All right, good evening, everyone.

All this uh city council workshop meeting to uh to order.

Um before I uh begin tonight's agenda, I just want to take a moment to address a few questions from community members uh about city operations.

Um I understand that people have questions and concerns, and I want to assure our community that transparency and accountability are important to us.

Earlier last month, the council made clear, made a clear commitment to ensuring a respectful and professional workplace, and that remains a top priority for us.

As part of that commitment, the council last week has directed that respectful workplace training focused on communication, documentation, and follow up follow-up on personnel items to be provided to both uh council members and city leadership.

Um it's a first step towards making sure we continue to learn, improve, and do better.

Uh with that, I would like to invite Acting City Manager Trish to share a brief update on what the city is doing operationally to support this work.

Thank you, Mayor.

We plan to make this training available to other leaders in our organization to ensure timely and consistent response to any and all concerns.

I've been holding drop-in office hours for staff and will extend this opportunity to community members beginning next week.

These are additional avenues to share concerns, ask questions, and provide feedback.

And we appreciate the commitment to a high functioning and accountable organization so we can do the best work for Tigered.

Thank you.

Thank you, Acting City Manager Trish for that update.

All right, I really appreciate the update and the work underway to support our organization and our city teammates.

And as I said before, this is an ongoing process, and the council is committed to following through on the step we have outlined it tonight.

Together, we'll continue building a healthy, professional and accountable city government that serves our community well.

So thank you for your patience.

With that, um the city recorder, please uh conduct a roll call.

Council President Wolf.

Here.

Councilor Goodusi.

Present.

Mayor Who?

Here.

Councillor Robbins.

Here.

Councillor Schlack.

Here.

Councillor Shaw.

Here.

And our our youth counselor is not here tonight.

Thank you.

Would you please mute your mic and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

All right, City Team Mate and Council Member, do we do we have any now agenda items?

None from us, Mayor.

Seeing none, let's move on to the proclamation.

So tonight the City of Tiger pauses to honor the life and legacy of David Dave Paul Nicolai Sr.

A proud Tiger High graduate, successful entrepreneur, and tireless communities champion.

Dave helped shape the values that define our city, hard work, generosity, and love of community.

Through DP Nicolai Inc.

and his years of leadership with the Tiger Festival of Balloon, he lifted others up and created opportunity for all.

Mayor Who, my apologies for interruption.

I think that we're waiting for some individuals to receive.

Cindy, do you know?

Oh, no problem.

I didn't mean to interrupt, but I just wanted to just pause for a second.

Okay, no problem.

So thank you.

Thank you for letting me know.

I will start over again.

So while we wait for our guests, um, I just want to briefly make a comment about the next section of public comments.

Um I just want to briefly make a comment about the next section of public comments.

So tonight um I just want to make a comment about the time place manner item on the next week's council agenda.

Uh council will be hearing options at the next meeting with the expectation that an ordinance is brought forward at a future meeting.

There will be no change to the city ordinance next week, uh October 28th, but we continue to welcome public comments on this item tonight and next week.

All right, so I see our Daniel?

Yeah, please.

And Cindy Murphy is joining us.

Welcome.

So let me repeat that again.

So uh tonight the city of Tiger passes to honor the life and legacy of David Dave Paul Nicolai Senior, a proud Tiger Hive graduate, successful entrepreneur, and tireless community champion.

Dave helped shape the values that defines our city, hard work, generosity, and love of community.

Through DP Nicolai Inc.

and his years of leadership with the Tiger Festival of Balloons, he lifted others up and created opportunities for all.

I was honored to join his family and friends on October 5th to celebrate his remarkable life and lasting impact.

Tonight I'm proud to proclaim October 21st, 2025 as a day to honor the life and legacy of David Nikolai in Tiger in gratitude for his extraordinary contributions and the example he leaves behind.

So thank you.

Would you like to say a few words?

Yeah.

It's on, okay.

Is it on?

Hello.

Yeah, I'm Daniel Patrick Nikolai, son of uh David or Dave as he went by, uh Dave Nikolai.

And I just want to thank you all for taking time to honor my father and just say that my my brother, sister, and I um look forward to continuing his work and the Tiger Festival of Balloons and supporting the community and youth sports and you know everything that has to do with Tiger.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Would you like to have a photo taken with us?

All right, let's move on to public comment.

As I mentioned, um next week we'll be hearing time place manner uh ordinance, uh, but we're gonna expect to make a decision next week.

So the calling number is 503-966-4101, and those wishing to uh comment should call now to get in the queue.

Anyone present wanting to comment should sign up on the public comment forum at the front of the room.

So uh for written comment, we received 14 written comments before the deadline, new deadline yesterday.

The topics were requesting support for proactive rental inspection program, um, homeless homeless campers and storage for their belongings, and traffic signal on Hall Boulevards.

So uh let's move on to in-person public comment.

And we have one um one person uh sign up, uh Mr.

Dennis Wasnik.

Yes, please, Dennis, make sure the mic is on, turn green and stay your name and you have two minutes.

Evening, Dennis Warzak, uh Tiger, Oregon.

And you need the address.

It's already there.

Tiger is fine.

Okay, good.

Uh, the other day my wife and I got received something in the mail, uh, our 19 or 2025 property tax statement, which probably like most of you went up a little bit this year.

I think ours was up about a thousand dollars or so.

And again, I I anticipate uh prices going up and everything, but I thought maybe 10 percent might be a little on the high side.

But uh I coincidentally I looked at the agenda for this evening, and I noticed that you were talking about the events that uh City of Tiger sponsors during the year and their little analysis of it.

So I was thinking that within Tiger, there's about 20 percent of people, probably in my age bracket retired, et cetera, that might have a little hard time uh with the uh extra uh money they have to pay this year for taxes.

So I just had a few comments on the uh about the events of Tiger sponsors.

First of all, I think all of all the events are really good.

Uh uh I can't say enough about them.

However, in a time of economic situation where we don't have a lot of funds to pay for uh let's say not essential items, usually it gets to be a little expensive, and again, when taxpayers possibly see the city paying for things that doesn't directly involve them or is maybe a little exorbitant, they might think twice about maybe voting for certain things like I know Tiger's got a uh bond measure coming up, which obviously the city really needs as far as that goes.

It was a police municipality that city needs, there's no doubt about that, it's financially solvent.

But people sometimes don't vote with a pocketbook, they vote for other reasons.

So I just had a few things about the events uh that the Tiger sponsors.

Uh let's see, I guess it was uh Juneteenth this year, it cost $28,000, and it was attended by 150 people.

That breaks out to 186 per person.

Now it's been a while since my daughters got married, but 186 dollars is quite a fee for 150 people.

But I'm sure it's a good good turnout, good event, everybody had a good time.

The uh Pride event, 35,000.

And that came out to be $57 per person.

Again, hopefully everybody had a good time.

And the pride event uh with the attendance, that came out to be a.

Please wrap it up.

Two minutes is up.

Okay.

Uh again, El Tigra, 20 uh six uh 108,000 for El Tigra.

That was 42 dollars per person, and that involved 0.052 percent of the tiger community.

And finally, the um 4th of July, 144,000 divided by 8,000 uh participants.

Uh that came out to about 16 percent of the tiger population, and I think it was uh about $18 a person.

So the only thing I'd say is perhaps it might be time to maybe join all these festivals together and uh save a few hundred thousand dollars.

Uh on the fourth of July also uh for between last year and to wrap up 20 percent.

So maybe might you want to change the format?

Uh get a few more people out there.

Thank you very much.

Luck for the property taxes.

Thank you so much.

Anybody else uh who want to speak but haven't signed up yet Sir, would you like to speak?

Yeah.

Please come up.

Lindsey, would you please make sure you have your name?

Well, we can bring the mic to them too.

You can you can stay there, sir.

We'll bring the mic to you.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

I'm I'm Marsden Smith from Tiger 1232 South Plus Hollow Lane.

And I would just again like this time manner place uh uh resolution that we're looking at.

I mean, the the manner to me is the condition, there are to be a condition on allowing people a uh camp.

The the police are to do a field sobriety test because we don't want people intoxicating, uh putting up tents, they might hurt themselves doing it, then they're gonna sue the city.

In fact, I'm I'm surprised that our lawyer hasn't said something about that, our insurance.

You know, plus I'm sure there's a statistic out there that ties uh drunkenness to the people that freeze to death.

So the last thing that Tiger needs is to have a drunk person who froze to death, and then we're on the hook for it.

So any that's my take on uh manner.

You know, and all of us have uh anecdotal experience of the homeless people population.

I mean, I know what happened to my wife uh a couple years ago.

She was she rolled the window down to give some money to this guy, but he was so intoxicated that he fell across the hood of the car.

So I you know that guy cost the the community a whole bunch of money.

Uh and one time we were downtown Portland, and uh a gentleman jumped in the back seat of our car.

Because my wife had gone around and we were both in the car, and he he demanded to go somewhere.

So we both said, get the heck out of the car.

We said it very loud and with a lot of authority, so he he let us alone.

And also I got I went to a town hall in downtown Portland, and this one homeless guy said he didn't want to work for the man.

And so, but he looked the man apparently was the bank.

Because he didn't understand why the man wouldn't let him sleep in his bank lobby when it wasn't being used.

So anyway, oh thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Um, your time is up.

So Lindsay, would you please get his name?

Thank you.

All right, let's move on.

Anyone else want to speak?

All right, let's move on to the phone.

Mr.

Van Umb there any phone callers in the queue or any uh in the video uh queue ready to testify?

No callers mayor.

Thank you.

All right, so let's move on to our next agenda item, which is the process to fill the city councilor vacancy, and our city attorney Rihala will introduce this item and seeking direction for this process.

So welcome.

Good evening, council.

So this item is how to fill the vacancy created when counselor who resigned his seat to become mayor.

Uh this term uh expires December 31st of 26.

Uh so this seat will be on the November 26th general election ballot.

Uh according to our charter, that means that a special election is not authorized, so it will have to be filled by appointment.

Uh so we have recent experience with councilor Schlack's appointment uh that we are drawing from.

The question tonight is really does council wish to replicate that process, or are there any changes that it wishes to make?

So uh we have a slideshow here to walk through what that process looked like.

Uh so next slide, please.

So this is just a reminder of the timeline uh in terms of when the key dates were.

So the application uh it was a written application at first.

Uh public members had uh to submit.

Uh we'll get to the questions on the next slide, but uh we had some written questions and information to submit.

Uh we did an initial screening for eligibility where we reviewed the charter uh provisions and uh made sure that each applicant was a resident and otherwise met the uh charter requirements.

Council identified the four finalists based on the materials submitted in writing.

Staff performed reference checks on the finalists, and then uh finally conducted council interviews in open session.

Next slide, please.

So this is a busy slide, but it tells you everything that uh council asked for in the initial application.

So there was the uh basic personal information about how long you've lived in Tiger, how you heard about the vacancy uh resume, those kind of questions.

And then uh we required four essay questions.

Uh one of them uh complementing uh diversity and how uh how this person would complement diversity on the council.

Uh next question regarding measure five and fifty and their understanding about those two measures and the impact on property taxes.

Uh third was uh the most important issue facing council, how that would be addressed, and then fourth would be uh was why they were interested in the council position.

Next slide, please.

So similar uh with the mayor's appointment, we asked uh some questions beforehand and some questions uh that the council uh applicants received at the time.

So the questions beforehand uh related to the community promise, uh advocating for policy positions, high density housing, uh accountability, commitment to accountability, and then uh making sure that they understood the time commitment that they would be asked for uh to commit to for counsel.

And next slide, please.

And then finally, uh question asked in the interview.

Uh the first one was uh receive a million-dollar grant, how would you spend it?

Uh second was uh regarding public input and community perspectives, third on homelessness, fourth on economic development, and then finally any questions of the council.

So what we're looking for tonight is uh council direction on is this the same process that council wishes to follow this time?

If not, what are the changes to that?

And then uh what is the timeline that uh council wishes to make?

So starting with the first question first, uh, is this general format of written answers, initial screening, and then uh interview questions.

Is this consistent with what council wishes to do this time?

Are there changes to that process?

So we'll start there and I'll ask for your direction.

Thank you.

So let me start with Counselor Robbins.

First question.

Is it is this process generally okay with you?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Counselor Shaw Yes, it's generally okay, but I do have uh a concern I'll voice at the end with regards to the youth counselor providing an advisory vote.

Got it.

All right.

Council President Wolf.

Um, actually.

Um and uh given um that and it makes sense that we had a counselor move to the mayor's position, and counselor Schlack has now been duly elected by um our voters.

But um my preference would be actually to do something different.

Uh given the high level of interest in our community.

I would actually like to add a step to the process and have um uh committee formed that actually does the first round of interviews and moves forward um all relative to the number of candidates to an appropriate number of potential candidates that we would interview for an appointment.

I'm just looking for an opportunity to have greater engagement in our community, and that seems to be something of high interest, and I recognize that we'll add time to it, but it's something that I feel um pretty passionate about.

And even if it's the committee that interviews are community members that have already vested their time in to um participating on uh City of Tiger committees.

So, you know, they've already spent that time their part of the city um commitment and support, but I I feel real strongly about it.

So that's my two cents.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councillor Schlack.

Oh, Councillor Robbins.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

I did not hear what you've said initially.

Did you say something about a forum?

Um no, I want to add a second layer or first layer to the process, Councillor Robbins, so that actually uh community panel brings forward, let's say five or whatever the right number is of candidates that we interview to appoint.

There seem to be tremendous um interest in um engagement for the mayor's seat, and now we're turning right around again and appointing um another counselor, and that is our responsibility, and it's something that we should do, but I think there's an opportunity to engage the community at a greater level.

So Schlack.

I support the um general process with um change different questions next time around, and I thought the process that worked um with selecting questions for the mayoral appointment, which was very collaborative, but through um this through staff to prevent serial meetings from arising, but sort of using spreadsheets to aggregate and decide was was very effective.

Um I um understand and respect where council president Wolf is coming from.

I'm not um overtly opposed to the idea of involving um community members, but I would have concerns about the first cut being decided by a committee of folks who are not um members of the the council.

I think that is that needs to be a council decision.

Thank you, Councillor Guzzi.

Thank you, Mayor Who.

Um I do like Council President Wolf's idea.

I do think that it makes sense, but instead of doing random community members, maybe look at people that are on current boards so that way we end up getting community members that are currently involved with the process that are currently engaged with the city.

Um and then we have a pool to choose from, and then instead of having an additional layer, have that be sort of that first set where they decide the finalists.

But I do think that's a good idea.

And I apologize if I wasn't clear on that, because I that was my intent that it is um like committee members, and I wasn't clear.

So thank you, Councillor Caducy.

Any follow-up to that thought or go ahead.

Sorry, Mayor, follow-up to having presidents.

Council President Wolf and Councillor Guzzi's suggestion having boring committee members that like finalists will ask to interview.

I appreciate that.

Um would appreciate that actually for the mayor.

But I think that does it is gonna take um a bit of time.

I do believe that uh the community is represented by each one of us.

I appreciate the idea.

Uh, but given that fact the seat is a very short seat anyway.

I just think that could limit um the ability of somebody stepping in and learning what they need to do uh and the votes that need to be taken.

So that wouldn't be my first choice.

Okay.

Counselor Robin I'm trying to think this through and just kind of figure it out.

Um I do think we have had tremendous interest in the community.

Um and I want to be able to take that interest as much as possible.

Um this will actually be a seat for a year, so it's not that short.

It's it's a extended period of time.

Um I do worry about a first cut, like, and then we don't even see anybody, but perhaps a recommendation, but then we can still see all of the applications, and if there's somebody who was cut that we we disagree with or something that we could then go back or look more carefully.

Um I think I need to to percolate on exactly how to do it, but I do like the idea of involving community members in some way.

Um so I don't have a great answer.

So Councillor Schwag, any follow-up?

Yeah, I feel I feel very strongly about the council not making the the first cut in selection.

I I'm not opposed to having a forum where community members can be involved and provide their thoughts similar to how we had um that happen with the city manager selection process.

But I I would have real I have real concerns about um you know we are all elected by the community.

We are accountable to the voters for our decisions, including uh appointments of individuals for vacancies that arise.

And I would have a concern about individuals who are not elected and therefore not accountable to the voters.

They're accountable to council because they're appointees making that first decision.

Um that that's just sort of an in principle objection I have to any decision making that would be made by such a committee.

But I'm fine with such a committee being involved in parallel to provide their thoughts or a community forum as as part of the process, but not as a decision making aspect.

I I think Council Robin, you you have similar approach, right?

You're afraid that this committee member would just make the decision while council will be completely excluded from us.

So maybe having a parallel advisory group that will not necessarily pick the finalists.

I think yeah, I think maybe having a forum where um well, I guess would a forum be dragging in all the people and having them answer questions doesn't seem great.

Um that that seems cumbersome and and probably long, but I do, you know, I want to hear people's comments.

Maybe maybe even if we just get comments about what they're looking for, you know.

I personally would like someone different than all of us, you know, we all live really close together and stuff.

I'd love to have someone from a different part of town and stuff.

Um but to find out what people are looking for.

We did try that with the city manager, and I thought it worked.

Um but if we could, yeah, even have a forum where people come and tell us what they're looking for, and I don't know, should we post their applications online and allow them to review it and then make comments?

I'm not really, you know, I think we're all just kind of spitballing, but um go ahead, council president Wolf.

I mean, I guess the only additional comment to counselor Godusi's point um about specific individuals um that were on committees, because I was thinking the same thing along with stakeholders.

They all are uh were um interviewed by the mayor, appointed by council.

Um so there were this process that every committee microphone.

Oh sorry.

Um so just to repeat in case that that was on there.

I all committee members have been um interviewed and approved, appointed by council members.

Um and that was what I was thinking along with um stakeholders that have worked directly closely uh with council.

But I understand it was just an advocacy that I feel really strongly about that it's an opportunity to do something different.

And to counselor Robin's point to bring in a different perspective.

And again, my suggestion was not the final appointment, but a group of candidates that's maybe wide enough that we feel comfortable, and then we make that appointment.

It's just a unique way to bring in a different opportunity.

So I'm I'll rest with that.

Thank you.

Counselor Schlack.

Thank you.

A couple of points to Councilor Robin's point about applications online during my appointment process.

All applications that were deemed eligible were posted online as part of the agenda process.

And just thinking this through because I'm more concerned about letting a vacancy go on past Christmas, frankly, I want this person to start on January 1st.

Um and sort of I'm thinking backwards from there.

If if we were to go with the same process as last year with the same exact number of days between each of the milestones, we could fit this in with our current calendar before by December 9th and get this no new meetings, no special meetings, no nothing.

We could get that done.

Regarding community involvement, since all the applications are online already, the community has plenty of opportunities for public comment, both in person, on the phone, in writing, and if they review their applications, they're perfectly entitled as residents of Tiger to come in and provide their preferences on who they want.

And regarding decision making capacity, um, you know, I've said what I've said as far as I think that needs to be a council decision all the way through.

And I'm confident in this council's ability to make an appointment based on what its interests are, if it wants a totally different perspective.

I have full confidence in this current six member council to make that decision.

Um and I I would welcome public comment as there was during the mayoral appointment process and on any other agenda item to come in and um advise us as is always done.

So that would be my preference with sort of jumping around on questions.

I apologize, but I want them to start on January 1st.

If we agree to the current process with the same timeline, we can literally get it in just in time, and that would be my preference.

We're one person down and we need to get the team back up and running.

Thank you.

Counselor Shaw, you have a question?

Uh I was just gonna also mention because I'd done the timeline, and we could get that person either December 9th or December 14th, which does get us before the new year, which I think is important, perhaps.

Um just some clarification from council president Wolf.

Is the forum to gather ideas of what the community wants to see in a future counselor, or is it for them to actually have a voice in choosing?

I just wasn't sure.

I wasn't suggesting a forum.

I was six suggesting identifying five or six um tigered um committee members to actually run a first interview process to really fully engage.

So the forum was not my idea.

With respect, mayor, uh it sounds like there are three counselors who are generally in favor of continuing with the same process from last year and two who would like to see amendments, and I would be curious what your perspective is to see if you're so we can sort of move forward to it.

Yeah, so I appreciate Council Preston's Wolf uh passion about community engagement, but I do have concern about community member who are not uh accountable to voters taking the first picking the finalists.

So I do appreciate um I you know if there's opportunity for form, if it's logistically possible or timeline will work, I would I would encourage that.

But so right now I would I'll agree that we should have followed the last appointment process.

So we have a a majority wanting the previous process.

So please move on to the next question.

All right.

Uh so the next question then is about the timeline.

Uh we just heard some comments about the uh desire to have the sooner rather than later.

We have been looking at agendas.

Uh it does look like the ninth was probably doable.

Uh it is going to be a long meeting that night.

Uh we'll do our best, uh, but that would be the the soonest that uh we could come back and we will we will work to that timeline if uh this is the priority of council.

So uh next uh final question would be on the questions.

Uh so is this something that counselor Schlack mentioned the process that we use to select the mayor uh as a reminder that is that each counselor uh and we engaged community input on this as well.

Uh we received 90 something comments, uh suggested questions as to uh what we should ask uh the candidates.

City staff uh reconciled all of those, uh group them into themes, council then selected their top ones, and council uh received or the candidates uh were asked five questions up front and five questions that they received uh at the meeting.

So you have a sample or the questions that we asked last time as a sample.

Uh so is that process acceptable?

And we uh anticipate that we'll be asking community input on questions, receive council input on questions, and then receive the same process for council to select uh the 10 and is 10 the appropriate number uh questions to ask the candidates.

All right, I will start this in counselor.

Are you okay with the five five questions?

Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

Okay, Councillor Schleck.

Yes, and I want to clarify.

I think um I would support keeping the same four application questions that we had last time.

I think those are good solid get to know you sort of questions and allow some policy research on property taxes, which is we're gonna have a an excellent presentation tonight on revenues is a very important part of city operations.

So I would propose keeping the same written application and then doing that pro the the new the the mayoral appointment process um for selecting the interview questions with the same five and five format and also engaging the community as well if possible if I count correctly, there'd be a about a three-week period uh between when the deadline when the application would go live and and when the deadline would be.

So there'd be plenty of time to solicit questions from the community.

And I know that was a concern previously about the amount of time available to solicit questions.

So those caveats.

Council President Wolf.

Yeah, uh it's fine.

I I was just thinking um, and there's probably not a great way to try to reframe the questions.

Because what you would ask a mayor who's been a sitting counselor is very different than a brand new person that's coming in fairly green to the process.

So the types of questions that that could be vetted out as to what would most likely make sense to a counselor as opposed to a mayor.

So thank you.

Counselor Shah.

Yeah, I would uh I like the idea of keeping the format the same, asking uh for questions like we did in and I actually appreciate Council President Wolf's comment.

That person could be fairly green.

Um I would limit it to eight.

Quite frankly, ten was really long.

And I think some of the questions were a little repetitive and uh I just think we could make it a little bit more crisp.

So as a former candidate, that would be two cents.

Counselor Robinson, thank you.

Um I'm fine with the process if we want to cut the number of questions in during the interview, which I don't think would be wrong if we you know we already said we're gonna have a long agenda, so to try to make sure we get through four people.

We could always add an extra written question to the application that we can all review and then ask eight questions so that you know we still get a really good picture of everyone, but we're not taking so long.

Um I do have a separate question, and I'm just gonna bring it up just in case.

How are we gonna advertise this?

Or are you gonna go over that?

Thanks for asking that question.

Um we would use similar channels as we did with the uh uh solicitation for uh mayoral questions, uh, but perhaps broaden it out even further.

We've got uh some excellent communications professionals uh who can tell us um the sort of reach we have with our existing uh newsletters and outreach.

Um and then uh the suggestion is also uh to extend beyond uh the internet and the computer and actually post uh to bulletin boards uh such as at the library and the senior center uh and uh perhaps also advertise um time permitting uh within um published uh journals.

You and just to clarify, I was referring to how we're gonna advertise that we have an opening.

That's okay.

Okay, not the asking for questions.

Sorry.

And that was uh responding to the question about the vacancy.

And uh we we sometimes we maybe we can have three candidate finalists.

We don't have to have four, so we can have five.

So we maybe we can j adjust the number of questions depending on how many finalists we have.

So it's not dragging on forever.

So yeah.

So yeah, so um so if we take the same time is is that do you want to talk about timeline?

If we talk about timeline, I have I printed out the calendar.

If we followed the last time, then we sh the advertisements shouldn't go on no later than 29th.

So is that something that's doable?

October 29th.

So we should prepare to have the application advertised wildly by 29th.

Okay.

And then we will have um application deadline.

I see.

October or November 21st.

November 21st before Thanksgiving.

And then that's hope to uh uh have a finalist uh weather three or whatever by December 2nd, and then we will do the final interview and appointment on December 9th.

That's the tentative timeline right now.

Does that sound good?

That timing sounds sounds just fine.

I uh will recognize that uh because we are in the holiday season.

Right, um and we have uh two fewer meetings in both November and December.

Uh that are our meeting schedule is tight as there is some time-sensitive business.

Right.

So I'm happy to um uh follow up with you on uh consideration to extend uh meeting by 20 or 30, not to exceed 30 minutes uh just in order to accommodate these various needs.

But um with that consideration, we can certainly make that work.

Yeah, and yeah, right now right now I see the tentative schedule December 2nd and 9th.

They are already full, right?

So we have some flexibility.

So we uh this is a priority item, of course.

Uh anything that's not time sensitive um or pertaining to legal compliance annexation or something similar, we can look to move.

Got it.

Thank you.

Anything else?

City Attorney Rihala.

No, thank you.

Councilor Shaw.

Yeah, I had raised earlier about the youth.

Um I see it as really preserving the youth advisory role.

Um I think council, the youth council members are most effective when they're bringing on the perspective from the youth, and um that it pertains to policy discussions rather than getting involved in political appointments, which I do think and could compromise their role.

So that would be my perspective and not have a youth council advisory vote.

Thank you.

And that was your recommendation too, right?

City Attorney Rah.

So yeah, so we agree on that.

So all right, so great.

Counselor Schak.

And then I just want to return to this point.

Is that the council have any concerns about the appointment being for a January 1st start date for what a full one-year term?

I any anybody having any problems.

Starting date, January 1st.

Yep.

That's fine.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Well, that was a very robust discussion, which is needed, so thank you so much.

All right, so uh next item on agenda is budget and re revenue update, and we have finance director King to present this item.

Welcome.

Oh, yeah, please, budget committee members.

You want to come sit by the table.

We missed you.

Councilor Robin say we miss you, okay.

All right.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council and members of the budget committee.

Uh thank you for being here tonight.

Uh I'm here to provide an update on the city's revenue picture and present the fiscal year 2025 results.

Uh if we could go to the next slide, please.

Um, we'll start with an overview of the city's revenue uh and then look at uh our fiscal year 2025 25 results, uh review some of the key funds over the past five years, and then I'll wrap up on some key takeaways and what it means for long-term sustainability.

Uh included in your pack, it was also a uh 16-page document on financial reports.

Uh we won't go into specific detail in my presentation, but if you have any questions along the way, uh please ask those questions.

Um in terms of the way I formatted the slides and the presentation is to be more interactive.

So if you do have questions along the way, please uh stop me at any time uh during the presentation.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh so uh I I think one of the things that we need to talk about uh in terms of revenue is why does the revenue matters?

Um well our ability to deliver any service within the city depends entirely on our revenues, from our police and parks to water and roads.

From our police and parks to water and roads, uh the entire they that depend entirely on the city revenues.

And the revenues uh the performance of our revenues really drive and determine how quickly we are able to respond to our community needs, uh maintain our assets and plan for our future growth.

And the understanding the structure of our revenues uh really helps ensure that we are able to make fiscally sustainable decisions.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh so I I'm gonna do my best to not repeat any of the things that we've uh gone over previously during our budget committee meeting.

So um forgive me if I kind of skip through some of the parts very quickly, uh, but I want to focus on some of the meat of the discussion here uh for this presentation.

So this is just a snapshot of the major revenue streams uh over the city.

Uh I won't go to anyone in specific detail at this point, uh, but just want to point out the three core main sour sources, which are obviously our property taxes, uh franchise fees, and then our intergovernmental revenues.

Um next slide, please.

And again, this is a snapshot again of the general fund and the primary sources of revenues.

Uh this is the same same diagram that we had during the budget committee hearing um earlier this year.

Uh next slide, please.

So I do want to take a moment to talk about property taxes.

Um, property taxes, as you saw in the last slide, is our most stable revenue source.

Uh but under Oregon's property tax system, we all know that growth is capped at 3% annually.

Um that means even during strong economic years, property tax uh revenues still will lag behind inflation and service demands.

Um our general fund um permanent rate is at $2.51 $5131, uh which is amongst the lowest in the region.

Um our option levy um to support uh the police department uh or public safety levy uh is approximately is 29 cents per thousand.

And then our geo bond is at 30 cent 33 cents per thousand, which is expected to drop off this year.

And even combined with our levies and options, that still brings us under three dollars just around three dollars per thousand, which is still amongst the lowest in the region.

Um so with property taxes, there are these three general buckets for where the city receives property taxes.

So you have our general fund, which funds your general services, uh, your police, library parks, community development, general government, and this is your most discretionary um fund, and where you can spend the funds uh um based on council direction, based on what um the city is prioritizing in terms of how we spend our money.

The levy funds, these are when we go out to the voters uh and ask for the voters to support a specific levy to fund specific things.

Um this is what also referred to as an option levy and has to be renewed every five years.

And so as I reiterated earlier, the option levy at 29 cents per thousand, that is the public safety levy that was passed um last year.

And then finally, tax increment financing is another uh important revenue source and something um that's important to discuss uh because there are trade-offs that happen with with tax recommend financing.

So these are uh urban growth boundary or not urban growth, um I apologize, um urban renewal uh zones um that are designated uh within the city that have to go through um through the voters um for approval.

And so what happens is the the base of that district, um the tax base gets frozen, and then any growth within that district gets added to a uh to a separate agency, which is the the urban renewal agency.

And so any of the growth um uh for any of the taxing jurisdiction within that district goes directly to the TIFF.

And um, depending on how you look at it, um it it does decrease um growth from coming to general operations, but the trade-off being that it goes towards investments in an area that needs investments.

And then when uh the district expires, um the property tax increases or not increases the but the growth that had been accumulated within that district does get redistributed back to the jurisdictions, with the goal that at the end of the cycle of the TIFF district, which is for a finite period, uh you would have seen some um growth that otherwise you wouldn't have seen.

Um then there was a question I think that came from one of the counselors um about our property tax on your property tax bill in Washington County, why you see tax increment financing or the urban renewal um re I think it's called urban renewal reallocation.

All it is is the growth in that zone being reallocated.

And it's so it does show up on your property tax bill, but it's not an increase, it's just a reallocation.

And then so again, when the district expires, that amount just gets reallocated to the different chat taxing jurisdictions on your property tax bill.

Next slide, please.

So as I reiterated earlier, uh right-away fees and franchise fees, this is a significant revenue source for the city.

Uh generates approximately $9 million per year.

Uh these are fees that are um uh assessed to utility providers within the city.

Um and just as a reminder, that does apply to city utilities too.

So water, uh, stormwater and sewer, but also impacts like our waste haulers, electricity uh providers, and natural gas.

Um and typically these fees are directly passed on to customers and they are allowed to do that.

Um our city right-of-way fees are at 5%, uh, which is based on 5% of gross revenues on utilities that operate within the cities right-of-way.

Um one thing to point out is that this is uh an area where council does have discretion on.

Um 5% is among the average uh among neighbors neighboring cities.

Um however, certain other jurisdictions have changed their right-of-way fees.

Uh one one that would point out is City of Gresham, they did increase some of their right-of-way fees to 10% to address some of their funding gaps.

Uh next slide, please.

Um before I jump into utility fees, I just want to take a moment to pause and ask if there are any questions on on the items presented thus far.

You somewhat um addressed it, Director King, that um Gresham, I mean, doubling it relative to neighbors is pretty high.

So was the gap something unique or just I mean it because it just seems significant.

Um in Gresham would be, you know, a fairly large uh metro city as well.

So thank you.

Yeah, I think different jurisdictions take different approaches to um address their funding gaps.

Um I think every city is is has in Oregon has felt some of the challenges with measure 5 and 50.

And so um the right-of-way fee was was just one of the ways that I think Greshram handled it.

I I can't speak firsthand on the whys and the conversations that they've had with their elected body.

Um, but I I do know that these conversations do happen at with different jurisdictions.

Cool.

Going going back to the uh property tax slide.

So first I just want to make sure I heard you correctly with the go bond line item, that's gonna drop off for next taxed year.

That is correct.

Cool.

And then um the second one, so reallocation.

So I live on the west side of town, not in any of the TIFF districts, and I was looking at my property tax bill, and let's just for easy math it was a hundred bucks.

Um and I know that's the case for a lot of our residents.

Would you be able to explain again the reallocation part?

Because I wasn't quite following how that works uh it is very confusing to explain.

So I'll try to try my best uh to simplify it.

So when the county assessor um looks at the assessed value across the entire uh taxing jurisdiction, um so for like the city of Tiger, um, a portion of the tax base that's frozen in place for the TIFF district um is reported separately on the tax assessment, uh, but you don't see that on your property tax bill.

Um however, whenever there's an increase, the 3% increase every year, that goes through a reallocation process.

Um it's more than just the 3% increase.

It could be like if there are like new development, things like that could add to the growth of that zone.

Um so that piece gets reallocated um in the total assessed value of the taxing jurisdictions, it's not any one person.

It's it's across the whole taxing jurisdiction.

Um this would be much easier to explain in like a spreadsheet format.

I live for the spreadsheet format option of this.

Um but so if I'm hearing this correctly, so the growth is frozen in the TIFF district.

But there's so it's gonna be at a frozen rate, and then there's an increase that would happen, and that increase is really getting paid from the rest of the taxing jurisdiction.

Is that accurate?

So the the growth is just the assessed value.

So the assessed value of a TIFF district is frozen in place at the point in time when the district gets adopted.

And I might invite I don't think our redevelopment manager is on online right now.

But as I understand it, the the base is frozen at that time.

And then so like say uh like for example in the triangle, um, one of the new properties I was added there was the like the overland um mixed use building.

And so that added to the tax rolls.

And so the property taxes from that built development has not added any revenue to the city's general fund.

It all goes to the TIFF district when when the when those properties come online when after a district is formed.

Thank you.

So is there anything I miss?

I'm I'm looking at uh community development director uh Kirkman.

I think for most property owners um in the in the triangle and such, and we talk about freezing your your um uh in a moment in time in which the the district has been added on, it's that three percent increase.

And that amount is being reallocated into the opportunities for improvements in the area.

And that's and when you're looking at your your um tax bills and such, we um we often will see that our are there's a tax increase um annually.

That amount is just identified while it's not being um added on top of it, it is being acknowledged as to how much that increase is being put into our urban renewal uh coffers.

That helps.

So it's it's a little different for for new developments coming in, but I think for most of our um community members, that's kind of the key element of understanding why we talk about freezing, it's a frozen amount and time and that the actual improvements or increases throughout the next 30 years are what's being allocated into the um urban uh into the um district's uh of uh budget.

So when I have a property, let's say it's a hundred thousand dollars as assessed value, and as part of the TIFF district, it's frozen.

That that section on the property tax bills stay at 100,000.

There will still be a 3% growth, but this may be at a point where we need to take it offline for the sake of the rest of the company.

It can be confusing.

Actually, it's a good question to have, but yes, we basically, if you were to take simple math, if you're looking at a thousand dollars as what the assessed value at the time the district was created, anything above that each year, which all of our all of our property and properties do increase in assessed value, that amount is what's utilized in the actual urban renewal area um areas for a TIFF districts.

Um one thing to clarify too.

When we say the frozen base assessed value, so the the property taxes that are assessed on that frozen base still go to the same taxing jurisdictions for the general fund.

But anything that's an addition of growth over the years, that is what gets put into the um to the urban renewal district.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I will not ask a question about tax increment financing.

Um I have a question about the utility right-away fees, though.

Does the fee or the percentage that you decide on 5% apply universally to all utilities, or can that be tailored just different utilities?

It can be tailored to different utilities.

Uh so um several jurisdictions have different rates for different utilities.

It does not have to be a uniform amount.

Okay.

So since some of the right-of-way fees are just, as you noted, passed through to uh ratepayers, it would effectively be, you know, in those cases when it's passed through, it would just be more of a tax on ratepayers.

But for investor-owned utilities, say PGE, you could impose you could raise the right-of-way fee, and it would be up to the like Oregon Public Utilities Commission whether or not to allow the utility to recover that from ratepayers or whether investors would have to shoulder it.

So I'll admit I am um not an expert on the uh public utility commission.

Um however, um I would assume that if there was for like PGE, uh if they were to pass on costs uh above a certain amount, I mean they have to go through the PEC every every time they do the rate increase.

So I'd presume that that would that would be the case.

But I'm happy to answer that question.

So uh by law, a utility uh can pass along that as a separate line item on its bill.

So if it's over a certain percentage, you'll see on your utility bill, uh it's called the city of whatever privilege tax.

And so uh it is separately listed so that each customer knows that that is the amount that they're paying in the privileged tax amount.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, if there aren't any further questions on um thus far, I will move on to the the next uh section of the slides.

Uh so jumping into our utility fees.

Um the water rates um uh they typically pay for three buckets, uh as you can see uh in that first line right there.

So operations is about 12.6 million, uh debt service is a 7.2 million.

Um sneak peak, uh we are expecting that number to go down with our refunding that happened recently, uh, but that is what we had budgeted before the refunding.

Um and then the cost of capital uh is at 11.2 million um on a uh for this upcoming fiscal year.

And so with the capital funding piece, uh we are in a what's called a pay as you go model.

So when we set rates, um the when we do the rate study, uh they factor in the cost of all the projected projects uh within the next um I I I don't want to miss misspeak on the the duration, but it's based on the the system plan.

Um and so they factor in all those costs and what it what the anticipated capital amount that you need to raise um to deliver those projects.

And so um so those costs get factored in addition to any sort of um increase in operations, debt service, those are all factored in the in the rate studies.

And so from uh from a planning standpoint, the capital projects they include both um uh replacement and increased capacity projects, and then we we have SECs in place uh which fund the increased capacity and sum replacements as well.

And so there are two different revenue sources to pay for the water projects.

And so the system development charges, they they do provide a substantial amount of funds to defray some of those costs.

Uh as you know, with new development, um uh you wouldn't expect the ratepayers to pay for all the new development that come into a city.

Uh developers uh pay for a large portion of um uh increasing your water capacity in it in a um service area.

Uh one thing to note is that the current water SCC methodology is due for an update.

Uh we have not it has not been updated to include the capacity that's needed to deliver the River Terrace 2.0 area as well as Kingston Terrace.

And so our STC rates uh theoretically um maybe below what's needed to to fully fund the added capacity for those two areas that we are expecting to provide water service to next slide.

Yeah.

So if you need to update these and it sounds like increase the SDCs for water for these two new developments, would that be specific to those developments?

And if somebody somewhere else built something, would they have the old formula or would somebody say building in downtown or something have this new increased rate?

It's a bit too early to really share where where I think that's going to land uh because it all depends on where how the rate study shapes up.

Um but presumably when you have new added development and and especially with with large um areas with Kingston Terrace and River Terrace 2.0, uh that could add substantial capacity needs.

Um when we assess SDCs, there's um a multitude of options that you can take.

Um so with River Terrace 2.0 or 1.0, uh certain SDCs had a um can't remember the right term.

Um certain zones, like so if if you're developing river terrace, they had a different rate on their SDCs than developing outside of River Terrace.

Um so there are options to do enact policies in that way.

Um, but typically SCCs are assessed uniformly um in the city.

Um but that that would be up to council's direction.

Uh next slide, please.

Or sorry, the sanitary sewer is the rate slide.

Uh so for sewer rates, um, so as you know, uh Clean Water Services is a primary service provider for uh the regional service provider for sewer service um in Tiger and across Washington County.

Um from an operation standpoint for the city side, and so uh the city is still responsible for maintaining the city pipes for the sewer system and also cleaning and doing a lot of the sewer maintenance.

Um the cost of operation for that is about $3.5 million that we've budgeted for fiscal year 26.

Um and then the cost of capital, which is you know to do things like expand sewer lines um and replace sewer alliance and maintain sewer lines, that's an additional four four point five million dollars.

And so with our current sewer rates, we pay clean water services 80%.

Um annually, Clean Water Service will tell us what they expect to increase their rates by their board.

Um and then um typically the city had uh our the Tiger has uh historically followed suit so that our share of the revenues don't erode um from what uh Clean Water Services uh raising their rates by uh and in addition to that um the city does have a sewer surcharge, which is at $3.23 per per dwelling unit as of um the last fees and charges um adoption, and that's an amount that the city fully retains, and that is uh that generates about $1.2 million per year.

And then we'll further on you'll see the fiscal health of the sanitary sewer system, but um again um all these revenue sources go towards maintaining our sewer system on the city side.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh for stormwater, um again, uh this is uh uh kind of a different split um than clean water services for sewer.

And so there's a regional um system for stormwater that goes through their system.

Um however, uh significant portion of the maintenance uh for stormwater is on the city side.

So um on the bottom side right there, you can see we have 159 miles of stormwater pipes on the city side, um, 5800 catch basins, 331 water quality facilities.

So these are all the responsibilities for Tiger to maintain.

And so the split on this piece is 25, 75 with the city retaining 75%.

Um and then there's also an additional surcharge that the city fully retains.

Um then from a cost standpoint, uh the cost of operations is 4.3 million and um capital is at 7.4.

Um both the utility for stormwater and sewer, you'll see uh at a future slide that those two funds are relatively healthy, um, but that is that's in part because we have these surcharges that are needed um to uh maintain services in those for those two systems.

Uh one thing I forgot to mention on the utility side, uh one thing that is coming up right now um is that we are in negotiations with clean water services on the splits.

So what you're seeing right here for the 80-20 split and the 7525 split, those are up for negotiations.

Um I'm not sure what the cycle is and when we when the last IGA was negotiated, um, but that is going to be um a good 10 years, maybe about 2006.

Okay.

Uh just read repeat what um public director, uh public works director Brian Raker said.

It's about it's been about 10 years since we've last negotiated with Clean Water Services.

So I would expect those to change.

And that would have to come before council, um, the the final negotiated IGA for council approval.

Correct?

Yeah.

Yes, cool.

Sounds like we have a lot of SDT SDCs and other things in our future to discuss, including this.

So I'm making a list on my end.

Thank you, Director King.

And I did I miss what the surcharge is on the stormwater.

I know we mentioned it's um three dollars and twenty-three cents for the sewer surcharge.

I wasn't sure what it was for the stormwater.

Um I believe I just missed it in uh in the slide.

I can c uh follow up and follow up on with that.

Fine, thank you.

Uh next slide, please.

And I do want to take a pause on the park root park and recreation fee.

So the park and recreation fee, it pays for about $4.9 million for park maintenance and about 0.8 million dollars for recreation programming.

This is uh based on the fiscal year 26 budget.

And so the fee right now is $3 or $9.38 a month per dwelling unit.

Um the fee itself generates about $2.8 million.

And um the general fund fills the gap.

Um so currently the city has you know $68 acres of parks um and 16 miles of trails.

Um currently the trails um are not actively maintained.

Um they are maintained on a complaint basis.

And um so that is I know that's gonna be a separate conversation at a future council hearing.

Um but this is an area where there's uh some substanti substantial gap where the fee itself is not enough to sustain the operations um of the of the park park and recreation program.

Uh one thing that's also important to note um is that whenever parks and trails are added to the system, it causes continued strain to the maintenance required for those facilities or the system um to the system, and that the annual growth in the PARF rate or even the growth in the population is not enough to keep up with the cost of maintenance.

Um it's it's great when we're talking about adding new parks and adding these amenities to the community uh for the community.

Um but the question that should always be considered is what the long-term cost of maintenance is when we're adding these facilities.

Um, especially when we're talking about maintaining and adding things amenities like restrooms and landscaping and and playgrounds, those all add to the cost uh when we're looking at adding new park facilities.

Thank you.

Um just to clarify though, because we did discuss this kind of in depth during the budget meetings that the the parks fee was never meant to cover all of the costs of the parks.

It was supposed to be a supplemental to meet that gap, correct?

And so even though now it's it's still it's not covering it, that was never the intention as far as I was told.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that this is um gonna be a topic that's coming up as Councilor Robins mentioned, of course.

This was a point of discussion, of robust discussion, if I may say, at the last budget committee meeting.

Um and then subsequently, I think we received letters from um the parks and recreation advisory board, the town center advisory commission, and the Tiger Transportation Advisory Committee.

I may have said commissioner committee incorrectly on one of those.

Um but um it's been a topic that's come up with multiple advisory boards to date, and I think it will be an important thing for us to discuss moving forward.

We gotta there's there's no such thing as a free lunch or a free park as it turns out.

Right.

Well, the the reason why so one thing I would comment um with the general fund, um we'll be discussing um during later section of the slides on the health of the general fund.

Uh however um I would expect in this upcoming budget cycle um more discussion and um prioritization discussions especially as it pertains to park and recreation.

Um if we're talking about with the the general fund providing more anticipated support for parking rate recreation um to address some of the needs for maintenance um that would require prioritize prioritization discussion.

Thanks to Councillor Robbins for jogging our memory about the discussion on that during the budget committee meetings.

And that reminded me, so do I remember right that the ratio of park and rec costs covered by the fee is growing?

Like it's it's becoming more and more borne by the fee as opposed to the general fund, is that right?

So it it's it's moved around year over year.

Um currently um the fee is paying for uh I can't I don't want to misspeak.

Um but it has shifted between the two um year over year.

Um but it's roughly always been about the 50 percent mark.

It that's always been the target.

Um that being said, the overall cost of maintaining parks has continued to grow and outpace um the revenue um that's being collected to maintain the parks.

And so uh you know, conscious decision has to be made whether or not that's made up by increasing the park fee and the general fund or just the park fee or just general fund.

And so how you fund the park program uh it is important when we think about adding more facilities to to the park system.

And then I think Council Shack, you brought up a great point about the trail system plan and the advocacy from the park and recreation board.

Again, adding maintenance for the trail system plan would be an added cost that would have to be funded somehow.

And that would either be through raising fees or whatever revenue source methodology that council would provide direction on.

Next slide, please.

So street maintenance fee, this is another uh fee that's on the utility bill.

Um so the city currently uh maintains and pays for 185 miles curbed curb street maintenance.

Uh this covers things like slurry seals, uh pavement overlays and it repairing some of the deteriorating streets.

Um currently the fund is healthy and has enough reserves to add some additional capacity.

Um however, with the the revenue it generates at $4.6 million per year.

Um if we added more facilities, again, this adds more um uh pressure to this fund.

Um so what I'm thinking about is things like uh like the jurisdictional transfer uh for Hall Boulevard, adding a facility like that will add burden to this fund um as you would expect to maintain that road um at a certain PCI index.

Um generally about this fee itself, it's currently at $9.11 per month.

Uh and that's also based on um pre-equivalent dwelling unit.

Uh next slide, please.

So another uh significant revenue sources, uh development and growth related revenues.

Uh so um primarily these revenues come from building permits um and also from system development charges.

Um specifically on building permit revenues, these revenues cannot be used for any other function other than to sustain the the building program.

Um the fund itself currently is healthy.

Um however, we did we are seeing a significant slowdown in development just for this last fiscal year.

We are seeing uh approximately a 28% reduction in revenue from budget and also a year uh year over year decrease in building permits.

Uh so um when we look at uh you know the different cycles in the economy, you know, this is one of those revenue sources that you you typically see like the boom bus cycles.

Um when you have development slowdown, there's no revenue coming in.

You would expect that revenues would drop significantly.

Um quick question when you say can only be used to sustain, is that a state law?

Is that that is a state law.

Thank you.

Correct.

Uh and same thing to note, so the reason why system development charges are tied to this slide is because system development charges are also very tied to economic shifts.

And so again, if if we're saying development slowdown with building permits, we would also expect SCCs to go down too because SDCs are hand in hand with building permits.

Um so something to keep in mind um when we're talking about funding for capital projects.

Uh next slide, please.

So both um some good news, some bad news on other revenues.

And so you know, some of the strong points that we've had in the last three years, um interest earnings have been quite substantial in a in a significant windfall to the city to help fund some of our funding gaps.

So in the last three years, um citywide uh interest earnings have been about 30 million dollars.

Um then uh more recently uh the traffic fines from the photo radar uh program has increased since we've switched vendors and now that they're online.

Um as we have seen in um the recent past, uh these both of these revenue sources are incredibly volatile.

Um and so they are not a dependable source uh to fund ongoing operations.

Um you know they are suitable for paying things like one-time expenses, um, but in terms of paying for continuous costs uh when you have volatility, um so in the short term we we expect that uh the interest rates will will likely drop.

Um I I don't have a crystal ball and can't say that for certain, but most financial experts would predict that interest rates will drop, which would mean that our revenue from interest would go down in the near term.

Um and again, uh traffic fines is is something that you can't really predict human behavior.

Um and the whole point for for the photo program is for public safety.

So our hope would be that that would go down uh with change behavior.

Um so that is to say um just long term when we think about fiscal sustainability, uh if we we're expecting to see reductions in some of these revenue sources that have been used to shore up um our funding gaps, um we will it will require few further conversations on either revenue offsets or cost savings to help balance the budget.

And Director King, just to your point, it actually changed my behavior.

So to your to the photo radar implementation, I've not gotten one since.

And we will have uh an update uh on the program um in short order.

Um next slide, please.

Uh so we this is a snapshot uh in a diagram of how capital projects are funded.

So I'm seguing over to capital projects now.

Um so looking at this is organized by each system within the city and the major systems.

Uh one common theme that you'll see in this slide is that every system has a dedicated revenue source.

Um but as many of you know, um the facilities do not have any sort of revenue sources.

And so historically we've had to rely on general funds, bonds, um, other revenue sources to pay for facilities.

And and one of the reasons why when we're talking about a public works and uh PD facility, it's important to note that um the city does not have funds from the general fund to to fund that kind of expenditure, and that's one of the reasons why an ask for a uh for a bond is needed to pay for such a facility.

Um one item to note in here um also is that TIFF dollars um can be used to pay for any of these systems as long as it's within that urban renewal zone.

Uh next slide, please.

And I won't go into the technical details.

Sorry, I'll um I won't go into the technical details about these two different options, but um this is just an example of ways that we can fund capital projects if there are funding if if we wanted to approach different funding uh mechanisms.

So as I mentioned before, we are a pay as you go model, and that's that's been the general direction from council.

Uh however, um you you have the option of doing debt financing so that you can borrow funds first and then pay for pay for capital infrastructure at a future time with with through rates.

Um but with the pay as you go model that allows us to build reserves and gives us more certainty um around funding.

Um ultimately it does it is a lesser costing option as you don't pay for interest with this methodology, but it does mean that in terms of when you look at fiscal results, you'll see reserves growing um, especially with these different systems that are paid by paid by rates.

So when we're looking at like our water fund, the sewer fund and the stormwater fund, you you would expect to see an accumulation of fund balance and those get drawn down over time to pay for different capital projects.

Director King, just for clarity on the intergenerational equity, is that if you debt finance, you know what your rate is and you can lock in the expectation of costs going forward or help me understand so I know what that means.

So the intergenational equity is uh um that's always an interesting conversation.

This was actually a topic of conversation when the um the water treatment plant was built and the philosophy around that.

Um when it comes to capital projects, um when you do pay as you go model, your current rate payers are the ones that are funding a project for a future use.

And so in theory, if you have someone who lives in Tigrid and decides to move, they're not paying, they they had been paying for a project that they're never gonna have any any utilization of.

With a debt financing system, um you would borrow the money up front, and then your future rate payers are the ones that are going to be paying for that infrastructure.

And so you can structure your financing to be you know 30 years, and so um if is especially if you have like a long-lived asset, um your future rate pairs are the ones that are paying for a facility that that those be that they're gonna use.

And that's that's what I mean by intergenerational equity.

All right.

Uh next slide, please.

And so with this slide right here, kind of to wrap up the different revenue sources.

And so what I've highlighted in the green are it revenue sources that um directly impact the general fund.

And so um the two different columns represent on the right side where council has discretion over changing the rates.

Um not to be confused with um how how to spend the money, because some of these are still restricted revenue sources.

Um but council has um based on their on council's policy direction um can change these rates uh that directly impact the city's revenues and some that directly impact um the general fund.

Uh next slide, please.

So um so when we're looking at fiscal constraints, uh particularly on the operating side, um we'll we'll talk about this in detail uh more detail.

Um demand for additional services, uh community expectations are uh continue to increase in that our operating costs are continuing to rise faster than our revenues.

And you'll and you'll see that um in a future slide.

Um we're also facing declining state shared revenues, um, and then you know inflation again in exceeding um or inflation and cost of living adjustments increasing our revenue growth.

Um one piece of more recent news um just wanted to clarify on the state revenue sharing.

So when I say decline state revenue sharing, that is pointing towards things like marijuana tax, cigarette tax, um, those revenue sharing, we are actually expecting gas tax to increase uh with the recent transportation bill that passed.

Uh next slide, please.

So on the capital side, um so the on the transportation capital funding, um, there are some key constraints here uh with limited funding.

While in the one the previous slide, it showed that um there's several dedicated revenue streams for transportation.

Um however, the significant portion of the city funds for transportation projects are gas tax and SDCs.

Um so if we are expected to see um development to go down, um we would expect that the funding capacity to pay for these projects to also go down.

Um one of the largest revenue sources that we have for uh transportation projects um that is the most healthy right now is our transportation development tax, that's with the county.

And so those are only projects that can be funded that are on the approved list from the county.

Um another important thing to note on the SCC methodology, uh and again I had mentioned some of the new systems that are the new the regions that are being added to this the systems.

However, our SEC methodologies that haven't been updated in a number of years still don't reflect the true cost of post-pandemic era construction costs.

And so we we we are expecting that um once as we are getting through our methodologies that um the cost of delivering capital projects will increase, which will ultimately reflect changes in the the SEC rates.

And then finally, um facilities uh continues to be a fist uh uh significant uh fiscal constraint as we don't have dedicated revenue sources uh for any facility improvements or replacements.

And so um with that, I think this is a good place to pause for any questions on uh the revenue pieces before we jump into fiscal year 25.

Two questions.

Um has the city previously considered um some sort of fee on the facility um maintenance side of things like we have with parks and rec and forced street maintenance.

Um would defer to any of my colleagues, but I don't recall any conversation uh or discussion.

I don't believe we have familiarity with the fee in the past, uh just to verbalize the head shaking.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um cool.

And then um I'm curious on the fiscal constraints part.

So what was it, 29% of funding coming from state and federal sources or or thereabouts?

Obviously, we're going through a period of fiscal contraction at the federal level, which is trickling down into the state level.

And I'm wondering if this may be more appropriate for the acting city manager to comment on as far as like legislative agenda and so on how the city may be accounting for that in its upcoming forecasts of revenues.

So at the federal level, is that your question?

Federal and state, because we're seeing um contractions at the federal level, which as people have probably read in the news are impacting state level expenditures, and I'm just wondering how that will trickle down into city level revenues.

If at all so just off the top of my head, um from a funding constraint standpoint, the the federal where we see potential impact again are are likely through grants.

So that's where I would anticipate potential contraction.

And just to be frank, there have been some potential lapses in funding based on executive orders and certain risks that we've had to sign off on.

For example, um one of the programs or grant programs require that the city uh sign on that there's potential that we won't receive reimbursement for one of our programs if they receive a lapse in funding from the federal government.

Um and so there definitely is a reality um that there is potential contraction um there.

Thank you.

It's all interconnected.

So that's why I wanted to touch on that.

Correct.

All right.

So um I'll try to go uh based on time, I will try to go very quickly on the fiscal year 25 portion.

So if we can go to the next slide, please.

So I just wanted to share some key takeaways on the fiscal 25 results.

And so in your packet, you saw on the first page is a summary page of all the revenues and expenses by fund.

Um just one thing to note on the general fund that we just finished um about one percent off of forecast, um, which is fairly accurate.

However, I would would have hoped it would have been on the um the surplus side, not being short on revenue.

Um it is lower than expected.

Um some of the bright spots, um interest earnings did exceed budget by 12 percent um while state revenue sharing um and traffic fines continue to remain volatile and and we do see some decreases there.

And then building permit activity did slow down, and again, as I mentioned earlier, we are 28% below budget, um, which is mirroring a uh uh uh a regional trend.

Um next slide, please.

Uh the key takeaway on the fiscal year 25 results, um, we did see some significant vacancy savings and underspending, particularly in the general fund and in central services.

Um specifically in central services.

Uh I did want to point out that we did have some pretty significant savings, um about $2 million from the last year, which is primarily from IT making some proactive efforts to reduce costs in their budget.

Um but one of the key things to take away from this is that our team will need to continue to discuss how we can more accurately budget for expenses if we're seeing this type of underspend.

Um we're budgeting and we have this kind of underspend, that means that we're we're also not making proactive expenses uh or proactive um investments.

Uh how however I want to put a big caveat on that because even with our underspending, uh we are still not breaking even on the general funds.

So as you saw in the report, we uh we're still um while we're our revenues were fairly accurate, our underspend still resulted in having a use of fund balance.

Um so we will need to have more in-depth conversations in terms of long-term fiscal sustainability and the upcoming budget process as we look at the forecasts.

Um on the on the enterprise and special revenue fund, uh we uh those funds um are underspend um primarily due to the timing of capital projects.

Uh and then I'll jump into kind of fund-by-fund analysis very quickly.

So on the on the general fund itself, compared to the prior year, our revenues or over the last five years, we we've seen revenues increase roughly about two percent on a compound annual growth rate.

And then on the expenses side, um it's been increasing about 4% over the last five years.

And so you you can kind of see that being inverted.

However, um I would try to ignore that from a long-term sustainability standpoint since that was a one-time funding source that um is unlikely to return.

Um and I've already mentioned this before, but property taxes and right-of-way fees are most stable revenue resources for the general fund.

Um, but we are continuing to see some volatility as we are looking at things like the interest rates and and the photo enforcement program and the traffic fines associated with that.

Next slide, please.

On the um I should I should have mentioned that um this is my attempt at summarizing the the report, as some of them were very lengthy.

And so on the especially on the five-year report, this is uh intended to be a summary summary of those.

Um on the water fund itself, um, so generally uh the fund itself is healthy.

Uh capital outlays um are around 10 million dollars annually.

Uh we did see a big spike in use of fund balance.

Um that was due to the construction of Reservoir 18 um in 2024, I believe is when it finished construction.

Um, or or when the significant spend down happened.

Um but we do save about 10 million dollars um each year uh for capital investments in the water fund.

And so uh just overall that the water fund is healthy.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh for the sewer fund, uh the this fund again is also healthy and stable.

Uh we do set aside uh proactively set aside funds for capital investments.

Uh you will see uh just on the trend line itself, um, we we've been able to maintain uh revenue has been able to keep keep up with the pace of expenses on the sewer fund.

Uh next slide, please.

For stormwater, um one thing that I'll note here is that the stormwater uh surcharge, which was added into 2021, did help offset the the pace of uh cost increases to maintain the stormwater facilities.

And so you'll see that right now that generally uh it is trending in the right direction.

And I would still describe it as stable and healthy.

Uh next slide, please.

On the park and recreation fund, um looking at the past five years, uh, this is where we see things starting to get very inverted.

And so the cost of maintaining parks continue to outpace our revenue growth.

Um we did have a one-time um cost saving measure in 2025 where the transfer from the general fund to pay for parks um was reduced, and that was an intent to use some of the fund balance that I've been accumulating um in the park and recreation fund.

And so just the you know, one thing to keep uh pointing out is that um uh as we are adding new facilities uh to the system that you'll continue to see pressure in this fund.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh for street maintenance fee, uh this is this fund is currently healthy.

Um there is a bit of a dip that you see in the trend analysis, uh, particularly uh during the COVID period where there was significant less street usage, and so there's less maintenance that was happening during those years.

Um the overall fund balance for this fund is healthy, but any sort of uh again, any new facilities that get added to this um would require would add pressure to the to the fund and revenue source.

Next slide, please.

Um the building fund, uh as I mentioned earlier, is also another healthy fund.

Um that being said, our permit fees have actually not increased since 2009, uh which was during the last if you recall the last recession.

Um, this fund is vulnerable to economic shifts.

However, the fund itself is healthy enough to weather some economic downturns depending on how how long that downturn is.

Next slide, please.

And so this slide right here is kind of a summary of all of our central services.

And also other city internal focused programs.

Next slide, please.

If there's one thing that you could take away from my presentation, is that adding any additional services or facilities, I mean they require new additional revenue sources or some type of trade-off.

We can expect to see continued volatility in some of our revenue sources.

And our operating costs continue to outpace our revenues.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

And it's exactly one hour as schedule, so perfect.

Great job.

And uh we have we're out of time, but if you have quick questions or comments.

Alright.

So yeah, thank you so much, uh, Finance Director King for your report and uh for your um really looking out for our our uh money.

And the last takeaways growth and operating expenses continue to outpace revenue.

So and that's also just to maintain existing service level, right?

So that is correct.

And that that's something that's important to note.

Um demands for services continue to increase.

Right.

Um and so we're not even looking at adding new services when we talk about our expenses outpacing our revenues.

So it looks like the this council, the budget committee, and our community will have need to have a serious discussion next year about how our priorities are and and and how we're going to plan pay for the thing we we want to do, right?

So yeah.

So yeah, quick comment, Council Schlack.

Yeah, just a quick question.

This is a a question that um I got from a constituent actually, because every year we sort of talk about and uh this is the phrase that was used, the fiscal cliff in the general fund, which is we have that trend out that basically shows that is sort of to what the mayor was saying, expenditures keep going up, our revenues are not going up as much.

But the fiscal cliff is not that we're running out of money, it's that we would have to start drawing into our 25% reserves and the general fund.

I would just want to clarify that.

It's that a certain allotted amount of savings would be drawn down, not that we would run out of money, right?

So the fiscal club analogy is actually an analogy that you'll run out of money uh at the end of the cliff.

Well, so the cliff is that you'll start declining your fund balance, and then at the end of that, then ultimately you you will run out of money.

And so without action being taken to cut either raise revenues or cut costs, uh if your expenditures outpaces your revenue, um, eventually you you will run out of money.

Inevitably.

All right.

So thank you so much, Director Kane.

Thank you.

All right, next slide on our agenda is the special event analysis.

And we have assistant to the student manager Hendrix, management analyst reachosome, and digital communication coordinator Baratos.

They will give the staff report and there's a slide presentation.

Welcome.

Greetings, council.

Good evening.

Are we on the HVAC system is so loud.

I didn't realize that.

It's like when it turns off, you realize how loud it actually is.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members.

I am Leandro Barrientos, digital communications coordinator and founder of El Digit Fest, and I'm honored to open this evening's special event analysis presentation, as you see, highlighted up there.

I'm highlighting the incredible work and impact of our 2025 events.

From El Tigrefest, the Pride Parade, Juneteenth to Fourth of July.

We are grateful to council, to our community for the opportunity to work alongside city staff, local businesses, to continue Tiger's legacy of neighborhood friendliness, fun, and the celebration of culture and diversity.

These events bring world-class art, music, food, and experiences for all ages, and have become regionally recognized heritage events that attract visitors from across Oregon and beyond.

And beyond, I mean like outside of the country.

I met someone from uh Tasmania at one of our events this year.

They didn't come to our event, but they were just like happened to be in Tiger at the time.

So I'm gonna knock that off as some they they they vacationed from T Tasmania to come here.

We work closely with our vendor community to navigate city processes, often helping new businesses and entrepreneurs connect to core city services through training, communication, and teamwork across departments, these events become living expressions of our community promise and the five E's.

Boop.

Equity, environment, economy, engagement, and excellence.

There's also a strong connection between these events and economic opportunity.

They help create the conditions for new businesses to grow and thrive here in Tiger.

I've had the privilege of working with entrepreneurs, many from Spanish speaking communities, who completed their very first business license after participating in a city event.

Witnessing that first step towards success is deeply meaningful for me and all of us here at the city.

Who build and move the infrastructure that brings these events to life.

Their early mornings, late nights, and commitment make all the difference.

A heartfelt thank you to Cindy Murphy.

I didn't know you're gonna be here.

Actually I did.

A pillar of our community through her work with the Tiger Festival Balloons, who worked closely with us this year and continues to bridge long-lasting traditions with today's celebrations.

And to our police department, your steady supportive presence ensures our events remain safe, welcoming, and enjoyable for all.

I'm deeply grateful for this council's engagement and enthusiasm in all of the events in celebrating the beauty and div diversity that make Tigerd such a special place.

It is an honor to be here with my colleagues, management analyst Alex Richardson and assistant to the city manager Nicole Hendrix to present the 2025 special events analysis.

I'll now hand it over to my colleagues with a reminder that our events grounded in the five E's are lasting symbols of hope and joy for Tiger, showing how collaborations between council, city staff, local businesses, artists, and partners can create vibrant, meaningful experiences that foster business opportunity, belonging, connection, and joy.

Thank you.

What a way to open.

Right.

I feel like my energy like just go bammed up.

Um hi everybody.

Um my name is Nicole Hendrix, assistant to the city manager.

Um, my name is Nicole Hendrix, assistant to the city manager.

Um, and actually, I'll go forward a couple slides, please.

Or actually, I'll just touch base really quick on the second slide.

So go ahead and move forward one.

Oh, one more.

Perfect.

Okay, so our goal for today's discussion is around our events, specifically for 4th of July, Juneteenth, Pride and L T Gray.

And what we want to talk about is our current service levels for these events.

So do we want to keep the current service level and curvature current service level being how we um approach our events, what services are we providing activities, programming, things like that.

Um, and then once we decide on current uh service level, um, then what are the considerations for achieving those desired uh levels of service?

Next slide, please.

Um I feel like Leandra already gave a great background on the history, so I'm gonna move forward to our cost event analysis.

So in your meeting packet, our team provided uh in-depth analysis for all of those events.

Um and the analysis breaks down each event with key observations, um, partner contributions that have been provided over the years, and then year-over-year cost trends for by expense type.

So that includes the breakdown of staff time, contract support, and programming, which includes things like advertising and event activities.

So we wanted to highlight a few of the observations that we made as a team after kind of seeing some of the um some of the data.

And the first being that the cost for these events generally are continuing to grow each year without matching revenue growth.

So this is kind of sounding similar to the budget conversations that we were just having.

Um, something to note so prior to 2021, uh the city didn't host any of these events.

So a lot of these events are new in the last five or so years.

Um, and we've taken that on without that matching revenue uh source.

So we have explored opportunities such as efforts to uh obtain sponsorships over the years, which Alex is going to speak to in a little bit.

Um and then we also have tried to be thoughtful about um with things such as equipment for events, trying to um purchase that so we don't have to rent it out and it gets more expensive each year.

So we're trying to be thoughtful about the way we can save um on money and even ideas to sell like merchandise events and things like that.

Um generally expenses are continuing to increase without that revenue growth.

And then the second observation we made was just um that our partnership support generally is declining over the years.

Um we've seen growth and support for events like LT Gray, um, but we've also seen partners who have um had more prominent roles in um financial and logistical support, um, taking steps back over the year over the years because they have a lot going on as well, and they have budget cuts that they're dealing with, and so it's just a lot for for them to navigate as well.

So we just don't have that stable partnership for these events to help manage and fund.

Um the and then the third being that the interest and expectations of these events grow each year, which is exciting because the community cares about them and wants to see them be successful.

Um that also means that the scale of the events and the costs associated um with the events and the amount of uh time and staff that are involved is it's a lot more each year.

Um, and we don't have dedicated event staff, right?

So we're um different teammates across the organization come together and uh make it work, and we have incredibly talented people who can do that.

Um, and also it's in addition to all of their other duties.

And then the other thing to know about the the staff impact too is just um there's a fiscal impact there with we don't budget for costs for things like overtime, right?

And so, and that comes up with events around police helping us with Pride Parade and being visible and helping with all the events and our parks team members being available because we use Cook Park uh for an event as uh for events, um, and so there's just that that fiscal impact to consider as well.

And then the last observation, just relating to the previous point about impact to staff is increased reliance on contracted support.

So that's something that um we've needed and valued from planning and logistics and just helping produce those events.

So that's just something that we're relying more on as time goes on.

And so I'll I'll hand it over to Alex to kind of go over a few other considerations.

I talked a little bit about the costs, and I just also want to bring it back to the why and highlight the considerations for why we why we do these events.

Thanks, Nicole.

Good evening, counsel.

So I'm sure you all know me, but I'm Alex Richardson.

I'm a management analyst.

I'm also the overall project manager for these four events for the past year.

So I was in charge of the RFP process, which brought us Sydney Murphy, who's been incredibly helpful this past year, as Leandro mentioned.

But I did just want to touch, if we could go to the next slide, please.

However, I uh I think everybody sitting here believes that these events are also really integral and crucial to the community.

So one way that I looked at all of these events was through the lens of the National Community Survey, which you all remember I presented on several months back.

And in the AIS, there's actually a breakdown of key statistics and questions that I took from that survey, which specifically relate to representation for underrepresented communities and then events, arts and culture.

So the statistics are there if you'd like to look at them in more depth.

But just some of the takeaways that I came up uh with, came away with after reviewing those in depth, is that some of the people that most want to attend these events don't necessarily have opportunities elsewhere.

These are low barrier free events that really encourage attendance from the entire uh family.

They're all family-friendly.

They provide activities for folks of all ages.

They're often intergenerational as well.

Um BIPOC residents, black indigenous, and people of color are less likely to feel that the Tiger community supports the arts and often feel underrepresented, according to the National Community Survey.

Um however, I also found it interesting that um folks that were lower income when disaggregating based on income level in the NCS actually valued these uh events more than folks in a higher income group.

So these are just some statistics that I pulled out.

They could be spliced any you know number of ways.

Um but I also think, and this didn't come from the NCS, but something that most are probably familiar with Americans with art for the arts, um, National Endowment for the Arts, we'll all say that cultural participation does improve mental health, it reduces loneliness.

Um so in addition to the partnerships that we've gained as a city from these events, um, some of which Leandro touched on uh in the opening, um, there's also the value that it brings to our community members.

So while there is this great cost, I just wanted to make sure that that that lens was um was added as well.

Um next slide, please.

And then for the sponsorship analysis, so this is something that Nicole led, um and we met with recreation as well as Finance Director Kang.

Um, and we looked at sponsorships that we have pursued as a city, both in re recreation and for our four city events.

So Juneteenth, Pride, LT Gray, and Fourth of July.

Um this analysis was just done in August, so it just had a look back of the past few months.

Um we looked at risks, uh, benefits and staff costs, um, cost to time uh cost of time and kind of just weighing those factors against one another.

Um and then just as a quick background, I launched our sponsorship packet, which was the first that we had done for these um city management kind of led events, although recreation has offered sponsorships for quite some time for their events, um, just in May, and the events began in mid-June.

So we didn't have a real long lead-up time.

Um however, um we were able to get a you know a fair amount of support, especially for Pride.

Um that's shown in the cost analysis ummary.

Um but um one thing that we found is our minimum level was 250.

Um that's a low level that was based on around the amount that recreation sponsorships started at.

Having gone through this season of events and looking for sponsorships, we did determine that it was appropriate to raise that level to actually to 2,000, which is substantial.

But considering the amount, although we appreciate any and all support from our business community, and it was really meaningful to get um you know reach outs about wanting to support, in particular, pride, because that's where I saw the most support.

Um while we greatly appreciate that, um, it does kind of present a challenge and is difficult to maintain that level of connection to businesses and going out and searching for those new relationships for sponsorship when the amount is relatively low.

So that was the staff recommendation was to continue to pursue sponsors with modifications such as raising the level to $2,000 and also to look at things like in-kind sponsorships.

Um and I will say that in order to continue pursuing those higher level sponsorships, um it it will kind of place more demand on staff time.

So that's something that we're looking to, if we want to raise revenue in that respect, we'll have to also take time out of other areas to maintain that.

So you know, like everything else, there's a trade-off involved.

But that's the conclusion that we came to there.

So thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

And I um and thank you for the packet on the sponsorships.

But what I wonder is should sponsorships be relative to impact.

So if we're talking about 4th of July and 8 to 10,000 people is the right champion, 5,007,500.

And I don't know that we can get the drones to go boom up top.

But I I mean, or L Tigre, right?

So it seems to me we should scale an opportunity relative to impact.

And so I'm just curious if you've thought about that and um just kind of that outreach to larger businesses.

And I'm not saying any of this is easy because I know it's not.

Um, but that was just in my mind because I think the Fourth of July is such a great impact, but obviously it's getting very expensive if we continue with the drones.

So just trying to be creative on how we can support that.

So thanks, Council President.

We didn't specifically talk about tier sponsorships or considering them just based on specific event necessarily in terms of the you know the entry level amounts, but I do think that that's a point well taken, and a lot of it is in um the storytelling and how much lead up time we have and kind of having more of a time to create um to to make sure that uh businesses know what the advantages and the benefits are and really building that out further.

So I think with more advanced time this coming year, that's um definitely more plausible and feasible.

And if there's opportunities for assistance, let us know on that too.

So thank you, Council President Wolf.

If I may add, um, on on your point on tiered sponsorship levels, there's a level of uh engagement that happens.

Um and I'm I'm speaking directly with one of the sponsors we had, uh Zipply Fiber, who had um they have an engagement person that works there, his name is Kevin Guyen who helped us in kind uh provide the soccer match at L Tigre this year.

So there is a level of um long-term financial viability and partnership with Zippy Fiber.

They they're our neighbor, we we share a parking lot with them.

So um I I I would love to explore um seeing those uh tiered sponsorships for events like Fourth of July and L T Gray.

Thank you, and thank you, Counselor President Wolf, for asking that question, that's a similar question.

But another one is um appreciate the first-time sponsorship package that you put together because I know that had not been done in the past, and we'd always been a little late to the game to ask for sponsorships.

Have we thought about, and I know this will be Councillor Godusi's favorite topic, but a consultant who actually has expertise in this field who does this for a living, maybe takes a we don't necessarily have to pay, or we there's a certain percentage, but just seems to me we're taking a lot of staff time for very important projects to increase the learning curve, not to say that you all don't have that learning curve capability, because I'm sure you do, but does that make sense?

That would be just the first and the the second is are we considering these arts, the four different events?

Are we considering them arts?

And then maybe for a later date, the what is have we defined what the service levels are?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Um trader to pursue sponsorship specifically, that is one of the um considerations that we thought of when we conducted the sponsorship analysis.

Um I think it's it becomes um just a larger cost.

Um we were lucky enough to work with Merco Productions this year, um, and that was incredibly beneficial.

Um that was not something within our contractor's scope to pursue sponsorship specifically.

So we talked about adding that on to the RFP next year, or um, even you know, looking at an additional um contractor, however, of course, then there would be an increased cost in the contractor expense.

So then it becomes what's their goal in terms of what uh what they're bringing in versus the cost, you know, uh of that.

Um, but yes, um, thank you.

That's also a point we'll take in.

And I'm sorry, what was your second question, Counselor Shaw?

I was just wondering if we consider these four events art, because are they arts events?

I that's a great question.

I feel like that's sort of subjective.

I'd be curious to hear what you say as well.

Um the the sole, you know, not the sole focus, a major focus of L T Gray is the live music.

We get bands that are regional or even national, and so they attract their own, um, they bring their own audience with them.

Um, I also saw a lot of dancing at L T Gray.

Um, I feel like that's a highly art engaged event.

We have artisans that are selling um uh creative products, and we have um some arts activities there as well.

Um, but I think it does vary from event to event.

I think Juneteenth, not as much.

Um, so it um yeah, I think some, yes, maybe some not so much.

Thank you for the question.

Uh I did want to add on your first question of uh we did have a conversation with our former communications manager um specifically on whether we can bundle one of our contractors, uh we work with Ciela Talent Agency um to see if they could pursue uh sponsorship opportunities.

And our first year of LT Gray, we did find a sponsorship with Metro.

Um so we were able to find local opportunities, but therein lies the and we look at looking at other sponsors sponsorship uh programs that are have been well developed, such as like uh Merco is a perfect example, and um uh parts and rec, they their relationship and long lasting community partners that you see them come back every single year.

And I think some of the integrity that we we really want to maintain tiger centric tiger focused, um I would I would be um uh I I would be willing to research to see how we can partner with a sponsor um consultant, but but taking the caveat that we want to maintain those relationships long term um in the two aforementioned uh uh programs.

And your last question about the tiers, is that related to sponsorships or just the general levels of service question back to the bigger doesn't need to be answered tonight, but just going to council president Wolf's part of what I think was um her question, just the service levels per event and that's large and law is there more service level for that.

Got it.

Yeah, that's definitely something we can explore.

Great.

So to wrap, um, next slide, please.

So our first question for the council is should current service levels for these events be maintained, and with the understanding that the current service level means maintaining kind of the quality and the experience of the event, but that doesn't mean that it would maintain the cost, the existing cost rates because staff time and inflation and all those things rise over time.

Um and so um so once we kind of have a conversation about service levels, and then the second the second question would be what are the considerations for achieving that service level?

So are there budget or resource planning or trade-offs that we should think about um as we yeah, plan for our next fiscal year?

Um, how do we prioritize with the other services um that we've talked about that were talked about earlier?

Um, and then should there be some parameter considerations for the events around um what entertainment, what amenities and that kind of thing?

So um, and we can always you know follow up to do more research or more analysis too.

So maybe just the start of the conversation, but it's timely because we're already gonna start planning here pretty soon for events.

So it's it's just good to have this conversation now.

And I don't know if you want to end maybe with the dates that we have too, just to we already have event dates for next year.

Yes.

Um I'd be happy to give those now.

Uh and then we can we'd love to take your um questions and and you know, your guidance.

Um so pride is actually moving to May this year.

This is under the assumption that we will continue with all four events.

Um so it is set for May 23rd, 2026.

Uh, and then Juneteenth will be June 20th, 2026.

Fourth of July will be on the 4th of July.

And L T Gray will be on October 3rd, which is the first Saturday in October, which is always the date that it is.

So you can save those now.

And yeah, with that, I think that wraps our presentation part, and we would love to hear counsel's guidance.

Thank you.

Counselor Robin, would you like to jump in to answer those two questions?

Yes, thank you.

Um thank you for all the information.

I really appreciate it.

I do have a quick question.

Um, for the contracts for the two Juneteenth and Pride, they both have a 7500 contract.

Was that solely the Merco productions for each of those, or was that something else another vendor as well?

I believe it was just for Merco.

And I can double check the data that we had, but I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, we we did have one community partner that we worked with for Juneteenth as well.

Um, but I believe that we categorize that as programming expenses.

Yes.

So I believe yes.

Okay.

Um this has been a tough year.

Um for everybody.

We've had to cut budget already.

We've had to cut budget already, you know, everyone had to take a 10% cut.

So um three percent.

Sorry, sorry, three percent.

Um I don't mean to exaggerate.

Um I do have some concerns that costs are going up up and on several of our events, attendance was down.

Um attendance went up by if my middle school math still works, which I question that.

Um pride, the attendance went up by 21%, which is awesome.

Expenses went up by 24% though.

Um Juneteenth, attendance has been flat for the last couple of years at only 150 people.

Yet the cost has more than doubled since we started, which I would expect it to go up because you know you start small and people like it.

So I really want to um get the cost one up a lot just over the last year, a couple thousand dollars, which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're spreading that over only 150 people, I really think we need to figure out how to be more cost conscious with that.

And or um get more people to come, and I will just dump that right back on you because that's uh that's a very, very hard task, right?

To get to advertise, get people out, all those things.

But I just want to point out the numbers.

Um LT Gray attendance was down by 50 percent, and I know that's because of fears of immigration and everything that's going on with that, so I can't really fault that.

Um I I think we need to, and then pride the costs actually went down and our attendance went up.

So that's I wonder what the difference was there.

Um I know that and that's not even counting the the increase in sponsorship.

So whatever we did there was fabulous.

And then um I think that personally we're getting too expensive on 4th of July.

Um, especially since attendance went down by 20%, and I you know who knows why.

Um so maybe we need to relook at the drones and try something different for this next year, maybe go to fireworks.

I know that's a change from our um ecology and environmental promise that we've made to try to be more environmental and there's more waste with that and pollution, but people love it, and um I think it's less expensive.

So um so those are my thoughts, but also to only have a 2250 dollar sponsorship for Fourth of July is so disappointing.

We should have like a $10,000 sponsorship.

So I hope we can do that.

And if you need me to be out there knocking on doors, I'll do it.

But so I think we really need to we need to look at each event separately, um, really cater how much we're spending and figure out are we spending, you know, just like we had public comment earlier saying for Juneteenth we're spending however much he said he did the math, 186 dollars a person.

Um that's the best wedding that I've ever gone to, you know.

And um the food was great, the music was great, but but did does the public really want to spend that much?

And so what can we do differently?

Um but I'm not saying cancel anything because they do love all the events.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor Who.

Um one question I have for Fourth of July specifically is I know that for things like the balloon festival parking ends up being a great generator for some of those funds.

And if we were to do something similar, would that both help with traffic flow and help reimburse some of it?

This is not territory that I personally have broached since I've been an events manager.

Um looking at Cindy, but uh I I mean I think that that is a viable thing to consider.

Um I think that there would be all kinds of operational considerations that we have not had to think through at this point, but I definitely think it's worth exploring exploring.

And um it's it is a lot of it's a lot of people to get parked.

We're already doing a lot of traffic control.

Um so in some ways it seems that it couldn't add on a tremendous amount in terms of logistics and possibly have a real benefit.

Um I think you know what I would want to do is talk to our finance department and see um what you know considerations we would have there, what ramifications.

I I think it might be sort of uncharted territory for us.

I mean, we don't charge any entry fees for any of our events or for anything except for the the vendors, of course, charging um for their wares.

So it would kind of it would be a new a new path, but we charged.

We have a business license fee.

No, we do have a business license fee.

Yeah, but in terms of like entry fees or that sort of thing to the event itself.

Um but yes, I think that's a sort of good possibility.

Thank you.

Council President Wolf.

This is um just specific to your question, Dr.

or Dr.

Counselor uh could you see and I'm looking at Cindy um and at the risk of getting in the weeds, and I'm gonna jump in and try to pull back quickly.

Uh parking is driven by volunteer organizations whose funding goes back to them, correct, Cindy.

So if our goal is to reduce our costs, we can't offer the same thing to organizations.

And if I'm way off base on that, then I'll just shut up and sit here.

But but for a one-day hit versus a weekend, I just want to be mindful of the motivation of all the volunteers that do that is because they get a return for their clubs.

We can follow up with Cindy and work that work out some details.

And I just want to be mindful of time.

So can you just get to the two questions?

Should the service level be maintained and why the consideration I do want to move us on, so that's too much in the weed a little bit.

So please really quickly.

So the I actually have been parking for the last few years with the Tiger Breakfast Rotary Club.

So I was one of the volunteer groups, but the intent wouldn't be to do it as a volunteer basis.

It would be so instead of having those people that were directing traffic, have them do something similar.

So then the city ends up getting the profit as opposed to the nonprofits.

But in terms of these questions, I yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Counselor Schlack.

Thank you, Mayor.

And bear with me, folks, for a moment.

Um thank you so much for doing this cost analysis.

I know that is something that I I request, and I think this has been very informative so we can be really intentional about how we spend our communities tax player dollars.

And I want to start by saying I do support having a community event on for Juneteenth and for Pride and for Independence Day.

And I love LT Greyfest.

But I'm really concerned about the large growth of resources, time, money, and staffing, all these areas that you mentioned over many years for four one-day events in Tiger.

I mean, to put this in perspective, folks, we're at the point where we're spending as much money on these events as we are an entire year's worth of social services and community events grants across the entire city, because that's about I think $389,000 between general fund and um TLT dollars.

And we have to prioritize our funds.

I mean, we cut the police and public works budgets by three percent this year, and I'd rather see $300,000 go towards backfilling that, or into our homelessness response, which has generated a lot of community interest, or into our year-round programming that we do do at the library or with our recreation department, or into supporting our senior center, which was a big topic during the budget process, or into trail maintenance like was like we discussed earlier today.

I just I can't justify that amount of money going to four one-day events like this.

And I think it's really excessive that we spent $80,000 on a drone show at 4th of July, no matter how beautifully crafted it was.

I mean, it there's just there's only so much money to go around, and I I would have to advocate for a cut in service levels just based on our current um fiscal constraints.

I I just can't advocate for anything else in good conscience.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Shaw Thank you, Mayor.

Um I appreciate very much the cost analysis as well.

Thank you.

I think we um took some time to get over the few years, we had a few bumps like COVID and others.

Um I will disagree um with both my counselors, uh Robin and also with Schlack.

Um when you look at the difference between the drone show at being $35,000, yet it brought 8,000 people versus 2,000, about 2600 people.

There's a significant ROI there.

We were very late to the game in asking for sponsorship.

We previously had the month before, so in June.

Last year it was May.

So it's ripe for opportunity we haven't touched.

Having said that, I um agree wholeheartedly that we are in a tough budget situation.

There are other needs that I think are becoming more urgent.

So I would like to see that the events perhaps be scaled back.

Um, not removed not just not stopped, but scaled back for both staff resource time, but also some budget time.

Perhaps it's 3% cut, maybe it's a 10%, but I think that number um can be agreed upon.

But also I think there's a huge opportunity for sponsorship.

We just haven't done that in the past.

So I'm gonna look optimistically.

I say yes, we should scale down, but look for sponsor opportunities, and then I'm looking at the mayor, he's glaring at me.

What are the concerns for achieving desired service levels?

I think I answered the question.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate it.

Uh let me finish with council president wolf first.

Um thank you, Mayor.

And I do think it's hard just to answer these questions um just like yes or no.

So I agree with counselor shaw that I would really like to explore sponsorships in a timely fashion that you were actually given the bandwidth and the lead time.

So my question is when do we have to do a go or no go on the drones?

Does anybody know that do you want to speak to the contract timeline or when we should do the RP for that?

Um I believe that we at this point we don't have any, you know, they're not contractually obligated to work with us this next year, but we're sort of penciled in.

So typically we would begin trying to solidify that before the end of this year.

I don't have a firm date on that.

Oh, I okay, because I didn't think that we had that nailed by the end of the calendar year in the past, and so maybe I'm wrong.

Because my point was to piggyback against Councillor Shaw, is I'd love it, Cindy.

If you've yeah.

Okay.

So sooner than later is I would strongly suggest if you're gonna go that way.

Um there's only so many drone companies that meet our standards first and foremost.

So we want to make sure we're getting the quality.

And when we were researching in February, we're too late.

Um so then I'm not sure what my answer is because my hope was to say give you the lead time you need to actually see if you can get 7500, $5,000 sponsors to start taking away some of that cost and then decide is this gonna work or not.

Um because I think 10,000 was curiosity.

Um I was really pleased to see 8,000.

I don't know if year three really gives you that data point of who's excited about spending you know the time at Cook Park.

So I don't have a great answer for you because I think we need to understand that.

I um I love that we do a uh Juneteenth.

Um I am certain that TTSD has continued severe budget constraints, but um kind of navigating that our on our own and the level of attendance.

I wrestle with that, and maybe that's having so many June events, it's a lot.

Uh and then you throw graduation and everything else in there.

Um so Juneteenth is probably one that I would say whether that makes sense, but that's the smallest of them all.

Um and again, sponsorships on L T Gray.

I love that we do LT Gray.

I think that cities have to have um flagship uh anchor events.

That's about creating a livable community that people want to be part of.

So thank you.

Councilor Robin, any quick comments.

I just wanted to clarify where you saying that we got a return of investment of 2,000 people because attendance actually went down by 2,000.

My point was merely there is 8,000 people attending the July 4th show versus 2600.

I know why there was a reduction of folks, but there was there's a substantial difference of attendance.

And I'd be curious if I'm not mistaken, and again, if it ends July 4th ends up being fireworks, or if it ends up being uh drones, it's a differential cost of about 40,000, if I'm not mistaken, 45.

Yeah, so uh to my knowledge, we didn't um go out and uh you know obtain any proposals for a traditional fire show, at least not since um I was involved with this project.

However, when I just was kind of doing a general search several months ago, it was the range was 25 to 40,000 for traditional fireworks.

I did want to add as well um that we did do a survey post-fourth of July, and a community member recently asked for those survey results, and as a result, we're going to I'll create a report and put that online so we'll make sure that council receives that.

Um and I'll I'll think I think that that will be interesting to see what folks' reactions you know were to the drone show and could possibly help with your guidance.

Okay, so I think there's a general consensus that we want to continue those events, but we are concerned about the escalating cost.

And we will strongly encourage you to find sponsorship as early as possible.

And for me personally, I still want to keep them, but if we can't get sponsorship, I'm okay with scaling them back.

So counselor schlack, quickly.

I just wanted to clarify.

I don't think anyone here said cut any of the events in particular, but I I heard a majority for scaling them back in in some form.

If we don't get uh sponsorship to to fill in the gaps.

So thank you.

Did you get what you need for today?

We sure did.

All right, thank you so much.

All right, so next item.

Thank you.

So next item on the agenda is the city council goal 2025 to 26.

And we have the assistant to city manager Hendrix coming back.

And before we start, I just want to uh uh point uh the public that the staff have prepared detailed memo on our 2025-26 console go.

So that's why I only allocated 10 minutes for this discussion.

But if you need more information, please go to our console packet and download the memo.

You there's lots of detailed information there.

So with that, great welcome back.

Thank you.

And that's pretty much the extent of my presentation is to say we provided a detailed.

I want to just remind time.

Um this is the first time that we're bringing you an update on the council goals for 2025 and 2026.

Um we have been to council in um more detailed manners for different projects like building a better tiger or housing plans, things like that.

Um so this is the first time we're bringing it forward collectively.

But the the report is very detailed and it outlines um the outcomes that we want to achieve based on each of the strategies.

It highlights the accomplishments that we've had since um we adopted the goals, and then things to look ahead, um opportunities that we're expecting over the next um upcoming months.

So I will just leave it at that and then open it up for comments and questions so that we have enough time for that.

Yeah, thank you.

I know Council Schlack has some common.

Yes, I love the memo, but I um speaking for myself, I would love to see a reversion back to the previous format where it was a more in-depth slide presentation, just because council goals are um well, they're the heart of our policy direction, and it's not just for us to discuss, but it's also for the community to see what we're doing to achieve the goals that we were elected to achieve.

So just in I want to put that out there.

Um I do love the reporting matrix.

I will say that this is great in terms of understanding who's doing what and who's accountable for um different directions.

Um I'll probably just send in my questions considering the the time check that we're at.

But I would say in reading the memo in reflection, I feel like we were uh the council was very ambitious with the scope and scale of all of the policy areas we wanted to push forward and with the wisdom of hindsight.

Um I think the council um could have done with a bit more focus on some of the two or three real key areas that we wanted to focus on, knowing that a lot of these areas are current policy focuses for the city, regardless of whether they get called a council goal or not.

So that's just my general feedback.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else have comments or questions?

Council President Wolf.

Just uh one specific area that I'm curious about.

Um create housing opportunities for current and future residents, and in particular um when we um address uh some of our homelessness issues.

Um what I wonder uh, and this is you know, data that I've requested from Washington County and received, what I still feel like we're kind of dancing around, if you will, is the navigation of how we manage individuals that are unsheltered and just um how they come into the city, how do we support that, how do we work with our neighbors?

Um, because if you look at that data, um there's um uh as I've said before, Tiger is um doing its fair share, if not more.

So you know, I feel sometimes when I look at that, we're playing defense really well.

How do we help manage how do we take care um so that our community feels safe and that our areas are clean?

Um but I also want to really make sure we're having those conversations.

Um and really, and that's a that's a regional conversation.

Uh but it's it's absent, and so I'd just like to flag it.

Come so okay.

So I just want to thank the city staff who stayed.

Um there some of them are virtual and some of them are here just to answer questions if you had any.

So thank thanks, team.

I was not asking for questions.

I'm done.

Oh, well, thank you so much.

All right.

All right, so there being no further uh business, uh, we are adjourned.

So good night, Tiger.

That does explain why there's some