[0:04] be repeated. That's what I have to say.

[3:04] It's gone. >> The new one showed up last night. Same

[3:09] spot.

[3:14] » I believe it's 4:30 and even though I don't have a gu 5:30. Oh, I am in the

[3:21] wrong place. 30. It's 5:30. We'll call this meeting to order.

[3:27] 30. Oh, look.

[3:35] I would like to to move the items to be added to the agenda up and at this time

[3:41] add um two things to the agenda. The first one is the pledge of allegiance.

[3:46] Somehow the pledge of allegiance has gotten off of our agenda and I'd like to

[3:50] add it right after we finish this if that's good with council.

[3:55] » [clears throat] >> 500.

[3:56] » Are we good? >> Consensus is achieved.

[3:59] » Okay. And then the the second thing I'd like to do is I would like to take the

[4:05] public comment on non-aggenda items and put it as item F underneath the

[4:12] consent calendar and before public comment on agenda items. That's why we

[4:17] did it last month. It seemed to work pretty well. What do you think?

[4:25] » Yeah. >> Any issue?

[4:30] » And can we make those kind of permanent changes

[4:32] » agenda before agenda? >> Mhm.

[4:35] » We can then we'll start with the agenda after the agenda items and then that

[4:39] fits together.

[4:43] Okay. So the agenda has altered by those two

[4:48] things and our first

[4:53] item then would be the pledge of allegiance.

[4:57] We could all stand. Would you lead us, please?

[5:02] » Aliance to the flag United States of America.

[5:15] Amen.

[5:22] » Tonight we have some visitors via Zoom. Correct.

[5:30] » Are we with this yet? >> Yes.

[5:36] » Trisha, I'm going to promote you to a panelist and you'll need to accept that.

[5:52] » Okay, I think I've gotten this figured out. Hello Can you hear me? Okay.

[5:57] » Yep. >> Okay, great. Thanks.

[6:06] » Is it okay if I go ahead? >> Yes.

[6:09] » Oh, great. All right. Let me >> please. Welcome to Welcome to Council's

[6:13] business meeting. >> Thank you. All right. Let me get my

[6:17] PowerPoint shared here. I'm gonna Oh, I'm gonna send a request to you to allow

[6:23] me to share my screen. >> [clears throat]

[6:25] » I have a slide deck here

[6:34] and looks like I have permission. Okay. Can you see my screen? Okay. On on your

[6:42] end. >> Yeah. Yep. [clears throat]

[6:45] » Okay. Great. Hi everyone. Um looks like I have the wrong Dave here. Sorry about

[6:50] that. Um, but this is uh an overview of rate setting 101. I know on the agenda

[6:56] it said um rate study and I'll be talking about that, but it's a little

[7:01] bit more about the process of rate setting and all of the u information

[7:07] that goes into it. So, um I'm Trisha Ken. I work for RCAC.

[7:14] I will uh there we go. Forward the slide here.

[7:20] uh RCAC, Rural Community Assistance Corporation. Um we're a technical

[7:25] assistance provider that works with rural water and wastewater systems

[7:30] across the states that you see here in green, the western 13 states of the US.

[7:36] Um, but we also form part of the larger rural community assistance partnership,

[7:41] which is made up of a bunch of little companies just like RCAC across the

[7:45] country that work with small and rural wastewater and water systems um

[7:50] providing technical assistance to them. [clears throat]

[7:54] Beyond just water and wastewater, we also do some other things. There are so

[8:00] many programs going on at RCAC that I'm [clears throat] not even familiar with

[8:04] all of them. But we do um do affordable housing, um economic development. We

[8:10] have a loan fund which is helpful to provide that bridge funding for systems

[8:15] um taking on um uh USDA or SRF loans. We provide no cost trainings online and in

[8:26] person. And then we can also come out and do um inerson technical assistance.

[8:30] We do remote technical assistance. Uh and a big part of that is the rate

[8:35] studies that we do, income survey and things like that. So if any of that is

[8:39] interesting, you want to hear more about it, let me know. Uh my contact

[8:43] information is at the end of the um end of the presentation. I can get you

[8:49] connected with the right people at RCAC. And then a little bit of why we're even

[8:55] talking about rates when it comes to um drinking water. The safe drinking water

[9:02] amendments were passed by Congress in 1996

[9:06] um which focus on some special provisions related to small systems and

[9:12] that's systems less than 3,300. Um the focus here is not just the technical

[9:19] side of things, making sure we have safe quality drinking water, but what um

[9:23] Congress noticed was that when systems are um lacking on the managerial or

[9:28] financial side, then that makes it harder for them to provide that clean,

[9:32] safe drinking water to their customers. And so there was really that focus of

[9:36] all three are needed to ensure that our customers have clean, safe drinking

[9:41] water today, tomorrow, and into the future. And so that's why we're going to

[9:47] be talking about rates today, that falls under that financial side of things.

[9:53] Um, and so when we think about rates, setting rates, we have to go all the way

[9:59] back to the beginning. Um, and start with the budget. And so

[10:04] I'm going to be talking first about the cost of running our drinking water

[10:09] system and using that information to then inform what we should be charging

[10:14] our customers. And so there's not a whole lot of magic here. It's just

[10:20] tracking down the numbers um and keeping those really clear and transparent for

[10:25] our employees, for our staff, for our customers so that everyone knows uh what

[10:30] goes into setting the rates. And so the true cost of water um involves a few

[10:36] different components. There's our operating expenses, which is

[10:41] what we all think about when it comes to running a a drinking water utility. This

[10:46] is the day-to-day um operating costs. This can be, you know, chemicals for

[10:51] treating our water, paying our staff, um maintaining our equipment, things like

[10:56] that. Those are what we what come to mind when

[11:01] we think about uh running a drinking water utility. But then there are other

[11:06] costs that we have to pay whether our customers know it or not.

[11:11] And that includes things like capital outlays, which are the expenses that we

[11:16] have to pay to replace or refurbish our infrastructure that we have, if we need

[11:21] to dispose of assets, if we have to um pay on our debt, and contributions to

[11:28] reserves. And so, I'm going to talk about more of that in a second, but all

[11:32] of this really goes into what it costs to run our utility.

[11:38] And when we're getting really uh specific and down to the nitty-gritty,

[11:45] we break out our expenses even further into fixed expenses and variable

[11:49] expenses. And the fixed expenses are ones that we have to pay whether we sell

[11:54] a drop of water um this month or not. And that is paying on our debt, um

[12:00] paying our personnel, paying rent if we rent um

[12:07] a plant or an office building, maybe paying mortgage, things like that. Um

[12:11] we're going to have to pay whether we sell any water to our customers or not.

[12:15] Variable expenses. This uh increases and decreases depending on

[12:21] customer use. So we can think of um electricity maybe if our pumps are

[12:27] running more uh it's using more electricity and uh that is associated

[12:34] with the the higher uh usage of water that we see on the customer side. Uh

[12:39] maintenance there's more wear and tear in the system if our customers are using

[12:42] more water. Engineering fees it says here but maybe

[12:46] it would even include paying our staff overtime if they have to work more. Um

[12:52] maybe we're using more chemicals to treat water to clean our our uh our

[12:57] equipment, things like that. Um so our variable expenses increase and decrease

[13:02] depending on demand.

[13:07] Now I mentioned reserves earlier. This is

[13:10] there are many buckets you see here on this slide. Reserves are the money that

[13:14] we set aside to pay for things in the future. So, that could be um

[13:22] just one account that we have to set aside money or it could be as fine-tuned

[13:28] is what you see here. So, I'm going to go through these different buckets.

[13:33] Some systems have a couple of these. I've worked with some systems that have

[13:36] all of these reserves, but I I always say some reserves are better than no

[13:40] reserves. You don't need to have all these um different categories. So, debt

[13:45] service reserve. This is required if you hold debt. Your lenders like to make

[13:49] sure that you're able to make those monthly payments. And so, um, like USDA,

[13:54] for example, requires you to have one year's worth of payments available in

[14:00] reserves. Shortlived asset reserve is another category. Same thing. USDA as a

[14:06] lender likes to see that there's a separate reserve for equipment with a

[14:11] lifespan of 15 years or less. Operating reserve. This is a really common one.

[14:16] This allows the utility to withstand the cash flow fluctuations from month to

[14:21] month. So maybe customers pay late. Um customers don't pay at all. Maybe our

[14:26] expenses are higher one month we had a leak. Things like that. And so this

[14:30] provides that cushion of one and a half to two months worth of op operating

[14:35] expenses so we're able to um withstand those those es and flows.

[14:42] Emergency reserve these are set aside for those emergencies unplanned things

[14:49] that happen uh you know an equipment failure or a natural disaster whatever

[14:54] um caused the emergency. But this is typically the cost of your most

[14:59] expensive piece of equipment. The idea here is that if your expensive piece of

[15:04] equipment goes down, you have that money in reserves so you can purchase it and

[15:08] get back to operating as quick as possible so that you can continue

[15:12] providing that service of drinking water to your customers.

[15:16] And then the last one here, capital improvements reserve. This is for um

[15:21] system rehabilitation, uh long-term equipment replacement,

[15:25] system expansion, things like that. And again, it's uh

[15:32] really good to have that money that you're setting aside little by little so

[15:37] that you're able to make those repairs, replacements, etc. when you when you

[15:42] need to, when you know um your pump is going to go down, when you know that uh

[15:47] this valve is reaching the end of its useful life, you have those funds

[15:51] available to you because you've been planning for it all along.

[15:57] Okay, so bringing it back together, the true cost of service is that operating

[16:03] expense that we think of all the time, our non-operating expenses,

[16:09] um debt service, any debt that we need to pay to our lenders, and then thinking

[16:14] about what we need to set aside every month to our reserves. Um all of that

[16:19] together is the true cost of running our drinking water utility.

[16:26] And then this is the basis of um how we set our rate. So using all that

[16:33] information we put it together in our budget. Our budget is a document used to

[16:39] track income and expenses or money in and money out. Um

[16:45] and it's a really important tool. This is uh a road map. This is um the way we

[16:53] communicate as a council to our customers where our priorities are um

[16:58] and what our our long-term plans are. It's um yeah, one of the most important

[17:06] tools that we have as a decision-making body.

[17:11] Okay, so some more notes on putting together a budget. We want to make sure

[17:16] we're including debt service. I already mentioned that is uh part of the true

[17:22] cost of running a drinking water utility. And this is going to include

[17:26] any principal payments, interest payments that we owe, any lines of

[17:31] credit, any bonds payable, things like that. We want to make sure we're

[17:35] collecting all this information, considering it, and representing it in

[17:40] our budget. And then reserves. I already mentioned this, but yep, we also want to

[17:44] make sure that we're considering contributions to reserves that we're

[17:49] going to be making.

[17:53] Another important component of the rate study as well as budgeting is

[18:01] asset management. This is also a really important

[18:07] decision-making tool um as a utility and as a a city as a whole. Um but asset

[18:14] management is that process through which utilities manage their physical um

[18:20] assets and infrastructure to make sure that we're able to provide

[18:25] the service of clean, safe drinking water to our customers long term.

[18:30] And so asset management, one important way we do this is by first

[18:36] developing an asset inventory. And that's simply just a list of all the

[18:40] components that we have. What do we own? Um all the buildings, all the tools, all

[18:44] the equipment, vehicles, um all of our uh distribution lines,

[18:52] everything that we have, we just make a big list of it.

[18:58] And then this is probably very small on your end, so I'll just tell you what the

[19:03] spreadsheet is showing, but this is that asset inventory, our list of components

[19:07] that we have. Um, we also include information

[19:13] like when was it acquired and how much did it cost and then when

[19:19] do we anticipate replacing it. Um, so we have this tool at RCAC. we can um go

[19:27] through it with your system if this is a helpful tool. You might already have an

[19:31] asset inventory in place. Um but the the really great thing about this tool is

[19:37] you can look at what the estimated remaining life of the

[19:41] component is, how much we anticipate it's going to cost in the future, and

[19:45] then how we plan on paying for it. Are we going to set aside cash? Do we want

[19:51] to go for a loan? Things like that. Um, and we can enter it into the

[19:57] spreadsheet. So, we can be calculating how much we'll uh need to set aside each

[20:02] year in reserves to be able to pay for um the pump, the inlet, the whatever it

[20:10] might be um when it needs to be replaced.

[20:17] Okay. So, back to the budget.

[20:22] We're going to combine all this information together.

[20:29] This slide again, this is all really small on your end, I'm sure. Sorry about

[20:32] this. But this is showing that um you don't want to just use last year's

[20:39] budget to inform this year's budget. We want to take an average of the last

[20:45] four years or at least look at the last four years to make sure that we're not

[20:49] basing this year's budget off of any sort of anomalies that happened in last

[20:53] year's budget. So maybe we ended up having um to pay to pay really high fuel

[20:59] costs last year or um maybe there was a lot of repair and maintenance that

[21:03] happened. We had a a lot of leaks, whatever it might be. We want [snorts]

[21:06] to look at what was normal, what was pretty average over the past four years

[21:11] and use that then to set our budget.

[21:19] Okay. Another thing that we like to consider,

[21:23] this is also something that um we build into the rate study. So we'll be doing

[21:28] this when we um start the rate study, but we look at fixed versus variable

[21:33] costs. Some of these line items from the budget are partially fixed and partially

[21:39] variable. So things like um fuel or equipment maintenance. There is a

[21:44] certain amount of that that we need to pay regardless. And then some of that um

[21:50] will increase and decrease depending on how much water our customers are using.

[21:55] And so our model allows us to really fine-tune that uh how much of um

[22:01] electricity is fixed and how much of that is a variable cost. And so we work

[22:06] with um the utility staff, so uh city staff members to really get a good idea

[22:13] of how much of these costs are fixed and how much are variable so that we're

[22:19] representing it appropriately. One more thing that um we take into

[22:26] consideration and we recommend that systems take into consideration when

[22:30] building their budgets is inflation. This is a really handy tool from the US

[22:35] Bureau of Labor Statistics that allows you to um look at inflation from year to

[22:42] year. We recommend around 3 to 4% building that into your budget. Um, but

[22:49] I would say double check with this tool when you're going to set your budget,

[22:52] which that time has passed for this year, but just a recommendation of this

[22:57] is a great tool to use. Um, and this is what we use as well. Whoops.

[23:04] Um and then

[23:09] another uh this will be a step in the rate study

[23:12] process but we project out the next five years of expenses

[23:18] using your uh budget from this year. And so it looks like this which again is

[23:22] very small. Sorry about that. But projecting out for the next five years

[23:27] really helps us to look into the future. It helps give us an idea of what our

[23:33] revenue requirements are going to be, not just this year, but over the next

[23:38] five years, which you know, um is is as far as the model will allow us to look,

[23:44] but uh if if it's helpful for you, you could project out further on your end um

[23:50] for that long-term planning. But this not only helps us as um a

[23:59] governing body to understand where our expenses are and where they're going to

[24:03] be over the next 5 years, but it also allows us to communicate with our

[24:06] customers um what the anticipated expenses are coming up. It's a really

[24:11] great tool. So yeah, this is built into the rate model and then we use this to

[24:16] help um inform the rates that we develop.

[24:21] And yes, then we calculate the revenue needed based on those expenses that we

[24:26] see. And so revenue

[24:30] comes from um a couple of different sources. The main one that we focus on

[24:35] is operating revenue. This is our water base rates um and our water usage rates.

[24:42] It says late fees here. We really don't like to um [snorts] base our rates on

[24:48] late fees. We'd like to assume that this is not a steady source of revenue for a

[24:54] water utility. We like to focus on what our business is and that is um providing

[24:59] clean safe drinking water to our customers. So that's just the base rate

[25:02] and the usage rate. However, some systems do have

[25:07] nonoperating revenue. You might have non-operating revenue

[25:11] like interest on investments that you have. Um the example here, cell tower,

[25:16] rental income, that might be a source of revenue. Um grants and loans, things

[25:21] like that.

[25:25] Okay. And so then we also will project out budget revenue,

[25:31] how we anticipate that to um correlate with our expenses. And

[25:40] we we recommend at least increasing your rates annually with inflation. Um so

[25:49] that 3 to 4% so that at least you're able to make sure that you're covering

[25:56] that baseline um increase that we know is going to happen year after year.

[26:05] This again is very small but this is just showing when we carry over our

[26:08] revenues um and line it up with our expenses they

[26:13] should balance. We should not be in the red. That is the

[26:17] goal and that is what we will do with the rate study. Make sure that the uh

[26:22] revenue is covering the expenses and if it's not we'll figure out what rate is

[26:29] needed to cover the expenses of the system.

[26:34] Okay? Okay. And I already mentioned this, but a purpose of a 5-year budget

[26:37] is to have that long-term planning. Um, your customers are aware of um where

[26:47] we're going as a utility, any projects on the horizon, any expenses, and it

[26:53] really helps to make it very clear what the revenue requirements are. So, these

[26:58] numbers aren't coming from nowhere. They're coming from the expenses of the

[27:03] system.

[27:07] And then this is a helpful tool. So once you have your budget in place, the

[27:11] budget comparison tool, budget comparison report um helps to keep you

[27:17] on track, makes you aware of either month-to-month or quarterly or however

[27:22] often you prepare these reports of are we on track, are we over, are we under,

[27:28] how are we doing? Um, and if there are any

[27:33] um, discrepancies here, you can see what's

[27:38] happening. Um, and you can correct course or you can, uh, maybe

[27:45] adjust for the rest of the year based on what's going on. Like I said,

[27:48] monthtomonth when you check it, uh, every week if you check it that often,

[27:52] quarterly, however. Um, but this is a really great tool for keeping track of

[27:58] that. And then here are some really great

[28:02] questions to ask yourselves as you are um setting your budget, as

[28:08] you're setting your rates annually per American Waterworkers Association.

[28:14] Um did our revenue exceed our expenses in each of the last three years? All of

[28:20] our are all of our scheduled debt payments being made? Are our reserve

[28:25] accounts fully funded? Um, are our emergency and preventive maintenance

[28:30] costs covered? Are we in compliance? Do we have any violations that we need to

[28:34] take care of? And then, have we increased our rates in the last 3 years?

[28:38] And if the answer is yes to all of these, excellent. Good job. Keep doing

[28:44] it. And if you answered no to any of these, then that's a good indicator of

[28:49] an area that we can focus on. So, um, yeah, great questions to to think about.

[28:58] And then something else that we take into consideration with our rate studies

[29:02] is that rates should be all of these things here. So, most basically, they

[29:07] should cover the costs associated with delivering drinking water to our

[29:10] customers. They should be fair and equitable,

[29:14] meaning that no one customer, one customer class is bearing the burden um

[29:19] or is paying an unfair amount. Um they should be used to support the

[29:25] water utility only. So no co-mingling with wastewater. Um so we want to keep

[29:30] our books really clean so we know the costs of the drinking water utility and

[29:35] making sure that our revenue um is covering that or is used to cover that.

[29:41] Um, our rate should be transparent. It should be very easy for our customers to

[29:44] understand exactly where the money's going.

[29:48] Um, easily understood, shouldn't be unnecessarily complicated

[29:52] or too many customer classes or anything like that. The the easier it is um the

[29:59] better it is for our staff to be able [snorts] to administer it, for our

[30:04] customers to understand it, and for the council to be able to explain it.

[30:10] And then just a couple more notes here on what goes into rates. So what are the

[30:16] components of rates? It's the who is charged. It's the how often they're

[30:20] charged. And it's the how much are they charged.

[30:24] So let's break this down a little bit more.

[30:29] So we have the base rate and usage rate. Um

[30:35] this is as I mentioned before the base rate is

[30:39] used to cover the fixed operating cost. So that's things like um you know paying

[30:44] on our debt, paying our rent, things like that that we have to pay every

[30:48] month regardless. Our base rate should you use be used to cover that. Oh,

[30:53] actually I'm going to go over that on the next slide. So I'll just I'll just

[30:58] forward ahead. So yeah, our um base rate should be used to cover those uh fixed

[31:06] expenses and per American Waterworkers

[31:10] Association best practice is that your base rate doesn't include any water. Um

[31:16] but it's can be thought of as a membership into the system. It's getting

[31:21] you access to that drinking water. Um, but then the usage rate is where you pay

[31:28] for the water you use. I've worked with a lot of systems that think of it as

[31:34] um water included in the base rate is the water that you get every month and

[31:39] then you are charged overage charges um for any water you use over that. And

[31:48] I I'd like to reframe that to we pay for the water that we use with our usage

[31:54] rate. Um and that makes it really easy to

[31:59] um cover our variable costs and for customers to see how much water that

[32:03] they're really using. Um so let's let's see let's talk quickly about the base

[32:09] rate. This is calculated and this is what our model does on our end. It's

[32:15] nothing fancy. It looks at the average monthly fixed cost of what the system

[32:21] um it the expenses of the system and then divides it by the number of

[32:26] customers. And so in this example, it's quite simple. Um we're assuming that all

[32:31] the customers are the same customer class and the same meter size and we get

[32:36] a a nice uh number on the other end. our model is able to accommodate different

[32:43] customer classes, different meter sizes. So um yeah, when these calculations get

[32:49] a little more complicated, the model is good for that.

[32:55] And then as I said before, the purpose of the usage rate should cover those

[32:58] variable expenses. So, our electric bill, um fuel, maintenance, chemicals,

[33:06] if we have to pay overtime, um if there's extra, yeah, um

[33:12] maintenance on the system this month, whatever it might be, that should be

[33:16] covered by your usage rates. And that is calculated differently that you take the

[33:21] variable costs of the system that month and divide it by the average total water

[33:26] usage. So, um, then it's broken down into the cost per thousand gallons or

[33:34] cost per cubic foot or 100 cubic feet or however, um, whatever the usage unit is

[33:41] for your system.

[33:47] And then a note here, equitability. Um, we want to make sure that our customer

[33:55] classes are fair. um and that customers are paying their fair share. And so this

[34:00] means that the larger meters sized customers are paying a higher base rate

[34:07] because there is higher demand that they're placing on the system. There's

[34:12] more wear and tear they're placing on the system. Um and that is best practice

[34:18] per American Waterworkers Association. I know that a lot of systems don't have

[34:22] that in place necessarily. So large meters uh large metersized customers

[34:27] will pay pretty close to what a small meter size customer pays in a base rate

[34:33] and it is what it is. Um it's not recommended necessarily but we also have

[34:40] to take into consideration customer satisfaction and um and things like

[34:45] that. So that is something that when we do the

[34:48] rate study we will explore that and uh make that recommendation.

[34:55] And then this slide is really just showing the the delaying of an in rate

[35:00] increase ends up being more of a burden on

[35:05] customers. I know sometimes it's hard to make that decision of um increasing

[35:10] rates annually even if it's just that 3 to 4% to to uh match inflation. Um, but

[35:20] it really does reduce the burden on customers to increase a little bit

[35:23] yearbyear because then they're able to plan. They're able to budget for it

[35:29] because they know that it's coming rather than uh, you know, putting it off

[35:33] 10, five, 10 years and then hitting them with a a large increase because now

[35:37] we're behind. So, yep, it is uh less of a burden on them to to just have those

[35:43] incremental increases year after year so that they know what's coming.

[35:50] And then we recommend that you review your rates annually when you review your

[35:55] budget. That way we can see what the expenses are for the year and then make

[35:59] sure that the rates are are covering um what those expenses are,

[36:05] which are these our operating nonoperating expenses, our debt

[36:09] payments, taxes, fees, and contributions to our um reserve account. And that is

[36:17] all I let me go here. This is that's all I have. We have not started the rate

[36:23] study yet. Um but we like to do this initial kickoff

[36:28] meeting so that um everyone is on the same page. We've worked with some

[36:33] systems in the past where you know maybe the council isn't aware

[36:39] of the rate study or doesn't know all the the steps that go into the rate

[36:43] study. So, we like to make sure that um yeah, everyone knows what's going on,

[36:51] that the customers are brought into the fold, they know um what to expect. And

[36:56] just to set some other expectations here, the rate study does take quite a

[36:59] bit of time. It could take anywhere from 6 months to a year depending on how

[37:04] quickly we get the information in from um

[37:09] your staff members. And so um also asking your patients as we collect data

[37:16] and put it into the model and uh yeah there's often a lot of back and forth as

[37:23] we um make sure that the data is in the best uh condition possible. So that

[37:29] means making sure we don't have any um inactive customers that we're inputting

[37:35] into the model or making sure that um the usage is correct that there isn't

[37:42] any um errors and and uh meter reading things like that. So uh yeah that's all

[37:48] I have. Are there any um here's my contact information. You can send me

[37:53] questions. I don't know if there's time to take questions now, but here I'll uh

[37:59] I can stop sharing.

[38:03] Where's my mouse? Okay, stop sharing. >> Do you have any questions?

[38:06] » I don't have a question. I don't have >> Do we have a start date?

[38:12] » We don't have that yet. Um, I would need to talk to Becca on my end to see well

[38:21] with the city obviously um to see what her availability is. We might

[38:26] [clears throat] begin I think just thinking about

[38:30] funding for us because this fiscal year is closing um and so we might be looking

[38:37] at September to start just based on yeah where our funding is. So

[38:45] we can share that information with you and um the funding is available to us

[38:51] and we can start work.

[38:55] » Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you.

[38:57] » You have any questions? Any other questions from the audience?

[39:02] » Trisha, we appreciate this. Um we don't have any other questions.

[39:07] » Great. >> So we uh we look forward to you getting

[39:10] started in September. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for u the

[39:14] opportunity to speak. >> Thank you for coming.

[39:18] » Great. Take care. Have a good night. >> You too.

[39:20] » You too. >> Okay. Bye. Bye.

[39:25] » Right. Item number one. We can check off. Item number two,

[39:31] the emergency volunteers. >> Oh, I'm switching hats. Okay.

[39:36] » Um little bit of information to share. We earned $836

[39:42] at our raffle at Gabbaldi Days. Uh big thanks to all the businesses that

[39:48] donated to us. Um great shakeout is coming up October 15th at 10:15. I'll

[39:56] have a lot more information at the next meeting on that. Um,

[40:02] one of the things my group is looking at gathering information on elderly people

[40:08] or disabled people that are along that 101 area that may need help getting to

[40:16] safety if there were a disaster. We're not quite sure how to collect this

[40:22] information. So, if anybody has some good suggestions on how we could do

[40:26] that, that would be helpful. Uh, Rockaway has a radio class coming up

[40:33] on August 26 at 6 PM at their city hall. Everybody's welcome to attend that. Um,

[40:41] EVNBC has a go bag popup. If you don't have a

[40:46] go bag and you've been having troubles getting one started for yourself, you

[40:51] can order through their website. They have a starter bag at 65 and then a more

[40:56] complete go bag at 125. You order on pay online and then go to the Manzanita Old

[41:03] Police Station to pick it up. And September 19th from 12 to 12:30 at the

[41:10] Nalum Fire Station, there's a water sanitation and hygiene class and they

[41:16] are now charging a $20 fee for that. That's Oh, and I brought extra booklets.

[41:22] If anybody does not have one and would like one, go ahead and grab one. These

[41:27] are the booklets at Get Ready Gabaldi.

[41:32] » That's it. >> Thank you.

[41:34] » Thank you. You're welcome.

[41:38] » Hey, we have no public hearing.

[41:44] So, the next thing is the consent calendar.

[41:48] Does anybody have anything for the consent calendar?

[41:54] I have a correction on minutes.

[41:59] Um

[42:03] or the July 13th on page two. I'm asking for the pay the employee payroll costs.

[42:10] I' I'd like to see a sentence put in there that says something along the

[42:13] lines of the workshop packet provided a breakdown of staff costs as requested

[42:18] during the budget committee meeting and then that would be followed with what we

[42:21] have there which is there was no discussion of the agenda item

[42:26] that be acceptable.

[42:30] » Yeah, >> sure.

[42:31] » We're good with that one. And then the other one,

[42:39] oh this one was simple for July 20th. Um, under the consent calendar, it says

[42:46] a motion was made to approve the consent calendar. It should be with edits

[42:51] because we had edits to

[42:56] again. Anybody have any other questions about

[43:00] anything in here? Then I picked up.

[43:10] » All right. >> I had a couple of questions on the

[43:13] financial report. Of course, I would have a couple of questions on the

[43:17] financial report. >> Can I approve the consent calendar?

[43:20] » Not yet because I'm not done yet with the stuff that's in it.

[43:23] » Okay. Um, so I I noted that the business licenses have been pretty much um

[43:29] collected and Becca assured me they're done in July. So that's why we have so

[43:35] much money there. And then I checked on property for the

[43:41] general fund building and grounds maintenance. We had 115,000 in there. I

[43:46] just wanted to be sure that that was the account we're going to use to pay for

[43:50] the remediation work on the building. So, I just checked on that and she said

[43:56] I was right about that.

[44:02] Oh, the systems maintenance and repair on

[44:07] streets was $5,64362.

[44:13] That's how much it cost us to put down the the arrows and the signs. Is that

[44:18] what that was? >> Some um there was some asphalt also that

[44:21] » had some asphalt. >> Yeah. So, so that's how much it cost us

[44:24] to do all that work. Correct. Can you say

[44:30] we made the one-way streets work? We paid for it.

[44:36] All right. I think that's the end of what I have there

[44:40] that I'm going to do tonight. Um, anything else

[44:45] that you guys have? >> I have nothing.

[44:49] » Do we want to have a motion to accept the consent calendar? with the edits.

[44:55] » Make a motion to approve the consent calendar with edits.

[45:01] » Got that a mot that motion. >> We have a motion to approve the consent

[45:06] calendar with the edits. Been seconded. Any further discussion?

[45:12] All those in favor say I. I. >> Those opposed hearing none measure

[45:19] passes. Consent calendar has been accepted.

[45:25] So the next thing is non-aggenda public comments. So this is

[45:30] comments must be limited to city business topics that are not on the

[45:34] agenda. A topic may not be discussed if the topic record has been closed. All

[45:40] remarks should be directed to the whole council. The presiding officer may

[45:44] refuse to recognize speakers, limit the time permitted for comments, and ask

[45:48] groups to select a spokesperson. Promise may also be submitted in writing

[45:53] before the meeting by mail or email or in person to city hall.

[45:59] Did we have any of those? None.

[46:04] And we have one item not on the agenda from Heidi Parker.

[46:12] » I wasn't sure if that's where I would slide in. I did send an email. I thought

[46:17] I sent it Sunday. It ended up going in.

[46:22] the email you know >> this is we

[46:25] Tiffany Stewart we did get your email um we have not yet had a chance to deal

[46:31] with your email but have we I have read part of it have you guys read it

[46:35] » I I read it and I went up to her property earlier today okay

[46:39] » to examine personally what the issue >> sure

[46:46] » I think the most useful thing be if I could leave the pack it with somebody.

[46:51] Um, >> take it.

[46:52] » Wonderful. And it pretty much clarifies everything.

[46:56] » Thank you. >> Should I just read what I sent?

[47:01] » You just summarize what what the problem is.

[47:04] » So, I uh bought my house about 5 years ago here in Gabaldi. Um, and the woman

[47:09] that sold me the house, she also owned the property directly above me. So, the

[47:13] retaining wall is between these properties. Um a few years ago she sold

[47:17] that uh property above me to her daughter. Um but in the five years that

[47:21] retaining wall is just getting worse and worse and worse. With every ret rain

[47:24] rainy season it's like that retaining wall has come down on me. Um and all the

[47:29] problems stem from everything on that upper property. They have this extreme

[47:34] black sheeting that runs directly onto the retaining wall. Um they're absentee

[47:40] owners. So the gutters just it's is a waterfall onto the plastic sheeting onto

[47:45] the retaining wall. It's just incredible how much water that's absorbed. It's

[47:49] just splinters right now. The vegetation is extreme. Um and that has done so much

[47:54] damage. When I moved on, it was all just down casking over the retaining wall.

[47:58] They wouldn't um take it out. I asked them if I could do it and their response

[48:03] was um ask my mom. So I had to track her down and she said, "Sure, do what you

[48:08] will." So, every single year I'm up there with my power tools just hacking

[48:11] at this stuff. The branches are this thick and they're just pushing on that

[48:15] retaining wall. Um, >> is the retaining wall on your property

[48:18] or on their >> It hasn't been officially done yet, but

[48:21] from the coordinates that I got, it looks like it's it's going to end up on

[48:24] my property. But the thing is is all of the damage is coming from from their

[48:29] property. And then what helps in this is the fact that my wall extends onto the

[48:33] west property. Um, so it's this next door neighbor. So you could see what

[48:37] that wall would look like if it wasn't for all of these issues coming down on

[48:42] me. So it's really nice to have that comparison over this is same wall, same

[48:46] year built. It's perfectly standing. My wall is just coming apart because of all

[48:50] of these issues. >> Um

[48:53] we have an engineer coming out. Are we going to have him look at this?

[48:59] » No. >> Okay. And I state that because um

[49:03] from looking at this, I believe this is going to be a civil issue. This is not

[49:07] going to be a city issue. >> Okay.

[49:09] » But even so, from civil, they need the city to be able to come out and have an

[49:13] assessment saying, "We've looked at the property and this is what our findings

[49:17] are before it goes." >> That's something that we would be do

[49:20] that we would do. The city would come out and

[49:23] » What makes you think that that's the case? Uh just conversations I've had in

[49:27] the past over the past five years >> with other citizens or attorneys or I

[49:31] mean who >> was an attorney about four years ago. Um

[49:35] that was the indication that I'd need to get some something from from the county

[49:38] and then it became the city issue. >> Well, I can certainly understand why the

[49:42] county punted. Um and so in [clears throat] your letter you

[49:47] mentioned that you had correspondence from county and city.

[49:50] » What have you received? Is that in there from the city of Gabaldi? Somebody sent

[49:55] you information >> to Jake um Boon when he was the manager

[49:59] here. I sent him the letters that I had worked with the county because the

[50:02] county told me to send it to the city of Galdi and Jake Boon ran to the property

[50:07] and he took a look at things and he saw what I was talking about and he said he

[50:10] was going to bring the someone else from the city out to take a look at it. Um

[50:14] and that's where the communication ended. I waited to hear from them and I

[50:18] never did. So I sent the letter to city of Gabaldi, you know, months in saying

[50:23] where are the findings and then nothing came of that. Um, so that's whenever I

[50:28] wanted to come to the council and ask for help.

[50:33] » Can I get you to state your name really quick?

[50:35] » Tiffany Stewart. >> Tiffany Stewart. Thank you.

[50:37] » It's not here. Amy, >> um, since this is the first that

[50:43] » Sure. Sure. I understand. And unfortunately, Jake didn't share any of

[50:46] this with us before, so we're kind of in the dark as well. We're going to need a

[50:52] couple of weeks to to deal with the situation. Um, council will work with

[50:56] management, see what we can do. >> Sounds good. Thank you.

[50:59] » And um and then one of us, someone either from council or from management

[51:04] will get back to you. >> I appreciate that.

[51:05] » Okay. >> And if we don't, you can come chastise.

[51:09] [laughter] >> Okay. Thank you.

[51:10] » When was the retaining wall built? Do you know? Um I yeah I really don't.

[51:15] » And is it your is it your retaining wall or the neighbor's retaining wall?

[51:19] » Um >> if if I was getting the property lines

[51:21] correctly and I'm just using my GPS on my phone. I'm guessing the wall falls on

[51:25] on my property >> on your property. Okay.

[51:28] » So when I look into this on like Zillow or something, it looked like th those

[51:32] properties were built in 2010. >> Okay. Uh, and if they were owned by the

[51:38] same person, that person, you know, if they built two lots,

[51:43] likely put that retaining wall, you know, to to allow them to build on

[51:48] two lots. I don't really know this, but just from guessing. And

[51:53] » and somewhere along the line, obviously, the

[51:56] walls now

[52:00] um not supporting >> terrain properly,

[52:04] » but at some point no matter what.

[52:07] » Well, sure. It's wood. I mean, uh, so and it's 25 years old. Yeah. Well, the

[52:12] parts I saw were >> and so

[52:16] » that's the good side. That's the one that's still standing.

[52:19] » Oh, >> but it looked like unless there's some

[52:23] city rightway, I I didn't see a role for the city. And if somebody has

[52:30] like offered a role for the city, we need to understand what that is.

[52:34] » Okay. It was my understanding that the city could could take a look at an

[52:39] engineer. I'm not sure what roles, you know, the city has for that and be like,

[52:43] "This is this is our we've looked at your property. Um, what contributors

[52:48] could be happening, you know, right now to make this wall fall." That's kind of

[52:53] what I'm after. It's just the city, you know, somebody that knows what they're

[52:57] doing. We've looked at it and these are the contributing factors for the failure

[53:00] of this wall. I'm I'm afraid that we're probably going to come down to what our

[53:05] city manager said, which is it's becoming a civil matter and the city's

[53:09] not going to be able to do that for you. >> But like I said, we're going to talk and

[53:13] we'll see what we can do for you >> and we'll do as much as we can.

[53:17] » Understand? Thank you. >> Right. Um this is a really hard thing

[53:20] and that hillside um I live in the hillside uh area as

[53:26] well. And fortunately for me, I don't have anybody behind me.

[53:30] » And so I don't have to deal with somebody doing something stupid behind

[53:33] me. >> Okay.

[53:34] » Um which is kind of what happens if you're building up above and you're not

[53:38] you're not aware really of how you're impacting somebody else,

[53:43] » right? >> And that is not a city issue. So

[53:47] » yeah, I don't just just from my first impression, I mean, I think that this is

[53:50] probably a private matter. Um, another thing I remember from these

[53:54] past conversations was they said that the city could enforce that they correct

[53:59] the issues that are continuing to cause cause the damage. So like pulling up the

[54:04] plastic sheeting that the city could at least go that direction be like you have

[54:08] to correct these issues. You know, >> there's a possibility of that.

[54:12] » All right. Well, thank you for listening.

[54:15] » Thank you for coming. Okay, Heidi, are you on or off the

[54:21] agenda? >> No, not on agenda.

[54:24] » Then come on down. >> You're using that arm again, girl.

[54:29] You're going to have to You're going to be well

[54:31] » getting better. Um well, uh Heidi Parker 6016.

[54:40] Uh, first of all, I'd like to commend uh, councelor uh, Porter for taking

[54:45] interest in the email and actually physically going out and looking at what

[54:50] um, >> this what Tiffany was speaking about. I

[54:54] I that's the first time I've heard about that since, you know, a counselor coming

[54:59] out, not necessarily the city people, but anyway, so kudos to you. You

[55:05] » Thanks. >> You're welcome. Uh the other issue is is

[55:10] that um the the contractor that is building the two houses behind me has

[55:17] smashed the covert. The culvert has been smashed. The inflowing water and

[55:22] outflowing is is smashed. I did point it out to to Nick um when he was on a site

[55:29] visit for something else. He just happened to have a minute to to peek at

[55:33] that. Um I did want to keep bringing this issue. But I feel like if it, you

[55:38] know, if they can't go in under the culvert that's been there forever,

[55:42] um, it's probably going to go on Mike's property. And I don't know who Mike is,

[55:47] but he's on the, let me think quickly. He would be on the souththeast corner.

[55:53] » You have a stop recorder on that. >> No, no, no, no, no, no.

[55:57] » This doesn't have anything to do with it. This is on city property.

[55:59] » Oh, okay. >> It was caused by

[56:02] » the constant parking and running heavy equipment.

[56:06] uh from city park uh property the street onto the property smashed it. So uh I

[56:14] just kind of wanted to keep dripping on this point. Um and just hopefully I

[56:20] don't think it's going to be super hard to solve. I don't think it's going to be

[56:23] super expensive to solve. It's just an issue that just needs to be solved. And

[56:28] so I'd like to talk about that. And my minute three

[56:32] minutes are probably up already. So >> well we got what the essence of the

[56:38] problem is. The covert is broken. >> Covert is broken is problem with rainy

[56:44] season coming. >> Okay.

[56:50] » Thank you. >> Thank you.

[56:57] » No public comments on agenda items.

[57:03] So, we're on to old business. Audit status update.

[57:09] » Just received the draft for the 2324 audit.

[57:14] Um, I did not get a chance to go through it today, so I have really no

[57:18] information on what that says except for this is the fourth audit I've completed

[57:22] since I started in March of 24. Congratulations.

[57:29] Um, we're going to get them scheduled for a workshop. the auditors to come to

[57:33] a workshop. >> I'm gonna try to um right now they're

[57:36] traveling doing audits. So, >> yeah,

[57:39] » to get them in, but I will um I'll ask him

[57:43] » if he's going to be available for the next month's workshop. Um and then I

[57:48] will have more information on that audit um at the next meeting.

[57:52] » Yeah. Great. So if I understand correctly, we have

[57:57] one more outstanding audit that's part of our problem children

[58:03] » 26. >> Okay. And then we will just be current

[58:05] with the 2526 >> uh fiscal year that just that just

[58:11] ended. >> Yeah.

[58:12] » Which isn't due until December. >> It will probably be late.

[58:16] » Yes. because we're going to finish 2425 before you can actually start looking at

[58:23] 2526. >> So, at what point do you think we'll be

[58:29] able to apply for grants again that we are now prohibited from

[58:34] » and and should we start thinking about trying to get in line?

[58:39] » Start thinking about it because we're we are getting closer to that finish line.

[58:44] Um, I don't think it hurts to try. >> Is there somebody at the state we can

[58:49] contact and say, "Look, we've been behaving in good faith and we are up

[58:51] against financial, you know, issues. Uh, what, you know, can we get on somebody's

[58:57] good child list and, [laughter] you know, get out of the corner with our

[59:01] dunce hat on and >> I can try to contact somebody and see.

[59:06] » Yeah. And if you know if you need if there's something I can do to kind of

[59:09] help with that or go look at something or go beg somebody, you know, going to

[59:13] need money. >> A lot of times grants take a while to

[59:16] write. >> Sure.

[59:17] » So it's finding them and getting the getting them written up and and then by

[59:22] that time perhaps the audits would be >> Yeah. I mean if if we could get

[59:26] organized so that when the green flag drops we're running that would be nice.

[59:32] » That would be the the best of all worlds. I hope.

[59:37] » Yes, absolutely. >> See what I can do.

[59:41] » Anything else on audits?

[59:46] » Thank you again for persevering cuz and everybody wants to know

[59:53] and everyone thinks you're actually doing them. No,

[59:56] » which is not the case. No. So, it gets a little crazy.

[1:00:01] uh Gabaldi wayfinding project update.

[1:00:08] So we had the meeting on the 5th of August

[1:00:13] and we discussed it at the workshop and it was just kind of ideas of different

[1:00:19] signage, kiosks, logos, um storage units for

[1:00:25] carts, >> right?

[1:00:27] Um, so the gentleman that came and gave the presentation was given some changes

[1:00:34] and updates, different ideas, and now from what I understand, we're waiting

[1:00:39] for him to come back with another plan. And

[1:00:42] » that's what I understand. >> And then we can start picking color

[1:00:45] schemes, if we want to update our logo, those kinds of things.

[1:00:51] » Awesome. Is that good? >> We're all good. Okay.

[1:00:58] City manager recruitment update. >> Yes. So, I received three proposals.

[1:01:05] A few people that I have emailed.

[1:01:11] You all have the I gave out a summary

[1:01:17] which I do. It's in the packet. Did I put the

[1:01:23] summary? In there. Um, I spoke to Katherine Stock,

[1:01:29] the mayor of Manzanita, and they are using

[1:01:33] » Jensen, >> uh, Jensen right now, and she had she

[1:01:38] was very complimentary about what they were doing and, um, and how they were

[1:01:43] handling the recruitment.

[1:01:47] I put together like a little table here where it shows like Profan is a 12 to 14

[1:01:54] week adventure with a $16,500 fee and about $6,500 in other expenses,

[1:02:03] possibly more. And Jensen is 14 to 16 weeks time frame, $28,000 with $7500 in

[1:02:12] expenses. and WBCP

[1:02:16] is 12 to 14 weeks at 219 with about 69 in expenses.

[1:02:24] » Can you remind me did we use a company when we recruited the last city manager

[1:02:29] and who was that? I too um I was just going through some stuff today and I had

[1:02:34] seen we've received stuff from Cropman in the past and the other one was the

[1:02:40] WBC >> Wendy Brown.

[1:02:44] » So we've

[1:02:47] read I don't think that they did a lot for the city.

[1:02:52] » Okay. >> Did we pay a lot for their services?

[1:02:58] » What's that? Did we pay a lot for their services?

[1:03:02] » I think we just barely got started with them and John Shimp showed up and we

[1:03:07] took that and ran [clears throat] >> about 7,500

[1:03:11] » and so we didn't really we didn't really use our services. We didn't end up doing

[1:03:16] a recruitment through

[1:03:20] » Did they seem responsive and helpful and appropriate or would it be something you

[1:03:25] wouldn't want to re-engage in?

[1:03:32] It's more of

[1:03:36] » the quality of the employee that we received versus

[1:03:41] » so their professional >> they didn't really

[1:03:44] » services were fine. We just got burned on the human. said we they didn't really

[1:03:50] him. They didn't he didn't really um John really didn't really come through

[1:03:55] » went around through the back door and come in and says, "Oh yeah, here you're

[1:03:58] looking for a city manager. I'll do it." >> Okay.

[1:04:04] » So, we started as a as a recruitment with

[1:04:07] » So, we really are going to be farther along than we've ever been before in

[1:04:10] terms of engaging professional help. Is that what I'm saying? It's

[1:04:13] » true.

[1:04:16] » And and by doing that, we sort of like take it off of our plate and we let them

[1:04:21] do it. We have input here, there, and the other, and they're going to direct

[1:04:24] us into where that input needs to be. Um either from us or from staff. Um

[1:04:31] » well, yeah, I mean, I followed what their, you know, projected proposals

[1:04:35] were. I'm just concerned about the repetitive nature of looking for

[1:04:40] city managers that our history that we're sort of locked in with our

[1:04:45] history for a minute. I'm >> going to try to make this the last one

[1:04:47] for >> that was my hope.

[1:04:49] » Do you any thoughts on which company would be best

[1:04:57] » or you would prefer? >> If I would choose I would go with

[1:04:59] Jensen. >> Okay. um reading their proposal and then

[1:05:04] talking to people in Manita have been have had no complaints about them.

[1:05:10] » Okay. >> Do we have some idea the longevity of

[1:05:13] people who they have recommended for other cities positions and you know

[1:05:20] » how many times they've had to do a free search for somebody who left within a

[1:05:25] year like they're guaranteed >> saying that they do have a guaranteed

[1:05:29] clause. Well, I read that, but you know, that's like getting my brain guaranteed.

[1:05:33] They'll find a way not to.

[1:05:40] » Of course. >> Of course.

[1:05:42] » Yes. Exactly. True.

[1:05:47] » Then the next question is, do we have the money? It's my

[1:05:50] » that's >> that's your way concern. [laughter]

[1:05:54] Okay. >> So, you're looking at about uh roughly

[1:05:59] 35,500

[1:06:03] » paid out like are they monthly? Were they monthly or three times?

[1:06:08] » Time shot. >> Invoices are submitted monthly or

[1:06:11] services rendered. Payment due within 30 days.

[1:06:16] » So, it's not 35 at one time. It's it's it's going to be monthly. So, it's

[1:06:22] stretches it out a little bit. I is that or would that be

[1:06:28] the variable expenses that you're going to be responsible for? They're talking

[1:06:31] about. >> So,

[1:06:33] » I mean, they don't divide the 35,000 over or the 28,000

[1:06:37] » 28,000 and then they um estimated reimburseable expenses of 7500.

[1:06:43] » And are those what they're talking about monthly they give that or

[1:06:47] » thought it was >> or are you advertising the entire fee?

[1:06:52] It does not say. It just says invoices submitted month.

[1:06:57] » So my guess would be that those invoices are the reimburseables

[1:07:01] » and that somehow you've dropped a big chunk of money up front.

[1:07:04] » But I think that I thought that the >> but I couldn't tell that from

[1:07:14] » it's an easy question. They'll know the answer.

[1:07:18] » See? >> Okay. So, when you look at their project

[1:07:20] bud budget in in the proposal, they have um the professional fee listed here and

[1:07:26] then they have the reimburseable fee and then at the very bottom they say they'll

[1:07:30] submit invoices monthly. So, I'm guessing that two are added together and

[1:07:35] that they're dividing it out monthly. I'm guessing

[1:07:38] » but the whole process takes 14 weeks. So, that's you know

[1:07:41] » yeah should take some time. show

[1:07:46] one, this wasn't budgeted for, right?

[1:07:52] Two, um I just

[1:07:59] it's a lot of money to spend. It is a lot of money to spend. However,

[1:08:04] I know that it we need to

[1:08:09] hire. So, it's that or we do it ourselves.

[1:08:13] And um because we can't have one staff person doing double duty forever.

[1:08:21] Um and so you know we want to be considerate of that staff person as

[1:08:25] well. Um and you know I don't particularly feel like doing all of it

[1:08:29] myself. I don't know about the rest of the council. Um

[1:08:33] » well I mean I think the city council has been doing it themselves and I'm not

[1:08:37] sure that >> you know I'm bringing some expertise

[1:08:40] that they didn't have. >> Yeah. Um, and so I don't

[1:08:45] » I'm not an HR expert. So, >> see the city go out if you chose Jensen

[1:08:51] » to use them and let them do it. >> Yeah.

[1:08:54] » Um, I mean, if at the end towards the end of

[1:08:59] the budget year, if we have to do a supplemental, then that's what we're

[1:09:01] going to have to do. But, >> well, I have a question for you.

[1:09:04] How much is this remediation work going to actually end up costing us? Cuz we

[1:09:09] didn't we figure it it was under 100 or did we figure it at

[1:09:14] 100 >> for downstairs?

[1:09:15] » Yeah. >> For the whole thing.

[1:09:17] » Yeah. >> I think it was [clears throat] at 100.

[1:09:22] It's >> 115 in the budget, but

[1:09:25] » it was like around maybe around 105 110. >> Okay.

[1:09:29] » So, [clears throat] but what are we going to actually end up

[1:09:33] spending >> that? I do not know. I know what our

[1:09:38] first um cost is going to be, which they're starting tomorrow. Um which I'll

[1:09:43] talk about later, but uh I know that amount.

[1:09:48] I don't think it's going to cost as much as we had first anticipated it to cost,

[1:09:54] but again, I'm not 100% sure. So, it would still require a supplemental if we

[1:09:58] were going to take any money out of that line item and switch it over, but at

[1:10:02] least it's all in the general fund. >> Yeah. Now it's all in the general fund,

[1:10:06] » right? >> Um and I I don't think that the general

[1:10:09] fund should be responsible for picking up this the entire job. It should be

[1:10:14] split between funds. >> Yeah.

[1:10:16] » Since the city manager will be split between departments.

[1:10:21] » Probably a good idea.

[1:10:28] » And we we also don't know yet what the numbers are going to do when you put the

[1:10:32] numbers in. see whether we're in really good shape or we're in really bad shape.

[1:10:38] » So if we're in really good shape, then it'll be easier

[1:10:43] » definitely >> to do this.

[1:10:48] [clears throat] >> Well, prompts me to another question

[1:10:50] about the audits. So is there a trend that's shown up in these audits that as

[1:10:54] we understood things were pretty ugly that spending was ratcheted down some

[1:11:00] and so that the that the discrepancies seemed to be

[1:11:06] trending towards less of a shock. Uh cuz I know early on it was like oh my gosh

[1:11:11] this is going to be terrible and so maybe there's a trend that's oh it's not

[1:11:15] quite so terrible. >> Like I hadn't looked at this last audit

[1:11:19] I received today. um to see what those numbers look like. Um from previous

[1:11:26] ones, I mean, they've been they haven't been horrible.

[1:11:31] Um, I think the general fund, just from talking to the auditor, I think the

[1:11:34] general fund is going to be hurting the worst

[1:11:37] » in terms of the wrong amount of money stuck in the wrong pile or

[1:11:41] » um, >> that seemed to be

[1:11:43] » just beginning fund balances were way

[1:11:47] overestimated than what was actually brought in

[1:11:51] is is a one of the big problems. >> Okay.

[1:11:58] » And there was some overspending. I don't think there's a trend. I don't I

[1:12:03] think it's each year was something different.

[1:12:07] » Okay. >> And you know, because I've looked at a

[1:12:11] lot of because I've been looking at these since 21 trying to figure out

[1:12:15] what's going on. I haven't seen anything. But it's also different people

[1:12:19] all the time. And so, as as Becca said, these last four audits, she's worked on

[1:12:26] the accounting data. Mhm. >> Not just the audit, but the accounting

[1:12:30] data. So, we have a better chance of having things running a little smoother.

[1:12:35] But she cuz she really the first two years it was like a nightmare when she

[1:12:39] was there. Like the numbers were like, you know, nobody could make any sense

[1:12:43] out of them at all. And then we'd get an audit and we'd get new numbers and they

[1:12:49] do completely different things than the one that the year before. And it's just

[1:12:52] like, well, that's not helpful. It's like that's which is one of the reasons

[1:12:58] I'd like to have the auditors come because maybe they've seen something

[1:13:01] that I haven't seen or Becca hasn't seen. It's like I don't know what all

[1:13:05] this crap is. >> So I will work on the audit tomorrow and

[1:13:10] then um I can send you guys a summary of what I've what I've come up with.

[1:13:16] » Yeah. >> Okay. [clears throat]

[1:13:17] » Thanks.

[1:13:20] » Okay. So that's so manager recruitment. We're still there

[1:13:24] for a minute. Um before we go to the city hall, um do we then want to do this

[1:13:33] and um have and have Becca explore hiring

[1:13:39] concerns? >> I have an offsubject question.

[1:13:44] » Yeah. >> The water rate study thing, is that

[1:13:47] costing us money for them to come do that? They just come do that? that

[1:13:54] » it's one of their services. >> The water rate

[1:13:58] is um bringing through the EPA. I I reached out to the EPA for technical

[1:14:05] assistance for the water mastery plan. Um and this was also reached out before

[1:14:11] just in case POS didn't hit and we needed to do something. Um, so recently

[1:14:16] we just finished a SIP grant to go in conjunction with our water master plan

[1:14:21] and so that's we just finished that but no there's shouldn't be a single dollar

[1:14:25] charged other than staff time. >> Thank you.

[1:14:30] » And are there other features of the Rural Community Assistance Commission

[1:14:34] that we might benefit from some evaluation if they're free and helpful?

[1:14:38] » Yeah, so we're going to do the water rate study. um depending on what that

[1:14:43] looks like when we're done, we're going to do a sewer rate study as well. And

[1:14:48] then um once we kind of have the water master plan hopefully finished in kind

[1:14:55] of conjunction with the rate study and um the other two things, the the it's

[1:15:02] the seismic evaluation and the risk and assessment for security of the water

[1:15:06] system. Once all those are finished up, I'm hoping they keep them helping me

[1:15:12] find grants and funding like they say they

[1:15:15] » that was one of the things this year. >> Can they have a

[1:15:19] environmental part also or something? I think expert

[1:15:25] » what what >> is that one of the things that they

[1:15:26] » It's just one of their I think one of the divisions that they have expertise

[1:15:31] in that and another one for grants I think.

[1:15:33] » Yeah, that's what he was talking about. Yeah. Infrastructure stuff. Yeah.

[1:15:37] » Yeah. Which is definitely where we could go.

[1:15:44] » Okay. Back to >> back to the 35. [laughter]

[1:15:51] » Well, I think we need help and uh um

[1:15:57] but that's no small commitment. If if you want and and I'm okay with this, but

[1:16:04] if you want wait until you guys get the numbers from the

[1:16:09] audit to see where that's going to put us in each fund,

[1:16:15] I'm good with that. You know, I I I have no problem with

[1:16:20] that either. But my one problem is this the time frame. It's like if we think of

[1:16:26] where we are right now and we go out 12 to 14 weeks, we're right in the middle

[1:16:31] of December and that's not necessarily a good time

[1:16:36] to hire somebody. So, we could get started on this project

[1:16:44] and try to make the hire happen in January.

[1:16:50] the interviews in January, the the hires in February, something like that, so

[1:16:54] that we get over the holiday season because I, you know, you're not going to

[1:16:58] get somebody to move uh a week before Christmas. [laughter]

[1:17:03] » Probably not. >> I was just interested in a commitment.

[1:17:07] » No, and you may not get them even to interview.

[1:17:11] » But mayor, by that time, we'll know who's coming into the council.

[1:17:15] » Yes, we'll also know that. >> That'll be set.

[1:17:19] We taking questions on this at the end. >> If you have a question, go right ahead.

[1:17:24] » So, I know some extremely professional people who have found very good jobs on

[1:17:29] LinkedIn. Is there like a soft focus or a soft launch or have we even put

[1:17:34] something on LinkedIn that might say, "Hey, city manager, is the problem of

[1:17:39] vetting?" Or I mean, why are we just diving into $35,000 and not trying some

[1:17:45] other avenues that are, you know, currently free?

[1:17:49] » I think LinkedIn is more for profit businesses and I think you don't get the

[1:17:56] same kind of candidates in LinkedIn. But I I don't know. I thought about it

[1:17:59] myself, but I I don't have any I don't hear any city anywhere using anything

[1:18:05] but a recruiter as opposed to LinkedIn or there's another one I think out there

[1:18:11] » on League of Oregon cities. We can post there.

[1:18:14] » We can post there. We can do all that ourselves.

[1:18:17] » We can come up with the recruitment information. We can we can we massage

[1:18:22] our position description. We can create the brochure.

[1:18:27] Do we have an estimate of what it's cost us to deal with five city managers in

[1:18:32] eight years? >> Oh god.

[1:18:34] » I mean, is that 355? It's way more than that. I mean,

[1:18:38] » it's way more than that. >> What a whole bunch of zero.

[1:18:40] » So, >> what did you have?

[1:18:44] » My thoughts were if we're going to put this out a month so that if we end up

[1:18:47] going with one of the companies, do that. Put something out like what she's

[1:18:52] what Heidi's saying. Try putting something out there on her own. Who

[1:18:56] knows? Maybe somebody will show up. >> I know Manzanita is Thank you. And I

[1:19:01] know Manzanita did before they even started their process, they they put it

[1:19:05] out a soft launch. I brought that up. That just kind of went um you know over

[1:19:10] the top of people's heads >> and then they ended up going with

[1:19:12] Jensen. >> Jumped with Jensen and Jensen has given

[1:19:15] them a interim city manager that's now in place

[1:19:20] » and they've got four candidates that they're going to interview.

[1:19:25] » I I just don't know. I mean, it's a lot of work to manage a

[1:19:30] recruitment and so far council's not managed recruitments in the past.

[1:19:37] » Well, do we think this council has some expertise that didn't exist previously?

[1:19:43] » Well, we may, but I don't know that it's in recruitment.

[1:19:46] » Well, no. I mean, I I mean in HR. I mean, I've hired and fired people on a

[1:19:50] small scale, but >> yeah,

[1:19:52] » you know, >> I think the other thing to

[1:19:55] take into consideration the amount of time that this is going to take,

[1:20:01] » you know, it's going to be a whole other project on its own and

[1:20:09] staff is already, you know, doing other things and if we take it on, I wouldn't

[1:20:16] be able to help because, you know, I have two jobs.

[1:20:19] You can have me on a Sunday. That's my only day off every week. So, putting

[1:20:23] » I'm not looking to your entire life. >> A recruiting brochure is going to take a

[1:20:27] lot of time. >> Mhm.

[1:20:29] » To put that together. I mean, we have some samples and we have some, you know,

[1:20:34] stuff we could start with, but it's has to be updated.

[1:20:38] » We have professionals in Jensen that will look at all this stuff.

[1:20:43] » I'm fine doing it if you want to keep it no cost. besides

[1:20:48] employee time.

[1:20:52] » So, I just have a hard time imagining where you have the time to do this.

[1:20:56] » I mean, huh? >> She's creating it.

[1:21:00] » She's sleeping. >> Nope.

[1:21:03] » She's splitting herself in half. >> She has a twin sister she hasn't told us

[1:21:08] about. >> The end of the day, she comes back

[1:21:10] together. [laughter] you know, that [clears throat] just

[1:21:13] seems like an extraordinary extraordinarily large amount of

[1:21:17] responsibilities that you've got that you keep saying I can help do that. Uh,

[1:21:22] and >> if you can if you guys if you ask me to

[1:21:26] do it, I'll do it. >> I'm just going to put that out there.

[1:21:29] You do what you wish, but

[1:21:35] » you got a 12-month guarantee.

[1:21:39] Then then I would wait until next month and I' I'd sit on it and look at the

[1:21:43] audit numbers. >> Okay.

[1:21:46] » I'd be I mean I just have a hard time thinking. I just don't want to be a

[1:21:50] participant in the same mistake. >> It's a great idea going with

[1:21:56] » Jensen. >> With Jensen.

[1:22:00] » We could continue to get other things done. The problem if we don't go with

[1:22:04] Jensen is that we we that this will take up all your time

[1:22:09] » and it'll take up some of Amy's time and then and then we lose the ability to get

[1:22:13] the other things done that need to be done and if we're going to do a software

[1:22:16] implementation at the same time you've just stretched yourself into

[1:22:22] » I don't want you guys to feel that that's your only option.

[1:22:26] » We appreciate that. We appreciate that. Definitely.

[1:22:31] » I feel it. a professional outfit like Jensen. As long as they're going to do

[1:22:37] the background checks, we get those. Yeah.

[1:22:40] » Is there anything that you guys want me to ask them more

[1:22:45] questions or >> I just want to make sure that whoever

[1:22:51] you know makes it to like the final round that everybody is fully vetted

[1:22:57] » exactly what qualifications experience. Um that is one of the things they said.

[1:23:05] » They certainly claim that that's part of what they provide

[1:23:09] » and we will be looking at it. Oh yes. We will be asking them to show us.

[1:23:13] » Yes. >> We will want to know that. Um because

[1:23:15] we've had that happen to us before. >> Okay. So are we good with holding it

[1:23:20] until next month? We'll look at the audit numbers by next month.

[1:23:24] » I am. >> And um and that actually will push the

[1:23:29] whole recruiting forward. So, my timeline concerns go away.

[1:23:34] » Yeah. And then maybe you'll also have a chance to look at the city hall uh

[1:23:40] remediation and see where we're at. You know, we're under budget there. Great.

[1:23:44] If we're going to blow that budget, then that's a bad deal, too.

[1:23:49] » Well, I I mean, I certainly think that we will have important information in

[1:23:52] the next month. So, I'm willing to wait.

[1:23:58] » Sounds good. >> We got consensus to wait. Yes.

[1:24:02] » All right. Anything else on this item? We're going

[1:24:05] to move right along. City hall project. Okay. So, tomorrow um we have the

[1:24:12] company coming out to take care of the um

[1:24:18] they're going to seal the back side of this of the building

[1:24:22] here. >> And out room, room, and then the back

[1:24:28] setting. Um, and that they were doing some there

[1:24:32] was some concrete areas that they were going to have to fix.

[1:24:36] » Yeah. So, where the air intake for the old air handling system is is going to

[1:24:40] get removed by public works and then they're going to come in and order in

[1:24:45] some new cement to seal it. That way when they then waterproof it on both

[1:24:51] sides, it stays sealed. >> Okay. No erosion, no chance of burning

[1:24:57] getting in. >> We don't like

[1:25:00] » that tomorrow. >> Tomorrow

[1:25:04] » and then the HVAC is the last thing that has to be done last. So we'll have this

[1:25:08] done starting tomorrow and then the next will be

[1:25:14] flooring.

[1:25:17] » The molding room right after that.

[1:25:21] » Y. So once we get everything sealed and we can make sure no more water or

[1:25:25] moisture intrudes into those spaces, then it'll be the mold and mild

[1:25:30] remediation. And um I'm still waiting for s to get me

[1:25:35] get back to me on the estimate for that. >> Is there any chance that we're going to

[1:25:42] come in under 150? >> I am too.

[1:25:48] I think we can come in 35,000 less.

[1:25:56] » The bigger the next biggest expense other than the unknown of the mold melon

[1:26:00] roof remediation would be the air handling and air conditioning. So um

[1:26:07] » it's the HVAC, right? >> The HVAC stuff. It's the bringing the

[1:26:10] fresh air in, filtering it, positive pressuring, and then getting the menu

[1:26:15] splits to condition it. So that way the front office and the the upcoming city

[1:26:20] managers can have heat and and or air air conditioning in the hot summer.

[1:26:25] » That would be nice. >> Great house.

[1:26:27] » Yeah, because we have really hot summers here.

[1:26:30] » That's going to be your largest >> three or four days.

[1:26:32] » Last Diamond Heating >> who I would recommend and I believe

[1:26:38] between the two it was somewhere around 17 or 18,000.

[1:26:43] » I had 15 in my head but something like that.

[1:26:48] 20 I believe. >> Yeah. Cool.

[1:26:52] Okay. Anything else on city hall project update? Any other questions?

[1:27:00] Oh, ma'am. Okay, we're good. Anything else you want to add to that?

[1:27:06] We'll move to new business. Consideration of the intergovernmental

[1:27:11] agreement renewal with Gabaldi Rural Fire Protection District. So

[1:27:17] um that time just to renew the contract with uh the rule district

[1:27:24] same contract as last year except different dates. Absolutely. Everything

[1:27:29] is the same. >> Is it reasonable that the cost is the

[1:27:34] same? >> I mean is that covered in there? I

[1:27:37] didn't see a number. It's 95% of um of their property taxes,

[1:27:44] okay, that they bring >> which would go about 3%

[1:27:49] because >> Okay. So, it's a percentage of what they

[1:27:53] take in. >> Yes.

[1:27:58] » And they um I brought this to them last their last meeting and they signed and

[1:28:03] approved it all. So, do we just need the council to

[1:28:08] » approve it? >> Does that require

[1:28:11] » It requires a motion. >> Motion.

[1:28:14] » Motion to approve the intergovernmental

[1:28:18] agreement renewal with Gabaldi Rural Fire Protection District.

[1:28:23] » I'll second that motion. We have a motion to approve the

[1:28:28] intergovernmental agreement with the rural fire district.

[1:28:33] Is that what you said? >> Yes.

[1:28:35] » It's been seconded. Is there any discussion?

[1:28:42] Hearing none, we'll take a vote. All those in favor say I.

[1:28:45] » I. >> Those opposed? No. Hearing none, it

[1:28:49] passes.

[1:28:54] Now, consideration of the League of Oregon City's legislative priorities.

[1:29:04] » Each even numbered year, um, the LLC appoints city officials to serve on

[1:29:10] these committees. And this year there were seven

[1:29:14] committees that identified 27 legislative policy priorities.

[1:29:20] So now each city will go through and pick I believe it's five. Yep.

[1:29:27] that we think is a top priority which was

[1:29:32] within this >> we

[1:29:36] had [clears throat] this in

[1:29:41] » I think we met with >> our FEMA

[1:29:47] » I was looking at infrastructure funding under water and wastewater committee

[1:29:52] okay >> and possibly

[1:29:59] down >> um just because that this has been an

[1:30:04] issue ongoing. I was uh the public meetings law clarity.

[1:30:10] » Yeah,

[1:30:13] » that's a good one. >> What's one I interested?

[1:30:29] Did did you already say infrastructure? >> The infrastructure funding underwater

[1:30:34] and wastewater that was the one that because we're in that position that

[1:30:39] would be really important to to the city of Gabaldi.

[1:30:49] » Sure. Um

[1:30:53] I I was looking at this invest in community energy resilience and disaster

[1:30:57] planning.

[1:31:01] » Yeah, that one would be good too. >> I think I think

[1:31:11] alcohol revenue modernization. Oo, I don't remember reading about that

[1:31:16] one. Emergency communication system

[1:31:20] resources. That might be a good one. >> Are we?

[1:31:23] » Yeah, >> we're up.

[1:31:24] » Aren't they upgrading some of the radio stuff already?

[1:31:28] » That's already been approved here in the county.

[1:31:30] » Yeah. So maybe that I mean and that's going to modernize that pretty well at

[1:31:34] least up for emergency services. >> We still haven't come up with 7.9

[1:31:38] million. So yeah,

[1:31:46] » cautious adoption of autonomous vehicles.

[1:31:50] » Think we can probably pass that one down the list. 27 of these. So then we're

[1:31:54] picking five. >> Yeah, just picking five. We don't have

[1:31:59] to have five. We can have up to five. You got

[1:32:01] » Oh, okay. >> Yeah. So far

[1:32:04] » we can do support responsible municipal use of technology.

[1:32:12] How about data centers? >> They're not in here, but

[1:32:16] » but they're a hot topic. >> Ask Garen Brochovich.

[1:32:25] » We thought this one was interesting. Maintain local control of a safe modern

[1:32:29] right ofway. Do we have any right ofway problems in Gabaldi?

[1:32:37] Not yet. Somebody wants to use our right away and

[1:32:41] we're not letting them. >> No, of

[1:32:44] » course I think about rightways on 101. I don't think about the rightways in town.

[1:32:48] » I don't think there's been any issues on that.

[1:32:52] » Well, I have >> We want to go with those four.

[1:32:55] » Yeah.

[1:33:04] » Anything, Connie? getting land use that's

[1:33:09] availability and streamlining those >> we could use that pick that one

[1:33:14] » I'm just asking if that would be relevant here well what'll happen Tom is

[1:33:20] dig all the cities that do this and see how many match up see what they want to

[1:33:25] go on >> oh okay

[1:33:27] » need very many that are going to match up with the city under a thousand which

[1:33:31] is what we're at right yeah >> because a lot of these are for cities

[1:33:34] over 3,000 Sure. >> But um

[1:33:38] you know we can let them know which ones we think are good for us or might be

[1:33:43] good. >> Yeah. [snorts] Well, I mean those four

[1:33:46] are fine. >> Okay.

[1:33:48] So I believe um and I didn't print it out, but I believe that

[1:33:54] management has access to the voting. And so if you

[1:34:01] would like to vote for us, we have picked out

[1:34:05] public meetings law clarity under general government committees.

[1:34:12] And then under energy and environment committee, we picked out invest in

[1:34:16] community energy resilience and disaster planning.

[1:34:19] » I said community. >> Yeah. Would you like this piece of paper

[1:34:25] when I get done so you can give it back to me? Um then

[1:34:29] under finance it's emergency communications and underwater

[1:34:48] days.

[1:34:54] So those would be and we're all in agreement and consensus. Yes, we don't

[1:34:58] need a motion for this. >> You're still the emergency communication

[1:35:02] » system resources.

[1:35:07] » There's just four of them. >> Okay, I will vote on that.

[1:35:13] » Okay,

[1:35:16] » so we're done with new business. >> Yeah,

[1:35:19] » thank you, ma'am. Thank you. >> Consent calendar

[1:35:25] » thing removed from the consent calendar so we can

[1:35:29] » city managers report. >> Oh yeah.

[1:35:42] » It's almost at the end.

[1:35:48] Sterile is a flight. [laughter]

[1:36:02] » Yes, >> got it.

[1:36:06] Um so for city manager report um just

[1:36:11] continuing to oversee daily city operations

[1:36:15] um and coordinate with staff and outside agencies.

[1:36:19] Um address administrative matters and

[1:36:23] respond to ongoing operational needs. Coordinated with staff on matters

[1:36:26] affecting city services and operations. Continue to follow up on items

[1:36:31] identified by city council.

[1:36:36] Is that the Shirley report? >> What's up?

[1:36:40] [laughter] >> I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry.

[1:36:45] » Uh I can we continue to elevate, evaluate and address city hall facility

[1:36:49] needs and operational matters. Um

[1:36:54] enforcement continue to monitor and address code compliant matters. Followed

[1:36:58] up on reported violations. Worked with staff to ensure appropriate procedures

[1:37:01] were followed. I want to compliment staff on taking

[1:37:06] care of com compliance code enforcement stuff. You guys have been doing a great

[1:37:10] job and I really really appreciate it. Um, you know, they've been quick on

[1:37:16] their responses to to people. Um, I mean, some complaints can't be handled

[1:37:21] right away, Heidi, but other complaints can get handled right away. and we're

[1:37:26] working on all of them because we we know that they're important to people

[1:37:31] and and they become important to us for that reason. And I just want to thank

[1:37:35] you um staff all of you. >> Well, in my defense, I'm not actually

[1:37:39] the one who had

[1:37:43] you you've had some stuff going on. >> We know that. But thank you.

[1:37:52] » Let's see. address administrative matters and

[1:37:55] respond to ongoing operational needs. Finance part of things um continue to

[1:38:02] maintain city's financial operations process routine transa transactions and

[1:38:06] monitor the adopted budget which we just started in. So there's not a whole lot

[1:38:11] to really take a look at right now. Process accounts payable receivable

[1:38:17] payroll and related financial transactions

[1:38:20] completed. um routine banking deposits, reconciliations and other financial

[1:38:26] activities. Maintain financial records and supporting documentations.

[1:38:31] Continue budget and expenditure monitoring.

[1:38:36] Prepared maintain monthly financial reports for council to review. Continued

[1:38:40] reconciliation review of financial accounts to ensure accurate reporting.

[1:38:45] continuing working with the auditors and as I stated before we just received 2324

[1:38:50] audit and began implementation and monitoring

[1:38:55] of the adopted 2627 budget reviewed beginning of your fiscal activity and

[1:39:01] established appropriate budget monitoring procedures.

[1:39:05] just continue to prioritize accurate financial reporting, timely processing

[1:39:09] of financial transactions, budget monitoring, audit completion, and

[1:39:15] providing the city council with clear and timely financial information.

[1:39:20] » Thank you. >> Thank you.

[1:39:24] » Any other questions for the city manager?

[1:39:26] » I don't have it. [clears throat]

[1:39:30] » Public works. Um,

[1:39:34] you all got my report and one of the big things was we had a waste pump go out at

[1:39:40] the wastewater plant. Luckily, one of our neighboring um, municipalities had a

[1:39:47] loaner from Zylon Pump. That is a pretty close correct drop in. And then I had to

[1:39:56] order two new pumps which we just received and um we'll be installing the

[1:40:02] new replacement and probably changing out the basing two or number ones

[1:40:07] because it has started folding up this fall. So these pumps were in place when

[1:40:11] the plant was built. Um, looking through the maintenance records, there was just

[1:40:16] a highlighted page saying no maintenance needed, which is wild to me because, um,

[1:40:24] in my years of doing waste water, you pull your pumps at least once a year to

[1:40:29] check that they're functioning properly. There's nothing ragged up in them, and

[1:40:34] that all mechanical seals are still fit. Um, so this is kind of surprising, but

[1:40:41] also not surprising. Uh

[1:40:46] the street sweeper is going to need a little bit of maintenance to put leaving

[1:40:51] a small trail of gravel behind itself. >> Um it's doing

[1:40:55] » that way it can find it way home. >> So it could be due to a wearable item

[1:41:02] that you know basically

[1:41:07] probably was slightly already worn when we bought it. feeling now. Um,

[1:41:14] still waiting to hear back from Bayiew on the five hot or four hot patches I

[1:41:20] need to get done for streets and that's about it.

[1:41:26] » You've got the uh drip code and 101 starting tomorrow.

[1:41:29] » Oh yeah, drip wood and 101 manhole repair in issues getting started

[1:41:34] tomorrow by uh advanced excavation. So, there will be some detours. Um,

[1:41:42] driftwood might be shut down after the first to give space and just detour

[1:41:47] people. Um, other than that, they'll be flagging on hand.

[1:41:56] » Thank you.

[1:42:00] » Excuse me. Well, as you probably know, we we sent a water tender on

[1:42:06] complication. They they went to Halfway. I don't know

[1:42:10] if you're familiar with where Halfway is. It's about an hour north of Baker.

[1:42:14] » So, basically as far away from here as you could possibly get. They were there

[1:42:19] for a few days, put the fire out. Um then they held them in Baker for a

[1:42:25] couple days because they thought they were going to get some lightning over

[1:42:28] there. While they were gone, we had no staffing issues.

[1:42:34] the volunteers really stepped up and covered shifts because both of these

[1:42:38] guys were the summer seasonal employees and

[1:42:44] one of our volunteers, Ruben especially, I don't know if you're familiar with

[1:42:48] him. Um, he was not working at the time so he basically worked every day

[1:42:56] and and all those is all that's covered by the complications.

[1:43:02] So they're they're um chomping at the bit to go out again, but uh Levi Hill's

[1:43:10] wife had a little girl. >> Okay.

[1:43:13] » Oh. >> So

[1:43:14] » congratulations. >> The ball game for for about a couple

[1:43:18] days. >> And um yeah, so if you see them,

[1:43:23] congratulate them. >> They were also the task force team. what

[1:43:29] they that's good things about Levi. >> Oh yeah.

[1:43:34] Every vehicle team is evaluated by by the task

[1:43:39] force leader. And in this case, the task force leader was a battalion chief out

[1:43:44] out of Portland Fire. >> Oo. and he scored our guys excellent in

[1:43:51] every category and and wrote some good comments about him about their

[1:43:55] willingness that they went off and trained on their own on their while they

[1:44:00] weren't actually at the fire while they're back in camp to make sure that

[1:44:05] their their readiness was good for what needed to happen. Nice.

[1:44:08] » So, it it was um you know, it's always great to hear especi especially from

[1:44:14] from the caliber of a Portland battalion chief.

[1:44:19] » Our congratulations to them as well. >> That is nice.

[1:44:25] » Our guys are going to be out doing hydro testing. We work with public works.

[1:44:31] Most likely it's going to happen on Wednesdays and Thursdays because both

[1:44:36] summer seasonals work those two days. And since they're flowing so much water,

[1:44:40] you you may see a little turbidity that

[1:44:48] » you don't see any turbidity. >> Well, in my experience, if there's

[1:44:52] anything in the pipes, because you're flowing so much water, it just kicks it

[1:44:56] up. Um but but so they've completed

[1:45:03] the south end of the city over by the apartments and your area and they're

[1:45:09] working their way north. >> Okay. How many firefighters do we have

[1:45:13] » between bariew and the um city of Gabaldi? We have 94.

[1:45:20] » Wow. >> A lot to test. So, um, our department's

[1:45:26] planning, tenatively planning right now an open

[1:45:30] house on October 3rd. >> We want to do it prior to the the

[1:45:38] shakeout so they can get that information

[1:45:42] out and >> give it give information on that. Um we

[1:45:47] we did the same thing last year about the same timeline and we invited the 911

[1:45:52] center and we invited a couple other appropriate um agencies and groups.

[1:46:02] We're talking about maybe this year um having the ham radio people broadcast

[1:46:08] the entire time from the station and >> stuff like that. So, like I said, it's

[1:46:14] all it's all kind of rough form right now.

[1:46:18] Um, but I've been working with the GBA, excuse me, the GEV on on that.

[1:46:27] As we kind of talked about a little bit earlier, Pil County is awarded the

[1:46:31] Motorola awarded the radio contract for the

[1:46:35] county to Motorola and

[1:46:40] the price is about $27.9 million.

[1:46:47] Well, they're they believe that the construction will go

[1:46:54] throughout next year and early 2008. The system should go online.

City of Garibaldi Council Meeting August 17, 2026

Transcript