Hillsboro City Council Meeting: Arts, Flag, Police HQ, and Highlight Update - October 21, 2025
Hillsboro City Council Meeting: Arts, Flag, Police HQ, and Highlight Update - October 21, 2025
The October 21, 2025 Hillsboro City Council meeting featured presentations from the 2025 Civic Leadership Academy on proposed community flag designs, a recognition of arts and culture organizations, an update on the Hillsboro 2035 Community Plan, a presentation on the new Police Department Headquarters, a change order for an emergency water well at South Hillsboro Fire Station 9, and an annual update on the Highlight broadband utility. The council approved consent items, first reading of an ordinance, and several resolutions. The meeting concluded with a work session and executive session on labor negotiations.
Consent Calendar
- Approved consent agenda items including renewal of the Liberty High School Fire Science Program IGA and fully staffing Rescue 6 at Station 6.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jeff Perkins (Hillsboro Ward 3 resident) spoke in strong support of consent items 4.4 and 4.5, stating they represent "real tangible investments in public safety, education, and the long-term resilience of our city."
Discussion Items
- 2025 Civic Leadership Academy (CLA) Flag Design Presentation: The CLA presented three community flag design options to celebrate Hillsboro's 150th anniversary. The designs were developed through 460+ hours of collective effort, including a survey of 77 respondents and stakeholder interviews. Presenters highlighted themes of community, nature, history, and technology. The three designs are: (1) horizontal stripes with five seeds in a circle; (2) oak leaves, railroad tracks, and an arrow; (3) a trillium blossom with four green panels. The CLA recommended a community vote on all three designs.
- Hillsboro Arts and Culture Council (HACC) Annual Update: Chair Joan Callaway and Vice Chair Bo Wrights reported on efforts to increase access and remove barriers to arts programs, including scholarships (24 students served), the Arts for All program (offering $5 tickets), free community events, and bilingual programming. The endowment was highlighted as a stable funding source.
- Hillsboro Community Foundation Update: President Funda Kelsi reported that the foundation's funds totaled $7.25 million (a 15.47% increase) and distributed over $660,000 in grants, scholarships, and awards, including $86,000 in scholarships to 32 students.
- Hillsboro 2035 Community Plan Update: Program Coordinator Daisha Bacum presented the updated plan, which contains 125 actions (46 new) with 18 continuing and 5 new lead partners. The plan is available in English and Spanish. Council adopted Resolution 2903.
- Hillsboro Police Department Headquarters Project: Public Works Project Manager Jeffrey Cavallo, Capital Development Division Manager Sean Morrison, and Police Chief Jim Coleman presented the $94.3 million project at NE 25th Avenue. The design emphasizes equity, operational resiliency, wellness, and community connectivity. The council approved early procurement activities.
- Emergency Water Well at South Hillsboro Fire Station 9: Project Manager David Johnson presented a change order for $1,242,789.99 to drill a 700-foot well to provide emergency water. The well will be the first of its kind in Hillsboro and is powered by a generator.
- Highlight Broadband Annual Update: Highlight officials reported 2,077 subscribers (20-21% of the city), cumulative savings of $760,000 for small businesses, and a net promoter score of 82.1. The utility's fund has received $51.5 million in transfers (from gain share, SIP, and ARPA). Future challenges include an identified funding gap for full city buildout, particularly in multi-family housing.
Key Outcomes
- Flag Design Next Steps: Council agreed to put all three flag designs to a community vote, with the official flag to be revealed at the February 19, 2026 State of the City event. (Unanimous consensus, no formal vote taken)
- Appointments to Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee: Approved. (Motion carried unanimously)
- Omnibus Code Amendment (First Reading): Ordinance 6508 approved for first reading; second reading scheduled for November 4, 2025. (Motion carried 7-0)
- Local Contract Review Board Administrative Rules: Resolution 2902 adopted. (Motion carried 7-0)
- Reed’s Crossing Density Increase: Order 28 adopted. (Motion carried 7-0)
- Hillsboro 2035 Community Plan: Resolution 2903 adopted. (Motion carried 7-0)
- Police Department Headquarters Early Procurement: Approved. (Motion carried 7-0)
- Emergency Water Well Change Order: Approved. (Motion carried 7-0)
Meeting Transcript
You put in to making the recommendations you'll make tonight. So anything that you want to add around. Just to kick it off, just a little bit of context. Our Civic Leadership Academy is I think this is the eighth or ninth year. Eighth. All right. Sorry. Ninth year. Um, which is amazing. And ours is a little bit unique because we try to get people that want to potentially serve, right? And one of the beauties of our Civic Leadership Academy is to learn not only about the city, but you learn good governance. You know, learn what it means to compromise and to collaborate. And the city flag was a great opportunity to do that. So we're really looking forward to it. So with that, I'll turn it over to Michaela. Try and make this brief. Hi, everyone. I'm the APA City Council for the record, Michaela Kennedy. Thank you. City Management Coordinator and Project Lead for the Civic Leadership Academy. I too am very excited for this evening because you will be hearing from the 2025 Civic Leadership Academy, also known as CLA, as they present the first ever uh Hillsboro Community Flag Design Options to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of the city. Um before we get started, I did want to give just a very brief overview of what the Civic Leadership Academy is and a little bit of background to how we got here. Um, as Robbie said, the Civic Leadership Academy is just an opportunity for community members to get engaged with the city and also get involved in the community. Uh, this program is six weeks long and it's a hands-on cohort-style leadership training that's led by our instructors from Portland State Universities, Hatfield School of Government, and National National Policy Consensus Center. It's definitely a mouthful. Um, Yachi, um, Steve and Kristen Wright are our wonderful instructors from PSU, and they are incredible, and we're just super thankful for their partnership. Um, I also wanted to note that the CLA program offers supervised child play, transportation assistance, language services, and provides dinner meals so that members of CLA can participate comfortably. And I wanted to give a shout out to our city managers, office administrative support staff, Lisa, Ashley, and Jacob for making sure that the CLA room is good to go every single week for six weeks and that we are fed. Um, also wanted to give a shout out to Parks and Recreation staff, Billy Pender and Grace Lee for their support in providing supervised child play for this program. Um, after the completion of CLA, uh, we really hope that participants go on to do amazing things and be a part of boards and commissions, or in this case, city council and becoming mayor. Um, so no pressure. Uh, over the years, the CLA has focused on various topics, promoting volunteer engagement, supporting uh Hillsboro Entrepreneurs, to just name a couple, and this year is focused on developing three design options for the first ever community flag to celebrate 150 years of the City of Hillsboro. Uh, this initiative does stem from the Hillsborough 2035 community plan and is also identified in the Citywide Strategic Plan under uh Action 5.18. Um, to really help the help us guide this process. We looked at the North American Vexological Association, good flag and bad flag, um, which I believe is exhibit A in your staff report. Um, so go ahead and take a look at that. Um, we're also really lucky to have some amazing staff who participated in the role of City Buddy to not only support the CLA staff, but also to just be a part of the project team, um, helping design the flag options that you'll be seeing today. Uh Jenny Grenillo, Nick Baker, and Rachel Lanier have been instrumental in this project through their support of data analysis of community input, assisting the CLA by answering any questions that they may have, and integrating the feedback from CLA to designs. And honestly, a special shout out to Jenny, as she served as the lead designer of these flags that you'll be seeing today. Um, we're so grateful for her talent, her creativity and determination throughout this process. So please join me in giving a round of applause to our amazing city buddies. If y'all don't mind standing as well, Rachel Nick, right over there. Amazing people. Um following tonight's presentation, staff recommend that city um that the city proceed with a community vote to select the official Hillsboro community flag. However, there are at least two other options that the council can consider that's outlined in the staff report. Umce the final flag is selected, uh, the staff will develop a communication strategy that will include translation of the city's safe harbor languages to maximize community participation. And the final determination regarding how and when the community flag will be displayed will remain in the discretion and decision of the city. Um, when the final flag is selected, the city will prepare a formal resolution to recognize the Hillsboro community flag as an official civic symbol. And the intention is for the final Hillsboro community flag to be officially revealed at the 2026 State of the City event, which is on February 19th, 2026. The last thing I'll say here is before I hand it over to our wonderful CLA is just a huge thank you to them.
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