City Council · morning

9:16Good morning.

9:17I am going to call to order today's Portland City Council meeting.

9:20It is Wednesday, October 29th at 9:34 AM.

9:25Keelan, could you please call the roll?

9:28Yes, sorry, sorry, just a moment.

9:34That's okay.

9:35Clerk.

9:42Here.

9:43Green.

9:44Present.

9:45Zimmerman.

9:46Here.

9:47Avalos.

9:47Dunphy.

9:48Here.

9:49Smith.

9:50Kanal.

9:51Ryan.

9:52Here.

9:52Koyama Lane.

9:54Murillo.

9:55Here.

9:57Sorry.

9:58Councilor Koyama Lane is online.

10:00Okay, thank you.

10:01Thank you, Councilor.

10:02Novick.

10:03Here.

10:04Pirtle-Guiney.

10:05Here.

10:07And could we please get the rules of order into quorum?

10:14Welcome to the Portland City Council.

10:16To testify before council in person or virtually, you may— must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.

10:26Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's webpage.

10:30Individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise.

10:34Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.

10:37The presiding officer preserves order.

10:39Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others' testimony or council deliberations will not be allowed.

10:49If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.

10:52Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.

10:55Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.

10:59Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

11:04Your testimony should address the matters being considered.

11:07When testifying, state your name for the record.

11:09Your address is not necessary.

11:11If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.

11:15Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls for your name.

11:19Thank you.

11:21Thank you very much.

11:23Colleagues, the first item on our agenda is approval of the agenda.

11:28Um, usually this moves very quickly, but I'm going to mix us up a little bit today.

11:32I will I want to start by flagging that one item has been removed from the consent agenda.

11:37That's item number 5.

11:39Item number 4 remains on the consent agenda.

11:42I am going to put forward a motion to suspend the rules and add a resolution, which I am passing out right now, which I know many of you saw yesterday, authorizing council to continue operating under the current City Code Chapter 3.02.

12:01We passed an ordinance at the beginning of the year making some changes to 3.02 and stating that the council president would bring back any further changes or an affirmation that we would continue operating under 3.02 by the end of October.

12:17Given the extensive work that the Governance Committee has done and a proposal that I have in the works right now that you all will see soon, I thought we had met that requirement.

12:28I recently learned that that requirement was far more technical and specific than I had remembered, and we actually need to affirmatively vote at this meeting by the end of the year to— or by the end of the month, I apologize— to continue to do our work under 3.02 as it currently stands.

12:47What you have before you is a resolution which would state that we would do so.

12:52Thank you.

12:53I would entertain a second.

12:57Second.

12:57Second.

12:59I think Councilor Dunphy was first out of the gate there.

13:03The attorneys have shared that this is not a debatable motion.

13:09So we move directly to a vote.

13:11This vote, because it is a rules suspension, requires 9 votes to pass.

13:15Clerk.

13:23Aye.

13:24What this is changing, can you yes, this is not changing anything.

13:47This is stating that we are fulfilling the requirement that we passed earlier this year by affirmatively stating that we will continue operating under 3.2 as it's currently written.

13:58I believe that this also refers to the fact that I do have changes that will be coming to the Governance Committee to debate about 3.02 in the works, which we may or may not see at this council depending on the actions taken by the Governance Committee.

14:18I don't understand it, but, um, aye.

14:22Ryan.

14:23Hey, I look forward to these conversations in governance.

14:26Aye.

14:27Councilor Janae Malane.

14:29Aye.

14:29Councilor Murillo.

14:31Aye.

14:31Councilor Novick.

14:32Although I kind of like the idea of an enforced vacation because it's illegal for us to operate.

14:36Aye.

14:36Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

14:38Aye.

14:39The motion carries with 10 aye votes.

14:43Thank you, colleagues.

14:44Are there any other additions or changes?

14:49Oh, and I should note, we will place that at the end of today's agenda, and that will be open for public comment.

14:56So if the public would like to make comments, please talk to Keelan to sign up.

15:01Are there any other motions to reorder the agenda or add items to the agenda?

15:10Okay, seeing none, do we have unanimous consent to approve the agenda?

15:18Okay, thank you, colleagues.

15:20The next item on our agenda is public communication.

15:23Keelan, can you please call up our first guest?

15:25First up, we have Blake Schell.

15:41Hi, good morning.

15:48Go right ahead.

15:50I'm Blake Schell, director of Oregon Contemporary, here on behalf of the Coalition Portland Arts and Culture for Equity.

15:57Portland's arts funding challenges are rooted in scarcity.

16:01According to SMU DataArts, we rank 17th in the nation for artistic vibrancy, but 172nd for government support.

16:10Our arts thrive despite, not because of, government funding.

16:15In New York, SMU reports that 48% of artists make a living on gigs or freelance work, and only 8 are full-time workers.

16:24In our smaller arts economy, that gap is likely even wider.

16:28The Big 5 are important employers, but they are not the primary source of income for artists here.

16:34Thank you.

16:35Most artists earn through gigs, teaching, and creative side work that keeps this ecosystem alive.

16:41Last year, the Office of Arts and Culture removed equity metrics from the art tax grants and distributed funds solely based on budget size.

16:49As a result, 45 of 80 groups lost funding while only the big 5 saw increases.

16:55Smaller orgs regularly employ Portland artists and afford— offer affordable, often free arts access across our neighborhoods.

17:04Prioritizing large institutions with endowments, greater funding, and fewer local artists is funneling money to money and power to power.

17:13The art tax supports K-12 arts education and making arts and culture available to underserved communities.

17:21In 2024, that mandate was changed without warning or oversight.

17:27We met with the office and multiple committees.

17:29No correction— corrective action was taken.

17:32We are now entering a second year of harm to our community.

17:36Portland voters expected the art tax to expand access, not diminish it.

17:41We asked the city to restore funding for the 45 and to realign arts funding with its original intent.

17:48Prioritize groups that provide low or no-cost access, employ local artists, and do deep community work with underserved Portlanders, all without other significant funding.

18:00Our vision is clear: support smaller orgs offering greater access citywide and the artists who make Portland what it is.

18:07We need explicit equity and access measures provided, protected from politics.

18:13And as costs rise while the art tax stays flat, we need change to provide more funding overall.

18:20There are over 500 arts nonprofits here, and most don't receive city funding.

18:26The arts give us agency, community, and the power to imagine change, and that's why they're under federal attack.

18:34And why we must protect them locally.

18:36We're asking for a bold vision in support of the arts.

18:39Help us to keep Portland as vibrant as the artists who live here.

18:43Thank you.

18:45Thank you very much for being here, and we see supporters, uh, behind you as well.

18:55Next up, we have Harper Hoverkamp.

19:00Welcome.

19:00Thank you for being here today.

19:09Uh, good morning.

19:10For the record, my name is Harper Haverkamp.

19:12I'm speaking today as an individual.

19:15This summer, I heard that some councilors were brainstorming ordinances to support the LGBTQ community.

19:21In my opinion, the decriminalization of sex work should be at the forefront of any such policy discussion.

19:28Let's reflect on the legacy of Black trans elder Miss Major, who passed earlier this month.

19:35Miss Major was not only at Stonewall, but she spent decades as a sex worker while also supporting the trans community materially and spiritually.

19:46The basis of her politics and activism was how she made ends meet and how police and institutions impeded her survival.

19:56This isn't history of a different era.

19:58Today, trans people, women like me, still perform this work and are suffering harm and abuse regularly under the yoke of criminalization, which make us less safe, more marginalized, and legally disenfranchised.

20:13Yet the many forms of sex work in Portland, which has more strip clubs per capita than anywhere else in the country, are valuable, vital, and remain highly in demand as a form of work.

20:26If council wishes to support the trans community through policy or the broader LGBTQ community, there are three things you can do: one, direct the city to lobby the Oregon Legislature and Governor to revive and pass the 2023 decriminalization public health studies that were within Senate Bill 5506 from 2023; two, pass our own city's specific bill to fund studies around public health and a path forward which incorporate global best practices to repeal or amend Portland city ordinances that do exist and pertain to prostitution.

20:593, Direct PPB to stop enforcing, harassing, and arresting sex workers, especially along 82nd.

21:07The Oregon Safer Workers Coalition has a comprehensive legal report on best practices regarding criminal decriminalization in Oregon, which I will email to you all.

21:17And I hope that at least one of you have the courage, conviction, and moral clarity to engage with this.

21:23As a former sex worker myself, I ask that you listen, learn, and act, and bring trans and queer sex workers to the table.

21:30Stonewall was 56 years ago.

21:33Don't let the buzz over restrooms and pronouns distract you from this real enduring demand from over 50 years ago that's still alive today.

21:42Thank you so much.

21:43Thank you for being here.

21:47Next up, we have Eve Ashkar.

22:02Eve Ashkar.

22:09Uh, Donna Cohen.

22:14Would you put up the first slide, please?

22:18Um, welcome.

22:18Thank you for being here.

22:19And, um, colleagues, I'll draw your attention to the fact that we do have written testimony posted as well.

22:25Yes, thank you.

22:26Um, councilors, my name is Donna Cohen.

22:28I live in St. Johns.

22:30Uh, this, uh, picture shows you what separates the North Peninsula from the rest of Portland.

22:36Um, next slide, please.

22:38And this shows you the location of these bridges and the tunnel.

22:4360,000 people who live and work on the North Peninsula are at risk when the earthquake hits.

22:49People from every district in Portland will be trapped to die a quick death if a toxic cloud from the CEI hub comes from across the river, or perhaps a slow one as water food and medical help is unavailable due to this area having no lifeline to the rest of Portland after the railroad bridges and the tunnel collapse.

23:11Portsmouth and University Park, along with UP students, will be included if liquefaction along Columbia Boulevard occurs.

23:17That's the orange area.

23:20These people are constituents of all of you.

23:23This is fixable.

23:24We tried getting money towards a new bridge at Columbia Boulevard last legislative session, and 130 community members testified.

23:31Thank you.

23:31We held a rally and had coverage on 2 TV stations, but the bill failed.

23:36Can you imagine what it's like for the community to hear our mayor twice testify to the state for money for potholes and other transportation concerns while never mentioning the need for an emergency route to save the lives of tens of thousands of people?

23:53Other efforts, neighborhood leaders meeting with council staff, making requests for council to advocate to PBIM, making requests to staff of councilors on the public safety and Transportation committees to get agenda items on this issue have failed.

24:08City councilors have not spent one minute of council business focused on the lives of the tens of thousands that are in danger, yet council has had time to discuss hot dog stands and trees.

24:20It is way past time for council to be talking about this threat.

24:24We ask, one, for a task force.

24:26Several community members have come together along with a PBOT staff member and agree that a task force needs to be set up by council, one with neighbors, reps from the port, University of Portland, experts from PBOT and PBEM, and councilors to have an ongoing discussion on options for making the North Peninsula seismically resilient with an emergency route.

24:472, Policy committees agenda items.

24:49We ask that this issue be placed on the agendas of all relevant policy committees so that representatives from PBOT, PBEM, and community leaders can discuss this issue.

24:59Council shouldn't wait any longer to treat this very serious issue with the consideration it deserves.

25:06Thank you.

25:08Thank you very much for being here today.

25:18Next up, we have Brian Owendoff.

25:25Morning, councilors.

25:25Brian Ohendoff, District 4.

25:27Today marks the 301st day since this Portland City Council has been in office.

25:33In that time frame, we've seen passionate speeches, symbolic resolutions, and even an international junket to Vienna.

25:41What we haven't seen is meaningful progress on the 3 most urgent issues facing Portland: safety, mental health, and substance use disorder.

25:50And economic development.

25:51The City Council, particularly the DSA members, have shown a troubling pattern of focusing on national and international issues that fall far outside the scope of city governance.

26:02It's time to get back to the basics.

26:05Let's be clear, Portland City Council is not Congress, it's not the State Department, and it's not the United Nations.

26:11It has no authority over the Israeli conflict.

26:14It has no authority over federal immigration policy.

26:17And has no authority over the Pentagon.

26:19The council's time and energy are finite.

26:21Portland residents deserve leaders who focus on pressing challenges in their own backyard.

26:28The 3 biggest issues confronting Portland today sit right at the base of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: safety, stability, and economic opportunity.

26:36A recent report based on FBI data listed Portland as the 2nd worst city for total crime in America, with a total crime exceeding 195% higher than the national average.

26:46So many Portland residents and business owners don't bother reporting crimes unless they need a police report for insurance, and our courts are focused on restorative justice.

26:56Our crime rate is much higher than reported.

26:59Portland is also in the middle of a humanitarian crisis.

27:02Overdoses are at record highs.

27:03Mental health is untreated.

27:05Homeless encampments continue to strain public spaces and services and cause damage to our environment.

27:10Oregon is now ranked 4th highest per capita for homelessness in America.

27:13Worst for mental health and second in addiction.

27:16You combine these 3 and that is what we have, a perfect deadly storm.

27:21Portland has lost over 10,000 jobs.

27:24City Council needs to focus on ways to retain existing companies.

27:28On October 17th, 6 Portland City Council members pledged to investigate the city's connections to Israeli military.

27:34The investigation singles out only one group of Portlanders, those that are Jewish or have ties to Israel.

27:41The investigation will focus on several things that have no purview whatsoever to City Council.

27:46City Councilor Morillo reposted DSA's message on her personal social media and added, also just wanted to add that members of the Jewish Federation were allowed on the call and their org is very pro-Israel.

28:00It's not too late, but time is running out.

28:03The next 4 months will determine whether Portland is on a path for recovery in 4 years or stagnation for 40.

28:10We don't need symbolic gestures or ideological distractions.

28:14We need competent governance focused on the needs of the city residents and the core responsibilities: public safety, infrastructure, economic growth, and public health.

28:22We don't need ideological purity tests.

28:24We need competence.

28:25We need leaders groomed in real-world experience who understand to manage the complex city, not activists chasing utopian fantasies.

28:34At taxpayer expense.

28:35Thank you.

28:36Thank you for being here.

28:39Completes communications.

28:41Thank you, Keelan.

28:43Colleagues, the next item on the agenda is the committee referral list.

28:47Uh, we don't actually have anything on the committee referral list this week.

28:50We had a whole lot the last few weeks.

28:52That brings us to the consent agenda, which has one item on it, agenda item number 4.

28:58Keelan, could you please call roll on the consent agenda?

29:02Clerk.

29:04Aye.

29:04Green.

29:05Aye.

29:05Zimmerman.

29:06Aye.

29:07Dunphy.

29:07Aye.

29:08Smith.

29:08Aye.

29:10Ryan.

29:13Sorry, just looking.

29:15Okay, um, these are for the appointments to the— okay, I know that we're not having debate.

29:21I just want to say this, um, I found, uh, most of the appointments to be just fine.

29:27I am concerned that we don't have enough people with knowledge about housing development and economic development.

29:34So I'm hoping those that lack that experience lean into those on their committees that have that experience.

29:42That's what I need to say, 'cause we are in an economic development challenge crisis right now.

29:45Thanks.

29:46I vote aye.

29:48Koyama Lane.

30:04Morillo.

30:05Aye.

30:06Novick.

30:07Aye.

30:09Uh, I am seeing Councilor Kanal online.

30:11Yeah, I'm seeing Councilor Kanal has joined the meeting.

30:14I was going to flag that after you finished the roll call.

30:22Aye.

30:22The consent agenda is approved with 9 yes votes.

30:26Thank you, Keelan.

30:27And Councilor Kanal, welcome.

30:32Are you with us for the rest of the meeting?

30:34I'm actually only here for the consent agenda, and I wanted to express my support in public for a consent agenda voting yes on something that includes appointments because of the work session.

30:45So that's why I joined.

30:47Thank you so much.

30:48Thanks, Councilor.

30:57Okay, Keelan, that moves us to our regular agenda.

31:00Can you please read item 6 for us?

31:03Authorize City Attorney to settle lawsuit related to construction of the streetcar approach ramp located near Southeast thank you and welcome.

31:19We have Beth from our City Attorney's Office, Beth Woodard, and Millicent from PBOT here.

31:25Beth, would you like to go right ahead?

31:27Yes, good morning, Council.

31:29For the record, I'm Senior Deputy City Attorney Beth Woodard.

31:33Today's proposed settlement resolves claims brought by the city against Trimet and Stacy and Witbeck, Inc., related to phased construction of a portion of the streetcar system, specifically the streetcar on-grade approach ramp located at Southeast 2nd Avenue.

31:49The approach structure is an on-grade ramp that connects the OMSI streetcar platform to the viaduct which spans the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

31:59The 2nd phase of construction was completed in 2015.

32:02Thank you.

32:04The necessary transit alignments in this area required locating the approach ramp on a geotechnically challenged site.

32:11At the completion of construction, the city noticed atypical settlement at the location.

32:17The city self-monitored the location from 2015 to 2018 and completed accelerated maintenance and repairs to maintain service.

32:28The city hired a geotechnical consultant to more, more fully monitor the approach structure from 2018 to 2023.

32:34Thank you.

32:36The consultant's findings issued in 2021 indicated the structure required significant near-term repair.

32:44The city then hired an engineering consultant to provide mitigation analysis and provide preliminary estimates for repairs necessary to bring the structure into compliance with its anticipated design life of 75 years.

32:59In March 2022, the city filed a lawsuit against TriMet and Stacy and Whitback for work related to the second phase of design and construction of the structure.

33:10To resolve these claims, the parties have agreed to a proposed settlement agreement including the following terms: a $7.5 million lump sum payment to the city earmarked for repairs to this structure.

33:23TriMet will additionally provide in-kind services to the city in the form of securing alternate funding sources for the repairs.

33:31Thank you.

33:32TriMet will also provide technical assistance for the repairs and will provide bus bridging and other service interruption assistance at no cost, provided that the repairs are performed concurrent with TriMet's planned improvements in the area.

33:48The city, the bureau, and the city administrator— the city attorney's office, the bureau, and the city administrator recommend approval of the settlement.

33:58And this concludes my prepared remarks, but we are happy to answer any questions that you may have.

34:04Thank you very much.

34:05And Keelan, just so we know how to do questions, do we have anybody who's signed up for public testimony?

34:12No one signed up.

34:13Okay, so colleagues, if you have any technical questions, other questions, or comments, we can take that all together now.

34:22Councilor Ryan.

34:24Thank you.

34:25Thank you, Council President, and thank you.

34:27It's good to see you, Director Williams, and I appreciate the presentation by our city debt manager.

34:32Are you the debt manager?

34:34I'm just in the City Attorney's Office.

34:37Oh, okay.

34:38I think I got information from the city's debt manager on this.

34:41Okay, great.

34:41Yeah.

34:42Anyway, I know we're talking about debt financing and legal stuff at the moment, but I want to just acknowledge this milestone because we talk a lot about and when I was— yeah.

34:53Can I pause you?

34:54Why?

34:55We are on the settlement issue.

34:57Oh, I'm on the wrong issue.

34:59We'll have Director Williams here for both of those.

35:02Okay, pretend it never happened.

35:04I just want to crawl in a hole right now.

35:06And sorry, I got off on a few points this morning because the numbers changed.

35:12So I apologize.

35:14Sorry, now I know why you're not the debt manager and I'm on the wrong topic.

35:17Bye.

35:18I'm sorry, Councilor.

35:20It's all right.

35:21Thanks for saving me.

35:22Call me earlier next time.

35:26It took me a minute.

35:27If I was you, I would've been like, stop.

35:29I'll just say while we wait to see if others have comments that I appreciate your work and the Attorney's Office— Attorney Office's work on this broadly.

35:39I know that these issues where we have many local governments working on overlapping projects are always difficult ones.

35:48It sounds like we'll probably need to do future work at this site, and knowing that we have a large portion of that covered already is very helpful.

35:56So thank you.

35:59Councilor Smith.

36:02Thank you, Madam President.

36:03Director Williams, um, this is the, the $7.5 million?

36:08Yes, ma'am.

36:09And where will those funds lie in the, um, in our system because I have a concern that I want to make sure that we separate this money from the general tax, gas tax money, and that this, this project is actually going to happen 3 years from now.

36:25So I want to make sure that we still have it and it's— and it is appropriately, um, set aside.

36:31Uh, absolutely.

36:31Thank you, uh, so much, Councilors.

36:33Millicent Williams, Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

36:35Thank you for the question.

36:37Um, I can assure you that the money will be appropriately earmarked and set aside specifically for this project.

36:42The guidance that we received when we were working through the settlement agreement was that these funds could be used for nothing other than the structure.

36:51So with that in mind, I can assure you that that's going to be the case based on the legal expectation, but also the bureau does have a history of segregating out funds and dedicating those funds to specific projects based on the funding source and the requirements within those funding sources.

37:07Thank you.

37:08Guidelines.

37:09So you should not worry about whether or not this funding will go directly to this project.

37:14I can assure you that that will be the case.

37:16Excellent.

37:17Thank you.

37:17Thank you.

37:19Colleagues, any other comments or questions?

37:24Okay.

37:24Keelan, could you please call the roll?

37:28Clark?

37:29Aye.

37:30Green?

37:30Aye.

37:32Aye.

37:33Dunphy?

37:34Aye.

37:35Aye.

37:36And another thing— no, aye.

37:42I believe she had to drop off the call— off the meeting for a few minutes.

37:48Aye.

37:49Great to approve a settlement.

37:50We're getting money.

37:54Aye.

37:54Aye.

37:56Thank you both for being—.

37:57Oh, sorry, the ordinance is passed with 9 yes votes.

38:00Thank you both for being here today.

38:01Thank you.

38:03Keelan, could you please call agenda item 7 for us?

38:10Authorize revenue bonds in an amount sufficient to provide not more than $41 million to finance city fleet maintenance, facility improvements, and related costs.

38:22Thank you.

38:22And colleagues, I believe we have a committee staff summary from Christopher Herr.

38:27I think this came through the Finance Committee.

38:30Apologies.

38:34Welcome.

38:35Thank you.

38:35Good morning, Madam President, councilors.

38:39So for the record, Christopher Hare, Council Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the Finance Committee.

38:45The ordinance before you, document number 2025-404, was considered in the Finance Committee on October 20th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation to pass.

38:54This ordinance authorizes the city to issue revenue bonds pursuant to ORS 287A.150 and related statutes in an amount up to $41 million to finance improvements to the city's fleet maintenance facility.

39:08The improvements include construction and upgrades to a maintenance garage, office, and parts area, installation of electric vehicle charging stations, and other related project costs.

39:19The total principal amount of bonds to be sold is estimated not to exceed $43.9 million, Accounting for, at a conservative estimate, $1.9 to $2.9 million for financing and issuance costs.

39:31The ordinance further authorizes the issuance of refunding bonds under ORS 287A.360 to 287A.375 if any of the authorized bonds are used for interim financing.

39:45These refunding bonds may be issued in amounts sufficient to repay interim financing and cover the costs all bonds authorized under this ordinance will be secured by the city's full faith credit and available general funds, and bond proceeds may only be used to pay project costs and expenses related to issuing, paying, or refunding the bonds.

40:04The ordinance does not authorize any new taxes, and no bond may be sold or purchase agreements executed until the ordinance takes effect 30 days after passage.

40:13The ordinance additionally designates the city administrator, chief financial officer, city treasurer, debt manager, or a designee of the City Administrator to act as an authorized officer to carry out the necessary actions to issue and manage the bonds.

40:26Authorized officers may issue bonds in one or more series at different times or in combination with other council-authorized revenue bonds, use bond proceeds for interim or long-term financing, including establishing lines of credit or refunding prior bonds, prepare, authorize, and distribute official statements and disclosure documents, set final terms for each bond series, including principal amounts, maturity schedules, interest rates, prices and payment terms and manage the sale or negotiation process.

40:53Ensure continuing disclosure compliance with SEC Rules 15 through .

40:58Finalize and execute bond declarations and related legal documents, including covenants benefiting beholders or credit providers.

41:05Appoint and enter into agreements with service providers as needed.

41:09Issue bonds as tax-exempt, taxable, or federally subsidized tax credit bonds and take all actions necessary to maintain eligibility.

41:16Obtain bond insurance or credit enhancements as appropriate, execute any documents, and take other actions deemed advantageous to the city in connection with the bonds.

41:26The full impact statement of this item includes a financial and budget impacts and analysis and 100% renewable goal impacts.

41:32There was no verbal or written testimony on this ordinance prior to committee action.

41:36This concludes the committee staff summary.

41:38Thank you.

41:39Thank you, Christopher.

41:40Councilor Zimmerman, do you have anything to add?

41:43You were presiding over this meeting.

41:44Thanks.

41:45It's a good recap by the council ops staff.

41:48Thank you for that.

41:50I think that councilors should dig into this.

41:52The questions will be welcomed.

41:53It's kind of an unusual setup, and I think that we should have that discussion and we should be asking questions about owner's rep, about ownership of the property, et cetera.

42:02So with that, I would say let's open it up, Madam President.

42:06Great.

42:07I see a number of folks in the queue.

42:08Keelan, do we have public testimony?

42:11No one signed up for this.

42:13Okay, Councilor Clark, go right ahead.

42:16Uh, thank you, Madam President.

42:17I don't have any questions.

42:19I think it's a very thorough report.

42:20I think you did a great job in the Finance Committee.

42:23What I wanted to say is, you know, a lot of us had heard about the Kirby Garage for years, and finally, um, some of us were given tours of the garage and finally figured out just what a disaster this has been for years.

42:36And I wanted to thank uh, Maddie Sauter for the tours and all of her staff.

42:42But also, I really want to applaud, um, all of the city employees who have worked there for years under duress and, and made it function.

42:54Um, it's amazing.

42:55It's cramped, it's wet, uh, it's got a leaking roof, it's dangerous.

42:59And I just applaud, um, all the people who work there and, and made it function.

43:05And now we're moving to a safer workplace, the Cutter facility, eventually.

43:11And I think that the arrangements, the long-term lease and potential purchases, is a good deal.

43:17I do have one question though about the retirement of the bonds.

43:22And I don't know if this is a— who can answer this question, but—.

43:26We happen to have our city debt manager here today.

43:28Okay.

43:28Oh, super.

43:29Hello, city debt manager.

43:31I think we had— that was foreshadowed by one Councilor Ryan.

43:37Yes, it was foretold.

43:40The way that we're retiring these is an assessment across all of the bureaus.

43:45Is that correct?

43:46Yes, that's correct.

43:47And can you talk a little bit about that?

43:49I'm concerned about these, the way we do this and the assessments and what alternatives there might be in the future for this kind of financing and whether or not this is way of doing it across other governments.

44:03I think I remember state government doing this kind of thing for certain functions, but can you expand a little bit on that for us?

44:10Yeah, so—.

44:11Could you introduce yourself for the record?

44:13Absolutely.

44:14Matt Giurach, debt manager, for the record.

44:18So the debt service is essentially embedded within interagency charges that are passed through to all of the users of the facility.

44:27So annually, they'll pay a charge to, you know, run the operations and also pay debt service.

44:35And so it's embedded essentially in that interagency charge conventionally.

44:41Can you give us a sense of the size of that assessment?

44:46Yeah, I believe the debt service estimate It was around $3.3 million for 20 years.

44:58And so that's spread across the bureaus that use the Future Cutter?

45:03That's correct.

45:04And it's proportionate to their use?

45:06Is that how it works?

45:08I believe so.

45:11Yes, my name is Aaron Beck.

45:12I'm with Business Operations, and I can elaborate a little bit more on the rate rates that we're charging the bureaus that will include the Cutter debt service, lease, and operations and maintenance.

45:23Basically, that will be flowing through what we refer to as the fixed vehicle rates.

45:28So every vehicle that the bureaus own will include a component in it for the Cutter Garage.

45:37So basically, anybody— any bureau with a vehicle will be paying for the Cutter Garage.

45:42Leveraged on their use, their number of vehicles?

45:45That's correct.

45:46And is this, I don't know who can answer this question, but is this sort of a normal way of retiring the debt in other local governments?

45:54I believe so, yes.

45:56Okay.

45:57Thank you.

45:57Thank you.

46:00Thank you, Councilor.

46:01Thank you both.

46:01I suspect we may have other questions, so don't go far, please.

46:05Councilor Ryan.

46:07Yeah, thank you, Madam President.

46:08Well, as I was saying, it's, thank you for the report, Christopher.

46:12And I really appreciate the work that went into this from the debt manager.

46:17And I think we are talking about debt financing, and I actually did my homework there, and I think that you're doing everything right there.

46:24But I just wanted to add on to what Councilor Clark was saying, what a big deal this is.

46:29We did that tour in 2021, and it was really depressing.

46:33We did a tour of all the infrastructure, but that one in particular really stood out because the urgency.

46:38Thank you.

46:39And that was, again, it's a century-old building, too small, was never meant to be the city's fleet maintenance function.

46:47And for years flags were raised about this and there were no viable solutions on the table.

46:52It was not worth the investment to renovate or replace it, basically because where it's located as well.

46:58And it was cost prohibitive to purchase another location to build.

47:01So this has been lingering for some time.

47:03The solution is a leased space.

47:05Partnering with the property owner that will allow for the build-out and modern city fleet facility.

47:10The bond financing allows for that work to be done.

47:14I want to give credit where it's due.

47:16Maddie Sauter, you have been on this, and every conversation I seem to have with you the last 5 years would often circle to this.

47:26So take a bow.

47:28I assume this will pass.

47:30So thank you for being a champion and being persistent.

47:32Thank you.

47:34You moved a once-in-a-generation shift for most of our city bureau operations.

47:38In local government, we often put a lot of energy into important improvements efforts without seeing the results of those efforts.

47:46That was the case with the Kirby Garage.

47:47It can take decades of incremental progress on large projects, particularly those that don't have dedicated funding sources.

47:54So because of these accomplishments and the professionalism of our public servants, I'm really delighted that we're moving forward on this, and we just have to make sure we keep our fiscal house in order so that our bond rating remains high, which will save us a lot of money throughout the duration of this project.

48:09Thanks.

48:12Thank you, Councilor.

48:13Councilor Green.

48:16Yeah, thank you.

48:16I just— this was a really rich discussion in the Finance Committee, and a couple of things that we flagged and I just wanted to raise for the full body was the quality, I think I appreciated the quality of the clarity and transparency in the presentation on the estimated cost allocations and debt service.

48:33So if you're following along at home, it's slide 7 in the presentation attached to this item.

48:39But, you know, they give you the repayment schedule over the lifetime of the bond, which is the $3.4 million annual— on an annual basis, but it also shows you which bureaus pay it.

48:50And that it's roughly 34% of general fund bureaus will shoulder the cost of the internal service charge.

48:59You know, I think in the absence of other types of revenue streams that pay back these sorts of costs, I struggle to think of a different compensation model and cost allocation model that makes sense.

49:12But I do appreciate my colleague here asking the question.

49:16I think for me, this is a slam dunk because we currently are dealing with a situation where we face essentially a growing liability of operations and maintenance cost because we have a capacity or an asset that has very limited capacity value.

49:36And so you have the situation, I think, Mattie, you had talked about how there's, given the constraints on the current Cutter Garage, that there are folks— or I'm sorry, the Kirby Garage— that there are folks in bureaus who think, okay, well, I have to have maybe an extra couple trucks, 2, 3 couple trucks, because I don't know when I'm going to get my asset back.

49:57And so making this investment, while we do incur the $3.4 million per year, I'm pretty confident that that's going to result in some savings across our enterprise as we were able to make more efficient use of our resources and staff time.

50:10And so, and echo the praise to the staff who've been able to managing these conditions for so long.

50:15I was there and I was kind of like, you know, there's a sloped floor.

50:18You shouldn't have sloped floors in a maintenance shop.

50:20I felt like I was a crooked little man in a crooked little house in a enchanted forest.

50:25So I will be voting yes when this finally does come before.

50:29Finally, if you're interested in bond finance, the last slide here, second to last slide, does give you a sense of what our recent issuances for our limited tax revenue bonds have been priced, and it's pretty favorable.

50:44And so I think I appreciate that the package before us assumes a 5% cost of capital.

50:53There's the potential that we can probably do a little bit better than that when we do finally place these bonds.

50:57And so I think that's a credit to our commitment to our financial reserves policies at the city.

51:06And I'm looking forward to more opportunity there.

51:09So thank you.

51:12Thank you, Councilor.

51:13Councilor Dunphy.

51:13Thank you.

51:14Mostly want to reflect the comments my colleagues have already said and give my thanks to Maddie for giving a tour of the Kirby Garage and the terrible conditions that our workers have been enduring.

51:28It's been over 3 and a half years since the Willamette Week first called out how terrible the conditions were.

51:33I'm glad the City Council is jumping on this in our first year to try and finish the work.

51:40More than anything, I have been stuck with the image of the sloped floors and the requirement that at least one mechanic has to lay on their back in a puddle at the bottom of the slope.

51:50That's unreasonable beyond the lack of heating and cooling options in the seasonal, you know, seasonal fluctuations.

52:00So, uh, enthusiastic about getting this done, and let's, uh, get rid of the Kirby Garage and move over to Cutter.

52:05Thank you all.

52:07Thank you, Councilor.

52:08Councilor Smith.

52:09Thank you, Madam President.

52:10Is, is Maddie here?

52:12Oh, I'm sorry.

52:14I just wanted to personally thank you, and I think all the commissioners, councilors up here, they've said the same thing.

52:21It was so important for us to see this.

52:23It's one thing to read about it, and we have never been there before, But to actually go see it, um, you and your, um, staff were great in making sure that all of us had an opportunity to go see it.

52:36So thank you.

52:36I know you're probably like, okay, I don't need all this praise, but, but you do, because oftentimes people put things on the agenda and they never even offer to let us see what we're talking about.

52:48But, but you did that.

52:50Uh, the question that I have, as I'm I'm looking at the financial and budgetary impacts.

52:54This is not necessarily for you, Mattie, but, um, for our staff.

52:59It said that with the issuance of the bonds, the Cutter Garage will have approximately $7 million of ongoing costs.

53:06So this is new costs that I'm thinking that this is, including debt service, which we already talked about for the $3.3 million, operating and maintenance.

53:18So can you explain to me what the additional $4 million— I mean, I see that.

53:24Can you kind of break that out for me above and beyond what we're doing right now?

53:28Because we're doing maintenance right now, so why would we need additional maintenance dollars on top of the $3.3 million in debt costs?

53:39Yes, the difference between the 2 numbers is the annual lease cost, which is new for the city out there at the Cutter Garage.

53:48And then there are additional maintenance or just ongoing costs with a newer facility because we want to really keep it up in good shape.

53:58And then there's another component which is what we would call major maintenance.

54:02And this is something that when we go into the Cutter Garage, we want to make sure that we're annually, annually setting aside 3 of the replacement value of all the improvements that we did to that facility so that we can keep it in good shape throughout the term of the lease.

54:18So the combination of all of those makes up the— or comes to the $7 million.

54:24Are we leasing it to ourselves?

54:26We're leasing it from a third party.

54:28Okay.

54:30And they didn't identify who that was?

54:33Yeah, so we are leasing it from the Melitus Company.

54:38Company, basically.

54:40And just to provide a little bit of context, so best practices in facility management is that every year you set aside 3% of the replacement value of a facility to help support the building systems that fail while you're in that facility.

54:54You can think of in your house, it's the roof or the sewer line, et cetera.

54:58Things fail.

55:00This is a triple net lease, which we rarely get into.

55:02We try to do full-service leases as much as we can.

55:06But when you are in this long of a lease, often the only option available is a triple net lease.

55:10And so that puts you on the hook for some of the major maintenance funding.

55:13So the landlord is responsible for a portion of it, but you also have to set aside money for certain contributions you may need to make to building systems.

55:25And then of course within the shell, you have your systems as well.

55:28So we'll have our own HVAC, for example, within that area.

55:31So one of the concerns that we have and something that's happened citywide is that the city does not set aside 3% of the replacement value for facilities when we maintain them.

55:41Even this facility doesn't have— we're not hitting that target.

55:45That is a budget note that's been in existence for probably almost a decade now, is to bring that major maintenance funding up in our rates, but we've never had the institutional support and financial capacity to do that.

55:57At the Kirby Garage, the major maintenance was almost zero.

56:03So the net increase that you see—.

56:05But you had to increase that.

56:06In prices, it's going from basically 0% or very, very little to the appropriate amount.

56:13So we decided since we're doing a new facility, let's do it the right way.

56:17And so that structure reflects a bunch of new costs that don't exist.

56:22One of those costs, the debt service, will go away in 20 years, but ideally, The buildup of funding for major maintenance will help avoid some of the challenges that we're currently having at Kirby Garage because we'll have money as we go to invest in systems as they start to fail.

56:36And Director Sautter, this is very important because we passed a resolution in the transportation infrastructure to do an evaluation of all of our assets.

56:46And so understanding that too, that I didn't know that information.

56:50So as we're looking at that and we get the report back, from the city administrator.

56:55And you all, I think you're probably working on the, on the committee that is going to bring it all back.

57:01Those are the kind of things that we also need to keep in mind as we're talking about how do we deal with maintaining our assets that we do have, what is going to be the cost point.

57:10And so I didn't think about that, and I was looking at this and I was like, well, where did this extra $4 million come from?

57:16But the other piece that, that you all did not talk about I know we're voting on the debt service and doing the bonds.

57:24Mm-hmm.

57:25But the thing that we're talking about is that we're also creating an apprenticeship program with PCC.

57:34And currently there are no apprenticeship programs that deal with maintenance of this kind.

57:40And so in addition to this, this is also gonna help us to create jobs.

57:45Authored a, uh, a resolution around apprenticeships that we passed in the Labor and Workforce Committee.

57:51And so this— these are the kinds of things that I think that we all need to know about, and that's happening in addition to this.

57:58And so, um, I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for this, because it is also, uh, expanding our base of knowledge of, of, you know, and creating jobs.

58:09So thank you so much.

58:12Welcome.

58:13Thank you, Councilor.

58:15Um, I said a lot about this in committee, so I'm not going to say much right now, but this is absolutely necessary.

58:23It is being done responsibly.

58:25Our city needs this for efficient operations, and our employees who work in the garage need this as well.

58:31I did want to note that a piece of the conversation in the Finance Committee was about why this i often look to figure out how we can save costs in the long run, even if that means a little more cost upfront, and sometimes purchasing is a good way to do that.

58:50I was very convinced by your answers, Maddie, about the flexibility that we might need in the future and the fact that doing a lease now so that we can reevaluate where we need these offices is a good way to do that.

59:01Thank you.

59:02Operations in the future is a conversation that we can have without the sunk costs of having purchased a building now.

59:10I just wanted to note that because I really appreciated the deal— the detail you went into in explaining that calculation, both from a fiscal perspective and also from just a practicability for city operations.

59:22So thank you.

59:24Councilor Zimmerman.

59:26Thanks.

59:27I have a few questions, but since one is related to the point you just brought up, I'd actually I would like it if the bureau director can go into that a little bit.

59:35For—.

59:35To ask the city to invest $41 million into a piece of property we don't own, for me, is a big lift.

59:42And I want to be confident that not including the property costs was not a tactic to keep the bond low in order to get the bond through.

59:56Right.

59:57The case has been deeply made, and I agree that especially for those Launa workers who are in the shop, I mean, they have been doing a great job with what they have, and we need a new shop.

1:00:08This is a lift though, and in my career, highly unusual to invest this much money in someone else's property.

1:00:15Can you talk about a little bit what Council President alluded to there?

1:00:19Yeah, for sure.

1:00:21So we actually already made 2 attempts to do what I think common knowledge suggests, which is that you should procure a property and own it or build a purpose-built facility for this type of technical operation.

1:00:36So we made a run at that.

1:00:38I can't exactly remember the years, but it was probably '20, '21.

1:00:42'22.

1:00:43That didn't make it out of committee at the OMF level.

1:00:47And then we made an effort the second time to get funding to buy land.

1:00:52So that we could then do programming and go out for a bond of some kind, either this type of bond or maybe even a general obligation bond.

1:01:01So both of those efforts were attempted and didn't pass muster because they were too expensive.

1:01:07So that is part of the reason that we switched tactics to this approach.

1:01:11But there is, as Councilor Pirtle-Guiney explained, a bigger picture challenge, which is within the facility and land management, which has come up, I think, a couple of times when we've come to the table here.

1:01:25It came up with a small parcel on Southeast Powell where we prompted a discussion about land management and what that looks like.

1:01:31It's coming up, I think, in the asset management strategy.

1:01:34It's been decided where it will be addressed.

1:01:37There's a challenge, which is that facilities are a particularly decayed asset base for the city.

1:01:43We would like to see— Councilor Loretta Smith.

1:01:46More enhanced and comprehensive long-range facility planning by portfolio, whether it's public safety, public works, et cetera.

1:01:53We just completed a public safety master plan actually.

1:01:56And one of the findings of that, and I think you'll find the same in a public works plan should it launch, is that the city needs large acreages of land in order to do what it needs to do.

1:02:07And that is really hard to find within an urban growth boundary like we have.

1:02:12Okay.

1:02:12That's even a particularly added challenge when you think about seismic requirements and what we are really expecting from resilient public works organizations or resilient public safety organizations, et cetera.

1:02:24So until we solve the land problem and understand how we're gonna find these parcels and obtain these parcels to build the facilities that we need, we can't exactly solve for a long-term facilities problem.

1:02:36And so we are waiting for the city to effectively take shape in that.

1:02:42I think the asset management strategy is gonna suggest some approaches to that.

1:02:47But we are in a situation with Kirby where we can't really wait any longer.

1:02:51And so thus, this approach worked not just financially, but also from a space and time standpoint, which is we have a 23-year lease that is long enough with 2 10-year extensions for us to feel like that would be the normal lifecycle of a building anyway.

1:03:07And so this is probably a warranted investment, but it's not such a sunk cost that if we end up being able to find a parcel of land and build a Public Works campus, that we wouldn't be able to then also program in a City Fleet operation in that campus to support that.

1:03:24So we were, you know, sometimes you're not in the most optimal situation, you're in what is the least suboptimal situation.

1:03:30And I would say that was the situation here.

1:03:33So over time, our sort of next I think the next step is to, you know, we're trying to steward internally discussions about land management for facility needs, not just for public needs like housing, but also for city needs, how we would approach that.

1:03:48And then what does that mean for consolidated long-range facility planning and investment to benefit city operations?

1:03:56Because they're vital facilities.

1:03:58You know, you think of the 911 center or police precincts or fire stations, they're not nonessential.

1:04:02Thank you.

1:04:02Okay.

1:04:03I mean, I certainly think 43 years falls in the long-term planning category.

1:04:07So what is the valuation of the lot that we are taking over?

1:04:11I do not know the answer to that offhand.

1:04:14Okay.

1:04:14The value of the parcel that we're on?

1:04:16The other guy's property.

1:04:18The other guy's property.

1:04:18I do not know.

1:04:19And we're about to add $41 million worth of work to it.

1:04:22I think we're really talking about $100 million worth of value add to that piece of property that if we were to buy it in 23 or 43 years, we've deeply increased the odds.

1:04:33So I'm curious on 2 fronts.

1:04:35What is in the lease agreement to guarantee our position that if— I think you said Maltese sells this to Smith— that Smith doesn't then want to renegotiate?

1:04:46And then also, what parameters exist in the lease for our rent-to-own situation so that we can recognize the value that we put into it?

1:04:55Yeah, so we have an option to buy.

1:04:56So we have right of first refusal on the buy.

1:04:59So if it goes to market, we're the first group to look at that.

1:05:03And then there is just of note a second unused warehouse adjacent to what we're building out.

1:05:11We have right of first refusal on that property as well.

1:05:15So that would be if other city functions wanted to go and co-locate with us.

1:05:20So for example, Fire has its own fleet operation.

1:05:24It's the only operation that's separate from City Fleets for vehicles.

1:05:28So they're on a property that is suboptimal for those operations.

1:05:32If they wanted to and were able to move to that facility, that might be a good co-location to save on operations like parts management, et cetera.

1:05:41BTS has a slightly adjacent function.

1:05:44They do all of the radio upfitting for police vehicles.

1:05:47Thank you.

1:05:47That's currently done at the PCC building.

1:05:50And so that's another potential adjacency that we could create.

1:05:53So, but I'm not hearing that there's any protection for our investment to be recognized because I see today if we were in a purchase agreement, that lot has a number to it without all of our improvements on it.

1:06:06Tomorrow they list it for an exorbitant amount and now we have first right of refusal, but it's a huge number because we improved that lot.

1:06:16Lot, uh, or have we just given a situation for 2 entities to increase valuation on a lot and have us either over the barrel or having to read— or having to not be able to execute because we've now increased this lot price by so much?

1:06:36Question.

1:06:36I, you know, we're doing pretty customized— well, let's see.

1:06:41We're doing pretty customized investments in that facility, so I don't think there's any other fleet operator that they're— the values that we're putting in there are only for us.

1:06:48But I do agree that would put us over a barrel in the sense that everybody knows how much we've spent on this.

1:06:55And so you wanna stay here, I'm gonna double your rent, for example.

1:06:59So I suppose that is a possibility.

1:07:01I'm less concerned about the doubling of the rent.

1:07:03I'm more concerned with this idea that we are the entity increasing someone else's liability.

1:07:10And because we have first right of refusal, that sounds like it might be a good option for us to acquire that property in the future.

1:07:16But now instead of a blank piece of land or a lean-to piece of land, we've got a piece of land with, I think, probably a future $50 million to $100 million piece of improvement on top of it that we might not even be able to fathom purchasing the land for.

1:07:34I think that's a great point.

1:07:34From out because somebody else can give them a bigger number.

1:07:37That's what I'm curious how we protect our value.

1:07:40Yeah, I guess I would have to think about that a bit.

1:07:42The tenant improvements that we're making are so specialized to a fleet operation that I don't know that there's another fleet operation that would come in and say, well, I'm going to buy that instead.

1:07:52But except that Swan Island has a lot of fleets, right?

1:07:54It does.

1:07:55A lot of big trucks that operate on that.

1:07:56In fact, I think it's almost the only thing that operates there.

1:07:58So it's not beyond me that It's not beyond me that Daimler could expand into this place in that sense because we have big trucks, we have small trucks, other people have big trucks, other people have small trucks.

1:08:12Maybe the— but in 43 years, if there's not a fleet who is challenging the City of Portland's fleet at that site, I'd be surprised by that because of the business that happens in this location.

1:08:24So for that, I do have some concerns in that area.

1:08:27Thank you.

1:08:27Thank you.

1:08:28I think that that hasn't really been, to me, fleshed out in enough of a way by the Bureau to— for such a significant investment and what is different than most of the bonding that we do on improvements that we do in government.

1:08:48The other piece, and I really appreciated the 3% maintenance reserve, I would like to see, of course, our facilities in each building having that reserve to it.

1:09:00And I hear those notes that we're missing.

1:09:03I'm also— I am wondering how the bureau, how you are going to tackle this with the customers, right?

1:09:17The customers in the presentation are all those who are paying for this building and out of their off the top of their budget each year.

1:09:24PBOT, water, parks, other, police, fire, BES.

1:09:29And when one of the common themes I hear from all other bureaus is that they feel like they're screaming into the void when it comes to internal service funds, internal service rates, how to feel like the customer in their relationship with facilities.

1:09:45And this is much less about I think that that's not what I'm talking about.

1:09:50What I'm talking about is the occupant of a building feeling like they are— I am wondering, and I want to make sure that these bond rates— excuse me, these debt service payments are not contributing to increased internal service rates when that remains a very big question mark in our organization about the validity of what customers are feeling.

1:10:16And I want to make sure that these are separated out, that fleet isn't going to cause any sort of other wrinkle with a part of our organization I think that is going through a let's figure it out and make sure that our rates are all true to one another.

1:10:30Because this is an area that I haven't been able to get a coherent answer on yet for the direction that we're going and how to improve that customer relationship.

1:10:37Because I, I think of the bureaus as customers of facilities, but they don't often portray that to me.

1:10:50So I'm not exactly sure what the question is, but—.

1:10:55So do you think that— to make it easier, do you think that the Bureau is positioned to take on this project and work with with all of the bureaus, all of the departments to ensure that our internal service rates are more transparent and that the customer service relationship is improved?

1:11:21Yeah, so there was an evaluation done by a third-party consultant related to internal service rates earlier this year.

1:11:28In fact, the first Internal Service Fund governance meeting is actually this afternoon.

1:11:33And the first order of business for that committee is to help ensure that the bureaus as customers have a better comprehension of the actual escalation in costs that are creating internal service fund charges as compared to what has historically been communicated to the bureaus, which was just the rate of inflation.

1:11:57So there's a big delta there.

1:11:58You know, internal service funds don't, Fundamentally generate their own costs.

1:12:02They're just accounting vessels through which the costs of the city flow to provide those types of services.

1:12:09So to control Internal Service Fund costs, we are really talking about controlling city costs, and that's making sure we have a strategic plan, that we have efficient bureau operations, that people participate in, you know, standards where possible because those reduce long-term costs.

1:12:26So I think there's a more holistic— Yeah.

1:12:27Thank you.

1:12:28Discussion about, you know, really what is it that drives a cost within the city.

1:12:33Within that, I do think that we aspire to have a customer service orientation.

1:12:43I do think it's been really hard to communicate why we have rules about some of the things that we do.

1:12:51You know, like for example, why would we buy standardized furniture?

1:12:54Right?

1:12:55Why is that an issue here?

1:12:57And that's because it's warrantied, it's commercial grade.

1:13:00It's a little more expensive upfront, but over time, the lifecycle cost of that is lower.

1:13:05In fact, when we built out City Hall, we saved over $600,000 because we have a furniture standard.

1:13:11So we were able to reuse furniture from PBOT and deploy it here.

1:13:16So I don't know that that has to be a tense conversation in terms of being able to create some mobility for people when they want things that are different than what is standard.

1:13:27But I do feel like holistically it is important for the city to at least understand that when we have a lot of variation in things, we end up with a lot of costs because we end up kind of with a boutique service as opposed to a standardized array of public services that we're trying to offer everybody.

1:13:43So in fleet, for example, we do have standardized equipment.

1:13:47You know, not— one of the biggest wins we've had recently is getting people to not have to have their Dodge pickup.

1:13:53We don't have Dodge pickups, we have Ford pickups.

1:13:57And that helps with parts, it helps with training, it helps with efficient maintenance.

1:14:02So one of the challenges I think in charter reform is just changing the culture of the city.

1:14:07We are a culture of a lot, we have a lot of autonomy here.

1:14:10We have a lot of expectations of autonomy.

1:14:12And autonomy is very expensive.

1:14:14And so trying to help people understand that as one city, that means sometimes we don't get all that we want.

1:14:20We get what we want within an array of things.

1:14:23That's just a much more efficient and cost-effective way to run the city.

1:14:27But I do agree that balancing that has to happen in relation to understanding that, communicating that, and then creating options and being flexible where possible.

1:14:37And so I think we're all on that learning path together, trying to make sure that people have a balance between cost-effective, warranted standard options and— You know, a desire to personalize a little bit.

1:14:48And so we're learning that balance as well right now.

1:14:52It's— we're going from a culture of—.

1:14:54Okay.

1:14:54I think a lot of this—.

1:14:54It would be crazy to—.

1:14:55I think a lot of what I've heard actually existed far before this change in government.

1:15:00These are bureaus that have existed for decades, if not longer.

1:15:03But moving on, with respect to the project, will you plan to bring on an owner's rep for this, or is this going to be managed internally?

1:15:12For design and construction?

1:15:16Yeah.

1:15:17We're bringing on an owner's rep right now.

1:15:19So in fact, this week we're bringing on an owner's rep.

1:15:22And will that be coming back to council for action or approval of that contract, or how's that work?

1:15:26No, that— there's already an existing contract with the city.

1:15:29It's a contract with Cumming Group.

1:15:32It's owned by BES.

1:15:33So all we do is put a purchase order together, and they'll be overseeing construction administration.

1:15:39Okay, thank you, Madam President.

1:15:42Thank you, Councilor.

1:15:44Uh, colleagues, I believe most folks in the queue have spoken once already, so I'm going to, uh, jump to Councilor Novick.

1:15:54I just wanted to note that— I mean, first of all, I want to reiterate everything that everybody has said about, um, the thanks due to the employees who've been working in this facility under dire circumstances for years, and thank Maddie for her very clear, crisp, direct, and blunt explanation of the issues having to do with the garage.

1:16:15On the issue of the internal service charges, I mean, one thing I wanted to note is that from the perspective of the taxpayer or ratepayer, I think it generally doesn't matter what bureau is paying for something.

1:16:25They want to be sure that they're getting good value for what they're paying for.

1:16:28I mean, there are some variations on like Property taxpayers versus water ratepayers.

1:16:33But I think in general, people don't care.

1:16:35In terms of how the bureaus feel, obviously we should be able to articulate why the charging mechanisms and the distribution is fair.

1:16:48We also need to be aware of that there are some bureaus for which it is kind of easier to absorb costs than others.

1:16:56Yeah.

1:16:56I mean, obviously they don't like doing it, and we don't either, but the water bureau can— or the sewer bureau can simply raise rates to cover costs.

1:17:07PBOT, which is always in dire financial straits, has no similar way to do anything.

1:17:13So it's our job as the council to be sure that when we are loading costs onto bureaus with no money, we take that into account in figuring out how we get them more money.

1:17:24I also just— I mean, having these charges go out to bureaus should have the effect of getting the bureaus more invested in keeping down the overall cost for this kind of service.

1:17:38And as has been noted before, I think Councilor Clark was pointing out that the current situation in the Kirby Garage— you've— or maybe it wasn't Councilor Fateh who was— that has had the distorting effect of bureaus thinking they need to buy more trucks because they don't think they would always have access to ones they have.

1:17:57Was that with Councilor Green?

1:17:58Anyway, that's my rambling contribution to the discussion.

1:18:03Thank you, Councilor.

1:18:04Councilor Green, back to you.

1:18:06Thank you.

1:18:07I had originally put my hand up because I was anticipating we would go down the discussion of the ownership versus the lease, and I'm glad we had that discussion.

1:18:14It's really important.

1:18:16I'd just like to offer that this is timely because of the asset management work that we're planning to do.

1:18:23But note that in any large enterprise that has to face an intergenerational investment problem, it's pretty typical to engage in flexible contracts that provide what's called option value.

1:18:39Okay.

1:18:39And so I'll just I can provide an example from the standpoint of my prior career, which is in the energy business.

1:18:48You know, Bonneville Power Administration can work with one of its customers to build a new power plant, and they would own that.

1:18:54But it may not be the most viable or long-term cost-efficient solution when you have an uncertain future.

1:19:03And to your point, Maddie, the ideal state is—.

1:19:06I'm sorry.

1:19:08Is a campus, like sort of a public works campus, if you will.

1:19:12But there's a lot of unknowns before we can really chart that course and put that to voters to say, is this something that you want to pay for?

1:19:20Because we're still getting a handle on our asset management problem.

1:19:23And so I think I'm sympathetic to the argument of like, well, what is our exposure going to be at the lease option?

1:19:30You know, at the end of the lease, do we want to buy it?

1:19:33Do we not want to?

1:19:34Or do we have to kind of roll forward on the lease?

1:19:35Right.

1:19:36Those are reasonable questions to ask, but I think that we might find ourselves in a situation where the Cutter location is no longer the appropriate location for the future state of our Public Works campus, if you will.

1:19:51We might be able to imagine a situation where there is a zoning change that allows for a different contemplation of different parts of of land acquisition around the city or a partnership with the port or whatever.

1:20:04The point being is this provides some certainty on cost right now so that way we can get out of the business of the uncertain operations and maintenance cost that comes from the bottlenecks that we experience with the Kirby Garage.

1:20:20It allows us to move forward right now rather than continuing to wonder if we're going to make the right sunk cost investment.

1:20:26Thank you.

1:20:27For the bigger contemplation.

1:20:28And so I see this as part of the option value exercise.

1:20:32It's—.

1:20:32I didn't see it presented formally in those terms, but this is what I see when I see, you know, this fits into my experience.

1:20:38So when we do the asset management work, I hope that we're also talking about option value in our investment decisions as well.

1:20:45So I just wanted to share that with my colleagues here.

1:20:49If I could reply to that, I just want to say that that is a A very keen understanding of the challenge that we need to solve in the asset management strategy related to land and facilities, which is facilities are one of the only types of asset bases that also fail, fail in quotes, not just of condition or age or obsolescence, but because of their location.

1:21:14And so we already see that right now, for example, with public safety assets, is that they're in the wrong space.

1:21:19They're in the wrong place because we've had all these demographic changes.

1:21:22So exactly as we— one of the most interesting and complicated parts of managing this type of asset is that you're interfacing with these demographic changes and you're interfacing with the market.

1:21:33And so creating optionality, being able to take advantage of opportunities and shifting for something that is fundamentally very expensive is very— it's unique and it's challenging.

1:21:43It's different than roads.

1:21:44Et cetera.

1:21:45So that is why I think it's so complicated.

1:21:48And maybe that's why it's simmering down here is 'cause it's so complex.

1:21:51But I appreciate that because that is exactly what we're trying to figure out is how do we future-proof this a little bit so that we're in the right place now, but we're not in the wrong place 20 years from now or 40 years from now.

1:22:02So.

1:22:03Appreciate that.

1:22:04And just to finish the analogy, 'cause I realize I didn't.

1:22:07So instead of buying, building the plant, Bonneville purchases Engages in long-term power purchase agreements.

1:22:12So that's the analogy here.

1:22:13Thanks.

1:22:16Thank you, Councilor.

1:22:17Councilor Clark.

1:22:18Thank you, Madam Chair.

1:22:20Um, I originally, like you, uh, had put my hand up because I wanted to ask about ownership, but I think we've kind of beat that to death.

1:22:27However, I would just say that maybe at the first term, the first 20 years, we asked the Melita family to just donate it.

1:22:33You know, they— there could be certain advantages for that big family to donate it to us.

1:22:40I'm glad you were talking about asset management and a maintenance reserve because I want to put a point on that, that we should talk about that when we have our asset management discussion.

1:22:51And we're going to get a quarterly report in our committee where— how it's going on asset management.

1:22:56And I would like to at least have that conversation.

1:22:59How we fund it, I don't know, but I think we should be talking and for your comment, Councilor Green, about future-proofing and what we know and don't know, at least the— we're going to have a discussion about the water treatment plant here in just a moment.

1:23:15And they actually purchased property, I think in 1971, something like that, out in knowing that they were going to need something at some point.

1:23:24And then other issues come up as a result of that because of the location.

1:23:28Yeah.

1:23:28So these issues are really complex, but I appreciate the conversation about thinking forward about what we need.

1:23:35I really appreciate that.

1:23:36And also your comment about autonomy, or maybe it was actually Councilor Zimmerman's.

1:23:42If it was a good question, it was me.

1:23:44Okay, undoubtedly.

1:23:46But I constantly talk about the culture change that we're going through with the bureaus and kind of the new world order how we think about things.

1:23:55And that question about autonomy, I think, is really the crux of it.

1:23:58And, um, you're doing a great job.

1:24:00I just— I really appreciate what you're doing.

1:24:03Um, but great— this has been a great discussion for, uh, future discussions as well, not just on, uh, Kirby and Cutter.

1:24:10So thank you.

1:24:12Thank you, Councilor.

1:24:12Councilor Smith.

1:24:15Thank you, Madam President.

1:24:17Um, Finance Chair Zimmerman, I, I think I know where you were kind of going with this, because I think we have to have a bigger conversation about, you know, what has our internal service fees been over the past 20 years and how have we increased our internal services over the years.

1:24:38And if it gets to the point that we are taxing each other or billing each other to death and not bringing in new revenue, we're going to get to the point where we're spending 50% of our actual budgets on internal services when we need to be figuring out how to bring in new revenue.

1:24:57Like, we have the Bull Run coming up next.

1:24:59We've lost 4 customers, uh, water customers— Rockwood, Gresham— that we don't have when we build this new Bull Run.

1:25:08So we need to figure out how to bring in new revenue and not charge ourselves to death.

1:25:14Thank you.

1:25:15With our current budget, particularly since we are losing money.

1:25:20We're having big gaps in our budgets.

1:25:23And as someone talked about earlier, and Dan Ryan said, we need to be about the business of economic development.

1:25:31And so I hear you.

1:25:32I heard what you were saying, and maybe that might be something that you want to bring up in the Finance Committee as we're looking.

1:25:38I didn't know.

1:25:38It was good to know that, um, we're looking at internal services, but I have a huge problem with how we're being, um, uh, and I won't say taxed, but how we're being charged through the Internal Services, uh, Division, because it takes up a lot of our budgets, and we have a very small budget compared to others in the city of Portland.

1:25:57But I thank you for what you're doing, but I think we need to— we do need to follow back up on that conversation.

1:26:03Thank you.

1:26:04Thank you, Councilor.

1:26:05Councilor Ryan.

1:26:07Yes, thank you.

1:26:08Thank you, Council President.

1:26:09I'm enjoying this conversation.

1:26:10It feels like we're in a work session suddenly, but so it's hard not to drift into that type of thinking.

1:26:16I just, I have to hear from you, Christopher.

1:26:18What was the vote again from the Finance Committee?

1:26:21Yes, the vote was a 4 ayes and 1 absent.

1:26:281 Absent, okay.

1:26:30And we're all up, maybe I just look to you, Chair, Were these issues discussed in the committee as well?

1:26:37Some of them were.

1:26:38Some of them were.

1:26:39I think that the ownership discussion happened.

1:26:43There was a question that has gone still unanswered regarding, I think, the overall costs of maintenance at the new facility.

1:26:53There was not a conversation at that time about the internal service rates.

1:26:59For me, since I asked some of those questions, That's come from the position of diving further into how we're building it back and understanding those.

1:27:12So I'd say it was partial.

1:27:13So it should still be supported.

1:27:15I don't think that that's the line of questioning.

1:27:18I think that what's important is that— what's important to me as a finance chair is that you all understood we were about to invest, I think, Quite largely in a piece of property we don't own.

1:27:30And for me, in my almost 20 years of government, that seemed out of the norm for me.

1:27:37And then with respect to the internal service rates, this is the only government that I've worked at where even in my own, I cannot make heads or tails for how internal service rates are charged back.

1:27:48So I actually don't think we're in a normal situation there.

1:27:51And so—.

1:27:51I think that's a fair point.

1:27:53The more I dug into that between finance and this hearing, Councilor, I grew concerned that we have this one study going on and I didn't want to see it supplanted by a debt service that wasn't accurate to just that debt service.

1:28:11So that's where my questions came from.

1:28:14I still think it should be supportive.

1:28:15I think any of us who've seen this Cutter Garage, would know it needs to be replaced.

1:28:20Excuse me, Kirby Garage knows it needs to be replaced.

1:28:23But I didn't want 6 months from now you to come and say, Chair of Finance, you didn't tell us we were investing in a non-Portland-owned piece of property.

1:28:31I wanted that to be very clear to everybody.

1:28:34Okay, that's fair.

1:28:36And I actually need to hear that based on not being on the committee and trying to follow what's happening in this dialogue.

1:28:43That's really what I wanted to say.

1:28:45I will say that I'm more accustomed to knowing that this practice of doing long-term leases is pretty standard in the marketplace.

1:28:52So I'm not as bothered by that as much as I'm liking the elevated conversation we were having that does start to get to, I think, a workshop, a work session that we could have on this topic in general because we're starting to get a much bigger picture than that, which I think is healthy.

1:29:07Thanks.

1:29:08Thank you, Councilor.

1:29:11Colleagues, seeing no other debate or discussion?

1:29:15Councilor Smith, final words?

1:29:17Just final words.

1:29:18So as you talked about that, uh, Councilor, uh, Ryan, I have a question.

1:29:24Did we put out an RFP for this, or is this a sole source agreement?

1:29:28Uh, an RFP for the property?

1:29:31Yeah, to do the lease.

1:29:32Uh, no.

1:29:33So leasing doesn't go through the procurement process.

1:29:36Um, leasing is an independent function.

1:29:40We have a 3-mile radius that we have to maintain, or ideal, would be ideal to maintain right now in adjacency to PBOT.

1:29:49And so that greatly, between the acreage and square footage and the radius with PBOT, it greatly delimits what properties were even considerable.

1:29:59And so it basically led us to Swan Island.

1:30:02And then within that, we're just waiting for the market.

1:30:04No, I do understand, but there's a bigger issue here.

1:30:06Here.

1:30:07And when we're spending this kind of money and we have a lease— and what I was trying to explain during the budget cycle when I put forward a budget note, that we need to be seeing all contracts, particularly these multimillion-dollar contracts, before they come up and we get surprised by them.

1:30:26Like I said, I support this.

1:30:27There's— I'm not saying that.

1:30:29But what I'm saying is we need to see contracts like the previous council saw them.

1:30:34Before you sign off on them, because I just can't imagine having this, this huge contract without having council's eyes on them.

1:30:45And it's going to cost— it's going to cost our council, our city, a considerable amount of money.

1:30:51And that part, you don't have to answer, Mattie.

1:30:54Just— I, I'm just, I'm just saying, I am saying this for the benefit of the chair of the Finance Committee because there's some things that we need to course correct.

1:31:02Thank you.

1:31:06Thank you, Councilor.

1:31:07And I think there are a lot of different ways that the city enters into agreements to spend money, some of which are captured in the language to come to us and some of which are not.

1:31:18May I briefly— Would you like to?

1:31:20Yeah, it actually did go to Council.

1:31:21It was just the last Council.

1:31:23So that's why we— so we signed the lease.

1:31:26So we were already under the lease.

1:31:29Contract at this site for the lease by July 1st of last year.

1:31:32So otherwise, future process—.

1:31:35I understand.

1:31:36I saw it.

1:31:37I saw it.

1:31:37I knew they wanted to be under the previous council.

1:31:41Okay.

1:31:42Okay.

1:31:43Councilor Ryan, did you have something additional?

1:31:45Oh no, that was a, a mistake.

1:31:48Okay.

1:31:50Seeing no other questions, thank you all for being here and for the robust discussion.

1:31:55We know this is a really important decision for all of your teams, for our city employees, and for the future efficient operations of our city.

1:32:04We will move this item to second reading at a future council meeting.

1:32:10Um, thank you very much.

1:32:15Can you please read agenda item 8 for us?

1:32:20Authorize the city to acquire certain permanent and temporary rights necessary for construction of the 3260 Southwest Upper Drive North to 3139 Southwest Upper Drive project through negotiation or exercise of the city's eminent domain authority.

1:32:41Mr. Hare.

1:32:42This is—.

1:32:43Good morning once again, Madam President, councilors, For the record, Christopher Hare, Council Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the Finance Committee.

1:32:50The ordinance before you, document number 2025-405, was considered in the Finance Committee on October 20th, where it was referred to Council with a recommendation to pass.

1:32:59The ordinance authorizes the acquisition of certain permanent and temporary property rights necessary for the 3260 Southwest Upper Drive North to 3139 Southwest Upper Drive project.

1:33:11To replace an 80-year-old water main.

1:33:13The acquisitions will affect 10 property owners, and the specific property rights will include 14 permanent easements and 5 temporary easements on or adjacent to the existing private drive, as shown in the Exhibit A attached.

1:33:27The ordinance grants the Water Bureau the authority to use eminent domain pursuant to Section 9-108 of the City Charter and in accordance with eminent domain procedures provided for in Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 5, Eminent Domain, Public Acquisition of Property, to acquire the interests if voluntary agreements cannot be reached with property owners.

1:33:47The ordinance authorizes Water Bureau staff and the City Attorney's Office to negotiate with affected property owners regarding compensation.

1:33:53If negotiations are unsuccessful, the city may initiate and pursue condemnation proceedings to determine just compensation or resolve other matters appropriate for judicial review without expanding the jurisdiction of the court beyond those determinations.

1:34:08The ordinance also, in accordance with ORS 35.265, authorizes the Water Bureau to evaluate the continuing necessity of each acquisition and, as appropriate, reduce or abandon any acquisition identified in Exhibit A. Additionally, it authorizes the creation of a subfund in an amount estimated to cover just compensation for each property interest.

1:34:29If necessary, funds may be deposited with the court where legal proceedings are initiated.

1:34:34And finally, the ordinance authorizes the Water Bureau, City Auditor, or their designees to pay obligations, agreements, or relocation benefits related to the project from the Water Fund once approved by the appropriate authorities.

1:34:47All costs associated with the acquisitions authorized will be charged to the Water Fund for the FY 2025-26 budget.

1:34:55The full impact statements on this item includes a financial and budgets impact and analysis and community impact.

1:35:00And community involvement.

1:35:02There was no verbal or written testimony on this ordinance prior to committee action.

1:35:05And that concludes the committee staff summary.

1:35:07Thank you.

1:35:08Thank you, Christopher.

1:35:09Councilor Zimmerman, do you have anything you'd like to add?

1:35:13No, this is good.

1:35:14Thank you, Christopher.

1:35:16Just note that Councilor Green and I both sit on this committee.

1:35:19This piece of property that we're discussing is in our district and it's in the old parts where I'm sure pipe was being installed before we even had words like easement in the government.

1:35:33So I think this is probably welcomed by the folks who live nearby and certainly needed by city infrastructure.

1:35:41Thank you for the time on that.

1:35:43Thank you, Councilor.

1:35:44Keelan, do we have any public testimony?

1:35:47No one signed up.

1:35:49Okay.

1:35:49Councilor Smith, is your hand in the queue for this item?

1:35:53Yeah, thank you.

1:35:54Um, I don't know who to ask this to, but I— similar to the Pleasant Valley neighborhood lack of response, I'm a little worried that there isn't testimony from any of the property owners.

1:36:05Do we know, have we heard from the property owners who are affected by this in a positive or negative way?

1:36:13Um, interim director of the Water Bureau.

1:36:15I do have staff online.

1:36:16Keith Keith Walker and Ben Garcia, and we have had some contact with the owners.

1:36:24I don't know if Keith or Ben want to talk about that.

1:36:33Go right ahead.

1:36:33I can talk about that.

1:36:34Ben Garcia, for the record, um, Water Bureau Right-of-Way Section.

1:36:38We have had some extensive outreach to the property owners affected by the project.

1:36:43We personally have talked to almost all the property owners, and many of them are aware of the need to replace this infrastructure due to some recent leaks in the area.

1:36:54And they've been aware of the project for—.

1:36:57The project need for quite some time.

1:37:00So there have been a lot of conversations with property owners.

1:37:06This is Keith Walker, Portland Water Bureau.

1:37:09I would also mention that the, the easement areas, both permanent and temporary for construction-only areas, are primarily in the existing access roadway, which is private.

1:37:22So that is the goal of the easement, is to gain access to that and to abandon an old easement which is only 10 feet wide.

1:37:34Thank you.

1:37:34And in very steep terrain.

1:37:36And the goal is replace the 70-year-old pipe, which is a galvanized pipe, it's prone to failure.

1:37:46And also remove that risk of the old existing easement, which is their water supply, which due to the steepness, if we had to work on that on an emergency basis, it It could incur additional risk to our neighbors there.

1:38:05Yeah.

1:38:05So thank you.

1:38:08Thank you.

1:38:10I am certain that this is a vital infrastructure upgrade.

1:38:14I'm positive that this is what is necessary, and I'm certain that the neighbors are probably going to be supportive.

1:38:21I will just note, maybe for any city employees who are listening, We gotta make sure we are positively hearing from folks in a way on these items.

1:38:35Silence is not consent.

1:38:37And just as with, you know, I don't know if there was outreach done to the neighborhood association in the neighborhood or any additional work around there, but, and I'm not, it's not gonna impact my feelings on supporting this.

1:38:52I just wanna note that I think it is, If we're taking property and nobody has said anything, that feels concerning to me.

1:38:59I trust that the staff are doing a good job of maintaining those relationships, but I just wanted to flag that again.

1:39:04So thank you.

1:39:07Thank you, Councilor, for bringing up that important point.

1:39:10Colleagues, any other discussion on this agenda item?

1:39:15Okay.

1:39:15Seeing none, we will move this to a second reading at our next meeting.

1:39:23Keelan gets— oh, okay.

1:39:26You look like you had something with that item before we moved on.

1:39:30Sorry.

1:39:30Um, thank you both for being here.

1:39:33Uh, Keelan, could you please read agenda item 9 for us?

1:39:36Accept the Bull Run Treatment Project's 2025 annual report.

1:39:41Thank you.

1:39:42And we have a committee staff summary.

1:39:46Go right ahead.

1:39:48Good morning, Madam President and councilors.

1:39:49For the record, Claire Adamsick, Council Policy Analyst and staff to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

1:39:55The report before you, document number 2025-383, requests acceptance of the Bull Run Treatment Project's 2025 annual report.

1:40:03The report provides an update on the Bull Run filtration projects and the improved corrosion control treatment project and related milestones to maintain compliance with federal safe drinking water regulations.

1:40:13The full impact statement on this item includes information on financial and budgetary impacts and analysis, economic and real estate development impacts, community impacts and community involvement, and on the city's 100% renewable goal.

1:40:27And excuse me, I failed to say that the committee met and recommended that the passage of this, or that the report be accepted on October 6th, 2025.

1:40:38At that meeting, Thank you.

1:40:39Thank you, Mayor.

1:40:39So, as noted in the agenda, this is a public comment item.

1:40:39We have 2 public comments.

1:40:39The first is in response to the public comment item that was posted to the council agenda prior to the committee meeting.

1:40:3911 People submitted written testimony on these items prior to committee action.

1:40:44There's also a Water Bureau memo that's posted to the council agenda item, which is in response to that written testimony that's available for your reference.

1:40:52And one person submitted written testimony prior to full council agenda posting.

1:40:57The general themes of that written testimony included concerns about increased project costs due to construction delays and conditional use approval.

1:41:05Requests for improved forecasting of impacts to ratepayers in light of project costs and fewer customers to absorb overall costs.

1:41:13Suggestions regarding the use of ultraviolet or other alternative treatment options.

1:41:17And finally, community impact— community and economic impacts of the filtration plant's construction due to potential road closures or detours that impact small businesses along haul routes.

1:41:28And that concludes the committee staff summary.

1:41:29Thank you.

1:41:29Thank you, Deputy City Administrator Tracy Warren.

1:41:31Thank you.

1:41:31Councilor Clark, you were presiding over this meeting.

1:41:34Anything you'd like to add?

1:41:36Thank you.

1:41:36Just thank you, and thank you, Claire, for that summary.

1:41:40Colleagues, this is a report that was required by a previous council in, I think it was 2017 or 2018, required that the bureau bring a report, an annual report.

1:41:55So that's the The origin of this, um, you know, the previous council dealt with different options on the treatment plant.

1:42:05Um, I think now, um, in hindsight, they made absolutely the right decision to, um, have the plant that we're building now.

1:42:13It went from Cryptosporidium to something much larger, uh, around impacts of climate change, which are very, very serious.

1:42:22Interesting that we just had a conversation about facilities when the Water Bureau had purchased this land sometime in the early '70s, I believe.

1:42:30And, you know, we've had conversations about how it was held up at LUBA, but construction has restarted, I think, maybe this July.

1:42:42So we did have a very robust conversation in committee.

1:42:47We talked about all kinds of things, including impact to minority contractors due to the shutdown.

1:42:55And we also talked about the hope and desire that the largesse of this project does not end up cannibalizing the operating funds of the Water Bureau and how we finance this.

1:43:10In any event, I welcome questions.

1:43:13I know there's lots and lots of interest in this, as evidenced both by citizen input and our own conversations.

1:43:19Thank you.

1:43:19So I really appreciate the work of the Water Bureau in bringing this forward.

1:43:27Thank you, Councilor.

1:43:28Thank you, Claire.

1:43:29Keelan, do we have anybody signed up for public testimony?

1:43:32No one signed up.

1:43:33Okay then, colleagues, let's take any technical questions, other questions, or discussion altogether on this report.

1:43:40Is there anybody who'd like to ask a question?

1:43:46Okay.

1:43:47Oh, Councilor Novick.

1:43:48Um, let's see, is this our one chance to ask a question, or can we wait until we've heard the report to ask questions?

1:43:54Uh, generally, because this was well vetted in committee, what we have done in council, like with previous items today, is just move into questions, assuming that folks have had the opportunity to do background research or check with their colleagues okay, thank you, Madam President.

1:44:16So I just think that it's good to take any opportunity to have a discussion about an issue that we periodically hear about from constituents, which is, um, why did you choose to do the filtration plant as opposed to ultraviolet treatment?

1:44:30Isn't it incredibly expensive, uh, given that the costs keep on rising?

1:44:35And I, I think that it's fair to say that the cost of the treatment plant plays a pretty significant role in the projected increase in the combined water sewer bill for a single-family home by about $30 over the next 5 years.

1:44:46Is that right?

1:44:48That's correct.

1:44:49I'm Queesha Light, interim director of the Water Bureau.

1:44:51That's correct.

1:44:52It's going to be probably around $40 additional.

1:44:56So I think that it's useful just to sort of spell out in public whenever we can what the consequences would be if we either had originally decided that we're not going to do this, we're just going to do ultraviolet treatment, or what the consequences would be if we suddenly decided now we wanted to switch.

1:45:16One of the benefits of, as I understand it, of the treatment plant is that it makes the system more resilient to wildfires and earthquakes.

1:45:28Yes.

1:45:29So could you take a little time to sort of spell out what might happen in an earthquake or huge wildfire to the water system without the treatment plant and what we think will happen with the treatment plant?

1:45:39I'll let you take the technical pieces of that.

1:45:43Sure.

1:45:44I'm David Peters.

1:45:45I'm an engineering manager with the Water Bureau overseeing the Bull Run filtration facilities.

1:45:52And the question about what, what would happen if We didn't have filtration and we had an emergency event.

1:46:02And I'll use the case of a forest fire.

1:46:04If we had a forest fire in the Bull Run Watershed and a significant portion of the watershed was burned, what happens is during the winter when the rains come back, all of that burned material gets washed into the reservoirs.

1:46:21And if you don't have a treatment system like filtration, it could be years for that sediment to filter out of the water to where the water could be usable, drinkable again.

1:46:36In the meantime, we're going to a secondary source, which is our groundwater system, to provide water during those times.

1:46:43Our groundwater system, however, is only sized for what I call a 3-day event.

1:46:47Okay.

1:46:483 Seasons.

1:46:49So it's not enough capacity to be used during the summer to provide all of our demands during our peaks during a hot summer.

1:46:58But it can be used in the shoulder seasons.

1:47:00It can be used during the winter to meet those demands.

1:47:03So we'd have a deficit of clean drinking water that we could provide to our customers.

1:47:11And in—.

1:47:13Yeah.

1:47:13You mentioned UV.

1:47:15UV would not have solved that problem.

1:47:18It does not remove sediments.

1:47:20It specifically is focused on inactivation of Cryptosporidium.

1:47:26And so it wouldn't solve problems like landslides or wildfires or storm events that would happen in the Bow Run Watershed.

1:47:33In those cases, we would still be shutting that system down.

1:47:37And it's the same kind of rationale applied to the effects of an earthquake.

1:47:40An earthquake also It could, if it creates landslides in the watershed.

1:47:55What I'd like to say is the 2 supplies that we have, our groundwater and our surface water, are structured to benefit us during different emergencies.

1:48:08So our groundwater system is down by the Columbia River in areas that are liquefiable.

1:48:14So it's likely that that system might be impacted more than our Bull Run system.

1:48:20Our Bull Run system is up in the hills on the basalt, and it would be less likely affected by an earthquake.

1:48:30But an earthquake could create a landslide up there.

1:48:33Hmm.

1:48:34That if we have filtration, we'd be able to continue to provide.

1:48:38So I think that's the benefit of having the multi-source system that we have, is to protect us against the different types of risks that we have.

1:48:50Another question is, if we just, in addition to what we just discussed, if we just refuse to do anything, what could the Oregon Health Authority or EPA actually do to us?

1:49:04We have one, a compliance agreement that we're under.

1:49:08So the option to do nothing, we long signed away that because we're on an agreement that says we will deliver filtration by the end of September of 2027.

1:49:20But if we do not, we one, run the risk of the EPA coming in and taking over our system, right, and saying that our water is not of the quality where it can be delivered, which means that impacts our hospitals, that impacts our businesses.

1:49:34That is not just us.

1:49:37It means a shutdown of our city, essentially.

1:49:40And I think the other piece that we look at is if they say that, that impacts our bond rating.

1:49:45We can no longer get the bonds at— we can't get the low-cost interest that we need for capital projects.

1:49:52I think I might be making this up, but I think I heard somewhere that one thing OHA could do if we're not in compliance is like order us to tell people to boil their water every day.

1:50:05You—.

1:50:05We could tell people to boil their water every single day.

1:50:08And so to have us in a continuous state of boil water is rough, but no hospital can do that, right?

1:50:17Thank you very much.

1:50:18I mean, I know you've gone over this before, but I just think it's important to daylight it whenever we get a chance.

1:50:24I thank you.

1:50:24I appreciate it.

1:50:25I think it's important that the public hears and understands this over and over because this is an expensive endeavor.

1:50:31Thank you.

1:50:33Thank you, Councilor.

1:50:34Councilor Dunphy.

1:50:35Thank you.

1:50:36Yeah, I do just want to take an opportunity to reflect the real fear and concern that I hear from constituents every day about this project.

1:50:46Both neighbors who have been neighbors of the project itself who are lobbying.

1:50:51They're not in the city of Portland.

1:50:52They're not my constituents, but they are very organized and passionate.

1:50:57And this is absolutely impacting their community.

1:50:59But also, I really want to just acknowledge the genuine strain that this will put on families, especially low-income families who are a lot of times living paycheck to paycheck and seeing a huge increase on their water bill like this is going to hurt.

1:51:16It's going to require sacrifice.

1:51:20And I do agree that the need to respond to climate change is very important, that a fire would absolutely be devastating.

1:51:29And we had similar situations, you know, this last couple years where the fire has gotten pretty close.

1:51:36So that's a real concern, but it is a secondary concern to what the previous city councils talked about.

1:51:43When this plan first moved forward, I was working in Nick Fish's office and climate change was not the reason we were responding.

1:51:49The reason we were responding was Cryptosporidium.

1:51:51And the conversations at that time, the cost of this facility was a quarter of what it is now.

1:51:58I just need the daylight.

1:52:00That is a real concern.

1:52:01And if we are going to not only put this cost on top of the bills of ratepayers going forward, We need to keep a really careful eye on all the additional costs that we're going to be having.

1:52:13In Nick Fish's office at the time, the mandate coming from Nick was that we didn't increase the water bill by more than 5% every year.

1:52:23We have had to move away from that as a standard, as a combined rate increase, understanding there's differences between water and BES.

1:52:33And there's a lot of good reasons for that, but I really, really implore the future one Water Bureau to keep an eye on anything we can do to keep costs down year over year because this is genuinely going to impact people for generations.

1:52:49Hopefully the benefits will outweigh the costs, but I just needed to voice those concerns that I'm hearing a lot.

1:52:58Thank you, Councilor.

1:52:59Councilor Ryan.

1:53:01Yes, thank you, Council President.

1:53:03I feel like there's gremlins in my computer right now.

1:53:07Okay, one second.

1:53:09There we go.

1:53:09We're on agenda item 9.

1:53:11Oh, I know that, but the thing just went wild and went away from the screen.

1:53:15I'm here, I'm present.

1:53:16It's almost Halloween.

1:53:17It's beautiful outside.

1:53:19Hi.

1:53:20Thank you, Deputy City Administrator Priya Dhanapal, for being here today.

1:53:24And I want to acknowledge your steady leadership at the Water Bureau, particularly you, Director Keisha Light.

1:53:30You've really navigated an extremely complex project and you've been moving through it with a lot of recent hurdles.

1:53:36I think we've all been reading about them, but I'm not in your shoes.

1:53:40So I just want to thank you for all that you've been going through to get this project back online.

1:53:45And it is back online.

1:53:46So thank you.

1:53:47It's great to hear that update.

1:53:49I benefit from the 4-year term as a commissioner prior to this to understand the complex evolution of this project.

1:53:55And I really appreciate the questions that were raised by 2 of my colleagues just prior to me speaking.

1:54:01And yes, it's really complex.

1:54:03And I highly suggest that we have all the councilors eventually do field trips up to Bull Run.

1:54:09It's something that I waited about a year to do, and it was so beneficial to finally spend time up there.

1:54:15I spent almost the entire day up there asking questions, just seeing the complexity.

1:54:21And you can't leave but noticing that we have, right, Under our nose or not far from us, just the most precious resource that every city wishes they had, which is pure water, drinkable water that is close to our city.

1:54:35It's— I can't think of a more important asset for our city on so many levels in terms of the decades that are moving forward.

1:54:42So it's been frustrating, of course, to all of us to see the cost escalate.

1:54:48I think that you've handled all of the questions well, but I'm going to pivot to something that I want to daylight for my colleagues because it's been my main reason to support this from the beginning.

1:55:00And it goes even beyond the fact that this will be such an important, precious asset for Portland that others will really want to hook up to it.

1:55:07I have faith, Councilor Smith, that other municipalities will want to play once this is all done because it'll be a very sacred resource, I think, as we move forward.

1:55:17Unfortunately, Unfortunately.

1:55:18And I'm really glad we're protecting it.

1:55:20This project also has such an opportunity to really go deep into workforce development.

1:55:26You can— I picture the student graduating from a high school locally, especially out in East Portland, and getting into a pre-apprentice program.

1:55:34And in the duration of this project, they have the opportunity to get the skills to move up to apprentice, to move up to journey person.

1:55:41And that means there's steadily improving their opportunity to have a living wage for the rest of their life.

1:55:47And so we talk a lot about equity opportunities and workforce, and I think we have such a golden opportunity here.

1:55:54And so I want to keep tracking those numbers as we move along on who the workforce is, who we're hiring, and what the demographic makeup is at the pre-apprenticeship level.

1:56:04So we really get to the heart of the matter of having impact on something that we talk a lot about.

1:56:08Thank you.

1:56:09But seldom do we have such a crisp, clear, concrete opportunity to do that.

1:56:13So I just wanted to daylight that since it's a new council and I hadn't had a chance to say that in front of all of them.

1:56:19I have full faith in you, Keisha, and your team at the Water Bureau.

1:56:23I did read through this because this report annually has been of interest, and I thought this one was the most improved of all of the reports that I've seen in the 4 years that I've studied it.

1:56:32So thank you.

1:56:33Thank you.

1:56:35Thank you, Councilor.

1:56:36Councilor Green.

1:56:38Yeah, thank you.

1:56:39I mean, these are really important things that we need to engage on, and I understand, Councilor Novick, I appreciate the ways you posed some of those questions 'cause it places into public a lot of what we're receiving in our inboxes.

1:56:51I think the things for me that reinforce my commitment to this project is that the cost of not doing anything Is a significant burden that future generations will bear because wildfire risk is only increasing.

1:57:08And correct me if I'm wrong, but the efficacy of a UV filtration approach is a function of turbidity in the water.

1:57:16So if you've got too much sedimentation in the water, it's not going to be as effective anyway.

1:57:20And so I know that the original conversations was about Cryptosporidium, but I think it was good that we contemplated other coincidental benefits that would result from the investment in an infrastructure plant that will increase our regional resiliency.

1:57:39We can't ignore the cost control problems, but I'll just note that the cost control issues related to, or the cost escalation issues related to this project are the same issues that plague every other construction project, particularly in the post-pandemic period, which is rising inflation.

1:57:54And I'm the city's representative to the Regional Water Providers Consortium for the City of Portland.

1:57:59In our last meeting, we did introduce the topic of maybe reconsidering joint purchase arrangements to pool our resources and purchase ahead of demand the infrastructure inputs.

1:58:15So that way we can have a kind of buffer stock of those commodity inputs to control our costs.

1:58:21Now, the City of Portland would be the biggest mover in that.

1:58:24So in the spirit of making sure that we're approaching this regional problem with some sort of solidarity, mutual aid, that I think those benefits need to be extended to our partners in the consortium.

1:58:36And maybe they'll come on back, as the councilor noted, is a risk of them leaving.

1:58:40But, you know, Director Light, you hit on a really important consideration, which is if we get into a situation where we fail to live up to the terms of our What is it?

1:58:54Compliance obligation, then we're leaving our economic actors who rely upon steady water out in the lurch.

1:59:02And that is a serious risk to our economic development prospects, not only in a time where we're sort of trying to understand how we can accelerate our economic development, but forestall a bigger decline.

1:59:16So if we have big major institutions who maybe think twice on locating in our city because they're not sure we're willing to back our major infrastructure requirements, that is just going to accelerate the doom loop, and we can't afford that.

1:59:32And so I think, you know, when we think about rate schedules and rate trajectories over time, I mean, we don't have to be passive.

1:59:40You know, we can always make choices in our budget on what to subsidize and what not to subsidize.

1:59:44So that's always up to us.

1:59:45Thank you.

1:59:45We have the low-income discount program, which we must continue to emphasize is there.

1:59:51But also the way that you deal with fixed-cost disease, which is what this is, is to grow.

1:59:56You grow your way out of a fixed-cost problem because you spread the fixed costs over a larger and larger base.

2:00:02And so, you know, as you're getting those sort of roadshows from Prosper Portland's TIF districts, what you'll note is that there's a dedication and emphasis on infrastructure spend in the new TIF districts, particularly in Westside, something like 20% of the new TIF resources are going to be about upscaling our infrastructure capacity so we can enable more dense development, which will allow us to spread our costs over a larger base.

2:00:26That's where we have to go, colleagues.

2:00:29It's really imperative for us to clear the bottlenecks and red tape to housing production and commercial production in this city.

2:00:37Thank you.

2:00:39I, again, I'm gonna keep hammering this, but we absolutely must upzone large swaths of this city and we can't wait 3 years of process to get that done or else we're gonna be 3 years later on getting our fixed costs spread out over a larger base and lowering the rate trajectory on average for every ratepayer.

2:00:52So that's my spiel.

2:00:54And I'm excited to see us moving forward on this and, you know, appreciate your frank willingness to kind of share some of the tough truths out there.

2:01:06Thank you.

2:01:07As we hear from community members who are pretty upset about the cost problem.

2:01:11Thanks.

2:01:12Council President, may I say one thing too?

2:01:15Right ahead.

2:01:16Because you're right, we do need to be able to spread those costs across more people.

2:01:21And what we're seeing, and I know we talked about this in the T&I committee, is what we're seeing is multifamily being built, and we need that multifamily to be built with separate meters.

2:01:31Without that, That's not more people to spread those costs across.

2:01:35And then we have to start having a different type of cost causation, cost allocation conversation, and which we know we need to do anyway.

2:01:43But that is where we are right now.

2:01:47We— getting more people living in multifamily doesn't spread those costs across more people.

2:01:53It just doesn't do that in our system.

2:01:57Thank you.

2:01:58Thank you for noting that.

2:02:01I'm looking to the vice chair of our Housing Committee as I say that.

2:02:06Councilor Smith, go right ahead.

2:02:08Thank you.

2:02:09Thank you for the report.

2:02:10I want to go back to something.

2:02:12Who are the 4 wholesale customers that have decided to back out of the Bull Run after it's completed?

2:02:19TVWD, Lusted Hill, Rockwood, and Gresham.

2:02:24Okay.

2:02:25Do we have a strategic plan to increase the customer base?

2:02:30So we have, we're, you know, we have conversations.

2:02:34We're definitely having conversations with folks around.

2:02:36No master plan on that one yet.

2:02:39That is definitely something that we have, as our leadership team within Water Bureau, been looking at.

2:02:44Not only, you know, what are the other revenue streams, but how do we We create a system and that those utilities— those utilities won't want— those cities will want to come back.

2:02:57The challenge we have is, you know, they— you have to build out the system too for people to connect to you, all the things that come with that.

2:03:07Or you take TVWD, they're investing in their own facility.

2:03:12Their facility is costing them at this point about $1.6 or something like that billion.

2:03:17Billion.

2:03:18Um, so, but what we do have with them is emergency agreements, right, um, that we're working through.

2:03:27I think there's the potential that we, you know, Rockwood and Gresham could come back.

2:03:32They're, they're relying solely on groundwater going forward, and there's the potential because of filtration that we may see some of that exactly.

2:03:41So did they give us any indication why they left?

2:03:48I will— I can only tell you what I have learned over this time.

2:03:53Some of it is cost.

2:03:55Okay.

2:03:55Some of it is wanting to have more control, and some of it is just politics that has existed for years between the cities.

2:04:04And some of it I've been told.

2:04:06It's just, you know, how we are able to share ownership when it comes to the Bull Run.

2:04:12So yeah, very complex relationships.

2:04:15Um, I'd like to see if DCA Dhanapal could come up here because I, I, I have an idea that I want to throw out at you guys because you just said something very important.

2:04:27I had these in my talking points.

2:04:29When you say you have to build out the system, you know, the warm Warm Springs Reservation, they're always out of water.

2:04:35They're always having to boil it, having to have restricted use of their water source.

2:04:41Have we tried to reach out to them to see if they could actually be one of our customers?

2:04:50I'm going to check with the water— sorry, for the record.

2:04:52Or maybe it's too far.

2:04:53Just, I'm just trying to think.

2:04:55I was reading some articles last night about them and their water, and was like, well, maybe, um, there could be a relationship.

2:05:05Thank you, Councilor Smith.

2:05:06Uh, this is Priya Dhanapal, DCA for Public Works.

2:05:08Um, and we have not reached out to the, uh, to that particular customer, potential customer.

2:05:14We can, uh, look into, look into that, and we're always open for ideas on, um, connecting with future potential customers.

2:05:22Yeah, thank you.

2:05:23I just want to say ditto, ditto, ditto to my, um, District 1 colleague in regards to the cost.

2:05:31It is costing, and I know every DCA is hearing this across the board because we're infrastructure government, but the cost of the water is incredible.

2:05:41I looked at my bill last night and paid it.

2:05:43I was like, wow, this is huge.

2:05:47And I'm just one person that uses water.

2:05:49So, I can imagine what it looks like for the use of a family, and on top of the water and everything else is going up, the food, and it's just a nightmare across the board.

2:06:03And we have the federal government who's not working right now and they're closed down.

2:06:08So that is just adding to all the stress of what we have to pay for and how things are going to rise rapidly.

2:06:16But I do want to say that— Councilor Loretta Smith.

2:06:17Our district, I say District 1 is probably one of the most dynamic districts in the city, and I believe it is the new front door to the city of Portland.

2:06:26But we have some challenges.

2:06:30The average, uh, salary of a family in District 1 is $60,000 a year compared to the average salary in the other 3 districts of $90,000, average $92,000.

2:06:41So I just wanted to keep that in mind.

2:06:43I know we have to build something, and I know we have to pay for it.

2:06:46And we, we, we, we cannot actually pay for this on the backs of an internal service fee, uh, because it takes a lot of money to, to build one of these.

2:06:56And I appreciate, um, the partnership that we have with the federal government in terms of helping us to, um, have the resources to actually build this.

2:07:07And, um, it's, it's needed.

2:07:09Thank you.

2:07:10But I just want to just say ditto to what my partner is saying as well, and thank you.

2:07:16Thank you, Councilor.

2:07:17If I may add one thing.

2:07:19Yes.

2:07:19Yes, uh, the, um, bills across, across everywhere is going up.

2:07:24The one thing that I do want to mention is, um, for those who are not able to afford the bill or have difficulties, we have a robust affordability program and financial assistance program.

2:07:35So um, just an opportunity for people to reach out to the Water Bureau to learn how, how we can best support them.

2:07:42Would I qualify for that?

2:07:45I didn't get a COLA this year, so, um, I won't be able to pay any of those high bills.

2:07:50Maybe when I get a COLA, I, I'll be able to do that.

2:07:52But, um, just, just checking.

2:07:54Well, look, we are trying to, but this is why we are doing our smart discount.

2:08:00We're—.

2:08:00That high that's why this pilot is so important, because it is trying to help us think about how can we get just even a small discount.

2:08:08Because when we did the randomized trial, what we heard from people who got 10% or 20% that they weren't expecting is that that made the difference between them being able to pay that full bill that month, because they, they got an unexpected discount, which tells us that there is a need.

2:08:26Yes.

2:08:26It might not be the 60% or the 80% that some of our other customers are getting, but just a 10% or 5% can make a difference and let people know that we get it and we understand.

2:08:37So we are looking at all those things, and I do hear you all.

2:08:41It is the thing that we spend a lot of time thinking about.

2:08:44And just for those folks who are watching this, I was just kidding.

2:08:47I'm not asking for something from my local government.

2:08:51Thank you.

2:08:52Thank you, Councilor.

2:08:57Thank you for the discussion.

2:08:58Councilor Clark.

2:09:00Thank you, Madam President.

2:09:02Um, just a couple of things.

2:09:04I, uh, want to echo what my, um, colleague here said about the cost escalation, um, inflation, tariffs, but also the delay.

2:09:15And the delay was brought about by neighbors using the land use system to object to the facility.

2:09:22So I just want to make sure everybody knows that, that, that's— it's not our fault, um, that some of these costs went up.

2:09:30Um, I also, uh, wanted to add that when I first, uh, we first started meeting as the T&I committee and we had water in, I was just flabbergasted by this, uh, program that you have to assist low-income people.

2:09:44And in fact, we talked about it being transferable across potentially other programs, other bureaus.

2:09:50And the innovation that you're employing on the system is just admirable and really, really appreciated.

2:09:57Just one last point.

2:09:59I think that Portland is one of the last cities, maybe of our size, to have unfiltered water.

2:10:08We're kind of behind the rest of the country in doing that.

2:10:11Yes.

2:10:12Councilor Ryan, we've had a— we have fabulous water.

2:10:16We have a great system, and it tastes really great.

2:10:20But we are one of the last in the country to actually filter it all.

2:10:24So we're kind of behind in that way.

2:10:29But thank you very much for presenting that report, and I hope everybody votes positively on this.

2:10:36Thank you, Councilor.

2:10:36And I just want, before we move on, to express I just want to express my gratitude to the committee for your work on this because this is exactly the type of work that needs a deep dive, exactly the type of project that needs the oversight that council can provide.

2:10:52But we know that we don't have the time to provide the deep level of oversight over every important project in the city in this body.

2:11:00There's just too much and there are too many, too many of us to weigh in on every single project with this level of detail.

2:11:08So I appreciate our colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for doing a deep dive on this and for what I know will be continued oversight work as the project moves forward.

2:11:20I'm glad that it's back up and running, and I'm glad that we have such a thorough report before us today.

2:11:25So thank you to all of you for that report as well.

2:11:29Colleagues, I don't see any other hands in the queue, so I would entertain a motion to adopt the report.

2:11:36Move to adopt.

2:11:39Second.

2:11:41Okay, I think we're going to take Councilor Clark on the motion and Councilor Novick on the second.

2:11:46Keelan, could you please call the roll?

2:11:48Clark.

2:11:49Aye.

2:11:50Green.

2:11:50Aye.

2:11:51Zimmerman.

2:11:52Aye.

2:11:52Dunphy.

2:11:54Aye.

2:11:55Smith.

2:11:56Aye.

2:11:57Kanal.

2:12:00Aye.

2:12:03Aye.

2:12:04Koyama Lane?

2:12:05No, she's not returned yet.

2:12:06Murillo?

2:12:07Aye.

2:12:09Novick?

2:12:09Aye.

2:12:10Pirtle-Guiney?

2:12:12Aye.

2:12:13The report is accepted with 10 yes votes.

2:12:16Thank you.

2:12:16And I'll note for folks watching, um, Councilor Koyama Lane did have to jump to some other business.

2:12:22Councilor Kanal, who was We've got a little bit of movement online, but folks are keeping in touch with Keelan so that she can keep the roll counts appropriately.

2:12:35Keelan, we are back to agenda item number 5.

2:12:38Could you please read the agenda item for us?

2:12:43Appoint and reappoint members to the Development Review Advisory Committee.

2:12:48Thank you.

2:12:51We don't— there is a committee staff summary prepared online because this was on the consent agenda.

2:12:56We don't have a verbal report for it.

2:12:59Councilor Avalos was the committee chair and she is absent today.

2:13:02Councilor Dunphy, is there anything you would like to share with us about these appointments coming out of the Homelessness and Housing Committee?

2:13:08Yeah, I actually chaired this meeting and there were some fantastic folks who were willing to volunteer their time.

2:13:16We were impressed.

2:13:17They stood up to our scrutiny and our pointed questions.

2:13:22This is an interesting board, just broadly.

2:13:26DRAC is an interesting one that deals with some tricky issues, and I appreciate the sort of prescriptive way that they have built out different membership categories for members, and it has seemed to be going well.

2:13:39So I'm excited for the folks who thank you so much.

2:13:50And Councilor Knoll, you pulled this off of consent.

2:13:53Is there anything you'd like to share with us?

2:13:57Nothing specific to the people who are being appointed.

2:14:01I had a couple, you know, general questions about the structure of it that I've asked.

2:14:08Separately and we'll continue to follow up there.

2:14:11I just wanted to note that I did leave the other item on consent agenda because the full council did discuss it already.

2:14:20So thank you for that opportunity.

2:14:24Thank you, Councilor.

2:14:25Keelan, has anybody signed up for public testimony since this was removed from the consent agenda?

2:14:31No one signed up.

2:14:32Okay, colleagues.

2:14:34We do have Mr. Caron here from PP&D if there are any questions.

2:14:39Does anybody have any questions or comments?

2:14:42Councilor Smith, are you in the queue?

2:14:43Yes, I'm in the queue.

2:14:44Go right ahead.

2:14:44Thank you so much, Madam President.

2:14:45I have a question.

2:14:46I'm not familiar with this particular committee and not quite sure what the mission and vision of this Go right ahead.

2:15:10Thank you.

2:15:11Hello, I'm Ross Caron.

2:15:13I'm with Portland Permitting Development, and I am the liaison to the Development Review Advisory Committee.

2:15:19The committee is, is a, is a citizen volunteer or community volunteer advisory committee, and as was mentioned, it has representatives from both the community as well as our industry partners that are involved in the development review and permitting process, and really acts as an advisory committee for changes to codes, rules, and processes within PP&D as well as with our partner bureaus that also are involved in the development review process.

2:15:48So the committee members both advise, make recommendations, and also anytime we make changes or improvements, we engage that group to get community and industry partner feedback that we then take into consideration or act on as we move those changes through our legislative processes or just process improvement processes.

2:16:13The members are appointed to the 3-year terms there are 17 members in total, and they have the option to serve one second term.

2:16:24And their immediate responsibilities are joining the committee and then, you know, representing the different perspectives or the different seats on the committee in advising the city on changes, codes, and rules related to permitting.

2:16:42So will they actually look at— we did the system development charges waivers.

2:16:48Are they going to be looking at that to see if that program is actually working and how it's working and where it's working at?

2:16:56They— so they were involved in— they were engaged in that, the SDC waivers, providing feedback and perspectives from the community.

2:17:08And as we monitor the performance of that, we will be reporting that back out to the Development Review Advisory Committee.

2:17:16I know this is off topic, but have we experienced an overwhelming response to our waiver?

2:17:26Have we gotten more people?

2:17:28I see Administrator Jordan, he's cringing over here, but I'm just curious to know, this was months ago and we were told that people are in the queue and all they need to do is get this waiver.

2:17:41And so I'm wondering, has it worked yet?

2:17:44I did— I could— we could— I could, um, follow up with our deputy director and director and, and, and follow up with you on that.

2:17:54But I, I don't know.

2:17:55Great.

2:17:55If you can talk to me offline and kind of give me a a lay of the land.

2:18:01Thank you.

2:18:02You're welcome.

2:18:03Thank you, Councilor.

2:18:04Councilor Green?

2:18:06Yeah, just very briefly, I just wanted to note that I appreciated seeing the bio summaries kind of clearly laid out.

2:18:15Every single one of those people made it very clear that their purpose is making sure that we are overcoming the hurdles to housing production and broad development in this city.

2:18:26Respecting other nuances of the broad array of things we should care about in our built environment.

2:18:30That's going to continue to be very important to me for all the reasons I've already said.

2:18:34So happy to support these appointees.

2:18:37Thank you, Councilor.

2:18:38Councilor Ryan.

2:18:39Yeah, 2 things.

2:18:40One is, thanks, good to see you.

2:18:41I thought that the DRAC appointments were just outstanding, and we had such good dialogue at the meeting about their values and why they're serving and also their IQ.

2:18:52About what it takes to do development.

2:18:54Councilor Smith, I really appreciate your question.

2:18:56Our office has really been trying to track that.

2:18:59We're seeing some good trends on pulling permits for housing developments that are, say, under 19 units, 19 and below, and we kind of know why that is.

2:19:07But other than that, I really haven't seen a lot, but that's better than what was happening for months prior to that.

2:19:14So I'm hoping that even though it's a really disappointing year in terms of pulling permits and doing any economic development in Portland, we are seeing some upticks in the smaller units.

2:19:25Yeah, at least in North— at least in District 2.

2:19:27Thanks.

2:19:29Thank you, Councilor.

2:19:29Councilor Dunphy.

2:19:31Yeah, I just wanted to, uh, very quickly point out to my colleagues, because I screwed this up in committee, DRAC is not design review, by the way.

2:19:38This is development review.

2:19:39That is a separate conversation.

2:19:40I screwed that up in committee, I think, maybe twice.

2:19:42So So just wanted to make sure that's very obvious for everybody.

2:19:47Thank you, Councilor, for that clarification, both for us and for others listening.

2:19:50Councilor Kanal.

2:19:52Thank you, Madam President.

2:19:54I wanted to first echo and appreciate Councilor Smith's questions and ask for the same data as well, and I guess also from Councilor Ryan also, but, and also echo everything that Councilor Green said.

2:20:08My question was, As to whether or not— or it's maybe not, uh, yes or no, actually— the, the level of detail that goes into these individual slots.

2:20:19Um, are there any of the particular, um, positions and, uh, specific backgrounds that an individual needs to be on DRAC which are more challenging to fill or to find applicants for?

2:20:37That's—.

2:20:37I've, I've been the liaison to DRAC for the last almost 2 years, and we've filled a number of seats.

2:20:45Um, so I don't know, Councilor Kanal, if I have the, the information to, to respond to that question.

2:20:53Um, but I, I— we, we generally have pretty good turnout.

2:20:58Sorry.

2:20:59I'd be happy to follow up sure, I will do that.

2:21:05Thank you.

2:21:07Thanks.

2:21:08Thank you, Madam President.

2:21:09Thank you, councilors, colleagues.

2:21:12Seeing no one else in the queue, and with my gratitude to everybody who has stepped forward to serve in these roles on behalf of all residents of the city, I think we should move to a vote.

2:21:25Keelan, can you please call the roll?

2:21:28Madam President, this is a—.

2:21:30Oh, this is a report, isn't it?

2:21:32This is listed as a report.

2:21:33I apologize.

2:21:34I would entertain a motion to adopt the report.

2:21:37So moved.

2:21:38Second.

2:21:38Second.

2:21:39Okay, Councilor Dunphy and then Councilor Ryan, I believe.

2:21:42Yeah.

2:21:44Clark?

2:21:45Aye.

2:21:46Aye.

2:21:47Zimmerman?

2:21:48Aye.

2:21:49Dunphy?

2:21:49Aye.

2:21:50Smith?

2:21:51Aye.

2:21:52Kanal?

2:21:54Aye.

2:21:55Aye.

2:21:58Aye.

2:22:00Aye.

2:22:02Aye.

2:22:04The report is accepted with 10 yes votes.

2:22:06Thank you, Keelan.

2:22:08And we do have one additional agenda item.

2:22:11Keelan, could you please call agenda item 10?

2:22:16Authorize council to continue operating under the current thank you, Keelan.

2:22:24And colleagues, you do all have a paper copy of this in front of you.

2:22:28And for folks watching online or in the room or who do better on screen, this is now posted as item 10 on today's agenda as well.

2:22:40Keelan, do we have anybody signed up for public testimony?

2:22:44No one signed up.

2:22:45Thank you, Councilor McClymont.

2:22:46Okay, so I would draw your attention, colleagues, to the first whereas and the first therefore as the real meat of this.

2:22:54We passed an emergency ordinance previously that required me as council president to ensure that we had a proposal to replace or extend Chapter 3.02 of City Code no later than October 31st.

2:23:06Given the enormous work that has been done in the Governance Committee, including some updates via resolution to our rules and a package that I have in the works right now that I have been working with the council vice president to make sure we have time to hear before the end of this year.

2:23:27I had thought that perhaps we had met the requirements there.

2:23:31I recently learned that the language that we passed was far more prescriptive than I had recalled and that we did need to do something.

2:23:38So today, Thank you.

2:23:39I have something brought forward for us which says, therefore be it resolved, the council will continue operating under the current language in Chapter 3.02 of City Code, which allows us without making any changes today to meet that requirement.

2:23:55This resolution also notes that I do have a package in the works, which we will be posting as soon as it is through legal review where it is sitting right now.

2:24:06Thank you.

2:24:07I'm very interested in what my colleague is cooking.

2:24:11And we will have that posted and before the Governance Committee, likely on the Governance Committee agenda next month.

2:24:19I would encourage anybody not on that committee who has an interest in the topic to come testify there and share your thoughts with us.

2:24:27One of the things that we hadn't discussed when we first passed the emergency ordinance Earlier this year was that if something didn't make it to full council because we couldn't get agreement in committee, we wouldn't be able to fulfill this requirement.

2:24:42That's why we didn't just extend the date of the requirement, but are instead specifying until something else comes forward, we will continue to operate under our city code as it currently stands.

2:24:53We've developed norms.

2:24:55We have been doing this.

2:24:57And That gives us the flexibility to have the conversations that we need to moving forward.

2:25:06Councilor Kanal.

2:25:09Thank you, Madam President.

2:25:10Um, I have a question for you about the second, therefore the second be it further resolved.

2:25:18Um, currently under city code, uh, 3.02.020, It says that ordinances amending council rules generally will be assigned to the full council without committee consideration.

2:25:35But in the there be it further resolved, it says that will go to the Governance Committee.

2:25:40And I just wanted to understand the legislative intent there.

2:25:44Can you speak to that, please?

2:25:45The Governance Committee has been having a number of conversations about how council operates generally, many of which were not in ordinance form.

2:25:55They were in resolution form or in the form of conversations about a potential handbook.

2:26:00Because those conversations are very related to some of the items contained in the ordinance, I felt that there was a compelling reason to make sure that there was some cohesiveness in those conversations by placing it in governance where the rest of that work is taking place.

2:26:18Thank you.

2:26:19And is, is just to clarify further, is the document that you're intending to bring an ordinance or a resolution?

2:26:26That document will be an ordinance.

2:26:31Okay.

2:26:32Um, is this just a question time or is this also open debate?

2:26:36Uh, we do not have public testimony signed up, so we can take questions or debate.