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.

When you are doing city employee training, uh training them to do what?

In the last meeting, we heard from the city attorney who apparently, the way I understood it was saying that city employees should not record ICE arriving.

They should not ask for IDs or warrants.

They should not forbid entry into uh non-public areas.

So what will we be training city employees to do?

Um that seems like an important question to ask.

Um, and finally, I just want to say that um Nafisa Phi from the uh Washington County Commissioners and Juan Carlos Gonzalez from uh Metro are putting together a um a program.

I'm reading my notes here from their their Facebook announcement.

A West Side Immigration Response Coordinating Group uh for all levels of government to consider policy and legal action.

And there was a comment from Susan McLean saying, I want in on that.

I hope you all will be in on it as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone in the audience who wasn't present to sign up wishing to give public comment.

Senator Solomon, head on up.

Hello.

Thank you, Mayor Wenzel, Council President, members of the Force Grove City Council.

I'm Janine Salman.

I am your state senator from for Force Grove, Cornelius Hillsborough and the Rock Creek area.

We are experiencing an economic and humanitarian crisis in our communities.

We have heard from so many people that are afraid to leave their homes to go to work to do errands.

They are afraid to take their children to school, and they are fearful for friends and for loved ones being disappeared by ice.

When I hear ICE only detains the worst of the worst, I cry foul.

They are taking mothers, fathers, children, landscapers, construction workers, they're taking our neighbors.

They are taking residents based on the color of their skin, and this is wrong.

We cannot live in a society that normalizes the sidewalk disappearing of humans.

We cannot be desensitized to witness witnessing abductions.

A mother sat in tears and told me her worry of her 16-year-old Latina daughter and the fear of being sex trafficked in a in broad daylight.

The escalation of violence and terror that ICE is spreading is abhorrent and should be illegal in any setting.

I worry when this action turns violent, the president plans plans is to invoke a federalized military response.

I recognize this is a burden too large for our cities to bear alone.

On November 10th, I sent a letter to the governor to request a convening to create a unified plan for response.

This would include representation from our Department of Justice, counties, cities, law enforcement, school districts, and community-based organizations to collectively respond and figure out what can be our legal, enforceable response.

We want actions to support real solutions and bring not bring false hope to of challenged action.

The governor is organizing a response now, and I sincerely applaud uh the effort.

Time is of the essence.

Legislators are also looking for solutions for an upcoming in this upcoming session.

I stand with you all as we plea for a humanitarian response and an enforceable action plan.

I am committed to doing whatever is needed to help because we are stronger united than we are divided.

Thank you so much for your time this evening and your action and your continued communication.

This is something that we will get through, and we are stronger when we work together.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator.

Anyone in the audience who didn't maybe did not sign up that would like to give public testimony.

Okay, seeing none.

Is there anyone on Zoom that would like to give public testimony?

Please use the raise hand feature and I will call on you.

Okay, Sandra, we're gonna switch you over.

Sandra, you are um as soon as you're ready, you can start with your public comment.

Hi, I'm Sandra, and I was listening to before where they were talking about how um they're letting terrorists in through the border.

And I just wanna make it very, very clear that out of 570, 60 people that have been detained, only three percent of them have criminal backgrounds.

So that is that's not the truth.

That is not true.

Thank you, Sandra.

Absolutely.

Um, and just for in case some of you don't want to stay, um, I just wanna like respond to a couple of the public comments.

Um, Senator Solomon, I'm gonna bring your letter up uh at during my mayor's comments at the end of the meeting for consensus uh to see if there's consensus from the council to write a supporting letter.

Um I could do it individually without consensus, but I think it's stronger, like as you said, together.

And then um to the other comments, uh Metro Councillor Juan Carlos Gonzalez reached out to me a week ago, inviting me.

So we're we're on that as well.

Um okay, thank you.

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

Let me flip my agenda.

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

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

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

What is the wish of the council?

No move.

Wait, Councilor Schimmel.

Mayor, I just have comments on two of them, so I don't know if you gotta take off what you want to discuss.

Right, the two resolutions.

Okay, so counselor Shimmel would like to remove consent agenda items C one and C two for discussion purposes, I believe.

Comments for comments.

Is there a second for that?

Do I need a second?

Yeah, right.

No.

No.

Okay, so we're gonna take those off.

So uh that leaves consent item three.

Uh C three.

What is the wish of the council?

Uh I'll move.

Okay, thank you.

Second.

So Councilor Falkner made the motion and council president Valenzuela seconded to approve the letter to Washington County requesting suspension of flock safety contract.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

Hearing none.

Oh, aye.

Sorry.

So um it was six to one for the consent item letter to Washington County requesting suspension.

Um six, and then the one nay was Counselor Martinez for the record.

Okay.

Uh go ahead, Councillor Schimmel.

All right.

Well, thanks for accommodating.

But I just wanted to make some public make some public comments regarding both uh resolutions.

The the one on the public arts commission.

I just recognize the group for their tremendous work in beautifying our city and the the two committees, subcommittees being proposed, uh, will do that further, particularly in our downtown and serving on the uh economic development commission.

Uh I I find it uh relevant that art and art is a uh economic development engine.

So I I appreciate the the work that they do that to advance our our downtown's beautification efforts.

And then also on the the other one about the uh boards of commissions appointees.

I I find it uh definitely rewarding having served on board of commission before, honoring those who continue to stick with it.

So on the the Parks and Rec, we have Lauren Miller, uh Kylie Thompson, Ben Burns, and Joe Ofer.

Uh I appreciate their their commitment or conviction to serving that uh committee.

And then also on the the planning commission, the new appointment of Sarathi uh Rivera and what's I have a personal connection because uh I hired her in a job that didn't exist before.

So she has a tendency to get through interviews for positions that don't yet exist.

And and I I believe that was true for planning commission as well.

It was a hire waiting for a position to open.

Uh so I'm um thrilled that uh not only she appointed there, but uh she's also a civil uh civics academy graduate.

So we're we're putting folks immediately at the service.

So uh congratulations to Councilor Shimmel.

Um any other discussion items on that?

Okay, what is the wish of the council for items C one and C2?

So move.

Okay, moved by Councillor Schimmel.

Second.

Seconded by Council President Valenzuela.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, please say aye.

Hearing none.

Consent agenda is items one and two were unanimously approved by this force growth city council in a seven to zero vote.

Thank you.

Okay, item D, additions and deletions.

City manager.

I have no additions or deletions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, great.

Any proposed by council.

Okay.

Seeing none.

Item E is presentations.

Um what's going on right now for those in the audience is that we are preparing for our retreat on December 1st.

And so we're getting our department updates about all the cool things they've done.

And I just wanna say, like, it's really a good light spots and sometimes hard times right now, like looking over these presentations.

We have the best staff.

Uh our departments are doing seriously good work, and it's so rewarding um to get to hear the highlights from it.

So I'm gonna with that, Keith's like, stop talking, Mayor.

Like, that's what happens to get elected mayor and you just talk and talk and talk.

So I'm gonna introduce our lightning power director, Keith Horman, to give us his annual report.

Thank you, Keith, for bearing with me.

Absolutely.

Good evening, uh, mayor, counselors.

We're gonna I'm gonna start us out tonight uh with the light and power presentation for our uh annual accomplishments and priorities.

We um obviously the purpose of our um uh presentation is uh look at the goals and objectives and other items.

Um of the things in the 2040 vision plan that uh connects with light and power under the community growth section are items 2.22, keeping all long-term infrastructure plans up to date.

2.23 expand our green and climate resilient infrastructure and equipment, and 2.24 continued redundancy expansion of electric system at the transmission and substation level.

This is uh a project that I reported on last year that was almost completed, and we did finish this one this year.

This was um identified in our 2021 electric system master plan replacing all of the old um 1970s and 80s and early 90s direct area cable that was failing and causing a lot of outages.

So we have completed that project.

It's very labor-intensive and very expensive.

Um and council had the wisdom to grant us some of our reserve distribution clause funds from BPA to finish the project, and it has now been completed.

So this one is knocked off our list.

Our wildfire mitigation project.

Um this is uh identified in our um vision plan uh under climate resilient infrastructure.

So we have uh as a electric utility, we have to file uh wildfire wildfire mitigation plans with the um public utility commission.

And as part of our plan, we identified three areas uh in our service area that were more at risk uh for wildfire, one of them being on uh Hillside Road, the Southern Taps, one of them on Lower or Upper David Hill Road, and a third on Lower David Hill Road.

Uh the Hillside Road and the Upper David Hill Road uh projects have been completed, and those lines have all been relocated underground and the overhead lines have been removed.

The one on uh lower David Hill Road is still in process.

All the infrastructure has been installed, and we're simply just waiting uh for the materials to arrive so we can complete that part of the project too.

Um we plan to have that completed uh before this upcoming fire season.

This was also part of our reserve uh distribution clause funding that helped pay for this, along with that uh a little under a half a million dollar grant that we received from the Department of Energy.

This is a unique one.

We've never reported on, uh, but as part of uh our inspection criteria from the public utility commission.

Uh every 10 years um we have to test every pole in our system.

And uh over this past year we've been uh doing this, and this this machine that we use is pretty unique.

Uh it drills small holes into the into the poles from different angles and at different heights, and what it does is it measures the density of the poles, the wood that's left.

Um so as you can see, we we still have around 50 polls to do that are hard to access polls, but uh in that we've done over 10,000 drillings into these pull butts, so it's pretty neat.

Um it did produce some results.

We identified six uh priority reject polls that um our criteria is that we um put them in for schedule replacement as soon as possible, which they have been, and we identified uh 25 non-priority polls that are starting to fail, um, which are do we just schedule into our replacement process?

And as you'll see, uh, several of those are in um an upcoming slide of our pre-1970 polls.

So I think we uh we're identifying the ones that need to be gotten out of the system.

And then our pre-1970 pole replacement capital project.

This is also identified in our 2021 electric system master plan.

So what we did is we determined that all poles uh older than 1970 um would uh be up for replacement.

So we have uh identified all 364 poles in our service area.

We have inspected them and prioritized them for replacement, and we've actually been very busy replacing numerous ones.

This particular one is the uh the transmission line, 115,000 volt transmission line that runs beside the high school feeding our Thatcher substation, which basically served the whole western side of the city.

So the guys are replacing all these poles, and it's some been it's a very, very fun project for them.

And Jesse asked me why am I including two slides for the same project.

Well, it's because it's just pretty cool.

Um pictures aren't so great, but it was a real dark day.

But just a couple of weeks ago, we did a very unique pole set on uh uh B and Primrose on a pretty non-accessible pole.

It's one of the tallest poles on our system.

It's a 90-footer, and it actually sticks in the ground 11 feet, but we couldn't get to it, so we actually had to rent a crane and reaching over the top of a shop and set this pole from about 130 feet away.

So you'll see one of our uh actually one of our apprentices is up at the top of the pole, you know, 90 feet in the air, unhooking the line from the crane.

So that was a pretty fun job for the guys.

So our tree trimming program.

We uh successfully made it through uh a complete uh grid uh trimming.

And uh this past year we also um self-identified uh 24 poles or poles, excuse me, 24 large trees that we deemed or we thought looked hazardous and um could cause a lot of damage uh to the electric system if they came over.

Um of those 24 poles, we we we hired an independent arborist to come in and do a uh a battery of tests on the trees or keep saying poles, trees, and uh 19 of those 24 trees were deemed imminently uh up for failure.

So our crews went ahead and they removed all the trees and uh and uh eliminated a lot of hazards off of our system.

And uh coincidentally, all of the trees are on private property too.

Um they weren't normal ones that we would uh take care of in the road right away.

I wanted to update you on our painstakingly slow uh low income for solar array project.

We have made some accomplishments.

We have uh made it through all of the environmental reviews, which was painful.

Um we have made it through land use approval, and we are now ready to move to the next step, which we're just processing right now.

We're gonna be putting it out for bid uh for construction of the project at Forest Grove substation.

Um we're gonna complete this one and pending how much funding is left.

This is from the uh just a reminder from the the $900,000 Federal Earmark grant that we received.

And um, depending on what's left, then we'll start uh construction at Pilbert substation also.

Um I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about our energy efficiency, energy efficiency standards, um measures that we we did this last two-year rate period, 2023 to 2025.

Uh we saved a record over two million uh kilowatt hours of uh energy.

Uh that's the highest we've ever been able to do.

So some of you that don't can't correlate with two million kilowatt hours of energy is it's uh approximately the annual usage of about 154 homes that we've uh been able to save just uh through measures.

Um we uh as you as I did report one other time, our long-term contract with BPA is um uh finishes in 2028, and we have uh uh fully signed and executed our 2028 through 2024 BPA purchase power purchasing agreement.

Uh we have also in this past year uh executed the um updated renewal of our joint poll use agreements with uh all five of the communication companies that have franchise agreements here.

Uh some of these agreements were very old, dating back to the 1980s, so we updated all the language, and we updated the rental costs to reflect today's world.

Um we completed the migration of our geospatial mapping data to the utility network.

This has been a very big project for us.

Um it now uh has created a platform where it's extremely accurate.

Uh we have exact GPS locations for all of our facilities in the field, and just a couple of uh ways that we're already starting to use it besides just our mapping uh as part of our pre-1970 uh project, those 364 poles.

We can simply get that information at the at your fingertips within seconds now.

We can identify them.

We can push it into a map and identify all those poles instantly.

Uh, prior to this, was this was just an all manual going through spreadsheets identifying these polls.

Um we also are now able to meet uh what the PUC inspectors like to have um all of our data pushed out to them for their inspections through uh GIS.

Uh, we've never been able to meet that, but this is the first year we're now able to give them actually what they're asking for.

So we're already seeing some positive effects.

And we did uh complete our uh LMP emergency operations continue operations plan to ensure that we're uh still in compliance with all federal requirements uh required of electric utility.

Uh this plan complements uh Jim's plan for the the whole city EOP to uh have a good continuity.

We actually hired the same consultant that Jim Jim used and is still using, so it uh just flows right into his bigger plan.

Uh our clean fuels program.

I wanted to update you on that.

Our numbers are actually wrong.

Just in the last week, we've uh now up to 34 customers.

Uh we've uh uh given uh EV charger installation incentives to, and uh 23 bicycles, electric bikes have been purchased this past year.

So that's still a very active program and very positive.

Another thing that uh I haven't actually briefed you on yet, but we will be discussing it more in the future, probably a future work session.

We completed a uh uh BPA-led Portland area reinforcement study uh PARS.

And what this study did is it it uh looks at the transmission capacity system capacities on the west side of the Portland area.

There are five utilities, uh McMinnville Power and Light, Columbia River PUD out of St.

Helens, Classic and IPUD, and PGE on the West Side only, Hillsboro West.

What it looked at is the uh the the we've all seen explosive growth in all of our five service areas, and it's looking at the transmission system and its inadequacies.

And uh it was an extremely positive study.

It was a pilot.

Uh BPA has never done this, and we were identified as an area that needed it the most.

It's so successful that VPA is now taking this on the roadshow, and they're going to be using it across their five-state footprint.

Um, we will um the study has been completed.

It identified what needs to be done to uh make sure that we have enough capacity on the transmission lines, and now it's in an allocation method uh study uh to determine separation of costs of uh what can be allocated to all the customers of BPA and if there's any individual customer uh allocations that need to be given just to the individual utilities.

So we'll report back on that once we receive that.

We've also collaborated with BPA on several uh transmission repair repair projects around our system.

Um basically we've been a squeaky wheel and it's gotten some great results.

Um several things are being fixed, and also um the um highway 47 Fern Hill Road intersection project um is now cautiously tentatively slated to be done in May of 2026.

So it's looking positive that that's going to happen.

And uh you should be receiving a response that council put to um uh BPA, the uh senior vice president transmission is creating a response as we speak.

He'll be sending that out uh back to the council.

So thank you guys for doing that.

Um, another thing uh that we've been working on as part of the vision uh vision plan of redundancy of the transmission and substation system.

We have we hired uh engineering firm uh also using the reserve distribution clause funds from BPA, and we have uh just finished up 60% design of both the Filbert substation upgrades and also the transmission line that will run between Filbert substation and Forest Grove substation to give us a dual redundancy feed.

If we lose one, then we still have another backup source.

It's the second leg of the three-legged stool.

Uh the third one, uh, if you recall the first one we did is between Thatcher and Filbert Sub, and then the this one, and then the third one will be between Forest Grove and Thatcher, and then we'll have a complete inner loop around and outer loop, uh, creating just tons of redundancy for us and and multiple feeds coming into the city from three different directions.

Uh if we lose one, we still have two as backup and so on.

Some of our upcoming priorities for this year, um talked about most of them how we are going to finish our wildfire project.

We do plan to have that completed and all the lines uh buried uh before this upcoming fire season.

Like I said, we're just waiting on the material.

And um our pre-1970 pole replacement project, that'll be multi-year, but we're gonna knock out a whole bunch of them.

And our solar array, we're very positively thinking that we're now past the difficult part and we're gonna get going and start building something, hopefully in both substations.

And um as you're probably aware, the uh data center has started their construction um out uh near near Neil Armstrong.

But what you're probably not aware of is um the power side of it.

We're actually very active with them, and we're actively working uh expanding our forest grove substation right now.

Um the contractors are in there working uh to add the the third transformer.

Um then there's going to be lines built from Forest Grove to the data center, and then uh we'll shift right over to Filbert substation and do that expansion and the lines from there to the data center.

They're putting in two different uh expansions and two different circuits just for complete redundancy.

If one fails, they'll have a second one as a backup.

Um the uh it is on schedule, and it looks like the project will be energized uh June or July and in service of 2026.

Um pending uh funding approval and this NICT upcoming budget request.

We uh would like to begin construction on the Filbert substation.

We will have the complete design done uh probably by this January and the associated transmission tight line project.

This was already built into our uh rate study um uh as an upcoming capital cost.

And uh we do have our IBEW uh uh contract that's coming up uh this July.

It's looking very positive.

We're gonna begin uh negotiations soon.

Uh we are actually fully staffed, which doesn't happen that often, but we are, and uh we got a very, very fantastic crew of people working at Light and Power.

One thing I didn't really put into the the uh the presentation is aside uh from all of our maintenance projects, we also are involved in everything going on in the city electrically, whether that's from a somebody building in a garage to a large industrial project.

So some of the active projects that we've been working on this last year and continue to work on.

Um we have four uh active subdivisions, residential subdivisions, large ones.

We have multiple uh multifamily residential uh projects that are going on, several commercial projects, and numerous uh um scattering of smaller uh single customer projects going on around the city.

So anything electrical, you're going to be coming through our door at some point.

And then the old cliché keep safety as our top priority.

Um we do actually take this pretty serious.

Um there's not a lot of uh second chances on our line of work.

Um the last thing I didn't put in the presentation, uh, but I wanted to update.

I didn't put it in the city manager report either, because I wasn't sure.

But um if you haven't noticed when you came in, all of the uh uh holiday lights are now hung and uh shining bright tonight.

And um the tree lights downtown, the tree trunk lights have been installed.

They will be energized and lit up tomorrow night.

Very exciting.

And uh last but not least, uh, I hope you all show up Friday night at the tree lighting at the new location.

We collaborated uh with the chamber and Pacific University and at the corner of 21st and College Way.

The tree is lit and tested or not lit.

It's been uh wrapped and tested and ready to go for Friday night at six o'clock.

I'll buy you hot chocolate.

Isn't it free?

Mayor, if there's any questions, I can attempt to answer them.

Any questions?

Go ahead, counselor Guts then.

You know exactly when the lights will be energized so we can communicate with the community.

Um the uh tomorrow night at dusk.

At dusk.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Yeah, we'll we'll we do have the ability uh just to share uh if there's a desire, like a certain event.

Uh we we created it so we can actually turn them on during the daytime manually also.

So whenever you want them turned on, we can turn those all on.

Thank you.

So cool.

Counselor Schimmel.

Yeah, I just want to comment exceptional work and particularly this this year be in your department being more present and relevant to community life.

Yeah, notably at the public safety uh event, but just generally just you're you're more present and I think people get a better sense of uh your department's relevance to us.

Thank you.

Yeah, we have our safety training trailer.

We've we completed it this last year, and uh we're now doing presentations with that uh to different schools and first responders and such.

And if if uh Jesse would ever like to be able to work it into the schedule, we'd love to do a presentation for the council someday.

Yeah, I was gonna add that I was surprised it wasn't part of your accomplishments because he used it during the Civics Academy and blew away the fire department, like there's so of winning the best department, like the most interactive.

So I was wondering, I'm like, why didn't he bring up that everyone liked his presentation?

This the safety trailer the best, but you know.

Modest, modest guy.

Um okay.

Well, thank you, Keith.

Thanks for coming out.

And I'll see you Friday.

All right.

Okay, and following uh Keith is Colleen Winters, our library director, to give us the library annual report.

Good evening, Mayor Wensl.

Nice to see you.

Uh so you know the the deal, what's going to happen here.

I'm going to tell you all about what's been happening at the library and about our priorities for this coming year.

So from your goals and objectives, um, I chose or chose, I thought these were the two that were most relevant.

Um the inclusive accessible and sustainable community and and the enhanced recreation opportunities.

I know sometimes when we're discussing recreation, we're thinking about our new recreation division at the parks, but we think about the library being a place where there are people recreating, um, not in the same way as they are at our wonderful parks, but anyway, I included those um too from the vision plan.

Jesse and I had a good talk about this, and um I think the the one that's most relevant from your um 2040 plan is related to community, and from that, um the next slide, Mariah.

Um, these were the things that um seemed appropriate.

You've heard I'm guessing that we passed the WCCLS levy.

Um, we're certainly a gathering space all day every day.

Uh the volunteer thing under 4.6.

We have 20 library volunteers, and I guess I could explain that those are folks that are regularly scheduled to come to the library.

They help shelve, they pull holes, they empty the book drop like that, and they come every single week.

We also have 30 members of our wonderful TLC, our teen library council, which I know you're aware of.

Our friends of the library board is now at nine members, and our seven-member foundation board.

So lots of volunteer opportunities at the library.

And I just noted we've had our second annual volunteer dinner recently, and we had 60 people there.

So quite a wonderful thing, and I'll thank the friends of the library for that.

Um, the Pacific University Work Study students.

I think I haven't had occasion to tell the council how important that program is to the library.

We apply every year.

Um, and this year I didn't realize we had set a record.

We now have eight um work study students at the library, and they do just about anything we need them to do.

They help with circulation activities, they help do displays, they help um the librarians if they have a program.

Um we've been very, very impressed with that um program and very dependent on it as well.

Um, from your goals and objectives, the Civics Academy.

I'll just uh say that we too found that to be a very wonderful thing.

Appreciate Stephanie's good work on that and choice.

We're glad to hear it's going to happen again, and next year we will be competing for the best department.

We don't have trucks and fires, but we'll think of something.

And of course, you probably know that Jesse and I participated in the county's structure and governance evaluation project, which is ongoing, not complete, and yes, they have scheduled yet another meeting.

Remarkably.

So a little bit about that under our accomplishments.

Um that structure governance and evaluation did in fact result in the levy that was not just advocated and proposed to the Board of Commissioners, but in fact passed.

But there's more to that project, um, which is the structure and governance part.

And the next phase of this uh project with the marina is the name of the consulting company, will be related to structure and governance.

And what that means is we'll be looking at the way WCCLS functions, and if there's a better way to do that, and what would that be?

In fact, um, WCCLS is the only remaining cooperative system in the state of Oregon, and the other cooperatives that used to be around are have all gone to districts.

So my best guess around the next phase of this project is that we'll be thinking those sorts of thoughts.

Um children's area, you say.

Well, if you haven't seen the tree yet, you should make your way over to the library to see our new beautiful tree.

And again, this was um this remodel was thanks to a very generous donation by the Prosser family, the library foundation, and a bequest that we received.

Um it is so the feature is this enormous tree.

And if again, if you haven't seen it, you need to get over there.

It was installed last week, and it's just quite quite beautiful.

Um it's not done yet, so when you go there, you'll note that there's still work to be done, but it's a good start.

The donation was made with a request that we make the children's area more welcoming and whimsical.

So Carolina Velasquez did the work on that, and I I think she did a good job.

Our fireplace area is going to be remodeled very soon, and that's thanks to the Library Foundation who paid for all new furnishing for that area, and it's going to be turned into a programming area.

Right now, we're pretty dependent on the Rogers room for programming and the children's area, of course.

But we like that area in front of the fireplace.

And if you've ever been to a program at the library where we've had an author or a poet or somebody reading there, people like it.

It's comfortable, it's cozy like that, but the furniture didn't lend itself to that.

So the foundation, we asked, and the foundation said yes to all new furnishings.

Um the door count average I included after talking with Jesse a little bit about what you might be interested in, and I think I would have you know that the door count right now is about 8200 a month, and that's pretty much average.

There's nothing particularly exceptional about that one way or another, uh, but that's the number of people who come into the library, and of course, it it's not necessarily individual individuals.

That could be somebody that comes in every day or 12 times a day.

We have we have that too.

Our circulation this last year, and of course, circulation is library fees for things that get checked out of the library, and we increased uh circulation this year by almost three percent.

Always brag about summer reading, even though I have absolutely nothing to do with that except brag about it.

Um, our wonderful librarians make this happen every year, and again, these numbers are pretty terrific.

The read for a cause, Bob Abbey does that, and I'm sure you know about that.

This year, the um read for a cause project was uh Adventures Without Limits.

And so we ask our adult readers to keep track, and uh they did, and as a result, the Friends of the Library wrote a check to Adventures Without Limits for that amount.

Um, you'll note under the use summer reading that we gave out that many more books this year.

I want to really give uh library staff some kudos for the good work they do about summer reading.

They were at um multiple places around town, including the farmers market multiple times signing kids up for summer reading, they were in the schools, they were pretty much everywhere, and they just did a great job.

And as a result, we had these sorts of numbers.

Our priorities for next year.

What that looks like is what we're going to be talking about, of course, when budget time starts.

The next bullet, I want to just take a moment to talk about that because it's um it's a big deal.

This speaks to the fact that part of the proposal that came out of the structure and governance discussions was to centralize the selection ordering and cataloging of our collections.

Um that means, and well, I guess right now I don't know what it means.

The county has just hired um or is in the process of hiring a consulting firm to help us with this transition.

And again, this is a big deal.

Right now, we order, we select order and catalog the materials that are on our shelves, and if this happens, there'd be some version of that because it hasn't been defined yet.

We don't know yet if we'll have any local autonomy or how that's going to work, but it is a big deal.

Um the interlibrary loan part is also a big deal right now, just to make sure we know what we're talking about here with an interlibrary loan.

That's a request from a patron for an item that is not in WCCLS.

Means we go outside the system to acquire it.

We do a lot of those a lot, and the plan is for WCCLS to take over that um service as well.

Um the next bullet speaks to something that's also in the works, um, which would be that uh we would consider eliminating our security gates.

Um, it hasn't been decided yet, but I can safely say that it is being um advocated for the Hillsborough Library recently did a um pilot project around security gates, and their takeaway was get them gone.

And um so it's just being talked about again.

There hasn't been a decision, but I would have you know that it's uh could happen.

The last bullet is one you've seen from my presentations multiple years.

I think I talk about this every time I show up here, which we're still working to get the exterior of the library the way we would like to have it look.

So, what that means is um in terms of the expansion of our garden, um, that that there would be more of that coming around near the back entrance.

We just did a great new mural on the side of the library that'll help patrons know that there's actually another return space there.

I think it's been there 20 years and people have no idea, but now thanks to one of our employees, Lily, uh, there's a beautiful new new mural that speaks to that.

So um, yeah, that's all I'm saying.

Okay, any questions for Colleen?

Counselor Schimmel.

I didn't I didn't read all the details of the WCCLS plan, uh, but I'd be curious either now or later, what how we can advocate for the our local libraries' interests in developing that plan through the our county commissioners.

I appreciate that.

Um, as I say, the um county is just now signing or in the process of they've chosen uh um a consultant, and I don't remember the name, but they the contract hasn't been signed yet, I don't think.

But once that process is underway, there is an expectation that for the next year we're going to be discussing this and debating it and disagreeing about it for the next.

And I can say that and know that it's true because it has already happened that there isn't agreement on how this is going to work or what what a library and garden home might need from this versus a library in Hillsborough.

Those are two very different libraries.

So there's already some anks, no, not some inks, a lot of angst about how this is going to work.

But um, I think Jesse and I will work in tandem to ensure that Forrest Groves interests are represented.

One thing, did you want to say something, Councillor Martinez?

Okay, yeah, go ahead.

Hi, Colleen.

Thanks for coming.

Can you clarify security gates?

What you're talking about?

Yes.

Um, so at the library, all three of our entrants have gates on either side of them, and every item in that library has a a little tag in it, so that if somebody doesn't check it out, um it beeps when you go out the door.

And so right now, um the what is the way the reason it's there is what it's supposed to do is keep people from stealing stuff.

Well, they don't.

It doesn't.

People can steal stuff if they can figure out how that all works.

And so we do have a theft problem, absolutely.

The other thing is that during the Friends of the Library book sale, because they sell many of our discards, um, sometimes those don't get the little thing, the little chip taken out, and so they beep it beeps all during the French library books.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Colleen.

Um, at the gathering of the groups party, we had a few weeks ago.

I said something similar and wanted to make sure I said it on public record.

Uh the CF4 scroll was really lucky to have Colleen as a library director because we all have different leadership styles, and Colleen is a connector, right?

She connects people together.

And in what Senator Solomon said about stronger together, uh, Colleen embodies that.

And so I'm just gonna name some of the people that some people be like, I have all these bosses, but Colleen says no, this is strength and numbers.

So the county, WCCLS, friends of the Forest Grove Library, the Forest Grove Library Foundation, the Library Commission, us, Jesse, um, I'm sure I'm the teen library council, her staff.

Uh she has this amazing ability to tap into each group strength, bring them together to create such a good product.

And so I want to just say a huge thank you for your dedication to the city of Forest Grove.

And the library is the heart of our community, and we owe a much of that to you.

So thank you.

Thanks, Colleen.

Okay, Brian has to sorry, Ryan.

Yeah, you gotta follow that.

I'm just kidding, I'm no pressure, no pressure.

Well, thank you, Mayor, members of the city council.

You thought those were exciting.

Let's talk about community development.

I know I can't wait.

I am Brian Paul, your community developed community development director for the city of Forest Grove, talking to you about the CD updates uh for 2025.

Agenda to go through all these things.

The purpose uh is to brief you all in preparation for the annual retreat uh happening December 1st.

Next slide, please.

Uh out of goals and objectives, we had a lot of things um that came towards our department.

Um and I'll just kind of read the goals to you, not the not the tasks here, but to address long-term growth and support housing and economic stability and to ensure an inclusive, accessible and sustainable community.

And then in this vision plan, uh, we had a lot of things come out uh for community development and the vision plan.

Um but basically uh community growth was one of the big sort of you know head topics, if you will, uh, in the Vision 2040 plan.

No reason to read all these things to you tonight.

I think we're all kind of aware of where we are, and if anybody's interested, they can sit here and read this along.

Um I'm gonna start with building tonight.

And I was sitting here in the back of thinking about our building department, and uh you often hear the mayor use the term uh small but mighty staff.

Uh we have a building official and two building inspectors, and we do all the permitting and plan review for Forest Grove and Cornelius, and as you can see, uh that totals out to about a thousand permits and about 10,000 inspections per year.

Um that valuation this year was uh going on 350 million, just north of 35 million uh in Forest Grove and Cornelius.

We kind of go back and forth.

Forest Grove is hot some years, Cornelius is hot other years, and it kind of goes back and forth.

Um and so you're seeing a reflection of that.

I just want to kind of just pause and just I mean, every time you're in a public building, you know, and you don't have to think about what happens if the building catches on fire and if we're gonna get out safely and all those sorts of things.

Sometimes the best functions functions of government are we don't have to think about those things.

And I would just point to our three building staff and and and these numbers and point to people who are doing an amazing job in our community, keeping our people safe and are doing it with pretty scarce resources.

And so uh if you ever think about CD and only think about planning and economic development and that sort of thing, think about building two, but doing a lot for you.

Next slide.

Uh as far as our accomplishments, we held two workshops on the our work sessions on the urban reserve areas.

Uh we're currently developing the scope of work for the feasibility analysis.

This is for the urban reserve areas high up David Hill with the limited infrastructure and the sort of challenges for growth up on the hill.

I think you all know by now we were awarded funding from DLCD to begin our housing capacity analysis work by way of update.

Look through yet.

But just to remind you, the the HCA, the housing capacity analysis is sort of a study of what we need.

Within one year after the housing capacity analysis is done and adopted, we then move into the uh housing production strategy, which is sort of move from what we need to what we need to do.

Um so this will be a multi-year effort, um, but you can't really start it without doing this housing housing capacity analysis.

Uh and so we're looking forward to this work.

It will be very meaningful work uh for the city to move forward with uh funding housing or sort of encouraging housing uh of all types.

We also adopted our EOA, the economic opportunities analysis.

That was a comprehensive plan amendment that came before this body uh in spring and uh passed pretty easily, and we're proud of that work.

Um we began working with the city of Cornelius on an ADU workshop.

This would be sort of uh two jurisdictions getting together to talk about resources for building accessory dwelling units for either contractors or homeowners who want to do this and how they might do it, what to expect, how to move through the process.

Um, sometimes uh people just getting through the process can be the biggest hurdle, you know, even though our we try to make our processes nice and friendly and easy to easy to kind of move forward with.

Um it's the fear of the unknown sometimes that kind of get people to not do projects they might otherwise want to do.

So we're working on that with the city of Cornelius uh bringing forward.

We also have a drafted code revision language for industrial areas as well as many other things.

Um the hearing process is set to begin in December.

Um, and that will be coming to you uh soon thereafter.

Next slide, please.

With respect to economic development, you will see that there were also a lot of things out of the 2040 plan that fell onto the economic development plate.

Uh again, we won't read these all.

But the basic idea is that people want to see a stronger economy in the city of Forest Grove, and they want to see a nicer downtown.

Um they also want to see a balance of uh the economy of different commercial industrial businesses, and uh they want to see more high-paying job opportunities.

Next slide, please.

Uh on the front so far, as far as what we've done in economic development in the past year.

Um, we did work through our building improvement grant or storefront improvement improvement grant program.

Um, this is we have funded 10 of these proper or the storefront grants uh for a total of $57,000 in funding.

Um we've also supported six tourism grant uh or that supported six tourism uh events through the sponsorship program for about $18,000 in sponsorship.

We've funded two tourism capital grant requests for $5,000 each.

Uh in really big news, uh, I'm not using that as a pun intentionally, but it just caught me when I said it.

Uh the big, the building improvement grant.

Um, you might recall funded seven projects for a total of 175,000 in funding uh with construction coming up soon.

Um we completed the purchase of the old theater building by the Urban Renewal Agency, and we held a work session with City Council on the direction of Main Street.

Next slide, please.

Finally getting to our priorities for 2026 and late 2025.

Um we mentioned before, but that uh feasibility analysis for the David Hill David Hill Urban Reserve area.

We plan on moving forward with that.

We also are beginning the work on the housing capacity analysis.

Um and sort of in the background of all this, we need to think about how we are going to move forward with our comprehensive plan update.

That's a big deal.

I don't know how many of you have been in part of that before, but that's also a multi-year effort to update the city's overall comprehensive plan.

That's a lot of work.

That's a lot of meetings, a lot of all kinds of stuff.

Um, and so there's there's some you know, sort of figuring out how we're gonna move forward with the program.

Um updating the economic development strategic plan.

Um that's coming up this year as well, um, as well as upgrading the tourism strategic plan.

Uh there are some minor amendments we need to make to the Forest Grove Enterprise Zone, uh nothing major, but we need to get that done.

Uh we also talked uh at some length about performing a hotel and grocery store market analysis uh that will be under the auspices of the URA to talk about uh what the the feasibility of those uses in Forest Grove and how they how the URA could play a part in uh in landing either one of those things in the City of Forest Grove.

Um, as well as you know, sort of more generally talking about development concepts for the URA owned property.

We have the theater building, we have another pending pending purchase, um, and how we want to move forward with uh redevelopment on those properties.

It's an exciting time for the URA.

Um there has not been this kind of movement for a long time with urban renewal agency, and uh we're looking forward to that work in 2026.

With that, I will pause for any questions you might have.

Great questions, Councillor Schimmel.

Well I don't want to interrupt.

Um well, my day job has me going into the building department doors more often than mail room and and my personal survey of contractors I bring in the either Cornelius or Horse Grove would absolutely say you're their favorite in the region.

There's there's the the tremendous responsiveness, turnaround and and even consulting offered uh throughout projects is exceptional.

So I I definitely applaud the building department.

Uh and I know on on the ADC is very invigorated by the 2040 plan actions and been excited the last several meetings of engaging and and some of that that work uh and a couple of things that maybe have to be tabled for uh a um URA board meeting is the the use of tourism dollars uh focused more on our local residential marketing uh in light of a lot of the immigration activity.

That's that's one thing to consider and then uh the other is the the EDC took a tour of the upstairs of the theater building and and have some imagination uh uh for temporary use until there's full development for for new business uh do business owner office space.

Uh so maybe that's that's a future board meeting to where we can entertain those ideas.

Yeah, I appreciate that, Councillor Schimmel, and uh we welcome those conversations.

So thank you.

Yeah, did you have a question, Council President?

Or yes, it thank you, Brian.

Um so for the code revision, the draft of the code revision.

Do you know when uh this is solely for the industrial areas zoning, correct?

This is not just for industrial areas, this is also for our sort of annual round of code updates.

There are some substantive things in there, uh things that are sort of result of state legislation.

Um a lot of things every year come down from Salem.

Um and we have to kind of keep our codes in line with those things.

Um of those things in there.

There's just some general sort of cleanup and updates and stuff like that, as well as the industrial area uh and the setbacks and building.

Okay, so things like the high-sovic building.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Uh is any other questions?

So I have a question and then I have a comment.

But my question is um, so we're one year into the big the building improvement grant cycle.

And I was just wondering, is there any like lessons learned from that process as we move into year two?

Like what changes can are there changes like you know, with the application or how we're gonna measure success that we should be expecting or seeing coming up to year two.

There were some, I would say, uh big lessons learned uh with the application process, you know, tightening up the uh the criteria and what they'll be judged by and everything and making sure they're consistent across the board.

I think we had some some hiccups uh in the early summer about that.

Right.

That were regrettable, but also just you know, sort of growing pains, if you will.

Uh I think we will uh certainly uh tighten those things up, and I think we already have uh as far as uh sort of the ongoing monitoring, if you will, um I think we will try to find a way to sort of you know calculate that that sort of uh public investment as well as how much private investment is is a result of it, you know, because there are some times that some of these projects may not come to fruition at all, or they might uh grow in scope, they might shrink in scope.

Uh we're still you know, sort of funding at a certain level.

Uh but the idea of the of the URA in general is sort of how the public dollar can catalyze the private dollar.

That's the entire point of the whole thing.

Um, and that's what we need to measure.

And so uh we will do that with this round of grants and as they move to construction as well as this next grant.

Yeah, and then my final comment is just that I think it's gonna be a really exciting time for your department and community development.

We have a lot of big things, right?

Like the housing capacity and then the comp plan is huge.

Um and just kind of how we marry economic development with those things.

And like I think we have work to do as a council and explaining that they go hand in hand, right?

Like if you want to revitalize your downtown, then you have to have housing close to downtown.

Like it has to be walkable.

It has that like these are the things.

So, anyways, I'm excited to see that those are all your priorities.

And you know, it's gonna be a a year, probably two years of lots of work sessions with you and lots of like things getting done.

You'll get very sick of seeing me for sure.

I'm excited.

I'm excited.

Yeah, any other questions, comments.

Okay, cool.

Thanks, Brian.

You all very much.

Thank you.

And then our last presentation is from our city manager.

I was gonna make a snarky comment, but I will not.

Uh about administrative services annual report.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

My apologies for this being a little bit late into the packet.

So uh with that, Mariah, if you would please go to the next slide.

So, as been mentioned before, the purpose of this presentation is to inform the city council retreat that's going to be coming up on December 1st.

So if you go to the next slide.

So this formatting didn't really come out on this.

Um, but this is our 2025 goals and objectives.

I think the story here is that we've completed all of them, or that they have been folded into the 2040 plan, with the exception of uh passing the police station bond measure.

A little bit of an update on that.

There has been money appropriated for a poll.

Uh we have sent out um solicitations for projects for the poll.

We've got one response so far, we're expecting two.

It closes on December 1st, and then we're scheduled to have a work session with the city council on either January 12th or 26th to talk about the results from the poll.

So next slide, please.

So I'm not going to go over all of these individually.

I think there's approximately 22 actions that are associated with the 2040 plan and administration.

And in some cases, administration, uh, depending on what some of the actions item are.

If there's a coordination element to it, for example, if it's a comprehensive plan that may require and span several departments, uh administration is going to be, we may not be the lead on it, but we're going to be a partner on something like that.

So I won't go all of the over all of these, but I would like to highlight uh a few a few of the actions that kind of are priority and are already included in the budget.

Um, one is I just mentioned updating the city's comprehensive plan.

Uh this is largely a community development, but it will it will touch nearly every department, including uh administration.

Updating the communications plan and branding.

Uh, this is really a prerequisite to help map out and communicate with the community on 2040 and what we are doing today and what we want to do tomorrow and how we're going to communicate it.

It'll also speak to kind of the resource requirement associated with communications in the future and what that what that divisionslash department will look like within the city.

Uh you'll notice that wayfinding is mentioned several times in the 2040 plan.

And now that the glow-up project is over, we really do want to try and turn some attention to wayfinding.

We have a lot of public facilities that currently aren't signed, whether it's parking, uh, you know, facilities.

Uh, and we do need to come up with some kind of wayfinding plan that um makes those spaces more accessible and more visible and more utilized.

Um partnerships, if you like a lot of these things really center on partnerships, whether it's work study programs with Pacific, whether it's volunteerism programs at the library or our fire department, whether it's internships, um, all of which are mentioned in the 2040 plan.

We will be looking and doing an overall assessment of what we are doing now in those areas and what we could possibly do in the future and how to inform that and have a conversation with council about what those might look like.

There's a lot there to kind of unpack, uh, but it really centers on us engaging with the community and having the community engage with us and participate in city government.

Next slide, slide seven, if you would.

So a little bit about accomplishments, um, human resources and legislative executive.

Again, not gonna go over all of those, but I will say this past year has been very productive.

I do want to give a big kudos to our HR staff, of course, Mariah, our city recorder, uh Jamie, our executive assistant.

Um they really did work as a team to accomplish these items.

A couple items that I'd like to highlight uh um is that they updated several policies: the travel policy, the the travel and business expense policy, the proclamation policy.

We revamped the 457 requirement retirement plan policy, and of course the employee manual.

I know a lot of these things are kind of unsung and unmentioned, but they are important administrative things that we have to do.

Next slide, please.

Uh communications team under the leadership of Stephanie Fleischer, who is our first ever communications manager.

Uh, communications really hit a home run this year.

They've done an outstanding job.

Uh, they finished the 2040 plan that was highlighted as a very forward-looking and inclusive document.

They implemented the first ever Civics Academy.

They did it a year early, and it also received exceptional reviews as a testament to the success of the program.

It was recently approached in a local restaurant that somebody came up to me and they said, Hey, aren't you the city manager?

I went through your Civics Academy.

It was fantastic.

And it was like, okay, that's that's one of the reasons why we do this.

It was a great testament to the program.

And they said a lot of positive things about the program and about the city.

Other notable accomplishments was really a revamped and public facing state of the city address.

Um the community open house was very well attended, very well organized.

Uh and last but not least, I almost forgot to mention the parks activity guide.

It was the first of its kind in the grove, so there's a lot of first this year, uh, which has been very, very popular.

Uh we get a lot of compliments in the parks activity guide.

It's well used uh and a really good document.

Next slide, please.

So information technology, as with communications and me recognizing Stephanie and her team with Joyce.

I'd also like to recognize uh Eddie Littlefield and his team.

Eddie has really stepped into this IT role uh on a um on a temporary basis, and he's just made enormous strides in a very short amount of time.

Um so just some of the more notable accomplishments.

Um we've migrated to Windows 11.

Uh excuse me a moment.

We've installed firewalls to improve compliance with what's called our CGIS mandates or criminal justice information system state mandates.

We've installed better antivirus software, we've replaced aging equipment.

Um, a lot of our equipment over time was getting way well past its life cycle, and Eddie has done an excellent job bringing us back up to our equipment replacement on a timely basis.

Uh, I will also say that's really improved morale in a lot of departments.

Um, when when you're working with uh a computer that may be nine and 10 years old and it could be kind of slow and it's supposed to be replaced every five years.

Uh Eddie has really stepped in and brought us back into compliance with our equipment replacement schedule and uh just done a wonderful job.

Uh next next slide, slide eleven.

So finance department, uh Sally Shashiri, who has been essentially acting in our finance director position.

She's our assistant finance director.

She's worked for us for 22 years.

She's also done a great job.

Um, and she's really kind of filled the void in terms of making sure that the biannual budget has been a success.

Uh that really required us to update some of the systems that we had that weren't necessarily geared toward a biannual budget, uh, but we've worked with the providers in those cases, and we've made the software um uh adaptable to the biennial budget, and we now have the biennial budget completely implemented, uh completely done in the system, if you will.

I guess I would also add that Sally has been very responsive.

Budget requests come up all the time from staff.

You know, what's our budget?

How much of we, how much do we have to spend in this?

Uh, does it fit into this?

Does it not?

And Sally has been very responsive to staff across the board.

Uh, she's also completed the finance portion of the water rate study um and also completed the uh the annual audit.

So kudos to Sally who's who's done a great job at finance.

Next slide, please.

So there's a lot of priorities on the next two slides.

There's, I think 20 total.

I want to characterize this as somewhat aspirational, and it's kind of an all-inclusive list, if you will.

Uh, we have not necessarily vetted and resourced these.

Um, but I did want to give council a good idea of some of the actions that kind of inform the bigger picture conversation that's going to occur at the retreat.

I would add some of the top priorities that staff has identified uh over the next two pages would be helping with the comprehensive plan.

The comprehensive plan is going to be a big priority for staff.

Communications plan is a big priority.

Uh 2040 platform, uh reporting platform for the public.

That's going to be a big priority.

Um, internally, one of the things this is more aspirational is we'd like to research a paid leave program and we'd like to research some work back programs.

We're getting to the point in some of our policy discussions with regard to staff recruitment and retention that these are two things that cities are working on that we really need to spend some time and attention working on them as well.

Uh, really need to continue the positive momentum in IT.

Um, uh, and then of course hire an onboard assistant city manager, a police chief, and a finance director, obviously three very key positions.

Uh, and then the last thing I think in the finance and utility billing department uh is utility billing has done uh a great job, not only kind of trying to implement some new software, but also being very responsive to our customer requests, and I think one of their priorities in finance is to finish installing our new billing and accounting software for the coming year.

So with that, I would be happy to take any questions from the council.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

Okay, any questions for Jesse?

Yeah, Councilor Gussen.

So on the wayfinding, is it just internal to downtown that the wayfinding is going to be um discussed, or are we also talking about wayfinding to get people to come downtown?

Like the where the welcome sign is on 47 in that area, having a sign that says, you know, you know, the historic downtown or old town, because you know how it used to be before 47 punched through.

People kind of had to go in that direction.

So having a sign there would be really beneficial.

I think I I think that can be part of that scoping conversation about what it does and doesn't include.

I know the one thing that it needs to include uh is better visibility for some of our public spaces that get utilized, whether it be parking, uh, whether it be familiarization to either city hall or the library, etc.

So some of the public facilities, typically wayfinding kind of centers on that.

Um, if there's a tourism element to it, um, that could be thematic with it.

Uh doesn't mean it would exclude it, but I do know that what we've seen in the 2040 plan, what we've heard from the community is to try and increase utilization of some of these areas, part of which hinges on wayfinding.

Okay, thanks.

Counselor Schimmel.

I just wanted a comment and memoriam.

Good job filling in for Paul.

Oh real.

Um, I have I mean, I I think Brian polls right.

I often say that we have a small and mighty staff.

And um, I think on our admin side, it's very evident.

And I really appreciate you calling out the accomplishments of your comms team.

And I want to publicly say the comms team is two.

So all of those things, all the things we've done is two people working extremely hard.

And I also believe that it's been received very well by the community of the people can tell that the improvement with engagement.

When I was on council prior to becoming mayor, it was like, we don't know about these things.

We don't, and now people know they like and they want more of it.

And I think that comms is one of those departments that as you do better, people expect more.

So I just want to, you know, shout that out that they are doing a really good job, and that's two, and it probably needs to grow in some capacity.

I'm just gonna put it on record, sorry.

But good job to everybody.

Because I do think too, I want to say, like Eddie is our like number two at Light and Power, and he came over to help with tech.

And so I think, you know, with Councillor Schimmel's comment.

Um no one really expected to lose a key member of our team, our assistant city manager and our finance director, Paul Downey.

And um the small and mighty system and structure we have is also really a family where people stepped up and are doing more work and filling in um, you know, in that that loss, right?

Of someone who worked, I mean, Paul, I think Paul worked more hours than me with both my jobs.

Like Paul, like literally breathed the city.

Um, he looked for the city, and we were lucky to have him.

So thank you to the whole admin team.

That's all you're doing.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, well, you don't get up because you're gonna be the next.

My next.

Okay.

We're moving to public hearings, but or do you have to get up to get your notes?

I'm just gonna grab some notes real quick.

Okay, fine.

So we're gonna move on to item F1 on the agenda, which is public hearings ordinances and resolutions.

And we're gonna discuss resolution 2025-64, declaring the CFOs girl a sanctuary city for all persons, regardless of race, color, national origin, immigration, or refugee status, religion, sex, gender, identity, including gender expression, sexual orientation, mental and physical ability, veteran status, or age.

And I'm gonna turn it over to our city manager, Jesse Vandersen.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Um there was a fairly extensive staff report that was included in the council packet and is available online.

And so I'm just gonna kind of briefly summarize um a couple notes out of that.

Um, a little bit of background.

On February 13th, 2017, the city passed resolution 2017-21 that declared the city of Forest Grove an inclusive community.

On November 10th at the last meeting of 2025, the city council passed resolution number 2025-61, which declared a state of emergency to address the community impacts of federal immigration enforcement.

And during that same meeting, the council reached consensus to repeal this resolution and to affirm the city of Forest Grove's commitment to maintaining a safe open and inclusive community by considering a sanctuary city resolution.

That resolution is attached as resolution number 2025-64.

Make sure I had the I do, if you could put that okay.

So a little bit about that.

Essentially, this mirrors the inclusive city resolution that was done in 2017 with a couple of what I would characterize as minor exceptions.

It replaces quote inclusive with sanctuary.

So instead of inclusive city, it's sanctuary city.

It updates the fourth whereas to reflect uh some changes that were made in state law regarding um uh sanctuary provisions uh that were passed in 181A.829, they were just updates to the state statute, and so that has been updated in the resolution.

It adds the same whereas that was included in the Beaverton and Hillsboro resolution that defined what a sanctuary city is, so you'll find that it was modeled after that same language that was included in those two communities.

And then it just specifies in section three that the city's provision of services shall not be conditioned upon federal immigration status except as required by law.

So with that, if there's any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them.

Um and that concludes the staff report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Jesse.

Any questions for Jesse?

Counselor Guson.

I just have more of a comment.

Um, just as you're reading this, it popped into my head, and it was one of the discussions that was frequent at the NLC conference, and it was about uh the fact that we've we're still recovering from COVID, and now we've got um all of these new issues that are happening, and we went from um the trauma of isolation to the trauma of isolation, and that the mental health of everybody, especially those at risk, is um the issues with it have skyrocketed.

So I think having something like this helps um those that have that that depression from this new isolation.

I think it will will reinforce the fact that the city is being supportive.

I do have a comment.

Okay, well, wait, so I want to be, and we kind of got we're cut that kind of got into discussion.

So for the order of like Robert's rules, questions to staff now, then a first and a second, and then discussion.

So is are there any other questions for staff?

Okay, so what is the wish of the council?

I'll move to approve.

Okay, second.

So see so councillor Falconer moved to approve resolution 2025-64, and it was seconded by councillor Schimmel.

Um, so now I will open it up to discussion.

Counselor Martinez.

So I won't um restate what I did earlier, even though I didn't get to state everything that I wanted.

Um but sanctuary status won't change the situation at hand or the law.

Some constituents have stated that this decision should be by a vote of the community, and I agree.

Um, there are other issues we've discussed recently that should be voted voted by the um community and not by the council.

Um, in reference to the um person that called and made a statement earlier, um the journalist Ben Burkist showed quite a few IDs that were dumped at the border.

And why would somebody dump IDs if they didn't want to be ID'd and um be made known to those at the border?

So um, yeah, unless they have something to hide.

That's all I have to say.

Uh I'm gonna respond to a couple of things.

I I would say that I only received one email, one public comment asking for a vote.

For this to be a vote to the public, and I would also like to point out that based on that comment and the information put in, that person lives in Cornelius and not force grove.

Um, I've had many more people say that they supported a sanctuary state or city resolution.

Um I guess I just want to I think I'm in an interesting situation of being the mayor and being a teacher, a public school teacher.

And I'm gonna just stating the facts, the trauma that students that kids are experiencing right now is ridiculous.

Um in a given day, a child, a middle school student in eighth grade, doesn't know if their parents are gonna be at their house when they get home.

I personally have students I teach whose parents have been detained.

That is, can you imagine like how do you come back from that?

Furthermore, uh on Tuesday, we and multiple days you have teachers, including myself who teaches 40 hours a week, and then is the mayor anywhere between 20 to 50 hours now walking students home because there's people wearing bull like military camouflage clothes with masks over their faces, like yelling.

I I was there, I witnessed all of it.

Um it is terrorism, it is pure terrorism.

And I want to go back to some comments made at the work session.

It is complete, like based on what I researched.

It is completely accurate what you said, Counselor Martinez, that under President Obama's federal administration, millions of undocumented immigrants were deported from this country.

And it is completely true that it was done with what Council President Valenzuela said under due process, safety.

We did not see mass men and women, mass people cruising the streets of our neighborhoods inciting peer terrorism.

We did not see US citizens being detained and away from their families.

Like that did not happen.

So for me, um, I think this is really important step, even though it's much the same as our inclusive city resolution for alignment for clear understanding on a regional level.

If we're gonna work, you know, and ask the state to work together regionally, like we need to be all aligned.

So we're gonna have a state ask potentially um with Commissioner Fai and Juan Carlos, like we came to consensus last meeting, right?

To say, like, hey, we're gonna give authority to the mayor, to city manager to work regionally on this, and I think that adopting this resolution is the first step in doing that.

So I support it.

Councillor Govston.

Now I'll do my comment.

So of course, what I already just said, but um things like that we're doing now that again, they they really do work, and this is how we get changes made.

This is how we push back against things that are wrong.

Um taking actions like this are why I get to have a checking account myself, and I don't have to have one with my husband.

It's why I can vote, it's why all these changes happen.

Um as leaders, and and this is terrorism.

I I am with you, mayor.

I'm just gripped with with despair and grief at some times, and I have to pull myself out of it because of what is happening to our our community.

But as leaders here, we have a responsibility to govern with compassion and empathy.

And members um of our immigrant community are living in fear.

We can't just um we can't just talk about it.

We need to make decisions that reflect how much we care uh because they all deserve to feel safe, welcome, um, and protected in their community and not afraid to go out their front door.

Any other discussion items.

Will the city manager read the resolution?

I just want to make sure I didn't look that way.

Okay, will the city manager please read the resolution by title only?

Resolution number 2025-64, resolution declaring the city of Forest Grove a sanctuary city for all persons, regardless of race, color, national origin, immigration, or refugee status, religion, sex, gender identity, including gender expression, sexual orientation, mental and physical ability, veteran status, or age.

Thank you.

Uh Mariah, will you do a roll call vote, please?

Counselor Marshall.

Yes.

Counselor Gusterson.

Yes.

Council President Bonzola?

Yes.

Counselor Schimmel?

Yes.

Counselor Falconer?

Yes.

Counselor Martinez?

No.

Mayor Wentzel.

Yes.

Resolution 2025-64 is approved by the Force Grove City Council in a vote of six to one.

Okay, we're gonna move on to F two, which is resolution 2025-65.

And we're gonna ask Mr.

Brian Paul to come back up.

At least you got at least we like scheduled it so you didn't have to come two nights, I guess.

It's a long night for you.

Not much to say about this one.

Um again, Brian Paul can be developed director for the for the uh for the record.

Um, you'll recall that you uh voted to uh effective January 1st increase the transient lodging tax from uh two and a half percent to three and a half percent.

Um behalf of the city, the county collects that transient lodging tax um city.

Um and as part of that, we have an intergovernmental intergovernmental agreement with the county to do just that.

This references a 3.5% as well as kind of uh clears up that any time in the future if this percentage changes again the IGA would stand as it is now and would not need to be amended.

And so with that, um, great questions for Brian I'm seeing a whole lot of no questions.

Love when that happens.

Okay, so what is the wish of the council?

So move.

Okay, a second.

Okay, it was moved by Councillor Govson and seconded by Councilor Falconer.

Uh any discussion on this?

Yeah, not a lot of discussion, right?

I think we had a work session, we brought it back, just kind of aligns us with other we're closer to Hillsborough, and then we can use the money for some more tourism.

So it's a good that's a good call, I think.

Okay, since it has to do with money, uh let's do a roll call vote, please.

Oh, wait, you gotta read it by title only.

Sorry about that.

It's not even that late.

Usually resolution 2025-65 authorizing city manager to execute an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Forest Grove and Washington County for administration of the City of Forest Grove's transient lodging tax.

Thank you.

Now can we do a roll call vote?

Councillor Gastison?

Yes.

Council President Bonzoela?

Yes.

Councillor Schumel?

Yes.

Councillor Falconer?

Yes.

Counselor Martinez?

Yes.

Counselor Marshall?

Yes.

Mayor Wensell.

Yes.

Resolution 2025-65 is approved by the Force Grove City Council in a seven to zero vote.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna move on now to Councilor Comments, I believe.

Yes, Council reports.

So we'll go down the line there.

Counselor Gusin, you want to start?

Sure.

Um I wasn't at uh able to attend the PAC meeting because I was at the NLC conference and I didn't get home until late Saturday night, so I don't really have anything put together.

There's a I mean you guys know that it's just an amazing conference, no matter which one you attend.

So it was in Utah this time.

Um super good um uh conference and a lot about homelessness.

So I'll be bringing some of that forward.

I also attended the demobilization ceremony um a week or two ago, and um I was there as a diplomat and uh a mom because my son was one of them that returned.

So that was also uh a nice ceremony.

And Keith already mentioned it, but there's the tree lighting the day after Thanksgiving, and it is at a new location.

I'm so excited about that.

It's gonna be beautiful.

Um so be sure to attend that.

And then holiday in the grove uh begins on December 6th.

The light parade is that evening.

There are so many different events that are going on, not just that day, but the rest of the season.

So um there's a lot of giving opportunities as well.

That's all I have.

Great.

Thank you, Counselor.

Councilor President Valenzuela.

Yes, so we had the library presentation today, so I really have nothing to add to Colleen's wonderful and detailed presentation.

And the PAB, we haven't met.

Okay.

And uh I think you know, people are in the process of submitting applications for funding, and we get to go and vote through on that in January.

Uh, but I have not received any notifications for you know, meetings or anything.

So okay, thank you.

Councillor Schimmel.

Well just refer you back to comments I made during the community development uh about ADC, other than uh you know they've gone out of their way to kind of sort of mobilize their meet meetings to other businesses.

So we started at at Vex uh this last time and we'll be going to uh Corona next time.

So they're they're interested in canvassing our our local businesses.

Uh and then C C E they're understandably smug about the success of their open house.

And and I I applaud the the council for giving them the reins.

I mean, this I think this predated me here that you you allowed the CCE to uh identify uh a necessary change in in the program even the the time and day.

So kudos to colleagues here who who established that that move before and and letting them uh you know work out what they envisioned uh that the community wanted.

Thank you, Counselor.

Council Councillor Falconer, I do not have any report.

Thank you, Councillor Martinez.

I have no report.

Okay, councillor Marshall.

All right, so Parks and Rec.

Um we will be getting a uh having a work session with Parks and Rec on December 8th for the cost recovery.

Um we also went over Eastside Park is working with clean water to challenge on some stormwater drainage.

They're wanting to correct me if I'm right or wrong, Jesse, that they're wanting to do about almost like half of it would have to be set into drain water for it.

But it's the way the pitch of it, they're trying to make it so they don't have to do it so they can use more of the park or more of the land for park.

Um we were informed that um Council Creek Regional Trail is going to be maintained by Washington County.

Um code enforcement, our code enforcement will still patrol it.

Um we will be paying them to do that.

So they will be we'll be reimbursing them for the cost of maintaining it.

Um competitive swim will have about five meets this year, swim club uh Christmas meet.

Um they're also working uh quadX is working with swim teams to start doing um more um community activities involved with that.

Um winter activity guide will be coming out soon.

Winter rec opens on December 10th, and holiday in a grove will be December 6th, and parks will have a pretty awesome float from what I'm hearing.

There might be an elf on a shelf on it.

Oh, I love it.

So pretty awesome.

Nice.

Thank you.

Um okay, and then City Manager's report.

I got it.

Thank you, Mary.

I don't have much to add besides my earlier report and all the other departmental directors' reports.

I just would like to re-emphasize that uh the police poll is out for um uh for proposals now.

Um, and then two other things.

The right-of-way survey for phase one of the uh uh Mountain View TV Highway safe routes to school project is in process.

That's the data collection phase.

Once that phase is complete, we'll move into design.

So that project is moving forward.

The only other update would be the uh utilities and the foundation work on the public works administration building that is complete.

So the concrete has been poured, some of the utilities embedded in it, and that project is moving forward, and we are looking at an April 2026 completion date, so approximately five months.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Um okay, so my mayor's report.

First of all, I want to thank this department director, city staff.

We pushed up your annual reports um because we also pushed up the retreat.

So just a friendly reminder that the retreat is December 1st.

It's gonna be at Light in Power.

It should be on your calendars.

We wanted to do a little change of venue, plus they have a popcorn machine.

Um, the important things, right, Keith.

Uh but for for real, I just really do appreciate the department directors always being flexible.

Um, and I really love the annual reports.

Like when you're doing it day in and day out, you're like sometimes I mean, and I don't ever want to do this, and I hope when I'm gone out of this job, I don't take you all for granted.

But all the cool things you do while doing providing the essential services, like I mean, your job is to provide these services, and then you have all these projects you're doing outside of that is just amazing, and we're really lucky to live in Force Grove.

So uh my report.

So Senator Solomon sent a letter as she came and gave public testimony today.

I had waited because I wanted to bring it to council and see if the council could give consensus to support this ask to write a letter to Governor Kotec um in agreement with Senator Solomon as a council.

And so just a thumbs up if there's consensus.

One, two, three, four.

Okay.

I got a consensus.

So we'll do that.

And then um a city staff, like do you want to like work on that and then sign up for the council?

That'd be great.

Okay, perfect.

We'll draft the letter.

Um, and then I said this earlier after public comment, but um councilor metro council counselor Gonzalez reached out to me a week ago about a task force, a regional effort.

So of course I said yes, that force growth would be a part of it, and I would be the representative.

Um I think you know, and then speaking about this regional effort, uh, I spoke to Mayor Beatty from Beaverton, and she's the MMC chair, which is the Metropolitan Mayor's Consortium chair.

And so she was talking about this regional effort, this one night one effort to create like put on a training with our partner Central Cultural and Adelante.

And so that's gonna be I can tell you right now the date of that.

I'm not gonna tell you the location.

Um our partners who are putting that training on have asked that people register, and then once they're registered, then they'll get the location.

But if you could save the date from it's gonna be December 9th, Tuesday, December 9th, from 6 to 9 p.m.

That is the time period that we're going to be doing it.

And once, including all of you, like once you register, then you will get the location.

Um, but that will be a migra watch training.

Uh you'll there's an opportunity to donate to organizations that are helping.

Yeah, sure.

6 to 9 p.m.

It's a three hour event.

I think the training takes two hours.

So six to nine gives us a little bit of a buffer.

But you will register, the city will be putting out information with a QR code and a link, and you'll register, and our partners are handing handling that registration.

Um, okay, and I reminded you all about the retreat on December 1st.

The other thing I want to talk about is you know, our police department does a great job with community engagement.

And so there's two events that were highlighted, and I think I saw Councillor Martinez there, Councillor Schimmel on Saturday was coffee with a cop, and it was a huge success.

It was at BJ's.

We had people come, and we even had people come from Hillsboro because they were like, what a great opportunity, like course gross.

And I really think it's because we stole Chief Ryman from Hillsboro.

And I let this family know that he they're not getting him back.

I mean, he can retire, he can do whatever, but we have an agreement that we're gonna keep him.

Um so just buy the house, buy a house.

But anyways, uh, but that was a really good I think was hugely successful, and then also um Lauren, our community outreach specialist, worked with another organization to do a scam prevention presentation at the senior center.

So again, our partners with Centro, the senior center, and our police department.

Um, good things coming out of that.

So that's all I have uh for my communication.

And I just hope you guys all have um if you celebrate the holiday.

I hope you have a good holiday.

I hope um, you know, like there's gratitude out there, and I appreciate all of you for showing up for our community.

So with that, I'm gonna adjourn this meeting.

Thank you.

Boom.

Yes, peace out, go to bed.

I know I'm lying.