I'm gonna hold off for a moment.

Six months.

I said one.

Do you want to call it to order?

She said we're recording.

Ready to go.

All right.

All right.

Good evening, and welcome to the July 13th, 2026, 12th to City Council work session.

We had some IT issues.

Are we streaming or no?

Yes.

Okay, we are streaming.

All right.

We are working on some IT issues, but we're going to change the work session.

Um subjects.

We're going to swap them.

So the first thing up tonight is our 2027 legislative agenda development.

This is going to be led by Megan George along with our team from Thorn Run.

Welcome, Megan.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

I'm Megan George.

I'm your deputy city manager.

And I've got a whole team with me here today.

So in addition to myself, we've got Cody Field, our policy analyst at the city, and then three members of our lobbying team from Thornrun.

So Dan, Leah, and Tyler.

We're going to do a bit of musical chairs since five is too many to fit at this table.

So you'll see me, and then you'll see them, and then you'll see Cody, and then you'll see me, and then you'll see them again.

Just to let you know where we're going and why we keep dancing.

So we are here this evening to talk about the 2027 legislative agenda.

Um Cody and I were here a couple weeks ago to begin that discussion specific to funding requests to include on both of our agendas.

And at that time, we explained why, even though it is only July or June at the time, we are already beginning to talk about our priorities.

So for tonight's presentation, we have two sections.

The first section is on that 2027 legislative agenda.

And within that, we'd like to talk about themes, priorities, bringing back the funding requests, and then draft timelines, um, which are versions of what you've seen previously.

So that's the first part of the presentation.

Our goal is to collect input and initial insight from council on those lists, but not necessarily to finalize the lists.

We will be back before you in early August with the draft of the state agenda based on tonight's discussion.

And in between now and then, our team at Thorn Run will be having conversations with our various representatives so that we can get a more refined look at the project specifically.

The second part of our presentation this evening has to do with the League of Oregon Cities legislative priorities.

So at this point, the League of Oregon Cities has sent a ballot out to all 241 cities in Oregon asking for their top five priorities for the leagues board to include on their list of priorities entering into 2027.

So we'll show those on the screen, I think, um, at some point, if not there in your packets.

Um if you can access those via our website.

Um we'll review those and get some initial insight from Thornrun and allow council time to discuss initial thoughts, with again the idea being that this will be the first conversation, but that we'll bring it back in early August for you all to continue that discussion.

So that's the plan for this evening.

Um I'm gonna invite Dan, Tyler, and Leah up to the stage now, and I'll be close by.

I do have we came with paper.

We don't uh you're not the only ones that struggle with IT.

We often struggle with IT ourselves.

So uh thank you.

It is music to my ears uh to hear uh the work that's being done in advance uh on legislative agendas.

Um my uh if it is a goal of my professional life, it is to get clients thinking early uh and work hard towards a legislative agenda.

It makes all the difference in the world.

Most people assume that our work is um uh in session work or uh while Congress is in session.

And the fact of the matter is the good work is done in the interim.

And and so this this type of a session, the work that we have is is really critical.

And I thought I might um to oh, we're still working on it.

Um there's there's a themes page in your deck uh that we'll get to um that I thought might set the table a little bit about why do we have legislative agendas generally?

Um some ways they are um uh in in uh sort of blueprints, and other ways they are vision documents.

And so it's a little bit of both in that regard.

Um it's really important uh for us as your team to understand the themes that most motivate you in the legislative context, both at the state level and at the federal level.

That allows us to evaluate, look for opportunities, looks for liabilities in ways that we know that you've set the direction of this is where our interest is, this is what we care about, uh, in other areas uh where we may monitor, we may let the team know uh here at the city what's going on, but we won't be focused.

It allows us to really pinpoint to make sure that we are uh we examine everything to narrow it down and and and show you the different pieces around it, uh, everything from how we track legislation, we you know there are thousands of bills, uh and we'll we'll mark which of them we think are of particular interest to Tualeton, and it does you no good, it does us no good if all of them are of interest to Tualaton.

Uh it also does uh very little uh makes very little progress if we don't have a good sense of what's most important to the city.

And so that's why these themes are really important, and that's more of the vision document.

There's nothing that is set in stone as new issues emerge that we may not have talked about this summer or even this fall, we'll bring them back to the city.

We'll we'll say you need to consider this, think about it, opportunities.

So it's not a set in stone type of document.

On the other hand, and the the process that you've already begun that you'll continue to uh move along towards is really around projects.

And one of the reasons, whether it's a project or if there's a particular policy issue that it looks like the city needs to be the sole leader on or the primary leader on, we start that work early.

Uh you socialize a project, you make sure that it's ready to go in terms of its advocacy, you build the material, you talk with the stakeholders, you do that with a policy issue if you're going to run a bill as well.

You go find sponsors, uh, you do all that work that if you wait until January for our state, or you wait till January for a federal, you're going to be too late.

You're going to be scrambling, you won't have put the effort you wanted to forward.

So, in some ways, these legislative agendas help direct on the pieces that need to be set in stone, what it is that the city is pursuing in a really specific way.

And so it's a little bit of both the blueprint and the vision statement.

And that's that's big uh the big um sort of overall view on those.

Um, we're gonna walk through a few slides that talk about the different themes that we have had uh in the previous years, and you should be considering which of these do you want to continue?

Which do you want to carry over?

Are there some that are still relevant?

Are there some that are more of a prioritization?

And then are there new themes?

And we'll talk a little bit, um, we'll go back and forth a little bit between the different pieces on what's what is relevant moving forward that may be slightly different, uh, but also what has maintained the same momentum, and you can you can uh sort of rip off of that a little bit.

All right, we're now I think on slide four to catch everyone up if we're moving, and we'll I'll turn it over to Tyler.

Uh thank you for having us tonight, Council.

Um, Tyler Jansen, Senior Vice President with Thorn Partners.

Um want to speak with you a little bit about your adopted 2026 uh themes.

Um it is not shocking to me uh as a city government that your themes that you adopted in 2026 are quite far ranging because the services you provide are quite far ranging.

Um to opine a little bit off of uh what Dan just mentioned.

These themes are really helpful to us in three key ways.

Um it helps us know where we can be opportunistic on your behalf.

Um so often sessions uh by virtue of the state having 4,000 plus bills and an upcoming long session, uh, no legislator has the capacity to know all things about any one topic area, and so they tend to piecemeal those uh and you might end up with a work group that is meeting on something like, for example, serial meetings, right?

We might know uh just having this broad array of themes and some sort of lanes that that we sort of have the bumpers around on how is Tiwallatin feeling about that particular topic gives us the flexibility and the direction that we need to be your advocates when those opportunities arise.

Um so having this larger list is helpful and then working with Megan and Cody uh on your behalf to figure out where those bumpers are uh for where we might be able to go, it's helpful as well.

Um the other two areas where these broad themes help us are, and Leah will speak to this a little later in the presentation, is with the tie-in to the League of Oregon Cities and their priorities, it is helpful to know where Tualatin might want to amplify some of those efforts, where you might want to be gently pushing back on some of those efforts, where you might want to be going in a different direction.

Um third, uh these themes really help us figure out where we need to play defense on your behalf in Salem.

So recognizing when and where something might become a third rail, for example, in transportation, if the state were to kick something like revenue sharing with local governments out of a package, that one is fairly obvious.

We know we would spring into defense on your behalf, but for some of these other themes as you work internally with your team to flesh out a little more detail around what these mean, that guidance is very, very useful to us.

There is nothing in reviewing your 2026 themes that I see as no longer relevant.

You are still a city government, you're still providing the all of these services to all of your community members.

So it really is just coming up with a little more focus on what are the maybe priorities within that theme or what are the things that are keeping you up at night within that theme.

And all of that is helpful to us as we are your advocates.

Think of this as sort of the peripheral vision, and then we want to stay clear-eyed and moving forward on the priorities that you identify.

And I know we're going to be speaking about your capital project list in just a moment.

Moving on to the next slide.

On priorities, I want to speak a little bit about sort of the zeitgeist of what we're seeing in Salem, and I'll kick it over to Dan to talk about what he's seeing out of DC.

In Salem, three major major themes that are emerging, and they in fact line up exactly with your 2026 state agenda.

Transport package continues to be the driver of all politics in Salem.

It is the topic that the legislature wished they could quit and can't.

So I will just say the dynamics as we sit approaching 2027, having started this conversation in Salem in 2025.

What was just demonstrated through the, if you'll recall the short history, was passing a package in 2025, or failing to pass the package in 2025, I should say.

A special session where a package gets passed.

Quickly having to the governor asking that that package be uh cancelled.

Uh passing an abbreviated version, and uh uh Republicans led by Senator Bruce Starr and Representative Ed Deal successfully gathering a flurry of signatures on short notice, um referring the package to the voters, and then it going down, I think 87%.

Uh the legislature still recognizes that they have a fundamental transportation problem on their hands, and what has been demonstrated through all of that is that uh this has to be a bipartisan package.

Um with all of that in mind, um there are uh a few things that keep local governments up at night and keep me up at night on your behalf.

The first is in a world where nobody's going to get everything they want out of a transportation package.

It remains really critical that uh revenue sharing with local governments be maintained.

Um as much as you might hear everybody say that is not on the table.

It was put on the table at one point in 2025, so you have to remain diligent and trust but verify and make sure that you are ready to spring into action on a moment's notice if we hear anything different.

That is the dynamic that is happening with transportation.

They are at a stage right now where they are determining the contours of what counts as core service for the state's responsibility of transportation and what doesn't.

There is a work group that was convened by Governor Kotech, uh, this visioning work group, uh which is meeting and supposed to deliver a final set of recommendations in December about what to do.

Uh, so it's a set of recommendations from this work group to the legislature, encouraging them on what they might wish to do, uh, and to the governor on what the direction that they might want to take.

I will flag uh from an expectation management standpoint.

One of the challenges with the prior effort on transportation funding was how late the package itself got unveiled.

Um, and this feels uh very eerily similar to in terms of a timeline.

Um with that in mind, uh I will say uh all of us have met recently with uh Senator Bruce Bruce Starr, who appears to be heading the the Republican side of that negotiating table, and he remains uh very clear that he wants to see a package across the finish line, he just wants it done in a bipartisan fashion that addresses some of his caucus's concerns.

So he has been very consistent.

So that's transportation.

Uh the other big two priorities that are going to be facing Salem really it's it's uh budget, but the way that that is manifesting is uh what the state is going to do about its Medicaid budget in particular.

There was a really good breakdown recently in OPB where uh an advisory committee was put together to sort of examine how you might go about balancing the Medicaid budget, and there is no there are no easy answers.

Implementation of HR1, I think in the biennium that is upcoming is expected to cost the state something like 420 million dollars.

Uh that doubles by the time we're in the next biennium in uh 2029.

So there are really challenging choices about who gets covered or uh the level of benefit uh that of what that might take.

If you read through that article, those are choices like dental care and what is the level of that benefit.

Um the reason that this is so challenging is that Oregon really expanded as much as it was possible under federal law uh to cover the Oregon Health Plan.

Um, with those federal supports going away, um, there are really really difficult choices to be had in Salem.

Uh what that means globally is that um in prior sessions when there were more abundant resources, there was a little more siloing of general fund and lottery fund, and uh you could afford to play with with the color of money a little bit more.

Um from the recent conversations we've had with the co-chairs, they they really are seeing every dollar, the butt for question being what could this mean for the Medicaid population?

Um so it is going to be um tremendously difficult uh uh budgetarily this session, um, and it will grow so to be even more difficult in 2029.

Um, and that is the fundamental problem that they are grappling with.

Uh the third major priority that we're seeing out of Salem, again, there was another large published uh advisory committee on this effect.

The prosperity council has been taking a hard look at economic development.

That is really uh the governor putting together uh a committee to look at how to expand Oregon's tax base.

Um that uh stakeholder group put together that that had uh representatives largely uh business representatives.

There were some uh labor representatives there as well.

Um put together a list of 10 recommendations, I think at a very high level, those are things like targeted tax relief, uh industrial site readiness investment, which I know Twalleton has been supportive of in the past, um uh replacing Oregon's climate protection program with a cap and invest program, looking at some sort of targeted regulatory relief.

Uh that prosperity council report just came out at the end of June.

Uh it was delivered to the governor.

It's sort of unclear at this point which pieces of it she may take and run with, which pieces of it she may task the legislature or legislators to run with, uh, and which pieces groups may want to run with on their own.

Um to the uh extent that it is going to be a large uh theme in Salem.

Uh it may behoove the council to take a look at those recommendations and uh determine if, like I suspect perhaps industrial site readiness might be something that uh to Walleton may be supportive of, but taking a look at that uh recommendation list and figuring out if there are areas where the city may want to spend some political capital as part of a coalition pushing those forward.

Briefly in Washington, DC, it's uh there's never a shortage of news.

And uh the uh with uh uh sudden passing of Senator uh Graham and South Carolina um over the weekend, um the status in the Senate remains even more uncertain.

Uh his sister was appointed uh to replace him for the rest of the term.

Um in a close um incredibly closely uh held Senate and even more closely held House.

Um it is uh again each of these news cycles produces some level of um uncertainty about what the what the future may hold.

I'm gonna uh sort of speak largely in in some big issues, give some updates, uh uh sort of prognosticate a little bit, um, but but really um it is um it's an election year.

Very little typically happens in Congress in election years.

Um there are very few legislative days left in this year.

Uh and so the the work that we have to finish is important.

We'll continue to spend time on that, but building towards the future ends up being really important.

And because there is this November election in which uh what is on the other side of it is unknown.

Uh I think we prepare for all kinds of different scenarios as we think about the the city's agenda.

Uh but big big picture um there are some important pieces that are supposed to happen this year.

You'll recall the bipartisan infrastructure law is now up for expiration.

It expires September 30th, which was a historic investment in transportation and in larger sets of infrastructure.

I think by all accounts, we expect it to be a much smaller package, regardless of who wins in November.

We don't expect uh the present Congress to actually finish this work.

We expect there to be an extension that moves it into the next Congress.

The uh regardless of who controls uh the chambers, um, it's going to be a smaller package.

It was a it was a historic package, it will be narrower in scope.

Um the uh the House did uh clear out of committee its version of the the bill, uh which they called Bill 250 in honor of uh the 250th anniversary.

Um by and large, local governments responded somewhat positively to that draft.

It was better than I think many expected it might be.

Um it included uh continued some programs, the Safe Streets for All, uh included the build program, which local governments have historically liked.

Uh there is uh more attention on directing as many funds uh to local governments uh as possible.

Um there's some uh mixed reviews on on transit, but uh overall a smaller package and uh by and large um uh not uh there was a thought that a lot of the programs that local governments benefit would have been eviscerated, they are not.

Um there's still progress.

It is um it is a starting place for the next Congress.

We uh no one expects this bill to pass.

The Senate is a long ways away from uh from considering it, but it is one of the pieces that will be a dominant theme in the next uh year into uh if if we're lucky uh in that regard.

Sometimes it takes even longer than that.

We have longer extensions.

Um of the news that um on HR 1, it is ruled out.

Um Tyler mentioned um uh a little bit about its impact on the state.

Uh, another area besides Medicaid that that we've already seen some numbers is in SNAP.

Uh Oregon reported in the last legislative days that roughly 10% of those cases uh had been reduced.

Uh so there was about a 70,000 individual drop in in uh SNAP participation.

I don't think we really understand who those 70,000 are yet.

I think folks are working on that.

Um but uh it is already beginning to uh to affect Oregon.

Um that is becoming a theme.

The Medicaid SNAP uh as folks look at the election and seeing what's going to happen and the consideration uh of what the agenda will be.

HR1 sits in the backdrop there, and depending on what the election looks like, um it could be a dominant theme of either unwinding some of that or remedying what happened.

Um so that really that's gonna be election dependent, but it is a big issue in that regard.

Um one of the pieces I think will end up being the signature piece of this Congress actually just quietly passed over the weekend without a signing, uh and that's the road to housing, the 21st century road to housing, uh, which was uh a really uh remarkable bipartisan uh legislative effort that required a lot of sacrifice actually, uh not just bipartisan among people that disagree, but also between the two chambers, the House and the Senate, uh, which also disagreed uh significantly on that.

Um because of some of the politics around the the SAVE Act, which is the um uh election legislation that the president uh has demanded, he refused to sign the bill out of protest, um, which means it passed without a signature uh because a certain amount of time passed.

Um but it's something that we'll want to continue to monitor from an implementation perspective and see if there are pieces there that are of interest to the city.

Um there are there's uh there's gonna be a lot of rulemaking that happens as a result of that.

So it's it's still not clear how those programs will will roll out roll out.

Uh but that that ended up being a significant piece of uh of sort of the really the last two years, and um it's it's actually a shame that there wasn't a ceremony over it because it uh it really was it marked a uh uh an unusual agreement.

Uh another area of of successful bipartisan work in the last few years has been in the appropriations process in which many of the bills have gotten done and passed.

Uh this year we're a little bit slower.

Um, and again, I mentioned the election year, it makes it more difficult in election years to pass these.

Uh the House uh has cleared all of virtually all of it, not all of it, virtually all of its uh work.

The Senate has is very slow to find agreement on this.

I don't think uh any of us expect that this will be wrapped up by the end of the fiscal year, September 30th.

All of this extension ends up putting a lot of pressure on the lame duck session of Congress, which occurs after the election.

Um there are always predictions on how how meaningful that will be, how um or not.

And and I would say it is you'll know after the election.

Um it it could be a meaningful time of getting work done.

Uh it is uh it looks a lot different when you don't have uh a presidential change.

Um but uh we'll we'll see what happens there.

But a lot of it, whether it's I don't think anyone thinks that transportation would get done in a lame duck session, but something like uh uh finishing the budget could get done in a lame duck session.

Um the but the issues that DC is really talking about right now that um will continue to be the news, whether it's immigration, Iran, um the AI is a dominant um and data centers a dominant conversation like it is here in Oregon.

Um, you know, uh the the uh country continues to be thinking about housing um and and then there's a lot of work around questions around um inflation and affordability context.

Many of the themes that you feel in Oregon are themes that are sort of really beginning to dominate uh in DC.

Um that's that's really what we're looking at as we're we're moving into uh into this next session of Congress.

Um that's the two surveys of of where we are.

Um I think happy to answer questions around those, but uh and I don't know whether we do that now or later, but it's also um I think it's in that context, you should think about the themes for your priorities that that you consider.

So turning now to um the 2026 state legislative agenda uh that you all adopted.

Um I'm going to be brief because your state legislative agenda that you adopted in 2026 really does align quite neatly with uh the state priorities that I just opined on not too long ago.

Uh transportation funding, give housing and human services and support opportunities for economic development.

All of those are still incredibly relevant.

If I could add um a couple of uh observations on each of those, I would say on transportation funding, that not only is the the local government revenue sharing of paramount importance uh and finding a way for the state to actually figure out how to finish the major projects it committed to in 2017.

Um I would put on your radar uh uh somewhat uh wouldn't say just serving is too strong a word, concerning rumbles about accountability.

Um so uh what I have heard uh from the the governor's transportation visioning work group from the chair of that work group has repeated in multiple settings, multiple ways, that if uh local governments are getting 50 percent of the state highway trust fund, what is the state doing to ensure the you know the sanctity of those dollars, how are those going out.

Uh what I think a lot of legislators don't realize, and which any local government lobbyists will be educating them to is that in 2017, the last major transportation package, there actually were a number of reporting requirements.

So the League of Oregon Cities and the Association of Oregon Counties have roads departments that are responsible for reporting back to the legislature and to the transportation committees exactly how those dollars were spent, where they were spent.

Um I am hopeful that this could be uh an as simple as an education campaign to bring transportation uh uh committee members who may be new who maybe weren't around in 2017.

In fact, most likely were not.

There has been a tremendous degree of turnover, but bringing them up to speed on those measures.

Um, and at the worst case scenario then would be um having to mobilize a defense against a very perhaps well-intentioned but onerous requirement when it comes to accountability uh for local government funds.

So something to be aware of, um not panicked yet, but yellow flag, not red flag.

Um housing and human services, uh eviction prevention uh does remain a topic of conversation in Salem.

Um there is a strong uh stakeholder group that is advocating continually for more eviction prevention dollars.

I think there is a wide held belief among the housing committees that the most cost effective use of their limited resources is keeping folks who are currently housed from becoming unhoused.

Um so that that remains incredibly important.

I I would also flag that as a city government to Walleton may want to consider housing infrastructure as something you might want to advocate for.

There was uh a 10 million dollar appropriation uh in the last long session for um uh a local government housing infrastructure fund.

Uh Governor Kotec and her first proposed budget had had proposed something like a hundred million dollars for local government infrastructure uh to support housing development.

That got narrowed in the legislative process to ten million dollars.

Those funds are all allocated uh and out uh not out the door yet, but have at least been allocated for it.

Um it is uh uh I think unlike eviction prevention, which has a stakeholder group that is much broader, infrastructure tends to be carried by local government, uh, and it may be worth calling out uh as you think of of ways to be opportunistic with your legislative agenda.

Uh on the note of economic development.

I talked a little bit about prosperity council.

Um, taking a look at those recommendations and figuring out which to put your weight behind uh would be a good exercise and would again give a plug for site readiness, similar to uh housing infrastructure.

Uh, if local governments aren't asking for the industrial site infrastructure, um, there are few who might be advocating for that, Salem.

Pause there.

Next slide uh is the last look uh legislative agenda, which uh if you think other than the funding requests you may do in appropriations uh working in a two-year cycle.

Um by and large, um uh many of these remain uh relevant.

Um the uh so the the transportation piece will continue to be ongoing discussion.

Uh CDBG will continue to um uh be something that you all um uh be looking at supporting.

Um I I think the the municipal bond is um probably uh less in the the uh crosshairs because we uh unless there's a new reconciliation uh which has become the new tool in Congress to pass something without bipartisan support.

Um and so as that is in development, we'll constantly be looking at that, but I don't I don't think it has the same level of uh ferocity around it right now.

Um while this administration is still uh the administration, uh changes to at FEMA are an ongoing uh uh battle.

Um, you know, the opposed cuts to programs, I think is largely a reflection of um what was coming in the reconciliation.

At this point, it is still continuing to keep the fight up in that regard, um, and and new initiatives, but the um that that just has a different quality uh in the implementation side, which is where we spend a lot of our time right now on HR1.

Um the uh uh the community fueling infrastructure is a uh an ongoing it's stuck in litigation um at some level and and stuck in the lack holder's administration stopping a lot of um different programs.

Um we'll continue to be the crosshairs.

Um the the OMB has published a rule that is um uh essentially gives the administration the ability to stop any funding that's awarded uh on almost any grounds.

Um it's been out for a public um uh final notice.

It will get there will be litigation around it.

Um I suspect fully that um like I don't want to play lawyer, but that there have been far less draconian efforts that have been stopping the course, and so there will be probably some course that uphold it, others that don't, and we'll be in the in the uh unknownness that we are right now on that.

Um it is um uh it it changes everything if if it actually goes to final uh in that regard, and I imagine would be rescinded by the next administration, but puts things in a I mean it takes a long time to do one of these rulemakings, and so even if you want to go back and preserve or undo it, it can take time, um, which in extraordinary disruption.

So I think 150 members of Congress um uh signed a letter, there were over 60,000 comments on that rule, most of them opposed.

There's a massive effort uh in opposition around it.

Um but that it's that type of um endeavor where there are mostly administrative rulings uh and implementation of laws that have passed that become the vigilance uh of the moment for local governments on a lot of these issues.

I think we're gonna go to Cody next.

Hello, everyone.

So I'm just going to uh breeze through these projects really quick.

So we since we went through uh background last time, I think we're on the next slide.

Um yeah, there we go.

Oh, actually, could you back up one?

So just uh as a reminder, we want to make sure that these projects line up well with the uh legislative funding cycles where ideally targeting funding that would be the last dollars in terms of you know putting a capstone on a project, not funding maybe a whole project.

Uh we want them obviously to be reflective of the community's needs and uh as uh Thornrunn mentioned the what is in the legislative site, guys, and make sure that the funding request is reasonably sized, so not too small, not too large.

Uh, next slide, please.

Okay, so just a few notes about this list.

Uh the riverfront park construction.

Uh the the request was to uh specifically target state funding there, not uh go back for federal funding on that one.

We have the Twelleton River Greenway Trail, no specific comments there.

Twalton Sherwood Teton intersection improvements.

Uh this is a traffic and safety flow uh additional turn lane project.

Uh we will take a look at this unless it looks like we're going to be allocated uh MSTIP financing.

Um the Nyber Creek Trail, that's a uh uh trail uh extension.

The Twalton Sherwood Road railroad crossing, uh specifically looking at design funding to the railroad crossing elimination program there.

The basalt creek area sewer planning and construction.

This one had uh a little less interest just because we think we have plenty of clean water services STCs available for this, uh although there is that uh infrastructure for uh economic development nexus there.

Uh the A1 reservoir upgrades recommendation was to remove that from the list because it's more of an operations and maintenance project, probably not of interest.

Um the library city offices and solar that would install solar panels on the the roof of the library and um potentially the canopies covering um the plaza.

Uh we had the Twalton City Services micro grid, a little bit of concern there.

That would basically extend our micro hydro turbine project to install a uh a grid here at this building.

And then finally, the project that we had not initially added to the list, but we did after the meeting was the shade structure at Veterans Project.

We thought it would be worthwhile to revisit that project and uh maybe consider it for federal funding.

Um what did you say about the micro grid?

Uh I think there was some concerns about the technology maybe not being far enough to uh advanced or uh not being able to maybe implement this in a timeline that would take advantage take advantage of the shifting um advancements in this technology.

Uh it may be a little bit undercooked in terms of our ability to implement something like this, if I remember correctly.

So I think we're gonna pause.

Um what we're hoping to talk about is the themes, the priorities, and then the project list at this point.

So we've got kind of three chunks, similar questions for each.

Those questions being do you want to keep anything?

Do you want to add anything?

And then on this project list specifically.

So Cody summarized your initial feedback from the last meeting.

Um the team from Thornrun may have some additional comments on specific projects.

If there's a lot of interest from council on one of those projects, I think we'll call them back up to give that feedback.

Um, what we're looking for on the project list at this point is any additional prioritizations since that first discussion.

Um Thornrun is gonna go back to our state team and our federal team and have conversations with both of their opposite offices on the list of projects to see what feels like the best fit, and they'll bring that feedback back to the city council at the point in time that you're looking at adopting your lists of priorities for the year.

So at that point, we'll have tangible feedback and have begun the vetting process on those projects.

Um so again, feedback on themes, feedback on priorities, and on this list of projects, is there anything that really rises to the top that you definitely want to go after?

And do you have questions about any of these that Thornrun can weigh in on from their perspective at this moment in time?

So we'll pause there.

Okay, so let's start since it's up there.

Let's take the project list first and to go back to the other two items.

So comes President Pratt.

Um, I had mentioned last time I was wondering that shade structure for Veterans Plaza, if we could somehow tie it in with the shade structure over by the splash pad and by the businesses, because we have so many parents just sitting there in the hot sun.

And I and I'm wondering, I'm not gonna get into it now, but just if we could tie it into kind of economic development too, and have so people eating their food could also have a shady area over on that side of the plaza.

To go with that, do we expand beyond Veterans Plaza to Council President Pratt's point?

Because most of these projects that get support are somewhere between one to three million dollars.

One shade structure is not that, but if we can make into our shade structure program somehow throughout the city, I don't know.

Because again, we we don't we know it's one to three million, and it's for capital that they're interested in.

And if we could roll out, because we hear about all the parks need more shade structures, public plazas and stuff like that, maybe some kind of citywide rollout of shade structures, tying in maybe with you know the solar panels on top.

They require for CFEC and stuff.

Um quick comment on that project.

Uh so we did have discussions with Greg who's in DC, and one of his comments was that while Congressman Salinas has mentioned that an attractive project for her is in the one to three million dollar range, many of the projects that she submitted last year that did receive funding were actually in the 250,000 dollar range, including ours.

And so I think uh this is a great project to have further discussions with her team locally on so that we can suggest, hey, we've got this project that's around this funding level, it seems like it's getting funded, but we've heard feedback from you that you want something larger, could we add to it?

What's work on strategy with her?

Yeah.

Um, so I think absolutely for both of those points.

Yep.

Others other ideas on a list that because we talked about the railroad crossing.

Again, that's not a capital project.

Do they even fund planning projects?

Okay.

They do.

It's a specific component of that grant specifically.

Right.

Because like I said, I'd we're gonna have to come up with more than one.

We know that.

Show us three plans, not just one.

So we gotta have three suggestions to bring the our representatives uh locally before heading up to DC and stuff.

But going with one is we gotta have three at least.

Council Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Regarding the the the sheet covered areas in that water area.

Uh, what about uh duck control, uh geese control and the mechanisms around that for economic development?

Because you really can't put a picnic blanket down anywhere near that area because of all the geese poop.

Is that a possibility of a project that we can add to that list?

I'm not sure it's a good fit for this funding cycle.

Um we pulled these projects with the exception of the shade structure from our capital improvement plan.

So they're projects that have been in the work and have some degree of planning um and cost estimation completed as part of it.

My understanding of that particular issue is that we still don't know what the solution is.

Um so it's something we can put on the list to brainstorm about in future.

Thank you.

One other um follow-up comment on the federal side of asking.

Um, Greg also submitted that perhaps the solar on the library and the micro good would not be the most attractive type of projects uh for federal funding at this point in time because of the politics.

Yeah, same way.

So on uh the two trail projects, what's the temperature on those?

I don't think we have specific feedback on that now, unless I'm gonna look over my shoulder at Dan to see if he's got a specific note.

He does not.

So that those are things that we could run past her office.

Yeah, because I've tried to remember I'm trying to remember her list of things she thumped up for the last cycle, and I could or it's some trails were on there.

But yeah, the the nuance it seems will be whether they fall into the parks category, which she has indicated she does not want to move forward, or does it fall into the transportation and other um advantages category?

And you get and economic development.

Then you can tie that into EDO also.

The the one thing that I would offer, which is uh I think it is absolutely wise to do multiple projects uh for the reasons we discussed, it is good to have a diversity of those projects.

Um there are certain accounts that are oversubscribed, and there are others that are less.

And if you have in multiple accounts, you have a much better opportunity.

So, for example, one trail project, not two, would be uh probably just one transportation or two, right?

Um think think along those lines.

And then based on the conversations that with the local rep, you know, and couching them in sort of lower subscribed kind of projects and thinking how you can check the boxes for those lower subscribed types of projects.

One additional note from Greg that I can share is that um the the reservoir project, while it does feel like an operations and maintenance project, he thought it might be worth having a discussion with Congressman Zelenus' office about it.

Yeah, it's a CC.

Um with the riverfront park construction, like is that the one whether you we don't know whether that will be part of construct like uh part of uh transportation or it's not economic development or anything like that.

Actually, so that project, because we submitted it for federal funding last year, we don't feel like it's a good option this year because we gotta know once.

Actually so that project because we submitted it for federal funding last year I don't feel like it's a good option this year because we got to know once but we do think it would be a good ask on the state side and in particular with the timeline of receiving that funds as well those funds as well Council Brooks.

Well I like prioritizing the riverfront park for the state especially if there's any question about some of the funding that we get from Metro and I also think the the access and the public in the community partners are two things that are good on that for um accessibility for people with different abilities so I'm not sure if that's what part of the funding is at question at this point.

My other question is around the Cora planning and the new housing bill that some of that money from what I understand is going to be for middle income housing and so is there opportunity there around any planning money or anything that would help us in the CORA for our mixed use that that's my question with the home or with the uh the legislation that was passed I I don't know whether there is um funding available for planning efforts so I'll defer to you um I there may be I think the rulemaking it's gonna be um it'll be some time before we see the rules on that but we'll make sure that we're monitoring for those opportunities.

Yeah I just think that's a good thing to keep our eyes on since that is a big shift in that kind of historic shift um and I think studying the railroad crossing is important um that's it for me so interesting I could want to keep it moving along so it sounds like I'd like Dan's suggestion about three different types of projects obviously not don't walk so you know looking at that list and basically to me you pick one of these trail projects that might be of interest um and then the idea of a lower ticket item lower cost item I kind of like you know the the shade structure that we don't ask for a million if we're asking for a half million you know so to me it would getting that list of three things that has three different kinds of projects maybe three different funding levels and um that address what you know you as you put Cody puts it to zeitgeist of the folks that represent up you know that they're interested in helping us to put across because some of these things are off the list and you'd mention the the miss dip thing but miss dip takes forever maybe maybe put you know maybe maybe put that at a higher priority because misstip could be 20 years away look at how long Twaltishwood road took even though this moves at a snail's pace with federal uh dollars for this it'd be faster than 20 years but then my concern there is to that what happened with 65th in Borlin that we get the money all of a sudden ODA has to be involved and you know we lose control but I know somehow sure would figure that out to keep ODOT out of that bridge project.

So it can be done that's one too that we thought might be a good target for state level funding um because of the potential for a transportation package this next session I said potential.

Potential I obviously got you know with the the state with its funds and a transportation package I don't have a lot of hope of dollars to stuff like this we're on our own for this kind of stuff prison prep yeah I agree with the shade structure and then I'm wondering on the Nyber Creek Trail um because that would go under I5 can that kind of I mean that is economic development because you're giving people access to where all our shopping is I think that might be a good um trail project because riverfront kind of didn't make it and um yeah the the 12 I'm sure would uh or I mean the Teton intersection I just think that's a big safety one that could really make a difference in our community.

And the the reservoir upgrades to me is something where a lot of people don't argue with about about resiliency and emergency preparedness that might that might fly in terms of interest okay I think we've got enough feedback to have those discussions with the respective teams um do you have any up no that also outside to me that's a helpful clarification.

And just for I think Council Brooks kind of mentioned it for the Thorn Run team.

I love the email you guys sent out with the synopsis, if you will, of the housing bill and what passed, and what my eye caught my eye was them poking at CDBG.

And so maybe next time you come.

That's that kind of gets me panic when they're going to be tightening up or more rule making around CD VG.

That we have to keep on our radar.

Council Hillier.

Thank you.

I also would like to ask the Thornrun team as I was trying to go through the housing, the new housing that passed.

There's discussion in there about creating the blighted building to housing conversion program.

And I know that that is, I mean we talked a little bit about the core area that's not obviously for this time because I understand the rules haven't been made, but I would like to get that on the radar as something for us to consider for the future, please.

Thank you.

And I think I mean we're talking the same thing, the whole idea of the housing and opportunity zones in that bill because we're looking up to re-up our opportunity zones, we might have an opportunity there for housing.

Okay.

So that covers the funding asks.

I think we got a little bit of direction on the priorities.

Um maybe a little bit of direction on the themes.

We have exceeded our allotted time for this presentation.

So I I think we can um wait on the LOC legislative priorities for further discussion if that works for you, Mayor.

What's the next legislative days?

September.

September.

So we'll know more of what's on the radar.

Yes.

Yeah, we'll we'll know more tomorrow, theoretically.

But yes.

Um yeah, so uh what we can do is we'll be back in August to resume discussions of the agendas and uh potentially adopt them if council feels ready.

Uh we could also um schedule additional conversations um for more in-depth discussion on these items.

What about the LLC?

We can those are not due until um October, I believe.

Um so we can bring those back at a future work session for discussion and then a future general session.

I just want to put a uh a technology pause for just a second, and um we may have a a little bit of a plan, um, but it would entail um continuing the code, um the the uh clear and present danger code, the clear and objective code.

Um danger, no danger.

Um uh uh continuing that because um we are streaming, by the way.

Um we just do not have Zoom, and we're not able to get sound through Zoom or from Zoom, and so um our consultants will not be able to.

We could probably get them um to present through Nicole's computer, uh, but then they wouldn't be able to hear your questions, and so we're gonna suggest that that we uh delay the um the code update until a different um work session.

In that case, you would have more time to to continue this discussion about legislative uh priorities.

I did I get this right?

Yes, okay.

Okay.

All right, well, we'll make ourselves comfy then.

All right.

Okay.

I think we're good on the funding requests.

So next up would be the priority items and the themes for you to discuss.

Okay, bring that back up.

So can we Cindy?

Go ahead.

Oh, thanks, Charlie.

Can we go back to um where would you like to start, Mayor?

Uh let's do the themes.

Themes.

That's that fixture priority.

Uh slide four Nicole.

Back to slide four.

All right.

So discussion thoughts on the themes, unless you had something else, Cindy, different.

I had a quick question.

I had just a quick request.

I apologize.

Thank you.

Um could you please send us a link to the prosperity reports to be sure that we have that up?

We're looking at the all looking at the same thing.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

Yeah, go ahead.

I've been doing some of the webinars with the um what is it, kids in nature.

Um there's funding for that.

And I'm just curious if any of that those discussions that we're having around the shade structure and some of the parks would fit into some of that, or if there's um ways of adding funding into our um summer camps and things like that.

I'm not familiar with that program.

Is it a state program?

Is it federal federal kids in nature?

And I'll give you the information.

Yeah, we can look into it.

Okay.

So on the themes.

But it also ties into local control and unfunded mandates with some of the forced housing initiatives in the state that's down to us now.

And we're starting to see that developers take interest on short circuiting our system, if you will, and uh going with the state's approved methodology of implementing a development here in the city.

So they're tied to me, but they both definitely need to be there.

As I you know, people say I don't see much of a change in themes, but it just seems um on the housing and local control that we're losing more and more local control from Salem in terms of things related to housing and it could happen on transportation, stuff like that.

Sure.

Thank you.

I I'd like to add to that conversation too, because I think there are a lot of people right now very concerned about um authoritarianism, and so when we're talking about local control, we're talking about from our perspective, but I also do want to say that we really want our community to have the opportunity to access our body in a way that's meaningful to them.

So even if there's some things that we wouldn't move that much on, this uh way that we're doing things is uh incredibly frustrating to people.

Um I think that it's really really important to discuss it in more than one way for local governments because at least this body, we want to hear from our constituents, and we want them to feel comfortable coming here and asking, and we want to be able to work towards solutions that feel good for everybody.

And um that's a lot of what we lose, and I think that some of the language we sometimes lose that piece of you know what this we're what we're here for to serve our public.

Thank you.

Uh if if I if I could go uh jump back for just a moment on housing, uh the the moment I wanted to come up for Mayor, you were speaking to a number of unfunded mandates from Salem in recent years and housing space that is real.

Um I also uh would suggest that I have found uh the most play in Salem when it comes to changing proposals that may be more or less on rails by the time that they appear.

Housing production is not sort of the big thematic thing that Salem is doing uh approaching 27, at least thus far, that it has been in say 2023 or 2025.

Um the legislature uh responds to the crisis of the moment and uh the crisis of the moment that they are responding to uh in this upcoming session is transportation and economic development.

That being said, there are still a number of folks who are deeply invested in housing production, um, you know, everything from short-term rentals, housing tax policy, all it's it's a perennial issue in Salem.

And I have found that the uh local governments are most successful in advocating against those unfunded mandates, not by saying this is an unfunded mandate, but being very hyper-technical about why this is a challenge for uh a city to implement and then offering solutions on it.

And so I would say um to the extent that you are able to volunteer, members of your planning staff, that sort of thing.

Um it is uh uh an arena where the way to win is to get hyper-specific and hyper-technical.

Baff them with facts.

Uh Council President Pratt and then Council Rayas.

Yeah, deflue Council Brooks was saying what you're saying.

Like like this uh clear and objective standards.

Standards, yeah.

Um the thing that really bothers me about this is what we take such pride in outreach to our community, and that that's taken away in the whole process.

Like we had no choice, and that's the one thing we would want to hear back from our constituents, and now the state said, oh, you can't do that anymore.

So I I don't know how we communicate that to the state, but the fact that we want to hear we're we're local, we need to hear from our local residents and business owners, and um we don't want that taken away.

So I don't know how to put that in a factual way.

But local control.

Yeah, yeah.

And and if I if I could respond to that, uh Council President, um, two thoughts.

There is there was an effort uh last legislative session around goal one, which is public involvement.

Um I anticipate that that conversation will still percolate.

There's probably going to be an opportunity about what does robust public involvement mean in 2027.

Um so there's there probably will be a natural opportunity for that.

And then the other caution I would flag is um uh to some in Salem, um uh there will be a knee-jerk reaction to saying more more public involvement will be read in uh a way that is uh could be read as trying to hinder development from needing to happen.

That's the obvious there is an inherent tension between public transparency and facilitated quick development.

Um I think acknowledging that messy reality is the way to approach just calling that out and just naming it as attention and that there it will forever be attention and they don't have to be diametrically opposed.

Some of the new development standards that the requirements for notification of surrounding neighbors have been decreased.

But you don't have to give these notifications to streamline the development moving faster, but but we're the ones that hear about it, not them and salmon about when those developments occur.

Yeah, exactly.

Council of Reyes and then Council Hillier.

Um when you were mentioning that earlier um about the um being careful on how do we not careful, but be more strategic on how to uh approach the local control or on funding mandates.

Um is that something that you're I guess my my question is that something that that you are advocating for that, or do we have to write that to our legislative uh representatives like the one that's representing us here in in Tuaton, you know, like Senator Wagner or they're also uh speaking on our behalf.

So I'm thinking like when you're suggesting that, are you asking me to reach out to I I guess I want to do something about it, but I just I want to I want to make sure I'm going to the right person, right?

Because I don't want it to fall on deaf ears.

If I'm gonna say something like I would like this and who's speaking to on our behalf.

Um at this stage, the purpose of the legislative themes is to give Thornrun team direction on what to follow and what to track and what to make sure that we're that we are paying attention to.

So things that show up on this list uh correspond to bills we might select to follow during the state session or types of things that Thornrunn puts in their email updates or um even separate updates that they share on particular bills or issues that are percolating.

So it this does not necessarily direct members of the city council to to speak on specific issues or general issues, so much as it directs Thornrun's team on what we care about so that they can make sure we have access to information to then take action ourselves, whether as individuals or as a body.

Okay, that makes sense.

Uh I was just I wanted to hear that.

Um I do think the going back now on the themes that the on the economic stimulation, I feel that um this we're losing a little bit of business in our state.

And what are those uh I I would I wouldn't want that to happen in Tuatin.

I want us to continue to retain those jobs.

The so to me I do worry about that.

That does keep me up at night.

Um because um there are people that are being fed, there are people that live, you know, the livelihood of people.

So I always think of that.

I don't know what might the the rest, but as I'm seeing this in themes and topics and priorities, I think of that number one, because that is what helps our community continue to advance.

Um obviously the transportation and downtown revitalization, those those are also which still comes to economic development or stimulation in a way.

But yeah, those when I see this list, that's pops into my forefront.

And obviously, other things fall within.

Yeah.

So that's that's basically I'm just speaking for myself, and when I see this, and you're asking me what are those priorities?

That's what sticks out.

Thank you.

As was mentioned, the tie-in to the prosperity council's recommendations of what would 12th and as a city as Council Raya is saying would be if we think it's a fantastic idea for economic stimulation.

You know, to vet that out.

Because there's there's some good stuff in there, there's some eh stuff in the in the uh in the proposal, but there's stuff that uh specifically with the Ray, we'll see tonight later on tonight, the kind of businesses we have here in town could benefit from it to your point.

Yeah, and knowing that they actually when they met, they met here in 1210.

So I think that it should be a top of mind uh about um the economic stimulation.

Council Hillier.

Thank you.

Um I agree with the priorities that we have for me personally.

Uh priorities are the social services and specifically the um eviction prevention.

I'd like to find ways to lean into that.

I'd also like to understand if there are kind of local coalitions of cities or just other than outside of the LLC or the what are the other kind of uh more regimented bodies around the state would be that um if we're trying to have a conversation around local control, maybe there are different ways to um through some coalition work that could do that.

So that's something I'd be curious about as we continue conversation.

Thank you.

President Pratt.

Um back on economic stimulation.

You know, we have such a large sector that's in the high-tech manufacturing, and I think we're at the federal level.

I worry about what their decisions are in tariffs and other things, what that's doing to that business and how much it's threatening the growth of that business.

And then um transportation at the state level, this is a little odd, I guess, but um, and I heard Mark Gamba say it to the committee, and it's been my thing I've said to them is if we need to um educate the public because right now they're not buying into any need for any funds for roads, and so that's what I think they need to do at the state level, and and that's only gonna help us if people understand what how that's money is being used.

Council Brooks.

I'm um about economic stimulation, our revitalization, and all the things that have been covered in social services.

I'm very concerned about people losing their health care, and I know what that does to an economy, and I also know that a lot of times these larger programs kind of overlook um people starting their own, you know, very small businesses and things that can people can actually grab their hands around to still maintain some independence instead of working in a really tough environment.

Um so I am always open to those conversations as well, as far as ways to umpower people from the ground up as well as the top-down things.

I think we're getting a lot of top top right now.

And my other my other group of the themes.

Yeah, my other question is too.

Some of the things that we brought up with the federal um when they were looking at the federal transportation work that they were doing with NLC, um our ways of streamlining to get um more direct funding to cities and local municipalities, and I think anything that streamlines some of that because if if there's an ask right now for 40 percent increase, I'm sorry, a 40% increase to our um military spending on top of what we're already dealing with right now.

Um we are I am very invested in the taxpayers in of this community getting some of their taxes back to their community.

So we just anything that ties in with that for me is a priority because that's a stopgap measure, and um this is like we're bleeding out priorities.

Yes, I think for themes we'll keep the existing list, maybe a few wording tweaks based on comments tonight.

Um yeah, we'll we'll go from there.

Thank you for the discussion.

Priorities.

Um we can proceed to I think slide six would be the state legislative agenda from last year.

And same questions apply.

Is there anything you'd like to carry over?

And is there anything new you'd like to add?

Uh I'd on housing and human services.

Uh we don't call out mental health.

I mean, we're just we're ignoring it.

And in my turn, in my view in Salem, we're just ignoring the issue, and the city's mayors keep bringing it up.

It just gets ignored.

Um, you know, police officers having to deal with this every day, you know, having to scrape scrape money together for mental health you know, response teams.

So on housing human services, yes, rental addiction and that good stuff, and rental assistance, but also we've got to address this mental health issue that ties into some of that you know, housing.

I went first, sorry, but others.

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought.

And the third one support operations for economic development.

I applaud the state when it says, hey, we're gonna allocate so many millions of dollars towards industrial site readiness, but to what a hundred million dollars for the whole state, come on.

To also could use 50 million by itself.

Yeah, that got reduced to 10.

We could use that minutes here to fix some of the infrastructure here, or to get some, you know, the our urban renewal zone down to Salt Creek to get it ready, get all the water and sewer in there.

There's way over 10 million.

So they're severely underfunding uh the opportunities for economic development for industrial site readiness, which brings the jobs.

Perhaps we also include specifics from the prosperity council's recommendation under this category as well, once you all had a chance to review.

Yeah.

Okay.

And it assuming all three of these items move forward, which I think there's support from based on your conversation, we would add our um funding requests to the list of total priorities.

Okay.

We can go to slide seven.

And it says 2025, it is 2026.

Park comes off the list.

Yeah, the park comes off the list, and we come up with another project we're gonna pitch them or projects.

Weren't we talking about the I5, the new creek trail?

Yeah, I'm saying we'd substitute that with yeah, instead of reverse.

Three, you know, multiple projects that we bedazzle them in September when we go to DC that they say yes, we're on board.

Yeah.

And to uh Tyler and Dan, you're saying the do we should we keep the municipal bonds you comfortable they're not gonna go after it or just have it in their back pocket in case there's a reconciliation bill Mayor?

I I think that probably fits into the category of the many things that we'll be monitoring.

I don't know that you need to call it out in the same way.

Okay, reconciliation is now a perennial part of our future.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

I mean, obviously it's not a tooleton problem.

I mean, if they do go out to us again, the whole LLC will fire up again and every other state organization.

Yeah.

So people comfortable taking that one off.

Other comments in this list.

Oh, is that T20 intersection on this list?

It's part of those projects.

Okay.

Yeah, the ear marks.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So to clarify, Council President, so we'll take that longer list of projects, which included the trail project as well as the transportation project and the shade structure and and run it by Congressman Salinas' office.

Um, her local team and see what they think might be a good fit based on what's going on and also what their priorities for the coming year will be, and then we'll narrow that from there for incorporation on the priority list, with the goal being um to have an idea in mind of what those projects are before y'all make the trip in DC.

If I might on that point, one of the things that that conversation um we're not asking them to be directive because if we ask them, they will say we want to know what the city's top priorities are.

Yeah.

And so it it is really a dialogue around what are the things that they are interested in, and which accounts and how do they look at those?

And it's more of a uh organic matching than it is a please give us direction.

Yep.

Although direction would be nice.

Yes.

Yeah, but we want to be like dancing, I want everybody on board in terms of local represent local local representation, or local folks that are in the offices of the two senators and the congresswoman, that we get all their thumbs up before we publish through the process, we get everybody on board and uh when we get to DC, they know why we're there and we're hopefully just putting the icing on the cake or giving them those last pieces of information that convinces them to support it.

Council Brooks.

Um I also want to add with the shade structure conversation, and I know we have um new water stations, but I do think there's a piece around all the vulnerability that people are facing where it could be also um ways of having outdoor cooling opportunities and reducing the chance of mortality in our parks, which is important to us.

Um, and especially if we're gonna see more people be vulnerable with their health and with their housing.

So um I think that putting it in a way of um of sort of protecting and health sort of health and human services, even though it's a structural thing is a really important thing right now to remind whoever we're talking to.

Thanks.

Okay.

Solid.

All right.

Do we have time to move on to LOC?

Okay.

I was gonna say give us 10 minutes because we can do the council round table sub 6 30.

Okay, so slide 12, perfect.

Um I'm gonna invite Leah and Tyler back up, but I'll just tee us off really quickly.

Um so I believe this is a familiar process to all members of the council at this point.

Every two years, the League of Oregon Cities convenes prior um uh policy committees on different topics full of uh elected and appointed staff from various cities from across the state.

Uh this year we had two uh swallowed in staffers appointed to serve on committees.

We had Don who uh did his role on the Finance and Taxation Committee, and then I sat on the Transportation Committee.

Um those committees reviewed a bunch of information and presentation from state agencies and other relevant parties, and then uh narrowed their list of potential topics down to three to seven, depending on the committee, and that is summarized in a long packet which is attached to your packet.

Uh and they have sent that out to all cities in Oregon for every city to vote.

Each city has the opportunity to pick five of those things that they think the LOC should put on their list of priorities.

Those ballots are then summarized and given to the League of Oregon Cities Board of Directors, which I think is meeting in October at their annual conference, and as part of making their decision about what shows up on their list of priorities, they take input based on the voting results.

Um, like Thorn Run, uh their lobbying team will focus on many things, whether or not it ends up on the list of priorities or not.

But that's the thing that they put on their sheets.

That's the thing that they walk in the door to various representatives' offices with.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Tyler and Leah.

Um we've got two slides.

Those slides include the long list of potential priorities that each of the committees provided divided into those different committees.

So good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Um as you consider which issues to um prioritize for this session, um, we would encourage the council to not only prioritize those issues that are of course in alignment with um the city's uh legislative agenda, but also issues that may um take significant statewide coordination and political capital.

And so um those are likely to be the major policy discussions that we'll see in 2027 and where um LOC advocacy could be of the greatest impact.

Um but also another factor to consider is whether you may want LOC to engage on a certain space or issue that they probably haven't historically.

Um so taking that framework, some of the issues that stand out to us would be of course the transportation package, um, housing production, economic development, and workforce development, as we've already talked about.

Um but in general, the way that we engage with LOC is really looking for any opportunities of alignment, whether that's LOC supporting our priorities or us supporting LOC's agenda.

And some of that partnership you'll you'll see when it comes to protecting local control or addressing unfended mandates or even advancing policies that would be of benefit to local governments.

And so with that, we look forward to hearing your thoughts and your final direction.

There is power in something coming from 241 cities, and there is power in something coming from the community of Towalleton and what Towallatin needs, and those political capital pools can be similar but are different, and just being cognizant of where the city may be spending its own political capital and where you may want to leverage the capital of 241 peers is sort of some of the litmus tests that you may want to do as you're filling out that ballot.

Hi again.

I told you it would feel like a dance.

So just to clarify, our goal for this evening's discussion on the LOC's priorities is to begin the conversation and discussion at the council level.

Maybe pick out a few that you like or really don't like and see what's percolating so that when we come back in August to resume the discussion, we can narrow it at that point to the five for voting.

So well, back to you, Mayor.

Do you have a slide with the list reporting?

This is this is part of the list.

That's not the whole list.

This second slide has the remainder of the list.

Yeah, because there's there's all that's the list.

Um that we have to look at, yeah.

Yeah, so unfortunately, I it got too small to put it on one slide.

So we've got two slides that include everything.

There you go.

Oh, not for schools.

All right.

So yeah, I'm just asked if you haven't take a quick read of this if you haven't looked at it yet, and then yeah, as make it say and start bubbling through your head, what you think the top five items should be, because we only can do five, um, that we think are important to Twalton and or the state to advocate at the next legislative session.

There are quite a few.

Um take a moment to look at you've got the list here.

Um, and then we're gonna meet in August to go to pick the five.

Okay.

Correct.

Does anyone have any questions on some of the priorities you see?

Or you flip to the next one.

A burning questions are one of the things that is on this list that you'd like some clarification on in the meantime.

Yeah.

Um the finance taxation, economic development.

What would be an example?

I know you say Don sat on it.

What would be like an example of what that means?

But what does that priority mean?

Those four bullets right there.

I see them, but uh I'm asking for an example of or some kind of an idea of in a scenario basically.

Sure, maybe a bit more context about how the committee came to these.

Yeah.

So the the committees are grouped on like themes, but they're grouped also by how LOC um arranges their staff team to focus on different issues.

So they have one lobbyist that's assigned to finance taxation and economic development.

Um as part of the policy committee's work to develop what shows up on this list.

Uh, they may have heard a presentation from the Department of Revenue at this date.

They may have heard a presentation from another city that has been working on an agenda item for their own city that would like something to be considered.

And that committee had discussions as and brainstorms as well, and they refined it with the work of LOC's lobbyists to those four items that are listed there.

Um so I can't speak in more detail about those specific items and how they were developed.

Um, and the packet from LOC includes uh a paragraph summarizing them.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, no, it does.

Yeah, I was just trying to think of because um how do they select a person to of the for to sit on that committee from 200 and something?

Oh, sure.

So the selection process, yeah.

So um LOC asks for applications from everybody who they deem eligible to serve on those committees.

An eligibility, I believe, is either an elected official of a city or an appointed official of a city.

Um they uh those appointments are made by the board of directors, I believe, to serve on the committees, and so they look for somebody from each of the 12 regions of the state as broken up by the League of Oregon Cities, and then there's also a special appointment as recommended by the Oregon City County Management Association Board of Directors, the Oregon Mayor's Association Board of Directors, and I believe the people of color caucus also has a representative.

And then there's also a special appointment as recommended by the Oregon City County Management Association Board of Directors, the Oregon Mayor's Association Board of Directors, and I believe the people of color caucus also has a representative.

There are also opportunities for ad hoc or non-voting representatives to join the committees, and then each of the committee meetings are open to the public as well.

Oh wow, thank you.

So the homework you have for tonight or between August is to go through this list, maybe you know, read the LLC report and see which five bubble up to top for you, and then we'll send those together in August.

Pick the top five for us.

And just to clarify again, did Thorn Run have any.

Do you have recommendations of like what might fall under the things that you were talking about that would be best leveraged that you would recommend pulling out?

Some of the um issues that I pointed out were um housing production, workforce and economic development, and transportation package.

Um, those would likely require you know significant statewide coordination and political capital, and um we would want to ensure that the city of Twalaton would have a voice in those conversations as well, but um entirely up to the council on what issues to prioritize.

Um I didn't realize my thing was still on.

Um there's no health.

I think health falls under the general government category.

Um looking at the list, they don't neither of those pertain specifically to health.

Um it does also show up in housing land use and community development with relationship to homeless response and shelters.

Okay.

I mean I think if the insurance uh system changes as much as it might looking at studying those impacts and being prepared for that as cities is an important consideration for cities.

I don't know where that goes, but um it just and I know the county handles a lot of it, but we still have to educate our communities work in conjunction, and we're so far away from the county, and our transportation system so tough.

So I think I just think that that's a really important thing for us to stay abreast of in a meaningful way.

Thanks, Councillor.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Council.

We really appreciate all the feedback this evening, and we'll be back.

All right.

All right, so that brings us to our gender review, city managers report and our round table.

I've got uh council Brooks is up for the uh Pledge of Allegiance tonight.

Uh I don't think we have any proclamations tonight, so that's a little bit break there, but we do have a huge consent agenda again.

Uh so with that, we'll go ahead and we'll start the round table, and we'll start with Sherlin.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh so on July 1st, I attended the Washington County Managers meeting, and the county manager, Tanya Angie briefed us on the changes being made to the administrative rules associated with um federal grants, um, including the ability for them to basically cancel them at any time with without cause.

Um very disturbing for I mean the county has what 138 million dollars worth of of uh federal grants that they're so they're very in tune to that, and they were um submitting comments.

Um I think they were due yesterday or today, maybe.

Um so I we're thankful that they're keeping us um in the loop on that, but and I think that was also in the Thorn Run um briefing.

Um last week I attended the Oregon City Managers Conference in Ashland.

Um I was telling some of you it was one of the better, the best um city manager conferences I've been to, and I had never visited Ashland, and Ashland was a great, a great town.

I know the mayor's going there for his uh the mayor's conference.

Um sessions included public infrastructure projects.

I spoke on a panel about uh community engagement in public infrastructure projects, um, strengthening city and county coordination in emergency management.

Um there were several tours about fires, wildland fires, and and how cities and counties can work together in emergency management.

And then the keynote was um Mr.

Keijiama, uh Chris Kijiyama, and he's written several books, but one was one's called For the Love of Cities, and um just uh an excellent um urban strategist and um talked about falling in love with your city and it it was fantastic.

Of course, um Saturday was Viva Tualiton, wonderful event.

Um saw several of you there.

Um I think it was one of the better viva tualitans that we've had from setup and takedown to uh the smoothness of the vendors and the uh the food and the music and the programming and the mayor speaking Spanish and like um all of that.

So uh on Sunday.

I think Councillor Reyes says I nailed it.

On Sunday, I took a tour of the Squeak House.

I know some of you did as well.

Uh what a wonderful treasure here in Tualaton.

Um I had been in it several times.

The last time was in 2013, and it's remarkable the work that's been done on the house and curating all of the things.

Um what a what a really cool place.

Um a couple of other things to add.

So um randomly selected households in Tualetin will be be receiving an invitation to complete the Tualetin community survey this week.

The survey asks people their perception on Tualiton's livability and will give us data that we can compare with our previous survey results.

We have been doing this six times since this will be our sixth time since 2010.

Um it asks about streets, public safety, the library, and much more.

The survey will also be available to all residents begin uh to complete beginning the first part of August.

So this first part is the statistically valid part, and then we put it out to everybody to be able to respond to, and then we compare those results to see how how close they are.

Uh the IVAC CIO uh community involvement organization neighborhood fair is scheduled for this Saturday, um, July 18th from 1 to 3 p.m.

at IBAC Park.

Um applications are currently live for the teen library committee.

So teens entering grades eight through 10 are eligible to participate.

They're due on July 31st, and interviews will be held after.

Um, the sidewalk backlog project has begun.

Um it's starting in the southwest um corner of town.

They've hit about 40, they haven't physically hit.

They have been working on about 40 addresses at this time, so good progress made.

All seems to be going smoothly, and those receiving the work, so far as I know, are thrilled.

So the annual water quality report has been posted.

Uh hard copies are distributed around town.

Key highlights in the report include information about the city's water source, how it's treated and tested, what programs exist to monitor water quality, and info about lead in the drinking water.

The report is published in English and Spanish, and uh thanks to our team for working on that.

Um let's see.

Our sub-regional transit survey request for proposals was sent out, and it's due back next week, so we're excited to get that going.

Our food cart pod code is well underway.

There's a presentation to the planning commission on Wednesday night, and then that will be coming to council in August or September after that.

And then finally, the Martinazzi Sewer Project is scheduled to hold an open house next week on um the 23rd from four to six in the library community room.

Um that is will be an impactful project, and um we are uh very interested in making sure that folks know about it and um know how to get involved get in in touch with us and and stay involved in the timeline of that.

You have a question?

Oh I think that's it for me.

Great, thank you.

We'll start on my right with Council Rosaco.

Thank you.

Um I think we have the 13th uh CAC meeting um where we reviewed and scored additional projects uh with members of the committee.

Um and I think that we're really good at scoring projects at this point in time.

Um it went really smooth, it's great feedback.

Um so I just wanted to shout out to uh Quinn, Sid and Aquila for putting together a great group of folks that are uh just doing a fantastic job.

Um we also had the CCAA and we were able to interview two brilliant students and excited to be able to bring them before council um to uh see if we can appoint those folks.

Thank you.

Councilor Hilliard.

I have nothing to report.

Councilor Reyes.

Um one official meeting in the C CAA.

And as Counselor Sapo said to uh students and very impressive in individuals, and um yeah, we'll present them in the future.

Uh and I just I attended Viva Tualetin, of course, and the mayor did a good job speaking Spanish.

So I do have I do have a question for you, Sherlin's from your from something that's just been percolating and wondering what's going on.

Uh and I think it's part of the grant of the money that's being held by um federal.

About the grant that we apply, where we're gonna do some it was like 15 million dollars, and we were um planning to we were gonna hold it for several cities.

Um is that part of that those funds that are being holding federal have not been released yet?

I'm just wondering.

Well, the the uh no, what I was talking about about it were the um Office of Management and Budget OMB is doing rulemaking on grant um uh grant recipients and grant programs.

Our CFI um charging fueling infrastructure uh grant that um we applied for and received but never fully finalized um for 15 million.

It is still wound up in the courts and are in yeah in the courts, and um we have been advocating that um that it get it get distributed.

Um it's still stuck.

Okay, thank you for the update.

I have nothing at up.

Yep, thank you.

Council Brooks.

Your microphone.

Thank you.

Um there was uh um Ebola outbreak, state of the um cities uh webinar that I attended um on the 24th.

On the 25th, who's living in your um pollinator garden, which was all about what pollinators are around, and then um Thursday that Thursday also attended the Explore Twilight and Valley picnic that was here, which was amazing, and want to thank Mayor Beatty and um Commissioner Snyder for coming and all of the people who um presented information about exploring the outdoors, and it was really nice that our city was highlighted as a place to explore the outdoors.

Um I also went to the Discovery Day.

I have goodies for you guys, I'll pass them out.

Um that Twelton River Keepers did, but one of the really most interesting pieces around it was um one of the tablers had um information about um the emerald um dashboard and things like that.

So um so I have information about that.

Um then I went to the Asian Arts Affiliation.

Um it was like an artist thing, and but what was really interesting about it, it it was hosted in the first fully sustainable building downtown, so it has its own electricity, its own, so somehow they have the technology, and I think that there's ways that we can utilize um information in our own community to catch up with some of the ways that we can move forward.

Um so I'll get more information on the exact name of the building and send it out, but it's really a cool thing to check out.

Um, and then last week um from the 7th to the 10th, I was in Louisville, Kentucky for the National League of City Summer Board and Leadership Uming.

So people that are on different councils there meet together to set the agenda for the year and find out what's been happening.

So we went over a lot about the road to home.

Um I'll just give you a really quick just explanation of where I was and what I was doing.

So um I attended the council on race equity and leadership meeting um Wednesday morning, and then the first tier suburbs council, which is changing their name finally to I think it's the municipal suburbs council, so just suburbs.

Um that council is interesting because they're um focused on redevelopment, like what we're doing.

So it was a good robust conversation.

The real council will have a um we broke up into tables and it will have some summary results from the meeting that will be reported out later.

Um just let's say there's a lot of pain in the community.

Um then during lunch, there was the attendee lunch and civility presentation.

So we're encouraged the cities to sign the civility pledge.

So I'll send out the information and then we can discuss if we would like to sign that.

Um and then the community and economic development committee meeting.

Um that was what was interesting about that is the person that's the staff liaison for that chairs the lot or is the head of lobbying for the National League of Cities and worked on the bill, the home, the housing bill that we were just talking about, the federal bill.

So we got to learn firsthand um about that housing bill and the fact that they are adding uh workforce housing into some of that, and there was a lot of pride around how hard they had worked on it and um that it was a bipartisan bill.

And then um, I already did that one.

Let's see, and then I attended the state of the cities um release report, which basically summarizes where the National League of Cities is at the moment, and you get this um thing that tells us where we're at, and there this should be online as well, so you can look it up, and then at the next day was the oh, I did the environment and energy environment and natural resources.

They do the trips out like we do with the League of Oregon Cities.

We went to a botanical gardens, it was on a landfill that was amazing.

They had a street tree uh canopy program that I am going to um send some information out, and then we'll I'll discuss with Steph and bring back stuff that's interesting about it.

Um, and they had the opportunity of also working with the university of doing that, but they have some just really great arborists that help also replace trees and make sure that they're trimmed properly, um, and all of that.

And um they also really encourage biodiversity, so a lot of diversity of types.

Um and then I came back and we did uh Viva, which was nice to see everybody there, even though some people I just waved at briefly for a second, but it's always nice to get together um with the community, and it was a safe, warm, family-friendly event.

I love the kids' station and the big giant doll that they had with the it was just amazing.

Um, and I think the Pele group, according to Sherilyn, who I think she knows what she's talking about, um, did uh made the dress for the skeleton.

So I thought that was just very cool.

And then Sunday, what did we do?

Sunday.

I did something.

Yeah, oh, tour this weekhouse, which was really nice to also um talk to Althea's daughters and see all the work they had done in there, and they're doing the work themselves.

Um they'd really like to start a museum, and um it was quite an amazing experience.

And I will say at one of the evenings, the zoo trip was unlike any other zoo trip I've ever been on because there was a bourbon tasting, of course, because we're in Kentucky, and they just had all these animals kind of free for us to pet.

So I got to touch uh a penguin, which was pretty cool.

Um, but I don't think it would be things that would happen here.

So that's all I'm gonna say.

Thanks.

Okay, well, um there was no C4 meeting, it was canceled because it was too close to the 4th of July, and they didn't think attendance would be great.

And we have the um two students we interviewed for CC.

Some I have to say, um, some of these students they interview better than the adults do.

They're pretty impressive.

And um then we had the CAC meeting, and um I thought this group was finally starting to gel, and that we got input from almost everybody in the group, so it was really nice to hear that.

Um Viva Twileton, um, oh gosh, I met these locust ladies.

They're they're the only low rider women group in the whole state, and they were so cool, and their cars are so beautiful, so that was a lot of fun.

And then um I did tour the Sweek House, which Ross Baker's now telling us will be renamed Willow Brick, because that was the original intent.

So it was really interesting to hear the history and to go to each of the rooms and find out how they did things.

And one of the stories I got was the one daughter when she was a teenager liked to sleep in the nursery, but she liked to sneak out on the overhang and then climb down the wisteria to go for you know play out in the yard.

And that's it.

Um the 25th, the I went to attended the board meeting for the Twalton Chamber of Commerce.

Uh it was the first meeting where Allie is now the interim CEO of the uh chamber.

Uh she did a fantastic job uh running the meeting and presented what her plan is for the next six months.

Uh at the Chamber of Commerce while they uh either we love what Allie does, and she becomes a full-time executive director, or we uh keep looking.

But she's doing a fantastic job so far, so I have no doubt she'll end up being the executive director.

Uh later that day I had the Metro Mayor's uh meeting.

Uh big discussion was the rose quarter closure.

Odot mentioned uh presented the closures that are happening, be aware there's a closure for the next few days uh this week on I-5 uh heading south.

Uh uh and we got the impeding five-week closure of I-5 South uh in September, where it'll be shut down pretty much between um Vancouver-ish down to the Rose Quarter.

There's a big segment of work they have to do, and so they'll be they'll be doing reroutes onto 405 over the bridge.

So be prepared.

If you're in September, you gotta use I-5 South coming you know from Washington.

There's gonna be reroutes and a lot of traffic for five weeks.

Uh on the 30th, uh, oh, I saw it had a uh GPED meeting, the and with the GPED, that's a greater Portland Economic Development District meeting.

Uh a consultant is now working on the SEDs, which is the comprehensive economic development strategy for the Portland metro area.

It has to be renewed and submitted to the federal government so that uh the area can get federal funds for economic development for the region.

Um they're working on that.

Uh on the 30th, I attended the first meeting of the freight subgroup of the governor's transportation vision committee.

Uh very uh great group of people in this rate subcommittee.

Um pretty impressive that the the ports are represented, rails represented, air, uh the environmental folks are there, so it's a good uh bunch of group of people.

What was I opening to me is that when you think of freight, you're always thinking about trucks and roads, but uh you also have to think about rail, water, air, and it's all part of the governor's subgroup here, so representatives are for are there from all the different segments of freight.

Uh we had our first meeting on the 30th, like I said here.

We're having a second meeting this week where we start getting into the details of ideas and recommendations for her.

Uh we'll have meetings through September, then submit our stuff to the vision committee to then assemble and create a recommendation as Thorn Run said for the governor by end of the year.

Um Viva was fantastic, as was mentioned.

I just want to thank all the volunteers, city staff and the sponsors, especially the volunteers.

You saw them all running around the green shirts.

Uh I heard there was there was uh a critical need or a shortage of volunteers until the last minute, and people came through, which was fantastic.

Uh the weather was great, finally it was cool versus being hotter than heck.

Uh and then finally today we had the Washington County Quartering Committee meeting.

Subjects to note is a Metro is starting their 2028 regional transportation program uh draft update.

This is a project that's gonna span between now and the end of 2028 to uh come up with the regional transportation priorities, um working with our partners, well obviously the city being one.

Uh they're gonna have significant uh public engagement on this plan.

Uh they have to keep their eyes on the 2027 legislative session on impact of transportation funds because that will also impact what their plans are.

But I was kind of surprised that yeah, it's starting, they're working on it, they're starting it today, and it won't be a wrap until the end of 28 through all the hoops they got to throw go through go through and uh public review pre-approval.

At least they're not rushing it through.

That's one of the things I like about it.

They're really looking at it.

And uh what was specifically nice is when they go out for the call for projects from cities, they're extended the amount of time.

Uh it's gonna be about a month and a half, and it's usually a lot shorter than that.

So we're gonna have time to respond.

Uh West Side Transportation Alliance gave an update.

They just got a new three-year grant.

Uh, so long short on West Side Transportation Alliance.

Their whole idea, their whole purpose in life is to increase transportation option options uh for people outside of using their automobiles.

So they've got uh bike rentals, they've got um all kinds of options for employers and for public agencies to basically get people out of cars into public transportation onto bikes, onto scooters, alternative ways for transportation.

Uh then the next subject today was Council Creek.

Uh that's a trail that's running between Hillsborough's uh Main Street train station and goes all the way out to Forest Grove.

Uh they're finally getting close to construction on it.

It's a 20 million dollar project.

It's held up a little bit right now at the federal uh highway administration, but they're hoping to get approval here soon as our construction.

Uh it's a 15-mile long trail between the two cities.

Uh so it's gonna be impressive when impressive once it's done.

It's a little bit north of highway eight.

So uh and eventually they're hoping that the trail will be extended from uh Forest Grove all the way up to Vernonia and banks.

So it'd be pretty cool.

Oh, it'll tie into that trail that was under the cost.

Yep.

Uh and then finally, uh folks who didn't hear about this or um Washington County Commissioners did uh agree to increase the vehicle registration fee uh for Washington County.

They've landed upon a uh five-year window of increases of ten dollars every other year on the registration fee.

So the fiscal year 2728, 2930, and 3031 vehicle registration fees in Washington County will go up by 10 dollars.

The reason for this is to provide resilient transportation dollars to the county for things like misstip and decrease their reliance on general funds.

It will by the time it's fully implemented implemented, it will double the amount of money that's available for in Washington County for transportation.

We also get 40 percent, we get a cut of that money too.

Uh so we'll see increased uh dollars coming here over the next five years.

Um code one part of warning they get they uh put out there is that um it's a 6040 split, it's allocated by population.

So if your city population varies, your amount of money you're gonna get from the county will vary, and also it's also based on the amount of vehicle registration.

So if they go up or down, it could have an impact.

But uh they're having their first reading of this adjustment on August 4th, and they're gonna have a hearing and probably uh vote on it on August 25th if you want to track it.

Uh the other option was to do uh a one-time $30 increase.

Uh but the commissioner said they wanted to space this over the five years to help people with affordability, and they could predict when those rates would go up, they have more time to prepare and put those dollars together.

All right, and that's it for me.

So we've got a few minutes here.

I'll go ahead and close the work session.

We'll reconvene at 7 o'clock for our council meeting.

What was that trail you were talking about?

Council.