that's everything about the garage.

The garage is included in that downtown parking.

These are just utilization rates, occupancy rates for the garage and you broke the garage out, but then it's total for the two right columns.

I think the garage is a point of emphasis.

And yeah, I think the city has tried to make a dedicated effort to pushing people towards the parking garage, and just wanted to note that there is capacity there.

Yeah, okay.

What we're hearing, um, as you guys know, this has been uh a topic of the media over the past several years.

Um I know that many of you have spoken one-on-one with some of the operators, the 10 that we have currently.

The downtown Ben Business Association has done a lot of outreach of their own.

Hopefully, you had the time to review the survey that they conducted and shared with council in the summer of last year.

Um, as Russ mentioned, a lot of varying opinions uh on the issue, which is why we wanted to bring it forward to you tonight, determine what you thought was best to move forward and give us time to implement any changes at the staff level before the pending renewal window opens up for the next year.

But some of the bullet points of the most prominent things we hear in the community are that it creates more active streetscapes, provides for additional dining seating.

If um there's a long line, they have a place to go wait, enjoy a beverage, you know, mingle before their tables ready.

That we have heard a lot of concerns about parking spaces being removed.

Primarily that feedback comes from the adjacent businesses to the ones that are operating a parklet because their their storefront is maybe impacted by that.

Downtown aesthetics, standards of care and maintenance.

Again, we we don't have a lot of consistent standards for those aesthetic requirements, safety concerns and again design standards.

Wanted to give council a chance to review the current fee schedule.

So we have two different options, whether you're just initiating your application to have a park or you're renewing.

Um, there's some differences there.

Just want to be clear that if there is any changes to this fee schedule, it would essentially just be for staff to re-evaluate what it takes for us to cover the costs of administering the program.

So this isn't something that the city would make revenue on, it would just be uh closer look at what that staffing level is to cover those costs of administering the program.

So is that the asterisk?

Yeah, the asterisk is not clear what it refers to.

Yeah, so the way that uh the fee structure is currently, and please jump in if I'm mistaken.

But businesses have the ability to rent spaces for a day if you want, in front of your business, and so we based the rates for the parklet off of that same uh methodology.

Okay.

So if there's interest in, you know, in theory, there's a lot of different ways to approach.

I think what I think the administrative cost of the program that Cyrus talked about, we would do cost of service for that, but then there's this kind of what what what is the rate that we want to charge for that space?

So you can go to two bucks a day.

Is that the lease rate?

Should it be more comparable to you know commercial rate or some some aspect of something type of commercial versus just you know, people use this the the um the parking fee to reserve for construction and other activities, and that was just the basis that we had that we use when we developed the program.

Again, remind everybody this was during COVID where we were trying to catalyze downtown and and and make sure that we were doing everything we could for business.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so this first point of discussion for council that we want to work through is if council would like to continue this program, and if that direction is yes, then staff has some recommendations that we think should be implemented as amendments uh to the program, and then some broader based questions that we would like your input on, but wanted to make sure that this is a program that you would like to continue to explore and implement.

Is there anyone who wants to end the parklet program?

Okay, I'm not seeing any appetite for that.

Or have appetite for the next part of the question.

Question number two.

Yes, lots of ideas.

Um, so some of the recommendations, and this is based off uh cross-departmental coordination.

Um, we have a lot of people that are involved in this process, and I think these are the common themes that we've drawn from the experiences that our regulators have had out in the field um with the parklets.

And the first one is just greater specificity in how we differentiate alleys, sidewalks, and parklets.

Um, there are a couple of examples of which there's a business that wants to have a parklet or a sidewalk cafe, but the nature of their business geographically doesn't necessarily fit within the boxes that we've made.

And so we just need to change some of the language in our code to accommodate for that.

I think San Simone is a good example of that because they're in an alleyway.

Um, so a parklet doesn't necessarily make sense because they're not removing right-of-way parking.

So we would like to make some changes there.

Require that a parklet be removed if the business uh that is an operator of that parklet is not open for more than 30 days.

Um the 30 days mark to staff seemed reasonable, but it's definitely up for discussion for you all.

And then allowing for propane tanks and heaters to be stored on the parklet structure if they're used for the operations of the parklet.

Um, we've had situations where our parklet code says that they have to those types of equipment need to be stored inside a building.

Fire code says they can't be stored inside the building, and so it's a little contradicting, and we just think there's some administrative cleanup there.

Are there examples of any businesses that have a parklet that have not been open for the colours?

Yeah, what's the cobalt?

There have been, yes.

Cobulvering is doing renovations and they've been closed for quite a while.

So the parklet wasn't being used.

Yeah.

So on that first one, are we proposing then that we have application process paperwork fees and all that for using the sidewalk?

Because there's businesses who already use the sidewalk on our there's no process, right?

I think it's more definitions that we're going to do.

I think we have we have a big bucket and we probably need three buttons.

Here's what I don't want to do is start charging those businesses if they're using the sidewalk.

I'm not interested in creating another thing that we're charging.

We have a sidewalk cafe license that is separate from parklets.

So like 900 wall, although I know that not out of business is the same.

Those are sidewalk cafe licenses.

And they already are doing something.

Okay, so this is like San Simone calling that a part of an alley.

That's what I'm saying.

We call it a park under our code, but we should probably break out and say that's an alley cafe, not a parklet.

But we're not adding something new for sidewalk use as long as it's just better to clear better.

We're kind of better doing the definitions of what each one of these are.

Okay.

Do allow kind of what we're seeing what we've seen when we can when you come back, you could show us.

Like, here's this is existing already.

This has sidewalks or downwater.

I think staff would recommend that the rates would be identical for a parklet or an alley cafe.

I don't think there's a difference monetary value there.

Um anything else on this slide?

Yeah, positive.

I just want to make sure everyone is okay.

There's no objections to these as far as recommendations for them to bring back to us.

And then we have some more questions.

I mean, I would imagine the propane tank and heater means that these parklets are able to be open longer into our season.

Yes.

I think go back a couple slides, because I think what we're talking about, there is a slide when um that showed look at the right, right?

So that's one where if they're stored, it's more of a an aesthetic that we want to we want to verify with council that over the winter months that they might be doing things like that, storing those on site, and then you have then what's the standard of care and those type of things that we want to consider viewing that.

I think those that otherwise they would have to they can't store them the building, they would have to find another location to store those somewhere.

So I think we we could talk about the types of heaters that are allowed and um maybe something that's tall like that, the ones at Zydeco typically are like shorter and they can stack them up in a corner and they're less noticeable.

So that could be something that we could look at management.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Other questions after that one slide.

Here we go.

Um so these are more of the broad-based questions that staff does not necessarily have a recommendation on, but that we need feedback and direction from council to move forward with any amendments to the program that will need to be made.

So the first question is if council would like to explore any changes to the rate structure.

We don't necessarily think need a number or anything that is that concrete, but just an idea of where you would like staff to bring some options for you to consider in the future of.

Um I mean, I will say what I heard again at the business round table today from a parklet owner is that these businesses that are using them are being hit pretty hard right now with costs of labor and costs of all the things they need to run their business.

So I'm pretty wary of a large increase.

I'll just say that.

I'm not sh I'm not saying we shouldn't take a look and see what some options are, but I would be wary of something that's pretty large as far as the daily costs, the ongoing costs.

Because I can see from kind of how the conversation is trending, we'd probably be back early fall, late summer, early fall with some proposals for you in terms of what we're the feedback we receive here or what possible code changes are and give you some options on the fee, and then we can finalize the code and fee schedule from that.

Okay.

I mean, this is just not a high priority for me at all.

Making any changes.

I mean, I'm fine with like code cleanup and stuff, but like I I feel like staff time could be much better spent on other things than fiddling around with a rate structure.

Um that line more commensurate with commercial square footage.

No.

Yeah, it's not commercial square footage.

No, it is not.

I think I think you know, if it's it sounds like it's already in line with what contractors have to pay if they want to rent spaces by the month for construction projects, that seems fine.

Just leave it alone.

It's fine by me.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't know.

Any other input on these other questions here or the rate?

Anyone else?

I don't think um I think if we're want to get don't support seasonality because I think the cost, the burden on the business about storage, you know, takedown setup, um, storage, all that kind of stuff is gonna go way up.

It it seems like if we're if we're wanting if we think this adds value to downtown, which I think is what we're all saying based on some of the comments that we heard about you know, the walkability and and the vibrancy of downtown and people lingering and all that sort of stuff, plus that the impact on the businesses who rely on these, um, then we should keep it in year-round.

So it's no one season.

Is parking demand lower in the winter?

Generally, yes.

Yeah.

So the demand for the parking spaces is lower as well.

Um, I so I I just wanted to say one thing because we hear so much about parking and the maybe counterintuitive thing that some of one of my students actually brought to me about what makes uh for successful pedestrianized downtown areas is actually having a really robust parking plan.

And uh we have had lots of complaints about how difficult it is to use the garage.

And I think in the last year things have gotten better, at least that's my impression.

Um I would just like to reiterate it the parking in the garage should be easy and you know, make it as easy as parking at Redmond Airport.

So I don't want to hear about people getting stuck or some versus I'm agnostic on the cost, but I just I it's it's painful to hear from people who miss appointments because the garage gate got stuck for them.

Right.

Yeah.

Um so making that easier, and I recognize there's challenges around that, but I feel like that would be a nice step that we could take to say, look, we have lots of occupancy that is not going used, it's easy, it's it's right there.

I talked to so many people who don't even know where the garage is.

So I feel like there's room there to improve.

Um and and on that last bullet point, you know, expand the program outside of exclusively the downtown area.

I mean, I I mean, have we heard from businesses who would be interested in that?

I mean, I I I'm open to it.

Yeah, I think that's interesting.

Yeah, um less so specific businesses, but more so like business associations and more like neighborhood district type of conversations, like why is this something that would be allowed downtown but not in my neighborhood is more of the feedback that I've received up to this point.

But I would be confident in saying that it would be taken advantage of if it was expanded outside of just the downtown area.

Yeah.

And I just want to go one back to your previous conversation around you know downtown parking.

So as I think everyone's aware, our our current parking manager has left the city for a new opportunity.

We're in the current process of recruiting a new one.

As soon as we do get the new parking manager, one of the first tasks I want to put them on is holistically looking at downtown.

We'd already plan to do it.

We just need to get the new parking manager on board to look at signage wayfinding, you know, what what are we using the the electronic boards for and the messaging off of that?

Um kind of like a holistic look at downtown and the apps and everything and get new communications out there.

It's always strange when you hear people say, oh, it's so hard to find a park a place to park downtown.

I it I mean at times, sure, maybe it is, but you don't have to go very far to find a place to park.

We're very fortunate.

And I I what I worry about in terms of the parklet program is how many businesses said, hey, this is 10% of our revenue per year.

So I don't want to risk that.

So um but yeah, people need to need to be able to get there easily.

And so that sounds great.

And we've been working with communications already like during the holiday season to put some communication out around parking, and then we're gonna continue that kind of getting the word out strategy.

Um as we as we look at the holistic look at downtown and signage.

Not doing anything drastic, but making sure that it's user-friendly.

That's my main my main goal.

One one point I'll make jumping off of the parking garage is that you know it it it costs money and our street parking doesn't still, and I know we're working on transitioning and DBB has talked about transitioning to my paid parking be consistent throughout the downtown.

And I think that will also afford us an opportunity to maybe use pricing to encourage people to use the garage as well at some point as we implement that, but I think that's a good point.

So I'm not hearing a lot of energy for a lot of big changes to this program.

Um I think um some options on the rate structure um for us to take a look at.

I'm not hearing a lot of energy around design standards personally.

I think it's kind of nice for them to all be a little bit unique.

Um but one thing I did want to uh and and maybe let's let's put a bow on expanding outside, maybe taking a look at what that looks like as a possibility.

Sounds like we're okay with that.

I did want to make a pitch for if there are maintenance requirements that staff thinks are not too onerous, but are helpful.

Right and blowing blowing things.

Our our crews don't take care of that remote sweepers, so that additional standard of care, and then kind of on the back side of that.

If they don't maintain that standard, what does that mean for their license and the following?

Yeah, for non-business owners, that's the number one thing I see and in emails about that.

I think that it's okay to take a look at parking.

Yeah, and I and you know if DB DBBA members can help us give give some input on that.

Yeah, yeah, we can the rest of this, of course.

I know we're gonna be a key stakeholder throughout the project.

Yeah, of course.

I will note there is not a parklet owner on the DBBA board, so for them to have voice, they kind of have to speak up, but we have been trying to get that voice and make sure that they've got that balanced approach.

So all right, great.

All right, thanks so much for the invitation.

Is everyone okay to keep going or do we need a break?

We've got two more items.

We're gonna take a break before Burra.

Okay.

I might have out from break.

Okay.

Do it now.

Do it now before we're gonna do that.

And then we'll have Eric's for the text.

Okay, yeah.

Oh, do we have key?

Do you want to do this?

820.

Come back to 820.

No, it's okay.

Oh, it sets right there.

So we're back on.

And we will continue with our meeting, and we are now in item number seven, the city manager's report, and tonight that's a council goal update.

So this is really the first time that we are in this new format where just every quarter, I will provide just a high level overview of the status of the council goals in your packet of more detailed report.

So there's six policy groups that are meeting with varying frequencies from monthly to every other week.

The housing group is, I would say, the most frequent to really make sure that we're staying on top of the council goals, connecting issues in between in between departments, uh, working problems that might be or barriers that are occurring throughout the implementation stage.

So tonight we're again just going to go through some high level.

I'm not going to cover all the material on the slide just in sake of time in the sake of time, and I want to get through this in about ten minutes or so.

Just high-level overview.

Um, from our previous biennium, we have now six goals from five last year.

We went from thirteen strategies to eighteen, and we went from forty-nine actions to fifty-five.

So increasing.

There's just not uh the capacity beyond what we have programmed in this school period.

So the table there of showing what's been complete and then what's in progress, most of the things because of the size of the projects, they're they're ongoing, they're not quick uh action items, so that's where the majority of the projects land.

We have a few items that are uh off track.

Uh in the transportation, for example, it's because of the legislature, right?

Transit and transportation funding uh with that, and we'll talk a little bit about that uh moving forward, but with that kind of in question, it's uh creating some opportunities for us to pivot and uh we'll have some of that discussion with you in February.

Uh here's the here are the the touch points over the next quarter, so you can just kind of see what's on deck.

I know that council expressed um uh desire to have more information, more than just like you know, the next meeting, but like what's happening.

Uh just want to refer to the council schedule, which is included in the council memo as a resource.

Um, and so you can just see in each of the goal areas some of those high points.

Um I'm gonna kind of quickly go through this unless there's any questions on what you see, but none of this should be that um surprising to you.

It's uh things that we've been talking about.

So now I just want to walk through each of the goal areas and uh highlight a few uh milestones.

So, first off, the uh advanced uh commitment to equity and uh community prosperity.

So, as Ben mentioned, we have a uh report next um well a presentation next week with Ben Duncan.

Uh report will be issued uh soon thereafter in early February, and then we are continuing to uh apply an equity lens to projects and build our equity framework.

Uh so as council uh directed, uh the human rights and equity commission is gonna be focused on water.

Uh so that conversation is I think starting next month.

Um the home committee recommendations, electrification, and wildfire are the four areas that uh council uh selected uh this last fall.

And then uh on engaging community members, we have taken a different approach as we talked about in the budget development where we've hired a contractor to help support our neighborhood districts.

Uh so ZAN Associates was uh contract's been signed.

We have a kickoff meeting uh next week.

Um we are also excited to announce our uh summit with our boards, committees, and commissions that is coming in late February.

Um the focus of that summit will be kind of just a look back at what was accomplished over the year to just really kind of uh for the committees to have visibility on what what what everyone's doing and to look for those opportunities for synergy.

We're gonna uh focus on the growth plan as uh a real opportunity we see over the next year.

Going.

And then um the city is doing some work internally.

We have a one-city initiative that takes a lot of our work, uh, our equity work, our future of work, our innovation strategic plan, our um action plans that come from our employee experience.

We do a survey every year that looks at our inclusivity, our well-being, and we have lots of data, and we're pulling it all together uh to update our mission, vision, and values so that work is underway.

We've had some great feedback from our um uh uh our staff.

We have uh events happening, uh really they've been happening all fall and then to the winter, and we should have our draft uh mission vision uh value statement.

I'll just continue to share that with council this spring.

Uh some other uh items here, and I'll cover this in the dashboard.

So I'm gonna go through some status updates, and then I want to talk about outcomes of actual some some data that we're tracking, and so I'll cover the uh turnaround times and then just to know the pro housing grant.

So a big portion of those funds have been uh put out in the community.

So a huge thanks to the staff that worked so hard to make sure that the money was spent, um, and then we have some of that was held back for a consultant to look at our uh permitting process.

So that uh has that consultant has been hired and starts work, I believe, in the next week or so.

Quickly go back to the accessible and effective government previous slide.

Yeah, um, we don't have a specific goal about holding neighborhood round tables, but we have talked about them for like the southeast area.

And I wonder if if that since if I feel like they were very well received, and and I wonder if that's an area that we want to try to do more of.

I mean, if you know the picture up there is from June 2024.

Right.

I don't know if we would have to do that.

That was the wild that was the wildfire, I think the round table that we have.

Yeah, we had a red light camera one as well.

Um, and then we're having the Southeast neighborhoods um coming up in March, right, Renee?

Yeah, yeah.

So I mean, are we kind of good with one a year, or is that uh, you know, I know there are a lot of work.

Yeah, and I think one of the things that we'll uh want to talk about is potentially the planning commission has expressed some interest in talking with our neighborhood districts as well.

So I think that would be great to at that advisory body summit to talk about that too.

How can our committees maybe talk with neighborhoods?

Because I agree with you, but I want to be honest with our new meeting schedule.

Yeah.

Our joint meetings, joint meeting BPRD, advisory body.

We've got a lot going on in the committees that we all want to go to.

So this may be something where that might be a really good strategy to have our advisory bodies help us with this.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um then a really exciting news.

I think you saw a preview a few months ago, but our website launch is is coming right around the quarter next week.

It will be live.

We've updated our graphic standards, those have been pushed out.

So you're probably starting to see new signature uh on our email addresses.

We'll encourage you all at some point to uh adopt the new format, and then everything from our PowerPoint presentations to um word documents, everything has been refreshed.

Um as we've talked about, we're really moving more from a transactional kind of website to more streamlined, more human-centered, um, really easier to find information, better search option, and all that.

So on the climate resiliency goal, um, so electrification has been a big focus for the um our strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Uh, just want to also note the education and outreach programs that uh council directed some funds.

Uh we had 150,000 in awards.

We had like over 800,000 in requests.

Um, so some really good uh partnerships.

So we have 45,000 for habitat for humanity to install heat pumps uh for income qualified homeowners, 14,000 to the Central Oregon Community College to develop a workforce program focused on boosting clean energy jobs and trades, 25,000 to the environmental center for uh to launch a zero interest loan program and low and moderate income household to finance clean energy projects, and then 25,000 to the Ben Chamber to pilot zero waste events and create a zero waste event guide to help others do the same.

So just some sampling of where that money went.

Um at council's direction, we have delayed that navigator position.

Uh as we were kind of re-prioritizing some of the goals, just a reminder there.

Go to the next item.

Uh big headline here is the economic development plan will be coming to council for adoption on February 4th.

We've done a lot of work internally, including that policy work group that I mentioned.

Um, we are going to be cleaning up the code for Beta, the Bend Economic Development Advisory Board.

Um, so really kind of really getting their uh charge a little more focused.

Uh so you'll be seeing that, and we're gonna combine that with TBOC, uh, the transportation bond oversight committee.

So we've been having conversations with T Bach about broadening their scope.

Uh same thing with BDAB.

It's been a while since their code has been looked at.

Um then on the strategic partnerships.

So we have the highest and best use analysis on the city hall conversation.

That's part two of that city hall conversation we had this fall will come before you uh late spring, early summer.

And then simultaneously, uh visit Ben has been commissioning a study to look at a public assembly venue.

Um, and we see some great synergy there with the potential city hall, so that we're gonna merge those uh projects uh together and share some findings from that uh when we talk about that highest and best use uh study.

And our urban renewal uh work, you know, the council's been very aggressive at um applying both uh setting the plan and the vision that you approved in December, and then uh alongside that approving those site-specific TIFF, and then we're gonna be talking this spring, uh winter and into spring about uh changes even tonight uh about changes to those programs and just continue to evolve them to meet community needs.

And I'll share the permit data in the dashboard, so I'll cover that in a moment.

The home committee recommendations that we had the first tranche.

We're working on implementation, uh, and we'll be talking about implementation and funding for the implementation of those home strategies on that February 25th work session that I'm highlighting a lot.

That's a chance for us to uh take that 10 million that we have for from land cell proceeds and apply it to our some of our key priorities.

Uh and then those uh one-time funding awards uh from the pro housing grant and the DEQ.

Uh, we've got those deployed.

So now we have a fund from the state that promotes energy efficiency and it gives folks opportunities to help with their energy costs.

So we're really put focusing that program on ADUs, and then on our houselessness, uh, we're again exceeding our shelter goals, uh overall shelter goals as well as uh increasing our safe parking sites from what we had set forth in the uh as a as a nut number.

So uh we'll share more about that later.

And uh we have now uh re uh constituted our uh what's called a master reissue issue permit to make it easier for those sort of production builds uh both on the multifamily side as well as on the single family side, so there's some internal work uh that we're doing and then um we have the Senate Bill 974, so we'll share a lot more information about that in a future work session.

But we are beginning to pilot that, and in fact, we're meeting our timeline goals already for uh engineering permit.

That one there's a hundred and twenty-day clock, we're now uh at that 20% reduction of 92 days.

I'll cover that in the dashboard here in a moment.

And just to just a note, that's a picture of Verida Pines and where I think they use the master reissue successfully, Kerry told me.

So really great.

Yeah, that was a really successful uh project.

All right, and then uh moving on to public safety.

So you know, in our effort to maintain high quality service, but given that is the largest expenditure of the general fund, we're always looking to make sure that we are growing with the community, but providing efficient uh delivery of that service.

So some of that came through about through the collective bargaining agreement contracts where we've moved to that D shift schedule as a strategy to reduce overtime.

Um, our overhire policy, just so you're aware of what that is.

We have a similar policy in the police department where the council authorizes FTE full-time equivalent positions above what has been budgeted, which then allows for if there's turnover, we can quickly hire.

So we have we are you know, as folks are you know retiring, et cetera, we're not seeing big gaps uh um in staffing.

So we want to do something similar for fire.

And then we have uh monthly meetings right now with the rural fire district, the mayor and I participate in that, and we'll be um sharing some of the uh findings from that uh is as long-term funding, uh a little bit in February, at the end of February, but most likely later this spring, uh, our our levy, even though it was just passed and was sort of just passed in 2023, we'll be looking at 2028.

What's the future of that levy and then other funding strategies even longer term?

So more to come there.

And we are meeting our goal for uh we're we're halfway there, five percent increase in signups.

We have a goal of 10% uh increase in uh dischutes alert.

So this is getting the community more prepared.

Uh there's also a lot of work happening right now with evacuation planning and pinch points uh that is underway.

There's a big meeting with ODOT and the county, so our transportation systems are pretty integrated, and when we do have an event to make sure that we are really uh laser focused on those areas where we know we have pinch points.

So if we have evacuations, we've got strategies to mitigate.

And then on the um proactive side of um you know policing, really uh using our 2024 staffing study and and doing a deep dive to making sure that uh as we as calls for service are changing um and that we are really looking at more partnerships.

So we we've had a successful partnership we highlighted yesterday with Deschutes County and the um mobile crisis response team.

Uh we've been working with Parks and Rec to reduce calls.

We've been working with um uh park uh parking is in process to re take some of that off of police.

So you know, really making sure that we're sending the right resource to the right call and also that over overhire kind of policy review to make sure that we're not losing ground on our uh staffing.

Could you just say a little bit more about the dynamics of the identifying funding options, like what the is you know, I'm sure the you know the pressure on the general fund is not decreasing.

So what it's not, yeah.

So uh one example within what we've been talking about in the long-term funding group with fire is um we are very reliant on property taxes and the property taxes in a sense subsidize our our uh uh medical transports, and that's 85%, 85-90% of our business in fire is responding to EMS calls.

Um we have a policy in place right now.

We do charge for those transports, but it's only a 50% cost recovery.

So maybe shifting that and really looking at more of a full cost recovery on some of our medical services.

Um, so we'll be uh updating some fee studies.

These are all count decisions that council will have to make about um changing these policies to take less of that burden uh or uh reduce some of that burden on our property tax uh um ask for that levy.

And the rural district is also really interested in that.

Yeah, thanks for that.

I every year I check the uh exception value ratio and for Deschutes County in 2025, it was 38, so 38 percent.

And I can't help but feel reminded that I people think that growth pays for growth, and that's one of the reasons why it doesn't.

So if you have a million dollar new house taxes at property taxes, they are only assessed on the first 380,000 dollars of it.

So if you have a million dollar new house taxes at property taxes are only assessed on the first 380,000 of it, that's one of the biggest structural reasons why we have all of this pressure.

And so I appreciate the insight.

Thank you for sharing that.

That's the concrete, yeah.

Um and then on transportation infrastructure.

Uh so of course the projects that are the Franklin Orbit mostly complete, we've got to do some paving this spring.

Um the uh VO bike e-bike partnership that was uh I think is it been pretty successful, and then the transportation fee.

So we've uh paused phase three, right?

But because we assumed that we were gonna see some results from the state.

I think that will be a continued question with council of um given the uncertainty with the transportation package of how we want to continue to make progress on our transportation system.

We're gonna provide some options for you all to consider at that February 25th work session of potentially some use of one-time funds to provide a bridge until we can get more certainty about what the solution looks like from the state.

Council, of course, always has the option to look at that to restart that phase three as well.

And then the transportation standard conversation that um will be happening next week.

Uh our master plans that you've been seeing come to to council stormwater and our sewer collection uh system master plan and the outback facility expansion, all things that uh that are right in our uh uh in front of us, and that the this collection system master plan, and there's some big uh price uh items, big price items on our treatments on the treatment side.

We'll be factoring that into a big rate discussion.

I think Councilor Riley has brought this up too of like really looking in totality at the rates in those drivers, and uh that'll be something that we'll be prepping you for with a rate review um for the mid-biannium in June.

And then transportation and infrastructure uh state package.

I don't need to belabor this.

This is this is out of date now.

It's like every day it's something new.

So yeah.

Um I think the big thing that we're watching.

I'm excited to participate in a uh um virtual session tomorrow to hear from Sioux City, South Dakota on how they really reinvented their transit system.

Um so I think there's uh we're gonna be doing some transit visioning uh in this era of very uncertain funding.

Uh we'll start that conversation with council in March on some things that we can change that are somewhat cost neutral while we sort of wait for things to get a little more secure with with funding.

Was that it?

And now we're gonna go to the dashboard and just gonna highlight a few metrics.

Eric, while we're pulling that up, the just from a stewardship fiscal stewardship standpoint, the overhide policy that exists for the public safety right here, those organizations would not be able to go above their FTE levels um in the in the budget, right?

That's just a that's a phantom slot there to allow that.

Right.

So the idea is you still have a budget to maintain.

We're not asking for more resources, we're saying the overhire just because of the timing of by when somebody might leave and somebody comes on board.

We want to start the recruitment process and give them the you know that certainty.

And so there might be a brief time where there's a double fill of a position or something like that, but it's really in an effort to streamline um our staffing uh efforts.

So thank you.

All right, I'm just gonna hit a few of these.

So under climate resiliency, I want to point out a new metric.

Um so as we've been talking about electrification, we now have a real-time tracking.

So you can see since July 1st, um, our uptake on uh residential homes that are all electric are 74.3 percent.

Um I think we the data we shared with you a couple months ago, we're about an 80 percent, so we are um 80 percent that was I'm sorry, um since July one.

Since July one, yeah.

Cool.

So that that means that the the house is a hundred percent electric.

What is that is how is that defined?

Hold on.

Or is it like for certain appliances or percentage of homes using electric instead of gas?

Okay, yeah, so um I believe this is I don't have the per uh the because we we are we are now we've changed what we track, and so we can track gas hookups and electric hookups.

So this uh it does represent homes that are um that are all electric using electric instead of gas.

Wow, and that number used to be 95 percent permitting, right?

That was that was getting the gas.

Uh so you know it's kind of the multifamily was a much much higher uptake than single family, and so I I have to see if this my guess is this is all inclusive of both single family and I think that's what it looks like.

Multifamily is looking at the total picture, okay, right?

Which a lot of our um uh permits have been multi-family, so that's why this is probably trending a lot of okay.

Yeah.

Is there a way to see that number for those?

There's part of our discussion on electrification.

Yes.

Um I think one of the things that we have, and as Kate can kind of give an example, maybe not this one, because we're still building it out.

So you know, the dashboard is always sort of like a work in progress, and we're doing our best to get real-time data instead of stale data.

And so you'll see some areas where we've made a lot of progress, like in housing, and others like economic development, we're still kind of building that.

It's hard to get real-time data.

Um, but when you click on these tabs, if you click on info, it will take you to some of the other more detailed dashboards that we have.

Um this is not a good example when we get to housing.

It's not there yet, but housing has it.

Yeah, but that's a good that's a good place holder for maybe more detailed information about multifamily versus single family and yeah, it'd be really nice if those two were broken out.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Sure.

I'm gonna uh go into the governments, accessible and effective government, and our metric here is I mentioned earlier.

We're tracking our permit times specifically with engineering, and we had a uh 20 per a goal to reduce uh permit times by 20 percent, um, which uh we're that what that would equate to is 92 days.

We're at 92.7 days.

We're really close to hitting that mark.

The I think the obviously the goal is to always make sure that we're watching that.

It's not a stat, it's a you know that it stays at that level.

And then for all of the other um, and you can see a lot of detail here.

There's where you can click on the info and get to our permit dashboard, and there is pages and pages of of detailed information on turnaround times on how much time with the city versus the applicant, uh, versus those that maybe have gone through the permit process but are waiting to sort of pick up their permit and um all of that information is is there, um but it's uh really on all of our key metrics.

We are meeting our turnaround time goals um for planning, building and engineering.

And then on housing, I think kind of this is the most exciting one.

You know, we've made some very aggressive goals, and I was trying to look back to see uh over the last six months.

We have per since July 1st, over 1,200 1,228 units.

I have not seen that amount of uh permit activity for housing in I mean, since I can you know in the last 10 years.

So we've really had a great start to our biennial budget in terms of permitting housing units.

Um that's we're above our target goal.

So we're at 30 per year, right?

Uh well, yeah, so 39 3900, so about 1800 per year, and we're at 1228.

So that's about 33% of our goal, and we're about 27 or 32% of the goal, and like we're at 27% of the goal period.

So, we're gonna go above.

And this is building permits, right?

Mm-hmm.

We're housing, yeah, for a frousing for that.

And it's but it's multifamily and correct.

That's the total.

Yeah, yeah.

And our shelter bed count uh count is above our goal of 525.

So Amy went through some of this.

We've been able to add a little more beds to our uh Franklin shelter.

We've also been adding some beds to or adding safe parking sites.

We had the goal of 15 new safe parking uh spaces.

We have 41 total.

New ones.

Uh 41 total.

So I think there's been uh I want to say 19 new.

So but the 41 is the total spaces.

And then transportation and infrastructure, just uh metric here, the crashes.

I know that's you know, safety and speeds are are things that we really want to do a better job of monitoring, and again, getting real-time data instead of sometimes the stale ODOT data that we get.

So this is this is one that's a work in progress, but the crashes is we're getting better.

Um we're a little bit above target here, not greatly, but uh so it's a little confusing, but the to meet a 10% reduction means that we would have 1900 or fewer crashes.

Um so you can kind of do the math where a little above.

And where are we drawing the information from now for this?

I don't know if I have anybody here from West DM.

I don't know.

I mean, I think you could look at police reports filed or things.

I think it's a combination of a couple of different sources.

Because you're right that the O dot data comes out later.

Yeah, okay.

And that's that was kind of what I wanted to highlight.

I'd be happy to take any questions that you might have.

Any questions?

That's fantastic.

That was really informative.

Yeah, it's great.

Um I will give a little plug.

So um, as you know, I'm going to the US Conference of Mayors conference at the end of this month, actually, next week.

Um my gosh.

And uh I've been asked to present um as part of the abundance network network of elected officials, and they were looking for innovative products and um continuous improvements.

So I'm gonna be presenting on our dashboard and how that has come into play and then iterated over the years and how that's helping us promote transparency and keep track of our metrics and keep our work moving forward.

So I'm glad that we have this brand new version of it.

But I think we started that when did starting.

2021.

Yeah, so after we were first elected, and really saying, hey, let's show real time.

And I think things like real-time permitting numbers and things, that's pretty unique across the state.

Um so, but something I think a lot of cities should maybe not as comprehensive as we do, but have some sort of dashboard or something where folks can get data.

Um it's great when working with constituents to send people here and say, hey, check it out.

Um else?

All right, we'll adjourn the council meeting and we're gonna switch over to Dora.

Thanks, Kate.

Thanks, Kate.

Oh, I really want to get the gobble out for you.

Sorry, let's just do that.

Um I'm gonna call the order this meeting of the Bend Urban Renewal Agency January 21st, 2026.

Um we have one topic on our agenda tonight, which is talking about financial and performance guarantee provisions, claw back as we've termed it for site specific tax increment financing projects.

Contract damages at 8 30.

Yeah.

So excited.

850.

Good evening, Chair, members of the agency.

I'm Jonathan Taylor, Urban Renewal Manager, and I'm here with Elizabeth Oshel, Senior Assistant City Attorney.

We all are gonna talk about our financial and performance guarantee provision or more colloquially known as a clawback provision.

I'm gonna be brief tonight, but our site specific timeline policy update.

I wanted to put this out in front of you because you have asked about this tonight.

We are looking at our fee options for a clawback provision, which and we intentionally wanted to come back and do this after we've seen the project and full development of the program.

But in March, we're gonna begin these work sessions on the targeted criteria and policy update, not only for site specific, but our other incentive programs across all three districts.

We will continue that work, as Eric said, through uh early summer with the anticipated date in June of approving all these policy updates with a potential option for Borough to authorize any of these programs or updates to go into effect in July, so we could possibly have our first round in fall on any policy or programs that you have adopted.

Why are we here tonight?

Because we are kind of adding a default purpose, so we want to provide a detailed policy and clarity for the failure to meet the obligations that BURRA outlined in both the TIFF plans that you approved last year and also the development agreements that we've entered into in the core area.

The purpose is is to encourage full program participation as you awarded these seven projects, but also continue to ensure that this TIFF program remains competitive versus the market rate conditions.

Previous policy discussions, you've indicated a desire to maximize program participation, basically ensuring long-term affordability.

You wanted to ensure not only was this affordable affordability met and maintained, but you also wanted an annual compliance.

And then currently there's no defined default policy, and I'll let Elizabeth get into what we're currently using right now, but we want to balance the need for program success, so encourage program participation and clarity on program requirements.

The current policy uh provision is just broad-based and it's default, and I'll let Elizabeth explain that at the moment.

Yeah, so what we talked about um when we were adopting these TIFF plans, um, we had conversations about what would be um the impact on it or the result on a default.

So if one of the housing providers wanted to stop the afford complying with the affordability requirements early, we're talking about a contract essentially that is securing their participation in exchange for a rebate.

And what we had talked about um previously was kind of leaving that somewhat undefined in the um development agreements, but giving BERRA the ability um to recapture the amounts previously rebated.

And I had given some very general um guidance that depending where we were in the timeline, you'd be getting advice about um the maximum amount that you could be received uh seeking back as a consequence of a default.

And so we're here to refine that.

We've gotten some questions from some of the housing developers who are not wanting to sign the agreement with that broad language in it.

And you know, when we get into what would be the enforceability of that kind of um default provision, especially when we get to the later years.

So if someone has been in the program for 20 years and then defaults or says, I'm not going to provide these affordability units at year 22 or something later, you're really restricted in that type of recapture that you would be that would be enforceable to go out and re-seek from them.

So what we are talking about is kind of defining more what that contract remedy would be on default.

And I think that provides I don't want your takeaway to be that we're really narrowing what we might be able to be to get.

We're being really specific and being in line.

The proposals that Jonathan will get into is being more specific about what that constraint might be that we're already operating under.

So I just don't want the takeaway to be that we're really reducing our ability, but we're kind of enhancing and being specific, um, not setting ourselves up for a big fight with the providers.

So in the presentation, we provided you three options for consideration a fee-based model, a tiered recapture, and then our current provision.

We looked at a fee based on based on the remaining assistance.

We looked at prior repayment for a number of years provided for affordability, and then the current languages up to all prior years rebated.

We've identified some pros and cons of each.

We do want to maintain the original intention of borough, which is to encourage longevity, but then also have it scaled.

In addition to the fee-based option, there are no uh notable examples that Elizabeth provided us during our internal review of how the state and other communities do it as well.

But then we also looked at various levels, and I also have a couple of options that may be requested, but there's you know a 12% 1520 that's kind of based on the middle income revolving loan fund that the state authorizes, but also the affordable housing infrastructure loan program from the state as well.

But then I want to be very clear not only is this fee going to be repaid on whatever you adopt, but the TIFF district is closed, and that TIFF reimbursement goes back to the district.

So this is an added fee on top of the TIFF reimbursement to the Texan districts.

So an example project that we looked at, we looked at some of the averages that we did this past uh year with the seven projects.

This is an example.

So 25 years, let's just say you approve the TIFF plan for 25 years for 25 years of affordability.

The proposed rebate was 21.4.

We looked at a fee-based model of 12, 15, and 20.

We looked at a tiered recapture, and I'll let Elizabeth kind of get into the discretionary uh full recapture for the no.

But if you'll look, it is scaled all the way through on any option.

So the earlier that a program defaults or comes out of compliance with the policy, the impact is substantially large.

But as they participate through the entire program in year 25, let's say, or 24, the program impact is minimal because we've actually obtained about 98.7% of all years as affordability.

So we think that not only will this be equitable towards our small developers who are looking at this program as we move forward, but it'd also be pretty impactful for any large developer who comes out of compliance in year five or 10.

Um I'll let Elizabeth note the kind of what Oregon says on full recapture with the note.

Yeah, so this is just a little bit more on what I was talking about before of the current state of the law on contract damages and what I had alluded to in prior presentations is the actual amount we'd be able to recapture is limited by these principles.

Generally speaking, that your damages that you're agreeing to have to be reasonable.

And so I think we'd be in potentially not a great position to be trying to recapture the full amount since we did would have received the benefit, you know, in the especially in the later years.

And so what this is trying to do is kind of approximate what would be reasonable, set it out ahead of time so that we have agreed with the housing providers, and then we could just go ahead and enforce that penalty.

Um typically in contract damages, you have to prove the actual harm that you've incurred and what this is trying to do, both the provision we have now, but also these provisions is really just agree ahead of time.

If you back out of this, this is gonna be the financial consequence, and we're saying instead of us having to go and prove our financial damages, we're gonna agree ahead of time.

And what Jonathan is showing is I think it's an approximation of where we would be anyway without having to get into a legal fight of proving and arguing over what is reasonable if we had the the larger, more general provision that we have in the in the agreements today.

So could just ask about I assume that harm, actual harm does not allow us to say the loss of affordable housing is that's not the kind of harm that we're talking about.

So I think, especially in this type of contract where we're we're sort of buying, as Jonathan said, affordable housing for others to use, right?

It's not for our employees or for elected officials, obviously.

I think the general principles of contract damage get pretty um amorphous when you get into government buying this kind of benefit.

Um and so there's a lot of um there's a lot of benefit we get for being for getting to something that we've agreed to in a contract and we don't have to get into proof of damages, and so getting to something that gets us um damages that we've agreed to ahead of time is gonna be a benefit.

It's it's gonna be something we'll have, I think a lot um less trouble enforcing.

The reason I ask is because uh I'm most worried about a developer looking at you know, after inflation or or looking at what they might get on the market, that the community would lose affordable housing as a result of potentially choosing one of these options over another.

So I'm that that's what I'm most worried about is is I don't I don't want to have a developer have an incentive if there's a big bout of inflation that suddenly we lose a whole bunch of affordable housing.

And so I think Jonathan can get into sort of the thinking that went behind some of these numbers.

What we how this would look in practice, as Jonathan said, the TIFF plan would be uh rescinded if someone um defaulted and was no longer participating, so that increased tax revenue from the development would go back to the city and to the other taxing districts.

So there'd be additional general fund revenue.

And then also what we would do is it prior to um repealing the TIFF plan, we would add a provision for what happens to program income.

These penalty amounts would be program income to Borough, which could then be used for housing programs.

So if you think about what do we have in our affordable housing fee or our CDBG of 400,000 or 600,000 a year, if we ought a penalty of 1.8 million or 3 million dollars, depending on which percentage you go with, that is a that I mean that's the amount of our HUD program towards housing programs.

So I think it could go these penalties or these fees, these damages would go into housing programs and would be leveraged for other affordable housing is the is the concept.

Thank you.

Can you help me with the math?

10 years is it the remaining years of the tax rebate, 20% on that?

Is that what that is?

Yes, sir.

Of the it'll be, for example, 20% of the remaining assistance.

15 years or whatever, correct.

Oh okay, got it.

Thanks.

And if it's BERRA money, how would Burra use those dollars outside of Burr the defined um urban renewal area?

And so that's what you can do in a TIFF plan is you can say if we're receiving non-tax increment revenue, so program revenue of a non-tax source, Burra can set out what it will be used for, and um you can enter into an arrangement with the city to use that for general housing programs.

Right across the community as a whole.

It might still be in the urban renewal area, but there's when you have program income as opposed to tax increment revenue, you have a little bit more flexibility.

You have to define what that is in the TIFF plan.

So if we got to there, we'd be coming back with a plan amendment.

Um we may want to do those earlier just to set it clearly what the parameters would be for use of this revenue.

Um, but it it's more um it's not as tightly confined as tax revenue.

We'd be adopting a general policy language that then is inserted as sort of template language into each of the agreements basically.

Yeah, we'd be coming once we have this discussion tonight.

Um I'd be working on the development agreement language, and we'd be coming back to you with an amendment on the site-specific policy that we would use going forward, and it will can address that program revenue piece as well.

So uh as Elizabeth's saying, uh, we are recommending at this time a fee-based option at 20%.

As she noted, the fee would be a program revenue, and this is also gonna be a broad-based policy that we'll be bringing back later this year, part of the borough work plan that you adopted with the investment strategy, but then very important the TIFF would also be reallocated back to the taxing districts.

So we're modeling this after some state programs and current default rates.

We feel that this policy would encourage long-term uh longevity and securing more affordable housing, but we also believe that this will reduce disproportionate penalty rates for long-term participation.

And so the questions are do you agree with the staff recommendation of the fee-based option?

Do you agree with the staff recommendation of a 20% fee rate?

Or are there other considerations or questions that staff need to address?

So do we want to just take those one at a time?

Is anybody opposed to the the fee-based option?

Looks good.

In previous presentations, you've used this concept of community benefit and shown that some of these incentive programs are actually valued lower than what the aggregate community benefit is in terms of affordable housing below market rate housing.

Do you feel like the you know when you get to the last couple of years that a developer is going to look at this and say, well, I don't need pay this fee and still make more money because I'll be able to charge so much on the market, or do you feel like I mean I know it's hard to make this because we're looking into the future, but is that a valid way to think about this?

I mean, to be honest, yes, but it also could also apply to a low interest loan that a city gives, they could pay off that loan early and then put that stuff back to market rate rent.

There's always the catch 22 of any kind of incentive.

But what we are seeing in the market right now, we have an 8.9% vacancy rate for our apartments, and we have now seen pretty much zero percent rate growth or rent growth over the last two years.

So what this body has done over the last two years, not only with the affordable housing program, but every other kind of housing initiative, you have flatlined rent for the last two years, and we feel when staff was given a presentation for site specific, that these are the type of programs that will at least encourage long-term affordability and also rent stabilization.

But if in year 26 they elect not to do this because they can get more money on the market, as Elizabeth noted, you're going to have an injection of capital that you can deploy elsewhere in the city for affordable housing projects or housing projects in general.

And so we feel that at this time a fee-based option at a certain rate that this body elects will be a public benefit, not only today with preserving affordability, but ensuring long-term affordable um incentives that this body could use uh in other programs.

And I just want to note if it's in year 26, we just got 25 years of affordable housing before that.

So the two that makes sense to how the staff has written it down for the 20% fee, and it's early early penalty to show that that we really want to keep that affordability as long as possible.

So if it's okay to be if we move on to the second question, I asked Jonathan to come with some other options in terms of the percentage, just so we could see what they'll look what they look like and consider the idea of structuring it a little bit differently.

Um you make me make those bigger.

Um in this additional uh there's a fee and can I just yes another point?

So just you know, the point would be to try to incentivize the participation, especially in the early years and the first five, 10, 15 years, and that you know, as we're seeing some of these these projects are starting to become some sense more commoditized in there and they're changing hands more quickly at five to seven years, you know, are we gonna have people sell stuff and then the new owner doesn't want to participate and we would lose all these units if we charge a slightly higher fee and had it phase down over time for the latter years got more to the 20% range, say um, you know, is that something council might want to consider uh today?

So go ahead with the yes.

So uh we we are still you know, the first column is the initial recommendation of a fee base of 20%.

Um we looked at a phased fee base, which is one to 15 and 16 to 30, you know, those are the average uh years of a TIFF plan in general, both our core area, not all of our site specifics are 30 years, but then we also looked at a scaled fee, which is you know, one through five, it's a higher penalty, and then it decreases by a five percent increment.

But in order to do that, you know, after year 21, it becomes a minimal impact fee.

And the only uh catch, and maybe I'll let Elizabeth speak to the wording of this kind of policy might be a little bit complicated for um implementation, and it also may be a little harder to implement, at least on the scaled fee base, because what happens in year four and a half, the developer decides, or no, excuse me, um year nineteen and a half, is it 20?

Is it you know the the what is the break off between the scaled fee?

But we could probably work through that if that is something that this body wants to do.

We're just looking at a 20% is kind of a standard approach, it is easy to implement and it's kind of standard, but we also understand the desire not to have a uh developer and or a future property owner elect and year 15 to get out of the program.

So we're trying to balance uh both the TIFF program competitiveness, but ensuring what this body is looking for, which is affordability.

But did you also mention that some developers balked at the other structures?

Well, the current structure, as Elizabeth noted, is just it's a discretionary recapture.

So if in year 27 something happens and the developer or the property owner elects not to participate at the current wording, you can come back for all 26 years.

And so any developer, both small and or large, both even a owner developer or a contracted developer may say, you know, 20, excuse me, 19 million as a penalty may be too high.

Well, and I think as I said, that wouldn't be what you'd be being advised to go out and get because I think there's concerns about enforceability, particularly in those late years of a full recapture.

Um, but there's an uncertainty in the language that the participants are saying we're not we're not willing to sign up for that uncertainty, and so that's what we're trying to get to is more certainty with this type of proposal.

I guess I just I feel like that we really do experience a harm if we've um you know spent spent a great amount of time reviewing these applications, a great amount of staff time.

Um we're using it in our in our housing counts.

We're kind of those are we're putting our eggs in the baskets of these projects, and if they decide they want to cash out and sell, and it's a very easy path for them to do that and profit, you know, while we're left without affordable housing for a period of time.

I mean, if there's only one year left, I get it, like that's not a big deal, but like a year, but I would say up to year 15.

That's a real problem for us.

Um, the council at that time, it'll be a real problem for them, I think.

I mean, I just don't see the housing situation being solved really.

Um, so yeah, I'm I'm definitely in favor of a higher uh fee that's phased, which I understand makes it more complicated.

But I would support column number two, because I think that gets at those early years and really encouraging people not to to get out of the program in those earlier years.

Is there an option to say basically like if you want to if you want to opt out of this, that's fine, but um you have to give twenty two twenty-four months notice basically because that's about how long it takes the city to subsidize and get new housing units to replace whatever we're losing.

So currently it's structured for annual compliance, and so what it would be is on an annual basis, they they're not recertifying.

I think um it's what's that?

12 months.

So it's the 12 month.

Um, and and remember it's it's a dual, this is in addition to paying your full property taxes, having no rebate and all those property taxes going out to the district.

So there is an additional um amount that they'd be paying on top of this um yeah, they'd be saying we're contract.

We're we're gonna pay full property taxes and we're gonna pay a fee plus the fee.

And we're already looking at millions of dollars, so I think this is a pretty good incentive to not uh so they lose the tax incentive and have the fee on top of it.

And unless we stop building housing, which we're not gonna do, I hope.

I mean, that's that's what would drive the prices up if we stopped building housing.

Um I don't I don't think that we're hopefully gonna be doing that.

So and we feel that all what we've proposed, uh both a standard fee-based, a f a phased fee-based and a scaled fee-based, that most of the developers were in support of any of these options, even with a higher scaled rate.

So we understand, and I've been very clear with all seven applicants that this is a priority for this body, it's a priority for the community, but we also understand that we want to make sure that any kind of policy that this uh program does is clear and uh and and effective.

So the scale field you're saying it just might be a little bit more complicated to get the language right into implement it.

I I'm not worried about the policy language for any of these options.

I think what we heard from our finance department was um a straight fee um is much easier to implement.

Sure.

Um, but I think doing if you're looking at that middle column of two tiers and the cutoff is is straightforward, it's which side of the calendar are you on.

Okay.

So how many people would support the phased fee base, that middle column?

I heard the mayor um myself what what do you think about like a phased fee?

Because I like the simplicity of just saying those two phases, but 30% and then 20%.

I like that like 20 at years 15 to 20 or so.

Yeah.

And then so year one to 15 is 30 and year 16 to 30 is 20 instead of 15 percent.

Oh, I see.

Because I feel like that addresses a little bit of what you're you were expressing.

Um it's not so much of a better deal at 15 years is what you're saying, or 16 years.

That's what you're saying.

Or 16 years.

Yeah, I mean 20% was what staff had recommended as a flat rate.

So I don't know why we would go down to 15.

I would yeah, I would like the 20% at year 16 to 30.

Okay.

And then if we had a plan year uh length that was less than 30, we just cut that off at year 15 still, or do it at the halfway point to phase down.

I think 15.

Yeah, yeah, just like 15 is a good year.

Yeah.

Okay.

So do I hear agreement on that um changing the 16 to 30 period to 20 percent?

Yeah, I can do that.

Okay, and just so clarification, as long as they participate the longer, the impact is less.

So it's still in accordance with what you're trying to do.

So if they're in year 16, the impact is much less of a lower number, but we're just bumping that percentage up.

Makes sense.

Okay, and so the next steps uh uh we'll have Elizabeth and I will walk together, bring in back the policy language in February, and then we'll kick off the additional updates in March, and that'll go through the remainder of the summer.

So okay, my only concern on this is we have certificates of occupancy for three years for the first seven programs that we've done.

And they are are they holding right now, waiting on this development agreement?

Uh so we have one under construction, right?

Oh, I know, but the other six all all six are holding off on this development agreement until we clarify this.

Uh so while we get this, are we burning time towards that three years right now?

Yes.

So that makes me anxious.

So I would so that would be back next month.

Yeah, so back in about a month.

Well, so we're not waiting to July for this to this end, right?

Okay, so once we have this settled, yeah.

Um we'll bring back every development agreement like we did for um parkway, and you'll see the language, but um two are two are holding for NQ, the other four are getting their permits and getting all that stuff together.

So it's really two that's just kind of in holding pattern.

And we can bring the development agreements as soon as those are ready.

Those don't have to wait for the policy, the policy would just set the framework moving forward.

Okay, yeah, I just don't want to be responsible for that hitting that three-year point on that regard.

And that's what you needed, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so this meeting of Borough is now adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.