City Council

City Council Meeting Minutes ___________________________________________________________________________________________ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 – 6:00 PM COLUMBIA CITY, CITY HALL – 1840 SECOND STREET CITY OF COLUMBIA CITY, COLUMBIA COUNTY, OREGON AGENDA ITEM 1 CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: CONVENED: Mayor Alex Reed called the Regular Meeting to order at 6:00 pm. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Alex Reed Council President Rob Forman Councilor Gordon Thistle Councilor Connie Quick COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilor Lyle Bluhm ALSO PRESENT: Kim Karber, City Administrator/Recorder Jerry Bartolomucci, Chief of Police Micah Rogers, Public Works Superintendent left 7:00pm ATTORNEY PRESENT: None A quorum was present, and due notice had been published. AGENDA ITEM 2 PUBLIC HEARINGS: AGENDA ITEM 3 CITIZEN INPUT: 3.1 Susan Wagner and Erin Emerick with Community Action Team will discuss Housing Rehabilitation Loans. Susan and Erin talked about the NW Oregon Regional Housing Rehabilitation Program Revolving Loan Fund and the loans the City currently has and the options we have. The funds are remnants of a program that was funded through a grant the City received back in the 90’s. The grant funds are City specific and are for Columbia City residents. The funds are to be used towards specific housing improvement items. Council tabled this discussion for a later time. Susan and Erin also went over other programs that Community Action Team provides and left some resource guides. 3.2 Judy Bright and Tina Curry with St. Helens Kiwanis will discuss creating a Columbia County Yellow Page Directory. They were not present. 3.3 Karen Shervey, 2010 7th Court, discussed her concern regarding the fire hazard and limbs hanging over property lines with the trees along the property line on 2105 8th Street. She is looking for the trees to be cut down because trimming will not help. Kim explained that the City cannot tell people to cut down trees on their private property. Our Ordinance only covers if the tree is dead and poses an eminent danger to property. Jerry explained that it’s going to come down to a civil issue and she will need to reach out to a 2 Regular City Council Meeting February 20, 2025 lawyer, there are not any statues or ordinances the City can use to cut down the trees on their private property. He said there is a Hazard Mitigation meeting next Wednesday and they will be discussing what different members of the committee researched and found out. Jerry also suggested talking to her insurance company for guidance. Rob stated that, reading the resources provided to him by Mr. Shervey for wildfire prevention, a lot of the recommendations they gave were communities recommending citizens undertake voluntary changes to their property and Cities were encouraged to clear dead limbs, underbrush, etc. 3.4 Logan Gilbert-Renner, 2450 5th Street, discussed City meetings being streamed. He brought forth a suggestion to just live stream the meetings instead of a high maintenance set up that is costly. He said it could be a simple set-up of a phone on a stand, which would not affect the way meetings are run and conducted, nor would it require extra staff or expensive software. He volunteered his services to help with this. Rob stated that we like the idea of transparency and getting more people involved but the concern still lies with viability of monitoring it to make sure it is being streamed properly and put out in an efficient way. Connie inquired about someone being willing to volunteer to do that. Logan said he would be willing to do it. Alex questioned if it were streamed on YouTube or Facebook, who would own the video, would the City need to create accounts to save the videos, who will maintain it. Council tabled this discussion for a later time. AGENDA ITEM 4 COUNCIL REPORTS: 4.1 Audit Committee: Chair Forman was not able to attend the meeting. Kim did not have much to report since she only joins them when they have questions for her. The next meeting is on May 6th. 4.2 Hazard Committee: Chair Quick said not any more to report besides what was already gone over regarding the trees. Next meeting is on February 26 th. 4.3 Parks Committee: Kim reported the committee went over the 5-year capital improvement plan. We held off on putting too many things on the list since we are working on the Parks Master Plan and want to see what that will say. We also went over the program for the 10-year Memorial Day celebration to start getting things lined up. Kit and Rosemary did a presentation on a life vest station. The committee will go over Pixie Park at their next meeting in March. 4.4 Streets Committee: Chair Forman reported we went over the Small City Allotment grant and what we wanted to be included in it. We did not receive the grant applied for last year. The committee also went over the 5-year capital improvement plan and adjusted as needed. 4.5 Water & Sewer Committee: Chair Thistle reported the big topic of the meeting was the overflow for the upper reservoir. We also went over items for the 5-year capital improvement plan. AGENDA ITEM 5 CONSENT AGENDA: 5.1 Bills paid with check numbers 35303 through 35356 during the month of January 2025. 5.2 Expense vs Budget Report for the month ending January 2025. 5.3 Combined balance sheet for the month ending January 2025. 5.4 Minutes of the January 16, 2025, Regular City Council Meeting. 5.5 Activity Report from the Chief of Police for the month of January 2025. 5.6 Activity Report from the City Administrator for the month of January 2025. 5.7 Minutes of the January 14, 2025, Parks Meeting. 5.8 Minutes of the February 6, 2025, Water and Sewer Committee Meeting. 5.9 Minutes of the February 11, 2025, Parks Committee Meeting. 5.10 Minutes of the February 12, 2025, Streets Committee Meeting. 5.11 Appoint Berkeley Smith to the Planning Commission. 5.12 Minutes of the January 29, 2025, Hazard Committee Meeting. 5.13 Activity Report from the Public Works Superintendent for the month of January 2025. 3 Regular City Council Meeting February 20, 2025 THE COUNCIL APPROVED THE CONSENT AGENDA BY UNANIMOUS ROLL CALL VOTE. AGENDA ITEM 6 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 6.1 Second Reading of Council Bill No. 25-992: An Ordinance amending Ordinance 03-586-O, the Columbia City Development Code. Amendments Affect Multiple Chapters of the Development Code. The Council completed the second reading of Council Bill No. 25-992. MOVED (FORMAN), SECOND (QUICK) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO ADOPT COUNCIL BILL 25-992. AGENDA ITEM 7 NEW BUSINESS: 7.1 Review of an Additional Work Order between CwM-H2O and the City of Columbia City. MOVED (QUICK), SECONDED (THISTLE) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE THE ADDITIONAL WORK ORDER BETWEEN CWM-H20 AND THE CITY OF COLUMBIA CITY. 7.2 First Reading of Council Bill No. 25-993: An Ordinance Granting a Franchise (“Franchise”) to Qwest Corporation D/B/A CenturyLink QC on Behalf of Itself and Its Operating Affiliates (“CenturyLink”) to Operate and Maintain a Telecommunications System (“System”) in the City of Columbia City, Oregon (“City”). The Council completed the first reading of Council Bill No. 25-993. 7.3 The Council will hold an Executive Session to review and evaluate the employment-related performance of the City Administrator pursuant to ORS 192.660 (2)(i). COUNCIL WENT INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION AT 7:18 AND RETURNED TO REGULAR SESSION AT 7:32. MOVED (FORMAN), SECONDED (QUICK), AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE A 3% WAGE INCREASE FOR THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR. AGENDA ITEM 8 OTHER BUSINESS: 8.1 Lignetics Update Kim reported that DEQ and the City have approved their permits so they are moving forward with the items they had laid out that they would be fixing to help alleviate the dust pollution. The work is scheduled to be completed by June. They are also going to move forward with the replacement of the hammermill because they have gotten the transformer needed for the increased electricity it will take. 8.2 June 19th Council Meeting Kim pointed out that since Thursday June 19th is a holiday and the Council meeting falls on that date, it will need to be rescheduled. Council will revisit. 8.3 City Attorney RFP Kim brought this back to the forefront to see if any Council members had the bandwidth to research what options there may be out there for the City. Connie will reach out to local cities to see who they are using. Kim will reach out to the listserv she is a part of and see what feedback she can get. 4 Regular City Council Meeting February 20, 2025 AGENDA ITEM 9 ADJOURNMENT: 9.1 There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting adjourned at 7:35 pm. APPROVED: _______________________________________ Alexander Reed Mayor ATTEST: ___________________________________ Kim Karber City Administrator/Recorder