Loading...
City Council Minutes - 02/16/2021 V City of Tigard Tigard City Council Meeting Minutes February 16, 2021 1. BUSINESS MEETING A. At 6:31 p.m.,Mayor Snider called the meeting of the Tigard City Council to order. B. Deputy City Recorder Patton called the roll. Present Absent Mayor Snider ✓ Youth Councilor Calderon ✓ Councilor Goodhouse ✓ Councilor Newton ✓ Council President Lueb ✓ Councilor Shaw ✓ C. Mayor Snider invited everyone to mute themselves and join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. D. Council and Staff Non Agenda Items— Mayor Snider said that he would like to sing Happy Birthday to Councilor Newton at the end of the meeting. 2. JOINT MEETING WITH THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD (PRAB) Public Works Director Rager introduced Wayne Gross, chair of the Park and Recreation Advisory Board (DRAB). Mr. Gross said it had been an interesting year due to the pandemic,but they think the staff have been doing a great job. Most importantly,he said,the PRAB would like to recognize Martin McKnight,Parks Supervisor, for his leadership over the past year.They would also like to recognize Kaitlyn Leaf,Recreation Program Specialist,who stepped in as Program Coordinator when needed in this tumultuous year. Mr. Gross mentioned the Parks master planning process and said that the PRAB would like the city to dedicate area in the City Facility Consolidation (CFC) Project for recreation,such as a multi-purpose room for example. As a larger issue to consider, the PRAB would like the city to think about the best organizational structure to maximize parks and recreation services and whether to create their own department within the city. Councilor Newton confirmed there was information forthcoming in the Parks master plan regarding both the issues of recreation and organizational structure and confirmed that Mr. Gross was only informing Council as to the position of the PRAB. Mr. Gross confirmed that was the case. Councilor Shaw asked what Mr. Gross's recommendation would be as to departmental structure. Mr. Gross said his personal position was in favor of an independent parks and recreation TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES — February 16, 2021 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard, OR 97223 www.dgard-or.gov I Page 1 of 5 department, so they have a seat at the table when the big decisions are being made.The PRAB, he clarified, has not taken an official position. PRAB member Ellen Seminara echoed earlier comments made by Mr. Gross. She said that the advisory board would like a continued commitment to staff and resources for parks and recreation services.The current staff is bare bones and the growing list of properties,particularly with the expansion into River Terrace,will require a larger staff to successfully maintain the properties. Councilor Newton echoed PRAB member comments regarding the city's amazing parks staff and said that the city needs to invest in park assets and staffing to maintain existing properties. She asked what parks thought they needed to provide good maintenance in the future while providing equity in access to city parks. PRAB member Scott Winkels said that Council has established a standard of a park within a 10- minute walk of every person in Tigard and that if you count trails the city is doing well, but for parks it is falling behind. He described the equity considerations PRAB has been discussing in acquiring new parkland to make services uniform throughout the city. Mr.Winkels mentioned getting the Lasich property out of the rural reserves and into the city was needed as soon as possible. Mayor Snider said the whole Council shares similar thoughts about the Lasich property. Mayor Snider asked what the PRAB needed from the Council as a result of this briefing. Mr. Gross said he felt their support for parks and recreation has been strong and he would like that to continue. He voiced concerns about adding additional developed parkland from the River Terrace annexations increasing the workload on parks maintenance staff. 3. DISCUSSION REGARDING CITY CENTER SUBSTANTIAL AMENDMENT REFERRAL BALLOT TITLE LANGUAGE Redevelopment Manager Farrelly explained staff were presenting draft ballot title language to Council to forward a substantial amendment to the ballot in May 2021. This urban renewal plan amendment requires voter approval per the city's charter. Council are invited to make changes to any ballot title language. City Attorney Rihala said staff are seeking Council's guidance. She said Councilor Goodhouse had proposed a change "not a new tax" be changed to "requires no new taxes" to be consistent with the city's last two ballot title captions. She said in the summary they are at the character limit and so any changes would require a subtraction before an addition. Council discussed the language of the ballot title and reached consensus on the following changes: • Change "not a new tax"to "requires no new taxes"in the ballot caption; • Updated a sentence to read, "Urban renewal is not a new or additional tax."They also placed this statement on its own line, separated from the paragraph; and • Remove the word`will" and replace with "such as"in reference to the projects that will be funded by the amendment. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES - February 16, 2021 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard, OR 97223 www.tigard-o.t.gov I Page 2 of 5 i City Attorney Rihala said this language would come back before Council for approval at their next business meeting so they can continue to consider the text until then. She clarified that no vote was needed this evening. 4. RECEIVE BRIEFING ON THE WATER COST OF SERVICE ANALYSIS AND RATE STUDY PROJECT Executive Manager Goodrich explained that project consultants from FCS Group would present the Cost of Service Analysis (COSA) study being completed by the city.They hope to give Council the opportunity to discuss and provide feedback on the project,which will impact the resulting fees and charges. Doug Gabbard from FCS Group gave a brief introduction to the COSA and its objectives. Zech Hazel from FCS Group went into further detail regarding the COSA methodology and revenue requirements. He said that the three main inputs for the revenue requirement are the Capital Improvement Program (CIP), fiscal policies, and operating budget. Utilities incur both operating costs and capital costs, the latter of which are more irregular or periodic. Mr. Hazel explained that rates should generate sufficient revenue to sustain the utility,but they should also recover costs of service equitably. He reviewed key assumptions for the analysis as well as the CIP cost forecast for the city over the next 20 years. Although it is a$212 million CIP, they predict resources from System Development Charges (SDCs) will cover the full cost of the program.Mr. Hazel said that an annual revenue increase of two percent will provide enough revenue over the 20-year period. Mr. Gabbard continued with how the revenue requirements help develop the service rate needed to recover the water utility's needs. He explained there were five functions to be allocated as part of this process: customer,meters/services, base demand, peak demand, and fine function. After describing the six customer classes, he presented the allocation applied across each customer class. The customer function, for example,is allocated based on the number of accounts. The change from the current cost recovery under the existing utility rates was then compared to the proposed allocated cost of services across functions. Mr. Gabbard highlighted that the new rates needed an additional two percent to cover anticipated costs. According to this analysis, each customer class rate needs to change slightly to achieve the two percent increase. He reviewed next steps in the process of completing the COSA by adopting the amendment to the city's master fees and charges schedule. • Councilor Shaw asked about the rate design policy items and if they would be reviewing the proposed amount for these fees or will that be part of the policy decision. Mr. Gabbard said it's not about cost themselves, although that will be part of the decision,but about if costs are being recouped the way the Council would like. He said the question is primarily if the cost is being recouped as equitably as possible. • Mayor Snider said that within Tigard, the philosophy had been to charge the customer as close to the city's actual cost to provide service as possible. For additional services,the utility may assess additional fees. • Councilor Goodhouse said that staff should provide Councilor Shaw with more background on this issue. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES — February 16, 2021 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard, OR 97223 www.tigard-or.gov i Page 3 of 5 • Councilor Shaw said she thought she was up to speed, but she was curious about the cost differential between the different levels of service. She said she welcomed any learning opportunity,however. • Youth Councilor Calderon said it was an interesting presentation and he never thought of running a faucet as buying water. Executive Manager Goodrich said that staff would be back at the Council's workshop meeting on March 16th,with hopes to finalize the project in April. I i 5. NON-AGENDA ITEMS Council and staff sang happy birthday to Councilor Newton. 6. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT City Manager Rymer provided the following administrative reports: • The city thanks staff in public works for their winter storm response,as well as the police,who worked around the clock to make sure the community was safe and had safe drinking water; • The water treatment plant lost power and city provided water to City of Lake Oswego for the first time in the partnership's history; • There are continued power outages in the Tigard area; • The county is still in the "high" category in the COVID-19 reopening and there are currently no changes in city services; • Virtual Storytime at the library continues to be a success; • Thanks to the Deputy City Recorder for her service to the city and City Council. Mayor Snider thanked the Deputy City Recorder for her service. Councilor Newton thanked her for her support and echoed City Manager Rymer's comments regarding the staff response to the winter storm. Mayor Snider asked that the Council repost the city's thank you to staff on social media. 7. EXECUTIVE SESSION —None scheduled. 8. ADJOURNMENT At 8:08 p.m., Council President Lueb made a motion to adjourn and Councilor Newton seconded. Mayor Snider asked Deputy Recorder Patton to conduct a roll call vote. Yes No Mayor Snider ✓ Councilor Goodhouse ✓ Councilor Newton ✓ Council President Lueb ✓ Councilor Shaw ✓ The motion passed unanimously. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES — February 16, 2021 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 4 of 5 Caroline Patton,DepU4 City Recorder _fittest: Jason B. Snider,Mayor Date: 4-13-21 TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES — February 1G, 2021 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard, OR 97223 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 5 of 5