City Council

1 CITY OF PORT ORFORD REGULAR SESSION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL THURSDAY, July 17th, 2025, at 5:30 P.M. If you cannot join in person, please feel free to join this meeting from your computer, tablet, or smartphone. https://meet.goto.com/238079709 You can also dial in using your phone. United States (Toll Free): 1 (877) 309-2073 United States: 1 (646) 749-3129 Access Code: 238-079-709 AGENDA 1. Call to Order/Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance 2. Additions to the agenda 3. Citizen Concerns (On agenda items only – not on the Public Hearing – 3-minutes) 4. Consent Calendar – Any minutes not available by the end of the day on July 15 th, 2025, will be postponed until the next meeting. a. Budget Committee Minutes b. Minutes 3/20/2025 c. Minutes 4/17/2025 d. Minutes 5/15/2025 e. Minutes 6/18/2025 5. Departmental Reports a. Administration b. Mayor’s Report c. Finance d. Public Works e. Planning f. Liaison i. Parks ii. Emergency Prep. iii. Historic Preservation iv. Port v. Watershed vi. Fire The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 2 6. Old Business 7. New Business a. Res. 2025-12: Decommissioning of the Emergency Prep. Commission b. Review of annual Mainstreet TLT advertising expenditure report 8. Considerations a. Citizens b. Staff c. Councilors & Mayor 9. Future Meetings: a. Regular Meeting of the City Council: August 17th, 2025 @ 5:30 PM 10. Adjourn The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 3 1 Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Vileisis will take roll call of present Councilors and lead the chambers in the Pledge of Allegiance 2 Additions to Agneda The Council, Mayor, and City Administrator may submit additions to the agenda, which can be added via a vote or consensus. 3 Citizen Concerns Citizens may approach the Council to speak on any matter that is on the agenda, other than the Public Hearings, which have their own time for citizen comments. Limit 3 minutes per person. 4 Consent Calendar Minutes are currently being drafted. They will be available in print and online by the end of business day on July 15th 2025. Printed versions will be available in the office and added to Council member binders. Links will appear under the links for the agenda online. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 4 5 Departmental Reports 5(a) Administration Technology Updates We had a server glitch last week at City Hall. It impacted our computers, the server, emails, financial software, and the website. If we missed you during the outage, please reach out again. We appreciated Janet with Comp-U-Talk for making the trip down to help us. Utility Bill Information Based on Council and Budget decisions, Utility customers will see a $12 Public Safety Fee and increased rates on the August bill. These increases are due to budget shortfalls. We understand our residents’ frustrations and are here to serve you at City Hall. Staffing Update Now that we are fully staffed again, City Hall will be open Monday through Thursday, 8 am to 5:30 pm. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we train our new staff. We are excited to welcome Joshua Wideman, who is our new Wastewater Operator. He started July 1st and is Level 2 Certified through the state. Ray’s Woods Brush Clean-up A group of City Staff and volunteers plan to cut back gorse and other brush in the area. If you would like to help, contact City Hall to sign up as a volunteer. The plan is to do this later in August, so you have plenty of time to get registered to help. You must get on our list two weeks before the event to participate (due to insurance processing for volunteers). We appreciate these efforts! OCCMA Conference I attended the Summer Conference for the Oregon City-County Managers Association last week. It was a great time to meet new people, hear from cities across Oregon, and to confirm our processes in Port Orford. My biggest takeaway was that all cities are struggling in this economic climate. Although we are unique in many ways, all cities continue to struggle with decreasing revenues and increasing costs. They are all dealing with aging infrastructure in their utility services, unpopular rate increases, and code enforcement problems. I was proud to report on the City team we are building here and the number of volunteers who help make Port Orford shine. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 5 Jubilee 2025 It was a wonderful weekend here for the Fourth of July festivities! All of the activities were well done, and people seemed to have a great time with their family and friends. We want to say thank you to the fabulous volunteers on the Jubilee Committee, the Port Orford Rural Fire Department, and the Port Orford Rotarians. We appreciate the time and effort they poured into the events. 5(b) Mayor’s Report Mayor’s report for July 2025 With our June City Council meeting and our series of budget sessions, I am pleased to report that our Council completed a lot of important work necessary for the operations of our city. We found ways to pass a balanced budget despite major cost increases for city operations. This is in line with our high priority of fiscally responsible management. We updated our Transient Lodging Tax ordinance with a 3% rate increase, and while none of us were particularly happy about passing a public safety fee that will be included with the city’s utility bills, both the Budget Committee and and then Council unanimously voted in favor because we need a way to maintain our law enforcement until we can get a public safety levy onto the ballot. We also passed an updated housing ordinance that will allow for accessory dwelling units (ADUs also called mother-in-law units). This was something that the Planning Commission worked on for nearly a year with assistance from planner Crystal Shoji (funded by a state planning grant) and Council reviewed over three meetings. ADUs are an important strategy for working toward more affordable housing options, —along with capping vacation rentals in residential zones, which we did last year. The Community Building Project is moving ahead with concrete for the new front now in progress. The contractor has been waiting for some supplies and so has prioritized some school renovation projects that have a closer hard deadline coming up but assures us that we will see more happening again soon. Here are projects I’ve worked on/ continued to work on —with my highest priority focused on finding funding to make improvements to our drinking water system: • Additional final steps needed related to our OWEB (Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board) grant to pay off our watershed land purchase loan • Finding funding for the removal of the failing culvert in our drinking water source area • Buttonholing tasks needed to advance the project to dredge our reservoir • Providing support on other grants in the hopper • Pivoting from our lost BRIC grant opportunity to other grant opportunities to help our water system (meetings with Oregon Water Resources Dept., Biz Oregon, Engineer) • Researching the timing, process, and costs for options related to repealing and replacing our current police levy The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 6 I’ve also talked with citizens about complaints, ideas, and aspirations. I’d like to make arrangements for more hours in each day as there is always more to do!! 5(c) Finance Items not submitted by agenda publishing. They will be made available once submitted. 5(d) Public Works Water numbers sold for June 2025 Treated water produced 5,301,000 Water Sold-2,563,824 Back-washes 409,000 leaks 50,000 WATER = LOSS EST. 47%. Rain for June 0’’ The Water Consumption report can viewed at the following link: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Consumption-Summary-June.pdf Water Treatment plant, 1. State reports submitted for the month of June 2. Working on evaluation of filter media and backwash aerator system seriously needed. OAWU will be on site next week in order to assist. 3. EPA / OHA Service line inventory has been completed and submitted to the state No lead lines were found in the distribution system. 4. New pump for Hubbard’s arrived 5. Coast Guard hill pump station, working on a solution for temporary repairs (Not in this coming budget) 6. Coast Guard hill generator, is operational installed new water pump / radiator and welded in new brackets / mounts. Unit is in need of replacing it’s rusted out. Water distribution leaks repair: 1. Lots of locates for fiber drops Beacon continues and work at the Port. 2. Repaired several leaks on meters Waste Water plant / Collections: 1. Waste water plant had some issues with UV and high turbidity. UV needs replace ASAP. 2. Arizona Lift station replacement, has arrived delivered to and stored in storage yard 3. Mixer for anoxic zone, motor shorted out, pending quotes 4. Recycled water pump for sprayers is down, need new wire and 50amp circuit approx. 200’ of #6 wire/50-amp breaker service. 5. Lake-Shore lift station electrical service is rusted out, started on repairs. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 7 6. Lift station PM’s degrease floats, lots of grease and wet-wipes City shop yard 1. Dump runs to remove old debris; work will continue until its completed 2. Vehicle PM’s Streets, cleaning up right of ways mowing and trimming trees. Parks Mowing / brushing / debris removal prep for the 4 th of July 5(e) Planning The minutes from the June Planning Commission meeting were approved in their July meeting. That meeting had an extension request for Elk River Property Development which has been appealed. Since it is an appeal, the meeting needs to be formally noticed. The appeal will be at the August 21st City Council meeting. 5 (f)Liaison Reports 5(f)(i) Parks Liaison Report The Parks Commission met on July 3, 2025, and discussed the following: Acknowledgement for Skaidra Scholey who wrote and submitted the Planning Grant application for Buffington Park. Carol Hacherl provided valuable financial input and editing. We are grateful to both women for their dedication and hard work. The Commission voted unanimously to recommend the City of Port Orford not renew Richard Tessier’s Buffington Park Host contract. His contract expired June 30, 2025. The Commission approved Park financials with the assurance that the $27, 000 donated to parks for the playground upgrade is in the Parks’ budget. Commission Chair Bryan Thompson was reelected. The commission will be actively recruiting new members as two commissioners’ terms will expire in September. They will not seek reappointment. Discussion about the commission’s top ten priorities focused on repairing existing facilities rather than expansion. Vandalism at the A-Frame and the box that holds mini golf and pickle ball equipment is an ongoing concern. Commissioner Thompson relayed the details for the A-Frame break-in. Public safety officers have addressed the juveniles responsible for breaking into and vandalizing the A- Frame. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 8 5(f)(ii) Emergency Preparation Liaison Report 5(f)(iii) Historic Preservation Liaison Report 5(f)(iv) Port Liaison Report 5(f)(v) Watershed Liaison Report 5(f)(vi) Fire Liaison Report 6 Old Business No old business this month The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 9 7(a) Resolution 2025-01: Decommissioning of the Emergency Preparedness Committee Memo In the past 6 years Councilor Burns has worked on ways to prepare the Port Orford Community for an emergency event. The effort has gone in many directions. Through his research, Burns found 2 prior attempts at forming an Emergency Plan but the plans had been forgotten. The folks who’ve been involved felt that if the City created an Emergency Preparedness Commission (EPC) it would perpetuate a lasting group that would serve our community in emergency preparation, which is an important and ongoing project. In response, the City Council created the Emergency Preparedness Commission by ordinance on September 14, 2023. In the past two years, we have accomplished a lot with the few folks that have committed themselves to this purpose. We have educated our Community to the need of everyone having a Go Bag and preparing to shelter in place if the need arose. We’ve installed radios in the Public Works trucks, and we will be getting a radio for our City Administrator to communicate with our City Employees in an emergency. We’ve coordinated with the County and State Emergency agencies for resources and networking. And the Port Orford Emergency Response Facebook page was created. But at the last EPC meeting the Commission decided that being a City Commission had too many drawbacks. The EPC now recommends to the City Council that the it be officially decommissioned. The same group of interested citizens could then re-form as a community based group —the Port Orford Community Emergency Network— that would work towards uniting existing local organizations to connect our community in the event of an emergency event. It was thought that this would reduce the administrative burden on our small City staff by eliminating the need to provide public notice of agendas, need to provide an online meeting option, posting the meetings on the City website, maintaining a specific number of Commissioners, scheduling the Council Chambers for a specific day. Instead the group could meet as often as it chose and to choose the most convenient venue. A Community group could also obtain a 501 3c in order to accept tax exempt donations and to attain grants for better preparing the community for future emergency events. The Port Orford Community Emergency Network would continue to coordinate with the City as well as with the County and State emergency agencies. We feel that our effort needs a fresh start to engage more community members in emergency preparation. Councilors Burns and Councilor Brennan will still be the liaisons to the City Council and report on the new group’s progress. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 10 7(a) Resolution 2025-01: Decommissioning of the Emergency Preparedness Committee Whereas, The Port Orford Emergency Preparedness Commission was formed to advise the City Council of Port Orford in ways to prepare the Community for emergency events on September 14, 2023; and Whereas, the EPC is now advising the Port Orford City Council that the burden of maintaining a formal Emergency Department and Commission of Emergency Preparedness is too labor intensive for the size of the City staff of our size given the need to provide public notice of agendas, providing an online option for meetings, posting the meetings on the City website, maintaining a specific number of Commissioners, and scheduling the Council Chambers; and Whereas, the EPC has determined that it would be more efficient and beneficial to set up a community-based emergency preparedness group that could meet in different venues at convenient times rather than in the Council Chambers on a specific day and time. Now and Therefore it is officially resolved that the Port Orford Emergency Preparedness Department and Commission will be decommissioned by the Port Orford City Council on this _____day of ____________, 2025. ____________________________________________________ Attest: Joseph Harrison, Recorder of the City of Port Orford ___________________________________ Ann Veleisis, Mayor, City of Port Orford The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 11 7(b) Review of the annual Mainstreet TLT advertising expenditure report Mainstreet is the designated advertising organization for spending TLT funds on advertising the City. Linked below is their annual report and a copy of an advertisement published in [info]. Cover Sheet & Advertisement: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Mainstreet-coversheet-2025.pdf Report: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/South-Coast_Winter-Waters-2025- Report.pdf 8 Considerations Citizen, Staff and Councilors now have a chance to address the Council and Public on items not present on the agenda. 3 minute time limit per person. 9 Future Meetings The next City Council meeting will be on August 17 th 2025 at 5:30 PM in Council Chambers. 10 Adjourn After Agenda items have been addressed and no additional business items remain Mayor Vileisis states the time while adjourning the meeting. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer