The Forest Grove City Council met on November 24, 2025, at 7:03 PM. The meeting featured extensive public comment on immigration enforcement, the passage of a sanctuary city resolution, annual department reports from Light & Power, Library, Community Development, and Administration, and consensus to send a supporting letter to the Governor regarding a unified regional response to federal immigration actions.
I'd like to call this meeting to order of the Forest Grove City Council at 7 03. Will our city recorder please call roll? Councilor Gustaverson. Here. Council President Bowen Zelda. Here. Counselor Schummer? Here. Counselor Falconer? Here. Counselor Martinez? Here. Counselor Marshall. Here. Mayor Wenzel. Here. Forest Grove City Council meetings are located on the land of the Tualeton Calipoas, who call themselves the Atphalati. They are now part of the Confederate tribes of Grand Ron. Will the council and the audience please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which is stand. One nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice. Thank you. We're going to move on to item B on our agenda, which 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 option to be called on. So when I call you up for public comment, if you could sit at the chair at the front table in front of the microphone. And our first person signed up for public comment. Thank you for writing your name as well, is Michael Johnson. If the lights on, I guess that means the mic's on. Yes, you're good to go. Um I am with uh Indivisible Forest Grove, but since we haven't had a chance to vote on these issues as an organization, I'll speak for myself. Um couple of things I'd like to address. I noticed that later you're going to deal with possibly sending a letter to Washington County asking them to suspend um the use of flocks. And uh as regrettable as that is, because it's a great law enforcement tool, I think it's necessary, given the fact that uh the laws are being so vague vagrant flagrantly uh abused by those who ought to be protecting them. Um my second uh thing that I would like to address is the thing that you were talking about earlier today, whether or not to uh have uh stand up with an ordinance to uh proclaim that we are a sanctuary city. I understand the concerns, I understand the risks, and I would simply like to say that history teaches us nothing if it hasn't taught us that if everybody keeps their heads down, we all get smothered. So somebody has to stand up, and the more people who do, the stronger the resistance and the stronger the resistance, the better chance that we can live through this mess. Nobody voted for what we're seeing right now. He promised that he was gonna get rid of the murderers and the rapists and the the drug dealers and all the bad guys, and then he told set a quota, which means that automatically they're going after the lowest hanging fruit, and that happens to be very law-abiding people who are just trying to get a little bit of the American dream, and they're being punished for it, and that's wrong, and we need to stand up as a community and say so. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect time as well. Beth Genley. I do want to say that these detentions, actual kidnappings, are occurring into overcrowded, unsanitary and cold detention facilities, and who they're taking away are valued people who contribute to our communities economically and by sharing their love and wisdom. And it it really has to stop. In terms of the sanctuary city ordinance, I'm strongly in favor. I do have some questions though that I hope you'll consider.