Recording in progress.

Hey, good afternoon and welcome to the April 27, 2026 Walton City Council work session.

Our first item on the agenda tonight is a 2026 state legislative session recap and for all update led by Megan George and the team from Thorn Run.

Welcome, Megan.

Hello, Mayor, members of the city council.

I am Megan.

I'm the deputy city manager in Towalton.

And I'm gonna be up here for maybe 45 seconds before I yield the floor to our team from Thorn Run.

But just to kick us off, we have now been under contract with Thorn Run for a couple of years and made it through our first long session with the team.

Our short session, excuse me.

We already did the long session, but they they do seem to smear together.

So we've gone through the full legislative cycle in Oregon.

So they are here to present the update from that short session, which concluded in early March.

And then we have our federal lobbyist Greg in Zoom land, and he is going to give an update on our work on our federal agenda.

I'll pop up back at the end to talk about next steps as we think about 2027, which it is not too early.

In fact, we are ready to get going.

So with that, I'll introduce Leah and Tyler.

Welcome.

Good to see you both.

Thank you for having us here tonight.

Good evening, Council uh Mayor, Council President.

Um I'm Tyler Jansen.

I'm senior vice president with Thornrun Partners.

Um it is an honor to represent you in the halls of Salem.

Um I'll let my colleague introduce herself.

Hi everyone, Leah Navarro with Thornrun Partners, also vice president, and I work really closely with Tyler.

Um so I we were here about a year ago and I was uh uh relaying with Megan right before this meeting.

I think at that time you had a table of snacks laid out in the corner, and we were wondering uh whether or not uh the ethics commission was gonna let us continue to offer those snacks.

Um that issue has been put to bed, you're allowed to serve snacks.

Um, and so it's it actually is a meaningful win that it's important to celebrate when we get those.

Um I'm going to, and is this our slide advancer right here?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we have federal up here first.

Um why don't we jump ahead and we'll do state and we'll give uh our colleague Greg plenty of time to jump back and do the federal.

Um for uh the uh as Megan mentioned, um this is our first short session representing you all.

The short sessions have an entirely different feel than the long sessions do.

Oregon runs on a two-year cycle.

The long sessions are every odd year and they last for six months.

The short sessions uh when they instituted them around 2010 on an annual basis.

The short sessions were designed to be about policy tweaks and budget adjustments.

Um it is like sprinting uh a marathon because it really does feel like you're compressing six months of work into a 35-day session.

And so um for any sort of local government that deals with the plethora of things that you all have to deal with, uh short sessions really are about defense.

And so to not bury the lead, I do want to say congratulations on um defending your seismic reservoir allocation from 2025 in a cuts budget, which is the budget that we experience this year and which we will be in at the state level through at least 2029, and it's going to get worse.

Um any sort of preventing of a cut on a program or an allocation that matters to you is a huge win to sort of recap what that uh advocacy looked like when um the budget forecast came out at the end of the 2025 session, um, which essentially said that largely as a result of of federal decisions through HR 1, um the state's Medicare budget in particular was going to take a severe hit.

Um the governor directed her agencies to start looking at any sort of programs that might be available for a cut.

And the budget co-chairs in Salem, of which there are two, um, also directed their agencies to start preparing cuts lists.

So in December of 2025, right before we went into a session, uh the director of the water resources department went before a subcommittee of uh the Ways and Means uh Committee and laid out a number of proposed cuts, including a cut to your seismic reservoir project.

So it became very apparent that the number one priority is protecting what you have.

Um I want to give a shout out, and if you have the ability to, please please thank uh Representative Walters, um Senate President Rob Wagner.

Um we went to them right away and said, have you seen what the director is proposing?

They they had not, uh, and they were quite shocked to see it, and they sprung into action right away.

And so we had a good dialogue with them all session, making sure that as the cuts list continued to get refined, that the seismic reservoir project was able to be pulled from that.

Um the budget co-chairs were sort of talking about going into session a 900 million dollar budget hole with by the time that the final gavel fell uh in March, um they ended up cutting.

I took my notes here, 128 million was the final cut.

And the uh narrative coming out of the co-chairs was that they were able to keep it that minimal because they passed another bill generating revenue to the tune of 311.6 million.

And so that was a selective disconnect from some of the federal tax code.

Um so I think one of the big things that we're still looking at is I know that uh Oregon Business and Industry is still looking at the qualified uh uh tax exemption for there is about a hundred million dollar budget impact that allows a tax exemption on qualified small business stock.

That I know that Oregon Business and Industry Um has some interest in overruling, and I know that they're advocating that for the governor.

The governor chose not to veto that aspect of the bill.

But um so that feels a little bit unsettled.

I'm sure it will still be a topic of debate going into 2027.

Um, but the top line message, and as it is reflected on the slide here, is that for the next at least four years, we anticipate the marquee issue of legislative sessions to remain the budget.

Um that being said, uh when times are challenging, it should not preclude you all from articulating what it is you need for the community of Tualetin to be thriving.

Um I'm gonna bounce around a little bit here, but uh on the note of transportation finance.

Um, for about two years now, you all have been uh reading the same stories we have, and um we've been living it in the halls of Salem.

The transportation funding package uh that was pulled together to help shore up uh the Department of Transportation's structural revenue issue.

Um that uh package notably failed at the end of the 2025 session.

The legislature was called in in a special session where um after much arm twisting it passed it on a party line vote.

Um fast forward to December and it gets referred to the voters, and now it will be on a ballot near you in just a couple of weeks.

And the prevailing wisdom in Salem is that um it's anticipated to go down.

Um, and so the governor has already set a table for a large transportation visioning work group.

Um legislators for their part are eager to start getting uh work done on it.

So we anticipate in the quarterly legislative days uh committee hearings that we see over the next year, uh, we are going to hear a lot of chatter about building the next transportation package and what does that all mean for a city government like Twalleton?

I think now is an excellent time for you all to be thinking through what are your community's transportation needs andor projects that would be useful that we can start entering into the mix of uh that conversation.

We anticipate that unlike some budgets will be uh finalized by September 1st.

The agency will request them, the governor will put her stamp of approval on them, they will be included in her budget in December.

The Oregon Department of Transportation budget feels like it is a plane that we are going to be building as it is getting flown.

And so our advice to you all would be uh any uh anything that you can put in the mix early is more likely to have success.

Anything that we can uh arm our state delegation with early is to your benefit.

I'm gonna jump back to economic development as the other uh big issue that we saw in 2026.

Um you had a couple of competing economic development uh uh bills that most notably you had uh the governor putting forward a permitting reform bill that ultimately passed after a lot of um haranguing about data centers being included in that bill.

So at the end of the day, data centers were excluded from a tax break within that bill for at least two years while the legislature gives themselves time to think of if they want a more comprehensive policy about data centers for local governments in particular.

One of the major wins in that bill is additional funding for industrial site readiness.

So I know that you all as a council, um, you have all been supportive on coalitions uh that we've worked on with League of Oregon Cities and others to say that the challenge for a local government who wants to do economic development and build their tax base is the lack of infrastructure actually in the ground.

So we're pleased to see um roll out of additional funds in that space.

Uh we at Thornrun will continue to monitor the actual implementation of those funds so that we can flag for you all when there are opportunities to potentially access any sort of infrastructure capital that you may need moving forward.

Um we do anticipate that uh this schism that emerged over data centers is going to continue for the next couple of years politically in Salem.

We also will say that the industrial site uh conversation really did spark a conversation about land use, generally speaking, where um over 50 years through Senate Bill 100, and there are even ardent land use system defenders who would say it's probably time to take a harder look at whether we're meeting our housing needs, our transmission needs, our industrial land needs.

Um, and so we're aware we're aware of at least one legislative work group that we'll be gathering this summer and considering um whether they want to take up anything uh in 2027.

So when I look ahead, I think it's economic development, but it may well turn into a land use uh discussion as well.

So, similar um for the advice we'd offer on transportation.

If there are stories to be told from Towalletin about uh land and it's either lack of or you know availability and what you would like to do with it, um, it would be good to have us armed with that information.

Um I will also say that uh moving into 27 from a political side, um the caucuses generally select their leaders shortly following the November election.

Um we have now enjoyed uh uh a speakership and a Senate presidentship that have lasted for a full two-year term.

So they get to go before their colleagues uh in November, and their colleagues get to decide if they want those same folks in those roles or not.

And so there is always a little bit of shifting after November in terms of committee membership and who gets a gavel and who gets to chair those committees.

And so we anticipate that we'll be keeping you all informed as as those mechanizations happen as well.

Any questions from the top line of the session?

Questions, I think.

I'm thinking and processing.

Um I've heard talk, but do you think they might start to address the whole funding for Oregon and that you know the impacts of measures 550 and changing that?

Um it's interesting.

Uh, where my brain goes with that is um this was a a longtime League of Oregon Cities priority on the TLT reform, the transient lodging tax reform.

To me, that success, which was a hard-fought success and a and a meaningful one, felt sort of like a band-aid on a ball of band-aids, uh, which really comes down to measure 5 and 50.

Um again, it's a structural revenue issue for um local governments.

I think that you're gonna see more attention paid to it in the coming years.

The disconnect that I have always observed is that local governments have been in a cuts environment for decades.

The state is just now finding itself in one for the first time since I believe 2014.

And so most legislators have not felt the pain of what that feels like to balance a budget without enough resources.

Um that understanding is penetrating a little bit.

I will also say that there are very few legislators who come from a local government background.

Um, but the ones who we do have, including your state rep do a phenomenal job of educating their peers of like, here's the reality of what this means for a city or a county.

And so I'm confident that League of Oregon Cities Association of Oregon Counties, to the extent that we get to help as part of that local government family, get to socialize that, we can help do so.

Other questions?

Councilor Reyes.

But like incentives for local for businesses in the community or like uh anything that would help uh cities promote uh businesses that can come to our city with you know any kind of incentives of funding since we've had a lot of businesses leave our state basically.

So a couple answers to that question.

I think that there is a hope through some of the permitting reform efforts that some of those timelines for that affect small businesses, but certainly that you know that local governments might have the final say over that you might be able to process things more quickly, and I will also go back to the industrial site readiness for would-be employers who want to come, but they say, but you know, I can't make it pencil because I would have to do all of this work to get the infrastructure in place.

We hope that that will help.

Um for the businesses who are leaving, that's a little bit of a different question.

Um I believe that there is a tax credit available that now they took a more expansive view of um to allow folks who are retaining jobs and not just creating jobs in targeted industries to take advantage of, but that is fairly limited.

Um we can also we'd be happy to take a closer look at that if that is of interest.

I was just wondering because I know we're um the prosperity committee met here, so is there any like um any kind of incentives that would encourage either retention or acquiring new business that come to our city that things that we can do as a city that we um forego, like you say permitting and all that, so uh we allowed more businesses that can come, but incentives that the state can give us versus us in the city giving us right?

I know it sounds like impossible, but if we want to see some growth, that is like a lot we gotta start thinking about incentives that we can give cities or us or let forgoing a lot of stuff that we have to abide by in order for us to bring a business into our cities.

Yeah.

Uh you know, I'll say um you mentioned the prosperity council.

Some of their work that is happening at the moment is gathering feedback from around the state and certainly including local governments in that as what could we be doing better?

What are the tools that you would like us to offer?

And so, to the extent that you all as a council are discussing that um and you come up with hey, it would be really great if the state were to give us this thing.

Um we can we'd be happy to help work on that with you.

Just to dovetail off councilor Reyes' question on a prosperity council, they still on track to issue report by like the end of June or something.

Is it yeah?

They're in early stages, like um I'll say the the big trends that we're hearing whispers of would be uh there's not much there there yet, but people saying we need to actually just evaluate our land use system and see what's working and what isn't, which is you know, an enormous lift.

Um the other piece that feels like low-hanging fruit is actually building on the momentum of this last session, which is everybody they talk to says that putting infrastructure in place helps speed up the ability to draw employers to the region.

And so um, for a long time, local governments have been asking for that prior to this session.

If you had the capital up front, you could get reimbursed from the state, but what you're able to do now with this new trancha funding, which hopefully will help in local communities as you can apply up front to the state to get some of those dollars in.

Other questions, Council Brooks.

Thanks for your report.

Um my question is about the the one thing that we do see is the workforce development strategies for essential workers.

So what or essential industries?

So, what how do we define essential industries right now?

I'll have to I'd have to go back to the statute to see how they parsed it out.

There are a number of identified in-demand uh industries through workforce partnerships across the state.

I don't know, I can't recall off the top of my head where they drew that line of who qualifies and who doesn't, but it was, I think, developed in partnership with those workforce boards.

Okay.

Yeah, I think that would be helpful for us to understand a little bit better.

Yeah.

Other questions for the state update.

Council Hillier.

Yeah, thank you.

Mine is a little bit um a little more adjacent-ish.

Um I'm curious, we keep seeing, especially with the passage of House Bill 3321 in the long session, um, with the prevention, the forming of the alcohol drug policy commission.

I'm curious as far as funding streams.

Um, I know there's been some movement around the discussion of increase beer and wine tax and then a s and a um with a um a special um carve out for Oregon uh Vittners and wineries and distilleries, and and we know that that industry is struggling.

And I'm just curious if there's any movement that you can see, I mean for big alcohol to help fund some of these health and human services things that we see a big hole with that obviously then impacts the other budgets.

So I will uh start this by also saying just for some context, um, prior to coming to Thornrun, I was uh association of Oregon Counties revenue lobbyists, so I was pretty close to this issue.

Um the uh beer and wine taxes in Oregon have not increased since I wanna say 1973, something like that.

They're static.

Um a couple of notes on the dynamics there.

Um this was the first session I saw in a very long time that actually didn't have a hearing on increasing beer and wine taxes.

Um traditionally Representative Sanchez, who is one of the budget writers for the state, has been the most ardent supporter of wanting to do something to increase beer and wine taxes to fund more addiction services.

She did not introduce a bill like that this year.

I think we're seeing similar um signaling from her that her job in terms of cutting hundreds of millions from a state budget, uh, that she will probably be less involved in pursuing her own legislation because that job on its own is going to take up so much time.

Um I think the last effort that I saw in this in 2021, 2022 was when it was my favorite exercise on if you were to teach somebody how to be a lobbyist, you could take the same information and paint it a different way.

One side was saying, you know, this is a 5,000 percent increase, and one was saying this is a 10 cent increase on your beer, and they were both correct.

Um, because 5,000 percent of nothing is nothing.

Um I don't think until you have a from a from a local government standpoint, one of the things missing in that effort was um a degree of vocal support from um the stakeholders beyond whom would directly benefit from increased funding.

So when these hearings have come up in the past and it's gonna raise a beer and wine tax to go towards addiction services, the service providers are usually out in front saying yes.

It's not just uh not to be corrective, but it it's not just addiction.

It's prevention.

I mean, I think the legislation is prime it is health promotion, um primary prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and re and then recovery, right?

So the word addiction just doesn't cover it.

So no offense.

Just to get the language right.

Thanks.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um I guess where I was going with it was that um from a from a local elected validator standpoint, I have not seen a robust showing of that at the legislature.

Um and again, it there was nothing introduced this last session.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We're we're hopeful that the audit through the alcohol drug policy commission might see some movement in the next two or three years.

But thank you for your perspective.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Do you want to do that we got one more slide?

Yeah.

Well, good evening, everyone.

Uh, we've already touched on some of these topics, but um, first of all, congratulations again on maintaining the funding for the seismic valving project beyond the project's importance to the community.

This success also reflects the mayor's outreach to the delegation, so thank you very much.

Um, and also the continued support from Senator Wagner and Representative Walters, who have been really strong partners to the city.

Um I know that this information is already outlined in our end of session report, but I wanted to highlight a few key points to provide a clearer picture as to where we are now and what to anticipate as you consider your legislative priorities and any potential projects for 2027.

So right now we're sort of in, and when I say we, I mean Oregon is sort of in its early stages of developing its 2027-2029 biennial budget.

And state agencies right now are working on their agency request budget, otherwise known as ARBs, and they have been asked to plan for a pretty constrained fiscal environment with no new revenue for expansions or any new programs and any new investments would need to be budget neutral.

So the agency would need to make offsets or reductions within their existing resources.

And then those ARBs, like Tyler mentioned, will go to the governor's office for review, and then that'll help shape the governor's recommended budget, which we won't see until late 2026.

Given that information, we expect there to be a continuation of a pretty tight budget environment.

And the economic forecasts, which are scheduled as shown, will sort of inform legislative decisions on policy and funding.

So as those forecasts are released, we'll learn a little bit more about that.

In terms of timeline, so the 2027 session will begin on January 19th, and we'll run through sometime June 2027.

But before then, legislative days will take place in June, September, and December.

And so that'll give us some insight into what lawmakers are thinking in terms of policy and some of the topics that may emerge for the 2027 session.

Some of the themes that we do expect, and we already kind of touched on these topics are economic development, land use, and transportation funding.

As you're all probably aware, the governor's prosperity council is examining strategies to support economic growth, expand the tax base, and strengthen Oregon's business climate.

And land use is expected to be a key part of that conversation as it relates to the availability of housing, industrial land, the development of clean energy projects.

And so we will definitely see some policy reform when it comes to issues like it like permitting, zoning, um incentives, and so we'll want to examine some of the potential areas of engagement for the city, any opportunities or any impacts.

Lastly, transportation funding.

So on March 19th, I believe the governor um announced the transportation vision work group, and they are tasked with um developing a long-term transportation funding plan and um creating a 2027 package that supports public safety, economic development, affordability, and really just transforms the state's transportation future.

Um and so there may be a chance there to advocate for a transportation-related capital funding request that fits into one or more of those categories.

Um so hopefully some of this information provides some context and can help identify some opportunities or any areas of engagement.

Yeah.

Any questions?

Questions for Leah.

Just quick one.

Um over the weekend when we're at Pendleton, uh, we saw the list of folks who are making up that transportation committee.

Um if you want to abstain for this one, you can.

Uh the members of the committee, is this is it a bipartisan or is it lean toward one side?

Because my concern is if the governors pick a whole bunch of Democrats to come with this package, we're gonna see the same thing again.

Not knowing all the individuals in a list.

Um I'm assuming some of you you might know more than I do.

Is it both sides of the aisle represented in this committee?

Um mayor, I would say yes, although we don't really have a clear picture as to who is involved in those conversations, and so I don't want to misguide you, but hopefully there is a broad range of voices in that table.

Okay.

I'll also add mayor that um beyond the the makeup of that committee.

I think the governor has drawn a line on saying um she does not want anybody with an existing stake in our transportation system on that visioning work group.

And what I mean by one of these names.

Right.

So what I mean by that is you have you know, for for the city representation, you have a former mayor.

Yep.

For the county representation, you have a county commissioner who is not seeking an additional term.

Um that is different than the subcommittees she has announced, and we think that the subcommittees are gonna be more of where the meat and potatoes type work gets done, and the visioning committee is supposed to, you know, provide clear direction on this is where we're going to go.

What you just raised though is a really fundamental question, which is the um you know the legislature passed a transportation funding package, and it was um really might the minority party pushing it to voters and quickly succeeding in getting the signatures that they needed.

And so anybody who's working in the space is asking the question of how are you involving the minority party.

Um and we don't have a clear answer to that yet.

Right.

Thank you.

Any other questions on this?

Right, continue.

Yeah.

I think we're gonna turn to our colleague in DC.

Hey there, everybody.

Hey Greg, how are you?

I'm well, thanks.

Um good to be here with you this evening.

It's only 8 30 here in Washington, so bright and early.

Um, but I do appreciate, I don't know if all of you were aware we were supposed to present this uh during one of your regular council meetings, and I think we were told that we might not be on until sometime around nine, eight 8 30 or 9 o'clock Pacific time.

So I appreciate this early opportunity to visit with you this evening.

Um I am here to in partnership with uh my colleagues from Oregon to talk about what's going on in Washington.

Um, in terms of the way that we've uh sort of presented this information to you, we're following more or less the federal agenda that we worked with you all uh to put together for 2026.

Um we had a number of items on there, and I'm gonna kind of run through a little update on each one of those.

Um first one on the on the list was to support funding for the Riverfront Park project.

So certainly we did that once the city identified that that was the project that we wanted to move forward with.

Um we began to aggressively help the city package it.

I think that was sometime in maybe January, if I recall, so not that long ago that we finally uh decided we were going to move forward that project.

We worked, you know, to package the project, gather all the information.

It's quite a lot of work to go ahead and submit these uh projects to members of Congress and to the senators to try to get their support for it.

Um, you know, before I get into details of where that project stands in the process right now, I'll tell you that I thought it was a good project.

I didn't see any red flags.

We certainly would have suggested that the city pursue funding for something else if I thought that um or if we collectively thought that it wasn't going to have an opportunity for success.

Um, you know, I think it it it meets the key parameters for the program that we were targeting.

Um I have worked on other park projects, including this year for other members of Congress, and they seem to uh have gone well, and yet this project to me was was better than some of those other ones I've worked on on behalf of other clients.

Um so I'll just say that I think the River Park Pro Riverfront Park Project is going to be a real great project.

I know you all already know that.

You've done a lot of work over the map past many years to get um other funding sources lined up, and I I congratulate you on that.

Um, I think it's gonna be really transformative for the city.

You know, it the federal funding that we were seeking is gonna be last in funding as opposed to first in, which I thought was really compelling.

Um, you know, it's really going to support a number of key constituencies within the community that um will benefit, whether it's the senior community, whether it's low-income folks, it's gonna create uh sort of a help create that downtown core that you all are looking for in the community.

So again, I just I can't reiterate enough how uh sort of strongly competitive I felt this project was.

Unfortunately, um Congresswoman Salinas decided not to request funding for the project in the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process.

So I'm disappointed to report that.

I know that um you all may know that already, um, but you know, it pains me once again to admit that that's the reality.

Uh so we have some work there to do still with her office to try to um garner support for projects in the future.

But but again, I thought it was a high quality project.

We haven't yet heard now whether or not the senators uh will support it or not.

I will say that that it's possible that they do, and they may very well um support it because for all the reasons that I've already described.

Uh, but I will say that it's it's typically not the kind of project that they tend to support as frequently in the Senate, um, at least amongst Senators Merkley and Wyden.

They often are more interested in housing projects for this type of funding opportunity.

Um but having said that, it's still possible that they could support it.

So we'll find out more within the next month or so.

We're gonna spend a lot of time over the next couple of months trying to work with the city and with you all to help develop new ideas for projects for next year.

Um, we're gonna get started quite a bit earlier and make sure that we involve the Salinas team uh much much earlier in the process so that they can be a more active participant in helping to determine what they might want to support on behalf of Tualeton next year.

So we're gonna we we've definitely learned some lessons from this.

We've we've engaged extensively with their office on this project and and sort of heard their recommendations for how they sort of want to be approached with with ideas in the future, and so we certainly are going to abide by that and work with them more closely next year.

Um, also to mention we still had this 65th in Borland um project allocation from last year that Congresswoman Salinas did successfully get on behalf of the city.

Unfortunately, it was a relatively smaller amount of money, only she was only able to set aside 250,000 for that project.

Uh so unfortunately, the city is likely or or is declining those funds because by quote unquote federalizing the project, uh you'll actually make it much more expensive than the 250,000 we'll cover.

So we've begun to talk with her office about that as well and try to explain to them uh the different well try to explain to them that it just is not going to work in the city's favor to accept those funds, but certainly we appreciate her support in having gotten that money.

Um moving on.

We also had uh as the next item in the the city's federal agenda for for 2026.

We're certainly actively supporting the community development block grant program.

So in FY26, Congress did maintain funding for the program at $3.3 billion nationwide or nationally.

Uh so the city should ultimately receive, as well as you know, the surrounding communities, a relatively similar amount of funding that you've received in the past for that program allocation.

Uh once again, the administration has recommended that in its 2027 budget proposal that they submitted to Congress, I think earlier this month or late last month.

Um, they recommend zero dollars for the CDBG program.

They also propose to eliminate a number of other programs within HUD, including the home program, which you may be familiar with, as well as some others.

Um, so we're actively pushing back against that to work with your congressional delegation uh and others throughout Congress to reject those cuts.

And I do anticipate that Congress will be generous again and likely support the kind of funding that you all are looking for for that program.

Uh moving to the next slide, going um.

We also have uh the community fueling infrastructure program funding that you all got for uh what is known locally as the tank up project.

So I believe that was in the 16 million dollar range, if I recall, although uh I may be getting that wrong, but I know it was a substantial award that you all got in partnership with many of your other uh neighboring communities to do um charging infrastructure throughout uh the community.

Um Department of Transportation and many federal agencies have been frankly not allowing these funds to proceed in a variety of ways, not just for things related to charging, but for things across the spectrum of the federal government.

I don't have to um inform you about that.

I know you've seen the stories about ways that they're holding up funding.

Um we did recently help the city write a letter to a variety of key uh congressional legislators to highlight a recent judicial ruling that basically said that what the administration was doing was illegal uh and that they can't do it, and we are just simply trying to break loose these funds um as effectively as we can.

I will say that relatedly, but not exactly the same, the Department of Energy just let go of billions of dollars of funding.

Um, off the top of my head, I can't recall exactly how many billions, but multiple billions.

So there is still hope that this money will come loose at some point.

Um, you know, the administration basically says that they're just taking a fine-tooth comb and really reviewing all these projects to make sure that they sort of meet their priorities.

But um, you know, we're doing everything we can to encourage them to let the funds go, acknowledging that they're for a very valuable purpose in the community and that they were lawfully uh authorized, appropriated, funded, etc.

etc.

So we want to break get those um out the door into you as quickly as we possibly can.

And so we're gonna continue to work on that.

Um, another priority that that the city identified earlier this year was to support the railroad crossing elimination program.

This was a program that was created in the bipartisan infrastructure law that was passed during the Biden administration.

You might be surprised to learn that that that law is actually expiring at the end of September of this year.

And so, with that expiration, actually, the railroad crossing elimination program would also expire absent additional activity from Congress.

And so we've been working with Congress to uh express ongoing support for that program.

That's important to you all because we need that grant program to be available so that when you're ready to address uh one or more railroad crossing um you know challenges in the community that you'll have a federal funding opportunity from which you can actually seek funding to help address that spot that that creates problems uh you know for transportation and whatnot within the community.

So Congress has to reauthorize all surface transportation programs at the end of September.

It's gonna be a very challenging lift to do so prior to the election.

However, again, whenever that does happen and they do reauthorize all those programs, we want to ensure that the railroad crossing elimination program uh is a program that is reauthorized and extended so that you all have funds that you can seek.

And then last but not least, we do want to continue to support local government's ability to offer tax exempt municipal bonds.

Um as part of the one big beautiful bill act that passed last year.

We were concerned that Congress could take away the ability of local governments to issue municipal bonds.

That would also obviously cost the city and therefore taxpayers more money in order to generate revenue for for big projects.

Um thankfully, the one big beautiful bill act did not impact uh municipal bonds.

So we were able to maintain their tax exempt status.

That's great.

But I will say it's not unfortunately the only potential threat.

Congress is actually working on another what's known as a reconciliation bill.

Um, and they're gonna they're gonna potentially want to pay for portions of it.

And when they want to pay for things, they have to sort of find offsets.

Umfortunately, taxes and municipal bonds could be something that they look to again as a way to raise revenue and therefore pay for other spending that they do through these reconciliation bills.

So it's something that we continue to monitor, um, continue to highlight the importance of municipal bonds to to Walleton and other communities across the country.

Um, so we'll seek to continue to maintain those.

Um, just in terms of briefly, I you know, I don't have a slide on this, but you know, what we'll be working on.

I've already mentioned that we're going to uh be working quite a bit on new project ideas over the coming year.

Uh we're gonna have um some of you come out to Washington in September, if I recall, to help us talk to the delegation about some of these project ideas so we can get their feedback as to what they think might be most what they might be most willing to support.

You know, certainly we're gonna do that very closely with the Salinas office, but we also want to involve the Senate offices.

Um, we're gonna continue to work on the transportation authorization bill.

We're gonna continue to maintain funding throughout the the federal funding cycle for the community development block grant program.

Um we've got a whole host of things that we'll be working on.

There's always other things as well.

One of the things that we brought up to your staff recently was related to the revamping of the opportunity zone program.

So while that's not captured on your agenda, it's something that I think is an example of the kind of activity that we're engaging in on your behalf on a routine basis, you know, always trying to pay attention to what's going on in Washington, how it might relate to Tualaton, sharing that information and then having a dialogue about how we can support your interests.

So I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and um chat about any of these issues in more detail or anything else you might have questions on.

Thanks, Craig.

Questions for Greg on the federal level.

Wow, you must have covered it well.

No questions, Greg.

Thank you.

Appreciate the time to be with you all tonight.

All right.

So back to uh Tyler and Leah or Megan.

Yep.

So I knowhere nearing the end of our time on this topic.

So just really quickly, our plan moving forward to get us prepared for 2027 is to start talking with you all about potential capital project asks, our funding requests more generally in June.

Um we're having internal conversations and reviewing our capital improvement plan project list for the next cycle.

So we should have some ideas, but want to have a larger discussion with the city council about those to see what feels right, what matches up with what we've heard from others, so that we can come up with a short list, so not a singular project, hopefully, but a short list of possible options.

Uh, next we'll come back in July to have a larger brainstorming session with the city council with the goal of trying to figure out some of those policy themes that you've identified over the last couple of years, as well as potential items to include on a legislative agenda, and then to come back again in August with a draft of the legislative agendas for both the state and the federal level, with the goal being to pass both of those agendas before we hit September, because as Greg mentioned, we've got a few folks on council planning to make a trip to DC in September to begin those conversations, and as Tyler and Leah mentioned, that will be uh legislative days in Salem as well.

So that timing is good to start pitching things on our agenda, both funding requests and otherwise.

So I had just a couple of other quick things.

As many of you know, the Capitol has been under construction for a hundred or so years.

They're having a reopening reception towards the end of May on the 28th, if anybody would like to head down to Salem to celebrate.

And then the League of Oregon Cities has uh they've done this for the last few years, but a road show with their president.

Um, and that is coming up in June on the 17th.

They're doing two versions of that.

One will be in person in Tiger and one is virtual.

But the key thing to keep in mind with this president's meeting is that they are reviewing their municipal policy.

It's been quite some time since they've updated their municipal policy, and that guides their lobbying efforts at the state level in particular.

So it's a great topic to weigh in on, particularly as we think back towards our involvement with the League of Oregon Cities over the last few years.

Um, all of their policy committees are also looking at the municipal polity as the phase two of the policy committee work.

So I'll leave it there unless there are any other questions for me or the throne run team.

Okay.

Council Brooks and Council President Pratt.

Um I'm curious, is there a way to tease out any transportation needs from the um riverfront park project?

Possibly.

Yeah.

Um there's the trail connection component of the project, which we have to do because of funding we received from Metro, but also will be transformative to the area.

Um so I think the major question related to that project is timing of when the funds would actually arrive and whether it aligns up with our construction timeline.

So it might be too late in the cycle for another federal ask.

It's also kind of hard to make the same ask, even a slightly different version of it, but on the state side, definitely.

I think that's one of the projects we should consider.

And what about for doing the entrance to the boat ramp and things like that?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think chunking it out in different ways could be a great strategy.

Okay, thank you.

Council President Pratt.

You pretty much answered my question.

It's like uh we gotta know for now, but are there other ways we can approach just to get some funding for the riverfront park?

Yeah, um, I'll add to I know that uh Dustin and Kira and the Parks and Record team are looking at a variety of funding options, including grants at the state level.

So perhaps it shows up on our list of priorities, not in the like an earmark on the federal side or a um Christmas tree bill ask, but it's a specific grant program ask for the funding for that project, either as the whole of the project or a component of the project, as counselor Brooks pointed out.

Not that it's um uh related to state or federal, but uh Dustin just told me that our team submitted two million dollar nature and neighborhood grant asked to Metro for the for the riverfront park.

So we're trying to piece together funding from a variety of different sources.

But yeah.

Thanks, Megan.

All right, thank you, Elf.

All right.

Uh next up on our agenda is a food cart pod discussion.

Uh, Teresa.

Welcome.

Good evening.

Organized clicker.

Quill is coming up in support.

All right.

Okay.

Good evening.

Teresa Montalvo, Planning Manager.

Um I will just jump right in.

If you give me two seconds to get my food carts.

Um, see if I can use this clicker here.

Did I do that?

Okay, I guess I guess not.

There we go.

Wait.

Okay, I think I did.

I think I figured it out.

I was going the wrong direction.

Okay.

Um, so just a little uh roadmap of what we're gonna talk about tonight.

We're gonna go over a little bit of the background.

I know I wasn't here for a lot of it, but uh spent a lot of time reviewing some of the tapes and other discussions y'all have had.

So um we'll talk briefly about what our standards are right now for food carts in the city, um, some best practices.

We've met with a variety of peer cities to talk about what their ordinance allow and some pitfalls and some opportunities.

And then we'll talk briefly about two different approaches, what we're calling a market-driven approach, and then a city supported model as well.

So just kind of a little bit of a background.

Food cart pods align with our vision and council priorities, chiefly in the space of a thriving and diversified economy, as well as vibrant and accessible gathering places.

We found that there was overwhelming community interest in food cart pods near in downtown and near parks.

A third of the respondents surveyed considered a food cart pod a must have.

The study also identified actionable ideas based on community feedback.

One of those was circulation, which strived to create a connected downtown linkages between small businesses and various other destinations, one of which could be a food cart pod, and then activity, which was got designed to increase shared spaces, specifically mentioned food cart pods and their ability to combine food and people and activity in one in one vibrant location.

Some additional background, there was discussion among council about finding ways to permit food cart pods in the downtown area, as well as expanding it to other areas of the city.

This kind of looks like a long list, but it is very limited in many ways.

Chiefly the allowances are in the around the light industrial and manufacturing spaces.

Let me see, I want to use this because I have it now.

There's a little bit of allowance in the commercial general, just kind of hugging 99W.

And then we have a little bit in our medical center zonings there as well.

And then we have a bit, and I'll speak to this a little bit further in the Basalt Creek employment zone.

But very, very limited commercial opportunities.

Where are they not allowed?

Of course, you'd as you would expect in the residential zones, which is all that kind of yellow and tan color.

But then you'll notice that there's a huge swath of commercial, various commercial types of zones where currently food carts and food cart pods, of course, are not permitted.

So what are our standards?

And this is where we we really differ with, as you probably are aware, a lot of our surrounding communities, because not only are we limited in where we allow them to be, but a big driver is we only allow one food cart at a site at one time.

So when you kind of, I wasn't here when this all came about, but you kind of look at where they're allowed, chiefly industrial and manufacturing, and you have one cart per site.

So you can see it was kind of like to support those types of businesses.

You could bring in a cart, have folks have access to lunch without having to leave the site, that type of thing.

They're only allowed on paved surfaces, not gravel.

Um you do have to uh no obstruction of vehicle areas or pedestrian areas.

They must be self-contained, so they must have their own water and sewer, um, so kind of a self-contained unit, and they must provide uh garbage and recycling for patrons.

Um there is an allowance for a food cart pod in the Basalt Creek Employment Zone.

This the zone allows for one pod with up to 10 carts reviewed through an architectural review, but there again, it is also limited, it must have frontage along Graham's Ferry Road and provide screening from public view.

So that's the only place in the city right now that you can locate more than one food cart on a site at a time.

So local regulations for food pods for pods.

What we found in our research is that the majority of the jurisdictions in the metro area have what we're calling a market driven model.

That is it's food cart pods are use like anything else in the code.

Their codes say where they can go, how they're supposed to be developed, and then the market could come in, anybody wanting to develop that and do so, much like you would have an office park or a manufacturing park or something of that nature.

There's some variations for the scale of development and the number of carts permitted.

So each jurisdiction generally sets some parameters of how many carts make a food cart pod, how many carts are too many, right for a site.

All cities require carts to be on a paved surface.

I know this was a subject of discussion in the past.

There's quite a few reasons for that, chiefly is accessibility.

I think we all want these to be destinations.

So we I think allowing it to folks of various abilities for folks with strollers, folks in wheelchairs, that's one of the chief reasons.

These are also also vehicles still, and most jurisdictions, including Twilighton, require all parking spaces to be paved, and these are vehicles essentially parked somewhere.

Some cities require covered pavilions or shelters.

So and you'll see the next slide.

Usually there's some requirements to connect to services, not always.

And then always there's some sort of setback and screening requirements.

Food carts are a challenge because they're everybody's codes are designed around focusing on buildings.

You have building setback, you have building height, you have where buildings can go, all these different things in our code.

And food carts really threw everything for a loop because they're nothing says where cars besides hey, you got a parking space in your parking lot, that's where your cars can go.

So that's why most jurisdictions write very discrete design standards for food cart pods so that we can dictate what they're gonna look like so that they don't impact surrounding properties.

We contacted more locations, but you can see across the top Beaverton, Happy Valley, Sherwood, and Tiger.

Um of these jurisdictions save Tigered have the market-driven approach.

Um Tiger does have both market-driven and a city supported, which I'll talk about a little bit more in a moment.

Um as you can see, a variety of zones where they're allowed, all of which though include their commercial zones, and then some include their various types of industrial or commercial.

There's some variation between permit types, largely most of them are a type two review, which would be a staff decision with uh notice for surrounding property owners.

Um Happy Valley has some go to a type three based on size.

So if they're if they achieve a certain size, then they have to go through a type three with a hearing.

Um Sherwood is a bit uh conservative.

They are they all require a conditional use permit, and they are considered a type 4 review.

You can see the commonality that they are all required to be on a paved surface.

There's a mix of utility allowances, both self-contained, which is showing up here as temporary, and then more permanent connecting to city services.

And then we get to some of the design structures.

Some say you need to have site-built permanent restrooms on site, um, and then for instance, Beaverton and Happy Valley allow you to have a like a portable restroom based on the size of the food cart pod.

So if you're only going to put three on a site, maybe they it's okay to drop drag on a like a I shouldn't say honey bucket, but like a honey bucket.

Um that was the first thing that popped in my head.

Um, and then there are some in the jurisdictions that say um Sherwood chiefly that you're required to have a structure on site.

So they wanted this to kind of be a destination where like maybe you have a restaurant already in a structure and then you have a food cart pod in addition.

So there's so there's some similarities and a and a wide variety to create regs that more closely fit with various city goals.

So a market driven approach.

We have heard we kind of tried to do a little bit of research internally.

And I spoke with Sid, a lot of uh food cart developers have reached out to him.

So we've heard from interests from five or seven private developers, um, we've soaked into five of them.

Um that a market-driven approach would be responsible, as I said in the beginning, to um council goals and visions.

The the caveat with that is it would be market driven.

So we might say this would be a great site for a food cart pod, but it would be subject to whether someone chooses to come in and pursue it there.

We'd have a little bit less you know, ability to direct where that goes in some ways.

Um but I would say that once we um pursue that route.

If we if we hear from you tonight that, like, yes, we want to pursue some design standards and things, it's a one-time thing.

It goes into the code, it becomes regulated, very similar to all other uses in the city.

So it's it's kind of a something we know how to do.

We just need to craft these particular regulations with your guidance of what we want them to look like.

Um I will also note that, as I said earlier, because they're not buildings, we do need specific design standards for them.

So even if we were to kind of pursue a city-driven approach, right now we don't really have any good tools to say what are they gonna look like city, how do you want them to look?

So, in any avenue we are lacking in that area right now.

And these are just a couple guidance just slides to show different ones in the region.

I think you're probably all aware or familiar with most of these.

Uh we have the BG food cartel in Beaverton.

Um, that's one of the largest in the area.

Um we have HV Station in Happy Valley and then Oregon City's OC Brewing, which is an example of being with a site-built business and then extending on to have a food cart pod with that.

And then the city supported model, which is really interesting.

We did a lot of research and talked to folks.

Um we found uh different but somehow city supported models in Tiger, Eugene, and Milwaukee.

Um, all of those programs are run out of their economic development divisions.

Um I would say that to in order to establish a city supported approach, we would need uh the code, as I mentioned, updated to provide standards and zones where food cart pods can go.

Um we would need first future work sessions to establish a program, and I'll talk about that more in upcoming slides, but it would require development of a program, likely a funding source, and then figuring out staffing for that approach, what that approach could look like.

The model in Tiger, it was very interesting.

Um what the city did there, I would note they first did have their food cart pod ordinance in their code and their zoning code for like a market approach.

Um, and then they kind of went a little bit further and they purchased used food carts and developed basically a city supported incubator model.

Um so they that that model they um get reduced rent for a period of about 12 months.

Um and they also get a variety of other economic development support for if they want to kind of move on to brick and mortar and things like that.

So they do get quite a lot of support from the city in that in that response.

That's the Universal Plaza.

I'm sure you're all probably very aware of that site.

Um Eugene has a city supported model, then they have um two sites where they permit food carts and in downtown parks.

And what that model essentially boils down is is that you can rent a site in that and bring your food cart to those parts, and they do allow you to connect to some services, they have the um maintenance by their facilities team.

Um when we talked to Eugene, I think one of the bigger hurdles for food carts in this program was getting the necessary insurance that the city required.

So that's been a bit of a hurdle for them for that.

Um and then I would just briefly, Milwaukee's basically the same model where they have a park and they will rent out spots within that park.

So brings us to questions, and what we were hoping to hear from you is whether or not you're supportive of us going further and developing and expanding where food cart pods can go in the city, including design standards, um, and if that is something under a market-driven approach that you would like us to do as our next steps, or if there's some other approach you would like us to explore.

Thanks, Teresa.

Questions for Teresa and or Quilla.

Council Brooks.

Thanks for the presentation.

Yes.

My first, I guess my first question is when some of the conversations that we're having with the downtown redevelopment has to do with public space.

So for an example, like if there was ever food carts around that pond or whatever, that would be something that I imagine the city would have to rent, unless you so I mean I can't see it a different way.

So is that the would still still be?

Can you clarify that the city would have to rent the space or the you mean the carts?

Not the carts, the space.

Because you said one of the full-owned.

Yeah, because it's not because it's so would that be a city centered?

Like I'm not saying work with MISO and help somebody start a pod.

Yeah, that would still be a city supported model.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would um for myself.

I'm curious about learning more about that, especially with how we're looking at different land use opportunities and the downtown core, and might be a good stepping stone for um how that moves forward in my mind.

Um wouldn't want it to be like off the table, even though I'm very interested in best practices and market-driven models, and I've been familiar just with some of the trainings I've gone to with like you know, having an anchor and all the things that help support it be successful.

Um then my other question is just because the consultant brought it up, and then we had this great presentation at the LOC conference just last week about these um small retail opportunities.

Would it be a time to do them at the same time as far as design standards if we were gonna do like mini pod retail opportunities?

Um I have a great article to send.

Uh I'll send it out to everybody.

They're so adorable, and um just from the arts committee alone, they the artists always talk about not having a place that is rent-friendly enough for them to be able to um do things, and there's a lot of people that always are looking for more local businesses, and it could be another way too of um increasing circulation, as you guys said, and um entrepreneurs getting a little bit of a stepping stone.

Uh anyway, that th that those were my two.

Okay.

Yeah, and so to your first question, I I think that's a really good point to tie it in with the downtown revitalization work.

Um that's one of the reasons why we didn't want to pursue too much of the city supported model at this point because in those um CAC, the community advisory committee meetings, there has been well, the group's going through all the recommendations that came out of the identity study and everything that U of O is doing, but there has been a lot of discussion around um food carts.

So we kind of didn't want to get ahead of what that group wanted to see.

So I would expect that there would be some kind of recommendation coming from that group around food carts in the downtown, what whatever that may look like.

Um and then on the to your second question about the the retail, the like the small retail opportunities.

I guess I'm picturing kind of like what they have at Saturday Market, like the little booths where people sell stuff.

Sort of, but these were like adorable little sheds.

They're almost they're like very adorable.

They're not.

So if that's something that the rest of the council wants us to look at, we we could pursue that.

It might um I don't know if we'd want to split up the efforts or make them part of the same effort, but that's something that could be.

I just wasn't sure if it would make it easier or harder um if it was a future opportunity, especially since the consultant had brought it up, but I'll send it out and then people can consider it.

I'm just those were my two thoughts around that.

And I don't want to put a proposal before the CORA group at the same time.

If we're gonna be considering options, I think that staying flexible is good in case the core group would like that.

Councilor Nazal.

Thank you for the presentation.

I've been looking forward to this information.

I I would be interested in the pod the pod model effect, you know, where you have a centralized bathroom either support supporting it.

I would be very concerned to have the food carts be opened up and all of a sudden they start showing up throughout the city throughout the various places on sightly.

Sure, we have them now and it's very limited, which is fine.

But I would be wanting to make it a destination point.

So downtown Corda near the river, near the access, a place where people can walk to off the Green Ray Trail and then move in, or somebody can drive.

So we would have to identify those locations.

Work with an emperor.

It also could be an incubator system for a potential business that starts off there and then moves into something else as well.

Um but I would be interested in what council uh brook said about the little small little stores.

I think I've seen those.

It would lend to the the vibe, you know.

I also sometimes feel that the pod situ the pod model it was very popular during COVID, but it almost feels like we're a little bit late into the game, to be kind of honest with you.

Sure, we have the river front, the other cities don't, and that's where we can probably leverage to create a more welcoming destination walking distance off the river off the park, hit the food pod.

But it does feel like we're late into that game.

So Councilor Reist and Council President Pratt.

Thank you for the presentation and for um doing surveys.

Um I am also interested in the um more of a place where it's a destination versus having uh you know all over, just on one here, two there everywhere.

So I think I I would like to say, oh, we're we're going to downtown to the to the food cart area or something like that.

So I'm interested more in that.

Um I also feel that um having an the ability to have like uh the restroom in one, you know, it will allowed for people to have like an area where they can just there's a restroom, but not like having little honey buckets everywhere because that's sort of the fear.

If you have a one of those, then you'll have to have a honey bucket here and then all over town.

We don't want that.

I I don't at least I don't think we want that.

Um I also feel uh when the the city, the market-driven, I kind of like that idea up because I don't know how long the Cora or whatever uh we're doing in downtown area is gonna take.

So I feel like people are waiting to hear now what do we want to do.

So if we have correct me if I'm wrong if I misunderstood, the market driven will be uh say for instance a private developer gets the land and then develops and then they manage and we just we we make sure.

And then the other, which is city supported, would be us providing, which I feel like that will bring in a lot of uh uh work.

Not that we are not here to work, but a lot of the like we might need to designate someone to monitor that.

I feel like it's gonna be a lot, but I don't want to discard it either.

And I want to like maybe in the future when the core is really like developing the core area, then we can have like a designate, like the city can support that in so in one way.

But if we want something now, uh I think a private developer would will maybe the fastest way, in my opinion, but I may be wrong.

Um so the approach I like, but I also don't want to I don't wanna I don't want us to not have the city supported uh approach as well, especially once we are ready to develop in the core area.

Um I do I I enjoy the presentation.

Thank you very much.

And um, so that's kind of like my thought.

Yeah, I I guess I don't want to, but I don't I don't want to wait that long, I guess to to have a scarea.

So if a developer's ready, I would uh to create something that's nice like in Beaver Tin or these the one in um Westlin.

I mean there's something like that ready, then I I will support that.

It would it would also seem that like if we do a good job of creating a a regulation that results in a destinate the design standards to create a destination pod and a market driven approach, I would think once the downtown revitalization works done, it'd be pretty easy to take that model and kind of morph it into something that's a city approach.

So maybe it's a a stepping stone in that way.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

Yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say.

Council President Pratt.

I'm gonna play off that because I'm generally want market driven, but I know on the CAC we've been there there have been suggestions of putting it in city owned parking lots, for example.

So is if can you kind of have both like maybe start with market driven?

I think that's what you're implying there.

But um, and if we did that, could it be be a way where the city basically just leases the or leases the land, not I don't want Sid sitting there overseeing food car pods, but like we're private market driven people could be potentially on city space and use the spaces at a possibility.

I mean, I I think that that's that's a possibility that we just lease it to a there's there's a variety, and part of our work will be interviewing different, you know, food cart pod developers.

Right.

So I think there could be a an opportunity to say that oh, you know, if you would like to lease this land for however long and and use it for that purpose.

Yeah, okay.

It that would be a a little less in labor intensive as far as having to totally manage the program.

I believe that's how Beaverton works.

Okay.

Okay.

And then um as to locations, um, I agree we we don't want a food pod on every corner.

But I do think like we could it'd be nice to have one downtown, but I know we have that area in um on 124th, so I'd like you know, I think there could be more than one destination with smaller pods, like there's where you've got a lot of working people, we want to keep them off to all and surewood.

They probably a lot of people that will work there will probably have half hour lunches, so that'd be nice for them.

And I know um our friend at the garages with like a couple over there, and that's pretty far from downtown.

So I would want it to be a little flexible, but also yeah, I don't want them in every corner, you know.

And I think that's something that in our research we've seen that each municipality has struggled with in a future work session for us would be what's the right size of one.

Um that one the one slide I had for Sherwood.

If you want to build a food cart pod in Sherwood, it has to be at least five carts because they wanted a certain size.

Um, but in some of the other jurisdictions, um, you know, one more than one food cart is a food cart pot.

Um so it's kind of figuring out exactly what how we want to.

Um and then as to those little, they were like little, it was really cute.

They were little shacks and um they were shed, so sorry.

But they were like little incubator spaces for people.

And I know that's being talked about on the CAC that ideas come up, so I think that's maybe um a separate issue for the future, but not too far in the future.

You might end up in a design part.

Yeah, I believe I believe it will end up in the design part because it was pretty popular.

Other questions.

Council Sacco.

Thank you.

Um I do uh support the the market-driven model.

Um one of my questions is if we um I guess how you kind of answered this, but I didn't I guess I'm just looking for a little bit more of an in-depth answer of uh how labor intensive is it to split up the two market-driven versus city supported.

And my only fear is that as Councillor Gonzalez said, relate to the game on this, and will it delay anything if we don't do both of uh both the codes together?

Will it will there be um you know will it push us out even further with the the things that we're doing with the CAC?

Is there efficiency in doing it all together?

I I don't think so.

I think that doing the market approach, which means um location design standards, how many we have that information and we can pull that together and put it into the code.

I think um if we go to a city supported model, then it's um which model do we want to do, what kind of hybrid version fits us, what department does that land in, do we have the staff to support it?

So I I think if we do them together, then yeah, it it drags it out.

But I think if we can get this done, then we're a little bit closer, and then we can kind of answer all of those more questions.

Okay, thank you.

And then I guess just some comments.

Um I'm on the um sort of the Excel slide of the the table.

Um I'm in support of uh permanent restrooms um and also a a structure because I think that feels more a destination, but also we live in the valley and rain is a thing, and I want to make sure that this is something that we can use year round.

And I want to make sure that this is something that we can use year round.

I mean, I'd hate to have an area that we put time and effort into, and then it's only able to be used during certain times of the year, which I'm sure the businesses would feel the same.

So I lean towards uh sort of structured required um to make sure that that happens.

Um I also really like the idea of the sheds.

I know that's sort of a little um subcategory here now.

But um I've seen them and they were in the civilist report, and I think that they're great, but all for fast tracking um the market-driven food car pods.

Um and it's been a big topic in the idea committee as well as a community gathering space.

Yeah.

Okay.

Council Hillier.

Thank you.

Um I think most of my questions have been answered.

This was a great presentation.

Um, so um kind of I know this probably should have been asked sooner, but I just I see the change in the services.

Um we have constrained budgets and my worry about fire and police services, like is are there more calls for service?

It's probably a ridiculous question, but I feel like it needs to become a standard question whenever we're looking at changes to things in our community.

Um, so that's just one kind of something I'm thinking about, not that I'm asking for an answer for, but but a concern I do have.

Um, and I did hear you speak to the liability or the insurance needs of the individual vendor, owner, uh, how however that will look, and that and that makes me happy.

And hopefully the permitting process would um uh fund the permanent restroom, because I am also in favor of um a permanent restroom.

However, I do like how uh Maple Valley has it in some way, like it's different for the different sizes, assuming that we may um stage it that way.

I am also in favor of the uh fast tracking anything market driven.

Um I guess my thought about the purpose.

So I think I'm thinking about the purpose of the food carts, right?

It's it's to bring community together, it's also to create um, but but the community doesn't only gather in the core area or our future, you know, destination spots.

Um we have the Basalt Creek area, we have I mean, there are we're kind of all divided in the community, and I don't know if you've spent any days and days on end with loved ones in the hospital, but you get sick of hospital food, it'd sure be nice to have like I saw space over on that side, like even if it's you know, we start as as this grows and the code allows, maybe there's some that are a five, some that are a three, or uh or whatever.

I I'm not an expert, but I do think it's important that we consider different parts of our community, and you know, we're trying to grow the accessibility and walkability, walk and bike and all those things.

And if it's only down in the quarrier and we force people, that that doesn't that doesn't feel good to me.

And so um that's just something that I think that we have to consider is is the purpose only to bring it downtown.

All that said, I'd really prefer that we do it well instead of just a smathering here and there.

I don't think that is a good look.

I don't think it's effective, it's not good for the business.

It's not good for all those things.

But I do so just being thoughtful and purposeful about where people where people do gather.

So and and some sort of maybe relief to traffic when high schoolers are going out to lunch, you know, just thoughts.

So thank you.

That's right.

Yeah, just um for to counselor Brooks and Pratt since they've seen these sheds.

Are there for um it's so it's for their for them, sorry.

Are they like for like market like the like Saturday market kind of people can go and bring in their fruit or veggies and um they could be crafts or small businesses and they could be temporary, like someone could use it for like someone might have a Christmas shop or yeah, like call posts very similar, like a pop-up idea.

So they'd be these permanent sheds, the city would build probably, but then different people could use them here, and they would bring like if you were in the quarry or close to the quarry at least, you know, it would bring people in.

Okay, and bring interest.

Little store outside stores, little little shops.

Okay, well, thank you.

Yeah, that's all.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Right.

Uh I concur.

Let's look at the market-driven fast-tracking marking driven, um, kind of like what Tiger did.

Let's getting market-driven done first, and then look at a city support model.

I think the city support model be looked at under Cora, same as the small retail sheds, uh, because that's been a discussion, and maybe we'll land in the when we get to the design of code that you know that's when we can implement it.

But also like as Council Hill you were saying, you know, the allowance of different sizes of food pods because if someone has to buy land.

I don't want to, you know, if the land only supports four pods, you know, four trucks versus ten.

Let's allow a different variety of those kind of um facilities.

Um again with design standards and make and having them look nice like Councillor Gonzalez says.

Uh but we because we already, as you mentioned, uh you have five people willing or very eager to build some here in town.

We had one come to city council already who has a spot ready to go uh and just needs to code updated.

So I'm seeing full speed ahead, it sounds like from all of us on the market driven.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

All right.

That brings us to uh gender review uh city managers report and round table.

I have Councillor Gonzalez is up for a pledge of allegiance tonight.

All right.

And then I have four proclamations.

Uh first one being uh mental health awareness month proclamation.

Who would like to do that one?

Oh, uh National Prevention Week, I'm assuming no shocker there.

Yeah.

Uh police and last one is public surface recognition public service recognition.

All right.

All right.

Uh uh any questions or concerns about the items on consent tonight.

We have only two.

That's that's short.

Not seeing any there.

All right.

Uh what else?

I think that's it.

So I'll go ahead and we'll start with the round table.

Uh can the city manager speak well enough after the dentist?

They weren't able to fix my problem because my blood pressure was too high.

I imagine that.

So anyway, I've got a sore tooth.

Um let's see.

Uh we're doing budget work.

Uh the first committee meeting, of course, is May 11th, your next council meeting.

It will take up the entire uh work session.

Uh the document is off to the printer, so we're we've done our internal internal work, and um we're excited to start those committee meetings.

So uh the the draft document, right?

Not the final document.

Uh the poll center work is continuing.

Um it is we're rounding the the bend.

Um programs are being accommodated in the Van Raden Center, and we have found out that it um it we're probably gonna continue to use the Van Raden Center on an ongoing basis because it's additional capacity and it's working out really well.

So excited about that.

Uh we are under contract to demolish the piece of the house on the Matthias property that well, it's our property now, the the development commission's property that we purchased from Dr.

Matthias that's across from the Grange that we had uh talked about before.

So um it's um an attractive nuisance at the moment.

And so we completely abated it uh for what it needed to be abated for, and you'll see it coming down most likely this week or next.

Um we are looking at installing a um calling it a dog run is probably too um too fancy for a term, but a fenced-in area on the um the lot next to the police department, closest to the neighbor, the house, the little red house that's next to the police department.

Um that would solve a couple of issues.

One is um our canine units do not have a place to go off leash, and so that would provide a nice space for that.

And it would also give some distance between uh the backyard of that house and the yard where I mean the area where we allow um camping um for homeless individuals.

So it solves a couple of of issues, and we would be able to pay for it through uh forfeiture dollars.

Um so um that have very limited um ways to spend.

So it solves a couple of of issues and we would be able to pay for it through uh forfeiture dollars um so um that have very limited um um ways to spend so um it's not very well um it's not we're not under contract for that yet, but um it's something that we're we're looking at doing uh our photo red light camera on Twilight and Sherwood Road in Avery, which has been out of service for well on going on three years uh now um is back up and installed and um starting in May, so the whole month of May, it will be um the warning period, and then starting in June, we'll be back to um to ticketing.

So um beware.

Um the sidewalk backlog project, we are starting to notify homeowners.

Um this is a two-year program, and we will be at the May 11th meeting to award the contract and to give you an update, but we are starting the um the homeowner notifications before before we get the contract award.

Um anyway, the it the two-year program, the first year will be in the south end of town, and so um if you live in the south end of town, you will most likely get noticed uh if your sidewalks are impacted.

A couple of other things.

Um we had a very successful Earth Day um event on last Friday.

70 volunteers joined us uh to remove invasive species, mulched native shrubs, planted a hundred native species along the Twileton River in both community park and sweet pond.

Uh thank you to our partners, Friends of Trees and Twilight and Soil and Water Conservation District and the Mighty Parks uh team and Kate, our volunteer coordinator.

I I mentioned that our team has submitted a two million dollar grant uh request from Metro for the Riverfront Park.

Um I believe we're gonna try to get at least our our rep, uh Garrett Rosenthal out on a walk, and maybe other Metro Counselors will invite you and um hopefully you can come when that gets scheduled.

Um the ribbon cutting, of course, for Parque Las Casitas is this Saturday, and um hope to see you there.

I believe it starts at two o'clock.

Yeah.

Um we've been busy, uh, the parks team has been busy improving the safety and playability of our athletic fields.

They've been re-leveling bases and adding red clay top dressing to ensure a great spring sports season.

And then finally, um, I got little uh buttons to hand out.

Tiger Library reopens tomorrow, and their staff dropped off a big thank you basket, and including these fun.

I survived the tiger library closure.

Um and um we have certainly seen an uptick in visitors, and so it was really nice of them to um come and give us some some goodies.

So thank you.

I'm gonna go switch things up and start with Councillor Sacco.

Thank you.

Um we had the idea committee meeting um last Monday.

Um and uh majority of the uh the meeting um we discussed the committee discuss the spring and summer engagement opportunities.

Um so look for the idea committee out and about um this spring and summer at um events near you.

And um we also debriefed on the Grand Ron Field Trip.

Um I believe now was in November um time frame.

Um but our agendas have been very packed.

Um so that group great gave it a debrief and um talked about you know just um really engaging with that community and strengthening those relationships, um, which is really great to see.

Um secondly, um I would like to ask um on behalf of the idea committee um that we um have a proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and that that be read on May 11th, the May 11th meeting.

And if there's a majority to put that forward.

Didn't we used to do those?

I thought we had uh previously it's like our second.

But I thought we'd done it in one of the routine.

We've been uh working that the committee has been working on it.

Not in the last two years.

Maybe longer.

I'm fine with it.

Yes.

All right, looks like that's the majority.

Thank you.

Councilor Hilliard.

I have nothing formal to report.

Right.

Councilor Riz.

Um not formal, but uh community event that we went to was Councillor Pratt and Councillor Brooks uh on um the Saturday.

It feels like a long time ago.

It was just last Saturday, but it was a community event for to listen on several things that I'm gonna ask uh Councillor Pratt to speak about.

But it was just uh it wasn't just us, but it's several state representatives were there.

Um I believe some federal representatives like uh Salinas was representative was there, and county, and uh it was at the San Anthony Church.

Um, and it was a pretty good event, it was well attended.

Um we were I was there representing our our um council, our city, and um yeah, so it was really nice.

It was great.

Uh we have food and nice time to come together and and talk about our issues in our community.

That's all I had this last couple of weeks, so thank you.

Thank you.

Council Gonzalez.

I don't have nothing formal report other than I am working on something.

Uh I know, mayor, that you're on the Gritter P the Greater Portland Inc.

Council.

And I'm gonna be hosting.

I know Governor Kotec had convened the prosperity council, so I will be hosting a licident session.

Uh this is in downtown Portland where we all agreed that that because of what happened to Portland, it affects all of surrounding cities.

So in conjunction with the Greater Portland Inc., I'll be hosting one of those and leading that discussion.

We already have 70 businesses already confirmed to be there.

The guidelines are very clear.

Um, you know, it's it's about business and regulations, and we're gonna I'm gonna curate all those notes and then send them off to the council.

I've asked three of the prosperity council people to be in attendance.

Uh they've agreed as of right now, but that could change, but for right now that's what I'll be working on.

Okay, and we're looking to have that on the first or the second week in May.

Do you have a date?

Yeah, we're gonna have a few we're working on a few because we're waiting for the prosperity council people to confirm, and I have three dates, and it's so conflicting.

So of course it would originally was gonna be May 4th, uh, but that has since changed this morning.

Thank you.

All right, Councilor Brooks.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um as Maria said, Um, I was at the St.

Anthony's Action Assembly on Saturday, the 18th of April with Council President Pratt and Council Reyes.

Um I just want to say that Danny, who runs the um I think it's called the Social Justice Group, um, did a great job in gathering speakers um as well as different advocates throughout the community in the space of housing and also um immigration.

Um the Tiger Police were there, the Sheriff's Department was there, um uh State Senator Niran was there, um Metro Council uh month Metro Councillor Rosenthal and uh Juan Carlos Gonzalez were there, quite a few people were there.

Um I learned a lot, which it was mostly um um community members who were speaking, and then there were some very particular asks.

Um and one of the ones that was the most touching to me was a woman from Tualeton, I think she had worked in our school system that um whose uh apartment was damaged during the ice storm, and three years later the ceiling almost fell down on our daughter and it was full of mold, and then the apartment building, I think evicted them without any written anything, and they couldn't access any of their documents or papers or materials.

Their things were packed up.

One of the stories that things were packed up.

I don't know if they ever saw them again.

The other one, the stories they couldn't find the things for quite a while, and then they finally accessed them.

So pretty um powerful um things that are just going on right here and right in in Tigart, and um I'm looking forward to working with um our the people you know, us and the other of coming up with ideas and you know uh anyway.

So that was that.

Sorry, it was very uh powerful.

And um and they're just doing great work over there at St.

Anthony's, and then um on the 20th.

Oh, I had the mayor's call, and we discussed city stuff, and he's healthy.

I also had the Twilight and Arts Advisory Committee at six on April 21st, and that's a Tuesday night.

We discussed where they we've selected the art and the places for the um wraps.

There's some proposals around just looking at the policy.

There's something in the um the direction of the committee that really hasn't been explored much.

So we're gonna be looking at some ways of of looking at what the art committee um diving more into what their role is, and then we also um oh welcomed uh new member.

So it was very a very good meeting and looked at the um the fill for the um whatever we call it, the little logo logo, thank you idea.

Then um I was at the Pendleton, the LOC Spring, they're calling it the Springs Umposium this year, but it was basically a conference.

The uh village idea I mentioned, um the presenter's name was Becky McCray, and her program's called uh Save Your Town, and uh so there'll be more information that you can look at from the link.

Um and then one of her her big thing was streamlining things.

So instead of creating committees that take months and years, um how do you get people's ideas um fast tracking without creating a lot of extra bureaucracy, reducing the bureaucracy, and um letting ideas sort of flourish in the community more easily.

So um she has a book.

I picked it up, so if anyone's more interested, let me know.

And um then yesterday, oh there was a an event, and I bring it up.

There was an event for um the benefit of the Twelleton River Keepers that was a choral um event.

But the neatest thing about it was it had pictures of the Twalton River, like film behind it.

So there was all this beautiful music, and then images of our river, and it was something like it was so great.

Um and I just thought I wish everybody at this council was here right now because it was such a it was just amazing, and then also just from being here, it's like I know that log and I know that, but some of these images almost look like a painting, and the videographer is very generous, and so I I just wish there was a way I could um get it to you guys.

Anyway, that's it.

Thanks.

That's a present print.

Um first on the um 15th.

I went to the C4 Metro meeting.

Um we got Metro updates on the regional transportation plan, and there's five criteria, but the big one is safety focus.

Um they got a feature vision update, and um that's um Juan Carlos is leading that, and it's um looking at our the values of our the people from our region and future planning, and then um we um got an uh thing on a land banking study, which is interesting in its buying up like brown fields and unused lands, and then the ideas to um make it ready for development or buying like old apartment buildings, for example, and updating them for use, but um the part that's not really clear is where the funding comes from to do all that.

Well, we shall see, it's a great idea.

Um I went to the Byron CIO meeting, I did the website beta test, which was really kind of interesting, and then um what else?

Oh um, oh the LOC conference was great.

I there was a lot of um, yeah, a lot of focus on attracting participation from community members and how to get we had um one session um where they had some college kids there too, and the whole idea was talking about how how to get younger people engaged in not only like running for council but serving in city government roles and taking an interest in that.

So that was really interesting.

Um and then oh yeah, I'm gonna go back to St.

Anthony's.

So the thing we went to the assembly, it was um focused on trying to help people with immigration issues, such as work permits and helping them with the process and also on um helping people that are in apartments and getting help.

Um there was an ask for money, which everybody, I mean the city house was a hundred thousand dollars.

So nobody um said right out they give them the money because that's you know, it was higher amounts for other levels of government.

But um we we are um going to have meetings to look at other ideas of what we can do to help with some of the other counselors and commissioner Snyder.

And my ask is if um in the future, once we're more prepared, we could have a work session to have this brought to us to talk to.

So if I if anybody would support that.

So it's the work session on.

They want they want to come and they they requested a presentation to one of our work sessions.

Yeah, so they give a presentation.

But we want to do it once we have some potential solutions and ideas of what we could actually do.

So we're not at the point of scheduling that work session yet.

No, it's just agreeing that we can have one at some point in the future.

Right?

Yeah.

All right.

Uh I want to thank all the folks who beta tested at the library on the 15th, including Council Hillier, who's sitting behind me.

We beat up the website pretty good.

Um, and very much appreciate people taking time to do that.

Some um people really dug in and did some great testing.

Uh later that day I did the rotary presentation of my last one of what's going on in the city.

Uh, then I went to a WEA board meeting where GPI presented basically what GPI does and how GPI can work in conjunction with WEA to help promote business growth in the region.

And I ended it today, ended the day at Sherwood with their stay of the city.

Uh Mayor Rosener did a fantastic job.

And his words, his favorite word is amazing.

Michelle Sherwood is amazing.

Uh JPAC was on force six on the 16th.

There's a couple things uh highlight there.

Um Greg mentioned that the federal surface transportation reauthorization is due in September.

Uh it does it's a five to six year program.

Um the current service transportation package expires on 9:30.

There's no draft bill yet.

Uh as Greg was mentioning, they might try to kick the can because of politics and election times.

What they've been hearing, uh, they being at lobbyists, is that the uh Republican Party would like a smaller surface transportation reauthorization act, getting back to basics.

Um there's no timeline yet on how or when they're gonna get to this.

Um but they're also talking about doing formula funding versus discretionary grants.

So um they all want to speed up project delivery, they want to streamline permitting regulations and review criteria.

They also realize that the highway trust fund revenues are going down, so new fees will be required.

They are looking at EV and hybrid fees on the federal government in lieu of gas tax, possibly a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollar registration fee, uh possibly a wait mile tax at the federal level.

Uh because right now the way the fund is being used, there'll be no dollars left in it by 2028.

Yeah.

Uh we were alerted by NLC about the basics act.

Uh, that is incorporated into the service transportation discussion, and that's about the safety of bridges and maintaining our bridge safety.

Uh the Multnomah County gave a update on the Burnside Bridge update.

Uh they have 60% design is to be done by May of 26.

They're starting the process of submitting permits and getting land use approval for the Burnside Bridge.

Uh fiscal year 27.

I thought this was interesting.

They will get an updated cost estimate of how much the bridge might cost.

Uh right now they are estimating it's 1.6 to 1%.

Recording stopped billion dollars.

Yeah, you didn't want those numbers to go out, did you?

Yeah.

So it's 1.6 to 1.8 billion dollars for the Burnside Bridge.

Yeah.

Uh they've decided on the design, that inverted wide design that looks very nice.

Uh the reason for the cost being so high is the cost of concrete and steel plus labor.

Um they're assuming they would get this done by the fall of 2033, but no surprise uncertainty with the feds to help get the funding done of this project.

Um and then TriMet gave a presentation.

And then TriMet gave a presentation.

Oh, by the way, the bridge turns 100 years old in May, the Burnside Bridge.

Finally, TriMet uh was proud to announce that their trip planner now includes shuttles and C Tran into uh their scheduling system.

It's a soft launch right now, but it's pretty interesting that yeah, you can plan a trip and it'll tap into ride connection system plus C Trans system so you can do a complete trip, not just the TriMet part.

Uh later that day I went to Hazelbrook to present for two uh classes of career day.

I was loving that a whole bunch of kids had City of Twalton swag walking in there.

I guess they saw they went to the library.

Some kids went to the library, some police some folks went to the police station uh to see what those careers are in city government and the police department.

Uh on the 20th, I went to the state of the city at Wilsonville hearing what their vision is and how they're where they want their city to go.

They are very proud, as they should be, of their permanently affordable uh facility that's built on the smart parking lot that has roughly 100 units in it once it's completed.

Uh league of Oregon City's Pendleton.

Uh interesting thing for us was uh council uh Brooks and I were driving home together.

Fortunately picked a stop into Dallas for gas, and we stumbled upon their Cherry Festival.

So we were stuck in the Dallas for a while and got to watch their parade of over a hundred entries, but it was fantastic.

I mean, the streets were lined with kids.

We uh Council Brooks and I were just mentioning back in the days when we used to have the Crawfish Festival, these kids were getting pelty with candy.

It was better than Halloween there.

Uh but some really cool floats uh from businesses, private organizations and stuff like that.

But uh it was kind of cool to see the Cherry Festival, and we had to wait the parade out before we could leave the Dallas.

And finally, this morning I did Mayor Monday on Coin TV.

Uh they brought up, we discussed uh my uh term limit and the state of the city.

We discussed housing in Twalton, and uh we talked about Cora and downtown revitalization in Twalton.

All in three to five minutes, and Mia, I was used to you know, I'm used to doing it with Trevor and Emily, but it was you know the new host is Emily, so it was Emily and uh Mia doing their hosting, but it went well, I thought.

So, with that, we have a whopping five minutes left.

I'll go ahead and close this work session and we'll reconvene in five minutes at seven o'clock for our regular city council meeting.

Thank you.