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Approved Minutes - 2021-04-28 PM (1-fDbt CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO Budget Committee Meeting Minutes IC) O April 28, 2021 OREGOr� Members present: Joe Buck, Mayor Scott Havens, Chair Jackie Manz Lin Carson, Vice Chair Massene Mboup Al Calabria Daniel Nguyen Gary Corgan Aaron Rapf Shannon Cruz Rachel Verdick Steve Dodds John Wendland Theresa Nute Staff Present: Martha Bennett, City Manager; Anthony Hooper, Deputy City Manager/ Public Works Director; Shawn Cross, Finance Director; Megan Phelan, Assistant City Manager; Jennifer Waverly, Budget Analyst; Dale Jorgensen, Police Chief; Don Johnson, Fire Chief; Ivan Anderholm, Parks and Recreation Director; Evan Boone, City Attorney Pro Tem, Melissa Kelly, Library Director; Erica Rooney, City Engineer; Scot Siegel, Planning & Building Services Director and Sid Sin, Redevelopment Manager. The City Budget Committee meeting was taped and is online with supporting information. Click on any Interactive Agenda item in color to go to that point in the video. 1. Call to Order and Roll Call Chair Havens called the City Budget Committee meeting to order at 6:06 p.m. virtually via Zoom meeting. Budget Committee member Lin Carson was delayed and joined the meeting later, at approximately 6:55 p.m. 2. Elections for Budget Committee Chair Chair Havens asked for nominations from the floor for Chair. Dodds nominated Calabria for Chair and Rapf seconded. Havens called for other nominations from the floor. Dodds moved to elect Al Calabria as Chair of the 2021-23 City Budget Committee. Corgan seconded the motion and it passed unanimously by roll call vote. Calabria accepted the nomination. He suggested three additional Budget Committee meetings per fiscal year and codifying the Budget Committee protocols and onboarding. Rapf asked if the additional meetings would include the City Council. Bennett confirmed the City Council is part of the Budget Committee. Dodds suggested sub-committees of the Budget Committee. Bennett suggested putting the topic of additional meetings on the next meeting agenda. Chair Calabria asked for a motion codifying the Budget Committee City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 1 of 15 protocols and onboarding. Nguyen explained that there are steps currently being taken to codify onboarding for all of the city's boards and commissions. Bennett clarified Chair Calabria wasn't asking to adopt a new City Ordinance, but he wants an adopted process in writing. Chair Calabria stated he wants a protocol. Manz moved to approve that between staff and the Chair of the Budget Committee, protocols put together for the onboarding process, in order to kick this initiative off. Wendland seconded the motion and it passed by a unanimous voice vote. 3. Approval of Budget Committee meeting minutes for March 18, 2021 Wendland moved the approval of the minutes of March 18, 2021. Manz seconded the motion and it passed by a unanimous voice vote. 4. Public Comment Chair Calabria called for public comment. The written public comment from Amy Waterbury of LO for Love, Board Member and Cofounder was read into the record by Nguyen. Ms. Waterbury expressed concern over adding four new police officers, given there is a community dialogue underway. She asked the Budget Committee to consider waiting 6-12 months and allow more transparent dialogue. Carolyne Jones addressed the committee and inquired about the city's procurement process. She wanted to know about the oversite for selling off city property. Bennett explained there is a process for surplusing city property and said the process would be shared. 5. Budget Message and Summary Bennett presented the budget message. The city is fiscally really well run and has been for quite a long time. The city is really well financially positioned going into the next biennium. The city has very good financial policies and the city follows them. The city has stable revenue streams. Between property taxes and utility revenue the city is not as affected by the economy. The city is careful how it manages the personnel costs, which is the biggest variable the city faces. This biennium the city is benefiting uniquely from the federal government covering the city's direct costs related to managing the pandemic. COVID expenses were subsidized by the CARES Act. The General Fund departments are treated as enterprises. The General Fund revenues are allocated to the departments and the departments manage to that budget. The resource allocations are dealt with upfront. This biennium each of the General Fund departments received an increase in allocation of 2.15 percent in the first year and 4.35 percent in the second year. Some departments received adjusted allocations. Departments are allowed to keep the money they save in the budget, to spend on Capital Outlay needs. The biennial budget provides stability and encourages planning by departments. The department heads are careful stewards of the resources they have. The city council develops a shared agenda and then in the budget process funding is provided for that agenda. There are four places that council goals show up in the budget. The first is 2M for top priority pathway projects. Instead of 3M, 5M is being transferred to the Street fund for pathway projects. The second is funding a new DEI Program Manager position City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 2 of 15 in the City Manager's Office and the Human Resources budgets. A new position was added in the Planning Department. The city council has a substantial number of projects in the Planning Department, many that have carried over from the past years. The Planning Department has not had sufficient staff levels to complete the projects, hence why the Planning Department has not fully expended their budget during the past biennium. A Behavioral Health Specialist position is being added in the Police Department to move towards the council's goal of 21st century relevant public safety departments. The city is growing and in the last three years the city has added 1,000 new doors. The growth is showing up terms of increasing work load. Additionally, there are new and existing mandates that the city needs to get its arms around. There are four new positions designed to address growing work load. The first is the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator position in the Engineering Department. The city needs to ensure the programs are in compliance with ADA. The second is a new Park Ranger position, because new facilities have been added and park usage has increased. The city needs 7 days a week service to ensure park rules are being followed. A new Maintenance Technician position was added at the Water Treatment Plant. An Adult Resource Officer position was added in Police to assist seniors. Not all the work load need was addressed in the proposed budget. The community's population has increased 25%, since the last time the city increased the minimum staffing level in the Police Department. There is significant capital activity, the highest profile project is the Recreation and Aquatics Center project. There are several projects to comply with the parks bond. There is the North Anchor project and completion of all of the other LORA projects. There are a lot of paving projects. There is the work the city will be doing down at the wastewater treatment plant at Foothills. The remaining 3.4M was transferred to the Capital Reserve Fund. The Capital Reserve Fund can be used for the swimming pool, or pathway projects, or anything else that could happen. Bennett explained the General Fund allocations by department. She explained the requirements by Fund of the total budget. The General Fund being the largest percentage. The resources equal the requirements plus the contingency and reserves. A quarter of the total budget is the contingency and reserves. The budget hits the target of no more than 9 FTE, per 1,000 population. Manz asked about the 1,000 new doors and what the demographic is. Bennett clarified she was referring to 1,000 new housing units. There is infill happening in Lake Oswego and the city is facing HB2001. Havens asked for clarification on the resources and the beginning balance. Bennett explained the beginning balance and explained the requirements include over 59M for debt services and transfers. Chair Calabria asked about the contingencies and reserves and how the authorization to spend contingencies occurs. Cross explained how the council approves contingency spending with a budget supplement. If it is less than 15 percent of any funds total expenditures, it is a resolution. If is more than 15 percent, it is a supplemental budget with a public hearing. It could be the timing of a project, if a project is ahead of schedule. A large portion of the balance is capital reserves for the utilities and the parks bond. Chair Calabria asked if the 3.4M for Capital Reserve was in the budget. Bennett confirmed that it was. Chair Calabria asked if that was available for the street fund. Bennett said it is general revenue and the budget committee could amend the proposed budget to move it to any of the city's functions. Bennett explained general funds are different than other City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 3 of 15 funds. It is his prerogative, if eight budget committee members agree to move it to the street fund. From her prospective, given the magnitude of some of the capital projects the city has, her recommendation for the proposed budget is to set it aside for the potential of the pool, etc., giving the city council flexibility. Chair Calabria stated he wanted to keep it as an alternative. Corgan pointed out the contingency will become the beginning balance for the next budget. Bennett confirm that is correct. Nute asked about the engineering discussion occurring in May. If there was a 5M add to the paving budget then, how can the budget be amended, if the budget was passed tonight. Chair Calabria explained the budget would not be passed tonight. 6. State Shared Revenue Uses Public Hearing Chair Calabria called for the State Shared Revenue Uses Public Hearing. Cross explained the details of the state shared revenues. He explained the liquor taxes. 20 percent of the revenue from the state for liquor taxes, can be budgeted without a public hearing. 14 percent of the revenue from the state for liquor taxes must have a public hearing. The purpose of the public hearing to give the public an opportunity to comment verbally, or in writing, and ask questions about the proposed use of the funds for the 14 percent. Cross explained the 14 percent is approximately, $550 thousand per fiscal year. Chair Calabria asked if the amounts were already included in the proposed budget. Cross confirmed that they are included. Chair Calabria opened the public hearing. There were no requests for comment received. Chair Calabria closed the public hearing. Nguyen asked if the 14 percent was based on the cigarette tax and the liquor tax, and if the state collects more does the city get a larger share. Cross explained the public hearing is only on the 14 percent liquor tax. The 20 percent liquor tax, the cigarette, and other state shared revenues are received by the city by providing four of the listed services. The public hearing is on the additional 14 percent and the amount the city receives is based on the amount of liquor sold in the state. Nguyen mentioned cannabis. Cross confirmed the city does not receive cannabis revenue. Chair Calabria stated the liquor sales were 55 percent higher last year. 7. Budget Deliberations Chair Calabria called for deliberations. Nute asked about discussing additional police officers. She mentioned the public comment and the request to hold off hiring. She stated there could be another way to look at the request and the timing. A discussion could be had where by it is said staffing the police force appropriately sets the whole community and the police up to have the space and the cycles to do things like go to additional training or education. The new officers coming in as a cohort during this time, could be looked back on as something to be proud of. A discussion could be had about what the citizen brought up during public comment, but also sets the city up to move forward and still embrace the concerns that were brought up. She mentioned different alternatives to fund the police positions. For example, the budget committee could vote to fund none, some, or all. She felt delaying the allocation based on those concerns doesn't feel like congruent complete thought. She asked if there is a way to make the decision more holistically. Mboup agreed it is inopportune to be raising police forces when they are working in a police dialogue with the city. They don't know what they need. The Lake Oswego police do not have body cameras and the city council doesn't know what the City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 4 of 15 police officers are doing. The budget should take into account the needs of the community. The need for more police due to population growth can be questioned for many reasons, because population has grown, but the technological means the city has had, has not been seen in the city, in the last thirty years. In every corner of Lake Oswego there is a street camera, people can feel they are surveillanced. He echoes the statements of the citizen public comment, and they need to hold off. It is not the time to add to the police budget and for the respect of the community they should not vote on that. Mayor Buck concurred with his colleague. As the budget committee they are building community trust, and they build that trust by establishing integrity. They told the community that one of their main council goals this year is to engage in a community dialogue on policing. They told the community they are having that dialogue and they engaged with them. There are surveys, focus groups, and a robust community process to seek community input. The city invests in the process and the community invests in the process, but when decisions are made outside that process, it breaks down that trust and integrity. To ensure they are respecting their word and process they laid forth and to make sure they are making decisions with robust community input, involvement and with department data. They have been out engaging the community, but as a council they have not received the engagement results. The council has not had study sessions and they haven't received data on the police force. It is more robust than just the personnel, it is the training, equipment, it is everything together. It requires a holistic approach and they are just not geared right now to have that approach. He suggested they set the topic aside. Manz stated this is not that they are against the police, they want to be as mindful and holistic as possible in making these decisions. She understands, the police have not had personnel changes in a number of years, with the exceptions of behavioral policing and adult community policing. She is looking forward to hearing what the police need for 21st century policing, as it fits in the city council's goals. She concurred with taking it slow and pausing. Verdick concurred with her colleagues and asked to hear from Chief Jorgensen to get an understanding of his request and why he is asking for it. Vice Chair Carson agreed with Verdick that Chief Jorgensen be given a chance to speak. She brought up the details in the memo regarding succession planning and retirements. She gathered from the memo that there was an aging problem with the police force. It is important to train, to back fill the funnel before they leave and retire. A lot of the police are eligible for retirement right now and that is her only concern. She wanted to give Chief Jorgensen a voice and to hear why it is important to fill the positions right now. She thinks they need to consider the workforce. Chief Jorgensen referred to the memo dated March 31, 2021. He highlighted items from the memo. He understands the optics, however he feels it is important and they are at a critical stage right now. Regardless, of what the final community policing dialogue is, which revolves around how they are going to police, not necessarily the number of police the city needs. It is budget season and because the city is ready to enter into a two-year budget, if it didn't get on the budget committee's radar now, they would be waiting potentially for another two years. He understand they can always have a mid-year budget or have a discussion, but now is the time to put it on the radar. It's been over 30 years, since this community has increased the patrol staff in a significant way. In 1990, the city had 41 sworn officers and today, 31 years later, the city has 43 sworn officers. The city's population has increased by a quarter. Members of city council have come through and seen the new building and one of the things highlighted is about 70 percent of police cases now involve technology and they have one person dedicated to do nothing but, City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 5 of 15 download computers, phones, and different things that are involved in crime. The city's crime has changed over the years, because technology has changed, and what took 20 or 30 minutes back in the day, is taking much longer to investigate and is tying officers up. The proposal for the extra force staff was to create what they call a relief shift, which would work during the hours where they have no overlap. During certain hours there are three police officers and one supervisor that is covering the city. At any given time during the day they have a few more, simply because there's a lot of traffic. They have two traffic officers that generally work and the detectives. Generally speaking, there are three patrol officers and one patrol supervisor covering the city at any given time. Certain calls require two police officers to respond, then they only have two officers covering the city and then some calls require all four. Examples of those calls are in the memo; calls where the entire staff was tied up on one call and they had to have officers from other jurisdictions come in to actually take the calls that were coming in. By having that relief shift it wouldn't be a full shift, they would pick the dates during the week that historically have higher call volume and therefore they are able to backfill those positions. This isn't fluff, this is an extra that is needed to work the workflow that they have. He referend to the chart included in the memo. Back in the day, the kind of matrix they used was officer per thousand. A good funded city would be right around 2 per thousand or 1.75, right in there. He doesn't like that matrix, it would have them have way too many officers for what they need. The matrix that he likes better is incident per officer and average calls for service daily. He pointed out the average calls for service daily. This isn't them doing traffic stops, this isn't them being proactive, this is community members calling them to come and service a call for them. The year 2020 was a little down because of COVID. They averaged 47 calls per day as a police department and when you combine that with the fact that during any given time there's only three officers, that's quite a few calls for service per day that they're running to. They are not quite as busy as running call to call, but they are busy, and if you go back historically they average right up in the 50s. The larger number is incidents per officers and that is their calls for service, plus their traffic stops that they make. In calendar year 2020, their traffic stops were down significantly because of COVID, they made a concerted effort to make sure that they were only stopping those vehicles that were egregious, and that's the reason why their traffic stops are down. But, their incidents per officer is quite high, in fact it's way high when you talk about 717 incidents per officer, per year, and then start working that out into what their workload is, they're a busy, busy department. He isn't saying they can't handle it and they have a great team, he is confident in their team. Regardless of what is decided they will keep moving along just like they need to. But he also feels it would be disingenuous of him, not only for his work group, but for the citizens, if he didn't at least ask for what he feels they need to continue to provide excellent police services to the community. That's the reason for the timing, although unfortunate, they felt it needed to be done today and he'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone has. Wendland asked if the city is spending overtime money to fill in shifts, in other words, are they short staff where people take vacations and different things, and is the city spending an inordinate amount of overtime, as a department, that if you filled these four positions would be mitigated to a certain extent. Chief Jorgensen stated yes, those would help mitigate some of the overtime that they would be accruing. But, City Manager Bennett has given him a lot of leeway, and this is where his contingency comes in. Coming up they have about nine of them City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 6 of 15 that are eligible to retire and the year after that there's five more, so in the next three years they have a significant amount of their sworn staff, and again he is just talking sworn staff, they have a significant amount of police officers who are probably going to retire. This is part of his May 4th conversation with the council, but it takes them a year to get somebody hired, trained, and on the road, counting as they call, a solo officer. Where they bless them to go out and do it by themselves, it takes them a year and because of that City Manager Bennett has allowed him to do a little creative over hiring and use his contingency to kind of bleed into that, so they don't get caught short. They are getting to that point where they need to start hiring those four people because he knows they are probably going to lose a significant number of those nine when the time comes and if they don't start planning now, if he isn't looking ahead at least a year to a year and a half, it's too late because by the time we turn on the spigot and they start hiring, he is behind and the pool for officers is extremely shallow right now. There isn't a large amount of people clamoring to get into their business and so they have to be able to be nimble enough to take when they can and start having a bench and have a deep bench, so that when they start losing officers to retirement or job change, they have that bench. Manz commented she would love to get some data around what sort of incidents the officer are out on. There is such a range of policing incidents, which is part of her concern with the job in the 21 st century, they have put onto the police an incredible amount of variety of different jobs, so she would be interested in knowing exactly how that breaks down. Manz asked how the chief views 21St century policing, in replacing those people who will be retiring or moving on, as well as the technology that may or may not be available, at that point in time. Cruz stated she feels confident or comfortable with moving forward with the request for four more police officers and the reason she feels this way is because hearing the Chief of Police Jorgensen speak, but with the memo and reading through that thoroughly. As he spoke, to hear they haven't had a significant increase in the police in 30 years, but they've had a population increase of 25 percent, they have people that are retiring and it does take a year to get someone that can be on their own, out at work. Also when they hear about the proposed budget, and that they are hiring other folks as well, they have their ADA person, a park ranger, a maintenance technician, an adult resource officer, so for her, she feels like this is part of the whole budget. She liked how Police Chief Jorgensen spoke to working with the community and if it wasn't something that needed to be done this might not be the right time, and so bringing it forward even though everything's going on, that it is important. Havens asked to clarify it is $170,000, including PERS and all that, for a new officer. Does that sound like a correct number, it seems high to him, but maybe that's what it costs. Chief Jorgensen stated by the time they do all the roll-up costs, between the salary, and he kind of averaged it, so by the time they get their salary, get their health benefits, get PERS costs rolled in, that's the total roll-up cost. Havens stated that is a big number. Havens asked if they see the Portland situation that they've had for a long time, here. Does he see that bleeding over and is that a good reason to have more policing. Chief Jorgensen answered by saying regardless of what was happening in Portland, this is the right decision. This is their community, their community is much different than other communities across the nation, so he would characterize it, is the timing unfortunate, but even if this wasn't going on everywhere else, this would still be my ask because it's not so much because of what's happening in Portland, or what's happening in other parts of the country, it's what has not happened historically in Lake Oswego, increasing and keeping up with their population and keeping up with the growth putting a demand. This isn't the outset of what is City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 7 of 15 going on in Portland, this is the outset of what is going on in Lake Oswego. If you look at your budget breakdowns, two numbers that speak to crimes is part one crimes and part two crimes. Even though with COVID and everything else going on in 2021, and just to reiterate, part two crimes back in 2017 were a different number, but the part one and part two crimes are creeping up, and that's with COVID. They have seen an uptick in crime, there's lots of reason for that, he has his theories that they'll discuss later, but those crimes are actual crimes. That's not them going out on dog calls, that's not the quality of life calls that they sometimes joke about in Lake Oswego, where no call is too small, the crimes are going up and they're seeing an uptick. Anybody in the neighborhood, who has had their car broken into or other things, they're seeing more and more of those types of crimes happening. Rapf stated he loves the conversation about this, it's such a tough subject. They've been told this for a year now, they need their police department to represent the people that live here, which mean they need more women and more BIPOC officers. Regardless of optics, if they don't give the Chief his head count that is a vote for not making our police department more representative because this is one chance in two years. The way he thinks about it, if they want to do that and they know the community wants that, they have to do it now and if you don't give the head count, you can't even go down that road. Mayor Buck asked if the Chief is able to hire the people he needs to replace the people that are leaving. Chief Jorgensen stated he cannot legally ask the officers when they are going to retire. City Manager Bennett has allowed the Chief to over hire, but he doesn't know if she would let him over hire 4 people. Knowing that there is a possibility that the 9 people that are eligible to retire might not retire exactly all at the same time and that's where it becomes a little problematic, it's a sliding scale. Having those 4 extra officers would provide some immediate relief to a very busy shift schedule, that they are currently having and anticipate continuing to have. Mayor Buck stated the Chief knows their timeline for the community policing and the Chief has been integral in this process and extremely supportive and with the rest of the command staff and the team. They are engaged in an incredible way with the community and he knows that they're just now entering this process. Mayor Buck asked if the Chief is put in an impossible position waiting two or three months, as they go through this upcoming summer of their dialogue on community policing, for them to make this decision. Chief Jorgensen stated nothing is impossible. He said his job is to advise and give them the best information that he possibly can. The budget committee's job is to allocate the money and then he allocates it the best he can and if it's decided that they won't do it, they'll make do. The pool of candidates that they have, every month they wait, the pool gets smaller and smaller, every agency, right now, in Clackamas County is hiring. One agency is hiring about 25 deputies, because that's how many they're short, that's one agency, that's short now. So think of this pool that he's competing in, the pool gets pretty shallow, now there's people that come and go to the pool all the time, but the pool is still getting shallower and every month they wait, does create issues because the candidate pool is shrinking, he would say it's not optimal. Currently they are in the middle of a recruiting process, so this would be a great time to start looking for those numbers because they want to hire anyway because of natural attrition that they have going on right now. Even if you gave him 4 officers, it's still going to take him three or four months to find them, get them hired, get them through their process, get them into the academy, and then it's going to be a year before they're out, so all they're doing by delaying is delaying it another three or four, five, six months and then again the pool shrinks. Mayor Buck stated the Chief understands it's not just to delay, but to City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 8 of 15 continue their process of community engagement. All the folks who have participated aren't here tonight and they don't even know that they're discussing this tonight. They are going to have a very, very upset community, unless they engage in a completely transparent process. Chief Jorgensen stated this process, the community conversation and policing, in his mind, is a different conversation than what they're talking about. What they're talking about in the community conversation and policing has nothing to do with numbers, it has to do with how they police and their procedures and their process in that policing. It has nothing to do with the numbers that they do. It was very clear entering into that process that wasn't going to be on the plate. He gets the optics of it, however the process for the community conversation on policing was substance, not numbers of cops that are in the community. This conversation would have gone on eventually, regardless of that. Dodds stated he is confused about this whole conversation. The most fundamental thing of a city is to have a police department protecting, the fundamental part of government, the reason for government is to protect citizenry, that's what it is and that's what's going on here. The community policing thing is absolutely important, they know it is a priority. About a third of the police department, apparently is getting ready to retire. They have a bunch of professionals here, and they have the city manager and the police chief talking about how they're going to work the system. Everybody in the city council is conscientious. To say that the hiring of police officers outside the community policing, that should be transparent, that's shouldn't be something that's hid, they should be able to do that, the case should be made publicly. He agreed that the community policing is going to have to happen, ahead of that wave, but as long as they have this in their queue, they have to figure out a way to pay for it, as long as they have it in their queue then, they should let the professionals figure out how to work the system and city council do the same. They wouldn't be fulfilling their job, if they didn't have a proper police force. He doesn't know what the point here is. Bill Belichick says everybody's got to do their job and if everybody does their job, we're good. He doesn't think they need to fuss. Nguyen stated all the points that are made are excellent points, but he thinks that all of them come from different backgrounds. He thinks from a professional background, in many of their outside capacities they are also in charge of hiring people and attracting talent. He has heard it said several time that the candidate pool is shrinking, it's getting more shallow, and he's got to believe that when they are looking for the best candidates they should be striving to become an organization that is an employer of choice, that they are not having to go out and, of course they have to be recruiting, but he would like them to be a shining example of, hey I'm a police officer and I aspire to come work for the City of Lake Oswego because their values as a city and their values as a police department, align with my values as a police officer and that's something where we want people to build their careers here. We don't want people to hop from one department to another because of one scandal or the next, so the discussion about if we don't hire now we're going to lose out on candidates that are available, it's not a shopping spree. He feels they've got to invest in the work that they're doing right now and part of this investment in creating this atmosphere, creating this environment of having a quality police force, becoming ultimately an employer of choice for those in this profession. You look at all these organizations where you're amazed at the talent that they're able to attract, it's because of the leadership in that organization. Companies that are successful aren't out there because they can hire as many people as they can quickly, it's because people choose to work there and often times they may not choose to work because of the highest salary or the best City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 9 of 15 benefits, but it's because they identify, they fell like that's the place they want to work, so that's his point. He wanted to remind the rest of the council, including himself, that was probably some of the most difficult public testimony they've heard. He was looking back on the list of public testimony, they had 62 people that testified, that wanted to actually testify in person on Zoom and there were many more that sent in written comments and there are others, he is sure, that could not participate because of the timing of the public comment period. So especially on this topic, it's more than just optics, it'd be an utter disrespect to the community if they were to just plot ahead, knowing that this is something that the people have come out in droves to talk about. He remembers this dialogue was one of the most contentious council meetings he's ever been involved in, they've spent a lot of time talking about this topic and one of the things that council as a whole decided to do was specifically remove the community policing aspect of this great dialogue around social justice, DEI, and make it a separate piece of the work because council wanted to be involved in that, council wanted to get it right. So now six months later, now nine months later, from the public standpoint it looks like they have a short memory. They have a new administration and what was in the news feed at the time has come out, so he doesn't want to be part of a process that disregards that. They've invested already nine months into it and it's not to say that they don't make a commitment, he would say if there's a way and that's where he thinks they rely on staff to provide an avenue for them to say, they can still make a budget amendment to this, to allow the funding for these four new police officers. He will not support a decision right now to be added to the budget to hire four new police officers. He isn't saying he won't in the future, but at this point he feels the appropriate thing to do is to allow the community policing dialogue to finish, before they make that commitment in this particular budget. Chair Calabria recapped in broad categories, they could make three decisions right now or he suggested making a motion in one of those directions. They could decide to approve the 4 now, they could decide to defer the decision until the community policing studies are complete and the recommendations are clear, or they could do something in between, another possibility to say they know in theory they can approve X number, but they don't know precisely what those roles are going to be, until they have more information. He suggested that they entertain a motion along one of those directions and he didn't recommend any of them. Bennett suggested two alternatives to an up or down decision for them. Alternative one, they as a budget committee could move the money and authorize the position, but essentially put a budget note there that says that the Chief is not authorized to hire those officers, until completion of the community policing dialogue and a recommendation that's approved by council. The truth is the council's going to have the decision ultimately anyway. The other alternative is they could approve something less than four, there is a number smaller than four that would help with what Chief has proposed in terms of relief shift. Those are two alternatives. The debate you've had tonight sort of illustrates the conundrum they are in when presented with this, as they understand the operational needs, but the timing. She thinks the Chief and she agree the timing is really terrible. The first alternative to approve the appropriation, but put a budget note that says they're not authorized to proceed with the hires until the community policing dialogue is complete and the council makes a decision about that, that sort of is the best so far based on what she's heard them all say tonight. Rapf mentioned the deliberation here is great, but there's also time from now until the next budget committee meeting where budget committee members can talk to city staff and get some more information, sleep on things and mull it over. City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 10 of 15 They can come back to this and make the decisions that she just illustrated, at their next meeting. He thinks the purpose of the two budget committee meetings is for people to receive the budget, ask a few questions. Then take some time away to do their research and get their ducks in order, and then finalize things at the next meeting. That's the way he understood it. Dodds asked the mayor if he was nodding his head to the first alternative stated by the city manager. Mayor Buck confirmed he thought the city manager made a good recommendation. It's a good signal from the budget committee in terms of the allocation of resources, but still allows the community process to take place and the council to really hear that robust community input and respect this process. Mayor Buck referred to Councilor Nguyen's comment, about the community input being momentous and they heard from the community loud and clear. He cannot emphasize enough this is a top, top, top community priority. They aren't talking about hiring a planner, they're not talking about hiring an analyst in the City Manager's office, and this is a top, top community priority. He thinks it's a great solution if the budget committee agrees, that allows the ball to move forward in a way that respects the community and the integrity of the process. Dodds responded that if what the Mayor is saying is true, he would say to the City Manager, if they're going to have 4, they're not going to go out and hire them in the next 10 days, and they have a biennium. If they're looking at 4, have the forward target of 4 and it's all going to come within the context of deliberation anyway, so give themselves the most options. Nute thanked the Mayor and other council members for the work and engaging the community. She asked about the timeline for the process. She didn't want to call it a key deliverable because this is a year's long process of them all changing approach and thinking. She didn't want to call it a box, they're not going to get a pretty box and hand it out to them, but what would be the timeline to be able to get the other members of the community involved in this decision. She asked how to get them to be bought into these additions, with their fiscal hats on, are really important decisions to make. Mayor Buck stated he thinks it would be critical for all of the members of the budget committee to be involved in this process, as they go forward. They've already engaged the community, they're on the precipice of hearing the results of that engagement, so there's been a large community survey that was done and there was a variety of community focus groups that took place. The council kicked this process off just the other month, so as they come into the month of May, they have a series of study sessions to hear the results and the sessions are on different days because the topics are lengthy. So it's not just once, it a multitude of study sessions, which are going to culminate in recommendations and this may very well be one of the recommendations. Or they weave it into other recommendations that they're making, in terms of how they modernize they're police force, how they ensure great community safety, how they really support the men and women here, support the members that work for their police force, and then support every single member of their community and ensure that they have a safe place for everyone. The timing for the City Manager and Chief is so, first because they're literally a week away from their first meeting on this topic, that's going to bring, and the community is aware of that, so that's what they're paying attention to, not tonight's budget committee meeting. Manz asked when the final budget committee meeting is. It was confirmed to be May 13th. Manz clarified that it will come after the Chief presents whatever he's going to present in detail. Bennett clarified that the community dialogue process is not going to be done until the end of June. So the Chief is going to talk on City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 11 of 15 May 4th about hiring selection and training, then on May 18th they'll hear from the State of Oregon about the stops data, and then they'll be back with them. She needs to talk with the mayor, about the fact that the June meeting is really early, so they might need a special study session in late June with a complete report. It's really late June, and that's not just after then budget committee approves the budget, but after the council adopts the budget, they'll actually get the final report. That is the timing problem here. Manz concurred. Corgan asked about the metric side of how they're doing as far as they're staffing per citizen or maybe per thousand, or the other metrics that the chief was talking about. This is a 15 percent increase in the patrol and he was wondering if that's something they'd want to be doing all at once. It seems like a pretty large increase, but as he heard others speak, he hadn't realized they were in the middle of the community dialogue. He thinks City Manager Bennett has a very good point that they can vote to put money or they can decide to put money in the budget, but not allow it to be spent until after the dialogue is over. His question come down to, do they want to put the money in. He explained the city manager also brought up that they don't necessarily have to say it's going to be 4 people, there can be a number less than four and so how much are they going to want to put in that budget. Are they going to automatically go to 4 because that was the request or how does that compare to what's happening, for instance, in West Linn or Tualatin, that are maybe somewhat close to them and that's per person. He knows they have a larger population. Chief Jorgensen clarified if he was asking about the matrix, he does have it. Chief Jorgensen stated one of the matrix, he doesn't necessarily like the officer per thousand because it doesn't really, and the crime in their community might be different than the crime in a different community that has a different population and officer ratio. There are two contract cities in Clackamas County, which are Wilsonville and Happy Valley. The sheriff's department contracts police services with them, but other than those two cities, Lake Oswego has the lowest per thousand ratio per officer. Lake Oswego is 1.1 officers per thousand. Lake Oswego and West Linn are tied for the lowest and then every other community is higher. Cruz stated she is very thankful that they have an engaged community policy policing group, but she was wondering if this was going to be ongoing. She is assuming for a while, that they're not going to be done in June, but this will be an ongoing group that meets and talks for the months and years to come. Mayor Buck stated no. Cruz asked is it something that is going to be short-term then. Mayor Buck stated yes, it's not that it's short term or long term, it's just a process. Wendland stated Councilor Nguyen's discussion about them going through a big process for this topic, the country went through a big process, and the world went through a big process. As it relates to Lake Oswego, he thinks there are two thing that they have to be cognizant of, they do have an active and robust population that is very engaged and for that they're a better community. He agrees that they are in the middle of things with the police review and he wants everyone to know that Chief Jorgensen and City Manager Bennett are completely involved and supportive of this review. So they're doing this as a community to make themselves better, they're trying to look at things that they can improve upon and in the bigger picture of things that's the outcome, when they get through this process. His concern is, if you've tried to hire somebody lately, it's super hard, and he know in the police world it's even harder. He wants to be cognizant of the fact that the Chief has warned us because there's an engaged community out there that expects them to provide great public service and public safety, on top of everything else. So if they want to wrap it tonight, he would be supportive of City City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 12 of 15 Manager Bennett's suggestion to allocate the 4 and figure out some language in the budget to say that council will have the final decision on where they move forward to. More importantly, at that point, the Chief will know more about the type of person that they want to hire, the type of dialogue that has come through and he thinks they'll be a better city if they go through that. If they want to do it tonight, if they want to wait until the 13th, he thinks that's a good suggestion too, so that budget members who aren't as familiar with this subject can have discussions and call them up. If they want to talk to Counselors Nguyen, Manz, or him, it was a hard summer, it was for all of them to go through as a community, what was going on and it was quite emotional and it was quite heartfelt. So as budget people they're into the numbers, but there's a critical element that they can respect. He thinks it has been a wonderful dialogue and he would support the city manager's suggestion on moving forward and to the committee as a whole he wants to be supportive of the Chief, who has been leading them with grace and with perseverance to make sure they're a safe city and he has the right intention to make sure that the police department follows what the community wants. Wendland moved the motion. Havens seconded the motion. Manz asked how much money they are talking about as a set aside. Bennett clarified 900K in the first year of the biennium and 700K or a little under that in the second year. The 900K is because they have to increase their department contingency. Bennett recommended that they take it from the capital reserve fund and move it into the police budget. Cross confirmed the numbers. Bennett stated that's why she didn't fund it. Manz stated she has no problem setting monies aside, they are in a financial position right now, while not a hundred percent ideal, in a position where they could do this. She completely appreciates what the Chief is saying, she understands the fact that they're going to have retirements, but she too has a bit of a problem with the optics. Manz asked is there a way to have this money set aside, not necessarily specific for personnel, but for perhaps technology or other areas around policing, technology within policing, body cameras, etc., or must it be set aside specifically for personnel. Bennett stated she would let Chief answer this, but she thought they're moving towards body cameras within the existing proposed budget. So this really is about increasing staffing, to deal with increased work load and the baby boomers leaving the workforce. Manz stated she is not a criminologist, but she is hearing what the Chief said about the nature of policing and the changes in policing. She wants to make sure that if they're hiring in the future, that they are not necessarily going to look at patrol people, even though at this point in time, she is hearing that is a vital necessity, but as they look at moving forward that they're hiring people that can handle those sorts of 21st century policing jobs. Chief Jorgensen explained they are looking at body cams, they're in the middle of a second test of a different company, they have 45 days and it started about 15 days ago. If all goes right and everything lines up the way they hope, they will be making a decision on body cams and start deploying them sometime in the Fall and they would take money out of their contingency that they have, that's the reason why they have that contingency is to spend it on that. It depends on which company they end up going with and how much that is, but they've been working fast and furious. It's a complicated issue around body cams, but they're hoping to be ready to deploy sometime in the Fall. As far as looking forward, what he loves about their community and about the staff is that when you look at, just take the Behavioral Health Specialist that they just hired, she's not a Police Officer, all of her training, everything that she has is in the mental health world. When Bennett and he talked, she didn't bat an eye about it, they knew this is where they needed to go City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 13 of 15 because their call volume has changed a bit in that area and it is right for their community to have that position. So it wasn't even a matter of Bennett hesitating when he brought it up to her and they talked about it, they wanted to be doing the right thing for the right reason for their community and Behavioral Health Specialist is that thing for them. She was hired about three weeks ago, they are doing their onboarding with her because she doesn't work in the police world, so she has to have a fundamental knowledge of what they do. So they're going through that, but she's been out on four or five calls with them, even though that's not optimal right now, while they're having to get her up to speed. She has made a critical difference in many of those calls. He told Bennett after her second call, she just paid for herself. That is what's important, not only from a fiscal standpoint, but from a community standpoint and it's the same thing with their Adult Resource Officer. When they needed to change the way they do things because of a gap they found in their community, they didn't hesitate, they went right towards the Adult Resource Officer, so that they were able to bridge that gap. As time goes on, policing and their profession changes, there will be more opportunities to change those things, but the bread and butter of policing is still patrol. When a community member of Lake Oswego or a visitor of Lake Oswego dials 911/LOCOM and they answer the phone, and they want a police officer, they want a police officer, that's their business. Chair Calabria called the motion. He asked if someone wrote down what City Manager Bennett said. Rapf recapped the motion. It was to set aside, approve the budget with a note in the budget that it won't be fulfilled, until after the community dialogue conversations. Havens clarified, it's setting aside 1.6M in the biennium. Rapf replied for 4 head counts. Dodds asked for clarification on timing. The community policing is probably six or eight months out, and then they have hiring, so it's very possible those guys won't be hired in the first year. Rapf stated the motion on the floor is to approve the 4 head count, with a budget note saying that it'll be completed, following the discussions. Mayor Buck added, and with the approval of the council. Chair Calabria stated they have a motion and a second and asked if they were ready to vote. He pointed out they probably have more than one issue to discuss tonight. This has been pointed out by Mayor Buck, this is not just another issue, and it's a pretty important. They've given it quite a bit of time already, so in the interest of time he suggested they take a vote. Waverly asked to do a roll call vote and for clarification on the second. Havens confirmed that he seconded the motion. Mayor Buck asked to have the motion read. Waverly read the motion. Move to approve the 4 FTE in the biennium budget for 21-23, implementation to occur after the community dialogue conversation, 1.6M set aside for the 4 FTE, and approved by the city council. Nguyen asked to have the FTE removed from the motion and just state the 1.6M. That way the recommendations from the community policing can be included, however it works out to be, fulltime or part-time or something. He thinks it handcuffs too much. He thinks the dollar number is more important, than the number of employees. Chair Calabria confirmed the amendment. Mboup asked if the motion states that if community dialogue says they don't need to recruit police officers, that they are not recruiting those 4 police officers. The way the motion is set it is like they have to recruit those police. Bennett clarified she thinks that it should be clear that the council will retain that decision. In other words, this motion doesn't presume that they will hire, but rather the council has to approve an increase in staffing for the police department at the conclusion of the community dialogue. Wendland stated if for some reason they decide that they're going to remove their complete police department, if that's the decision of council, then they can put City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 14 of 15 that money elsewhere. That's what they do as council. Chair Calabria called the vote. Manz requested the motion be read again. Waverly read the motion. Move to approve 1.6M for the police department budget for biennium 21-23, implementation to occur after the community dialogue conversation and approved by the city council. It passed unanimously by roll call vote. Havens called for a break. There was a ten minute break. After the break, budget committee member Cruz was having some technical difficulties. However, she was able to still hear the meeting, and after the break she communicated her votes via email. Chair Calabria called for additional budget deliberations. No other issues were brought up. Chair Calabria called for more comments. There were no comments. 8. Recess Meeting to May 13, 2021 Chair Calabria called to recess the city budget committee meeting until May 13th. The meeting was recessed at 8:33. Respectfully submitted, Jennifer Waverly Budget & Financial Analyst APPROVED BY THE CITY BUDGET COMMITTEE: May 13, 2021 City of Lake Oswego Budget Committee Meeting Minutes of April 28, 2021 Page 15 of 15