Good evening.

I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Forest Grove City Council a little bit late at 7.13 p.m.

Will the city recorder please call roll?

Councillor Gustafson?

Here, Council President Valenzuela.

Here.

Councillor Shimon.

Here.

Councillor Falconer.

Here.

Councillor Martinez.

Here.

Councillor Marshall.

Here.

Mayor Wensell.

Here.

Forest Grove City Council meetings are located on the land of the Twilight and Calapuas, who call themselves the At Pilates.

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

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

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

Thank you.

And whereas what began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Johnson was expanded by President Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15th and ending on October 15th.

And whereas September 15th is the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Nicaragua, sorry.

It is followed by the Independence Days of Mexico and Chile on September 16th and 18th, respectively.

And whereas this year's theme, Collective Heritage, Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future celebrates the deep cultural traditions and achievements of Hispanic communities while looking forward to the creativity and promise of future generations.

And whereas we recognize and honor the many ways that Hispanics have enriched the cultural education, educational, and economic vitality of Forest Grove, while also rededicating ourselves to addressing the lack of equal access to opportunity that many still face.

Thank you, Council President.

We're gonna move on to item B on our agenda, public comment.

Time provided for anyone wishing to speak to 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 may use the raise hand option to be called on.

So we'll begin tonight with Mr.

Jordan Miller.

All right, so I'm here as a board member on City Club, and I came and spoke a couple of weeks ago at uh one of the city council meetings.

So I'm back and hopefully reporting a little bit of progress.

Um so given two minutes, only last two minutes.

You proved me wrong right away.

Um I'm gonna go through a few of these on just some progress that we've made and identified kind of some targets of where we're at right now, and since football just started, I'm gonna use a few football references to uh give some parameters on the progress.

So um, and this is in regard to the 2040 uh plan.

So section 1.6, uh local small business partnerships.

I'd say City Club right now we're at about the 70 yard line.

Um section 1.8 on the 2040, the long-term vision with the main street program.

I'd say we're also at the 70-yard line.

We're at the point where we need to have some communication with the city or other groups to make sure visions are aligned and all the work that we're doing is going in the right direction.

Um events downtown.

So we have six currently.

If I wanted to be uh braggy, I would say we have twelve, because one of those happens six times.

Um so we are currently doing six of those.

I'd say, hey, we're at the 95 yard line, we're putting on an event uh statistically once a month or at a minimum once a quarter and exceeding that slightly.

Um 4.6 increasing volunteers and membership committee.

Um that is something we're actively working on, have a clear vision for to be able to get more members and volunteers.

I'd say that one's at the 70-yard line again comes down to executing on that last 30 yards.

Yes, that is hard sometimes.

If you watch football games, that's uh you'll see it there too.

Um 4.7 internships with FGHS.

Uh had a really good meeting with the Chamber of Commerce a couple of weeks ago and learned about uh the expanded vision with the internship program and need some more communication on which I'll be working on on what difference between workforce development and internship programs are.

Um I've got eight more of those, but I'm down to 18 seconds, so I'll wrap up here.

Uh can verify and confirm that uh one dollar invested in specifically the main street program statistically returns uh $18.

However, I think defining and being really clear on how we measure that, and also for our specific city, what might be missed.

And I'll read.

We're almost there.

It takes time, that's my story.

I'll see you in a few weeks.

Okay, thank you, Jordan.

Thank you.

Michael Perole, three, two, five, four ring point.

If you could use the microphone, please.

Microphone, the microphone, you need to move the microphone over to your seat.

Well, I usually don't need that.

I'm so low.

It's for the TV, but thanks.

Good evening, Mayor Winsel and City Councilors.

Please excuse my casual attire, but I just came from putting the flags in preparation for the September 11th ceremony.

So I was starting to get dizzy bending over.

I know that I often come across to you all as a bit crabby and complaining about veterans' affairs and homeless issues in our community.

But tonight I am here to recognize you and to thank you very much for your support at the recent flag retirement ceremony at the Forest Grove Senior and Community Center.

It was very, very wonderful to see you there.

And I thank you for that.

Your turnout is is well appreciated.

Now during my last visit to the council, I asked if veterans don't speak up, will they be admitted from city planning?

And I sounded kind of gruff and rough about that.

Well, your presence at the ceremony, especially on such last minute notice, has shifted my thinking about that about the city.

And I do know that you care about your veterans and your community.

And thank you for your support for that.

And I will keep coming back to see you because you know I'm trying to get a tribute park for veterans created in our little city.

So thank you all very much.

Good evening and good ashes out of total.

Thank you.

Rodney Gotzatsend.

Good evening, Council.

Uh probably here for a different topic than what you would expect.

Let me adjust that a bit.

Um I uh am here just as myself a citizen, but I'm involved in Indivisible.

Indivisible is a pro-democracy group that is nationwide, and we do have a chapter here in Forest Grove.

Uh Indivisible promotes uh uh particular candidates that they back.

They um they have a protect our people for those that are most at risk group, uh, along with multiple other facets of the group.

I'm part of the actions group there.

So you probably know us as the guys who like to stand out at flagpole with science periodically.

Um what I am here today, much like Michael, is to thank some of you.

We have multiple people come speak, both at our meetings and at our rallies.

Uh Senator Solman in the back there has spoken at at least two of our rallies so far that I know of, but I'm here to thank you guys because Councillor Gusterson, who you know I'm a little biased towards, has has spoke several times.

But Councilor Valenzuela has also come and gave a fantastic speech both in English and Spanish.

I'm a firm believer that democracy works best when we are involved, when everyone is involved.

And I want to celebrate you that are on the other side of the desk there for being not just servants on that side, but for being involved in the community.

Thank you for everything all of you do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um good evening, Madam Mayor and uh members of the council.

My name is Michael Gettlin, and I oversee uh compliance and public affairs for Nectar.

We're one of your cannabis dispensaries here in town.

Um I'm here to uh flag a little bit of a growing concern that that we've got quickly.

Um in 2020 when we opened, I believe we were the third uh dispensary in town.

Uh now we are up to six.

Uh originally when adult use cannabis rolled out in Oregon, the OLCC had an open licensure system, uh, but got about four times as many applicants as expected.

And as we sit now with roughly 900 retail licenses spread across the state, uh it's been economically unsustainable for many of them, particularly uh the over saturation in the Portland market.

Over the last few years, uh that series of business failures and sales of those licenses have led to many of them being moved into surrounding communities such as Forest Grove.

Um so going from three to six over the last few years is a trend that we see no reason uh would not continue.

Um and it puts us at risk of uh, you know, future of having 10, 12 cannabis dispensaries all spread along Pacific Avenue.

Um, you know, where there's plenty of competition here, and what I'm saying obviously may sound a little bit self-serving, but I don't think we need 12 dispensaries anymore than we need 12 donut shops.

Um and this is an issue that if there are not amendments made to the zoning code around cannabis uh might kind of come back to bite us and create a difficult situation in the future.

So um submitted online was a note of similar effect um by one of my colleagues and friends.

Uh Tony and I are both on the board of the cannabis industry alliance of Oregon, and we've done some consulting and work with other municipalities here and in other states to address oversaturation through zoning.

Um, and we'd love the opportunity to continue that conversation if it's something that's of interest to you.

And also just a quick note we love working in this community.

We have 40 stores across the state, and this is absolutely so thank you for everything you've done, and uh hopefully continue the conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Charmel Hendrix.

Charmel or Charmel Hendrix.

And I'm um wants to I want us to have art walk here.

I want us to on Wednesdays.

I want people to come into the community and for the city club to support this and because there's so many ways we can get more people to come, like in Portland, you know, and in the house for the artwork's kind of went away with the Sequoia went away.

So yeah, that's all I wanted to say.

Okay.

Thank you.

I lost you for a minute.

He's here.

Of course.

I'm Dale Feek, Mood Force Grove in 1966 to become a public school teacher.

I follow Nick Christoff, the Pulitzer Prize writer for the New York Times.

And he wrote a story called The Clue to Underlocking Parkinson's Maybe All Around Us.

Great article.

I shared it with David Morris who has Parkinson.

And I also went out to Yamhill to pick up my cider at Christoff Farms on Sunday.

And I got a chance to talk to him and his wife.

And but I read in detail what he wrote in a link.

And in that, there was something that really concerned me, and I replied and sent him an email about that.

And it says America needs you.

This is an advertisement in one of his, and it shows you know, a person point in the United States needs him.

And it says up to $50,000 bonuses written on the flyer for ICE recruits.

You know, Donald Trump is declared now we have Department of War, not the Department of Defense.

It's a war on the people, and particularly war on cities that are governed by Democrats.

And that really concerns me.

You know, we have a the unemployment rate, people are being laid off, they're being fired, unemployment has gone up caused by Trump's action.

It appears that Trump is trying to build a paramilitary priest police force via ice.

Everyone should be concerned.

You should I know that your business is local governance.

Much appreciated.

But we also have to protect our citizens and be aware of what the Trump regime is doing.

Thank you.

There are no others signed up to give public comment.

Is there anyone in the audience who would wish to give public comment but may not have signed up on the form?

Okay, seeing none, let's go to a 10.

Anyone on Zoom who would like to give public comment, please use the raise hand option.

Seeing none, we're gonna move on to item C on the agenda.

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.

In this case, I Tim.

What's the wish of the council?

So move.

Second.

Who moved it first?

Was it Gustison?

Counselor?

Okay.

Counselor Gusten moved, and I think Councillor Martinez seconded.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, please say aye.

Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved by the city council on a vote of seven to zero.

Item D, additions and deletions or deletions.

City manager, are there any additions or deletions, chief?

I have no additions or deletions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Any proposed by council.

I do.

Councillor Schimmel.

So following our uh August 25th consensus on the strategic direction of our downtown redevelopment uh tonight.

The judicious step would be for us to redress resolution 2024-03, which uh adopted in January of 22 2024 authorized the letter of support for city club's application to join the Oregon Main Street program.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, so there was a motion to redress resolution.

I don't have the number, but what is it?

2024-0.

2024-03.

Uh in regards to letter of support from the city for city clubs to apply as an affiliate member of the main street program.

It was moved by Councillor Schimmel, seconded by Council President Valenzuela.

So at this point, Jesse, do we it's did you want it added to this agenda?

Okay, so can we add it?

And it does not require a public hearing.

So can I add it to F2?

Yes.

And we'll discuss and go over it at that point on the agenda.

We need consensus to add it.

Do I need a consensus?

I have to get a consensus to add it to the sorry.

So we had a first, a second, and now we need a vote to add it.

Yeah, you're requires a vote.

Do I have a dis then do we also have a discussion about adding it?

Is there a discussion to add it or just a vote to add it?

There's a motion and a second to add it to the agenda.

I presume is item F2 after the resolution.

Um I'm gonna defer to Mariah on this.

I guess it's hard to parse out, but you would have discussion on the motion rather than the content of it.

Right.

So is there any discussion about adding it as F2?

Can I ask for clarification about specifically what the motion is?

I want to understand what what do you what are you hoping?

Yeah, the motion will be to rescind that resolution and direct the city manager to contact the LMS director to uh recover our connected community level.

Councilor Martinez.

So I know since our last meeting, I've acquired more information.

But wait, are you discussing if you're we're gonna oh okay now we're discussing if we want to it's okay.

I was gonna see ahead.

We're just discussing if we want to add it.

We're not discussing the motion yet.

We're discussing if we want to add it as item F2.

Oh and then those comments like hold them for for discussion of that.

Okay.

Okay, let's there any other questions or discussion about I adding item F to read called redressing resolution 2024-03.

Okay.

All those in do you want to do a roll?

Was it better?

Let's do a roll for counselor Schimmel.

Yes, Councilor Falconer, yes, counselor Martinez, no, counselor Marshall, no, counselor Gustafson, no, Council President Valenzuela, yes.

Uh Mayor Wenzel.

Yes.

Uh the motion or the addition will be added in a vote of four to three.

Moving on to E.

Presentations.

We have a presentation.

Um state legislative updates from Senator Solomon and Representative McLean.

Presentations.

The council will not will hold questions until the end of each presentation.

A two-minute reminder will be given to the presenter to conclude remarks.

Hello, ladies.

Thank you for coming and visiting us tonight.

Are you going first?

Well, I know I'm they don't know how fun transportation package has been for you, Rev McLean.

Am I going first?

Okay.

It's whatever you want.

I didn't want it to monopolize.

And so but we can do that.

Hello.

Hello.

My name is Susan McLean.

For some of you, I've met you before, and some of you I haven't.

And I just um always enjoy coming to the cities to talk about what's been going on in our long session.

And uh this year it was very active, and we had lots of bills, uh, over 300 3,300 bills.

We had very active um both legislative bodies, and we also had a major transportation package discussion that went on for close to 19 months.

And it started out with a tour around the state, and the tour was 13 stops, 13 tours, 13 round tables, and 13 public hearings.

We also then came back in the session, and we can continue the conversation in January through the end of the session in June.

And we now have been in a special session preparation period in July and August.

This House came in at the end of August, and we were in session for four days.

And in that session, we had two bills that basically were the reconciliation of the current budget bill, as well as the policy elements that we felt had to go along with that reconciliation of the budget.

At the end of our house, we passed it, and we passed it over to the Senate, and the Senate then uh took it up, uh, got it on the agenda, read it, and then made a specific date to actually vote on it, which is going to be September 17th at this point.

So that's the process.

Now, as far as the content, there is much in the bill that are important to many of you as cities and counties.

The most important is that we kept the 50-30 split of all of the resources that we pull together as a state, 50 kept by the state to work on state responsibilities, and 30 going to counties and 20 to cities to work on the roads and the pedestrian and safety issues and maintenance and all of the things that we all care about as both businesses, communities, and families in our state.

So that's the basic structure.

As far as what the funding elements are in this particular bill, there are three specific types of elements of fees or taxes.

The first is a six cents increase in the gas tax, so it would go from 40 cents to 46.

And then we have uh for the transit element a 0.1, a point one from the payroll tax.

We have a 0.1 currently that's been there for seven years.

We added a point one, and that point one is to last because of an amendment that we made in the special session for only two years, so that we can talk about what might be a better resource or a better funding device for transit.

We know that we have transit already laying folks off because there is much need in both the rural and the urban areas, and we did not go to a single stop across the state where they did not talk about the importance of different types of transit for medical appointments, getting to the grocery store, getting students uh to different places if they needed to go.

Uh some of these kids travel up to 95 miles a day one way, and so there's a lot of need for um some different types of support, even of our school buses.

We also then had um some fees that were DMV fees, titling fees, registration fees.

Remember that those fees are some paid every two years, some are every four years, title fees, for example, are paid once unless you lose it, and then we have to replace it.

So a lot of the fees there are you know very different as far as how much they are if you pay it once, if you pay it on a regular basis.

So that's the basic package.

One of the other elements that's really important in this package is basically the accountability that we've started over the last seven years, uh all the way back to the last uh large package that we had in 2017, but it has been upped uh in again two years ago when we started talking to ODOT about where they were doing really well as far as performance and where there was much uh from both our partners and from an audit that was done in in April of 2024, and another um audit and what we would call an efficiency report that was done in May of 25.

And we have started to already act on some of those outside suggestions made from experts that weren't even from the state of Oregon, but were very familiar with the types of things that ODOT does in the state.

We have started to see some improvements in certain areas.

The one that is the hardest, and I don't care if a city does it, a county does it, or the state does it, and that is large capital projects that are for uh either resiliency maintenance operation, making sure that they're safe.

And when those go over a two to an eight year period as far as developing and building them, the price of those because of supplies, um, because of materials, because of working and labor costs, those don't always stay the exact same as when they were initially started.

So we've been working diligently in that area to make sure that we are on budget, that we're being aggressive and trying to look at every possible future cost as much as just present cost.

So those are some of the things that we're doing on the package.

We had support from triple A, we had support from the truckers, we had support from the League of Cities and also uh the association of counties.

Uh, we have had um a wide variety of both public input.

There are some that believe that we should not increase any fee.

There are some that believe that any tax that goes up is a bad is a bad function or a uh bad move by the by the state legislature.

But quite frankly, folks, if you care about housing, if you care about any kind of trade, if you care about economic vitality, you care about infrastructure and resiliency and safety are our number one.

So I that's my report.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to do that.

Now I also have bills, and I know that the senator is going to talk about some of her bills.

I'm gonna just say three things.

The three areas where I did the most work was in education, uh working, continuing to work on the budget committee and working on things like summer learning, working on accountability with our schools, and working on elements that would help us support teachers more in our classrooms.

I also worked um diligently on a bill that both on the senator and I sponsored.

It came from something actually in House District 29, but it was on deep fakes, and we had a lot of the current students who were actually being um hurt by pictures and by deep fakes that were being put on social media, and it's very hard and difficult to tell a real one from a false one.

So we made stocking, not just you have to chase somebody down the road or follow them home, but anything you do online also has some stocking consequences.

That was an important bill to me, and it helps someone right here in our district 29.

I also worked on utility bills, the senator's gonna talk to you more about those, but I worked diligently and was a major co-sponsor on a couple of those bills as well.

And I also worked on housing uh primarily with um Senator or excuse representative Marsh, and uh worked on some things that dealt with module homes, which we have in our district, and also with rent costs and when uh folks can put that rent up and how much type of notification they have to give renters before they do increase the rent on their property.

And so those are the things I've been working on.

It's been an honor again to serve you and to represent you, and I look forward to talking to you or answering any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Do you want to do a hold questions, Len, or do we want to ask questions of Brett McLean?

No.

Let's do let's ask questions now and then we any questions.

Council President.

Thank you so much for being here and for your report, uh, Representative McLean.

My question is um the distribution again, the distribution of how much it was for counties, how much for cities.

Can you repeat that, please?

Yes.

So this is a long serving and a long um a long time system that we've had.

We are one of the only states in the United States that gives some of our money from the state back to the counties and the cities.

There is a formula, okay, and you get um different amounts depending on the county or the city that you're in.

But we also, especially on the counties, have a small county uh amount, and we also have some programs for particular types of cities with certain needs, and so that's very complementary to the small county amount.

But it's 30 for counties, generally speaking, 20s for cities.

Thank you so much.

I think we we're gonna move on.

Oh, Counselor Martinez do have um so our I want to say that the um I'm afraid the bills that were passed, the un the one with giving the unions 12 weeks, was it of um unemployment?

I really see that as impacting our cities adversely, um unfortunately, and then um with the transportation package, I feel that that's going to impact um put our levies at risk, the Washley County and our library levy.

Um people and the big business are leaving Oregon by the droves.

Can you tell us what you're gonna be doing to help with our businesses and the population to make us more prosperous so thank you so much for senator for 15 and so I would say uh looking at I and um my go-fresh much of what you're sharing with Senate Bill of Nice.

I did vote no very concerns and our cities and our counties and public classes don't have profits to be able to um work with um so it the money does end up coming up, say in a school, it will come out in days and so I I don't think yes as far as economic development again you're concerned we're reading the headlines and we're gonna uh information about intel and um all around in 90 manufacturing alone within this area is deeply concerning when I was talking to a legislative colleague and we were talking about this.

The comment was care about well, you need to care about because it is they are our largest private employer in the state of work.

We need to make sure that we depend on uh income tax in the state of a flourishing economy to help with housing transportation education, and that comes from having good business here for and so um I I share that.

I am working on concept around economic health, and not only personal bills, there's also some that we're working on with um energy environment that I share um as uh blue economy bills and different coastal communities and our river communities uh with sustainable business.

Thank you.

Okay, so I was like we put you in the hot spot by answering a question before you presented, but we'll turn it back over to you, Senator Saltman, to present on your topics.

Thank you.

Um, council and mayor, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here.

I'm Janine Saltman, as I said, I proudly representative 15.

Most of you know I did grow up in Gales Creek, graduated from Fourstroke High School, and so it is absolutely amazing to represent community where I grew up.

I still know so many of the books here in four stroke.

So I currently um have some committee assignments that I wanted to share with you.

I serve as the Senate Committee Energy and Environment Chair, I'm on the joint committee on ways and means.

I serve as the subcommittee um co-chair for education, and the as well as the information management technology that is joint committee service administrative hearing oversight committee and the charitable check-off committee.

Um commission, I'm sorry.

So those are all opportunities to partake in the process when we are looking at at work that we have legislation in State.

I have proudly represented senators as 22, and I will tell you I cannot miss work so long.

Not only do I have fabulous colleagues, um, but I have a fabulous team.

Um Barbus has been with me for seven years.

We have worked together.

We have worked together with Ali Leninga with our office as well.

And during session, oh my voice just got amplified.

During session, many of you know Mark Watson, and he worked in the office, as well as I had four college interns and two high school interns.

And so those are incredibly important because together we move a lot of this work forward.

We cannot survive without our team.

And those partnerships also include the city, the cities that we represent, the county, our police, our fire, and our local groups that I have the opportunity to work with.

You know, when we're not in session, the opportunity to go and do ride-alongs with our police is so incredibly important to see their perspective.

I had the opportunity to have a sleepover, a stay over 24 hours in the fire department.

And that was exciting, not knowing what bell I was to listen to to fling out of bed and get ready to hit the engine.

But it's it's important because in those in these times of the interim, those school visits, those ride-alongs, those business visits, those connections are what lead us, I think, to better legislation because it's the perspective that all of you share that we take that voice back to Salem.

So we had lots of opportunities to work on bills, as we mentioned, utility bills, which were so incredibly important to utility ratepayers, especially as we're hearing from our investor-owned utility customers and such.

As a as a board member, as you know, they work with uh domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.

Um I myself is a survivor of childhood domestic violence and and taking that experience and working with them.

We were able to bring Senate Bill 710 forward this past session, working with those survivors.

Again, we asked people to come to Salem every day during session and share their stories and share their personal stories and their experiences to create positive change.

And it's very painful for folks when it's not successful the first time, and they come back again and again and again.

And so with Senate Bill 710, we were able, we heard and the importance of having our judges have have training that were that was trauma informed when they're making decisions in courts that are about domestic violence, sexual assault, especially in our family courts.

We're hearing over and over again how those impacts of the decisions they make really take a family's traject trajectory can be very dangerous.

And so we were able to work with our Oregon Judicial Department again, survivors, the Family Justice Center, and so many more to come forward to provide that training for judges, and that's going to happen.

Also worked on a bipartisan measure to uh raise the um the eight the air the age of marriage to 18 in Oregon.

And that's not that is a net nationwide movement that um my friend Senator Brock Smith and I is a Republican from Roseburg.

We saw it at a convention at a um national convention, and we said, how can we work together and do this?

We had so many sponsors, and we were able to pass that and pass that moving forward.

Uh very impactful again uh testimony that folks came forward.

Working on the deep fakes, um, working on having that constituent voice lead to positive change is incredibly important.

When I was on a ride along, I heard similar stories while I was in the police car, and so um I think when we're able to make that positive change, that is that's a really good thing.

Um, also for our energy and environment bills, um, we were able to work on a statewide banning of the PFOS firefighting foam.

Now, Force Grove, they don't use PFOS, uh, they forever chemicals within their firefighter foam.

And I asked them, and I asked all of those folks when we were working on that, like how um how will this impact you?

So we saw it it's really gonna be quite a turn that we talked, worked with the firefighters, the the now the um Oregon uh firefighters, and and that we will phase this product out as of July 1 of 2026, and um as you know that forever chemical will get into our water system and can affect so much in public health.

So there's other things that we can be doing about PFOS that um endanger um Oregonians, and I look forward to working on that.

We also had a um bottle bill modernization.

Look, our our bottle bill in Oregon is one of the most successful EPR programs, extender producer uh responsible programs in the state of Oregon.

Actually, I would even go to say in this in the country.

We have other states that are coming to us and looking at our model of our bottle bill, and as you know, 50 years plus strong, and that was brought forward by our Republican governor.

And so um, this is really looking at how we can address issues that we were seeing in in the Portland area, as well as making sure that people in rural areas had accessibility to the green and blue bag uh system, as well as it will make some changing uh hours, it's not affecting um our forest grove safe way because we have the bottle drop right across the street.

I actually worked at Safeway at that Force Grove.

I used to count those bottles, so snaps to them that they don't have to do that anymore.

Um, but I I did um but we're gonna change any grocery stores that have bottle uh deposit, uh they're gonna be eight to eight, so eight a.m.

to eight p.m.

Um because they were finding staffing issues and everything that was happening.

So there was good changes with that, as well as banning the plastic uh bag.

As you know, in 2019, I work with students and advocates and so many um environmental groups to and our chambers and such that passed it um in local cities to ban the single use plastic bag in 2019.

Well, then COVID hit, and so we had some real learning opportunities, the bags got thicker, and so this past session we actually passed a bill that is going to eliminate the thick plastic bags.

So in our grocery stores, it's going to be recycled paper content only, paper bags.

That's a good that's good for Oregon business.

Um, as well as bring your own.

I I have a whole trunk full of reusable bags myself, and so um just making sure that we're cutting out plastic as much as we can because the plastic doesn't just end up on our streets and and in our garbage, it actually ends up in our body through microplastics and getting into our water system.

So um, and then continuing on with uh some legislation that I worked on with again with so many.

Um I I don't want to use the I statement because truly none of this work is done alone, and um working with folks on right to repair for consumer electronics when we were able to pass that.

Yes, we took on Apple, super snaps, proud of that, and uh we were the first in the nation to take on what they call parts pairing in uh with phones, and that was basically they were making two exact phones with different serial numbers, and one could be have a broken screen, and you could not put the screen on another phone without having all sorts of faulty messages and things coming up.

So it was making people go and buy new phones, brand new phones, which is very costly to Oregonians.

So we took on that issue around consumer electronics, and this past session we added wheelchairs and mobility devices, and again, we're not the only state that does this.

We followed Colorado's lead on the wheelchairs, that was the first bill they passed.

They took our consumer electronic bill, and so um working on um education bills as well, um, standing with our school board members and and and hearing from them as to what impacts they were feeling you know that they would um that they needed to they needed to provide their feedback on, as well as we have the opportunity in Salem to provide memorials and um resolutions and uh we did a uh Senate concurrent resolution that we uh co-sponsored for former mayor uh Richard Kidd, um, as well as our former Pacific University Dr.

Um Philip Creighton.

Um we provided that um that uh state recognition and others, but I know Force Grove, that's uh directly tied.

Um you also might know Dr.

Ralph Helgerman, he was connected with, I think, uh as an optometrist um in the area too, and in Hillsborough.

But um there's not a shortage of action.

Uh bill limits, we had a bill for that.

Uh we actually folks don't need a bill for that.

So, what we do need is communities to work together to tell the legislature you need to act on that, because I have to tell you, I think that's government inefficiency.

We have 3,000 plus bills.

We don't, as legislators and as partners and as advocates have the time to be able to look through all of these bills and efficiently and effectively look at what needs to be done and and uh have a good solid process for that.

So we need to take that on.

We both voted for the the cap on bills.

The what well it didn't pass time, yeah, it did not, it doesn't it did not move.

Yes.

Didn't it?

So um it it didn't have that, but it doesn't, we don't need a bill for that.

That's actually something that chambers can agree upon.

So you created a bill to create a bill.

Well, that hasn't worked for 11 years.

So I also just want to mention um in in closing, um, it's really important that, especially in times where people are feeling a lot of emotions and heightened feelings, and we're hearing it at our town halls, um, that I I really often believe in connection before content, and it's really important that we really make sure that we're connecting with each other and connecting with our neighbors and figuring out how we can help each other with different things and how we can look for solutions locally, because I think that's where we can make the best and biggest difference.

I just held my 150th community conversation in a Renko outside.

Um it was a great turnout, and people, it's not just about me sitting there talking for an hour and people listening to me.

It's really about neighbors getting together at a table and hearing from each other and getting to know from each other what their concerns are, what their ideas are.

So I will have my 151st on the 24th here at Rogers Park from 6:30 to 7:30.

Um, I have them for one hour.

I call them one and done because I want to respect people's time.

Um, and uh with that, I really want to respect your time and just say um how much I really appreciate this opportunity and I sincerely appreciate your partnership because we can't do this alone, and we do need everyone coming together and you're not doing anything wrong.

It's your phone.

During our work session, the first work session, we were like we thought we were getting like Zoom bombed because the microphone is just caught up.

So it's not you.

I know, it wasn't moving.

So, but you know, thank you again.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh Counselor Falconer.

Real quick, I just wanted to, because we've heard from folks sometimes when legislation gets passed from Salem.

And there's this, there's this idea that um you all sit together and you make up laws and you pass them.

And as someone, and I know a few of us have actually gone and participated in different legislative days and even provided testimony.

And so I was hoping that I would I would share with you what my experience is that there are hundreds and thousands of, I mean hundreds, thousands of people every day coming into that building when you're in session.

They're providing hours and hours and hours and thousands of pages of testimony.

You're not just hearing them in your committee hearings, you're also hearing from them in your office.

You take personal meetings in your office with constituents to talk about the various bills that do end up getting passed.

These things don't happen in a vacuum.

And I just wanted to say to you thank you so much because you spend an enormous amount of time, and I know that you're doing it out of love and not because you make a lot of money from it.

Um, because we know that you don't.

And um, so I just wanted to sort of you have an audience in the room.

I just wanted to capture what I was thinking about the last few weeks because I've heard it a couple of times, you know, that these bills just come from on high and and they don't.

You work very, very hard to get this legislation done.

And I know that you're doing it um because you all have all of our best interests.

I also just wanted to say one more thing.

You mentioned PFOS, and um, I wanted to mention I was following very closely the resolution that uh representative Daisy Graber, our member, um, was able to pass.

And so I'm very thankful to that.

And it would phase out eventually PFOS in firefighter turnouts, and that is the gear that they wear because if yes, Forest Grove might not be using PFAS in its extinguishing operations, but those chemicals do still um they are they do are they are contained in the in those turnouts that they wear.

And what that means is that when they're when they're exposed to high heat, those chemicals are actually entering our firefighters' bodies even more than they would if they were just being worn in the lobby here.

Um, so I would encourage you to to please uh work with her um and supporting that phase out.

Um I think I think that um the health outcomes for our for our firefighters um is it's awful because of the cancer rates that they experience.

So thank you.

I was actually thank you so much, Counselor Uh Falconer.

I um actually we talked about adding that um to that PFOS firefighter phone bill, and I spoke with a lot of the firefighters uh that said that it wasn't they they weren't gonna put a large effort behind it at this time because there really wasn't a good solid research-based uh turnout yet, and they want to make sure that when that happens, I didn't realize my dad was the founding member of the volunteer fire department in Gales Creek.

I still have his turnouts.

And I want to tell you, as a mom, I was terrified to realize and learn that because my kids used to play, used to play dress-up in his turnouts and everything else.

And you don't think about that until all of a sudden you're, you know, uh you're hit with that information.

And which is why we've been really successful in passing, and I wish we didn't have to, but we pass bills around firefighter health and presumptive issues that they're having with uh what they do uh running into the danger.

And um, I wish we didn't have to pass those bills, uh, but they're they're getting sick, and we need to take care of them as first responders.

And so I absolutely, when there is the green light and she says, let's go, I will definitely be there.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So I want to just add, we have a really wonderful house member, uh Daisia Graber, who is a firefighter herself, you know.

And she, I think she really energized us in that area.

And the other element is because of the wildfires that we've had to fight over the last six, seven years.

Um, there's been more awareness of some of the threats to both our workers and to those around us and to our environment.

And so there are our folks that we're working with on that as well.

And another one of my colleagues, um, Pam Marsh from Ashland, who I've worked with a lot on those wildfire, you know, considerations.

She's going strong, and we really will have more of that here in the future.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments for I've seen none.

Thank you both so much for coming.

Uh, we really value your relationship with us.

Thank you.

And you can tell your firefighters and your first responders that they're lucky that I don't ask for write-alongs because there's not enough, you know, liability for me to be on those.

But and I have this, I have this companion who loves to do it.

I'm ready to do it again.

So I just fun from her.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Have a nice evening.

Sorry.

Okay, next up, we're gonna start with item F on the agenda, which are public hearings ordinances and resolutions.

I will now open the public hearing on resolution 2025-5-3.

If approved by the city council, this resolution will adopt new electric rate schedules for services invoice on or after October 1st, 2025.

Do any counselors have a conflict of interest to declare?

I mean, I want to kind of ask a silly question, but like we all pay the rate because we live here.

Okay, anyways, but no.

Okay.

So I'm gonna pass it over to Keith, our lightning power director.

All right, good evening, and uh thank you, mayor and council.

I'm going to uh was not going to read from the presentation materials from the 25th unless there's questions.

Mainly was just gonna work my way through the staff memo and uh kind of start from there.

Thank you, Mira.

So the city hired uh FCS Bowman, uh company or financial consultant to update the cost of service and rate study.

And the study is designed to review the light and powers revenue requirements to fund operating costs while maintaining revenues for operations and capital expenses.

FCS and the city staff looked at the current and projected operating costs, projected power costs, capital requirements, and revenue requirements.

I'll read from here.

Um if any increases should be considered within the next five years.

City staff and the consultant, city council held a work session on the 25th, and we went over the entire study to present the results of the study.

The polling items were significant factors that contribute to a consensus to increase power rates for all users by 3.25% effective October 1st, 2025.

The Modelville Power Administration, who we borrow power from is increasing our power rates at about an average of 9.1%.

The increase would maintain adequate operating and contingency reserves, and the increase would cover budget debt service for our capital projects.

Council also reached consensus to perform another rate study prior to considering any further rate increases.

We will perform that study this next summer to see if what we had projected in this study is still true or if we need to make any changes at that time.

Exhibit A reflects uh the changes uh that were approved by city council.

It also includes a corrected amount uh for a very small amount of rate schedule four that staff discovered while reviewing the rate study and revising it, and it had to do with two small areas.

This did not affect anybody because there is no customers on rate schedule four at this time.

The consultant reviewed with council the potential impacts of adding the new large loads over the five-year period, and the additional power required for the new large loads is projected to have a downward pressure on potential future rate increases for all users.

The updated rate model indicates the city will be able to maintain its reserves at the recommended amount through September 30th of 2026.

Mayor, I can take any questions that council may have.

Thank you.

Any questions?

I have a couple questions.

The additional rate study we're going to do next year.

Is that in the budget, or how much will that?

Uh, this rate study cost us 43,000.

Uh it is not in the 2026 budget.

We were going to do it in 2027, so we'll bump that up.

We will probably have to do it again in 2027.

That's when we do expect uh the future uh if the new large loads do come in, that's when they will start having an effect in 2027, not in 2026.

Yeah, and I think that's a clarifying question.

I another question I had.

So right now there's no indicator of a change in our loads between 2025 to 2027.

Correct?

Or well, there's no indicator in the uh revenue.

Yes.

Uh there is projections that some loads will start coming on if they follow schedule.

Uh the rate study determined that it's too soon to have any effect on the rates for these first two years.

That's why we did suggest a 3.25 for both years.

Both years, just because if all follows suit, it won't have any start to have any effect until 2028 is when the additional revenue should help.

So I guess that's just another follow-up question.

If nothing changes, do we have to do another rate study, or can we come back to council in a work session saying, hey, nothing's changed?

Like this was the projection from the last study, and there's been no you know, nothing's changed, so well, we could assume.

I mean, what do you think?

Yes, but I mean we'll have to relook at everything.

That's why we hire them to actually determine that for us independently.

Um possibly look at that.

Um, my expectation is we will need another rate study.

Okay.

Any other questions for Keith?

I I do.

I want I would just want to have I have a clarifying question.

Um, and that is maybe just to ask you in the report, um, and and part of the reason why we're only raising rates to 3.25% over the first year, and looking at it again next year is because it's we're we want to see what the new large loads.

So the ones that we we we have land use applications, they're starting to build out the site.

We're anticipating that the large loads will come online, and in the report, it says the additional power required for those large loads is projected to have a downward pressure on potential future rate increases for all users.

And I was hoping that you might put that into plain language for me and for others who are curious on this.

So the projections um that we did with this financial consultant looked out five years, very similar to our last one.

If you do recall, and we could go to the presentation if it's helpful, um, that with the new large loads coming online as expected.

Um the year three, 2028, it will start uh producing enough revenue that will meet our minimum requirements is the expectation.

And then year four it gets even better, and year five it gets better, and then we actually went past that in our study and um looked even deeper into that.

Um but in the study it also said that to continue the the the first one won't even come on until June of 2026 if it comes on in time.

So there will there will be no effect.

Um so that's why uh the consultant suggested the the 3.25 for the first two years, and then we should hopefully start seeing um the additional revenue in that next year.

And the projection for years three, four, and five were to raise inter raise rates for all users at zero percent increases.

That's that is if I remember correctly, that is what the presentation was.

That is correct.

Um, without the new large loads, uh the expectation was in 2028, there would be another, I believe it was 3.25%, and then a 3% and a 3% with the new large loads.

The the projection if it all comes out is 000.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further questions from staff?

Okay, I will now call on persons who signed up to comment on the resolution.

Comments are limited to three minutes.

Please state your name and address for the record.

We're gonna start with proponents, then I have Dale Feek signed up as a proponent, but he's looking at me skeptical.

You may come up and tell me the category you would like to be in, and we will adjust.

I had a chance to meet with uh director Heath uh recently, last week, and because I wrote him an email and ask a bunch of questions, and he said instead of answering the questions, why don't you come talk with me?

So I did.

And uh I learned some things that I didn't know.

Uh for instance, I I learned that when I did the appeal and did the public records request and got all kinds of information that there were transformers that crane data center were gonna buy and install at two substations so you could have one goes out, then the other will be there to still provide the power.

So and Crane has purchased those, they are here, and Crane will uh pay for the installation of those.

So that's the thing I learned.

I also learned that I thought Crane was gonna have to do another uh planned use permit before they could get past 10 megawatts of power.

Well, you can get up to 9.99, and many corporations don't want to go over that because there's big penalties.

So I learned that they're going to go eight megawatts per year on a rolling basis, which is good.

Uh so that's the reason that in time they will get up to I think it's the 47 megawatts, which is a lot of power, and and but those transformers already will have the power in them to do that.

That surprised me.

Uh, and I don't quite understand that, but that's the way it is, okay.

And then when they go to what I call auxiliary two, but that was a question, building one, building two, building two gets I think about 37 megawatts of power.

But uh they still may have to.

I didn't learn this from Keith, I learned it from other ways, but but they may still have to do a land use permit to get that.

So, you know, data centers are terrible because of the amount of power they use, and I was quoted on TV by saying that they're they're data hogs, right?

And so in Forest Grove, we're gonna have a data center.

It's gonna be developed.

And I talked with an engineer today, Rich Blackman, because there's an issue about the road being put in, and they have the crane has to get the right permit to do that, and they don't have it, so they have to wait.

So I'm impressed with the city engineers and the people tracking this, and they're looking out for the best welfare of the residents and the rate payers.

So uh just interesting.

You're getting so good with your time.

Thank you very much, Dale Beek, Mr.

Feek.

Okay.

Anyone else who would like to provide testimony as a proponent, opponent, or other comments?

Anyone on Zoom, please use the raise hand feature.

Okay, seeing none.

Uh would staff like to respond to any of the testimony.

Okay.

Sounds good.

The hearing is now closed.

Is there a motion from council?

Move that we move forward with the resolution.

Okay.

Second.

Resolution 2025-53 was moved by Counselor Martinez and seconded by Council President Valenzuela.

Um, is there any further discussion from council?

No.

I don't think so either.

Okay.

Will the city manager please read the resolution by title only?

Resolution 2025-53, adopting new light and power department electric rate schedules and defining and definitions and descriptions for services invoiced on or after October 1st, 2025 and repealing resolution number 2023-55.

Thank you.

Will the city recorder please call roll?

Councilor Martinez?

Yes.

Councilor Marshall?

Yes.

Counselor Gustafson?

Yes.

Counselor Council President Valenzuela.

Yes.

Counselor Schimmel?

Yes.

Counselor Falconer?

Yes.

Mayor Wenzel.

Yes.

Resolution 2025-53 is approved by the Forest Grove City Council in a vote of seven to zero.

Um Mariah or City Recorder, say manager.

There's been a request to take a bio break.

Can we do that for five minutes?

Like, is there a process for that?

Can I just go on?

Oh, the next section.

Okay, we're okay for right now.

Okay.

Never mind.

Sorry.

I misunderstood.

Uh, we're now gonna move on to item F2, and I'm gonna pass it over to Councilor Shimmel.

Do I provide some explanation after the motion?

I think so.

Yeah, please have to want I think here's the resolution.

Go ahead, just speak to the motion.

My motion is to rescind resolution 2024-03 and direct the city manager to contact the OMS Oregon uh Main Street Director to restore the city of Forest Grove to the connected community level.

Okay.

Um you want to say your reasons.

All right.

Well, for those in the in the public, uh, I and as my colleagues know, I sent a more thorough letter uh through public comment so you can read uh my rationale more thoroughly there.

So I'll just highlight uh a few important things.

Uh one was that resolution was narrowly focused.

It merely said that the that they the city would support the city club's application to the affiliate membership of the OMS program and authorize the mayor to sign a letter of support.

Uh I don't believe at the time or as I've gone through the history of public documents.

Uh was it ever declared in any presentation that there was any further commitment beyond that?

Uh and as I think we all know, letters of support are not binding agreements.

There's no guarantee or funds or commitment of staff resources.

But the uh I think the more pressing issue was the expectation of a collaborative agreement that included three parts.

One was working collaboratively with the chamber of commerce on Main Street initiatives, second was ensure chamber voting representation and three committing both organizations to active participation on a leadership committee.

And I have it under good authority from the chamber that that their representation is has not met these expectations, citing concerns over trust, primarily membership dues, the non-disclosure agreements, and beyond that, just the rampant confusion that remains between businesses, owners, and our partners.

I think by rescinding this resolution, we reset the city can reset the framework, protect valuable staff time and ensure access to state resources in the future.

I think staff and council need the space to rebuild our relationships and deliver on our commitment to the 2040 plan and our downtown business community.

I think this mere this motion merely memorializes the consensus at our August meeting.

I think our experiences have been reinforced by the issues already identified in the OMS assessment report we saw.

Um there's also some additional history that's important to the conversation where in December 2023, EDC's consensus or the economic development commission's consensus supported the chamber of commerce and the EDC's stands by that decision even today where I serve as the liaison on January 8th.

Staff report a staff report and presentation led to council consensus to support the chamber's application somewhere between January 8th and the 22nd.

There was a change of direction outside of public process in terms of record compliance.

There doesn't appear to be any public record reflecting that change, not not particularly not with the EDC from their December 23 uh decision.

So I just asked the council to consider uh this motion so that we can more effectively move forward with our 2024 plan.

Okay, any questions for counselor Schimmel?

We're not discussing the motion yet, we're just asking questions about his yes, resume the president.

Yeah, go ahead, counselor.

I would just ask for clarification.

Uh counselor Schimmel.

Um you said from January 8th through the 22nd, something happened.

Can you elaborate in detail of that, please?

The best I could do to elaborate is there's no public record reflecting a change in the opinion between those dates.

Okay.

I've heard I've heard conversations about private conversations that occurred outside of a public process, but there's no public record as to what that conversation reflected or why there was a suddenly uh resolution to support a letter or support for the state.

But I would emphasize that just the resolution itself has been unsatisfied in the 20 months since you counselor Gutson.

Um I can answer Councillor Shimmel's question about what happened between those times.

Uh can you save that?

That would be discussion in the question.

Well, like here's the deal.

We first we need to ask the process, we ask him questions for, and then we have to see if there's a motion, a second, and then right?

A motion, a second.

Am I correct?

I thought this was just like this is questions, we're not discussion yet, right?

Am I correct or am I not correct?

Yes, that's correct.

It's essentially since there's no staff report, essentially this is the point where you would ask questions of the staff person, but you're asking questions of the person making the motion.

Right.

So it's a question right now.

So, like if you need more context of the his reasoning or whatever the resolution, then you would ask questions now.

Then after questions of council Schimmel are over, then I'm gonna ask for a motion to right for this.

Well, I think there's some process questions we probably should address at some point regarding what a rescindment is, whether you do that tonight, or whether you bring back another resolution rescinding this at the next meeting.

So there are a couple procedural things that we probably should cover with council to get clarified before to to determine how the council may want to move forward.

Okay, do you want to do that right now?

Ryan, I think I'll turn it over to you.

Um rescinding resolutions is kind of new for both of us, so we did some research, but it does look like generally the best practice would be to have another resolution rescinding it.

So essentially what the motion today is whether we bring a motion uh a resolution um at the next council meeting to rescind this resolution.

Um it sounds like there is another part to issue another letter to the Oregon meeting or the to the state of Oregon essentially.

Um so we could do that in the same resolution.

So you would essentially be the motion is to have a motion rescinding this resolution, and I I think another motion to have included in that resolution, um, a letter to the Oregon Main Street program.

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna paraphrase it and restate it so that we're all on the same page and I can process tonight's resolution.

If it get if there's a motion, if there's a second, is the question of this resolution is the question of if we all or if there's consensus to bring a motion or a resolution to the next council meeting that rescinds it and then says the things that he right?

Is that correct?

Yes.

Essentially have questions about that process.

I think the motion would be essentially to direct staff to bring back a resolution rescinding this resolution and providing direction in the resolution about where the council may want to go.

Counselor Falconer.

Yeah, what I mean, let's I I guess maybe where where would this fall?

This question that I have.

Um this is a brand new item.

Yes, we received a letter, but without having the knowledge that this was going to be added to our agenda tonight, I have not read the original resolution.

I have not read the letter because I was not on council when that happened, and I was not following this issue.

So my question for process is um, and maybe this is a question to counselor Schimmel um about what you know if if I if I feel like the the council needs to have a discussion about the current state of the operation under the current resolution and and whether there needs to be any actions taken on those.

Would that be a question to Counselor Schimmel to table this or to revise the motion?

Um what would be the cleanest, most appropriate course forward for us as a body to have a an educated conversation about the question?

I'm just kind of thinking through this.

Um if the direction from the council is to bring back a resolution at the next meeting accompanying that resolution would be a staff report.

There would be some history regarding this resolution.

um or to revise the motion um what would be the cleanest most appropriate course forward for us as a body to have a an educated conversation about the i'm just kind of thinking through this um if the direction from the council is to bring back a resolution at the next meeting accompanying that resolution would be a staff report there would be some history regarding this resolution most if not all of that material was in the last work session um and so there could be further conversation in the deliberation of that resolution per se um that's one option and another option would be uh if the council would like you couldn't reach consensus I think on a work session and have a work session about it a very narrow kind of focused work session I don't know what else Maria I I you would have the option to table it as well if you wanted to ask Council Shamo or move to the table the motion um either to a date um a specific date or uh definitely you could do that as well.

And just real quick I just want to clarify the resolution and the letter were not themselves part of our packet for the work session last year.

No they were not I just pulled them up.

No I didn't think so and and to this is a bit parliamentary but to be clear rescindment of a resolution doesn't take the resolution away it stops the resolution from that point forward being implemented essentially so you can't kind of undo what was done but you can stop it and redirect if the council would like to do that.

That could be a rescindment coupled with a resolution altering the direction Maurice the the now therefore I I think those sections are actually more helpful than the whereas um could we reflect on on those thank you okay again the motion tonight if there's a motion after discussion if there's a motion the motion a second would be to bring a resolution with a staff report for discussion at the next meeting.

Like that's what is that accurate is that what we're yes and we would want to get some clarification about what that resolution would say.

I think the original item that's on the agenda is to rescind it and then to direct the city manager to send a letter notifying the state parks that it has been rescinded that's the direction thus far but that would be embodied in a resolution.

Okay so before all this happened wait counselor guffson was like do you still have a question for counselor shimmel I think maybe I have another process question.

Okay.

So at the last meeting there were incorrect statements made and so at what point are those brought up since the door was open today is that just something that's brought up at the next session then I think either or I think that if there's a motion and a second right now and somebody feels compelled to discuss things during this discussion tonight it could be brought up tonight or people can bring things up if it gets on right if there's if it's on added on the agenda there's every time there's a resolution or public there's time for council discussion.

So it can happen tonight or the next council president Valenzuela thank you mayor I am extremely concerned right now because uh I believe I misunderstood something here.

So if we approve this right a resolution will be uh brought to us next time right in the meantime you will contact the state of Oregon no the resolution is to contact the state of Oregon nothing will happen nothing will happen because there's no direct action.

Okay that's that's good because I think we might you know be able to modify some things but I think we need the funding you know I wouldn't want to meet lose the main street you know funding for our CD or anything like that.

Um so I I just got really confused and I just panicked for a moment here.

So I just want to make sure the city's not gonna miss out on those funds.

Okay I don't think there's no funds right now anyway.

Okay.

I think there's no funds there's no grant anyway from the state yeah there's none individuals okay oh okay apologies for all the clarifications this is kind of a different one for us.

Um I do want to say that there is an option initially when when the motion was made to rescind I thought it was just to rescind the resolution so you can rescind the resolution and it doesn't undo past actions because you can't unsign the letter or unsubmit it but you can rescind it saying going forward we don't support this and that can be done just as rescinding that resolution um that doesn't necessarily have to come with the motion to um to issue another letter if that makes sense I'm okay with the with the resolution and and proposed letter and staff report next next time the I I guess the um follow up on um council falconer's uh comment the my understanding from the last work section was that there was already direction regarding Main Street and and this merely memorializes it and there's just been concern of the the confusion and um plaguing staff time with that confusion and the the the it seems like this entitlement for for funds from the city when last consensus was we were not gonna fund the program.

The my understanding from the last work section was that there was already direction regarding Main Street and and this merely memorializes it, and there's just been concern of the confusion and um plaguing staff time with that confusion and the the it seems like this entitlement for for funds from the city when last consensus was we were not gonna fund the program.

So and when I say the program, the the city club administration of the program, I believe strongly that the city has adopted um 2040 plan will in effect implement the same objective.

Are there any additional questions for counselor Schimmel?

Sorry.

Um, what's the wish of the council?

Is there a motion or a second to to bring it as a resolution to the next meeting?

That would be my motion to bring it to the next well.

So did he can he can he do another motion?

I believe there would need to be a motion.

There was a motion to put it on the agenda.

Now, if the council would like to take an action, it needs to make a new motion regarding this agenda item.

Okay, so move.

Counselor Schimmel's making a new motion.

Is there a second?

Can we have um I apologize?

Can we have the motion stated, please?

Yeah, a resolution with uh pro rescinding the prior uh resolution and a new resolution that uh authorizes you to send a letter to the state agency that that consistent with what you you said before.

Thank you.

Okay, is there a second?

I'm not hearing one, so it's gonna I'm gonna let it go.

I'll second a council president Valenzuela seconded.

So there's a motion from Counselor Schimmel and a second by council from Councillor Valenzuela.

Uh let's open it up for discussion.

Councilor Martinez.

This is when you had yes, I remember from earlier.

All right.

So I've had conversations with parties who are working to bring a consensus within the bounds of the analysis that we were given from the main street program staff.

Um and I would hate to see that destroyed at this point.

I think he is really working to bring people together with um through um, I lost the word now, um, concession and and agreement.

And I think we need time for that to play out before we move forward with anything else.

I think that we just uh shouldn't rush into anything at this point, and it would be good to let the parties work through this and and bring it together.

Counselor Gutson.

Just uh to clarify some of the impacts of stepping back from the level of of the program that we're up currently.

Um we would lose funding, counselor um Valenzuela.

Um it's not like the program is receiving you know monthly funds or anything like that, but that removes our ability to apply for certain grants, including the very large uh Main Street revitalization grant.

In addition to that, um, it also steps back from the type of support that we get from the Main Street program because at each level you go, it kind of unlocks different um supports that the uh Oregon Main Street program provides and to pull out now when there have been so many businesses interacting where there's been new partnerships made, um, when there's um umbrella contracts being made with companies that are nonprofits here and our businesses use for events, there are umbrella negotiations of contracts to decrease costs for our businesses and nonprofits in forest growth by the city club, and then just the volunteers work so hard, and just to slap them in the face with this when they've been working so hard to get this program up, it's it's heartbreaking.

And besides all of that, for a main street program to get up and going, it takes three years.

That's the that's just the foundation and the infrastructure.

Then after year, after that, there's a few more years where you start seeing that momentum.

And I mean, really, with having a contract involved, saving money for businesses, that's in the second phase, right?

We're already already seeing that kind of progress.

And then the big transformational phase doesn't happen until at least five years in where you're really seeing things get going.

So it it would be a horrible negative for the entire city to back up on this, especially when we're not even a year and a half in.

And as far as I mean, the last meeting, um, and I know maybe not everybody had a chance to read the um list of recommendations, but that document, that report is recommendations only.

And as our state um coordinator uh said to us multiple times, when when the program administrators read these reports, they know their city best.

And so they take that report and they look at the recommendations, they have conversations with the Oregon Main Street coordinators and talk about hey, what's gonna work best in this city and why?

And there were, just as a summary, there were 13 at least 13 responses in that um that recommendation that said that that they were done with that.

They're they accomplished these goals.

These goals are in progress because it takes time to do all that, even just a name change, which of course they are done with, by the way.

Um so it it takes time to get through all of those, and every single one of those either had a done or a done and in progress, or you know, it's been posted on the um the strategic plan to discuss at a later time.

And if we take that away, it's it's going to significantly decrease what what the the city club can do at all.

Um, as far as the partnerships go, the the chamber isn't a partner, they've decided not to be a partner, and being a partner means being on the board.

Adelantes is on the board, um, the college is on the board.

The the chamber has been asked for the past year and almost half to take their seat on the board, and they are choosing not to um citing things that that don't even they're not even reality.

The only thing that's accurate is the NDA that they were not comfortable with, which we said that we would discuss as as a body, right?

The board of the city club was going to discuss that because after talking to the state coordinator, she said, hey, this isn't normally the way it's done, this is the way she gave recommendations.

All that was in there.

And they have been invited multiple times to get on the board, um, twice asked for a mediation from a third-party mediation party that um the Oregon Main Street program recommended because these kinds of conflicts between the Main Street program and chambers are frequent for good reason because there's a lot of overlap, and there are videos on how to solve that.

And apparently, after doing research, there's many times conflict between the city and the main street program.

A lot of it has to do with nobody really knows where everybody fits in.

And that's why the chamber needs to join the board, they can't help us make decisions and vote on those decisions to change the things that they don't like unless they are on that board.

And it's the same with the city.

The city has provided zero support, not one ounce of support, and yet the program is growing.

Just let it fine.

Wrap it up and then are you.

Okay.

Like once again, there's no delineation between counselor and president, the president of the city club been given a unique position on the daisy speaking of the chamber.

I I think the chamber deserves a seat in this conversation if we're gonna allow the president of the city club to have a voice here.

And besides that, it it her comments explain the distress.

Uh because the because what you said about not accessing money is completely false.

The city of Cornelius can prove you wrong quite so.

So what you said about not the city not being able to access money when they're at a connected community, you're absolutely wrong.

Okay.

Well, that wasn't the information given to me, but thank you for that information.

I mean comment I hear is you've been misinformed, so I I there's just a compounding issue that it concerns me in terms of this council being distracted and staff being burdened trying to deal with two different people in one and not knowing whether you show up as a counselor or president.

So Jesse, I want to know that you had the information from last uh work session to guard Miles' time from that interaction until the council has changed its direction.

Is that your understanding?

I'm not sure I understand the question.

Sorry.

Uh I assume that Miles is not being asked or permitted to attend city club activities or meetings until because of in light of last week or the last meetings work session.

So I think the consensus that that we took, and it could be clarified from the last work session was that at this point the city is not participating in the main street program.

Um and and from a financial perspective, um it it was not going to contribute to the main street program.

I think there were some concerns that were expressed about what was mentioned in the assessment, and there was some discussion about that.

Um and so I I think generally speaking, that was a consensus that we heard.

I don't know that there was any specific directives, but generally speaking, that's what we heard is that um, you know, in terms of the city's participation in the main street program, uh that there wouldn't be any funding at this time.

Um and and so in in terms of staff's involvement, um our involvement thus far has been uh pr pretty limited.

Um we have uh in in some cases our economic development coordinator has attended some meetings, um, and other cases they have not.

Uh moving forward, I don't know that there's been that I don't know that there's been a meeting since we had the last work session, Councilor Schimmel.

Um but that was what I heard was a consensus was that generally speaking the city at this point wasn't comfortable uh participating in the main street program.

Um so I'm gonna are you done speaking or can I get some comments?

May I like a ruling on the point of order, please?

Is it valid what was the I mean in Mariah?

Can you there was a point of order?

Um stating that there was a rule violation, so generally the chair would say whether the point of order was valid or not valid.

What rule like which rule violation we have we have uh that's a president of a nonprofit club has been given a voice on the diet.

Hang on a minute, please.

I I don't think there's a rule.

I think that there's not a conflict.

I don't know if there's a rule violation.

Can city staff tell me with I mean I can't stop someone that has two position speak from their I don't know, it's a really tricky situation.

This is a really tricky situation for me to be in.

Hang on, really quick, because I have to roll rule on it.

So I I don't believe that I don't I could be mistaken.

I'm honestly not sure.

I'm sorry, yeah.

So I'm gonna say I don't think that there was a and unfortunately, Donna, um that is a problem, and I think that's the root of the of the problem that we're having right now because you know, being uh the the director of a great club that you know they have worked really hard and everything, but then we have this other situation which involves funding, and I still don't get you know a clear answer whether we're going to lose the funding or not.

You know, I really want a clear answer about that.

What's the repercussions of retracting?

Yes, because then how do we make a decision?

How do we vote?

You know, I I need to have the clarity that we're not going to lose the funding for our main street.

Because that's that's very important if it if it this ends up going.

But Jesus confused him there, right?

Yes, because this one person with uh two voices, let's say, not that you're saying to be a good idea.

I understand, I understand.

And and I think that that's creating well, and you know, it's and it's like also, and I want to because I haven't spoken yet about some things, but yes, I agree.

Um I am very conflicted about Main Street program, how this is all because my understanding is nonprofits, communities become part of the main street affiliate program to catalyst economic development in downtown to right to ignite it to activate it, and so there's all these benefits.

Um hence why we had a sub, I mean, back in 2021, we had a subcommittee, we looked at all of it.

We had two entities who both want to do it.

We had the chamber, we had city club.

It's my understanding that there was going to be collaboration and cooperation between the city club, the chamber, and the city of Forest Grove, and then there was things that happened that basically were roadblocks to collaboration.

An NDA is a non-disclosure agreement.

Our job as this council is financial stewardship.

We live off a levy, public property owners pay taxes, and we fund all these services.

So when we keep getting pushed, and you know, people are posting things online against the city's not supporting Main Street responsibly.

I can't give money to a program that's not going to be transparent.

So there's a non-disclosure agreement, and then when the assessment, I mean, I hope you all read the assessment, and I imagine that the board wrote the response together, wrote the response to the state together, but it never so the the or the main street did the assessment, they gave recommendations.

They said, We think there's a perceived conflict of interest, whether it is one or not, we recommend taking someone else from the board and switching positions.

The response from the main street board to the state was people say that, but that doesn't make it true, and we're not gonna change it.

Then there was a recommendation to do away with a non-disclosure agreement, and the response from the main street board, according to our packet and what was emailed to us was we are gonna revise it and look at it.

Nowhere saying, hey, we're gonna get rid of it because we want public dollars, and our public deserves to know what the dollars are spent on.

There was a recommendation to increase the board representation to make sure different businesses, more businesses, and there was a response of like we've done that.

Um, and then I think there's a recommendation about collaboration and cooperation.

So here I am sitting in this chair, like literally shaking a little bit because I'm just this is supposed to be something that elevates our community, and the the foundation of it has to be trust and relationships, and I think Senator Solomon said it before, like we have to connect together, and I feel you know, we have all these things going on, and then the result isn't to try to mend, it's to post things about the city, it's to say things about the chamber, and so I'm sorry, but I'm like, how do we repair that?

Like there's not good faith, and then another just aside I want to say is 600,000.

How much do we spend on the glow up?

We are investing in downtown $600,000 for sidewalks, trees, lights.

Yeah, if you put all our our grant programs together and then the GLOAP project, it's approximating 600, 700,000.

That's what we're doing this year, and so in one year, 700,000 downtown.

So it's very really infuriating to me to have a counselor and the city club president posting these things and like saying you're not doing anything for downtown when we are.

So um that's where that's where I am.

Counselor Gusten.

So it sounds like part of the the blocker is the NDA, right?

And obviously, a board isn't going to make a snap decision on what to change and how to change it.

That takes time, and you have to read it and you have to figure it out and have a conversation, and that's a board decision.

And this report was responded to with the best information that they had at the time.

And to counselor Marshall mentioned at the last meeting that at the time he felt like his business was doing great.

And I'm so glad.

And that you felt like the downtown was great.

But bringing your business into the conversation, that's your business.

And that's one perspective, but we're here for the entire city.

And as far as the conflict of interest goes, again, it has been already decided by OGAC that it is not a conflict.

Otherwise, Mayor, you've voted for monies to go to different areas that you have a relationship with.

The previous mayor has approved funding for an organization in which he was a board member.

And I expect, I expect Maria, uh, excuse me, Counselor Valenzuela to be able to discuss her employer when we are having a conversation because she knows, she knows her employer.

And the same with counselor Schimmel.

This is the knowledge that we have.

And I mean, counselor Marshall is talking about downtown businesses, he talks about the schools.

These are all things that we have conversations with.

My question, I guess, is I guess maybe I'm asking a question to myself.

I am a counselor, and I am here as a counselor, and I am speaking as a counselor, and that is always the way it is.

The city club has designated somebody else to do the connective speaking between council and city, which was approved and uh appreciated by the main street uh coordinator.

So all of these things are happening.

And when I talk about the chamber here on the Dais, am I not supposed to say this was offered?

Because now you're not gonna know that those outreaches have been happening.

So as a counselor, I have to be able to do this.

As a counselor, I have to be able to reach out to my constituents and say, hey, this program needs advocacy because these things happened.

This is this is free speech, this is this is talking to your residents to say, hey, this is going on.

Do you want it?

Do you want to help?

And the back of the room is all people that want this main street program, and they're business owners and residents and volunteers.

This is something that we have committed to that is going to work.

Every dollar that is invested, if it is a main street program, $18 back in investment.

That is only the main street program.

The city's doing great, right?

I love that we we put money down to um perform maintenance and throw in some more new electrical in the downtown.

One dollar is $18.

There is no program that I have researched and read and talked to the main street program that has that kind of ROI.

And there's going to be a decision made to not move forward with it or retract it or not support it because of some pinching points that we all need time to get through, and that the city could help with and hasn't.

These are all things that we could work on as a council together to try to encourage those partnerships.

Throwing it away after a year and a half, I I can't accept that.

I think I think that's a terrible idea.

Council President Valenzuela.

Yes, uh, counselor uh Gustafsum, I have been, I have not been employed by Centro Cultural in a long time.

I left Centro Cultural, and uh when I have spoken on their behalf, is because I know the work I done they do.

I know the work, the good work they do very well, but I was no longer employed, and nothing that we were discussing was going to benefit me in any way.

Not with it, you know, another job, not with the payment or anything.

I spoke, you know, and maybe that was a perceived bias.

Uh because I know the work they do, and look at everything they have accomplished at the senior center.

I think there was a misunderstanding.

No, but you said that you said that I spoke about my employer.

No, I said I would expect you to speak about your employer.

I would expect counselor Schimmel to speak about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I expect all of us to take those experiences and knowledge of wherever we are, because you are going to be the best knowledge for whoever you're working for at the time.

But in in a and I can't remember what else you said, but um I I am not a director.

I am on the board, like many people have been on the past that have been on council, and none of us get paid.

There, there's nothing.

So this again is one of us counselors using our knowledge and our experiences.

And yeah, I have a lot, absolutely.

But counselor Marshall has a lot in some areas, and counselor Martinez has a lot in some areas, all of us do.

Yeah, and just one more point.

Uh believe me, I wasn't planning on us staying here until 10 p.m.

tonight.

I was happy that we were actually going to go home at 9 p.m.

tonight.

Okay, but these things are important.

Um counselor Marshall did not speak about his business only, Councilor Gustaf.

He was talking about the other business owners that he knows.

So he didn't say my business is doing great, so downtown is great.

No, he mentioned the comments that are.

I mentioned comments of other people actually endorsing that.

Yeah.

Endorsing the main street project.

Yeah, but you were not talking about your businesses specifically.

I as a business owner, I am doing fine.

Yes.

I also want to say that the only entity that's actually reached out to me to ask me what would do anything better is a city club.

Never heard from any other business, any other entities.

That is that is just as a business owner putting that back into it.

I have only been reached out to them by the city club.

City hasn't really reached out to me in regards to what I would what I think would boost it.

Chamber has not.

Um, none of these other organizations have reached out to me.

The only one has been City Club.

Just saying, I I haven't actually corresponded much with any of them, but at the same time, they're the only one that's actually extended that imitation of what I would think would boost the economy downtown or boost the businesses or just anything downtown.

So just throwing that out there.

Counselor Falconer.

I think you know, when we talk about conflict of interest, um, you know, I think we're usually sort of gravitating toward um a financial conflict of interest.

And I think that there is, and council president, you sort of touched on it, there's also perceived bias.

And I also think that there's, you know, maybe even another component to this conflict issue, and that is that you know, we do have a staff liaison that you know is is attending city club um meetings for the main street program.

And I think that it puts Miles or any staff member in a very difficult position to give council, this council an honest assessment about how the parties are performing under this letter.

And so I'm looking at this letter as as an agreement because it is sort of written like an agreement.

It it details what the obligations of all of the parties, including that the chamber be assured of voting membership on the board.

And we've as we've covered the NDA, the non-disclosure agreement that City Club required board members to sign, was a no-go for that chamber board member.

I don't know the status of that.

I don't know if if the if city club has determined that it will no longer require NDA NDAs to be signed by board members for participation on the board.

Um, but that is certainly a concern that I've heard from many people, including from the city council.

And in the letter, there's you know, there's it's very clear in the letter of support from the city that that that board that that board that voting seat be occupied by a chamber member.

Um the city, the second paragraph here, and I apologize for everybody if you can't see that, but it details what the city's obligations are going to be.

And our performance, the city's performance, our staff performance.

I believe we're trying to exercise on those things.

I believe that administering the tourism events, capital programs, promoting downtown historic district, administering urban renewal agency programs.

Those are all those are activities that that is that's what our agreement was.

That was the participation as outlined in this agreement.

And so I do think it's problematic when I hear the president of the city club, presumably that means the president of the main street board, articulating the opposite.

And I want to come back to this difficulty with your participation as both the president of the board and the city and the city council who is you know who's supposed to evaluate our own performance and the performance of our of our co-contractees, and that's that to me that is probably the most important conflict of interest.

Not that you're getting money personally.

Now we can talk about you know the the conflict the like the potential monetary conflict of interest.

That's not to say that it is a conflict of interest, but if the city were to were to actually put on its budget a line item of I think the request of our last budget cycle was $50,000 or $80,000 for and first for service for administration, which included hiring a director, an executive director who administered the main street program.

That is a perceived conflict of interest because as far we don't know because we we aren't getting the communication, we're not you know, we're not members of the board.

We don't know if it's anticipated that you would serve as the executive director of a main street program.

And so we haven't gotten there yet, but that if that if it goes down that road, that will be a potential conflict of interest that actually does become a real actual conflict of interest.

So I just want to make sure that when when you say when you tell us that this question has been answered, I want to know that it was I don't know that it's been answered because this body has not actually asked our city attorney to weigh in on that.

We have not asked at this city council has not asked OGEC for an opinion letter telling us and walking us through all of those potential conflicts at which point there might be there is or there could be potentially in the future, and so I trust that you're getting informed you're getting the answers to your questions, honestly, but this body hasn't had the answers to our questions.

Those are two different things.

Sure.

Can I make one?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Um we all know about the past and and what's happened.

You are in um mediation, someone is mediating between the two parties.

Is that correct?

Unfortunately, they did not accept it either time.

So I've been told otherwise that they have been being talked to.

Okay, so what my recommendation also is no just no disparaging remarks, leave the past in the past because it doesn't help the present or the future.

Okay, so you need to really temper your language and really work to get the parties together.

Okay, counselor got some.

Um, as far as OGEC, yeah, you can absolutely contact them and ask them that question.

I also have an email that I'd be happy to forward to anyone.

Um, I just want to remind I am not the board president right here.

I am a city counselor, and I was elected.

I would I would like that to really be understood that I am using my knowledge to make these these comments.

When I'm looking at this, I see that the city club will work with both parties on the main street initiatives towards the utilization of each entity's skill set and resources.

So that is a commitment to the main street program.

In addition, as I said before, for a year, the chamber has a spot.

I mean, there is an open spot that just is vacant, and that is the chamber's position on the board.

And if council or the city would like to, you know, if council wants to ask the city, hey, the city staff, can you talk to the chamber and try to get that conversation going?

I'm sure that would be great, but there is no mediation happening.

Um there is still communication with the chamber.

Um, I've met with them, Jordan's met with them, you know.

I mean, those things are happening, and um they'd be happy to collaborate, but just not as a partner, where and that gives them the voting power.

Councilor Schimmel, and then I think we're gonna have to either see if there's a motion or not, in the interest of time in our executive session.

So the the number one concern I hear repeatedly from the chamber and a number of downtown Main Street businesses is distressed.

They distrust you can't as the leader of this endeavor is incumbent upon that leader to inspire to cultivate relationship and bring people to the table.

And in 20 months, even if you're talking about a three-year process, in 20 months, there should be at absolute progress toward those relationships, and there should absolutely be trust.

And I understand there's business owners here tonight.

I've canvass Main Street Pacific for the past six, eight months.

There's a considerable amount of distrust and people abandoning that that effort.

Okay, is there any other discussion before we take a roll call vote?

One, okay.

Councilor Govs.

Um talking to the downtown businesses and getting more members, the the membership has increased.

That doesn't show distrust.

Um canvassing to specifically look for something in particular is very curious to me.

And I know that the downtown businesses are on board with the main street program.

In addition, there are um surveys recently about how they support the main street program and why they support the main street program.

And I'm sure if if um councillor Martinez, if you took a walk around downtown, Counselor Marshall, if you took a walk downtown, you would probably talk to the businesses and and find out that they um they've never talked to anybody on council, and they do support the main street program, and like counselor Marshall said, the city club is the only one that's reached out to him, and they do that with everybody, right?

It's not just counselor marshall.

So a lot of these things are reports that can be sent to council, our emails that can be sent to council, um, our minutes that can be sent to council instead of um uh he said she said, but but really um what counselor marshall said with the surveys are saying with the 300 plus surveys uh when we first had um the main street program said all of those things are in support of this program.

Okay, thank you.

Any other comment?

So just to clarify roll call vote, a vote, a yes vote adds a resolution on the agenda with a staff report about rescinding from moving forward, right?

Um and a no vote keeps the resolution off next week or two weeks agenda.

And I believe counselor Schimmel's specific motion was not just to rescind it, but also to issue a letter um to send to the Oregon Main Street programs to that stating that that support has been removed.

Dating that the city, the city council is removing their support.

Okay.

Correct.

Okay, so ready for roll call vote.

What is the letter going to say?

Well, we have to draft it, but I want to answer to a summary of this message.

My understanding of Councillor Schimmel's comments is that the letter would state that the city council is rescinding their letter of support and requesting that Forest Grove be moved back to an affiliated community.

Connected community.

Meaning.

Meaning we are eligible to apply for a state.

Yeah, we would become the uh connected by a copy no.

No, I got it.

Again, the the tools that are opened up for that are less than what they are at this level.

Each level you get more tools.

That's not true.

That is true, Councillor.

I've I've got two grants through the city of Cornelius.

I didn't say grants, I said other tools.

All right.

Okay, I think we're ready.

Any other discussion or questions for staff?

Okay, I think we're ready for a roll call vote.

Councilor Schimmel?

Yes.

Counselor Falconer?

No.

Councilor Martinez?

No.

Counselor Marshall?

No.

Counselor Gusterson?

No.

Council President Bonzuela?

Yes.

Mayor Wenzel.

Yes.

The resolution fails in a vote of four to three.

Well, four no's three.

Okay.

Um, I would take a motion to uh skip item G on the agenda tonight.

Is there a motion for that?

Second.

All right.

I need a motion first.

I'll move to a skip G.

It's moved by Councilor Falconer to skip G and seconded by Councillor Marshall.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed?

Hearing none.

Um okay, we're gonna reconvene in the conference room at 925 for our executive session.

Thank you.