Good evening and welcome to the 12th to City Council work session for March 23rd, 2026.

I'll go ahead and call this work session into order.

Our first item on the agenda tonight is the city manager's employee, the city manager's employment agreement with the conversation led by I think Kevin and Stacy.

Kevin's gonna be a legal side, Stacy will be HR.

Which one we're gonna go first?

How would you like to do it?

I can start.

I was just gonna say good.

Jim's gotta tell us what we can't say.

Um good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Thank you for having me here this evening to talk about the city manager employment agreement process.

Um Kevin, do you want to talk about the legalities of what we can and cannot talk about in the work session process?

Yeah, sure.

And uh thank you, Mayor and Council.

So as you know, the there was recently an executive session where you discussed the uh performance review of the city manager.

That's not what we're here to discuss at this work session.

This is related to the agenda item later tonight about modifications to the city manager's employment contract.

And this is an opportunity for the city council to discuss whether or not modifications should be made to the employment contract and the amendments there too.

All right.

Perfect.

All right, so um just a overview of the process of how this goes.

Um each biennium uh per the council rules, we do have a review uh in the first quarter of every even year of the city manager's um, we do a performance review, and then consequently thereafter, we do a review of the employment agreement that has been in place uh since her inception uh and then make any amendments to it.

Uh so uh the salary review follows the process of the performance evaluation as Kevin mentioned.

We had an executive exec session with regards to that, uh, which formalized that process on the 9th of March.

Um and then it is traditional for us to perform a compensation analysis uh regarding the salaries of the city manager and then those of surrounding jurisdictions for us to make comparisons to.

Uh and I actually included a copy of that here.

Uh the salary survey this year revealed that um our city manager is uh significantly below the mean of our surrounding jurisdictions.

Uh you can see there circled in red that it's uh almost 10% below uh the mean of our surrounding jurisdictions and those that we compare ourselves to.

Uh so uh moving on.

Uh some of the considerations for us to discuss um in that uh our city manager has an excellent reputation uh in the metro area and even further on a national level as well.

Uh City of Twelve Tens well run.

Uh it's a respected jurisdiction coming from the HR side, uh, people want to work here, and that has uh in large part to do with our city manager and how she has organized uh the organization.

The salary survey has revealed that the city manager is well below market, as I indicated prior on the prior slide.

It does not reflect a competitive wage of our surrounding dis jurisdictions nor the tenure of our city manager who's been here for 20 years this year.

Uh and then uh essentially I am coming to you with a recommendation to adjust the city manager's compensation to ensure that she receives a competitive wage and that is an appropriate representation of the work that's performed.

So that recommendation is to adjust the base salary to 224,211.

Uh this would move if I go back to the prior slide.

Um her base salary, as you can see, would be uh fourth in right in the middle of the pack of our surrounding jurisdictions at that base wage.

Uh overall compensation when you add in the total package would actually place her third amongst our surrounding jurisdictions at that rate.

Um so essentially I will open it up for our city council for comments and discussion.

Thanks, Stacy.

Questions for Stacy or discussion.

Could you go back to the slide?

Yeah, the Excel slide because I'm coming.

The salary you said was what this looks like her current salary.

That is her current salary.

So this is not the suggested salary.

This was simply to show you the salary survey of current.

Um then I was pointing out that if we move her base salary to the 224 to 11, it would place her base salary in that third column underneath the city of Milwaukee's 2250.

Do you see that number?

I don't know if I have a pointer.

Do I have a pointer?

No.

In the third column there, Bates, that's the her total comp.

Right.

So but the base salary would move the 220 to 2242 eleven, which would put her in fourth of base salary.

However, once you would add on her deferred compensation and the other um car car and tech allowance, it would actually move her into third place total compensation.

And of course I didn't write that number down.

Um, but it moves her into the third slot just above Milwaukee.

Okay.

Council Brooks.

I'm just curious if you know what Sherwoods is.

I don't know it off the top of my head.

They're not typically one of our competitors or uh comparables that we utilize in our surrounding jurisdictions just because they're slightly smaller in size, although they are catching up.

Um and it's one that we can consider using in the future, but I don't know where they're at.

Okay.

Yeah, because Milwaukee's 21,000, which is kind of surprising to me.

But they're still Portland adjacent.

Thanks.

That was my question just because they're so close by and I don't know what their population is.

Other questions?

I'm bringing it up now, the total count.

It's 24664.

Yeah.

Okay.

Her total count.

That's why I'm still.

Oh, okay.

Then she would move into the second.

She should be second.

Okay, yeah, okay.

Perfect.

I thought it was third, sorry.

Yeah.

Any other questions or discussion?

Everyone comfortable with the pay increase.

Okay.

Okay.

So then presented for you later in our resolution will be to amend that employment agreement.

I'm sorry, cut counselor Sacco, I can't see.

I was nodding my head, yes, an agreement.

Sorry.

All right.

So later in council this evening, we will put forth a resolution that will make that amendment to her uh her contract.

And uh go forward with that.

Right.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for all your work in this.

I very much appreciate it.

Absolutely.

Especially all the wordsmithing and combining on the performance evaluation.

You did fantastic job.

Oh well, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

That brings us to item number two, request for proclamation.

Is everyone leading this discussion or am I doing this?

You're doing.

I'm doing it.

All right.

Uh so the first one we have, the first proclamation request uh we had last year uh from the Vietnamese community of Oregon uh looking that we declare April 30th be recognized as Vietnamese American Remembrance Day.

And the second proclamation request we have is again a repeating one from the Davis Finney Foundation requesting that April be declared.

Parkinson's awareness month.

Um, in following our city council procedure, uh we just need a majority of city counselors to uh be supportive of one or both of these uh proclamations.

Are there any questions about the proclamations?

Any concerns.

Right.

So everyone's okay with these two proclamations being placed on the calendar.

Right?

Kristen, thumbs up if that's unanimous.

Well, we're plowing through this, geez.

All right, so we're up to city uh meeting agenda review.

Uh anyone have any concerns with items on the consent agenda tonight.

Okay, seeing none.

I have Councilor Brooks is up for um Project of Allegiance tonight.

Uh on the proclamations have handed out um Councillor Gonzalez will be doing the Arbor the Arbor proclamation.

Councilor Hillier will be doing the transgender, uh Councilor Brooks will be doing the library proclamation, and finally uh Council President Pratt will be doing the military child proclamation.

Uh and with that, I'll go ahead and start the round table.

Of course, where city manager Sherlin now that she's back.

I found my cough drops and just in time.

Uh let's see, manager's report.

Yeah, a few things.

So since the last council meeting, we had the four city meeting regarding transit and um the uh so Sherwood, Lake Oswego, Westland, and Twalleton.

Um, and um, you know, how to make transit better.

Um we have a little subcommittee that is meeting with consultants in order to scope an RFP, a request for proposals.

Um, and so we're moving along on that.

Uh, we've been focusing on economic development quite a bit.

Uh there's been a lot happening in that space.

Um, we're entering into a small contract with with Echo Northwest to do an economic landscape analysis, which will update our cluster analysis.

It's like what are our, you know, what are our uh general clusters at high tech, um health care, um, and that will help us update our profile and um do the the good work that Sid and Quinn are working on.

So I'm excited about getting that.

Uh last week I attended the Clean Water Services Advisory Commission, and I'm the non-voting rep for I I represent the cities of Washington County on that, and um they presented their cost of service study, which um and um also relates to their rate setting.

They will be in on our agenda on April 13th to talk about that specifically.

So I'm looking forward to to that.

There were a lot of good questions, and um the main impact in their rate study is um in the areas that they serve.

They're the local provider, so unincorporated, or the small cities like King City, um, but Tualatin, the seven large cities in the county.

Um it's the their rates are right in line with what they've been in the past, and um anyway, so it was a good analysis, and they haven't done a rate study for I think about 20 years, so it's it's well due.

Um speaking of uh clean water services, we've been working with them on the purple pipe.

So purple pipe is um uh it's essentially non-potable water, but it it's it just doesn't go into the effluent into the river.

It it it's clean, it's it's as clean as what comes out of our tap, but um by regulation it um it can't be used as drinking water, but it can be used for irrigation and and an and it's much cheaper, and so we're working on a purple pipe project with them.

They will pay for it to bring it to um irrigation to um community park and then stub out for riverfront park and into the commons.

So it's very exciting.

We'll be in front of you with an update sometime this spring or fall.

I mean spring or summer.

Um we've had a kickoff meeting with the design engineers for the seismic valves for our our um our water um tanks that we got the funding for from the state.

All of it, all of it, yes.

Thank you for your advocacy on that.

We got the full 1.75 million for that.

Uh the NYBERG Trail Project is nearing completion.

We're talking about how and when to celebrate its opening, but that's very exciting.

Um gonna be a great addition to to our system.

Um it's spring break, uh, as some of you know.

Uh fun things at the library are happening, uh, lots of lots of cool activities and the library has been packed.

Uh no small thanks to uh Tiger being closed, but um we're taking advantage of letting people see what a wonderful space we have.

Um, and then stop by the poll center for lunch.

Uh we serve on Tuesday and Friday, and um it's always a good time, and um you can make make reservations and um stop by and see people.

That's my update.

Great, thank you.

Councillor Gonzalez.

I have no new updates, it's been nothing going on.

Okay, thanks.

Council Brooks.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I was at the um National League of Cities Congressional Conference in DC, and have a did a lot.

Um first before the committee before officially started, I met with the first tier suburbs and the um community and economic development um counts councils and looked at what our agenda was gonna be for the year.

Um that's when they were talking about the housing accelerator and some other things that um first tier suburbs, especially that focus on downtown redevelopment and economic opportunity.

And then the real council met as well, and they're reconfiguring how they're doing things, but they had a great speaker, and we broke out into three tiers of conversation around how electives take care of themselves, how we interact with each other and in the community.

So that was good for racial equity and leadership.

And then the regular um event was good.

It was there were it there was a conversation about how there's not as much interaction with this particular federal administration as there has been in the past.

This one lawyer from Chicago is amazing.

And then finally, um there was a arts advisory committee meeting.

Oh, and then we went up to the hill.

And um, there was an arts advisory committee meeting while I was gone.

So they did a drive-thru to look at the sites for the box reps, and I think they're also looking at the fill for their tea for their logo.

Um, which should be interesting to see what they how they selected that.

And then this morning I went in, got fitted for my fire department fire turnout gear.

Turnout gear, yeah, to fire turnout gear.

It's not an outfit, but I could say outfit.

Um, so that and they're really nice over there right by the house and stuff.

So um, it was a great um experience.

I I met a lot of people and re-saw a lot of um friends from around the country that serve, and it's always inspiring to hear what people are doing in their communities.

So if people have more any more questions for me, let me know.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilor Sacco.

Thank you.

Um I just have one um ask uh from the council.

Um and I I did it to get it over in time to include it with the request for proclamation, so I'm going to do that now.

Um so on behalf of the idea committee, I would like to request that the city formally recognize April um as autism aware awareness month by adopting an official proclamation to support individuals and families.

Um autism affects individuals across all communities and increased awareness, promotes understanding, accepted accept acceptance and inclusion and recognizing autism awareness month provides an opportunity for the city to demonstrate leadership and supporting uh neurodiversity, encouraging community engagement and highlighting the importance of accessible resources and services for individuals and their families.

Um I would like to ask um the support of the council um for a proclamation for autism awareness month in April.

Okay.

Do you have the verbiage for it and everything that you could send to Nicole?

I do.

And it would be the first or second meeting in April, would you envision?

Um I think that the first would be um the preference, um, of course, depending on the um the agenda as well.

We have the two we just approved now.

Five five for April.

How people feel I mean, so we discussed this last time, you know how people feel with five for April for our first meeting in April.

Or one I should say, our for uh counselor's supportive of the autism proclamation.

Okay.

So then are we okay with five proclamations and five plus including this one?

Yeah.

Okay.

And older American.

Council Brooks.

Um what day is Vietnamese Remembrance Day?

Uh 3.

Like it's April 30th.

Yeah, I'm wondering if we can move that one to that.

They preferred 415.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, did they?

We could do that as well.

The there's National Police Week, Public Service Recognition Week, National Prevention Week, and Mental Health Awareness Week on the April's popular.

That's fine.

It doesn't matter.

Thank you.

It's gonna be five one way or the other.

All right.

So people generally supportive it, the five.

All right.

All right.

It's approved.

Council Sacco.

It's a it's a go.

Thank you.

Anything else?

That's it.

All right.

Councillor Hillier.

Thank you.

Um in the Councillor Sacco's dead, I was able to attend the idea committee meeting on the 16th, where they did in depth talk about uh this particular um day of our awareness month for autism, and uh really were intentional and thoughtful about all the language to be sure that neurodivergent uh language was also included in it.

It was very impressive.

It's great energy in the room.

We spent most of our time engaging with the chief uh who came and just did a fantastic presentation and answered 20 questions probably.

It was really a great, great time.

The chief um had a lot to share and say, and the committee uh was again thoughtful and you know, representative of uh all sorts of people in our community um and how they would potentially get help from 911 or from from that uh you know parking things, it seems so anyway.

It was uh they're working on um their charter and small bus small groups that um we had sent to the team, and so that they're working on that.

It was as always impressive.

And on the 19th, I attended the Board of Commissioners meeting for the Washington County Consolidated Communications Board, and uh we uh voted in a new chair and vice chair, which are the same ones that have been the chair and vice chair since I've been involved.

We looked through the board uh through the budget, like is um Ben Done.

They're talking through the CAD that'll have to be replaced in fiscal year 30 and the savings account that's happening for that so that they don't have to gouge people any more than some would say we currently do.

But um so there then there was a lot of discussion about the candidates who are you know, people who are applying and just the um reasons they're not able to hire um and you know not passing background checks and different things that are going on.

So they're trying really hard to hire people, but it isn't is just as easy as one would think.

And then we had a really robust discussion around um the um process for public records requests, which was kind of interesting.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Councillor Reyes.

Yeah, I attended the uh core uh committee meeting on the 17th.

And uh basically we talked we had a presentation from the uh core they're like they represent the businesses, and um Kathy was one of the presenters and she presented on um proposed a couple of designs for parking for the um core area parking district.

So um we didn't have quorum, so we really didn't couldn't um vote on anything.

Um so uh Bryce is just gonna communicate with us um through uh email and and kind of give us ideas of what these new designs are gonna look like.

But I did talk about the designs last time we came.

Um but there were some suggestions from the business and we like I say we couldn't make any any kind of decision.

We also talked about the budget that's gonna be uh for this fiscal year 27 coming up, and um again we couldn't vote on it, but um we really talked about how we are going to be at one point we're gonna have to increase um tax rates because of the just the all the new um things uh you know kind of like the on the fixing all the the stripes on the parking, the cracks and all these other things that we're trying to do within that area.

So um he gave us a little bit of what would look how things would look like and projections from to now to like 10 years from now.

So again, we didn't vote on anything, so you'll be hearing from me later on what that's gonna look like.

Um that's that's all we talked about.

Um we did I did propose that we could maybe have invite them, not maybe not as like participants, but to like whenever we have the budget committee, like you know, we invite the community, maybe invite them as well, so that way they can since they're also proposing budgets and um invite those businesses that represent um just to hear um what we talk about within the bigger larger committee with the budget.

So that was just kind of like what it was quick and that was it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council President Pratt.

Well, on the um 13th, um I got to be a juror along with the mayor and Sid and Skip Stanaway, and then they had four really professional ar professors and architect people be jurors, and um they divided the room in two, and so I got to see I think there were 16 presentations, I got to see eight and a half of them.

Eight and a half, yeah, eight and a half, because we got to go in the ours got done a little early, so we got to see the part of another one.

But um overall, I'm I have to say I was really impressed with the presentations and the um really creative ideas.

There's a few that super stood out, and but um they did a model of the whole area they were looking at from the um gravel lot on Boone's Ferry, and then the next lot and then um around the Commons area, and then the one lot on the other side that's the parking lot that where it would cross over Boons Ferry to the new park.

So seeing it on the um when they put it on the model and just seeing the ideas you I uh it was the first time I felt like I could see a new whole new flow and really great ideas for that area.

So that's why I was asking because I'm really excited for everybody to see it anyway.

That was that was a lot of fun.

It was it just much more than I expected, so it was great.

And then um on the 18th, they had C4 Metro and then um Metro talked about they're gonna put together a climate action plan and then the bulk of the time was spent on it was right after the I the I5 bridge numbers came out, the 14.4 billion dollars.

And so they talked about um just how they're planning to do it.

It's going to take six to seven years to do that, but they're gonna start charging tolls from day one.

Um and then they will do after that's completed, they will um um work on the um light rail line that will go through there that will be done after everything else is completed, and they claim it will not disrupt traffic.

There were a lot of concerns about diversion of traffic on to 205, which um supposedly won't be any much worse than it is now, but we will see.

Okay.

Uh had four meetings.

One was as uh council president Pratt mentioned the uh the design studio review.

I echo her comments.

Very impressive designs, a lot of work.

The models were super intricate of their you know what they're proposing to put inside of our downtown.

Um and looking forward to you know working through the evaluation of these 17 projects or so uh with the Cora.

Uh had the Washington County coordinating committee meeting, uh which was held in hybrid mode.

We only do that about once a year.

Um we had a legislative update.

And it was the opportunity for the new members, the coordinating committee to learn the purpose and history of the coordinating committee.

Uh big presentation that day was ODOT presented the STIP that's coming up, and that's the statewide transportation improvement plan.

Uh funding is going from 3.5 billion down to 2.9.

So there'll be cutting things in addition to what we're hearing with the other ODOP budget.

So um there'll be cutting the fix it projects by 40 percent.

So just basic maintenance projects will be cut by 40 percent.

They're reducing the dollar set aside for elderly and disabled projects.

Um they will only be paving interstates, so things like 99 W and stuff like that will be a low priority for their paving.

Uh bridges, you know, we're all concerned about bridges, possibly falling down.

Uh there's no money for bridge fixes, so they'll go out and re-rate the load that a bridge can take.

So what they've been doing recently is going out to a bridge and just lowering the amount of weight that's allowed across that bridge rather than fixing it because they don't have the money for it.

So that's extending the lives of bridges way beyond what we thought, but also impacts truckers and you know transportation of products and goods because your route might change because that bridge no longer can handle your truck going over that.

Uh the one positive thing out of the discussion is they are doubling the amount of ADA repair money.

Uh those are the things we're gonna do when you've seen around the neighborhood town here where they're going to the corners and putting ADA ramps in and stuff like that.

Uh so they're doubling that money.

Uh JPAC, the highlight of that meeting was the IBR, as uh Council President Pratt mentioned, that the focus is now on just getting the bridge done, and they're putting off multiple years to five years for the five miles that's around it.

So all the things we heard about making those changes on Hayden Island, the changes in Vancouver are not going to happen for uh foreseeable future.

Uh you know, as Council President Pratt said, they're looking at 14.4 million dollars to billion billion, uh, but the bridge alone is seven, and they think they can get that seven cobbled together between federal money, local money, and tolling, as Council President Pratt mentioned.

Uh, one thing that stuck out to me, they have a risk analysis, and there are 400 risks they're tracking inside of this project that they have to look at.

Uh they're looking at starting construction in 2028.

Uh it'll be six to seven years to build the bridge, and as Council President Pratt said, they will immediately start tolling during construction of the existing bridge.

Uh light rail will be delayed till 2030 to 2036.

They envision that's going to cost a billion dollars to put in light rail.

They're thinking they can get most of that from the feds through some federal transportation money.

Um, and then my last meeting was Greater Portland Inc.

uh with the Governor's Oregon Prosperity Council.

She's looking for groups to provide listening sessions or do listing sessions throughout the state where you focus in on what the business climate is in your area, the state of workforce development, and what tools for growth could be done at the state level in terms of the legislature.

So GPI, you know, represents uh business owners, umlords, uh government agencies and educational uh folks.

Uh we had a fantastic discussion, put together a list that will be sent to the folks at the Prosperity Council to take in as input.

Uh there's supposed to be a report by June or July that's issued by the Prosperity Council to guide the state in terms of economic development just in time for the election and for you know the legislators to look at for the 2027 session in terms of if there's you know suggestions of projects, money, stuff like that, uh or legal changes that are required to make Oregon more competitive to enhance and grow our existing companies and to attract them here versus going to Boise, Phoenix, and Texas.

That's it for me.

Uh anything else for work session?

Well, we we're doing great tonight.

All right, so with that, I'll go ahead and close work session and we'll start up with our regular meeting at seven o'clock.