We'll briefly talk about the process that goes into this type of an analysis and then we'll dive into this update, focusing on some of the key factors, assumptions, and then finally results of the key steps.

Just due to timing that we have allocated for the presentation, I might be moving pretty quickly, so if I am talking pretty fast, do let me know.

Now, as a quick background, uh, the last study completed was in 2023.

We did perform a five-year projection, and based on the discussions of that time, two years were adopted from that five-year plan, and then we wanted to revisit our rates uh before any additional rates are implemented just because some of the uncertainty that we were experiencing that time.

So the major drivers of that study were related to high inflation.

We're coming out of the pandemic.

We saw supply chain pressures as well as increased power costs from Bonneville, as well as some major capital projects that we had identified that we needed to construct at the time.

In addition to the overall rate strategy, we developed two new rate schedules, schedule four and schedule five, which are related to new large loads coming onto the system, kind of to safeguard the system, existing customers from the uh the additional pressures from power costs related to these type of customers.

Schedule 4 focused on smaller type of connections, any uh loads above one average megawatt or two megawatt peaks.

Schedule five focused on the bigger connections above uh one uh ten average megawatts, which is in line with bondable definitions of a new large load.

Those come with some substantial costs to the city.

So we definitely wanted to have a safeguard in place, a rate schedule in place within that situation.

Now, oh, if you can go back one second.

Now, some uh significant changes have occurred since that study.

The the major one is Bonneville just finished adopting rates as recently as last month of July.

The combined impact to the city is about 9.1%, which is made up of about 8.8 to the power portion of the cost and uh almost 15% of transmission.

The majority of the charges uh are related to power, about 88% of total expenses are power related, so that's why the average increase is 9.1.

We're also anticipating that two new loads will be joining the system in the next five years, and we'll have a good discussion about that.

I think uh because there is some uncertainty with those loads, but everything is pointing to these connections joining.

And if they do at the schedule that we have anticipated, they would more than double our electricity unit usage in the system.

Now, in terms of the overall rate study, we can quickly summarize it in two analytical steps.

First, we have to define our overall needs through what we call uh revenue requirement analysis.

And once we have established overall dollar target on the multi-year basis, we move on to rate design.

This is the actual development of the fixed and variable rates.

So let's start with the first step revenue requirement.

Now, the very basic level, all it is is a comparison of your rates to your ongoing obligations.

Here we want to make sure that any strategy we develop allows us to uh keep our electric trades self-sufficient.

We're not relying on external sources on other utilities because not every electric customer is a water customer or a sewer customer and so forth.

When developing the analysis, we're really making sure that we're can cover our direct costs, such as operating capital power debt service, but also our indirect costs, such as appropriate financial policies to make sure we're sustainable, not just today, but into the future.

When uh the revenue requirement is established, really break it down into five key elements or key components.

The first one is putting a monetary value to the policies that we have established, then forecasting revenues of current rates, just we never want to assume there's gonna be uh there's gonna be an increase.

Then we forecast costs, breaking them down to the more consistent operating and and and power cost and more kind of a peaky type cost related to capital and and uh debt service.

Now, a big uh significant component of any electric rate study is really the load forecast.

And as I mentioned in the introduction, we're gonna be looking at some alternatives for your consideration.

Uh we'll we're looking at growth uh for our current system in place today, so just national growth that we have experienced, which is fairly uh modest at half a percent, zero to half percent depending on the class of service, but on average, we're anticipating just our current system uh growing at less than half a percent per year.

At 31 average megawatts, not even getting up to 31 and a half in the next five years.

If the new large loads connect as we anticipated the them to connect, they'll add up to 52 average megawatts by the fifth year of the forecast, continuing beyond that.

And the total system will grow from 31 average megawatts all the way up to 84.

So, because of this uh significant impact of load, we're actually going to be discussing two options looking at uh the business as usual without new large loads as well as with the addition of the new large loads.

Now, starting with some of the initial elements with existing revenues, we are forecasting for the the next five years of 26 through fiscal year 2030.

We wanted to take a look and include all the revenue sources at our disposal, including non-rate revenues, which include connection charges, conservation revenues, clean fuel, rental income income, as well as other miscellaneous like interest income sources.

Overall, while these are great revenue sources, they're only make up about 2% depending on the year of our total revenue profile.

So the majority of funds are coming from our monthly utility fees.

Now, if we look into the new large lows, the way we structured our schedules for and schedule five rates during the last study is that we would be passing on the cost of power to them.

So if that does if the uh load does materialize, they can generate about 43 million dollars on their own into the future projection.

So if we look at current levels of revenues before any kind of rate strategy discussion, we're at 27 million dollars.

With that new large loads, we can get up as high as 70 million dollars in the next five years.

On the extensive side, we start started the forecast with your current budgets that you have discussed internally already.

Uh, these include budgets for fiscal year 25, 6, and 7 because we do have to forecast this fund balances and every expense line item.

We did review the expenses in detail with your staff to make sure there's no one-time costs that are being carried forward, and we are including costs related to equipment replacement reserve transfers, but all in all, our average inflation when we put everything together is about 3.5%, which doesn't include pilot because pilot grows uh which pilot stands for payment in lieu of taxes, uh grow grows proportionally based on revenues.

So if we have uh greater revenues coming in from uh new large loads, the pilot transfer will increase proportionally.

So uh overall inflation we're assuming is about three and a half percent average.

The expenses are anticipated to go up about 12.7 uh to 16.3.

That is inclusive of the pilot growth from new large load payments.

On the power front, as I mentioned in the introduction, we are including the latest billing determinants from Bonneville Power.

Now, historically, Bonneville Power Administration sets rates on a two-year cycle.

So they set a rate effective October, that's the beginning of a federal fiscal year, and then those rates are in effect for two years.

So they do two year rate increases.

This year is a little bit unique because this is the end of the wholesale contract for all their wholesale customers.

This is actually a three-year contract period, so they're setting rates for fiscal year 25 or 26, 27, and 28 with the effective months of October 1st, 25, and the last month of September 30th.

After that, the new contract will revert back to a two-year rate period.

As we discussed briefly in the introduction, the power cost to the city will increase about 8.8%, which represent the majority of total purchase power at about 88%.

Transmission will increase close to 15%.

They're really trying to invest more in transmission, and the combined increase would be 9.1%.

Overall, power represents a pretty substantial portion of your expenses, close to about 50% of total operating type costs.

Now, because we are forecasting beyond just the three years into a five-year per year, we're anticipating there's gonna be future adjustments after the new contract takes place.

For now, we're assuming a 5% increase for a two-year period for power and a slightly higher increase for transmission because we know that they've discussed greater investments in the transmission network.

But these increases are applicable uh to your tier one cost, the cheaper cost power because of growth.

You have exceeded your tier one cost allocation, and you have already started purchasing more expensive type market-based above rate high watermark purchases, around four average megawatts out of your 31 megawatt total need.

Now, depending on what we assume would happen with uh the new large loads, that may increase from four to as high as 63 average megawatts per year.

But again, we're trying to develop those schedule four and five rates to pass on the cost of power to these uh new large load connections.

Uh, in total, without new large loads, we're anticipating car costs in the 14 to 15 million uh range with the new large loads, it will be 14 to 52 million dollars.

On the capital front, we're anticipating about 12.6 million dollars of cost inflated to the year of construction from 26 through 30 fiscal years.

The funding for these projects are anticipated to come from rates, uh current reserves, transfers from the equipment reserve balances, as well as a couple of projects that are slated to be funded partially through grants.

And we have set aside in the past some RDC funds, which came from Bonneville.

Bonneville did provide our uh credit back to their customers over the last couple rate cycles.

Well, the city has elected to keep those funds in place and help us offset some of our capital projects.

And then lastly, the debt service of about 3.6 million dollars anticipated in this current fiscal year was just started in July.

This is consistent to our prior rate study that we did in 23.

We were anticipating the need for debt service for some of the bigger substation related projects.

We currently have about $300,000 of existing debt, and this new debt service would add another $300,000 to our forecast.

That's assuming a typical 20-year term bond, 5% interest rate and 1% issuance cost.

You can kind of see visually outside of the large uh investment into the substation, we get uh back to more historical lower levels of spending after that initial spend.

And again, the timing and the and the quantity of the cost of the of the project is consistent with the prior rate study.

The last element to talk about is the financial policy element, and then here we brought back the policies we've utilized in the past.

The first are related to reserves, starting with operating reserves, which act as a liquidity cushion for that fluctuation of revenues coming in at a different pace as expenses coming out.

In general, historically, we've targeted 60 days or about 17% of operating and maintenance expenses as well as power, which is about four and a half to almost five million dollars that we would need to have on hand for this purpose.

Uh, if we do include the new large lows, that uh upper end would grow to about 11 million that we would have on the hand because our costs would swing greater because of power would be greater, so we would need to have more cash on hand.

On the capital side, we do also have a reserve for emergencies, cost overruns or unanticipated projects.

This is not intended to be a catastrophic event type of a fund, just a minor emergency repair type fund.

The good practice to have is about 1% of the plant that the city has done in the past, which represents another 600 to 700,000.

Now, any of these reserves once they're met, we don't need to set any more aside for this purpose.

So, again, this is just a metric to have at a minimum to establish our minimum target.

The last policy that we have here is the debt service coverage target, which comes with specific type loans and revenue bond for in particular obligations.

It's more of an assurance to our credit holders that we can repair obligation.

And the coverage ratio is simply a ratio of revenues, net of expenses, need to generate enough cash flow to not only cover the debt payment, but also generate a cushion.

And the higher the policy that we can target, the greater our rating could potentially be, which could save us money in future issuances on interest uh of the debt.

Now those are the elements.

Now, as we bring them together to look at the revenue requirement, as I mentioned before, we wanted to look at two scenarios for your consideration.

One looking at well, what happens if the loads don't materialize, and the second one looks at well, what happens if they do at the levels that we anticipate.

So the first slide here will look at the summary of the revenue requirement without new large loads connecting.

Here the bars rate uh are representing expenses and make up uh cash reporting expenses in the darker portion of the bottom of the bar of each bar.

The green portion represents our total power costs.

As you can see, it's about half of total expenses projected here.

And the upper portion in the violet color shows our net capital net of grants or RDC contributions.

We also have a very small sliver of existing debt in orange, but it's very hard to see because it's so small compared to all other costs.

We compare these bars to the solid black line at the top, which is revenues at current levels, and you can see that starting pretty much right away, we're barely breaking even with our power costs, and we might be a little short with making debt payments as our uh expenses outpace our revenues and just growth and connections to the city.

Our expenses become greater than our revenues starting in 27, we're not able to meet our debt obligations, and then 28, uh, we're not able to meet our power costs as well.

If nothing is done with our rate action, none of this even takes into account the capital needs that that needs to uh be covered.

If you look at the bottom portion of the chart, the yellow component, the shaded area should represents our fund balances, and again, without any adjustments to our plans and rate strategies, we're not gonna be able to meet our minimum targets for reserves, which is represented with a with a dashed line uh going for over each year.

Starting in 27, if we try to build our capital program, we won't we'll run out of funds and go negative in this in this scenario.

Looking at this slide, which it adds in the new large loads because the rate schedules that we have prepared in the the last rate study pass on the cost of power.

You can see the solid black black line ramps up as our load growth over time.

Now the first two years are going to be pretty similar to the prior scenario because the new large loads are not anticipated to connect until later on in the forecast period.

So we're still deficient in the 26 and slightly deficient 27.

But as the new large load ramps up and keeps up with their own power costs, we are looking like we can meet our obligations in the outer years.

So the short term, we would drop our reserves below our targets, and in the long term, that the deficiency would grow slightly, but we we would be able to build our capital plan.

We just won't be able to have enough funds for those fluctuations, and it would be a little bit more challenging because we do have pretty big fluctuations month to month.

Here we're looking at it on an annual basis.

On a month to month basis, there will be greater fluctuations and dips up above the minimum below the minimum throughout the throughout the year period.

So in summary, looking at the short term, the first two years of 26 and 27, revenues and current levels for both scenarios are not sufficient to keep up with our power costs, our OM expenses and capital needs.

For the beginning time period, and in scenario one, if nothing occurs, we would uh go deficient in our balances by 2027.

Looking at longer term, 28 through 30, that last three year period of the five-year plan, we are showing that the deficiencies to grow for scenario one.

With scenario two, we stabilize, but we are a little bit below our targets.

So again, because of the volatility in the power market, we do have higher uh uh reserves, but we're at least able to keep up above kind of the zero point as we are projecting for scenario one.

So, what does that mean?

On this slide, we wanted to provide you with two alternatives how to resolve our deficiencies.

Now you'll notice that we're highlighting the first two years of 26 and 27.

Both scenarios are very similar from a proposed rate action for these for these options at 3.25% around the historical levels of inflation.

Again, because our pressure is coming short term from increases from bond of power administration as well as our capital needs, which we we were anticipating for quite some time.

The short term is not changing because the new large loads are not really anticipated to connect and ramp up until the middle of the forecast.

Once the new large loads connect, there is a deviation from the scenarios.

If they do connect at the pace that we're anticipating, we're not forecasting a need for for any adjustments in the next in the last three years.

If the new large loads uh don't materialize, we would need to continue with inflationary level adjustments.

Some positive news is that the updated scenario is below our prior forecast.

The prior study did anticipate a 5% rate increase in 26.

We are showing that we're able to bring that down to about 3.

With that, that concludes the first step of the study, and now let's quickly go through the second step, the rate design.

Again, the the main purpose of rate design is to develop rates that collect the appropriate dollar targets identified in that first step driven requirement.

Once we can do that, we can also focus on goals and policy objectives of the city and the community and the utility.

That could be conservation, that could be support for low-income customers or various other uh type of uh revenue sufficiency measures.

The key item to remember when discussing and considering rate design is that there's not a one-size-fits-all solution that will achieve all your goals.

Really, we need to focus on the goals we're trying to achieve and then select an alternative that can help us do so at best.

Because of this time around, we're not anticipating or proposing any structural changes.

We're recommending just to continue to apply the increases on the cross-the-board basis where we would apply the fixed the increases to both fixed and variable charges.

So the three and a quarter percent we showed in the first two years for both scenarios, uh, they would just simply be applied equally to all classes to all components of the charges.

Here we just wanted to simply show you what that would mean for your rates.

Again, it's just three and a quarter percent for both years for all fixed charges on the monthly basis.

Similarly, three and a quarter percent for all energy charges for the current rate schedules, and then for those classes that do have a demand charge, the larger classes of service, they would have a three and a quarter percent adjustment to the demand charges.

Now, the last slide before we wrap things up is a survey, and I always cautioned when we're looking at these comparisons to treat them a little bit more of an apples and oranges comparison because uh every utility is different, every power mix is different, every topography and and the power uh and service is different.

But folks do like to see how they compare with their neighbors.

In general, one item to note is that we are proposing uh comparison of our rates uh with an increase with everybody else's rate today.

We know that a lot of these utilities are going through similar studies, and they have adjustments coming up as well.

So it's a little bit of apples and orders.

In general, you're in the lower end of the comparison right now, and with a proposal, you would slightly move above Columbia River, but again, we don't really know what they're gonna be doing with the rate action.

And with that, that brings us to the end of the discussion.

Really, we're looking for feedback from you, the council regarding the scenarios.

Again, they're very similar in the short term, uh, because of the pressures we're seeing from Bonneville, uh, inflationary costs and capital costs in the back end.

That's why we're only focusing on the next two years, because we don't want to commit ourselves to a strategy because we know there's a lot of uncertainty coming on from the new large lows.

So we definitely recommend revisiting any strategy before any additional increases are done after the first two years, and we have a little bit more uh clarity regarding the new large loads.

Now, the effective date for these increases is currently anticipated for October and would continue on that October cycle, usually for electric systems.

That's a good time to adjust uh rates because there's no peak usage from either uh heat uh cooling or heating months that occur in the winter time and and peak uh cooling summer months.

On the rate design front, we're not proposing any structural changes, just simply applying rates across the board.

So with that, uh we'll uh hand it off to any questions.

Great, thank you, Sergey.

Questions from council?

Councilor, council president Valenzuela.

Hello, hey, okay.

Thank you so much uh for the presentation.

And uh I am happy to see that you know it's be 0.25 given the circumstances that we have right now.

Um it always hurts when you have an increase in rates, but as you said, you know it's lower, you know, that than other in other places.

But my question is um I think I understood, I just want to be clear for the years 28, 29, and 30 uh for S2.

Um there's not a number.

Is it because there's a possibility that it will continue 3.25 or no increase?

I believe it's no increase.

It'd be zero percent.

It'll be zero, no increase.

Oh, okay.

I okay, I understand.

That was my question.

Thank you.

Yeah, Keith, do you want to just restate that for the whole council?

Like just summarize that point.

Yeah, well, with the uh the new large loads, uh, there's two two new large loads that are uh projected to come online in the next couple years.

Um the revenue that is generated by those should uh help us absorb any future rating increases past uh 2027, you know, 2028.

We don't know exactly what's going to happen with the new BPA contract in 2029.

So that's still uh it's still out there, but yeah, that's the expectation if if everything comes online as expected.

Thank you.

Any further questions from council?

Councillor Schemmel.

I'm gonna have to mention the two bloody words that the community wants to understand is the data center and the this information or the increases relative to that specific project.

Um these these increases are um based on the rate increase from BPA that we're currently receiving and uh the capital projects of the substations and such.

Um, those loads have not even started to come online yet.

These were already projected for the last nine months.

These have been in the queue, these rate increases from BPA.

Is that what you mean?

Yeah, just in terms of the uh public communication on the on the increases and and what they're attributed and not attributed to, I think is is important.

Yeah, so the projection is is they will pay their full cost for all the power that the data centers use at the inflated rate, basically the tier two rate, the higher rate, and uh the gener the revenue that is generated uh should actually um help absorb uh future increases um is the uh the likelihood projection projected.

Help the residential help everybody.

That's right.

To paraphrase, then correct me if I'm wrong.

But the reason that S2 would not have an increase in 28, 29, and 30 would be because of those large loads coming on.

That's correct.

If they don't come on, so it actually decreases the perspective increase in residential rates.

If if they do not come on, the projection is we will need to re-it raise rates in 28, 29, and 30.

Yes.

With with them on the projection is we will not need to.

And do and my my question where I thought maybe uh council president was going.

The dashes for the no increase for for residential rates on those three years.

Is it also possible that the that our projections could be wrong and that we might even be able to that there would be an even better greater benefit uh of revenue that the new loads, the new large loads would bring on.

I'm wondering if we might study this again.

I think the recommendation is to look at this again next year.

Um and there we might even be able to realize further savings to residential customers um sooner rather than later.

Yeah, yeah, you nailed exactly what we were thinking.

We do want to go back to the well in about a year and look at it because it's everything is so active right now that we we will be able to look and uh and and see we'll also know what we're going to be seeing from BPA at that point too.

So yeah, I I we we definitely want to go back and start over again.

Okay.

Any further questions?

Keith, do you have anything that you need from us?

Uh I think we will plan on uh returning um with this recommendation to council um in the September 8th meeting, I believe.

Is that correct, Jesse?

Okay.

Yeah, I think Mayor, we were looking for a consensus from the council about what you would like to do with light and power rates.

So um BPA rates becoming effective to us.

We'll be paying those increased expenses uh effective October 1st.

And so we normally go through this process in the fall.

Um, and so we'd like to see if there is a consensus to do a one-year increase, a two-year increase, how you want to proceed forward.

Uh, but we are recommending 3.25%.

Traditionally, do we do we pass something each year for a rate increase, or do we we've done it both ways.

We've done a rate increase for a one-year period and then come back.

Um we've done a two-year rate period before.

It kind of just depends on the stability of the numbers, the rate projections, et cetera.

In this particular case, we know some of the information, which is that BPA is raising rates for every customer, regardless of what type of power um return regardless of what type of customer by 9.1% effective October 1st in the first year.

So that's the one thing we know.

The part that we don't know is the amount of power that that we may uh be asked to provide in the second year.

We do know in the first year we know that the new large loads will not come online in 2026.

Uh I think 2027, correct me if I'm wrong, Keith.

We don't know if they may come on in 2027, and if so, what time in 2027?

Yeah, we we have a fairly good idea.

Uh the one uh the data center load is projected to come on around June of 2026.

They'll start ramping up over a period of time, and then the the second large load um is projected for first quarter of 2027.

So that's why there's we're not counting those large loads at all into this forecast and why we're recommending the 3.25 and 3.25.

Okay.

Otherwise, our cash reserves will will start dipping.

Yeah, so um is there consensus to do the 3.25 for both years?

I'm seeing I'd say one.

I'm saying two for one year, two for two years, one year.

Okay.

We'll do it one year.

I think there's consensus for that.

Okay.

Just for further clarification, was there a consensus also to ask Surrogate to do another rate study after the 3.25 implementation for the following year at 3.2, or excuse me, for the following year of fiscal year 2027.

Yes.

Okay.

I'm seeing heads not.

Maybe not.

Uh another rate study.

Okay.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Sergey.

Thank you very much.

Okay, I'm gonna adjourn this work session.

I'm gonna give it just a minute before we start.

602 or 601.

That's the topic is Main Street program.

In attendance is our city council members, uh, city staff Brian Poole, Miles Glowackey, City Manager Jesse Vandersanden, and there are members in the audience watching.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our city manager Jesse Vandersanen.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Tonight's work session is scheduled for one hour.

And we know that there's going to be discussion about this.

So staff will endeavor to keep the presentation at 20 minutes or less, I promise.

And so with that, if we could, and there's going to be all three of us are going to be presenting.

I'm going to cover the first portion through some background.

I think Miles is going to cover some best practices, and then Brian is going to go into the OMS assessment and what some of the findings were.

And when I use the term OMS, that's for Oregon Main Street.

So next slide, please.

Next slide.

So really the purpose of tonight's work session is to address some objectives and actions that are in the uh 2040 vision statement, the most principal one, 1.8, develop a long-term vision for the Main Street program.

We've listed several other ones that are somewhat in alignment with this or at least tangential to the Main Street program.

But really tonight's purpose is to look at a long-term vision for the Main Street program.

Next slide.

So you can read what's up there.

I'm not going to repeat it, but generally speaking, if you were to paraphrase what Main Street is, Main Street is a framework to try and do things in a certain area in downtown with partners and to implement programs and to implement infrastructure and to try and bring together some type of kind of collaborative and cohesive environment in which you can make improvements to your downtown.

And it's a nationwide program.

It's implemented here at the state by the Oregon State Parks.

And there's a really kind of long standing and kind of well-defined program of how to do the Main Street program.

And so we're going to go through some of that tonight just to give you an idea of what the Main Street program looks like.

But really, it's a framework.

It's a framework for collaboration.

Next slide.

So as I mentioned, it operates under the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

It there are some tiers.

I'll go over that just briefly in a moment.

And if you'll go to the next slide, please.

So these are the four tiers, and you'll see some of this history in a little bit later.

But the connected community was actually that's that's it starts with the local government, if you will, and once the local government gets kind of into the program into the connected community, it passes off to a nonprofit.

And in fact, it has to pass off to a nonprofit as you kind of mature through these various levels.

In this particular case, um the affiliated Main Street program is where we're at now.

Uh City Club is a sponsoring entity for that program.

Um and if you go to the next slide, these are some of the support and requirements that are part of the Main Street program that are correlated to those tiers.

So if you look at the affiliated Main Street program, it's really kind of a focus on partnerships, developing those partnerships to make your program successful.

It has the OMS site visit and recommendations.

We're going to go over that tonight.

And then you also have to have a budget and staff and plan within within three years in place as well.

The other ones are kind of different.

If you go back to the other ones, you can see kind of as you mature.

There's additional training opportunities, there's some additional grant opportunities, or some additional staff time from the state.

So it just again, it kind of matures as the program begins to grow and begins to come solidified.

Next slide.

Um depending on where you're at in that program that we just saw.

So I don't need to go over those, but it everywhere from strategic planning to staff time to visioning, etc.

Next slide.

So right now, one of the big kind of carrots, if you will, as part of the Main Street program, is the state offers what's called a revitalization grant.

And that revitalization grant is every year, it's a 400,000 dollar grant that a community can receive for essentially downtown improvements.

Um, and it's very similar to the city's already existing URA building grant.

There's a couple of programmatic terms that are a little bit different.

Matching requirement, for example, is different.

The total funding amount is a little bit different, but fundamentally it's for the same type of program, which is to improve downtown buildings, whether it's facades, whether it's historic buildings, etc.

Um, this was recently used in Cornelius.

Um, and uh um and it's regardless of tier.

So you can do it all the way from when you first get in as a community all the way to the uh to the fourth tier.

Next slide, please.

So a couple background slides, and I'm gonna pass it to Miles.

Um this this has been going on at the city for quite some time.

I also want to add that this is Main Street, it is a pretty popular program in a lot of Oregon cities.

Um so it's not like it's a unique program that that we um you know just kind of looked at.

It's it's a very popular program that's been in existence for a long time.

Uh but we presented to the council in 2019.

The city actually applied in 2020.

If you remember there was a thing called COVID back then, and so it kind of didn't go very far very far during that time that there were virtual meetings and and um and and COVID was there.

And then in 2022, uh the downtown task force, it had a wide range of interests.

Um, it was a very collaborative process.

Uh, they went through kind of what do we want to do with regard to the next step uh in in the main street program, and they recommended to the economic development commission uh to pursue the program.

Number one, so yes, we want to do a main street program, it's worth it, and then two, uh, we do want to have a nonprofit uh be the entity that that moves this program forward.

In other words, we're kind of we're we're we're through the kind of community level and we're now on to the affiliated level, and and we want to move this program forward.

So, next slide.

In 2023, uh the chamber requested the city support their application to become an affiliated main street member.

They had actually kind of gone through the process, they had put together a preliminary application.

This led to some discussions between the city club and the chamber on an MOU outlining how Oregon Main Street would be governed.

Uh the chamber agreed to not to apply.

Um, and the city club did apply as an affiliated main street member.

Um, the city council provided a letter of support for the city club's application.

You'll notice in that letter it provided the city club, collaborate with the chamber on implementing the Oregon Main Street program.

So it kind of envisioned an initial framework of the city and the chamber uh and the city club really working together toward the governance of the Main Street program.

In 2024, the city club was accepted as an affiliated main street member by the Oregon Main Street program.

And when I say accepted, that means they were accepted by essentially Oregon State Parks, the administrative uh arm of the Oregon Main Street program.

And then in 2025, uh the OMS office uh completed the Main Street assessment, um, and that's uh that comes with the program.

So when you're an affiliated member, after you've been an affiliated member for a year, the state comes up and they do an assessment.

Next slide.

Uh briefly, these are programs that the city already offers.

Some of these are very similar to a main street program.

Um, some of these have a kind of a focus on the same goals and objectives of a main street program.

I don't need to go through all of those, but uh really those are all programs that are centered on trying to improve either programs, infrastructure, uh, etc.

in that in that downtown area.

Next slide.

So with that, if there's any questions about the background or any questions about Main Street so far, I'd be happy to ask answer them.

Otherwise, I would have Miles start talking about best practices.

So any questions?

Okay.

Seeing none, go ahead, Miles.

Um, so this is the best practices for both uh city partner and for the nonprofit organization.

Um start with the city.

So financial support can look like direct funding to the main street program for their budget, it can look like matching grants for financial assistance, um building improvement programs, facades or business development, and it can also look like in-kind support, staff time, use of city owned equipment.

Next slide, please.

Administrative and logistical support, um, assigning staff liaison to work with the main street program and hours to go with that, permitting assistance, streamlining the process for events, and ensuring what data the city does possess with the entity.

Next slide, please.

Infrastructure and public space improvements, so streetscape improvements, um, lighting sidewalks, benches, that type of thing, public safety measures, if called for, increased police presence, um, improved lighting and maintenance, and then parking solutions, investing inadequate parking facilities or shared use agreements.

Next slide, please.

Under planning and policy support, um, really working at the city code level to implement policies that support mixed use in the area, incentive programs, things like tax abatements, low interest loans for improvements to the to the area, and then master planning.

So thinking about the main street initiatives and the broader city plans.

Next slide, please.

Promotion community engagement, partnering on events, um, offering marketing support with the city's marketing arm for events and promotions, and then community engagement, getting out there encouraging residents to participate on the downtown initiatives, and then advocacy and leaders leadership, um political support both at the local level and at the state level, and then public private partnerships.

So building those relationships between the government, the private entities, and developers to bring about projects and programs.

So these are the best practices for the main street organization, and just like the city, a lot of these best practices are already underway or in process.

So establish a dedicated organization, um, form a nonprofit entity solely focused on downtown.

Board development, it's recruit and develop and train a diverse board of directors that represents the community stakeholders, so business owners, property owners, residents, and visitors.

And it should be representative of the kind of broader community.

And then staffing, higher point of main street manager or coordinator.

These are this is under the four-point approach.

So under organization promotion design, economic vitality.

It correlates to the main street approach and next slide, please.

And then there's community engagement and volunteer management.

Volunteer recruitment looks like engaging volunteers, training them, recognizing them, and retaining them to really implement a successful program.

And then under public relations, maintaining open communication, not with just the community members, but also with stakeholders and partners.

So that's transparent and everybody knows what's going on and can work together for the collective good.

Next slide.

And then financial oversight is maintaining all the budgets and books, not just up to nonprofit standards, but this there's also reporting back to the state.

Next slide, please.

And here's the reporting to the state, and then comply with all state laws and training requirements, workshops.

Another big um part of the job is advocating for the interest of downtown for policies both at the local level and at the state level.

Building those partnerships and those relationships so that you can further your goals at those levels.

So this is a funding model that Medford utilizes, their downtown district, and there's all kinds of different models from across the country.

I just wanted to show you one that I could find that offered a glimpse to how they're funded in the area.

What it shows is a mix.

There's a mix of funding.

And I'll pass it over to Brian and talk about the assessment.

I had a quick question.

On the last Medford's budget, do you know the total budget?

Those are like that's a percentage, right?

But to me, it doesn't.

I need a anchor.

Okay.

Thank you.

Let's turn our attention to the main street assessment.

Um purpose of the assessment is to educate, identify opportunities for barriers, strengthen local partnerships, and enhance community passion for programs.

Um, but really, I mean, it's to give a framework for success for Main Street.

Next slide, please.

So, as alluded to before, uh, on March 3rd and 4th of 2025, OMS staff and a consultant conducted a site visit uh of the city club's main street program.

OMS held a series of work sessions and a large community workshop with over 80 attendees.

Uh OMS also met with city club leadership and reviewed city club survey of residents and business owners.

In that process, there were over 300 respondents.

Next slide, please.

The recommendations kind of centered on uh both or the uh the board makeup as well as the four pillars of main street, the board, uh I'm sorry, the design, economic vitality, promotions, and outreach organization.

Uh staff did obtain a report from the state, and it has been attached to the packet tonight for your uh reading pleasure.

Next slide, please.

With respect to the board, the following were the recommendations from the Oregon Main Street program.

Uh, consider changing City Club's name to reflect its pivot from its traditional programming to the main street model.

Structure the committees around the four points or the four pillars.

Leadership should be represented local community, eliminate actual and perceived conflicts of interest so that the program can focus solely on downtown services, and do not require anyone to sire not to anyone to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Next slide, please.

As far as design, uh the the ideas were to reduce reduce barriers for local and building improvement projects, maintain historic building integrity, build relationships with property owners, placemaking, and cleanup days and public art installation.

Next slide, please.

Economic vitality.

Uh the ideas were to promote vacant store fronts, activate vacant buildings through temporary installations and pop-up stores, offer business support, and perform a market analysis to identify service gaps in the downtown core.

Next slide, please.

Promotions.

It was noted that the city club already has a great calendar of events, robust number of events happening.

That those events should be a win-win for local businesses.

They should benefit local businesses as well as the event themselves.

Develop event themes and programs that are authentic to the culture and history of Forest Grove.

Create programs that encourage exploring downtown.

And create a downtown identity.

Next slide, please.

Clarify roles and responsibilities, communicate with partners, develop partner agreements, uh, develop a community calendar, fully participate in the main street network, be the boots on the ground doing the sort of downtown outreach, volunteer management, and to improve the diversity out, which reach more diversity.

So that's a big busy slide.

Uh basically what it says uh is the conclusion is that there's a great deal of momentum behind a downtown revitalization effort.

Uh the partnerships need to be identified, solidified, and nourished.

And internally, the city club has work to do in terms of organizational management.

Next slide, please.

So as far as discussion, uh Mayor, I don't know how you wanted to take this, but we came to less the questions and discussion points for the council to have.

Um I will yield there.

Allow the mayor to take a look at the Miles.

Uh the answer to your question, 2023, it was 96,000.

So 96,000 for Medford.

So about 100,000, so 37,000.

So about 37 from the city.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Quick, quick work there.

Um, I think what so these points are discussion like starters.

Um I think we could leave this discussion slide up, and then we should go around and each counselor should address the things that they would like to address relevant to these questions or to the assessment or to downtown.

Does that work for you all?

Okay.

Would would someone like to go first?

Cricket.

I just okay.

Do you have a question?

I'll questions first.

Yeah, I have a question.

Um, Miles, I think there was a really good sort of rundown of of what a lot of the city is already doing and had a whole lot of numbers.

I added it up to it was almost half a million dollars a year plus some one time.

And the one thing that I didn't see was um I don't know if we're tracking, I know you're the city liaison, is that correct for the Oregon Main Street for for the city club for our main street program?

I am.

And do you track your time?

I didn't see that.

I have not.

Okay.

Um and then I also saw waivers of um fees related to permits, and and I wondered if we also had tracked that information.

So Brian, you can correct me if I'm wrong, there hasn't been a main street project yet.

And so some of those things just haven't been activated.

I think that's really kind of a programmatic approach that once the main street program gets going, one of the benefits the city could do is look at expedited processes, maybe different fees associated with a 400,000 dollar grant, those types of things.

So we just we just haven't got to that point, Councilor Falconer.

I guess I'm a little confused then because I thought that I saw in some of the public comments from the city club was sort of it it suggested that there were a number of events that were that were being done by um by the city club for the main street program.

It referred to several of them, and I think your slide referred to waiv permit fees for events, and so I guess I'm I thought maybe there had already been some events, like I mean it it mentioned you know several events that the community is very familiar with and that are popular, and I wasn't you know, Oktoberfest being one of them.

Was there a permit fee wave for that?

For not to my knowledge.

Okay, no, okay, okay, thank you.

So then I think the only thing that I'm not sure then maybe is tracking Miles time for for city club activities related to main street program.

Yeah, and okay, yeah, and just to kind of clarify a lot of those things that were listed were best practices of a city, not necessarily the things that the city of Forest Grove was doing.

We were doing some of those, um, and we could go into um much more detail on that if you would like, but those were just best practices that the Oregon Main Street program was recommending cities do.

So any additional questions for staff, we want are you ready for go ahead, Counselor Schimmel.

Okay, go ahead, Council.

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh so those best practices, as you say, they were just a list of of things.

Um, do we know which ones are we going to be adopting?

Uh good question, Counselor Valence.

Valence Wila, I think there are some that we are already doing.

A lot of what the city does or doesn't do is really kind of based on the status of the Main Street program itself and how far it's matured and what programs are in place, and um if there's been applications, if there hasn't, if there's been events, um, those types of things.

And so I I think it's pretty safe to say part of the intent of this work session is to kind of you know kind of figure out um you know, potentially some of those things, but I think the city is open to any and all of those things.

It just really depends on kind of where the program is at, how far it is in its maturation process, what activities it's doing, what the board wants to do, those types of things.

So um because Miles is the liaison, he's working.

Uh but they're one of the best practices, I believe, was to hire someone uh to do a specifically that kind of work.

Uh to hire somebody for the nonprofit.

Oh, the no okay, link to the nonprofit.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, and I I guess just oh, sorry, you were next.

Go ahead, Counselor Schimal.

Yeah, I'll just really piggyback on the previous question about the the best practices and guess for the for the city, are there are these practices consistent with what you would do with the 2040 plan?

That's part A.

Yeah, the best practices in your presentation regarding the city are those practices you would employ with regard to the 2040 plan.

I want to turn that well, I think that so often the 2040 process, you know, because I guess I would say I was involved from the very beginning of the 2040 process.

Um there was so much overlap coming out of those things.

And so it wasn't, you know, in the 2040 process, it wasn't, you know, Main Street should be doing this, this, or this.

It was sort of maybe a little more general, sort of downtown revitalization, things like that.

And then and so many of these things kind of overlap one another.

So the answer to your question, I think is obviously yes, there's a lot of things in 2040 that kind of touched on some of these things, and a lot of things in 2040 we were already doing.

Um, as well as you can see on the list up here, a lot of these things in the main street we're already doing, building improvement grants, things like that part of sort of quiver.

So then part B to that question is regarding best practices for the main street organization, is it's been 18 months, I believe.

Uh what is I don't know if Miles, what your participation or staff in general, what what's your assessment of their activation or execution of those best practices?

Um yeah, I think the state assessment really speaks to areas that need uh attention and areas for improvement and growth.

Um this is my first experience with the main street programs.

I can't really judge them against what I don't know other main street programs doing.

Um I think the assessment's a good starting point yeah, I would echo what Miles was saying.

I think part of the reason for the OMS assessment is under the affiliated membership.

Once the once the main street program transfers kind of from the city to a nonprofit, and again, that's that's required as part of that program, but once that happens, there is this kind of one-year assessment, and the state does that assessment and they interview all kinds of um you know collaborators and partners, etc.

that are involved in that process.

And so um, I I would echo I I think kind of the focus there is part of the reason why we put the findings and the actual assessment in the packet itself for me to take a look at.

Those are really where the state said that you know, kind of this is a framework program, these are areas that we believe need improvement and that we want addressed, and but again, it's just a it's an assessment, right?

So I hope that answers your question, Council.

Okay, so I think I'm gonna move on to like maybe the assessment or the vision.

So my understanding, and kind of in reflection to some of the other comments or questions is that oftentimes in city government, there is like Brian was saying, overlapping, right?

Like we have our URA building improvement grants, that's the help our downtown economy.

That's also a thread in the design approach for Oregon Main Street.

So the Oregon Main Street is my understanding is like to facilitate collaboration, cooperation, to bring partners together.

Um, when I read the assessment, there was some I think some best practices and recommendations that I personally agree with that I've had some trouble with.

Um mainly, you know, the organizational structure, the representation of the board, the conflict of interest, whether it's perceived or actual, you know, the recommendation I think states.

I think I'm just gonna read it.

It says, well, not prohibited, it is discouraged for a variety of reasons.

It can create confusion when the main street board member is talking with city staff as a partner because it's much more difficult for city staff to determine if they're talking with the main street board member or the city council member.

It is also more challenging when Main Street program is pursuing city funding, and even though no actual personal financial gain exists, there still is a perceived conflict of interest.

So that to me is like I agree with that's been kind of difficult to navigate as the mayor.

Um I also have concerns, you know.

So I'm gonna bring the perspective that the budget meeting in May, I was asked that the city fund the main street program, and currently there's a non-disclosure agreement from my understanding of this assessment, and I don't feel comfortable giving public dollars to an organization that's not transparent.

Um, and then I guess you know, also the representation of the board and the name could be changed, but I guess what I want to go with is that then I think attached to this presentation was my understanding, the board, the city club board responded to these recommendations, and it was my perception from reading the document that they were not willing to do anything about those recommendations.

So I can't support funding the nonprofit main street or city club without those things being addressed.

Um, however, I still believe in our 2040 plan.

I still believe in supporting downtown.

Uh, you know, the city has given money.

There's also many different opportunities for us to continue figuring out how to help, whether in kind or financially.

But where I personally am right now is based on the assessment, and then the response to the assessment.

I in good faith as a public elected cannot use public dollars to support an organization that's not gonna do those things.

Anyone else I'm saying two hands and the other comments?

I have four.

Can I just get a con I have some people nodding their head with what I my comments, but I want to make sure there's a hand?

There's a hand raised.

Councillor Govs is in.

Everybody, I just wanted to comment um based on the the Main Street program.

The uh assessment, uh, which is done for all Main Street programs that are coming in about the the one-year time, it's meant to be uh done after whoever's, you know, whatever group is coming together, whether it's a new nonprofit or a current nonprofit, once they they've had some time to research and learn about the program.

And it's really meant to be a snapshot in time to get um gotta lower my hand before I forget, to get that baseline of where that organization is, um, so that they know how to get to where they're going.

So a lot of those things are just discoveries that organizations have when they do speak to their main street coordinators at their state level.

Um the assessment was obviously very well received.

Uh Sherry and her team did a great job.

Uh, there was a response uh from the city club board of which, yes, I am the president, so that's just um making that transparent.

But as a counselor, I also have that knowledge uh that all of us use that knowledge of where whatever things that we're involved in, but the response of that assessment.

Um I guess I guess I'm a little bit confused, um, mayor, on on your comments, only because this is a work in progress, right?

Those partners, all of partners have inclusion in those decisions.

The partners are what make up a board, right?

And that's the team that makes those decisions.

So the city being one of those team members, you know, we've got we started a partnership they have with Adelante Mujeres, Pacific University.

Um, there's a variety of board members who are participating.

And so when you're saying that there's not broad um diversity in that, um we've we've got the three organizations, business and business owners uh involved uh in making those decisions.

So I I'm not really sure about that.

And as far as transparency, um the I do know that the um the organization is looking into um the conflict of interest form, um, which designates kind of what to do when there's a conflict of interest, how to handle that within the system, um, and also baking into that something that explains that when these partners are together, there is sensitive information there, and there is information that we're all building together as partners for the betterment of the main street program, and therefore the city of Force Grove.

If one of those partners goes off on their own and takes that information and injects it before the partnership hub has a chance to do that, uh that can really uh disable the benefit of a main street program.

So that is why that NDA was put into place to begin with.

Um everybody signed it.

Uh in fact, I believe the city also signed it.

Um, but that is up for discussion because of the assessment.

So when we're talking about as a council investing in the main street program, I don't think that the purpose of that assessment was to take that snapshot of where they are now and decide whether you're going to support that or not.

Being the city of Force Grove, it is our responsibility to support the Main Street program in whatever way that we determine is going to be the best benefit for the downtown and the city of Forest Grove, which you've seen the um the uh kind of what Medford does.

And there's information out there regarding that with other cities as well.

So I I guess um I would look a little deeper into the responses just because there's a lot of information in there that says what this what the program is going to look into to add to the strategic plan, uh, what areas they're gonna think, you know, how to how do we navigate this?

Things that were already in progress of changes and changes that had been made before this assessment came out.

So it's I guess it's disheartening to see that the city is the city council is basing uh their support of an organization of which they are the partner, and so therefore, if we don't support that, we are saying that we're not supporting ourselves as a council because we are already a partner in that organization.

Thank you, Councilor Gossin.

I'm gonna allow city staff to respond about the signing of a non-disclosure and then counselor Falconer.

I haven't signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Um, and the Chamber of Commerce also wouldn't sign one either.

Okay, then that's my mistake.

Miles, I thought you had signed one.

Whoops, I kept pressing the silent button, sorry.

Uh just to clarify, it's my understanding that no one from the city, in addition to Miles has signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Counselor Guslipson, can I ask you a question?

Um I I'm not sure I know who I think part of the confusion that I was reading, you know, in the in the assessment, and my ongoing confusion is I don't know who the board is.

And you've referred to a partnership, a partner hub and partners, and you've refer referred to organizations as partners, but then you've sort of interchangeably referred to them as the board.

And I think it's really important to have that clarity about you know there's supposed to be a board for the organization, the sponsor, you know, the organ, the nonprofit that is the main street program, and I don't know who that board is.

And it doesn't sound like to me like Miles is a member of the board, and I don't know who, but that's the only person that I know of who's who's who's communicated who's participated in this hub.

And so I I think that that would be helpful for me to understand.

I'd say on the Main Street committee.

And I that is not my understanding, that is not the same as the city club board.

And I don't vote on that committee, I'm just a partner on that committee.

Okay.

Counselor, are you able to tell us who the who the main street program board, who the board members are.

Sure.

Sure, and just a little bit of quick history.

Initially, when it um when the program started, it was the current board's um decision, and they made a resolution to start a committee just so we could jump start it and get it going without all the the ins and outs of creating a new board and trying to figure that out.

And so that committee did um did include uh our partners, so Adelantes and Pacific in the city, as well as business owners and building owners.

But when the term partner is used, that is used in a way to ensure people understand that that is who they are.

We are all partners.

Um, as far as who the board is, uh the board is um Jody and Adelante Muthedis, Sarah at Pacific University, um, Miles is a part of that.

Um, these were all decisions that were made, Miles, I think, possibly at a meeting that you weren't able to attend.

But the board was all voted in, and the main street committee is now um not a committee anymore, right?

Everybody is in the same board of directors.

So those partners, that is the board of directors.

That is the only board of directors in the city club.

So to clarify, there's a board member from Adelante, a board member from Pacific, and then Miles from the City, and that makes up the board.

Uh no, there's also building owners and business owners.

Okay, who?

Who?

Oh, sure.

Um, Nicole Ellis, uh, Jordan Miller, um, Kelly Daly, Heather Rhodes, and Lisa Um.

Oh my gosh, her name is just escaping me.

Um, who's a resident, so we also have two residents.

Um, one particularly lives in the area.

And we don't have a building owner at this time, but um there's a position there if we can identify one.

And I think, you know, that's what, and I don't think that Miles can be on the board.

He can be a liaison for communication, but I think that that's another part of the assessment was the organizational structure.

And kind of going back to some of the why my the basis for my comments, the assessment said since being accepted as an affiliated member, there's been some confusion both internally and externally about who the main street organization in Force Grove is.

Um several community stakeholders and city club leadership to spell the confusion.

However, the confusion stems from having a main street subcommittee working on integrating the main street structure into the city club function.

Anyway, so I think that that also is part of the the recommendation is to really like have a representative board.

Um I think and then it the recommendations actually says, sorry, I highlighted a lot of stuff and underlying it, is uncommon and not oops, that's a different one.

I think that's anyways.

I lost that highlighted page, but yeah, go ahead.

Go ahead, Counselor Gustain.

So again, that assessment is not meant to be uh a grade to determine if we as a city want to support the main street program.

It is a baseline, it's to bring to light uh what the assessment is as far as what the Oregon Main Street program sees, and based on feedback uh from different people in the community, and keeping in mind that those different people in the community may not know that some of that stuff is already in the works.

So as a main street program, they're not expected to start and be all ready and prepared in the first year, year and a half or three years.

This is not a sprint, it's a marathon, which is something that Sherry baked right into her report.

And there can't be proper progression in any organization like this without proper support.

And right now, the city is a very inactive partner.

And that's kind of what this assessment was supposed to help with is get that baseline.

And then the city, us as a city can decide, okay, how are we going to support this?

Where does everything fit in together?

Um and start that conversation, which has been started because the city club did give Miles and Brian just a first draft of what that master operating agreement could look like for them to start writing through, say, nope, we can't do this, don't even bother, or yeah, we like this.

How about this also?

Um that conversation has started.

So it's it is concerning to me that that after supporting um moving forward to the main street program, that what's being in question is how good the organization already is, right?

They've just started the program, and it sounds like the expectation is they have everything in line.

This report was to demonstrate where recommendations and where opportunities are, not to decide not to support them.

I don't I don't accept that.

Thank you, counselor.

Um, first of all, I really appreciate the effort of City Club for wanting to take on and add to downtown and explore Main Street program.

Um and I I just want to push back a little bit that you know, where the direction I thought the Main Street program slash city club wanted the council to go is to determine funding, right?

Like you came to the budget committee in May, asked for some funding.

Um we had this assessment, the assessment gave some recommendations.

My concern is if you think if or if Main Street program thinks the next step for the city supporting just the Main Street program, and I want to kind of do a little sideline tangent.

The city supports downtown.

The city supports downtown businesses.

We have grants, we have building improvement grants, we have event grants, we have sponsorship grants, we are doing a over 400,000 glow-up installing lighting and electricity.

I mean, we are doing things which are all key components of the Main Street program.

Two years ago, we said, hey, another layer that has been affected for some cities is to add a nonprofit main street affiliate to help kind of bring the secret sauce of the chamber, the city, the business owners, and elevate the downtown.

My concerns with moving forward in a financial avenue with Main Street slash city club is that there were recommendations to help be transparent, to help collaboration, cooperation, representation.

And what I read in blue was that City Club was not willing to do those things.

And I mean, I'm not saying I'm done with City Club, I'm saying it work out the kinks, figure out the conflict of interest, build a board, maybe change the name, get your game plan for the four pillars, and then come back.

But where it is right now, I can't.

There's other ways we can help.

I mean, maybe there's in kind, we'll still probably give some grant sponsorships for events, but in terms of saying, hey, we're gonna give City Club this much money for rent or executive director of salary or whatever.

I'm not there.

Counselor Schimmel.

Yeah, I'll I'll concur with the mayor and and nothing that uh counselor Augustus and has said has changed my mind about it.

Um in fact, at this point I can't delineate between counselor and president of the city club, which explains the the conflict of interest, and that seems like city clubs have been given a discrete position in this work session that doesn't typically allow that to happen without consensus.

So we're we're basically getting public comment from an independent institution.

That's to me that's out of order, and I will just say that publicly.

Um Jesse mentioned in the presentation about you know Cornelius as an example, they're they're at a connected community level, they've had two consecutive state grants uh accumulated to about a half a million dollars.

That's without any money from the city to any nonprofit for those um they've in the last one they've contributed URA money to a project for a match.

So to me Cornelius is is a great example of of nonprofit and city collaborating that doesn't require the city to fund nonprofits budget.

So I found it unfortunate that there wasn't an application this past cycle which could have amounted to about a half million dollar project.

That's that demonstrates the lack of capacity for the local institution to raise it other money um for its for its cause and there's still a great amount of communion between city club and Main Street and and I see city club going after other extended projects like uh fireworks.

So I I don't know that even with limited capacity and going after other things that that we can count on this happening um so that's that's where I am currently yeah and I just want to address that I really struggled with there's no public comment to be taken during a work session and it was really challenging for me to understand what to really do if I think I mean basically I have to like make a decision if I should ask a counselor not to speak because I think it's public comment when really I think the ethics asked the counselor to recuse themselves if there is a conflict.

So I did struggle with that um in the days prior to this work session not really knowing how to address that counselor guffeson just a few things.

So the city club did apply by the way so just so you have that knowledge the name change is in progress um the 5013 development is in progress and has been for quite some time those things take time but as far as ethics it has been determined over and over and I feel like I should just record this that it is no breach of ethics.

So if I'm going to be held to a different standard um then anyone that's on council speaking to anything where they uh are employed where they volunteer where they're on the board where they have any sort of influence whether it's the chamber the rotary it doesn't matter all of you use that information that you have because of your life experiences to move forward.

And I'd like to remind council that in the past we have had counselors actually voting on finances for organizations to which they have a familial connection to as well as a previous mayor voting for funds to go to an organization of which they were on the board.

This is a new problem so if I'm going to be held to a higher standard than the rest and past that is a problem of the council and as far as the support of the city club the city club is the main street program we've also said that several times and Sherry has also explained that if we want the main street program within the city club to be successful we contribute and in all cities all around and you will hear this the more support the the program has from the city the more successful it is and the more the downtown flourishes that is a direct correlation so it it sounds like that there's a lot of confusion um based on what you read I I think that there's a way to to clear all that up in the future but again we are at the beginnings and the city being an active partner is paramount to a successful Main Street program no matter how who runs it okay I think for sake of time we have about eight minutes left we should move on to the third bullet.

I've kind of said my piece though.

Go ahead.

So I I would really be really disappointed not to hear from every counselor on this subject.

Um my estimation, we've adopted a 2040 plan.

And as in my study of the Main Street program, it's effectively one and the same.

Uh and then some.

And the city has already been doing a considerable amount of effort.

We're we're funding a considerable amount of money.

And the obstacle that I've witnessed for the past six months as I've interfaced with business and property owners with organizations, is the polarization among agencies and the experience, the poor experience that people have interfacing with the Main Street program as it is today.

People are people have left that board because of actions taken unilaterally.

I've heard from property and business owners who who abandon the effort because of what they experience.

I've heard of events held by the city club that businesses don't not only don't benefit from but end up being more harm than good.

So my I don't normally want to weigh in on an organization, but an organization is asking for me to approve money.

And I see real harm being done in our community with our partnerships that the city depends on, and and I've had it.

So I I frankly want to put a stop to this so that we can restore partnerships and move forward.

And it is my responsibility as counselor to revitalize our downtown.

I am not responsible for a state program.

What we're what we've adopted and what we're implementing effectively implements that program by default.

We we can I can easily make those relationships clear and present.

Council Marshall.

I mean, I'm just trying to figure out what I mean.

Is our downtown that bad that we need to revitalize it?

My business is thriving.

Number of businesses up there are thriving.

Some of the businesses that leave, sometimes hobbies don't turn into a business.

So sometimes those hobbies don't pan out.

So are we going to keep putting funding into these things to make them better and stay longer when they aren't viable to stay on their own?

The businesses I talk to have had or support the main street projects or and support the city club.

So I'm I get come conflicting information from.

I mean, I'd like to sit down maybe with you and figure out who you're talking to and who I'm talking to and see where the conflict is.

Do I think that they can run it?

Yeah.

Do I think another organization can run it?

Yes.

It's not rocket science to help a downtown area.

It's I just feel like when we keep pushing this, like we got to do this downtown.

There's a lot of other places in the city to need to be boosted up.

The downtown's doing great.

I just don't see this.

I I get the focus on downtown and keeping it like historical looking, keeping it vibrant.

What's not vibrant about it?

That's my question with this.

We keep wanting to push all these things, all this agenda on this, but what are we pushing it for?

Like what I've seen the Safeway Parking lot.

I've seen those businesses that it kind of looks you have to get through some ports of town that don't look as great to get to this side of town that looks great, but we're focusing on the side that looks great.

Maybe that's just my business my opinion as a business owner up here.

I don't think we're doing horrible.

Thank you.

So I'm hearing like for me, I'm not comfortable participating in this m model.

And I heard that from Councillor Schummel and Counselor Marshall.

So anyone else wanna weigh in?

Oh sorry, Counselor Marshall again.

I just guess what my question is is I've heard a lot of there's an issue with this.

What is the solution going to be?

Like we keep saying that this isn't gonna work.

What's the solution?

Like what are we doing with this?

Like well, I mean, for me right now, uh I think you just brought up a good point.

And then looking at the city's best practices and looking at our 2040 plan, you can say that the city of Forest Grove is financially investing in the downtown in a number of ways.

So do we need to move forward with Oregon Main Street?

Do we need to move forward and put in additional revenue for that program?

Like that's I mean, sorry, but that's kind of what I just heard you say to paraphrase.

And I heard Councillor Schimmel say that, and we saw it on the screen.

I would say that what they're doing and what their mission is is it going to help?

It can spruce it up and make it look good and they can have the events.

But what are we like?

Are you trying to decipher the two?

Is it Main Street?

Is it city club, or are we trying to just say no to it?

Like what what do you as a council?

I mean, my my understanding, the point of this work session and staff and council can help me out is that it was like, what are we doing?

Are we gonna move forward with Main Street?

And what we're hearing from the Main Street organization is in order for them to move forward, they need funding from the city.

Right?

And then but you also said if they were to get everything in line and come back to the city.

I didn't say that.

I thought you said your four pillars, do you get your four pillars in line that you would come back?

Right now, I said, but maybe, but no, I mean, so are we saying that like reevaluate this in the future after they get some like trying to figure out what we're doing?

No, because I'm like listening to you and listening to us, like we just now got the 2040 plan starting to implement a month ago.

We had already built these things out within the URA.

I don't know if we need to.

I mean, to be honest, like for me, when you live off a levy and we have limited revenue.

I want to make sure that we have a product.

I want to make sure that it goes directly, that there's not a middle.

I mean, it was it's I'm not I'm not gonna lie, it was a little bit hard for me to swallow.

Like, hey, give us funding so we can rent an office space because we need this to be Oregon Main Street, and then we need to pay an executive director when we could continue to put it into building improvement grants or operational maintenance of cleaning up downtown, right?

Or these other things.

So what I'm saying is right now, like the fact that yes, we went down this road, but then there's some things that I'm not comfortable giving money to A, right?

Public dollars, but then B, we all do have these other structures in place.

And so is it a good use of resources?

So where I'm at right now is I would probably not participate.

Counselor Schimmel.

I I would summarize with we implement the 2040 vision plan as planned.

And if we really need to shore up Miles and his responsibilities or his support, the support for his efforts, and I guess through and I guess I shouldn't, I'm sorry, that's not exclusive to Miles, but implementing it through our respective boards and commissions and and other departments um as the city manager sees fit that I mean we're we're already intending on implementing the 2040 plan.

The 2040 plan reflects all the key tenants of the main street program.

So we we do that for the next year, and then in a year we you know, City Club can come back with a project or something of that nature that to present a proposition.

But otherwise I concur with the mayor.

Councilor Martinez, do you want to speak after the question?

So I concur with uh counselor marshall.

I think maybe we need to focus on areas outside of downtown.

We we've put so much into downtown, and there's so much more to our city than downtown.

And there are businesses outside of downtown that should get some attraction as well, some improvements to our our city in general.

I was just gonna say, I mean, I it sounds to me like you have the answers to your question.

You have consensus, there isn't consensus to move forward with a in support of Main Street project.

I am just saying that it doesn't need to focus on downtown.

I'm saying, is there any is it just supposed to specifically focus on the downtown area?

Yeah, that's the whole point.

That's what I'm trying to see.

If there's a way to get it outside, no, that's about the state program is just that.

That's the deal.

We are butting against a time, so I'm gonna let Councillor Govson speak, but it's 702, so we're a little bit over.

But we do have go ahead, Councillor Gus.

I'll make it I'll make it quick.

But um so it sounds like the the council, some of the council are not in favor of moving forward with with support um uh of maybe any kind at this point.

But as far as how it can benefit based on you know what what we're already doing as a city.

Um Miles and Sherry have explained that many times.

Um so I'm not sure where where that's getting lost.

But I think I think it is important to consider that um there is a huge benefit to this.

And um just walking away from it after you know a year's time without uh even considering any sort of support is um is basically just unsupportive.

And my uh counselor marshall, to your question, uh the Main Street program, like they said, is specific to the downtown, just just because that's how it was built.

Um and as which has been discussed many times again by Miles and by our Main Street program coordinator, um that healthy downtown uh in the other cities has proven to lift up the other sections of the city.

So all of that is is associated with that heart of the city.

Uh that's just something else to understand.

But um it's it's unfortunate that we're in this position now where we've had an organization uh working very hard.

Um and they're gonna continue, I'm sure, to work very hard, but unfortunately it will be without um active partnership from the city.

Okay.

Any other comments, questions?

Okay, we're gonna adjourn this work session and I'm gonna give you a five minute break.

We'll reconvene