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03/20/2024 - Minutes 1 MEETING DATE/TIME: Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. MEETING LOCATION: Tigard City Hall, Town Hall Members Present Stacey Ghoddusi Allie Alexander Jeremy Hajdu-Paulen Caitlin Johnson Shaila Kotadia, Chair Connie Ramaekers Isaiah Jackman Rachel Roundy Not Present Israel Jacquez Bhushan Gupta Ali Haddadi Jennifer Callaway Heidi Dixon Kristi Allen Diego Rivera-Vigil City Team Present Maureen Wolf, Council Liaison Nicole Hendrix, Team Liaison Kim Ezell, Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives. Alex Richardson, Management Analyst Torri Porter, Management Analyst Jade McIntosh, Recorder Meeting start: 7:00 pm Welcome and Introductions Shaila welcomed the committee. Nicole shared information about the Tigard Kickball League – Israel invited CCE members to join. Shaila went over the shared agreement guidelines for success from February’s meeting. City of Tigard Committee for Community Engagement Minutes 2 What Are Your Celebrations, Concerns, and/or Curiosities Regarding the City? Concerns The needs for middle housing in Tigard; HWY 217 & Hall Blvd construction project noise at nighttime; Issues with cars speeding on local streets by the SW Greenberg neighborhood; Safe Parking Program and their designated places to park. Celebrations Tigard Turns the Tide and Tigard High S.T.U.D and (Stop Tigard Underage Drinking and Drug Use) students presented at the Council meeting on March 19th. Connie Ramaekers introduced Sunshine Navarro Shively, executive director of Tigard Turns the Tide. Registration for the “Leadership Tigard” program 2024-2025 is now open. A technology fundraising for homeless shelters is set for April. Kudos to Parks and Recs for their programming and maintenance, City of Tigard for implementing a walkable community and working toward solving the housing issues, Safe Parking Program, and Community summer events such as El Tigre. The committee was invited to a free event promoting new local vendors on March 21st at the Curiosities Vintage Mall. Curiosities The level of residents’ involvement in the local government and community events; Communications about the Safe Parking program, water shut-off (can the city send text message alerts to affected residents), severe weather alerts, safety, and emergency preparedness resources (how can we help our neighbors get the access they need?). A question about the CCE’s agenda. Nicole mentioned that topics are driven by questions, themes, and concerns discussed in previous meetings. Liaison Update (Nicole) Highlights of big upcoming community events to look for are, the Community Egg Hunt (3/30), State of Our City (5/13), and Volunteer Appreciation (4/21). Visit the Tigard calendar for a comprehensive events list. Updates from February’s meeting, 1) “What are your celebrations, concerns, or curiosities regarding the city?” was added as a standing agenda item, 2) The Safe parking program discussion was added to today’s meeting, 3) Nicole received a green light to implement the use of Teams as a tool for collaboration and sharing information. One caveat, the conversation is limited to topics being discussed at our meeting, 4) The Farmers Market sign-up sheet will be available soon. Upcoming agenda items, May 15th, “Community/Climate Resilience Hub; 4th of July drone show”; July 17th, “Downtown wayfinding project and El Tigre”, and Sept 18th, “Communications Plan for Service Request Portal.” Utility Billing Communication Plan (Torri Porter) There are four communication phases in place for the new online utility billing payment project. Web content with FAQ questions, rates comparison, and about Tyler are completed. The next three phases will focus on points of contact and outward communications. Education and training will be rolled out before the release date of Sept 2024 and afterward. Posters, phone recordings and social media posts will ramp up in April. Auto- pay customers will be redirected to the new billing platform. 3 The plan for measuring engagement will be done through focus groups of high-usage utility bill customers and QR codes. Every piece of communication will be written in English and Spanish. Suggestion for Torri, surveying the barriers to online payment and preferences. Pride/Juneteenth Community Input (Alex Richardson) The 2024 Juneteenth celebration will take place on June 15th at Cook Park from 3 to 6 pm. Some things to focus on this year are gathering feedback from the affinity groups at Tigard School District (black student groups and gender sexuality alliances), compiling historical information about Juneteenth, its connection in our community and inviting speakers and authors of local activists. This year, the Pride event will be held at Tigard High School. The parade will start at 2 then it concludes with a celebration until 5 pm. The two events are a partnership with TTSD (Tigard Tualatin School District). The city held two back-to-backs community-focused listening sessions in January. Overall takeaways, people wanted to feel welcomed, loved, safe, included, and comfortable. People also mentioned feeling validated because the city recognizes the Pride celebration. Alex mentioned she will create two separate surveys for each event to do a deeper analysis for next time. Safe Parking Program (Kim Ezell) A presentation on the city’s response to houselessness is set for the Council meeting on March 26th. Kim shared specifically about what safe parking means for the city. Tigard proposed three cars in a low to moderately-used parking lot. Every individual will go through a vetting process and criminal background checks. They must have cars that they owned outright, be insured, and be fit to drive. No RVs/campers or trailers. Unauthorized visitors will not be allowed at the site, and they must sign codes of conduct agreement. Safe lot program is modeled after the City of Beaverton where every individual has a case manager to help with employment and housing. Grant fundings will cover 95% of the cost, $100,000/site. Major expense will be used to pay the case manager salary. The city will provide storage unit, porta potty, and handwashing station. Meeting Minute Review & Action (Shaila) Committee members reviewed and unanimously approved 11/15/ 2023 and 2/21/2024 meeting minutes. Elections of Chairs and Vice Chair Nicole explained the election process. Self-nominations for Vice Chair, Caitlin Johnson and Chair, Shaila Kotadia were approved unanimously by the committee. Nicole will send poll to members to vote on those who were nominated. Adjournment Meeting ended at 8:30 pm Chat Screenshots None.