I will now call to order our Cornelius Urban Renewal Agency board meeting.

First thing on the agenda is roll call.

Member Delane?

Present.

Member Vaughn?

Present.

Vice Chair Goody and Zolencia.

Present.

We have two excused absences.

Um Chair Lopez and Member Nunes Barragon.

All right.

Next thing on our agenda is elections.

As part of today's agenda, we will hold elections for the positions of chair and vice chair.

These off uh officers will serve for a term of one year.

I will now open the floor for nominations for the position of chair.

Chair, uh, are we since we have almost half the commission missing this evening?

Are we gonna hold this over or staff?

Can we hold this over till uh next month?

Till hopefully we have the whole council or whole commission in I think with the chair absent it'd be better.

We can just push it to February.

Do we need to vote on it or we're okay to push it?

Okay, we can just do that.

So elections will be pushed to next month.

Thank you.

Next thing on our agenda is the consent agenda.

Do I have somebody willing to um approve the urban rural agency board meeting minutes for December 1st of 2025?

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Moved by Mayor Dahlin.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Second by uh member, sorry, board member Vaughan.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Any abstentions?

Pass this unanimously.

Next on our agenda is public comment.

Do we have anyone willing to speak in person or virtually tonight?

All right.

That leads us to our public hearing for urban renewal resolution.

Sorry, UA URAB resolution number 202601, Urban Renewal Plan, Minor Amendment Staff Barbara.

All right.

So I will now uh opening statement and procedure for hearing before the Cornelius Urban Renewal Board on item on agenda item 4A, resolution number 202601.

Now is the time and place for a public hearing on an amendment to the urban renewal plan.

The board decision on this amendment and proposed resolution number 202601 will be based upon the record staff report and testimony and evidence presented in this hearing.

I will now open the hearing.

Please limit your testimony to the applicable criteria.

Do we have anyone testifying tonight?

Vice Chair, do we have a staff report first?

Oh, my apologies.

I think I got ahead of myself here.

That's okay.

That's what I was asking.

It looks like we do.

Yes, sorry.

I had you cross out too many things.

I think I apologize.

Um, so tonight you have a resolution before you that is to amend the urban renewal district plan to add a project having to do with parking.

If you'll recall, um about three, four months ago, we talked about parking in light of climate-friendly and equitable communities.

You folks asked that we look into completing a parking study.

We've researched it, and um we are trying to find funding for that parking study, and at the same time, we're looking at future redevelopment of the town center and how could we mesh the two together to provide the data that we need and the information we need as redevelopment occurs.

So the amendment would allow for completion of the parking study and following further action by the board and presumably city council um action or implementation on that parking study.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Yes, board member Delane.

Uh yes, staff.

As I've I've thought about this, um, I know there are you know certain state laws that currently prohibit us from requiring you know parking and and stuff with redevelopment, but would something out of the study allow us to understand also because I I as I visit other communities, the city is designated parking places.

I mean, if you go to Seaside, there's a great example, it's off strip.

They have an entire, you know, a couple of city blocks dedicated to parking to support the downtown because they know people a lot of people are gonna come, and that parking lot's almost always full through the summer, right?

So is that something that we might come out of this study with is an understanding of maybe we need some dedicated space for parking and maybe where that would be appropriate?

Is that something that might come out of that study?

That is exactly what would come out of the study.

We would get an assessment of the amount of parking that's currently available.

We would get an understanding of um where it might be appropriate to limit the number of hours that or a time delay of how many hours somebody could be at a particular parking spot, or in some instances where it might be appropriate to have 15 minute spots, um, say in front of a uh food vendor or in front of a market or something to that effect.

Um, whereas other places in the town center, it might be appropriate appropriate for two hours or no limit at this time until we get um a critical mass of business, and then you really want to see that turnover.

But at first, you really um the parking information that I've studied is that until you get 85% of the spaces used in a parking district, it doesn't make sense to really take on um metered parking or things of that nature, but it would provide us with the tools and the information to get us to a step-by-step approach to parking management, which could include parking lots either surfaced now or um as you might have seen in Beaverton, they have a couple of parking garages, and that was incremental over time.

And if we ever get to the point where development would warrant a parking structure, then this probably wouldn't tell us that, but it would provide the opportunity for land if we needed it.

Yeah, I I think about downtown Hillsborough with a RENCO, right?

They have uh stacked parking as part of the plan when they develop that.

Um, if the not if the Grande Foods property redevelops, maybe that's something we'd want to consider is you know, uh a desire to have some kind of parking integrated with it that's maybe below grade or at grade or stacked or something.

So I think these are all good things as we see our little community, you know, infill and develop up and start to attract, you know, we were just eating some Chipotle tonight from the new restaurant.

Um, looking at how do we better utilize this space so that we're prepared, right?

Because I I think that's one of the things that we we need to understand is um with the state law the way it is, what do we need to do to be prepared to interface with it in a manner we think is good because I think the only thing we've done is like I think we have some parking restrictions around Virginia Garcia because of the impact we're seeing it have on adjacent businesses.

So we did some you know, interception there, and uh maybe we can be more proactive and less reactive and if we we look forward into things and and like you said, do we at some point do we even have parking meters or parking system or any of that?

Someday we can hope to, right?

So thank you.

I think I think that was a good good understanding.

I think it's good for the home audience to understand what we're trying to get out of this if we're gonna use some urban renewal funds to do this.

That's public funds.

What are we gonna get for the public out of it?

Thank you.

Any other questions?

No.

I think that's all.

Thank you.

So now I will um call upon anyone that's submitted yellow cards, though it sounds like we don't have anyone testifying tonight.

All right.

So with that being said, the hearing is now closed.

All right, next thing there's no presentations, no unfinished business.

So then new business would be resolution number 202601.

Do we have do I have anyone willing to make a motion?

I'll make that motion.

All right.

Is there anything we need to read?

Sorry, I'm looking at it.

I think he's willing to make the motion.

Yeah.

All right.

Uh I make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-01.

A resolution of the Urban Renewal Agency Board approving a minor amendment to the Cornelius Urban Renewal Plan.

And this action takes effect immediately.

Do I have a second?

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any abstentions?

All right, pass unanimously.

Thank you.

Move we adjourn.

Any uh do I have a second?

Second.

All right.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Pass unanimously, meeting adjourned.

You're right on time.

I was just gonna say.

Okay.

Staff, are you ready to proceed to the council meeting?

Change up my uh to the right document here.

I'm not going to.

Okay.

Wanna welcome folks to the city council meeting.

This is Monday, January 5th, 2026.

I'm gonna date myself here.

Remember to start writing 26 on your checks now instead of 25.

Great.

There's enough old folks in the room with me to recognize what that comment's about.

We had an executive session at six.

We had an urban renewal agency at seven.

That takes us to our regular session today.

Uh, we'll start with a 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.

Staff, would you do roll call, please?

Councilor Vaughn.

Present.

Council President Godins Valencia.

Present.

Mayor Delaney?

Present.

We have two excused absences.

Counselor Lopez and Councillor Nunez Barragon.

Thank you, staff.

Announcements this evening, Monday the 19th.

City offices will be closed for the Martin Luther King Jr.

Day recognition.

Monday, February 2nd at 6 p.m.

We will plan to have a council work session.

And also on February 2nd at 7 p.m., we'll plan to have our council meeting.

We have nothing for the consent agenda this evening.

Takes us to public comments.

Staff, do we have anyone?

Is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak on an item not on the agenda?

Seeing none.

I did happen to forget to mention that we do have the wordly live translation going on.

It's available online through the uh link provided.

There's also uh QR codes in the back of the room where you can do that.

And we are live streaming on TVC TV, and you can also attend us via Web Zoom webinar.

Forgot to mention that I was so excited at the beginning.

Uh first up in our recognitions is employee recognitions for Carlos Martinez, city manager or Ellie.

Ellie, you're gonna handle this one.

Thank you.

Hello, thank you, Mayor.

Um so Collis was not able to be with us tonight, but we still wanted to um acknowledge him.

Um Coilos was actually highly on the holidays during COVID.

So he got to experience a lot of the changes and the implementations, um, you know, with the um the duties and how do we how we had to to make changes with that.

Um he is a key um a key point of the finance office.

Although he may sit in the back quietly, he does um get a lot accomplished.

He makes sure that we all get paid and let it paychecks are collect.

He makes sure that all of the invoices um paid on time, um, manages the P Cleage system.

He also assists um after plant desk with cash receipts and customer assistance, setting up utility accounts, um, helping review customer questions.

Um he also manages uh citywide um fixed asset database.

So he keeps um track of all of the capital assets, vehicles, equipment, infrastructure, um, construction projects, maintains that on a monthly and annual basis, and that's a big point of the audit as well.

Um in recent years, he has taken over the development of the CIP, which will be coming to you in the next couple of months, hopefully.

But um this will be his third year completing that project.

So although I present it, he is the one compiling it and um like I said, just because we sit in the back doesn't mean we're not getting a lot done.

Um and as time allows, he takes on other tasks and projects, um, works with me to help get things like the budget um information out to all of you.

Um so although he's not here, I do want to thank him for um his usual service and his continued commitment to the city.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I felt like he had at least you have like a picture of Carlos on a stick or something, just so you so he could be in attendance or something.

Um but no, I I you know anytime I come into City Hall, he's always uh very pleasant, easy, easy to talk with, and I really appreciate you know his five years of service.

I could hopefully we'll be able to keep him around for a few more years and uh continue to enjoy all the benefits he's brought to the city.

Council, any other questions or comments for Carlos.

I would just say I'm also very sad that he's not here, and I've really appreciated getting to know him throughout these past couple of years and just seeing hearing you talk about all the great things that he does and how much he helps.

I think it just puts into perspective how much is being done by one individual and also I guess by a whole team, because it's just two of you, but you all do a lot with uh with two people.

And I also just appreciate the fact that um, and I meant to tell him this the other time, but um someone came in a client and they were talking about something, and it makes so much more sense now that you were talking about him helping set up accounts because they were like I couldn't figure something out, and then I went in and some really nice guy helped me, and she's like, I think his name was Carlos, I'm not sure.

And I was like, Oh, that's so sweet.

And I don't know, it just it makes me feel good when our community members feel like they got the support that they needed, especially after feeling like you know, they it was such a daunting process, but in the end, like they got exactly what they wanted.

And I think that really speaks to the work that not just he does, but the rest of you do too.

So I really just appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Council Vaughn.

I just gonna say it seemed seems like I need to meet Carlos.

I've not met Carlos yet, but sounds like you're a great guy.

Yeah, I wish he could have been here.

He does have a small cape, it's not as big as Ellie's Cape or the city managers, but it is a small cape.

I will say he's a fan of Laboooboo's, so if you want to get him something nice, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

You know, I think it it speaks to um our staff is small, but they're they're they're very you know, high output, they're very functional.

We're very lucky to have the staff we have, and uh they do a lot with uh just a few hands.

So congratulations on his five-year anniversary, and uh, you know, he's got my autograph now and some paper that that'll be worth like a dollar next year.

So thank you.

Uh presentations and appointment.

First up, we have Portland General Electric and update.

Um, Larry, Meredith, or are you the right people?

Or do we get oh, we've got three, please.

We're we're really uh hitting all on cylinders.

Um that microphones or the microphones are live when you can see a green light, and you normally have to be fairly fairly close to them to get a good reading.

Okay, I can probably I can already hear TV TV saying you're not close enough to the mic, Mayor.

So please introduce yourselves and uh take us through your update, please.

Uh yeah, thank you so much for having us here tonight.

Um very happy to be here.

My name is Meredith Armstrong.

I manage the local government affairs department at Portland General Electric.

Um, and with me I have Larry Beckadall, who is our senior vice president of our advanced energy delivery program.

Um and I also have Tyler Kelly.

And we um we've had a little bit of turnover in our LGA department over the last year or so, and we've done some restructuring.

So Tyler is actually gonna take on uh Cornelius in his portfolio.

So he's got some cards that he's gonna leave behind, and he'll be setting up some time with Peter, and we'll just kind of continue that continuity with you guys so you have a smooth flow of communication with PGE, and anytime anything comes up, you can always reach out to Tyler or myself as well.

Um, but we we are here to to serve you guys.

So and with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Larry.

Great.

Thank you, Meredith.

And good evening, Mayor Dallin.

Thank you for having us.

And uh Council President, goodness, nice to meet you.

Um Councilman Ravon, who I understand is uh PG employer.

We haven't got a chance to meet yet.

So uh I think you've got a year in though, so pleasure.

Yeah, as of as of tomorrow.

It's tomorrow, okay.

Well, congratulations, see.

Hopefully we'll get them to stick them around, stick around a little bit longer.

It's not our first PGE on council.

We had a little bit of a Luis Hernandez as our council president and counselor for a number of years.

So it's uh definitely another uh element of PGE being involved in the community.

Love seeing it, actually, yeah.

And uh, and also uh manager uh Brandon who attended our IOC tour uh here a few weeks back.

Uh really appreciate you coming out, spending the time, hopefully uh to understand our business a little bit and how we can connect, how we think about working together uh here in partnership.

And uh so that's what we wanted to do tonight was give a little bit of an update um and and talk about some of the commitments that we've made.

Um I've got to start off right off the bat with I I know that energy cost and you know the the issue of uh what rates are today and the cost to customers is first and foremost on residential mines, um and and that gets right into the commercial and absolutely with the industrial as well.

And um, in fact, right before the end of the year, we've now filed to our resetting of uh rates.

Um and in fact uh you'll see there's been a lot of talk about data centers and what are they paying and how are they paying, and as we go forward, they pay for the cause of that they make.

So the causation that they create um is need to be paid and not paid by residential customers.

And so that filing has taken place and uh we'll be moving through with the commission.

Um the executive team made the commitment that we're gonna keep residential rates below the inflation rate.

So that's our dedication.

Uh is a real challenge.

Uh this last year with uh reducing a cost, uh already taking 25 million dollars out of our OM expenses.

We'll be doing a little bit more than that this next year as well.

That's not easy.

That's uh that does mean uh jobs, that means uh layoffs for the first time, at least since I've been there, been 11 years uh with Portland General Electric.

So there's it's tough.

I know we all see it, but it's the right thing to do.

And uh we want to make sure that we're bringing the best value to all of our customers, and we'll talk on that as we go through this evening.

Um so hopefully we'll answer a few questions and then open it up for a bit of dialogue and and um you know make sure that we're answering the needs.

Oops, did I go too far?

I bet I did.

Sorry, but there we go.

Um so yeah, we did a little general um page here to to talk about uh the number of employees in the community.

Uh something that we're really focusing on, and I was glad to hear the planning session right before here.

Um in that we're trying to focus on planning.

Growth for the electric utility business for and and I've been in it for over 40 years.

I was with uh Bonneville Power before ran the transmission there before coming to Portland General Electric, Clark Public Utilities over in Vancouver, and then prior to that Pacific Corps, kind of all over the west, even spent some time over the seas in Japan and other countries with utilities.

But what I would say is that growth for the last 25 years was less than one percent.

We weren't seeing you know big spikes, there wasn't a lot happening.

Energy efficiency was keeping pace basically with energy usage.

And um then came along what I would say is um uh not only electric vehicles but electrification.

So moving into more heat pumps, more highly efficient uh units that are heating our homes, etc.

And so electricity started to grow, and we were seeing it in the two and a half to three and a half percent range.

And I hope you can relate, maybe thinking about water department, how's your growing or your sewer departments how growth and um so we started to see that, and then obviously um here a couple years ago when data centers started to come in, we saw large load increases starting to act in certain locations.

Um but that two and a half to three and a half percent growth all of a sudden and a lot.

And and if I drew a circle around Cornelius, and uh in the 1990s, we show a number here that the population was 6,000, just over 6,000, and now you're over 14,000.

So it's been this growth that's coming, it keeps happening.

But we haven't built any new transmission in the area for the 1970s.

And uh, and that was all built because the new era back in the 30s when the dams were all put in the northwest, World War II breaks out, the aluminum industry comes in, boom, you know, we build the transmission.

And uh having operated the you know that transmission for Bonneville, 75% of it all over the Northwest is um was all completed in the early 70s.

Now the aluminum industry went away in the 90s, and then Intel and other chip manufacturing came in and started to fill that space.

But as you think about it, you know, think about the Willamette Valley, we're starting to see, okay, where is that growth taking place?

What communities are thinking about?

What do you want to see of your community?

What sort of development do you want to see?

Is it the technologies?

Is it robotics?

Is it what what is it that you would like to see come in?

And are we planning for that?

So I drew kind of a circle around, and you know it's about 25 megawatts according to this.

And uh you've got basically a substation today that's a 28 megawatts, again, give you that sense.

We can add another transformer there, so we could double that.

Okay, so at three and a half, four percent, you know, how how fast is that gonna fill?

But if you had a business walk in the door, and uh I'm not gonna say that it's gonna be a data center, but uh a data center that shows up for a hundred megawatts.

Wait, that's four times the size of the city itself in a box.

And uh and I can go into all sorts of details on data centers, but but know that you have to think about what kind of plan do you want?

What do you how do you want to see the city advance?

What sort of technology do you want to come in?

And we even talked about, you know, I got to thinking uh earlier today about corners.

Wait a minute, let's see, there's fiber optic lines that run from the coast that are coming from the the Southeast Asia that go into Hillsboro.

Did they stop over anywhere in route?

Okay, that's good question.

Uh it's that sort of thing, though.

You start to ask yourself how could this community avail itself to do something different?

So know that the growth has been happening, now it's starting to pick up, and know where the ties are.

There's there's a 57 KV line that comes from the north and one heading into the south.

Okay, what do we need to do in the next five years as we think about planning for the city?

And that's what we'd like to partner with you on.

And um, just as you're thinking about water and sewer and other things, we want to do the same thing with this infrastructure.

We're doing a lot of uh upgrades, um, I know in in terms of uh uh our uh facilities themselves, aging of assets, old poles that are out there, a wire that needs to be replaced.

Um so we're putting a lot of money in in those directions.

Um but again it plays into where's the subdivision being built or where is the new uh stores being built?

Uh we'll look for those opportunities uh where we can.

But we also have these increasing threats, and uh whether it be ice storms, um, and these are weather ice storms, not the other kind of ice storms.

So um I know those are impactful as well.

Um, but as we think uh uh wildfire, uh what we're seeing, we we built the IOC that uh uh the city manager attended.

Um that was built because of the earthquake, Cascadia of Subduction Earthquake and the downtown building that we had.

Um we had to harden ourselves, and uh and so it was a lot cheaper to go build a new site than it was to try to harden the building that we were in.

So as we think about these increased threats from weather, from wildfire, um, how do we harden ourselves and prepare?

And that may mean new types of energy within the city and how we operate, you know, the microgrids, backup generation, that sort of thing.

Um also uh you know, in terms of resiliency, we've put batteries in.

Batteries are new to our industry.

Um having a device that we could store, closest thing to it was in the hydro facilities, like a Grand Cooley Dam, you could actually hold back water significantly.

But um most of the dams are anymore kind of run of the river, so they're not don't have as much storage in them uh that we've we would like to have.

But we've put 500 megawatts of batteries in our system now, three primary locations, uh trout deal, um uh the uh St.

Helens area, and then over in um or not St.

Helens, but um there's one in North Portland Seaside is one of the Seaside.

Um St.

John's, there we go.

That was like North Portland?

North Portland, and then also out in Hillsborough.

And uh so those batteries now uh make up 10% of our capacity, and so we can buy energy when it's cheap, so at night, maybe when the winds um blowing, or during the day when California has a lot of solar or the desert southwest is selling to us, we can store it in and we use it in the peaks.

Maybe it's the evening or the morning hours, et cetera.

And so uh that helps us to drive pricing down to be able to take advantage of the low cost energy at that time and to bring it in and to operate it.

So batteries are becoming a real key to uh how we operate the system.

Where do we think we need resiliency in terms of the types of threats that we're seeing, be it wildfire, weather, et cetera.

The other um the wildfire we do talk about, and I know you've kind of touched on the edges here, urban areas.

Um, and so uh it becomes I think a real reality for all of us in thinking about I know there'll be legislation that continues.

Um how do we do a better job as a society of thinking about wildfire and uh how we address the resiliency that's needed.

And we think of it obviously from the equipment, trees, wires, you know, um they don't go well together.

Uh we can cover the wire, we can put steel poles in.

Um if we can put it underground, we'll look towards that.

Uh but it comes very expensive.

It's it's best to put it underground when you're first installing.

Just anytime you have that opportunity.

Um, new subdivisions, that sort of thing, highly recommend it.

Um, but uh to convert later on is expensive, and then also uh transmission is even much more expensive.

But um, but we're looking for those opportunities.

We really want to hire harden those areas you know where we have the vegetation.

Um this is kind of a a breakout of uh our emitting um generation sources or in right now we are running 45 percent non-emitting.

Um and I also call out that um other the 13 percent because it's unspecified.

If we're buying it from another area, we don't know if it's a green electron or what, um, then it just gets treated as if it was carbon emitting.

And uh so we're doing a better job working with uh the Cal ISO, the energy markets that we're in of identifying where that energy is coming from.

But that gives you a breakout quickly of of where we stand today um with our energy.

Thanks for resizing.

Um so affordability, I talked about that at the beginning, and uh it really is how do we keep it down, controlling our operating costs.

I mentioned um and and things that we can do with the energy prices.

Um I'll use batteries as another good example of energy cost.

Two summers, well, three summer go now.

Um the energy peak cost during a hot day was running anywhere from a thousand dollars to two thousand dollars a megawatt hour.

California put in over 13 gigawatts of batteries on a 52 gigawatt system.

All of a sudden, what used to be this duck curve that was happening that was driving a lot of these high prices levelized.

And now in the summer, we're paying 150 dollars roughly for that same megawatt.

So talk about driving prices down.

Um, those are the types of actions that really make a big difference.

But we also want to make sure that we're paying attention to uh customers, and um especially those in low income or fixed income.

Uh we have our income qualified bill assistance programs, and um that's been a really a good thing.

Um, and I know about 60 percent of those that are eligible here in your community are taking advantage of that.

Oh, do we have numbers?

I bet we do.

There we go.

62 percent, sorry.

And so um, but again, we want to encourage people that are eligible to seek and take advantage of that.

And so uh if we can bump that number up, I think probably our highest community is about 80 percent.

So about 80.

Um, and I will say that PG will have a table at the um central cultural's uh you know Nino's day in April, and so we're hoping that we'll get to help even saturate that number more, um, knowing that I believe a lot of Cornelius folks attend that.

Yeah, you're always welcome.

We've got uh, you know, we're gonna talk about it later.

Some of the other community events are we're looking at for the year, but um the holiday dinner, um day of the child.

I think all of those different events, you're you're more than welcome to probably come out and set up a table and help uh people in the community understand how they can maybe save a dollar or two with their PGE bill with these kinds of programs.

Thank you.

Sorry, and I'm also wondering if we can add like a quick snippet of that if we haven't already in our newsletter, just as a reminder for staff or not for staff for community members.

Yeah, we can um we've done that in the past.

We kind of have set language that has a link to that, and then we will send it over to you, and you can just add that to your community newsletter, but we would we would love that.

Yeah, thank you.

So we talk about uh the the partnership and and uh I know Peter's leaned on Meredith a few times and making some connections to talk about planning um and Tyler now uh stepping in a suit.

Know that they have connection in the company.

So uh we are setting them up to make sure that you know hey, whatever the need is, let's go seek it out, and uh they can be that right hand for you, uh, whatever you might need um to drag it out out of the company.

And so they have our full support to make that happen, and it's really important.

Um I've kind of been all over in the northwest with a lot of communities um and uh um lived in you know towns of 2500, and I know what it means uh to work in a community, and really I loving to see the attitude here in Cornelius, the things that you're doing.

Um, and so if we can be a partner with that, we'd love to do that.

And that whether it's the planning again, emphasizing that, because some of these things take four or five years to really build out.

So let's let's think ahead and do that together.

Really appreciate so with that we can open up questions.

Sure.

Council questions.

I'll ask them later.

Uh nothing top of mind at the moment.

Answer wrong.

Okay.

Um I think is as we look at the opportunities.

I think of this as a as a great chance for you to meet with our staff and talk about some of our aspirations, right?

And understand how does um PGE play into that because we've been working on the same 575 acres north of town for a long time.

Um but you know, I think it's not in there today, but we think probably the future will be the continued expansion between the Twileton and TV Highway all the way over to Derry Creek, so the whole South Southeast continued expansion.

How would your connections and and stuff play into that?

And then we've even got you know, I've thrown out this wild idea of well, what if what if we stepped across the toilet and understanding what kind of ramifications that would have for our power infrastructure?

I think that would be one more element to better understand the the cost of that.

Every time you do you talk about crossing a big body of water like that, it's obviously expensive, but it'd be understand maybe scale-wise, you know, what's the difference between the ongoing expansion in the southeast, you know, densification in the northeast, and then you know, outright expansion to the north through the uh what we consider industrial plan for the 575 north.

Um, so I think absolutely working with us, and then you know, darn that Randy for retiring, you know, we get all new faces here.

We've been working with Randy off and on for a number of years, but I I bless him in his retirement.

He he deserved it.

But I I think those are the things, and then I I think one of them that rolls around in my head is I've looked at this and read through some of the papers is you spoke of the the micro infrastructure, right?

Um we've got millions of gallons of water in our ASR, and maybe how do we better partner to make sure that when Cascadia subduction happens to make sure that we have the right, maybe that's a place as we look for expansion or replacement of the tank and the ASR, making sure we have the right connections um with PGE, and if there's you know ever a battery station that was involved, maybe that would be a good place for us to do that kind of that micro structure within Cornelius for the battery area to be.

So it's like, oh well, here's the here's the ASR, here's the water tank for the community.

And look, here's also the hardened battery infrastructure.

It's all logically co-located, so you're not running back and forth across town, um, trying to do infrastructure improvements running things.

And I I think we've been very fortunate that we've supported undergrounding, right?

All of the the new Southeast area is underground.

A lot of our uh as we've done developments that have been underground.

Um I know every time I can call my sister and her powers out in Forest Grove and our power's on.

I go, I think that's got something to do with us being so undergrounded here that we're less susceptible to ice storms or drunk drivers or whatever, you know, the things that disrupt the power grid.

So I think those are good um some of them off the top of my head that are opportunities for us to talk and work together.

Um I know the city manager talked about the impression of being at the new emergency, you know, your command center.

Sounds like you took everything that I toured and saw down in the the bank building downtown and basically moved it all over to the new building.

So it sounds like it's a lot of the same things.

So I look forward to the an opportunity.

Maybe the counselors would I don't know how often you do those tours or have that opportunity, but definitely please try to include us again the next time if it's every six months or year to see if that they get a chance to see what it what's a critical element to our community, right?

We took we've you and I've talked about this about how when we've lost power in different parts of the community, keeping the library open because it seems to always be powered up so people could come and charge medical devices or charge a cell phone so they can talk to family members.

Um every every day of your life, it seems like there's something electric involved in it.

So it's so critical for us to be able to maintain that, and maybe if it's not at your house in this particular storm, but having places where people know they can go in the community and access that kind of support, recharge their oxygenator, you know, all these kind of things.

So those are things off the top of my head.

I um I love that.

I think that just better partnership over resiliency and and how we can make sure that communities have what they need during emergencies is really critical.

Um I will say for the IOC tours, we do have a couple more in January coming up.

I will forward the dates to you again, Peter.

Um, but then our intention is to continue those throughout the year.

We're really trying to kind of open.

We've seen a lot of interest, um, opening it up to um not just our elected leaders, but the high-level staff as well, so that they can really see what's going on.

Um, and so we'll definitely keep you guys in the loop as those opportunities come up.

We also we know it's challeng certain days can be challenging for folks.

Everyone, you know, I know you all have your day jobs as well, and so definitely want to just keep those opportunities as viable as possible for people.

So we will definitely keep you in the loop on that.

Um I think also that just that general concept of let's stay in touch, let's have regular touch points.

Um, and I'm I'm really excited to bring Tyler on board because as he learned, I I can't I can only split myself into so many pieces throughout the day.

So um I think that that was gonna be a really good good shift.

Do we do we have Tyler plugged into like Washington County coordinating committee so that he's maybe not on the table, but at least aware when we're having those meetings if he wants to touch base with the rest of the electeds.

I know that for Washington County, that's a great touch point is that Washington County coordinating committee.

We will definitely get him plugged into that.

Um, and I was also gonna suggest to him to look at the um Cornelius Forest Grove chamber that you guys have.

Um, and because what I've what I've seen is in kind of looking at this area, um, and I know I used to live in Hillsborough, I live out in banks now, and so um the like there's a different breakoffs of how uh in different priorities, and so I'm trying to get him synced up with the right places that really showcase the Cornelius priorities.

So any suggestions you guys have on that, we are open to and would be happy to take them.

Well, and then obviously the other one is um the MMC, the Metropolitan Mayors Consortium, right?

To be if you guys haven't got connected through Mayor Beatty or Mayor Buck.

That's a a couple of good contacts to if you guys have something you want to get on the agenda for all the Metro Mayors and you get us all in one room once a month.

So there's topics piled up, but if you want to get a chance to talk to them all, that's a great place to reach out to that that group of leadership.

Yeah, um, yeah, I know Preston on our team has gotten us connected with them.

But thank you.

That is all you're absolutely spot on a great organization.

Council, did that stir any questions, comments for you?

Greg knows everything because he's there every day.

Well, we're gonna drag him around now.

So awesome.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate you guys making the long haul out here.

You did you cross the imaginary uh the border at 185th, which is always a tough one to bring get people past.

So thank you very much.

Appreciate you coming out and sharing.

Thank you.

Uh next up is our city-led community events.

Itzel, I think this is uh yourself.

Hello, Mayor and City Council.

Today I'm gonna give you a little bit of a summary of the 2025 events and then what's coming up in 2026.

And then I will you can feel free to interrupt me during the slideshow.

It's very informal or after I finish up everything.

So these are the established events with no changes that we had this year.

So these went very, very well.

There was no everything was done how we usually do it every year.

Um Flicks the Park that did really, really well, National Night Out, Fairness Day Ceremony, Shop with a Cop.

I did notice that for Flicks the Park, we had a little bit more audiences for um Lilo and Stitch.

We ran out of popcorn within 30 minutes.

Wow.

Yeah.

Um and that was even before the movie started.

So now was that the new Lilo and Stitch or was it the old one?

It was the old Lelo and Stitch.

So the way we've been picking out our movies or just like following trends that are happening with like movies coming up.

So usually if there's like a live action, we look for the original or the old version of it.

So people really seem to like that.

And I'll go to the next ones.

And then I'm gonna go over this list about all the changes that we've done to these events this year for 2025 season.

Uh we brought back Take Care of Cornelius Day.

Uh we incorporated partnerships with Habitat for Humanity.

So what they did is that they went around the neighborhood around the new school and they contacted uh homeowners and they cleaned up like the yards, and then they actually found two homeowners that had a really bad fence where it was falling apart, and they brought in their volunteers and they remade a brand new fence at no cost for these uh households.

So you can see a picture of them uh building a fence, and they had like over 25 volunteers that day, and they worked multiple days.

It wasn't just take care of Cornelius Day, but they had multiple days where they went and helped those households as well.

And we brought back trash picking around the um the city.

We had two groups, the Walmart group and the Fred Meyer group, uh, where they started.

Um, and that did that went very well.

They picked up a lot of trash.

It was a long trail, but I didn't hear any really any big complaints.

They had lots of pit stops, um, but it was very well um attended.

And we actually partnered with Oregon e-cycles through a connection at Centro Cultural, and they were able to provide um ecycling for free for the community.

So that was another thing we added, and free geek was a um organization that came and took the those materials.

Um then finally Yak.

Usually we uh do flower planting at the parks to help with our public works department, our parks department um to help with that task.

And this year we took on a couple more parks.

So we we traveled around the city and we did, I think an extra three parks.

And while we were traveling to the next park, because we did walking, we did trash pickup throughout the neighborhoods as well.

So we had a little route.

So not only were they walking, they were also helping pick up some trash in the neighborhood as well.

But I'm planning to hopefully, and maybe I'll talk a little bit more about it for 2026 um towards the end.

But hopefully, we'll have a little bit more stuff coming through for this next season.

And then Cornelius Farmers Market.

So this one was a really big change.

Every year it seems like we're changing the location.

It started off behind the library, went on 14th, and now it went to Grande Foods.

Um, they had access to a large portion of the parking lot, and one of the big changes also that happened with the farmers market is that we had um special events every month.

The season didn't shorten, so usually we had farmers market from June to September, end of September, but this time it was June to August.

But um, they were able to get a little bit more creative with their events, which was really great.

Um, the classic car show was really, really packed.

We had a lot of people show up for that.

Um, I wasn't at the punk art market, but Peter was, and it looked like it went very well.

It was Chuckful Awesome.

I I got there early and stayed through the openers, and I think Peter and I basically high-fived and you picked it up and hung out for the rest of it.

It was it was really cool.

It was really great event.

So I'm hoping we can do something like that again this coming year.

Yeah.

And finally, the uh last event that they had was the Adel Maíz, and one of our city counselors, Nunez Baragan actually was a part of it.

So they had like um some dancing, they had uh community crafts.

Um, they did a lot of art with uh some of the corn with the different colors of corn and created like this big art piece, um, which was really nice, and it went very well.

Uh, there are gonna be some changes, and I'll talk about it again at towards the end.

But overall, the events were great, and the community really seemed to like them.

Yeah, I I think the we even saw that behind the library, those are some of the biggest events is when you know Counselor Luis Hernandez's band played, or we had other bands, or though those seem to be some of the biggest events when there's something besides just the market.

The market's one thing, but to have these special events really pulls the community into them.

So hopefully we can do continue to do some more of those.

Yes.

Um, the 9-11 memorial ceremony.

So we usually um did this uh in Forest Grove at the big flag.

Uh, but now that we have our own chief for um Cornelius Fire Department, we did it at Veterans Park, and it was a very short ceremony.

It was uh basically all of um the firefighters coming in and listening to um a radio call for um 9-11 doing a uh also like a silent um what is it called uh silent ceremony uh yeah um for each tower that fell um at a certain time early in the morning um and it went very well, it was quick.

I think there are gonna be some changes that we hopefully do this year, make it a little bit more of uh having maybe some people speakers and all that kind of stuff.

But it went very well for the first year, and it was really um it did great on social media, people really appreciated it, especially having it in Cornelius.

Um next one public safety fair open house.

So there was a little bit of changes that they added in um information booths, so we had organizations show up, and they also had like great opportunities for photo ops because they included a mascot.

Um I think maybe this year, uh upcoming year, maybe promoted a little bit more, but overall we had lots of kids and families show up, and they really, really liked the mascot a lot.

Um, and it was really nice to have uh organizations show up and give more information um out that day.

But it went very, very well.

So the difference was that we had the mascot and we had a little bit more photo opportunities, and we had organizations to give out a little bit more information.

Yeah, I actually I came to near the end of it and spent a fair bit of time with the organization that was talking about um the cameras.

So PGE spoke about the fire, the fire monitoring.

They taught the organization was there that talked about all the the fire monitoring equipment that's up on the different mountains that's actively watching for incidents, and I found that just really amazing.

And I know my my son really enjoyed uh getting to stand behind the fire hose and hose down things in the fire tower.

So that was I think that's one of those draws for everybody like to stand behind the fire hose and try that out.

So another good event.

And the community dinner.

So another big change that happened this year is we were not at our usual location, was which was at the old commute Cornelius Elementary School, it was at the new school, which was really nice.

It really worked out with the layout that they had.

Um, it had way more space, it just fit very well with the tasks that we had for our volunteers.

Um, and it went very, very great.

We also had um information booths as well.

Now this was our second year, but adding a little bit more organizations, and they loved it.

They said that um they had a really large um community engagement for the amount of time that they were there, so they really really enjoyed it and they were able to have spread a little bit more information.

I think the one thing that they learned is that they need a little bit more Spanish content.

But overall, they said that this engagement with the community was one of the best like events that they've had because it was just a short amount of time, but they had so many connections really quickly.

Um but it went very well in the new space, and we had crafts like last year, and they were really popular again this year.

Yeah, the act did a great job with their stuff as always.

And finally the tree lighting.

So the tree lighting, every year we've been uh changing it for the last three years a little bit.

We've been adding a little bit more this year.

We also changed location.

We were at the new Cornelius Elementary School.

We added more crafts this year, so we had four organizations that uh provided free crafts.

Um, and it went way too well.

There was a lot of people, we ran out of crafts um at one of our um Cornelius Library uh staff.

He had provided enough crafts for 450 children, and he was very specific to only give the kiddos one craft so that way they wouldn't double dip.

So that alone he ran out of 450 crafts just for kids.

So you can only imagine how many adults were there.

Um, and this year we had more uh choirs and we had an orchestra.

Uh we had just that alone, those three groups that we had was almost a hundred students just for performing.

We had 40 uh students from uh Forest Grove High School, we had 30 to 20 students from Neil Armstrong Elementary with the orchestra and the choir.

Um, and we had a full house, even though it was a bigger space at the new Cornelius Elementary School, it was packed, which is really good to have.

Um, and it's a really good problem, but it was really, really nice.

And this year we incorporated a little bit more of um partnerships with businesses.

So we had um Walmart uh sponsor all the cookies this year, which we had requested double the amount last year, and we only had four boxes left.

Yeah, and then uh Dutch Bros provided free hot chocolate at the tree lighting for the first time, and they ran out really quickly, and I provided enough for 300 people.

So that was a lot.

Um, but it went very well.

Um, hoping that there'll be some new changes coming in uh this next year.

So it was a very, very successful program.

Yeah, it was standing room only at the concert.

It was you were with me on that, and it was just we we you know, people were along the walls and everywhere else, and everyone the full it was it it really came off really well.

Yes.

Oh and the weather collaborated with us that evening too because one thing I forgot to mention, we also want to help like the school as well.

So they do their annual book sale, their scholastic book sale, and they said they did really well in sales this year.

They did a I think they said around 400 more dollars than last year, which is really nice.

Helps out the schools, and finally, what's coming in 2026?

Uh, one of the things that we are adding is the emergency preparedness fair, and that is gonna be uh collaboration between public works, the fire department and police department, and we're we're still working out where when we're gonna do it, but um, that's a new event that we are hoping to have where maybe we show off um some of the things that we do for those departments and maybe vehicles and equipment and all that kind of stuff, and it'll be family friendly.

Um, and then state of the city.

Usually every year we've um been uh partnered with um the chamber of commerce.

This year we're gonna host our own state of the city, and we're gonna have it at the Cornelius Public Library, and we will be changing the time as well.

So instead of having it early in the during lunch hour, it's gonna be in the afternoon so that way the community can also participate in the update for state of the city and the Cornelius Farmers Market.

So we are still up in uh conversations about what the farmers market's gonna look like next year.

We're talking about maybe adjusting the location, maybe changing the period of time of when it's gonna be held, if it's gonna be maybe um potentially yearly, like once a month.

So there's conversations still happening, but we will be seeing some changes to the Cornelius farmers market this year.

And finally, the 911 Memorial, it is gonna be the 25th anniversary, so that's when we're planning to maybe have it a little be a little bit of a bigger event, having uh speakers, maybe providing some drinks or something along those lines.

Um, and finally, something that we wanted to mention was the ribbon cutting for um Mariposa Causeway.

As you guys know, um, engineering and public works have been working really hard on that, and we wanted to do a little event to celebrate this really cool project, and we're hoping to have it in the springtime, and hopefully you guys can be there to celebrate with us, and maybe we might invite some small organizations to uh be a part of it and maybe have some other departments participate in this um special event.

But that is all my update for this year and the upcoming year.

Do you guys have any questions?

Yeah, go ahead, counselor.

I was gonna say, I don't have questions, I just have a comment.

I just want to thank you for all your hard work and obviously all the other staff, like the parks department, public works that really makes this happen, fire, police, because I know it's it's a big teamwork, but I just think about like when I was a kid and going to all these events and now going to them as an adult and just seeing how they continue to grow and get better, and I just I mean they were great then, but it's just I'm always amazed how we can turn something that I feel like is already like amazing and make it even better.

And so, but I think that just goes to the creativity and everybody working together, and so I just appreciate it.

Thank you for involving the YAC and for really just creating these events for our community to have a place to go to.

Um, like the mayor and I were talking the tree lighting.

I I was amazed.

I was like, there's so many people here, and I feel like every year it continues to grow.

Um, but that also just makes me so excited because it means that they really enjoy their time last year, and so I can imagine that this coming year is gonna be even bigger and better.

And so um the only thing that I would say is just uh, and this is something that I've been talking to Peter about is just maybe finding ways that because I think we do a great job of getting community partners, but I would also love to have opportunities for us to show showcase our boards and committees as well, and having a way for them for because we have so many community members there, and so I feel like it's a great way for us to really say, like, hey, also if you're interested, like there's all these other opportunities, go ahead and talk to these individuals.

Um so just making more of those connections.

But again, thank you so much.

I'm so excited to see what this next year holds for us.

Thank you.

We do May 6.

May 6th.

Thank you.

It's good people are here.

Oh, that Wednesday night, May 6th.

Yeah, that should be great.

Okay.

I was afraid it was in April.

I was going, April?

Oh my goodness.

Okay, May 6th.

I gotta get that one on my calendar.

I think it's on my city calendar on my personal one.

Okay.

No, everything you guys have been doing has been great.

Um what the council president said, everything.

It seems like year over year they just keep growing.

I think really people came back hungry from COVID to really want these community events, and it it just pulls us all together and to see all the families at these things and their kids and everybody having a great time.

It's it's chuckful awesome.

Counselor Vaughn.

Uh, yeah, I was just gonna say your presentation got me super excited for this coming year.

Um so the thing is coming to my mind is how can we help, right?

Like, um, you know, we we attend these things.

I've not got to attend as many of them as I'd like, but um, but how can we help get sponsorship from our businesses?

You know, it sounds like you're already doing a great job, and maybe uh these businesses just underestimated how many people were going to be there.

Um, but I visit our theater all the time.

Like, are we going to them for the popcorn?

Or like Dutch Brothers, it sounds like they were helping with hot chocolate.

How else can we help?

Luckily, there has been before me, there has been really great people along the way that have built already some partnerships.

So we've had long-standing partnerships with like the Boosters Club, um, the movie theater, they actually provide all the popcorn every year as well.

And I know they have a partnership with the library for their like uh summer reading program.

So we have tried to tap into businesses and local businesses, which is the most important part.

I think the one thing would be for me, staff capacity is always a thing.

I mean that's why I try to use the YAC as much as possible, is use it as a community hours.

So really any help is appreciated, whether it's having a conversation with someone to potentially sponsor an event, any of that type of help really helps because again, I'm one person, and then Yak, they're they're there to help out as well, but they can't have those conversations that well at this age just yet, or they're too shy.

Um, and staff in general, they've also had their own partnerships and long-standing relationships.

Laura, kudos to her, she does amazing with National Night Out, she does amazing with toys, the toy drives, all that kind of stuff.

So it's not only me, it's all other staff, same thing capacity.

So whenever you're willing to help, I mean, you can be there to have a conversation with people, people really appreciate that.

The community appreciates to see their elected officials.

I know the mayor has had thank yous during the community dinner, they appreciate that, or even in general, um, Councilor Goldinas when you went to the tree lighting, which makes it bilingual, which is even more amazing.

So just having you guys your presence there really helps me out and helps the community see that connection and engagement.

And it's an election year.

Okay, so cool.

Um, anything else, staff on this one?

We good.

Okay, great.

That takes us thanks.

It's all that's great.

Uh takes us to civic leadership academy topic ideas, city manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

So in uh we get to the first slide.

That is my first slide.

Um so we completed our 2025, which was our uh inaugural cohort of the Cornelius Civic Leadership Academy, and what I'd like to talk to you about uh tonight is uh a program for 2026.

Just as an entry point here, it's related to our new strategic plan goal too, which is to increase community engagement in the civic process, provide opportunities for community members to advocate for Cornelius, and specifically Action 2.2.1, which is to expand the Civic Leadership Academy program.

So we got a really good start.

It was a small group, but it was very rich rich program, very well instructed, and each of the participants reported back that they got a lot out of it, and we got a lot out of out of them actually.

Obviously, it it fosters increased interest in civics, uh, supports community engagement and builds those resources not just for our boards and commissions, but also for non-city civic service.

So we also learned a couple weeks ago that we were successful in getting a grant for the 26th program.

We we hadn't budgeted uh quite enough for the full cost, and we were lucky to get uh partial coverage with a grant from the Ford Family Foundation.

We're grateful for that.

And uh again, the group will be asked in the spring to go and and look at a real world topic or issue of of importance to Cornelius, and we're uh tentatively scheduling that presentation, the culmination of their efforts for the May City Council meeting, kind of like we did last year.

Uh we have uh already drafted uh an article for the Gazette, uh the February Gazette to get the word out for that as well.

So that's a place where you definitely can help us getting the word out and generating interest and in applications.

As a reminder, the topic in uh last year was emergency preparedness uh education and and more broadly um other topics that we discussed as potential for 25 were how to foster uh community within Cornelius, how to improve community engagement, and how to assist the aging community to feel more included and visible.

Those were just kind of primers to get you thinking.

Um, and then one that I've spoken with a few of you individually that comes to my mind that we might uh look at for 2026 is how to envision the future of the Cornelius boosters in changing times.

That's just an idea.

Um, and so I know I know there will be other ideas, and so I wanted to just open it up and see if you've had the uh wherewithal to give give it some thought if you have ideas and for a topic for for this new cohort.

Counselors, questions, feedback.

Yeah, Council Good News.

Um yes, but so I was just wondering because as I was thinking about topics, I was like, I also want to somehow engage our community in this, and so I don't know how easy or hard it was it would be because part of me obviously I don't want to just keep it open-ended, but having some maybe semi um topics like A, B, and C, and then having in the Gazette like a QR code, or although we know from research that QR codes don't always work, but just an easier way or a way to try to get community feedback because I know that we can come up with a topic and and and if we have to do that, that's that's fine with me, but I really do want to engage our community in this because I feel like that will make them more excited about wanting to sign up and be a part of this cohort.

And so I'm just thinking like how do we create that voice and that buy-in?

And so that was just something I was reflecting on.

I don't know what you all think about an idea like that.

I know it, you know, I know that we're looking for a topic fairly quickly, but I'm thinking maybe it could just be like a quick turnaround where we we get this up, put it in the gazette, and then see what we get back in a month and then discuss it.

What one uh response, yeah.

One response that comes to mind there is that my inclination too, and it has been for other cities who have done programs, is to even provide the group with options for for topics.

But what they've found and and the facilitators have found is that that that creates a lot more layers and and it kind of bogs the program down for us.

It's even more so because they they really kind of they took a uh a several month program and and kind of compressed it for us to make to kind of right size it for us, especially for the cost, you know, that that we wouldn't be able to do a larger program.

And so it it becomes much more challenging to do that.

I totally understand your your uh imperative there, but it's gonna be really hard to do that.

Perfectly honest.

That's Rob.

I kind of like the last idea you had there with the future of the Cornelius boosters in changing times, but I think we need to frame that with what is the like the problem statement that we would be attacking with that.

Like what I guess define the changing times is kind of what I'd be looking for a little bit more on that one.

Um had another thought to, and it ran right out of my head.

I can I can speak to that uh piece.

Um the the changing times in my own mind is really the the huge sea change that we've seen in in communities all across the country in terms of volunteerism.

You know, we had a a fire service that was almost entirely volunteer-based, and that just isn't the case anymore, and it's it's really across the board.

So the nature of volunteering in communities has changed pretty dramatically over the last 20, 30 years.

And our our boosters, it's a it's really a community treasure, that group.

It's a it's an established 501c3.

It's been going strong since 1953, but it's it's a real struggle to get uh new folks in there.

So how do we maybe go about that?

And and you know, what might other communities be doing to support their treasured community advocacy group?

So that that's the thought.

Okay.

Yeah, I think that adds some color for me, and and is the more direction that I'd want to see it going, right?

For the the whole point of the cohort and what we're trying to do is drive that engagement from our youth and you know, kind of get people involved, and I think that that kind of leans into that concept, like doubly so.

Yes, Councilor Gardines.

Okay.

So um one of the topics that I had was related around um multi-generations, and so how we can connect like our youth, our elders, um into commun into community, but just because I feel like there is a big divide.

Like we have the YAC and we have the boosters, and the boosters tends to have a lot of our older generations, but then how can we how can we commingle the two or just even within our community, make it so that um there's more cross-collaboration?

And I don't know if that makes sense, but that was something I was kind of mulling over.

No, I I understand what you're talking about, counselor, because it's we we do know that the Yak is like our high school kids and our boosters are our seniors, right?

And we're missing kind of the middle.

Um, but I I wonder part of it if it isn't the changing society, and um our community commutes farther than average, is lower than average on income, and is primarily Latino.

How do we reach in, right?

Because the booster is is such a I just I know them and think of them as a go-to organization, but they are you know, they're struggling.

So how do we expand that?

Um, I think is a good idea.

How do we get I I don't even know how many people know they even exist that right, even that there's an option that people could be members, whether they're active members or inactive members, but even to be members.

Um I I think it it goes to the larger you and I have seen through the the you know motorcycle rights and um community involvement, the shrinking even of that organization.

So um the Eagles here in town is struggling um with membership.

Uh it's a private club, but you know, it's um in general, right?

How do we is there something there or what are we missing that people because I know you you know me, I volunteer for a bunch of stuff, right?

I got the motorcycle stuff, I've got my scouts, you know, I got city council.

So I'm deeply involved in engaging my community.

I draw a lot of energy from this.

Um I find it hard to believe people wouldn't want to do more of this if they knew how good it can make you feel to be involved in these different groups.

Um the boosters, not the least of which.

So I'm I'm strong in the idea of us trying to figure out how to, you know, even if it was literally um, you know, the whole project was around membership drive for the boosters to get their identity out there and you know, got 10 more members out of the whole that would be like a success to me if we got 10 more members in the boosters and half of them were active.

That'd be like doubling the size of the active boosters.

So I I think there's a lot of value in that.

And and we do lean on them.

They are involved in a number of things.

I don't know that people know about them putting up the flags in the downtown or the cookies for different events or the scholarships that they do.

I just don't even know that our community really knows all the things they participate in.

You know, we have a library foundation and they're struggling for membership also.

So I think I I see these different volunteer groups um that maybe it's maybe it's larger than just the boosters, but maybe there's a focus on the boosters at looking at you know helping people understand what volunteer opportunities are out there, because I mean it could be if you just want to come by and stack a few books.

I'm better I bet we could take a couple more volunteers at the library to stack some books, you know, Maria's nodding her head back there.

Uh you know, boards, committees, commissions, just those kind of volunteer opportunities, support of the fire department, right?

There's even though you may not be a firefighter grade, there are support opportunities, you know, that we've had volunteers do with bringing refreshments or helping out the firefighters, you know, in non-combatant positions, you know, and we used to have a very active um police board that was very involved in activities and supporting things in the community.

So I think I think there's a lot of opportunity in just that volunteerism, right?

And then it it bleeds naturally over into what we talk about specifically to our center, boards, committees, commissions, right?

Council.

So I I think there's a lot of there's a lot of juice to be squeezed in that topic and having those people engage and try to figure out how do we help people because I go to other communities and there's a board when you come to the community, it says, you know, the elks meet on this night and the the rotary meets these days at this place, and our scouts meet here.

We don't have any of that kind of guide, right?

I I can't think of anywhere you can go in our public or on our city website and find where these organizations meet or when they meet, so that it's easier for people to find them to even get engaged.

So I think there's I think there's opportunity there, even just in the I look at its alone, it's the basic marketing of the opportunity, right?

So even if people were looking, how hard is it to find right?

So I I think there's a lot of a juice to be squeezed on that one.

Counselor Cornelis.

Yeah, um, I mean, I just really like what you said.

I mean, obviously, if we want to focus on the Cornelius boosters, I support that, but I volunteering opportunities among a lot all the different aspects of the city is something that I think is important for us to focus on.

And I'll bring it up again.

I think that multi-generational aspect too is so key because we have so many individuals, and I'm really thinking about like the 20s to 40s range that I think we could really get to be more involved.

Um, because I feel like what we have is below 20s and then over 40s, right?

And so keep going.

Yeah, I mean I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm really grateful to everybody that you know comes and participates, but there's also reasons why that exists, and you touched on some of those reasons.

And so I would really like to think how can we, you know, not just re envision the boosters, but really re envision the rest of our committees so that it's something, and I've said this many times where I'm like, I wish we actually met on the weekends or on a time that makes sense for community members because who can actually show up to a meeting from seven to nine o'clock at night on a weekday, right?

It's somebody that has that luxury.

And so um, you know, getting on a tan, I'm getting on a tangent here, but um, I would just really like for us, and and I don't know if that's too broad.

Maybe we do need to make it a little more general, but since we're gonna have community members working on this, I just want to get as much out of them as possible.

And I think they have so many great ideas.

So just some thoughts.

Yeah, I think about my coworkers or 20 somethings or 30 somethings, and they're like, oh yeah, we spent four hours last night in a gaming environment.

Hanging out together, but in a gaming environment.

I'm like, you know, there's a whole world of real people out here that you could be interacting with and uh doing real things with instead of you know collecting tokens.

Um so it's uh I don't know.

I mean, I think this is something that we look into this next cohort and maybe they bring bring us some clarity, right?

How do we reach into this?

Maybe we're missing it.

Maybe we need a virtual Cornelius, you know, our own I don't know, building block location.

Yeah, we need yeah, we need our own blocks environment or whatever, yeah.

So okay.

You got what you need?

That that helps a lot.

I think what I'm hearing is I and I don't want to let go.

I I heard uh counselor, council president Godinez talk about connecting across generations and cultures.

I think that's a piece that I don't want to let that go, whether they whether that's a focus this year or future year.

But I think it's it, you know, if we consider more broadly, um volunteer opportunities and recruitment, um civic engagement broadly.

Um I think there's a there's a pretty rich topic there.

So if you're comfortable with that, we'll we'll kind of press forward with something something in that vein.

And we're and we're not even bicultural anymore, right?

I mean, we're still uh a Latino majority, but our quote unquote Anglo minority has been split more between if you look at uh you know Laurel Woods, there's a huge Southeast Asian, you know, people from India in our community that we've really kind of grown a new kind of kernel of community.

Um so I think to we had one participant from that community.

How do we reach into that Lower Wood community?

Because I think bringing the new neighborhood, right?

I mean, we brought like 3,000 people into the community in the last few years.

How do we tap into and a lot of those people are I think the age we're looking for, right?

They're in their late 20s, early 30s, 40s.

There's a lot of that missing middle of our community in that area.

So how do we bring in some more Laurel Woods?

I think that might be a an area of focus, or how do we tap into that into the Mariposa park area?

So council meetings in the park.

Sold.

We can move, we can do them under the little cover there.

Cool.

Do you get everything you need then?

You think I think so.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Cool.

Um City Council and staff appointments and alternative designations to regional policy bodies.

Um City Manager Brandom.

I know we're running a little long in the tooth tonight.

We got a couple other things to do.

What what do we need to discuss or decide, or do you just need the council to go?

Uh-huh.

Yeah, I I had um plan to kind of tick through these.

You you have the memo.

It's um it's basically a um a roster of changes.

If if you're okay with all of those, you can just, you know, I'll verbally say that we didn't need a a resolution.

There are a couple of them that we send a letter to let them know.

Others I can just send any email.

So if you're all good, I think we can just press on with that.

Council, questions, concerns?

All nods.

Okay, good.

That takes us on to the economic development commission appointments and reappointments.

There will be no report.

We have one, two, three, four.

We've got five.

I think we got to step through each one of these.

We can't do them as a single SWAT, can we?

I think we can just do them as a group.

Can we do them?

Council, do you have any questions?

I thought you meant item E.

Yes, item E.

Yeah.

Yes, motion here.

Yeah, you can do that.

Yeah, is there a proposal?

I I don't remember reading that.

I'm sorry, it's getting late enough.

I'm starting to get a little punch drunk.

Do you have a motion?

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Godinez.

All right.

I make a motion to approve the resolution.

The sorry, the reappointment of Anthony Mendoza to position five to serve through 2028.

Alma Lozano to position six to serve through 2028.

Robert Dixon to position seven to serve through 2028.

And the appointments of Maria Caballero Rubio to position eight to serve through 2028.

And Cecilia Giron to position 14 to serve through 2028 to the Cornelius Economic Development Commission, and this action takes effect immediately.

I have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Second by Councilor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

Passes unanimously.

Look at that.

We got one done in just a couple minutes.

Uh budget committee appointment and reappointments.

No report.

Uh do we have a motion for Andrew and Janet?

Sure.

I make a motion.

Counselor Godiness, please.

I make a motion to approve the reappointment of Andrew Denley to position one with a term expiring December 2028, and the appointment of Janet Fleshman to position four with a term expiring December 2027 to the budget committee, and this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Godinez.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions?

Passes unanimous.

Takes us to the planning commission reappointment.

Do we have a motion for yep?

I'll make a motion.

Do we move it too fast for either counselor Vaughan?

Oh, sorry.

I make a motion to approve the uh reappointment of reheaness to position one to serve through 2029, and this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Godinez.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second surprise by Councillor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

Passes unanimous.

Last here is public infrastructure advisory board reappointment.

For Janet Fleshman.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make that motion.

Okay, Councillor Vaughn.

Uh let's see here.

I thought I had the motion in front of me.

Page 26.

Yes, page 26.

I make a motion to approve the reappointment of Janet Fleshman to position five to serve through 2028, and this action takes effect immediately.

Second.

Second motion by Councillor Vaughn, second by Councillor Gordinas.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions pass unanimous.

Takes us to public hearings.

Let me get my uh appropriate ones in the right order here.

So I've got them.

Which one's 26?

There's 2601.

Yep, there we go.

Opening statement and a procurement procedures, sorry, for the land use higher hearing before the Cornell City Council on agenda item 9A, ordinance 2026-1.

Parks Master Plan.

Now's the time and place for a public hearing on the Cornelus Parks Master Plan, the CPA 2025 2025.

Okay.

Right number.

The City Council decision on this amendment and proposed ordinance 2026-01 will be based upon the record staff report and testimony and evidence presented in the hearing.

I will now open the hearing.

The order of business on this application will be as follows.

City staff report.

Members of the audience in person and virtually who wish to speak on the proposal.

Item C, staff closing remarks, and item D, close the hearing and begin deliberation.

The applicable criteria for this application are as follows.

Cornea admissible code, chapter 18.130.020E amendment procedures.

Oregon Statewide Planning Goals, Oregon Administrative Rules 660-015-000, and the Metro Growth Management Functional Plan from Metro Code Section 3.09 and Chapter 1 of the Cornellus Comprehensive Plan.

Testimony, arguments, and evidence must be directed toward the listed criteria listed or other criteria in the comprehensive plan or Cornelius municipal code, which the person believes to apply to the decision.

Evidence means facts, documents, data, or other information offered to demonstrate compliance or non-compliance with the standards believed by the proponent to be relevant to the decision.

Now's the time for city council to declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest or personal bias.

Please indicate the nature and extent of the bias or conflict of interest.

Do any of the counselors have conflicts of interest or bias towards the application?

Seeing none.

No.

Does any member of the audience wish to challenge any counselors' impartiality for the record?

No, it's like going to the wedding and waiting for then anybody opposed, right?

Okay.

Now's the time for staff to give the staff report.

Would staff please present the report.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Counselors.

I appreciate the opportunity to come before you about the parks master plan.

It has been in process for over a year.

And the um amendment, as you noted, Mr.

Mayor, is the parks master plan.

It is a legislative amendment to our comprehensive plan.

And basically the request is to repeal the existing parks master plan and replace it with this new parks master plan.

The um plan went through several processes.

The first process was an inventory.

Um the consultants spoke with our staff who are in the parks every day.

Um and listened to them about what is existing in the parks.

And I know you can't read this, but it's just uh an indication of how many parks we have in the city.

What's important to note about this is that our park acreage grew from 25.3 acres in 2019 to 54.1 acres today.

So doubled.

Community parks are the parks that are larger in size, so Harleman Park and Mariposa Park.

They're typically five to twenty acres, and they serve about a two-mile radius.

People will typically bike, walk, or ride there or drive there for an activity.

Neighborhood parks are one to three acres in size, and they serve about a half a mile travel shed.

Pocket parks are 0.1 to 3 in size, and they serve about a quarter mile.

And there are things like tot lots where there's a little play space for little kids.

Other types of parks include dog parks, steamboat park, and veterans memorial park.

Those are considered special use type parks.

And then we also have the free orchards, open space, and other types of open spaces that are counted as parkland.

The next step was an assessment of all of those parks.

And you'll notice that there are some parks that received a poor rating.

There are some fair areas, and those fair areas are the yellow, and those those areas have been identified in our capital improvement plan to be replaced over time.

The white areas are park deficient areas and where we should concentrate on future park land if we're able to secure any.

Or actually that should be, yeah, 202601 to repeal the 2009 Parks Master Plan or replace it with the 2025 Parks Master Plan.

And staff recommends that you open your public hearing and consider facts finding evidence in the record in any public testimony.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Great.

Do any of the counselors have questions of staff?

Yes, Councilor Vaughan.

Was the 2009 plan so far out of data couldn't be updated?

So it's kind of a sketch start over.

Like how do we get from repealing and replacing to just updating?

So that's a very good question, Counselor Vaughn.

Um because the old plan was added so much acreage in that time frame that it made sense just to chuck it all and rewrite.

Um our community profile changed significantly with the number of people that came into the city and the the acreage of parkland with the addition of everything in Laurel Woods.

Um that it it made sense just to take we did take some of the um original um objectives, but we updated them with today's information.

And instead of just doing a big strikeout through the entire thing, it made more sense just to repeal the old, replace it with new.

Yeah, thank you.

I was really kind of surprised at the doubling practically of the acreage in those few years.

So yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I'm I think it it speaks volumes, right?

To the change we had between 2019.

We had basically Laurel Woods come in, and we had a real concerted effort in that development to bring parkland in.

I mean, we got Mariposa Park, and then talk about all the pocket parks and stuff like that.

So it's uh it talks to it.

To me, it makes me think about that 41 acres, right?

And do we get that through capital acquisition, or do we do something more like we've done with um formerly known uh now the Veterans Memorial Park, where basically we took over management, you know, and use of metro lands.

I think about all that acreage along the towel and that's floodplain that's just kind of you know, we've complained about it sometimes because it's just sitting there, right?

It's not really doing anything.

Matter of fact, sometimes it's a nuisance because we've had homeless problems in it and dumping and other stuff like that.

So if we took some responsibility, that might be a lower cost way for us to acquire a significant acreage.

And then um to me, also I think previously previous groups to the council had talked about the value of all the wildlife floodplain that we have to the north and east of the community, right?

That's locked up in Metro land, right?

If you go out of Job's Ditch into the Council Creek and all that up there, there's some incredible wetlands right on the edge of our community.

And we always kind of previously thought of those as incredible opportunities.

Imagine the tourism people come.

Birding is I'm amazed at the number of people that are getting into birding and the amount of birding.

If you went to the um yeah, principal's backyard, you know, she could open up a bird watching thing in her backyard because you backsard up against that wetlands.

If we could get some access into those north wetlands up there, there's thousands.

I was out in my backyard the other day, and thousands of geese flushed out of the north wetlands and were flying over.

And that draws Osprey and Eagle that feed on those birds.

So you can see bald eagles and you can see the Osprey.

I see the bald eagles slide flying up the canyon in my backyard.

So I think there's opportunities to maybe leverage um stuff that's right here right next to us, you know, all the council creek stuff.

You know, that could be easily and I and I I kind of wonder how do we count the acreage if we did something with steamboat, right?

The actual acreage, not of steamboat, but of the creek.

How many acres of the creek could we actually bring into parkland because we're basically going up and down the river from Steamboat?

So that's that's just my ideas around what the opportunities are in our community.

So council, any other questions, comments?

Okay.

I'll take us on to the next step then.

Now's the time for public testimony to testify in person.

You must fill out a yellow card and submit to the city recorder.

No, surprise.

If you wish to testify virtually, you must have registered with the city recorder or community development director prior to the hearing.

No.

Um please note failure to raise an issue in the hearing in person or by letter or failure to be specific enough to afford the city council and all participants an opportunity to respond to the issue.

We'll preclude any right of appeal to the land use board of appeals.

I will now call upon people who have submitted yellow cards to testify.

Please limit your testimony to applicable criteria.

We have no one, right?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Okay.

Uh so I'm gonna skip the when you testify.

Does the counselors have any questions about the testimony you didn't hear?

No, surprise.

Um I'm not gonna thank anybody for no testimony.

Uh I will now ask staff if they well, they you don't have anything to rebuke rebuttal.

So do staff have any closing remarks.

Okay.

Well, with that, I will close the public comment for ordinance 2026-01 parks master plan.

And surprise, it takes us on to ordinance 2026-2 Urban Planning Area Agreement.

Okay.

Opening statement and procedure for the land use hearing before the Cornell City Council on agenda item 9b, ordinance 2026-02, urban planning area agreement with Washington County.

Now is the time and place for a public hearing on the urban planning area agreement between Washington County and the City of Cornelius.

File number CPA 2025-03.

The City Council decision on this amendment and proposed ordinance number 2026-2 will be based upon the record, staff report, and testimony and evidence presented in this hearing.

The order of business on this application will be as follows.

A city staff report, B, members of the audience in person and virtually who wish to speak on the proposal.

C staff closing remarks, D, close the public hearing, and begin deliberation.

The applicable criteria for this application are as follows.

Cornelis Municipal Code Chapter 18.130.020 Endment Procedures.

The Oregon Statewide Planning Goals, Oregon Administrative Rules 660-015-000.

The Metro Growth Management Functional Plan, Metro Code Section 3.09, and Chapter 1 of the Cornelius Comprehensive Plan.

Testimony, arguments, and evidence must be directed towards the listed criteria listed or other criteria in comprehensive plan or Cornellus municipal code, which the person believes to apply to the decision.

Evidence means facts, documents, data, or other information offered to demonstrate compliance or non-compliance with the standard believed by the proponent to be relevant to the decision.

Now is the time for a city council to declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest or personal bias.

Please indicate the nature and extent of the bias or conflict of interest.

Do any counselors have conflicts of interest or bias towards the application?

Saying no, no, and myself no.

Okay.

No one's wishing to disqualify themselves then.

Does any member of the audience wish to challenge any counselor impartiality for the record?

Seeing none.

Now's the time for staff to give their staff report.

With staff please present the report.

Good evening again.

Um this amendment is um regarding the urban planning area agreement.

And um it too is a repeal and replacement.

This time it is repealing the 1980 that's even before I was on council, just to make note.

And replacing it with a 2025 urban planning area agreement.

So this map that you see here is the 1988 map of our urban growth boundary for the city of Cornelius.

So I will go back one to kind of give an idea.

One of these things, not like the other one of these things.

Yeah, you see all the you can see all the the north area north of the up by Council Creek that's all been incorporated and developed up, except for that little strip up there.

Yes, yes.

So then an urban planning area agreement is an agreement between a county and a city about how you plan for areas that are within an urban growth boundary.

And I was told in no uncertain terms that it is just the urban planning area, so urban only.

So that's what this agreement is about.

It's also about how we communicate with one another about projects that are in the vicinity of the area.

It's what land use we would apply to various properties that annex to the city.

How do we take transportation facilities and and incorporate them into the city and apply city standards to those streets?

So all of that is part of the urban planning area agreement.

As in the case of the other amendment, this amendment meets the applicable criteria.

And again, the planning commission made a recommendation for the city council to approve the comprehensive plan amendment, which is CPA 2025-03, and approve ordinance number 2026-02 to repeal the 88 1988 Urban Planning Area Agreement and replace it with the 2025 Urban Planning Area Agreement.

Along with you folks, the Board of County Commissioners is also acting on this amendment, and um their planning commission has already approved it.

So the two agencies have to both approve it and then it gets signed and um placed in our respective comprehensive plans.

Councillors?

You want to take us back to the map, Burma?

The proposed so it's really the darker colored areas, right?

Yes.

So can you describe what we're thinking those darker colored areas represent in our new urban plan?

So the northwest area, industrial, yes, north of uh the existing holiday development.

Yes, yes.

And then the area north of um Council Creek Estates, so between um east of Susbower slash North 19th, that area is actually owned by Metro.

And um if it ever comes into the urban growth boundary or into the city, um Metro has plans to develop a park in that area.

Um I think you're talking about the the hump in the middle that goes from 10th to 19th, basically.

Yes, that's correct.

Or 29th, 10th of 29th.

Yes.

Yeah, so it's basically all the slope land that comes off the back side of the whatever it is, a council creek or kind of I can't remember what we ended up naming that.

Yes, it's council creek.

Council Creek development.

So that's all down, you know, it's basically the downslope into Council Creek.

Yes, correct.

And then east, north and east of um TV Highway, um that area, the majority of it is R7 or um low density residential.

There is a pocket of very low density residential, it's the only area in the city that is designated as such.

Um, and that was a compromise when the area was brought into the urban growth boundary to allow for um more rural type of development.

Um basically to allow for farm use.

So people could have maybe a horse or that type of thing.

Yeah, I think the big thing when we went through and talked everybody off the ledge in that northeast area.

I remember sitting through those meetings was basically if you've got a cow or a horse or goat today, and your neighbor decides to sell their property and densify it to 15 units per acre.

Tough.

You were here first, you get to stay what you are, and they're gonna live next door to horses, cows, or goats, whatever the case may be.

That's basically how we got those folks to wind down and go, oh, okay, because they were really afraid we were just gonna bulldoze it and just to continue to defend myself.

The reason I wrap my arms around that in the grand bargain was Portland was recommending that that be our new industrial center, and that we basically doze that entire area for industrial development.

And I just didn't think that was a accurate depiction of the folks that live there and had lived there since some of them, the 50s, 60s, 70s, and what they'd hoped for.

So I think it's fine for us to continue to look at it as urban and is it shows on there.

There's been a couple developments that have come in, and they've one of the criteria is if they develop, they join the city.

So they have to kind of be contiguous, even if it's a cherry stem to the city.

So we've gotten that new neighborhood up above and the new new one right off the highway.

And then we basically got the development we've seen all along the south side of the highway, except for that one property.

So that's I think I'm in agreement with what we're seeing here.

It's kind of residential, a park, and industrial land.

That's kind of what's left.

What's the little undeveloped places down there in the Laurel Woods area, south of the high school or the south of the school property in the middle?

So the one immediately south of the school property is one holdout owner who um continues to um farm that property.

Um and then the L shape, the reason the L shape in the just north of Laurel Woods, um, kind of within Laurel Woods, is actually two property owners.

Um when either property owner um decides to move on.

Um there are people interested in redeveloping those properties as um more housing.

Yeah, isn't aren't those the properties basically kind of south of Dogwood Park?

There's basically Dogwood, and then that adjacent property, which we've I think we've already picked up for future park, and then this is just kind of the properties to the south of that.

I can't remember the name of that road over there anymore.

Web Road.

Webb, thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, that's the questions, comments I had around the map.

Council, did I bring anything to mind that you wanted to talk about?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Where am I at in the list here?

Now is the time for public testimony to testify in person.

You must fill out a yellow card and submit to the city recorder.

If you wish to testify virtually, you must have registered with the city recorder or community development prior to the hearing.

Rochelle, do we have any nothing?

I didn't, yeah.

Failure to raise an issue in the hearing in person or by letter, or failure to be specific enough to afford the city council and all participants.

An opportunity to respond to the issue will preclude any right of appeal to the land use board of appeals.

I would call up people, but we don't have anyone.

Testifying.

Nobody virtually said, no virtual testimony.

And staff, do you have any closing remarks?

None.

This time I will close the public hearing on 26 2026-2.

Oh, was it good?

Oh my gosh.

I've been having so much fun.

I forgot to see what time it was.

Counselor, would you like to make a motion to extend the meeting?

Let's look at where we are here.

We don't need to use it all, but they'll help us from having to extend the extension.

So you have a motion?

I motion to extend the meeting for 30 minutes until 9 30.

Motion by Councillor Gordonus.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councilor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions.

Pass unanimously.

We're extended to 9:30.

Okay.

Let me catch myself up.

Public hearing, public hearing.

No unfinished business.

New business.

Ordinance 2026-01, the parks master plan.

No report.

Council, do you have uh a motion or any questions?

No questions.

I'm willing to make a motion.

Councilor Vaughn, any questions?

Okay.

Councillor Gordinas, make your motion.

I make a motion to approve ordinance number 202601 and ordinance of the Cornelia City Council repealing the Parks Master Plan, appendix G of the Cornelius Comprehensive Plan, and replacing it with a new parks master plan.

Motion by Councillor Gordinas.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councilor Vaughn.

Any further questions or comments?

Seeing none.

All those in favor ordinance.

Do we need a oh it's the first reading?

So we just need a vote.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh answer in the affirmative, saying yay if you agree.

Nay if you don't, when you're called by our city recorder.

City recorder, would you call roll call vote?

Council President Godinas Valencia.

Yay.

Mayor Delane.

Yay.

Councilor Vaughn.

Yay.

I have that as a unanimous approval.

Do we proceed to a second reading of the ordinance then this evening?

Sorry, I don't have the agenda memorized or rolled up for your with a unanimous vote and having provided everything a week in advance.

We do not need a second reading.

Thank you very much.

That'll take us on to ordinance 2026-02.

Urban planning area agreement.

None?

Okay.

Council, any questions for staff?

Anyone wish to make the motion?

I'll make that motion.

Counselor Vaughn.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-02, an ordinance of the Cornelia City Council repealing the urban planning area agreement, appendix B of the Cornelius Comprehensive Plan, and replacing it with a new urban planning area agreement.

Motion by Council Vaughn, do I have a second?

A second.

Second by Counselor Gordinas.

Any other questions?

Comments?

All those in favor, please say aye.

Oh, it's roll call.

Thank you.

Goodness.

So answering the affirmative by saying yay if you support it.

Nay if you do not, when you're called by roll call.

Counselor Vaughn.

Yay.

Mayor Delane.

Yay.

Counselor Gludinasia.

Yay.

I have a unanimous approval.

I don't think we'll need a second reading, so we can move on.

That takes us to resolution 2026-mm.

Can't be a one.

We've already used a one.

Oh, resolutions.

Thank you.

Goodness.

Thank you.

It's after nine o'clock.

It's half it's half an hour past my bedtime.

Okay, resolution number 2026-01.

Pedestrian bridge naming.

Ms.

Fryer.

Good evening.

So this um was a proposal through the public infrastructure advisory board.

And if you look at the graphic on the right, you'll see Laurel Woods.

And there's an orange circle that's kind of shaded in.

That area is where this pedestrian bridge is located.

And it connects the pathway on the west side of Laurel Woods.

It's about 2300 feet long, linear feet, with the east side that's about 2200 square feet.

So we're almost a complete mile.

Well, we are almost a complete mile.

Yeah.

Um, from start to finish with the completion of this bridge.

And the bridge is shown here in the photo when it's been flooded.

So the bridge itself is high enough.

Our city engineer in his brilliance elevated it high enough so that it would not flood.

Was this a was this a hundred-year flood event or was how near was it to that event?

Um I I don't know what event number it is, to be honest with you.

But um, there is plenty of free board and additional space for um additional flooding because it spreads out more and more.

Um the public infrastructure advisory board recommended that you call it Mariposa Causeway.

And that's based on the criteria that we esta you established by resolution previously.

And any questions council?

I'll all shake your heads no.

So it sounds like uh it's a lovely idea.

Do I have a motion?

I make a motion.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 202601, a resolution of the Cornelia City Council naming the causeway at Laurel Woods, Mariposa Causeway.

And this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Council President Gondinas.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councilor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions passes unanimous.

Takes us on to resolution number 2026-02.

Water park booster station contract change order 11 through 18.

Mr.

Keys.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Members of Council.

So this is the final set of change orders for the booster station, which is uh finished for all practical purposes.

It's operating.

A few little punchless items, uh contractor still has to finish up.

Um there's about uh eight final change orders, and they're listed uh on the attachments.

Uh our project management team at Jacobs reviewed them all, hammered to consult, hammered a contractor to get them down to a reasonable number, and this is the result.

So we're recommending it be approved.

Council, any questions for Terry?

Okay, I'd entertain a motion.

I'll make that motion.

Counselor Vaughn.

Uh I make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-03.

A resolution of the Cornelius City Council.

Wait.

Am I on the wrong one?

202602 is a you're so close.

I make a motion.

Oh, we got a steal.

Okay.

Council Gordines.

Council Gordines with steel.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 202602.

A resolution of the Cornelia City Council approving change orders 1118 for the water park booster station project, and this action takes effect immediately.

Point of clarification, that's orders 11 through 18.

Thank you.

Uh motion by Councilor Gordinas.

Do I have a second?

Second, I think.

Second by Council Vaughn.

Uh any further questions, comments?

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

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

They pass.

Unanimous.

Thanks, Terry.

Takes us on to 26, 2026-03.

Jacob's work order number 22.

Mr.

Keys.

So back in 2018, Congress passed something called the America's Water Infrastructure Act.

And uh it did a lot of things, including requiring all water purveyors, big and small, including us, to do something called a uh risk and resiliency analysis and emergency response plan every five years.

We did our first one in 2001.

Uh Jacobs did it for us, and every five years we have to update it and essentially go through the process again, redo it, uh finish it up, sign it and send it to EPA and goes into database.

So this work order uh brings Jacobs on board to do the risk and resilien resilience analysis first.

That's due.

That's due June 30th.

And then in our next budget uh for the next fiscal year, we'll put in the emergency response plan, which is due December 31st, 2026.

So one after another, and uh something we have to do, and just a normal update.

Cost to doing business.

Council, any questions for Mr.

Keys?

No question for Terry.

Do I have a motion?

I can make that motion.

That would be great, Councilor Vaughn.

Uh I make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-03.

A resolution of the Cornelius City Council approving work order number 22 between Jacob's Engineering Group Incorporated and the City of Cornelius, and this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Vaughn to have a second.

A second.

Second by Councilor Gordinas.

Any further questions?

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

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

Pass is unanimous.

Thank you.

Takes us to resolution 2026 04.

Parks reservation policy and process.

Oh, let's see if we can get this done in 20 minutes.

Okay.

Susan, what do you have for us tonight?

All right.

Well, good evening, Mayor and Councillors.

Um, want to give you just a brief overview of our park shelter reservation trends and the proposed changes that we've outlined in the park shelter reservation policy.

The shelters primarily serve local residents, and approximately one in five applications come from residents of neighboring communities.

When it comes to shelter popularity, most applications, about 60%, reserve a large shelter, which is at Harleman, and then one at Mariposa.

Mariposa continues to be our most in-demand location, accounting for nearly half of all reservations.

In fact, we regulate regularly have to deny requests at Mariposa because of scheduling conflicts.

Birthday parties are by far the most common.

They make up about 50% of all the reservations.

Baby showers, gender reveals make up another 10%.

Roughly one in four events is hosted by a group such as a business, church, community organization, or sports team.

The usage trends are the basis for the proposed changes.

Many users currently reserve the shelters for an entire day, and with our growing population and limited shelter space, it reduces access to others.

To promote equitable use, especially for Cornelius residents who financially support park development and maintenance, we are proposing a four-hour reservation limit and structured weekend shifts with an hour in between for setup and cleanup.

This duration is reasonable for the type of events we see most often and will allow more people to reserve the shelters for their events.

Some of the proposed updates were giving Cornelius residents um application priority for reservations for the peak season, which runs April 1st through September 30th during the first quarter of the year.

So starting January through March, Cornelius residents would have the opportunity to reserve that peak time.

And then during that time, anybody could um reserve for October through March 31st for any time that they want.

After March 31st, the reservations for the peak season will then be available to anyone outside the community.

During the peak season weekend reservations, um, we're proposing to be available for one of two four-hour shifts, a 10 to 2 p.m.

and a 3 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

And that's due to the parks being open from dawn to dusk, and most people when they're placing their reservations are mostly afternoons and into the evening time.

Uh weekday reservations and weekend reservations between October 1st and March 31st will remain flexible in time, but be held to any four-hour time block between dawn and dusk.

These changes will help ensure that our shelters remain accessible, fair, and enjoyable for everyone in our community.

Thank you.

Questions for staff?

Yes, Councilor Goodinas.

Um first of all, I you know, when I was talking to Peter about this, I think that it's a good idea to be able to make sure that we have priority to our community members because we know so many of external community members are also taking advantage.

So I like that.

I'm just wondering how are we making sure that you know I can't just go on Google and look up somebody's address and then just say, like when I'm filling out something that I live here, like how are we making sure it's a Cornelius resident that's applying?

Um so many years ago we used to um ask for ID, but the idea behind this is not to police it, it's just to kind of encourage more of that community um, you know, uh sharing and allowing more people to have that opportunity.

Another um situation that we thought of when we were putting this together was that um somebody could make their reservation for the four hours and then somebody else in their party could come in and make that reservation.

And again, our idea is not to police it but more to encourage that equitable sharing of the parks.

So when this isn't done online, right?

You go you go in and you or you can do it online as well.

Yes, they can do it online.

Um they do have to put their address down in there, they have to agree to the park rules and reservations in order to make that.

Um and then in the um policy, we also have a section that talks about if they violate the rules and regulations that they've agreed to um that we could go back and deny reservations in the future.

Okay.

Yeah, and I have no problem with that.

I think that's just my only concern is like you know, people that want to take advantage, obviously will take advantage of that.

So I just want to make sure that maybe if we are doing this, that we have that extra layer of security to make sure that our community members are getting that first access.

Yeah, I I see you've hung out at the uh Fred Myers parking lot and have questions about humanities uh uh honesty now, just like I do too, that they can't return the grocery cart or strew it across the town.

So yeah.

Um I I'm wondering.

I I suppose my question is is that restrictive enough to make sure our people get first access?

I I the thing then when I read this originally um as an agenda item, I was wondering do we shout out anybody outside?

And this is where I'm looking for your feedback because you understand what's going on with the reservation system.

To say basically you got a two-week window prior to an event, then you can be an outside.

Is that too restrictive?

Would that be too bad for us?

I'm I'm just looking for some kind of guidance because now we're saying, hey, until March, and then after March, everybody.

And I'm just trying to understand if we need to make it even a little tighter, or will that underutilize the parks unnecessarily?

Well, based on the fact that um we we only have about one in five of the reservations coming from outside the community.

Um I don't think that it would be um beneficial to change it beyond this for now.

Um we did switch last year to allowing online applications um on the city website, and that has been really um amazing.

It's really helped out with um people being able to fill it out.

They can also come into the public works department and we have an iPad there, and um they can fill it out.

So some of our older community members we can help them in the office.

Um, but also it it just allows instantly for it to be uploaded.

Um, support staff has created a calendar on there so people can go in and look and see what blocks are available.

All the park rules and regulations are there.

Okay.

I I was just wondering if that was a necessary level, but uh this is uh evolving story.

I'm sure we'll review how this works, and then next year we'll decide if we need to make some further adjustments or not.

Counselor Vaughn, question?

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say too is I think it's a great first step, but I have share the same concerns that'll be taken advantage of.

I I'm an IT guy.

I I know how easy it is to find somebody's address or you know, something like that.

You could just pop that in there.

I'm thinking the first thought that came to my mind is could we tell them that's where we're gonna send their permit?

That way, we don't have somebody at that address that can get that piece of mail for them to tack up for themselves or something that could prove that address.

Yeah.

Let's see if we could look at that.

We'll see if that becomes a real problem.

We'll start dealing with it if they require driver's license pictures.

They've got two weeks to go and improve their driver's license.

I'm just kidding.

Okay.

Sounds like we're arguing in agreement on this one, so we can get through this yet tonight.

Do we have a motion to uh approve 26?

I'll make a motion.

Yes, Councilor Goodiness.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 2604, a resolution 2026 04, a resolution of the Cornelia City Council approving the park shelter reservation policy, and this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Godiness.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed, abstention.

We pass unanimous.

Thank you.

Thank you, Susan.

Uh resolution 2026-05, artificial intelligence use policy.

City recorder, Michelle.

Good evening, Mayor and Counselors.

Uh, this item before you is the proposed artificial intelligence use policy as AI tools, particularly generative AI, are becoming more common in everyday work.

The policy provides city staff with clear guidance on how those tools can be used responsibly in city operations.

The intent is to strike a balance.

Um, it allows staff to use AI where it can improve efficiency or help organize information, while also setting clear boundaries to protect public trust, city data, and compliance with state and federal law.

The policy emphasized transparency, equity, privacy, security, and accountability, and it makes clear that AI tools can support staff work, but do not replace human judgment or decision making.

Uh the policy outlines acceptable uses, such as drafting routine documents, summarizing non-confidential information, and conducting general research.

At the same time, it clearly prohibits the using uh uses involving confidential or sensitive information, automated decision making that affects individuals or any use that would violate city policy or legal requirements.

The policy also addresses training, uh procurement considerations and record retention, recognizing that AI generated content may be a public record.

Um the policy has been reviewed by the IT committee and legal council, and it includes an ongoing review as uh technology and best practices continue to evolve.

So staff recommends approval of resolution number 2026-05.

Council, any questions for staff?

I don't have any questions, but just a couple of comments.

One, I didn't know we had an IT committee.

So that's awesome that you guys uh, you know, or are not doing that in a vacuum, right?

You have uh a group that you're supporting that, and that you pass those through legal counsel because those policies can be tricky, having explored them myself and helped uh you know define those in other organizations.

So uh thank you for being responsible with them.

Thank you.

Counselor Godiness?

No, just to comment.

I think that I I appreciate that we're doing this, especially as we know that you know I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about AI, but I think that there's a ways that it can make your life a little bit easier and still allow people to do the work that they need to do.

Just you know, summarize this document really quickly as opposed to having to go through every single detail.

And then um, you know, there's other different ways to use it, but I I think that having an actual policy that can help guide staff is very crucial, especially because chances are right, people were already doing it beforehand, so now they have something to work with.

So yeah, I'm in approval of this.

Okay.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make that motion.

Counselor Vaughn.

Uh I make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-05.

A resolution of the Cornelia City Council adopting an artificial intelligence or AI use policy.

And this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councilor Vaughn, do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Godiness.

Any other questions?

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

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions.

Passes unanimous.

That takes us to 20.

Yeah, 2026-6.

B City USA program application.

City Manager Brennan.

Thank you, Mayor and Counselors.

I'm gonna do this on 1.5 speed for obvious reasons.

I was gonna say you got two minutes.

Yeah.

Um B City USA is a program I'm familiar with from a from a prior role.

It's run by the Xerce Society, which is a conservation nonprofit focused on invertebrates.

It's actually housed in Portland, but it's a national program.

Uh supports communities and campuses and conserving pollinators, including bees.

Pollinators are responsible for reproduction of nearly 90% of the world's flowering plants, including many of the things we rely on for food.

And about 500 native bee species reside in Oregon and many other pollinators contribute to plant reproduction.

Negative impacts to pollinators and their habitat are impacting their numbers.

The program will require us to establish a standing committee to oversee supportive actions, and that would be the public infrastructure advisory board, who actually suggested this program.

Uh supporting planting of pollinator-friendly vegetation on public and private property, educating community about the importance of pollinators and ways to support them, reducing reducing the use of pesticides in our city operations and encouraging the community to reduce them and uh educating about alternative ways to deal with uh not unwanted pests and invasive species and to incorporate supportive practices into cities policies and plans.

We intend to do all of that.

Uh additionally, uh it requires us to host pollinator education events, which we can tie into existing events like our uh take care of Cornelius Day and others.

The annual fee is is uh in my opinion reasonable, uh 200, and it requires us to report annually on our activities.

Uh I have actually begun the uh application process and I briefed the public infrastructure advisory board and they unanimously approved the recommendation to approve our participation in the program and have I've vetted the draft resolution with BCD USA, so they've approved it, and uh next step will be to complete the process, pay the fee, and implement the program.

I'm open to any questions.

Council, do anything about this policy?

Bug you seeing none?

No, I had a question.

So for that $200 annual fee that we give to B City, what do they provide programming?

Like what are they giving?

What is the benefit of joining them for these platforms?

They facilitate the program.

So they they provide us uh branding for the signage that we'll post and they they give us the tools to carry out the actions, they connect us with other communities and resources, uh support us, cheer us along, and so it's really a facilitation that you know as the program owners.

That's what cov covers their administrative time to do so.

Um while I have the floor, I just want to want to forget to acknowledge the the members of the infrastructure advisory board for for pushing this, especially Jay Larson.

He's a he's an advocate for it, and so I just wanted to acknowledge that as well.

Yeah, thank you.

I I think it seems very buzzworthy.

Do you have any quips?

Fresh out.

Okay.

Would you like to make a motion or anyone like to make a motion?

I'll make a motion.

Counselor Goodiness.

All right.

I make a motion to approve um resolution number 202606, a resolution of the Cornelia City Council approving the application to the B City USA program.

And this action takes effect immediately.

Motion by Councillor Godines.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

Passes unanimous.

Okay, that takes us on to reports.

Does the city council have any reports this evening?

I'll keep it short.

I know we're running out of time, but I just want to continue to remind our community that if they need immigration resources, they can find it on our website.

Highly recommend that people sign up for Echo.

And also outside of City Hall, you can find some of the whistles that you can use if you see ice around, and just remember to keep yourself safe and to just be there for one another as a community.

Also, shout out to the Cornelius tree lighting.

It was a very beautiful event.

I know we talked about it earlier, so I won't go into too much detail.

Thank you, Councilor Cordinas.

Counselor Vaughn.

No, just happy new year.

It's all.

Thank you.

I'm done.

I just have nothing left tonight.

Continue to be involved in the usual stuff, right?

Metropolitan Mayor's consortium's coming up, be meeting with them.

Multiple different meetings with the legislators in preparation for the upcoming session.

So there's questions and stuff there.

I think that's what I had to cover tonight.

City manager, do you have anything?

Not much other.

I also want to say happy new year to everybody.

And we're really excited for 2026 and lots of exciting projects on the horizon for this year.

So we're we're we're looking forward to working with you on that.

Cool.

Well, with that, if there's nothing else from staff or council, do I have someone wishing to make the motion to adjourn?

I motion to adjourn.

Motion by Councilor President Godinez.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Vaughn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

We are adjourned.