And um I think what's unique about this this round is that we're finished up twenty twenty-five.

And so that at the beginning of the action plan, we have a bunch of metrics that we tried to update the best we can.

Um we didn't add them into this presentation because there's quite a bit.

I don't know if you remember through this affordability.

I just think we kind of kept putting on some metrics that we want to be successful to express success through the goal.

And we also added a bunch of metrics that were to help us to understand what's going on in our community when it comes to affordability.

So if you want to start on the first page just real quick.

From last year, upward trend is occurring.

Market units.

Um the county, we didn't reach out to them.

I don't know if you have any more.

17 from last year upward trend is is occurring market rate units uh those took a dip as you can see I don't know if we didn't really uh say anything about whether we want to see that as an upward trend or downward trend but those units have gone down um we did not find information yet about residents utilizing housing vouchers um I don't know if we were weren't able to get it with the the county we didn't reach out to them I don't know Amanda if you have any more they are still working on getting those numbers they sent me something but it wasn't right they're still looking into it so hopefully maybe uh some understanding of how many Milwaukee are using those um as of last year we'll see how it compares to the year before we're also doing the needs assessment in the county the CABs doing the needs assessment that's gonna probably come out the re up of their is it annual it's every three years okay every three years or vouchers you mean no no this is the needs assessment so we'll be able to see like how many people are getting the services how many still needed so forth a little bit of a clear picture direction we're at it by email because I just got an email about some of the survey the final survey the community survey that went out and we'll talk about more later but as you see in the next line item says awareness of housing assistance programs so in this year's survey we did reach out to our community members to see how many folks knew about awareness with housing assistance programs out there and also see if I can otherwise we'll have it next one can't find it in two seconds we did ask ask about um that in our biannual community survey and again that went out last quarter and just wrapped up so you'll be getting a full report here probably in the next um you moving on to utility related metrics um Peter I don't know if you wanted to touch on some yeah I can I can talk about that uh annual rate of utility fee increases so that is like the rolling five year average for the single family average residential customer so it doesn't mean like you know we've only seen a one percent increase over the last five years but on an annual basis when we factor in all of the different uh utility fees that we charge over that five years we've seen about a one percent each of each of those five years for that single family residential property and there's a couple reasons for that one uh you know we have not we have increased our uh our stormwater fee in fact in the five year period we had a slight decrease one year where we I think we dropped it down back down just a little bit uh on our wastewater fee we've kept that uh stable zero percent increases and there's also a slight decrease in uh this curve previous curve fiscal year we made some adjustments on the uh fixed customer charge that uh had a slight decrease for the for the residential customer so uh you've seen um that number come down you know if you look at that five years back there also higher increase on the wastewater and then safe SSMP what we've seen over the last five years is uh sort of a decline in that construction cost index that automatically that we have that's that's what we're seeing there you know back in 21 uh and and 20 we were seeing really sort of high construction cost indexes and those are started to come down um I think where we are right now I think uh it's at about a five percent that's we've been uh it's it's been down five years a little bit there so we need to start out talking about one percent you're saying I mean because some of these are going up four percent one point nine three you're saying but the overall utility bill is comes in at a one percent increase about one percent one point zero seven percent okay right okay as that angle average increase some years that might have been a little bit higher and some years it might have been a little bit well question so would you say that the increases are getting smaller um like the need for the that uh how much we need to increase fees are starting to increases are over the last five years have been getting smaller you know we've uh I think we've been cognizant of the impacts that some of the increases that we've had in the past 10 years have been uh impactful that the rates have gone up and we've been able to you know make some adjustments and and I think maybe uh reduce the need for increases you know I I I will shall share with you I think we have a slide uh in the presentation I shared with you we've got to do some increases in water right uh and then we have a safe feed increase I think we could do that a little higher than uh cost so those will we'll see those um at the end of 26 what what that impact what what those impacts are there um yeah I guess it's found away but on the concept for you saying you still I've heard larger concerns about key fast on our water and just aging utility infrastructure over the last five years our costs have remained stable but you still see storm clouds and if you

So those will we'll see those um at the end of 26 what that impact what those impacts are there.

Um I guess it's not a weird about the concept of these things.

Do you still I've heard larger concerns about PFAS on our water and just aging utility infrastructure over the last five years, our costs have remained stable, but you still see storm clouds in the future that we're gonna have to address in some way.

Or there are large costs that you see coming in our future.

Yeah, we don't have the PFAS, PFAS.

So that we need the the expense to do the construction of that treatment facility.

Okay.

Um we haven't realized that yet in our rates.

Okay.

Uh but we'll see those first uh impacts coming up in this next fiscal year and the one the following fiscal year.

I was hoping those will be the first impacts on the water stock.

Um I think what I shared with you a couple couple weeks ago was we were looking at eight percent uh any an eight percent revenue increase of uh the consultants doing that rate resign and uh working on that, and I think we have that scheduled to meet with uh with you the council on uh uh the study session, April 14th, I think.

We'll talk about the water rates and uh the rest of the fee schedule.

Um does that include the is that part of the consultation that's happening for the discount fee uh potentially increasing the amount of discount for the water fee, or no, is that a separate I I guess I don't understand because we talked about we had talked about the the water rebate and that was being that was involved in a study from what I understand.

You mean making an adjustment?

Yeah, to increasing that and what that because the the overall rate study includes that, correct?

That's part of it.

We are looking at that as well.

Yeah, which is I appreciate you.

Um just uh to clarify though, making making adjustments to the low uh income fee because we did we because I remember we were we've been talking about this that right now our our our rates are not very equitable.

The difference from the largest users and the smallest users are already pretty nominal.

What we are gonna see is another tier, probably uh right.

Okay, so that's the other tier of that's all part of this, correct?

Okay, and then again, like the the you know, when I look at this, it it's uh it's it's really good, obviously, because I think we're doing a lot more than some other jurisdictions, but the tangibleness for people isn't there, right?

For us, it's there, we see it.

Uh and even with the PFAS, like even though that might impact rates or probably will, there's a trade-off there with our drinking water and the safety of that, right?

So there's like there's a trade-off, but when it's just you know, people coming out of pocket and there is no trade-off, it's just your annual fee increase.

That's the issue.

So making that making it more tangible or more how can I say it to where more people can actually take advantage of it, right?

As opposed to what it is now that makes sense.

No.

Okay.

Well, yeah, yeah.

So I when you look at data, yeah.

Okay.

If I as a as a average Milwaukee, yeah, family, kids, all the goods, you know, bills, everything.

Yeah.

When I look at that, I say, yeah, that looks good looking at the numbers, but that doesn't impact me directly.

It doesn't give me like there's nothing that's allowing me to save on any of that personally.

Right.

So as much as I appreciate that that's not going up as high as other places, how that impacts me relative, and we've had a discussion on relative versus an actual physical, hey, you've got 10, 15 bucks off your water bill for the month, right?

That's different.

That's different than that.

Those are two different we look at it differently because we're on the political side of where like this is healthy for the city, this is healthy for our residents.

As a resident, I look at that and say, good stewardship by the city, but I'm still paying a lot.

Yeah.

So where is where's the relief, right?

So that's where the whole rate design and all that comes into play.

So it's it's it's being able to have a little bit of control of the direction that these finances are headed.

Yeah.

Are you asking that like you would like to see more proportionality, like amount used reflected, so you could actually reduce the amount used known as the right.

Right, because that's what are we have a discount that's based on that, right?

That's based on the unit of amount of water.

We have a couple a couple different discounts.

One, we have discount that's for customers that are eligible for a low income assistance program.

Right, right.

And that those customers uh only uh they get a discount on the consumption rate and on the fixed customer charge, as well as all of the other utility fees as well.

There's there's there's a significant discount there.

Which I think that's something we need to just promote more.

Right.

Because I'm sure more people are qualifying for that than are enrolled right now.

And then we have a fee structure on water that is uh has two tiers.

The first tier is a low use tier.

So if you use three units or less, you get a five dollar discount on your fixed customer charge.

That's it.

And the consumption charge is marginally less than the rate of OTI.

Right.

So you get a discount there.

Uh what we're looking at doing is adding a third tier that would for people that can lose additional more water that there's there's a that fee goes up.

Um so we're gonna we're gonna look at that and have a discussion about it in uh in April Consultant FCS, they're working they're working on that piece right now.

Right.

Um those adjustments have impacts on others, right?

Of course, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, 100%.

And that's that's where we get into the mean potatoes of this whole discussion, right?

Um so yeah, that was my whole point.

Yeah.

I do think I mean I think one of the things I I think that a short-term program that allows for us to see per capita or using more water, you should pay more in relation to that makes sense.

I also think we've put a lot of kind of like programmatic expenses onto our utility bill, because it's just with the thorniness of measures 5 and 50, it's easier to do that than other things.

Um and if we are in the next four years looking at larger systemic budget fixes, I think that we should put a market down and revisit what fees could be wrapped up in larger budget reworking and removed from our utility bills to actually lower the utility bills versus what things kind of exist and should exist on a water.

So can you explain that?

Because if you remove the fee off the bill, you still have to get those funds from somewhere.

So it's not like you're putting it from pocket to pocket, right?

Like you're talking about completely removing it?

Yeah, so what I would say is if you're paying a if you're paying a five dollar a month water fee for some city program, or a set, let's say a seven dollar a month water fee for a city program.

Public safety fee for a public safety fee.

That is in theory, like a systematic expense.

There's need that we all kind of clearly express where to do that quickly.

But that's $7, regardless if you make $50,000 or $500,000, versus something like property taxes is weighted based on the value of the property that you own.

And so if we're looking at, we've heard that in four years we're gonna have to do some things serious to be able to fix our budget issues.

It might be a property tax increase, it might be something else.

I'd hope that we can find something else.

But if we are looking at shifting that tax burden or trying to solve larger budget problems, I would hope that some of these like flat fees on everyone could be shifted or discussed in that larger shift.

That makes sense.

So robbing Peter to pay Paul, but yeah.

But it's it could be sort of less regressive.

Exactly.

By tying it to property value.

But it's gonna be more expensive.

No, it wouldn't be more expensive necessarily.

We do it this last time.

Or that was the that was well, no, it was also who can pay more.

Yeah, that's right.

But there's no relief for those who can't.

Um if I understand what you're saying, um, that there would potentially be relief for those and that couldn't pay as much because the regressive taxes are a flat fee, and that applies whether I make a dollar a year or I make a million dollars a year.

Right.

So I'm still paying that, you know, set nine dollars on my account or whatever.

But when the tax structure that vary is variable based on the person's ability to pay, then um I might, if I'm making a dollar a year, I might either be able to opt out of that or pay maybe 90 cents, versus if you're making a million dollars a year, maybe you would pay 90 dollars.

The opt-out is also, I mean, opt-out is some of our low-income properties don't pay property taxes, like the hillside development isn't paying property.

Right.

And so how I think you would say we have a low income exemption built into our utility program.

Something similar exists in property taxes, but it also captures for someone who owns a really expensive house is gonna probably pay more than seven dollars a month, which is more their fair share, and someone who's a working family maybe pays closer to five dollars a month.

So it's not I think you're right.

It's not like the fee.

How do you base it off their income on a property tax?

You can you can base something off of the value of the home.

Right.

But that's if you I mean it it also depends on how you want to structure a tax or a fee.

So how does I think sometimes people structure taxes and fees in a regressive way that's just a flat fee across the board, but it doesn't take into account the variability of our populations, and it takes more time to structure something that is variable and responsive to the diversity, the economic diversity that we see in our community.

And if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying that if um if we move forward in coming years and still have these needs, that we look at maybe rolling some of the regressive taxes into something that is more responsive to the needs of our community.

Yeah, yeah.

You say it very well.

Yeah.

It's a property tax though, right?

At the end of the day, that's what it is.

It could be.

I mean, there are not a lot of tools in the toolbox.

That's what I'm saying.

So that's what would the other because we can't create another tax.

Well, the one thing that I would say what I have here, I'm just talking about utilities.

No, I'm just I'm just curious.

Yeah, this is an extra layer of the case.

Or the fees that are based on consumption, you know, behavior or you know how property is used, right?

And you know, I think there may be maybe there's an opportunity to look at uh smaller SDC for scale.

SDC is based off the size of residents.

Maybe there's maybe there's something we can do something in the future looking at stormwater bell, you know, maybe a smaller home uh and larger homes service there.

But we we bill it based on the equivalent duality, sort of the average size dwelling unit uh for ease of billing, because it does get to be a challenge to track changes in improvement service areas is one of the things that's hard to do with partial properties.

So like with residential, it's based off of like 276 square feet of improvement service area.

Maybe to clarify it, just say it really simply.

This I have a little bit of a lot of people.

You're taking us back to the taxes thing.

Yeah, I'm saying we'll go let's go back to that.

I want to keep so I don't want to lose track of this with time.

Um I'm intrigued, but I I I mean, the thing that I'm saying is I have a little bit of heartburn that this is slightly this is a regressive system.

If we ever were to do a property tax increase, which is a challenging thing to do, my expectation would be that we lower some of these programmatic expenses or roll them up.

So we don't have flat fees just floating.

Who's gonna get the money out of the property tax?

Well, other I would just say none of these are flat fees that are programmatic based.

They are all utility-based, providing the service.

So, you know, we're providing water, we're providing wastewater, we're providing storm water, we're providing uh sidewalks and bike and pedestrian ways, and we're maintaining streets.

So those are all utility based off of consumption behavior or land use.

So I'll just say I think um we are a rare bird in Oregon in being a city that has some potential to raise our having some room to raise our property tax.

Most cities do not have that.

Um as a result, most cities are adding more fees on their utility bills.

West Lynn has $19 a month for their parks fee.

Wow.

You know, I mean, there are some pretty hefty fees that you know we're hearing the buzz in Portland, right?

About a about a street fee in Portland.

Um, you know, I think you know, that is the world we live in because a measure is $5 and 50, but the utility will be for most cities have it.

Yeah.

But I I agree with the the idea that if we're if we do go for a property tax increase, we should see if we can wrap those things into that as opposed to having them on the utility bill.

What even if we get there, this is a good policy discussion, and certainly fits in your values of this this goal, and we just talked about utilities and tax in general.

So yeah, that'd be an interesting conversation because I thought the last the reason why we didn't do one wasn't because of timing.

It was more because of it wasn't a it was timing in the sense that people are feeling a lot of economic pressure.

And putting a tax increase on the ballot with some other things coming from the county, it probably wasn't the best idea.

It wasn't based on timing of getting in on the ballot and all that.

It was more about the impact it was going to have on residents.

Because that was going to be probably three times more than what we settled on.

That was part of the biggest argument for that fee was to lower the burden.

Because regardless is if you make 50,000 or 100,000 or 200,000, your property value determines how much you pay on your taxes.

Based on the rate, right?

So even if you're if your average home value is based on uh and it's not the market value, right?

So if that value is based on the average, like I mean, take the sheriff's levy, it's a good example.

They're basing that $68 increase on a what's the home value that they're basing it off of?

200 and something thousand.

275.

Well, or 300.

Right?

So that's that's pretty darn low already.

Right?

So I'm intrigued.

I I'd like to hear how the workaround is because that's already low.

And that and that, you do the math on that, you're still paying 68 bucks a month.

Do that by the year.

You're paying over 700 extra in taxes.

How is that more affordable?

I guess I'm a little bit.

We can go, we can dive into it now or we can go all the time.

No, we can let's go on, but we've got to.

No, let's go on.

I'd like to see how to fit away home.

We could do some maths.

Unless you change the property value.

The next one I can I can talk about, Peter.

Um that's another one related to creating a baseline through the community survey.

Um that's the one I I could find pretty quickly.

So we're getting some live data.

But as far as the percentage of residents who think that they're aware of utility assistance, any guesses?

Any guesses around the table as a response.

How many of the folks 18%?

So what's eight?

What's the percentage of people in Milwaukee that know that there's utility?

Oh, like 8%?

6%.

No, you've uh everyone keeps it.

The price is right.

What'd you say?

I said 10.

10.

77%, y'all.

Wow.

Well, that's awesome.

Uh well that makes me feel I mean, because I noticed that number of people participating it had only ticked up slightly.

You know, we had a big push last year to try and make sure more people were aware of it.

And it hadn't ticked up that much, but that tells us that people are aware of it.

Um I know that I sit outside and I hear her uh telling people about it.

So I think that that's 77% shows the work she's done for sure.

Uh it is surprising.

That's what that's really good.

Yeah, that's really good.

Uh we just gotta beat it next year.

Keep it up, Mike.

Um, we don't have any updates.

I don't know if Peter, if you had any updates on that, uh I know we asked um we've reached out to we had a discussion.

Emma and I had a discussion with high from PGB, some of the energy efficiency information that they that they track as well as that if they put I think it's the BTL.

Uh and some of the low income assistance programs that they keep the numbers around.

Yeah, she hasn't been very she was yeah, we haven't got it.

It's time to ping her again and hopefully we'll have an update um next next quarter.

That kind of concludes the the basic kind of measures of success.

The blue, the data metrics in blue are the ones that we would just like to know.

Um, not available yet.

Uh waiting on CC's data for Alice that needs to be updated, it usually comes within the next month or two.

Um and then if you move on to the the next page, we finally get some metrics, affordable housing related metrics.

Um we still have some slides to go through, so I don't know if you want to go through each of these that we have, but just take a look if you have any questions, we're happy to answer right now.

But most we did update the mayor had a question about the vacancy rates for multi-family, I believe.

And um, I did not update it yet because I had to discover why it was off.

And so we saw an update.

Um all vacancy number of 5.9% doesn't make sense when you average the rest below.

And their co-star does uh a new a different category that we didn't recognize that we need to add it in and make sure everything jives.

Okay.

Okay.

Stay tuned.

But I didn't get eviction data.

We did, yeah.

I see that.

Unfortunately, that's a lot.

It's gone up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's read that maybe.

Sure.

Yeah.

Also, you saw the change in residential events and no prices have also gone up.

As I think would be expected.

And we'll hopefully get you more information.

Housing choice decision.

Is that forget we're late on that?

It's difficult to get, but utility metrics, uh, Peter and Michael, you want to there you want to add or any questions there?

I would just say the utility system assistance dollars distributed per year.

We we do have that in our proposed budget.

You know, we included those dollars again moving forward for uh for the utilities.

Um stuff you want to push in there?

Uh I was gonna hit on it in uh slides, but um Judy, Amy, and I last November um had a utility building assistance open house here.

And um we answered questions on applying for assistance and resources available.

Um deadline for renewals is June 30th.

So in May and June, uh we Amy Duty and I are gonna uh meet at the library in City Hall here and have another one of those.

Um we're also gonna invite Glenn to kind of come to he has a lot of resources that we don't know about and um I felt like that's a good tool to have him come straight provide his services as well.

Um so we have those scheduled and put those in the pilot uh coming up.

Any questions before we jump into the clients?

Damn, we have to sort of slice we'll go pretty quick.

Uh the clicker might just moving it forward.

So with the the finishing out the 2025 year, uh we added in this section of the last quarter, quarter four of 2025.

These action items include both um council and staff.

So just a it'll be a quick recap of what how we ended the year.

But if you remember um some of the general actions, action plan alignment with community advisory board strategic plan.

You scope the contract and new community survey consultant.

Obviously, just those that you didn't remember or don't remember, but um we had to change our contract with who we typically do the survey with, so that took more time.

Um, but we got somebody and obviously just wrapped it up, but you said you'll get more on information on that soon.

Uh turn uh turned toward Clackmas Service Center.

I swear I haven't been uh drinking it as St.

Patter's Day.

Uh Clack Service Center with all y'all, that was a great that was a great day, actually.

Seeing all the great work they do.

Um that was really fantastic.

So the actions I'm gonna let Peter Michael jump on that slide and just cover what Q4 looked like.

Um so for mine, uh we had the utility assistance open house before uh the C UAC met and reviewed the rate design, as Peter said for rate design and also the CIP checklist, um, how they are going through and doing the reprioritization uh scoring.

Uh also kudos to Peter.

Uh we received a loan for safe three teamwater projects.

Uh portion of this loan is forgivable once the project's completed.

That was a big success.

Uh one thing we streamlined our utility billing platform regarding billing statements and online access.

The goal in here was to eliminate duplicate contracts and run all UV process your system filer income.

Uh before we had two, we had BMS who was creating the bill and sending it out, and then we had Tyler that had all the data from this.

We were able to streamline it and reduce VMS costs quite a bit.

So that's a big win.

Um the other thing we did was uh this allowed us to have uh customers come in and have one login.

In the past, they'd have to do one login to view their bill, one uh log in to pay their bill.

Now they're all they're able to do it all from the visible payments online.

Uh that was a streamlined approach to kind of help us with the bill process.

Um we're also continuing to bring and evaluate the utility billing code and uh bring our recommendations to you on changes that need to be done.

Um I'm coming back to you in April to discuss a couple ideas and options about house.

Moving on to the housing side.

Uh if you remember, we actually adopted the affordable housing code instead of our great planning team.

Um shout out to Vera and Mora.

Studies studying affordable housing models and tenant screening fee limits from Council Professor Body and Council President Peterson.

We issued an award at the Sparrow Site Affordable Housing P, which is a big deal.

We're um you'll see later in the slides, but we're continuing to work with Dev Northwest on uh disposition development agreement.

Uh last Q4, we also partnered with related Northwest.

Thank you all for allowing us to do that.

State grant for Hillside Park for infrastructure.

Uh we haven't heard anything about that grant, but we have helped apply with really Northwest.

Um finally addressed other affordable housing tools.

We started the increasing high density housing capacity conversation, which will come back to you as soon as DLCD finishes our contract.

Um supposed to start in January, but uh it's looks like it's probably gonna start in April.

So if we're sorry about that, that's been out of our hands.

Uh obviously crafting the land banking strategy, we started those conversations and continue those uh into the next quarter.

And then we also uh started conversations about the rural program.

Um just staff specific for 2026 starting this quarter.

Uh as you as I mentioned a couple times, we conducted the biannual community surveys, that's not out.

And it's it is as of today, it sounds like officially included and final report, so welcome.

Yeah, let me I can just speak to a little bit of that.

You know, we have been spending the meetings with like QuAC to talk about grades, are you specifically water wastewater?

And we have a consultant doing those, uh doing a cost of service study for those two utilities.

Uh we also walk them through the revenue requirements for the other utilities as it relates to our budget and our capital improvement program.

Um the next step that we have is in in April, we'll have a meeting with Quack and then follow a meeting if we would talk about the water and wastewater rates for those cases.

Um we did uh spend a lot of time.

Jen and I spent a lot of time uh working on the capital improvement uh program.

And uh, you know, I I think the big picture is our current buy our current CIP that you see in the budget document now shows a program about 125 million.

We have scaled that down uh to about 80 million, a little over 80 million dollars, so almost by a third in terms of dollars uh, but also uh you know the goal the goal being to be able to be more realistic in execution and being having the staff to manage those projects.

So we've got less projects, but they they're critical and and high priority projects.

So that's one of the things that we uh have spent a lot of time doing.

And you'll see you saw that in our uh uh budget committee meeting last month.

I would just add again kudos to Amy and Judy for proactively informing and educating people on the utility assistance program.

Um and also we continue to partnerships with St.

Vince DePaul United Way and 211 that if folks are in need, we we direct them to those assistants.

Are we still funding St.

Vincent's Paul?

We are.

And that's to help people with their PGE or Northwest Natural bills.

What is that?

I think it goes into a pot that they choose about.

Okay.

So it's not that's in the upcoming budget.

Okay.

Oh, I don't know if you can see that very well.

But these were the revenue requirement revenue increases that we needed for each of the utilities that we recommended.

I just we can talk about this from the budget committee.

You know, the water and the upcoming binary recommended increasing revenue by 8% of each of those fiscal years.

Storm, we're recommending no increases.

And then on our transportation fees, we have those indexed to the Seattle Construction Cost Index.

For safe the first fiscal year, we're recommending 13%.

That's to get us caught up with that uh revenue uh gap that we have, and then five percent in the following year.

Uh and then SSMP uh five percent the construction cost index in both of those years is what we recommended.

Um you'll see what those look like uh in detail with uh when we talk about the reschedule, what those rates are.

That's great.

Thanks.

The housing side um conducted a study session and discuss the STC waivers uh possibly for the housing or an ADUs as well.

Um codes and it was uh implemented, and we already talked about the DDA uh for disparos.

That's still in that's still in process, so I'll take some time.

Um then we had our first kind of real real media discussion about mural in February uh with uh councillor uh council president Anderson and counselor staff and jordan kind of leaving leaving those discussions, and then uh we did not do this.

I provided update on work related to rental registration and this is kind of this goes to our business registration update and mixer um reconfiguration of that code section.

So this is gonna hit economic development as well, but we just met today to kind of be to game plan how we want to move forward and what we want to council as a starting discussion about uh rental registrations and then business registrations and how those should look.

What kind of value do we want to provide to uh the business community as well as uh home homeowners of the property owners?

So that is moving forward next quarter.

So that's where you'll see it in the next slide.

But I I bumped it up to May and June.

Um it's just not ready.

So it's kind of related to housing, but not really.

Because it's there's the rental registration is a piece of it, but it also includes uh business registration.

I did have one other thing that I I wanted to mention related to this.

So you know, part of the work that FCS is doing is a cost of service study that looks at are we charging the custom the different customer classes the right amount for the services that we provide, and one of the things that they've found in their analysis is that our uh our single family and our larger commercial customer commercial customers are subsidizing or actually the multi-family.

I think I got it backwards.

Multi-family housing is probably paying more than we should.

So we may we're looking at perhaps making some adjustments and maybe creating a different customer classification uh for multi-family housing that may see uh a decrease in probably probably on the fixed customer charge for those customers.

So that might be something that might see.

You're saying that's in water?

In water in water, yeah.

Okay, interesting.

Thanks, Peter.

Okay, or in everyone.

That's good to hear.

So we moving into just a preview of next quarter, keep going, Peter.

Um as I mentioned before, you'll get uh the presentation about the community survey results.

Uh I'll get that on the agenda.

Suite and review of the update of fee schedules coming April 14th, so you'll see that.

And then as I meant just mentioned, we'll be talking about registration code, business registration code, and uh rental registration uh in this next quarter as well.

So that is coming your way.

Utility side.

So for this um coming up on May 5th, uh Chris Bell from uh utility uh solid waste analyst.

He looks at the rates for the different solid waste companies.

They've recently submitted all their financials to him, and he goes through and looks to make sure that their rates are in balance for city um other areas.

He'll be here on May 5th to give out to report to all of you.

Um just in FYI, the solid waste haulers are looking at next steps for the franchise agreement, so I think that they'll be here looking for information on that.

So I think that they'll be here looking for information on that.

Didn't we tell them come back after the budget?

Yes.

And I've told them that and they respected that, but I said this might be a good day to since we're talking about solid waste, don't actually be able to start, but that's up to you.

There's as I said before, there's some utility code changes.

I'm going to come to people for something that Amy and I have wanted to do for a while is do an internal audit of our current accounts.

And what that means is we have our reschedule that we charge everybody.

But in our system, there's over the years, there's just been a lot of things where maybe somebody's account didn't get updated or this didn't get updated.

And there's a lot of potential revenue that I feel is in there.

And having us go through and do an internal audit to examine all of the accounts and make sure that the storm impervious service, all of the things in our database is correct.

So I pitched in the budget to have like an intern kind of come in over the summer and do that work.

I think that would be very valuable for the city.

Another thing that uh Laura and I have been working on is um streamlining the internal process for procedures among departments, and I mean specifically for new leader installations.

When Hillside came on, there was a lot of parts in that.

And when from the utility side, when did we when the meter goes in, when do we start turning on the things or billing?

When do we start billing?

Um there's a lot of factors in play at that, and we've kind of brought all the departments to the table and are looking at how we best do that, whether the processes and procedures for that.

And I don't think we've done that in the city as long time, so that's pretty exciting to get all these people at the table and talk about kind of what your step is and how that impacts others, and I think that helps the city is in streamlining how we move forward as new places come online, how quickly we start the bill.

Yeah, I think one other thing I would I just wanted to mention on the fee schedule that was in the previous slide.

One of the things that I've been looking on with Mike is also providing some better descriptions on the fees when you look at the utility fees.

I know SDCs was one that it felt like it'd been sort of a challenge sometimes to describe like how how the how what are the SDCs?

What are what are they capturing?

What's the purpose of that?

So if I've done some work on that, we're gonna just work on the utility piece to describe or provide some better descriptions on how the rate system works and things like that.

So we just put in the fee schedule.

You'll see that.

I think we'll see that.

Um on this last bullet about internal processes about meters.

I I I do wonder, I guess I'd like to understand more like uh somebody puts in their building application, they get their building permit.

What is the role of the you know, building official versus the public works team, and then yeah, and then who queues up finance when it's done to say it's done and turn it on.

That's exactly what we're working on.

Um what I've discovered, it was very person-based in the past where it was like, oh, this person did that.

But then when that person moves on, who takes on that responsibility, and so we're trying to make it more process-driven so that hey, you know, building kicks it off, they get it, planning looks at it and goes through a review process so that all of us know what the steps are as we go forward.

Yeah, um, there's a lot of room.

I think there's a lot of room for progress there that we're all at the table talking about through.

And part of it reflects the change in structure that we have in the city.

Yeah, yeah.

For sure.

And the volume of permits and the type of the complexity of construction has changed quite a bit for our city too.

I think we could have been able to do a little bit more uh band-aiding around and when it comes to developing a couple single family homes, but now we're doing so many that we got your processes much more tight.

Um that's what Mike's speaking to.

Uh housing actions going in the second quarter, uh land banking strategy.

Mandy and I are coming back on April 7th to hopefully I impress you.

Uh we'll see.

Uh, we're also gonna start talking about uh feasibility around revolving loan fund.

Uh counselor Cruiserbody, this is in the housing production strategy.

It's also a big desire of yours.

Uh I think a good idea would be maybe a study session with Bill Van Bleek from uh the network of uh Oregon Affordable Housing, NOAA.

He's kind of the godfather, I think, when it comes to revolving loans for home homeownership.

And they also can help us.

So the direction we go.

Uh then continue to track, see what's going on state level for pre-approved plan sets.

I haven't heard any updates.

Um, so we'll see if we can get an update from the state here in the next quarter for y'all.

And then as I mentioned, we'll be continuing on with uh the DDA with Sparrow.

That'll again take many months just to get agreement all tightened up.

Um pass the microscope.

Yeah, um, so obviously we well just start with the Wichita Center because they're gonna send you an invoice by the way.

I talked to them yesterday.

They're gonna CC me on it just so you know.

So don't talk fool.

Um yeah, we were able to between all council members raise six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.

That's gonna go to the Wichita Center to help uh go towards purchasing new uh commercial size fridges, um glass fridges, well not all glass, but you know, ones that you can see through so they can shop and they won't have to throw out so much food.

So that's that's that's a big deal.

The cab um we've added new membership.

Um obviously one of our members is here.

Uh a couple of members as well, uh Rodney Smith, also a new member of CAB.

So there's uh there's been like we're full now.

Um it's probably been the first time in a long time.

Uh and with that, we are, and like I mentioned in our last meeting, we are trying to schedule time to as the cab to meet with the county commissioners because as long as I've been there, we haven't met with them once.

It's kind of ironic.

Um, and then the needs assessment is going in.

So we're it's really gonna be because I looked at when I'm looking at this and you see the uptake in evictions as concerning, right?

That's a 600 600 people.

Um so that's gonna really put into focus what's been done in the last three years on a county level, uh, which will help then I think will help cities like ours be able to kind of see where it does break it down by jurisdiction.

Um so it'll help give a uh paint a picture on on where we're at uh uh in Milwaukee.

Uh and then we are planning to do our listening tour again after this um uh needs assessment.

We're gonna take it to the other jurisdictions like we did last year and share the results.

Uh, we're hoping to do the same with the county commissioners in hopes that they'll that they'll do something about it other than make it more expensive.

Um Wichita Center are we are we uh challenging Happy Valley to the case.

Yes, once I get the invoice, I will be reaching out to I will be reaching out to my good friend uh counselor Glenn Walter, who's actually a former uh North Calculate School District Board member.

Yeah, and I'm just listening kindly to put their money where their mouth is.

Yeah, uh, and see where that goes.

And and what other you know we want to kind of expand it too to the general public just to kind of make it hope, just a fun fundraising event that can really help the families.

Um the other thing is uh the mayor and I are working on meeting with Birch, which is an organization that uh is very similar to Gleaners in a way.

Um it's really cool what they provide for a hundred bucks a month, and this is really I think a huge how can I say it out without sending this is uh around in the chamber uh because um groceries is probably one of the most expensive things people have to well guess now.

Um but groceries is a big piece of that, and uh this this organization provides for a hundred bucks a month and two hours of your time a month for volunteers.

You can you it you get access to over 1200 worth of groceries per month.

So you can basically go once a week and fill up as much as you need for the family size that you have.

They also provide financial um uh I want to call it classes, but financial stability counseling.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh and a lot of people have have talked about how they've gotten out of debt, um, which ties into what we were talking about on CAB because at on CAB, one of the members was saying, you know, we we don't need to learn how to make a dollar stretch because we you know you don't have a dollar to begin with, right?

So you can't stretch a dollar you don't have.

Charles Bird if you're watching apologize I have not contacted you yet to set up a meeting but the mayor and I have been kind of going back and forth recently on this but we're we're hoping to have some uh serious discussions on um not necessarily a tree bay program I know we talked about that but I think this is a better and more unique approach that lessens the burden on the city by by doing some sort of discount for tree for total tree canopy uh percentage um like if you already have 40 percent or more tree canopy you're actually really helping the city out and reaching our goals um and so there's potential for for something wastewater yeah yeah the other thing is uh I think stormwater sorry yeah I've been talking to great guys he's um I'm waiting to get his because their SDC's their SDC methodology is based on um the uh the uh affordability of the project so they base it on they base it on like if it's 80 to 100 percent you're paying a different SDC than if it's 30 to 60 percent MHI uh uh property so Oregon City actually is just implemented that methodology um it it took some work but they did it and I'm working on getting basically their whole packet to find out if that's something that maybe the city can implement I know we do it based on size but I think uh doing it based on affordability would have a much larger impact and then that way we maybe we don't necessarily need to just wave them all together um we can just have them low and then raise the cost as the cost of the house of the property increases of the project um so now you're paying a little bit more if you want to build something a little bit more expensive.

But yeah stay tuned for that can I ask a couple questions about evictions.

Yes ma'am um so the numbers here these represent households that have been I is it served or or the eviction has actually happened.

That's a good question for Randy's the one that um yeah that's from data from evicted in Oregon which comes from the court system.

Yes okay it's gotta be completed.

Okay so I I'll I'll look up to find out I guess what I'm getting at is who's been getting resources actual completed eviction is a different number at in terms of when we can um when we can intervene versus when the eviction is served.

Yeah so notice from actual eviction yeah exactly yeah yeah that's a good one if if there's a way that we can wrap some more services around you know or even like sometimes there are advocates that are funded to be in the courtroom yeah to connect with people that maybe didn't know that there were resources available and I don't know what the county does in in that regard.

So that might be more of a cabin yeah I'll find out more about that's a that that's a good point because and and that's kind of where I'm starting to see through this affordability goal obviously before this right we we we're limited on what we can control but if we can if we can introduce more resources like the birch because birch isn't necessarily based on just solely your income like you can still like use it if you're an average Milwaukee family right like you don't have to be at the poverty line they do it differently and those are some things that we can look at too is is do we even want to use the poverty line anymore should we come up with our own metric of what poverty means in Milwaukee because the socioeconomic status is so different and it's as well variable and and if that can lead to potentially more avenues for resources to be uh to uh to be obtained for people so well and on the eviction I think it would be useful to have a better and you know I kind of asked about this with um you know I mean it kind of came up when we went on our CSC tour and other things but like uh how rental assistance gets coordinated in the county um and I mean we know rental assistance pots are not are kind of going down but there's still some out there and how do they how to match those people with because I've heard from an another mayor who happens to be a landlord that he had tenants who were eligible for rental assistance but they wouldn't give them the rental assistance until he actually initiated yeah that's how it works that's that's part of the problem which is kind of what you're yeah and a lot of people are afraid to get to that point because that at that point you know that means that um that that's like it's a very slippery slope right here you know and people are trying absolutely everything that they can before they get to that point but it's um I mean um I won't go down like my total rabbit hole of how like this is systemically set up in multiple systems

Yeah, and a lot of people are afraid to get to that point because that at that point, you know, that means that um that that's like it's a very slippery slope, right?

You're all very, you know, and people are trying absolutely everything that they can before they get to that point.

But it's um I mean um, I won't go down like my total rabbit hole of how like this is systemically set up in multiple systems.

But if anybody's interested in that TED talk, uh as an hour.

I think that um we are likely not the only city in Glackmas County that is experiencing an increase in evictions, whether these are completed evictions or evictions served.

The rural part.

Yes.

And I think that you know, if this I don't know if evicted in Oregon has unincorporated data and how that's sliced for Clackamas County, if it's urban unincorporated, rural and unincorporated.

But if we were to create um, you know, an advocacy coalition amongst multiple cities that are also seeing this increase and could um, you know, maybe that's like something that would be useful in your conversation with the county commissioners because they're going through a budget process too.

Yeah, right.

And if they have six different cities that are coming to them saying, hey, we're all seeing this increase in eviction, and we would like to know how county resources are being um, you know, like um dovetailed in to that system.

It's possible that they have information there, but getting a brochure and connecting with you know an actual person to do outreach or intake you know for county housing services, like right there in the courtroom.

That's that's a very different thing.

That yeah, that's a good point, because it there's a huge I don't know what the number is right now, but off the top of my head, but there's a huge difference between how many people like capacity in the county, like how many people they can serve and how many people are not being served because they can't be served because just because of the capacity, and that's that's that's uh yeah, that's a good one.

I could get some of that information.

I'll ask the I'll ask the cap to some of the staff at the county.

There's irony there because a narrative across Clackamas County is you know, uh this rugged independence, you know.

I'm gonna take care of what I need to take care of and I don't need to rely on things, and yet we're setting this up so that you can't actually, you know, like you have to fail.

You have to go through this really intense failure process in order to get connected to services that will keep you in your home and keep families together and keep your kids connected in school.

Well, and then they throw another wrench in it for the rugged independence because they also cut rental assistances down by 73%, I think right now.

So, I think that's a good thing.

It's like yeah, it's it's it's like it's really high.

It's really high rental assistance is gonna hit hard.

Is there um it's good conversation?

I'm wondering if there is something you want me to add to the action plan for next quarter or anything that you feel like needs to be included.

Um well, what I'm just getting at is more of a policy discussion for counselor closer body when you when you interact with the cab and when the cab interacts with the county commissioners, so that you can you know I don't know how many cities are represented at that table at the cab table, but maybe not as many as are being impacted by the eviction data.

So that might be helpful.

I don't think that's an actionable item for Milwaukee staff.

I could put it on the staff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I I do wonder is there a point to having uh well uh having Commissioner West because he's gonna be the county's person on the SHS board and having um county housing people come talk to us about the process for rental assistance and how that how they operate that and trying to have a conversation with them.

I think that would be great.

I mean, and then we could also promote that you know, if people maybe it's not like a report out on the program, maybe it's more of an information session, and then we could invite neighbors who want to know, you know, directly from the county how these things work and how they get connected with them.

Um the um was it gonna say it's gone.

It was gonna be good.

It was gonna be really good.

Oh rats.

Okay, well, I think on a policy on a council side, yeah, we should be looking at that.

Got it.

Yeah, future reference.

Yeah, and if if those questions that you ask, um if you want to send like email me or even just jot them down just so I don't forget for our next CAM meeting, like you probably already wrote them down, so my already wrote them down.

But yeah, you can send them to me.

Um so I'll bring that up during the cab and try to get some of those numbers and figures.

Do county any county commissioners come in the cam?

I remember what it was now.

Oh, fantastic.

As soon as you said county commissioners, um in C4 we had had conversations for multiple retreats about whether or not to add some level of housing and human services into the the discussion, and for some reason there has been um effective resistance to that.

So C4 continues to be focused on transportation and land use.

Uh however, the people who are talking about transportation and land use need to also be thinking about the humans that occupy the land who who are you know residing in homes.

Um I think like otherwise you're having those conversations in different directions, right?

Yeah.

So at some point C4 needs to be talking about the things that um CAP is talking about.

Yeah.

We've done, I mean, around SHS work group, they talked about that at C4, which then touches on the housing human services stuff.

Are you saying presentation?

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Sure.

Difference between presentation and discussion.

Yeah, I think.

For sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now you got your flag.

I do.

Yeah, I can go throw a mark down there.

Yeah.

So Paul Barker.

Highlighter.

I think a quick clarification on the eviction data that it is cases filed for that number.

Okay.

Oh, good.

Okay.

So it makes me feel somewhat better than that.

Yeah, right.

I'll be too.

I mean, still concerning.

Is there any way that we can find out the actual evictions completed?

Yes.

Okay.

Then I would be really interested in our next conversation to compare these, which are the front-end numbers to the actual completion numbers.

Oh, that's good.

And see if there is a correlation there, and if so, then more policy advocacy is warranted.

Yeah.

On the state level, we hear a lot about how both landlords and tenant advocates are saying the only way to get rental assistance is like you're saying, starting the shipment proceedings.

So yeah, I'd be so curious what that difference is of how many people are actually evicted to that.

Who sets that requirement?

Well, that's why they go to the state.

I don't think it's a I think it's a state resource capacity problem.

I don't know if it's uh I think it is something.

So many counties are saying that they can't help until is it a requirement of the funding stream?

I don't know if that's the case necessarily.

Is that how you prove that you're in eviction?

Because when they start the process might have been I have to go the voting notice of my understanding was a condition of like scarcity, they've done this.

But that speaks to like God, that's so stressful.

There's a problem in the amount of funding that we give to these groups to do this.

But I'd have to go check if that's a precondition on the dollars or if that's just what nonprofits have been done.

Because what nonprofit groups say is not to change some legal requirement, they say give us more funds so we can address this more upstream.

Um a lot of time the measurement of a problem is more um uh of an intervention than a prevention.

Is that does that make sense?

Like it's yeah, it's harder to meant it's harder to measure something in a preventative state because you're actually measuring something before it's happened.

Yeah, um, but that's actually a really outdated way to think about how we interact with people and and metrics.

Yeah, so um I think this is an opportunity for us if there's not an actual funding requirement that needs to be changed at like the federal level, right?

Um, that perhaps we start changing some of the language around the need to measure something after it's happened.

We're not really doing the best service to our communities that way.

No.

Yeah.

And then yeah, that's a horrible.

Speaking of that though, I actually was curious on the Milwaukee heart.

Yeah.

Is that is this the last year of funding?

Yeah.

Well, so we talked a little bit about that when we were at CSC.

Is there shouldn't we be putting in an ask to the county for more SHS?

If we can't fund it ourselves, so we should put in an ask.

Did we ever get any kind of reporting on that?

Um no, I don't think so.

Yeah.

But um I don't think that that's I I think that the program is being utilized.

I think they just need to be able to quantify that looks like I mean I think.

Well, and they probably have been doing it for the county, and we just haven't seen it.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, because the measurements are tied to the existing housing services, like the referral data that they have to report back to the county, and that this is just you know an additional uh layer of protection that we were able to advocate for for Milwaukee residents.

Um I think it would help us make an effective argument for continuation to show how well received that has been.

And honestly, uh I don't think that that program has been implemented within the senior community as much as we had originally intended.

Oh wow.

I think it's mostly um school age, you know, families with school-aged children.

But we're but th there's extreme vulnerability at both ends of that.

I was just thinking about that.

So crazy how the most vulnerable are like stuck.

It's just sorry.

Well, so should I mean is it as easy as coming back with a letter that we send to the county commission, or is there something else we need before that?

Well, I mean, I think if the if Clackmas County is on the same um budget timeline that that I'm familiar with, um the department budgets have already been formulated and they're in negotiation with the county administrator, um, and perhaps an education phase with the board.

So it would be best for us to connect with the department level and find out what they actually uh or we might even be able to see what the submitted um program offers from the from the department look like.

Um but then you know being really strategic about our advocacy at that point and specific for an ask.

If there's been a big cut to SHS and you know, I mean it can't it it's it's the same pot.

We just advocated for uh another pot on top of it.

So um what was the total that we got?

Um across two years it was I think eight hundred thousand dollars.

Damn, that's cool.

Oh yeah.

So um to answer your question more directly, Mayor, I think um it would be best for us to connect with the department uh and then at that point individual meetings with county commissioners and um collectmas service center set those up and go and and provide education about how well the program is working.

Fantastic.

Yeah, the list that's okay.

Council Slide, please do good.

Uh healthy conversations here.

It's 517.

Another item.

Uh y'all whoops.

Well, more questions or more comments on this one.

I mean, I think our other item probably doesn't require a whole hour, but um uh if there's nothing else on this topic, so yeah, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Sorry if I make you nervous with all the money I'm trying to take away from the department.

Swear I'm being reasonable.

Well, I'm sure you leaves your legs.

Only you okay.

Our next item is a discussion.

Um place making and neighborhood.

That's probably not how it's actually captured.

Thank you, but a gift waiting for you.

Yeah, some flowers or something.

Um Counselor Stafford and Sarah Fox.

Okay.

And mango.

Mango's like, I do my own.

I establish some places.

So is it okay that I pick this off a little bit?

I just want to say thank you.

This was an opportunity for us to continue a c really good conversation that we had.

What's the seems like we got into some uh some like placemaking and community identity weeds and started talking about what best practices look like, started talking about what sort of things are available to us within the reach of the city, within the capacity of the city, and also you know what would best tie into existing goals that we have in place so that we're not creating some new spin-out, spin-off or spin-out.

Yeah.

Um, and so Sierra put together a lovely um staff report around the existing placemaking programs that we do have at our um our disposal across the city, and um we also had a couple of uh brainstorm planning meetings where we were kind of talking through like in the big paintbrush sort of um you know world of things that could be done to create a sense of place and um uh and space, I guess.

You know, what are some of the things that would be uh easier to implement and still um you know wide reaching?

Um and so we um I'm not gonna I I won't give away the spoiler on where we've slides.

So I'm not gonna get too far.

Um but anyway, I think I think we got to a place where we have um you know a couple of recommendations that are ready for more conversation.

Yes, I'll stop that.

Thank you.

That was that was excellent.

That's everything that was going to go.

Yeah, like and advanced slides.

So go in on that.

I'm just gonna go over kind of what was in the staff report, but maybe a little more in depth of um what placemaking is, what are the types of placemaking out there before we get into our recommendations, the much awaited recommendations.

So let's just ground us in what placemaking is.

So it's a collaborative process of reimagining public space to reflect the community's identity, support local needs, and encourage people to connect.

So the keyword there is public space because we're gonna also find that in the next slide.

Um so it's all spaces that are open and accessible to everyone.

So these are the streets, sidewalks, plazas, parks, um, and other publicly owned land.

But another way that kind of described is basically every time you step outside your front door, you enter the public realm.

Um I like the description of it is the collective shared environment that supports mobility, social life and economic activity and cultural expression.

So we're gonna keep this in mind as we continue into this.

And so, especially this slide, the core elements of a placemaking project are that it centers community input and participation and reflects local culture and identity and encourages social interaction and activity.

So, since we are coming at this from more top-down approach with placemaking, we have a lot of bottom-up placemaking programs, but we are doing a city-led kind of discussion right now.

Um we still want to incorporate the fact that this should reflect the local culture, the local neighborhoods, and the have a lot of community input and participation regardless of that it's coming from us to them and not the other way around.

Um so moving on, I have so or do you should have stopped there before I'm gonna go into the types of placemaking next.

These definitions make sense.

Is this what you you understand placemaking to be?

Okay, so I categorize some types of placemaking that are more relevant to Milwaukee, more relevant to this context with the North West Portland, what we see what we've seen around this.

Um there are six different types that I've um kind of bunched these into, and the first one is kind of formal.

Oh, it's kind of naturally occurring placemaking without any interventions from the city.

So communities are already doing this on their own accord, they're expressing themselves and their identity for the benefit of the community, um, the public realm, lending libraries.

I've seen those rocks.

So this is just like what's already occurring.

It's wonderful and beautiful.

We shouldn't ever do anything to discourage it.

The other kind is identity branding, cultural recognition, and preservation.

So banners, that's something we have in downtown currently, not in the neighborhoods.

There's utility boxes that's done in Portland, where they wrap with it with art, usually something or about a rose, so it still has that cultural community identity.

And then street painting, and that is a program we also have too, which we have cross-walk painting programs.

But with the cultural recognition and preservation, that's like the Herons project that's coming to the waterfront and the Hadley medallion that's going to be going into the ground out here.

The next kind is events, social interactions and shared stewardship.

We do currently have an events fund the city.

A lot of the work that the NDAs are already doing, and other community organizations are doing to put on events downtown and elsewhere.

Another aspect of placemaking, another type is amenities and beautification.

So hanging baskets, wayfinding signage, the bike racks, the trash cans, a bench, a place to sit in the shade, tree lighting.

This creates a sense of pride and care, and it's creating nice gathering places where people can actually stay with shade and a place to sit and a place to throw away their trash.

And we do have a bike rack program in this five way.

And then there's tactical and temporary place making.

And then there is a sample of Milwaukee's temporary activation, which is the downtown lines of Milwaukee's winter lights walk.

And this is the deal jelly.

Let's see.

And then we do have, so this is what we have a grant program, you're any placemaking grant program, which really gets at this kind of tactical temporary, seasonal or exploratory placemaking.

And on the other end of this, you know, going away from seasonal and that exploratory phase, which is what we do have a program for, there is permanent placemaking.

And I would say maybe an example of this that we have is South Downtown Plaza, where it's really in the built environment and landscape.

This is something that would come after kind of the exploratory phase, but it also is something that would be needed to be a priority, which it is at the city council and the community members for it to be built into future redevelopments, such as Harrison and Maine incorporating placemaking as a priority for our future developments.

Okay.

And then that concludes the six placemaking types and categories.

But I wanted to give an overview of not only our existing programs, which is on the next slide, but the existing programs in Portland who has very robust programming.

But we do have a lot of this.

So they have the public track camera, the utility box art, a public street street plaza program, street painting programs, a place streets program, a block party program, a community event program, parking day, art in the right-of-way, sign donations, adopted landscape and encroachments.

And we have some of these things, we just don't brand them as a placemaking program necessarily, which we totally could.

So the sign donations is child Portland donated date binding signage is down by Lake Powell's.

You'll see it over there.

It's just basically if it outside external entity wants to put signage in the right-of-way.

And adopting a landscape is adopting a park for adding or a green space, I mean, for adding native plants, keeping up the landscaping and encouragements is adding private what is the word private structures in the right-of-way.

So I think we just need the right of way here for that.

And then so our programs just I've mentioned them throughout some of these slides, but what we have and collected here, we have six existing programs, and these are all community-led programs, not city-led, where it takes them taking the ownership and the um and taking on the project.

So intersection painting, we have a community placemaking grant, a bike rack program, parkour program, community events fund, and a mural protocol.

We do have the amount of placemaking opportunities.

So I will start here and come back to this slide.

Um the implementation recommendation with that in mind is to a two pronged approach at this point in time.

I'm sure there's been one off over the years as each program has come about, but putting all six into the pilot and doing a big educational approach of how they can go about it, what it looks like, something along those lines, and then do a moment of reflection on those after they've been promoted enough to decide do we need new or amended programs before we create anything super new at this point.

And then for the second part, the state would approach.

I'll come back to the slide for that.

So we are talking about neighborhood placemaking in our neighborhood hubs, and while there are nodes that we're really focusing on for neighborhood hubs, economic our economic development team is aligned with planning and that it should be a corridor approach, and I think that same thing should apply with what we do with placemaking.

So with Counselor Stoppen George, we discussed using existing infrastructure.

This is one of two.

Back to this.

We have it for one of them.

And then that kind of community design contest, whatever it might look like that's still being shaped up, and then placing the work order for it, maybe Q4.

Yeah, so how did those two programs sound?

How is this sitting for folks?

Is it where we want this to go?

City led uniform.

Well, I mean, I think it sounds like all good things to do.

I guess I'm trying to get my head around how that ties up with what we've talked about in terms of activating, I mean uh activating the hubs, right?

So there's the neighborhood activation hubs, and I think you I think you're really right that we have some programs that are not fully no.

So I think it totally makes sense to me that would go out with that first.

But is there also a piece on the uh and maybe that's a separate conversation to come later, but is there also a piece the city should be doing on uh like identifying parcels and helping promote redevelopment of picking a you know, picking a hub and and trying to do more uh you know, sort of that piece of do you mean from a placemaking perspective, or do you think like a hub strategy?

Well, I mean that I guess yeah, that's a good question.

And um, I mean, I I just feel like I mean when all of this was going up, I'm thinking 30 seconds, 30 second, 30 seconds to me, that's the the place to start.

And um, you know, they have had some neighborhood initiated things in the past, they got a uh produce vendor in there at Lysix at one point for a couple summers.

Um I think you know, there is some energy in that neighborhood that might want to pick this up.

Um, but they can't be expected to do the uh so they the placemaking piece, I feel like the neighborhood, you know, there's neighborhood energy for that.

Um but should we be also having ready because once we start bringing attention to those places, having ready some kind of flyer about these are the properties and this is what you could do in the same way.

These are the things that are reaching out to those property owners simultaneously, like these are the things you can do with your property.

You're in the zone, and I think part of that is also a push to get infrastructure in those locations because depending on what you want, it's not always like you can't run an extension court inside a minute market to run a food court outside, right?

So I think you know, we already do the business development grants, and I don't see why that's not considered business development and reach out to those locations and say, hey, we want to incorporate placemaking with the hubs.

Here's the grant money to put a electrical plug and maybe uh you know, a water spigot outside, so that at least there's some sort, and here's you know, benches and some lighting to at least make it seem more like a place people want to make their own, right?

So I think we can tie that into what we're already doing with the business development grants, and that's probably what some of these businesses are waiting on.

They probably like we don't have money to invest in a hub, but we do.

So maybe that ties into it.

Yeah, I guess I mean my thought is that these are the very lowest of the fruits.

Yeah, um, that this is a way to get communities within and surrounding hubs more aware of the potential for the super physical space of their built environment, what what could be done there?

Um when we think about you know, a properly city-led placemaking initiative in the hubs, my mind goes to what um what levers do we have access to to make changes to the built environment on such a scale that a community organization you know or a community group would have a really hard time doing that.

What are the things that are within our um you know power and influence?

Can we change um a street to be a walkable corridor?

You know, can we close off traffic to one area?

Can we, you know, can we make um you know, not just like a roundabout, but could it be something that's more of like you know, uh it's not a square, it's a circle where people would you know gather or you know, traffic would slow down because the built environment demands that I think we need both of these things as we're thinking about the planning for hubs and what that looks like in the future, we have to have activated community partners and business partners that um that are also kind of like at that same speed level.

So in doing a brochure about the things that we have available, I think we could also say, and these are some things that we would like to explore together.

Yeah, I do.

I think we're like talking about two buckets here on the placemaking bucket that we just heard.

I love this is such a helpful menu of options.

I think these are really fun things that empower communities that already are working to build hubs to have all of the city programs easily accessible to them.

The one that I might add to the list, the spot program is a great thing.

Um even let's take a 30-second hub or that corridor there, they were able to get stop signs and delineators to really slow down 29 out, and I think that will be a really exciting street.

And you tell them, hey, you can paint the street now, that here's all the other stuff you can do.

That will make a big difference.

And in the short term, some of the things that you're describing, I think could be really good spot grants, and having this all on a clear webpage that we can say here's a placemaking web page if you're interested in this.

Here's all the links to all the resources just in one spot, even just passing that out to the NDAs.

I know that will make them really, really excited.

Um that's the placemaking bucket.

I also am like happy about the appetite that we have here to try and see okay, as we're doing this placemaking, what are the ways that we can encourage redevelopment?

Um, it fits with the last hubs report that we got out.

It'll take some city investment to get the private market to start creating these neighborhood hubs.

And so what does it look like?

How do we hand out the brochures?

How do we provide those financial incentives for this to actually start to come together?

Um you can't just plug into an outlet and say, okay, I think you can approach it with both of them together, though.

You can go to a business and say, hey, we'd like to turn this into a placemaking hub.

Yeah, right, and then kind of wrap that conversation together.

Um, but I do like all the everything that you that the recommendations I do like.

I really like the banners on the light post.

I remember um when I got out of the service, I used to uh used to see them up like during Fourth of July Veterans Day.

Um and then sometimes you would see there'd be like a photo of an individual and say like Milwaukee supports their veterans, and it's like when that person served.

Um so you can do a lot of cool stuff.

I mean, you can do stuff for like Cinco de Mayo, you can do stuff for so many different cultural just to show like hey, like we see you.

Um I love I just I just think everything on there, and like you said, it's low-hanging fruit.

And maybe if it's like okay, let's you know maybe a couple of us, Mr.

Hub, we can go talk to some of these businesses about that, and then this can still like they don't I don't think they have to be individualized or separated.

I think you can tie them together and come up with something pretty cool.

Yeah, I think it's also really helpful the way that you um can you go to the slide that has the grid, you know, like the four um it is one in one word, yeah.

That one, I'm sorry.

So I when people are talking about things that they see that they're excited about in their community, it is helpful for us to have a tool to be able to put them in the right category so that when we talk about what that implementation looks like, we are using the right language.

That way we're not terrifying our our city employees unnecessarily and if we're talking about something that is transformation transformative, then that should be um a reminder for us on council that we're gonna have to figure out the funding stream for that.

We're gonna have to figure out how that fits into the plans and the documents that we already have in place so that it's not something that's just like you know, an extra add-on.

Um if we then find that a lot of the things that we're doing to create this um you know illustration of community of this, you know, if they're if if all of them are in the seasonal, then we should be able to reflect on that and say why is that happening?

Why don't we have things that are in permanent?

Why don't we have things that are in transformation um transformative and how can we push ourselves a little bit further?

So I just really appreciate the way that you've laid this out because it does give us the tools to articulate our goals around these types of programs and where we want to see them transforming our you know, like our communities across the city.

This is really neat.

Thank you guys.

I can just add to kind of pay you back on Council Steven George's um some of those thoughts.

Thank you both actually.

I think what um I'm also kind of processing as well as we the funding bucket of CET dollars for economic development.

That's what we use for outside the urban renewal area, and that's what we use for that's what we're using for grants, TIs and storefront improvements as well as um placemaking and uh pre-development.

So that we we are offering this menu right now, and just to think that if we go big on some of these, then that pot's gone.

Yeah, and then so we can't continue to help and hopefully get uh other business owners and folks that's great.

So there's a little bit of cost benefit analysis and all this stuff.

There and conversely, if we're not thinking with a lens like this, then we will end up making the large investments at you know, where we're like redesigning King or Linwood or you know, some or Monroe.

And if we're not if we're not thinking in advance, then we end up retrofitting the built environment five, 10 years down the road, because then it makes sense to have um you know boldouts or or um you know benches or community trash cans or things along those lines.

So it this is it's a tool that we can apply a lens that we can apply to things that are already like in the works that already have those other pots of funding attached to them.

Right.

That's I think that there's some potential there.

Sweet.

Yeah.

And that's our like in the TSP that those conversations were activated.

Um, and that's a document that'll lead, you know, development of projects for the next five, 10, 15 or more years.

Yeah, there's there's an appetite for this right now.

I mean every NDA talks about I mean even when it comes to housing stuff they're like well where's the up component.

So I I mean this is a this is a good a good way to show that we're trying to get these things moving.

Yeah.

Well and we did do the I mean that was the other thing that maybe goes on that list.

I don't know is the um the changes we made to the temporary uses like planning I mean we've made it more flexible to put pop-up uses right and even thinking about the um nasty the box hole clarifying like well the the it started with a scandal for those falling along but clarifying like wait what's what are you talking about posted oh yes oh yes sorry sorry yes someone was yeah it backfired big time on that Milwaukee was like exque but saying really clearly like these are insulations are okay like similar to the temporary use like making it really clear I love I didn't realize the little snake with all the rocks that's so cute and saying like this is totally we encourage that that's a nice thing to have there too for sure.

Long little messy yeah do always that's right yeah I saw that that's why I love Betsy the rebel rails or I would also love I think this is good for the placemaking part but then that second part that you all alluded to how do we follow up with property owners to say okay hey you can redevelop we'll help you we should have a follow-up conversation talk about okay what does it look like to poke them a little bit and what tools do we come at them with.

Well I mean that might be helpful too it would be helpful for us as counselors to also walk into their business and say hey what would you like some money to do some development here's our plan.

Like we were talking about it with those housing one pages I drove down Stanley every morning to take like his daycare and that spot is open for rent and we were talking about we were talking about it too about that's well that's Llewellyn's hub.

That could be a hub now it's zoned slightly different there are I I believe there are some talks about some stuff going in there I don't want to you know kill the deal or whatever but uh there is but I think the next conversation would be hey owner of that property would you instead of having it in this temporary status like would you rather it be an MU or SMU like what can we do to make this plot zone for that and then that would stay the welding's hub because it's right across from Ball Michelle I mean it's perfect.

In that case Council Crossbody's saying that there's a commercial store that's been there for a long time it's just it's changed uses and operators but it's always remained a commercial use within a residential so it's it's non-conforming but it continues on because that time hasn't lapsed so I do like including in that conversation about okay how do we poke people on the let them know that they can redevelop talking about I mean we hear lots of communities want a spot rezoning for this one lot we're hearing that I want to talk to NDA about the project we're gonna talk about later tomorrow.

A lot of folks were like ah we get that there's housing we really want this empty lot to be something that's makes reason walkable because we don't have that here and Milwaukee florals a good example and so clarifying to people hey this is what our spot rezoning process looks like a developer can petition to rezone here's everything that's involved I think would give residents more peace of mind and help them then applicate for these areas sounds like we need to reiterate the next step.

I think I got something this is good go go for it.

So next steps on both of these um can you go back to that to the there you go these are the implementation recommendations like choose your own adventure should you choose to move forward with the neighborhood community led work then um then the the first next step would be to get a word out more about the programs that are available to folks I think that there could be some organic space for conversations like what you're describing going in and talking with you know neighbors and businesses about what the potential is and then if there's not appetite for them to take that initiative then I think what you're looking for is the why not right and maybe the city's role is filling some of that why not but we don't know what the why not is yet um then we would come back together um reflecting you know some of that if there's if there's a need to add something else I was gonna say I don't think it's realistic to think we will know what the uptake is in one quarter right yeah um I mean it'll take us a quarter to get the word out there and things don't move that fast I mean we can have reflection on what we've heard from our conversations but I don't think we

Um then we would come back together um reflecting you know some of that if there's if there's a need to add something else.

I was gonna say I don't think it's realistic to think we will know what the uptake is in one quarter, right?

Yeah, um, I mean, it'll take us a quarter to get the word out there, and things don't move that fast.

I mean, we can have reflection on what we've heard from our conversations, but I don't think we'll know really what the uptake is in a quarter, we can take a temperature check.

So then quarter four could be something more like opportunity to propose newer amended programs.

Maybe we hear something about the way that um you know, the like okay, so for example, intersection repair projects are not traffic calming projects, but a lot of people will talk about them that way.

Intersection repair projects or like you know, painting the street, there's there's not a connection, nor should there be an implied connection between that and traffic calming.

Um but what we will hear in a lot of conversation with community is the need to calm traffic, slow things down, and so then that type of reflection might actually inform something else, not placemaking.

It might mean that there is a need to examine a rapid flashing beacon.

It might you know, maybe there's some piece to the to the TSP that the community needs to know more about, something like that.

So that I think comes out of our reflection.

Um, and that like the newer amended programs don't have to be place making programs.

It might be something that we um that we discover through these reflections that could be a way that we change, you know, or improve the way that we're doing business.

Yeah, that's good.

Um so then this is largely just capacity.

This is you know, this strategy, I think would be the one that would get us further down the road in this conversation and would take some of our time collectively, but honestly, it would take mostly your time.

Um so I assume in proposing this you have an idea of what that would look like.

Do you feel like quarter one, two, or being sorry, three, four?

Try that again, two, three, four.

Is that respectful of the capacity that you have to do this?

Would it be I think maybe it would be helpful, Counselor Stephen Dory.

I appreciate that question.

Um I think it would you be okay.

You all have I had a conversation um with Sierra about some of these recommendations and how we can fit it into the plan workplace and how it has and put it back out on the economic development uh goal.

Yeah, next month.

Okay, so you have a sense of what I'm gonna do.

I just don't want to put zero on the spot.

Yeah, that's like I know, but I just wanted to be cognizant about that.

Um I think that's wise.

And so then the second piece, that is where we have potential to go down a path where there's an expenditure connected.

Um that is where um the initial amount of work is um Sierra reaching out to utilities to um other jurisdictions that have done something like this potentially with contractors that provide that type of service, and to get an idea of like, you know, how expensive is this adventure that we're choosing.

Yeah, yeah.

Um if we decide, and I think that the if is you know, it's a budget-related question.

So either that is um a budget ask that is in our existing conversations around the biannual budget, or it becomes something that you know the council discusses a good expenditure out of a pot of money that we have available, like urban renewal or CET.

Um I think I I think that that takes a little bit more time.

Um, and that maybe maybe for discussion would be in quarter three.

If we all are like, woohoo, this Kool-Aid is awesome, let's do it.

Then we can talk about what it would look like to do a community design contest.

Um our discussion around this for Sierra and I was really like, how can we provide um something that's somewhat uniform across the city and informed by our arts committee and you know city staff, um, so that we're not getting like way out there.

We're not gonna put like you know, antlers on utility polls or something like that, right?

Yet um, but still provide a little bit of you know individuality for the for the neighborhoods to put proposals for and put designs forward.

Um and we saw like the utility box that was shown from Portland.

That's a specific style of art.

Um I think the discussion we could have, and maybe that's in part with the arts committee, is around you know, what kind of guidelines would we want to put in place?

Would we want to select a couple of artists and then have neighborhoods get involved by voting?

Or would we want you know homegrown submissions around things?

Um I yeah, I mean I think this is a longer process.

Uh well, and the other thing to keep in mind is I mean, Ardenwald has a few years ago adopted a flag.

They have an image that they use.

I've understood that some of the other neighborhoods are talking about that as well.

I don't know how you know how fast that's moving or how wide that's moving, but um there may be a place to jumpstart, right?

With those kind of images that a neighborhood has already settled on, you know, as a neighborhood.

Yeah.

Good point.

And there are the instances where like there's quarters like Canberra, there's three neighborhoods.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

Flag to rule all flags.

I do think when Monroe like we talk about 32nd, that's all kind of in Ardenwell.

But yeah, when you think about Monroe Greenway, which is a place where three neighborhoods come together, and it could be a cool place-making opportunity.

Yeah, yeah.

A unity flag.

Cool.

Shoots and ladders came to mind for me.

You want to get downtown fast, go to this way.

Um well, I just want to say thank you.

You took a lot of time to put some very big brainstorm conversations together into a few very coherent slides.

And I very much appreciate that.

Thank you all for your time and your input.

Great job, Sarah.

Thank you.

All right, yeah.

I was thinking we might get done earlier and we did have our conversation about the interview process, but um just do that at during council reports.

So I was feeling like you nailed it.

We're done with our six months.

Yeah, no, we are.

We're done.

We'll we'll reconvene at 6:30.

Um, but do take a look if you didn't get the emails from um about the interview process, the boards and commissions and what you were assigned.

I'm prepared to say you want to swap or whatever.

You're okay.

You're okay with that.

You're the one that's got all the shit.