All right, I show 6:00 on two of my clocks here. Three of them.
Let's go ahead and call to order tonight's meeting of the Corvallis City Council.
City recorder, roll call, please.
Mayor Maughan?
Here.
Councilor Snappack?
Lewis?
Here.
Moorefield?
Here.
Olsen?
Ellis?
Here.
Bowden?
Here.
Shaffer?
Here.
Mayors?
Here.
Cadena?
Here.
Eight councilors present, Your Honor.
Thank you very much.
Up next, we have requesting approval of the agenda.
Look for a motion.
I will move to approve the agenda as written.
Second.
Motion is seconded. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor of the agenda as written, say "aye."
Aye.
Aye.
Aye. Aye.
All opposed, say "no."
Thank you. Passed unanimously.
On to our first pleasant item of the evening,
is a recognition and appreciation for solar panel donation to Corvallis Community
Center in memory of
James Reese Miller. I'd like to invite up Meredith
Petit and Cassandra Robertson.
All right. Well, good evening, Mayor and City Council.
As you announced, we're here to express our appreciation for all of
those involved in a meaningful project that you'll hear more about.
The Corvallis Community Center is the recent beneficiary of a solar
array donated in honor of the late James, or
James Reese Miller. A generous contribution that
reflects both community spirit and a commitment to sustainability.
I'm going to turn it on over to Cassandra Robertson to share more about
the project.
All right.
Thank you. I'm Cassandra Robertson, owner of Abundant Solar.
We've been in business now for 21 years. Local solar installer.
I've never been in this seat, but I've been in that seat a bunch of times,
and just as nervous as I always am. So that's all fine.
I usually am here asking for something, asking for a project,
asking for money, asking for a decision, and
through those years, sharing different projects, right?
So Unity Shelter and the Micro Shelter project that you very
graciously funded many years ago.
Energize Corvallis, which was a decade ago, putting
electricity conservation in the hands of our
homeowners and giving everybody a light bulb.
Also being a part of the Climate Action Plan and Energy Action Team.
So just a lot of reasons to be here, and then coming back
and reporting
how we were doing. And I'm actually really glad, and just this is so different to
be here to give the City of Corvallis a really beautiful donation.
Yeah. So
this is what we did. In the middle of March, we built a solar
array, a 46.8 kilowatt system,
on the Corvallis Community Center, long ago called the Senior
Center, which I keep messing up.
And it's been really fun to let people know where this is.
A lot of people still don't know where our community center is.
After James left, I started tango dancing, and
that was there. So anyway, that's a sidetrack.
So this is a gift from Solar Installers of Oregon in
memory of my husband, James Reese Miller.
He died unexpectedly on September 20th, 2022.
And when the solar community found out about this, they just offered.
They said, "We're putting a solar system up in his honor." And it was so
amazing to me, and I couldn't really deal with it, so it took a little while to
understand what that meant.
They just asked me to find a roof, and that's all I had to do.
I didn't have to do anything. So very much.
And I knew James would really want this to be something that was
community-oriented and also very visible, because he was just so pro-solar.
He wanted every roof to be covered.
His goal was to cover every roof in our community.
He did a lot in that direction.
So I wasn't sure where
it was going to be. I just kept
feeling into it. Where is it? And then I called my good friend and colleague, Scott
Divan,
to talk about what could we do with the city, because this would be truly
community, and that's really what he would want, that it was going back into our
community.
So we worked over the last summer, talking with everybody that
needed to be talked to, to figure out where we could put it, and the community
center became the place.
When the solar community offered this, I thought
10k system, a cute little system somewhere.
And when Katie Martin at Elemental Energy, who was
the person who really spearheaded this project, I told her I thought it'd just be
10k. She's like, "No way. I was going to cover whatever roof you brought to me."
So that is how we got to 46.8. And for folks who don't really know how
much energy that is, that is a huge system.
Houses usually have about 10 kilowatts, so this is really a
generous and really nice system.
It's going to power about 41% of C3,
which is amazing.
These systems are going to last 25 years
plus. We still have projects that are from the '90s that
are still in operation. Not me personally, but there are solar systems in
operation.So
this man was so passionate about solar.
When I first met him in 2000, he was a sound engineer out from
Indiana and couldn't find any work because there's 100 sound engineers in
Portland, Oregon. And I asked him, "What do you want to do
with your life?" And he's asking me the same thing, "What do I do with my life?" I
said, "What do you love?" He's like, "I love renewable energy." And I said, "Go
find somebody who knows about this." And hardly anyone was installing in 2000.
So he just really invested, and he became a journeyman so that he could own a
company. He just saw the vision, and he made this happen.
I want to just talk a little bit about solar too as it's
really inspiring. So the first modules from the 1950s could convert
6%. Now that we're at about 20%, so that's a big
leap, even though I was hoping that number would be even bigger.
It's about 1,000 gigawatts installed globally at this point from a
decade ago when it was one gigawatt.
It's the cheapest new energy electrical source.
Solar costs have dropped 90%. It's cleaner, it's cheaper, and it's the
fastest-growing energy source
that we have right now and the cleanest. It renews itself.
When you build a panel, it's between one and five years before it's
making that energy that it took to build the solar panel.
So it's really amazing.
It was experimental, I feel like, when we started, and I remember our first
customer and how excited Seumas was when he opened Abundant Solar
21 years ago. And it was still like we had to really prove
its efficacy, and now it's just become way more mainstream.
He always was ahead of the curve, which I loved, and he
came out from Indiana with these old solar panels that he'd collected somewhere.
And he was so excited when we bought our first place, and he could actually install
them, and they were just these rinky-dink little things, but they powered.
They just keep working. It's really an amazing technology, even these old ones.
He came home one night with a $25 LED light, and I was just
horrified. I was like, "How can you spend $25 on a light bulb?" That's when we
pretty much were using
incandescent lights, and he was so proud of it.
It barely put out any light, but he was always cutting edge, cutting edge.
Abundant Solar for many years had all vegetable oil-run
trucks. He was just always wanting to try stuff that was sustainable, and
he was always willing to put his time and his money towards that more than anything
else. It was just so inspiring.
And that's what I think is so beautiful about this project is that he
made this project happen. So people come up to me and they say, "Oh,
it's so great that you did this." I didn't do it.
He did it from across, whatever your thoughts are around death, from
across that place. He actually inspired this project to happen based on how he
lived his life, so I'm so proud of that.
And he also built Abundant Solar to be a community
resource because we kept small,
kept local,
with a lot of
just focus on quality, focus on community, so we could ride the ups and downs
because the solar industry has not been consistent.
It is literally called the solar coaster, and it really is that.
And now as the owner, I never thought I would own a construction company, but
it's hard. So he really laid the groundwork to create a
company that would survive so that we would have installers to fix your
systems, to be around, to really be here in our small Corvallis community.
Abundant Solar alone has installed about 1,000 plus projects,
which when I little bit do the math, it's approximately 10% of our
housing stock just from our company alone, and there's other companies, again, come
and gone. We have a lot of solar in our community, so it's really inspiring, and
I just love how much is here in the city, on city
grounds, and city buildings.
And then just to inspire anybody who's listening to this broadcast and
everybody in this room, it's just like we can really do a lot with what our
passions are.
The smallest thing. He wasn't big and fla-- Well, he was kind of big and
flashy, actually. But his
heart, he just diligently kept building and just knew.
He would say to me, "I wish I could volunteer." And I was like, "Your work is
volunteering. You put all this extra time into making sure that our community
is run off of the sun, and that's so amazing." And so just
everybody's, your passions, your actions, just make a direct impact, even if we
don't realize that we're doing that.
And then later on, you just don't even know how we'll inspire
people. And to inspire a 46.8 kilowatt
system
on a building is really saying something. And it's not just him.
We can do this for each other in our community, and I feel so proud to be in
Corvallis that we chose to... I went to college here. I brought him back.
We were like, "We got to live here." This is really a special place.
I'm
so thankful to have this place that is a memorial to him, but
also, I'm just so proud of this community and thankful to all of you,
especially those of you who've been on the council for a long time, that I
actually, when I was in this room, you were here.
Just all the work and effort that goes into making a community that
is vibrant and healthy and forward-thinking.
We're just really appreciative of that.
So I'm very proud to offer this gift tonight to
the city of Corvallis in honor of my husband, Seumas Reese Miller,
and just in great gratitude for everybody who made this happen,
which this is everybody who made this happen, plus others, for sure.
And this is a really generous offering that just
touches my heart so much. You can tell.
So
thank you.
Thank you, Cassandra. So just to recap where we're at with the city on this, this
is our seventh solar array on city property, including
Public Works, the airport, the fire stations, and now the Corvallis Community
Center.
And of course, as you know, this supports a lot of our strategic goals
with the city in terms of infrastructure, amenities, resilient and
safe city, as well as our sustainability
goalsAnd with that, I just want to
express our appreciation from Parks and Recreation.
We know this will have a major impact on our operations there, but
also serve as an educational opportunity for our visitors.
We're working with Cassandra on a nice sign that will be placed at the
center.
And so that'll be installed in the next couple of months, and we hope to stay in
contact. Thank you.
And I'll add appreciation
to you as well as James and all those who contributed
and who've kept pushing for not just this project, but all the
projects and the more to come out.
Thank you very much.
Counselors?
When I was at the Sustainability Coalition Town Hall meeting, at my
table group, one of the questions we had to answer was: What was the most inspiring
project? And everybody agreed that those solar
panels on the community center were the most inspiring project.
So
it's having an effect already.
Love that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's also a block from my house.
Anyone
else? Just jump on in if you want.
No? Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you.
And if you haven't had a chance to go look at it, go over to the community center.
One, just go to the community center. It's fantastic.
Mm-hmm.
But look at the roof. It's amazing.
I'll skip the tango, but...
Oh, I think...
We'll now move on to our next happy item of the evening.
And as a proclamation, I get to do these from time to time, and this one means a
lot to me. This is a
proclamation for Fair Housing Month.
Whereas April 11th, 2026 marks the 58th anniversary of the enactment of
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Federal
Fair Housing Act. And whereas fair and equal access to housing
opportunities for all, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, disability,
marital status, familiar status, national origin, sexual orientation, or
gender identity is a fundamental goal of our nation, our state, and our
city.
And whereas housing choice impacts children's access to education, an individual's
ability to seek and retain employment, the cultural benefits we enjoy, and the safe
conduct of our daily lives.
And whereas housing is a critical component of family and community physical,
mental, and emotional health and stability.
And whereas the laws of our country, our state, and the City of Corvallis seek to
ensure fair and equal choice in all housing activities.
And whereas ongoing education, outreach, and monitoring are critical to raising
awareness of fair housing principles, practices, rights, and responsibilities.
And whereas barriers to fair housing in Corvallis will be eliminated only through
broad-based and consistent cooperation, commitment, and community
support.
Now, therefore, I, Charles Maughan, Mayor of Corvallis, do hereby proclaim April
2026 to be Fair Housing Month in the City of Corvallis, and call upon the
community to share in the responsibility of ensuring fair housing choice for all
our members.
Thank you all very much for allowing me to do this
privilege.
We'll now move on to the other good thing, presentation on our quarterly
housing continuum updates.
Give Brittany a moment to get things loaded up.
Oh.
Is that microphone on?
Darn it.
There it is.
But today, I get to come before you and talk about
just quarterly updates associated with the housing continuum.
We're going to share, I'll share about the Housing Development Task Force.
We're 10 years since that was adopted by council
and recommendations. Housing production,
a little updates about the Coordinated Homeless Response office, and then funding.
2016, the Housing Development Task Force adopted
recommendations. There are about 30 of them.
We've completed most of them, but two.
The two that have not been completed is develop an inclusionary
zone program.
That's been on hold waiting for state guidance and law changes.
There was a recent
bill passed, Senate Bill 1521, that
is focused more on the Portland Metro associated with inclusionary zoning, but
so it won't affect our region yet. But we're watching and seeing
if there will be further changes.
And then, the second goal we have not been able to achieve quite yet is
receive and distribute donations of land and money for affordable housing.
So we haven't had any land donations.
But we did attempt some land banking earlier this year, but it was
ultimately unsuccessful.
Last year, housing permitted in 2025, we had
473 housing units. So diversity of housing types,
multifamily, 20 single family homes, and then
151 senior housing
units. Compared to 2024, we
permitted 83 housing units. So we're
seeingThe benefit of a lot of the policy changes
that you adopted over 10 years ago,
and knowing now that I'm older, some of this policy
work takes so much time. But 10 years later, we're seeing
a lot more production, which is fabulous.
And in the next couple of years, we're going to have roughly
2,000 new units of housing,
and that's from affordable housing,
multi-rate, market-rate, and
homeownership.
The
HOPE board, or Home Opportunity Planning Engagement board was
also--
I should know the date in which it was.
Probably around 10 years ago, too.
Less.
A little less? Okay.
It was pre-pandemic. At any rate,
it was a board that adopted multiple goals and recommendations that
helped guide us towards the path of having policy
recommendations associated with houselessness and ways that we can
increase housing supply, but also have the needed supports in our community to
help folks who are unhoused. There
is
a recent reorganization within that board that now includes other
members. So IHNCCO, Linn-Benton Housing Authority,
the CSC, Community Services Consortium, and
Benton County is the lead, along with the City of Corvallis and
Philomath.
There is a HOPE advisory board meeting on Wednesday from 4:00 to
5:00. If community members or councilors are interested in really
getting deep updates about houselessness, this is really the
forum that folks should be paying attention to, attending and
whatnot. The HOPE advisory body is comprised of
both elected officials along with executive
officers and the CRO staff, Coordinated Homeless
Response staff, of which I'm a party along with Benton County,
provide updates during those meetings and work in partnership with a
lot of community partners here in Corvallis and Benton County.
So, the regional coordinator is-- this was discussed at our
last meeting, but the state of Oregon is restructuring in how
some of the statewide sheltering programs and funding allocations come
forward. Benton County Coordinated Homeless Response
office was selected, which is fabulous news.
They are waiting to get an executed contract and know the total
allocation.
OHCS, Oregon Housing Community Services, did open up an
application in Linn County again.
So I don't think they had a successful applicant, but that really matters.
We need to have
providers and coordinated
responses along our community, three-county area,
Linn, Benton, and Lincoln. So I'm hopeful they will find
a successful applicant that will be a regional coordinator to work
alongside the Benton County Coordinated Homeless Response office.
The CRO has a lot of work ahead of us.
There's going to be a community plan, a regional assessment of gaps and needs
in our community
is underway, building upon
House Bill 1519 that was a strategic plan along with our
HOPE recommendations. Staff from the CRO, again, led
by Benton County Health Department, are engaging in local
planning efforts with homeless service providers just last week and
ongoing. They're on speed dial. Healthcare, behavioral health,
supportive housing, day-use hygiene providers.
There's going to be a significant amount of outreach happening in the coming
springtime,
and plan must be submitted 60 days after
allocations. So once Oregon Housing and Community Services
says it's go time,
the CRO team has 60 days to refine the plan, make sure it
is viable, and
identifies gaps and needs within our community, and submits it to Oregon Housing
Community Services. So a lot of work ahead.
The CRO is going to be talking about potential
work plans or work groups coming up at the HOPE
meeting on Wednesday, and really working on
improved referral pathways and accurate data collection.
So this could be a potential work group adapting new
coordinated entry by name assessment tool,
ensuring that data entry is consistent, a universal assessment
and intake form for all providers.
Outreach, of course, and engagement with providers, and then just
strengthening coordination and referrals within partners
and homeless service provider response systems.
The other potential work group would be street outreach and encampment response.
Benton County has had some meetings with some key partners.
It's been more organic, and not a formalized work group
quite yet.
But they're really talking about ways that we can work collectively in
participation to help meet the needs of unsheltered individuals.
So,
the county has additional resources through the
Housing 360, which we talked about at length last fall,
for street outreach and response,
in partnership with the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center.
The goal really is to connect unhoused, unsheltered
individuals, and
help them seek shelter, identify shelter, and
ultimately, housing, of course.
A lot of coordination and collaboration will be
hopefully taking place with all parties.
Service providers, parks and rec, police, behavioral health,
really targeting
multi-jurisdictions, different
areas, neighborhoods, and working in a targeted approach to help
get unsheltered individuals under a roof.We've
been discussing the structure and possibilities of shared agreements within
that.
Community Development isn't a participant in street outreach in
general, and so this is a lot of the work that our friends at Parks and
Police and Behavioral Health, and of course the lead
at the CRO office.
Funding updates.
Continuum of Care, I believe there's been some funding
decisions through CSE, Community Services Consortium,
and Corvallis Housing First through the CoC.
Statewide, the sheltering system through the Coordinated Homeless Response
office,
which will then go to providers, and then more updates can be found at
Benton County.
New funding and investments from Oregon Housing Community
Services. It was a short session this
February in Salem. There are some new financial resources,
which is good because it was looking like
it was pretty bleak for a while. So I'm glad to see some bit of
revenue and some resources for affordable housing.
So $75 million for LIFT, Local Innovative Fast-Track money
for affordable housing.
$25 million for preservation of affordable housing, rental housing, and
manufactured house parks. And then $20 million, which is going to
be transferred from the MIRL program, Moderate Income Revolving
Loan, to the Mixed Income Revolving Loan program.
And then last, the social service funding.
The city is working in close collaboration with United Way
to send RFPs out to the community in the coming weeks.
As a reminder, last fall, I think, we
came before you about splitting that resource for category one
in which the Coordinated Homeless Response office will be helping to deploy that
resource of 240. The remaining 240,
plus admin, will be through United Way.
So we are working with United Way to make sure that
the RFP processes, which will be two different ones, will
be clearly communicated. We'll have an opportunity for potential
grantees to come to a Q&A
so they can ask which fund they might want to be interested in funding
or applying to, et cetera. And so, we're working really closely with
United Way on that right now.
As a reminder, category one
is through the CRO, but it's for new, expanded, and/or improved homeless
services, really helping get unsheltered
individuals under a roof. And then category two is all
social services, which can include homeless service provisions.
And with that, thank you.
Thank you very much. It was a pleasant update, especially when you see the
numbers. I think we're headed in the right direction.
Counselors, any questions?
Counselor Napack.
The meeting on Wednesday, will that be recorded and available later to view?
The public meeting, so yes. It's through the county.
But yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
Counselor Moorefield.
With the
regional shelter coordination thing that's starting,
what do you hope gets achieved? I saw that you talked about the plan
that's going to be required and so on, but can you say what you hope
the change will be that we'll see in the next year or two?
The state has done a lot of adoption of best
practices of how we should be delivering homeless services throughout the
state,
and a lot of them are based on HUD. And I'm excited about that,
that there
will be more coordination, better systems.
It's been fragmented for quite some time.
We're gathering more data, working on coordinated
entry. Folks will be utilizing HMIS,
Homeless Management Information System, where you can really
help follow an individual to the path of shelter and
housing.
I think we've seen a lot of great progress with the flexible housing subsidy
pool in partnership with Benton County and their
contracted service providers. And I
think there's opportunities for ongoing improvement
and
really helping understand where the gaps are within the system and
how to then address those gaps.
Anyone else?
Ms. Meyers.
Yeah. When you said you
hope someone from Linn County
would also become a regional coordinator, what happens if
no one from Linn County, since it's a regional system...
Just wondering.
Yeah, I haven't been following that that closely.
I'm
90% certain there will be an entity that will be delivering that service.
Okay.
I was surprised that there wasn't a selected
entity for the first go-around. I think there were just two counties that didn't
have a
regional coordinator. So I'm looking forward to seeing
who that entity is, and then how we can collaborate with them.
Folks, certainly in Linn and Benton County-
Yeah
...
need to work really closely together. So, yeah.
Yeah, and you mentioned Lincoln. Are we assuming Lincoln already has?
It does. Yep.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
I'm thinking to the pause we had earlier with Hope when it was formed.
Yeah.
It had to have been 2019 because I served on it as a new counselor when it was
being formed, so
And I was a part of that in the nonprofit. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, so we're not 10 years yet, but-
Right.
Yeah.
Seven.
All right. Well, thank you very much again.
Thank you.
Wonderful numbers, and I'll add to that later during my mayor's
comments.We'll now move on to community
comments.
The Corvallis City Council asks community members to register in advance, but also
offers limited opportunities to sign up at the meeting.
Community members may indicate their interest in providing comment this evening by
using the sign-up sheet in the back of the room now, or use the raise hand function
in Zoom when your desired opportunity for public testimony is reached.
Please remember to state your name and area of residence for the record and be
mindful of our three-minute clock that's right there.
We will start with the pre-sign-ups. And we have David Barron.
Welcome.
Tap, tap.
There we are.
There you go. Yeah, I
think it's on.
Is it on?
I think so.
Is it?
Tap the front of it. The... Nope, it's not on.
Try it now.
Yeah.
There you go.
There we go.
There you go.
My name's David Barron, I'm from Blodgett, Oregon.
I live
outside of Blodgett, but that's our postal
address. I'm a founder of a nonprofit called FRIEND, and that's
Firefighters Reaching Internationally through Education as a Nonprofit
Delegation, and we offer youth STEM firefighter camps.
For 27 years, I've been a Portland firefighter.
And much like firefighters, you live in the community that you
want to live, and you work around the region,
as you guys spoke about earlier.
This coming June, we're going to be doing a firefighter STEM camp with
Philomath Fire & Rescue. That's for 13 to 19-year-old
girls and boys. It'll be two days. The first day will be
CPR and first aid certification,
and the second day they will get dressed up in full firefighter turnouts
and get to operate the Jaws of Life, and a chainsaw, and
forcible door entry, and all kind of other fun things that we're partnered
with Starker and the Department of Forestry.
We have done this with other cities and communities in
the metro area.
Portland is where this started,
and we've ran this for three years, and we partner
with Gresham Fire & Rescue, City of Gresham, Walton Valley Fire &
Rescue,
and many other firefighter volunteers from around the area.
And my presentation here is to build a relationship
and see about bringing this to the City of Corvallis
and our community here.
That's wonderful. It sounds like a great program.
Yeah.
I know somebody with a youth in Philomath, so I'll let them know.
Thank you.
If you'd like, feel free to... My information, I think I have a card in the back of
the room. Feel free to send me an email with some more information, and I'll follow
up with you.
Perfect. Thank you.
Councilors, any questions about that?
Councilor Lewis?
I would also like more information because I work at a daycare, and they have
siblings, so I would definitely want more information just to see how that works.
Thank you. I have more information here I could leave.
Let's see, your card here.
Thank you.
Councilor Ellis?
I think this sounds like a very cool program.
I work with high school kids, and I think some of them would really enjoy it.
Correct. We have already youth signed up.
It's only for
youth of Benton County. However, we've got Alsea,
and some Kings Valley, and Philomath boys and girls
signed up. Spots are limited. There's going to
be 20 spots available, and I would
imagine we're somewhere around six or so, and maybe after
this meeting we'll be more than double that.
Councilor Marz?
What did you say the ages were again?
13 to 19, so middle school and high school.
Okay.
And the idea is to offer STEM opportunities
for youth that haven't traditionally considered firefighting as
a career,
and those that are in rural settings where these
skills may be able to serve immediately in need of an
emergency.
Mm-hmm.
Anyone else?
Cool. Thank you very much, and-
Thank you very much
... I look forward to connecting with you.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
Up next, we have Wendy Burn.
I think I saw her
enter.
Hello, Mayor, and Council-
Hello
... and City Manager.
It's been a while, and I just wanted to come tonight because I see
that the Monroe Avenue Corridor Study is on the
agenda for discussion. And I think, well, that could be in the
consent agenda because it's all a thumbs up.
But I'm just here to speak strongly in favor of the whole process,
because Public Works, and OSU, and the consultants did
such a great job of engaging with the community and coming up with a
plan that works for a
lot of reasons and might have some problems.
But we shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of good.
And the only real problem that I see is that it doesn't go all the way
down to the riverfront.
So I'm just hoping that this plan will engender something else in the
future. So it's a lovely day, and
when you get out on your bike and you ride from the university down to the
waterfront, when you get to 5th Street, the bike lane ends.
And that's okay for me because I will just get in traffic.
But it's not okay for my mom, and it's not okay for my sister, and it's not
okay for my friends that come here, and I put on a bicycle, and I want to take them
to the riverfront. And so it'd be really great if that
changed in the future. So thanks for your time, and I look
forward to hearing the discussion.
Thank
you.See
if we have any drop-in commenters.
David Rabinowitz?
I think I'm getting better at saying your name.
You're getting closer.
Closer? I try.
Anyway, I'm Dave Rabinowitz, and I live in Ward 2,
and I usually don't disagree with Wendy, but when it comes to
Monroe Avenue, I have problems with the
whole design. I've been to all the open houses, I've put in
my input, and I still have serious problems.
I think the bike track on the south
side has serious problems, causes more
problems than it solves.
Number one,
entering that
from at 14th Street, you have to diagonally cross the intersection.
That is problematic. It means traffic
light issues and
all that. Even worse, exiting it westbound at
26th Street, at the last open house I was at, they admitted
they had no solution. It just didn't work, and it
doesn't work. In addition, bike access from
that bike track to businesses on
Monroe is not available.
People who want to get to those business on
Monroe are probably going to ride the sidewalk on the north
side of Monroe, and that's definitely not a good idea.
It's unsafe for everybody. And it's also
eastbound buses are going to cause problems with the cycle track,
because somehow people are going to have to get from the sidewalk to the
buses. And I've seen similar problems in-- I
spent some time in Washington, DC, and they had similar problems.
People just stand in the bike track while
they're waiting for a bus. So that's not going to work at all.
But there are
actual suggestions to fix that problem.
First of all, Monroe should be a street, not a stroad.
I hope people know what a stroad is.
If not, I've already given links to a website that
explains it. But basically, it should be something which
discourages through traffic. If you're on Monroe, you're doing it because
you want to be somewhere on Monroe.
So basically,
if you want to allow private cars on Monroe,
you really need to reduce the speeds, and you can do that with
chicanes,
and doing chicanes around bus stops.
First of all, it gives better bus access and slows the traffic, and
once you've got traffic slowed down to 20 or lower, you don't need
any special bicycle lanes or anything.
Bikes are just fine with 20 mile an hour traffic.
And ideally, that whole
corridor would be
car free. You'd have buses, alternative
transportation, and pedestrians.
And there's really no reason for that to be a through street.
You've got
Harrison and Van Buren parallel to it.
You've got
Jackson just one block away. So I think the whole
plan is
not a good idea. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Questions?
Questions?
No.
Thank you.
Up next is Tamara.
Tell me when I start.
Sorry. Whenever you're ready.
Tamara Musafia from Sarajevo, Bosnia,
former Yugoslavia.
In 1972,
my uncle, Mladen,
he's now rahmetli, but in
1972, he took my brother
and me
to see my mama, who was in the Bosnia, in
Zenica, about to have a baby.
Before we could go on a train, we all
got variola vera
vaccination.
Yugoslavia
vaccinated 20 million people
so that my mama and my baby sister
could live.
20 million people. Yugoslavia stopped
variola vera
from going everywhere in the world.
You now in America have children dying of
measles, hemophilia,
HIV, influenza. It's a bacteria that's very
preventable. Now children are dying of that.
You have people, because
you have an idiot who is not even a doctor in charge.
You will get polio back.
Cuba!
Cuba made their own
vaccine against COVID-19.
Cuba
sent their doctors to Bologna, Italy, to
fight COVID. Cuba went to
Angola to fight racist
regime of Elon Musk and his idiots.
Cuba did.CIA killed
Patrice Lumumba, but Cuba stood with the people
fighting. And I am here to...
I will die. I don't know how many times my heart has to be
broke.
But
every
US president is a Caligula,
and this guy who you now have in power, he's
Caligula plus Nero in one.
He's going to kill you all. You need to know I am
Jewish. I have been a slave in Babylon.
I have been a slave in Egypt. I was
taken by original fascists. After they
broke my temple, I was taken
God knows where. I was in Portugal.
I know all this. I did genealogy. So I want to
tell you, the people who do the best music, it's...
Can I please talk? I have to tell you this, please.
I can give you about 30 more seconds.
Please, please. I have to tell this. I'll die. I cannot do more.
So
the people who have the best music is .
We are the best in violin and
let my people go. This is people who suffered.
And now you people, you don't understand, my country was
destroyed one million times. Caligula
Clinton, he went to blow up Yugoslavia after a b**w j*b.
This Caligula is now starting world war
because of Epstein files. This is fascism.
That's their playbook. They are sexual
deviants, pedophiles, God knows what they are.
I have seen them many times. Please, people, get to your
senses. I need to tell you about Serbia, and then I am done.
I under-
Now in Serbia-
Unfortunately, your time's up.
Okay, bye.
You're welcome to reach out to councilors-
I cannot tell you. But please, people, know that where are you?
S**t.
Thank you very much.
Bye.
We'll now move on to the consent agenda.
I move to approve the consent agenda.
Second.
Wow.
I'm a little offended there, Tony.
I thought we'd just change things up a tiny bit.
In two weeks.
All right. We have a motion to approve, and it's been seconded.
All in favor of the consent agenda, say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
All opposed, say no.
Passed unanimously. Thank you.
Can I move on to unfinished business? I'm going to...
The city manager evaluation process update, and I'll hand it off to Counselor
Cadena.
Okay, thank you.
I'm assuming that you've all read my short memo in the packet,
where I've offered up two alternatives for how we approach
moving forward with the city manager evaluation process.
In the interest of rigor, we should more formally discuss our
decision process and document our final decision.
At this time of discussing budget gaps and significant spending
needs, it's worth taking the time, even if it is only
for approximately 25K.
If we do plan to hire an outside consultant every year, we should
also state that and budget for it.
So I'm going to just basically say that I
stand ready to successfully implement
whatever this council's final decision is.
And I invite your discussion. I'll just
state for the record that I think moving forward,
doing it ourselves with a robust, repeatable process,
I'm committed to making that happen and that'll be the direction that
I'm moving, but I invite others' comments.
Councilors?
Councilor Ellison Moorefield.
I believe that we do need to get an outside consultant
this year. We agreed at the end of the
process in September to go out for an RFP and to do this.
We have promised the community that we're going to do it this year, and
we have discussed it for many years.
So I think that it is essential to follow through with our promise for this
year, and perhaps what we need to do
at the end of that process is make a decision as to whether or not we want to do
it
regularly that way or if we have received enough information.
But we have talked about this for several years, and I think we just
need to do it.
Councilor Moorefield?
A question first. You
made a recommendation at the end, or your personal opinion.
In your memo, you had two alternatives that are somewhat
different.
Were you-
No, I-
... attaching yourself to one of them or?
I'm attaching my preference to alternative two.
Right. Okay. That's what I thought, but I didn't quite hear the
words.
Any other questions?
Councilor Meyers and then Shaffer.
I don't have a question. I don't
recall that we made a promise that we would hire
an outside consultant. I believe we decided to
explore the RFP process and then decide.
That's just my recollection.
And I
feel
that...
I'm not feeling convinced that we would gain
enough to justify spending
$25,000 on the process when
wecreated a process already
last year that used much of what the
RFP was written for.
Or I mean the parameters
within it. So I would vote no
for those reasons.
And just for clarification, I would agree, I don't think there was a promise made,
but there has been a desire for previous councils to use an outside
consultant, and there was direction to go through the RFP process.
That's where we are today.
Councilor Shaffer?
Yeah, I am also in support of
going through this process and hiring an outside consultant.
Is that something we do
from now until the end of time? No. But I think we owe it to
ourselves, the past councils, and to the community
to be faithful to the conversations
then of having an outside look at what we
do and how we do it.
I think the money is less important than that we
get some fresh eyes and some independent eyes looking at
our process to make sure we're doing it
as well as possible.
This is something that
was talked about
three years ago in council, I believe, that we needed to change
it. It was talked about
in 2024 and in the process last
year.
heard what I interpreted as a commitment to go forward
with this process, and I think we need to at least
get some outside looks at this and some
objective, experienced, independent people
helping guide us through this process.
Council Morefield?
In many ways, I'm on the fence.
What I would say is that when we started talking about city manager
evaluation last year, I was fully on board with getting
some outside help,
primarily because I was a new city council member last year,
and I was hearing how it had been done in the past.
It seemed like there was not a sort of a fixed or a
codified way for the evaluation to happen.
So it made sense to get some help and let's get this done
right and codify it so that it's replicable
for future councils so that they don't have to guess or reinvent the wheel.
And that's what I'm hearing city councilors agreeing with, and
I think that's very important that we
establish a well-designed process that meets the council's need as
well as the city manager's, and
then keep doing it. We wouldn't need a consultant
in later years, or at least that would be my intent.
This would be a one and done.
The reason I'm on the fence to some degree now is because we went through a
process,
and with all of these requirements in mind,
and I thought it worked really well and is continuing to work because
we're doing quarterly check-ins.
I think if we took what we've already learned this year
or exhibited this year and we could put it into
a codified form,
with the assistance of human resources, just like
we used during this recent evaluation
process, then I think we could achieve the same end.
I thought that the contract was going to cost less, which is
the reason I'm going in the direction of let's not
do this RFP, but do
something rigorous that results in a well-established
process is just because this is a bit spendy,
and I think we can get to where we want to go without it.
So
I'm going to vote
in favor of alternative two.
Yeah, I'll go ahead and add my voice.
I think I feel very similar to the way Councilor
Morefield feels. I've always been a supporter ever since the
council, I don't know how many councils ago, said, "I think we need to get
some outside help to come up with a..." Because we did see a different process year
after year, and that's no way to
treat an employee, and it's also not good practice for good results.
And the city manager is our employee, and we should treat him with respect
to that role.
I know my work with the state, I have a set process.
It's the same, and I know what to expect from it.
And
now they do quarterly check-ins. It's kind of very similar. It's interesting.
And I think that's best practice. So I was all in favor.
I had no idea that the amount would be what the RFP came out with.
So I'm also in favor of alternative two at this point in time.
We have a framework to build off of.
I think it needs to be, I think you used the word "codified." I think we need
something that becomes the set standard policy in how we move
forward
with an evaluation, bringing in the outside
peer review, peer questions as well.
But at this time, I struggle to justify in my
head and in my
duty to be fiscally responsible for the
community's money to spend that kind of dollars for something that we
might end up with exactly what we have. We don't know.
If it was lower cost, I would totally support going out
with an outside assistant to do that.
On to other questions.
Councilor Ellis, then Cadena
If we agree to explore the RFPs, then I feel like then maybe
all of council should explore the RFPs.
Um, we had um, the city manager, the
mayor, um, Counselor Cadena looked at the responses we
got. I think we should all look at them.
We did that when we were hiring an attorney, so I think that if we're
exploring, then we should all be exploring the RFPs.
Um, I do want to clarify, the process has been the
same since I've been on council.
The questions have changed,
and different councilors have changed the questions, and we have
moved from different... We've
used different formats to give our answers and bring them together, I think.
And I don't know all the technology, but the process has always been the
same. It's always been directed by HR, but the questions
have definitely changed over the years.
So I think that our process is...
And the concern often that was part of the discussion
was to
put our HR director in an awkward position of
doing the evaluation for her boss.
That was one of the concerns that came up over and over again,
um, when we started talking about doing a different way of an
evaluation, um, was we shouldn't be asking somebody
who's
a direct report to also be coordinating.
Um, so those were the concerns. I think our process is always...
But the process we did this year was the exact same process that
we have always done. Questions definitely changed.
I mean, I would argue slightly. Uh, I feel like when the process, I mean, the
general, I guess, but when the
forms we use change and the questions change, the process changed.
It's just maybe the
end result and how we try to get there, that stayed the same, which is receive
feedback, evaluate it, move forward with the decision.
That part's the only part of the process that stayed the same.
Um,
I feel like every time I turn around, we're trying to rethink, reinvent the wheel.
So...
Councilor Cadena, and then Shaffer.
Yeah. I'll make a couple of comments.
First, I would echo what the mayor said.
I don't think the process has remained the same, um, because,
um,
at various times, uh, questions and approaches have changed.
That is a fundamental change in the process.
Um, I think that as far as,
uh, putting the HR, uh, manager, HR director
in an uncomfortable position, uh, I would just comment that I don't
see that the HR director is in an uncomfortable position.
I would also highlight that when we compared ourselves to other cities,
that's not an uncommon, uh, um, position for the
HR director to be in. I would just make a comment that
in both, uh, municipal organizations, corporate
organizations, nonprofit organizations, there are functions,
uh, which by definition have
a ethical and, um, uh,
position-related responsibility that's unlike others.
So to be clear, and those typically would include finance,
HR, legal. Uh, those are folks who
theoretically have conflicts of interest if one
might argue. Um, but their
professional ethics and standards require them to operate independently as,
uh... I mean, I fully expect that, for example, in our own city,
public works will advocate strongly for a public works project.
I fully
am also anticipate that Director Engels, as a
finance director, um, has to balance the variety
of, uh, constituents, uh, of staff, uh, positions
that he has to then use to come up with a budget.
So, uh, I'm going to defer to the city manager for just a
moment, and then I'm going to come back and make a motion.
Okay, City manager.
Yeah, just because our HR director was mentioned here, um,
I believe in front of the council, and certainly with me, the HR director
has said this is a normal course of business, both in,
uh, her experience here in the public sector, but also her experience in the
private sector, and she understands that role and is not
uncomfortable with that.
Okay. Um, I think, uh, to move us along, I'm going to make a
motion that we adopt alternative two, which is to utilize
best practices,
the ICMA Manager Evaluation Guide, the RFP
responses to craft a process which adheres to the objectives,
engage the support of the HR director in this work, and report
back to the council by the May 7th work session.
Second.
Uh, just to speak to that, I fully anticipate that at the May 7th work
session, I would bring back
the set of questions, the participants for both, uh,
staff,
um, mayor and city council, and peer evaluators,
uh, a timeline, roles and responsibilities,
uh, how I would direct the work, uh, using the
HR director to facilitate the data
collection, uh, and being pretty clear about, uh,
what the responsibility of the HR director is versus council
president.
All right. We have a motion and a second.
Um, haven't forgotten about you, Councilor Shaffer, if you want to go ahead and
speak to-
Yeah, I would. Um, I will be voting
against the motion. Um, I think there's several things
here. I think, um, in a lot of respects, the
process has not changed.
We
have a set of questions. We ask the same people.
We have not made any move to include external peers,
for instance.Or to include anybody below
the director level from staff. I think there's a lot of questions that
could and should be looked at. And I feel like
we're
substituting
the council president's knowledge and expertise for
that of a person who does this for a living, and I think
we're
undershooting here. I would also note,
$25,000 is 0.01%,
roughly, of the city's budget.
And for that modest amount of
money, to the extent that that helps
make the city work better and run better
on probably a one-time basis, I think that's a rather
modest
charge
for us to accept. So I will be voting against it.
I, as I said earlier, am in favor of having
an outside party
help guide us through this process.
Any other discussion?
Council Mayers?
Yes. I
just need to point out that it isn't just the council president who would be
arranging what the questions and process would be.
He'd be working with someone who actually is a professional in the field.
And, I also just wanted to
say it sounded like Councilor Shaffer was saying that
we need to do a process where
outside peers and other people are
involved in giving comments on the city manager's performance,
and I believe that's
going to be part of the proposed process. So...
Could I?
Council Shaffer.
We're presupposing what the recommendation will be.
We're also, I think,
limiting to the same people who have been involved in
this with the city for a long time, and I think
I would like to see some people who can help us
with best practices and best
process. And I...
So.
Council Cadena, then I'll call on the question because we're kind of repeating same
talking points.
Okay. I'll just deal with the first comment.
You don't have to presuppose. The RFP we sent out did include
that we would solicit peer evaluations.
That would be part of what I bring back on the May 7th.
And I'll just leave it at that.
Let's go ahead and take a vote, and city recorder, can you do a roll call vote
please?
Yes, Mayor.
Councilors Lewis?
I'm sorry, I'm-
I can restate the motion.
Thank you.
This is a motion to adopt alternative two, utilize the past practices,
the ICMA Manager Evaluation Guide and RFP responses to
craft a process which adheres to the objectives,
engage the support of the HR director in this work, and report back to the council
by the May 7th work session.
Yes.
Thank you. Councilor Bowden?
No.
Councilor Olson? Councilors Moorefield?
Yes.
Ellis?
No.
Mayers?
Yes.
Shaffer?
No.
Napack?
Yes.
Cadena?
Yes.
Motion passes five to three.
Thank you all very much.
Anything else on the subject?
No, I thank you for your input. I will bring back
a work product that I trust all of you will find satisfactory.
Sure, we'll have a robust conversation.
Okay. Moving on to our last-
Comment.
Councilor Moorefield.
Just
a topic that I think we ought to cover when we get to the May
report back.
I think one of the challenges that I've observed with this council,
but in the past as well,
is that
most of us don't have experience with a chief executive
evaluation type of evaluation.
We've all had, anyone who has a job, has been evaluated.
But the relationship between a board
and a CEO, or
city council and a city manager, is a different kind of
evaluation. It's a different kind of relationship.
And
it would be useful as we articulate what we want
to achieve, to embed
whatever we end up adopting with that in mind,
because I think that's sort of the core
challenge that
lay people have with doing the kind of evaluation
that's required here.
That's all.
Thank you.
Yeah, I fully intend to do that. If you don't see that evident on the May
7th work session, please highlight that.
My aim is to create a process that is both well-documented
and that could literally be replicated year in and year out.
Mayor.
Councilor Ellis.
And I want to make it very clear that
my concern with going through HR has absolutely nothing to do with our
HR director. It has always made me uncomfortable, and it is
nothing to do with my suspicions of our HR director.
I think that she is honorable and does her work.
I'll add, I never thought that you meant otherwise.
Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to the Monroe Quarter Plan
study,
right, of Greg Gescher and Bill Werth
There we go.
Thank you very much. So for the past couple of years, the
city and OSU have been partnering, working
together
with the support of
Phil Werth of Kittelson Associates beside us.
We've been working on looking for opportunities to
improve travel on Monroe Avenue between 14th and
26th Street. It's a project identified in our TSP.
In fact, both TSPs recognize the
unique nature of this segment of roadway.
With the university on the south side, with a number of
campus entry points identified,
commercial properties on the north side,
surrounded by the residential areas.
Both plans recognize that unique nature in that
area calls for some approaches that better
facilitate the travel of all modes along the corridor.
So tonight, we've
come to the end of our planning work, and we're here, and Phil Werth is going
to present a recommended strategy for improving travel on
Monroe to all modes.
He's going to give a little bit of information about the process we followed and
the options we considered that got us to our recommendation.
We'll answer any questions you have.
And at the end of our presentation and discussion, we'll
ask you to consider
directing staff to initiate a comp plan amendment process that
will adopt the plan into
our transportation system plan.
So Bob, unless you have anything to add, I'll hand it off to Phil.
I just wanted to say thanks to Greg.
This is a project that both the university and the city partnered
on, and I think it's just a great example of how the two organizations can
work together to accomplish shared goals.
And so,
in my mind, it was a smooth process that worked really well.
I'm happy to be here this evening.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Phil Werth.
I'm with the firm Kittelson and Associates, and we had the great pleasure of
working with the city and with the university on this project.
I've got a presentation of about 45 slides,
just to let you know the number.
I'll work through this quickly, highlight many of the
options that we went through before we got to the final preferred concept,
and go through that in detail for you.
But would welcome questions. I would encourage you, if
you could, save them until I'm done, and then we'll take all
that you have. So, with that.
At.
Sometimes
presentations get kind of...
All right. So,
just a quick overview.
With respect to the project goals, the project actually began
by the city and the university coming together and establishing goals
before we were even engaged. These three really highlight
what drove the process, if you will, what were the key objectives or
outcomes both entities were looking to achieve.
Certainly, first and foremost, that notion of ensuring that the corridor works for
all travelers, regardless of mode.
And secondly, that in that notion of it working, that it's safe,
essentially equally safe for all users, regardless of the mode they
chose.
There was also this key notion of strengthening the relationship between
the university and the city by making this place work
more effectively in that physical connection of
businesses and residences to the north of the campus,
to the campus edge, as well as well into the
depths of the campus.
And then lastly, both entities certainly are continuing to plan for the
future. And this corridor and its
concept has that opportunity to help both institutions carry
forward with those plans.
There are a number of key successes and challenges
already in place with this corridor.
Everyone knows who's been to Corvallis, that when you go to Monroe
Avenue, you can expect to see a lot of pedestrian and bicycle
activity. It really doesn't matter what day of the week, what season of the
year.
It's a very active, vibrant place, and it's both because of the students
and staff that are moving to and from the campus, but also the
businesses themselves that are there, and then the residents that are also
in the area.
It also is your most frequently served
transit corridor in the entire city, and we were very aware of that
and wanted to make sure that any recommendations continued to
enhance the efficiency of transit on
this corridor.
So a few of the challenges.
The businesses on this corridor depend on freight, so we need to make sure
that freight still works.
We have a limited right of way. There's not the luxury of
justexpanding this facility to meet
everyone's need with the most ample facilities.
And then lastly, of course, that notion of it's built on both sides of the street.
So a few successes and
challenges that we face.
In terms of highlights for the engagement process, it really
operated at three levels. Among the
professional staff from the university and from the city, we had
several meetings. They were actively involved in working through that notion
of what are the options, what are the criteria we should use for
selecting them. Among the business and
property owners on the corridor itself, we had more direct
interaction with them than we did the general public for obvious reasons.
We wanted to make sure they were aware, they had opportunities to
engage with us, to help us recognize how to best
accomplish the goals of the project.
And then with the general public, a number of different types of
outreach activities were used. We used online
surveys. We have this thing called an interactive mapping tool, where
you can get into the map and place a very specific
comment to a very specific location to help us understand the
perspectives of the general community.
As well as then open houses and other ways of reaching out and
engaging with the broader community.
Some of the early input that we received about the corridor
is captured here. That notion that Monroe Avenue
really is a unique place, and I believe it to
be that case. That notion of it is not simply
an interface between the community and the university, but this
commercial corridor that doesn't exist on any other edge of the
campus, and that's part of what makes it unique.
Monroe has that character that makes people want to
just come and be.
And I think that's part of the motivation for this project is to
continue to encourage that to happen.
Safety and accessibility, of course, is very, very high on
the list. The idea that improvements are needed, that the status
quo isn't sufficient.
And one
early member participating in all of this said, "Now's
the time to think big." So we tried to accomplish all of those things.
This is just an example of some of the feedback that
was received when we did provide a community-wide
online survey. We asked the question, what transportation
amenities would you like to see enhanced along Monroe Avenue?
They had an opportunity to select more than one thing.
But what you'll see on the left really highlights the
things that gathered the most votes, if you will.
The idea of
providing better crossings.
Crossings are really the thing that happens most on this
corridor. More people cross it than go along it, for example.
Better separation, that means better separation between the modes.
Better lighting, of course, for obvious reasons.
We all know what it's like to live and drive and walk and ride bikes
in the cold, dark winters of Oregon.
More space, and I think in this respect, it is not only for moving,
but then also for resting and
engaging people along the corridor, as well as the businesses.
And lastly, wider sidewalks.
There were several guiding documents that we worked
through in the beginning of the project.
The city's transportation system plan really provides
great guidance in terms of what has the city already anticipated
doing on or near the corridor.
The purple stripe through the middle of the graphic is the
Monroe Avenue corridor, and project
PB16 is what we've just accomplished by doing this
Monroe Avenue concept
plan. But you see other planned improvements,
primarily focused on pedestrian and bicycle improvements,
occasionally something that's related more to motor vehicle
issues on the corridor.
In addition to the TSP and other city documents,
OSU has its own set of planning documents that
provide great guidance, and reflect,
in this case, the Corvallis campus vision,
what I found to be real strong parallels between the university and the
city.
The notion of sustainability, safety,
improving the quality of life for the residents and
the staff and the students that make up Corvallis.
Another document of consequence is the OSU
2030 Sustainable Transportation Strategy.
Its focus is on
helping the university reduce its impact through
transportation on the community.
We call it Transportation Demand Management, or TDM.
One of the 15 action items on this
plan is the Monroe Corridor redesign.
So this is where that partnership came together.
And lastly, the OSU Campus Transportation Plan
identified Monroe Avenue as a key corridor that needed to be
improved, in part to
make it more open and accessible to the community,
to define gateways and improve facilities that welcomed
community members to the edge as well as into the campus itself.
So
with all of that as the background then,
we began the project, and early on, we came up with five
concepts that we worked through in a variety of ways.
I'm going to describe these very quickly, show you images of them,
and we can always return to them if you'd like.So first,
where are we on the corridor? We're looking eastbound on Monroe,
and we're at the intersection of 21st and Monroe.
And I wanted to show you this photograph because now every
image that you see is of a similar kind of
perspective looking east on Monroe Avenue.
The first concept is what we called a buffered
westbound bike lane with a shared eastbound
lane. So again, we're looking eastbound, so that shared lane
is the one that's going away from us in the image, and the
cyclist would be riding in the travel lane with the motorist,
while in the opposite direction, the westbound direction,
the cyclist would be riding in a buffered bike lane.
An example of this in real terms is
here. This happens to be in San Diego.
The reason why we created the bike lane going in the westbound direction
is you are climbing a grade on Monroe, while in
the eastbound direction, then you would be riding downhill.
And that aid of riding downhill is what made
some of us feel comfortable that this might be a possible
option to consider.
Another option that we came up with was what we call the
fully separated cycle bicycle facility.
In this case, what you see in the image is
a lane in each direction, a bicycle lane in each
direction, that's fully separated from the motor vehicles, both
horizontally and with some kind of vertical, like a curb,
separator.
In this drawing, what you see is a lane in each direction.
To accomplish this, we would unfortunately have to lose all of
the on-street parking or that space that on-street parking
uses today. It would be committed to this kind of a
cross-section.
Keeping us moving along, here are some photos of how those
kind of buffered, fully separated bike lanes are sometimes
installed in cities. The photos that you're seeing, we try to
always find from similar communities, a college community, in other
words, typically trying to stay under 100,000 just
so that it better matched your circumstances.
A third concept is what was called the bike boulevard treatment.
And what you see simplistically shown is the notion
of bicyclists riding shared with
motorists. How do we accomplish this?
It's really through the effort of calming the street,
making it
uncomfortable to drive fast, and really discouraging
motorists from driving here unless their purpose is to reach
somewhere on Monroe Avenue or in the very near
vicinity.
And that would then, with those lower volumes of traffic at lower
speeds, make it more comfortable for riders to share the lane.
Here's examples of what those look like in real life.
And you see in both of these photos how the roadway
actually takes on a curvilinear type of alignment that helps to keep
motor vehicles moving relatively slowly.
Not something that would be as easily accomplished on Monroe simply because
it's so narrow.
The fourth concept is what we call the transit-friendly street.
These streets really promote the use of transit.
It has its focus on efficient movement of the transit
vehicle as well as very high accommodation for
pedestrians who are becoming transit riders or have
just disembarked and are
closer to their destination. Again, similar to the last
example, what makes this work is when we lower the
traffic volumes, or we don't allow private vehicles to
operate on this type of a street. If it's only freight
and transit vehicles, then of course, cyclists would find
ample opportunity to ride more comfortably in that
shared lane kind of treatment.
And then finally, there are
photographs of what transit-friendly streets can look like.
The last option is what's referred to as a curbless
street, or sometimes it's called a festival street.
What
you're striving to accomplish here is to
almost eliminate the notion of the street being a divider between one
side and the other. And you do it by all
kinds of treatments, including the removal of a curb,
thus something you're stepping down and up,
and instead the plane of that
cross-section is relatively flat, much more
accessible for those in wheelchairs or in need of other
mobility devices.
It's also a street that, like the name implies,
festival street,
invites opportunities to create areas
and times for celebrations of one form or
another.
So with all of those options in
front of us, and a last set of photographs
of what a curbless or a festival street can look like.
The
photograph on the right is local. That's Sherwood, Oregon,
and that's their old town downtown in Sherwood, if you've ever
been there.
So some examples of what they can look like.
The preferred concept
takes advantage of that notion of providing a
very separate facility for the cyclist that
is protected because it's both horizontally
separated as well as vertically separated.So I'm going to talk from
the
south side or the right-hand side of the graphic
and go north. So you have a wide sidewalk with a
buffer strip where you see tree wells, and then you
have what's called a two-way cycle track.
It's very similar to what's been
installed on Washington Way through the OSU campus.
So cyclists ride in both direction in that two-way
cycle track, but they're separated from the motor vehicles by at least
a two-foot vertical and horizontal separator.
Think of it as a curb, and a photograph of that
would look like this.
The photograph, especially on the left, is very
strong representation of what this concept would or could look
like on the ground.
You've got that two-way cycle track, and then you see the bright white curb.
It actually has
green street treatments so stormwater could flow into
that and be initially treated before it's removed off-site.
And then the travel lanes and the rest of the facility.
I'm going to go back to show you dimensions so you can
more fully appreciate what is it that would come about
with this kind of a treatment. So on the south side, the OSU
side of the street, there would be at least a 10-foot wide sidewalk,
and then a five-foot buffer where the street trees would
be located. That's between the curb and the sidewalk.
Then you'd have a 10-foot two-way cycle track with a two-foot
wide separator,
and then two 11-foot travel lanes.
And then we finally get to the far side of the street.
That zone today is almost entirely on-street
parking. But what you're seeing here in this picture
is the notion that it can really take on a variety of
purposes. It can be on-street parking that could
provide freight access, it could be
quick loading zone areas, it could serve
general purpose on-street parking.
But it also has the flexibility to become a planted area,
thus the street trees and the plantings that you see.
Or it could be a cafe zone where restaurants and other
businesses could put out tables and chairs for people to take
advantage of.
So a great deal of flexibility and variety there.
And then lastly, the concept would accomplish a nine-foot
sidewalk area, which is in many areas of
Monroe today, much wider than what we have to work with.
The concept then accomplishes all of the key objectives,
separate, safe, distinct facilities for each mode of
travel,
and especially that notion of creating separation for the
cyclists who are no longer riding adjacent to the travel lanes.
Now I'm going to give you a different view of the corridor.
Instead of looking down the street, we're all like birds
flying over the street.
And I'm going to fly you down the corridor from starting at
26th on the left, and we'll go all the way down to
14th. I'll explain much of what's on
the drawings as I go. So starting at 26th,
I think
some important things to highlight. First of all, why is it light gray?
The whole intersection is light gray because what's proposed is for the
intersection to be raised to the top of the curb.
It's what we call a tabletop intersection. What's the value of that?
Pedestrians have no hazards in crossing the street.
They're always crossing at the same grade.
For motorists, they get this physical cue that they should
travel slowly because they're driving up a ramp to get to the
top of the table, which is the intersection itself.
That is then coupled with all of the other treatments that you see.
First, it's an always stop control intersection.
The value of this is that every user of that intersection
stops,
looks, makes contact, typically eye contact, with the
others present, and then recognizes their opportunity to
move forward in the right of way.
Going diagonal across that intersection is a skip stripe
that's green. That represents how a cyclist,
if I was riding westbound through the cycle track,
when I reached 26th, if I was to continue going west
down onto Arnold Way, I would take that diagonal
route.
So that tells the cyclist where to ride, but it also
tells everyone else in the intersection where to expect that
cyclist to ride to get across the intersection and continue on
their path.
The cyclist that's coming the other direction is against the curb on
Arnold, reaches the intersection, and then would just
logically enter into the cycle track because it would be against the
curb where they're riding.
So that's how you enter and exit the cycle track at
26th.
Now, there are several things here to see, so
I'll talk you through them.
May I stand and point?
It would be so much easier, thanks.
You'll have to speak up so the microphone can pick it up, though.
Okay, I'll speak louder.
Okay.
So
focusing here on the cycle track, what you see here is a
blue rectangle. That blue rectangle actually represents a
transit shelter.
This gray area is a raised island where if you're waiting
for the
bus, you could stand on that raised island, or you could be in the
shelterBut this is where if a bus is coming from
the campus, and many of them do, it would make the right-hand turn,
rest in the travel lane against this curb, and people
would board and alight from this island.
So there's no conflict for these pedestrians
resting or waiting here with these cyclists riding
through the cycle.
So then continuing down the corridor, you see this kind of
a hatched treatment that's just showing that instead of
providing on-street parking at this location, maybe this is a
location where you would have those street cafes.
Given the businesses that are in this area already,
that might be something that they would do.
And then continuing down, just to kind of help you recognize what we're
trying to show here, here we're showing on-street parking.
Again, you have businesses who need loading zones, who need freight access,
so these on-street parking spaces could provide that kind of freight
access.
Side streets are also another place where freight access would be available.
You have street
trees in the street tree wells in a
very kind of rhythmic pattern. You have pedestrian-scale
lighting all the way down the corridor, as well as
street lighting that's helping motorists and cyclists to
be able to see as they pass.
When you get to another intersection, this happens to be the one at 25th.
It's light gray, again, because it's a raised intersection.
But there's a lot going on here that's again trying to help people
understand where they should be traveling.
If you're a cyclist and you are in the cycle track and you want to get to the north
side of the street, you reach the intersection, you can cross in that
skip stripe.
And that's a very common treatment all the way down the corridor.
This is
the treatment that you would find anywhere in the United States.
This is according to the groups.
These islands are large enough, they're six feet wide, so they're large enough to
serve as a refuge to protect a cyclist who's trying to
cross or a pedestrian who's trying to cross.
So you have a lot of protection that's happening at every intersection for
all of those.
I think I've pretty well talked you through all of the visual
aids that represent what the concept is, but I'm just going to take you
further down the corridor. I've moved down to now Memorial
Place, coming out of OSU, 23rd
to the north. And again, you see another transit
stop on an island where pedestrians could wait
safely while they're out of the flow of motor vehicle traffic, other
pedestrian traffic, or the bicyclists.
Continuing down to 21st. 21st, if you'll
recall, was where we were all looking down the street.
So that view was right here.
And then toward Kings Boulevard, I wanted to
highlight this feature, which is a unique one on the
corridor. This is meant to represent the notion of a
mid-block raised pedestrian crossing.
This is in an area of the campus that really
matches quite nicely with an existing pedestrian corridor
that enters into the campus and would give the university a
chance to leverage not only this facility, but then this new
crossing to help people get back and forth between
businesses and the university
without necessarily having to go to the next intersection up or down
the street.
Kings Boulevard, as you know it today, it's always stop control.
It would continue to be always stop control, and the same kind of
treatments that I've described before.
One thing I'll highlight
is...
In fact, let me just go back.
I'm coming back one
to show you
or to answer a question you haven't asked me, but
I'll explain anyway. You see as the cycle track
approaches an intersection, that it bends away from the
intersection,
and then after the intersection, it bends back.
We do that for two reasons. One is to create this island,
that refuge for pedestrians. But the second value of this
is for cyclists who tend to like to ride fast when it's a
nice straight thing to ride on. This
deviation in the direction of travel causes them to slow
down. And just like the motorists, they'd be riding up a ramp to
get to the top of the intersection.
So all of these things combined together work to slow
cyclists and motorists down as they approach these intersections.
So
I'll keep moving
because here's the end.
So our last
intersection before 14th is at 15th.
And again, if you see very similar treatments
being applied at this intersection.
When we get to
15th, 14th intersection with Monroe,
we have a traffic signal at 14th, and that
provides us with that added benefit if you're the bicyclist.
Now, if you're a bicyclist westbound,
you reach the intersection, we can make this traffic
signal allow that bike to go and no one
elseThey get a separate phase of the signal
that protects them to make that move.
Who can go with those are pedestrians that would
not be conflicting with that. These pedestrians
could go with that bicycle.
So you have a lot of protection due to the fact that you have a signalized
intersection with this kind of a crossing treatment.
And then lastly, this notion of a crossing treatment like this,
or even at 26th, it has existed here in Corvallis.
It was in place on
Washington Way in an earlier phase of the Washington Way
Improvement project
near the intersection of Benton Place at Washington Way, not
far from the signal at 15th. And so we had that
same kind of diagonal treatment, and we made the Benton Place
intersection always stop with Washington.
That's been revised now because we've finished the site,
so it's no longer needed.
I talked you through that very quickly,
but I'm happy to answer questions.
I'll get through the last few slides, and
then we'll take questions. So there's some current development
happening along the corridor. I'm certain that you're very much aware of it.
We wanted to acknowledge that as this project, the
Long Collaborative Innovation Complex, as it was in
its design phases, it was occurring at the same time this project
was. And it gave us that opportunity to ensure that what
we were coming up with as good ideas, and ultimately the
preferred concept, was consistent or complementary with
what's happening with what we call the CIC building.
And so, what we're simply trying to highlight here is
along that frontage, which is between 26th and Memorial
Place,
where the development is occurring, the street frontage is going to be improved
to look very similar to what you just saw in the concept
for
Monroe Avenue
to the south curb line of Monroe.
The university has gone further. This is still in a
conceptual or schematic design. It's still in an idea
stage. In other words, it's not under construction by any means.
But
trying to move further east on the corridor from Memorial Place,
which is where this picks up, and continuing to go east
along Monroe,
maintaining that pattern of a five-foot wide
concrete sidewalk area that has tree
planter wells, and then a 10-foot wide sidewalk to the south of that.
So what you saw earlier in the diagrams would
be continued along the corridor
as OSU continues to move forward with its plans.
Briefly, in terms of community feedback, once we reached the point where
we felt like we had a strong concept of a
preferred alternative, we took it to the community
a couple of different ways, but most particularly in an open
house format.
And of those who participated in the open house, we found
a very strong
percentage of those folks expressing support for
this concept
that
I've just taken you through. They appreciated the notion that we've got wider
sidewalks on both sides of the street.
They loved the idea of the raised intersections,
more accessible for all users.
Especially appreciated that notion of a fully separated bicycle
facility that provided that added degree of protection.
And of course, the whole notion of more opportunities outdoors
along these sidewalks to find respite, to just
find a friend or neighbor to have a conversation with and enjoy the
businesses in the area.
Near the end of the project, we discovered that we had made an error in part
of the technical work that we had done with regard to parking
capacity in the area.
And so briefly, what we did in
terms of parking assessment was to take a look at each of
the streets that you see highlighted in yellow and measure not only
the parking supply on street, as well as all
of those white boxes that are surrounded in blue.
Those are the off-street parking lots in the area.
We measured the supply in all of this, as well as
then the demand for parking in that on-street and those
off-street lots over the course of weekdays and
weekends.
And in short, what we found is
that the peak hour of on-street demand
put this area, all of those yellow streets, at
about 82% occupied. And that's a
wonderful number for a parking guy because you hope to
be around 85% occupied if you're in a kind of an
active commercial area, because it means those businesses are doing
okay,
and there's still a space or two available for the next
customer to come and park.
So you've got some flexibility to accommodate that added demand.
So 82% full for the on-street, but the off-street
was less than 50% full. And therein
lies an opportunity for the area in terms of
better leveraging that off-street parking to do more
in service to those businesses and residents that are in
that area.Kind of simple
conclusions from all of the work with regard to the parking was
82% full. That's good.
That means we've got a good amount of parking that's
meeting the demand, that you're not seeing demand that's exceeding
your capacity to serve them.
Then because this
parking on-street on
Monroe and those side streets just one block to the north,
they really need to be focused, their management needs to be focused
on serving customers and visitors
of those businesses, not the employees, not the students.
Really, not even the residents,
if residents have off-street parking, which
there's certainly plenty of in this area.
So by the end of the work,
what we concluded was,
if there is going to be a reduction in on-street
parking along Monroe, and that's what the plan recommends, is a
reduction of on-street parking along Monroe.
We need to make sure that as a city, as you manage the on-street
supply, you have your focus on ensuring that that
on-street supply supports the customers and visitors of the
businesses and
those that are in the area.
And
especially that notion of accommodating freight, so
ensuring that loading zones and other kind of
temporary parking areas are available to support
freight access to the area.
So what's next is kind of what comes back to what
Greg said at the outset. So I'm going to turn it back
to you, Greg.
Well, we'll go ahead and open it up.
I think your mic's off still. There you go.
Thank you. We'll go ahead and open it up to any questions that you might have.
Okay. One thing I'd like to add, there's another place where we have a diagonal
crossing, and that's in South Corvallis on Highway 99, which is a very busy
road in Crystal Lake. And when that was first built, I was like, "I don't
know about this." But now that I've used it many times, it's actually
very efficient and a much better way to cross the highway.
So just wanted to throw that out there.
Councilors? Councilor Ellis, and then Napack.
I just want to make it clear to the council, because I went to all those open
houses, and I don't think everybody else can say that.
There were a lot of eyes on these maps and a lot of
active conversations.
There was at least
one where the OSU students who were studying transportation were all there, because
I talked to quite a few of them. There were a lot of people who ride their bikes
up and down. There were a lot of residents. There were a lot of business owners.
The outreach for this project was exceptionally good,
and they did a really lovely job of incorporating feedback.
So I am very comfortable
adopting this plan because I understand the level
of effort and work that went into it, and I just want to make that really
clear. There's some things you're like, "I don't know about that.
I don't know about that." That was all discussed at
all of the open houses. And at this point, and I've
heard Dave, and he has definitely been heard,
but I do think the number of people who have looked at this
has been incredibly impressive. So I want to make that--
I feel really comfortable with adopting this
plan. I could move to adopt.
But I can wait for a couple of questions.
Yeah. Let's get to a couple.
Councilor Napack.
Thank you. Great
presentation. I think anything would be an improvement,
to tell you the truth. I went through there today
at 15 miles an hour at 10 of the hour,
which you can imagine,
tried not to run over anyone. But wow, it's really busy.
The other thing about parking, you're saying there's 15 stalls that
would-- How many stalls are there now on Monroe
between, you said, 14th and 21st?
Between
14th and 26th there's-
Oh, 26th.
Yeah. I'll say it's 45.
You would reduce that to 15?
That's what's shown in the preferred concept, yes.
Okay. All right. Well, that gives me pause,
because I've spent probably a decade parking
near OSU and on the side streets and on the street itself, and
that's pretty crazy.
The other thing I was wondering is if Campus
Way,
which is in the OSU plan,
how close is that to being
launched,
improvement, and could that be incorporated in some way
to
move traffic from Monroe onto Campus Way in an
easy
way,
that's not
intrusive on the campus, say for other bicyclists and
what
not?
OSU is
getting ready to kick off a feasibility study of Campus Way
to look at ways to move, especially
bikes and pedestrians up and down that corridor, but other vehicles as
well. I'm not sure that that would
serve to take traffic from Monroe and move it into campus that way, in
part because of
just the obstructions, kind of there's a building that crosses the
Campus Way there
And the nature of campus, just we're trying to not have as
many vehicles going through it. So what that study would look at
is
how to make it safer,
how to support bikes and pedestrians primarily.
So I'm not sure that would really be
a substitute, or I know you're not saying a substitute, but I don't know if it
would take too many vehicles from Monroe.
Thank you. Not vehicles, but bicyclists and pedestrians.
Bicyclists and pedestrians, potentially. Yeah.
If say they're
coming from Harrison Boulevard, that way down, and they
could go through campus,
west to east that way,
more efficiently in the future,
with the ideas that we're looking at for that area.
So,
sure. But they might have a different destination than those folks that
are wanting to move up and down Monroe.
So parking.
Important.
I have Councilors Cadena, Moorefield, and Shaffer.
Thank you for the presentation,
and for the process. Seems like a
pretty amazing process. So I won't echo what Councilor Ellis said about the
process, for sure.
I do have a question because I know,
given the available off-street parking,
I'm wondering if you have
experience with other communities that have similar situation
where there's off-street parking that could be made
available to the public, but many times is not done
because individual property owners are, well, one, I'm not in the parking
business. Two, I know it'd be better if it were
managed collectively rather than individually.
It seems like that could be a real win for the entire
area,
is to manage, in some manner,
even from a revenue generating point of view, at least to cover expenses,
the management of off-street parking.
Do you have any suggestions or recommendations or examples where other
communities have done that in a similar fashion?
Yeah. It's not
an uncommon problem.
I should just put that in the positive. It's a common problem, right?
And in that respect, a couple of communities that come to my mind
who've tried to tackle this,
in recent times would be Bend, Oregon, with their downtown
area, and
Port Angeles,
given kind of the seasonal tourist
impacts that they go through. In both cases, part of
what
is
in the policy arsenal, if you will, is the notion of shared use
agreements between adjacent property owners that they
can, with city approval, share that resource, which
is off-street parking, for broader purposes than
any one owner would otherwise have a right to
do. Those shared use agreements are kind of a starter,
if you will, toward this notion of still privately owned
off-street parking, but made available for
more uses than just that one owner. Yeah.
Great. I'll just put in a plug for the council then.
I think we should think about that in our arsenal of tools,
because this is not the only area in town where we
may benefit from being able to
utilize some of those arrangements.
Councilor Moorefield.
Before I ask my question, I need to congratulate Bob
Richardson on his new job as community development director for Benton
County.
It's
great to have someone in that role that we know.
I was going to ask a question very similar to Councilor Cadena.
I was thinking about the parking. When you showed that slide,
it was a lot of little...
No wonder it's underutilized. I've lived here for
47 years, and I didn't even know that some of those
existed. There's one sizable one
that I know about as a destination if I'm looking for a place.
But the rest of it, I didn't have a clue.
And so how that ends up being utilized
is a little bit of a mystery to me. You mentioned agreements,
but
there would have to be way finding.
There are all kinds of things to actually get people to those
spots.
So I suppose my question is, what do the business owners think about
the approach parking, or what the future of parking
might be? Because it's certainly a ripe area for taking
off all or most
on-street parking,
given all the other needs.
Well, anecdotally, there was a range.
It ranged from supporting the plan as is, weren't
concerned with
losing parking in front of their
businesses, to,
"Yeah, we'd like to minimize any loss of parking." So there is
a range there. And that is
really why we've come to the conclusion here at the end that there are some
opportunities, even on the existing on-street
parking in that first block, which we've been
managing for years, right? There are some metered
spots there. There is a residential parking district
in a portion of the area. And then towards the
west end are some unrestricted parking.
So,
if we can effectively manage that,
and
make it all paid
That first block, and manage the time so that it
supports the business activities,
then we can
gain some room there on some of this lost parking.
And there are other opportunities to manage that
area in a different way from a parking perspective that we talked to our parking
people about.
So yeah. So again, the business community kind of had a gamut
of opinions, as you might expect.
Councillor Schafer, Mayor, and then Councillor Ellis.
Yeah, a couple of thoughts. First of all, thank you for the work on this.
I think it
presents several options that could be used.
I'm not going to beat the dead horse of parking.
Other than to note, I don't know if there's been any consideration of
using some of the OSU space for short-term parking.
I don't know how heavily that's utilized on the south side of Monroe
or west by the oceanography school, if there's anything there that
might be considered.
An observation personally, when they dropped the speed limit on Monroe
Street, I pretty much quit driving it.
I live where I came down 29th Street, and I had the
choice of going to Harrison or Van Buren or going to Monroe
Street. I used to mostly use Monroe, and I rarely
drive on that street anymore because it's slowed down.
If I'm trying to get from point A to point B, there's better ways to do it,
and so I think anything that continues to move us in that
direction is a good thing.
One question.
You have the cycle track on the south side of the Monroe Quarter.
I wonder if there was any consideration of putting it on the north
side so it put bikes closer to the
businesses along the street or housing on the north side of the
street. And
if it was considered, why the south side was preferred.
I'd simplify it to highlight
how many more streets from the north connect to
Monroe compared to the number of streets from the south.
Okay.
And then
because of that, those cyclists are able to ride through
the intersection
without any interaction with motorists, while today
they must.
Right?
Okay.
So that was a real significant
motivation to put it on the south side.
Sure.
Thank you.
Councilor Marris, then Ellis.
Okay. Well,
amazing
work. And I was at a couple of those open houses, and there were a
lot of people there.
So
I have a couple things. The first thing is
it strikes me how many similar goals there are between
this and what we're getting from the downtown task force
as far as things people want. They want
safer crossings, safer biking, more lighting,
wider sidewalks, more activated outdoor spaces.
This is like it's the same stuff. So that is just cool
because another one they have
is in the OSU plan, enhance the sense of
connection between the community and the university.
This is all stuff we're coming up with, so
very excited about that part.
I did have a question about
whether or not you said it was a very transit-friendly street, which is
good, especially if we're going to be removing parking and moving bike parking
to the side streets.
I wondered
if the transit stops were in the same place, similar
places, as frequent
a-as they are now.
Our approach with transit was to ensure that current
transit stops would be maintained.
We of course had CTS
as a part of this. The
current plans don't call for changes to the location of
those transit stops.
This is at a conceptual level-
Mm
... so it has the ability to adjust if CTS needs to
adjust-
Mm-hmm
... transit stop locations or frequency of service.
Mm-hmm.
So inherently it has that flexibility to accommodate
that.
Okay.
I think that's frankly one of the benefits of coming up with
this concept is a little more flexibility in how you
treat the transit element based on the needs of the service.
Yeah, because they may see something already that they would like to do better,
and you're doing it based on how it is.
So that's good. Thank you.
Yeah.
Councillor Ellis.
How much of that off-street parking is
affiliated with apartments and residences?
I don't think we know that in that specificity.
Okay. I suspect much of it is.
I'm thinking of-
Yeah
... a couple of parking-- You're my neighborhood.
I'm thinking of a couple of-
Yeah
... parking lots that are clearly tied to residential.
So it may be that we'll have more residents parking in some of that
residential parking rather than on the street.
Right.
But I am going to move to adopt the
Monroe Corridor Plan.
Second.
Maybe move to initiate a comprehensive plan amendment process?
I can do that too.
Okay.
I will move to initiate a comprehensive plan amendment.
Am I supposed to do this as action requested and as needed, a land
development called amendment to incorporate the Monroe Corridor Plan into the
Transportation System Plan? Is that what you want?
Perfect.
Thanks.
Second.
Motion and second. Any final discussion before we
vote?All those in favor of the motion,
say I.
I.
All
opposed, say no.
Thank you. That passes unanimously. And thank you very much for the presentation.
Thank you.
A lot of work.
We'll now move on to our last
items,
and that is Mayor and City Council reports.
Mine's kind of a strange one, but I'm going to try to get through it anyways.
So on March 28th, I volunteered with Our Revolution
Corvallis Allies for the No Kings Rally.
We were down on the courthouse lawn, kind of where we normally are.
And that one was interesting because I was able to talk about some of the things
that we have been working on as mayor over the last
year or so,
including the upcoming charter amendments that'll
be on your May ballot. But I talked with a lot of people.
Surprisingly, they were very interested.
Not that many people knew they were even coming, which is excellent.
Not excellent they didn't know, but excellent that I could have that conversation
about it. So I encourage everybody to talk to your neighbors and friends and
any opportunity you have about measures 2143, 2144,
2145, and 2146, and feel free to reach out to me if anybody ever
has any questions.
I do have some literature that I meant to bring to give a little bit to all of you
to have available. I'll get those to you as soon as possible.
Then on, calendar forward here,
on the 31st,
I actually did something I've done several times before.
I attended a ribbon cutting. I know it doesn't sound that surprising.
And it was for affordable housing.
The interesting part is it wasn't in Corvallis, and it wasn't as my job as mayor.
It was actually for my day job, which is the first I've ever been invited to a
ribbon cutting for.
And this was in McMinnville.
And the reason why I bring this up is because it's very interesting.
They talked about the need in McMinnville and how important this project
is,
and I believe it was around 150 units of affordable housing.
And what shocked me there is I thought about,
we're doing good work here. When that's a huge impact to their
community and a much-needed development, and I look at what we've accomplished for
the last couple of years in Corvallis,
with 174 units in South Corvallis, another 80 something in South Corvallis.
We've got the groundbreaking that just happened for Third Street Commons.
Going to provide permanent supportive housing.
And we have another 160 units over on 99 that's being built and others
throughout the community. Not to mention the senior housing, the actual houses
being built. I think we're playing a little bit of
catch up over some of the previous history that Corvallis had.
But I think the developers and
nonprofits have realized we're not
the anti-development community we used to be,
and we've got a lot of room to make time to make up, but we're
addressing the housing needs of our community.
And it makes me very proud for the work we've done.
So just kind of strange note there.
On the 1st,
I had my Charter Review Phase 2 Task Force meeting.
Some of you were there. And we had a good discussion trying to address the
concerns the council had
after the last presentation that we had with you all.
Your concerns were a lot about how the voters
would feel with their neighbors maybe a block away that were in a different ward,
them voting, but you're not able to.
A little bit of inequity there. So
we had a good discussion and came up with an idea that we will
present to you, but I want to get feelers out now on your opinions
because I don't want to waste anybody's time.
What we ended up settling on for equity is to reduce
the ward size down to three wards with two councilors
each. So every ward, every two years, you're voting for a councilor,
but it'd be a different councilor.
That's done similar in other communities,
so there's a proven system of how that operates.
It does lower the number of councilors by one from our previous recommendation,
but it solves some of the concerns that you all had.
So I just want to get your feedback when you give your comments.
Let me know what your thoughts are there. Should we continue in this direction?
Excuse me.
What else did I do recently?
It's been a busy few weeks.
I guess that's really it. I thought I had something else, but I don't have it up
now.
So I guess I will stop there. Oh, no. One more thing.
I want to remind everybody, this coming Saturday and Sunday
is Game Con at C3.
So get your tickets. Should be fun.
I intend to try to be there. I have a really busy weekend unfortunately, but I
intend to try to be there Saturday late afternoon, evening,
to participate in whatever way
I get the opportunity. I've enjoyed it the last few years.
It's
an interesting thing that we do, and it's at C3, which is a wonderful place.
So I'm sure I'll run into Patrick there. I usually do.
I assume you're hosting a game again.
Wonderful. So I will see you there.
And with that, I will wrap up my comments, and we're going to move on.
I'm going to start with Councilor Kadena, since he has an item in council reports
as I should have done with Councilor Moorefield last time. So Councilor Kadena.
Okay.
All right. I have four items total.
The first one is what's in the packet,
which is I've
written down a process. I've discussed this process for getting items on the agenda
with the mayor, and I've attempted to document the
process that we've been heading towards, including the
agenda request form.
And so I suggest that we
adopt this as our standard working process.
Although I fully expect that we'll learn from this.
We will adapt
as needed, and then make improvements, including in the form itself
But I would recommend that over time, at some point, we
formalize this and put that into our council
policies as part of a
general good governance. So I'll pause at this point and ask if there's any
comments
regarding that process.
Councillor. I went Councillor Ellis, then Napack earlier, so I'm going to go Napack
now,
just to be fair. Councillor Napack.
Yeah. So if you recall, there was,
I don't know, six months ago, we had
a preliminary discussion on this,
and some of the information I had from long
ago and far away
in my work history
showed that the present state
is what we need. We do need to look at what the present state is.
I've seen where resolutions are proposed,
but the present state is not taken into consideration.
And so there's a gap between
what people might not know is actually being done,
but
what needs to be done. So that difference there.
So present state
needs
to be
described in some way, maybe just one sentence.
"Oh, no, we don't have any ordinance on this."
That sort of thing. Just a real quick, what do we
have that helps
with whatever agenda item this is addressing?
Yeah, and that's kind of the purpose of the form. It gives staff an opportunity.
So, we're actually going to have a great example because Councillor Ellis did
submit something that
was passed this conversation we can
use as a good
trial run, if you will. I don't know.
Yeah. If this-
This may-
We can incorporate it somehow.
It's been received. We have the information of what Councillor Ellis wants to do.
Staff can be aware of it. Then what the next step is to have it on the agenda,
not to do the thing necessarily, but to decide whether council wants to go
forward and bring that back. And it gives staff the opportunity to say what you're
saying, "Well, where are we currently on this?"
Yes.
So, it's kind of implied because it gives staff that opportunity, because
we'll know what,
in this case, Councillor Ellis is trying to accomplish.
Yeah. I think as long as we remember that-
Yeah
... and make sure we... It's a key issue, a critical
issue.
Yeah. I agree with you. That's the one thing I think we've kind of been missing is,
it's not just the, "I want to do this thing." It's, "I want to do this thing,
here's where it addresses in our plan, here's what we're trying to accomplish." And
staff come back, "Well, we're already doing this part of it, or not."
Right. It's an analysis is what it is.
Yeah.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Councillor Ellis.
I did do the form.
You did.
Partly because I had something I wanted to get on the agenda for this
summer, and partly because I thought somebody had to do the form.
So I thought, well, I'll do the form.
It's a small thing I'm asking for,
and you can check it out. I will say that I really think we need
clarity in the process of how to get things on the agenda.
We
had a
somewhat functional system,
and then it has gone away. So I am all in favor
of clarity on the process. I did find the form to be kind of
cumbersome and repetitious, and at the bottom of it, I don't remember what I
suggested, but I did make one suggestion for changing the form.
And maybe if a couple of other people do it too, then we can start to iron out.
So plug for filling out the form.
I do think in the past, if we haven't
had a memo, we have not voted on it at the meeting,
and I think that is really,
we need to return to that. I'm not sure we need
a form, but I do think we need something in writing,
and maybe there's a way to incorporate a form and a
memo kind of thing. But I tried the form.
Mm-hmm.
And
we can go from there.
And I think that's part of what Jan was getting, Councilor Napack was getting at,
that we've been real confused in what we've voted on things we haven't
had anything in writing on a couple of times, and how things are getting on has
not been clear.
So I
am willing to work on the process. I do appreciate the
opportunity sometimes to send in a memo or
something to the council in councilor comments
at least for discussion and perhaps a vote, depending on whether or not
it is time sensitive.
I do think that we're asking a lot if we don't send anything in for
people to think about. But I would like us to have a little bit of
flexibility to be able to bring something in in writing, especially
if it's some, like Councillor Moorefield's thing from last meeting.
That was time sensitive.
Very.
It was in writing. I felt no problem at all with voting on that.
So-
I don't think there'll ever be a perfect solution.
I think there's a perfect plan, and I think with this form and kind of where we're
trying to go to is a great plan. It kind of is that memo, this is why I want to do
these things.
Mm-hmm.
But yet there'll be things like Council Moorefield's letter where it's time.
And what Councilor Moorefield brought in and what I'm thinking is actually stuff
that is a council issue, not something that's going to add to staff
workload.
Yes.
So I think when we're looking at something to add to staff workload, then we
absolutely need a slightly more robust process.
But if it's just a council voting on something that is not
actually... I mean, Alex had to do a little bit of work to get it on there, but
that was something I thought we didn't really need.
And I want us to maintain that flexibility.
Appreciate it. Council Moorefield.
A clarifying question. Most of this makes sense, and thank you for
It's time to put something together that
is coherent. The part that I'm
not sure I get,
in the section on recommended process for proposing an agenda item, the
last, number seven, use councilor comments at work session
to determine support.
We do that all the time in work sessions with things that are
planned business, that it's in the pipeline for council
consideration. We have general discussions and sometimes there's
a check-in with council about whether we really want to go down this
road or not, that kind of thing.
Are you suggesting that we do basically the same thing
with
proposed actions that individual councilors bring forward?
That we have an informal discussion, whether it's at
a councilor comments or at a work session prior
to things like memos getting written, or...
Wasn't quite sure what the intent was to speak to that.
I think what Councilor Cadena is meaning is that something that's part of the old
process we used to have is if you want staff to bring something back, you'd have a
discussion, make a motion for staff to bring something back, and that's kind of
what that is.
Right.
So if you have something
more like Councilor Ellis' submission, it'll come before council to have a
conversation and then a vote on does council feel
this needs to be brought back within this timeframe?
Because it is time sensitive for the summary.
My question arises from
sometimes we individual councilors have brought up some new
thing-
Mm-hmm
... we want to have considered.
Sometimes it might affect staff, sometimes it doesn't.
But it's a thing that we're bringing forward in our own
initiatives.
And
sometimes it requires discussion before we can have a sense of the
council, and sometimes it requires explanation, sometimes it requires some
backup documentation. And so
the way this reads is that we
wouldn't get to that stage of things like written report
from a council member until there had been a
check-in.
No.
Okay. That wasn't the intent.
As council, during your comments, you can have conversations about,
well, almost anything, not a land use case or anything like that.
But you can talk about, "Hey, I'm working on this thing.
I just want to get a..." If you're just putting feelers out to know whether or not
you want to submit this form to have they come back formally.
Conversation's great, and I think we should take more advantage of that during this
time,
unless it gets super late. So no, it doesn't stop anybody
from bringing up an idea or
something you're working on maybe.
All right.
What about Greg?
Okay.
Thank you all for your input. I will reach out individually
to Councilors Napack, Ellis, Moorefield
at a minimum to make sure I completely got your
feedback. I think I have ideas about how to respond to your
feedback,
because I think the whole point is to improve the process.
Absolutely. And I think, Councillor Moorefield, to your last question,
I think that
I'm in favor of conversation
always. And I think what my
goal is, is to
have a process that enables us to act as a body.
And whatever helps us to act as a body,
is what makes us the most powerful that we can be.
And while we'll never have a perfect process, what I do know is that if we
don't have any process, we will never get there.
So I aim for perfection and I accept humanity.
So
I will continue to work on refining this process. Thank you.
Thank you very much for the input. That's all very helpful.
And sometimes stuff happens.
Sometimes stuff happens. And I
tried to put that in the objectives as well, that we do want to be flexible.
We don't want rigidity.
But you want enough structure that you have
strength. You don't want so much structure that you
lose all flexibility. Absolutely.
Okay. I'll do the rest of my council report now.
Couple of comments.
Just an update on the
measures that are on the ballot. I just wanted to highlight that the
voters pamphlet
is now available online from Benton County.
I'll just note that no arguments against the measures were
submitted.
The pack has been working to educate folks and to gain
broad support. I encourage you all to visit...
I think I can do this. I'm unelected, so I can do a little campaigning.
Please visit the website goodgovernancecorvallis, all one word,
goodgovernancecorvallis.org,
for more information and to see the list of endorsees.
It's quite a broad range of endorsees.
Please add your name to the endorsement list or invite others in the
community to add their names, at your earliest
convenience.
And we also ask that you publicize the information, the
website through your social media and email list.
So, please do that.
I think these changes are well
worth it. And I did go back and looked at the variety of changes that have been
made in the past, and I think despite
former Councilor Penny York's excellent work, I think
a lot of what she recommended did not
come to fruition, and I think that she would be
very happy that a lot of what she suggested is being addressed.
So again, I'm really
excited about the prospect.Another thing I wanted to bring to
your attention is that, and I will be working with Patrick
Rollins about this through
the Oregon Department of Transportation,
there will be a second open house
for the North Benton County Community Pathways
Project on April 28th at Latisha
Carson Elementary School from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.
This is about building a pathway that, I
know this is very small,
and I will send this out to you via email, but this
here is Samaritan. Just north of
Samaritan, there will be an
overpass passing over both Highway
99 and the railroad.
And then the multi-use path along the
Jackson Frazier wetlands up and connecting up at
Northeast Elliot Circle. This is a project that is
being Odot led. I will send this
information out about a second open house, and I'll be
working with city staff
to understand and bring back implications that might
be important for
us as a council to consider. But it's an exciting project.
I know that it also fits,
having previous discussion with Greenbelt Land Trust for their plans for the
Owens
Farm area,
and walking paths, et cetera, that they're putting into that
side of the highway on the west side.
And lastly, regarding a council handbook.
I'm looking to provide an update to council at the April 23rd work
session. I have not scheduled that.
I haven't talked to the
mayor or city manager about this.
But as I mentioned previously, looking to divide up that
work into four groupings.
One piece of which you saw today in this proposal for
how to get items on the agenda. I think that in
regarding
council manual per se,
I'm looking to not create a de novo council handbook,
but rather leverage our existing resources, council policies and
procedures. I think we have opportunity to improve
the documentation of policies and get those codified so
that they're accessible and available for folks.
Governance documents.
I worked with Alex she... I'm sorry, with city recorder.
City recorder's done a great job in new council orientation, and we
do have a handbook if you look for it.
But it
is web links. And so my
approach, and we'll talk about this on the 23rd, is to not try to create a
manual, which is a separate document that then needs to be kept updated, but
rather to have the online resources so that people can find what they need, and
to facilitate making that process easier.
Working also on a
strategic plan onboarding process as part of each new council term,
accompanied by a council goal-setting alignment and integration process, which
I will suggest could occur annually.
And building upon the strategic plan review process, which we
recently went through, led by Abby Alexander, to better
align
that with our longer term agenda-setting process.
And then lastly, a proposal for how to strengthen trust and
collaboration with such topics such as periodic
self-evaluation, conflict resolution, holding ourselves
accountable, et cetera. So a lot of material to
bring forward for comment, ideas, feedback,
observations, et cetera,
that I hope to get done, if not the April 23rd work session,
at a time shortly thereafter. And that's my council
report. Thank you.
Oh, and to the question that you asked, Mayor.
Having looked at the data from the LOC
regarding council
formats,
two councilors in a ward
with fewer wards is a pretty standard process.
So my short answer is I would favor that as a proposal.
I think the course, that's how you draw the boundaries, et cetera,
is a big part of it. But I think that does
allow for
good broad representation with periodic refreshing of the
council, but with four-year terms staggered.
I think that makes a great idea. So I'm in favor of the direction you're heading,
since you asked.
Thank you. It's not my direction, it's the password's direction.
Okay, I think we should start over here this time. So Councilor Ellis.
I don't have a lot. I will say I have been on the open house
pathway the last couple of weeks. I went to the neighborhood bikeways open
house
last week, and I just went to the Corvallis Forest Plan open house
before I came to the council meeting.
So I'm short on dinner. I will say they've been very
well attended. People have been actively engaged, have been discussing,
they've been getting questions answered, they've been raising issues.
And I love an open house because not only does it give people a chance to
look at the material, it also gives them a chance to look at the material with each
other.
And so you can stand and you can talk, and you can think about it.
And then often I think people go home and do the
online open house for their comments.
So it builds community and communication and gives us a chance
to actually think about what we're doing.
So I've been very pleased with both of the open houses.
The forest plan was pretty well attended when I left at quarter of
6:00.
Appreciate that feedback.
Yeah. That was very nice.
I am going to askUm, our public information
officer on the timeline for the frequently asked questions that
we directed the
city manager to come up with at the last meeting.
Yeah, happy to give an update on that.
Uh, the materials are kind of in final draft mode right now, so kind of
bouncing around some final edits.
Once we get the kind of content of the webpage nailed down, then we'll, of
course, we'll translate it to Spanish per the council's direction.
Um, I'd like to say that, uh, work should be finalized, and it'll be
published within a week or so.
Great. That's great.
To clarify, this is regarding immigration concerns?
Yep.
Sorry, I wasn't as clear.
Um, I also,
um, I want us to remember and to consider
that if we want a diverse council, if we want to have people
who are not mostly retired, nothing against the people who are
retired, we need to keep work schedules in
mind. And my concern is that some of
our counselors who are working full-time are going--
are finding getting to meetings and work sessions
challenging. And if they can't participate in a
work session, then they're not getting the information that they need
to make good
decisions. And watching a work session, although I really appreciate
the fact that we can do that if we're sick and we don't have a functional
brain, is not a substitute for attending.
And if it's during somebody's work hours, they need to be brave enough
to say something, and we need to reconsider how we
schedule because we have a diverse council, and I think it's really
important for us to have a diverse council that is not just people
who can show up at the times that we have things
stated. I've mentioned this before, I'm hitting it again because I
think we're running into some of those challenges.
Um, and then I want to say that I do not support the going to
three wards with two, um, counselors.
I like the system we have. Um, I would argue against it
actively, and I think it's really important for us to have a
walkable
ward where we can meet the people, and we also run into them when we're out on
our daily business. So I really like the system we have now.
I want to comment about the, uh,
diverse council statement. Uh, as one of the people at this dais that works a
full-time job before coming here, I completely understand, and sometimes it's
challenging for me, too. And what I'll say to that is any counselor who's
struggling to meet our schedule, come talk to me.
Uh, they're not set in stone.
Um, we do try to work with what works with staff, but it doesn't mean we couldn't
make changes if there's a need. So please just let me know.
Yeah. And I wanted to raise it because I'm fine with the schedule we have, but I
wanted to give support to counselors who might be challenged by it.
Yeah. No, I appreciate that. It generally works with me, but every once in a while
it's a little rough, so...
And I'm not talking about dentist appointments here.
No, no.
Council Morefield.
Um, just a couple comments. Um,
on the, uh, number of wards and counselors, I have no idea what I think about that
idea. Um,
and I do know that, um, I think nine
wards is too much because a committee of nine
has been proven over and over again to be
unwieldy, but that doesn't mean it needs to be
small either. Um, I think a modest change is called for
at least.
Um, but I don't know what I think about the three ward,
two counselor thing. I'd like to see what Albany thinks of it,
because I think that's the structure they have.
And, um, uh, and I continue to be concerned
about the impact that we make
or that the voters make on what our system looks like and
its relationship to the cost of running a
campaign.
Um, I worry that
money,
uh, becomes a barrier in a way that it hasn't been.
Um, that's a concern.
Uh, but I don't know where that leads me to conclusions either.
It's just a consideration. That's all I got.
Councilor Napack.
Okay.
So, um, let me start out...
Sorry.
There's always trade-offs whatever we decide in regards
to a two-year, or four-year, six counselors,
nine counselors, there's trade-offs.
We don't pay our counselors,
um, they're all volunteer. But if we
cannot plan
ahead, you know, and look around corners and complete our
projects,
and we can't do that in two years, uh, we need to come up with a different
approach, which is the four-year approach.
And if we're going to go with a four-year approach,
um,
but have an odd number, you know, there's all kinds of trade-offs.
So I don't think you can
damn one idea or promote another as yet.
It's still being worked on. And, um, pros and cons.
Um,
May is Corvallis Bike Month.
I know it's only April, um, but want to remind
everyone that
the Corvallis to Albany Trail,
which goes along Highway 20 toward Albany,
uh, is supposed to cross Highway 20 from the south
side to the north side,
somewhere around Scenic Drive
Maybe, and go as far as Spring Hill Drive.
That crossing is what is
the sticking point, and that's where there are going to be an open
house
at both farmers' markets in Albany and Corvallis from 10:00 to
noon
on May 16th.
So if you care about that, you better show up, and I will be there.
Quickly, Campo news.
The
multi-modal path that's been talked
about for a long time, decades
perhaps. A
long time. Between where Circle comes out on Harrison
and Campus. So the fields that are west
of 35th and south of Harrison looks like a
very good way to have a shortcut for folks on
bicycles and
on foot,
and rolling, to
get from their apartments or their housing up there on Witham Hill
to campus. So that
project,
they're going to be developing project
alternatives and alignments
for that multi-use path.
Starting in 2027, they have $300,000
to
launch that
study.
And
statewide transportation improvement programs that deal
with Corvallis right now.
Several of them, but one of which is
Bellfountain Road, which is now being used as a
back door
to circumvent downtown Corvallis if you're going south,
has
a number of issues
for the traffic and freight, actually, that is
going down that road.
They will be improving the intersections
with
warning aids
and rumble strips and so on and so forth, bigger signs,
flashing lights, and so it should be a little safer route to
go in the future. They'll be starting that in 2027.
Well, it's in the 2027-2030
plan.
Other things in the plan, the 2027-2030 plan,
modifying traffic signals at
Buchanan
and 9th, Circle and 9th, Circle and Kings,
Harrison and 29th, Harrison and 5th, Harrison and 9th, Van
Buren and 9th, Western and 35th.
Busy. So it's going to be a busy time,
but that's all necessary. By the way, the open house is from 10:00 to noon,
and hope to see you there.
Council Lewis.
Saturday was my birthday. I just want to get that
out there.
The winter market ends this week, April
11th. So this be your last time to have to go to the fairgrounds.
I highly still recommend you go. It's from
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM as always, and then it comes back
downtown next week, April 18th.
I go mostly to the downtown one, so you will see me outside a lot more
often.
April is also Arab American Heritage Month,
which consists of 22 countries across Northern Africa and Asia.
And so I'm just going to highlight someone really fast, it's the US Air Force
Colonel James Jabara. He was the first jet ace in history,
and to be considered a jet ace, you need to take down five or more jets as a
fighter pilot. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross
with one oak leaf cluster in World War II and again
in the Korean War. If you want to look up more information,
it is US Air Force Colonel James
Jabara. J-A-B-A-R-A. The
No Kings Rally on March 28th was awesome and
crowded. I was in a car, and I convinced my friend to honk her horn
twice. It was fun.
If you are going to Game Con, Saturday, it's 10:00 AM to 11:00
PM, and Sunday, 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
It's $15 for advanced tickets and $21 at the door.
So I highly recommend you get your tickets
before the door. And then I'm also having a civic story time
starting April 18th at the Corvallis Museum.
It's going to be once a month for four months, and all ages
are welcome, and there's more information on the museum website, and it
starts at 10:30, and it's free.
That's it.
Councilor Bowden, do you have anything for us?
I want to begin by offering a sincere apology for my lack of
communication regarding my recent absences from council meetings.
I know silence can create uncertainty, and it was not fair to our community,
city staff, and fellow councilors to be left without an explanation.
For that, I am truly sorry.
What I was navigating personally has made it difficult to show up and engage as
I would have liked. But my deepest regret is that I did not communicate better
about what was going on. You deserve that transparency, and I take
full responsibility for falling short.
I am grateful to those who reached out to check on me during these past weeks.
Your kindness meant more than I can say, and I am thankful to serve alongside
such compassionate people.Without going into unnecessary
detail, I want to acknowledge that I have been managing some mental health
challenges and medication adjustments, realities that many people
face at some point in their lives.
I share this not as an excuse, but because I believe in being honest about the
complexities we navigate as human beings and ending the
stigma surrounding these topics.
Caring for your mental health is essential, and I hope by speaking
openly, this is a reminder that it is okay to need time to
heal.
I want to close by reaffirming my commitment to the city and to the work we
do as a council. I'm looking forward to continuing to serve
alongside each of you, communicating openly, and giving my best
to the community we represent.
I also want to highlight an upcoming event, the
2026 Out of Darkness Campus Walk.
This is an annual event that
OSU partners with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The goal of this walk is to share hope, raise
awareness, and support suicide prevention efforts both at
OSU and across the nation.
It's a powerful reminder that suicide is preventable and
that no one has to face their struggles alone.
More information about the 2026 Out of Darkness Campus
Walk can be found on the OSU website, and the event will take place
Saturday, April 18th at 10:00 a.m.
in the Students Experience Plaza in Corvallis, or in
SEC Plaza.
The event is free, and there are opportunities to
volunteer and walk alongside.
But visit the OSU site for more information.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council Tina, so what's yours?
I have a lot.
We were off, but it was busy.
I've been attending the Downtown Corvallis Organization quarterly
meetings, and they had one on March 18th.
And the big news there would be they're going to continue
to have the monthly downtown cleanups.
I believe it's the last Saturday of each month.
And they're going to be having the CorkVallis Wine
Walk on May 16th from 2:00 to 6:00.
They've got 30 wineries coming around town this year. I know.
Woo-hoo. And
there's a lot of stuff out on social media.
You can reach out to them and get tickets. They're available.
I think they became available a couple days ago.
The League of Women Voters had
another really amazing
presentation. This one was Sheltering Our Unhoused,
Are We Making Progress? I would say the answer was
a lot of yes and some no.
Mostly,
though, people were very well-informed and by the panel of
speakers, had really good questions.
And
the League held a follow-up conversation, which I also
attended on
April 1st, so good conversations going on there.
I attended the March
19th Third Street Commons groundbreaking, and our mayor
spoke there, along with a bunch of other dignitaries
and advocates and so forth. And that was a very
inspiring event, I have to say. There
was electricity in the air that it's finally getting
going.
A lot of gratitude for all the support they've had was expressed.
On Tuesday the 31st... And then I took some time off.
And then on the 31st, I attended my first Housing
Operational Committee meeting. And as luck would have it,
it was their annual required public meeting on severe
rent burden. So I got to hear all kinds of statistics and
lots of great information, and we are making progress.
I learned that the housing dashboard will be updated in June, so our numbers
will finally be up to date, so people don't just have to take our
word for it that we're making progress, but they can actually see data.
And that was really good, and I think it's about the same time every
year. I will try to remember to remind people. It's very worthwhile.
It was only an hour. We've been having
weekly meetings of our Political Action Committee, which is a very,
very robust team, and we have social media coming out.
And just spread the word that we are
really, really working on the charter being
better, smarter,
clearer.
And then a couple of Chamber of Commerce meetings, the board meeting and
governmental affairs. They're especially looking for anyone
who's interested in
advocacy on behalf of businesses.
They're starting to really get going on local, state, and
federal advocacy, working with other chambers regionally,
and aligning with the state's push for economic development.
So there's an opportunity there for anyone who might be interested.
And
I really also wanted to highlight the Planning Commission meeting on
Wednesday, which I attended because when I was on the Planning Commission,
we did the South 90... What's it called?
OR99W South Corvallis Facility Plan.
And they were discussing that
to approve proposed amendments to the
TSP like we did todayTo put that into the
TSP. And
it was a fascinating discussion. It was also very interesting because
Western is at the top of it, and there were comments about
Pineview because it's on the corner of Western.
And some of the facility improvements will be pedestrian improvements.
So that was cool the way that worked out. And that's it.
And Council Schafer.
Okay, I've got four things all pretty quick.
First, there was a
meeting this afternoon of the
volunteer group that manages the
social service funds distribution.
It's the last meeting before applications
for funding for next fiscal year open up.
United Way's been working with
Brigida,
and looking at some tweaks to how funding is done and trying to make it a little
more competitive. And there's active discussion, I had to
leave early, about
creating pots of money. You get this much or this much or this
much as opposed to just a minimum or maximum
application amount. Stay tuned. More to come on that.
Second, Spring Roll, which is a bike event for
kids,
happens every spring. This year it will be May 17th,
Sunday, from 10:00 to 2:00 at
Cloverland Park. It's a chance for kids to learn
skills, a chance to
learn more about safety equipment, get and adjust things like helmets,
and then there's also a
ride on controlled streets around Cloverland Park.
If you have young kids, it's a great deal.
Third thing, I'll just say I am unenthusiastic at best
about the idea of three wards and two councilors.
I think it reduces the
level of
communication and contact between councilors
and residents. I also think, as Jim touched
on, excuse me, Councilor Moorefield touched on,
I'm concerned about cost. I think as wards get bigger,
it's going to take more work, more money in particular,
and I'm concerned about that partly because it may discourage some people from
running for office. It may also be an invitation for special
interests to start funding
councilor candidates, and I think that's an inherently bad thing.
Fourth thing,
I'm home after three weeks in Florida and the upper
Midwest, and I'll just say I am
delighted to live in a place where we practice
controls on land use and development after being
in infinite sprawl in the Florida Gulf Coast,
and driving past acre upon acre upon acre
of woodlots and fields being sacrificed
for every kind of development in a
very sprawly and random fashion. I'm
delighted that that doesn't happen here.
And so kudos to all those people
going way back to
the '90s, I guess it would have been, when Oregon's land use
planning really took hold.
Pardon?
Tom McCall.
McCall, but then yeah. But it's
a wonderful thing that helps make Oregon a wonderful place to live, and
every time I'm away, I appreciate it more and more. And that's it.
Before I hand it off to city manager, I feel the need to express a bit of
frustration.
When phase one of the Charter Review Task Force finished up, this council
was very adamant of changing one of the timelines, and that was to
address
number of wards and council terms, the term
lengths. This body wanted four-year terms
to address consistency, address the
turnover.
So phase two of the Charter Review Task Force took those on.
So we had too many wards. That was decided by this body.
We had too short of council terms. So we took that work on.
We presented the first idea we come up with, was reducing it just a little bit
because we understand don't want crazy big change, so seven
wards instead of nine seemed reasonable
with four-year staggered terms.
Yeah.
And this council had a concern over the equity issue around
some people in the city getting to vote one election and not the next.
So the task force said, "Okay, let's look at that again," and we came up with the
current idea that we're still working on the final details of.
And right now I heard two against it, one for it, two
not sure, and three people didn't answer.
It's very difficult for this task force to come back with a product
that matches what you want. So what I ask of all of you is to please
reach out to me directly by email and tell me what you want.
Because it's a lot of work. Some of you served on the first task
force. They went honestly smoother than I thought.
I'm also serving on the PAC right now.
So I've got the PAC and phase two of the Charter Review Task Force, and I want to
bring back something this council can get behind.
But at this moment, I don't know what that is.
But it's a bit frustrating, I just want to share that. So please reach out to me.
Not everybody, just me, and give me some feedback so I can try to come
up with something y'all want.
So with that, city manager.
I'll finish us off with one quick positive note.
As you recall, when the
council adopted the West Hills Road Corridor study, there was an appeal
made to LUBA. That appeal has been dismissed.
That's all I have to report tonight.
That's it?
If there's nothing else then,
I'll go ahead and say we're adjourned.
Thank you