[0:03] This conference will now be recorded.
>> I won't say anymore
[0:08] after we're done.
>> Call to order the special council
[0:13] meeting on July 3rd, 2026 at 10 p.m.
Meeting call to order.
[0:20] » 10 a.m. 10 a.m. [laughter]
>> Clock does say 10 p.m. So there you go.
[0:26] » So, uh, need to approve the agenda.
I move to approve the agenda as written.
[0:33] » So moved. Second. I'll
>> second. Seconded by councelor Weller.
[0:38] » All those in favor by saying I
>> I
[0:41] » I
>> I
[0:43] » I.
>> Motion carried. Moving right into new
[0:46] business. First of all, I'd like to
thank everyone for
[0:49] for uh being present at this meeting
because we kind of got caught off guard.
[0:56] I just happened to look looked at my
email yesterday morning from got an
[1:00] email from Tyler Miller
saying that there's a deadline uh Friday
[1:07] and so I uh immediately called Joelette.
I didn't mean to bother you yesterday
[1:14] but it was pretty important. So, we
decided to
[1:19] um in light of the vote last Monday,
there was one uh nay
[1:27] uh
uh we thought we it would behoover our
[1:32] council and city to have a special
meeting to make sure that uh we're doing
[1:38] this the right way. And um and so here
we are. And um
[1:47] to me it's uh after reading it, it's it
it's
[1:54] um would really benefit our city. Um
it's kind of like a donation of
[2:02] $56,414.50
[2:07] for with no string attached. It's just
products only. Um,
[2:15] so it it's it's a good thing. Um,
Joseette, you want to have Sure.
[2:21] » So, um, this one is going to be the
leading agency is going to be Columbia
[2:26] County Sheriff's. The participating
agencies are City of St. Helens Police
[2:32] Department and Renown Police Department.
um answers to the questions from last
[2:37] time because it's just products. There
is has been no cost overruns in the
[2:42] past. These are not estimates. They're
actual
[2:45] costs for specific numbers of radios.
So, uh Tyler said it's almost unheard of
[2:51] because there's nothing to overrun on
the costs. And in relation to fire
[2:56] departments,
these grants through the brine um
[3:02] statewide crisis intervention program
are specific to law enforcement, not
[3:07] fire departments, but the fire
departments have the assistance to
[3:11] firefighters grant that they can go
through. They said they have their own
[3:16] grant person who's going to be doing
their grants for their radio upgrades.
[3:21] So, those are the two questions you guys
wanted answers to before we were to sign
[3:27] for anou. Um, does anyone have any other
questions?
[3:33] » Go ahead and
Sean, they're all good as far as
[3:38] changing frequency and all that. I'm
>> Yeah, it's the goal of I mean, there's a
[3:43] couple things the the upgrades to the
towers are going to be this. So, if we
[3:50] hold out and don't go for a grant, we're
going to be kind of on our own to
[3:54] eventually buy
our own, which is that's kind of not
[4:00] reality for us. Um, I think everyone was
a little hesitant at first. They
[4:06] thought, "Oh, we're going to have to be,
you know, it's going to be like
[4:09] Washington County owns us or there was
all these kind of fears associated with
[4:14] it that I think most of them in their
chief's meetings." and then their fire
[4:18] department chief meetings that kind of
talked through those issues. Um, so and
[4:25] Sean's real concern was that the city of
Scapus's council president who was is
[4:32] Tyler Miller had a communications
company and whether or not that was some
[4:36] sort of conflict of interest for him to
be pushing for these radios and own a
[4:42] company. But he is not associated with
that company anymore. Um, and as theou
[4:47] states, it's Communications Northwest or
Raycom who will be doing and others
[4:52] could do it too, the programming, but
those are the two that they're working
[4:56] with to program these radios because
they have a specific encryption key that
[5:03] not all the little communication
agencies have. There's specific ways to
[5:10] encrypt them. I guess
>> it's a security thing. They don't want
[5:13] it everywhere. Yeah, they don't want
everyone to have the specific channel.
[5:18] » Sure.
>> ID. So,
[5:19] » that makes sense.
>> Um, after kind of that, we there isn't
[5:25] really like a
you know, we do have working radios
[5:29] right now, but those working radios
could go to some other agency. So the
[5:34] police department potentially could get
s council could surplus those and the
[5:39] police department could um you know sell
those and then have that money go into
[5:44] the police department. So yeah, there's
not really the pickup the same as there
[5:51] was originally.
>> Do you know what kind of cost is
[5:54] involved in changing out switching the
radios?
[5:58] » You mean what?
>> Well, like installing them in in the
[6:01] vehicles. Well, so we have docks in the
vehicles. Um, I don't know. I' We'd have
[6:08] to ask John if those I'm thinking
they're the Motorola Tate type, so I
[6:13] think they're pretty similar, but I'd
have to ask him if there's a docking
[6:17] change.
[6:20] I could text him and ask him. I did talk
to Tyler yesterday to con tell him what
[6:26] we're having a special meeting and he
mentioned that Shawn is totally on board
[6:31] with this and very excited about it. So
>> though he's talked to Sean.
[6:37] » Yes.
>> Okay.
[6:39] » So yeah, and that's the thing I think
jurisdictions get kind of
[6:46] um what do I want to say? Proprietary
and like not us. We're not going to do
[6:51] right. But as a system,
we really need to be on board with what
[6:57] the bigger system is changing to. Even
if it has growing pains for us, because
[7:03] ultimately we'll be the odd man out if
the system isn't is reads ours less and
[7:08] less and less over time as it gets
upgraded. That's only just bad for us
[7:15] instead of getting ripping off the
band-aid. So, I'm I'm a rip off the
[7:19] band-aid type of mom. Like, I don't pull
it slowly. I just real quick. So the
[7:24] change might have growing pains, but
it's not going to be long term.
[7:31] » So So you mentioned that the uh change
of the frequency in the towers is
[7:36] already baked into
>> well that that's budget or
[7:40] » that's where CCOM is going, right? So we
have a number of things that are on the
[7:47] list of things to do at emergency
management and SECOM, right?
[7:52] one the first and we've had multiple
directors which have all had their own
[7:56] direction.
We've gotten away from changing. First
[8:00] it was spend all the money on the actual
pods that the 911 dispatchers take like
[8:06] the whole that whole thing. They've gone
away from that and now they're talking
[8:11] because those were not the most
upto-date but they weren't fa flailing
[8:18] right. So now they've gone to that
they're trying to do more to power
[8:23] connectivity and upgrade there. And so
with everyone once everyone is switched
[8:30] then those bigger things can happen
to upgrade the two towers that we need.
[8:37] We they own land for other towers that's
kind of on the back burner because
[8:42] there's one like out towards Baker Point
that they own land but they don't have a
[8:48] tower there. And that would be really
the final connectivity of getting all
[8:52] the line of sight reading going on. Um
but we could also have when emergency
[8:59] management we could have them come and
um CCOM give us a presentation of that
[9:04] breakdown. But it's been up and down as
the different directors kind of push
[9:09] what they want to do. Um, but that's the
goal. If we can get everyone on the
[9:14] same, then we can make some less extreme
changes that make our system better
[9:20] before the bigger, you know, the
finalized closing the loop, so to speak,
[9:26] changes that are what they see as
costing us the most money.
[9:31] » I mean, I just I mean, it's it's into
the nitty-gritty. It just seems to me
[9:35] that
you got one tower. I don't know how many
[9:40] transmitters they actually have. I mean,
do they run the old one and then
[9:45] implement the new one? I mean, it's got
to be some type of handoff, but you
[9:49] can't have agency down here, one up
here.
[9:52] » Well, I know that some of our towers
already have that type of transmitter
[9:56] because other agencies
>> put them up for their use in our area.
[10:01] Oh,
>> so there I think there's some of that
[10:04] piggybacking till our like that version
because I know like the dead zone
[10:09] between us and Washington County is only
dead because it our radios don't go
[10:15] where their radios go. And so when they
looked at like they laid out an over map
[10:21] of and I wish I would have given that to
you guys the last version we saw, but
[10:26] they basically laid out Columbia County
and it showed where the dead zones were
[10:30] and like a good chunk of that was
covered by the other version, not our
[10:36] version. And so it minimizes the dead if
we can
[10:41] » if we go to the 800.
>> Yeah. if we can get to the what everyone
[10:44] else is using because they're already
kind of putting it in for themselves and
[10:48] they're way bigger agencies where they
can put something so that they have the
[10:52] spread all the way out to edge of banks,
right? Or wherever where we don't have
[10:58] that same monetary
>> Yeah.
[11:02] » Sorry.
>> I mean, I'm just curious. I mean I
[11:05] what's going on here was what
SECOM was pushing for
[11:14] you know there were the director they
were I mean it was a big conversion I
[11:18] think over there but it was to go to the
new radios
[11:22] so it was like I'm I'm a little like
where are they where's where where's
[11:26] Secom going to get their money to do
their transition part of this
[11:31] » right but I think a lot of All of this
also, which they're trying to get this
[11:37] part of the infrastructure done through
free money.
[11:40] » Yeah.
>> And then just the built-in
[11:42] infrastructure is what we have to the
taxpayer has to worry about, right?
[11:46] Because I think it was like $33 million
or some crazy number,
[11:50] » right,
>> they had on it. Um, but that was like
[11:53] full boat everyone
>> like a whole switch out all at once.
[11:57] » Yeah. And so I think they're slowly
trying to just get what they can get for
[12:02] free and then we'll have a final nut we
have to pay for.
[12:08] » And then correct me if I'm wrong and you
might check on this, but I think I
[12:14] remember Tyler talking about if we did
accept this and we're awarded the grant,
[12:21] they would do the installation also.
>> Yeah,
[12:24] » that might answer your question a little
bit. So I think I mean and you know
[12:30] cross your fingers we get the grant it's
it's a grant application. So if we don't
[12:35] get it then we come back to the drawing
board and are redising all these same
[12:40] things again. Um
>> I think the voters really told
[12:47] 911 you got to get your act together. We
can't we're not going to fund some pie
[12:53] in the sky version. And I think that's
this is their movement towards that is
[12:58] like the different agencies figuring out
how to get the smaller agencies
[13:02] equipped. So then we can start chunking
away these things with grant money
[13:07] instead of just out of everyone's
pockets. But
[13:11] » so I guess if we get this grant, we'll
have technically we'll have the radios.
[13:17] We won't install them until we're
capable. Maybe capable now. And I can
[13:23] get I can get that answer for you. I
>> It does. It's kind of a mute point
[13:27] because if it's not capable, we're not
going to install them.
[13:32] I don't know what ramifications of that
are, but
[13:36] » uh well,
>> evidently they have somebody has a plan
[13:39] to do that because
>> or it's or or it's already up there and
[13:43] it's just not being used by
information while this is being applied
[13:48] for too. Yeah, it's just kind of
technical end of it and um we have to
[13:52] kind of put some faith into the people
that are rolling this out that they've
[13:56] already answered those
>> for our services. I mean, the ones we
[14:00] own, we still own.
>> Yeah.
[14:02] » So, you know, come say they
>> we wouldn't put them in.
[14:06] » They stall on bringing it to fruition up
there. We still have we're still covered
[14:11] on our own.
>> Yeah. Side. until we get
[14:14] » Well, the city of Scapus, Rainineer, and
Columbia City are already on board.
[14:19] » Yeah.
>> Already been
[14:20] » Yeah.
>> awarded.
[14:22] » Yeah.
>> And we're we're trailing behind.
[14:27] » Yeah. We're the second ask. So,
>> with with St. Helens,
[14:32] » St. Helens signed yesterday.
>> Yeah. I have the the one I'm If you guys
[14:36] approve it, I'm signing the one they
already signed. Good.
[14:40] » He sent me.
>> That's what he wanted.
[14:43] So,
>> when uh when does it come word with with
[14:47] the grant being awarded?
>> This doesn't I didn't get that. I'll
[14:51] have to get that from Sheriff Pixley. I
don't know what the return
[14:55] is. I looked into this program and they
fund a ton of different things. I was
[15:01] chasing chasing down all these watching
all these videos of what they f and I
[15:06] was like this is confusing to me because
I couldn't get specific like timelines
[15:12] for each one but they fund a lot of you
know emergency crisis law enforcement
[15:18] stuff. So
>> but makes sense it's a you know kind of
[15:23] statewide program. out.
[15:28] Any other questions?
[15:32] Okay.
Anyone like to make a motion?
[15:41] I guess I'll move.
>> Okay. Yeah.
[15:44] » Authorized city administrator sign theou
for the Ryan statewide crisis
[15:50] intervention program grant application
as a participating agency.
[15:55] » I'll second that.
>> So moved and thank you. Seconded. All
[16:00] those in favor signify by saying I.
>> I.
[16:04] » I.
Motion carried.
[16:08] You already signed it. No, I'm I was
just [laughter] I was I was writing
[16:12] motion carried. I'm gonna sign it right
now. [laughter]
[16:19] » Well, thank thank you very much you
guys. And
[16:21] » and thank you to that again coming in on
>> Yes.
[16:25] » not feeling very well and sounds you
sound better today.
[16:29] » It's because I just woke up Rick. I told
him sleep. He's like you don't sound
[16:33] very good. I'm like I just woke up. I'm
sorry.
[16:37] » Thank you again, Joe, for
>> you were pulling the tail.
[16:40] » I mean, we [laughter]
we almost
[16:44] » we might have missed it.
>> Yeah. Players here. So, [laughter] thank
[16:48] you for again for taking your time out
in your holiday. So, I will adjourn the
[16:53] meeting at 10:15.
You journ.
[16:57] » Thank you, Susan.
>> Oh, you're welcome. Oh,
[17:03] cool. It's fun.