The October 27, 2025 regular meeting of the Tualatin City Council was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilor Reyes. The meeting featured two proclamations, introductions of two new employees, a consent agenda of nine items, a public hearing on updating building codes, adoption of a food and beverage policy for officials, and adoption of a privilege tax on Portland General Electric (PGE). Council communications included a reaffirmation of the city's inclusive city resolution in light of ICE concerns elsewhere.
The following nine items were approved unanimously by voice vote:
Staff presentation: Community Development Director Aquila Herdravich and Building Official Samantha Vandegrift explained that the ordinance updates Chapter 4-01 of the municipal code to adopt Oregon state building codes by reference, removing specific code years and instead referencing the Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR). This change eliminates the need for future ordinance updates each code cycle and aligns with state adoption schedules.
Public testimony: None.
Council action: First reading, second reading, and adoption all passed unanimously (5-0). The ordinance amends Chapter 4-01 of the Tualatin Municipal Code to adopt state building codes by reference.
City Attorney Kevin McConnell presented the resolution as a workaround to a May 2025 Oregon Government Ethics Commission advisory opinion that prohibited city-funded meals and apparel for elected officials. Instead of amending official compensation packages (which would require intervening elections), the policy authorizes the city manager to expend budgeted funds for food, beverage, and apparel at council/commission meetings and city events, in line with the existing financial policies manual. The resolution was adopted unanimously (5-0).
The council considered an ordinance to impose a 0.3% privilege tax on PGE. After a motion and second, the vote was 4-1, with Councilor Gonzalez voting nay. The ordinance passed.
Council President Pratt addressed recent community concerns about ICE activity in nearby Wilsonville by reading from Resolution 5039-17 (adopted May 2017), which declares Tualatin an inclusive city. The resolution commits the city to following Oregon Revised Statute 181A.020, prohibiting use of local law enforcement resources for enforcing federal immigration law. The council noted that this policy aligns with current state sanctuary laws and council goals of inclusivity.
Welcome to the October 27th, 2025, Twalton City Council meeting. We're gonna start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Um read recited by Councilor Reyes, so please stand to Ryan or your mark. I mean the United States of America. And to the Republic for which is one nation on indivisible liberty and justice overall. Next we have announcements. Um first is our proclamation declaring October 23rd to 31st, 2025, Red Ribbon Week in the city of Twalton, and I believe we have a little presentation. Hello, my name is Cosima Slider. I'm a junior at Twalton and the vice president of Leap Youth Alliance. Hi, my name is Ian. I'm a uh sophomore at Twalton High School, and I'm the secretary here at LEAP. Greetings, Twalton, City Council President Pratt, and Twalton City Councilors and staff. Um the Leap Youth Alliance is honored to get to speak to this body to share about Red Ribbon Week, our goals for the 2025 through 2026 school year, and how you can engage with us. The annual Red Ribbon Week remember it's it's coming up October 21st or October 23rd through the 31st. So we're in it. We are raising awareness in a variety of ways through our elementary school trunk retreats, um, speaking to you and um to our Twalton or the Tiger Twalton School District, social media, family partnership nights, and in school activities. Our most exciting is of course the tabling with stud partners at the Tualton vs Tiger game on the 30th. So you should come. Recently we attended a statewide youth uh prevention conference, and we are energized to bring those skills back to Twalton. We just completed our Twalton parent survey um to survey uh different prevention strategies as well as um so that we can better understand the gap in knowledge and perception around alcohol and substance use. We're also doing a student survey in our high school and I believe in other schools in the Twalton area. We will use this information to form positive social norms um and messages to address the gaps so we can increase knowledge with the hope that as people learn that more people are not using a substance, they will not either. One of our goals is to work with our middle school and local elementary schools to do a poster or coloring campaign around what healthy behaviors look like. We are excited to work with uh city partners, Twalton Together and other experts in prevention, such as the Oregon National Guards Counter Drug Division to do this. Please reach out to us for more information if you are interested in learning more or being part of the planning, implementation, judging, or celebration process. LEAP is doing our annual green greenery fundraiser. Proceeds will go towards the spring prevention summit happening in Salem, Oregon, in partnership with the Northwest Spark, an Oregon Youth Prevention Advisory Board, Willamette University, the Oregon Coalition of Prevention Professionals, and uh the Oregon Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission. With the passage of HB3321 and other exciting prevention efforts in Oregon, we are ready to advocate and support ways for our peers to live to their full potential, alcohol and substance free. You can find it on Towalton Together's uh website. Uh our club meets every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. at Byron Elementary, Portable 1. If you would uh if you would ever like to attend one of our meetings, please consider this your formal invitation. Just reach out to Cindy to get the details. There's always good food. Thank you for this opportunity to share with you a little bit about about what LEAP does and is working on this year. We are proud to represent our school, our community, and ourselves as we do this work, and we have a bag with some gifts, a gratitude activity, and a thank you for your time. So in this bag, we have um also Twalton Together information. We're doing a fundraiser this year, a couple fundraisers. One is our greenery fundraiser where you can purchase reefs and other green decorative items to help us do the work that we do. Um and you can find this on the Twalton Together website. So if you go there, that should be the very first thing that pops up. And then we also have our bottle drop fundraiser, so you'll notice you'll see a blue bag in there. Um and so we're partnering with Bottle Drop um this fall. We're doing a matching, a matching fundraiser. So for every dollar that we make through the cans that you fill up, um, through the bags that you fill up with cans, they will match it. And we will be able to get those funds to help out with the work that we're doing, our trunk or treats, the community events that we collab with with Stud, the Tiger equivalent of Leap. And thank you guys. We're open for questions now or comments. I I wanted to make a statement because when we were at the League of Oregon Cities, the mayor and I found out about that bottle drop program. And you guys were the first ones we thought of.