Tualatin City Council Work Session Summary - January 12, 2026
Tualatin City Council Work Session Summary - January 12, 2026
The Tualatin City Council held a work session on January 12, 2026, the first of the new year. Agenda items included a summary report from the December 2025 Board and Committee Summit, a detailed update on 2025 city council priorities, discussion and pre-approval of recurring proclamations for 2026, a proclamation request for Vietnamese Lunar New Year, and council member round table updates covering regional transportation, housing, and community events.
Board and Community Summit Summary Report
- Deputy City Manager Megan George presented the summary of Tualatin's first-ever Board and Committee Summit, held December 10, 2025 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Juanita Pohl Center. Of 58 invited attendees, 37 attended (excluding council and staff). All permanent boards/committees were represented except the Core Area Parking Board.
- Four goals: provide council with direct information from advisory members, connect members to the 2030 vision, facilitate interaction among members and council, and show appreciation. Small groups answered four questions on strengths, challenges, opportunities, and priorities.
- Key themes from group discussions: friendly community, traffic and lack of public transit, lack of a downtown, housing costs and senior housing, need for third spaces and gathering places, desire for innovative projects like food carts and farmers markets, and excitement about downtown redevelopment, the new riverfront park, and Parque las Casitas.
- A human spectrum exercise on six questions showed: majority agreed traffic is the top complaint; most disagreed that only current issues matter; most felt neighbors are not well-informed; opinion was mixed on risk-taking for innovation; agreement on ability to influence issues; and unanimous excitement about the next five years.
- Council feedback: President Pratt found it valuable and wants to repeat. Councilor Sacco said the spectrum exercise was validating. Councilor Brooks suggested including Spanish-speaking community in future. Councilor Hillier appreciated trust-building and suggested a more personal appreciation gesture. The mayor noted validation of priorities and surprise at willingness to take risks. An evaluation survey for board/committee members is due the following Friday.
2025 City Council Priorities Update
- Sherilyn presented the status of 2025 priorities across seven focus areas, summarizing over 55 slides. Council will set 2026 priorities at a January 17 advance meeting.
- Neighborhood Engagement (8 actions): Street tree inventory complete; sidewalk/street tree backlog project RFP in process; ongoing community involvement organization (CIO) work; CIO boundary map update expected spring/summer.
- Housing (5 actions): Housing capacity analysis grant awarded; legislative compliance monitored; green space maximization ongoing; homeless service funding via outside agency grants; meeting with Clackamas County rescheduled.
- Economic Development (8 actions): Downtown revitalization phase 2 underway with University of Oregon; Leviton area zoning not prioritized; staffed urban renewal positions; wayfinding and parking signage improvements ongoing.
- Transportation (6 actions): Transportation System Plan adopted; project prioritization contract starting; advocacy with Thorn Run; Basalt Creek bus shelter completed; continued work on neighborhood transportation safety program.
- Environment (7 actions): $1.25 million grant for seismic valves; new sustainability program manager hired; in-pipe micro turbine project, water resiliency, and B-City efforts ongoing; tree ordinance review not started.
- Parks and Recreation (7 actions): Recreation program expansion with consultant; program comparison against peers planned; integrated pest management draft; city data tool purchased; parks replacement fund model presentation in February.
- Communication and Identity (7 actions): IDEA committee annual report due; trauma-informed training (three of four sessions complete); strategic communications plan not started; comprehensive plan work paused; website nearly complete; strategic planning ongoing via gaps and needs analysis.
- Councilor Pratt raised concerns about park maintenance budget, water conservation strategies, incubator/food cart promotion, residential parking near apartments, deterrence of current Leviton zoning, CIO coordination with DEI, and change orders on bids. Council discussed these for the January 17 advance.
Pre-Approval of Proclamations for 2026
- Staff presented the tiered proclamation policy. Recurring tier 3 and 4 proclamations (Black History Month, Pride, Juneteenth, Hispanic Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month, Small Business Saturday, etc.) were discussed for pre-approval to avoid missing deadlines.
- Councilor Brooks supported pre-approval to avoid discomfort with volunteers. Councilor Hillier noted pre-approval does not preclude future requests. Council added NAMI Clackamas for Mental Health Awareness Month and trans day of visibility (pending IDEA committee). General consensus to pre-approve the list.
Proclamation Request: Vietnamese Lunar New Year
- A tier 4 request from the Vietnamese Community of Oregon for a proclamation on February 21, 2026. Council recalled a previous positive presentation. Councilor Brooks supported, noting the Asian community is the third largest in Tualatin. Approved unanimously with expectation that the requester will attend to accept.
Council Round Table Updates
- City Manager Sherilyn: CDBG application for public facilities; two additional rapid flashing beacons requested; picnic shelter reservations open; riverfront demolition ongoing (A-frame down); police lobby closed Jan 15-18 for floor work; city year program classes underway; volunteer coordinator Jackie Conan retiring with over 200 applications received.
- Councilor Gonzalez: Attended immigration support meetings with Governor Kotek and Congresswoman Bonamici; families fearful and children may be left at school.
- Councilor Brooks: Met with Dr. Johnson for council prep; met with Explore Tualatin Valley to update public art coordination; PAB applications reviewed but HUD budget unknown; state faces $15 billion shortfall; attended LOC women's caucus and water consortium executive committee.
- Councilor Sacco: IDEA committee meeting focused on connecting community groups and forming relationships with Grand Ronde tribe; Chris Paul led a food drive collecting 100-200 pounds of food; CAC reviewed timeline and evaluation criteria for redevelopment reports; attended C4 meeting with Clackamas County legislators.
- Council President Pratt: Attended employee appreciation breakfast, shop with a cop event, holiday event at Parque las Casitas (distributed $2,200 worth of toys), housing forum, Clackamas County Business Association meeting, and LOC women's caucus finance committee.
- Mayor: Metro Mayor's Consortium: cooperative purchasing effort led by Sherwood and Portland; ODOT signature update; HB 3115 (repeal of time-place-manner) likely in short session. Washington County Coordinating Committee: community connector shuttle pilot in Beaverton/Tigard; county exploring vehicle registration fee increases; county facing $5M deficit for FY26-27, $9.4M anticipated for FY27-28. League of Oregon Cities: property tax reform education campaign. TriMet service cuts: 10% cut required by July 2028, proposal at 6.49% now; 97 bus eliminated, 96 bus changed to slower route; green line cut back to Gateway; lift service reduced; cuts disproportionately in Multnomah County (68%). Council urged to prepare for TriMet's February presentation. Washington County legislative priorities: oppose unfunded mandates, preserve $1.2M for courthouse planning. Aging task force: senior housing concerns raised at housing forum, TriMet open house Jan 22 at library.
Meeting Transcript
Recording in progress. Good evening. Happy New Year. It is January 12th, 2026, and this is our first Twalton work session of the new year. Our first item on the agenda tonight is board and community summit summary report. Megan George will be presenting. Welcome, Megan. Hi, everybody. Good to see you in 2026. I'm Megan George, Deputy City Manager in Twalton, and I am here this evening to provide the summary report for the board and committee summit. So we held what we believe is Twalton's first ever board and committee summit on December 10th of 2025. For you all were there, so you'll recall, we had dinner at 5:30, and the event lasted from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Juanita Poll Center. We closed the place down for the evening. Of the folks who were invited to attend, there were 58 potential attendees, and about 37 people attended, not including yourselves or city staff that were there to support, so we had a really nice turnout. The permanent boards and committees that are appointed by the council committee are appointed by the city council and are interviewed by the council committee on advisory appointments were those who were invited for this first ever event. And those are listed up on the slide. We had at least one representative from all committees with the exception of the core area parking board. As articulated at the event and before, we had four goals. The first was to provide the city council, so you all with information directly from board and committee members who are charged with advising you on matters of interest to the city. Two, to connect board and committee members to the city council's 2030 vision. Three, to provide an opportunity for board and committee members to interact with each other and the city council, and four, to show appreciation for board and committee members and enhance the positive sense of community and service in Twalleton. So we'll come back to those four goals at the end, but I wanted to set the stage for what we were hoping to accomplish before we get into the summary of the event itself. Fairly simple agenda. Throughout the presentation, I've got additional photos from the event. We had uh several really excellent photographers that specialize also in being an attorney, but you know, photography. Really strong suit there. So please uh enjoy those throughout the presentation. So for our seven small groups, we each gave them a confidential folder of information that included four questions that we asked them to pick three to answer. The questions were trying to assess Twalton's strengths, um challenges or concerns, opportunities, and priorities. But they were all different. And then we asked each of those groups to document their results on chart paper, and then we asked them to share out to the larger group as a whole. So on these slides and in the summary report, I included brief synopsis of some of the themes that came up from each of those questions. The full accounting from each of those small groups is included in the appendix of the summary report, which is included in your packet. So jumping into the first question. If you were putting together a resume or cover letter for the city, what would you highlight as Tualton's special skills? Um, I don't know about you, but I don't necessarily have a special skills section on my resume anymore, but I I thought it would still hold up. Um, some of the themes that came out of that were friendly and welcoming community, family-friendly, safe, parks, green spaces, the Tualton River National Riverway, the Ice Age Trail, community support for city services like the library, parks, public safety, the Juanita Pole Center lunches, good governance, stable government, fiscally responsible, events, library arts, high quality of life, and the transportation network. And specifically what folks meant by this is that it's easy to get everywhere. We're in a metro area, you can get to the coast, you can get to the mountain. For question two, what are the most pressing challenges we are facing as a community now? And what do you expect to be the challenges in 2030? Is the list different? Largely, people had the same items on both of their lists for present day 2025 and 2030. Some of the things that came up there were the lack of a downtown, traffic, transportation, and lack of public transit, as well as traffic signal light timing, the cost of living, housing availability, housing costs, senior housing, accessibility, lack of local businesses, employment opportunities, lack of community gathering spaces, places to display public art, new technologies, preserving community identity as development occurs, diversity in past mistakes and harm, environment, and education and school district boundaries. Question number three if you could apply a dose of innovation to a community challenge, what challenge concern would you choose? Senior housing, community engagement, healthcare affordability, especially for seniors, third spaces, safe spaces, gathering places at Rhymes, underused or empty lots, food carts, farmers markets, community gardens, and other local food, environment, cost of transportation, cost of living. The fourth question, what have you observed in other cities that you'd love to see implemented here in Twalton? Farmers markets, food carts, incubator space, small business support, more diverse businesses, enhanced storefronts, community center, indoor recreation space, event space, performing art space, less parking, an active, vibrant downtown, better utilization of the lake, more events or festivals, protected bike lanes, pedestrian bike bridges over high traffic areas, mental health response, senior living community, and a population that lives and works in the same community. Alright, the second set of questions, five through eight.
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