let's call the Tuesday January 28th 2025 FAL city council meeting to order start with council member Barnes pres here Ross here here
spon States all right second item is approval of tonight's agenda does any May rck I'll make a move I'll make a motion to approve the agenda you want to say that again I'll make I'm going to do that a lot more
I'm going to do that a lot more mayor Spooner I make a motion to approve the agenda Mo second all those in favor say I third item is presentation and instructions the promotion of Sergeant
Jeff Burbank Chief right mayor memb of the council here tonight and intr recently promoted should be noted that we're here tonight
because Friday aled in tell you a little bit about Jeff I'll tell you his qualifications in a minute person and that type of individual here and this Jeff is somewhat of a local native
he grew up in oana from a law enfor HED law enforcement connection criminal justice connection here anding attorneys here in rice
County Children Charles easy Jeff uh is a 2006 graduate of wona State quickly went into law enforcement after that working as a every small town and of years came
tobo in 201 K9 Handler Task Force member grone operator he's on unit uh you'll see uh and most recently his most Rec is the school resource
officer so we're excited to introduce Jeff family is important to us and and we'd like to wife and kids come up if they'd like to not like and they'll present his uh his new
badge yes ma' did you turn that way so they can get good pictures of absolutely we will [Laughter] hi e [Applause]
turn je thank you you're very familiar to most of us up here you're aili all right moving on item number four approval of the minutes of January 14 2025 mayor spner yes make a motion to
approve the of January 14 202 have a motion by D who I to be heard were there moving on to consent agenda item 6
a through 6 anybody mayor Spooner I'll make a motion to approve agenda a consent agenda item 6A 6 u r second by Barnes all in favor I I right items for disc discuss
resolution 2025 013 terminate the property tax abatement uh and hold uh the contract for private development for certain property in the city of farbo thank you mayor and councel uh by
way of background in 2023 Sage requested tax abatement to facilitate the move of vrch from the state of Washington here in farbo as part of the sage campus uh the project was to net 40 new jobs here in farbo with an average wage of just
under $38 an hour um the uh council did approve tax abatement as well as the contract for private development um that related to an addition that was built at one Sage way to accommodate vetr Tech uh
and the developer or sage in this case was looking forward to having an a ribbon cutting ceremony in fact as recent as several months ago had contacted us and asked about who they might be able to invite to that ribbon
um cutting ceremony um they plan to bring in people from Europe as well as the state and local government and do a basically a a dayong celebration out at the campus uh but late last year then uh
they cancelled that ceremony um and then we received notice that uh Sage VR or vetro North America would seize all operations in North America um so the property tax abatement the first top
property tax abatement was scheduled to be released or paid in the second half of 2025 uh we have made no payments yet but because the project benefits which really related to them moving the operation here hiring 40 new people
um really having this uh project here is no longer being realized it's appropriate to not do the tax abatement um so um at our January 16th meeting with the Faro Economic Development uh
Authority the Eda did concur with staff that uh tax abatement was no longer appropriate for this I've had a discussion with Rice County and it's our understanding that they will follow suit on that as well I do want to not note that um I did have conversations and
email exchanges with uh Sage um and S goban um I expressed to them how happy we are to have them here in the the community um and that we want to continue to work with them I acknowledge that sometimes a parent company has to
make S tough decisions based on shareholders and other kinds of decisions um terms of what's best for the uh company but that sometimes affects local businesses and local employees but nevertheless we're looking
forward to working with them to make sure that Sage is a strong um company here and we want to continue to work with them on that so what you have before you today again is that the project benefits uh for the vetro Tech are no longer being realized here in
farbo so it is appropriate to terminate the property tax abatement and void the contract for private development and that's what you have before you in resol 5-13 that I'm happy to answer any questions and I know our attorney got
rigs is also available to answer any questions uh thank you mayor Spooner um so they uh finished the addition the development of the property they're still uh the citizens of faor the city of farble is still
going to collect the taxes on that yes that uh Improvement yes I just want to make sure that was stated for the citizens yep with the resolution though we won't be making the tax abatement payments if you correct
who a second by under resolution1 n approve the appointment of John Rome to the yes this should be very familiar to you as this was our the
vacancy so um through a uh was discussed John Rowan vote getter for you ton we have a but
bids we have none boards commissions reports not on Super Bowl Sunday anymore is Super Bowl NFL NFL threw him a curveball and extended the season so now it's longer
on Super Bowl Sunday so so moved second