Okay, let's get this started.

Welcome to the Cornell City Council for December 1st.

First up on this evening is our work session.

We are available on Zoom, TVC TV live stream.

And for those who need translation, we have wordly in live translation in the back, and it's listed online also.

So first up on our work session, emergency funding process.

City Manager Brandon.

Good evening, Mayor and Counselors.

Peter Branham, City Manager.

We're following up this evening on the conversations that we had last Monday, or I'm sorry, on the 17th, regarding the emergency declaration and what we might consider or what you might consider to do next.

And so we'd like to tee up some ideas to discuss options to support impacted community members in light of aggressive immigration enforcement actions in Cornelius.

I just want to ground again in our vision statements and our strategic plan vision emphasizing that we are welcoming inclusive and collaborative, strive to build trust and community for all.

And then our vision and action plan, we envision a Cornelius that empowers Cornelius' strong and vibrant Latino community and others partner with local community organizations to create pathways.

Those are partial, but I think kind of for me the most uh relevant to what we're talking about today.

So again, the aggressive federal law enforcement actions uh targeting immigrants in our community have severely impacted individuals' families, families, and small businesses.

We've engaged with advocates to coordinate and support community.

We've produced guidance for employees should they encounter federal law enforcement agents.

All non-public areas within city facilities are now clearly marked.

Many of them were, but now they all are.

Um passed an emergency declaration on the 17th.

Uh we've provided meals to some families who are afraid to leave their homes.

We've provided uh pretty comprehensive information in both English and Spanish on the city website.

And even since I created this bullet earlier today, we we now have a complete uh countywide law enforcement path pamphlet which distinguishes between local and and federal or non-local, really, any other law law enforcement yep.

And and I have that up, which I can I can show you later.

It's just been finalized, literally in the last hour.

So the emergency declaration includes support for community advocates.

We have a draft agreement that we can use to facilitate the grant granting of city funds to those community advocates.

That draft agreement specifies that funds may not be allowed to support undocumented community members, and that's for legal reasons.

Um the activity, whatever the money is used for must support community members within Cornelius city limits.

And it may purchase food, legal services, rent or mortgage, service navigation and case management, phone and internet service, child care, health care, utilities, and relocation assistance due to federal law enforcement impacts.

So those are the things that we have conceived of in an agreement that we might allocate to community advocates.

So our suggestion at this point, um, in part with the idea that this is likely to be a longer term need and not just uh a near-term need, is that we allocate $10,000 each to Centro and Adelante Moharis, both of whom provide extensive services within our community.

The agreement term would be through June 30th of 2026.

Recipient agencies will be asked to provide updates on the use of the funds.

Also just want to note that our existing utility bill relief program provides up to three months of utility bill debt relief within a 12-month period, up to 450.

We also could advocate for state actions to address civil rights violations, and we've talked about that a little bit over email and we can revisit that.

And I also want to note that both PGE and Northwest Natural have income-based relief programs that are set at 60% of the state median income, and they have they have slightly different, you know, uh processes and procedures and so forth, but they both do have those programs.

Yes.

Does the um P are we advertising the PG and the Northwest Natural programs on our uh information on our website?

Not at this time.

Okay.

I would I get the council agrees that we should be linking that um on our stuff too.

I mean that should be like the bill relief.

I I would see where our bill reliefs listed and also links to theirs as a common area, and then also on our the special stuff that ITSL's put together for this current time, I could see those definitely be in there.

Yeah.

Council questions, comments on what you've seen on the screen right now?

Yes, Council Gordinas.

Yeah, but just know that I know you and I talked about it because I had brought up Hillsborough and you um specifically when they release their funds, the same thing, the funds aren't allowed to actually support direct services to undocumented community members, which I understand why in terms of the funding, I don't like it.

I don't agree with it.

Um that being said how are we?

I don't know how to even ask this.

How are we monitoring that?

Or would that be left to the nonprofits to then decide w how to go about allocating those funds without based on those caveats?

The contract will stipulate that and we will ask the recipients for information about the use of the funds.

Um, some details about the amount allocated and for what purposes and so forth.

So that's that's really the way that we will I I would assume that it's part of the documentation of the reconciliation, right?

If they spend $10,000, we ask them how did you spend it, and then they say, well, this is the the way we did it.

And then uh I think the the what would happen to them is it would put them at jeopardy for not um have to reimburse us if they were in violation of the contract on the stipulations.

Right?

They give a family a thousand dollars and the documentation was not that family was undocumented, they would be liable to us for the thousand, is I'm assuming the way the contract would work.