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Sorry, so fabling.

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I call the meeting to order. Good evening and welcome to the August 19th, 2025 business meeting

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of your Ashens City Council. Councillor DeCain will offer the landing

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announcement. Thank you, Mayor. We acknowledge and honor the

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Aboriginal people on who's ancestral home lands we work. The Ecoroxum

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band of the Shastonation, as well as the diverse and vibrant native

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community, native communities who make their home here today. We honor the

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first stewards in the Rogue Valley and the lands we love and depend on, tribes

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and ancestral lands in and surrounding the geography of Ashland watershed,

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and include the original past, present, and future indigenous inhabitants of

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the Shasta, Tacoma, and Afabassin people. We also recognize and acknowledge

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the Shasta village of Wacca where the crow lights. That is now the Ashland

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City Plaza. Thank you. Councillor Dale will lead us in the

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pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

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And if you do not know about the Bush's hands, one issue on your mind, indivisible with

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whatever you think you can adjust as strong.

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We'll call please a listen. Councillor Schwell, Dale, Bloom, Mayor Graham,

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here, Kaplan, Ducane, here, Hansen, here.

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All right. For Mayor's announcements, I have two agenda changes. The public hearing and

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first reading of ordinance 3272, an ordinance annexing property and withdrawing an

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annexed area from Jackson County Fire District number 5, and also repealing ordinances

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3215 and 3194, which were the previous annexation approvals in Casita 1 and Casita 2.

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1511 Highway 99 planning action, number PA T3-2024-0011, is going to be continued at the

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applicant's request to September 16th at 6 p.m. and under ordinance's resolutions and contracts,

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the second reading and adoption of findings for a legislative amendment to the Southern Oregon University

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Facilities Master Plan and implementing ordinances 3267, 3268, and 3269, number PA-L-2025-0016,

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is being amended and so we will come back. We are canceling the second reading. It will

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come back for a new first reading with those amendments on October 7th.

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I also wanted to say it was so great to see so many Ashlanders out last night at the park, celebrating

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the great music concert series that our community partners have hosted, and it was just a lovely

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way to cap off the evening last night. So I hope you were able to be there if not, check out

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the calendar, and make sure there's still a couple of more this year. We move on now to approval of

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minutes. Are there any changes to the minutes? The floor is open for a motion to approve the minutes.

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Councillor Bloom? I'm over approval of the minutes.

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Is there a second? Will call please a listen? Hansen? Yes. Ducane? Yes.

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Captains? Yes. Bloom? Yes. Dale? Yes. Cheryl? Yes. Thank you. And we are now to the consent agenda,

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or would any Councillor like to remove an item from the consent agenda?

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Yes. Okay. The floor is open for a motion to approve the consent agenda?

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I move to approve the consent agenda as is. Second. Will call please? Dale? Yes. Bloom? Yes.

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Cheryl? Yes. Hansen? Yes. Ducane? Yes. Captains? Yes. Thank you. And I just wanted to think that people who

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have stepped forward to serve on the Housing and Human Services Advisory Committee, the Planning

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or the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, and our new ad hoc committee that will be

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developing a facilities plan for the 2,200 Ashton Street project. That community service is really

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what helps this council do. It's working. We appreciate the hard work of all of our council or committee

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members and commission members, and the new people who have stepped forward to help us.

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We now move to special presentations. In this evening, I am going to offer a presentation on my trip to Ukraine.

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In early June, I was invited to the cities and regions summit in Ukraine, in large part,

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or entirely, because we have a sister city with a town named Fiatahirsk, which is in the

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Dinesk Oblast. We have been in conversations with our sister city since the council approved

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this relationship about two years ago, and a little bit later on, I'll invite the folks from the Ashton

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Siatahirsk aid project who have been really leading the charge in developing the sister city relationship

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in terms of the people to people aspect of it. I will invite them up to share briefly what they have

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been doing in those two years, and the various ways that we have been able to help our sister city.

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So, what I was invited to come to this summit, I reached out to our city manager and to our

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council chair, Councillor Dale, because this is not a typical request to go into a place that is an

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active war zone, not something that people typically do on purpose. I wanted to talk with them about

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what this meant, and what this risk was, and what did they think about it? Of course, there were concerns

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about safety, but there was also a strong support for doing this, for standing with our sister city,

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and whatever way we could do this work. And so, I committed to going, and we were instructed to not

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share information about this publicly until the summit was complete for security reasons. And so,

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I went, and we start out, the way that they have this set up is that they meet the delegates that we're

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coming in from cities all around the world, primarily Europe and some from the US, but they met us in

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Poland, and then we took the night train to Kiev. And, and this is an eight-hour train ride after

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four flights to get to Poland. So, it was a long haul to get there, and we went through the night on the

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train. And, and that morning, the very first thing that we did when we arrived was, I met with Mayor

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Vlad, a mayor of a Balkan. And so, Mayor of a Balkan is the man in this picture who has this

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Ashland together hat on, Ashland better together hat on, and we exchanged gifts. And what I brought for Mayor

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of a Balkan, I wanted to have a mix of things that were useful and also things that were beautiful, because

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his community, and you'll see the little bit later on the map, is right near where the Russians are.

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They had overtaken Sveta here for several months, and then the Ukrainians were able to push them back,

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but they are very, in very close proximity to the Russians. And so, I brought a lot of things from Ashland.

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We have a variety of things from the city that I wanted to share with him, also brought them some

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things that taste good, and then a solar lantern, because they have difficulty with generators and that sort of

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thing. One of the things, if you can go back, one of the things that I particularly liked was I brought

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a flower, a paper flower bouquet, because when I talked to Mayor Re Balkan by Zoom, he's in a building,

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that of course is a kind of thing that you run military operations out of. And so, I wanted Ashland

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to give him this bouquet that wouldn't wilt, and it wouldn't die over time, and where he could see it,

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and remember that people in Ashland are thinking of him in his community, and we're sending all of our

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good wishes for a peaceful and to this conflict. I wrote in that bouquet comes with a little card, and I wrote

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some things to him about how we feel about their community, and the courage that they all have,

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and I had our folks from Ukraine, 188 International Translator for me, so it had a little translation

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inside of it, and each time I talk with Mayor Re Balkan, what he says is two things that what we're able

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to help them with in the physical space is really important, and they very much welcome it and appreciate it,

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and also they appreciate knowing that someone sees them, and that somebody is paying attention to what

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is happening to them. And so, we exchange gifts in the hotel, and one of the things that he brought to me,

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and you can see the head sticking right out of that little bag. Is this doll? And this doll is a handmade doll,

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it's made out of string, I'll have it where people can see it at the break, but it is each of last,

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which is kind of like a state in Ukraine, has its own doll, its own design, and it is a protection doll,

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and I thought it was interesting that I'm arriving, and he's sending me home with a doll to protect my

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town, from the different things that might befall us, and so I accepted this gift, I gave him his gifts,

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and then we went outside, they had someone there to do a media interview, and the media interview was going

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to be broadcast across the Oblast where he comes from, and they were paying particular attention

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to bringing these messages of friendship back into that space, where they are really struggling with

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the reality of the war. So I was pleased to do that interview, Mayor Rebalkin also spoke to the media

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folks, and then we went on to the summit. And so when we got there it was a very interesting thing

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is a completely international summit, and so they were going to be speaking in Ukrainian, and so they gave

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me the translator, the translator headphones, and then this is where we met our partners from Ukraine,

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Aided, or National, you see the two gentlemen on the bottom of that screen, and we went through that

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summit with them, and spent another day the next day in Kiev with them. And I just wanted to point out,

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when you hear from Ben Stott a little bit later on, Ben was with us, and you would have seen him in that

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first picture, and so we had representation both from the city council, and also from the Ashens Fiat

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to hear Skate Project at the summit. So one of the first things that happened was President Zelensky came,

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and he offered some words, and he gave awards to a variety of different cities and regions that had

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been helping directly Ukraine and helping with their communities and what they needed and providing

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similar support to what we are doing with Fiat to hear Skate. It was an inspirational speech,

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even though I didn't understand a word he said, and I had to get it a little later in terms of the

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translation, but it was a powerful moment to be there with President Zelensky thinking to people who have

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been helping them. Then there were a variety of different panels that talked about different elements

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of how to continue to do the work of living and repairing things while they're still in a war zone,

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and so one of the things that was interesting to me is we all saw the pictures of Kiev right after

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the Russian invasion, and it looks like very much like what's on the left side of that screen, but when you

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go around Kiev, now you don't see that.

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They have repaired or rebuilt 22,000 of the 30,000 physical objects in the city that have been destroyed.

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And so it's a people that are very much trying to carry on with living while being in the middle of this very difficult situation.

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This is, they had a wall map of Ukraine, and what you can see is Mayor Rabalkin is showing us where the region, where Siyatahirsk is located.

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That that white space, that next one over is the one that the Russians hold.

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So you can see that he's right on the border with where the Russians currently are, and that Ukraine is a huge, huge country, but they're right up on the edge of it.

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And that is the reason that I did not go to Svyatahirsk.

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There was that that was too risky of a space, but others from Ashland have been all the way to the village there.

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And I also wanted to share this picture because you'll see in all of the pictures that we have of Mayor Rabalkin.

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He always has his Ashland better together had on.

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And he's super, he's super keen about Ashland, I will say.

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He decided to come to the summit when he found out that I was coming.

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Because we have been talking, you know, over these last couple of years, and this relationship is important to him.

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But the other reason he's wearing that hat is that he has a head wound.

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If you can go back Sabrina one, he has a head wound, and he is bandaged underneath that hat.

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You can see a little bit of the bottom of it sticking out the back.

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And he apologized to me for not taking his hat off in these sort of formal spaces.

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But explain that he has a head wound that is healing.

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And so that's what was happening with that. Let's go ahead and move on.

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So we have been trying to sign our official documents for quite some time.

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When you have to translate something into a foreign language, it doesn't always go super smooth even when you've got

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Native Ukrainians translating.

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There are very specific things that these sorts of documents must say and must not say in their language.

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So I was able to bring the final version over and we were able to sign the official documents ratifying our sister city relationship.

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Go ahead.

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We also were able to be there with Ukraine aid international as they won an award from the Dinesk Oblast.

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So the Oblast gave them a specific award because they are helping not only see it here, but some of the other cities that are right right there on the edge of the conflict.

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And I also ran into the National League of Cities President Steve Patterson, who is the mayor of Athens, Ohio.

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And his community is also assisting a Ukrainian community through a different program.

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So it was great to see some other Americans and other American mayors at the event.

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Go ahead.

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So one of the things that was really striking to me while I was there is just what it is to be in a city that has been bombed has been invaded is trying to carry on.

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Because children are still growing and people still have to go to work and grocery still have to get bought and cooked.

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And seeing how people are reacting to that and how they are coming together and they have been together as a nation has was really very touching.

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That street was just outside of where my hotel room was and that's what it looked like before the curfew at night because there is a specific curfew.

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And once the curfew is down that giant street with eight lanes is empty.

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There is not a single person out there. There is one maybe one police officer at the intersection to find out if anybody is driving what that's about.

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And that's a people do it voluntarily because they know it's a security issue, but it's just a very different reality.

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And one of the things that they instructed go back if you had one of the things that they instructed us to do before we came was to download the air siren app.

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Who would have known that there is an app for that?

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But there is.

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And so when there are air raid sirens that are going, the app you'll tell the app where you want to be notified if there's a warning.

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And when I was on the first train into Kiev the first night I woke up because there was we were stopped and the air raid sirens were going.

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We had stopped us in a train station and the air raid sirens were going and I was just waiting to figure out what there was really nothing to do but to wait it out.

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So that happened the first night and my app didn't catch it because I wasn't in Kiev at the moment.

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But we went on and the second night that we were there.

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About two thirty in the morning the sirens went off in the hotel and my phone went off at the same time.

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And I took screenshots of the two.

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The first one is the one you see right in the middle is the one that when it first started and you can see that incoming missiles are the places where they have detected missiles coming.

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And then you can see that of course dark red is the most dangerous place and then Kiev has a little is a little bit darker red section over there and the lighter red.

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And then when it's done as it's playing out different elements show up so you can see where the Ukrainians are responding and then at the end you can see where some of them have landed.

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And so that's that's just a daily reality for the people who live there is that they get woken up very often in the middle of the night with their phones looking like this and having to decide what to do and how to respond.

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And I would just say knowing that air raid sirens exist is a whole different thing and actually experiencing one and having to decide what what am I going to do.

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The day after the, excuse me, the day after the, the summit we spent just going around Kiev with the mayor and with the staff from Ukraine eight international and made on square is right in the middle of Kiev and it is really the place where their pro democracy.

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And again several years ago I think in 2014 and they have a flag there for the people who have died in the war from Kiev and towns across Ukraine have similar things in this in this city squares.

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But when you go up you can see pictures of people people of brought family members have brought photos of them they've brought members.

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And there are so many flags there are so many flags and there are flags from other countries too from the other people who have come to their aid and have not returned home.

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And so it's a, it's a, it's a powerful display of of of of heart for their community and also a reminder of the tragedy you see there's a doctor there in that picture there's these are not all military people.

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But it was a very it was a reality check in terms of what that looks like.

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And now before we move on to the next slide I also just wanted to mention that while we were walking back from made on square we saw a procession coming in and it was a funeral procession on the way to the cemetery they had a military person who had been killed.

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And they came to that big intersection that you saw in one of the earlier slides and everybody stopped all all traffic in all four directions stopped.

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The drivers got out from their car they took a knee and they played their national anthem and then they stood for a minute of silence before the the procession moved forward.

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And we stood still on the side and we we watched this and and the mayor told me that this happens very frequently not only in key but in also in towns across the country as they bring their their soldiers home who have been killed in the war.

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And it took me out to the bridge you may have remembered when the when the invasion happened initially that the Ukrainians blew up their own bridge to keep them out.

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This is the bridge that was blown up and they've left it there as a as a reminder they've built the new bridge next to it.

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And I think in many places around the city they are doing a variety of different things to remind people this is probably the most stark of the reminders but to to.

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And it was my memories forward not only with this type of a scene but also with art and so one of the things that we they took me to where they had these kind of art memorials different places where they had stacked up burned out vehicles but then artists had come and and drawn beautiful things on the side as a reminder of kind of both of the elements that we find in a conflict like this.

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One of the things I think was the most striking to me was how determined people were to carry on to keep moving in the space of this difficult difficult time and so they went and took me to places where you could see more of the city.

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And and then we found a restaurant where apparently it's a very famous Ukrainian chef but what he's doing is he's playing with traditional Ukrainian food as his contribution to to his culture and to the effort and so I got to experience both traditional Ukrainian food and also traditional Ukrainian food with a twist.

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So that was a great day. They were very keen to share traditional Ukrainian food and what they do in terms of their customs and the love for their community really came through in those those times.

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One of the things that while we were up high like that Mayor Rebalkin and I were talking and and there was some music coming up and he was we didn't we didn't share the same language but we could hammer through the fact that this was a Ukrainian composer and and.

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And I found out in that conversation that before the war and I guess he still could probably play but Mayor Rebalkin was also a musician and I knew that he was a teacher but I found out here that he also is a musician.

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And then just a lot of street scenes where people you know finding joy where they can and taking pride in their community.

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And then we went out to some of the places where they have the larger monuments and and the kind of the cities the city monument this the country monuments that you would expect to find in a capital city.

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And then they even had a little bit of fun with with the floor matters of things street street vendors out like I say people really trying to hold steady in the middle of this this war.

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I was just close out the trip with just saying.

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The the friendship that we've been developing with Fiatahirsk with their leadership and also in more of a person to person relationship is really important.

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I think sometimes we forget the importance of friendship the importance of traveling away with someone else and before he left what Mayor Rebalkin told me was that the first thing he was going to do when he got back to his people in Fiatahirsk was he's going to he was going to read to them what I put in the card.

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That that was that was the the prized piece that he was bringing back to his community.

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Go ahead.

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And so we came back I have the I have the the designations we did them in English and in Ukrainian and we each have a copy so I have those here and I'll let all bring them out during the break as well.

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I also.

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With the I wouldn't that so we I got back to Poland and they were just then announcing the new pope was in was in place and so I took the train right home there was no air raid siren on the way home so that was appreciated and and we got there to the end.

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Really glad I went it was a tough trip and I and I was so honored to be able to represent this community and the heart that I know that we bring to this relationship with them we are feeling our way through with it we don't know exactly what it looks like or what will be called on.

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To do to help with but we also know that friendship is really what's at the core of it.

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As I mentioned mirror we're Balkan and I have been in touch and talking for these last couple of years.

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Not very often because it's a 10 hour time zone difference and he's right right in the thick of it.

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But one of the things that he he was very keen to share the history of the conflict and of the people's rising up for for their democratic values.

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And one of the things that he he did is he told me more of the story of a about a gift that he had sent to me last year.

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And before the invasion Sveta here's was a lot like Ashland.

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It's got beautiful forests and mountains around it rivers.

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People would come from miles and miles around as a tourist draw.

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They have a beautiful old very old church in their in their community and they were a place where where they had art and theater and fun things and I have refrigerator magnets from from Sveta here's.

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Because they they were very much like us and what they used it that what they had before the invasion was the they had lined the streets.

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With Ukrainian flags so coming into Sveta here's the they there were two big rows of flags and of course the first thing that it invader does to harm them or the morale of the people that they're.

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Over taking is to take down their symbols and so they tried and they had the Ukrainian folks had gone they had stationed people up in the hillside and so they were never able to.

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Only take this section of the road. Because when they would try, they would get shot at. And so the flags never came down.

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After they were able to push the Russians back, they pulled the flags down and they put new flags up, of course, as you do.

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The flags that came down from the sides of the road into Sveta here are now in museums across Ukraine. But one of them is here.

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And it's not every day you get a gift in an ammo can. I will say, this is a different reality for me.

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But I would ask councilman if you'll help me.

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This is the flag.

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I haven't known exactly what to do.

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I haven't known exactly what to do with that flag. So I've held it.

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When I was there, I asked Mayor Rebalkin if it would be appropriate for us to frame it so that we could hang it up without it being damaged.

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And he said that would be very, very nice. He would appreciate that. So we are going to do that. And we will find a place as city hall to hang that.

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So thank you for taking that little journey with me. At this point, I would like to just invite Ben Stott and anyone else from the Ashland Sveta Harris project.

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They're going to briefly explain to us what they have done in these last two years and then they will be coming back in front of council a bit later on.

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But we can also ask questions of them. So go ahead and come up to these two microphones.

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Yeah, if you can hit that button in the front, it'll turn red for both of the microphones.

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Well, first of all, my name is Jim Nagle and I'm the president of ASAP.

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And I want to first of all, thank you, Mayor Graham. And this city council for allowing her to go to Ukraine and bring back that wonderful presentation.

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I'm not going to speak too long because the gentleman next to me Ben Stott has been to Ukraine, been to Sveta Harris many times and he's much more familiar with everything that's going on.

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And what we would like to do is just to talk to you a little bit about what we have managed to do through our fundraising efforts to help Sveta Harris do some recovery and some of the infrastructure that was totally destroyed or stolen by the Russians when they came.

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We're critical to keep a city running. And so Ben will address those issues. At the same time, I would like to recognize a couple of our other board members who are here in attendance rich Whitley.

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Who's back there and Mike Petrovich. So we've got a small group, but they do an awful lot of work and I'm really proud of this group.

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So Ben, if you take over and talk a little bit.

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Let's see you all with two and a half years ago that I was here when you so kindly agreed to take on Sveta Harris because there's this to city.

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Since that time we've done a lot.

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I wanted to say first of all because you got a chance to meet Mayor Robaltkin that you should know that for months ago he found out through DNA evidence that his son who had disappeared had been burned in a tank.

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He was a tank operator and so he just found out not too long before he came to this meeting that he'd lost his son in the war.

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So he's a magnificent man.

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Sveta Harris is a small town. We chose it because it was quite a bit like Ashlyn. It has the tourist big tourist industry.

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It's a lot of forestry and it's one of the prettiest towns that I've seen in Ukraine.

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And I've been over there now five times driving, I'm driven all over the country doing various things.

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And I think Sveta Harris is probably the prettiest town that I've seen.

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Although I'm told in the far west and the corpatings, it's also gorgeous.

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So since we started we incorporated and got 501 c status just before we got the approval to be a sister city.

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We've done three fundraisers each time we get Ukrainian people to perform other musicians.

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And we've been pretty successful in raising money. I don't know the exact total, but I know the last one we did we raised $40,000.

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With that money we've tried to help provide things that Merro Balkan said that would be most useful for the town.

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His thing was not to spend too much money on rebuilding because frankly they're not sure they're going to survive.

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The Russians are still pushing and they're only 25 kilometers away.

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So we focused on providing machinery to rebuild the infrastructure so that there will be a town there when people can move back safe.

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And so far we've bought a dump truck, a very large dump truck which is used to get rid of rubble.

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They got an excavator from somewhere else.

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And so this dump truck helps to get rid of all the rubble.

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So they cleaned out a lot of the damaged area so they can be rebuilt.

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Also they had a problem with their garbage.

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The garbage truck had been blown up by the Russians.

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And so their garbage is piling up in a flat area in the center of town.

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It was a big health menace.

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So using the dump truck we were able to get rid of that garbage.

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The next thing was a municipal water system through UAI and some private funding throughout foundation.

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I have myself.

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We built a water reprocessing center in town.

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So people could come to a central location in the town and fill up buckets and take them to their places because there was no municipal water.

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People didn't have any toilets or couldn't take a shower.

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So this system enabled them at least to have some of the things that we take for granted here in the nation that they don't have.

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We also helped them to buy out what's called a wood pallet machine that makes fuel.

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Which they used to warm up the municipal buildings where people could go and stay warm in the winter because nobody had any electricity.

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And so no one had any heat.

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And so everybody there are about 450 people who still live in the town out of around 4,500 that were there before.

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We would comment they could stay in these, there are two main municipal buildings with big boilers and wood pallets that could take all the debris and all the trees that were blown down and all the leftover debris from the broken buildings.

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Can be put in this machine and they make usable fuel that could be used to burn in this municipal.

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So we've enabled them both to have water and to have heat during the last two winter which has been important and helpful to them.

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Most recently they had a very severe forest fire last summer.

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So it was a similar to our town and about 10,000 acres were burned.

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And they needed chain saws in order to clean up the area so they'd prevent future fires and also provide more fuel.

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So we've also recently provided them with those.

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We also did a project that actually didn't work out but we tried to provide them with temporary windows for all the blown out windows in the buildings where people were trying to live.

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By using a double plastic method which is a lot cheaper than glass and also is safer in case there were more bombardment that there wouldn't be any fragments in the shadow glass they'd have to deal with.

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As it turned out there was another method they found that was more successful so we only did about one sample project but that was our first attempt to try and solve that problem as well.

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Right now we're trying to raise money they've asked us to try and see if we can find them something like an armored car or a protected vehicle that they can use for varying supplies in from further west.

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Because now the roads going into Seattle are becoming dangerous and they're thinking that they'll need some kind of relative protection so that they can continue to bring food and also to take out anybody who's wanted to local hospitals that are further away.

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That's our present project is to try and locate something that could serve that purpose.

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So that's our work today as you know people are tired of hearing about Ukraine so it's a challenge to raise money and so we're working to find novel ways to encourage more public interest.

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And get people to stay engaged and you're helping through the city just as a bullet to keep people in action aware of that we have a sister city and there needs a great it's really helpful to us in doing the work we're trying to do to help the city.

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So thank you. Oh one thing I wanted to ask you do you all share a email address as council members.

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We have a group address and then we each have our own individual.

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Get that from you because I didn't bring any audio visual stuff but I have a very short video of Seattlehurst because it was before the war it's only about three minutes long.

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I also have the movie that we made this last year in Seattlehurst which really shows and gives a feeling for what it's like and their interviews with a lot of residents so you can meet some of the people who are there.

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That's 20 minutes long which may be a bit much but we've made a five minute short promo sort of version of that.

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And with your permission I'd like to send those three clips to you so that if you have the time and interest that you could see some of the scenes of the actual town that you're doing so much to support.

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That would be great and Alyssa can give you that email address.

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Are there any questions? Any questions?

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I might add and we also purchased with our last one.

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The water truck to transport water so that the people don't have to come from far distances to go to water source.

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Now we have a water truck for them that takes the water out.

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I just want to start by offering my immense gratitude for you all individually and your organization for what you're doing.

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The reality is obviously very difficult over in Ukraine and I think that what you are setting up and what you're seeking to do is going to be the model for rebuilding.

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There will not be a martial plan as there should be.

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But if we all individually as cities around the world and certainly within the United States can partner with cities in Ukraine like we are that's how they're going to rebuild and give passes.

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So thank you so much.

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Councillor Dio.

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By the way, I just found out that Oregon actually is a sister state to one oblast in Ukraine.

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And Connecticut is also now adopted the whole province of Oblast of Donetsk, which is a part which should make a big difference for fundraising in a larger scale.

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By the way, I'm also leaving in three days to go back to Seattle.

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So hopefully I'll be able to send you some film this summer.

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Thank you.

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Councillor Dio.

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Thank you, Mayor.

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And thank you, Ben and Jim.

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I don't may ask to be on any questions.

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I don't know what I would ask.

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All I have is a statement and it's similar to Councillor Bloom.

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I just, I am so deeply grateful for all the work that ASAP has done and I've been able to follow along.

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Watch all of the good work and the constant work that goes into to what you do and the fundraising and just the care.

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And, you know, listening to the Mayor, as well as the conversations we've had and I've, I've routinely tried to remind my kids I heard this several years ago and it goes something like this.

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On your very, very worst day that you could possibly imagine.

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There are at least 3 billion people on the face of this earth that would consider their prayers and sort to trade places with you.

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And when we think about what we talk about the good work that happens up here that we're trying to do it.

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It pales in comparison to the work that's being done in places that that we have the luxury of and this this pains me to say to not even think about on the regular basis.

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Because we're worried about the little things that we're worried about, whether it's stuck in traffic or whatever.

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And I also wanted to share a little bit about when I received the call from Mayor Graham and she, she answers the phone and it was a tone unlike anything.

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I've heard when our conversations, which she says I need to talk to you about something. And I could tell

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what was common was serious. And she explained, and we had a healthy conversation to start

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about safety and about logistics. But if I know Mayor Graham, there is zero chance that she

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turns from anything she goes right into this to help people. And to bring our values and her

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leadership, and I'm so incredibly proud of you, Mayor, for making that trip. And the connection

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that you brought halfway across the world to another community that is that if anything needs,

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of course they need rebuilding, and they need infrastructure, and they need tools, but they need

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help, and they need love, and they need connection and community. In addition, Ben, trip number six,

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and everyone that has been involved in the mayor, I just want to say that when you got back, I exhaled. And

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we were in communication while you were there, and it wasn't quite fine my phone like it is with my daughter,

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but I was so incredibly proud to be part of this community. And thank you so much for going.

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That just means so much. And for anyone that doubted whether that was appropriate, I highly suggest

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that you watch tonight's council meeting over and over and over until you do not have any more doubt.

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This is what governments do. This is what people do. This is what communities do for one another.

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And thank you so much to everybody that was involved in this.

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Thank you. Councillor Dickie? I don't have a question. I have just a brief voice of gratitude.

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Thank you both and the other two gentlemen and the audience for all that you do, and it truly gives

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me a sense of gratitude. Keep up the good work. Ukrainian people are resilient and awesome.

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We can all take a page. So thank you so much. Councillor Hansen?

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Thank you, Mayor. I'm really grateful that you went and to represent. And I'm sure it was a tough trip,

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but we're all behind you. And we thank you. And I appreciate you coming forward and speaking with us this

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evening, but really the efforts for the last two and a half years are really not going unnoticed.

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And when you came here and you told us that you aspired to the dump truck, I was confident that

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that was the mission and you would do it. And hearing now all the other important

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infrastructure tools that you've been able to bring back to the community. I'm just so proud of you

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and the work that you've done and my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. And I haven't

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forgot. But as we get busy in our daily lives, as it's been said, it's good and healthy to be reminded

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of the struggle and the struggle is real. So I appreciate you. And thank you very much. And I really wish

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the rebuilding and the conflict ending tomorrow and the rebuilding continues. Thank you.

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Councillor Caffer. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I don't have a whole lot to add. Thank you to the

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eloquent words. If there's your spoke before me, particularly Councillor De Allen and Councillor Bloom

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and both to you, Jim and thank you so much for all that you do. I think all of us have a different lens of

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how we look at these things. I have a personal lens. One of my grandfather's was on my grandparents

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was born in Ukraine and came to this country many years ago. I never met him. He died with my mother

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was 13. But I think about him and his family and I appreciate all that you're doing for our

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sisters and brothers in Ukraine. So thank you very much. Councillor Caffer. Yeah, I don't know how I can

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follow all of that. But just thank you so much for your service. I'm not just the two of you, but the

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rest of your group and the people that you leave behind when you go and the people that support you

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and call you every day and say thank you and we love you. We're really lucky to have members like you

356
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:45,840
in this room and in our community and I'm glad you made it back safe, Mayor. Thank you. Say you're just one

357
00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:51,200
thing. This is a very key moment right now that I just heard on the way over here that the Senate is going to

358
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:59,040
hopefully pass a bill for severe sanctions on Russia which can totally change the tender of this war

359
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:04,400
or could potentially end it in short order. So now if there ever was a time to call your

360
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:11,040
Congress people, whoever you know and you guys have more influence because you're in the political sphere,

361
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:17,920
please use your influence to make sure that the Senate doesn't get cold feet because this is a critical

362
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:24,000
moment right now there are 82 senators have signed on for a bill of 100% sanctions and that could

363
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:29,680
totally change the tender of this war. So now's the time to put the pressure on to make a difference.

364
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:36,240
Thank you. And I would just like to once again thank you, Mayor Graham. Thank you council members

365
00:50:36,240 --> 00:50:43,520
because you're bringing this to the forefront of this community certainly helps our fundraising efforts.

366
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:49,200
And without your support I'm sure we couldn't have done it. And nearly as successful as we have

367
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:54,160
been able to do it. So thank you. Thank you both. Safe travels, Ben.

368
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:17,840
We are now to public forum. We have 15 minutes for public forum and we have five people who have

369
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:25,200
signed up to speak. Public forum is for any items that are not on the agenda for the evening.

370
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:33,280
Generally I tell people how to sign up but today with the agenda changes I skipped I missed that section.

371
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:40,720
So if you're intending to speak tonight on something that is not on the agenda, can you please raise your hand so

372
00:51:40,720 --> 00:51:44,880
I know if we've got everyone. Okay so what you would like to what you will do maim is to please

373
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:51,200
go over and get one of those sheets and fill it out. This is exactly and bring it to Alyssa and it looks

374
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:56,880
like that'll make seven people who who are have signed up to speak. So go ahead. Is that the last one?

375
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:07,040
There's no more. Okay so if the two of you can please get your papers in quickly you don't want to. Okay.

376
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:14,880
Oh you're here. Okay great. So we'll go ahead and get started. Each person will have

377
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:22,560
two and a half minutes to speak. You'll come up to this microphone here. You'll have a

378
00:52:24,160 --> 00:52:29,040
light display that tells you where you're at in your time. There's also going to be time up on the clock.

379
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:35,360
When you get to, when you have 20 seconds left you'll hear a chime and your light will turn to yellow from green

380
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:41,200
and then when you are out of time it'll go to red and the time will will end on the clock

381
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:45,680
and you'll hear another chime at which point please finish the sentence that you're on so that we can

382
00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:54,960
move on to the next person. The people who have signed up to speak are Aguero, Paul Mozina, Debbie

383
00:52:55,040 --> 00:53:05,040
nice wander and Ashley Roard Roberts and then Kathy Bowen Jones and then we have one more person.

384
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:11,200
So please go ahead. We'll start with Aguero. Right here. Go ahead.

385
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:24,480
Hi. Aguero you know I'm an astronaut resident. I'm here to comment on the

386
00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:31,440
recent discussions you guys have been having on the ELA expansions, the kind of control of who's

387
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:38,160
allowed in what places in the city of Ashen. We're being told that this authority should be given to the

388
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:44,640
police and that this authority can be used through people who are not even charged with anything

389
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:54,160
just at the police owns a court. You heard from your chief of police saying that we should do this one

390
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:59,680
because Madford's doing it. Respectfully that's a bullshit argument. Another one is that there's no

391
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:06,000
complaints that your current policies are not equitable. My personal experiences with the police here

392
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:11,440
I'm not going to explain it on record but I'm not going to complain like that because I've been

393
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:20,080
profiled. I've been defimated by the police here. So yeah if I'm being charged or something I'm not

394
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:25,360
going to go complain to the police and that's not just me that's many people of color here that's

395
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:33,120
many houses people here. So and kind of like taking us out of the bubble that we live here in Ashen a lot like

396
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:39,920
I'm sure you're all aware of the policies being passed and Washington DC right now who can be police

397
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:45,760
and what areas and who cannot that's exactly what is happening right here.

398
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:59,600
It's not just for houses people too. Our freedom of speech, ice being in our communities,

399
00:55:00,240 --> 00:55:08,080
people to write to protest that is being under attack. If you're giving police the authority to

400
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:16,800
remove people based on their first amendment rights you're you're doing Trump's job for them for him.

401
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:28,560
You are giving the police more power on freedom of speech who can beware with no actual

402
00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:38,080
convictions just authority from the police and I got 20 seconds. I'd also like now that I'm here

403
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:45,680
I've written you all multiple emails about our police department being in circles with ice.

404
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:51,920
I've asked you what kind of comments I can get from that. I haven't heard anything.

405
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:59,280
Our police department is in the same circles as ice and yeah I would just like a response to that. So

406
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:07,280
if you want Ashwin to be a police city do it but just reevaluate the values you say the city

407
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:15,840
of Ashwin has if you're going to do that. Thanks. Thank you. Paul Mozina. Followed by Debbie

408
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:22,720
nice wander. My name is Paul Mozina. I live in Ashwin. I like to call your attention again to the

409
00:56:22,720 --> 00:56:31,280
to what happened at the recent budget process that 2025-2027 budget. The city of Ashwin

410
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:36,320
evaluated some important principles that counsel the mayor, the city administrator, the city attorney,

411
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:42,640
the police chief. And one of those is the oath of office that you took which was to support the city

412
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:48,560
charter. I just want to call your attention to what happened during that budget process and how

413
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:57,360
you violated the city charter. And I'm speaking about the mayor. I like to complete my thought.

414
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:02,800
Can I get some time back on my clock there? I'm being interrupted. I would appreciate it if you

415
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:10,160
could give him a little bit more time. I appreciate that. The Ashwin charter chapter eight section

416
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:16,960
six says proceedings to be public. No action by the council shall have legal effect unless the motion

417
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:22,960
for the action and the vote there on take place at proceedings open to the public. This council

418
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:30,400
amended the budget that was approved by the citizens budget committee. And that amendment process was not

419
00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:36,160
open to the public. There was no public vote. I mean you had the discussion in public but there was no

420
00:57:36,160 --> 00:57:42,880
motion or public vote to make that change. You made a decision and you did not have a vote or

421
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:49,600
a motion to make that decision. A chapter in section nine says vote required. Except as this charter

422
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:55,680
otherwise provides the concurrence of a majority of the members of council present at a council meeting.

423
00:57:55,680 --> 00:58:01,120
She'll be necessary to decide any question before the council. You had a question before that council.

424
00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:06,080
That was the funding for the childcare grant program. You debated it. You talked about it. You gave

425
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:13,440
instructions to the city administrator and then at the budget meeting on June 3rd you simply assumed

426
00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:21,360
that the motion. In fact, the deputy administrator said the motion had actually been taken on this.

427
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:27,120
There was no motion. There was no vote. There was no public vote taken. You violated two important chapters

428
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:35,040
of the charter in the processing of that amendment to the CBC. I just want to make that clear.

429
00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:42,240
There was no vote. The charter explicitly says there is no carve out for changes to the citizens budget

430
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:48,400
committee. There is no carve out there. You have to vote on every decision. There was no budget

431
00:58:48,400 --> 00:58:54,400
was on the table. You decided to change it but you did not have a vote on that change. Every single

432
00:58:54,400 --> 00:58:58,640
time a resolution comes from the council. When you want to change it, you vote on the amendment

433
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:07,280
and then you vote on the item as amended. I have a couple more seconds. You added time to your time

434
00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:12,240
Mr. Mozina. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you very much. I really have a problem with the way

435
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:17,120
the long end of this. Thank you, Mr. Mozina. Mayor, point of order. Yes. I moved to suspend the rules.

436
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:23,440
Yes, I would like to address this. This has been coming up multiple times. Mr. Mozina has been

437
00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:27,200
responded to on these claims. I would like an opportunity for the city attorney to respond

438
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:30,560
to this publicly so that this misinformation does not continue.

439
00:59:32,560 --> 00:59:37,360
City attorney? Thank you, Mayor.

440
00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:50,080
I'm just looking for the exact date. This has come up numerous times and it looks like

441
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:59,920
I'm trying to find the date here. On July 2nd, I responded.

442
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:15,000
To Mr. Museum, I will read that email as follows. I reviewed the email that you sit in City Council and provided by analysis back to them. I also had conversations with department heads and council members to address any follow-up questions they had. I will summarize very briefly for you.

443
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:25,000
My interpretation was that the study session relating to the principal subject of a financial update was a perfectly legitimate time to discuss financial questions pertaining to the budget.

444
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:32,000
Additionally, as a matter of state law, the absence of a subject from a notice does not preclude the governing body from discussing it.

445
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:41,000
Under the public meetings law, the list of anticipated subjects does not limit the ability of a governing body to consider additional subjects.

446
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:53,000
CMS192.640. By consensus, at a study session, the council may direct staff to act on other matters that do not require council decision by ordinance or resolution.

447
01:00:53,000 --> 01:01:00,000
That comes from Ashland Municipal Code 2.04020C Section 1.

448
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:10,000
In this case, the budget resolution, or excuse me, in this case, the budget resolution that was noticed and eventually put forth had council's guidance and direction that included changes to not use the reserve fund

449
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:20,000
and rather to take it from the additional funds released from the parks fee and then reappropriate a portion from the homeless budget, which can get replenished as needed mid-year.

450
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:24,000
That is what council voted on at the budget adoption meeting.

451
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:33,000
There was no need for a motion to amend the budget because it was already discussed in prior sessions and included in the budget that they were presented to vote on.

452
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:44,000
Per budget law, after the budget committee has approved the budget and a public hearing was held, the City Council can make changes to the budget that was approved when adopting the budget.

453
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:53,000
They do not have to go back to the CBC if the expenditure is under 10%, which it was not.

454
01:01:54,000 --> 01:02:02,000
That comes from the local management budget manual chapter 11 and also from ORS 294.456.

455
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:09,000
Council more than sufficiently discuss the change in previous council sessions and right before the public hearing.

456
01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:15,000
So it was clear and transparent before they voted on the adopted budget.

457
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:22,000
Budget law provides that the budget council adopts can already have those changes in place and they can vote on it.

458
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:24,000
That is what occurred.

459
01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:32,000
All members of the council and staff took your concerns seriously and I provided responses to them to address them and explain the legal approach.

460
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:35,000
Thank you for bringing your concerns to the attention of the council.

461
01:02:35,000 --> 01:02:37,000
Thank you.

462
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:39,000
We will return to public forum.

463
01:02:39,000 --> 01:02:41,000
Debbie Nicewander.

464
01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:42,000
Debbie.

465
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:44,000
Okay.

466
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:47,000
Then Ashley Roberts.

467
01:02:54,000 --> 01:02:56,000
Hello.

468
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:57,000
Yes.

469
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:05,000
I'm here to comment also on the proposed changes to the police's exclusions zones downtown.

470
01:03:05,000 --> 01:03:08,000
So to the community.

471
01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:13,000
The current exclusion zone ordinance downtown states that.

472
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:22,000
If the police identify a person that has three or more violation qualifying charges.

473
01:03:22,000 --> 01:03:32,000
They have the authority to remove certain people from downtown and the police chief is trying to change it so that.

474
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:45,000
Police will have the authority to remove people if they just have certain violation charges without even being committed of a crime.

475
01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:52,000
I have to speak honestly here this policy is absolutely unhinged and city council you need to understand this.

476
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:59,000
The exclusions own policies in place are already a violation of the constitutional right to exist in public spaces.

477
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:04,000
But with this, APD is trying to completely eliminate due process for unhoused people.

478
01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:14,000
Most vulnerable members of our community is unhinged to propose giving APD the absolute power to remove whoever they want from the city without a criminal conviction.

479
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:22,000
Who will hold APD accountable? You have this list of violations that would justify removing people, but if there are no courts involved.

480
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:30,000
But we'll stop asking cops from just like lying and saying that people were committing violations on the list when it isn't true.

481
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:35,000
What will stop APD from just removing whoever they want from downtown?

482
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:40,000
Make no mistake, this is the exact same dynamic at play with Donald Trump and ICE.

483
01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:50,000
Donald Trump is giving ICE the absolute power to remove anyone that they want from the country, stripping way due process and not allowing those targeted to defend themselves in a court of law.

484
01:04:50,000 --> 01:05:03,000
City Council, you are in a position of power in which you could choose to do something to actually compassionately help the unhoused members of our community and instead of trying to make their suffering invisible in the name of property value.

485
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:13,000
You could remove the exclusion zones, move money and resources away from policing, and instead support other than space practices like harm reduction and affordable housing.

486
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:28,000
However, if you would instead approve this, you will be worsening policies that attempt to hide homelessness rather than address its root causes, and you will be voluntarily bringing Donald Trump's fascism and police violence to Afsland without him even asking you to do so.

487
01:05:28,000 --> 01:05:33,000
Donald Trump is building concentration camps for immigrants and homeless people, but we'll do.

488
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:35,000
Thank you.

489
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:42,000
I will remind the audience that we do not have, we don't have shows of support in that way.

490
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:56,000
If you are supportive of something somebody says, the universal sign of applause for sign language is something that this entire council can see and it stays within the decorum of the meeting.

491
01:05:57,000 --> 01:06:03,000
We now move the next people on our Kathy Bowen Jones followed by Maggie Thompson.

492
01:06:19,000 --> 01:06:22,000
I'm sure there's been everyone else I guess.

493
01:06:22,000 --> 01:06:40,000
Hi, I'm Kathy Bowen Jones and I've never done this before, but I taught high school at Asson High for 37 years and I guess the kids are probably if they're watching they're going, okay, she's got the timer that she gave us.

494
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:59,000
I'm here and I'm sure this is just a beginning and I will probably not say everything that I intend to, but I got into the city politics this year over the Castle Park subdivision and my great fear for fire safety.

495
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:08,000
I don't live there I own a home there that I rent to seniors and I live at the edge of the forest service.

496
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:19,000
I'm very grateful to someone who's in this audience, Chris Chambers, for guiding me and my husband to be fire wise for over the last 35 years.

497
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:41,000
I have a great fear that we're not doing enough in our community and that we're on a collision course with infill and fire safety and I think we've witnessed it intensely for the last five years all over the world.

498
01:07:41,000 --> 01:07:54,000
And we can't ignore it and I'm not saying you need to fix it or our city administrators need to fix it or the planning commission needs to fix it.

499
01:07:54,000 --> 01:07:59,000
I think our whole community needs to come together and I want to give you a model in my mind.

500
01:07:59,000 --> 01:08:15,000
In the 1970s when the comprehensive plan was being planned for this community, I participated along with many other people in this community at Stevenson Union and there were great leaders in that room.

501
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:32,000
We were all at tables, it took almost a year, a very thoughtful and sometimes painful conversations because everybody knows better than everyone else what this community should look like.

502
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:42,000
But we all live here, we love each other and we do not want to see anyone in this community harm.

503
01:08:42,000 --> 01:09:04,000
I do not feel it safe, I do not feel that what's happening in Castle Park is safe, I feel that we have a lot of communities that do not have two outlets of exit in this community and so I'm done but I would like you to think with your team about bringing more of us together without timers.

504
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:12,000
So we can be thoughtful together in a space and really get the work done that we do.

505
01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:27,000
Maggie Thompson.

506
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:38,000
Hi, if I need to, I would see my time to my neighbor down the room because he wrote a letter and was supposed to be able to read it at this meeting tonight.

507
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:41,000
Is he not on your list, he's not on my list.

508
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:46,000
Well, he should be and I'll just step away and he can read his.

509
01:09:46,000 --> 01:09:55,000
He's under the fire plan. Oh, he's he's signed up to speak later when we get to the community wildfire protection plan can we start her time.

510
01:09:55,000 --> 01:09:58,000
Sorry.

511
01:09:58,000 --> 01:10:04,000
This this sir this time is the public forum time was just for issues that are not on the agenda.

512
01:10:04,000 --> 01:10:09,000
Okay, you're signed up for later on in the evening when we talk about the community wildfire protection plan.

513
01:10:09,000 --> 01:10:10,000
Go ahead, man.

514
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:14,000
Mine is concerned about the Castro development too.

515
01:10:14,000 --> 01:10:29,000
We live at the top of the hill right at the edge of where the grass is and my husband and I have a plan that when there's a level one evac having to do with the north mountain neighborhood we will be packed and gone.

516
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:39,000
Because there's no sense in sitting around and waiting to see if we can get the out get the hell out of our house, which is one block off of north mountain.

517
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:53,000
There are two exits out of the the Castro units below the mountain meadows units and the the high rises at mountain meadows where 227 people live.

518
01:10:53,000 --> 01:11:03,000
All of that time I mean all of those people have to get out on mountain avenue and guess what mountain avenue is going to be bumper to bumper nobody's going to let you out.

519
01:11:03,000 --> 01:11:19,000
So it's just it's just awesomely crazy to allow this dense infill that they're planning that Kyle Taylor is planning to build you know 20 feet away from all of the houses at the top.

520
01:11:19,000 --> 01:11:24,000
With no new roads that add any access.

521
01:11:24,000 --> 01:11:27,000
So we're really concerned about that.

522
01:11:27,000 --> 01:11:34,000
Many of the people at mountain meadows and in the in the pharaohs neighborhood talk about well.

523
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:42,000
You know we'll just burn in place because many people don't drive anymore you know that people at mountain meadows don't have cars.

524
01:11:42,000 --> 01:11:46,000
And they're you know they're walking with canes and walkers.

525
01:11:46,000 --> 01:12:00,000
So the city really really needs to I feel rethink that density that Mister Taylor is being allowed to develop right behind all the mountain meadows houses at the top of the hill.

526
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:03,000
And I don't have anything more to say thank you.

527
01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:05,000
Thank you.

528
01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:23,000
So we've postponed the public hearing and also the second reading on our agenda so we move now to the emergency shelter contract agreement or amendment.

529
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:26,000
Sabrina.

530
01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:36,000
Thank you mayor tonight director flurry is here to talk about the contract for the construction of the 2200 Ashland Street facility.

531
01:12:36,000 --> 01:12:46,000
If you remember council gave direction to include several things one was to make it permanently usable for a severe weather shelter.

532
01:12:46,000 --> 01:12:54,000
The other was to include showers, laundry and storage so tonight we have before you the construction contract to move forward.

533
01:12:54,000 --> 01:13:03,000
Post the design phase currently we're still on track to be open in November for the winter weather for the severe weather shelter.

534
01:13:03,000 --> 01:13:11,000
And with that I'll hand it over to Scott presentation complete.

535
01:13:11,000 --> 01:13:25,000
Before the council tonight is a request to approve a construction contract amendment without liar construction company for emergency shelter upgrades to 2200 Ashland Street.

536
01:13:25,000 --> 01:13:37,000
Is part of your responsibility as the local contract review board will get into some of the details of what the project plans for improvement to meet code requirements.

537
01:13:37,000 --> 01:13:42,000
And to facilitate its opening based on the master plan recommendations.

538
01:13:42,000 --> 01:13:47,000
So here is a general timeline of what's transpired over the last couple years.

539
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:51,000
The shelter was acquired in 2023.

540
01:13:51,000 --> 01:14:02,000
It was used as a low barrier shelter in that winter then an ad hoc committee was established and developed a master plan of which the council accepted that master plan.

541
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:20,000
Those guiding recommendations in the master plan were then used by staff to develop the solicitation documents for progressive design build project to upgrade the shelter to meet building code requirements, including fire life safety requirements.

542
01:14:20,000 --> 01:14:25,000
Then money's were requested in the budget process that council approved as well.

543
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:41,000
So we have performed the solicitation and that was approved by the legal department and as I said it was a progressive design build and we did it that way in order to facilitate the kind of narrow timeframe.

544
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:59,000
And for those who don't know a design build project brings on mechanical electrical plumbing engineers civil site engineers architects and the construction contractor and they all work together to develop a schematic design and construction documentation.

545
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:14,000
Or the planned improvements. And then, once they developed those construction documents of which we submitted to the building department, the building department has reviewed those and approved those for a building permit.

546
01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:27,000
The contractor develops what they call a guaranteed maximum price. And as part of that guaranteed maximum price, that covers all of the construction activities planned to upgrade that facility.

547
01:15:27,000 --> 01:15:45,000
So we've gone through those steps currently. And that's what's before the council tonight is that construction cost amendment to our base schematic design and construction document contract that we approved internally as part of this process.

548
01:15:45,000 --> 01:15:58,000
Now, as the city manager said, the improvements are developing new restroom facilities with the shower, new laundry facilities, washer and dryer facilities in the building itself.

549
01:15:59,000 --> 01:16:06,000
And these facilities per the code allow a certain level of occupancy within the building.

550
01:16:06,000 --> 01:16:18,000
So the main portion of the shelter and what we call the garage area was designed to allow for an occupant load overnight load of 32 occupants with two shelter staff.

551
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:29,000
There's also two overflow areas designed and the facility as well that can allow another 22 occupants and two more additional staff.

552
01:16:29,000 --> 01:16:36,000
Potentially requiring additional outside restroom facilities and shower facilities as part of that.

553
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:53,000
The code I believe it is nine people per shower or nine people per restroom and 10 people per shower vice versa. And so that's what they used to establish those occupancy loads for the building.

554
01:16:53,000 --> 01:17:01,000
And also to meet fire life safety requirements, they'll be the installation fire sprinklers throughout the whole facility itself.

555
01:17:01,000 --> 01:17:09,000
And then as part of our design process, we talked about alternate additions into the design scope.

556
01:17:09,000 --> 01:17:22,000
And the first alternate addition is the adding of a new HBA system to provide for adequate heating and cooling in the primary garage shelter area.

557
01:17:22,000 --> 01:17:35,000
The current units are undersized and don't provide adequate heating and cooling for the whole facility. So the recommendation is part of that design process was to add an additional unit.

558
01:17:35,000 --> 01:17:43,000
And part of the other scope is to recommend to replace two of the existing units that are essentially end of life.

559
01:17:43,000 --> 01:17:53,000
They were installed in 93 and there's concern of keeping those going and having a catastrophic failure at some point knowing our luck during when the shelters open.

560
01:17:53,000 --> 01:17:56,000
So the recommendation is to replace those.

561
01:17:56,000 --> 01:18:02,000
There'll be new ADA access from the exterior so ADA parking.

562
01:18:02,000 --> 01:18:07,000
It will be leveled at grade and ADA access into the facility itself.

563
01:18:07,000 --> 01:18:13,000
And so as I said, we've received the code review approval from the building department.

564
01:18:13,000 --> 01:18:16,000
And the building permit has also been approved.

565
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:24,000
All of the documentation has been submitted by architect Nalaya and been reviewed by our building official and greenlighted for the next phase of construction.

566
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:30,000
And so that's what brings us here tonight for contract approval for that construction phase.

567
01:18:30,000 --> 01:18:34,000
So here's a look at the overall building layout.

568
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:38,000
It was in your packet as you can see and what we call the garage area.

569
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:50,000
There's the addition of the fire riser room for the fire sprinkler structure, a restroom with shower facility, a washer and dryer outside that restroom kind of a utility kitchen area.

570
01:18:50,000 --> 01:18:56,000
And then the actual open space shelter area.

571
01:18:56,000 --> 01:19:04,000
There's a firewall break between that garage area and the main portion of the building that's accessed through a door.

572
01:19:04,000 --> 01:19:13,000
And then within that middle section of the building, they are restructuring the existing restrooms to allow for an additional restroom.

573
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:22,000
So we go from two restrooms in the facility to four always showers and two of them or three of them are ADA accessible restrooms.

574
01:19:22,000 --> 01:19:31,000
And then the addition of a washer and dryer within the main body of the facility and then also kind of a galley style kitchen within that facility.

575
01:19:31,000 --> 01:19:43,000
And then you can see there's two areas that allow for additional overflow common area here in the main space and the common area here to the east.

576
01:19:43,000 --> 01:20:02,000
And then all the offices you know are available for potential other uses for the facility itself and then is part of the project will supply storage lockers for storage of anything that gets brought into the shelter when it's operational.

577
01:20:02,000 --> 01:20:12,000
And as I said as part of the structure of the contract we talked about those alternates and one of the alternates was the addition of a new HVAC system.

578
01:20:12,000 --> 01:20:15,000
To provide for adequate heating and cooling.

579
01:20:15,000 --> 01:20:37,000
The other addition was to run underground utility to what we call kind of an RV pedestal that could be potentially used in the future for laundry shower restroom hook up RV style to the west of the facility itself and what would be kind of the grass area itself.

580
01:20:38,000 --> 01:20:55,000
And so we broke it out into potential options for the council to discuss the base guaranteed maximum price is the facility improvements themselves the ADA the fire the laundry the restrooms and that's the 856000.

581
01:20:55,000 --> 01:21:14,000
The addition of 60,000 for the new HVAC unit would bring you to 917 and the addition of the HVAC system and the RV pedestal with power would bring you up to that 947 amount.

582
01:21:14,000 --> 01:21:22,000
And I think really that's kind of nuts and bolts I know there'll be some questions about the system and.

583
01:21:22,000 --> 01:21:29,000
We're trying to still meet that kind of November timeframe to open up the facility so.

584
01:21:30,000 --> 01:21:45,000
We are tight on the schedule from outliers perspective to meet that, but they are working with their sub consultants and their vendors to kind of hold to that schedule as part of the silver all process.

585
01:21:46,000 --> 01:21:54,000
Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Scott. I appreciate that a couple questions. I think you partially answered my second one right then, which was.

586
01:21:54,000 --> 01:22:02,000
I'll just phrase it this way. What would you say is the probability of it completing or what is.

587
01:22:02,000 --> 01:22:17,000
You said by November so I was going to ask when would it be ready to go, but you said potentially November and so maybe I'll just look for a probability of that number two is is I'm in this to the best you know.

588
01:22:17,000 --> 01:22:24,000
It's a heating and cooling shelter. Why was heating and cooling in option or an alternate. I think that when that just be like table stakes.

589
01:22:24,000 --> 01:22:31,000
Yeah, so what we found out when they looked at the existing units and talked to their contractor.

590
01:22:31,000 --> 01:22:43,000
They decided that the existing structure the units didn't provide the level of cooling and heating of today standards in that garage area.

591
01:22:43,000 --> 01:22:53,000
And so that was the recommendation to add an additional unit. It is it does have heat and cool in it. There's two registers that feed that garage area.

592
01:22:53,000 --> 01:22:58,000
But based on the size of the facility itself and the existing units there.

593
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:05,000
HVAC system contractor recommended an additional unit to bring it up to what we would say today standards are.

594
01:23:05,000 --> 01:23:17,000
And then when we first began this discussion we didn't anticipate replacing the existing units, but our facility staff made that recommendation because they are from 1983.

595
01:23:18,000 --> 01:23:35,000
And then our concern as I said of a system failure, you know, when they are loaded during winter at any time and then we have a non operational unit and we're kind of scrambling on a temporary basis to add space heaters to the facility well we try to go out and get fits to replace the existing system.

596
01:23:35,000 --> 01:23:41,000
So that's why that was added in is part of that design process.

597
01:23:41,000 --> 01:23:54,000
It's for the schedule. The RFP determined or laid out November 1st was the anticipated opening date of the facility itself.

598
01:23:54,000 --> 01:24:04,000
I think right now based on our discussions with outlier we could probably be potentially based on the outcome tonight within one to two weeks of that.

599
01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:14,000
I have to talk to them about schedule two because there are probably some things that they could do while the shelter could potentially be open that wouldn't impact operations.

600
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:20,000
There's probably some logistics that we can work on from facility improvements that would still allow that.

601
01:24:20,000 --> 01:24:22,000
Great. Thank you so much.

602
01:24:23,000 --> 01:24:25,000
Yeah. Thank you.

603
01:24:25,000 --> 01:24:34,000
So my question is kind of run budget. So once construction is completed, there's obviously operational expenses associated and those aren't really optional right.

604
01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:38,000
So you've got utilities, janitorial, supervision, security, facility management.

605
01:24:38,000 --> 01:24:41,000
If we move forward, those become permanent obligations.

606
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:49,000
So my question is how much will this cost operate before we commit nearly a million dollars to finish building on? Do we have estimates on that?

607
01:24:50,000 --> 01:25:00,000
So our intent would be to contract with a service provider like we've done before. So we do have money budget for that. We currently pay for and have budget for the utilities, the phone line, etc.

608
01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:10,000
So I think those costs depending on the partnerships that we develop for the other side of the building beyond the severe weather shelter are kind of two be determined.

609
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:23,000
And my recommendation would be that there is an agreement with whoever is in that building and part of that cost, obviously it's going to be paid by them as lissers or utilizers of the space.

610
01:25:23,000 --> 01:25:25,000
Quick follow up.

611
01:25:25,000 --> 01:25:36,000
Okay. So trying to understand that. So it's let's build it. Then we'll figure out how much the budget is going to be. We'll figure out what money we can get out of providers that would pay to rent spaces.

612
01:25:36,000 --> 01:25:46,000
And that money would be coming out of our homelessness fund, essentially, right? So that money then wouldn't be able to be used for other services or other potential options to help the unhoused.

613
01:25:46,000 --> 01:25:47,000
Correct.

614
01:25:47,000 --> 01:25:57,000
So that would be, you know, council's discretion. So right now that money is used for kind of infrastructure on the dusted online and then for contracting for severe weather shelter.

615
01:25:57,000 --> 01:25:59,000
So we're going all in on this and then that's.

616
01:26:00,000 --> 01:26:07,000
And if I may, the council has already made the decision to move forward with this, which is what the contracting element is.

617
01:26:07,000 --> 01:26:17,000
The reason that staff has done this design work and engaged in this contract with this construction company is because this council directed them to do that.

618
01:26:17,000 --> 01:26:26,000
And the next step in this process is the the the second ad hoc committee that is being put put forward.

619
01:26:26,000 --> 01:26:31,000
They're going to be looking at the larger property and the rest of the facilities that will be built around it.

620
01:26:31,000 --> 01:26:42,000
But as you can see from this design that we have here, there are a number of offices that have been protected in their current state so that other providers can come in.

621
01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:53,000
I think that that maybe maybe it would be good to speak to what that process will be to to identify what service providers will be offered space in that.

622
01:26:53,000 --> 01:26:54,000
Building.

623
01:26:54,000 --> 01:27:07,000
Yeah, I think using the ad hoc plan for the site, right, the city would look to, you know, RFP or work with our partners to identify services that are not currently here that should be here.

624
01:27:07,000 --> 01:27:12,000
Or I know that there is some need for more space from some of the service providers that are already here.

625
01:27:12,000 --> 01:27:17,000
So there would be, you know, a formal use agreement because legal is sitting here.

626
01:27:17,000 --> 01:27:25,000
You know, formal documents that would outline, you know, expectations about the use of the building, as well as the cost of, you know, being in that space.

627
01:27:25,000 --> 01:27:27,000
Put in clarification.

628
01:27:27,000 --> 01:27:34,000
Mayor of Santa, so that you said, yeah, we agreed to look at this, but this council could decide that this is the satisfactory and not vote on this contract.

629
01:27:35,000 --> 01:27:36,000
Yeah.

630
01:27:36,000 --> 01:27:37,000
Thank you.

631
01:27:37,000 --> 01:27:38,000
Councillor Kaplan.

632
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:39,000
Great.

633
01:27:39,000 --> 01:27:40,000
Thank you.

634
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:41,000
Thank you, Mayor.

635
01:27:41,000 --> 01:27:42,000
And thank you, Scott.

636
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:50,000
When we, I mean, we bought this, we purchased this building now two, two years ago.

637
01:27:50,000 --> 01:27:59,000
And we knew that there is going to be, it was for the specific purpose of severe weather shelter and other services that could be provided for.

638
01:27:59,000 --> 01:28:05,000
Or, uh, emergencies or for, uh, most services as you can invest decision by the council at that point.

639
01:28:05,000 --> 01:28:11,000
We knew there were going to be, there is going to be some needed infrastructure improvements and then also some operating costs associated with that.

640
01:28:11,000 --> 01:28:13,000
But we decided that we needed to do that.

641
01:28:13,000 --> 01:28:24,000
So I really appreciate, um, you coming forward today with this contract and really working creatively to try to find a way to get it done, you know, is low, at a lower cost is possible.

642
01:28:24,000 --> 01:28:29,000
And also it's quickly as possible to make sure that it's available for this next winter.

643
01:28:29,000 --> 01:28:36,000
I mean, I'm very focused on making sure that this gets, uh, the garage space, which will be more than a garage space.

644
01:28:36,000 --> 01:28:39,000
We have a lot nicer than just a garage space like it was last time.

645
01:28:39,000 --> 01:28:42,000
We'll be available when the cool weather gets really cold.

646
01:28:42,000 --> 01:28:52,000
Again, according to this council's direction and resolution of to open us severe weather shelter when the temperature dips below 32 degrees.

647
01:28:52,000 --> 01:29:01,000
Um, so my, my question really is about the heating and cooling facility in the, uh, in the shelter space.

648
01:29:01,000 --> 01:29:05,000
The first, the primary shelter space with the formerly garage space, I'll call it.

649
01:29:05,000 --> 01:29:07,000
Um, that's a new unit.

650
01:29:07,000 --> 01:29:09,000
We had a conversation about this.

651
01:29:09,000 --> 01:29:21,000
That's a new unit because, uh, the existing units are, uh, the medical engineers determined that that they're working pretty hard to try to get their,

652
01:29:21,000 --> 01:29:24,000
that this space is heated, um, heated or cooled.

653
01:29:24,000 --> 01:29:37,000
Um, but we have a, um, administrative policy in this city that says that we don't put in, um, natural gas, uh, fuel equipment that emits carbon.

654
01:29:37,000 --> 01:29:44,000
Um, and the, that's been spec that particular unit has been spec to be a natural gas unit because the other two units are natural gas.

655
01:29:44,000 --> 01:29:49,000
So my question really is, what would it do they all need to be the same?

656
01:29:49,000 --> 01:29:53,000
Could we spec that new unit?

657
01:29:53,000 --> 01:29:54,000
That is a new unit.

658
01:29:54,000 --> 01:29:56,000
It's not, you know, there yet.

659
01:29:56,000 --> 01:30:00,000
Could we not add to our carbon footprint by specing.

660
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:08,000
That with a high efficiency electric heat pump system instead of a natural gas unit. That's my first question.

661
01:30:08,000 --> 01:30:28,000
Yeah, we can partition that structure out, and look at have outlier work with their HVAC engineers to develop inspect a heat pump for the additional cooling and heating needs for the facility.

662
01:30:28,000 --> 01:30:36,000
What the electrical loading would look like and the electrical connections for that is a kind of a stand alone process.

663
01:30:36,000 --> 01:30:42,000
So right now is part of this. We have this guarantee maximum price on get into the weeds a little bit here.

664
01:30:42,000 --> 01:30:51,000
But some of these things are not fully and formally designed. It's a system. It's a hot water heater.

665
01:30:51,000 --> 01:31:01,000
It's this and this. The subcontractors then formally designed what that component looks like and how it gets installed.

666
01:31:01,000 --> 01:31:09,000
And then they take it from there and get it permanent. So we can look at it as the one unit could be a stand alone package.

667
01:31:09,000 --> 01:31:26,000
And so that alternate would be $60,000 to add that additional unit. The cost for electric versus natural grass in the basic equipment of the system is relatively similar.

668
01:31:26,000 --> 01:31:33,000
Your additional cost is going to be the electrical wiring and conduit and any sort of upgrades to the panel that would be required.

669
01:31:33,000 --> 01:31:40,000
So for one unit it would be relatively small and we still need to work through the cost thing without layer on that.

670
01:31:40,000 --> 01:31:45,000
I know that and speaking with them to do all three.

671
01:31:45,000 --> 01:31:53,000
The cost would be generally the same for the equipment, but you're looking at 85,000 to do the electrical system upgrades.

672
01:31:53,000 --> 01:32:05,000
And that's kind of a surface level look panel up grades, conduit upgrades, some demolition that would need to occur in the facility to run that conduit to all three locations for those units.

673
01:32:05,000 --> 01:32:17,000
So we can partition that out for sure and task outlier with one and then work as a side stream on the other two potential moving forward.

674
01:32:17,000 --> 01:32:30,000
They operate, you know, and maybe that's one of those logistic things that those don't get changed out, you know, by that November first deadline, we have adequate heating and cooling install with that third unit for the garage base.

675
01:32:30,000 --> 01:32:38,000
And then the other two get replaced outside of kind of our schedule threshold that we've established.

676
01:32:39,000 --> 01:32:42,000
Yeah, thanks, thanks God, that's helpful.

677
01:32:42,000 --> 01:32:49,000
I know that there's also currently an electric hot water heater in the building.

678
01:32:49,000 --> 01:32:51,000
You had a conversation about this.

679
01:32:51,000 --> 01:32:55,000
There's minimal water heating needs in the current space.

680
01:32:55,000 --> 01:32:58,000
There are three water sinks that have hot water.

681
01:32:58,000 --> 01:33:06,000
So the part of the spec is to actually put in a larger water heater that can heat the showers as well.

682
01:33:07,000 --> 01:33:25,000
And I know that you told me earlier that that's not not been spec yet whether that's electric or or gas that that could also be, that could also be spec to be an electric as well in order to comply with our administrative policy not to use carbon emitting equipment in the building.

683
01:33:25,000 --> 01:33:32,000
That could be speced as an electric hot water heater and it's hard with this little pointer here, but yeah.

684
01:33:32,000 --> 01:33:41,000
And that green storage area is the design plants called the utility closet and that's where the new hot water heater will go.

685
01:33:41,000 --> 01:33:48,000
And so this area where the bathrooms and showers are going is all going to get reconstructed with new electrical and plumbing.

686
01:33:48,000 --> 01:34:01,000
So it would be, you know, in line with kind of the project scope to run power to power an electric water heater in that utility closet, we just need to provide outlier with directions so that they can provide their subs with that direction.

687
01:34:01,000 --> 01:34:12,000
And then just to follow it, which would save also if it's not gas, you don't need to perforate the membrane the the ceiling and then the membrane roof in order to do an exhaust.

688
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:16,000
Yeah, you would need the venting would need the venting for an electric.

689
01:34:16,000 --> 01:34:22,000
And then as I have one tiny little thing, there's a door that's been bothering me, I don't it seems like a door to nowhere.

690
01:34:23,000 --> 01:34:31,000
And if you can see it on there, just above the on the west and the garage side, just above the green storage, there's a door where does that go?

691
01:34:31,000 --> 01:34:34,000
It seems to go into a little closet from the outside.

692
01:34:34,000 --> 01:34:38,000
That's the fire riser for the sprinkler system.

693
01:34:38,000 --> 01:34:49,000
So they're installing a fire vault outside the parking lot area and running the fire line into the building to a fire riser and from there it goes to the sprinkler system.

694
01:34:49,000 --> 01:34:52,000
Throughout the whole facility, it's not an egress door.

695
01:34:52,000 --> 01:34:54,000
No, it's it's a utility closet.

696
01:34:54,000 --> 01:34:56,000
Okay, thank you very much.

697
01:34:56,000 --> 01:34:59,000
And this is kind of the schematic design.

698
01:34:59,000 --> 01:35:08,000
The one the permit drawings in your packet is part of that guarantee get into more of those details of what gets installed in those locations.

699
01:35:08,000 --> 01:35:09,000
Thank you.

700
01:35:09,000 --> 01:35:12,000
Councillor Hansen.

701
01:35:12,000 --> 01:35:13,000
Thank you, Mayor.

702
01:35:13,000 --> 01:35:14,000
Thank you, Scott.

703
01:35:15,000 --> 01:35:17,000
This is the this is the design.

704
01:35:17,000 --> 01:35:20,000
I think that that checks the boxes.

705
01:35:20,000 --> 01:35:24,000
You know, there's offices for regional partnerships.

706
01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:26,000
You know, it meets.

707
01:35:26,000 --> 01:35:28,000
It meets what we ask for.

708
01:35:28,000 --> 01:35:35,000
I appreciate the attention to detail and meeting our climate goals and focusing on fuel sources.

709
01:35:35,000 --> 01:35:39,000
I think that's important and I appreciate you bringing up that in the conversation.

710
01:35:39,000 --> 01:35:46,000
I'm curious though, with with the new heating and air system, are we going to be able to filter the air?

711
01:35:46,000 --> 01:35:54,000
I know that the heating and cooling shelter is something that are other vulnerable populations.

712
01:35:54,000 --> 01:35:59,000
The house are going to be visiting our heating and cooling shelter and during smoke season.

713
01:35:59,000 --> 01:36:04,000
I think it's going to be super important that we have our infrastructure in.

714
01:36:04,000 --> 01:36:05,000
What are your questions?

715
01:36:05,000 --> 01:36:12,000
Are you keen to hit the filters or whatever kind of air filtration system we need to do to make this.

716
01:36:12,000 --> 01:36:15,000
You know, truly a disaster resilient.

717
01:36:15,000 --> 01:36:20,000
Those sort of I know it from city practice.

718
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:30,000
So what we've done in the past from a city operational standpoint is during smoke season when we do have smoke in the valley as we change out all the filters within the city facilities.

719
01:36:30,000 --> 01:36:33,000
I think they're called Mer 4 filters.

720
01:36:33,000 --> 01:36:40,000
So they have a finer micron filtration point that filters out more particular matter in the system.

721
01:36:40,000 --> 01:36:48,000
So that's kind of our basic operating protocols to install those filters during smoke season when we have smoke in the valley.

722
01:36:48,000 --> 01:36:53,000
So that would be the same for this facility, you know, from our facility operational standpoint.

723
01:36:53,000 --> 01:37:01,000
And we haven't discussed, you know, truly like an air purification filtration system is part of that.

724
01:37:01,000 --> 01:37:06,000
We're kind of falling back to managing it through the appropriate installation of filters.

725
01:37:06,000 --> 01:37:14,000
Okay. I'm just wondering if there's a there's a heat pump system that has filtration.

726
01:37:15,000 --> 01:37:22,000
And if not, it it already has an HVAC system which can monitor to a certain extent air quality.

727
01:37:22,000 --> 01:37:27,000
But I would just like to put that on the on the list.

728
01:37:27,000 --> 01:37:30,000
And then my second question is the pad.

729
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:39,000
I was here January 1st, 97 and hyped up to count wells to get water from the National Guard when we had our flood.

730
01:37:39,000 --> 01:37:52,000
And when I when I think of the pad and I think of this new ad hoc committee that's going to be paying attention to the exterior and the opportunities that this facility might have for residents and and you know greater emergency.

731
01:37:52,000 --> 01:37:58,000
I'm just wondering is the is the pad.

732
01:37:58,000 --> 01:38:14,000
Intended to be like, you know, base camp for for natural disaster resiliency hub or is is you know, I'm just wondering if we should if we should, you know, either take it off the board or put it on the board with a little bit more.

733
01:38:14,000 --> 01:38:18,000
Infrastructure or just could you describe what the intention is of that pad.

734
01:38:18,000 --> 01:38:22,000
So there's our V pads a little different than like, you know, resiliency hub.

735
01:38:22,000 --> 01:38:32,000
There's there's two components one, you know, the intent as part of the base price is to have the utility for that installed to the exterior wall.

736
01:38:32,000 --> 01:38:38,000
The additional price is actually trench across the parking lot to install that riser.

737
01:38:38,000 --> 01:38:49,000
When we talked about it with outlier the overall intent, I think, and the city manager can correct me if I'm wrong, but was to provide for a higher level of ability to.

738
01:38:49,000 --> 01:39:00,000
Meander through a bigger emergency event by having additional resources be able to connect the utilities and one of the things we talked about is what if we have firefighters that need to camp there.

739
01:39:00,000 --> 01:39:07,000
We need to bring in a shower trail and laundry trailer. That could be parked there and hooked up and utilized during a bigger emergency operation.

740
01:39:07,000 --> 01:39:17,000
Sounds like you're checking that box with that's one of the discussions that we had during this design phase for that is looking at the bigger picture of potential use for that facility.

741
01:39:17,000 --> 01:39:25,000
We've talked about it as a hub for storing water bottles and things like that food and things like that for a bigger emergency.

742
01:39:25,000 --> 01:39:33,000
So people can circle in and pick up things and come in and out of the facility itself if we were to have some larger scale emergency event.

743
01:39:33,000 --> 01:39:41,000
Okay. I know this facility isn't going to do everything we wanted to do, but if we're going to spend the money on it, I'm glad to hear that those conversations are happening.

744
01:39:41,000 --> 01:39:44,000
So thank you and thank you staff.

745
01:39:44,000 --> 01:39:46,000
Councillor Dickie.

746
01:39:46,000 --> 01:39:48,000
Thank you.

747
01:39:48,000 --> 01:39:50,000
Okay.

748
01:39:50,000 --> 01:39:59,000
I appreciate the conversation that was had about the AVAC and HVAC system.

749
01:39:59,000 --> 01:40:05,000
And I remember our meetings in that building and I was freezing to death.

750
01:40:05,000 --> 01:40:10,000
So the air conditioning works well.

751
01:40:10,000 --> 01:40:15,000
So something I had some questions on this really quick when I looked at this first off.

752
01:40:15,000 --> 01:40:28,000
Something that was mentioned before this property was purchased in 2023 via the grant that had the criteria that this building has to be used for the unhoused.

753
01:40:28,000 --> 01:40:41,000
And having this in that capacity, this building is going to be an emergency a severe weather shelter, correct?

754
01:40:41,000 --> 01:40:52,000
Okay. So I just wanted to put that out there and it is not going to be opioid recovery center, correct?

755
01:40:52,000 --> 01:40:57,000
So the intent, you know, council's direction was severe weather shelter.

756
01:40:57,000 --> 01:40:58,000
Yes.

757
01:40:58,000 --> 01:41:08,000
And then the direction for the building really where staff wins with the designers and I appreciate their attention to this is to make a building that's as flexible for use as possible.

758
01:41:08,000 --> 01:41:15,000
Because I think there's still ongoing discussion with the ad hoc and with council and the opportunities to partner.

759
01:41:15,000 --> 01:41:25,000
And so the design of the building is really to allow for the severe weather shelter, allow for overflow in emergencies, allow for it to be used as an emergency center if we need to.

760
01:41:25,000 --> 01:41:30,000
It is not going to be a method on clinic or anything like that.

761
01:41:30,000 --> 01:41:35,000
But I think, you know, it's to be determined what social services are going to be in that building.

762
01:41:35,000 --> 01:41:44,000
And I heard mentioned prior about regional partners. We have 10 offices in this building.

763
01:41:44,000 --> 01:41:55,000
And I know we are having a new ad hoc committee in the prior ad hoc committee had mentioned working with regional partners in these office spaces.

764
01:41:55,000 --> 01:42:04,000
So sending out the RFP, I don't know if that's going to come to the community or if it's just going to stay within the realm of the ad hoc committee.

765
01:42:04,000 --> 01:42:12,000
Who will be given an opportunity and ask to be in one of these offices?

766
01:42:12,000 --> 01:42:26,000
I do, I believe it's very important that we're transparent and let the community know that these are the regional partners that we are considering or that we have asked to occupy one of these offices.

767
01:42:27,000 --> 01:42:29,000
I think that's important.

768
01:42:29,000 --> 01:42:37,000
Are we considering that or is it going to be in the ad hoc? Is it going to come to council? What is that going to look like?

769
01:42:37,000 --> 01:42:46,000
So it would probably be a similar request for proposal but the city would publicize that we're looking for partners to utilize that space.

770
01:42:46,000 --> 01:42:56,000
Using the master plan for the space as a parameters and a new additional things that might come out of the second phase of the ad hoc to kind of guide what we're doing in that building.

771
01:42:56,000 --> 01:43:06,000
Before they go out would the ad hoc or council or the community members know what regional partners we're looking at?

772
01:43:06,000 --> 01:43:09,000
Oh, it assumes so. I don't know why not.

773
01:43:09,000 --> 01:43:25,000
I would hope so. I think that's important because I want us to have open conversation and communication with the neighboring community to let them know that this is the direction we're going in.

774
01:43:25,000 --> 01:43:43,000
And I also wanted to mention that the previous ad hoc committee had talked about when I look at providing utilities to outdoor shower trailers.

775
01:43:43,000 --> 01:43:55,000
And one thing that and I heard you mentioned Scott that if it was an emergency and we had to have firefighters come down and be housed in this building.

776
01:43:55,000 --> 01:44:14,000
Having additional showers and what it's permitted for now. But in a state of emergency just like when the governor brought down the state of emergency when we first acquired this building and we didn't we had no egress, no fire, no smoke detectors or anything.

777
01:44:14,000 --> 01:44:36,000
We were allowed to have additional people in that space. I'm thinking that in case of an emergency and we did have to open it up for other use such as firefighters that looking at seven people per shower 10 people would super see the the emergency would super see that.

778
01:44:36,000 --> 01:44:48,000
And I say that to say that the previous ad hoc committee, one thing that they stressed with strong importance is to have all plumbing indoors.

779
01:44:48,000 --> 01:44:59,000
To have no showers, no toilets, no porta potties out of doors for many reasons for the community around 2,200 and for the privacy of the unhoused.

780
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:29,000
I don't support that. I also see that we're already 86,000 and some change over budget. If we adhere to just sticking to what we have, and I appreciate the suggestion of the HVAC and upgrades and the bells and whistles, but right now, I think it's important to use this building as it was purpose to be.

781
01:45:29,000 --> 01:45:44,000
I don't see looking at everything that's hitting the people right now, the general fund right now, I believe we should keep it simple and stick to what's in front of us.

782
01:45:44,000 --> 01:45:46,000
Can you do have a question?

783
01:45:46,000 --> 01:46:00,000
So my question was about just the purpose of the utilities out of doors. I just wanted to make that point about the previous ad hoc question.

784
01:46:00,000 --> 01:46:22,000
So on here it says that we anticipate receiving a 100,000 to 300,000 K in the years to follow from the money, and is that kind of a ballpark. Can you tell us how much money we are receiving now and what that looks like?

785
01:46:22,000 --> 01:46:39,000
So we have a guaranteed 230,000 to come in still for 25, 26, but there are two more settlements that just happened and so I'm unsure of that dollar amount that will be coming, but there will be additional funds from those two settlements as well.

786
01:46:39,000 --> 01:46:46,000
And with that money, be used to go towards some concerns from Councilor Bloom, what he mentioned.

787
01:46:46,000 --> 01:46:57,000
Sorry could you specify some of the concerns that Councilor Bloom mentioned was how will we pay for the management of this and utilities and things like that?

788
01:46:57,000 --> 01:47:00,000
Well, that money go towards the additional.

789
01:47:00,000 --> 01:47:06,000
So as long as it falls under the exhibit that allows for the use of that money, it can be used for that.

790
01:47:06,000 --> 01:47:15,000
Thank you. Thank you. So I have a couple of follow-up questions kind of in that same line of the of the RV hookup.

791
01:47:15,000 --> 01:47:20,000
So the ad hoc committee that is forming now that we just finished the appointments for this evening.

792
01:47:20,000 --> 01:47:34,000
One of their primary element is going to be looking at what else to do with the property and I know that the first ad hoc committee had identified some sort of more permanent housing on that site in the rest of that property.

793
01:47:34,000 --> 01:47:45,000
So to what extent does that pedestal limit what can be done on that site?

794
01:47:45,000 --> 01:47:47,000
It would just be the electrical service.

795
01:47:47,000 --> 01:47:57,000
So you're looking at probably a 50 amp electrical service to the one pedestal in that water service, so a half inch water feed line.

796
01:47:57,000 --> 01:48:04,000
So it does limit your ability if you're looking at a greater expense for use of the facility.

797
01:48:04,000 --> 01:48:15,000
You would want to look at up-sizing those utilities out into that area or another area on the site that might be used for something outside of a hookup.

798
01:48:15,000 --> 01:48:25,000
But we would have to plan for the potential of a trailer out there in terms of if there's housing on there's not very much land is what I'm suggesting.

799
01:48:25,000 --> 01:48:39,000
So it sounds to me if I understand you correctly that if we put the pedestal in we will interfere in some way with the potential for the rest of the build out of the property is that correct.

800
01:48:39,000 --> 01:48:42,000
It could based on sizing needs in the future yes.

801
01:48:43,000 --> 01:48:58,000
And then I saw the mention of the portable toilets and I understand from the ratios that when you have a certain number of people in the severe weather shelter you need to have a certain number of toilet facilities for them.

802
01:48:58,000 --> 01:49:09,000
How does that work where where what is a portable toilet work because we wouldn't know until we were right on that emergency that we would need an additional toilet or two.

803
01:49:10,000 --> 01:49:18,000
Well that would be one of the that's one of the things we talked about throughout this process and counselor do changes reference it if we are in a declared emergency.

804
01:49:18,000 --> 01:49:26,000
Then we have some leeway and some flexibility about the number of people that we could put in that facility with the existing.

805
01:49:26,000 --> 01:49:36,000
So there are a lot of opportunities within it without having to bring in additional shower and restaurant facilities that could be hooked up on a temporary basis.

806
01:49:36,000 --> 01:49:55,000
I think our thought when we started this was a grander scale emergency a community based emergency that would require more items out there for use from community members you know people like I said you know firefighters and things like that using that facility is kind of a emergency related hub.

807
01:49:55,000 --> 01:50:04,000
So that's yeah I think that that's where we kind of ended up with what you see before you tonight as far as the design.

808
01:50:04,000 --> 01:50:13,000
So I think if I could give a scenario so last winter we declared an emergency during the blizzard we went over the capacity of the building to allow people to be in there.

809
01:50:13,000 --> 01:50:18,000
So in a similar situation we could do that again and use the toilets that are at the facility.

810
01:50:18,000 --> 01:50:27,000
Now if there's an extended emergency such as a wildfire or a flood where we have community members or you know wild and firefighters staying there.

811
01:50:27,000 --> 01:50:35,000
For multiple days or weeks we're going to need to bring in portable services because quite frankly it's just not going to work for that number of people.

812
01:50:35,000 --> 01:50:45,000
So okay that helps me understand we so you say declaring an emergency it can also be a locally declarative emergency doesn't have to be a state or federal declarative emergency.

813
01:50:45,000 --> 01:50:49,000
I believe that's how we discussed it the building official yes.

814
01:50:49,000 --> 01:50:55,000
So when we look at this with our existing toilet and shower facilities we could in fact accommodate the full.

815
01:50:55,000 --> 01:50:57,000
What is house by math.

816
01:50:57,000 --> 01:51:07,000
54 with the two overflow areas without having to suddenly scramble for a for port of bodies or some sort of temporary toilet under that emergency.

817
01:51:07,000 --> 01:51:11,000
We just have to declare a local emergency in order to do that.

818
01:51:11,000 --> 01:51:13,000
There's you know.

819
01:51:13,000 --> 01:51:20,000
Actually used to be considered and so if it's an emergency more than two or three days we're going to bring in portable services.

820
01:51:20,000 --> 01:51:23,000
Okay council.

821
01:51:23,000 --> 01:51:24,000
Thank you.

822
01:51:24,000 --> 01:51:30,000
So my and I appreciate that it was going to be one of my questions and that that does help so now kind of moving on to this.

823
01:51:30,000 --> 01:51:37,000
They use the opioid dollars and I really appreciate the worth it's been done contacting the state and kind of finding out where we stand with that.

824
01:51:37,000 --> 01:51:40,000
It would be allowable other cities are doing it.

825
01:51:40,000 --> 01:51:45,000
Unfortunately in the last two years of having to deal with this building.

826
01:51:45,000 --> 01:51:52,000
The states lied to us before they've tried to move the goal post on us and so I understand that there is a potentiality that that could happen.

827
01:51:52,000 --> 01:52:00,000
And in that case we would have to expand the kind of opioid addiction treatment of facilities that the state would then require.

828
01:52:00,000 --> 01:52:08,000
Am I wrong in that legal that that is a possibility.

829
01:52:09,000 --> 01:52:14,000
The state moves the goal post at some point sure that's always a possibility.

830
01:52:14,000 --> 01:52:21,000
However, you know we've talked about this I think to be totally honest I think we're getting a little bit out of the scope of this contract vote.

831
01:52:21,000 --> 01:52:28,000
Right now you're acting as a contract approval board and and I understand your question.

832
01:52:28,000 --> 01:52:31,000
So answer it in this way to the extent I can.

833
01:52:31,000 --> 01:52:35,000
And it kind of ties into Councillor Dickens question so that will actually be a better way to answer it.

834
01:52:35,000 --> 01:52:42,000
So the previous ad hoc committee had talked about you know appropriate uses for the property and that included.

835
01:52:42,000 --> 01:52:53,000
Appropriate ways to help people meet the needs for transitional housing including bridge housing and appropriate spaces for training and meetings relating to housing and homeless services.

836
01:52:53,000 --> 01:52:58,000
That ties directly into exhibiting of the opioid use.

837
01:52:58,000 --> 01:53:03,000
Settlement funds which is comprehensive wraparound services to sub.

838
01:53:03,000 --> 01:53:09,000
Individuals including housing transportation education job placement job training or child care.

839
01:53:09,000 --> 01:53:15,000
Those are very broad and I think they could be interpreted by our community partners everyone's going to say they fit that need.

840
01:53:15,000 --> 01:53:21,000
So I think we would be well within those that exhibit under that regard.

841
01:53:21,000 --> 01:53:29,000
Providing employment trading or educational services hiring social workers training behavior health workers.

842
01:53:29,000 --> 01:53:35,000
There are so many things under that exhibit that this shelter could potentially be used for and therefore appropriate use those funds.

843
01:53:35,000 --> 01:53:40,000
So I feel very confident that unless they just completely say we're not giving this away.

844
01:53:40,000 --> 01:53:48,000
If you look at the information set out to council which lists the numerous ways that people have used this and it's been approved and has gone through.

845
01:53:49,000 --> 01:53:55,000
This falls smacked out of the middle of all of them. So I feel very confident in the work that we've done to make sure that we're using this funds appropriately.

846
01:53:55,000 --> 01:53:56,000
Thank you.

847
01:53:56,000 --> 01:53:58,000
Councillor Schell.

848
01:53:58,000 --> 01:53:59,000
Thank you, Mayor.

849
01:53:59,000 --> 01:54:06,000
I appreciate it Scott. Thank you for your time and bringing this forward. I've got about four or five questions that are really direct in their like building specific construction related.

850
01:54:06,000 --> 01:54:07,000
And value.

851
01:54:07,000 --> 01:54:17,000
Have we had an appraisal do we have any idea what kind of contributory value this investment makes and the reason I asked that is because a lot of what I'm hearing about this building in the whole process leading up to today is negative.

852
01:54:17,000 --> 01:54:26,000
And if we have to cut our losses and potentially divest in this building potentially at a loss is this million dollar approximate investment going to give us a contributory value.

853
01:54:26,000 --> 01:54:30,000
Have we had any appraisal at all to the construction?

854
01:54:30,000 --> 01:54:39,000
Not what I would say a real estate analysis on valuation of improvements relative to the base appraisal number.

855
01:54:39,000 --> 01:54:41,000
So we have not looked at that.

856
01:54:41,000 --> 01:54:51,000
I think our goal when we started this process was to just maintain the maximum flexibility and use of the facility with set improvements recommended by the ad hoc.

857
01:54:51,000 --> 01:55:02,000
But we haven't done kind of a real estate analysis with a commercial broker giving having them give us their best idea of what it would do to the facility itself.

858
01:55:02,000 --> 01:55:09,000
In your opinion of overseeing facilities do you think this million dollar investment is going to be a good investment into this asset?

859
01:55:09,000 --> 01:55:13,000
For continued operation for the city of what we talked about I feel like it will be.

860
01:55:13,000 --> 01:55:20,000
It provides the benefit of what the discussion for the master plan ad hoc committee has brought forward.

861
01:55:20,000 --> 01:55:30,000
While still allowing flexible use of the space allowing other people to come in into provide services and lease out that space for those services.

862
01:55:30,000 --> 01:55:39,000
And then there's still future expansion area and changes that could be had based on additional recommendations that come out of additional discussions.

863
01:55:39,000 --> 01:55:43,000
Copy and then as far as the HVAC is it just an HVAC contractor I mean.

864
01:55:43,000 --> 01:55:45,000
Outliers are reputable company.

865
01:55:45,000 --> 01:55:56,000
They're respective here, but is it their engineer and their HVAC contractor saying yes from 93 upgrade it or have we done any data tests like temperature tests have we checked the refrigerant.

866
01:55:56,000 --> 01:56:07,000
What type of refrigerant is it can we still get it like do we have some data that says we need to replace it because we find often in construction is if the older stuff lasts a long time and the new products we're installing today.

867
01:56:07,000 --> 01:56:21,000
Don't have the same legs so have we had any data to support that we have it as better let's just get new stuff based on the age of the system and the loading required you know with HVACs and I'm not an expert by any means but.

868
01:56:21,000 --> 01:56:33,000
The higher the load that you put on the system the more used the faster they burn out over time and with this system being from 93 and being of its age.

869
01:56:33,000 --> 01:56:46,000
We've seen this on our own facility side that they will just kick the bucket and then as I said your scrambling to get a replace kind of under an emergency basis and then you're paying a higher you know front end.

870
01:56:46,000 --> 01:56:58,000
To expedite especially for operating as a city and emergency shelter but we haven't done any any sort of test on the system itself copy do more.

871
01:56:58,000 --> 01:57:14,000
Have we if we were to compare again super respectable company a lot of confidence in them but if we were to look at the contract we currently have with outlier downtown can we say that they're staying on budget and on time schedule because that's a good comparator to the work we're about to take on.

872
01:57:14,000 --> 01:57:25,000
And the lift we're going to take at 2200 so I did actually look at bid tab from community center pioneer hall to cross compare a couple of items.

873
01:57:25,000 --> 01:57:41,000
And in the bid tab in your GMP they kind of align with the previous pricing we've seen especially on the HVAC system units and you know some of the fit and finishes work that are proposed and side 2200 so.

874
01:57:41,000 --> 01:57:47,000
Generally lines with what I've looked at cross comparison and then timelines and as well.

875
01:57:47,000 --> 01:57:56,000
The timeline was extended for community center because we had the Mac and some additional structural renovations so.

876
01:57:56,000 --> 01:58:08,000
Piner Hall was completed within about a month and a half of the original anticipated finished date which was slowed down by our process primarily and some lead time issues that came up.

877
01:58:08,000 --> 01:58:22,000
And in the community center it's been delayed a couple more months because the additional structural work but I still think that there was confidence when we originally started this that they could finish on that schedule.

878
01:58:22,000 --> 01:58:33,000
That we anticipated for those facilities outside of potentially as you know some lead time issues that come up on procurement for equipment that drag the schedule down.

879
01:58:33,000 --> 01:58:48,000
So if we give outlier the green light they already have all of their procurement ready to send out to their subs and give them the green light to start that process in order to kind of hold that November first target in place.

880
01:58:48,000 --> 01:59:13,000
Awesome thank you that was a good answer to that in the last question I have is not a dig to staff it's not a dig to this building it's just like are we building a checklist based on the pressures we're facing now to use to do due diligence on the next building before we go buy it like all these meetings of the mind to go test the HVAC and to look at these systems like we should be having before we make the purchase.

881
01:59:13,000 --> 01:59:22,000
Not two years down the road so again not a dig to staff like everybody's doing the best they can with what's in front of them are we building a checklist so we don't get in a similar pickle where.

882
01:59:22,000 --> 01:59:29,000
The committees people and the emails and everybody's asking us all these like pretty good questions and we're like we're trying.

883
01:59:29,000 --> 01:59:33,000
So I'll interrupt and say that that's a question for the city manager.

884
01:59:33,000 --> 01:59:42,000
Yeah I think the purchase of this building obviously was a different time two years ago so I think there's a lot of lessons learned but I don't foresee as.

885
01:59:42,000 --> 01:59:52,000
anywhere in the near future being in a similar situation in terms of procuring a building that being said I think we can do it better next time.

886
01:59:52,000 --> 01:59:57,000
Great thank you both appreciate that.

887
01:59:57,000 --> 02:00:00,000
Thank you mayor and yes being just.

888
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:11,000
This four days over two years ago, when we made this vote, I can assure you I wish I would have thought about fire sprinklers when we had that vote, and I did, and I kicked myself every day for that.

889
02:00:11,000 --> 02:00:27,000
Carmel, thank you for stepping up, because this one's for you. This is kind of along the same lines as the city attorney talked about, kind of opposite, though, it is you had written in here in the packet about the proposed renovation, and I'll read it.

890
02:00:27,000 --> 02:00:45,000
The question at the end of this, where you said, the cross system service center is intended to act as a central point for collaborative cross system coordination, which is a crucial strategy for preventing over-prescribing, addressing opioid misuice, and supporting individuals with OEDN, co-occurring disorders, planned upgrades, including sleeping and shower.

891
02:00:45,000 --> 02:00:57,000
A lot of people will enable this center to provide comprehensive wrap-around services in a continuum of care for vulnerable populations affected by the opioid crisis by co-locating various services and resources.

892
02:00:57,000 --> 02:01:07,000
The city will facilitate connections, the treatment, recovery, housing, and other essential support systems, thereby addressing the goals of the opioid abatement and community support specified in the settlement agreement.

893
02:01:07,000 --> 02:01:09,000
I don't know what that means.

894
02:01:09,000 --> 02:01:18,000
You simplify that and give me examples, because what I feel like is, I appreciate, despite best efforts and all the hard work for staff.

895
02:01:18,000 --> 02:01:24,000
I feel like we're building this plan as we're flying it, and just even tonight I felt it's real creepy, just really crept in.

896
02:01:24,000 --> 02:01:25,000
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

897
02:01:25,000 --> 02:01:26,000
Help me dial this in.

898
02:01:26,000 --> 02:01:29,000
Can I just real quick before Carmel goes through detaining answer?

899
02:01:29,000 --> 02:01:33,000
I just want to point out that we're already doing this by contrast. Excuse me.

900
02:01:33,000 --> 02:01:35,000
With aura and road retreat.

901
02:01:35,000 --> 02:01:36,000
If you're doing all that?

902
02:01:36,000 --> 02:01:37,000
Yes.

903
02:01:37,000 --> 02:01:38,000
Okay.

904
02:01:40,000 --> 02:01:46,000
Yes. Thank you for calling out my, I guess, legally user, perhaps a two verbose of an answer.

905
02:01:46,000 --> 02:01:49,000
I mean, I think some of it really, I mean, my analysis.

906
02:01:49,000 --> 02:01:57,000
It also really goes back to what the city attorney spoke about was taking a very close look at exhibit e.

907
02:01:57,000 --> 02:02:05,000
And what you'll find in exhibit e, which was the, which is basically the outline for cities for how that how cities,

908
02:02:05,000 --> 02:02:15,000
and other counties, people, entities that have agreed to partner in the use of opioid funds.

909
02:02:15,000 --> 02:02:19,000
It's, it's like, it's very specific and broad at the same time.

910
02:02:19,000 --> 02:02:28,000
And that is sort of, in my reading of the document and my kind of understanding of the opioid crisis is that it's broad on purpose,

911
02:02:28,000 --> 02:02:37,000
because the people who suffer from opioid abuse have need a variety of care options.

912
02:02:37,000 --> 02:02:42,000
And so the terms of the settlement were written kind of broad on purpose.

913
02:02:42,000 --> 02:02:57,000
There are some, so that, so I think the long language was sort of my attempt to try and summarize exhibit e.

914
02:02:58,000 --> 02:03:01,000
That answered it.

915
02:03:01,000 --> 02:03:02,000
Okay. Thank you.

916
02:03:02,000 --> 02:03:05,000
Councillor Henson.

917
02:03:05,000 --> 02:03:10,000
Thank you. One more question about the emergency part of the emergency shelter.

918
02:03:10,000 --> 02:03:13,000
Are we putting in a generator plug on the outside?

919
02:03:13,000 --> 02:03:16,000
Power goes out. City has generators everywhere.

920
02:03:16,000 --> 02:03:19,000
It seems like we're doing all this upgrade work.

921
02:03:19,000 --> 02:03:25,000
We need to have some sort of ability to hook up to a generator.

922
02:03:26,000 --> 02:03:33,000
We haven't talked about transfer switch installation on the exterior of the building where the panel is,

923
02:03:33,000 --> 02:03:39,000
but that's something that I can raise with outliers part of the process so you could plug in.

924
02:03:39,000 --> 02:03:47,000
We do have trailer amount of generators in the city infrastructure that are used in other locations that could be deployed,

925
02:03:47,000 --> 02:03:50,000
potentially to provide backup power to the facility.

926
02:03:50,000 --> 02:03:53,000
So I can raise that without liars part of the discussion.

927
02:03:53,000 --> 02:04:03,000
Since if they move forward with panel upgrades and electrical changes that something that could potentially be easily slipped into that portion of the work.

928
02:04:03,000 --> 02:04:05,000
Right. Thank you very much.

929
02:04:05,000 --> 02:04:06,000
Appreciate that.

930
02:04:06,000 --> 02:04:07,000
Councillor Kaplan.

931
02:04:07,000 --> 02:04:09,000
Yeah. Thanks, Mayor.

932
02:04:09,000 --> 02:04:14,000
Scott, I'm trying to move towards, I'm trying to craft a motion.

933
02:04:14,000 --> 02:04:18,000
It's better to need a little bit of help because where I'm going.

934
02:04:18,000 --> 02:04:26,000
If is I'd like to, I'm going to try to create a motion that improves the contract amendment as we're talking about.

935
02:04:26,000 --> 02:04:33,000
The first, the HFAC upgrades for the main building, main part of the building,

936
02:04:33,000 --> 02:04:41,000
but includes a separate HFAC system for the main shelter area.

937
02:04:41,000 --> 02:04:49,000
And my problem is, what's the amount not to exceed that?

938
02:04:49,000 --> 02:05:02,000
So I would look at it from a contracting flexibility side of things because if you look through the GMP everything is itemized per a bullet and it's a mount.

939
02:05:02,000 --> 02:05:07,000
We can cross things off that list and add things to it.

940
02:05:07,000 --> 02:05:14,000
So you would be generally to provide us the ability to have those conversations allow outlier to do their work.

941
02:05:14,000 --> 02:05:17,000
Get bits back from the sub and refine those numbers.

942
02:05:17,000 --> 02:05:21,000
You would look at the alternate one motion.

943
02:05:21,000 --> 02:05:31,000
And what we do as part of the contracting process is do reconciliation throughout the structure.

944
02:05:31,000 --> 02:05:38,000
So say, outlier finishes a scope item and it came in under budget by $500.

945
02:05:38,000 --> 02:05:43,000
Then there's a change request that credits our contract amount by that $500.

946
02:05:43,000 --> 02:05:51,000
If a budget item goes over by $500, we do a change request to process that addition for $500.

947
02:05:51,000 --> 02:06:00,000
And so it's a continuous balancing of reconciling the amounts for each one of those bid items throughout the whole process.

948
02:06:00,000 --> 02:06:02,000
And that's how we've done the community center.

949
02:06:02,000 --> 02:06:09,000
We've had credits and we've had debts as part of each one of the scope items that get reconciled.

950
02:06:09,000 --> 02:06:18,000
So if we have that I'll just say that 917 amount that gives us the ability to let them go look at that other unit.

951
02:06:18,000 --> 02:06:20,000
We pause the two new units.

952
02:06:20,000 --> 02:06:26,000
So just for reference the new unit would be 60,000 plus the electrical work.

953
02:06:26,000 --> 02:06:31,000
A replacement of the two existing units is anticipated to cost 80,000.

954
02:06:31,000 --> 02:06:43,000
So you have kind of that balance there of washing those two out with a little bit of additional money for potentially the electrical upgrades that might be required that we haven't looked at yet.

955
02:06:43,000 --> 02:06:49,000
The change if they anticipated the hot water heater under the original scope to be gas to change that to electric.

956
02:06:49,000 --> 02:06:58,000
And there's just from a contracting flexibility a little bit more granted to staff to maneuver through that process.

957
02:06:58,000 --> 02:07:00,000
Councillor Dickens.

958
02:07:00,000 --> 02:07:01,000
Thank you.

959
02:07:01,000 --> 02:07:07,000
I know we're kind of going back and forth for Carmel this once for you.

960
02:07:07,000 --> 02:07:18,000
I'm looking at exhibit E and it says lays out the variety of ways that recipient can comply with the terms of the settlement.

961
02:07:18,000 --> 02:07:22,000
Regarding the opioid fund.

962
02:07:22,000 --> 02:07:45,000
So if looking at the 10 offices that are a 2200, if there was a regional provider that assisted, it was a resource and could direct people to go to A, B or C location to get treatment.

963
02:07:45,000 --> 02:07:48,000
Would that satisfy that need?

964
02:07:48,000 --> 02:07:51,000
Yes.

965
02:07:51,000 --> 02:08:09,000
And that's a great example of speaking to the flexibility that the settlement really wanted cities to have in helping treatment, which is a lot of times partnerships.

966
02:08:09,000 --> 02:08:29,000
I want to express the importance that we adhere to the ad hoc committee, the previous ad hoc committee, because I was one of the liaisons and one thing that they really stressed was using this as a weather shelter.

967
02:08:29,000 --> 02:08:30,000
That's what it was got.

968
02:08:30,000 --> 02:08:32,000
The grant was written for that.

969
02:08:32,000 --> 02:08:33,000
That's what it is.

970
02:08:33,000 --> 02:08:40,000
And so I want to really stress the importance of hearing and listening to our community.

971
02:08:40,000 --> 02:08:44,000
Thank you Carmel for your answer.

972
02:08:44,000 --> 02:08:46,000
Any remaining questions?

973
02:08:46,000 --> 02:08:47,000
Councillor Schwell.

974
02:08:47,000 --> 02:08:48,000
Thank you.

975
02:08:48,000 --> 02:08:49,000
This is probably for city attorney.

976
02:08:49,000 --> 02:08:54,000
Do we have any pre-payment penalty on the private debt that we hold?

977
02:08:54,000 --> 02:08:57,000
Do we have any debt on this building still?

978
02:08:57,000 --> 02:08:58,000
Yes.

979
02:08:58,000 --> 02:09:00,000
I believe we have a private note for 20 years.

980
02:09:00,000 --> 02:09:01,000
Do we have a pre-payment penalty?

981
02:09:01,000 --> 02:09:06,000
If we have to bail out of this and sell this asset to recover funds, because it doesn't work, we build it.

982
02:09:06,000 --> 02:09:12,000
Nobody comes or we have whatever problems the goalposts move, can we get out of the debt if we had to?

983
02:09:12,000 --> 02:09:13,000
Yeah.

984
02:09:13,000 --> 02:09:14,000
We just have to pay it off.

985
02:09:14,000 --> 02:09:15,000
Without penalty?

986
02:09:15,000 --> 02:09:16,000
Yes.

987
02:09:16,000 --> 02:09:17,000
Copy.

988
02:09:17,000 --> 02:09:18,000
Thanks.

989
02:09:18,000 --> 02:09:21,000
Are there any final questions?

990
02:09:21,000 --> 02:09:24,000
The floor is open for a motion.

991
02:09:24,000 --> 02:09:26,000
Councillor Caffin?

992
02:09:27,000 --> 02:09:31,000
I moved to approve the contract amendment without a large construction company.

993
02:09:31,000 --> 02:09:36,000
For the Emergency Shelter Upgrade Project, pausing the replacement of the two existing HVAC units,

994
02:09:36,000 --> 02:09:40,000
including a separate HVAC system for the primary severe weather shelter space,

995
02:09:40,000 --> 02:09:45,000
not to exceed $17,000 toward your paid dollars.

996
02:09:45,000 --> 02:09:47,000
Is there a second?

997
02:09:47,000 --> 02:09:54,000
For lack of a second, the motion fails.

998
02:09:54,000 --> 02:09:56,000
The floor is open for a motion.

999
02:09:56,000 --> 02:09:58,000
Councillor Hansen?

1000
02:09:58,000 --> 02:09:59,000
Thank you.

1001
02:09:59,000 --> 02:10:05,000
I moved to approve the contract amendment with Outwire Construction Company for the Emergency Shelter Upgrade Project,

1002
02:10:05,000 --> 02:10:13,000
including Alternates 1 and 2 in an amount to not exceed $947,000,000, $936.

1003
02:10:13,000 --> 02:10:15,000
Second.

1004
02:10:16,000 --> 02:10:18,000
Councillor Hansen?

1005
02:10:18,000 --> 02:10:20,000
Thank you.

1006
02:10:20,000 --> 02:10:26,000
I appreciate my colleagues amendment or motion.

1007
02:10:26,000 --> 02:10:35,000
But I'm really interested in the ultimate flexibility of this property, having been through

1008
02:10:35,000 --> 02:10:38,000
a couple of natural disasters here in Ashland.

1009
02:10:38,000 --> 02:10:41,000
I think it is a wise investment for our community.

1010
02:10:41,000 --> 02:10:53,000
I know that this is going above and beyond, perhaps, the Emergency Shelter minimum mandate.

1011
02:10:53,000 --> 02:11:00,000
But we have invested enough in this resource that I feel that it's important for us to take

1012
02:11:00,000 --> 02:11:03,000
it to the next level.

1013
02:11:04,000 --> 02:11:10,000
I'm really distressed that we didn't have our Shelter in hand for last winter.

1014
02:11:10,000 --> 02:11:16,000
And I realized that staff were tired and now here we are.

1015
02:11:16,000 --> 02:11:21,000
I'm glad to hear that we can try to get in there by November.

1016
02:11:21,000 --> 02:11:26,000
And that's my primary concern is can we get in there by November and I'm glad that we're here.

1017
02:11:26,000 --> 02:11:31,000
So I hope that something passes tonight, if not this, one of the other amendments,

1018
02:11:31,000 --> 02:11:34,000
because that's the most important thing.

1019
02:11:34,000 --> 02:11:35,000
I love the plan.

1020
02:11:35,000 --> 02:11:41,000
I love the ability for services and to help our unhoused community.

1021
02:11:41,000 --> 02:11:48,000
Get those services and get the help that they need ultimately housing.

1022
02:11:48,000 --> 02:11:55,000
So for those reasons, and for all the work that's put into this, I think that is the best-wise investment

1023
02:11:55,000 --> 02:11:59,000
for the city to go for both the alternatives.

1024
02:11:59,000 --> 02:12:02,000
And that's why I support this.

1025
02:12:02,000 --> 02:12:04,000
Why I'm making this motion.

1026
02:12:04,000 --> 02:12:05,000
Can't trust you out.

1027
02:12:05,000 --> 02:12:06,000
Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

1028
02:12:06,000 --> 02:12:10,000
I could have supported either motion I think, but I think there is going to be an economy of scale

1029
02:12:10,000 --> 02:12:11,000
if we do this job.

1030
02:12:11,000 --> 02:12:13,000
Let's do the best we can while we're in there.

1031
02:12:13,000 --> 02:12:15,000
So we don't have any callbacks.

1032
02:12:15,000 --> 02:12:18,000
And I hope we're not taking longer and costing more.

1033
02:12:18,000 --> 02:12:20,000
Councillor Blue.

1034
02:12:20,000 --> 02:12:25,000
Yes, I moved to amend the motion to add directions to staff to do the following before the building

1035
02:12:25,000 --> 02:12:26,000
becomes operational.

1036
02:12:26,000 --> 02:12:31,000
The no shower laundry trailer will be allowed unless in the event of a city wide emergency

1037
02:12:31,000 --> 02:12:36,000
that there will be no camping or outdoor lodging unless with the express permission of the city council.

1038
02:12:36,000 --> 02:12:40,000
The selection of service providers for the building must be approved by council.

1039
02:12:40,000 --> 02:12:43,000
That all access to services will be by appointment only.

1040
02:12:43,000 --> 02:12:48,000
That property should be fenced and will maintain with additional trees, fire safe, landscaping.

1041
02:12:48,000 --> 02:12:53,000
Continuous weed abayment and routine maintenance to keep the site visually in line with other city facilities.

1042
02:12:53,000 --> 02:12:55,000
And that before the building is operational,

1043
02:12:55,000 --> 02:12:59,000
there is a clear operational budget for the expenses the city would be responsible for.

1044
02:12:59,000 --> 02:13:02,000
Second, Councillor Blue.

1045
02:13:02,000 --> 02:13:09,000
Yes, I'm making this amendment to the motion because these are quite literally with the original ad hoc committee

1046
02:13:09,000 --> 02:13:11,000
put in their recommendations.

1047
02:13:11,000 --> 02:13:19,000
And I think that if this does go forward, which I do not support at this time, I think that it's important that we formalize those recommendations

1048
02:13:19,000 --> 02:13:24,000
and make sure that they are carried out on behalf of the ad hoc committee and the hard work that they put into this.

1049
02:13:25,000 --> 02:13:26,000
Councillor Dukai.

1050
02:13:26,000 --> 02:13:27,000
Thank you.

1051
02:13:27,000 --> 02:13:31,000
I would like to do what my colleague said.

1052
02:13:31,000 --> 02:13:43,000
The ad hoc committee took six months out of their life and hours out of their life and away from their family to spend good time collaborating with everyone.

1053
02:13:43,000 --> 02:13:55,000
And housed and unhoused and business owners to put together consensus, a common ground that we could all live with and live together.

1054
02:13:55,000 --> 02:14:03,000
So I want to make sure that our community is heard and thank them for their work and do it the right way the first time.

1055
02:14:03,000 --> 02:14:06,000
Is there any discussion on the motion? Councillor Dale.

1056
02:14:06,000 --> 02:14:08,000
On the amendment.

1057
02:14:08,000 --> 02:14:09,000
Yeah.

1058
02:14:09,000 --> 02:14:10,000
Thank you.

1059
02:14:10,000 --> 02:14:11,000
Councillor Bloom.

1060
02:14:11,000 --> 02:14:15,000
I was sitting here thinking as you were reading it, I was following it along.

1061
02:14:15,000 --> 02:14:16,000
Yeah.

1062
02:14:16,000 --> 02:14:20,000
This is something I still struggle the fact despite the absolute best efforts of staff and especially

1063
02:14:20,000 --> 02:14:21,000
you and your team.

1064
02:14:21,000 --> 02:14:25,000
You've done exactly what we've asked you to do.

1065
02:14:25,000 --> 02:14:27,000
But I still see this.

1066
02:14:27,000 --> 02:14:31,000
I still struggle with the kind of lack of a vision and that's on us.

1067
02:14:31,000 --> 02:14:37,000
And again, we're trying to just come up with ideas that just seem to be happening in real time.

1068
02:14:37,000 --> 02:14:45,000
So any sense of metrics or KPIs or otherwise performance measurements is, I think, absolutely

1069
02:14:45,000 --> 02:14:49,000
just fundamental to this to the success of this project.

1070
02:14:49,000 --> 02:14:52,000
Councillor Hansen.

1071
02:14:52,000 --> 02:14:53,000
Thank you.

1072
02:14:53,000 --> 02:14:54,000
I mean, yeah.

1073
02:14:54,000 --> 02:14:58,000
That is exactly the original ad hoc's.

1074
02:14:58,000 --> 02:15:00,000
Birbage off of.

1075
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:16,000
The document that came back to us. I am a little concerned with the amendment only in practice that this body isn't always here in an emergency like the city manager is here in an emergency.

1076
02:15:16,000 --> 02:15:40,000
So I would just suggest that we amend the amendment to council or city manager, deputy manager. I think that's a great amendment, but I'm concerned that we're going to get hung up on city council if we ever need to pull that lever.

1077
02:15:40,000 --> 02:15:50,000
Yeah, just to address that. So specifically I said, you know, with the shower laundry trailer in the event of an emergency that the city manager still retains that authority to do that, I understand the other concerns.

1078
02:15:50,000 --> 02:16:00,000
I don't see how they relate to an emergency. So I don't see a situation where picking a service advisor would be under an emergency situation. So that's no, no, that's all I'm thinking.

1079
02:16:00,000 --> 02:16:07,000
Go ahead. Yeah, I appreciate the clarification because you read it really fast. Okay, and we'll read it against lower before we vote.

1080
02:16:07,000 --> 02:16:24,000
Councillor Catholic. Yeah, in addition to reading it again, I'd like to see I'm got now I have the the master plan open and I don't see the specific language you said you it was literally control room said that it was literally from the I talk master plan.

1081
02:16:24,000 --> 02:16:29,000
I don't see it. So if you when you read it again, if you could direct us to that space so I can follow along.

1082
02:16:29,000 --> 02:16:42,000
Yeah, I can't direct you to the exact document. This is from literally members of the ad hoc committee and and just from memory. I remember we clearly discussed that there would be no congregate shelter that there would be no outdoor shower trailers.

1083
02:16:42,000 --> 02:16:52,000
That the facility would be upcapped and including the weed abatement. I mean those are all very, very clearly defined from the ad hoc committee in order for us to go forward.

1084
02:16:52,000 --> 02:16:56,000
Okay, are there is there any other discussion on the amendment.

1085
02:16:56,000 --> 02:17:01,000
Mayor, I have a point of order just because I'm trying to in my brain.

1086
02:17:01,000 --> 02:17:08,000
And there's a lot of things that were just said, but practically attached this to the role as a contractor approval board.

1087
02:17:08,000 --> 02:17:14,000
So I totally see your point and I think that's a great direction to give staff.

1088
02:17:14,000 --> 02:17:23,000
Trying it to approval of a contract in my mind that the two motions are unrelated.

1089
02:17:23,000 --> 02:17:27,000
If this is.

1090
02:17:27,000 --> 02:17:40,000
It's very sticky and it's it's tough for me to even follow at the moment. And so I'm just throwing that out there that it's creating some confusion.

1091
02:17:40,000 --> 02:17:58,000
That's to the role in this specific issues that are happening and I totally I understand that it's perspective and I understand the you know concerns and I support that not that it's my place, but but I'm just practically speaking as of as the parliamentary way in here.

1092
02:17:58,000 --> 02:18:03,000
I think that there are some issues with the way this is getting structured and I speak to.

1093
02:18:03,000 --> 02:18:12,000
But not yet what would be the you're recommended path forward.

1094
02:18:12,000 --> 02:18:21,000
I think a voting on the contract motion and then a separate motion directing staff and getting the support of council to.

1095
02:18:21,000 --> 02:18:27,000
Put those things in place as it's like with any other motion that would take more than two hours of staff time.

1096
02:18:27,000 --> 02:18:40,000
And is there a particular order that is required to go in might the council take up this what is the structural elements of this amendment prior to the vote on the.

1097
02:18:40,000 --> 02:18:43,000
Well now you have to vote on the amendment and then on the.

1098
02:18:43,000 --> 02:18:52,000
No, they can also be we can we can unwrap all of this so what would your preference is there is there a prohibition on which one goes first.

1099
02:18:52,000 --> 02:18:54,000
Okay, all right, thank you.

1100
02:18:54,000 --> 02:19:03,000
So we have a structural question here and under the advice of our parliamentarian it would make sense to split this motion.

1101
02:19:03,000 --> 02:19:09,000
And so I will put it to the amendment maker.

1102
02:19:09,000 --> 02:19:14,000
So what you would like to do make that a title for me.

1103
02:19:15,000 --> 02:19:24,000
I personally I think that this amendment is is legitimate in this situation it is germane to the topic that we're discussing and involves adding staff direction.

1104
02:19:24,000 --> 02:19:37,000
So the main motion goes forward to approve the contract in this case that Councillor Hansen made and this is simply an amendment giving staff direction to do these particular things as the building becomes operational.

1105
02:19:37,000 --> 02:19:44,000
And I'm happy to if it's easier for everybody to withdraw this and for us to make a separate motion.

1106
02:19:44,000 --> 02:19:52,000
But I would like to see I would like to see my motion on these items to go before the contract approval.

1107
02:19:52,000 --> 02:19:57,000
So you're willing to withdraw your motion.

1108
02:19:57,000 --> 02:20:02,000
It would come back then to the primary motion maker.

1109
02:20:02,000 --> 02:20:09,000
Would you be willing to withdraw your motion so that this amendment could go first.

1110
02:20:09,000 --> 02:20:14,000
Okay, so let's go ahead and go through the following motion.

1111
02:20:14,000 --> 02:20:15,000
Thank you Councillor Hansen.

1112
02:20:15,000 --> 02:20:17,000
And go ahead and formally withdraw your amendment.

1113
02:20:17,000 --> 02:20:19,000
And I formally withdraw my amendment.

1114
02:20:19,000 --> 02:20:22,000
Okay, the floor is open for a motion Councillor Bloom.

1115
02:20:22,000 --> 02:20:29,000
I move to direct staff to do the following before the building becomes operational.

1116
02:20:29,000 --> 02:20:35,000
That no shower or laundry trailer will be allowed unless in the event of a citywide emergency.

1117
02:20:35,000 --> 02:20:42,000
That there will be no camping or outdoor lodging unless with the express permission of the city council.

1118
02:20:42,000 --> 02:20:47,000
That the selection of service providers for the building must be approved by council.

1119
02:20:47,000 --> 02:20:51,000
That all access to services will be by appointment only.

1120
02:20:51,000 --> 02:20:59,000
That property should be fenced and well maintained with additional trees, fire safe landscaping, continuous weed abayment and routine maintenance.

1121
02:20:59,000 --> 02:21:03,000
To keep the site visually in line with other city facilities.

1122
02:21:03,000 --> 02:21:11,000
And that before the building is operational there is a clear operational budget for the expenses the city would be responsible for.

1123
02:21:11,000 --> 02:21:12,000
Second.

1124
02:21:12,000 --> 02:21:13,000
Okay, Councillor Bloom.

1125
02:21:13,000 --> 02:21:15,000
I've already spoken to this.

1126
02:21:16,000 --> 02:21:18,000
So I need further discussion on the motion.

1127
02:21:18,000 --> 02:21:20,000
Can I get a point of clarification on the motion?

1128
02:21:20,000 --> 02:21:27,000
So appointment only an operational budget that is not pertaining to the severe weather shelter with the other side of the building.

1129
02:21:27,000 --> 02:21:28,000
Is that correct?

1130
02:21:28,000 --> 02:21:29,000
That is correct.

1131
02:21:29,000 --> 02:21:32,000
Yeah, access to services will be by appointment only.

1132
02:21:32,000 --> 02:21:38,000
I don't see the weather shelters a service service provided it's part of what we do.

1133
02:21:38,000 --> 02:21:40,000
Councillor Hansen.

1134
02:21:40,000 --> 02:21:44,000
And thank you for reading that again and the.

1135
02:21:44,000 --> 02:21:49,000
The pace helped me but I caught something in there that still concerns me that's.

1136
02:21:49,000 --> 02:21:55,000
Camping again state of emergency I think you know city manager in city council.

1137
02:21:55,000 --> 02:21:59,000
What are we talking camping firefighters camping they might be camping.

1138
02:21:59,000 --> 02:22:05,000
I just don't want I don't need to get stuck in the weeds here but I just don't think that city council needs to have that.

1139
02:22:05,000 --> 02:22:13,000
That ultimate control of the city manager is should share that and they do under an emergency declaration.

1140
02:22:13,000 --> 02:22:30,000
I guess I'm I'm I'm I'm not sure why this is necessary given that we this council already approved and I did follow along now in the prohibited uses and and they do track fairly closely with the prohibited uses the wording is not exact.

1141
02:22:30,000 --> 02:22:39,000
In fact the the previous uses drop in services it's not an affirmative requirement for an appointment it's a prohibition prohibition against put drop in services.

1142
02:22:39,000 --> 02:22:44,000
But in any case the ad hoc committee mess the master plan was approved by this council.

1143
02:22:44,000 --> 02:22:51,000
It is in force I'm not sure why we need an additional direction to staff along the repeating very much the same things.

1144
02:22:51,000 --> 02:22:53,000
Would you like me answer that.

1145
02:22:53,000 --> 02:23:05,000
Sure I think that it's important that we ensure that we hold everybody accountable to what was agreed on and formalizing an emotion as we've all discussed before is seems to be the path forward that works best.

1146
02:23:05,000 --> 02:23:16,000
Okay we're going to continue to move this forward it's 823 and we have other business to carry on so any other discussion about this motion.

1147
02:23:16,000 --> 02:23:19,000
Please listen.

1148
02:23:19,000 --> 02:23:20,000
Cheryl.

1149
02:23:20,000 --> 02:23:21,000
Yes.

1150
02:23:21,000 --> 02:23:22,000
Dale.

1151
02:23:22,000 --> 02:23:23,000
Yes.

1152
02:23:23,000 --> 02:23:24,000
Bloom.

1153
02:23:24,000 --> 02:23:25,000
Yes.

1154
02:23:25,000 --> 02:23:26,000
Kaplan.

1155
02:23:26,000 --> 02:23:27,000
You can.

1156
02:23:27,000 --> 02:23:28,000
Yes.

1157
02:23:28,000 --> 02:23:29,000
Hansen.

1158
02:23:29,000 --> 02:23:30,000
No.

1159
02:23:30,000 --> 02:23:35,000
So the floor is open for emotion regarding the contract council or Hansen.

1160
02:23:35,000 --> 02:23:41,000
I moved to the contract amendment with outlier construction company for the emergency shelter upgrade project including

1161
02:23:41,000 --> 02:23:47,000
alternate one and two and an amount not to exceed nine hundred forty seven thousand nine hundred thirty six dollars.

1162
02:23:47,000 --> 02:23:49,000
There's second.

1163
02:23:49,000 --> 02:23:50,000
Second.

1164
02:23:50,000 --> 02:23:51,000
Councillor Hansen.

1165
02:23:51,000 --> 02:23:58,000
Again thank you staff and I want this to be the most flexible as possible and just.

1166
02:23:58,000 --> 02:24:07,000
I agree with council cap one on the amendment we've already agreed to this so I appreciate what's trying to be done here but that's why I voted no on that.

1167
02:24:07,000 --> 02:24:16,000
And I support this amendment or this motion with both of the alternate and thank you.

1168
02:24:16,000 --> 02:24:18,000
Councillor Schrell.

1169
02:24:18,000 --> 02:24:21,000
Is there any further discussion.

1170
02:24:21,000 --> 02:24:23,000
Councillor Boone.

1171
02:24:23,000 --> 02:24:24,000
Yes.

1172
02:24:24,000 --> 02:24:27,000
I put in the time to review the plans.

1173
02:24:27,000 --> 02:24:30,000
I've read the master plan recommendations and considered this design.

1174
02:24:30,000 --> 02:24:36,000
But I've also asked myself whether the fundamental questions have really been answered and for me the answer is no.

1175
02:24:36,000 --> 02:24:46,000
I don't believe we should invest nearly a million dollars in renovations without knowing what it will cost to run this facility or who will be responsible for doing so.

1176
02:24:46,000 --> 02:24:50,000
I don't believe we should continue building out a site that still raises neighborhood concerns.

1177
02:24:50,000 --> 02:24:57,000
Still suffers from basic infrastructure limitations and still risk being pushed into a direction this council didn't intend.

1178
02:24:57,000 --> 02:25:05,000
At some point we have to stop and ask whether the best way to fulfill our obligations is by doubling down or stepping back.

1179
02:25:05,000 --> 02:25:09,000
This is nearly a million dollars that could be spent and a lot wiser ways.

1180
02:25:09,000 --> 02:25:17,000
We could spend a lot of money that we have budgeted for homeless services that could be stretched throughout this community and serve maximum purpose.

1181
02:25:17,000 --> 02:25:33,000
Or we could go forward with this and ask ourselves if it fits in tassels long term strategy or if we are simply just trying to repair mistakes of the past and it is simply a vanity project.

1182
02:25:33,000 --> 02:25:46,000
So I have been on the council for this is by 70 year now and even from the very beginning we had some serious conversations about the needs of our unhoused people.

1183
02:25:46,000 --> 02:25:56,000
And one of the immediate needs was that we needed a severe weather shelter because at that point they were bouncing from church basement to church basement.

1184
02:25:56,000 --> 02:26:04,000
And our community partners in the churches were having more and more difficulty being able to maintain their part in that partnership.

1185
02:26:04,000 --> 02:26:15,000
And we were at very serious risk of people dying during these severe weather events and every time they came about our community had to scramble.

1186
02:26:15,000 --> 02:26:23,000
We also know that we are facing a crisis that is very much a housing crisis, it's a mental health crisis, it's an addiction crisis.

1187
02:26:23,000 --> 02:26:30,000
All of those things call on us to provide a certain type of service to our unhoused people.

1188
02:26:30,000 --> 02:26:40,000
And that involves wraparound services. That's why we have been partnering with other service providers. The city is not necessarily a service provider in this way.

1189
02:26:40,000 --> 02:26:52,000
We need to get this work done through partnerships. One of the things that I noticed in the work of local government is that it is very often an imperfect process.

1190
02:26:52,000 --> 02:27:02,000
We would have loved to have had a master plan in place, but our county refused the money that would have allowed us to build that master plan.

1191
02:27:02,000 --> 02:27:14,000
So when the state came through with one time only money and it was clearly signal that they were paying for infrastructure this year and then they were moving on to housing services next.

1192
02:27:14,000 --> 02:27:23,000
We understood that there was a single opportunity to move even though we didn't have the exact plan laid out that we wanted.

1193
02:27:23,000 --> 02:27:38,000
And we took what I think and I still think was a very important step. We got funding from the state. We got funding from grants. We've put some of our own into this process so that we could buy a property.

1194
02:27:38,000 --> 02:27:49,000
Was it, did it move faster than we wanted? Absolutely. Where we pressed by grant deadlines to do things in a way that wouldn't be the way we would love to do them absolutely. Those things are all true.

1195
02:27:49,000 --> 02:28:03,000
But we now have possession of a piece of property that we have continued to move forward with and now with the design I see up here is really well positioned to do what we have known as needed to be done for a good long time.

1196
02:28:03,000 --> 02:28:20,000
It also gives us the potential to have additional emergency services provision in the event of a major disaster earthquake fire and it also allows us to have some land to work on transitional and workforce housing.

1197
02:28:20,000 --> 02:28:34,000
So yes the pathway here has not been perfect. It has had its bumps. But I think staff has done a tremendous job of bringing us back what our first ad hoc committee said they wanted us to do and what this council agreed to do.

1198
02:28:34,000 --> 02:28:49,000
So it's my hope this evening that this council will approve this contract and allow this work to get started so that we can have our shelter in place and have that process moving with our local partners by the late fall here by November.

1199
02:28:49,000 --> 02:28:54,000
Is there any further discussion? Councillor Dicking.

1200
02:28:54,000 --> 02:29:09,000
Thank you. I would I appreciate with Councillor Bloom brought forward and this is my second term on council and I remember when I got here.

1201
02:29:09,000 --> 02:29:27,000
One of my hopes was that we could have a weather shelter because I too witnessed everyone scrambling in the community to find some place to house people when it was freezing outside.

1202
02:29:27,000 --> 02:29:40,000
And winter comes every year just like Christmas but you would act as it was as if we didn't know that so did we get here and a rocky road yes we did.

1203
02:29:40,000 --> 02:29:44,000
Are we ever going to do this again? No.

1204
02:29:44,000 --> 02:29:56,000
However we're here and what we have in front of us I want to make the most of it and it was mentioned that this council might not be here forever.

1205
02:29:56,000 --> 02:30:00,000
However while I'm here I'm going to hope people accountable to make sure.

1206
02:30:00,000 --> 02:30:09,000
Or that this is operated in the best possible way for the citizens of Ashland.

1207
02:30:09,000 --> 02:30:11,000
Any further discussion?

1208
02:30:11,000 --> 02:30:14,000
Roll call, please listen.

1209
02:30:14,000 --> 02:30:15,000
Hansen?

1210
02:30:15,000 --> 02:30:16,000
Yes.

1211
02:30:16,000 --> 02:30:17,000
Dukeain?

1212
02:30:17,000 --> 02:30:18,000
Yes.

1213
02:30:18,000 --> 02:30:19,000
Kaplan?

1214
02:30:19,000 --> 02:30:20,000
Yes.

1215
02:30:20,000 --> 02:30:21,000
Bloom?

1216
02:30:21,000 --> 02:30:22,000
No.

1217
02:30:22,000 --> 02:30:23,000
Bale?

1218
02:30:23,000 --> 02:30:24,000
No.

1219
02:30:24,000 --> 02:30:25,000
Sure.

1220
02:30:25,000 --> 02:30:26,000
Yes.

1221
02:30:26,000 --> 02:30:27,000
Motion passed.

1222
02:30:27,000 --> 02:30:28,000
Thank you.

1223
02:30:28,000 --> 02:30:29,000
Thank you, staff.

1224
02:30:29,000 --> 02:30:32,000
We have been here for a solid two and a half hours.

1225
02:30:32,000 --> 02:30:34,000
So we're going to take a short break.

1226
02:30:34,000 --> 02:30:40,000
Councils, please be back in your seats at 837 by the clock to my right.

1227
02:30:59,000 --> 02:31:01,000
Thank you.

1228
02:31:29,000 --> 02:31:30,000
Thank you.

1229
02:31:59,000 --> 02:32:00,000
Thank you.

1230
02:32:29,000 --> 02:32:30,000
Thank you.

1231
02:32:59,000 --> 02:33:00,000
Thank you.

1232
02:33:29,000 --> 02:33:30,000
Thank you.

1233
02:33:59,000 --> 02:34:00,000
Thank you.

1234
02:34:29,000 --> 02:34:30,000
Thank you.

1235
02:34:59,000 --> 02:35:00,000
Thank you.

1236
02:35:29,000 --> 02:35:30,000
Thank you.

1237
02:35:59,000 --> 02:36:00,000
Thank you.

1238
02:36:29,000 --> 02:36:30,000
Thank you.

1239
02:36:59,000 --> 02:37:00,000
Thank you.

1240
02:37:29,000 --> 02:37:30,000
Thank you.

1241
02:37:59,000 --> 02:38:00,000
Thank you.

1242
02:38:29,000 --> 02:38:35,000
Here we convening.

1243
02:38:35,000 --> 02:38:45,000
I call this meeting back to order.

1244
02:38:45,000 --> 02:38:50,000
Councilors, we're back in sessions.

1245
02:38:50,000 --> 02:38:54,000
We are now.

1246
02:38:54,000 --> 02:39:00,340
And now to new business, the 2025 Ashton Community Welfire Protection Plan, Sumerian Council

1247
02:39:00,340 --> 02:39:04,740
of Christian Bersers here tonight, to answer any additional questions you may remember and we

1248
02:39:04,740 --> 02:39:07,740
went over this during a study session in July.

1249
02:39:07,740 --> 02:39:14,020
So this is the year-long process that resulted in two year-long process that I rounded down

1250
02:39:14,020 --> 02:39:20,220
inappropriately that resulted in this updated community Welfire Protection Plan.

1251
02:39:20,220 --> 02:39:24,860
So if you have any questions, Chris is here to answer those, but we are here for the adoption

1252
02:39:24,860 --> 02:39:26,660
of this plan tonight.

1253
02:39:26,660 --> 02:39:28,660
Councillor Boone.

1254
02:39:28,660 --> 02:39:29,660
Thank you.

1255
02:39:29,660 --> 02:39:30,660
Thank you for being here.

1256
02:39:30,660 --> 02:39:36,900
I know we went over this at length and so I appreciated not having to spend too much time

1257
02:39:36,900 --> 02:39:40,900
this week and honest since we did previously and really just looking at some of those changes

1258
02:39:40,900 --> 02:39:44,140
which I appreciate you incorporating.

1259
02:39:44,140 --> 02:39:45,140
It's kind of a two-part question.

1260
02:39:45,140 --> 02:39:49,660
I'm going to try not to laugh, asking it, but this plan doesn't include logging 10,000 acres

1261
02:39:49,660 --> 02:39:51,660
of pristine rare-old growth forest.

1262
02:39:51,660 --> 02:39:52,660
Does it?

1263
02:39:52,660 --> 02:39:53,660
It does not.

1264
02:39:53,660 --> 02:39:54,660
I didn't think so.

1265
02:39:54,660 --> 02:39:57,660
Would you care to take the opportunity to respond to some of these just kind of blatant

1266
02:39:57,660 --> 02:40:00,660
falsehoods that are being put out in the community by some?

1267
02:40:00,660 --> 02:40:03,660
I'd like to spend a lot of time on it.

1268
02:40:03,660 --> 02:40:09,660
Given our history of very responsible for thinking and ecologically informed fields reduction

1269
02:40:09,660 --> 02:40:15,460
in the watershed, I think our track record speaks for itself, this plan does not change any

1270
02:40:15,460 --> 02:40:20,020
of that direction that's been approved by Council and the previous CWPP nor in the

1271
02:40:20,020 --> 02:40:25,980
Ashland Forest plan that was approved in 2016 and will be updated in the coming year.

1272
02:40:25,980 --> 02:40:32,380
The city remains, definitely committed to the ecological integrity of our watershed.

1273
02:40:32,380 --> 02:40:38,980
We've learned a lot over the last 20 years in forest management and that it would not include clear

1274
02:40:38,980 --> 02:40:40,980
cutting in our watershed.

1275
02:40:40,980 --> 02:40:46,900
Or would it even be legal in the federal lands above us in the Ashland Creek watershed, which

1276
02:40:46,900 --> 02:40:48,900
is designated a late-successional reserve?

1277
02:40:48,900 --> 02:40:56,900
So it's not even a possibility that's on the table, and as part of this plan or any other plan.

1278
02:40:56,900 --> 02:40:57,900
Thank you so much.

1279
02:40:57,900 --> 02:40:58,900
Thank you.

1280
02:40:58,900 --> 02:40:59,900
Councillor Caffin.

1281
02:40:59,900 --> 02:41:01,900
Yeah, thanks.

1282
02:41:01,900 --> 02:41:06,620
I want to take up this kind of this same point in just a second, but before we do that, I want

1283
02:41:06,620 --> 02:41:10,620
to thank you for the memo that you prepared, because when you presented this to us before and

1284
02:41:10,620 --> 02:41:15,380
as in the study session, I asked very specifically for what is it that only the city can

1285
02:41:15,380 --> 02:41:16,380
do?

1286
02:41:16,380 --> 02:41:17,380
Yes.

1287
02:41:17,380 --> 02:41:23,860
And you came up back with a three-page memo, very explicit description of what things the only

1288
02:41:23,860 --> 02:41:25,500
the city can do.

1289
02:41:25,500 --> 02:41:30,940
I also asked at that point for those things that the city should do in order to ensure that community

1290
02:41:30,940 --> 02:41:32,660
partners can be successful.

1291
02:41:32,660 --> 02:41:38,140
It's a little less clear in there, but there's a little bit of that in there, and I think you

1292
02:41:38,140 --> 02:41:39,540
hit on some of those things.

1293
02:41:39,540 --> 02:41:44,460
But I'll be pressing on that more as we go along, because I know this is just the overall

1294
02:41:44,460 --> 02:41:45,460
plan.

1295
02:41:45,460 --> 02:41:48,340
It is going to be individual initiatives, and we're going to see some of those again, and I'm going

1296
02:41:48,340 --> 02:41:53,380
to continue to try to work with you to see what is it that the city can really do to make

1297
02:41:53,380 --> 02:41:57,380
others effective in doing the things that the city really wants them to do as well, because I think

1298
02:41:57,380 --> 02:42:02,180
that we're all that was one of the lessons that I took away from this new approach to the

1299
02:42:02,180 --> 02:42:04,580
community welfare protection plan.

1300
02:42:04,580 --> 02:42:08,980
On this question that you just answered, yes.

1301
02:42:08,980 --> 02:42:12,940
Thank you for confirming that there's not going to be clear cutting of 10,000 acres.

1302
02:42:12,940 --> 02:42:17,860
There is, however, some discussion of thinning of forest canopy and the upper watershed in

1303
02:42:17,860 --> 02:42:21,740
order to increase snowpack and things like that.

1304
02:42:21,740 --> 02:42:28,420
It's a kind of a passing reference in section 12, with not super well explained, though, there's

1305
02:42:28,420 --> 02:42:32,060
some reference to some academic literature on it.

1306
02:42:32,060 --> 02:42:37,460
But then in terms of the actual initiative, there's an initiative to facilitate creation of

1307
02:42:37,460 --> 02:42:41,620
a climate smart plan for the entire Ashwin watershed.

1308
02:42:41,620 --> 02:42:46,220
I wonder if you could just explain a little bit more, what is a climate smart plan?

1309
02:42:46,220 --> 02:42:47,220
How long does it take?

1310
02:42:47,220 --> 02:42:50,780
Who's involved in all of that?

1311
02:42:50,780 --> 02:42:51,780
Yeah.

1312
02:42:51,780 --> 02:42:56,300
And when are we going to start doing that?

1313
02:42:56,300 --> 02:43:00,620
It seems like it's going to be able to be a pretty long-term project.

1314
02:43:00,620 --> 02:43:02,940
I believe that will be a long-term project.

1315
02:43:02,940 --> 02:43:07,420
First, I want to introduce our extraordinary volunteer, Shari Satoriac, and in part,

1316
02:43:07,980 --> 02:43:14,380
because Shari Satoriac brought this idea of climate smart planning to the forest lands management

1317
02:43:14,380 --> 02:43:19,020
advisory committee, actually a number of years ago, before we even started this, as we were

1318
02:43:19,020 --> 02:43:23,820
looking at, a climate change adaptation, and dendom to the Ashwin Forest Plan.

1319
02:43:23,820 --> 02:43:29,060
Climate smart forestry is actually a process that was created by, and I hope I don't get this

1320
02:43:29,060 --> 02:43:30,860
wrong, the National Wildlife Federation.

1321
02:43:30,860 --> 02:43:35,180
It was an interagency team that was led by the National of New York months.

1322
02:43:35,180 --> 02:43:37,380
Oh, there you go.

1323
02:43:37,380 --> 02:43:38,380
Do I keep it down?

1324
02:43:38,380 --> 02:43:39,380
No.

1325
02:43:39,380 --> 02:43:40,380
You're fine.

1326
02:43:40,380 --> 02:43:41,380
It's fine.

1327
02:43:41,380 --> 02:43:42,380
Let me hit it.

1328
02:43:42,380 --> 02:43:43,380
Okay.

1329
02:43:43,380 --> 02:43:50,700
The climate smart approach was developed by a collaboration of federal and nonprofit entities to take

1330
02:43:50,700 --> 02:43:55,820
a hard look at the planning process.

1331
02:43:55,820 --> 02:44:02,020
Sometimes we can give you a full one presentation on it, but there's a publication in 2014 that

1332
02:44:02,020 --> 02:44:04,340
describes the process.

1333
02:44:04,340 --> 02:44:12,300
It means looking at the future with a lands on that's different from the past, dealing with

1334
02:44:12,300 --> 02:44:17,700
uncertainty, but I don't think that's what we're here for tonight.

1335
02:44:17,700 --> 02:44:24,660
And I will add to that that we don't expect that we will be able to engage in that process during

1336
02:44:24,660 --> 02:44:29,540
the current administration, because we're talking about the Ashwin Waterchide, which is over

1337
02:44:29,540 --> 02:44:30,900
90% federal land.

1338
02:44:30,900 --> 02:44:35,380
So I don't think we're going to get traction on that particular issue, at least not for

1339
02:44:35,380 --> 02:44:40,100
the next few years, but it's good that we have it in our plan as a placeholder.

1340
02:44:40,100 --> 02:44:45,900
And when we have a more climate-friendly administration, I think that's something that we can

1341
02:44:45,900 --> 02:44:49,220
take up and hope to make some headway on.

1342
02:44:49,220 --> 02:44:50,220
Thanks, Chris.

1343
02:44:50,220 --> 02:44:51,220
Thanks, Bruce.

1344
02:44:51,220 --> 02:44:58,540
And I would just add to that that particular framework is specifically for natural landscapes.

1345
02:44:58,540 --> 02:44:59,540
With the climate-smart framework.

1346
02:45:00,000 --> 02:45:29,000
And so it's been, you'll hear frameworks that are specifically for community communities and community assets. And then there are other frameworks that are for natural landscapes. And in fact, one of our national residents was one of the authors of one of the chapters for that. So there has been a lot of work in the conservation world around that with national wildlife Federation being the lead organization. Other questions? Councillor Duking.

1347
02:45:30,000 --> 02:45:42,000
Thank you. One of my questions is, I remember when this was brought in front of us the first time.

1348
02:45:42,000 --> 02:46:01,000
So it says that a conservative estimate of 80 to 100 million dollars. So that's an a 10-year timeframe. So that's 10 million dollars per year.

1349
02:46:01,000 --> 02:46:15,000
How are we going to get there? How where is this money going to come from? We have a 372.5 million dollar budget. And that is not in the budget. Where is this money going to come from?

1350
02:46:15,000 --> 02:46:21,000
In part, it is in the budget. The community or the wildfire risk reduction fee. It was passed by council.

1351
02:46:21,000 --> 02:46:32,000
Very forward looking move on the council's part does create a fund that is dedicated to wildfire risk reduction. That is part of the calculation.

1352
02:46:32,000 --> 02:46:46,000
And more not that that fund is enough to get us to 10 million dollars. It's nowhere near that. But what that fund creates is a down payment so that we can go out to state federal foundations.

1353
02:46:46,000 --> 02:47:05,000
You name it and we have a match fund that we can then extend out and say, hey, we have put our money where our mouth is as a local community. We have skin in the game. We've been doing this actually for a long time back to the 1315 biennium and having a fee dedicated to wildfire mitigation.

1354
02:47:05,000 --> 02:47:18,000
We have a good track record. We've performed on that. We have double down on it in the Latin. This current biennium and we are looking to be an example community for the entire country.

1355
02:47:18,000 --> 02:47:30,000
And we have this money. And so we hope that what that will do is allow us to access the millions of dollars that are listed in the plan as a potential budget.

1356
02:47:30,000 --> 02:47:42,000
A very similar thing when we happened 21 years ago when we approved the original community wildfire protection plan in 2004. We didn't know where the money was going to come from.

1357
02:47:42,000 --> 02:47:50,000
At that time we thought the budget was 10 to 12 million dollars to do the project. We ended up with 33 million and counting.

1358
02:47:50,000 --> 02:48:00,000
As we had success in the project we attracted funding. We found other funding sources. We lobbied for dollars. So we more than doubled.

1359
02:48:00,000 --> 02:48:15,000
What we thought the budget would be and we made it very successful for thinking project. I'm hopeful that we will have an experience that is similar this time around as we look at protecting our community and doing the necessary work that we need to do.

1360
02:48:15,000 --> 02:48:21,000
But I can't honestly sit here and say there's money in the bank. We're going to figure that out.

1361
02:48:21,000 --> 02:48:26,000
Man. Thank you Chris. I appreciate that explanation.

1362
02:48:26,000 --> 02:48:36,000
And that was years ago when that happened and looking at the federal government where we are right now there are no grants there are no federal dollars.

1363
02:48:36,000 --> 02:48:43,000
Yes the citizens were taxed with the wildfire fee and that is not going to get us to the 10 million.

1364
02:48:43,000 --> 02:48:48,000
So I just don't see how we can get there.

1365
02:48:48,000 --> 02:48:59,000
Is there some sense of urgency you mentioned before how Ashland is the leader and the nation and doing and it's wonderful to be the leader.

1366
02:48:59,000 --> 02:49:05,000
However, I don't see where the funds are going to come from to get us there.

1367
02:49:05,000 --> 02:49:09,000
So that is my question when I saw this.

1368
02:49:09,000 --> 02:49:18,000
The wildfire fee the six dollars that's implemented but that's not going to get us there no grants or no federal funding is in place.

1369
02:49:18,000 --> 02:49:21,000
So it's not clear to me.

1370
02:49:21,000 --> 02:49:28,000
There's still a federal grant that's in its last year and it's actually the same funding that we got to fund the creation of the CWPP.

1371
02:49:28,000 --> 02:49:31,000
It's called the WAP Community Wildfire Defense Grant.

1372
02:49:31,000 --> 02:49:40,000
It's still in existence. It'll be in its last year we can apply coming up this fall or winter when they release the the notice for that grant.

1373
02:49:40,000 --> 02:49:49,000
So it'll be the fourth year of that grant. It allows communities to apply for up to 10 million dollars for implementing a plan that we've just finished.

1374
02:49:49,000 --> 02:49:57,000
So we'll be in pretty good position to do that. That is one of the only federal remaining funds that I know of for this kind of work.

1375
02:49:57,000 --> 02:50:04,000
Whether or not we engage in that and we're having issues with language and federal grant agreements.

1376
02:50:04,000 --> 02:50:07,000
Maybe this one works out for us. I hope it does.

1377
02:50:07,000 --> 02:50:15,000
I'm also encouraged that the state legislature passed 43 million dollars in wildfire mitigation and prevention funding.

1378
02:50:15,000 --> 02:50:19,000
Apart from the money that they are paying to put fires out right now.

1379
02:50:19,000 --> 02:50:30,000
This is separate dollars that were carved out by the legislature and that is something that we're going to have to write a really good grant application for.

1380
02:50:30,000 --> 02:50:35,000
And I think we can do that and be very convincing at the state level to get funding as well.

1381
02:50:36,000 --> 02:50:43,000
So this is a follow up. Yes. So question about that. Thanks Chris. Is that.

1382
02:50:43,000 --> 02:50:49,000
If this is going to move forward and it is if it is going to pass.

1383
02:50:49,000 --> 02:50:56,000
My question in here when I was reading and looking through this is.

1384
02:50:56,000 --> 02:51:00,000
Some people are not able to.

1385
02:51:00,000 --> 02:51:09,000
It's said that every every individual's responsible and it is mentioned institutions and individuals and property owners.

1386
02:51:09,000 --> 02:51:16,000
If you are a property owner doesn't necessarily mean you have x amount of dollars to do this to your home.

1387
02:51:16,000 --> 02:51:24,000
My concern is that this is not mandatory.

1388
02:51:24,000 --> 02:51:30,000
Can you explain that question you're concerned that it is not mandatory for someone to harden their home.

1389
02:51:30,000 --> 02:51:40,000
So many communities have already looked at landscape being and done things in their community around their house to.

1390
02:51:40,000 --> 02:51:50,000
For fire while for fire mitigation right and so my concern and looking at these goals and where the city wants to go.

1391
02:51:50,000 --> 02:51:59,000
If I'm a property owner and I don't have the money to harden my home and my going to get penalized is going to be mandatory.

1392
02:51:59,000 --> 02:52:01,000
What is that going to look like?

1393
02:52:01,000 --> 02:52:02,000
Thank you.

1394
02:52:02,000 --> 02:52:08,000
The intent in the plan is to help those who need the help to get there.

1395
02:52:08,000 --> 02:52:16,000
So lower income landowners just like we have utility bill assistance program for home heating and air conditioning in the city.

1396
02:52:16,000 --> 02:52:24,000
We can come up with a threshold for income that people would qualify to have some significant proportion of the work done for them.

1397
02:52:24,000 --> 02:52:34,000
Out of funding that we have either from the fee and or fee and a combination of some grants that we're able to get to make that happen for people.

1398
02:52:34,000 --> 02:52:44,000
We have some of the contracting capacity in place in the community we need to train a lot more contractors on how to do the work that we want them to do.

1399
02:52:44,000 --> 02:52:53,000
And I think we can get there pretty quickly that we can offer the services and help people get to the point that they need to be for wildfire protection.

1400
02:52:53,000 --> 02:52:57,000
Without a lot of out of pocket expense.

1401
02:52:57,000 --> 02:53:00,000
I appreciate that and it's been my experience.

1402
02:53:00,000 --> 02:53:07,000
Some people will fall through that threshold and that's where my concern lies. Thank you.

1403
02:53:07,000 --> 02:53:09,000
Thank you.

1404
02:53:09,000 --> 02:53:23,000
So a couple of things just to make sure we have the clarifications that 10 million dollars a year that includes the estimates for what individual homeowners would also need to do correct.

1405
02:53:23,000 --> 02:53:29,000
So that's not we're not looking at the city having to have a 10 million dollar a year budget to do this work that correct.

1406
02:53:29,000 --> 02:53:33,000
That would include contributions from the homeowners themselves.

1407
02:53:33,000 --> 02:53:45,000
That looks at our experience in the current FEMA grant and where we've offered the money to help people homeowners will often spend over and above the amount that's required for their match.

1408
02:53:45,000 --> 02:53:56,000
So you know if we're acquiring 25% that they kick in, they often do more and end up paying 50% to 75% because they wanted to just go ahead and do the whole package.

1409
02:53:56,000 --> 02:54:04,000
We used those numbers that we got so real world numbers from our own city out of the FEMA grant experience to run those calculations.

1410
02:54:04,000 --> 02:54:10,000
So we completely expect that for those who can do the work and pay for it.

1411
02:54:10,000 --> 02:54:11,000
Great.

1412
02:54:11,000 --> 02:54:14,000
That is included in the 10 million dollar.

1413
02:54:14,000 --> 02:54:15,000
Great.

1414
02:54:15,000 --> 02:54:19,000
And I had I know when we had the the study session here at Council.

1415
02:54:19,000 --> 02:54:26,000
There was a conversation that was kind of linked I believe to this question that Councilor Kaplan had asked, which is.

1416
02:54:26,000 --> 02:54:36,000
Where are we at in terms of our staffing, our existing staffing in terms of moving forward those elements that are uniquely the cities to move forward.

1417
02:54:36,000 --> 02:54:40,000
And I asked that question by email and I believe.

1418
02:54:40,000 --> 02:54:49,000
Mr. Shea sent a good answer out, but I think the community might do well to hear it in terms of.

1419
02:54:49,000 --> 02:54:56,000
How well how well are we suited at this moment with the staffing we have to get started on this plan.

1420
02:54:56,000 --> 02:55:04,000
And is there a significant gap in staffing immediately known that we should be looking to address.

1421
02:55:04,000 --> 02:55:15,000
So we had a long discussion in our division about this we feel like in the the two years of kicking off the plan we have staffing right now at a level that we can.

1422
02:55:15,000 --> 02:55:21,000
Make the heavy left to get this plan off the ground into implementation including writing grants.

1423
02:55:21,000 --> 02:55:26,000
Developing codes that would be necessary to move this forward.

1424
02:55:26,000 --> 02:55:36,000
We will have to have this discussion at some point about maybe another FTE to add to the division so that we can eventually enforce the codes.

1425
02:55:36,000 --> 02:55:40,000
But we're not going to get there within the first two years.

1426
02:55:40,000 --> 02:55:44,000
So in the current by NM we're not saying that we want any more staff.

1427
02:55:44,000 --> 02:55:55,000
We also have to realize that this is a community effort we already have partners who are at the table with funding and hand including the Chamber of Commerce for the business community portion of what is in the plan.

1428
02:55:55,000 --> 02:56:01,000
And also applications that are being submitted by the Ashland climate collaborative.

1429
02:56:01,000 --> 02:56:06,000
That we're and mayor submitted a support letter for thank you very much.

1430
02:56:06,000 --> 02:56:13,000
So we're expecting that this isn't just all falling on the city's shoulders and in fact that's the way the plan was put together.

1431
02:56:13,000 --> 02:56:21,000
It's a community plan and in fact we left the city logo off it and I'll apologize to the city for that but that was purposeful.

1432
02:56:21,000 --> 02:56:30,000
In order to make this you know not something that every time something question comes up we got to go to the city council and ask for an answer we have to go to the fire department.

1433
02:56:30,000 --> 02:56:36,000
This is a collaborative effort in our entire community because we all stand.

1434
02:56:36,000 --> 02:56:40,000
And to benefit from it and we all stand to lose if there is a major wildfire.

1435
02:56:40,000 --> 02:56:46,000
So we need all of the institutions, nonprofits, everybody at the table to step up and do some of it.

1436
02:56:46,000 --> 02:56:52,000
This is meant to be a community community wildfire protection plan.

1437
02:56:52,000 --> 02:56:54,000
Great.

1438
02:56:54,000 --> 02:56:55,000
Councillor Dicking.

1439
02:56:55,000 --> 02:56:56,000
Thank you.

1440
02:56:56,000 --> 02:56:57,000
Okay last question.

1441
02:56:57,000 --> 02:57:04,000
I just wanted to you mention it's not on the city's shoulders.

1442
02:57:04,000 --> 02:57:10,000
I don't want it to be on the people's shoulders either when it comes to dollars and cents.

1443
02:57:10,000 --> 02:57:33,000
So in developing code that you mentioned will will happen eventually while doing that can you assure the community that it's not going to be anything mandatory that they will have to do to their property or be penalized if they don't.

1444
02:57:33,000 --> 02:57:40,000
So I don't think we can assure that because any code would come to council for review before it's adopted.

1445
02:57:40,000 --> 02:57:45,000
So it would really be a discussion with the code under consideration.

1446
02:57:45,000 --> 02:57:52,000
And I think it's fair to say that there won't those those code changes will not be made without council approval.

1447
02:57:52,000 --> 02:57:59,000
So any any concern that you might have there will be a discussion in a vote at the council around those code changes that correct.

1448
02:57:59,000 --> 02:58:00,000
Absolutely.

1449
02:58:00,000 --> 02:58:08,000
Then it gets an important point about anything in the community wildfire protection plan just by adopting the plan doesn't make it so the very next day.

1450
02:58:08,000 --> 02:58:14,000
It sets a demotion processes that will come back to council such as code adoption.

1451
02:58:14,000 --> 02:58:22,000
Any planning that happens for work in our forests is going to either have to come back to council or a combination of council and the forest service.

1452
02:58:22,000 --> 02:58:40,000
So there's a long road ahead in process and this is an important step but it in and of itself does not pass any codes or doesn't make any significant changes without further review further citizen participation.

1453
02:58:40,000 --> 02:58:42,000
And further budget.

1454
02:58:42,000 --> 02:58:43,000
Okay.

1455
02:58:43,000 --> 02:58:50,000
So I have one last question and that's around the reference to thinning forest for water.

1456
02:58:50,000 --> 02:59:00,000
It's that practice is a practice that is it's a very complex process and so what would that what would it look like.

1457
02:59:00,000 --> 02:59:13,000
What is a process before the city would engage in that because it's potentially severely maladaptive and so what by having it mentioned in here.

1458
02:59:13,000 --> 02:59:24,000
Would it still need to come to the council before we undertook anything even in the areas where we can control our even in our own forest lines.

1459
02:59:24,000 --> 02:59:28,000
One the city doesn't own forest lands in the.

1460
02:59:28,000 --> 02:59:42,000
Significant forest lands we do have the wind burn parcel that does get snow the lower watershed one is below the drainage area every reservoir so that's it doesn't have any significance in terms of capturing water that we are going to be drinking.

1461
02:59:42,000 --> 02:59:54,000
And also the the wind burn parcel is so small it doesn't have enough area to really have any hydrological benefit to the availability of water by doing thinning.

1462
02:59:54,000 --> 03:00:00,000
And the rest is for service line the rest is for service line which would have to go through federal need.

1463
03:00:00,000 --> 03:00:10,000
and land management and extensively, just like we did back in 2004, a council process to approve a plan in conjunction with the Forest Circus.

1464
03:00:10,000 --> 03:00:13,000
Just like we did in the original CWPB.

1465
03:00:13,000 --> 03:00:16,000
Okay, thank you. If Councillor Schrow.

1466
03:00:16,000 --> 03:00:22,000
Excuse me, thank you, Mayor. Thank you again for coming back and thank you for all the work that you did to put this together.

1467
03:00:22,000 --> 03:00:28,000
This is a really major piece of text that's going to help our community, I believe, for a long time.

1468
03:00:28,000 --> 03:00:33,000
My only concern and I plan to support this is just like the unattended consequences.

1469
03:00:33,000 --> 03:00:38,000
You know, it's the elephant in the room. We have all this amazing state legislation that's passed in.

1470
03:00:38,000 --> 03:00:45,000
I mean, multiple infill housing bills have passed since this was, since we were even here last time, a couple months ago looking at that.

1471
03:00:45,000 --> 03:00:56,000
And I just would hope that we would kind of be looking far down the road to avoid unattended consequences of pairing fire safety with density and within fill housing.

1472
03:00:56,000 --> 03:01:15,000
In fill housing there was some some good testimony earlier. And as it pertains to community development in this section, you were talking about in your memo that you sent out. I believe on the 13th. Can you speak maybe to your kind of education in your point of view down the road as this competes with in fill housing.

1473
03:01:15,000 --> 03:01:21,000
This is a sticky issue and there's no silver bullet.

1474
03:01:21,000 --> 03:01:32,000
Clearly putting more structures and more people in a confined space like the city limits is going to make things more challenging for wildfire.

1475
03:01:32,000 --> 03:01:43,000
The piece that we do have in our back pocket is having already adopted the state building code for wildfire prevention, which is our three section R327.

1476
03:01:44,000 --> 03:01:52,000
That requires that all new construction in national and residential construction is built to the highest protection for wildfire.

1477
03:01:52,000 --> 03:02:03,000
And that really is like the golden egg that we have right now without that we would be in a lot more trouble and digging ourselves in a lot deeper hold than we are right now.

1478
03:02:03,000 --> 03:02:18,000
So that was like really visionary. I'm actually invited to give a presentation to believe Oregon cities about that coming up next week for other communities in Oregon who are considering that approach.

1479
03:02:18,000 --> 03:02:29,000
So Ashland has was a leader on that front and continues to be and that's something that we should hold on to as tightly as possible because it is the best bet in allowing

1480
03:02:29,000 --> 03:02:37,000
To fill at the same time as providing the kind of fire protection that we absolutely need for the future.

1481
03:02:37,000 --> 03:02:42,000
The big challenge is our existing construction and what do we do about that?

1482
03:02:42,000 --> 03:02:56,000
That's really, you know, the main emphasis of this plan but I don't think we're going to see ourselves getting out of the in fill with all of the state land use planning and energy going into it.

1483
03:02:56,000 --> 03:03:07,000
And you know wanting to maintain a compact city and not sprawl out all over this end of the valley. So I don't have an easy easy answer.

1484
03:03:07,000 --> 03:03:15,000
But that what we have done to date in requiring defensible space in home hardening and new construction is really important.

1485
03:03:15,000 --> 03:03:19,000
And that's I think that's as good as it gets for us.

1486
03:03:19,000 --> 03:03:26,000
Yeah, I would I would agree just to quick follow up on that. I mean, our 327 is really powerful and it's is the industry standard here. We opted into that.

1487
03:03:26,000 --> 03:03:31,000
Which should be proud that we have it. It is expensive, but I'm what's the price of life safety right.

1488
03:03:31,000 --> 03:03:42,000
The follow up question to that was also relating to your memo that you sent out talking about maintain overall vision and values including a focus on equitable risk reduction.

1489
03:03:42,000 --> 03:03:49,000
And right now it seems like it's only a certain small part of the market that's being put into that hardening standard.

1490
03:03:49,000 --> 03:03:55,000
And I really like how the city has got a system where they're going to lead by example. And they're going to harden their buildings first apparently.

1491
03:03:55,000 --> 03:04:08,000
So I really like that. I just maybe would ask what is what's your definition of applying this new standard as we apply new codes as we enforce new codes equitably.

1492
03:04:08,000 --> 03:04:19,000
All right. Well, Cherie, do you want to talk about that? You did most of all. Cherie stood hundreds of in person surveys with sort of socially vulnerable populations as part of the plan.

1493
03:04:19,000 --> 03:04:28,000
And that that is what we're talking about. And we talk about equitable risk reduction is, you know, how do we communicate to socially vulnerable populations?

1494
03:04:28,000 --> 03:04:34,000
How do we find out what it is they need? And that was a large part of the planning process.

1495
03:04:34,000 --> 03:04:47,000
The issue of equitability is really core. And I can't say that we have the answers.

1496
03:04:47,000 --> 03:04:57,000
But one of the things that we're working on right now and one of the reasons that I've really been a proponent for a dedicated staff person to implementation is that.

1497
03:04:57,000 --> 03:05:05,000
To find the solutions we need to develop partnerships, we need to talk to the community and listen to people.

1498
03:05:05,000 --> 03:05:12,000
And that's what we did for this plan. That was just a small sampling of the people that we learned a lot.

1499
03:05:12,000 --> 03:05:23,000
The next step is to develop a community driven partnership community led and that just happened to land in our lap.

1500
03:05:23,000 --> 03:05:33,000
A week and a half ago I found out that there's an opportunity to propose a for or to apply for a grant from the Oregon Health Authority.

1501
03:05:33,000 --> 03:05:44,000
And then the Ash and Climate Collaborative agreed to be the parent organization for creating a new Ashland world partnership resilience partnership.

1502
03:05:44,000 --> 03:05:53,000
And it's purpose is to figure out how to do that equitable approach.

1503
03:05:53,000 --> 03:06:12,000
And what I propose is that using this grant funding, we don't contract but we essentially find community connectors who can who are already embedded or integrated within certain populations.

1504
03:06:12,000 --> 03:06:19,000
And facilitate them talking to these folks and finding out where they're at.

1505
03:06:19,000 --> 03:06:31,000
But what really the plan is and this whole approach is about is the one goal which is to save homes from wildfire to reduce the homes as a fuel source.

1506
03:06:31,000 --> 03:06:47,000
For those who can't afford to do it on their own that's where the big money comes in and under the current administration that's going to be tough to raise the funds to serve socially vulnerable populations harden their homes.

1507
03:06:47,000 --> 03:06:59,000
One of the areas that we collectively need to take a hard look at is how the city looks because of its vegetation we have a tradition of planting in a certain way and promoting certain kinds of vegetation.

1508
03:06:59,000 --> 03:07:10,000
Making that transition means informing the community and educating them so that they can understand that their anxiety over climate change and wildfire.

1509
03:07:10,000 --> 03:07:18,000
It might greatly be reduced if we collectively look at becoming a community that won't burn.

1510
03:07:18,000 --> 03:07:23,000
It would become a safe harbor.

1511
03:07:23,000 --> 03:07:39,000
These are big dreams, big ideas and people who are working daily or having a hard time earning money or taking care of their families don't have the breadth necessarily to really engage in these conversations.

1512
03:07:40,000 --> 03:07:46,000
We don't have all the answers but the important thing about this grant proposal is an 18 months.

1513
03:07:46,000 --> 03:07:55,000
If we can form partnerships with various people who serve the community kind of like the issue you were just talking about with the unhoused.

1514
03:07:55,000 --> 03:08:04,000
You invite partners into participating in this conversation and develop the structure and framework of the systems, the tools that will more accurately serve people.

1515
03:08:04,000 --> 03:08:19,000
That's the vision of the CWPP and the great thing about this grant proposal is that it would be community led and we would partner with the city of Ashland on many of the important things.

1516
03:08:19,000 --> 03:08:28,000
But there are some things that we can't do and one of those things is codes and enforcement of codes.

1517
03:08:28,000 --> 03:08:32,000
That happens to be the stick I'm hoping to find something sweeter.

1518
03:08:32,000 --> 03:08:36,000
And that sweetness has to do with vision.

1519
03:08:36,000 --> 03:08:39,000
Compelling people because it's the right thing to do.

1520
03:08:39,000 --> 03:08:42,000
I'm saying too much, I'm sorry.

1521
03:08:42,000 --> 03:08:44,000
I think this is an important question.

1522
03:08:44,000 --> 03:08:57,000
Thank you Councillor Schwell and the work that's gone into making sure that we deal with this element that we don't leave our community members behind who are struggling and are not able to afford the changes that need to be made.

1523
03:08:57,000 --> 03:09:02,000
I think that's a key element of all of this so it's an important discussion to have.

1524
03:09:02,000 --> 03:09:06,000
We do have some folks who have signed up to offer public testimony though.

1525
03:09:06,000 --> 03:09:09,000
So did you have anything else to add to that?

1526
03:09:09,000 --> 03:09:10,000
I know.

1527
03:09:10,000 --> 03:09:18,000
I just hope that you can help us realize this dream because we're all in it together and we have to be or this won't happen.

1528
03:09:18,000 --> 03:09:19,000
Thank you.

1529
03:09:19,000 --> 03:09:21,000
A lot of benefits from being together.

1530
03:09:21,000 --> 03:09:22,000
Better together.

1531
03:09:22,000 --> 03:09:24,000
Indeed.

1532
03:09:24,000 --> 03:09:27,000
So we have three people who have signed up to speak this evening.

1533
03:09:27,000 --> 03:09:30,000
What you'll do is you'll come up to the microphone.

1534
03:09:30,000 --> 03:09:34,000
There's a light sensor or light display next to you.

1535
03:09:34,000 --> 03:09:35,000
It'll start on green.

1536
03:09:35,000 --> 03:09:38,000
When you have 20 seconds left, it'll move to yellow.

1537
03:09:38,000 --> 03:09:39,000
You'll hear a little buzzer.

1538
03:09:39,000 --> 03:09:43,000
And then when your time is up, it will move to red and you'll hear the final buzzer.

1539
03:09:43,000 --> 03:09:48,000
The three people are David Lane, Daniel de Roe and Aaron Muck.

1540
03:09:48,000 --> 03:09:53,000
Please tell us your name and where you, the city and which you reside when you start.

1541
03:09:53,000 --> 03:09:57,000
And then we'll give that each of them three minutes.

1542
03:09:57,000 --> 03:09:59,000
You called my name first?

1543
03:09:59,000 --> 03:10:00,000
Yes.

1544
03:10:00,000 --> 03:10:02,000
I'm David Lane.

1545
03:10:02,000 --> 03:10:06,000
I've lived in Aschland for 14 years.

1546
03:10:06,000 --> 03:10:11,000
I've lived just on the other side of the city limits for more than 30.

1547
03:10:11,000 --> 03:10:15,000
So I'm sort of a fixture around you.

1548
03:10:15,000 --> 03:10:19,000
I really want to build on what you said.

1549
03:10:19,000 --> 03:10:25,000
I think we have to fix in our minds that failure is not an option.

1550
03:10:25,000 --> 03:10:32,000
Failure would mean coming home from an evacuation and finding a pile of ashes.

1551
03:10:32,000 --> 03:10:37,000
And we can't let that be a possibility.

1552
03:10:37,000 --> 03:10:40,000
We have to do what we have to do.

1553
03:10:40,000 --> 03:10:44,000
That's got to be sort of a mantra for the next 10 years.

1554
03:10:44,000 --> 03:10:54,000
And what that means is we can't let our thinking be in the normal style.

1555
03:10:54,000 --> 03:10:58,000
Oh, we can't do that because of such and such a regulation.

1556
03:10:58,000 --> 03:11:01,000
Instead we have to say, how can we do it?

1557
03:11:01,000 --> 03:11:04,000
How can we accomplish this?

1558
03:11:04,000 --> 03:11:08,000
That's got to be what we think.

1559
03:11:08,000 --> 03:11:14,000
It's got to be what we get the rest of our residents to think.

1560
03:11:14,000 --> 03:11:19,000
It's got to be a collaborative kind of situation.

1561
03:11:19,000 --> 03:11:22,000
It's not just education.

1562
03:11:22,000 --> 03:11:24,000
It's motivation.

1563
03:11:24,000 --> 03:11:27,000
We don't know how to do that very well.

1564
03:11:27,000 --> 03:11:29,000
We know how to do the opposite.

1565
03:11:29,000 --> 03:11:32,000
We know how to use the stick.

1566
03:11:32,000 --> 03:11:34,000
Not the carrot.

1567
03:11:34,000 --> 03:11:41,000
We need to work with, say, the psych department at the college at the university.

1568
03:11:41,000 --> 03:11:52,000
We need to put together a whole program of recreating some of the enthusiasm that we had done World War II.

1569
03:11:52,000 --> 03:11:59,000
When we had people having used tires, drives and paper drives.

1570
03:11:59,000 --> 03:12:04,000
And that kind of thing because they were so committed to the outcome.

1571
03:12:04,000 --> 03:12:07,000
And that's what we've got to do here.

1572
03:12:07,000 --> 03:12:22,000
And that's what I really, really want to encourage the council to turn thinking around from the normal usual run of the mill business.

1573
03:12:22,000 --> 03:12:27,000
You brought up the idea about, how are we going to find this?

1574
03:12:27,000 --> 03:12:30,000
We don't really know how we're going to find it.

1575
03:12:30,000 --> 03:12:37,000
We need to just jump in and start and get the rest of the population enthused.

1576
03:12:37,000 --> 03:12:42,000
And we've got lots of wealthy people here on Iceland.

1577
03:12:42,000 --> 03:12:48,000
We need to tap into them and get them enthused about supporting this.

1578
03:12:48,000 --> 03:12:57,000
Because if we end up with even 15% of the structures in Iceland destroyed by a fire,

1579
03:12:57,000 --> 03:13:02,000
it's going to change everything about this town.

1580
03:13:02,000 --> 03:13:04,000
We can't let that happen.

1581
03:13:04,000 --> 03:13:05,000
Thank you.

1582
03:13:05,000 --> 03:13:06,000
Thank you.

1583
03:13:06,000 --> 03:13:07,000
Daniel Dero.

1584
03:13:11,000 --> 03:13:14,000
My name is Dan Dero and I live in Ashland.

1585
03:13:14,000 --> 03:13:21,000
I've been here 11 years and I want to thank you for your efforts on producing the comprehensive wildfire protection plan.

1586
03:13:21,000 --> 03:13:24,000
And thank you for this opportunity to comment on it.

1587
03:13:24,000 --> 03:13:37,000
My concern is the warning that is stated in there about high density in filling and evacuations restrictions on being able to get out bottlenecks and like that.

1588
03:13:37,000 --> 03:13:42,000
Planning can reduce risk by reducing density.

1589
03:13:42,000 --> 03:13:48,000
There is a conflict between the demand for infilling and the demand for fire safety.

1590
03:13:48,000 --> 03:14:07,000
And it seems to me that instead of infilling to the maximum number of units allowed that we contend towards a more moderate amount of units going in.

1591
03:14:07,000 --> 03:14:15,000
Under what used to be normal conditions there would be no problem going forward but now we've all agreed that the playing field has dramatically changed.

1592
03:14:15,000 --> 03:14:25,000
The risk percentage is stated in the study are nationally Ashland is ranked in the top 97% of communities most likely to suffer a catastrophic wildfire event.

1593
03:14:25,000 --> 03:14:30,000
This new information is being integrated through community and city efforts.

1594
03:14:30,000 --> 03:14:40,000
However, the current plan for high density in filling adds more people and structures which the wildfire and evacuation studies advise against.

1595
03:14:40,000 --> 03:14:45,000
The Kestrel Park face three as a prime example of where it is possible to act.

1596
03:14:45,000 --> 03:14:53,000
In Ashland the top wildfire concerned concern identified in the 2024 citizen survey was that traffic bottlenecks.

1597
03:14:53,000 --> 03:15:00,000
Blocked evacuation routes and lack of alternatives to evacuation were most concerned third highest was.

1598
03:15:00,000 --> 03:15:29,000
Third House concern was over narrow streets and over development in peeding evacuation. As a wildfire protection plan states, these findings make one thing clear. The greatest threat we face is not simply wildfire itself with unchecked development in high risk areas, unless we align our planning with reality, lives will be at risk. It is imperative that we reimagine both our community and our behavior or we will face more frequent, and more severe losses as the climate continues.

1599
03:15:30,000 --> 03:15:38,000
Right now we have an enormous opportunity with careful planning and decisive action. We can prevent a catastrophic fire.

1600
03:15:38,000 --> 03:15:50,000
Considering that the mountain metals retirement and memory care complex will be in jeopardy, the proposed 38 unit development at Castro and the 90 units planned at Main and Mountain.

1601
03:15:50,000 --> 03:15:55,000
Right across the street here are going to further impact safe evacuation.

1602
03:15:55,000 --> 03:16:15,000
Now is the time to act and I hope that the city can lower its hopes for maximum population in filling and moderate the amount of units that are being proposed for these developments. Thank you.

1603
03:16:15,000 --> 03:16:25,000
Thank you. Aaron Mac.

1604
03:16:25,000 --> 03:16:28,000
Good evening, Mayor and council. It's wonderful to see you all.

1605
03:16:28,000 --> 03:16:33,000
My name is Aaron. If you'd like, that's helpful. You can lift it. Thank you.

1606
03:16:33,000 --> 03:16:39,000
Very helpful. My name is Aaron O. Kelly Mac. I've lived in Ashland since 2001.

1607
03:16:39,000 --> 03:16:44,000
And I'm the Executive Director of the Ashland Climate Collaborative.

1608
03:16:44,000 --> 03:17:01,000
The Ashland Climate Collaborative is a Solutions focused 501c3 founded in 2002 to serve as a hub for community-based action to reduce our climate pollution and to build a resilient community.

1609
03:17:02,000 --> 03:17:21,000
Today, our community is a growing number of Ashland residents who want to take climate action by switching from natural gas to 100% electric homes, walking biking and rolling around town, sending our food scraps for composting,

1610
03:17:21,000 --> 03:17:33,000
serving water and collaborating with our neighbors to reduce wildfire risk. All of these choices when taking collectively make a difference.

1611
03:17:33,000 --> 03:17:50,000
Wildfire is Ashland's top public health and safety threat. Ashland climate was pleased to be a community partner with the city of Ashland in the 2025 better prepared for wildfire series.

1612
03:17:50,000 --> 03:17:57,000
We believe that this program series was a great example of community collaboration.

1613
03:17:57,000 --> 03:18:09,000
We applaud the thoughtful work that went into crafting the 2025 community wildfire protection plan and urge you to adopt the plan in full.

1614
03:18:09,000 --> 03:18:19,000
It is extremely comprehensive and we believe that it offers an excellent blueprint for reducing our risk of a catastrophic wildfire.

1615
03:18:20,000 --> 03:18:35,000
Ashland Climate especially would like to recognize the significant effort that went into identifying and presenting strategies to address the needs of those in our community who are renters as well as our socially vulnerable households.

1616
03:18:36,000 --> 03:18:52,000
We would like to inform the mayor and the council that the Ashland Climate Collaborative is in the process of applying for a grant from the Oregon Health Authority to help coordinate and accelerate the implementation of the CWPP.

1617
03:18:52,000 --> 03:19:07,000
If awarded, this grant would enable Ashland Climate to establish the Ashland Wildfire Resilience Partnership or AWRP as a hub for community led wildfire risk reduction.

1618
03:19:07,000 --> 03:19:16,000
In addition, the project will shape whole community wildfire risk reduction initiatives. Oh my gosh that was fast.

1619
03:19:16,000 --> 03:19:26,000
Our grant application has been largely authored by Cherice Sedoriac and who served as lead community engagement liaison for the CWPP.

1620
03:19:26,000 --> 03:19:32,000
She has worked closely with the leadership of the Ashland Fire and Rescue.

1621
03:19:32,000 --> 03:19:39,000
And we are so excited to be a part of this. Thank you. Thank you.

1622
03:19:39,000 --> 03:19:42,000
Any further questions or staff?

1623
03:19:43,000 --> 03:19:45,000
Okay. The floor is open for emotion.

1624
03:19:45,000 --> 03:19:46,000
Good.

1625
03:19:46,000 --> 03:19:47,000
Okay.

1626
03:19:47,000 --> 03:19:48,000
Councillor Blue.

1627
03:19:48,000 --> 03:19:54,000
Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve adoption of the 2025 Ashland Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

1628
03:19:54,000 --> 03:19:55,000
Councillor Blue.

1629
03:19:55,000 --> 03:20:00,000
Yeah nice to make a positive motion here. I'm proud to support this plan.

1630
03:20:00,000 --> 03:20:06,000
It's comprehensive community driven gives clear path to reduce wildfire risk.

1631
03:20:06,000 --> 03:20:12,000
Thank you to everybody involved and the community getting involved and doing more.

1632
03:20:12,000 --> 03:20:20,000
Cherice Sedoriac said it well. It really takes all of us, you know, kind of deciding psychologically that this is something that we need to do.

1633
03:20:20,000 --> 03:20:23,000
And I think that it's evident that we do need to do it.

1634
03:20:23,000 --> 03:20:27,000
I really look forward to all of us kind of getting to work on this.

1635
03:20:27,000 --> 03:20:29,000
Thank you so much.

1636
03:20:30,000 --> 03:20:38,000
Yes. I'd like to echo Councillor Blue and really appreciate all the work that's been done and this has been a long time coming.

1637
03:20:38,000 --> 03:20:44,000
I've been for I think one of the first meetings at the OSF rehearsal hall getting everybody.

1638
03:20:44,000 --> 03:20:45,000
I don't know what that was called.

1639
03:20:45,000 --> 03:20:55,000
Maybe that was the Mac or something. It was a big meeting with 60 or so people breaking after that into working groups and trying to going out and coming back.

1640
03:20:55,000 --> 03:20:59,000
Some of the researchers coming into a meeting that I've participated in.

1641
03:20:59,000 --> 03:21:03,000
I think it was at SOU somewhere.

1642
03:21:03,000 --> 03:21:09,000
It's just an enormous amount of work and I think it shows in this document that you've produced.

1643
03:21:09,000 --> 03:21:14,000
I think you said pretty eloquently that this is a real frame.

1644
03:21:14,000 --> 03:21:17,000
There's a lot of initiatives to take forward.

1645
03:21:17,000 --> 03:21:20,000
So it's really a jumping off point to starting point.

1646
03:21:20,000 --> 03:21:23,000
We have to build it together.

1647
03:21:23,000 --> 03:21:28,000
I appreciate what David Lane said is that we don't know all the answers.

1648
03:21:28,000 --> 03:21:31,000
But we have to, we failure is not an option.

1649
03:21:31,000 --> 03:21:38,000
And we absolutely have to put our shoulders to the wheel and work together and figure it out and move along.

1650
03:21:38,000 --> 03:21:42,000
So thank you very much for giving us the first push on this.

1651
03:21:42,000 --> 03:21:45,000
More than just a push as a shove, I guess.

1652
03:21:45,000 --> 03:21:50,000
And I appreciate all that you've done and be happy to support this.

1653
03:21:50,000 --> 03:21:53,000
Thank you.

1654
03:21:53,000 --> 03:21:56,000
Thank you.

1655
03:21:56,000 --> 03:22:04,000
Yeah, I think David Lane kind of shared me over onto the other side.

1656
03:22:04,000 --> 03:22:18,000
However, something that was brought up earlier about density and that's real, evacuation, that's real.

1657
03:22:18,000 --> 03:22:29,000
And we already have in place that all new buildings will be built a certain way and electrified and this and that.

1658
03:22:29,000 --> 03:22:31,000
And I think that's great.

1659
03:22:31,000 --> 03:22:36,000
I'm just hoping that I'm still here when we develop the code.

1660
03:22:36,000 --> 03:22:44,000
So I can give my five cents because, you know, we talk about equity.

1661
03:22:44,000 --> 03:22:49,000
So many people in Ashland are renters 47%.

1662
03:22:49,000 --> 03:22:53,000
And just because you own a home doesn't mean you're living large.

1663
03:22:53,000 --> 03:22:59,000
So my hope in seeing this through is that it truly is equitable.

1664
03:22:59,000 --> 03:23:05,000
I still don't know where we're going to get that $10 million a year from.

1665
03:23:05,000 --> 03:23:13,000
And I just don't want that to be on the ratepayers and the people who really are struggling here in Ashland.

1666
03:23:13,000 --> 03:23:16,000
That is my reluctancy.

1667
03:23:16,000 --> 03:23:19,000
That is my resistance.

1668
03:23:19,000 --> 03:23:21,000
So yeah.

1669
03:23:21,000 --> 03:23:22,000
I'm done.

1670
03:23:22,000 --> 03:23:29,000
Councillor, do you want to say thanks again for all the work that's one of this.

1671
03:23:29,000 --> 03:23:33,000
I think if this goes well, you'll probably go sleep really well tonight.

1672
03:23:33,000 --> 03:23:37,000
I know it's been a long journey and just we're lucky to have you both.

1673
03:23:37,000 --> 03:23:40,000
I know growing up here and seeing your career bloom.

1674
03:23:40,000 --> 03:23:47,000
It was like a regional award and regional training and national and international and then having you come into the community and put in.

1675
03:23:47,000 --> 03:23:49,000
To tens of thousands of hours probably on this.

1676
03:23:49,000 --> 03:23:54,000
We're just like really lucky to have a couple of the smartest minds around doing this work.

1677
03:23:54,000 --> 03:23:57,000
And I plan to sort of thanks.

1678
03:23:57,000 --> 03:23:58,000
Councillor Dale.

1679
03:23:58,000 --> 03:23:59,000
Thank you, Mayor. Yes.

1680
03:23:59,000 --> 03:24:03,000
I wasn't going to speak to this just because I don't think I could say it any better than my colleagues here.

1681
03:24:03,000 --> 03:24:05,000
Just a full support of this.

1682
03:24:05,000 --> 03:24:09,000
But Councillor Dickane brought something up and it made me think.

1683
03:24:09,000 --> 03:24:27,000
I just wanted to state that I refuse to accept that intelligent density of housing design cannot coexist with intelligent responsible community wildfire protection.

1684
03:24:27,000 --> 03:24:30,000
I don't think that you.

1685
03:24:30,000 --> 03:24:43,000
I just I find refusal to provide adequate and well intention and design housing to be the enemy of wildfire protection.

1686
03:24:43,000 --> 03:24:44,000
We can do both.

1687
03:24:44,000 --> 03:24:45,000
We have.

1688
03:24:45,000 --> 03:24:48,000
There will always be a little bit of risk in a forced community.

1689
03:24:48,000 --> 03:24:51,000
I live in a community that the area of town I live in.

1690
03:24:51,000 --> 03:24:56,000
And it's just I mean for those of now I fly over this town all the time and look down.

1691
03:24:56,000 --> 03:25:03,000
And there are a ton of trees and it is very dense and that's just in somewhat of inherent risk.

1692
03:25:03,000 --> 03:25:09,000
And I appreciate all of our partnerships that are working very hard to mitigate that as best as possible.

1693
03:25:09,000 --> 03:25:11,000
But you can't bring risk to zero.

1694
03:25:11,000 --> 03:25:19,000
And I do not want any kind of you know the perennial perfection to be the enemy of good when it comes because

1695
03:25:19,000 --> 03:25:23,000
to housing because housing and infill.

1696
03:25:23,000 --> 03:25:30,000
Density options or something that this council looks at that we take very seriously and I really trust staff and partnerships to get this right.

1697
03:25:30,000 --> 03:25:36,000
We don't have an option not to but I just refuse to accept that they can't coexist in an elegant way.

1698
03:25:36,000 --> 03:25:37,000
Thank you.

1699
03:25:37,000 --> 03:25:39,000
Chancellor Hansen.

1700
03:25:39,000 --> 03:25:41,000
Thank you Mayor.

1701
03:25:41,000 --> 03:25:42,000
Chris.

1702
03:25:42,000 --> 03:25:43,000
Thank you both for coming back.

1703
03:25:43,000 --> 03:25:49,000
I really appreciated the first presentation and I learned a lot and going back over the plan.

1704
03:25:49,000 --> 03:25:50,000
I still think is fabulous.

1705
03:25:50,000 --> 03:25:57,000
I appreciate the memo too and that the city will lead by example among other things in that memo.

1706
03:25:57,000 --> 03:26:04,000
And I most appreciate that this is a partnership between so many different organizations.

1707
03:26:04,000 --> 03:26:10,000
And I'm grateful that the climate collaborative is interested to come on board to help.

1708
03:26:11,000 --> 03:26:14,000
We can't make people do things.

1709
03:26:14,000 --> 03:26:21,000
We want people myself included to be engaged and to help the community out.

1710
03:26:21,000 --> 03:26:24,000
I know that there's going to be some hard I don't know.

1711
03:26:24,000 --> 03:26:31,000
I think that there's going to be some hard code decisions for the state of Oregon collectively.

1712
03:26:31,000 --> 03:26:39,000
And I hope that it doesn't fall with a heavy price tag on businesses and people but we're going to figure it out.

1713
03:26:39,000 --> 03:26:42,000
We're going to figure it out and I don't know I don't know what that means.

1714
03:26:42,000 --> 03:26:44,000
I mean five ten years from now.

1715
03:26:44,000 --> 03:26:47,000
I'd love to look back on this.

1716
03:26:47,000 --> 03:26:51,000
But I'm in I'm in a hundred percent so.

1717
03:26:51,000 --> 03:26:56,000
Hold me accountable to that and I thank you for all your hard work.

1718
03:26:56,000 --> 03:27:02,000
And I just want to thank all of the community members and the staff who were involved in putting this together.

1719
03:27:02,000 --> 03:27:08,000
When the city passed the climate energy action plan in 2017 we understood that it was adaptation light.

1720
03:27:08,000 --> 03:27:16,000
But it did identify wildfires our biggest climate threat and that threat has only escalated in the last several years.

1721
03:27:16,000 --> 03:27:23,000
And so this is a said this is a climate adaptation plan and it avoids so many of the falls that many communities.

1722
03:27:23,000 --> 03:27:31,000
Find when they're doing adaptation planning because it it imagines the reality that we are trying to address.

1723
03:27:31,000 --> 03:27:36,000
It it understands the the existential threat that wildfire poses to us.

1724
03:27:36,000 --> 03:27:43,000
And it lays out the full breadth of what we need to do even though we don't know exactly yet how we're going to get there.

1725
03:27:43,000 --> 03:27:51,000
And that those elements and including the entire community are really the hallmarks of an adaptation plan that will work.

1726
03:27:51,000 --> 03:27:56,000
So I also am all in I believe this council is all in and thank you again so much.

1727
03:27:56,000 --> 03:27:59,000
We look forward to what those next steps might be.

1728
03:27:59,000 --> 03:28:01,000
There's no further discussion roll.

1729
03:28:01,000 --> 03:28:03,000
Please listen.

1730
03:28:03,000 --> 03:28:04,000
Hansen.

1731
03:28:04,000 --> 03:28:05,000
Yes.

1732
03:28:05,000 --> 03:28:07,000
You can.

1733
03:28:15,000 --> 03:28:16,000
Yes.

1734
03:28:16,000 --> 03:28:17,000
Kaplan.

1735
03:28:17,000 --> 03:28:18,000
Yes.

1736
03:28:18,000 --> 03:28:19,000
Bloom.

1737
03:28:19,000 --> 03:28:20,000
Yes.

1738
03:28:20,000 --> 03:28:21,000
Dale.

1739
03:28:21,000 --> 03:28:22,000
Yes.

1740
03:28:22,000 --> 03:28:23,000
Cheryl.

1741
03:28:23,000 --> 03:28:24,000
Yes.

1742
03:28:24,000 --> 03:28:25,000
Thank you.

1743
03:28:25,000 --> 03:28:26,000
And we're going to go by this clock.

1744
03:28:26,000 --> 03:28:32,000
The night twenty seven so city manager what do you have to report to us from your report.

1745
03:28:32,000 --> 03:28:38,000
Speaking of wildfire on August 21, we do have a free webinar called the wildfire prepared home.

1746
03:28:38,000 --> 03:28:43,000
So you can find information on how to sign up on our website.

1747
03:28:43,000 --> 03:28:46,000
And is over zoom so accessible that everyone hopefully.

1748
03:28:46,000 --> 03:28:48,000
Um, covert work is happening.

1749
03:28:48,000 --> 03:28:50,000
There is a temporary bridge in place.

1750
03:28:50,000 --> 03:28:56,000
So the one or trail on the lobby trails in twenty sixty four service road are accessible.

1751
03:28:56,000 --> 03:29:01,000
So there is a signage up there that's hopefully steering people in the correct direction.

1752
03:29:01,000 --> 03:29:05,000
We have switch to a e newsletter format.

1753
03:29:05,000 --> 03:29:07,000
You can subscribe to over email.

1754
03:29:07,000 --> 03:29:14,000
As of this week, we have over 900 subscribers, which is pretty significant over three weeks.

1755
03:29:15,000 --> 03:29:17,000
And there is plan or work going on downtown.

1756
03:29:17,000 --> 03:29:20,000
The sidewalks are open, but you will see some construction with that.

1757
03:29:20,000 --> 03:29:22,000
Going on.

1758
03:29:22,000 --> 03:29:23,000
Thank you.

1759
03:29:23,000 --> 03:29:24,000
Thank you.

1760
03:29:24,000 --> 03:29:29,000
And I know we generally would go to liaison assignments, but we don't really have time for that tonight.

1761
03:29:29,000 --> 03:29:31,000
Thank you both so much for your presentation.

1762
03:29:31,000 --> 03:29:33,000
Um, just a reminder, the first meeting.

1763
03:29:33,000 --> 03:29:38,000
We will not have the first meeting in September because of the Labor Day holidays.

1764
03:29:38,000 --> 03:29:41,000
So we'll see everyone in mid September.

1765
03:29:41,000 --> 03:29:43,000
The floor is open for a motion to return.

1766
03:29:43,000 --> 03:29:44,000
So moved.

1767
03:29:44,000 --> 03:29:45,000
Second.

1768
03:29:45,000 --> 03:29:46,000
All in favor?

1769
03:29:46,000 --> 03:29:47,000
Hi.

1770
03:29:47,000 --> 03:29:48,000
Meeting is adjourned.