Start on your end, Counselor Francisa.

Gina Franzosa, she her.

Ariel Mendez, you know.

Mike Riley, Melanie Keebor, she her.

Megan Perkins, she heard.

Megan Norris, she her.

Steve Platt, he here.

All right.

So we're gonna start under good of the order first with our legislative update from staff.

Good evening, Council.

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

And with me is Sarah Hudson and Eric Cancler, and we're just here to give a brief update of the short session.

As you know, it ended earlier this month.

We put together an issue summary just trying to highlight the most important bills to the city.

But as you know, Eric Cancler is our uh contract state lobbyist, so the one on the ground, and we just wanted to give him give you a chance to hear directly from him on some of the more important bills this session.

All right, thanks, Kate.

Uh, for the record, Eric Counselor, City of Benz lobbyist.

It's good to see you all.

I think there's really four primary issues to talk about.

We have, as Kate Lewis, we have you know formalized legislative priorities.

We had a press release put out both public documents about where we focused our attention.

But in terms of on the ground interaction and what we were really invested in, there was uh primarily uh the lodging tax issue, the protection of shelter funding, and then a couple housing issues related to urban reserves and uh complete communities.

So going through in that order in a little bit more detail.

The effort to gain additional flexibility on local lodging tax dollars has been going on for a very long time.

I think the first time I engaged seriously on uh in it on the city's behalf was in 2017, so that was almost a decade ago.

It took a lot of buildup.

I think a lot of past efforts built on themselves and led to the success this session.

And effectively what happened is I I think you all know that under the historic regime, 70% of the lodging tax dollars had to be earmarked for tourism and marketing oriented purposes, leaving 30% for other things, general fund or you know, a mix of responsibilities.

The 7030 is now shifted to 5050, and that is true whether or not your lodging tax increment is pre-2003, a lot of which was grandfathered in uh post-2003 and already existing, or whether it's prospective in the future.

So, Bend, our historic pre-2003 lodging tax is better than 5050, so this doesn't affect us in that regard.

There are some local governments, cities, and counties that were grandfathered in at a at a very high ratio.

I think Lane County was effectively grandfathered in to use all of their pre-2003 increment for marketing.

Now they have a considerable amount of flexibility.

So there's flexibility we can consider with uh the 2013 increment, and then there's flexibility should the city decide to consider uh another increment in the future, and that at a high level is really the bill is very simple in that regard.

There was one additional element that was moved into the restricted portion, which involves what the legislature termed resiliency grants for small small businesses in the restaurant and lodging industry.

It was a bit of an odd fit.

It was important for getting the bill out of the house, but nobody really loved it.

Um there was consideration about whether they should strip it up, send it back to the house for a clean fix.

They left it in, moved it through, so it's quite possible that I don't know if the legislature is gonna come back in the long session and re-look at that one little element, but I don't think it's really a game changer.

It's just an additional thing that the restricted portion can be used for, but it's not just a handout.

You really need a business or a restaurant that's uh experiencing some sort of hardship was the intent.

So that's a component of it as well.

So moving on from, and that was our number one policy priority, our number one budgetary priority in terms of discrete budgetary priorities was protecting the uh I think it was 207 million dollars in shelter funding that was established through a lot of work, including by the city bend city of Bend and others ahead of and during the 2025 session.

There was a lot of speculation that that allocation for shelter funding, which is pretty bare bones for essential facilities around the state, would get robbed to pay for some other things.

Of course, we had uh increase we had maybe six months out before a session, really dire looking revenue forecasts, and they got incrementally better as we got into session.

So fortunately, that allocation was kept entirely intact, and so that means that was our number one budgetary priority.

So on those two fronts, uh we did very well.

Of course, we were um part of large groups of people who were on the one hand fighting for lodging tax flexibility, and on the other hand, protecting uh shelter funding.

It certainly wasn't the city of Bent leading the charge, but it was a really good group of people, and we were at the forefront with them.

More specifically to our initiatives are two concepts that we did.

We talked about, I think, the last time I met and presented in in front of you all prior to session, both in the land use and housing realm.

The first is related to urban reserves.

Uh, it's been we've spent a lot a number of years here trying to improve the statute and rule standards for how you can designate a 50-year urban reserve to allow us to bring in a 50-year land supply that's actually conducive towards efficient infrastructure and building housing.

And I would say Bend has been at the forefront uh at the state level of the effort to improve the urban reserve process.

We passed a big bill, Senator Broadman was a sponsor in 25, Senate Bill 1129, and there was one piece of unfinished business around how you can account for the cost of serving potential parcels outside the UGB.

We were stuck with a regime previously where we oftentimes we would have to bring in very expensive to serve parcels, and that translates to uh increase in housing costs.

So we were able to get that through uh in an amendment to a much larger bill, a House Bill 4037, it was sort of a housing omnibus bill, and now that that is passed through uh what's required is the is DLC D and L C D C to just literally adopt that into their uh rule making on urban reserves.

And then lastly, in terms of the big issues that we were involved in, is the uh topic of you could look at a couple of different ways.

I would look at it as a protection of complete community planning.

This city, I think, is much if not more than most other cities, has made a deliberate effort to try to mix uses.

Neighborhood serving commercial together with residential, walking, biking, transit, trying to blend all of those things and create the neighborhood that people want to live in at all of the price points uh that they need.

And in the 20, oh boy, it was either the 23 or the 21 session, uh Senator Bill 8 was passed that basically created a buy right ability to do affordable housing projects anywhere in the city.

We broadly supported that, still broadly do support it, it actually lobbied in that session to make a I think it was 21 to make it more expansive.

But one part where we kind of overshot, and I think this is coming to light in other communities around the state, is when you've got these neighborhood commercial nodes at one or two projects can really take that entire neighborhood commercial uh neighborhood serving commercial opportunity away entirely.

Obviously, that's a big issue in this community, it's becoming a big issue, and other communities.

So, also as an amendment to 4037, we moved through uh language that kind of got a foot in the door and protected those neighborhood serving commercial areas.

That's not going to be the end of the story in the interim, and I've been in pretty regular contact with the housing staff and the governor's office about how to take this conversation forward.

I think there will be a really robust interim conversation about what cities need and what communities want in terms of complete community planning.

And uh I for one am very excited about being able to get what we needed in the moment and create an opportunity, I think, for a much more robust and and um comprehensive solution around all of those needs.

So those are the main issues.

Obviously, there were a bunch of other issues, but I know we're short on time here tonight.

Yeah, any questions from council?

We sent out some information on this as well.

Go ahead.

Um, on the SB 155 1551 related to wildfire and the HOAs, that basically, I mean, it's all exactly applies to existing HOAs as well, right?

It just removes their ability to set any restrictions on home pardon yeah, and materials and that's correct.

And if I uh there was a previous bill I'm thinking back to when there was a governor declared drought that the HOA couldn't stop you from not watering your lawn, for example.

I don't think this had a precondition like that.

I think it's just in my landscaping too.

Yeah, just you know, water-wise plants and things like that.

The H we couldn't prevent people from using those.

Yeah, yeah.

Question I had was on um the 4037.

There's a description in the um issue summary that talks about prohibits public hearing to consider the application for developments that are subject to clear and objective review standards.

Can you just talk a little bit more?

And maybe it's more question for staff.

How would this show up in our community?

That would probably be a better question for staff, but I can say thematically it was that's part of expediting.

If you're gonna do things with clear established standards, do you need to go through all the public participation notice and whatnot?

Um, and I think that is indicative of a number of policies that we've seen where they're trying to speed things along if you're meeting those clear and objective standards.

But in terms of the the specific change, I'd probably want to defer to planning staff on that.

Was it in response to I forget the name of the community?

Is it Sherwood where they passed some kind of I mean, was this a response to that?

I don't think so.

Is it Sherwood?

Sherwood has passed some local measures that are sort of starting to, you know, that are kind of clashing with state directives, right?

But I think this was more of an omniscience bill about where are all the ways we can speed up the housing process.

So I think that was what this was trying to achieve.

And I don't know if it's a response to what City of Sherwood has done, but they're they I think what Sherwood's done and what this bill did in that regard, there's sort of different opposite ends of the continuum of views on how applications for housing development should work.

I think that's accurate.

Yeah, I mean, is there an example of how something would have been treated differently in our community recently with this bill in place?

Um I would probably want to talk to planning staff, and I don't know if it's an issue of people being treated, it's what applications for needed housing can be subject to in terms of process.

That's what I mean.

Yeah.

But yeah, it does it does prohibit uh local jurisdiction from requiring a public hearing prior prior to making a decision on an application that is subject to clear and objective standards because it ceased to be housing.

I'll I'll provide some information, put it in the council memo so you can get a little more detail.

Okay.

Thanks.

Any other questions?

Okay.

I did also want to highlight just in theme with our meeting tonight that there was a lot of work the legislature did on immigration um rights and also um a bill on gender affirming care, and that we did weigh in on a couple of those um as well in support of those for our community, um which did pass.

So okay, any other questions for staff?

Okay, just want to thank you all too.

Many of you helped us with um testifying orally or um with letters, so just wanted to thank council for their engagement this session.

And thank our legislators for getting so much done.

Yeah, I think um that is that is important as well.

Um, our our legislators were deeply involved in a lot of these issues, and also as well as we didn't mention the bigger revenue picture that they needed to solve.

Um, Senator Bradman was key in that.

Um, and representative Krupp and Levy were really key on a lot of these issues as well.

So um we really appreciate we're able to work with it very closely with staff and with um our electives, and that's really important over there in Salem.

Yeah, and the Venn delegation had a very good session.

It was a hard work session on their behalf, they earned it.

I think the Central Oregon delegation broadly is kind of coming into its own and starting to gel as well, and I think that's to all of our benefits.

Yeah.

Okay, OSU forgetting all that.

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, um, that will move us into council action and reports.

And so before we get into individual reports, I wanted to start with a report out from our neighborhood round table that happened on Thursday and just have a little discussion around that.

Um, so for folks who weren't there or didn't know about it, this was a new format.

The round table is a newer format that we've been doing for a couple years where we meet as a council and we sit in a discussion table and have more of a listening session discussion rather than a formal meeting.

And the format of this um meeting was a presentation from staff about some of the issues that are going on in Southeast Bend where there's a lot of growth and change and infrastructure investment to lay the scene, and then we sat at the table with three different neighborhood districts in that area to talk with the representatives about what they'd like to see and some of their issues and concerns on a couple of topics that that we knew um they wanted to talk about wildfire, neighborhood commercial, transportation issues.

Um, and then there was time at the end for folks to go and talk to city staff at various different tables, get questions answered, counselors to mingle with folks.

Um, and from my understanding, it was very successful.

So I would love to hear feedback from council on that format, and then also talk about where we can go next.

We also have multiple different neighborhoods now asking us to have the same type of meeting for their corner of town, which I think is great.

So reflections from counselors on how that went, and then we can talk about kind of what we want to do next.

Anybody have any thoughts?

I love that format.

Yeah, yeah, I thought it was amazing to have so many staff present with so many community members where a community member would come up and have a question, and if I didn't know the answer, I could say, Oh, you need to go and talk to the staff person over here, and then off they would go, and someone else would come up.

And if I didn't know the answer, I could say, Oh, you need to go and talk to the staff person over here, and then off they would go, and someone else would come up.

So I feel like there was lots of circulating and information sharing and lots of good questions answered.

So I thought it was it was great.

I think the real question for us is uh how many of these can we do?

Right.

I think it was really helpful for people in that part of company that liaison to those two neighborhoods or two of those three neighborhood districts to get the vaguer picture of what's going on, and for folks who haven't connected as much with the planning efforts that have done on in the past to kind of get up speed.

I think people really appreciated that, and I think there was a lot of additional questions that generated, but some aha moments as well.

Like, oh, there's actually more of this happening than I understood and anticipated.

No, I didn't know that was that project was coming soon in terms of the transportation improvement, and I think that kind of information sharing is really valuable in the community.

Yeah, Steven.

Just the fact that I really kudos to the staff with the planning staff and the and our transportation talking about really just as you said, Councilor Riley.

Uh, we there is a lot of thinking going on.

There's a lot of forward thinking going on, and I saw a lot of aha's in the in the in the audience of folks really, particularly when they were building out showing how the transportation system had evolved over time that was so effective and had so many people come up and talk to me.

So, Eric, really well done on the team for that.

That really got the message out well, and I'd love to see that you know, in the other kind of the four corners around town.

I'd love to see that.

Right.

So I think um we we've had um a specific request that I've seen from our southwest neighborhoods, but I know um other other neighborhood groups are interested as well.

I don't know what the next step, Eric, would be to like look at maybe in the next quarter, yeah, try to find another time that we could maybe do another one of these.

We there's general support from staff to sort of now that we've built the model to try to replicate it and do it in groups, uh groups of neighborhoods, groups of neighborhoods.

I think makes a lot of sense.

Um, so we'll come back with a plan on exactly when, and we'll probably pull council to see when you're available and plan for a similar similarly structured event where we have direct engagement, round table discussion, and some level level sets of presentations as part of that format.

So kind of one of these great, yeah, sure.

I just wanted to do a shout out to um Renee Mitchell for being the kind of the center of the vortex for making this first one happen.

There was a lot of learning, and just kind of you know, it's the first time, and and I think we're gonna get more efficient.

But I I think many staff participate and appreciate everybody who's there, but in particular Renee just kind of really pulling this together and making it happen.

Great, yeah.

Um, and shout out to Old Farm, Larksburg, and Southeast Bin for participating and also helping get the word out, so it was very well attended, which was great.

Okay, can I just can I uh make a just point out?

I think following on what your comment was, Councilor Mendez.

Um, we we have a couple outstanding round tables that we've committed to holding with human rights and equity commission uh regarding also separately regarding the electrification fee and you know and some other things, and so I just I just want to kind of raise that flag of um you know our our uh our ability to kind of meet all of these requests um as well as have our business meetings and then work sessions and we're taking a break at some point, July, August, something like that.

So I I mean I would really love to see kind of the full calendar picture.

It's a great make sure that we're meeting our agenda of the work that we need to get done.

It's a good I'm actually gonna talk about that in my report tonight.

We're gonna send out a survey because we we're doing a lot and we need to slim it down a little bit.

So I'm gonna propose that we'll talk about it in my own.

Yeah, let's maybe so yeah, since we're gonna talk about schedule later and we're gonna just kind of survey council.

I think um fitting the round tables into that idea of what might be um happening next and what we should prioritize.

I think it makes a lot of sense.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so move into individual reports, Councillor Friendsha.

Yes.

Um I attended a meeting of the um Central Oregon uh transportation committee, the ODOT um kind of feedback committee, and so we had some further discussions about um the projects that Central Oregon's gonna be putting forward um to ODOT for funding.

So it was an executive session meeting, uh not a public meeting.

Um I think our next public meeting is uh April 9th, where we'll be actually voting and then really determining what projects go forward.

So I can I'll actually forward uh that spreadsheet to everyone so that you guys can and other than other individual conversations, that's my activity.

All right, Council Mendez.

Yeah, thank you.

Um Saturday, March 7th, I attended uh the Civics Lab Human Library edition in Redmond.

And it was an opportunity to meet people I hadn't met before in some cases, and in some cases uh familiar faces, but to talk about an issue that I think is uh central for for all of us up here, and uh people perceive it in different ways, and I think it's it was a good opportunity to hear different perspectives.

Um so that was a welcome opportunity.

And uh yesterday, March 17th, the Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization budget committee met and recommended passing its fiscal year 2027 budget.

The two items of note on there were um some discussion of concerns about the future of federal transportation funding.

There's a lot up in the air right now, and nobody really knows what Congress is going to do.

Um, and that could have some important effects for us locally.

And we also discussed the um allocation of state highway funds for um street preservation and safety and transit initiatives.

There's a large amount of discretion over how those funds are allocated.

Uh so we had some discussion about whether whether we felt like we wanted to revisit that allocation, and I think that we'll continue to have that that discussion as we move forward.

Council Rayleigh.

Um a couple things.

One I just wanted to um say thank you to a couple folks.

Um, one was the folks at Embrace Bend and um who organize the Civics Lab and the Human Library thing also participated in that and thought it was a great event.

Um I went to um I wanted to thank the organizers of a film that was shown up at COCC last Friday called Hindra Jab.

Um it was the it's tells the story of the killing of a young Palestinian girl in Gaza and the adults in the Palestinian Red Crescent office in Ramallah in the West Bank that we're trying to reach and save her.

It's a recreation of a real event that happened about a year and a half ago.

Uh very powerful, very moving film about all that's going on in that part of the world.

Um, and in particular, there was a gentleman named Omar Alkam who joined us alive after the film from Ramallah in the West Bank.

He was one of the adults that was portrayed in the film and was working in the Red Crescent office when this all transpired.

Um, and just him making the effort, it was like 5 a.m.

in the morning his time when we showed the film.

Um it was actually his first speaking engagement in the US, and um, you know, it was all virtual.

So just really want to thank him and his uh translator, Sara, who was from Washington, DC area as well.

Um I went on a tour of homemade coffee, uh Toffee, excuse me.

Um they're in a building that's strictly organic coffee used to be in in the central district.

And I just wanted to thank Don Mill at Edco for making that happen and arranging it, and Randy, who is uh the owner and CEO, hosting us and just talking with us honestly about all the the challenges she faces as a business, including some that she experienced with the city of Bend in terms of getting some permits that she needed.

I think there was some interesting learning there.

And I know that Councillor Platt and Mayor Keybert were also there.

Um we already talked about the round table.

The last thing I just wanted to share with folks is that COIC at its board meeting last week agreed to support the Central Oregon Civic Action Project, which Josh Josh Burgess has started that does the Civic Assemblies.

COIC is going to be um acting as a fiscal agent to help them get started as a nonprofit and hopefully receive a pretty big grant that will help them become an independent organization, but all also fund their activities over the next couple of years.

And Eric shared in his um his report to us last week about an event coming up on April 7th for those who are interested from one to three at COCC in Redmond, where we can there's kind of a an overview of the Civic Assembly tool and what it's about and how it can be used in communities.

Um I plan to go if anybody wants to go reach out to me and we can figure out how to get there.

I think it's a really great opportunity.

So I'm I'm pleased that CYC is gonna be helping and kind of launch that.

I think it's a valuable tool that could be used across the Central.

All right, Council Perkins.

Um, first, I guess uh shout out to all the teachers who uh are doing all the important work this week of of doing uh school conferences.

I've had many, many conferences and have many more tomorrow.

Um, but just thank you to them for all that they're doing.

Um I guess uh picking three things.

One is uh the coordinate house list response office board met, and um we got a little update on the point in time uh account and um there we're hoping to get get that information uh next month.

There were some data issues um, interestingly, not with the unsheltered, but more so in the shelters with coordination, and so there they are um uh frantically and diligently making sure that the data that we do receive as a community is is um as correct as it can be.

Um I wanted just just to highlight sort of the the um importance of funding.

Did a RFP sort of to fill for service providers and organizations to help fill any gaps that they have in the serve in services that they're providing.

And there were 23 applications, which is the most that COIC has ever received for an RFP, which just goes to show you sort of what what we're dealing with here.

And these are all organizations that you have that you have heard of.

I'd like to highlight the ones that we did decide to fund.

One of them is an anti-trafficking project for J Bar J.

This provides rapid rehousing for for youth who are in danger or are currently being trafficked.

Which is people can come and get things that they need, either toiletries or food or just any kind of supplies.

We gave money to Saving Grace for obviously for domestic violence survivors, but this is for finding emergency shelter or motel placements for saving grace.

And we gave money to Habitat for Humanity Le Pines and River.

These are for people that are not in habitat homes but are but are in-homes that have a an issue, something that needs fixing in their homes that they cannot that they cannot afford.

This goes in and says, okay, we'll get you that we'll you know we're replaced your window, we're playing it keeps people in their homes.

So it's a I think it's a really great one too.

And we gave money to St.

Vincent DePaul um of Redmond, which for rent and food assistance that was more prevention focused.

So it felt good to give what we could.

Um and to jump off that today, um, uh, I was able to sort of pitch the uh Bend Business uh round table group with the as a representative from the courtier houses response office.

We have been talking about how we've been actively trying to find um a public-private partnership in order to get more funding.

Um, and this would be funding for um helping get our workforce that that is homeless, um, that is experiencing homelessness, um, find finding some more stable housing um because there are a lot of our workforce that is that is is actively homeless.

I've shared this statistic a lot, but 20% of the people that live in our emergency shelter that are living on sleeping on cots every night go to work every day.

And um, so we need to we need to do something as a community to support that.

So we are trying to get with the the response was fantastic.

There are a lot of people, a lot of businesses that really care about this.

Um, they know that some of these people are their employees, um, and so we are um going forward um with awesome purpose and enthusiastic enthusiasm, and I hope that um we can see something come out of this and in the near future.

Um and then finally just wanted to um share a little bit about the human rights and equity commission meeting.

Um we will talk a little bit more about the the resolution uh later, but um just to kind of to summarize I think the the the gist of the conversation that the human rights and equity commission um had on this um they saw it as a yes and um so yes we were doing this resolution and what more can we do as a as a city because there are a lot of people that are are living in fear.

Um we also got a an update on the equity process with with hiring um the new individuals um in in for the city of Bend and how the restructuring, and I would say that the summary of those comments were sort of were you know how do we do buy-in and what's what's going to be different this time around.

When they wanted to make sure that there was going to be something different, and then finally um we uh talked with Ben Duncan, the equity consultant about um the prioritizing the massive amount of work that that ATREC wants to do, that um the city would like for HREC to do, that the community wants HREC to do, and that conversation is going to continue.

So thank you.

Council Norris.

Yes, just briefly, um I attended the Southeast uh uh meeting as well, and I just to add a little bit.

I really appreciated the turnout and just the tenure and the conversation.

There's a lot of growth that's happening in that neighborhood, and everyone is really respectful, and it was just a really good dialogue.

So I appreciated that.

And then I attended the Ben Parkson Rec uh meeting along with all my fellow counselors, and we're gonna probably have a little update to give Mayor on that one.

Um, which is great to find more opportunities to work together with BPRD.

Okay, what's up?

Councillor Platt.

I had the honor of going to the uh provost reception there at OSU Cascades where they were talking about um talking about what that money what those funds are gonna do, and able to point right over there to the Big Hill and say that big hill's gonna be gone, and they're gonna have this this fantastic facility that is gonna really serve a lot of the needs for the student body there.

And it's it's been a long time coming, and that was really great.

They were they were just glowing uh at that at that uh ability.

And community members will have access to it as well.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's it's it's gonna be it's gonna be beautiful.

Um the plan commission uh is gonna bring timber yards to come back our way, just go through the through planning commission.

So it was an interesting discussion.

They had a couple uh a couple last week.

Um, and then I think we'll leave it there.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, we did have a um a joint meeting with the Ben Parks and Rec District Board last night, which I thought was really great, and we had a good chance to talk about how we can both um work together on housing and affordable housing in particular, but also some other projects we're working together on, including the riverfront project and our bridges over um in Drake Park and along the river and how we can improve those and and work together on that.

So more to come already started talking with Eric about how to structure our leadership meetings and get us to a point where we have some recommendations for each of our bodies around the housing topic, so that'll be good.

Um Eric and I were at the rural fire district meeting in our working group on long-term funding, and so we will be having um a work session in May, right, Eric?

Um, that we're gonna invite the rural fire board to sit with us for for part of that and talk about the plan that we've come up with, which is very succinctly to look at um renewing our fire levy in 2028 and the process leading up to that, and then immediately after that, looking at that feasibility study for what other long-term funding options might be possible.

Um, in the meantime, there we will be doing as we are currently doing a study around our EMS and our ambulance costs and what those are gonna look like and how we can recover those.

Um, and then going forward from there.

So looking forward to having them here with us and kind of discussing and finalizing that plan.

Uh, went to DBBA's meeting this morning, good discussion as always.

One thing to highlight um, you know, we we reflected back our decision on Franklin, which they were thinking thankful for.

Um, they are working on um a paid parking plan to sort of take through their stakeholders and bring to us in June when they do an update.

So that'll be the next time we um I think hear about that from them.

Um, and then otherwise are looking forward to events, including um the City Fest event, which I think everybody got a calendar invite for in May.

That's gonna be down at um just down the street here at one of the local businesses' parking lots that we're putting together, and I think that's gonna be really great to coincide with one of the first Fridays.

So if we have a good turnout of folks coming to that.

Um, and then lastly, I had a chance to sit in this room with um a group of Cub Scouts today.

And um, they were here to ask me questions they're learning about they're supposed to learn about local government.

It was basically a little mini town hall, got asked everything from when are we getting an in and out to how I get elected and all sorts of really good questions actually about roundabouts and all sorts of things.

So that was really nice.

Um, and they always like when they get to come up and use the gabble, which they all know.

Oh, yes, everyone took a turn.

Okay, um, with that, I think we are done with our council action and report section.

So we'll move on to visitors section.

This is the time for members of the public to give us um your comments and our rules are that you address the council as a body um and that not individually, that you come on up to the table if you're here in person, and there's a timer right over here under this sign that says recorder that will show your two minutes, um, and it will blink um yellow at you when you have 30 seconds left for the online folks.

I think we just have one, there'll be a timer.

Um, and we ask that you be respectful in your comments and that you not disrupt the meeting um with your comments tonight.

Okay, so I'm gonna let's start with our online because we just have one, so we'll have Michelle go and then we can move to our in-person.

Great.

Uh, is the audio working okay?

Yeah, we can hear you, Michelle.

Hold on one second, we'll get your timer up.

And thank you.

Good evening.

Um, yes, that Southeast Bend round table was great.

Asking city planners questions at the booths and the round table itself.

Audio is still okay.

Yep, you're great.

You're good.

Fantastic.

So there was a round table question.

What commercial development is desired?

The responses were verbally recapped.

However, a key item was missed in the verbal recap.

Southeast Ben clearly said we do not want more gas stations approved across from elementary schools.

The no gas station response wasn't in the verbal recap.

So, firstly, I'm here tonight to make sure it gets in the public record.

Clear response, no gas stations.

Secondly, I'd like to confirm the if the conditions that got us that gas station by the school are still in place.

And if another gas station would get approved by the city council.

Basically, I'm asking if any decision to update the plain text of the commercial convenience zoning law and the associated 13 conditions was made.

Or has any decision been made as to how council interprets that zoning?

Specifically, auto-intensive uses like a gas station across from our kids' elementary school.

If no decisions to make changes were done, then no decision is a decision.

And the council has left in place the exact same conditions that got us at elementary or that gas station across from an elementary school.

Our neighborhood had over 2,500 signatures and a position, a website, we raised 10,000.

We had a lot of activism.

We need to put our money into uh making sure council doesn't approve gas stations or enable conditions that permit it.

Um, why does this matter?

Beyond the obvious negative impacts, we've already had one school child hit on a bike at Broster House and Murphy roundabout.

Thankfully, the child's okay.

That these hits and near misses are occurring before the gas station and drive-thru are built is horrifying.

None of us wants to have a further tragedy at that location or have another gas station approved near an elementary school.

I would appreciate a response as part of the rec public record on behalf of those 2500 people that were active in our community on this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

Early last year we changed the CC zone to not allow auto-dependent uses.

So that's been done.

I appreciate you bringing up that um comment to add to the reflections from that round table.

So thank you.

Thanks.

Okay.

Um, so that will move us into in person.

So let's start with um Jonathan Westmorlin.

Let's start us off.

And please introduce yourself and say whether you live in the city of Bend.

Thanks.

Hi, my name is Jonathan Westmore.

I live in Bend.

Uh bear with me.

I am going to try for the first time to not read this verbatim and actually have a conversation.

Uh there's a number I want you guys to stick with you guys today.

That's 45%.

Uh I scraped from the uh League of Oregon Cities that the email addresses for all the city employees, including your own.

Uh there were 62 of them.

28 of them have been involved in data breaches.

Uh that's almost half, 45%.

Some of those data breaches involve uh password data.

Uh I'm saying this to you not as like a gotcha, but as a uh this is why end-to-end encryption is such an important deal.

And uh SB 1516 passed, and I think that's great.

There's a lot of good stuff in there.

Uh, but I'd like for Bend to see that as a floor and not the ceiling.

And as you go through contracts uh with these vendors, especially for security, uh just be very digilant and uh make sure that the public's security and data privacy rights are being observed.

Uh so moving forward, I've got some questions that I think you should be asking yourself.

One at the state capital of this legislative session, why were so many ordinary citizens willing to take time out of their lives to advocate for having an end-to-end encryption defined in the bill?

Uh two, why did Flock axon and the police lobby against this deck definition?

Operational convenience does not trump the rights of citizens.

Three, after learning about uh Flock's data security practices and canceling Flock in January.

Uh how do you feel knowing that Axon and Vera Mobility are in currently have partnerships with Flock?

And how are you going to protect Ben residents from corporations of the future?

I said this, give this to her.

I'm gonna email you one every week, it's just to open a conversation with you and get you your internet bubbles and algorithms are not gonna show you what they show me in my software designer friends.

So this should uh we've got it.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

All right, Todd Torzen.

Hi, I'm Todd Torton.

I live in Bend, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Southern Crossing Neighborhood Association as chair.

We were pleased to see that you had a Southeast Bend round table.

I recently asked representatives of the Southwest Bend and Century West neighborhood districts if they would like to participate with us in a round table for Southwest Bend.

I explained that Southern Crossings focus was on the Bond Brookswood and Reed Market Roadways, given all the growth in the area.

They said they were interested in discussing that as well.

We would like to meet soon since some council funding decisions are coming up that are relevant to these discussions.

In the near term, an NSSP project for a road crossing of Reed Market will come before you.

On our website, you will find our counter proposal that is a more comprehensive solution to the problems on Reed Market just west of US 97.

I will send you an email by tomorrow morning with more details.

Last July, we asked council to reject this same NSSP project for a long list of reasons.

We hope this money can be more wisely spent on a better solution.

If you would like to better understand both this proposal and our proposal for the Bond Reed Market roundabout, I would be glad to give you a personal tour on site.

Feel free to respond to my email.

You are also welcome to attend our Zoom board meeting tomorrow at five, or we we will be discussing these issues.

Switching to parking.

When the Glasswater Townhomes began construction on the site across from Ben Parks and Rec's headquarters, we lost an essential parking area.

It was frequently used both by river park visitors and concert goers.

Please consider reaching out to the old mill owners and Ben Parks and Rec to can work collectively to create a new parking area.

Each entity has something that they can bring to the table to solve this issue.

Southern Crossing neighborhoods should not be used as the overflow parking due to a lack of planning.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks, Todd.

Jane Lisa.

Greetings, Mayor and Council members.

I live in Southeast Bend in the uh King's Forest neighborhood.

And I recently have become appalled at the lack of attention to evacuation routes, especially in light of the expansive new high-density residential development.

The for example, the Wildflower Project at 15th and Wilson will have 4,000 in and out trips per day of per vehicle.

Or of 4,000 vehicles.

Those people will want to get out if the wind blows and a fire comes in this hot and dry summer ahead of us.

Reed Market will be a parking lot.

We also what happened in paradise.

People started abandoning their cars and walking.

They were burned.

We don't want that here.

So I would like as a beginning to have you fund and assign evacuation routes that will help us get away from a uh horror horrific fire here in town.

Uh on the staff to look and see what is happening.

I've talked with the county, the state, the city, planning and engineering.

There is nothing substantial happening.

And I'm we have three generations here in town.

It's it's frightening, really.

Um I I think it's time to do something.

There's nothing in the state code.

Uh the leadership needs to happen maybe locally, and and get something done so we can protect ourselves.

Thank you, Jean.

Michael Baker.

Sorry, no words.

Good evening, Mayor Council.

My name is Michael Baker, and I have the honor of being the CEO for the Boys and Girls Clubs here in Bend.

Uh, I wanted to share with you a couple of key things, uh, information that uh might find interesting.

Uh so last year in 2025, we were open 222 days.

This year we will be open 273 days.

Uh we've expanded our hours of operation.

Uh, that includes Saturday hours, which has never happened in the organization, so we're very excited by that.

In addition to that, uh we also uh are seeing an increase last year.

We gave away we handed out 17,400 uh meals to the children uh on a day uh through throughout the year.

We're already on track to break about 25,000 this year.

Um, and we are maximizing maximizing that space, every aspect that we can use.

We're trying we're trying to use every every inch of that space for programming and having the kiddos go from room to room to room, which is very exciting.

And what's very what's really exciting that just recently happened is for the first time in uh seven over seven years.

We actually uh many of you may have seen this before if you've been in there.

We have a rock wall that is uh on the stage area that we've been able to get recertified and are using that again.

So the kids are very excited this past Saturday to use the rock wall for the first time, and many of them is the first time they've ever done that.

Um, so it's it's uh a pretty pretty exciting experience there.

Um, I will also encourage each and every one of you as I always do to come down and see the club in action.

Um you want to tour, love to do that.

Uh, those of you that want to support the boys and girls club that are watching as well.

Uh, we have a big event coming up in April 18th.

Uh, we're calling it the Great Promsby.

It's a 20s theme.

Uh you can buy your tickets at uh BGC Bend.org.

And I will end by uh telling you something that um I worked in a lot of communities across the country, boys and girls clubs, worked with a lot of city administrators, and I'm telling you you're very fortunate to have Mr.

King in the role that he's in.

Trust me.

He's doing a great job, so thank you for everything you've done for the for this community.

Thanks, Michael.

Thank you.

All right, Kinsey Martin.

I see you're here for the resolution.

Did you want to also speak?

Yeah.

Okay.

Good evening.

Uh, my name's Kinsey Hood Martin.

I usually her pronouns.

Um, my family, my home, my career are rooted here in Bend, the city of Bend.

Uh my grandparents were doctors and teachers here.

My parents grew up here, I was born and raised here.

And um, despite a short stint of like, I'm never moving back to that town.

Uh, here I am.

My own kids were born and raised here as well.

So um, I because of that, in part because of knowing that um some of the old Bend community can tend to be um less appreciative of growth and change.

I wanted to just come say thank you for the um the resolution that I know is on the agenda this evening.

Um that um resolution in support of our immigrant neighbors and uh friends and community members means a lot um to me personally and to our community at this point in history and where we are right now as a broader community, those words matter a lot, and um it really is.

I'm I'm really proud to see the community that I live in.

Um taking a stance and being public about that, um, that's really significant.

Uh, I know that our um our leadership spent a lot of time on that.

I know that it's um an intensive process to do that and do it well and get it right, and I appreciate Mayor Potem Perkins and uh Melissa, the HREC members, and then the uh immigrant initiative leaders who who informed that work.

Um and so I just wanted to say thank you.

I'm hopeful to see uh that it has the beginnings of um you know tangible um resources and commitments in it, and I'm hopeful to see that continue over the next several years in council's work and the city's work as far as changes that our immigrant community members can can see and feel directly.

Um but I know public comments are not usually um you know in appreciation, and so I just wanted to say thank you.

That work matters, and uh it matters a lot.

So thank you, Kidsy.

All right, that will move us to our consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second, all right, move by council perkins, second by councillor Norris.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right, man.

Okay, and then that moves us to item number five.

Council has asked for adopt a resolution supporting Benn's immigrant communities, condemning the current federal government approach to immigration enforcement and allocating funding to support Benn's diverse immigrant communities.

I just want to introduce Melissa Camania, who is our city's affordable housing coordinator, but is also uh filling in as uh the human rights and equity commission liaison and with uh Melissa is Catalina Sanchez Frank.

Um this really resolution that is before you today was brought in part by uh Catalina's presentation that came to council early January, um, really requesting some support.

And I think we we listened and we wanted to offer some meaningful tangible support in the firm in the form of reaffirming our values as a welcoming community, but also going beyond that and offering some resources.

So uh Melissa and Catalina will outline what's in the resolution, and then I can talk about some next steps as we're implementing the resolution into various contracting methods, etc.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, so as Eric mentioned, uh you're used to seeing me in the housing realm, but it's my honor to be the interim HRAC uh staff liaison.

And this uh resolution is a body of work that is not just one person, it has been touched by many hands.

Um as you know, Catalina came to council um in early January talking about um the imminent crisis and the urgency of potentially declaring a state of emergency in a follow-up meeting.

Um our city attorney Ian outlined what could be done as a resolution.

From there, the resolution went to HREC.

Um, Ian had drafted a resolution fabulously by looking at other cities that were in a similar situation.

By the time the document got to HREC, it had um been edited a few times, many times actually.

Um, and HREC in as HREC has been developed as a group that represents our community.

Um, when this body of work got to HREC, they recognized that the I's that needed to be on the document aren't represented necessarily on our current commissioner seats.

And so HREC made um the decision to send the resolution with some HREC members to uh a subgroup outside of HREC.

Um, how that subgroup was formed um was in partnership with Catalina, and in uh different immigrant groups throughout the community were consulted, the leaders of different immigrant groups, and they were asked to send a representative of their group.

All these folks came together, looked over the resolution, provided tremendous um input, which then created more and more iterations of the document.

Um the document came back to HREC, HREC reviewed it and uh decided to accept the document and recommend it to come back to you.

And so through all of those iterations, you'll see in the resolution that it is a restatement of the city's priority to be a welcoming community.

Um and so half of the funds that will be going to the Latino Community Association are to further the welcoming city work, and the other half of the funds going to the Latino Community Association are to support uh families that are impacted by immigration.

And so um both bodies of work are incredibly important and and significant, and as Catalina mentioned in January, it's really difficult to quantify the impact of immigration activities in our community.

While some may think it's not here yet, it can't be impacting yet.

There are kids that don't go to school, folks that don't go to work, groceries that aren't being purchased at the store because people are too afraid to leave their homes.

And so this body of work, as I mentioned, it's not a single person that has had their hands on it.

I think um it's important to recognize all the many folks in the room and online that participated and some that weren't able to join us today.

I just want to take a moment to recognize Melissa because I think it was this many hands approach and really opening this up in your facilitation leadership that helps us get to a really good place.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

All right.

So, council, we've got the resolution.

There's no slides, but we have the resolution in front of us and with the issue summary.

So, any other questions for staff or for Catalina?

Thank you for being here with us tonight.

Okay.

Sure.

Um, I just wanted to confirm my understanding is that based on the discussions that you've been having, that the part of uh part of the funds is to support the immigrant community that the not the 50 for welcoming week stuff, but the other portion is meant to be opened up into the community as a whole with LCA as an administrator and to to provide some of that that that support and activities, but potentially in partnership with other groups in the community who do similar work.

So just wanting to confirm that that's part of the intent behind that that chunk of the funds.

Correct.

It's not limited to Latina immigrants is for the immigrant committee as there we sold the impacts by immigration law enforcement.

Yeah, okay.

I'm actually glad you brought that up because one of the beautiful parts of that small group that met off-site, and Mayor Pro Tem can speak to that as well.

Is the the group worked really well together and um had some difficult conversations, so much so that there's a desire to continue that body of work.

And in those discussions, it was um bridged that all of the groups in the room and those that were not able to be in the room learned that they have access to these funds through the Latino Community Association as well.

Thank you for playing that role.

Yeah.

And then just in terms of next steps, so we are working on contract drafts uh for contract for services for our welcoming program as well as grant agreements for kind of two separate um sort of mechanisms to execute the outline in the resolution, as well as continuing these efforts.

I think we made a commitment to not just have this be a a one-time event, but really working on building this coalition and supporting it in many different ways.

So we're still working through the details of that.

Yeah, and there's a provision here about um advocacy with our federal representatives in Oregon, so I'll make sure that we have a letter that goes to them with this resolution attached as well as part of that action.

Any other questions before a motion?

Go ahead.

I mean, I I just I can't help but comment on the difficult position that we find ourselves in with a federal government that is pursuing such I mean harmful tactics.

Uh we are severely uh constrained.

There are consequences that we cannot prevent as a city and as a community, but we're not powerless either.

And I've I'm really proud to proud to support this as one thing that we can do to demonstrate our support and our commitment and as an expression of our values or desire to make Bend a welcoming and safe community, regardless of people's identity or their backgrounds.

Um I I just wanted to address the challenge that that we face because uh we there's no way that we're gonna be able to protect everybody from this federal government, but we are going to do what we can.

Yeah, and I'll say that I I think being in that room, um there's so much that we can't do, but one of the things that I saw in that room, and and I see at the human rights and equity commission too, is we're gonna take care of each other.

Um, and and that's what matters, and so we are going to take care of our community here in Bend.

Um, and so that's the hope that I have.

Um, and this is sort of a a statement of that.

Yeah, and I just want to say, as a daughter of an immigrant from Mexico, I just appreciate all that you guys are doing in our community.

I appreciate Ben standing up.

Um, this resolution is so important, and um, I hope it's just the beginning.

Yeah, great.

Motion.

Well, I just wanted to add one other point, and then I'll okay.

And um thank you for making this happen.

Thanks to Mayor Tim Perkins for being part of that on behalf of the council for other people in the room and other members of HRAC and other community members that participated in it.

I just wanted to emphasize paragraph three of the resolution that declares that no matter when someone has joined our community or where they come from, every person deserves to be free of fear and intimidation and be to be treated with dignity and respect.

And that I want to add to that just my personal commitment that I value um all the folks in our community again, no matter where they came from or when they arrived, and all the ways that they make our community stronger.

And I think as counselor Mendes said, I'm super proud to be um supporting this resolution tonight and taking this step forward and look forward to more we can do as we move forward.

I move to adopt a resolution supporting Ben's immigrant communities condemning the current federal government approach to immigration enforcement, allocating funding to support Ben's diverse immigrant communities and authorizing city staff to take steps necessary to implement the resolution.

Second.

All right, moved by Councillor Perkins and second by Councilor Norris.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All right, great unanimous.

Thank you, everyone, for being here.

Um, yes, unequivocally, immigration is a strength of this country and this community, and we will keep saying that because it's true.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you.

All right, that will move us to item number.

I think we're doing six and seven together.

So you want to read six and seven, thanks, Trish.

Thank you.

Council is asked to adopt a resolution to authorize the city to enter into a clean water state revolving fund loan agreement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to finance the King Hezekiah and Fargo Sewer Project and a total loan amount not to exceed 2,875,000.

And council is asked to authorize a contract with Bar 7A companies incorporated for construction of the King Hezekiah and Margo Sewer Project.

So if you wouldn't mind hi, hi.

Hi, good evening.

So I'll go first, followed by Kimlet in support of I'll be presenting the construction contract for approval, and then Kimla can comes in and talks about the funding uh that we are presenting is associated with it.

King Hezekiah and Fargo were two individual applications selected by the septic to sewer conversion uh or through the program.

Um they were selected in 2014, the end of 2014, we went through 2000 or sorry, 2024.

Uh they were selected 2025, they were designed, and then here in 2026, we are looking to actually construct them.

Jason served principal engineer for the engineering department overseeing the water reclamation fund.

Uh Kim Lutz, the assistant finance director.

Um so a little bit about the septic to sewer uh conversion program.

It was originally identified in the 2014 collection system master plan and further uh reconfirmed in the 2018 public facility plan.

This is the seventh selection that we have made through the program.

The it's important to note that King Hezekiah and Fargo are a component of that selection.

Um as the code, uh the municipal code states, the city of Bend will consider selection for it uh through this program on an annual basis.

As the principal engineer, I get the opportunity to look through the CIP, the capital improvement plan for all the water reclamation.

We had an opportunity to over-select, um, over select, meaning over select from the funding, the three and a half million dollars annually that we have set aside for this program.

We actually selected over six million dollars worth of septic to sewer applications.

This was in combination due to the fact that we were about to sale into a collection system master plan and a facility plan update at our treatment plant.

Knowing that those were coming, there was a lot of priorities at those two system plans.

We're going to identify, and then the priority was likely going to shift to improving the existing infrastructure associated with either the collection system or the treatment system.

So we did have an opportunity to overfund this program and present to the committee for selection of $6.2 million of applications.

I um in two weeks from now, uh, we will be presenting another construction contract for approval for the Azalea and Windsor applications, which will also be constructed this uh calendar year.

So you guys will see that on next council agenda.

We did uh stagger those to make sure that the bidding community could have a chance to take a swing at one, and then all the losers or anyone that did um want to bid on the second one could have an opportunity to go there.

So it is important to stress that this is the seventh selection through the previous six.

We have installed over 400 laterals to properties.

Uh 230 of them have connected, so that's the success rate about 56%.

And some of those just got the opportunity to convert through the completion of the 2025 project.

So that's a huge success to the program.

Um, and so just emphasizing what the program is, it's an applicant driven program where people who were on septic can submit to the city for consideration for selection to convert their septic system onto city sewer.

The city evaluates their application based on a number of criteria, the age of the system, whether they have failing systems, the cost to convert.

But one aspect I do want to stress that I always stress, you'll know what I'm saying, is the participation that the applicants have in the program.

So at the completion of the construction project, we issue what's called the notes of operational completion, the NOC.

That NOC is their ticket to go down to permitting and pull their plumbing permit to start their conversion process.

They do get presented a window of two years to get a 50% reduction on their connection fee, which is about a $5,000 savings.

They don't have to convert unless they do sign that petition, which is that commitment to participating in the conversion upon completion of the project.

Overview of this uh application or this construction project, these two applications King Hezekiah and Fargo are both in the King's Forest area, south of Reed Market, east of 15th.

These ones were completed.

The design was completed to the 90% level as part of the overall basin study when the Southeast Interceptor went through the King's Forest area, and they were designed externally.

We do present opportunities that uh we do have internal capacity to do design services.

The the next construction project that you'll be presented for approval in two weeks was designed internally, so we do evaluate on a case-by-case basis how best to deliver the projects.

These projects do include a full-width pavement restoration, and the given where these projects are, there will be limited um traffic closures really with local access restrictions.

King Hezekiah jumping into that one.

There's 25 properties that will benefit from this sewer line.

Of those 13 had committed to connecting within the two-year period, um 1900 linear feet.

The red the dots indicate that the properties that did commit to connection.

Going to Fargo, that one's a little over a thousand feet.

17 properties will benefit, and 12 did um commit to participating.

So another case, both of these projects are over 50% commitment.

So, as far as a lot of the public that does benefit from this, is wanting to participate directly into this program.

Jason, can I ask you while you're on these slides, please?

Yeah, um, how many folks do you suppose will also jump on a little bit later, but still within that window, just based on your experience.

I mean, I'm not I'm not gonna hold you to it, but any do you think?

Oh, absolutely.

A lot of people don't want to be have the commitment, right?

Right, so that they have to do it.

Okay, some of these applications also have been in consideration for multiple years.

So there might be a lot of interest at first, and it has dwindled, but once the project is uh selected and proceeded forward, it renews that interest.

Right.

Um, also that system is that many more years aged.

And totally so they need it even further.

Unfortunately, there are cases where people apply and then their system fails, and their application is not selected, so they just have to go and fix their system so then when we come through, they really aren't attracted to connecting because they just did a large investment onto their septic system.

Thank you for the context appreciate there's been a just there's been a lot of work in this neighborhood so I just wonder how many people have seen it happening on other streets in the neighborhood and sort of are aware of hey when this comes down my street maybe I should consider right yeah exactly overall timeline here as mentioned end of 2024 we did select this uh these two applications along with the Ozale in Windsor so that was a combined 6.2 million dollar application or selection we did then proceed into the design of this we are here March 18th 2026 for council approval uh we are looking to start construction at the beginning of April we do have a public open house scheduled already um the contractor is ready to get after um the construction and the construction is slated for completion in um the end of October overall budget here uh the budget for the project at time of selection so go back to 2024 was 2.875 million dollars we did receive seven bids on this project the lowest bid came in uh 26% under the engineer's estimate so that is beneficial to the city the water recognition and the septic sewer program so it has a ripple effect there surveying design um call it minimal cost 1600 um that's the amount that we have um incurred to date through the design services surveying miscellaneous and then some additional services that we will be providing overall total uh 1.855 so while there is a good gap there we aren't intending to spend the full million dollar uh deficit and Kimla can speak to that but that money goes back into the beginning working capital of the water recognition fund and can get reappropriated um accordingly but we are taking provisions necessary but that 2.875 was a number back to the selection time period yep and as Jason mentioned um there's also a resolution this evening to enter into a clean water state revolving fund loan I'll refer to it as CWSRF it's a bit of a mouthful um that will be used to finance the King Hezekiah and Fargo septic to sewer project the not to exceed amount as Jason mentions a 2.875 but consistent with our other CWSRF loans will only draw down the amount that's needed to complete the project so the loan amount will end up being the 1.8 or whatever we end up using.

Some of the benefits to obtaining the CWSRF loans over issuing traditional revenue bonds include things like no prepayment penalties we don't have bond issuance costs typically have pretty low debt service coverage requirements and there's lower interest rates than your typical market um bonds.

This particular loan is eligible for a million dollars worth of emerging contaminants forgiveness and up to principal principal forgiveness of up to 4500 so we'll be roughly uh required to pay back about half of that 2.875 or we to utilize the entire amount as Jason mentioned uh these that biennial budget and the sewer rate models include the debt financing and the rate plan to fund this cost of the project great all right any questions other questions council looks good question I have a question yeah I mean that that is a pretty big budget gap I recall when we looked at the projects that were proposed I mean obviously can't just like go out to bid and bid it tomorrow but um there were a lot of projects proposed um so yeah I don't know I guess I'd be curious so so that those dollars will just kind of go into the program so the because council in the past has funded the program at like three million a year is that right that's kind of three and a half three and a half yeah okay so we're spending a million less well and going back to we did commit to spend 6.2 okay so we did overcommit oh because we had that opportunity and I do want to stress that was because of the the collection system master plan and the facility plan update at the treatment plant that were coming and so we are starting to land those ships and so we are identifying all of the needs outside of septic to sewer so a lot of the attention attention either from staffing or from funding is going to have to shift to the highest priority areas and so that's a conversation that we need to have on how to best support all of the needs within the collection within the water reclamation system.

So that's collections and treatment okay because we have a lot of existing infrastructure on the collections and on the treatment side that are um have been deferred because we haven't had necessarily a master plan to tell us exactly what is needed so we were looking to identify those needs prioritize those needs develop a funding strategy and then balance other programs such as septic to sewer pump station RR but we do have a lot of other capital needs through those systems.

But we do have a lot of other capital needs through those systems.

Okay.

Yeah.

I did I I did get an email from someone, it's a couple months ago now, and I I thought they were following up with you, and they never followed up with me.

So I think it's probably fine.

But there is there's a road, I think it's actually cabin lane.

Like in the cabin lane area, there were kind of some cul-de-sacks that did not get picked up on the septic to sewer.

So homeowners on those cul-de-sacs are you know still still on septic, but there is a sewer line kind of like right there, and it seems like sort of little connections that the city has sort of promised that neighborhood and and made the com made the follow-through to most of the neighbors, but not others.

So yeah, I I'd be interested in I'll follow up with you on it separately.

Yeah, I mean the city goes to make sure that that's the process to identify the drainage area to best serve the area and make it efficient, not to come do short segments, but you can't also do excess excessive because the funding doesn't support it.

Right.

And so there's a strategy on how to identify what that drainage basin is.

Um the best implement.

There's a lot of areas within City of Bend, Southwest, Southeast, some in the north, northwest um are on septic.

So there is a it is competitive and it would take a lot of money to convert everybody over, and that's balancing the existing system and the operations that we do have to have.

So it'd be great to do it all, but we do have the system to maintain um and treat the sewage too.

Okay, any other questions?

All right, we've got two motions, six and seven.

I move to adopt a resolution.

I'm doing six, right?

Yeah.

I move to adopt a resolution authorizing a clean water state revolving loan fund agreement to finance the King Hezekiah and Fargo Sewer project and a total loan amount not to exceed 287 two million eight hundred and seventy five seventy-five thousand dollars in substantially the form presented to council.

It is approved by the department of uh environmental quality.

Second, all right, move by council that second by council Riley.

All in favor?

Okay.

Uh next.

I moved to authorize a contract with Far 7A Companies Incorporated and substantially the form presented to council for construction services for the King Hezekiah and Fargo Sewer Project in an amount not to exceed 1,674,186.

Second.

All right, move by Council Menderson, second by Councillor Gonzoza.

All in favor.

All right, great.

Thank you.

Thank you both.

Thanks so much.

Moves on to item number eight.

Council is asked to authorize a contract with Diamond Parking Services LLC for citywide parking management and enforcement services not to exceed 536,000 for the first year and authorize the city manager to approve annual renewals for a total contract amount not to expose 2,906,000 over five years.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

David Avister approved our transportation mobility department.

It's time to renew our parking management.

Uh and then our enforcement uh contract.

So today what we're asking is to authorize a contract.

Um as was mentioned with Diamond Parking Services LLC for the citywide management and enforcement services.

Give some details and we'll circle back around to motion at the end.

I threw up the wheel of the connected city.

Um I think parking touch is based pretty much on all of those.

But uh this contract help supports efficient, responsible transportation system management.

Uh we got multiple districts in town, as you know today, downtown, old band, McKay.

Uh we got parking garage, we got surface lots uh today.

Uh we do have some future districts that we have talked with council about before.

Um I'll share some more information on those uh in a later slide.

But uh this contract is a phased approach with some new districts uh proposed.

Uh services support parking availability, circulation, compliance.

Uh just to expand a little bit on what the contract does or doesn't maybe include just a few examples, enforcement parking management strategies in in compliance with our bin municipal code, organ revised statutes, inspect, enforce, maintain compliance of all parking facilities.

Uh you know, we want our parking system to be functional, clean, maintained, um, manage the online and in-person parking permits, um daily maintenance of our electronic pay stations, supplies, materials, so those would be in like the surface lots, daily maintenance and operations of the parking garage.

Example maybe what this doesn't include, diamond parking while a partner in managing our parking system.

They they do not create or implement our parking management strategies or policies.

That's something uh we work with city manager's office, city council on what those parking management strategies are and policies.

Um, but then uh diamond helps us um you know manage and enforce those.

So the procurement process, touch base on that.

Um we did do a formal RV RFP request for proposal process.

Uh was happy to see five proposals come in.

We had some good uh good competition for this, so that's good to see.

Um Diamond Parking Services, LLC was the highest ranked proposal.

Talk a little bit about that process.

Uh we had a uh basically a committee, um, we had a scoring process uh with a total of a thousand points possible.

Um those things that we looked for, project understanding and approach that was worth a few hundred points.

Um project team experience and quality of service worth another few hundred points.

So 60% of the ranking of these uh proposals was uh based on those cost was another 400 points to make up that uh thousand point total.

We had two uh five proposals total, as I mentioned.

The top two were very competitive.

Uh Diamond Parking was the highest overall scoring proposal.

Um they were the highest in in the project understanding approach, project team experience, quality of service.

They were the second highest score uh for cost.

Uh they were there they were the second um lowest proposal, and and that's that was pretty much a straight up formula on cost.

You know, if you're the lowest lowest cost proposal, you get the most points, and second and third and fourth and fifth.

Um proposals range from about 53,000 to 655,000 and some change.

And uh diamond parking, as I mentioned, was the highest ranking proposal.

Uh picture here picture of some of the members of the diamond parking team.

So I mentioned the phased approach, phase one uh really sticking care of what we have today.

Um the downtown parking district, the McKitty district, old Bend Benefit District, uh the surface lots that I mentioned and the centennial parking garage this summer.

Um we look to expand uh old Ben East District and uh what we're calling the Miller's Run District.

I'll uh I've got some maps, so I'll share a little bit more on that.

But those were the two new districts that council gave us the green light to work on some uh parking management strategies.

We were within the next probably two weeks here.

We're working with communications, legal, uh met with uh members of the old Bend Neighborhood Association just uh Monday of this week uh to go into the 60-day public comment period, and so looking to be back in front of council uh with uh the final recommendations on these districts, accounting for the public comment uh in June.

And so just a quick snapshot of our districts.

Uh I think most of us familiar with them, but uh we got the downtown district.

I won't go through all the texts there, but uh 400 spaces and surface lots, 547 in the garage, uh, on street, about 40 blocks worth, 1500 spaces.

Uh Old Bend parking benefit district, about 1200 on-street spaces.

McKay, about 250 on-street spaces down by the Whitewater Park.

And then we get into the two new districts that I just uh was mentioning.

I went ahead and put some uh anticipated strategies up here, but like I said, we'd be back in front of council in June after accounting for public comment and uh you know with what strategies we're fine, you know, recommending for the final proposal.

Uh but these are some of the uh examples of what we're anticipating there, and then the old band east.

Uh so this would not just be an expansion of the existing district, got some different nuances, the existing district uh kind of on the west side of Broadway down to you got Drake Park, you got McKay Park, you got the river floaters, the dishuch river trail.

Uh when you get to the east side, as the map reflects here over to the parkway and along the Arizona uh Colorado area, more of a commercial use, uh more so than park and businesses along Franklin and uh along the edge there by the parkway.

So some different strategies uh there.

So available for questions and and have a recommended motion on the screen.

All right, council questions for David on this contract.

I do, but I have to go first.

And I'm sorry, I didn't mention in the beginning.

We have Patrick Gearing from our parking division as well as Karina in the audience here with us too from Diamond Parking.

So if there's questions I can't answer, we get some got some backup.

Yeah, thank you.

Go ahead.

So um, so what I what I would really like to dig into a little bit with my fellow counselors here is the distinction between a parking benefit district and those areas versus the commercial areas where uh we have a lot of paid parking, and we have like some very regimented and we don't have people who live in homes who are trying to go about their lives and their daily business.

Um, some many without driveways, for example, because now because we're we've moved away from that.

I very much support that.

And so um what I'm I'm now the old bend neighborhood liaison mic was before you probably heard the same things that I've been hearing.

I've I've spent hours meeting with Dave and Russ Grayson to talk about some of the issues that the old Bend neighborhood is facing.

And so my what what I what my concern is is that we're enforcing laws and rules in a parking benefit district that was not really explained to the residents of that neighborhood when they um signed up for the parking benefit district.

Um traffic the rules that are being enforced there are um you know traffic rules of parking and traffic that like it's it's just kind of going beyond um what I think anyone really signed up for.

And so um I don't know, you know the the way that I the way that I read the contract is that and the way that David has explained it to me is that the you know the contract or diamond parking, whoever it is is is enforcing the ORS.

Um but they but they don't do that in every neighborhood, right?

They're only they're the only reason why they're going through the old bend neighborhood is because we now have the benefit district there.

Um and so you know what I would like to see in the in the old Bend neighborhood is to for us to actually uh kind of live up to the promise that we made to the neighborhood, which is to make it a benefit district.

Um so the neighbors are paying for a parking permit, and they're uh hopefully getting some parking on their street when tourists are in town, um, but they're not getting um penalized uh you know, laws enforced on them that we're not enforcing on other folks neighborhoods in in the city.

Um so I think it's you know, I think it's a I think it's a clarification of council's policy to the staff and the contractor who are administering the policy.

I don't think it's necessarily a change to the contract itself.

I think if this is a point of clarification that I'm asking for you to um to help me convey to the staff tonight with that.

So you're saying there's like there's people who are living there that are getting tickets for maybe staying too long on the street, okay.

Or when they have um people, I mean I guess I've heard about this from a couple of people who live there.

People come over for like have a dinner party.

Yeah, and they have people there for four hours, and they like they have to like just the the systems that have to be used and the hoops that these folks have to go through or their kid comes home from college for a couple weeks.

It does seem like it's maybe gotten to a point of like we need to review how some of this is working.

Um I can just chime in on a few maybe examples of the case.

I'm not sure if tonight's meeting is the right thing.

I I don't disagree with you, but I'm wondering about is this an agenda request and or do we have a time at some point in the future here where we're gonna talk about parking anyway, and we review some of those rules as part of the new districts that are gonna be set up.

We'll be able to show we'll be in front of you with the old bend east.

Um and we can talk about those strategies as well with with the West if council chooses.

I think that sounds like a good plan because we're coming back on this anyway, and we're going to have new rounds of public comment.

So I'm not I'm not necessarily married to the original pilot, which was before any of us were on council.

I'd like to hear what people want now and what they feel the pressures are because I want to acknowledge um this, not everybody in these neighborhoods, but this some of this neighborhood tends to be the more affluent part of town.

Um, and that there were originally from my memory and the pilot started a lot of worries about um people who float the river, people who visit, who are taking up street parking.

Um that was the concern, right?

And so um I don't I don't think the folks in this neighborhoods think they're entitled to the street parking, but we do need a system that is usable, right?

For everyone, usable uh some of this is from the new parking code adopted in January, for example, parking on a landscape trip wasn't really in our code before it got put in the code.

So yeah, we can talk about it certainly some more.

We want it to work, another example is parking in the wrong direction against the flow of traffic.

Uh that is a state state law or slow.

No one here has ever done that.

It is like P.

I thought it's a good thing.

This contract, you know, we'll enforce or diamond parking in this case would enforce whatever our Benn Code and whatever policies and and uh enforcement that uh we asked them to.

Yeah.

So I would be supportive of having that policy discussion.

And and I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to say thank you to uh Patrick and staff and and to encourage people if you see diamond parking agents or or city staff working in parking, uh, say thank you because I think there's a perception that somehow these programs, these policies, and the people that enforce them are somehow intended to make parking more difficult.

And actually, if we get the policies right, um it's gonna make parking easier.

And I think that's one of the reasons why downtown Bend Business Association is coming back to us with their ideas for parking.

So uh thank you for making parking accessible and available and and I'm I'm happy to have the conversation about the policy.

Thank you, Councilman.

I think it's really important to do our best to get it right.

We wanted to work, but it's it's a team effort, right?

That it takes some effort on the community of the citizens and us as well, just to expand a little bit on the parking benefit, just because you mentioned you know that was kind of before time in the pilot.

Just to expand a little bit on the parking benefit, just because you mentioned you know that was kind of before time and the pilot, and and I think we're coming back with a final proposal for old bend east, so Broadway to the parkway, right, and Franklin down to Colorado.

Uh is that being a benefit district as well because of the residential nature in there.

Part of that benefit district is uh some funds that get generated within that district, and so the existing old bend is up to uh about eight eighty-five thousand dollars or something right now.

Uh and so we've been talking with some of the folks at their lauren and that group and the committee, but the idea is that that benefit, if they want something within that neighborhood, they can come, you know, come to the city with ideas at park bench or or formalizing maybe some areas on the landscape that can be parked on uh that aren't in conflict with a water meter or fire hydrant and some of those types of things as an example.

So there's a financial piece uh that we're trying to have that the that that neighborhood can pick some things that they'd like to maybe try and do and fund within their within their neighborhood.

Yeah, I I mean I'm sorry, I'm grateful for everyone to want to have that cut policy conversation because yeah, I mean that the neighborhood has that money's been in the fund for quite a while, and then and the neighborhood has has not been able to figure out how they can actually use that money for the city.

So hopefully that will be part of the policy discussion.

Um I think we can just make sure that we provide direction to Diamond to like let's not enforce some of those things.

So I think that's that that is something that's very important.

I'm sorry, I don't agree with not enforcing parking the wrong way on the street.

Like I'm gonna move down there, but I think I'm gonna do that.

I think we don't have enough resources to do that citywide, so I think what we're trying to do is do that like you know, where we have the parking district.

So I think we're we're asking for some discretion from our contractor to happy to have more of that policy discussion.

We do want to be a little bit careful in that case of state law.

Uh we also want some consistency across our our community, other districts as well.

You're not supposed to park on the wrong direction.

Yeah, yes, yes, yeah.

It is want more to come on that, happy to continue that.

And I would be fine with us doing that if we did it everywhere.

Well, I'm gonna do it everyone.

I want to make the point here that people invite everyone all the time.

You know, they're not still these neighborhoods have asked for extra enforcement.

They've asked for that, they wanted that.

They want more enforcement of parking in their neighborhoods and rules and time limits because of the parking pressures they were feeling.

So then to turn around and say, well, do tourism, do to tourists come into the parking lot.

I I I know that that's the case, but I think we just need to acknowledge that, like, and then to turn around to our people who are enforcing the law and say, well, actually, never mind, don't do you know, I think we can find a balance here, but I want to acknowledge that the parking pressures on these neighborhoods are what the reason that they asked for enforcement.

Right, but I think they're asking for the enforcement to go away.

They're asking for the benefit district to be undone.

Like that that I would like to make sure we go through the public comment process on this and ensure we get a wide swath of comments because I know there's some and I know when you when your guest gets a ticket for coming over for dinner, yeah, you're gonna write to us and you're gonna wonder why is that happening.

We reinstated the paper uh visitor buses.

Yeah, I think that's a great other thing we can do.

We want it to work, we want to make improvements.

Uh the east uh old bin area.

Well, actually, it was all of that area.

Uh they did they did an effort and and survey, and and you know, majority of of the folks that responded are supportive of a new district on the east side too.

You know, there was some that were uncertain, uh, but the majority of folks are looking for some help, and really in that area we're looking to be proactive uh ahead of you know the continued uh in that commercial area, uh right, with the box factory and the new developments and things and that are going there, and timber yard was mentioned earlier tonight.

Uh BFD ahead of that and have a kind of a managed system before it's a right because if we're starting to regulate in the box factory area, then folks may be looking to go into the neighborhoods to park.

So it's really good for us to have something set up there to make sure that we're doing that.

And I'm talking about locals that go into neighborhoods to park instead of parking at the box doctor, it's not it's not just tourists.

So I think we can find a happy medium here, and I think we can have this policy discussion when you come back.

And so that'll happen when when are we coming back to this again?

Well, we would be gonna do it.

We would be looking to come back in like June for recommendation on the proposed east, the two districts that I talked about.

But we can have that policy bigger policy discussion of the existing old bend as well, so we can talk about them together.

Yeah, certainly and and when they when they did their uh survey uh to help us guide with this new district, it was it was for the existing district today as well as a new proposed area, and so there's like 94 comments that were part of that, and so we will come back to you with uh input, concerns, questions in the existing district, as well as how those would apply to the new district.

That's perfect.

Great.

Okay.

I move to authorize a contract with Diamond Parking Services LLC for citywide citywide parking management and enforcement services, and substantially the form presented to council and an amount not to exceed 536,000 dollars for the first year, and authorize the city manager to approve annual renewals in accordance with the terms of the agreement not to exceed 2,906 over five years.

All right, move by Council Perkins, second by Councillor Pranzoza.

All those in favor?

I think all right, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

All right.

Then we have one second reading left.

Okay.

This is the second reading of an ordinance amending the Bend Development Code, BDC related to tree preservation requirements and BDC 3.2.200 tree preservation.

And I need to declare an actual conflict like I did on the first reading of this item.

My employer's hidden homes and this item would have a financial impact on them.

So I will be removing myself for deciding.

Thank you.

I move oh wait.

Okay.

I'm for the second reading adoption by roll call of the ordinance amending bin development code.

BDC 3.2 dot uh 200 uh tree preservation.

Second.

All right, motion by council Perkins, second by counselor Platt.

Roll call vote.

Councillor Francesa?

Yes.

Councilor Mendez.

Hi.

Councilor Riley?

Yes.

Mayor Foot Town Perkins?

Yes.

Counselor Platt?

Okay.

Mayor Kepler.

Yes.

All right.

On to City Manager's report.

Yes.

We've had a couple of busy months and a couple of busy work sessions where we typically have time to say let's what's coming up on the next couple of months.

So I just wanted to share that with you.

And it kind of is a lead-in to some earlier conversation and a proposal that I want to share with you.

So April, our next meeting, our regular meeting on April 1st, Stevens Ranch or Legacy Village, it's now been called.

That will be the public hearing.

There's other items.

I'm just gonna hit the high points.

April 8th is our round table with the electrification policy work looking at both exemptions and implementation timeline, inviting the four city committees, HREC, VDAB, ECC, and affordable housing.

And then on the 15th, we'll have another master plan that's timber yards.

Uh as an item, we'll have uh a goal update, and I'm gonna talk about that as it incorporated into that goal update is an opportunity for council to really look critically at our we're almost one year into our work plan and to go through some prioritization.

I'm gonna talk about that in a second.

May 6th, we have a regular meeting Borough is attached to that.

May 13th is a big work session.

We're gonna be prioritizing our capital improvement program.

We've been talking about that.

Our if our grants hold, uh, then we have some room in the geo, both the geobond and potentially the transportation construction fund to address some of the issues we talked about last night with parks, with the bridges, some other areas that might have got cut initially to add back on.

So that's that's a pretty significant item on May 13th, along with that transient lodging tax conversation about that shift.

What does council want to do of uh with that split shift going from 7030 to 5050 as outlined earlier?

And then we also have a joint work session with the rural fire district on the 13th.

I'm stopping there.

This doesn't finish this out in the in the rest of the fiscal year.

Um it's a lot, and then we still have um you know some other meetings that we want to try to schedule these round table ideas of a potential one in Southwest.

Um we've talked about some interaction with HREC and others.

So we're gonna send out a survey uh that'll come out uh later this week.

Um I'm gonna ask for your input on how this is going.

We're six months into this new schedule where we have a meeting basically every week, and then layered on to that as the are these special meetings.

Your capacity, right, in terms of how you manage.

I would also say from a staff perspective, we're doing a lot of this this one city strategic plan.

We had an off-site with our leadership team and a lot of prep with that one city work.

I our staff is feeling it too.

So we're in partnership.

I think we're both seeing some stress on the elected and staff side.

So I'd like to look at both the schedule and how we can prioritize uh those meetings, but it's gonna mean also prioritizing the work plan items as well.

So I am planning at that quarterly equal update in April to take the input from that survey that you're gonna see, uh, coupled with some ideas of things to to slim down to make sure that we're managing uh we're not.

I think sometimes we've been talking about this.

We go so fast, and if we go so fast, we might miss some things.

So slowing down is a good thing, and I know it's hard because I think this is a community that expects a lot.

We are fast growing, we want to do all the things, but you know, I think in any any effective organization is realistic about the resources that they have and how best to tackle these problems.

So I'm gonna ask for your help and indulgence and kind of going through some prioritization over the next couple of months.

Can I say something real quick here too?

I just want to acknowledge for the start quarter one of this year.

We had three months in a row with no fifth week, a meeting every single week.

We've had three special meetings at least that I can think of.

We might have had more county parks round table and advisory and our advisory summit.

There, thank you.

So we've had a lot going on in quarter one.

So when you're looking at the survey, also take a look and maybe you can provide this, Eric.

That the rest of the year we do have more breaks built in.

There are more fifth weeks.

Um so just be thinking about that.

I don't disagree with sort of how hard this is on the staff, but this has been a particularly hard quarter, I think, just to start out the year.

Yeah, so I think the other piece of that is that everybody else has their own commitments and your HRAC or COIC board or whatever it might be, right?

In addition to the things that you've got to do.

All those other things.

Yep.

So we just want to have an open conversation.

I think just you know, it's okay.

We might have a different perspective on council, but we just want to uh let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it.

You know, um, I also wanted to let you know that our notices for the Benn Central District economic improvement district, the EID, uh, went out.

There was some delay in hiccup with maps and properties, so we've just re-noticed uh folks.

Uh so it's just a it doesn't uh change the um implementation date.

There's just if you get contacted, uh there's a new notice going out, and there's a public hearing that the council will be uh seeing here in the next couple of weeks.

I'll put more information in the memo so you're aware.

Um and then I think that was it.

There's a lot of uh public engagement that's happening with our projects right now.

I'll also there's just too much to open houses coming up.

Open houses and things, so I'll put in the council memo.

I forgot to mention this earlier.

The downtown Ben Library is closing to be renovated later um in April and will be closed for a year.

So just so people know the central library is opening on May 11th, but before then they're gonna have an ability to pick up and drop off books at the central library on the east side.

So for folks who care about that downtown access, that's gonna be it's gonna be great once it's finished, but it is gonna be a painful closure there.

Can you still pick up and drop off downtown then?

No, they apparently they I had a presentation at DBBA today.

Apparently, the the library board discussed that and just the logistics of that and making sure that it's also ADA accessible while they're renovating that whole building is gonna be pretty tough.

So they've they weren't able to figure out how to do that.

Yeah.

Thank you for the update.

Surprise library update.

Sorry.

Return my books after this meeting, or sitting in my backpack.

Yeah, you better get your books now if you got books at the library.

So okay, all right.

With that, I think we're adjourned.

Thanks, everybody.