I call the meeting to order. Good evening and welcome to the July 21st, 2026 business meeting of
your Ashton City Council. Councillor Kaplan will offer the land acknowledgement.
We acknowledge and honor the Aboriginal people on whose ancestral home lands we work. The Icarricuits
and Banned of the Shaston Nation, as well as the diverse and vibrant native communities who make
their home here today. We honor the first stewards in the road valley and the lands we love and depend on.
Tribes with ancestral lands in and surrounding the geography of the Ashton watershed include the original past, present,
and future indigenous inhabitants of the Shaston to Kelma and Athabaskan people. We also recognize and acknowledge the Shaston village
of Kwakaka, where the crow lights that is now the Ashton City Plaza.
Councillor Hansen will leave us in the pledge of allegiance.
That's why the allegiance to the flag of the United States is America.
And do you think we're going to know which stands one nation under God in the visible
with the Brazilian justice for all.
Roll call please, Alyssa.
Cheryl.
Dale.
Bloom.
Graham.
Here.
Kaplan.
Here.
Hansen.
Here.
Thank you.
So under Mayors announcements, couple things.
First, thank you to everyone who came out to the informational meeting to learn how to
prepare for fire season.
We know we are in it with a smoke that has happened and it was great to see what incredible attendance
we had and to see how many people are taking the steps that they need to around their home.
Being prepared in case fire comes to action this fire season.
So thank you for that.
I also want to just make sure that everyone who is here understands how to sign up to speak with a council this evening.
So you'll see on the back wall, there is a sign of sheet.
The speaker request form.
Please fill that out.
Make sure that you write ledgerbly.
That will help me call your name correctly.
But also make sure that you indicate what you are here to speak to us about.
If you are here to speak about a specific agenda item, please put that on the forum.
If you have come here this evening to speak to us about something that is not on the agenda, please indicate that you are here to speak during public forum.
And then put your forum in this tray by the city recorders office.
Please make sure that you have your forum in by the beginning of the agenda item that you're planning to speak on as that will help us manage our time.
I also want to just note that we have a packed agenda, we have a lot that we're trying to get through this evening.
And so we are going to do everything we can to get through the entire agenda and we just ask for everyone's cooperation in helping us keep moving.
With that, the minutes are the next item on our agenda, are there any changes to the minutes.
Okay, the floor is open for a motion to accept the minutes.
Councillor Dale.
Thank you Mayor.
Approved to our, I move to accept the minutes of your correct correction.
June 15th and June 16th.
Okay.
Will call please elicit.
Bloom.
Yes.
Dale.
Yes.
Hansen.
Yes.
Ducane.
Yes.
Kaplan.
Yes.
Thank you.
We are now to the consent agenda.
Would any councilor like to remove any item from the consent agenda?
I'm sorry.
We have a couple of comments on the consent agenda.
On and is in the item.
Okay.
So the question then is what the councilor like to with pull it over.
You're going to public comment first and then decide if you want to pull it.
Okay.
Very good.
So let's go ahead and do that.
I want to pull up Dan.
Manier.
There we go.
May wear.
You'll have.
Three minutes and please speak into the microphone and for everyone who is going to speak this evening.
You have a display on the podium that will be green while you are still in a lot of time.
It will turn to yellow and you'll hear a buzzer when you have 20 seconds left.
And then when you hear the second buzzer and it goes to red that means your time is finished.
We need you to complete your testimony.
Please tell us your name and the city and which you reside before a Sunday your testimony.
My name is Dan Maymar.
I live in Ashland, Oregon and I am a realtor as well as a forester.
And I'm here to encourage the council to place the Fremont cotton wood at 380.
Clay Street into the heritage tree list.
Fremont cotton wood is pretty unique.
Usually it grows in riparian areas from Mexico.
And we're looking at probably close to the northernmost boundary of the Fremont cotton wood.
It's usually a fast growing tree and needs a lot of water to thrive.
And this particular specimen of this tree is relatively large.
It's one of the biggest that I've been able to find in the record.
And I would just encourage the council to protect, preserve and just this is been a tree that has been around for at least 200 years.
Given the size of it, it is growing in an ideal situation for it.
And it has seen the passive time from the native tribes to the early white settlement to this day.
And it's seen a lot going on.
Sorry, that's my comments.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Would any council like to pull any item from the consent agenda?
Hey, the floor is open for a motion to approve the consent agenda.
Councillor Blue.
I'm over approval of the consent agenda.
Second.
Oh.
Roll call please, Melissa.
Cheryl.
Yes.
Hansen.
Yes.
Ducaine.
Yes.
Kaplan.
Yes.
Bloom.
Yes.
Motion passed.
Thank you.
We are now to public forum.
Alyssa has anyone signed up for public forum.
Okay.
Public forum is 15 minutes and we have.
5 people who have signed up to speak. So each person will have three minutes. Again, the first buzzer will buzz at 20 seconds. The second one will buzz when your time is up. We will go in this order. Denise Gerkey, Nancy Boyer, blaze, debosh, avron sacks, and Chris McGee.
And feel free to adjust the microphone. And also, before we get started here, if you need us to bring a microphone to you, because of mobility issues, please just raise your hand when I call your name. And we will bring that to you. Go ahead, ma'am.
Denise Gerkey, I would like to offer suggestions regarding the proposed management to facilitate facilitator for the night one, particularly the possibility of aura taking on that role.
I've lived on the night one for nearly a year and have experienced homelessness for three years before that I worked as a radiology technician for 20 years, and later had a successful career as a realtor in southern Oregon.
Like many residents here, I have skills experience and a desire to rebuild my life. My goal has been to regain my financial stability.
And unfortunately, I have experienced repeated mistreatment from organizations funded to provide assistance. I have documented incidences including photographs and reports filed with the actual and police department.
I believe the night one should consider a different approach to management. Many residents are homeless due to economic hardship, not just substance abuse. They have professional backgrounds, leadership skills and the ability to organize resolve conflicts and support one another.
Rather than relying only on outside organizations, residents should have a direct role in managing their community.
A resident advisory committee or compensated resident facilitator program would recognize the work people are already doing to maintain order, communicate and resolve issues.
Over the past year, I have seen frequent role changes, create confusion and conflict, effective management requires consistency, transparency, collaboration with those most affected people experiencing homelessness do not lose their constitutional rights or their voice, including residents in decision making would improve accountability, cooperation and respect.
Every resident I have met wants stability, safety, and a chance to move forward forward addressing homelessness requires not only services but also the experience and leadership of those living through it.
I respectfully ask that any decision about the night law and management include meaningful resident representation and consideration of a resident, lead or resident supported model.
The people who live here understand what's working and what does not and how to build a safer community for all of us. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, Nancy Boyer, Ashland. I'm just here wanting to involve the community within an else, but I think we all should be aware of concerning our beautiful lithium park and we are all owners of lithium park.
Recently, RVMBA, Robelly Mountain, Bike Association and a park commissioner, Justin Adams, has proposed to bike trails through our park.
And I'm afraid that the people that don't watch park meetings are not aware of it and I don't know how to get this out to the community since we all own lithium park.
So I'm hoping possibly our city manager could put this in her enus or somewhere we could get the the word out to people who will not know what is happening or wait till something does happen and then say why weren't we told how can we get this out to involve the whole community.
We're all better together. We support our parks. We love all the bike curves and the trails. We give them five dollars a month and all of us citizens pay that and a large portion of the general budget goes to the parks.
So I'm hoping that we can get this out and I'm hoping everybody spreads the word that this is like a proposal.
That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Let's see how this thing worked. Hey there. My name is blazedbouch. I am new to your beautiful city and I just had to move from a rather difficult living situation hence why I'm here.
And I have to say being homeless for the first time has been rather difficult even though this small town has a very nice demeanor I guess you could say about it.
But my biggest frustration is I suppose being dependent on various services and having my time be dictated by what other people's schedules are available for resources and independence feels quite difficult in this situation that I find myself in.
And I feel like my best proposition I can offer is granting the people that are currently on the streets and could possibly get into a worse situation to be thrown out onto the streets is allowing them the resources that they need to
spend for themselves to grow themselves because I find myself working very hard every day because I have a job. I don't have any history of substance abuse and I think of myself as a very healthy individual.
And I am walking 12 to 14 hours a day in order to meet my needs to support myself and now I have a chosen family out on these streets that I'm trying to help keep alive.
And that is again quite difficult with our circumstances and it is frustrating but I will put every resource that I have body money mind everything into finding some kind of solution.
And if there's anything that I want to plead to fund it's a space to do so to get these people food water that they can grow and create for themselves instead of having to rely on a finite amount of resources given to them by other people who have their own schedules on troubles and on struggles to deal with.
We're going to make a little bit shaken but I think that's all that I have to say for today. Thank you.
Thank you.
We have Avron Sacks and Chris McGee.
Good evening. Just two simple topics I wanted to address. The first has to do with the fire situation that you just referred to.
Two years ago when I contract with the city to do the extreme weather shelter I was asked to be prepared to do overnight smoke shelter.
So I don't understand why we haven't been getting people out of the smoke when it was really bad and it was only during the day.
I'm sure there's an answer but I don't know if it's that I've talked to has been able to tell me.
I have a gentleman on supporting us on the night line with memory issues and during the time of the smoke his memory got really extremely worse.
Now I can't say the smoke in the heat was the cause of that but none of us want to be sleeping out in the smoke.
So I don't understand why we're not doing overnight shelter when the smoke is bad.
The second issue has to do with when there's an extreme weather shelter called this winter we were told that when the extreme weather shelter was called the people on the night line for keeps their tents up.
And that was very helpful because there wasn't enough room at 2200 and or for all the people on the night launch if they were chosen to want to get out of the cold.
By having their tents up they could stay there all day they certainly weren't going to walk all the way to the other end of town and back in the cold.
But now in the heat when we had 22nd the extreme weather shelter called we told the people they could keep their tents up but we were all enrolled by the police who told them to take them down.
Problem is it means you're setting up at 430 in the afternoon when it could be still over 90 degrees.
I've been out there a few days ago when it was 92 degrees helping somebody set up their tent.
It was baking out there.
I don't think it's safe that you know the danger of heat show is a very real thing.
So I think we need to address the issue.
I understand that people can wait to the heat is over and come at 7 or 8 but the problem is the volunteers only there with the shed open for an hour.
And also the night light is completely full so people try to get there right at 430 so they can get their spot and be assured of having a place for their tent.
But it's definitely I mean I think even when it's 90 degrees it's too hot but certainly when it's extreme weather shelter is called.
I think it would be wise for people to be able to keep their tents up.
Thank you.
Chris McGee.
Hi good afternoon my name is Chris McGee I'm a representative for the North Coast State's Carpenter's Union and I am out of Southern Oregon.
So I just wanted to mainly I just wanted to come here and introduce myself.
But and I wanted to talk about you know the Carpenter's Union apprenticeship program state accredited you know which means skilled workforce along with high safety standards.
You know union apprenticeships turn into mode of turn motivated people into skilled trades workers.
You know without the college debt.
apprentices earn while they learn these are family wage jobs that means keep workers off the safety net and all you know all as taxpayers pay into.
And keep our taxpayer dollar circling in our community that's what's great about the apprenticeship program you know it keeps local workers in the community you know spending money in the community with your family.
Taking your daughter to dance recitals and spending that money up the gas pump traveling to to work.
But I just mainly like I said I just wanted to come introduce myself and hopefully we can create a relationship that if I can leave my card with somebody.
City of a quarter.
That's all.
Thank you.
So just so everyone knows when we have people come and speak the council is not able by our rules to interact with them but I did want to just point out that that there is a place to.
Put in your comments around the proposed trails it's in the the current e-news so there the city is actively taking comments about that particular project.
So we move on now to ordinances resolution or public hearing excuse me.
The continued public hearing in first reading of ordinance 3306 establishing notice of sale opportunity to purchase and tenant protections for manufactured home park residents.
Sabrina.
Yeah this is a follow up from our last council meeting I believe someone to go ahead and hand it on over to.
Thank you for having me tonight as you know what's coming before you is a continuation of the first reading for ordinance 3306 which adds chapter 10.116 to our municipal code.
Establishing notice of sale requirements and opportunity to purchase process and tenant protections for manufactured home park residents.
Ordinance 3306 is the tenant protection portion of the manufactured home park zone project you did see three companion ordinances and past first reading on leave it was June 9.
I'm sorry I was on June 16 so at that meeting the council approved first reading of those three ordinances and further continued consideration of ordinance 3306 to a date certain.
The first this evening to allow additional legal review.
So at that meeting council directed staff to look at for areas essentially the relationship between the local requirements and organ revised statutes.
Specifically chapter 90 the state landlord tenant statute opportunities to streamline the draft ordinance by incorporating state law by reference rather than restating it where appropriate.
Clareification of enforcement mechanisms and looking at the extent that the city has authority to impose requirements that exceed state law.
So staff and the legal department thank you to the legal department.
I've completed that review and revised the draft that's presented before you tonight for consideration.
The core objectives of the prior draft are unchanged, essentially meaningful noticed and the general opportunity for residents of a manufacturer.
Home Park to have an opportunity to purchase the property if it is offered for sale.
On the overall approach and the revised ordinance uses chapter OS or the Oregon revised statutes chapter 90 as the minimum standard.
Either by quoting that statute directly or incorporating it by reference with limited local enhancements layered on top.
So in addition to the direct alignment with state statutes, I did want to note that the opportunity to purchase process in our draft ordinance now follows the same model of the Oregon revised statutes using that framework.
So this is a replacement of the prior draft having a parallel process to one that works within the state framework.
I do need to be clear though that the revised draft establishes different timelines than the state allowances.
So it's really a three step process that if a property manufactured home park owner offers the park for sale.
They have to provide notice to the tenants and the tenants then have a 60 day response period, which is an expansion from the state 15 day period which is currently in place.
Within those 60 days should the tenants indicate to the park owner that they would be interested in pursuing a purchase not actually providing an offer but demonstrating that they are moving forward with.
Preparing an offer the property owner has a 15 day financial disclosure period and that structure is an affirmative owner obligation and it's then following that.
The tenants have a 45 day period to form an entity and submit an offer and so taken together that provides residents up to 120 days from the notice of sale to extra by exercise their opportunity to purchase.
This centerpiece is the 60 day response period which is four times the state baseline.
It gives residents real time to absorb the information that the park is for sale meet with their neighbors and organize a committee and potentially work with a.
A nonprofit that forms resident own communities to put together a proposal and that's often an outcome that is out of reach within the 15 day state time frame.
So that is again the bulk of changes that you'll see in terms of revisions you'll see that the ordinance is quite streamlined it's reduced from eight sections to four sections.
The stand alone relocation assistance relocation plan harassment and declaration policy sections that were largely redundant was state law have been removed.
And the they are still governed by chapter or the OS chapter 90 which addresses one of the legal concerns about local requirements that may exceed state standards in those areas.
So also the notice of sale also would have to include a copy of the city of Ashland chapter 10.116 to residents.
So that tenants receive their local rights with that initial notice of sale and any notice owner must get tenants.
Or the state housing and community services department must also go to the community development department by the same method so the intention there is that.
The city is made aware at the same time that the state and the residents are made aware that are properties being offered to sale.
And that gives our housing program the ability to be responsive as opposed to hearing about it late in the process.
We also clarified the.
violations for failure to provide notice are now considered a class a violation under Ashland municipal code 1.0800 and it would apply to each affected household.
So that clarity has been added to the ordinance replacing the prior drafts general civil violation language.
So one of the primary questions that came out of the council's prior review had to do with where the.
cities requirements exceeded state limits and so the legal department did review this question directly and noted that the expanded timeline is a substantive housing policy change.
And that is generally retained authority to local adopted rules specifically the OS contain no language expressly prohibiting local requirements that exceed the state baseline.
And Oregon courts further have upheld that many local manufactured home park regulations that go further than state law have been upheld and their citations provided in the staff report that was presented.
So the revised draft was structured specifically to work within the framework of the state law rather than around it, which also strengthens its legal footing.
So with that that essentially was much of what I wanted to cover.
I did want to note that there is a trade off that was done in terms of removing redundant state language from local ordinance and replacing it with reference.
In the case that the state changes state law, the city may be in a position to reevaluate and look at potentially potentially statutory changes at the local level if those changes that the state law don't correspond with what was intended at this point.
At first reading it is a public hearing council after hearing any public testimony may approve first reading is presented or as amended.
And with subsequent second reading scheduled to a subsequent business meeting.
Or lastly continue consideration if further revisions are required.
So with that, if you have any questions, happy to answer them.
Thank you Mayor thank you Brandon this is phenomenal work thanks legal.
I know you played a role in this and I think this makes it much more simple and streamlined and and objective.
I did have a one quick question that I just speaking of a little bit of ambiguity I was hoping either one of you might be able to address is in section.
I'm going to move one window over here the it's in ten dot one one six dot oh two oh the opportunity to purchase a one d in section one.
It's the 60 day tenant response period and it lists a handful of things that the tenants will notify the owner and writing of.
And and the last one d says any financial information that would customarily be provided to a perspective purchaser.
And then right below that you you clearly referenced the OS 90 dot eight four four relative to the 15 day period when I want to ensure and I believe I want to clarify first that I believe the intent of a one d was to be in alignment with the words of OS 90 dot eight four four.
However, and I'm being I'm picking a little bit so I just want to make sure that we're okay that that doesn't leave the city open to any kind of.
Subjective.
Determination of what the financial information might be can we clearly state or is maybe it's a question for you on that we would say something like any financial information that would be customarily provided to a perspective perspective purchaser.
As outlined in OS 90 dot four four you see how those are two different sections one's the 60 day stuff that needs to be done the other ones the 50 15 day things that need to be done one clearly are.
Indicates that your following state law one does not I think the intent was to have those the same I just wanted your guys is opinion on if that needs to be touched up just to.
Right and I will look to your on if you have any little opinion on that.
Yeah, I think the language matches, but we can certainly throw a reference that wouldn't be a problem if you just amended that.
Okay.
That's all I know.
Other questions, Councillor Schwell.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate that and it's good to see our citizens out in force for this again.
My question is about the the timeframe the some being approximately 120 days I know the planning commission had asked some questions about the length of that I read some.
Public or excuse me some some comments on the record potentially from residents and stakeholders and also some I believe to be property owners about that.
The length of time I know you would mention that speaking to some industry professionals maybe cost a 90 days seem sufficient or 60 days what's the what's the data that you use to come up with that and I see in the total right for the 120 days.
Yeah, the total is 120 days by mirroring it to the state program the legal departments review found that that was something that property owners would be familiar with if they were selling a park and so.
Would be going through that multi step process in terms of data we did talk to.
Casa of which is a resident own community facilitator for lack of a better term they did indicate that a 90 day period would be.
It's efficient for them to gauge interest from the properties residents and development offer so again that is still provided with a 60 day period for them to provide.
Initial interest in pursuing with an offer and getting information back from the owner so that they can formulate and offer.
And again that additional 45 days to formulate an offer and submit it would also be the period of time where they would form a resident own community and have that established.
So I think that also in speaking with Casa more time is always appreciated but we also heard testimony in terms of wanting to have a clear path for manufactured home park owners to not have the full period.
Go to the full extent before they know whether the park residents are going to provide an offer so in this circumstance.
If after 60 days the park residents do not indicate that they want to move forward.
The the process would be concluded so I think you could go to a longer period than 180 days by lengthening that 60 if Council felt that there was an advantage for the park residents to have more time.
Again I don't know that there's data out there to reference because Ashland is relatively unique in putting forth these modified terms so we don't have good models to look at other than hearing from resident own communities.
And we also heard from park owners asking to just go with state law in terms of the 15 day period.
Thank you.
Questions any further questions.
Yeah open the I open the public hearing.
I'll let's do I have all of the sign-up sheets.
We have two people who've signed up to speak to us on this issue this evening.
Each of you will have three minutes at the podium following the same structure that we had earlier for public forum.
Please again state your name and the city in which you reside when you begin your testimony.
We have two people who have signed up to speak with us.
Dylan Dale and Dolores Nims.
Please go in that order and again you'll you'll hear the first buzzer and your light display will change when you have 20 seconds left.
Thank you.
Hello Mayor and Council.
My name is Dylan Dale and I live in Ashland.
Tonight I'm here as a member of the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors.
The Local Realtors Association representing Jackson and Josephine Countins.
Our members work with homeowners, tenants, spires, sellers and housing providers across the region.
Including many residents and owners of manufactured home parks here in Ashland.
I'd like to start by thanking the Council and staff for the extensive work they put into this ordinance since its previous iteration.
We see this as a much less ambiguous proposal and appreciate the time that has gone into getting it to this point.
I won't spend much time on tonight on the technical details as we've submitted written testimony covering those points that should be in your packet.
Instead I'd like to focus on a couple of areas where a few small refinements could help the ordinance better accomplish.
It's intended purpose and we believe the worth of Council's attention and review.
The first is the notice of sale provision.
We absolutely understand the city's goal of providing transparency and building trust and residents deserve meaningful information about a potential change in ownership.
At the same time real estate transactions often involve confidential financial and legal information.
And my apologies.
And as written the provision would require a seller to hand over the full purchase and sale agreement.
In practice, when information needs to be shared, it's standard to provide a copy of the purchase agreement with sensitive details redacted.
Tenants will learn the buyers identity before escrow closes so we'd suggest a redacted copy rather than the entire document.
That protects confidential information still gives tenants the transparency of the city as after.
The second point is when I hope receive careful consideration before the ordinance is finalized.
Many manufactured home parks are sold as part of what's called the 1031 exchange.
In civil terms that's part of the federal tax code that lets an owner sell one property and roll the money into another one without getting hit with a big capital gains tax bill.
As long as they abide by very strict federal deadlines.
Once the first sale closes, the clock starts.
They have 45 days to identify the replacement property and 180 days to close their after.
Those deadlines are federal and they do not move.
The challenge lies in the tenant opportunity process in this draft which can take up to 120 days.
If a seller is in the middle of a 1031 exchange, that 120 days can eat up the entirety of their window. If there's any dispute over the financial disclosure, the ordinance pauses the clock with no set end point, so a seller can't even predict how long this process will take.
If that federal deadline passes, the exchange fails, and the seller gets an unexpected tax bill that they were never planning for. A seller and that spot may be forced to into a rushed or distressed sale, and that sort of instability rarely works out well for the time being.
It works out well for the tenants this ordinance is designed to protect.
Given this, we respectfully encourage the city to consider a narrow accommodation for these time sensitive exchange transactions,
something that adds a little bit of flexibility for what is a very standard practice while keeping tenant protections well above what current organ law requires.
We appreciate council's and staff time for continued work on this ordinance, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Delores Names.
Good evening.
I'm a resident of Ashland and Wing Spread Mobile Home Park.
We've been working on this ordinance for over two years, and I know it's taken a lot of staff time, a lot of the council's time, and we are so appreciative.
We want those 120 days.
We have 116 families, and it's going to take us time to get organized, so please don't reduce the 120 days.
I just want to tell you that on behalf of We Spread, we really appreciate all your hard work on this, and we're going to invite you all over for a celebration and a party.
It's done.
Thank you.
I close the public hearing.
Any further questions of staff?
Councillor Schwell.
Thank you, Mayor.
I didn't see this anywhere in the ordinance, and I don't believe it could potentially be in state law, but maybe just for clarification if both you and the city attorney would respond.
Is there anything in this draft that we're looking at in the first reading tonight that prohibits
park owners from organizing currently and proposing an offer to purchase a property that may or may not be on the market?
There's not this ordinance only deals with the circumstance in which the manufactured home park owner indicates that they're looking at selling, but like any property transaction, if the residents were to form a resident home community or determined to make an offer on the property.
They could do so, and at that point, the park owner would make notice of sale and move forward with an application that they received from the park residents as one of the offers.
There's also nothing in this ordinance that compels a park owner to accept and offer from the park residents.
And so, in that sense, the park residents would be well advised to form a resident home community and develop an offer that is competitive with offers that they might receive from other players.
So to clarify, there's no language that ties this to being listed on the open market for sale.
They could organize and make an offer on the property tomorrow if they wanted.
They could make an offer, I believe that the park owner would, at that point, be compelled to provide notice of sale to all the residents.
They'd be well aware because they've made an offer, but those provisions would still apply for things to get the disclosures and move forward with acquisition.
Thank you, and you agree with that. Okay, thank you very much.
Any other questions, Councillor Dill? Yeah, just a quick one, and it was something that was brought up in public form and about the head and thought about about the redacted information.
Is there anything and just because, and I had helped it personally, just chill on this for a little bit and maybe it's a second reading quick little added word, but is there any reason that we could think of why we wouldn't because it is customary to make sure that those are, you know, certain information is, or was there an intent to make sure that there was a full unredacted
So one thing I would note is there's, and Johan can chime in, I don't believe there's any requirement or ordinance to provide a purchase agreement to the residents.
What's required is they provide the customaryly purchase or information, which could be the, if they, if the owner or new of any defects in the property in terms of the public infrastructure that would have to be repaired, they provide that information.
Ideally, there is no purchase agreement in place prior to notice of sale, because they cannot make that purchase agreement to sell the park without going through either state or local notice of sale provisions.
The purchase agreement would come at the end of the 120 days with either a private party or a resident owned community, and I believe the 1031 exchange would also be similar in that regard that.
At that point that a purchase agreement is executed in the property transfers is when the federal o'clock for a 1031 exchange begins.
And again, that would not happen until the conclusion of the process, not at the beginning, so that wouldn't occur until after the 100 and 20 days has expired.
And so just to just, if I'm hearing you correctly, the city would really have basically zero interest in the purchase agreement correct.
Is that what I'm understanding relative to we just don't, we would not really oversee that or administer correct.
Thank you.
Okay, if there are no additional questions, the four is open for emotion.
Councillor Boone.
I moved to approve first reading of ordinance number 3306 adding chapter 10.116, the Ashley News poll code establishing notice of sale, opportunity to purchase and tenant protections for a manufactured home park residents as presented.
Just a quick question.
Councillor Dale had made a recommendation for a slight adjustment.
Yes, and I apologize, I didn't have the language.
Do you want to just throw an amendment on after?
Yeah, I can move to, I may or I can move to just amend this to add that language if you're okay.
Okay.
I would amend it to, I would amend the motion to say to reword section 10.116.1.
Section 10.116.010B.
I'm sorry, Mary news.
One, one zero point, 116.020A1D to read any financial information that would customarily be provided to a prospective purchaser as outlined in ORS-90.8443.
Is there a second on the amendment?
Councillor Ducane.
Okay.
So we're speaking to the amendment first.
Councillor Dale.
No, thank you, Mayor.
Councillor Ducane.
Any further discussion on the amendment?
We'll call please on the amendment.
Go ahead.
Maybe a question to the, is that just to redact the potential buyers information?
Councillor, this has nothing to do with the redaction.
The question part, this was actually to my earlier question prior to public form or public testimony which was just to make sure that the information provided the financial information that would be customarily provided is clearly in line with state statute so that there's no ambiguity relative to the city's role.
Thank you.
Okay.
Roll call.
Please, Alyssa.
Cheryl.
Yes.
Dale.
Yes.
Bloom.
Yes.
Kaplan.
Yes.
You can.
Yes.
Hanson.
Yes.
Amendment pass.
Okay.
Now we're back to the main motion.
Councillor Bloom.
Would you care to speak your motion?
No.
Just that.
We kind of discussed a lot of the other elements of this at the last meeting.
So I'd refer back to those comments.
Yeah.
I don't have much to add either.
I'm just appreciative to staff and all of the folks that have been really with this for many, many years now.
I'm thrilled to see this come to fruition.
Thank you.
Councillor.
Okay.
I would like to thank the community that brought it to our attention and it's in alignment with the housing strategic plan.
So I love to see things happen.
Good things happen.
I'm happy for a wingsbred and I'm so glad to see this moving forward.
I wish Councillor Hayat was here to celebrate this with us also.
Thank you.
Good work.
Community.
Councillor.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thanks for all the hard work and again for the community for showing up and I just can't help myself
but say this but it would be so awesome to see you guys organize and buy that park.
That would be the party that I want to come to.
Don't wait for the property to hit the market like.
Craft your own terms.
Look for seller financing by the park.
That a good example.
Be the first in town to do it.
So the other few follow.
Councillor.
Thank you, Mayor.
This is just a wonderfully collaborative effort with staff with council with the community.
Absolutely appreciate this.
And I would just add that I would like to go to both parties.
The only thing that I would add to this is that sometimes government can take longer than
any of us wanted to but it's complicated and it has to be done right.
And I think what we saw here this evening is the work that happens to make sure that we come out
the gates with something as close to right as we can get it so that we don't have more
collective action later than what we need to have.
I appreciate all of the people who have commented to us about places where they saw might we might
be able to improve this.
And also to staff and your willingness to go down those pathways and figure out to what extent we need
to make changes in order to align with the values of this community.
So I think it's always feels like it's a long time coming and sometimes it is but we do get there
when we keep working.
So thank you everyone.
Any further comments?
We'll call please a listen.
Kaplan?
Yes.
Ducane?
Yes.
Hansen?
Yes.
Sherrell?
Yes.
Dale?
Yes.
Motion pass.
All right.
We move on now to ordinance resolutions and contracts.
The first one is National Police Department, ECSO contract extension.
Sabrina?
So the chief is here to answer any questions but we are part of the emergency communications of the
Southern Oregon so we contract with them for our 911 dispatch.
So this is our annual ask to approve that contract.
Chief?
Good evening.
Mayor and councilors.
I don't have anything to add.
The current contract for 2677 is 550,000, 160, $699.
And is accounted for in our budget and we've had this relationship with ECSO since approximately
2009, 2010 and it is the best practice, best option for us.
It's worked very well and there's every reason to believe it will work well going forward.
Okay.
Questions?
Councillor Schill.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thanks, Chief.
Just real quick.
You know, we're always asking for data to support decisions we make.
And I know that you and your staff are tasked with a lot of things.
Does this service that we buy from our partners across the way?
Does it come with any tracking mechanism so we can at least get like ditch dispatch calls,
items, title, potentially outcomes?
Is there a mechanism to tap into that database for some of the requests that we make throughout
the year?
100% and a lot of that data is covered in the annual report, which unfortunately has been delayed
because of more pressing business, but it's still forthcoming at some point this year.
We handled approximately 25,000 calls for service last year.
So that's roughly about 70 or 80 calls for service per day 365 days a year.
All of those calls for service are categorized, broken down, sliced and diced and we can look at it.
So many different ways what the outcomes are.
One of the things that we also have that goes along with a request for service to ECSO is the Spiderman Tech platform.
90% of calls need to dispatch or through cell phones.
So when you generate a call to 911 or to the non emergency number, it automatically generates a link back to your cell phone.
90% of the time, saying, you know, offshore mayors on the way as ETs and 10 minutes.
He's been delayed.
Can you give us some feedback?
Can you provide some voluntary demographics?
And we've got just a whole bunch of data that we can bring back.
I'm planning on bringing back as soon as we can wiggle it into the schedule.
Just been pushed back and pushed back because of more pressing business that has to be accomplished.
Thank you.
Other questions?
Okay.
The floor is open for emotion.
Councillor Dow.
Thank you, Mayor.
I move to approve contract extensions between APD and ECSO.
Councillor Dow.
Thank you, Mayor.
Councillor Dow.
I remember one of the first times on council when I was sitting here.
She was sitting there.
We were talking about this.
She said, just imagine what happens when you dial 911 and what answers.
And that is a very, very sobering thought.
And I do a little bit of work with this in my private life.
And there's an incredible amount of coordination and technology that goes into this.
And so this is extremely valuable.
Thank you for bringing it to us.
Very happy to support this.
Thank you, Mayor.
Yeah.
Thank you, Chief.
I've been that person out in the woods.
Trying to resuscitate somebody with a group of people.
And it's my cell phone that they're finding.
So very grateful to all you first responders and this tech.
Technology, it's amazing. And happy to support. I mean, this is our tax dollars at work, right? This is the social contract. And I appreciate that it all works well and you all are so on and with your training. So gratitude, thanks.
Thank you.
Any further comment?
Okay, roll call, please elicit. Hansen. Yes.
You can. Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bloom. Yes. Dale. Yes. Cheryl. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, chief.
We are now to the Contract Award for Chemicals Acquisition, Cascade Columbia Distribution Company. Sabrina.
So the Treaty City treats both water and wastewater and we would like to continue doing that. So tonight we have a chemical contract before you. And I will let Scott Floor take it from here.
Can I move it to the chief and say nothing else to have?
So as the city manager said, we procure chemicals for wastewater and water treatment processes annually.
And we do that through a invitation to bid, a formal sealed invitation to bid.
A majority of the chemicals are under the council award threshold. There is one company that's providing two chemicals to the city.
One for wastewater treatment and one for water treatment.
And the volume and the cost of those chemicals for alum and citric acid exceed the $250,000 threshold.
So that's why we're before the council asking for approval for Cascade Columbia for aluminum sulfate and citric acid.
One of the things that I will note if you look in the bid tab.
The chemicals for those for Cascade Columbia and the bid for those two are higher than another provider.
And the reason for that is the one provider was excluded from bidding on aluminum sulfate per the bid documents.
And for the other chemical citric acid, it was determined that the function of the Columbia Cascade product was better and more usable for the wastewater treatment plant process.
And so our supervisor would rather have that citric acid chemical relative to the univar chemical.
And so that's why there's a subtle change that you see based on low response of bid versus accepting the bid themselves.
And so with that, I'll try to answer any questions.
Questions?
Thanks, Mayor. I saw some traffic from one of my colleagues. I appreciate that. I'm just assuming and I think the public would assume that we're shopping around those bids every year.
And we're looking at bulk purchasing and we're looking away as to keep passed down. I would just assume that always.
Yes, so from an operational standpoint, they're always looking at chemical efficiency, you know, on the operation side.
And then we bid this project out this acquisition every year.
So we get updated pricing previously. They used to do it on a two year cycle and the chemical companies could hold their pricing for two years, but based on economic changes and conditions.
There are no longer willing to really hold that chemical price for a two year period. And so that is switch just over to doing it for a one year period.
Other questions?
Thank you, Mayor. Scott, if we didn't do this right, what would be the repercussions?
Your treated water would suffer severely.
Along is a quiet that's used in the process to filter out organics and the turbidity in the water.
And so we would be looking at violating organ health authority regulatory requirements for potable water.
Thank you for the citric acid. It's a little less of an issue, but it's cleaning the membrane filtration system at the wastewater treatment plant that removes phosphorous.
So you can potentially also have a national pollution discharge elimination system permit violation from DQ.
If you don't adequately remove phosphorous from your wastewater stream.
Right, and that's I don't know if that's exactly what Roe Valley sewer service had for their EPA violations, but they had to pay a big fine.
And their rate payers had to pay a big fine because they didn't do it right.
Yeah, they're doing massive system upgrades to improve their effluent for the wastewater system.
Well, thank you for doing it right.
Any other questions?
The floor is open for emotion, Councillor Wood.
I move to approve the Public Contract Award for Chemicals Acquisition with Cascade Columbia Distribution Company.
Okay, Councillor Bloom.
No, I at this is the night of Councillor Hayat, former Councillor Hayat, but I think she told me once when I started that the chemicals are always going to be the easiest votes for everybody.
Councillor Dale.
I think clean water is a fundamental idea.
Yeah.
Other comments?
I know I don't get to vote, but I approve of continuing to clean our water.
And our wastewater, all kinds of water.
Roe called please elicit.
Do you can?
Yes.
Hanson?
Yes.
Cheryl?
Yes.
Dale?
Yes.
Bloom?
Yes.
Motion pass.
Thank you.
We now have the next item is approval of a resolution authorizing refunding of an interim loan from the Special Public Works Fund with the Oregon Infantry.
With the Oregon Infrastructure Finance Authority.
Sabrina?
So, this comes on me.
Remember, you've already approved resolution.
Authorize interim financing for the Ashland Street Project.
The infrastructure finance authority is moving forward with the sponsor sale.
And so, we need a new resolution to align with that direction.
And I'll hand it over to Scott.
Dido?
So, this is one of the weird things that I've been involved in from a process standpoint.
So, what I will say is, you know, in 2023, the Council authorized a resolution utilizing the Special Public Works Fund that allowed the City to borrow for the Ashland Street Rehabilitation Project.
In that interim loan agreement, it was made clear to the city that at some point the Oregon Business Oregon would take all of their debt that they've loaned out to other communities and do a massive bond sale.
And at that time, you would essentially be tied from a funding standpoint to your debt payback to that bond sale.
So, three years later, Business Oregon is moving forward with that bond sale.
And they are requiring us to essentially eliminate the previous resolution and install a new resolution that aligns with that bond sale.
In your packet, there was the contract and the anticipated promissory note and amortization schedule payback.
That's, that schedule is draft until after the bond sale goes through it where we actually get the final rate and amortization schedule from Business Oregon, which should occur in late August early September.
I'm suspecting based on what they proposed from a schedule standpoint.
So as a reminder, the food and beverage tax covers the cost of these rehabilitation projects or the debt service as per the municipal code.
So that debt will be paid back over time that 15 years schedule by the food and beverage tax.
And we'll get the new rate structure and schedule and another month or so.
And then the finance department will and I'll coordinate with them on the binding budgets moving forward on ensuring that that debt payment is allocated in, you know, the debt service account for the street fund moving forward.
Questions.
Councillor Caffin.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Scott.
Thanks for answering my questions on this because as you said, it's kind of a weird animal here where we were actually refinancing a lower interest rate with a higher interest rate anticipated higher interest rate.
But that was actually already anticipated because it's matures in three years.
So we would have to pay it when we were the other by January as I understand it.
And thanks also for clarifying that the, and.
Lotional 5% could probably could possibly be less than that.
In that case, we would be getting the state's higher credit rating, the pricing better pricing from the state's higher credit rating than our.
Excellent, but not as high as the, the business organs credit rating for this sort of thing.
The question is, we've built and maybe it's a question for Bryn. Sorry, Bryn. I should have thought to ask this earlier.
We've loaded the budget with debt service for this with us slightly lower interest rate.
We're not talking about a lot of difference I suppose, but what's going to be the changes that we anticipate as we get the actual pricing on this and have to execute on a slightly different interest rate than we had loaded before.
We should be seeing a budget supplemental or something. What do we see?
So the debt wouldn't start till the next budget cycle.
So we would load up the new debt starting in the next budget cycle and that would go through the budget process budget committee city council for approval.
So you would see that as part of that process, since we didn't really anticipate any current debt based on them refinancing your refunding and going through this process.
We did make an interest payment towards it in this buying and using food and beverage tax because we did have a little bit of allocation towards debt.
We just weren't sure from a timing standpoint when business organ would sell the bonds and we would have a refinance structure.
So it'll be fully anticipated in the 2729 buying and moving forward.
Okay, thanks. And it's also not going. It's going to be a fairly small difference to what we currently have is what I would understand because we're talking about a few million dollars and an amortization over 15 years still.
Correct.
Other questions, Councillor Dan.
Yeah, just actually a very quick procedure of question that is for Alyssa.
I saw in a previous slide that you had had it 2026-17.
If the council moves, do you want that added? Is that the correct resolution number?
I know Scott has probably before it was assigned, but do you want it red like this?
Or do you want what did what Scott had correct?
Just so we get this right the first time.
I think it matters.
Because this one will automatically begin out loud.
This one will automatically replace the existing one.
Okay.
Do we need that one to be a conformant jar?
Yeah, I think we're fine.
Any further questions?
The floor is open for emotion.
Councillor Dale?
Sure.
If you approve a resolution, authorizing refunding of an interim loan from the special public
Works Fund in the Oregon State Infrastructure Finance Authority.
I'll second that.
Councillor Dale.
Thank you, Councillor Catherine, for the questions.
I had the same ones.
I appreciate you calling those out and stating them in public so that we know everybody is informed
as possible.
Thank you.
Councillor Hansen.
Yeah, I briefly remember this coming on the road here and wait a pivot and totally support it.
It's got to be done.
Any further discussion?
Will call please, Alyssa?
Catherine?
Yes.
You can?
Yes.
Hansen?
Yes.
Cheryl?
Yes.
Dale?
Yes.
Blue.
Yes.
Motion pass.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bryn.
The last.
Next one.
Is approval of resolutions for wastewater and storm drain rate increases?
Sabrina?
So we would also like to support the wastewater system in which we put the chemicals and our storm drain
Enterprise.
So before we tonight are the rate increases, which should develop through our master planning process.
And I will hand it over to Scott.
So as a reminder, we went through a process and the city staff coordinated with HDR engineering
to do a cost of service rate analysis for the wastewater and storm drain enterprises.
I believe that HDR and I were here with the final draft in May for the cost of service.
The council accepted that kind of package that analyzed rates over the six year period.
And so before you tonight are two resolutions, one associated with rate increases for the wastewater
system.
And one associated with rate increases for the storm drain system.
As you see on the table, yes, four here.
I'm per the presentation.
We're looking at a little over $3 a month service charge increase to the primary account basis single
family residential throughout the city.
One of the policy frameworks that we followed with the water cost of service and this wastewater
storm drain was to try to minimize any sort of initial shock or impacts to the multifamily.
And so you notice the multifamily monthly service charge remains the same although the commodity charge does get a partial increase.
And that was all kind of feathered out in the cost of service analysis performed by HDR.
So this structure takes into account the people materials services and capital program that we have in place for the wastewater system moving forward.
And just a reminder, the last rate increase for the wastewater system enterprise itself was 2019.
So even if you apply just a general two to three percent inflationary metric you would be looking at 14 to 21 percent.
And we're looking at a 7 percent increase overall.
So I think that that kind of boats to kind of good fiscal management of the system and making sure we're delivering capital projects at the right time.
And at the right need we shifted some things around and some things have got postponed because they have not been needed for them.
The system, and moving forward, the one big project kind of remaining for the wastewater treatment plan is the headworks project, which you will see a funding resolution come through to council and august four.
And that's really one of the bigger projects we have left on the system, and this increase this year and potentially in the next couple of years helps really support that moving forward.
Much smaller scale system with the storm drain enterprise.
The storm drain's only been its own fund for the last couple budget cycles after it was broken apart from the street fund.
The storm drain master plan in 2020 had a financial plan associated with it in the last storm drain rate increase.
The social media with that financial plan was in 2021.
So the cost of service updated based on our current existing conditions with people materials and services and service and also the future projections and our capital program.
And for the single family you're looking at a dollar a month increase for the rate itself.
And multifamily again is pretty marginalized from a rate increase standpoint, you know we're talking 43 cents I think increase on a monthly basis.
And for both these rate increases we're talking about a period of august first through June 30 of 2027.
At which time potentially a staff would be bringing forward new rate increases associated with the 27 through 29 budget by any.
And again this funds the fund and ensures that we meet our MS4 municipality separated storm drain convey system regulatory requirements that are issued and controlled by DEQ.
And with that I will try to answer any questions.
Questions.
Thanks very much a little bit late to this party but maybe just speak briefly on why we didn't do modeling based on impervious surface or grain fixture units and it's based on the actual title of the dwelling itself.
So it is it's based on an estimated impervious of 3000 square feet per surface lot.
And so that's been kind of a standard of metrics that's been used over the years since this.
Since this utility created that enterprise in that storm drain fee and speaking with HDR about that they still felt that based on lot size and development that that 3000 square foot of impervious was still a good metric to use in their calculations as far as the cost of service and then the application to the rate.
Okay I would just provide the opinion that if we if we look at that again that we look at the fact that we've removed parking standards therefore a lot of impervious parking spots access and circulation to get to the spots.
There's a downward trend and the housing types that we're building that are smaller so it's also an incentive to build to build smaller it would be a.
A system to to at least explore in future conversations and I think we did kind of talk about how you would analyze that moving forward using light our data and GIS to kind of calculate existing.
The previous area versus what is background and could potentially be developed and trying to come up with.
A calculation that would either change that positively or negatively so that's something we did talk about and we know that.
You know based on this conversation that could potentially come up in the future based on changing development standards totally and just one thing to add if I may.
There's a pretty good model already out with how we how we put s s d c's on project based on like 500 square foot increments and such so there's some good industry practice that incentivizes people to use less impervious surface but less hot water into our streams and build smaller housing that's more affordable.
And the regulatory requirements for self management of storm drain or increasing so there is less burden on city utility you know from new development because of the retention.
And treatment standards that we follow through rogue valley sanitary service services who manage this the storm drain design manual for all municipalities here.
Yeah, I think I brought that up in a previous conversation of like the things new state losses if you have more than 5,000 square feet of impervious surface you have to contain it on site and percolated in your own ground so therefore wouldn't even go into the system so I appreciate you acknowledging that and like knowing that it's on your radar makes me feel better things.
And it just is another reminder if you do not connect at all existing or in the future to a storm drain conveyance and you outfall on your property to a stream and a femoral stream.
Ashland Creek you are not obligated to pay the storm drain fee because you are not impacting that conveyance.
And the questions.
Okay, the four is open for a motion.
Council Dale.
Thank you Mayor.
I'll start with the first one I move to approve resolution resolution number 2026-15 a resolution revising rates for wastewater sewer service pursuant to ash municipal code section.
14.08.035 and repealing resolution 2019-10.
Councillor Dale.
Yeah, thank you Mayor.
It's never fun to raise rates.
It's although I as we've talked about almost that nauseam that we were repealing a resolution from seven years ago.
But every time you're standing in front of your sink or your drain and you're putting something down it and you're paying for the
for the value of saying I don't even have to worry about anything.
And I just want to say I appreciate that and all that goes into that.
I do also have as an aside I do want to note I have our staffing report here for the various departments for the past several years.
And as I was just I thought about adding these up and specifically looking at the wastewater and the storm rudder.
FTE's we've gone from 2019 when you some both of those together.
From about almost 21 FTE down to about 17.7.
So we are actually doing more with less humans.
So as we see the cost go up a lot of that as materials and service.
So I just want to say I appreciate the department and the labor watching cost that way and doing the best they can.
But this is just the cost of maintaining these utilities.
Thank you.
Council captain.
Yeah very similarly.
Thank you.
Thanks you bring this Scott.
And also thanks for exercising a lot of care to keep our costs low for our wastewater service.
You talked to us earlier.
We approved some chemical procurement.
And you said we used to procure it on every two years.
So the chain prices have gone up so fast that they offer us won't even give us two year pricing.
We have to price it every year.
So that shows that there's there's there's a supplies are are protected by by inflation.
So the fact that we haven't raised it for seven years is is something.
Thanks.
The wastewater treating our our wastewater super important.
And we have to pay for it.
So thank you.
I'm glad that I can flush my toilet to everything goes down the drain.
And looking at going from 21 FTEs to 17.
The city of Ashland has grown in population either.
And in the last time I sat in a business meeting.
Recology went up 8.75%.
And when I look at the rating creases that we've had in such a short time.
I cannot support this going up at this time.
Councillor.
Thank you.
Yeah appreciate it Scott.
You know, I think that what Councillor Dale brought up is the you know the drop in FTEs is demonstrating that you know that department is certainly tightening its belt.
But for me I'm looking forward and I'm looking you know at the next budget and I'm looking at city wide.
And for me going forward until I see cuts and efficiencies in the next budget.
I can't good conscious.
Ask voter ratepayers to continue to pay more given just like what Councillor Dickens said.
So for me going forward until until the next budget I won't be supporting any rate increases.
Any further discussion.
I would just add that.
We pass master plans and rate studies that look out as far as we can.
As we can look with some reasonable confidence about what these systems are going to need.
But then as we get closer we refine those needs.
We look to see if something really does need to be replaced on that time scale.
And I think what we're seeing here is that even though we haven't raised rates since 2019.
We have been able to manage through that because of that careful looking at what actually needs to be done up against the plans that this body has passed.
And it's those kind of details can sometimes get lost in these processes that we have that there is care.
It's not just once the council passes something.
We're on a train and we do these things whether they need to be done or not or whether they need to be done on that time scale or not.
And so I just want to appreciate staff for controlling these costs.
And for putting us in a position where we could go for seven years without raising any rates.
That's that's a remarkable space.
It is always a difficult time when we have to make those increases, but we also have to cover the cost of this infrastructure.
So I appreciate that care and appreciate all of the the hard work that goes into making those plans and then refining them as the time comes near for the big projects.
There are no further comments.
Let's roll call please, Alyssa.
Bloom.
No.
Dale.
Yes.
Cheryl.
Yes.
Kaplan.
Yes.
Ducane.
No.
Hansen.
Yes.
Motion passed.
Thank you, Scott.
Next up we.
Oh, you have one more.
That's right.
There's a second resolution.
The floor is open for emotion.
Councillor Kaplan.
I moved to approve resolution number 2026-16.
A resolution adopting storm drainage utility fee schedule pursuant to the Ashman Municipal Code.
Section 4.27.050 and repealing resolution 2021-109.
Okay.
I'll second that.
Okay.
Councillor Kaplan.
Yeah.
I mean if this is a similar similar situation.
Although this goes directly this storm drain collection goes directly into our screen.
So this is a, you know, this is super important to make sure that we're taking care of our
our environment.
Again, we haven't raised rates for five years on this.
And I appreciate staff's diligence about keeping rates as low as possible.
Councillor Hansen.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I appreciate staff.
And I also know that we're reacting to different environment with climate change.
We're getting less water perhaps, but we're getting at different times in different quantities.
And keeping up with with all that is something that I can appreciate.
I can appreciate that staffs ahead of it.
We don't have erosion problems and sinkles and roads and things that other communities that are ignoring
and kicking this down the road.
So I, again, I also don't like raising rates on things and I understand the economics of it.
It's part of that social contract.
You know, we expect this stuff to work.
Thank you.
For the comments.
Roll call please, Alyssa.
Hansen.
Yes.
Ducane.
No.
Kaplan.
Yes.
Bloom.
No.
Dale.
Yes.
Motion pass.
Thank you, Scott.
We now are on to second reading of ordinances 20 or 32, 96, 32, 97 and 32, 98.
Manufactured Home Park Zone, MHPZ, amending the manufactured housing development standards,
adopting related comprehensive plan and zoning map amendments and adopting findings and conclusions of law.
Sabrina.
Well, with that title, I'm not sure if much left to say other than all it Brandon here will walk you through it.
This is the second reading.
So it was approved for the first reading.
Thank you.
So council held a public hearing and approved first reading and all three ordinances presented this evening.
As amended your prior public hearing was on June 16th.
Tonight these come back for second reading with no amendments.
A quick reminder for those at home with these ordinances do.
The ordinance 32, 96 establishes the manufactured home park zone and updates the related lands you standards.
It also addresses manufactured homes on individual lots.
And it also provides allowances for child care and residential care facilities.
Ordnance 32, 97 applies that new manufactured home park zone designation on the zoning map to the eligible parks within the city limits.
And ordinance 32, 98 makes the matching change to the comprehensive plan map.
So alongside these ordinances staff is also asking council to adopt findings effect and conclusions of law, which are included in your packet.
This is a requirement of land use actions such as legislative planning actions.
The findings were updated since you first saw them.
At first reading to reflect the amendments the council made on June 16th, including the removal of upper pines mobile home park.
Ashland RV park and Jackson Wellspring's property from the maps as I mentioned.
The findings further document how the amendments satisfy the applicable comprehensive plan, municipal code, and statewide planning goal criteria, and they support tonight's decision on all three ordinances.
Staff does recommend council approve second reading by title only of ordinance 3296, 3297, and 3298, and adopt the accompanying findings.
And so for separate motions, we're included in your packet, so that you can act on each of those independently.
And I'm happy to take any questions. Questions, Councillor.
Yeah, parliamentary question for city attorney over there.
Since this is second reading, we can do it by, we can just move the ordinance number. We don't need to read the entire title.
You read the title, we don't have to read it. Well, there were no minutes, right? You can read by the number.
Okay, just wanted to check.
Any further questions?
Okay, the floor is open for a motion. Councillor Bloom.
Yeah, I move approval of ordinance number 3296, ordinance number 3297, ordinance number 3298.
Second.
Councillor Bloom?
You know, city council meetings are fun. I encourage everybody to go back and watch the last one where we talked about this.
Councillor, yeah, do okay. So a quick question, Johann.
Does the motion need to identify that this is second reading?
No.
Okay. Just wanted that clarification. Any other discussion?
Call, please, Alyssa.
Dale. Yes.
Cheryl. Yes. Hansen. Yes. Ducane. Yes.
Kaplan. Yes. Bloom. Yes. Motion pass.
Mayor. Yes. May I make the following motion? Yes. Councillor Bloom.
I moved to adopt the findings of fact, inclusions of law and planning action.
A L-2026-0018 as presented in support of ordinances number 3296, 3297 and 3298.
Second. Councillor Bloom? No comment.
Councillor Kaplan? Oh, you guys went at the same time.
Go ahead, Councillor Ducane.
No. Okay. Any further discussion?
So we have Councillor Ducane as the second.
Is there any further discussion?
Will call, please, Alyssa. Ducane. Yes. Kaplan. Yes. Bloom. Yes. Dale. Yes.
Cheryl. Yes. Hansen. Yes. Motion pass.
Great. Thank you.
The second reading of ordinance 3305 and ordinance amending 6.04 Business Licenses.
Section 6.04.105. Duplicate License. 6.04.120. Temporary License.
And 6.04.130. Delinquent penalty. Sabrina?
So, as a reminder, this is the second reading of these ordinances.
And what this will do is remove fees out of AMC and put them in our miscellaneous fees and
charges resolution where they belong and bring Canadian 30 questions.
Questions?
Okay. The floor is open for a motion. Councillor Hansen.
I move to approve the second reading of ordinance 3305 and ordinance amending 6.04 Business Licenses.
Section 6.04. 0.05. Duplicate Licenses. 6.04.
0.120. Temporary License. And 6.04.0.130. Delinquent penalty.
Second? Okay. Councillor Hansen. Yes. Again, just thank you staff for house cleaning.
And this is all in the miscellaneous fees book now. It will be evergreen. Thank you.
Councillor Capplin. Okay. Any further discussion?
We'll call please Alyssa.
Capplin? Yes. Ducane? Yes. Hansen? Yes.
Sherrell? Yes. Dale? Yes. Bloom? Yes. Motion pass. Great. Thank you.
Mayor, I have a request. If you would consider moving up agenda item 13B given the timeliness,
I would like to remind you that there is a timeline on that. In order to, if we do potentially decide to put on the ballot,
it needs to be decided tonight. So I'm just concerned about the time.
So it's my understanding that it could be decided at this meeting or at the first meeting of August.
Is that correct? So we do still have one more. I think we can still get to it.
It is new business again this evening because it was the council dispatched it when it came before in the study session.
So we're going to keep it where it is for now, but we'll pay attention as we move forward.
Yes. Councillor. So we will we are going to take a short recess.
Please be back in your seats at 740 by this clock to the right. Thank you.
Thank you.
I call the meeting back to order.
So we are now to unfinished businesses.
We start with the internal services director item.
Just as a note, just as a note, we are having a discussion this evening about the internal services director.
As a way of helping the council and the public understand the administrative changes that are underway at the city.
I know that this is an operational decision. It's fully within the purview of the city manager, but we also recognize that it's important that we understand
what major changes are a foot and to give us a chance to ask questions about how this will help to improve the servicing of the residents through the city.
So with that introduction, I will turn it over to Sabrina.
Thank you, Mayor.
So part of what we have been doing over the last year is looking for operational efficiency as well as cost savings.
So one of the areas we've been evaluating is our IT HR and finance departments.
So you may remember finance and IT work in mind a while ago.
And HR was a standalone department.
We have several kind of technology upgrades going on.
One is our new payroll HR software.
We still have paper for everything so this will be a big time saver and process improvement.
And there's a lot of crossover in our HR and finance functions, particularly around payroll benefits risk, even our union negotiations with costing.
And so looking at that and looking at our budget overall and kind of what's being done in the field, having an internal services director makes sense moving forward.
So we're looking at these trying to recruit for one.
That will help oversee all of these functions as well as continue to streamline the processes between them.
And so in your packet tonight, you have some bullet points around that as well as the job description that we will be advertising for.
With that I'm happy to answer any questions.
Can't say blue.
Yeah, so see looking at the finance IT and human resources.
If you know a decision is made hypothetically whether it's it's this year going into the next biennium to outsource IT and HR.
Would you eliminate this position given that it would only be.
We've seen the Finance Department. I think we'd have to assess if we have, it would be a significant change to the organization and what we do, so we'd have to assess it at that time, and potentially make changes.
Quick follow up. And then follow up on that kind of around going into the next biennium. I'm just curious that if if Council and the budget committee decided to effectively not fund this position,
would the response of administration be to just find savings and other places in order to continue to fund that position?
So did not have a department head at the level over the internal services.
We'd have to kind of do an assessment of the organization to see how to make it work.
You know, we have kind of drawn down what were three director roles into one, which is fairly significant cost savings over time.
So, you know, I think this position has a potential to be a very good strategic partner with the administrative team in terms of dealing with processes and infrastructure that affect all of our staff.
And so I don't think I would recommend, you know, removing this position if we still have all of these functions in house.
But that would be a pretty discussion.
Thank you.
Councillor Hansen.
Thank you. These are three very different jobs in I'm curious.
I've never heard of this before. Is this done in other municipalities?
Because, you know, HR is its own little island and IT, you know, you know, come on, those people are really weird.
And the finance, I mean, those people speak totally different language.
And I'm joking, but in all seriousness, they have specialties in a real strong strength.
So I'm just curious, like I've just never heard of this before, could you help us understand?
Yeah, so, you know, I've seen this in multiple other municipalities.
Most recently, one in Livermore, California, and one in a city of Florida, I just thought, come up.
So I think as municipalities are looking at their operations and seeing, so well, they have distinct responsibilities and functions they often overlap.
So one of our biggest technology users is finance with units.
So there is a lot of cross-department collaboration and dependency already.
So I think having leadership that can help foster those relationships and kind of align priorities and make sure that we're functioning a hundred percent will be helpful.
And the second part of that question is, is what kind of, I know, like in HR sort of occasions, very different from a finance certification, like how does one, you know, find this person or.
Okay, yeah, so I think, I think, you know, it's, you want someone who has experience in both areas does exist.
I think also, you know, what you have in each of these departments for very strong deputy roles that will help with, you know.
All right.
Within each department.
Right.
Red included.
She's not she fled.
Okay.
All right.
Well, thank you.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I'm getting a little bit more light on that.
Can't sit down.
Thank you, Mayor.
So Sabrina.
I just heard you use the word deputy and real court counselor.
IT guys.
We're okay.
Anyway, the.
The.
I helped me understand these wouldn't be department heads anymore.
Then the HR and finance and IT, they would they would report to a department head if I understand it.
So then in similar organizations and I understand it trying this, but I'm, I am struggling to understand.
How we wouldn't want a finance director just kind of being the right hand person like that's in that room is like a CFO.
So how do.
How would we manage that.
Chain of communication not having that direct alignment with.
What is fundamentally the.
Probably one of our most critical departments there.
You help me understand how that would work.
I don't really have to this this new structure.
Any clarification on your.
Well, I don't know.
Saying it's like a finance director is a department head that would report directly to the city manager.
I understand that this internal services director would have some finance functionality and it would go through that.
But it is something that I just want to understand because we go through this that finance director is like we don't.
They can have their organizations you have a CFO you don't have a someone that has in that a finance person reports to person that reports to the CEO so that that that just seems like a critical critical role that needs to be a department head but happy to hear.
The internal services director effectively will be the CFO right it's just a different title.
So they'll still answer to the city manager and they'll have three divisions essentially with deputies to support.
Councillor Stroud.
Thank you, Mayor.
And thank you for putting this together.
I'm going through the job description here and like the essential functions like I can't help but kind of just echo what counselor.
Hansen said that like these are very unique skill sets and to find somebody that would have.
You know, be a potentially a certified CPA and also be up the date and bully and I know that there are some.
Some special people out there and I think maybe your skill sets one of them you've been in a to at least two of the three of these departments at least here.
And I would assume and don't take this around my place but like you're currently doing a lot of these functions.
So I guess my question is if this were to be a field position, I would assume it would for you up to do it to do other things.
And focus more on the day to day or the more long term 40,000 foot view be the visionary could you just kind of describe how this would take work off of your plate today and what you would do.
Yeah, so I think you know not having a finance director.
You know we've had those responsibilities spread out between the deputy Jordan and I working with that.
We have been continually kind of pairing down our operations because we are smaller and smaller and kind of what we're doing as we have outsource some of our items.
And so I think generally this will allow more strategic thinking in the city manager's office and more day to day operational to rely with the internal services director.
I think you know like I said there's a lot of crossover particularly you know payroll personnel actions investigations risk between HR and finance and then same with IT.
There's a lot of analysis cost studies business model.
Excuse me, AFN so there's a lot of like synergy between these roles.
Can you answer to K.
So Sabrina I heard you mentioned that you have outsourced some things and when I so my question before that's answered is when I look at these three positions and kind of like would counselor Hanson said they all speak different languages.
We don't have a finance director our finances are in a precarious situation the finance director is a very definite role.
So I don't understand how and then I heard mentioned this person would be in a deputy position.
No third apartment a department head okay I to me I just when I look at that we don't have a finance director.
And what made sense to me is something that was brought up as we move towards this by him looking at outsourcing HR IT perhaps.
But to me it would make more sense to spend the money on the defined role of a finance director and can you tell me what you've outsourced you mentioned that.
So we moved a lot of our software to the third party provider and set up hosting it in house.
So we are kind of consolidating some of our IT functions and we have a lot of cross training going on between AFN and our internal IT to kind of optimize our employees.
We've also relied more on our auditors for assistance with our audit instead of doing that in house.
That's where looking for areas to bolster our capacity without adding staff members.
If I'm just can put a bow on it actually I think outsourcing can be better because we don't have you know we have enough full time employees in pairs so that makes sense to me.
Yes, thank you.
So kind of doing some research here to understand at least in Oregon's context you know where this position might might exist.
So we have a good comparator.
The closest I could find is is to all attend where that's something that for them it's the Assistant City Manager.
They kind of oversee that role.
What there is the other closer comparison in terms of function would be the administrative services director, which is what the city of Portland has that does exactly what you're proposing.
So I'm just trying to understand how a town of Ashland can have a similar position to the city of Portland and where I'm going with this is that given the salary that is kind of proposed for this position.
I'm wondering if that salary level is competitive enough to attract somebody with the specialized skill set to be able to oversee all three of these departments.
And furthermore since finance directors no longer going to be a director I'm imagining that they're going to be at a lower pay scale.
So then how do we find the kind of person that the city really desperately needs to fulfill that kind of finance position.
And I'm worried that creating this position is basically going to price this out of a qualified essentially finance director will call it like a deputy.
And what actually is going to cost us more than what is proposed given how specialized that field is.
And the closest comparator to it is Portland, which I'm sure offers significantly more money for salaries for those kind of positions than we do.
So I'm just wondering if that's been part of your thought process.
Yeah so I think just to clarify you know we have a finance deputy we have IT deputy in place HR would have a rework so.
You know that isn't changing so you know I think we don't know until we try we've never been competitive for finance directors.
So this may offer us the opportunity to have someone who is more broadly skilled be interested in this position.
Yeah and and I think you know I want to also emphasize to the mayor's point you know the beginning that this is ultimately your decision but I'm I'm not convinced.
Thank you mayor.
Just a quick procedure or a logistical question so just looking through the code.
Would we have to rework 2.28 which in the finance department because we have a lot of references the director of finance.
And the responsible for the general supervision of all that is that would we have to just update the code.
So I think for example we had an IT department for many many years and it was never in the code.
So the code outlines the responsibilities of you know what we're responsible for so we could look to do that eventually but it's not necessary at this point.
Okay.
Yes.
Yeah I can Google to and I see similar positions in Portland, Eugene, Salem, Corvalle, St. Walton just at up just at the glance here.
But what what is interesting to me is that we can get leadership under one umbrella for three departments for one price.
And ultimately if it's the right person that can bring out the strengths of those deputies that are already you know crushing it.
I mean arguably brand is is crushing it and and I would love to see her personally as a finance director but if she's she's doing her thing as the deputy and we have somebody to pull these resources together.
And you know I can I can totally support it I can totally get it on board with it.
Councillor Dale.
I think it's interesting when I when I talk with other mayors across the state I realize how similar we are in complexity to bigger cities like Portland and Salem and Eugene.
So many of our own utilities we have an airport we have a federally regulated dam we have all sorts of things we have our own fiber network.
There's a lot of of those elements that make us almost as complicated or complex in terms of management.
So it doesn't surprise me that we would be looking at a structure that might be typically seen to be designed for a bigger city.
One of the things that is interesting to me about this is is the idea of being able to break down silos.
So one of the difficulties that governments have that organizations have is when they have enterprise or not enterprises but departments that have their own specialty but are very much closely linked to others but they become so silo that they don't realize that they're causing inefficiencies between them because there isn't anybody keeping the whole picture in mind.
So I'm intrigued by this idea.
I think the fact that it's happening by us being done by larger cities with very sophisticated systems tells me it's a reasonable bet.
And we have been looking for ways to be more efficient to save costs to be more integrated across our departments and I think this makes sense and appreciate the thought that has gone into this.
So I'll be interested to see how it works out.
I do have one question and that is for us for the engagement with the council.
I would imagine that when we had mostly it'll be finance questions.
We would take those to this new internal services person and then when we had.
In-depth financial reports here, they would come and if they felt like they needed to have their deputy here to answer sort of more detailed questions, they would bring their deputy.
We would be able to have access to that full length of expertise in the department. Is that correct?
Yes. So if you remember the former finance director, often brought her deputy in finance manager.
Thank you.
So we wouldn't see anything different in terms of the level of service to this body.
No, no, okay. Any further questions or thoughts?
Okay. Thank you. We will move on next to the development of the concept plan and management plan for the Modron Ridge property.
So read it.
All right. So we have been conversing about the Modron Ridge property for several years now.
So we are at the point where we're seeking council approval for initiating the development of a concept and management plan for this property.
And thank you to Deputy Rookland who's been championing this. I'm going to go ahead and turn it on over to you.
Yeah. Great. Thank you Sabrina.
Good evening, council.
As a brief reminder for all our viewers out there, the Modron Ridge is a 1900 plus acre property.
The city has been working as a partner on for many years for forced management.
There's the opportunity for the city to acquire this through a Western River's Conservancy, who is currently applying for grants and fundraising to purchase the property.
And we are in discussions with them about city then taking ownership after purchase.
We have the city as well as Western River's Conservancy has been doing due diligence about what can and cannot be done on that property,
which brings us to the next phase of the property, which is after doing that due diligence, actually detailing out what can be done with that property and where.
The purpose for this is it helps us better understand the maintenance and management of that property, as well as apply for grants to reach that full purchase price that Western River's Conservancy is aiming for.
This has before you all Western River's Conservancy would use their funds to hire a facilitator.
So it would be city staff participating as part of a larger stakeholder group to discuss what can be done on the property and where to make a recommendation for a general concept and eventual management plan.
And I'm happy to take any questions.
Councillor Hansen.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Jordan.
This is really exciting.
I'm curious before we get into the planning approach and stakeholders and why not could you just highlight some of the community objectives and values that this project hits touches on.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, one of the primary purposes of this property is as a fire mitigation property is directly west of our city west of downtown.
And that has been earmarked as one of the major properties where historically winds have blown fires through.
It is also a large network of trails.
Those trails are not sanctioned trails but it has potential for trail connectivity, particularly between our watershed and the forest land that is on the other side.
It's also a big conservation parcel that is Western River's Conservancy guiding value is conservation.
And what we're discussing through this concept plan process, if Council gives a thumbs up to move forward with it is looking for potential partners who could be the folks managing that land for us at a reduced cost to the city.
So yeah, I hope that hit all the the dots.
That's a bunch of them.
The only one I would add would be equity.
I mean, this is 1900 acres that was locked up as private land that would now be public land and would be a connector between the trails we already have and the Greater Forest Service.
And we would be remiss if we didn't also hit on economic development.
Because have you seen this fire that Western Rivers put out?
This is one of their marketing pieces and I'm not sure if they're going to further distribute this or whatnot.
But when we talked to Western Rivers, you know, in addition to fire mitigation and conservation of the land, they were looking at the the heat mapping of Strava and Strava trail use and they saw so much activity on the east side of the watershed with our established trail system over there.
But there's actually quite a bit of running and biking that happens over there on the west side trails that are Forest Service trails that are but this property.
And then on this property there's a half dozen already trails that were used for different races and different things under special permission that are already established.
So they were really excited about all the things, right?
But one of the things that I hear people talking about in livability terms is like, you know, why are new people moving to Ashland?
Why are young families moving to Ashland? And trails is one of them.
And another thing I hear from a livability standpoint is people are, you know, feeling the pressure of more and more biking and hiking on our existing trails.
And this would give Ashland an opportunity to segregate and have more space, more trail designation, you know, this is just for eBikes.
This is just for trail running, this is just for dog walking. So, you know, that was a great highlight that I just wanted to add those things.
I'm going to the question, which is the identified stakeholder representatives on there are vast. Could you tell us a little bit about who they are and why you chose them?
Absolutely. So, and this is also subject to addition. So if you all have recommendations of other folks who are important, please email me.
I know Chris Chambers, a forestry officer has also had some ideas come forward.
I have to admit, I probably won't remember them right now, so I will update you all when I get updated.
But a trail represented exactly that. There are already existing trails, a huge potentially use of a portion of this property is to expand our trail system.
Lomacazzi. Lomacazzi is very interested in using the site as an education program to help train workforce for fire mitigation, while fire reduction in natural resource protection.
A conservation specialist, because this, you know, permanent primary goals of this land would be conservation.
That is one of the purchases reasons for purchasing, you know, fire mitigation specialists that will likely be our forestry officer who knows the land well knows what kind of fire mitigation work would need to happen to maintain that property into the future.
Jackson County, because this is in Jackson County, and if the city ever decides to do something more with it, like making it a use park, et cetera, we would go through a county process for that.
Rogue workforce partnership once again for that workforce connection, particularly as we're working towards more environmental stewardship.
So you environmental science department, because there's high interest in using that site for outdoor based education, both because of its biodiversity and it's through that fire mitigation program.
Same with the cave 12. You know, I think one of the concepts being passed around that we'd like to vet with this group is the development of an outdoor classroom on this site for that.
And then, of course, the tribal liaison since this land was held by some of the local tribes here in Oregon.
Thank you for that. Since your invitation, I would, I would love to add, I think it would be incumbent under the trail representatives.
The two major groups that maintain our trails in the city of Ashland free of charge.
They're, you know, member-based user groups, myself included, go out and volunteer to maintain our mountain biking and hiking trails.
Oftentimes on city land, you know, we donate thousands of hours every year to maintain the trails around here.
I would add that we would specify the RBNBA and the AWTA, which have built and maintained the trails in and around Ashland.
But then also a couple of liaison's, one from city council and one from parks.
And I would also be remiss that there's a road that goes from Ashland mine road all the way through the property to Wagner.
And I would think a neighborhood association or a neighborhood group, because those folks aren't in the city of Ashland, their county folks would also want to be a part of that.
Because another thing that this property does is unlock regress and egress for those people in the event of a wildfire any kind of disaster.
I mean, there's a large number of people that live up Ashland mine road that are very concerned about their, their fire emergency plans.
And this road goes all the way through there and out.
So this is very exciting and I hope that I'm on council long enough to see this start and be a part of it, but I trust that, you know, whoever's sitting in this seat.
Will, you know, theoretically, whoever's on council will be able to be a part of this and this is one of those like legacy projects like we're not making any more land right and this is falling into our lap western rivers.
The best of luck.
Thank you.
Councilor Dan.
Thank you.
So a couple of questions, Jordan, is there the first quick question is, is there no number of meetings, but at least one public meeting, would it be possible or considered to have.
Probably two or up to three just because I think one, I mean, this is this is a huge thing and I think we should get as maximum public engagement of course.
And the, the question I have is, understand that the capital is being taking care of relative to grants and so forth and I think it's handled by western rivers and phenomenal organization.
My question is, is relative to the concept of management plan is it, is it going to, is that plan going to include just a really strong, really robust financial operating model that just shows exactly how this is going to cost.
I don't want to, there's all kinds of things as councilor Hanson said that our opportunities to be able to do it is we just want to make sure that we're not that we can actually run it correctly and sometimes we, we.
Make that mistake sometimes as we're doing that so I just want to make sure to buy that community trust and get the buy in because this is for the community for the larger community that is maximum number of people you can decide whether you want to do it or not that's the different story is actually like does the community understand.
How we're funding it, how we can keep it, how we can keep it moving so will that be part of this this plan.
Yes, well I'll speak to your first question is yes we can absolutely add more public input meetings you know part of the goal of a concept plan is it is a tool that we can then have much more public input gathering with.
So even with a development of a concept plan you know that's the start of the public engagement process to really weigh the pros and cons of do we want to move forward as a community with taking over stewardship of this land.
To your second point of will the management plan give us that detailed understanding of how much it would cost maintain this property.
You know I think what this management plan will give us is it will give us a bottom line of if we were able to find any partners if we were happy to do everything yourself.
What would the cost be but would also build the relationships to understand if there's partners willing.
To partner with us to find cost saving measures to still get the work done in a beneficial community way.
So that is the hope for outcome.
Part of this process.
Councillor Kaplan.
Yeah thanks.
Thanks.
Thank you.
I'm not a similar line of thinking is Councillor Dale's that that's helpful.
I think there's certainly the concept plan having broad stakeholder input is really really important.
And I appreciate that and taking the time necessary to do it right and get broad stakeholder input including suggestions from Councillor Hanson.
I guess I worry a little bit more about the management plan.
The process for developing the management plan because in my experience developing a management plan for a large parcel like this I'm not familiar with.
This exact kind of thing but I know that in that preparing the management plans for like a national park which is a much bigger and a little different thing.
It's kind of a technical it's more of a technical exercise and it is a stakeholder exercise.
I appreciate getting input from stakeholders that might want to take a piece of it, co-management with us or whatever.
But I think that would be subsequent to really deciding what needs to be managed and what are the actual actions that are going to have to happen month after month season after season year after year on this piece of property to manage it according to our standards.
So I appreciate the fiscal question here but I think I worry a little bit that there's too little time that's maybe allocated to really do a thorough job on the management plan to yield the kind of cost and capacity.
It's not just how much it costs, how do we do we have the capacity to do it.
Who's going to do it, what specific agreements we're going to have.
Can you reassure me a bit on some of those things?
Absolutely and I would be remiss if Chris Chambers would have called me out if you hadn't brought this question up.
So thank you. So there are technical documents that we are going to be required to have with this land if we choose to take it because it's under certain federal grant programs.
And that'll be a management plan that is highly technical that details much like the force management plan that we have for our watershed exactly the technical maintenance of this piece of property.
At this point of the process we are not going to develop that what we will be developing is we know the acreage in the areas that will require specific types of fire mitigation work.
We know this specific acreage after the concept plan of how many trails and miles of trails that will be and what our level of maintenance would likely be on those.
Similar for our watershed you know there's roughly a third quarter to a third of the properties our watershed.
So when I say management plan in this context it is to get us that basic understanding of what would the cost be and be what is the capacity needs.
The next phase after that if we decide to continue to.
We'll be starting to create those highly technical documents that get into those nuanced details.
This is sequential, so start with the concept plan once we know what goes where.
Those then be a subgroup of folks that work on that basic management plan.
And then ultimately, that technical management plan will be taken up by our technical experts to craft and timeline wise.
You know, the hope is by this fall to have a clear understanding of what we'd want to do with the property and what the cost estimate would be.
From there, we have until September 2027 currently to make the final decision in that process after that, between the end of this year.
Is it September 2027 would be those technical plan assessments? Does that make sense?
That's actually somewhat reassert, ensuring, because I think we'll get the kind of depth that I was looking for.
The more technical management is much more costly than this more preliminary planning approach.
Who is your financing for that management plan?
Is that what's the cost of doing that technical work?
And when does it have to be completed in order to satisfy federal regulations to use money?
Yeah, so when it would have to be.
So, you know, if we move forward with the opposition of the property, we would accept the federal grant funding that will be through resolution via the council.
And then we will have a set time period. I believe it's two years for us to then develop that technical document.
Yes, and I apologize if I forget the first half of your question.
But that's two years that would extend past the deadline for actually purchasing it.
So it sounds like we wouldn't have the technical level detail for the management plan by the time we would need to purchase it.
I think we'd have a pretty good idea before that, because since we currently already have a technical plan document for our watershed, this would be an extension of that plan.
You know, the other thing that Western Rivers has offered is through this process of concept planning and management planning to hire technical experts.
For example, we will likely have to do a biodiversity study of the site to be able to receive conservation-based awards.
So that's the kind of technical work that would be done by Western Rivers during this three to six-month period of planning.
Councillor Schwell.
Thank you, Mayor. Two things real quick, Jordan.
Thank you. Just to get the public and myself included caught up on, are we in a delayed purchase agreement?
And we already have figured out most of the terms the way I understand it looking at your timeline.
Yes, so Western Rivers Conservancy is in a delayed purchase agreement with the private property owner and they're currently working with us as the most likely steward of that land.
Okay, and we have, I'm just looking at total cost to the citizens.
So like we have some earnest, the research I did said we had some potentially some hard earnest money down that we won't get back.
And then the main question is if we decide to go with this motion and direct staff to look at conceptual plan, preliminary conceptual plan, that is just staff cost.
I'm assuming there's not a dollar amount, it would be you in consulting with Western Rivers on the suming to put together that.
So we're not, we're not, we're not putting any more money out.
Correct.
Yeah, so we have a contract with Western Rivers that is the money that the city has put in to consider acquisition of this property.
It's 25,000 a year for three years.
For this stage of the process there is no additional money the city would put in beyond the staff time of the staff who are participating.
To help develop the concept plan and the basic management plan is what I'm going to rephrase it is.
And you have the hours available in your schedule to devote to this really interesting project I'm assuming.
Yes, and I would put most likely Chris Chambers as a city representative on this committee because he is the one most knowledgeable about what we would need to do on that property as well as the other stakeholders he has the relationship to wait.
And I would be there in a support role.
So I have a couple of questions that and I appreciate that the questions around the management plan getting to the financial reality.
We've had months and months of not years of conversations about the squeeze on the general fund and what this means.
And so to me and I think the council would at some point have deeper discussions about this.
But the need to make sure that we can pay for this property with revenue that is generated in some fashion by this property.
Knowing that there are restrictions on the property but also knowing that it is likely to draw more people into town.
There's likely to be an economic benefit specifically if we plan it in the right way.
So when I see this we have the concept plan first and then it rolls into a management plan.
But let me know if I'm not seeing this correctly.
But I don't see the time when it comes back to council.
So I see that there's one public meeting to look at the concept plan but I don't see it coming back to this council for the council to say.
Yes, that looks right. The priorities are balanced correctly across the various things that could be in this place.
And so I'm wondering about how do we make sure that we're nodding and saying concept plan looks right before the next management plan piece happens with that would be my first question.
Yes, absolutely. So in the final part of the report next steps fall 2026 is when for sure the concept plan and the basic management plan would come before council.
We are a month delays in this agenda item got pushed so I would put that more in the November timeframe.
But I'm suggesting this council should see the concept plan.
And have that discussion before the management plan is developed because it says that the concept plan is the precursor to the management plan.
But that's a natural point of checking back in with this council make sure we're in agreement that it's in the right direction.
And then going into that deeper dive because that management plan will then set the stage for future planning efforts.
And so if it's off course in some fashion that's the correction point.
Yeah, more than happy to do in that order. Okay, I also would support the idea of getting somebody and it's likely to be you if you're if you're already planning to serve on it, but to have that economic development.
Recreation, not just recreation, but the what is the likely economic impact to this.
Make sure that we're covering that so sounds like that is happening.
And the last piece of this is that this is one of the steps that we always knew was in this process.
So we still are not at the place where we're saying yes we're accepting this, but we're taking the next step that we've.
We said we would take to do our deal do diligence on this.
So I'm just confirming that for the folks who are watching from home we're getting messages about people.
I think who might be have some confusion about where we're at in the process.
So we are still doing due diligence we're still investigating this potential opportunity.
The council's not on the edge at this point of accepting the property nor is it fully funded yet.
Correct.
This is part of the due diligence process.
Okay, thank you.
So any further questions or yeah, any further questions to staff.
Okay, the floor is open for a motion. Councillor Hanson.
Thank you, Mayor.
I've moved to direct staff to initiate the process for developing a concept plan and management plan for the metronerage property.
Councillor Hanson.
Yeah, I mean we've set a lot and we're not there in terms of funding with Western rivers and we have a lot of stakeholders in this list and a lot of public engagement that needs to happen.
So I'm really excited to get the ball rolling.
And again, you know, this is something that I think every Ashlander will benefit from in a fire mitigation and a public land and equity standpoint and economic development and educational opportunities.
Just I think they're so exciting for Ashland.
It's something I'm very, very hopeful for.
So it's with that that I support this.
Councillor Captain.
Yeah, I think I this is just another step in the decision making process and to really do as somebody described the due diligence to figure out, you know, what exactly will be able to use this property for how and how we'll manage it and how much you don't cost.
So I'm we need this information and I'm happy to to boost perceived all of that.
Yes, I mean we've been talking about I think since the beginning about how we need to have some kind of plan we need more information.
For me, this is critical and fundamental to deciding how I'm going to vote on this property is is understanding the numbers and the scale of this and if this is something that the city can actually take on.
So yeah, very grateful for for you doing this and you know the way I see it is that you know we've gotten till you know December of next year.
So this is one of the rare times where personally I'm not too worried if if you go over a few months to figure this out like to take take the time you need to get it right so that we're going off of the right information.
So thank you.
Councillor Dicking.
I was looking at this and Councillor Boom is right we've been here for how many years I think the money that we've invested in this.
I wish we hadn't have done that.
I feel like a wildfire mitigation.
That is a nice point.
However when we look at wildfires most fires are started by human by people so we put a lot of people up there good luck with that.
And so but I just in the bigger picture of things it's a wonderful notion nice thought but when I look at the presentation that my colleagues presented us yesterday.
And when I see the state of our budget we don't know what direction we're going in I know that this isn't going to cost any money to put this together this concept.
However if staff is so thin which I keep hearing we are.
I feel our time would be better spent taking care of what's in front of us in Ashland in town so I do not support this I haven't from the start and I can't start now.
Any further discussion.
Roll call fees.
Kaplan.
Yes.
Ducane.
Hansen.
Yes.
Sherrell.
Yes.
Dale.
Yes.
Bloom.
Yep.
Motion box.
Thank you.
We are now to new business we have the property.
We have the proposed ordinance for utility bill fees.
So you have your council communication here and what this is is a request for the council to consider developing an ordinance that would.
Thank you.
That would.
That would outline the process by which this council would go through public engagement.
The public engagement efforts prior to two particular instances one is the creation of a new fee on utility bills.
The other is any sort of increase that would go out beyond the the inflationary increases that are already structured into those fees.
So in either of those cases if the council were does looking to make a bigger change or make a new fee they would have to go through this process by ordinance.
And so what this is it's not an ordinance yet even though it says that that's what it is it's a conversation that says is this council interested in putting in directing staff to go forward and to start to put this into an ordinance form and if so.
Are there any elements of this that we think should be changed and you'll notice that there are a couple of things that are specifically designed into this process.
One is to make sure that it is is at least a couple of months long process so that the community has plenty of time to understand it.
There are multiple structured requirements for public engagement.
There are time limits so you there are requirements for a certain amount of time to elapse between certain points of this so that the community can have adequate time to respond.
And and then and then the the I guess the the final element of it is really building in that space so that the council can get.
The full response back from the community in terms of whether the community supports that move or does not.
This came up in a conversation we had towards the end of last year when I mentioned that I thought we needed a more clear structure so that there couldn't be.
Rushed processes for this no matter what is spurring this on it's going to take several months in order to put it into place and so the community wouldn't ever have to worry about something coming on to the agenda and moving forward really quickly before they understood what was happening.
So that's what it is you have your the the council communication in front of you so I'm not going to necessarily go through the whole process but that's what this this is and we're very stacked up in our study sessions so we went ahead and put it on.
The agenda last for the last meeting so it's coming up is the last item of old business this time so questions.
Councillor Dale.
Thank you Mayor just a really quick question I just want to make sure that.
That when it says and I appreciate you saying it's going to be a conversation but the last sentence in the summary there it says throughout the document fee increases means.
Feed increases larger than the inflation index and I just want to I would I would say that I would feel comfortable if it was just if that was all inclusive in that.
Because we do have these things where sometimes the inflation index just isn't do it, sometimes it's too much.
And so I just want to have that conversation if this is best.
Includes that and we just don't pass over the inflation index is kind of a given.
Because I think that's a very important calculation that's used in the overall thing.
It would be a comprehensive discussion that would include that, would you accept it with that?
Yeah, and what I was looking at with that is that with some of our fees,
some of our fees we have now set them to go up incrementally based on indexing, right?
And so the point of this is that if the council wants a fee increase that's more than what the policy is allowing the increase to be year over year,
that that would necessitate this policy in the same way that building a new fee would also.
I see that makes sense.
So if we if we think about what we would just happen with a wildfire fee where we went,
we could say increased it significantly, we hadn't increased it for a long time,
but then we did a much more significant jump.
That would require the same structure and process as if we opened up a brand new fee.
Any other questions?
Councillor Kaplan.
Yeah, so I'm just I don't know putting myself back.
Is it just last year?
Two years ago last year when we were last spring when we were in the receiving the budget,
we were in the budget committee and all of a sudden we were presented with the need to raise some revenue in order to,
in order not to slash costs very extensively,
including in our wildfire staff because it we lost purchasing power.
But if we were if we were to be in that situation again,
that we would be in a multi month process of deciding that we need to increase,
for example, our wildfire fee in order to maintain our wildfire staff,
our national force resilience staff, etc.
But I think in my right that your intention here is that we'd be much more deliberate
during those things much earlier so we wouldn't be facing kind of a last-minute emergency kind of request.
Yes, exactly.
I think alongside this requirement is also the other work that we've been doing to do a more robust and continual forecasting process with our finances.
So those two things together, making sure that we take the time when we are presented with potentially needing to do something with these fees.
Alongside our responsibility to make sure that we're not coming to this as a rushed kind of surprise to the council or to the community.
So I think both of those things have to exist and by putting this into ordinance,
it basically says we can't actually do a hurried, rushed process.
Therefore we must bring it earlier.
So the question now to the city manager and in the budget preparation process,
because last time it was a rush we were faced with a situation with our ambulance service
that we are still losing a lot of money in our ambulance service.
But if we were faced with a substantial, presented with a substantial increase to our public safety fee in order to try to cut that gap a little bit.
Do you have the ability or will you have the ability in this next by-anym to really build a put that forecasting together earlier so that we've got those months.
If that's the choice that we can consider either increase fee increase or cutting the service.
I mean, we didn't have to cover this service.
We could have cut our number of ambulance drivers personnel.
Do you be in a position to be able to give us those kinds of tradeoffs so we can make a considered judgment?
So we're forecasting more and more.
So we're ahead of where we were last time.
So I think we have the processes and know how in place to be able to present those items sooner.
I think, you know, we have some unanswered questions still around the parks fee, around the ambulance service.
And so until we have kind of the decisions in which trigger kind of the financials to put into place,
it's hard to get an overall picture.
So I think what will be important is kind of systematically making sure our agendas are moving out of pace and we're getting the policy decisions that we need to be able to forecast those things.
And I appreciate the inflation adjustment that you added last time because we had seen the deterioration and the purchasing power of those fees and that we weren't able to cover the things that they were able to cover previously because we hadn't raised them in seven years, eight years.
Councillor Hansen.
Yeah, thank you.
I certainly appreciate the transparency and experiencing the rush of those fees.
It was surprising and it had fallout and it had unintended consequences and the bottom line was, you know,
it was either services or revenue.
So my question is, at what point are you thinking there's a delineation between fees and other revenue sources?
There's, you know, other opportunities that other municipalities have levered that I'm just curious, you know,
relative to lots of different things.
What kind of input are we going to be, you know, seeking what kind of freedom will this, you know, council have, you know, like, let's say, you know,
we parks wants to instigate fee parking.
What if we want to have trailhead fee parking?
You know, I mean, the list goes on and on and on and I'm not sure if I quite understand where the delineator is between, you know, different revenue sources and how they impact the people.
And in a representative government, I'm not quite sure exactly what you're getting out with, you know, what is, you know, what we're trusting our elected's with and what we want to have community and involvement on.
Yeah, it's a great question.
So when we put a standard fee on our utility bill, everyone has to pay for it, no matter what they're doing.
So if we put a parking fee on something at a trailhead, that's going to impact the people who are using that particular service.
And they can choose whether or not they use that service.
When we add a utility fee, everyone has to pay it regardless of, you know, what their circumstances are or how they interact with it, whatever it is that this is paying for.
And so this would be restricted specifically to new fees on the utility bills or fees that are increasing beyond the policy cap that is already built into those fees.
So it's only for those two circumstances, would you set this process in motion?
The way we sit right now, it would be a terrible idea to do something like this, but the council could get a packet with a proposed fee increase on Thursday and voted in on Tuesday.
And what this is doing is saying, you don't get to do that, you have to plan better, you have to have a deep conversation with this community and it's got a lot of specifics and certainly open to any thoughts about whether, you know, these, there are entities in here that the specifics need to be changed.
But it requires public hearings, it requires an online survey, it requires that we advertise it differently than we just advertise regular meetings.
There are time limits the survey has to be open for four weeks, you can't, between the hearing and and putting it forward for vote, there has to be at least two weeks.
So there's a structure that gets put in place so that the community has plenty of time to communicate with their counselors who still at the end of the day will be the ones who make the decision.
But it requires that we have a better conversation with the community before we put those types of fees in place.
Yes.
Do you have any idea how much staff time and expense that's going to cost?
I do not, but you know, we have public meetings anyway and we have communication staff and everything that's in here would be done by those two things.
But Sabrina could tell us if we, if you think that there's that's an onerous, I mean, to what extent do you think that that's a difficult expense for us to integrate into our business world.
I think we can do it, I think, you know, the idea of a survey we probably want to think about that, but in terms of online materials holding a meeting, you know, study sessions regular meetings or public meetings.
I know we've been cutting meetings due to, you know, budgetary constraints.
Some wondering what the dollar figure is.
I don't have a dollar figure.
And it shouldn't happen often.
This process is not something that should happen very often at all, right?
So that's the, that's the idea behind it.
We do have two people who have signed up to speak to, does anybody else have any questions?
Councillor Schwell.
Just one quick question. Thanks, Mayor, for bringing this forward, and I think we're all starting to get fee fatigue.
Just a kind of a direct question that's, some I related to another item on the agenda tonight.
Is the timing of this, does it happen anything to do with like we're just hearing from the citizens like we're moving too fast at raising fees or in the future we want to do better.
Can you talk about maybe the timing and how it could potentially overlap or piggyback or collaborate with another citizen driven initiative that's
has similar? I mean, one of them, we lose a little bit of power, one of them we lose a little bit of speed.
In both cases, we can potentially act when we need to.
Can you just kind of speak to like the hard details of that?
Sure, so I first announced that I wanted to, the council to take up something like this last November.
And I think I sent my first draft over to Councillor Dale, it like March this year.
So, but it hasn't been an issue of real timeliness because we've had other things on our agenda.
So it got bumped from the last meeting, but they're not, we shouldn't think of these as pick one or the other.
Even if the other one goes to the ballot in November, if we put this ordinance in place ahead of that and it passed, then it would just make the ordinance moot and we would just take it off.
If it went to the ballot and didn't pass, then we would have this structure in place that the council would still have to have a robust public engagement process.
So I don't, they may very well be trying to adjust the same thing in different ways, but I don't see them as necessarily mutually exclusive.
Does that help?
Yeah, totally, thank you so much for their clarification.
Okay, so we're going to call up the two folks who have signed up to speak with us this evening.
We have Paul Mozina and George Cramer.
Mayor, how much time would you like to give them about three minutes? Okay.
Thank you for this opportunity.
My name is Paul Mozina and I live in Ashland.
And I was really surprised by the council's conference comment that in council hands and that the ambulance services losing money.
When you're reviewing the public safety fee increase back in May of 2025,
that is steady session with G. Sartaine has asked meeting before you and it was a celebration.
I mean, the data he presented and I included in my public comments showed an even a county for a $1.5 million fully loaded eight staff.
The estimate of 1.1 million above that net position for 2024 and 1.3 million net position for 2025.
That was on May of March 3rd.
On March 31st, the city minister came forward to y'all and said, oh, the EMS service is in covering its costs.
We're not, we're not making enough money.
And so, you know, I mean, when you, when you're going to have, and I made many comments asking for that information.
I filed for your request.
What was in the position of the EMS when it was embedded in the fire department with dual role fire personnel?
And then what was the net position that Mary and Barry and Chief Sartaine presented on March 3rd, which showed a tremendous success for that program?
I asked for that the city minister made the point that this program wasn't covering its costs.
And it was certainly covering its costs and making my hand over fist.
One of the things that's missing here is in your plan is a requirement to respond to public comments.
A serious public comments, I got no response, even to a FOIA request.
And then there's a requirement that you need to follow up.
You guys are saying that the ambulance service is losing money.
I beg to differ.
And you should put the data on the table here.
Chief Fraser hasn't made a parent in front of this council and set up for five minutes of the budget meeting.
He should be in front of this council.
He should be reviewing the status of the EMS program.
When you increase the fee, you have to pay attention to the premise for that fee increase and see if it's still justified.
And another thing that's really important is accurate honest presentation information.
When this public safety fee was presented, it said that the current program was a pilot program.
And the money was to make it a regular program.
This is in March and May of 2025.
There have been eight full-time EMS people for all of 2024 or the more higher than 2024.
So this program was well established way beyond the pilot program.
And the last thing is the fiscal impact was said that the time and the maintenance last point that all the money, all the revenue from the public safety fee,
was going to be dedicated to the EMS program.
Well, it wasn't dedicated at all because it was less a one percent of the other general of the fund,
but money went right into the general fund.
So it was not an hours presentation.
Thank you.
George Kramer.
Good evening. In general, I am in support of public discussion and a full-son detailed process
before this council adopts new fees or increases fees. I think that's a good thing to do. I think
if you had had something like that in place a year ago, I wouldn't be on your agenda later
tonight. However, I am on your agenda later tonight and hopefully the people of Ashland will get a chance
to weigh in on the other matter, as you talked about it, Councillor Cheryl. And I think that this
ordinance right now or this process right now is ill-timed. Let's wait and see if the people
want to adopt a charter amendment, we should work together and create exactly the kind of ordinance.
I can quibble about some of the survey and how the public process works. Those are details.
But I do think that the council having some sort of standard before it adopts a new fee and avoids these
rush to decisions in the budget process is a good idea. I just don't think you should be wasting time
and staff time doing it before the election in November. Thank you. Thank you.
All right, so if there are no additional questions, then what we are looking for is if there is
interest in directing staff to form, to move this forward into an ordinance process.
So we can just go around and each council can let us know and then we'll take the decision of the body.
Councillor Cheryl? Yeah, yeah, more process when we're going to put another burden on our citizens
has to be a positive thing. Yes, I'm interested in the conversation. Councillor Bloom? Yeah, of course.
Councillor Cappell? Yeah, me too. Councillor Cain? Sure.
Councillor Hansen? Yes. Okay, so do you need anything else in terms of moving this forward?
No, we will work to draft an ordinance and bring it back. Okay, thank you. Councillor Bloom?
Just so that we're very clear and specific with the direction that it include the elements
that are presented here. The suggestions are not, I don't want something to get left out.
The suggestions? The suggestions that you provided in terms of the process. I just wanted to be
very clear in terms of the wording that that's the direction that I'm assuming that's the direction we're
giving. Yes, in accordance with the council packet. Yes.
I just come back. I mean, I appreciate that we're doing this tonight, but I really wish
you had been in a study session. Can we visit this in a study session before it comes back in a
full-blown ordinance? That's what we're doing tonight is talking through the concept and then
I hear that, but I'm curious. So our study sessions have been much more stacked recently than our
business meetings have been and so we have there have been a couple of things that we've moved into
the business meeting because otherwise we don't have time for them. And that's what this is. So if there's
a structural element of this that you would like to have done differently, then now would be the time or we
can do it on first reading because there's still time to adapt the elements of it at first reading.
True, but I mean, I mean, I mean, here we are till 930 to 930 to 930, whatever study sessions are
I think more loose. My impression is that we have more time during study sessions, so that's why I asked
that we could have an study session. We could talk about it more and more, but I'll defer to the group,
but it seems as though we actually have more time that way, but go ahead to Bina. We don't have an open
study session until November now. Yeah. Yeah, that's we're trying to manage around that timing issue.
But I appreciate the concern, Councilor. All right, so we are now to new business. We've got the
property surplus, the portion of the risk of school property. So Bina, if Bina,
may I answer to King? Mayor, I am looking at the time and we are at new business and I was hoping we could
put the citizens petition valid measure first. So we have a timeliness issue, is there?
So this will only take a couple minutes. I think it seems like it's a pretty quick item.
Question. We say that sometimes it is long. I would, I would also appreciate because though I get,
we have August 4th, it's pretty clear here that we have to approve a resolution by August 4th.
So if we don't give direction on what that resolution looks like, we can have a conversation August 4th,
there is no resolution and therefore whatever decision we make is going to be impacted by that. This is time.
So I will go ahead and switch the order. So we will take up the citizen's petition ballot measure
discussion and then we will move back to the risk of school property. So this has been brought forward
by two Councillors and so I just want to open that up for them to bring it forward. So I believe it's
Councillor Dickane and Councillor Scharrell. Is that right? No, Councillor Bloom.
Councillor Dickane? Honestly, for the sake of time, I believe we all know what this is about.
We have 1500 residents of Ashland, more than 1500 residents of Ashland who would like to see this
on the ballot. It came in front of us. The petitioner was told to go out and get signatures that
happened there was a hiccup and now we're back again. So I would like to vote on this tonight
and hopefully it will move forward by this body. Thank you. Yes, Councillor Bloom?
Yeah, and I would just add that this is similar for me is that we said, democracy, go out, do the process
and the process was done. Signatures were collected. The needed signatures were collected.
We're looking at obviously there's some technicalities here and I've been very open in the past
that this is not a ballot measure that I would be voting for. I would support. But I do believe that we
have a responsibility to say, you know what? The democratic process was carried out. Some mistakes were made
in terms of how the filing and everything was done and all those rules. And I think the appropriate
thing for us to do is to say, we're not trying to tip the scales in terms of how this process works.
So put on the ballot and those of us that are opposed to it, we need to do a good enough job,
you know, explaining to the citizens that this is not something that should pass.
Councillor Cuffin? Yeah, I have some questions. Yes.
Yeah, I appreciate it this. I appreciate that there were some errors in collecting the signatures.
It's in the packet that what there is actually were. Not so small. There are quite a few of them.
But there's also in the packet a notion that the 1500 number was inaccurate. I ask Alyssa,
I think you said that you says the actual count is 1,316 signatures.
Just slightly more than the 1,388 signatures that are required under the democratic process to put this on the ballot.
Sure. So to clarify, when Mr. Cameron dropped off the signature sheets,
I counted sheets, not actual number of signatures, and went off of the count. He submitted,
which was 1537. So the analysis, the original analysis, I did was based off of that number. So I took
1537, there were 194 electronic signature sheets, and that's how I sort of did math out the rest.
When this came to council on the agenda, myself and a colleague counted the actual number of signatures,
and that's when we discovered that the actual number of signatures collected was 1316, not 1537.
Which is 8 signatures more than required under the democratic process for a problem measure.
That's right. So 100 and 8 are required. So because the signatures were not collected properly,
I mean, that's one thing. But the implication of that is that the county clerk didn't then validate the signatures.
I've talked with, I just collected some signatures for a reelection. I've talked with other candidates who collected signatures for reelection,
and had to go back out and get more signatures because a third of their signatures were invalidated by the county clerk,
because they were not registered voters. People signed, but they weren't, it hadn't, it hadn't happened to be a registered voters.
There's signature was not valid for the purpose of putting the candidate onto on the ballot.
Do you have information about what's the typical rejection rate of signatures? Not well. I think it's not just a signature.
It's also the can't be duplicates. It's not to be registered. The can't be duplicates.
Right. So that question. So I did talk with the county elections office.
They are not able to verify any amount of signatures due to the legal compliance issue.
But I got curious about the same thing. So I went back and I looked at the water bond petition that we had a few years ago,
and the county did verify those signatures, and the rejection rate was 13%.
So if you apply 13% to the amount, the petitioner submitted,
that only leaves 1,145 valid signatures. In addition, because I like numbers too,
with all of the candidates turning in signature sheets for verification, I did a quick average in
it's 15% of signatures that were verified by candidates in this election that are being rejected.
So there's some reason to think that that 15% rejection rate or even 10% rejection rate
is would be applicable in this case as well. So less than the actual numbers signatures required.
I've got another question. It's also in the packet. It's actually for our city attorney.
You have in there some concerns about the actual language when you presented this back in November.
I said that I wasn't supporting putting this on the ballot at that point without going to
well, I said I wasn't supportive of putting that point because I didn't like the wording. I thought the wording
would actually keep us from the inflation adjustment, which I talked about earlier this evening.
We hadn't raised our fees for seven, eight years, so they lost purchasing power.
And I thought that this would then the way you had worded this would require us to go back and
get a voter approval every time we want to adjust for inflation one of these fees and we just wouldn't do that.
But to my question for the city attorney is you express the same thing in the packet
and you added an additional concern about franchise fees. Could you explain that?
Yeah, and I haven't done a deep dive into it. It actually just occurred to me after we went through the
stuff with the Vista. I think
realistically it's more of a practical and financial question, but
a franchise fee not being rated. So the bill language itself refers to utility bill. So I believe that would
include non-unitably owned utilities to include a Vista. So in my reading of that then I started thinking about
a franchise fee is not necessarily related to operations. So if we if Council wanted to then raise a
franchise fee, they would have to take that to a voters. And then I started thinking more about that
and started thinking if there was an OAR that required a certain level set for a franchise fee like natural
gas and we took it to the voters and they did not agree with it then we wouldn't be in compliance with that.
And then again, these are just kind of hypotheticals I started thinking about. This is not a
not brought forth by Council. I haven't done a deep dive into it yet, but then also looking at some
of the other schemes that exist with public utility commissions and service territories and whether
or not we would have then a potential issue if essentially there was a territorial agreement and we
couldn't comply with it based on not being able to get our voters to go along with those fees. So
again, these just occurred to me after the Vista conversation. So I had some concerns if we were going
to be the Council putting forward the Tassett and Doris from basically putting it on the ballot.
That they should at least be addressed on the surface. I think that the language of just quote utility
bill extends beyond just the cities. We don't.
Council, do you okay?
We haven't till 920s. We still have a good period of time and until 930 and at that point we have to
have a motion on the floor in order to get 10 more minutes but we still have a considerable amount of time.
Councillor Hansen?
I can appreciate gathering signatures for the seat and certainly had some hiccups and I can also
appreciate the efforts of citizens going after something like this. So again I appreciate that.
But you'll on us hoping you could read the proposed language for us please.
Let's see, I'll be in the summary. I guess those amendments have to be served, chartered,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I guess.
So chartered amendment is follows. Section 8, fees and taxes. The city council by a majority vote may propose new fees, taxes, or increase existing fees or taxes on a utility bill.
Unrelated to the operation of the utilities, not standing any other provision, no such fee tax, or increase will be assessed imposed or collected until at least 30 days following a positive vote to affirm by action voters at the next regularly scheduled election.
Councillor Bloom?
Yeah, thank you. No, I think all good points. And I would like to point out that we control this now at this point and we can change the language.
It's not a, we have to go with the proposed language or nothing. We can certainly add in protections for inflation.
We can exclude franchise fees and exclude any proposed fees outside of the jurisdiction of the city of Ashland.
So we can put protections in place. In the event that the voters do decide to pass it, we at least have some ability to put some safeguards here, so we're not completely causing damage or harm.
And so that's kind of where I am is that we actually have the benefit of making some improvements here, or we don't do anything.
And more signatures are collected, and it still goes to the ballot, but maybe with language that is problematic for the city down the road.
So I think that this is a great opportunity to improve the language, and still those of us that are opposed to this idea of having a wait for an election to be able to have this conversation,
can still go out and make that case. So for me, I think this is kind of a winning opportunity for us to to take this a bit.
And then still go to the voters and make the case that this isn't the right process that we should be using.
Can't so to king.
If I may, I'd like to ask this body if we can suspend the rules for about five minutes and have our chief petitioner speak to this.
I would, I would second that, and I think that it'd be valuable for all of us in case we have questions of the chief petitioner as well.
So I'm open to having the, and you can go ahead and make that motion.
I'd like to move the we suspend the rules for 10 minutes and have our chief petitioner come up and speak to us and we can ask questions.
Second.
Are there any questions or discussion?
We'll call please a listen.
Sherrell.
It's getting.
Dale.
Bloom.
Yes.
Kaplan.
Yes.
Do you cane?
Yes.
Can't say.
No.
Mr. Cramer.
If you can just make sure that you turn on your microphone.
It's a little button in the front.
It'll make the it go red and that's how you know it's on.
Okay.
Councillor Ducane.
Did you have any questions?
I wanted to ask you.
Thank you, George.
When it comes time to changing the language and looking at the time.
Something that I know that this body has the.
The ability to go ahead and put it on the to move move it forward as is.
And I know that everybody is talking about.
The way I talk about it.
It's not about it, it's about 13,00.
It's not about 13,00.
But the people have spoken to it in this body.
Has the right.
The authority, the ability to put it out there.
What do you think about.
Counselors.
Bloom.
Ask to change the.
Language.
Thank you.
So certainly legally the council can do anything at once to.
the charter. It can use the language that we used. I think some history here is appropriate.
The language that was put onto the petition that we went and talked to 1500 voters about
was language that I and the city attorney agreed to. And that was the language that was presented
to 1500 Ashland voters. The information about the change in count is new to me. We counted those
before we submitted them. I don't know if that's accurate or not. It doesn't really matter.
When we came before you in October or November, I guess it was. We were basically told to go out
and show that there was interest in the public in voting on this charter amendment. And the
language that we agreed to is what people said they wanted to vote on. The council has the ability to
change whatever it wants to do. But I think it is disrespectful to the citizen process to the
initiative process into the 1500 voters that signed a petition thinking they would have a chance
in November to vote. I would say to Councilor Kaplan's concern or viewers to councilor Boym.
I answered this for you in November. Step increases were something this council created on the
fly when it created all of these fees last June, two dunes ago. If council, if this were the pat,
but we put on the ballot and become law, and council wants to adopt a policy for stepping
increases for utility for fees on our utility bills unrelated to the utilities, you can put that on
the ballot and we can vote on it. I would probably vote for it. But what we're talking about with the
mayor's proposal earlier today was to have a public process about how Ashland uses its utility
monopoly to create revenue from residents. We don't have a choice about that. It's not a parking
fight, a parking ticket like you said in that a mayor. It's something we all have to pay. We should have
a choice including step increases. I think the thing for you to do, we made a mistake. There's a
lot of forms involved in trying to get a petition signed, but we did the work. We did what you asked us to do.
And we demonstrated that the public is interested in voting on this and I think the appropriate
thing is to let them vote on the petition that they signed. And if it were to pass and you want
to adopt step increases, you can ask for step increases and we'll vote on it just like we would anything else.
And so I'm happy to answer whatever questions you have about how the process went sideways about
the joy of trying to collect 1,500 signatures in Ashland and talking to people. I bumped into
most of you polling a clipboard a lot of us did. It's not an easy thing to do. But we did it and the
public is very interested in this and I think it would be good for the city and it would be good for the
council for you to honor the process that we're in the middle of and not change it on the fly.
Thank you. Any other questions? Councillor Bull?
Thanks, Mr. Cramer. I would just kind of posit to you that you suggested that we should we should
honor the language that people decided. And if that was the case and we decided to move forward with
that there should also be an understanding that it might not end up on the ballot in November.
That there is an opportunity here for this council to decide to move forward with your petition.
But correcting some issues around franchise fees, around fees that maybe the county would impose
that could create legal issues for us and inflation and it's an opportunity to keep it the same
mechanism. We still need new fees because that's what this is all about. This isn't necessarily about
inflation. I mean, my understanding is this is us deciding to come up with new fees like the park's
fee or the wildfire fee without much public or any public input and then just kind of moving forward.
And I agree that that's wrong and that there needs to be a process and we can debate this
you know, add nauseam about should we wait for an election pay for an election to do this or should we have
you know maybe a more condensed timeline and I'm ready to have that debate you know publicly with with the
electorate. But I think that there needs to be an understanding that there is an opportunity to get this on the ballot
with some some important changes that this council could potentially get behind or risk not passing this
and having to wait until 1500 signatures are collected. So I just something something to think about.
It was more a comment than a question and that's how I'm thinking about this is that I want to honor the people
to sign those that want this conversation to happen in the community and I want to do it in a way that also
doesn't break the city potentially and I think that there's a middle path here. So just wanted to make that comment.
Okay any other questions? I just want to be mindful of time. I have a question for Johann.
So Johann when a petitioner comes forward with ballot language what is that process that your
department goes through? Because I'm hearing language around we agreed and I would like to understand
better what that process looks like. Yeah primarily I'm just looking at clarity and it makes sense
I'm not looking at like the substantive impacts or you know in this case like I said the
of this thing I didn't even it didn't occur to me until just a few months ago but I'm not doing a deep
dive into it I'm looking we went back and forth on things like the comma placement and word choice but
that's what I'm looking at. But it's not an assessment of the impact of any particular ballot
language on the city like it's not a guidance process that way it's a it's a it's a legal process around
a ballot initiative and making sure it's got clear language and things that require the legal requirements
of the legal requirements are made. ballot measure you know process but I'm not providing legal guidance
as to the impact potentially okay I think that's that's helpful to have that clarification thank you
any further questions we do have someone who has signed up to speak with us this evening and thank you
Mr. Cramer. Oh you had one more question hold a hold on to some moment council captain.
Yeah one one more question there's a state of August 4th we've got a council meeting on the fourth there's
is a deadline for submitting ballot measures is that August 4th or is that later that August 4th?
That's the last the last council meeting before the deadline you could call a special study or special meeting
what what is I'm sorry what is a deadline for the for submitting a ballot measure that's that's
that's what I'm sorry packet just one second please
it's very last
it's August 16th 16th
so okay so we could we could consider a different ballot language we could direct staff to come back with a
resolution with a different ballot language on the August 4th meeting okay thank you it's August 14th
okay yes thank you Mr. Cramer the one person who has signed up to speak with us this evening is
Katherine Shaw you will have three minutes at the podium the podium and the light display will
will turn to yellow when you have 20 seconds left it will go to red when your time is up and you'll hear
buzzers at both of those time points okay appreciate it I just a couple comments of clarification
the internship process is not necessarily democratic process is a phenomena that happened in the western
states of the United States it happened in the early 1900s only as far as I know only a couple states
east of the hundredth written actually allow the initiative process except with the exception of
Illinois which put it in place in 1970 just so you know also you can't make changes after the voters have
voted on it you need to make those changes now once the voters have voted on an initiative process it is
sanctioned it can't be changed in any way shape or form unless you know as people said it goes back
out to a vote so you want to be careful about what you put on the ballot because that's what voters
approve and you can't just like fudge with it after after that's been approved by the voters
so I'm deeply opposed to this in large part because let's say for example we have a flood this year it
happens and you suddenly need a lot of money to cover that flood until possibly fame a money comes through
if it ever does and you want to put this out to a vote well put it out to a vote it will it will cost you
quite a bit of money to put that on the ballot unless you put it in an even year election that would be a
midterm general primary or as presidential general or primary those elections are free everything
else you're going to pay a lot of money to put it on the ballot so that means if you have a flood this fall
you will wait two years before you can ask voters to increase some income for you to cover any flood damages
Birthquake, fire, whatever. It takes away your power. You are members, you are elected by us in a representative
form of government because we want you to make these decisions for us. Voters do not have the same
amount of time or dedication or commitment that you have by running for office to study the issue and decide
whether it should or should not happen. And by way of example, most of the voters are most of the people
who have commented on social media that they are in favor of this particular initiative are also
people who are surprised that we continue to buy Parkland even though they let charge to vote against Parkland being
used or excuse me food beverage tax money being used for park maintenance. They didn't know that
and they were strongly advocating that had long signs to everything. So when you say you want to have
it's so distracting you. Yeah, the time is up. Okay. I don't get you. You know, I was cut off before
last time I was here. Thank you. Okay. So we are back to the council discussion. Is there anything else
any further questions of staff? Okay. So the go ahead. You have a question? No. Councilor Hanson?
So what we need to do if they don't have if there are no additional questions then we move to the place of a motion.
So the floor is open for a motion? Councillor Bloom? Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I direct staff to
create a resolution to bring back to council at the August 4th meeting to put the petition on the ballot
with changes in language to allow for inflationary increases no more than the CPI West to exclude franchise fees
and to exclude any effect that it would have on outside fees imposed by outside jurisdictions.
Obviously, you're going to have to play with how that language looks and I'd trust you to do so.
And then I would also add that I'm open to additional suggestions to language.
Is there a second? Councillor Bloom? Yeah. I look again. I think it's the right thing to do. You know,
when this came to us last time, it was, it was, you know, 4 to 3. I think vote of whether we should
just go ahead and put it on the ballot and what I heard from those that were opposed to just put it on the ballot was,
you know, hey, like you need to do what we require of everybody else and you need to go out and you need to get signatures.
And I understand, you know, we can talk about, well, actually it was 1300 signatures and 15% fill it.
Maybe, unfortunately, we'll, we'll never know. To me, the point is twofold, really. It's, it's one,
at least a thousand people for applying, you know, that, that fill right on there. And I think that that's significant enough.
If a thousand people showed up in this room, I have a council meeting and asked us to do something,
we would probably do it. I mean, I've heard councilors say that before of like, well, these people are here asking.
So since they're putting in the effort, then we should listen to them. I don't think that this is any different one.
Two, this is about taking accountability and building confidence and faith in this council and in this city.
You know, we have had to make some really hard choices with regard to fees and cuts for that matter.
And I think that, you know, there's been a lot of this is a scenario on both sides that have
been frustrated by those decisions. And I think this is an opportunity for us to go on and say, you know what,
we're going to put this in front of you and we're going to let you decide and, and we're all going to kind of line up and
we're going to make our arguments to the people about whether the should pass or not. And to me, that is very democratic.
That is that is exactly, you know, what we all strive for. Why we're doing this is to have those conversations about policy.
And this is an opportunity to do that to put a foot from the center. And I look forward to going toe to toe with Mr.
Kramer on this and knocking on doors if I have to. So it's for that reason that that I hope that we move forward with this and absolutely, you know,
any suggested amendments or changes to the language, I would also be supportive of.
Councillor Kappa. Well, I don't know that a lot to add to Councillor Bloom's lengthy justification
with much of which I agree with. For me, as I said last November, I think it's the fiscally prudent
thing to do to allow fees to adjust for inflation. We don't take raise fees lightly in this body as
these that the fees that we raised last year was the first time in half a decade, more than half a decade.
I don't foresee that we're going to be doing that again, but purchasing power, you know, does decline
little by little and we find ourselves in a situation where you got to increase it in just in order to, you know,
keep up with where we were five years ago. So that takes away some of the concern that I had.
And I'm happy to have the conversation with our constituents and our electorate about the financial
stability of our city and when we need to raise revenues, what's the best way to do it. So that's why I seconded
this and I'll be supporting it. Councillor Juke. Well, after all of this time here we are,
looking at the time they effort first off, I appreciate every citizen, every resident that sign the
petition and found the circulators and signed it. I appreciate them and their time. And when you're out
there circulating, you get a chance to talk to our constituents and our community one on one and you hear exactly
what's on their mind, their concerns and what keeps them up at night. And one of them is the utilities.
I'm aware of inflation and I am aware of franchise fees. I'm curious to see what this will look like when it
comes back August the fourth because there's no percent that you put on this Councillor.
And on that day we will definitely be up against the wall. I don't really know how I feel right now.
I wanted to be on the ballot. I want to see the language and so I guess I'll make my decision then.
But I'm kind of disappointed that it's not moving forward as is what the people saw
and what they signed and what they want. Councillor Dale. Thank you, Mayor.
That's one I've done a lot of reflection about and I voted last November to not put this on or not
have Council support this because I don't believe in the language. I think there's a lot more to it
and we asked the petitioner to go out and get the signatures and to actually show that that was something
that was important to this community and I agree that there's hypotheticals around the numbers but
there's a good faith effort out there and I think that while we've covered the fact that it is
extremely important to read the fine print and I say that for people that and this is not a slight
by any means but literally these documents are very difficult and those that are running for office or anything else you
let this be a lesson that's very important to read those. That being said given the effort that was
but into it I think we afford at least an equal amount of grace and the other thing that I would say is that
we need to be very cognizant at least I am of separating process from merit and this is going to
allow the opportunity for this community to really understand what it takes to raise things and
the and as we talk a lot about here the law of unintended consequences this process is not unique to just
Oregon but it's a part of the history of Oregon to be able to do malign initiatives and I think that if we were to
to go against what I think was a reasonable showing of people that be careful what we wish for because we might
just get it so I will be supporting this. Councillor Hansen. Yeah thank you and you know again I
support the democratic process and when I voted no on this originally it was you know go forth
gather your signatures and you know go for it I find it distressing the you know to come back to council
and and ask to have it put back on the ballot my vote will be to you know as the suggested motion and the
packet is to allow the Demic process to continue but as a business owner I have to manage my my business
I have to stay in the black I have 20 employees as a counselor 60% of the Ashlander voters voted for me
and I carry responsibility for 21,000 people to take care of them and make sure that this city is in the black and with all
do respect some of my counselors won't vote for modest rate increases that covers 7% that that are necessary to keep us in the black
I do not trust that if we have ballot initiatives that there will be clear communication
information deep dives and the things that are necessary to keep our city functioning properly
I know that we have a lot of challenges coming up and I want the people that I vote for in this
seat to have all the information to make the best decisions that they can and to keep our
government strong and
in the amount in the invent of emergencies and disasters and all the things that we encounter we need this body
to be able to rally and come together and pivot and do their jobs and I do not believe that I will be voting for this
if it were to come to ballot I wish I wish the Democratic process the best of luck and
you know I hope that I will not be supporting this motion and I will look forward to another motion if it fails
cancels show thanks mayor I supported this the first time I'll support it this time I think that the
the small changes are in line with what's reasonable and other policies that we've set as a council
and I think there's a lot of really educated people here in this town and I think they deserve a vote and I also
think that if it passes they deserve the responsibility for the repercussions that we get sometimes
when we when we pay for things or we don't pay for things yeah Sabrina just curious that there's any
interest in putting something in the resolution to speak to emergencies like that was about our this evening
I'll speak to that. I believe that that's why we have a reserve fund that we need to continue to fund
but you know to address the point that was made is that when you have a flood you're supposed to have a
healthy reserve fund and we're obviously we're talking about that and that's what that's for and there's
other mechanisms so yeah I just don't think that there's a need to exclude for emergencies there's already
process for that is there any further discussion roll call please Alyssa do you
can
Hanson
no
Sherrell
yes
Dale
Yes
Bloom
Yes
Kaplan
Yes
Motion pass
Okay thank you
we will move our
property surplus discussion to the next meeting we got three minutes
No I don't know
I'll just say here
Mayor I move I move to spend the rules of in terms of time limits for council meetings so that we can finish the
agenda item so
Do you want two things one you can just make the motion to surplus the property units for 88 reasons and then we can just do this
I mean it's yes that's the motion that we need I'm happy to do that so do you withdraw your
I would drop my previous motion and I'd like to make another motion I moved to surplus 1808 square feet of risko school property as outlined
But the Oregon Department of Transportation and the acquisition summary statement dated April 28th
2026
Yes
I could just I could just go go okay Oda wants to put in a ramp we own the property they want to pay us for it
They're to all the work let's give it to us yeah
Are there any questions and stuff
We all have the agenda the pack of materials so okay
Captain
So did you want to speak to your motion no cap the council captain any further discussion
Roll call please Alyssa
Dale yes
Bloom yeah
Kaplan yes
Decane yes
Hanson yes
Sherrell yes motion pass
Thank you
We are at nine twenty nine we have consistently missed
Having city manager reports and so until we make any adjustments in the public hearing time
I would like to move that up in the agenda
To where it comes in right behind ordinances
Because that way we can make sure that we get that element in
It's a critical piece and we keep missing it
So with that
The floor is open for a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second. All in favor?
Meaning is adjourned.