So good evening.

I will call this Tiger City Council and Local Contract Review Board meeting to order.

City Recorder Krager, would you please conduct a roll call?

Councillor Robbins.

Councillor Schlack.

Here.

Councillor Shaw.

Here.

Council President Wolfe.

Here.

Councillor Anderson.

Here.

Counselor Goodesi.

Present.

Youth Councilor Helleck.

Here.

Mayor Who?

Here.

Thank you.

Will everybody please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

All right, City team and Councilmember, do you have any now agenda items?

All right, seeing none, let's move on to the next item, which is proclamation and recognition.

And uh this evening, we will uh have a resolution uh recognize youth counselor Hellecks for his service.

And uh I'm going to read the motion, read the proc reader resolution, and then I will entertain a motion afterwards.

Whereas Asher Halleck's terms of service will end June 30th, 2026, completing one year of exceptional service to the City of Tiger, Oregon, as our youth city councilor, and whereas Youth Councilor Helleck has earned admiration of his fellow council members and city team members who have shared the following.

Quote one, Asher has represented Tiger's youth with sincerity and professionalism, and have appreciated his willingness to serve, participate in council meetings, and be part of the city's decision making process.

His service has helped ensure that youth voices are included in our civic and conversations, and I'm grateful for the time and energy he has given to the council and the community.

And that's for me.

And Councilor Shah, do you have access to the resolution in front of you?

Mayor, I do not have a question.

Okay, I will I will read it.

That's fine.

I will read it for you.

I appreciate it.

Youth Councilor Halleck, I truly appreciate your attendance and come commitment to showing up each and every week.

Showing up matters, and you did not, you did that consistently as you grow into your next opportunity.

Remember Yoda's wisdom.

Do or do not, there's no try.

You've taken this first step by being there.

Not the next chapter is yours to own fully.

You have so much potential linked to it.

And that was from Councillor Shah.

And Council President Wolf, do you want to read your quote?

I'd be happy to.

I appreciated the perspective that Asher brings to our conversations.

Yeah, and then I don't see Alex here, but so I'll read on her behalf.

Asher has been a consistent, involved, and passionate council leaders on to Tiger Youth Advisory Council, TIAC, for the last year.

His commitment to equity, youth voice, and the democratic process is evident, as is his authentic connection to community building.

His contributions to the city as youth counselor will be missed, but he will no doubt continue to play an active role as a conscientious and engaged member of the wider community.

Whereas during this his turn, youth council Helleck actively participated in numerous council meetings, workshops, and community events, demonstrating a strong commitment to civic engagement and public service.

And whereas Youth Council Helleck has been a steadfast advocate for youth perspectives, contributed, contributed thoughtful input on issues impacting the community, and collaborated, collaborated with peers and city leaders to advance initiatives that promote inclusivity, innovation, and positive change.

And now there will be a result by the city council that the Tiger City Council and City T may hereby commend Asher Asher Halleck for his valuable contribution to the city at Tiger Youth Councilor.

This resolution is effective immediately, immediately upon passage.

So do we have a motion?

I move to approve resolution number 2623, a resolution thanking Asher Halleck for his service as Tigers Youth Counselor 2025 through 26.

I'll second the motion.

Thank you.

Is there any further discussion?

All right.

Those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Resolution 26-23 is adopted by unanimous vote of the council present.

Congratulations.

All right.

So we have some flowers and gift for you.

So that's uh have a good photo.

Just commemorate this occasion.

All right, well, let's move on to public comments.

Public comment period provides an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council.

While it's not a dialogue, either the either I or staff will follow up to address the issues brought forth in these comments.

The calling number is 503-966-4101.

And those wishing to come and should call now to get into into the queue.

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

All right, that's first item is written common.

Seven comments were received regarding the library budget, social services coordinator position and library.

Concern relate to homeless activities near Garden Park place.

Group home requirements and resident uh interaction, Juneteenth and the downtown reimagined project and public engagement.

All right, so let's move on to in-person.

Uh we have no one sign up.

So let's move on to phone or video.

Mr.

Wold, are there any callers in the queue for phone or video testimony?

Mayor, there are no callers in the queue, no requests for video comment.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Wolf.

And let's move on to City Manager report.

Acting City Manager Rager will provide a brief report.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Uh the one big fourth celebrations uh this year co-hosted by the cities of Tiger and King City.

It's set to deliver a spectacular full day of family-friendly events on July 4th.

We invite our entire community to join the festivities.

The celebration kicks off with the walk and roll parade and festival in King's City from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

And that and following that will be the very popular middle of Millen Drive parade at 4 p.m.

And this all leads up to the main event at Tiger High School from 6 p.m.

to 10 p.m.

And uh during that time there will be live music, local food trucks, and other vendors.

And then of course the return of what should be a fantastic fireworks display at approximately 10 p.m.

As we look forward to this day of celebration, we also remind the community to help our local police and fire departments by respecting Tiger's strict fire safety rules.

All personal fireworks, including legal Oregon consumer fireworks, and anything that flies, explodes, or travels more than six feet on the ground, are strictly prohibited within the city.

We hope to see you all at one big fourth.

It's not just a great opportunity for neighbors to connect and celebrate safely together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Acting City Manager Rager.

Any question or comments?

And of course, this weekend is the Balloon Festival.

So and I'm I look forward to participating in a couple of events, including the 5K fund run.

So I'm looking forward to that.

All right, so let's move on to the next item agenda, which is uh Chief Tiger Police Department report.

And uh we will have our Chief of Police McDonald to present the report.

Good evening, Chief.

Good evening, Mayor and members of council, Jamie McDonald, dear police chief.

So tonight will be my last uh city council meeting.

And if it's okay, I'd like to depart from our normal report.

There isn't really anything remarkable in this uh in this month's dashboard.

You should have all gotten the uh statistics.

The one thing I do want to note is that our calls for service continue to pace above last year, which as a reminder was our busiest year on record, and we're about 10% ahead of last year at this point for dispatch calls for service.

What I wanted to do is uh first talk about the great department that you have.

Uh so the picture that you see up there is from our 2024 open house.

Um I like that one because pretty much everybody has a smile on their face, and uh everybody's excited to be seeing our community when we when we welcome them into our home.

Um so I want to talk about Tiger over the last 25 years.

So, next slide, please.

Yep.

That one on the left there is my original uh uh hire photo when I got hired here.

Uh I was surprised at how much more hair I had, and it was brown.

Something that most of the people I work with now do not remember or never knew.

So over the last 25 years, much has changed.

I can tell you one thing that hasn't changed is my my passion for serving uh the community of Tiger.

Um I was thinking about tonight, I look back, and and the census data from Portland State University for July of 2001 showed the population of Tiger to be about 43,040 people.

Um the current estimate uh from census.gov shows it to be about 58,434, about a 30% increase in population.

So a significant change.

Um I was told in my chief's interview in the same chief's conference room that I think all of you have been in at one point or another, that we had a new PD on the five-year plan.

Now I've been careful not to say that during my time as chief, although we have come the closest that we ever had with the most recent bond effort.

And I'm confident that we'll continue to work towards that.

September 11th happened while I was at the police academy.

That changed our country forever, and it changed policing uh at that moment for the entirety of my career.

Some things good, some things probably not so good.

The types of calls that we service, the complexities of those calls have continued to evolve.

They've become more challenging, more time-intensive.

Things that maybe law enforcement wasn't expected to do 25 years ago, we now are expected to do.

All of these things have changed, transformed, and made better the profession of policing.

During my time I've been able to serve as a school resource officer, commercial crimes unit supervisor.

I was a founding member of the Tiger Police Honor Guard, which incidentally was formed in 2003 by our uh chief Dickinson at the time to serve uh at the funeral of former mayor Jim Griffith, who passed away while in office.

I've also had an opportunity to serve in many different leadership roles in the organization.

I'm the first chief to have been promoted all the way through the ranks to start as an officer and to come through and finally finish as chief.

If there's one thing I've learned during this career, is we never know when we're making an impact.

Last night I presented at the uh school board talking about the school resource officer program, and one of the SROs from Towallaton brought in a picture, a painting that had been done by one of the graduating seniors.

And it depicted what she felt was one of the biggest impacts that she had had during her time at Towalaton High School.

That was the instruction for the the uh the assignment.

And so he was given a painting from her.

And I want to give a story of the impact that when you never really know what the difference is you're making.

So when I was at SRO, and I'll leave the student's name out of this.

Um I had a young man at the high school who was constantly getting in trouble.

His cards were stacked against him, there's no doubt about it.

The environment that he lived in, that he, the people that he spent time with, it added up to a lot of really negative things.

But true to what our SROs are, they spend time with all the students and give as much effort to all of them as they would to any student.

A few years ago, so before I was the chief, I happened to be in the office, it was a weeknight evening.

I don't know, I don't remember why I was here, but our records uh staff called and said, Hey, commander, there's somebody here in the lobby that would like to talk to you.

All right, I go out to the lobby and I see this young man, I recognize him immediately, I knew who he was.

Saw him, gave him a big hug, and he said to me, I wanted you to meet my family.

He was there with his beautiful wife, his two lovely little girls, and his wife asked if she could give me a hug.

And when she did, she whispered in my ear, thank you.

I had no idea.

You know, he was like every other student.

But the impact that I had, apparently unknowingly, was enough that he had come several times to the office looking for me, wanting to introduce me to his family.

His mom still lives here in town.

They live in Salem, he works for a construction company and sounds like he's doing very well.

But you never really know when you're making a difference.

So, almost 25 years ago to the day I started my uh career here at the police department.

I never would have imagined where it would lead me.

Certainly not to be your chief.

Um, although an academy classmate reminded me not that long ago that apparently I was voted most likely to become chief out of my police academy class, I clearly others saw things I didn't see.

As I moved to the next chapter of my life, the department is in great hands.

We are developing leaders internally.

We're investing in their professional development, and we're hiring the best of the best.

I am humbled to have been trusted to run this police department, and it's been an honor to serve here as a police officer in this community.

I want to say thank you.

Thank you for supporting the police department, for believing in me, for trusting the safety of your community to the men and women of the Tiger Police Department.

And although I will retire next week, you can be sure that this department will continu continue to be the best department around and serve this community with pride, grit, empathy, and compassion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

And please stay there because we have a resolution for you.

So next, we are up is resolution honoring and commending police chief McDonnell and his retirement from the Taiga Police Department.

And I will read the resolution.

Whereas James Jamie McDonald joined the Tiger Police Department in 2001 as a patrol officer, answering a calling to service his community after several years in private businesses.

And over the course of 25 years of dedicated service demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of the residents of Tiger.

And whereas Chief McDonald steadily rose through every level of the department, a distinction that makes him the first officer in the history of the Tiger Police Department to advance from patrol officer to chief of police, earning promotion to sergeant in 2010, Lieutenant in 2014, and commander in 2016 before being named interim chief of police in January 2024 and appointed chief of police in June 2024.

And whereas throughout his career, Chief McDonald served the department in a remarkable breadth of roles, including as school resource officer, field training officer, firearm instructor, patrol sergeant, commercial crime unit supervisor, patrol lieutenant, and division commander for both the operations and services divisions, and was a founding member of the Tiger Police Honor Guard.

And whereas Chief McDonnell earned a Bachelor of Science in Geography and Regional Planning from Eastern Oregon University, holds an executive certification from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, and is a graduate of the 266th session of the F FBI National Academy, serving as a past president of the Oregon chapter of the F FBI National Academy associates.

And whereas Chief McDonald has been an active leader in both the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, elevating the Tiger Police Department's standing and relationship across the law enforcement community.

And whereas Chief McDonald led the Tiger Police Department with the value of transparency, community engagement, and professionalism.

And it is widely regarded as a leader who genuinely cares about the man and woman he serves alongside, earning deep respect and affection from staff, partners, and the board and barter community, Tiger community.

And whereas Chief McDonald is known not only for his professional excellence, but for his warmth as a person, a gifted storyteller, a devoted family man, and a proud companion to his many golden retrievers.

Whose presence made the Tiger Police Department a better, more human human place.

And whereas the City of Tiger has been privileged to benefit from Chief McDonald's leadership, integrity, and 25 years of selfless service to the community.

In recognition of his service, these were offered.

Would you like to I do not have it in front of me?

Okay, that's right.

I can read it about that.

All right.

I wish him all the best as he enters his next phase of life in a beautiful part of the state.

And that was from our acting city manager Brian Rager.

And this is from me.

I have deeply appreciated Chief McDonald's leadership and his genuine care for the people of Tiger Police Department.

His advocacy for officer wellness, including both physical and mental health, reflected a leader who understood that taking care of those who serve is essential to serving the community well.

Jamie's impact on Tiger will be felt for years to come.

Now there have been resolved that the Tiger City Council hereby expresses its deepest gratitude to the Chief of Police James, Jamie McDonnell, for his 25 years of distinguished service to the City of Tiger and the Tiger Police Department.

And commends Chief McDonald for his examinatory leadership, his commitment to values of transparency, integrity, and community service, and his role as mentor and model to all those who serve alongside him, and be further resolved that the City Council extend its warmest wishes to Chief McDonald, his family, and his golden retrievers as he began his uh well-earned next chapter and declare that Jamie McDonald's legacy of service will long be remembered and honored in the city of Tiger.

All right, now entertain a motion.

Thank you.

Mayor, I move to approve resolution number 26-24, a resolution honoring and commending Chief of Police James McDonald on his retirement from the Tiger Police Department.

Second the motion.

I'll second the motion.

Wow, lots of seconds.

Is there any further discussion?

Go ahead, Council President Wolf.

Chief, I just wanted to say thank you as well.

And you know, at a time I I just think that your leadership here in the city and in our schools and just throughout the department, um, will just um sustain, I think, future leaders.

And and I just wanted to share at a time at the time I was um school board chair and SROs were a big conversation in districts, and whether that was um the right, the smart thing to do for students.

And while Tiger Twilight had a lengthy community-based conversation, that purpose and the value was clear.

And it is because of leaders like you, um, and then you walked your talk years before, um, that makes an indelible mark on all students.

So just from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Yeah, um, I mean, while I talk with you once I was just surprised that a police chief will worry about over policing of the community.

That's just something that just blew my mind.

It's just that just show the person you are.

So thank you so much.

All right.

All right.

Uh I was I will start with the youth counselor for advisory vote.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

Those opposed say nay.

Resolution number 26-24 is adopted by a unanimous unit's vote of the council.

So congratulations.

All right, let's take a group photo.

All right, let's move on to other city business.

All right, the next item on the agenda is consent agenda.

And tonight we have a long list of items.

So I'm going to read them out loud, and uh we'll have time for questions.

Uh the consent agenda is used for routine items, including approval meet meeting minutes, contracts, or intergovernmental agreements.

Information on each item is available on the city's website in a packet for this meeting.

These item may be entered in one motion without separate discussion.

Council member may request that an item be removed by motion for discussion and separate action.

Tonight we have several contract contracts, intergovernmental agreements or amendments, and a property purchase on the consent agenda.

So I have a question about the first item, which is the IGA for the library.

So my understanding is that uh either our library director or uh our finance director can answer that question for me.

So I just would like uh stop to describe the negotiation process for the IGA, including the feedback, tiger and other partner library in provided, and whether the final agreement addressed all the tiger's concerns.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um for the record, my name is Eric Ain.

I'm the finance director.

Yeah, go ahead.

Hello, and thank you for asking some additional questions about the consent agenda item tonight.

I just wanted to go over some of the background and how we got to where we are tonight.

So since March of 2024, staff from 12 member libraries across Washington County municipalities and nonprofit organizations have participated in a collaborative process to revise both the cooperative's funding model and the governance structure.

From Tigered participants have included myself.

I've been to every meeting, and addition to a member from city management.

Currently, that member is Eric Kang, our finance director.

And we have ensured tigered representation and participation in every single meeting.

And we have briefed you all at key milestones in this process.

So it's true, the IGAs do not have everything that we want and everything that we gave feedback on.

But we have given that feedback and we have reached reasonable consensus among the 12 member libraries and WCCLS.

So approving this IGA, approving the IGA's plural is necessary to ensure that library services are protected for tigered residents.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

What's that?

Go ahead, Council President Wolf.

Oh, not for the library.

Not of the library.

Okay, any questions or comments for library?

So it's fair to say that you are recommending approval, not because the agreement is perfect, but because approving is necessary to protect library services for Tiger residents while we continue to advocate for improvements.

Yes, that is what we recommend.

Okay, thank you.

And Councillor Schlack, do you have a comment?

Um just a comment regarding this, considering the series of public comments we received over the last several weeks as part of the budget process.

Um I respect the fact that uh this council unanimously endorsed measure 34345 and that 60 percent of Tiger voters who voted in the November 2025 election supported that measure and approving this IGA tonight um continues that support for um Tiger Library or Tiger Library and Washington County Libraries as a as a region.

So um I'll be supporting it tonight.

Okay, so thank you so much, Library Director and Finance Director for your uh answering question for your advocacy for Tiger.

All right, so uh council president Wolf, you have questions on auto items, please go ahead.

Um it'll actually end up being more of a comment.

I just wanted to note um wanted to welcome Force Grove Assistant City Manager Azelle here, um, but also to just take note of the intergovernment agreement with the City of Forest Grove.

And just to take a second to celebrate that, that we have a lot of um IGAs often with states, the state or the county, um, but to create an opportunity where we can assist for Scrove in saving money, we can generate revenue for Tiger.

I think that's outstanding.

And I just wanted to applaud the team for being creative and innovative to do this for both cities.

So I just wanted to do a shout out and say thank you.

Yeah, I agree.

Uh Council Kozusi, you have a question about one item.

I do, thank you, Mayor.

The IGA with Washington County for maintenance of Roy Rogers Road.

I had some clarifying questions.

So I see Joel coming up.

This is Zach Morris, principal engineer.

I'm also online to ask your questions as well.

Thank you.

Um just to help with the understanding of it.

So it seems like basically we're saying county allow us city of Tiger to maintain Roy Rogers and the enhanced pathway that was in exhibit A.

Is that correct?

Yeah, I'll I'll jump in here, Zach, and then you can fill in any gap.

So the agreement with Washington County when they kicked off the project uh probably about 10 years ago now was the city had requested enhanced uh features as part of their project.

And so this maintenance agreement is basically saying those project elements that are enhanced are going to be uh maintained by the city of Tiger.

Uh the trail is part of those enhancements.

Thank you.

And when we're talking about that trail in exhibit A, are we talking about an extension or change to what's currently there or maintaining what has previously been built?

Uh the features that are there today are what we're talking about, correct?

Thank you.

That's good.

Okay.

Any other question on the consent agenda?

All right.

Uh counselor Shah have no questions, so uh I will entertain a motion.

Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

Thank you.

Any further discussion.

Those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

The consent agenda is adopted by unanimous both of the council.

Thank you.

All right, let's move on to uh the next item on the agenda, which is considered participation as a joint entitlement with the Washington County's community development block and C B B G consortium.

And we have a housing plan at Miller to provide staff report.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Who and Council.

My name is Trinity Miller.

And I am you, Mike, yeah.

There we go.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Who and Council.

My name is Trinity Miller, and I am the housing planner for the City of Tiger.

Tonight I'll be sharing an overview of the community development block grant or CDBG program and seeking council direction on entitlement status selection.

This is part one of a two-step process, and we will return in July for part two.

Next slide, please.

I'll start by providing some background information about the community development block grant or CDBG program.

This is a federal program under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

CDBG provides annual grants based on a formula to eligible entitlement states, cities, and counties.

And CDBG funding supports a wide range of community development activities to build a stronger and more resilient community, including infrastructure improvements, public facilities improvements, public services, and housing.

Next slide, please.

The City of Tiger currently uses CDBG funding to support the Affordable Home Ownership Program.

This program provides down payment assistance to eligible first-time homebuyers to purchase a home in Tiger.

And these homes purchased stay permanently affordable through a community land trust model.

In the future, Tiger could also use CDBG funds for other projects like acquisition and disposition of land for new housing, or new sidewalk improvements in eligible areas.

I want to note that CDBG funds cannot be used for activities such as general government operating and maintenance, new housing construction, and direct income payments for food, housing, utilities, or other similar uses.

The CDBG program also pairs very well with our construction excise tax funds because both funds support activities related to affordable housing and incentives for the development of affordable housing.

Next slide, please.

So every three years, counties that receive federal CDBG entitlement funds must re-qualify with HUD.

This consideration is part of Washington County's requalification process for federal fiscal years 2027 through 2029.

Tiger is eligible to become a full CDBG entitlement city, and the city was actually first notified of full entitlement eligibility in 2015.

However, Tiger has chosen to participate in Washington County's consortium as a joint entitlement since 2021.

Tiger can reconsider its participation options every three years during the three-year CDBG cycle, and our current joint entitlement agreement includes the upcoming fiscal year of 2026.

So tonight we are seeking direction from council for entitlement status to election for the next three year cycle starting in fiscal year 2027.

Next slide, please.

So next we'll review the three participation options for consideration.

Tiger could either elect full entitlement, no entitlement, or joint entitlement.

Next slide, please.

Full entitlement.

The city could become a full entitlement grantee and leave the county consortium.

If Tiger elects to become a full entitlement city, Tiger would receive the full allocation under the federal formula.

The city would not sign the IGA with the county, and city staff would be responsible for all of the federal program compliance and reporting, which the county currently manages.

As a full entitlement, the city would no longer participate in the policy advisory board.

However, the city would be eligible for some programs based on entitlement status.

The expected staffing impact of full entitlement is high, and the budget impact is also high.

Staff does not recommend that the city elect full entitlement status for the next three-year cycle.

The city may want to further explore the impacts of becoming a full entitlement city through the housing planning work.

Next slide, please.

Tiger can also opt out of receiving an individual CDBG entitlement annually and join the consortium.

In this scenario, the city would sign an IGA with the county to remain in the consortium and continue to participate on the policy advisory board, making recommendations on policy and competitive grant awards.

The city would be required or must compete for CDBG grant funds in this model.

The county would be responsible for federal program compliance, and if opting out, the city would also be ineligible for programs based on entitlement status.

For example, the CARES Act of 2020 included about $5 billion in supplemental funding for C for the CDBG program.

Of that amount, $2 billion was distributed to entitlement jurisdictions.

Tiger was not an entitlement city or joint entitlement during the 2020 allocation.

So Tiger did not receive any direct supplemental CDBG funding from the CARES Act.

The expected staffing impact of this election is medium and the budget impact is high.

Staff does not recommend that the city elect no entitlement status.

Next slide, please.

And finally, Tiger can elect to continue to participate in Washington County CDB Consortium as a joint entitlement.

As in joint entitlement, the allocation for the city and the county are announced separately.

The city signs an IGA and operating agreement to remain in the consortium, which would be a future council item.

The county is responsible for federal program compliance.

As a joint entitlement, Tiger will be eligible for some programs based on entitlement status or one-time supplemental emergency and disaster relief allocations.

For example, as a joint entitlement, the city would be eligible to participate in HUD's Section 108 loan program, which further leverages CDBG funds.

And as a joint entitlement, Tiger would have the opportunity to receive direct allocation for emergency and disaster relief measures in the future if that were to occur.

The anticipated staffing impact of participating as a joint entitlement is low.

Managing the C D BG program is included in the current housing plan or work plan.

Additionally, the budget impact is low.

Staff recommends the city elect joint entitlement participation for fiscal years 2027 through 2029.

This recommendation is based on the strategies presented in the city's affordable housing plan, success using the CDBG program, and consultation with county staff.

Next slide, please.

Participation as a joint entitlement will continue the successful agreement that's been in place since 2021.

I'd also like to highlight that as we work on our housing plans housing production strategy, we will identify actions that will increase the likelihood that needing housing is built.

CDBG funding can be considered as one of the many funding sources available for some potential housing production strategy actions.

Additionally, during housing plan work, we can further evaluate the impacts of full entitlement status.

Next slide, please.

Next, I'd like to give a preliminary review of the current operating agreement.

We will be coming back in July to take action on this.

The current operating agreement allows the city to retain a seat on the policy advisory board.

It also results in a split of the city's allocation to various countywide programs, which reduces the total amount of CDBG funds available each year to the city.

Under the current agreement, the city retains 50% of its entitlement received annually.

And the remaining 50% stays with the county to support administrative costs, countywide public service programs, and public facility and infrastructure projects.

Under this agreement, countywide public services continue in the same manner as if the city remained in the full fully in the consortium.

And additionally, the city may carry over half of its entitlement to the following year.

Next slide, please.

A new intergovernmental agreement or IGA will be executed for fiscal year 2027.

And this IGA will reflect federal changes and consolidate some prior amendments.

We've been working closely with the county to identify other things that we could change in the agreement.

So we make the best use of our CDBG allocation.

So some possible things to note are with the changes, the city would still retain a seat on the policy advisory board.

However, we can request a larger portion of the allocation at 65%, with the remaining 35% of the city's allocations still contributed to the county for administrative costs and countywide public services.

We're also interested in bundling our allocation during year two of the three-year cycle so we can have a more impactful one-time spend of CDBG funds.

We would still receive the same amount of CDBG funds over the three-year cycle.

The funding would just all be allocated in one year.

Mundling the allocation will also reduce the city's operational burden by consolidating efforts into a larger project.

Again, action or amendments to the IGA is not requested tonight.

Instead, we're highlighting possible changes that we've identified while working with the county that maximize the impact of CDBG and Tiger.

I'd like to hear council's feedback if there's interest in these changes to the IGA.

So my next slide, please.

I have two questions.

Based on the information shared during this presentation, we are seeking council direction on the following questions.

First, does council concur with the recommendation to continue to participate in the Washington County CDBG consortium as a joint entitlement?

And second, does council concur with the recommendation to change the operating agreement or explore changes to it?

Thank you.

Great, thank you, Mayor.

And I know that Council President Wolf had also served on the policy advisory board.

And Trinity, you may know that I am the liaison to the policy advisory board, so it'd be great if we can uh further concur on some of the topics uh you've raised tonight.

Um I definitely would agree that we should continue the CDBG agreement.

And I would agree that we should be joint entitlement, but also would recommend that we continue our seat on the policy advisory board.

Um so I would definitely highly recommend that.

And then question for you.

With regards to the CDBG, can those if we go ahead and uh move forward with this agreement.

Can we utilize those funds for um projects that perhaps also include a senior center?

It's not a new building, uh, but could that also be included in the future down the road?

Hi, that is a question.

And if trendy, if you don't have an answer tonight, we can certainly um talk offline about that as well.

Absolutely, thank you for that option.

So in general, funding CDBG funding is eligible to support public facility improvement activities in a senior center may qualify.

However, I'd like to look into the details of that to determine eligibility.

Great.

Thank you very much.

My understanding is the Twalton utilize this grant for their senior center.

So if we could no, that may be an option, that'd be great, but thank you very much.

Go ahead, Councillor Robins.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you, Planner Miller, for your presentation.

I do have a quick question.

That otherwise would be for public facilities and infrastructure.

And I am guessing that that means that the city will also retain the administrative work for that part of that money.

So I'm a little confused as to why you have no entitlement, says staffing impact is medium.

But if we continue with the joint entitlement, staffing impact would be low when it seems like if we don't have any entitlement, we kind of have less to do.

So could you educate me on how that works, please?

Absolutely.

So regarding the staffing impact being medium for no entitlement, um, the staffing impact levels were assessed during the affordable housing plan that was previously adopted.

But I can also elaborate that if we were to have no entitlement status, we would be competing annually for grant funds.

So that would require staff time to prepare a grant application.

That makes sense.

And I see director, deputy uh community director Warren coming up.

Good evening, Scalar Warren, Assistant Director of Community Development.

So uh I was gonna come up to help Trinity out and then she nailed it.

So uh it is that it is uh when we uh participate as part of the consortium, we have to compete, and that means uh a lot of staff time spent on preparation of a grant application, administration of a grant application, uh, and then the construction project.

Um, and we do not get to keep the administrative portion to cover those costs.

Um so that's what it's the staff impact is.

I think she had it.

Sounds like we'll just see please go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so with the uh joint entitlement, what would be our obligations as a city?

So what does that mean for us?

So as a joint entitlement, we would receive an allocation of CDBG funding, whether that's annually or all at once is up for determination.

But CDBG funding would be required to be spent on eligible projects as defined by HUD and the statutes.

And furthermore, those CDBG funds would have to be expended in a timely manner per the CDBG timeliness guidelines.

And we would be required to submit reporting to the county, who then submits that reporting to HUD as well.

Council Schlack.

Thank you for the presentation.

I just wanted to say that I concur with the staff recommendation on both points.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Tony, for the presentation.

So what is the likelihood I because I didn't realize um that you could renegotiate what the um funding stream look like look looks like.

Um so feel optimistic that that's just something that we'll be able to do and come forward with the recommended strategy.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for asking that question.

We have had conversations with county staff regarding these changes to the IGA, and I feel optimistic that they are open to these changes.

Thank you so much.

And um I concur or support staff's recommendation.

Uh so my question, I'm just curious.

So you said Lamp Song allocation your two will allow city to have implement larger scale project with greater impact.

Do you have any any project in Mari?

We have not determined an exact project in mind.

However, two examples of larger scale projects could include a large-scale public infrastructure project, such as addressing uh new sidewalk infrastructure and building that in eligible areas.

Or a option could also be acquisition and disposition of infill land that would be sold to a developer for affordable housing development.

Both of these projects are difficult to do with our smaller annual allocation, but if we are able to use a lump sum allocation, I believe that that would be feasible.

Okay, that makes sense.

And I mean I guess this we can have an offline conversation about why does the C N keeping the line the land that we purchase, why do I have to sell it?

But that's one other day conversation.

Council Anderson, do you concur?

Do you have any questions?

Do you concur with staff recommendation?

I'm good with the staff's recommendation.

Okay.

And Council Guzussi, is that recommendation, Council Robin?

Yes, Counselor.

And I think Councillor Schas already indicated.

Yeah, so we are all we are all in agreement that we concur with the staff recommendation.

So thank you very much.

I'll see you all in July.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Take care.

All right.

So let's move on to the next item and agenda.

Which is universal plus uh water feature update.

So I requested the item to be on tonight's agenda because we've been I've been seeing community member having questions about it.

So I thought it was important that we provide a public uh update so residents can hear directly from staff about what happened.

So we have with us uh park infrastructure manager Gruen and Community Development Manager Sam Bell Kickman.

So good evening.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Rick Ruin, Parks and Recreation Manager, City of Tigard.

And Sambo Kirkwin, Community Development Director.

So Director Kirkman and I are here tonight to share some next steps that are underway and needed to uh bring the splash pad back online.

Uh the uh kind of first steps that we started when we realized we had the issue that we did was to engage a water consultant, uh on call water consultant to kind of help us oversee the development of a scope of work that would be needed.

Uh they have been engaged, uh reached out to do some research and uh look at the OHA regulations, talk to some other cities that have uh similar type of.

I'm sorry, can you go back a little bit step a little back to about what how how do you discover there was an issue?

We can start with that.

So the sure uh the quick and dirty of it, Mayor, is we discovered that the prior project team did not engage with the Oregon Health Authority uh prior to the start of construction to go through what's called a plan review.

Think of it as kind of like a building permit or permit uh to construct.

There's kind of two steps of a plan review.

It's the initial plan review to review the design and specifications.

Subsequently, that would lead to once the uh approval was given on the initial plan review, then final uh sign off on the final plan review.

That notification would go then to the local county health authority, which would then be able to provide the uh operators license.

Uh we were not aware of that until uh our second season of operation, uh at which time we started to try to address how that happened, why that happened, uh subsequently this uh winter.

We did reach out to uh county health and to Oregon Health Authority to let them know that while we're operating in full compliance, all of my staff are certified pool operators.

We public safety has always uh never been in question.

It's really the reg the uh system requirements uh to meet plan review, you know, code or the regulations of organ health authority.

So, with all that being said, uh we uh in talking to Oregon Health Authority, the uh decision was made.

Let's submit what we're gonna call a post-construction plan review.

They reviewed the plan sets, they reviewed the specifications.

The unfortunate situation to this mayor was the regulations that were in place in 2022 prior to construction are not the same regulations that are in place as of today, as of when uh Oregon Health Authority did their post-construction plan review.

We had submitted application, they came out, we met with them.

Uh and so we're having to comply with what the current regulations are in OHA.

Uh and that's where we're at today.

So until we get plant final approval and have to make some uh modifications, we won't be able to get the operators license from uh Washington County Health.

Uh so that brings us to today.

Thank you for the background.

So what we've done is we engaged uh an on one of our on-call uh water consultants to kind of help us kick start the effort.

Uh I have since then been in touch with two.

They're not water, they're not water feature splash pad design engineers, but they can help us uh oversee uh our work with OHA.

So we've since reached out to two companies that specialize in uh design and engineering of water features.

Uh they've received from us now the plan sets, the letter that we've received from OHA which calls out what the upgrades are required.

Uh and then uh so this week, next week we hope to you know hear back after their design team has reviewed.

Here's what our system looks like, here's what the OHA requirements need to be.

Uh once we can identify a uh consultant team uh to bring on board, uh, we'll be able to then engage with our uh engineering project management folks to then kind of put a scope of work together, uh which would then allow us to go out to bid to get a contractor.

Prior to that step, we'll uh once we have kind of a solution at hand, and you know, we'll come back to you uh as soon as we have that with those options.

That will then allow uh the project team to meet with Oregon Health Authority, say, here's what we're proposing to do, maybe there's some mitigation that could be done.

Uh but until we get the design team and the project team assembled, we we don't have that for you.

Uh so what we do know now, Mayor, is that we cannot open the splash pad until we get the corrective work done.

Uh we're hoping that you know by end of summer uh we'll have some recommendations to bring back to you and then uh get your direction on how you'd like to proceed going forward once we have that knowledge.

So right now the the can the uh companies are looking at our work, and hopefully in the next uh few weeks we'll be able to hear back with some possible solutions.

Director Kirkman, do you have anything to add?

And our intent is to um again come back to council with not only um options but the timeline in which we can um assure that all the um necessary modifications are made.

Thank you.

Any questions from council member uh councillor Robins, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um both of you for your time and information.

Um I realize this was first built quite a few years ago now, um, from what I understand from my historical um like education about this.

The person who was in charge of the project at the time is no longer with the city.

Um but this is a big mistake to have had happened.

And it sounds like somebody was in charge of the project who maybe shouldn't have been or maybe should have had some additional guidance for it.

Um I understand that it sounds like the splash pad was totally safe, which is great.

You know, I know just and I'm just reiterating that because I know some parents might be worried about having had their kids splashing around in the water, but it was perfectly safe.

It's it's this is more kind of semantics and filling out the right papers at the right time.

Um I would like to know what have we learned and how can what are we going to do to prevent something like this happening again, not with this splash pad, right?

But with projects going forward, because it it sounds like an you know, I wasn't there, but somebody who had certain ideas about how certain things had just kind of had a different personality about doing it.

So I'd like to see efforts for some sort of protocol or program to be put in place to make sure that the right people are in charge of projects, and if they don't have the appropriate background, that they get those people to help them.

It's okay for somebody to run a project who doesn't have all of that knowledge, but we we need to make sure we're doing the right thing because I have a feeling that not only is this delaying summer splash time for our residents, but this is going to be costly mistake.

Um I want to make sure this doesn't happen again.

And I will say without without doing the work that you guys do, and I don't know, you know, I I know that you guys are super busy, right?

But I'm going to say this so that I can say it for I think the residents that it's a little disappointing that we found out about this last year, so at least six months ago, and we still don't have a project team in place.

So that's just me saying that without knowing, but I think that's what our residents will say.

So I would love to hear just an explanation of what the timeline is because I'm certain that there was a lot of steps you guys have gone through to get to where we are now.

Yeah.

So uh I'll answer the part about the timeline.

Uh so we uh in discovering this, we submitted, I believe, uh in the fall winter.

Uh there is a lengthy period, you know, from submitting plan review to receiving information back to getting scheduled.

It took some time also for the Rent Health Authority to get back to us.

Uh so if you think about our own land use process, you know, some of that does take a fair amount of time.

So uh once we receive the notification of where things stood, which was you know, probably about six weeks ago, uh we've been rolling ever since.

So, you know, hopefully you understand that.

As soon as we were able to get in front of Oregon Health Authority, find out what information they needed from us, uh the application process took some time, uh fairly detailed uh application process.

Uh all the specs had to be put on the paper, so it took a little bit of effort to since you know we're just the operators of the system, we were not the designers engineers.

Uh so we were able to put together a very successful and complete uh application submittal.

Uh and then it took a little bit of time, they came out and uh again a little bit of time to get the response back.

So I think we're we've been moving ever since.

And I understand the frustration about the timeline, uh, Councillor Robbins.

Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate that.

I just wanted to get that out there so that we could hear that it took a while to submit it, and then once we submitted it, we had to wait what sounds like a couple months for a response.

Is that accurate?

And okay, thank you.

Thank you.

And just follow up on Councillor Robbins.

Um, you know, you said this was done in 2022, you know, before I came on council, and since then this splash pad is just like a gift keeps on giving, right?

The first year I was here, I I took several pictures of the moving paver and sent it to the former city manager, and it was assured that those papers were fixed.

And then the following year it was down again, and I I summoned the former community development director.

I say you have to come back to council every week before you know until it's fixed, and then it was finally fixed.

So it's been very frustrating.

Um I understand that the people responsible for this are no longer with the city, but this is still city's responsibility.

So we need to, you know, take responsibility and move forward, you know, and learn as Council Robins say, what what what lesson did we learn?

And one thing I heard is that we really need to address the silo effect of the city, right?

It's like people who who are in charge of maintaining the the first the park should be involved at the very beginning, the design.

And my understanding that that didn't happen, and that was a huge mistake.

So going forward, we need to learn that when we design something, people who maintain the the structure need to be involved in the design because they have the people who are bet who have the in the best position to understand how to maintain the infrastructure.

So but I really thank you both for being here.

I know it's not your fault personally, but it is the city's collective fault.

So we need to take responsibility and move forward.

I'd like to I'd like to add my appreciation for our parks team because you know, as a as a project that has that started with with community development, which is why I'm here today with um with uh Ms.

Grun is that we acknowledge that it you know, as a unique project, there are definitely learning lessons that we have.

Yeah.

And um and what I think we're moving forward with as we look at the at the modifications and improvement is working as a more collective unit and collaborative unit to um to find the solutions that are there.

So I I want to rest assured that that has been kind of the direction that both um you know community development and our public works folks have worked towards is to find a better um solution or process in which we look at projects as we move forward, understanding that you know the financial both the time and financial implications.

Part of what we are doing here today is to kind of update you all um with more clarity as we can.

Um our intent is to ensure not only is a splash pad available and it's safe, but also to understand the current use of their of Universal Plaza, which includes not only the splash pad itself, but we have a farmers market there.

So understanding timing is is important and utilizing both um our our partners as well as our different departments is kind of an important aspect.

And what what we'd like to bring back to you all once we get further along.

Thank you.

Counselor Shaw.

Yeah, thank you.

I did also um recognizing there's been mistakes, but I also want to provide kudos to community development and to the parks and rec because this was within the and I was on council at the time and still am.

Um but this was within the top five requests of our community, and they wanted to have a splash pad, and we wanted to be unique along with the Universal Plaza.

And so recognizing that there have been some issues.

We did hear the community, it was built.

Um, I'm sure within a timely manner it will be working again.

But I just to all the staff that worked on this, I just want to say thank you, and we're gonna get there.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other comments or questions?

Counselor Schlack.

Yeah, I agree with my colleagues, and I recognize there are a lot of uh families that enjoy the splash pad.

I look forward to getting it um online as soon as we can, and I look forward to determining appropriate steps forward with um the city team over the next coming months.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

So let's move on to the next item on agenda, which is uh River Towers 2.0 timing update and assistance community by director Warren will give the staff report.

Good evening again.

Good evening, Mayor Who and Council.

My name is Scather One.

I'm the assistant director of community development.

I'm joined tonight by community development director Sambo Kirkman.

Uh next slide.

Our item uh tonight follows up on a council request for a short briefing on the River Terrace 2.0 planning process that summarizes uh the policy decisions made to date.

We'll also give a window into the code drafting work that is currently underway and provide a roadmap for the current coming year.

There are no specific asks of the council tonight, but we're happy to answer any questions you may have.

Next slide.

So I'll start with a review of the project progress to date.

Next slide.

So this work really got underway in 2019 when the council at that time directed staff to begin concept planning for the city's two remaining urban reserves.

The following year, after securing a 2040 uh grant from Metro, we kicked off the concept planning process.

The vision statement presented here was one that was developed early in that process through the community engagement work that we did.

Next slide.

And I want to provide a little bit of a summary of what that engagement looked like.

So we spent a lot of time working with the community to help develop that vision for how this area would develop.

Some of the engagement was citywide in nature, like the survey and the public open houses.

Some of it was targeted, like the advisory committees and the focus groups.

Next slide.

We also did quite a lot of promotion of the project and of those engagement opportunities you saw in the last slide, including a full color printed insert in Tiger Life as well as a video with the mayor at that time.

Next slide.

So there were a number of approved policies in the final concept plan, and those were used as part of the city's application to Metro for an expansion of the urban growth boundary.

I'm not going to read off all of these, but I'll highlight some that provide some insight into where we are today.

Next slide.

In the transportation realm, the policy is focused on ensuring that all modes were served equitably and safely.

Next slide.

The policies for parks and open spaces and natural resources work together to ensure that residents were served with a variety of parks and trails while protecting natural resources and maintaining habitat connectivity.

Next slide.

And then finally, uh the policies related to commercial development were focused on ensuring that there was both economic opportunity and an ability to meet the residents' daily needs without long travel.

Next slide.

So that group of policies were all part of the concept plan that in the city used in October 2021 to apply to Metro for what was called a mid-cycle urban growth boundary expansion.

And then at Metro's option, the Metro Council decided to instead of proceeding with an expansion to instead go forward with having their staff do an analysis that would allow for a land swap.

And that was the first land swap in the region.

So that process with Metro ended up taking about a year and a half.

And in February 2023, the Metro Council voted to approve the land swap.

Following that, the city negotiated with Metro to receive some grant funds to support the next phase of work.

And we prepared a request for proposal to get bids from consultants who could help us with that work.

And in April 2024, we were happy to be able to finally kick off the next phase of the project.

Next slide.

So that work, the community plan that we kicked off in 2024, like the concept plan includes a robust community engagement effort.

And over the past two years, we have met with standing committees made of community members, agency partners, and developers and real estate professionals.

We've also held public open houses, conducted focus groups, and hosted surveys.

Next slide.

And of course, we have been engaging with you as the council throughout this project to ensure that we are aligned on where we're headed.

The next few slides will provide a recap of how we have further refined the policies from the concept plan as they are applied to specific plan issues.

So many of these final decisions came in a workshop with council on January 29th of this year.

So I'm going to start again with housing.

And at that January meeting, the council voted to reduce the overall target density from 20 units per net acre to 18 units per net acre, an overall reduction of about 400 homes.

The council also voted to require that developments include undersupplied housing units that the city is responsible for delivering as part of the Oregon housing needs analysis.

These requirements for diversity and housing will be implemented through flexible standards, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit.

So that we also have our finance updates.

So a couple more.

Next slide.

So that summarizes the major policy decisions made to date.

Next slide.

So we're not far enough along in the code work right now to provide you any kind of a preview of that.

But I want to share with you the approach that we are taking to doing that work.

So in nearly eight years of administering middle housing code, one thing that we've learned is that the approach that we've taken, which is the same one taken by the state and cities across the state for that matter, introduces unnecessary confusion and complexity into housing development.

As part of our work to make River Terrace 2.0 a success, we are working to simplify our code in every way that we can.

This type of code has been successful in a number of communities around the country, and it will offer a greatly simplified path to understanding and applying development standards for both staff and developers.

We are also working to provide maximum flexibility so that developers have a choice of pathways to meeting the standards in the code.

One example of this is in our Title 13 approach, which was based on developer feedback, and will allow developers to either meet the baseline preservation requirements or instead opt for preservation of higher quality habitat in exchange for being allowed to impact more low-quality habitat.

Another example of flexibility is in the undersupplied housing options requirements, which are points-based and allow developers to choose from a menu of options to meet the standards.

This is similar to the design standards approach that was used in River Terrace One, which allowed developers to choose which standards to meet from a menu of options.

And then, of course, we will be utilizing our existing code wherever possible to make things as efficient for everyone as we can.

Next slide.

So on that note, uh question that we sometimes get is why can't we just use the same code from River Terrace One?

There are several reasons that we really need needed to start fresh with this project.

Aside from the need for greater simplicity, as I noted before, in the intervening 20 years, um, really since the River Terrace One project got underway, there have been major changes in state law.

Additionally, the city is now responsible for delivering housing to meet its Oregon housing needs analysis targets, which requires us to find ways to require or incentivize more workforce housing units.

This is also in line with the community feedback that we've received over the nearly seven years that this work has been underway, with our residents overwhelmingly telling us that they want more housing and more importantly, more accessible housing for the working members of our community who have been unable to find and purchase homes at a price point that meets their needs.

This has also been a consistent message from council along with other changes that don't translate well from River Terrace One.

An example of that is our right-of-way, which is generally narrower in River Terrace 2.0 than it was in River Terrace One and is simultaneously delivering more multi-use paths throughout the neighborhood to meet community requests.

And then finally, River Terrace One was not subject to the Title 13 requirements imposed by Metro and therefore did not require any regulations to comply with that part of Metro's urban growth management functional plan.

Next slide.

So to wrap things up, uh I'm gonna provide a roadmap of the coming months for the project.

Uh next slide.

So as noted here, we have two more developer forums that are coming up where we will be seeking feedback on the project from those important stakeholders who will help us deliver this housing and commercial development.

We will also be checking in regularly with both the council and the planning commission as well as the community.

We anticipate that if all goes according to plan.

We will be delivering a draft version of the development code for public review sometime in December.

This will allow us a few months to hear from the community and incorporate any feedback or needed fixes to address unforeseen issues.

And then by late February, we plan to have the community plan complete, including those development code changes, but also including the comprehensive plan policies, the infrastructure system plan amendments, the finance strategy, fee updates, and any needed changes in the municipal code.

Next slide.

And that uh ends our update.

Uh thank you for your time, and we're happy to answer any questions that the council may have.

Thank you, Scott, for the update.

Uh the reason I request this items can't be hearing from developers and even council member as to not clear on why why there's a five-month delay.

So I think uh thank you for the update.

You really clarify uh a lot of things.

So counselor Schlack.

Thank you, Mayor, and I want to echo that sentiment.

You know, we've had um a lot of discussions over a long period of time and given a lot of directions on a lot of policy areas.

So I appreciate you all um summarizing those decisions and having those reference dates back to when you receive that direction, just for my own benefit as well as our community's benefit of how we got to this point.

And I also appreciate the explanation around why we can't use the River Terrace 1.0 approach because so much has changed since River Terrace 1.0 um was developed.

And then um finally just thinking about where we are with River Terrace 2.0 um and thinking about our recent budget process.

I'd still I'd like to reiterate or uh re-express my interest and better understanding at some point how uh this River Terrace 2.0 development will impact our city's budget and uh impact you know city service levels to um support that area.

I recognize that's not an overnight answer.

That would be a long complicated thing to better understand, but it's something I'd like to put out there again since the council briefly touched on that concept in January, but um there was not a consensus to proceed with better understanding those budgetary impacts.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Hearing none, thank you so much for the update.

I really appreciate it.

Oh, Councillor Shah.

No.

Thank you, Mayor.

I was just gonna add I appreciate the summary.

And I think having this comprehensive background report would benefit all projects as we move forward.

So it ensures the council, the community, and our partners are all on the same page.

So really appreciate the time to put those slides together.

Thank you.

Yeah, I echo that.

We don't eat and breathe this project like you do, so it's helpful sometimes to give us a reminder of where we have been and where we're headed.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right.

So let's move on to the next item and agenda, which is urban services framework update.

And we'll have our community development director Kirkman, and she'll be joined by consultant Tom Reinhardt to give this update.

Good evening.

Good evening, uh, Mayor and Counselors.

We are here today to present the project findings on the Urban Services Framework Project.

Tonight we have Tom Reinhardt with Reinhardt Strategies to present the findings as well as other project members here to um support any of the questions you may have as well.

Thanks, Ambo.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Tom Reinhardt.

I run a leadership and management consulting company called Reinhardt Strategies, and I'm proud to be a part of the team that ECHO Northwest assembled for this important project.

ECHO Northwest led the technical analysis and the project management for this very complicated subject.

And since I had the privilege of serving in various leadership roles in Oregon's public sector for almost 15 years, the team asked me to share the findings of this report and facilitate any discussion tonight.

Uh I'm pleased to do that.

And I am very excited to be in front of Tigert City Council for the first time in 24 years in Oregon.

So thanks for having me tonight.

Uh the Urban Services Framework Project, funded by Federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, is intended to provide a common understanding of service provision in Washington County's urban unincorporated areas.

I will be referring to them to them tonight as UUAs, which I'm sure you have heard before.

As you also probably know, these areas have grown in population to over 215,000 residents, by far the largest of its kind in our state.

This study is a technical exercise to explore the financial and practical considerations of providing services in these areas, both now and in the future, including how urban services are currently funded and delivered, the factors contributing to long-term fiscal pressures, how revenues and service responsibilities could shift.

I want to emphasize could shift under alternative arrangements, and the implications for people and businesses.

The purpose of this project is to provide foundational information to bodies like yours, partners, to lay the groundwork for future discussions about providing these services and ensuring their continuity.

Next slide, please.

We organized tonight with the following approach.

First, we will give context to the project, how we got here, how services are currently delivered, and why this project was undertaken.

After that, we will review the findings with you, what we learned, and relay some key questions that we identified.

You'll probably have others, but what we identify from the study that we believe need further exploration and discussion.

Finally, we will take questions and answer questions, answer them to the best of our ability and have discussion.

Next slide, please.

Here are a couple of proposed questions the project team thought would be helpful for you to have in mind tonight, and we're happy to answer any others that you have as you generate them even at the end of a long meeting.

Next slide, please.

Before we review the findings, let's ground ourselves in an overview of the project and some foundational information and history.

Next slide.

The Urban Services Framework Project, as I've said, is a technical study focused on the challenge of providing services in unincorporated areas.

The goal is to lay a common foundation for discussion.

And as you can see on this slide, the team did some case studies that we'll we'll be talking about a little bit later.

Next slide, please.

As you know, these are complicated.

These services are complicated, both in funding mechanisms and the fact that multiple service providers operate within the same jurisdiction.

While we believe this project can be helpful to you and your partners, we are not trying to convey all the complexity in this presentation, which I'm sure you might be grateful for.

Next slide, please.

As I mentioned in the introduction, approximately 215,000 people live in the UUAs, over a third of Washington County's population.

Next slide.

We could do an entire presentation on the UUAs.

I happen to find it fascinating, but that's not the purpose of the presentation night.

For the purpose of tonight, we just want to remind you on this slide that these areas have been in existence since the 1940s, with a significant change, of course, in the 1970s, when Oregon's land use law went into effect, creating urban growth boundaries and changing how the UUAs are managed.

Next slide, please.

A few months ago, the consulting team had the chance to observe a meeting at the Washington County Conference Center along with staff from both uh cities like Beaverton and Tigrand and the County.

Uh there were also staff from special districts there.

One of the providers, the West Slope Water District, stated during their our time together that their services date back to the 1920s.

It reminded all of us of the complex web of services and funding that has evolved over 100 years as the county transformed from a rural area to a mix of urban and rural areas and the epicenter of Oregon's economic growth.

We wanted to just provide you a graphic snapshot of what we all know intellectually but need to be reminded of from time to time.

Leaders like you built these models over several decades, responding to the growth pressures in the community and the financial constraints of their own times and circumstances.

And I'm looking at a body that recently went through a budget exercise, so I don't need to explain that to you.

I believe it is inarguable that the system has mostly worked over the years since Washington County has grown tremendously, and people have, as they say, voted with their feet.

The quality of life is high in the urban unincorporated areas.

But leaders like you have raised questions for a long time, over decades, about how to improve the system.

In the 1980s, Washington County leaders thought that there might be a mismatch between how much revenue is produced and expenditures are received by its unincorporated in its unincorporated areas, the cities, the UUAs, and the rural areas.

The county commissioned a study by Portland State University.

It's called the it was called the Washington County Urban Service Study, and it compared the difference between revenues and expenditures across the geographies.

Following this study, more studies were done.

As part of a strategic plan entitled County 2000, the county established two separate special funding districts in 1987 to support public safety and road maintenance in the UUAs.

These funds, the enhanced sheriff's patrol district and the urban road maintenance district, enabled the county to continue providing services in the U UAs beyond those in rural areas.

Another study in 2006 reexamined the geographic distribution of revenues and expenditures and confirm that these two special districts were successful in reducing the imbalance between the geographies.

Finally, and I'm sorry I'm racing through it a bit, but I do want us to have discussion.

Just last year, Washington County commissioned a countywide service level inventory that helped broaden the understanding of public services.

So we wanted you to understand this is part of a chain of work that's been done.

Next slide, please.

This graphic attempts to show the current partnerships providing services in the UUAs and the difference with service provision in the incorporated cities like Tiger.

Next slide, please.

I probably don't remind you, but we we wanted us to give you a quick graphic of the collection of organizations that are providing these services in the UUAs.

I referred to them earlier, but this shows the network of all of them, and they deserve a lot of credit for collectively serving the UUAs over many decades.

But as we will emphasize again and again in the findings, costs are growing faster than revenues with the obvious implications for the future.

Next slide, please.

As you also know well, it is getting harder to fund the services that all residents expect, no matter where they live.

So before we get into the specific findings of the study, I do think it's crucial to recognize the growing structural challenges facing the public sector across the entire state due to measures 5 and 50 since they impact the findings tonight.

The collection of service providers today, including the City of Tigert, simply cannot keep pace with expenses due to due to the property tax caps imposed by these measures.

Just a quick review.

These measures cap the annual growth in residential property taxes at 3% of the property's assessed value.

Guessing this comes up from time to time in front of the Tigert City Council.

Next slide, please.

So why now?

The context that we've attempted to summarize and do succinctly tonight shows why the study we are going to review with you today is timely.

The team responsible for the study worked very hard to answer what is act what it actually costs today to deliver these services, how they are funded through the current system of multiple providers.

And the team also did some sample case studies to understand hypothetical scenarios, and I want to emphasize hypothetical, to further the public sector's understanding of your options in the future.

To be clear, as those of us who have been through public sector budgeting all learn, balancing an annual budget always requires difficult choices and often does not reflect the full cost of services and infrastructure needs due to revenue fluctuations and the ever-present reality of what at least was called in my career deferred infrastructure maintenance.

The study uses the term cost to reference projected obligations and needs, and we'll come back to that.

Next slide, please.

This is a research project, and like all research projects, it naturally taps into people's assumptions about any discussions that are thought to have a chance at leading to change, regardless of the intent.

So I want to emphasize this is a current snapshot of the services in the UUAs.

And of course, like I've said, the cost of providing them and with sample case studies to enhance our understanding.

It is not a recommendation or an action proposal.

So we while we use some specifics and some hypotheticals, we don't want people to think that we are proposing any direct action.

Next slide, please.

So with the foundation laid, which we hope was helpful for very busy people like you with lots of information coming at you each day, and I've only been here for 35 minutes.

There's a lot coming at you.

Let's get to it.

Next slide.

What we studied, the project evaluated specific urban services that are required under Oregon state law and under the county's control, under Washington County's control.

Roads, sanitary, sanitary sewer and stormwater, parks, Metzger Park only, law enforcement and planning and development.

The areas you see on the screen, identified by the diagonal lines and guessing the ones in red towards the bottom will be most interesting to this body, were chosen because they are locations where the services differ from rural areas.

And finally, show examples of where the service provider could change in the event of an agreed upon boundary change.

Next slide, please.

Here's a breakdown of the services reviewed in the study and what was not included for the reasons I just mentioned.

Give you a chance just to take that in there.

Okay, next slide, please.

To summarize the overall findings before I go into the specific differences for Washington County and the partner cities, Beaverton and Tigert.

Since the spirit of the study is how the county can ensure continuity of services to residents in the U UAs, we thought it was important to give an overall summary first and then give you nuances for the different jurisdictions.

So as you will no doubt not be surprised about uh this complex and has multiple funding sources.

It's very hard to track, and so the study provides uh a really good snapshot of that.

Current funding generally is adequate, but will likely not keep pace.

The boundary shift study produce a mix of projected results, different for county, the county, and for the cities.

And the Metzger area, you won't be surprised probably also to learn it's an outlier and will require more discussion and analysis.

Next slide, please.

Key findings for the county as a whole.

UUAs funded mostly are funded mostly through dedicated revenues, again, built up with a patchwork of initiatives and providers over many decades, but not the general fund.

So it uh little bit surprising to some of the team members, the impact on the general fund was not as significant as expected.

The system is working pretty well, but long-term revenue revenue and expense mismatch poses a severe and significant risk.

A boundary change would shift responsibilities and funding any boundary change, but no big changes to the county's general fund.

Many unknowns still remain, uh, particularly in terms of potential transitions, operation management differences, distinct approaches to asset management, which I'm guessing this body is aware of, and finance and how people think about that in the different jurisdictions, and what shifting law enforcement service boundaries would truly mean for services is an unknown.

And we can talk more about that in discussion.

Next slide, please.

Uh, last slide in terms of what we learned about the county as a whole.

This just illustrates uh the difference between obligations or costs outpacing revenue projections and law enforcement and road maintenance.

These are numbers used from the government partners directly, and we thought it was important for you to see again the mismatch in revenues and costs in the study areas alone.

This isn't for the county on the whole, just the study areas.

And the 0.3% that detailed people will notice above the 3.3% in the on the screen there was added because of infill and development projections in the study area.

So it's a little bit higher because of projected growth.

Next slide, please.

So for the cities, uh, the study areas uh the findings tell a different story for the cities.

For the areas where Washington County has an urban planning area agreement with the city of Beaverton, the key point for you to know is that economies of scale matter.

They have a huge impact.

And anybody who studied economics in school will probably be thinking all about economies of scale here in this section.

And the hypothetical that a boundary change was agreed upon with Beaverton.

New revenues generated for the city would exceed projected costs, at least using the numbers from the partners shared with the project.

This can mostly be attributed to Beaverton's tax rate and economies of scale in government service infrastructure, what already exists in the city operations.

Give me another minute to take that in.

We can come back to slides too if people want to come back and discuss it.

Um because we're on the slide.

And um I know the answer, but I think for the public record, it's a really um uh poignant thing to say.

Would you share what our um I know what our rate is.

Um, our rate is $2.51.31 cents.

I think Beavertons is 434.

Does anyone know?

Kimmy's looking it up.

Can we come back to that at the end?

Yeah, because I just didn't come with that tax.

Yeah, it's a piece and it's volume and its market assessed value, it's all those things, and and just wanted to do my 550 one more time.

So thank you.

Thanks, counselor.

Okay, or should I address you as council president?

I'm sorry.

Okay, okay.

Council President.

All right.

Okay, so for Beaverton, and let's go to Tigers.

Next slide, please.

So for the city of Tigers, as you can see, with your specific tax rate, and Council will be used to this, and smaller government uh does not have the same ratio of revenues to costs, uh, with revenue and costs more closely matching in the Bull Mountain area and mismatch for Metzger.

Uh so different story for the city of Tiger for the reasons that I mentioned.

And so uh pretty clear from the study.

Uh, next slide, please.

Another important element in terms of the findings in the cities, the the team believes is important to point out that you know there's there's a there's a difference in terms of what what cities provide, incorporated cities, that in terms and then what the county can provide in a much more limited manner in the U UAs or does not providing at all.

And this is often not recognized.

So we think uh it should be, and and we'll talk more about a resource that was developed during part of this project at the very end that we think will be really helpful.

Next slide, please.

This is one of my favorite things to think about, and I like to go deep into this, so hopefully you'll have some questions about that.

The findings raise questions and create opportunities for expanding partnerships through the existing agreements that cities like Tiger have with the county and roads jump out as an area for better understanding about how any change could improve services.

And so there's there's lots of things to be thought through here that came up with the study team and your staffs legally in the hypothetical of a boundary change or annexation.

Of course, this needs to be recognized.

Any change of this nature is governed by state statute, which clearly outlines what entity can initiate this process and how that could occur.

That is very clearly spelled out.

And so we just wanted to put out there that as ideas are percolating when the final report is issued, and you and you're talking about with your staffs, these things are things that should be considered and recognized.

Next slide, please.

So what does all this mean?

We're gonna talk more about that hopefully in the QA and discussion.

But like many challenges before you each day, the findings don't point towards a single solution.

There aren't easy paths here.

Uh we believe the the study and its findings should be interpreted again, as like I said in the intro as a valuable current state assessment, clarifying the financial pressures and discovering that changing service providers is not necessarily equate to cost savings, since there are differences in each area.

Uh to ensure continuity of services, if current revenue trends continue, this study points towards a need for much tighter coordination and decision making between you and your partners about the path to take.

There's lots of trade-offs to be discussed.

Next slide, please.

The team also uh identified about issues for further evaluation that came up.

But while the the study has been extensive, things did come up that we believe require more work if you if you and Beaverton and the county wanted to move forward in any way.

Um so most of them fall into the public safety and infrastructure subject areas.

It's very complicated.

But we also believe the potential impacts on special districts of any potential change or shift requires more evaluation with them as well.

So as you continue discussion with partners, we also found that uh the curb and urban service agreements that you have would need updates to pursue changes that you desire.

I hope I didn't miss anything.

Sambo's not writing down and needs me to do.

Um next steps before we go into discussion.

Next slide, please.

Uh so as someone that served in the public sector for a long time, I was very impressed that the team came up with uh what is being called an Urban Services 101 lookbook, and it lays out all the different services in a very graphically and much more attractive way than I used to use.

So kudos to the entire team, particularly Kimmy Sloop from Washington County back here and Sambo and others that put that together.

We believe that it should be used extensively with staffs and partners to continue to enhance understanding about how this entire system works.

So we we believe that is a strong next step for the project.

Obviously, once the final report is issued, staff will be going through that with you and and digging into any further questions that that uh raises with you and and your team.

Next slide, please.

So back to what we presented at the outset.

We proposed a couple of framing questions, but and hoping that you will have others.

Uh but we would love to hear what you think and any follow-up questions that you have for the team.

Thank you.

We we did get a follow-up answer from um Kimmy.

Beaverton's tax rate is 4.618.

41618, yes.

And they have a park district on top of that.

They have a park district on top of that.

They have a park district, and there are no local options currently.

Yeah.

Okay, counselors.

Any questions?

Go ahead, counselor Schlack.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you for the presentation tonight.

The first time I heard about the Urban Service Area project, I was really fascinated by it.

So I I find this really interesting.

I look forward to seeing how this progresses just from our my own intellectual curiosity, but also because I think this is um a glimpse into the future that we may have as a county and as a local government.

And I just want to say that um, you know, from my perspective about sort of the information I would need to know as a council member considering these options moving forward, is not just how this would impact the city and benefit the city, but how this would actually benefit the residents in those UUAs.

And I'll just be totally candid.

My family grew um lived in that uh in the Bull Mountain area.

I grew up in the Bull Mountain area.

I know plenty of people who were around during the previous uh annexation attempts, and basically it comes down to for a lot of those residents, including my own dad, why would I pay city taxes if it's not going to materially change my sort of living experience there?

And that's kind of um really important for me to consider if this would involve, you know, um local ballot measures for those residents to consider annexing into the city.

So just want to put that out there up front.

Thank you.

Councilor Professor Wolf.

Yeah, I'll be brief.

I agree.

Thank you, Councilor Schlack, because that's what I was thinking how um uh how that will play out, certainly with our residents and our voters in the area.

And then for me, it it it is the financial struggle, right?

Um, how does this we just went through um a very difficult and um emotional budget process.

Um we're certainly um not just through it.

Um so that's always weighing heavily in my thoughts on how does this pencil out for us to do the services we need to provide.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

For me, wow, I appreciate Council President Welfare and Councillor Schlack.

Thinking about other community member, but for me, I I really focused on Tiger, right?

Because thank you for uh flagging the you know, boundary change and potential boundary change in Metzger.

We need to approach it with carefully for Tiger's perspective.

So I really appreciate that.

So yeah, so I appreciate Frederick guidance.

I think that's my big concern is the Metzger area.

So Councillor Robins, do you have something?

Yeah, just just really quick.

Um I appreciate this a lot.

It's interesting.

Um it would be nice.

You know, some of the what you looked at, like law enforcement and streets and roads and parks, it would be great to have people who use those services also be paying for the paying for the maintenance of them, but that might be hard to convince the residents of that.

Um the presentation I don't want to say misleading, but it it feels a little in that it looks like we would be better off if we, as tigered as a whole, monetarily, if we were able to annex the rest of Bull Mountain.

But everything that we kind of learned in the most recent budget was more houses means less money for general fund, right?

And um that houses cost the city a lot of money and uh maybe because they're already developed.

So could you speak a little bit to that?

Because in the the executive summary, it says something about um the annexation would help the general fund for the county.

And I would like a comment or two about how annexation would help Tiger's general fund or hurt or affect in whatever way.

I I think I'd I'd point out that part of the study wasn't to garner a recommendation one way or the other.

It was really a matter of taking all the different um all the different revenue options.

And so if we go back to the slide, uh few more you look.

I'm looking for the um the um tigered slide.

Actually, starting with the Beaverton slide.

Oh, more perfect, right there, right there.

So I think what what the the takeaway here was to kind of understand that yes, there is revenue associated.

We also understand that there are other implications that we weren't studying in in the um in the project itself.

But I think it was being able to examine what does it look like for Tiger versus Beaverton?

And the answer isn't straight up, you know, Bull Mountain is going to be providing adequate um funding to to address the issues that of the general fund for the city.

It's more along the lines of if you look at Beavertons and understanding what obligations there would be in relation to revenues, there's a significant uh uh delta to that.

Now, going to the next slide.

The important part is there isn't much here.

So that is something for any council at the time of reviewing and annexation to consider that if there may be new obligations that we have, there is some additional revenues, but we haven't factored all obligations.

Um we do we are taking basically a snapshot in time because you know things like like um actual infrastructure um conditions itself may have a larger impact and what the obligations may be.

We you know, we tried our best to factor in, you know, considerations of what the the conditions are now, and and so there's more to to the discussion.

But I think what the study allows us to see is that in newer areas, there is a slight um there is a slight um uptick in revenue as opposed to the obligations, but again, with with looking at uh Metzger here, it just allows us to understand that there's more to a conversation than just you know is it something that the uh property owners are interested in?

Is it something that will, you know, is it uh one-for-one in usage of our parks.

There's large elements to it.

And so I I would like to express that it is an indication, it was intended to be an opportunity for us to see what information we can provide the councils that um at least we'll give you a a sense.

And may it be may it be for this um for this council or another body in years to come.

The lookbook was an opportunity to unpack what layers there are when it comes to services that are provided.

Counselor, can I speak to you?

Oh, and Mary's okay if I speak to that.

Okay.

Counselor, I I want to make sure that I give you a little bit of background on how much discussion there was among the team about this presentation because we in no way wanted to mislead or or or make these things things seem easy.

And that's why I tried to point out, and apologies if I didn't articulate it well.

But you know, different jurisdictions view asset condition and what obligations are very differently.

And as someone that used to manage public sector, including large cities, you go to city to city, and there's a much different view of what taking care of the roads in terms of asset management means.

So we we we put up in terms of the study areas the best we could with the data given to us by the cities, but that doesn't mean in a jurisdiction to jurisdiction conversation that your team might feel very differently about what that bar graph is for the next 20 years.

So that's what we were trying to say around this is a snapshot.

If people did want to move forward on any discussions, you'd have to dig into that because any discussion of a transfer requires folks to be very clear about what's being measured and what met so I just want to make sure you understood we did take that very seriously and in no way wanted to mislead.

And but we wanted to give you some indication of with the numbers that we have, here's how the snapshot came out.

I appreciate that.

And I I do understand the complexity and just imagining like changes in staffing to the police department and and then the sheriff's department comes down.

But more so I I wonder sometimes if we, you know, because this this presentation is going to be on our city website and anyone can pull it up, which is excellent.

But I want to make sure that those people also know that it's much more complex.

Thank you.

Counselor Shah.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to uh say thank you for highlighting Metzger and uh that as a potential discussion down the road that needs further investigation and a deeper dive into the information and appreciate my colleagues' comments on this and the staff's work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, Tom.

And uh thank you again, Sambo for the presentation.

We're very appreciated.

Looking forward to more updates on this.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay.

So uh next item, final item I promise.

I also requested on um along with two others, uh, because um uh over the past several months uh data center have become an increasingly important topic in Oregon across Washington County.

Uh so my understanding is that Tiger's current development code does not treat data center as a distinct line use.

Instead, they are classified under broader utility category and maybe allowing a variety of zones through the conditional use uh process.

Uh personally, I'm not convinced our current code was written with modern large-scale data centers in mind, which is one reason I believe this conversation is timely.

So tonight uh I just uh think that it's important we know that um we're not making decisions, just opportunity for council member to information we want staff to bring back regarding data center and their sending interests.

Exploring potential co-update in the future.

So uh assistant development director Warren will present the item and request direction from the council.

Good evening again Thank you again, Mayor Who and members of the council, Skyler Warren, assistant director of community development.

So this item, as the mayor said, is uh uh conversation around data centers as a is a use um that uh is regulated within the city's development code.

So um we put together uh we didn't put together uh presentation on this item.

So uh really I'll just give you kind of a a quick rundown on on what we how we currently treat data centers.

So uh I will say that data centers were a use that was considered as part of the Tiger Made project uh that was adopted back in 2024.

Uh a lot has changed in data centers even since 2024.

So we had seen some preliminary interest in some sites in Oregon for the location of uh some smaller scale data centers, including one that would be off of Hunziker Road, uh near where this city's uh police and public works facility uh would be located.

And as a result of that interest, the decision was made at that time to regulate those as something more akin to a utility usage.

So an above ground utility.

And the thinking at that time was that those data centers are really providing a utility type service, but they're just not really employees on the site.

Again, that was 2024.

Data centers at that time were uh really kind of at least for us kind of a novel concept in terms of a land use.

Um and it was really focused more around uh network connectivity and that kind of thing.

Um the the new data centers, the heavy uh usage of uh resources to actually do a lot of data processing uh is something that is relatively new, at least for us in the land use realm.

There's a lot of sessions this year, as you can imagine, at the national APA conference on data centers and AI.

Um and so um I will say that the staff is uh looking at uh, you know, so how how do we move forward with um uh regulation of this use?

And so this conversation is timely.

This is something that we'd already been considering over the last couple of months.

So uh welcome any council conversation and feedback that you have uh that could help us as we uh you know look at this use.

So council member, any interesting moving forward, uh, council schlack.

Thank you, Mayor.

And looking to the AIS, yeah, I would support um staff bringing a data center only update um to council on an earlier date just to separate that out from the the bigger um the broader update that is being proposed later this summer.

I just think that will be cleaner in making sure um that we're addressing um concerns that community members may have to separate it out.

So it's it's mainly from a communications and um how to how to structure that conversation with our community because obviously data centers have become very controversial, and I want to make sure that we um maintain the community's trust in how we're handling this aspect of our code.

May I ask for clarification there?

So uh in terms of coming back with a conversation on that, uh are you requesting that we come back with uh a proposal for um a use category for those and even a preliminary approach to uh regulating that use or or just more information?

Both, I suppose.

Yeah.

Council President Wolf.

Yeah, similar.

Thank you.

Um Skylar.

Uh similar to uh Counselor Schlack, I was thinking kind of that same thing.

Um I don't know if there is a best practice for councils or for cities to work through that community engagement process and and really fully understand what are the steps that we should be thinking of.

Um and then, like you said, use category.

So kind of just what would that look like in Tigered and what might be some um thoughts around what should be modified or changed?

I'd really appreciate it.

So appreciate you, Mayor Who, for bringing it forward as a conversation.

Thank you.

Counselor Shaw.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm very concerned tonight.

We had multiple discussions about how staff is short staffed, has so many priorities.

We heard there's a five-month delay with River Terrace 2.0.

Um I'm concerned that we add one more thing onto the plate of staff that this is gonna impact them, could be impacting our current projects.

So I would say more info would be uh appreciated.

I'm also concerned, and I understand we have community development, but does staff Skylar include our economic development team?

Were they included in this discussion?

And they believe that was my last question.

So I I'll take a moment to uh discuss part of the work that we're doing right now is scoping uh some uh code updates that are needed.

So with uh aforementioned uh uh longer uh target date for the end of River Terrace 2.0, there are some uh state-mandated updates to our development code that we will be out of compliance if we do not adopt before the end of the year.

So one of the things that we've been discussing is to pull that piece out of River Terrace 2.0 or Tigered Home, whichever project it was going to land in, and to actually bring it back to the council as an individual smaller compliance focused project.

And uh we have heard uh uh for the council's uh request when we adopted the Tiger Made Code uh to continually get updates uh from the community, um, both economic development and from um the business owners here about how the tiger made code is working.

I would say one of the things that we're finding um is that our use categories are not quite functioning as intended.

As as council knows, when we did the Tiger Made code updates, we consolidated a lot of our use categories, which is why data centers did not end up in their own use category.

They just got put into an existing use category.

Um what we're finding is that in some cases uh that consolidation of use categories is actually proving to be a little bit of a hindrance for businesses being able to locate here.

And so what we discussed was we know that River Terrace 2.0, Tigered Home, and Downtown Reimagined all are relying on um use categories that are uh you know reasonably solid in order to be able to um make their own uh policy recommendations um and code updates in those projects.

And so one of the things that we've also been considering is bringing a smaller use category uh update that would be included with that compliance project.

So this is in the very early stages of formation.

I I wanna emphasize that it's not necessarily a new project, it's more uh a uh partitioning, if you will, of an existing effort that would be taken up in one of the other code projects that you've been updated on.

And instead of going with one of those code projects, it would go with uh uh as a standalone project.

So um, you know, we uh like I said, are in early stages, we have had conversations with our economic development staff as we get closer to any kind of concrete proposal.

We definitely will be coordinating with uh our colleagues uh there as well as in uh other departments to just make sure that we're um capturing anything that they've seen or any opportunities that we may have to uh increase our economic development opportunities.

Thank you, Scott.

I appreciate that.

I just want to make sure the teams are all working together.

And I was concerned about staff's time.

Uh, but it sounds like uh you and your fellow staff have enough time to have this on the docket along with all of the projects.

So unless I've misread that, that's what I've heard.

We we uh well uh we are definitely uh short staffed for all of the long-range projects that we have, but like I said, this is one that is really peeling out work that is already being done in those other projects and just running through it through a separate legislative process and um to take the burden off of our other staff who definitely do not have time to run this project.

I would be taking this one on on the legislative side.

Thank you.

Uh Council Calusi.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for bringing this forward overall.

I mean, based on everything that I know today, I want to make sure that we're not creating the perception of wanting to attract or accommodate big data centers here.

Um I am mindful of the concerns of our community and you know our staff and things that are being raised around here specifically about things like consumption, the fact that if we do have that, it's not necessarily going to increase employment and things like that here within our city.

Um overall, I wouldn't necessarily support dedicating additional staff time to standalone data center discussion.

Um if the staff's already planning to address the use classification as a part of upcoming compliance focused code projects and things like that, that's different, but you have a certain amount of time, and I would be disinclined to encourage land use that I'm not supportive overall.

So if it's a part of everything else in the other land use that you're wanting to put together, that's one discussion versus dedicating time and trying to encourage the use here for just data centers.

So are you for or against I'm I don't understand what you're saying?

I don't want a dedicated discussion for data centers.

If it's a part of an overall re-haul or changing the way that we're going to be talking about land use, then that's fine, but I don't want staff time to be spent on something that I don't want.

All right, so it's a no.

No.

Okay.

Counselor Robins.

Thank you.

Thank you for this information.

It is very high profile right now.

And I appreciate you and your staff taking the time to proactively look into this.

With the other staffing restrictions that we have, we made a commitment last year to staff that whenever we asked for something new, we would be mindful that something else might have to be taken away.

And so with the the, you know, we just had an update on river terrace and why is this taking so long and uh all the complex stuff we're working on, I would be willing to wait until it was brought up more thoroughly in a um comprehensive co-compliance at the end of the summer.

Um but I do appreciate it.

I do think it's important.

If you were to come back and say, well, actually, we did get an application for somebody that wants to develop a data center, then certainly we would either want to put that on hold or have the discussion earlier.

But if we don't have anybody right now saying, hey, I want to build a data center, I think we can wait for the comprehensive report.

Okay.

Uh use counselor, you have anything to say.

I would just tend to agree that I don't think it's necessary right now, but I think when it comes up at a more convenient time, it should be had.

Just right now, that energy and time should be spent on more important things like River Terrace 2.0.

Okay, Counselor Anderson.

Well, I don't I don't think Tiger has any real large swaths of land besides the one you mentioned, maybe a few others.

So I don't think that's really low-hanging fruit for them.

So I think we might buy some time that way.

But I think as technology improves, there could be data centers on a floor of a vacant building.

And um so that might be a category or something that we look at.

And of course, we have to know what water usage and electric rates, right?

So that's that's what we we would be concerned about.

But again, in five years it could be totally different.

So smaller, smaller units per building or per business.

So I would say I I would say unless something you get an application coming in, I would say we could wait a little bit.

Okay.

So is Councillor Shah, that's how why you agree as well?

Correct.

Okay.

So the majority would be willing to to wait.

So uh I guess uh we have to follow the wish of the majority, so we can wait a little bit so at this time.

Okay, thank you.

We'll we will uh we will bring that back with other use category changes for the council to provide feedback on.

All right, thank you so much.

All right, so uh let's see.

I think that was the last item on agenda.

So there being no additional item, this meeting is adjourned.

Good night, Tiger.