Springfield City Council — March 13, 2023

0:04 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council session to order with roll call hey Urbane Gordon here counselors Weber here Mo here Bradley here Doyle here in English excused he's going to try to join us a little bit later for the interviews when he gets to a phone line but we have a lot on the agenda this evening but the first one is the housing diversity tax exception come on all right um good evening Marion Council my name is Katie Carroll I'm the city's housing

0:50 analyst I'm very excited to talk to you about the property tax consumption council's considering it's called the staff's calling it the housing diversity tax exemption you might be more familiar with this as the multiple unit property tax exemption or the monthly um that's what's called in many cities Eugene Cottage Grove both use that term um as you'll see there are several people behind me tonight I'll especially point out um the economic development manager alley camp and then Finance director Nathan Bell I've been talking with both of them as I've been working on this and they are available um to help answer any questions tonight though I think in future work sessions will probably be more present than what we're talking about tonight so um this is a state-enabled property tax

1:36 exemption that cities and counties can choose to implement it's designed to incentivize the development of multiple unit housing near Transit and in court areas um it's an application based incentive program so if the city moves forward with this we need to adopt program standards minimum requirements for applicants and there are some things that the state statutes require but there's quite a bit of flexibility with this property tax exemption for the city to dictate what types of housing we would want to see through it um and it since it is a discretionary program um it can be paused at any time and then by Statute Council would have to approve every uh project or deny projects so it

2:21 kind of comes up to your level for every application and there are at least nine cities in Oregon that we were able to find that either currently have this tax exemption or are considering them thank you AJ um so council's been talking about this for a while so I've been a little bit more brief in the main memo and in the introduction to sort of the general details of this property tax exemption but if you want more information attachment or has kind of General background on the exemption and then attachment five goes into details of other cities and programs and

3:09 then part of my goal tonight is to kind of reorient folks since it's been a while since we've talked about this we do have some new counselors also that may be um newer to this topic so I'm happy to answer those kind of general questions too um but where this all came from is between 2016 and 2017 the council was working on developing its housing strategy and one of the tools that the council identified that it wanted to look into were property tax exemptions and this was one of a few different property tax exemptions on council's list so then in 2017 Council kind of looked at a comparison between this tax exemption and the vertical housing development program which is something that was was and still is in place in town and both of these are property tax

3:55 exemptions designed to incentivize development of multiple unit housing near Transit um and at the time Council liked this property tax exemption because it offers some more flexibility for the city it's a little bit better for developers in some ways so they directed staff to keep working on it um and then between 2017 and 2020 Council had several different meetings on this most of those were focused on where in Springfield the council wanted to offer this program um and then do some to some staff capacity issues it's kind of put on pause for a couple of years but Council confirmed last spring that they wanted staff to keep working on it so we've picked it up again so the goal for tonight is like I said to reorient council to this topic we do have a

4:40 couple of questions for Council as well related to checking in on the areas where the exemption would be offered and then talking about some Financial details and then we'll have another session on this at the beginning of May where we'll dive more into the program details and that's where I think Nathan and Ali will be able to help with some more questions and One requirement from that in particular is that under the state statute for this property tax exemption um applicants have to provide at least one public benefit as part of the project so there's a lot of flexibility for the city to decide what that means and what that would look like so we'll dive into that next time more

5:27 so if that works but um so first getting into the areas where this tax exemption would be offered so by Statute we can only offer it in areas within a quarter mile of transit or in core areas unless the city's offering it for affordable housing in which case it could be available Citywide staff isn't recommending using the tax exemption in this way because we do already have the low income rental housing property tax assumption or the alert D um for low-income housing and it works a little bit better for that type of housing because it has some better benefits for it so this tonight we're really talking more about like market rate housing that we're trying to incentivize in previous work sessions Council like I

6:12 said reviewed kind of general areas of Springfield where they might want to offer this and then looked at some actual maps of areas that it directed staff to look into so when we picked this up again and we looked at those maps and then staff has made has proposed some changes to how basically the map boundaries are drawn so not where the areas are but just kind of how we're drawing boundaries and those are reflected in the maps that are in your packet and so the changes that staff is recommending is first to draw the maps based on plan designations rather than zoning um just because those are a little bit more reflective of where we want to see this type of housing in the future um so that's one change um every project would still need to

6:57 comply with all of the city's land use and development requirements so if a project was proposed on a site that wasn't properly zoned it would separately have to go apply for his own change so you don't need to worry about those kinds of things and then because these maps are based on plan designation if Council wants to move forward with those there might be a couple of changes to the boundaries that you're seeing tonight because of the comprehensive and map verification project so there's still some changes going on with that property specific map so we would have to kind of make sure that we were aligning with that we've also simplified the boundaries so I believe the prior maps that Council had seen there had been a little bit of analysis done about like

7:42 what is development potential and individual sites so we didn't do that this time we're just kind of leaving that up to developers to determine what is the highest and best use for this property as long as they're within the development code and then finally We just cleaned the map up some um to make sure that it was really reflective of areas that are close to Transit that mostly impacted some areas on the southern part of Main Street that were actually outside of a quarter mile of Transit and then also the southern part of downtown down into like the booze Kelly area just because the train tracks are there those kind of present a barrier to accessing Transit so we just shortened that area a little bit so then this um is showing all of the areas that are

8:29 currently under consideration based on council's past Direction so and I have more zoomed in maps so we'll get to those two but um Q Street between Pioneer Parkway and then kind of around 19 I don't know when that turns into Mohawk 19 Mohawk some areas along Mohawk downtown and then Main Street from about 38th to Bob Straub um so I'll just flip through these quickly but we can get back to any um folks want to look at more I do have an interactive online map but I couldn't get it to work and I couldn't get AJ logged in so if um anybody on Council wants to see that I can share that later as well

9:14 so then Main Street mohawk and history um and so the first question that staff has for council tonight is does the council want to make any changes to these draft exemption areas so again these are areas Council in the past has said these are where we want to offer this tax exemption we're just kind of drawing the boundaries a little bit differently we're talking about the individual house building or multiple units multiple again okay sorry about that at the moment thank you coming on I would encourage building up

10:01 the best we can and within a quarter metal Transit that's what we have to do so I don't have any draft exemption areas but women yeah thanks for clarifying that that's a good point and one of the things that we'll talk about in May is what is the minimum number of units that we would want to require to be built keep on going that's the easy one okay so um the next topic that I wanted to cover tonight is just talking a little bit about the fiscal impact of a tax exemption like this because obviously if we're talking about exempting property taxes there could be a fiscal impact to the city um I think that there are a couple of

10:47 things to keep in mind when we're talking about this so I like to think about this property tax exemption as kind of an exchange as we're exempting um property taxes but we're getting something in return and so the things that we'd be getting in return with this tax exemption are first obviously we're getting more housing units built um but within that we may be getting housing units that we would not otherwise have seen either because a project wouldn't be able to move forward without a financial incentive like this or a developer may be able to build more units than they would have without the financial incentive the next thing that the city would be getting is at least one public benefit from every project as I mentioned we'll get into that in May but we get to kind of decide what what is that public benefit

11:34 um and then the last thing is obviously we're generating tax revenues so especially for those projects that wouldn't have been built without this incentive that's tax revenue the city would not have otherwise gotten um so by Statute cities can exempt property taxes for up to 10 years unless it's for affordable housing which it can go longer for that but again staff's not recommending using this tax exemption in that way um and it only exempts property taxes on new residential improvements so land still gets taxed non-residential improvements are taxed with a couple of exceptions that I'll get into and then any kind of existing improvements continue to be taxed so if

12:19 you were adding on an addition to a building it would just be kind of those new improvements that we would be accepting so the exceptions to residential Improvement improvements that can be Exempted are residential parking that's part of those new improvements and then also commercial space if it's being offered as a public benefit so if the council said we don't want to offer commercial space as a public benefit then we could specify that that be exempt and then this would only apply to the city's share of property taxes unless we're able to get support from other taxing districts that make up at least 51 percent of the tax levy so for

13:05 context that would be basically the city and the school district or the city the county and willamalane would get us to that 51 percent um and then other things to think about when we're talking about fiscal impact so there are a couple different variables that would uh play into what the physical impact would be so first what are the characteristics of the projects themselves so um obviously different sized multiple unit residential projects are going to have different assessed values different taxes um there are a lot of different factors that go into that big ones being like how many units are being built and what are the sizes of those notes like how many bedrooms and then the actual land

13:51 that that's being built on that's also kind of a factor because if it's being built on vacant land the city is not kind of foregoing anything because we're still getting tax on land so it would just be taxed as if nothing was built at all if there were existing improvements on site that were raised um then we would be losing that tax revenue from what had been there so where I see this may be coming up would be like if there was a single family home on a large lot that was raised and replaced with like a small apartment building we would in the short term be losing that revenue from the single family home um obviously if there are any improvements that are kept we would still get those

14:37 taxes um and then the other thing to think about is whether or not the council caps the program and how that would obviously have an impact on the um City's revenue and we'll come back to that question in a second um but first I wanted to get into some of the scenarios that are in your pocket I believe these are attachment re I've just included one on the slide here mainly for the purpose of making sure we're all on the same page about what these are showing um so I do want to thank Nick Riolo who's here tonight in finance who put these together for me um but basically we just wanted to give Council an idea of what it might look like to exempt taxes under this program so all three of these examples are

15:24 projects that have actually been built in Springfield in recent years so we know that the market supports this type of housing because it's built we tried to provide a range of like a small to a large development um so the other advantage of using projects that are actually built is that we know how the county assessor has valued them for tax purposes so what we're doing here is assuming that if this project was built today its assessed value would be um what the assessor has actually put it at on this year's tax bill and then we're kind of assuming a three percent growth and assessed value over the next several years um the other thing to note on here is that the property taxes are based on

16:09 what the tax rate is right now in real life that may vary some as bonds expire and new bonds come on and but that's kind of something that we can't really predict ahead of time so we've just held that tax rate constant and then at the bottom we're showing what the total property taxes Exempted would be for this project over 10 years and then what the city of Springfield's share of that would be um this doesn't include cetas so that would be kind of an additional amount um and then the last column the year 11 column is showing um kind of an idea of once that Improvement comes on to the tax rules and we do start collecting tax what we

16:54 would start collecting it at the caveat there is that um when a property tax exemption expires the assessor will go out and reassess the value of that building so that may go up or down kind of dependent again on many factors at the market being one of them so but just to give everybody an idea of what we're talking about in terms of numbers so then getting back to ABS um so setting cap on the program could help limit the fiscal impact of it with a greater certainty um it could also be an opportunity for the council to determine what success for the program would look like and what

17:39 might be an appropriate point to pause reevaluate and the program um and so I think getting into this cap discussion it's good to sort of contextualize this in the broader housing work that the city is going to be required to do in the next couple of years um so they're at the state level there is a lot coming down regarding housing production strategies housing capacity analyzes and maybe I don't know other things it's an active Topic at the legislature right now and so basically the gist of all that is that the city is going to the state is going to hold cities more responsible for housing production like actual numbers based here's a Target amount of

18:24 housing to have built what are you the city doing to help build that number of housing units um obviously that there are forces going on outside of the city's control like the market but incentives like property tax exemptions and then kind of other steps to loosen regulations or the types of things the state's going to be looking for us to do to show our work towards housing production um and then through the housing production strategy for example we'll have like a required check-in with the state at a regular interval so those will be more opportunities to evaluate what the city's doing is that working um of the programs that we reviewed we only found two that currently have caps

19:09 in place so the City of Eugene has a unit-based cap that I think is tied to their comprehensive plan and then the city of Portland has a financially based cap that's kind of a rolling limit on how much they'll exempt in a five-year period of time um there then there are also a couple of cities that have language built into their code that kind of allows them to Institute a cap by motion at any time um and that's option A in your packet the city of Cottage Grove has that for example and um their code language is in there so the two options that I have up here are that option A of Institute the option to put a cap in place whenever and then option b here is written more as like a financially based

19:55 cap but as I mentioned if the council wanted to consider other measures like number of units or maybe a time-based cap those would be options as well and so then getting to the question basically what um staff is hoping to get direction on from Council is what type do you want to cap if so what type do you want to put an option in place to Institute a cap that's option A or would you like to do that now and if so how do can I I have one more slide that's just because I know we'll be on questions are building up but not my feelings are built enough um and then so sort of the last thing here before we get into talking about that

20:41 one is just um kind of Next Step so as I mentioned we'll be talking about this more in May um we'll go back to that public benefit question what does council want that to look like and then also other minimum program standards and then I think if council is wanting to move forward at that point The Next Step would probably be to start reaching out to other taxing districts to gauge their support um and then start working on a draft code and with that according to the questions there you go um I'm excited about this and I've been waiting for it to come back because I know a lot of this worked with them before I ever got onto Council I think it's the perfect time um I think that I like option A which is the option to set a cap if we need to at some point but wouldn't want to start

21:27 out with the cap because I'm really interested to see how um how developers and the market responds to the changes we've made to our code and if we make it more you know friendly for folks to come and build I'd love to see just how that works without us putting too many restrictions on that um and I'm really excited to talk about the benefits when we get to talk about those was because I came with my list but I'm excited about this I will once we're done with this I'm happy to take thoughts on that too if we have time remaining I'd like to help we'll learn about Equalization all right other questions comments I agree with Corey I'd like to go with option A and just a little more flexibility on the you

22:13 know front end of this as we kind of learn what the impacts are going to be I think is a good idea Victoria I agree as well I think that it's too hard for the crystal ball to know what's going to happen in the future so we should leave our options open so I'm I'm supportive of a as well yeah and the thing I like about it is that this is something we've been looking at for a long time and with you know the additional housing requirements and housing work that's going to come from the state this is going to help inform that start checking out some of the policy decisions we're going to need to make in the next couple of years right so it sounds like you've got Direction yeah um I don't know if you yes I do okay thank you so one of the things I do love

23:01 about this program is that we get to like hash out what we think are important public benefits um and I know that you all are recommending to just really focus on market rate housing but I do I mean I think of like middle-income or Workforce housing as being like perfect for this which is what we do need a lot of um so um all of those sort of housing things I was really interested in um but I also think if we are going to meet the climate friendly and Equitable cities um leaning into the bicycle and pedestrian amenities and figuring out what that might look like um the I am all about also the child care facilities I would love to somehow incentivize child care facilities and I

23:48 know that um I think it's homes for good is working on a project in Eugene it includes child care as part of it which is co-located there and I think that's really exciting uh so those are just a few of the ones that and I also just I'm thinking of former counselor Pitts and the sort of place making and the public spaces and thinking about if we're gonna if we're really gonna encourage against housing we also still want to have ways for people to like get different like the community so for like open yeah essentially though there was one on there that was like Place making and active public spaces yeah so it wouldn't have to be like a park but just ways for people barbecue girls or ways for people to like get together and be in community so yeah

24:38 right we still got a couple minutes left anybody else want that and um I think I think the the next conversation is going to be really interesting and I would love to hear from developers as far as you know if we sort of hit the mark here especially since we're crafting this based on codes that you know programs that are found in the rest are rest of the state right because we want we want them to use it and build plenty of housing right and I think we will see you again very shortly yes thank you thank you very much thank you transportation funding is next

25:37 good evening Council mayor uh Drew Larson recent Transportation planner for the City of Springfield tonight with me is Christy Krueger um and this evening we are uh seeking Council input to fill an existing funding gap for the Mill Street reconstruction project um to keep it short and sweet I'm just going to read what I prepared um should be 5-10 minutes tops five minutes most likely uh to leave most time for Council discussion as well as questions for Christian myself so with that I will just jump right in um so in the past five to six years the United States has experienced an experienced an unprecedented rise in delivering Capital Improvement projects including Springfield Mill Street reconstruction project uh the Mill

26:22 Street project includes a full wheel real rebuild of the right-of-way including Wastewater and storm water line replacement upgrading all intersections to meet the American Disabilities Act lighting and pedestrian improvements and required bicycle facilities uh the Mill Street reconstructing project initially began back in 2018 uh and staff estimated that the roadway reconstruction including the driving surface bicycle facilities and pedestrian enhancements to be around 3.2 million dollars at that time Council directed staff to apply for federal funds to complete the project and we were allocated 2.3 million in 2018. uh subsequently or today Mill Street is currently at 30 percent design and the

27:07 cost estimate is approximately 17 million dollars uh which includes all aspects of the project including the storm water and wastewater placement Alliance new pedestrian facilities traffic calming I mean the host of bang for uh new reconstructed project um So based on the current allocated funds from both the City of Springfield from the storm water Wastewater SDC funds that we have as well as Federal funding from the Metropolitan planning organization there is still a funding gap of approximately five million dollars So based on that estimate and knowing that Mill Street is a high priority for the City of Springfield staff began to

27:52 search for additional funding to fill that Gap so initially the engineering staff did some value engineering to try to reduce the scope of the project but we're unable to identify any significant Cuts or reductions to the project that would achieve the funding Gap so the engineering team and planning staff looked to the federal Metropolitan planning organization the mpo allocated grant funding to fill the gap attachment two in the package tonight shows all the current projects funded by federal dollars and the status of each of those projects all of the projects are currently in design except for the Q Street reconstruction project Q Street

28:37 reconstruction is from 5th Street to Pioneer Parkway East and is slated to begin design in 2024. the attachment 2 also identifies all the federal funding types including CMAC the congestion mitigation and air quality DRP funds the carbon Reduction Program stbg um a number of those funds and then on the bottom of that it shows the ability to reallocate those funds uh from either easy to difficult um and the stbt um the surface Transportation block grants are the easiest those to out reallocate uh so we did look at those

29:22 um in addition the city manager's office has requested legislative earmark funds from both the state of Oregon and from the federal government to cover the existing funding Gap the state of Oregon request was for uh two million dollars and the federal request was for 4 million uh stats understanding is that we will hear on those from either this late spring or mid-summer possibly late summer so while staff is optimistic about those earmark funds to cover the gap unfortunately the project cannot move forward on its current timeline without being fully funded um so if Council elects to wait on those earmark funds later this summer or possibly early spring

30:07 um it would bump The Mill Street reconstruction which is slated to be reconstruction to begin in 2024 it would buff it out of the 2025 if we wait longer looking even later uh so in order to move forward with Mill Street on its current schedule again construction beginning 2024 staff is seeking direction from Council tonight to request that the transportation planning committee that's the uh committee from the MBO that kind of helps allocate the federal funds um to one cancel the Q Street project and reallocate the mpo discretionary funds from the Q Street project there's approximately 4.7 million dollars to the Mill Street construction funds um just one note on that that if those earmark funds are successful I have

30:54 spoken with the mpo and the TBC the transportation planning committee that if those earmark funds do become available we could return back to TPC and reallocate those funds back to Q Street so again tonight we are seeking direction to cancel the Q Street project reallocate to Mill Street to continue moving forward on its current timeline Oregon um so all the things that you that you said so even if you you have to cancel the Q Street I imagine in order to reallocate the funding if you cancel it what are the what's the promise that if the money comes that that would come back

31:39 if the money comes if we get money in other ways because you said if we get the earmark funds then we could return to Q Street in addition to this so I'm just like once we cancel it my concern is it would be off the books and it would be hard to get it back uh not necessarily I just spoke with the mpo folks uh Dan palitzers who uh I typically communicate with and because it was already a MTO federally supported project that restarting that would not be an issue because it's this is a hard one for me because Q Street is right through my word and we're doing a lot of developing over there however um I would support moving it to Mill Street because that's been in Need for much longer so and I would I I would think well we were

32:26 a lot of us were there the 2018 conversation with the public and I don't think we would have gotten that bond without without a commitment from Real Estate and especially since we're on the um we're on the cusp of at in the conversation for another Bond you've got you know we've got our promises to the public hearing um can you guys can you before I open up the conversation for other folks I know there was a conversation this morning about other Grant programs that we could pursue with federal DOT do we have any more information that we could share about that uh yes so there was one that was a this was all part of the uh like a coveted relief money um one is a called the reconnecting communities um that one is specifically like a

33:13 reconnecting communities in which a transportation project has specifically split a community um so say like the 126 or the Beltline um I mean mine was it was a brief research and a brief read into those things but my understanding is that one I don't think would apply to the Mill Street uh there is another one that sounded promising um you do have to show that the funding is traditionally or historically underserved communities and actually the D.O.T the Department of Transportation had a a map that showed districts in which um those communities are and this section of Mill Street was within one of those districts

33:58 um and if you could show that it was in those districts which it is based off of their map and my you know brief research on it this morning that you could potentially get upwards of 100 funding instead of having a local match so even if we pursued if we pursued grant for funding from Mill Street right we would still exclusively we could still end up pushing it until 2025. is that correct uh if if we elect to not cancel the Q Street and reallocate those funds and go after grant money or waiting for the earmark funds we will be looking at pushing it back yeah I like there's lots of other places to look for transportation from but we can't push us back to 25. Steve

34:43 I remember Mill Street was a single name with two grain stitches on both sides storm water was not a problem the best case I believe I've seen it reconstructed twice I know for sure once but I in my memory doesn't tell me twice is a horrible shape for reconstruction history is on an old Road bed solid and it's not deteriorating asphalt maybe but the ground isn't so I would say that Okay so before I let other folks in here AJ are we gonna have to are we going to have to stop if you have to reset the PC here I need you to pause for a second okay are you already logged in yeah

35:38 you're dating yourself with that reference mayor I got it so I'm dating Myself by saying that I hope that's important the last century internet value pause for streaming yeah [Music] I apologize everyone this countdown clock is working on my blood pressure I am not able to stop what is happening so we are trying to make a workaround I

36:24 apologize what happens when we get to zero I don't know it all blows up I don't know why stop it

37:48 phones may or may not be working in this month

38:55 if you managed to pull this off it fell quickly and effectively right right and I'll um so as soon as we're up and going oh I should also have conservations thank you for everyone's patience and you're doing great I'm happy to be sitting here

40:09 did we just do that and not lose any of the people that were already logged into this meeting before that would be correct it's our next ACT we're going to keep talking about Hill Street I apologize all right other questions for from Council I just have a question so reallocating these Q Street funds still leaves a short fall of about 290 000. so I assume City funds will fill that Gap correct uh yeah Jeff was working on on finding those funds with currency so yeah they're they're confident that those counts are available someone's more of just a comment as a person who's been in public works for

40:54 about 10 years and I think I just want to say this out loud for anybody who's watching this or listening this is why we have a road bond this is why we need to fix roads before we get to this place where stuff is underneath is messed up and so I applaud you for taking care of this when you you know with what you have and I I spent and forth and fix we've got to do this but this is the cost to people that don't want to pay for fixing roads at a time when they can be fixed and saved before we have to dig into the ground and repair everything underneath so all right so I do we have to take a formal action so you guys have enough to go run perfect yes we do

41:39 well hopefully we'll uh do very well with Congressional uh congressionally directed spending and then we can put the money back and fix more than one road that would be nice and maybe we'll come in under a bit on no screen to Q Street we're gonna get that like we are going to get this thing done like Mill Street will be talking about us all right so we are supposed doing the math and me because we're supposed to be moving on to interviews and we are probably

42:27 thank you so do we have anybody here because we told them probably seven o'clock we have other gold stars so then we are going to I guess take a brief recess and we will see when people start showing up and if we can move around if we've got kind of a enough of the applicants here to get started on one of these then we'll start early so we will check in with you guys probably 20 minutes

43:14 perfect yep all right thank you all right we are coming back out of research for the city council work session so that we can go into committee interviews um the first committee interviews looks like they are the police advisory committee so I mean you want to come on up hi I'm Tiffany Monroe with the Springfield Police Department um the Springfield police advisory committee currently has a vacancy for a local Faith Community representative the vacancy was created due to the expiration of committee members for your term in May of this year the city received three applications for the faith community representative position the applications received from Daniel Davidson Jason Miller and Jason

44:00 Mitchell okay and it's free applicants for one position right and then after this you'll be full up or or a little while at least a year or so rock out of wood the first applicant is Daniel Davidson why not all right Daniel we're going to do a quick round of introductions for and then and then I'm going to ask all the questions so we have about a million interviews tonight so it helps go along a little bit regards you want to start Victoria can you just introducing myself yes hi I'm Victoria um I am uh representative for Ward 5

44:47 which is up near Thurston area app or she representing where I encourages yeah however Ward one the Gateway Hayden bridge that zone you know steambo word two I'm Corey rodley and my pronouns are she heard hers and I'm ward 3 which is right up the middle of the city uh Sean Van Gordon mayor what perspective experience are expertise will you bring to the police advisory committee I was raising a police officer at home and so at an early age I've got very familiar with that that lifestyle and and just all that goes into that also I've been in touch with the police department particularly Don Hansen just uh in being involved in the peer support

45:33 group at some level and been passionate about the police for a lot of years he's with that upbringing and and been in in the community for about 20 years raising a family here and so very familiar with what goes on the background level raising a family and pastoring a church perfect what is your perception of the Springfield Police Department and have you any personal interactions with the Springfield PD I went on a ride along a couple weeks ago to really enjoyed the time with Larry Turner and uh at every time that my kids see an officer at their nudging me saying can we go and talk to the recruitsman or The Plea the police officer and so uh that's led to some interaction uh had a good interaction

46:19 with Joseph Burke and he's the one who actually recommended this back in December and that was my eight-year-old that prompted that and so I thoroughly enjoyed just the interaction and look for a great opportunity I can and what do you think the most important issues facing the Supreme both Police Department are today well and just obviously the protests of 2020 and and some of the uh the concerns even here in Springfield Anderson area obviously that that fractured a lot of opinions about the police department and so I believe police need a good feedback and good support and I wonder people that really respect the men and women in blue I think that's very important

47:05 and what do you think the most important steps the police department could take to promote a positive relationship with the Springfield Community are I think there's an emphasis on public relations and I think that's going very well and uh I mean just seeing the interaction between officers and my my children when they interact and I think it's going in a very healthy direction as far as just the the public relations and the de-escalation emphasis at times when attention is building perfect that was the last question they were pretty darn quick um right so we're good we appreciate the time um we'll have somebody get back to you as soon as we make a decision and thank you for considering me thank you

47:59 hello Jason um are you ready to get going with the questions yeah for sure all right what perspective expertise or experiences will you bring to the police advisory committee yeah so um I put on my application that I did study abroad on community um and especially for this position on on faith I went to Europe and we spoke to the Catholics and the Irish and why they were fighting and saw kind of an interesting perspective on when people don't listen to each other and so I think when it comes to our community and the police and very wanting to be integrated into the community and to serve the community

48:45 that people just need to listen to each other what is your perception of the Springfield Police Department and have you had any personal interactions with the SPD yeah very positive interaction one thing I do I listen to a lot of small con dicks I know that you really talk about it on what city it's from if you live here you know I've told a lot of people to listen to the the one episode about the shooting on 126 the officer there I think that's very powerful I brought my kids to the Springfield jail a few times when they have the the public stuff and had great interactions got a few pictures of them and you're in prison there and then I hope that's the

49:31 last time but yeah um always positive interactions the police what do you think the most important issue is facing the SPD today are um one I think you know maybe burnout with police officers it's a very tough job it's not getting any easier there's been we saw in like Daniel mentioned with 2020 just uh maybe some negative negative aspects of people would just talk about the profession and so I think getting more getting good quality officers into the position interested in working and finding

50:20 I think everywhere are you trying to find good workers in my company and we talk about pets and tracks and getting people so I think getting people interested in the work at the right type of people what do you think are important steps that PD can take to improve promote a positive relationship with the Springfield Community I think being out and about in the community not just um for trying to make sure laws are being followed or whatever arrests and that sort of thing but truly being a part in the community listening to people um hearing where their lives are coming from will help when they're doing the other side

51:05 of the job and arrests and things needed to take place it's kind of a two-way street of understanding listening great thank you so much for taking the time with us our final applicant is Jason Mitchell good evening Jason's a popular name tonight yeah thanks for having me are you ready for your first question yeah let's do it all right what perspective experience or expertise will you bring to the police advisory committee yeah so I have a lot of experience being on committees being a part of churches for a long time pastoring churches are known for their committees they start committees for everything we do so there's a way committees function there's a mutual respect that you need on a committee so

51:51 not only do I have experience on committee but I also have that experience with people here in Springfield our church serves a wide birth of people and so there's different kinds of people who I get to interact with every day and get to hear their feedback of how their experiences are in the community how their experiences are working for the city working in different businesses so bring that together to be able to support the police department is the perspective that I think that I bring to this position and what is your perception of SPD and have you had any personal interactions with the police department yeah I have a very positive perception um you know most of my interactions been out in the community events um going to things like the at least Christmas breakfast back when they had that seeing them around town seeing the events like the project hope fairs that we've partnered with and been there by getting talked to officers we've had an

52:38 offshore out for a training event at our church as well just trying to make sure our churches is aware of how we can be a safe spot as well so mostly just interactions about town and it's been very positive nothing but great interactions with police and what do you think the most important issues facing SPD are today having one of the most important issues and the hardest ones is just public perception there's an issue with public perception these days especially from the younger generations of how the police are and a lot of it I believe is misguided so working on that public perception making sure that there's ways to have opportunities for people to hear about who the police are and what they're doing you know there's a gap in some information there sometimes I know when we have the training our church I heard that at any given time there's only six officers in Springfield that are working

53:23 and active working and that shocked me I had no idea uh that changes your perception of how you view things then you know that if there's a domestic violence District dispute that two officers go to that now there's four officers covering all Springfield so it gives you a little bit more empathy for the job for what they're dealing with so I think a public perception trying to help people understand the job and what they're doing the care that the officers have for our city and help them understand and see that most officers really are great men and women who care deeply for our city and protecting it and work really hard at their job area a big weight with that position what do you think are the most important steps the police department can do to promote a positive relationship with Springfield community yeah it's the things that I've seen them doing it's things you know being at events like project code like I said

54:08 doing the copy with the police at those times where people can have interactions with them that are positive and they're really helpful in building that trust and building the understanding of who the police are and that these are men and women they're not just um you know people who work a job but that they have personalities they have families they're deeper than just what the physician is so when we can find Opportunities to bridge back gap between the community and the officers I think that really will help lead to those positive interactions right great thank you so much for your time yeah thank you all okay we gotta give them one name so what are people thinking that's going to be really hard

54:56 that's part of the great thing about having so many applicants ever great applicants yes your the other choice we could make is we could we could come back after 20 interviews and try to remember who folks folks are I can start yeah go ahead uh my number one choice is Jason Mitchell I just want to say thank you to all three of you for coming in and interviewing I guess it was just thank you for that um my vote also goes to Jason Mitchell

55:42 it's a really hard decision it's very hard very good but Mr Davis has got some grew up in the home with when you switch gives you a good deal what's going on out there so I would I would suggest him um I had Daniel in that obviously my following my list so you can move Daniel forward all right thank you everyone and please keep applying because there was only once we sort of open spots so if you want to hang around we can volunteer you guys we have all kinds of committees we're

56:27 interviewing I think you are interviewing for another one we've got a second chance thank you guys so much

58:00 Yes she'll be hanging out outside and oh congratulations the applicant interviews we have one open position and we have two applicants and the one open position is for an applicant who you promoted to promoted selected for they're all legal uh the Planning Commission um so there's actually a three-year vacancy that you'll be be selecting someone for tonight you noticed that she got out of the way pretty quick yeah do you know everybody with a round of introduction helps you occur I mean I've watched but I don't know if everybody

58:46 that's fine all right then we'll jump into the questions um what do you know about Community block grant development Community Development block grants and what is your understanding of the purpose of the committee I know that it's always really hard to say and everybody um it's a Federal grant program that operates a little bit different than other Federal programs there's some special opportunities that come with it including possibility to match with other federal funds um the highlights for it are Community Development especially around

59:33 um uh removing light and revitalizing areas and housing and um it's available um to all cities but some manage it through smaller communities manage it through other entities often including the states who's the second one and what is your understanding of the purpose of the committee oh well the purpose of the committee is to help evaluate the applications while also to promote the program and make sure that they're folks out there who have projects that might be appropriate

1:00:18 appropriate for the program are aware of it and can what interests you about affordable Housing and Community Development uh everything I mean affordable housing is the need everywhere in the state we see it in this community certainly we've also seen some really great projects happen in Springfield some of which were funded in part by these Grant dollars um I think everybody should have a place to live and it's hard to to find that um even not so affordably anymore so it's going to be a really these kinds of projects will have a really big impact

1:01:04 on individuals but as a community what do you see is the most pressing issue facing Springfield in the realm of Housing and Community Development I think there are challenges with accessibility to housing with maintaining affordable housing with keeping people in their houses if they already have housing um so those are important things to consider so that we don't continue to grow the problem while

1:01:50 we're solving the problem because resources are limited some worthwhile projects may not get funded how would you decide which projects receive funding which do not well I guess first I would pay attention to what the grant requirements are and the purpose of the grant program to make sure that we are meeting those requirements and that we can stay in good standing and continue to receive that funding that would be my first level um and then I would base uh other decisions on the city goals the direction of the city council um and then uh based on the completeness of the

1:02:36 applications and how they demonstrate in the application that the that they are meeting the requirements that was my last question thank you so much it's good seeing you we will make a decision and somebody will be in touch thank you everybody thank you

1:03:21 well we're gonna go around and do a quick round of introductions and then we will get started with a couple of questions and we'll start down with Victoria I'm Victoria Doyle I'm Ward 5 which is up near the bursting area not way up but kind of a little bit further down so Michelle Weber award one Gateway Hayden Bridge area she heard hers and we've we know each other um Ward three is mine uh Sean Van Gordon mayor and I see that counselor Pictionary has made it yep Joe pishner a ward 6 out of Thurston area okay so um the plan is we've got a ton of applicants tonight so I'm going to ask a set of four questions everybody's going

1:04:06 to take notes and then we'll we'll decide if we get done it right what do you know about Community the Community Development block grant and what is your understanding of the purpose of this committee oh I've actually applied for the Community Development block grant prior I work at shelter care so we have used it to repair the roofing on some of our housing projects as well as putting in new flooring so we've used it in the case to um better housing that was already in place but I know that it is up here as well we face it on The Five-Year Plan of creating more affordable housing repairing current Supply and also removing um slum conditions so better in the housing Supply and also making more okay great what interests you about

1:04:52 affordable Housing and Community Development so housing is actually my my main interest in How I organ I was interested in working in housing since about age 13 and I moved to Oregon and did Master's in non-profit management at the U of O and then have been at shelter care now for five years so I 100 believe in affordable housing I believe that everybody deserves a safe place to sleep at night and I believe as a community we take that task on and ensuring that everybody has that what do you see as the most pressing issue facing Springfield in the realm of Housing and Community and Community Development creating more housing it's it's just

1:05:37 needed both Springfield and Eugene we haven't kept up with the population growth we don't have a lot of affordable housing we don't have a supply of housing to even prepare us for the next population of people that are coming in so we're just we're short all around on units because resources are so limited some worthwhile projects may not get funded how would you decide which projects receive funding and which do not um well I went aside we decided as a committee um it's never up to just one person hopefully um to me I generally look at what is long-term sustainable because the money is often one-time things as I've found in programs that I've worked in you got

1:06:22 to look at the future what is going to be sustained the longest and what is also going to provide the most long-term outcomes for a larger number of individuals right that was my last question so um we are going to decide who we're going to appoint and then somebody will be uh be in contact with you with the decision thank you so much for coming in this evening thank y'all thank you all right so one spot between the two of them and all right who wants to jump in first

1:07:20 did we just do a vote well we're not we're not voting we're sort of deciding who to move forward to the regular session so to share your share your opinion what's your preference um so I thought Katrina had some very concise answers and she has a lot of experience um it sounds like she's really familiar with the whole process and and has some um a pretty good outlook for our community and sees the issues so Michelle I would agree I felt she gave the the more clear detailed answers were asked I agreed well I think they're both great and I also lean towards Katrina but I think Curry would also be fantastic

1:08:08 okay so did you I know you I don't know how much you heard because you just got on are you laying on the ground I no I actually not that's a back that's a wall behind me anyway it's snowing like crazy um I only caught a few responses that she had I didn't catch the previous one uh the impression I have on this last one is that everything above else is about affordable housing that's what I got yeah and not much help hi Katrina's fine um and I think she'll she'll do a great job I when it comes to this broader committee I think it's we always want to make sure that we balance that housing and the Community Development too and usually you know have a lot a lot of

1:08:55 projects that to choose from so it was Katrina the last one yep and and what was the name of the previous one right before her you know I know Corey yeah okay there's a Corey I'm sorry to interrupt again isn't Corey she is uh already on it and extending her current yeah three and um she was on the Planning Commission and she just rotated off the Planning Commission so she wasn't previously done it okay then we are good with that one perfect um

1:09:44 outstanding perfect thanks sir so historic Commission right Tom Seavers senior planner and current planning stored commission uh we have one open seat in the historic commission and we have one commissioner applying for re-assignment or assignment uh extending her position um we'll be calling her up first it's Jennifer Ripley and we have two others uh Mason Shannon and Kara Leslie uh this one position opened up commissioner Leslie mclees resigned in December so that opened our one seat

1:10:45 kind of do we need to go around and introduce everybody why are you interested in serving on the historic mission um so I'm a local architect I'm very involved in downtown adaptive reach projects and revitalization work um and I've been on the historic commission I should know how many years but remember um a handful of years now and have enjoyed my time on it um and have been involved in a variety of our committee work including the most recent Heritage Awards and the historic district postcards if you don't have them if you haven't seen it feel free so I'm really I guess excited and I think

1:11:30 it's very important to do a lot of public Outreach and education around the historic assets that we have in Springfield to promote stewardship and like an attitude and celebration of stewardship uh can you give us an example of your experience working with the committee be able how do you think the work of the historic committee will improve the community um again I think it's really critical that as we're you know we're trying to revitalize downtown and not just downtown my office is downtown so I do a lot of downtown work but all of Springfield um you know as we move forward and the city grows and evolves

1:12:16 um that we you know retain the historic fabric architectural fabric that we do have and um and incorporate that I guess into our vision for the long term to retain that you know the character that we have the positive character that we do have great thank you so much I had three down you got three Korean seven women's does anybody want those things

1:13:03 hello hi um we're going to go around and do a quick round of introductions and then um because we have a lot of applicants tonight I'm just going to ask ask all the questions um and then we'll have a discussion about the department after this Victoria do you want to start in Victoria I'm the representative award bias up here in Thurston not all the way in Thurston Michelle Webber Ward one Gateway gaming Bridge area Steve World War II West Springfield she her and hers and I'm in ward 3 which kind of goes right up the middle uh Sean Van Gordon mayor and counselor Pictionary Joe Pictionary award six of Thurston area

1:13:48 okay are you ready for your questions yes all right what are you interested in serving on the historic Commission well um history and historic preservation and adaptive reuse are things that are my educational background and professional background and just something that I'm interested in and passionate about so um I have a I guess I should my name is Kira Leslie um and I I got a uh I got my Master's in public history from Portland State um and after that I went to work in Medford at the southern Oregon historical society and um recently moved well about a year ago it moved from Medford and uh came up

1:14:34 here and I'm currently working for the Oregon Health Authority and uh working remotely but I really miss history and I really miss um dealing with these types of issues and that's why when I saw this I keep I just kind of keep my my eyes peeled for opportunities to that pop up that get involved whether they're volunteer or whether they're committees or in whatever capacity I can be involved to meet other people who are interested in history and historic preservation um and I so happened to see this posting and uh and I applied for it can you give us an example of your experience working with a committee sure um let's see well at my previous position um as I mentioned I was the

1:15:20 I guess technically my title was archivist um but it was a non-profit where I wore a lot of different hats and so I was on their um the museum committee and the collections committee and I also worked with the other committees um such as the we had a living farm that was a history Farm sorry living history farm that was part of that was part of the organization and there was a historic farm committee an events committee so um for the three years that I was down there I over I I guess the way we were structured I wasn't really in charge of the Committees but I was um somebody who worked with all of them and helped coordinate among them and um you know helped to to see that that

1:16:07 one kind of one hand knew what the other hand was doing um and then as I said I also served on the committee's um and let's see I'm currently I guess I'm I'm currently serving on I've also it's a little bit different but I've I'm serving on a few boards as well or I have I served on the Jackson County um cultural commission while I was down there and we helped oversee a grant distribution um and let's see it yeah I guess that's my mostly covers my experience with committees um how do you think the work of the historic commission will improve our community um I guess this is the meat and potatoes what I what I what I want to say I have only lived in Springfield for a year

1:16:54 um I'm from Portland originally and then as I said I lived in southern Oregon and recently uh work uh brought me here but I am really really excited about what's going on in Springfield um I grew up in Portland but I my foster brother who's quite a few years older than I am has lived in Springfield for a long time and I grew up visiting him down here and I've seen the changes that have happened to the city and um when I was moving looking at moving back here I was really Blown Away with the downtown and the revitalization that's that's happened and also the revitalization that has really taken careful consideration of uh reuse of the existing buildings and I think that it's really I've been impressed with the way

1:17:40 that um the city's been able to add new businesses and um Revitalize and make the downtown vibrant while also you know keeping the the character of buildings from different styles and from you know the late 1800s early 1900s mid-century and one thing that I got really interested in too while I was in Medford was like the future of small cities um because I think that there's really a lot of potential there and it's something that you know had I stayed in Medford I would have liked to have um pursued further getting more involved with their Historic downtown but so many people are being priced out of large cities and at the same time um you know so much remote work and a

1:18:25 lot of us have seen over the pandemic that it's possible to live in smaller cities and also work for some of these things in industries that used to you used to have to live in a major city so I think that there's it's going to be interesting over the next 10 20 30 years to see how small cities develop and thrive in the US and um the historic commissions are going to be I think the historic Commission because it works so closely with the development commission um and and other uh Citywide organizations are going to be really crucial to that I think it's always I say historic preservation sometimes when you say that people think it you know that it means that necessarily that you're always preserve a building no matter what and and that's not necessarily true

1:19:10 um but I think just on a personal level I I just wanted to mention that I also worked um for the City of Salem for a while that was one of my previous positions and I was basically my task was to do cultural resource inventories and go around and take pictures of buildings and assess them and I absolutely loved it and that's why I'm still hoping to you know kind of keep my my toe in that water um but one of the things that I found you know through talking to people there and through talking to people through my time in graduate school and at architectural um architectural history conferences was how important it is to keep sort of a mixed um I guess like a the landscape for the landscape to have um interesting architecture and

1:19:56 everyone's a definition of interesting is different but that's why I say that it's it's neat that um here in Springfield there are different types of buildings it's not all from one period and that that's been able to be preserved and it really adds to the experience that one has when they're walking down the streets in um and not just downtown also of course in Washburn and um you know I know there's changes happening in the in the Gateway area too I live pretty close over there and um and that's statue that beckons you as you come in is a really neat is a really neat thing and I know it's only phase one of the project but um but yeah I'm just excited to see where Springfield can go and where other small cities can go and I think the historic commission I'd like to be

1:20:41 involved in it in in that sense perfect um well thank you that was my last question I know you're coming back from the museum committee here in a little bit so we'll see you in a couple of minutes okay great thank you thank you thank you unless we have Mason Shannon I want you um we're gonna do a quick round of intros we'll start with Victoria hey Victoria I think you were sitting in here so you've heard yeah [Music]

1:21:26 and if we're good we're gonna get into the questions um why are you interested in serving on the historic Commission um my family and I moved here uh about nine months ago from Bend um and bought a house locked down uh in the historic district um I grew up in a house in the historic district in Bend um and it's always intrigued me um we bought the place more or less sight unseen loved the neighborhood and then moved in and then didn't realize that downtown Springfield was a block and a half down and went walking down through downtown Springfield and we're also impressed with the renovation work that's been done in the restoration that's been done and got really excited about some of the

1:22:11 projects that are in progress um and so since then I've just been looking to get involved one way or another with the city and the city have Banks and seemed like a good bit um can you give us an example of your experience working with the committee yeah uh my resume is not that of the other two applicants as far as committee work goes directly um with my employer I'm involved in our committee our diversity committee um I'm very involved like our senior leadership team and and diversity in implementing diversity across our organization um I also I mean I work with my kids at schools on the PTA boards see stuff like that um so familiar with teamwork

1:22:57 environments as far as that goes and how do you think the work of the historic commission will improve our community yeah I think uh I think education is a really big one um I think like that postcard uh is really neat and just like walking through the historic district to school every day and I think there's a lot on the residential side and education on the residential side that could be done uh to help those that own homes in the residential district and then those that are have businesses downtown I've talked to a couple business owners downtown um about like what what's happening downtown like is there a Downtown Association is there stuff going on to like help kind of foster this this you

1:23:42 know positive path that downtown is going on and um I think that's very appealing to me is to kind of help educate work together as like a community to elevate over all the historic charm of the city all right perfect thank you so much

1:24:36 person just to kind of talk about their goals and what they're doing um and I've worked with Jenna and her dedication is second to none I can't imagine that we would re uh per um she's just great um and so my vote would be for her to read to re-up her and then my second book would be for Mason primarily because he got the education part and that's something that they talk about a lot is that we are educating people about what the historic portion of that I think that what he may lack and experience he'll pick up on that committee so that would be my that's just my two cents okay um Jenna's also on the museum committee right yes probably

1:25:28 yeah right no I'm definitely support Jenna I kind of still think kind of process between the other two kind of work we only have one position oh yeah it's one reappointment and the other one right and so it's the backfilling uh commissioner cookies has seen got it so one reappointment and one actual okay so yeah I concur Dennis should stay she's obviously got some tenure there and and I guess no problem listening to what uh Victoria said and you know that makes sense to me I I also think that uh Shannon amazing Shannon

1:26:13 would be a good ad because I think he throws some different different views into it kind of balances out that committee Commission yes and um I like that too that that was quite a bit um when I and when I like here is a great option um but when I really listen to her interest I I'm looking forward to interviewing her for Museum committee all right so I hear a reappointment of Jennifer Lee and a new appointment for Mason Shannon correct perfect we will get the Museum's mini index we've been this is the halfway point so

1:26:58 if anybody wants five to stretch their legs I'm looking around okay thank you he's not laying down even though he looks like it

1:27:46 well now I think he's laying down I'm not those are skylights right there okay so you're introducing the folks yeah can you remind me who we have on first that would be Joshua cat so our first person we have um we have three folks interviewing tonight one is um re reapplying um and Joshua cap is a new applicant and he is waiting outside right now okay openings right yes which commission a museum this is for Museum yes one reappointment and two two okay perfect who was that reappointment I don't have my notes with me sorry

1:28:32 Sarah yeah is the reappointment okay got it she's a number five on that list there then thanks all right I think we are ready for the first person

1:29:18 hi all right Josh so the game plan is we're going to go around we're going to do a round of introductions I've got three questions that I'm going to ask you we've got a ton of interviews tonight so I'm going to ask all the questions um and they're going to take notes uh and then we'll decide on the appointments after that Victorian hi I'm Victoria I am in words I represent Ward 5 which is uh the Thurston sort of middle area Michelle Weber Ward one Gateway Hayden Bridge area evil War II West Springfield I'm Corey broadly my pronouncer she heard hers and I'm ward 3 which kind of goes right up the middle of the city uh Sean Van Gordon mayor Joe Pictionary award six out of Thurston area

1:30:05 why are you interested in serving on the museum committee sure so public service is a big part of my life and it always has been I started volunteering when I was in high school and and well we are in high school um but ever since I've been in high school I've always give back to my community no matter where I live and I'd like to continue down that path um I specifically want to volunteer for uh History Museum committee because I understand and appreciate the value of preserving the pests but also the present for the future um I always think of stories in the news you know when other community has found a time capsule well our history museum can be that time capsule for people um so that's why I

1:30:52 uh the Springfield museum has a rotating exhibit space one of the roles of the committee is to make recommendations for exhibits and programs can you give us an example of an exhibit you might recommend for the museum sure so Maddie and I we were actually just talking outside um what I really appreciated I've been in the museum recently in the labor exhibit that's there I feel is a very important piece of living history and that's something that I feel that people sometimes Overlook the present or the future um so as a way to also I know that we're Limited in space I'm doing these sort of living history projects you know depending on whatever topic you can think of Beyond you know labor that's currently there um I think continuing along that track

1:31:38 will be beneficial not only to preserve things for the future but to also have an archive developed for the present for the future and how do you think the work of the Springfield history museum improves our community well I did some notes and uh yeah it all stems back to you know a museum provides a gateway to the Past I think it's imperative that you know this our town is pretty old and having this Museum in place is it provides a Gateway into where we've gone and where we're going and I I on a personal note

1:32:23 um I I we brought our daughter to the museum a couple of weeks ago and just seen our eyes light up at the kids exhibit this that was it it's like she'll she'll be going back there for life right well those were my three questions um thank you so much for your time and then we will have somebody contact you with our decision all right sounds good thank you

1:33:27 uh why are you interested in serving on the museum committee well similar to similar to the reasons that that I'm interested in the historic commission I um I love history I love local history as I mentioned it's um I have a master's degree in public history which the um the idea behind it at least as I was taught it at Portland State is that it's it kind of prepares you for a career in history but public facing so I do um well I do love research and um you know wildling away over um microfilm and and archival materials and whatnot at the same time I like sharing it with people too and so um it sounded like the the history museum is is probably one of the best ways one of

1:34:14 the best ways to do that um the Springfield museum has rotating exhibit space one of the roles of the committee is to make recommendations for exhibits and programs can you give us an example of an exhibit you might recommend an exhibit that I might recommend well I I can't say whether or not this has already been done so um so you know with bearing that in mind um I would I would probably recommend doing an exhibit that has to do with um well I was going to go with with Timber I'm sure that that has been done but still it's you know it's kind of crucial um and I think that there are ways that

1:35:00 we could bring the the logging industry and the history of the logging industry and and what it's doing today and weave that story in with the current economy as well as um focus on some of the um sorry some of the Immigrant communities and some of the um you know non-white communities who were involved in these industries as well because that is uh kind of the one of the something that a lot of um telling stories that haven't been told as frequently is such an important part of History particularly um right now and so I think that if you took something like logging that people tend to think like oh that's old-fashioned that's old-fashioned history I think that the exhibit could

1:35:46 be told in a way that also brings in these Equity pieces and also brings in labor pieces also brings in science and also um and also connects to some of the current uh current Industries here today how do you think the work of the Springfield history museum improves our community well um we just had an opportunity to talk a little bit outside so I might be cheating a little but I um but Maddie was mentioning that um working with the library has been really crucial for for sort of uh engagement and also for some programming and so in terms of I'm sorry could you repeat the exact question how do you think the work of the Sprint Cup history museum improves

1:36:31 our community I think that when people have a history museum it just gives them some sort of focal point some sort of meaning uh for the city and they look to it as a place that sometimes take taken for granted probably often taken for granted actually but when you don't have one as we as I said um in Medford we were constantly struggling to get the museum back up and running um and it was a real loss to the community because it was the place that generations of of of Medford people remembered going as kids and learning about history and first getting interested in it and I mean I myself that's how I got interested in history was going to history museums especially ones with um you know Hands-On interactive exhibits and so I think that

1:37:18 for the Springfield history museum just getting kids interested in local history is I mean it's a great introduction and it's something that there you know is going to spark their interest for the rest of their lives perfect thank you so much okay thank you thank you our next applicant is actually virtually and online so it'll take just a moment to promote her so that she can come up on screen oh yeah hello

1:38:06 so thank you for letting me join virtually well we're happy to have you um we're gonna go around and do a quick round of introductions and then we'll get into the questions sounds good hi I'm Victoria I represent Ward five up in the mid Thurston area Michelle Weber award one Springfield Gateway area or the Gateway hidden Bridge area I'm Corey rodley my pronouns are she heard hers I'm Ward 3. I'm champagne Gordon mayor Joe Pictionary award six be the first camaria hello everyone hello um are you interested in serving on the museum committee

1:38:52 so um I'm applying for reappointment I apologize for missing my appointment before uh I was recovering from brain surgery but I'm well I'm back and um the reason I want to continue to serve on the museum committee is I actually this is my field of expertise I work as a preservation specialist for the Northeast Auckland Conservation Center and prior to that I was the collections manager at the Lane County History Museum so um and my education as well I have degrees in museum studies and preventive conservation so this really is where I work I work in museums I consult with museums my specialty is collections care and I do want to contribute to my community I've lived here for about 13 years here in Springfield and since I I'm here I work remotely for

1:39:41 a firm that works that's in Massachusetts um I want to be able to share with my local community the information that I share on a daily basis with people all around the country and uh I love teaching I love sharing and I love museums so that's why I want to continue to work with the museum committee the Springfield museum has a rotating exhibit space uh what are the rules of the committee is to make recommendations for that exhibit space can you give us an example of an exhibit you might recommend okay so um I grew up in the Philippines and as a as you know having grown up in another country I've experienced seeing history from different people's perspectives and how it doesn't always match it's not always the same so I think it's really good the direction of

1:40:27 the museum is taking now where we're kind of they're trying to shed light on untold stories and underrepresentative Community underrepresented communities so I'd like to continue with that and um so that we can see different parts of history and not just focus on the traditional settlers Pioneer story that has been on the Forefront in this side and on a side note for that I'd also like to I don't know if this is something that this is something that I do I like to teach so maybe help people learn how to share their own family histories or care for their own personal collections so that these can live forward and maybe they can collaborate with the museum and we can learn individual stories since everybody has their own perspective how do you think the work of the

1:41:12 Springfield history museum improves the community it's very important for the um Community to have a museum because it's a touch point it's a place of Education people can learn about different perspectives that they might not have in their own life it's a community Gathering space where people can meet each other I just um had an experience the other day with um the the town hall and I got to meet some people who lived in the area who had common interests and it was a very nice experience chatting with them and learning about the people around the area so I think it's a it's a really core resource and a very important resource for a community to have all right that was it that was all the questions thank you so much for your time thank you so much too have a great

1:41:57 night thank you bye okay so we have three people in three positions I think it's I think it's two yeah College won the appointment and one new position yeah yeah there's two positions open foreign

1:42:47 anything else would be my team as well I'm I'm okay to go with the group I like them both so Joe do you have anything I'm still trying to figure out do you have we have three interview three people and can we use all three so we only have two people so the last one is uh to me is an absolute no-brainer she's already serving and she's amazing has an amazing resume um the other two I I I'm not really stuck on any either one of them I really like um I like them both I like Joshua because he's a different perspective and I think he can add to that Community to add some diversity to that committee as opposed to you know all doing the same

1:43:32 or liking the same thing um I think he would be he would add to that so my preference would be Joshua so it looks like it's uh Kerry and Tara got it okay thank you thank you thanks Maddie do we have just a moment yes we're we're re-queuing to the next one so if we want to take five

1:44:18 so when you do that

1:49:00 okay we are back from a brief Break um the next group is budget committee and it's Neil over here any mayor and Council Neil will bring her budget procurement manager and our finance department thanks for being here tonight um we have by the committee interviews uh we're interviewing for members to represent Awards one two um and five and then also um uh Ward four so we have uh Steve schmoke Who was appointed to the Planning Commission and has represented four on the budget committee um and so the the council may choose to leave Steve in that um in that role on the budget committee for another year or

1:49:45 um you know ask another member to take that place and ask Steve to step down so that the council will have that discretion um actually I don't remember Virginia may have to help us with this budget committee Planning Commission thing and we appoint a planning commissioner to the budget committee the rules say that you you um says that you should try and avoid it so it's not an outright prohibition and there's a specific statute about budget committee and planning Commissioners that if I have this right budget committee officer should not be like officers of the agency and there's some question about what planting Commissioners do that they're technically considered officers that's the type of recommendations they make so it's not recommended to have a planning commissioner also be

1:50:32 on your budget committee but I think since you were down so many you had so many vacancies you had one year left I think it was like Stevie interviews and see what you have and then you might be able to make a decision then so and so the applicants that we have tonight are from Awards uh two five and six so there's some overlap with the words that uh we're recruiting for um and so with that in mind it's important to note that um the charge for the budget committee indicates that we uh or that the council will appoint by Ward the budget committee or budget law does not require appointment by Ward so the council does have this gratitude in my understanding

1:51:18 to appoint members as they see fit regardless of Ward affiliation so I hope that that's sufficient context we have the four members um here ready to interview Janice uh route actually withdrew her application um so we no longer have DNS in the mix tonight okay very good I think we were ready for the first one is there any overlap between people interview interview budget and interview for planning I'm just curious that's a good question so it does look like um so Jason Jason Miller interviewed for the SPAC and then Alan Stout is also

1:52:05 interviewing for Planning Commission okay all right okay I think we're ready for the first person and the first person actually is uh Devin and uh she's remote oh okay very good then can I ask a question sure so um Ruth I thought ruse was applied for Budget or she She interviewed with us last and we recommended that she come back for this one is that right it's not planning it's on the internet okay I know there's one out of the two something like that that's right kind of what I was asking okay any other questions we're still getting a little organized Evan

1:52:50 all right hi Devin hi everybody um So the plan for the evening is we're going to do a round of introductions then I will ask a set of questions um since we've got so many this evening um you know I'm just gonna ask the whole set for everybody and then we'll discuss at the uh at the end when we're done with the interviews okay I've been on the uh online Zoom meeting the whole time so if you don't want to do the interviews again you'd or introductions again you don't have to uh thank you for that it's no more that's usually the part where counselor rodley makes a little bit of fun for me

1:53:35 of me if we're not paying attention but all right so why are you interested in serving on the budget committee so I'm interested in serving on the budget committee because I would like to become involved in the decisions that are going to affect the community that I live in currently and plan to live in for the foreseeable future I'm looking to serve really in whichever capacity that I can have the most positive impact given my background I had originally applied to be on the planning committee but given my experience I was asked to interview for this budget committee position well all of the Springfield Services seem to have strong support from different areas of the community it is often necessary to prioritize services

1:54:20 for budgetary reasons how would you go about the ask of establishing priorities among services in order to establish priority among Services given our budget I think the first thing we need to do is understand the needs of our communities by living and working in Springfield I would like to think that I have a solid understanding of what our needs are after understanding what our community's needs are the prioritization becomes easier in the way of understanding what is most time sensitive and then vote to budget for those needs that are not only important for the community but also time sensitive we're on the budget committee and we're looking at one of the city services to decide how much should be funded through

1:55:05 General taxes and how much should be funded through specific fees on customers what questions would you want to have answered in order to make your decision well a lot of questions um I honestly I'd be looking to understand who the services are intended to help we would need an estimation of how much is required in order to fund those Services any past performances of those Services why we think the services would be beneficial going forward if the services are intended to be ongoing or just budgeted for on a one-time basis I'd be curious who would be managing or providing the services and what their past performances are in those types of roles as well as any other pertinent

1:55:51 information the proposer is willing to share with us and how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community well in order to improve our community we have to spend money serves a vital role in making sure that the resources we have to improve our community are used in a very specific measurable and relevant way right thank you so much we will look at the rest of the interviews and somebody will be in touch thank you good question for you so since we have two people applying for Word by you said that we could and actually appoint them because

1:56:39 we don't have anybody applying for Ward one is that correct correct that's that's my understanding about in terms of how we manage this similar type of situation in the past and and the discretion that we have is that similarly what you all have done yeah so historically when we you know if we've had people with Awards we sort of preferentially put them in that spot and sometimes and then and then it's you know at some point where we just place them okay thank you so if the council's ready I'll go get uh Jason Miller very good thank you

1:57:44 that's one of Jason oh sit down we meet again [Music] and so um all right so why are you interested in serving on the budget committee yeah um so I've been a part of Eugene Springfield leadership and learning all about the different facets of our community out of here great mayor speak at that and the source city manager and just really got interested in how things work in our cities in our counties and whatnot and just wanted to be a part of that and um so looking for places where I can serve and the budget committee is interesting to me um I mean I haven't really had a lot of

1:58:29 Deep um intricate knowledge in budgets but the times that I have um I think I what I could bring to this committee is someone that I'm fairly smart can read budgets um and then come from an outsider perspective when I um had an internship with a value engineering firm I didn't really know much about value engineering but I sat on a committee where they were trying to figure out a street project and I just said well there's a 25 000 line speaking digitally between this light and the next light why is that just asking and they're like well you know we want to time the lights and I said well what's the rule on how far apart those need to be to for traffic not to be have an

1:59:15 impediment and they're like oh I can't even remember how many feet it was but it was obviously that this was like um quarter mile or something so it was beyond that and I said well we don't need it can we save twenty five thousand dollars there so willing to speak up you know to a room full of Engineers and just ask those questions and we we saved some money there um and then again when I was on the an HOA our board has the the budgets reviewed by a third party every so many years and they took a look at that and um suddenly there was this huge fence project that was suddenly added to it so I was able to look and see why has this been suddenly here in our budget and

2:00:02 then do the calculations and see oh look this is actually leading to a per household increase and um you know just wanting to ask those questions see that and read it in the budget while all of the Springfield Services seem to have strong support from different areas it is often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services yeah that's the hard part right that's where all the time begins um I think to me there's I think Public Safety is huge I think education is huge um you really have to find places in the

2:00:47 budget where maybe something can well you know does it have to be done right away and it won't deteriorate it too long by pushing it down the road a few Acres one thing I do understand working at a utility I worked at epad for a while is that I have do you have to raise budgets to keep the same level of services for the community um because of inflation and whatnot so um that that's kind of where I come from education is huge for the city and uh safety but also public housing I think is is huge big problem in our community right now if you were on the budget committee and we're looking at one of the city's

2:01:32 services to decide how much should be funded through General taxes and how much should these funded for specific uh fees on customers what questions would you want to have answered in order to make that decision um would want to know in the budget how much um that specific item really touches everybody or maybe someone a whole Community isn't involved in this but it really does trickle down like education in our schools not everyone has a child that goes to a school but everyone in the community is affected by quality education in our community so um and you know that maybe not be in the

2:02:17 general budget but just talking about examples that's what I want to ask is as far as general budget goes that everyone is affected by those things or maybe it's a very specific set of people that are affected by a specific line item um perhaps that should go to increased fees how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community um because good the services that the city provides really do affect everybody and make our community a place that we want to live in so we want to make sure that we have a sustainable model that we can continue these services without over taxing or overseeing everybody so

2:03:03 um it's always that huge balance of providing things that we all love to enjoy versus taking money from people I think the the budget committee its job is to find where that balance is all right great thank you so much all right thank you you're coming back for planning too no I'll try to find another community so we can see each other again thank you bring in uh Arthur next perfect thank you

2:04:16 good evening everyone so um we're gonna go around a quick round of introductions and then I will get into the questions I'm going to ask all the questions tonight since we've got quite a few interviews and that helps people along for Victoria and Victoria I'm uh represent Ward 5 which is like mid Thurston area Michelle Weber Ward one uh Hayden Bridge Gateway area I'm Corey rodley and my pronouncer she heard hers and I represent ward 3 which goes right up the middle uh Sean Van Gordon mayor Joe pisnery award six out of the Thurston so why are you interested in serving on the budget committee well there are really two main reasons one is I want to get the feeling of giving back to the

2:05:01 community that's always been a value of mine and uh in the process of doing that use some of my experience and uh the skills that I gained over my career and then the second thing is to keep my mind active and Tackle something that seems like a challenge and a budget is definitely a challenge it's a puzzle I enjoy puzzles well all of Springfield Services seem to have strong support from different areas of the public it is often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services I'd want to look at what the history was for a particular service compared to other services and also compared to

2:05:46 other cities so for example if a particular service is using one and a half percent of the budget in this city is that fairly normal for cities of this size and also over time is that something that has grown or declined over time any evidence of need um is there garbage in the streets are there potholes Etc you know something that is obvious or individuals coming forward citizens going forward and saying this you know this is a need um so all of those factors uh looking at current service levels you know what has been the current service level in the past and getting into account inflation and such what would be the current service level now so weighing all of those and trying to

2:06:31 figure out are there areas where we have been under investing and are there areas where maybe we can pull back a little bit and just pour those under Investments if you were in the budget committee and we're looking at one of the city services to decide how much it should be funded through General taxes how much should be funded through specific fees what were some are some examples of questions that you would want answered well one thing I'd want to know is can it be done in a Phoebe administered cost effectively because obviously there's a mechanism for administering the fee and that takes some some funds and some um some Personnel um what is the general fund fee split in other cities for that service is are what we are we

2:07:17 doing something abnormal um what has it been in the past and if you if you shift toward a fee how is that going to affect people who are going to have difficulty of affording that meeting so uh and then the other aspect of it is are you going to be driving with that fee activities that may actually create a cost elsewhere facing your garbage fees and having people dump their garbage by the side of the road and how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community well I see the budget as an essential link between the the citizens desires of course obviously they express those desires through electing representatives

2:08:03 but it also um uh the budget is a key part of implementing those citizens desires so they elect their representatives and representatives come up with a proposed budget the the budget committee is that second set of Eyes by citizens as well as Council to make sure that it works reasonably and provide recommendations for uh changes if necessary probably not major changes but um second set of eyes and and giving it some uh impromotor of reasonableness by the citizenry right great that's all the questions I had um so we will be in touch thank you so much for your time all right thank you thank you thank you

2:08:57 [Music] yes please thank you explains [Music] um you know everybody here Alan um I believe I don't know this counselor Michelle Weber Michelle Weber what a pleasure to meet you thank you so much did you know everybody I don't think we've been okay either thank you

2:09:43 well then I'm gonna start with all with the questions why are you interested in serving on the budget committee uh living Financial transparency and I want to contribute in the small way that I can to increase Financial transparency within the city's budget it's a huge budget there's a lot of questions to be asked and I think one of the crucial uh areas that all citizens can be involved with is asking questions of the processes of the city so that there's greater ownership from the citizens in the Machinery of local governments and while all this Springfield Services seem to have strong support from different areas of the community is often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the ask of establishing priorities

2:10:29 uh Priority Services um so so I always take a fix-it-first approach to all the um all the different uh things that are happening that said um I look at where the where the areas of the greatest need and it really depends in a lot of ways I can't um I see the budget committee not as much a policy making position as much as asking the questions on behalf of the city council on behalf of the citizens so it's hard for me to say where I would prioritize on a policy uh point of view that said I think um I think the simplest and the lowest hanging fruit where you can make the greatest difference with the least amount of budgeting increase would be

2:11:16 where I would probably Focus my efforts if you were on the budget committee and we're looking at one of the city services to decide how much should be funded through General taxes and how much should be funded through specific fees on customers what correct questions would you want answered in order to make that decision I would want to look at what's the overall Capital Investments for the project where what are the ultimate liabilities how much of those liabilities are um or how much the users are having to contribute versus the overall needs of the city for example we have a high-end development I would want to look at just how important is it for the city to be subsidizing some of the high-end developments versus for examples putting

2:12:04 those resources towards a area of town that was 70 or more years old that actually required some renovation in order to be sustainable for another 70 years and how do you think the work of the budget committee improves our community again it increases transparency it creates greater buy-in for the citizens and I think he promotes greater information sharing so that the citizens within Springfield can see and business people can see um that their funds are being spent well okay thank you so much we'll see you back in a couple of minutes that's good

2:12:54 okay so we have three open spots for um we can fill up the form because uh because Steve is left for the Planning Commission I want to make sure everybody knows that that is it is an option or we can wait and do Planning Commission interviews and then sort the whole thing out from there that's what I'd much rather do especially when we have people overlapping with my information is that okay with everybody else seeing some head nods and thumbs up good evening there and council tonight we have four applicants and three of them are here in person and I'm assuming one's online um as planned and we have two positions

2:13:39 that you are filling for it with those vacancies very good I think we are ready for Ruth hello I think you know everybody I'm not sure I don't believe I've met Steve and Michelle I think I've seen we've run across each other but I don't know yeah yeah so and and Corey I think I've seen you but not exactly yeah around our 20th interview if I try to come up I mean Productions everybody's like we know everything if I'm like wow

2:14:24 we don't even know who we are anymore right um why did you uh apply for the Planning Commission I basically enjoy committee work that develops any community resource that's really going to benefit the population as well as improve Economic Development I've been attracted to those type of opportunities and mainly where I work in Cottage Grove I've been highly involved there I also like how the commissioner's responsibility and role aligns with not only making decisions but you also it to be an advisor to the

2:15:10 city council related to codes and plans I also like that this role allows me to do what I feel I do best which is to be an advocate and a liaison with the community Economic Development and infrastructure are two of the council's major goals if you think about how development happens do you have opinions on how costs should be shared between developers and the public I do because I think infrastructure it's important to have uniformities and that there's consistency within what the public uses and those codes need to be available not only within the development but also out in the street

2:15:55 so there can be public use available where the development has built but also the city has some investment in that property I've seen in a lot of ways that if the city takes care of what gets to the property line and there's no infrastructure of streets within that property then it's on the developer what you develops according to code on that land but if there's a street system or there's pedestrian paths or anything in that development I believe the best way for the city and the develop developer to have a shared investment in making

2:16:40 sure it is maintained and is operable that there needs to be a shared component once um that system is within their land otherwise it's on the developer and what they do if you had a magic wand and you had the ability to change anything for the Springfield development code if you have something you would change you betcha I think it would be wise to have larger cul-de-sacs what I mainly for ease of access for those who are coming to a location within that neighborhood or development and also for those who are Transit dependent it's really hard to get in to navigate in and out of the

2:17:26 site if there if there's a lack of turnaround space or a place for folks to park and my reasoning for that is I think you might go there as a innocent party who doesn't know what that site is like but when you can't find a place to park and you can't even get close to who you're trying to intersect with you're not going to go back and so I see it as a negative economic and quality of life issue that I would love to see changed or would you like to see the city change in the next 10 years and how do you see the Planning Commission helping accomplish that I love how the Springfield is a business

2:18:12 friendly community and also that you're wanting to support what will be value for our citizens so when I look at a 10-year plan I'm saying that the Planning Commission in order to know what that plan should accomplish is to First find out from the public what they feel they need and when they go out to the public and gain information then it's the role in my opinion of the Planning Commission to come up with the city staff's help to find reports to do research to come up with how can we make that happen within

2:18:57 other contexts of code and requirements and the different plans the reason I go from that approach is there's too much turnover within leadership and within even government positions that it's hard to have consistency through 10 years but if the public knows what the goal is and they're brought along with the process I believe you'll have more of a buy-in and success in the plan describe the relationship between the Planning Commission to the city council and the city staff to the Planning Commission that's a good one we serve the Planning Commission serves as an advisory body and mainly within the

2:19:45 legislative aspects of changes to master plans and as well as serves as the write this down committee for citizen involvement and that's in order to do that public engagement and so I believe that's that relationship between the Clinton commission City Council right and with the staff thank you okay thank you thank you thanks Joe so mayor Sandy stepdadi the room um to try to get the next applicant on

2:20:32 the phone because Isaac is not on or virtual I believe he's entered like traveling internationally or something at the moment so it could be so if you would like I think we could have Alan back up and keep going Ellen welcome back to Isaac at the shows hello again hi um why did you apply for the Planning Commission um after living abroad for a couple years I found that there was a lot of things that I would love to see incrementally change within Springfield that I would think would make a greater family-friendly business friendly place for um generations of springfielders to me

2:21:17 from economic development in an infrastructure are two major Council goals if you think about how the development happens do you have opinions on how costs should be shared between developers and the public um primarily we have to be very conservative we have to be conservative as a city council and not overspend on tax benefits to developers um the city should be strong enough to support um Physicians should be attractive and strong enough to not have to give away Millions impacts of tax incentive financing that said the work of local especially local developers is extremely uh crucial and extremely important support so I would also look at what is the Strategic end of the city and

2:22:03 um and I would probably assess the different projects individually if you had a magic wand and you had the ability to change the Springfield development code what would you change simple I would allow every single neighborhood by its right and every single zoning density to move to the next level of intensity that doesn't that means that a single-family house can become a duplex a duplex a Triplex a Triplex a quad Flex without any red tape without any major payments of stcs Etc how would you like to see the city change in the next 10 years and how do you see the Planning Commission helping to do that I'd like to see a tremendous increase in walkability especially in

2:22:48 targeted neighborhoods and I think that the Planning Commission can help identify what those neighborhoods are where we want to make those key Investments so that we're not spending on Transit Investments needlessly but we're targeting key areas so that we're actually taking people who want to go somewhere places they want to go okay so describe the relationship between the Planning Commission and the city council and City staff and Planning Commission I see the Planning Commission as a an interpretive body most of all is looking at what are the what are these statutes and what are the ordinances within the city does the application for the proposed development meet those uh those criteria if it does then approving it and if not uh then not approving it

2:23:34 and if it is approval but with some hesitations and raising those issues to the city council or city staff who can then raise those with the uh City Council okay any we have Isaac no okay so let's just keep going in see if we we have Taylor here yeah oh there you are

2:24:19 you know you may win the prize for the very last interview right here did I I think approximately elimination I don't think I might be lost um I'm assuming you've heard all the introductions yeah I I the only person I've met Victoria and that was one time and then I've had many of you I would I would go around and address you individly but I think you're here forever so all right so what What attracted you to applying for the Planning Commission um I mean honestly just know that there was a vacancy in a spot where I could come in and fill and um try to help in any way I can um I live in Springfield my whole life family's been here since early 1900s and I'm very eager to learn and help and understand what's going on and I think a lot of pride in being involved and

2:25:07 taking in Knowledge from different spectrums so I mean I'm not a biased view just a idea that's going to be aggressive for everybody so like that's if I had to look into the Planning Commission as someone that had one in there I think that's the kind of kind of people I would want so I figure I should probably apply Economic Development and infrastructure are two major Council goals if you think about how the development happens do you have any opinions on how costs should be shared between developers and the public yeah um to me it kind of depends on each situation um where are the developers coming from um one thing I guess very important Springfield's done a pretty good job of from what I've seen is

2:25:52 keeping those developments as some of the local developers um and that's something I think it's very important when you're looking at what's going to happen over the next 10 years so as far as that being be in public and everyone understanding that that's that's a Direction that's trying to be trying to go upon them sounds like if you had a magic wand and you had the ability to change the Springfield development code what would you change I mean I should be playing honest with that I mean everyone else had to say was was awesome and as far as codes as I would change I'm never someone that's going to step over my boundaries and say that I'd understand what the codes are to be changed and that's that's why I'm sitting here it's you know to get into involvement in

2:26:38 something like this you got to start somewhere and this is where I'd like to start so getting into code and changes maybe I'll have something better for you next time we talk about right now I'm just you know how would you like to see the city change in 10 years and how do you see the Planning Commission helping change the city yeah um I mean it's obvious that Springfield's grown really fast I mean there's there's developments going up everywhere I mean we're building over 1800 ohms over in Marcola um and those are all great things but understanding how is that going to affect the community and how is it these people that living in the community how are they going to see it from their point of view and really want to get along with that and enjoy it so the developers are coming in that stuff's

2:27:23 happening yeah it was very you describe the relationship between a Planning Commission and the city council and the city staff and the Planning Commission yeah I know it seems like that when you're in the Planning Commission you're just an advisory to the council the council is the ones making the final decisions and bringing it out to the public and it's your job to understand all the liabilities and all the details and use the great stuff that you guys appoint to come up with the best information for the council thank you very much we appreciate it thanks

2:28:33 I'm here can you hear and see me yes okay thank you I'm I'm sorry that's been a little bit rough with this connection so we've been running just a little bit behind so it's not no problem at all um if you're ready I'm gonna get uh get into the questions sure why What attracted you to apply for the Planning Commission uh you know I've been looking for something to get more involved um I really love Springfield and the Planning Commission is uh it's a little bit more inside of my wheelhouse as somebody who works in housing and has previously worked in construction and property management and done a little bit of development it seemed like a better fit for me than

2:29:18 some of the other opportunities that the city has Economic Development and infrastructure are two major Council goals if you think about the how development happens how do you do you have any somehow costs should be shared between developers and the public sure yeah I think that um if the city thinks about what it what its development goals are and um figures out you know what what kind of development it wants to have happen it just needs to make sure that those things are are financially incentivized in a way that makes them happen you know makes makes them pencil out for developers without over uh over incentivizing you know

2:30:05 creating costs for the city that are not necessary for the city to bear if you have magic wand and you can change anything about the Springfield development code what would you change [Music] so I don't know if it's actually the development code if I could change anything it would be the ugb but uh if I had to pick something from the development code I think I would stick with streamlining and simplifying some of the um application and uh and uh like the application processes for new projects

2:30:50 how would you like to see the city change in 10 years and how do you think the Planning Commission uh helps change the city I think that the city is doing a lot of great things already I think that they um you know if they could succeed at some of the projects that they're working on in Glenwood and and to find a a way to do the Main Street uh Redevelopment that works for everybody um I think that the city's headed in a pretty great Direction and I think that the Planning Commission has its peace in those things and um

2:31:35 I think that they just need to need to do their do their piece and uh say the course in some ways describe the relationship between the Planning Commission and the city council and this Planning Commission and the staff so the relationship between the Planning Commission and council is that the Planning Commission is um tasks with making recommendations for Council there's a lot of uh there's a lot of granular detail there's a lot of getting out into the weeds that the Planning Commission does to bring recommendations to council so that the council can make decisions as the actual elected officials of the city

2:32:21 the relationship with staff I imagine is pretty similar to the relationship between the volunteers and the staff and some of the nonprofits that I've worked with um it's a collaborative relationship where they work together in their prescribed roles to to make those recommendations for Council right that was the last question thank you so much okay great thank you so we're planning commit and I think the best way to do this is probably Planning Commission first and then we'll swing

2:33:07 back to budget committee and sort and sort that out so quick question for you if somebody because we have more Planning Commission people than we have positions but we have kind of less people for budget than we is there is there any crossover if they apply for planning then they can't be considered for Budget I guess that's what I'm trying to ask like so we don't they honestly we don't know because when we tried to do that in the past people just don't have interest in different committees right the schedule may not work out right so what I would say is like consider if people apply for both we can consider them for both um if for some reason they drop out of one and we still have spots and then maybe we can divide it up between you know the right Council on call and encourage them to reapply for the other but we shouldn't try to place them

2:33:57 sorry no like trust me we've been through that one before and it is interviewer planning that I think would be great on budgets like so Joe thank you I was getting ready to just jump in on there with my recommendations but if you're ready for that otherwise I can wait well I'm ready for it pop in yeah um on I'm gonna go ahead and start with the Planning Commission and um I I really like Alan Stout I think he would be my number one choice I think that um my other I got to tell you with with I would be happy with either Isaac or Taylor they both really have some great

2:34:42 answers I think they would uh they both have got some expertise that would be helpful as well so I would I again I would I would support anybody's else with Isaac or Tater but my number one choice would be Alan Stout I think two going back to the budget um Victoria brought up a good a good scenario well maybe not so good I would I personally would see if we could reach out to Ruth and see if she would uh entertain on the budget committee I think she would be great I think she just um I think she underestimates her ability to be on a budget committee from her past work experience

2:35:29 and then and if you want to if we want to go ahead and finish or do you want to finish the planning then we can go to the cut budget right first and then we can dive into budget okay sounds good so that's that's my understanding but on planning right uh my two are Ruth and Isaac I think Isaac is a a great choice and he would be our second person that's involved in real estate um by the rules that we're showing there um Eleanor Ruth's um would be fine with me on the second one

2:36:16 thanks Steve or Michelle I would say Isaac and Ruth because she applied for the Planning Commission so I think we need to we need to respect that that's where she put her name okay somebody you say first name you say last names selections and uh give us a name mix up I'm I'm not sure on the second one to change the truth so um Allen and then Taylor was in the suit and an Isaac and Ruth

2:37:01 again Isaac magic and stout okay so I have I'm counting I have Isaac is in I have uh and then so my my preference was Alan and Isaac um and and if um but Victoria you do have you did give us both so alanin is fine for saying yeah Isaac Isaac for sure but Alan so I'm hearing Isaac and Allen are being appointed correct okay you can get your way back machine and go

2:37:49 budget committee this is where it's going to get a little bit complicated so Neil you we have seat a budget appointments in here at all we not tonight we've received one application for one open position okay that'll be considered separately okay so we have three spots and this is where it's going to get a little bit tricky because you we have but you can use you can use the fourth spot if you if you would like right because we had left Steve in that kind of in that spot to sort of for this discussion if you will

2:38:35 well I have a couple things to say one um and I was thinking about this coming here today that I'm I'm somewhat disappointed that we have not completed the process of figuring out how to do committees and permissions after all of the work that counselor Pitts and counselor stare and I did wondering if it's gonna officially happen or not now and I remember very clearly that when we did this before there was a lot of hullabaloo about making sure that someone is not serving on both the budget and the um Planning Commission so and so everyone was like we want to appoint Steve schmunk to the Planning Commission

2:39:20 but he's going to have to vacate his position on the budget committee and so now it's like we're like well how do we have a person be in both places so I just want to call out that we need to get really clear about what we're doing because when we're continuously leaning towards putting as many conservative people in as many places as we can it doesn't look that great so I would say that we would appoint the three people who are on here Devin and Jason and Arthur um and since Allen is who is being chosen to put on the Planning Commission and that Steve schmunk would need to choose one or the other that's my opinion about it what was the last person you you had

2:40:05 you had Devin you had Devin Jason and Arthur the two who or three who are not yeah selection but it's hard to get people to volunteer for me sometimes I've actually had somebody come out in the hallway and Pull Me In can we have volunteering committee before because they couldn't find anybody but he regretted that okay so do you have a choice for folks to bring okay got it

2:40:54 yes um I I I'm okay well I'm a little confused because I haven't heard of anybody talking or putting their political stances conservative I'm not sure where that came from but uh this is a bipartisan selection there's no uh political affiliation I'm aware of so that being said I like Devin I think she would do fine I do like um Jason and what was that other one that Steve what was your other one Arthur and Arthur yeah he's got background crazy amazing background the one that came in it was a previous state employee

2:41:48 so those those three that I would select and and obviously Steve should be removed because he's on a Planning Commission we got enough applicants to fill the budget positions which is the intent in the first place so we have enough people we can fill them and Steve can stay on a Planning Commission we don't though no we don't like Okay so let's make life easier right because this is a little bit of a let's put the Steve conversation to the side for a second let's get through the first three people and then we'll swing by and it's back and talk about Stanford okay well those three are my selections and and whatever we end up with Steve in that statement he's going to be done in a few months anyway so whatever

2:42:35 you're good you're good Michelle with the three yeah I win those three okay may I ask um Devin currently lives within word two Jason currently lives within Ward five five and Arthur is within word five oh yeah so my understanding is the open positions are award one word two word four and word advice and are the terms the same length yes okay so um Devin is ward two and we have a Ward 2 position we have award one and award two position open

2:43:20 Jason is Ward five and Arthur is worked by it so I would say it was but let's put Devin into Jason and five and then Arthur back in one I'm looking out and saying okay so let then let's swing back to the other conversation which is when Neil like when you look at the time between when budget starts which I'm not looking at a calendar here do we have time to put the Steve schmuck's seat back out again is that I'm but I I think it would be tight with Council recess um I think I

2:44:06 there's probably just enough room there may be one I would have to look at a calendar but but I think there's probably one uh Council session after recess prior to the council or the budget committed starting on April 25th um that would provide us time for appointment but with that we could um push the recruitment out and you could potentially appoint on April 17th um we can borrow some time from that work session to do an interview um so yes it is feasible so it is possible and so Victoria well then I guess that answers my question because I I think that we have someone who has

2:44:51 applied for Planning Commission that we all liked for that position as well I think rude did a good job with that so I think that it's something we should consider if we're going to put it out then we should recommend that she at least apply for that if we're not going to be able to potentially ask her and save the all the work and hassle of going out and redoing this again and trying to squeeze it in when we have someone that very well may be interested in doing that okay so I think I think if people are good right that what we're what I'm hearing is that we're going to ask Steve to choose right which you're going to go to the Planning Commission and then we would put it back out understanding that if we don't get anybody we'll be one person short for Budget committee thank you and if I may clarify if I reach out to

2:45:37 Ruth in the morning and she's willing to serve on the budget committee do you want us to still go out on an extended recruitment let's work our way through this you want to go back out okay I agree for sake of timing if she's interested in we have crossovers already here that we've interviewed tonight so if she has interest in being one of those crossovers then I'm um okay so here are you telling me that if Ruth accepts the budget committee position I am not extending the recruitment otherwise I will extend the recruitment

2:46:23 with potential interview and appointment on April 17th perfect got it okay last question before we wave our magic hands and get to the regular session and I don't know somebody's gonna may have to remind what's what's the committee stuff coming back or a regular appointment no for the day uh the subcommittee that we had in the fall were you were you bringing it back to the retreat yeah it's going to go to the retreat and then after that would be if you wanted to change your rules after that okay so if you have more questions we didn't forget all right Joe is your hand left yeah I was just gonna I missed that

2:47:09 whole or out of the loop on that conversation about um checking to see if uh MS mine is would be interested and I would concur with that I don't see any reason to spend more staff time or Council time on if the person if she wants that she's to me is perfectly qualified okay perfect if you have any questions before we switch committees before we switch meetings because we got special meeting I didn't have any questions I feel that I have all the information we're almost there guys I know we're getting to the end okay the stat the status actually believing

2:47:55 we kind of kept them here so long [Music] do you want to add another item at the last minute all right I'm going to call the regular session the special regular session to order here in Gordon here whatsoever here yes

2:48:40 or no here Council Bradley here cancer Doyle barely but yes dictionary yes still here thanks all right as we begin our meeting tonight I would like to ask the members of the audience who are joining us by phone online or online please keep yourself on mute until you are called to provide public testimony there is one time designated for public testimony this evening under public hearings if you're attending in person please complete the request to speak card located at the entrance of the meeting and give it to the city recorder if you're are joining us online with the tablet smartphone or computer and wish to speak please raise your uh your hand and zoom the order of the public testimony is as follows anyone in

2:49:25 the person in the city council chambers or the Jesse main room all right are anyone who's raised our virtual Aunt first item place first item of public hearing is in a number one fiscal year 23 supplemental budget three this is resolution number one resolution adjustment resources and requirements in the Insurance Fund and making those here for the staff report all right could you be mayor and Council I apologize for sneaking this on at the last minute uh this should be passed um the item in front of you this evening is a request to conduct a public hearing and adopt on adopt a resolution adjusting resources and requirements in the Insurance Fund so this is an off-cycle supplemental budget uh we did not plan or anticipate this uh earlier in the earlier in the year just to give

2:50:10 you a little history on why this is coming in front of you now we go back a few years there was a lot of interest from the state to address the unfunded hers liability uh that government at all levels uh were struggling with across the state uh the legislator identif legislature identified some funds and wanted to incentivize agencies creating site accounts and we're offering up a 25 match so at that time we had started to set some funds aside we were calling them our Purge rainy day uh fund it was a result of benefit holidays from our excellent experience with our health plan uh we identified you know what we thought is we could potentially if you had chosen to set aside two million

2:50:56 dollars into a side account knowing that if we got selected we could come back later with that decision uh the state I don't think anticipated how popular the program would be when the application window opened uh all the funds were allocated within the first hour and a number of agencies ended up on a wait list including ourselves so that answered the question for us uh fast forward to about a year ago the state identified some more funds with the goal of funding all of the applications and agencies that ended up on the wait list and no more part of that funding is from sports betting um just for your interest um so at that time now we uh you know talking with the

2:51:41 council leadership and management uh and and kind of considering the um sort of uncertainty around uh the economy at that time when you send these funds over to the state you essentially give up control of those funds um with this program if you had a contribution of 10 million or more you could choose your amortization period but for anything under 10 million you didn't get to choose and it's a 20-year amortization so what that essentially does is just spreads out the benefit uh thinly over a longer period of time given the uncertainty in the economy to give up that control we felt that it was better for us to hold on to those funds where we could use them over a shorter time frame for instance if there was a recession so at that time we

2:52:29 weren't interested and then fast forward to this month we I got an email that said hey you know we're down to the last month if funds are deposited by March 31st you can still take advantage of that match I Revisited our balance in our Purge ready day and we had another benefit holiday with another one anticipating in fiscal year 23 putting our projected rainy day Reserve balance at 5 million at the end of the school year 23 recognizing now that we could participate in this program and still retain a sizable balance if we needed to use it in the shorter term the benefit of this program is that we'll get a 25 match so we contribute 2 million uh they match it with uh 500 000 and then uh the

2:53:16 state has a much more aggressive investment um policy they're over a longer time period they've historical average return for them has been around seven percent if we were to look at our historical earnings on our investments it's probably down on the two to three percent so we're also going to see better Returns on those dollars uh they've got a tool that you can put in the site account and it'll give you an idea of the impact it's going to have for your organization uh that two and a half million will save us roughly 4.1 million in a future uh Brewers costs so it's a great program I definitely believe in it and knowing now that we can do this and still retain a sizable reserved balance I feel it makes a lot of sense and so we reconsidered and

2:54:01 that's why we're coming to you in such short notice so with that any questions any questions don't thank you and I just all I want to do is is uh thank you Nate I think this is a great opportunity for the city I mean seemed great to be able to pay something but it's still great to get this type of discount and just jump in on this program so I wanted to compliment you on your good work right I support it I'm going to open the public hearing there are no cards in the room um if somebody online is interested in following about uh testifying to this please raise your hand

2:54:49 I'm going to close the public hearing and I will entertain a motion I'd like to make a motion to internet hang on a second uh resolutions adoption resolution number one second or whatever yes Council rally yes counselor Doyle yes and counselor missionary yes thank you commission passes five yeses zero no's and that is the only item so we are going to call it a rant thank you everybody thanks Sean