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City Council Minutes - 01/11/2011 3 ,/1-- r7 q City oFTigard Tigard Business Meeting — After-Meeting Action Notes MEETING DATE AND TIME: January 11, 2011 - 7:30 p.m. Business Meeting MEETING LOCATION: City of Tigard -Town Hall - 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard, OR 97223 IR 1. BUSINESS MEETING A. Mayor Dirksen called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m. B. Roll Call Name Present Absent Mayor-elect Dirksen ✓ Councilor Wilson ✓ Councilor-elect Buchner ✓ Councilor Henderson ✓ Councilor-elect Woodard ✓ C. Pledge of Allegiance qq D. Call to Council and Staff for Non-Agenda Items None 2. ADMINISTER OATHS OF OFFICE TO MAYOR CRAIG DIRKSEN, COUNCILOR GRETCHEN BUEHNER AND COUNCILOR MARC WOODARD • Municipal Court Judge Michael O'Brien administered the oaths of office to the following officials elected to serve as Mayor and City Councilors by Tigard voters for the term January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2014: JR o Mayor Craig Dirksen o Councilor Gretchen Buehner o Councilor Marc Woodard 3. INAUGURAL REMARKS -- COUNCILOR BUEHNER, COUNCILOR WOODARD CrTi Rgi A summary of Councilor Buehner's remarks: • Thanked the voters for electing her to a second Council term. • Thanked City Council members and staff for assisting her during her first term. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES -January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 1 of8 • Four years ago she ran for City Council to work on a long-term water source, update a long- outdated Comprehensive Plan and other planning tools, figure out how to get more land for parks in Tigard, and to attempt to deal with congested roads. Status of the issues are: o Water—the City entered into a contract with Lake Oswego for a permanent water source. We have agreed on a water treatment process, passed a capital budget based on an in-depth analysis, and begun the extensive permitting process. Over the next four years, she hopes to see the partnership complete its in-depth analysis, to assure we are doing the project as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible, obtain all state and federal water permits, obtain land-use approval from Gladstone and West Linn (have an intake in Gladstone and build a new plant in West Linn), and obtain the necessary permits in Tigard and Lake Oswego. o Planning Updates—a new Comprehensive Plan was adopted about 18 months ago and we have begun all of the other new codes. The Council also adopted a Master Plan for Water, Sewer,Parks and Urban Forests. In the next four years, she hopes to see that all of the codes to implement those plans are adopted and we continue working on traffic in terms of evaluating Pacific Highway for high-capacity transit. o Parks—thanked the voters again for passing the $17 bond measure last November and she looks forward to determining which lands to purchase and obtain them for parks in the City in the future. o Traffic—Burnham is being completed as part of the Downtown Development Plan, rebuilt the Greenburg, Main,Pacific Highway intersection concurrently with the County's rebuilding of the Hall Street intersection. The City has obtained a number of grants for other road projects. In the next four years, she hopes we will complete the rapid transit study,which determines what kind of transit we will get in the future and start working on the planning. She also anticipates Main Street will be rebuilt with a green street for which the City received a Metro grant two years ago and begin the planning for rebuilding the McDonald/Gaarde intersection. o She said she has had an exciting four years and looks forward to working with everyone on all of the challenges to be faced over the next four years. o There are many opportunities to have input into the decisions the City Council makes: testify at a hearing, participate in a City survey,participate as a member on one of the many City committees,give input at a public forum, or send letters to the Mayor and City Council. A summary of Councilor Woodard's remarks: o Thanked everyone for coming this evening. o Thanked the City Council members and the staff for the support received for the last five months. o He comes from a family that instilled hard work ethics, an appreciation of community, and family values unique to Tigard. o Upon his return to Tigard in 2008 after being gone for ten years, he speculated that the voters saw something in him that resonated. He recalled the Tigard of his childhood,which included a good sense of community. Things have changed, especially when you look at the technology in the world and the manner in which we TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES —January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 2 of8 have dispersed ourselves throughout the community. That central place of being in the community is something he longed for and he did not see it when he returned, and one of the reasons he ran for office was that he hoped he could change or influence that dynamic. o Talked of his earlier years and his involvement at St.Anthony's,Tigard High School (sports and music), and community events (Tigard Town and Country Days). o He is concerned with keeping a small-town feel with big City frills, meaning that we need to brand and build for the 21" century. We need to be competitive. We have laid out a lot of money for infrastructure—tax dollars at work—and now we must make the return on investment payback to the taxpayers. o He referred to nearby shopping centers of Bridgeport and Washington Square; however, this does not foster a unique sense of traditional Tigard community. He believes we have decentralized communication with one another and he would like to see a centralized sense of place within Tigard where we can all meet,live,work and spend our leisurely time. o He wants to help assure the infrastructure that has been established (WES,Burnham Street,green streets) results in a return on investment and keep the momentum going. o He referred to his involvement in the community including the Main Street beautification programs when he was younger with his dad. He also referred to his grandfather who also put a lot of work into the community. o A well-developed economic city center community is the crux to economic good times and the return on investments. When times are good,we want to benefit from those investments. o He used the analogy referencing the Sims City game,which is software where you build a city. This game is based on building the infrastructure including requirements to balance economic development or your city will begin to fall apart. To equate this game experience with what is happening in the City of Tigard, he said he has talked to people who do not understand why things have taken so long. He said he believes a lot has to do with growing pains. Looking at the last 10 years, there have been a lot of changes in Tigard; however, he believes we are headed in the right direction. o He believes that his past experience will be valuable to offer a different perspective and provide a different balance. He said he thought that the City Council and the staff have done a good job and he thanked them for doing this for the citizens. o He said he is excited about the potential high-capacity transit system. With the proper economic structure in place, it will build and bring other dollars/revenues to offset costs. Eventually, things will become more cost effective for residents and small business owners. o He described how he arrives at decisions. He said he will evaluate a project, policy, or budget decision based on need, especially during an economic downtown. ■ He sets priorities based on needs and wants. What we want today might not be economically feasible, so those priorities might need to be delayed, and we just work on what is needed. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES —January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.fgard-or.gov I Page 3 of8 • Understand a timely return on investment. For a business owner,if the return on investment is not within a four- to six-year window or less, then people become impatient. He said he wants to understand whether there is a timely return on investment of taxpayers' dollars. ■ He wants to the right thing for the majority. While he will listen to a minority, the majority is where "my ear is going to be." ■ Cost-savings/value engineering—he said he recently read a memo regarding the Lake Oswego/Tigard partnership and the use of value-added engineering,which he believes will save money. ■ A good question to ask is whether funds are available. ■ Another question to ask is whether we are using the best-known methods for operations maintenance and financing. ■ He will consider whether a project or policy change will serve the intended purpose. ■ He will evaluate whether a project will favor and benefit the taxpayer, families, small business and environment. ■ Sustainability—can the majority and taxpayers and small businesses sustain the project, fees, taxes, or services. ■ He will consider the state of the economy and the impact on small business owners,jobs,unemployment, and affordable housing. We need to learn how to ramp up and ramp down better. There always efficiencies that can be found. ■ He said he would be hard-pressed to understand why we would raise fees and taxes during this year of economic recession, which have a big impact those who are running on the bottom line and their"tank is on empty." ■ Look for ways to tweak fixed and variable costs. He knows this is being done now, but we do not want to lose sight that we have to continue being vigilant. o Expressed his appreciation that during the recent Council goal-setting that he was able to input/influence with what was placed on the goals and the "to do" list. o He said he knows the city has invested in technology. o From his experience in management, there are best known preventative, corrective, sustaining, and predictive methods in field and facility operations that can be gained. Any cost savings will be returned to the General Fund. o He supporting incentives and recognition for employees when cost savings are found. o Referred to the City's plans for the water system and efforts to keep costs contained through innovative and creative policies/practices. o He challenged the City Manager and staff to cross train employees and participate in internships. o Include an internal wellness program and look at an external community events coordinator. He spoke to the importance of balance by getting right mix of retail and living space in the urbanization development. He referred to these efforts as not costing money;rather, they are money makers/revenue streams. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES —January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 4 of o "Your voice can be heard." Anyone can make a difference. He urged people to look at the City's website, serve on a committee or board and volunteer for something. The direction of the City will depend on those who are involved. o He urged people to cast their votes and for more people to consider running for the Mayor and City Council positions. o He pledged to work the community that gave him"so much as a kid." ,K J: 4. MAYOR DIRKSEN'S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS Mayor Dirksen delivered the State of the City; his written address follows: City of Tigard 2010 State of the City First of all, I'd like to thank all of the people who supported me this past year. I especially want to thank my campaign managers Sydney and Jim Webb for all their help, and of course I want to recognize my wonderful wife Jackie for all her support throughout all our 38 years of marriage and particularly the last ten years while I've been on Council with all its time demands, and now for another four years as Mayor. When you enter public office, one of the things you get to do more often than most people, is exercise your opinion. I don't mean just offeryour opinion, that's every American's right. I mean you have the chance to use your opinion as the basis of action; see your opinion acted upon and even become reality. And you quickly discover, (if you didn't know it already) that you'd better actually have a clear idea of how you really feel about issues like taxation, and land use, and environmental protection and a host of others.Just as important,you need to be able to articulate your ideas to others and be able to defend your position when challenged. Never did the importance of that ability become more apparent than the first time I stood before a room full of fourth grade students at Templeton Elementary School. Talking to the class about citizenship, a young student raised her hand and with a quizzical look on her face, asked me, "When you're being the Mayor,what do you do?" Now, an adult wouldn't typically ask such a question,perhaps because they think they should already know what the Mayor does and they don't want to appear uninformed, and if they do ask,you can get by with some platitude or fall back on some important-sounding technical terms. Not so when a 10-year old asks you that question. You'd better be able to answer them clearly, using words that make sense. Fortunately, I was able to give that student and her class an answer that satisfied - largely because I'd been asked the same question before in private and I'd had time to think about an answer after suffering complete failure in giving anything but a fumbling and inarticulate response. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES —January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 5 of8 You can't talk about what the Mayor does without talking about what the city does. And the city does this—two jobs, really: first,we provide services for city residents today, and second,we plan for tomorrow. That's it- Services today,plan for tomorrow. The services we provide are the things that everyone needs: When you turn the on faucet, water comes out. When you're done with that water, another system takes it away. Roads to travel to work. Police for safety. Fire (sort of) through Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue. Other important amenities a community needs, like parks, and a library. They're all pretty straightforward. Planning for the future is no less important,but it's more complicated and takes as much insight as ability. You need to know more than planning,you need to know the community.As the population grows and the city expands,where should growth happen?Where do new roads need to be added, and where do existing roads need to be improved? Where should new development be more dense and where should it be less dense in order to make the best use of our natural resources and assets? How do we meet State and Federally mandated goals and guidelines in areas like land use, mobility, affordable housing, environmental protection, and all the rest? And how do we pay for it all? Finding answers to those questions and developing strategies for dealing with those challenges is what I mean by planning for the future. Those are the things your city does, and by almost all accounts we do them well. We consistently earn high marks from residents in all measured areas, and we regularly win awards and recognition from State and Federal agencies and our partners in the Portland/metro region. Furthermore,Tigard is increasingly consulted for its input on planning and decision-making at the regional and state level. In the past year,Tigard has made major progress in achieving several long-standing goals. Most prominently is our quest to make real improvements to Pacific Highway;improvements that will alleviate the traffic congestion we've all lived with for so many years. With the installation of a new signal control system and soon-to-be completed improvements at the intersections of Pacific Highway at Hall Boulevard and Greenburg Road, this goal will be largely realized and traffic flow on Pacific Highway will be much improved. I give much of the credit for this progress to Councilor Nick Wilson and his determination to make this a priority when he came onto Council in 2003. Another goal, and a personal goal of mine,was the expansion of our park system to meet the needs of Tigard's current and future population. The parks bond measure that passed in November gives us the financial resources necessary to purchase and preserve the last remaining open spaces we need to fulfill this vision. Since the passage of the bond measure,we have already taken possession of 47 acres of beautiful forest,meadow and stream corridor near Fowler Middle School for a new park, and secured a purchase agreement on another 20-acre plus tract on top of Bull Mountain, with more to come. Additionally, we'll have funding to preserve more of the Fanno Creek corridor and move toward completing the Fanno Creek Trail. The third long-term goal is the revitalization of downtown. We haven't completed that project—it will take 20 years or more - but we've made a good start with the complete transformation of Burnham Street. It's almost done and more is already scheduled for Main Street and Fanno Creek Park. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES —January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 6 of8 Now,in light of current economic conditions and all the talk of budget deficits and budget cuts everywhere, how is the City of Tigard able to do all these things?Are we squandering our grandchildren's futures to finance it all? In a word, no. Or to be more emphatic about it, absolutely not!All these projects have taken years for us to plan and find and secure the funding. Most have been financed using innovative funding sources. Whether it came from special taxes, federal grants, or partnerships with other government agencies like the State of Oregon, Metro, or Washington County,we've used "one-time money" that was available on a case-by-case basis, and unavailable for general operating budgets. And although Tigard has done very well finding and accessing this special money to pay for these capital projects,we're not doing any better than any other city in Oregon when it comes to general revenues like property taxes or income taxes - the sources that pay for the regular city services I talked about earlier. Meeting the city's normal fiscal responsibilities is no problem as long as money is no object. But we all know that is not the case. In these economic times,just like at home, having enough money to meet routine responsibilities is an increasingly difficult challenge. Every year it costs more to provide the same level of service that we provided the previous year, and tax revenues never rise as fast as costs do. In the last two years,we've made significant budget reductions, and last year staff and the citizen-led Budget Committee crafted a financial plan designed to keep the operating budget"in the black" for the next couple of years...long enough for the much-anticipated economic rebound to appear. If the economy doesn't respond as economists expect, then we'll do what we need to do to meet our responsibilities and keep the budget balanced. In the meantime,we'll continue to do the things our city does. Providing services for today in the best way we know how and at the lowest possible cost, and keep planning for tomorrow. Planning a Tigard that continues to serve its residents, a Tigard that provides the things that its residents want and need, and a Tigard that continues to be "A Place to Call.Home". God bless you all, and God bless the City of Tigard. 5. ELECT COUNCIL PRESIDENT TO SERVE JANUARY 2011 TO DECEMBER 31, 2012 The Tigard City Charter states: At its first meeting of each odd-numberedyear, the council by ballot shall choose a president from its membership. In the mayor's absence from a council meeting, the president shall pe!�brm the duties of the ofce of mayor and preside over it. Wl'henever the mayor is physically or mentally unable to perform the functions of office, the president shall act as the mayor pro tem. City Recorder Wheatley distributed ballots,which were filled out and signed by the Mayor and City Council members. City Recorder Wheatley announced that Councilor Buehner was elected to serve as the City Council President. TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES —January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tigard-or.gov I Page 7of8 6. NON AGENDA ITEMS: None 8:13 p.m. 7. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Council President Buehner, seconded by Councilor Wilson, to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed by a unanimous vote of City Council present: Name Present Absent Mayor Dirksen ✓ Council President Buehner ✓ Councilor Henderson ✓ Councilor Wilson ✓ Councilor Woodard ✓ Cat �. Catherine Wheatley,City Recorder Attest: /�". I , Z:z ayor,City of Tigard Date: C�) b a 0 l I 1:\ADM\CATHY\CCM\2011\Final Minutes\010111.docx TIGARD CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES -January 11, 2011 City of Tigard 1 13125 SW Hall Blvd.,Tigard,OR 97223 1 503-639-4171 1 www.tiaard-or.gov I Page 8 of