[0:14] Started in tonight's city of Grants pass council meeting

[0:21] for September 2nd,

[0:25] we'll start the proceedings with an invocation.

[0:27] And Kathleen,

[0:30] Yes, I'd like to invite Angela Mayor to the podium

[0:34] to pray us into the meeting tonight.

[0:36] Thank you.

[0:41] This wet and rainy night.

[0:49] Thank you Lord God of wisdom and peace.

[0:54] We ask you to be present with us tonight.

[0:57] Give us the humility to listen before we speak.

[1:01] The wisdom to seek understanding before victory

[1:05] and the courage to serve rather than be served.

[1:09] Help each person in this room to remember

[1:12] that we share one community.

[1:15] Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.

[1:22] May our words tonight be marked with grace

[1:25] and our leadership by a spirit of service.

[1:28] Amen.

[1:31] Thank you. All right.

[1:32] Please write for raise, rise for the flag salute.

[1:35] Remove your covers if you have them.

[1:40] I flag

[1:43] of the United States of America for which

[1:48] Stands?

[1:49] One nation under

[1:51] God, Indivisible with liberty Justice.

[1:58] Okay, we'll go through a quick roll call.

[2:00] We got Victoria, Kathleen, Indra, Rick, Eric

[2:05] and Rob.

[2:06] We are missing Joel and Seth,

[2:08] but we do have a quorum so we will proceed.

[2:13] Do I have to read this now? Is this our new protocol?

[2:17] Yes, our new. Okay. Very.

[2:23] This city council public meeting is expected

[2:25] to proceed in an efficient and courteous manner and

[2:28] and all participants

[2:29] and attendees are encouraged to act accordingly.

[2:33] Threatening conduct violations of law, signs

[2:36] or placards, outbursts of of applause.

[2:40] Campaigning for public office

[2:41] or other disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

[2:45] Individuals who engage in disruptive conduct will be warned

[2:48] before they are asked

[2:49] to leave the council chambers or be removed.

[2:53] Alright, first on the agenda is a public hearing for

[2:59] the Urban Area Planning Commission decision

[3:02] to deny application for Eden Glen PUD Subdivision

[3:06] Street variances at 1907 Fruit Dale Drive.

[3:11] We are not proceeding forward with the hearing

[3:13] because it has been requested to continue this hearing

[3:17] on a later date, which would be September 16th.

[3:20] So the hearing will not proceed this evening.

[3:23] It will proceed on September 16th.

[3:25] Next on the agenda is council action item resolution.

[3:31] Authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement

[3:33] with control systems northwest for water systems remote

[3:40] S-C-A-D-A upgrades.

[3:43] And I will give it to Jason.

[3:46] That Came up faster than I was expecting.

[3:49] Thank you Mayor. So it is

[3:52] C-D-A-S-C-A-D-A, which is supervisory control

[3:56] and data acquisition.

[3:59] This is a project that's been in the planning stages

[4:01] for quite some time and it's finally ready to be completed.

[4:05] So little sub summary on goals

[4:08] and we're just gonna provide a brief summary of

[4:10] what the work is, which is extensive

[4:13] and it does, it is at the water treatment plant,

[4:16] the new water treatment plant

[4:17] and all of the remote water sites

[4:19] of which there are 23 of them.

[4:22] And it is to ensure continuity of operations

[4:25] with the SCADA system prior

[4:26] to the replacement water treatment plant coming on board.

[4:31] So what is SCADA S SCADA stands for supervisory control

[4:35] and data acquisition.

[4:36] It is a complete system of in sensors, machines, logic,

[4:41] basically software controllers

[4:44] and a human machine interface, basically a computer screen.

[4:49] It is all of those components together

[4:51] and it is crucial to the operations

[4:53] of modern facilities like water and wastewater.

[4:55] Plants and sensors are essentially

[5:00] everything in the field that read something, do something,

[5:06] touch the water in any way.

[5:08] They can be everything from a valve actuator

[5:10] to a complex instrument like a TER that is reading data

[5:14] and bringing data back to the, to the control room

[5:19] PLCs, we use that term a lot in the water

[5:21] and wastewater industry as a programmable logic controller.

[5:25] Think of this like your cell phone.

[5:27] It is an industrial computer

[5:30] and it is the device that connects all of the field sensors

[5:35] to the HMI, which is the human machine interface

[5:38] or basically that computer interface, which allows us to see

[5:41] that data, make decisions on that data and then take action.

[5:49] HMII kind of just covered that,

[5:50] but it is the,

[5:52] the basically the interface for our operators.

[5:54] It's how we interact with the data, store the data

[5:59] and provides that graphical interface

[6:01] between the computers and humans.

[6:04] 'cause most humans don't do computers very well.

[6:06] Like the computer. The computer wants

[6:08] to give you a series of numbers.

[6:11] I can't look at a series of numbers

[6:12] and make a good decision, but I can look at a line

[6:14] that goes up and down and make a much better decision

[6:16] and that's what the HMI does for us.

[6:21] So going back a little bit, in 1999

[6:24] and 2000, our original SCADA system was replaced

[6:28] with the system that's currently in place.

[6:30] Our original system was a proprietary system built

[6:33] by a local resident

[6:36] and was a pretty amazing system for what it was.

[6:39] The new system greatly improved the communication rates,

[6:44] the data collection capabilities of our pump stations

[6:47] and reservoirs and that that really allowed our operators

[6:50] to make much better informed decisions about the water

[6:53] system as a whole, improving water quality

[6:57] and water usage rates.

[6:59] Just as a little bit of an anecdote, when I started here,

[7:01] we were on our old SCADA system

[7:04] and we would turn a pump on in the control room at the water

[7:08] filtration plant and then we would drive up

[7:10] to Madone pump station, which was at the corner

[7:12] of Beacon and Madone.

[7:14] There's a little concrete building, it's a pump station

[7:16] and then we could watch the pump turn on.

[7:19] It took it that long to get the signal from the water plant

[7:22] to the pump station.

[7:23] We could then drive back to the water filtration plant

[7:27] in time to see it enunciate on the screen

[7:29] that it had actually taken that action.

[7:32] The, the system that replaced it, which is the system

[7:34] that is currently in place,

[7:37] is actually providing near real-time data

[7:39] and we talk to all 23 sites collecting multiple words worth

[7:43] of data and we do that all in less than 30 seconds

[7:46] so we can turn a pump on.

[7:47] Then very next scan, we see that

[7:49] that pump turned on and reported back.

[7:51] It's really improved how we operate.

[7:53] However, this equipment is now 26 years old

[7:57] and I don't know about you, but my home computer

[7:59] didn't last 26 years.

[8:01] Most of this equipment is very much at the

[8:03] end of its service life.

[8:05] In 2015, staff worked with Corolla engineers

[8:09] to develop a water and wastewater SCADA system master plan.

[8:13] So both facilities have extensive SCADA equipment.

[8:17] We need to have a plan for moving forward.

[8:19] The plan did recommend a number of projects

[8:21] to bring both water

[8:22] and wastewater SCADA systems up to date

[8:25] with current technologies.

[8:27] The wastewater plant SCADA upgrades happened mostly under

[8:30] the last update, which happened just a few years ago.

[8:33] Water is lagging a little bit behind.

[8:35] We had far more remote sites to deal with

[8:37] and the s scada at the wastewater plant was mostly in the

[8:40] plant so it was easier to take care of.

[8:47] So the program programmable logic controllers,

[8:51] PLCs are really the heart of the system.

[8:52] The PLC again is a compact industrial computer,

[8:56] which takes all of the inputs from the field, connects

[8:59] to some sort of communication interface

[9:02] and then receives that signal back

[9:04] and then takes action in the field.

[9:06] They are designed to operate in very harsh environments

[9:09] that are found in industrial facilities

[9:11] and remote locations, including water

[9:14] and wastewater stations.

[9:16] As you can imagine. And I'm gonna use,

[9:19] let me get my laser planter real quick.

[9:23] This facility right here is actually on top

[9:25] of Reservoir five and it is out there in the rain.

[9:28] The sleet, the shine, the snow, it is in a box

[9:31] and it's enclosed, but as you can imagine,

[9:33] it takes a beating from the elements.

[9:35] And so these computers have to be able to withstand that.

[9:41] So lifecycle definition, A-A-P-L-C, like any piece

[9:45] of hardware, has a lifecycle for the purposes of

[9:51] PLCs, they have what's called active.

[9:53] So that means that

[9:54] that is the manufacturer's go-to flagship.

[9:57] This is what we're producing

[9:58] for the next foreseeable future.

[10:01] And when it moves into active mature, that's when the next,

[10:06] the manufacturer knows that there's something coming down,

[10:08] but we still are making these,

[10:09] we're still supporting them with parts.

[10:11] You'll still be able to buy them off of the shelf

[10:15] and we'll support them when we get towards end of life.

[10:18] The manufacturer is still supporting them,

[10:21] but you're no longer to necessarily buy them off the shelf.

[10:24] They may have some remaining

[10:25] and they'll deplete their inventory

[10:28] and then when you get into discontinued,

[10:31] that's when you can no longer get factory support

[10:34] nor can you get parts.

[10:36] And in fact, all of our equipment

[10:39] PLCs are now in discontinued and have been for four years.

[10:42] So they are well past the prime.

[10:45] The last failure we had, our repair parts came from,

[10:49] believe it or not, eBay,

[10:50] which they're still a pretty thriving market,

[10:52] but there's some used parts out there that can be gotten.

[10:56] So moving to communications, all

[10:57] of those PLCs have to go through a radio.

[11:00] Our current radio communications don't meet current

[11:03] remote site needs.

[11:04] And by that what I mean is

[11:05] that the data speeds are just a little bit too slow.

[11:07] We're transmitting far more data we need to get, even though

[11:10] that 30 seconds is very fast,

[11:12] we need to get a little bit quicker.

[11:14] And then also we're unable to transmit video data,

[11:17] which is becoming more

[11:18] and more needed as we do intrusion detection

[11:21] and try to assure that our water sites are protected.

[11:24] They also lack specific protocols.

[11:27] And what I mean by that is if there were a detection were

[11:29] to, or a, if an intrusion were to occur,

[11:34] we're unable to detect that.

[11:35] It just does not have the tools to diagnostically tell

[11:39] that somebody entered that radio.

[11:42] I don't want anybody to worry. Our radios are very secure.

[11:45] I trust them implicitly.

[11:47] We use what's called a spread spectrum technology.

[11:50] And what that means is that every couple of milliseconds,

[11:53] it's broadcasting on a different frequency over a range

[11:56] of a pretty broad range of frequencies.

[11:59] That means for somebody to be able to intercept

[12:01] and detect that they actually have to know which frequency

[12:05] to be on at any given second.

[12:06] And it's random, but all

[12:09] of the radios know what that random is.

[12:10] So, so it is very secure, but again, a little slow

[12:14] and if it were to get through, somebody was to get through,

[12:18] we would not be able to detect that.

[12:21] So project 6 4 1 5 was created in 2021.

[12:25] As I said, we've been working on this for quite a while

[12:27] with the goal to complete the remote site upgrades prior

[12:30] to the replacement water treatment plant coming online.

[12:33] The goal of this is we don't wanna move all

[12:35] of our old equipment and our old radios over

[12:37] and have to build a radio tower at the new facility.

[12:40] We want to set it up for the new equipment

[12:43] with the new antennas and everything complete

[12:46] before that comes online in May of 2022.

[12:50] Counsel did approve task order three

[12:52] with Control Systems Northwest,

[12:54] which did a detailed inventory of all 23 remote sites

[12:59] and laid out our path forward to today.

[13:06] So task order 17, which this is, will upgrade all

[13:09] of the remote sites over the next, I wanna say about six

[13:12] to eight months per perhaps a little bit longer in

[13:16] preparation for the replacement water treatment plant.

[13:18] Coming online, we are gonna have to work very, very closely

[13:22] with control systems Northwest and staff.

[13:25] Some of the sites we cannot take down for very long.

[13:27] And when we talk about how these work, these are the

[13:31] hardware that makes the pump stations actually function.

[13:35] So we have to plan each one of those upgrades very,

[13:37] very, very carefully.

[13:39] Understand what our process is gonna be to take

[13:41] that offline, put in all the new equipment,

[13:44] get it back online and tested

[13:46] and hopefully work without a disruption

[13:48] to people's water supplies.

[13:52] The task order does include the purchase

[13:54] and installation of all hardware included

[13:57] with 23 remote sites.

[13:59] And that includes their PLCs, their cellular radios,

[14:02] power controls and conditioning and enclosures.

[14:06] It also installs and programs all of the hardware

[14:10] and provides plant staff with updated electrical

[14:13] and control drawings

[14:14] for future troubleshooting and maintenance.

[14:19] Total cost for task orders 17 is $1.646 million.

[14:23] Funds are budgeted and available within Project WA 6 4 15.

[14:28] And authorization today would allow control Systems

[14:31] Northwest make the improvements over the next 12 months.

[14:36] And with that I have some alternatives

[14:38] and I'm glad to answer any questions for you.

[14:41] Thank you Jason. Any questions from counsel? Eric?

[14:47] Thank you Jason for the very detailed presentation.

[14:51] I appreciate I had a question in terms of the,

[14:56] you know, obviously this is a great cost to the city

[14:59] and I know this is, this looks like,

[15:03] or it is very spec specialized equipment.

[15:07] So I guess the, the obvious question is, is there,

[15:11] are there other competitors?

[15:13] Are there other ways of possibly doing it to

[15:18] where we might be able to save a little money?

[15:20] I know the, the answer is probably no,

[15:22] but I wanted to make sure the public understands. Yeah,

[15:25] I mean we evaluate continuously,

[15:27] you know, newer technologies.

[15:30] One of the things that we have tried

[15:31] to do is standardize all of the SC equipment.

[15:34] So where it's the same, we don't want individual pieces

[15:37] of equipment being different amongst them.

[15:39] We believe that what we have presented you

[15:42] with is the lowest cost option.

[15:45] Is there probably another lower cost option out there?

[15:48] Y yes, you're always gonna get somebody to come in

[15:50] and tell you that yes,

[15:52] they can install something, is it better?

[15:54] I can't speak to that. What we have tried to do is,

[15:57] is ensure that what we have installed, Alan Bradley is our,

[16:02] our service provider

[16:04] or the the manufacturer to get a piece of hardware

[16:08] to last 26 years in an environment like that is incredible.

[16:13] What I can tell you is that the wastewater plant

[16:15] that they had originally installed other types of equipment,

[16:18] those equipments have had a much higher failure rate than

[16:21] the Allen Bradley equipment is, which leads

[16:23] to us replacing them far more frequently.

[16:25] So, I mean that's the other thing that we try to weigh.

[16:28] Could we redesign to a much cheaper standard?

[16:32] I think there, the, the short answer to that is probably so,

[16:35] but I don't think in the long run it benefits the water

[16:37] system because the reliability would decrease significantly.

[16:42] But thank you. Yeah, Further questions Rick.

[16:46] Thank you Jason. So I guess all systems require

[16:51] connection to the internet,

[16:53] but is this one also standalone if the internet goes down?

[16:58] So I knew this question was gonna come up.

[17:02] All systems do not require connections to the internet.

[17:05] That's for starters.

[17:08] We do connect systems to the internet for convenience sake.

[17:14] I will say our SCADA systems do connect

[17:18] to the internet, but you or I cannot actually access them

[17:24] because they're just, they're behind multiple firewalls.

[17:28] These radios are actually ethernet radios,

[17:31] so they're like a wifi router.

[17:33] So technically they're on the ethernet

[17:36] but they're, it's called a private network

[17:39] and they are, you can't get access to them.

[17:42] But if the internet or wifi

[17:44] or anything goes down,

[17:46] can we still operate? Are we standalone?

[17:48] Yeah, so that's the other thing.

[17:50] The the, when you send all of those parameters to that PLC,

[17:53] that PLC sits there

[17:55] and run until you give it new parameters to change.

[17:57] As long as everything's, we can be down for quite some time.

[18:01] Our current radio network goes down periodically

[18:03] and everything stays running really good

[18:06] until we have like a more than a day's outage.

[18:08] We don't really have an issue.

[18:09] There's a couple of upsides that have problems,

[18:11] but they're self-contained.

[18:12] So as long as it can read the sensor that it's connected to

[18:15] and take an action and turn a pump on,

[18:17] then it's, it's all good.

[18:19] Okay, thank you.

[18:21] Any further questions Andrew?

[18:24] So is there a reason this wasn't included when we budgeted

[18:28] for the water plant?

[18:30] Like it seems like this goes together so

[18:32] They, they do somewhat go together.

[18:34] This has always been on a separate track

[18:36] because the 23 really remote sites,

[18:40] they're not really related to the treatment plant,

[18:42] but they are Right.

[18:44] It's, it's all part of the overall water system and

[18:47] because it was on a separate track

[18:49] and it's very specialized work, we just did not include that

[18:52] with the current contract.

[18:54] But it, it's a fair question.

[18:55] It could have been lumped in there,

[18:57] it just didn't make sense because they're all working there.

[18:59] These are scattered throughout the, the city, so.

[19:04] Okay. And and you said it started,

[19:07] you started working on it in 2021?

[19:09] Yeah. Putting money into this fund.

[19:11] Where, where exactly did that money come from?

[19:14] From the water revenues.

[19:15] So we've just been putting a little bit aside each year

[19:18] In, so we, when we did the water rate increases,

[19:22] we took this into account that some

[19:25] Of it's been part of the overall capital project.

[19:27] It is already included in our water rates.

[19:30] Absolutely. Okay, thank you. Yep.

[19:34] Excuse me, any further questions

[19:37] Kathleen?

[19:38] Just to follow up on Rick's what he brought up there

[19:41] for a minute, this sounds very highly secure.

[19:43] Yeah. Is that correct?

[19:45] Yes. I mean that is definitely something that we watch.

[19:48] I will say our IT folks

[19:49] and our SCADA integrators are really keyed into csa

[19:54] and I'm gonna get the name wrong,

[19:55] but basically it's who watches hacking on the internet

[19:59] for industrial computing.

[20:01] It is a very serious issue.

[20:03] We know that Iran is currently threatening water

[20:06] and wastewater facilities.

[20:09] So we have currently disconnected all

[20:12] of our systems essentially from the internet

[20:15] and only plugged that back in when our integrators need

[20:18] to access the systems.

[20:20] And then the future systems

[20:21] as we go into the new water filtration plant

[20:23] have further barriers.

[20:25] Not only do we just physically disconnect them,

[20:27] but when they need to be connected, there's multiple points

[20:30] of authentication that you would have to get through

[20:33] to be even able to access.

[20:35] It's inconvenient as heck for us,

[20:37] but it needs to be a hundred percent. So

[20:42] Yeah.

[20:43] Any further questions Indra?

[20:44] Yeah, just, just one more.

[20:47] Does will this cost more on an ongoing basis

[20:50] to maintain than our old system?

[20:53] Slightly more mainly

[20:54] because of the, the cellular communications,

[20:58] but it's on the order

[20:59] of a couple hundred dollars a year, you know.

[21:02] Yeah. It's not significant at all. Yeah.

[21:06] Further questions, Victoria,

[21:09] So j this is just for the public.

[21:12] Yeah. From everything that you, the information

[21:16] that you've given us, I, it, it just seems like, I like

[21:19] what Kathleen and Rick said that this is very secure.

[21:22] Yeah. And is there, just, is there anything that you can

[21:27] say just to the public to tell them a little bit about

[21:32] how this makes their water source secure?

[21:36] It actually makes it, in my opinion, personal opinion,

[21:39] and I am not an expert in this.

[21:40] We had a a an hour

[21:42] and a half meeting on SCADA security the other day

[21:45] with five people in the room

[21:46] and I left with my head just swimming and it was horrible.

[21:53] It makes it safer. A the radios that we are moving

[21:55] to are literally their own private network

[21:58] that nobody else has access to the frequencies,

[22:00] nobody else has access to the IP numbers.

[22:03] And so that sets up our own private network.

[22:06] The firewall tunnels

[22:07] that we're building are even more secure

[22:09] and you have to get through both the city's VPN

[22:12] and then our own VPN.

[22:14] So there's multiple ways in this is a huge improvement over

[22:18] where we were and we're doing implementing

[22:19] that both at water and wastewater.

[22:22] Thank you. Any further questions from council?

[22:27] Alright, see you. None. Thank you. Thank you Jason.

[22:30] At this time we afford the public an opportunity

[22:33] to comment in regards to this specific council action item,

[22:36] which is upgrading our SC DA system, remote system.

[22:40] Anybody from the public? All right, see you. None.

[22:43] I'll bring it back to council for further

[22:45] discussion and or action.

[22:48] Indra?

[22:50] Yes, I'm going to move that council,

[22:52] approve the resolution authorizing the city manager

[22:55] to enter into an agreement with CSNW

[22:58] to perform upgrade work on the water division's 21

[23:02] remote facilities.

[23:05] All right. It has been motion to approve the action

[23:09] to grant a cada upgrade

[23:14] with anybody.

[23:15] Want to second Kathleen on a second? Any further discussion?

[23:23] All right. Seeing none, Andrew, how do you vote?

[23:26] Yes, Kathleen. Yes. Victoria? Yes. Rob?

[23:31] Yes. Eric? Yes. Rick? Yes. Thank you very much.

[23:36] Passes resolution passes. Thank you.

[23:38] Next on the agenda, tonight is a motion

[23:42] appointing two members to the small business task force.

[23:49] So there is a pink piece of paper in front of you

[23:51] and I guess sign it and pass it down.

[23:57] Just accept that since there's,

[24:00] Since there's no contenders in this, I would just look

[24:04] for counsel, a counselor to step up

[24:06] and make the recommendation. Rob, thank

[24:10] You.

[24:11] I'll make a motion to appoint Logan Roberts

[24:13] and Rebecca Nugent to the small business task force.

[24:16] Thank you. And a second from Rick. Any further discussion?

[24:20] Seeing none, Rick had, I mean, sorry. Rob, how do you vote?

[24:23] Yes. Eric? Yes. Rick? Yes. Indra? Yes. Kathleen? Yes.

[24:28] Victoria? Yes. Alright.

[24:29] The two members are appointed

[24:31] to the small business task force.

[24:32] Thank you very much. Next on our agenda, we come

[24:35] to general public comment.

[24:38] This is an opportunity for the public

[24:40] to address this city Council on items not related

[24:43] to a public hearing

[24:44] or council action Item on tonight's agenda,

[24:49] the intent is to receive information that is pertinent

[24:52] to the matters within the city's actual jurisdiction.

[24:56] Each speaker will be given three minutes

[24:59] to address the council.

[25:00] Council members will have an opportunity to respond

[25:02] to the public after thes consent agenda is addressed.

[25:08] I have blue cards in front of me

[25:11] and we'll start out with Mike.

[25:13] Ey, is he still online? No. All right.

[25:16] Mike Ey is not online.

[25:17] David Dapper, step up to the microphone

[25:19] and restate your name.

[25:20] You have three minutes sir.

[25:22] Hi. Hello.

[25:27] You hear me? Okay. Hi David.

[25:29] Dapper City resident with a

[25:34] homeless thing moving to Parker's place.

[25:36] Bernie's doing a job of managing inside Parker's Place,

[25:41] but it's our job as a city

[25:44] to manage the surrounding community.

[25:47] And I noticed Riverside West

[25:50] and Parker's place are having a big problem

[25:53] with the car campers

[25:55] and the junkies going down there during,

[25:58] during the day to do their drugs.

[26:00] And we have car campers unloading their whole

[26:03] car over multiple parking spaces

[26:07] and the site, the walkways.

[26:12] And we need this to stop.

[26:13] And when we call this in, we need it taken serious.

[26:19] Not not to be argued with when a,

[26:22] a couple women are staggering down the street and collapse

[26:26] or lay down in the middle of the road.

[26:28] Like the videos I sent you.

[26:30] All we need that responded to not argued with.

[26:36] Some of us do call a lot, but there's a reason for that.

[26:42] And we need, we need to, the two problem areas right now

[26:46] that I see are tossing.

[26:48] 'cause there's a part you can't get

[26:49] to from the parking lot without walking down towards the

[26:53] pedestrian bridge and Riverside West.

[26:57] And I did see Officer McGinnis

[26:59] and that new tall officer,

[27:01] I dunno if he's seven foot tall like McGinness said,

[27:04] but he's a big guy and that's what will

[27:08] what We'll see these guys

[27:10] because the junkies,

[27:12] they don't go out into the light in front

[27:14] of everybody to do their stuff.

[27:15] They're good at hiding

[27:18] and we really need, we really need

[27:22] to watch these areas in other areas.

[27:25] I'm sure Morrison is isn't looking real

[27:28] wonderful all the time.

[27:31] I'm glad they removed

[27:32] that park bench in front of the bottle drop.

[27:34] That was a, the campground of sorts.

[27:38] But can we please, please

[27:41] give a little emphasis on these two parks

[27:44] and these areas nearby?

[27:46] 'cause we know wherever these services are,

[27:49] it attracts people that need these services

[27:52] and it attracts people that abuse these services also.

[27:55] And we really need to, we need to manage

[27:59] around the campground. Thank you.

[28:02] Thank you Patrick Rooney.

[28:08] I do not see him in the audience.

[28:10] All right Dave Blakely, come up

[28:15] to the podium, restate your name

[28:17] and you have three minutes sir. We

[28:18] Should go five minutes if it's so empty in here.

[28:22] All right, Dave Blakely, city resident.

[28:24] I'm here again to reiterate my concerns about a tactic being

[28:27] used by Grants Pass Police that consists of closed fist

[28:31] and elbow strikes to the head.

[28:34] Now we talked last week about the liabilities associated

[28:36] with this tactic and I did a Google search yesterday

[28:39] and Eugene Police and Portland police are currently under

[28:42] lawsuit for same tactic, traumatic brain injury to the head

[28:45] because of closed fist and elbows to strikes to the head.

[28:48] Now we all know that I wore the badge

[28:50] of law enforcement in the county,

[28:51] but what you don't know is I was certified

[28:53] self-defense in director in Las Vegas.

[28:55] Chief is from Las Vegas.

[28:56] He should be able to understand this really well.

[28:58] We taught security officers in the casinos to make sure

[29:01] that they weren't acting aggressively.

[29:03] We taught them arm bar takedowns

[29:05] because they're extremely effective.

[29:07] Whether you're cooperative, drunk

[29:09] or resisting, they are effective

[29:12] and they do not bring the multimillion dollar liability

[29:15] that comes with the closed fist tactics to the head.

[29:18] I want it stopped. The community wants it stopped.

[29:21] I'm gonna again ask council to direct staff

[29:23] to look into cheaper other tactics

[29:26] that don't carry the liability that this tactic carries.

[29:29] I'm gonna ask city manager

[29:30] and city council, city attorney to come up

[29:33] with a moratorium on this tactic

[29:34] until we get this figured out.

[29:37] Every time an officer goes out,

[29:38] it's a potential multimillion dollar lawsuit.

[29:41] You'll be told all kinds

[29:42] of excuses while we're using this tactic.

[29:44] But keep in mind the academy does not condone it.

[29:48] They do not teach it.

[29:50] And they actually teach the officers the liabilities

[29:52] of using such a tactic.

[29:55] So why are we in Grants Pass Oregon using such a tactic

[29:58] who has fooled the chief of police to believe

[30:00] that this tactic is better than something like an arm bar

[30:03] or some other tactic.

[30:04] I don't care what it is, but there's gotta be something

[30:06] cheaper than what we're using.

[30:08] Now I wanna get down to the subject of prayer real quick.

[30:10] You guys made a big issue last meeting about coming up

[30:13] with policy to make sure

[30:14] that we didn't allow somebody in here

[30:16] that did you didn't want.

[30:17] Whether it was Satan's cult

[30:18] or some other religion, bad move folks.

[30:22] You did it publicly.

[30:23] You're setting yourself up for a discrimination lawsuit.

[30:26] You're setting yourself up, you're setting the city up

[30:28] for a discrimination lawsuit.

[30:29] 'cause you're actively trying to create a policy

[30:31] to keep people from coming in here that you may not approve

[30:33] of to give their their little moment of prayer.

[30:37] Keep it simple folks. We're adults. A moment of silence.

[30:41] A moment of silence. How hard is that to come up with?

[30:44] You wanna create policy, you're gonna create a lawsuit.

[30:46] And then we're gonna go through this

[30:47] circle around and around.

[30:49] And again, it's gotta stop. You're our leaders.

[30:51] You're here to listen to us and I expect you to listen.

[30:54] Thank you for your time.

[30:56] Thank you. Alright, that concludes the portion

[30:59] of this evening for general public comment.

[31:02] I thank you for your participation.

[31:05] Next on the agenda is Thes consent agenda

[31:08] if we can get that listed up.

[31:09] And I would look for volunteer counselor

[31:13] to read off our consent agenda tonight.

[31:16] Victoria. Thank you.

[31:18] I'll give it a whirl.

[31:20] Okay, I moved.

[31:26] Consent agenda items included are of such routine nature

[31:30] or without controversy so that they may be approved

[31:33] with a single action and there are no starred items.

[31:38] So item A resolution authorizing the city manager

[31:42] to enter into an agreement with controlled system northwest

[31:45] for redwood lift station B resolution

[31:50] authorizing the city manager

[31:51] to enter into a five year contract for service

[31:54] with Rogue Valley Council of Governments

[31:57] for total maximum daily load storm water permit

[32:01] implementation and compliance C resolution,

[32:05] authorizing the city manager to enter into a sole source

[32:08] construction contract with WMS aquatics

[32:13] for the caveman pool renovations.

[32:15] Project number LB 63 90 3D resolution

[32:21] authorizing the purchase of five Stryker Life Pack 35

[32:25] monitor defibrillators for grants pass Fire

[32:29] and Rescue e Motion approving the minutes

[32:33] of the city council meeting

[32:34] of August 19th, 2026 F Motion.

[32:39] Acknowledging the minutes

[32:40] of the Urban Tree Advisory Committee meeting

[32:43] of July 13th, 2026 G Motion.

[32:47] Acknowledging the minutes

[32:49] of the Parks Advisory Committee meeting July 9th, 2026

[32:54] H Motion, acknowledging the minutes

[32:57] of the small Business Task force meeting of July 22nd, 2026.

[33:02] I motion acknowledging the minutes of the Bikeways

[33:06] and Walkways committee meeting of July 14th, 2026.

[33:10] Jay Motion acknowledging the minutes

[33:13] of the Urban Area Planning Commission meeting

[33:16] of July 8th, 2026 K.

[33:20] Motion. Acknowledging the minutes

[33:22] of the Committee on public art meeting

[33:25] of July 14th, 2026.

[33:30] And I move to approve the consent agenda.

[33:34] Thank you with a second from Eric. Thank you very much.

[33:37] Any further discussion? All right.

[33:39] Seeing none, Victoria, how do you vote? Yes, Kathleen. Yes.

[33:43] Indra? Yes. Rick? Yes. Eric? Yes. Rob? Yes. All right.

[33:47] Case consent agenda for council meeting.

[33:50] September 2nd has been approved.

[33:53] Now we move on to matters for mayor council.

[33:56] I bring it back to the diocese for any counselors have

[34:00] anything to add to tonight's proceedings?

[34:03] Rob?

[34:04] Yeah, I've got a few things.

[34:06] First I have a question for Brad.

[34:08] So earlier tonight we tabled

[34:12] or postponed the discussion on the, the development

[34:16] until September 16th, right?

[34:19] So that in our packet, I mean there were so many,

[34:24] you know, major changes from, from what was brought

[34:28] before the UAPC.

[34:31] I don't understand why that wouldn't go back to the UAPC

[34:34] for them to review the myriad changes that are in there

[34:37] before it comes back to council.

[34:39] 'cause it seems like it much of that goes way

[34:41] beyond council's level of expertise.

[34:43] So why doesn't this go back to UAPC

[34:45] and then come to council? Yeah,

[34:48] I guess if I could just check with the city attorney

[34:51] because we're, we're talking about an item

[34:53] that is technically open

[34:56] and we haven't invited the applicant to be here

[35:01] because they were informed that it was gonna be continued.

[35:03] I mean, I'm happy to answer the question.

[35:04] I just, I just want to make sure that

[35:06] we're not causing any issues this,

[35:08] this discussion's on the record.

[35:10] So maybe that's okay. But

[35:12] I think Rob's question is more about

[35:13] procedure. Procedure,

[35:15] Okay.

[35:16] Yeah. So I, I don't think he wants to discuss the, the,

[35:18] I mean he can correct me, but it sounded like more like

[35:20] procedurally, wouldn't you go back to the UAPC if that's

[35:23] Yeah, Exactly.

[35:24] There's so many. Yeah.

[35:26] You know, you know, I read 70 pages

[35:28] and there's a minimum of, I dunno, a dozen different

[35:32] changes that are gonna be made.

[35:34] Like that goes beyond what council's area of expertise is.

[35:38] Why wouldn't it go back to a PC?

[35:40] Yeah, well there's two things.

[35:43] One is the, the way

[35:45] that the development code is currently written,

[35:49] it talks about, in the appeals section it talks about a

[35:53] de novo hearing, which is essentially starting

[35:58] from scratch or you know, new.

[36:02] And so from our staff, look at it,

[36:06] there wasn't any provision that would say if somebody wants

[36:09] to bring some changes since it's a de novo appeal,

[36:13] they can bring those changes.

[36:15] They can present those changes, they can talk about them

[36:18] without going back.

[36:21] Now there is another provision that says

[36:23] that the council could limit that

[36:26] and say, no, you can't talk about anything you want.

[36:29] You can only talk about the two things that,

[36:32] or three things that the planning commission denied it on.

[36:38] What's, what's odd is that our code doesn't allow you

[36:40] to make that decision until you actually

[36:42] have it in front of you.

[36:45] So that doesn't really help anybody because the staff

[36:48] and the applicant can't really prepare for that hearing.

[36:50] So we, we feel like our hands are a little bit tied on this

[36:54] one and, and in and prior ones as well with the way,

[36:57] because of that language, the way it's worded now, we,

[37:02] we have had very open communications with the applicant and,

[37:05] and I think that on the 16th it, it should go smoother

[37:09] and we can maybe trim down your, you know, the, the packets

[37:13] so that to hearing your concern about all

[37:16] of this technical information that's coming before you.

[37:20] But I think that's the reason why you had it, is

[37:23] because there really is nothing that, that,

[37:27] that the city has that can deny the applicant

[37:31] to file an appeal if that's the route they choose to go.

[37:35] Okay. I, I just, I guess I thought that an appeal was the

[37:40] aspects that the UAPC denied them on,

[37:44] but they've changed other things beyond what was denied.

[37:48] In other words, it's a significantly different project

[37:51] beyond the things that were, they were denied on.

[37:54] That's, that's my, I guess that's my question.

[37:56] It's not just the things they were denied on

[37:58] that were changed, it's now a different project

[38:02] and UAPC hasn't seen those aspects yet.

[38:07] So who is it that makes the decision

[38:10] that those things were are, you know, basically

[38:14] up to code so to speak.

[38:16] Right, right. No, and you're spot on counselor.

[38:19] There is, there is some subjectivity in the determination

[38:22] about what's considered a major change

[38:24] and a minor change when somebody comes forth with a,

[38:28] you know, with an application.

[38:29] I mean, they got the same number of units,

[38:31] they've got the same basic layout, you know,

[38:34] they have a few changes to parking,

[38:36] but, you know, so yes, that is, that is my call in terms

[38:40] of a director's call on what's, what's major

[38:43] and minor in terms of an application change.

[38:45] But but didn't, didn't they change from a private

[38:48] street to a public street?

[38:49] Correct. Well That's huge,

[38:53] But that's, that's kind of parsing into the actual

[38:55] discussion of the, of that.

[38:57] So we want to stay away from that.

[38:58] I think what, just to clarify

[39:03] what you're saying, Brad, is our code doesn't allow us

[39:07] to basically stop the proceedings.

[39:09] We'd still have to go through a council hearing,

[39:13] which should, the council should be just determining

[39:16] and weighing the two items

[39:17] or the number of items that the UAPC has denied,

[39:21] only not the overall project.

[39:22] Correct.

[39:24] Right, right.

[39:26] And, and that all hinges on this determination

[39:29] of a de novo hearing,

[39:31] which gives an applicant the opportunity

[39:33] to bring forward some changes in an appeal without

[39:39] starting over because that does involve a lot

[39:41] of time and involves a lot of money.

[39:42] And an appeal is the faster route

[39:46] and the state has required the city

[39:48] to process applications within 120 days.

[39:52] We don't have any control over that.

[39:54] And you can't get to 120 day decision by going back

[39:58] and forth and back and forth.

[40:00] You have to really just kind of follow through on one stream

[40:03] and that that includes the appeal. So

[40:07] Do you still have questions?

[40:08] Yeah, yeah. I mean I understand that includes the appeal

[40:11] and you say it, you know it,

[40:13] but when you say you have to follow through within 120 days,

[40:17] they've changed their application midstream.

[40:19] So, you know, I I have no,

[40:22] I have no idea where this is gonna go.

[40:23] And I would imagine that, you know,

[40:25] people wanna work this out to make it all work out,

[40:27] but they've changed their application.

[40:30] It's not the same application that we were required

[40:32] to process it within 120 days.

[40:34] They've changed it. So that, that's my point.

[40:37] It your maybe your call,

[40:38] but it's not the same application that they put in

[40:42] and expect it to have finished in 120 days.

[40:44] They changed their application significantly.

[40:46] So that's my point. I guess that's my question.

[40:51] Alright, so I have a couple other things too. Okay.

[40:53] Since we are now crystal clear on that one.

[40:57] Let's see, we'll try another one.

[41:00] So the compensation study that we got a memo on Monday.

[41:05] I hope all counselors had an opportunity to look at that.

[41:09] And there's a bunch of questions I have on it

[41:12] and I'm just wondering,

[41:16] maybe I could bring those up to

[41:21] at the agenda setting meeting tomorrow, whatever.

[41:23] But there's, there's, there's, there's things that I,

[41:27] I definitely have questions on with regards to that memo

[41:30] and, and they're, they're somewhat detailed,

[41:33] although they wouldn't take a long time.

[41:34] So what, what's the best way to, and

[41:37] and maybe other counselors have, have spotted things there

[41:39] that they have questions on as well.

[41:41] I, I don't know, but what's the best way to bring that up?

[41:44] Yeah, thanks for the question.

[41:46] So we sent that forward to you

[41:47] because I got that from a logic

[41:49] and I wanna make sure that logic's moving forward is in

[41:53] alignment with council's expectations.

[41:55] So if you have specific questions, I I may be able

[41:58] to answer those in, in the meeting tomorrow or,

[42:01] but if you do have specific questions,

[42:03] I would gather those forward those to logic,

[42:05] get those answers and provide them back to council.

[42:09] And, and if it's, it's such that you need them

[42:13] again on online, we could do that also.

[42:16] So I'd first start by question submittal

[42:19] or talking to me, give me a call,

[42:20] let me know what your questions are.

[42:22] I'll forward those on

[42:23] and get the responses and give 'em to all counsel.

[42:25] So, okay.

[42:26] So do you want me to call you

[42:28] or do you want me to just, you wanna discuss

[42:29] that in person tomorrow or how do you wanna do that?

[42:31] Whatever's most convenient to you

[42:33] Can discuss, Let's parse it out in

[42:35] the conversation tomorrow.

[42:37] And if we feel that it needs to go more in depth,

[42:39] then we can go more in depth. Okay.

[42:41] And then, but Then any discussion

[42:42] that happens in the agenda setting in regards to that,

[42:45] we'll be distributed to all counselors.

[42:46] Sure, yes. Yeah, there's not a lot,

[42:49] I don't think there's a lot of depth.

[42:51] Well, there may be. We'll see.

[42:54] And then the, the third thing I wanted to discuss, I gotta,

[42:58] so I got a question initially for Chief Hensman.

[43:03] So we had, we were looking for six public safety,

[43:08] I should say six police positions.

[43:10] And you know, you've updated us many times about

[43:14] how difficult it is to recruit police and so forth.

[43:18] I believe one of the six positions was for CSO.

[43:21] And I would imagine that that position is a lot easier

[43:23] to fill than it is for a police officer.

[43:25] Has that position been filled? The one CSO?

[43:28] Yes, sir. That was fairly easy to fill

[43:30] and it's been filled with a terrific person. Okay,

[43:34] So is that CSO is part

[43:38] of their route gonna be downtown at all?

[43:41] We used to have, you know, two CSOs downtown at least.

[43:45] What, what's, and right now we've got, like today

[43:48] for instance in the rain,

[43:50] probably had a dozen people in the,

[43:52] the G Street Plaza trying to stay dry.

[43:55] A dozen people that I would call, they had a lot of stuff

[43:58] with them and they appeared

[43:59] to be loitering, et cetera, et cetera.

[44:03] What kind of general patrol do we have downtown?

[44:07] Is that CSO or some other CSO?

[44:09] Is that their responsibility? Now we,

[44:10] You counsel, we have a variety of patrol.

[44:13] As a reminder, when you look at the CSOs, the CSOs used

[44:18] to do parking enforcement.

[44:19] That's why you had CSOs downtown

[44:21] and counsel chose to go to a parking enforcement officer

[44:24] who is downtown on the regular doing parking

[44:27] enforcement duties.

[44:29] Yeah, that happened a couple of years ago.

[44:32] Also though the CSOs are very busy doing all those things

[44:37] that police officers typically can't get around

[44:40] to traffic accidents, et cetera.

[44:42] So they're very involved in the day to day

[44:45] and they're incredibly busy.

[44:48] Also too, our patrol officers are out

[44:52] and about when they can being proactive, not just

[44:56] during the day, but definitely during the wee hours

[44:58] of the morning doing what we call the CBD enforcement.

[45:02] And the reality of it counselor

[45:04] and community is

[45:05] that we're busy running call to call to call.

[45:08] Well, it's probably not fair to say call to call to call,

[45:11] but we're busy running a lot of calls.

[45:15] Again, my request to community is if you see something,

[45:18] say something and call us.

[45:21] We can't be everywhere at one time.

[45:22] There's about 11 square miles here in the city

[45:24] and typically only about six cops on duty.

[45:27] So we're running around all over the place.

[45:29] To answer your question, also to Councilor Pell, the CSOs

[45:34] are complimented by the cadets.

[45:37] We have hired some really, fingers crossed great people

[45:41] to fill these cadet roles

[45:43] and I expect to get them trained up fairly quickly

[45:46] and get them on foot downtown as well.

[45:49] So they will provide that additional support downtown

[45:52] and that additional eyes and ears.

[45:54] And then also, I, I shared this in an email today

[45:58] and thank you all very much for

[46:00] enacting the exclusion ordinance downtown.

[46:03] We've actually hit 14 people we've excluded from downtown.

[46:07] So I think that's working as well coupled

[46:11] with everything else that we're doing.

[46:12] So hopefully that answered your question.

[46:14] It does and it also touches on the, kind of the follow up,

[46:18] you know, I you, as you probably remember, there's,

[46:22] I've emailed you a few times over the last few years,

[46:25] I've sent you photographs a couple times of

[46:29] parking issues downtown.

[46:31] Sometimes the car parked illegally for five continuous days,

[46:34] which to me indicated

[46:35] that our parking enforcement was seriously lacking.

[46:37] And I basically haven't really

[46:41] demanded more from you

[46:43] or the department knowing that we were kind of overloaded

[46:46] with our homeless issues.

[46:48] But the bottom line is,

[46:50] and then we had our, our construction project downtown.

[46:53] And I again, did not, I wasn't constantly

[46:58] reminding you of what the opinion

[47:00] of most downtown business owners are on the effectiveness

[47:03] of our parking enforcement.

[47:05] But I would like to get together some time possibly with you

[47:08] and Aaron at the same time, because there's also some data

[47:11] that would also indicate

[47:12] that our parking enforcement is sorely lacking

[47:15] over what it was a few years ago.

[47:16] And that's the usage of our paid spots.

[47:19] Those are empty and there's no reason for people

[47:22] to pay anymore for the paid spots

[47:25] because the risk of of parking an illegal spot is so low.

[47:30] I, I, I get what you're saying, counselor,

[47:32] but I also as a reminder, as an all hands on deck department

[47:37] with limited resources,

[47:38] we utilize our parking enforcement officer

[47:41] to clear out the camps.

[47:42] We've had camps over here for years

[47:44] and we've been utilizing them for a lot of things.

[47:47] I'd be happy to set up a ride along with anybody

[47:49] to go downtown with our bargaining enforcement officer

[47:52] and see what he does on the regular.

[47:56] But the reality too is

[47:57] that our park parking enforcement recently got a promotion

[48:00] to a community service officer.

[48:02] So the duties have been collateral duties to other people.

[48:07] And it's certainly not to minimize the role

[48:10] of anybody in the organization,

[48:11] but the reality is parking enforcement is a much lower

[48:14] priority when it comes to everything else

[48:16] that we have to do in the organization.

[48:18] The good news, I just hired an outstanding person

[48:21] for the parking enforcement position who I think will be

[48:25] a wonderful addition to the community.

[48:27] And I think she's going to fit in really well

[48:30] with not just our organization,

[48:32] but also the downtown merchants and downtown community.

[48:35] So I'm excited about this person coming on board.

[48:40] And this person also,

[48:42] I'll brag a bit about this person has tremendous experience

[48:46] who I think will be able to really support

[48:49] a more robust enforcement mission in the downtown corridor.

[48:53] Okay. Just, and I'm, I'm just wanna

[48:55] basically make one more point,

[48:57] and I think I might've made it before

[48:59] where from a police perspective, I understand

[49:02] how parking enforcement would be probably the

[49:05] very low on the food chain, so to speak, from the

[49:11] perspective of our downtown businesses

[49:14] and the

[49:16] our and our customers.

[49:20] It's much higher on the food chain than you,

[49:22] than you really understand, quite frankly.

[49:24] Because if you don't have the likelihood of being able

[49:28] to get a parking within a block

[49:30] or so of where you're gonna go,

[49:31] you could very easily go out to the parkway.

[49:33] You could very easily shop Amazon.

[49:36] You could, there's so many different options.

[49:38] So while, like I say from a police perspective,

[49:41] it's one thing from an economic development

[49:44] and tourism perspective, it's another thing.

[49:46] It's more far more important than

[49:49] I think you may realize from,

[49:51] from the merchant's perspective.

[49:53] I've had merchants come to me literally in tears over some

[49:57] of these issues and it's like, there's nothing

[49:59] that I can do for 'em.

[50:01] But I just, I just want to finish with that.

[50:03] It's, it's more important

[50:04] that I think you're giving it credit.

[50:05] I would, if I may just respond,

[50:08] I do give it a lot of credit.

[50:10] I give everything, we do the same amount of enthusiasm.

[50:16] I would also ask that if you have a merchant who's concerned

[50:20] or frustrated, please call me.

[50:22] I open my door to everybody.

[50:23] I've had plenty of meetings of late

[50:26] and I'd be more than happy to chat with this person

[50:30] so we can engage them appropriately and effectively.

[50:34] And if we're missing something, we're big men and women

[50:38] and we can take it on the chin and, and we can get out there

[50:41] and be more effective.

[50:42] It, it really boils down to communication.

[50:44] I don't minimize anything that happens in this community.

[50:47] I'm finger on the pulse 24 7. I know what's going on.

[50:50] I respond to everything

[50:52] and you know, I'm happy to have a meeting with you

[50:55] and whoever else, but for the

[50:58] downtown merchants, gimme a call.

[51:00] I'd love to know what's going on

[51:01] or what's what your concerns are so we can address that.

[51:05] Thank you. That brings it back full

[51:10] circle to the conversation

[51:11] that I continually have ever since I started serving in

[51:14] 2017 with the city.

[51:16] We need a high rise parking structure downtown. Okay.

[51:20] Next Victoria. Yeah.

[51:24] Yes. It, it kind of, I guess goes right off of that.

[51:27] So I do know that,

[51:29] and it speaks to something that someone

[51:32] in public comment was speaking about,

[51:34] and that is that we do have exclusion zones

[51:37] and we have been hearing that there have been people

[51:40] who have been cited in the exclusion zone.

[51:43] So I, I think that this is probably gonna continue to help.

[51:47] And we also just to let the public know do have

[51:51] on our agenda,

[51:54] or it will be on the agenda soon, expanding ex looking into

[51:58] how we can expand exclusion zones.

[52:02] So I know

[52:04] that the police are working on enforcing

[52:08] what counsel has done with the exclusion zones,

[52:10] and I just wanted to extend appreciation for that.

[52:14] And, and I know

[52:17] because I've been, I haven't been in a ride along in a while

[52:19] and tonight made me think I'm gonna have to do it again

[52:22] because I know that you guys are going from call

[52:24] to call to call to call.

[52:26] And so I think that with all of these measures

[52:31] that council is doing and the continued just push

[52:35] and hard work from our police department

[52:39] that we're gonna make progress

[52:41] and it's not gonna be overnight

[52:43] and it's gonna continue to be frustrating.

[52:46] But I really appreciate that,

[52:49] that Chief Hensman said, please do call.

[52:52] They, they don't feel like you're calling too much.

[52:56] They, they ask the community to call when you see something

[53:01] and that helps them to know where to push the resources.

[53:05] So we do have some more things

[53:09] that are coming up on the agenda to address that.

[53:11] And so I just wanted to thank Chief Hensman

[53:15] and let, let, let the public know

[53:19] that we are looking to do even more.

[53:24] Thank you. Anybody else? Kathleen?

[53:27] And then Indra. Kathleen?

[53:29] Yeah, I just wanted to say, I think that's great advice

[53:32] Chief Hensman that we do a ride along

[53:35] that maybe Rob does a ride along with the

[53:39] enforcement downtown to see what is going on.

[53:41] And I think that's good advice for all of us.

[53:44] And I plan on making a, a ride along appointment soon too.

[53:51] Indra? Yes.

[53:52] I just wanted to say we knew

[53:56] when we transitioned the camps there would be some issues

[53:59] and there are, and and Chief, I just want you to know,

[54:02] you sound very tired tonight.

[54:05] Like you're, we're all in this together and,

[54:08] and I know you're getting,

[54:10] and your officers are getting the brunt of it,

[54:12] but we, we need to think outside the box.

[54:17] There are cities that are being more successful than we are.

[54:21] And so I feel like

[54:24] we keep saying it'll get better.

[54:27] We're, and I know you're doing all you can,

[54:30] but I would really like our us to think

[54:32] outside the box on some things maybe we can do to help

[54:35] because people are,

[54:40] we're all tired of it.

[54:41] And, and especially when I saw that video

[54:44] of the ring camera, I had an experience where they come

[54:48] to your door, it's, it's really scary

[54:51] and I don't want someone, you know, to be a victim

[54:55] and then we say, wow, we,

[54:57] we should have done something more.

[54:59] And so I would really like, that's the,

[55:03] that's the number one priority, public safety

[55:06] and keeping our citizens safe.

[55:09] And I would funnel every dime we had into doing that.

[55:12] Really. I think that's our number one priority.

[55:16] And then I did wanna address Mr

[55:18] and thank you Chief for, for all you're doing,

[55:21] but I feel like as a council we sit here

[55:24] and say things are getting better, we're doing things,

[55:28] but to the public, they're not really seeing that.

[55:32] And so that's why I say what can we do more

[55:36] as a team, Mr.

[55:38] Blakely, I just, I am not an expert on law enforcement

[55:42] or holds or anything like that,

[55:44] but I hear what you're saying and,

[55:46] and so I'm gonna commit to educate myself more on that,

[55:51] just to have the knowledge and, and go from there.

[55:56] Thank you.

[55:58] Anyone else? Eric?

[56:03] I just want to say thank you

[56:06] to the police force Chief Hensman.

[56:09] I know that a a lot

[56:11] of things have been said here up on the dais just now

[56:15] and you know, we, we can go round

[56:19] and round talk about tightening up our bootstraps

[56:24] or tightening up our belts

[56:25] and I mean, When it comes to funding

[56:31] this council authorized 12

[56:35] FTE six four, the police force, we take it seriously.

[56:40] And when it comes to taking the budget away from

[56:44] the police department or safety, I do not agree with that.

[56:48] So just from my perspective, it's, it's, it's

[56:53] a very high on the list of my priorities.

[56:56] Not tightening our belts, quote unquote,

[56:59] but giving that money where it needs to go.

[57:03] Especially now in these circumstances with

[57:07] the way everything has happened with, with the transition

[57:11] of the temporary resting sites down

[57:13] to Parker's place.

[57:19] Things are going, things are as,

[57:23] as I heard somebody say that, that it's going as expected

[57:28] or it is gonna, it's a little bit worse

[57:31] for a temporary time period.

[57:35] I, I just wanna remind the public this,

[57:36] this is all happening because of this.

[57:40] The laws that are put in place here in Oregon,

[57:43] we've got SB 48, we've got HB 3, 115.

[57:48] We've got all of these things that are hindering

[57:51] the police force and hindering

[57:54] what we can do as a council here.

[57:57] So when I hear people talk about bettering the police force

[58:02] or they need to do better or,

[58:04] or we need to see what other communities are doing.

[58:06] Well the fact is

[58:11] We are a unique circumstance and it's happening

[58:15] because we live in Oregon.

[58:22] So I just want, again, I want to thank the police chief,

[58:25] I want to thank the police force.

[58:26] They're doing a the best job

[58:28] that they could possibly be doing right now without being

[58:32] criticized by everyone else.

[58:35] Now he has said many times, you can call,

[58:40] call in and, and, and do all those things.

[58:42] They are very busy right now.

[58:46] So I, again, I I

[58:52] I commend the police force.

[58:53] Thank you so much.

[58:56] Thank you. Anybody else? Counselors? Okay.

[59:01] Staff. Anything from staff tonight?

[59:04] No, we're good. We're Good? We're good? Okay.

[59:06] With that, that goes through our agenda tonight.

[59:11] We do not have an ex executive session

[59:14] scheduled or notified.

[59:16] So we are at the end of our public meeting tonight.

[59:19] And I would look back to counsel for a motion

[59:23] to adjourn. Victoria,

[59:25] I motion to adjourn.

[59:27] Thank you. With a second from Rick

[59:29] and everybody that wants to go home, say,

[59:31] let's go home, let's go home.

[59:33] Let's go home. All right. Thank you very much

[59:34] for your participation tonight, audience.

[59:36] Woo-hoo. Under an hour that was.

Grants Pass City Council

Agenda

Transcript