Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the work session.

Uh, tonight we're going to be talking about Hillsborough's legislative agenda for 2026.

And I know we have Ariel Nelson and Andy Smith here to do a briefing, but I'll turn it over to Robbie.

Service off.

Thank you, Mayor, and happy new year to everyone.

As Mayor mentioned, tonight we're going to be talking about the 2026 federal and state legislative agenda, maybe just a little bit of context why this is important for us.

As we get into the legislative session, whether it's a short session or a long session, things move very quickly.

There's hundreds, if not thousands of bills, I think last session that we have to go through that staff goes through.

And so what this does tonight is it gives us the ability to have confidence that we have direction from the city council about what areas we want to support, what areas we don't want to support.

And so that's what really tonight is about is our proposal to you all.

It's very similar to years past.

You'll see lots of common themes.

There are a few tweets that we made this year, just based on obviously new things from the federal government, for example.

So with that though, I'm going to turn it over to Ariel and uh and Andy, and they can take it from here.

Thanks, Robbie.

Uh, good evening, everyone, and happy new year.

Uh just for for the record and those listening I'm in, I'm Ariel Nelson.

I'm the city's uh government relations manager, which includes both federal and state relations.

Uh, joining me today um to take all the hard questions is Andy Smith, one of our contract lobbyists on the state side, and we also have our federal contract lobbyist Jeff Markey here joining us virtually from DC.

Um, also any hard questions for him.

Um, but we'll uh we're gonna go through uh the agenda today.

Um it's um currently in uh draft form and until we get some feedback from you.

Um, and we'll also cover some political context and the process.

All right.

So just to give you a sense of what we'll cover, we're gonna talk briefly about the federal dynamics, um, the state legislative session and those dynamics, um, both the process and political context.

Uh, and then we'll dig into the actual draft agenda, uh, which is structured, uh, similar structure to years past.

Um, but you'll note this is the first year we've had a formal federal agenda on paper.

Um, so you'll see that reflected, and we'll go into more of those details.

Um, welcome your questions throughout.

We will have, I'll ask that you leave your uh feedback for the agenda to specific moments that we'll pause for.

So diving right into uh the federal dynamics and the context as we head into our federal advocacy for this year.

Um this is obviously we are in uncharted territory.

Um last year, when I presented to you, we talked about a major theme for the state legislative session was federal uncertainty.

And we're experiencing that.

You've been experiencing that.

And um, so what that really has meant is that we're really approaching our federal advocacy and engagement in kind of two separate tracks.

The first, and um, this is largely informed by a lot of your discussion, a lot of what we've experienced with um federal changes at the administrative level is um there's a clear commitment to push back against federal overreach and provide support and protection for members of the community that are being targeted and harmed by undemocratic and discriminatory federal actions.

We'll get into more details about where that's in the agenda.

And then second, the city of Hillsborough is going to continue to engage as we always have on a wide array of federal issues that help us deliver core city functions and services to meet the needs of our residents and you know, approaching that collaboratively positively, but they you know, there's been some uncertainty and challenges there as well.

Um, and we'll get into the specifics of what that means.

So any questions there.

I mean, this is kind of just a broad general statement and lens of how we're approaching the engagement.

Yeah.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah, I do have a question on that real quickly for you and for Andy's those those two tracks that we've just discussed, potentially could conflict with each other as far as outcomes.

I'm assuming you're taking that into account as you strategize on these two tracks.

That's right.

And it's, you know, there's there's congressional advocacy with our delegation.

A lot of the work what when we're looking at what Congress is approaching and and is is the budget process, what's being funded, how that funding is coming to us regionally or directly, what we're able to apply for.

Um, we'll all get into some more specifics.

A lot of that relates to um infrastructure funding.

Um, but then there's also what we've seen federal actions with immigration enforcement and what which we'll you're very familiar with and go into more detail.

So the other point, I guess maybe I didn't make it very well, is that pushing on priority strategy number one here.

We've seen an administration who has significantly abandoned typical policies and practices seek retribution against organizations that have taken a strong track on number one.

And I just want to make sure we've thought about how that approach will work over the next 12 hours.

Yes, I think I can think so.

I think Robbie, I you can speak to it's a balancing act as we as we work through different grant processes and agency processes.

Agreed.

I would say it's very similar to the last 12 months.

As we, if something comes up, uh and Jeff is online as well.

If something comes up at the federal level that we feel we need to advocate for, yeah, that we we would need to weigh it with uh against current priorities, the current uh services that we have in the city.

And so far, that's worked out okay for us, but certainly it could change at any time.

Yeah, there's legal risk involved with you know consulting with general counsel, all of that.

So thanks for that question.

So moving into the state session and dynamics, um, start with the process.

This is a short legislative session.

Um, that's every uh even year is a short session.

So we'll be you'll see the timeline we're starting with today with this council work session.

Um we'll be in Salem next week for legislative days.

That's um interim committees will meet and do informational hearings.

We'll get some deeper previews on what to expect, what bills might be coming in the short session, but we haven't seen a lot of the bills.

A lot of this is still in progress.

So that's why typically our agendas are our higher level, so that we have the ability to respond to what's coming and what we also are expecting.

Uh we do have bill limits in a short session.

Thankfully, uh, we're not approaching 4,000 bills this session.

Each legislator is limited to two bills for personal bills and committees get three bills.

Um but it does move very, very quickly and at much, much more rapid pace, less time for um amendments and conversation and discussion than in a long session.

Uh this slide shows the political balance of power in in the Senate and the House in the legislature.

Uh so going into this session, uh, we don't see a change in the balance of power.

The Democrats still have a three-fifths supermajority in both chambers, which allows the party to pass any bill, including revenue raising measures, new taxes on a party line vote.

Um, there was one change um from last session.

We had uh a Republican uh representative Cyrus Jabby switched to the Democrat Party um after session.

And so the we've got 37 um blue members in the House.

Um, but that didn't shift the the balance of power there.

Um Ariel, yeah.

So you said that the bills are limited.

Is it as just specific to this short session or is it a new rule?

I'm sorry, the bills are the number of bills are limited.

Yeah, so short sessions have have different roles than long sessions.

So, yes, for every short session in in an even year, um they are they are limited.

Um, the legislature can choose to change the rules for any session.

They've had discussions.

There was a bill to change and put the limits for the long sessions.

Um didn't didn't pass, but I think there's still some interest in that.

Uh on this slide, we can just talk about the the legislative leadership dynamics.

So um what you see is a um the folks across the screen from left to right is the the speaker of the house, Julie Feihe, uh Senate President, Rob Wagner, House Majority Leader, Democratic Leader is Benjamin Bowman.

Um, and then we see some changes.

These are these were the same leaders from before, but we saw some shifts in Republican leadership, and it's kind of a musical chairs there.

So starting with um uh the House uh House leader, as we have new leader, Senator Elmer.

Um, and then um next on the screen is um I'm completely Senator Casey Jama, thank you for useport and is the Senate majority leader, and then we have a new Republican uh leader in the Senate, Bruce Starr.

And this was just a shifting of seats.

The former Republican leader in the Senate, Daniel Bonham stepped down.

He now um has taken uh a federal appointment as a deputy labor secretary at the federal level.

So with the vacancy in his seat, um the former House Republican leader, Representative Christine Drazen has then been appointed to his Senate seat.

Um also she's running for governor, as you may be aware, but she is now in the Senate.

So that left the vacancy for the House Republican leader, which rep Elmer took.

Um, and then um the vacant uh Senate leadership seat uh position that Bonham had left has not been filled by Senator Bruce Starr.

So a shuffling act, but it you can kind of see the domino effect when you have folks switching between chambers.

Next we move on to major issues we're expecting in session.

The biggest one I think going into session and and actually I should back up and just say it's it's unclear from legislative leadership what the priorities or what the the full commitments are that they say they really want to walk out from session with in this short session, other than we know that we are facing a budget cut scenario, and this is significant.

This is the first time that the legislature legislature has faced this in over a decade, and it also we only have a handful of legislators who were in office the last time the legislature had to make cuts.

Um this is because of um the revenue forecasts, which determined this, showing um that we have significant deficits at the state level.

And so that's going to be a major, major lens over everything that the legislature does this session.

Another big impact is transportation funding.

I think you're all aware that the transportation package, um, which the city was supporting last session, did not pass in the regular session, and as a result, the governor called a special session, and the legislature ended up passing a um a trimmed down version of the original proposed package in October in special session.

That has since been or portions of that bill have since been are being referred to the ballot.

Um, not the entire bill, but the the revenue increasing tax increasing measures around increasing the gas tax and fees and registration.

Um so um that was largely a Republican-led effort.

Those signatures um uh still have to be certified before they're put on the ballot, but they are expected to go forward.

And in the meantime, the state has paused um implementing the bill and collecting any revenue.

So there's a big question mark on what, if anything, legislative leadership will do.

Um, they could, if they do nothing and the signatures qualify as they're expected, if the um referendum will be on the November general election ballot.

They could uh legislature could choose to repeal parts or all uh the legislature could choose to uh put the recall on the May election uh ballot to move it up and and kind of separate it from when there's a lot of people on the general election ballot.

Um, but it's really unclear, and um, it's so that's gonna be a big question mark, it's gonna be a big partisan conversation, you know, a very partisan um influence there.

So that will impact a lot of the dynamics around other issues that we're watching.

The other piece um that's related that's a little bit more behind the scenes, um, but definitely relates to available revenues is the federal federal disconnect.

So this relates to um the uh Oregon State Tax Code.

Um, Oregon is one of several states who the Oregon Tax Code mirrors the federal tax code.

So if the federal tax code changes, it automatically changes at the state level.

Um, and there were significant changes in HR1, also known as President Trump's big beautiful bill, um, that uh will bring an additional um budget deficits to the state.

And so there's a conversation going on about whether to disconnect fully as some are advocating disconnect in part or remain connected.

And again, um that'll be something that will have repercussions and influence how much funding is available to spend or to cut and other policy conversations.

Um, you know, what what do you mean by it's connected?

Is it like a proportional what is that?

So um this is an over-generalized, oversimplified example.

But if you're paying, you know, when you pay your taxes as an individual, you pay a federal income tax and a state income tax, and they're typically like the same rates, the same amounts if you're connected.

Um, and so if the federal changes and it says you're gonna you know pay less, then the state automatically follows.

And so that means the state's bringing in less revenue.

And so that's that's oversimplification, but essentially, and you know, the same for corporate different levels.

Um, if it's if there's a federal parallel to the state, then for this one and the transportation funding, is there a timeline or a deadline for decisions to be made on that?

Just the legislative session.

But so they have from February 2nd until the last day they have to convene session for constitutional sign die is March 6th.

So yeah, and the procedural hurried was to pass bills and make decisions.

Um then so next, this is a more positive uh topic on the screen, economic development.

So this has been a priority for the city for several sessions.

Um, it hasn't changed the specifics change in terms of what's what's on the table and what the legislature is considering.

Um, and we're seeing a real um a real uh interest and and prioritization from legislative leaders from the governor.

The governor announced um a uh prosperity roadmap um just ahead of the business summit a few months, a couple months ago.

Um, and will be uh it's expected to be appointing a new um Oregon Business Council and chief prosperity officer with some long-term work, but also um it's expected to introduce a bill this session, um, which details will be forthcoming on.

And uh we've also been um Senator Solman has also been a leader on this issue for several sessions, starting with um the Oregon Ships Act and Senate Bill 4 and we'll get more into those details, but we're seeing a lot of energy around that and opportunity.

Um, but again, that comes back to what are the opportunities with budget cuts, what does it mean?

How does that relate to the other things on the table?

We'll get more into those details and what's on the agenda.

Last on the screen is immigration enforcement response.

Uh, it's really unclear what the legislature may or may not do.

We know there are several efforts underway and opportunities and some legislation we could support that we'll get into, but this could also be an incredibly partisan conversation as well.

Um, and with limited funds and facing budget cuts, um, you know, what the state's options are is a little unclear.

So it's something that we're certainly watching closely.

And then last, um, you know, the other priorities that we've seen the legislature take up and the remain state state focuses housing and homelessness, behavioral health, healthcare funding.

Um, these are still major priorities and focal points in the legislature.

It's going to be through that lens of budget cuts.

So now we're going to transition into the draft federal and state agenda.

And I wanted to, I'm going to be going through the you have two documents and materials.

I'm going through the text version.

There's also a draft brochure, it's the same language, just to kind of show you what it will look like all finalized.

Um, but I'm going through the text version in that order, so that might be helpful to follow along.

And it starts with Hillsborough's legislative principles.

And I just wanted to quickly remind the council, we have principles and we have priorities.

And this the city's principles are the foundational lens and kind of evergreen core issues that the state brings to our engagement at the state and federal level.

The content of those principles is largely unchanged from from last year, although we have added and expanded to include federal.

So as we as we've incorporated a federal agenda.

So those are largely the same.

I'll go through them briefly.

Home rule, promote safe and inclusive communities, encourage coordination and partnership between federal, state, and local government, and support economic growth and investment infrastructure and services.

And then we are we'll go into our federal and state priorities, and we'll stop after the federal for comments and feedback, and we'll do the same after state.

And our priorities are focused on what are the specific issues that we're going to engage on in the specific session in this year.

That's based on what we expect to be coming, what we know there's a political path for, what where there are bills being brought forward.

Um that's where we get into specific priorities.

Any questions on the differences there?

So we have three uh federal priorities in the agenda this year.

Um, and this is kind of where you can see that kind of dual track approach.

So the first one is prevent federal overreach and protect targeted communities.

Um, that's going to be more of the pushing back, right?

Um, and then uh we've have a priority on infrastructure, specifically transportation of water, and housing and homelessness response.

And that's where we're look again looking at the city's core uh services and how we're supporting residents.

So for the first prevent federal overreach and protect targeted communities.

This is um I've the full text is in your document.

Um we've kind of I've kind of highlighted some of the key messages from here and bulleted those out.

Um, this is really a reflection of your council discussions, the resolution that you all passed, and the city's action plan.

So that's you know, opposing federal actions that infringe on constitutional rights, increasing safeguards to respect civil rights and promote public safety, um, opposing administrative and legislative actions based on sanctuary status, that retaliatory um actions we've seen, and um, you know, there's different uh ways to do that that we that you've discussed and uh comprehensive immigration reform, which is also something that the council agreed was kind of foundational to addressing this issue.

So I don't know if you have any questions on on that one before I move on.

Next uh, so I've split infrastructure into the two pieces.

So under transportation, this is really about long-term stable funding for roads and public transit.

Um, we're also seeking to see restoration of some key sustainability funding that was cut recently and protect regional funding.

A lot of our transportation funding comes at the regional level through Audot through Metro, and so it's really important to our connectivity and livability.

For water infrastructure, similarly, we're protecting and strengthening federal investments with a focus on emergency preparedness, seismic resilience, uh, reliable municipal water supply.

And we also want to ensure that we're able to see completion of federally funded projects where we've seen some funds delayed or frozen.

That's a big part of our advocacy as well, both at the congressional level with our delegation partners and as well at the agency level.

And Jeff is a big help in that.

We can share one positive note in the current budget process and the budget bills moving forward in Congress.

Now it's 2026 because the budget was delayed.

But it would be a million ninety-two thousand dollars for uh our seismically resilient water treatment plant.

So really good news that I'm hoping to see that move forward and pass in the next week.

Ariel, uh when you're talking about um reliable municipal water, that's a part of that infrastructure you're talking about.

Yep.

All right, and our last our third last federal priority um is focus on housing and homelessness response.

That's primarily focusing on the um housing and urban um uh services department HUD to maintain our core housing, homelessness, and anti-poverty resources.

Um, some of those don't come directly to Hillsborough, like for example, our the Hillsborough shelter is funded through the Metro regional funds, um, but our partners at community action at the county really rely on those funds, and it's really important to um how our community is served and the stability of folks.

And uh where it is direct to the city is the community development block grant fund, which is a direct city resource that we use for a variety of housing stability programming and resources with community partners.

All right, before we move on to state priorities, I'll just pause.

Um, any feedback on the federal priorities.

Oh, um I have a question.

Um, so uh uh I know I know the city isn't that just I'm just curious um uh regarding education, the department of education funding, is that so does does the Tonbro school district have do this as well?

Have legislative.

Yeah, so our educational partners um will typically have agendas either um they may not have as an individual district, but they may um in partnership with other school districts, school board associations, um, and go through similar agendas and advocacy.

And do you does the city work with with them or is it is that an independent so we typically as a city um as it's not as a city function and and city direct funding, we don't typically advocate in that space, but we have definitely partnered in the past where there have been like workforce development opportunities and funding.

Um there's there's been legislative opportunities in the past where we've partners and partnered in advocacy and shared agendas and things like that.

And then Ariel, when you're talking about on the federal legislative side, uh, particularly in securing funding for priority seating projects, can you give us some examples of what that highlights?

Sure.

So part of the typical regular budget process when it's on track is um they're commonly referred to as earmarks, but they're community um funded projects that um both our um US senators and uh US congressional representative Banamichi advocate for, and those are those are specific direct funds uh grants to cities that go in specific like agency budget bills um at the federal level.

And so um in the past, like we received some money for the Hillsborough shelter, we've used them for water infrastructure projects.

Um I can probably think of that used.

Yeah, the inclusive playgrounds.

Um, so um depending on um and not all depending on which budgets are allowed for earmarks, it's a process we go through with our delegation and and put in for and and they that's a major role that they play on behalf of of Hillsborough, and it's greatly appreciated.

So the one I just mentioned, the uh seismic resilience uh grant for the the water uh treatment plant uh was one that we went through that process last year.

Um if the the budget hadn't hadn't been a continuum resolution, we would have seen that earlier.

Um, but it's carrying forward.

You bet.

So moving on to state priorities, we also have three uh state priorities uh going looking into this session.

Um federal immigration enforcement response, economic development, housing production, and homelessness response.

So we'll get into more detail.

So for when we're looking at federal immigration response enforcement response at the state legislative level, this is I think this the state or at least some legislators are going through maybe a similar exercise to what you have as a council, which is how can they be strengthening the existing Sanctuary Promise Act for the state?

What are, you know, whether it's a codification or closing loopholes or um that.

So that's kind of the lens where we're, you know, working with legislators and partners.

Um, and I think we're um in good company with neighboring cities and um county partners and regional partners um looking community partners on what how how we can support the state.

Um so that's kind of the lens we bring to this priority.

Um so what are the options the state has?

Um, certainly similar to the city, they could make investments for impacted families and small businesses, and you know, the form of rent relief, utility relief in the current budget climate for the state.

Again, not clear what will be possible and if that will be prioritized, but it's certainly something that is included in our priorities to support that investment similar to what we've done at the local level.

Um they could also look at protecting sensitive information, right?

You've talked about data.

Um we do know that there will be a bill coming forward um that this priority would would support, um, which is automatic license flight readers.

Um, right now, um those you someone could could request that data through a public records request, and there's a bill that would simply just exempt that data from a public records request because that would be a loophole to sharing that information with the federal government immigration information, potentially.

Uh so that's that's an example of kind of protecting sensitive information, um considering um data.

And then last, um, you're also familiar with the issues of the use of masks by ICE officers.

Um so we know there will be a bill that um uh when we you know once we've seen it would like to support that would require law enforcement to both be clearly identified as law enforcement and limit masking.

And um, we don't say ban masking because there is this nuance where um law enforcement does need to use some forms of face covering for like a biohazard air filtration or a hazmat situation.

So we don't want to inadvertently ban the use of those those measures.

Um so that's why the the use of the word limit.

I have a question on the protective sensitive information.

I know the text isn't ready yet, but is it just limited to license plate readers, or is there other protections for other information?

Because the DMV is not the only agency that collects data and sells it to third parties.

So are there plans to protect other data that's out there at the state level?

That's a great question.

We do know because that bill has been previewed that that one is coming.

Um and if there are others, um, what this priority for the city says is we would we would look to support those as well.

So if there are other efforts that come forward.

So is it limited just to licensed plate readers and DOV data?

Or does it expand it to other agencies that collect data at the state level?

Right.

So the bill that I'm aware of is focused just on automatic license plate readers.

There may be other bills I I you know we'll know more.

Okay, and if we wanted to, I guess advocate or encourage for them to expand the scope of that protection.

How would we go about that as a council?

Or is that something that you know, how does that look like if we wanted to have them expand that?

Because there is a lot of state agencies that collect information.

So the third parties, and so that's kind of what we're reading.

Is that that's that information is being accessed by people that might not be responsible with that data, right?

So I think it's an opportunity to just protect everybody's information generally, right?

Not just undocumented people, but yeah, the general public.

Yeah, and I'm happy to take that direction from council.

And um, that's why the you know, the full I use the ALPR, the license plate reader as an example, but the full um uh priority is kind of broader to give us that opportunity to to make that kind of advocacy.

Okay.

So if there are other opportunities to protect that data that we would advocate for that.

Yep, I get what you're saying.

If there's other opportunities we'll advocate for it, is there a way for us to influence them expanding that scope?

Uh potentially.

I would, you know, we'd want to talk about other specifics and um work with our partners and see what we want to put forward.

Okay, if we want to, let's say we had a consensus here or the majority that wanted to expand that.

How would we go about it?

Would just email you and say we would like to see it expand it to these departments, or you know, what does that look like, Ruth?

I think um I think there's a couple of steps here.

First is once the bill is introduced and we kind of see what's in it, um, then uh if the council wants to add to it, the then what we would do as staff is we there's a few ways we could do it, right?

We could send a letter to the legislator that's sponsoring the bill.

Um there's an amendment process a lot of times, so there's a few different angles we could take.

So we could we could certainly do that.

It really just depends on who the legislator is.

Do we have a relationship with that legislator?

Uh, you know, about how much influence we could have, I think I guess is my point.

But we could do that once we have a better sense of what's in the text of the bills, and um, and then yeah, if the council wants to advocate for more, that would be our approach, probably is trying to through memos or or letters to those legislators.

And it's the timing is a little tricky right now because it's before session because we want your early feedback so we have strong direction going into session, but once we see the universe of bills, um Robbie and I have talked about the potential to come give you updates once we know a little bit more about what's in play and what the opportunities are and where where the opportunities to advocate are.

Okay, thank you.

I I just want to say I absolutely support Councilor Solgado's suggestion and look forward to hearing more about what's the sessions I did.

Okay.

This is Councillor Alcare.

I have a question.

Hi, Counselor.

Hi.

So can you give me an idea for the funding for impacted families and small businesses?

Can we give me an idea of a possible timeline for that?

We have I have people contacting me pretty frequently asking when are we going to be able to provide support?

And I'm just curious about the state level.

Great question, counselor.

So the timing would be, you know, they would need to authorize, identify and authorize the funding during the legislative session.

It would go into a budget bill.

Uh, and you know, that would pass at the end of session.

Um, then the governor, um, there's a procedural timeline where the government signs the bill before the the funds are released.

Um, so if if funds were made available, they would likely go through a state agency through an existing program is typically the fastest way to get funds out that could then go out to community partners.

Um, you know, it would be the it would be the spring, probably April, May, um, before funds reached um the the direct funders and the community and and folks on the ground.

So in the meantime, I mean it's a lot of time to wait.

It really is.

Um, in the meantime, as a city, we are considering what kind of funding that we can provide to people, and it would be great if we had state support in this.

So this isn't just coming from our city funds.

And you know, additionally, um, I'm thinking about our budget for public safety.

And we're not equipped to cover all the things that are happening right now, and we are doing more reaction, um limited reaction, than real prep.

So I um I would encourage and I try with legislators to consider what this kind of timeline and how it affects people and families, because this is a long time.

I I get it in government timeline, and for us as a local elected group, I understand that.

But we're talking about people's livelihoods and um capacity to thrive.

So whatever can happen that can push that more and see some actual funding come about, that would be great.

Thanks.

Counselor, this is Robbie.

I just I wanted to just say I agree.

Um, and I think our hope is that uh the state will recognize that as well.

I think local jurisdictions like the cities and counties, uh, Metro have put together uh pots of funding to do exactly what you just mentioned, but that's a finite amount.

And frankly, it's not it's never been enough.

Um and and cities, like you mentioned, aren't equipped to continue that.

Um, and so uh we hope that there will be funding at the state level, and as Ariel mentioned earlier, the the real challenge right now is um because of the the budget cuts uh that are coming, it's just gonna be a challenge we're gonna keep our eye on it.

And if there's ever any opportunity to advocate for any type of bill that would do this, then that was that's what the city of Hillsboro would do.

And I I I just want to mention briefly, um Mayor Peace had invited me uh to a west side uh immigration response coordination meeting that took place uh online and that had Metro and numerous local leaders um present.

And I want to emphasize too we to ditto counselor uh Alcara's sentiments about um accessibility to funds for livability for our impacted immigrant and refugee and latino communities.

That was a heavy topic of conversation and direction that we heavily support that and encourage that to Congressman Bonamici.

Thank you.

Um I move on.

So our second um, and I it it states in your um draft agenda, but these are not listed in order of priority just for consideration.

So our second, our next uh priority to focus on is economic development.

Um this is been a longstanding priority for the city of Hillsborough.

I think it's been on most agendas in previous years.

What we're talking about this session, um, I mentioned there's kind of a renewed invigorated interest as Oregon as a state, has not really taken leadership or satisfaction in a number of years.

Um, and so there's a real focus on wanting to regain competitive competitiveness and a focus on the importance of high wage jobs, retaining those jobs in the state and the impact that has on Oregon's overall economic well-being revenue that we used to support and pay for essential services for Oregonians.

So, with that lens, um I mentioned you know, the governor has a prosperity roadmap that we're still learning the details on.

Um, she uh will be establishing a new business council and we'll have a bill this session.

Um, and we also have Senator Solman, who has been leading on economic development for some time and is bringing forward um a bill, I believe she's calling the Oregon Jobs Act with a broad focus on economic development.

And that's a bill that Hillsborough's been working on in coalition with a number of other partners, statewide associations like Oregon Business and Industry, Oregon Economic Development Association, Oregon Life Sciences, biotech uh community, uh, excuse me, industry.

Uh, let me see, uh, League of Oregon Cities is engaged, um, and we have a number of other thought partners at the table, regional chambers, and others working on this.

And um, she really wanted to focus on you know, recognizing the budget scenario, what are the issues or the policies she could put forward that were least cost to the state, and it um were appropriate for a short session, noting that this the short timeline and um you know things that have previously been identified.

And she brought it from the lens of um looking at sites incentives and regulatory reform.

And so, what's included on the page here is um largely Senator Sloan's bill, and uh many of these were identified in recent state task forces, Oregon Ships Act, um, and state reports that have come out.

So these are um previously identified kind of known um items.

So I'll start from the top of the list.

Uh the first when she's looking at sites.

Um, you know, in previous sessions, we've advocated for site readiness infrastructure funding.

That's not really reality, or we feel like that was a challenge for this session.

So, really looking at the land in Hillsborough.

This is land that I believe you all are familiar with that date back dates back to the grand bargain.

This was land that was previously planned for and as urban reserves for the city of Hillsboro.

And a piece of legislation in 2014 switched that to rural reserves.

Um, and so efforts since then have identified that land is still really important to economic development, not just for Hillsborough and the region, but for the state, um, and what that development of that area would mean for the state's um jobs and economic well-being.

And so that was this this is the same land that was part of Senate Bill 4 that um could have come in through executive authority did not.

So that was left, and this bill would simply um with legislative authority just bring that land into the urban growth boundary.

It's fairly straightforward.

Uh but Senator Solman has also included some sideboards.

Um, the bill, we don't have the language yet.

Um, we'll be sharing details when they're out, um, but her intent is that the land is for advanced manufacturing and associated supply chain.

It is not for standalone data centers, but it is specifically for when we talk about advanced manufacturing that is the semiconductor industry, that's biotechnology, clean tech, um, you know, job um industries associated with jobs, and it's um really supporting us that the silicon forest we have here in the region.

Um, so that's the land piece.

Uh, the next um moves into kind of the incentives piece, and so the bill looks at expanding the state's research and development tax credit.

Uh, the state didn't have one for some time.

They stood up a narrow tax credit for the semiconductor industry.

Um, um, that's been building up that was part of Senate Bill 4.

And this bill would expand it to other advanced manufacturing industries, like I mentioned, biotech, clean tech.

Uh, next would be a capital equipment tax incentive.

So, this is property taxes, it would be a local option, a city or county could choose, and it may not be the right tool for every city or jurisdiction to provide a property tax incentive on the um equip the high-tech equipment cost for advanced manufacturing.

And this would be an incentive for both attracting new businesses but also retaining existing uh manufacturers here.

Um, her bill would also strengthen an existing program, the enterprise zone program.

And um, there's another piece in here to strengthen a uh a rural regionally significant program as a request from the city of Pendleton.

Um, and then she focuses on state regulatory reform.

And this is specifically around agency permitting timelines and certainty.

Um, and we see there's a number of bills that we expect this session also focusing on that.

It's a bit, I think it's a focus of the governor's efforts in her bill.

existing uh manufacturers here um her bill would also strengthen existing program the enterprise zone program and um there's another piece in here to strengthen a uh a rural regionally significant program um as a request from the city of pendleton um and then she focuses on state regulatory reform and this is specifically around agency permitting timelines and certainty um and we see there's a number of bills that we expect this session also focusing on that it's a bit I think it's a focus of the governor's efforts in her bill um Senator Solman's bill would require state agencies who are in the who issue permits that impact businesses to um set deadlines for those permits and if they don't meet those deadlines they would refund the permit fees and there's some additional transparency um and certain measures in the bill and it's modeled after an executive order that the state of Washington's governor put forward kind of in a similar effort this is a legislative version any questions about this okay um two things I think um one the governor's council I know Andy we talked about this a month or so ago and we didn't know who she was going to be or kinds of businesses or geographic do we know anything more do we know anything yet our understanding is she'll be announcing the council next week okay so we should hear more um we believe it's uh business professional CEOs um leaders in the business community um and their personal capacity and expertise um but we have not seen the membership okay that sounds good um the five year property tax exemption uh uh because every time we talk about game share and SIP uh my head explodes um this is different than that obviously but is there any sort of incentives for the city or anything in in that regard with these or is it just it's just ideal for the business yeah it's it just it's just a straightforward um property tax exemption and again at the at the option of the city or county so whether that is appropriate for their I will add to you on that that it's something that we've talked about a lot of staff as well that you know we have our game share program that's incredibly important to the city because it goes back to all those property taxes that were essentially foregone by the city of Hillsboro right so any new tools that are allowed we would also want to talk about things like game share making sure we're strengthening that as well because um it's great if we can you know that the more tools we have to bring businesses in the city that's great and we have to also be able to share in that um uh foregoing of taxes with the state right so that's something we will continue to advocate for with all of this um probably this is not probably going to be the only thing that's in the in in the session and so um we we know this one's gonna happen but there could be others and so we'll we'll do whatever we can to advocate um for continuance with gain share whatever it is if those opportunities come up um pertaining to um the tax abatement uh specifically in reading about the enterprise zone I am concerned when we talk about budget cuts and transportation funds and federal funding for projects um my fear is with the tax abatement a lot of people are hurting right now and indirectly uh our residents subsidizing those abatements uh and uh fill in the gap for that revenue that is what my concern is will we have opportunity once we learn more after session to have a work session on this together before moving forward absolutely um uh so um one I I mentioned before and I'll repeat it for the rest of council as well uh earlier this past year we did a a work session um specific to the enterprise zone but we can also come back and take a deeper dive uh to the uh talking about the enterprise zone and the benefits of it and typically when we're talking about foregone um property taxes in our enterprise zone it doesn't um it's not really that our our residents are um subsidizing uh we're still seeing big increases in tax revenue we just see them in different ways during that time frame we get a what we call a community service fee for example and that money is a significant amount of money that can go into workforce development so it's not usually that um any other businesses or or residents are subsidizing um those companies but yes that was a long answer to your question uh but we can certainly come back and do a deeper dive into the enterprise zone if you all would like yes and I'll just add you know this is a a package this is a very large bill with a number of pieces that were brought by different stakeholders um I I don't know that Hillsboro would necessarily adopt all of these things if they passed right whether they they would be the right fit for um for the community so um and whatever did move forward to your point and to Robbie's point would be a you know the council conversation so before you go Rob I won't just do a quick time check so uh keep in mind as we're asking questions and moving through slides go for Sir Harris.

Thank you.

Looking at the UGB expansion area bills that are have been drafted or in draft form at this point do the bills provide a zone overlay for the entire area mandatory is for the usage of the manufacturing industry what or does it allow the city to go in and zone some of the property for instance on the southern part high density residential office commercial because we do have low density residential right on Evergreen and that transition right to manufacturing industry might not be best practices I think from an urban planning standpoint.

And I would like to see the city have the flexibility to zone at least a portion or some, maybe up to Wybal Creek area, even because my other concern is if all 1700 acres or whatever is designated as a particular usage, and it takes 10 years to build that out.

We have 10 years of fallow land and a lot of that property.

That combined with our needs for new housing development units in the city on our housing production strategy and the goals of the governor.

I would love to have the flexibility to be able to zone some of that high density residential office commercial as appropriate and compatible uh with the manufacturing and industrial and as appropriate best practices as far as stair stepping usage on the property.

That's my comment on it.

I'm really reluctant to rezone that entire piece manufacturing industry, unless I'm convinced it's the way to go and we have proper usage for it in a reasonable time frame.

I'm not saying next year, I'm not saying we have to have it all under contract.

Um I just want to make good use of that property for current, present, and future residents and workers here and businesses here in Hillsboro.

Thank you.

Um Counselor Harris, I appreciate the comments.

And um, we're we designated it North Hillsborough Industrial Area, stop me if I'm getting off track.

Um, we have had requests in the past for people to have residential um to have housing in that area.

And we have seen in the past that when you have industry next to housing or housing next to industry, it doesn't go well.

Uh and so I definitely understand what you're saying about the housing production strategy, and it I would rather have flexibility than not, but just keep in mind that when you have housing next to industry, it doesn't always go well for either party.

I 100% agree with that.

That's why I mentioned high density office commercial, maybe even green space.

That's why I mentioned viable correct, which is uh east to west uh uh bisex that property as well, which would give you a natural buffer as well.

I have a question.

Um so uh so the the SD4 is just bringing that into the urban growth boundary, and like that that's what it's proposing.

Not not what it's um uh not how uh not and and then he did have two Hillsboro, then to then uh zone it, whichever way.

Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm gonna get this right or not.

Ariel, go ahead.

Yeah, I can take that.

So Senate Bill 4 was passed in the 2023 session, and what that did was it um gave the governor executive authority to bring land in or a portion of that land in that authority expired at the end of 2025, so it's no longer an option.

Yes.

Um, this bill would just that same land or the that 1700s acres that was considered as part of part of that would just come in if the bill passed, it would just come in in terms of the zoning.

Um, we don't have the exact bill language yet, but um again, the intent was for advanced manufacturing.

So, likely industrial zoning, the city would have the ability to do within that category, do zoning within that.

Um, it wouldn't, I don't believe it directs beyond that.

Okay, this counts through care.

Um workforce development is something that we have uh always looked forward to in this relationship that we have with North Hillsboro.

But I um I'm concerned about the long-term sustainability of workforce with uh layoffs that Intel has had over this past year.

And concern about well, are we setting people up for failure to want to come into this kind of industry where we provide that access as a city funding that opportunity and then uh not really fulfilling that promise of guaranteeing access to more jobs in workforce development?

Um has there been any thought about the layoffs and what impact that has perception as far as the viability of North Hillsboro businesses?

Uh counselor, this is Robbie.

It's it's a great question.

I think um with companies like Intel and other high-tech companies, we uh we see cycles, right?

This is another cycle, and this is a big cycle where there were a lot of layoffs.

Uh, I think the workforce development uh is probably more important now than ever in these types of climates uh when we have businesses that are potentially looking at coming to Hillsboro by being able to offer them working with them with our local education partners with um our own funds with this workforce development funds.

I think we set ourselves apart from other other areas by being able to do that.

Um I don't think it'll ever prevent though, to your point, it'll never prevent you know future layoffs.

I think that's uh again a kind of a part of the cycle, unfortunately, with a lot of types of businesses, but I think the workforce development does provide some level of safety net that we can use as a community um as we attract other businesses to come to Hillsboro.

I was present for the quick start graduation, I think it was last summer, at the quick start graduation, and that um in the audience that day, I what I was told sitting next to somebody from analog was that some people were gonna get offered interviews, and that not everybody will get a job.

And um, it's a two-week program.

It prepares people to do specific things.

I'm not sure if those uh skills that they're getting are transferable skills to another job where they could get hired.

So I I appreciate that program, but it's got um sponsors.

It doesn't have enough jobs to promise people you go through that program, and so I would like to see what can be developed where people can have that access, and then it's not a closed door.

Um that they have no other way to grow towards a job in that in what they just trained for.

And two weeks is not a lot of time, but it's enough to train them to do something.

Yeah, that's a good example, counselor.

Thank you.

All right, so in the interest of time, I'm gonna move us to our last priority.

Um housing production and homelessness response.

This is also longstanding housing and homelessness been a longstanding priority for the city.

Um, what we're really looking at here is through that lens of budget cuts, um, we'll be um advocating to preserve funding for housing production, affordable housing, housing infrastructure programs that were recently passed, rent assistance and shelter.

Um, we're also gonna continue to support policy and program improvements, recognizing that the legislature continues to make um more and more um detailed policy changes in the land use and housing realm, and that those have been very um have been a lot for cities to implement, and so there's continued work needed to refine and ensure that we can implement efficiently and achieve our shared housing goals with the state.

Last, um, there are um several bills this session that are expected related also to urban growth boundary uh expansions.

Uh the governor, Governor Kotec had a priority bill in 2024 that passed Senate Bill 1537 that included kind of an expedited one-time pass so you could use it once within the 10 year authorization for the program to bring in a limited amount of land um for housing if you met certain criteria.

And they found um in since it passed in 24 that there's only three cities that actually qualify that would need have the ability to use this, and so they're looking at making some tweaks to those eligibility criteria.

Uh the governor is also looking at adding on to that program to allow additional land to be brought in specifically to serve um uh age restricted, essentially 55 and older, older adult communities as well as manufactured housing.

And so um we're we're still learning the details of that bill, but um, this party would support um kind of lifting some of those barriers and and the changes to the eligibility that would allow Hillsborough and other cities to consider using this tool.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Ariel.

Thanks, Andy.

And uh Jeff.

Jeff, thank you.

You're you're up at 10 o'clock, almost 10 o'clock on the East Coast.

We really appreciate you being here to answer.

That's my pleasure.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Maybe if I could just add really quick, um, we will uh in a short session, it is a little tricky to come back in the middle of session because it's so fast, but we will figure out a way to do that.

We always do it in the longer sessions.

We come back in the middle of the session, but we'll figure out a time to come back and give you an update mid-sessions, it'd be sometime in probably late February.

Thanks, Robbie.

Thank you.

For translation services, please use our QR code on the poster on the left-hand side of the room.

Excuse me, the right hand, the right hand, your left, my right.

Okay.

Um, or on the front page of the agenda 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 which expands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

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

Amber, may we please have a roll call?

Mayor Pace.

Here.

Councilor Alcair.

Here.

Councilor Alcara is virtual tonight.

Counselor Sinclair?

Here.

Councillor Case?

Here.

Counselor Harris?

Here.

Councillor Ambry?

Here.

Counselor Sogato.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving to item two presentations and appointments.

I'd like to invite Clean Water Services Interim CEO and General Manager Rick Shanley and Chief Utility Relations Officer Joe Gall to come forward for our state of our partnership presentation.

Thank you to Rick and Joe for being here this evening.

Thank you.

No, it is.

Just press the center button when the light turns green, you are live.

Great.

Mayor and council, thank you for allowing us to spend some time this evening.

My name is Joe Gall and I'm the Chief Utility Relations Officer for CWS.

I'm going to introduce Rick in a second here.

We were going to be here back in December, but we understand you had some long meetings, so we deferred this to the beginning of the new year.

So happy new year to everyone.

We've been making the rounds to all of our partner cities over the last few months.

Basically taking a look back over the last fiscal year and just kind of reinforcing uh how we do the work together in terms of the work that CWS and the City of Hillsboro does, and just highlight some things.

Many of you have been through CWS Essentials, so you have good basic understanding of Clean Water Services.

So some of this may be uh repeat for some of you as uh alumni of that program.

Um I also want to acknowledge uh uh director Willie uh for uh Clean Water Services who represents Hillsboro is in the audience, has been attending uh the cities that is within his district.

And my understanding is that Chair Harrington, our board chair, is also online and couldn't be here in person, but is watching virtually tonight.

So great.

Thanks for letting us know.

Thank you.

So as many of you know, uh we have a acting interim uh CEO general manager that's new, and that is Rick Shanley.

Um is a probably a new face for many of you.

Uh I'm not gonna read all the slides uh information, but you can see his background, and I'm gonna allow him the opportunity to say a few words before I get into the bulk of the presentation tonight.

So, Rick, go ahead.

Well, thank you, Joe, and thank you, Mayor and Council members for inviting us here this evening.

We really appreciate the time.

Um I don't know everyone, so really for me it's just an opportunity to do what my board has directed and is to get out there and make sure to get some FaceTime with um our co-implementers and strengthen what we have already a great partnership with Hillsborough.

But um some background, I also won't go through all these bullets, but my former job um about a year ago was chief engineer and water technology officer.

So I am an engineer by trade.

Um I had responsibility for all the engineers that do our conveyance system, our water um resource recovery facilities.

Sorry, we used to call them treatment plants, and now I'm still getting used to that new term.

Um, our research and innovation group, as well as all the operations for our conveyance and also the treatment plants.

So it was about half of the FTE, so I felt real comfortable stepping into the role with a lot of the uh internal needs of the district.

But this is a new experience for me in some sense.

I've done a lot of work with Hillsborough on projects with your planning group, your engineering group, and I can say, as you already are aware, they're top notch.

Um, but this this type of role has been something I've really enjoyed since June of last year.

So I've been in this for about six months now.

Um prior to that I was a consultant for 20 years, and um this was really the only position that I said if Clean Water Services ever had that opening up there for treatment plant services manager, I take the job.

So that was about 13 years ago.

Um a little unexpected journey to where I am today, but um it's been a great ride.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Joe to really walk us through the presentation.

Um, but thank you for and I'm allowing me to introduce myself tonight.

Absolutely, and welcome, Rick.

Thank you.

And if there are any questions at the end that are more technical that an engineer is better, I'm gonna defer to my friend because I am not an engineer, as many of you know.

So just want to touch on for the public and just a reminder, you know, who is, what is Clean Water Services?

We are the wastewater and stormwater utility serving uh all of urban Washington County.

Uh over 600,000 residents and and the businesses uh in that community.

There's 12 partner cities.

You're one of those partner cities.

You happen to be the largest of those cities and a very important partner for us.

And then the county is also another partner because we do provide services in unincorporated urban uh parts of Washington County.

Uh you get a sense of our budget, uh about 750 million dollars uh currently.

One of the unique factors about CWS is that we hold the nation's first integrated watershed-based permit.

So prior to having that, we used to have individual permits for each of our four treatment plants, and then another permit basically for the stormwater permit.

And that's now all combined into one permit that provides us a lot of flexibility.

It's very unique, um, and we're very proud of that fact uh that we have that watershed-based permit.

Uh we work very closely with Washington County.

Sometimes folks get confused because we share governance with the county.

So we are a separate utility, separately managed, fine funded and financed uh under RS 451, but we have a board of directors that wears that hat and also the county commissioner hat.

And I think that sometimes confuses uh the public and they think that we're part of the county.

Um we also have a very important advisory committee, uh clawed the Clean Water Services Advisory Committee.

They meet every couple months.

They have a variety of stakeholders who we work with.

So there are two representatives from the environmental community, there are two representatives from the business community, there are two representatives from the development community, and then two representatives from the agricultural community, and then one representative from each of the four commissioner or slashed uh director uh districts.

And they provide a lot of feedback on the work and the programs initiatives that we do because we affect all those different stakeholders.

Uh they are advisory only, they do not uh have any uh authority to make decisions, but they are an advisory commission.

And we currently have 468 employees or FTEs in the organization.

Quick map, we're gonna talk about regional and local services because depending on what city or where you live in the county, you get different levels of service from clean water services.

So for our largest cities, such as Hillsboro, we provide the regional services, and I'll talk about that in a minute in terms of what regional means.

Um you, as our partner, do all the local services.

Uh and you can see the cities that are listed there that provide regional only and the smaller cities and then the urban unincorporated, we do both.

We provide the regional services, but we also provide those local services.

As you can imagine, a city like North Plains doesn't necessarily have a uh fully uh public works department that can handle everything.

So we provide the local services uh for those smaller communities.

And then our there are certain industrial customers that we permit separately.

The intels of the world have a separate permit from us because they send us very unique discharges uh from their facilities, and we serve them differently.

Hillsborough on the document that I hope you have in front of you on the back, you'll see all the industrial permit partners.

By far, Hillsboro has the most in that category.

We have about 90 uh industrial customers across the county, and I didn't do a quick count, but there's easily the most here in Sherwood, or not in Sherwood in um in uh Hillsboro, just to give you a sense.

They are important customers to us as well.

So I mentioned regional services, and I want to touch on what that means.

So the four treatment plants that we operate, that is a regional service.

Uh two of those plants are actually in Hillsboro.

Uh our River Road plant, uh Rock Creek plant is one of our largest facilities and an important facility, and then we have a very small plant up the street from here, our Hillsborough facility that also is within your city, and then we have one in Durham and then one in Forest Grove.

Regional is also the large pipes.

You can think of the pipes that are 24 inches and larger, uh, the main trunk lines, those are our responsibility as a regional provider.

We also do all of the reporting and oversight for our NPDES permit, which is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which also contains our MS4, our stormwater permit.

That is a permit with DEQ, a federal permit that we are the ones that are responsible for basically making sure we're complying and reporting to them.

However, you have a role as the city partner on the inside of this, you see a lot of data in terms of the information that goes into the report and significant amount of work that the Hillsboro team does gets incorporated into that compliance reporting to DEQ.

Local services, and in the case of Hillsborough, this is what your Hillsboro team does.

You're responsible for the smaller pipes, 21 inches and smaller, cleaning those pipes, inspecting those pipes, making sure that they're working.

You also uh do your own local stormwater program, sweep your your streets, maintain water quality facilities, cleaning catch basins, certainly uh water quality manholes.

So it is a partnership.

This is the work that you do at the local level on the smaller scale pipes, we do the bigger pipes, and we do this uh together.

I mentioned this five-year watershed based permit.

Uh, you can see all the things that it covers.

Uh it is a very important uh part of our work.

When I was the city manager at the city of Manager at the City of Sherwood before coming to CWS, I thought I understood CWS and what they did as a partner.

I really didn't understand until I got into the organization.

Um this permit and how important it is to our work, I also did not understand.

So any opportunity I have to talk to city leaders elected or appointed, I always go to this to talk about this drives our work on a day-to-day basis, is all the work that uh we do is generally tied to that permit.

And we're held responsible for complying with that permit.

It's a five-year cycle, and you can see on this chart uh we are starting the process to think about the new application, which is going to be in June, it's due in June 2027.

And in addition to planning for that next permit application, we are also looking out over the next two permit cycles to try to anticipate uh what is coming in the world of uh wastewater and stormwater.

Uh you've heard about PFAS, that's something that we're very concerned about and trying to stay stay on top of that.

You just had a work session about uh state and federal legislation.

We're following that very closely because those potential new requirements that EPA or DEQ could implement would impact our work.

So we're always kind of looking out, trying to make sure we are prepared so we're not caught off guard with some significant investment that we weren't prepared for as part of the permit.

This is a quick snapshot of projects that we have uh done last fiscal year in Hillsborough.

Some of these projects are multi-year, so you might see a small amount of money, Minter Bridge sewer upgrade, for example, is $6,400.

That's a multi-year project.

So this is what was spent in Hillsboro last year.

Uh most of this spending is by CWS because these are regional facilities.

Some of the projects are 50-50 projects.

So the Minter Bridge sewer upgrade is actually a project that we uh both contribute 50% to the costs.

Uh some of the inflow and infiltration abatement projects, which address some of your oldest infrastructure, are also projects that are 50-50 funded between the district and the city of Hillsboro.

You see the big amount last year, seven almost 18 million dollars was spent at the Rock Creek wastewater facility on River Road, and that was the clarifier project that primarily was done last year.

I wanted to touch on an important process that just wrapped up our West Basin master plan, and you can see on the map, this is for sewer for wastewater.

We are we have basically two basins.

Hillsboro is in the green West Basin area.

Um the wastewater flows to either the Rock Creek facility or the Hillsborough facility.

Uh, and then the orange area is the East Basin.

What we just wrapped up and just got approved was the West Basin Master Plan, which is a 20-year plan for our regional system that was developed very closely with the City of Hillsboro and the other city partners.

Because what we are looking for is what is the City of Hillsborough's community aspirations and goals for the next 20 years.

Because we want to make sure our infrastructure is there, ready when it is needed.

And we could not have done this plan without very, very close coordination with your city staff and then the others.

And this is not as many planning projects processes, a one-time plan that sits on the shelf.

We pull this off every year, reconvene with our cities.

What's changed?

Is anything changed in terms of your growth aspirations?

Is growth expediting?

Is it slowing down?

Do we need to make adjustments in terms of when we're going to do projects?

So it's an on ongoing iterative process.

So the results of the West Basin Master Plan, I just want to give you a sense of scale.

So for the West Basin, which is including Hillsboro, we've identified 1.4 billion dollars over the next 20 years of various projects that are regional.

These are CWS primarily regional projects invested by CWS.

And you can see the two different categories, conveyance basically or pipeline projects, the big pipes, and then almost half a million dollars on the treatment plan improvements, Rock Creek, and Hillsborough and Forest Grove.

Just to give you a sense of scale, the East Basin Master Plan, not as much money.

One of the big differences, there are three treatment facilities in the West Basin.

There's only one treatment facility in the East Basin.

So about 400 million dollars has been identified in the East Basin Master Plan.

So if you combine the two, that's nearly $2 billion of investment that we are planning for with you as partners and the other cities for investment over the next 20 to 25 years.

This is a list of in the West Basin project, the next five fiscal years, about 191 million billion, actually.

I always say million.

A lot of that is in the treatment plants.

You see 87 million or billion at Rock Creek.

But there's a lot of significant projects, trunk line projects that we have identified to be invested within your community.

Another project that I want to highlight, you see Springer Street facility improvements at almost 25 million.

That is a new facility.

That's going to be another operations center for us.

We have our main operations center in Beaverton.

We're planning a second one here in Hillsboro, and that will likely also be our emergency operations center as well.

So a very important project for us, and it's in your community in the next five years.

Another topic that I wanted to make sure the council was aware of and the community.

We're about to launch a very in-depth billing feasibility study.

As you may know, we have a pretty complicated billing structure that has been the way it's been done for close to 20 years.

We haven't looked at how we do billing since 2008.

It's time to take a deep dive.

For the City of Hillsboro, you bill on our behalf.

So your residents and your businesses get a bill from the City of Hillsboro, and on that bill is a portion of CWS fees that basically go to CWS, and you keep the local portion.

In some of our smaller cities, we do the billing.

And TVWD bills in a lot of areas that includes the CWS charges in the urban unincorporated area, for example.

We want to take a look at is this the most effective way to do billing in 2025?

And that's this the simple question that we're going to be asking.

We're going to do that study in close cooperation with all our city partners, and we're going to develop different alternatives and look at the pros and cons, the costs and benefits, and then hopefully in early 2027 make a decision with our partners about where we're going in terms of billing in the future.

We appreciate the partnership we have with the City of Hillsboro, but there may not there may be a new way of doing this, a different way, an improved way of doing this.

So I wanted you to be aware that we're going to be doing this study this year.

Two other requirements that are pending that I have been reminding all of our city partners.

We by November 1st, 2026 have two key components that certainly keep me up at night in terms of getting accomplished on time.

One is we have to update some very specific stormwater sections of our design and construction standards.

We're just starting that process.

Again, we're doing that in conjunction with all our co-implementer cities like Hillsboro.

It's a fairly narrow scope to meet the permit requirements that we have to do, and we're just launching that project now, and we'll be working with your city officials and staff as we do that.

And then all of our operating IGAs with all the cities in Washington County have to be updated by November 2026.

You were actually the first city after about 18 months of discussions and I don't like to call them negotiations.

It was more conversation about why do you do this?

Can we do this?

Can we do things differently?

And that took a long time for us to have those conversations.

So we have a new IGA, which is great because the old one was outdated, but I'm more proud of the relationship that we have and the partnership with the city of Hillsboro that kind of came out of that whole process.

We have a number of cities that we have to uh complete that task.

Uh Hillsboro is not one of them, so we appreciate you being first.

And I think that quickly covers uh my presentation.

Uh Rick and I are both available for any specific questions you might have.

And thank you for your time.

Uh thank you, Joe, and thank you, Rick, for being here.

We do have some questions.

Councillor Anvery and then Councillor Sogato.

Thank you.

Uh hi.

Um I have a I have a couple questions.

What what is the criteria of deciding when a city does local or you do or or CWS does end-to-end service?

So versus regional versus local.

I don't think there's a a clear decision point.

I mean, you have provided because you're full service city and a large city, you've provided that local service for many, many decades.

Um and we've provided the regional uh and that relationship with our current list of cities has been pretty consistent.

At some point, yeah, North Plains, yes, King City come to mind.

As they grow over time, they're gonna be at a point when they're they're gonna say, maybe it's time for us to take on the local services.

We're ready to do those local services because we have the finding the funding and the staff and the capability to do that.

And that would be part of a conversation and a transition.

You are now doing local services, and we're gonna strictly do just the regional services.

Um it doesn't change uh very much at all because taking on those local services for a small city is a heavy lift.

Um those two cities, I think are probably next to do that, but I think it's gonna still be probably five to ten years out before they say it's now time for us to take that on.

That was one of my questions.

Are they part or or other cities?

Is that incorporated into your plan?

For them to take on the local uh as far as the plan, the master plans, no, we it doesn't affect because that really is the regional, that's the stuff that we're responsible for.

So we're planning for that.

Um we're also planning for the local services in those communities, those smaller communities in conjunction with them, and they're aware because they know what projects need to happen to meet their community uh aspirations.

So we don't do it in a vacuum, we do it together.

It's just at some point they're gonna be ready to take on the challenge of taking on the local services.

Funding is a big thing.

Yes.

Uh just a couple of questions.

Um the so for Hillsboro, um, Hillsboro's Hillsborough does the storm water management, but is the permit under CWS?

Is that is that how it's set up?

Yes.

So the NPDS permit which is a wastewater permit, the MS4 is rolled within it.

That's not usually the case.

Usually there's a NPDS permit and a separate MS4 or stormwater permit.

This is all wrapped together, and we're the permit holder.

Yeah.

Okay.

You we you we've heard the word co-implementer.

You co-implement the permit with us.

You implement the programming at the local level.

We do the regional.

It's a partnership to meet the permit requirements.

Two other questions.

For for the industrial um consumers, do uh CWS does end-to-end, or is there also a regional versus local uh division there?

Do you know how that I mean it's a separate permit basically and it's industrial discharge permit?

Um I've never seen it thought of it as distinguish between regional and local for the industrial permit to use it um the major contributors in any case.

Let me get back to you with uh specific answer because I I believe when we collect that revenue because we bill intel, there may be a portion that comes back to the City of Hillsborough.

But I don't want to uh give you inaccurate information and I can get back and share that with the rest of council.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

And then the last one.

What what is an operation center?

You are excited about it.

I don't know what it is, but I'm happy it's LC is going to be a good thing.

Lingo it would probably be your public works facility.

Ah, so that the next one is which might be the emergency one would be in Holesboro.

Yes, on Springer Street near the airport.

Great.

Thank you.

Yep.

Uh counselor Solgato.

Good evening.

I have a few questions, so bear with me.

Uh it's about the billing feasibility study.

And sorry if I missed this.

Uh what's the problem you're trying to fix in that?

What's the main problem with the current system?

Depending on who you talk to, you might get different answers to that question.

Okay.

Um of our city partners, basically, who have been billing on our behalf have raised question like, why don't you do your own billing?

Okay.

We have other responsibilities and other priorities, and that's one of the things that we've heard.

Uh we need to evaluate.

There's pros and cons to that.

So right now your residents get a bill jointly billed for both organizations.

If we took on billing of for the regional services, they'd get two bills.

And both bills would have sewer and stormwater rates on it.

And that would be a new level of confusion because people would say, why am I getting double billed after so many decades of getting one bill where it's combined?

There's some efficiencies, obviously, for you as a city to do that.

Um utilities are getting very, very expensive, all utilities.

Um it just has not been looked at for so long.

And it's time.

I think that's where we've decided and the board has decided, look, we've got to take a deep dive.

It's been since 2008.

What is what are the pros and cons of taking on all our billing?

Um what are the the pros and cons to stay with the system we have?

Can we improve the system we have?

Uh just because it's been done the way it's been done for so long doesn't mean it's the best way of doing it or the most efficient.

So I think there's just been a lot of questions that we received, and it's time to take a look at it.

And it's somewhat confusing for customers.

Um they get a utility bill, and sometimes they think it's their sewer bill.

And as you know, it's not just their sewer bill or just their drinking water bill.

Most of the city bills are utility bills and there's other fees and other things on there.

And it's becoming more and more uh expensive for our residents.

So it's just a good time to take a look at what we're doing.

Yeah, on the cost side of it, is there any risk that you know getting a new system is gonna increase the cost for the customer?

Because that's the main main concern for me any time you hear something new, right?

That's that's what I would like for you all to consider long-term impact.

That that's part of evaluating each alternative, because if we were to take on our own billing and change the system that we do now, there's probably going to be, and the the study will dig into the details, there will probably be new costs to CWS.

We probably have to hire more customer service utility billing folks to answer questions.

We would more than likely need a new billing system.

That's not inexpensive.

So there would be costs.

What would those costs be?

Um sticking with the current alternative.

Uh so all the all of the costs associated with the different alternatives will definitely be evaluated as part of the decision of which route to take.

Yeah.

So that cost will probably be included in like the proposal to increase rates for the future.

Potentially, yes.

Yeah.

So I would just encourage that you look at ways to reduce costs at CWS so it doesn't translate to increasing rates for people because I really think it's uh unfair to put it on the on the customers, you know, to put them on a new system when you know there could be potentially ways to re-budget uh the current budget because you know on one end you're talking about uh investing billions of dollars, and on the other end, we might increase costs because we want to improve the billing system, right?

So just consider that because I think it would be unfair to push that cost onto the customers.

Of course, Counselor.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation tonight.

Um I've had the opportunity to partake in the essential course uh with Clean Water Services, and it's very enlightening.

Um a couple questions.

Um one of them is with the projected upcoming projects with Hillsboro uh for the water and sewer projects, which are driven by industrial demand for what's the percentage roughly uh on average, uh the industrial demand versus res residential growth.

Rick, I'm gonna defer more to you on this one.

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna have trouble thinking of it exactly in terms of a percentage.

Um I would I'm trying to do math in my head.

I mean, maybe maybe 20 percent.

Um I will say that the projections include a variety of industrial growth scenarios, um, and those are built into the planning.

So we worked closely with your your planning folks to develop those high, low, and medium growth scenarios so we're able to make adjustments to that.

Um but that's part of where we're at today.

Um we had pr assumed a higher percentage, and you know, things um with where things are today have gone down somewhat.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And the second question I have is for major industrial users, what percent of total lifecycle infrastructure cost is recovered through system development charges?

Is that through you guys that I asked this, or is it with staff that has this?

Um I'm not quite sure I understand the question, but we they are charged SDCs for yeah, any any capacity increases.

Um they are assess SDCs um there in terms of equivalent dwelling units is uh the current SDC setup is is formulated.

Um did that Um it's probably something we can talk more about and do a I can have staff also respond from a city perspective on that.

Um we can send an email to council.

Yeah.

Okay.

No, uh I think that's important, especially as to echo uh Councilor Salgado's concerns.

Um I I think it's important that these cost of uh infrastructure and growth um don't fall on our residents.

Uh it's tough.

And so thank you for the presentation and I look forward to learning more.

Okay.

Thank you.

One thing I do uh want to give you a heads up.

We'll be back probably in the March, April time frame if we uh can get some time with you to talk about rates.

I think it's very important.

One of the things we've heard from our city partners is we don't understand how you develop rates.

Um can you come spend some time talking about how you develop your rates?

Kind of gets to some of your questions, I think, Counselor Sinclair.

Um and what is your rate uh proposal going to be next year?

And we're gonna be also coming with we do a 10-year rate projection uh in terms of what rates will be looking like based on 2025.

Uh we've revisited every year, but we will be going around to all of our cities.

Our CFO, uh Kathy Leader, uh who's been with the district for 20 years and is very knowledgeable in the financial world, and we can maybe touch on some of these questions that you raised when we come back and visit you in a few months.

Um hopefully.

So that's great, Joe.

Any other questions?

Great.

Joe, thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Rick, for being here and congratulations on your new position.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay, moving to item 2.2, annual appointments and reappointments.

Do I have a motion to approve the annual appointments and reappointments?

So moved case.

Thank you.

Second, Sinclair.

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

Uh may I please have a roll call?

Counselor's Alcare.

Case?

Hi.

Ann Ferry?

Aye.

Sinclair?

Aye.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

I.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh moving to item 2.3 appointment for the Metro Policy Advisory Committee.

Do I have a motion to approve the Metro Policy Advisory Committee appointments?

So moved case.

Thank you.

I have a second.

Uh second and discussion.

Uh yeah, is there any discussion?

Just a question.

Why didn't we do this with the others?

That's a great question.

Amber, do you know why we separated out the MPAC?

Um external versus internal boards and commissions.

Got it.

Thank you.

You good?

Great.

Any other discussion?

Okay.

May we please have a roll call.

Counselors Alcair.

Abstain.

I'm sorry, was that an aye?

I I believe I heard abstain.

Abstain.

Abstain.

Okay.

Um, could you just please state the reason for your abstention?

We're gonna go back and find the document.

So it's gonna take me a couple of minutes.

Okay, we'll we'll move on.

Um counselor case.

Ivanie.

I sinclair.

Aye.

Harris?

I salgado.

I thank you.

Are we good?

Okay, great.

Um, thank you.

The motion passes.

Moving to item three, public comment.

Persons wishing to speak will be recognized at this time.

If you are here in person and wish to speak, please fill out a yellow card and hand it to the city recorder, which is Amber Rios, right over there.

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 can speak in their language of choice, and this city recorder can display the translation on our screen here.

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

If you were unable to speak or to sign up to speak prior to the deadline, you're always welcome to email your comments to the city council at any time of day.

Um this is called public comment because it's time dedicated for you to inform the city council about your views and comments are limited to three minutes.

And we will begin.

Actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna also say some of this in Spanish.

Uh gracias a todos por estar aquí, yes y hacer oir o ir tsuvos.

Queremos escuchar de ustedes.

Valoramos a todos en la nuestra comunidad.

Si desean hablar con el conceo en español, pueden hacerlo.

Yenen La Tarjeta Amaría, que se encuentra a la mesa, a la izquierda y entrenguela a Amberos.

Thank you.

Uh, we'll begin hearing from John Grabski.

Mr.

Grabski, please come forward.

Um and you can depress the center button on the console when the light is green, you are heard.

Uh the next person up is Dirk Kenitson.

Dirk, you can take the other seat.

And the person on deck is Aaron Nichols.

Mr.

Grabski, you have three minutes.

Okay, last year I came before this council and asked them when they're giving out this money at the end of the year to get a vote from the people of Hillsborough.

You can decline that.

Okay, now I see that you giving out three quarters of the 200,000 to law services.

Is that law services for illegal aliens?

They're here illegally, and you're using tax money to support them and not the US citizens of the state.

That I would like to know.

So if you could put it in your form here next time you send it out, I would appreciate it.

Uh it just irritates me when I when I see money.

I I don't mind the food assistance and stuff like that.

Girls and uh boys, charities, stuff like that's fine.

But when you're assisting people that are here illegally, that have no authority, that doesn't care about the United States, they have no uh they haven't pledged their allegiance to our our country or government.

See, when I see the Mexican flag and other flags being flown in during these little protests, not the American flag.

So they're not here for America.

So I don't know why people are so against ice to deporting these people.

The previous government was in the uh in this country brought in millions of people illegally.

They even flew them in on our tax dollars.

And I we couldn't do anything about that because of the president was sort of goofy anyway, he's uh he didn't have all his faculties.

So when I see this still happening in our community, because we had a vote here years ago about uh being sanctuary city, it was a tied vote three three.

I was I was sitting in this audience, I come up and speak, and people were threatening the city council, this city with violence if they did not pass it.

Okay, Mayor Calloway did decide a setting vote and passed it.

Okay, Mayor Callaway is a nice guy.

He believed he was doing the right thing.

I still think he he did the wrong thing.

So that's that's my comments.

And I I hope you guys take that seriously because I'm not the only one in this community thinks that we should not be paying people here being here illegally supporting them.

Thank you.

You have a good evening.

Thank you.

Mayor Pace and members of the council.

Tonight I want to talk about two very different Hillsboroughs and how they contrast between them is laying bare the truth about equity and public power in this city.

First, I want to acknowledge something we did right.

The new community flag process was an example of government actually listening.

It was community-led.

It invited stories, values, and ideas.

It involved bilingual outreach, a public vote and thousands of participants.

City staff listened, answered questions, and built a symbol that meant to represent all of us.

They nailed it.

That flag represents the best things from our past.

That's the Hillsborough we're asked to support and believe in.

A place that says it values community, nature, history, technology, and belonging.

A place that says it's committed to harmony, to inclusion into civic pride.

That's but here's the problem with that.

That Hillsboro is not the Hillsboro residents are experiencing when it comes to land and industrial expansion.

Because at the very same time that we will celebrate this flag tonight and in the future with four green panels of farmland and the trillium that symbolizes harmony and honors our indigenous communities.

At the same time we're doing that, we are also watching the city pursue a future that looks like metal, concrete, glass, and fenced-off industrial landscapes built over and erasing the very same land, green fields, and natural systems that those that flag celebrates.

And the biggest issue for me is the process.

If the city can apply meaningful engagement, if we can use equity framework, run a broad outreach campaign, and we invited thousands of people to weigh in.

Then explain to me why Hillsboro residents are not being given that same respect when the subject is 1,700 acres of pristine land, creeks, woods, and permanent changing permanent change to our environment.

We told we live in a place that is equitable and is inclusive.

But when it comes to decisions that will reshape our community for generation, the residents are treated like some kind of an audience sitting and watching.

They're not at being asked to participate.

And I want to say this plainly.

So I'm asking you tonight, do not use the flag as proof that Hillsboro is unified and heard while you move forward with a land and industrial agenda that the public did not meaningfully shape, that the public had no involvement in, at least not in the last decade.

If the flag if that flag process was real, then prove it now when it matters most.

Engage us, show us the maps, meet with us, and show us the environmental stewardship and equity analysis that's needed as we move forward.

The flag versus industrial parks kind of lays this whole topic bare.

And I ask you for public, thank you.

Uh Aaron Nichols and Colleen McGee, you can uh come up and take the other seat.

Thank you.

Erica How Halperin, you're on deck.

Uh Aaron, go ahead.

You have three minutes.

Thank you, Mayor Pace.

Good evening, Mayor Pace, Counselors.

My name is Aaron Nichols.

I live at uh 11,000 Northwest Jackson McCorry Road, Hillsboro, Oregon.

I farm next door.

I came right from work, you can see that I farm, I guess.

Um I'm coming today because I I saw uh I have two children who go to West Union Elementary School.

Um I saw there's a battery storage facility going in across the street from that.

Um and I'm concerned about that on a number of levels.

Um, I'm I'm an advocate for farmland, and I worry about it as uh kind of a a continuing and clearly wasteful use of industrial land.

Um we're losing what could be um you know good job producing and tax and tax producing revenue, producing areas for the city for battery storage, um not something we particularly need.

Um and this is part of a pattern, I think that we've seen for about a decade now.

Um we're you choosing space extensive industrial uses that provide few jobs and little tax revenue.

And I understand the city's now looking for um you know eighteen hundred more acres, supposedly for advanced manufacturing, tax revenue and jobs.

Um it's a little bit off topic, but honestly, if that's actually where possible and where the city's planned, we would have done it with the last two thousand acres and we didn't.

So I think back to the batteries directly.

I think all of us probably are aware on some level that in 20 years or at some point there's gonna be a fire somewhere of a battery for storage facility.

It's gonna put toxic smoke into a community, into into a neighborhood or into a school, and then we'll regulate it.

Um I think there's an obvious problem with that, which is that we don't have to wait for that to happen.

We can we can choose not to put these across from schools right now.

Um I I don't expect that the CEOs of these battery facility companies care about the school.

They don't think they care about the kids.

I mean, you know, we do a fund run every year.

There's a bunch of a bunch of banners of every business that supports the fund run.

And um no data centers, no battery store storage facilities are on there.

Um but I do think that you guys care, and I I do think that you you would like to protect the kids who go to the West Union and all the other schools.

So I think that I know I realize it's probably too late in the process.

This you know, I I did not see this posted at the school.

And so um it's it's something to think about for future future schools, future sightings and and that sort of thing.

Um lastly, I want to suggest that as we move forward with economic development, um, as we move forward with planning and permitting, um, I think we need to look at what benefits our community.

Battery storage across from schools absolutely does not benefit our community.

It only benefits some shareholders somewhere.

AI data centers on farmland, they don't benefit our community, they benefit some billionaires somewhere.

Um this economic development that we've done for the past decade has failed.

And I I don't think this were this where we should be going.

Um it's hurting our farmland, it's you know hurting our kids, and it's hurting our communities, and I I do hope we can do better.

So thank you.

Um Colleen McGee.

Um please press the center button.

You have three minutes, but hold on.

And then Erica, you are up, and then uh Ruben Halpern.

Halperin, you are on deck.

Uh Colleen, go ahead.

Yes.

Yeah.

What kind of spurred me to come here back in October?

I had an instant health incident.

And um it put me out of work.

And in the hospital for a couple of days.

And a lot of what brought it on was a lot of stress.

And looking back at a lot of the things, the last couple of years, my rent has gone up exponentially.

That's fine.

I'm working, I can work, and I've been putting in more work.

I'll just work harder.

And you know, working into the night a little bit more.

Well, you know, that caused problems, and um, and then I have this issue.

And doing all this I have time to look at your uh at some of the other meetings that you guys have, and there's no question that the sanctuary status, it is the many people say you have people in here that aren't that aren't legal, it puts a burden, and I was talking with my property management company, they they they agree it puts a burden on them.

They can't you you talk about moratoriums.

Somebody once said here that uh that you don't want the moratoriums to be a burden on the landlords.

It can't help that.

To have I have some statistics here.

It's things about uh the statistics of of legal illegal uh people that coming in, um some of the crime statistics, the city of Hillsborough, they don't they they the yeah the police, they don't I'm sorry, I'm getting a little bit nervous here.

But but they don't record, you know, how many of the illegals or you know how much of the crime is happening by them.

But I go to the f the federal statistics, about 88% of the non-citizen sentencing are illegal aliens.

Now that's federal.

But what about what is here?

And there's different ways, like I was just saying, how it causes like housing to go up.

The price of uh the of the cost when when you say moratoriums and you give them aid, you have to give uh put more taxes on our landlords, on us.

We need to have law and order.

It's not right, it's not right in the side of God.

Um the first sanctuary cities in in the Bible, they were to for the innocent to help the innocent protect the innocent, not to harbor those who might be breaking the law, the ICE people, somebody said, you know, uh I know I have very little time left.

But I you you talk about they're not doing anything to or they're your time is up.

Your time is up, and we'll be moving to Erica Halperin and then Ruben Halperin.

You can come into that seat.

You waving me off?

Okay, so Ruben now.

Is this on now?

Okay.

Uh it is.

Wait one second, please.

Thank you.

So Ruben, are you saying you do not want to come up?

All right, thank you.

Uh and then Myra Contreras, uh, you can take your seat.

Erica, thank you for waiting.

Uh you have three minutes.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

My name is Erica Halperin.

I'm here as an area resident to request the council address the community's concerns about the expansion of the urban growth boundary for the purpose of welcoming more data centers.

It appears critical decisions are being made while intentionally excluding public input and community needs with respect to questions around who are all of the parties involved, who is footing the bill or will be footing the bill for infrastructure expansion costs, such as expanding the electrical grid.

What will be the impact on the ongoing availability of clean water long term?

And why should the community provide significant financial incentives in the form of tax breaks and shouldering infrastructure expansion costs without any return in the form of long-term employment opportunities and franchise income desperately needed to address fundamental community needs?

Who's benefiting from the urban growth boundary expansion and why aren't the costs to quality of life, the environment, and community members' needs being considered.

And that was all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Umra, uh just to press that middle button when the light turns green, you're on, and then Joanna Soto, you can come and take the other uh seat.

And the person on deck is Marla or Maria.

Um Maria?

Okay.

Okay.

Maria, you're on deck.

Okay.

Myra, go ahead, you have three minutes.

Good evening, Marin City Council members.

As you know, my name is Myra Contreras, and I'm the owner of Myra's Cupcakes and more.

Um I wanted to begin by thanking you uh for the progress you've made providing grants to businesses affected by ICE informants in our area.

Your efforts have not gone unnoticed.

And they truly mean a great deal to our community.

After hearing the timeline in the workshop session today, I have to say that makes me well that makes us a little nervous.

I would like to see progress, hopefully, on the next couple of meetings.

That being said, the last time I stood before you, I spoke on behalf of Latino owned businesses like mine.

Tonight, I'm here speaking not only as a Latino business owner, but as a micro business owner.

What many call mom and pop business.

Um I'm one of many, as you can see here tonight.

Uh we are here to respectfully ask that you consider us in your grant disbursement.

Not necessarily first, but somewhere on your list.

Uh we understand that many small businesses are suffering right now, not only the Latino, I've seen it.

Um we are just simply asking for a chance.

When making your decision, please remember that micro businesses like ours have a long ladder to climb.

Behind each business is a family, a dream.

And with your support, these dreams become a reality.

I'm sure whether I s I'm unsure whether I'm still here in a month or so.

But please consider the ones standing behind me.

Gosh, I don't want to get emotional.

Each of them are holding a handwritten sign with their businesses.

Please engrave those names in your memory.

With your help, perhaps one day you'll see those names proudly displayed on the storefronts of their own brick and mortar.

Um and that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

I've seen so much progress.

I'm very proud of you guys.

Um I know you know pros-cons and everything, but from our standpoint, you guys are doing a great job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Joanna Soto and then Maria.

You can come up to the other seat.

Um you have three minutes, yes.

And do you want to translate?

Yes.

Can we have that in Spanish, please?

Ready?

Uh use your uh micro microphone.

Okay.

And so lespido por favor.

Uno momento.

How are we doing, Amber?

Yeah.

Lo siento.

No tenemos traducir una manera.

Okay.

Okay.

My nombre is Johanna Soto.

So let's go ahead and no nos olviden, for favor.

No hemos pagado la renta de los negocios.

No sabemos qué hacer.

Ya no nos visitan mucho los Latinos que van con nosotros.

Los niños están solos in casa también cuidándose.

My esposo y yo trabajamos solamente para mantenernos.

Tenemos muchas deudas.

Con las tarjetas de crédito, el banco.

It's mucho estrés.

Muchas personas de estos negocios necesitamos ayuda, por favor.

Solo ustedes nos pueden ayudar.

María, quiero hablar inspanol.

Sí, okay.

Can we have the translation again, please?

Okay.

Okay.

Entonces, usted quedó de ayudarnos cuando fue a Plaza Paisanos.

Somos pequeños negocios, pero generamos empleos.

Nosotros generamos empleos.

Hay gente que contratamos.

Se están quedando sin trabajo.

Nosotros no vamos a aguantar.

Si ustedes no nos ayudan, vamos a tener que cerrar nuestros negocios.

Nosotros pagamos impuestos.

Nosotros contribuimos a la ciudad, al Estado.

Pagamos permisos.

Vendamos o no vendemos.

Tenemos que pagar el permiso si no nos cierran.

También quería ver si nos podían ayudar en eso.

Porque hay veces que no tenemos ni siquiera para pagar el permiso.

Son 374 dollars que luego a veces no los tenemos.

Las ventas desde que está pasando todo esto de lights.

Estamos solos in la plaza.

Vamos para ver si podemos vender algo, pero no vendemos nada porque la gente no llega.

Ya estamos desesperados.

Hay muchos comerciantes que ya se han ido.

Porque como les digo, generamos también nosotros empleos.

No nomás es para nosotros.

Contratamos gente.

Si no nos ayudan.

Vamos a ser.

Estamos in the necessity that you appoint.

Because if no nos appoint not to vener above that ustedes stand ayudando a los que tienen mas of empleados.

Nosotros también mas de dos empleados, aunque sean pequeños negocios.

Gracias, Maria.

Gracias.

The next person is Antonio Mendoza.

Please depress the button in the center of the console.

There you go.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Antonio Mendoza.

I'm the manager for Paisanos Plaza.

I'm here to ask some uh for some uh serious help.

Um vendors are completely struggling with this issue that is currently going on.

Paisanos Plaza is on the edge of collapsing pretty soon.

We have two locations.

This is the main location, paysanos Plaza Hillsborough, and we have the other location in Gresham.

Our other location, I think it's in the edge already.

We're considering closing that location in order to survive.

Now if we don't get any help on the Hillsborough location, it's gonna be our second location to close.

And uh a lot of people depend on Paisanos Plaza, and seems like nobody's uh doing much to help us out.

A lot of people depend on Paisanos Plaza, family members, they have their families working at Paisanos Plaza.

Lots of them they're unable to pay the rent.

We are struggling at the moment.

We're not even making half of the payment currently.

We're just making it.

Our budgets, they're they're completely drained.

Manuel, the owner, he's been going through some hard times in order to make this and make this the plaza survive.

He has lost his house in order to make payments that he's been getting behind.

So currently, Manuel, he doesn't have a home right now anymore.

He has he had to sell his house in order to make it to stretch it a little bit more.

So we're just asking for help.

Not for just us, but for our vendors and their families, because they really depend on us, and we depend on them.

We don't have no help, we don't have no help from that, you know, for our vendors and ourselves.

We're closing.

And we don't want to do that.

Community the community knows us really well now.

And we're that's all we need.

We need some help.

Figure out a way to survive us and our vendors.

So please help us.

Let's figure out a way to make us survive through this issue.

Other than that, you know.

Um we're closing.

That's time.

Thank you, Antonio.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next speaker is Liliana Castro.

Liliana quiere uh can we switch it to Spanish, Amber.

Okay.

Oh my gosh, my name is Liliana Cabello, so I propose of Miss Raulitos Toys, Kimberly's beauty and Raulitos Wailez.

Uh in my look, I'm agree to permit escuchar nostra voice in number of nostrils negotiating.

Necessitori.

It's algo que verdaderamente uno va a trabajar con muchos alegrías, muchachos, pero lamentablemente hasta nos estamos enfermando stress de depression for the fact that you soon negotiate to the time we have enters when I get in casa you stress.

Gracias.

Do we have any more public comment, Mayor?

No, there's no more public comment.

You mind if I take a few minutes?

Go ahead.

Oh sorry, we have one more.

Okay, please hold Lara.

Candido.

Thank you, Maya.

Candido quiere hablar in Spaniel.

Okay.

Are we good, Amber?

This is gonna go from Spanish to English.

Okay.

My name is Candido Lara.

You're still de Oregon 35 years.

But in the pandemic various audience.

You find a person who received poquito.

But in my caso, and in the caso de vario de my companies that are the rent se nos accumulation, accumulando and escuchamos that you ayudar a nosot como pequeños negociantes.

Because if you don't ayud, various, various.

And she brought this negotiation of the MN is a familiar donde va much.

Much of different gentlemen of different luggage.

So if you believe some of the things that you heard today about how sanctuary cities encourage criminals to move here and how undocumented immigrants have a higher increase of violence.

Research you have you had three minutes to talk.

Research the data.

If you believe the lies that were told today, Mr.

Grabsby excuse me, Counselor Sogato, Mr.

Grabsky, I'm gonna ask you to not speak while Councillor Sogato is speaking.

Thank you.

That's fine.

If you if you believe the lies about the crime rates related to undocumented immigrants, I encourage you to do your research.

That's not what the facts say.

That's not what the research say.

There's a lot of expert researchers out there that have done this work and they tell you that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes for a variety of reasons that I'm not gonna get into right now.

So that's what I encourage and I that's why I think it's our responsibility to speak up when people come in here and and demonize our vulnerable communities.

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

May I please give a roll call.

Councillors Alcare Councillor Alcair.

Okay.

Councillor Case.

Hi.

Anvary?

Hi.

Sinclair.

Hi.

Harris?

Hi.

Salgato.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Um there are no public hearings, there's no unfinished business.

Do I have a motion to adopt ordinance number six five one one?

So moved case.

Do I have a second?

Harris second.

Is there any discussion?

May I please have a roll call.

Counselors Alcair.

Case?

Aye.

Anvery.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Hi.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

Hi.

Thank you.

Ordinance number six five one one is adopted.

Moving to new business, item eight point one.

Consider adopting consider uh consider adopting a resolution to adopt the Hillsborough community flag.

Resolution number 2909 is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt resolution number 2909?

So moved.

Case.

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

Councilor Sogato, did you have a comment?

No.

No, I just seconded it.

Okay.

I do want to make a comment during discussion.

I just want to thank the Civic Leadership Academy and all the um community members that gave input to the Civic Leadership Academy for developing this new flag.

And I think this is a a great day that we or a great evening that we get to adopt a community flag.

And I also want to thank Michaela Kennedy for leading that Civic Leadership Academy class.

May we please have a roll call.

Counselor Zalkare.

I'm going to ask I wasn't present when this flag was presented and the content of what it's supposed to represent.

Okay.

Case?

Aye.

Anvary.

Aye.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Aye.

Salgado.

Aye.

Thank you.

Resolution number two nine zero nine is adopted.

Moving to item 8.2.

Consider completing the annual review process and approving a second amendment to the city's employment contract with city manager Robbie Hammond, including any budget revisions and necessary transfer appropriations.

Do I have a motion to approve the completion of the annual review process and the second amendment to the city's employment contract?

Salgado motions.

Okay.

Do I have a second?

Is there any discussion?

May I please have a roll call?

Councillors Alcair.

I'm going to abstain.

I didn't participate any further than providing the city manager with feedback about performance.

This is my ninth year on council and the first time that I'm doing that.

But I'm making that conscious decision.

And if the city manager wants to have a conversation with me about why, I'm happy to do that.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Counselor's case.

Aye.

Anverie.

Aye.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Harris.

Hi.

Salgado.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Moving to item nine, city manager report.

I'll turn the time over to Robbie Hammond, our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, two items uh that I wanted to share with the council uh this evening and with the public.

Uh first, um, 2026 is a historic year at the city of Hillsborough.

After serving communities since October 9 of 18, 79, 1876, the city will celebrate our 150th anniversary this year.

Our proxy recreation department special events team and are organizing a culminating event on aug in October on the Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza in coordination with the Hillsborough Farmers Market.

We are also displaying a special 150th anniversary city logo, which you can see up on the screen on the city website in 2026.

Uh this logo reflects Hillsborough Agricultural Roots in balance with modern progress and the city's commitment to service.

The city's 150th anniversary webpage will share more detailed details as the year progresses.

And second, finally, uh the parks and recreation special events team just wrapped up Litopia, and our days are away from finishing up Winter Village.

As a reminder, this was Litopia's final year at the Gordon Favor Recreation Complex, and we had nearly 17,000 cars enjoy driving through those lights.

Um we had about 200 bicyclists that did the same thing during bike night in partnership with the West Side Transportation Alliance and Ride West Side.

Meanwhile, many winter village ice skating sessions have reached the 50-person maximum, and special events like the holiday youth market and frosty fun have served around 2,000 people.

One more big event is this Saturday, International Day, which will feature Hawaiian and Bollywood dancers, a Latino uh a Latin American guitarist, and Nepalis, Mexican and Dutch food.

Search for Winter Village to get all the details on our website.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robbie.

Moving to item 10 advice and information.

Community members who want to be informed and engaged on city council matters can sign up to receive happening in Hillsborough email newsletters.

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

And with that, the city council meeting is adjourned.

The recording has stopped.