Springfield City Council — May 22, 2023

0:02 yep I'm going to call the Springfield City Council work session to order with a roll call Mayor Van Gordon and yeah well here councilor Doyle here and cancer thank you we've got three items tonight the first one is Masterpiece and charges update with Nate Neil and Nick and uh Nick will be joining us tonight but uh I'm Neil will bring our budget procurement manager and I'm here with Nathan Bell Finance director and so we're here to follow up on an earlier work session back from uh February uh where Nick actually asked for guidance on what CPI to apply to an aerial section of the master fees and charge this schedule uh specifically the

0:47 building engineering Fire and Life Safety municipal court and then General um sort of uh generic fee was in the schedule and so he asked for what CPI to apply to the master fees and charges schedule um and so I think you know ultimately well let me take a step back uh we've taken your guidance and we've got a revised Redline version of the master fees and charges schedule in your packet tonight um and the the guidance that we heard from February uh was that we really they should take a look at each of the sections within the master fees and charges schedule and try to identify what makes sense for cost recovery for

1:33 that particular area and really try to dial in you know what what sort of cost recovery metric is applicable to each of those sections so we've tried to do that and that should now be included in that Redline version of your packet so the for the most part the changes that you'll see are a 4.4 percent escalator applied to most of the sections of the this would be schedule the logic there being that um that is the most recent year over year change in our personal services here at the city so the cost of our labor really is the largest driver of our operating costs um and so staff felt that it was a

2:19 reasonable approximation for the year over year cost you know operating cost increase and and some made sense to to apply to at least the majority of the fee schedule um but there are a couple holdouts in the areas that we treated differently so first was planning fees and as you all know Mark and the Community Development Division is working on a an analysis with PSU and so there were no changes to to the planning fee section of the schedule um and then the other area where we didn't make a change was to the building safety section and that's all of the fees related to Building Inspections um and uh that basically we applied no

3:07 in no increase to the building safety fees um and the logic there being that the reserve for the building safety fund is is quite healthy um and you know so Staff feel that we can not apply any escalator to the building safety section and still be able to maintain you know services in a sustainable way you know at least for the next several years um and so I I think that really sort of touches on all of the the background and kind of what brought us here um so unless I'm missing anything they said no I think we'll open it up to to questions and um any other concern that the council may have

3:55 all right is there anything in here there isn't a fee for this thing no you're you're right I mean it's a it's a lot of fees um and as as strange as it may be I think the intent you know by combining all of them is really to simplify things just to make sure that all of the different fees that we charge or you know updated consistently and managed in a kind of one single spot so it's it's a lot of fees but our intent really is to try and simplify things I understand so does anybody have any questions about fees and is everybody comfortable with that 4.4 number that they generally proposed question so

4:40 very random but the library card bees for the three months six month and one year I look at the figures and the six months is exactly half of one year and the three months is exactly half as a six months so what would encourage anybody to buy the one year that's a good question I mean I think that the intent of of you know the library folks to you know basically make everything consistent was uh that you know it uh it made it easier and simpler to to manage um but I might look to Emily to to speak to details yeah it really was about um Equity there are some people that

5:27 can't afford to pay for the full year and so because they could only afford to pay three months at a time or six months at a time they're being penalized so there are plenty of people that pay the full year if they can afford it but the people that can't afford it can lead their own ones is just all broken down that doesn't make a lot of sense to me only because you know it's like okay if we have people that cannot afford the ten dollars at ten dollars for six months yeah it's it's 25 but we raise the the year fee from 95 to 100. and then you're trying to bring it in line with so if you can only pay for half a year you're not the answer no I understand that yeah

6:14 but I'm just saying that that system doesn't make a whole lot of sense because what we want to do is incentivize people coming to the library I would think right and so if you have the same fees at the same cost per month there's no incentivization at all at all so what I even have a six month or one year card well if people can't pay for a full year I might get it if they can't pay for a full year they just buy a three months right right so why paid for a full year when it's the same price per month as a three months well people that can't afford to pay for a year do you don't understand what I'm saying so if I wanted to if I wanted a six-month card it's half the price of a

7:00 one year card yes so what's what would make me want to just go and buy one year card when I could buy two six month cards for the exact same price did you keep my own money instead of letting you have it well for some people they can't afford to pay it all at once again what I don't I understand what you're saying is that they're going to pay the six month card and then come back and then they pay it again in six months right and it's still it's on but for the for some people paying that you know 100 all at once is just yeah from using the library and having access I'm just saying is that there's no point in anybody buying a one-year car whether they can afford it or not that's what I'm saying because

7:45 if it's the same price per month then why do it you know it's not a matter of having whether they can afford a one-year card or not it's a matter of if they buy a six month card they can go in and pay 50 bucks because that's all they can afford and six months later they still want to go to library they pay 50 bucks go for six more months as and it's the same as a hundred dollars for the year so I just it seems like in in your claiming because it's easier to manage but it seems like you're dealing with more cards than you even have to if you're going to have the same rate per month so they I mean they keep the same card they pay each time they're giving yourself a new cards so I would just get

8:30 rid of the Year cards and the six month cars and go with three month cards then everybody could afford it and it's the same rate for everybody but then that is more work because people that pay for a one-year car they're having to come back never mind I I'll shut it okay I was just gonna say that I I appreciate the multiple choices of the 3 6 and 12 because I think that there are people who would be like oh it's just as easy for me to do it a year I have the money that's fine and it's it's more of a less of an incentivization and more of a customer service to make it as accessible as possible in all the ways so it makes great sense to me particularly the way our library values are in terms of how do we make as much

9:16 possible as accessible as possible Victoria I'm just making a quick point the idea of giving somebody a discount for a year isn't penalizing the person that can only afford for a month why would I give you my money for a year when I can keep my money and use my money the way I want to use my money because every three months give you money is to actually incentivize someone who does can't afford it to give you the hundred dollars for the year so then you have it rather than it sitting in my bank account and having it so that's what I don't I don't see how it's penalizing of somebody who can't afford it I would never spend 100 bucks on something that I could pay in three month increments it's just a spectator

10:07 okay so I'm good with the four four point four percent as well um the one question I had and maybe and this was uh well Corey and I had a constituent sort of question that sort of popped up which was about the late fee and it sounded like it said that was the one from this morning for what a street or L Street where the lady was getting penalized was at a low balance but the penalty rate was ten dollars no matter what and I don't know if this is the right time to sort of jump into that that one and we can get the email sent over to you guys to take a look at it but it was just that right combination of hey look I'm don't have that much of a balance so the parenting was large enough that it you know seemed um excessive

10:53 I know yeah I can speak yeah I've talked to the lady and I looked at it so could you give a brief overview since not everybody had the email yeah so in essence it's uh the fee she was paying for was a 25 annual registration for a fire alarm or alarm fee which we charge um the issue is that section which covers about 20 fees it's like the first section in her master fee schedule just has like a one-size late fee charge which is ten dollars or two point four percent or whichever is larger and it accrues monthly if you're late so for a 25 fee if you're late three months you're paying more in penalty fees or late fees than you are for the actual renewal so I think this is a

11:39 great opportunity if we want to just say should it just be a percentage should it just be one month type deal because I do think it is because we do have some large fees in there which may be that at the time made sense and then last year we just for some reason had an inordinate amount of folks who were late um whether they weren't receiving the notices or or not I don't know and so we're changing up our process on how we get notices out whether we notice too early too late or what have you but we're trying to work on that but yeah I do think this is a good opportunity because we're opening you know we're doing this that maybe that one size fits all late fear penalty fee really isn't the right calculation

12:25 yeah and I you know and I'm open that like let's take out the 10 minimum minimum payment and just and and just go with the 2.4 percent across the board not so much on 25 dollars but you want to do more of them I'm just going to add a little bit context to that it's I would ask if we're noticing those late uh um payments because if we have to send out uh a mailing uh that is basically representing the time of staff and whether you send it out a notice for a 25 fee or a thousand dollar fee the amount of work to send out the notice is roughly the same and as a consumer I've also seen late fees like that on small balances where I'm like what but then when you understand the story behind it

13:10 it makes more sense so a lot of just be careful that we're not underselling ourselves in terms of staff so let me let me tell you any other I guess the other direction but I'm open for a different alternative than you know it gives that gives you guys you know a way to sort of interested in a way that isn't over like costly right so you know um the story I tell it works sometimes is you know if you don't know I'm working in in health and for a health insurer sometimes it costs hundreds of dollars to process something that is only you know a couple a couple of dollars right so maybe there's a smarter way to do it so maybe it's not the ten dollar fee maybe you guys can just take it back and go okay is there a way to refine this in a little bit better of a way so we don't have those situations where we're charging people consistently

13:56 that I have a penalty and then we're still you know recouping our costs maybe it's a process change okay have you checked um now I know that sending out the notice is very expensive management are trying to track all those things it's got to be onerous and do all cities send out late notices on permits or is that just a I mean it seems like I know that that there's different state agencies do not send late notices on licensing and when they go to get a license and it's expired they haven't they have a late fee the internists are operating without a license then they have a liability

14:41 position that they Place themselves in so are we is it really our job to give people a notice by saying hey you're late or you're going to be late or you're going to expire that's put a lot of work on ourselves when kind of being enablers and saying watch your licenses watch your expirations if you're late it's going to be this much money if to reinstate you know and it may be applicable for a notice that's very important for example you don't want them to be expired so you want to send notice but it seems like a notice for a very small permit type thing is more troubling is worse than if a person's expired then they have they suffer their own ramifications by having expired permit and maybe a penalty when it's discovered

15:27 hey you're expired you no longer have a license here's your fine don't let it lapse that's seems like that's what a lot of folks do but and that was a rhetorical statement more on a possibility of why that existed I think the guidance I'm hearing is for us really to look and make sure that because the management process is expensive if the fees that we're collecting are less work than the time spent managing you have to ask yourself if you should even be doing that so what I'm hearing is start to look at these with an eye to make sure that we're getting benefit for what we're doing yeah and I I think the lesson from that email was just to take take a moment and go okay right like maybe you know you guys take it back and workshop that part a little bit so you guys are good on for 4.4 and

16:14 then we'll we'll see it in regular session in a couple weeks all right anything else all right thank you guys thank you right Global enforcement program reconfiguration yeah I'll kick us off and then I'm going to step back and let them do the main presentation but um good evening and you all know me Council mayor community development

17:01 director I'm excited here to introduce the code enforcement program Charlie Kent our current and only good enforcement officer in the program and then Mark Ross their current planning manager um one of the first things I started working on even as interim was code enforcement our code enforcement program is inundated right now um triaging a lot of calls things like that but it's also not working very efficiently and so I think we're very fortunate to have Charlie who is very passionate and very excited to bring forward some changes in looking at how to improve and make us better we have support from a lot of other departments in making these improvements and so what

17:46 we're at looking tonight is Harley's going to present his phased approach which is a multi-year process to get us there and what that's going to take and then we're just looking for Council input on that process and any observations or input you may have to improvements and with that I'm just going to let things go thanks John thank you um thank you for your time tonight my name is Charlie Kent as Jeff said I'm the city's code enforcement officer um we're here this evening to discuss the code enforcement program um I'll provide you with a general idea of the current program status and introduce

18:32 some Concepts that will help grow this program as the city grows and further identifies the very easy to get into the weeds when discussing code enforcement so I'd like to stay away from specific locations or issues where code enforcement has been used or may be used in the past uh the conversation I'd like to have after the presentation is more geared towards the current principles and efficacy of code enforcement and those ideas how we can do things better I'd like to come away from this meeting with a better understanding of council goals and priorities for the program specifically in a general consensus or support of reconfiguring the program please keep in mind that the presentation is a broad overview and

19:17 we'll cover the concepts with very broad Strokes in June we'll be coming back to you with a much more detailed account of the toolbox of solutions that we'd like to implement last fall Neil Jeff and Mark made a commitment to revamping the program uh they've supported me since then and I'm happy to say that uh We've made considerable progress as a team um I started by attending the uh the American Association of code enforcement's annual uh conference uh back in mid-october of last year Ace as it's called is the national excuse me it's the only nationally recognized Association uh or code enforcement and

20:02 is the only organization which provides national standards for officer certification and agency accreditation I came away from this conference with a ton of notes and also uh begins of a planned modernize code enforcement within Springfield since then I've been researching reading and talking to a bunch of folks about uh best business practices and enforcement Concepts and I put together some ideas that we can apply to the city and I've created a phase program for the implementation I'd like to use the following phrase to frame the theoretical concept of Code Enforcement I was going to read it

20:53 for all the lobby objectives regulations may be designed to achieve the means by which they are enforced become the test of their utility in addressing Community needs more specifically code enforcement is a community service it is the practical application of responding to and resolving non-compliance with the laws ordinances and permits that the city uses to govern land use program operates as part of the Community Development Division it is involved in a wide variety of issues Code Enforcement Officers don't respond to emergency calls for service but we do work in hand or hand in hand with the cities either enforcement agents

21:42 the Civil enforcement of code excuse me the Civil enforcement of code infractions Act is defined in the Springfield Municipal Code by sections 5.600 to 5.626 now as a code officer I need to be able to recite code in a variety of situations so I promise I'll only give you one today in this presentation 5.600 describes the intent of Code Enforcement it states it is the intent of sections 5.600 to 5.626 to encourage voluntary compliance with certain city ordinances and the city code through inspection notification and where the where appropriate the granting of reasonable compliance times and in those cases where voluntary compliance is not obtained or where the granting of time

22:29 is not appropriate to establish and Implement a civil for excuse me a civil interaction procedure and scheduled forfeitures or violations of certain ordinances this ordinance is further intended to protect the health safety and Welfare episode of the citizenry now we use a phrase from that section of the code to informally Define the city's approach to code enforcement our highest mandate is to encourage voluntary compliance officers approach every case through that lens compliance starts and ends with a heavy healthy dose of compassion especially with every enforcement action taken within the Springfield Municipal Code there are 47 specific instances where code enforcement has the authority to

23:14 use the Civil interaction procedure Additionally the Civil or excuse me the Springfield development code the building safety code and the fire code are or may potentially be enforced through the Civil interaction infraction procedure right now the entire compliance process is carried out from beginning to end by one ftu the code enforcement team recently welcomed a 0.25 FTE administrative support specialist who is fantastic to assist with the first response to complaints and Frontline administrative needs well that support has been invaluable it's not sufficient for True operational needs the current compliance process is detailed in the municipal code it includes the determination of

24:00 violations investigation and notifications this isn't a One-Stop one notice Case Closed process this is a month excuse me officers monitor compliance plans developed in partnership with the people responsible for the violations and we work exhausted exhaustively with them to resolution sometimes this is a month months long process on the few occasions where compliance is not achieved a civil citation is issued to the responsible person Discord process often includes multiple citations and appearances over extended times sometimes years additionally I recently used the abatement process to resolve the city's

24:45 most egregious cases this requires an administrative warrant and is required for lawful abatement this also includes the contract out for the big lift of cleaning up these main projects these are some of our current challenges the program lacks appropriate Staffing levels and new officer training there's been an eight-month vacancy for the second full-time officer position and we don't have a training platform for new officers the program lacks strategic correction and there aren't standard benchmarks that we can use for improvement the codes one size approach to resolving code violation is ineffective cumbersome

25:30 and it takes too long the workflow process and complaint triage system currently operates in only the most basic levels staff find themselves repeatedly falling into the same black holes and we lack the resources to effectively address this as a root issue right now the city's only only enforcement Authority is a sledgehammer the Civil citation process has one universal consequence it's a significant time in investment and it often isn't immediately effective some concepts of a successful code enforcement program are we need dedicated and trained staff we need clear procedures and a broader toolbox to provide an effective response

26:16 to community problems we need to develop our nuisance enforcement process to include a more flexible approach to on-site engagement and enforcement our approach to the city's broader enforcement process should include a higher level of program input when a code or an ordinance is drafted we need to ask how will this be enforced before we approve it laws are designed to be enforceable enforcement without consequence isn't very effective just asking nicely the enforcement process should start with education many violations begin because of ignorance but become complicated if clear expectations aren't communicated and followed up on we need to be in the field more and

27:01 available to the community as a team we need to be able to provide a consistent service regardless of the circumstances we need to develop usable data to set benchmarks and create strategic plans to improve the program's effectiveness and lastly objective credibility in Industry benchmarks are required to continuously improve I put together a timeline for rolling out the proposed reconfiguration for the code enforcement the program and I've developed these three phases to provide a broad overview of some specific actions that we'll take to implement some of these proposed changes phase one is reestablishing the foundation we need to fill staffing needs by

27:46 creating working manager role we need to fill the existing officer vacancy and we need to expand administrative support and work to really find additional resources for an additional officer we need to create a policy and procedure manual and develop strategic goals and establish a training cycle for officers we will obtain code enforcement specific software for program management and administration and redevelop our workflow process to be more efficient and we'll need to talk better with our city Partners in the police department the Fire Marshal's Office finance and operations we'll need to develop a more robust complaint system and the program will adopt modern principles to fit Springfield's needs

28:31 and then we need to train to those standards phase two is to get good at it we should be an effective tool the city can use in preventing crisis and a resource for immediate resolution and response to community complaints we need to develop community-wide engagement through neighborhood and volunteer organizations and refine our educational Outreach through a more consistent boots on the ground effort and a little bit of proactive engagement we need to develop and utilize analytics for geographical work Project Specific proactive enforcement with community members and Council engagement we also need to prepare a fiscal year 25 budget proposal for additional officers and FTE

29:18 and phase three is the right size so we'll need to review operational benchmarks to see what's working and what's not we'll need to Pivot or change as necessary as a city in division needs grow we should explore more proactive projects and possibly adopt parallel enforcement programs we'll also need to refine existing policies and procedures including any Municipal Code updates as needed then we'll receive national accreditation through ACE you know code enforcement is not just a resource for enforcing the city's code the program is a part of building better communities it increases livability standards protects the health and safety of

30:03 community members and the value of private property is a Frontline resource for Community Education and Outreach and thank you very much for your time uh with the presentation I'd like to open up the discussion if there are any questions that you you have and I can answer all right are there any questions you're very good I'm just curious like a City of Springfield science how many um officers are usually do they have I mean it's there's just one is that my understanding if it's you so typically there's two officers within the City of Springfield and is that normal for a comparable size

30:48 city um it you know in my humble thing you know but code enforcement is really City specific so the City of Corvallis is going to do things um the same basic fundamental things uh the same but they may do you know additional programs that require additional ft and city of Bend um I think they have like eight officers on staff but they're also much more proactive and they engage with the transient population quite a bit more so it's really up to each City and how they Define their own program foreign

31:34 back on any new assistance how's that going to work you know I I believe right now Council know that um uh we're um we're able to implement this as a phased program um and I think we'll see the value added as we redevelop and get better at what we do and that doesn't tell me who how much money is going to hire that next guy um I understand sure sure and and you know to be very clear we don't have an ask for FTE today uh there'll be further details more specifically around the the changes in existing processes in the June session um in September we may have a small mask

32:19 for additional administrative ft thank you the Victorian what well you kind of look like you wanted to jump in on this you just psyched me out then that just sort of explains because before I was a city councilor I've had a real problem with a neighbor that likes to put their basketball hoop in an ADA ramp in my neighborhood and I've called multiple times and I'm like you know I don't care if they have it on a sidewalk I don't care it's in the street like I know those aren't okay but I don't mind that but like straight up in an ADA ramp drives me crazy and they and they did get contacted and they doubled down and now they've got weights on so that it can't move but I'm just like so I just kind of gave up and now I understand that that's like pretty low on the totem pole of things that you have to respond

33:04 to but I mean I just wonder if there's people in the community that are saying man my stuff's not getting you know I'm making calls and nobody's coming or you know what I mean that's got to be frustrating it's it's a it's a great statement and yeah folks are pretty pretty anxious about it um a lot of them are also pretty understanding uh uh you know they they see what's what's happening and when we tell them about what we're doing um then they understand uh what the issues are and what some of the hurdles are so does Code Enforcement also um cover things like the The Tall Grass during Fire season I know a lot of people get concerned about fireworks and like people that don't mow their lawns and it or there's lots empty lots that are up is that your department or is

33:49 that something that like public works or the parks or somebody else does um so so regulation is ours um uh and on the commercial or industrial side uh we do um monitor to holographs and Weeds on an extreme level um however in the residential area we don't actually open right right so it sounds like you have 160 open cases today right 150 degrees so if you think about I'm going to ask in sort of two ways right one of them is you're sort of working them as quickly as you can are some of those so a lot low priority that they're going to go stale before you get to them yeah and so do we

34:36 let's see is it at a plan are we just sort of scrubbing those reports or is everything getting an eye you know instead of eyes put on it today to see if it's still an actual issue I appreciate that um a key to code enforcement is our integrity and so if we're going to tell someone that we're going to investigate their complaint and that's what we're going to do so so we respond to every complaint that we receive um sometimes they're silly um and if we go ahead and but excuse me real quick um in that regard we'll be looking at every every single one uh in in closing the record so there's no bubble up but there's still an investment investigating the complaint so out of those 163 cases right if I think about

35:23 them we only hear about the absolute worst of the worst that you've gone to court multiple times for right so is that all the 163 like how many of them are sort of minor you know sort of low low prior like low priority low complexity whatever term you might choose right so are they you know how many are the the big ones we see on the news sometimes and how many do you think are sort of just sort of low complexity um in in terms of analytics we're very very limited by our software constraints and so anecdotally I can tell you um about a 50 of the complaints received would be um geared towards a low priority response um another 25 would be a medium priority meaning someone's obstructing a

36:09 right-of-way and then the the higher high priority uh cases are vacant homes or obscene amount of garbage you know it really runs the Gambit when you include the development code and some of the other issues okay um and then I guess other couple of comments that I have is look I know this is multiple conversations so you know I'm like I'm good with the material I'm glad we're jumping in to modernize this especially since if it would create sort of tools and processes that deal with uh you know make it easier to address the lower complexity cases and you know be able to spend more time on the higher complexity cases makes a lot of sense to me um the number one thing I hear from the

36:54 public when they have a Code Enforcement issue especially if they get in those bad ones is they're just not equipped with any information about how long this is going to take why it's taking so long right like and you know the feedback I give them is sort of trust the process right like it will get there eventually it is a slow cumbersome process but it won't get there eventually but I think there's a real Gap in the you know in how informed the public feels about these these sort of bad situations about what what realistically the time frame is going to take sure uh and I appreciate bringing to like kind of the complexity of it and code enforcement is a human problem it's not just a bag of garbage on the driveway

37:39 um you know we deal with a ton of different issues that that our community is faced with so an aging population doesn't have the capability necessarily physically going out to take care of this whereas the neighbor who complained about it three months ago you know they could very well just go pick up the bag of garbage right themselves whereas somebody's not able to do that um and and that kind of situation is pretty common um and and so we we don't have the mechanism right now to reinform the complaint of the status of their system that's something that we're looking at incorporating into the software where each time an inspection is completed um the complaint is notified of the results of that inspection um there are there's some information that's not appropriate to share for sure

38:25 right but folks want to know hey you know is this going to get fixed or what are you doing um sometimes that's a 5 10 15 minute conversation over the phone as well yeah so um can I just point out real quick you might be talking about how many of our complaints are Anonymous as well so we do get a fair amount that there's not the ability to follow up on so that is a pretty significant amount of the complaints come in as Anonymous complaints right yeah um yeah there's nothing like the only thing that I saw that I really had an issue with was if you look at your timeline going out to 28 is probably a little bit on the long side um and I would like and I know it's gonna it's gonna develop right when you go through them when you guys continue to refine that that just struck me as from a from from a phase completion

39:10 perspective right like a little bit on the wrong side to get get through this but the material on my thought was really good um I'm I'm open to the next conversation I still have the same question Steve does which is hey if there's eventually an FTE ask you know what are the financing and how do we do it um which I think is reasonable one thing I am looking for in you know in the next in the next version how do we create sort of tiers to give you good tools to deal with deal with actual cases I guess easier or with you know with more efficiency based on their complexity right and then how do we tag other parts of the other departments so that people have an experience like it's one city when we show up like you know I know the PD is a big part of this and

39:55 the same people that you have those hard code enforcement complaints with you know they're going out to see a couple of times so one of the things I'm kind of looking for is well how do we get to sort of a unified response to this in a way that doesn't feel so just jointed we've got some ideas that I'd love to share with the engine um okay we need to develop out a few more of them but I really I really like that one city response that concept so perfect Joe so it could be me and when I read all through this material it seems like there was um I don't know if this is the right word is insinuated or dropped some seeds down as far as enforcement as concerned you're talking about or I read that it's

40:42 complaint driven and that you want to look at that part of it and the question I have is that because we're not caught up today and I was complaint driven correct that's correct we're not we're not solely complaint driven you're not solely combined driven um we are excuse me okay okay so at least we're not filing that policy um so when you're asking for additional staff what you're asking for is to be able to maintain or stay caught up with the workload created by the complaint driven work correct or are you suggesting that there's more FTE so

41:29 therefore we can work our way out of the complaint driven work and move into observation enforcement if I understand it uh that would be the process is that additional FTE would would allow us a little bit more proactive enforcement in terms of Project Specific or geographically specific issues the current platform of complaint only response City response sounds fantastic until you understand who the complaints are and these are folks who are traditionally very comfortable contacting authorities

42:17 very comfortable within that process and it's not exactly Equitable across the board a lot of marginalized or historically marginalized communities don't feel that same comfort and aren't comfortable reporting code violations very obvious or any sort of code violations and if I could just interject too we've had multiple conversations with our city attorney's office about the equity concerns around complaint-based program and what that means or how that looks so it may be that we're still complaint based but that one I think the mayor alluded to kind of a triaging or tiering approach within that complaint base but all and Charlie alluded to getting software

43:02 getting better analytics collecting data so we make sure we have had examples of people basically weaponize our process against their neighbors and so there's a real fairness concern with that type of using our code enforcement tool to do that so that's what we just want to be really cognizant of and try and not have us being used as a tool for people in the community to give back at their neighbors or something are you done yeah okay Steve I was sort of what I was leading to there's a lot of people are afraid to complain because they're afraid who complain about is going to learn who did it and you know come at him there's a lot of spirit there

43:48 I don't think you do that but the fear is still there so I think there's a critical policy question in here that we're not going to solve tonight but if you want to add an observation um you know time complaints it's like what is the standard to act right like you know because there's a difference between something that would be a big either you know quality of life safety issue right like and then you know something that you can technically call in a complaint for and I'm going to guess that as we go down this conversation and where that line is it's going to become really important for people to learn more about yep sure the reason for my question too is that

44:34 and I like what Sean said as far as issues that are quality of life type issues versus somebody driving around and listing off 70 residences or 70 businesses that have got a a shed roof they're closer than five feet from the fence so there's got to be if you're considering officer initiated enforcement then I think there's got to be within the policy what those guidelines are so we don't have issues that just rise because someone's bored I'm not saying something's got to be I'm just saying but I've seen it in different places in different cities in my career I've seen it so and it's very

45:19 real and so that's where I'm very hesitant in supporting any officer initiated enforcement through code enforcement unless of course there's specific policy that helps protect from that helps make sure that that you know you're talking about marginalized communities Etc et cetera that to me it means to me it's it's there's an issues where it's at and that's how you deal with it it's not if it's Billy Bob or whoever is it's a matter of dealing with those issues right up front so I mean I I want to hear more but right now I'd have to get not I'm not over that fence yet I understand uh Council Preparatory and we'll have some more details there's some very um good ideas that I'm going to work with

46:05 through the city attorney's office as well a clear policy is one of them uh that's yeah nurse six Court enforcement officers in Eugene okay anybody else yeah it's here I'm just gonna make a comment based on my observation of the city's level of Staffing and it seems as though just about everybody here does about a job and a half and we're spread very very thin so you know I was thinking about I I I feel it would be extremely unlikely for somebody to have the time to just cruise around looking for problems when we have enough problems that just barrage on us

46:50 on a daily basis that's point one point two is is incumbent upon management to set a culture where you know you don't get those outliers of people that are just looking to use their position in government as a way to you know mess with people or you know be just completely a little bit off the rails of the intent of what this is trying to do is have us have a a safe Community a beautiful city that we all can be proud of and it's not about you know measuring the height of your grass or where your gutter is or that's not the intent here so I think it's it's a multi-part thing where you know we're going to be working with the city attorney's office on this

47:35 and they're obviously they're great but also so us as management has to make sure that we are hiring the people that aren't really going to do that and just as a fun fact I shouldn't even say this on the record but I find this kind of funny um with the serial killer etk was a code enforcement officer and he was very heavy-handed with people and turned out he was a serial killer and it was like kind of the thing about the power so I get it what you're saying okay ask a lot of questions I'm talking a lot about serial killers unless we managers let's see I think that gives you enough to get to June for a less awkward transition

48:21 thank you guys make sure that's a great coverage yeah I'm kind of cream around the neighborhood last item for the evening is natural resources inventory and Perfections for UTV expansion areas progress update oh Molly hi good evening I am going to share my screen and I'm also going to ask um Allison if you could bring Jacob

49:06 Callister in as a panelist as well that would be awesome and I just need to be able to share my screen when you have a chance Allison's working on it awesome you should be able to down okay let's see can you all see my screen yes okay I am going to minimize um you all and so if anyone has any

49:52 questions during my presentation um please um Jake or uh someone else in the audience let me know um so good evening mayor counselors um I'm Molly markarian senior planner with the city I haven't been in front of the city council in a while and I know there's some new counselors um so just for by the way back on um I've been with the city for almost 16 years serving in various planning related capacities

50:37 um I took over as project manager for this particular project the natural resource inventories and protections project for ugb expansion areas when my colleague Monica sather went on leave at the end of last year um as you may recall Lane Council of governments or El Cog has been assisting with this project and Jacob Callister is with us tonight I'd also like to note that this project was has been funded in part by a technical assistance grant from the Oregon Department of land conservation and development and Patrick Wingard um maybe in the audience as well

51:24 this project is focused on Springfield looking at what's inside our Urban growth boundary expansion areas to take care of what we have on the ground today before moving forward with future projects and specifically identifying and protecting significant wetlands riparian waterways and Upland um wildlife habitat with the land conservation and development commission's acknowledgment of Springfield's Urban growth boundary expansion in 2019 we are looking at just over 790 Acres that are now

52:11 Springfield's responsibility for planning the urban growth boundary or ugb for short expanded in the three darker areas shown on the map on the screen the North Gateway area in Northwest Springfield The Mill Race area in South Springfield and a few parks along the northeast edge of Springfield which we call the willamalane properties the expansion set out to accommodate a needed long-term supply of employment sites and bring key public lands into Springfield's ugb about 270 acres are intended to make employment opportunities available for Springfield's Target Industries

52:57 the Springfield Utility Board willamalane Parks and Recreation district and City of Springfield own about two-thirds of the property within the areas we're talking about today over 450 acres are dedicated to public land and open space which means that we can continue to make sure we are meeting future needs for Education Recreation and other services such as safe drinking water I'd also like to know that a portion of the North Gateway area is within the floodway of the MacKenzie River which is reserved for no development and is dedicated to Natural Resources

53:47 with the expanded ugb in place the city has been doing the necessary planning to allow future development in these areas one of the first steps is to locate and evaluate our natural resource assets such as Wetlands riparian corridors and wildlife habitat and to determine which resources offer significant benefits and should be locally protected so the city can determine where to direct future development this project really exemplifies the need to balance goals that can be thought of to sometimes be it at odds with each other such as conservation while also accommodating job opportunities and Public Access the bottom photo on the slide showcases how these project goals relate to and

54:33 can even boost one another as you can see the mail race itself as a Waterway under the bridge with the Mill Race path providing opportunities for us to enjoy Recreation and the train tracks running alongside behind it in the booth Kelly areas Lumber Mills our comprehensive plan conforms to Oregon's Statewide planning goals and sets the stage for our work plan in the ugb expansion areas specifically urbanization goal number four tells us that as the city grows and as land develops we need to maintain and reinforce Springfield's identity as a river-oriented community by emphasizing

55:19 and strengthening physical connections between people and nature in the city's Land Development patterns and infrastructure design urbanization policy 45 focuses on the restoration and management of the Mill Race in order to enhance public access to it urbanization policy 47 and 48 require the completion of a local Wetlands inventory and updates to Springfield's natural resources inventory urbanization policy 50 calls for updating the water quality limited water courses map to include the North Gateway and Mill Race areas an urbanization policy 51 calls for code

56:04 protections to ensure that future development in employment designated land is designed and constructed in ways that maintain Aquifer recharge and protect drinking water quality and quantity our work on this project is also helping our Park and Recreation district with their Master planning and others who want to explore what they can do with their property by understanding where significant Wetland repairing areas and wildlife habitat are as you can see on this slide this project has involved collaboration with many public agencies at the center of the diagram is the Springfield community and many other

56:50 interests because we as agencies are here to serve them and because key project tasks rely on their knowledge much has been accomplished since we kicked things off in early 2020. our inventory of existing conditions and evaluation of resources has included public Outreach field investigations and functional analysis after several iterations the Department of State lands or DSL is conducting their final review of our Wetland and riparian inventory and inventories and assessments their approval is anticipated this summer

57:35 with few with an expectation of few if any changes are wildlife habitat assessment is also in process and anticipated for completion this summer with these steps nearing completion we're moving in Greater Earnest to figure out how to protect the identified significant resources the next few slides will cover what we have found as the name implies the local Wetland inventory and assessment involves identifying and analyzing aquatic features in accordance with criteria outlined in the Oregon administrative rules

58:21 specifically identifying the location size quality condition and local significance of those features our environmental Consultants identified 30 total wetlands in the ugb expansion areas 25 29 of which are considered significant for reference these Wetlands more than double Springfield's currently adopted list of 24 locally significant Wetlands throughout the rest of the city 92 percent of these newly identified wetlands are on publicly on land with the exception of within the North Gateway area 92 percent are on privately owned land

59:06 overall 86 percent fall within land designated parks and public slash semi-public land all documented Wetlands within the North Gateway and willamalane properties were determined to be locally significant and all but one Wetland within the Mill Race study area was determined to be locally significant wetlands in the North Gateway study area are on private property but within the floodway on land designated natural resource the blamelane property study area has the greatest percentage of wetland coverage while the wetlands in the Mill Race study area cover the most amount of

59:52 ground attachment two in your packet outlines what Wetland and riparian corridors are and their key functions wetlands are determined to be locally significant should they meet criteria such as providing some wildlife habitat and have intact water quality functions the full list is on the slide Wetlands can have more than one of each function we found that a Wetlands connection to water quality was the most common reason for local significance in the ugb expansion areas hydrologic control and fish habitat were the next two most common reasons

1:00:39 makes sense to find so many significant resources on the Urban Fringe given that the ugb expansion areas brought into the ugb largely agricultural land that are that is minimally developed I'd also like to note that water quality protection is critical for Springfield's wealth fields in the ugb expansionaries our riparian effort also involves identifying and analyzing aquatic features in accordance with criteria outlined in the Oregon administrative rules and Springfield's natural resources study the field work was done concurrently with the Wetland field work

1:01:29 as shown on the slide our environmental Consultants found 24 riparian reaches 23 of which were determined to be significant totaling approximately 10 miles for reference Springfield's existing list of 20 significant riparian resources would double in the North Gateway area we found five riparian reaches on the MacKenzie River and Maple Island Slough in the blamelane property study area we found three riparian reaches comprised of the Kaiser Slough McKenzie river Cedar Creek and South Cedar Creek and then in the Mill Race study area we found 15 riparian reaches on gory Creek Middle Fork of the Willamette River The

1:02:17 Mill Race Quarry Creek and sub well fields again attachment two in your packet talks about key functions of riparian corridors those functions are noted on the slide help determine significance our environmental Consultants ranked the quality of significant corridors and as you can see on the slide many ranked as high or an exceptional quality the exceptional quality corridors are spread throughout the study areas but most are in the Mill Ridge study area

1:03:04 using the Safe Harbor approach under the Oregon administrative rules our environmental Consultants evaluated the potential for the study areas to support what are known as sensitive status species this is not a cut and dry process or criteria so we've had many conversations with the Oregon Department of land conservation and development and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife our environmental Consultants map suitable habitat for 23 sensitive status species for whom they designated the potential to occur as occurs or likely to occur the city is currently working with local Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

1:03:50 staff and elcog towards a final significance assessment local Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife knowledge helps refine real habitat potential to support the sensitive status species we're also looking to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to more clearly demarcate where significant wildlife habitat Falls outside of riparian or Wetland protection areas also known as Upland areas as I mentioned earlier we are now moving from the stage of inventory and

1:04:35 assessment in this project to determine which path Springfield will pursue to protect the significant resources that have been identified and interconnected with that where development is best directed I think it's helpful to consider how Springfield has approached resource protection elsewhere in the city and the existing structure that we have in place as noted on the slide and in attachment 3 in your packet the existing regulatory framework starts with the Statewide structure at the top and then outlines how Springfield has met those regulations to date with our storm water quality management program and natural resources study

1:05:21 the natural resources study follows what is referred to as the standard method for protection wherein the economic social environmental and energy analysis is utilized well that is also known as the EC analysis is utilized to just justify a more nuanced natural resource Protection Program some uses are allowed limited or prohibited with specific Protections in place the analysis formally lays out the justification decision process to protect partially protect or not protect resources by looking at the consequences of not allowing partially allowing or fully

1:06:06 allowing uses that may be considered incompatible with natural resources also known as conflicting uses today Springfield has elected to pursue the limit conflicting uses approach through setbacks and site plan review as implemented in Springfield's development code as I just noted Springfield has a regulatory structure in place today that includes policies precedent with inventory and assessments an analytic framework and existing implementation Provisions that newly identified natural resources can be integrated into

1:06:51 that said the state framework outlines different paths communities can take to protect newly designated newly identified significant resources the path that Springfield has elected to pursue in the past both the initial work and then in the Glenwood update in 2011 is What's called the standard method using an EC analysis has allowed Springfield to balance development priorities with natural resource protections setting the precedent for a highly flexible dynamic the question before Springfield is whether there are any compelling reasons to change course in our approach

1:07:38 some possible considerations the ugb is largely an undeveloped Urban Wildland interface so we might want to take a closer look well the standard approach is more qualitative while a safe harbor approach is more prescriptive and not necessarily more protective of significant resources we might want to think about the time and effort to get to the adoption stage yes the standard method requires more time and effort on the front end but we would need new code Provisions with the Safe Harbor approach then we could consider one path for public or private versus public utility land

1:08:24 but that does not seem efficient to administer nor clear for the public to understand as outlined in attachment in the attachment 3 memo staff recommends continuing with the standard protection method for newly identified significant natural resources in the ugd expansion areas to ultimately meet Statewide planning goal five the inventories and preferred protection options will result in an update to Springfield's natural resources study and possibly the Springfield development code tonight's check-in will inform how we approach

1:09:09 talking with stakeholders and developing draft content to update the Springfield natural resources study and possibly the Springfield development code in the months ahead so with that um miss out for questions and any feedback that you may have on the recommendations Steve I do I was on maypak back in the late 70s when we we did the urban Rose boundary and code five was a big big deal back even back then we've been studying that for what 40 years and we're still trying to come up with numbers why is that

1:09:54 so I guess I'm not not fully um following that question I guess the the purpose of what we're working on right now are identifying the significant natural resources in the area of the city where we expanded in 2019 so that North Gateway area the willamly properties and the Mill Race area we aren't looking Citywide but what's happened city-wide and what happened in Glenwood that's on the books this is just for those new areas if you're talking about the new areas I understand that but all I know is back back when we did back in the early 80s everybody freaked out over major five or number five because I'm really going to affect building properties the whole city the whole area and so uh anyway we

1:10:42 were doing inventories I've been doing inventories for 40 years and uh so we're still heading to it what's changed well okay we have a new Urban growth battery so I guess there's property in there that would be the change but uh okay so I can just add real quick that I think one two to that point um there's a lot of strength in the existing inventory in the existing policy and um regulation and so staff's recommendation is to really take the strength of what's been done and and um and use that as a strong precedent so I

1:11:29 think as a essentially consistent with what you're saying there there is a strong history of existing um mapping and inventory and Regulation and so sort of a a wheel that's been invented and the recommendation is to fold into that don't so on these um areas that you're identifying are you and I'm not going to use all this scientific stuff so forgive me so the areas you're identifying this is to further restrict use on areas that are already have restrictions on them to increase the amount I mean so if you got one area let's say okay let's boil

1:12:15 it down I'll say the mill race but Mill Race has got restrictions on it and it's got agreements on it so are you suggesting because that's also part of the inventory that these new designations as sensitive areas are going to have further restriction as to their access and use or you're going are you not touching what we have you're just including more areas I don't understand the fold sure so I if I'm if I'm understanding correctly um I think that maybe it's helpful to think about for instance in the North Gateway area like I mentioned the significant Wetland happens to be in an area that's designated natural resource

1:13:02 and so um development can't happen on that particular sliver of land anyway and so we you know we're not going to be putting more restrictions on that but if there is a significant uh riparian Corridor that goes through for example employment designated land um we would be putting on that what we would be proposing is what we do elsewhere in the city which is a certain setback from that significant red pairing Corridor so that development would occur could occur but not within that setback of that particular significance and what's a concern with

1:13:49 for example um on your designations is that going to limit or prohibit citizen access to those water areas or wetlands um Jake do you want to take that one sure uh one of the values that wetlands are evaluated for is um social uh every every Wetland is the standard method that we're discussing is pursued then you look at the environmental of the social the um economic and the energy consequences of any protection and so a lot of these areas are on public lands they're either being

1:14:34 preserved for water quality preservation purposes um or there's an educational component a recreational component you know there are some uses that are allowed and so every resource is evaluated typically impacts are really about the fill and removal of Earth and so um a lot of these on public lands frankly will will probably be in a better state for you know appropriate levels of public access and there's a real opportunity there um for a lot of those areas so it's not really a plan for Wetlands uh and riparian areas so much as it is ensuring that certain activities primarily

1:15:19 development the removal of Earth the introduction of certain kinds of impacts that this speaks to and then kind of framing up ways that they could be used otherwise but but education Recreation those are things that are definitely put uh in the balance okay um so old bucketful there so I guess what it boils down to like for a follow-up is that we work directly with Jeff Ziller who is a local biologist fruit ODFW in the Mill Race project years ago and part of the agreements that we had with ODFW and even in the riparian areas is to make

1:16:04 sure and guarantee that citizens have access to these these areas where aquatic areas and have access for fishing as opposed to closing them down to that access or restricting us so our young citizens have will no longer have those areas in which they could be taken to go just as simple as as an activity has taken fishing so and in this in the under the cloak of protections and riparian areas and I think that that there's a tendency for over restriction and lack of use you look at the McKenzie McKenzie river Trust that

1:16:49 director of that agency or that organization they've got pretty tight restrictions but they've taken up a lot of land and so it's it's that I'm very concerned about our young citizens having adequate access and plenty of access so they can grow up in that environment of being with their parents going fishing the simple simple recreational activities that I think is so important to our citizens so I would oppose anything that's going to be restricting I I think it's more um in alignment with what you're talking about the fear is sort of the opposite of what you're talking about so that those those resources would not be available for future generations for those

1:17:35 um functions that they serve but also the ways that they provide real social value and social functions so I one essential test to this is how your existing codes around stormwater management and around natural resources prohibit that sort of activity now in Springfield because essentially the new resources become subject to those codes as I become familiar with those over the last of a while I don't see anything that is explicit about prohibiting the kinds of activities that you just described that's important I mean when we let the hospital in along the river that was part of the agreements we a lot of people build there is that they had to

1:18:21 have physical areas in which citizens can access that River so they don't sew up at Riverbank so that's that's extremely important and that if those areas that start designating I would just hate to see those become landlocked or uh barriers in which people cannot access our waterways I'm going to put my opinion out there so Jacob Molly can you just clarify right because I think this is an important portion I know that we're gonna we're gonna see this again in the fall we're gonna get a chance to adopt and actually look at sort of language you know a little bit further along but as a starting point right how that whatever we go go forward with

1:19:08 is going when we talk about these additional Wetlands right that we're not that any code updates that we make are going to protect the Public's access to the Waterway is that accurate kind of a big principle here that we're just like as long as we're kind of walking out of this meeting on the right food but here yeah so I'll try and then maybe Molly or Jake can add in but um so the the when a resource is designated significant on public land the regulations in and of themselves are not going to change anybody's access to

1:19:53 it what it would say is maybe you can't build a concrete path right to The River's Edge you might have to leave that as natural ground people can still walk to the river but they may not be able to build that concrete path because like Jacob said that's impacting that riparian area with the construction so how you access it in terms of like what the facility may be or that you can't be removing some of the native plant species in order to be able to get access to the river so if you're walking through it um you know you can remove blackberries those are not native you know we can take those away they feel native someday sometimes they do so those those are the

1:20:38 kinds of things it's the regulations of the type of plants that you can't remove the native vegetation but it's not going to actually change access in terms of a who can go there or type of thing um if it's on public land already because it'll be up to the public entity to manage that and then on private land um people don't have access unless they're private owners want to Grant it to them what about access foot paths where folks were saying hey too many people are using this they're messing up the riparian area was closing well if people are abusing that that may happen I mean I think part of that like they were saying is to protect that water quality and the functions and if the if people are abusing that

1:21:26 um then there's that then then there may need to be a more restriction on how that access happens yeah you use the term abusing but I'm just using the term using and so it depends upon the use and so the more areas we get more restrictive other areas are going to get higher use and so that's my fear you know that that all the rivers along my mckins are along the Sprint government entire McKinsey River um kids used to access through by going through the school properties going back behind the junior high Etc and go fishing every days to see I'm working with the fishing poles you don't see that anymore because it's not allowed there's fly fishing only now and so kids don't fly fish and so they have no River

1:22:12 fishing along Springfield now and that was because of a simple rule that's why I'm so sensitive to it is because there's more and more areas that kids can't access just to go have fun fishing in the afternoon so I get very sensitive to this when people are talking about their waterways I want to make sure everything and everything I can do to protect access for our kids Recreation Jacob just to follow up on that um uh so one of the things to point out I think I'm not familiar with so this is in your development codes it really is about development so that that kind of more the policies around the uses that maybe what Lama Lane would establish or

1:22:58 um sub or any of the other owners um isn't something that this uh these this adoption would speak to directly the other thing I wanted to point out is that you know one of the nice things about the EC analysis is that it really takes all of those elements into balance and so there are instances where an impact let's say access a raised platform or something could be justified because of the social benefit you're saying the social benefit of creating access to young people to to folks who want to recreate is such that it really outweighs any sort of of impact that that the feature

1:23:45 experiences so there are ways to do development that would facilitate maybe lower impact you know in the long run access um and so that easy approach is one way to to enable some flexibility there it's really the main advantage of that approach don't get me wrong I'm okay with prohibiting development up to River's Edge I'm totally fine with that I'm just looking at that access portion of it but I support that part of watching what our development does near waterways I completely support that so the two questions that I had the first was around the Oxbow area which has got everybody's favorite piece of infrastructure in it which is which is the levy so most of

1:24:32 that is identified as wetlands in this would any binding or identification that is in the kind of proposed report impact our ability to stabilize the channel or maintain the maintain the levy in the future because all that is on man-made Levy right now foreign I was gonna say that's something that we wouldn't want to have happen but we I wouldn't be able to say that right now I'd have to look into it further and then but if you have more information that's going to add that it's something that would come up again every every one of these features is going to be the proposal at least is to run every one of

1:25:18 the features through an assessment of sort of these vulnerabilities these Dynamics to say on balance what's the right approach here so there's there can be a there can be Nuance for that particular feature that says in the event of such and such you know the the broader importance of of this uh social value of this economic value is such that an impact is merited an environmental impact and so the Oxbow would be an instance a good example of something that could accommodate some nuance

1:26:03 so I put it more simply let's say if that area is designated to whatever you want to designate it in the Oxbow area to the east of the dike if the diet is going to be rebuilt is any part of these designations going to stymie the rebuilding of that diet or make it more difficult or slow it down so I think what Jake was saying is that the analysis and the designation so to speak of that land can be described such that um it it that wouldn't happen so we're going to exclude uh what the window of work the envelope the Corps of

1:26:48 Engineers is in right now or and I understand you may have to take away and look at some of this stuff well so we aren't even anticipating that we would would bring adoption of the of the updates to the natural resource study to you until the fall at the earliest maybe even the winter so I think um it it definitely wouldn't have an impact on something that's happening right here and now today yeah so so the Corey I think is working for the next 24 months and and I know we can't we're not going to solve this one tonight I just want to make sure that we're walking away making sure that like when we look sort of left to right about all the different projects that are going on in

1:27:33 Springfield right now that we're actually talking and sort of betting this I would hate to have the adoption of uh you know you know a natural resources plan impact you know the sustainability of of that Levy right considering that it impacts you know I don't know four billion dollars worth of property and I would encourage you to when we get further down this road to take that language and just vet it for as many people as possible because these are the kind of things that break five steps down the road when we don't logic check them at this point it's way easier to fix right now than it is uh down the road from here she was done a while back and it was surely not comprehensive but there was definitely a component of our kind of

1:28:19 earliest memos around this that was the anticipation characterization of projects because those were played directly into that easy analysis to say what are the anticipated projects because that's why you do an easy analysis is to understand where you know your system plans are are conflicting or interacting with the inventory so that you can the idea is really to navigate a nice balanced um decision-making process and then just just you know enumerate the the pros and cons the consequences and then and then justify your decision and that's that's a program that dlcd supports and

1:29:04 outlines as it as you know acceptable okay uh the other question that I had was strictly around the Mill Race portion where those wellheads are is any partic like ultimately this is protecting water quality of our water intake points does this whatever this protection is is it going to create a situation where the county side of their lands matches our side or is it going to create like a situation where you know we've got better like that we've got better water quality protection for our wall heads in the Springfield side than the county side does that make sense do you want me to try to phrase it a different way uh I'm not fully tracking but Sandy

1:29:50 maybe you were you did you what do you mean by the county side well because across the river right it is it's County Land right so if you think about those famous time in transit zones right some of the lands that are across the river are in those well uh are in those wall head you know I'm in transit zones right if I'm remembering right and I guess and I guess I know it's a little bit to the side of us of uh the scope of this project but ultimately I'm asking okay as we add protections over here right what's the point where we're having the conversations that says okay the county you still need to you know add protections for our water quality on your side that sort of match that does that make sense

1:30:36 yes and it's a little bit more broad than this I'm think I'm asking but I'm just when I saw that that was the first place I went to is you know we're protecting water the county still has a role in protecting our water quality well I think um what comes to mind when you raise that is the effort that the county took particularly along the McKinsey to do some of that and there was a lot of pushback um on that and so I don't think they actually ever adopted anything and I don't think that Springfield has ever formally asked the county to adopt additional regulations by the time of travel zones for the Wellhead protection areas um which is probably more important than the riparian or Wetland resources um

1:31:25 I've talked to Amy chenitz about that in terms of Subs Wellhead protection areas and at the time which is several years ago now they didn't want to take that on um that would really be more of a sub-led effort than a city-led of course we would partner with them but um list yeah because I mean the riparian and Wetland areas do add that water quality benefit but it's really that time of travel zone that's going to be the critical piece for protecting the wells thanks for telling me in on this one I just proved that you know only a water quality specialist on TV anybody else have other questions

1:32:14 okay Molly do you have the direction you need yes thank you perfect thank you guys and I'll say that your your comments about the levy in particular support taking that standard approach rather than the Safe Harbor because with that Safe Harbor it's just the same regulation applies across the board to everything and and hearing that that standard approach where you have the Nuance is important to you yes I would agree I think one thing to just throw in there sorry just as a last thought because it's been bugging me since I didn't say anything earlier was that there's local regulation around these resources and then once they're identified on inventory there are also State Department of State lands requirements and Corps of engineer requirements and

1:33:00 so those are typically quite a bit more um there there's more allowance there so they're typically more you know accepting of the kinds of things that you're describing of thresholds are quite a bit larger but um local regulation is just one piece of it so just wanted to make sure it's clear that there's there's layers of Regulation that exist on any existing Wetland mapped or not but now we have some new ones mapped in Springfield so yeah so um just briefly on the Partnerships or any of our partners which you described earlier on your slide are they this this study or analysis is not free right I mean it's costing money staff money

1:33:45 whatnot is anybody helping with the cost of this analysis or are they they don't really have a dog in the fight well we did receive um a technical assistance grant from the Department of land conservation and development we've received two actually so um two different cycles of Grants um that uh have been helping to cover the cost of the consultant um and soap actually contributed to that first around as well they provided some financial support and then willamaline has provided technical assistance as well so I would look towards potentially a special Grant from ODFW especially that that Oxbow area because that is a high high concern area

1:34:32 for the fish in that area and so it may be something that they can help us with preservation of that Levy I just never thought about asking them they usually got tons of cash all right thank you guys very much have a good night all right thank you thank you good