OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Special Council Session: Milwaukee Bay Park Negotiations (Nov 13, 2025)

City Council — Friday, November 14, 2025
BodyMilwaukie, Oregon
SessionCity Council
DateFriday, November 14, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 31:38

Transcript — Verbatim
0:19

Okay.

0:20

We are on the air.

0:21

I want to call this special session on November 13th to order.

0:28

As it's a special session, we don't have the normal uh script that we begin with.

0:32

We can kind of get right down to business before I turn it over to the city manager.

0:36

I just wanted to say, uh, as we've kind of said a couple times through the year, we've been um we started negotiations with the county in January.

0:46

I had initially been helpful that we'd have a decision, have a um uh an agreement by summer.

0:53

Here we are coming up on the end of the year, but hopefully we can move this forward in the next month and uh wrap it up.

1:02

So I'll turn it over to Emma to tell us where we are and the decision points we have.

1:09

Thank you, Mayor.

1:10

Yes, we would love this to be a little holiday present.

1:12

We can all conclude.

1:14

Um good evening, everyone.

1:15

It's great to be with you.

1:16

Thanks for attending your special session tonight.

1:18

We wanted to transparently give an update uh with our constituents about the status of these negotiations on Milwaukee Bay Park, um, how the special session will run.

1:28

Where I'm gonna give just a brief background if you haven't been following this kind of convoluted trail about how we got to tonight.

1:35

Um, then we will be reviewing um or recapping some council discussion on the latest proposed uh terms and some agreements we've been working uh back and forth with the NCPRD board of directors on.

1:49

Umce we've reviewed our walked through council's latest thinking on those terms, we'd like to invite anyone who would like to contribute some public testimony to do so.

1:59

We'll um limit that to three minutes each, and then at the end, we're just gonna ask for some decisions and direction to staff on next steps from council.

2:10

So um again, this has been uh the mayor mentioned that we've been really at the table in the most recent round negotiations since January.

2:19

But just in case you don't know the backstory here, I wanted to share a little bit about the history of the city's relationship with NCPRD and with Milwaukee Bay Park.

2:27

Um NCPRD was formed in 1990, and that is when the original cooperative intergovernmental agreement, you're gonna call hear me say cooperative IGA a lot tonight, was first signed with the city of Milwaukee.

2:39

Uh when that was signed, basically the city retained ownership of all of its parks, but NCPRD became the entity that operates and maintains those parks.

2:49

So this IGA formalized that relationship.

2:52

That cooperative IGA has been amended a few times over the years, the kind of most substantive one being in 2008 when it was updated to reflect new parks, uh including Riverfront Park, which is sort of the precursor name to Milwaukee Bay Park.

3:06

Going forward, you'll let me say Milwaukee Bay Park or MDT.

3:10

Um Milwaukee Bay Park, I think it goes without saying to our constituents of Jewel in the crown of our parks and green space um uh assets here in the city.

3:19

It's a beautiful stretch along the Willamette River, and it's been for a long time a goal of Milwaukee City Councils to see that jewel developed.

3:29

So the city led uh the first two phases of development of that park, including acquiring land there and um uh getting it to be the park that it is today.

3:39

The first phase was completed by the city in 2012.

3:43

The second phase was completed by the city in 2015.

3:47

Um, so the park is wonderful, but it is not the finished product yet.

3:51

And uh in 2017, um, the city was kind of gearing up to start doing phase three.

3:57

Uh and at the time, the board the the North Pacamas Parks and Yak Department and CPRD requested the day to make the lead on phase three of Milwaukee Bay Park.

4:07

Um, and the city agreed to that.

4:09

Uh that then ensued two years of public involvement.

4:12

Um, and the designs for phase three, which have been seen by lots of guys all over the city of Milwaukee, uh, was unveiled in 2019.

4:22

Um that is sort of where the story gets a little more complicated.

4:26

So once we had uh 50% designs, the two parties um attempted to come to some agreements about funding and constructing the park.

4:34

There were draft uh funding and construction IGAs developed.

4:38

The city approved them twice, once in 2020 and once in 2021.

4:42

Um the NCPRD did not approve both of them.

4:46

Um there was several meetings where it was removed from agendas, and um uh finally a condition was placed that it would not approve the funding IGA for phase three until the city engaged in an update to the cooperative IGA.

5:00

There uh there was some frustration at that point, and uh a previous council was interested in looking into potential withdrawal from the district.

5:10

Um that led to some dispute over whether the terms in the 2008 IGA regarding withdrawal method are valid.

5:18

The city feels that what is written in the IGA is valid, um and the board uh contends otherwise.

5:25

So we filed a validation action to understand that that is currently being heard by the Court of Appeals.

5:30

I should be clear that I am while a previous council had discussed um withdrawal, this council has given no direction to withdraw from the district or taken any votes on that topic.

5:42

This brings us to 2025.

5:44

The city of Milwaukee has adopted a parks and green space goal, and uh paramount in that goal is the delivery of this long-awaited Milwaukee Bay Park.

5:54

So in January 2025, the city requested a meeting with the new NCPRD board.

5:59

They did a couple elections, um, and the board agreed to um break the communication freeze that they had implemented in 2024 and come back to the table for what we call two on two sessions.

6:12

Two representatives of the NCPRD board meeting with two representatives of the Milwaukee City Council.

6:18

Um, when it's two, it's not a quorum, so we can move a little a little more quickly, and staff are there to support those conversations.

6:26

Milwaukee City Council appointed Mayor Beatty and Councillor Massey as the representatives of the city to be at that two-on-two table.

6:33

And the city has been very clear since January that we have one objective in these negotiations that is get Milwaukee Bay Park back on track and delivered substantially by the end of 2027.

6:46

Um we started a couple of those listening sessions really focused on Milwaukee Bay Park.

6:51

Through the course of the negotiations, the NCPRD board asked that the city engage in discussions about the cooperative IGA and our negotiating team agreed that they would do that if the two would be considered together.

7:07

So tonight you're gonna hear us talk about two different agreements.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Parks and Recreation█████████████████████████████████████████████61%
Procedural█████████████████23%
Economic Development███████9%
Public Engagement███4%
Pending Litigation██3%
Summary of Proceedings

Special Council Session: Milwaukee Bay Park Negotiations

On November 13, 2025, the Milwaukee City Council convened a special session to review the latest proposed terms from the North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District (NCPRD) regarding the Cooperative Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) and the Milwaukee Bay Park IGA. Staff provided a transparent update on negotiations initiated in January 2025, aiming to resolve a long-standing impasse and deliver the third phase of Milwaukee Bay Park by late 2027. The session featured an overview of the technical terms on the table, public testimony regarding equity and funding, and a unanimous vote authorizing staff to submit formal counter-proposals by December 2nd.

Consent Calendar

  • No items were listed for the Consent Calendar in this special session transcript.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Dave Cadwallader (Resident, Island Station): Expressed a position favoring complete transparency on System Development Charge (SDC) history. He requested explicit documentation detailing how much SDC money generated by Milwaukee has been spent on Milwaukee versus other district areas to resolve ambiguity regarding equity and subsidies. He hoped such documentation would solidify the basis for future IGA proposals.
  • Gary Klein (Former Park Board Member, Resident): Expressed full support for advancing Phase 3 of Milwaukee Bay Park. He cited his history of donating property (Klein Points) for the project's earlier phases and stated he is "100% for" seeing the project completed.

Discussion Items

Amendment to the 2008 Cooperative IGA

  • Asset Capitalization: Staff presented a provision clarifying that if the district funds a capital improvement, they capitalize it; if the city funds it, the city capitalizes it. In a future withdrawal, the city would pay the district for the depreciated value of assets on the district's books. The Council expressed support for this provision.
  • Depreciation and Thresholds: Staff proposed adopting a shared depreciation schedule based on government accounting standards, with a dollar threshold of $5,000 indexed to inflation. The Council expressed support for this approach.
  • Construction Authority: The NCPRD requested approval authority over all city construction drawings/specifications. The Council indicated a position to reject this as written, affirming that the city should retain authority over improvements on city-owned land, though they are willing to coordinate.
  • Programming Preferences: Staff noted the current draft lacks language giving preference to city-affiliated groups or waiving permit fees for them. The Council stated a position to support adding a provision granting preference and fee waivers for city groups using the parks.
  • Milwaukee Community Center: The draft assigns the city responsibility for capital improvements/repairs and the district for programming/maintenance. The Council expressed support but requested modifications to clearly define "capital improvement" versus "general maintenance" and equipment.
  • Funding Support: A proposal allowing either party to request statements of support for securing funding was supported by the Council.

Milwaukee Bay Park IGA

  • SDC Funding: NCPRD offered $3.1 million in Zone 1 SDCs. Staff noted the city holds $3.6 million currently. The Council proposed a counter-offer to receive the full balance of Zone 1 SDCs upon signing and retain future SDC accruals until construction begins or December 31, 2027.
  • Metro Local Share Loan: NCPRD offered a $2.5 million loan of Metro Local Share funds to be repaid over 10 years. The Council indicated they could not determine their position pending clarification from Metro regarding the permissibility of such a loan structure.
  • Trolley Trail Grants: $658,000 in Metro grant dollars originally allocated for the Trolley Trail was proposed for transfer to Milwaukee Bay Park. The Council expressed support for accepting this contribution.
  • Project Management: NCPRD proposed transferring design, construction, and permitting responsibilities to the city. The Council expressed acceptance of transfers for design and construction (currently at 50% design) and accepting maintenance responsibility.
  • Maintenance Timeline: While accepting maintenance responsibility, the Council requested the transfer date be moved from July 1, 2027, to the start of construction or no later than December 31, 2027.
  • Permitting: NCPRD requested to retain rights for scheduling programs and issuing special use permits. The Council expressed a position to reject this as written, asserting that the city, assuming maintenance, should also assume permitting rights, though they agreed NCPRD should retain programming rights without unreasonable withholding of permissions.

Public Accountability and SDC Clarification

  • The Mayor addressed public comments regarding SDC equity, clarifying that previous claims of "subsidization" likely referred to maintenance costs rather than SDC expenditures, noting that NCPRD had not produced an accounting of maintenance cost disparities. She agreed that documenting the history of SDC spending would be a positive step to resolve ambiguity.

Key Outcomes

  • Motion Approved: The Council unanimously voted (Aye: All) to direct staff to respond to the NCPRD board with the counter-positions outlined during the session.
  • Deadline Set: Staff were instructed to request a formal response from the NCPRD board by December 2, 2025, to accelerate the timeline for potential agreement signing before the end of the year.
  • Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned after five minutes to spare.
  • Strategic Goal: The Council reiterated the objective to substantially deliver Milwaukee Bay Park by the end of 2027.

Meeting Transcript

Okay. We are on the air. I want to call this special session on November 13th to order. As it's a special session, we don't have the normal uh script that we begin with. We can kind of get right down to business before I turn it over to the city manager. I just wanted to say, uh, as we've kind of said a couple times through the year, we've been um we started negotiations with the county in January. I had initially been helpful that we'd have a decision, have a um uh an agreement by summer. Here we are coming up on the end of the year, but hopefully we can move this forward in the next month and uh wrap it up. So I'll turn it over to Emma to tell us where we are and the decision points we have. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, we would love this to be a little holiday present. We can all conclude. Um good evening, everyone. It's great to be with you. Thanks for attending your special session tonight. We wanted to transparently give an update uh with our constituents about the status of these negotiations on Milwaukee Bay Park, um, how the special session will run. Where I'm gonna give just a brief background if you haven't been following this kind of convoluted trail about how we got to tonight. Um, then we will be reviewing um or recapping some council discussion on the latest proposed uh terms and some agreements we've been working uh back and forth with the NCPRD board of directors on. Umce we've reviewed our walked through council's latest thinking on those terms, we'd like to invite anyone who would like to contribute some public testimony to do so. We'll um limit that to three minutes each, and then at the end, we're just gonna ask for some decisions and direction to staff on next steps from council. So um again, this has been uh the mayor mentioned that we've been really at the table in the most recent round negotiations since January. But just in case you don't know the backstory here, I wanted to share a little bit about the history of the city's relationship with NCPRD and with Milwaukee Bay Park. Um NCPRD was formed in 1990, and that is when the original cooperative intergovernmental agreement, you're gonna call hear me say cooperative IGA a lot tonight, was first signed with the city of Milwaukee. Uh when that was signed, basically the city retained ownership of all of its parks, but NCPRD became the entity that operates and maintains those parks. So this IGA formalized that relationship. That cooperative IGA has been amended a few times over the years, the kind of most substantive one being in 2008 when it was updated to reflect new parks, uh including Riverfront Park, which is sort of the precursor name to Milwaukee Bay Park. Going forward, you'll let me say Milwaukee Bay Park or MDT. Um Milwaukee Bay Park, I think it goes without saying to our constituents of Jewel in the crown of our parks and green space um uh assets here in the city. It's a beautiful stretch along the Willamette River, and it's been for a long time a goal of Milwaukee City Councils to see that jewel developed. So the city led uh the first two phases of development of that park, including acquiring land there and um uh getting it to be the park that it is today. The first phase was completed by the city in 2012. The second phase was completed by the city in 2015. Um, so the park is wonderful, but it is not the finished product yet. And uh in 2017, um, the city was kind of gearing up to start doing phase three. Uh and at the time, the board the the North Pacamas Parks and Yak Department and CPRD requested the day to make the lead on phase three of Milwaukee Bay Park. Um, and the city agreed to that. Uh that then ensued two years of public involvement. Um, and the designs for phase three, which have been seen by lots of guys all over the city of Milwaukee, uh, was unveiled in 2019. Um that is sort of where the story gets a little more complicated. So once we had uh 50% designs, the two parties um attempted to come to some agreements about funding and constructing the park. There were draft uh funding and construction IGAs developed. The city approved them twice, once in 2020 and once in 2021. Um the NCPRD did not approve both of them. Um there was several meetings where it was removed from agendas, and um uh finally a condition was placed that it would not approve the funding IGA for phase three until the city engaged in an update to the cooperative IGA. There uh there was some frustration at that point, and uh a previous council was interested in looking into potential withdrawal from the district. Um that led to some dispute over whether the terms in the 2008 IGA regarding withdrawal method are valid. The city feels that what is written in the IGA is valid, um and the board uh contends otherwise. So we filed a validation action to understand that that is currently being heard by the Court of Appeals. I should be clear that I am while a previous council had discussed um withdrawal, this council has given no direction to withdraw from the district or taken any votes on that topic. This brings us to 2025.

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