[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:02] Councillor Colvin. Here.
[0:04] Councillor Evelyn. Here.
[0:06] Mayor Fitch. Here.
[0:07] Councillor Nielsen. Here.
[0:09] Councillor Osborne. Here.
[0:11] Councillor Wedding. Here.
[0:12] Councillors Wicker. Here.
[0:14] And we'll stand for the blessing with Reiki Partitioner Denise English from the Sacred Lotus.
[0:31] As we gather here today, may the wisdom and guidance of the sacred directions embrace and illuminate your path.
[0:39] To the east, may the energy of the rising sun inspire clarity of vision and new beginnings
[0:46] in your endeavors.
[0:48] To the south, may the warmth of the noonday sun infuse your decisions with passion,
[0:55] creativity, and the fiery spirit needed for positive transformation.
[1:00] To the west, may the calming waters remind you to navigate challenges with fluidity
[1:06] and adaptability.
[1:10] To the north may the strength of the mountains grant you
[1:13] resilience and stability as you build a foundation for the prosperity and
[1:18] well-being of all. Above may the divine masculine cosmic energies shower you
[1:26] with inspiration and insight connecting you to the boundless possibilities
[1:30] that exist beyond our earthly realm. Below may the nurturing embrace of
[1:37] of Mother Earth and the divine feminine energies,
[1:40] ground your actions in sustainability
[1:42] and respect for the natural world.
[1:45] Finally, let us call upon the place of within,
[1:49] the place of the heart and the universal soul energy.
[1:53] May you be blessed with the energy of love,
[1:55] unity and compassion.
[1:57] We give thanks for your willingness
[1:59] to serve this community.
[2:01] May these blessings guide your decisions,
[2:03] illuminate your path and manifest
[2:05] us a city of prosperity, harmony, and joy.
[2:09] Thank you.
[2:10] Kat, could you leave us in a pledge of allegiance?
[2:34] So are there any city announcements?
[2:38] Seeing none, we'll proceed with the comments from citizens.
[2:41] And the first one we have is Eve Ponder.
[2:53] Hello, my name is Eve Ponder.
[2:54] I live at 3060 Northwest 19th Street.
[2:57] I'd like to talk about trees, natural features,
[2:59] and preservation.
[3:01] Thy desert is a beautiful and unique place.
[3:04] preservation of this landscape is important for all of us as the city has aptly noted
[3:09] natural and existing features add character to developments. Communities like Eagle Crest,
[3:16] Brasada, Pronghorn, and some neighborhoods in Bend show us that you can build houses
[3:20] without completely removing all the trees and rocky outcroppings. Understandably these
[3:26] places I have just mentioned are all expensive, but living and having access to a more
[3:31] intact landscape should not only be for the wealthy. Replacing older conifers and deciduous
[3:38] trees that are 10 inches or more with a half inch, mostly maples, doesn't begin to mitigate
[3:45] for the loss. Since the city has arborists on staff, I'd request that with any new
[3:51] development the city would do a site survey and inventory or at the very least check
[3:56] the developer's information. I'm thankful that the council and city staff have spent time working
[4:03] on the issue of maintaining a natural landscape through preservation as opposed to a more contrived
[4:08] after-the-fact approach. I'll close with words from Joni Mitchell. Don't it always seem to go,
[4:16] you don't know what you've got till it's gone. We've paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
[4:21] Thank you.
[4:22] Thank you.
[4:23] Next we have Jay Patrick.
[4:28] Hello,
[4:37] I'm Jay Patrick.
[4:38] I live here in Redmond at 304-49, Southwest 36.
[4:43] I just wanted to say I wanted to add the comment to the packet tonight.
[4:48] Just for you to be able to read what I said, I put it in the paper, but hopefully I explained
[4:57] my thoughts well enough.
[4:58] I know it's a different position than most of you took, but hopefully you found it worth a read.
[5:05] I was a bit surprised when the council moved forward the way it was the last couple weeks ago,
[5:12] but I want to say thank you to Councilor Nielsen for bringing forward the idea to break
[5:20] the vote up in the election to at least two topics rather than just be all of them in
[5:30] a bundle.
[5:33] It kind of reminded me of watching the federal government where they throw everything
[5:38] into one big bunch and vote on one thing. Let me say I know that's not the way the
[5:46] Marin Council do things in Redmond and I would say for transparency, I suggest when you get
[5:55] down the file voting on the wording that you think about maybe separating them into three
[6:04] different topics rather than keeping something bundled up. It just adds clarity.
[6:15] I believe
[6:18] And then you're going to possibly do that a little bit later than I.
[6:23] But anyway, our citizens will look at the topics,
[6:27] and they may think totally different than you or even I think,
[6:32] and would like to have the opportunity to vote on each topic separately.
[6:37] So I hope you consider that when you make the final decision.
[6:42] Thank you very much for letting me talk.
[6:56] I watched an interview on Fox News with Will Cain and the Commissioner of the Equal Employment
[7:04] Opportunity Commission.
[7:06] Herein referred to as the EEOC.
[7:09] Her name is Andrea Lucas.
[7:12] The title of the piece is EEOC Commissioner Fires Back at Mark Cuban, star of the popular
[7:20] show called Shark Tank, for his remarks on his diversity, equity, inclusion, also known
[7:28] as DEI.
[7:30] What did he say that she needed to fire back at?
[7:33] Here is the quote from Mark Cuban, I never hired anyone based exclusively on race, gender,
[7:40] religion.
[7:41] I only ever hire the best person that will put my business in the best position to
[7:46] succeed, and yes, race and gender can be part of the equation. I view diversity as a competitive
[7:57] advantage." This was her response to his hiring practice. Many corporate leaders and our cultural
[8:07] elites constantly misunderstand this key point. Race and sex cannot be part of the equation
[8:14] If they are any part of your decision, you have violated the law."
[8:20] In my study of DEI, I have learned this is nothing more than discrimination against the white race.
[8:27] It is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is here to make us whites feel guilty for being white.
[8:34] I heard of a woman who got raped by a black man, but she would not say anything. Why?
[8:40] She said she felt she deserved it because she was white.
[8:43] Because of DEI and this white discrimination, plus the fact that young healthy males have no qualms about threatening old ladies, I soon learned that I need to identify as a black woman in these chambers.
[8:59] I also learned that if I am ever threatened again here, not to count on counsel for any help, but to call the police myself.
[9:06] I am saddened that our own federal and city government along with our public
[9:12] education promotes such lawlessness and I get to pay for it. I believe there will
[9:18] be a day coming that school districts as well as city councils get sued for this
[9:24] unlawful practice of using and teaching diversity equity and inclusiveness
[9:30] us, instead of us all being treated equally, including white people.
[9:36] Thank you.
[9:51] Next we have the Consent Agenda, which comprises the minutes of January 23rd and approval on
[9:57] a building risk insurance policy on behalf of the city for the construction of the new
[10:01] public safety facility of 253,352.98.
[10:06] Is there anyone that wants to discuss anything on the Consent Agenda before motion?
[10:11] Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the Consent Agenda?
[10:14] I move to approve the consent agenda.
[10:16] I'll second.
[10:17] Moving to second.
[10:18] All those in favor, sing a part by saying aye.
[10:21] Aye.
[10:22] Opposed?
[10:23] Motion carries.
[10:24] Next we have a presentation on our financial audit results for the year 2022-23.
[10:32] James.
[10:39] Rob still on?
[10:41] Yep, I'm here.
[10:41] Oh, there he is.
[10:43] Look at that.
[10:45] Okay.
[10:45] Okay, all right, so I'm gonna get started here then.
[10:49] Good evening, council, Mr. Mayor and citizens.
[10:52] My name is James Wood.
[10:53] I'm the city of Redmond Finance Director.
[10:55] And tonight I'm gonna be presenting
[10:56] on the annual audit report for fiscal year
[10:59] and did June 30, 2023.
[11:02] Alongside me, up on the screen here,
[11:04] you'll see that we have Rob Trimper.
[11:06] He's the external financial auditor.
[11:09] And I'm gonna touch on a couple of things briefly
[11:12] and then passed off to him for the audit findings.
[11:20] There we go.
[11:27] So what does a financial audit mean to the city of Redmond?
[11:33] Specifically, let's talk about what a financial audit is looking at.
[11:37] Well, here at the city of Redmond, we have tens of thousands of transactions that are occurring annually.
[11:43] And with the auditor, when the auditor comes in,
[11:46] he's going to select a certain sample of our transactions to look at.
[11:50] And these samples are going to be based off of our internal controls.
[11:53] These are the policies and procedures that we have.
[11:56] He's going to consider the inherent risk, which is the implicit risk of something being incorrect.
[12:03] And he's also going to consider his own auditor judgment.
[12:06] And so the external auditor takes these three things, develops samples, and then looks
[12:11] at the activity during the year.
[12:14] And that's what actually gets seen by the auditor.
[12:17] One of the things I want to remind everyone is that the goal of an external financial audit
[12:22] or the goal of the financial audit is to determine if the financial statements are reasonably
[12:27] presented.
[12:28] It's not to find fraud.
[12:29] However, if Rob were to have found fraud, he'd be compelled to report that to city
[12:34] council.
[12:42] So why are we being audited?
[12:45] And this is going to continue to happen each year and that's because ORS says that
[12:50] annually cities municipalities need to file a financial report for the year
[12:54] ending June 30. Not only do they say that we have to file a report but we have
[12:58] to have it in a specific format and that's going to be pursuant to gap
[13:01] which is generally accepted accounting principles. In addition to both the
[13:08] requirement to file and the formatting being outlined in ORS we're also
[13:13] required to be audited by an external financial auditor that's approved
[13:17] that's licensed in the state of Oregon.
[13:22] One thing worth noting in terms of why
[13:26] we get audited to is the fact that we have some debt covenants out there so
[13:29] anytime we've borrowed money we also report to the the borrowing agencies our
[13:37] financial position.
[13:42] So when is all this happening? Right now we're presenting
[13:45] tonight the presentation it's in the winter but the work for this audit
[13:49] it took place starting back in spring and summer of last year.
[13:53] It rolled into the summer and fall.
[13:55] That's when we started developing the numbers.
[13:56] The auditor came on site in the fall.
[13:59] We developed an audit report, and then we're here tonight bringing you the results.
[14:04] So the takeaway there is that there's always an audit going on, whether it's last year
[14:09] or next year.
[14:11] And with that, I'm going to pass everything off over to Rob, and he's going to go
[14:15] over the required communication.
[14:17] Okay, but thanks for that nice summary there James and thank you council for having me I just kind of really want to start out to say that the audit went really well this year there were we delayed a little bit in in getting fully started because we had some there
[14:34] was some changes in staff and other standards to implement but I think once things were all said and done we're really happy with the results.
[14:42] A couple of things that we have in our reports to you, but overall I think we're real happy
[14:49] with the results.
[14:50] So you'll have a required communication to those charged with governance is what we're
[14:55] touching on now.
[14:55] It's a separate letter outside of the financial statements.
[14:58] Just that I've
[15:00] A few quick items to point out in there is that, you know, the, first of all, that management
[15:08] selects is responsible for selection and use of appropriate accounting policies. They also
[15:14] are ultimately responsible for the financial statements. Our job is to give an opinion that
[15:19] whether they're stated reasonably correct. So this year, there were, there was one new
[15:25] standard that was implemented in regards to subscription based long-term
[15:29] subscription based information technology arrangements and that was
[15:35] required by the governmental accounting standards board. They issue
[15:39] statements all the time that kind of update your reporting and then
[15:43] internally there were some changes on how the city accounted for
[15:47] investments whether it's at fair market value or amortized costs. We
[15:54] We also have, you know, inside the financial statements that they'll always contain estimates
[16:00] in there.
[16:01] So major estimates are things like, you know, your capital assets, other post-employment
[16:06] benefits, the subscription-based agreements that I was mentioning, and the big one being
[16:13] the unfunded actuarial valuation related to PERS.
[16:18] You know, if we had any significant difficulties or disagreements with management, we'd
[16:24] be reporting those to you.
[16:25] Probably would have been reporting those a while ago.
[16:28] So happy to report there were no significant difficulties
[16:31] in completing the audit or disagreements with management.
[16:35] Also, there were no material adjustments
[16:38] that were posted as part of the audit process.
[16:42] We do have a few past audit adjustments
[16:46] or uncorrected misstatements.
[16:48] We usually set a threshold and anything over that amount
[16:50] gets attached to this letter.
[16:52] And so there's, you know, a few past items that are going to clear themselves out in the next fiscal year
[16:59] Also as part of this, I think there's a printed it earlier. I think it was about 208 printed pages for your financial statements
[17:08] A few sections in there, but the main item in there from us is the financial statements themselves and the opinion on the audit
[17:15] That opinion is broken down by different opinion units, but we did issue a clean or unmodified
[17:22] opinion for each of your individual opinion units inside your financial statements.
[17:28] We also, in towards the back of the report, have separate letters on internal controls
[17:34] related to internal controls and compliance in accordance with government auditing standards.
[17:41] There were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies reported, which is a big positive.
[17:49] Most of our audits have some items that are in there.
[17:52] There's also a separate letter on tests that were required to do for Oregon minimum standards.
[17:59] And most of those items came out with no findings.
[18:03] There were a couple of over expenditures related to your budget that the cities, you know, will look at there and I think they've already made changes in the budget for this year to make sure that those don't happen again.
[18:19] We also do a special audit called a single audit, which is a special audit over federal awards and selected two major programs this year to give a really fine look at.
[18:31] one was the airport improvement project and the other was a community
[18:35] development block grant project. The airport improvement project had no
[18:41] findings on internal controls or compliance. We did have a couple of
[18:46] significant deficiencies in the CDBG program in that they have a pretty
[18:52] complicated reporting requirements and we have some suggestions in that area
[18:57] to kind of fine tune that process and they also have requirements on the use
[19:03] of program income and reporting of some of those pieces and that you know I
[19:09] think making sure that we use a program income before we draw more funds so a
[19:13] couple of easy fixes for next year and then the last section that we were
[19:18] testing on controls and compliance was over passenger facility charge
[19:22] audits, passenger facility charge collections and use of those monies and we had no findings in that
[19:29] section either. So apart from a couple of significant deficiencies in the CDBG program,
[19:37] the audit went really well. I'd still give it probably a high B or low A, maybe a mid A on
[19:47] on where we ended up for the year. So as James mentioned there's you know thousands
[19:52] of transactions and for a couple of pieces to fall through there that was I
[19:56] think a pretty positive deal.
[20:03] James on the CDBG, could you just explain the
[20:06] differences and how they're corrected?
[20:10] Yes I can go ahead and kind of elaborate
[20:12] on that. So if anyone has any questions about the actual findings
[20:18] findings themselves are at the back of the aquifer, but the big overview with the two
[20:22] findings was the first one was in our quarterly reporting to CDBG to HUD, we would report the
[20:33] numbers in the best way possible, and it sounds funny when I say it that way, but the tool
[20:39] that they use to collect the information cannot take negative numbers, and so we have to
[20:44] to put in zero numbers or leave them omitted
[20:47] and then leave narrative explanations around that.
[20:50] And so what the finding was circling around the idea
[20:54] that when we go to leave that narrative explanation,
[20:57] we can leave better notes and be able to further explain
[21:01] what the number should be in the case.
[21:04] And so there is a, this has been fixed
[21:07] and going forward, it shouldn't be an issue.
[21:10] And then the other significant deficiency
[21:13] see that came up was in relation to program income and program income.
[21:16] So fancy way of saying cash on hand.
[21:18] And so we had a little bit of cash on hand in the CDBG program.
[21:22] And we should have been spending that first.
[21:24] But we ended up drawing down additional funds after we spent some money.
[21:29] And so we have since corrected that in fiscal year 2024.
[21:33] And so there's no issue going forward.
[21:35] Okay, any other questions?
[21:42] Are you good, Rob?
[21:43] Yeah, I'm good.
[21:45] Okay.
[21:45] Alright, so I just want to give a quick appreciation to city leadership, council and city administration.
[21:51] If we didn't have strong financial policies and procedures, the audit wouldn't be as strong
[21:56] as it is.
[21:57] So, I do thank you for the financial stewardship and then also quick thanks to the department
[22:03] heads and staff.
[22:04] You know, they're the ones getting the grants and so they're then involved with
[22:07] us and having to work with me and the auditor and they did a fantastic job, airport
[22:11] NCDBG. And then lastly is central services, which has the finance and the budget teams.
[22:18] And they're the ones really cranking out all the numbers. So a special thank you to them.
[22:23] Next steps, there's no resolutions required, no formal action since it was a clean financial
[22:29] audit. And I get to go back to work working on 2024 audit prep now, unless there are
[22:35] any questions I can answer.
[22:37] No, I think we all think you and everyone in finance and Jason one of the strengths of the city has been our financial department
[22:45] You guys do a great job. I agree and that's been around a lot longer before me. So I thank you all
[22:52] Okay, next we have a presentation on the Village Squire redevelopment
[23:01] Megan and
[23:04] Chuck good
[23:13] evening Mayor and Council Chuck Arnold urban renewal program manager for the city
[23:18] Tonight's item on the Village Squire is just a quick update to give you some status of what's happening with it.
[23:24] And I am going to hear you going to click through the slides.
[23:27] Okay, thank you.
[23:30] So just for tonight, this is in preparation for what we expect is going to be a request from the development party that purchased the property.
[23:38] So I'll go through some site basics, talk about the ownership status, and then the expected timeline of what we're looking at.
[23:44] No, anticipated ask.
[23:46] Site Basics, you know, this property, there was a conversation amongst the staff and the
[23:53] previous owners, actually two owners ago now, about what they were achieving there and what
[23:59] type of contribution they were making for themselves as a business and what contribution
[24:03] was for downtown.
[24:04] It was a very challenging property right at the entrance of downtown to Highway 126
[24:09] in 97 and really didn't make the strongest statement and leave with our best foot.
[24:15] So they chose to close down the business and sell the property and now a new development
[24:20] team has gotten in there.
[24:21] The property is this half acre site with two buildings, about 14,000 square feet, 24
[24:28] rooms previously.
[24:30] And now the new ownership status is the developer that purchased it is in diligence.
[24:35] They are wrapping that up and they are committed to moving forward with converting the property
[24:42] to housing with a mix of workforce and market rate with primarily market rate.
[24:49] When this project does come forward to council, there will be probably a request in March
[24:56] with some planning review in the summer and a renovation complete for late this year.
[25:01] We will be working very closely with Durak and with Council on the
[25:07] Urbanal Agency to make sure that there are adequate protections for any
[25:11] investment that is put on the property and that the workforce units are deed
[25:17] restricted and also tied in to making sure that they are the right demographic
[25:22] and right area median income rate that we want to have in that property
[25:27] downtown. So a lot more to come on this is really just initial kind of bring it
[25:31] to your attention. We don't have any solid proposal from the developer yet
[25:35] so there's nothing really else to report on. I can say that we anticipate
[25:39] that it will be about a 1.4 million dollar renovation. They are spending
[25:43] about a little over 1.4 million to acquire the property so they're going
[25:47] to be pretty significantly on trying to revitalize this property so we're
[25:52] looking forward to great proposal from them that can lead to a good
[25:55] partnership. Any questions on the bill square? Thanks Chuck and next we have the
[26:01] ice rink. Thank you and on the on the ice rink I'm gonna bring up Dusty to the
[26:08] table from facilities and get a little bit in on that. So no visuals on this one
[26:16] tonight. This is really just something that I think the whole community is
[26:20] aware that the ice rink kind of had its demise and so giving that sense of like
[26:27] where we are with it currently I wanted to start it off with Dusty kind of
[26:32] discussing what's happened with the ice rink and what it looks like to try to
[26:37] repair the current situation so if you want to lead in with that and then I'll
[26:41] carry on from there. So the current system is about 15 years old and
[26:49] I'm sorry, so Dusty Hood, Parks and Facilities Division Manager.
[26:55] So the current ice rink is about 15 years old.
[26:58] I believe, I don't have the exact numbers, but it was around $200,000 initial cost actually
[27:03] for the ice rink originally.
[27:05] And over the last three years, we've put a significant amount of maintenance into it.
[27:10] Last year we completely rebuilt the whole foundation on it.
[27:13] This year, we replaced 12 coils as well as one compressor, one circulation pump, and as
[27:20] of right now, we actually have another compressor out, and the programming is actually kind
[27:25] of a glitch.
[27:26] So there's a programming within the chiller itself.
[27:30] So we're looking at about $12,000 to $15,000 in repairs right now that haven't been done
[27:36] just to get it back to operational.
[27:37] With that said, not saying, you know, who knows how long it'll last.
[27:41] You know we could be in the same position we were this year. It was up and down this year two or three different times
[27:46] we had to you know shorten the season because of
[27:50] You know some of the issues that we've had with the mechanical issues we have with it. So as of right now
[27:55] It's just going to be continuing to you know to be kind of a thorn in the side of
[28:00] maintenance and
[28:01] Cost to keep this thing running 15 years is pretty much the the life expectancy on any age back system
[28:08] So that's basically what it is.
[28:09] And do we have to replace the cooler?
[28:12] So we don't have to replace it,
[28:14] but it is highly recommended to replace it
[28:16] because we'd be in the same position where we are right now.
[28:19] Next year, it may run all season, it may not,
[28:21] it may run for just a couple of weeks.
[28:23] So the recommendation is definitely a new chiller.
[28:25] And that cost is between 100 and $150.
[28:28] $150, yeah.
[28:31] Do we know what the lead time is
[28:34] on a piece of equipment like that?
[28:35] I mean, if we were to say,
[28:36] Let's go get one right now. Do we have any idea how long it would take to get one?
[28:40] It would be ready by next my next winner
[28:45] Dusty it because you mentioned the word HVAC and as things age out parts aren't always necessarily available for what you have is there a
[28:52] cost
[28:54] Differential because we'll have to upgrade because they don't make the parts you need anymore
[28:58] Or is this something that we'll be looking at. We'll just need to upgrade it to stay current
[29:01] Just need to upgrade it, stay current.
[29:03] The parts are about the same, you know, cost-wise.
[29:05] It's just finding them is the difficult part,
[29:08] as well as a programming, you know, for it.
[29:11] So, Dusty, in your professional opinion,
[29:13] do you think we're investing too much money into it over time?
[29:19] My personal opinion,
[29:20] I think there needs to be a permanent ice rink.
[29:22] That's just my opinion on it.
[29:23] I do believe that even if we do upgrade the Chiller,
[29:26] there's gonna be consistent maintenance,
[29:27] you know, this can be required.
[29:28] We're going to spend an average of probably between $5,000 and $15,000 a year just on
[29:34] the maintenance of it, replacing parts, and so on, but that doesn't include the staffing
[29:38] time that's involved.
[29:39] We spend probably between $75,000 and $100,000 taking this rink up and putting it down every
[29:44] year.
[29:47] Okay, so, sorry.
[29:51] Blind spot over here.
[29:53] So you said it was $200,000 about 15 years ago.
[29:56] What is a comparable price for that same?
[30:01] I don't have that number. I could get that number for you all, but I don't have that number
[30:06] right now. And I wouldn't want to speculate on the number of costs. Fifteen years to now,
[30:09] it's pretty big, quite the big difference, I think.
[30:14] So the idea of tonight was really give us a status of where we are, and also urban roll
[30:20] has begun to look at those cost numbers. They vary widely, right? All the way from,
[30:25] You can start with your own backyard ice rink that you can get from eBay for like $50,000
[30:32] all the way up to spending $5 million for an enclosed facility that's a hockey rink.
[30:37] So it's really going to depend on site specifics.
[30:40] It's going to depend on what we try to achieve with this facility from an urban oil standpoint,
[30:46] which is the agency that originally funded this project years ago.
[30:49] The idea of the ice rink was to really create a sense of place and attract people
[30:53] downtown and create that habit of people coming downtown and experiencing downtown and enjoying
[30:58] it and seeing our businesses in our wonderful city and all the improvements that we've made.
[31:04] If that is still the goal, then we need to think about how we want to move forward with
[31:08] either a new facility or repairing the old.
[31:11] And so what we wanted to do is just give you an update and start to get your okay
[31:18] and direction on moving forward with the subcommittee of Durak as well as involving
[31:22] some city staff and perhaps even the public a little bit maybe the downtown
[31:26] businesses and get some direction on what how we'd like to see this project go
[31:30] forward because staff feels that the community really loves that asset and
[31:36] trying to find a way to have it come back alive would be a really good thing
[31:42] to do rather than just let it go to bed I was gonna check do you have do
[31:51] Do you have any numbers for some utilization?
[31:54] I mean, the community may love it,
[31:56] but that doesn't necessarily mean that they use it.
[31:58] So do we know how many people take advantage of this rank
[32:02] when it is functioning?
[32:04] Yeah, I would have to get those numbers
[32:05] from Parks and Rec who do the programming, right?
[32:08] And get those numbers.
[32:09] And I imagine they have those numbers tracked,
[32:11] but I don't know those offhand.
[32:13] I'm sorry.
[32:16] So I wanna play off of something you said, Dusty,
[32:18] about your preference being a permanent ice rink.
[32:20] In your opinion, what is the diminishment of life
[32:25] by putting the ring up every year, taking it back down?
[32:28] Do you think that impacts the life expectancy
[32:30] of a temporary ice rink
[32:32] versus having a more permanent one?
[32:33] Would that be a more viable capital investment?
[32:37] So a permanent rink, you can actually,
[32:39] it could be a basketball court in the summertime.
[32:42] It's kind of multiple dimensional.
[32:44] Anytime you take something apart
[32:45] and put it back together and fight it.
[32:47] The more you do that,
[32:48] It's just parts and pieces this wear out. It's just like a you know an engine kind of the same thing
[32:53] The more you take it apart put it back together. It just wears out that much quicker. So yeah
[32:58] We do I do want to say is that John we do have that new Zamboni still so
[33:03] Still promised a ride on that. Yeah, I
[33:08] understand that one of the priorities of
[33:11] Dirac is a family fund center and I know that it's a priority of the community
[33:14] So with that being said, I would be interested in you pursuing more information for us.
[33:19] Yes, and to that end, Councilor Osborne, I do want to point out to Council that while
[33:26] an urban oil expense would be legitimate, urban oil expense to put in a new facility,
[33:33] putting urban oil money into maintaining an existing facility that was already purchased
[33:36] would be a big challenge in order to have that pass the straight face test.
[33:41] So, really, if there's going to be a role, then it would really be toward the goal of
[33:46] doing a new facility.
[33:48] If the city on the city side of the funding wants to work on, you know, keeping the old
[33:53] system working, then there would have to be other funding sources required to do that.
[33:58] But yes, thank you.
[34:00] Okay.
[34:01] Clifford.
[34:02] What I would like to see is something multi-purpose taken into consideration.
[34:07] I think that would be a good idea as well.
[34:10] So I think the consensus we need more information and see what the options are great
[34:16] Thank you. Thank you
[34:19] So the next item we have is a bid award
[34:21] It's for the cinder hollow neighborhood project master developer contract award to rooted homes and authorized
[34:27] Negotiations of a disposition and development agreement
[34:32] Linda
[34:35] and Jackie
[34:36] Good evening, Linda Klein, housing coordinator for the city.
[34:42] And with me is Jackie Keogh, the executive director of Rooted Homes, and Rick Hayes from
[34:47] Lux Homes, which is partnering with Rooted Homes on this project.
[34:53] We'll start with this slide right here, just a frame of reference of where Cinder
[34:57] Hollow is.
[34:59] It's a piece of property just to the west of the cemetery, the city cemetery, kind
[35:04] of up the hill from the cemetery.
[35:06] It's approximately, let me get the next slide.
[35:11] It's eight point three five acres of that approximately five of us buildable
[35:15] You can see faintly on there the topography of the area. It's quite steep on the backside
[35:21] It's about five acres is buildable
[35:23] the city purchased this in
[35:26] 2023 in May
[35:28] after really our housing committee helped lead this because we purchased it with CDBG funds or community block grant funds and our housing committee did
[35:36] community outreach by hosting a community meeting on that and then it was
[35:40] also discussed in several of the committee's meetings as well. The vision
[35:44] at the time of buying this was for approximately 30 home ownership units
[35:49] affordable to folks living at 80 percent area meeting income or less so folks
[35:54] in that range of income was typically kind of your middle management or case
[35:59] managers or teachers or nurses kind of fit into that area of income.
[36:05] And then because we bought it with community development block grant funds, the developer
[36:10] needs to be a nonprofit organization.
[36:16] Just on the developer selection process since that's what we're here to talk about tonight.
[36:21] In December, we put out an RFQ looking for qualified master developers.
[36:27] It was out for all of January.
[36:29] we had one submission from Rooted Homes and staff first vetted that and found
[36:34] it to be a good submission and then we had the Housing and Community
[36:37] Development Committee also go over it and they are forwarding their
[36:41] recommendation to you to accept Rooted Home as the developer. At this point I'm
[36:45] going to turn it over to Jackie and Rick to kind of talk about Rooted Homes
[36:50] and Jackie you can just tell me when to hit new slides okay.
[36:59] That would
[37:00] help. Thanks for having us. I'm Jackie Keough, Executive Director of Rooted Homes. You can
[37:07] advance the slide. So, many of you know, but for those of you who don't, we are a non-profit
[37:13] affordable housing developer. We build sustainable and affordable home ownership communities
[37:18] throughout central Oregon. We are a non-profit. Our board is led by the homeowners,
[37:24] majority who live in our homes as well as community representatives.
[37:29] Ruta Homes has a long history of working in the city of Bend. Last year, we
[37:36] committed to expanding into Redmond. We have four projects that total 98 units of
[37:40] affordable housing coming to Redmond starting this year. This would be one
[37:45] of those four. We work very closely with our partner Housing Works who
[37:51] develops properties with us and acts as our guarantor as we significantly expand
[37:57] our pipeline. We have about a million dollars budget organizationally and then
[38:03] five million dollars in assets. That's separate from on average we're managing
[38:08] about 60 million dollars in project expenses on an annual basis. We are your
[38:16] our land trust, and what that really means is that we own the land under which we develop
[38:22] the homes.
[38:23] We do that using a deed restriction, and it really is a tool that allows us to ensure
[38:28] that we're not just building affordable housing for this generation and for the city of Redmond.
[38:33] It's for multiple generations, so every time the homes resell, they will be required
[38:39] to go to another low-income household in perpetuity.
[38:42] And so the goal with that, you know, model is that you essentially create two pipelines,
[38:47] one of our new construction homes and the other of our resale homes and essentially
[38:53] you double the homes that City of Redmond residents have access to.
[38:59] Our homes are a little different than typical affordable housing.
[39:02] We are founded on a dual mission of both affordability and sustainability.
[39:07] And so what we are developing is very high quality homes.
[39:10] Our homes are priced on average at $250,000, but they're praising for more than double that.
[39:18] And that's because all the homes we build are goal net zero,
[39:21] which means the home emits or uses as little energy as it produces.
[39:26] Think very sustainable design features, you know,
[39:31] and on top of that we have solar panels on the roofs that negate any energy consumption by the homeowners.
[39:37] This is good one because you know the City of Redmond has this long-term asset
[39:43] for its community that will always kind of stand the test of time of quality
[39:47] and sustainability but also we all know an affordable mortgage can quickly
[39:52] become unaffordable when you're paying hundreds of dollars in utility bills and
[39:56] so our homeowners average $12 a month and that makes the home even more
[40:00] affordable. We serve a range of households. Generally we're serving
[40:06] having folks under 80% area median income just because the state requires that on the majority
[40:12] of our projects.
[40:13] However, we're able to reach households as low as 30% area median income, which is unheard
[40:19] of for ownership because we partner with housing works.
[40:23] So we have about a third of our entire portfolio.
[40:26] Our clients who are ready to move out of a housing choice voucher, commonly known
[40:31] section 8 housing rental into a home ownership unit with us. We give priority to them and they
[40:38] are able to take their voucher with them and essentially it acts like a second earner in
[40:44] their household who's paying down their mortgage for 13 years. That is a really unique partnership
[40:50] but it allows us to serve a much wider range of households, not just the groups that Linda
[40:56] to describe, but also folks who are on disability, retired folks, single parents who ownership
[41:03] wouldn't be possible otherwise.
[41:07] Next slide, please.
[41:08] Oh, I think that was the last one you had. We just had those.
[41:12] Oh, yeah. Oh, well, okay. There was one piece.
[41:14] Is there anything else you'd like to cover or questions from the council for you?
[41:16] Yeah, I did. I know there was an initial question about resident-driven design and
[41:21] how we get the community involved,
[41:23] and so I just wanna address that.
[41:26] So, Ruta Homes, in every community we design,
[41:28] we have two resident-driven design meetings.
[41:32] The first one, we produce a site plan in home designs,
[41:35] and we have interested residents and neighbors
[41:38] who give feedback on that plan.
[41:40] We then make those changes in real time,
[41:44] and before we submit our building permits,
[41:46] we have adapted that based on community feedback.
[41:49] We did this for one of our sites in Redmond,
[41:51] and it had almost 50 residents give feedback.
[41:54] And so we would plan to do this like we always do
[41:58] for the Cinder Hollow neighborhood.
[42:01] Great, any questions?
[42:03] Catherine?
[42:03] Can you just give a brief breakdown
[42:05] on the project funding sources,
[42:08] like where the money comes from for this,
[42:09] or lift dollars utilized, et cetera?
[42:12] Yeah, so Rude Homes,
[42:14] essentially think of it as three buckets.
[42:16] So the first bucket is our pre-development financing,
[42:18] funding to design the site in the homes and funding to put in the infrastructure.
[42:25] A major portion of that is contributed by the city on this project because the
[42:30] land would be donated and there's some significant pending grant requests for
[42:35] infrastructure managed by the city. We would take out a pre-development loan,
[42:40] a low interest like 3% from one of our funders who would allow us the
[42:45] additional funds to get the pre-development work done.
[42:50] We do this because we don't wanna wait
[42:52] on the state for money.
[42:55] If we do it in this way,
[42:56] we essentially reduce our build time by a year.
[42:59] And so by doing pre-development first,
[43:01] not waiting on the state,
[43:02] it speeds up the production of affordable housing.
[43:05] Then, yes, we would apply to the state's lift program.
[43:09] This program, unfortunately,
[43:11] because it is tied to appraised value,
[43:13] is not enough in the city of Redmond
[43:15] to fund the construction of the homes.
[43:19] It's just a policy that could be improved upon.
[43:22] And so we have to bring a number,
[43:24] generally about a million dollars in addition,
[43:26] of grants to complete construction.
[43:29] And then we take out a construction loan,
[43:32] just like any other developer,
[43:34] and then a majority of that loan is paid back
[43:38] by the home sales, not all.
[43:41] We also have to put in funding operation from rooted homes to be able to pay that back
[43:50] I had two questions
[43:52] Timeline you said that these would be built within this year. Is that accurate? No
[43:58] So I want to have Rick Hayes introduce himself and he's joining us as our partner
[44:04] So we can meet the city's timeline. So I want to use you
[44:07] Yeah, Rick Hayes with NLB working for rooted homes as a development consultant
[44:12] and HACE project management.
[44:14] But anyways, it's a pleasure to be here.
[44:16] Thank you for the opportunity.
[44:18] So the site requires some offsite improvements
[44:22] and some onsite development.
[44:24] So the kind of mandated timeline is mid-2027
[44:28] to have the units completed.
[44:30] So that'll be the timeline that we'll be looking at
[44:33] aggressively beginning the project
[44:35] as soon as we can moving forward
[44:38] because everything takes more time than expected.
[44:41] And so we're going to push quickly to meet that timeline, but 2027 mid 2027.
[44:48] I just wanted to ask because we've asked it of all of the other developers who've kind
[44:52] of come before us recently on in terms of you talked about sustainability.
[44:57] Are you guys committed to zero escaping?
[45:00] And kind of smart water use when it comes to landscaping and kind of the scenery.
[45:05] Yes, that's at minimum what we do. We also give every home buyer an electric vehicle,
[45:10] excuse me if I wish, an electric bicycle. One debt. We also have community gardens.
[45:17] We have extra-scaping. We also have EV charging. So extra-scaping is the tip of the iceberg
[45:24] of what we do for the goal of a carbon neutral site.
[45:28] Thank you. Okay any other questions? We have a motion to take up. Anything else
[45:36] Linda? Do you if I speak for just a moment on the financing Jackie mentioned
[45:43] some pending grants and we do have a pending grant with HUD that we're
[45:47] still hoping to hear from that will help pay off for infrastructure. We also
[45:51] put in a request a congressional spending request that will be pending
[45:55] but so it is because of the nature of the site being a cinder pit it will take
[46:02] significant infrastructure help and so the city that is while we have no
[46:06] general funds going into this project at this time we do have CDBG money at
[46:11] this point in this project and and we do hope to come alongside with some
[46:15] grant money to help with that infrastructure for rooted. Is there a
[46:19] motion from page 38. I move to award the Cinder Hollow Project Master
[46:26] Development Request for Qualifications to Rooted Homes and authorize the City
[46:30] Manager to enter into a Development and Disposition Agreement consistent with
[46:34] the requirements imposed by the Housing and Urban Development Community
[46:38] Development Block grant program. Second. Moving second. Any further discussion?
[46:43] All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you very
[46:48] much.
[46:52] So next we have a resolution approving the property tax exemption for
[46:58] VBT, Redmond Landing, LP is authorized by Oregon Revised Statute 307.15 to 307.535
[47:05] and City Council ordinance 95-05. Linda. Again Linda Klein, Housing
[47:15] Coordinator for the City of Redmond. This conversation has been before you
[47:19] at two previous council meetings.
[47:22] It's for a affordable housing project.
[47:26] They're asking for property tax abatement for 20 years
[47:30] that will be translated completely into savings
[47:34] for the residents of this apartment complex.
[47:38] Get to the meat of this.
[47:41] So Redmond Landing is on Umatilla Avenue.
[47:45] It's actually the best place to really see this.
[47:48] It's on Canal.
[47:49] canal, just south of Beimar, basically. There's a very large area between Highway 97 and canal.
[47:57] They are proposing building 156 units. They've gotten all the way through planning. They're
[48:04] in permitting at this point on this project. They are asking for this abatement so that
[48:09] they can keep the rents affordable to 60% AMI or less. And so this request is, it's
[48:15] a state ORS that allows us to do this for a 20-year exemption.
[48:21] Through our due diligence, we can see that it meets the Oregon revised statute requirements
[48:26] of being 100 percent of the units being affordable at 60 percent or less, AOMI, that the rents
[48:32] will reflect the entire tax abatement, but it does need to be approved by 51 percent
[48:38] of the affected taxing entities in our community, and we'll get to what that means in
[48:44] just a second.
[48:44] It also meets the requirements of our city ordinance and code.
[48:48] It's consistent with the ORS.
[48:50] And for an enforcement mechanism to ensure the housing is maintained in a decent, safe
[48:55] and sanitary condition for occupants.
[48:58] When this developer closes their – does their closing paperwork with their lender,
[49:04] the lender is going to require them to have a reserve maintenance account.
[49:08] We will enter in – if this is approved by 51 percent of the effecting taxing entities,
[49:12] we will enter into an agreement with this developer that they will have to show us
[49:17] that they have entered into this maintenance agreement with their lender
[49:21] before we'll okay the tax abatement.
[49:26] So kind of the path to this is if you do
[49:30] approve this tonight it will move on to another step. If you don't then it's
[49:34] done and there will be no tax abatement. If you do approve it they
[49:38] will next need to go to the school district and ask the school board to
[49:41] approve it, that will get them over that 51% threshold of the taxing districts.
[49:46] If the school district turns them down, then there will be no tax exemption, and it will
[49:50] become a market rate apartment complex.
[49:53] If they do say yes, then they will have that threshold to meet what they need to
[49:57] have an approval of a 20-year exemption.
[50:04] And do you have any questions?
[50:05] By the way, the pictures used in this PowerPoint are pictures of their properties
[50:09] in other communities.
[50:10] too much grass. Yeah, Western Washington. Yeah. Do you have any questions for me?
[50:18] Okay, any questions or discussion? If not, is there a motion?
[50:27] All right. I move to adopt resolution 2024-04, approving VBT, Redmond Landings Tax Exempt
[50:37] Request of the City, and if adopted by at least 51% of the taxing district,
[50:42] to authorize the city manager to enter into a tax-exempt agreement with the developer
[50:47] to ensure the property is maintained in decent, safe and sanitary conditions for the occupants.
[50:53] Second?
[50:54] We didn't second it.
[50:56] One comment I'll make is we are very challenged in housing not only here in Revman but almost
[51:06] everywhere right now. And the only solution to getting the people housed that work at
[51:13] these wages and these salaries is to have these type of programs. So it's a very, very
[51:21] good plan. So any other comments or questions? All those in favor signify by saying aye.
[51:27] Aye.
[51:28] Aye.
[51:29] Okay, motion carries. Thank you, Linda.
[51:31] Thank you.
[51:34] Next, we have a resolution in the city of Redmond referring to the voters of Redmond a ballot
[51:40] measure proposing city charter amendments related to the council and mayoral term limits adopting
[51:45] ballot titles and authorizing related matters.
[51:48] This would be the one just on term limits in the mayoral term.
[51:55] Is there any, is there a motion to get this at least before the council?
[52:06] Do you want to make the resolution is that we are asking motion or the motion? Yeah, and then we'll have discussion after. There's a motion. Okay, I moved to adopt a resolution 2420 24-05 submitting to voters a ballot measure to amend the Redmond City Charter as it relates to term limits for council and term length for mayor.
[52:26] second all second so this is the one for the mayoral term and there was a
[52:32] question as to whether or not we should split out the mayoral term and the term
[52:35] limits I honestly have no preference if you want to split them that's fine but
[52:41] what would we have to do to do that to you do
[52:49] more paperwork and our timeline
[52:52] is March 1st right it is so we don't have the time we don't have a lot of
[52:56] time. I don't think we have any time. We don't have much time. My preference would be to go with the
[53:03] two just because it is drafted and ready at this point but if you want to
[53:12] split it out I'll do the paperwork. Well we'd have to have a different council
[53:16] meeting. You could just direct, I mean you could amend it here and direct
[53:22] was modified. What's the preference of the council?
[53:29] I'm gonna suggest I feel that
[53:30] if you give people a choice to vote on each item individually they'll feel that
[53:34] it was the most transparent way to do it. I think that's the simplest way. So three
[53:40] ballot titles one for the term limits for council and mayor one for the mayoral
[53:45] term and one for the family. Yeah it'll end up being just because of the
[53:52] the way the Charter's written.
[53:54] There'll be one that just applies to Mayor,
[53:56] one that applies to Council,
[53:57] and one that applies to...
[53:57] So the mayoral term of four years
[53:59] and the term limit would be in one section.
[54:01] Correct.
[54:02] Count it.
[54:04] So do we want to amend the motion
[54:06] to reflect three ballot titles?
[54:09] Yes, so this one will just be for two
[54:12] to split the amendments for sections
[54:15] eight and nine into two different ones.
[54:17] And then we already have a separate one for you.
[54:19] So is that okay with you, Tobias?
[54:21] Yeah.
[54:21] All right, and who's seconded?
[54:23] Cat did, okay.
[54:24] So you got that, Kayla?
[54:26] Okay.
[54:27] All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
[54:30] Aye.
[54:31] Okay, so that takes care of the term stuff.
[54:36] Let's do resolution 2024-06,
[54:39] a resolution of the city of Redmond
[54:40] referring to the voters of Redmond.
[54:42] A ballot measure proposing city charter amendments
[54:44] relating to council qualifications,
[54:46] adopting ballot tiles and authorizing late matters.
[54:49] Is there a motion to approve this one?
[54:53] I move to adopt resolution 2024-08, submitting to voters a ballot measure to amend the Redmond
[54:59] City Charter as it relates to qualifications to hold elective office.
[55:03] Second.
[55:04] Wouldn't second.
[55:04] 06.
[55:05] 06.
[55:06] 06.
[55:07] Second.
[55:07] Bad glasses.
[55:09] Any further questions or comments?
[55:12] All those in favor signify by saying aye.
[55:14] Aye.
[55:15] Okay.
[55:16] Motion carries.
[55:19] Now is the time for the East Side Arturial Project Memorandum of Understanding between
[55:25] the Oregon Department of Transportation and the City of Redmond.
[55:28] Jessica?
[55:35] Let me just set the policy context for this one.
[55:39] So this is initiative the council began in 2023 and what it reflects as we look at
[55:46] kind of today is that the mayors talk frequently about the state transportation funding otherwise
[55:52] known as STIP funding being about 70 million over the next decade. That's ODOT who helps us build roads
[56:00] such as 97, such as 126 and making improvements along them.
[56:05] And the council asked us to begin the initiative to begin to look at tools such as the car rental
[56:10] tax to be able to finance this. So what it is is the construction of a section of an arterial
[56:19] that really reflects we need to take control
[56:23] of our own destiny on unlocking congestion
[56:25] and finding other opportunities for freight mobility.
[56:29] And the other thing with this project,
[56:31] there's two other notes I wanna make.
[56:33] This is expanding the system
[56:35] and the money we're using to pay for it
[56:37] is money that isn't used for paving.
[56:39] So whether it's the creation of the new car rental tax,
[56:41] whether it's the use of system development charges,
[56:45] it's resources associated with expansion
[56:47] not winning in the clinical gravel off the streets
[56:50] or fixed potholes which I haven't seen
[56:53] in the decade that I've been in Redmond.
[56:55] And then the other thing, and I mentioned it earlier again
[56:58] and this is just kind of to make sure people
[57:00] that are maybe in the audience or watching online
[57:05] that what we control are streets such as,
[57:09] I'll probably get this wrong,
[57:10] fifth and sixth evergreen ninth street, right?
[57:14] what ODOT and the State Highway Department controls are those roads to get us you farther
[57:19] distances like I mentioned, Highway 126, Highway 97, US 20. So I just wanted to clarify
[57:27] some of those things as we get into the details tonight of this partnership with ODOT
[57:32] on moving forward with this project. Well Keith, if you want to experience potholes
[57:36] just go to bed.
[57:45] Alright, good evening Mayor and City Council, Jessica McLeanahan, Director of Public Works.
[57:50] As Keith mentioned, the action before you tonight is to enter into Memorandum of Understanding
[57:55] with ODOT to just be a first step in our partnership on this important project.
[57:59] So we wanted to take the opportunity to just highlight again why the project, we believe
[58:03] it's important and now is the right time to do it.
[58:07] So as a refresher, the project is shown here as the red line that's on the east side of
[58:13] the highway there.
[58:14] It begins with a roundabout at Airport and Veterans Way, an extension of Ninth Street
[58:19] through the old Juniper Golf Course, a roundabout on Highway 126 at Ninth Street, and again
[58:24] that's the portion of this project that would be controlled by ODOT, and then a
[58:29] continuation north and a modernization of Ninth Street from Highway 126 up to
[58:34] Hemlock.
[58:35] The project really does help us resolve safety and congestion issues.
[58:39] It's an alternate route to Highway 97.
[58:41] The long-term solution for Highway 97 comes at that million-dollar price tag
[58:46] that the state is actively trying to seek federal funding for.
[58:49] But again, as Keith mentioned, we're feeling the need to invest in our community ahead of that time.
[58:54] And so this alternate route helps provide that safety and congestion relief,
[58:57] while also opening up currently undevelopable lands
[59:01] because a connection of 9th Street through the old golf course does not currently exist.
[59:05] So we also see an economic driver here as part of this project.
[59:10] We're currently in the pre-design phase.
[59:13] I'm actually very excited to report that we're opening proposals for a progressive
[59:16] design builder tomorrow, and so you'll be seeing us again here in late spring with
[59:21] a negotiated contract for initial design services for the project, and that will
[59:25] really kick off the design in earnest this summer and through the end of the
[59:30] calendar year to set us up for success to begin some portion of construction, hopefully,
[59:35] in the next construction season.
[59:38] We are also hopeful that the project in total could be complete within the three to four-year
[59:42] horizon, which is incredibly fast, I will say, for about two miles of roadway, two
[59:47] large roundabouts, and one of which is on the state system.
[59:50] So it's going to be really fast and furious, and the progressive design build model
[59:55] is really what helps us facilitate that fast pace and that schedule growth.
[1:00:01] And then a little bit more about how the project is funded. You've seen this slide before.
[1:00:05] This really is meant to highlight that these large infrastructure projects are funded from
[1:00:10] a variety of sources. In this case, the largest of those sources is our transportation SDCs.
[1:00:16] So those are the system development charges that we collect from developers that can only
[1:00:20] be used towards improvement in adding capacity to our system. You'll also see the water
[1:00:25] and wastewater funds there, and that's because when we build a new road, we put the water
[1:00:28] lines and the sewer lines underneath the road before we build it. And then back in August,
[1:00:34] we presented to Council on the use of one-time general fund dollars, and that's the red piece
[1:00:39] of the pie here, that $4 million that was in excess, that we're allocating towards
[1:00:43] this important project to make it a reality, as well as the rental car tax. And that
[1:00:48] was something that just a few weeks ago, Council also authorized, that's helping
[1:00:52] make this project complete in total. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.
[1:00:58] any questions for Jessica thank you and the reason we have the memorandum with
[1:01:03] ODOT is because of the intersection with 126 I'm assuming yes that's correct and
[1:01:09] I'm glad I should have talked more to the actual action here sorry so this
[1:01:14] MOU is again it's the first step towards outlining our partnership it talks
[1:01:18] about who owns what the city owns the local roads the state owns the state
[1:01:22] roads and it also outlines the intent which is that the city is building the
[1:01:27] entire project. However there will be a maintenance agreement where ODOT will
[1:01:31] assume maintenance of their facility and that's again the roundabout at 126. It
[1:01:36] also outlines a partnership for mutual reviews and permitting things like that
[1:01:41] and the agreement that we will work in partnership to actually develop an
[1:01:46] intergovernmental agreement and that's really going to be the document of
[1:01:49] importance that's quite a bit longer than the MOU before you tonight and
[1:01:52] and outlines the nuts and bolts.
[1:01:54] And so it's just both staffs coming together
[1:01:57] and agreeing that we're gonna partner on this
[1:01:59] and work towards an IGA
[1:02:00] and then hopefully a successful completion of the project.
[1:02:02] And I would say that we've talked with ODOT a lot about this
[1:02:08] and they were very supportive of the project.
[1:02:10] John?
[1:02:10] So I guess that's actually a question for Jessica
[1:02:12] and for Ed.
[1:02:15] If we're moving forward with this project,
[1:02:17] are we confident that ODOT is not gonna use
[1:02:20] as an excuse to push the South 97 to kind of rebuild further down their priority list
[1:02:27] given their funding search.
[1:02:29] No, I really think they're separate.
[1:02:32] ODOT has applied twice for a federal grant for $40 million.
[1:02:36] They're doing it again this year to rebuild South Highway 97.
[1:02:40] They do see this as completely different projects.
[1:02:43] And I'm confident one of these years will get the money to do South Highway 97.
[1:02:49] Well, I approve of your optimism.
[1:02:51] Thank you.
[1:02:53] Okay. Thank you, Jessica.
[1:02:56] So is there a motion regarding the ODOT City on OU?
[1:02:59] Yeah.
[1:03:00] I move to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Oregon Department of Transportation for the Eastside Artillery Project.
[1:03:07] Second.
[1:03:08] Second.
[1:03:09] And any further discussion?
[1:03:10] All those in favor signify by saying aye.
[1:03:13] Aye.
[1:03:14] Okay, motion carries and now we have additional comments from citizens, are there any comments?
[1:03:21] Okay, seeing none, we'll go to Keith.
[1:03:24] Alright, I just have four quick updates as we talk about other people's money.
[1:03:31] First of all, as the short session begins to wrap up over the next week or so,
[1:03:36] So, we still have an ask that's alive, which is $3 million, which would go toward North
[1:03:43] Point, and Representative Everson Levy is doing an incredible job on our behalf, moving
[1:03:49] that through, and so that's exciting that it's in the bill that's currently amended
[1:03:55] and looking like it's in very good shape.
[1:03:59] The other thing associated with the airport, you read recently that we did receive $7
[1:04:04] million from the Federal Infrastructure Bill that's been around for a few years now, and
[1:04:09] by getting that 7 million that'll go towards the terminal, it gets us kind of in the room
[1:04:14] to get more federal money for the project. So while 7 seems small in the context of a
[1:04:19] $155 million project, it puts us in really good shape. So I appreciate the airport's
[1:04:24] work on that. And we asked for 13, and we got 7 just as a relative piece. And then
[1:04:30] And the airport is also putting in $10 million for the State of Oregon Connect Grant, which
[1:04:36] will be done in the end of this month, so I guess that would be in two days.
[1:04:41] And then, this is already mentioned tonight, but the Congressional Directive Spending,
[1:04:46] which is the modern name for earmarks, those always come in about $2 million at
[1:04:52] most and we do have an ask-in for the cinder hollow infrastructure and then
[1:04:59] rooted homes and housing works also have an ask-in that we've supported for the
[1:05:05] Antler project that's just nearby the dog park off of Antler.
[1:05:11] Clifford, do you have a question?
[1:05:13] No, no.
[1:05:15] Alright, Tobias, let's start with you.
[1:05:20] Just some updates from the different committees.
[1:05:24] GOLF approved their annual plan today, so that was a good thing.
[1:05:29] So they have marching orders for the year.
[1:05:32] Planning has a lot of big stuff coming this year with, you know, big projects being approved.
[1:05:38] So we're waiting for those to come through, but we have a very good group that we're working
[1:05:44] through. Tourism, we have an RFP coming soon.
[1:05:48] for those tours and dollars and the Farewell Festival just announced their
[1:05:52] lineup for this the summer headlining by Brandy Carlisle on Sunday so should be
[1:05:58] a pretty good lineup if you like that sort of music.
[1:06:07] Just some committee
[1:06:08] updates as well from Parks Committee the Parks Master Plan update is kicking
[1:06:13] off this week so be on the lookout for open house invites for the spring
[1:06:18] and then there will be a council workshop this summer regarding that project.
[1:06:23] The central dry canyon design is nearing 60% completion currently and then another project
[1:06:30] Valley View and Sam Johnson the Tennyson pickleball courts resurfacing is slated to start on April
[1:06:36] 1st.
[1:06:39] I have nothing.
[1:06:42] I'm good.
[1:06:42] Thank you.
[1:06:44] Keith kind of stole my thunder for the airport.
[1:06:47] But that's okay.
[1:06:48] That's alright.
[1:06:49] That's good.
[1:06:49] I do want to just acknowledge, again, the city staff, especially James and his team for
[1:06:56] the audit, that it's not an easy task to make sure that all of the beans get counted in the
[1:07:03] appropriate way all year long, and they did an amazing job.
[1:07:07] So thank you, and please extend our gratitude to your team.
[1:07:14] I'm still reading about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
[1:07:22] You know, to me diversity means that all sectors of society participate and
[1:07:32] I would encourage
[1:07:33] all sectors of our community to participate with the city and their committees and commissions,
[1:07:38] run for council.
[1:07:40] That's what diversity means to me.
[1:07:42] It's having representation for all our people in our community.
[1:07:53] equity is to me, wow, for
[1:08:00] white people to think that they're being treated just unequally
[1:08:04] as shocking. When you look at the history of our country, white people have been on
[1:08:12] the upper hand for so long in so many ways.
[1:08:18] It just is amazing. The opportunities we
[1:08:22] have so unlike people of color historically so
[1:08:33] anyway I don't have
[1:08:36] anything else but we'll adjourn