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.

What an incredible group this was.

You all brought so much joy, so much laughter, care, and compassion to this project, and it showed in every session that we had.

And what a legacy to leave behind to be part of the design of the first ever community flag.

So thank you all, and I'm so proud of you.

And uh, that's enough talking for me because that was a lot of talking.

Uh, let's hear it for 2025 Civic Leadership Academy.

Good evening, Mayor Pace and the members of the City Council.

For the record, my name is You Terry Sim.

And on behalf of the 2025 Civic Leadership Academy, I send a warm welcome to you to our community flag presentation.

Next slide, please.

Each year, Hillsboro seeks out a new cohort for this program.

And this year's participants are listed here.

We'll be listed here from top left.

We all reside within the city and share a commitment to enhancing our leadership skills and engaging with local governance.

Our cohort is a vibrant mix of approximately 17% being veterans or active duty military, 16% living with disabilities.

Over half of us identify as female, representing a rich tapestry of backgrounds, 25% Hispanic, 16% black or African American, 8% Asian, and 8% American Indian, with around 50% white.

While most participants are in the 35 to 44 range, we bring together a youthful enthusiasm and seasoned wisdom.

Our educational backgrounds span from bachelor's to doctorate degrees, and we include both homeowners and runners, U.S.

citizens, and permanent residents.

We are also proud parents of children and pets alike.

As part of the Civic Leadership Academy, our group was given the exciting opportunity to design three flags that represent the community of Hillsboro to honor the city's 150th anniversary.

Next slide, please.

Good evening, City Council.

My name is Maria Mondragon Elmy.

Tonight you're going to get a deep dive into the data we collected and the themes that emerged from this process.

But before we get there, we want to bring you on a journey.

I'll start by sharing how our cohort worked together step by step to arrive at the flag designs you're going to see tonight.

Over the course of six weekly sessions, our cohort rolled up our sleeves and did the real work of collaborative leadership.

We dug into personal stories, practiced active and reflective listening, and learned how to move a room from strong opinions towards shared direction.

Together, 12 people came to consensus.

Yes, total consensus on a flag design concept, which we later narrowed down to three finalists through a vote.

But this wasn't just about picking flag designs.

Along the way, we built real leadership muscle.

We practiced consensus building, civic leadership, and inclusive decision making.

We learned how to engage community members through thoughtful interviews, and we generated big ideas, refined them with purpose, and prioritized what mattered most.

This process didn't just shape the designs of the flag you're about to see this evening, they also shaped us as leaders.

Our effort didn't stop when the weekly meetings ended.

Those two and a half hours together each week for six weeks were just the foundation.

Behind the scenes, every person in this cohort invested additional time researching, gathering stories, analyzing feedback, and refining ideas.

We carried this project with us into our evenings, weekends, and lunch breaks because we believed in the purpose behind it.

In total, we spent more than 180 hours together in our weekly sessions and an estimated 288 hours of independent work outside of that.

This was over 460 hours of collective effort and leading to what you're going to see here tonight.

Every hour brought us closer to this moment and to the opportunity to present our work to City Council.

Thank you.

Good evening, City Council.

Thank you, Darianne, for the record.

The first step in the stakeholder engagement was a community survey put out by the city, seeking opinions on people's perception of the city's values and story, as well as what they would want to have to say about Hillsboro and the people who live here.

77 people responded.

The city has both quantitative and qualitative data on this survey, if you are interested.

Part of our work at the academy was to make sure we captured diverse voices and groups across the city.

Despite our best intentions, some groups may not have been included in these interviews, and the finding may not fully represent the diverse population and whole of Hillsboro.

Stakeholders we spoke to included people from the Kalapuya tribe members, farmers, farm workers, small business owners, school districts, staff, and many more.

We heard of yellow for the city and how much positive impact it has had on their lives.

They were generally excited to provide input to the flag design through their stories, the stories of society members, higher educational professionals, and business owners, as well as many more.

We heard of their history and deep connection to the city.

One quote which stayed with us that we would like to share with you today is a quote from a member of the Kalapuya tribe, Steph Littlebird.

She's currently a member of the Calapuya tribe and the Hillsborough resident.

For centuries, this region has been a place for gathering.

Tribe members will gather here in the Five Oaks region for trade and gathering acons.

People will come back and regather again and again in the same location, century after century.

We will bury our mortar and pestle at the foot of the oaks each year and come back to the same tree and be able to dig up our motor and pestle, process the acons, and then bury them and come back to them next year, pointing to our relationship with the land and how intimate our relationship was with the trees.

We could literally bury something and know that we could come back and get it each year.

And that was done generation over generation.

Hi, for the record, my name is Lynn Coffin, and I just feel very fortunate to have been and grateful to have been a part of this CLA work.

I want to thank my peers, our city buddies, and our instructors for all the time and patience they gave to me.

That was mentioned of our own personal time that went into this.

So community was our first one that came through loud and strong.

You know, everybody said that we interviewed that this was a place that they belonged, no matter who they were, they felt very, very welcomed.

Then another strong theme was nature.

This is celebrating our agricultural roots.

You know, it's connects us to the beauty of the Tualetan Valley, as well as looking in growth and sustainability as part of our identity.

Um, also history, the Kalapalu tribe, like you will hear over and over again, were the keepers of this land, and they did a very amazing job by growing the white oaks grove and in a sustainable way with also a sustainable fires, and they use them as their main food source.

Um, also uh the five oaks, which you can go and visit.

I went there for the first time, even though I've lived here 25 years and just gazed at the beauty of those trees right off of 26 in Brookwood.

Finally, technology, we are the Silicon Forest.

We are the ones that started it, right?

From right from our roots.

Um, hopefully, uh, this is also driving us into our future in innovation and integrity and everything that we do as a city.

Next slide, please.

So, going back to the brief that is in your workbooks, we use that flag design.

It was, you know, keep it simple.

It needs to be able to be recognized straight away when anybody sees it.

Um, we also wanted to use meaningful symbols, you know, uh, maybe uh leaves for growth or circuit patterns for the technology background that we have.

We also wanted to keep it to two or three colors so it wasn't messy and confusing, and we actually stuck with the branding of the Hillsborough logo anyway, to continue on that theme and connect it to something people are already used to seeing.

Um, we uh also said no lettering and no sales, so we won't see any government sales or any text on these flags.

Um, we don't want to tell people what to think.

And you know, you want to be able to see this flag and instantly know what it is, and you want to know what your connection to this flag is, and that's what I hope that we'll be seeing next as she takes it to the next slides.

Good evening.

My name is Amber Reding Ghazini for the record, and I have the privilege to share two of the three flag concepts that have collectively been created by the Civic Leadership Academy, as well as Jenny, who helped us distill the information and the key themes down and bring them to life.

So, this first flag um concept draws from the inspiration of sort of the angles looking across the horizon as you see the sunrise or the sunset.

And the lines exist far beyond the horizon, going from left to right, and that's going to symbolize the movement that we have forward and the momentum into the future.

Each color panel is designed to reflect diversity within the city.

So going from the bottom, you see that there's this tint of marigold, which is a little hard to see up here, but it is more of a marigold color, I promise.

And that's going to show community and agriculture.

Then you're going to the green panel, which is similar to the city's green that they have.

And that was by design from some of the input that we've had of it being recognizable already.

The green symbolizes all of our nature that we have, both with the native landscapes that we've been doing as well as agriculture.

Then you have the light blue, which is for more tech related.

A lot of people see that as the sign of industry.

And then the darker blue, again, that's more recognizable from people within the city.

And then in the top left-hand corner, you're going to see five seeds, and they're in a circle.

Then that's symbolizing again the community and the gatherings place and referencing back to the five oaks community gathering place that was foundational in this city for many years before it was actually even chartered.

Next slide.

The second flag concept, you'll see some of the same sort of themes going through, but a different take on that.

So moving from sort of left to right, you're going to see the dark blue and the dark blue.

Again, is that recognizable?

And in that is the same, a different shade of marigold, but the marigold color representing community and agriculture.

Those are oak leaves.

So the oak leaves are in that circle.

So that's back to the gathering place that's symbolizing unity and connection.

And then on the right-hand side, you're gonna see sort of it looks like tracks with the blue and the white.

And those stripes are gonna talk about the history that we sort of passed a little bit, but was from of our stakeholder about this being the hub city and the railroad tracks and all the industry that sort of happened around the city because of that.

And then more modern today, we see that the light rails go through our city, bringing new new kind of fresh energy all the time.

Um, and then the arrow is moving forward, talking about the movement forward and the city's future and our momentum that way.

Next slide.

Good evening.

Uh for the record, my name is Brian Lewis.

This is the final design we wish to present.

The most prominent feature in this flag is the central trillium blossom with the three white petals and three green sepal leaves.

The trillium plants are historically significant also to this area.

They only bloom and thrive in habitats that have healthy and balanced ecosystems, and their presence indicates a healthy community and can symbolize our city's ideals for a balanced and healthy community.

As we strive to live in harmony with nature and with each other, this blossom can symbolize the effort that it takes to provide a guidepost and a reminder to honor that commitment.

The flower also honors the indigenous people here as this plant has been used for millennia as medicine in the region.

Surrounding the petroleum flower is a blue circle and marigold ring, which symbolizes the welcoming and unifying spirit that Hillsboro strives to demonstrate to all of its citizens.

All walks of life should feel at home and connected here.

The green background is split into four rectangular panels and representative of agricultural fields seen from above in the bird's eye view in an abstract style, honoring farm workers and our appreciation for the land and its ability to sustain so much life here.

Next slide.

We believe that these flags answer our initial question, designing to be representative of the communities that make up Hillboro and incorporate our collective history and values while still practicing uh good flag design.

We look forward to your consideration about the best way to select the final flag design for our community.

McKinsey Rowl's for the record.

We just want to extend uh a very appreciative thank you to City Council and to Mayor Pace tonight for allowing us to come present uh CLA's um designs for the flag.

We really appreciate the opportunity to learn about the city.

Each week we had folks come in and teach us about different um section sectors of the city and and different responsibilities that each people uh each individual person and group had.

Um, and we also really appreciated the opportunity to come together as a community every week.

This project has felt very much like history in the making and being part of a legacy that we can help leave behind.

We are excited to see all of our hard work come to fruition.

We want to extend a very special thank you to Michaela, who was our project coordinator, and Simone is the executive sponsor of this project.

And an extra special thank you to Nick, Rachel, and Jenny as our city buddies who were very, very important resources to us for our group each and every week.

Uh, an extra special thank you to Jenny, who was our uh graphic designer and helped bring all of our ideas and research to fruition to the designs that you saw tonight.

And lastly, uh very big thank you to the Portland State University program that was run by Kristen, Yachi, and Steve.

The weekly encouragement and structure that you all brought us was incredible and inspiring, helping us learn and grow in our leadership skills every week.

As we wrap up this project, our group just wants to say one last thank you for trusting us to help put these designs into uh into being um and and giving us the opportunity to participate in the city's 150th anniversary uh through this project.

We were very intentional, intentional about ensuring that the designs reflected Hillsborough's diversity uh through shared values and in the pride we all feel for our city.

We're excited to continue engaging with Hillsboro and to give back to this community and be part of its shaping its bright future.

Thank you very much.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

We really appreciate it.

We have some time for questions.

So, Council, do we have any questions for them?

Thank you again for all the work that went into this and the interviews and the research.

Thank you.

Um anybody uh Counselor Case.

Thank you guys.

This was incredible as a class of 2017 Civic Leadership Academy.

I know how nerve-wracking this night is, and you guys did wonderful.

So thank you very much.

Um when I spoke to you guys a couple of your class a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned my biggest concern was the episode of Parks and Recreation, uh, where they make the mural and it's a camel.

Uh, and you guys did not make a camel.

Um, these are fantastic and thoughtful.

Um, and I came, I I did sneak peek.

I know some people didn't look before, so they were surprised.

I don't like surprises.

Um, and I I was I like I was leaning towards one, and now I'm definitely leaning towards another one.

Um but I'm curious uh if you guys have a uh a favorite uh that you are all kind of pushing towards secretly, or if you're pretty evenly divided, you don't have to say what it is.

You are welcome to say what it is.

I was leaning towards two, now I'm leaning towards three if that helps.

But we did do uh dot voting, but I'm not sure if we're we should share the results, should we?

One of the things we learned talking to stakeholders was how diverse Hillsboro is.

And I can tell you this group is very diverse.

Even on this table, people feel strongly about it.

We had this ongoing thing.

We're not going to share which one, but we had this ongoing thing about what flags.

You know, so um we do have flags that we liked, but the beautiful thing was we were able to come together and agree to present flags, even if they didn't necessarily make our favorite clock.

For the record, I did present my least favorite flag.

And they were all very good options.

They are all brilliant flags.

I would be I would feel great flying any of those flags in my yard.

Absolutely.

Counselor Sinclair.

Oh, go ahead.

Pardon, I was just, I would also like to add that we wanted we were committed to creating three very distinct flags, and many of the options that we worked through um became very similar at times.

And so we continue to revisit our charge of creating three distinctive flags.

So while we may or may not be preferential to one or another, um, we had to keep returning to that um to that purpose for us.

Excellent.

Counselor Sinclair.

Thank you very much you know, six weeks ago.

I wasn't sure how important this topic was.

And now here we are listening to this presentation.

And I can tell you right now.

Um these uncertain times to see the variety put on here.

I thought I had an initial favorite, and then I saw the diversity in one that really spoke to me in hearing your presentation and the seeds of what where we came from, who we are now and where we're going.

There's always a place for everybody and hearing your commitment today and the hours you spent together.

That type of representation is what's going to carry us forward in our community.

And so thank you so much for what you provided.

What you gave shines through strongly and is very appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor Sinclair.

Any other questions?

Counselor Harris?

Just have a question for you, Mayor.

Um I noticed in the memo there's a proposal as to how to finalize the final adoption.

Is that something we need to uh adopt, or is that just a sense of the room and the city manager moves forward with the process?

No, we're going to um have a survey, right, and put it out to the community.

So the other three options at the council, we're looking for just some consensus from the council tonight.

There's not like an official vote.

Um so the three options are one is the South's recommendation and the CLA recommendation is that the council put this out to a community vote.

Second option is you can just pick one, and the third option is kind of a hybrid.

You could reduce it down to two and put that out to a community vote.

So again, our our recommendation, CLA's recommendation is to put all three flags out for a community vote.

But if we could get that answer tonight, that would be great.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, and I'm fine with that process.

Which process the community survey.

For all three.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

As long as I get extra votes.

Excellent.

Counselor Embry.

Yes, I so Oregon is the only state that has a two-sided flag.

So I'm kind of partial to that.

So I would like to have a two-side.

I I would like to have a two-sided historical flag as well.

That will be my feedback.

Uh yeah, I'm excited to see what the community says.

We could also have one of their suggestions and just put a beaver on the back.

Right?

We could do that too.

Right.

I think that should be a duck.

A duck, maybe a duck.

Counselor's so gato.

Uh thank you all for the presentation and for all of your time that you've dedicated to this.

I mean, thank you for the data, Maria, like the hours that you spent on it.

I think it's just amazing, and it just shows how committed you are to really serving, right?

Um, I would actually really like to see the dot survey that you all put together because that is gonna influence my vote.

I think you know, thank you for bringing it to us.

But I think that you know the time that you put into it, the debates probably that went into it.

I think you all fought really hard for them, so that would be really helpful for you to see which one you all prefer as a collective.

So it was very close.

Some that didn't make the cut.

And for what it's worth, there was also a revote um because there was a tie with a fourth option that didn't make the cut for tonight.

So um, I don't know if I think somebody's looking through if they have pictures um of the dot voting.

I will maybe make one quick comment about the about the double-sided flag.

That was advised.

We were advised against that in the principles of the good flag design.

So we need to um make a decision tonight, not necessarily vote, but just uh share our opinions of how we'd like to proceed.

And so the options again are we choose, we choose two and put it out to the community, or we put all three out to the community.

Um so would love to hear from you all on where you're leaning.

So, counselor uh report uh put out put out all three.

All three, and they can choose two for each side.

And we got this gal.

All right, so we have counselor Ambry wants all three out.

Um anybody else, uh Counselor Case?

Yeah, I I take the uh civic leadership academy's recommendation to put all three out to a city vote.

All three out.

Anyone else?

Yeah, for the record, I agree with putting all three out.

All three.

Yep.

Counselor Sinclair, would you like to go against what everybody said just for the five up?

All right.

All right, but that's nice.

Thanks.

And Counselor Alkier.

Sorry, let the community decide.

Uh do you want all three to for the community to see all three or the community see two?

Community to see all three.

And I also am interested in knowing what the dialogue was.

I'd be really curious about that.

Okay, we can uh we can arrange that.

All right, thanks everybody.

Did you weigh in?

Did you weigh in?

Yeah, did all right, great.

So it sounds like we're gonna put all three out.

We're gonna go with the recommendation of the Civic Leadership Academy class.

Thank you so much for again all of your work, all of your research, all of your deliberation, your attention to voices from the past, and then also how we move into the future.

Thank you very much.

So it's a great time, unless there's any other questions.

Any questions online from Councilor All Care?

Okay.

So we'll move into uh the civic auditorium and we'll uh present you with a very cool gift, and then we'll take a photo.

Does that sound good?

But uh before we leave, I'd love for everybody to give the CLA class a hand for all the work.

All right, we'll see you all in the uh Shirley Healthman Auditorium.

The recording has stopped.

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If you would like headphones, please see the city recorder who is to your left, my right.

To begin this meeting, I invite you to 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 it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty, and justice for all.

May we have a roll call.

Yes, Mayor Pace?

Here.

Councilor Alcair.

Say two one second.

I don't see Councilor Alcau, but I will watch for her.

Counselor Sinclair, here.

Counselor Case?

Here.

Counselor Harris?

Here.

Counselor Anvery?

Here.

Counselor Slogato.

Here.

Thank you.

Great.

Well, it is a big evening for arts and culture, and we'll begin with the endowment awards in a few minutes.

The Hillsborough Arts and Culture Endowment was formed through a partnership of the City of Hillsborough and the Hillsborough Community Foundation under the direction of the Hillsborough Arts and Culture Council in 2013.

In its first years, the endowment committee recommended one to two organizations or artists to receive endowment funding each year.

With the growth of the fund since 2019, the committee has chosen each year to recommend funding every non-profit arts organization in Hillsborough.

I think that's worth some applause right there.

So we have a short video to tell us a little bit more about the endowment, and you may recognize some people in it.

Are we running the video now, Mark?

Yeah, let's do it.

The biggest challenge for arts and culture in Hills Road is, of course, funding.

Things can change in the drop of the hat.

You don't know what tomorrow can bring, and within a moment, priorities.

It does put the Otis on the individual community.

It's like if you value art, you have to pay for it.

Even if we had every show, act to the gills, we still have operating expenses that go above and beyond that.

We chose an endowment because it's essentially risk-free, and it lasts forever.

The way that an endowment works is we donate money, and then that money sits, and it over time collects interest.

The initial investment is always safe.

It just grows.

Legacy means to me that you are leaving something behind that is meaningful.

But I can leave after I'm gone to my community that I love.

That money means so much.

And the fact that you're giving money to the endowment means that that money is going to be there forever.

Right now is the time to decide that arts and culture matters to you.

Right now is the time to decide that this is what the community needs and to invest in whatever way you are able.

And that's how you can leave your legacy.

Wonderful, thank you.

If you are a member of the Hillsborough Arts and Culture Endowment Committee, please raise your hand.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for serving on the committee and supporting arts and culture in our community.

We appreciate you.

Now I'd like a couple of to call a couple of you forward to help me present this year's award this year's awards.

Please join me at that podium over there, Carol Lofner and Bo Wrights.

After you receive your award, we'll all gather and take a picture together.

I'll have counsel come down and we'll take a picture right in this area right here.

Does that make sense?

All right, let's do it.

So the first awardee is Bag and Baggage Productions, whose mission is to create transformative theatrical experiences that explore our shared humanity.

Next up, Cultural Arts Center of the Oregon Buddhist Viara, which aims to promote and celebrate Sri Lankan culture.

I'm just totally kidding.

Please know I'm kidding.

Okay.

All right.

The next organization, Golden Road Arts, with a mission to bring art to kids and to support teachers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have the Heart Theater, which is striving to produce high quality entertainment in a safe and nurturing community theater environment.

Next up, we have the Hillsborough Historical Society with the mission to protect and preserve Hillsborough's cultural resources.

Hillsborough Symphony Orchestra, which exists to provide a family-friendly musical experience for all audience members.

The next organization is the Immigrant Story, whose mission is to document, narrate, and curate stories of immigrants to enhance empathy and promote an inclusive community.

The next organization is Influence Music Hall and To Walleton Valley Artists, which is dedicated to improving our community's quality of life by enhancing its arts and culture.

Next organization is the Light Opera of Portland, which performs live light opera and musical theater productions, specializing in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.

And if you guys could shift that way to make room.

Because there's so many awardees.

Next up, we have the Oregon Corral, an adult choir that performs engaging choral music to promote a lifelong love of music.

The next organization is Rosika with a mission to promote classical Indian music, dance, and culture in the state of Oregon.

Next organization is Stages Performing Arts Youth Academy, which nurtures artistic, intellectual, and character development of youth and young adults through an educational theater arts program.

The Young Artist Club, which helps Title I schools build arts programming that benefits art education at school and access to art materials at home.

Next up, we have the Westside Community and Youth Orchestra, which strives to provide high-quality performances for our community while cultivating the artistic growth of youth and adult members.

Next up we have the West Side Quilters Guild with a mission to come together in the spirit of community and friendship for the purpose of pursuing the many facets and dimensions of the art of quilting.

And she's actually wearing a quilt, right?

In addition to the Arts and Culture Council and Endowment Committee, we would like to recognize a couple of others in our community.

The Toaleton Valley Community TV, or TVC TV, has been selected as the Arts and Culture Partner of the Year.

This award is being made in recognition of the production of the Hillsborough Arts and Culture Endowment promotional video.

TVC TV generously dedicated their ex excuse me, yeah, dedicated their expertise and resources to create a professional, engaging video that communicates the values of the endowment and the tangible ways it strengthens Hillsborough's arts community.

TVC TV's commitment to uplifting stories of Hillsborough's creative community demonstrates true partnership and lasting impact, making them a model example of a business championing the arts.

Thank you, TVC TV.

And we'd also like to recognize Jan Simmons.

So, Jan, congratulations, you have been selected as the Arts and Culture Volunteer of the Year.

This award is being made in recognition of her many years of tireless work on the boards of the Sequoia Gallery and Bag and Baggage Productions.

Jan has served in many volunteer capacities for these organizations and continues to be a strong advocate for bag and baggage in their next chapter.

She is a consummate arts champion.

Thank you, Jen.

To all of these arts organizations, TBC TV and Jan Simmons, congratulations and thank you for making our community a more creative and joyful place to live.

And I'd like to invite the council and Robbie and Amber and Mark, whoever wants to join, come on down, and we can take a photo with all of them together.

I'm waiting now.

Yeah.

I'd like to invite the endowment committee to come up too.

And then you can see the screen in front of you.

It doesn't matter.

Yeah, and then I'll just be in my push.

Thanks, Ben.

I'd like to invite you today's ourselves.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Yes.

We will.

Okay, thanks everybody.

Yeah.

Watch out.

It happens.

It happens.

Yeah.

Thanks everybody so much.

Our next item on the agenda is a proclamation declaring October as National Arts and Humanities Month.

I'll say that again.

Our next item on the agenda is declaring October as National Arts and Humanities Month.

I'd like to invite Hillsborough Arts and Culture Council Chair Joan Callaway and uh Bo Wrights Forward to receive the proclamation.

Come on up, Joan.

Come on up, Bo.

Thanks for being here.

So this is the part where I read and you awkwardly stand there.

Um and then I present you with a proclamation.

Does that sound good?

Okay, great.

Thank you.

All right.

Whereas the month of October has been recognized as National Arts and Humanities Month by thousands of arts and culture organizations, communities, and states across the country, as well as by the White House and Congress over three decades.

And whereas the arts embody much of the accumulated wisdom, intellect, and imagination of humankind.

And whereas arts enhance and enrich the lives of every American, including those of us living in Hillsborough.

And whereas arts, culture, and creative expression play a positive and unique role in the lives of individuals, families, communities, and our country.

And whereas we recognize that through arts, culture, and creative experience in Hillsborough, we are bringing generations together, encouraging partnerships, celebrating the diversity of the community, and continuing to foster intercultural understanding.

And whereas the arts and culture sector in Hillsboro, including nonprofits, commercial businesses, and educational institutions, encourage creativity while contributing to our local economy.

And whereas Arts and Humanities Month acknowledges the ongoing efforts of the city, community partners, artists, and the cultural practitioners to support and exalt the many creative assets in Hillsboro and continue to invite us to discover the arts in our community, our neighborhoods, and within ourselves.

And whereas the City of Hillsboro acknowledges that by continuing to interweave creative expression and arts and culture experiences into daily life, we better connect and strengthen our community, expand our cultural understanding and enrichment, and through the arts celebrate all that is Hillsboro.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Beachpace, mayor of the City of Hillsboro do hereby recognize October as National Arts and Humanities Month and call upon our residents to celebrate, support, and promote the arts in Hillsboro, and to specifically encourage the greater participation by those said residents in taking action for the arts in our community.

Thank you.

Oh, you want a photo?

Yeah, let's do it.

It has been a fun evening tonight.

So all right.

Next up, we will hear.

Oh no, wait, actually, we have are we having Joan come up and present?

Is that right?

And Bo, yeah.

So, Joan and Bo, if you would come up to the two tables there.

You can share a table if you'd like and present a Hillsborough Arts and Culture Council annual update.

Thank you very much.

Just press the little button in there when the light turns green, you are on.

Okay.

And slides should be coming.

Thank you so much for having us here tonight.

As you said, this is a very special night for the arts in Hillsboro.

I'm Joan Callaway.

I'm the chair of the Hillsborough Arts and Culture Council, and this is Bo Wrights, Vice Chair of the Arts Council.

We're happy to be here tonight both to celebrate the Arts Endowment Awards and to share this update with you.

The Hillsboro Arts and Culture Council is composed of 11 to 13 community volunteers, some of who are with us tonight as you saw earlier.

Our mission is to promote and support the growth of arts and culture as assets to a vital, prosperous, and livable community.

This annual report will be focusing on the ways the culture the city's cultural arts program and cultural arts district, which we advise, are working to increase access and remove barriers to service, as well as to provide a very brief snapshot of the city's arts activities during the 2024-2025 fiscal year and past few months.

You have also received the 2024-25 year in review publication, which highlights details of these activities.

There were 25 stage performances at the Walters serving over 3,000 audience members.

And our public art program engaged over 2,000 community members in surveys and serving on 14 selection committees.

During this past fiscal year, the Cultural Arts District has supported a variety of community-led events, including the El Sol Festival, the monthly Hillsboro Art Walk, La Strada de Pastelli, Hillsboro Holidays, the Hillsboro Film Festival, and the Westside Fertile Ground Festival.

As an example of the impact of these cultural events in our community, the El Soul Festival at MM Marketplace benefits 60 small businesses and entrepreneurs and over 120 local musicians.

Results of district and city support include enhanced economic resiliency and growing diversity of MM customers, opportunities for local artists and musicians, cultural exchange, and free, diverse, welcoming all ages programming in Hillsboro.

For all of these programs in Cultural Arts and Cultural Arts District, it is a priority of staff and the HAC to increase access and remove barriers from services.

So first we will look at how financial accessibility is being addressed.

Thanks to funding from the Richard B.

Siegel Foundation, Cultural Arts is now able to offer scholarships for Hillsboro youth or youth attending Hillsborough School District Schools that cover 100% of registration fees for youth that qualify for free or reduced lunch programs.

This past year, the scholarship was provided to 24 students.

Staff are looking to work with Greater Than, Family Promise in the Oak Street campus in the next year to increase awareness about the available scholarships.

Additionally, those grant funds allowed us to provide free art supplies at the MM Marketplace Back to School event.

They are also making ticketed performances more accessible by joining in the Regional Arts and Culture Council's Arts for All program.

Arts for All offers a limited number of $5 tickets to most of the Walters performances and community dances available to Oregon Trail card holders, SNAP recipients, college students, and assisted living and home care programs.

Free or no cost opportunities have been expanded this year to include a monthly family open studio that offers a drop-in all ages opportunity for hands-on creating on Saturdays in partnership with the FLIP Museum.

No cost opportunities continue to include free performances, eight last year.

The classes for veterans in memory cafe are thanks to a partnership with Washington County's Office on Aging, Disability, and Veteran Services.

This past year, the Walters offered their first performance field trips with an interactive TayCo show by Unit Suzu for students from Eastwood Elementary School.

This year, they will offer two performance field trips serving four schools.

Additionally, single classroom field trips for hands-on art making will be available as well.

Next, we will review how physical accessibility is being addressed.

Public art and gallery installations meet ADA standards and have accessible visual descriptions available online.

Additionally, public arts staff are working towards the goal of having public art, such as the new murals at the Cultural Arts District available within walking distance for all Hillsboro residents.

Cultural Arts staff worked this year with Wheel the World to complete an accessibility assessment of the Walters.

Wheel the World rated the Walters 4.7 out of 5 and provided additional information for future improvements.

This past year, the Walters integrated seating accommodation requests into the ticketing process and expanded the availability of other accessibility equipment such as sensory kits and ERMFs.

So next, we'll be looking at how we are removing language barriers to access.

Overcoming language barriers to access begins by providing programming in all languages beyond English.

In addition to having bilingual instructors for a variety of classes, here is a sampling of opportunities this fall that are bilingual.

Since the City Council adoption of the Cultural Arts Action Plan in 2018, there has been a growing emphasis on translation and interpretation for arts programs.

All grant forms, rental forms, and scholarship and financial assistance documents are published in English and Spanish and available in other languages by request.

Additionally, public art committees and community engagement events and surveys make translation and in-person interpretation available.

For recent public art committees, interpretation has allowed Spanish-speaking community members to contribute meaningfully meaningful input in artwork selection and feedback for artists.

The final area we are focused on is improving access to information and opportunities.

Each year, the HAC considers ways to make our community arts and culture grants more accessible.

This past year, staff examined the grant program through the equity toolkit, and we revised guidelines, applications, and scoring criteria to improve our clarity and accessibility.

We added microgrants grants with a simplified application for groups that need $1,000 or less, and we continued offering performance series grants that provide opportunities for performers to take the stage during our performance series for local artists.

One of the Hillsborough Arts and Council Culture Council's most important responsibilities is reviewing and selecting grant applicants to award.

This past year, in addition to the performance series grants, we also awarded core operating support to eight Hillsboro-based cultural organizations, plus 11 project grants for activities in Hillsborough.

These organizations have told us how important this funding is to their programs and even to their existence.

And we want to thank you for providing this funding for the community.

Cultural Arts also provides funding and support for community-led events through the Cultural Festival sponsorship opportunity.

A short sponsorship application is available online that allows community groups to have cash sponsorships, fee waiver waivers, and a borrowable festival kit, including tents and A-frames for events in the parks or at the Walters.

This past year, sponsorships included the Sri Lanka New Year Festival and Gulagitsa in Oregon.

The Hillsborough Arts and Culture Endowment Fund is another way that we work to make funding accessible to nonprofit art organizations.

It is a unique public private partnership created to satisfy Strategy 40.4 of the 2020 Vision and Action Plan, which states arts funding development, develop a long-term stable source of funding for the arts.

Beginning with an idea in 2012 and a goal to become a stable source of funding for the Hillsborough Arts community into perpetuity.

The HAC worked with the city staff and the Hillsborough Community Foundation to establish the endowment.

The fund is advised by community members serving on an oversight committee and funded primarily by private donations.

Community engagement is fundamental to the public art processes.

In-person and online surveys are used to solicit neighborhood input, and HAC members serve with additional community members on committees that set project goals and select artists and designs.

These processes give unparalleled opportunities for community to have a voice in shaping our environment.

HAC members look forward to continuing to work with staff and to expand access and remove barriers to city services.

Thank you for the opportunity to do this work and for having us here this evening.

And are there any questions?

Thank you so much, Joan and Bo.

We appreciate the briefing.

Are there any questions that we have from council?

Uh Councillor Sinclair.

Yeah.

First, I want to say thank you.

It is so important to have arts and culture into our community.

It affects all of our lives and connects us on a daily basis.

Biasly, I want to ask: will there be any culinary arts representation moving forward in the near future?

Well, there is in my kitchen.

Who knows?

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Again, Joan Bo, thank you so much for being here.

Thanks also to the Hillsborough Arts and Culture Endowment.

We appreciate the HACE.

Thank you so much for being here.

We really appreciate you.

Can we give them another hand, please?

Next up, we'll hear from Funda Kelsey, who will provide an update on the Hillsborough Community Foundation.

Welcome.

Make yourself comfortable.

And then there's a center button on that black console.

Press the button, the light turned green.

When the light turns green, then everyone can hear you.

Test.

Looks like it's working.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor Pace, City Council members, and administrative personnel.

My name is Funda Kelsi, and I'm the president of the Hillsborough Community Foundation's Board of Directors.

Thank you for providing HCF with an opportunity to present its community impacts report for fiscal year 2024-2025.

While the Hillsborough Community Foundation became an incorporated nonprofit organization in 1986, almost 40 years ago in a few months, its history of philanthropic efforts and volunteerism started way before in the 1970s.

Beautification projects for community spaces brought local citizens together at a time when the city was shaping its identity and carving out its unique space in Washington County.

Over the past few decades, the Hillsboro Community Foundation and City have joined forces to create local treasures such as Noblewoods Park, Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve, the Walters Cultural Arts Center, and most recently, Hidden Creeks All Inclusive Playground.

Together, we have enhanced the lives of individuals who live, work, and play in Hillsboro, and it's been a fantastic journey.

Oh it did not go.

Okay, go back.

Maybe I should have you do oh okay, here you go.

It has a lag there.

I was warned about that.

Our board of directors includes the familiar faces you see before you, individuals whose time, treasure, and talents contribute to significant community community impacts I will share with you this evening.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the board members here with us tonight.

Please.

Now next.

After the pictures.

Next one, please.

Perfect.

Thank you.

From 2024 to 2025, HCF's funds totaled seven point two five million dollars, an increase of fifteen point forty-seven percent from fiscal from last fiscal year.

You've heard it right, seven and a quarter million dollars.

This growth is a testament to our collective efforts and impact on the Hillsborough community.

Next slide, please.

This past fiscal year grew to one point nine million dollars, an increase of twenty one point zero six percent.

HCF's growth led to a distribution of grants, scholarships, and awards totaling over six hundred and sixty thousand dollars, dollars invested back into our Hillsborough community.

Next, please.

A program near and dear to my heart, scholarships.

HCF scholarships awarded eighty-six thousand dollars, a forty-two percent increase from last year, impacting the lives of thirty two students here in Hillsborough.

HCF scholarship funds include funds created by former city mayors, Jimmy Darr, Gordon Faber, local businessmen, Bob Herb and Jeff LeGood, Oregon Corral Founder Bernie Keene, the Hillsborough Hops, and Pacific Landscape Management Company.

A comprehensive list of HCF scholarship funds is on the screen before you.

In addition to its scholarships, HCF's funds granted over $92,000 to local arts, culture, and humanities organizations.

And this is a 17.75 increase from last year.

You will recognize the names of our local grant recipients as they not only contribute to Hillsborough's unique arts and culture environment, but also impact our local economy and make Hillsborough a destination for everyone.

Of this amount this year, over $240,000 was contributed to Hidden Creek's all-inclusive playground.

$30,000 to Washington County's Sheriff's Office.

$3300 for the Hillsborough Community Senior Center.

And $2,500 for Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.

And all of these efforts were made possible by HCF's donor advice funds that are listed in front of you.

As you can see, the Hillsborough Community Foundation has grown tremendously over the past few decades.

Today, HCF manages 29 funds, including the community partners listed before you.

Thank you for supporting our endeavors and for presenting us with opportunities to aid in the development of this amazing city.

We are truly grateful to be a part of Hillsborough's rich history in partnership with the City of Hillsboro.

Mayor Pace, City Council members, and administrative personnel, we welcome you to attend our grateful gathering event on Thursday, November 13th, where we will celebrate our community impacts and honor exemplary volunteers.

Thank you again for the opportunity to address all of you tonight.

Thank you, Funda.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Funda.

We appreciate your address very much.

So continuing on with presentations and appointments, our last item under this section are the appointments to the Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee.

Do I have a motion to approve the appointments listed?

So moved case.

Do I have a second?

Second, Anne Marie.

Is there any discussion?

Maybe please have a roll call.

Yes.

Councillors Al Kerr.

All right.

Case?

Hi.

Anvery.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Hi.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

We will now move on to item number three, public comment.

Persons wishing to speak during public comment will be recognized at this time.

If you are here in person and wish to speak, please fill out a yellow card, which you'll find on the right, excuse me, the left-hand side of the room.

And give it to the city recorder.

When I call on you, please join us here at the table and speak into the microphone so those on Zoom can also hear your comments.

Because of the translation tool, community members who testified during public comment can speak in their language of choice, and the city recorder can display the translation on screen.

We have zero persons registered to speak virtually, and the deadline to register is now passed.

If you are unable to sign up to speak prior to the deadline, you are always welcome to email your comments to the City Council at any time of day.

We did receive one piece of written testimony which has been uploaded into the agenda packet.

Reminder that this is called public comment because it's a time dedicated for you to inform the City Council about your reviews.

Note that this is not public debate or discussion.

We won't enter in it into a discussion with you.

Don't take it personally.

We just want to hear you.

The council will not be entering into a dialogue during this time.

However, the city manager may direct staff to follow up with you regarding your comment or questions.

We share community updates and are happening in Hillsborough and Crescion de Junto's Spanish language email newsletters, and you are welcome to sign up to receive those updates in the next email newsletter on November 3rd.

And we plan to share some of the questions we've received as well as answers to those questions.

In addition, the city website and specifically our webpage on diversity, equity, and inclusion have community resources to help you know your rights and know what it means to be a sanctuary city.

And we will begin.

Oh, your comments are limited to three minutes.

And the first person we will hear from is Jeff Perkins on the topic of fire science IGA regarding rescue six.

Jeff, if you could join us at the front, have a seat.

And the black console in front of you is a center button.

You depress that button, the light turns green, and then we can hear you, and you have three minutes to speak.

Thank you so much for joining us here this evening.

All right, thank you.

Mayor Pace, members of the council, thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony and for your continued service to our community.

Uh my name is Jeff Perkins, and I'm a proud Hillsborough resident living in Ward 3.

Uh this evening I'd like to speak in strong support of two items on tonight's consent agenda.

These items are 4.4, the renewal of the Liberty High School Fire Science Program, uh IGA or intergovernmental agreement, and item 4.5, the proposal uh to fully staff uh rescue six um at uh station six in the first year of the biennium.

Both of these actions represent real tangible investments in public safety, education, and the long-term resilience of our city.

As someone who has spent the entirety of my career post military in public safety, I've seen firsthand the impact that well supported emergency services have on a community.

When a rescue unit, engine, officer, or deputy arrives at a scene, it brings calm to chaos and stability to people in their most vulnerable moments.

That level of trust and excellence doesn't happen by accident.

It's the result of thoughtful leadership, long-term planning, and continued investment by city leaders like yourselves.

The Liberty Fire Science Program is one of Hillsborough's finest examples uh of that investment.

It's not just an education program, it's a community builder.

It introduces high school students to emergency service careers and more importantly, teaches them responsibility, confidence, and teamwork.

These students gain life skills that extend well beyond the classroom.

They learn what to do in an emergency, how to react under pressure, and how to support first responders rather than stand by in fear or with their phones out.

That knowledge builds resilience across our city.

When more citizens, especially our youth, understand how to act calmly and effectively during a crisis, our entire community becomes stronger and more self-reliant.

Supporting this IGA means not only preparing for future firefighters and medics, but we're also raising capable community-minded adults who know how to step up when time counts.

This the decision to fully staff rescue six reflects that same proactive forward thinking mindset.

As Hill Hillsboro continues to grow, the demand for emergency medical services grows right alongside it.

Adding rescue six early in the biennium is a strategic move, and it ensures that residents across the city receive the timely medical care they deserve.

It reduces response times and provides essential relief to the firefighters who already shoulder a heavy call load.

Acting early prevents system strain uh rather than later and allows the department to maintain the uh high level uh number of service calls to the that the community expects and deserves.

It's not just about response numbers, it's about people, safety, and sustainability.

Together, these two actions uh that you will uh vote on tonight um in renewing the fire science program, IGA and staffing rescue six demonstrate Hillsborough's unwavering commitment to preparedness, compassion, and community service.

They show what the city not only they show that the city not only plans for growth, but plans for safety, education, and opportunity.

Thank you again, Mayor Pace and Council members for your time this evening and for your thoughtful leadership on behalf of Hillsborough's residents.

These important forward-looking.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Perkins.

Appreciate it.

You ran out of time.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Uh thanks for your comments and thanks for your service in the U.S.

military.

Absolutely.

All right.

Moving to item four on the consent agenda.

The items on the consent agenda are normally considered in a single motion.

Any item may be removed for separate consideration upon request by any member of the council.

Is there a request to remove any items for separate consideration?

Okay.

Similarly, do any members of the council have any lingering questions for staff on any of these items?

Okay.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved case.

Thank you.

Do I have a second?

Salgado seconds.

Is there any discussion?

May we have a roll call, please?

Councillor Zelcare.

Case?

Aye.

Anne Free.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Aye.

Salgato.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Moving to item seven.

Ordinances.

First reading, 7.1.

Community development code amendment 002-24.

Omnibus 8.

Consider the planning commission's recommendation to adopt an ordinance for a community development code amendment to incorporate various policy neutral changes and conforming amendments to ensure consistency with state legislation to the Hillsborough Community Development Code.

Ordinance number 6508 is available.

Do I have a motion to approve the first reading of ordinance 6508?

So moved case.

Do I have a second?

Salgado seconds.

Is there any discussion?

May I please have a roll call?

Councillors Alcare.

Case?

Aye.

Anvary.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

Aye.

The first reading of ordinance 6508 passes.

The second reading and consideration of final adoption of the ordinance will be November 4th.

Moving to item 8, new business, consider finance committee's recommendation to approve updates to the city's local contract review board administrative rules.

Resolution number two, resolution number 2902 is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt resolution number 2902?

So moved case.

Thank you.

Do I have a second?

Thank you, Annbury.

Is there any discussion?

May I please have a roll call?

Councillors Alcair.

Hi.

Case?

Aye.

Ann Vary.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgato.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Resolution number two nine zero two is adopted.

Moving to item 8.2.

Modification 013-25.

Reads crossing phase five, McCown Destriet dense density increase, and modifications 014-25.

Reads crossing phase five density increase.

Consider the planning commission's recommendation add 22 additional dwelling units.

Order number 28 is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt order number 28?

So move, Sinclair.

Thank you.

Do I have a second?

Salgato seconds.

Is there any discussion?

May I please give a roll call.

Councillor Zelcare.

Hi.

Case?

Aye.

Anvery?

Aye.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Hi.

Aye.

Thank you.

Order number 28 is adopted.

Moving to item 8.3.

Consider adopting a resolution adopting the Hills the updated Hillsborough 2035 Community Plan Resolution No.

2903 is available.

Before I ask for a motion, I'd like to invite Daisia Backham up to provide the annual update on the Hillsborough 2035 community plan.

Thanks for joining us here.

Thank you.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor Pace and City Council members.

My name is Daisha Bacum.

I am a program coordinator in the city manager's office.

And I am here tonight to share information about the recent Hillsboro 2035 community plan update.

And then afterwards, we'll be asking City Council to formally adopt the new plan via resolution.

And I'm going to try to keep this really high level and quick because I know you've got a lot more to do tonight.

Thank you.

Do you mind moving the microphone a little bit closer to you?

Thank you so much.

That's perfect.

Um can I have the next slide, please?

So I thought we'd start with just a really brief high-level uh overview of the history of community visioning in Hillsborough.

Hillsboro's first visioning process began in the late 1990s, and the very first vision plan, the Hillsborough 2020 Vision and Action Plan was adopted in 2000.

It had 114 actions or projects and programs.

You'll hear me refer to actions a bit tonight.

And the action plan is updated every five years.

It was updated in 2005 and again in 2010.

We added 33 new actions with each update.

In 2012, we began a major three-year update, which included the development of a community profile in year one, an extended community engagement phase in year two, and in year three, the plan was developed and a new website was created.

In August 2015, the first Hillsboro 2035 community plan was adopted.

The city also adopted its first community environmental sustainability plan.

The environmental sustainability plan was incorporated back into the vision plan during the 2020 update and is now the environmental stewardship focus area in the 2035 plan.

Next slide, please.

Before we get into the update process, I'd just like to acknowledge and thank the 22 member community engagement committee.

This is one of two committees in the Hillsborough 2035 program.

This team was created to help with outreach and engagement activities for the plan update.

They also helped draft the new actions for the 2035 plan.

And I'll share more about their accomplishments a bit later in the presentation.

Next slide.

So the first step in the update process was community engagement and outreach.

And during this seven month phase, we asked community members what do you want to see in Hillsboro by 2035?

What is missing and what could we be doing better?

The community engagement committee members connected with people at 20 community events, including the Latino Cultural Festival, Ayid Celebration, Farmers Markets, Juneteenth celebration, the Chalk Art Festival, Pride Party, Proud2B HSD, and more.

Members also provided presentations at the Vault Theater, Islamic Community Center of Hillsboro, Rotary Clubs, and to the Chamber's Leadership Hillsboro class.

We hosted a survey on engage Hillsboro so that people could participate and share their ideas when it was most convenient for them.

Information about the survey and how to participate was shared broadly in a variety of city and partner communications, including newsletters, websites, electronic reader boards, and we had branded beverage coasters with QR codes that we shared with some of our local brew pubs, and we had signage displays at all the city facilities, information in the parks and rec activities guide.

We utilized social media.

We had a plug at State of the City and a lot more.

Next slide, please.

Step two of the update was the idea sort and action development.

So with the help of our vision consultant, the ideas were sorted by 2035 plan focus area and then further sorted by similar ideas and themes.

Once the sort was completed, writing teams comprised of community engagement, committee members, and city staff were created for each focus area.

And then those teams developed the new action language based on the ideas shared by community members.

Next slide.

The top 10 new actions from the survey results are listed on the right.

And these are not inclusive of all of the actions in the plan.

These are just the new ones that we presented to the community.

And just for the sake of space, this is abbreviated action language.

Um so it's it's not the full language.

And I'm not, I won't read through all of these.

I will just move on.

The full community priority survey report is available on our website at Hillsborough 2035.org if anyone would like to look at it.

Next slide.

So the final step in the plan update is partner identification and plan development.

So once the survey was completed, we identified and reached out to potential partners to help lead the new actions.

And I'm excited to share that we have 18 continuing lead partners and five new lead partners joining the Hillsborough 2035 family, including Bag and Baggage Productions, Heart Theater, Twilight and River Keepers, Washco Bikes, and Waste Free Advocates.

Once we confirm the leave partners, we moved on to plan development and design, and the website will also be updated over the next couple of weeks.

And that brings us to the new Hillsborough 2035 community plan.

The updated plan still contains the original vision statement and five focus areas.

It has 125 actions, including 46 brand new actions.

Um, if you look through the plan document before the meeting, um, lead partners for two of the actions in the plan are still pending.

We're hoping to wrap those up in the next couple of weeks.

And we've had great conversations with both potential partners, but they have some internal conversations they need to have before they can uh give us a yes.

I'm pretty confident that um we'll have them both on board.

Um the plan uh will also be available in Spanish.

Both uh the English and Spanish plans will be available on Hillsborough 2035.org in early to mid-November once the website update is completed.

And we'll also have a limited number of physical copies available upon request.

Um also be working with the website designer to make sure the website can be translated into several additional languages, um, probably through Google Translate, but we'll make sure it has our community's priority languages available.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh again, I won't read through the list, but this is our full list of lead community partners.

Just pause for a second so we can have a look at those.

Okay, next slide.

This is my favorite.

Um we included the kids' ideas section again because even our youngest community members have big ideas for Hillsborough.

And Robbie, I'm really hoping we can get some time machines and castles in Hillsborough very soon.

That's that's what I would like.

Um next slide.

Um so Hillsboro 2035 has two committees, the community engagement committee I talked about earlier, and the environmental stewardship committee or ESC.

The ESC is a mayor council appointed committee that provides oversight of the environmental stewardship focus area in the 2035 plan.

This group also tracks a set of more than 20 environmental indicators and serves as an advisory body to the city council and counselor case chairs this committee.

Uh next slide, please.

So looking ahead a little bit, now that the plan update is completed.

Um, what's next on the horizon?

Um, council adoption of the updated plan after this presentation, please.

Um, all new city-led actions will be incorporated into our organizational strategic plan.

Staff will be taking a high-level look at the vision program and looking for opportunities for improvement and ways to best engage with community members.

We'll be issuing an RFP for vision program consulting and support in spring of next year.

We'll also be launching a new community photo contest and website next year, uh most likely in the summer and as part of the city's 150 year celebration event.

And then in fiscal year 2027-28, we'll begin the next major three-year update of the plan.

And uh we'll start working on the next iteration, Hillsborough 2050.

It's kind of crazy.

Um, okay, next slide, please.

Um, these are just some ways you can stay informed.

Um, you could share your ideas with us through the website, even though it's on update year.

We take ideas year-round all the time.

Um, you can download copies of the plan on the website, like I mentioned, we'll have the um updated plan up in the next week or two.

Um, the annual reports are available on the website, and you can also sign up to receive the newsletter.

And please follow us on social media on Facebook and it's still Twitter, sorry, at Hillsborough 2035.

And next slide.

That concludes my presentation.

I'd like to thank you all very much for your time and your continued support of Hillsborough's Vision Program.

And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Dacia.

Do we have any questions?

Councillor Harris.

So do you have printed copies of this plan?

We will.

Um, as soon as we have the final two partners confirmed, then we'll we'll have some print copies made up.

So, and I'm trying to pull up resolution 2903, or it's having a hard time loading online here.

I've been having a hard time loading the resolution online here, so give me a second here.

But you know, I'm assuming the resolution says, even though I can't pull it up.

Consider a resolution a dollar it is.

Um we adopt the community plan, including the statements, community goals, initiatives, and actions therein, but we don't have it finalized yet.

Is that what you're telling me?

Yeah, the only two pieces that aren't finalized.

We have two actions that have partners that are pending.

Yeah, but we haven't seen it yet, right?

A copy of the plan, you should have a copy of the plan in your packets.

I see uh three uh staff report three pages.

It should have been included with the staff report.

Did it not make it into the it's under the resolution?

Oh, that's why it took so long to load.

Okay.

Excuse me for a minute.

So what are we waiting for here to finalize then?

Yeah, we just have two of the actions have partners that are pending.

A um it's one of them um they're in the middle of their uh strategic planning process, so they have a second meeting on Friday.

And the other one, the partner that I've been um in communication with has been at a conference.

And so I'm just waiting to hear back from them to finalize those two.

But otherwise, the uh mission statement, the goals, initiatives, all the other actions are locked in.

It's just those two partners that were waiting on confirmation.

Okay.

So where would those two pieces fit in this draft plan?

So they are, I can tell you one of them is on page 19, and the other is on page 21.

Um Washington County is the first one.

Um I can actually let me flagged in my document here.

Um so it would be initiative one, action E.

That one is pending, and then on page um that's 21.

My page numbers cut off when I printed.

But um initiative four action D.

So the the text of it wouldn't change.

You just have to get confirmation from those two organizations that this is agreeable to them.

Yep.

Yeah, I've had great conversations with both organizations.

They just have some internal follow-up.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Do I have a thank you, Dacea, for your briefing.

I really appreciate it.

I'm I'm so sorry.

Just you have a question?

Just because I'm processing still, I'm so sorry.

You said it was page 18 and 19.

Um, I think it was page 19 and 201.

So it's in health wellness and safety.

And the first one is initiative one, action E.

My page numbers are cut off.

I can't see them.

And then the second one is on the following page under initiative four, action D.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

You good?

Good.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Thanks for the questions.

Um, do I have a motion to adopt resolution number two nine zero three?

So moved case.

Thank you.

Do I have a second?

Thank you, Nanway.

Is there any discussion?

Maybe please have a roll call.

Counselors Elcair.

All right.

Case?

Aye.

Anvery.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Hi.

Silgato.

Resolution number 2903 is adopted.

Daisia, you must feel fantastic after all the work you put into this.

Thank you so much for your work.

Yeah.

Moving to item 8.4, consider finance committee's recommendation to approve early procurement and coordination activities necessary to support the Hillsborough Police Department Headquarters project delivery ahead of site mobilization.

Before I ask for a motion, I'd like to invite Jeffrey Cavula.

Cavulia up to review the item.

Mayor, is there coming up if I might add uh just really quick?

Um this is a little bit out of the ordinary because this did go to the finance committee already.

However, because this is such a big item, I wanted to make sure that the whole council could also see the same presentation.

So finance committee reviewed this.

It was already a recommended to come to council, but we're doing the same presentation for you all again.

Thank you, Robbie.

Welcome.

We have Jeffrey Plus.

I love it.

Okay.

So you know the drill.

Press the button when the light turns green, you are alive.

Take it away.

Yeah, uh Jeffrey Cavullio with Public Works uh project manager, and here with me is on my left is uh Sean Morrison, uh Capital Development Division Manager in Public Works.

Jim Coleman, Chief of Police Salesfore Police Department.

Yeah, and uh together as a team uh we are seeking approval to uh for an early procurement and coordination activities to support the HPDHQ is image you're seeing there.

And part of this is uh to help us uh get started with some of the early work uh that includes building information modeling, uh specialized soil engineering as well as uh mechanical, electrical and plumbing um and mass timber procurement and any other long lead items.

And uh in terms of background, uh HQ is located on uh Northeast uh 25th Avenue, and uh we'll be able to see that as we go down the presentation, and we'll have a bunch of things that will speak to the design process itself, what went into the design, uh the budget, and uh we'll show you some uh renderings of what uh we envision the space to look like.

Next slide.

So uh the project is informed by a number of design themes.

And among all those themes, equity runs through all of them, and part of that is really to ensure uh fairness, safety, and dignity for all.

And the other thing that is really key to this project is operational resiliency that focuses on safe, adaptable environment.

And then uh the other thing we're trying to do is to create a very efficient and functional space that works uh seamlessly to ensure uh we're able to support sustainability as well as uh uh collaboration across.

And another thing uh we are focusing on as part of the design is really a wellness and human health uh to promote well-being of the staff as well as the visitors, and last but not least is really what HPD does best community connectivity, and part of this is really to strengthen uh partnerships that the HPD has been building uh with the community as well as other public safety uh peers or agencies.

Uh next slide, please.

So uh this is really to give you the site, the project site in a nutshell.

And as you can see, we are located on uh near Evergreen on uh 25th Avenue, Northeast 25th Avenue, just adjusting west of the Hillsborough Airport.

Uh this is a major corridor for transportation.

Uh so it's gonna give HPD a good opportunity to be able to respond to our community needs uh on Evergreen on 25th connecting to Cornell.

And um the next slide, please.

Uh excuse me.

So uh this is uh just to give you a quick orientation of the facility.

Uh on the uh my right on the east side, uh, we'll have two main access to the facility.

On the top is a public access to the space, and uh below that is gonna be the secured access for HPD.

And we've been working with uh uh in partnership with our neighbor, Intel to provide emergency uh only access uh through their property.

So let's say there's an issue along 25th Avenue, maybe the air show or something is happening around there.

We have at least a secondary access uh to be able to respond to emergencies.

And as you can see, just based on the layout, we went through a lot of iterative uh design effort to be able to ensure there's a clear separation between public and uh police operations, but also uh key among those things is to be able to support uh circulation and uh create visibility while also connecting the facility to the neighborhood.

Next slide, please.

So this slide is really a representation of the fast floor.

And as you can see, there's a color coordination, trying to depict the different spaces and the use cases for those.

This is approximately 9,000, 39,000 square feet of uh space and really is organized in terms of the operational areas.

There are areas for public interaction, like you see on the north side.

We have the lobby and inside outdoor connectivity with the plaza, which is really geared towards uh public side of the parking.

And then we have a community room as well as multi-purpose room.

So those we can consider those to be public, semi-public uh spaces, and as you uh go southwards, now you get into the spaces, the HPD spaces proper.

And those are divided into uh different functions from patrol records, uh booking, uh evidence.

Uh and overall, this is really uh to balance uh operational security as well as uh uh workflow efficiency.

This layout is really informed by uh all the pain points uh we've learned uh from HPD uh in their current spaces, and we're trying to take those lessons to make sure we are able to improve on those uh spaces moving forward.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh the next slide is really uh second floor of that facility, and this is about uh 28, uh 700 square feet.

And this is where the administration happens, and also uh we have regional partnerships uh on this space uh where we are partnering with uh TriMet.

Uh as you know, TriMet and HPD uh do a lot of collaborative work and uh they have uh presence in our space here.

In addition to this, we have our local rooms, uh we have a fitness area as well as uh other spaces that are really designed to promote collaboration between the different groups, uh be it uh conference rooms, like when different teams are meeting together for briefings or um any other collaboration that may happen in a uh such a space.

Next slide, please.

And then uh starting here, we are beginning to see uh an indication of how the slides may look like.

Uh uh the the graphics, the building itself.

And uh it's really a view of uh the police uh looking southeast, and we're trying to emphasize uh taking advantage of the wetland uh that is uh uh north of our property, northwest of our property, as well as uh integrating that with uh landscape, uh the public space and the west side we have uh access area for HPD.

It's really the secure side of the building, and that's how we can have uh HPDs, outdoor activities flowing out.

Uh next slide, please.

And the next one is really uh trying to highlight um uh the main public entry.

And key to this is really trying to uh uh showcase uh a space that is really open, approachable, and kind of give it a civic presence of those flags is just part of our renderings.

Eventually there'll be the true flags reflecting uh uh City of Hillsborough, the US and the state.

But we are uh working through that as well.

So and the plaza, it's gonna solve uh multi-purpose roles.

Uh it's really engaging when people come uh to the space, but also you can see we have uh concrete barriers that are serving both as landscape features, but also they serve as uh uh safety.

Let's say somebody is trying to drive a vehicle to the building.

It's really an uh a good way of integrating landscape sitting area, but at the same time also creating some safety uh to the building while the same time uh promoting transparency, accessibility, and keeping the community connection theme uh strong.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh this slide is really trying to highlight uh covered outdoor spaces.

As uh previously mentioned, we have a mix of indoor and outdoor spaces, and uh the idea is to bring outside inside and inside outside so that reinforces uh buildings uh welcoming character as well as uh supports uh community engagement and staff interaction.

Next slide, please.

Uh this is uh really looking south, and as you're looking south, we are trying to emphasize uh the plaza, public entry, the plaza, and the main theme is really to showcase the different materials we're using.

Uh it's a mix of uh timber, you know, giving that uh warmth, uh natural materials of uh Pacific Northwest, and you can see as part of uh the landscaping and also the roofing, we are bringing in a lot of daylight into the space.

Uh and this is kind of again ties into that theme of uh transparency, accessibility and connection uh between HPD and the community.

You arrive at this facility, you have that as a community member, you have that sense of arrival, and you kind of get a sense that your needs will be met uh by HPD staff.

Uh next slide, please.

And uh this is looking east, and mostly what we're trying to showcase here again is uh the grand entry lobby uh as you're coming into the space, and you can see uh going to that theme of transparency.

We have a lot of glazing that brings natural lighting into the building, and this is part of that uh biophilic design where you kind of bring uh nature into the space uh to promote well-being of staff as well as uh people coming in to transact with HPD.

And um, we are getting into the space, and this is really trying to highlight uh uh different spaces.

You come in into the lobby, uh you're greeted by a very uh welcoming space, uh natural feeling, uh nice sitting areas, and um as you're waiting uh for services, uh you can sit there and feel uh relaxed and uh be part of that environment.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh the next slide really uh showcases uh the community room.

We talked about uh community room as well as a multi-purpose, and these are what we are calling flexible spaces.

Uh those two spaces can open up into each other to be able to accommodate large meetings or trainings or community events, and uh part of that is really to be able to take again advantage of the natural light and uh sort of bring the outside into the space, uh creating that uh uh mural of welcoming uh uh effects and also try to boost uh uh civic identity in that space.

Next slide.

Uh this is looking at uh uh other spaces, open office area as well as uh the break room, and part of this is really uh designed to foster collaboration, uh create comfort, uh, create team connection uh in the break room as well as uh taking advantage of the materials, uh the warm materials, natural light, and integrating those biophilic elements to create a healthy and welcoming environment.

Again, uh we see very open layout.

Uh that is really to emphasize uh flexibility of the space as well as uh communication.

Like it's open spaces, so uh as you are traversing through the space, you're able to see the chief and have a conversation, you know, uh without feeling like the chief is isolated somewhere by themselves or the administrative uh administration staff is somewhere isolated.

This is kind of opens art to create uh what we are looking at uh or calling informal uh interaction and enhancing staff well-being.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh this slide is really trying to emphasize um wellness and readiness and overall health.

Uh this is gonna be part of that bigger picture uh that Hillsborough has been pushing.

Uh wellness of staff, wellness of the community, and as you can see, uh we are bringing in also natural materials, a lot of mass timber, bringing in a lot of daylight into that space.

And the idea for that is really to create uh uh very inviting space whereby folks can go and exercise and uh relax and um tie all this uh to cities' commitment to wellness and human health as a design theme.

And I think the next slide will go into the money matters and uh okay.

Uh so here we are kind of uh showing you uh big picture uh the proposed overall budget.

It's approximately 94.3 million.

And as you can see, the largest portion of this really goes to direct construction costs, uh which include the building itself as well as the site work.

And then it's gonna be a slew of uh soft costs, uh things like permitting, uh expenses in CAD, uh in the land acquisition, uh other things would be uh related expenses like uh furniture, uh furnishing the fitness uh space, all those.

But overall, I think uh the key takeaway uh for us, uh what we're trying to showcase is really balanced uh construction delivery approach that is really looking at the long-term resiliency and uh with that comes uh fiscal responsibility.

So we've been very frugal with that process, uh making sure what is being proposed uh is able to meet current HPD needs as well as uh projecting out uh growth 20 years out as part of this effort.

Uh next slide.

Uh to this slide really is sort of breaking down uh the main reason why we are here.

And this is the early uh work authorization.

And this is gonna be broken down into uh uh several uh packets.

Uh the first major one is uh uh for the construction itself, uh, for the contractor, uh Sunatin builders.

Uh this is our first amendment, and this is what we talked about going into things like uh soil engineering, uh building information modeling, masting by detailing, uh trying to procure uh uh some trades, especially mechanical, electrical and plumbing, uh as well as uh any potential long lead items that we'll uh need in order to set us up for the major uh project uh start when uh we'll be back uh before council for the full guaranteed maximum price uh contract.

And then with that uh the other associated costs uh from the design standpoint, uh we have an amendment uh that is related to the design itself, uh the design team of 205,000 uh 205,000.

Um and then we have another one that is gonna go to support geotechnical as well as street light design.

And with that, of course, uh we'll always um like to have a cushion uh just uh nature of construction is that uh there's always a lot of unforeseen uh conditions.

Uh so that is just uh we're asking that allowance to be able to make sure we keep the project moving forward.

Uh next slide, please.

I'm gonna transition to uh police chief Jim on this one.

Thanks, Joffrey.

Um just wanted to point out a couple things here uh towards the end.

Uh one of them being that we will still have a presence in uh other parts of the city.

We realize that um from uh multiple reasons we are building in the north side of the city um away from the geographical center.

Um that's for a number of reasons.

So we have a patrolling model of dividing the city into districts, and our officers who are in patrol work primarily from their vehicles.

Part of doing that is to have a base or two throughout the city where they can uh stop write a report, temporarily stow evidence, which is uh much better um uh way to do it than just having it rolling around in your car, uh, use restroom, uh, have their lunch, what what have you.

Those um sites have mostly been identified.

They uh include uh the South Hillsboro Fire Station, where there's a police office within that, uh, thanks to our friends at uh the fire department.

Uh we are working on uh location on the east side of downtown.

Uh we're hopeful to be somewhere very close to 10th Avenue just because historically police are our uh communities used to seeing police there or being able to contact, access police there, be a much smaller footprint, obviously, than we have right now.

That uh bridge to from uh now to identifying that place will be covered by uh staying in the in the current West precinct uh and running some operations out of there, uh, but also being nimble enough to where if uh uh opportunity presents itself with that uh block that it sits on that we can get out of there in a relatively quickly or quick period of time and allow for that opportunity to happen.

West downtown, uh we will continue to do our uh training either uh at our current location on Maple Street, or there are some other options out there that we're exploring for our training facilities.

And then we uh have an agreement with the new Family Peace Center in the Tannisborne area where we'll have uh a stop-off office there as well.

So that essentially covers our districts for patrol, gives them that ability to stay out um in the field once they've left briefing and started their work for the day.

Uh next slide, please.

And we also wanted to bring your attention to the fact that um although we very much wanted to, we can't accommodate all the needs uh facility-wise for the police department at the headquarters site.

Um that is again because of multiple reasons.

Uh one of them that's very important is some of these operations, uh primarily training and then um the storage of vehicles uh with our uh evidentiary vehicles that we cannot release until we're permitted to by the district attorney's office.

We usually hover uh between 20 and 30 of those, and sometimes we keep them for unfortunately decades.

Umsolved crimes or very serious crimes uh are the reason for that.

Also larger evidence items that take up a lot of space or are particularly difficult to uh get into a building.

So you can you can build a um a seismically and uh safety-wise, much less expensive uh square footage if you take that out of the uh headquarters and put it at a different location.

It just doesn't need that robust of um a level of construction.

So uh that is down the road.

That's something we um are uh uh have very preliminary uh discussions on.

But um the the that the this uh facility would have large and vehicle uh evidentiary storage, and then we are hoping to build a firearms training range, which would save us an hour round trip right now out to firearms training and an emergency vehicle uh pad, which um uh you know training is very difficult.

You can't um you can't just go out there on city streets and do police maneuvers, uh or it's not advisable at least.

Um we are the cops, but we try and follow the rules.

Um it's uh would be a pad for motorcycles, police vehicles uh to practice those skills that reduce the likelihood of um something very tragic happening out on the road.

Uh so those are the main purposes of those facilities.

Next slide, please.

And uh this slide uh pretty much summarizes the journey uh and the key milestones uh that have been part of this project uh since uh 2020, uh when we were in the process of site selection and then progress through multiple uh due diligence processes, onboarded design team, onboarded uh uh uh GC or a general contractor to help with the pre-construction efforts.

And uh we've been uh uh before this uh council before for uh uh presentation to kind of give an update uh in partnership with HPD.

And uh today we're here to seek an approval for the Ali amendment uh uh Ali Aliwak package.

And so as part of that process is just trying to set ourselves up for success and getting ready for summer 2026 uh groundbreaking.

So we anticipate the project to really like be in high gear in the summer of 2026 and you'll receive invitations for that.

Um so a couple other things to add.

So we're using a uh CMGC delivery method.

Um so essentially we we hire a designer directly through a competitive process.

Um we get to a certain level of design, and then uh we feel like we have enough information to put out a uh request for proposal for a general contractor.

Um and so we go through a competitive selection process for for that uh CMGC um who is Swinterton builders, they built our uh community center.

Um and so we bring them on and they help um along the way with uh schedule review, constructability review, um cost estimating, and it's really great to have the actual builder as part of the process when you're doing that cost estimating work because you get a partner that that stands behind the the numbers that they're putting out as opposed to uh when we use a designer or cost estimator and then we go uh bid it out and you know hopefully we're we're close.

Um so they've been a really good partner, and um I want to give a lot of credit to them actually because um when we started this journey, we this project was a much larger number, and uh the team has done a really good job of of driving this cost down and and making this program really efficient.

Um and so I think we're we're getting to a really good place, as you saw earlier.

Um Joffrey stated that um you know we're we're under the 95 million dollar budget.

Um so right now in the process um we are working on the construction documentation.

Um and we had initially planned to uh break ground um this winter, but taking advantage of uh of interest rates and looking at our assessed value and all those numbers coming in.

Uh we made a strategic decision to push the groundbreaking date out to um uh this spring summer time.

Um and so that gave us a little bit of extra time to work on early procurement, refine the design more, um, and get even a better cost estimate.

Um and so the next time that we come to council, it should be for the larger construction package, and that's what the GMP is.

It's the guaranteed maximum price.

It's the the price that the contractor stands behind.

It's the price that they take the risk of uh delivering the project.

Um and so we would come back for an amendment uh to the original uh Swinterton contract for that.

And that'll be the balance of really what's left in the the budget.

Um so just wanted to give a little explanation of how this process works.

Next slide, please.

Uh this slide really shows you the timeline.

Uh right now uh we are at 50% construction documents, and uh with that uh we're trying to build cost certainty.

Uh we're going through another uh construction documents, uh cost estimating as uh we've gone through each phase uh from programming uh from uh concept from uh into design development now into construction.

Each phase we've done cost estimating, trying to refine and also figuring out what what are the risk areas and refining those to be able to uh set ourselves for success.

And um we're looking at uh summer uh groundbreaking, as I said previously, and big picture.

Uh we hope uh to move in uh fall of 2027.

Uh that is when uh we'll have uh finished the project.

Uh and I th next slide I think is uh if there are any questions, we'll be able to answer those.

Great.

Joffrey, Sean, and Chief Coleman.

Thanks for the briefing.

Do we have any questions?

I I have one.

Thanks for Salgato.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation.

I know we're gonna vote on the land acquisition piece tonight, but this is the second time we've seen the presentation and just something that's been stood out.

So I'm just wondering, and we can have this conversation offline if if we can't, you know, if it's too much of a conversation for here.

Um back on slide 18 of the presentation, the police headquarter projects training and large evidence storage.

What's the space needed for that, like square foot wise or acre wise?

So yeah, I can speak to that.

So when it comes to evidence, uh we're looking at immediate and uh midterm and then long time.

So uh in the HQ we uh we we are targeting about uh 4,000 square feet thereabouts for the evidence that is gonna be needed on a day in day out and within the short term.

Then we we have the other challenge of trying to figure out where does the long-term evidence reside?

Things that uh HPD has to hold on to until uh the DA's office and say, okay, those are good to go.

And uh with that, of course, uh part of that evidence is also huge uh items like vehicles.

Uh uh so those are tech a larger space, and we are trying to walk with HPG to figure out creative ways of uh using compressed space, maybe like a tiered storage system.

Uh so we'll be uh walking through those to figure out what is the exact uh screw footage for that, especially for the long term.

Yeah.

And could I just add a little bit to that too?

Yeah.

Um so a couple couple of of clarifications.

So the the land was acquired maybe four or five years ago.

So it's acquired this site um specifically as we looked at potentially adding all of it onto this site.

It just didn't work for a couple of reasons.

One is there's so much wetland here that it would have become it would have become very cost prohibitive uh to expand that out.

Whereas these things are things that we can build really anywhere.

So we're looking at Wood Street where we have our current uh some some land availability.

We still have the current uh 10th Avenue building, and so we have a lot more space there, so it's a lot more cost effective to build these parts of the project somewhere else than building it here, which would have been a lot more expensive.

I just wanted to give some background as to why how we kind of landed with that.

Yeah, no, thanks for that.

Because I was just thinking, you know, what's the I guess the vision for the community room space?

And there's a lot of great features.

I mean, it looks it's a very beautiful building, right?

But it's it's evergreen way out there.

It's not really surrounded by a lot of residential areas, it's industrial.

So I was just curious if that was ever explored of uh like how to use that space in a different way because it's not really central to any residential community, right?

So we can have this conversation offline.

It doesn't have to be right now.

Are there any other questions?

Counselor Sinclair.

Uh mine's more of a comment.

Um what I wanted to say is uh I appreciate that in the event of a seismic natural disaster, it is imperative.

I appreciate the seismic resistant building aspect because for public safety for public safety as our community continues to grow, this will be a must.

And so especially with applying the equity toolkit um for high performance civic facility.

Thank you for the work you are doing on this.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Excellent.

Um again, Chief Coleman, Joffrey, Sean.

Thanks so much for coming in and for the briefing.

We really appreciate it.

Do I have a motion to approve early procurement and coordination activities?

Thank you.

Do I have a second?

Sinclair, second.

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

May I have a roll call?

Counselors Alcair.

Uh Case?

Hi.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Hi.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

Hi.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Moving on to 8.5.

Consider approving a change order to inline construction companies contract in the amount of 1,242,789.99 cents.

The 99 cents is critical, I understand.

For construction of an emergency water well at the South Hillsboro Fire Station 9 site.

Before I ask for a motion, I'd like to invite David Johnson up to review the item.

And we have David Johnson Plus.

We just keep getting extra people.

I love it.

Let's hear it.

All right.

Good evening.

I'm David Johnson.

I'm the project manager for the South Hillsborough Fire Station Project for Public Works.

And I uh I brought back up.

Um Good evening, Counselors.

Uh Mayor, my name is Kevin Musen.

I'm the principal engineer of the Hillsborough Water Department.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

So just real quick.

Um since we're here, I wanted to give you just kind of quick update on the project, some pretty pictures to see where we're at with the fire station, and then we'll kind of we'll dig into the well part of it.

Touche.

Next slide, please.

Uh so this is just an artistic rendering that our architect did early on of the South Hillsborough Fire Station.

It's designed to serve our uh fastest growing neighborhood with a modern and resilient and energy efficient structure.

Uh building's design emphasizes uh rapid response, uh firefighter wellness, and uh community visibility with a distinctive architecture and uh utilizing sustainable materials.

So once complete, this station nine will enhance the emergency response times to that South Hillsborough area and strengthen the overall system resiliency and provides a welcoming civic presence in the South Hillsboro area.

So this first picture on the left is our apparatus bay, um, the front of it, and these uh just kind of show the progress of where we're at.

And on the right hand side is uh entry to the South Hillsborough Fire Station.

And the station features new bifold apparatus bay doors, so those are a little different.

This is the first set that uh Hillsboro Fire and Rescue is put into uh a building.

Uh but these doors are highly reliable and energy efficient, and they open much faster as they move to the side versus rolling up.

Uh so that should help with response times and it gives a good clear view for the pulling the apparatus out.

And then the front entry, uh you have a wood soffit which continues into the lobby and just kind of creates a nice warm, welcoming space for people visiting the fire station.

So inside the apparatus bay is the picture on the left, and um just kind of showing the progress uh of the project.

Uh and then on the right is the fitness room, and both of them you can see the cross-laminated uh timber panels that create a nice sense of warmth and durability and uh also all the natural light that's let in through the windows.

Um helps uh support a bright and healthy work environment.

And the fitness room plays a critical role for the firefighter health and wellness, helping crews maintain strength and endurance uh essential for their demanding work.

And with a lot of these, um as Joffrey mentioned with the police station is the the thought of this this biophilic design where you're bringing in natural materials, you're providing views to nature.

It's uh just a way of creating a very healthy and uh inviting workspace.

Next slide, please.

So this is uh uh the day room, kitchen and dining, which is essentially the the living space uh for the firefighters, their living room.

And this is where the crews gather between calls to rest, eat and connect.

Um the right hand side is the kitchen, we'll uh the cabinets and the island go in, and it just creates a large communal area for them to hang out and uh uh share meals together and connect.

And this is uh aerial view um taken a couple weeks ago.

But uh you'll see on the roof of the apparatus bay we have our solar panels.

Uh state law requires one and a half percent of our construction budget go towards uh green energy technology, and there's a few different options we can select from to meet that requirement.

Typically the easiest way to do it or uh what's the cost effective, get the most bang for your buck is to use solar panels.

And so that's what we've chosen to do here on the apparatus bay.

And it's a good, nice even slope, so it's easy to put the uh solar panels up there.

Um that particular system will produce uh 66 kilowatts.

If you look at the back left, right behind the building, there's a little generator tucked back in there.

It's actually not that little.

It's enough to power the whole fire station and as well as the well that we're talking about and the fueling station that's in the top center of that picture.

Um the fueling tanks were part of uh one of the building department's requirements for their building uh department of operations center, uh having some fuel storage of our own on site in case of a natural disaster.

Uh those fuel tanks also will feed the generator, giving us a longer runtime on the generator.

Um the fuel storage was actually brought up back in 2019 when the city uh office office of innovation did a 2019 emergency fuel report, and South Hillsborough was one of the sites that was recommended for start having our fuel reserves.

Uh and the funny little blue dot up on the back left, that's where the well house, and that's uh that's not to scale.

Uh but I wanted to give you an idea when you're looking at the picture, the well house would be tucked up on that little.

So this is looking down on the site, our our artist rendering it shows the walehouse on the right hand there.

We have secure parking right behind the fire station, and it provides the fire apparatus uh uh be able to kind of pull around, hit the they can hit the fuel station, they can uh pull around to the back side of the fire uh and through the apparatus bay.

And then you may remember the mini library that uh library's been talking about.

That's the orange rectangle up near Butternut Creek Parkway that um they've done some preliminary design on and stuff.

So that's where we're gonna kind of tuck it, and they're gonna utilize that parking lot there.

So all right, so now the exciting stuff.

Uh so really the purpose of the well was to provide water to the fire station for drinking and hygiene, and that supports the fire and rescue operation staff, but it also supports the building division's Department of Operations Center, which is located in the the kind of the admin wing of the fire station.

Um it provides water to a dedicated hydrant behind the uh fire station so that uh fire apparatus or water tenders can pull up there and hook right into that hydrant and pull water directly from the from the well in case we lose municipal water, we still have water uh to fill fire trucks and stuff like that.

So just some quick stats on the well.

Right now we're looking at a 16-inch casing diameter for the going uh roughly 700 feet.

It's always kind of a guess.

Um and we're looking to achieve 150 gallons per minute.

Um and like I mentioned, it is powered off the the generator, so if we lose power, we can still pull water.

And if you have any questions, I'll you know holler at me, but uh I'll just keep plugging away.

Next slide, please.

So this slide just kind of outlights the breakdown of the cost for the emergency water well.

Um we have the well drilling, some well logistics, uh an auto flusher, which I probably need to explain that.

Just periodically it flushes water out of the system to uh extracise the well and kind of move the water out of there if we're not using it.

So it's on a timer, it just dumps a bunch of water into the drain periodically and just exercises the pump to make sure it's it's still working correctly.

But um, and then we are carrying an allowance for the well house and just the equipment at the bottom.

Um, because until we actually drill the hole, we don't know what we're gonna design there at the end of it.

And if you have any tough questions about that, that's why I brought Kevin.

But um so right now we're just kind of carrying an allowance for that.

Um then uh so the basically we're requesting that yeah, the city council approve a change order to inline construction, who's our GC under a CMGC contract to move forward with this work.

And the drilling is performed by Holt services drilling uh one of the largest drillers on the West Coast, and they just happen to they were able to fit us into their schedule.

Right now, uh for this kind of work, there aren't a lot of options as far as contractors, and so um Holt was able to they had a slot where they could fit us in to get this well drilled, and it will it still take a month and a half to two months to probably drill the the well, so it's quite a big effort.

But um, yeah, so um so thank you for accommodating us uh last minute.

Um in case anybody was wondering, typically um water fronted funded projects get approved through the utilities commission.

Uh but since this original contract was approved through council, uh council is the the local contract review review board, so uh that's why we're here today in front of you.

Yeah, and so you can see at the bottom uh funding is uh available from the water department, thanks to Kevin to cover the the total cost of this, so um we don't have to pull it from our existing budget.

Excellent.

Do we have any questions?

Thank you very much for the briefing.

We appreciate it.

Do we have any questions?

Yeah.

Councillor Anvery.

So uh thank you.

What uh so the there this is the additional amount.

Um because there was a well that was included in the original design.

Right.

When we started out, we were really thinking like a smaller residential type well.

Um so there was uh uh inline did have a uh a little bit of money in their contract for that.

Um we have used some other contingency money for different things for design uh of certain uh parts of the well already, uh extending the water line to the well house location and stuff like that.

But um once once this got much larger, it was way outside what we originally had earmarked for that.

Yeah.

Do do uh do the other fire stations have this kind of no?

This would be the only one?

Yes, this will be the first one.

That's correct.

Yeah, this would be the first of its kind.

Serve as sort of a pilot, if you will, for uh similar installations.

Okay.

Do they have do the other five stations have small the smaller ones or or no wells?

Thank you.

I don't think they have any.

I looked at the guy.

They're wellless.

That's so sad.

Counselor Case.

Clarifying question on that.

Well, that's we are getting rummy.

I apologize.

Uh the first of its kind in Hillsborough, the first of its kind.

You mentioned the this is the first of its kind well, yeah.

I want to do that.

For the water for the water department, yes.

For the water department.

Okay.

Do other cities have wells of this magnitude?

Certainly municipal uh municipalities uh utilize groundwater all across the country, uh, even here locally.

Um for utilization uh on a regular basis and also as sort of deep underground storage.

So there's a variety of different wells uh that can be utilized in a city and in a municipal supply.

Um but as far as uh Hillsboro is concerned, this would be our first uh sort of emergency services uh well for the purposes of these uh significant regional disasters that we all are preparing for.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Again, thank you for being having readiness in case of a large natural disaster.

Thank you.

Or even a small natural disaster.

Any natural disaster, any national excellent.

I just had a comment.

Yes, Councilor Amory.

So um uh would it make sense to look into the fire station?

Uh sorry, the the police station also that is under design right now for this sort of it's in the buttons.

Because it is also seismic.

Does it have a power generator?

Um so part of this uh is for the so in an in event of a natural disaster, the building departments got mobilized to um you know go inspect buildings and things like that.

And this this particular facility is serving as their operations center.

Um and so this this particular facility needs to be you know standalone, be able to operate in those conditions.

Uh the police department needs to operate in those conditions, but it doesn't serve as an emergency operation center or yeah, or department operations center for that matter for the building department.

Um so that's it wouldn't be needed on that site.

And we have one of those.

Sorry.

There will be one of those.

This would be the emergent uh the EOC.

There's there'll be the that we have one EOC.

This will be the DOC for so that some of our um critical services have department operations centers where individual departments, if they need a mobilize during a natural disaster, they'll operate out of those facilities.

Um and so this one would serve as the building department's operations center.

Okay.

All right.

So the other the other uh DOCs have similar uh water and or or whatever whatever is needed.

Uh um some of the other facilities like uh the public works facility, for example, we have backup power, um it's resilient facility.

We don't have backup water um for that one, but thank you, counselor.

If I could add to you, these are the department operations centers, but we also have a EOC that's the larger one that's a Cherry Lane fire station.

So we have other we have lots of facilities um that we feel well prepared in case of an emergency.

They don't all need this water when this was just kind of a unique opportunity that we we identified at this location.

Okay, any other questions?

Great.

David, Kevin, Joffrey, Sean, you did well.

Thanks so much for the briefing.

Really appreciate it.

I couldn't resist.

Okay.

Do I have a motion to approve the chains order?

Well, well, well.

Yes, motion cramp so moved.

So moved.

Thank you, Counselor Case.

Do I have a second?

Second, and thank you.

Is there any discussion?

All right, may I please have a roll call?

Counselors Alcare.

Hi.

Case?

Hi.

An free.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Hi.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

Hi.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

We're getting a well.

Just very excited.

Yes.

Good job, guys.

All right.

Uh moving to item nine.

I'll turn the time over to Robbie Hammond for the city manager report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I will be brief tonight since it's a long night and we still have some stuff to do.

But I just have one item I wanted to share.

But I guess first I just wanted to acknowledge what how many things got done tonight.

This is one of those meetings.

It was a long meeting, but there was a lot done.

And it's it was a pretty inspiring and impactful meeting.

So thank you for the support at the council level as well.

Um over the weekend, our library team hosted a dedicated uh dedication event for the newly named Steve Callaway Children's Area at Brookwood Library.

The upgraded space now features front-facing book shelving and a revamped quiet room.

It's the perfect way to honor Steve Calloway's legacy in Hillsborough, including his 14 years on city council and eight years as mayor.

Steve spent thousands of hours reading books to students in classrooms as a teacher, as a principal, and as Hillsborough's mayor.

On behalf of the city and community, we extend our gratitude to Steve and his entire family for the many years of service to Hillsborough.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robbie.

Moving to item 10 advice and information.

Can sign up to receive the happening in Hillsborough email newsletter.

Spanish language updates are also available through our creciendo juntos email newsletter.

Please note that following city council work session that will be convened here shortly.

The city council will be meeting an executive session under ORS 192.660 to Diaz and Delta to conduct deliberations with persons designated by the governing body to carry on labor negotiations.

No action may be taken in executive session.

If action needs to be taken, the council will do so in regular session.

And with that, the council meeting is adjourned to work session.

We will begin the work session at 9 15.

Okay.

I'm just letting you know.

Who is that warning for me?

Yes.

Excellent.

Okay.

Hey Greg.

Okay.

So it is 9 11.

We will most likely, more than likely, go past 9 30.

In fact, we're probably looking at Robbie's estimated to go to about 1015.

We have not agreed to that.

We agreed to go to 9.30 and then we would evaluate if we wanted to go beyond that.

So I wanted to check in with counsel if they were good to hear highlight and also talk about labor relations or not.

So how are we feeling?

Counselor Sinclair.

You're going?

You're doing it?

All right.

Counselor Ambery.

Yeah.

Counselor Sergano, thumbs up.

Sir Case, thumbs up.

Counselor Harrison and Counselor Elkir.

How are you feeling?

She logged off.

Okay.

All right.

So we got thumbs up from everybody.

If if uh we could not go to 1015, that'd be awesome.

No pressure.

But uh go for it.

Let's take it away.

Let's hear about some highlight awesomeness.

We will.

Highlight highlight.

Hey Greg, how are you doing?

Good.

I am sorry I'm not with you.

I am I'm at a conference for highlight, so I am out of town tonight.

But where are you at?

You know, geographically.

Oh wonderful Las Vegas.

Vegas.

Excellent.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, we're looking forward to the briefing.

Yeah.

We're excited to present.

So this is our annual uh update that we we come to council.

So we'll we'll we'll we'll go through pretty quickly through some of it, but um there's some some details we will make sure that we get to.

So it's a little bit different in that we've added the uh a piece at the end about digital literacy because the whole point of highlight isn't really just to you know, nobody nobody had this bright idea 12 years ago that we needed another utility for the city to operate and we wanted to you know go go build something.

The end goal really is recognizing that connectivity is a key part of a thriving community, and you know, connectivity isn't the only piece.

So we wanted to highlight some of the other things that we're doing, um, not just in in the construction.

So we've got that added in.

And so uh I'll kind of cover the the first part and then Paul Reckonzone, our our new not new, I guess even here, our general manager for highlight will cover some stuff, and then we've got Gabe from Finance, we'll cover some of the finances of where we are, and then Tammy from library.

And um the part of James Riley will be filled, will be played by uh Dan Diaz tonight because uh James called in sick.

So let's go.

Next slide.

So this is this is exciting.

This every every year we love bringing this map, and it it's basically the same map, but it we we get a lot more green on it.

So the the dark green is where we've finished construction and where service is available.

So it's the whole south side of town, including the you know, as stuff gets developed in South Tillsboro, we we get the fiber there.

So when people move in, they are ready to uh sign up for our service.

And then we just started construction this August in that light green area up at the the top northwest corner, and then um throughout the next year, we'll continue to build down through that kind of orange is brown area.

So that that's our next big construction area down there.

I don't know if Raheem's in the room with you, but um to be clear, Raheem's house is not in that area, and he reminds me on a daily basis that it's not in that area.

So this slide, this brief history, we'll we'll keep it brief.

Um it's been the brief history every year.

We add another year to it, so it's getting less brief.

But essentially um, to summarize, we uh we started really studying this back in 2015.

It took us about five years to build everything in place and to build the team.

And uh in 2020, we we got our first customer lit up and you know, really excited about that.

And then you know, five years later, next slide.

We are in 2025, and we are we are over 2,000 customers so far.

And so it's very exciting, and um it's you know, it's been it's been a busy five years getting all this going, but just a testament to the team and what they've accomplished with everything.

So a lot a lot more to go, but we're really excited about it.

And then very briefly, we were asked at a finance committee meeting um about locates.

And so wanted to talk about what you just real quick on what the locates are.

So locates if you walk around the city anywhere there's underground construction, whether it's us or someone else, you'll see all this different spray paint on the ground.

And that's because there are a whole lot of underground utilities there.

And when people are digging, um, it's really important to know what's what's there so you don't dig it up.

And so, you know, these are the color codes.

If you see something red, that's where there's electric stuff buried.

Yellow is Northwest Natural Gas, orange is usually Comcast or Zipley or R Fiber, and then water is blue, so that's the the drinking water.

The sewer is typically green, and then you know, we don't really see most very many of those others very often.

So white is usually where where a contractor comes in and they will mark um what area needs to be located so people know.

And I think a key point to a couple things to know about this is the people doing the construction are not responsible for these locates, so because they don't have the information on where this where all the infrastructure is.

So each utility is responsible for doing their own locates.

So PGE contracts out with a third party to do their their locates, and so does Northwest.

Actually, I think Northwest Natural does a lot of their own.

Um we we contract out because we have a lot of underground infrastructure for our our fiber to it to a third party, and that same um company does some of the work for public works, public works does their pursuer, they do their own locates, and then our water department does their own locates.

So it's not something we, as the contracting company doing the construction have any authority over uh how they locate and where they locate.

So um, but it is really important.

Another thing I want to make sure we you know we get a lot of complaints about us going out and put all this graffiti out there.

It's it's really important to know that the paint is not um regular spray paint.

It is a water-based paint that will it'll wear off a lot faster than normal paint will.

So all right.

There, there's your locate 101 really fast.

And then this is my last one.

So just very excited that this is this month marks five years of um of service to our customers and you know, those who have us really love us, and you know, we get great feedback, and like I said, that's a testament to the team that we have.

So uh just big thanks to everyone who does all the work for us.

I'll turn it over to Paul, I believe.

Mary Council, thank you very much for your time tonight.

I'm really excited to be here and really excited to be part of the Highlight team.

Uh as Greg said, I've been here for about a year and a half now, uh, and I'm thrilled to be here.

I could talk about Highlight most of the night.

Uh, but out of respect for your time, I'm not going to do that to you.

I'm gonna go through my slides pretty fast and invite you to uh if you have questions or need more information, uh, let uh City Manager Hammond know, and and he'll get a hold of me if he needs to, and we'll get you the information you need if if anything I do is too fast.

The first thing I wanted to say point out is we have now passed almost 11,000 addresses.

We've been growing uh quite well.

We're now past about 20, almost 21% of the city.

Uh, and we uh are excited about the growth that we're undergoing uh through construction and through hooking up new subscribers.

We have uh as of the end of September 2077 subscribers, and it's important to know I the that I wanted to throw in that note in italics on there.

Uh compared to competing service provider prices, Highlight has saved small businesses in the city of Hillsborough $760,000.

And we continue to save businesses every single month because of the cost that we provide service for them.

The prices that we charge them.

So we're not engaged only in closing uh the digital literacy requirements, we're also engaged in economic development.

Uh, we have had a lot of conversations about what our potential take rate will be.

I would point out the top right number here where shoot park 1A is at 24.1% and continuing to grow still today.

So 24% is not the end of our growth, it's not market saturation.

We will continue to grow and we will continue to increase our take rate as we go through time.

Uh as we show in this slide, our growth has uh followed a pretty steady curve upwards uh as our cumulative subscribers have continued to grow.

Oh uh we the goodie bags that you have were not just goodie bags for you to have.

That is how we that is how we uh engage in our community to build brand awareness and to drive people to subscribe to Highlight.

Uh, I wanted to point out an interesting thing here.

You see in the bottom right the bus bench.

Uh, right now we have three bus benches in the community.

I don't know if you've seen them as you've gone out and about.

They've been there for about nine months.

And so uh I did a challenge to IS to whoever was the first one to report to me where one of our benches was.

I was going to give them one of these hats.

And it took almost three months before anybody noticed where they were.

But once you see them, you can't stop seeing them, which is fantastic to me.

And another interesting, we have an interesting opportunity with the bus benches.

Uh the person who does that for us will install bus benches at some of the bus stops that don't have benches today.

If we'll buy the signage on them.

So we're looking at a couple of expansions of our bus benches to get new benches in place to not only do economic development and bridge the digital divide, but also to support transportation because at highlight, we do everything.

And because we do everything, our customers are incredibly highly satisfied.

Uh the net promoter score, which is how we measure our customer satisfaction is a common measure throughout the telecommunications industry.

It is called an NPS, is what we call it.

Uh uh typical telecommunications NPS is about 40.

Uh, it can range from negative 100 to positive 100.

Our most recent NPS was 82.1.

Uh, and so we do incredibly well with our subscriber base.

Uh, we've had in our most recent survey, we had 318 people give us positive comments back, and only 21 had anything negative to say about what we were doing.

And so we're incredibly pleased with the customer service that we're providing and with the customer response that we have.

And the reason we have that 82 MPS is because of this team.

We have real people who answer the phone when you call Highlight.

We have real people who show up to your home.

They live in your neighborhoods and they want to provide you the best possible service.

Much of this team has been with Highlight for the entire five years that we've been providing service.

They know this project and they are dedicated to taking care of the city and to ensuring that Highlight provides the service that is demanded by the by the residents.

Uh, as for our year-over-year highlights, a big thank you to Brad Donsler.

Brad is who I replaced, and Brad did a fantastic work.

He started the project when it first got on its legs.

He built the brand image that you're looking at in your gift baskets.

He collected the first 1500 customers plus.

He built all the methods and procedures, and he built that phenomenal team that we have at Highlight.

And so thank you.

A big thank you to Brad, who retired uh in 24.

Um, construction is generally complete in the first two HUD areas.

That's the south part of town from uh South Hillsborough all the way through shoot park and into downtown.

Uh we've added 2,000 production addresses in the last year.

Uh we increased our customer generated revenue by 50%, passing $1 million of revenue per year, which to me is a big milestone.

I mean, I look at the price of the fire station and I go, hmm, maybe it's not that big of a milestone, but the million dollars a year in revenue was a big milestone for me.

Uh and as you heard Greg say, we've passed 2,000 customers.

And so I'm gonna let Greg, I'm gonna let it um good evening.

Uh my name is Gabe Bullby, financial analyst here at the city, and I'll be going over the investment slash funding of Highlight.

To kick things off, we wanted to provide council a little historical snapshot of Highlight's finances over the year with the fund being established in 2017-2018 and first major expense being related to that HSD backbone.

I wanted to give everyone a quick orientation of this graph.

The line chart you're seeing is the cumulative totals by category, and then the bar chart is the single year totals by category.

And the the biggest line that you're seeing is the cumulative investment.

So far to date, we've transferred 51.5 million dollars into the highlight fund.

This is made up of gain share, SIP, and ARPA.

And then the following slide, I'll give everyone a further breakdown.

The next line is the cumulative cumulative capital expense, and these are things like vehicles, customer premise equipment, uh design and engineering service, and then just the overall construction of the network, and that brings uh comes up to 39.7 million dollars.

Then cumulative operating expense is 11.6 million, and that's things like personal services, materials and services, i.e.

contractual services, printing, marketing, um, and then support services charges or special payments.

And then lastly, uh would be customer generated revenue.

And like poll uh previously stated, last year we exceeded one million dollars in revenue in one single year.

And in total, we've uh accumulated $3.4 million in customer generated revenue.

As for the bar chart, I'm just gonna draw your attention to just a couple specific years.

If you look at FY2223 and FY2324, those were two of the biggest years of construction, and that's just because we had identified additional funding in Gain Share and ARPA that we could transfer into Highlight to kind of expedite the build out and then shoot park and get that phase done so that we can move on to Glencoe.

Then in the following fiscal year, which was last year, uh you can see the expenses kind of dropped off, and that's just because we were wrapping up shoot park phase three and really planning out the next phase of construction to get us into Glenko.

Um, and then this year, since we're we've begun construction in Glenco, we're gonna start seeing some pretty big capital expenditures coming in.

We should be able to pass on a few addresses this fiscal year just based off from the funding available.

Now, like I previously said, I was gonna break down what the investment looks like.

So the left uh pie graph is just showing you the investment to date, and as you can see, the majority of that is made up of gain sharing.

Then the next biggest pools of uh funding are ARPA and SIP, both making up about six percent each, and then customer generated revenue, also six percent.

And last time that we did this presentation, council that was I don't even know if you could see the color in the slice of the pie.

Um, so we're making strides with growing our customer base, adding new subscribers, which is great.

Now, the right pie chart represents what it will be to reach 100% of city addresses within the city limits.

As you can see, customer generator revenue is gonna become one of the main sources of funding moving forward.

Then gain share in unidentified.

So, what uh what the unidentified is is gain share has a sunset date of fiscal year 3031, and we just don't know what's going to happen at that point in time.

Uh why I wanted to bring this up is just to kind of put this in the back of your head in the next six years.

Gain share has been one of the main sources of funding for Highlight.

And if it doesn't get extended, we're gonna have to identify another funding source, and that might put pressure on the uh general fund, SIP, which has potential to push other priorities um down the pipeline for the city.

And so in the coming years, again, not really an issue at this point in time, there's nothing that we can do, but in the coming years, we're really gonna have to make a lobbying effort to work with legislature on trying to extend gain share past that 3031 date in order to continue funding highlight.

The uh map that you're showing on the right, or that we're showing on the right, is showing what's currently been built in green, and then based off from funding that's been identified, where we should be able to get in terms of city limits, and then what's left to identify for funding, which is still a large portion of Hillsborough.

Um, like I said, we do know that we're gonna be getting gain share through fiscal year 3031.

And so what we wanted to do is identify about how far that should get us in terms of uh build out citywide.

And so right now we have a plan transfer of about approximately 6.25 million dollars coming in from gain share into the highlight fund to help subsidize the operation costs and the the capital and construction of this network.

Uh with that transfer, we should get through about 85% of the Glenco HUD area, and then about 40% complete with city.

Uh and then based off from current penetration rates and what we've seen in other HUD areas, we should be about 5,000 subscribers by that point in time.

And the cumulative total investment, and this is uh specific to gain share, will be uh $82 million by fiscal year uh 3031.

Um, I did want to draw your attention to the bottom right graph.

So the uh red line that you're seeing is the uh customer generated revenue, and one of the milestones that's been set by council previous council was when will Highlight be able to generate enough revenue to fund operational costs, and so the red line is representing the revenue, and then the green bar is the operation operational expense.

Um as you can see, we're gonna be pretty close to that milestone by the time gain share is set to sunset, and honestly, if inflation we're probably gonna have some wrong assumptions with inflation, so we should be in a good place by the time GainShare is set to sunset.

Now I spoke on what we've identified for funding, and so we've also modeled out what it will look like to reach 100% of Hillsborough addresses, and this is assuming that we have identified another funding source, hopefully gain share to get us through the full build out.

Uh, there's a lot going on, and to save time, I'm just gonna draw your attention to a couple different points.

One of which is the fiscal year that we should have Glenco 100% built out and be moving on to the next HUD area, and that is fiscal year uh 3132.

It's a little blurry from over here, as they're tired.

Um and then the following year, we should truly be at that point that we're generating enough revenue to fund operations.

Then the last bullet point is the uh when we should have the fourth HUD area complete and moving on to the fifth and final HUD area, which is the Northeast Hillsboro area.

Now, I did want to um speak on this a little bit further.

So the Northeast HUD area, when we look at a map that's gonna be Tannisborne for perspective, and when we look at the addresses in that area, it's largely made up of apartment complexes and big businesses.

And currently big business, big corporations aren't really our customer basis at this point in time.

And then for apartment complexes, there's additional risk factors involved with that.

Uh, one of which is we have to get what's called a right of entry agreement in place before we can actually service any customers within those units.

Uh in historically, getting that right of entry agreement in place has been somewhat difficult and challenging, and that could just be uh through communication with the property management company or the property owners.

The other piece is some of these properties will have exclusive agreements with Zipley, Comcast, uh, which legally we just can't service anyone at that point in time.

And so when we move into that fifth and final HUD area, we're gonna have to really rethink and restrategize how we're doing the construction funding of Highlight.

Uh, and then that bring to when we're talking about reaching 100% of addresses within city limits, what that really means, is obviously we won't be able to reach everyone if we can't get these right of entry agreements in place.

So when we talk about funding highlight long term, the priority should be getting us through blanco, getting us through the southeast uh southeast HUD area, and then when it approaches the northeast HUD area, really doing like a feasibility study in it might just be that we slow things down, work on getting those right of entry agreements in place, uh assessing gauging the demand before we actually do the construction, put the fiber in the ground.

Again, this is 15 years down the road.

So things are going to change the entire fiber landscapes landscape is going to be significantly different, as well as the staff involved in this project.

So I just did want to mention that as again when we're looking at the full build out and full financing of highlight uh what it will look like in the future.

I have a question.

Yes.

Um the final hut is in Northeast Hut at the moment.

But uh, but this is showing that um that it breaks even after the fourth one.

Yeah, so we should hopefully we should exceed that and break even when we're uh done with uh when gain share set to sunset.

But um, yes, after we start construction in the next HUD area, we should be truly at a point where we're able to fund operations through customer generate revenue.

And then one of the strategies when we get into this fifth hut is again slowing process, giving those right of venture agreements, and we might be able to even fund small construction projects through customer generated revenue.

And so again, we're we're showing that we need 6.5 million dollars through 30 years, that's what historically we modeled.

When we get to that last HUD area, we again we just have to assess assess what it will look like.

I have another question.

When we do the affordable housing projects, does highlight work?

I think is highlight a part of those.

Sometimes we are, and sometimes we're not.

So uh for Nueva Esperanza, we're inside of Nueva Esperanza.

Uh right now uh the NSR properties are doing a remodel on Sierra West, uh, and we're part of that remodel.

Uh, but the two developments that are down in the southeast part of town, we don't have infrastructure over there yet, so we're not there.

Uh the habitat for humanity uh dune platses that are being built, we're not in that neighborhood either.

Uh and so the short answer is sometimes.

Okay.

Will you be where the climate the climate areas?

The quick.

So block six seven, is that the question or no?

Oh it's that we'll agree.

Yeah, so we won't be there um for the next several years probably.

Right.

Thank you.

Okay.

And then to summarize the current plan, uh, we have annual payments or annual transfers from gain share in the amount of 6.25 million dollars with that looming date over our head of fiscal year 3031, or gain shares set to sunset, and then we'll continue to pursue extension opportunities and then create contingency plans as that date approaches.

Um there is potential for bank loans and inter internal borrowing, uh, but it's not ideal just because of gain shares uncertainty and current revenue projections might not meet uh debt requirements.

And then we'll always stay appraised of other federal and state funding opportunities.

And then I am going to pass it over to Greg.

Okay.

So some of these things were were already covered, but um, you know, the the risks we're looking at are you know what is that gap?

And then I think Gabe did a good job of talking about the the multi-family units, the apartments, and you know, that's not just in the Tannisborne area.

That's a we we've run into some of those challenges in the areas we already serve, and there's a couple of mobile home parks that we just we could not get the owners to sign um right of entry agreements for us.

And since it is private property, we don't have rights if there's not an easement to build in there.

So those are some of the challenges.

Um inflation has been a big deal, although uh I will say these last bits that we've got for the current construction is substantially lower than some of our previous constructions.

We're very excited about that, and they're they've been doing a pretty good job so far.

So um that's been helping.

And then our modeling assumptions are um they are pretty conservative, but we've we've done that on purpose.

So, you know, particularly around the take rate and um some of the um fee increases.

So we have not we have not increased our uh monthly charges since we launched, and um we don't have a plan to do that right now, but it eventually that is something we're going to have to do, and you know that that will make some of those changes too.

So um and then private sector competition, you we just really don't know what's gonna happen there.

You know, there are uh both you know, Comcast and Zipley are here, and um you know they've got different different types of infrastructure and different models, and it's it's hard to know what they're gonna do, but uh we are forging ahead.

Next slide.

So going forward, we'll we'll continue to build.

We'll finish um we have you know that like I showed in that other map, the the whole west side of town should be done, and then we'll start building east and connecting.

We should be able to get to 42% of the addresses by the uh 2030, 2031.

So excited about that.

And then um we'll we'll just continue to look at what are what are the funding options.

So we were we we kept a close eye on Bede.

I'm sure you know the federal funding options and you know the reality is the way that worked out, it just it we just weren't um eligible here within Hillsborough.

It really was more of a rural tool, so it wasn't something we could take advantage of.

But we continue to look at every option, every grant, um any of those opportunities.

And then um now we're gonna kind of switch into our um our digital literacy stuff.

And this is this is really cool, and this is why we're doing you know, we're doing this work.

So uh first the first couple of slides wanted to focus on a couple of the council priorities, or one of the council priorities and the sub priority or the sub goals very specifically.

So under the uh community engagement and outreach, there is a goal for digital literacy, and the it is described as identify barriers to digital literacy within the community and evaluate solutions to overcome them.

And so under that, next slide, please.

There are there are three initiatives.

One is to develop a clear uh definition of what digital literacy is, and um we are fortunate partners of Washington County.

They have um they have stood up a broadband action team to coordinate um digital literacy and broadband connectivity across the the county, and so they developed a uh a literacy definition, and we are um following that so that we'll all be consistent and and good partners with that.

So that's that's our our definition.

Um the second initiative was to develop a digital literacy committee.

We have done that, and that is uh established and and organized, and so that includes uh Raheem and uh Mikayla, and then Tammy Wallen from library and um James Riley from the economic development, and then uh Paul and myself are both on that that group.

So that those two are complete.

The third initiative was to complete a digital literacy study.

That is almost done.

It will be coming to the digital literacy committee and then the city management team for review, and then um that one will be complete.

So that's on the goals and sub goals.

And highlight the you know, the one thing we kind of touched on a little bit because you asked about the affordable housing is bridge.

So bridge is the is our um affordable program, and it is a a ten dollar program and it provides the full full gigabit connection with our Wi-Fi router and um and all that service.

So it is you know, early on when we were talking about having a a low-income service, a lot of our a lot of the others um competitors out there, they they may provide a $10 service, but it's a it's dramatically lower or slower than you know the typical speed.

And we decided that we weren't gonna mess around with that.

We were just gonna do gig for all.

So very proud of that at this point.

Uh we have 200, well, at when this slide was made, we had 272 households that were um a part of our bridge program.

And then we're we are working with several of the affordable housing programs to to build into that and to provide service.

Nueva Esperanza is a big win for us.

That is a if you look at our our different stats, we've got almost a hundred percent take rate because we are the only broadband provider uh that they they have access to there.

So it is a is an important thing that we were able to build to that area.

So and then another another important stat down there that since we we launched, we have saved 360,000 for our our bridge subscribers, and that's you know, that's real money for them, and we're very excited about that.

Next slide.

Now turn it over to to Tammy, talk about some of the stuff she's doing.

Yes, thank you.

Uh Mayor Payson, counselors, as you know, I'm Tammy Wallen, the library director.

And you've heard bits and pieces of what I'm gonna share with you tonight and a couple of other recent presentations, but I'm happy to have another opportunity to dig a little deeper and tell you more about what we're doing in the digital literacy area.

Um so as you know, we offered a series of digital skills workshops this spring.

These were funded with a 10,000 dollar grant from the public library association who provided a curriculum and structure for implementation and evaluation for these workshops.

We used them to focus on two groups in our community that we knew had a higher need, working with seniors and Spanish speakers.

And the topics for these workshops were really based on core digital literacy skills.

So things like mobile device basics, using email, internet safety.

And the initial programs that we offered were so well received that we added some additional sessions as we went along.

Ultimately delivered 18 free workshops and reaching 172 participants over that time.

92% of them reported increased confidence in their digital skills.

And they were really happy to have the supportive teaching style and in particular the folks in the Spanish sessions expressed gratitude for being able to learn in their preferred language, and that that environment really helped them feel comfortable asking questions and coming back later.

Many of them also recruited friends and family to come back for later sessions with them, which really I think helped us demonstrate and continue to build on the level of trust that we have in the community.

I want to highlight that one of the things that we did with these programs that was unique was promoting in kind of a mutual marketing format with the highlight folks.

So we sent postcards to promote the library workshops to highlight users.

And once folks were in the workshops, we promoted the bridge program to them.

So trying to kind of co-promote between us, I think was a nice opportunity for us to work together and target our different users in ways that could be really beneficial for everybody.

And that's something I think we'll continue to do as we go forward.

In addition to those workshops, we do offer other programming in the library that's related to digital skills.

We have an empowerment through tech senior through tech for seniors program that's been going on for some time.

We also offer regular computer classes in English and Spanish and have uh beginning a program this fall with the Goodwill Partnership Program that is another series of digital literacy classes.

I think we will also continue to work on expanding that capacity as we uh have a couple of positions that are vacant now that we're looking to hire in this winter that should help us build additional ability to offer more programming in the future.

And then as you know, we were very excited earlier this year to launch a digital navigator program using funding from Washington County.

Uh so uh shoot park navigator Sonia Demsuk joined us from January to September to September this year.

Sonia provided more than 200 one-on-one 45-minute appointments with patrons, many of these at the library, some at the senior center.

Many of those patrons returned more than once for extra support.

They were really excited for what they got and again expressed confidence in building their own new skills as part of working with her.

Um she also supported those workshops and did drop-in tech help, which is a recurring volunteer-run program that she uh helped support and did the evaluation process for the workshops at the end, as well as promoting our resources and events with partners and nonprofit organizations in the community.

So helping us just build some connection with community partners.

Given the success of that first navigator program, we were thrilled this year to be able to put the city's last little bit of ARPA funding to good use by hiring two digital navigators for 25-26.

So we now have one at each library.

Um, Kathin Yang and Julma Arobo joined us in September, one at each of the buildings.

And I will just point out that I learned this week that Juma is a 2022 Civic Leadership Academy participant.

So kind of a nice connection for us.

These two will continue to offer the same kinds of things that Sonia did at Shoot Park in the first part of this program.

Um, and we they will also be collaborating with the other digital navigators that Washington County has hired to support the other WCCLS libraries so they can help us build some connections and work together across the county to support patrons countywide.

Next slide.

So I want to just take a minute to talk a little bit about some future plans that we're hoping to work on.

Digital literacy, of course, is a core service for the library.

And so going forward, we will certainly continue to offer the kinds of programming and one-on-one patron assistance that we already offer.

But we're also looking at ways that we could expand on that and build the program a little bit.

So we're looking at our current existing staff vacancies and thinking about how we can redeploy some of those to really focus them, adjusting the scope of vacant positions, create some additional focused support for digital literacy initiatives in this area.

The digital navigators we have for this year are funded through June of 2026.

So we're going to be working to identify some additional funding options to support that program in 26, 27 and beyond.

And we are just beginning a visioning process for our collaboratory makerspaces, hoping to kind of reintroduce those next year with an enhanced focus on job and digital skills development that can really expand on the makerspace concept that we've begun there.

So now I'm going to turn over to Dan DS for the last couple of slides and a rundown of the economic development work in this area.

Good evening, Mary Council.

Thanks for the time.

As was noted earlier.

I'm going to do my best to fill in for Jim Riley, who is our department's uh project rep on this.

But as was noted earlier, there are key pieces of digital access and digital literacy that really find their way into a lot of our economic development related work, whether that be in the workforce development space, trying to create ranges from the most basic of digital skills all the way up to more advanced digital skills.

And so the connection with highlight and the work in the digital literacy space has been part of those conversations for many years, dating back to when we were first starting some of our partnerships with Centro Cultural and the ProSPROS for that partnership as an example.

Those efforts got extremely highlighted when we went into the COVID ARPA phase when many things, such as even just basic access to healthcare and other things required even further reliance on digital access, especially for uh some of our community that may not have had those same digital abilities or or uh experiences in the past.

And so we worked with Centro as well as other partners to put ARPA funding towards that.

Um they had a blend of efforts relating to distributing uh hardware assets, uh about a hundred laptops were provided.

Um there were trainings done uh to a variety of stakeholders, again, some of them in workforce cohorts, some of them just open to the general public, and then some of them also targeted into some of our small business and entrepreneurs that also were needing and benefiting from those type of skills.

Um and in addition to that, they were able to staff up some of their support resources by hiring three additional bilingual staff, as you see in the middle part of the graphic here.

If we go to the next slide, um we have continued those type of uh discussions and efforts with many of our ECDEV and especially the workforce and small business related partners, uh, even through some of the current contracts.

But in addition to that, um we worked with them to target certain enrollees as that program began to mature and develop over time.

Uh and you can see we ultimately had a goal of about 100 enrollees per year, and at the peak, uh, we hit 179 in 2023 served uh through those partnerships in the centro effort.

Um that some of that drop-in tech support is still continue to be provided today, providing a range of community assistance.

What we are in the midst of needing to do now is as Tammy noted, continue to work together with partners like the library with economic development department, like partners such as Goodwill or Centro and others to now continue to determine what is the shifting need of digital literacy and access.

And so that really is the next um horizon, I would say that we need to look at.

Uh, but again, it just underpins really the importance of digital infrastructure, access to broadband, availability of the cloud and internet services and the like.

So with that, I'll wrap up uh the ECDEF portion, and I think all of us are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for the team?

Councillor Sinclair.

Okay.

Um I have three questions.

They're completely separate from one another.

Um, the first one I have when we're talking about digital literacy.

So I understand there's a difference between levy and a bond, but with working with the library, what does those costs of the levy go into the program?

Uh sorry, can you rephrase that a little bit?

The costs of so the levy that's coming up to be better on this year.

Yep.

The digital literacy program with the library.

Do these costs factor in to the highlight program?

With the library.

Do they find it?

Does it assist in funding?

Sorry, the highlight, we aren't doing anything with highlight at the moment, just to be clear.

Um the the funding that we get through the levy is about next year, it would be about 20% of our budget, a little bit less than that.

Um, and certainly that funds the the um the general initiatives that we have around digital literacy, the digital navigators specifically are funded this year from a little bit of ARPA funding that was left in the city.

Um, but going forward, it would we would need to find funding for that program from our regular operating budget or from some other grant opportunity.

So it has nothing to do with this program.

Nothing to do with highlight specifically.

Right.

Thank you so much.

Um, the second question I have is when you talk about the gain share and SIP.

So one SIP, correct?

And so what happens after that pertaining to the SIP?

We talked a little bit about gain share, but we didn't go further into the S.

I can do that one, Gabe.

Oh, so our SIP programs, um, as you all know, we had one that's unset this year.

Um, there are additional ones um specifically with Intel that we have, and there's three different tranches of those.

So there's still um, I would estimate a couple of decades of SIP um still on the books, and that doesn't include any potential future SIPs that the city may enter into.

So SIB, we the reason we bring it up here is that's one funding funding mechanism that we use, but there are several others.

Gain share is the one that we've identified specifically for highlight.

Um, but yeah, we didn't talk about SIP so much because there's no specific sunset date um as there is on Gauch here.

Um I guess there is gets really complicated with the different tranches of the SIV program there are, but that's much further out on the horizon.

Okay.

And then the last question I have is when we're talking about um multiple dwelling um units that's complex and can assass your thing, correct?

Does I hate asking this?

Does no housing deter that?

Deter what, just to make sure we answer most correctly.

What I'm saying is do those correlate together for a successful program.

I think as the the team noted, I'll just take a quick step of this in terms of planning of housing, and then the team can weigh in terms of the service of infrastructure.

But if we can maybe jump back to the slide that showed the service areas, uh, I don't think one is a direct you know driver or detractor from the other.

I think what it really comes down to is where are we likely to see the most new construction uh geographically in the city?

Much of that has been in South Hillsborough.

We've seen a lot of it up in the Ambergland Thanisborne area, and we've seen small pockets of infill happening over the last 10 years.

We'll see that start to diminish more and more as there's very few vacant small parcels to be redeveloped.

Now we will start to demolish existing structures, potentially to see densification.

But um, I think your question, counselor, when we are developing new units or seeing new development in the areas that are in green on this map and soon to be kind of the lighter green at the top and that yellow, orange, goldenrod, whatever it is on the west, they will be able to be immediately served and engaged by our highlight team so they can complement each other.

So middle housing or high density housing or low density housing in those areas can access and benefit from highlight.

Housing that we're delivering in the gray area, especially up in the areas like Tannisborne and Amber Glenn a few years back when we kind of were finishing out chunks of Aranco, that area is not able to benefit from, and it won't be deterred by that either, because there are other internet providers there.

It's just not the screaming deal of highlight that does everything for you.

Um so I hope that kind of answers your question.

There's not like a great benefit or deterrence, just kind of can we serve them?

And then that housing benefits from the access if it's there, or it has to wait for that benefit if it's not there.

Yeah, it's both and the last thing I want to say is a comment for me real quick.

Gabe, I you both did a great presentation.

That was pretty impressive.

That was darn impressive to go through that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Ambry and then Counselor Sogata.

Um is there a plan for uh Wi-Fi in the city?

I thought I heard about it sometimes.

Oh no, great.

Yeah, so we definitely provide public Wi-Fi in in several areas downtown Hillsboro and some of the parks uh around the libraries.

So there is uh we're always looking at you know places where where people congregate where it makes sense to to have public Wi-Fi.

Um I don't know that there's a plan to try to you know cover the whole city necessarily with it.

I don't know.

Um I mean, it's possible the more we build fiber, we will have more locations we'll be able to do that.

So I it is something that you know is is always a possibility to provide Wi-Fi, but right now we're really focusing on um putting public Wi-Fi where where lots of people come together.

So, you know, whether it's it's shoot part for the concerts or um up at Ron Tonkin or not Ron Talking, uh GFRC, that area.

Um downtown.

All right, thank you.

A couple of questions.

So is there any plans to create a permanent digital navigator as part of the program?

Because you know, the Marit Corps is a federal program.

I don't know that was one of the programs that was at risk of being cut.

And so we've talked about really not relying on federal resources.

Are there any plans to create those permanent positions through local funding to Amy?

We don't have firm plans yet because that would require budget approval, but that is something that I'm very interested in pursuing um potentially with the next biennium budget request.

Okay, thanks.

Any other questions?

Counselor Harris.

Thank you.

This is for you, Dan.

Um, the central spot of uh any follow-up on the success of the people who have enrolled and graduated from that program to see what their circumstances are, like uh so we can determine value to see if maybe an additional investment might be necessary, uh might be a good investment.

Yeah, that we have some in what I maybe propose back to the council and we coordinate with Robbie and City Manager's offices when our team comes back with the updated or potential for extending the next prosper ad contract, we can highlight some of those in the key metrics that we've done.

But there are examples where the early work done, especially kind of in the ARPA phase.

We've seen both some small business entities as well as some of the workforce entities coming back and continuing to build upon that.

And so that's within their systems, and they were tracking it.

Over time, their ability to run that program has also shifted a little bit.

Um, some of it in an expansive mindset, some of it actually contracting down just because of their needing to prioritize on different areas.

But uh, if it's okay, we we can definitely follow up with what we have to your request.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Counselor Zergato.

Counselor Ricardo.

Yeah, sorry, I was looking for the official title of the study.

Uh I wanted to ask if it included, you know, partnering with the schools, because you know, just for some background during COVID, there's this one called the e-rate that the schools can access to you know, fund their internet costs, and they were they adjusted the rules so that the schools could could buy computers and hotspots for students that didn't have access at home because everybody had to go home, right?

Uh, and now those rules have changed back to not allowing that.

Is that part of what you're studying in the in the digital literacy study?

Or like, you know, is there any plans around like tackling that?

Because I know that's that's an issue that's the the schools are really like worried about, right?

Is how to how to get that access back to the students without that funding.

Greg, do you want to?

Yeah, so we've had you know, we have had uh contact with Hillsborough School District about how um we can potentially um partner with them, at least in the areas where where we serve.

Uh there's nothing in the works right now, but um, other than you know, really cross-promotion and making sure that the those families are aware of the bridge program, which is which is a really good opportunity.

Um so that's um that's really as far as it's gone right now, as far as specifically addressing that.

Yeah, I guess my question was more related to the devices, like the access to devices with homes that don't have access at home because you know we have a the model already with Centro Cultural about giving out laptops, which I know is focused on economic development, but it is that part of what you're I guess when will we see the digital literacy study?

I think that maybe we can start there.

Oh, okay.

That so that'd be a I don't know if Michaela or Raheem are in the room, but I I think that is expected to come out really soon.

Like I said, it's the it's it's drafted and it's due for review to our committee, and then uh we'll take it to the um city management team, and then I believe it's gonna come to to council.

So that should be really soon.

It is it is imminent.

So is my understanding.

We should have we should have our eyes on it really soon.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, any other questions, Counselor Sinclair?

One last question.

What were the 21 areas of opportunity of improvement?

Not the I don't need all 21.

I'm just so there were 21 people who gave feedback.

Yeah.

And so what was the feedback about?

Yes.

Okay, yeah.

So I I get it.

It was an interesting mix uh because we got complimented on uh the speed of our service, and we also had the number one thing that people complained about was the speed of our service.

We got complimented on the um the price of our service.

The number two complaint we had was on the cost of our service.

And and then we had significantly uh a significant number of compliments on the reliability of our service, and a number three complaint was lack of reliability.

And so the the negative comments that we received, we had positive comments that outweighed them in each case, but we take each of those negative comments, we take the positive comments with great joy, and we try to continue to grow on those, but we also look at those negative comments and we go, we've got to figure out why is it that these seven people thought we were unreliable, and that's and let's fix that problem.

I I could say as a highlight user for the last two and a half years, I find the prices reasonable.

I find the uptime really good and the speed very good.

And I think it's a good value, and I think everyone should use it.

Is it is it reliable?

It is, but that's also its downfall.

It's not really much.

Yes, it is.

It's it's I mean, I've had every service you could possibly imagine, it feels like over the last 10 years.

And I I feel like this is the most reliable and service friendly that I've had when when they say they're gonna be there at 1.30, they're there at 130.

I mean, it's crazy.

They don't give you a four-hour window.

It's pretty amazing.

So congratulations.

I think it is a well-run organization.

Thank you very much.

I have a question.

Uh, from whom are we taking market share?

And I should say from whom are we earning?

Uh uh, I believe that we we grabbed the subscribers from both of our primary competitors.

So our primary competitors are Zipply uh and Xfinity.

Uh, I believe we are grabbing more Xfinity customers than than Zipply customers right now.

Uh, but Zipply is still in in the market growth model right now, and so they're grabbing Xfinity customers right now as well.

Okay, thank you very much.

I think if you haven't, I I think you could be very successful with an aggressive marketing program.

We're we're working on increasing our aggressiveness of our marketing program.

You have some of our marketing materials in your in your bed there, and and we are uh just now engaging in some uh significant uh digital marketing that we have not done previously.

Okay, I'm sorry, no, go for it.

I was just gonna add um because we've only built out certain parts of the city, it makes it hard to kind of bring to bear the full communication resources of the city.

Once we have more built out, then we can start using this in the city, you know, City Views newsletter and all these other things.

What we don't want to do is get everybody excited about highlight in other parts of the city, only to find out it's gonna be five years before we get there.

So we're getting closer to being able to do that.

Um, and I think that's when you'll really start seeing a lot of the growth as well.

Okay, thank you so much to Paul and Gabe and Tammy and Greg.

Greg, have a great time in Vegas.

Um, and thanks to all of you for the briefing.

And Dan, sorry, Dan.

Thanks for your briefing too.

All right.

Oh, thank you, Jim.

Yes.

All right.

Thanks so much, everybody.

And uh, we're gonna go into executive session now.

Yeah.