[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