{ "city": "bend", "canonicalVideoId": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "source": { "meeting": { "fileName": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.json", "path": "data/cities/bend/source/meetings/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.json", "sourceStem": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "variantCount": 1, "variantFiles": [ "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.json" ], "metadata": { "videoId": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "title": "City Council Business Meeting", "date": "2026-03-18", "committee": "City Council Business Meeting", "detailUrl": "https://bend.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872", "videoUrl": "https://bend.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872", "attachments": [ { "title": "Agenda", "url": "https://bend.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872" } ], "videoProvider": "granicus", "videoProviderId": "872", "rawData": { "date": "2026-03-18", "clipId": "872", "agendaUrl": "https://bend.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872" } } }, "transcript": { "fileName": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt", "path": "data/cities/bend/source/transcripts/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt", "sourceStem": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "size": 143672, "variantCount": 1, "variantFiles": [ "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt" ], "rawHash": "2222c3def87fdbf0de73731127306917337d0ef26244146d18b2baab6c354558", "textHash": "2117bcf6c2cd08ad5c176792af5fe763d31b225d8de45a137f9460bdb856da56", "entryCount": 1811, "wordCount": 14271, "speakerCount": 9, "speakers": [ "Ditto", "Franzosa", "Jane", "Kebler", "Mendez", "Moranis", "Perkins", "Platt", "Riley" ], "urls": { "srt": "/bend/api/source/transcript/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt", "text": "/bend/api/source/transcript/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.txt" } } }, "parsed": { "persistedAt": "2026-04-14T03:48:24.120Z", "canonicalVideoId": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "meeting": { "title": "City Council Business Meeting", "date": "2026-03-18", "committee": "City Council Business Meeting", "videoUrl": "https://bend.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872", "detailUrl": "https://bend.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872", "attachments": [ { "title": "Agenda", "url": "https://bend.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=872" } ], "sourceVideoId": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "sourceFileName": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.json", "metadataVariantCount": 1, "metadataVariantIds": [ "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting" ] }, "transcript": { "sourceFileName": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt", "sourcePath": "/Users/thedjpetersen/code/seacc/data/cities/bend/source/transcripts/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt", "variantCount": 1, "variantFiles": [ "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.srt" ], "entryCount": 1811, "wordCount": 14271, "speakerCount": 9, "speakers": [ "Ditto", "Franzosa", "Jane", "Kebler", "Mendez", "Moranis", "Perkins", "Platt", "Riley" ], "hash": "2117bcf6c2cd08ad5c176792af5fe763d31b225d8de45a137f9460bdb856da56" }, "tags": [ "city:bend", "org:bend-city-council", "meeting:bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "committee:city-council-business-meeting", "year:2026", "month:2026-03", "date:2026-03-18" ], "text": "order and we will begin with our\nroll call. Councilor franzosa.\nMendez: mendez.\nRiley: riley.\nKebler: kebler.\nPerkins: perkins.\nMoranis: moranis.\nPlatt: platt.\nso we're going to start with\nthe good of the order first with our legislative update from\nstaff.\ngood evening, council, I'm kite schneider and with me is\nsarah hudson and we're just here to give a brief update of the short session.\nAs you know, it ended earlier this month.\nWe put together an issue summary trying to highlight the most\nimportant bills to the city, but\neric is our contract state lobbyist, so the one on the\nground and we wanted to give you a chance to hear directly from\nhim on the more important bills this session.\nthanks, kate.\nFor the record, eric kansler, city of bend lobbyist.\nIt's good to see you all. I think there's really four\nprimary issues to talk about.\nAs kate alluded, we have formalized legislative\npriorities, a press release about where we focused our\nattention, but in terms of on-the-ground interaction and\nwhat we were really invested in,\nthere was primarily the lodging\ntax issue, the protection of\nshelter funding, and then a couple housing issues related to\nurban reserves and complete\ncommunities.\nThe effort to gain flexibility has been going on for a long time.\nThe first time I engaged on the the city's behalf was 2017,\nalmost a decade ago.\nIt took a lot of buildup. A lot of past efforts built on\nthemselves and led to the\nsuccess this session, and effectively what happened is I\nthink you all know that under\nthe historic regime, 70% of the lodging tax dollars had to be\nearmarked for tourism and\nmarketed oriented purposes,\nleaving 30% for other things,\ngeneral fund or a mix of responsibilities.\nThe 70/30 has now shifted to 50/50, and that is true whether\nor not you're lodging tax\nincrement is pre-2003, a lot of\nwhich was grandfathered in. Post-2003 and already existing\nor whether it's prospective in\nthe future, so bend, our health\ncare pre-2003 lodging taxes is\nbetter than 50/50, so this doesn't affect us in that regard.\nThere are local governments, cities, and counties\ngrandfathered in at a very high ratio. Wayne county was grandfathered\nin to use all of their increment for marketing.\nNow they have a considerable amount of flexibility.\nSo there's flexibility we can consider with the 2013 increment\nand then there's flexibility\nshould the city decide to consider another increment in\nthe future.\nAnd at a high level, that is really -- the bill is very\nsimple in that regard. There was one additional element\nmoved into the restricted\nportion which involves what the\nlegislature turned resiliency grants for small restaurants and the lodging industry.\nIt was a bit of an odd fit. It was important for getting the\nbill out of the house, but nobody really loved it.\nThere was consideration about whether they should strip it\nout, send it back to the house for a clean fix.\nThey left it in, moved it\nthrough, so it's quite possible that I don't know if the\nlegislature is going to come back in the long session and\nre-look at that one little element, but I don't think it's\nreally a game changer. It's just an additional thing\nthe restricted portion could be used for.\nBut it's not just a handout. You need a business or\nrestaurant experiencing some\nsort of hardship was the intent.\nSo that's a component of it as well.\nSo moving on -- and that was our number-one policy priority.\nOur number-one budgetary\npriority in materials of\ndiscrete budgetary priorities\nwas protecting the shelter funding established through a lot of work including by the\ncity of bend and others ahead of\nand during the 2025 session.\nThere was a lot of speculation that that allocation for shelter\nfunding which is pretty bare bones for essential facilities\naround the state would get robbed to pay for some other things.\nOf course, we had maybe six\nmonths out before session really dire-looking revenue forecasts\nand they got incrementally\nbetter as we got into session.\nso fortunately, that allocation\nwas kept entirely intact and so that means -- that was our\nnumber-one budgetary priority,\nso on those two fronts, we did very well.\nOf course, we were part of large groups of people who were on the\none hand fighting for lodging tax flexibility and on the other\nhand protecting shelter funding.\nIt certainly wasn't the city of bend leading the charge, but it\nwas a really good group of people and we were at the\nforefront with them.\nMore specifically to our initiatives are two concepts\nthat we talked about I think the\nlast time I met and presented in\nfront of you all prior to session.\nBoth in the land use and housing realm.\nThe first is related to urban\nreserves. We've spent a number of years\nhere trying to improve the statute and rules standard for\nhow you can designate a 50-year urban reserve to allow us to\nbring in a 50-year land supply that's actually conducive\ntowards efficient infrastructure and building housing.\nAnd I would say bend has been at the forefront at the state level\nof the effort to improve the urban reserve process.\nWe passed a big bill, senator\nbroadman was a sponsor in '25, and there was one piece of\nunfinished business around how\nyou can account for the cost of serving potential parcels\noutside the ugb.\nWe were stuck with the regime previously where oftentimes we'd\nhave to bring in very expensive to serve parcels, and that\ntranslates to increase in housing costs.\nSo we were able to get that through in an amendment to a\nmuch larger bill, house bill 4037.\nIt was sort of a housing omnibus bill and now that's passed\nthrough what's required to just\nliterally adopt that into their rule making on urban reserves.\nAnd then lastly in terms of the\nbig issues that we were involved\nin is the topic of -- you can look at it a couple of different ways.\nI would look at it as a\nprotection of complete community planning.\nThis city, if not more than\nother cities, has made a\ndeliberate effort to mix uses, neighborhood serving commercial\ntogether with residential, walking, biking, transit, trying\nto blend all of those things and create the neighborhood that\npeople want to live in at all of\nthe price points that they need.\nAnd in the '23 or the '21 session, senate bill 8 was\npassed that created a by-right ability to do affordable housing projects anywhere in the city.\nWe broadly supported that, still broadly do support it.\nActually lobbied in that session\nto make -- I think it was '21 --\nto make it more expansive.\nOne part we kind of overshot and this is coming to light in other\ncommunities around the state is\nwhen you've got these\nneighborhood customer nodes, one\nor two projects can really take\nthat neighborhood-serving commercial opportunity away entirely.\nObviously that's a big issue in this community.\nit's becoming a big issue in other communities.\nAlso as an amendment to 4037, we moved through language that kind\nof got a foot in the door and protected those\nneighborhood-serving commercial areas.\nThat's not going to be the end of the story in the interim, and\nI've been in pretty regular contact with the housing staff\nin the governor's office about\nhow to take this conversation forward.\nI think there'll be a really robust interim conversation\nabout what cities need and what\ncommunities want in terms of complete community planning.\nAnd I, for one, am very excited\nabout being able to to get what we need in the moment and create\nan opportunity I think for a\nmuch more robust and comprehensive solution around\nall of those needs.\nSo those are the main issues. Obviously there were a bunch of\nother issues, but I know we're\nshort on time here tonight. >> yeah, any questions from council?\nWe sent out some information on this as well.\nGo ahead.\non the sb 1551 related to\nwildfire and the hoas, it all\napplies to existing hoas, as well?\nIt just removes their ability to\nset any any restrictions on materials?\nthere was a previous bill I'm\nthinking back to when there was\na governor-declared drought that\nthe hoa couldn't stop you from watering your lawn.\nI don't think this has a pre-condition like that.\nin my understanding, it was around landscaping too.\nJust water-wise, plants and\nthings like that that the hoa\ncouldn't prevent people from using those.\nthe other question I had was\non the 4037, there's a\ndescription in the issue summary\nthat talks about -- it prohibits a public hearing to consider the\napplication for developments\nthat are subject to clear and objective review standards.\nCan you just talk a little bit more and maybe it's more a\nquestion for staff.\nHow would this show up in our community?\nthat would probably be a\nbetter question for staff, but I\ncan say thematically it was --\nthat's part of expediting. If you're going to do things\nwith clear established standards, do you need to go\nthrough all the public participation notice and whatnot.\nAnd I think that is indicative of a number of policies that\nwe've seen where they're trying\nto speed things along if you're needing those clear and objective standards.\nBut in terms of the specific change, I'd probably want to\ndefer to planning staff on that.\nwas that in response to -- I forget the name of the\ncommunity, sherwood, where they passed some kind of -- was this\na response to that? >> I don't think so.\nwas it sherwood?\nsherwood has passed some\nlocal measures that are clashing\nwith state directives, but this\nwas more of how we could speed up the housing process.\nand I don't know if it's a response to what the city of\nsherwood has done, but I think what sherwood has done and what\nthis bill did in that regard, they are opposite ends of the\ncontinuum of views on how applications for housing\ndevelopment should work. I think that's accurate.\nI mean, is there an example of how something would be treated differently in our\ncommunity recently with this\nbill in place? >> I would probably want to talk\nto planning staff, and I don't know if it's an issue of people\nbeing treated, it's what applications for needed housing\ncan be subject to in terms of processing.\nBut it does prohibit local jurisdiction from requiring a\npublic hearing prior to making a decision on an application that\nis subject to clear and\nobjective standards because it seeks (Indistinct).\nI'll provide some information and put it in the council memo\nso you can get all the details. >> okay, thanks.\nany other questions? Okay, I did also want to\nhighlight just in theme with our meeting tonight that there was a\nlot of work the legislature did\non immigration rights and also a bill under reforming care and we\ndid weigh in on a couple of those in support of those for\nour community which did pass.\nAny other questions for staff? Okay.\nthank you.\nmany of you helped us with\ntestifying orally or with\nletters, so I just wanted to thank council for their\nengagement this session. >> and thank our legislators for\ngetting so much done.\nyeah, I think that is important as well.\nOur legislators were deeply involved in a lot of these\nissues and also as well we didn't mention the bigger\nrevenue picture they needed to solve. Our senator and representatives\nwere key on these issues. We were able to work closely\nwith with staff and our electeds, and that's important.\nthe bend delegation had a very good session.\nI think the central oregon delegation broadly is kind of\ncoming into its own, starting to\ngel gel, and that's\nas well.\nall right, thank you.\nAll right, that will move us into council action and reports.\nAnd so before we get into individual reports, I wanted to\nstart with a report out from our neighborhood roundtable that happened on thursday and just\nhave a little discussion around that.\nSo for folks who weren't there\nor didn't know about it, this\nwas a new format. The roundtable, we meet as\ncouncil and sit in a discussion tail and have\ntable and have a listening discussion rather than a formal meeting.\nThe format of this meeting was a presentation from staff about some of the issues that are\ngoing on in southeast bend where there's a lot of growth and\nchange and infrastructure investment to lay the scene.\nThen we sat at the table with three neighborhood districts in\nthat area to talk about what they'd like to see and some\nissues and concerns on a couple\nof topics we knew they wanted to\ntalk about, wildfire,\nneighborhood issues, and folks\ncould talk to city staff, get questions answered, councilors\nto mingle with folks.\nFrom my understanding, it was very successful. I'd love hear feedback from\ncouncil on that format and talk about where we can go next.\nWe also have multiple different neighborhoods now asking us to\nhave the same type of meeting for their corner of town which I\nthink is great. So reflections from councilors\non how that went and then we can talk about what we want to do next.\nDoes anybody have any thoughts?\nI loved that format.\nDitto: ditto.\nI thought it was amazing to have so many staff present with\nso many community members where a community member would come up\nand have a question and if I didn't know the answer, I could\nsay you need to go and talk to this staff person over here and\noff they'd go and someone else\nwould come up, so I feel like there was lots of circulating\nand information sharing and lots of good questions answered.\nSo I thought it was great.\nI think the real question for us\nis how many of these can we do.\nright.\nI think it was really helpful\nfor people in that part of town to get the bigger picture of\nwhat's going on and for folks who haven't connected as much\nwith the planning efforts that have gone on in the past to come\nand get up to speed. I think people really\nappreciated that, and I think there was a lot of additional\nquestions it generated, but some aha moments as well.\nOh, there's actually more of this happening that I understood\nand anticipated. I didn't know that project was\ncoming soon in terms of the transportation improvement.\nAnd I think that kind of information sharing is really\nvaluable in a community. >> steven?\njust the fact, really kudos\nto the planning staff and our transportation talking about\nreally just as you said, councilor riley, there is a lot\nof thinking going on. There's a lot of forward\nthinking going on and I saw a\nlot of ahas in the audience of folks, particularly when they\nwere building out showing how the transportation system had evolved over time.\nThat was so effective and so many people come up and talk to\nme, so eric, really well done on the team for that.\nThat really got the message out\nwell and I'd love to see that in the other four corners around\ntown.\nI'd love to see that. >> right.\nSo I think we've had a specific request that I've seen from our\nsouthwest neighborhoods, but I know other neighborhood groups\nare interested as well.\nI don't know what the next step, eric, would be?\nMaybe in the next quarter, try to find another time we can do\nanotherone of these? >> there's general support from\nstaff, now that we've built the\nmodel, to do it in groups of neighborhoods. That makes a lot of sense.\nSo we'll come back with a plan\non exactly when and we'll poll council to see when you're\navailable and plan for a similarly structured event where\nwe have direct engagement,\nroundtable discussion, and some level-set presentations as part\nof that format.\nI just wanted to do a\nshout-out to renee mitchell for\nbeing the vortex for making this first one happen.\nThere was a lot of learning and it's the first time and I think\nwe'll get more efficient, but many staff participated and I\nappreciate everybody who was there, but in particular renee\njust really pulling this together and making it happen.\ngreat, yeah.\nAnd shoutout to old farm, larkspur, and southeast bend for\nhelping get the word out, it was\nwell attended which was great. >> can I point out, I think\nfollowing on what your comment\nwas, councilor mendez, we have a couple of outstanding\nroundtables we've committed to\nholding with the human rights and equity commission,\nelectrification fees separately,\nand some other things, so I just\nwant to kind of raise that flag of our ability to kind of meet\nall of these requests as well as have our business meetings and\nwork sessions and we're taking a\nbreak at some point, JULY, AUGUST, so I would really love\nto see the full calendar\npicture. >> to make sure we're meeting\nour agenda on the work that needs to get done.\nI'll actually going to talk about that in my report tonight.\nWe're going to send out a survey. I'm going to propose -- I'll\ntalk about it in my report tonight.\nsince we're going to talk\nabout schedule later and survey council, I think fitting the\nroundtables into that idea of what might be happening next and\nwhat we should prioritize makes\na lot of sense. >> okay, thank you.\nokay, so moving to individual\nreports, councilor franzosa?\nyes, I attended a meeting of\nthe central oregon\ntransportation committee, the odot feedback committee, and so\nwe had some further discussions about the project that central\noregon would be putting toward to odot for funding.\nIt was not a public meeting. I think our next public meeting\nis APRIL 9th where we'll be actually voting and then really\ndetermining what projects go forward. So I'll actually forward that\nspreadsheet to everyone so you\nguys can look at it.\nThat's been my activity. >> councilor mendez?\nyeah, thank you.\nOn saturday, MARCH 7th, I attended civics lab human\nlibrary edition in redmond.\nThat was a good experience to\ntalk with people about basically\nhow people feel about belonging in their community.\nAnd it was an opportunity to meet people I hadn't met before\nin some cases and in some cases\nfamiliar faces, but to talk\nabout an issue that I think is\ncentral for all of us up here and people perceive it in different ways.\nAnd I think it was a good\nopportunity to hear different perspectives.\nSo that was a welcome opportunity.\nAnd yesterday, MARCH 17th, the bend metropolitan planning\norganization and budget\ncommittee met and recommended passing its fiscal year 2027\nbudget.\nThe two items of note on there\nwere some discussion of concerns about the future of federal\ntransportation funding. There's a lot up in the air\nright now and nobody really\nknows what congress is going to do. And that could have some\nimportant effects for us locally.\nAnd we also discussed the\nallocation of state highway\nfunds for street preservation and safety and transit initiatives.\nThere's a large amount of discretion over how those funds\nare allocated, so we had some discussion about whether we felt\nlike we wanted to revisit that allocation.\nAnd I think that we'll continue to have that discussion as we\nmove forward. >> great, councilor riley?\none, I just wanted to say thank you to a couple folks.\nOne was the folks at embrace bend who organized the civics\nlab and the human library thing. I also participated in that and\nthoght it was a great event. I went to -- I wanted to thank\nthe organizers of a film shown\nup at cocc last friday. It tells the story of the\nkilling of a young palestinian girl in gaza and the adults in\nthe palestinian red cross in the west bank trying to reach and save her.\nIt's a recreation of what happened a year-and-a-half ago.\nVery powerful, very moving film about all that's going on in\nthat part of the world. And in particular, there was a\ngentleman named omar who joined\nus live after the film from ramallah and the west bank.\nHe was one of the adults\nportrayed in the film and was working in the red crescent\noffice when this all transpired.\nHim making the effort, it was 5 A.M. In the morning his time\nwhen we showed the film. It was his first speaking\nengagement in the U.S. And it was all virtual, so I want to\nthank him and his translator who\nwas from the washington D.C. Area as well.\nI went on a tour of home-made toffee.\nThey're in a building that's strictly organic coffee, and I\nwant to thank don mill for making that happen and randy who\nwas the owner and ceo hosting us\nand talking with us honestly about all the challenges she\nfacing, including some she experienced with the city of\nbend in terms of getting some permits. There was interesting learning\nthere. Councilor platt and mayor kebler\nwere also there. We already talked about the\nroundtable. The last thing I wanted to share\nwith folks, the board meeting\nlast week, we agreed to support\nthe central oregon civic action\nproject which josh burgess started.\nCioc is going to be acting as a fiscal agent to help them get\nstarted as a non-profit and hopefully receive a pretty big\ngrant to help them become an independent organization and\nfund their activities over the next several years.\nEric sheridan, his report to us last week about an event coming\nup on APRIL 7th from 1 to 3 in redmond.\nThere's an overview of the civic assembly tool and what it's\nabout and how it can be used in communities. I plan to go.\nIf anybody wants to go, reach out to me and we can figure out\nhow to get there.\nSo I'm pleased that cioc is going to be helping launch that.\nI think it's a valuable tool that could be used\n(Indistinct). >> all right, councilor perkins?\nwell, first I guess shoutout\nto all the teachers who are doing all the important work\nthis week of doing school conferences. I've had many, many conferences\nand have many more tomorrow. But just thank you to them for\nall that they're doing.\nI guess picking three things,\none is the coordinated houseless\nresponse office board met and we\ngot an update on the\npoint-in-time count and we're\nhoping to get that information next month.\nThere were some data issues interestingly not with the\nunsheltered but more so in the\nshelters with coordination, and so they are frantically and\ndiligently making sure that the\ndata that we do receive as a community is as correct as it\ncan be.\nI wanted just to highlight sort\nof the importance of funding.\nWe were able to, with our small\namount of money that we had at\nthe response office, did an rfp\nsort of to fill for service\nproviders and organizations to\nhelp fill any gaps that they have in services that they're\nproviding. And there were 23 applications,\nwhich is the most that coic has ever received for an rfp which\ngoes to show you what we're dealing with here.\nAnd these are all organizations that you have heard of.\nI'd like to highlight the ones\nthat we did decide to fund.\nOne of them is an antitrafficking project.\nThis provides rapid rehousing\nfor youth who are in danger or\nare currently being trafficked.\nWe gave some money to bend church for I think it's called\ntheir open door program, which\npeople can come and get things\nthat they need, toiletries or\nfood or just any kind of supplies.\nWe gave money to saving grace for obviously for domestic\nviolence survivors, but this is\nfor finding emergency shelter or\nmotel placements for saving grace.\nAnd we gave money to habitat for humanity. These are for people that are\nnot in habitat homes but are in homes and have an issue,\nsomething that needs fixing in their homes that they can not\nafford.\nthis goes in and says we'll replace your window -- it keeps\npeople in their homes, so it's a\ngreat one too, and we gave money\nto st. Vincent de paul of redmond.\nIt felt good to give what we could.\nAnd to jump off that, today I\nwas able to sort of pitch the\nbend business roundtable group\nas a representative from the coordinated housing response office.\nI've been talking about how we've been actively trying to\nfind a public-private\npartnership in order to get more funding.\nAnd this would be funding for\nhelping get our workforce that\nis homeless, that is experiencing homelessness,\nfinding some more stable housing, because there are a lot\nof our workforce that is actively homeless.\nI've shared this statistic a lot. But 20% of the people that live\nin our emergency shelter, that\nare sleeping on cots every night, go to work every day, so\nwe need to do something as a community to support that.\nSo we are trying to get -- the response was fantastic.\nThere are a lot of people, a lot of businesses that really care\nabout this. They know some of these people\nare their employees, so we're\ngoing forward with awesome purpose and enthusiasm, and I\nhope that we can see something\ncome out of this in the near future.\nAnd then finally, just wanted to\nshare a little bit about the commission meeting. we will talk a little bit more\nabout the resolution later, but\njust to summarize the gist of the conversation that the human\nrights and equity commission had\non this, they saw it as a yes/and. So yes, we're doing this\nresolution, and what more can we do as a city.\nBecause there are a lot of\npeople that are living in fear.\nWe also got an update on the\nequity process with hiring the\nnew individuals for the city of bend and restructuring, and I\nwould say the summary of those comments were how do we do\nbuy-in and what's going to be different this time around.\nThey wanted to make sure there was going to be something\ndifferent.\nAnd then finally, we talked with\nbend duncan, the equity consultant, about prioritizing\nthe massive amount of work that hrec wants to do, that the city\nwould like for hrec to do, that the community wants hrec to do,\nand that conversation is going to continue.\nall right, thank you. Councilor norris?\nyes,\njust briefly, I attended the southwest meeting as well\nand I appreciated the turnout and the tenure and the\nconversation. Everyone is really respectful\nand it was a good dialogue, so I\nappreciated that.\nParks and rec meeting along with\nwall my fellow councilors. Great to find more opportunities\nto work together with bprd.\nThat's it. >> councilor platt?\nI had the honor of going to\nthe provost reception at the\ncascades where they were talking\nabout what those funds are going to do and were able to point\nover to the big hill and say that big hill is going to be\ngone and they're going to have this fantastic facility that's\ngoing to serve a lot of the needs for the student body there.\nIt's been a long time coming and that was really great.\nThey were just glowing at that ability. >> and community members will\nhave access to it as well. >> exactly.\nyeah, it's going to be beautiful.\nThe planning commission is going to bring timber yards coming\nback our away, going to the planning commission. An interesting discussion, a\ncouple last week. And then I think I'll leave it\nthere. >> okay, thank you.\nYeah, we did have a joint meeting with the bend parks and\nrec district board last night, which I thought was really great\nand we had a good chance to talk\nabout how we can both work together on housing and\naffordable housing in particular but also some other projects\nwe're working together on including the riverfront project\nand our bridges over in drake park and along the river and how\nwe can improve those and work together on that.\nSo more to come, already started talking with eric about how to\nstructure our leadership meetings and get us to a point\nfor recommendations for each of the bodies around the housing\ntopics. Eric and I were at the rural\nfire district meeting on\nlong-term funding and so we will\nbe having a work session in MAY that we're going to invite the\nrural fire board to sit with us for part of that and talk about\nthe plan that we've come up\nwith, which is very succinctly\nto look at renewing our fire levy in 2028 and immediately\nafter that looking at the feasibility study for what other\nlong-term funding options might be possible. In the meantime, we are\ncurrently doing a study around\nour ems and ambulance costs and what those are going to look\nlike and how we can recover those and going forward from there.\nSo looking forward to having them here with us and discussing\nand finalizing that plan.\nWent to dvba's meeting this morning. Good discussion as always.\nOne thing to highlight, we reflected back our discussion on\nfranklin, which they were thankful for.\nThey are working on a paid\nparking plan to sort of take to their stakeholders and bring to\nus in JUNE when they do an update. That will be the next time we\nhear about that from them. Otherwise, we're looking forward\nto the city events, one in MAY just down the street here at one\nof the local business parking\nlots that we're putting together and that will be great to\ncoincide with one of the firth first fridays.\nI had a chance to sit in this\nroom with a bunch of cub scouts\ntoday and they're learning about local government. It was basically a little mini\ntown hall. I got asked everything from when\nare we getting an in and out to\nhow I get elected. Really good questions actually,\nroundabouts and all sorts of things, so that was really nice\nand they always like when they\nget to come up and use the gavel. Everyone took a turn.\nWith that, I think we are done with our council action and\nreport section, so we'll move on to visitors section. This is the time for members of\nthe public to give us your comments. And our rules are that you\naddress the council as a body, not individually.\nThat you come on up to a table if you're here in person and\nthere's a timer over here that\nwill show your two minutes and it will blink yellow at you when\nyou have 30 seconds left. And we ask that you be\nrespectful in your comments and\nthat you not disrupt the meeting with your comments tonight.\nOkay, so let's start with our online, because we just have\none, so we'll have michelle go\nand then we can move to our in-person. >> great.\nIs the audio working okay?\nyes, we can hear you, michelle, hold on one second.\ngood evening, yes, that\nsoutheast bend roundtable was\ngreat, asking city planners\nquestions in the booth and the\nroundtable itself. So there was a roundtable\nquestion, what commercial development is desired.\nThe responses were verbally recapped, however a key item was\nmissed in the verbal recap. Southeast bend clearly said we\ndo not want for this gas stations approved across from\nelementary schools. The no gas station response\nwasn't in the verbal recap, so firstly I'm here tonight to make\nsure it gets in the public record.\nClear response, no gas stations.\nSecondly, I'd like to confirm if the conditions that got us that\ngas station by the school are still in place.\nAnd if another gas station would\nget approved by this city council.\nBasically, I'm asking if any\ndecision to update the planning\ntext of the zoning law and the associated 13 conditions was\nmade or has any decision been\nmade as to how council\ninterprets that zoning? Specifically auto-intensive uses\nlike a gas station across from our kids' elementary school.\nIf no decisions to make changes\nwere done, then no decision is a decision.\nAnd the council has left in place the exact same conditions\nthat got us that gas station\nacross from an elementary school.\nOur neighborhood had over 2500 signatures in a petition, a\nwebsite, we raised $10,000. We had a lot of activism.\nWe need to put our money into making sure council doesn't\napprove gas stations or enable conditions that permit it.\nWhy does this matter? Beyond the obvious negative\nimpacts, we've already had one\nschool child hit on a bike on a roundabout. Thankfully, the child is okay.\nBut these hits and near misses\nare occurring before the gas station and drive-through are\nbuilt is horrifying. None of us wants a further\ntragedy or have another gas administration approved near an\nelementary school. I would appreciate a response as\npart of the public record on behalf of those 2500 people that\nwere active in our community on this issue.\nThank you. >> thank you.\nEarly last year, we changed the cc zone to not allow\nauto-dependent uses, so that's been done.\nSo thank you. >> thanks.\nokay, so that will move us\ninto in person, so let's start\nwith johnathan westmoreland. And please introduce yourself\nand state whether you live in the city of bend.\nhi, I live in bend. Bear with me, I am going to try\nfor the first time to not read\nthis verbatim and actually have a conversation.\nThere was a number I want you to\nstick with you guys today,\nthat's 45%. I scraped from the league of\noregon cities the e-mail addresses for all the city\nemployees including your own. There were 62 of them.\n28 of them have been involved in data breaches.\nThat's almost half, 45%.\nSome of those data breaches involved password data.\nI'm saying this to you not as\nlike a gotcha but this is why\nend-to-end encryption is such an important deal.\nAnd sb 1516 passed, and I think that's great.\nThere's a lot of good stuff in there.\nBut I'd like for bend to see\nthat as a floor and not the ceiling.\nAnd as you go through contracts\nwith these vendors, especially\nfor security, just be very\ndiligent and make sure that the public's security and data\nprivacy rights are being observed. So moving forward, I've got some\nquestions that I think you\nshould be asking yourself. One, at the state capitol, why\nwere so many ordinary citizens willing to take time out of\ntheir lives to advocate for\nhaving end-to-end encryption\ndefined in the bill.\nTwo, why did flock, axon lobby against this?\nAfter learning about flock's\ndata security practices and\ncanceling flock in JANUARY, how\ndo you feel knowing that axon\nand vera mobility currently have partnerships with flock and how\nare you going to protect bend\nresidents from corporations in the future.\nI gave this to her. I'll e-mail you one every week\njust to open a conversation with\nyou and get your internet\nbubbles and algorithms that are\nnot going to show you what they're going to show me and my software friends.\nthank you very much.\nall right, thank you.\ntodd? ?\nhi, I'm todd.\nI live in bend.\nand I'm speaking on behalf of the southern crossing\nneighborhood association as chair.\nWe were pleased to see you had a southeast bend roundtable.\nI recently asked representatives of the southeast bend and\ncentury west neighborhood districts if they would like to\nparticipate with us in a roundtable for southwest bend.\nI explained that southern crossing's focus was on the\nbond, brookswood, and reed market given all the growth in the area.\nThey said they were interested in discussing that as well.\nWe would like to meet soon, since some council funding\ndecisions are coming up that are\nrelevant to these discussions.\nIn the near term, an nssp project for road crossing of\nreed market will come before you.\nOn our website, you will find our counterproposal that is a\nmore comprehensive solution to the problems on reed market just\nwest of U.S. 97. I will send you an e-mail by\ntomorrow morning with more details.\nLast JULY, we asked council to\nreject the same nssp project for a long list of reasons.\nWe hope this money can be more wisely spent on a better\nsolution. If you would like to better\nunderstand both this proposal\nand our proposal for the roundabout, I would be glad to\ngive you a personal tour on-site. Feel free to respond to my e-mail.\nYou're also welcome to attend\nour zoom board meeting tomorrow at 5 where we will be discussing\nthese issues.\nSwitching to parking, when the glass water townhomes began\nconstruction on the site across\nfrom bend parks and rec headquarters, we lost an essential parking area.\nIt was frequently used both by\nriver park visitors and concert goers. Please consider reaching out to\nthe old mill owners and bend\nparks and rec to work collectively to create a new\nparking area. Each entity has something that\nthey can bring to the table to\nsolve this issue.\nSouthern crossing neighborhood\nshould not be used as overflow\nparking due to a lack of planning.\nthanks, todd.\nJane: jane?\ngreetings, mayor and council\nmembers.\nI live in southeast bend in the king's forest neighborhood.\nAnd I recently have become\nappalled at the lack of\nattention to evacuation routes especially in light of the\nexpansive new high-density residential development.\nFor example, the wild flower\nproject at 15th and wilson will\nhave 4,000 in and out trips per\nday, per vehicle. Or 4,000 vehicles.\nThose people will want to get out if the wind blows and the\nfire comes in this hot and dry\nsummer ahead of us.\nReed market will be a parking lot.\nWe all saw what happened in paradise.\nPeople started abandoning their cars and walking.\nThey were burned.\nWe don't want that here.\nSo I would like as a beginning\nto have you fund and assign evacuation routes that will help\nus get away from a horrific fire\nhere in town.\nI've talked with the county, the\nstate, the city, planning and engineering.\nThere's nothing substantial happening.\nI have three generations here in town.\nIt's frightening really.\nAnd I think it's time to do something.\nThere's nothing in the state code. The leadership needs to happen\nmaybe locally and get something done so we can protect\nourselves.\nthank you, jane.\nmichael baker?\ngood evening, mayor and\ncouncil, I'm michael baker and I have the honor of being the ceo\nfor the boys and girls clubs here in bend.\nA couple key things, information\nthat you might find interesting.\nLast year in 2025, we were open 222 days.\nThis year, we'll be open 273 days.\nWe've expanded our hours of operation. That includes saturday hours\nwhich has never happened in the organization, so we're very excited about that.\nIn addition to that, we also are seeing an increase.\nLast year, we handed out 17,400 meals to the children throughout\nthe year.\nWe're already on track to break about 25,000 this year.\nand we are maximizing that space. Every aspect that we can use,\nwe're trying to use every inch of that space for programming\nand having the kiddos go from room to room to room.\nWhat's really exciting that just recently happened is for the\nfirst time in over seven years,\nwe actually -- many of you MAY have seen this before.\nWe have a rock wall on the stage\narea that we've been able to get recertified and are using that\nagain, so the kids were excited this past saturday to use the\nrock wall for the first time.\nSo it's a pretty exciting experience there.\nI will also encourage each and every one of you as I always do\nto come down and see the club in action any time you want a tour.\nLove to do that.\nThose of you that want to\nsupport the boys and girls club, we have a big event coming up,\nAPRIL 18th are the great\npromsby, a '20s thing, and I will end by telling you\nsomething that I've worked in a lot of communes across the\ncountry, boys and girls clubs, worked with a lot of city\nadministrators, and I'm telling\nyou, you're very fortunate to have MR. King in the role he's in.\nThank you for everything you've\ndone for this community. >> thanks, michael.\nAll right, kinsey martin, I see you're here for the resolution.\nDid you also want to speak -- >> yes.\nokay.\ngood evening.\nMy name is kinsey hood martin, she-her pronouns.\nmy family, my home, my career\nare rooted here in bend, the city of bend.\nMy grandparents were doctors and teachers here. My parents grew up here.\nI was born and raised here.\nAnd despite a short stint of, like, I'm never moving back to\nthat town, here I am, my own\nkids are born and raised here as well.\nBecause of that, because of knowing some of the old bend\ncommunity can tend to be less appreciative of growth and\nchange, I wanted to just come say thank you for the resolution\nthat I know is on the agenda\nthis evening. That resolution in support of\nour immigrant neighbors and friends and community members\nmeans a lot to me personally and to our community.\nAt this point in history and where we are right now as a\nbroader community, those words\nmatter a lot, and it really is -- I'm really proud to see\nthe community that I live in taking a stance and being public\nabout that.\nThat's really significant.\nI know that our leadership spent a lot of time on that.\nI know it's an intensive process to do that and do it well and\nget it right.\nAnd I appreciate mayor pro tem perkins and melissa, the hrec\nmembers, and then the immigrant\ninitiative leaders who informed that work.\nAnd so I just wanted to say thank you.\nI'm hopeful to see that it has\nthe beginnings of tangible resources and commitments in it,\nand I'm hopeful to see that\ncontinue over the next several years in council's work and the\ncity's work as far as changes that our immigrant community\nmembers can see and feel directly.\nBut I know public comments are not usually an appreciation, so\nI just wanted to say thank you, that work matters and it matters\na lot.\nthank you, kinsey. All right, that will move us to\nour consent agenda. >> I move to approve the consent\nagenda. >> second.\nall right, moved by councilor\nperkins, seconded by councilor norris. All in favor?\n[Chorus of ayes] >> unanimous.\nThat moves us to item 5.\na institution supporting bend's immigrant communities, condemning the current federal government\napproach to immigration enforcement, allocating funding to support bend's diverse\nimmigrant communities, and >> I wanted to introduce\nmelissa, our city's affordable housing coordinator but is also\nfilling in as the human rights\nand equity commission liaison\nand with melissa, catalina frank, this resolution before\nyou was brought in part by catalina's presentation that\ncame to council early JANUARY really requesting some support.\nAnd I think we listened and we\nwanted to offer some meaningful, tangible support in the form of\nreaffirming our values as a welcoming community but also\ngoing beyond that and offering some resources.\nso melissa and catalina will outline what's in the resolution\nand then I can talk about some\nnext steps as we're implementing the resolution into various\ncontracting methods, et cetera.\nthank you so much. So as eric mentioned, you're\nused to seeing me in the housing realm.\nBut it's my honor to be the\ninterim hrec staff liaison.\nAnd this resolution is a body of\nwork that is not just one person.\nIt has been touched by many hands.\nAs you know, catalina came to council in early JANUARY talking\nabout the imminent crisis and urgency of potentially declaring\na state of emergency.\nIn a follow-up meeting, our city attorney, ian, outlined what\ncould be done as a resolution.\nFrom there, the resolution went to hrec.\nIan had drafted a resolution fabulously by looking at other\ncities that were in a similar situation.\nBy the time the document got to\nhrec, it had been edited a few\ntimes, many times actually, and hrec, as hrec has been developed\nas a group that represents our community, when this body of\nwork got to r heck,\nhrec, they realized the eyes that needed to be on\nthe document aren't represented necessarily on our current\ncommissioner seats, so hrec made the decision to send the\nresolution with some hrec\nmembers to a subgroup outside of hrec.\nHow that subgroup was formed was\nin partnership with catalina and in different immigrant groups\nthroughout the community, they\nwere consulted, the leaders of different immigrant groups, and\nthey were asked to send a representative of their group.\nThese folks came together, looked over the resolution,\nprovided tremendous input, which then created more and more\niterations of the document.\nThe document came back to hrec.\nHrec reviewed it and decided to accept the document and\nrecommend it to come back to you.\nAnd so through all of those\niterations, you'll see in the resolution that it is a restatement of the city's\npriority to be a welcoming community and so half of the\nfunds that will be going to the latino community association are\nto further the welcoming city work.\nAnd the other half of the funds going to the latino community\nassociation are to support\nfamilies that are impacted by immigration.\nAnd so both bodies of work are incredibly important and\nsignificant and as catalina mentioned in JANUARY, it's\nreally difficult to quantify the impact of immigration activities\nin our community. While some MAY think it's not\nhere yet, it can't be impacting yet, there are kids that don't\ngo to school.\nFolks that don't go to work. Groceries that aren't being\npurchased that the store because people are too afraid to leave\ntheir homes, so this body of work, as I mentioned, it's not a\nsingle person that has had their hands on it.\nI think it's important to recognize all the many folks in\nthe room and online that participated and some that\nweren't able to join us today. >> I just want to take a moment\nto recognize melissa, because I think this many hands approach\nin really opening this up and your facilitation leadership that helped us get to a really\ngood place, so thank you. >> absolutely.\nAll right, so council, we've got the resolution -- there's no\nslides, but we have the resolution in front of us with\nthe issue summary. Any other questions for staff or\nfor catalina? Thank you for being here with us\ntonight. >> you're welcome.\nI just wanted to confirm, my understanding is that based on\nthe discussions that you've been having, part of the funds is to\nsupport the immigrant community. Not the 50 for welcoming week,\nbut the other portion is meant to be opened up into the\ncommunity as a hole and provide some of that support and\nactivities, but potential potentially in\npartnership with other groups in the community who do similar work.\nI just wanted to confirm that's part of the intent behind that\nchunk of the funds?\nyes, it's not limited to the latino immigrants.\nIt's the immigrant community impacted by law enforcement.\nI'm so glad you brought that up, because one of the beautiful\nparts of that small group that met offsite and mayor pro tem\ncan speak to that as well, is the group worked really well\ntogether and had some difficult conversations.\nSo much so that there's a desire\nto continue that body of work.\nAnd in those discussions, it was bridged that all of the groups\nin the room and those that were not able to be in the room\nlearned that they have access to these funds through the latino\ncommunity association as well. >> thank you for playing that\nrole. >> and just in terms of next\nsteps, so we are working on contract drafts for contract\nservices for our welcoming\nprogram as well as grant agreements.\nThey're two separate mechanisms\nto execute the outline in the resolution. As well as continuing these efforts.\nI think we made a commitment to\nnot just have this be a one-time event but really building this\ncoalition and supporting it in many different ways, so we're\nstill working through the details of that.\nand there's a provision here about advocacy with our federal\nrepresentatives in oregon, so we'll have a letter that goes to\nthem with this resolution attached as well as part of that\naction. Any other questions before a\nmotion?\nI can't help but comment on the difficult position that we\nfind ourselves in with a federal\ngovernment that is pursuing such -- I mean, harmful tactics.\nWe are severely constrained. There are consequences that we\ncannot prevent as city and as a community.\nBut we're not powerless either.\nAnd I'm really proud to support\nthis as one thing that we can do\nto demonstrate our support and our commitment and as an\nexpression of our values and desire to make bend a welcoming\nand safe community regardless of\npeople's identity or their backgrounds.\nSo I just wanted to address the\nchallenge that we face, because there's no way that we're going\nto be able to protect everybody from this federal government,\nbut we are going to do what we can.\nyeah, and I'll say that I\nthink being in that room, there's so much that we can't\ndo, but one of the things that I\nsaw in that room and I see at the human rights and equity\ncommission too is we're going to take care of each other.\nAnd that's what matters. And so we are going to take care\nof our community here in bend.\nAnd so that's the hope that I have and this is sort of a\nstatement of that. >> and I just want to say as a\ndaughter of an immigrant from mexico, I just appreciate all\nthat you guys are doing in our community.\nI appreciate bend standing up. This resolution is so important.\nAnd I hope it's just the beginning. >> is there a motion?\nI just wanted to add one other point.\nThank you for making this happen, thanks to mayor pro tem\nperkins for being part of that\non behalf of the council, other\npeople in the room and hrec and other community members that participated in it.\nI just wanted to emphasize paragraph 3 in the resolution\nthat declares no matter when someone has joined our community\nor where they come from, every person deserves to be free of\nfear and intimidation and to be\ntreated with dignity and respect.\nI value all the folks in our community again no matter where\nthey came from or when they arrived and all the ways they\nmake our community stronger.\nI think as councilor mendez said, I'll super proud to be\nsupporting this resolution tonight and taking this step\nforward and look forward to more\nwe can do as we move forward. >> I move to adopt a resolution supporting bend's immigrant communities, condemning the\ncurrent federal government approach to immigration\nenforcement, allocating funding to support bend's diverse\nimmigrant communities, and authorizing city staff to take\nsteps necessary to implement the\nresolution. >> second.\nall those in favor? [Chorus of ayes]\ngreater\ngreat, unanimous. Yes, immigration is a strength\nof this country and this community.\nThank you for being here.\nthank you.\nAll right, that will move us to\nitem 6 and 7 together.\ncouncil is asked to adopt a resolution to authorize the city\nt enter into a clean water state revolving fund loan agreement to\nfinance the king hezekiah and fargo sewer project in a total\nloan amount not to exceed $2,879,000.\nand council is asked to\nauthorize a contract with bar\nseven a companies for construction of the king\nhezekiah and fargo sewer project. >> all right, hi.\ngood evening.\nSo I'll go first.\nI'll be presenting the construction contract for\napproval and then we'll talk about the funding that we are\npresenting associated with it.\nKing hezekiah and fargo were two individual applications selected\nby the sept\nseptic to sewer program.\n2024, they were selected, 2025, they were designed, and then\nhere in 2026, we are looking to\nactual construct them.\nSo a little bit about the septic to sewer conversion program.\nIt was originally identified in the 2014 collection system\nmaster plan, further reconfirmed in the 2018 public facility plan.\nThis is the seventh selection\nthat we have made through the program. It's important to note that king\nhezekiah and fargo are a\ncomponent of that selection. As the municipal code states,\nthe city of bend will consider selection through this program\non an annual basis. As the principal engineer, I get\nthe opportunity to look through the cip.\nWe had an opportunity to over-select, meaning over-select\nfrom the funding, the 3.5 million annually that we\nhave set aside for this program,\nwe actually selected over $6 million worth of septic to\nsewer applications. this was in combination due to\nthe fact that we were about to\nset sail into a collection system master plan and a\nfacility plan update at our treatment plant.\nKnowing those were coming, there was a lot of priorities those\ntwo system plans were going to identify and then the priority\nwas likely going to shift to improving the existing\ninfrastructure associated with either the collection system or\nthe treatment system, so we did\nhave the opportunity to over-fund this program and\npresent to the committee for\nselection of 6.2 million of applications.\nTwo weeks from now, we will be\npresenting another construction\ncontract for powerful for the contract for approval.\nWe did stagger those to make sure the bidding community could\nhave a chance to take a swing at\none and then all the losers or anyone that did want to bid on\nthe second one could have an opportunity to go there.\nSo it is important to stress\nthis is the seventh selection through the previous six, we\nhave installed over 400 laterals\nto properties, 230 of this have\nconnected, so that's a success rate of 56% and some of those\njust got the opportunity to convert through the completion\nof the 2025 project.\nSo that's a huge success to the program. And so just emphasizing what the\nprogram is, it's an applicant-driven program where\npeople who are on septic can submit to the city for\nconsideration for selection to convert their septic system on\nto city sewer. The city evaluates their\napplication based on a number of criteria. The age of the system, whether\nthey have failing systems, the\ncost to convert, but one aspect I do want to stress that I\nalways stress, you'll know what\nI'm saying, is the participation\nthat the applicants have in the program. So at the completion of the\nconstruction project, we issue\nwhat's called a notice of operational completion, the noc.\nThat noc is their ticket to go down to permitting and pull\ntheir plumbing permit to start their conversion process.\nThey do get presented a window would have two years to get a\n50% reduction on their\nconnection fee, which is about a $5,000 savings.\nThey don't have to convert unless they do sign that\npetition, which is that\ncommitment to participating in the conversion upon completion\nof the project.\nOverview of this application or\nthis construction project, these two applications at king\nhezekiah and fargo are both in the kingsport area south of reed\nmarket, east of 15th.\nThese ones were completed, the design was completed to the 90%\nlevel as part of the overall\nbasin study when the southeast interceptor went through kings\nforest area and they were designed externally.\nWe do present opportunities that we do have internal capacity to\ndo design services.\nThe next construction project you'll be presented for approval\nin two weeks was designed internally, so we do evaluate on\na case-by-case basis how best to deliver the projects.\nThese projects do include a full width pavement restoration and\ngiven where these projects are,\nthere will be limited traffic closures really with local\naccess restrictions. King hezekiah, jumping into that\none, there's 25 properties that will benefit from this sewer\nline. Of those, 13 had committed to\nconnecting within with the two-year period.\n1900 linear feet. The dots indicate the properties\nthat did commit to connection. Going to fargo, that one is a\nlittle over 1,000 feet, 17\nproperties will benefit, and 12 did commit to participating.\nSo another case, both of these\nprojects are over 50% commitment. So as far as a lot of the public\nthat does benefit from this is wanting to participate directly\nin this program. >> jason, can I ask you while\nyou're on these slides, please, how many folks do you suppose\nwill also jump on a little bit later but still within that\nwindow just based on your experience?\nI'm not going to hold you to it, but anyway, do you think? >> oh, absolutely.\nA lot of the people don't want to have the commitment, right?\nSo they have to do it. But some of these applications\nalso have been in consideration for multiple years, so there\nmight be a lot of interest at\nfirst and it has dwindled, but\nonce the project is selected and proceeded forward, it renews\nthat interest. >> right.\nalso that system is that many\nmore years aged. >> makes sense.\nso they need it even further. Unfortunately, there are cases\nwhere people apply and then their system fails and their\napplication is not selected, so\nwe just have to go and fix their\nsystem so when we come through, they aren't really attracted to\nconnecting, because they just\ndid a large investment on to their septic system.\nthank you for the context, appreciate it.\nthere's been a lot of work in this neighborhood, so I just\nwonder how many people have seen it happening on other streets in\nthe neighborhood and are aware\nof hey when this comes down my street, maybe I should consider\nit. >> exactly. Overall timeline here as\nmentioned, end of 2024 we did select these two applications\nalong with the azalea and windsor. We did then proceed into the\ndesign of this.\nWe are here MARCH 18, 2026, for council approval.\nWe are looking to start construction at the beginning of APRIL.\nWe do have a public open house scheduled already, the\ncontractor is ready to get after the construction.\nAnd then construction is slated\nfor completion in the end of OCTOBER. Overall budget here, the budget\nfor the project at time of selection, so going back to\n2024, was 2.875 million. we did receive seven bids on\nthis project.\nThe lowest bid came in 26% under\nthe engineer's estimate, so that\nis beneficial to city, the water\nreclamation fund and the septic\ncity program, so it has a ripple effect there.\nSurvey and design, call it\nminimal cost, $160,000.\nThat's the amount that we have incurred to date through the\ndesign services surveying miscellaneous and then some\nadditional services that we will be providing.\nOverall total, 1.855. So while there's a good gap\nthere, we aren't intending to\nspend the full million dollar deficit.\nThat money goes back into the\nbeginning working capital of the\nwater reclamation fund, but we are taking provisions as necessary.\nBut that 2.875 was the number\nback to the selection time period.\nand as jason mentioned,\nthere's also a resolution this evening to enter into a clean\nwater state revolving fund loan.\nIt's a bit of a mouthful. That will be used to finance the\nking hezekiah and fargo septic to sewer project.\nThe not to exceed amount, the 2.875, but consistent with our\nother cwsrf loans, we'll only draw down the amount needed to\ncomplete the project, so the loan amount will end up being\nwhatever we end up using.\nSome of the benefits to\nobtaining the cwsrf loans over issuing traditional revenue\nbonds include things like no prepayment penalties.\nWe don't have bond issuance\ncosts, pretty low debt service coverage requirements and lower\ninterest rates than your typical market bonds.\nThis particular loan is eligible\nfor a million dollars worth of\nforgiveness and up to principal\nforgiveness up to $450,000, so we'll be roughly requiredded to\npay back half of that 2.87 were\nwe to utilize the entire amount.\nThe biennial budget and the sewer rate models include the\nrate plan to fund this cost of the project.\ngreat, all right. Any questions, other questions,\ncouncil? Looking good.\nI have a question.\nThat is a pretty big budget gap. I recall when we looked at the\nprojects that were proposed, I\nmean, obviously changes go out to bid and bid it tomorrow, but\nthere were a lot of projects proposed.\nSo, yeah, I don't know, I'd be curious, so those dollars will\njust go into the program? Because council in the past has\nfunded the program at 3 million a year?\nthree-and-a-half.\nyeah, so we're spending a million less?\ngoing back, we did commit to\nspend 6.2. >> 2.\nSo we did overcommit because we had that opportunity, and I want\nto stress that was because of the collection system master\nplan and the facility plan update at the treatment plant\nthat were coming, so we are starting to land those ships.\nAnd so we are identifying all of the needs outside of septic to\nsewer, so a lot of the attention\neither from staffing or from funding is going to have to\nshift to the highest priority areas. And so that's a conversation\nthat we need to have on how to\nbest support all of the needs within the collection -- within\nthe water reclamation system, so collections and treatment.\nBecause we have a lot of existing infrastructure on the\ncollections and on the treatment\nside that have been deferred, because we haven't had\nnecessarily a master plan to tell us exactly what is is\nneeded. So we were looking to identify\nthose needs, prioritize those\nneeds, develop the funding strategy and then balance other\nprograms such as septic to\nsewer, pump station, r & r, but\nwe do have a lot of other capital needs through those\nsystems.\nmm-hmm, okay, yeah. I did get an e-mail from\nsomeone. It's a couple months ago now,\nand I thought they were\nfollowing up with you, so it's\nprobably fine, but I think it's actually cabin lane, in that\narea, there were some cul-de-sacs that did not get\npicked up on the septic to\nsewer, so homeowners on those cul-de-sacs are still on septic,\nbut there is a sewer line right there and it seems like sort of\nlittle connections that the city\nhas promised that neighborhood and made a follow-through to\nmost of the neighbors but not others. I'd be interested.\nI'll follow up with you on it separately.\nthe city goes through a\ndiligent process to identify the\ndrainage area, not to come do\nshort segments, but you also can't do excessive, because the\nfunding doesn't support it.\nSo there's a strategy on how to\nidentify what that drainage basin is. There's a lot of areas within\nthe city of bend, southwest,\nsoutheast, some of the north,\nnorthwest are on septic, so it is competitive.\nAnd it would take a lot of money to convert everybody over and\nthat's balancing the existing system and the operations that\nwe do have to have. So it would be great to do it\nall, but we do have a system to\nmaintain and treat the sewage too.\nokay, any other questions? All right.\nWe got two motions, 6 and 7. >> I move to adopt a resolution\nauthorizing a clean water state\nrevolving fund loan agreement to\nfinance the king hezekiah and fargo sewer project in a total\nloan amount not to exceed $2,875,000, in substantially the\nform presented to council and as approved by the department of\nenvironmental quality. >> second.\nmoved by councilor platt, seconded by councilor riley.\nAll in favor?\naye.\nokay.\nNext? >> I move to authorize a contract with bar seven a companies, inc., in\nsubstantially the form presented to council, for construction\nservices for the king hezekiah and fargo sewer project in an\namount not to exceed $1,674,186. >> second.\nall in favor? [Chorus of ayes]\nwe'll move on to item 8.\ncouncil is asked to authorize\na contract with diamond parking services llc for city-wide\nparking management and\nenforcement services not to exceed $536,000 for the first\nyear and authorize the city\nmanager to approve annual renewals for a total contract\namount not to exceed\n$2,906,000 over five years.\ngood evening, mayor and council.\nIt's time to renew our parking\nmanagement and our enforcement contract.\nSo today what we're asking is to authorize a contract as was\nmentioned with diamond parking services llc for the city-wide\nmanagement and enforcement services. I'll give some details and we'll\ncircle back around to a motion\nat the end.\nI threw up the wheel of the connected city.\nI think parking touches\nbasically pretty much on all of those.\nBut this contract helps suppor efficient, responsible\ntransportation, system managemnt. We got multiple districts in\ntown as you know today,\ndowntown, old bend, Mckay,\nparking garage, surface lots. We do have some future districts\nthat we have talked with council about before. I'll share some more information\non those in a later slide. But this contract is a phased\napproach with some new districts proposed. Services support parking\navailability, circulation,\ncompliance, just to expand a little bit on what the contract\ndoes or doesn't maybe include, just a few examples.\nEnforcement parking management strategies in compliance with\nour bend municipal code, oregon statutes, inspect, enforce,\nmaintain compliance with all parking facilities. We want our parking system to be\nfunctional, clean, maintained.\nManage the online and anywhere in-person\nparking permits, supplies, materials, the surface lots.\nDaily maintenance and operations\nof the parking garage.\nExample of maybe what this\ndoesn't include, diamond parking\ndo not create a parking\nmanagement strategic or\nstrategies or policies. We work with city council on\nwhat those parking management strategies and policies are but\nthen diamond helps us manage and enforce those.\nSo the procurement process.\nWe did do a formal rfp request for proposal process.\nI was happy to see five\nproposals come in. Diamond parking services llc was\nthe highest ranked proposal.\nWe had basically a committee, a\nscoring process with a total of 1,000 points possible.\nThose things we looked for are project understanding and\napproach, that was worth a few hundred points.\nProject team, experience, and quality of service worth another\nfew hundred points, so 60% of\nthe ranking of these proposals\nwas based on those. cost was another 400 points to\nmake up that 1,000-point total.\nWe had five proposals total.\nThe top two were very competitive. Diamond parking was the highest\noverall scoring proposal, the\nhighest in the project understanding, experience, quality of service.\nThey were the second highest\nscorer for cost.\nThey were the second lowest proposal.\nAnd that was pretty much a straightup formula on cost.\nThe lowest cost proposal, you get the most points and second%\nand third and fourth and fifth.\nProposals ranged from about\n503,000 to 6.\n655,000 and some change. Here is a picture of some of the\nmembers of the diamond parking team.\nSo I mentioned the phased approach. Phase one really is taking care\nof what we have today. So that downtown parking\ndistrict, the Mckay district, old bend benefit district, the\nsurface lots that I mentioned\nand centennial parking garage.\nThis summer, we look to expand old bend east district and what\nwe're calling the miller's run district.\nI've got some maps.\nI'll shirr a little bit more\nshare a little bit more about that.\nWe were within the next probably two weeks here, we're working\nwith communications, legal, met\nwith the members of the old bend neighborhood association just\nmonday of this week to go into the 60-day public comment\nperiod, and so looking to be\nback in front of council with\nthe final recommendations on these districts accounting for\nthe public comment in JUNE.\nAnd so just a quick snapshot of our districts.\nI think most of us are familiar with them. We've got the downtown district.\nI won't go through all the text\nthere, but 400 spaces in surface\nlots, 547 in garage, on-street,\nabout 40 blocks worth, 1500 spaces.\nOld bend parking benefit street,\n1200 on-street space.\nMckay, 250 on-street spaces.\nAnd then we get into the two new districts that I was just mentioning.\nI went ahead and put some anticipated strategies up here,\nbut we'll be back in front of\ncouncil in JUNE after accounting\nfor public comment and with what strategies we're recommending\nfor the final proposal. But these are some of the\nexamples of what we're anticipating there.\nAnd then the old bend east, so this would not just be an\nexpansion of the existing district.\nWe got some different nuances, existing district on the west\nside of broadway down to drake park, Mckay park, you got the\nriver floaters, the deschutes river trail.\nOver to the parkway and along the arizona, colorado area, more\nof a commercial use more so than park and businesses along\nfranklin and along the parkway.\nSome different strategies there. So available for questions and\nhave a recommended motion on the screen.\nall right, council, questions\nfor david on this contract? >> and I'm sorry, I didn't\nmention in the beginning, we\nhave patrick from the parking\ndivision as well as carina from diamond parking.\ngo ahead.\nso what I would really like\nto dig into a little bit with my fellow councilors here is the\ndistinction between a parking benefit district and those areas\nversus the commercial areas where we have a lot of paid\nparking and we have some very regimented -- and we don't have\npeople who live in homes who are trying to go about their lives\nand their daily business, many without driveways, for example,\nbecause we've moved away from that.\nI very much support that.\nAnd so I'm now the old bend neighborhood liaison.\nYou probably heard the same things I've been hearing.\nI've spent hours meeting with\ndave and russ grayson to talk about some of the issues the old\nbend neighborhood is facing.\nSo what my concern is, is that\nwe're enforcing laws and rules in a parking benefit district\nthat was not really explained to the residents of that\nneighborhood when they signed up\nfor the parking benefit district.\nThe rules that are being\nenforced there are rules of\nparking and traffic that it's just going beyond what I think\nanyone really signed up for.\nSo the way that I read the contract is that -- and the way\nthat david has explained it to\nme is that the contractor, diamond parking, who enforcing\nthe ors, but they don't do that\nin every neighborhood, right? The only reason they're going\nthrough the old bend neighborhood is because we now\nhave the benefit district there. In the old bend neighborhood is\nfor us to actually kind of live up to the promise we made to the\nneighborhood which is to make it a benefit neighborhood.\nSo the neighbors are paying for\na parking permit and they're hopefully getting some parking\non their street when tourists\nare in town, but they're not\ngetting penalized, laws enforced on them that we're not enforcing\non other nakeds in\nneighborhoods in the city.\nSo I think it's a clarification of council's policy to the staff\nand the contractor who are administering the policy.\nI don't think it's necessarily a change to the contract itself.\nI think this is a point of clarification that I'm asking\nfor you to help me convey to the staff tonight. >> so you're saying there's\npeople who are living there that are getting tickets for maybe\nstaying too long on the street? >> exactly.\nor when they have -- I mean, I've heard about this from a\ncouple of people who live there. People have a dinner party and\nthey have people there for four hours and the systems that have\nto be used and the hoops that these folks have to go through\nor their kid comes home from college for a couple weeks.\nIt does seem like it's maybe\ngotten to a point of we need to\nreview how some of this is working.\nI can just chime in on a few examples.\nI'm not sure if tonight's\nmeeting is the right venue. I don't disagree with you, but\nI'm wondering is this an agenda request and/or do we have a time\nat some point in the future here where we're going to talk about\nparking anyway and we review some of those rules as part of\nthe new districts? >> we'll be in front of you with\nthe old bend east. >> that sounds like a good plan,\nbecause we're coming back on this anyway and we'll have new\nrounds of public comment.\nSo I'm not necessarily married to the original pilot which was\nbefore any of us were on council. I'd like to hear what people\nwant now and what they feel the\npressures are. People who visit who are taking\nup street parking, that was the concern, right?\nAnd so I don't think the folks in this neighborhood think they're entitled to the street\npacking, but we do need a system that is usable for everyone.\nsome of this is from the new\ncode from JANUARY. Yeah, we can talk about it,\ncertainly some more.\nWe want it to work. Another example is parking in\nthe wrong direction against the flow of traffic.\nThat is a state law. >> no one here has ever done\nthat, have you! (Indiscernible, simultaneous\nspeaking).\nbut to your point, councilor franzosa, this contract, diamond\nparking would enforce whatever\nbend code and policies and enforcement that we'd ask them\nto. >> so I would be supportive of\nhaving that policy discussion,\nand I just didn't want to MISS The opportunity to say thank you\nto patrick and staff and to encourage people if you see\ndiamond parking agents or city staff working on parking, say\nthank you, because I think there's a perception that\nsomehow these programs, these policies and the people that\nenforce them are somehow\nintended to make parking more difficult.\nAnd actually if we get the\npolicies right, it's going to make marking easier, and that's\none of the reasons why downtown bend business association is\ncoming back to us with their ideas for parking, so thank you\nfor making parking accessible and available and I'm happy to\nhave that conversation about the\npolicy.\nthank you, council member.\nwe want it to wok,\nwork, but it's a team effort.\nJust to expand a little bit on the parking benefit, just\nbecause you mentioned that was before that time and the pilot,\nand we're coming back with are\nwith a\nfinal proposal for bend east.\nPart of that benefit district is some funds that get generated\nwithin that district, and so the\nexisting old bend is up to about $85,000 or something right now.\nAnd so we've been talking with some of the folks out there,\nlauren and that group in the community, but the idea is that\nbenefit, if they want something within that neighborhood, they\ncan come to the city with ideas.\nA park bench or formalizing maybe some areas on the\nlandscape that can be parked on that aren't in conflict with a\nwater meter or fire hydrant as an example.\nThere's a financial piece that we're trying to have, that that\nneighborhood can pick some things they'd like to maybe try\nand do and fund within their neighborhood.\nI'm grateful for everyone who\nwants that policy conversation, because the neighborhood, that\nmoney has been in the fund for quite a while and the neighborhood has not been able\nto figure out how they can actually use that money for the\ncity, so hopefully that will be\npart of the policy discussion. >> I think we can make sure we\nprovide direction to diamond, let's not enforce some of those\nthings.\nthat's all I'm asking.\nI don't agree with not\nenforcing parking the wrong way\non the street. But I think --\nwe have resources to do that\ncity wide, what we're trying to\ndo is do that where we have the parking district.\nWe're asking for some discretion from our parking director.\nwe want to be a little bit careful in the case of state law\nand we also want consistency across our community. Other districts as well.\nstate law, you're not supposed to park the wrong\ndirection?\nyes, with it is. Yes, it is.\nI'd be fine with doing that\nif we did it everywhere! (Indiscernible, simultaneous speaking).\nthese neighborhoods have\nasked for extra enforcement. They wanted that.\nThey want more enforcement of\nparking in their neighborhoods in rules and time limits because\nof the parking pressures that I were feeling.\nSo to turn around -- due -- >> due to tourism.\nI know that's the case, but we need to acknowledge -- and\nthen to turn around to the people enforcing the law,\nactually, never mind. I think we can find a balance\nhere, but the parking pressures\non these neighborhoods are the reasons they asked for\nenforcement. >> they're asking for the\nenforcement to go away, for the benefit district to be undone.\nI'd like to make sure we go through the public comment\nprocess on this and get a wide swath of comments.\nWhen your guest gets a ticket\nfor coming over for dinner, yes, you'll write to us.\nwe reinstated the paper visitor passes. We want it to work.\nWe want to make improvements. The east old bend area -- well,\nactually it was all of that area.\nThey did an effort and survey and the majority of the folks\nthat responded are supportive of a new district on the east side\ntoo. There were some that were uncertain.\nBut the majority of folks were looking for some help.\nAnd really in that area, we're\nlooking to be proactive ahead of\nthe continued commercial area with the box factory and the new\ndevelopments and things that are\ngoing there, the timber yard was mentioned earlier tonight, be\nahead of that and have a\nright if we start to regulate in the become area they will go\nto neighbors to park. Good to have something set up\nthere.\nI am talking about locals. Not just tourists.\nWe can find a happy medium here.\nthat will happen when to come back in.\nwe will look to come back in\nJUNE for recommendation on the proposed east.\nTwo districts I talked about.\nWe can have the bigger policy discussion.\nWhen they did the survey to help us guide with the new district.\nExisting district as well as new proposed area.\n94 comments were part of that.\nWe will come back to you within\nput, concerns, questions.\nExisting district as well as how\nthose apply to the new district.\nI move to authorize with diamonds parking services for\ncity-wide parking management enforcement services in\nsubstantially form presented to\ncouncil in an amount not to exceed $536,000 for the first\nyear and authorize city manager\nto approve annual renewals in\naccordance with terms of\nagreement not to exceed $2,906,000 over five years.\nsecond.\nmoved by perkins.\nSecond by franzosa. In favor.\naye.\nthank you.\nwe have one second reading left.\nthis is the second reading of\nordinance amending bend\ndevelopment code bdc related to\nprepreservation requirements b d\nc-3.2.200, tree preservation.\nI need to declare conflict\nlike the first reading. My employer is hidden homes.\nI will remove myself for this.\nwe need a motion.\nmove second reading roll call\nvote ordinance amending bend\ndevelopment code bd c-3.2.200\ntree preservation. >> second.\nmotion by perkins, second platt.\nFranzosa: franzosa.\nyes.\nMendez: mendez.\naye.\nRiley: riley.\nyes.\nPerkins: perkins.\nyes.\nPlatt: platt.\nyes.\nKebler: kebler.\nyes.\ncity manager report.\nwe have had a couple busy months and work sessions where\nwe typically have time to say what is coming up on the next\ncouple months? I want to share that with you.\nLead in to earlier conversations\nproposal to share with you.\nAPRIL next meeting on APRIL 1.\nStevens ranch or legacy building.\nHigh points. APRIL 8 roundtable with the\nelectrification policy work\nlooking at exemptions\nimplementation timeline inviting\nfour city committees.\nThen on the 15th we have another\nmaster plan timber yards as item.\nWe will have update.\nI will talk about that goal update.\nWe will look at one year into\nwork plan to go through prioritization we will talk\nabout in a second. MAY 6 bura meeting.\nMAY 13 is a big work session.\nPrioritizing capital improvement program.\nIf our grants hold we have room\nin geobond and transportation construction fund to address\nissues we talked about last\nnight with parks and bridges.\nAreas cut to add on.\nSignificant item on MAY 13.\nAlong with the transient lodging tax about the shift.\nWhat does council want to do\nwith that split shift from 70/30 to 50/50.\nJoint work session with rural fire district on 13th.\nI will stop there.\nIt is a lot. We still have some other\nmeetings to try to schedule roundtable ideas.\nOne in southwest. Interaction.\nWe will send out survey later this week.\nI will ask for your input how this is going.\nSix months into the new schedule\nwith meeting every week.\nLayered on to that are special meetings.\nI want to test your capacity in\nterms how to manage.\nI would stay from staff\nperspective one city strategic plan. Off site with leadership.\nA lot of prep. Staff is feeling it.\nPartnership is seeing stress on elected and staff side.\nI would like to look at both the\nschedule how to prioritize those meetings.\nPrioritizing the work plan items as well.\nI am planning quarterly goal\nupdate in APRIL to take input\nfrom survey that you will see,\ncoupled with ideas of things to\nslim down to make sure we are --\nsometimes we talk about this we\ngo so fast and we might MISS Things. Slowing down is a good thing. It is hard.\nThis is a community that expects a lot.\nFast growing and want to do all of the things.\nAny effective organization is realistic about resources they\nhave and how best to tackle these problems.\nI will ask for your help and guidance over the next couple\nmonths.\nfor the start quarter one. I meeting every week.\nThree special meetings at least\nthat I can think of maybe more. County, parks, roundtable, advisory summit.\nA lot going on in quarter one.\nWhen you look at survey look at\nmaybe providing the rest of the\nyear more breaks, more fifth weeks.\nI don't disagree that this is a particularly hard quarter to\nstart the year.\nthe other piece everybody\nelse has commitments.\nHrac or Coc board in addition. >> it is okay.\nWe might have different perspective on council.\nLet's talk about it. I wanted to let you know that\nour notices for the bend central\ndistrict economic improvement district went out.\nDelay with maps and properties.\nWe re-noticed folks.\nIf you get contacted new notice is going out.\nPublic hearing council will see in the next couple weeks.\nI will put more information in\nthe memo so you are aware. I think that was it.\nA lot of public engagement with projects now.\nThere is too much -- open houses\nand things. >> downtown bend library closing\nto be renovated in APRIL will be\nclosed for a year. Central library opening MAY 11.\nThey have ability to pick up and\ndrop off books at central\nlibrary east side for folks that\ncare about downtown access.\nIt will be great when finished painful closure.\ncan you pick up and drop off downtown?\napparently library board discussed that to make sure it\nis ada accessible while they\nrenovate building it is tough. They weren't able to figure out\nhow to do that.\nthank you for the update.\nsurprise library update.\nGet your books now.\nWith that we are adjourned. Thanks everybody.\nLive cc by aberdeen captioning. 1-800-688-6621. Www.Abercap.Com." }, "summary": { "generatedAt": "2026-04-14T04:25:25.713Z", "model": "sonnet", "source": { "type": "meeting", "videoId": "bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "parsedPath": "/Users/thedjpetersen/code/seacc/data/cities/bend/parsed/meetings/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.json", "transcriptHash": "2117bcf6c2cd08ad5c176792af5fe763d31b225d8de45a137f9460bdb856da56" }, "result": { "headline": "Bend City Council adopts immigrant community resolution, approves sewer and parking contracts, hears state legislative update", "summary": "The March 18, 2026 Bend City Council Business Meeting covered five substantive areas: a state legislative session debrief, a neighborhood roundtable format discussion, three action items (immigrant community resolution, two sewer project approvals, a parking services contract renewal), a tree preservation ordinance second reading, and a city manager report on the upcoming work calendar. All action items passed unanimously. The meeting ran in roughly chronological order with no procedural disruptions.", "keyPoints": [ "STATE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE (Oregon short session): City lobbyist Eric Kansler reported four priority outcomes — (1) Lodging tax flexibility shifted from 70/30 to 50/50 tourism vs. general use, Bend's pre-2003 increment already exceeds that ratio so no immediate impact but future flexibility gained; (2) Shelter funding allocation preserved intact despite earlier revenue forecast concerns; (3) Urban reserve statute improved via amendment to HB 4037, allowing cost-of-service accounting for parcels outside the urban growth boundary; (4) Complete community planning protections added to HB 4037, guarding neighborhood-serving commercial zones from being displaced by by-right affordable housing projects (authorized under 2021 SB 8). Kansler flagged an unresolved element: a resiliency grant provision for small restaurants was folded into the lodging tax bill as a condition of House passage; he called it an odd fit but not a game changer. Council also noted SB 1551 (wildfire/HOA landscaping restrictions) and HB 4037's prohibition on public hearings for applications under clear-and-objective review standards — staff was directed to provide a memo explaining local impacts of the latter.", "SOUTHEAST BEND NEIGHBORHOOD ROUNDTABLE DEBRIEF: Mayor Kebler led a discussion of a new roundtable format held the prior Thursday, where council sat at tables with three southeast neighborhoods for informal Q&A alongside city staff. Councilors Mendez, Riley, and Norris all praised the format. Staff member Renee Mitchell was credited with organizing the event. Neighborhoods Old Farm, Larkspur, and Southeast Bend were named as participants. Council agreed to continue the format in other parts of the city; southwest neighborhoods have already requested one. City Manager Eric (last name not consistently stated in transcript — likely King, referenced separately) committed to returning with a scheduling plan.", "RESOLUTION — IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES (Item 5, unanimous): Council adopted a resolution (1) reaffirming Bend as a welcoming community, (2) condemning federal immigration enforcement tactics, (3) allocating funding to the Latino Community Association — half for welcoming-city programming, half for families directly impacted by immigration enforcement — and (4) directing staff to write to Oregon federal representatives with the resolution attached. The resolution went through multiple drafting iterations: City Attorney Ian drafted an initial version drawing on peer-city examples; it was revised by the Human Rights and Equity Commission (HREC), then sent to a community subgroup convened through immigrant-group leaders coordinated by Catalina Frank. The subgroup's input produced further iterations before HREC accepted it and forwarded to council. Melissa (city affordable housing coordinator, serving as interim HREC staff liaison) presented. Mayor Pro Tem Perkins represented council in the subgroup process. Staff noted contracts and grant agreements are being drafted to execute the funding. Catalina Frank (named as the community catalyst) was present. Public speaker Kinsey Hood Martin thanked the council and urged follow-through on tangible commitments.", "SEWER PROJECT — KING HEZEKIAH AND FARGO (Items 6 & 7, unanimous): Council adopted two items: a Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) loan not to exceed $2,875,000, and a construction contract with Bar Seven A Companies Inc. not to exceed $1,674,186 — 26% below the engineer's estimate. The project converts septic systems to city sewer in the Kingsport area (south of Reed Market, east of 15th). Of 42 total properties served, 25 (King Hezekiah) and 17 (Fargo), 13 and 12 respectively committed upfront to connect within two years for a ~$5,000 connection-fee discount. The CWSRF loan includes up to $1 million in principal forgiveness ($450,000 guaranteed forgiveness). Construction is slated to begin April 2026 and complete by October 2026. This is the seventh selection under the city's septic-to-sewer program, which has installed 400+ laterals since inception with a 56% connection rate.", "PARKING CONTRACT RENEWAL (Item 8, unanimous): Council authorized a contract with Diamond Parking Services LLC for citywide parking management and enforcement — $536,000 for year one, up to $2,906,000 over five years. Diamond scored highest overall in an RFP process with five proposals; it had the second-lowest cost bid. The contract is structured in phases: Phase 1 covers existing districts (downtown, Old Bend, McKay, surface lots, Centennial Garage). This summer, staff plans to expand into Old Bend East and a new 'Miller's Run' district, with a 60-day public comment period beginning soon and final recommendations to council in June. A notable policy discussion arose: Councilor Franzosa raised concerns that enforcement in the Old Bend parking benefit district is penalizing residents (e.g., for guests parking at dinner parties, or parking against traffic flow) in ways not originally explained when the district was formed. Staff acknowledged the concern and committed to a broader policy discussion when returning in June with the East Old Bend district proposal. The Old Bend benefit district fund currently holds approximately $85,000 that the neighborhood has not yet been able to spend.", "TREE PRESERVATION ORDINANCE (Item 9 — second reading, roll call vote): Ordinance amending Bend Development Code BDC 3.2.200 (tree preservation requirements) passed on second reading. Councilor Kebler recused due to a conflict of interest (employer: Hidden Homes). Roll call: Franzosa yes, Mendez aye, Riley yes, Perkins yes, Platt yes — passed.", "CITY MANAGER REPORT / UPCOMING CALENDAR: Staff flagged a crowded Q1 schedule and proposed sending councilors a survey about capacity and workload. Key upcoming items flagged: April 1 — Stevens Ranch/Legacy Building; April 8 — Electrification policy roundtable (exemptions, implementation timeline, four city committees invited); April 15 — Timber Yards master plan update, one-year work plan review; May 6 — BURA meeting; May 13 — Major work session including capital improvement program prioritization, transient lodging tax policy discussion (how to use the new 50/50 flexibility), and joint session with Rural Fire District on long-term funding (fire levy renewal eyed for 2028, EMS/ambulance cost study underway). Staff also noted: Bend Central District Economic Improvement District notices were re-sent due to mapping errors, public hearing coming soon; Downtown Bend library closing in April for renovation (approximately one year), Central Library East Side opens May 11 for pickup/drop-off." ], "decisions": [ "Adopted resolution supporting immigrant communities, condemning federal immigration enforcement, and allocating funds to the Latino Community Association (unanimous)", "Adopted CWSRF loan resolution for King Hezekiah and Fargo sewer project, not to exceed $2,875,000 (unanimous)", "Authorized construction contract with Bar Seven A Companies Inc. for King Hezekiah and Fargo sewer project, not to exceed $1,674,186 (unanimous)", "Authorized five-year parking management contract with Diamond Parking Services LLC, not to exceed $2,906,000 (unanimous)", "Passed second reading of tree preservation ordinance amending BDC 3.2.200 (roll call, Kebler recused)", "Directed city manager to survey council on schedule capacity and workload prioritization", "Agreed to pursue additional neighborhood roundtables, with southwest neighborhoods next in line" ], "followUps": [ "Staff to provide council memo explaining local impacts of HB 4037's clear-and-objective-standards hearing prohibition (raised by Councilor Riley)", "City lobbyist Eric Kansler to monitor whether legislature revisits the small-restaurant resiliency grant element of the lodging tax bill in a long session", "Staff to return in June with final Old Bend East and Miller's Run parking district proposals after public comment period", "Staff to bring policy discussion on Old Bend parking benefit district enforcement practices alongside June parking update", "City attorney to finalize contract and grant agreement documents to execute immigrant community resolution funding", "Letter to Oregon federal representatives to accompany the immigrant community resolution", "May 13 work session: council to decide how to use new 50/50 lodging tax flexibility", "May work session with Rural Fire District on long-term fire funding plan; EMS/ambulance cost study ongoing", "Councilor Franzosa to share central Oregon transportation project spreadsheet with full council ahead of April 9 public vote", "City manager to send out council workload/schedule survey this week", "Council to schedule additional neighborhood roundtables (southwest confirmed as next)", "Staff to follow up on Cabin Lane cul-de-sac septic-to-sewer gap flagged by Councilor Riley", "Bend Central District EID public hearing to come before council in coming weeks", "Quarterly goal update planned for April" ], "notablePeople": [ "Eric Kansler — City of Bend contract state lobbyist; presented legislative session debrief", "Kate Schneider — city staff, introduced legislative update alongside Sarah Hudson", "Melissa (last name not stated) — city affordable housing coordinator, serving as interim HREC staff liaison; presented immigrant resolution", "Catalina Frank — community advocate who brought initial immigration concerns to council in January; named as catalyst for the resolution", "Kinsey Hood Martin — public commenter, Bend native, spoke in support of the immigrant resolution", "Renee Mitchell — city staff credited with organizing the southeast bend neighborhood roundtable", "Jason (last name not stated) — principal engineer, presented King Hezekiah/Fargo sewer project", "David (last name not stated) — presented parking contract; Patrick named as parking division staff", "Carina — representative from Diamond Parking Services present at meeting", "Michael Baker — CEO, Boys and Girls Clubs of Bend; updated council on expanded programming (273 days open this year, 25,000 meals projected)", "Johnathan Westmoreland — public commenter, raised data security and end-to-end encryption concerns regarding city vendor contracts (Flock, Axon, Vera Mobility)", "Todd (last name not stated) — chair, Southern Crossing Neighborhood Association; raised Reed Market road crossing project and parking concerns near Old Mill", "Jane (last name not stated) — southeast Bend resident; raised wildfire evacuation route concerns for high-density growth areas", "Michelle (last name not stated) — online commenter; flagged that the southeast roundtable recap omitted neighborhood opposition to gas stations near elementary schools; Mayor Kebler confirmed the CC zone was changed in early 2025 to prohibit auto-dependent uses", "Omar — Palestinian Red Crescent worker in Ramallah; joined virtually after a COCC film screening (mentioned by Councilor Riley in council reports)", "Josh Burgess — started Central Oregon Civic Action Project; CIOC approved to act as fiscal agent", "Eric Sheridan — reported to CIOC board on civic assembly tool event April 7 in Redmond", "Bend Duncan — named as equity consultant working with HREC on workload prioritization" ], "uncertainty": "The city manager's first name is referenced in passing (councilors say 'eric') but his last name is never clearly stated in the transcript — likely Eric King based on the Boys and Girls Club CEO's comment praising 'MR. King,' but this is inferred, not confirmed in this transcript. The transcript's SRT captions frequently drop last names and occasionally render speech as '(Indistinct)' or '(Indiscernible, simultaneous speaking),' particularly during the parking discussion. The tree preservation ordinance second reading is described only briefly; no substantive policy content about what it changes is included in this transcript. The 'Councilor Norris' who appears in roll call and gives a brief report is listed in roll call as 'Moranis' — this may be a transcription error in the captions; treat the name with caution." } }, "hindsight": null, "urls": { "meeting": "/bend/meeting/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting", "raw": "/bend/api/meeting/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting/raw.json", "sourceMeeting": "/bend/api/source/meeting/bend-2026-03-18-city-council-business-meeting.json" } }