BEAVERTON CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
OCTOBER 24, 2005

CALL TO ORDER:

The Regular Meeting of the Beaverton City Council was called to order by Mayor Rob Drake in the Forrest C. Soth Council Chamber, 4755 SW Griffith Drive, Beaverton, Oregon, on Monday, October 24, 2005, at 6:37 p.m.

ROLL CALL:

Present were Mayor Drake, Couns. Catherine Arnold, Betty Bode, Dennis Doyle, Fred Ruby and Cathy Stanton. Also present were City Attorney Alan Rappleyea, Chief of Staff Linda Adlard, Finance Director Patrick O'Claire, Community Development Director Joe Grillo, Engineering Director Tom Ramisch, Operations/Maintenance Director Gary Brentano, Library Director Ed House, Human Resources Director Nancy Bates, Deputy Police Chief Chris Gibson and Deputy City Recorder Catherine Jansen.

PROCLAMATIONS:

Mayor Drake proclaimed October 30 to November 5, 2005, National Magic Week.

PRESENTATIONS:

05194 Community Action Presentation: Poverty in Washington County 2005

Jerralyn Ness, Executive Director, Community Action of Washington County, said Community Action was a private, non-profit organization and they had been located in Washington County for 40 years. She said Community Action addresses the causes and conditions of poverty through programs such as Head Start, Child Care Resource and Referral, and the Transitional Housing Program. She said a trend had developed over the past ten years of people working yet struggling to make ends meet. She said census data from 1990 through 2004 indicated that while the County's population grew 55%, the percentage of people living in poverty grew 115%. She defined poverty as households living at or below the Federal guideline; the Federal level for a family of four was approximately $19,000 annually. She said in Washington County poverty level includes many families with two adults working full time and earning less than $31,000 annually. She said the cost of living in Washington County made it very difficult to make ends meet.

Ness presented a PowerPoint presentation that showed how a family of four who earned $10.00 an hour ($20,800 annually) was struggling due to the high cost of living in Washington County (in the record). She referred to the cost of rent, utilities, transportation and food; how this would place the family $7,423 over its annual budget but the family still did not have everything they needed. She said at this income level the family still could not provide clothing, education, school supplies, laundry, cleaning supplies, insurance and savings. She said in Washington County 70% of the people living in poverty were employed and less than 12% of them received Federal aid. She said this information was presented to an employers' group to engage them in being part of the solution. She reviewed a document Community Action created entitled "20 Things You Can Do for Your Employees." She said Community Action used this document to work with employers help their employees who were struggling economically. She reviewed in detail the 20 programs available to help these employees (in the record).

Ness said there were 50,000 people in Washington County living in poverty and over 100,000 people living in conditions of poverty. She said the four shelter homes in Washington County had 100 beds and all the beds were filled. She said the shelter in Hillsboro had 20 beds; 16 of the 20 were children. She said there were 120 people on the waiting list for a shelter; 77 children. She said over half of the Head Start children were from Beaverton and one-third of Community Action services were allocated to Beaverton residents. She said funding for the Utility Assistance Program increased through the $0.38 utility public purpose rate paid by customers on their monthly bill. As a result of that increased funding, Community Action was able to expand its energy assistance from 2,000 families a year to 7,000 families a year.

Ness said Community Action was not a County Agency. She said their funding was through a variety of sources including Washington County and a County levy that supports the four home shelters. She said their budget has remained the same for the last four years. She reviewed Community Action's Service Statistics for Beaverton during the 2004-05 Fiscal Year (in the record). She said during 2004-05 over 1,100 Beaverton residents participated in child care training; there were over 700 calls for child care assistance; and over 3,000 Beaverton families sought energy assistance and over $1 million was paid toward these utility bills. She said of the 660 children in Head Start, nearly 400 were from Beaverton. She said they were able to help 20 Beaverton families obtain permanent housing; and they helped 122 women have healthy babies and strengthen their parenting skills. She said this past year there were between nine and ten thousand calls for help from Beaverton residents, and over $5.5 million of Community Action's resources were spent to provide these services to Beaverton residents. She said 229 Beaverton volunteers donated over 4,000 hours to Community Action to work on these programs and she thanked them for their help.

Coun. Doyle asked Ness if she thought these conditions would improve soon.

Ness said she did not believe they would improve soon because the County was growing rapidly and the incidents of families living in poverty was growing more rapidly. She said this has been the trend for several years.

Coun. Doyle asked how the community could stem this trend.

Ness said it was a huge, complex issue with no single cure; it had to be handled in small bites. She said because of the high cost of housing, any opportunity to build affordable housing at the lower-income level, would help tremendously. She said there were only two child care programs in the County that offer child care on a sliding scale rate. She said anything that could be done to make child care more affordable would also help. She said access to health care was the third major issue; one crisis could be devastating to a family. She said this information needs to be made available to people throughout the community. She said people and employers in this community were very caring and if they become engaged in helping to improve conditions a lot could be accomplished. She repeated the three major issues were housing, child care and health care.

Coun. Stanton left the meeting during the presentation; she returned later to the council meeting during the executive session.

Coun. Doyle asked what progress was being made regarding educating people concerning the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Ness said they had tremendous response on those sessions and many employers and employees were learning about this tax credit.

Coun. Bode said she was sorry this problem existed. She said the Virginia Garcia Clinic in Beaverton was a Federally qualified clinic, which meant that the demographics and income levels in Beaverton met the Federal poverty guidelines. She said they had 1,400 patient appointments per month; but they had to still turn people away. She said poverty and hunger were rampant; she witnessed it every day at the Clinic. She said the poor were well hidden in Beaverton and she wished more people would see what was happening. She encouraged Ness to continue making people aware of this situation.

Ness distributed to Council copies of Community Action's Service Statistics for Beaverton for Fiscal Year 2004-05.

Coun. Doyle asked if people were using the "I Give Where I Live" Web site. He asked her to explain what they hoped to accomplish through this site.

Ness said use of the site was slow in getting started but they were hopeful; they were working on marketing the site. She said there were many people in Washington County who wished to give to a non-profit organization. She said the "I Give Where I Live" Web site provides service descriptions and contact information for the local non-profits working in Washington County. She said this site does not collect donations; it is an education effort to promote local philanthropy for local services.

Coun. Ruby said he enjoyed the year he was the Mayor's delegate for Community Action and he learned a lot about social services. He said the safety net services they provide for everyone were extremely valuable.

Coun. Bode said while Community Action's work was under the umbrella of social services, it was the best form of economic development. She said the region must have a healthy and educated work force; that work force starts with Head Start, housing and eliminating hunger. She said the future work force was the children served by the Virginia Garcia Clinic and Community Action. She said it is this future work force that will help eradicate these problems; they make the fiber of the community.

Coun. Doyle urged Ness to continue stressing the outreach for these programs.

Ness said they were not critical of wages paid by employers. She said they were acknowledging that at $10.00 per hour it was very difficult to make ends meet. She said the job growth in Washington County was occurring in jobs that pay $10.00 an hour, so their concerns were great.

Mayor Drake thanked her for the presentation.

VISITOR COMMENT PERIOD:

Reverend Ja West, Beaverton, spoke about her family and past.

COUNCIL ITEMS:

There were none.

STAFF ITEMS:

There were none.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Coun. Bode MOVED, SECONDED by Coun. Doyle, that the Consent Agenda be approved as follows:

Minutes for the Regular Meetings of October 10 and 17, 2005

Contract Review Board:

05195 Bid Award - City Hall Reroofing Project

05196 Waiver of Sealed Bidding - Purchase Seven Vehicles From the State of Oregon Price Agreement

Couns. Arnold, Doyle and Stanton said they had a few minor changes to the minutes which they gave to the Deputy City Recorder.

Question called on the motion. Couns. Arnold, Bode, Doyle and Ruby voting AYE, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously. (4:0)

ORDINANCES:

Coun. Doyle MOVED, SECONDED by Coun. Ruby, that the rules be suspended, and that the ordinances embodied in Agenda Bills 05197 and 05198, be read for the first time by title only at this meeting, and for the second time by title only at the next regular meeting of the Council. Couns. Arnold, Bode, Doyle and Ruby voting AYE, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously. (4:0)

First Reading:

Rappleyea read the following ordinances for the first time by title only:

05197 An Ordinance Amending Beaverton Code Chapter 4 by Adding New Provisions Relating to Sanitary and Storm Sewer Maintenance Charges (Ordinance No. 4371)

05198 An Ordinance Annexing Two Parcels, and Associated Right-of-Way, Located at 9355 SW 166th Avenue to the City of Beaverton: Expedited Annexation 2005-0010 (Ordinance No. 4372)

EXECUTIVE SESSION:

Coun. Bode MOVED, SECONDED by Coun. Doyle, that Council move into executive session in accordance with ORS 192.660(2)(h) to discuss the legal rights and duties of the governing body with regard to litigation or litigation likely to be filed. Couns. Arnold, Bode, Doyle and Ruby voting AYE, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously. (4:0)

RECESS:

Mayor Drake called for a brief recess at 7:29 p.m. to allow setup for the Executive Session.

RECONVENED:

Mayor Drake reconvened the meeting at 7:35 p.m.

The executive session convened at 7:35 p.m.

Coun. Stanton returned to the meeting during executive session.

The executive session adjourned at 8:40 p.m.

The regular meeting reconvened at 8:40 p.m.

ACTION ITEM:

Coun. Doyle MOVED, SECONDED by Coun. Stanton that Council direct staff to include in the next supplemental budget of this current fiscal year the sum of $75,000 for additional legal assistance regarding the Nike litigation.

Coun. Doyle said it was sad that the City has to continue to pursue this matter. He said in deference to the court, this has to be done properly to try and resolve this matter. He said he hoped this could be settled quickly and if additional time is needed this funding should be adequate.

Question called on the motion: Couns. Arnold, Bode, Doyle, Ruby and Stanton voting AYE, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously. (5:0)

ADJOURNMENT:

There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 8:53 p.m.

APPROVAL:

Approved this 7th day of November, 2005.

__________________________________
Rob Drake, Mayor