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All right, we'll go ahead and start the Board of Commissioners meeting for Tuesday, March 3,

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2026. Start with the introductions. I'm Pat Malone, Commissioner.

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Nancy Wise, Commissioner. Gabe Shepherd, Commissioner.

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Vance Crony, County Council. Rick Krueger, Assistant County Administrator.

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And join us online. Ryan Jocelyn, District Attorney.

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Well,

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the sheriff was at our meeting this morning and probably just getting back to the office. So, I assume we'll see him shortly.

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Next up review and approve the agenda.

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There will be a change in the order 9.1 and 9.2 will

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be heard right after the consent calendar.

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And the idea is to get all the board meeting business finished before our public hearing at 11.

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And then, Rick, you had something to add under other.

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Yeah, thank you, Chair.

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I would like to add a request for letter of support for our congressional delegations into spending.

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It's a duplicate of the one that you are approving today, but it's going to be for representative Hoyle.

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So just wanted to make sure Congresswoman Hoyle, excuse me, that's it.

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Okay.

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And we will take care of that under other, all right, any other changes to the agenda?

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If not, I will consider the agenda approved.

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Are there any announcements this morning?

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Hearing none, we will start off with our proclamation, proclaiming March 2026 as Women's History Month

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in Benton County, Lacy Mollell, Director of our Hill Centers.

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Good morning.

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Good morning.

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I'm really happy to be here on behalf of women leaders at Benton County and all of

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our staff who are either in in management or leadership roles just simply by being public

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servants so whereas throughout history women have played an integral role in shaping societies

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fostering innovation and advocating for progress across all sectors including education science

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the arts government and business women history women's history month is a time to honor

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remarkable achievements of women past and present who have overcome obstacles, broken barriers,

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and paved the way for future generations, and provides an opportunity to honor the countless

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contributions women have made to the social, economic, cultural, and political fabric of our

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community and our nation. Throughout history, women have demonstrated resilience, leadership,

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innovation, and courage while advocating for equality, expanding opportunities, and strengthening

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families and communities.

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The National Women's History Alliance has designated the 2026 theme as leading the change, Women

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Shaping a Sustainable Future.

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This theme celebrates the pivotal role that women play in addressing today's urgent

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challenges including environmental, economic, educational, and societal while forging equitable

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resilience and justice-driven communities for tomorrow. From climate change innovators to

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economic justice reformers, from education equity advocates to civil engagement pioneers,

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women are reimagining systems and creating sustainable blueprints that prioritize both

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people and the planet. These inspiring leaders, particularly those from marginalized communities,

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demonstrate that sustainable progress is achieved through intersectional efforts that

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span environmental stewardship, financial inclusion, social justice, mentorship,

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and intergenerational collaboration. And recognizing Women's History Month

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month encourages reflection on past progress, awareness of ongoing challenges, and commitment

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to advancing equity for all.

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Bitten County government is dedicated to fostering an inclusive community where the accomplishments

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and potential of women and girls are celebrated and supported.

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Now therefore, the Bitten County Board of Commissioners does hereby proclaim March

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March 2026 as Women's History Month in Benton County, Oregon, and encourages all community

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members to celebrate, support, and uplift the women in our community by fostering opportunities

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for education, empowerment, and collaboration.

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Are there any comments or ...

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Well, I think we should clap more.

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Okay.

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Well, I will move to proclaim March 2026 as women's history month in Benton County proclamation P2026-003.

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Second.

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All in favor of the motion say aye.

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Aye.

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Aye.

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Just a comment I think it's very appropriate to have Lacey Mollell or clinic director

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director as reading the proclamation. So thank you.

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All right, next up are there

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any comments from the public?

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Okay, none in the room. Are there any signed up

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online? Okay,

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and are the comments other than dealing with the landfill? Okay,

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go

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ahead online and identify yourself please. Yes, Andy Bennett.

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Okay, go ahead. Do you

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have up to three minutes for a public comment? Okay, thank you. So I'm wanting

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to comment and revisit the speed issues out here in North Albany on Scenic Drive,

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which have been addressed for at least the last four or five years, I'm

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sure. And this last summer, we had a fatality out here in an accident and then shortly thereafter

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we had another accident on the corner of Valley View and Scenic. And with the number of new

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homes going to be built out here, we really need to get the speed limit down to 35.

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I've mentioned many, many times that the methodology and process that ODOT has been

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using in Benton County to determine speed limits is not reality. I have not

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found one person who's been involved in this speed assessment process who has

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actually driven our road and starting at 30 miles an hour going to 35, 40, 45, 50,

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55, 60 and so on because that would really let a person know that the in

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In the state of Oregon, the basic rule is the rule, and the basic rule for scenic drive

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is not 45 miles an hour.

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At the most, it would be 35.

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And so until the people who are determining these speed limits through the testing and

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methodology they use start using the basic rule by getting out there and actually driving

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these roads at those speeds, we're going to keep having more accidents and deaths.

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And yeah, here again, I'm going to say 35.

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We need to get it set there, especially with the new building going to go on out on Powers Road out here,

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which would accommodate up to 500 people.

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We should probably be putting a stop sign at the corner of Scenic Drive and Powers.

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That would really slow people down with all the extra traffic,

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which includes the thousands of new homes being built out here.

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So, I'm probably put a stop sign on the corner of Oak Grove and powers as well so people can

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just not go speeding however they want out in this North Albany area and that's my and

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I do also want to say I did not appreciate Pat when you called me up and harassed and

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bullied me on the phone back about a year and a half ago and so that has been reported.

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it. I just wanted to let you know.

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All right, thank you. We have the sheriff with

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us. Do you have any comments on that North Albany and Scenic? Yeah, I want to

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thank Andy first of all. Thank you for bringing this to light. I might drive

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that stretch road a few times every day and that 25th and Scenic when you come

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down off the scenic there towards 25th. That can be pretty hairy as well. And so I would

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agree with Andy if we could somehow take a look at this. That would be awesome. Thank

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you.

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Sheriff, do you think you might be willing to reach out to Senator Gelser, Bluwin and

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Representative Bosshart Davis and bring this to their attention since they can talk

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to ODOT?

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Certainly. If that's what you would need me to do, I have no problems doing that.

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And it might help if Andy did the same just from a grassroots level, not just the law enforcement side.

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Yeah, I have reached out to Representative Davis. So, yeah.

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Thank you, Andy. I think it could be, you know, additionally meaningful if our sheriff were to do so as well.

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Yeah, I would appreciate it. Thank you so much.

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We're only going to make it safer out here.

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Andy, this is Commissioner Shepard. I wanted to also add that I've been speaking with a

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few folks in that little development on 25th, 26th, you know, that little pocket, specifically

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about that intersection that the sheriff just mentioned on 25th and Scenic. And we have

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scheduled that intersection and the curve before it for a speed study. We don't have

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a date yet, but it is now in the list for a Benton County Sponsored Speed Study so

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that we can have some hard data to talk about and to show that there might be, that there's

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a need there.

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So I just wanted to let you know.

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Well, thank you, and I would like to say, when you get to the top of the hill before

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you start going down, you don't even need to put your foot on the gas, and you're

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going over 45 miles an hour when you get to the bottom when you're coming

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40 to 25th so it's that's just one of the areas and with all the new building

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and the proposed building on Andy I'm sorry you your three minutes are up I'm

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sorry thank you noted your concern though thank you thank you all right

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next up we'll start our work session 6.1 Corvall spent county economic

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Development Office Quarterly update.

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Christopher Jacobs, economic development manager, and Lily Bender.

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Good morning.

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Good morning.

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Great to be with you all again. How do I get this started?

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Yeah, I'm just going to start sliding. All right, awesome. We're going to mix things up a little

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Today, usually I go through the strategic plan updates. Those are in your packet. So if you want to read more in depth about our progress, you can take a look at that, but we're going to kind of walk through a PowerPoint.

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And I think it might be quicker and allow for more questions and just touch on really the pertinent stuff.

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Right.

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This is always kind of a fun time of year to look back at the last progress that you've made over the last calendar year, kind of set a roadmap for the current calendar year.

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So we're going to touch on downtown Corvallis. We're going to touch on industrial lands and kind of paint a broad picture of what we've done and what we're going to do moving forward.

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Starting out with downtown Corvallis, there's a lot of momentum right now around the downtown

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strategic vitality task force and the recommendations that have come out of that.

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And so if you haven't taken the survey, I would encourage you to go ahead and do so.

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There's some interesting action items, and I think that that planning effort could

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lay the foundation for kind of a downtown master plan for Corvallis.

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And it also, along with several other things, has kind of initiated council to begin a TIF feasibility study.

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So that is underway. We see property ownership changes driving a lot of activity in downtown Corvallis, property consolidation,

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new reinvestment folks retiring and selling properties.

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We see parking challenges and policy changes on the horizon as we've got white papers that are completed.

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They recommend certain policy changes and new technology upgrades.

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We see code changes really reshaping development patterns.

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So, allowing for greater density, greater height, and removing parking requirements has created the conditions for investment and scale in our downtown like we've never seen before.

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market rate and mixed use development patterns are also emerging as we have new incentives like the multi-unit property tax exemption program, which have allowed the Gordon hotel and residences to go under construction.

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And we have a second Mukti application for a 13-story, 263-unit mixed-use project at 4th and Western.

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So just under two weeks, City Council will hear that second Mukti request.

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It's $132 million project.

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Did that get delayed?

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It was supposed to be heard last night, wasn't it?

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It did get delayed.

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There was a little hiccup in the public hearing process back in February 2023.

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Oh, before either of us were here. When the MAPTI ordinance was adopted by City Council,

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it never included a public hearing process. So we held that public hearing last night

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and we re-adopted the ordinance. Okay. We're going to be hearing the second MAPTI application.

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So that was the cause of the delay. We do see emergent leadership from our Main Street organization

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as they've recently received new designation from the Oregon Main Street Association.

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And they're doing really great things, beginning the holiday parade again, and the tree lighting,

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taking that over, holding wine walk events and other really interesting stuff.

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Friday lights, if you haven't been, this great event helped organize by the DCO.

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We do see, unfortunately, elevated vacancy rates relative to the rest of the community

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in downtown Corvallis, about 11% compared to 3.5%.

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I think a lot of this is due to the property consolidation

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that's underway, however, as some properties remain vacant

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that are under contract and there are plans to redevelop,

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but those haven't quite unfolded yet.

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We see power constraints from deferred maintenance

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and the high cost of public infrastructure

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being a major barrier, and that potentially being

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one use of tax increment financing

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to address some of those public utility challenges.

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And then a tourism economy and transition.

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So with the dissolution of the PAC-12,

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the VisitCorp Alice organization is going

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through an experience development plan

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to help reimagine what drives tourism in our community,

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given that some of the traffic that we could have expected

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from the former PAC-12 alignment,

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we can't really count on that long-term the way

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that we have in the past.

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So you mentioned MAPTI is a transformational tool

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for downtown Corvallis, mentioned tax increment financing. There's the Main Street Revitalization

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Grant Project for the plaza. It's 425 Southwest Madison Ave. That's the $325,000 grant that

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was awarded. And that project we just submitted for the final reimbursement. So if you haven't

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checked that out, it's where coffee culture is and ever bull. And so there are a couple

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new restaurants in there as well. It's a very neat space.

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So, industrial development. We have

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37 vacant industrial sites total in Benton County, five industrial buildings, 32 vacant industrial,

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mostly greenfield spaces, 960 acres of vacant industrial lands available for sale or lease.

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Majority of those lands are in South Corvallis, 65 percent of them, while 25 percent are in

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And so when we talk about industrial development, this is where we're really spending the bulk

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of our time because these are where industrial lands are located.

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Four major barriers to developing, our capacity, and deferred maintenance.

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Right now, anything over one megawatt requires a load study that can take anywhere from six

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weeks to six months, add a lot of cost to the project.

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transportation and system plan amendments in South Corvallis.

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So there's a bunch of collector roads.

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Every 625 feet of a collector road is $2 million.

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And so this adds dramatic costs when you have really lines on a map

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that we're imagining a certain development pattern that may no longer be accurate.

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So we've got to look at that transportation system plan and see if some of these collector roads,

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roads, especially the north-south ones are really what we intended them to be. I understand

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trying to pull traffic off of Highway 99, however the north-south collector roads don't

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really do that effectively. As far as access to Highway 99 east-west roads makes a lot

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more sense to me.

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Wetland delineation studies and permitting, so state wetland inventory map is, I would

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pretty out of date. It was based on records collected decades ago. And newer wetland delineation

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studies reveal vastly smaller wetland areas than are imagined on the map or that were

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measured at one point long ago. And there's been changes with regard to how the federal

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government regulates wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers following the Sackett

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case really doesn't regulate the types of wetlands that we see in South Corvallis,

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ones with no clear connection to a body of water above ground.

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So right now, we're just working through state DEQ and state DSL on the wetland permitting.

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And so there are some encouraging things coming out of the governor's office.

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4084 is a fast track bill that includes potentially expedited wetland permitting, so that could

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help a lot.

227
00:23:23,270 --> 00:23:24,630
And then industrial code amendments.

228
00:23:25,190 --> 00:23:30,250
So this has been a long time goal of our office is to update the industrial zoning code

229
00:23:30,250 --> 00:23:32,330
in South Corvallis based on best practices.

230
00:23:33,050 --> 00:23:38,670
Following the annexation of South Corvallis Airport Industrial Park, this is something

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we're going to be undertaking.

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So that annexation application was submitted a couple weeks ago.

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There's also the regionally significant industrial sites application that has been submitted as of last week.

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00:23:54,170 --> 00:23:57,690
So that allows for reimbursement of public infrastructure costs.

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Say if the city wanted to participate in putting in one of these roads that may be necessary to serve a development site.

236
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We could be reimbursed the cost of that road over a period of time from state income taxes paid by the development project if they meet the performance requirements of the program.

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00:24:18,660 --> 00:24:28,060
We continue to respond to a lot of site selection inquiries from the state, and we've delineated 60 acres of the airport industrial park.

238
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So we've got some target sites in our airport industrial park, in particular that we're heavily marketing.

239
00:24:37,970 --> 00:24:41,430
So what have we done over the last 18 months? It's kind of fun to look back on.

240
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I like to call this kind of the foundational stuff. None of it is really going to blow you away,

241
00:24:48,450 --> 00:24:55,270
but it's stuff that's really, really important to kind of build on in order to accomplish the goals that we've set out.

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So modernizing a business retention and expansion program that assists more than 200 businesses annually, creating a business registry, adopting new tools like commercial property-assessed clean energy.

243
00:25:07,470 --> 00:25:08,950
Thank you, Board of Commissioners.

244
00:25:10,150 --> 00:25:16,630
Starting our downtown revolving loan fund program again and participating in the Main Street program again have been big wins.

245
00:25:18,070 --> 00:25:22,570
Documenting site conditions and updating prospector records to help with site selection inquiries.

246
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This is one that may not excite a lot of people.

247
00:25:26,730 --> 00:25:27,850
It's really exciting to us.

248
00:25:28,070 --> 00:25:32,750
It's really difficult to compete for these types of investments if you don't know what you have,

249
00:25:33,210 --> 00:25:40,650
and you are not accurately describing the sewer, the water, the electrical capacity,

250
00:25:40,930 --> 00:25:43,870
the gas capacity on these sites.

251
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And we arrived.

252
00:25:46,350 --> 00:25:49,110
We didn't have a great handle of what our industrial lands were.

253
00:25:49,530 --> 00:25:51,550
We hadn't documented the site conditions.

254
00:25:51,550 --> 00:25:57,850
And so now we're able to really respond competitively with the sites that we do have available.

255
00:25:59,910 --> 00:26:01,870
We've updated mobile food unit regulations.

256
00:26:02,350 --> 00:26:09,810
And so touching a little bit on Southcore Vallis Food Hub grant program, we have just

257
00:26:09,810 --> 00:26:17,310
under $100,000 left to distribute, four out of five of the projects are complete.

258
00:26:17,310 --> 00:26:21,670
And the only one left that's not complete is the food cart pod.

259
00:26:22,370 --> 00:26:30,190
And so there's been a lot of discussion about citing food truck pods in South Corvallis.

260
00:26:30,650 --> 00:26:32,670
First, we kind of started at the New Holland Building.

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00:26:33,890 --> 00:26:39,730
They have longer term goals there in terms of commercial footprint of that space,

262
00:26:39,730 --> 00:26:45,650
a budding Highway 99, and then they've since moved to another location that

263
00:26:45,650 --> 00:26:51,430
they're considering, and then two more have actually emerged. So it's been this

264
00:26:51,430 --> 00:26:56,790
sort of enough knocking on doors. You've got a lot of folks in South

265
00:26:56,790 --> 00:27:02,510
Courthouse now talking about starting a food truck pod and looking into what

266
00:27:02,510 --> 00:27:07,610
available resources there are through the Urban Renewal Agency. And so, you

267
00:27:07,610 --> 00:27:12,070
you know, we're trying to really spread our eggs

268
00:27:12,070 --> 00:27:15,090
in lots of different baskets because you don't know

269
00:27:15,090 --> 00:27:16,850
which one of these is going to come to fruition

270
00:27:16,850 --> 00:27:20,190
and there's a great potential for one or more

271
00:27:20,190 --> 00:27:21,790
in Southcore ballots to take root.

272
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,540
We have the airport annexation,

273
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,040
this has been underway like I mentioned

274
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:32,180
and then the EV gaps analysis.

275
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,880
So I shared that with the BOC at one point as well.

276
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:45,980
So, what's our roadmap for 2026. What we've completed the regionally significant industrial sites application we're going to hear back and see if we're accepted to that program.

277
00:27:46,420 --> 00:27:49,080
Got to go through the public hearing process for annexation.

278
00:27:50,780 --> 00:27:56,760
We are no longer participating in the EDA grant for industrial site readiness that we're working with a partner that is.

279
00:27:58,460 --> 00:28:03,000
We're working through the downtown TIF district implementation schedule, like I mentioned,

280
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:09,240
the industrial code changes, the second Mufti application, closing out the food hubs, and

281
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,900
then dealing with some contamination from the Willamette Valley Sportsman Association

282
00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:16,120
in our airport industrial park.

283
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:21,180
So this has been a long time problem that we're going to deal with finally this year.

284
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:23,200
All right.

285
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:25,880
That wraps it up.

286
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:27,120
Any questions?

287
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:35,280
I want to go back to the, what was it?

288
00:28:35,580 --> 00:28:37,000
The constraints.

289
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:38,360
Potential barriers.

290
00:28:39,540 --> 00:28:41,520
Power capacity is one of them.

291
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,180
So OSU is building a new supercomputer.

292
00:28:46,220 --> 00:28:49,620
And I don't know how much of a load that's going to put on our system.

293
00:28:50,180 --> 00:28:52,640
And you're talking here about power capacity.

294
00:28:52,820 --> 00:28:57,260
Are we thinking about downtown and how old the wiring is for all that kind of stuff?

295
00:28:57,260 --> 00:29:01,140
How far are we talking about literal load capacity coming into the city of Corvallis?

296
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:07,480
Certain areas, depending on the proximity of substations and service lines, are better

297
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:08,160
equipped than others.

298
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,740
Downtown is one of those where there's this process of looping.

299
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:20,420
And so the OB project added millions of dollars of cost, added a lot of time to

300
00:29:20,420 --> 00:29:26,280
the project, stuff that they didn't anticipate when they started the project, and stuff

301
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,880
But that's not common in every community, right?

302
00:29:29,660 --> 00:29:36,180
Certain service areas, in particular consumers, power service areas, just are better equipped.

303
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:41,500
They don't have so much deferred maintenance, such a long timeline for adding capacity.

304
00:29:42,700 --> 00:29:46,680
South Corvallis in particular doesn't have an adequate substation, they've been trying

305
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:52,660
to site one now for a while, we've just had a meeting with them and we're encouraging

306
00:29:52,660 --> 00:29:58,320
them to site it in the airport industrial park, meaning with who? Pacific power. Pacific power. Okay.

307
00:30:00,530 --> 00:30:06,630
So, as far as those view, I don't know what the conditions are for them to scale for the capacity that's needed.

308
00:30:07,010 --> 00:30:12,650
I imagine the folks that are working on that project have engaged specific power, but I don't know the details of that.

309
00:30:12,850 --> 00:30:20,970
So it's not, it's likely not the same struggles that you're facing right now for the economic development in downtown and south town.

310
00:30:21,150 --> 00:30:21,790
It's likely not.

311
00:30:22,050 --> 00:30:23,010
Okay, thank you.

312
00:30:25,890 --> 00:30:36,930
You mentioned the industrial code amendments. Is that city or county or oath?

313
00:30:37,690 --> 00:30:46,870
Yeah, it's going to be city. So we've got a following annexation. You've got this nifty airport overlay and we don't have such a thing.

314
00:30:46,870 --> 00:30:55,970
So we've got to fix our code to accommodate the FAA regulations in our general industrial

315
00:30:55,970 --> 00:30:56,450
area.

316
00:30:57,130 --> 00:31:02,830
And then there's just some things that don't make a lot of sense about our industrial code,

317
00:31:02,910 --> 00:31:03,730
the way that it is.

318
00:31:04,370 --> 00:31:09,710
One of the use types is limited manufacturing that kind of imagines like an artisanal

319
00:31:10,190 --> 00:31:15,310
sort of 20 employees or less using hand tools to make different things.

320
00:31:15,310 --> 00:31:21,950
And it doesn't really hit on the sort of target industries that we talk about that are innovation

321
00:31:21,950 --> 00:31:26,630
or traded sector companies are looking to flourish in our community.

322
00:31:28,150 --> 00:31:30,530
And so there's some work that needs to happen there.

323
00:31:30,810 --> 00:31:35,990
Luckily, the industrial code changes haven't prevented necessarily folks from developing

324
00:31:35,990 --> 00:31:36,990
in our community.

325
00:31:37,610 --> 00:31:42,770
We've got other barriers that have prevented folks, primarily the high cost of public

326
00:31:42,770 --> 00:31:48,930
infrastructure or wetlands. So we don't even get to the industrial code part that

327
00:31:48,930 --> 00:31:54,730
really shuts the door. There are barriers ahead of that we've we're trying to

328
00:31:54,730 --> 00:31:58,110
address before we worry about the industrial code.

329
00:32:00,740 --> 00:32:02,640
All right you mentioned

330
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:11,400
the airport and I think I ask this every time what kind of progress has been

331
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:19,420
been made getting the county out of the picture as far as the airport industrial area.

332
00:32:20,180 --> 00:32:25,840
So as far as the airport industrial area, citing the substation from Pacific would

333
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:32,460
be a huge win. It would get transmission lines down there that might otherwise add a lot

334
00:32:32,460 --> 00:32:37,720
of cost to a development project. We've got land available so we could really be

335
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:42,000
competitive in terms of limiting the site acquisition costs for a substation.

336
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:50,240
The annexation of the airport industrial park is a huge, huge lift now that we've got that

337
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:54,520
application in, and we're going to go through a public hearing process over the next 60

338
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:54,880
days.

339
00:32:56,060 --> 00:33:03,820
And then I would highlight the RISIS program as being another huge milestone without having

340
00:33:03,820 --> 00:33:11,280
a way to participate in the development project from a financial perspective, we're kind of

341
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:17,260
at a competitive disadvantage. With the limited financial resources of Corvallis, you know,

342
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:22,560
folks don't want to put millions of dollars into public infrastructure prospectively

343
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:29,840
for a development project, but folks might be willing to do something if they were

344
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:33,140
going to be reimbursed for the cost of the public infrastructure.

345
00:33:33,940 --> 00:33:39,060
So that's another tool that we've never had that could really be attractive when we're

346
00:33:39,060 --> 00:33:45,320
recording potential development projects or two that I know could have made the difference

347
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,840
on my time here.

348
00:33:48,300 --> 00:33:48,980
Okay.

349
00:33:49,620 --> 00:33:57,060
And you mentioned, I think it was specifically the electrical power infrastructure for the

350
00:33:57,060 --> 00:34:11,420
Gordon Hotel and is it downtown's old and has gotten by with what power was

351
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:18,460
available and now we have I mean the hotel was the maybe the tipping point

352
00:34:18,460 --> 00:34:25,420
and because I noticed a lot of large holes in the ground for look like

353
00:34:25,420 --> 00:34:35,320
electrical vaults in the surrounding area so the developer did not know ahead

354
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:41,960
of time that this was gonna be part of part of the building. I don't think they

355
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:46,500
anticipated just how much added cost would come from the Pacific Power side

356
00:34:46,500 --> 00:34:51,580
of things based on their experience in other communities. I would say that

357
00:34:51,580 --> 00:34:55,020
that there was more of a burden on the developer

358
00:34:55,500 --> 00:34:58,340
undertaking that project from a utility perspective,

359
00:35:00,300 --> 00:35:02,080
specifically Pacific Power.

360
00:35:03,540 --> 00:35:04,720
I can give you another anecdote.

361
00:35:05,260 --> 00:35:07,740
We have the Plaza 425 Southwest Madison,

362
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,800
originally anticipated doing solar on the roof,

363
00:35:11,460 --> 00:35:13,780
couldn't because of issues with Pacific Power.

364
00:35:17,380 --> 00:35:20,380
We're kind of in an odd place.

365
00:35:21,580 --> 00:35:24,860
in terms of our service area requirements for transformers.

366
00:35:26,380 --> 00:35:31,700
OBE had to identify like a 10 by 10 square foot space

367
00:35:32,340 --> 00:35:33,380
on their property.

368
00:35:34,420 --> 00:35:37,360
Actually, they had to contract with another adjacent property

369
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:38,460
to get this space

370
00:35:38,460 --> 00:35:39,840
because they had already designed their footprint

371
00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:42,460
of their building to have clear sky view

372
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:43,700
for the transformer.

373
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:46,660
Now in other parts of the state,

374
00:35:46,900 --> 00:35:49,520
you can wheel these transformers

375
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:58,720
in and out of the building. And so this is just like one of the added difficulties with

376
00:35:58,720 --> 00:36:05,480
policy that they've encountered on the Pacific Power side. So there's lots of different anecdotes

377
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:07,380
like this that we've heard about.

378
00:36:07,580 --> 00:36:13,760
And the Gordon Hotel folks are paying most or all of these upgrades?

379
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:19,980
oh yeah yeah I mean the city hasn't hasn't put forth money to upgrade the

380
00:36:19,980 --> 00:36:26,980
utilities to accommodate that development project or Pacific power or it's all on

381
00:36:26,980 --> 00:36:32,620
the hotel yeah yes when a development project comes through this costs are

382
00:36:32,620 --> 00:36:38,090
passed on to the developer right any other questions

383
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,500
well I was just gonna

384
00:36:45,500 --> 00:36:56,560
say this is timely, the Governor's Prosperity Council, as I think you may have mentioned.

385
00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:09,120
It's nice that the governor recognizes that economic development, we can't just sit back and

386
00:37:11,460 --> 00:37:17,320
it will come to us. We've got to be more active and you folks have

387
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:29,820
important role in that, but it's nice to get the recognition from the governor's level that this is an issue that needs some attention.

388
00:37:30,460 --> 00:37:43,180
So hopefully we can get some help from the state level or at least guidance or something will come out of the governor's effort.

389
00:37:43,180 --> 00:37:50,500
So thank you for your report and for your efforts.

390
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:53,980
Thank you.

391
00:37:58,580 --> 00:37:59,160
All right.

392
00:37:59,620 --> 00:38:08,420
Next up, 25-27 financial status update through February 15, 2026.

393
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,360
And for for Santa Anais, our CFO.

394
00:38:13,580 --> 00:38:14,400
Good morning.

395
00:38:21,860 --> 00:38:22,240
Thank you.

396
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:34,630
Good morning, chair, board of commissioners and members of staff for county financial policy, a semi annual financial update is to be presented to the board.

397
00:38:34,850 --> 00:38:44,110
So I am here before you this morning to present the financial status update on the 2025 27 biennial budget.

398
00:38:44,110 --> 00:38:49,110
it as of February 15th, 2026.

399
00:38:50,410 --> 00:38:55,570
So at this point in time, we are over halfway through our first year in the biennium.

400
00:38:56,190 --> 00:39:02,890
And I just wanted to share that the county is stable and expenditures are tracking below

401
00:39:02,890 --> 00:39:03,450
benchmarks.

402
00:39:04,950 --> 00:39:09,330
So the format of the report should be very familiar to you.

403
00:39:10,250 --> 00:39:12,850
It should be what you're used to in the past.

404
00:39:12,850 --> 00:39:18,850
We'll first review a counterwide overview of expenditures by categories.

405
00:39:19,750 --> 00:39:25,550
We will dig a little bit deeper by department and look at revenues and expenditures.

406
00:39:26,330 --> 00:39:31,470
And then we'll take a look at the status of capital improvement projects and then give

407
00:39:31,470 --> 00:39:35,310
you some insight in terms of what's to come next time we meet.

408
00:39:38,490 --> 00:39:43,230
Here is the countywide expenditure budget by category.

409
00:39:44,170 --> 00:39:53,890
And you can see here the breakdown of the 540,274,492 that the Board has approved.

410
00:39:54,790 --> 00:39:59,970
The largest category is in the area of personal services,

411
00:40:00,370 --> 00:40:06,470
and you can see that in all of the areas, everything is below the threshold of 30%

412
00:40:06,470 --> 00:40:08,510
where we ought to be at this period of time.

413
00:40:08,510 --> 00:40:15,270
We have quite a bit of vacancies in various areas of the organization, so that's helping

414
00:40:15,270 --> 00:40:18,770
to contribute below the benchmark levels.

415
00:40:19,590 --> 00:40:28,210
Also for capital outlay, it's a little less than projected levels because we have some

416
00:40:29,710 --> 00:40:35,150
capital improvement projects with little to no expenditures to report to date.

417
00:40:36,270 --> 00:40:40,190
That service and transfers are where they ought to be at this time.

418
00:40:41,750 --> 00:40:50,790
So overall, with 23% of expenditures organization-wide, this is really good news because every major

419
00:40:50,790 --> 00:40:53,350
expenditure is below the threshold of 30%.

420
00:40:53,350 --> 00:40:59,710
And this puts us at a really good position to finish out the four and a half months

421
00:40:59,710 --> 00:41:07,910
that we have for our first biennium or first year of our biennium. This is just a graphical

422
00:41:07,910 --> 00:41:15,050
view of what we just covered. Some folks prefer to look at a chart versus data set, so it's

423
00:41:15,050 --> 00:41:19,170
just here for those that prefer visuals instead.

424
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,420
Okay, we're digging a little bit deeper now

425
00:41:24,420 --> 00:41:30,800
into a more granular view of both the county's revenues and expenditures. This is presented to

426
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:36,920
by department. So here you'll see what the resources and expenditures, approved

427
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:42,200
expenditures that each department is working with and where they stand today

428
00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:48,600
against benchmarks for revenue collections and expended amounts year to

429
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:54,460
date. So because the largest expenditure in most of our departments is by way of

430
00:41:54,460 --> 00:42:02,320
salaries and benefits. I am using the benchmark of 30% as a guide. And so you'll see here

431
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:06,820
there are some areas on the expenditure side of this table that are highlighted in yellow.

432
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:15,980
What this means is that, you know, the expenditure levels are slightly higher than our threshold

433
00:42:15,980 --> 00:42:23,360
of 30 percent. So these are being put on the watch list. And essentially financial departments,

434
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:30,380
sorry, financial services is working with each of the departments and just making sure that

435
00:42:30,380 --> 00:42:36,480
they are aware of what's causing these anomalies. And then we are working closely with them for

436
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:45,260
a corrective action should that be necessary. So, for ease of visualization on the revenue

437
00:42:45,980 --> 00:42:53,080
side of things, we are slightly using a different benchmark. We're taking into consideration

438
00:42:53,900 --> 00:43:00,320
historical trends of the revenues as they come. A large portion of our revenues is

439
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:06,160
from property tax, and that is primarily collected in November of each year.

440
00:43:06,380 --> 00:43:08,140
So we do take that into consideration.

441
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:12,900
You do see some yellow highlights here on the revenue side of things.

442
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:18,300
And this is because, let's see here,

443
00:43:20,670 --> 00:43:24,710
in the area of fleets specifically for public

444
00:43:24,710 --> 00:43:31,270
works, the revenue from feeable sales are below projected levels and also capital outlay

445
00:43:31,270 --> 00:43:34,390
for vehicle replacement to date is already at 90%.

446
00:43:34,390 --> 00:43:36,410
So nothing to be concerned about.

447
00:43:36,630 --> 00:43:40,610
They are working with a large restricted balance

448
00:43:40,610 --> 00:43:42,590
for these capital outlay replacement.

449
00:43:43,390 --> 00:43:45,590
And so I just have it here as a watch

450
00:43:45,590 --> 00:43:48,250
because their expenditures are pretty high today.

451
00:43:49,370 --> 00:43:53,550
Another area on this watch list is the IT department

452
00:43:53,550 --> 00:43:56,410
with the professional services related

453
00:43:56,410 --> 00:43:59,870
to network related cost being higher than normal.

454
00:44:01,270 --> 00:44:08,350
And then the non-departmental area, we are working closely with the state for the cost

455
00:44:08,350 --> 00:44:10,370
share for the new courthouse project.

456
00:44:13,620 --> 00:44:19,040
And this is an area that I do want to have a conversation about because the county collects

457
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:25,420
revenue that doesn't necessarily belong to any one particular area in the organization

458
00:44:25,420 --> 00:44:30,760
but serves multiple functions or areas within the county.

459
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:39,460
So, we account for these revenues in a bucket called non-departmental and so here you can

460
00:44:39,460 --> 00:44:44,620
see a little bit of the revenues that flow through this division or cost centers.

461
00:44:45,620 --> 00:44:54,160
The major portion of the discretionary revenue for the general fund is property taxes and

462
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:59,960
and about 78% is part of the 64 million that we are.

463
00:45:01,300 --> 00:45:11,080
And coupled with other revenue sources the county has, like the local option levy, which

464
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:18,980
funds our mental health programs, law enforcement services and emergency services. These are

465
00:45:18,980 --> 00:45:27,060
all accounted for in the non-departmental revenue bucket. So this section just seeks

466
00:45:27,060 --> 00:45:34,060
to provide transparency into the shared revenue streams that the county receives as a whole.

467
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:43,740
This is a graphical view of our capital improvement projects. The board has approved

468
00:45:44,260 --> 00:45:49,540
a million dollars in this biennium for funding capital improvement projects.

469
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:57,200
And this is a listing of all of the funded projects for the biennium. You can see here

470
00:45:57,200 --> 00:46:05,360
at the bottom total that it's a lot more than a million dollars. I do have a footnote here

471
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:13,580
that's that about 596,000 of those are carry forward projects from the last biennium. And

472
00:46:14,300 --> 00:46:20,480
you'll see those identified with an asterisk. So one of them being the courthouse roof paint for

473
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:32,720
$200,000, the Chiller for about $385,000, and then the online platform tool which I think

474
00:46:32,720 --> 00:46:40,860
was presented to you last meeting for the Permits Applications Licenses Navigation Tool.

475
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:48,240
So you can see here the remainder of the projects have been approved for the biennium.

476
00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:54,180
Some have already started with incurred costs that you see and many of them

477
00:46:54,180 --> 00:46:56,480
have yet to be scheduled for work.

478
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:04,280
And a major project and investment for the

479
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:09,540
county of course is the district attorney office and the courthouse. The

480
00:47:09,540 --> 00:47:16,800
total project amounts to just over 86 million dollars including reserves and so

481
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:27,420
you can see here we've spent about 40.9 million and so the focus last month has been exterior

482
00:47:27,420 --> 00:47:35,640
weatherproofing, window insulation and applying the roofing systems. So this is the most recent

483
00:47:36,510 --> 00:47:44,080
photo image of the project today and I too am looking very forward to getting a tour

484
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:50,380
on this later this month or early in April.

485
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:59,280
So as you know, the county works closely with a number of service districts.

486
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:02,860
And here's the status of each of the service districts today.

487
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:12,280
Public works provides oversight on the operations of the service districts, primarily those

488
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:17,300
that provide water and sewer to the community members.

489
00:48:17,300 --> 00:48:24,700
And they include Alpine, Cascade View, Hidden Valley, South Third, and LC.

490
00:48:26,500 --> 00:48:34,120
You will see that there's a couple of service districts with no expenditures next to them.

491
00:48:34,860 --> 00:48:40,780
The 9-1-1 Emergency Communications and the Library Service District have very little

492
00:48:40,780 --> 00:48:41,960
expenditures to date.

493
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:45,260
I forgot to put a footnote down at the bottom of this slide.

494
00:48:45,260 --> 00:48:52,900
it's merely a timing issue. Last week we did provide disbursements of property tax collected

495
00:48:53,530 --> 00:49:02,560
for these districts 4.3 million went to emergency services and 3.7 million went to the library

496
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:10,080
district so making the expenditures to date equivalent to the 49% collected in revenues.

497
00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:11,260
And

498
00:49:13,660 --> 00:49:21,820
then, some budget considerations to think about as we move forward into our biennial

499
00:49:21,820 --> 00:49:22,180
budget.

500
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:27,780
There is a market study in the works as we speak for AFSCME.

501
00:49:28,780 --> 00:49:36,140
Staff will be conducting a full RFP process, and it is the hope that we will be able

502
00:49:36,140 --> 00:49:43,520
to bring forward the analysis and the updates of the study to the board sometime in May

503
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:49,780
or June and with a possibility of a July 1 implementation date.

504
00:49:52,060 --> 00:49:58,720
So in the area of recruitment and retention, some of our higher level and tech roles have

505
00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:06,480
proven to be difficult to fill. We've had to go back out for repeated

506
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:14,360
recruitment and so that's just been a challenge and I know our partners at HR

507
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:23,320
are working very hard with departments to get those vacancies filled. My

508
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:27,480
department along with the analyst team are working diligently with their

509
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:32,720
assigned departments to ensure that staff are understanding their spending authority

510
00:50:32,720 --> 00:50:40,060
levels and are working towards their vacancy factor requirements for the biennium.

511
00:50:41,820 --> 00:50:50,400
And then of course with the expiring PERS bond, the finance and core leadership have

512
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:55,140
been working very closely and keeping an eye out on the overall cost that this might

513
00:50:55,140 --> 00:51:07,260
have in our next biennial budget period as 44% of the paid benefit cost is related to

514
00:51:07,260 --> 00:51:08,080
hers.

515
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:15,740
So this is pretty much all that I have for you today. Next time we meet, I am hopeful

516
00:51:15,740 --> 00:51:24,040
that the fiscal year 24-25 audit will be completed so that we can talk more about

517
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:32,120
where we're at with our fund balances. Staff is also working on a supplemental budget to bring

518
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:39,460
forward to you next month, likely for your consideration and approval, and it will likely be

519
00:51:39,460 --> 00:51:48,500
more than 10%. So in summary, the county expenditures overall are tracking appropriately.

520
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:55,760
Revenue collections are aligned, the capital projects you see are progressing, and there

521
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:59,820
are only a few areas that are on the watch list today.

522
00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:06,760
So at this point, the county does remain stable and operating within its means.

523
00:52:07,780 --> 00:52:11,600
So happy to answer questions that you might have.

524
00:52:13,020 --> 00:52:16,200
I wanted to start by thanking you for your presentation today.

525
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:23,000
but also, you know, we're talking about the state of our finances, and I wanted to kind

526
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:27,880
of update my colleagues here about work that I've been doing with Jennifer related to CSC.

527
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:32,820
So as you are aware, at our last Community Services Consortium meeting, Jennifer was

528
00:52:32,820 --> 00:52:40,500
able to make it and listen to the financial concerns of that organization, and she and

529
00:52:40,500 --> 00:52:46,240
I had a conversation afterwards. And she's going to reach out to the CFOs from Lincoln

530
00:52:46,240 --> 00:52:54,380
and Lynn to have a conversation a little bit outside the CSC realm about between the three

531
00:52:54,380 --> 00:53:00,940
counties from a financial side. What is CSC really need right now? What do we see as

532
00:53:00,940 --> 00:53:07,100
counties that we can do to help? Or where are the real issues? Where are the issues

533
00:53:07,100 --> 00:53:11,920
right now. So I just wanted to highlight that and say thank you and also offer this because

534
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:17,600
you're sitting here as an opportunity for folks to ask questions about that specific

535
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:21,160
potential impact on our budget as well.

536
00:53:26,250 --> 00:53:34,210
Yeah, I was at that meeting and I think probably the

537
00:53:35,470 --> 00:53:43,010
My takeaway was we need two or three options of how to proceed.

538
00:53:45,420 --> 00:53:59,930
It's taken a while to delve into the CSE budget and turning over a lot of rocks to find mostly

539
00:53:59,930 --> 00:54:12,310
the negative things about their budget, and they've been identified, and as far as the

540
00:54:12,310 --> 00:54:24,410
day-to-day operations have gone from a negative to a modest positive, but there's years worth

541
00:54:24,410 --> 00:54:34,670
of basically deficit spending that needs to be, now that it's been recognized, needs to

542
00:54:34,670 --> 00:54:35,190
be addressed.

543
00:54:37,430 --> 00:54:43,850
I can't quite say I look forward to the discussion, but it's a needed,

544
00:54:46,130 --> 00:54:49,130
hopefully at least the

545
00:54:49,130 --> 00:54:57,030
the big pieces have been identified, and now we actually know what the actual situation is

546
00:54:57,030 --> 00:55:10,360
and time to do something about it. And I think it's, that was a good discussion at the last meeting,

547
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:15,080
and it keeps getting clearer what the actual situation is. So,

548
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:28,610
And basically, the counties are ultimately responsible to be continued.

549
00:55:28,970 --> 00:55:39,290
But back to our CFO's report this morning, you started out saying we are below benchmarks.

550
00:55:39,790 --> 00:55:43,770
And in financial terms, that's a good thing, is that correct?

551
00:55:44,370 --> 00:55:45,270
That's a good thing.

552
00:55:47,350 --> 00:55:54,730
either revenues are a little higher than rejected or it sounds like from the report

553
00:55:54,730 --> 00:56:06,670
the expenses are slightly under what we had budgeted to this point yes so through

554
00:56:06,670 --> 00:56:11,690
this point we should be at or below that 30% so overall county spending is at

555
00:56:11,690 --> 00:56:18,270
23. So that's a really good position. Just means that the county overall is operating

556
00:56:18,270 --> 00:56:23,890
within its appropriations. The departments are managing their spending responsibly,

557
00:56:25,190 --> 00:56:26,990
which has taken us to this point.

558
00:56:27,570 --> 00:56:31,090
Okay. What was the figure that we're actually at?

559
00:56:31,350 --> 00:56:32,070
23%.

560
00:56:32,070 --> 00:56:33,390
23. Okay.

561
00:56:35,870 --> 00:56:43,630
And I'm on the CIP committee, so I've been involved in some of these projects.

562
00:56:43,830 --> 00:56:52,750
You mentioned a couple of projects that had up to over 500,000 that were carried over

563
00:56:52,750 --> 00:57:04,510
from the last budget cycle, did the dollars also transfer into this budget?

564
00:57:04,990 --> 00:57:11,530
That will be part of the supplemental that will be coming forward to you in April.

565
00:57:12,050 --> 00:57:19,730
And that explains the difference between the million dollars allocated for CIP and the

566
00:57:19,730 --> 00:57:30,130
almost 5.6 million that's on the on the budget side. I

567
00:57:33,010 --> 00:57:38,930
saw reserves I'm not sure

568
00:57:38,930 --> 00:57:49,790
what paid in the $10 million range and I know to make the budget work that was

569
00:57:49,790 --> 00:58:03,410
trim from our 12 million that we would like to be at and make the overall budget

570
00:58:03,410 --> 00:58:07,870
work that was trimmed down to approximately 10 million. Yes that was

571
00:58:07,870 --> 00:58:13,110
part of balancing the current biennium budget that we have along with other

572
00:58:13,110 --> 00:58:17,230
measures such as the vacancy factor savings.

573
00:58:18,390 --> 00:58:27,850
Okay, so we are modestly under-reserved compared to previous years.

574
00:58:27,870 --> 00:58:28,190
Yes, yes.

575
00:58:29,170 --> 00:58:39,450
And that might be an area where we want to beef things up depending on how the budget performs.

576
00:58:40,790 --> 00:58:44,750
Definitely another conversation that we should have in the future as well.

577
00:58:49,910 --> 00:58:52,510
Jennifer, thank you for coming today and presenting to us.

578
00:58:52,590 --> 00:58:56,830
And thank you for presenting the information in such a clear and easy way to understand.

579
00:58:57,670 --> 00:58:59,910
I appreciate that. So thank you, you and your team.

580
00:59:00,850 --> 00:59:07,270
I wonder if it would be possible to get a more in-depth report on the PERS once.

581
00:59:07,470 --> 00:59:09,330
So I'm glad to hear that we have a team working on that.

582
00:59:09,330 --> 00:59:15,270
And once you all know more information, I would love to hear about it more in depth.

583
00:59:22,930 --> 00:59:26,170
Thank you, Commissioner Weiss, for bringing that up.

584
00:59:26,290 --> 00:59:28,710
And I was going to just make a quick comment.

585
00:59:28,930 --> 00:59:31,090
One, just a point of clarification.

586
00:59:31,770 --> 00:59:34,930
Jennifer talked about the CIP projects and the carryover.

587
00:59:35,090 --> 00:59:37,730
One of them was the online platform.

588
00:59:37,990 --> 00:59:39,150
I know it was a small amount.

589
00:59:39,770 --> 00:59:43,450
She mentioned relating to the permitting just so that we don't confuse the project.

590
00:59:43,450 --> 00:59:49,990
this one is actually related to the comprehensive plan update and I think what we can assure you is

591
00:59:49,990 --> 00:59:55,710
all that money has all been spent. I think it's just a matter of a coding. So I just wanted to

592
00:59:55,710 --> 00:59:59,170
make sure we clarified the projects.

593
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:05,120
But in terms of what Commissioner Wise and I want to emphasize what Jennifer said,

594
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:11,960
purse costs are something we really need to take seriously. I think you all know and heard from

595
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:18,740
the last budget period how much we were seeing in terms of an increase. And that was before

596
01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:24,920
the site accounts, as we call them, which Jennifer mentioned, the purse bonds. So kind of the good

597
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:25,760
Good news, bad news.

598
01:00:26,300 --> 01:00:30,580
Good news is next binding will start to see the payoff of those PERS bonds.

599
01:00:30,940 --> 01:00:34,080
So that's not a cost that we will continue to incur.

600
01:00:34,500 --> 01:00:40,660
Bad news is the payment of those bonds or those bonds keep our cost down on PERS.

601
01:00:40,980 --> 01:00:41,720
It's complicated.

602
01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:47,340
I mean, I will not kid you, it is a complicated matter in terms of how do you manage that.

603
01:00:47,500 --> 01:00:53,520
But it's a real issue for all of local government right now in terms of dealing

604
01:00:53,520 --> 01:01:02,520
with a growth in property tax but a modest small growth when you have excess of some

605
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:04,140
of these increases in PERS, it's big.

606
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:07,500
So thank you, Commissioner Wise, for bringing it up, and I do think this is something we

607
01:01:07,500 --> 01:01:08,980
all are going to have to get our heads around.

608
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:25,390
On the PERS, the site account is another funding stream to the question.

609
01:01:25,390 --> 01:01:37,230
Is it accurate that that site account that we bought a number of years ago is another way we are funding our PERS obligation?

610
01:01:39,180 --> 01:01:41,540
It's helping us keep the rates down.

611
01:01:43,740 --> 01:01:52,620
But basically another, instead of just general fund, it's another funding stream.

612
01:01:53,260 --> 01:01:58,400
It's a funding source that the county is also paying for, so it's kind of a wash.

613
01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:07,300
Commissioner, you have kind of two sources aside to count. The first one is back in 2002 and 2004, we issued what is called Per's Bonds.

614
01:02:07,520 --> 01:02:12,800
And as Jennifer alluded to, we issued that to invest and pay down that rate.

615
01:02:13,360 --> 01:02:19,200
We've been paying that ever since in terms of the form of bonds and a debt service so that again is expense like

616
01:02:19,200 --> 01:02:25,700
Jennifer said that we're paying the other source of side account and I'm gonna get my date wrong. I believe I'm gonna just say

617
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:33,020
Around 2018-2019 is we made a five million dollar from our reserves

618
01:02:33,580 --> 01:02:38,140
Investment to a side account to in to again same principle in this case

619
01:02:38,140 --> 01:02:44,620
It was actually just paying that end to purge and what it does is it buys down the rate that we pay

620
01:02:44,620 --> 01:02:50,940
So it kept those costs down now that one will continue to last I and Jennifer can correct me if I have this wrong

621
01:02:50,940 --> 01:02:54,940
But I think it's around 2035 that site again will expire

622
01:02:54,940 --> 01:03:00,520
But the purge bonds will again expire as Jennifer alluded to in 2029. I believe

623
01:03:01,780 --> 01:03:05,280
Thank you. Well, I appreciate the

624
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:15,260
the update. And I think we can try to schedule these on a regular basis, maybe quarterly,

625
01:03:17,360 --> 01:03:24,700
because as you've pointed out, a lot of moving parts, and we want to make sure that the parts

626
01:03:24,700 --> 01:03:31,520
are, most of the parts are moving in the right direction, or if they're not trying to

627
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:45,840
things relatively early and see what we can do to mitigate any negative consequences. Appreciate

628
01:03:45,840 --> 01:03:50,600
your efforts and your report this morning. Thank you.

629
01:03:56,420 --> 01:04:00,560
All right. Next up is our consent

630
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:06,500
calendar. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve the consent calendar.

631
01:04:06,500 --> 01:04:15,800
Second. All in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Motion carries and we will now move on to

632
01:04:16,600 --> 01:04:24,260
new business. Let's see if we have the right people here.

633
01:04:28,660 --> 01:04:36,440
Acceptance 9.1. Acceptance of a right away from Ryan and Stacy Cheek for public road and

634
01:04:36,440 --> 01:04:40,760
Utility Purposes and Dave Malone.

635
01:04:41,260 --> 01:04:41,820
Good morning.

636
01:04:42,480 --> 01:04:42,740
Good morning.

637
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:47,320
All right.

638
01:04:47,580 --> 01:04:48,280
Try that again.

639
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:48,880
Good morning.

640
01:04:49,660 --> 01:04:55,340
David Malone with Benton County Surveyor with Public Works and we are here for accepting

641
01:04:55,340 --> 01:04:57,280
a right-of-way dedication on Airport Avenue.

642
01:04:59,280 --> 01:05:06,620
The Cheek property has applied for a, I believe it's an accessory farm dwelling which created

643
01:05:06,620 --> 01:05:13,780
a nexus for road improvements, and engineering staff looked at this road and evaluated its

644
01:05:13,780 --> 01:05:17,000
current standard, its substandard according to transportation plan.

645
01:05:17,980 --> 01:05:24,040
It has a narrow right-of-way, they have a lot of frontage on this road, but it was

646
01:05:24,040 --> 01:05:30,140
decided that the best, the improvements that we could get instead of having them pay

647
01:05:30,140 --> 01:05:35,180
for a very small portion of improvements would be to get extra right-of-way along

648
01:05:35,180 --> 01:05:40,300
their entire frontage so that in the future we would have a better opportunity to create

649
01:05:40,300 --> 01:05:47,060
better safe improvements on that road. And so they agreed to that and I have the original

650
01:05:47,060 --> 01:05:53,180
sign notarized right-of-way dedication deed here and we just need the commission to evaluate

651
01:05:53,180 --> 01:05:54,720
that and decide if they want to accept that.

652
01:05:57,540 --> 01:05:59,900
All right. Are there any questions?

653
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:04,320
If not, I will entertain a motion.

654
01:06:04,320 --> 01:06:09,140
All right. I move to accept the right-of-way dedication from Ryan Pier, Thomas Cheek and

655
01:06:09,140 --> 01:06:14,220
Stacey Marie Cheek for Public Road and Utility Purposes for Airport Avenue, County Road No.

656
01:06:15,400 --> 01:06:15,800
25280.

657
01:06:16,600 --> 01:06:16,920
Second.

658
01:06:17,800 --> 01:06:19,640
All in favor of the motion, say aye.

659
01:06:19,820 --> 01:06:20,060
Aye.

660
01:06:20,180 --> 01:06:20,360
Aye.

661
01:06:20,820 --> 01:06:21,600
Motion carries.

662
01:06:23,740 --> 01:06:26,920
And you need some signatures, is that right?

663
01:06:27,580 --> 01:06:30,840
And I can just leave this up at the desk so you can get to it this afternoon at

664
01:06:30,840 --> 01:06:31,300
your convenience.

665
01:06:31,300 --> 01:06:38,680
Here's the original document and once it's signed and the council has signed it we can I can pick it up for recording

666
01:06:39,220 --> 01:06:44,320
And all three commissioners need to sign that just the chair. Okay. Thank you

667
01:07:02,220 --> 01:07:02,860
All

668
01:07:05,710 --> 01:07:10,210
right, Jennifer we need to have you come back up. I

669
01:07:10,750 --> 01:07:13,110
Was trying to be so efficient here. I

670
01:07:13,870 --> 01:07:15,130
skipped over the

671
01:07:16,410 --> 01:07:18,310
Motion to accept your report

672
01:07:18,310 --> 01:07:19,170
I

673
01:07:22,600 --> 01:07:27,580
move to accept receipt of the semi-annual finance report for the period ending February 15,

674
01:07:27,760 --> 01:07:29,640
2026. Second.

675
01:07:30,300 --> 01:07:32,800
All in favor of the motion say aye. Aye.

676
01:07:33,420 --> 01:07:35,820
Motion carries. Thank you again.

677
01:07:42,350 --> 01:07:50,270
Item 9.2, approval of a letter in opposition to clear-cutting at Maryspeak and Alcy Falls.

678
01:07:50,970 --> 01:07:53,310
Is that you Commissioner Shepard?

679
01:07:53,310 --> 01:07:59,350
So I want to start by thanking staff, especially Sean McGuire and Jesse Ott, for putting this

680
01:07:59,350 --> 01:07:59,650
together.

681
01:08:00,910 --> 01:08:05,910
I approached staff last week after the federal government announced plans to clear-cut areas

682
01:08:05,910 --> 01:08:12,290
outside on near Elsie Falls and on Mary Speak, and I asked for a letter of opposition.

683
01:08:12,950 --> 01:08:14,810
And they did a lot of good research.

684
01:08:14,910 --> 01:08:18,930
They put something together for us, and I really appreciate it, and I read it, and

685
01:08:18,930 --> 01:08:24,510
reads really well and I think it is very soundly based on facts and science and I'm really

686
01:08:25,090 --> 01:08:32,410
personally frustrated that this we're talking about again the idea of clear cutting an important

687
01:08:32,410 --> 01:08:43,250
community and cultural resources in Benton County. There are some things that money can't buy

688
01:08:44,070 --> 01:08:46,330
and Old Growth Forest is one of them.

689
01:08:47,230 --> 01:08:51,270
So I just wanted to bring this before the board

690
01:08:51,270 --> 01:08:55,310
to see if we could all potentially join together

691
01:08:55,310 --> 01:08:56,790
in putting a letter of opposition

692
01:08:56,790 --> 01:08:59,110
and there's the public comment period is still open on it.

693
01:08:59,610 --> 01:09:02,550
I don't know how successful public comment will be

694
01:09:02,550 --> 01:09:04,570
with this administration and at this time,

695
01:09:04,870 --> 01:09:08,170
but I wanted to see if we could go on the record

696
01:09:09,630 --> 01:09:10,510
opposing this.

697
01:09:10,670 --> 01:09:12,790
So I just wanted to bring this forward

698
01:09:12,790 --> 01:09:14,710
and as timely a manner as I could.

699
01:09:18,300 --> 01:09:20,160
Well, I just wanted to thank Commissioner Shepard

700
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:22,020
for heading this up.

701
01:09:22,180 --> 01:09:25,420
And I was in DC at the NACO conference

702
01:09:25,420 --> 01:09:26,580
when this all kind of blew up

703
01:09:26,580 --> 01:09:28,940
and definitely received lots of input

704
01:09:28,940 --> 01:09:31,540
and concern from constituents.

705
01:09:32,340 --> 01:09:36,980
So I very much appreciate and support this.

706
01:09:37,360 --> 01:09:39,060
And I'd be happy to make a motion,

707
01:09:39,220 --> 01:09:41,060
but if Commissioner Shepard would like to make it, okay.

708
01:09:41,540 --> 01:09:43,100
I moved to approve the letter of opposition

709
01:09:43,100 --> 01:09:44,700
to clear cutting at Mary's Peak

710
01:09:44,700 --> 01:09:48,600
and ALSI Falls and to direct staff to submit the letter to the Bureau of Land Management

711
01:09:48,600 --> 01:09:54,760
for the instructions for comment published in the Federal Register. Second. All in favor of the

712
01:09:54,760 --> 01:10:05,160
motion say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Question is there any follow-up that we should be

713
01:10:05,740 --> 01:10:13,020
trying to do besides the letter or after the letter goes in? I think it would be great to

714
01:10:13,020 --> 01:10:18,120
forward this letter also to our federal delegation. I don't think we need a motion to do that.

715
01:10:18,400 --> 01:10:26,320
But beyond that for follow-up, I'm not sure I would defer to Jesse on what he thinks would

716
01:10:26,320 --> 01:10:32,100
be effective at this point. I'm not – it's sad. I don't feel like it's going to be

717
01:10:32,100 --> 01:10:38,100
super effective. I would love to put more energy behind this, but I want to make

718
01:10:38,100 --> 01:10:43,220
sure that, and I appreciate your votes, that we took a stand on this. So I think forwarding

719
01:10:43,220 --> 01:10:44,940
it to our federal delegation would be a great start.

720
01:10:46,500 --> 01:10:50,600
And I think trying whatever we can is always worth it, even if, you know, at least we

721
01:10:50,600 --> 01:10:51,100
can say we tried.

722
01:10:53,220 --> 01:11:03,780
Well, and I assume this affects other areas in Oregon and maybe monitor who else is

723
01:11:03,780 --> 01:11:12,800
involved in this effort to see what kind of coalition we can put together and

724
01:11:13,680 --> 01:11:22,100
especially with our looping in our congressional delegation. Yeah I'm not as

725
01:11:22,100 --> 01:11:25,380
familiar with how this will affect other counties but I think that's

726
01:11:25,380 --> 01:11:29,160
something we can look into and we can call our colleagues and see how they're

727
01:11:29,160 --> 01:11:39,280
reacting to it? We have several AOC meetings coming up and that might be a

728
01:11:39,800 --> 01:11:48,060
opportunity to find out what else is, what other areas are affected.

729
01:11:50,860 --> 01:11:55,520
Commissioner, just to be responsive to the request, number one we will make sure

730
01:11:55,520 --> 01:12:06,000
that the letters get to our federal delegation who will work in coordination and then secondly we will do some follow-up with some of our county colleagues in relation to this to see what information we can get for you.

731
01:12:06,220 --> 01:12:07,020
So thanks for bringing that.

732
01:12:07,300 --> 01:12:07,540
Thank you.

733
01:12:07,940 --> 01:12:08,120
Great.

734
01:12:09,260 --> 01:12:10,020
All right.

735
01:12:11,600 --> 01:12:19,640
We will now move on to item number 10 other and we've got Rick Prager speaking of the letters.

736
01:12:22,350 --> 01:12:25,890
Thank you, Chair, for having this added.

737
01:12:26,610 --> 01:12:40,190
So commissioners, as you just approved, item 7.4, I'm sorry, item 7.3, you did a ratification of a letter requesting support regarding our community initiative project.

738
01:12:40,510 --> 01:12:49,370
Again, as you're all familiar, each and every year the federal, our commission delegation holds a process in which we can apply for grants.

739
01:12:49,370 --> 01:12:55,690
We have this year applied for two, which is the Jackson Frasier Project, which was letter

740
01:12:55,690 --> 01:13:01,870
use approved, as well as the Monroe Health Center. Each, the Senate and the House, have

741
01:13:01,870 --> 01:13:08,210
their own processes. The Senate opened up their process early, which is the ratification

742
01:13:08,210 --> 01:13:17,170
that you approved in my desire to be quick on this. I only did the letter to senators

743
01:13:17,170 --> 01:13:22,990
on this for their process and then soon after I had this done representative

744
01:13:22,990 --> 01:13:28,090
Hoyle opened a per process so we want to just ask for your approval and support

745
01:13:28,090 --> 01:13:33,550
of the same exact letter except it would be from representative Hoyle and that

746
01:13:33,550 --> 01:13:38,210
process just so you know close it was very quick it's only one week it closes

747
01:13:38,210 --> 01:13:38,830
on Thursday.

748
01:13:43,050 --> 01:13:43,610
All right.

749
01:13:45,970 --> 01:13:51,190
And part of the problem, the Senate and the House have

750
01:13:51,190 --> 01:13:57,390
different schedules and so when we did this last week,

751
01:13:59,450 --> 01:14:04,420
the House's portal wasn't

752
01:14:05,280 --> 01:14:09,480
open. That's correct and I just wasn't efficient looking ahead and I should

753
01:14:09,480 --> 01:14:12,500
have just had done one letter and I could have taken care of it once, but

754
01:14:12,500 --> 01:14:15,440
I'm sorry for that, but yes, the answer.

755
01:14:16,100 --> 01:14:26,480
So we need a motion to approve the letter going to Congresswoman Hoyle.

756
01:14:26,840 --> 01:14:33,340
I move to approve a letter requesting support from Congresswoman Val Hoyle regarding CIP funding for the Jackson Fraser Wetland Boardwalk Project.

757
01:14:33,840 --> 01:14:34,260
Second.

758
01:14:35,100 --> 01:14:37,220
All in favor of the motion say aye.

759
01:14:37,400 --> 01:14:37,740
Aye.

760
01:14:37,940 --> 01:14:38,140
Aye.

761
01:14:38,140 --> 01:14:49,910
Carries is there any other other business hearing none I will recess our board

762
01:14:49,910 --> 01:14:59,970
meeting and we will reconvene here at 11 o'clock for the public hearing on

763
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:09,400
And the matter of Board of Commissioners reconsidering of an appeal decision in the matter of land

764
01:15:09,400 --> 01:15:18,620
use application number LU-24-027. So, see you all back here at 11.

765
02:03:15,730 --> 02:03:16,450
Good morning.

766
02:03:19,300 --> 02:03:19,940
Good morning.

767
02:03:29,600 --> 02:03:39,020
We will now reconvene our board meeting for March 3, 2026.

768
02:03:40,180 --> 02:03:45,320
This is the time set for the continued hearing in the matter of the board's reconsideration

769
02:03:45,320 --> 02:03:58,000
under the authority in ORS 197.83013B of its November 17, 2025 decision approving an application

770
02:03:58,000 --> 02:04:03,880
for a conditional use permit to expand in an existing landfill.

771
02:04:05,180 --> 02:04:10,080
The Board of Commissioners' decision was appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals in

772
02:04:10,080 --> 02:04:13,620
Luba number 2025-082.

773
02:04:14,200 --> 02:04:19,800
The Benton County case number is LU-24-027.

774
02:04:20,860 --> 02:04:26,520
To all present today, please be respectful and courteous of all who are present

775
02:04:26,520 --> 02:04:31,020
comment during the hearing and deliberations is not respectful or

776
02:04:31,020 --> 02:04:36,700
courteous. I reserve the right to remove anyone who does not abide by this

777
02:04:36,700 --> 02:04:42,240
direction or who engages in disrespectful, discourteous or disruptive behavior.

778
02:04:43,440 --> 02:04:48,780
The Board of Commissioners previously opened the hearing on reconsideration on

779
02:04:48,780 --> 02:04:55,360
January 20, 2026 and voted to reopen the written record to accept additional

780
02:04:55,360 --> 02:05:02,240
evidence, testimony, and argument regarding a limited issue. At the conclusion of that hearing,

781
02:05:02,480 --> 02:05:10,520
the Board continued the hearing to today, March 3, 2026, at 11 a.m. for deliberations.

782
02:05:11,620 --> 02:05:18,200
No additional public testimony will be taken. The purpose of this continued hearing

783
02:05:18,200 --> 02:05:23,400
is for the Board to deliberate and reach a decision on reconsideration of its previous

784
02:05:23,400 --> 02:05:35,640
decision. Under the statute at ORS 197.83013B, we must affirm, modify, or

785
02:05:35,640 --> 02:05:41,440
reverse our previous decision. In doing so, we must determine whether the

786
02:05:41,440 --> 02:05:46,960
applicant has satisfied its burden of proof to establish that the criteria in

787
02:05:46,960 --> 02:05:55,240
the BCC are met. The February 24, 2026 staff report lifts and sets out each of the applicable

788
02:05:55,240 --> 02:06:02,280
criteria which are found in the Benton County Code. We must determine whether a preponderance

789
02:06:02,280 --> 02:06:08,660
of the evidence supports or does not support our original decision that the application

790
02:06:08,660 --> 02:06:15,940
criteria are met. The preponderance of the evidence means evidence which is

791
02:06:15,940 --> 02:06:21,400
greater of greater weight or more convincing than the evidence which is

792
02:06:21,400 --> 02:06:27,940
offered in the opposition to it. In reaching our decision we may only

793
02:06:27,940 --> 02:06:33,340
consider evidence argument or testimony that is already in the record. We may

794
02:06:33,340 --> 02:06:38,000
not consider evidence argument or testimony that is not in the record. In

795
02:06:38,000 --> 02:06:44,300
In addition, evidence that is completely unrelated to the approval criteria is not relevant

796
02:06:44,300 --> 02:06:44,960
evidence.

797
02:06:45,620 --> 02:06:51,340
It is our job to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the evidence and how much

798
02:06:51,340 --> 02:06:54,340
weight to assign to the evidence.

799
02:06:55,760 --> 02:06:59,360
It is important that our decision-making is free of bias.

800
02:07:00,020 --> 02:07:05,920
Each commissioner must put aside any preconceived perspectives and make a decision based solely

801
02:07:05,920 --> 02:07:12,000
on the evidence included in the record as it applies to the standards and criteria in

802
02:07:12,000 --> 02:07:13,000
the Benton County Code.

803
02:07:14,680 --> 02:07:22,340
As provided in the Benton County Code, 51.835, the Board will consider the entire record

804
02:07:22,340 --> 02:07:29,280
of the proceeding that led to our November 17, 2025 decision, as well as evidence and

805
02:07:29,280 --> 02:07:34,660
testimony submitted during the reconsider the reconsideration proceeding

806
02:07:34,660 --> 02:07:39,300
that is within the parameters we previously set for the written open

807
02:07:39,300 --> 02:07:46,480
record period. I will now ask the board if any commissioner needs to declare any

808
02:07:46,480 --> 02:07:52,780
bias conflict of interest or additional ex parte communication not

809
02:07:52,780 --> 02:07:54,680
previously declared.

810
02:07:57,020 --> 02:08:01,900
Commissioner Shepard. Thank you. I wish to I do not have

811
02:08:01,900 --> 02:08:06,860
anything for any of the others but I will speak to my ex parte contacts I have a

812
02:08:06,860 --> 02:08:10,900
written document as I did in the first hearing and I will make sure that that

813
02:08:10,900 --> 02:08:17,580
gets submitted and posted online at the end of this hearing but I wanted to

814
02:08:17,580 --> 02:08:20,800
state that due to the importance of the issue the topic of the landfill

815
02:08:20,800 --> 02:08:23,460
often comes up with conversations with constituents

816
02:08:23,460 --> 02:08:24,420
and in local news.

817
02:08:24,840 --> 02:08:27,180
Because of the saturation of this issue locally,

818
02:08:27,360 --> 02:08:29,480
while I believe this to be a comprehensive list

819
02:08:29,480 --> 02:08:30,640
of the comments I received,

820
02:08:31,020 --> 02:08:32,700
some comments that I have since forgotten

821
02:08:32,700 --> 02:08:35,260
or that did not register to me as ex parte contacts

822
02:08:35,260 --> 02:08:37,220
may be unintentionally omitted,

823
02:08:37,660 --> 02:08:39,460
none are intentionally omitted.

824
02:08:40,780 --> 02:08:44,560
On February 6th, I received an email from Alex Ryan

825
02:08:44,560 --> 02:08:47,020
stating that if issues like the landfill aren't addressed,

826
02:08:47,480 --> 02:08:48,660
his family may move away.

827
02:08:48,660 --> 02:08:53,700
On February 22nd, I received an email on another topic from George Hutchinson that

828
02:08:53,700 --> 02:08:56,640
briefly stated approving the landfill expansion was a bad idea.

829
02:08:57,060 --> 02:09:01,760
On February 25th, I received an email from Bruce Calger criticizing staff's change of

830
02:09:01,760 --> 02:09:02,820
recommendation to denial.

831
02:09:03,180 --> 02:09:06,800
Mr. Calger offered that the same information was available before the November hearings

832
02:09:06,800 --> 02:09:08,000
and should have been considered then.

833
02:09:08,400 --> 02:09:11,940
On February 28th, I received an email from Patrick O'Dell opposed to the landfill.

834
02:09:12,240 --> 02:09:14,420
I did not read beyond the first sentence of the email.

835
02:09:14,420 --> 02:09:17,420
On March 2nd, I received an email from Helen Weingartner

836
02:09:17,420 --> 02:09:18,860
opposed to the expansion.

837
02:09:19,260 --> 02:09:20,880
I did not read beyond the first sentence.

838
02:09:21,180 --> 02:09:23,480
I'm still the chair of the Benton County Democrats

839
02:09:23,480 --> 02:09:24,780
and since becoming commissioner,

840
02:09:24,980 --> 02:09:26,600
I've recused myself from any conversations

841
02:09:26,600 --> 02:09:28,480
during any Benton County Democrats meetings

842
02:09:28,480 --> 02:09:29,500
regarding the landfill

843
02:09:29,980 --> 02:09:31,620
and handed over the meeting,

844
02:09:31,840 --> 02:09:33,660
controlled to my next in charge.

845
02:09:34,260 --> 02:09:36,720
There have been no, to the best of my knowledge,

846
02:09:36,780 --> 02:09:38,280
no meetings or discussions of that group

847
02:09:38,280 --> 02:09:41,980
since our last meeting relating to Coffin Beach, Lanfa.

848
02:09:42,620 --> 02:09:46,760
media articles. I have read, seen the title of, or someone has relayed the content of,

849
02:09:46,860 --> 02:09:50,680
the vast majority of articles and letters to the editor or editorials related to the

850
02:09:50,680 --> 02:09:54,620
reconsideration of the expansion of Coffin Beach landfill. These include articles in

851
02:09:54,620 --> 02:09:59,180
the Corvalskas at times, Albany Democrat Harold, Filomet News and other outlets. I understand

852
02:09:59,180 --> 02:10:02,760
that these articles are not a part of the record and cannot be considered when coming

853
02:10:02,760 --> 02:10:08,140
to a decision. My position on the original appeal was clear via my statement on the

854
02:10:08,140 --> 02:10:12,600
November 3, 2025 board of commissioners meeting and the subsequent vote of the board. However,

855
02:10:12,700 --> 02:10:16,540
I approached the reconsideration with an open mind to consider how new evidence could sway

856
02:10:16,540 --> 02:10:21,200
my view on the application. I can and will make a fair and impartial decision on this

857
02:10:21,200 --> 02:10:27,060
land use decision based on the record, the applicable criteria, and free from personal

858
02:10:27,060 --> 02:10:27,320
bias.

859
02:10:30,940 --> 02:10:37,400
I as well only have ex parte contacts. As Commissioner Shepard has said, there's

860
02:10:37,400 --> 02:10:46,060
many news articles. I've seen titles, headlines, read some of them. I also have received text

861
02:10:46,060 --> 02:10:51,840
messages from a community member, Kurt Wright, mostly just letting me know, hey, the GT put

862
02:10:51,840 --> 02:10:58,120
this out or a screenshot of this text, but again, it's all public information that public news

863
02:10:58,120 --> 02:11:04,320
articles. I did also receive an email to a personal email address from the Gazette Times

864
02:11:04,320 --> 02:11:09,260
reporter Cody Mann that said, my boss asked me to try connecting on an

865
02:11:09,260 --> 02:11:13,340
unofficial channel for a question about coffin butte to which I did not respond

866
02:11:13,340 --> 02:11:21,560
but I did forward to our County Council and there have also been several

867
02:11:21,560 --> 02:11:27,440
emails that have been sent to my email box with headlines that I recognized

868
02:11:27,440 --> 02:11:31,220
were most likely about the landfill and such I did not open them or read

869
02:11:31,220 --> 02:11:34,060
them, and I can still make an impartial decision.

870
02:11:36,680 --> 02:11:37,280
All right.

871
02:11:40,940 --> 02:11:47,180
This is concerning ex parte communication. At a January 30th meeting, Representative

872
02:11:47,180 --> 02:11:52,680
Finger McDonald started talking to me about Coffin Butte. I notified her that if this

873
02:11:52,680 --> 02:11:58,360
conversation continued, I would need to leave the room due to ex parte concerns.

874
02:11:58,360 --> 02:12:03,220
The conversation then got back on track.

875
02:12:05,020 --> 02:12:15,920
I want to state that I may have unintentionally omitted contact emails.

876
02:12:16,760 --> 02:12:21,550
Most of the landfill emails go directly to a folder,

877
02:12:21,550 --> 02:12:32,730
folder and I have not looked at that folder and I believe that I can make an unbiased

878
02:12:33,630 --> 02:12:34,130
decision.

879
02:12:36,580 --> 02:12:44,120
So now I will ask, does anyone present wish to rebut the substance of the

880
02:12:44,120 --> 02:12:51,200
justice-closed ex parte communications? Rebut means dispute or oppose the substance

881
02:12:51,200 --> 02:13:02,420
of the communications. If you wish to rebut the substance of the justice follows to ex parte communications, please raise your hand, and county staff will assist you.

882
02:13:09,410 --> 02:13:10,230
No hands, okay?

883
02:13:11,250 --> 02:13:16,130
All right. Now, I will ask for the staff report presentation.

884
02:13:16,130 --> 02:13:16,450
Testation.

885
02:13:20,910 --> 02:13:21,350
Testing.

886
02:13:21,670 --> 02:13:22,010
Okay.

887
02:13:22,490 --> 02:13:22,650
All

888
02:13:29,050 --> 02:13:29,170
right.

889
02:13:29,390 --> 02:13:31,670
So I'm Jesse Winterode with Winterbrook Planning.

890
02:13:31,970 --> 02:13:33,810
Thank you, Chairman Malone and commissioners.

891
02:13:34,610 --> 02:13:39,170
Acting as a contract staff planner for Benton County on this project.

892
02:13:41,410 --> 02:13:49,110
I don't want to repeat everything Chairman Malone just said, so I will not and we'll

893
02:13:49,110 --> 02:13:51,950
get right into the content of the staff report.

894
02:13:53,050 --> 02:14:00,910
We had, on November 6th, after the November 4th deliberations, the entering of or the

895
02:14:00,910 --> 02:14:03,450
pen from DEQ letter came out.

896
02:14:04,010 --> 02:14:09,530
And that had seven Class 1 violations related to monitoring, gas control, and site operations.

897
02:14:10,410 --> 02:14:15,810
After that, the – we can move on to the next page.

898
02:14:16,730 --> 02:14:18,590
There was a timely appeal to Luba.

899
02:14:18,590 --> 02:14:26,290
up the board through the decision for reconsideration, reopen the record allowing the submission

900
02:14:26,290 --> 02:14:35,830
of the DEQ PEN, and then we looked at that PEN and carried on to the next page, very carefully

901
02:14:35,830 --> 02:14:41,830
and said, how does this PEN relate to our previous findings, our previous information

902
02:14:41,830 --> 02:14:49,930
that we used. We talked to MFA, the contract engineering firm for this project, and asked

903
02:14:49,930 --> 02:14:54,890
them what is the technical information in this pen, how does that relate to anything

904
02:14:54,890 --> 02:14:59,670
we've looked at so far. We also had a lot of testimony, I think over 150.

905
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:07,100
Submissions of test money on that subject. So what the staff report did was we focused

906
02:15:07,100 --> 02:15:16,540
on what we could see made a difference based on the pen. And it's overwhelmingly very similar,

907
02:15:16,540 --> 02:15:24,420
but the odor findings changed significantly and our overall recommendation changed from

908
02:15:24,420 --> 02:15:32,860
approval to denial. As such, we removed conditions throughout the staff report as we couldn't

909
02:15:32,860 --> 02:15:39,960
find appropriate conditions to address the lack of information that we have on odor that

910
02:15:39,960 --> 02:15:41,760
led to our recommendation for denial.

911
02:15:43,870 --> 02:15:51,550
So what we saw from MFA was that some of the

912
02:15:52,250 --> 02:15:58,510
the fundamental application components there, their argument on odor, those assumptions that

913
02:15:58,510 --> 02:16:01,930
went into the model might not be supported by evidence.

914
02:16:03,170 --> 02:16:11,270
And that's because one of the most important pieces was an even distribution of gas coming

915
02:16:11,270 --> 02:16:16,650
out of the landfill, but there was an evidence that that was the case, and there was evidence

916
02:16:16,650 --> 02:16:25,290
of 3DQ violations regarding operations and measuring of the landfill gases.

917
02:16:26,150 --> 02:16:33,930
So that's what changed our mind, and we show that in the staff report and have the MFA

918
02:16:33,930 --> 02:16:34,810
letter to support that.

919
02:16:39,180 --> 02:16:45,700
So the fundamental pieces, the applicant's service mission of monitoring figures are

920
02:16:45,700 --> 02:16:48,560
showing that large portions of the landfill were not surveyed.

921
02:16:48,560 --> 02:16:52,760
And this is something that, you know, the applicant submitted to DEQ.

922
02:16:53,180 --> 02:16:54,880
DEQ also noticed.

923
02:16:56,120 --> 02:17:07,540
And as we can see by those two maps, we have a lot of the air of the landfill that wasn't surveyed by the applicant and their submissions to DEQ.

924
02:17:09,280 --> 02:17:15,500
And as I said, the distribution of surface gas submissions was not.

925
02:17:16,940 --> 02:17:25,120
There wasn't evidence that it was evenly distributed currently, and that was the fundamental basis

926
02:17:25,120 --> 02:17:31,620
for the odor impacts on surrounding adjacent land uses.

927
02:17:32,640 --> 02:17:41,360
So the other piece of that is if you have a landfill that's not operating consistent

928
02:17:41,360 --> 02:17:50,200
with how it should, we can't really use that as the base case for the character of the area in terms of odor.

929
02:17:50,960 --> 02:18:02,160
So we don't want to say this landfill inconsistently operating is the norm that one should assume for the area.

930
02:18:02,300 --> 02:18:09,080
And so absent that we didn't have good evidence for character of the area either.

931
02:18:12,180 --> 02:18:25,460
The applicant's final argument talked about 90% collection of greenhouse gases over four

932
02:18:25,460 --> 02:18:31,920
years period, but it didn't really impact the one they provided a link and didn't really

933
02:18:31,920 --> 02:18:37,060
have evidence for that, how that relates to their odor study, how that relates to much

934
02:18:37,060 --> 02:18:43,800
of anything that we're looking at, but it also didn't address the problem of the even

935
02:18:43,800 --> 02:18:45,380
distribution over the landfill.

936
02:18:45,500 --> 02:18:49,160
That was the core issue that MFA identified.

937
02:18:50,320 --> 02:18:57,540
So if you have landfill gases that are moving in specific areas at greater concentrations,

938
02:18:57,620 --> 02:19:02,300
that could lead to greater odor impacts related to those areas where it's coming

939
02:19:02,300 --> 02:19:02,560
out.

940
02:19:03,480 --> 02:19:21,040
And so that sort of also supported previous adjacent property under testimony, said this odor model doesn't really reflect our lived experiences, which we have seen many times over the past year.

941
02:19:21,700 --> 02:19:27,340
And then we have a technical reason why that would be the case in the pen.

942
02:19:27,340 --> 02:19:28,360
So

943
02:19:32,480 --> 02:19:37,940
overall, our conclusion was they haven't met their burden of proof in relation to odor

944
02:19:37,940 --> 02:19:42,240
impacts, on adjacent land uses or a character of the area.

945
02:19:43,680 --> 02:19:49,160
So we can't – and as I said before, we can't recommend conditions that address those

946
02:19:49,160 --> 02:19:57,820
problems that, you know, why – what is the appropriate assumption for the odor model?

947
02:19:57,820 --> 02:20:05,320
or what is the appropriate character of the area to compare when we're looking at the

948
02:20:05,320 --> 02:20:08,120
change from existing to the future.

949
02:20:08,540 --> 02:20:15,020
And lacking that information, we don't have enough to recommend conditions, and that led

950
02:20:15,020 --> 02:20:17,960
us to a recommendation for denial.

951
02:20:19,360 --> 02:20:23,980
And so based on the findings of the staff report, information in the record, staff

952
02:20:23,980 --> 02:20:27,760
concludes that odor analysis and evidence provided by the applicant do not sufficiently

953
02:20:27,760 --> 02:20:32,660
demonstrate that the proposal will not seriously interfere with uses on adjacent properties,

954
02:20:33,300 --> 02:20:39,000
the character of the area, or the purpose of the forest conservation zone, which in a roundabout way

955
02:20:39,000 --> 02:20:46,700
refers back to that same issue. As the forest conservation zone, they included the findings

956
02:20:46,700 --> 02:20:52,140
for that in the general conditional use findings. And so if those conditional use findings

957
02:20:52,140 --> 02:20:56,720
findings don't work, then the purpose of the forest zone findings also don't work.

958
02:20:57,440 --> 02:20:58,660
And so that's in here as well.

959
02:20:59,180 --> 02:21:04,860
And therefore, staff recommends that on reconsideration, the board denied the application.

960
02:21:09,540 --> 02:21:11,440
Any questions of staff?

961
02:21:12,540 --> 02:21:16,740
I have questions, but I think I'll save them for during deliberations.

962
02:21:17,160 --> 02:21:18,380
Would you prefer?

963
02:21:20,020 --> 02:21:22,480
Commissioner, the questions need to get out now.

964
02:21:22,800 --> 02:21:24,840
No time during deliberations for questions.

965
02:21:24,840 --> 02:21:32,140
Okay, so I have two questions that I want to ask staff to make sure the answers are easily accessible on the record

966
02:21:32,880 --> 02:21:34,580
First to confirm

967
02:21:34,580 --> 02:21:42,680
The applicant has not submitted evidence into the record that they have met the response times required by DEQ in the pen, correct?

968
02:21:44,000 --> 02:21:48,940
That they have met the the time the the dates that DEQ said they needed to meet

969
02:21:49,620 --> 02:21:54,460
Certain criteria by they have not submitted evidence into the record that they have done so is that correct?

970
02:21:54,460 --> 02:22:00,480
That's correct. Okay. And then the second question relates to page 9 of the staff report.

971
02:22:01,220 --> 02:22:09,420
Page 9 has a section called context of existing use versus proposed expansion. I want to read

972
02:22:09,420 --> 02:22:13,380
through it just for a second because I have a question about a very specific word, so

973
02:22:13,380 --> 02:22:17,960
I just want to read through both paragraphs. Some commenters and planning commissions

974
02:22:17,960 --> 02:22:22,560
argued that the proposed landfill expansion application should be reviewed as a new use

975
02:22:22,560 --> 02:22:25,040
without considering the existing landfill impacts

976
02:22:25,040 --> 02:22:25,620
as a baseline.

977
02:22:26,220 --> 02:22:28,880
However, evaluating an expansion of an existing use

978
02:22:28,880 --> 02:22:31,000
as an entirely new use would not be consistent

979
02:22:31,000 --> 02:22:31,940
with county practice.

980
02:22:32,560 --> 02:22:34,360
Staff reviewed this conditional use application

981
02:22:34,360 --> 02:22:36,660
as an expansion of the existing landfill.

982
02:22:37,140 --> 02:22:38,820
Thus, the existing landfill operations,

983
02:22:39,100 --> 02:22:41,220
as they had been previously approved by Benton County,

984
02:22:41,400 --> 02:22:43,520
are important context and they form the base case

985
02:22:43,520 --> 02:22:45,660
from which potential impacts may be measured.

986
02:22:46,020 --> 02:22:47,900
Now that's been in our staff reports before,

987
02:22:47,980 --> 02:22:50,560
but I wanted to specifically talk about paragraph two,

988
02:22:50,560 --> 02:23:01,860
which says, however, as indicated by the November DEQ PEN, DEQ and EPA take the position that the existing landfill is not operating consistently with DEQ requirements.

989
02:23:02,300 --> 02:23:09,160
This means that for impacts related to violations identified in the November DEQ PEN, the county may, that's an important word here,

990
02:23:09,400 --> 02:23:16,740
the county may not be able to consider existing conditions as a reliable base case for purposes of conditional use review.

991
02:23:16,740 --> 02:23:19,900
So the word may has a couple different uses.

992
02:23:20,540 --> 02:23:23,620
It can mean both must or might.

993
02:23:24,180 --> 02:23:29,520
And so I wanted to clarify that in this case it's more appropriate to consider that as might.

994
02:23:29,960 --> 02:23:36,760
And that it is up to the discretion of the board on whether or not to consider the existing conditions.

995
02:23:36,880 --> 02:23:37,240
Is that correct?

996
02:23:37,500 --> 02:23:37,860
That's correct.

997
02:23:38,140 --> 02:23:38,820
Okay, thank you.

998
02:23:43,400 --> 02:23:45,480
Any other questions of staff?

999
02:23:46,340 --> 02:23:49,880
If not, thank you for your efforts.

1000
02:23:51,100 --> 02:23:55,980
And I will now open the hearing for deliberations.

1001
02:23:57,180 --> 02:23:58,320
Is there a discussion?

1002
02:24:01,160 --> 02:24:04,540
Did we have a motion on the table before we deliberate?

1003
02:24:05,860 --> 02:24:07,380
That is fine.

1004
02:24:09,120 --> 02:24:13,080
Commissioner, if someone wants to make a motion and then you can deliberate on it,

1005
02:24:13,080 --> 02:24:18,000
Other groups have a discussion and get consensus on a motion.

1006
02:24:20,330 --> 02:24:21,130
It's up to the chair.

1007
02:24:21,610 --> 02:24:24,230
I have a motion if you're ready, Chair.

1008
02:24:25,470 --> 02:24:26,530
All right.

1009
02:24:27,610 --> 02:24:43,490
I move to adopt an order reversing our November 17, 2025 decision and that the conditional use permit be denied based on evidence in the record and findings in the February 24, 2026 staff report and conclusions developed by the Board of

1010
02:24:43,490 --> 02:24:46,650
commissioners during these deliberations and that these findings and

1011
02:24:46,650 --> 02:24:49,710
conclusions be adopted as the final decision of the board.

1012
02:24:53,290 --> 02:24:56,030
Second. It's been

1013
02:24:56,030 --> 02:25:01,810
moved and seconded. All in favor of the discussion of

1014
02:25:06,450 --> 02:25:07,830
the

1015
02:25:07,830 --> 02:25:14,550
motion. Commissioner Wise. Thank you. It's in moments like these that I like to

1016
02:25:14,550 --> 02:25:18,090
remind myself what Maggie Kuhn said which is speak your mind even if your

1017
02:25:18,090 --> 02:25:18,870
voice shakes.

1018
02:25:20,880 --> 02:25:26,800
I have expressed on the record in the past my disappointment in the tactics

1019
02:25:26,800 --> 02:25:33,120
that some of the opponents, some not all, of the landfill expansion have used in targeting

1020
02:25:33,120 --> 02:25:39,360
county staff and myself. And I have also expressed on the record my disappointment in some of

1021
02:25:39,360 --> 02:25:45,040
Republic Service's business practices. There have been rumors from both sides about

1022
02:25:45,040 --> 02:25:50,100
conspiracies and some intimidation tactics attempted by both sides.

1023
02:25:50,920 --> 02:25:55,480
However, my job is to set aside the drama and consider the merits of the application

1024
02:25:56,060 --> 02:25:58,720
based on the facts as applied to the criteria.

1025
02:25:59,880 --> 02:26:04,980
Like every other quasi-judicial land use decision I've made in my eight years as an

1026
02:26:04,980 --> 02:26:11,200
elected official, I am able to set aside whatever feelings I have and consider whether

1027
02:26:11,200 --> 02:26:15,580
to approve the application by looking at evidence in the record as it relates to the

1028
02:26:15,580 --> 02:26:22,600
applicable criteria. My decision is not based on any personal feelings about any participants

1029
02:26:22,600 --> 02:26:31,300
in this proceeding. I will never let personal feelings or intimidation or bullying impact

1030
02:26:31,300 --> 02:26:37,300
my professional decisions. I would rather be recalled or run over by a garbage truck

1031
02:26:37,300 --> 02:26:42,920
then compromise my ethics. Again, I reached my decision today based on the

1032
02:26:42,920 --> 02:26:48,580
facts as applied to the criteria. I would also like to speak briefly about the

1033
02:26:48,580 --> 02:26:54,480
DEQ letter. I view the evidence in the DEQ letter and the evaluation of that

1034
02:26:54,480 --> 02:26:58,960
letter by the county's experts as more credible than republic's expert

1035
02:26:58,960 --> 02:27:04,300
evidence. The county's experts evaluated the DEQ letter and concluded

1036
02:27:04,300 --> 02:27:10,420
that the DEQ letter includes evidence that raises serious and legitimate questions about the methodology

1037
02:27:11,160 --> 02:27:17,400
and assumptions in Republic's odor study, which Republic has not provided adequate rebuttal to.

1038
02:27:18,300 --> 02:27:23,440
Therefore, I place greater weight on the DEQ letter and the county's experts than I do on

1039
02:27:23,440 --> 02:27:24,480
Republic's odor study.

1040
02:27:34,050 --> 02:27:36,530
Is it your turn? All right.

1041
02:27:39,920 --> 02:27:43,420
As the planning staff, the

1042
02:27:43,420 --> 02:27:48,360
Bent County planning staff report pointed out, seven areas where Republic was in

1043
02:27:48,360 --> 02:27:57,960
serious, meaning class one violations of DEQ rules. And this is the basis for my

1044
02:27:57,960 --> 02:27:58,360
decision.

1045
02:28:01,480 --> 02:28:02,860
Any other discussion?

1046
02:28:03,400 --> 02:28:09,840
Yeah. After careful consideration and review of the original record and information added

1047
02:28:09,840 --> 02:28:15,800
to the record during the reconsideration process, I will once again be voting to deny LU24-027

1048
02:28:15,800 --> 02:28:17,800
for the expansion of Coffinview landfill.

1049
02:28:20,220 --> 02:28:23,160
None of the new information in the record

1050
02:28:23,160 --> 02:28:27,600
alleviated my concerns from the original application regarding impacts on adjacent

1051
02:28:27,600 --> 02:28:32,560
properties or undue burdens on public improvements, facilities, utilities or services.

1052
02:28:33,500 --> 02:28:36,100
For the details of those concerns, please review the original record.

1053
02:28:36,940 --> 02:28:42,260
I also agree with the staff report for this public hearing that the pre-enforcement notice or

1054
02:28:42,260 --> 02:28:47,080
the PEN calls into question the accuracy of the applicant's odor study. The ample evidence

1055
02:28:47,080 --> 02:28:51,820
in the record from residents living adjacent to the site and beyond relate significant odor

1056
02:28:51,820 --> 02:28:57,720
concerns. I am inclined to give weight to the lived experiences of the residents living

1057
02:28:57,720 --> 02:29:03,400
adjacent to and beyond the landfill. And I am also placing greater weight on the DEQ letter

1058
02:29:03,400 --> 02:29:09,940
as evaluated by MFA as opposed to the odor study provided by the applicant. And then

1059
02:29:09,940 --> 02:29:12,400
I had my two questions, which were already answered. So thank you.

1060
02:29:13,600 --> 02:29:18,120
Commissioner, can I clarify? So in your motion, and I might ask you to repeat

1061
02:29:18,120 --> 02:29:27,920
But was your motion to reverse your decision and deny the application and adopt the staff report as the findings in conclusion?

1062
02:29:28,640 --> 02:29:30,160
Correct. I can read it again if you'd like.

1063
02:29:30,340 --> 02:29:30,900
That would be great.

1064
02:29:30,900 --> 02:29:36,720
So the motion is to adopt an order reversing our November 17, 2025 decision and that the conditional

1065
02:29:36,720 --> 02:29:40,980
use permit be denied based on evidence in the record and findings in the February 24,

1066
02:29:41,140 --> 02:29:46,020
2026 staff report and conclusions developed by the board of commissioners during these

1067
02:29:46,020 --> 02:29:50,880
deliberations and that the findings and conclusions be adopted as the final decision of the

1068
02:29:50,880 --> 02:29:55,920
board. The intention behind this motion is that the staff report, which I believe to be

1069
02:29:55,920 --> 02:29:59,960
comprehensive would serve as the findings of facts.

1070
02:30:09,160 --> 02:30:09,700
Okay.

1071
02:30:10,400 --> 02:30:13,840
And we had a second on that. And so we still have a second on that. Okay.

1072
02:30:15,360 --> 02:30:16,000
Go ahead.

1073
02:30:16,500 --> 02:30:17,040
Okay.

1074
02:30:18,140 --> 02:30:20,560
It's been moved in second ed.

1075
02:30:21,240 --> 02:30:23,320
All in favor of the motion. Say aye.

1076
02:30:23,740 --> 02:30:23,900
Aye.

1077
02:30:24,180 --> 02:30:24,300
Aye.

1078
02:30:26,260 --> 02:30:27,160
Any opposed?

1079
02:30:28,680 --> 02:30:29,620
Motion carries.

1080
02:30:30,560 --> 02:30:34,600
And this may help with your concerns.

1081
02:30:35,560 --> 02:30:39,680
The findings of fact and conclusions of the law are adopted.

1082
02:30:40,300 --> 02:30:50,260
A decision of the Board of Commissioners becomes final on the date of the Board of Commissioners adopts written findings of fact and conclusions of law.

1083
02:30:51,160 --> 02:30:59,120
The just adopted written decision is the final written decision of the Board of Commissioners adopted this date March 3, 2026.

1084
02:30:59,840 --> 02:31:05,520
The final written decision of the Board of Commissioners may be appealed to the Land

1085
02:31:05,520 --> 02:31:06,600
Use Board of Appeals.

1086
02:31:07,380 --> 02:31:09,380
This hearing is adjourned.

1087
02:31:26,690 --> 02:31:28,770
Okay, we get it.

1088
02:31:29,210 --> 02:31:30,410
Just to manage.

1089
02:31:30,930 --> 02:31:31,070
You?

1090
02:31:32,590 --> 02:31:36,130
No, but I've got to recess the meeting.

1091
02:31:36,610 --> 02:31:39,390
The hearing was adjourned.

1092
02:31:42,050 --> 02:31:42,770
Yeah.

1093
02:31:42,770 --> 02:31:52,530
All right. Could you quiet down, please? Could you quiet down, please, so we can finish our

1094
02:31:52,530 --> 02:31:53,150
board meeting?

1095
02:32:01,350 --> 02:32:07,190
That's what I was going to ask. Nothing else for me. All right. Our board meeting

1096
02:32:07,190 --> 02:32:08,110
as adjourned.