Are we ready?

Not waiting.

Yep.

I think I'm Maria C and let's go.

Same thing with Cindy.

Recording in progress.

Good evening and welcome to the July 27th, 2026 Twalton City Council work session.

Our first time on the agenda tonight is camping time, place, and manner ordinance update and discussion led by Megan Cohen and Kevin McConnell, our city attorney.

Welcome, Megan and Kevin.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council.

My name is Megan Cohen, and I am Twalton's City Liaison on homelessness, and I'm joined by Kevin.

So we have we have all the attorney expertise in the room.

And we're here to chat about our time, place and manner ordinance, and about some potential updates to that ordinance, explore uh sort of where we are, um, how that ordinance has been working and where we might want to go from here.

So with that, uh next slide, please.

Okay.

So for some background, I'm sure you're all very familiar, but Twalton's time, place, and manner ordinance was passed in July 2023.

That was, of course, in compliance um with uh House Bill 3115, which was passed by the Oregon legislature.

Um since then, um we have actually I think seen our ordinance working um in a way that has been uh advantageous for the city and has been running pretty smoothly.

Um there have been some changes, um policy changes uh since then.

Um and one of those is that the Supreme Court actually overturned the Martin v.

Boise decision in June 2024.

Um and so for many states um that meant that there is no longer any um protection for public camping, but for Oregon, since we have House Bill 3115, that was still in place, but it does uh have an impact on some of the language, as we'll talk about later on um available shelter, which is written into our ordinance.

Um part of this is just to make changes that uh recognize some of the changes that have happened um at the national level.

And then as a reminder, House Bill 3115 requires all cities and counties to ensure camping ordinances are objectively reasonable to time, place, and manner with regards to people experiencing homelessness.

Um so we end up getting those three parts of the ordinance.

Um and in the last year, I know you have heard um from businesses uh here.

We've seen an uptick in vehicle camping, specifically RVs.

Um despite you know, trying to have sort of one off uh responses to those, whether it's you know, um on the enforcement side or um making no parking rules uh to specific areas.

Um we wanted to look at what may be a more comprehensive um response to that would be and to some of the impacts that we're seeing from that vehicle camping, which include like public materials um uh uh or camping materials uh outside of the vehicle and in our public spaces.

Next slide, please.

So this is our current ordinance.

So just to go over what's in there, this is the ordinance is in the ordinance language itself that's also accompanied by um definitions as well, um, which we'll get into in more detail.

Um the time uh is that uh camping time between 7 p.m.

and 7 a.m.

Uh and then place really the dedicated places that that lawn on um our public safety building, everything else, uh including public right of way is prohibited within our current ordinance.

And then um in the manor really talks to sort of the specifics of that, which include um not accumulating, discarding or leaving behind trash, excavating, those types of things.

We have seen um folks camp on the lawn by the public safety building.

Um they've complied with the manor pieces with the time pieces.

Um we've had outreach go out and touch base with folks there on the lawn and see if they can offer services.

Um, and it's been a good place to be able to meet people there and see uh what connections we can make.

And I would say overall, this current ordinance is pretty similar to the other ordinances um throughout the county.

There's some differences, small differences in time and in place, but overall um really not too different from what we're currently seeing, with um I think one piece that we're gonna talk about this evening.

Next slide, please.

Okay.

Um so updated language options.

There are a couple revisions that we're exploring, and I'll let Kevin go into a little bit more detail.

Um, but one is to add language within the definitions that uh defines vehicle camping as camping.

So at the point at which you all um uh initiated the ordinance for time place manner, the decision was not to include vehicles.

Um defining vehicle camping is something that several other jurisdictions in Washington County have done, including Beaverton, Hillsborough and Cornelius.

Um what that does is then apply the other time place manner rules to that vehicle camping, um, which we can talk about in more detail.

Um the other language options are removing references to available shelter.

That's a change with the Supreme Court decision that would no longer apply.

And then if we are to add that language that defines vehicle camping, we would need to discuss options for where that could happen, because right now um I don't think we want vehicles parking on the public safety grassy area.

So uh everything else would be prohibited.

Um so there's some examples of uh what those particular locations for vehicle camping could be, whether that's public right of way, public right of way in specific zones, or dedicating a specific parking lot, which is um something that Wilsonville does.

They dedicate their city hall lot during that time period for both uh vehicle camping and tent camping.

Um so those are just examples of what that could look like.

Kevin, do you want to add some detail?

Yeah, and thank you, Megan.

Megan's done a great job in and giving the the background here and correct.

Uh so one of the big issues, the big holes in your prohibited camping ordinance right now, if you want to address the instances of uh persons camping in vehicles, is your current ordinance does not uh cover vehicles.

Uh so we you would need to we would recommend updating a definition of camp camp meet camping materials to include vehicles, which we will make clear that includes recreational vehicles so we catch all types of motor vehicles.

Uh a lot of cities they use their prohibited camping ordinance along with their parking regulations, but our parking regulations in and of themselves as in TMC 81, I believe, uh it does not work to address the issues that we currently have with persons camping on public property in the city of Twalton.

Okay, uh next slide.

So uh next steps would include um reviewing some amended language for the ordinance.

So if adding um vehicle camping to the camping language is of interest uh to the council, then we would draft some language uh so you all could see what that would look like and bring it back in August.

Um at the same time, we would need to define um again the specifics around how that car camping would work, including uh what the allowable location is.

And then um, I think alongside this again uh would be reviewing Twalton's parking ordinance.

These two things are gonna work hand in hand.

Um there are uh different ways different consequences, right, for uh how something is addressed in like park the parking ordinance versus camping ordinance.

So if, for example, somebody uh were to be violating our um time place and manner ordinance uh currently it lays out a process of what citation looks like and possible exclusion through that um uh versus parking ordinance, that process of sort of um uh siting and towing and the other things that come with that as well.

Um the other thing that I just wanted to note is that our um time place manner ordinance is enforced by police, but the encampment cleanup is managed through contract with metro.

Um and so they are the ones that actually do the camp remediation and cleanup.

Um so that would be something to think about and look at uh as we define uh vehicle camping as camping within that ordinance as well, too.

So a couple pieces to that, but those are the next steps.

Um Kevin, do you want to add anything else?

Yeah, and thanks very good.

I one of the other issues the council may want to explore when it when it uh discusses the issue of of camping in vehicles on public property, are is the city council interested in maybe potentially exploring what Wilsonville does and allow a uh camping in certain uh uh spaces within the city.

If you do that, there's a statute that does apply.

You have to provide basic necessities like the toilet uh hand washing facilities and uh uh trash facilities, or is the intent to not allow vehicles to camp anywhere on the public right-of-way to make that clear, or do you want to have uh allow certain types of vehicles or maybe all motor vehicles to uh be able to park in in accordance with our camping ordinance in certain areas uh in commercial zones or industrial zones?

Uh there's many choices that you have, and really just looking for some direction on what the city council the the desire is to see when we come back with a proposed draft ordinance for your your review.

That turn it over to you all.

All right, thank you.

So the questions for us to discuss tonight are one of the amended language for the ordinance taking in effect the available shelter uh option.

Uh so and then how do we address vehicles and when we do a uh address vehicle camping, the discussion about you know if we obviously have allow vehicle parking, where would it be?

So three kind of tasks.

Okay, just so I know where we're going.

Okay.

Thanks, Mayor.

So I'll open a floor to discussion on one or all those three points, where we'd like to start.

Council Brooks.

Thank you, Mayor.

Hi.

Thank you very much for your presentation and for bringing this up.

I know that's been an issue and we've heard about it here.

Part of me is for the parking lot, because there's several reasons, but just it seems less random for um just where people are gonna be.

Um then I'm curious when you're talking about having to provide what was it, uh bathroom.

Yeah, thank you, Councilor Brooks.

If you'd have a designated uh space for people to park their vehicles, there's a state law that applies as an ORS 195.

I think it's ORS 195, 530, but it requires that you have certain basic health life uh safety facilities like a bathroom.

Uh you have to have hand washing facilities and I believe trash facilities for people to use.

Okay.

So um, I mean, my question is our bathrooms if we decide to do it in a place where there are bathrooms, like a park or something like that.

Um does that would that cover it.

And the counselor Brooks, I believe it's if it's available for those people to use uh 24 hours a day, the bathrooms are open and not closed at night.

Yeah, uh potentially that would work.

We would make sure it does conform.

If that were the path forward, we would make sure that uh that path uh was in accordance with all applicable state laws.

Okay.

And then my other question was about the metro cleaning up of camp sites.

I'm also curious if they were um doing that with us, would that also include like a place, like a parking place?

Um and my other question is um, and this is sort of unrelated, but there's you know people that aren't necessarily camping, but there's a place, places where people stand a lot and that gets dirty, and I don't know if that's part of Metro's purview as well.

I think I can respond.

So for the encampment cleanup, it's pretty specific to um like encampments that have been created and then are noticed for cleanup by police and then they work with Metro to come out and and clean those up.

Um if it if we had like a um designated uh parking place on city property, I assume we would probably be responsible for that.

Um as for just um general trash, uh one thing uh that I've been utilizing more often or have seen utilized more often is Metro's RID program.

And so if there's just areas where there's like dump trash um uh on public right of way or in areas uh RID can come out and pick that up.

And they've been pretty responsive in this area recently, so it's a good it give me a good opportunity to remind us that that's um a good tool for us to use.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think the near the freeway seems to be neglected lately, so Pratt.

Um I'm gonna go back when so um taking out that that available shelter language, what's the purpose of that?

Thank you, Council President.

And really we're I think at least for my end, it's it's uh uh taking out language that had everything to do with the the Boise case that was overturned by Johnson v.

Grants Pass and and using the language that's in House Bill 3115 uh instead to make sure that if we do have a legal challenge, we we at least are uh uh using the language of the state law.

Right.

Okay, that makes sense to me.

But and then on the um um how many uh do we have any clue of approximately how many of these campers we have around?

I mean, I see people in cars sometimes, but approximately how many people do we have living in vehicles?

I don't have uh a good number.

I just know from um working with our CSO, the sort of regular reports we're getting on RVs specifically, I think um there's like a yeah, and then some individual car campers around.

Yeah.

So is there a way for us to um allow it but not have to provide all these facilities?

Like the bathroom and all or I guess I guess the question first to you is would these people do they need these facilities like the bathroom and the washing station because they're living in RVs, do they tend to have some water to use or is the question?

And thank you, Council President.

I believe that that requirement uh only applies if the city is designating a certain area for vehicle camping.

So didn't designate how do we limit where they can camp other than saying you can't park here all over town.

Well, I think how we we do that is uh we have time, place and manner restrictions already in place.

Right.

And I think the I think the recommendation is number one is to add vehicles as camping materials.

Now you have no constitutional or state law right to camp or use a certain type of camp material.

Um but if people were camping in vehicles and the ordinance did apply to motor vehicles, then those time place and manner regulations that you have in place that would those would also apply to people camping in their vehicles.

And right now I believe we have a restriction on on camping in the public right-of-way.

Yeah, we only allow the one field, I think.

The one the one field.

And so there's some there's some practical things that will need to be uh addressed by the ordinance.

Number one, so going back to the Wilsonville example, you know, one of the positives of that, and there's there's a lot of things that are that are negatives as well.

But one of the positives is that if the city were to designate a certain place space for vehicles to camp in accordance with the law, then given that House Bill 3115 states that your uh any law that you have regulating sitting, lying, sleeping, camping, etc.

has to be objectively reasonable as to the usually looking at the totality of the circumstances.

There's actually been a federal court case.

It was Billado versus City of Medford that that analyzed and they looked at all this totality of the circumstances, and what they found was there were other options for people that were camping in the city of Medford besides uh not being that the challenge was they were uh uh severely prohibiting where people could camp on public property.

So if the city were to then uh have a ordinance that said you can't camp in a motor vehicle anywhere else on city property, that I think uh it would be very I think a court would look at that and determine that our ordinance was objectively reasonable because we give an outlet for vehicles to camp, even though we outlaw it everywhere else in the city of Twalton.

When you designate a spot even in the camping ordinance.

Yeah the alternative would be something like it's generally allowed like in public right of way.

And so you know currently people can car camp within the restrictions of uh our parking ordinance so like not being in the same spot for 72 hours or whatever that might be versus you know if if um something like this were to apply then you're saying um you know that camping time should really be overnight.

Um and I think what Kevin is saying too is those manor pieces start to apply of you can't have um your camp materials outside of your vehicle you can't have them on public property that type of thing um but we could uh we could designate public right of way be more specific about public right of way that's broader than the lot itself if it's the lot then that the rule about the restrooms would apply in that scenario um but if we have something more general that we wouldn't have the same application of that rule.

And then I guess the next big question is where we would have this that lets people have a little space and dignity without you know disturbing other people.

So that that could be difficult here.

Oh just where we would have to work up louder.

So sorry I will talk louder.

It's just the the idea of where it would be would be the big issue I think.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Can I oh sorry but as I understand it if if you said if you just added vehicles and allowed it in the public right of way that would limit to like 7 p.m to 7 a.m and then you would have to you would have to move so like that that that would be an enhancement to what we have now.

But I guess my question would be where are these public right-aways?

That's that does come you define what public right of way is please anywhere that you can park.

So even on getting to the point of where people are parking now they routinely park for admire parking lot then move over to they move from parking lot to market parking lot I've seen it happen.

We wouldn't define we can't define like private parking but um anything like basically a long public sidewalk would be allowable unless it's like restricted for any other reason like zoned or anything like that.

But it's not a private parking lot like they're doing now.

No it would not include private lots.

Okay.

Good clarification.

Councillor Gonzalez so thank you very much.

So I I just want to be uh candid and clear here that uh I am for full restriction I am for where we can limit parking I think in total when driving around to Walleton for some time I see about 15 cars there thereabouts okay that's what I've seen and I've seen them move around we manage a lot of commercial sites around this area so we get to see them on the parking lot we get to move them out.

I would be for uh heavily restricting a let's designate a location the police station has that time and place.

They have a pretty large parking lot I'm sure we can probably designate a few parking spots maybe four of them for people come in but I would not want to even open this up or accommodate in any way.

We are really close to highway five close to Portland we build that they will come.

And I I am for that we can provide a place for them and um that's it.

No looking for right-of-ways no looking for special provisions let's find that place and location and make that and just keep it strict.

It can get out of control really fast if we open it up and the next thing you know we're managing other people's lives.

And as a city we already have the things to deal with I know it's hard to say that it's people go through difficult times.

Thank you.

That's Ruth Thank you for the presentation.

I recommend a dedicated public spot parking lot.

Or a parking space because of that way you know.

I think you avoid a lot of businesses.

I think we we had uh a couple of businesses or somebody come here and talk about so now that if we know where they could park, we can send them there.

It would be easy for me to say, oh, they can park in this place versus some area that's public that I'm not aware I'm not familiar with.

So to me that seems like uh a recommendation that I would support.

Thank you.

Sound familiar.

Thank you.

Um I too would uh uh echo councillor Reyes' comments.

And um I guess I'm curious with the um sorry, put these back on.

With the RED program and some of these other things, if we if so one thought would be, of course, the city parks, like if there would be a park designation, but boy, there's you know, at Twalton Community Park for an and many parks, there are organized activities going on till later at night.

We have these beautiful new lights and those sorts of things.

And I think that changes the um I I am all for changing stigma around um our um houseless populations, and I'm not sure that putting them in the middle of kids' softball practices and soccer practices is the first step uh that we want to move toward for that.

So um I I mean I I'm I would be nervous about in a park setting where there is already a f you know the facilities that are needed.

So not because uh I I just think that that could be a a bad first step.

However, like this building, but then we'd have to add all sorts of things, right?

Is this the building that you were referring to when you said the public safety building that people are camping?

So could you clarify what building is that the public safety building?

The police department.

Oh, that's what the public safety building is called as our police department.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Yeah, that's working with too many cities.

Okay, I'm like, I just did not know that.

Okay, so okay.

So I just was unclear as to if there was a second place that then I was confused.

Yeah, just that grassy area.

Right.

And and there are no facilities there, but you know, the police officers they're in and out of there all day and night.

So um anyway, yeah.

That's at least uh a form of security for the people camping, uh it seems also so anyway.

Yeah, I'm hearing some interest in designated lots, so I think um one thing we can do is um uh look at what public properties we own and assess some options um in terms of uh what would be possible and additional costs uh that would be incurred from having to add facilities or those types of things as well.

So um I can add that in terms of something we can bring back to you all uh for more information.

Yeah, and I uh I certainly see that as a potential uh roadblock is the potential cost.

If you have the if you have these facilities and must provide them, the city's going there's gonna have to be city staff or contracts in place that uh uh clean up the bathrooms and the hand washing facilities to provide the the toiletries you need and the trash facilities and how much is that gonna cost.

Do we have the city staff available to do it?

And yeah.

So on the third bullet point.

Going through the last slide and next steps.

Oh, yep.

About the parking ordinances.

Yes.

So say the council goes the route of a designated spot to allow vehicle camping, then that would then have to be reflected somehow in revising our parking ordinances.

If it's not allowed in public park public park right away.

Wow.

Uh and we say disignated spot, then you would have to update that's what you're referring to.

We'd have to update our parking ordinance.

Mayor correct.

We want to make sure that any changes we make to our prohibited camping ordinance don't adversely or or conflict with the parking regulations we have.

Now when you read the parking regulations, I think it's 81 uh 260.

There it's arguable whether those parking regulations would apply to someone camping in their vehicle at all because that the parking regulations refer to parking or storage of a vehicle.

And I guess an argument could be made that's I'm not doing either of those on camping.

And just one of those many issues that we have when we're trying to uh uh figure out uh the aftermath of uh our uh an appropriate illegal house or camping ordinance uh after House Bill 3115.

Okay.

The what is there any question for Kevin, I guess.

Uh distance requirements to the facilities.

So do the hand washing and trash and uh bathrooms have to be a certain distance from the spot or it's not defined.

I think it's more vaguely defined.

I think they they just have to be available, available to the persons experiencing homelessness and camping in their vehicles.

Okay.

Council Brooks Um Thanks everybody for the conversation.

I another thing that I've been thinking about is um well, for me, if people don't have those even the people that are sleeping on the grass, if they don't have those facilities, then what are they doing?

And I get into this public health um problem.

I've been in cities where there have been public health problems.

I am concerned because of how many changes are coming to um the Oregon Health Plan and other things, which is a really big root cause of homelessness that we're gonna have a big growing population.

And um when Councillor Hill, you brought up the point about parks.

I agree with that.

And then I'm just curious, like the same with um, I'm just curious if with the police department, we have a very locked lobby with bathrooms, and that's not a place that everyone's gonna go charging to as far as like if you build it, they will come.

Um in my mind, you have those facilities, you have people that work there, and I think the police and cities are asking for money from Metro around social services and help.

So maybe that's how that works if we're not gonna use social workers.

Thank you.

So you have what you need, Megan.

Sounds like a I think so.

You summarize it pretty well at the feeling of the council.

Yes, we will um work on uh some uh draft ordinance language with what you all have provided.

Um there might be some other things we need to discuss as we actually look at how that um gets written out along with uh bringing some options to look at location um and then uh we will bring that back to you all for discussion, and then the parking ordinance will kind of happen on a parallel path.

I think there's other pieces of cleanup there that need to happen as well, too.

So um expect that back here as well.

But thank you.

That provided exactly what we needed.

And estimated cost if we don't use fixed facilities, if we have to put in we can absolutely yeah, bring estimated costs.

And will you please include a bet a clear understanding of the RID program and how that could intersect?

Sorry, Mayor.

Thank you.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, thank you all.

Thank you.

All right, next up is our homelessness services IGA discussion led by the other Megan, Megan George.

It's been a while since I've been called the other Megan.

Anywho, um hi everybody.

I'm Megan George, I'm your deputy city manager, and I am here on the second of three topics all related to homelessness this evening during the work session.

Um this one will be fairly short.

I do not have a PowerPoint presentation, but I am here to provide an update on two intergovernmental agreements that we have been working on over the last few months.

So the first intergovernmental agreement should sound familiar.

It is in fact the agreement that grants us Megan Cohen, who was presenting before me.

Um and that agreement is between the cities of Tiger, Towalton, and Sherwood and Washington County.

And for shorthand, I'm gonna start calling that the four-party IGA.

Um so in 2020, uh Metro voters passed the supportive housing services tax measure.

Those funds are distributed to the three counties, Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas.

Washington County um identified identified a need for further coordination between cities and the county related to homelessness, and so they created several homeless liaison positions.

Um the South County area includes Tiger Twalton and Sherwood, and we get one shared position.

As part of that agreement, though, they are paying for the position, and rather than allocating the exact amount of money for the position um that is required, they write us a check for 200,000 each year of the agreement.

We are reaching the or when fact we have reached the end of that intergovernmental agreement.

That's um it didn't expire on June 30th, but um the funding allocation that was determined did expire at that point.

So since that time, we have been negotiating the new intergovernmental agreement, which would extend the amount of money into the future, as well as make several other small amendments.

Those amendments include um extending the provision of funds for an additional three years, increasing the annual disbursement from two thousand two hundred thousand to two hundred and ten thousand, um, adjusting the breakdown of the position's time to sixty percent for Tiger, 30% for Tualton, and 10% for Sherwood.

So that is an increase for Tualton of 5%.

And then the final piece is providing greater clarity on a few obligations related to the point in time count, which occurs every two years.

The next one will be January 2027, as well as um the annual reporting process to Washington County about the work that the position does, and finally the release of data from Washington County to cities that are relevant for the position.

So that um agreement has been approved by Washington County at this point.

They voted on it in June.

The city of Tiger is scheduled to vote on it, I believe later this week.

Um I have it tentatively on your agenda for August 10th for adoption at that point.

Um so I can pause there if there are any questions about the four-party agreement and then proceed to discussing the three-party agreement.

Any questions for Megan?

Since there's an increase in funding, does our um um Megan get an increase in her salary?

Um uh that is something that is being worked on outside of the discussions around the agreements, but yes.

Council Hillier.

To clarify the change in the percentages, um, is it based on need?

Uh the is it a data-driven decision, or how did we come up with that, please?

Yeah, so Megan is not itemizing her time spent for each city exactly, but over the course of the year, I guess two years that she has been employed, or approximately two years that she's been employed, she does have an estimate for where she's spending the most time, and generally that's coming down with the majority in Tiger, as was predictable based on what they are seeing there.

Um, but then a significant amount in Twalton as well, and less time in Sherwood.

And so the three project managers from each of the cities, so myself for Tualton started talking about it, and there was interest from Tigert in particular and having it particular, having it be more accurately reflected, and there was uh we certainly just didn't disagree with getting more of our time in Sherwood is also willing.

So that's how that decision was made.

Thank you.

Yeah, Council Brooks when they do the counts, will they be discerning um where people are if they're homeless on the street, if they're homeless in campers, if they're homeless in homes?

Yes, my understanding of the way that the point in time count works is that they do differentiate between um the different living accommodations that people have.

It's managed uh it is not managed by each individual city.

I believe it's managed by Portland State, and I'm gonna look over my shoulder.

Oh, anywho.

Um I believe it's uh facilitated by Portland State in partnership with the uh counties as well as service providers on the day that the count occurs.

The service providers end up doing a lot of the direct outreach, but in addition to other things that they are asking them as part of that intake form, but they're also asking questions about current accommodations.

And then do we have the prior year of this one?

Um so I believe Washington County released some of the results from the previous point in time count.

I'm not sure they released the totality of information that they received from it.

It's at the discretion of each of the counties when and how they release that information.

Okay.

Um and then when do we anticipate this one coming out?

January.

Oh, so the count itself will occur in January 2027.

Um I think that they're looking at maybe multiple days for the count versus one day.

Um, so it's not quite yet defined what that'll be.

Um Megan was employed at the time that we did the last count and we participated in it.

Um she worked directly with outreach providers, and we also had an intake table at the library in the lobby for folks.

Um so we will do so again in 2027.

I would love the information from the last count and an estimated date when it's gonna be released.

The results from the last count or the date for the new.

No, the next one, the the other ones were released, right?

The last one was released.

Yeah, so I would like as much information as we can get from the last one, and then the date of when the next one's going to be actually released so that we can utilize it.

And put that on the list.

Thank you.

Um, Megan, do you um is there any funds?

Are there any funds coming from Clackamas County?

Even though I know it's Washington County, but Megan does I mean part of Tualeton is Clackamas County.

Are there any funds coming from that um from their homeless?

Because I know this a four-party, right?

It's sure the three cities plus the plus metro.

But yeah, that's correct.

Four party.

So Clackamas County is not a party of this agreement.

So um Washington County's response on that has been no, Megan's time should be dedicated to the Washington County portion of Tualton.

However, um, people do often cross county lines um for a variety of reasons, and so that hasn't been um a hard line per se.

Um, Clackamas County also receives supportive housing services funds, and they have an entirely different model from Washington County for how they allocate and use those funds.

Um, I don't remember the exact timing, but they did have a process by which cities could apply for some of those funds for a variety of projects, and there were a number of projects funded, um, spanning from staff positions uh within police departments.

I think Oregon City received funds for two affordable housing projects.

I believe like Oswego received funds for that.

Twalton did not apply for funds in that last round, and there has not been announcement that there will be another round.

Oh, okay.

Well, I was just wondering because we do still have a portion that it's Clackamus.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I just want to point out that we did get money for Clackmas County SHS for the food pantry improvements.

Yes, yes.

Yep, that was it was Clackmas County money.

Yes, I should say the city did not receive funds directly, but Twalton was represented on the recipient list.

Thank you for that.

Okay.

So that's part one on to part two, which is the three-party agreement.

Um, so I mentioned earlier that the uh Washington County writes a check every year, but they don't write the check for the exact amount of Megan's staff position time.

They write a check for 200,000 previously and moving forward will be 210,000.

And while Megan is extremely valuable, unfortunately, she does not receive all of that in her salary, so there is leftover funds available.

Tiger has been storing those funds for the last three years, and we have begun conversations about what to do with those funds.

The four-party intergovernmental agreement has some language about how those funds must be used, although it is fairly vague.

Um it says some version of on issues related to homelessness or support of the position.

So we have a draft three-party agreement that we've been working on in a tentative agreement to disperse those remaining funds, which are just over 400,000 between the three cities based on the percent allocation of the time of Megan's position for those three years.

So Tuwalton would receive 25,000 or 25%, which is roughly a hundred thousand dollars for the first three years of the agreement.

Um we are still in the process of um finalizing that language, so I don't have a draft included in your packet.

But when we do have a final draft that has been agreed to, I will bring that forward for the city council to review and authorize signature of.

Um, but I'm happy to answer any questions about that at this point as well.

Council Brooks.

Thank you.

Um city operates is we do really great community outreach.

And I'm just curious when we're talking about allocating these funds, if when we do that housing meeting that we do because of the um affordability problems that we have in our city, if there's any way of having some community feedback on how we utilize these funds as well from the people that are directly affected.

Yeah, absolutely.

So at the point that Tualton does receive the check um from the city of Tiger for that amount, we do not have that currently earmarked for any specific purpose in our budget at this time.

So it would be at the council's discretion for how to use those funds, and they and council could determine a process by which to solicit feedback or identify priorities for the use of those funds.

Um, I should mention as well.

So the hundred thousand is for the first three years of the agreement moving forward.

The intent would be for us to receive an annual disbursement based on the remainder of funds before the end of the fiscal year or shortly thereafter, I believe, actually.

Thank you.

All right.

I mean, we've been listening to the stories from people, the hardships I've seen the people with their kids in their cars trying to wash them up in the restroom.

It's um it's not a problem that's gonna get better with how things are going with federal money coming back to communities, which it's just not.

And so um I think that there's a lot of people that really want to be heard around these things that are really impacted by this.

And I think that understanding what's happening in the communities and especially with a shifting landscape is pretty important for the people themselves and for um insights into how we're planning and what we're dealing with, and then hopefully some elected people and some organizations can get past their own whatever their goals are and look at community-centered goals that the people actually need and the people are asking for.

Thanks.

Council Hallier.

Just a quick question about the dollars.

Um in the language of disbursement, would it be eligible for eviction prevention?

At this point, I believe so.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, all right.

Thank you.

All right, thanks, everybody.

All right.

So Megan Cohn comes up for a second act, along with Nicole Morris.

Welcome back.

And this is the eviction prevention follow-up and outside agency grants.

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

City Council.

Again, Megan Cohen, uh, homelessness liaison for Twalton and Deputy City Recorder Nicole Morris.

All right.

Um, so this presentation is in follow-up to presentation from back in April where we talked about eviction prevention.

So we wanted to bring back um more information, some follow-up to questions that were asked at that meeting, and also uh provide a little bit more detail about the outside agency grants, uh, which was um part of the discussion um from April as well.

So I will start just by reviewing sort of uh background and some follow-up from uh the meeting in April, and then I'll turn it over to Nicole after that um to talk about outside agency grants.

So, just as a quick reminder, um, we've had a couple different discussions around um sort of eviction prevention and supportive services uh for folks who are experiencing homelessness here in um or housing instability in Twalton, starting with um discussion about safe parking back in August 2025, our housing forum in December, um, and then you all had the city council goal setting in January 2026.

Part of that goal setting included um the goal you see there, 2.4, which was supporting eviction prevention resources and programs.

So we had the initial discussion in April, and then we're coming back um with more information and specifics about what that might look like this evening.

So uh I'm just briefly gonna go over some follow-up uh QA that we had.

Uh the first was around what are the cuts to eviction prevention in the state.

Uh so 75%, uh there was a 75% cut um representing 129 million dollars by the state in June 2025 in that legislative uh session.

That included um rent assistance dollars and also tenant advocacy hotlines.

So things like community alliance of tenants, um uh several of our other like uh community uh Oregon Law Center, those types of things uh lost funding for the hotlines where they were responding to questions on tenant questions, um, and then obviously a very deep cut in terms of the rent assistance dollars that were available in the state.

Um what is the current state of evictions in Washington County?

There's a really great website um called evicted in Oregon.

This is a dashboard like an active dashboard of all the evictions that are happening in the Tri-County area, including Washington County.

Um that uh I was able to pull that 4800 evictions were filed in court in the last 12 months.

Um of tenants and 52% of landlords had representation there, and 95% of evictions were due to non-payment.

Um just a note that when we look at like the 4800 evictions, obviously, those are the evictions that only made it to court.

So we have a lot of other evictions that have happened that people make the decision to lose to leave as soon as they get that notice, or um, you know, they just uh decide to leave the unit prior to that eviction actually being uh filed for non-payment.

Um, so that's that's a lower number than what we can expect to see.

Um, in terms of local providers providing support, we have um just compassion uh runs a program uh called the housing related social needs program.

That's uh a rent assistance program specific to folks that have uh chronic health uh disability issues and provides up to six months um worth of support.

Um that is through Medicaid, I think.

Um is uh they have designated certain providers, um we're very lucky to have one directly here uh in Washington County.

And then Family Promise is also running uh rent assistance um support as well.

They have limited funds that they have um put together through multiple sources and are able to offer some support.

I actually got two calls from families that are getting evicted, it's the end of the month.

So as of August 1st today from Towalleton, which was a weird coincidence, um uh owing anywhere from like one to six thousand dollars um in back rent.

Um, and uh so really one of the only sources I have at the moment to refer them to is uh family promise, unless there are other health-related needs.

Um community action uh also provides rent assistance.

They are getting the funds from Washington County and from Metro through supportive housing services, but um, whereas they used to run like a hotline where people could call or they would show up to eviction court, they're not doing any of that anymore.

You pretty much have to be receiving support through community action a different way in order to be able to get rent assistance support.

So for many of the folks that I work with, um, we just haven't seen folks get support through uh community action recently, not to say that there aren't people who are, um, but that hasn't been a primary source.

Um, and then wraparound services um that we we talked about before how uh utility assistance, food pantries, all of that is helping uh keep people housed uh just by offsetting those other costs.

So we have um a good amount of providers providing that service.

Um in terms of number of youth being impacted in Twalton, I was able to get some numbers from TTSD.

They reported 255 McKinney Vento students from this school year.

You can kind of see the breakdown there.

Um school districts define homelessness as uh students who are also doubled up.

Um the outcomes are the same if you're doubled up versus in shelter in terms of uh uh outcomes for student wellness.

Um, so they count both of those.

Uh, and then they also had youth in shelter and motels.

Uh I know that we have uh students from the district who are literally unsheltered right now.

Um, that's not captured in this count, but um I I can think of at least five uh that currently have no shelter and are outside.

Um affordable housing properties in Towalton.

We're very, very, very lucky to have Plan Beck Gardens, of course, um our regulated affordable housing, but we also have several LITEC properties that have the funding to do uh regulated rents as well.

Um, so you can see those properties listed here.

Um and then resources that support those with mortgages.

Um there are a couple options.

Um is open door counseling center.

They help with um like HUD's program for reverse mortgages, which is something I have very rapidly learned a lot about.

Um and then also uh we have uh Oregon State's foreclosure mediation program that is able to do landlord tenant um mediation around foreclosure or lender uh mediation uh and try and see if there are other outcomes that can come out of that.

Um, and then last on this slide is how are we using our water bill assistance program?

Um and you can see there we are contracting with community action to do that.

We pay them 7800 in administrative costs to administer it, and then the other roughly uh what, 20 is for assistance.

Um, and we uh just expended around 7500 uh this fiscal year in utility assistance.

So I was able to get um I think a little bit of feedback just in terms of uh the requirements to be able to get utility bill assistance, you have to be getting that bill directly.

Um so that's not something that folks like in multifamily housing are able to take advantage of and maybe makes that more limited in in some situations in the resources to support those with mortgages.

In the resources to support those with mortgages.

Um, can you talk a little bit too about the county program?

I know it's underutilized for home improvements, and I just want to say um I've been trying to think about where the best place of putting those pamphlets would be because I see just even in our work in appraising when it'll just be some kind of fix or whatever to not be able to get an FHA loan or get a reverse mortgage.

Um just and I know it's underutilized.

Yeah, that's a great thought.

I can think a little bit about where that can be.

Can you remind me the name of it?

I have to look it up.

That's okay again.

Yeah, there's I think it goes by two names too.

So yeah, of course.

But I think getting the word out about that um program, it helps with upgrades to your home.

Like if there's something that is problematic and there's some need-based um requirements, but they're not tough, especially if somebody's really wanting to refinance, or if they need to, and I think that right now is a really good time to just bring that information to the fore.

It's an awesome program.

Yeah, can help.

I know with accessibility a lot too, um, which might make the difference in somebody staying in their home or not.

Yeah.

Um, um, the last couple of questions we have uh, how much is needed to help the average household?

Um family promise just shared with me that the average that they are um paying in eviction prevention is around 4,500.

Um, that's usually a couple months of uh uh back rent and usually not the full rent, but um uh you know, a thousand dollars or something over a couple of months adds up pretty quickly.

Um, and then uh we had a question about a rental inspection registry program.

I just wanted to note that we do have um a rental registry here in Tewalleton.

Um, so we do require uh landlords to register their properties.

Um, I know we had looked into doing an inspection program.

Uh that obviously has staffing and financial uh budget implications.

So if we wanted to look into that any further, that would be something we would need to take into consideration.

Um, and then lastly, um, how do our outside agency grants really cross over with this?

Um we had talked about in April the different ways of being able to provide eviction prevention uh support here in Towalleton, with one of those options being uh doing that through the outside agency grant or through potentially like direct contracting uh to agencies doing that work as well.

Um, so just to give you an idea, uh Nicole will add a lot more.

Um, when we looked at sort of what we're currently funding, we had two agencies that were receiving funding for the downstream impacts of eviction.

So a thousand dollars to just compassion for some like emergency motelling, and then uh 2250 for domestic violence reset resource center, basically same thing, um, moteling and some other moving costs and that type of thing.

Um within that we're not directly granting any money for rent assistance currently.

Um, but uh thinking about what are the different means for providing that support um and utilizing the partners that we have in this area uh is something that I think would be helpful to get more information uh from the council.

So uh before that, I'll turn it over to Nicole to talk more about the outside agency grants.

Yeah, thanks, Megan.

So tonight I'm gonna provide a brief overview on the city's outside agency grant program and how it concurrently supports local community organizations.

So the program began in 2014 to provide funding to local 501c3 nonprofit organizations, and at that time the total grant funding was 24,000.

Over the past 10 years, that amount has increased to 50,000 as the needs of the community have grown.

In 2023, the program guidelines were updated for the first time since the program's inception.

As part of that update, the council refined the grant purpose to better connect the program with the council's vision and priorities.

The council also added a final reporting requirement and began highlighting community partners through presentations at council meetings and on the city's social media.

On average, the program has supported about 15 organizations each year with annual funding requests averaging approximately 85,000.

In last fiscal year, 19 partner agencies receive grants ranging from approximately 1,000 to 5,000.

The outside agency grant program provides financial support to charitable nonprofit organizations whose work aligns with the council's 2030 vision.

As shown on the screen, the vision includes creating a caring and inclusive community, supporting civic engagement and economic opportunity, providing safe and accessible gathering places and transportation, maintaining welcoming neighborhoods with housing available for all, and protecting the environment.

The program requirements are straightforward.

Organizations must provide proof of their 501c3 status, demonstrate they serve members of the Chihalatan community, and comply with the city's non-discrimination policies.

The council has made it a priority to keep the application process simple and eliminate and reduce barriers for organizations seeking funding.

The application asks the organization to answer three simple questions, submit a valid 501c3, a copy of their current year budget, and a list of their board members.

Organizations that received funding in the previous cycle must also complete a final questionnaire describing how the funds were used.

This shows this slide shows the program's typical timeline.

We delayed opening applications this year so that the council could have discussion tonight and provide direction before the next grant cycle opens.

In a typical year, applications open in July.

Staff notifies the city's distribution lists and promotes the opportunity through social media and the city newsletter.

Applications close in September, after which staff conducts a completeness review and forwards the application to the council to review and discuss.

The council then awards the grants via a resolution at the following meeting and funds are distributed in October.

As Megan mentioned earlier, one of the questions council raised was how eviction prevention could potentially fit in with the outside agency grant program.

To provide additional context, we categorized all of last year's grant awards by the type of service they provide.

The full list is provided in the memo in the council packet.

While the program has never specifically funded eviction prevention, you'll see that several organizations currently receiving grants provide services that can help address the downstream impacts of housing instability.

The largest funding category last year was education and use services, receiving $16,000 or about 32% of total program funding.

These organizations included included CEPA, Smart Reading, Twilight and Together, the Tualetin Family Resource Center, and the Twileton Tiger School Foundation.

The second largest category was homeless services, receiving approximately 11,000 with 22% total of the funding.

Organizations in this category included the Domestic Violence Resource Center, Family Promise of Tualeton Valley, and Just Compassion.

The remaining funding supported organizations providing health, housing, human services, hunger relief, mental health, transportation, and environmental services.

With that, staff is seeking feedback and council discussion and direction on how you would like us to proceed.

The options presented for your consideration include making no changes to the outside agency grant program, maintaining the current $50,000 funding level while adding criteria that prioritize applications supporting eviction prevention, increasing the overall funding level and using that increase for eviction prevention applications, or exploring housing stabilization and eviction prevention options outside of the outside agency grant program.

With that, we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Questions?

Council Hillier.

Thank you very much.

I have many questions, but I'll just start with the one that is so not to call out community action, but I'm curious.

I I can't remember what the grant application looks like, and I meant to look and I didn't, so I apologize.

Do we have any language in there around what we allow for indirect?

I'm assuming that's 7800 or so that they use was to administer the grant, but that you know that's a full what 8%.

It's what it's 28%.

Yeah, I mean, even a federal like I mean, the Fed has made a lot of shifts around grant applications and allowing allowance for an indirect fee.

I feel like if we're gonna make some changes to the grant application, I'd love to see language around that.

The utility assistance program, I think is what you're talking about is different than the agency grant program.

Oh, so we administered I'm sorry.

I think so.

So I'm sorry.

Uh Megan can speak more to the utility assistance program through um through community action.

Our outside agency grant program is done by yours truly.

I apologize.

And that's included in my in my salary.

So you'll give it away.

Yes, no, we want to add to your salary at all times.

So that I am concerned about that high level of indirect.

Could you speak to that please?

Um so the uh utility bill assistance is through our utility billing department through finance, um, and they are contracted for services um to do that.

I think um I can ask them more questions about uh sort of what that contract looks like.

Um is uh from what I know uh working with other cities um uh like percentage of a position at community action.

So I'm guessing that's how they came up with the 7800 um for that, but I understand the concern about indirect costs.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Just one question, Council Hill, you're don't you oh I do, yeah.

No, I'm so well I I I suspect it'll all get covered, but I I do um I uh when we're looking in our discussion at um eviction prevention or or any sort of funds that could potentially be earmarked specifically, and I'm thinking of the hundred thousand dollars that we discussed before.

Could we could we you know spread that out over four years or I mean I don't know.

I think there's a lot of ways that we could do different things and and earmark those dollars, but I'm equally as concerned in the upstream c uh prevention versus just the downstream interventions that we seem to invest in.

So I'm a little c I I I would like to make sure that whatever we do, we have a balance of upstream and downstream because we we're not gonna just keep paying our way out of it, right?

Like so those are um I would just make one note, which is I think one of the reasons that we don't see more folks come into our grant process now for upstream is just as I mentioned earlier, the cost for eviction prevention per family is pretty significant um most of the time.

So um something to think about in terms of how that is structured.

I think um the uh administrative costs of administering eviction prevention would be really challenging without um being able to uh offer a significant um amount to uh the families that they're serving.

Thank you.

It appeared that the average was $4,500 is if you indicated, and even if we help the two families that you are um talking with today, that'd be a hundred percent of the people that reached out to you today.

I suppose.

But you know, I'm I'm not trying to make light of it, but I do think that to those two families it means everything.

And we shouldn't minimize that.

Um, and so I mean if we add 10,000 just for upstream a year and 10,000 or 15 or 20,000 because it's a bigger impact for downstream to use up that 100,000 dollars.

I mean, I I would like to see some sort of balance, whatever that could be.

Makes sense.

That's right.

Um from this agency, I guess I it's probably an agency question, but um do they when they distribute the funds?

I'm wondering if they uh give people also time to like not have the same person come over and over and like have time to like um yeah, it's a great use.

Yeah, because you know, you know, I mean, that gives other uh people an opportunity also to be able to be helped.

Yeah, I'm not sure how that I mean I know we can distribute the we can grant the grant, but then how is that being used?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I think um with like eviction prevention funds, usually um it is like a one time a year type of um payment.

Um there are um for all of the different like examples that I've seen, um, like application guidelines for that, um, and that's usually paid also directly to landlord, not to the individual themselves.

And part of that is like a case management conversation about like what is sustainable.

Are you gonna be able to stay here?

Do we need to look at some other options?

A lot of the conversations I have now are really about uh there aren't a lot of sources of funding for this.

What what is your plan?

Have you um thought about shelter?

Have you thought about um having to live out of your car?

Those types of things.

So that's usually um part of the process is sort of identifying sustainability around um providing that funding to families.

Um I will say that I think an important piece of that would be um uh making sure it's going directly to folks here into Walleton, um, which is something that is uh pretty standard as well, too.

Yeah.

Thank you for explaining that.

Yeah, it's a great question.

Council Brooks.

I I mean some of what I heard is that there is a gap for sort of first-time users, um, somebody that's just lost their job, has never been involved in human services before, wants to stay housed, it costs more money, um, or suddenly got sick and needs to pull it together.

Um so in my mind, those kinds of things when they happen.

Um people, as much as people want to feel that they're prepared for crises, oftentimes we are less prepared than we thought, and there's less resources available than we thought.

We get this constant hammering about how these people are using all this money and all these services, like there's just all this great money available to people that are really sick.

So I um think that looking at those gaps are good, and I think that doing things in a way um that involves best practices from what I understand, you know, sometimes direct allocation is the most cost-effective thing that we can do.

Um then I also think being informed by the community and the studies is really important as as we think forward in this conversation because it's I think it's a progressive conversation, like we can have one decision tonight, but what are we dealing with as a community, and how are we setting ourselves up to be successful and for people to know that we um are you know we want to utilize this for um measurable impacts so that people stay in their homes and don't it?

I've just seen it too many times, it's just a cascading thing, and you know uh it's just like even early treatment of certain things can um reduce chances of people having severe persistent mental health issues because they're not re-exposed over and over and over again to trauma, whatever it might be.

And I think there are certain communities, especially right now that are dealing with extra trauma.

So I think that you know it's it's a really big conversation, and it's a really sad conversation, and um, but I think that best practices uh learning from the community what they want, and um doing some direct uh funding might be efficient, effective.

Thanks, counselor.

Yeah, Council President Pratt.

Um yeah, this is a tough subject.

And and you brought up um, and I know I've learned a lot about this this last year, but there are people living in you know, apartments, but they're not really habitable, they have mold and other issues.

So I'm not sure if we're dealing with that issue right here and just not eviction, but that is another issue that we and it's a problem in our community in particular.

Um the um, yeah, the the thing with the utilities of 28%.

So I'm wondering if we did you know, allocated these funds, how we could most efficiently get them to people without you know reducing these administrative customs.

So we want as many dollars as possible to go directly to helping people.

And my second question would be um, I thought I read something in your packet about you know, it's hard, people don't know about these programs and that it's available, so how do we get the word out to people so they can get the help?

Those would be my two big concerns.

And um finally, what I would I would suggest something like we if we're getting this hundred thousand dollars, and we we want uh of course we'd want to allocate it specifically to these things to meet the criteria, but maybe do it on a and it sounds like we could potentially get more money in the future, so maybe have it on a um like four or five year rolling thing where we say 25% of the amount available, so we we keep it rolling forward for at least a while as long as we're getting these funds.

That's it.

Other comments.

Um my thoughts were counting similar to Council President Pratt and Council Hillier that take advantage of the hundred thousand dollars and use that over a period of years.

I'll just pick on three because it seems like the IGA's all three.

So you know, three years and tag that on to whoever the grant programs can be in the future.

Okay designated as eviction prevent you know eviction prevention.

I mean it's one of our council goals.

Have the have these dollars specifically allocated to other programs or agencies that can help the two families you're mentioning, Megan, you know, make that monthly payment that they don't get kicked out.

Um because that you could then to counsel Brooks point, you'll see the impact of those dollars in the community that uh this you know XYZ fiscal year that the 30 odd thousand dollars prevented you know nine families from being evicted this year in Twalton.

Um I think the outside agency grant program is working pretty well, the dollar amounts are low, but you know, or we were bemoaning the fact that we didn't have the dollars for eviction prevention last year.

We now have a windfall that we can use this for the three years forward, and then if there are savings year after year and year four, those dollars could be allocated eviction prevention or where the current thing is maybe eviction prevention somehow becomes a lower priority and something else pops up that you can adjust this year to year.

But it would definitely to me use the hundred thousand somehow get that into the uh awards program to uh an agency that's specialized in this so the overhead is low and is specific to Twalton residents, and it's a multi-year program.

That's I won't be here for it next year, but that would be my suggestions.

Yeah, go ahead.

And I I think I would support that because I feel like also it will allow the other funds to be used for exactly like you know, we have housing and home because that can be used for other like arts and health and other things that we have in our community that we would like to support too.

Sure.

The only issue I've got with the solution right now is that I don't know who um who would provide services to first-time users of human services.

Um I don't know what in my mind um I just keep rolling around how like the MET does trust and if there's any possibilities around um putting a trust somewhere that we could utilize for Twilight and the in terms of like providers we have that would be able to um like easily provide eviction prevention and have a system in place already, family promise of Twalton Valley is the first one that comes to mind.

Um I would um anticipate we would want to think about some administrative costs um as part of that as well.

Um but what I'm hearing is uh utilizing uh like an earmark of the grant process, there may be other providers that are ready to do that as well.

I can think of some other providers um uh but uh they would they kind of have like staffing in place um and a process for that um that would be easy to replicate for Twalton.

Okay.

And then I I guess my other question is I now I go to linking.

So my question is if there's um and I know it it makes our two some of these um departments that we have go together.

So for instance, we just have this economic um report.

And so say one of our major providers does layoffs that are where the people that live here get laid off, right?

How do we um broadcast messages like that?

Or um, you know, we're anticipating like a measles out, like how do we connect with I I keep thinking of health and employment to help like connect those things, especially for people that have never been engaged with I think that it's very laborious and harder than people think.

Yeah, even for people that are experienced.

So I'm just thinking through those, like how we can in the future or communicate through those.

Yeah.

Those are I think those are really good questions.

I think figuring out how to continue getting the word out is something we could always do a better job of.

I think both the people I talked to today are our first time users, so they had kind of done the obvious thing of calling community action and not being able to get an answer on the phone, and uh also talked about calling two on one and not being able to get assistance there.

So I think some of these things um one of the benefits uh of exploring uh providing some support directly to eviction prevention is that also we can also then say we have invested in this and um share that more broadly.

Right now it's um I think a harder thing just because those funds are so limited and definitely one-on-one.

I'm having a lot of conversations with people, but um we would I think really want to uh prioritize how we share that more broadly um if uh you all decide to make such a significant investment in that.

Yeah, I agree with you on that.

I just appreciate the the thought around it as we think moving forward, um, and we keep learning more.

Um I appreciate your work.

I'm glad that you're here working with us so that we can do some of these community needs assessments and look at where the gaps really exist and how we can best funnel those monies and advocate from those greater supportive housing services monies and all that stuff that really affects us directly.

Thanks.

My last thought going on what you were just saying, Megan, is that in the event that the outside agency grant does say okay, we have $30,000 per year, that it gets awarded to one agency rather than dilute the money, have it be one agency that's good at it, that you have a single point of contact contact that we can send people to.

Uh to me, if it some of the problem we have right now is that the amount of dollars that the agencies get are very small, but if you give one agency 30 odd thousand dollars for the year, uh that can make an impact versus two or three different agencies, and then the councilbrooks point, you know, we know they'll go to XYZ agency.

Okay, yeah, I think there's some um maybe examples we can look of look at at how um uh you know, like earmarking grants grant type things have uh worked before um and then uh think about the timing, I think, of the funding that we're gonna get and and what that will look like moving forward.

Um, because uh we'll need to sign some agreements in order to see some of that.

So um I think uh of course one of the goals will be to make sure that the grant program is still able to um to proceed through this year and we can address those um additional needs that you guys have uh talked about this evening.

Thank you.

Nicole, anyway um, I just had one more question around um what was the other organization?

Community community action.

Action.

No, not that one.

Um the one that does that's funded from Medicare.

Oh, uh it's called the health-related social needs program, HRSN.

Oh, just compassion, yeah.

Yeah, just compassion students.

Um are we anticipating them staying whole through these cuts?

I believe so, yes.

Yeah.

All right.

And they I think they recently told me, I'm trying to remember, I think they said through that program they had dispersed over, I want to say 900,000 in an eviction prevention in the last year.

So very significant.

They have something like 60 case workers dedicated just to that program.

Um it is a big uh it's a big lift to do all of the obviously the health-related um administration that goes along with that.

Yeah, I'm just curious too, with complex cases, if there's I I am all for making it as efficient as possible, but I also don't want um very vulnerable people to slip through the cracks.

So I'm just curious about um incorporating things that are gonna help people that are um really compromised.

Thank you.

I can bring more info about that too, too.

It's fairly new to me.

Yeah, that's a lot of money that they're able to get out.

Great question.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so that brings us to agenda review and our round table.

So uh tonight got council Hillier is up for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Uh we have three items on consent.

Any questions about the consent agenda, any concerns?

All right.

Uh there we have the awarding of the scholarship now being handled by Council Hillier.

The announcement and stuff.

Uh the scholarship.

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

We'll start with Sherlin Lombos, our city manager.

Great.

Uh Frank, can you pull up the um the visuals for the road closure?

I want to start with.

I sent this out to uh you today, but just wanted to make the announcement, and then under announcements, Mike McCarthy will also make that announcement.

But um, so as of next Monday and Tuesday, Southwest Twalleton Road will be closed between Southwest Chinook and Sweek Drive.

So that entire corner, there will be no crossings of that rail right there where the orange block is.

Um there will be local access, local traffic into the those businesses and the apartment, uh the the condos right there.

So um this is a much needed and anticipated um rehab and repair of the rail, and uh people have been asking for this.

I'm sure you've heard complaints, um, and so it is a highly desired and anticipated thing, but it will cause um traffic impacts.

There's a fairly straightforward detours along SWEC and 90th that aren't far off of the beaten path.

So um that's next Monday and Tuesday.

The next slide is so the next Monday, um, the same night as your council, your next council meeting, so Monday through Thursday, a complete closure from Martinazzi, right past uh city offices across the Twileton River Bridge to Lower Boons Ferry, and um that is gonna be a significant closure.

Uh, there is no straightforward detour.

Uh the detour is through I-5 or 99W.

Right.

Um so ODOT is um is working on this one because it is an ODOT facility, and so they have been coordinating ADA access, and um the TriMet has a bus stop right there, so that is significant as well.

Um again, there will be no absolutely no crossings of the rail in that orange block, but there will be local local traffic to the apartments and the businesses on the other side.

Yeah, so again, a very significant and long-awaited and desired and needed um upgrade to that rail, uh, but it will be impactful those days.

So potentially find other routes avoid.

Uh thank you, Frank.

Um, so a few other things.

So on um the 10th of July, the CIO leadership had their meeting, and they talked about and prepared for their coming to the city council on August 10th to give you their annual update, which will also include the boundary map change, the map, the boundary changes and the recommendation to add a whole other um CIO downtown.

So looking forward to that discussion.

Um on the 18th last Saturday, there was the IBAC CIO community involvement organization, neighborhood fair at IBAC Park was well attended.

It was it was lovely.

Um saw many of you there, and uh I think it was very feel-good and um lots of great stuff.

Um 723.

So last Friday, the Latinos in Government Alliance, it's called Liga, um, of which Betsy Roof, our community engagement coordinator, is the president this year.

They held their inaugural conference right here in Tuolleton, and um it was a great event.

They allowed they allowed me to come and give a welcome, and Megan was there as well and gave a welcome.

And uh they had some really great speakers, including their keynote speaker was Oregon State rep Ricky Ruiz, and um apparently he um knocked their socks off.

So that was great.

Um, our sidewalk street tree project is there's a lot of work going on in the south end of town.

And so it's taken a little bit longer to get back around to fill in the sidewalk gaps that they've cut down trees and stump uh grinded grinded ground stumps and then the next step will be to fill in the sidewalk to lay lay the concrete and then in the fall come back and replant trees.

There were a number of questions at the IBEC CIO fair about that, and we communicated with Patricia Parsons and hopefully getting the word out there.

The pumpkin regatta paddling quest, which is the paddler lottery, is open right now.

And it opened last week and it's open through the end of August.

So if you're interested, if you're interested in paddling, we can find a we can find a place for you.

But um, those that participate through the lottery, it's it's a big deal, and so that's open right now.

Uh the Riverfront Park, uh, the design firm uh request for proposals closed.

There were like 16 um proposals that came in, and the top three were identified, and so we'll be doing interviews with those and getting somebody on board.

That will that contract will come before the council because of the amount that it will be.

So you'll get to see that.

And then we were awarded the nate Nature's and Neighborhoods uh grant of $2 million.

Um thank you to Counselor Brooks for going and speaking on our behalf, and um we're very thrilled that we got the grant, and um not so thrilled that we didn't get the other one, but um it didn't it didn't climb up there in the it it wasn't recommended and it was a long shot, but but the nature and neighborhoods one was great.

Um regarding ash trees.

This came up um a couple council meetings ago.

We are putting together a work session that will include public works, parks, and clean water services, as well as Twilight and Soil and Water Conservation District.

Um, there's a lot going on on it regarding the Emerald Ash Bore.

We did hire a consultant for the inventory and assessment of ash trees in our park system.

So that is a very specific thing, and it is a big deal, and um, so we're we're uh working on that on a lot of fronts.

Next Tuesday, August 4th, is um my son's birthday.

Oh, wait, um, and also Nicole's birthday.

Um, but it's also national night out, and um there's lots of events in the community going on.

We are hosting a party at Las Casitas Park, and so that'll be a fun time.

The Midwest community involvement organization is also having an ice cream social at Lafkey Park, so that'll be a good time as well.

Finally, uh registration is open for the league's 101st annual conference.

I believe Councillor Brooks was on the planning committee, so we have lots to look forward to.

It's October 15th through 17 in Salem.

And if you would like help registering, um let me know, and we'll pass that along to Erica.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council.

Thank you.

Uh, I don't have any formal meetings, although the IBEC CIO event was really well attended.

It just gets bigger every year, and thanks to so many of the community partners out there who participated.

It was a lot of fun.

Councillor Reyes.

Um, nothing formal, but I did attend the announcement of the neighborhood grant from Metro, and it was I did it on a different role in a different role, but I was then I saw Dustin and the team, and it was really nice to hear when they awarded the grants.

But hotel.

Counselor Gonzalez.

Thank you.

I I didn't have any formal meetings, so another report.

Okay.

Councilor Brooks.

Um, thank you.

I um I had a call from um Wajdi, who's the director over at the MET talking about some planning that's coming up for the fall.

Um, so I went over and met with him, and there was also a request to um meet with um economic people from the city.

So I will follow up, just don't let me forget.

I will follow up with that afterwards.

Who is this?

Um Washdi, the uh the director over at the Muslim Educational Trust.

Yeah, they're planning.

There's a 20, anyway, they're planning some things for the fall.

Um I did the mayor's call on the 20th, and um it was nice.

We actually hit each other this time.

Um we I went to it's not really the city, so I don't won't say that one.

Um the 12th and Arts Advisory Committee met on the 21st, and we discussed goals for the future um year and planning.

Um the 12th and Arts Advisory Committee met on the 21st, and we discussed goals for the future um year and planning um also an FYI, the grants um program for the community grants that the arts advisory committee gives is going to line up now with our city grants program, so that will be easier and will be more in conjunction with other um other programs within the city and have a better flow.

Um, and we are also looking at um creating specific policy for the group, which hadn't been done, although it's one of the charges of the group.

Um and then there are some other discussions around the back box wraps.

If people have noticed the box wraps are up, I think I mentioned that last time, but the box wraps are up, and we're looking at if we'll be doing other box wraps in the future.

So that is ongoing.

Um, and they have to synthesize some of the results from the polling that we do in the in the meeting, but it was nice to have it in person.

Um then let's see, the um the sorry, it's the new committee met Friday morning um for the health care committee.

Um there were a couple presentations.

One was of the report that has just been released around the Oregon Health Plan.

I think it was like 280 some pages.

It was um pretty startling information.

Um, and there's going to be a lot of cuts, and they're trying to figure out how to manage those cuts for the upcoming year because of the impacts of the big beautiful bill.

Um and then I'm sorry.

Um so that was that was a hard conversation, but it they're gonna come back again next month with some more conversations around that.

Um and what they're gonna you know have to cut out.

And it's just the beginning, so this will be a process that'll be going on.

So this will be the first round of cuts.

It's gonna make a huge difference, and then it's gonna keep coming.

Um then the next um item.

There's some work that um has been done by Multnomah County around uh dovetailing intake services to help make it more efficient for people, um, whether they're coming in through physical disabilities or um mental health, which has been disparate, and they're you they're utilizing a program downtown, and it looks like they've been working with the committee, the health care committee with the governor to do a statewide um in integration of that model.

So that's just coming up and some explanation around that.

Um oh, and then we were at the Metro meeting, which was amazing that we got the two million dollar grant.

I was sad about the other thing.

I do want to say that I do understand that the new chair wanted to do something where there's more input from other counselors and it impacted Tiger, and I was there also supporting Tiger since it's our partner, and um even one of the Metro counselors talked about that it was a sort of a she didn't say messy, but it was a kind of a messy experiment.

Um and so hopefully they'll be able to um put those two the goals and the operations together in a different way in the future.

I think that it was very out of protocol, so um our counselor was pretty surprised as well.

Um, however, there's been a lot of conversations, and um I was glad to be there and see how all that was going on and talked to quite a few of the counselors.

I also talked to them at the climate meeting that we had.

Um, and that was um very interesting.

They went through and talked about different climate action goals and different programs in the area and Megan or yeah, um Amber Amber.

Why can't I think of her name?

Our new climate manager.

Was there and um so it was nice to give her a shout out.

Thank you.

Council President Pratt.

Well, mine's a little more fun.

They went to one of the lunch concerts and heard Moho Holler, and that was really fun.

And there's a pretty decent turnout because sometimes there's not many people at those, so that was nice.

And then they went to the IBAC IBAC neighborhood fair, and that was great weather and great people and a great day.

And then um on the Metro Grants.

I I watched the work session and then I watched um at in live the actual council session is that went through, and so I'm glad we got the two million dollars, and I'll leave it at that.

And then on the Tuesday, the 22nd, I went in um to the Kai Kershaw Ridden cutting.

And um, oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna break the big secret, but they had a sake barrel traditional ceremony that was very cool.

And the mayor got to take part in that.

And then um, I also saw the mayor um Matthew Tamerson was um swearing in ceremony at the police department, and he had a um cousin here from Romania whom um brought food for the police department.

There's a mother, yeah.

And then um, my last thing was oh, Thursday.

I just went and um heard about the sewer update since it was in my neighborhood.

So that I should know.

That's it.

All right.

Uh on the 15th of July, I attended the governor's freight subgroup transportation meeting.

Um starting at the committee was starting to gel, starting to tackling the issues of you know, how do we address those needs of freight and expand your head if you will about freight includes trucks, ships, rail, and air, and how do you address those needs within Oregon uh under one set of criteria, and usually it's through Connect Oregon, the grant process that funds those kind of kind of uh infrastructure.

Uh, but starting to look at okay, what other states do, what are their funding streams, what are the needs that we have, and what would be supported in Oregon to move forward, and it's coming down to messaging and letting folks know the importance of freight and the impacts of what happens if freight doesn't make it through, and we saw that during COVID.

So we got uh three more meetings that for uh with the Frey subgroup.

On the 16th, I attended JPAC uh and Mayor Delyn's spot as the primary on that agenda that day was the MTIP amendment for the Rose Quarter changes.

If you remember, there was quite a large plan to redo uh the interstate around the Rose Quarter, but that got significantly in change with the Trump administration with some money was taken away.

So now there's only phases one A and one B with some changes around the Rose Quarter itself, but the infamous cap and you know restoring the albina neighborhood, uh that is all non-funded now.

Uh ODOT continues to pursue funding for the later phases uh but is unfunded.

So all the MTIP did was uh reallocate some of the money and then release the funds that were anticipated from the federal government uh that will never occur uh in phases one A and one B.

Uh we discussed the trip in September to Washington, DC for federal advocacy of metro's needs, specifically looking at what's gonna be happening with the surface transportation renewal and the kind of things that we need in the metro region in terms of that surface uh transportation bill that probably will not uh be touched this legislation this year, but the next congressional um session will.

And then Metro released uh the work plan for the 2028 RTP on the metro level.

Uh I chimed in that we had some current concerns.

We be in Washington County that some of their forecasting for jobs growth were tremendously uh low for this part of the county, and that we'd like to address in their modeling when they do the modeling for the RTP, making sure that we aren't court caught short in terms of transportation needs for those folks to get to and from work every day.

Uh and then fun part of the 16th was going to Safety Town and seeing the kids.

Uh these were the older kids who were doing projects.

Um some really cool projects on uh how they address safety, everything from electricity to water, internet, bee stings.

It was pretty cool.

So I enjoyed spending time with the kids there.

22nd, as council president uh Pratt mentioned, the Kai Kershaw uh celebration, you know, significant expansion here in town.

They moved they have a new facility across the street where it used to be Janice Cookies, uh, 40,000 square feet of uh manufacturing space and warehousing.

Uh so uh representatives, the family that owns Kai.

A couple of the members were here in town for that.

And the bundle about the sake of barrel was there was no sake, it was water.

Yeah, it was kind of a bummer, but it was made sense, you know.

But come on.

Did you go to his invitation afterwards?

No, did not go as an invitation that to taste his sake later.

Also went to the police swearing in the new police officer, yeah, with uh uh Ruth from Romania, which was really cool that his family was there.

Uh on the 23rd had the Twalton Chambers board meeting.

Uh things were progressing well under the interim CEO.

And then went to Safety Town again with the Littles, and who I give credit to the counselors, it was 50 something K or kindergarten through second graders.

And man, they pelted me with questions that were, you know, some were super good and some were just hysterical.

Uh everything from my favorite Disney character, my favorite author, um, favorite ice cream to uh why are you the mayor?

Why do you want to do this?

You know, so it's like, yeah, I ask that myself sometimes too.

But uh look forward to tomorrow as my last time with that safety town, so I look forward to that.

And there's a heads up if people haven't seen it this Friday.

Representative Walters and Senator Wagner and I are hosting uh a little event at community park, the main shelter from 5 30 to 6 30.

It's your opportunity to interact with Representative Walters and Senator Wagner before the legislative session starts.

Um I'm figuring not people aren't gonna be asking me a lot of questions since I'm on my way out the door.

I'll be mainly MC and facilitating the questions of Representative Walters Wagner.

So again, 5 30 to 6 30 community park main shelter.

That that's it for me.

So we'll go ahead and close the work session and we'll reconvene for our main council meeting at 7 o'clock.

Thank you.