Good evening.

Oh, wait for a minute.

Good good evening.

I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Forest Grove City Council at 7.06 p.m.

on October 27th.

Will our city recorder please call roll?

Councillor Gesterson.

Yes, here.

Council President Valzone.

Here.

Councillor Shimon.

Here.

Councillor Falconer.

Here.

Counselor Martinez.

Here.

Counselor Marshall.

Here.

Mayor Wenzel.

Here.

Forest Grove City Council meetings are located on the land of the Tualeton Calipuas who call themselves the Atphalati.

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

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

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

And to the Republic religious stands, one nation, under God, individual liberty, and justice world.

Thank you.

Okay, item B on the agenda is 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 the majority of counselors present vote to extend the time.

Zoom attendees may use the raise hand feature to be called on.

Our first person signed up for public comment is Dale Fake.

Good evening.

Timothy Snyder, who you know, read the book on Tyranity, 20 Lessons 20th Century, also wrote the book on freedom.

And he I attended the Forest Grove, Hillsborough, and Beaverton No Kings Rallies.

They were great.

But Timothy Snyder attended the rally in Cincinnati, Ohio.

And he introduced that rally and gave a seven-minute and thirty minute speech.

What I've given you in your packet is the link to that speech.

Seven minutes and thirty seconds.

It's a good summary of all those rallies and what's happened in the United States.

I really encourage you to open that and listen just for seven minutes and thirty seconds.

So I made a document of that that's also in your pack.

I'd encourage you to like take a look at that.

He is speaking.

And we're looking forward to having sign one of my books, but also to learn how he's going to inform us of how we can be better citizens.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next public comment is Silas.

Is it Ruleis?

Rules.

Oh, come on up.

Please have a seat right in front of me.

And then state your name for the record, and then you can go ahead after that.

Uh yeah, I'm Silas Rule.

And good evening, Mayor Wenzel, City Council members, and Forest Grove community members.

My name is Silas, and I am an athlete.

I play soccer, baseball, basketball, and swim with the Forest Grove Swim Club Dragon.

The youth sports team in Forest Grove has changed my life for the better.

I've heard that First and Recreation Department wants to charge nonprofit youth sports organizations more, which would most likely increase registration fees.

I wanted to show the city council how many athletes a change like this could impact.

I created this petition.

This is only a fraction of the number of kids this change would affect.

Here's our statement.

We the Undersigned are youth athletes representing many of Forest Grove sports programs of baseball, soccer, swim club, water polo lacrosse, and more.

Participating in these teams has shaped who we are.

We've made friends, built confidence, develop leadership skills, and learn the value of teamwork and commitment.

If these rental fees go into effect, it will likely mean higher participation costs for these fam for families, especially those with more than one athlete or who are already stretched financially.

These aren't private club teams.

These are nonprofit youth sports programs that were started by the Forest Pro community members, meant to be affordable and accessible to all.

Raising field and pool rental rates puts up a barrier.

It risks excluding kids who would benefit from staying active and involved in positive structured community programs.

That's not just bad for individual families.

It's bad for the future of Forest Grove.

We ask you to reconsider protect access to e-sports, keep our programs affordable, and let the values of inclusion, community, and opportunity remain at the hearts of Parks and Red.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Silas.

Silas, do you mind giving your petition and statement to the city recorder for public record?

She's sitting.

Thank you so much.

There's no one else signed up for public comment.

Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to give public comment?

Okay, is there anyone on Zoom who would like to give public comment?

Seeing none.

There are no additions or deletions, thank you, Mayor.

Any proposed by council.

Hearing none, we're gonna move on to item E, which is presentations.

The council will hold questions until the end of each presentation.

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

Um real excited about our first presentation is gonna be our Civics Academy recognition.

So I'm gonna ask Stephanie and Joyce, and I think I'll come down as well, and we'll see how we're gonna do this.

Okay.

And I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated.

And I really deeply like am so grateful to Stephanie and Joyce, our communication team, who put this together, worked with other department directors, worked with City Hall, worked with community members, uh, brought this vision to life.

And so I just want to say thank you to everybody.

Um are we gonna call how do we want to do it?

I think I'm gonna call you up one at a time, and then if we could stand maybe in the middle, and we'll get a class photo.

My other job's a teacher, so I want to kind of have like a graduating, the first graduating class of the Forest Grove Civics Academy.

Okay.

Okay.

John Beechwood.

Yeah, but let's give him a little round of applause.

Is it Katherine Dyshardt?

Nicole Ellis.

Thank you.

Andrew, is it Fife Field?

Five Field, we got it.

And Arlene.

I don't want to mess up Cal Bilingo.

Cal Belingo.

Very well.

Debbie Heisler.

Uh Kush.

Is that Cushy Khalia?

Okay.

And Amy Lawler.

And Dave Miller.

Evelyn Orr.

And is it Sari?

No, Soray River Rivera.

Did I say it wrong?

Angelica Rodriguez.

Is there anyone else that was a part of the Civics Academy that I'm forgot to include?

Maybe came in late.

Okay, so let's have one more round of applause, and then if we could get in a little closer for our picture.

Come over here, Evelyn, see the mic, so it's on TV.

Okay.

So the class wanted to give you give you something in appreciation for all the work you've put into this.

It was we know how much time you've spent after hours, after class.

And we have some cards, and there's even a little poem too, but you can't read it here because it's kind of funny.

But anyway.

There you go, one for you.

And I bragged about this class to the chamber of commerce and the board, and since I'm board chair, I got to do some certificates for you for completion.

So this is for you, Joyce, and for you.

This is fantastic.

Thank you.

Don't feel I mean, I'm not gonna peer pressure you to stay for the whole council meeting.

You can you're free to leave whenever you'd like.

With me is Barry Sims.

He is our contract forester and works with me to manage our watershed.

And we are doing just a brief presentation to you on this past year's activities and a briefing of next year's work.

Thank you, Greg.

Mayor Winslow Counselors.

Nice to be here.

Let's go go ahead to the first slide.

I'll just give a quick overview of what we'll talk about.

Why are we here?

Just giving our annual report, kind of an up uh update on our stewardship plan, which has been in place now for about 20 years.

Talk about the next couple years, some ideas we've got lined up.

I'll briefly kind of go over our forest stewardship council certification, which we've been participating in for a long time, and then hopefully save a few minutes for questions and comments.

So yeah, just a quick quick overview.

But it's really nice to get some members of the community, including some neighbors of the watershed, out to see what we're up to.

Next slide.

Just a quick uh context.

Um the watershed is about 4,225 acres, one large block, and it uh mostly surrounds Clear Creek, which is the main source of water for the for the city system.

Clear Creek is a tributary to Gales Creek, and it's just about eight miles from the city.

The stewardship plan is really focused on preserving water quality.

Um so the first step in that plan was to designate the areas upstream of the water intakes and the steeper slopes within the watershed as reserves that aren't really subject to forest management, and that's been pretty consistent over the over the last 20 years.

Um the the remaining two-thirds is subject to some form of forest management.

We've typically been doing some kind of harvest every every year, usually in the summertime.

Um, the plan established a limit on how much to be harvested so that it could stay sustainable over time.

And the plan also really prescribes the type of forestry that can be done in the watershed so that it reduces the risk of any issues, any conflicts with the water quality.

So that includes limiting the size of any openings, um, prescribing lots of retention, and in other words, trees that don't get cut within a within a harvest area, and very limited use of herbicides, it's just for treating invasive weeds basically along the roadsides.

Um every year we do some road and culvert monitoring and maintenance just to keep the road system in good shape.

And I'm happy to report as you all know there weren't any wildfires in the in the watershed this year.

We had a couple lightning strikes last year, but the weather this year was more favorable.

So next slide.

Uh, we've been focusing on thinning and really trying to thin the denser stands, especially younger trees that are um potentially producing uh a fuel load that could become an issue if we did have a wildfire.

Um, that's just an example of one of the stands before thinning, and then the next slide is kind of an older stand after thinning, just giving the trees a little more room to maintain healthy crowns.

This map shows the location of our projects in 2025.

And the dark kind of purplish area is the main kind of reserve area around Clear Creek.

So that's all not managed for for timber.

Um the green areas are the areas that we thinned this year, and we were able to get 110 acres thin, which was I was really happy that we were able to get that much done.

We had actually two logging contractors working together, so that helped get a lot done.

Um we did do eight acres of small patch cuts and the nine acres in kind of a variable retention, which is going to be all natural regeneration with Douglas fir.

Uh looks actually looks pretty cool.

We're in our target zone between 1.7 and 2 million board feet.

And the net to the city was a little over 900,000 this year.

Just showing kind of where we are in the in the 10-year average.

Next slide.

So going forward, we're gonna try and stay focused on areas that have never been thinned.

So getting around to some of the areas that are a little harder to get to in the watershed, um, a combination of thinning and patch cuts, uh, similar volume, and um we're still working out exactly which areas.

Um I'll show a map here.

Uh next slide.

So this is the whole watershed, and it shows the reserve area in the north, and then the other uh riparian reserves along Roaring Creek, and then the activities from 2025, kind of along the western boundary, and then the 2026 and 27.

We're looking to do work in the ridges up above uh Roaring Creek.

That's kind of the plan there.

Um we're gonna be starting in on our uh updating the timber inventory uh this winter.

Uh we need to wait for the leaves to come off so we can actually see what's out there.

Um so we'll be reporting on that progress on that next year.

And we are, as I mentioned, uh part of a forest stewardship council certification, and we had our certification audit uh earlier this month.

Uh they usually visit the Forest Grove watershed every other year.

So this year was a uh site visit with the auditors, and uh things went well.

We we didn't have any any issues, but that audit report is is certainly available to to anyone that's uh interested if you'd like to see that.

So that's just kind of a quick high-level summary.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any questions, comments?

Thank you, and well done.

Yeah, I you know, since we do still have quite a few more people than we normally have in the audience.

Those members who just participated in the Civics Academy, taking the tour of the watershed is one of the best things you can do in Forest Grove.

It's usually in the fall, and you know, I'm very grateful for the people who came before me who made the decision to buy the watershed.

We have some of the best water, some of the nicest places.

Um, you know, and Barry, you've just done a great job managing it for years and years and years.

So thank you very much.

Um, but yeah, look out.

Like I think in August on the city website, they'll say, hey, we're gonna have our watershed tour.

Sign up for it.

Uh you can stop at the Gales Creek Tavern on the way back and get you know some food and hang out.

It's like it's a great, it's a great day.

Okay, sorry, a little play for Gales Creek.

Uh any other comments.

Okay, I don't see any.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you.

How nice things.

Okay, our last presentation for the evening is from Clean Water Services.

It's their annual update.

And Rick Shanley, who I'm just gonna meet for the first time, and Joe Gall.

Hello, gentlemen, how's it going?

Mayor and Council.

Uh, my name is Joe Gall.

I'm the chief utility relations officer.

I've met most of you.

I'm the person you get a monthly newsletter uh with information every month.

Hopefully, you get a chance to read that and it's informative.

Rick Shanley is here, he's gonna introduce himself, and I also want to acknowledge that our board director Jerry Willie is also here if you have any questions uh from a board perspective, and thank you for coming, uh Director Willie.

So we are starting, you're the first city we were doing this with.

Some would say maybe starting with the best, right?

Right, I was gonna say um, but before I get into some information that I wanted to share with you, I wanted to provide an opportunity uh for Rick to talk a little bit about himself and introduce himself in his new role.

He's the interim CEO GM for Clean Water Services, and you can see the information on the slide.

Um but Rick, I'm gonna turn it over to you if you want to introduce yourself.

We'll get a second microphone.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Well, it's great to be here.

Um I've been the well, I've been acting and now interim CEO for about five months.

Um, it's been a journey, and it's been a great journey, honestly.

Um, I've gotten excellent support from Joe Gall and our board as well.

So my prior position at Clean Water, I was the chief engineer and water technology officer.

So I had, you know, probably more than half of the staff between all the engineers and the planners and construction group, um, as well as the operation and maintenance folks.

So for me, um, taking this role has been a great opportunity to kind of make some changes.

Um, I've been supported and um having the ability to make some good changes internally has been great.

But this is new for me.

I've I've been safely tucked away, you know, working and less in an external focus, and honestly, it's been a real highlight for me at this point in my career.

Um, and starting with Forest Grove feels really good.

I've done lots of projects here over my tenure with Clean Water.

You've always been a wonderful partner.

I know we've chased and gotten some grant money together to do work in the conveyance system.

So I will spare you going through all the bullets and the different things that I've been doing.

But I'm happy to be here, introduce myself, and um I'll I'll pass it along so we make sure we have time for questions if you if you do have any.

Thank you.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you, Rick.

And he's here for any of those technical questions that you might ask that I won't be able to answer.

So I wanted just briefly, mainly for your uh audience that may be watching, and just a quick reminder on some key components, because sometimes people don't know who Clean Water Services is.

Uh we are a wastewater and stormwater government utility serving more than 600,000 residents in urban Washington County.

We have 12 partner cities.

Uh, you are one of those partner cities, and of course, uh lots of unincorporated urban Washington County where we provide services.

Uh our budget, just to give you an idea, this uh current year is 752 million dollars.

Uh we are a unique organization in that we hold a uh watershed-based permit that's very unique in the United States.

We were the first in the United States uh to have a permit over the entire watershed.

Uh we work closely with Washington County, but we are a separate county special district.

Uh, so we're separately managed and financed.

Uh the only thing is that the county board of commissioners takes their county board hat off, and they are our board of directors, probably very similar to you as an urban renewal agency, possibly.

Um we do also have uh advisory committee.

Uh we've had an advisory committee going back to our days when we were the Unified Sewer Agency.

You may recall that if you've been here a while.

That's a committee that has uh various stakeholders that uh meets usually once every two months.

Uh there are folks that represent the districts for our district board members, and then certain sectors.

So there's an environment, there are two environmental uh stakeholders, there's a business, two business stakeholders, there's the ag community that's recommend represented on that committee, and then the developer builders.

So those are the folks that our work touches, and those are advisors for us in the work we do.

And we have about 468 FTEs currently as an organization.

Next slide.

Another aspect that's unique to Forest Grove.

You're one of the cities that uh we have a facility, an important facility that we're making more investment in, which I will touch on.

Um those are some of the uh priorities in terms of the business uh climate that we're operating in, very similar to you as a city.

You'll see things on there in terms of inflation, um, electrical costs, water utility rate increases, um, everything construction related it continues to go up.

So we're affected by those.

Um next slide.

This is a map that uh shows the watershed, the Toaltern River watershed, which is in the yellow area, kind of roughly approximate to the county, and then the gray is our service district.

Um we provide regional services to our seven large cities.

So you're in that category.

Um you provide the local services, and I will touch on that in a second.

Um in our smaller cities and in the urban unincorporated areas, the CWS or Clean Water Services provides both regional and local services.

Um for example, the city of banks doesn't have necessarily the resources to do the local uh services that we provide.

So we provide that for the smaller cities.

And then we also work with very key industrial customers that may have unique um things that they're putting into the race waste stream, so they have permits from us on the back of the document that I shared.

You actually have a list of the companies that hold separate industrial permits from uh CWS that we work with.

And you have uh a large amount compared to most of our cities, not as big as Hillsborough, but I would say certainly one of the second largest in terms of industrial uh permittees.

So I mentioned we talk regional and local regional services, and this is strictly on the wastewater side of our work, is all the big pipes, all the major pipes to transmission lines over 24 inches and larger.

We construct and maintain the treatment facilities, the pump stations and the high pressure lines.

We do all of the reporting and oversight for the NPDES permit, which I'll touch on our national pollutant discharge elimination system permit.

That's really critical to the work we do.

We take care of all that, but you as a city actually, the work that you do goes into that report into that permit.

Again, this document that I shared kind of breaks down some stats that you can look at at your leisure in terms of what the city of Forest Grove does to comply with that permit.

On the green side, the local services, that's what your team does, basically.

So the smaller pipes, the uh 21 inches and smaller, uh street sweeping, um, cleaning catch basins, other kind of things.

So the title of this uh presentation is you know, state of our partnership, and the key here is we do this work together.

It's not like CWS does it all or Forest Grove does it alone, we do it in partnership in many ways.

And a term that we use is coal implement the permit.

We do that together as well.

Um so it really is a team effort.

Next slide.

So I was the city manager of Sherwood before I joined uh CWS about four and a half years ago.

And as the city manager, I thought I knew what clean water services did.

The reality is now that I'm there, I really have learned a lot.

And one of the things I tell my city partners when I meet with them is how important this permit is.

So this five-year permit that we get from DEQ, which is a federal permit, really drives everything that we do.

It's always like how is this relate to the permit and a lot of reporting that has to go to DEQ and ultimately EPA.

I didn't know that when I was at the city of Sherwood.

And it really is really important for you to understand the permit.

It's a five-year permit.

I'm not going to go through all these bullets, but you can get a sense of all the things that we are allowed to do because of that permit.

Next slide.

It is a five-year permit.

So you can see we're in the 2023 to 2027 time period.

We're getting close to the end of this five-year permit cycle.

Um, we're getting ready to apply for the next permit.

It's on the horizon, it's due on June 3rd, 2027.

And for planning purposes, we are not only looking at the next permit cycle, but the permit cycle after that.

Because we really want to get ahead of things that may be happening.

You may have heard about PFAS and other things where we're trying to get ahead of that, so we're not surprised when regulations come down from DC or at the state level.

Um we're we're a little over halfway through this permit cycle.

Next, please.

I wanted to give you a sense last fiscal year uh some projects that we uh were working on here in Forest Grove.

Uh, those are fiscal year 25 costs.

Most of those projects will multiple year projects.

The two at the top are pretty significant.

You may have heard the Ripple project, Ripple stands for research innovation partners lab.

That's our new lab.

So the former TTM building over by our treatment facility.

We bought that building a number of years ago.

We're now renovating and expanding that building.

We will have a state-of-the-art lab in that facility that will open probably at the end of 2026 or early 27.

So our current lab, which is in Hillsborough and Jackson Bottom, will be relocating out to Forest Grove.

Um, we're very excited about that project.

Uh the second, the Forest Grove wastewater.

Where is it?

What is WRF wastewater?

Resource recovery.

Yes, I know.

I'm still learning the jargon.

It's a column wastewater treatment.

I know.

It sounded so simple then.

But that project, that $19 million is largely a new clarifier that we are constructing at the Forest Grove facility.

Um that's the other surprise when I came from the city of Sherwood.

A lot of these investments that we are making at the treatment facilities are significant.

They're not inexpensive projects.

Um, a clarifier could be 20, 25 million dollars.

Um, a lot of concrete and material that go into that.

Uh, some of the other projects we've spent money on uh this past year as well.

Next slide.

We are also wrapping up what is called our West Basin Master Plan.

So our board will be considering this, I think next month.

It's been about a two-year project.

That is really a plan for our regional wastewater system.

You are in the green, you're in our West in the West Basin.

The West Basin is a little unique in that we have three treatment facilities that we can actually correct me if I'm wrong here from a technical standpoint, transfer wastewater from the three facilities as needed because of some major pipes.

When we develop this West Basin Master Plan, we're really looking and talking to our city partners and say, what is your plan for the next 20 years?

Because we want to be there with our infrastructure to meet your community goals and aspirations.

So if you want a large industrial area to develop, we need to be prepared for that in terms of our planning and what we do.

And that's what this master plan it was completed in close coordination with your team, your planners and your engineers and public works folks.

Wanted to give you a glimpse also in the next five years of the investment we're gonna make just in the Forest Grove area.

So this is about 105 million dollars estimated over the next uh five year period.

You can see Ripple will be completed.

We have another 44.8 million in this fiscal year to go to that project.

Um we have almost 40 million in upgrades to the treatment facility.

Um the inflow and infiltration abatement project, that was the one million, one and a half million dollar federal grant to uh upgrade some old infrastructure in your uh center of your town.

Uh a variety of other projects.

The last project, the new Council Creek Pump Station is primarily there to serve the West Forest Grove area and your aspirations to develop that.

That pump station may not be in Forest Grove, it could be in Cornelius or another location, but it's certainly going to serve Forest Grove.

So I wanted you to be aware of that investment.

Switching gears, another new project that we're gonna be kicking off in the near future.

We're gonna take a deep dive into how we bill.

So I don't know if you know the lay of the land in terms of CWS billing, but with Forest Grove, you do the bill on our behalf.

So your residents, your businesses do not get a CWS bill.

They get a utility bill from the City of Forest Grove, and a portion of that bill gets remitted for regional services, comes to clean water services, and you keep the local portion.

We do that arrangement with our seven large big cities.

And then in other areas, we provide some billing or we co-bill with TVWD to Allaton Valley Water District.

So for a variety of reasons, it's been 2008 was the last time we really took a hard look at how we bill and it's time.

It's overdue for us to take another look and really look at alternatives.

Does this arrangement still make sense?

Should we bill ourselves?

What are the pros and cons of the different alternatives?

What will it cost if we were to take over billing for all of our customers?

What would the investment be needed to make that happen?

So we want to develop those alternatives over the coming year, work with you and our other cities to get input from you as well to figure out what's the best path forward in terms of billing.

This is just a rough uh schedule in terms of that feasibility study.

We just had a board work session a few weeks ago, and they gave us the green light to move forward with this project.

We will be hiring a consultant because at the top is all the finance team responsibilities over that year, just like your finance team has to develop a budget for them to do a feasibility study on top of all their other work, just didn't make sense.

So we're gonna bring in up outside consultant to kind of spearhead that work with uh the finance team internally at CWS but also with your uh your folks uh to discuss that.

We will hope to have a final report at the end of 26, and then depending on which path we go, then we get into implementation.

And as I said, if we took everything in-house, it would take some time to implement.

We'd have to buy a new billing system, we'd have to figure out how to get all the customer information from our seven big cities into our system.

It wouldn't happen magically overnight.

So if that's a path we pick, it'll take a little longer to implement.

But I wanted you to be aware that we're gonna be doing that over the the coming six to twelve months.

A couple other permit requirements that are due almost a year from now, on November 1st, 26th.

We have uh design and construction standards, and the permit within it has some specific language around some stormwater sections that we need to open up and revise to meet the permit.

Again, we will do that with uh coordination with the City of Forest Grove staff as well.

And then last but not least, we have an operating IGA that basically governs how we work together.

Uh the permit required that all of our operating IGAs are updated.

It didn't define what update meant, but most of these operating IG IGAs go back to 2008.

So again, they're long overdue.

We're slowly working through all of them.

I anticipate we'll be working with Forest Grove staff late spring, early summer next year.

Um you'll see hopefully before November 1st, 26, an item to approve a new operating IGA uh with clean water services, and that will be a five-year uh IGA in terms of time frame.

We're currently working with Washington County and the City of Tualetin, those are the two.

We can't tackle them all at once, but we kind of build on each other.

Um Beaverton, Cornelius, and Hillsborough are all done.

So last, I can't come to Forest Grove and not talk about Fern Hill.

So Fernhill, as you know, is an important uh component to our facility here.

It's our natural treatment system, it's part of the treatment, it's very unique.

But I think more uh for the city of Forest Grove is the fact that it's also public space.

And as you can see, um 250,000 visitors a year come to Fern Hill.

They're not coming necessarily to see our natural treatment system, they're coming to see the birds and other kinds of things.

And those are folks that come to your community and then they go to restaurants, they come spend time in Forest Grove.

So we're really proud of the partnership we have with Forest Grove at that facility.

Most people that I talk to that go there don't really realize the why it's there and the backstory, so to speak.

Um you had uh some students from your sister city in Japan visit Fern Hill last week.

I I sent this over.

I have a picture they visited and really enjoyed visiting the facility and learning about the treatment system and and what goes on there.

And with that, I think that's all.

I will take any questions or comments or other things that any questions, comments?

Counselor Schimmel.

Well, first Mr.

Shanley, I I applaud you entering into what I'm sure is a difficult circumstance, um, especially coming out of the engineering career.

I can appreciate how that's challenging where problems aren't solved with formulas.

Uh so well then.

Uh I was curious uh in terms of your your lab uh as your thoughts about using that as an instrument for workforce development, either through a local school district or a new business incubator through a chamber, or is there that just not what it's could be designed for?

I would I think that we're always open to opportunities, and there are there are spaces you know available.

The building is sized such that it could support some of those things.

Um at this point in time, I'd put those probably more on in the aspirational category.

We had some early-on discussions with Pacific University and those things.

So as we uh incrementally move forward, uh, getting that compliance lab up and running is is key and foremost on our minds, but it's a great going to be a great facility.

Um, we're really excited, it's a big investment, and we want to leverage that investment to the maximum extent possible.

So I we're certainly open to those ideas and and taking full advantage of the structure and infrastructure that is there.

Just one more second.

Uh are there particular city plans that should intercept with your West Basin Master Plan.

I hear about the collaboration or and we're in the process of updating various plans.

Are there particular plans because you might know as a city manager that need to intercept with that?

So I think that communication on an ongoing basis between city staff and CWS staff is essential.

One of the things with this plan is not a plan that goes on the shelf, and then we dust it off in 15, 20 years.

It gets looked at every year and adjusted every year.

So as the economy changes and things change in terms of priorities, we can look at it uh with fresh eyes.

Um I think industrial development and economic development is the type of work that could shift what we do more than residential development.

Uh residential development's a little bit less impact on the system.

Uh so it's that constant communication that needs to happen between the city and CWS in terms of planning and making adjustments as needed.

Any other questions, comments?

I don't see any.

No, I just I just want to mention if I may, a few years ago, I um I was supervising a group of kids from Centro Cultural, the Climate Justice Leadership program.

And we had a couple of times two different groups and they visited the facility to actually learn what it was all about.

And I think it was a very um enrich and positive experience, and um those are things that um I think we would really like to see, you know, working with Pacific internships, that sort of work would be great.

Yes, thank you.

Absolutely.

Irene.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, nice thing.

It's nice to meeting you all.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And a rare rare thing.

We have no public hearings, ordinances, or resolution.

So I'm gonna skip to item G on the agenda, which is council communication.

And we're just gonna go in order of the agenda.

So we'll start with Council President Valenzuela.

Yes, so uh I have uh nothing to report.

The PAB meeting was cancelled last week.

And uh I do want to mention though, please remember November 9th, Sunday, the invitation to the library to the gathering of the groups at 3 p.m.

Uh I know it's Sunday.

I know it's difficult, but if you're able to make it, I would appreciate it so much if you can join us on that day.

And thank you, Councilor President.

Counselor Falkner.

I just have one thing from um JWC um BR JOC.

So apparently PEG PGE was billing JWC for a reservoir that is not part of JWC, and so there's um I think 22,800 and some odd change that will be reimbursed to the city of Port Grove.

Um they caught the mistake.

Apparently it was ongoing for quite some time, but they've changed how they'll be billing in the future so that that won't continue to happen.

Um that's it.

So where does that money go when if that happens?

Back in if it's from JWC, the water fund.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh sorry, I'm gonna pay attention to something.

Counselor Gutison.

Okay, the PAC meeting, they talked about um the downtown art installations and the TLT funds for 2026 and 2027.

So they're um eager to find out more about that.

They did talk about um within that discussion, uh, rotating galleries and setting up a subcommittee, kind of talk about what that might look like and how that might be um rotating art as opposed to permanent art.

So uh no decisions were made.

They talked about murals again.

I think we talk about murals each time.

Um this time was using the Fry building as a possible option for mural.

And um they talked about the community open house, which is October 28th.

So I they were really excited about that, and so am I.

Um, other than that, I did want to talk about um some clarification.

I know um a couple things.

Number one, the downtown association now has a new website.

Um it's been in the works for months.

So that's been launched, and so you guys are welcome to look at it.

Um there also was some clarification done with the Oregon Main Street coordinator, uh, Sherry, because it dawned on us that she may not have ever seen the conflict of interest and confidentiality um document.

So over a series of emails, she read that document and kind of explained where she thinks the um confusion happened with a comment about you know calling an NDA versus conflict of interest and confidentiality document.

So throughout those conversations, um it comes that the confidentiality and conflict of interest document is almost exactly what um they recommend.

So I do have the documentation if we want to put it on record, but um our policy for the city club, they have like the same policy as Climate Falls, who got their policy from the template from the um Main Street program.

So I wanted to make sure everybody knew this is a standard document, and uh this hasn't been uh we haven't talked about it to the chamber yet because we just found this out.

So um feel free to ask me for the documentation, the emails clarifying um the template and the city club's uh policy.

Okay, that's it.

Thank you.

And councillor Marshall.

I am trying to find mine because my son seems to have deleted them.

Um I know that the we had a forestry meeting, they were looking to um update the um the urban canopy um mapping of it, and they were looking to do um register more trees on a historical tree because a lot of them have been coming down.

Um they did have um ODF part of that um to work with to look into possible grants um next year when um grants are open again.

Um as far as parks and rec, I cannot find that information.

So if I can find that, I will let you know in just a minute.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Martinez.

So when it was it, um so last week I went to the Hillsborough prep breakfast.

It was early in the morning.

I was told I hadn't attended before.

I was told that it was very well attended this last year or this year.

Um our new Zen delegation was here.

Um they came in Wednesday evening.

Um we did um several activities Thursday.

We went to Chaucer Foods where they do freeze dried foods.

So they we were able to see the process for all of that.

Um David Hill Winery, um sake one and Fern Hill, and then we had the dinner Thursday night, which food was provided by prime time, and then um entertainment.

It was it was a good evening.

Um the Japanese the kids did um a dance with a video from their home.

And then on Friday, we went to the um safety center in Hillsborough where the police do their training.

Um, the police department here in Forest Grove and the fire department as well.

So we got tours of both those places, which is great for the the kids because they don't get to see those facilities in their own country.

And then they were they left yesterday morning.

Can I make a clarifying comment or question?

Yeah, the students from the trip.

There's 10 students and four adults on Thursday.

The students attended school.

And that's right.

They attended middle school with like my leadership group.

They did not go to Saki One or Winery.

I apologize.

Yes, that's a good one.

Oh, vacation.

I just want to make sure that we took the adults to those things on Thursday.

No, okay.

I just want to clarify for the record.

Oh, good good catch.

All good.

Thank you, Counselor Martinez.

Yes.

Um, okay, and then counselor Schimmel.

Uh CCE uh committee open houses tomorrow night starting at 5 30.

So welcome the public to participate.

Let's see uh the CCE has done a uh great job of really transforming the way we communicate.

Um transforming that what was the the um uh the what the town hall town hall meeting to an open house.

So I'm looking forward to that on the the TV Highway Transit and Safety Project.

Uh they're moving forward with a more detailed design.

Um, and they're putting together a community advisory committee of folks uh from the community.

So that's been shared on social media, it's been shared directly with our uh Civics Academy graduates, uh TriMed and Grove Link will be at our community open house tomorrow night to also share about it.

So really want to encourage folks to take a look at that, but at least participate in the survey that's been circulating regarding uh Grove Link and other links uh around the surrounding areas.

So you know they're looking through uh some possible cuts, and so we need to make sure that our folks are contributing to that that survey and uh participating where possible.

And I also want to, if I may, Mayor, follow up on a correspondence uh regarding acknowledgement and reaffirmation of our council authority.

Uh there's some correspondence stemming from uh August 25th work session that from my personal point of view uh appeared to disempower our city manager and subordinate our authority as a council.

uh regarding acknowledgement and reaffirmation of of our council authority uh there's some correspondence stemming from uh august 25th work session that from my personal point of view uh appeared to disempower our city manager and subordinate our authority as a council um there is uh this stand started with the correspondence we received from brian pool uh uh regarding uh miles's a correction to uh a misstatement by by miles and then and asking for uh the the original email uh there was just some alarm there and and what i i read and so i'll if there's time i'll i'll read just my note and just ask that the council read through the the correspondences that uh that preceded that um so what i said in my comment was to ensure shared understanding and consistent application of city policy i recommend the full council acknowledge for public record the email correspondence uh that i referred to and considered are the following uh at tonight's meeting the first to affirm council and city manager authority under the city charter uh sections five or chapter five section 19 and chapter eight uh section 33 and then council rules uh section 18.1 b and c the second was to affirm council consensus from our august 25th uh email and it i that was a typo it should have been the 25th work session regarding uh council goals uh where we were to clarify our strategic direct direction for downtown redevelopment and partnerships and then the third thing was to confirm the city club's confidentiality grant is not enforced in terms of with respect to the city uh and just referring to brian pool's email that stating that the city is not bound by the agreement nor will anyone from the city sign one uh in the future and and the rationale from from those suggestions is as a duly sworn counselors we recognize that only the city manager is authorized to execute an interagency agreement uh consistent with our direction and the consensus of council uh what I thought was a litigious response uh uh regarding an inconsequential uh miss uh something misspoken would understandably cause a disruption of work and personal anxiety not just for the person impugned but other city staff that are either presenting to council engaged with counselors individually on matters involving their external interest uh the other thing was overreaching control whether through the city manager or staff and create the appearance of undue influence and maybe perceived as undermining council authority particularly when it appears to advance the interests of an external agency on a matter the council has already addressed such actions risk creating confusion among staff and weakening established policy so to maintain clarity restore public trust and support staff confidence uh I want us to commit to resolving inquiries uh regarding council decisions here at the Thais uh so again the the first thing was it and this is we're trained in this so it it should be just a simple acknowledgement that you know we affirm our authority and the city manager's authority under the under the uh the city charter and council rules and that people understand that only the city manager has the authority to sign an interagency agreement.

So can you help me understand what are you asking for from the council as a body right now?

Well number one I'm just asking asking for an acknowledgement that we understand our authority and the authority of the city manager because I thought um what I'm claiming is that it gave that correspondence gave the appearance of undue influence so I'm just stating publicly that that's that's our obligation is to the the the discretion of the counter or the consensus of the council uh as give as directed by the charter and the the council rules and that the city manager has jurisdiction over his staff and only he has the authority to sign interagency agreement.

That's that's the first okay and what process would we have to follow to do that.

No there's no process I'm just I just that's a it's a I feel like and I'm not trying to I feel like that's the the charter outlines those roles and responsibility I think it's in the charter and I guess I'm not and we can say yes yes but I feel um I I don't I don't see well I'm trying to figure out and during council comments like there's not really a discuss there's nothing on the table to discuss or there's like no motion there's nothing to move um so and then like what I'm hearing is like you're and I you know you please correct me if I'm wrong but you're stating that these are the things outlined in the charter of roles and responsibilities between counselors and staff like right that we all swore to uphold right so we already already we already swore to uphold those things.

Um so and then like what I'm hearing is like you're and I you know you please correct me if I'm wrong, but you're stating that these are the things outlined in the charter of roles and responsibilities between counselors and staff, like right, that we all swore to uphold right.

So we already already we already swore to uphold those things.

We did, yeah, we did.

We all have.

And uh I'm I'm just saying that's this is just like a reminder, and that's okay.

So you don't you're just reading your comments.

You're asking us just like I think it's being compromised.

Okay.

So it's uh so and then so then the second one is really a question of and I don't know if it's uh uh Mariah or Jesse affirming the consensus from our August 25th work section regarding goal 1.8.

I'm gonna ask and while they're thinking.

I don't know if there's been a question, like we came to consensus, and there hasn't been anybody, I haven't heard anyone on this council ask to do anything different than what we came to consensus with on August 25th.

So again, I'm like, why do I don't understand not like re con like there hasn't been any difference in what we the consensus on August 25th?

Yeah, so and what I would just describe there's correspondence and there's interaction with staff that are in contradiction to that consensus, and so I want to reaffirm that consensus decision.

Not not by the body, there has not been a contradiction by the body by the by the body of the council.

There hasn't been any different direction.

There hasn't been any different direction by this council.

What do you mean different direction?

The consensus we came to on August 25th is the same direction we're going right now.

Okay.

Since then there's a con been in my perception, a contradiction to that consensus.

I'm wanting to restate what that consensus decision was so that we ensure we're it's being honest.

I can say what my opinion is, but I think what we should wait and do is if you want a restatement, if what you're asking for is a restatement of the consensus, then I think the best approach to have the most accurate approach is for city staff to have the time to look at the video to look at the minutes and then come back at the next meeting and tell us what it is.

Because I can tell you what I thought the consensus was, but I would probably wager to bet that maybe someone else has a maybe a different take on the consensus because it's gonna be based on my memory from two months ago.

So I think if you if that's fine if you want that, but I think that staff should bring like really look at the record, watch the video, look at the minutes, and then tell us because at the what I do think I do a good job of is at the very end of every work session saying this is the consensus I'm hearing.

Staff, do you need any more information?

This is what we're doing.

So I think that that should be an easy thing to find.

I mean, if someone thinks I'm that's right.

That is so uh so alarming to me, is that if it if it was there would be you you seem confused about what I'm asking for, and it's a shock to me that am I the only one who's seeing contradiction to what we what we talked about on the 25th of August.

No, no.

I don't I mean what maybe I'm not answering.

I haven't seen any contradiction from staff or council since August 25th about the consensus, and and since we're gonna push it, my understanding of the consensus was that there was concern about the NDA about the recommendations not being followed, that the main street report gave.

And so at this point forward, there was gonna be no financial partnership to fund the the city club with these things with these until these things were addressed, or like at this moment, because these issues were not addressed, the council did not feel comfortable creating like a financial having enough, right?

Yeah, there has been no money spent, and there has been no money spent to there's been no money.

I I didn't mention anything about money being spent.

I'm talking about the behaviors by by counselor for staff that has resulted has since resulted in someone's record being impune, and and they're overreaching our authority to direct the city manager to try to convince us of doing something different.

And and they're overreaching our author or authority to direct the city manager to try to convince us of doing something different.

I mean you gotta read you gotta read the the August 25th memo.

It's yeah, as I guess it's it's a shock to me, and and what's alarming is that we're we're creating liability for the city if this continues.

I would just encourage everyone to read the correspondence, but there's there's just risk and liability I see just being festered.

Uh and it's not just that's that to me was the last draw.

It's it's been going on for two years.

Uh and I I don't know why I'm I'm the only one who's who's reading into this.

It's like when I talk to uh other agencies and business owners, it's I mean, that's we can't.

I mean, we've lost the trust of our business community.

We've lost you know, we're you know, there's a skepticism skeptical uh partners because of this uh polarization that's been fascinating, and that that correspondence was just the epitome of what what we're gonna struggle with.

What correspondence are you speaking about?

It's in my one that you sent, the one you sent, yeah, the email.

Yeah, there's a correspondence from counselor to Jesse.

Yeah, ask asking for that something that I thought was unwarranted regarding the staff person, and then directing him essentially to be something in contradiction with what we said at on October 2.

Well, can I I'm just gonna like say something?

This is like a slippery slope, and I don't know if we should I'm gonna try really quick, but you know, you're concerned about a counselor's conversation with the city manager, and uh it's it appears to me that you want like this body as a body to reaffirm something that counselors can't individually speak to the city manager unless it's like but that's dangerous.

That's a dangerous thing because do we all want every one-on-one conversation we have with Jesse to have to go through seven of us?

Yeah, am I yeah, you're totally missing it.

The if if when we make a decision, any the conversation we should have with Jesse is consistent with what we decided on as a consensus.

Yeah, I agree.

I'm saying that's being violated that that the the correspondence demonstrates conversation in contradiction with their so it it sounds like the can I push a little bit further, but do you think that staff then like one against the consensus of the council based on that one conversation or that one email?

Like we also can't hold staff accountable for one counselor writing something.

I mean, I'm just like suspended.

I don't I don't know if if you've read it.

Yeah, it's just I've read it.

I mean, I'm looking at it again right now, and I'm just gonna wants to say something.

Yeah, I I just want to clarify if yes, this was an email that I sent to Jesse because um a response about signing the confidentiality um agreement was um said in error, right?

Miles said that he didn't sign it, he forgot that he signed it.

It it's fine, right?

It these things happen, and so I emailed Jesse to say, hey, this was was said at a meeting, here's the confidentiality document that was signed.

Um can you have this corrected formally so we know okay, this was signed because that was uh a point that council was making that that Miles didn't sign it.

I didn't bring it to council because that's not necessary.

I emailed Jesse to say this happened, and Jesse wanted me, he thanked me and he said that they they were going to do some things in the background, and then they would you know let everybody know once they got done doing whatever their internal stuff was, which I did not ask.

So this wasn't me undermining anything, it was me requesting a correction, which any of us can request a correction when when something is missed.

I also just spoke in that meeting.

And as a partner, our supposed partner, I had no knowledge of it.

So there's so that the transparency is itself as a problem, but as as written here, I mean I mean a staff person's personal record was as a result.

I mean, that's why we got a email from Brian in October and not soon after your memo in August.

Uh and I got a different perspective on why you why you think I'm moving.

Mayor Council.

Nobody can know what I was thinking, except for me, but I can tell you what I was thinking.

Something was said incorrectly by a staff member, and I went to Jesse.

He brought it to everybody's attention.

What's in Miles' record?

I have no idea.

But Counselor Schimmel, you yourself mentioned that it would be nice if we had you know updates about issues that we're having with staff before an evaluation, so that we have a record of issues happening or congratulations happening for the staff.

So this actually helps that because it was reported to Jesse and he went through the process appropriately.

By no means did I uh was this uh an attempt to undermine or to penalize somebody, it was to clarify a record.

And if there is a penalty in his evaluation in his record, that is that is not here, that is there.

That is that is Jesse's decision, Brian's decision on whether to penalize somebody for that, not mine.

I was straightening up a record, end of story.

We're we're just yeah, I I mean, I'm um I'm not being under understood, or the you know, this in the context of a larger picture is is just being glossed over.

Uh and just I have my in my observation and canvassing and and working with partners, you know, it's just perpetual harm, perpetual harm.

And I I want it to stop uh it's it's gonna continue to be uh a strain on staff to implement our 2040 plan.

That that's that's my observation uh and interactions and you can go through the history.

I mean, that's there's a ton of public record.

Um I just and and I I don't I'm not trying to harm any individual, I just want the the divisiveness, the polarization to stop so that we can productively move forward.

And and this to me was just a testament to uh historic problem, and I I joined council with the aim of of being a blunt object to a bad culture that I walked into, and uh I'll I'll go uh you know go down and to my grave on this term uh to break that bad culture.

I just can't the city can't stand for it, and I won't and so we I'll just suspend this and trust that my colleagues will catch up.

Okay, thank you, Councilor Shimmel.

City Manager reports, thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Just a couple updates.

Um Public Works and Light and Power uh have had separate meetings with the Bonnefield Power Administration, and I do have some good news to report here.

Thanks largely in part to uh Keith Horman, our director of Light and Power and Greg Robertson, our director of public works.

Uh BPA assigned a project manager to the Highway 47 and Fern Hill project.

Uh there was a poll that was uh initially kind of blocking construction and causing delays in the timetable.

Uh the project manager has notified the city that they have ordered ordered polls for that intersection to relocate the ones that are currently in the way.

Uh and it looks like they're gonna have a spring uh outage to relocate those polls.

So short story is it appears as though that project at Fern Hill and Highway 47 is back on track.

And so thank you largely to the council and to staff working collaboratively together to get that done.

And I'm very happy to report that's uh we probably gained back close to a year, if not more than that.

So thank you for your assistance with that.

Um also uh a shout out to Eddie Littlefield.

Eddie has been managing or information technology.

Um, and we've secured a contract with structured, and we're just making lots of improvements, whether it's our criminal justice information system or Windows 11 upgrades, server patching, replacing the existing servers in City Hall and at Light and Power.

We're just making really good strides in our IT department.

So I wanted to give a shout out to Eddie for that.

Um, likewise with our GIS uh system, our geographic information services system, Keith Horman um who was uh appointed as uh managing GIS in the interim, uh also has been doing a wonderful job.

We put out a request for proposals for GIS services.

This was talked with the budget committee and with council.

What we're looking at is trying to map not only our light and power, which is currently in the system, but also our sewer storm water and some zoning applications, and then also try to get some of those online.

So we're expecting proposals back sometime in November, December.

So stay tuned for more on that.

Uh also uh Chiefs uh Ryman uh and Gearing provided information to communications.

One of the council's objectives was to have a dashboard that showed public response times on the website.

Um, and that essentially would have kind of two measurements.

One was the response time, and then two, the number of incidents that we were having for critical responses for both fire and for police.

Happy to report that all of the data is there.

Uh, it's now just a matter of kind of taking that data and putting it onto the website in a very kind of readable and usable format for the public.

So uh look for more on that soon.

Uh from community development, uh development code amendments.

This is our kind of annual process for development code amendments.

Uh, they're going to the planning commission on November 17th.

Uh, we do plan to have a work session with the city council on November 24th to talk about those possible code developments.

Excuse me, um, code amendments, uh, development code amendments on November 24th.

So look for more and not more on that.

Um, public works administration uh building and and re and repair shop is moving forward.

Uh it's going really well.

Uh the project is working on utility line installation and foundation work.

Um, and that's moving forward.

A couple announcements about the library, the gathering of the groups, that's the Friends of the Library and the Library Foundation uh is Sunday, November 9th.

It's an annual event.

And also um uh I was uh pleased to attend the uh annual volunteer recognition dinner for the library on October 22nd.

Uh, there are approximately 60 people there.

Uh and it was great to see uh the teen library council attend.

There must have been uh probably 10, maybe 12.

It was it was great to see.

Um and then last but certainly not least, uh Light and Power has completed the environmental review and the land use process for uh the city's low income for the solar project to assist our low-income assistance program.

Uh we are kind of double checking with housing and urban development on the congressional funds that we received, uh, thanks in large part to Senators Merkley and Wyden and Congresswoman Bonamici.

Uh so once we verify those capital funds, uh then we can look at putting out a final design and a construction contract on that.

So with that, that's all I have to report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Great.

Thank you, Jesse.

Uh, would it be appropriate or I mean can we write Bonneville a thank you note?

Is that inappropriate?

I just think that we wrote them a note saying, hey, this is our priority, so we should follow back up and say thank you.

Yeah, I think some type of note to BPA just thanking them for their collaboration and attention would be well advised.

Yeah.

And um, then I'll go through my stuff.

So on Wednesday on the 22nd, Jesse, while Jesse attended the library volunteer appreciation, I attended the last Civic Academy meeting.

And again, I know I said this earlier.

I just think that Stephanie and Joyce did a really good job.

And then each of our department directors did a really good job.

So uh last week, Wednesday was Light and Power and Light Empowered.

They've created this safety truck that they can take different places that shows like what happens when a balloon touches a light wire, what happens like when it's on the ground and something else like fire, fire, fire everywhere.

And then they put people up in the bucket truck.

They just really went all out to prove that their department is better than the fire department.

Um that was just the bonus on top, the cherry on top.

But it was really to like engage our community.

And that's what I heard from uh a couple of the participants was that they really enjoyed how hands-on the activities were, and they really felt like they got to do a lot of cool things.

So again, thank you to all of our city staff who worked on that, and then especially Stephanie and Joyce, who I mean, put that together for the first time.

And I think next year we'll be even better because, right, like that was the first draft, second draft.

It'll keep getting better.

Uh as Counselor Martinez said, our 37th um, where our sister city relationship has been 37 years old.

And so we had another student delegation.

They were here Wednesday through Sunday.

Um, I just uh council Martin's did a great job summarizing that, but I want to just give another shout out to the host families.

Uh Council Schimmel is one of them.

Um, who open up their homes and get people places and show them a really good time.

And then our sister city committee, who are all volunteers and are looking for additional members that plan the activities, uh, work with UCC to get a shuttle bus and all those good things, and the chamber.

And a big shout out to the chamber too, who is also a contributing partner.

Uh I met with the mayor's youth advisory council.

That's my uh high school student group that advises me on Tuesday the 21st, and they are looking for volunteer opportunities this season.

So and they were also wondering if the library was gonna do their open house the first weekend in December.

Council Valenzuela, I don't know, or Council President Valenzuela, if you could check with um library commission or calling to see if they could have a table.

Last year they made Christmas cards and delivered them to the senior like centers around town.

Well, I believe they will.

They will have it on, yeah.

So maybe they can have a table again.

Yes.

Uh so yeah, if you are on a board, if you could ask your board and commissions or other partners like chamber, I see Evelyn in here.

Uh you have a group of about 12 high school students who are looking to be out in the community.

Like that was their work plan for this year, is more volunteering.

I don't know, Pacific.

Any of those things are great for us.

And that brings me to another question.

Three of them are seniors and have asked me for letters of recommendation.

And I think per council rules, uh, I need to get consensus from you to be able to use city letterhead.

So if I could have use the horse grow of city letterhead in writing their uh recommendations for college, that would be very religious.

Yeah.

Okay.

College.

Okay, cool.

Thanks.

Um, and then the other thing, speaking of them, is that there is money in the budget for some of our youth, or either our our youth uh board and commission members or MYAC members to attend the NLC conference.

And so I was wondering if Jesse, do you have a chance to look at the budget?

Like, is it two or three?

And then how do we go about that?

It'd be nice if we could get those applications out soon.

I was able to look at the budget.

So currently in the budget, uh, there's enough sufficient funding for three students to attend NLC for this fiscal year.

Did you say two or three?

Three.

Okay, and then and a chaperone.

And the chaperone, yes.

Okay.

So uh I think PAC, the public arts commission has one student rep.

We just want to make sure that it goes out to everyone at the same time.

So, like the mayor's youth advisory council.

Does the forestry have a student rep?

Anyways, we if maybe like Joyce could be in charge of also getting it to me for the MYAC would be great.

Okay.

Um, and then I want to circle back to this mayor's innovation project to see if there if you guys had a chance to look at it.

I've wanted to reach out to them a couple times in the last week um about some of the things going on to get because if you're a member, you can utilize their staff and resources, but then I have felt guilty because they're a very small group and they have a small staff and we're not a member.

So I was just wondering.

It's a 12, it's 1,250 annual fee, and it gives you access to their staff resources, conferences, and I'm just wondering if you had a chance to look at that and if you're in favor of that.

I see one head nod to head.

Yeah.

Well, I didn't know if you're saying yes because you're like in your email.

You're asking questions.

So, Jesse, do you know how much we I asked Jesse to bring this back to you.

How much did was your question about how much NLC and LOC?

Well, just I wasn't sure if you were asking us for money, and and that was I thought maybe there was already money in the to do that without our Yeah, no, it's because they're like need for our consent.

No, and well, according to Jesse, I need your consent.

So the the way the processes work for memberships is the city council would pass a resolution authorizing the membership.

Um, and then the budget would follow.

Umce the council has made a determination to sign up with a particular entity as a member, uh, then that gets built into the budget framework for the ensuing years, unless council would like to discontinue the membership.

maybe there is already money in in the budget to do that without our yeah no it's because they're like need for our consent no and well according to Jesse I need your consent so the the way the processes work for memberships is the city council would pass a resolution authorizing the membership um and then the budget would follow um once the council has made a determination to sign up with a particular entity as a member uh then that gets built into the budget framework for the ensuing years unless council would like to discontinue the membership very cool so we'll bring that back I feel like there's consent we'll bring it back for a resolution okay it's a really a very small considering I think like what you get um then just a couple of friendly reminders that in December we like made we had consensus to have the council retreat the first Monday December 1st so it'll be a four hour meeting 5 30 to 9 30 so please prioritize that and then we'll have only then we have just one council sorry I should speak in the microphone we have one council meeting in December on December 8th the following week and then you'll have the rest of that month off until our first meeting in January.

What time did you say again for the council retreat?

Yeah 5 30 I believe right 5 30 to 9 3 I think we just kept it like basically the same as our normal council meetings.

Um I think that's all I have so I'm gonna adjourn this council meeting but we have a work session following so meeting adjourned