I have Wordley Live Translation.

Our first up this evening is our work session at 6 p.m.

Right of way license program.

And our staff presentation is Peter Brandon, City Manager.

Peter.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Nice to see you all.

I'll start by acknowledging and introducing Reba Crocker with Right of Way Consultants who's joining us online via Zoom.

And Reba has deep experience in this realm and is helping us with this program.

And what we're going to do is I'm just going to walk through it, feel the questions that I can, and then Reba will chime in as needed with the expert perspective.

We have hi Reba.

We oh and the other thing, Reba, the sound in the council chamber is pretty loud, so when you talk, you can talk pretty softly.

One of our tech particularities.

They include telecommunications, cable, electricity, natural gas, cellular, water, sewer and stormwater and garbage services.

The city holds a contract with each entity to allow for and compensate for use of the right-of-way because there is a cost for occupying it.

Many of those contracts are expired.

Each contract requires separate negotiation and management, and the fees can vary.

So it's essentially a separate contract with any entity in the right-of-way, and that obviously is pretty complex and pretty high administrative burden.

And for any of those private utilities, there could be a number of providers even just within telecommunications, for example.

And there are additionally, a franchise individually negotiated and agreed for a longer term, which they typically are, usually 10-15 years.

They hold both parties to requirements that can become a barrier with changes in technology or changes to the law.

And for us with limited staff, it's also challenging to actively manage all those contracts.

And in reality, compliance is largely up to the franchisee, which is not ideal.

And we do have some entities that are that not up to date on fees, just as one example.

So in recent years, some Oregon cities have transitioned to a license format, a much simpler format, which provides for lower administrative burden to manage it, the same terms for any licensee, regardless of who they are.

More easily amendable terms when changes are needed.

Those terms are typically not written into code.

They're just part of that license.

Sometimes changes in the law, whether state or federal, do require changes, and it's a lot more burdensome to make them.

It provides for greater consistency and clarity for both the terms and the cost across the different companies, and that really benefits both both the licensee and the city.

And it provides for fairer and more just compensation to the city for the use of the right-of-way, and we can elaborate on that.

One example that Reba provided is that sometimes an entity, for example, PGE will sub-lease space on their poll, and that sub-lessee won't be brigand terms, and so they'll be essentially using the right of way without having to pay for it.

It also provides for a stronger legal defensibility.

So in order to develop the program, we would amend the Cornelius Municipal Code to include the terms and the process for the license for this program.

And Reba has implemented this for a number of cities and actually even authored the model code for the for Oregon cities for the League of Oregon Cities, and she has extensive experience in all of this as I meant as I mentioned.

The fees for use of the right-of-way by licensees would be set via resolution so they can be more easily amended as we do for other fees.

And we also plan to retain a consultant, um, probably Reba when we're done making the change to actively manage the program so that we can get our arms around the current occupants of the right-of-way and make sure that they're complying with everything that they're signed up for, especially the the fees that they owe.

And we're we're very confident that this will result in some increased revenue to the city, which currently is essentially lost revenue.

And again, the scope of the utilities to be included in this program are uh electricity, natural gas, water sewer, and storm, stormwater, telecommunications, communications, video, wireless, and cellular services.

Uh and some entities that deliver services through the city without delivering to customers in the city may also qualify.

That's something else we're going to explore.

An example of that might be uh a uh utility uh transmission line that comes through Cornelius.

So what are called over-the-top services such as Netflix and Hulu and satellite services such as Direct TV will not be covered since the city doesn't have legal authority to do so.

Um the cost for consultant services to implement this, build it and implement it is uh we are confident also based on the experience of other cities, far less than the newly realized revenue that we'll see from this active management.

And as we develop the implementing ordinance, it'll be important for our consultant to work directly with the current franchisees to transition them over, and uh Reba also has a lot of experience with this and relationships with these companies, many of them.

And we will uh also consult our city attorney.

We do have access to an expert in this field.

Um her name is Nancy Warner, and I've worked with her for years, and she's really known nationally as an expert in this law.

We just want to make sure that everything that we uh recommend to you to approve complies with our existing code and other law, and so we'll be doing that as well.

So the next steps are we're already well down the path of completing a draft fee resolution and ordinance to implement, and we'll have our city attorney review both of these before we bring it back, and then Reba will consult with the franchisees to present the new program, the fees and the new code, and then actively manage the licensees going forward.

So not sure exactly when we're gonna bring it back, but it'll be pretty soon, uh, maybe by the end of the calendar year for you to uh consider.

So I think with that, um that's that's a pretty high-level view of it.

Um, and Reba's here to ask more detailed questions if you have any and just open it up.

Council questions.

Yes, Councilor Gordinas.

Um I'm curious.

Well, that's not sorry.

I'm curious to know more about um what the fees look like in terms of how much do we would you ballpark that we spend on the different contracts, negotiation with lawyer fees, and then how much are we looking for in terms of what's the ballpark also for the amount made off of those contracts, and then what we're about looking to make with these changes.

Sorry, I know that's a lot.

Yes, and I don't have clean answers, but I I will say that currently we have a Schmorgis board because they are all individually negotiated contracts, and we we have information from uh kind of ranges of fees that are charged both nationally and within Oregon under this format, and so we can we can recommend a reasonable point with also a reasonable um escalation over time for that to account for increased costs that we incur.

Um most of the utilities, and Reba please jump in if I misstate this, but most of the utilities will be on a per linear foot.

So depending on how much uh infrastructure they actually have in the right-of-way, it would be on a per linear foot.

Uh Reba, do you want to chime in?

Well, um most uh provided with the revenue.

So it'd be uh said it.

Reba revenue within the am I the only person that feels like we're only getting about every other word because she's blowing out the amps on the speaker.

If you can maybe I'm sorry, yeah.

Is there any way we'll try?

Yeah, that's better.

Yes, it is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So most of the services for market would be charged on the revenue.

And if they don't provide services, it's transport through the city, it charge a linear footage for these in the right way.

So everybody that uses the right thing will have to compensate the city if you pay you.

Most of them will be on a first revenue though.

Yeah, so there are a couple of different formats.

There's a per linear foot in some cases, and then in other cases, um, other formats.

It we're having trouble hearing you, Reba, so sorry about that.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah.

I don't think it's a you problem.

I think it's an us problem.

I think we're just way overamped on this end.

I don't know what we sound like to you, but you sound like um you may be coming from Mount Olympus and talking to us really loud.

Um if it helps, I'm barely hearing her either on my side too.

I think it might be an internet connection problem on her.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Yeah.

So it's funny.

Yeah, that that seemed to sound better.

Thank you.

Um other questions?

Otherwise, I'll start digging in.

Yeah, John.

Counselor Colgan.

I think that uh she was kind of covered what I was gonna ask in answering uh consul president, yeah.

And answering council president Garina's question, and I was just wondering how we measure usage in order to produce so much more revenue, and it sounds like it's either percentage of gross revenue generated from Cornelius or by linear foot.

And is that the real difference here is instead of just charging an annual franchise fee is that we're metering it in some way as as based on usage.

If I may, please, please.

Most franchises are percentage of gross revenue that they the franchise takes the city through of their right away.

So that's really not a difference.

The code allows to charge them perge of the gross revenue they earn within the city.

And then if we don't provide if they have facilities in the right of way, if you don't provide services within your city, you still using the right of way.

Those providers will be charged on a limited basis.

Did that answer the question?

Okay, well, and and uh I'm gonna go ahead and go there.

So this is not the first time we've plowed this field.

That's the advantage of me being around for 20 years.

Umless Reba can tell us a new person that's gonna pay this, it's our citizens.

The residents of Cornelius pay this fee.

If you look at your power bill, your gas bill, your cable bill, whatever it is, whatever utility comes to your house, most all of them have two of them now in a lot of cases.

They have corporate activity tax, the cat.

Thank you, state legislature for instituting a sales tax.

Um, and the second one is their franchise fee, they just pass it straight through.

So my concern is is we might see this as the pot of gold, but the source is still our residents.

Uh unless Reba, can you point to somebody else that's gonna pay this?

No, because legally, according to the FCC, they are allowed to pass that cost on, just as they're allowed to pass on their bonuses that nature.

So we can't control that.

If uh changes, then they would be able to pass it on.

But currently they are allowed by federal law to pass that on to the customers.

Some do, some don't.

Some phones to see their advertisement that flat fee, extra fees.

So they've not passed that on.

Well, and and I'll I'll tell you from the flat fee perspective, talking with a lot of those businesses, it's just rolled into the cost of their doing business, right?

So instead of charging you 25 dollars and three dollars for capital activities tax and utility right of way, they just charge you 28 bucks, and then it's it looks like it's different, but it's it's rolled up the same.

So that's that's the that's the road we plowed on this before is it's just extracting the money from our residents.

Um the one that we were never able to crack into, and maybe Reba can tell us how we crack into it differently.

Um was all the backhaul.

That was the big thing that we thought was the untapped pot of gold.

Is so every cell tower only purpose for a cell tower is to make your phone call go to ground, right?

It can it converts it to fiber optic at that point.

And what you're making a call or doing something at your house, you can see how much internet usage, right?

You can log in your program and say, I'm using five or six gig or terabyte or whatever, right?

You use so much.

It doesn't change your infrastructure requirement on data.

But what you don't see is ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile backhauling all of this data that's coming from your cell phone, right?

Or businesses that pass through, or uh people that are vacationing and they pass through all of that data there.

Um they wouldn't previously let us in to any information on how much they were making providing that backhaul for the cell companies.

So maybe Rebe, you got some inlight.

Is that changed, or is that still the same battle it was?

I think you asked me two questions.

And the answer to the first one is currently your franchise charge percentage of gross revenue that doesn't get passed on, so that's really isn't changed, it passes on.

Suddenly, the backhaul, yes, now you're being able to charge that.

For example, there's um people that own utilities, facilities in your right-of-way that pass that data through your city.

They don't make any money in your city.

They may use other people's facilities.

Now you will be able to collect use of your right-of-way.

That backhaul is not flexible.

Well, it will be if you if the code because you're allowed to do that with a new with a new law.

Um anybody that uses those facilities should pay you for use of that right-of-way.

Right.

I mean, well, we've talked about historically two big sources are 72-inch water main, right?

That runs down TV highway that supports the west side of the county, right?

We get we tap a straw's worth off of that 72 main for us, but one of the past sources was considering do we could we tax the 72-inch water main?

And then the other one I think you talked about in your presentation, Peter, is um the transmission lines that run through town.

Is there some opportunity there?

Um, and who who really pays that ultimately for that transmission?

How do we get a number on those?

And and Reba, are you thinking that there's some way to maybe look at those now and be able to make them a source of revenue?

Um, well, it's a source of compensation for the use of the right-of-way and the transmission lines are do you mean uh people providers that use those facilities and provide services in the city or just pass through the city?

Um Peter, I think they do both, right?

There's yeah, it's a huge, it's I mean it's high tension.

The we're talking about the large metal columns with very high, you know, tens of thousands of volts up there, but they I think they also tap off of those to feed the like the substation that's by Fred Myers.

I think it's fed from that.

So it's internal and transient.

Okay, so the the way the code is designed is they'll pay either percentage of gross revenue or a linear foot fee.

So if they own facilities, it'll be um to say, for example, 7% gross revenue, plus total five thousand dollars a linear foot fee, which must total five thousand dollars, and they must pay you five thousand dollars a year for compensation for the use of the right-of-way.

Does that make sense?

So we could do it's the greater of the two.

Uh-huh.

With a minimum fee.

Just for the privilege of being in the city, because I know we've talked in the past.

I I think you guys were involved in that.

Um, the internet provider for the school, right?

Had um asked us for consideration because of the limited, unlike an ATT or Verizon or or Comcast who's delivering to thousands of households in the city, they had a very limited access, and our fee was difficult for them to comprehend and make pencil out because of only delivering to the you know a couple schools or something.

So well, you you do have to treat every like provider the same.

But if it's a different type of provider, for example, you can treat um PGE different like less natural because they're not like providers, and CD is also allowed to enter into other agreements if it serves the public interest.

So it sounds to me like service would be in the public interest to go up with a different agreement.

What should you be allowed to do?

Yeah, it's gonna be a good thing.

That also makes me think of tiers, right?

Like having a different tier of within the the scale of, for example, if it's water, depending on the amount of usage of water we charge you this much or this much on the franchise fee so that it allows for people that are only servicing one individual versus 1500.

Well, and then in that one we do that right now because that's our own city-owned franchise, so we don't charge ourselves a franchise fee on that.

But you know, you have your base, which is the infrastructure charge, and then we have usage fees that go on top of that based on how many thousands of gallons you basically use.

So we do that right now for water, but that's our wholly owned utility, um, which then carries over to sewer and surface water.

But yes, Counselor Gordinas, go on.

Yeah, and one of the things that I appreciate you asking and bringing to light, you know, some of the conversations you all have had in the past about this issue, because I do agree that obviously I do I don't want that fee being passed on to um our community, but they're already doing that, right?

We already see that, and so part of me also realizes that we're getting the city is being um skimmed in a way, maybe that's not the best terminology or word, but um we're missing opportunities, especially when it sounds like if companies are probably paying having other people pay to use their right of way, because I can't imagine they're doing it for free.

Um so I would like for us to be able to have the opportunity to have a system that allows us to capture that.

Um it's hard because yeah, I don't want to pass on a fee, but I also have a hard time believing they're not already overcharging the customer.

Um, and so I think about what we could do with that money and what it would, you know, what hopefully uh what's the right term, allevements that might provide in the community.

Um if we're saying it's gonna be a a lot more money coming in.

Um I would that's why I'm also curious to see the comparison in numbers and why I asked that earlier, because if we're only talking about a $2,000 increase, or if we're talking about 10,000 or 5,000, um, you know, I think it's important to have that number to kind of help our heads around this.

And and and my guess is without the only way we get more money is if we find a way to capture people that aren't paying now, or the other is um I I suppose maybe the other dividend it pays, is it less cumbersome to manage the relationship?

And I think that's to some of the points you brought up, Peter was about um can we better manage the contract?

Is it easier for staff?

We may not get more revenue, but can't does it make it a better, more efficient that there may be other opportunities that pay dividends, right?

If it's easier to manage, easier to implement, easier to update.

That that might be worth the conversion instead of assuming there's gonna be a pot of gold that magically drops on us that our citizens don't pay.

Um, putting it in the universe.

Right, right.

I I I think some uh as business goes, right?

If you charge, they will just pass it on to somebody, somebody, some resident somewhere, some business, and if some business gets hit, they're gonna pass those costs on.

And if they can't, they go out of business, right?

That's that if you can't make a profit, there's no reason to be in business.

So I think we we need to be cognizant of that.

I don't think I'm open to uh further understanding and analysis on this, and I think that's kind of what you were hinting at is we would need to see and understand what the numbers are, right?

And then really what the cost benefits are if it's different, right?

I I hate to always use the same example, but it's easy.

It's the street sweeping, right?

We really couldn't get street sweeping done cheaper when we went out for bids by a private company, and that was a big interest.

But what we would lose is the ability for our staff to show up in the middle of the night and street sweep up after an accident.

And no no private business wanted to provide that service without an extraneous amount of cost.

So it's really it wasn't about so much about the cost, it was about the services we get, right?

So I think you gotta look at those sometimes those soft benefits or soft costs and understand.

And if that's really the bigger picture answer on this than the revenue, maybe that makes it an appropriate thing to do for the citizens or for the residents of our community, right?

So other questions.

Ariba, sorry, go ahead, Reba.

I'm so sorry.

Currently, you have providers in your right of way that are not compensating the e residents for that use.

Versus other providers that are.

So it's kind of create an unfair market.

Um everybody should pay the same.

And by having a code that everybody's created the same, you have a better legal vision for all of them, and they're easily managed to have.

Think about how many providers you have in the homes.

All of them use your own way.

None of them are paying you how.

Well, and I think that goes to Councillor Goodinus' point.

Um, with exception, right?

We may need to, like we talked about the internet for the school, we carved out an exception for them because to your point, Ruba, uh public benefit, right?

Um a different type of provider.

You couldn't do an agreement for the sub figure.

And not the self provider, that is pay.

But the school is different than all the provided.

Right.

A school services, yeah, school service would be different than a commercial or residential provision, right?

But as soon as they crossed over and if they started doing commercial or residential service, then we'd have to pull them in under the umbrella.

And and to your point, everybody that has cable, we'd have to treat the same, right?

If it's Comcast, Xfinity, whoever, uh Verizon, Frontier, whatever name they are this week.

Um all the telecoms would be created and treated equally, which would then also make it easier to comparison, right?

Um if their sales, if they're doing good in town and they have a lot of connections, they're gonna get and pay more if it's based on their gross receipts versus linear foot, right?

I think um Verizon formally and Frontier formally, formally, formally, laid a lot of fiber in town, but I don't know what their connectivity rate is in comparison to Comcast Xfinity, right?

Who's got both of them go by by example, both go by my house, but I'm only subscribed to one of them.

So they only get a capital fee out of one of them right now.

But if I uh they also add that there's only so many who own fiber in your right-of-way.

So let's say consumer cellular own anything.

They're using other people's fiber.

So that fiber that goes past your house, only those tires probably check more.

They use that facility.

Right.

Like you said, it's the backhaul and whatever else is going on, right?

There's um leasing going on amongst these businesses that they never bring us into the tent on.

Right.

Uh we we don't have as much power poll as we used to in town, thank goodness.

We also don't have as many storm problems as we used to.

So other questions, comments, concerns?

Jump in, guys, if you got something.

Counselor Lopez, you got anything?

No, just uh to back your statements.

I think I'm I'd look to I would want to see what the benefit is on uh uh the city service side, if this is gonna relieve us from managing those contracts, uh we looking to improve services somewhere else or what that math might look like.

So yeah.

Counselor Colden?

Yeah, sounds like we're trying to avoid uh generating revenue from our constituents through kind of an indirect means here.

I think that was your argument, Mayor, is that if we up the the fees that companies pay to do business here, ultimately it's just another way for us to generate revenue from the people that live here.

Um that's certainly a good point.

Um my wonder is are we currently recooing the city's expenses in maintaining the rights of way, constructing new ones, looking at all of our new subdivision down in Laurel Woods, that all of that system development.

Are we being paid enough to maintain that and to have generated that by these companies?

And are we missing so much revenue right now that we're actually um sponsoring these businesses by paying for their infrastructure or not being fairly compensated?

I I think again, we think we need to see some firmer numbers on this because yeah, I don't want to just generate kind of a bypass tax that that ends up funding the city from our constituents, but at the same time, we need to make sure that we are doing our due diligence and that the city is um getting enough revenue back for the use of that right-of-way to generate to create it and maintain it and continue providing city services.

So I'm open to this.

I I would like to see some numbers.

And certainly anything we can generate from pass-through costs where people are using that right away but aren't servicing the city would be a great idea for us, I think.

Counselor Vaughn, questions, comments?

Well, I think most of the topics have been covered already.

I think knowing the numbers is certainly gonna help and having a uh not unique to Cornelius, but a cost-sensitive, you know, uh community around us in general.

And to uh counselor Colgan's point about covering our expenses, right?

I think there's gonna be a balance of what we charge for these licenses that's going to both cover our expenses without impacting cost-sensitive uh community members.

So um the the only question I had is is a lot of the contracts we have now or uh most of them, some of them, whatever the terminology was, are already expired.

Are those uh contracts that are expired, are they still sending money our direction?

Or because they're expired, are we not receiving those funds?

That's a that's an important question.

I I don't have uh a ready answer for you.

It's it is a mixed bag.

We know, for example, of one company that uh, and I'm actually not sure offhand whether they have a current uh franchise agreement who are way behind on uh to the tune of you know five figures on their on their dues.

Um, and then there are others that um are probably up on their payments but aren't under an active contract.

So I think one of the very appealing pieces for uh assistant city manager Ellie and me is to really get our arms around it all and and then be able to have it be actively managed so we can answer these questions.

Yeah, and I think that goes back to the mayor's point about the soft benefit of this, right?

I mean, if it's not generating revenue, the magic pot of gold, um, if it's making it easier for the city to manage those contracts and at least keep current on what we are owed and make things equal and fair and easier to manage than yeah, there's a benefit there, even if it's not putting money in our pockets per se.

I I think one other piece too that comes to mind that that will be really helpful is having someone representing us at tables where we just don't have capacity right now, so there are state and national groups that focus on this and Reba is very plugged in there, and that'll just be helpful, you know, laws do change, and and there are a lot of different dynamics with with different providers and things like that that we'll we'll be better tuned to by doing the work.

Well, and I I think you hit on one there, right?

Because this is under attack normally every legislative session is our ability and our right to charge these fees, right?

The right of way.

It's like, oh no, you guys aren't doing anything.

Well, I think to Reva's point, we need to be able to show that we're actively engaged in the business of managing our right-of-way.

That's part of a defendable, you know, the armor against these accusations is oh no, this is what we're doing, this is how it's managed, this is what it takes care of.

And to your multiple counselors' points, right?

Um, what are we doing to sustain that right of way?

What are we doing to maintain or improve that right-of-way for these usage?

So I think that's maybe part of the larger pictures.

Other questions, comments?

Reba, any closing comments that we can only hear half of?

I apologize for that.

Um I would just say one thing about the contracts.

Even though they're expired, if they continue to provide services, they're required to continue to pay, even though the contract is expired.

Um other than that, I mean, I don't have any firm numbers for you guys.

I haven't looked into that, but you'll be in a much better position by treating everybody the same.

And uh it's many cities have benefited from this and switch over to this because it is a better system than the current franchisees making franchises.

Do you hear every other word or every word?

Yeah, we got most of them that time.

That was pretty good.

Well, if there's no other questions or comments, and then I think we'll adjourn the work session.

Thank you, Reba.

Welcome everyone.

This is Cornelia City Council.

Monday, September 2nd, 2025.

We're meeting here live in the council chambers.

We also have a Zoom webinar.

We have TVC TV live streaming us, and we also have the wordly live translation.

There's a URL in the back corner of the room on the table, um, and the passcodes on the agendas.

So if anybody needs live translation, that is available also.

We had a work session at six o'clock, and you're here for a regular session at seven.

First thing on our business is the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please join me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Councilor Lopez.

Present.

Councilor Vaughan.

Present.

Councillor Colton.

Here.

Councilor President Claudinez Valencia.

Mayor Delane.

President.

Wow, you really got the mic on that one.

Okay.

Hey, everyone's in attendance.

Thank you.

Uh we have a few announcements.

Thursday, September 11th, uh, 1 p.m.

There will be a September 11th memorial uh presented at the Veterans Memorial Park.

Uh Friday, September 12th from noon to 6 p.m.

Cornelius fire fill the boot.

This will be happening at 10th and Adair and Baseline.

Monday, October 6th, 6 p.m.

will be city council work session.

And then Monday, October 6th at 7 p.m.

will be our next city council meeting.

Consent agenda.

Do I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I motion to adopt the consent agenda.

Motion by Councillor Godinas.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

That passes unanimously.

That takes us into public comment.

Okay.

Speaking in person.

Let me go over some of the rules and then I'll start calling folks.

Comments are please limit to three minutes.

Folks that are wishing to speak in person, register for speaking by filling out a form and the city council chamber.

There should be some.

Their little yellow forms look like this back on the table.

Once you have those filled out, please bring them up to the city recorder and they will get to me and we'll call you up.

Speaking virtually, we ask that you contact the city recorder via email, which is in the agenda no later than 3 p.m.

on the day of the council meeting.

You'll need to provide your name, address, and when possible the topic of testimony.

Those attending virtually will not be able to turn on their camera during the meeting or share their screen.

Presentation material may be submitted as written testimony via email or in person at City Hall.

First up, Christopher.

And I don't want to murder your last name, Barrera.

Thank you.

See, I knew I wasn't going to get it quite right.

So uh please make sure that the uh green light is on on the microphone.

And uh you just tap it and it should go from red to green.

And then go ahead and uh we'll get your clock started and tell us where you're here and what you're here to talk about.

Okay, I got you.

Yep.

Can you hear me?

Yep, that's coming through there.

All right, good afternoon, council members.

Uh Mr.

Bramden and Mayor Delyn.

I want to start off by thanking you for your service and continuous commitment to making Cornelius a better place for all.

My name is Christopher Barriere, and I live at 2160 South Alpine Street.

Four months ago, my life changed as my daughter was born, and I was able to buy the home that my father-in-law owned for the past 35 years.

Instead of enjoying this new chapter in my life with my spouse and my daughter, I'm standing here before you pleading for your help.

You see, for the past 30 days, a neighbor two houses down from me has parked one of their eight cars in front of my home.

This is in retaliation after I kindly asked if we can share the street parking.

I asked him simply if we can share the street parking in front of my home because there are times when my spouse, who's a marine corps veteran, is carrying my four-month-old daughter.

She has to resort to park five to ten houses down.

Their response was we don't you don't own the street, and that they can park wherever they they want.

Council, they are right.

I don't own the street.

And I don't have an expectation of parking in front of my home every single day.

But I ask you, how would you feel if someone parked in front of your home for 30 consecutive days?

Rotating one of their seven cars while you're working six days a week trying to provide for your young family.

Isn't this Oregon's family town?

I've tried calling the police twice to help mediate the situation, and they're saying that there's nothing they can do because they are rotating their cars every 72 hours in accordance with municipal code.

Council, this is not okay.

In the future to protect homes like mine.

It is not equitable that a household with two cars like mine have to make way for homes with eight or more cars.

This is only going to get worse as this.

I'm sorry, where's the time?

I don't want to um this is only going to get worse as this family has teenagers that will be getting cars more in the future.

I will be willing to volunteer and be part of the solution to spearhead a committee in this matter that Cornelius has endured.

Parking is not, I understand parking is a scarcity.

I'm here because I am requesting two things.

I'm helping, I'm I'm requesting that you help reallocate all the mailboxes on our street that take up a majority of our parking.

And I'm asking that you consider to reallocate the stall in front of my home as either a handicap or a veteran-only parking spot, so we can so we can pay homage to the veterans and the people that served our country.

Council, I have taken and make made all the reasonable efforts that I can.

The next measure will be selling my home.

Please do not make me sell my home.

Please do not let this stand fall on deaf ears.

I appreciate your time, council.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Christopher.

Uh, before you leave, council, do you have any questions?

Thank you.

Appreciate you coming by and providing that, and I appreciate you talking on the phone with me the other day and and uh going over this.

And I we we feel for your concern, and you and I talked about um the parking issues and where I feel that the state has taken away our ability to really manage parking even within our own city.

Um, but I think the staff has your contact information, and uh, I think there's an opportunity to see if there's any way we can help in this.

And I think mediation, um, maybe there's some more we can go down that road and see if anything can help.

But thank you for coming by and bringing this to our attention.

Thank you, thank you.

And for the record, yeah, I did to call Mr.

Delyn, and he was he was very gracious to hear me hear me out.

Um, and uh, and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up, I have and I'm sorry, I'm I'm struggling with the handwriting.

It's uh Maryella Garness.

I'm sure you will please correct me when you come up so that I can get this right.

And then uh please uh if the mic's not green, uh you just gotta tap it to make it live.

Yes, it's Mariella Garfield.

Thank you.

Thank you for correcting me.

Yes.

Um good evening, everybody.

Uh my name is Mariella Garfius.

I also live at 2160 South Alpine Street with my partner Christopher.

My family has owned the home at 2160 for almost my entire life, so 35 plus years.

I grew up in this home, and this home has now been passed to me.

It is the home I plan to raise my baby girl, making her the third generation to grow up here.

Growing up, everyone in this neighborhood was kind, friendly, and respectful to one another, and it was the ideal place for kids to be kids.

I am saddened to say this is no longer the case.

Now we have neighbors who allow their dogs to run the streets without leashes, terrorizing anyone who walks by on a regular basis.

These same neighbors speed on our block every time they're behind the wheel, making it unsafe for children to play.

They have now taken over the street parking on our block with complete disregard for any of the other surrounding families.

As my partner stated, we've tried taking care of the issue directly, but this family has refused to come to any agreement.

We come to you today as a last effort for assistance in dealing with this matter.

The last thing I want is to sell my home that was passed down to me, the home my parents worked so hard for.

But at this point, the family at 2128 South Alpine has made it a neighborhood I no longer recognize, and it saddens me to say that it is a neighborhood I can't see myself keeping my family in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counsel, any questions?

Uh thank you for coming by and bringing this to us.

I like I said, I will lean into the the staff and see if there's any further help we can provide.

But thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Thank you.

Take that.

Uh next up we have uh Patricia.

And the same last name I already murdered.

So please come up and correct me on how to say it correctly.

Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon.

Uh, my name is Patty, and I live in 214 South Alpine.

So I am their neighbors.

Um I am here today to ask for your guys' help with the same neighbors that they're having an issue with, but they're actually my direct neighbors.

Um I've owned my home for the past six years, but it's been three years that I've been having issues with my neighbors.

Um their dogs in my backyard, they've broken my fence.

We shared a fence that they took down and put a piece of siding.

Um they currently have six cameras facing my home, so they're checking every time I come in and go.

Um I no longer feel safe for me and my family.

Um every chance they get, they come out and harass me, my husband, while my three children are there.

Uh if any family member comes in, they do the same thing.

Um they speak.

There was an occasion where they almost ran over my child, my eight-year-old child.

And when I called the police, they said unfortunately there's nothing we can do because we cannot prove that they did it intentionally.

Which when I showed the video, he said it does seem like he they wanted to hurt your child, but I cannot prove that.

Last week, she had one of the children had something in her hand that looked like a gun.

And she pointed it to my home and act like she was shooting my home.

And started laughing.

I call cops.

If you need a minute to compose yourself, please stop the timer.

It's okay.

Thank you, Stephanie.

Sorry.

No, it's okay.

It's it's it's okay.

It's totally understandable.

Um, when I called the police, they said unfortunately there's nothing we can do.

And my response was so I have to wait for one of my children to get hurt, shot, or killed for you to do something.

As a mother, I feel like it's my responsibility to protect my children.

I have an eight-year-old, a three-year-old, and a two-year-old.

I am here to ask for your help because I don't know what to do anymore.

I don't feel safe in my home.

My husband works a lot, so I'm hoping myself with my three children a lot.

I've tried calling the police for the last three years and nothing gets done.

So I'm here to ask for help because I don't know what to do anymore.

Thank you for your time.

Council, any questions?

See none.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we will endeavor to work with staff to see if there's any additional help we can provide.

If there's something we will obviously, we have your contact information staff, you have phone numbers so you can reach these folks and be able to talk with them.

Okay.

Great.

So thank you for coming by and bringing this to our attention.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um any other public comment this evening?

I have no other cards.

No emails.

Okay, no one online, nobody scheduled.

Okay.

Thank you.

Recognitions, we have none this evening.

Um in regards to this staff, obviously, you've gotten this information.

Um I suppose you will give us a report out and I really don't want us to have to wait till next council session.

So if there's something you need further direction on from us.

Is there anything you need from staff or from council in regards to looking into this and seeing what additional services or opportunities we can help out with?

Not at this time, Mayor.

We've already we've been working on it and um it's certainly elevated, and we will we will work on it very quickly.

Yeah.

All right.

So if there's anything you need from us, don't be afraid to reach out if you need further direction or consideration from council.

Right?

Yep, I'm seeing nods from the council.

So let us know.

Thank you.

Um presentations and appointments.

Like you said, recognitions we have none that takes us to presentations and appointments.

Uh we have a the S to B property update.

Uh City Manager Brandon.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Um wanna provide uh an update and kind of uh replay and and status and next steps on the site there that the Urban Renewal Agency acquired uh gosh, early this calendar year.

And with us this evening are Jeffrey Schatz and Kara Master from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, who have been integral in getting us to this point.

I I'm gonna start with some kind of introductory comments and then turn it over to Jeffrey and Kara to kind of get into some of the nuts and bolts.

I I uh think you find it quite interesting um in terms of what what we've done and where we're going.

Um, first of all, there's a reason that contaminated properties sit abandoned for decades in many communities.

It's it's really expensive to deal with the pollution in the case of uh a former gas station.

And there are a few routes for private property owners to to address it without significant liability.

Uh going back to 2023, we began with a uh a grant application with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency for a targeted brown fields assessment or TBA that provided their contractor to scope a cleanup process as part of our acquisition of the property.

So it really opened the door for us to be able to inherit that liability in a way that that we could.

And so we're we're grateful for for everything that that the EPA has helped with as well.

And then we worked with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to develop what is called a prospective purchasers agreement, which you saw many months ago that lays out the conditions for a cleanup program for the site and um also allowed us to pursue the the acquisition.

I want to uh specially note again our broker who's not here tonight, but Kyle Hayden was was very uh important in the acquisition because it took incredible skill and persistence on his part to work with the prior owner, who really had a many years long negative experience with the property and and was very untrusting and really understandably so in my view.

And uh thanks to Kyle, we were able to get get through that.

Um, and then most recently this year or maybe late last year, the DEQ offered uh other grant funding to conduct the site cleanup, which without that we may not be able to do it.

So we're we're enormously grateful for that.

Jeff and Kara will get into that here in a moment.

Um I think I'll interject the market study stuff later.

So I will pull up the slides and get you started there.

And turn it over to you, Jeffrey and Kara.

Greetings, Mayor, uh, council members, uh, city manager and city recorder.

Um my name is Jeff Schatz.

I'm a project manager and hydrogeologist for DEQ's Northwest Region Cleanup Program.

I'm the project manager for this particular cleanup site.

Joining me this evening is Kara Master, who is the Northwest Region Brownfields Coordinator at DEQ.

We're pleased to be able to invit it to speak to the City Council this evening about this exciting project.

And we'd also like to just acknowledge and thank the city's significant contribution in terms of helping us get this important work completed.

Oh sorry.

Okay.

No back.

Sorry.

Overview of the presentation briefly, we'll give a quick site history.

We'll be talking about the results of the phase two environmental site assessment that was completed earlier this year.

Kind of a snapshot of current site conditions, talk a little bit about work planned under the site specific assessment, which is going to be completed this fall, as well as future work that the city will be completing under the prospective purchaser with DEQ.

Some quick acknowledgments, and if there's time, questions.

So quickly, here's a map of uh Cornelius area.

The site is the uh small red rectangle, approximately center.

Um, as you all know, this site is located in the central core of the Cornelius business district and is a very vital and uh uh well positioned property.

Um I included the next couple of slides because one, I really enjoy looking at historical photographs, and I thought that the city council members might enjoy seeing these as well.

Uh this is a view generally looking generally west along baseline street.

This would be sometime in the early 1900s.

Uh faintly outlined in purple is a rectangle that is the site.

Um kind of on the south side of that property.

You can see uh the railroad tracks.

And then also, interestingly enough, there's a railroad spur that kind of cuts across the property, kind of roughly bisecting the property into north and south halves.

And uh Kara can probably point some of these features out here.

Railroad to the south?

So the property actually did have a sp active spur on it prior to this development.

It did.

Interesting.

It really did.

And look, we did have a hotel, so we should get some tax on that.

So this is a view looking southwest from about 1966.

Again, the site is outlined in purple.

Um, the railroad right-of-way is still visible on the south side of the property.

However, the railroad spur is now gone by 1966.

And you can see the property's been.

Oh, it lost the road.

Ah, got it.

Uh, as you can see, the railroad spur is gone.

Um, and what you can see is the first uh service station and gasoline station configuration at the site.

Um, so as early as 1953, it was developed as a service and and gasoline station.

And at the time, uh the site improvements included at least two underground storage tanks and two buildings with associated service bays.

So this is a photograph of the current site conditions looking east.

Um the underground storage tanks remaining at the site are visible in the foreground uh with the canopy structure visible beyond.

Um as you can see by the multicolored spray painted lines uh all over the place, there's a pretty high density of subsurface utilities kind of running in the area of those tanks, and that will play some part in determining eventually which tanks we can get out of the ground and which we can't.

Um I just wanted to uh to build on Mr.

Brandon's comments.

This is a quick reminder.

The reason we're here is that uh when the city of Cornelius entered into the prospective purchaser agreement with DEQ in January 2025.

One of the primary tasks required of the city was the permanent decommissioning of these remaining tanks.

So in January of this year, uh a company called ERG performed a phase two environmental site assessment, and the funds that were used to do this were provided by the environmental protection agency.

They were called a targeted brownfield assessment funds.

Um this investigation was pretty comprehensive, including soil, groundwater, and soil gas testing at the site, uh, especially in the vicinity of the tanks and the related infrastructure.

Uh, the scope of work included the installation of 16 soil borings, two monitoring wells, and five permanent soil gas sampling points.

And so again, this is work was done on behalf of the city of Cornelius using those TBA funds.

And the phase two environmental site assessment was actually designed to meet some of the prospective purchaser agreement work requirements of the city.

And just for context, the machine that you see here is a geoprobe, and so that is the machine that drills down into the soil with potentially getting into groundwater to collect those samples for this assessment that was performed.

So this next slide here shows the site as well as uh its current features and the uh site of some of the investigation locations for that phase two environmental site assessment.

Uh the five underground storage tanks are visible in the western portion of the site, um, as well as the location of two underground storage tanks that were previously decommissioned in place, that solid rectangle there.

Uh you can see the footprint of the former railroad spur kind of cutting across the center of the property.

And the black symbols in this photograph show those locations of soil samples, monitoring wells, and soil vapor sampling points that were installed as part of that investigation.

So this figure then summarizes the most recent data collection from this phase two ESA.

Um this figure shows results for soil, and consistent with our expectations uh because of where the tanks are located at the property, the highest petroleum hydrocarbon as gasoline detections in soil were found in the western portion of the site, kind of among uh among the former underground storage tanks, generally at depths of 10 to 13 feet below ground surface.

And so what I did on the left is I called out um three locations where those gasoline hydrocarbons were detected at the highest concentrations and their depths.

Um as far as petroleum goes, we're really interested mostly in the western portion of the property as far as contamination.

Uh another finding which is far less significant, but um arsenic was actually detected in two soil samples in or near that former railroad spur.

Uh they were above cleanup levels and what are called regional background concentrations.

Um, but however, we think that those can be easily addressed at the time that this other work is completed.

Umil results for groundwater, consistent with soil, um, the groundwater locations where petroleum hydrocarbons, namely gasoline, uh, were detected mostly, are in the central and southern portion of the site in the area of those tanks, and I've called out uh three locations where those petroleum hydrocarbons were detected at significant concentrations.

And um in the call outs there, when you see the letter J, that means that's an estimated concentration, um, not a fully measured concentration.

And lastly, probably the most significant finding of the recent investigations were when we were looking at the soil gas testing.

Uh the major finding of concern, and this is what's highlighted in the orange star-like pattern, was gasoline was detected at a very high concentration, um, 650,000 micrograms per cubic meter.

Um, and so that represents petroleum hydrocarbons in soil gas that can move into buildings potentially, either current buildings or buildings constructed in the future.

For reference, the cleanup standards for residential properties is 10,000, and for occupational or commercial properties is 40,000.

So we're significantly above in that one location.

That that's great for you to give because that's what I was going to ask you about the previous slides is where are we to background or other you know standards of expectation.

So yeah, by far the largest exceedances were were in soil gas.

And uh that's 15x the commercial industrial standard.

Whoops.

Um, obviously that is that is um one of the conditions that we're gonna look to try to address at the same time that those underground storage tanks are decommissioned.

Sorry, so as a quick summary, um so there was a limited area of arsenic contamination in soil that was found but should be easily addressed.

And then the main other findings were gasoline range hydrocarbons and some volatile organic compounds were found in soil and groundwater at levels that exceed both residential and commercial cleanup standards.

And so the task of the next couple of slides um will the the work to be performed this fall will be discussed over the next couple of slides in conformance with the prospective purchaser agreement.

So what this is what this slide shows quickly is a um is a figure showing the interpreted site conditions based on a recent geophysical survey, a utility locate survey, and also historical information.

The area shown in teal, so the outline in teal is a rough approximation of the area that we think where the ground will be disturbed and concrete and asphalt broken up.

Based on the high preponderance of utilities and proximity to features like light poles and sidewalks, we believe that two of the five underground storage tanks have a good chance of being removed decommissioned completely by removal.

So we'll be able to break the ground, get those tanks out of the ground, take them off site.

Three other tanks probably will be difficult to remove just due to those utilities and will probably have to be abandoned in place.

Fortunately, uh the area that the the excavation containing the two previous previously decommissioned tanks should be accessible.

So we think that that area can also be reached.

As we remove those tanks, that should open up the ground, hopefully where the most highest levels of contamination are so that we can access it, dig it out at the time.

But of course, the actual work we perform will actually depend on actual site conditions.

Right.

This is one of those where um these are for indication purposes only until you break the the ground, you don't know how much further away from the sample point the contamination is contained, right?

It could be a foot, it could be that's right until the next test point.

Correct.

And we're also trying to not undermine your sidebox.

So we discovered it would be much more expensive to have to do all the shoring required to safely decommission those other tanks by removal, which is why we opted to do in-place decommissioning.

And will that will that mean those tanks will then be filled in that location and they will just become part of the ground structure?

Yeah, emptied, cleaned, sampled underneath and around them, and then filled with an inert substance, usually like sand, concrete, um, some sort of inuert material that that will take up all the space so that contamination can't get in those tanks again.

And doesn't create a sinkhole in the also.

Yes.

That's right.

So what's next in terms of the site-specific assessment activities that will start this fall?

Um the next the next slide, this and the next slide will kind of uh go over what those activities are.

Please note that these are the activities that are being funded by DEQ's state response grant, uh, which graciously stepped in to fill the void uh when the previous um funding source did not materialize.

So the first one uh we're working on right now, we'd received a draft underground storage tank decommissioning work plan about two weeks ago.

DEQ reviewed it, provided comments, and we just received the revised version uh today.

So we'll be going through that to make sure that our requested changes have been made and that the work plan reflects what work DEQ needs to be uh needs to see done.

Uh we will be looking at obtaining any necessary permits or approvals uh related to managing the utilities at the site, obviously things like power, we just want to shut off entirely.

Uh we're looking into whether if we need to do something like moving um storm sewers, if that's gonna require a permit and what's that's gonna look like.

So we're in that data collection phase right now to determine what administrative readiness we need to put in place to do this work in October.

And then 30 days prior to the start of the underground storage tank work, uh written notification will be provided to the DEQ underground state underground storage tank compliance department, and that will um pull the trigger that allows that work to be completed.

The other part of the the process that's currently happening with our task order contractors that we have on call is they're going out for the request for bid for the subcontractors who are licensed to decommission the tanks.

So we're currently in that procurement process phase, and so until we have that uh concluded, which I believe happens in a couple weeks, um, then we'll be able to actually select the subcontractor who will be doing the work and schedule them.

Council, any questions?

I didn't look around to see.

But I the thing I um so I do construction management by my day gig, and I also I hate to see us waste state or fed limited state or federal funds on rebuilding something unnecessary, right?

To your point about the the waste uh wastewater collection, right?

For for storm stuff.

I I think we need to look at the minimum necessary, right?

Because the hope is is this entire property gets redeveloped, and whatever we do, I'm sure will absolutely not match or be reusable for the next life of this.

So, unless staff is knowing or seeing something else, I'd hate for us to unnecessarily spend city state or federal money on building something really nice and cool that that we're just gonna throw away.

Hopefully, in the next year when the properties redevelop.

But obviously, there's minimums we have to make.

So that's understood.

And the city has kindly already indicated that they would be willing um to waive one of the the permit fees, it's an internal fee.

So we did have some communication about that already.

So we appreciate that.

Almost done here.

Um so we expect the decommissioning work for those tanks to begin in October of this year.

Um associated with that work will be some additional sampling of soil gas and groundwater.

Um so at the time or shortly after those tank work is done, we'll be doing some additional sampling to collect information about the site.

And if feasible, we will perform um whatever cleanup we can, you know, at the time that those tanks come out of the ground.

So once the tanks are out, we've got exposed contaminated soil.

It's a really good opportunity to go in and grab it if we can and get rid of at least the worst of that contaminated material.

That'll just help in the long term in terms of getting the site, you know, fully ready for uh future development.

Yeah, you you're on the cusp of the rainy season starting there too.

So I was gonna ask.

Um how does the rainy season affect um your timeline?

So I know October is it start to downpour.

Are you also gonna be able to do the work or what does that look like?

Yeah, we we'll be able to do the work.

We'll have to take maybe some additional measures like bringing the vacuum truck out to get rid of you know any water that might have accumulated in the um excavation from rain.

But fortunately, groundwater levels won't have really started to come up yet, and so any water we have to deal with should be limited to precipitation events and not too much dealing with groundwater.

So it'll be a little bit of a nuisance, but it really won't stop us.

Um I I suppose my question is what will the site look like?

So I've had the unfortunate opportunity to have the neighbor two doors down from my mom's place, um, be a meth house.

And they had to take the house out under a cover and then create a crater in the property because the exposure was so terrible.

What so that was literally they built a tent and you know took it out by the wheelbarrow full and bags.

What what will this look like to the public probably?

So when we when we actually get going it uh and start need to start moving soil, they'll the public will perceive they will see you know a series of trucks kind of coming and going.

Um you'll see excavators at the site moving material around.

At some point, some of those excavators will be loading material into trucks, and those will be taking those to somewhere like Hillsborough landfill, probably, which is pretty close by, fortunately.

Um as far as when work is not being done, there'll be temporary fencing put around any um pits or holes that are dug.

Those pits or holes will be filled as quickly as we can, you know.

So we we don't want to leave a big gaping hole that a member of the public could fall into or or cause like that.

So you know, at all stages we'll be looking to do to um make sure the public safety is protected, the resources and assets, the property are protected, um, and that um we're minimally disturbing or it for as short a duration as possible, traffic patterns kind of going in and out of the site on baseline.

So we'll be doing our best to get it all done as quickly as possible and with as little headaches as possible.

Um, but it's also possible that we'll be digging some dirty soil, and so you know the we might get questions about hey, I'm smelling some gasoline, what's going on, right?

So we gotta be ready for those kinds of inquiries.

And DEQ staff members will be there on and off throughout the throughout the duration of the work that we can take those questions to.

And if and if we aren't there on site, our contractor will be, and then we pay them.

So um, you know, they're they're there to make sure that things are being done in compliance with the DEQ rules and according to the work plan that we've approved.

Um, so there will be somebody on site to answer questions.

If somebody from the public is walking by on the sidewalk and is curious about the project, there will be somebody on site to answer those questions instead of them trying to um go to the subcontractor who is trying to get the work done.

We also will be uh backfilling those excavations, so it will be brought back up to grade um with appropriate materials, including any trenching that we have to do to take the piping out.

Um the dispensers will be gone, so we'll get the dispensers out with the islands because we have to sample below those as well to make sure that they didn't have any overspills or leaks while people were pumping gas.

Um so you'll see a little bit of a difference, but the canopy will still be there, the kiosk will still be there, um, and then that little outbuilding will also be there that had the restroom and office in it.

Um there is an opportunity to explore some other funding resources through our counterpart at Business Oregon, who has other cleanup funding specific to evading um things like asbestos containing materials, lead-based paint, uh mercury containing bulbs and things like that.

They were also identified during the targeted brownfield assessment that the EPA contractor did.

So there were some uh hazardous building materials that were identified in those structures that would have to be properly managed and disposed of before they would be demoed.

Um, and there is another opportunity to tap into additional funding if if needed.

Great.

Well, to me, it sounds like it's gonna look like a typical construction site.

Yes, it won't it won't stand out as some kind of like weird science project going on in the middle of downtown that you know, 30 to 40,000 people drive by every day.

It'll just look like another piece of construction.

So I think it'll be less attractive as far as a nuisance that way.

It'll just be like, oh, somebody's finally doing something at the old gas station.

So okay, thank you for taking the time to explain that.

Of course.

And I'm almost done here.

Um potential future site activities, as I mentioned, we'll be doing some additional soil gas and groundwater monitoring uh to meet uh regulatory requirements for sampling at different times of the year.

Um we've asked the city as part of their scope of work, um, and so the contractor on their behalf will be preparing what's called a media management plan, which is basically a plan that just establishes procedures and contingencies for when the city or whatever subsequent owner goes to develop that property, that there's a plan in place for if we find additional soil contamination or groundwater contamination, how does it get managed?

What do we do with it?

How do we test it?

And so that plan will detail that for the city or subsequent owners, exactly what must be done.

And lastly, as I mentioned, um, if we're gonna be building structures there for human occupation, and if we're not able to get all of that contaminated soil out of the ground, we'll have to put some engineering controls into those future building designs, like ventilation system and the subslab, things like that that will you know basically prevent those vapors from getting into future buildings.

Yeah.

So acknowledgements, I want to thank uh Mr.

Peter Brandon for working with uh DEQ the way he has, and to the city of Cornelius for executing the PPA and working with DEQ to get these tanks out of the ground.

We've been trying to get this work done for a decade.

So thank you.

Uh we want to acknowledge EPA for providing those targeted brownfield assessment funds that allow the city to do their first investigation.

Uh I want to thank DEQ state response program for providing the additional funding to get those tanks actually out of the ground.

And I'd like to thank my uh colleague in crime here, Kira Master, for project support and for her valuable help in navigating uh the contract procurement and brownfields programs, mine fields.

I I don't know why it feels weirdly pleasant to know that even DEQ has trouble dealing with DEQ and its processes.

I I don't know why that feels right, it just feels right.

It means we're very siloed as an agency.

Right.

This hand doesn't know what this hand's doing.

Right.

So sorry, I could not pass up that opportunity.

Continue on Jeff.

No, that's so just um open up for questions or Peter, if you wanted to talk about the market study and what the city concurrent thoughts are.

I'll touch on that a little bit when we started out with EPA and doing that that TBA work.

They offered us some funding to do that market assessment, which I've shared with you at least generally before.

And I thought I would just summarize what that market study found, and it was really looking at a few different kind of target redevelopment properties, namely the the subject property that we're talking about, the Western States fire apparatus building, and then the Grande Foods building, which we acquired.

And at a high level, uh it really looked at at findings uh and opportunities for use and redo redevelopment based on market conditions and and other factors, and provided some interesting case studies that these national scope consultants, you know, doing work across the country, which is interesting for us, and I think will be useful.

Um, but some of the key findings, very low business vacancy rate in the town center, which uh indicates that there's uh likely a market for retail broadly in the town center.

A cautious signal for um market rate multifamily residential.

And so that's kind of like maybe, you know, um, and as you know, there are um some potential market rate multifamily projects coming.

Um a signal for multifamily affordable residential demand.

And of course, we've we've at every turn explained to folks the the problem part on the revenue side for us with affordable, more affordable housing.

Um commercial office space is very challenging post-COVID, as I'm sure you're aware, including in Cornelius.

But um build to suit office space could be feasible in the near term, and that's the emphasizing the could.

And indicators also are, and it confirms some other research that we've done at the staff has done, um, that hospitality is not yet really feasible in Cornelius given the adjacent supply in Hillsborough and Forest Grove.

But but there's a lot of detail in the study, and I think will be useful for us as we begin to work on the future for that and the other property that we purchased.

So I I do want to again thank uh Jeff and Kara and a lot of other folks, both at DEQ and EPA that that helped us through this meandering path and continue to, and it's just gonna be really exciting to see machines on the property.

So really look forward to that.

Thank you.

Council questions, comments?

Yes, Council Lopez.

Yeah, just a comment.

Um, I'm not the teacher on the council, but this seems like uh a great opportunity for a little the middle school kids to come and do a little tour, maybe ask some questions, or it might be a little dangerous, but it just call me a nerd, but it sounds exciting, all the work that's being done, and um yeah.

So I I can just another brownfield project that I had in Oregon City.

Um we actually had a youth engagement event that we set up where we walked through the kids through sort of what was going to happen, what the site was going to look like.

Um they weren't going to be living on the property while that was happening, but we did have uh an opportunity to educate them about groundwater and what an aquifer is and surface water runoff and how contaminants reach water bodies.

So we did use some our some of our state response grant funding to do an activity, an engagement activity like that.

Um I don't know if there's enough time to do that in this case, but um happy to continue the conversation about it if it's something that sounds feasible to the only if we knew a science teacher.

Either that or I think it's a great opportunity for the YAC, yeah, as well, to kind of understand how this decision that we're making and have been working towards, yeah, what it leads to.

So Counselor Colgan, any any statement in your defense?

Uh we're we're working on glue gun safety.

So visiting an active like hazardous waste cleanup site in mass.

Might be a little challenging to coordinate.

Um we are always looking for field trip opportunities.

They're they're difficult to come by.

Um I was actually considering reaching out to Jeff and CMA, maybe some lab conditions we could say, because normally most labor labs in the area, when you say uh we have 130 to 400 students we'd like to bring through and you know show some real science happening.

Because normally most labor labs in the area, when you say uh we have 130 to 400 students we'd like to bring through and you know show some real science happening.

They they say they don't really have capacity for that.

Um we are actively looking for lab settings that we could take our kids through.

Um some of our some of our smaller, more focused elective classes um where it's more manageable 30 students at a time uh potentially, but it's it's difficult to find the opportunity, the funding and the site available all at the same time.

Um I'm always looking for that.

But yeah, I don't know if gas station cleanup is gonna fit the calendar this year.

Thank you for the idea.

Well, even I I think to to the point that jumped out at me, right?

Is maybe not even uh if you can't bring uh 400 kids to the site, can you bring some elements of the site to the kids?

Um imagine what it would be like for the kids to be able to understand.

I am sure if you take 600 some whatever it is, micrograms per liter of soil, and you put that in a jar and you bring it to John's class and they crack the lid on that, they will be able to tell the difference between that soil and other normal soil very easily.

Well, but but I mean that I mean these are the that sounds silly, but it's some of the easier things, right?

To to like, hey, and this was from a leaky gas tank at a station.

That's how we got here, right?

You know, for since the 50s, there's been a gas station there.

Some point it started leaking, and by the way, it leaked enough that you've got soil that's 15x the allowable limit for outgassing, basically.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, Jeff or Kara.

So I think it's just to give them the that understanding and kind of the you know, maybe it's a one uh a one class thing about you know, here who wants to who wants to smell stinky gas soil, right?

But I mean it it gives them uh an understanding of the repercussions of these things, right?

I mean, we talk about what's going on in the community, and you talk about you could do it look at the financial impact, right?

How many hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on this project to recover it?

And not that only, but I mean, you talk about trying to get those tanks out for 10 years.

I think we've had this property in some kind of hope for redevelopment for what, 15 at least?

So it's not like we didn't give commercial opportunity for somebody to jump in here.

It took this Herculean effort by the city, the state, you know, DEQ and EPA to all lean in to get the site back to something else.

So I think those are all very practical one day in the lab at the school sessions that could easily be covered to understand what what are the repercussions of these things, right?

I mean, we've you know, it's one thing to read in a book that the Chicago River or even the Portland River was on fire.

That's a hard thing to wrap your head around.

But when you smell a piece of dirt that smells like the same sniffing gasoline out of a can, it's pretty obvious to understand uh where the problem hit the ground literally here.

So I think I think these are good opportunities for folks to understand that just and then how does it translate to home, right?

If you see dad pouring gas on the ground, uh dad, uh right.

So I think there's opportunities.

Right.

How do you how do you focus these?

Because they don't come every day.

And how do we maybe strike a small bit of a cord with our community on it?

Well, we should keep the conversation going for sure.

Yeah, and I'm I'm not sure how often um because DEQ has a lab in Hillsborough.

I'm not sure how often they have tours or you know, have kids come in, but uh we'd be happy to follow up with our lab and see if there's an opportunity there to connect you all with with the the lab.

Um and the other thing I could offer is you know, we might not be able to have them come to the site, but we can certainly come to your school.

I've given a presentation at PSU to some college students about brown fields, and um we'd be happy to show up and give a presentation if it's something that's of interest and while PowerPoints are so exciting, stinky stinky dirt is a little bit more than a little bit.

Well we could supplement with some models, yeah.

Okay, where were we?

I got us all sideways there, sorry.

Um what other questions, comments?

Yes, Councilor Vaughn.

So we mentioned doing this work in October, and I know there's a lot of variables there that we won't know till we break ground, but what is the length of the project actually look like until we're cleaned up and gone?

Yeah, so I mean a couple weeks.

Yeah, pretty quick.

Feasively once we are able to access the the get the contractor on board, get all the the contract paperwork in place, um, the notifications that need to be performed as part of using federal funds um will have been completed and we can mobilize to the site as soon as they can get scheduled, and then you know, to decommission some tanks is gonna take probably week or two.

Um then and then we'll go back about the following month to uh collect the follow-up samples that Jeff had mentioned for groundwater and soil vapor, and then again, probably six months after that to get a seasonal variation to kind of get a range of what the conditions would be if somebody was actually occupying the site.

Um so I mean, but for us to do the tank decommissioning itself is a couple weeks.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

And it sounds like I'm here in April, May for like the last sampling analysis.

And maybe so you said six months, so maybe we'd try to probably target a dryer period if we're in a wet period season already.

We might try to wait a little bit too much.

Till June, July, maybe July at least.

Okay.

So that kind of gives us some idea, because if we get if that's the point where we get you know thumbs up, or at least we understand what the baseline condition is now, like you Jeff was speaking about.

Maybe we it's like uh you don't you don't want to build over on that part of the property, or if you do, it has to have these kind of things.

Yeah.

Um maybe next summer we could start talking about understanding people, you know, looking at the property, figuring out what we're gonna do next with it.

And as I mentioned, there is another opportunity to reach out for some additional funding for the hazardous building materials, so there might be time to build into that time frame for for those conversations as well.

Other questions, comments from council.

Thank you for bringing us such great news that we're at least.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks, Lord.

We're moving forward on this property, finally.

Get those tanks taken care of.

Cool.

Okay.

So that was our property update.

Uh next up is our low-income utility program update from Ms.

Jones, assistant city manager.

I think he's pulling it up.

So don't need this.

Do I use this to move it?

Okay.

Okay.

Hello, Ellie Jones, assistant city manager, business operations.

Um, so I believe not too long ago, council asked for an update on the utility billing relief program.

Um, so we're here today.

Um so we did adopt this on October 7th, uh, 2024.

So it's been about 11 months of data.

Uh we do send out flyers bilingual in the mail with all shutoff notices.

We also have bilingual flyers available on the city website and located in the city hall lobby.

Um anytime a customer calls, you know, seeking any type of assistance to pay the bill, we do direct them to the salvation army.

They can email, I believe they can walk in, and they can also call.

Um, and there is a direct contact.

So they're not just calling the office.

We have a um an individual assigned to us.

We do also still continue to offer payment plans and discounts.

So the delayed payment, the time payment, and the senior citizen discount.

We'll also still not charging late fees, um, which I believe will be a long term.

Um so that does assist people with the bill as well.

So to uh receive assistance, the customers must be on the utility account and they must participate in a government assistance program, or they can be living in a household at or below 185% of the federal poverty limit for the past 60 days.

That is consistent.

Um countywide, most of all cities follow this same plan to qualify.

And then we've listed some of the um the assistant programs.

If they already have one of these, it's fairly simple to apply.

They just need to show documentation that they have one of those, and then that instantly qualifies them.

So we did um they do qualify with the community partners.

I stated the salvation army, they're all directed to them directly.

We just get a notification that um ex account has qualified.

Um we in this in the office determine um how many if they have one or two two-month bills and they receive the max of three hundred dollars within a 12-month period.

Uh the fee to the city is uh $15 per verification.

Um to date, we've not paid all too much.

I think the last invoice was 285.

And the customer must also have a balance owing to receive uh relief on the account.

So we don't apply $300 and let them sit with the credit.

Um and part of that is to avoid anyone that may get the credit, move, and then essentially get a refund.

Um so we do want them to have a balance owing.

Um and I'll also state if they are currently have a pending shutoff or shut off.

If they let salvation or let me know that they get escalated to the top of the list.

Um so we we let them know when we talk to them on the phone, let them know you have a pending um shut off or that you disconnected, and it'll typically happen uh within a day if not hours.

So we have allocated the 44,000 of um IPA funds available.

That was the money we received back from community action.

To date, we've spent a little over uh $8300 applied to this, so we still have about 36,000 remaining.

So only 34 accounts have actually received assistance.

Um of that 57 utility bills have been assisted.

So some of those qualified for the two-month uh balance.

Um as you see, 22 accounts have received the maximum assistance for 12 months.

They're notified that they've they've reached the maximum and to apply within one year after that if they if they need that assistance.

Uh we do have 14 customers that qualified but had no balance owing.

Um people I think have just applied.

Um we've also received, I believe, two was someone who lived in Hillsville and someone else who lived in an apartment complex.

Um so we just had to explain to them that they do have to have a city utility account um to qualify.

So then lastly, I just have a graph by month showing um how many accounts we've assisted.

So the highest month we had seven.

That was in January following the the holiday month.

So I would think that's typical.

Um the lowest month would be December where we had one.

So this is pretty much the data that we have, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Yes, um, I'm just curious as to the I'm sure you don't have the numbers now, but do you have a rough idea of the amount of um people that go that get a notice sent out per month of their account being um potentially shut off or they have a late payment, and of those, how many actually seek the assistance?

Because I am imagining I just I'm picturing those numbers that you gave us a while back, and that was a lot higher than obviously the amount of people that have gotten assistance this past um year.

So I'm just curious um maybe even how we can get more of the word out there.

Because I know it's on our um website and it's on I've seen it on the bulletin before or our newsletter.

So uh I'm just curious what we could do just to advertise it even more, and if maybe just the divide is with people that aren't accessing uh digital content, right?

Because we know that we have that digital divide and that literacy aspect to think about as well.

Yeah, um, so I don't have an answer as to why people are not applying.

Um we did expect this to be a highly uh utilized assistance program.

Um, in August just last month, we only received two.

Um, we're open to suggestions on on how else to to get this out there.

Um as far as shut-off notices, it depends on the month and the season.

Uh we can send you know 350 to 500 notices that I'd say that would be the max of those, the actual shutoffs, those fluctuate as well.

Um a couple months ago we had at 72.

Uh the month before that, we only have 35.

Um, so it's well, and I think the historical numbers you shared with us, if you look at them over time, about 10% of the accounts in a month are getting a notice.

And of that, about 10% of that.

It's all 1% of the accounts are getting to shut off.

Yes.

And so that's that, and I think you said during the presentation, you guys are actually talking to folks, right?

So if somebody's getting a shut-off notice or calling in about their bill, you're sharing this information with them in that conversation.

Yes.

Okay.

So I mean, we're getting that one-on-one direct contact too.

Uh I mean short of applying for people.

I think we pretty much Yeah, I mean, I understand your desire to communicate more, but I think if we're posting, we're publishing, and we're making that one-on-one contact with them at the time of the issue.

I think we're we're doing pretty good there.

Well, I will say I know one of a real fear that a lot of people have been having lately, and as we've seen their fears come out of fruition.

Yeah, exactly, is their information being shared and and all of that.

Um, because even when back in the day, back in 2017, when I was helping people apply for OHP, that was a big concern whether or not their information was ever going to be shared.

And the state at that time said that was that would never be a concern, and look at where we are now.

And so I just think that a lot of individuals um may have that fear.

And I know that there's really not that much we can do about it because some of that information we do need to have in order to verify their existing account.

Um, but that's one of the things that definitely comes to mind that I think is stopping people from accessing this.

Maybe that's the educational opportunity is.

I mean, if they're already qualified, that's the predecessor to this, right?

They have to already be qualified for one of the assistance programs.

So you correct me if I'm wrong here, Ellie.

No, so if they're already qualified, that essentially speeds up the process.

If they don't have any of those government assistance programs, I believe they can provide like pay stubs or some kind of documentation of wages to show that they're still below the poverty level, they just don't have any government assistance.

And then where does that I mean to to your point, right?

The concern is is they're self-identifying or outing themselves, right?

I mean, where does where does our information for this go?

I mean, does it just get bit logged in the billing system as they were assisted?

Or what help us help us understand so we can better communicate it too?

So I in Oil Office, we do not see the applications, we do not see any of the data that they provided to Salvation Army.

We simply get a notification from salvation only saying this account qualifies.

And that's just entered as a note or something into their account that at this time they qualified.

Yes.

Or how long is that qualification good for?

So if they want additional assistance, they would have to go re-qualify.

Um most of them are capping out of the $300 or the two-month bill assistance.

So they have to wait the 12 months anyway.

For a next for the next time around.

So I I think maybe that's part of the information we can share is it's not it's really isn't going anywhere, right?

If you you're you're you're talking to the Salvation Army, they're qualifying you, and we just get a yes no answer or yes answer.

We only get the yes answer if they qualify.

So maybe that maybe that's some of the help and understanding for folks to understand this isn't going into a state or federal or even city database of stuff other than you qualified for assistance.

Yes.

Yes, yes, Council Gardinas.

So I know that we allocated these funds through our these were ARPA funds that were allocated, and I know those need to be spent by 2026, right?

Or by December 1 of 2026.

Yeah, so we have about a year to spend it.

So and it's my understanding that we can't reallocate these funds, right?

If I I guess my concern is just because it's we're in a use it or lose it situation, right?

And so I just want to make sure that we do everything to maximize these funds being used, and if not, uh reallocating what hasn't been used just yet and what might be lost into something else.

But I'm not sure if we can do that based off things that I'm trying to remember.

One thing that we could consider is um looking at that kind of the burn rate, how how fast it's getting out the door is in you know, three or four months, we see what that looks like, and maybe we come back with some ideas of how we might have a temporary you know added incentive of some sort or something like that.

So yeah, because I don't want obviously don't want to remove uh the funds from this uh program, but I also want to keep in mind that this is money that we will lose after 2026.

So, yeah, just thinking about what we can do.

Yeah, I think to follow up to the city manager's comment, um, it is allocated to utility billing relief.

Um so I believe we can look at potential other ways to also provide relief.

And is there a way to bypass the legibility in the sense of like just the fact that you are overdue and you haven't like it's just an automatic thing that goes into your account once, like instead of it uh them applying, we just know that this person has already used up their thing once, and then it's just an automatic thing that's that's done.

Like instead of it uh them applying, we just know that this person has already used up their thing once, and then it's just an automatic thing.

That's that's done.

Does that make sense?

So they do not have to have a pass due account.

They just have to have a balance.

So the bill that we just mailed, someone could essentially apply today and get that bill paid, even though it's not even due till the 10th.

They just have to have a balance sewing.

And we and able to qualify under our current requirements.

Because that's the it's the structure of the program that provides that, right?

So I suppose maybe you're hinting around and I'm hearing you maybe are you hinting around to is there a way we can open up the qualification a little bit to make sure we take maximum advantage of this money before it because I think it's December 26, right?

1231 26, it's gone.

And at this rate, we could still have 30,000 dollars in the pot, right?

Yeah, like I'm thinking, and this might be a little extreme, but a policy where it's just automatic.

If you don't pay your bill, if you you have one bill that qualifies for X amount that you you will and you didn't pay it, you get an automatic once a year, 150 dollars put towards that bill automatically through our system or something along those lines where it's just um yeah, maybe not be the best, but I'm just thinking along something.

But but I think I think maybe what you're digging at here is there's an opportunity if we're seeing a different burn rate, maybe maybe we open it up to three times a year or four times a year for those that can qualify and apply, then at least we don't lose the federal money.

We use it for at least a good within our community.

I mean, we can't make people qualify, but those who are going through the process that are working are obviously they're qualified and they're in need.

We could easily up change the rules of the program and say you can qualify for three times or four times a year, because we don't have a a view of it evaporating at this point before the program expires.

And we can always rewrite those when it becomes self-funded, which I think is the council's idea is this doesn't die with the ARPA money, it continues on, and maybe maybe we'd have to curtail it back a little bit.

But I think when you presented us originally, it was the assumption that this would continue on forever at two per year.

So maybe that would be a very easy way for us to plug it.

Stimulus check for everyone.

No, I'm just kidding.

Well, and six dollars.

Right.

I I but I think there's opportunities for that.

And I suppose it's more of us looking at when's the timeline to implement that, right?

If we, you know, if we if we're talking about it tonight, could you bring it back as a council action next month and go, okay, we're gonna you could open it up to four a year until we hit a lower, you know, we're just about burned out and see what our burn rate comes up to if that all of a sudden it's two a month, but it's two, you know.

Obviously, a couple people are using it, have used it consistently.

So that's that's two for, you know, there's a there's a dozen, like you said, there's lots of people that have used it.

So maybe if we just opened it up so they could use it more, that's at least not losing the money.

And that's an easy program adjustment we can make.

I'm sorry, Councilor Vaughn.

So we've talked about using this for our local water, which we control the billing of.

Is there options for helping with other utilities with these funds?

I know that that's we're kind of late to the game with trying to come up with that, but if we were gonna look at an option of potentially losing $20,000 at the end of 2026, if to reuse the term the burn rate is going slow enough, could we come up with a way to help people with their power bill instead?

I mean, that's uh you know, considered a utility bill.

Would it would that be an option?

Uh I think we'd we'd have to look into that.

I think it'd be um we can certainly explore that.

Um we are in the process of creating that um that bill relief for garbage service as we speak, where we're um negotiating with uh Salvation Army for that to get a contract in place, so that could be another spot where we can support people.

We we've also seen the experience of other cities who have had these programs longer than we have, is that they do you know, they do grow.

And so we're still relatively early on, and we based on those experiences, we're confident that it will grow for us too, just as people become aware and and perhaps become more comfortable with you know providing their information in order to qualify.

Yeah, I suppose the easy one is you can we could say how many times you qualify.

That's totally within our purview, right?

It's a little bigger leap on how do you add another utility to it.

So but it seems like council generally is in consensus of you know bringing back these opportunities for how to move forward.

I mean if it grows, that's great.

We can always go, great, it was four for the you know, and all of a sudden everybody figured this out and got it comfortable with applying, and then we need to bring it back to two or three, but that's that's the worst case, right?

As people figure it out and become more comfortable doing it, and between now and December 26th, we need to tap the brakes a little bit if we opened up the number of qualifications.

Yeah, Council.

I would certainly support that.

I already allocated federal money.

I can't imagine a better cause for that than to give some folks relief on their utility billsite to make sure we use every penny of that between now and December 26, 2026.

Um if we need to bump that number up, just burn through it while we've got that federally allocated money that has zero impact on the city of Ukrainian except benefiting the people who live here, then 100%.

Yeah, yeah.

I I definitely think we can look at modifying the plan and coming back back to you with you know, we'll look at some statistics again and see what we think the best is to utilize all of these funds by the deadline.

Awesome.

Thank you, other questions, comments from council.

No.

Moving on.

Okay, so next up is our proclamation for Hispanic Heritage Month, September 2025.

And in the order, they're actually uh in the agenda, the Hispanic one comes up first, and you do not wanna have me read this.

Is there anyone volunteering to do the Hispanic version?

I'm happy to do the English version.

I got page 42 on my documents.

Yeah, I think I think it's only appropriate we do the Spanish one first instead of second for Spanish Heritage Month, right?

Hispanic heritage.

Fecha este September 2025, Jeffrey C.

Delin Alcalde.

Gracias.

I can at least follow along.

Thank you very much for doing that, Council Lopez.

City of Corneas, Oregon proclamation.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month, or exactly as you said, Mesa de Le Gerencia Español is observed each year from September 15th to October 15th to honor the contributions and rich cultural heritage of Hispanic and Latin Latinx communities.

And whereas September 15th is significant as it marks the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, with Mexico and Chile celebrating their independence on September 16th and 18th, respectively.

Whereas October 12th marks the celebration of Dia de Le Rosa Rosa.

De La Rosa, a day that holds deep significance across Latin America, Latin American countries as it commemorates the fusion of cultures that began with the encounter between indigenous peoples of the Americas and Europeans during the 15th century.

Whereas Hispanic reference uh refers to those ancestors or themselves came from or received the richness of Spain's language and culture, and Latinx is a gender neutral or non-binary term for people of Latin American descent, encompassing diverse identities, including Black, African, Asian, Indigenous, and queer communities.

And whereas Hispanic and Latinx people represent approximately 14% of Oregon's and nearly 54% of Cornelius population, reflecting a vibrant and growing community that significantly enriches our community's cultural fabric.

And whereas the Hispanic and Latinx communities in Cornelius are known for their entrepreneurial spirit and community leadership, and Hispanic owned businesses in Washington County have seen notable growth and contributing significantly to the local economy.

Okay, where are we at?

Oh 82.

Um public hearings, we have none, unfinbish unfinished business none.

That takes us to new business.

First up is resolution number 2025 43, International Association of Firefighters Union Collective Bargaining Agreement.

So this is a resolution to accept the new Union Collective Bargaining Agreement with the International Association of Firefighters, also known as the IAFF.

So the current CBA expired on June 30th, 2025.

On May 15th, 2025, the cities and the union's bargaining teams met to have their first meeting.

For these reasons, the city's bargaining team recommends that the city council ratify this proposed CBA by voting to adopt it tonight.

Some of the um items that were modified within the existing contract and are included in the new contract.

The new term um would expire June 30th of 2028.

We did a lot of housekeeping around the language between a 40-hour work week and a 53-hour work week.

Um that was not really clear in the last contract, so a lot of this will pertain um to that.

Um a 53-hour work week consists of a 24-day work cycle, which consists of an employee working 48 hours on duty and then having 96 hours off duty.

So the cycle shifts each month.

Uh, we still have the 40-hour uh work week, which is uh typically an eight to five or a 10 uh four tens.

Employees may choose to be compensated for any overtime by obtaining comp.

Um we're hoping that that will help alleviate uh the overtime budget.

Employees can instead choose to have comp and then take that time off.

Um article six wages.

The proposal is to have a three percent wage increase retro to July 1 of 2025.

July 1 of 2026, they will receive a four percent wage increase, and July 2027, another four percent.

The wage scale is currently at eight steps, and we've agreed to move it down to seven steps.

And we added one additional incentive pay, uh, which would be three percent to any employee who has an EMT intermediate certificate or an advanced EMT certification.

Article 9 holidays, um, each fiscal year, a 53-hour work week employee will receive 152 holiday hours.

That is what they're currently receiving.

We did an adjustment when we added Juneteenth as a holiday through a memo of understanding or an MOU.

So this is just applying that that MOU into the contract.

We also created what we call a schedule C within the contract.

Um, this would be for any employee that moves from a 40-hour shift to a 53-hour shift.

There's a conversion factor on accruing leave because they will use it differently.

Um vacation, we did the same thing.

We're utilizing a schedule C to identify the conversion factor on vacation accrual.

And a 53-hour work week employee, we've increased their vacation cap to 392 hours because they do work essentially more hours in a day, but that is the equivalent that was also considered within the Schedule C conversion factor.

And lastly, Article 14, employees performing office or business type duties while in a 40-hour work week may be allowed to wear business casual uniforms.

So that in a nutshell is what we agreed upon, and we're hoping that you will adopt this tonight.

Questions, comments by council?

Yes, Councilor Vaughan.

So I noticed the and you made the comment, and this is in our uh packet here too, that this fits within the budget we had for this year, but may impact future years.

Can you elaborate on that at all?

Well, we we haven't created the budget for future years, so um potentially so the AFSME union, they have a um, depending on the CPI, they get a minimum of three percent and a maximum of five.

So this the four percent fits within that that same uh that same split.

Okay, so we would just need to be conscious of that when we're working on our future budget to plan for that four percent growth there.

Yes, and we're also aware of the the overtime, which is why we um chose to uh agree to allow comp time, which the fire department did not have previously.

Um and we'll we'll be watching this closely to see what financial impact they may have.

Yeah.

It went well.

So I I would be remiss not to bring up the concern.

Uh I understand the three percent, the two years of four percent is faster than our property tax rate increases and without an ability to grow our city, um, those raises will outpace our ability to pay them without supplemental funding or growth.

So um just throwing a wet towel on that because it's of concern to me.

Um just it is what it is, it's the negotiated answer, but uh to give a comparator by folks to give them an idea.

Uh this is a 2x raises to what people at Intel were getting even in the last few years.

So everybody always wants to compare themselves to industry.

Well, these are twice the raises that an industry was getting at one of the biggest industries in town.

So just I think everybody needs to baseline on that.

Uh so these costs are higher.

So comments?

Yes, Councilor Gordinas.

I guess I'll say that yeah, I recognize that they're higher.

I also um know that we've had a staffing issue, and I think for me, I want to be competitive and I want to make sure that um the people that we have a higher retention rate because ultimately that's what creates a stronger workforce as well as they learn to work with one another and really build um those relationships.

So I would hate to see all of that expertise as we've had in the past go away.

So I totally agree with you, but I think I am approaching this as to I'm hoping that we're they notice that we're investing in them and we're making all these changes, not just to this, but you know, really working on um equipping them with new things.

And so for me, I know it's a heavy cost, but I think it's a cost that we've haven't made or an investment that hasn't been made in a long time, and so we kind of are recuperating and kind of having to do it all at once in a way.

Nope.

Acknowledge other comments.

Okay, Mayor.

Yeah, so we have anybody uh yes, city manager.

May I just say I I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the team.

It it's uh any time we go into these conversations, you kind of know never know.

I actually want to acknowledge both teams, um, but mainly ours.

Um, but really uh Chief Morris and Emily Greemont, who's relatively new with with our firm, um, did an incredible job, but above all, um Ellie is just uh an incredible um presence at at the negotiating table, um unemotional, objective, data driven, and it's it's very hard for things to get sideways when Ellie's in the room, and I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Um and also acknowledge the other side.

Um they were they were reasonable and and um and overall really good to work with, and we we really appreciate that.

Yeah, I I think my follow-on comment would be um I'd love I'd love to give them 10 percent, right?

That they do good work, they they come when they're called.

Um I had opportunity to work directly with them last year with my dad's illness, and they were ultimately professional and did everything they could.

Um, but I I my vector on this comment comes from what we can actually afford.

And unfortunately, you know, well, we may do this in the short term, and to I totally understand your uh a retained employee is a far better employee than uh one lost because they're skilled and can make better money elsewhere.

Um but I think the it's a it's a slippery slope as I've seen because our raises will be used to compare against every other city in the region, and there's vice versa.

So we we all we all go up or down together, kind of is one of the things.

So uh it's not that they're not worth it, it's what we can afford.

And I was just lecturing our state representative on affordability versus um revenue generation when it came to uh ODOT this last weekend.

So um we we can't be in any different place than our state representatives of understanding what we um where our desires may be one thing, but our uh ability to afford something, maybe something else.

So that that's where it's coming from.

Hopefully that was understood.

And maybe I'd like to add too that we did do um a lot of um comparisons, not just with local fire jurisdictions, but also same size uh within the state.

Uh we did a lot of statistical and forecasting, so it was um we didn't take this slightly.

We did put a lot of a lot of time and effort into coming up with these numbers.

And and I I should have I I think it was just part of my my given and known that if you were involved in the process that there was a lot of analysis, high quality analysis done.

So thank you for doing that.

Thank you to the staff for their working through this.

This is never the most fun part of the job um working through the pay pay and benefits part.

So thank you for going through it for us.

Thank you.

Anyone wishing to make the motion at this point?

I'll make the motion.

Councilor Goodinas.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 2025 43, a resolution of the Cornelia City Council rectifying the 2025-2028 collective bargaining agreement between the city of Cornelius and the IAFF local 1660.

And this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Goodiness.

Do I have a second?

All second.

Second by Counselor Coligan.

Any further comments?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions.

It passes unanimously.

Thank you, Ms.

Jones.

Takes us to resolution number 2025-44, our intergovernmental agreement amendment with Washington County for police service.

City Manager Brown.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just uh briefly, uh very high-level summary.

The initial IGA with Washington County was established in 2014 when our police department was disbanded.

It was extended in 2022 for 10 years for a 10-year term.

And the most recent amendment was approved last year to account for increases in cost.

So we're we're back again with with another amendment uh to account for those increases.

And uh most recent amendment last year was a cumulative increase of five percent.

And this is really all driven by personnel costs, so it's it's the same theme that we were just talking about.

And uh so from that total contract cost two years ago of just under 2.9 million.

Um this year's increase will be 6.2%.

So in total now we are uh just a hair under 3.3 million.

So those costs just keep going up.

And um yeah, that's that's really the summary that I had.

Thanks.

Speaking of costs we can't afford.

Yeah, there's a trend.

Questions for staff?

Any any counsel.

Seeing none.

Anyone wish to uh make a motion?

It's gonna die for lack of a motion.

I will make the motion.

Okay.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 2025-44, a resolution of the Cornelius City Council amending the intergovernmental agreement with Washington County to account for an increase in the cost of police services, and this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Kogan.

Do I have a second?

I'll second that motion.

Second counselor Lopez.

Any further discussion.

I think we these are the same points we made about the fire contract, right?

It's uh it's costing us out of our ability to sustain it.

I mean, the the it just the income isn't there to sustain these kind of raises.

And the net net into that will at some point be a reduction in service.

Right.

Um the police came and talked to us about adding an officer, and we're like, no.

And we put money into the fire department because we needed to do that investment.

Um I'm sure they will come and talk to us again about adding officers with the increase in population, and I just don't see our ability to add it with these kind of you know double year increases that are twice as high as our incomes are going up for the city.

So that's my two cents if council has any other comments they want to add.

Seeing none.

All in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed abstentions.

It uh sounds like it passed with a groan.

Okay, that takes us to reports.

City council, do any counselors have reports?

Yes, Councillor Godines.

Sorry, I kind of waited because I wasn't sure when was the right time.

Um I kind of wish I would have spoken up earlier when uh we had the public comment, but I think I was still processing um everything that was said, and I think it was emotional because I never want our community members to feel like they um aren't safe here, or to have to sell their home because someone has made them feel uncomfortable.

Um and so I guess for me, I'm curious what can we legally do?

And I also feel like we failed them in a way if they said that they called the police multiple times and nothing has been done, and so I guess that makes me think what sort of evidence do they need to have to um have something happen.

And I know Peter, that oh, first of all, mayor, thank you so much for taking that call and for talking to them, and um I think that's really important, but I also think that action is important and for them to really see that we care about them and are trying to do something to help.

So I'm just curious between those legal lines of what we can do and can't do.

Most basically, counselor, it it's it's very difficult if something isn't directly observed.

And so um I I am confident that the deputies do uh understand and and truly believe that these things are happening, and at the same time the law, you know, the law has its limits.

And so um I don't have a a ready answer for you in terms of what else we can do, but we are actively talking about what we might do to address things there.

Um, but I'm I'm I'm very troubled by it too.

It's it's horrible.

Yeah, and I just I would hate for them to feel like they've asked for help and asked for help and nobody was there to support them.

So um, yeah, I and I guess my other question would be related because one of the things that came up, right?

Was parking, and so I know we've been talking about a parking study, and I'm just curious how maybe we can use some of this data or information to kind of help with all of that because I know that there's it's hard, it's difficult when you have maybe one neighbor that owns a a lot of cars, and versus when you have uh multiple individuals living in a home and um right taking up parking, but the situation still remains that parking is going to continue to be an issue, and as the mayor seemed like they had a conversation with them about the new laws that are changing.

Uh I'm just trying to think about what can we do to maybe address some of those things as those issues continue to grow.

Yeah, and and the parking study certainly comes to my mind too.

I think that this this kind of a situation is in my experience relatively unusual.

More often than not, much more often than not, if if there is conflict like this in a community, it's not somebody intentionally trying to hurt their neighbors, and that is seemingly what is happening here, and that is that is very disturbing.

Um more often it's oh, I didn't realize that this was impacting you, or you know, we can we can find a way even if it does involve mediation.

So we will explore that as far as the parking study, you know, that really will be focused more on on the kind of the town core and the couplet.

Um, but I'll certainly talk with Barbara about how we might be able to leverage that in um residential situations like this, especially because the state is now gonna really tie our hands even more when it comes to residential parking.

Yeah, and eventually that um I think we'll notice that residential parking will get worse as in encroaches on some of the businesses in our um urban corridor.

So yeah, I think that all of this is definitely something that we need to take a look at, and I know that we're working on it, but just any way that we can keep them updated and informed.

I think that's crucial.

Um thank you.

Well, Councilor Gardines, I think um one of the things that I heard uh Christopher talk about, and I did I did get to talk with Christopher probably for a half an hour on the phone.

Um mailboxes blocking parking.

So maybe there's something we can look at there.

Um for lack of a better term, we've turned a blind eye to holiday, right?

People are parking across the driveways in the front yards, um, in sections of curb that aren't big enough to park a car.

We've turned a blind eye to that neighborhood and allowed what would easily be ticketable fences to go unticketed because we understand it's it's a tough situation, right?

Um I'll drive through holiday again going home tonight, like I do so many times during the week.

And there'll be cars parked for blocks around because there's not room enough on the properties and on that street to even house the vehicles for everybody that lives on that street, it spills over into the adjacent blocks.

So I I I would ask, you know, is there something we can look about on the mailboxes, right?

Is there something we can do to help be an advocate to reduce the amount of space that mailboxes take up on the street?

Um I will tell you that I encouraged Chris um to consider adding additional parking on his own property.

Um there appears from street view, like they'd some you know, concrete block or something was laid down, some kind of tile to maybe do some of that, but that you know, we haven't we haven't gone after anyone on holiday that's added pavers or something like that to put a third parking spot in front of their home.

And I think that's that's us being sensitive to the problem that is occurring and not making it a bigger problem for our residents by saying, Oh, you you put in a third parking spot without talking.

Hey, if you want to trade your front yard for a third parking spot so you can actually park at your house and maybe not have your catalytic converter or your car broke into or whatever.

I I think that's us just being sensitive to the situation that's relevant out there.

Um I also talked to him about things I've seen done in Portland.

If his partner qualifies for some kind of special dispensation because of veteran or disabled status, maybe we could put a designated parking spot.

I've seen that's done in Portland.

I mean, for all the bad all the times he used Portland as a bad example, maybe this is an opportunity to use something they've done to to help with this.

And then to have um Patricia talked to us about just the badgering, right?

And the egregious behavior by her her neighbors of camera scoping her and harassment and all that.

Um that really brought me to the example, and I I didn't know every detail of it, but my understanding was uh my neighbor around the corner in the cul-de-sac from me was egregiously harassing the neighbor next door to the point, and this is what I shared with Chris when I talked to him, that they were able to get a court order restraining that neighbor sufficiently far enough away from their house that it precluded that neighbor from living in their home because of their egregious behavior.

And that family, the ones causing the trouble, had to move away because they couldn't be in their own home.

The wife couldn't be in the home.

Her husband was fine because he didn't have a restraining order, but the wife had been so egregious that she had a restraining order keeping her a thousand feet away from the neighbors, and guess what?

She couldn't go into her own home but a thousand feet away.

And that's how that problem got addressed, was my understanding the few years back.

So I'm just even wondering if our engagement into the folks that are causing this neighborhood problem and bringing a shining light on them and drawing them into some kind of mediation might not curtail some of this behavior.

And if half of what Patricia said to us is going on, uh that definitely to me looks like there's some loss, you know, some definitely something going on with harassment that can and should be pursued.

And I I I encouraged Chris to get every bit of this documented through police reports, and that's part of why I encouraged him to come here and speak tonight so it's on the public record, so that this would be even more information that they could use if they need to substantiate these um allegations.

So I I heavily, I don't know where the rest of the council is, encourage us to intercede a little bit here.

We need to make sure people understand it's not okay to bully your neighbors.

And I've had people call and talk to me on the opposite end of this, right?

Chris was wanting us to really change our parking codes and be much more stringent and much more aggressive on restricting these folks.

And I said, you know, I've had people calling me more frequently saying, no, no, you know, this whole 72-hour thing without moving a car.

I we've got an uh a neighbor that caught it's called me a couple times out of Laurelwood, and he goes out of town on business trips, so his car doesn't move for the week, and he's gotten ticketed and threatened to be towed multiple times because he has a neighbor that is using the law that we currently have about 72 hours as a weapon to harass him.

He's parked in a spot on the street, it's in front of his house.

It's not even in front of their house, it's front of his own house.

But is he's upset a neighbor and they're weaponizing our existing 72 hour so he's his son has to move his car twice a week while he's out on town on a business trip during the week.

So I I think I think we do really need to look at because the one that came up today in the survey I did for uh National Conference of Mayors was about people swatting people, right?

Where they call in a fake allegation of a crime or something going on to try to get a SWAT team to show up at somebody's house and cause a big scene and get people arrested that really weren't doing anything.

Um I feel like this is similar to that, right?

These people are weaponizing sounds like their vehicles in and in some very harassing so I I don't know how as the city we help them understand that this is not acceptable neighbor to neighbor behavior.

You need to we all need to get along, right?

It isn't ideal.

We wish we had more parking, we had wish we had more space.

This isn't gonna get better, it's gonna get worse.

Um so I think we need to figure out as the city how we help our citizens work through this, especially if some of them aren't as nice with each other as they should be.

So that's my two cents.

Council, any other comments?

No, again, I just really appreciate you chatting with them.

And um, I think a lot of times people don't have the right resources and information, so um, and not everybody is willing to give them 30 minutes of their time.

So honestly, I really do appreciate you doing that for our community members.

I think it speaks a lot to how seriously you take the issues and about keeping our community safe.

And Peter, I also appreciate you because I know that you you know don't take these things lightly either.

So I know that you'll be doing a lot of work on this, but um, this is just hard.

And I yeah, and it made me feel really bad because if if this has been going on for six years, um, you know, I I can't imagine what their day-to-day feelings are and feeling unsafe and their children potentially being run over.

So, yeah, there's a lot going on here besides just parking and appreciate everybody really trying to take this seriously and do whatever we can.

Thank you, council.

Um, any other counsel reports?

Yes, Counselor Colgan.

Uh yeah, I would be remiss not to remind everybody that all the kids are back to school as of tomorrow.

Um it's getting dark out earlier and the sun's coming up later.

So please be careful driving.

Please remind your school age students that sidewalks are there to keep them safe.

Um, and that wearing solid black and walking on the street in the dark is a poor choice.

Um, both of those things need to happen.

We be mindful of our school zones, watching where our kids are walking, um, and just driving a little bit more carefully right now because the kids are out.

Um that's all I've got to for a report.

Um wanna add to what you guys said, uh hearing members of our community get to the point where they needed to come here and say that to us and make that report uh is heartbreaking.

Um of the drawbacks of being a community is that you're depending on everybody else being a good member of that community for it to be good.

It takes one person sometimes on an entire block to make it less fun, less enjoyable, less safe.

Um, and it's it is incumbent on all of us who live in a community, and I love Cornelius and I put my time into it and invest in it and I choose to live here and I I love it.

Um it's hard to hear that members of our community are behaving this way.

Uh you know, kindness is free, and even if you don't have any of that, just not being unpleasant is also free.

Just mind your own business.

Like that's that's really hard to take.

So uh hopefully we can we can help those neighbors find some resolution there that's satisfying for everyone.

I appreciate the time that you're investing in that, Mayor and Peter.

Thank you.

Other questions, comments.

I know we don't, sorry.

On a lighter note, I did this.

Yeah, I just wanted to say how nice it was to be with everyone during the opening of the new school.

Um that I mean, I remember I think we were all together too when we watched it get torn down.

We were across there and taking videos, and I remember us all being a little heartbroken as we watched it, but also makes us think about um getting to see the new building and walk around it.

Counselor Vaughn and I were walking around and just admiring everything, and I'm so excited for the kiddos to get to experience that tomorrow.

I know it's not fully done, and they made it clear that they're still working on things.

Um, which honestly, I was I think there was a time there where I was just concerned that there might not be a new school to start the year with.

So I'm really glad that everybody was able to work through it.

And I will say, having been on the committee to um design this, everyone from the architects to the builders, developers.

It was all just an amazing group.

And I know sometimes with project management, I'm sure you're familiar with this.

It doesn't always go that way.

So I think we really did have the a really good team together.

So yeah, just really happy that that's there in our community, and then eventually knock on wood, we'll have you know the old school to use for our own recenter.

So just wanted to share that good news.

Yeah, that that was great to be able to go over there and that they used the the trees for those wood projects inside.

That was that was cool.

Um other council reports any?

Okay, I'll try to make mine brief because we're up against our nine o'clock.

Um just uh had the chance this weekend to uh spread my dad's ashes over in Eastern Oregon, and it's always uh good to get outside and see the east side of the mountains and uh see how other cities are so I get to spend some time in Pendleton and see what they were doing, and there were just some good ideas and and some interesting things.

Um I think we have lots of opportunities here, and uh what's the what I think the statement is of of all the things you can be kind, right?

That's so simple but true.

So um continue.

Like I said, I gave feedback to our uh Senator Solman about uh my feelings on the this weekend's activities and the money, and uh I think a 15% raise in the gas tax is an awful big raise, was one of my big points.

Um, two cents would have been you know much more reasonable five percent increase every year instead of 15 all at once.

So um, and then I think City Manager Brandman really tallied in about how you know we're taking care of the state highway as part of ours, and it's not our responsibility, but we are still doing it because it's the right thing to do in our community, taking care of the highway down to Deer Creek.

So Peter, I don't know if you can get done what you need to do in three minutes, or should we extend for five or ten?

No, no, I can do it.

Okay, I then Peter and I will be leaving uh Friday for um JPAC'd in DC.

I'm gonna go out and spend a little time with my buddy before going in to DC on Monday.

So we'll be in DC next week uh for joint policy advisory committee on transportation.

Yeah.

For me, Mayor and Council, uh it's just uh it's been such a joy here the last really four to six weeks.

Um I changed my my route, you know, when I park up a couple blocks up and walk down.

I I walk down 14th just so I can watch the progress.

I can't believe how much has been done across the street, especially in the last three weeks.

It's really unbelievable when things need to happen, they do.

Um, but it's just you know, I was walking around that building last week, just kind of dumbfounded, honestly, that that I was in Cornelius in that beautiful big two two-story school.

It's just it's incredible.

So really excited for the for the little ones coming in tomorrow to get to enjoy that new space.

And and then we're told that by uh by the end of the year, maybe by December, they'll be done with the site with the field and everything.

So it's gonna be great.

Any other updates, city manager?

Thank you, Rochelle.

If you haven't gotten a chance to see it yet, the storm drained mural next to Dutch Bros at 14th and baseline is is worth a short walk down to see it.

So really grateful to the artist Jojo and to Alton Riverkeepers for delegating that uh and and paying for it for us.

So it's it's really beautiful.

So go check it out.

Thank you.

Cool.

Any other staff need to reach the council tonight?

Seeing none, uh I would entertain entertain a motion to adjourn.

A motion to adjourn.

Motion by Councillor Goodnus.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Second by Councillor Colgan.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

We are adjourned.