I gotta read with me while I'm reading this thing from the screen.

No one will say anything about the We didn't have time to eat at all, so I'm gonna kind of use right now.

Okay.

Um I was like, I did not feel like doing anything today food-wise, so I just bought a Caesar salad.

Mariah.

Sorry, sorry.

Hello, friends.

Oh, I'm not on yet.

Good evening.

Is my mic on, Mariah?

Okay, great.

Thank you, Mariah.

Good evening.

I'd like to call to order the Forest Grove City Council meeting.

The date is August 25th, 2025.

I would like to begin tonight's meeting by honoring the life of assistant city manager Paul Deoni.

It is my deep privilege to speak on behalf of a grateful city, as we remember someone who was not only a dedicated public servant, but also a true friend to this community.

Paul gave 25 years of his life in service to Forest Grove.

As our assistant city manager and finance director, his impact was felt in every corner of city government.

He worked side by side with every department, bringing not only his not just his sharp financial mind, but his kindness, his collaboration, and his unwavering belief in what local government could do for its people.

Paul played a key role in guiding the city through major capital improvement projects, ensuring they were not only completed, but successful and sustainable.

Thanks to his leadership and foresight, we now have the infrastructure and the stability to serve generations to come.

He was also instrumental in passing multiple city levies, efforts that require not just technical skill, but the trust of a community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul.

And I tried to wear orange today, but I just couldn't do it.

So this is Forrest Grove Green, not Oregon Green.

Mariah, will you please call roll?

Councillor Gustafson.

You're on mute.

Sorry.

Council President Bonzoila.

Here.

Councillor Schumel?

Here.

Counselor Falconer?

Here.

Councillor Martinez.

Here.

Councillor Marshall.

Here.

Mayor Wenzel.

Here.

Forest Grove City Council meetings are located on the land of the Twileton Calapuas, who call themselves the At Pilati.

They are now part of the Confederate tribes of the Grand of Grand Rum.

Will the council and the audience please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I applied to Langer to the flight.

Of the United States of America.

One nation.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on to item B on our agenda.

Public comment.

Time provided for anyone wishing to speak to the city council on an item not on the agenda or on the agenda, but not scheduled for a public hearing.

Comments are limited to two minutes unless additional time is granted by the presiding officer.

The public comment period shall not exceed 30 minutes unless a majority of counselors present vote to extend the time.

Zoom attendees, please or may use the raise hand option to be called on.

Okay, let's start with our first public comment.

He's gearing up in the queue, Mr.

Dale Feek.

Hello, Mr.

Feek.

Mayor Wenzel, Council President Valahuela.

Valenzuela.

Yeah, thank you.

And counselors, I'm Dale Fee.

Good Forest Grove in 1966 to be a fifth grade teacher.

I gave to you through a handout.

And what that handout is, Mike Ragaway, who knows a lot about data centers in Oregon, wrote this front-page article called It Blocks Out the Sky, Data Centers Big Plans, Riley Small Town Neighbors in Forest Grove.

So what you're getting now is that handout is that paper in that paper.

So I have a minute and 21 seconds.

And each of some of you made the comments that you wish the codes had changed because you couldn't address height, couldn't address noise well.

You couldn't address a lot of things.

So Ragaway interviewed some of you, quoted you in that article, and said, please change your codes, okay, so that you can not feel regret if something happens like that again.

Another reason to do that though is Crane Data Centers says they may not even build that seven-story building.

They say that, but then they say they might do it.

It'd be helpful if you change the codes, put a little pressure on them to not do that if you change your codes now.

Even though there may not be, but there could be another data center application for land use in Forest Grove.

And also construction boots up on First Data Center in Forest Grove.

If you haven't taken the news times, please read that too.

I would be remiss if I didn't say Trump's regime.

It's not an administration, it's a regime.

It's a fascia, fascist.

And I wonder if he's now hiring some of the people he pardoned to be ICE agents.

He pardoned all those people.

I wouldn't doubt it.

Thank you, Mr.

Feek.

Our next public comment is Mr.

Michael Pearl.

Mayor Wentzel, City Council members, Michael Peralt, 3254, Ridge Point Drive, Forest Grove.

I am a member of the American Legion Post 2 here in Forest Grove.

I'm a 20-year U.S.

Army veteran who served four and a half years overseas in Vietnam and Germany.

After reviewing the Forest Grove 2040 plan, I was uh pained by the absence of any mention or use of the word veteran in the entire document.

I assessed the online site to provide input, which was being collected, but apparently I was a little too late because uh I put the word in there and offered several different comments, but none of that appeared in the document.

So apparently I was too late.

When I read the final document and I looked through the whole thing, and I don't see the word veteran mentioned anywhere.

I wonder if Forest Grove is a city that doesn't honor veterans.

If veterans don't speak up and bring it to your attention, does anybody else think of veterans?

Does anybody think of those soldiers and sailors and marines from Forest Grove who gave their lives in their nation's wars?

Think about that.

We need to do something to recognize those who have served our nation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Prohl.

Our next public speaker or public comment is Miss Alice Castito.

Castudo Castido.

Custodio.

Sorry, Alice.

I should know too.

Okay, first off, I'd like to let you know that I'm a mother, an aunt, a wife, and eventually a widow of veterans.

So there is a lot to affect veterans every day.

And if we overlook it, we're missing probably.

Forest Grove is home to a National Guard Armory, a visible and vital symbol of service and sacrifice.

Yet the current draft of Vision 2040 does not reflect the needs or contributions of our veteran population.

This omission overlooks a significant segment of our community whose well-being directly impacts the social, economic, and civic health of our city.

I propose the establishment of a veteran and military family support initiative within the Vision 2040.

This initiative will affirm the city's commitment to supporting access to housing, health care navigation, and mental health services, promoting employment and educational opportunities for veterans and their families, strengthening community and integration and recognition of service, including this initiative not only with state and federal priorities, but also Forest Grove as a city that honors its obligations to those who have served.

It is physically responsible and morally sound to invest in the resilience and dignity of our community.

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the council to share to shape this initiative and ensure it's successful and open implementation.

Thank you for your continued service for considering this important addition to our shared vision for Forest Grove.

Respectfully, Alice Custodi.

Thank you, Alice.

All right.

If I went back and told my 17-year-old self, I'd be excited about a 2040 city vision plan.

I don't know if I would have believed it, but thank you for doing that.

Seeing definition defined goals, that's something really neat, and it's uh I think it makes our city stand apart.

Um a couple months ago, I joined uh to be on the board to help out with the downtown association.

Um I'll make that part briefer.

Um, but we've uh had made some progress.

I understand the confusion and everything going on with it, and I've been uh hacking through it, so please hang in there just a little bit longer.

Um, because you're right, it's a big project.

Um I do see the upside uh for the downtown association, just focusing on that downtown section to open opportunities for grants that don't necessarily it puts us in a uh uh less competition when it comes for applying for grants, looking just for the downtown compared to if we were applying for grants as an overall city.

All cities can do that.

Cities with the downtown or the main street uh program get that specific uh type of funding opportunities presented to them.

But I can't uh smush everything in that I've learned into two minutes, so I will rush through here.

Um good news on some of those already on collaboration for lighting downtown.

That's a project that we have a lot of progress on already, whether or not it's been brought to you guys the partnerships.

We already got a free office space uh from a local community partner for um the downtown organization.

So progress is being made, but the main thing of why I'm here, I'll smush into 30 seconds for the 2040 downtown uh or the whoa downtown 2040 city plan.

Um again, not having the veterans mentioned in the plan.

That was the second part of why I was here.

Uh, our veterans make up approximately five percent of the population in Forest Grove.

Um, that is a large section of the population from my opinion, and everybody pictures something different when they think of veterans.

I picture my friends.

It's the the younger veterans.

There's veterans we have in our city with tons of wisdom, but we have a lot of energy and a lot of able backs and population that can get stuff done.

So I'd love it if veterans were included in the 2040 plan, and thank you for it.

Thank you, Jordan.

Thank you, Carol Allery.

Thank you.

Good to see all of you again.

I know it's been a month.

So yes, I hope you had a great summer.

Uh I am here simply because today something different and my heart is the data center.

And the reason it is that I don't know if you know in July 29th, uh, the Herald had I got an online article that stated the problems that Hillsboro is having with data center and the electrical problems.

And one of the things they asked for, I think were really good was to demand rate transparency for the people to make growth pay for its way.

Because you know, we cannot have any more raises in electric and everything with all that's trying to happen in our state.

How much more can the working person or even the senior be able to handle?

And then uh track shut off, which was a monthly uh how many people are losing their electricity because there isn't nobody looking at any of this, and also uh we need to also look at have we done anything to change since the we brought this up months and months ago.

I think it's very important because the people we don't want to see our people in the city be affected by something we thought was going to be good and turns out to be bad, and it affects the electricity grid, it affects the water grid, the whole many many things that affect and the little bit of profit it brings in the end, you lose look into that.

We I want to pray that God blesses each one of you, watches over you, give you wisdom, because this is a hard job, and you need his help, and he wants to be here for you.

So blessings on each.

Thank you, Carol.

Is there anyone else in the audience who may not have signed up for public comment who would like to provide public comment?

Okay, seeing none.

Is there anyone on Zoom who would like to provide public comment?

Oh, wait, sorry.

Mr.

Tim Rippe, come on up Tim Rippe, 3334 Edge View Lane for the record.

Thank you, Councillors Mayor.

I'm gonna mention a couple different topics.

So, first of all, Oregon Main Street program.

Uh, I I think it would be a disadvantage to the city to backtrack and give up on a program that hasn't even started.

I think it would be a reflection on the fact that this city wouldn't is not able to partnership with the the right people and make make something work instead of being uh adding fuel to the flames of discontent.

I think you should be more focused on being pacemakers and collaborating and building the bit relationships that are needed to make it a successful program.

Uh as far as the crane street or the crane uh data center, when I was on council, I made the suggestion that uh city code be changed because as it is now, you could build uh a building that's 400 feet high.

There's no height limits that I'm aware of, and I think that that hasn't been done.

So I think you ought to follow up on that and uh put a height limit on uh the construction because you wouldn't want a uh 10-15 uh story building in downtown Forest Grove that detracts from the character of the city.

And then finally, as a veteran myself, I'm in support of the earlier comments.

I think that uh generation after generation, uh since the uh revolutionary war, the veterans have had to speak up for themselves against, not against, but in front of their elected officials from the federal level on down, and I think it's a travesty that we have to continue to come to the the desk here and make ourselves known.

We contribute a lot to the community, and uh we can are still focused very much on the service to our country and to the community.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Ruby.

Christy Kotke.

Like a former counselor public comment situation.

Um sorry, I can't hear, I can't hear Christie.

So sorry, I can't hear I can't hear Christy.

Don't push a button.

Oh okay.

Thank you.

Don't push a button.

Okay.

Um you said one of the things you really like that you heard from the work.

Yes, is that sometimes and we talk about this at with at the state level with education when when things aren't really working the way that we had hoped, interrupting that process and sometimes pivoting and going in a completely different uh different direction is okay.

What I really appreciate about that conversation is the clarity in the recommendations, the hesitation on not going forward until clarity was made, but also the suggestion that maybe we pivot, and this isn't a program that we that works for this city at this time.

So I just love the thinking that we're able to maybe break those cycles of always having to continue with something because we started.

Uh secondly, at the market, at the school district booth on the heels of the data uh counselor Schimmel, you mentioned the data center conversation.

I do really want to encourage this council and the city to get communication out there.

I had a conversation with the gentleman and said our electric rates are going up because of the data center, and it was a school district booth, but little do they know that light and power is my most favorite second favorite, please.

But uh and I was able to explain that actually that why the rates were going up slightly.

I was able to compare with the rates in Washington County with which we just saw in the paper.

I was also able to explain that the data center should it expand as the original planning would be supporting with their own electrical power.

He had not once he heard all that information, it changed how we had the conversation.

So the more the city can get in front of that with maybe the frequently asked questions, um, because that is a huge concern, and I heard it again tonight, and I appreciated the encouragement of increased communication.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Under two minutes.

Impressive.

Okay.

Anyone else in the audience like to give public comment?

Seeing none, is there anyone on Zoom who would like to give public comment?

Uh Dan Morris.

Nope.

Yes.

They had their hand raised for a minute.

Yes.

There it is again.

Dan Morris.

Mr.

Morris, can you hear me?

He's on mute still.

Can you unmute?

Oh, there you go.

All right.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Thank you, uh, Mayor and Council members.

Dan Morris at 4400 settlers loop.

And uh my comments are in relationship to the comments uh made about Crane uh data center.

I think there's an opportunity here for the uh uh council and and the uh staff and forest grove to um negotiate uh terms with uh the the uh uh data center.

Um they're not paying taxes for at least five years.

That's a huge chunk of of money that they that they could donate uh much of that back into the community.

They are advocating in their mission statements how they want to build a partnership with their the uh constituents.

Um this is an opportunity for uh for that to occur.

Um there's uh uh many things that that are tied um uh to uh uh the loss of property tax, one being uh schools funding the schools and so um going directly and negotiating uh uh a regular uh meeting schedule with with uh agents of the data center and uh uh negotiating uh how they will contribute to the community in various ways.

Um I think that is a uh a good way uh to to uh take on this issue.

I think it's gonna be a bigger issue along the way and and if you have communications going, uh you have the opportunity for uh settling uh maybe disputes and resolutions at a lower level uh with uh some conversations going back and forth and some commitments.

Um and uh that's my comments on it at at at this time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Morris.

Anyone else on Zoom like to get public comment?

Um I would like to respond to the veterans in the room and the people who spoke uh public comment about the name, the word veterans not being in 2040 plan.

That is correct.

That keyword is not in the 2040 plan.

However, within our goal area of healthy and active communities, we have actions 3.1, update the city parks and recreation master plan, which is I think an avenue of where like a veterans park, and then also 3.3 explorer options for a multi-use recreation community facility that includes space for recreation, events, mentorship, education, and connection.

So I understand like why there be concern that the word I I don't want you to think that we don't value uh our veteran community, our American Legion.

I mean, it's the oldest post, right?

I think in Oregon and like Western.

So we do value all the things you do for our community, and we have not forgotten, and we are not not planning for veterans.

Okay, we're gonna move on now to the consent agenda.

Items under the consent agenda are considered routine and will all be adopted with a single motion without separate discussion.

Counselors who wish to remove an item from the consent agenda may do so prior to the motion.

Any item or items removed will be discussed and acted upon following the approval of the remaining items.

What is the wish of the council?

I move that we accept the consent agenda.

Second.

Okay, the consent agenda was moved by counselor martinez and seconded by counselor marshall.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, please say aye.

Hearing none, the consent agenda is passed by the Force Grove City Council in a vote of seven to zero.

Item D is additions and deletions.

City manager, do you have any additions or deletions?

I have no additions or deletions.

Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome.

Uh, city councillors, additions or deletions.

Okay, we're gonna move on to item E.

Sorry for all our presenters with our late start.

Uh, we are behind schedule.

We'll do our best.

Our first presenter is our CECOP intern presentation.

And I'm gonna invite Aaron Park, our engineering intern, and Richard Blackman, our engineering division and project manager, up to the desk.

Okay, sorry, go ahead.

Hi, my name is Aaron Park, and I was given the opportunity to be an intern here through an internship program called Me COP.

C COP is just the civil engineering under me cop.

I'm currently an undergraduate student here at Oregon State University and will be going into my final year this year, and hopefully graduate my civil engineering degree.

Over the course of my internship, I got to see a variety of different projects ranging between just a sidewalk panel being replaced to subdivisions and commercial developments, which is mainly what I worked on.

Um because the projects were in different stages of development.

I got to see a lot of I got to learn about each step and what goes into the final product.

Some projects that I wanted to highlight were the town center improvements, Davis Estates, Green Data Center, and the CWS Ripple project.

First two images on the right there, on the right there are from when I shadowed our public works department director with the contractor, where they would meet and decide together which panels they thought would need to be removed and replaced.

And this was judged based off of whether they were ADA compliant or not.

And if they weren't, they were marked and a picture was taken as a record.

These other images are just a couple pictures of contractors laying pipes down for subdivisions, as this is something that I often saw during my site visits.

The most some other projects that I want to mention are the Bailey Meadows subdivision, Boyd Lane has a couple smaller projects going on, emergency intertie and oak robes subdivision.

The most frequent tasks for these projects were site visits and meeting with the contractors.

Davis Estates is a four-phase developer subdivision that's being developed just east of the city's water treatment plant.

The main task that I completed for this development is aid in plan reviews, communicating with contractors and engineers and inspections, the ones I did most frequently being sidewalk, driveway approach, and erosion control.

Plan reviews were specifically for phases three and four of this development.

The city's construction standards and clean water services standards were used to make comments that were then sent back to the developer for resubmiddle.

I also shadowed one of our building inspectors, Cassie for inspections on the private side, like plumbing, electrical foundations, things like that, just to name a few.

Through doing this, I was able to have some understanding of a whole other aspect of developing.

Another task I was able to complete for this project was a final right-of-way inspection for phase two.

Just one example of something that we found was a water meter reader box that wouldn't close all the way.

And we noted this to be replaced with the contractor and engineer as it could be a potential tripping hazard or something to get in and damage that reader.

The street is an extension of Heather Street, which will stretch between Poplar Street and Mountain View Lane.

I reviewed plans for the public right-of-way, attended a few meetings, met with the contractors and engineers, did erosion controlled inspections and did site visits for private inspections, consultations, and ensuring that the plans matched the sites.

The images seen here are just a couple recent updates on the progress of the projects, the middle two being from the data center and the other ones being from the Ripple project.

When I wasn't working with bigger projects, I had smaller projects to attend to.

Getting my ADA curb ramp certification was one of the first things I accomplished when I started at the city.

The certification is a course by ODOT for engineers, inspectors, and contractors, or anyone else who needs a thorough understanding of ADA requirements so they can accurately design and inspect curb ramps.

Once I earned my certification, I started to collect data to inventory the new curb ramps around the city that are from the annual curb ramp and pavement improvements.

Another task that was completed was watching the annual erosion control and training inspection, training videos from Clean Water Services and shadowing one of the city's building inspectors on her inspection so that I could eventually take some of those inspections from her.

Another assignment I had was aiding the reviews of the RFPs for a project called Safe Routes to School.

This project is the extension of sidewalks on Mountain View Lane, leading to Neil Armstrong Middle School.

I was put onto the selection committee where I reviewed the consultants' request for proposals and scored each proposal to help decide which engineering firm was going to complete this work.

Another task I completed was related to a gate valve that was in our 10th Avenue control station, the control station being the tie to the Joint Water Commission, Water to Forest Grove.

To assist in finding replacement valve, I did a couple site visits with the superintendent at the water treatment plant, and he was very helpful in explaining the information needed to complete this task.

And to the right here is an image of the leaking gate valve.

And the image below is from the annual curb ramp improvements.

And in doing this, not only did I learn about what kind of coordination needs to occur between the contractors and the city, but I also got to interact with some of the people that live here and communicate what I know about the projects and answer their questions.

Because erosion control inspections were scheduled for every week, I witnessed the progression of how these measures that were put in place held up during active construction.

Here are just some examples of the BMPs that were put in place.

The leftmost image being silt fencing, which is to keep the dirt onto the site.

The next one being something just put into the curb inlet so that sediment doesn't enter the pipe systems.

Next one over is a concrete washout, which is for the concrete trucks to clear out their trucks without affecting and impacting the environment.

And the final one is a construction entrance entrance, which is where bigger rocks are placed where the vehicles will enter and exit to mitigate the amount of dirt that is tracked out onto the roads.

While during my time here, as everyone was extremely willing to share their knowledge.

Since I worked for the engineering department, I worked with them the most.

Every engineer has trusted me to assist them on a project that they've worked on, which gave me a broader spectrum of what being a civil engineer at the city is like.

Outside of the engineering department, I interacted the most with the building department for shadowing private and erosion control inspections.

The engineering department often works closely with the building department.

So shadowing the private inspections clarified where the limits for these departments were.

Outside of the city, I worked mostly with contractors during site visits, but I've also interacted with engineering firms and CWS during projects, ODOT for my ADA certification, and product manufacturers to find a replacement valve for the 10th Avenue Control Station.

I learned a wide variety of skills during my internship here.

I learned about standards and codes for construction in the city of Forest Grove, Clean Water Services, and ODOT's ADA curve ramps.

I also learned about the importance of inspections and completed quite a few over the courses, internship interviews, and generally how to read them was a skill I developed through Davis State's phase three and four for the plans and submittals to the city.

And not only was this my first job in the in my field, but this was also my first office job.

So I learned a lot about professional communication.

Each project has a lot of moving parts, so it's very important to not only clearly communicate, but you also have to clearly understand what people are trying to tell you.

I also learned a lot about time management and prioritizing.

Some days I would have no deadlines on tasks that I've been assigned, but on other days I had multiple tasks complete that day and meetings to attend to.

So just through practice, I've learned what works best for me when it comes to those busier days.

Some courses that I've taken that were relevant during the internship include fluid dynamics and hydraulic engineering when it comes to our pipe systems.

Civil and construction engineering materials and geotechnical engineering came in handy when it came to grading of sites, pavement and for driveway approach and sidewalk inspections.

Technical writing was useful when it came to sending emails and resulting inspections as the focus of this class to be clear and concise.

Although I did a little auto CAD when editing standard detailed drawings, the aspect from this class that was most helpful to me was plan reading.

Not only did this class teach us about what symbols represent, we also learned about important concepts in civil engineering.

My overall impression of working at the city was that it was a very welcoming environment.

Everyone was always willing to answer any questions I had or show me things related to their work so I can be exposed to even more.

Even if it wasn't all engineering related, it was useful to know just generally and to understand what role they play in projects I've been involved with.

I also have a much better understanding of the municipal side of engineering.

Having done the final right-of-way inspection that I mentioned earlier, I was able to spend time out on the sites with the plans in front of me and understand how everything on the sheets correlates with the actual site.

This was especially helpful when doing my developer plan reviews.

Being able to see the courses I've taken being applicable to the work that I did here was great to see, and it further helped me understand the importance of them.

Thank you so much for your time, and I'm open to any questions if you have any.

Thank you, Erin.

Um, so one of the things I do at my house at dinner is highs and lows.

So I'm curious what was your high and your low from entering at the city with the city of Forts Grove.

Um man.

I think the high was definitely meeting everyone.

Everyone was, like I said, was extremely friendly.

I didn't have any negative experiences with anyone that I interacted with.

So I definitely think that's a high and definitely something that I'll miss the most when I leave here.

Um and a low.

I feel like that's kind of hard to say.

The critical.

Yeah.

I don't know if I have anything off the top of my head right now.

I think there were time that Aaron didn't have enough work to really keep her.

Oh, okay.

That happens and she found work to do, but to me that would have been close.

Yeah, I could agree.

I can agree because failed you out.

I love it.

Thank you.

It is probably true.

And Richie for another compliment.

Yeah, and yeah, I gave you a compliment too.

And Rich always does a really good job leading this.

And we think it's a vital part of the city and your career.

Um, so we just this is like one of my favorite presentations every year.

Does anyone else from City Council have questions or comments?

Thank you for good luck to you.

Yeah, good luck.

Thank you.

I hope you enjoy your next internship, and thank you, Rich.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Next up, we have our team from Washington County because there's gonna be two local option levies.

So if I could call up Marnie Cool, Assistants County Administrator, Commander David Marzilli, and district attorney Kevin Barton.

I don't know if there's room for all of you, but we can pull a chair up.

Hi.

Good evening.

Thanks for coming.

You guys have been all over, all over the county with this presentation.

Right.

I'm gonna say the road, the levy road.

Okay, whenever you're ready.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes, but you might need to talk into it for the TV C TV.

Is that yes?

Okay, thank you.

Hi, everybody.

Uh, thank you for your time this evening.

I'm Lisa Tattersall here with Washington County Cooperative Library Services.

I'm here today to share educational information about a proposed library local option levy, measure 34345.

As a public employee, I am subject to political restrictions under Oregon law, and so I'm sharing neutral and non-advocacy information only.

Do I have the clicker for the slide?

I can give it to you.

It's just loading for a second, sorry.

Okay, no worries.

This is maybe a good note that we can compress the presentation and the image size.

Oh no.

Oh no.

I'll just keep.

So in this presentation, I'll be talking about how public library service is delivered in our county and how it's funded.

I would also talk about how the pro what the proposed levy would fund, how much it would cost, and what would happen if the levy did not pass.

So here in Washington County, library service is delivered through a partnership between Washington County Cooperative Library Services or WCCLS.

Nine cities and three nonprofit associations that all operate local libraries.

WCCLS is the primary source of funding for local libraries, and we also provide central support services that efficiently link these independently operated libraries together, creating a countywide system that is available to about 600,000 people.

I think we might be on a next slide, and then one more, and then we're perfect.

There are 16 full service library locations in the county, from banks in the far northwest corner of the county to Sherwood in the south.

In addition, our digital library is available 24 7 at WCCLS.org.

Next slide.

In fiscal year 24-25, the local option levy represents 45% of WCCLS revenue, and the remaining 55% is a transfer from the county's general fund.

The majority of WCCLS total funding is directed toward library funding allocations at 67%.

The remaining 33% of WCCLS expenses are for the central services that link our libraries together.

The levy would fund programs, resources, and materials that are designed to support student success with reading and learning.

Some of the events and resources available to kids and teens include book clubs, Oregon Battle of the Books events, makerspaces, and Steam programs.

Libraries also offer resources for parents and caregivers, kindergarten readiness, test prep tools, and free access to fast and reliable internet.

Over 10,000 students participated in library programs designed to support reading, learning, and student success last year.

In addition, we have issued over 83,000 library cards to public school students since 2019.

The levy would also fund the central services that efficiently link libraries together.

Library users can use the shared online catalog to access over 1.5 million items, reserving them for pickup at any of the 16 libraries across the county.

Our courier trucks deliver 2.5 million books and other items to libraries in fiscal year 2324.

In addition, we provide online learning tools such as job hunting resources, downloadable e-books and audiobooks, digital newspapers and magazines, as well as streaming video, all available 24-7 to library users.

The levy would fund open hours at 16 full-service public library locations across the county.

Most libraries in the system are open at least six days a week and provide access to 1.5 million items in the shared collection.

Last year alone, there were over 2.4 million visits to WCCLS libraries, and total checkouts exceeded 7.2 million across the system.

By borrowing items rather than purchasing them, library users saved 140 million dollars last year.

In addition to providing books and other materials, library buildings service cooling spaces for the community during extreme heat, as well as public computers, Wi-Fi, study rooms, and meeting rooms.

The levy would also fund children's reading events, including story times.

And some of these are offered in multiple languages, including Spanish and Chinese.

Libraries also offer interactive play areas that promote learning and social interaction.

In fiscal year 2324, libraries hosted over 200,000 participants at over 6,000 in-person events for kids and teens.

If passed, measure 34345 would replace an existing 22 cent levy that is expiring in June 2026.

The proposed replacement levy would have a fixed rate of 37 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value running from July 26th through June 2031.

In 2026, homeowners with an assessed value, so that's not market value, of 348,000 would pay an estimated total of 129 dollars annually or $10.75 per month.

Representing that as an annual increase over the current levy, that would be an additional $54 per year or an additional $4.55 per month than the current levy rate.

These reductions would include reduced open hours, fewer book purchases, fewer reading events, and a reduced level of services that link libraries together.

Some of the examples of those services that would be reduced.

Um include uh fewer e-books purchased, a less robust online catalog, less frequent deliveries between libraries, and disrupted access to technology.

Thank you for your engagement with this presentation.

Um we have more information on our website at WCCLS.org/slash levy.

Thank you, Marissa.

Is there do you have questions now or no?

That was any questions on the library levy.

Do you know how much um people were paying?

Like, what was the previous levy at?

It's 22 cents.

Oh, you mean the previous one to the current levy?

Yeah.

The uh previous levy was uh so we raised the rates of voters raised the rates 10 years ago in 2015 from 17 cents to 22 cents.

So there's not been an increase in the levy rate in 10 years.

10 years.

That's a 17 cent increase.

Yeah, it was 17, then 22, and then this would be 37.

Yep.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to public safety.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh good evening.

My name is Dave Marzilli.

I am a commander at the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

I'm also going to uh present on uh local option levy measure 34346.

This will be fact-based uh non-advocacy information that I'll be sharing with you.

Uh before we get started, I do want to acknowledge that each of us has different life experiences, and that some of the content in this presentation uh refers to topics that could be triggering to some people and includes mentions of abuse or violence experienced by adults and children.

Um, I just want to briefly mention those topics, and I'm not going to go into details, uh, but in order to provide a full picture of what the public safety levy supports.

I just want to give you a heads up before we start the presentation.

And once again, my name's Kevin Barton, uh DA.

It's good to see you all.

Thank you for the time here.

And before I get into the levy, I I want to say I was sitting in the back listening to the um uh intern.

So impressed.

Uh, what a great program you all have.

Um, I mentioned that my summer job was GI Joe's uh when I was in college, and so I'm just really really impressed with um what you're able to offer.

GO Joe's was great, but nothing like what we heard.

Um, RIP.

What was that?

That RIP GI Joe's.

I know, I know.

Well, anyway, thank you.

Um I have no disclaimers because I'm an elected official like all of you, I can advocate uh for anything, and so I'm advocating hard for this levy.

Um, and so I'm excited to have this presentation here.

We're gonna go back and forth through about a dozen slides.

So why don't we go ahead and get started?

So just a little bit of level setting for the background.

Um we're gonna have this levy in November of 2025, and um, it will um uh potentially increase the rate to 66 cents per assessed 1,000.

It's roughly about a six dollar increase for the average homeowner based on the average assessed value.

Um the previous uh uh rate increase happened about five years ago, and so this is a rate increase on top of a previous rate increase.

We've had the levy for about 25 years, uh, and the reasons, of course, that we have levies I'm sure you're all familiar with, but it has to do with some of the structure for organ property taxes.

This levy started off as a way to provide extra services, and it is just become essential over time without this levy and the roughly 16% of public safety funding that it provides our county on top of our general fund.

We wouldn't be able to offer a lot of the core services uh that all of our citizens and community members are accustomed to seeing.

Why don't we do the next slide, please?

Um, so the the current public safety local option levy funds 16% of the countywide public safety services.

Other sources of funding for that, the remaining 84% come from the general fund, the enhanced sheriff's patrol district for those unincorporated areas of Washington County that pay that, and then other federal and state grant funding.

The current levy expires in June of 2026, and it covers that 16% of the prosecution, the countywide law enforcement things, such as the jail, community corrections, probation parole, juvenile services, and support for domestic violence survivors.

And those are countywide services that are provided to people regardless of whether you live within the city limits or in the unincorporated urban areas or even the rural areas of Washington County.

We can go to the next slide.

So we'll talk about what the levy would do if it were passed and go ahead and progress to the next slide.

We have several examples of some areas where the levy will provide additional funding if it's passed.

So the first two are on the slide in front of you.

Investigating and prosecuting crimes, car theft, theft break-ins or graffiti.

There's a statistic up there from the sheriff's office that an average of one vehicle has been stolen per day between 2021 and now.

And that's an incredibly high number, one that we need to make sure that we reduce.

And I'm happy to tell you that crime stats are showing a reduction, but it's still an issue that we are struggling to get a handle of just with the increased car theft and criminal behavior that we're seeing in our county.

The other item on the slide is enhanced prosecution of our child abuse and child child pornography cases.

We have seen an increase in reported child abuse in the last time span coming out of COVID.

This is partly because we saw a decrease going when COVID and the school shut down and the mandatory reporter stayed home.

So we saw child abuse reports drop down precipitously and then rebound back up.

It's also, I think, because we're doing a better job of getting people to report child abuse when it occurs.

And so while that's troubling to see an increase, there's actually a silver lining because we can only address what we know about, and when there's increased reports, it gives us increased opportunity to address these things.

And the levy helps us do that.

Next slide.

Some additional services that the levy would support would be expanded assistance to victims of domestic violence and emergency programs for those harmed by domestic violence as well as preventing domestic violence situations and expand those programs.

Similar to what Mr.

Barton mentioned on the previous slide, domestic violence reports have increased 22% since uh 21 to 24 to an average of four per day.

Also, the levy would help fund uh efforts to combat the deadly drugs that are in our community, things like fentanyl and dismantling those larger drug trade trafficking organizations.

Um, as kind of a point of reference over the past three years, the sheriff's office has seized 1.3 million fentanyl pills.

Next slide.

It should be this slide regarding jails.

We can do any slide though.

That's okay.

I think it's slide seven if that's helpful.

Yes.

Oh, okay.

Well, I'll tell you the slide that you're missing.

Uh, it's an important one.

So the levy would help us ensure that we can uh get our jail back to functioning at full full capacity and full speed.

So, as I'm sure you're aware, our jail has frankly been unable to operate at full capacity now for several years for a variety of reasons.

During the COVID years, the jail reduced capacity for social distancing, and there were some significant challenges as it related to both funding but also the deputies, making sure we have enough deputies to operate the jail.

And now the jail has some infrastructure challenges with the physical infrastructure.

We reduced our 572-bed jail, which is by the way, the second smallest jail per capita in the entire state.

It reduced down to roughly 388 beds, and it's currently in that area right now.

That makes it really hard for us to operate a public safety system because having a healthy jail that can accommodate all the things that we need a jail to be able to do, make sure the rest of the system works well.

So, Chief Ryman's people, when they go make an arrest, there's only one place to take them, the Washington County jail.

When someone's been convicted of a crime or needs to be in trial in custody pending trial, there's only one jail to hold that person.

When someone's on probation and we're trying to engage them to go through drug and alcohol treatment or other uh classes they may need to take, and we need to have some short-term consequences to ensure compliance.

There's only one place, a jail that can be used there as a threat.

If you don't engage in drug treatment, there will be a consequence.

If you don't refrain from having contact with your abuse victim, there will be consequences.

So not having this jail at full capacity has really made it difficult for our community to maintain the public safety standards that we want, and the levy will help us get that jail back up to full capacity.

Next slide, please.

Or we can stay on the slide.

Go ahead.

I couldn't have said that better myself.

Thanks.

Um the last um area that the levy would fund that we're going to talk about is the mental health response teams that are again another countywide service that are spread throughout the county with member teams uh making up uh groups of specially trained deputies or officers that are paired with a mental health clinician who respond to members of our community who are in mental health crisis and in need of some of those support services.

Um they improve safety uh and interact with those folks on on a daily basis.

Last year the team responded to just under 4,000 calls for service.

Uh, and 91% of the team's calls resulted in individuals not being taken to jail, finding some other service or avenue for them to go to rather than bringing them to the jail, which says Mr.

Barton mentioned that jail space is very uh covet coveted space, and so that was open to other offenders who might need to be lost at the jail.

Okay, so if passed, you know, how would this impact the average homeowner?

Uh next slide.

So, as I alluded to earlier, um, this would bring the amount to 66 cents per assessed 1,000 in value for the average assessed value home, which is about a $350,000 assessed value home.

Uh, it would work out to just over $19 per month or $230 a year, which is approximately a six dollar increase from the current levy rate.

It would bring in a total of about $337 million over the five-year lifespan of the levy.

So it's an incredible amount of money that we uh really desperately would rely on.

Uh next slide.

Uh so if it does not pass um the services that the levy would provide as proposed uh would not be provided as proposed, and property taxes would not be increased.

Um basically any decision about county service levels if it does not pass would have to go in front of the board of commissioners, and they would work closely with the leadership of county administrative office, county corrections, the district attorney's office, the sheriff's office, and all the other partners to decide what to what to do from that point.

We can advance to the next slide, but it's essentially a summary slide of what we've already said.

So I'd be happy to stop and answer any questions you have.

And I'll tell you, I'm sure Commissioner Willie would take all the tough questions, so any easy questions you can address the two of us.

I was gonna say, Commissioner Rilly, do you want to come up and take hard questions?

You don't have to, but you can.

I have one quote.

Well, does anyone on council have a question?

Go ahead, Councillor Schimmel.

This is great information.

I wonder if there's uh one or two pages for each levy or in terms of public education that's available.

I came prepared.

My color printer wasn't working because we're we're saving money at the county.

But I do have it comes with one of those QR codes you can scan, and I've got 10 versions of a one-pager for the public safety levy that I'll leave here.

Cool.

Thank you.

My question is will the jail be fully operational?

Like, will you be able to fully staff all the pods if this levy passes?

Yes.

Well, the challenge we have now is because the infrastructure upgrades, other reasons why we have all those pods closed.

And so we still have the funding challenges and we still have our staffing challenges.

The staffing of the jail has gotten better.

We've hired more people, um, but they're still in training.

Um, and so they're not fully operational.

Plus, we've had some positions cut due to some of the funding issues as well.

So if this levy passes and if it funds those positions, then we would be able to operate at full capacity.

Okay.

Let me see if I can add a little bit to that.

And you know, I can't, of course, speak for the sheriff.

Um, I know the sheriff is a hundred percent committed to getting the jail up and running, and she's the right woman for the job.

Her background comes from the jail side of the house at the sheriff's office.

So I'm very, very happy with all the work she's doing there.

I don't know that anyone can promise if A, then B.

And so I think it's hard to say for sure that if the levy passes the jail will be at full capacity, but I can say if the levy doesn't pass, I can't see how the jail can be at full capacity.

So the opposite I feel comfortable saying, and I'm I'm pretty confident we're gonna get to full capacity in the near future.

We have to.

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out I think from what I hear from our community members, right?

Is that concern I think that you brought up, right?

If someone gets picked up in Force Grove, if they're going to Washington County, and then if they are just released or you know, whatever.

So I'm just trying to figure out how to assure voters, right?

That or assure the community that if you increase your taxes, like you're gonna see a result in a safer, you know.

I'm just trying to figure out my take on it.

So sorry, that I'm not trying to like give you a gotcha.

I'm just trying to figure out how to be accurate and not promise something we can't deliver, but also pro like say, I mean, there's a reason that we're doing this.

And we really do need to increase staffing in the jail.

I mean, yes, and I because I'm not elected, I have to be very careful what I say.

Yeah.

Um, but if we open up our extra our pods that are closed, we will have more capacity, which will allow us to lodge more people.

As uh Mr.

Barton mentioned on his slide, we are the second smallest per capita jail in the state.

And so that provides its own challenges as well.

Um but right now we we are at capacity with a reduced 388 bit capacity open up, we can launch more people.

There'll probably always be more people that should be lodged in jail than we have capacity for.

There's a couple, just not to dwell too much on this topic, but there's a few things that are creating the pressure point.

One of them is jail capacity, absolutely.

Another one is that there were some changes in the law a few years ago, Senate Bill 48 was the name of the law, and it essentially reduced the ability for judges to hold people in custody pending trial uh by reducing bail amounts as part of a nationwide uh we'll call it cash bail reform that you might have heard about in the news.

Um, and so because of some of those changes in the law that changed how and when and whether people can be held in custody alongside some of the capacity issues at the jail, alongside some other challenges, the public defender crisis that slowed down the ability to um um process cases through the system.

Um those things created this perfect storm that that made it so that fewer people were being housed in the jail um for the uh extended period that I think the community members feel like they should be.

Um so coming out of that will be a challenge.

We've had I think about 2200, 2300 forest releases so far this year.

That's an incredibly high number compared to previous years.

I mean, it's more than double, maybe triple.

I I'd have to look at the numbers to give you a firm you know quantifier there.

Um, but you cannot maintain a public safety system when that many people are just released from the jail every week um because they just build a return after that and it becomes this this death spiral.

So that's what we need to get out of, and we're committed to doing.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you all for coming out to Force Grove tonight.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

I'll leave the uh hand notes.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Okay, our last presentation.

Thank you for waiting.

Is our Metro counselor one Juan Carlos Gonzalez?

Thanks, folks.

Hello.

It's great to see you.

Um I'll try and be uh detailed and quick, uh, recognizing that you have uh plenty of work.

Uh wanna emphasize that from the presentations, the library levy.

Um I'm not sure if any of you use the app Libby, which is uh the online uh library app, but changed my life.

Uh highly uh encourage y'all to use it audiobooks, books, um essentially that we're uh paying for with our tax dollars and uh is a great benefit for for us.

Uh so good evening, counselors, mayor, thank you for having me.

My name is Juan Carlos Gonzalez, I'm the Metro Counselor for District Four, uh, which includes the the communities that you see here listed in the screen.

Um, and I'm excited to be able to be here to share some updates on specific projects and programs that Metro is working on.

Uh you see a photo there's from uh uh uh a chamber luncheon uh a few months ago.

Um next slide.

And for those of you that are uh less familiar with what Metro does, if you want to uh also briefly uh include uh a bit of a description, especially for folks that might be watching online or might be in the audience uh and are wondering what is Metro, which is always a great question.

Um we are the nation's only uh uh directly elected regional government.

Uh we oversee um or we support over 24 cities in in the three county uh metro area.

And here we are in the western edge, of course.

Uh Metro goes all the way from Troutdale uh and the Sandy River in south to Wilsonville and Sherwood.

Uh there are 1.7 million people uh they're represented uh by Metro.

And as a government, we focus on the large regional scale uh projects that go beyond the scope of a single city or even of a single county, uh whether it's uh um infrastructure, uh major environmental and ecosystems, um, and recently uh we are launching uh a future vision commission uh which will uh refresh our 50-year uh plan for the Greater Portland area, um, which as many of you know the 2040 growth plan is a is a foundational document to our region's land use.

Uh this this document uh this this future vision commission uh will have a major, major touch point and in refreshing that uh for decades more to come.

Next slide.

So I serve as uh the district four counselor, um, as you can see here on the screen.

This is the map of the of the fourth district.

Um and uh uh I work with my team to highlight some some of uh uh my favorite and also some notable areas uh alongside the district, uh, which show the uh improvements and uh also some some great sites for folks to visit, just in case uh you want uh some recommendations.

Next slide.

Uh to begin with transportation and planning, I wanted to first and foremost provide the incredible update uh that the TV Highway Bush Rapid Transit Project has secured 28.5 million dollars for Metro in the regional flexible fund process, which is an incredible accomplishment.

Um, and of course, will benefit the city of Forest Grove, the residents, the riders of Forest Grove, uh, but folks uh in Washington County, uh the thousands of folks that live uh alongside Washington County uh alongside TV Highway.

Uh in this cycle, this regional flexible fund cycle, uh Metro allocated close to a quarter billion dollars uh in different projects.

Uh a few of those in Washington County, namely the TV Highway Transit Project, which was uh tied for the highest funded project in the entire Metro region alongside 82nd Avenue uh in Multnomah County.

So it just goes to show again the amazing support there, uh, but also uh funding to build a um pedestrian overpass in Highway 26 and THPRD for one of the trails there, uh, and also uh uh some improvements uh on Cedar Hills Boulevard in Beaverton.

Uh and name there's also other projects throughout the region Montgomery Streetcar, uh Earthquake, Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project that are hopefully going to be moving forward with some strong regional support.

Next slide.

On another very important topic of housing, um, as a reminder for folks, in 2018, Metro partnered with local cities and the counties in the metro area to create the affordable housing bond.

Uh and this voter approved bond has uh created an estimated 5,600 affordable affordable homes, which is 1,700 more than we had promised voters in 2018 when this measure passed.

Of those homes, 2,664 will have two or more bedrooms.

Uh and 1,885 will be what's known as deeply affordable for households with incomes at or below uh 30% uh below 30 30% area median income.

Uh last year we saw the opening of eight new affordable housing communities, uh, and nine more are currently under construction throughout the region.

Uh to me, it is abundantly clear that our region needs more housing, more opportunity for people uh to continue to live in the communities that they love and to not face uh displacement as the cost of living continues to rise.

Uh some of you are very familiar with uh some of the affordable housing bond projects.

Obviously, the Valfray, um one of the first, uh, as well as Plaza Los Amigos uh in Cornelius, Nova Esperanza and Hillsboro as some wonderful examples here out in uh in western Washington County.

Next slide, please.

Uh Metro's other flagship uh program is the supportive housing services uh program, which is SHS, as many of us know it.

This 2020 voter approved measure uh provided provides services to people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.

These services include but are not limited to emergency outreach, uh shelter, uh placement into housing, rental assistance, case management, and health and recovery services.

Uh Washington County has made tremendous progress at combating the homelessness crisis through SHS programs.

Since 2021, the county has used SHS funding to uh place uh uh 2,500 people into housing, um, has prevented 3,000 uh more households from falling into homelessness and created 450 uh new shelter units, uh, which is super important.

Um it's also important for me to acknowledge that SHS uh continues to be uh an engine that is pushing many projects forward.

Uh one of the local projects here uh in Forest Grove is uh the Casambaro Transitional Shelter Project that I'm that I know that you have uh supported and visited as well.

Um, and for the first time in the city of Hillsborough, there'll be a year-round emergency shelter opening um uh right off of TV Highway, which will provide space for 75 guests uh as well as onside meals, hygiene and laundry facilities, uh, and housing navigation resources on a 24-7, 365 day basis.

So I want to congratulate them and the staff for the incredible work and ramping this program.

And before I move to the next slide, I want to leave y'all with a really uh uh uh astounding number, which is each month, 1,400 households in our area receive eviction notices.

That's not 1,400 people, that's 1,400 families.

Uh and this is the work that the SHS measure is working to uh support and prevent.

Next slide.

Uh earlier this summer, the Metro Council was considering taking SHS back to the voters to uh to do a few things.

Uh we thought it could restructure the program, uh, index the tax rate to inflation, uh, and importantly, extend the program to ensure uh that the vouchers and the resources were being used uh could be capitalized into projects uh into the future.

Unfortunately, we came to the conclusion uh that right now is not the time, uh the right time to refer uh this measure.

Uh we've heard loud and clear from voters, uh many elected peers uh that we need more time to see results uh and time to build trust with the public before before we extend this program, and we are looking to grow accountability and transparency.

So while we are not looking to extend a voter measure this election cycle, Metro is committed more than ever to SHS and the people who depend on it.

So we are planning to uh reform key aspects of this program to create stronger oversight, uh uh establish clear performance indicators and consistent contracting standards, which I know is very important to uh the council here.

So we need to work hard.

Uh it is my commitment as your Metro Counselor to ensure that these uh tremendous resources are being put to the best use, but also to address one of the most pressing challenges uh that our region faces.

Uh and lastly, um Metro is working on key investments from the regional system facilities plan, which is our regional garbage system facilities uh uh plan uh that we've talked about in the past.

It's a 20-year roadmap to strengthen our regional recycling and garbage systems.

Um one of the plans, cornerstones is the creation of a community depot program, um in which we want hopefully once completed, uh 98% of the region will live in will live within 20 minutes of a depot, proving twice the act providing twice the access to essential recycling uh and disposal services that exist today.

Uh Metro recognizes that many communities do not have access to the recycling, reuse, composting, garbage, and safe household hazardous waste disposal services uh that our region aspires to.

I'm not sure if there's a next slide after this.

Yeah, okay, yeah, I think it's that one.

Yeah.

Um so this project is in the preliminary planning phase.

Um I know y'all know we we we own uh land out here in West Washington County that we've been wanting to be able to program uh to this, and we're gonna continue working with you as our local government partners to advance that.

Uh, we've also uh re reinstated uh regional waste advisory committee that has a new composition of representation from across the region that is also providing uh guidance uh on on that plan.

So uh we are looking for um uh to fill a vacancy, which is reserved for elected officials.

So if you love garbage and recycling and you love regionalism, uh applications are being accepted through September 5th.

Um I would love uh to see the city of Forest Gove represented.

And in other news, uh Metro has been busy allocating grant money to worthy projects and organizations in the region.

In June, uh the Metro Council awarded uh over six million dollars to 12 parks and nature projects across Greater Portland.

Uh this year's grants will fund projects uh ranging from uh uh pedestrian bridge and tiger uh to large-scale habitat restoration uh by an affordable housing complex uh in Aloha, just to uh reference some of the Washington County projects.

Uh our community placemaking grant cycle opened earlier this month, which also offers an opportunity for community-led equity focused arts and culture projects.

Uh, and I hope folks will consider applying before uh the October 3rd deadline.

Uh you can find more information on all these grants um at Oregonmetro.gov slash grants.

Uh last slide here.

Uh just want to say thank you so much for uh inviting me again to uh spend some time with you, provide updates on the work going on over at Metro.

I'm here to represent you.

My door physical and virtual is always open to you for a conversation.

I was glad to uh welcome uh Counselor Schimmel a few months ago uh at Metro and thank you so much for coming to visit.

Um and thank you for your time today.

If there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Thank you, Counselor Gonzalez.

Any questions for the counselor?

Okay.

We'll let Counselor Shimmel start.

Well, question on our comments on a few areas on the the Metro property, the last subject.

I I believe our Bee Street Trail uh runs through Metro property.

And I I hear a lot of comments about trying to improve that or get it elevated.

Uh it refresh me on the challenges with that trail.

The Beastie Trail is that uh next to the site that Pacific manages like on the on the south side of the city, or is this a different one?

I think it is the same one.

Are you talking about the yeah?

It's like yeah, it's down on the south side.

Yeah, I I have I've heard similar um uh concerns raised with me, uh, and I'll I'll need to look into that.

And I'm more than happy to get back to you so we can give you the exact uh information.

On the the TV highway transit project, I serve on that that committee and that's supportive of the the project.

And and more recently been canvasing you know, communities or namely the the senior housing communities that use that bus system quite a bit, and and we've had a lot of good interaction with ODOT via the our city staff about some of the safety concerns as they're they're facilitating their projects and so the safety of that corridor is becoming just some of the projects actually exacerbate the safety in the process of providing better safety and and I think some of the things we'll do is try to reflect on that future transit corridor improvement beyond what improvements are made today because I think ensuring that we get pedestrian patterns going in the right direction for their the most safe route across that highway.

I think is important because today it's really difficult at that quince and 47 intersection.

Um so just that that's an emphasis I want to certainly take to the committee as that project proceeds.

So I think I appreciate your uh Metro ensuring the safety is as as important as the rapid nature of the route and um on SHS uh specifically and the contracting standards.

Uh you know, I've just asked that that Metro as its overseer to take a concerted effort to ensure that state contract standards are adhered to that CBOs have the right to control the means and manner of their work.

Uh and even consider that the Metro's capacity building team pivot some of their attention to the toward the county's administrative standards.

And ensuring that because if they're reporting things based on different administrative uh philosophies, and and that can engineer different numbers differently.

So you're not getting necessarily an apples to apples from all the counties.

Yeah, thanks, counselor.

On that last one, I mean the system has uh uh grown at a rampant pace.

I mean, really from zero to 100 as the kids say.

Um but uh uh one of the one of the themes that we've seen is that um although we have regionalized the system, it very much is still three counties working independently as in a region in a region.

Uh and I uh I I do believe that there are uh efficiencies, competencies, competencies at scale, uh contracting standards that could be improved significantly if uh if if the system was regionalized a bit more, which is the which is the very important work that the Metro Council will be doing uh these next few weeks to have conversations about what are the improvements that we can make to accountability and oversight that don't require us going to the ballot and asking for more resources.

I think that is what voters really want us to continue to do.

Um I feel very proud again of the work that has been achieved.

Um, but there's we can't we can't uh try victory uh just yet on homelessness, and we're gonna have to really be committed to the long haul um uh to the services and the programs and uh the elements that you mentioned, I think are really important as one of many uh to to build a robust and resilient system.

But there's we can't we can't uh try victory uh just yet on on homelessness and we're gonna have to really be committed to the long haul um uh to the services and the programs and uh the elements that you mentioned I think are really important as one of many uh to to build a robust and resilient system thank you counselor Gusteson hi counselor one carlet um I wanted to first say that uh I mean you just kind of hit the nail on the head it it's important to celebrate um but we're you know always keeping our head down to get the work done uh because there's a lot more to do and I'm really impressed with what has been accomplished with all the different partnerships you're utilizing uh and it it sounds like things are run very efficiently um and you're doing you know more with less uh just because the amount of uh success kind of demonstrates this uh but I just have two questions that are kind of correlated together when you're doing the work on housing um have you used other processes uh lessons learned from other municipalities to kind of help you um grow and and uh find find what's going to work for this initiative for housing and on the flip side um with all of the positive outcomes you all have had is there a plan to share any of that uh the process and learnings uh with other municipalities thanks counselor uh gustafson for those uh for those questions uh currently the SHS program has two oversight committees one is just one is the regional uh SHS Oversight Committee uh the other is the tri-county planning board each have a a a bit of a distinct focus in terms of best practices uh program improvements whereas the other is more compliance financial practices kind of like a uh the a traditional auditing board as you would say which is the SHIS SHS Oversight Committee um on the oversight structures there has been such a big focus on learning from best practices from uh other cities across the country that we see as is our peers but also cities that we aspire to replicate success from I mean there's uh uh uh a lot of case studies that we've seen from uh Houston Texas um as well as other cities uh in the in in the United States um and we have had uh panels of experts from those cities present to um SHS I guess you could say uh officials um that might sit on those committees and also to the Metro Council and and I'm fairly certain to the county commissions as well um one of the things that uh metro uh and and counselor schimmel alluded to this one of the one of the teams that Metro oversees with our administrative funds is is uh the capacity building team um and of the of the many goals and strategies that that team has one of those focuses is to uh continue to build uh competency education um and skills for uh cities and uh uh and and other uh providers throughout the region and so it's definitely something that we we see our role in doing especially as an aggregator of what is going well um because at the end of the day the important work is being done by the counties and those resources are being uh uh uh implemented through the county so yes to your second question okay thank you counselor Gonzalez are there any I just wanted to wrap up by saying that you're a tremendous asset to the city of Forest Grove and to Metro in addition to all the great things that Councilor Gonzalez does he also volunteers and gives back to his community so I believe your birthday is coming up and it's like maybe your fourth annual TV highway cleanup so we want to I'm gonna give you an opportunity to plug that and recruit some people.

Yeah well I would love to see to see y'all there uh in the past I've been honored to uh have have y'all uh support and attend but every year since I was elected to the Metro Council for my birthday we've hosted a cleanup on TV Highway uh and we picked up over hundreds hundreds of bags of trash uh throughout that time this year on September 6th uh we will be hosting that um and uh I'm actually going to be publishing uh the registration link on my social media um in my newsletter uh tomorrow so please keep uh uh on the lookout for that but I would love to see um many of you there again and I do believe that that project which has mobilized over 300 volunteers over those six years at this point is like one of the reasons that the strong community support has helped us secure over 28 million dollars so far uh for Metro and uh yeah thank you for for helping and being a part of that cool thank you so much and thank you for staying late.

Okay, we're gonna move on to public hearings, ordinances, and resolutions.

Our first resolution is 2025-48, adopting revisions to City of Forest Grove employee handbook and keeping resolution or repealing resolution number 2022-50.

And we have our human resources director, Red Dyke Committee here.

Hello.

Hello, good evening, everyone.

Thank you for having me.

The employee handbook is on the agenda tonight to be adopted by the council by resolution.

So just for those of you who haven't been here for one of these sessions before, the employee handbook is a compilation of general personnel policies governing the employment with the city of Forest Grove for all employees.

However, the handbook is superseded by collective bargaining agreements for any union represented employees if there's a conflict in the language or if there's an area that is already covered, a provision covered in the collective bargaining agreement.

As is common with cities that have a council management form of government, these policies are adopted by city councils, as I mentioned by resolution.

The current employee handbook was adopted in 2022, and by resolution and this version that is in your packet tonight would be replacing that version.

Included in your packet is a red line version of the proposed revisions to the handbook.

We make periodic adjustments to the handbook due to many factors, but primarily legislative changes or clarification.

I make notes throughout the years if something comes up and we're wondering what that could be more clear, or if there's any ambiguity on any of the policies.

Or if they're not covered in their collective bargaining agreements, which would supersede these policies.

So I'm gonna just go over the changes briefly.

There aren't very many, but the first three on the back on page two are legislative or compliance changes.

The primary one is Oregon paid leave or paid leave Oregon that was implemented a couple of years ago.

When it was implemented, there was a lot of work that needed to be done by the state to clarify, provide implementation policies and lay out how it was going to work.

And we also knew that there was going to be several changes coming down the pike every six months to the in terms of the implementation.

And so what we did at the time is we created a temporary paid leave Oregon policy so that we would have something we would be abiding by the law, but I didn't want to change the employee handbook and make all these arduous revisions until it was pretty final.

And that happened recently.

There's only one more change going to affect September some next month, but I did incorporate that as just a very minor change.

So number one is basically the entire family medical leave policy was greatly revised because of having to coordinate family medical leave, the federal law with Oregon.

They also changed the Oregon leave law and paylee Oregon, so how they all work together and what's covered under what.

So it is a little bit complicated, but I think we um did a good job getting it all condensed into one policy that so that was one of the major changes that I've been working on for quite some time.

Um, the second thing is military leave under Oregon statute has also changed, and the primary change there for people who are in the National Guard or this isn't military leave active services as people who are on active duty training or inactive duty training.

Um, they now are paid instead of 15 paid work days by the employer went up to 21 work days by the employer.

So that was the primary change in chapter nine.

Um, number three is the temporary policy that I mentioned on payleave Oregon.

I'm just adopting that as an appendix because it's really specific to pay league Oregon and it's much more clear leaving it there.

So those are the legislative and compliance changes.

The additional proposed changes, many of them are just housekeeping or clarifications.

Um, so the first one is a very short section that talks about employee incurred expenses and reimbursement.

It basically just says, you know, it's per diem.

And so then I just added a reference to the city's travel and business expense policy and procedure so that employees know where to look to get more information on that instead of adding that all into the employee handbook and making it a lot longer.

Um, number two and number, well, excuse me, number two.

Um, this we decided to put in because of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission the recent opinion and the city attorney's recommendations just to include some of the city's current to memorialize what we're already doing that's considered part of employee compensation.

And I know the council is going to be looking at that this evening um for the council as well, but um things such as um once a year we have a holiday party, and once a year we have an employee picnic where the department directors put for the employees, so things like that memorializing what we already have in place basically that would be considered part of compensation.

Um, and some of those things um our tax um our taxable income, which are like gift cards after you've been here so many years.

So some of the things so we're complying with law and all of those things.

Um, number three and number four both have to do with the criteria that's used for step increases for employees for merit-based step increases, just clarifying what more objective criteria on how it's determined if an employee is eligible for a two-step increase, which is fairly rare.

Um, we just wanted to make sure that we had a more objective criteria on that.

Something that we implemented um a few months ago.

Uh health insurance on number five is just a clarification.

Um part-time employees have a different premium split for their health insurance premium than full-time employees.

Instead of just saying it's halftime, I put exactly what it is in there, so employees would know for 20 hours a week versus um I almost said 75 hours a week, but it's 0.75 time of TE.

Lastly, um, we have a health reimbursement arrangement, um, an HRA VIBA.

You're probably familiar with the VIA, you've heard about it through all of our collective bargaining agreements.

So the city has a different program.

Basically, each of our unions and our employee unrepresented employees have slightly different VIBA programs, and that is money that the city is contributing toward employees post-retirement health insurance expenditures.

Employees can use it now, but they're encouraged to use it when they retire and be able to pay for premiums and things like that.

It's one of our most popular benefits that we have.

Um, we are exchanging one of the benefits that is in there for unrepresented employees with the same service recognition and retention program that is basically versions of it are in the police contract, which is where it originated for retention purposes.

IBW and Fs may both have it now too, and so we're just implementing that program and replacing a different program that we had for unrepresented employees beginning whenever this um resolution is passed.

Any questions on any of the revisions?

Any questions?

All right, all fiscal impacts have been budgeted in the biannual budget.

Um recommendation is that the council adopt resolution 2025 48.

Great.

Okay.

Um there's no questions.

So is our motion on the floor?

So move second.

Okay.

Resolution 2025-48 was moved by council president Valenzuela and seconded by Councillor Falconer.

Is there any discussion?

I think it's just like we had to do it.

I mean, right?

And thank you for doing all the work.

Thank you, friends.

Um, so hearing none.

Well, it's a meandre, please read it by title only.

Resolution 2025-48, adopting revisions to City of Forest Grove employee handbook and repealing resolution number 2022-50.

Great, thanks.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, please say aye.

Hearing none.

Resolution 2025-48 is approved by the Force Grove City Council and a vote of seven to zero.

Moving on to resolution two zero two five-49, adopting a food and beverage policy for appointed officials.

And I'm going to introduce our city recorder, Miss Mariah Woods.

Thank you, Mariah City Council.

Uh, so the the next two resolutions are the culmination of several events following the OGET Act findings, sorry, Oregon Government Ethics Commission findings that disallowed public bodies from offering food and beverage to elected and appointed officials, unless they were that was part of the official compensation package.

So the city council held a work session on that in July.

Um, and following that uh consensus at that meeting, we have taken the language that was provided by the city attorney and put that into a resolution format for consideration.

Um, a few notes on this.

It is official compensation, but we do want to note that this is a continuation of practices the cities has been doing, and it's not new additional services.

Um, I also want to note that these are not uh it's not a guarantee of these things being provided to elected, or I guess in this case appointed officials, it's just allowing that if the city does decide to provide these things that it's covered.

Um, for appointed officials, the budget estimate um was at 2,500.

Um, and I believe that's everything.

There's any questions, I'm happy to take them.

Yeah, and I just want to that can I add a little bit?

Yeah, right.

The that amount was for the annual boarding commission like reception that used to be done.

I mean, in the years past it was done at the senior center.

We moved it to the Grand Lodge two years ago.

We did not have it this last summer.

So that's that budget piece, but that was already part of our budget.

Like we did not increase our budget with this.

I guess I just want to clarify we did not increase our budget because of this resolution.

Um, and then I do want to note as well that uh it says in the staff report, but that this is specifically appointed officials who are not considered employees.

Um, because some appointed officials are classified as employees that would fall under a separate policy.

So this is only for non-employee appointed officials.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Maria?

Hearing none, what is the wish of the council?

So move second.

Ooh, I'll give it to Martinez.

Okay, resolution 2025-49 was moved by counselor Schimmel and seconded by Council President.

Oh, wait, no, I'm gonna go.

Seconded by Councilor Martinez.

Um discussion.

See no discussion.

Will the city manager please read it by title only?

Resolution 2025-49, adopting a food and beverage policy for appointed officials.

Okay, great.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, say aye.

Hearing none.

Resolution 2025-49 is approved by the force growth city council and a vote of seven to zero.

So it's gonna get a little bit clunky feeling.

So I I will give you my agenda too if you if that works you too.

Council president.

I think I got it.

So I'm gonna go off the dais and then um okay, and then this will be a roll call.

Oh, right.

All right, all right.

So next on the agenda is resolution 2025 zero.

See the recorder will present.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, if it's okay with the council, I won't go over the same uh staff report from the previous one, but this is just the part of the elected official version of that.

The only main difference is is again the budget um projection that we had for it was three thousand dollars rather than the 2500.

Um, and again, this is already budgeted because this has been a past practice.

Um, and then as you know, the mayor has recused herself um just to stay in line with with OGEC rules.

Um, I'm sorry, um with Oregon State rules.

Um, yeah, any of the counselors who can't vote on their own compensation package essentially.

Happy to take any questions.

Right.

Any questions?

I have one question clarification.

I just want to make sure because it's it's clear in the report, but I just want to make sure that when you said that the three thousand dollars per um per year for mealtimes is not just for this resolution, but it's for the entire council.

Apologies, yeah.

That's right.

That's okay.

It's you didn't say anything wrong.

I just wanted to make sure it was any more questions.

All right, is there a motion?

I move that we accept.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Oh, counselor marshall.

All right.

So uh it was moved by counselor martinez, second by counselor uh Marshall.

Yes, not too okay, all right.

Any discussion?

Mr.

City Manager, please read the resolution by title one.

Resolution 2025-50 adopting a food and beverage policy for the mayor.

Um we need a roll call vote as well.

Roll call vote.

Uh councillor Marshall.

Yes, Councilor Martinez.

Yes, Councilor Falconer.

Yes, Councilor Schimmel.

Yes.

Uh Council President Valenzuela.

Yes, Councillor Gustafson.

Yes.

So the resolution passes.

Um getting a handle, please.

Okay.

Thank you, Council President Valenzuela.

We are now going to move on to resolution 2025-5-1, adopting a food and beverage policy for councils.

Counselors elected in November of 2022.

And it's the same staff report.

Um we just are separating for voting purposes.

So is there a motion on the floor?

So wait, wait, wait, I should let you guys recuse yourselves first.

Sorry.

Would counselors like to recuse?

So this is someone should be for anyone elected in 2022.

Okay, so yeah, councillor Marshall would like to recuse Councillor Valenzuela and Counselor Martinez.

I got stretcher legs.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, so what is the wish of the remaining counselors?

I'll move to a okay.

Uh councillor Falconer moved and counselor got you for the second, if that works.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Are we any discussion?

Saying none.

We'll say manager read it by title only resolution 2025-5.1 adopting a food and beverage policy for counselors elected in November 2022.

Great.

Will you also call for the votes?

Councillor Gustavson.

Yes.

Counselor Schimmel.

Yes.

Councilor Falconer.

Yes.

Mayor Wenzel.

Yes.

Resolution 2025-50 is approved by the remaining force for our city counselors in a vote of four to zero.

Okay, we're gonna move on to resolution 2025-5.

One would anyone like to recuse themselves?

Yes.

Okay, I see Councillor Schimmel, Counselor Falconer.

I'm recusing as well.

Councillor Gussen.

Thank you.

Wait, what is the wish of the remaining counselors?

So move.

Yeah.

Okay.

Second.

No, you're fine.

Great.

Thank you.

Resolution.

It's good.

Resolution 2025-52 was moved by Council President Valenzuela and seconded by Councilor Martinez.

Any discussion?

No.

With the city manager, please read it by title only.

Resolution 2025-5-2 adopting a food and beverage policy for counselors elected in November 2024.

Thank you.

And roll call vote, please.

Councilor Marshall.

Yes.

Councilor Martinez?

Yes.

Councilor Gustavson.

Yes.

Council President Valenzuela.

No, no, no, no.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, sorry.

No, Councillor.

I apologize.

Counselor Guserson.

Sorry.

I recuse.

I recuse.

My apologies.

Okay.

Council President Valenzuela?

Yes.

And Mayor Wenzel.

Yes.

The vote of four to zero of the remaining force growth city council.

Resolution 2025-5-2 is approved by the Forest Growth City Council.

Thank you, Mariah.

Thank you, Jesse.

Thank you, Council.

We're now moving on to Councilor Communications.

And I'm going to start with our Council President.

Uh Valenzuela.

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

So we had the presentation from very important information regarding the library.

I think there were very a lot of uh previous questions.

Um about what is you know that the WCCLS really does.

And why is it you know um important uh this levy?

Why is it important for our library?

So it was really great to hear from them um from Washington County, you know, in different uh areas today.

Um there was a change for the gathering of the groups.

It's not going to be in October anymore.

It's going to be in November, but I will get back to you with the with the date, the actual uh the actual date.

And uh the C D B D P A B, I was not able to attend.

Um I was traveling at the time, uh but counselor um Shimmel was kind to attend on my behalf.

And uh there we go.

Um many things took place on that day.

Uh there was a tour.

This was the one in-person um meeting that is held on uh in August every year.

Uh so there was a tour uh and the presentation of family prom uh promise the facility uh with this organization just completed renovations and all this has been done with funding from uh the PAB.

There was a presentation also from the 2024 consolidated plan accomplishments includes uh the home uh ARP funding to Centro Cultural Casa Amparo which shelters uh homeless uh families and um let's see what else um and I think that's it.

Let's see what else.

Great.

Thank you, Council President.

Okay, and then I'm gonna move on to Councillor Falconer.

The point back sort of in time.

I apologize, this is a little old because we've met back in July.

So it's been a while over a month actually.

But we received a letter from the Bureau of Reclamation Reclamation about actually essentially hitting pause and uh abandoning um the work that had been done on an alternative seismic um alternative for the dam.

And what they've said is that the current uh the current assessment for the total cost of that project uh will be too much.

And we and the joint JWC staff are uh working with our federal um our federal delegation to make sure that um the one of the suggested alternatives was restriction to restriction of of use of the of the reservoir and them just sort of reiterating that that that is that is just not easy.

Um and so the letter did indicate that they will be reassessing and pursuing a new structural alternative.

It doesn't give any information according to the way about you know any kind of read about what that would be.

Um simply that the proposed the path currently um is not one that they're willing to pursue.

So I think I think just stressing to our federal delegation, it's just very important to them to make sure that the restriction is a no-go.

Um the and I'm sure we'll get more of an update pattern.

Um the other two, um, I've had two chamber meetings um since we last met, including um attending the chambers um uh their retreat.

Uh and so I was here for most of the day, and um it was really actually it was it was really great.

The retreat was it was really wonderful, wonderful to see how much the chambers um you know the various people in the room, they were doing all these exercises about sort of you know doing their own visioning process and how much alignment there was um between the various organizations.

So, you know, chamber and city and Pacific and um the school district and how much alignment there seems to be, which just sort of underscores any um you know the good work they're doing in communicating in in the in the community.

Um that work plan was not finalized yet at our next, which was the regular chamber meeting, um, just a couple just last week actually.

But they did give an update um on a couple of things, and that was one very fun thing is that they are they were rewarded.

Um they'll be doing a civics um uh civics B.

So it's it's sort of it's for it's for middle schoolers.

Um it was yeah, it was but it was so anyway.

There was a there was some alignment there between us on the city and the chamber on maybe coordinating um as we go through our own cited civics academy here at the city for the first time, you know.

Maybe there's some cross pollination to assist.

And I think that's all I got.

I didn't want to throw Juan Carlos a curveball, but um, I have not had a and wait.

Yeah.

That's been a that's inner, yes.

I think it's that is that that's county though, right?

Or is it Metro?

I know I think one Carlos serves on.

Yeah, it's comprised of a number of different interests, but the managing entry managing entity is the county at this point.

Yeah.

No one really knows, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilor Falconer.

Next up is Councillor Gutson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, so it's a pack meeting.

Uh last week, uh, we talked about the mural again that is in Lincoln Park.

Um, it is completed and it is gorgeous.

Um they also discussed looking at different options for art, what the expense will be uh for different different types of art.

One of the things that they talked about was a clock that one of the one of the committee members had found that that's just gorgeous, but it it is kind of a mass-produced thing.

So the group decided that that was not the direction they wanted to go because they want to stick with you know custom art that's made by artisans and not purchased from a company.

So they can they can kind of mull that over as far as uh them looking for more um more art to display.

Um I did that's all I have for uh for uh the public arts commission, but I did want to again bring to everybody's attention um that DA Barton himself said that he has no disclaimers because he's an elected official, just like all of us, and he can advocate for anything.

Um again, that's us.

Um across the country this is done, and it should not be treated as inappropriate when I do the same for uh downtown revitalization in the city club.

In addition to that, I understand that as council we have to be very cognizant and good stewards of our resources, all of our resources.

But just another reminder that programs do not become f first perfect or efficient or exactly how we would like them, and then earn a partnership.

These become strong because of the partnership, the partnership which the city was to be a part of.

This is what builds a good organization.

Uh if the council continues to withhold support, it will take a lot longer to get there.

The way to build this success is to partner now so that we can grow together and make it a better organization to better serve our community.

And that's all I have.

Thank you, Counselor Gusin.

Um I wanted to just because I remember now and both Councillor Falconer and Councillor Guston just spoke, but I was wondering if you guys could take it to the HLB and then also to pack.

Um, we have the new trash cans, and I think it would be really cool.

Like Neil from HLB when I was on HLB had talked about like historical photos.

And then also some I've been hearing some rubblings that people don't like the new trash cans.

And so if we could if public art, like if there's a chance to collaborate between HLB and public art to print some like historic photos or current photos, and I think it's really easy.

I've already talked to Jesse about this, to put um photos on those trash cans and get some art that way, and you know, I think it would be cool.

So if you don't mind, I mean if there's if it's okay with the rest of the council, I think it would be a good option of um something to do to for both both.

Okay, so I'm seeing consulting.

Oh, I'll bring it to to PAC Mayor.

Um the picture, the historic picture is a fabulous idea, by the way.

And also um it's been discussed about doing kind of like I don't know, mini murals on the garbage cans, custom, I don't know, custom paint and stuff to make it look beautiful, but the the historic photos is also a fantastic idea.

But I'll bring it forward.

Well, I thought like if you want examples, I think the city of Ashland has done something like that, and I've taken some photos of those and shared them with Jesse during spring break.

So I'll find those as well.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

So counselor Marshall is up.

Um parks and rec um school district report side of it, uh Cornelius will be open when school starts.

Uh grounds may not be complete.

Um field lights are up and working.

Um the high school and most schools are starting practices now.

Um almost all the playgrounds are totally complete.

Um as far as I records the slide at Joseph Dale was burned in July.

Somebody said prior to it.

And they've already had it replaced.

Um D Street Joe know if you guys have been on it since then.

But it's actually smooth by the uh voice sanction area.

Um registration is open.

Uh lifeguard certification classes are starting in fall.

Um and there's gonna be no full uh fall full closure since it was such a long closure earlier this year.

Um as far as record goes.

Um went for 10 weeks this year.

They added some in-house stuff with the aquatic center um with aquatic camps and then picking kids kayaking to Hag Lake.

Um they had park flicks, which um had about 75 to 100 people come and they started uh toddler playtime at Sites Park.

Um and fall rec is open.

Um one thing I wanted to bring up to you guys there is some uh concern with a lot of the um local nonprofits and uh the youth sports with um the city is partnering with um Skyhawk?

Skyhawk.

It's a for-profit organization are partnering with um the concern with the nonprofits is that they offer the same thing and they would be willing to do it um at the same rate if not free, offer it for the same people.

So I've been fielding a lot of inform um emails from that and um relaying them to Ann.

And so we're working on a um reaching out to Cody and partnering with those um local organizations rather than hiring Skyhoff to do it.

So I think we're gonna be looking forward to um partnering with them.

So I know that they've already reached out to like FC West.

Um, I believe they're gonna be reaching out to baseball, softball and all the other sports around there to see if they can partner with that and try to make it keep it within the city with the nonprofits.

So um, and that's basically all I have right now.

Great, thank you.

Counselor Martinez.

So let's see.

I did not um was working that night that they had the sister city meeting, but um Zen will be here, the delegation um October 29th to um November 2nd.

They're expecting 13 people, 10 students, three adults.

Um there we're so um Nicole Nolan, who's the chair, uh Larissa, I think she's busy as well.

I think she's the vice chair this year that that was changed up.

And also um Joyce Phillips are not able to be there, so that can be wait a minute.

Interesting.

Wait, wait, wait.

Sorry, am I not understanding this?

So the oh, I think you are three of the main people that are so then we can't do it that time.

Well, that's what Nicole told them too.

That there it that really isn't gonna work well for us.

Yeah.

So um, we have a meeting Wednesday night, so I'll get more information.

But that's what the student delegation delegation, yeah.

Yeah, I mean it has to be reciprocal that we can work for everyone.

And this is the like the student, yeah.

No.

Okay, good.

I feel like I mean, because that the whole the lot, I mean, it's a lot.

Who's gonna do it if they're not there's just no way it can work?

Yeah, I don't I don't know.

I mean, Joyce does the reception, yeah, she does.

And then Paul and Larissa like do the agenda.

They like Nicole gets the interpreter translates.

She she said she was gonna see if there's somebody else could translate.

Um the deal is it's a sister city relationship, and so yeah, it has to have the core people involved in the exchange that know what it how it's done.

Like I don't want to do something because it works for one party and then not have a good product.

Like to me, that's worse, like you know, and like inviting people and then I'm like, well, we didn't really do anything, and there wasn't this link, and you know, and we're already having it's been a challenge recently in the I would say in the last five years of actually having home stay families have kids, right?

Because we don't have a Japanese language class in the schools.

Um that's my feedback.

Sorry for interrupting your.

No, no, no, that's okay.

Um let's see, and there were I don't have a lot to um information extra for the the rural fire district.

Um they have two new people trying to get some of the things, the issues like the now it's turning over the bank account, um, adding somebody new, trying to get their emails situated and everything.

So there really wasn't anything new for that.

Um I attended the park flicks, took my granddaughters and some neighbors at Lincoln Park.

The goofy movie.

It was it was fun.

It was a lot of fun.

And then I went to the chamber luncheon today, and it was good.

Same presentation.

Yeah.

Great.

Thank you, Councillor Martinez.

Counselor Schimmel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, the ADC was off in August, but they'll be diving into economic development actions in the 2040 plan.

So they'll they'll have a busy year.

Uh CCE has been actively working on the ATM.

I I think they have the clarity they need with with a lot of uh staff conversation about the 2040 plan.

So that'll that uh the intention of the ATM is to move the 2040 plan forward in terms of uh a workshop type of uh arrangement.

And and Jesse may add more on that in a little bit.

And they'll certainly appreciate our adoption of the food policy uh because they the approval provide uh necessary uh you know food and beverages and and my appeals that they if there's a premium to buy in local that they're permitted to do that uh and then on the the TV Highway Transit Project that committee's been inactive for several months, but I've replaced that time with paying attention to what happens on TV Highway.

I can I traverse that uh daily, particularly the the intersection of Quince and Highway 47.

So I've had some interaction with uh the senior housing community folks uh one in particular.

And I think I've maybe helped to to crystallize some credible issues that that staff have leveraged their great report with ODOT to see some issues addressed within you know 24 48 hours and and some other uh issues that are still lingering.

So thank you, Jesse and staff for being so responsive uh to that.

Well, thank you too for meeting with Mary and you know doing representing us and doing that good work.

Okay, uh I'm gonna move on to the city manager report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Also I wanted to thank you, Mayor, for your comments about Paul.

He was uh uh a treasured and wonderful co-worker and friend to to all they knew him and uh speaking from the staff's perspective, we will we will miss him.

So thank you for your comments.

Um couple things uh briefly, community open house, Councilor Shimmel mentioned it earlier, just uh put a date on it.

It is October, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's Tuesday, October 28th from 5 30 to 8.

The doors will open at 5.

Um is that at the community auditorium?

I didn't catch that part.

I think it's at the community auditorium, is that correct?

Counselor Schimmel.

Yeah, I think so.

So clarity to come on that, but I believe it's at the uh community auditorium October 28th from 530 to 8.

Uh the Civics Academy that was referenced earlier, uh it's filled.

All 20 slots have been filled.

That begins September 10th.

Uh just a friendly reminder to those nonprofits out there, the community enhancement program grant applications.

Uh those close on September 17th, so there's about three more weeks left for the CEP uh grant applications.

If you uh have a grant, please submit that.

Um Councillor Schimmel also mentioned the TV Highway Access Management Plan.

That project kicked off on August 20th.

Um the consultant team from HDR and ODOT met to discuss the project and tour of the corridor.

Uh this was in reference to a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollar grant uh from ODOT on how to study the corridor and make it safer.

Uh the city did apply for the housing capacity analysis grant uh to the Department of Land Conservation Development on August 4th.

And on that note, uh city staff is preparing a grants list, both grants that we have obtained and obligated uh and grants that are pending and also grant programs that we administer, and I will have that for the council by the next meeting.

So um it just kind of catalogs all the grants that we have in progress right now and and where they're at.

A couple other updates.

The public works administration building.

This was a building that was approved uh in the biannual budget, and also there was some planning funds that were approved in the prior budget.

Uh they did break ground on August 20th.

If you get a chance to drive by there, uh please do so.

Uh that project will last all the way through the winter.

We're looking at trying to complete that in the spring, uh April of 2026.

So that's a much needed improvement that we're looking forward to.

Also, if you are driving north on Oak Street, if you recall there used to be railroad tracks, those have since been paved over, but the speed limit used to go from 25, and then you would cross the railroad tracks going to the north, and it would actually turn to 55 miles an hour.

Um we heard lots of concern from the community about that, especially now that the tracks have been uh paved over.

The concern was actually going south.

It was 55 going to 25.

Uh so in working with ODOT and working with Washington County and doing some warrants analysis for that section, uh public works was very involved in that.

We did get the speed limit changed.

Uh and uh the uh county reissued a new speed limit to 35.

So it's now 35 to the north and 25 to the south.

So that transition.

So if you come off Highway 47 and you're going south on Oak Street, that's a 35 mile an hour limit as opposed to 55 now.

Um Councilor Falconer also mentioned the Bureau of Reclamation.

No need to add to that.

Uh the only other thing I would mention is the Knox Ridge Park project is progressing nicely.

Uh it's anticipated to open in September.

And if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Thank you, Mayor.

Any questions for Jesse.

Okay, seeing none.

Um I'll go over my report.

I a couple things.

Oh, that my mind just went blank.

Um, you know, there were some public comments about the data center and the development code.

Uh that is on an upcoming agenda.

We are looking at the development code.

You know, staff's gonna do like there, and there to my to my knowledge, there's no like pressing application for a second industrial.

So I just want to, you know, I want to put that out there that it is on the agenda.

We are, I mean, do you want to add anything to that, Jesse?

Yeah, no, we are looking at development codes associated with that.

The two primary comments that came out of the initial hearings were setbacks and height, and we plan to address both of those and bring some development code amendments forward to both the planning commission and the council.

We're looking at this fall uh to do that, so more to follow.

Okay.

Counselor Gussen.

Sorry, just really quick, and I was gonna mention this during my comments, but it it aligns with what you said.

I did send Jesse some information about um creating a moratorium just to make sure that while we are trying to develop changes in the development code that um that we don't have another another data center sneak in.

Uh, we never know how fast that could work um for us.

So I I think that would be um the best practice in in this situation, and I think it would make the community feel better as well.

Are you asking for like I don't what are you asking for from counsel?

I I guess um for a conversation.

I think that it would be great for uh Jesse and staff to look into that, what it would look like, how long it takes, because there is a a period um when you when you first apply, I think for that.

But uh I I would encourage the staff to look at it uh as a possibility if the rest of council is supportive of that.

I'm not I mean, right now, like I think that we'd have I'm not supportive of that currently because like but it would be a moratorium to what I'm hearing is a moratorium just on data centers, and I don't really know about that, and I think we are doing, I think staff is doing development code work and comprehensive plan work, and so I think that's the process that we use and have used, and in land use, it's successful.

And um, and and I so that's where I'm at.

I don't know.

Does anyone else you know, land you we can't just change land use regulations without hearings?

There's proper notice requirements.

I think you know, we would this I'm not a land use lawyer, but I've been in a lot of land use hearings, and you can't just change code without a public hearing and a public process.

And I also don't like the idea of making law, you know, policy that is you know reactive to a single use in an in an area that is zoned light industrial.

Um, so I I mean so I'm hoping that you know when we're going through, I mean, I think that I think you're being very responsive here on council, the staff is being very responsive by getting this in front of the planning commission and getting in front of council.

I think that's as fast as you can possibly move.

And I would also say that you know, even I mean, I don't know what the changes look like yet because I haven't seen that draft code, what those draft revisions might be.

Um but I think you know, usually when you make significant changes to the rights of property owners that currently exist right there.

Um, if you're making significant changes to those rights, you know, you should be working really hard to make sure that you're talking with the property owners and making sure that you know they're getting there they're gonna be in this room for those hearings and doing a moratorium to to me sounds like you're passing restrictions on legal rights that people have currently today.

And I don't even know that that would pass mustard with Luba.

I think we would end up in a real problem legally.

Um essentially what you're saying is you're taking right property rights away from people who own property right now in an area that is zoned that has certain legal allowances on it.

So like we would this this is I'm I'm I'm getting like real caution flags in my mind here, and I think our attorney would probably say what is a more moratorium mean, and how is that even legally enforced?

Yeah.

But uh I'm sorry, I'm really confused because I thought uh counselor Gustafsoni is referring to the builders, the developers of a data center.

Am I correct?

You're correct.

Um moratoriums are used, and I believe they have been used in this situation.

It just kind of freezes things um until we can get the code figured out.

You can't have a moratorium forever, right?

There's definitely a limit, and like counselor Falconer said there is the process.

And if we think that we're gonna have the codes back um and changed before that, then you know, then maybe it's not needed.

I was just requesting for a review by staff.

Jesse, can I ask a question, please?

How much in those industrial land do we have?

How feasible is it for another data center to show up and request uh a permit to develop?

I'd I'd have to go back and look at the um economic opportunity analysis.

I don't remember the exact acreage of industrial land that we have.

Um I think the mayor mentioned it earlier to my knowledge, there are no pinion applications uh at this point.

Um, and nor do we we know of any potential applications.

Um, but that doesn't mean that you we won't get one, we just don't know of any at this point.

So thank you.

Okay, so is there any consensus to move forward with the work session on a moratorium?

That's what I'm hearing.

The ask is from Councillor Griffson.

No, um no, okay.

I don't think there's consensus.

So we're gonna move on.

Thank you.

Um, so that was that.

I just want to say a couple things too.

And uh I'm real excited about CCE.

They have they you know, looked at some feedback and they're switching the ATM to a weeknight, the Tuesday, it's in the evening.

They're like making it more of like a resource open house, interactive.

I think it's like momentum 2040.

So just tell them great job.

I'm just so excited about that.

And I'm also really excited, just want to plug our community.

I mean, I just think I love our whole city staff so much, but then also I'm just gonna shout out communications because the Civics Academy was full two weeks before the application period closed, right?

So that's just a really good job.

I think of you know, finishing up the 2040 plan, doing the civics academy.

They also have CEP going on right now at the same time.

So just a little shout out for them.

Um I'm not we have five minutes, so I'm not gonna talk too long about the different things, but I do have an ask of council that I would like consensus about.

Um I recently attended the mayor's innovation project conference.

They host two conferences, one is in January in Washington, DC, and then one is in the summer, and they change regionally where they are.

Um literally in my teaching career and as a city counselor, it was one of the best conferences I've attended.

It was three days, it was like things you could actually use.

A lot of it was panel discussion, right?

So they'd have an expert.

So like the first panel was for the right response, the right time rethinking public safety in city cities, it's talking about like alternate responses, different things, but that the moderator was um policy project from NYU law, and then they would have people from different cities, like either staff or mayors say like, hey, these are the things we're doing that are working for our community.

Um, so that was one of them.

It was like climate if you join this, then people who attend the conference don't have to pay the registration fee, but you also get access to their staff and the people that they consult with for things.

And so, for example, if we joined, if we chose to join like climate action, they would give us like a heat action plan or heat mitigation where we could like a toolkit we could send out to the community.

So oftentimes I think with a staff, like they're doing an economic development initiative.

I mean, there's just lots of different things, and so my request, I guess I'll just get to the point is that the fee for our city, because we are small, is 1,200.

So I'm asking for consensus that we can join and become a member city and help support this group, and then also be able to use resources and then attend the conferences.

So that's my ask.

And attending the conferences is an additional charge.

No, or okay.

Well, you'd have to pay for whoever attended would pay for their travel expenses, but the actual conference, my understanding is free.

That's my that's what they told me.

If you're if you're a member, that's the membership.

Yeah, it's well, and if the city's a member, then city staff can attend.

And it says mayor's innovation project but there were counselors that attended as well.

But we we all have a choice of what we attend or don't attend.

So I think um I think it's really valuable and I think it's a reasonable cost and like it was really applicable things that for each session I was like I can take I mean I was like texting Jesse during the sessions like we need to do this we need to do that.

But anyways that's my ask is there any okay you give us an opportunity to see material and bring it up at the next meeting.

Yeah what's the best way I mean I can what's the best way to do that do you want me to like do a work session or meet with you one on one or I can go I mean I don't know.

You can also look at the website that has all of the agenda in the PowerPoints presentations.

Yeah if we could get a link yeah that would be great on it yeah I can maybe city staff send an outside city staff can send out a link to the mayor's innovation project violate the organ ethics by you know what I mean.

Mayor's innovation mayor's innovation project oh the best part one of the best things too was they do a mayor showcase and it's a one hour during lunch on the first day and mayors come up and they have three minutes to like sell like something really cool that they do in their city.

So that's all on the website too you can look at what everyone's doing.

I think it's worthwhile but I can revisit we'll revisit this at the next meeting.

Okay.

Um and then with that with one minute to spare I'm gonna adjourn this meeting on the Forest Grove City Council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Boom all right I didn't need oh oh my gosh I know