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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Bend City Council Work Session – May 13, 2026: CIP Update, Transient Lodging Tax, and Wildfire Season Preview

City Council — Wednesday, May 13, 2026

BodyBend, Oregon

SessionCity Council

DateWednesday, May 13, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:49:38

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:10

Okay.

0:11

We are here for the Venn City Council work session.

0:16

Let's do roll call.

0:17

You can start, Councilor Mendez.

0:21

I think too much Mike Riley, he's Melania Keebler, she her, Megan Parkins, she her.

0:27

Megan Narshi her.

0:28

Steve Platthee, him.

0:30

Ariel Mendes, he him.

0:32

And Councilor Francesa is on her way to the meeting and will arrive later.

0:36

She's on actually.

0:37

Oh, she's online.

0:38

Okay, so she's listening in.

0:40

Okay.

0:40

Yeah, I'm actually card right now.

0:42

So this is good.

0:42

So I'm here to geographic cards.

0:45

Okay, thanks.

0:47

All right.

0:47

So we are starting with our CIP update.

0:51

Perfect.

0:53

Thank you, Mayor.

0:54

So Ryan Oster, I'm the director of the engineering department and supporting me up here and partnering with me.

0:59

We have Sarah Hudson from the city management office and Corey Johnson also from the engineering department.

1:05

There's obviously a lot of thought and conversation that goes into this.

1:09

So they're gonna elbow me and remind me of things that we have talked about that I have forgotten to mention.

1:14

So it'll be kind of a joint presentation, primarily from me, but don't be surprised if they jump in as well.

1:22

Feel free to interrupt at any point if you have questions.

1:25

Obviously, this is an interactive thing.

1:28

The point of this today is really to focus on both the geobond and transportation CIP updates.

1:34

This is a mid-biennium update, so nothing really new.

1:38

But we will have about an hour here.

1:41

Here's the agenda.

1:42

We'll talk about a mid-biennium update and what that means.

1:46

We'll go through the process timeline.

1:47

I'll share a quick calendar of kind of what we've been doing to date and how we got to this point.

1:52

Then we'll take a little bit of a deeper dive into both the geobond and the transportation fund, and then of course, uh council discussion related to those.

2:00

And then I do have a little bit of an update on our other important uh water services slash utilities side of the house.

2:07

Uh but we'll have a more in-depth discussion on those topics at a June 24th council work session meeting next month.

2:16

So that being said, the overall objectives of this meeting, uh, we add another year at the end of the five-year CIP, right?

2:24

So a year has come and gone.

2:25

Uh it was weird to talk about fiscal year 30, and now we're talking about fiscal year 31.

2:31

But here we are.

2:32

Overall, we just the whole point of this is to make sure we're still in alignment with council goals, community expectations, uh financial projections and everything, so that so where they're still delivering the way both both this public and the council expects of us.

2:48

And then really just to highlight some of the things that have changed.

2:51

If you'll recall, we we had a nice friendly work session meeting while we were all down here in a horseshoe back in October.

2:59

So we took that feedback and we've implemented that into the draft CIPs.

3:05

It's it's not shown in the presentation, but you you all have or should have access to the draft CIP as an attachment as well as a memo, kind of describing the changes that we've experienced this year.

3:17

Uh so we can reference that at any point in time.

3:21

And that really gets us to where we are today, and and the idea of here's what we understand as staff that we're being asked to do.

3:29

Uh, there's a few fundamental questions that we do want to run by you.

3:32

And so we're gonna introduce these questions up front.

3:36

Don't want to take too deep of a dive into them yet because the presentation should answer a lot of these.

3:43

But what we're sitting at today is is with respect to both of these funds.

3:47

We have the geobond fund and we have the transportation fund.

3:51

So on the geobond side, questions to consider is the consolidation of the ODOT money.

3:57

That's something we talked about in October, and what possibilities lie ahead of us in terms of what to do with that money.

4:03

We've outlined three potential options there, so we'll take a bit of a deeper dive into those after kind of going through all of the possibilities.

4:12

And then on the transportation side, uh a little bit less excitement there, but there are some things that we have adjusted, whether it's moving a project up or back in the schedule, as well as accounting for things uh that weren't in there uh when we adopted the biennium budget, and really just ensuring if you have other priorities you'd like us to consider.

4:35

The transportation fund is where we maybe have a little bit more flexibility within reason, but the the geobond fund obviously is is more uh in sync and it has to, you know, we got to deliver what we said to the public on there.

4:48

And then the third question really is you're gonna be at next week's council meeting.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Engineering And Infrastructure█████████████████████████████████████████████45%

Economic Development██████████████████████22%

Transportation Safety████████████12%

Environmental Protection███████7%

Public Safety████4%

Active Transportation███3%

Procedural███3%

Parks and Recreation██2%

Fiscal Sustainability██2%

Summary of Proceedings

Bend City Council Work Session – May 13, 2026: CIP Update, Transient Lodging Tax, and Wildfire Season Preview

The Bend City Council held a work session on May 13, 2026, covering three major topics: a mid-biennium update on the Geobond and Transportation Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), a discussion on potential changes to the Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) allocation under House Bill 4148, and a wildfire season outlook from the fire chief. Staff presented project status, funding options, and sought council direction on several key items.

Discussion Items

Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Update – Geobond and Transportation Funds

Ryan Oster, Engineering Director, presented the mid-biennium update for the Geobond ($190 million voter-approved bond) and the Transportation Fund. The presentation covered the current spend rate, a $32 million Federal Rail Administration grant for the Reed Market overcrossing (expected to be approved June 3, 2026), and the consolidation of $17 million in ODOT contribution money from several projects. Oster noted that scope creep (e.g., building shared-use paths on both sides of a road) has increased costs, requiring careful prioritization. Three options were outlined for the ODOT money: (1) partner with ODOT on Empire improvements, (2) build a southbound direct connection from US 20 to US 97, or (3) use the funds for other city priorities such as Neighborhood Safe Streets Program (NSSP) and Hawthorne connections.
Council discussed the need for contingency reserves, especially for the Reed Market and Hawthorne bridges, given potential cost escalation. Councilor Mendes expressed interest in Option 3 (safety and NSSP), while Councilor Riley emphasized congestion as a top public concern and supported options that address it. Councilor Kebler noted that a larger list of unfunded projects (e.g., Colorado/97 on-ramp, Revere/Wall intersections) should be compared side-by-side with cost and crash data before final decisions. It was agreed that the Transportation Bond Oversight Committee (recently reformed as a general transportation committee) would help evaluate options.
On the Transportation Fund side, staff proposed accelerating the Reed Market roundabout (budget increased from ~$4.25 million to ~$7 million to allow for a full double-lane option) and increasing funding for the Drake Park footbridge from $1 million to $2 million over two years, with the intent to transfer the asset to the parks district after design and construction. Council supported the $2 million increase, contingent on pursuing grants. The Galveston project will begin summer 2026 with driveway and alley work, followed by a raised crossing at 17th Street.

Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) Discussion

Cyrus Mooney (Business Development Manager) and Jeff Knapp (CEO of Visit Bend) presented on House Bill 4148, which allows the city to adjust the allocation of the 1.4% TLT increment enacted post-2003. Currently, 64.6% of TLT goes to the city and 35.4% to Visit Bend. Under HB 4148, the city's share could increase to 67.3% (a 50/50 split on the 1.4% increment), generating approximately $200,000 in FY26 and $400,000 annually thereafter. The legislation also includes a business resiliency grant program, but definitions remain vague. Knapp noted that visitor spending is expected to reach $405 million this year, but cautioned against reducing tourism marketing given economic headwinds (fuel prices, potential El Niño impacts on snow and wildfire).
Councilors expressed interest in pursuing the allocation change but not before the start of FY27 (January 1, 2027), incorporating it into the upcoming request for proposals (RFP) for the destination management contract (current contract expires June 30, 2027). Councilor Kebler and others signaled that additional TLT revenue should be directed to services with a nexus to tourism, such as traffic enforcement and public safety (Councilor Mendez), shelter services (Councilor Francisca), and infrastructure maintenance. There was consensus to include the business resiliency grant concept in the RFP with clear criteria and triggers, rather than implementing it immediately. Council did not support pursuing a future room tax increase at this time, but agreed to revisit after the new contract and FY27 budget are in place.

Wildfire Season Update

Fire Chief Todd (no full name given) presented an outlook for the 2026 wildfire season. Key points: a transition to ENSO-neutral conditions has led to a coin-flip season; below-normal precipitation and early snowmelt have dried fine fuels; mid-elevation snowpack is gone. Analog years (2015, 2018) suggest an early fire season onset. The fire risk is expected to be above normal by June, with peak fire potential in July. The chief emphasized that large snow years don't guarantee low fire acreage (citing 2002, 2011, and 2024). The community was encouraged to sign up for Deschutes Alerts, maintain defensible space, and participate in Firewise efforts. The fire academy graduation in late June will help relieve staffing vacancies by July 1.

Key Outcomes

CIP Direction: Council directed staff to refine options for the $17 million ODOT contribution money and bring back a comparative analysis including crash data, cost estimates, and traffic modeling for unfunded projects (e.g., Colorado/97 on-ramp, Revere/Wall intersections). The transportation committee will be asked to advise on priorities. Contingency reserves will be added to high-risk projects (Reed Market, Hawthorne bridges).
Drake Park Bridge: Council approved increasing the Transportation Fund allocation to $2 million over two years (from $1 million) for design and construction, with the intent to transfer the asset to the parks district. Staff will also explore less expensive rehabilitation options.
TLT Allocation: Council directed staff to prepare code changes and incorporate a shift to a 50/50 split on the 1.4% TLT increment into the upcoming RFP for destination management services, effective FY27. Additional revenue will be allocated through the budget process, with initial signals pointing toward public safety and shelter services.
Business Resiliency Grants: Council decided not to implement a dedicated grant program immediately, but will include a framework in the RFP that defines triggers and criteria for deploying such funds in future years.
Wildfire Preparedness: No formal action was taken; council received the information and encouraged community vigilance and registration for emergency alerts.
Next Steps: Staff will return for further discussions on CIP details in June (including water/utilities), and present the TLT RFP timeline and Visit Bend's annual budget report in the coming months.

Meeting Transcript

Okay. We are here for the Venn City Council work session. Let's do roll call. You can start, Councilor Mendez. I think too much Mike Riley, he's Melania Keebler, she her, Megan Parkins, she her. Megan Narshi her. Steve Platthee, him. Ariel Mendes, he him. And Councilor Francesa is on her way to the meeting and will arrive later. She's on actually. Oh, she's online. Okay, so she's listening in. Okay. Yeah, I'm actually card right now. So this is good. So I'm here to geographic cards. Okay, thanks. All right. So we are starting with our CIP update. Perfect. Thank you, Mayor. So Ryan Oster, I'm the director of the engineering department and supporting me up here and partnering with me. We have Sarah Hudson from the city management office and Corey Johnson also from the engineering department. There's obviously a lot of thought and conversation that goes into this. So they're gonna elbow me and remind me of things that we have talked about that I have forgotten to mention. So it'll be kind of a joint presentation, primarily from me, but don't be surprised if they jump in as well. Feel free to interrupt at any point if you have questions. Obviously, this is an interactive thing. The point of this today is really to focus on both the geobond and transportation CIP updates. This is a mid-biennium update, so nothing really new. But we will have about an hour here. Here's the agenda. We'll talk about a mid-biennium update and what that means. We'll go through the process timeline. I'll share a quick calendar of kind of what we've been doing to date and how we got to this point. Then we'll take a little bit of a deeper dive into both the geobond and the transportation fund, and then of course, uh council discussion related to those. And then I do have a little bit of an update on our other important uh water services slash utilities side of the house. Uh but we'll have a more in-depth discussion on those topics at a June 24th council work session meeting next month. So that being said, the overall objectives of this meeting, uh, we add another year at the end of the five-year CIP, right? So a year has come and gone. Uh it was weird to talk about fiscal year 30, and now we're talking about fiscal year 31. But here we are. Overall, we just the whole point of this is to make sure we're still in alignment with council goals, community expectations, uh financial projections and everything, so that so where they're still delivering the way both both this public and the council expects of us. And then really just to highlight some of the things that have changed. If you'll recall, we we had a nice friendly work session meeting while we were all down here in a horseshoe back in October. So we took that feedback and we've implemented that into the draft CIPs. It's it's not shown in the presentation, but you you all have or should have access to the draft CIP as an attachment as well as a memo, kind of describing the changes that we've experienced this year. Uh so we can reference that at any point in time. And that really gets us to where we are today, and and the idea of here's what we understand as staff that we're being asked to do. Uh, there's a few fundamental questions that we do want to run by you.

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