All right, good afternoon, everyone.

This Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 meeting of the Lake Oswego City Council is now called to order.

Ms.

Hawkins, will you please call the role?

Mayor Buck.

Here.

Councilor Raf is excused.

Counselor Afkin is on Zoom.

Council Maboob.

Yeah.

Gwenlin.

Here.

Verdict.

Here.

And Corrigan.

Here.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Now, everyone, will you please stand remove your hats to join us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation.

Under God, indivisible with liberty to justice for all.

The first item on our agenda tonight is public comment.

And if you are here to provide public comment and have not already done so, please fill out one of the blue uh sign-up sheets on the back table and hand it to Miss Hawkins.

But first up is Sean Christianson.

Please come forward.

And when you folks can you come forward, you have three minutes.

Just introduce yourself, just your uh name is great, and uh there's a timer there to help you with the uh the three minute parameter.

It's great to have you here.

Hello.

Thank you, Jane.

Oh, good.

Is it working?

Yeah, uh, I'd like to introduce myself.

Um, my name is Sean Christensen.

I've been an LO resident since 1997, and I plan on having roots to this community probably for the rest of my life.

It's an amazing safe place to live.

I want to thank you guys um for putting together the programming last year.

I thought the concerts at Westlake Park last year were amazing.

I had an amazing time with um Hit Machine.

I don't know if you guys attended these.

Yes and the Journey Band.

I think there's 4,000 people, something like this.

Um organization, Portland Festival Symphony has a pretty strong relationship with this city.

So um Loosh Ballot obviously has lived in this community since 1967.

Um we are hiring a new musical director, Jonathan DeBrine, who's a graduate of Lakeridge High School.

Um, I'm not sure.

He's probably 30, so whoever that is.

He's 32 or three.

He's a real young, uh incredibly talented uh uh musician, and we re really believe that oh, I'm Michael Harrison, by the way.

Um so glad to be here.

But he he's uh uh he's the the hire that we believe is gonna be the next legacy.

He's he's going to be the next Loush.

And uh and he has that passion for it, and those are also his personal plans to help take this organization to another level.

Um I just want to say that your park staff have been amazing.

If I could just summarize why we're here in one sentence, it would be this is that um I think that the our organization has some unique needs that don't fit into the mold of a traditional summer concert.

It's easy to bring four or five people from a rock and roll band or or whatnot, but 53 people, 53 opinions, um, a lot of things going on here.

And our founder has expressed some interest in some um ideas that are outside of the box.

So I thought I'd let Mr.

Well Michael uh kind of expand on uh kind of our vision and maybe our working relationship with the city and how um we can you know accomplish some things that some people want to have accomplished in their lifetime.

Well, as we go through this transition, uh especially because Laosh is now becoming an elder and really thinking about his mortality.

And so he uh I think he has a certain urgency about a lot of issues and he has a lot of ideas, and so we're helping him, you know, with those ideas.

And but first of all, we want to also thank you for your commitment to this concert that we do in Foothills Park.

And uh, we're definitely committed to that.

And uh and uh I think we all believe that that it's become a tradition.

And so we we're kind of thinking that way.

We would love to be a tradition every year and plan on that foothills park um extravaganza.

You know, there's been some talk about maybe doing something at Westlake.

The biggest topic I think for Laosh right now is he has this giant concert performance shell.

So imagine you're gonna go see a concert like at the Hollywood Bowl.

And I think it's in one of your storage areas right now.

So and it's been there a couple of years, so I think that issue needs to be addressed and figure out what needs to happen with that.

Where possibly can it be placed to the advantage of the city of Lake Oswego, where it can be a fixture that can be used.

And maybe it's called the Lake Oswego Bowl, you know.

Come up with something creative where it really becomes an asset for the city and not just an opportunity for the Portland Festival Symphony to use to perform in, but for others.

You can bring in all sorts of you know different acts to come and use that shell.

It's very valuable.

And once it's placed, it's it's it's only going to be one fee to place it, and it's I mean, it's a stout structure.

It was it stood for years over at Merrillhurst.

And uh, but I that that needs to be addressed so perhaps maybe you can get in touch with it in the future and we can have a little powwow around that and have some creative ideas.

Uh one of the really fun ideas that that Lauch had is he he really thinks you should have some young people, you know, playing the piano here, you know, before your council meetings, which I think is really fun.

I hadn't been here before, but you know, it'd be easy to put a beautiful piano in the corner right there that looks like this desk has wheels on it.

You could just move it out, and you could place a piano here in the middle, and you got this, you know, all these wonderful chairs here, and and maybe through also my nonprofit play it forward, and we'd be happy to donate a piano to the city.

And and maybe you could have a rotation of some kids playing like a two or three minute piece, you know, to start the meeting and just get everybody in a happy mood, or you can you can do some community concerts here with the different piano players in the area, and there's also you could partner really easily with the Steinway store.

They have the list of all the teachers and all the kids who are everywhere.

Um anyways, I just want to let you know I am at your disposal to be part of any kind of creative think tank to help with any ideas that you might think of.

And uh, and and I'm also here really to get behind Laosh and his legacy because I I have a long history with him and I love him so much.

And but you know, he's becoming an elder, and and so sometimes some of these ideas we need to be a little more delicate with him and help him along because he you know he deserves that kind of respect.

Yes.

Thank you both very much and we appreciate being here.

Thank you.

Chris Turkey.

I like the piano corner detecting, yeah.

Very fancy.

Hi, Mr.

Durkey.

Hi, good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, counselors, city manager, and staff.

Um I'm here to give you an update on the Citizens Committee advocating for the bond funding the South Shore Fire Station.

Um, but first, I want to congratulate all of you for the amazing results in the recent community survey.

You know, in this in this day when public trust of government at all levels is declining.

You have have done an amazing job of keeping trust in our government here high.

Um amazing results.

So congratulations and especially congratulations to the fire department and the police department for their incredible 97 percent public trust number and maintaining that consistently over the past several years.

Our committee is the Lake Oswego Fire Station Rebuild PAC number 24619.

We were certified by the Oregon Secretary of State on the 5th of December, and as of last month, we're operating independently from city staff.

We're a citizen-led citizen-funded committee.

We have three directors.

Jeff Goodman is our finance chair, Carrie Love is a director, and I'm honored to serve as chair.

We're fortunate also to have Mary Kay Larson, who led the school bond, successful school bond just recently as an advisor helping us make sure we know what deadlines are out there and what forms need to be filled out.

Um and the bookkeeping firm that is serving as our treasurer is the uh the firm that Jeff has used in the past uh financial peace bookkeeping.

Our committee has 25 members right now, but we're uh I anticipate we'll be adding a few more in the coming weeks.

Twelve of us served on the South Shore Fire Station Task Force, so there's a lot of continuity there.

Um the balance of the committee are formed uh by residents from all over the city.

Kerry Love, uh within the committee, we have several teams focusing on specific tasks.

Kerry Love is um currently building our website, which should be up in January.

There are five of us uh on the speaking team.

We have 10 engagements already planned and more to come.

Ten folks are working on endorsements.

Our goal is 10 arguments in favor in the voter information guide, and I'll be calling on city council and you, Mr.

Mayor, for an endorsement here in the near future.

Um three committee members are working on written uh media, two are working on electronic media, but we need more on that.

So if anybody, if you know anyone who's fluent in next door and TikTok and Facebook and and those, we could use that help.

Can I buy a few more seconds?

Go ahead.

Um be canvassing in the in the the uh two weeks leading up to the election in May.

Um fundraising will begin in earnest in January, but right now we have six hundred and fifty dollars on hand and pledges for an additional three thousand dollars so far.

So we're we're I I think we're in good shape right during the holiday season heading into next year.

Largest expenditures we anticipate will be filing fees for the letters of endorsement and a targeted postcard mailer.

And of course, we're always happy to accept contributions.

Um I'll provide regular updates to the council uh between now and the election in May.

Uh but please let me know if you have suggestions or ideas or questions.

Um I'm anxious to continue the the the dialogue.

And and I respect the fact that each of you have been through similar campaigns of your own.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Jerkey.

Thanks for your advocacy.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Jeff Goodman and Travis Duncan.

Hi, gentlemen.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Manager.

My name is Jeff Goodman.

I reside at 4088 Orchard Way.

I've been a resident in Lake Oswego since 1976.

I'm here today to introduce Travis Duncan.

He is the CEO of Mary's Woods.

Uh I have the pleasure of serving on the board there.

Uh and I think this may come as a shock to several of you.

I also serve as the treasurer on the board.

Uh Travis joined Mary's Woods as a CEO a little over a year ago.

Uh, has been getting his hands around it.

Mary's Woods is the 24th largest standalone uh senior living community in the country.

Now that he has his hands much better around the operation, uh he's looking to get forward to getting more engaged in the community.

And I wanted to introduce him and he'll take it from here.

Great.

Um thank you for having me here, and thank you, Jeff, for the introduction.

Um it's been a tough year, first year uh moving in.

I just want to say um how blessed I am that this community is in Lake Oswego.

What a lovely city uh for it to be in.

Um it's just such a special place.

It just feels so separate from Portland, and you know, our residents feel that um as well.

So thank you for all that you do to keep it what it is.

Um one thing I don't think our community does well is reach out to the broader community um in the sense of Lake Oswego, where the, as I understand it, the second largest employer, and we do very little um to bring the city in or to give back to the city in many ways.

And so um one thing I asked Jeff to do is tell me make these introductions so that I can um kind of kind of pledge what our community can do, and that is really become bigger part of Lake Uswego to participate more, to uh support more in any way we can to bring you know the larger community in to support us more.

And so that's really um why I wanted to be here today, not not with any particular ask, but just to say we're we're here, and hopefully in the next year we can engage um so much more in a meaningful way with with our broader community.

Okay.

So if any of you have ideas on what that could look like, um I'm I've connected with the chamber.

I did the podcast, as I know some of you have.

And so um, but if there's anything you need, if there's anything we can support, if there's um anything that Mary's Woods can do for the city, please let us know.

We're we're here to be a part of it.

Well, yes, yes, excuse me.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Um, I just want to say thank you to Mary's Woods for the work you did several years ago to allow us to do vaccination clinics on your campus, and also thank you for being a partner with our what we have called Rover and now is about to become the Bookmobile.

We really have appreciated being able to collaborate with all of you about that.

So I know you say you want to get better connected, but we found you to be a great partner so far.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Ms.

Bennett.

Thank you.

Uh really nice to meet you.

All right.

Mr.

Goodman, thank you for bringing Travis in for engagement.

Thank you.

Look forward to working together.

Mr.

Goodman is buried next to my mother in Silverton.

I'm Jeff.

Jeff Wains.

Jeff number two.

Good afternoon.

Good evening, Mayor.

Members of the City Council and City Staff.

My name is Jeff Weens.

I live in Lake Oswego.

At the last city council meeting, you discussed gas blowers and landscaping equipment.

I was thinking about that meeting, and I had an aha moment that night at 2 a.m.

If there was a ban on gas-powered landscaping equipment, this would mean that all of the Lake Oswego employees will be using electric.

This includes all of the parks.

On my morning walk in Old Town, I can hear the gas leap blowers being used at George Rogers Park.

When gas blowers are no longer being used, I will be able to walk into the park without holding my breath.

This includes the public works department and the school district.

The school district will not violate a city ordinance.

This means that the schools will be free from gas-powered landscaping equipment.

Imagine that.

The large landscaping companies will go electric as well.

If you own a large landscaping business, you are not going to violate the Lake Oswego ordinance.

Like no smoking in restaurants, they will comply.

These landscaping companies manage many of the HOA and commercial properties in Lake Oswego.

Apartments, condominiums, and townhouses use professional companies to maintain their properties.

If the landscapers are using electric equipment, the people in this community will be very grateful.

Also, if electric landscaping equipment is the only option, then the company submitting bids for the landscaping contracts will be electric only.

All bids involve the use of electric and no gas.

There will be no price alternative.

The smaller landscape businesses will use will see the larger companies going electric and will know the change is coming.

There is a growing list of landscapers that use battery equipment.

I was in East Portland a couple of hours ago at Stark Street Home and Gardens, and the battery equipment is flying out of that store.

The Portland landscapers are preparing for this transition from gas to electric.

The Cress brand is so advanced it's changing all of the numbers from cost and efficiency.

This is a public issue.

The sooner these landscape companies are told that they have to go electric, the more time they will have to prepare.

Let's not wait to correct a public health issue.

Let's do the right thing and ban the use of gas-powered landscaping equipment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Waynes.

Diane Cassidy.

Oh, please uh hand to Ms.

Hopkins.

Diane Cassidy, 3601 Rennes Street.

Like us we go.

Um I'm commenting tonight on the zoning at um uh cruise um cruiseway plaza.

And I don't want like us we go, um, the city and the staff to be taken in by what's going on there.

The owners of the property have claimed that there are their business is going downhill, and that is their need that is what's um prompting their need to want to change to a residential zoning of R0.

They do have there is a residential zoning of R3 there now.

But um when I was in the buildings um about a couple of months ago, I was there to see um uh a doctor who had already moved out, and then I went back uh last week and a couple weeks before.

The places were empty.

I went through every single building on every single floor, and I could count all of these empty suites.

And the few people I were was there and talked to said that there I asked why is this place so empty?

And they said, because the owner was not renewing their leases.

Well, in order to, I by the way, I own commercial real estate.

I own offices.

And I know that if my business is going downhill and I'm have a lot of vacancies, I'm gonna be lowering my rents, I'm gonna be advertising.

I'm gonna be doing everything I can to get people in because I can't operate.

So these are large properties, and they are intentionally allowing these places, these offices to be vacant.

Um this is a plan on their part, and I haven't talked to anybody, the owners to know why they're doing this, but it takes a several years to go through all of the leases.

Leases are don't all come up at the end of the year.

They're staggered, they're you know, three year leases, two year leases, five.

And um, one of the tenants said that they're leaving at the end of the year.

Another one has a large amount of space, said that the um Schornstein is moving them into one of the other places along Meadows Road.

So that space will be emptied also.

So they're just emptying the places out.

This is intentional.

Whatever they're saying in the in their application for a zone change or in the newspaper about poor business, it's not true.

Like us, we go in the cruiseway area is one of the hottest spots in the Portland metro area, that and the Tiger Triangle.

Um I read the um brokerage reports and I know what um what's out there.

Um I'm very concerned because our comprehensive plan that I was deeply involved in, along with lots and lots of people in this community, is being just basically ripped up and thrown away because the comprehensive plan is a land use planning tool that the state requires that is a bottom up.

Ms.

Cass, can you bring it to conclusion?

Okay.

Right now, the city is being dictated to and it's a top-down.

We must get back to citizen direct direction on what happens to that land.

Thank you, Ms.

Castie.

Thank you very much.

Is there anyone else who'd like to provide public comment?

Okay.

We're gonna move on now to the consent agenda.

We have two items on the consent agenda approval of meeting minutes from October 21st and November 4th.

Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

To adopt the consent agenda, please.

Second.

I think I can motion made by Council one and seconded by Council Verdict.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, okay.

Um motion passes 60.

Okay, next uh item on the agenda is a public hearing.

This is consideration of resolution 25-10, revising fees and charges and updating the Lake Osugu master fees and charges schedule.

We have finance director Sean Cross here to provide the uh staff report, and then we will have the public uh hearing, but we'll start with the staff report, please.

Go ahead.

Maybe mayor, council.

Um I was here November 18th uh for a study session.

There were no changes.

Uh the one thing we did talk about was coming back later next year, early next year to talk more about uh the street fees and that.

But uh, as far as this version of the master fees and charges that would go into effect January 1st, there were no changes, so I don't really have anything else.

Okay, we'll see.

Does anyone have any questions for Director Cross?

No questions.

Okay, thank you, Director Cross.

Stay close.

We're gonna go ahead and and open the public hearing.

This is a little legislative uh hearing.

Folks will have uh five minutes for individuals to testify 10 minutes for representatives of neighborhood associations.

I have one person who has signed up to testify.

It's Miss Cassidy who was just here.

Is there's anyone else?

Is there anyone else who's gonna want to testify on this?

Oh, okay.

Here, Miss Cassidy, come on, come on forward.

You'll have five minutes to deliver your your testimony.

Oh, it won't take that long.

Okay.

Um hi.

My um I looked over the the fees and um and um I have no comments on any particular fee.

What my concern is um is that from the way I see the city, city's priorities and goals as far as their spending, I'm concerned that um that the city council is not being as um concerned as they should be about the word affordable housing.

You look at some kind of new housing or people of low means, but you don't consider the people who actually live here and how hard it is for some of them, especially those older people on fixed incomes, to pay their bills.

Um every time the there's a lot of people, I mean, I know some who live in condos and said, Well, this is gonna be where I stay because I can't afford my house anymore.

And then Zap that you know, I know that condos my son lives in.

The water bill is the biggest bill there is, and that kept us from putting a roof on one year.

Um when it took a big jump.

There are people that couldn't afford a raise in the um in the monthly fees for the condo association.

These things trickle down and they affect a huge number of people.

Like us, we go has 31% of the people are over 60 years old.

Five percent of the people over 65 live in poverty, and I estimated very, very, very roughly that that would be about 600 people over 65 on some kind of a fixed or limited income.

Um if you're not there yet, you will be.

Um I'm concerned that when you talk about building sidewalks and um and uh what am I want to say?

A new library or a or bike pathways, that these non-essentials um these are non-essentials.

These are things that people can live without, but we can't live without water.

We can't live without the sewer, and you have no control over the electricity, but these are the things that make this city affordable or not.

I saw that on the charts, Portland is worse, but that isn't the uh the type of measure that we should be heading for.

Oh, we're not as bad as Portland.

Um there are other places like Sherwood that has half the rates that we do on water.

So um I know you're going forward with a new sewage treatment plant.

Um I know that last water uh facil water treatment facility bumped our cost up just tremendously.

Um course the lowest project, but every single thing, even though it's improvement that's necessary, there's got to be an awareness of who's of the end payer, and that these things touch people and not just everybody who lives on the lake or has a lot of money.

Not everybody does.

And we have to you have to watch our pennies for us.

There's not an unlimited source of money out there.

And if there is, we get to spend it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Cassidy.

Just uh last call for testimony on this.

Anyone go at once?

Okay.

Go ahead and close the public hearing and move to uh deliberation.

Would someone like to make a motion?

Uh resolution 25-10.

Move to add the resolution 2510.

Second.

Okay.

Motion's been made by Councillor Boop and seconded by Councillor Corgan.

Uh we'll now have uh discussion.

Do you have anything?

Any discussion.

The only thing I had is just that um, you know, perhaps in the in the spring we could look at some of the options for the uh, you know, we we spend a considerable amount of general fund money in the street fund, and we could maybe explore just some options to take some of that pressure off um out there to um without um without decreasing the resources in the street fund.

What did you all think about that?

Explore options.

Correct?

Anyone?

I'm great with exploring options, not necessarily to take it out to reduce the city budget contribution.

I mean, I look at it as we need to find out if what we have that we're spending will maintain our pavement index to an acceptable level that we all agree to.

Yes.

So that's all that it I mean, and it means that we are in great shape.

Maybe the number goes down.

I don't think so because I've been around for long enough to know that pavement is one of the most expensive um items, but it's also the most coveted, enjoyed, and respected and wildly accepted um uh actions that we can do as a city when somebody gets their street paved, they're very happy for a very long time.

So no one disagrees with that.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other discussion?

Okay.

All right, let's take a vote.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Motion passes 6-0.

Moving on to council business item 8.1.

This is consideration of resolution 25-49.

This is authorizing an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Portland for wastewater treatment.

We have our director of special products, Stefan Brottis here with us this afternoon.

Mr.

Bodis.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Counselors.

Thank you for having me.

And today I uh bring forward for your review and approval uh the work product of staff from City of Lake Aswego, City of Portland, uh, to uh manage and guide our wastewater treatment uh for the foreseeable future.

So the agenda for today's presentation is brief.

I want to accomplish three things.

One, I want to give a brief overview of the history of the IGA.

It's in been in place for quite a bit, so I want to take a quick minute to talk about what it accomplished and how we carry forward the mission of that IGA into the future.

I then want to take a few minutes to discuss the highlights of the current IGA that I present to you today, and then spend a little bit of time talking about some of the next steps on uh the project as a whole.

So brief history of the wastewater IGA in 1984, uh the first IGA was executed with the city of Portland.

And as I wrote up here, uh kind of the the overarching theme or mission of that IGA was to provide a fair and equitable cost recovery model.

Uh and so that was, in other words, a way for uh the city of Portland to recover their costs uh for that treatment plant from the city of Lake Oswego and it be done in a fair and equitable way.

So that IgA has been in place ever since.

So for the last 40 plus years, we have been operating successfully under the terms and conditions that were set forth in that IGA.

Uh rewind just a few years ago in September of 2020, uh, the two cities executed what was known as the interim IGA.

And so the purpose of that document was to establish the cost share components for exploring the feasibility of the replacement wastewater treatment facility.

And so again, continuing that mantra from the 84 IGA of a fair and equitable cost recovery, that interim IGA established the cost shares while the two cities were determining if this new replacement facility was something that we wanted to pursue.

And so uh that brings us to today, the um Title 2025 IGA again continues that fair and equitable cost recovery model, and this time we're establishing terms and conditions for how we will design, construct, operate, and maintain the new facility.

So with these three IGAs up here, it can become a little um confusing on how they function um relative to each other, and did one terminate the one before it?

And so I wanted to give a quick graphic of how these three work because it it is a little confusing.

So the 1984 IGA has been in effect for like I mentioned for the past 40 plus years.

It does not get terminated with the passing of the interim IGA from a few years ago.

It does not get terminated with the passing of this 2025 IGA today.

It will in fact stay in effect until the new plant is commissioned and the existing plant is decommissioned.

And why is that?

It's because until that new plan is online, the existing plant will continue to operate.

And while that existing plant is operational, the I 1984 IGA governs essentially how much we pay Portland for that wastewater treatment.

So that IGA will stay in effect until the day in which um the existing plan is decommissioned, and there are provisions within the 2025 IGA that talk about the timelines for um formally terminating that 1984 IGA and some of the actions that occur upon that termination.

Uh so that goes to the interim IGA.

Again, that one does not terminate with the execution of this 2025 IGA.

Instead, it will stay in place until our contract is executed for the new plant.

And the reason for that is the interim IGA established terms and conditions for if the cities decide that to not pursue the new facility.

Now, even at this point, that is not expected.

That's not preferred and not ideal.

But it is still a possible outcome at this point.

And so that interim IGA technically is still in effect in the scenario that that occurs.

That interim IGA will provide the terms and conditions that will govern the cost share between Portland and Lake Oswego for the cost incurred to date for exploring the new facility.

And then finally, the 2025 IGA would go into effect today and then be into effect the intent of it would be in perpetuity until many many years down the road where a new IGA would replace it at some point.

So next, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the key elements of the intergovernmental agreement that we're here to approve today.

Like I've mentioned many times before, uh it this tries to continue this overarching theme of a fair and equitable cost share, with obviously the roles being reversed.

So we're whereas Portland was the lead agency on the original treatment plant, and then the IGA established a fair and equitable cost recovery for Lake Oswego to pay Portland to recover those costs.

We're going to reverse that relationship, obviously, with Lake Oswego, leading the development of the new plant, and this IGA will establish a cost recovery model to base all of the Portland payments to Lake Oswego off of.

So in that, there's a couple of main buckets of costs, and each one are handled slightly differently.

So land acquisition is established as a cost share between the two cities with a not to exceed cap from the city of Portland that was established by both city councils a few years ago.

And so we're just continuing that that was already set.

So when I say development, I mean the design and construction cost.

And so that will be based on flow share, and that flow being that has been sent by each respective city over the last five years, will govern each city's respective capacity, if you will, of this new plant that we're being built.

The operations and maintenance is very, very similar with the exception that instead of the recent capacity or I'm sorry, recent flow being the percent share from each city, it's going to be actual flow.

So we will, this will be uh essentially a living um equation that as the two cities contribute flows over the years, uh the split will be changing ever so slightly, most likely, uh, to reflect what the actual usage of the plant is.

There's also a uh de minimis factor built in there just so if, in the very, very unlikely scenario, one of the cities rerouted their flow or or in other way decreased their flow significantly, um, the other city essentially wouldn't have their respective percentage skyrocket and their cost increase as a result.

So there is a floor, if you will, as to the lowest uh percentage that either city could contribute.

Uh there's also a section in there that governs the continuation of a practice that's been in place for many, many years with the existing plant.

It was the intent of the Epcore design and continues to be the plan to truck our biosolids from the plant.

And again, in the existing condition, that's the Trion Creek plant, but in the proposed condition, we would still continue to truck those solids up to the Columbia Boulevard plant.

So there's uh some language in the IGA that reflects the appropriate cost share between the two agencies for the cost that Portland incurs in receiving those solids.

But it is memorialized again in the 2025 IGA that upon successful commissioning of the existing plant, decommission, I'm sorry, commissioning of the new plant, decommissioning of the existing plant.

Portland would then transfer the parcels on which the existing plant lies to the city of Lake Oswego.

And so those are really the highlights of the new IGA as a quick uh schedule milestone recap over the last six months, plus looking forward to the next few years.

Um preparing them to submit a proposal.

In August, we closed our Wi-Fi loan, and we've been working with the EPA on starting that uh administration of that loan.

In December today, we would execute this IGA.

And then looking forward, we expect our proposal from our qualified contractor in March.

Uh, we would then enter into negotiations with them as well as our owners advisors team to make sure that we are fine-tuning the exact scope relative to the cost to get the project that we need.

Uh all leading up to executing that contract with them in the fall.

We would then start incurring cost from the contractor for design and some demolition and grading.

And so in the end of next year, we would start drawing on our Wi-Fi alone to be able to make those payments.

Construction would then proceed over the next two to three years.

At some point in there, we would uh have expended our Wi-Fi alone to the point where we would need additional capital money to pay for the remainder of that cost.

So you see in there, I have penciled in somewhere in 2028, we would sell bonds to cover the remaining portion of the capital cost.

And then uh in 2029, the construction would be complete.

We would commission the new plant, get it online, transfer all the flows over to it, and then decommission the existing plant, and that would formally terminate our 1984 IGA.

Uh we would then transfer the properties to Lake Oswego amongst a couple of other things as written in that formal termination.

But that's the next couple years, and that's the roadmap to get the new plant online.

So with that, that's the IGA, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Director Colleagues.

Questions?

Councilor Corgan.

So I understand that this is uh this is really an equation that we'll use going forward as we operate the plant.

So the I guess at a couple questions around that.

One is have you probably put some numbers in to test it and see how it rolls with regard to our desire to keep the rates about 3.9%.

Yeah.

I mean, if I'm just curious about the set of numbers, how big it was, how robust it was as you were kind of testing testing it, just curious.

I have put in uh a few different scenarios into our cost model.

Uh and you know, as you can imagine, the low-end range of those estimates works quite well with our model.

Uh, the mid-range estimate um works as well with the model.

And then once you start getting onto some of the less ideal scenarios of what the cost of both the construction of the facility plus the operation long-term operations and maintenance of it, it starts to put pressure on that cap.

Uh, and so we're working with our contractor constantly to make sure that we are not um gold plating the plant.

We wanted it to be something that we're proud of.

We want it to be a good neighbor in terms of appearance, noise, odor, all of those things, but we also are making sure that we keep very much in focus uh our rates.

The other question that I had was so as everybody knows, we're under constant pressure to produce more housing.

Um we are confident that the capacity of this is will can deal with anything that we get.

Like if we have to double our housing requirements.

Are we did we look at it hard that way as well?

That's correct.

So we, when developing a plant with uh projected useful life as long as this is a part of that equation is looking at um peak flows, like it this is good timing because we're getting a lot of rain over the last week and then over the next couple days we will as well.

Any sewer system uh receives a surge due to inflow and infiltration during rainy events.

So flow to the plant will see its highs during those rain events.

And I say that to say we couple that with growth projections.

And so um but we also couch that with uh being careful not to get um overly conservative.

So if you stack a hundred-year storm event on top of absolute maximum growth projections, you will end up with an absolutely enormous plant relative to that what you need.

And as you can imagine the cost would grow from that, but also beyond just the cost, uh, from a technical perspective, a plant that's too big actually doesn't even work that well.

So to answer your question, yes, we have kept that in mind as far as growth projections go, but we've tried to take it with um also a sense of uh of concern of not being overly conservative because that brings its own problems with it.

Great.

That sounds great.

Thanks.

Counselor Winland.

So just to Counselor Corgan's um question, I guess it'll be more blunt.

Have we heard numbers yet for totals?

Do we have any sort of I don't have numbers yet, but I expect to be receiving some preliminary costing information for both the capital side and the long-term operations soon.

And when I do, I'll plug those ranges in again into our rate model to see the effect.

So far, I've just plugged in my own um rough cost escalations from previous estimates that we've had uh in kind of a low and high-end scenarios, but once we start receiving the numbers from the contractors, I'll replace my numbers with theirs and see how that affects the model.

Okay.

And do you know when we'll hear what the contractor is projecting?

I expect to start getting some numbers flowing in in in February and then their proposal in March.

Okay.

And then Portland's all good with this.

Portland is is great with this.

I've worked and I should take a few seconds to give thanks to the staff on their side who have worked hand in hand with me in developing the document.

Um I think it's something that we are all proud of and something that you know we recognize that this is just an extremely long-term partnership and not to be a broken record, but fair and equitable cost recovery was um, I think a mutually shared goal for this.

And we think we can get this through with their city council.

Their um approach to this is to have it signed by their city administrator.

And um and they project that to be signed um before the end of the year.

Okay.

And then last question on the um who pays for the decommissioning of the old facility?

Is that included in all these costs as well?

It is included in there.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

I I should clarify, you said decommissioning.

So and I want to take a minute to distinguish between demolition and remediation and decommissioning.

So decommissioning is a shared cost in the IGA.

Demolition and remediation is a cost that will be borne by Lake Oswego.

And the justification of that is the city of Portland is transferring the land to the city of Lake Oswego for uh one dollar.

Right.

No, and I I agree with that.

I I just want everybody, everybody to know that there will be additional costs.

We're not going to have a nice green lawn when we're done.

We get to pay for that, right?

That is true.

Okay.

It'll be green.

Thanks, Councilwill.

Um, fertilized with the appropriate discharge.

Is the the sludge the going up to the Columbia facility?

Um is there a particular reason why it's it's a part of this IGA, not a separate agreement?

Or just uh as part of this IGA, we felt it made the most sense again, operating under that cost recovery model.

It's it's a cost of operating the plant and providing treatment there.

Um the other thing logistically that makes sense is that's a cost that's going to be borne by the city of Portland.

It'll it will be easy for them to simply deduct that from their payment to Lake Oswego.

Is is the um is the the quantity of sludge going from this facility to that facility kind of in a I mean is it integral to their ability to operate that facility, having this sludge to process?

Is is the um is the the quantity of sludge going from this facility to that facility kind of in a I mean is it integral to their ability to operate that facility having this sludge to process or is it integral to Portland?

Do they need our need our sludge?

They do not need our sludge.

Okay.

They could do without our sludge.

Correct.

But they but they'll take it.

They will.

Okay.

So it could be amended down the road if there was another way to process the sludge, no big deal.

Is your sense of it?

That's true.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Um the uh I just uh I'm guessing it's because we don't have the numbers yet.

There was a few attachments to the agreement that they're but they're not there.

It's because we don't have those figures yet.

That's correct.

So the this IGA as presented to you provides the the structure and uh essentially the um formulas for the major cost components.

So that's land acquisition, development, and then operations and maintenance.

Those are the three major cost buckets of this.

And um what we will do is we're seeking to get approval for the structure of that, and then once the costs are actually known, we will um perform an amendment to this IGA that would then actually have tangible costs tied to them.

Okay.

And speaking of amendments, as you said, this is a long-term agreement in our city.

Um our um our resolution to authorize uh the city manager to sign this agreement.

We have that minor minor amendments can be made administratively, but there's no definition for a minor amendment.

What I what I envision is a minor amendment is I I discussed that the OM of the facility was based on actual flows, and so for example, um for a rough percentage, Lake Oswego contributes about 70% of the flow to Portland's 30.

Uh at the end of the year when it's time to bill, we would look at the actual flows and say, let's say Lake Oswego's flow at that point was 69.7%.

That would be a minor amendment to this IGA, is essentially filling in the numbers so that the costs are shown and the invoicing can be completed.

We didn't want that to need to be a council item every time we went to update the numbers with the data.

Oh, exactly.

Okay.

And I could envision some other clerical corrections as well, but but in there it's it's mentioned, I think that you know, major updates would need mutual approval from both cities.

Right.

Okay.

If I could just um I I also caught that language, right?

We usually use scriveners errors or um, but I understood completely when I read the document that that a minor amendment, even though it's not defined, gives the city some flexibility administratively, like uh Mr.

Brodus said, but also if there were things that council or your city manager decided, oh no, we want council to see this, then you absolutely could do it, but it gives you that flexibility to do things that aren't purely scriveners errors in the way that Mr.

Bertus just described for the record.

Okay.

That sounds good.

So I thought that the the percentages were part of the IGA, like that that is how it's gonna be built, not an amendment to the IGA.

The percentages are part of the IGA for the construction for the design and the construction phase of the facility.

Um the the rationale of that is both cities are buying the capacity.

You're buying into this facility that we're building, and so you're kind of setting the floor um to what it is uh that's being built.

Whereas the ONM, the rationale for that was that that's the cost to treat the wastewater.

And so the cost would be built billed based on the actual flow that each city sent.

Yes.

But that's how it's outlined in the IGA.

Why would we amend the IGA for the flows?

I guess that's what I'm you know what I mean.

Like it spells it out in the IGA that we're gonna look at the flows and we're gonna build according to the flows.

Yeah.

It is billed similar to that, but not exactly to that point.

The the interim IGA described uh billing based on um based on flows with some nuances to it with essentially it being less fluid and less um cumulative based on actuals.

It was kind of locking in rates more so than updating using real cumulative data.

Oh, okay.

So we're gonna update, we are gonna update then based on the role cumulative data.

That's correct.

So that's in outlined in the building procedures is to um insert the respective flow from each city, and then that determines the percentage split for that uh billing cycle.

But that is considered an amendment to the IGA.

That's considered a minor amendment to the so staff would process that invoice amongst each other.

Yeah, so just kind of the semantics of it all.

Uh counselor Afghan has a good question.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh your extra very informative information.

I have two questions.

Uh demolition and remediation cost.

Uh is that an extra cost above and beyond what we're putting together, or or is that included in the financial analysis.

It is not included in the IGA with Portland, uh, nor will it be included in the contract that we're currently negotiating.

And uh is that something that we have, you may not have this answer.

Is that something that we have to fund from our uh biannual budget?

That would be uh finance director question.

Okay, thank you.

That was the first question.

The second question is if you don't have this answer right now, maybe next time when you come back for another approval, you can share that information with us.

Uh I think counselor Corrigan asked this question, but I didn't understand the answer.

So if you can tell us what the capacity of the existing wastewater treatment is and what does it operate at right now versus the capacity of the new uh wastewater treatment and where it would be operating at?

So we can sort of see the capacity increase and also the operational increase and percentage-wise would be okay as well.

Sure.

Uh that's probably a comparison, best sent and a follow-up memo, if that's okay, because there's there's a graph that can explain this in 30 seconds what it would take me 10 minutes to do, and I think it would be more accurate as well.

So if it's acceptable, I'll send a follow-up.

Okay.

Yes, thank you so much.

That's very okay.

And maybe in that follow-up, we can also have an estimate of the demolition and uh remediation cost.

Sure thing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh well, uh, thank you very much for bringing this forward and and thanks uh to your good work with the city of Portland and for their continued partnership on this project.

It really is a great uh uh intergovernmental effort uh all around on on this important critical project.

So would someone like to make a motion to adopt the resolution 2549?

Move to adopt resolution 25-49.

Second.

Okay, motion's been made by Councilor Winland and seconded by Councillor Corgan.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, motion passes six zero.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Brothers.

Appreciate it.

Okay, next on the agenda, moving on to item 9.1.

This is study session on the South Shore Fire Station Project Cost Range.

We have assistant fire chief Chris Artman uh here, and she has representatives from our general contractor and architect on the project joining her, and we'll let Chief Harman introduce these the group here.

Welcome to you all.

Okay.

Mayor Buck, Counselors, City Manager, City Attorney, Laurel.

Uh thank you for inviting us all here for the uh South Shore Fire Station Project Cost Estimate Study Session.

Um after this session, we will be asking you for direction on potential scope reductions and continued work on the conceptual design and final bond cost.

But before we begin, I'd like to introduce our team.

So I'm your assistant fire chief for like us, we go fire.

Um, at the far end of the left side here, we have uh Michael Scott, our project architect from Henneberry Eddy Architects.

Um to his right, we have David Lynz, our owner's rep and project manager from OTAC.

And then on my right, we have Bremeck Construction's Spencer Bradley, who is our construction manager, general contractor.

Okay.

Since our last study session where we came to you in July with uh polling results, initial polling results, we've been focused on refining the building program, materials selection, and site layout.

In addition to aligning with task force recommendations, the core team and fire staff steering committee developed project goals to guide us in delivering a safe, resilient, and efficient fire station that supports firefighter well-being, reliable emergency response, and long-term community needs and responsible use of public funds.

I'm gonna bring, I'm gonna have uh our architect, Michael Scott, talk to you about site layout.

Yeah, so shown on the screen here.

Oh, excuse that microphone.

There was just got a sown here on the screen is a conceptual site plan showing the proposed location for South Shore Station 212.

Uh, this is really a result of our investigative work to understand the planning and the site physical and design constraints of the site.

On the planning side, um this is in a residential zone, so it has residential setback.

So on the front has a 25-foot setback, a 30-foot rear setback, and a combined 15-foot side yard setback.

South Shore Boulevard is also a has a special right-of-way dedication.

That's a 40-foot right-of-way dedication, uh, which actually cuts um the front eight foot of the existing property off.

So that's depicted in the front there.

Uh the site also has um two easements that flank the east and the west.

Uh, on the west, there's a sanitary sewer, and on the east, there's a stormwater easement.

There's also a 20-foot grade change from the low side of the site, which is on South Shore Boulevard, um, um, extending up to the south side of the property.

Uh, this significant grade change means that we think there's going to be some pretty significant retaining required for the for the project.

Uh we've also um, and and part of this we learned through doing an on-site survey and getting some um reliable CAD data to work from.

Um in addition to that, we did some on-site uh uh geotechnical analysis.

Uh we are still waiting on that finalized report, but have preliminary information uh that was is feeding kind of our initial cost models.

Um we believe that there is uh bedrock at a relatively shallow depth and pretty rocky soils above the bedrock.

Um and so that uh will influence the foundation design as well as the retaining wall design.

Additionally, you'll see um that we are also looking at high-level uh design parameters for the station to optimize the uh an efficient fire station.

Um so that includes everything from uh on-site uh backup power, parking, um, and then most importantly, um apparatus turning movements.

Um that really dictates where the building needs to land to be able to get to pass through apparatus base and safely get apparatus to move on and off the site.

Uh for all those reasons, that's um how this configuration has landed, that's where we're showing you today.

Um, understanding all these parameters has really gotten us excited to start on design work.

So this is just uh the foundation to kind of get started.

Okay.

Now we're gonna have BoTech go over our estimated overall project cost.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you for uh being here tonight.

Um this slide is uh abbreviated of our full budget, and it uses categories that we typically use in in virtually all projects describing hard costs, soft cost contingencies, and so on.

I'd like to go through the numbers real quickly, and then we I'd like to defer to Spencer to uh cover the hard cost and um the uh rock excavation item here.

So the hard cost, typically known as hard cost for this essential facility is um 13 million two and the combined soft cost, which includes professional services, the architect project management, and owner's cost and owner's costs include things like furniture fixtures, equipment permits, um, solar one and a half percent for art, all of those things.

And of course, though we we're carrying a contingency and some escalation because the construction here will not begin until 27, 20 yeah, 27.

And design will occur after the bond passes.

So um Spencer can speak to that in a minute.

And then we we provide uh a rough allowance for some rock excavation because we're hearing that there's we're going down 18 feet at the back of the site and the south side of the site, and rock would be down there on the adjacent site uh within 10 feet or so.

So that comes a combined total of 21,230, 229 for the um the projected bond cost.

So, Spencer, could you talk to us about uh what what it takes to build a hard cost estimate and uh a little bit of what the rock and uh also the uh escalation?

Sure thing.

So the hard cost portion of this is you know, as Michael mentioned, let me back up.

As Michael mentioned, we have a conceptual location in nature at this point in time and a rough square footage of the fire station.

And so the question is how do we establish a cost for this conceptual portion where we are today?

So what we do, um our company is bidding uh projects, public projects in the market constantly.

So we use our sense of where the market is today uh as commodities and so contractor pricing moves up and down.

Um and then we also take a prudent approach to what the design may be.

So a foundation, for example, has not yet been designed.

We have a good understanding of what a critical facility may have for a foundation, and we're using that as the basis for establishing these hard costs.

Um so the same approach we have with the foundation is what we do is we work through the structure, skin, finishes, et cetera.

Um, and that's how we eventually land on the hard cost that was displayed on the previous slide.

Uh moving on to the site itself.

I'll start at the bottom since the rock excavation is something that's very unique.

This slide captures items that are specific to this site and may not have been captured in the task force initial report that was done previously.

Um so the site, the information we have, and I'm gonna read off the geotech.

We we have a paragraph, we don't have the full report yet, as Michael indicated.

Um, between depths of five to ten feet below the existing grade is where basalt is found, and it's in in varying um levels of decomposition, so meaning that it may just be cobbles or it may be solid basalt, that part's to be determined based on the geotech's forthcoming report.

But the recommendation is to make considerations for significant quantities of intact rock or near intact rock to be removed up to several feet of intact rock.

So this is a product of the site.

It's something that the there's no way the task force would have known this information at the time, but it's one of the drivers of cost that that uh is put in the total bond where it is.

A couple of the other specific things are the retaining wall system.

Uh, there are benefits to having a bunch of rock in the site.

It means that the retaining wall system, you can use a gravity wall type system, which is a bit more cost effective versus driven system, um, because you have a solid foundation right there.

So there is some some positive to having the rock there.

Um, the other thing that you're seeing is there's a large cost for exporting from the site.

Um, it's much more labor-intensive to remove rock from a site than it is to have some sort of soil, sandy loam, clay, whatever it may be.

So there's some additional cost there.

And then lastly, working our way up to the top is the temporary station.

Um, the temporary station, there were some options alluded to there, but not a cost applied to them in the task forces report.

Um, and so what we put together here, Chris has done a great job working with TV FNR to locate a temporary station that could be purchased.

Utilities ran to its its temporary location, installed on site, used for the duration of construction, um, and allowing uh the fire department to maintain the response time to the neighborhood that it currently serves, and then that station would be removed and theoretically could be sold at the end.

A sale is not reflected in these numbers because that's pretty speculative of what that would look like at the time.

Um but there would theoretically be some value there as well.

Thank you.

Okay.

We had finance director Sean Cross uh create the millet rates for us, and these are uh dollar per thousand based on a six hundred thousand dollar assessed value home.

Uh, as you can see, there's not a whole lot of difference um in the the millage rate per thousand from twenty to twenty-two.

And right now we've got ourselves we're just a hair above twenty-one million.

So the yearly cost would be 114 uh per year for a house at 600,000 assessed value.

Uh with those numbers, I just wanted to go back to the initial polling results from uh from June.

And in that 20 to 22 million range, we're still at 59 to 60 percent willing to vote yes on the bond.

And it's important to note that that these polling numbers were prior to any community engagement or education uh with the community, and we've had extensive connection and outreach since then, and we it's ongoing, so we do expect those numbers to to get even better.

So we do expect those numbers to get even better.

Um the the second look is between 100 and 150 dollars per year, uh 66 to 61 percent of uh community members that were polled were willing to vote yes.

And again, we're we're kind of right in the middle there at 114, but all the way up to 150, we're at 61 percent.

Uh so in February we will return with polling results reflecting the community response after the ongoing community engagement.

Um, and regarding the specific cost information and the conceptual design.

Um but within this study con session, the team was asked to identify cost saving considerations.

And so we've got three up here.

The community room and associated space, meaning the public restroom, the lobby area would reduce the cost by approximately 960,000.

Uh the eight bunkrooms reduced to six bunk rooms and three toilet showers would give us about a hundred and seventy-five thousand, and the four apparatus bays uh reduced to three apparatus bays would would reduce the cost by approximately five hundred thousand.

Uh I do want to say that if scope productions are necessary, staff would recommend the community room, which surprisingly was not a high priority in the messaging in the polls, uh the response from the community.

They they prioritize firefighter wellness and decon uh it was surprising, but um that's that what's that's what staff would recommend.

And also the bunk rooms and apparatus base, if if removed would directly impact the response reliability, our staffing and day-to-day operations, which also could have a direct impact on insurance services office or ISO rating.

So that's that's our presentation, but we wanted to leave plenty plenty of time for questions because I'm sure there are questions.

Thank you, Chief.

Yes, colleagues, questions.

Questions, Councilor Corrigan, please start us off.

Okay, I want to start with a compliment, and that is finding a temporary fire station for 430,000 is like a major score on Craig's Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

I'm not sure.

But I'm I'm really proud of you, and I think that's really well done.

Because that's kind of a that is a sticky wicket.

So um thank you for that.

Um the other comment that I have to make, I served on the the committee, the steering I guess it was a steering committee.

With regard to thinking about saving cost and not building a community room, one of the recollections I have from the tours of fire stations that we took, we went to uh TV F and R and we went to Clockmas Fire, was that both stations.

The um the firefighters that work there remarked that the community rooms created an additional task for them because they had to manage them with regard to the public in and out, and in the event of emergency, it was an additional complication.

So a community room is a beautiful idea, but it's a little more complicated than that, is I guess what I'd like to convey.

Yeah.

So um the other and the other comment I had was the one and a half percent for art.

I mean, that's the law.

Is that a state law?

I think it's a state.

City.

So yeah.

Um so that's part of it, and I think it's worthwhile.

We also and I, counselor moupa and I serve on the uh arts council and recognize the difference that it makes in the way that people relate to our public buildings.

And I think in this case, we would probably try to do something that reflect what the firefighters wanted.

And uh what the surrounding community wanted.

I think it helps it helps the building fit in.

So especially in the neighborhood.

Yeah, so thank you.

Thank you, uh, Councilor Corgan.

Counselor Willard.

Thank you, team.

Uh the numbers a little higher than I think it should be, um, just because I think construction costs have gotten completely out of whack.

Um that's not your fault.

That's just uh environment uh environmental issue.

Um although I did read that uh construction activity has uh kind of been slipping back.

So I'm hoping that we find some hungrier people.

Um but because we're a public entity, they know all the numbers and they're gonna come in within five dollars of each other at the high end.

So that's just how things work around public works.

I'm all I to counselor Corgan, I agree on the public space.

I think that's we have plenty of other spaces that people can use.

Um I think to save a million dollars off the bat, that would be good.

I very much think that we need to have the four bays and uh eight um dormitories, sounds like college, um, or whatever you want to call it, um, sleeping spaces.

Uh I think that's very important.

Um, especially if that has to be used for uh center.

You may have personnel in an emergency um there, so we need to plan for the future.

Um I'm just I want to reiterate again, I'm just so impressed with the whole process and the community involvement, and I'm even more impressed that there's already 25 people on the pack.

I mean, that's just amazing.

Who I I mean, on uh we couldn't even get 25 people on the pack to put a huge school bond through, and we're getting on our fire.

So I think that that is a good indicator of the acceptance and and the the um I think the positive um uh viewpoint of our community towards this project, and so um I think it's it's great.

Uh and then contingency-wise, uh I'm hoping that we don't get uh too far out of black.

There shouldn't be really any um mysteries to this building, right?

I mean it's a fire department, I mean we build them all the time.

I mean, uh because the contingency is pretty high.

Um I know we have to have it, but I would rather not spend that part.

Um so um anyway, and then I guess my question, which I guess Sean is not here, but if you float the bond uh for say it's 20 20 million or 21 million, and it only comes in at 19.

Um do we have we can just float the 19, is that correct?

So we don't have to use everything sell it all.

The challenge will be is that we'll sell the bond at the beginning.

Well, we what we probably could do, and this is this is a question that maybe Sean will pop in as I'm talking to avoid me messing up the answer.

I think we could sell the bond in phases.

You don't have to sell it all at once.

So you could sell the one bond for design and initial construction, and then when you got bids, you could sell the remainder of the bond.

So that's how we could manage that.

The rules have changed.

I guess I'm hesitant to answer because the rules have changed about what you can and can't do with refunding bond prices.

Because what I would say in the past is well, no, you sell the bond and then you refund the the balance that you don't use, but I don't know if we can do that anymore under the law.

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll get you that answer, a more accurate answer from Director Cross.

Thank you.

Good questions.

Uh council member.

Oh, thank you.

So yeah, um very impressed by you know what you folks have doing.

I've been following with the case.

Thank you very much.

You're doing a wonderful job.

You should be very proud of yourself.

And yeah, I mean it really, you're doing a wonderful work.

And but yeah, I guess like we went through the numbers.

My only concern was like not concern like the project management services.

Was it that like why would why is it who's managing the project?

Why it's not part of the folks who are being the WOOK.

We have uh myself and OTAC is the project manager owner's rep.

So is that what you're asking?

Yeah, like why is it the why is it six hundred, what's the six hundred thousand dollars?

Why is it six hundred?

Yeah.

Um it it constitutes a couple of us.

I have a colleague here, and we have a uh a project coordinator, and it's like three years of work for it's it's just labor.

You know, to to be present to be uh, you know, to attend all the meetings, um multiple meetings every week for a couple of years.

And that's that's the basis.

And can you remind us what the um the our contract with OTAC?

I think it spelled some of those things out, but what I can't recall is was it a monthly amount that you were billing?

I think that would help.

Uh Council Member hasn't seen the contract, and so I think he's asking some of those very basic detailed questions.

If you could give him that.

The the the that particular numbers based on a another fire station and and kind of our experience, what will what we expect to spend for it?

Our contract right now is simply a hundred thousand dollars to get us through the bond.

And then there will be a we would probably help if you do it, but create a request for proposal for project management services.

And I will also say that we found with City Hall in particular, having an arch rep actually ultimately saved us money on construction.

So it is a large number, but I think it will overall reduce the total project cost.

As compared to say the Lower Act where we didn't have that, and we had several staff people on city staff devoted to project management.

We probably spent at least the same amount of money.

And no, like my understanding is maybe like John said, they like we are government and like when we are doing when, for example, you are doing your home, you want like you haven't a contract.

Why would I have someone that oversee what they're doing?

If uh it's just I just want to know even again, so but I just it's something I want to make.

And maybe if you could even use it, but I really don't if you could also maybe in answering his question, describe your you said, you know, there was a hundred thousand dollar not to exceed.

Can you explain to him like how have you built for that?

Do you do it?

Invoices, you see what I'm saying?

Yeah, it's it's time and material.

I mean it's it's um in my former life in my former company, I build it as a monthly retainer, frankly, and and spread it over the whole cost of the job.

But at OTAC, we we basically build our job cost hourly rates, you know, per per month.

And then um it's a it's an estimate of what what it should be.

I mean, what we think it it would probably likely be that 600,000 and in terms of to answer his question just a bit more fully, the the kind of services.

Wait, um Counselor Babupin, many of us are accustomed to our own home projects.

And I think what he's trying to convey, even though he is a professional that owns buildings, is you know, no insult to you, but what do you do?

Yeah, and like yeah, because I see the contingency and then I see that the professional services there, and then so in the project you'll see almost a million dollars.

That's not really something that's going to the construction.

And yet we are gonna say we don't want a community room.

But maybe with that we can build a community room, or we save money from that, like not going 20 million, but maybe 18 million dollars.

It's just like it's yeah, I mean, counselor, I have over I hate to say it, 40 years of experience managing constru uh uh construction jobs and in this particular contract form.

So our job, and and I've I've used this term before, we like to try to view see over the horizon and prevent uh mistakes.

Um if we see something going sideways, we try to anticipate it ahead of time and we keep the team together.

If there's disputes, you know, we find a way to mitigate the arguments and keep everybody happy.

I mean, our atmosphere is fun and engaging and and looking forward.

So, you know, we're here to give that technical expertise to the city.

Um very early in my career.

I'm an architect.

Um, and I have an MBA, and I early in my career was told to become a lay between the technical, I mean be uh be become a um translator between the lay and the technical.

And that's that's been my whole career as an owner's representative.

So I understand all the technical issues of both the architect and the contractor, and I'm an interpreter of those things to um you know save uh time and money and keep the keep the machine streamlined.

And I believe we earn our fee every single time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Um Director Cross, did you hear uh Counselor Windman's question?

Oh he was asking about the the uh the the if the project cost ends up being less than we uh uh less than the amount that we go out for for the for the voters, you know, authorized max for a bond.

How would you um how would you go about would you have to sell all the bonds at once, or would you um it kind of depends on how long the project took to go on, but we could probably sell the bonds in two issues so we'd have a better idea on the second issue.

You know, if it's uh 20 million dollars, we could probably sell eight million the first and then 12 million since most of the construction is actually gonna happen in the second half, so we need more of the bonds in the second half, but we can um that way we'll have a better idea.

Does that also save interest?

Um it might save a little bit of interest payments, but it's gonna cost more to issue it twice.

Yeah.

In the big picture though, if if we issue the bonds per say 21 and we come in at 19 on the project, what do we do with the two million?

We return it.

We would so that we'd either return it or if the project was for public safety or if there we could tie it to more than just this project, just in case it was a little under, we could use it for another project.

Like when we usually do like the street ones or um I'm trying to think, or the water when we were doing the water treatment plant.

You know, I just said for for the water system, specifically for the water treatment plant, but it could also be used for if there was something else that needed to be used for the same.

And then the bonds and everything else can be there is some right-of-way work that we have to do as well, right?

So this is not just building, but that's part of the 13 million construction cost.

So what's the dollar per square foot then that you're looking at for the building part?

Is that that should come right off the top of your heads?

940.

What nine forty?

In the neighborhood of 940.

Okay.

We're at about 14.5 square hundred square hundred, fourteen five feet.

Yeah.

So that's and that's reasonable.

Yeah, so there's um fire station, similar fire stations we've delivered in the open hard bid market, um, different site conditions, less demanding site conditions, and they've been at over a thousand dollars a square foot in the competitive market.

So this is uh a very responsible number.

Okay.

My associate and I, Alex Seti here in the audience um are managing the Hoodland Fire District station.

It's 24,000 square feet, coming in around 24 million.

So it's a thousand dollars a square foot.

Okay.

And that's current numbers.

Um there's you know, they've reached out, we don't have a full design yet, but that's that's hitting this bid market.

Um, Commissioner Wendlin that you mentioned is hungry.

And there will be competitive numbers for us.

It's a good time to go out.

Next year even of course we still we're stuck paying the prevailing wage as it is, so uh less competitive, but still okay.

So, you know, well, exactly.

We squeeze them on the materials.

Um counselor uh Afghan has a question.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh I want to preface uh first uh that I'm sensitive to the cost.

And we had the public testimony today that there are a whole lot of people in Lake Costum who have fixed incomes.

They are like myself, elderly.

Uh and we have very expensive water, our costs are going up, and we have another wastewater treatment coming up, fire station coming up, schools coming up, and these all add up uh when we look at the overall cost.

So I I'm asking my question from Bill's point of view.

I'm on board and very supportive of what we're doing, but I want to also make sure that we're spending the money uh responsibly.

Uh we're asking for four bays here.

Can you tell us why not three?

Because right now we have two.

Three would be an addition, but we're asking for four.

Yes.

Uh the the task force saw the need for three and a half bays.

So the reason they saw the need for the three and a half bays uh was to look for current operational needs and future operational needs.

As we were looking at those three and a half bays, we realized that within the next five years, we will be replacing our fire truck.

And we have for the first time in like us we go's history, the opportunity to have a reserve fire truck, which will save wear and tear on the frontline apparatus, allow us to have a redundant resource which assists in maintaining our ISO rating.

And and just stick with me because this all does all come together.

Um, our insurance services office rating, which is a two, a very high score for our city.

Um I'll start with with the four bays and just tell you what we're going to place in them.

The the first bay would be engine two twelve, the second bay would be boat two twelve with the tow rig, the third bay, which we can fill right now would be brush truck two twelve, which is sitting in the parking lot at station two ten because we don't have a place to put it.

It's our brand new brush truck.

And then in the fourth bay would be that reserved truck.

Now the insurance service office looks at redundant resource for um determining your ISO rating.

So the fact that we would have a truck to put in service when our frontline truck goes to get preventative maintenance three times a year, which takes about a week, so three weeks out of the year.

Say a mechanical issue comes up that can't be fixed on site, they will come on site if they can, but if we have to send it to the shops, it could be another week.

We have another truck that we can put right in service.

It's a different resource and provides different operational needs.

Our response than a fire engine does.

It has the heavy extrication, the rope rescue, the water management, the saws, the forcible entry.

It's a totally different resource than a fire engine.

And right now, our fire truck crew goes into a fire engine when that truck is out of service.

So, and and I'm not mentioning the most obvious, which is the hundred foot aerial.

So we don't have that capacity when that when that truck is out of service.

So in five years, we will fill all four of those bays.

And I also didn't mention the medic unit, which I would like to have a medic unit stationed at um station 212, but that's another conversation.

Um does that answer your question, Councillor Hapkin.

Yes, thank you so very much.

That was very uh comprehensive answer.

So there is a justification why we would need the fourth one.

Thank you.

The next question is for the architect.

Uh I don't know what these cost estimates are based on as far as the design is concerned.

Uh, I made an assumption that this is a traditional building with bricks and mortars and shitrock and these kinds of things.

Uh, can you tell us a little about the design?

Have we considered other options like butler buildings or other uh uh design that would reduce the cost.

Yeah, so um not too dissimilar than uh what Spencer was saying on the construction side.

We we use our extensive knowledge of working on um essential facilities and other fire stations as kind of the the backbone to the beginning of this this discovery.

Um, this is going to be an essential facility, so there are um seismic requirements that come with that, so that does dictate a little bit of how the building is constructed, I mean how it's configured, and so we are taking that into consideration.

Um, we also are taking consideration full lifecycle cost analysis when we think about the finishes and the components that make up the structure, wanting to make sure that we are building a 50-year plus fire station, so investing in the building now.

Um also trying to understand that the crew in this building are the ones who are going to be maintaining this facility, so trying to make selections that are going to take the burden off of them.

Um, so I think what we do is we work in concert with with Bremeck, uh, kind of using those using those goals and our understanding of the market to select certain systems, we understand their cost per square foot and applying those to the program we're designing for uh to and that's we use all of that to kind of work towards the cost that we've been presenting to you today.

Not to mention the fact that excuse me.

The um four bays are there's no uh uh housing or no product, no uh other building elements above it.

And because of the nature of this site, we've got a two-story station on half the building.

So it kind of eliminates things like bummer buildings and understood.

Thank you.

Uh the next question is for the general contractor.

I noticed that escalation six percent also, if we're doing a cost estimate right now, what is that six percent escalation?

Where how did you come up with that?

So the six percent escalation is established through a bit of a blend of art and science.

We don't know exactly where this project will be in mid-2027, assuming the bond passes here in in May of 26.

The recent CPI, if you look at the last five years, we've seen monthly changes as low as 1% and as high as uh 9.1%, so quite a large range.

On average, over the last few years, it's just below 5%.

This is what the task force reflected in their report, and is a pretty responsible number.

In light of the economic volatility that we're facing with interest, if interest rates bounce back or if tariffs or things of that nature occur, um, there's a little bit more risk there.

And so for a bonded project, we felt the responsible number is six percent annualized in lieu of five percent that was carried in the task uh the task forces report.

Did I answer your question?

Okay, yes, thank you so much.

Last question for assistant chief.

My understanding is that tonight's decision is for what scope we're gonna go forward with and approximately what size of a bond we're gonna put out.

And those are the decisions we're making right now.

It's not a decision for contracting a strategy and or compensation strategy of executing the project.

Is my understanding correct?

Your understanding is correct.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner African.

Thank you.

Good questions.

So the process said so.

First, let's um talk about the the programming real quick.

So I think there's a general consensus that we do want to remove the the that community room.

We've talked about that before.

Okay, so let's ex nay the community room for comments.

But we like the uh inclusion of the um the number of um bunk rooms and toilet showers.

I am add the Italian marble, I presume make sure this sparingly last.

Yes, we'll get a great deal on that, I'm sure.

And then the bays that the four bays, okay.

And it is what we don't see here, but what is phenomenal is that you all have been able to fit this onto that one site.

Because you know, initially we were thinking we might have to acquire an adjacent site, which would have really escalated this uh cost considerably.

So I think you have done a really good job keeping this within the initial parameters, you know, notwithstanding some of these um you know these unexpected um geotechnical factors with the rocks and you know the um other things like that that the task force wasn't aware of, um, all very understandable.

I know that you will all work diligently to you know keep the costs in um control as as much as possible.

Um working to be efficient, and you know, we have as a city done a great job delivering projects like this that are uh continuing to deliver projects that are critical um to the community safety and well-being.

Um sometimes the projects are critical and they're also very nice, like parks projects and things like that.

This hopefully will be somewhat nice, although not too nice.

It doesn't need to look too nice, but it is critical.

Um we know that community members have a greater likelihood of surviving a cardiac event and other medical events because of the way we have geographically dispersed the fire stations throughout town and having a fire station that provides the um appropriate facility for our first responders, obviously, as we know this this station is in dire, dire shape.

Um is is important to continuing that ability to um you know save lives really, and um so it's uh it's a great project.

I did notice just one little thing on the on the drawing you had earlier that there is a gate.

I see a gate, and we don't have any gates on our other stations.

What's with this gate?

So best practices do um we have started putting gates in the parking areas.

That's that's it's still it's not for sure.

I mean, that's a conversation.

If that's well, you know, I just don't like gates.

I I think it was put in there because it's it's what best practices now for a design of a fire station.

Sure, that makes sense to one people, but we can we can add that to a scope reduction if you go.

Yeah, yep, yep.

There you go.

And and great job being able to, I mean, to fill this and to get the turnaround for at least the three, uh the the pull through rather for the three bays is great.

And we did hear from people in the neighborhood that the stopping of the traffic to back the the vehicles in out is you know a safety issue, and this was seen as a critical issue.

So it's good that we were able to accomplish that.

Um the questions I had.

Does everyone else so what what's the process here going forward and in terms of um moving with the uh moving forward with the with the bond issuance?

So we are looking for direction to come to come to you to January 20th with our final conceptual design and bond cost.

We will incorporate your suggestions here, your direction to remove the community room.

So we'll we'll have the new bond cost and the gate, like the new bond cost and uh our conceptual design for you and present that on January 20th.

February 3rd will be in front of you again with the polling results.

That poll will come from uh the first week of January.

We will pull with that conceptual design and final bond cost.

So that's what that's the information they'll have when they're when they're taking the survey, and then February 17th is our final appearance to you to decide whether or not you want to refer to bond.

Great.

Okay, does that sound good to everyone?

Yeah, sounds perfect.

Okay, thank you all for good work to you all.

It's a good team.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Okay, at this time I'm gonna recess the uh city council meeting and call to order the redevelopment agency uh meeting.

Um all members are still here in attendance.

We have just one agenda item for the Laura meeting, and that is approval of meeting minutes from July 15th, 2025, September 2nd, 2025, and September 16th, 2025.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes as written?

Move to approve meeting.

Okay, motion made by Council Move and seconded by Councillor Verdick.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Any opposed none.

Motion passes six zero.

And with that, we will adjourn the redevelopment agency and now reconvene the city council meeting.

And I'll ask, is there any information from the council?

Councilor Corgan.

We um Councilor Maboop and I attended the arts council meeting this week and got the update on the respond to racism project.

So I thought I'd share that with y'all.

Um so they're gonna kick it off in early January.

Uh they'll have the artist and their team, the respond to racism people, uh, Melissa Kelly, Kelly Byrd, Nancy Fly from Engineering, and Nicole and Kerry from the Arts Council.

And then they'll start a process that'll take about a year to get it all together.

And as you guys remember, it was really complicated, complicated project with a lot of different elements.

So I just wanted you to know that they're getting started, and we'll hear more about it as time goes on.

It'll be a while before there's anything that's really determined about it, but they're working on it.

They're working with that same artist, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

And she has a team.

Oh, okay.

Great.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Cork.

Council Willemett.

We had a great chamber holidays um event.

Yeah.

Um about 130 people there, a little less than we probably could have had, but it was a um condensed holiday time frame.

So uh anyway, lots of wonderful um conversations and mingling, and uh there wasn't too much chamber um solicitation.

So, which is usually what happens at chamber meetings is you get solicited somehow.

It was more just uh celebration and having fun.

And uh the staff did um a great job pulling it up.

Uh great facility that we have at Iron Light, and um uh it was just a fun with the Lake Ridge jazz band up there and um great community event.

So yeah, I was hard to yeah, the SAV last night was wonderful.

They continue on the GPLE.

It's uh Madison was the savior there, did a wonderful job replacing Amanda, which I thought yeah, no one would be, but she really made it made a very good impression.

And yeah, and we did the art council, so it was a long day for me to go, but also the most important thing, and that's why we didn't stay all the way during the chamber.

We had the youth leadership council, the mayor and I, and they are doing great cuffstone project.

You know, I really appreciate what they're working on AI, and you know, they want to know AI they want to win the world, yeah.

And also we had a great presentation of the uh foot heels project.

We even the buildings, we've AI.

I mean, it was they those folks are doing a wonderful job.

Like the job they're doing, this project will be known.

I'd say on SC1 of the RAID, you see that they come present and they're doing it across the city.

You can go see, talk to them.

I think it was a wonderful thing.

So that's what I have.

Yes, they uh um council sorry, council working.

Go ahead.

No, no, you go ahead.

Go ahead.

Um, I just want to say library advisory board had another um very productive meeting talking about goals for next year.

They're really wanting to say how can they support council and make sure their goals align.

Um so I really wanted to do a shout out to that board, and um they just really want to make sure that they are doing things that make sense and again are aligned with us.

I think more so than I've really ever seen with the board before.

So I just wanted to express my appreciation with that.

So look out for that because I think it's gonna be a very exciting year, and they have some other exciting programming going on that just kind of help demonstrate libraries of the future and what libraries of the future um what that means and what that can look like and what type of programming we uh hopefully will have in the future.

So um just kind of keep your eye out for that, and um just a shout out to what a great team that uh director Kelly runs over there.

It's great.

Oh, and we have the new um the bookmobile.

Yeah, the bookmobile is here.

Actually, thank you for saying that.

The bookmobile arrived on Friday.

I meant to send you a photo of it.

Uh it came in from Ohio, it was extremely dirty.

Um, because it traveled through snow country on a truck.

Yeah.

Uh the staff will be training on it soon.

We'll do a soft launch right after the first of the year, and we'll have a big community celebration in conjunction with the summer reading program.

So, first of all, look for the bookmobile.

It's cool, it's the city colors, it's gonna have all kinds of cool materials, but second of all, look forward to the big community party uh that we're gonna have.

And you can see it, it's parked in the library parking lot.

So it's very it still needs a bath.

So it still looks really cool.

Great.

That's very cool.

Um, the so the Foothills um community advisory or the foot task force task force, I think we're calling it task force, yeah.

The Foothill Task Force.

We had a few meetings now.

Um one was just you know, general introduction.

The second one was a tour of of the Foothills area.

Um we went down there and walked around, surveyed uh the various sites.

And um at the last meeting, the group kind of got an overview of the the history of the area and some of the the constraints, you know, of the area down there as we look to you know, um different potential, especially transportation connections.

That's the big that is the big thing.

That is the big thing.

How we get in and out of that foothills area.

And you know, tonight we were talking about the sludge, you know, and those trucks, you know, we don't think of too much of it right now, but you know, they're driving those trucks, you know, in and out of there every day.

So and they will continue to do that.

So they do have still kind of an interesting mix.

So you have the wastewater site, but then with a new newly zoned, more mixed use type area.

And of course, we still have the park down there, and um, you know, and you think about too, even the uh the orchestra shell that our friends were talking about earlier.

It's big, it's big, you know.

That's been the challenge with it.

Is it it's not uh I mean you need to put it like in place, you know.

Um, but good to keep in mind, you know, because we do have that, it's a very nice donation.

Um, so the CAC is doing uh good work.

The consultants then have been out, they have done some focus groups also.

They shared the results of those focus groups, um, which you know, not surprisingly, we're kind of like mixed people in general.

I mean, they're excited about foothills development, but they're worried about traffic and people and affordability of housing and and all those things.

Um the uh um uh supportive housing, so on um other fronts here.

The uh so you know, TriMed has been moving forward with their um reductions to service.

They've started a little bit, you probably read about it, you know, in the in the news.

They've been making the rounds, talking to us about some of the cuts.

Uh, we're trying to get them to come talk to us here at a city meeting at some time.

So that would be great.

Um they are um they did some surveys, you know, jurisdictions in Clackamas have you know been pushing back a little bit.

I mean, most like when they did surveys through the region, 70% of the people who they surveyed were Portland residents.

We don't feel like they have have done enough outreach in Clackamas County and uh Washington counties.

Um and uh they are looking at stopping the county uh shuttles, they're looking to eliminate the routes with fewer riders, and they expect uh their financial situation to continue, you know, to deteriorate and the cuts to um also continue.

So it's been those challenging conversations with um with with with TriMet that are impacting our uh members here that that use transit but they're relying on transit especially.

And obviously, that's the one thing they are trying to focus on areas where people really they have to use transit, you know.

They they have to take the transit, and so that's good.

I think we'd all agree with that.

Um supportive housing services reform, you know.

Um Metro has been looking for now two years at um uh updates to the governance structure of the supportive housing services measure.

Um they have, I think before their count, I think this week before their council um, you know, they have things come before them a few times before they make a decision.

Um so they put out a changes to their governance structure that would create a new model, which is what um a group of us from across the region discussed at a um at a work group that um President Peterson had put together, and that's to have a um the oversight committee be made up more of elected officials, and then to make sure that the uh community uh community members or representations of or representatives of different organizations are not organizations that are receiving money from the supportive housing services measure.

So I know it's gonna happen.

Wow.

So we have um what it would look like for local government would be one city representative and one county representative from each county, and then Portland, of course, has its own seat.

So you'd have Portland, another city in Mulnomah County and Mulnomah County, and then a Clackamas County rep, a city of Clackness County Rep, Washington County, cities of Washington County rep.

And um, and then there'd be three Metro counselors um on the committee, and then um representing various community members representing different different interests.

And um, our our Metro Councilor Christine Lewis, she has um advocated for geographic disparity through those others so for the uh of the the non-elected officials that they represent different parts of the community, which is great because everyone's concerned is that there just becomes a concentration from one part of the region on that on the on that committee, and so we'll see if that uh governance structure um moves forward, but there seems to be good support for it, and um it's with a lot of thanks to you know our colleagues in other cities and in the counties all working together to to push this uh to push this forward.

Are they talking about putting the um whatever the metro housing services on the ballot again?

They have to put it on the ballot again, yeah, because it expires in 2030.

So it will be on there at some point.

Well, unless they just don't, unless they just don't, yeah.

They want to, yeah.

They're gonna still do it pretty early, or do you think they'll wait until later?

They've stopped the talks of you know they were gonna go out, yeah, and then they put the kibosh on that.

Right.

And um, I mean, there need to be changes to the you know, we'll see if the governance structure leads to the the um programmatic changes that are needed to uh you know show better uh results and the efficacy of the of the programming.

I mean that's what everyone's been concerned about a lot of money.

Um I thought I'd miss something else, maybe well.

Um that's really there's a um I will say one if you want to check it out.

Metro has created a safe streets fatal crash dashboard, which is kind of interesting, just real data-driven showing where we see a lot of the traffic fatalities around town.

I know unfortunately we had a traffic fatality here on 43, um single single vehicle accident there.

Um but put whether it's a pedestrian, um, they uh at JPAC meetings they share the traffic fatalities every month that happened.

I mean, there's quite a few, um, and they're all various.

Some are pedestrians, some are you know, vehicle and vehicle, and um there's been a desire from that group just to have more transparency around where you know, are these happening in cities, or are they happening on incorporated areas on state highways, you know, where are these accidents happening, and and then really working on um uh identifying the factors that contribute to those uh crashes, so you know we can prevent them from prevent them from happening.

And then um finally, last but not least.

Tonight is the last city council meeting for our city attorney for the past several years, Ellen Osnak.

And I just want to give her on behalf of all of us a very sincere um statement of gratitude for all the work you've done for the city these past few years.

You've led us through some very complicated and significant litigation, especially you brought that particular talent you know to the city and uh have guided the council and the community through what were very very difficult issues, and you did it in a very professional way that brought all of us on the council along and and the community, and uh for that we owe you um a lot of gratitude, and we are sad to see you, Leaf.

We're wishing you all the best, and we hope that's not the last time our paths cross.

Thank you.

Well, that's uh very kind words, and um it has been truly a uh a professional honor to serve the city of Lake Oswego.

I particularly appreciate your comments about um having served in this role at a really important time for the city and its transition, and it means a lot to me to hear you reflect back to me that my work impacted not only you all and staff but the community because that's certainly my um deepest orientation as a as a public attorney is wanting to balance the needs of the city while recognizing that its needs are um articulated by those who are elected, but they are elected by those who live here and vote and um and work here.

So I just wanted to say thank you again for choosing me as your city attorney, and it has been just uh an incredible honor and challenge and opportunity, and I've really um I've grown so much, and I just want to thank all of you for that.