Springfield City Council — February 2, 2026

0:03 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council work session to order with roll call. >> Mayor Van Gordon >> here. Councelor Weber here. Councelor Mo here. Councelor Rodley >> here. Councelor Buck >> here. >> And councelor Stout >> here. Thank you. >> All right. We have two items this evening. The first one is the payroll tax ordinance and council council review and feedback. And I don't know who's starting. If you were take it away. All right. One second. Ethan.

0:51 Good evening, mayor and council. Uh we're here tonight uh looking for feedback on a proposed payroll [clears throat] ordinance uh and this included amendments to the city's municipal code. Uh before we get started on that conversation, I'm going to just quickly summarize the conversations that uh preceded tonight's conversation. Going back to January of 2025, the mayor convened a fiscal stability task force to look at the city's uh general fund finances and to make recommendations for addressing uh the structural imbalance in the general fund. They met for nine uh consecutive weeks and out of that came a final report with nine uh actionable uh recommendations. Uh one of those recommendations uh was a payroll tax. Uh the task force rem uh recommended a shared employer and

1:37 employee payroll tax uh to generate approximately uh $2.3 million of support the general fund uh evenly shared between employers and employees simple to understand and administer uh no tiered rates except for legally required exclusions and then guard rails to ensure transparency and accountability. So, previous discussions on the payroll tax. Uh, in a September 2nd, 2025 work session, council reviewed a payroll tax structure. Uh, on October 27th, 2025, in another work session, council reviewed a preliminary payroll tax model and its impact on our 5-year forecast. And then more recently on December 8th uh 2025 in a regular session uh council adopted a

2:23 resolution directing staff to develop a payroll tax ordinance for council review. And uh that's what brings us here this evening. Uh the goal our goal for tonight's uh work session is um to review uh the payroll tax proposed payroll tax ordinance uh exhibit A which are the amendments from that to the city's municipal code uh to talk about the administrative uh rules um framework uh and then finally uh to seek uh feedback on each of these uh items going uh to the payroll tax ordinance Starting with all the whereas uh essentially it documents the fiscal problem and process uh that led to the

3:08 development of a payroll tax. Uh getting into the uh therefore is where we get into kind of the meat of this payroll tax it structure. Um starting with section one uh amends the city's municipal code as set forth in exhibit A. I'm going to get to uh exhibit A in a later slide so I'm just going to gloss past that right now. Uh section two uh establishes that the payroll tax revenues will be budgeted and accounted for in a separate fund. Uh this starts getting at the uh guard rails. The guardrails were a very important consideration for uh the um uh task force. Uh and the nice thing about having uh a separate fund is that it really uh allows for this transparency, allows for the public to be able to go

3:53 to our budget document and our annual comprehensive financial report uh to gather information themselves um on this program, both uh revenues and expenditures. Uh sections three and four uh I'm going to group together. Section three uh establishes annual reporting requirements and provides that rates will remain unchanged for the first three years of collection. Uh and section four requires a comprehensive review of the payroll tax beginning FY30 to assess its impact on the general fund structural imbalance and overall program effectiveness with a written report uh between the two of them. What this allows for is it it allows for uh clarity and consistency for our business community as as we uh implement this

4:38 program and it also gives it some time uh to mature some so that when we come back to you uh in three years uh we'll have a better idea of the uh efficacy of the program the impact that it's having on our structural imbalance. Uh you have a question? >> I do have questions but if you're if you're done if you're done I can wait till you're done with the slide. if you >> Well, I've just got a couple more quick comments on the slide. Um, section five authorizes the city manager to set the date of the taxes owed no sooner than January 1st, 2027. Again, this provides clarity to the business community and allows for them to plan accordingly. Um, and looking at that January 1st, 2027, that is an ambitious date. Uh, there's a lot that needs to be done between now

5:23 and then for this to be successful. We are saying it's not going to happen any sooner than January 1st, 2027. It could happen later. And as we get further into this, we'll have a better idea of what's realistic. And then sections 6 through 8 are standard legal provisions. If you have any questions on those, Mary Bridget's available to answer those. Question. I feel like you got to section 6 through eight and it's like all legal provisions. Off you go. I think the place where I wanted to start with questions was really section two and establishing that it be budgeted and accounted for into a separate fund. And so how should I think about that in the sense of are going forward if everything goes perfectly? Is it going to be like

6:09 you will have expenses in the general fund and you will have expenses in whatever this special fund is um or is the plan to sort of transfer the money out of this fund into into the into the general fund and then the pro our budget process sort of governs how we how we use those dollars. So, um, I'm going to kind of put out a concept that's sort of my recommendation, but all this can be discussed. [clears throat] But what I imagine doing is we'd have the revenues coming into that separate fund and we'd have all the administrative expenses associated with managing this program also in that fund. Okay? >> And then that fund uh would have a reserve then that it would build as a result. Then we're doing our general

6:55 fund uh budgeting. When we get to that point then where okay, do we have a deficit sped? You know, we've got our 25% uh floor for reserves, uh we would then say, okay, if we have a million dollar deficit, we will budget a transfer of a million dollars from the payroll tax fund over to uh the general fund with the idea being that this program could, you know, our structural imbalance, this doesn't solve it. We're our our major revenue source is still subject to measures five and 50 and we're still going to have that 3% collar issue. >> So we may collect more dollars at the beginning of this program, but then as um you know that that structural imbalance site starts to come back, we may have those dollars to help later years. Uh and then the other nice thing

7:41 is if we budget for a transfer, we wait till we close out that fiscal year. If we have a lot of vacancies in that year or there things that we don't get to, if we don't have to transfer the full amount, we just transfer enough to plug that deficit spend at the end of that year. So effectively, I know budgeting is a lot more complicated than this, but effectively what we agree upon for the general funds budget priorities is the thing that is going to govern what is spent out of the spent out of this account. Right? So there's no limit to, you know, what the dollar what these dollars are. you know, they're going to just be used for general general sort of >> yes cost to government. >> No limitations on these dollars essentially to support our general fund which just covers a handful of services. The majority of them being public

8:27 safety. >> Yeah. So if the public wants to know what these dollars are used for, right? And there's a slide you put out every year that sort of says that 70% of our expenses are essentially public safety and then the remainder is, >> you know, everything effectively everything else. >> Yes. Okay, that makes sense to me. >> I do have clarification. Sure. >> So, I would also I agree with >> Hello when Nathan gives his opinion on something we don't talk about at first because I was going to brace my gonna say but I completely concur with that process. I would also be very deliberate if if we did have to make that transfer that we would call that out during the budget process. So, just to add that extra layer of transparency for people so they know that that's happening. Go >> ahead. So, [clears throat] We begin collecting the earliest January

9:14 1st of next year. We would start the program on January 1st of next year. Um so they would be quarterly payments the way we've structured it. So we wouldn't see the first revenue most likely until April of 27 in the last quarter of fiscal year 27. Okay. So before we would before we would kind of get to a place where we're offsetting administrative costs and creating that deficit, how how long would you anticipate it would take before that could then become um an asset for the general fund if needed? >> Um, you know, I would say that it's

9:59 it's a good question. It's hard to answer. U I'm going to say that it's going to become an asset immediately. It's just the impact is going to be smaller in that first fiscal year if we meet that timeline. If there's any delay, let's say we do six months, we do July 1st of 2027, then we're not going to see uh any support in fiscal year 27 at all, and then we'd probably see around three quarters worth of support in fiscal year 28 for this program to truly be effective. And when we talk about that three-year runway before we do that formal review is to be in place um kind of maturing, we project our compliance rate to grow as we're out there in the community educating folks. >> Um and so that's when we're really going to get to that effectiveness where we've

10:44 got a full year of receipts and we've got a high level of compliance. But there is going to be a benefit almost immediately to have as soon as we have this program in place and we have revenues coming in because the revenues are going to come in sort of proportionally to the administrative expense. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah, it does. Just I want to make sure I'm I'm thinking about this clearly. Um, so would it be fair to say that as we're thinking about the budget process for the 27 budget year, really it would be premature to really consider the payroll taxes having an impact because we don't really know. It it may have some it may get delayed. We we don't really know. Um

11:30 but in terms of for for next year um probably it would be way way too early to to really count on anything from this. Probably 28 would be where we might see this factored into the budget process. Is that correct? >> If if I understand you correctly. Um and you know I'm going to get to this later in some uh slides talking about No, it's okay. Um, we're putting the FY27 budget together right now, >> right? >> Um, and so and and we'll be bringing that to you and and you'll see later the date that I'll be coming to you, at least a preliminary look at it, >> right? >> Based off of the earlier forecast that we did back in October, the deficit that we were projecting in fiscal year 27,

12:16 this did not address it. We would have to find another way to address it in fiscal year 27. >> Okay? it just won't come on quick enough to really have any substantive impact on the fiscal year 27 budget. >> That's what I understood. I just wanted to make sure I got it because there's a lot of moving parts for me still. would also like to add in the work of the of the fiscal sustainability task force that was kind of a point that was uh talked about with that group is that the way that we try to move the needle on our structural imbalance the sooner we make decisions whether it be you know diversify our revenue sources whether it be you know cutting or whatever that looks like the sooner you can try to bump that the better of it uh it will

13:02 address the the long-term gaps So, um, this is going to take some time. There's a lot of moving parts and I think that your assessment is is is correct. Um, that it will take a while to I wouldn't I I am not planning on being able to use anything from this in this upcoming budget deliberation. It's just too too premature. >> Anybody else before we keep going? I know there's a lot of questions for us to talk to. Okay. >> All right. Um, that's it for the ordinance. It's All right, moving on to exhibit A. Uh the immunity code amendments. Um starting with the uh definitions. Uh these are important in terms of just

13:47 defining okay, who's considered an employer? Um you know, what is an employee? Um fixed rate, uh which is the wages that it's applied against. Uh the tax administrator, who is that? And then a definition of wages. And this is something we've been talking about quite a bit in terms of um you know gross wages and what's included in those wages and what's not included. I'm going to touch a little bit more on that later. Uh and then we get to um the tax established and um I want to point out that this is actually a placeholder uh right now. Um this was the recommendation from the task force and so we put it in as it was recommended. Um a rate of onetenth of 1% uh payroll tax on wages paid by employers with physical uh presence in Springfield and

14:33 wages earned by employees working for Springfield-based employers. Um you know as we've been talking about this and specifically around definition of wages and what would be included in those wages, whatnot. Um, in our research, uh, we discovered there's a lot of unanswered questions that aren't really clear in the work that we've seen done, uh, by our peers, uh, both city of Eugene and the state, and why they included some things and excluded others. And, um, there's some concern that there is the possibility that there's some federal tax law that could preclude us uh, you know, from including something um, or including something in those gross wages. So, we don't have those answers for you u u this evening. uh what we're going to do is we're going to bring in a subject matter expert to help us uh uh address some of those uh

15:19 questions. And then the other thing is originally uh I was hoping to have this conversation in January. Uh it got bumped out to February. Here we are now in February. We've started our fiscal year 27 budget process. We closed our uh budgeting software last week and our accountants are currently fund balancing and we're close to having um potentially a preliminary FY27 budget. So, uh, recognizing that we can have updated, uh, budget information that we can then fold into a new five-year forecast as well as more clarification on the gross wages, uh, we thought it was best to, uh, potentially punt out the the conversation on the rate uh, from this evening. Um, and then when we bring this back to you, uh, we would leave that blank and then the conversation will

16:05 happen then. And getting ahead of myself, that is scheduled for April 6, uh, a work session on April 6. And I'll be talking about that again. >> Council M, >> we're talking about a 1% payroll tax. Do the employers also match that? >> It is paid by uh that onetenth of 1% is paid by both the employer on all wages they pay and by each employee on the wages they're paid. So it you could look at it as a match. like social security being an employee and the business also pays the same way as that. >> Yes. Very clear to businesses. >> We will make it clear to businesses. Yeah. There's going to be a very large uh outreach and education program that comes along with implementing this payroll tax.

16:57 >> All right. And then the last bullet there requires employers uh to withhold and remit the employee tax portion. So in addition to their own opening withholding, we bid um both um of those uh taxes. All right. Um moving on, this uh establishes uh payment and remittance schedules. Employers shall remit payroll taxes quarterly or less frequently as established in administrative rules. Um and penalties and interest um uh are going to be governed by the administrative rules as well. Um I'm going to be touching on those administrative rules again later. So there's going to be some questions around those. Um this lays out an appeal process uh for the code itself. Um lays out the delegation of the

17:42 rulemaking authority. Uh it's uh delegated to the city manager or a designate. Uh this is going to be one of those critical items that I'm looking for feedback on uh this evening. Um, I don't u necessarily want you to start that conversation quite yet and we'll just put a pin in it because I'm going to be talking about what those administrative rules uh contain and I think that'll help uh influence uh your conversation. Uh and then uh it also lays a public process for adopting those uh administrative rules. So before moving on to administrative rules, uh any questions on the um amendments to the municipal code, [clears throat] >> we will get to the end and I'm sure we will have a ton of questions and discussion.

18:27 >> All right. Uh what's in the administrative rules? Again, more definitions. Uh some of those definitions will be similar to what are in the Minnesota code, but uh the administrative rules are actually going to include more definitions and go into a little more detail. >> Um how I see these administrative rules is uh the ordinance and code amendments are kind of up there at 30,000 ft. You're laying out kind of the core sort of structure of this payroll tax. This gets down into sort of the programmatic minutia of how this program is going to work. So, if you're an employer uh implementing and administering this program in your organization, you're not going to be looking to our u um ordinance or code. You're going to be looking to our administrative rules. And

19:12 just give an example of, you know, kind of what those look like. U you know, looking at Eugene's um their administrative rules are around uh 10 pages long. And when they put theirs together, they actually uh looked to the state. Uh they didn't reinvent the wheel. uh they look to the state for kind of what was sort of best practice and industry standard and and adopted those rules. Uh similarly for us and we're just getting started on this process. We will also look to Eugene and the state and and the reason being is that uh our organizations are also paying the transit tax and um um and then we also have businesses that are operating in both Eugene and Springfield. So, while we may choose uh to have a payroll tax program with a different rate and a different definition of wages that's applied

19:59 against, I think it's helpful to our business community to have uh as much overlap and similarity as possible so they don't have to operate off of two sets of rules. So, uh, where it makes sense and and having kind of read through theirs, um, you know, u ahead of time, there's nothing in there that just that is really unique and in that that I think you would feel differently about. Um, so what's in there is is the employer and employee tax obligations. Um, that includes uh the payments uh schedule that they're made on uh as well as uh the uh returns that accompany those payments. Uh it includes reporting requirements for them. Uh it lays out the uh audit process. Uh if we were to audit u u a organization um their

20:46 recordkeeping requirements and our ability to access uh those uh records. Uh it includes penalties. Um if you don't make a payment by a due date, there's a stated penalty that accompanies that. If it's not made with corrected within 30 days of that, then the penalty increases. So everything is just defined uh uh waivers, good faith waivers. You know there is justification sometimes to provide waivers. Um it uh defines you know what what is a justification for a waiver. It could be a natural disaster. It could be a fire that damages uh a business. So as you can read through those you know it really I think the typical person can look at those and say yeah those are major events that could justify a waiver. Uh it lays out the refund process if an employer uh overpays. um

21:34 processes uh to get that refund as well as if an employee feels like their employer's withhold too much. Uh it provides them a process to uh potentially uh have that um reviewed and a refund uh issued. And then for the program itself, uh it lays out uh an ability to appeal and then it defines our enforcement of this program itself. So we've kind of gone from that 30,000 ft. we're right down into the minutia and that's essentially um what I think comprises the administrative rules and gets from kind of council guidance into more sort of operational day-to-day city manager responsibility. And that brings us back to that question delegation of the rule making authority to the city manager or designate. I'm going to pause there.

22:20 >> Okay. So you're essentially effectively asking for a head nod to say we're going to delegate all the administrative rulemaking to the city manager and that's something that's fairly common. >> Yes. >> Okay. Does anybody have questions about that? I don't think we're concerned about that at all. Right. Like is and we understand that there's going to be a lot of administrative rule making around this to make this work make it and make it effective. So I think we are good. >> Okay. And again, there's a public process that is going to allow for public input into um those rules as well. >> So before we get to next steps, I wanted to come back to guardrails. Uh again, it

23:05 was a very important consideration of the task force and so we've we we've heard that and we built those guardrails uh into this program. um the rates established by a council adopted ordinance. Uh for that rate to change, then it would have to come back to council and and be changed through an ordinance. Uh no rate increases or structural changes for three years. Uh required annual reporting to council and public. Uh what that annual reporting will look like is as part of our regular uh kickoff of the budget process when we bring you a five-year forecast in the fall. Um, by that point, we've always closed out the previous year financials. And so, we'll include a component that'll talk about the performance of the payroll tax program and its impact

23:50 that it's having on that five-year forecast. Uh, revenues budgeted and accounted for in a separate fund. I spoke to that earlier. It allows for transparency and ease for the public uh to access this published on their own without a information request. and then a formal program review after uh year three that allows uh time for this program to mature and for us to have a time frame that where we can really assess the impact that it's having on the city's financials. So two questions about the guard rails. First is when we say no rate increases or structural changes for three years, right? Does that preclude if something is fundamentally broken about whatever is happening? Right? If everybody looks around and says we got we can't wait three years, we got to change something, we still can act upon that. Is

24:37 >> I'm going to let you answer that and see if >> Sure. Well, you know, part of that is how we structure um the ordinance itself. And so I would, you know, obviously consult with the city attorney on that because I think that's a good point, mayor, if if um there's some some of that legal language that Nathan alluded to earlier covers some of that. like if let's say we find out, oh, we according to the Oregon Constitution, we can't do this, you know, so things like that where we we do need to have the opportunity to revisit if if it's not meeting certain legal thresholds. So, we'll make sure that we look at how that how we uh really formalize that [clears throat] that no change for three-year process so that we do have a little bit more leeway for the council.

25:22 So, uh, maybe that's something that we talk about when we get to really finalizing that ordinance with the rate and all that and really tie it all up together. So, I I would want to talk to the city attorney's office a little bit more about that before I offer a solution. >> Yeah. Okay, good. Um I think I I I think it's reasonable uh for the public to ask us not to make changes for three years but also we need to figure out about like even if we have to assert you know to to disentangle that to allow us to change it. We shouldn't sort of have something that fund that everybody agrees is not working for for effectively a constraint that we put on ourselves >> and also you can't buy the decisions of a future governing body. So we got to make sure we're right on that one as well. The second question that I have

26:07 and I want and I think this is a clarity point for the public when we say formal program review. I've always understood that to mean we're going to pull back and have a community conversation about what what is what is happening and what is um and how this thing's performing. That that doesn't mean that we are saying that we are saying that the council has to reauthorize it at three at three years. Right. That is saying that we are going to talk about how it's performing and what do we want to do as a community. >> Mayor that is correct. I think that it's it's more about is the program doing what it was intended to do. It are those guardrails really um meaningful for what the task force discussed? Um, and when the task force was discussing discussing this, there was not the uh

26:54 concept that okay, after year three, if we don't like it, we're just going to eliminate it. Because I think that they recognize the importance of the diversification of it, of this revenue source. But, you know, a lot of this is built on how our economy is doing as well, you know. So it may may very well be and I and I hope that this isn't the case, but if the economy had a downturn, a significant downturn, it may impact these numbers. So you always want things to go well, but it it it's not always the case. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Anybody else have other questions? >> I think we're ready to keep going. >> Right. Next steps. So we've scheduled work session for April 6. uh we will have uh a preliminary fiscal year 27 um

27:42 budget uh and built into the five-year forecast with the uh impact of the um task force recommendations including the payroll tax layered into that. >> Uh we should have clarity [clears throat] from a subject matter expert in terms of how we're going to structure uh our gross wages and what's included and what's excluded. That'll allow us to also update uh the revenue. So, and just to kind of go back there is our original if we kind of follow the same uh definition of wages that both uh the state uses for transit tax and Eugene we were looking at generating revenue around 2.4 million. If we went to just pure gross wages with no exclusions u except for the minimum ones that are clearly you know kind of outlined in in Oregon statue um we were

28:29 looking at generating 2.9 million. um we're now kind of thinking that it might be somewhere in between there, but we'll have clarity on what that is and then that will be layered into uh that 5-year forecast and that'll help. And then I I also hope by that date maybe to have a better idea of of when we envision to you know a realistic date for when we can implement this program and when when it will start impacting our um how it layers into the five-year forecast. It's a point of clarification, you know, at this point there may be things that we're in that we don't know what we don't know yet. Just this final little point before we get to the finish line. So there may be provisions where we're not able to tax certain people or entities or you know we've you know we

29:15 could build in assumptions about well maybe another government agency would participate but they don't have to. So those are some of the decisions that are beyond the scope of our control. Also with respect to uh when we put out numbers I want to be clear that these are just really projection numbers and I especially for the first year of implementation would want to be on the very conservative end of this for our projecting purposes because we know that we are not going to have a full year coming in and so and also we're going to be refining things hopefully um we'll get better rate of return as this program moves forward but the first year is going to be as with this beginning of any new program, you're not going to realize its full potential.

30:02 >> Right. Weber go to councelor step. >> Just a comment to that point and the one you made earlier. I mean, this is always going to be fluctuating. Right. >> Right. We're never from one year to the next going to know what employment looks like, right? How many are employed in the city, how many businesses open or close or stay the same. So I think we have to keep reminding ourselves that um that whatever we project can change you know very quickly. >> Yes, I think that's an important distinction. This council and this community is very businessfriendly. We put a real emphasis on economic development. This is super important to us. But a lot of things are simply out of the scope of our control when it comes to an individual b [clears throat] business and their ability to operate.

30:49 stuff. So, and not try to be dense, but I know we're obviously looking at clarifications, that sort of thing. So, when will we be looking at second final rate? >> On the 6th >> on April 6. And so, we will also schedule for that same evening in the regular session, public hearing and first reading. We will leave the rate blank and then if you arrive [clears throat] at a rate on that evening, then we'll proceed into the regular session with the first hearing where we'll insert that recommended rate. Okay. >> So, I guess another a point of clarification here on the sixth, what we will be looking at is the five-year forecast that you use to build the budget off of, right? >> The uh we'll be looking at the preliminary fiscal year 27 budget and

31:34 then we'll take that as the foundation for extrapolating the five-year forecast. Yes. >> Okay. So I think there's a couple elements that you know this is a place where we have to sort of like slow is smooth, smooth is fast, right? Is getting everybody to the right right set of information and understanding what we're budgeting off of and why and the commentary around it. It's going to become really important. So if I think about next year's budget and I'm just listening to the description that both of you have had, it sounds like we should expect that we may be deficit spending to bridge from the point that we are today to the point the payroll tax sort of sort of kicks in. Is that fair? >> That's what we expect. Yes.

32:19 >> Okay. Other questions? >> Sorry, just one more comment. um in your rule making process, when will you be um actively inter actively discussing with like um you know acting chief financial folks uh bookkeepers, that sort of thing because that's such a crucial part of compliance. At what point are you going to have live conversations with a real human being in the in their chairs operating QuickBooks? I'm just curious when is that coming up in your process? We've already had um some some feedback and some preliminary conversations with some of especially some of the uh payroll uh companies that you know >> that a lot of businesses historically like ADP those type of businesses. But

33:04 we also want to talk to uh our business community and and I think that the chamber of commerce commerce could be potentially a very helpful uh partner in this and really getting in front of our business community and and really having the people that are actually they bring in their finance people not necessarily the CEO but the people that are actually doing that work and you know we're we're really seeking to make this as simple as possible knowing that there you know we're talking about taxes there is an element of complexity to it But we're not trying to, you know, we're we we're going to do this in a least complicated way as possible. That's been our commitment. Okay. Anybody else? So the six would be the date we solve the rate and then if

33:49 you were and then the question around library funding would get set like would get sort of settled when when your proposed budget becomes published if you will. >> Sure. Well, I I want to talk if I may um talk a little bit about the budget process itself because I think it'd be helpful for the community at large. So, >> generally in the process we we close out the prior fiscal year, see how those number come numbers come in. You always have a little bit of fluctuation in your departmental budgets. Sometimes you don't spend out like you might have some vacancies or things like that or you might have an unexpected expenditure that is mission critical like uh a good example would be like protective equipment or public safety or public works. Um so you look at all of those and then you start your projections on

34:35 where revenue may be coming in based on you know we look at a number of factors based on um well history uh the the constraints of of the or Oregon tax law but also we look at you know what is the development that we have that I mean Nathan and I have been working on this for years to really refine it to as close to real time as we can get. Then uh Nathan, myself and Neil also Jessica Mummy, we meet with every single department in the city and we talk about their individual needs. We talk about we give them a certain um percentage on what they can spend for materials and services and then we talk about you know their individual departmental needs and then basically we have to we we this the sausage gets made so to speak by

35:22 comparing what those needs are and how missionritical they are. So, you know, we look at um are there federal requirements that we have to meet or state requirements that have to meet that has an expense attached to it that we have to pay, you know. So, there's there's like mandated expenses expenses, there are missionritical expenses and we have to balance all those within the the total breadth of the city and what our what our community expects and the level of services they expect from us. And so from there we uh propose a budget. We have to balance the budget unlike the federal government. We are required to submit a balanced budget. And so we do that and we bring that to the budget

36:08 committee as the first step in the budget process. Um they have the opportunity to make comment on that budget, review it. Um we have discussions about it. there's public process about that and then it um you know based on that work um hopefully they arrive at a budget that they you know endorse to go uh forward to the council and then you have another crack at it and the public also has another crack at it to look at it to talk about it you know frankly my job is to get you a budget that is as close to baked as possible you know and and I know that some people could feel like Well, aren't we just rubber stamping what the city manager wants? And that's not really the

36:53 case. Oregon law requires the the that we have people look at the work of government and make sure that that work is sound. It's a check and balance type of system that is that is unique to us. So, it's really about keeping our community involved. my my directive is really based on what you as the council has to determine for your priorities based on the community and what the community needs and wants. So all of those things have to be balanced against each other and then we make decisions on that. Um is it is it interesting work? Yes. Is it fun? It can be. Does it suck? A lot of times it does. So you know that's just kind of a snapshot of how the budget process works in Oregon.

37:40 Okay, other questions. I think I I think the big thing that um that we should be wrapping our heads around is that you're consistently indicating over the you know that we should we are going to see some sort of cuts. >> Yes. >> Um that is not necessarily specific around the library. That is just a general commentary about the state of the city's finances. The other thing that I where I think this really important and maybe you can provide some line of sight to it is I don't think you should be bound by exactly the letter the law the letter of the rules the report right like I think you should propose a a budget that makes the most amount of sense evaluating everything right so I guess what I'm saying is I'm

38:27 not held up on like if you come back and say the test uh reductions look like it's $200,000 from one bucket and $300,000 from a different bucket. You know, whether or not that includes the library or not. I don't feel like you should be bound by exactly what the report says. More give yourself as much flexibility as possible to evaluate all the services that we have and propose a budget that makes the most sense for the most amount of people. >> Yes, thank you. I appreciate that. Also, we look at this budget all the time and you know, even down to the level of if there are changes in personnel within the within the city, if somebody retires or if somebody is requesting a new position, even if we're refilling an existing uh position, I have an internal group that we review every single one of

39:13 them and we we we question it. We ask, does this need to happen? Can it be done differently? Can it be done less expensively? Is this mission critical? We do that now. So there are a lot of touches that happen on this budget throughout the year in addition to the budget process. >> Mr. Rodley. >> Yeah. And I appreciate you calling that out because and when you say um report, you're talking about from the fiscal task force report, right? So I just wanted to clarify that. Um and I know I say this every year and I'll probably say it seven more times till people get cranky at me, but a budget is a a plan and not a promise. Um, and I think particularly in 27 and probably 28, I think it it's just it's going to be a really challenging budgeting year, which I don't have to tell you all. Um, uh,

40:00 year. So, I think the more flexibility we have to get to the intent of what came out of that work group, the better. Um, I love that we're starting with the revenue conversations before we get to the cut conversations because I think um I I think that it will come as no surprise to people that we have to look for ways to to pull in while we wait to see what's going on and how things are impacted. And I've been spending a lot of time in conversations with folks and trying to weigh, you know, just just the cost of living and livability concerns with the fact that we also need to continue to move forward, which makes it a particularly um challenging time. And I appreciate as always the um careful

40:47 process that we in Springfield are taking for this. And I just as I've been following along tonight, I was thinking, well, this is why we made Nate just the employees of the year because they're so careful and they come out. It was such a Springfield lens and we've been taking a lot of time to talk it through and give the community an opportunity to to give feedback as we do that. So, um, appreciation and just acknowledging that I understand it's what we're going to we're going to be, you know, trying to bring over to chaos for I think that's an important point, counselor, and it really all it takes is is one large event, you know, to really throw out your budget. A global pandemic, the holiday farm fire, you know, these are things that you cannot

41:34 plan for and still have a budgetary impact. And yes, you can get, you know, some amount of reimbursement on on an emergency declartorm is the probably the most recent example. So, you know, you're right. A budget is a plan that reflects what uh the priorities are of this council and the policies that you set for me. My my job is to have ownership over over that budget and work with Nathan and Jessica to present that to the budget committee and go through the legal processes to adopt it and the taxes. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments? Did you get everything you needed? >> Yeah. So really quickly then if we're able to decide on a rate in April 6, we've also scheduled uh the April 20th regular session final meeting

42:22 >> and that would basically walk us right into the budget in early and early May. >> Yes. >> Excellent. Okay. >> Could I ask a question about the pro the rate conversation process? Are you going to bring us a couple of examples like we'll have the 0.1 of 10%. But if there's interest or or folks are like what what does it look like 0 2 of 10% or what does 0.1 look like? Will you bring us some some math? >> Yeah. So similarly to what we've done before with that is is we'll show the 0.1 and then we'll show what each 0.01 looks like and that you know just it's an easy to just multiply them out. >> Great. Thanks. So what I'm hearing then uh this evening

43:07 is um you know the framework uh that we've looked at. You're comfortable with the uh ordinance and municip um you know we you're comfortable with delegating the rulemaking authority to the city manager and designate and then we've held off on the conversation on the rate and that's going to happen on April 6. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. And I am also uh I guess in favor or if we if we want to write down what the plan here is to get through there's a lot of community interest around this conversation right now and I know we communicate to the public in all sorts of different ways. So if we want people to say hey here's the plan at one point or so give something some sort of artifact for people to look at look at I think that would be really helpful. Or

43:53 are you referring to uh this issue in general specifically or the budget process in general? >> I mean this issue specifically, right? That the six we're going to talk about the rate, [clears throat] right? You know, we are here. We have to go through these three steps. We're going to have the hearings on this date. We're going to talk about the budget. We're going to talk about the budget at this state. It's right now this is really complicated and people there's a lot of iteration. Anything we can do to keep people in the the correct set of facts as far as the timeline goes, I'm sure they will appreciate. >> Speak to our public information officer. >> Yes. >> She has some free time now that state of the city is doing. >> All right. I think we're we're good. Thank you.

44:38 >> All right. Our second item is the housing and design initiative code plan with Cample. I think you please. Good job team. Okay. Just wanted to make sure it worked. Um, no whammies tonight. >> Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, I'm grateful to be back here tonight.

45:24 Um, you may remember over fall and winter, I came to you four times. Hopefully, this is the last policy discussion we have on this topic. Um, before we get to the adoption process. Yes. Come on. Um, so tonight there's a few items in your council packet. Hopefully you had a chance to read that and review that and um, and I'm here for the questions and the discussion. So I just want to go over the recommendations about basically what this project is about. Um, so back in December, we touched on four recommendations that came from our consultant um, how we could uh, increase affordability, production, and choice for housing in Springfield. Those four recommendations were to allow housing in our mixeduse development areas. Um then provide more flexibility for size

46:10 and location of commercial space in a mixeduse development, allow multi-unit standalone residential development in more locations, primarily um our community commercial district, and then encourage more highdensity housing in more locations. So this table is great. This is a summary of basically what these recommendations look like. Um so for the first area, the mixed use development in more locations, this includes all sites less than one acre on Main Street and South A Street. Um our CFA sites, so downtown and Mohawk. And then in the neighborhood commercial district, we are also um allowing that as a mixeduse development area or location. Um to lessen the economic barriers to mixeduse development, we're providing more flexibility for the size and location of

46:56 commercial space in a mixeduse development. This looks like reducing the total amount of commercial space required in a mixeduse development. So sometimes that could be 60% 30% um etc etc. And we're allowing separate mixeduse developments. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a mixeduse building. It could be a horizontal mixeduse site. So you could have commercial um fronting the main street and residential behind. Um we'll provide more opportunities for multi-unit housing in standalone and more locations. Again, that's on uh properties under an acre on local and collector streets off of Main Street or South A Street. Um and the CFA overlay for uh mixeduse commercial lots that are not fronting arterials. So, um again, Main Street, South A, things like that.

47:42 Um and all mixeduse employment and mixeduse residential lots. Um and I just want to point out that the CFA area will also allow town homes. Then we are also encouraging highdensity housing. So again touching on there's four main topics right there. We're going to apply a minimum density standard to all districts where we would allow housing. We're going to modify the height step down. So that could be like we used to have a 50- foot setback. Now we're having a 25 foot setback from abing um lowdensity residential properties. We'll allow greater lot coverage and then we'll allow up to fourstory buildings in the neighborhood commercial uh district. That's because again we're allowing it as a mixeduse development. Okay. So, the first policy discussion tonight is about Booth Kelly. So, I just kind of want to touch about the history

48:28 of Booth Kelly a little bit. Um, there's a lot to unpack here, but it's it's vitally important. Um, in 1985, we received the Mill Race Land. Um, that was a donation from Georgia Pacific. And in 1986, we adopted the Springfield downtown refinement plan and article 19 of the Springfield Development Code. Um in that in the code and the refinement plan we required a conceptual development plan and I will get into a little bit more about what that is what that requires on the next slides. In 1989 we actually adopted the conceptual development plan that has been the only conceptual development plan then or now. Um it included uh proposed uses, common design features, findings which showed conformance with the refinement plan um

49:13 and the code and refinement plan at the time. and that's actually in your council packet if you were looking for it. In 2005, we amended the refinement plan um as the city was awarded a grant to improve the mill race and that was from the Army Corps of Engineers. Um and again, those policies that were added to the refinement plan were mostly about restoring native vegetation, improving public access to the mil race, etc. Um from 2013 to 2015, we did a huge amount of engagement and that resulted in the main street quarter vision plan. uh within that we en envisioned Booth Kelly mixed use as a mixed use employment district. That plan obviously didn't come to fruition but it was how we envisioned Main Street to look. Um and then finally I want to touch about from 20 2017 so seven years we worked on

49:58 restoration of the mil race. So um I want to talk about the the basically the planning process in Booth Kelly. As you can see in that little diagram it's kind of complex. Um first you have the conceptual development plan then you have the development area plan and then you have the site plan. Um so for a conceptual development plan major redevelopment or new construction must be consistent with the conceptual development plan. Again I mentioned that was written in 1989. Um it must be consistent with the comprehensive plan the downtown refinement plan and other applicable plans. So I mentioned that if that was written in 199 19 1989 and we amended the refinement plan in 2005, we haven't made any amendments to that conceptual development plan that was written again [clears throat]

50:43 in 1989. Um should it need to be amended or we want to amend it, it must be developed with the city and the developer after consulting with pedestrial properties that are adjacent to the Booth Kelly mixeduse district for the development area plan. So this is the next step in the process. You start with your your overall plan of the district. Then you break it down by development areas within the district. Um the minimum area is 10 acres. The 10 acres do not apply to parcels sprinting on South A or the minor expansion of existing structures on existing lots. The development area plan is an extra step in the process. Um the it may only be reduced when the director determines that minimum area

51:28 that the proposal in all other respects is consistent with the code, the refinement plan and the conceptual development plan. Um and it's got to be prepared by a design team. So it this is a barrier what we have determined. Um again you have to have that conceptual development plan first. You have to have that minimum development area of 10 acres. Um and then after you have your development area of 10 acres, then you can go through the site plan review process. So it's a complex process overall and we really haven't updated it um since 2005 and so forth. So some immediate changes as part of this project. Um it's all laid out in the council briefing memo, but summarizing it here on the screen, this is complex. So again, if you guys have additional questions, I'm here to talk

52:14 about them. Um, so you may recall that the first thing or the last couple things we've been talking about at the previous work sessions were about reszoning the Booth Kelly development area to be the mixeduse employment district. This would apply to Booth Kelly and the mixeduse light medium industrial community commercial district that's in Gateway. Um, we would amend the refinement plan language to say that the development area is implemented through the mixeduse employment district, but we would not take it away from the comprehensive plan. It would still be the Booth Kelly mixeduse district in the comprehensive plan map. Um, then the next part is about the conceptual development area plan. So instead of keeping the conceptual development area plan, which again is only required in the Booth

52:59 Kelly district or the campus industrial district, we would either allow a phase development plan or master plan and or a site plan review application. So the phase development plan would be if the application or development is proposed to happen for less than three years and a master plan if it is proposed to happen over a longer period to exceed three years. So under three years base development over three years master plan. If it's a minor improvement then um we would consider a site plan review application. Again these are outlined in the policies in your packet. Then there were a few policies that we decided to leave alone um 2 A, 2 B, 2F and 2G. But then we were looking at some of the compatibility and

53:44 operational um issues concerns that are addressed in the policies that's 4A um and 2C mostly about putting industrial in close proximity to residential in close proximity to recreational facilities things like that. Um so we are proposing to move some of the policies that are in four to two and consolidate. Basically the policies in four were completed in 2017 because it was um when they did the refinement plan update in 2005 they added policies to four and that was for the Milra ecosystem restoration project which again was completed in 2017. So, there are some policies that are still applicable. They could be like

54:30 increasing recreational access or making sure that um we're still improving native restoration. We're still addressing storm water facilities, things like that. Those things that are still applicable would be moved to two and we would essentially get rid of policy 4 um because it's no longer applicable. So, I just want to make sure that council is okay with this first policy question. Um, do you support the following proposal? So, again, the first thing that we would do is we would reszone the Booth Kelly mixeduse district to mixeduse employment. We would replace the conceptual development plan and development area plan requirements with a phase development plan, master plan or site plan review process depending on the scale and phasing of the project. And then again,

55:16 the last part which I just kind of went over was removing or updating the policies that are no longer applicable following the completion of the mill race project in 2017. >> Council Rodley, >> thank thank you as always for sticking with us through this. Um I'm not entirely convinced. It sounds like it's getting simpler, but I'm going to trust that maybe it is. Um, my question and when I read through it before and I'm still reading through it or I'm listening to you explain it, are we being as flexible as we possibly can or are we just grouping and replacing things that we did before? I mean, I'm serious in that I know I've said this before and I'm just going to keep saying it. um I [clears throat] really do want to come out of this having simplified it

56:03 and made it much easier for people to develop um in all the ways in all the places. And so I'm just curious as to did we get rid of everything we had we could or did we be like we should keep a little bit of this or a little bit of that um to get as flexible as we possibly can. Yeah, I think you know one one of the issues here is that you know you can't really get rid of the application process altogether especially have a conceptual development plan. We still want and need to show compliance with the refinement plan with the intent of what we imagine the Booth Kelly mixeduse district to be um the downtown vision things like that. So we needed an application that was close to the conceptual development plan without maybe creating a new plan altogether. So, we were acknowledging that Booth

56:49 Kelly is a huge district and there's a lot of potential to develop however we want to and that is probably going to require some overall vision plan and that is usually covered in a master plan or phase development plan. We also already have a phase development plan application for our mixeduse districts. It already exists in our code. So, if we're reszoning to mixeduse employment, it's kind of already covered. It already exists. we just don't have that now because the property is owned with Kelly mixed use. So it is really really simplifying and basically going back to potentially what the original intent was here um is to envision what we wanted um and and to make it simple depending on the type of application depending on if you are envisioning long-term or if you

57:35 just want to make some minor improvements >> I really appreciate your approach to this. This is this is fun. Um my question is on transitioning from the Booth Kelly to a mixed use employment district is only scary if I'm feeling like oh are we taking away heavy industrial land for the purpose of you know something else. I just want to make sure that in that transition you're telling me this is going to simplify it and make it more likely for a heavy industrial user because with heavy industrial property uh to be able to come and reoccupy, redevelop and reinvest and then since you know mo most of our heavy industry is paying our property taxes I want to you know incentivize that. So how would

58:21 you respond to that? >> Yeah, we still carried over that use. So, um, even if we reszone to mixed use employment, it'll still allow that heavy industrial production. We talked about that at the previous >> make sure that >> absolutely didn't change it. Still staying. >> Yep. >> Um, back to the policy questions. So, I think I'm good with this list. It sounds way more complicated than it actually probably is. And so I think the feedback I have is if we we just have to find a way to sort of package this as a way that it's simpler because it sounds more complicated. >> Yeah. I think it's complicated because we just haven't looked at this in a really long time, right? And so going back to what the process looks like now,

59:08 right? Most the time for most it's just a site plan review application unless you're planning a long-term vision. Then you you do the master plan process usually. So to create this new development area plan most of the time we don't have that application. We don't know what that looks like. We also just have a conceptual development plan required in Booth Kelly or the campus industrial district. So you're kind of you're creating applications and processes um that we just don't see. So I think that's what creates the kind of confusion and this is really technical. Just needs an update. >> So I think we're good with this. We're good with this. >> Okay. >> Great. All right. Some compatibility

59:53 discussion. Um so again back in December um you guys requested some additional information on compatibility issues between industrial and residential uses. There's a few areas where this really applies. Again, downtown, we just talked about Booth Kelly, um the Gateway Refinement Plan, that mixeduse LMICC district. And then there are some other areas in Mid Springfield and East Maine, um where which we consider kind of to be mixeduse areas. Again, the key concerns that we heard were about noise impacts between community livability and livelihoods, building design, does that actually impact noise levels? Um and then other operational impacts like air pollution, vibration, things like that. So, uh, the research, what does the research say? I love this graphic because it shows basically that it is

1:00:40 about the design of the buildings on a site. Um, and the graphics are essentially showing the noise levels. A more enclosed building um, kind of reduces that noise. It kind of bounces it off versus where you have more open space um, you're going to have more of those noise impacts. Um so the studies basically show that form and building acoustics um find that noise exposure is shaped again by how buildings are arranged relative to the noise sources um and by the presence of intermediary spaces. So again those common open space areas enclosed and semi-encclosed building forms particularly at midrise heights so again that 40 to 80 feet consistently demonstrate improved acicle

1:01:25 performances. So this kind of piggybacks on the topic of commercial or light medium industrial buildings positioned between the noise sources. So if we had a mixeduse horizontal site, the commercial in the front, residential behind, that's kind of going to act as that buffer between maybe a large um a large industrial site or a noisy road, things like that that is buffering um that potential residential use from that loud um noise. Um so together the research shows that compatibility is more often achieved through site planning and building placement rather than separation of uses right those enclosed buildings versus the more gap in open space. So, please go back to to the one more to the

1:02:11 Okay. So, I think my question and this is really up around Q and Shelly, right, where we really see those. it's the road like if you're pushing industrial back and I know you're going to get into this um from a design perspective right in this case which is the probably the the area that I've got the most experience with you're essentially pushing the noise sources towards the houses right so I think the question that I have and as you get into it is how do we sort of balance the fact that right like it's not about trying to push the noise back right it's about in in certain cases It's based on how the city's design is. It's about sort of trying to pull the noise forward if that makes sense. >> Yes. Yeah. Okay.

1:02:56 >> Um and and again, it's really going to depend on all of it kind of works together is basically what the research shows, right? It's about building form, it's about vegetation, it's about BMS um that reduce that noise. Um it's everything kind of works together. >> Okay. So talking about height standard, um should a maximum height standard apply where mixed use development with residential uses above an industrial district or not? If you're not concerned about height, should an alternative design or operational standards be prioritized? And we can get into that in the next question. But I do want to touch on basically this showed again that 40 to 80 feet tall um is kind of your sweet

1:03:42 spot for height. Um and then it's also the key is how's the building designed [clears throat] questions? >> So 80 feet would be four stories. Is that correct? >> Uh six seven 80 feet. Yeah, I'd say like six or seven. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Haley, can you go back one slide and just for those that may be uh watching this later, can you talk a little bit about the heat map and what that represents for those that may not have your >> Yes. So the vertical noise map is a great example basically showing like the colors are representing the noise how noise is kind of bouncing off. So you

1:04:27 can see the red it's bouncing off um from one because of the shape of the building that it's really enclosed and so the noise is just kind of hitting off the edges of the building as opposed to that open space where it could kind of travel through and we'll see on a couple more slides. Basically they call that the shadow zone where either the noise is um going over or bouncing off the building as opposed to going through the site. Um that's kind of what you're seeing through five and 10. um those orange or redder numbers where you can just see that the noise is kind of just traveling into the site as opposed to going. >> And just to be clear, the red is the lower lower levels and the green is the higher levels. >> The green is the lower levels, the red is the higher levels. >> Just I'm so sorry only because my background um I just see your DBA in the

1:05:15 thing. It's like negative zero versus we keep going for Oh, I see it. Okay. I have it reversed in my mind. Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah, that makes sense. We see question two first. >> Yes, we can skip ahead to question two. So, I'm going to go into a little bit more detail here, but this is about um proximity to industrial. Again, those compatibility standards. Uh so, again, there were questions about livability and residential and proximity to industrial. So, again, this image is great because it's showing that shadow zone. showing basically how the noise is either vibrating or moving away from a buffer vegetation. Um what is kind of uh buffering that noise. Uh and you can see at the top where it's there's no buffer, right? Usually the noise is coming

1:06:00 straight through to the residential development versus if you put a burm, if you put a wall, um that shadow zone is is giving that example of how noise is traveling to a site without with and without um buffers essentially. So the research shows that landscape setbacks, rows of trees and shrubs, earthn BMS and solid walls or fences all contribute to lower noise levels. Buffers that combine multiple elements. So again, vegetation paired with a wall or a burm um perform better than distance alone. So it's not just about how far is the industrial use from the residential use. It's do you have something to buffer screen the uses? Um street facing green buffers can provide measurable traffic noise reduction. For

1:06:47 example, um they gave some really technical information here, but uh mixed conifer trees with shrub undergrowth heights ranging from 1 and 1/2 ft to 13 ft showed noise reductions commonly ranging from 3 to 10 dB. And usually you don't want to be above 50 dB. um depending on the distance and planting layout with structured and continuous planting patterns outperforming irregular designs. So basically meaning you need a lot of trees and a lot of shrubs planted together to reduce that noise. Um and when there's gaps it's doesn't perform as well and then residential and proximity to industrial. So again this is a big question especially in Booth Kelly mixed use in the Q street Laura Street area. The studies consistently find that

1:07:32 activities such as small workshops, repair services, artisan manufacturing, and live workspaces generate lower noise levels, fewer emissions, and less heavy truck traffic than general or heavy industrial production. Right? But why is that the case? Um, when light industrial uses are located on the ground floor of a mixeduse building with housing above or adjacent, the impacts can be managed through clear operational limits. So this could be a shared loading area, separation of residential and um industrial entrances from work and delivery zones, things like that. Operating hours, delivery activities are regulated. Um so it's saying that you can allow the uses together, but just consider how all of these uses work together. Um [clears throat] then I want to talk

1:08:18 about some of the policies that we already have in our refinement plans. So, uh, again, I was talking about downtown, gateway, midsp Springfield, and East Maine. We have already tried to address compatibility where we felt it was appropriate. Um, so in the downtown area, we have design and development features that promote compatibility and a transition to adjacent uses. in the Booth Kelly area. Again, that conceptual development plan um was intended to recognize that heavy industrial uses will continue on adjacent properties and we need to address compatibility through um the conceptual development plan and gateway. Um again, the Q Street, Laura Street area, the policy literally says that we shall minimize lighting, noise, olfactory and visual impacts from industrial commercial development on

1:09:03 adjacent residential. will retain existing trees in the setbacks and will enforce those screening and buffering requirements. Um in midsp Springfield they wanted to eliminate the mixeduse plan designations because they found that this could create conflicts between industrial commercial and residential except in one nodal development area which would if we have time I'll get into it. Um and then in the east main area where it's heavier industrial but residential they require a 20 foot wide buffer with again vegetative screening that's required and the trigger is when new or expanding industrial uses come within 100 ft of a residential district. So these are the policies we have in place now, but sometimes we find that they are not actually put into our development code and our development code actually is the regulator that

1:09:49 points to this is what's going to happen if you don't comply with these standards. So to address this, we found that we are missing some things in our code and we could propose some changes. So um the first is to create some operational compatibility standards for the mixeduse employment district. Our campus industrial district is the only district where we have these similar standards. Um but again that could we could look at air pollution, noise, groundwater protection, etc. and apply some of those standards to our mixed use employment district. Um any district basically where you're mixing that industrial, commercial and residential in close proximity to each other. We can also in our mixed use districts add those screening and buffering standards. This

1:10:34 will include um screening and buffering between parking, garbage and recycling areas, ground mounted utility equipment. We can prohibit garbages and recycling areas and front yard setbacks when you're a budding residential. And then if we choose not to add the operational compatibility standard, so if we choose not to regulate so much noise, um smells, air pollution in the first option, we could just regulate noise. Um so in our existing code in our mixeduse district it says that noise shall not exceed 50 dB as measured at the property line within a residential district. So again that 50 dB is that usually that cutoff or we don't want a lot of noise bouncing off of industrial properties and impacting those residential properties that are abuing an industrial

1:11:19 property. Then in midsp Springfield and east Maine these are our commercial districts. Um we can add a setback requirement. So the proposal is to add a 20 foot setback requirement when a mixeduse development with residential uses or multi-unit housing is abudding a light medustrial heavy industrial or special heavy industrial district. Um and it the setback can be reduced to 10 feet if you install a masonry wall decorative wall. And then again we're going to have that screening and landscaping. We're going to hit two birds with one stone. Um because again the research shows that it can't just be a wall. It has to be a wall and vegetation. um to screen and buffer those uses from each other. So this gets to how can we address some

1:12:07 of these livability standards. So again the first question was we could just regulate for height or we can acknowledge that we think that there are additional standards um that we need to mitigate against especially for putting industrial commercial in close proximity to residential. So here um I showed you some of the proposed code amendments. That's the first thing that we could do. If we don't want to do that, we could uh address compatibility and operational performance standards at another time. I can flag um that we have this concern and we can address it at another time through another project. Um whatever more research can be done basically what that could look like. Um and then again the last option could just be to not allow residential uses near industrial uses. >> So I got a question and then we'll open

1:12:53 it up and get into it. So I think the design standards are sort of like I'm building some sound like I'm building something new and the residential is already there. What if it is the reverse which is pro like our industrial um centers in the city are significantly older than residential and I think when I've been thinking about this problem I've been thinking about it kind of in reverse right the mill's already there right now we've added housing to it so would these standard would the 50 decel standard be sort of like um the ne the next time that if if they don't meet it then the the person that's already there has been there for a long time is going to be required to change something. >> I think the trigger would be are they

1:13:38 proposing a new use on the site. So if there was no new use proposed um they were continuing the existing use then we would not apply those standards. It's going to come in if the industrial use comes in and asks for a new development on the [clears throat] site that could cause changes. >> So let's open it up to folks think council. Okay. Um, I think this is where I'm landing with this. I think I am not in favor of like height restrictions. Um, and keeping that fluid. I also could you go back a slide? I also think that I am not in favor of

1:14:25 all of those things um all of those standards and prohib prohibitions. So I think you mentioned something about could we just start with noise, right? Because I do think that you know that's if I was trying to do something and I've got to figure out where's the garbage going to go and where's the this and where's that. I think some of that can be determined by like the market in the neighborhood and we may come back and need to as we get denser but I don't think that's going to happen next year. So that's where I'm like I don't think I want to limit height because I think that there's been enough market pressure that's kept us from building 12 stories or whatever. So um and by focusing on the noise because that was a thing particularly like in the gateway area and places that people have brought up. Um, I think that's

1:15:10 where I'm at. Like all of these other things, these standards and regulations I'd rather not lean in hard to. >> Councelor Buck. >> Um, yeah, just kind of a few I want to bounce around a little bit here. Um, I I'm definitely in agreement with councelor Bradley on I think restricting height um may not be a restriction. we want to we we want to go down that road and and just kind of let kind of the natural course of how things go kind of dictate that. Um and part of the reason for that is is as we start thinking about our earlier conversation with you know um budgetary and tax base and all

1:15:56 of that economic development is is so important to that and any any um [clears throat] breaks we put on those I you know I would be be hesitant to so I almost would rather let developers kind of figure the hype piece out. And then [clears throat] when it comes to some of the other barriers and and all of this, I mean, I I definitely we haven't done anything with this for a long time. So, trying to come and and fix everything all at once feels like a lot. It feels like we're going to get in our own way. Although noise is is definitely a good place to start. Um what what crossed my mind with all of

1:16:43 our tools that we can use, you know, walls and BMS and vegetation, whose responsibility does it become then for that vegetation? Because Springfield saw a lot of trees come down in the last, you know, couple of years. So if if I'm if I'm an industrial site and I plant some trees and they grow up and we have another weather event and those trees come down, now I'm not in compliance, right? And so I I don't know that we want to write the code in such a way that it says yeah you need to maintain vegetation when in good faith a business can [clears throat] do

1:17:28 that and then it takes an ice storm and you lose your 10 trees and compliance and that's not something you can replace overnight. So I just I think about how we implement that in a way that is manageable and doable because you know again as we've experienced recently there's a lot of lot of trees that we no longer have and new new trees take decades to really have that same effect. So I'm all for us focusing on noise. I just want us to focus on it in a way that's manageable and sustainable. Um and in the same token still makes it have the same community

1:18:14 feel. So like walls might not be the only answer, right? So you know if if the industrial site has this big concrete wall that might not have the feel we're looking for um for for areas. So, I'm I'm I'm kind of struggling with how do we do this in a way that makes it still feel um like a community reduces the noise, but um kind of in line with with council like in the most flexible way possible that's manageable. >> Yeah, >> I think it's important too to like highlight here that it's different. The proposal is a little different depending on the area, right? So for the mixeduse districts, those that second bullet

1:19:00 there, the um parking, garbage, recycling areas, ground mounted equipment will be screened. No, no garbage recycling areas in the front yard setback. And then the 50 decel um noise, those are actually existing standards. They exist in our code right now. I did not add them. So again, it's just a matter of if you reszone mixeduse employment, these are the standards that would apply. These are the standards that would apply in the Booth Kelly mixeduse area. these are the standards that would apply in the um the LMI mixed use um CC district um where they don't now essentially. So you're just kind you're covering it. You're just making sure is this what you want? Um and then you also have to think about if you're down Main Street right with the second option um it doesn't have the same option as the first one. That's where you have that 20 foot setback from

1:19:45 industrial. So, if you've got all this industrial and you have some of these tiny sites, but you want that 20 foot setback and that wall to buffer you from that industrial site, or you saying, "I don't need any landscaping. I don't want any buffer. Um, it's okay, and I'm going to allow that housing there." And acknowledge that um there could be some concerns, there could be some noise, but this is um where we can allow housing now where we don't currently. So, different different options basically depending on the area and location use. >> Go ahead, councelor. So um this is really more technical but um not to exceed 50 decel dibels but we have to be really specific about are we talking you know averages are we talking um instantaneous because a gunshot's going

1:20:30 to exceed 50 dibels but then the average of all the car noise it's actually have more damage than the same anyway this that's all I'm trying to add on that and generally I'm in aligned with councelor Rodley then council >> I think I'm aligned with councelor Rodley and Tela Buck as well. So, I think there's two parts to this and knowing that we got to get to the other room because we're going to have it's coming. It's library. >> You want to make her come back again? >> Oh, she may have to come back again. >> I welcome it. I I welcome the ongoing conversation. >> It's the it's the tension. I think what would help us is don't um is if you could and maybe we can get it done done with a memo because the thing where I'm having trouble following along is like what is the code today and what

1:21:17 are you asking >> and what are you asking us to change and even if it's just a graph that says here's what you allow today say yes to this >> you know and here's what we're actually asking asking for from a change perspective just getting in that just one simple graphic I is going to help clear our head uh you know ahead a lot and it sounds like we're down to maybe three total questions left >> um which is this question around noise right and then there's was question 9C >> and then maybe we can get this done in another half an hour but like we're going to have a room full of videos here in a second this is all really great stuff I I thought the research was really interesting but getting like getting this this question around noise right, is going to save a future council

1:22:03 a lot of headaches. >> All right, thank you very much. >> I'm going to call the Springfield City Council regular meeting to order with roll call. >> Mayor Van Gordon here, councelor Weber >> here, >> councelor Mo >> here, >> councelor Bradley >> here, >> councelor Buck >> here, >> and councelor Stout >> here. Thank you. Please join me for the pledge of >> allegiance.

1:23:01 for two times designated for public testimony this evening under public hearings in business from the audience. If you are attending in person, please complete the request a card located in front of the council chambers and turn them into the city recorder. If you're joining us online with a tablet, smartphone, or computer, please and wish to speak at either of those times, please use the raise hand feature in Zoom. The order of public testimony is as follows. Anyone in person in the council chambers and then anybody who has raised their virtual hand. First item, please. Mayor, the first item is Springfield Upbeat. Item number one is the 45th annual Springfield Public Library bookmark contest winners and Abigail Craig is here for this item.

1:23:49 >> Give us some instructions. There's a lot of people that were like, "Thank goodness this is the first item." >> We've given instructions. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'll be as quick as I can with you. This year, nearly 1,800 students from Springfield in grades kindergarten through 12th grade entered this bookmark contest with their eye-catching and creative bookmark artwork. All their designs were about reading libraries or the theme for this coming summer's summer reading program, which is plant a seed read. And they'll be up on display. Every single bookmark made all almost 1,800 will be in the youth gallery in the hall. We've gotten support from the Springfield Arts Commission to print the

1:24:34 bookmarks and to hang them in their youth gallery in March. But tonight, we're presenting all the winners and they've been had their bookmarks printed and we'll have them available in the library all year long. So, we're really excited with our 21 winners. Well, before we call them down and we're going to stack people in this well, I do I have heard it from a couple of counselors that we haven't seen our pile of uh new bookmarks and >> Okay, >> here. And there's a little secret because there's some there's some city bookmarks here. City staff [sighs] to hear from me. >> As we get started, this is something that's super exciting to um the the council. Um, this is something we look forward to every single year. You can

1:25:20 see the immediate question that people had is like, "Where's our stack of bookmarks?" Because this fills our books um, all year round. So, we're so excited to have you here tonight. And then I'm going to come down and we'll welcome people in. >> So, when I read your name, if you're here, you can bring your big bookmark up and you can say hello to Mayor Van Gordon and then we're going to line everyone up in a row from youngest to oldest. Oh, I'm on one end. >> Usually I think you're on. Yeah, you're going to be way down there. I'm not sure. Am I going to be next? Which side of you I'm going to be on, but we'll work on it. >> Okay. I'd like to call up Blair Meer, a kindergartener from Walterville Elementary.

1:26:08 We're just gonna keep going. And Elena Garris, who is a first grader from Walterville Elementary. Keep coming this way. And then we're gonna have Hansen Alvarado, a first grader from Walterville Elementary. We have a lot of artists. We have Jasper Davis, a first grader from Douglas Gardens Elementary. not here at this point, but we Sarah Blair, second grader from Ridge View Elementary.

1:26:53 Chelle Jacobson, a third grader from Guy Elementary. Oilia Goodman, a third grader from Thirsten Elementary. Sage Bar, a fourth grader from Walterville Elementary who also won last year. >> Missing tonight is Gideon Deleon Herrerero, a fourth grader from Yolanda Elementary. But we have a standin with the phrase. Say the phrase. >> Believe the phrase is read your buns off. >> [laughter] >> Hence the hot dog. We have Elean Evelyn

1:27:39 Slagger, fourth grader from Maple Elementary. Amora Bradley Sandival, a fourth grader from Ge Elementary. Not here tonight yet is Aliyah Barnett, a fifth grader from Maple Elementary. That's her bookmark up there. Halen Cole, fifth grader from Douglas Gardens Elementary, who also won last year. [laughter] >> Roxy Miller, a fifth grader from Centennial Elementary.

1:28:26 Emma Savalent, the fifth grader from Eugene Christian School, whose brother won last year. Family affair. Ariana Landa, a seventh grader from Thirstston Middle School. Oh, I missed one. Taran McCauley, eighth grader from Thirsten Middle School. Jacob Campbell, an 11th grader from Springfield High School. Did I do other Who is it? I read that one. And then we also I forgot one. Lyra Steagall. a second grader from Yolanda Elementary.

1:29:11 >> Yeah. >> Did I read Oh, I'm not reading everyone's names. Oh my goodness. Axel Contraz Carta, second grader from Two Rivers Do Rios Elementary. >> I did a jump. And Quinn Walp, third grader from Ridge Elementary. I didn't read them in correct order. I've been away all weekend. And I want to give a big thanks to all the um there's principles here and librarians from schools and all the people who helped to make this happen. So thank you so much everyone and congratulations Maybe two smaller ones in front. >> Kindergarteners, first graders, come in

1:29:57 the front. Be right here by the mayor. You got to stand right by the mayor. >> I forget. >> We got to get scooch a lot closer.

1:31:24 You cannot be both mayor and establish your capital. >> More than welcome to stay or exit for the rest of your evening. We are not expecting anybody to uh to stay. Thank you so much for coming. We are really excited uh to uh have seen your bookmarks. also staff would like to know how many cards you >> congratulations again next year.

1:32:24 Just pick up the pie. >> Yeah. >> Don't do this. >> No. If you say you're going to pick them up, it's going to be like 15 minutes late. >> That's why I'm telling her to do it out. All right, I think we have we're ready. Could you uh call the next item, please? >> Yes, mayor. Not quite as exciting, but the next item is the consent calendar. >> I move approval of the consent calendar. >> I will second. >> Neil, could you call the vote, please? >> Yes. Councelor Weber, >> yes. >> Councelor Mo, >> yes. >> Councelor Odley, >> yes. >> Councelor Buck, >> yes. >> And councelor Stout, >> yes. Thank you. >> Motion passes. Five yeses, zero nos. Next item, please.

1:33:09 >> Next item is public hearings. You have two one public hearing this evening. A consideration of alternative contracting method for the Springfield Depot. Alli Camp is here for this item. >> good evening, mayor and council. Uh my name is Ally Camp. I'm the economic development manager for the city. Thanks for having me tonight. Uh tonight staff are asking the council to hold a public hearing to consider an alternative contracting method, the design build method for deferred exterior maintenance on the historic Springfield depot and rail car. The design build method is beneficial for this project. It offers

1:33:55 integrated delivery between the historic review land use decision and the contracting solutions for the structure. Timeliness with the building remaining occupied. value engineering and material selection and cost savings with process communication and coordination efficiencies. The council briefing memorandum in your packet describes the proposed exterior maintenance scope of work and you are first introduced to this project scope and suitability of this contracting method at a work session on January 12th. A resolution is included for the council's consideration tonight in your packet. Uh, exhibit A of that resolution explains the legal applicability of the depot's project scope for this alternative contracting method. Should the hearing proceed and resolution be approved, the next steps

1:34:41 are to prepare and release a request for proposals for design build services. The contract once selected would return to council for award and decision. >> Is there any questions? All right, I'm going to go and open the public hearing. I have five cards. Uh so I will call two at a time and then we'll go from one person to the next. Uh first person is John Thomas and then the next person is Gary Swagger Swagger. Come on up John and Gary. There's two microphones. You're going to hit the microphone until it goes green and then you'll have three minutes.

1:35:29 John, can you hit the hit the button on the bottom? There you go. You are live. Uh >> my name is John Thomas. I was raised in Springfield. I think the only person that has more uh history in Springfield is councelor Mo is mine goes back to 1951. Uh been past president of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, past First Citizen, and was chairing the downtown citizen advisory committee, which first met in 2009, and councelor Mo is also a party to that uh discussion. This was before the Main Street revitalization, which was pretty remarkable in terms of what's happened down in Main Street. My testimony tonight is to address the RFP process as it would pertain to the rail car behind the Chamber depot office. In 1988, this car was given to the city by Alvin Reed, who owned Reed's Fuel and Trucking. Doc

1:36:14 Boils, owner of substantial property in the Industrial Way area, helped move the car to its present location, which is right behind the depot. Over the years, the car was neglected and had serious issues of deferred maintenance. Observing this, several past presidents and former chamber members organized a rail car restoration committee as a 501c3 entity. Several thousand dollars of direct financial aid and inind contributions were received, which allowed for power washing, rust removal, repainting, and restoring the interior electrical system. The interior of the car was full of excess furniture, wood scraps, metal, and the door was inoperable due to warping and twisted metal. The interior is now open with a

1:37:00 temporary door. The last item we need to address is the windows. The frames have rotted and significant environmental damage is occurring due to the weather. We do have a vendor who will respond to the RFP if this depot restoration is approved. This individual has all the original specifications as the car is on the historical registry and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest structure in Springfield as classified. Our hope is to continue this maintenance as we think it can serve as an important asset for future tourism and can complement the Springfield Museum for additional exhibit space. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you.

1:37:46 My name is Gary Schwiger. I'm from Eugene, Oregon. Um, my address is 3345 South Lambert Street. Mayor Van Gordon, counselor, staff. I'm here to support the action of the city council and the staff to exempt the contract to perform preferred maintenance on the Springfield depot and Southern Pacific rail car number 28170 from the competitive bidding requirements to utilize a request for proposal process. I'm a member of the Wamtt Cascade Model Railroad Club and thanks to Vonyie Mikkelson and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Uh we use the freight room at the depot for our monthly meetings of about 73 members. The depot is a building that is on the National Register of Historic

1:38:31 Places and Southern Pacific Rail Car is in the Washurn Historical Landmark Overlay District. This is a very attractive entry point. I would say that a number of cities would love to have something like this in as they come into the city to make sure that they understand what the city is all about. I think it's very important to to have an attractive uh uh entry point. Um by using alternative bidding approach, special care can be taken in the deferred maintenance of the structure and rail car. I agree with this the council briefing memorandum and the proposed resolution. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. The next two cards are Alan

1:39:17 Carter and Walt Molford. I'm Walt uh Malford. I live in Eugene uh 3836 Souza Street. Uh the reason I'm here is I'm also a member of the WAMT Cascade uh model railroad club and serve as their president right now. Um, one of the things that is uh important to uh the model railroad club is the

1:40:06 Springfield Depot. We uh many years ago when it was moved to the site that it is, we had donated $15,000, the club did, to help get it moved. Um, and graciously after several years of meeting in other places, excuse me, Bonnie uh Mickelson is uh allowing us to to meet uh there for our monthly meetings as Gary u uh told you. Uh, I too uh agree with the um uh doing the the preferred m or the deferred maintenance on the on the railroad car. um and the depot. Um both

1:40:54 are, I think, have historical value to the city and they certainly have a lot of interest to um uh folks uh in the city as a um it it really represents what part of what Springfield is, the railroad coming through and helping build the city. So, >> thank you. Go ahead. Yes, I'm Allan Ceretitech. I'm from Springfield. I've been born and raised in Springfield and I uh live at at Cedar Flat Road at Springfield. I've part of the Lama Cascade mile river

1:41:41 club and I'm here to help you know for the deferred maintenance of the station and I'm not used to doing this. Um, well, thank you guys for kind of if you can help. >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah. >> All right. Then the next card I have is Jo Le

1:42:41 just punch the green button. You are on and live right now. >> Okay. Um, thank you council and staff and thank you chamber and staff for taking action to undertake the deferred maintenance on the Springfield depot and the railway post office uh railway car 28170. Uh the depot is the last deep remaining depot in Oregon with Queen Anne architecture and two stories. It's listed as a city landmark and it's on the National Registry of Historic Sites. The rail car is within the LA the Washurn historic overlay district abuts the depot shares

1:43:26 the depot deck, the parking lot and the railroad character of the depot. The rail car is a combination car. It is a railway post office or RPO on the west one half and a baggage compartment on the east one half. The RPO function is specific and special. The letters were delivered to the rail car and postmarked on the car then sorted and delivered along that route. Springfield was included in this network of RPO routes. RPOS were phased out and ultimately terminated nationally. The last run being June 29, 1977

1:44:13 between New York and Washington. Given the historical status of the depot, the historical character of the rail car, the previous community investment in the depot and the RPO rail car, their proximity to each other, their geographic location, their welcoming entry to downtown, their use as a distinctive visitor center, their use as a gathering place, the need to continue continue chamber operations during the renovation. The staff recommendation should be implemented. It is entirely appropriate

1:45:00 to employ a contract bidding methodology and process which requires not only reliance on price but also other important factors which are necessary to obtain the best investment for the public. Thank you. >> Uh thank you. Please state your name and address for the record too. Joe Ley, 758 Crest Lane, Springfield, Oregon. Tonight's my birthday. >> Happy 65th birthday, General. >> Thank you. >> I have no other cards for this item. It looks like Vonnie Mickelson is raising

1:45:45 her hand to speak. >> Yes. And Vonnie, you should be able to unmute your microphone. All right. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and counselors. This is Bonnie Mickelson, president and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. And first and foremost, I want to wish Mr. Joe Ley happy birthday. And also I want to thank all of those who came out this evening uh to city council chambers to express their support for this project and the investment that the city council is looking at making in a place of pride and history for Springfield. So, I'd also like to express the Springfield Chamber support and uh

1:46:30 understanding that since the uh it was mentioned the building the depot was moved, if we can all imagine that moment in time when the building was deemed so important, important enough to Springfield back in in the late 1980s to move it several blocks and completely restore it to its original glory. Uh the Springfield Chamber has um uh called the depot its home and this is due to a strong partnership and collaboration with uh the city of Springfield. So, I would say with the chamber's interior renovations that we completed back in 2022 that made the space brought the space back to life and uh made it

1:47:15 attractive to host all kinds of community gatherings, meetings, workshops for businesses, student walk interviews, and um of course the wonderful folks of the Wamut Cascade Model Railroad Club who bring fun, enthusiasm, and incredibly strong steward ersship of that space and the history and of course what that building will be. Um uh I love the dropins that we have. I love uh hosting community organizations. I love it when people pass by and say, you know, or drop in and say, you know, I've I've driven by this building for years and years. I've lived here forever and I have never stopped in. It's exciting to be inside and be able to see it. Just imagine how

1:48:00 stunning the improvement and the um the improvement to that asset into the gateway of downtown Springfield will be with uh the dollars that are being considered for this uh reinvestment. And so with that, I want to thank everyone again once again who came out. I want to uh express my gratitude for city personnel who work to get this in front of you and to council and the mayor for your consideration and understanding the value of the investment that uh I believe truly uh having sat in the seat inside that chamber for years um and seen the eyes light up for the kids to the uh to the elder adults that uh it'll be enjoyed for generations to come. So

1:48:46 once again, thank you for the opportunity to express our support and we'll see you at the depot sometime soon. >> All right, thank you very much. Uh Neil, are there any more hands? >> No other hands for this item. >> I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. How people have discussion items? >> No. >> Okay. I move to adopt a resolution authorizing the use of alternative contracting method of design build and an exemption to competitive bidding requirements pursuant to OS279C.3352 >> Second. >> Could you call the vote please? >> Yes. Councelor Weber.

1:49:31 >> Yes. >> Councelor Mo. >> Yes. >> Councelor Rodley. >> Yes. >> Councelor Buck. >> Yes. And councelor Stout? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Motion passes. Five yeses, zero nos. Next item, please. >> We have a second public hearing. It's the fiscal year 26 supplemental budget number two. And Jessica Mummy is here for this item. >> Is this awardwinning Jessica Mummy? >> I wish. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Jessica Mummy. I'm the city's deputy finance director. Here this evening for a public hearing on supplemental budget number two. At various times during the fiscal year, finance staff become or come before council to request adjustments to our annual budget. These changes are planned activities to

1:50:18 recognize new revenue or to make other required changes. These adjustments to resources and requirements change the current budget and are processed through supplemental budget requests that are scheduled by the finance department. This is the second of three scheduled supplemental budgets to come before you this fiscal year. I wanted to very quickly highlight some key activity in this supplemental budget. One of those is to increase finance department operating expenditures by about $16,000 to support the Springfield Municipal Court becoming a court of record. Also, we are requesting to increase the fire department operating budget by $166,000. This is offset by revenue that was received by our fire department as they responded to the 2025 uh wildfires in

1:51:05 California in the Los Angeles area. We're also requesting that the police department operating budget be increased by $116,000. This is offset by grant revenue from the state of Oregon. And this is for the jailbased medications for opioid use disorders program. And finally, this supplemental budget implements a temporary reduction in street fund expenditures by nearly a half a million dollars to align with current revenue predict predictions. This is a prudent and proactive temporary adjustment to street fund spending in response to near near-term revenue variability. And with that, I'm available for any questions. >> Are there any questions? All right,

1:51:51 council Becca. >> Um, [clears throat] you know, again, this may be a little bit of a larger question, but with the street um with a reduction, what limitations are we going to have in terms of maintenance and repair? What's that going to what's that going to look like and and feel like to community members? Right now, we are just taking the proactive step to reduce the expenditures so that our um operations department and community development department do not spend the money in fiscal year 26 while ongoing discussions with the city manager and I believe ultimately council will be taking place in the near future. So, right now we're just halting their ability to expend that money while further discussions are taking place.

1:52:39 Councelor Weber. >> Oh, I'm I'm ready to Oh, we I still have to I still have to open the hearing and and councelor Buck, I think one of the big challenges we can continue to have with streets is not necessarily capital outlay, right? Because we've been fairly successful and the voters have been very generous with making sure that we have the money to really rebuild streets. It's this question about operations and maintenance that continues to be challenging statewide. Any other questions before I open the public hearing? All right, I'm going to go and open the public hearing. I have no cards for this item. Neil, do you have anybody online? No hands for this item.

1:53:24 >> Uh, I'm going to go I close the public hearing. >> No, we're ready. I move to adopt a resolution adjusting resources and requirements in the following funds. General, street, special revenue, building code, fire, local option levy, street capital, ambulance, vehicle and equipment, and SDC administration. >> Second. >> Could you call the vote, please? Yes. Councelor Reber, >> yes. >> Councelor Mo, >> yes. >> Councelor Rodley, >> yes. >> Councelor Buck, >> yes. >> And councelor Stout, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Five yeses, zero nos. >> Thank you, council. >> Thank you. Next item, please. Business from the audience. I have no cards for business from the audience. Do you have any hands online?

1:54:10 No hands for this item. Next item, please. Any business from the city council? Councelor Rodley. >> Thank you. I gave the mayor a heads up because I I actually wrote some notes because I had a few things that bubbled up over the past week that I wanted to make sure I said. Um, so first I want to thank all the people and the businesses who participated in Friday's general strike in Springfield and all the different meaningful ways that people came out and made their voices heard and participated in community. I I also want to do a special call out to all the officers of our Springfield Police Department who have been um providing extra support, mutual aid, deescalation, and backup for the many events and

1:54:55 activities that have been happening in Springfield and in our neighboring communities. A lot of these are just bubbling up um sort of organically and our officers of Springfield Police Department have [clears throat] been amazing in terms of just being out there supporting the community. I also want to call out, I know it's been a week or so, but all of the Springfield volunteers who participated in the historically long activation of the Egan warming center during the recent cold spell. Um, and I also want to appreciate all of the W3 neighbors who have reached out to me to share feedback and concerns around the new location at Centennial Mohawk. This was a >> testimony notes, >> a new year and um, it impacted the

1:55:42 community in different ways and I just want to thank everybody who was out there in all the ways to support that. Um, and finally, and this isn't something that we often do here in Springfield, so I'm going to I'm going to give it a run. Um I I have a possible work area that I'd like to propose if my council colleagues are amanable. And um I know that in my time in this role that I just sort of know and feel anecdotally that the city of Springfield prioritizes local businesses when we make purchases and procurement. We we talk about it, but what I do not know is if we have a clear policy and guidance around it. Um, and I also know that there are laws and

1:56:27 there are regulations around purchasing and procurement that we must follow. But what I'd really like to explore is how to expressly expressly support prioritizing local businesses and divesting from spending public dollars um with national or international companies who may be supporting or investing in programs and activities that are hurting Springfield residents. Um, this request is not as much about politics as it is about being very intentional and letting our Springfield values of community and belonging. And I was very moved um at the state of the city that that was something the mayor called out is how do we create a city and a community where people feel like they belong. Um, and how do we spend public resources

1:57:14 intentionally? So with my colleague support and agreement, I just want to ask the staff to provide information because I I can't give people things to do without everybody saying this is something we also want to work on. Um because I would like to know more about our current processes and policies and I suspect we are already doing so much of this. We just aren't necessarily telling the story of how we're doing it or the specific policies of how we evaluate and how we support local businesses. So, I'd really love to kind of lean in and see if we can strengthen and expand and support the policy to make sure we're aligning our purchasing and procurement with supporting our communities.

1:58:03 >> Nancy, so could you maybe you help us with maybe some additional information before we start giving out, you know, work directions? >> I can absolutely do that. I think, you know, um, we do make a lot of effort to support our local businesses whenever possible here in Springfield. I'll I'll give one tangible example that happened recently, which was the mayor's state of the city address using uh local musicians, local vendors, local the local florists to make that happen. You know, that's a singular event that we um use a lot of Springfield business to support us for. Um with respect to uh public purchasing, we do have a lot of laws and requirements about that. So that you know we can uh other elected bodies can make policy but you have to

1:58:48 look for the unintended consequences and one of the uh public procurement laws is to make sure that that procurement can be competitive to everybody. So that's something that I can talk with with the c with help with the city attorney and we can uh come back to probably with a briefing memorandum um as a starting point. Yeah, I think a briefing me memorandum would be appropriate just to give everybody the same information and then give a opportunity for folks to decide if they want to uh do uh additional work. >> All right, >> thank you very much. >> Anybody else? Okay. Uh so, state of the city last week. Um really really happy and I was really happy with how it turned out. the turnout from the public

1:59:33 and the reception to the message for all the work hard work that is being done in Springfield. This is my opportunity to s to say a couple of things. One of them is just again say thank you to the staff for doing a significant amount of work. Um we could not do this as a city without you and also just to recognize a couple of the staff members who worked so hard on this. Elise, Laura Lynn, Mike who really put this together. um and made a lot of the programming behind the scenes work out in a spectacular and a professional way that allowed the city to um put their uh their their right foot ahead and in particular right at least I could not have done this without you and I'm

2:00:18 really grateful for all the support that uh you provided and I will give people one example people are talking about that last slide right which is you know was a stunning picture of everything that we've done last year and that was a conversation that went through about three iterations and I think the first time I said how about this said I don't know and she worked diligently and turned what what was an idea of mine into a vision into something that really represents this community really well so I'm really grateful for the work at least anybody else all right next item please any business from the city manager >> one quick thing I also want to talk about state to the city. It seems like the topic dujour. Uh I want to thank the

2:01:04 mayor and council for your leadership and your participation in 2025. Uh I always look forward to say the city because it's a look back on just how much work we did. you know, we go so fast and we have so much and you are all volunteers and just taking a moment to really appreciate the work that you've done and the leadership you've um you've shown plus the countless hours that you have given to this community is is really important. Um I really appreciated the theme and the tone of our state of the city. I I felt like it really emphasized how Springfield is truly special in how we foster community, how we embrace our differences, and we and we've used those differences to bind us together. um a

2:01:50 real message of belonging and also a clear vision from the mayor of one that's that's positive, one where we want to have, you know, our the children that are here stay in the community or come back to the community and the people that to be able to age in their homes and all of those wonderful things that you want as part of a of a thriving community. So, I I thought it was a wonderful uh event and I just really appreciate I too appreciate the work of all of the staff that was involved to make that happen and um hosting that in the Wildish Theater which is such a great asset to our downtown. Um I would re be remiss to not mention that. So, uh thank you mayor and council. >> Any business from the city attorney? >> Uh no business. Thank you.

2:02:36 >> All right, that is our last item. We are adjourned for the evening. Thank you everybody. You have a good night.