Tualatin City Council Work Session: Police Contract, Climate Plan, and Clean Water Services Rates – April 13, 2026
Tualatin City Council Work Session – April 13, 2026
The Tualatin City Council held a work session on April 13, 2026, starting at approximately 7:00 PM. The meeting covered three main topics: the renewal of the police services contract with Durham, an update on the city's Climate Action Plan, and a presentation from Clean Water Services on proposed rate increases and capital projects. The session also included a council round table on recent regional activities and a review of the consent agenda.
Consent Calendar
- No items were pulled from the consent agenda; it will be approved as presented at the regular meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the work session.
Discussion Items
Police Services Contract with Durham
- Chief Greg Pickering presented an overview of the current contract with Durham, which began July 1, 1989. The initial contract was 13 hours per month at $41/hour; today it provides 24/7 coverage with a dedicated supervisor, traffic enforcement, and investigative support.
- The current compensation is based on a mid-level officer (step four) salary and benefits, plus 10% overhead. The new contract proposes using an officer at step two moving to step three.
- In 2025, officers responded to 701 calls in Durham (58/month), made 98 traffic stops (8/month), and 24 arrests (2/month). This represents about 3% of Tualatin Police Department's total workload and 2.14% of its annual budget.
- Council President Pratt noted the cost is roughly $200,000 per year (including overhead), which he called a good deal. Chief Pickering confirmed Durham officials are very satisfied with the service.
Climate Action Plan Update
- Amanda Watson, Climate Action Program Manager, reported on the two-year work plan (2024–2026) for the Community Climate Action Plan adopted in May 2024. Of 33 planned actions, six are completed or ongoing, 20 are in progress, and seven are not yet started. Five of the seven unstarted actions depend on a $15 million federal grant for charging and fueling infrastructure, which has been paused under the current administration.
- The city has implemented three new funding sources: a "Pennies for Climate Action" optional charge on utility bills (99 cents/month, with less than 5% opting out so far), a 0.3% increase in the PGE franchise fee, and a 5% increase in building permit fees (still being researched).
- Staff is beginning development of a five-year work plan (2026–2031), using prioritization criteria and input from city council, advisory committees, and external partners. Council members expressed interest in including student groups and professional environmental organizations in the stakeholder process.
Clean Water Services Rate Presentation
- Kathy Leader, CFO of Clean Water Services, presented a 10-year financial plan that proposes annual rate increases of 4% for both regional sewer and stormwater services. Over the last 10 years, average annual increases were 3.38%.
- The rate increase for fiscal year 2027 would be about $1.97 per month for an average residential customer. Total regional rates for sewer and stormwater combined would be $49.39 per month.
- Clean Water Services plans to spend $754 million on capital projects (90% regional) and $11.7 million on stormwater projects (76% regional) over the next five years. Major projects include new digesters at the Durham facility, primary clarification at Forest Grove, and trunk line/pump station improvements.
- The utility is also studying a potential customer assistance program and evaluating options for billing directly to customers (rather than through cities), with results expected by fall 2026.
- Council members discussed the importance of the purple pipe recycled water project, SDC (system development charges) updates, and the need to support ratepayers facing rising costs.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the work session.
- The council will consider the police services contract renewal with Durham at a future meeting.
- The climate action five-year work plan process will continue with council work sessions and stakeholder engagement.
- Clean Water Services will present its proposed budget to its board for adoption on April 14, 2026; the public hearing and final rate adoption are scheduled for June 9, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening and welcome to the April 13, 2026 Tualton City Council work session. Our first item on the agenda tonight is our police services contract with Durham. The discussion we led by the Chief of Police, Greg Pickering. Welcome, Chief. Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. I am Chief Pickering with the Twalton Police Department. Here tonight, just to give a brief overview of our the police services that we do provide to the City of Durham as we have uh began the contract negotiations uh at the this as we will be um the five-year contract that we currently have uh we are in our final year. Absolutely. So just a brief history. Uh so Tuwalton began providing uh police services to the city of Durham on July 1st, 1989. The original contract was for 13 hours a month for $41 an hour. Um obviously, since since 1989, there's been a few changes in the contract. Uh and so tonight, just a brief overview of where we are today and what we do provide. So the current contract, uh right now, the the compensation is the salary and benefits of a mid-level officer. So using the span of officers in the police department, um in finance, we use a um a mid-level officer and officer right currently that's uh at step right currently the current contract is an officer at step four. The discussion for the new contract is an officer that's at step two going to step three. Um that also includes a 10 percent over overhead costs. Uh that's to help cover the cost of the vehicles, the uniform equipment, and other supplies uh that that officer would utilize uh in providing the services to the city of Durham. The current contract uh provides 24 hour coverage, so it's 24 hour coverage seven days a week. It also provides uh a dedicated supervisor, so one of our supervisors is dedicated uh to each of the districts of our patrol districts, uh and we consider Durham as a patrol district in itself, and so it has a supervisor that is a direct contact for the city of any questions that come up. The contract also covers uh traffic enforcement and any uh subsequent follow-up investigations that would come out of of any type of call for service that were to arise through the city. So what do they actually get from that? So in their current contract, what they get is a fully a full service police department. Um obviously the contract is for one officer for 24 hours a day, uh but most calls, as you know, calls for service are more than one officer response. Uh so we treat them as though they're just a portion of the city of Tualton. So they get a full service police department. That includes patrol coverage, uh 24 hours a day, traffic enforcement, um, investigative support, so any investigative support that would come from either our detectives units um or any other units that that uh may be required. Uh it also includes our school resource officers as um children who live in Durham attend Twalton schools, so they do get the the services of our school resource officers, as well as the administrative coverage. So obviously the command staff, um, our records division, and we also do their alarm permitting. So the contract does not cover code enforcement, so we do not do code enforcement for the city of Durham. They handle that themselves. So again, as I said before, uh the city of Tualton um is broken up into three patrol districts for the city of Tualton, and then the small little orange up in the corner is the city of Durham. We consider Durham as a district four. We do that for statistical purposes so that we can pull out stats that we need to. We do provide Durham with a monthly report and then an annual report at the end of the year that I provide to their council. So this allows us to gather those stats that we need for that for those purposes. If we don't have four officers working, as you know, our patrol minimums are three officers at any one time. We actually take Durham and lump that into our district one. So our district one officer would cover uh the one district, uh which is pretty much the east side of I-5, as well as the city of Durham. So uh as we get ready to move forward, just uh quickly kind of where we're looking right now. So um the Durham contract again for 2025, this is for last year. We service 701 calls in the city of Durham, which is an average of about 58 calls per month. There was 98 traffic stops that occurred within the jurisdiction of Durham, which equates out to about eight a month, and there was 24 arrests of individuals in the city of Durham, roughly about two percent or two a month, which that all equates to about three percent of the total workload of the Twalton Police Department. So that's really what I have for a presentation, really just to kind of give you an idea of where we are, where we've come from since July of 1989 to the services that we do provide today. Uh and again, really what this is about is to see if there's any questions or comments or concerns as we move forward in uh looking to renew the contract with the city of Durham. Christopher Chief. Council President Pratt. Um is it okay to ask what a mid-level officer with benefits would make? Yeah, right.
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