[0:01] sharing over somewhere.

[0:16] » All right. Well, welcome everybody to the uh

[0:20] » tonight's town hall. This is of course two. Everyone in the correct room?

[0:25] No one's looking for some sort of extension class or

[0:29] » All right, we're in the right spot. Uh, this is Oper. I'm here Michael Zerinski.

[0:34] It's good to see you guys all here and thanks for coming out.

[0:38] » A little bit about how this program is going to work. We're going to do a brief

[0:41] introduction. Going to get an opportunity to talk about things that

[0:45] are near their heart. Uh, we'll do a little bit of a kickoff

[0:52] by some of our

[0:56] schedule.

[1:00] » Yes, we'll have a slight presentation of our panelists here and then we're going

[1:04] to open it up. What what does make this work appreciate

[1:08] everyone who has a question out here. Uh however, we don't get to everybody.

[1:17] We will be sticking around.

[1:23] We are going to try to go as order with the questions that we have. Often times

[1:27] that'll maybe get you thinking about something. Maybe you're going to hear

[1:30] something you don't like as answered and you're going to feel kind of the need to

[1:34] explain that back to us immediately.

[1:38] Hold that thumb. Uh we can catch it afterwards. What we want to be able to

[1:42] do is have everybody get an opportunity their questions.

[1:47] Again, it may spur some thought to mind, but at the end of the day, we

[1:54] I'm just looking out at this fruit.

[1:58] Give yourselves a round.

[2:04] All right. So, let's go down the line here and everyone can introduce

[2:08] themselves and why they're up here on

[2:15] good evening. My name is Eric Thompson and I'm your bar chief. U I've uh it's a

[2:20] pleasure to be here tonight to share kind of what the fire department has. Uh

[2:24] I've been in the service for 31 years. I've been your chief for six and a half.

[2:28] U really happy to say that the fire department is fully staffed going into

[2:33] fire season. As you know that we started fire season 11 week

[2:39] to go working with our neighbors in collaboration. So we're all on the same

[2:43] page. Very important. Also, you'll notice fire station 15

[2:48] that's on Robert Road. That project is well underway and we're ahead of

[2:53] schedule and the budget actually on that project. So, that's another clapping

[2:58] for us and also we're fully staffed in our EMS

[3:02] squad EMS squads. We had three EMS squads and that's been one of the

[3:07] highlights of what we've done over the past years innovative solution to our

[3:11] EMS. So, it's a pleasure uh to be here tonight uh to answer any questions and

[3:19] community and I just want to say thank you very much uh for being here shows

[3:23] that you really truly care. Thank you.

[3:33] » Evening everybody. I'm Rich Rosenthal. I'm your parks and recreation director.

[3:37] I'm in my 19th year with the city and uh uh Monday you have information about

[3:44] some parts in the uh brochure here. I just want to invite you all on Memorial

[3:49] Day on this coming Monday at 1:30 is the grand opening of the Vietnam Veterans

[3:53] Memorial Wall at Howard Sports Park. That is a project that has been 12 to 15

[3:59] years. That's a notable event. Also, if you

[4:02] play pickle ball, >> you're know anyone who plays pickle

[4:08] ball? >> Right. There are 19 football courts

[4:13] opening on June 5th on Friday, June 5th at Howard Memorial Park as well and sand

[4:20] volleyball courts sometime in June. That's what's going on in our world this

[4:23] month. Dan Worth every

[4:28] uh I'm Dan Worth, public works director. I handle uh streets, uh sewers, uh water

[4:36] treatment, and storm drains. Uh and just a brief couple of words about uh streets

[4:43] because that's what you see all the time and are most familiar with, I'm sure. Uh

[4:48] and uh the fire chief talked about being fully staffed going into the fire

[4:52] season. We're fully staffed going into street maintenance, repair, and

[4:55] barricade season. So, a couple of things that we're doing. Uh finishing up a big

[5:02] project, Foothill. Uh it's been under construction for two years. We're going

[5:06] to call it a a day uh sometime in the middle of the summer. Actually going to

[5:10] have a a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate. But that's been a great

[5:14] project. Uh and I'm I'm glad that I hear But but good things from the community

[5:19] about it. It's a great asset for us. Uh we're also doing some uh surface street

[5:26] repair and maintenance kind of work. We do slurry seals which is a thin layer of

[5:31] asphalt. Uh we actually started doing that in the in the southern part of the

[5:36] city. I just drove down Hamilton Street. Uh just put the asphalt down on that,

[5:40] the slurry down on that this week. Um, you can tell which streets are on this

[5:47] year's plan. Uh, if if it's black from side to side, we've already done it.

[5:53] That's Hamilton. Uh, that's Cay Vista. Uh, if uh it looks like it normally

[6:00] does, but all the arrows are missing and all the bike markings are missing, that

[6:04] means we're going to do it. Uh, that's a lot of uh Jackson and Hillrest and a

[6:10] couple of others. Uh and if it just looks like normal, then we're going to

[6:13] get to it in the next couple of years. But but we're doing a lot of that. Uh

[6:17] and we're doing one project that's going to be uh a little bit more um intrusive,

[6:23] removing some asphalt, rebuilding it. That's going to be mostly on

[6:28] McAnnandrews and Hillrest or Mandrews crosses foothills up the hill. Uh that's

[6:33] going to be a little bit later in summer, July time. So, uh any questions?

[6:37] I'll be here. Uh love to talk about any of that. to talk about waste water,

[6:42] believe it or not. But uh thank you very much.

[6:47] » No, actually

[6:51] wait. Sorry, I cut off the applause. Please stand.

[6:58] » Hi, good evening everybody. My name is John Vile. I am serving as the interim

[7:01] city manager for the city at this time. I worked for the city about five years.

[7:06] I worked as the public works director previously. I retired and then I was

[7:10] asked to come back and serve as an inter role for city manager while we're

[7:13] recruiting for the new. So I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve you and to

[7:17] serve the city in that capacity. I want to just touch on one thing real quick.

[7:21] Um we're going to hear from the city

[7:24] councilors in a second. Um and right now staff's introducing themselves. What is

[7:29] the difference in the role between staff directors that are here and the city

[7:33] counselors that you're going to hear from in a minute? What's the difference

[7:36] and what do we do differently than each other?

[7:39] This is the part where you can talk back.

[7:44] » That's what they said last time, too. Yeah. That we get paid and they don't.

[7:47] That's a good clarification. Anything else?

[7:50] » Do the work. Do the work. So, they work hard though. Believe me, they have a lot

[7:55] of meetings. They are very involved in the work and they do the work. But the

[7:58] bottom line is council sets policy. They establish council goals. They approve

[8:03] our work plans. They approve the budget. Council sets the policy and then staff

[8:08] implements the policy. So the work that we're doing and the work that I'm

[8:12] responsible for is to make sure that we're doing what council asks us to do

[8:16] and we're delivering the roles the results that they want us to do. So

[8:19] that's our big focus is carrying out the mission of the city as established by

[8:24] the policy makers um from that's on the city council. And so it's a fun role

[8:32] that we play and we're grateful for the leadership that we have in our mayor and

[8:35] our council. With that, I'm gonna hand it to Eric Mitten, our city attorney.

[8:43] Hey >> everybody. Um I'm Eric Mitten. I'm the

[8:45] city attorney. What that means is I'm general counsel for the city. I do legal

[8:50] work for the city. everything from land use to representing the city in

[8:54] litigation, giving advice to our elected officials and staff. And our office also

[9:02] uh prosecutes criminal cases in municipal shoplifts, um livability

[9:06] crimes in our city parks, those sorts of things. Um and that's I've been with

[9:10] city for about 10 years now and it's been a great organization to be part of.

[9:19] » Justin, I like I think of your interim police chief because I did retire in

[9:24] January and contracted back for six months. Our new chief has been selected.

[9:30] That's deputy chief Trevor Arnold who will be taking over on June 3rd. Um but

[9:35] with that said, I have worked for the city of Meford for past 31 years. So

[9:39] I've been here a minute. In fact, this when I first started used to be a

[9:43] parking lot that used to be a parking lot with our gas pumps that used to be a

[9:47] post office. So a lot of changes as you can imagine.

[9:50] What I just want to touch on uh just real quick is I get the privilege of uh

[9:55] leading 180 plus employees that do amazing work day in and day out. It is

[10:01] an extremely tough job. As you can imagine, we deal with a we'll say

[10:05] challenging population and um our men and women do the best. Um, I've had the

[10:12] opportunity to go throughout the state of Oregon, all over the West Coast, and

[10:16] visit other police departments, and I will honestly say we are the best

[10:19] trained, have some of the most professional people in our organization.

[10:24] Um, when we first started these town halls, I've been part of every single

[10:27] one of them. Um, homelessness was the number one issue. And in 2023,

[10:33] we had um some problems with homelessness. Uh we had over 100 plus

[10:38] identified camps, encampments inside the city limits. I can tell you that number

[10:43] as of this March was 13. We continue to teach her in Oakuckland.

[10:50] » Thank you. It's not me. It's the It's the men and women out there doing it. Um

[10:55] and we're lucky enough we have our outreach coordinator Vicky Armstrong in

[10:59] the back. She probably has one of the most difficult jobs at the police

[11:02] department. But what Vicki does every day is she goes over to the jail, makes

[11:06] contact with these individuals both there and here and provides outreach

[11:10] options and tries to get these folks in a better position than they currently

[11:14] are. And she does an amazing job. And so I don't not just hook and book and and

[11:20] and lock them up. We honestly try as a department to better these people's

[11:26] situation because the less we deal with them, more efficient we are, more money

[11:30] ahead. But I just want to say thank you. The public support that I have seen from

[11:34] this city for the past 31 years has just been absolutely amazing and it's been a

[11:40] privilege to be your chief

[11:50] introduce themselves, maybe give a little idea why they ran, what the

[11:54] priorities are, kind of give you a little insight.

[12:01] with John Quinn. I'm John [clears throat] Quinn. W two,

[12:06] which is west of the freeway, south of Maine, and downtown south of four. Um,

[12:13] I've been living in for 25 years, been a attorney for 33. The last 25 I've been

[12:20] as a district attorney, now the assistant district attorney for

[12:25] the

[12:28] So, Uh before this I was on the planning commission so I got to learn land use in

[12:33] addition to criminal public safety also the president of the ro valley

[12:39] council director vice chair of valley service

[12:45] and I've been doing this 24 and it's my honor to be here with all of you and

[12:51] thought that I'll leave you with the enemy of freedom is

[13:14] We're two with John Quinn. Like you said, southwest corner of Medford. Uh

[13:18] this is my fourth year on the city council. uh raising three children here

[13:23] and uh just wanted to leave Medford in a better place than I found it. Uh I felt

[13:28] like this organization was a powerhouse and even now everybody that's on it I'm

[13:33] going to leave it even better than I found it. So uh my main focus along with

[13:37] the rest of these guys has been downtown just making it better

[13:42] downtown revitalization.

[13:49] Hi everyone. Uh my name is Nick Card. I am Ward Four. That is southeast Medford.

[13:55] I am I've been on city council going on three and a half years now. I am a fifth

[14:00] generation Oregonian. Was born and raised in this area. My family has deep

[14:04] ties to Edford, southern Oregon. And one of the things that really drove me to

[14:12] to run for city council that drives the service that I do here is that we are

[14:17] not building a future for ourselves. We're not building a future for

[14:21] tomorrow. We're building a future for the next generation. We're building a

[14:24] future for our grandchildren. And it is so easy to get caught up in the daytoday

[14:31] particular issues that we have. We also have to think long term. How do we think

[14:36] bigger and what comes next? Some of the things that like I've been really proud

[14:40] of the work that we've done with the chief on homelessness and that has been

[14:43] an important issue for us. But when we talk about things like Foothill Road,

[14:47] this is a piece of infrastructure that's going to last well past my lifetime. And

[14:52] when you think about what it takes to make a successful community, how do we

[14:56] have the tools in place to support housing for our children for the next

[15:00] generation to be able to live and raise their parents? How do we make sure that

[15:04] they have parks and amenities that they need in order to take their kids outside

[15:09] and spread a blanket and have dinner under the stars? Like these are the

[15:13] things that define a growing city. You talk to people who live in communities

[15:18] that they're very proud of. It's not the There's not like one secret sauce. It's

[15:23] all of these things coming together that make for a great. So, I'm always on the

[15:28] hunt for what's that next thing? How do we make sure we take that and take it

[15:32] far into the future so our community is strong stronger as we keep going? As

[15:36] Zach said, how do we leave it better than we found? And so hopefully uh

[15:41] that's what I have proven that I can do on council. Hopefully that's something

[15:44] that continue to do. I thank staff for actually doing the work and making us

[15:49] look good on council. So, thanks John. Um, but it's a pleasure to be your city

[15:55] councelor. Thank you so much for coming out to chat with us.

[16:04] » Everybody, I'm Kevin King. I'm W four as well. I am kind of the freshman class

[16:09] elected two years ago. Uh, I'm a local teacher. I teach civics, history,

[16:13] business at St. Um, one of the four kids here, been here

[16:17] about 25 years as well as John. Never a good thing to speak after.

[16:24] I'll do my best. Um, I I guess I was really interested in I mean, I've been

[16:29] on a lot of missions already. I was on RBT. I'm currently also at the library

[16:32] board. Um, I've been a parks and things. I've been involved in city business all

[16:38] on a volunteer basis of course. And what was interesting important to me is

[16:44] making sure that we uh maintain fiscal responsibility. We're doing a great job

[16:47] in there. Uh keep safety as high as a priority as we can and police chief

[16:54] mentioned they're doing a great job. Then uh lastly, you know, beautify,

[16:59] bring people downtown, but also bring people to Medford, businesses Medford,

[17:03] make it so our kids come back and live here housing prices as low as we can. uh

[17:09] to the extent that we can do anything about that. Um but yeah, really looking

[17:14] forward to having you guys ask some questions and I applaud you all for

[17:19] taking time out down here for your

[17:30] start going through the file here and

[17:35] we have a program. We have a program. You guys all talk about what you want to

[17:39] talk about, didn't you? Okay. Introduce yourself. I did. I'm the mayor.

[17:47] » Hey, I'll tell you guys a quick story. I've been going downtown with trying to

[17:52] engage with local businesses down there. What has turned into so they want to do

[17:59] like social media. I'll be honest, if the internet was relying upon me

[18:06] content the social media industry would so I do not do but whatever I'll kick in

[18:13] I'll go to do the little video and I man on the

[18:18] street I'm not talking and this is what this has turned into now is some sort of

[18:22] bizarre uh where's where we just ask at the end

[18:28] do you know who the mayor is because that's what I asked them and nobody has

[18:34] just show hands Anybody know I was the mayor prior to?

[18:43] » So at any rate, it's uh yeah, I I don't not really a giant personal not big

[18:53] honest you just met these four counselors who met this. This is a

[18:57] talented group of people. My job is all the same.

[19:04] Okay, that being said, grab questions best we can.

[19:10] We want council to engage with you. However, it comes down to something

[19:15] specific as we talked about operations versus state policy. We have our phone.

[19:23] They'll come. Got KJ there. If you got if you got a question that haven't

[19:27] picked up, just raise your hand. Okay. What will you do about wild

[19:38] You know what? Let's feed them. >> Yeah, let's feed them. This has been

[19:41] around for a while, by the way. I was taking calls. I I will give you a little

[19:45] brief history. I was on council first, the 2014 elections, the 2015.

[19:55] Uh, this has been around a while. I personally have talked to about this and

[20:01] I don't think we went Now they're still around. I will tell

[20:05] you this, it's not just east. However, anybody here talk

[20:16] you know anything about turkey everywhere.

[20:20] Now here's what we're going to do on this one. Very unsatisfying answer. It's

[20:23] been a problem for a while. We've done nothing about it. And uh

[20:28] here's the deal. No, we have I know that we have been in touch with fish and

[20:32] wildlife. However, it is starting to get more prevalent.

[20:37] It's probably about time.

[20:44] » Let's see. >> The city just spent money on updating.

[20:50] Does the city have the interest and resources in speed?

[20:57] There's and there's also a little bit more information kind of their reasons

[21:02] for supporting speed humps anyone

[21:08] I'll tell you this right now speed humps have a couple of problems but yes do

[21:12] they slow down traffic they do apparently there are some public works

[21:16] issues

[21:24] I'm not sure and there's a guy There's a guy sitting to the right here

[21:29] may know more about this than than I do, but I do not believe we have any speed

[21:33] humps on city public streets in the city of Medford. And I think that was a

[21:39] conscious policy decision several years ago uh to to not use what we call

[21:46] vertical

[21:49] traffic. There are other things that we can do physically to try to slow traffic

[21:54] down. And we've got a process that we go through and and our friends in the

[21:59] police department help with. We've got a process that we go through.

[22:04] Feel there's excessive speeding on a particular street. We'll look at it.

[22:08] We'll gather data. We'll do some speed enforcement, some focused speed

[22:13] enforcement part, and we'll take a look at options. But speed humps for number

[22:20] reasons. I'll give you one. Got a bunch of new snow blows and if it

[22:27] ever snows they hit the street those they tear them up and it also

[22:33] makes it difficult to do the repaving that I started talking about a little

[22:36] bit earlier. So for for several reasons we try to shy away from that but we will

[22:42] study the situation on particular streets and there are some other things

[22:45] that we can do.

[22:56] So going forward Dan is the point person on this but just a little bit of

[22:59] history. Our city has a long-term policy of not doing ste speed bumps. And

[23:04] there's two primary reasons for it. Actually, there's multiple reasons for

[23:07] it, but one of the biggest ones is these cities that put them in, put them in,

[23:12] and they almost immediately take them out. And the reason why, if you're a

[23:15] neighbor who lives next to a speed bump, you are going to hate it because what

[23:18] happens is it slows traffic down. Every car that goes over it, you hear a clunk

[23:23] clunk and they're very, very loud and the neighbors hate them. And it's a

[23:28] really common thing people put them in and then they immediately take them back

[23:31] out because the neighborhood and the people that live right next to them hate

[23:34] them. They say, "Yeah, we like them, but put it in front of their house and not

[23:37] in front of my house." And so we've had a long-term policy of not doing

[23:42] » oftentimes there is a public uh safety response issue.

[23:49] » Well, as you can imagine, speed's probably the number one complaint in the

[23:52] city of Medford. And so, as uh was touched on by Mr. worth. We'll come out,

[23:57] we'll do a speed study. And as you guys know, everyone's favorite of those 187

[24:02] employees, I get the photo enforcement officers as well. Everybody loves those

[24:06] that group. But what we'll end up doing is if the if we have a numerous

[24:11] violations in a specific area, um if we can put the van out there, uh we will.

[24:18] Um there's certain criteria though for the van to be able to be placed in

[24:21] certain locations and if not, we'll send the motors up there. What we typically

[24:26] see is that the folks that are complaining about the speeding vehicles,

[24:29] they then turn around and complain about getting the ticket. So, um it's kind of

[24:34] one of those no-win situations, but that's typically what happens is the

[24:37] people that complain are usually the ones that end up getting the photo

[24:39] enforcement ticket. So,

[24:46] all right. And it over you.

[24:52] um

[24:55] feels rather specific at the Habitat for Humanity store.

[25:03] Somebody took away entrance and exit. Now there is only one

[25:12] cars are lined up waiting to turn in the parking lot.

[25:19] I want to say that this isn't fac

[25:31] jurisdiction. Um, ODOT's an interesting agency. They um

[25:37] the fewer people they can allow to enter to get onto the road, the better. I

[25:41] think is what they call that access. Um but at any rate

[25:47] that that that particular part would be ODOT would be associated somehow with

[25:52] the 99 highway plan and so it's not impossible but

[26:02] follow okay you put in a we got a lot of good

[26:06] transportation ADA

[26:11] um okay there's an ADA crosswalk at

[26:17] what type of traffic.

[26:29] I know where that's at, but I'm not familiar with

[26:38] at that particular location that is on our list for an overlay of this summer

[26:46] sometime July or August going to be milling out the top layer of asphalt

[26:52] caving 2 inch layer brand new asphalt you're going to have basically a brand

[26:57] new street fresher Brookdale portions of the area uh and prior to doing that by

[27:06] law comply with the Americans with Disability Act we have to upgrade any

[27:12] crossings that uh don't meet EPA standards. And that's what's going on

[27:18] out there now. Got a contract that's going out and when some of those streets

[27:23] were originally built, they were built with ramps. Uh if there's a ramp that's

[27:27] a crossing, and if the ramp doesn't meet the very precise standards, it has to do

[27:33] with slopes. It has to do with flat areas for uh somebody that's in a

[27:38] wheelchair to be able to come to a stop. uh if it doesn't meet those very strict

[27:43] technical specifications, we have to rebuild it. So, what's going on up there

[27:48] is not any we're not going to be putting in any stabilized crossings or anything.

[27:53] Just upgrading the existing ramps

[27:57] with the standard.

[28:04] So also on that there

[28:12] point it's interesting you want to qualify for certain federal funds.

[28:24] Uh couple of fireworks questions here. I manage a mobile home park along the

[28:30] greenway and people shoot off huge illegal fireworks.

[28:34] What we done? That it right there. That's a pretty good visual aid. Well,

[28:42] » um that's what our Fourth of July. >> Um a couple thoughts. I will tell you

[28:49] this is I cannot if I actually sat down and thought about how many times we have

[28:54] the rules almost

[29:00] And I want to say that we're going to get back to

[29:05] one point in time. We actually

[29:11] does anyone else recall that specifically

[29:16] what's clearly there's a lot of response that happens from the fire department

[29:23] in

[29:27] actually uh it's a very busy night for both fire and police and EMS. It's just

[29:31] a busy night like many things going on that night. Um I know that there is a

[29:37] lot of concern frustrations about the fireworks. Um I will tell you this that

[29:43] just globally what happens on the 4th of July is we staff up a lot and we almost

[29:49] I wouldn't say we have double the resources but every unit that we have in

[29:54] the organization is fully staffed. are fully staffed. So, we're very confident

[29:59] uh in our ability to respond to fires. Um July is typically it's a six day

[30:07] state law. Fireworks can be displayed for six days

[30:15] and that's before the fourth and after the six days throughout the year.

[30:22] We have regulations in our community that that

[30:27] the aerial borders. We do have all everything is on everything is on the

[30:32] website as far as what's legal and what is not legal. Uh it's challenging

[30:40] enforcement piece is challenging everywhere you look the sky as your

[30:44] picture illustrates. It's very hard to enforce.

[30:50] We've considered bans multiple times but the The challenge

[30:55] with the band is that there's going to be a lot of disappointment, frustrations

[31:01] also because of of our ability to enforce. So what we tried to do is

[31:09] educate folks on how to be safe, educate folks what is legal versus

[31:14] eastern foothills or in the foothills there is 100% the signs up

[31:21] and every year you'll have the reader board.

[31:27] on Hillrest or on Foothill not supposed to be any kind of fireworks that highard

[31:34] wildfire area

[31:38] as far as the ground level and the valley floor they can do some of those

[31:44] type.

[31:47] So I don't know Chief I if you have anything

[31:52] and the other thing is the There is fines. So, it's $2,500 for the fine. Uh,

[31:58] often times what happens, our friends in blue,

[32:02] police department, they're the ones that actually

[32:06] go to respond with the enforcement of it. And what happens when they pull up

[32:11] in the culdeac? Everybody scatters. Everybody runs. Nobody really wants to

[32:16] say, "Okay, I did it." So, it's really hard to identify who

[32:22] actually shot the firework. And if you don't physically see them do it, it's

[32:27] hard to have it's hard to have the ticket really hold

[32:31] up in court. So,

[32:35] it's we understand the frustration, but in this particular situation, there

[32:42] are 174 homes there. Would it be possible to put a fire

[32:48] department car, police department car in that culde-sac,

[32:54] just sit there. Doesn't even have to be anybody in it because people last year

[32:59] the fire department drove by, saw them, said they couldn't do anything because

[33:03] they didn't see them shooting off and when they left back up in the air.

[33:09] It's hard just to leave a resource there because we actually had our resources to

[33:13] respond and that's what's happening on the fourth and the day

[33:19] two and the day after is the sun go

[33:26] to call to call sometimes prioritize those calls. Our goal is to keep the

[33:31] fire small so it doesn't spread.

[33:39] Yeah, I mean I think that's an interesting idea and clearly dummy cars

[33:42] have been around that one of the one of the things that I

[33:48] was involved we were doing

[33:53] kind of the simplest way to say it is

[33:58] regardless going down 137

[34:05] homelessness still r very very

[34:12] We spent some time looking at these really

[34:18] one of the part of that part of that process we sort of found there's you

[34:22] know sort of look at some practices that whether it be dummy vehicles one what

[34:28] one place did took an out of service vehicle out of service cruiser uh but

[34:35] actually mounted U cameras on that. Now there's going to be some people who

[34:43] are going to tell us, hey, do not we don't want cameras, right? There's just

[34:48] different ideas that maybe

[34:53] I think we as a

[34:58] so

[35:01] one of the things that I've looked at this because this is something that I've

[35:04] heard from a lot of people about a lot of concern about fire and I really

[35:08] understand that I I enjoyed as a kid playing with fireworks but there is you

[35:14] know a lot drier it's a lot hotter especially years like this year

[35:19] and so but as mayor said we looked at we banned these before and it works this

[35:24] isn't like calls for service in the sense of people paddling this was calls

[35:27] for services us having to respond to spot fires and actual problems more

[35:32] fireworks being used more recklessly even though we them not. And

[35:36] unfortunately, this is something other communities have seen as they've done

[35:40] it. And so, one of the things that I would love for us to figure out how to

[35:45] do as a community, as a as a culture for our community, let's make New Year's our

[35:51] fireworks season because it's a lot safer for us. And it's New Year's and

[35:55] other people do this, other other communities that have extreme fire risk,

[35:59] you know, and that's a change for us. But, but, you know, if everybody in here

[36:04] makes a commitment that Hey, we're going to do fireworks on New Year's and not

[36:06] Fourth of July. And I know that's sad to not have it around Fourth of July. The

[36:10] county has caught their own fairgrounds on fire. These are the professionals

[36:14] doing this. This is a dangerous thing. And so if if we do this, if we commit to

[36:18] this, if we can get our friends this, maybe there is a possibility that we can

[36:21] change this. So it's not about Medford saying no fireworks. It's about Medford

[36:25] saying, "Let's do it when it's safer, when it's right, and celebrate in a

[36:29] different way." These are just thoughts. I don't know how to force anybody to do

[36:33] anything I want because like I said, We tried that. It backfired spectacularly.

[36:37] So, uh, you know, what whatever that might look like, but I just think we've

[36:41] gota, this isn't something that the city of Medford fix as a government. This is

[36:46] something that we as people have to try to come up with solutions.

[36:52] City just isn't the right.

[36:59] Maybe we can't. There's one thing we can explore.

[37:05] cost money less money.

[37:09] One thing we could consider having a city

[37:16] have everybody would be rolling up the streets

[37:19] watch

[37:31] himself watching

[37:37] Well, I guess the question is we want to spend city money if it works.

[37:43] » We'll take it out of the we pay the mayor

[37:48] or we keep it people who are in St. George.

[38:05] Are there more danger? >> At my house,

[38:09] » St. George pretty much [laughter]

[38:13] » I'm gonna bring up where they were shooting them off and it was actually a

[38:19] gentleman from the fire department that was at the park. They were so huge. He

[38:25] came over to see what was going on. He came into the and I started to talk to

[38:30] him. All of a sudden, somebody this huge one. They were as big as at the park and

[38:36] he just went flying out there to try to stop them. At the end of the night, all

[38:40] that burning debris is all they leave it all sitting there. I was out till 11:30.

[38:46] If the wind came up, and we know there's a lot of wind. This is the dead area

[38:51] right where they were where they were setting them off. If the wind came up,

[38:55] that would have been the green all the way down.

[38:59] Well, that's our frustration.

[39:03] I'm not going to make excuses. I've given you an idea

[39:10] » county expedition

[39:19] worth looking at. >> No, all I'm just saying is, you know,

[39:23] they do it at the expo, but I read a few months ago

[39:28] last year because They've just re-examined it to so I mean

[39:35] we have had that at the fairgrounds

[39:43] like it might

[39:50] enforcement

[39:55] level

[39:59] I would like One more >> here. Here's what I'm gonna throw out.

[40:02] What we are doing, number one, we have an important issue

[40:07] down there, but I really want you to

[40:14] make sure that what we've got going on there, what you're bringing up highly

[40:18] specific sounds. Make sure

[40:25] far as the

[40:29] Thank you. Um, we are now kicking around the idea. So, what Medford is going?

[40:37] What is Medford gonna do this?

[40:42] » Hello everyone. So, uh, the city is out of the fireworks,

[40:48] but what we will be getting into starting in 2027,

[40:52] either downtown or at the sport park is a drone show July 4th. So,

[41:01] modern fireworks. It's safer and hopefully they don't collide, crash, and

[41:06] then start a grass fire. >> How about this year?

[41:09] » This year, um because drone shows are expensive and there are only so many

[41:14] companies in the country that do them. Uh and they were all booked up for this

[41:19] and plus the countyy's doing its thing for the last time as mentioned. So, we

[41:24] have uh we have a contract for 2027 for this July 4th. We have house

[41:30] from 1 to 3 at the Rogue X we'll have a barbecue free hot dogs

[41:38] will be open activities in the event center and we'll have a band and we will

[41:43] have a good time 1 to 3 on July 4th and July 4th 2027 drone show

[41:55] » and then actually speaking of this There was one counselor very adamant

[42:01] that show up

[42:05] » for this year. >> Uh yeah. So this is the 250th

[42:09] anniversary of the uh the same >> July 4th, 1776.

[42:15] » Uh it used to be the vice. Um, so we Kevin Stein actually and I were very

[42:21] interested in this and it's disappointing that there really hasn't

[42:25] been as much publicity as I remember for the bsentennial 50 years ago. Um,

[42:31] but uh so yeah, we proposed doing that and uh the council was very responsive

[42:37] and I'm really glad they did. So we're going to have a big party down and you

[42:42] said the pool will be free. It's going to be a good time and we will have done

[42:45] our red, white, and blue bunting that kind

[42:48] of >> bunting.

[42:51] » Bunting. It's like we're not doing bunting, but we have some cool premiums.

[42:56] We'll talk later. [laughter]

[43:00] » All right. Excellent. So, one kind of a little bit more philosophical question

[43:04] that came in. This will be interesting. How can we change the Medford city

[43:09] charter to most fiscal responsibility expenditures?

[43:16] But changing the city charter very straightforward.

[43:22] So changing the city charter um the city charter is like the constitution of the

[43:27] United States. It's a founding document. It can only be changed through a vote of

[43:33] the populace. Um and it's something that is not done frequently because it is an

[43:38] under underlying founding dogma. Um just to address the issue about

[43:44] individual expenditures, if the charter were to be changed so that individual

[43:49] expenditures go out to the populace, what that would mean is that individual

[43:53] expenditures at most could be decided once or twice a year, which

[43:57] operationally for the city is a very challenging thing. That's one of the

[44:01] ideas behind representative government is these counselors meet um two to four

[44:08] times per month to be able to make decisions um representing the views of

[44:14] their constituents. If we try to make all sorts of decisions, fire department

[44:18] needs a new fire apparat. If we need to wait um six months making those

[44:24] decisions, it makes it hard to run a city of 95,000 people. But if there is a

[44:28] change to the charter, it has to be that change is on the ballot. Whether it's a

[44:33] small change to the charter like changing the rate transient lodging tax

[44:37] or a fundamental change to the charter, all of that is an electoral process.

[44:44] [clears throat]

[44:46] » I think a little bit more specific is any you can do is you can go out

[44:52] with

[44:56] number

[45:03] that

[45:08] I think the bigger question is what kind of thought process goes on

[45:16] and and again not I don't really know that anyone here is actually that

[45:22] concern whether or not our replacement

[45:27] by the way.

[45:33] Those are big ticket items. However, those just have a standard.

[45:40] But if you're counselor thinking about an idea that feels more discretionary,

[45:45] maybe that's how that

[45:54] you prepared

[45:57] Um so someone will come up with an idea

[46:01] about money situation. We would refer that probably to uh finance department

[46:05] get the numbers right. Um bouncing around of course in study session

[46:10] usually or oneon one with counselors

[46:15] would make sense something

[46:20] in

[46:23] that vote. John's group

[46:34] the way about it a lot. You uh you get opposing

[46:41] you talk to constituents of course and try to figure out if it's the right

[46:45] thing for the city. We are in doing that two or three different

[46:52] we get from people in the city better.

[46:59] One of the things too about spending money is we go through a really rigorous

[47:03] budget process as the city. So we have a separate budgeting committee that meets.

[47:08] We go through separate budget committee meetings that are open to public that we

[47:13] encourage public comment. In fact, I'm just trying to think I don't know since

[47:16] I've been on council I've received a single public comment about the budget

[47:20] process. Uh and so but so we go through this entire budgeting process and then

[47:26] that budget sets most of those expenditures as the mayor said, you

[47:31] know, we buy a new fire truck. That's an expensive item. We're working on a $300

[47:35] million wastewater treatment. There's a lot of expensive items that go into

[47:39] those things, but those are all part of the budgeted items for those pieces of

[47:45] when you actually look at like what in or like what funds council actually can

[47:50] spend in a discretionary way. That's not a lot of money. Uh we spend uh maybe I

[47:58] don't know a couple million dollars total in all of our grant programs. We

[48:03] have funds that are able to use wearing our different hat as part of the Medford

[48:08] urban school board. Uh and so ultimately the the big action that we do as council

[48:14] is less about fiscal policy and more about setting the forward-looking policy

[48:20] through our strategic plans and then as those plans sort of come through

[48:24] ensuring that we are meeting a balanced budget to achieve the goals of those

[48:29] plans. Of course it's easy to dream really big and put a lot of stuff in our

[48:33] strategic plans and we just don't have the money to do it. We are stat

[48:36] statutoily required to have a balanced budget. We cannot uh you know cannot

[48:42] just spend more than we get. That's not allowed. So uh so when you really look

[48:49] at sort of that process, I'll tell you as a counselor, one of the things that

[48:53] frustrated me when I first sort of came to council is government is slow. It's

[48:57] not like I get I got to come in here and fix all these things that were wrong

[49:01] because it really wasn't like all these things were wrong. It's that I have

[49:05] disagreements sometimes substantively, but these are with strategic policy

[49:09] documents that are being enacted over decades, not a bunch of new things that

[49:14] happen every day. I think about uh work that I do in business and it's like I

[49:19] can change my mind really quickly. in government we can't. Sometimes that's

[49:23] actually a strength because when you look at the messy responsibility of

[49:28] government, I look around this room and I've had conversations with a lot of you

[49:32] and I know there are a lot of different opinions uh represented here in the

[49:36] audience. And so we've got to have a process that allows everybody to come to

[49:41] the table that allows as Kevin said different ideas to be brought forward.

[49:45] We can stress test that. That is a slow methodical process. Uh and so when you

[49:50] talk about responsibility that is to say fiscal responsibility is unimportant but

[49:54] it's also nested within a bunch of other guard rails that are part of

[50:04] uh I really don't have much to add to uh what Nick just said I'd fall in line

[50:07] with all that but right now the uh city council initiative uh funds are open

[50:13] applications so um typically we give away money for scholarships for kids for

[50:17] swim lessons or for kids unlimited memorial memorials around town

[50:24] right now that

[50:29] have ideas.

[50:34] A lot of it comes down to keeping informed and trust. That's a big

[50:39] question. Some people are I can give you some examples. It's very

[50:45] easy to look at agenda and see a big number and go

[50:49] but we've a lot of things to save a lot of money over time. Fire department has

[50:53] their squads now, which is a $60,000 truck equip instead of a million dollar

[51:01] fire engine that goes out reser

[51:06] gas.

[51:09] They last a while. They're easy to fix. That's an example.

[51:14] Oh no. $500,000 to redo the sewers.

[51:20] redoing it with place you can get fraction what it would cost them

[51:29] after don't it's two three $400

[51:35] dug it up million we do quite a lot of things a lot of money once you

[51:42] communicate with us watch us do it not

[51:54] All right. So, got a pile here. Who's interested in Hawthorne baseball?

[52:05] So, well, thank you all who had your hand up for putting in a question. you

[52:09] must know. Uh let's kick it off with whole concept of downtown revitalization

[52:16] tourism

[52:19] seems wrong. Has the council considered

[52:23] revitalization local res

[52:37] to me? I think it's a it's not an either or thing. And uh and when you talk about

[52:41] local residents, one of the things that I know I've heard a lot from people is

[52:45] when they don't want to come downtown because they're concerned about homeless

[52:49] issues. There's a lack of parking or available parking for them downtown. Uh

[52:54] and so what Main Street, I heard a lot of things about Main Street. Uh and so,

[52:59] you know, there are definitely things that as a council we can do from a local

[53:04] community perspective to try to address some of those. The new configuration

[53:07] Main Street that we adopted adds about 40% parking on Main Street itself. So,

[53:13] that's something to try to create more convenient parking.

[53:17] We've done a lot of work with uh over the last two three years with having

[53:21] downtown officers to try to make uh the space in downtown more friendly. We work

[53:26] very close with the downtown Bedford citizens

[53:40] downtown or help those who are already downtown to expand. Um, I wish there was

[53:45] a magic wand that we could wave that would just say, "Everybody go downtown."

[53:49] And I think one of the things that's really unfortunate for us is that

[53:53] downtown Medford, especially during the height of the pandemic, was really an

[53:57] uncomfortable place to be. And there's a lot of people who had an experience

[54:01] going downtown that time that has now shaped their perspective

[54:06] of what it means to be in downtown. But the downtown Medford we have today is

[54:10] not the same as the downtown Medford two or three years ago. It is much nicer.

[54:15] It's much cleaner. Talked to a lot of business owners that have space down

[54:18] there and they are very excited about transformations that are coming. They're

[54:23] seeing more customers. But I also think it is a misconception to say that we're

[54:27] not actively growing because according to a lot of the people I've talked to,

[54:31] they are sick. Uh and so as we talk about how do we help local communities,

[54:39] we cannot like when you say Medford, what are we going to do with downtown?

[54:43] We're going to have all these tourism. Tourism is a great thing for our

[54:47] community, but it is not we're not beach. we're not like, you know, Los

[54:53] Angeles or and I'm glad we're not because I don't want to live in Los

[54:56] Angeles. I don't want to live in Florida. And so I uh and so if we're

[55:01] trying to imagine a world in which all of these tourists come to Medford and

[55:07] the tourists single-handedly support our entire economy, that is not a realistic

[55:11] vision for the future. Medford is going to drive.

[55:16] People who live here, people who live in our surrounding communities are going to

[55:21] And so it is very important that is going to be the the primary driver for

[55:27] the economic revitalization. And so engaging with those who are

[55:32] downtown that are trying that are working hard. That is an important part.

[55:36] And as council, we've spent a lot of time having those conversations, hearing

[55:40] from people, and trying to come up with ways. We've just put together a downtown

[55:45] master plan, which is looking at ways to try to create uh for activation of

[55:51] underutilized spaces downtown to create some more interesting things that uh and

[55:56] as part of the new transportation system plan that we're going to be working on

[56:00] some of the things that we've been talking about as council is how to do

[56:04] more uh like infrastructure in downtown in a way that doesn't uh just take away

[56:10] from the roads but again takes advantage of some of these underutilized spaces.

[56:15] So I think there's a lot that is has happened over the last few years and

[56:19] will be happening over the next few years to do that kind of local

[56:23] revitalization.

[56:28] One comment I guess I would just it's an point about all these facilities

[56:37] let's be honest a conference center which been

[56:42] my goal local business community when I say long time I would say

[56:48] predates me well 15 years and one of their highest

[56:54] priorities is to be able to bring other people from other communities to

[57:00] see what's here. They see it as a giant that is clearly 100% intentional. How do

[57:07] we get people we've invested a lot

[57:13] rec

[57:24] those were always always always

[57:29] ever they have extra benefit of the ability now.

[57:37] So what we what we're able to do is leverage that

[57:43] probably otherwise would not be and that's always been underlying

[57:50] how do we do this? How do we serve the community but at the same time

[57:55] you reach a little bit higher? I don't know Rich.

[58:08] » Thank you, Mayor. This sports park with the driveway fields used to be called US

[58:13] Cellular Community Park. Opened in May of 2008. It was a $32 million buildout,

[58:21] 15 fields. There was plenty of opposition.

[58:25] That's a huge number for 2006. Some of you may remember the conversation, but

[58:31] since uh the council approved the funding facility was built that the

[58:37] economic stimulus those 15 fields have provided Medford is over $170 million.

[58:46] Now, that's not revenue for profit to the city of Medford. The operating

[58:51] costs, it's still subsidized because we have to be, but we're serving

[58:58] local needs. There are a lot of teams and a lot of people who are sleeping in

[59:02] their own beds, not driving anywhere to get the best possible competition and

[59:07] athletic experience. They don't have to drive to Reno. They don't have to drive

[59:11] to Euchi. They don't have to drive to Portland. But teams from those cities

[59:17] and all around the Northwest are coming to Medford for a weekend. They're eating

[59:21] in the restaurants. They're staying in the hotels. They're buying things in.

[59:26] That's that's what I'm talking about. That's the return on investment.

[59:31] And the same with the ros and we measure.

[59:41] I just wanted to say something about this. Um,

[59:46] is a great place to live. We are the center of it all. Um, I tell people all

[59:50] the time, when was the last time you lived in a town where you could be at

[59:53] the airport in 10 minutes. Um, but on top of that, we've got culture here.

[59:58] We've got a history center. We've got the Holly Theater. Got acts coming in

[1:00:01] all the time. We've got restaurants downtown.

[1:00:05] We got really good parks, bus system, library. We've got a ton of things to do

[1:00:10] down there. What I'm finding is that a lot of people

[1:00:13] do it. And I think it's important you guys are here that you're you're really

[1:00:18] investing in your community your own time. Go down and you know we used the

[1:00:22] cobbler shop down there. We went to dinner the other night there. Went to

[1:00:25] Arl Bloom. It depends on the people who live in the

[1:00:29] city to get out there and support the businesses that are in the city. So, you

[1:00:35] know, part of it's on us and I hope you I to encourage all you guys to actually

[1:00:39] go ahead and shop for more often.

[1:00:45] Okay. Which specific urban renewal project

[1:01:01] government

[1:01:05] and

[1:01:10] we have had we're kind of at the end of life of what we're calling

[1:01:16] original urban renewal projects kind of heat up

[1:01:23] red cars

[1:01:31] again. I think I I think I me was on council took a few years off back

[1:01:37] my last couple years on council. Um the council also

[1:01:46] we were talking about project we had it all figured out all the money in 1.0

[1:01:53] And I come back three years later

[1:01:58] and we're still talking about how we're going to spend that last little

[1:02:05] does what we did. We helped with the not a lot. That was

[1:02:10] actually help with the lot. We did a ton of

[1:02:18] parking lots,

[1:02:22] a lot of things like civil urban architecture improvements

[1:02:30] and then towards the end of that we're saying no now we want to try and get

[1:02:33] people down here. We want to get this and finding projects to do that.

[1:02:42] So now the question being you take

[1:02:48] the question I I would answer it saying we could spend that on

[1:02:53] I'm just telling you we're trying to be effective and strategic we have not

[1:02:57] really found where just it's just interesting that three

[1:03:03] years later we're still talking about

[1:03:08] I don't know

[1:03:14] As I said in one of our meetings, we have

[1:03:18] so we have to decide whe

[1:03:45] Hard to say what's the money.

[1:04:00] All right. What public outreach was conducted

[1:04:06] on besides posting the city council.

[1:04:25] This has been something that I know that I've carried into into rooms to discuss.

[1:04:33] When I say rooms, the manor they usually reach out and say

[1:04:43] this has been most public service.

[1:04:50] It's like a service group. Thank you. Your rotaries

[1:04:55] well maybe

[1:04:59] one of the things that There was a previous question about that's kind of

[1:05:03] where this does fall. Number one,

[1:05:09] go back to where they always

[1:05:13] relatively

[1:05:18] baseball stadium sort of kind of crept into that.

[1:05:25] We see the concept. How is that one of the

[1:05:30] going through a mirror process

[1:05:37] everyone can come out

[1:05:41] with what we'll do with mirror multiple of so I'll give you an example

[1:05:48] for mirror 1.0 focus real heavy on essentially street

[1:05:55] um there's an entire

[1:06:00] That's what will happen. So, it makes really good sense to try to

[1:06:05] put all these different options. That's where you start to talk about what could

[1:06:09] trade off a Riverside streetscape or new parking garage

[1:06:16] location X or is it supporting more vertical housing in say the north end?

[1:06:24] All these things kind of come up. That's a priority.

[1:06:32] that is 100% I guess the question would be is it

[1:06:41] we put mailers in the bills well nowadays we're emailing everything so we

[1:06:46] do our outreach has become a lot more challeng

[1:06:52] do not have you don't have

[1:06:57] everything's email I just read on social media

[1:07:01] true or false or whatever I mean it's just challenging however we all found

[1:07:07] our way into this room we have 10 different comments on this particular

[1:07:12] issue so I guess what I would suggest is the process is

[1:07:18] Let's continue.

[1:07:28] [clears throat]

[1:07:36] » Oh, you're called out by name.

[1:07:39] » Okay. Nick Card at the Oh, by date as well.

[1:07:44] April 16th council meeting, you stated that we not pay more than the emeralds

[1:07:50] for this project. Why has the council maybe said agreed to pay two times

[1:07:59] in financing? very so um what I said was that city is not

[1:08:07] going to contribute any more than the emeralds do to the feasibility and I

[1:08:12] believe this very firm that if we don't have a partner in the team that's trying

[1:08:18] to come here with the easy money they're not putting the easy money in they're

[1:08:22] not going to put hard money in then this is going to be something that's going to

[1:08:25] be if we move forward it'll be all on the city it's not going to be something

[1:08:28] we can afford to problem for us and it's going to kill

[1:08:32] the project and so in my view I want to know if our partner is going to be

[1:08:37] committed in the beginning because I don't want to find out at the 11,000 the

[1:08:41] good news is is my understanding is that we are sitting in a situation where

[1:08:44] indeed the emeralds are paying okay if not the emeralds are indeed paying half

[1:08:50] of the feasibility study so that means that for this feasibility study we have

[1:08:54] the emeralds proposing to pay for half of that cost penny for penny

[1:09:00] as I had requested. If it was a penny more, I would have been a no vote or I

[1:09:05] will, you know, I guess we'll get the final numbers, John, coming up here.

[1:09:08] But, uh, we haven't actually voted to spend the money yet. But that was what I

[1:09:12] was saying. And I and I do believe this. Now, when you look at the way that minor

[1:09:16] league stadiums or sports stadiums in general get built and funded, there's a

[1:09:21] million different ways that those funding schemes work. There's a million

[1:09:24] different tools and mechanisms by which you can come up with financing and debt

[1:09:29] and it's it's really complicated and esoteric. But one of the things that is

[1:09:35] really important to me is that the city cannot be put in a position where we

[1:09:40] build a stadium and then we hope and pray that somebody is going to come and

[1:09:44] play in our stadium. have to be involved in a process by

[1:09:49] which whatever team is playing, whatever league is playing, this is true as we

[1:09:53] talked about a baseball stadium. We've also had soccer, minor league soccer has

[1:09:57] come to us to discuss options to put in a minor league soccer stadium in

[1:10:02] Medford. If we don't have a league and team that are committed process to

[1:10:07] construction to the community, then if it's easy for them to come in, it's

[1:10:12] going to be easy for them to go out and then the citizens of Medford are going

[1:10:16] to be left holding back. And so we have to make sure that we have the right

[1:10:20] contracts, agreements, process in place to protect city and whatever this looks

[1:10:26] like. So when we talk about this minor league baseball thing, this isn't like

[1:10:30] the city's doing Emerald, we have regular communication with Major League

[1:10:35] Baseball, MLB. They are a partner. We will have an agreement with Major League

[1:10:38] Baseball separate from whatever team is here because that's all part of this

[1:10:45] process to make sure that this stadium is going to meet those requirements.

[1:10:49] That's why the Emeralds are looking for a new home right now. Their current

[1:10:52] stadium they share with the University of Oregon does not meet Major League

[1:10:55] Baseball's requirement. And so, you know, we can't build a stadium and then

[1:11:00] next year it doesn't meet the requirements anymore. That's so sad.

[1:11:03] That's not acceptable. Um, and I don't think it's acceptable to anybody who's

[1:11:08] on council. And so that process in terms of how do we uh make sure that we

[1:11:14] protect the city. We have partners that are through. That's what I was speaking

[1:11:18] to because we had uh you know, it is possible that we might not have had a

[1:11:26] good on the other end of the table. You know, there are good teams and there are

[1:11:30] bad teams. And this is true across all sports. And so what I'm pleased with is

[1:11:34] the Emerald are to me proving that their partnership extends in these early

[1:11:39] phases. They're willing to put money into this process that may go away.

[1:11:43] Hypothetically speaking, this feasibility study may show a stadium

[1:11:47] that doesn't work for Medford. either it's too expensive or there are issues

[1:11:51] with the different sites or you know there's a bunch of reasons why we have

[1:11:55] to go through this study and look at these deep questions about actual design

[1:12:00] and things or we can say yes let's move forward with building whatever we got to

[1:12:04] build and so for me to see the emeralds willing to put in money these guys are

[1:12:09] are a business and they're putting money into this uh that could go away uh it

[1:12:15] could go away because we find something in the feasibility study we don't like

[1:12:18] peaceful or it could go away because uh at the end of the day when we look at

[1:12:22] all the costs and the benefit the city council says you know what this isn't in

[1:12:25] the best interest of Medford and uh sorry we're not going to do it and so

[1:12:30] » can I ask you a question? >> Well I I will give you that courtesy

[1:12:34] bill. >> Thank you.

[1:12:35] » What makes you think that if it doesn't work in Eugene that it's going to work

[1:12:40] in Medford? So the reason why I think it if it's not

[1:12:45] going to work in Eugene, it might work in Medford is there's two reasons. One

[1:12:49] is it's not that the Emeralds as a program failed in Eugene and they're

[1:12:55] looking to come to Medford as a smaller market do something they didn't do.

[1:13:00] Medford is about median size for a minor league baseball city. So we're not that

[1:13:06] far out of the out of the norm. Uh what failed for them in Eugene was the idea

[1:13:11] that the way that the community was going to pay for this was out of their

[1:13:16] own personal property taxes. And that was the only thing that

[1:13:21] and the team put together. They put a property tax levy on the ballot. And if

[1:13:27] I had been a Eugene voter, I'd have voted no on the same thing, too. And

[1:13:30] that's why it failed because I think it's it's it's wrong to ask the people

[1:13:35] of Medford to pay out of their own property taxes to build something like a

[1:13:40] stadium. It was it was $20 billion that they were asked to put this up. So, part

[1:13:45] of what we've been looking at as council is how do we fund this in ways that

[1:13:50] leverage mechanisms that don't go against the voters, that aren't fees on

[1:13:55] your utility bill, that aren't property tax increases, but instead are

[1:13:59] leveraging the kind of development that we're trying to spur with the sort of

[1:14:02] Creekide Quarter thing. How do we create a taxing district that we the new

[1:14:08] development that's coming in around the stadium and use that to help pay for the

[1:14:11] stadium and the parking and the stuff that goes into those tools exist for us

[1:14:17] and those are tools that the Lane County and the city of Eugene did not use to

[1:14:23] try to build the stadium. That's why it failed and the fact that it failed meant

[1:14:28] that the community said they threw their hands up and said we don't we don't know

[1:14:32] whatever you got to figure it out. And so they went out and they went to try to

[1:14:36] find somebody who was willing to be a partner with them and try to come across

[1:14:40] try to get this across the finish line and do it in a way that uh in my opinion

[1:14:45] is a little smarter than what Wayne County tried to do by asking their

[1:14:48] voters to raise their property tax directly pay for stadium and that like I

[1:14:53] said I think that's wrong we're trying to do it different

[1:15:01] but different different does not mean for conclusion and there's another

[1:15:06] question here about virus.

[1:15:11] What was done originally? What was done originally was pretty quick I don't know

[1:15:16] it was an economic analysis

[1:15:21] in what we found is probably here's what

[1:15:25] I'll tell you if everything goes plan

[1:15:31] yourself out I think the quote from

[1:15:37] I want to say it was you're crazy I mean it was something

[1:15:42] that

[1:15:46] I don't think it counts as

[1:15:51] we interested in the idea that currently right now are 120

[1:16:08] in an area growth occurs.

[1:16:13] strategy, not at any cost.

[1:16:19] It has to make sense. That's the whole for every single person

[1:16:24] that says, "Hey, I think this is too expensive." You're absolutely right.

[1:16:28] There is a number. I I have you know where that's at. Well,

[1:16:33] if they walked in tomorrow, I'll give you an example. There's no way you're

[1:16:37] doing this for less than I can tell you right.

[1:16:44] But there is an over under where that's what we're trying to also have to

[1:16:50] think about this back to the concept of the rog and your driver. Is this an

[1:16:58] asset that will be used properly by single purpose baseball is more

[1:17:03] challenging in my opinion? I

[1:17:08] Every single study I say said they'll talk about you're going to get 200

[1:17:11] events a year. 200 that's a lot because we're talking about basically 66 home

[1:17:16] games for baseball team for a baseball team. How are you going to get 200? And

[1:17:21] they they kind of list them out. The question is

[1:17:25] we really look at that look at really look at

[1:17:30] number one bringing

[1:17:36] kind of family.

[1:17:40] However, 66 games a year for $130 million. No way.

[1:17:46] We just use number or another question becomes, is this

[1:17:52] really a community asset?

[1:17:56] Other ones I've heard I heard a lot of talk about

[1:18:00] farmers market and I pictures of other stadiums that's exactly where

[1:18:08] there is repurposing. It's not the doors

[1:18:15] 3659 days a year.

[1:18:20] It's got to be a little bit

[1:18:24] numbers behind the dollar sign. I don't know if

[1:18:30] there's skepticism. There's skep There's optimism. There's

[1:18:35] plenty of

[1:18:48] um ball fields. What about parking? That's a good question. So,

[1:18:55] I saw an interesting thing, by the way. Okay, I'm going to talk I'm gonna talk

[1:18:58] more about these.

[1:19:02] I'm gonna kind of a mayor education group with

[1:19:07] bunch of people well not a bunch people from uh it's kind of split evenly

[1:19:12] between the United States and but two of them that are in my group are

[1:19:17] building number one there's one that their community is building baseball

[1:19:22] right now and another one that is kind of in the mix with Portland and

[1:19:29] Salt Lake City so go for an expansion we get is talking about that. So the

[1:19:36] numbers that I just threw out to you like that $130 million just doesn't

[1:19:41] those guys are talking in the$1.3 billion.

[1:19:45] But it's interesting because stadium brands kind of is the same regardless of

[1:19:50] size. It's just it's all scale and and when I talk and I listen to them

[1:19:57] what they're trying to accomplish there's people in their communities same

[1:20:03] exact how you make that. However, I got a

[1:20:07] little sidetracked from the idea of this. If you look at Dodger Stadium

[1:20:12] today, you see a stadium and a sea of basketball as if you go to

[1:20:18] Washington DC's national you don't see that parking is not a single giant

[1:20:28] kind of model.

[1:20:33] Will there be some parking? Yes. Will there probably be in conjunction if this

[1:20:38] went perfect injunction with the common? Yes. Could that also be used for

[1:20:43] additional downtown? Yes, there will be some there. But in general, parking gets

[1:20:48] dispersed. Now, I'm sure if you live on Jese right

[1:20:52] now, that whole concept day, if you're parked on the street,

[1:20:57] they can't park. You're going to be um that is kind of how model is now we

[1:21:04] will of course look at traffic

[1:21:09] will look at it's just parking has somewhat

[1:21:15] diminished

[1:21:24] now I'm using again big giant major league baseball as examples that's

[1:21:30] kind of helpful We'll figure out more

[1:21:35] assuming it is an option. I should mention that we are also looking at an

[1:21:40] option that would convert for upgrade.

[1:21:47] I could get in here. I could talk to you guys for another 20 minutes about plus

[1:21:50] and minus.

[1:21:53] We'll move on. I have absolutely monopolized Z. Do you

[1:21:58] have anything to share on this?

[1:22:02] learn a lot. Okay, let's let's find You know what?

[1:22:10] We got kudos. I'm gonna share the Rogue X.

[1:22:25] [laughter] >> Although that is suspiciously like your

[1:22:35] Um kind of a general question. What is your process for auditing all city

[1:22:40] department so that as counselor you know that each department is doing not just

[1:22:44] what they're supposed to

[1:22:51] do you want to be on the spot first or >> All right.

[1:22:56] So that's a really good question. Uh I mean there's there is a

[1:22:59] Uh there is a limit to how much time I can personally dedicate to standing over

[1:23:05] John's shoulder and there's definitely a limit to how much time John wants me

[1:23:09] standing his shoulder but um you know we are volunteers uh we are not paid this

[1:23:14] is something that we do in the evenings in our free time we have day jobs so

[1:23:18] that does limit some of the specifics so part of how we know what's going on is

[1:23:24] you know I think this is something that we've done a really good job of as

[1:23:26] council building a culture of trust and openness with our uh city manager and

[1:23:31] our department heads. There is not a single department head in the city that

[1:23:36] uh would know see me and run the other way. They may jokingly do that, but I

[1:23:41] don't think honestly they're they're all ready to have a tough, you know, tough

[1:23:44] conversation with me. And uh they are doing a great job at running their

[1:23:49] departments. We get updates every month from department heads so we can see

[1:23:54] exactly what's going on, what they're working on. Uh what their issues are,

[1:23:59] what their challenges are. These updates are pretty open. They're not just check,

[1:24:03] check, double thumbs up, all good. It's strengths, weaknesses, problems. Uh I I

[1:24:10] think we've done a really good job, too, of of talking about and framing our

[1:24:13] challenges in the city in terms of what are the barriers that council can help

[1:24:17] address. Sometimes these are policy issues that come to us from the state.

[1:24:21] Sometimes these are policy issues of our own making. Sometimes these are

[1:24:25] financial or budgetary and so how do we make sure that uh you know all of those

[1:24:30] piece together. Another thing that's really important is the dollars. Uh we

[1:24:35] have a fantastic CFO. It's too bad that Ryan can join us tonight, but Ryan

[1:24:39] Martin who is the CFO of the city. He has an audit team and an accounting team

[1:24:43] and at the end of the day business you want to know what's happening all the

[1:24:47] money. And so the it is complex public uh government accounting is complex.

[1:24:55] Even if you know uh you know GAP and traditional private accounting, what you

[1:25:00] see in government is uh but we have a really good team who is constantly

[1:25:05] checking because and this is the other piece of it. It's not just like it's his

[1:25:09] job to check. It's part of his fiduciary responsibility city to check and know

[1:25:15] what's going on. He has to produce reports and audits personally signs off

[1:25:20] on about what is going on city. So when you start to piece all of these these

[1:25:25] things together and you think about, hey, what if somebody out there really

[1:25:29] wanted to try to pull a fast one on counsel, we have a great team, not just

[1:25:34] as counselors that we individually are engaged with different issues, but also

[1:25:38] our staff at a high level as well as the financial and legal assistance that put

[1:25:43] that all together. And what you end up with is a city that is basically doing

[1:25:48] what it says it's doing. Does that mean it's always doing what I want it to be

[1:25:51] doing? No, unfortunately. But I'm only one of eight counselors, so I don't

[1:25:54] always get uh the world I want to live. But anyway, here you go.

[1:25:58] » I'll just say something real quick on this. Uh we have it's really important

[1:26:02] that we have a strong CEO and person city manager. We certainly have

[1:26:08] one now. Uh we've had one in the past. So, it's we're in the process right now

[1:26:13] of picking a new one. And we're all going to be looking very very

[1:26:17] carefully at that. As far as uh we get updated quite a bit, lots of public

[1:26:21] input. Whenever you send an email to council, all eight counselors get there

[1:26:26] and then we will ask follow-up questions with staff. Staff answers those

[1:26:30] questions very quickly and very extensively. Um and you know, we're

[1:26:35] going through a I think it was,00 pages was the um agenda packet for a couple

[1:26:42] weeks back and there was something in there about AEDs. I think they're the

[1:26:46] defibrillators. And I was like, who did the math on it? It's like if 500 bucks a

[1:26:52] defibrillator. I was like, that can't be right. So asked the chief and the chief

[1:26:55] got back to me within day and had a very reasonable answer. So just we try to

[1:27:02] stay on top of stuff. We have a excellent staff. You have an excellent

[1:27:06] staff and I don't see that as being a problem. We have an auditor and I think

[1:27:12] we do a good job of it.

[1:27:20] One of the things I do in Syscue County is I'm the public

[1:27:26] people who steal money from government agencies.

[1:27:32] Um, usually the problem is that there's a

[1:27:36] failure of checks and balances procedures.

[1:27:40] Uh, I never cease to be amazed by what what isn't checked and what isn't

[1:27:46] watched, how long things got away with. This is not that. We have excellent

[1:27:52] checks and balances. I I wouldn't

[1:27:57] because I don't think anybody would get away with it. very well.

[1:28:04] You're doing a good job.

[1:28:11] You should be you should be willing to trust them.

[1:28:19] When I was uh there's been a lot of things in the emergency,

[1:28:27] Medicare fraud

[1:28:32] How is that even possible? we get I think the threshold is pretty low but

[1:28:37] any money that we get

[1:28:41] on that verify that the money's been I mean back to your point with I mean I

[1:28:50] don't know how they get away with it but that also makes me a little skeptical

[1:28:59] I'm not an elected official but I'll just add on to their answers real quick

[1:29:03] Um, I've been around a long time. I've worked with lots of boards and

[1:29:06] commissions. This is a group of men and women that does not rubber stamp. They

[1:29:11] ask us questions. I don't run from Nick, but I when I see Nick coming, I know I'm

[1:29:16] going to get questions. This is not a group. This is not a council that rubber

[1:29:19] stamps. This is the council that asks hard questions. They challenge staff and

[1:29:22] they hold us accountable.

[1:29:26] » Okay. So, I mean, everyone here's got their own schedule. I'm not going to

[1:29:31] hold you to it. more questions that we're going to get

[1:29:34] to in the time. So, people didn't get your answer. Stick around and

[1:29:41] answer questions. Um, we'll kick one more off. It's kind of on this whole

[1:29:45] concept of how how are we doing? Uh, transparency is a couple things.

[1:29:52] So, this was a question that a few of you have. How can we trust the council

[1:29:58] will be objective site quarter when two council members?

[1:30:04] That's a that's a that's an interesting question about

[1:30:08] what if I believe in a budget as an elected official that mean

[1:30:17] that's a tricky one is no don't advocate

[1:30:23] this is representative government um people all have opinion they have uh

[1:30:34] maybe things that they're passionate about. Now, if we all just say say no,

[1:30:39] we just that's that's a good point. This has to make sense,

[1:30:45] whatever it is. And one person can love it. And by the way, here's what I have

[1:30:51] found. One person loves something, there's somebody else on the council.

[1:30:58] I don't see it. That's just my However, um

[1:31:07] as one of the counselors who formed a pack, Kevin is the other one.

[1:31:12] » Uh that Kevin

[1:31:16] um and to the mayor's point, I mean, the reason why I participated in the pack, I

[1:31:22] didn't receive any money to be in the pack. There was no benefit for me to

[1:31:28] being part of the pack other than a personal conviction that this is a thing

[1:31:33] that is important future and uh I don't always agree with

[1:31:41] everybody as as Mike talked about I don't always agree with all of council

[1:31:45] but I I do believe that when we are victim of good things we do have a duty

[1:31:53] to try make that uh the campaign that the pack was uh was

[1:32:00] about was specifically related to the charter amendment to the city charter to

[1:32:05] raise the transient lodging. This campaign was specifically that transient

[1:32:09] lodging tax based on what council had voted on. The intention for that

[1:32:14] increase in transient lodging tax is to be used for the conference center. And

[1:32:20] so even if all of this stuff with baseball goes away. If we get to a

[1:32:26] number that isn't palatable, if we can't get the right kind of protections and

[1:32:30] contracts for the city, I will be saddened because I think I'm not a huge

[1:32:34] baseball fan, but I think bringing things like minor league sports to a

[1:32:37] community that has made a name for itself in our sports platforms, in our

[1:32:42] youth sports, in the sports activities that we've done, I think that's a good

[1:32:46] thing. Um, but even if that all goes away, what we did with the transit

[1:32:50] lodging tax increase, I think is still really important because it speaks to

[1:32:54] some of those other pieces like the conference center that that money by

[1:32:58] council's vote is committed to uh use for the conference center to get that

[1:33:06] stadium goes away that's still there and I hope that that conference center is

[1:33:11] going to uh as part of what that means to you know do a pack I'm going to go to

[1:33:17] Salem and I'm going to go ask and talk to our state representatives and I'm

[1:33:21] going to seek money from the state to help make some of these things happen

[1:33:25] for me because I believe these are really important. And I've done that.

[1:33:29] I've done that on issues related to transportation. We were just in DC and I

[1:33:34] was there talking to Congressman Vince to get money for our community to be

[1:33:38] able to build South Stage Road uh to build an interchange that's critical for

[1:33:44] the future development of South Uh we have a huge gap between uh exit 27

[1:33:49] and exit 24 in Phoenix. Building an overcrossing and an interchange. We

[1:33:54] talked about what Medford's going to need as Centennial builds out as the

[1:33:58] employment campus just south of that builds out. This is the kind of

[1:34:01] infrastructure that we're going to have to do. And I know people who live in

[1:34:05] that area who say, "Hey, Nick, I don't want that because I like Medford being a

[1:34:11] farming community. I think that uh you know, I want to keep small and that's

[1:34:16] what Medford means to me. And I'm sorry, but I'm going to disagree with that

[1:34:20] position. I I think there are ways that we can erase the past, but I also think

[1:34:26] that we have to be looking forward to the future. Times change, things change.

[1:34:30] That doesn't mean that we rush into it. We don't do it blind, but we do have to

[1:34:35] continue to move forward. And so, if you disagree with me about that, I respect

[1:34:39] that that position. And and I I don't want to speak for you, Kevin, but Um,

[1:34:46] I'm going to continue to advocate for things that I think are important for

[1:34:50] our community. Uh, and I think that's an important job of whether I am a city

[1:34:55] council or not. I think that's an important job of me.

[1:34:59] Uh, and so I want to hear your opinions. I want to hear your thoughts. As a city

[1:35:03] councelor, I am uh I represent represent the the residents of W 4. And

[1:35:10] if you guys don't think I'm doing a good job of representing your beliefs and

[1:35:14] opinions, it's probably not because I've I'm only here to scheme for my own

[1:35:19] benefit. It's because I probably haven't heard your opinions. I haven't heard the

[1:35:23] facts that, you know, I haven't heard that perspective and I want to on board

[1:35:27] that and I want to uh incorporate that into what we do. There's so much

[1:35:31] opportunity for Medford. There's so much opportunity for our community. There's

[1:35:35] not one vision that is going to be the perfect

[1:35:40] uh it is all of us moving together or moving forward together. And so uh

[1:35:45] anyway, those are my thoughts on that and uh I I hope that isn't super anyway

[1:35:52] like there you go. Yeah, >> I guess one thing that

[1:36:00] we are kicking off here are 2.0 ideas. We go back in time

[1:36:06] to when I left council, we were talking about I come back on still talking. So

[1:36:10] this predates anything that starts Yeah. starts.

[1:36:18] Um there will still be a commitment to downtown as Zach said

[1:36:24] there that is not going away. That is what

[1:36:28] even if the ideas are being objected. I will tell you that

[1:36:34] individual counselors may have stronger opinions prognosted

[1:37:01] by the tax but I should note because we have not

[1:37:06] established where to put the conference center

[1:37:12] even though the tax is not

[1:37:19] doing that

[1:37:22] with that said I'll tell you what I'll come see you afterwards but it ran a

[1:37:26] little long stick around thank you so much for coming and

[1:37:42] Thank you. Take one day off.

[1:37:59] could sing it.

[1:38:08] » It's an option.

[1:38:18] » So, it's um just 15

[1:38:25] stadium would be

[1:38:36] It's not going to be longer. It's not going to be a baseball.

[1:38:40] It'll be a baseball

[1:38:47] still dislike it or hate it. >> You say, "Hey, don't like it." That's

[1:38:53] fine. I just don't want to give

[1:39:07] » like

[1:39:15] you down for

[1:39:18] » you like Harry David

[1:39:26] fix

[1:39:32] there's rules with the cross

May 21, 2026 City Council Town Hall

Transcript