Cornelia City Council meeting for Monday, March 16th, 2026.

We're live here in the council chambers.

We're all so available on Zoom webinar, TVC TV live stream, and we have wordly live translation available.

Information on the agenda.

Let's see.

City is committed to providing equal access to public meetings.

Requests for accommodations can be submitted to the city recorder at least 48 hours before the meeting at CityRecorder at Cornelius OR.gov.

Or call 503-357-9112.

Regular session, 7 p.m.

Call the meeting order.

Start with a pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

Staff, can you take roll call?

Councillor Lopez.

Present.

Councilor Vaughan.

Present.

Council President Godinez Valencia.

Present.

Mayor Deline.

Present.

I'm present.

I gotta have us at four out of the five.

That's where we're at right now.

Announcements.

March 5th, City Council vacancy.

On March 5th, Councillor Nunes Baruga.

Burgan.

Easy for you to say.

Resign from the City Council.

The next step for filling the seat will be discussed later in the meeting during presentations.

March 24th through the 30th, 2026 is Farm Worker Awareness Week.

The Oregon Human Development Corporation is collecting long sleeve shirts starting Monday, March 23rd.

This initiative supports farm workers by raising awareness of their contributions and providing essential protective clothing for their work.

The City of Cornelius is hosting collection boxes for donations at four locations.

The Cornellus Public Library, the City Manager's Office, the Public Safety Building, and the Public Works and Community Development Building.

For more information, please see our website.

April 2026 is Fair Housing Month.

Monday, April 6th at 6 p.m.

We'll have a city council work session.

And at 7 p.m.

on April 6th, we'll have the City Council meeting.

April 6th through the 10th is community development week.

Page two.

Public comment.

Comments are to be limited to three minutes.

Speaking in person, register to speak by filling out a form in the city council chamber and provide it to the city recorder.

Speaking virtually, register to speak by contacting the city recorder via email at CityRecorder at CorneliusOR.gov no later than 3 p.m.

on the day of the city council meeting.

Provide your name, address, and when possible the topic of testimony.

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

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

Is there anyone wishing to make public comment?

Sure.

Do you have uh one of the little cards?

Yeah, just go ahead and grab it and you can do it real quick.

We'll do the consent agenda in the loop background to you, so you have a minute to fill out your information.

Do I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I motion to adopt the consent agenda.

Councillor Gordinas, do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councilor Lopez.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

Passes unanimous.

Recognition, we have none this evening.

And he's feverishly filling out.

We'll give it just a minute and then we'll do a public comment before we go into presentations.

Great.

You can just on your way up to the podium, you can hand it in to our city recorder and uh grab a seat.

Make sure the microphone button is showing green.

And just tap it.

Got it.

Please.

Introduce yourself.

You don't need to give your address.

And then you can let us know what your topic.

My name is Sanji Nicolas Mendes.

My name is Angel Nicolas Mendez.

Um, I'm just here.

I uh wanted to make you guys aware or try to push forward at DLC at the library.

Uh it's being it's closed now.

I think this is one of the things that um make our community better.

Um it seems like it's just closed because we're dealing with some liability kind of thing.

So I just want to bring it up so we can move forward with that.

Um we are 52% Latino, and Latino culture is really bad at pushing um reading, math, uh higher education.

Um so this is one of the things that we'll bring it up to people and we'll make the younger ones move with this kind of um material.

So this is I think it's very important for us for the future, uh, especially since we're moving into data centers and everything that is happening.

Um we're not gonna be able to stop it.

We just need to kind of embrace it and look for solutions on what people is uh worried about.

So this is one of the things that will make your community way better.

That's it.

Nope.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Uh staff, do you have any feedback on the I know it's a staffing and time and there's a few things there, but if you have have something you can share with uh Angel right now, that'd be great.

If if not, um we've got a name, maybe you can leave a phone number with them and then get back to you and talk to you.

So staff.

Yeah, good to see you on how good.

Thank you for coming.

Um do you mean um a closure that is out of the ordinary right now?

Or yeah, okay.

Um so right now they they closed it up.

Um that's the information I had from two weeks ago.

Um they said that uh the city was looking forward to change some liability thing, uh, they were trying to figure it out.

Um because I was trying to, you know, bring uh my nieces there.

Yeah.

Um and so it turns out it's uh it was closed, and it's only gonna be for like special events.

I know the the robotic hand was happening um, I think last week.

Um but for example that I couldn't attend uh in I was really looking for something like that.

Uh so I said, okay, I'm gonna take them there uh when there's nothing going on, and turns out it's closed.

So I'll look into specific reasons, but the two things I can think of are staffing, and we are in the process of hiring another staff person to help program the Drake Center room with uh with all of the uh equipment and so forth on the west end.

So that's part of it, and we have had another leak, and that was right by the main entrance.

So I think that's that's probably a reason too.

But um generally speaking, our library is has um more open hours than um it's kind of on the high end of open hours in the collaborative in the Washington County collaborative, but um definitely appreciate you letting us know the the importance.

Yeah, and I think I think that you spoke to a little bit there is uh a lot of the use of right now the the DLC, the Drake Learning Center is focused around programmed activities, right?

It's not just generally open for use.

So I think um that sounds like part of what you're interested in.

Is how do we get um more general use activities, right?

If there's sections or parts of it that could be more open and and direct access.

Yeah, and the the way I'm thinking it is uh this activities are normally, for example, the last one was scheduled for Friday at 5 30.

Um I don't um I don't think folks at on Friday after work.

Um not all of them have the you know the strength or the the ability to after a long week of uh working, then coming into the library for that specific day or something happened maybe and then you have to wait another month or something like that.

Okay, then I know I always knew we lost a staff member that was doing that programming, so I know that's affecting the programmed activities.

So I I think those are both good feedback, right?

You can take that back to library staff and have them talk about you know, is there parts of it we could open up more general access instead of only during program times?

And that that's sounds like what you're asking about is how do we get more general access in there?

And uh I'll tell you that's my son's feedback too.

He's like we should be able to have people in there all the time if it's more volunteers or you know, whatever we need for to help provide more access.

Um that could be one of our seeking, you know, leaning out into the community and looking for volunteers that are explicitly interested in you know coming and doing stuff.

I know I one of uh one of my motorcycle riding friends is uh former tech and instructor for PCC.

Maybe I could encourage him to come and do a few hours here and there to open it up because he had the the 3D lab at PCC that was his thing.

So I think it's just finding the right volunteers too, not just staff, so that we can have more exposure, more open time.

And to address the liability because some of the equipment in there is dangerous.

Yeah, some of it, yeah, you can actually hurt yourself pretty bad with, right?

Yeah.

So thank you for coming by and bringing that up though.

That do we so we can push that topic a little further up on the agenda.

Yeah, no, of course.

Thank you.

Okay, that takes us to presentations and appointments.

First up is our city of Cornelius audit report.

Ryan, principal, audit insurance.

You have the floor.

All right, thank you for having me here this evening.

Uh, first of all, it was an absolutely gorgeous drive coming here.

You know, I'm excited for spring and summer for sure.

More than what we've had here recently.

Uh thank you.

Um my name is Ryan Pascarella.

Um I am a principal at RADW.

We are a CPA firm of about 350 people in total, about 120 auditors.

We do audits all over the place, essentially.

Um, and so I am here to talk a little bit about the audit ending June 30, 2025.

Um, it was actually finished in December.

Um, I couldn't make the January meeting, so Ellie moved it.

And then we have some problems with the March meeting.

And so here I am.

I'm gonna do make it short.

So you're out of here in 30 minutes.

That's we think I that's all that matters.

I get that, absolutely.

We trust that you'll cover the important points, but be succinct.

Exactly.

Not even not even full sentences, okay.

I don't know how to do that, but anyway.

Um, so what I wanted to cover first, just to kind of get through it, is what changed from the prior year as it relates to your audit and your financial statements.

So, really, there are three things that have changed for the 2025 year.

The first one is we actually did two separate audits for the first time, one of them being for the city, which we've historically done, the other one is for your urban renewal agency.

Okay.

So that is a separate legal entity, and the requirements are if a legal entity, governmental entity spends more than a million dollars during a fiscal year, then uh an audit is required.

You received a copy of the URA's financial statements.

I want to say your expenditures were 288,000.

So as a public accountant, I can tell you that's lower than the million dollar threshold.

That's sitting there.

The reason that was done is because you are expecting a lot more activity in your URA.

And so it was decided just to go ahead and do an audit this year because there'll be an audit required for the next year instead of doing this agreed upon procedure staying for one year, there was no reason to.

Um, we're already looking at the URA as a component of the city.

So it just adds a little bit more of our procedures to it, and then the financial statements themselves.

So the three things you should have received as part of this is your annual comprehensive financial report for the city, as always.

Um the URAs, I'll say it's an AFR, it's an annual financial report, it's not the comprehensive version.

And then you also received a letter from us that kind of describes what's happening and everything.

So you should have all of that electronically for you in there.

All right.

So that's the first change.

Uh the second change is there was a new accounting pronouncement that came out that affects 25, and it relates to an increase in the definition of what a compensated absence is.

And so you've historically had a vacation accrual sitting in your financial statements.

That's pretty easy to calculate.

People earn hours, there's a billing rate at the end of the year.

You do some multiplication.

So I do multiplication sometimes too.

Um, and you know, that's been on your books.

What changed for 25 was actually looking at the sick time that people have earned and estimating how much they are going to use of that sick time prior to leaving the city, essentially, whether it be retirement or whatever.

So it's a huge estimation that happens in there.

Also, um, they decided that it would probably be a good idea that when you have like a vacation accrual sitting there, the city's gonna have to pay taxes, the employer taxes on that.

So that is now been added in there as well.

So if you were to look at your compensated absences from last year to this year, it'll be higher because they changed the definition of it, is really all that it is.

And you're still just paying it out as people use it, essentially.

I mean, as always, it's just calculating that higher number.

The other thing was you purchased the um grand or the Grande Foods building in May of 25.

And so that is now on your books, along with some financing related to that.

Um, and then also some rent income popped in right at the end of this year as well.

So those are the big changes you're gonna see in your financial statements when you look through them.

Um city does an annual comprehensive financial report.

Um you've done that historically.

What that means is you meet the reporting requirements, and then you do more as well.

So there's a transmittal letter at the front that is a very good read.

It just explains kind of what has happened during the year, kind of forecasting what it's gonna look like going forward.

It's very nice to look at.

And then also there's a bunch of statistical information in the back of the financial report, 10-year trends on things, really to help understand what the city has been doing historically in there.

The URAs does not have the transmittal letter or the statistical sections, it is just the basic version that follows generally accepted accounting principles in there for you.

So that's straightforward.

Um yet again, the city's ACFER, CAF ACFAR, they keep changing the name on me.

Um ACFER, it was submitted for independent review to the government finance officers association.

Um you have received that award 17 years in a row.

So as always, we're doing this.

Um it was submitted, so we should find out in the next couple months, I would think, depending on how backed up they are there.

Um, two other awards that are listed in your transmittal letter, actually.

One of them is you get the uh what is it, the uh PAPFER in there as well, which is the popular version of the financial reporting, and that's because it's a Spanish version of it that is done as well.

And you've done that for the past 15 years, and then you also have received a distinguished budget presentation award um for the last 18 budget cycles.

So that is some very consistent accounting being done by your finance department.

And so that's absolutely wonderful in there.

Um, just quick what what is an audit, just as a reminder for those you know have heard it before.

Um, we come in, you know, the finance department gives us your year-in numbers essentially.

We come in as auditors, uh, we do some sampling, we talk through all your systems, we see what's changed from the prior year as far as what you're doing, just to see what could go wrong with the way that you're you know documenting all of this and calculating the numbers in there.

Um we visit, I'll say visit virtual more than anything else these days, um, like in June, and then we work on it again in October, essentially, in there.

Um, October, and when we look at all the big numbers and everything in there.

Um, what we end up doing, what you want is you want an unmodified clean opinion on your financial statements, which really means we're giving reasonable assurance, there are no material errors in your financial statements, whether it be numbers or all the narratives that are in there and the footnotes and stuff, something missing that you know needs to be in there or something, reasonable assurance.

That doesn't mean we give absolute assurance that every number's 100% correct, we cannot do that.

But we feel that there are no material errors in there based on the work that we did, and that is the city and the URA as well, both got the unmodified opinion in there.

So it's good as you can get again.

Um there were some audit adjustments that are listed out in the governance letter.

Um, one of them goes right back to the Grande Foods building, and re proper recording of what was purchased and recording the loan proceeds related to it.

That wasn't recorded initially, it was just kind of out-of-pocket money that was recorded in there.

But since you have new debt, you need to be recording those loan proceeds from a budgetary standpoint.

It needs to run through your budget to actual schedules that you have.

So, what that did is it just grossed up two numbers.

It did not change your ending balances, your carry-over balances to the next year.

It's really just financial reporting that's in there.

Um, the other thing was the lease receivables related to the new lease revenue that you're gonna get.

Um, there was a couple months ish in there, a couple a couple hundred thousand dollars where that receivable needed to be recorded.

Um and then there's an offsetting essentially a liability that's in there.

So yet again, we said you should probably record this.

It was recorded.

There was no change in the carryover numbers for the next year, cash and all of that stuff.

Yet again, just reporting.

Um we clients get in trouble when we're actually adjusting things that change your carryover balances because you've budgeted already for the next year, and you're probably on to the next budget after that as well and stuff.

So the fact that there these adjustments are there.

They're good sized numbers, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not impacting your budget work that you're doing and your day-to-day operations in there.

It's just a matter of getting the these 200-page documents put together the way that they need to in there.

Um, there were two findings that we had as part of the financial audit.

We also look at your compliance with Oregon revised statutes.

And there's some very specific things to have us look at.

So each one of these reports at the very back has um a report of our minimum standards work that we did.

As always, um, what we look at is we look at the budget process, make sure that things are documented, make sure the publications are done related to it.

If you do any budget modifications, did you follow the correct rules for it?

Whether having a new budget hearing if necessary and kind of going through the whole process, or just moving money around.

Um, we look at your purchases, um, your larger purchases essentially to make sure you get the adequate number of bids and the documentation is there for it so we can see what's happening.

All stuff that we look at, you know, year over year in there.

Um the finding that we had this year relates to expenditures that exceeded the final appropriations for the city for the year.

So one of them in the general fund, um it was what?

Yeah, in the general fund, materials and services was overexpended by about $32,000.

Um, and then in the URA, materials and services was overspent by about $44,000.

So, not huge numbers in the grand scheme of the numbers that flow through the city, but there wasn't uh supplemental budget or something that happened that bumped it up there.

Um a lot of that just sometimes has to do with what happens in May and June and not recognizing what's going to happen.

Yeah, you never know, kind of what's in there.

So those are the two findings if you want to call them that.

Um as far as the severity of them, we can say, oh my gosh, this is egregious.

We need you to do some type of plan of action and tell the state how you're gonna fix this stuff.

Not near to that level or anything.

So we put them in here as non-compliance because it's over.

Um, but we are not communicating anything to the state that says that you need to do something additional for it.

It would take probably like 500,000 over before we start having those conversations about other communications.

So, really what's going on with the state, we're just you know, we just submitted a clean report, essentially, and there's no follow-up that needs to be done by the city or anything related to that.

Um, it's just good that the council understands that there were some amounts over essentially in there.

So there's that.

Um the management discussion analysis is in there.

I've told you before, it's also a good read, shows you what's happened year over year.

You're gonna see it's gonna talk about the new commercial building that you have and and some of that in there.

But really, um I just want to get you out of here in 30 minutes, but also answer any questions that the council has about an audit, what it is, what we do, why we do it, how I can do it, I guess.

I mean, a lot of people would say you, but anyway.

Council, do you have any questions for our auditor?

I am always available for questions.

Just not in in this meeting.

Ellie has my contact information for sure.

And so feel free to reach out if there are questions.

I always tell my clients that if you have questions, whether it be the council or the finance department, ask sooner rather than later, especially with the finance department because if you're changing something, I want to know.

Um, too many times that is gone the wrong direction, it wasn't done correctly, and then your audit just got a whole lot harder and honestly more expensive sometimes.

It just takes more time on our our part in there.

Great.

Yep.

Well, thanks, Ryan.

Appreciate you making the trip out.

And uh hope you enjoy the uh what's left of the cool evening.

Cool evening.

Yep, cool evening return.

Yeah, I hope it's uneventful for you, and you get to just uh enjoy the nice warm evening.

Yep.

And uh I think we're gonna move on to our next uh item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that takes us on to City Council recruitment timeline and application.

Michelle.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um as Mayor Delane announced in the beginning, there is a city council vacancy.

And on the agenda report, I have a proposed timeline to fill that seat.

Um and again, thank you for this extra meeting to kind of fill that seat even sooner.

Um today we are doing public noticing.

We're we've posted it on the website.

We'll do a news flash so it's on the home page.

Our communications and community engagement manager will also put it on our socials as well as you announced it today at this meeting.

The code um suggests a two-week application period, which means it would close on the 30th, which is also the day that the packet for the next meeting has to be posted.

So we would close the applications, get those in the packet and have it ready for your April 6th meeting.

We would do the similar interview style of round robin, invite the applicants to come in.

They would get the questions ahead of time.

We do it during the work session.

Uh again, we might have to adjust based on how many applications we receive, um, whether the work session would be long enough.

And then after the work session, just like last time, you could uh deliberate and vote on your choice at that meeting so that they could do their oath of office and sit at the dais at the main meeting.

Do you have any questions, suggestions?

Oh, I also have one note the application I put in there.

I did fix the error on the last page.

There was a duplicate question.

Um it's not fixed in your packet, but it is fixed on the website.

So we um with this interview on the sixth.

Could deliberate and decide on the sixth and then swear in on the following month, the first meeting of May.

Okay.

Any questions, counsel for staff on this proposal?

Um not um on the proposal, but aside from uh social media, are we also gonna try to put it in our newsletter?

Is there gonna be enough time to get it in there or no?

Okay.

Because the Gazette comes out on the first week of the month and we've we'll be closing it by the 30th.

There's no time to that makes sense.

Thank you.

My my only concern is with the two the the short notice if we don't get application, right?

I mean, you you guys basically pivot at that point, and we won't everything will slide back until the probably one month then is what I'm assuming.

That the right assumption then.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm open to suggestions if you want us to um notice our boards and commissions or any partnering groups, uh, try to recruit.

Well, I I think the the the give me, I'm thinking, is always the planning commission, right?

That's kind of a natural progression to council as planning commission because you've already had the quasi-judicial training.

So unfortunately, then it h creates another hole in planning commission, but that would be one of them, I would think.

Councilor Goodinus, you look like you had some comment.

Yeah, um, I think that's a great idea.

But I think for me, um I know that we're trying to fill this quickly, but I'd rather allow for more time to get the word out and to feel like we're not rushing so we don't get into a position where because I think my concern is that two weeks is very quickly, and I really want to make sure that our wider community has an opportunity to access this and not just like I mean, which is great to attack uh to go into our boards and commissions, but also getting it in the Gazette and being able to have that opportunity for um a larger audience to see that I think would be better.

I would rather have someone in June if we need to, if that meant that we actually are providing the opportunity for more people to get eyes on it and really get the word out there.

But that's just me.

I don't know how the rest of the council feels about that.

Or even maybe having another session in May.

Um, like we did right now, we had another meeting.

I'm open to having another meeting in that month if it means that we have a little bit of more time to make sure we're getting people to apply.

Council?

Yes, Councillor Vaughn.

I was thinking initially that it, you know, I agreed with the the plan, but after hearing you speak, I think I think I'm leaning towards that idea too.

But I wanted to ask what was the end of the term for this chair for the seat.

December of this year.

And one of the reasons I think I was thinking May was because the election process starts in June, and it was more to be in that seat.

I don't know, I think they might also go for an election, maybe.

I was trying to be cognizant of what their time.

I think I got appointed in July and had to run in November.

So in 2003 when I first joined the council.

I think I got I think it because it was uh I no more than got a uh appointed, and I had to go to the Nut and Berry and start gathering signatures at the Nutton Berry Festival to run that fall.

That was I figured that was a good community event to gather signatures at so I could get my signatures turned in.

I Councillor Lopez.

Oh, yeah.

That's what I was wondering, just kind of what I think you answered actually at what the rush was.

Uh if there's uh a decision that might be impacted in May or June.

I'm thinking about the budget maybe.

Um but outside of that, I I don't see any other reason why it needs to be rushed.

Or at least I'm not hearing one.

From a staff perspective, you're a functioning board with with four.

You know, it's obviously ideal to have a full slate, but um, you know, as long as we achieve quorum with three, just like we would with five.

I so from our standpoint, I think we we would like to to follow your direction in terms of what you see as the best long long-term outcome.

It's been a long time since I had to make that decision to running for council.

Do you guys think uh two or four weeks?

What do you think?

Because this is this proposal is two weeks.

I think counselor, you're thinking at least leave it open for a month, maybe even five weeks, so we could get it into the Gazette and then have a couple weeks after the Gazette.

And that would push the whole process.

But I I agree with you too about you know, if that means we need to have a second meeting in May.

Yeah.

I I don't think that's a big deal either.

She hasn't submitted it yet.

Um already formatted, but it'll be tight.

But I think our manager over there can make some adjustments and make that work.

Flash.

Go ahead and do some 10.5.

Okay, so Lopez, any any more comment?

You you good with the idea, maybe stretching it out into uh I was just considering the number of applicants, so that's something that we were considering.

You know, if we get five applicants, if we want it if we get that within two weeks, is that a number, or do we just want to wait a whole month and just see interview all that apply?

I kind of think we have to put a date in the sand for when we're gonna it's one thing to put it out for two weeks and get nothing and extend it.

It's another to say, okay, if we get five the first five in the door, we're doing we're gonna close that application process.

That's a very different communication on it.

So I was just to say I'm open to more additional meetings as needed to fill this.

I do recognize the constraint of applying for election for somebody if they're like I'm being appointed on Monday and I have to go file the be uh in the election on Tuesday.

Um so yeah, I just want to be cognizant of that too.

But I think if I'd have to look at a calendar, but I think that if we were to do two meetings in May and appoint somebody um its first meeting in June, that that should give them time to get their name in the voter pamphlet and apply if they want to be in the November election.

And if they don't, then they get six months of checking it out.

We would not need a second meeting in April or May.

Uh especially if we're trying to aim to put like uh an announcement in the April Gazette.

I think um it would change the closing date, the work session and regular session with the interview would be May, and the oath of office would be June.

And that we would have that posted in the Gazette first week of April.

And it would probably close on the um end of the second week of April, the application period to meet the deadline for the packet in uh May.

I can give you the actual dates if that helps.

I'm I'm trying to look up to see when the dates, because I remember that I didn't have to film my submit my application until like the end of August or maybe sometime in the summer.

So even though it may open up, I think they have a few months and I feel like that's okay, but that's just um my personal opinion.

I don't want to sound like, well, I did it so you can do it, you know, because that's not the case.

But um I yeah, I think my biggest concern is just making sure that every that we really do um allow for community members to see it and to be intentional about giving that space.

I'd even be open, and I'm sure the mayor would love this as well, Mayor.

You're such a great you do so well in videos, maybe even doing like a little video or something that we can put up on Facebook or something.

Um just because I I really do want people to see it and to know that this is happening because otherwise my biggest thing too is I want uh the way the I don't know if this is the best terminology, but I want someone other than the usual suspects.

Like I really do want to have like a community member.

Um that maybe doesn't never thought that this would be for them because at the end of the day, we need all voices represented.

And I want to make sure that we have an opportunity that for that to even to occur.

Yeah, I I I got the dates up, so it's August 18th for incumbents.

So if I want to run for mayor again, that's when I have to have my stuff filed.

April, uh excuse me, August 18th, August 18th of 26, and then deadline for non-incumbent and appointed incumbent candidates, it's August 25th.

So if we get them into June, that gives them basically June, July, and then they need to get their paperwork pulled together.

All right.

No, the mayor has a week sooner deadline than recent legislative changes, incumbents have to file a week earlier.

Right.

So we will put it in the April Gazette.

We will close the application period on April 21st.

Hold the interviews and deliberations on May 4th.

And they will conduct an oath of office in June.

Yes, cancel the physical.

Not to get too much in the weeds, but um when we go through the process, an individual gets selected.

Are we able to get like a runner up?

Just you know, kind of when you interview and you're not the first election, but maybe the first guy says no, they change their mind or personal.

How does that work?

Or is that something we should track or do we start all over?

Similar to a job.

If it's during the same meeting you were to offer them if they were to come back and say, never mind, um, then you could move on to your second choice.

But if any time is passed, if they've done an oath and they change their mind, we would need to go through the process again.

Thank you, friend.

Say it's hold it, hold the office open until election.

I mean, that's a decision of the council at that point.

Right is do we hold it open till election if that I usually I mean, having done this a few times now, people will apply, and if they're going to withdraw, it usually happens before they have the interview.

It'll be the day be day of or the day before or week before the withdrawal the application, which we I think we had one or two people do this last time and time before that, there was one or two that did it.

So it's not uncommon to, but it's not normally if somebody goes through the interview process, they normally take the seat if we offer.

So I will leave the application on the website and it will effectively be open for five weeks.

Yeah.

Cool.

Thank you.

Do you need us to vote or anything?

Or you got the as long as I have a general consensus, I'm comfortable with that.

Yeah, everybody's nodding.

Okay.

Thank you.

Cool.

No public hearings, no unfinished business, no new business.

Takes us to reports.

City council.

Do you have any reports this evening?

Okay.

Takes the mayor's report.

I had the uh Metropolitan Mayor's Consortium.

We uh we got a presentation by um Metro about how they would like to get more involved in um economic development because they're doing such a great job on land use and transportation.

So they want to get into economic development.

And I think the mayors gave them a pretty resounding bit of feedback that you know what you could do is get the heck out of the way.

Um I was very straightforward and said um one of the things hurting our economic development is our lack of land.

We don't have I think the report from GPIs we've had 70 substantive, and when I say substantive, I mean employers of a thousand or two thousand people come and go because we just don't have any real sites for that kind of development.

So and that you need a hundred-acre site, 200-acre site.

You need something where they can build it and they can probably bank some land for the next phase.

So there was a lot of feedback about, you know, they basically the Metro's been part of the problem by constraining the industrial land inventory so tight, we just don't have.

So obviously Mayor Pace gave him some feedback based on the lack of the legislature to pass um Senator Solman's job act that would have added over 300 acres to uh Hillsboro and a future of 1700 acres.

Um it's to be honest, uh um the governor's prosperity council and Metro trying to get into this business were just like could you guys get out of try to get out of the city's lane?

Because basically you're legislating and giving us so poor of help that you're basically part of the problem, not part of the solution.

And we didn't see the benefit of Metro's scope creeping even further from somebody that started out supposed to be managing trash and recycling, as uh city manager Brenham and I have discussed many times, and they've done such a questionable job on that, um, with our rates being some of the highest in the state.

Um just there trying to get into economic development doesn't bode well.

I mean uh Mayor Beatty gave him kind of an earful too.

Um and there was there's mayors that talked about the importance of small businesses, and uh kind of my comment to that is is they are they're they're a huge employer, right, of a number of people, but we also have to, for those of us that grew up around here or been here for a number of years, I think we understand the the multiplication effect, right?

These big businesses like an Intel or a Nike or a Ginentech support an entire web of these small businesses, right?

The it's it could be the dressmaker, it could be the laundromat, it could be the restaurant.

Those businesses exist because there's people in the other businesses that are they're creating an income cycle, the dollars.

I think the intel number is for every Intel job, they create seven others because you've got vendors and contractors and people that do housekeeping and businesses like we've got um RinCem here in town, and what do they do?

They support Intel, right?

So I think the other part of the feedback from the mayors in general was um we need economic diversity, right?

We don't need that another intel, we need something that's different, right?

Chenentech is a nice counterpoint, right?

Because they're not in the same cycle as Intel for technology, and we've got a lot of other businesses, but you know, losing 10,000 jobs in the last little over a year is a problem.

So I don't think they uh were happy with our feedback, but we basically were honest with them that you know the decisions and the actions of the legislature and Metro are not currently breeding economic success in this area.

Um Mayor Wilson was there from Portland, and he he took um some ownership on theirs, right?

They are trying a rent, he as he calls it the Renaissance of Portland.

They've got huge vacancies downtown.

Anybody that goes downtown has seen boarded and chained up businesses, but they're trying to get that, right?

So they gotta they gotta get more businesses in here, but unfortunately, a lot of the Portland isn't for blue-colored jobs, it's not for industry, it's not for manufacturing, right?

If you go down to Twalton and Sherwood, you get a lot of those kind of jobs, a lot of family wage jobs, and Portland's more white color.

And those places have kind of moved out, right?

We've seen a lot of those businesses move into the suburbs or just out.

So, but he was he was he owned the challenges of going through.

He's trying, his primary focus is on safety and livability, right?

He can't have, and he was he brought it up, can't have open drug markets, you can't have homeless all over the streets, you can't have the garbage in the graffiti.

That's what he's working on.

He's trying to make the livability so it can that people want to be downtown, right?

Um, I don't know the last time you went downtown for a meal, right?

Or a special shopping experience.

Um I know I've greatly reduced the number of trips to make into Portland.

And it's been because of the you know what they've been struggling with down there.

So I taught I told the city manager and a few others that were here earlier, but I did get a chance to talk to Indivisible Forest Grove uh last Friday.

I felt like that was well received.

It was basically they wanted me to talk about the effects the city has seen from the ice activities over the last few months.

And uh Senator Solman joined me and talked a little bit about what she's done done at the state, and uh it was it was a good opportunity to interface with the public.

It was supposed to be a 10-minute pre discussion with five minutes of questions, and they were asking questions for 20 or 25 minutes, and we basically had to just go okay.

This is the last question, they had other things they need to get on to.

So I thought it was um well received, and they've asked me to come back and talk to him again in a couple weeks.

So that's the mayor's report.

City manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm on the back end of a cult, so I apologize for the lozenge.

Just one thing from me.

We haven't officially, it's kind of a pre-announcement to let uh let the community know that we'll have the state of the city event here in the city council chamber on May 6th from 6 to 7 p.m.

And it's free, and folks can visit our city webpage to RSVP, and we'll continue to announce that and advertise it going forward.

Thank you.

Okay, I was just looking.

Yep, I've got that on my calendar, and I know that we're discussing and trying to figure out if we're gonna do something with the chamber between now and then also or maybe later.

Um look forward to that.

Any other things from staff?

We're good.

Okay, and then entertain uh a motion to adjourn.

And motion to adjourn.

Motion by Councillor Godinas.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Counselor Lopez with the second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstentions?

We are adjourned.

Thank you.