That's work session on the form.

No public comment will be taken and the council will take no formal action.

Tonight's topic is on our enterprise zone.

And before I turn it over to Jesse and Kim, I just want to state.

This is a complex, there's a lot to unpack.

And the goal, my goal is to, you know, just bring us all up to the same level because we need to make a decision.

That's gonna, you know, that has a lot of implications.

And so as we go through this, just listen.

If you have a clarifying question, there's gonna be um spaces in between where I'll ask if you have questions of staff.

Later on in the presentation, there's lots of policy questions.

Those questions are there to get you to start thinking.

We are not answering any policy questions tonight.

But if you have additional information you need to help you come to an answer later, that will be the opportunity.

You know, and then I also like to say to staff, don't rush through it.

Don't feel like you have to get all through this.

We all read through the packet, and there's a lot of policy questions, there's a lot of things.

And so really I just want all of us on the same page.

Okay, cool.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Jesse.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Um, Mariah is bringing up the uh the presentation.

As the mayor mentioned, this is it's multi-layered.

You'll probably notice in the back that there were 12 different policy questions.

Uh it seems if you kind of pull something over here, something pushes over here.

And so we'll step through this.

Um, as the mayor mentioned, uh, very just kind of methodically.

Um, Kim and I are gonna um combine on this presentation.

I'm gonna take it up into to the point I'll do some of the history and the purpose.

Uh Kim will pick it up.

Uh, what is an enterprise zone, and then I'll kind of pick it back up at the opportunity zone uh and take us through the uh through the end of the presentation.

I think we have all the way until seven o'clock.

So um if you would, Mariah, next slide.

So as the mayor mentioned, the purpose tonight is talk about the economic development uh enterprise zone.

I would note the program expires June 30th of this year.

Um, one of the conversations that we had with Business Oregon is what happens if it does expire, the city can reapply if they would like to.

Uh, for context, we're also going to talk a little bit about the opportunity zone.

That program doesn't expire until December 31st of 2028.

And so I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but I did want to offer that just to provide that additional context about economic development incentives.

So with that, next slide.

So really I think probably of of import here uh is 2040 does recognize the economy as a principal goal area.

The one part that probably stands out and is most connected to the enterprise zone is the outcome, which is create a balanced and diversified economy comprised of a variety of commercial and industrial businesses offering high-paying job opportunities.

The enterprise zone will kind of touch on all of those in some way, and we'll get into that as it does.

So next slide, please.

A little bit about how the goal actions connect to the enterprise zone in some way.

If you look at 1.2, the volume and diversity of commercial business development, it connects to that a little bit.

An enterprise zone is very limited in the commercial application.

It's mostly for the industrial application.

We'll talk a little bit more about that later.

Update the city's economic development strategic plan.

This could be a part of that economic development strategic plan.

Increase industrial development.

Enterprise zones are really targeted at industrial development.

Oh, we just lost.

Oh no.

Oh, there we go.

Uh so enterprise zones, if you if you think about an enterprise zone, if you think about an incentive program, it really is targeted toward industrial development.

The commercial application is limited to hotels and motels only.

That's it.

So back if you would go back, please.

Economic improvement district, that's really toward a different type of business.

That's typically toward smaller businesses.

It's really not applicable to an enterprise zone.

It's different than an enterprise zone.

So just wanted to kind of uh decouple those.

Strengthen partnerships with local small businesses.

Now that connects to an enterprise zone is how you tailor the program if you have a program.

And if you do have a program, how you tailor the program.

Some of the things that may connect to that that we'll get into would be like uh the minimum investment requirement, the job requirement, those types of things.

So just kind of keep that in mind as we're stepping through this.

Workforce development programs, how that connects is uh if you charge what's called a community fee, that fee can go toward workforce development programs.

Um we'll talk a little bit more about that later as well.

Uh partner with property owners to attract businesses.

This is an incentive that if you were a property owner you could use to try and attract business, and then 1.10 incentive programs to support retained small and local businesses.

Already kind of talked about that under 1.6.

So next slide.

So a little bit of history.

This is the state enterprise zone program.

So what's important to kind of recognize about an enterprise zone program is it is as with you know many different local municipality programs.

There is state statutes that create the program, uh, have parameters about the program, and kind of provide what I would characterize as a framework for the program.

In this particular case, it was created back in 1985.

So um 40 years ago.

Uh there were some major, you know, kind of major updates along the way.

The two that I would center on today would be in 2023.

The legislature restricted it to um certain types of uh fulfillment, it restricted it from fulfillment centers such as Amazon being eligible for an enterprise zone.

So it kind of took one industrial use and said this is not eligible.

It established the school support fee.

We're gonna talk specifically about that.

It extended the program through 2032.

The legislature has extended this program on multiple occasions, but right now it will end in 2032 unless the legislature extends it.

And then it required publication of agreements and in force growth's case five-year agreements for 21 days before an enterprise zone agreement can become effective.

So there's this public notice requirement of 21 days prior to becoming effective.

And then just most recently, it restricted data centers.

Uh, if you look at the legislation, the restriction for data centers uh goes into effect uh date specific on June 6th, based on how many days after it was passed at the legislature.

So to meet that 21 day requirement, the kind of effective five-year application um was 21 days from June 6th, would put us back to somewhere in mid-May.

I don't know the exact date.

So next slide, please.

So the history of Forest Groves Enterprise Zone is ours goes back 20 years.

Uh it was first established in 2006.

Um, and when you ex when you do an enterprise zone program, it goes by 10-year increments.

So the city, if they pass and become a local sponsor of an enterprise zone, you can't do it for just five years.

It has to be for a 10-year increment.

So in 2006, it went to 2016.

Uh 2008, it was amended to include Cornelius.

Um, and I'd like to recognize Peter Brandon, the city manager of Cornelius.

So he's here to also uh um watch the presentation.

And then in 2016, the program got extended into through 2026.

There was another resolution that amended it in 2017.

What's kind of interesting in the application for the enterprise zone, and you'll see a map of it here in a bit when Kim gets into it.

Uh, but but there you have to have each specific parcel number enumerated in the application.

It's very specific about what properties would be in and what properties are not in, and you'll see that uh on the map.

Uh 2023, the city council amended it to increase the application fee.

The application fee before was 25,000.

It got increased to 50,000 for years one through three, and then 2024, pursuant to state legislation, implemented a school support fee.

Okay.

And now I'm going to pass it over to Kim.

May I ask a quick question, please?

So with the data data center restriction, is that like a change that they're no longer eligible?

Yes.

Forever.

Well, not it's a one-year moratorium.

It's a one-year moratorium.

It's one year.

So yeah, I think I think what I had heard in some of the legislative discussion, mayor, was they they specifically said as of this date, no more data center applications.

Um, and it was a one-year moratorium with an intent by the legislature to revisit the program, kind of writ large this coming legislative session.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

So what is an enterprise zone?

It is at top line, a state-sponsored economic development program that gives businesses specifically a property tax exemption for up to five years.

And we're going to talk a lot about there's a three-year program and a five-year program.

So up to five, it really means there's a three-year and there's a five-year, if they meet certain requirements.

And we'll talk a lot about those requirements, especially in the policy question section.

It's designed to attract living wage jobs, encourage new investment and a target specific industries, increase the long-term tax base.

So that's going into the reason for the short-term property tax abatement is to encourage long-term growth and to encourage long-term property tax growth.

The enterprise zones do not exempt income and payroll taxes.

They only affect the property taxes.

And it's limited to industrial and as Jesse was saying, um, industrial and then some commercial but commercial specifically motel and hotel industries for industrial uses, it's most industrial uses manufacturing where housing distribution, food processing, and technology, except as we discussed for the moratorium for the next year on data centers, retail businesses and other commercial businesses that are not hotel motels are not eligible for enterprise zone tax abatement.

It is administered by the local government, must comply with state requirements, and there is an opportunity for local governments to also pull some levers in order to tailor the program to our own needs.

And the state law sunsets in 2032, unless the legislature extends.

We're gonna get into a lot more detail in a lot of these bullet points, but if there's any questions.

All right, next slide.

So talking about the state requirements.

So state has requirements both for the three-year and for the five-year.

For the three years uh tax abatement, it it anyone who is applying any business that is applying must increase full-time permanent employment by at least one new job, or 10, or if they are, for example, um, reinvesting, redeveloping, or expanding their business, they must create 10% new jobs compared to what they currently have hired.

Uh, there can be no concurrent job losses within the state.

So trying to um create a tax incentive that deincentivizes um business in another part of the state.

Um, maintain the employment level for the duration of the exemption, so you cannot hire on and then fire within the period of the exemption and enter a first source hiring agreement from work source organ.

So this is an agency um uh that basically targets organ-based quality qualified applicants as first round candidates.

Uh the five-year tax abatement must meet all the requirements of the three-year abatement, although you must also receive approval through a written agreement between the firm and the local government, and that's where the city really does have the ability to add more requirements.

You must pay a school support fee of 15 to 30 percent of abated taxes.

Talk a little bit about what that looks like in Forest Grove, but that's what it is in statutes between 15 and 30.

And the average compensation for new hires must be at or above 150% of the county average wage.

Next slide.

So those are the state requirements.

The city of Forest Grove elected in the program to create additional three-year and five-year requirements for the three-year program.

Uh an applicant is required to invest at least $50,000 in building equipment, machinery, or structures.

Pay all new employees an average of 150% of the minimum wage.

So that is greater than or equal to the five-year abatement of state requirement.

Uh pay an application fee equal to one-tenth of one percent of the investment with a cap of $50,000.

The application fee of one-tenth of one percent of the investment, that is part of the state statute, although the cap is something that is unique to Forest Grove.

Increase full-time permanent employment by one person or 10%.

So we have the opportunity or option to change that, but we have stuck with state statute and maintain increased employment over the abatement period.

And then for our five-year program, all of the above plus must pay a community support support fee of 25% of abated property taxes in years four and five.

Statute does allow for up to 25% of abated property taxes in years four and five, and in years one, two, three, four, and five.

Although in years one through three, it is required to be spent on um economic development projects, although in four and five, that requirement is lifted.

Um, and then in Forest Grove elected to pay a school support fee of 15%.

So that could be between 10 and 30.

And we elected to do 15, and that was set um by the school district.

And then pay all new employees an average of a 150% of the average Washington County annual wage, which is in line with what the state requirement is, although we could also adapt that.

Um, meet it stricter.

We cannot make it looser.

And then we also require the first source hiring.

Yep.

So I'm a little confused with the Forest Grove and Cornelius requirements.

And so as we start thinking of our policy, do we have to also have the Cornelius City Council agree with whatever we agree with, or how is this work?

It's my understanding that yes, the last time this was agreed to, and Peter may want to confirm this.

Um but it was approved by both city councils.

It was approved by Forest Grove first because Forest Grove was helping to administer the program, and then it was approved by Cornelius.

It's not uncommon to have multiple cities in one enterprise zone application.

So it's it's not an uncommon thing.

We'll show an example later about Clackamas County that I think has five cities within the application for the county.

Um but it does require if I if if at least the process the way it worked, Mayor was both municipalities approved, if I recall.

One question I would ask is it I don't remember is the Oregon work.

Well, yeah, work source Oregon is what if one if one municipality wants to renew it and one wants to let it expire, and then the that can happen, I would assume.

Yeah, and I think if if one if the cities wanted to decouple, it would be a new application by both cities, I believe.

Or at least an amended application by one city.

Okay.

Do we know the time like is Cornelius talking about this as well?

Yeah, you can just say yes or no, sorry.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay, I'll let you guys continue.

If anyone has questions and I don't see your hand, just let me know.

I'm happy to answer questions as we as we go along.

So a couple of examples of how an enterprise zone could work.

In this first example, business A has 100 employees and 100 million dollars in assessed value in their buildings.

They would like to expand their business by adding 10% of employees, which does qualify them for an enterprise zone tax abatement.

Um, and they make a the minimum qualifying investment of $50,000, then they do qualify for the property tax investment on the new investment.

So they make a uh they qualify for tax abatement on $50,000.

But 100 million dollars in assessed buildings, they are still required to pay property tax on.

Next slide.

Uh in business B.

So this is an example of a new business, starting a new business, hiring employees making an investment.

They will hire at least one employee who is paid 150% of the minimum wage.

They will make a minimum qualifying investment, also a $50,000 in this case, their entire business of $50,000, their entire um infrastructure will be exempt from property taxes for the three years.

If they also want to pay or elect to uh apply for the five-year program and pay a community support fee of 25%, the school support fee of 15% and pay employees 150% of the county average annual wage, and agree if they agree to all of the other requirements for a five-year program, then they'll also qualify for the five-year extended abate.

That is an option for the business.

Um, if they elect to apply for three or five-year.

Uh the city does receive uh numerous inquiries about the enterprise zone.

Miles Bilaki, our uh enterprise zone economic development coordinator uh receives quite a few of those.

While it's not the leading factor, it is an important consideration when folks are considering where they want to select the site and where they want to build their business, and it is the leading development tool in the state, and it indicates it can't indicate to a business that a community is business friendly and open to industrial development.

Uh since the program began in Forest Grove, there have been 14 applications that have created 421 jobs and about 129 million dollars invested in the community.

Currently, there are two active applications creating or uh will create 36 jobs and estimating 321 million dollars in additional um industrial development or commercial investment.

Next slide.

Uh so an application must be submitted prior to any physical work beginning.

So this is the process for how a business might process their application.

The business applies for a tax abatement in the city, then there is a pre-authorization conference that is held between the city, the county tax assessor, and the firm.

That purpose is for the firm to really understand what their requirements are, um what the timelines are to initiate the abatement and to identify their points of contact for the county and the city and the tax assessor.

A written summary of that conference is added to the application for a three-year term, as long as the firm meets all the requirements, the city approves the enterprise zone application and forwards it to the tax assessor.

There is no 21-day waiting period in the three-year process because there is no agreement that is signed between the city and the firm.

For five-year agreement, the city presents additional requirements to the firm, and upon the firm's acceptance, the application is approved and the agreement is signed by the firm, the city and the county assessor and noticed for 21 days.

And that is because there is that agreement, the additional requirements.

Next slide.

Today there are 73 enterprise zones in Oregon across counties, cities, ports, and tribal lands.

Um seven are in the metro area.

Although you, and I won't go through the list, there's quite a few, although several have been allowed to expire recently, specifically in Tiger, Lake Oswego in Oregon City.

You can see, oh, previous slides.

There's a pretty good assortment and rate range across the state in both rural and urban areas.

In the city, uh total area is 1.15 square miles, 736 acres.

As Jesse said earlier, Cornese was added in 2008.

And then when this is approved by the state, we have to include in our application every single individual property.

So we don't submit the map, we submit the list of properties, and you can see them even in their parcel tax lot listed here.

Next slide.

Um that are comparison stars.

We've got three starting with Hillsboro.

They do require a minimum investment of 1 million dollars.

So compare that to Forest Grove of 50,000.

Uh, they require 102% of minimum wage for a three-year.

Ours is we don't do not have that requirement, and 125% of minimum wage for a five-year.

Uh we have the state requirement, which is 150% of the median wage in the county.

They've based it on a ratio to tax abatement to jobs, but the the bottom line of it is that they reduce the community service fee for the more jobs that are trying to really encourage that job creation uh in Hillsborough.

Uh next slide.

Beaverton also requires a minimum investment of a million dollars, again, contrasted against Forest Grove, 50,000.

Uh, they've set theirs at 150, 75% of Portland minimum wage.

We are at 150% of Washington County minimum wage, and they have a community service fee of 20% compared against our 25%.

Next slide.

And Clackhamist County, so this is again different, and rather than being a single jurisdiction or even two jurisdictions, it's spread across, I believe, five different cities.

Um, their application fee is not capped at $50,000.

So they have done the one-tenth of one percent, but without a cap that is allowed by state law.

They do not offer a five-year abatement program, they have only offered the three-year.

They have other programs that they're offering within the county on the go longer, but they do not offer the five-year enterprise zone specifically.

And they do require that employment must increase by 10%.

Interestingly, they don't seem to have a numerical requirement, which makes it interesting for new businesses and how they might qualify.

But I imagine that the state statute prevails.

Some common critiques to enterprise zones is that the tax breaks are too large compared to the jobs created.

So that's some place.

So you can see how some of the other local comparisons and Forest Grove have kind of tried to turn those levers in order to address some of these common critiques.

So, for example, Forest Grove and creating jobs lessening the uh the impact of the community service fee in order to incentivize more job creation.

Um, second point is the enterprise zones reduce funding for schools and other local services.

A property tax abatement does also affect your local school district as well as any special districts because they are funded also through property taxes.

Uh companies would have invested anyway.

Uh large corporations may benefit more than small companies.

You can see kind of how that can happen with the depending on where you set your minimum investment value, and that there are some environmental or infrastructure concerns.

Next slide.

In contrast to some of the common critiques, some of the common reasons why you would implement track new private investment, keep existing business here by incentivizing reinvestment, trying to create an incentive to grow businesses in the local community, creates jobs, payroll, which does uh influence payroll taxes for the state, and leads to more property taxes once the exemptions expire.

The exemptions do expire after five years.

And here we turn it back over to Jesse.

All right, thank you, Kim.

So I don't want to spend a lot of time on the opportunity zone.

I provide this mostly for context, showing kind of what where the area is.

Um what an opportunity zone is.

An opportunity zone is a completely different program with a completely different type of incentive.

So one, it's based on census tracts, it's designated by the federal government.

Um, and the reason it's designated by the federal government is basically in an opportunity zone.

Any capital gain that you have if you hold the property.

So let's say you buy it for a million dollars and you invest some money into the property, however much it might be, and you end up selling it for five million dollars under this program, you would not pay capital gains on the capital gain, which would be four million dollars.

That capital gain normally goes to the federal government and to the state government.

So typically opportunity zones are centered in areas that are economically depressed, and the idea is to try and incentivize and infuse new capital into it.

Our particular program expires on December 31st uh 2028.

And anecdotally, we've had kind of far fewer inquiries about this.

However, it doesn't mean that it hasn't been necessarily influential and trying to attract some type of uh development.

As far as how it overlays with the enterprise zone, about three-fourths of the opportunity zone is also within the enterprise zone.

So for those particular properties, you could apply for the city for the enterprise zone, and then you could also apply with the federal government for an opportunity zone and and avoid both property and capital gains tax.

You do have to hold the property for a certain amount of time.

I think it's five or ten years before you can realize it.

So you can't come in, kind of turn and burn it, if you will, and get the incentive.

You do have to hold on to it for a while.

So the next slide just kind of shows that some of the th other kind of parts about it, but that's more for reference.

So if you go to the next slide, please.

Counselor Schemmel has a question.

My questions before we get into the policy stuff.

Well, and then I have a question too, but go ahead, Counselor Shimmel.

I was curious about the the zones.

If if we were to change the map of either zone, is that a new application or revision?

So the opportunity opportunity zone, I don't believe can be changed until 2028.

And the opportunity zone is based on a census track.

So when the city applied for that, we actually applied to the federal government, and the zone has to meet certain criteria.

There's got to be certain economic metrics of demonstrating that it's economically depressed.

I don't know what all those metrics are offhand.

Um, but I do know it's a completely different application process than the state.

The state, and one of the policy questions we're going to get into is yeah, the council does can change the area of an opportunity zone.

Um that's one of the kind of levers that you can pull, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a subsequent slide.

Uh in an earlier slide, you had how many jobs?

It was there's like 14 up, 14, and there's 416 jobs, and then there's two applicants currently, and there's 36 jobs.

So one of the things I would like to know for the next work session, or when I'm making this decision is really when we look at our 2040 plan and the goal of workforce development and bringing jobs, and you know, and I would like to add in living wage, like living wage jobs.

What is that?

Like what is the number?

What should we be really looking for in a warehouse in an industrial site in a because if that if that's a route we want to go, you know, I would want to know what percentage does one job or 10%.

You know, when I see 36 jobs in an industrial zone with two applications, I'm feeling like we're not hitting that mark.

Um, and I want to make sure that our policy hits that mark.

So that would just be as I'm you know simmering and thinking about this.

That's something I would like to know.

Yeah, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a you know wages slide.

Um the only thing I would add right right now, Mayor, is if you looked at both the Beaverton and Hillsborough examples, it was a percentage of minimum wage.

And so in Hillsborough example, for the three-year program, it was 102% of minimum wage.

Ours was 150%.

So from a wage perspective, we're a little bit above what Hillsboro was.

We're 25% lower than Beaverton for years one through three.

In years four and five, we're 100% of the county average.

County average is approximately no, I have to remember the number.

I think it's $90,000 a year for the county average, so it would be about $135,000 a year for 150% of the average wage, which was higher than both Beaverton and Hillsborough's.

So, but that is one of the things, and then and then the other the only other thing I would mention before we maybe get into the policy slides, is it is important to kind of keep two concepts in mind when we talk about an enterprise zone.

One is is a new investment, somebody that is kind of brand new that's coming here that wants to establish a business, and what the requirements may be for that.

The other thing to consider is existing businesses that are here that you may want to reinvest.

And so instead of them maybe and the requirements for that can be in some cases different than the requirements for a new business.

So that's why the state said, at least from an employment perspective, it was one job, which means that would apply to a new business.

It has to be at least one job.

And then the 10% is really kind of applicable to businesses that are already here that are reinvesting.

In other words, you have a hundred employees and you add, and you let's say you invest two million dollars in your business, but you only add nine employees, that's not 10%.

So the renewing business or the reapplying business would not be eligible for that tax break.

That makes sense.

So there's kind of the two buckets, the reinvesting the business that's already here that's reinvesting, and a new business that may want to come here and build on a green field that that's not working.

I think I was mostly following, but on the the new investment, the new business, what is the the job?

You said one.

So right now the state requirement is one you have to have at least one job.

Yeah, I'm not feeling that.

And yeah, so that's what I want to do.

And I think that's and that's that's a that's why we mentioned later that's one of the levers that the city can pull.

Yeah, okay, cool.

Uh council president Valenzuela.

Yes.

So my question is um if this reinvestment company, right?

If a company and wants to reinvest, right?

Um they can apply for this.

They can.

Okay.

And then they can not they don't have to pay, right?

The the taxes and do just on that increment.

So for example, I'll take a just a okay.

Let's say we have a a business here that has three processing lines of processing.

Um, and and they applied for an abatement and they received an abatement on that, and that abatement is now expired.

Okay, so all of that investment now comes onto the tax rolls.

That's it might have been a three-year program, it might have been a five-year program.

So those that whole manufacturing facility, the buildings, the structure, the three lines of production are now all on the tax rolls.

If they reinvest and add another line, yeah, then they can if they meet all the criteria, if they meet the employment criteria, the minimum investment criteria, they pay the application fee, and depending on what length they apply for a community service fee and a school sport fee, they can receive an abatement on the fourth line, but they wouldn't receive an abasement on the previous one.

I got it.

I got it.

Yeah, thank you.

That was beautifully explained.

Thank you.

Okay.

Wait, Counselor Shummel has another question, and then I'm gonna do a little preface before the policy.

I I don't know if it's well, uh there's something I want to make sure that I and we understand is the economic impact of the of the jobs versus the investment.

And we understand both, because if we look at the expired, there's there was 14 applications, 421 jobs, only 129 million dollar investment relative to two applications, 321 million dollar investment.

Is that that that I assume has there's a economic impact to the city of that investment relative to the number of jobs per application that can sense that there's we imagine that having a whole bunch of jobs well above minimum wage is uh I guess what I'm suggesting or uh inquiring about is that that's not the only important factor is that the size of the investment has an economic impact.

It does.

Yeah, the the size of the investment kind of and and it's and different there's different capital investment and different job requirements for different industries.

Some some industries are more labor intensive than other industries, some have a higher capitalization than other industries.

They may have to spend a lot more to get the factory going per se than the other one does.

So it just kind of really depends on what type of industry.

Um the the minimum investment or the overall investment is significant in that when it comes out of the abatement and it gets assessed by the county, that is the amount that would generate the property taxes.

So on one hand, you have an investment that after it is done with the abatement, and let's just assume they get a five-year abatement and they depreciate the assets within the building over a five-year depreciation schedule.

The county assessor, as I understand it, they will go out and they will assess that structure.

They will assess the structure, all the equipment within it, and they will give it an assessed value, and the property tax rate is going to be based on that assessed value.

So if it's very capital-intense, probably gonna be a higher assessed value than if it's less capital intense.

The jobs is kind of there, and and both factor into the program, the jobs is more of kind of the enduring uh commitment, if you will.

The one that is and in the and the jobs are the jobs will pay income tax, uh, and and the income tax typically go to the state.

Um, but those also lead to persons paying property tax, of course, as well.

So I don't know if that answers your question, counselor, but it's a different economic impact for each one, if that makes sense.

So right.

I mean, and that's that was you checked my understanding is that there is for both.

So we need to understand.

Yeah, and I think what we were proposing was to kind of talk about each layer, because those are probably two different layers and talk about this layer and then that layer, because they're like I said there's a lot of policy questions associated with that.

Yeah, so we're gonna move into the policy question portion of it.

And you know, this is as much for my benefit as the whole group, but I think if we could let as much as possible, sometimes it's better to see the whole picture and then ask questions.

So if at this point we can let them go through all of the policy questions because uh, you know, a slide might answer a different slide, and then at the end we'll go through it.

And again, there's no rush.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

I think one of the things to keep in mind as we go through the policy questions would be what are the state requirements and what are the levers that the city may be able to pull if the city would like to kind of renew the program or expand the or extend the program.

So kind of keep those two buckets in mind, and staff will do our best to kind of enumerate what can and cannot be changed.

I will kind of caveat that by saying in some cases it's not always clear.

Uh and the reason it's not always clear is if you go to the next slide, this is what the state statute says.

And the things I'll kind of point out in the first bullet um is the sponsor of an urban enterprise zone, and we are an urban enterprise zone.

You may require an eligible business firm seeking authorization under the enterprise zone statute to satisfy other conditions to be authorized.

So the state says, yep, you can create these other conditions, and then it comes back in the second bullet and basically says, but they must be reasonably related to the public purpose of providing opportunities for groups of persons as defined by the sponsor to obtain employment, including but not limited to providing training to these groups of persons.

So there's a reasonable requirement.

So yes, you can, but it's got to be reasonable.

Um, and then the third section is really that if you do impose requirements, it has to be a policy.

It's got to be passed by the city council, it's got to be published, it's got to be applied evenly and equally to all of the applicants.

So that's kind of the third bullet.

So just kind of keep those in mind as as we go through it.

And again, we'll do our best to point out which levers are open and and which ones are mandated by the state.

Next slide.

So the area.

Um the area in Forest Grove has remained the same since 2006, with the exception of um uh adding Cornelius, I think in 2008.

Uh in our conversations with the state, um, it's easier to reduce than to add.

So when you add property, you have to meet certain economic criteria and kind of demonstrate the addition.

When you reduce it, you can just reduce it.

At least that's kind of our understanding.

So it's easier to kind of make it smaller than it is to make it bigger.

The potential considerations, commercial and industrial, right now, the entire commercial area, for example, is in the map.

Keep in mind the only commercial business that can apply is a hotel motel.

So I'm I'm guessing here, but I'm guessing back in 2006, it was we want another hotel motel, so let's just make all the commercial area eligible.

Then you can build a hotel or a motel anywhere within that area and receive the enterprise zone incentive.

As far as the industrial properties, um virtually all of the industrial properties within Forest Grove were included in the application.

So it was all the industrial property uh is included.

Um, and and um what some other municipalities have done, and this is just again to kind of think about is some have said, you know what, we're having a difficult time kind of incentivizing development in this area.

So we really want to try and incentivize this.

We're doing great down here.

We haven't really needed any incentives here.

Uh, but but we want to so we really want to kind of incentivize this particular area.

Maybe it doesn't have as good of infrastructure, maybe it's not as good of a location, it's off the highway or something.

I don't know.

Those are just kind of things to consider.

So next slide.

So the duration, and we're gonna kind of circle back to this.

I just put this up there to kind of keep it in mind because it's one of the last slides as well.

But the thing to keep in mind here is we've seen cities limit it to three years.

We've others seen others, you know, have like a three-year program with an extension to five.

Um cities have the discretion.

You can say three or you can say five.

Um so next next slide.

So the application fee, this gets a little bit wonky.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of walk through it.

An application fee is if you if you apply for an enterprise zone, you have to pay the fee.

Okay, so it's kind of the entry requirement, so to speak.

Um, and and it's limited by state law to one tenth of one percent of the investment.

So if you skip down to the fourth bullet, for example, on a hundred million dollar investment, one tenth of one percent, just to apply for the program.

Doesn't mean you've necessarily been approved, but if you meet all the criteria, you get approved.

But just to apply for the program, if you don't have a cap, it would be 100,000 bucks.

So here's your application, here's a hundred thousand dollar check, and now we're gonna process your application.

If you have a cap, then it goes up to that amount, and obviously then it's capped.

So if you have an investment of 45 million, you would not reach the cap of 50,000.

You would pay 45,000.

If you invest 45 million, if you invest 20 million, you'd pay $20,000.

In Forest Grove's case, though, if you exceed an investment of $50 million, then you're capped at $50,000.

So can't go above $50,000.

Um, and so Counselor Schimmel, you mentioned earlier $320 some million dollars in investment previously.

Um capped at $50,000.

So in that particular application, if it went over $100 million in investment, it would have been capped at that amount.

In Clackamas, it would have been $100,000.

So just something to kind of keep in mind.

Uh the other thing, another variable is you can change the cap or just eliminate the cap, uh, or you could lower the cap, whatever the council would like to do, but you cannot change the percentage.

So the one tenth of one percent is in statute.

Can't change that.

Uh, and then last um uh is you can have a different cap if you would like for a three-year, and then for a five year.

So, for example, if you want to make it easier to apply for a three-year agreement, because it's a shorter abatement, you could have a lower cap than if you have a five-year one, and maybe you could have a higher cap for that.

So good.

Okay.

Next slide.

So the minimum investment, uh, you've already probably picked up on there's a wide range between Reaverton and Hillsbro at a million dollars, uh, and Forest Grove at 50,000.

So the minimum investment is just getting back to the earlier question, it's how much you have to invest into your business.

Um requirement is it's it's applicable to both new businesses.

A new business is likely going to spend a whole lot more money getting their business going than a business that's already here and adding to it.

So if a business is already here and they're adding to it, their investment is going to be less than if you are starting a brand new business.

If you're if you're building your house, you're gonna spend a lot more than if you're just adding a room onto your house.

So that's just something to kind of keep in mind.

Um is $50,000, it's the state minimum.

Uh, you can go uh it does not mandate a maximum.

So you could say presumably five million, 10 million, something like that.

If you do say something like that, some of the trade-offs associated with that higher number is obviously fewer people qualify.

So some people might read that to say we're trying to incentivize larger industrial development, if that makes sense.

So instead of allowing the smaller businesses to participate with a very low entry fee of $50,000, we want to target large industrial businesses.

So we're gonna have a minimum investment of $50 million.

If you don't meet it, you don't you don't get to apply for the program.

Keep going.

Okay, next slide.

Number of jobs.

Getting back to the mayor's earlier question, this the state has a minimum.

The minimum is one employee for a new business or 10% of the total employees for the renewing business.

There's no maximum, provided it meets the quote, reasonable requirements.

So kind of gave an earlier example.

If you have a new business and you have two employees and you spend more than $50,000, you can you can get a property tax abatement.

If you are a renewing business and you have a hundred employees and you add five, even if you spend a million dollars, you don't meet the jobs requirement, you could not apply for the abatement.

You would not meet the criteria.

So going back to your earlier question, Mayor, some of the things to consider are should the requirement for new businesses be, you know what, we want 10 employees right off the bat or 20 employees or whatever the number is, but to apply for the program.

And then the the second question would be if you have a renewal, if you have somebody that's reinvesting, should that requirement be different if they're reinvesting?

So it's it's our understanding that you can bifurcate those requirements.

You could bifurcate for new and then also for reapplying.

Good.

Yeah, I think we're gonna go through all of them.

Next one, let's say wages.

So the wages, the really the question here is what type of jobs are you trying to attract, right?

So the higher the wage that you require, um, you might have fewer applications, um, but you might get different types of jobs, right?

So in our particular case, it's 150% of the minimum wage in years one through three, that's approximately $50,000 a year.

So an applying business, if they have if it's new, they can have one employee, they can pay it $51,000 a year, and if they invest $50,000, they can get a property tax abatement for three years.

For years four and five, we differentiate and say it's 150% of the county average annual wage, which is 135,000 a year.

So if a business comes in and let's say they're hiring two employees, and they're only and they're paying them $50,000 a year, they do not qualify for the four and five-year abatement.

Just right off the gates, they don't.

If they are paying their employees $140,000 a year and they meet the minimum investment requirement, then they can get a five-year tax abatement.

But they would have to meet that investment, the wage requirement of $135,000 a year, and they would have to keep those employees on during the term of the abatement.

If at any point those employees, one of them gets laid off, and it gets assessed, then they would lose the abatement from that point forward.

If you remember during some of the budget conversations, we had a business that no longer met the property tax, the enterprise zone application, and it resulted in a tax payment of I don't remember what it was, but it was in the neighborhood of $20,000 or something, and we've carried that in the budget.

Actually, we spent it on the economic development strategic plan because it had to be spent on economic development.

But that was an example where a business did apply, they got it, they didn't meet the requirements, and then they had to pay taxes on the year in which they did meet the requirements, and every year forward from there.

So those are things to think about for wages.

Next slide.

Community support fee.

Another way to look at this is this this is a community's support fee is essentially if it's the statutory maximum of 25%.

That's all it is.

So if you have a community support fee of 25%, the abatement for the business is 75% of the taxes, not 100%.

So that makes sense.

So it's it's the same, they just call it something different, but it's essentially 25% community fee is is uh you'll get 25% of the taxes.

The important thing to note here, um we do not have one in years one through three.

You can charge one.

We do have we charge the maximum in years four and five.

Um Beaverton charges a lower one than us, and then as Kim mentioned, Hillsboro's is tied to jobs.

So the more the more jobs, the lower the community fee, the higher the jobs or the lower the jobs, excuse me, the higher the fee.

So if you have a business that doesn't have very many jobs, then they will charge a higher community support fee up to 25%.

That is the maximum you can charge.

So next slide.

I know this is tedious, sorry.

So it's just a lot there.

So uh the last one I just kind of circled back.

You can after kind of considering all of those, you can either have a program that's kind of three years, and then you do more to get years four and five, or you can just have a three-year program.

So that's it.

I think that's about it there.

I think it's a lot.

Yeah, I know.

Sorry.

So next slide.

The school support fee.

This is a little bit interesting.

The minimum's 50%, the maximum is 30% by state statute.

You cannot apply it in years one through three.

You can only apply it in years four and five.

Revenue actually goes to the state of Oregon, and then it gets reapportioned according to the formula and gets comes back to all of the cities.

It's not a direct link between our support fee, what what gets paid in, and what comes back.

Not a direct link, it goes into the general fund of the state, and then it gets reapportioned according to the school formula.

I don't know exactly how that works, and then it comes back to whatever it would have otherwise been.

Um all of the the nearby enterprise zones charge the same amount.

Uh the forest growth school district must consent to the percentage.

In our case, they consented to the 15%.

So I think these are just potential other things to think about.

Um, yes, yeah, of course.

No, I I have a question there.

You know, there's some things that I don't understand.

So if this revenue goes to the state of Oregon, I'm talking about the school support.

Yep, school support fee.

Yeah.

So it doesn't come to our school district.

Not necessarily.

It goes into the overall general fund of the school, which which increases the general fund a little bit for the state, which means there's a little bit more money to reapportion to all the schools, but it doesn't come back dollar for dollar.

But it doesn't come back to the 15% doesn't they allocate it however they they wish to do it.

Correct.

That just doesn't, well, never mind.

That's okay.

Yeah.

And it's actually it's administered differently, but I won't, yeah.

So a couple other couple other things to kind of think about is potentially a limitation on extensions.

We're still looking into this.

Um, but a limitations on on extensions could be you only get it at the most five years and then you're done.

You don't get to reapply like even if you add capital, even if you reinvest in your business, one and done.

Or you can apply for one extension and then you're done.

Um the way the program works now is you in theory could get a five year abatement in year four or five, make another capital investment, get another five year abatement, make another capital investment and get another five year abatement.

The way that would work is the increment in the first one that goes on the tax rules would stay there.

The second increment would also go on the tax rolls, but you would have a rolling abatement on the new investment that you make.

I know that gets complicated, I apologize.

But right now, there's no limitation in state statute on the number of times that you can apply and receive if you continue to make a new investment.

Does Forest Grove have a limit on that currently?

Right now, the statutory limit is 10 years.

So it can go to the end of the year.

Yeah, I don't know if any, I don't know of any municipality that does.

I don't think any municipality has a has a limit on it in the sense of if you qualify for it, you get the extension to where your enterprise zone is authorized.

Right now, our enterprise zone, the states is authorized through 2032.

So yeah.

Pre-application requirements.

Um right now it's pretty open.

For example, like when can you apply for it?

Do you have to get through land use application?

Do you have to um have purchased the property?

Is it just something you're thinking about and you want to do it?

There's there's uh we've looked at other municipalities and it's it's we haven't found necessarily a lot of pre-application requirements, but it may be something to consider.

Um and then uh local moratorium on specific industrial development.

Um, would the city want to attract certain types of industrial development, but not necessarily other types of industrial development?

And how much can a municipality restrict the potentiality of that?

That question is still a question.

We just raise it.

We would need to get some additional clarification on that.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get full clarification on that prior to the work session tonight.

Um but it remains a possibility.

So I think that's all, Mary.

Okay, so there was a lot of policy questions.

So do we want to go?

Yeah, go ahead, Councilor Shamel start.

You can start.

Just generally, I I know we have this June 30, 26 milestone on uh what policy is it necessary to answer all these policy questions by then to renew or extend, or can these policy questions be stacked, you know, just based on it conditions.

So if if the council would like to extend the program, let me answer it this way, I guess.

Um maybe I'll let a little bit of air out of the balloon.

The council doesn't have to do if the council doesn't renew or extend the existing program, it just sunsets.

The program sunsets, and the council can continue to work on it if you like and then apply at a later date after June 30th, and the state will consider it.

The council chooses to do that, the application process is a little bit more difficult according to state, but not it's not overly onerous.

Um and the other thing would be that if the application is approved or if it's extended, it is automatically approved or extended for 10 years.

So there's no option in between.

It's either 10 years or or no program.

Can I say that a different way?

Or did you understand?

Did everyone understand that answer?

Oh, uh yeah, just to clarify the question, and I'll use one of your words bifurcate the that milestone from the policy questions.

And we, if we decided, yeah, we want to extend this, we don't quite know what the answers are on the policy questions.

Can that does that have to coincide or yeah, we we wouldn't extend it because we would be changing it.

So what would be what we would do is we would allow it to sunset, and then we would reapply and we would and do changes because if we extend the one we have now, we can't make any changes to the policy.

That's what I understand.

Sorry, for what I understand, there is a cost if you have to reapply instead of if we do it before the expiration day and just extend it, right?

If we just let it sunset, and then we decide, you know, this is actually really good for us, and you need to up, you know, apply for it.

There is a cost, right?

Like I'd have to research that.

Can we on one of the slides?

Yeah, it's I know it's a little bit more uh difficult, like the process is a little more difficult, but I don't know that there's a cost associated with it.

Um so I will say that that applying for the program, what whether it's it is an affirmative application.

So when you do apply, you do have to outline what all your requirements are and how you if you have any local requirements, that's part of the application, and that's why we're having the conversation now.

So if you just essentially kind of re-up the program um like as it is right now, then it would still be the exact same.

You wouldn't be able to address these policy issues later because now you've got a tenure program that's the same as what we have now, if that makes sense.

So if the council would like to change parts of the program, um you can either do it now prior to the June 30th deadline and reapply, or you can let it expire and and have a you know, and then re and then apply for a new enterprise zone under different different auspices.

And just to belabor it because that's what we all like to do.

But if we re if we extended it and then canceled it, then we would have a penalty, then it would be much more difficult.

Then you cannot reapply.

You could not reapply.

You cannot.

If you terminate your program and then you cancel your program, you cannot reapply for the enterprise zone.

Right.

Any other questions?

Counselor Martinez.

Got it.

Do we have any examples currently of how it's advantageous for us or otherwise?

Sure.

We could go back to the one slide, Mariah, that shows the businesses.

I think so far we've had like business examples.

Yeah, a slide that said business A, business B example.

I think maybe applied.

Keep going.

Oh, the application slide.

Uh boom, right there.

Yep, that one.

So far we've had 14 applications.

So these are, and most of them were three-year programs.

Uh, I think there was two five-year programs out of those 14.

So they were all three-year programs.

I created 42 421 jobs, 129 million dollars investment.

Now, all of those businesses, so the value of the improvements that they made, those are all now on the tax roles permanent for um for property taxes.

The two new applications, and those are just applications, um, 36 jobs and 321 million dollars investment.

As we kind of mentioned earlier, it's an incentive program.

It's very difficult kind of to discern whether a business would have moved here if you didn't have the program.

Um it's that's a subjective kind of determination.

Um, there's other cities that don't have enterprise zones that do receive um an industrial development, but it may be for other reasons than an enterprise zone.

I it I think it varies business by business.

So this microscope, I think it's can you grab the microphone?

Forgetting um I think this is a good thing, and I would like to for us to see it extended, even if we have to go through the details and all the policy questions, revisit that and maybe modify it uh some of the details, uh, but I think it's good for the city to have these uh disincentive available so I think what I and I don't want to speak for staff, but as we'll we will have another work session at our first June meeting.

So I guess you know there's some questions we need.

Do we want to continue this program and do we want to renew it or do we want to modify it?

And then do and do we even want to have it?

Um, and then what are some of the things that you think should be requirements or components or tied?

And I so I guess my question to you all is what do you need?

What information do you need from staff to bring back to our next work session so we can start answering and coming to consensus with some of those decisions?

I for me personally I have the I have the information on this presentation that I need.

But of course I have to you know kind of think about that do we cap it at 50,000 for example or do we need to reconsider that you know and do a little bit more like the other cities do.

And those are details things that I would like to think about but I totally would support continuing with this program.

Okay.

Anyone else any well I had the question about go ahead Councilor Shameless well just the comment I I I wrote down anticipating uh this question was you know any any change should be strategic and aligned with our long-term plans not just the 2040 but you know for the industrial development that we want employment objectives infrastructure capacity so weighing against the what infrastructure we that we have the the capacity for and the compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods so where we have you know in the case of Crane we have a budding zones uh industrial and residential so does that do we weigh on that factor um so it's I I agree with uh Councilor Van Zulala that it's it's a prudent thing to program to have it's just under what conditions we have it and just considering all this different factors but that assenters are restricted right they're not like for one year it's a it's a not again it's that's that's a pol that's gonna be a part of our policy work.

My understanding is it's a one year moratorium.

So that means that if we don't address anything else within this policy that we have tools to address then they can remove that moratorium and they would be allowed if we don't have anything in ours okay but we can extend the two five years to moratorium no like if we know that the state moratorium so in our policy do our own I don't believe cities can just do that's one of the things we're trying to get clarification on is how far can a city council restrict the types of industrial development that may or may not apply that's really the kind of overarching but something that I know for sure while we don't know this what I know for sure we can do is tie jobs like we have those tools right now.

We literally have the tools to say we want this many jobs if I'm just saying that's a tool we have I'm not gonna talk about any industry.

But so when I'm saying like what we are married to if we choose to continue down this road we are married to this for 10 years.

So we really need you know I agree with Councilor Schimmel we need to be strategic we need to listen to the community we need to look at our 2040 plan we spent a lot of money we did a lot of community engagement and it said a diverse economy with bringing in industrial jobs like so those are the reason I'm like laying this out very slowly and making sure we're all on the same page is because these are this is where do you want to be right the what's the end result and making sure we're doing the things that we using our tools right knowing the state laws but also using our tools to design a this for our community thank you mayor go ahead counselor marshall no as far as the school support be only going to state and there's nothing we can do for to get a kickback to Forest Grove school district as opposed to just going back to the 15% the state it's my understanding that no it goes directly to the state and it's a check that's literally written to the state and with going forward I mean if we are is there ways that we can actually say that like it kind of makes it hard so we're trying to boost the economy within Forest Grove but these people could be living in other cities coming to Forest Grove and would these jobs be considered as part of the increase in jobs in the area for that specific business or does that specific business have to hire within forest growth.

It's my understanding and they want to you think like even if you even if you work live in Hillsboro or you eat and you I mean it's about jobs created at the business no matter where that person lives.

So there is the hire in Oregon hire local first so trying to create jobs for folks who are already living in Oregon not necessarily bringing people in from other states um but with a person for example does live in Hillsboro and is employed by this business in Forest Grove then that would apply to their employment.

Counselor Martinez.

So this is actually just an incentive for companies.

If they can use it, great.

If they can't, they can't, and hopefully they'll build here anyway, is my um impression.

And then as far as the school incentive, I think the hope is too that other um municipalities who bring in more business.

We would because it goes into one plot, we would um I can't think of the word, we would benefit from that as well because we don't seem to build it have as much industry coming into ours as others may.

So maybe an additional comment, Mayor, if I may about the school support fee.

Sure.

So the lever that the city council can pull on that is in years four and five.

The state restricts to applying it in years four and five.

Right now is ours is 15%.

Council wanted to pull that lever, you could raise it to 30.

That's the maximum that the state would allow you to raise it.

The other thing to be mindful about it is from a property tax perspective, those property taxes are abated in years one through three and then four and five.

And then after that, those that investment comes on the tax roll, and then and then the school will receive the property taxes from that point forward after that abatement is as done.

And so sometimes the question becomes is I think you alluded to it, Councilor Martinez.

Would the business have otherwise moved here?

And therefore, would you have otherwise received that revenue had you not had the incentive?

With that 30%, there's no guarantee that that's coming back to Forest Grove.

No, it just generally increases the size of the check that gets written to the state of Oregon that then gets reapportioned to all the schools.

Yeah, is there any, you know, I'm just like also thinking that we are doing the economic strategic plan, or I'm just trying to figure out the layers of all of these things.

Um just yeah.

I'm yeah, what I'm just processing, trying to figure out the cross pollination and how we can come out come out with what we want.

Okay, is there anything else that before we close this work session that we need before our next work session?

Any direction from staff.

Okay, do you need anything else from us?

Nope.

We'll uh nope, we're good.

Thanks, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, council.

I'm gonna give us uh about a 10-minute break, bio break, please, and we'll reconvene at 7 10 or 7 07.

Okay, are we I know I'm gonna call to order this work session of the Forest Grove City Council.

No public comment will be taken, and the council will take no formal action.

This this is city discussion regarding federal activities, and I'm gonna turn it over to city staff.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Uh we don't have an official PowerPoint.

I think this was an opportunity for the council and staff to get together and talk about any federal issues that they may want to address.

Uh we have been this just by way of history.

I think this is our fourth work session.

We've been having them at the second meeting of the month.

Um, and so we do have one report tonight.

Um our city recorder is gonna give an update on any public records requests, and then I may ask the chief just to give an update on our um face uh maskings um policy.

We'll start with Mariah, go ahead.

Thank you, counsel.

Uh regarding the FOIA request, staff submitted a request on January 27th to the immigrations and customs enforcement for records relating to ICE activities in Forest Grove.

Um, they have a portal that you can log into to check on the status of that.

I've periodically logged in to check and it hasn't moved along at all.

Generally, the federal government has 20 business days to make an initial determination.

We're well past that window.

They do have some exemptions, one in the case of unusual circumstances, in which case they're supposed to notify us.

Um the other is for exceptional circumstances, in which case they don't have the same requirement to notify the requester.

So it's possible that that's the interpretation that they have of why the delay is so long and why there hasn't been a response.

I did submit a follow-up email to ISIS FOIA public liaison asking for an update.

Um I received a response from them on May 12th.

Um the response just said that it's still in the queue for an initial determination and said that they are working through a large backlog.

Um they do have a a notice on their site saying that there's processing delays due to the federal funding hiatus.

Um I think specifically for um I believe DCS there was an uh additional funding hiatus for a while.

Um so I they're probably working through backlog due to that um that hiatus, but it's it's been well past 20 days.

Um we do have some options moving forward.

One is to seek mediation from the Office of Government Information Services.

Um, and then they will work with us to try to resolve the issue with the FOIA office of ICE.

Um, the other is to essentially treat the lack of response as a denial and to submit an administrative appeal.

Um, so those are the kind of options moving forward in regards to the first request, and then um staff will be submitting a second request for all of the any ice activities that have happened since since that initial request was submitted.

Um, but yeah, unfortunately there's essentially not a real update, but we are we're gonna try to figure out now that we've received that initial response at least.

Um, what our next bets best next steps would be.

Have we to answer any questions?

Any questions for Maria?

No.

Um, no real updates from the police department.

We're still waiting.

Uh we use a vendor called Lexapol for creating our policies.

Um we're waiting for the vendor to push out the policy on the mask wearing to make sure that we align with state law.

Um Captain Gordon's been working with them to kind of get a timeline on when they're gonna get that pushed out.

But as of right now, we're in compliance with the name tag and we need to create the policy for the Chief.

I was reading some articles nationwide stating that people were um like dressing up as ICE agents to you know, rob people, intimidate.

Have we had any reports of that in Force Travis?

I haven't received any reports, um, certainly not in Forest Grove and nothing from the region that I heard of here.

I've I've kind of heard those same uh reports, but I haven't heard any substantiated reports from the region of that.

Okay.

Any questions for the chief?

The uh comment uh I have a lot of empathy for your your department, what what you're up against, the the challenge we we face is awareness or latent reporting uh or perceived law enforcement standards or practices that uh that don't aren't don't aren't helpful with the addressing the immigration enforcement.

And I I applaud you for uh joining me in a conversation with uh a group of legal observers to help talk through an incident that was reported to us in public comment a month ago um that involved uh a DEA incident that coincided with what appeared to be uh uh an apprehension.

Um the federal agents are using the same vehicle for any number of purposes.

Um so it just creates the appearance of of something that's something else for both.

So it just proves to be a um uh a unique circumstances that we're being asked to continuously evolve with without the appropriate resources from the state.

I re I regret that um rest assured, you know, that the chief has been uh out there in front of individuals and groups to to help not only get awareness of incidences that occur, but also to inform his his staff and and see how they can improve our awareness um and address public concern.

Um but I know from from my uh what I believe is my my role on this is continuous advocacy up through our state legislators on um some resources to help this.

And I also worry about our school district that sometime or in September they're gonna uh the new state law is gonna activate that requires them to do some reporting.

So I I was able to establish a connection with the Latino network uh during the the legislative session, they're a statewide advocacy group to help uh put together that immigration package.

Uh they'll be putting out a a report or newsletter in early June that talks about some of the forthcoming laws that will be uh in effect uh through the summer or fall.

Uh so that that'll help at least provide some more awareness.

Um but I guess if there's a question, it's like what how much more can we be helpful to strengthen your ability to be responsive.

That's a good question.

I don't I don't know that I have an answer other than I appreciate the steps you have taken to help um bring us together with folks that might have questions about we can't about what we can and can't do.

Um a lot of time I times I think people have questions that we can't provide answers to whose whose eyes or who's this vehicle belong to and who's using it.

Um can't legally get that information.

Um try to keep a bright line between what we can legally do or not do.

I think that's frustrating for some.

Um I understand that, and I don't disagree with this frustrating.

I think have the opportunity to facilitate time to sit down and kind of exp listen and also explain that kind of helps sort of clear up at least understand why not answer the people necessarily here.

We can or what we can and can't do is just uh uh compliment that the what we're discovering is that there are multiple observer group, you know, some we've we've we heard from here before and we've engaged with so it turned out this was a a new a different discrete group we were connecting with.

Um and there may be be more, so there's there's a landscape of legal observers that I hope I will continue to develop the rapport with and we're also working through Adelante and Centro and there's sort of the clearinghouse on a lot of the uh rapid response system we we're dependent on else on this topic.

Okay, I'm the um I want to on topic but kind of pivoting moving forward uh as we schedule, you know, Jesse and I work together and we use our our goals, our objectives, the action plan, all the things to do our agendas.

I want to float an idea.

If we how about if we someone come if a counselor comes to council meeting and says, hey, I would like information about this involving federal response, then we'll know to schedule a work session.

But if we don't hear something, and then I want to say like there is an there is an exception that sometimes something might happen, an incident might happen, and based on a previous work session, this council had given myself and Jesse the authority to to act in a way that we so if if if we de if we also then feel like we didn't hear something but a situation happened that we need to can to come to council with, then we could add it at a later date.

But as a is that okay with y'all if we because we want to there's some work sessions we need to bring forward.

Um and I just want to make sure time-wise, I don't want to act against the consensus of the council.

Um but I also want to try to figure out how to schedule it in a way that we give staff enough time to do the work to prepare for a work session with also you guys having voice as well.

I mean, we have a couple of mechanisms.

One is additions deletions, the other is council communications.

If we're any of us is preview to something that should yeah, that's why I was saying it's during council communications.

If you say, hey, I want to act, you know, I want a work session.

We already have consensus to do it, then that will take precedent.

We'll schedule it for the right.

But otherwise, if we don't if we don't hear anything during council communications, we might not schedule a work session on this topic.

Is that an okay?

If something changes, just say it during council communications or let one of us know.

Okay, cool.

Do you all have anything for us?

Are we okay with that?

I'm gonna adjourn this work session.