MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL

REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING

Wednesday, June 23, 1999

Council Chamber

Chair Washington called the meeting to order at 1:37 PM. He postponed consideration of the minutes until after Councilor Park was able to be present. He announced he would be changing the order in which the agenda items would be considered, to allow Commissioner Hales to testify on the waste-disposal savings and still be able to attend a 2:00 Portland City Council meeting.

Chair Washington opened the public hearing at 1:40 PM.

3.  PUBLIC HEARING CONCERNING ALLOCATION OF PROJECTED SAVINGS FROM METRO’S SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM

Charlie Hales, Commissioner, Portland City Council, testified on behalf of the City Council. The City Council requested consideration of projects that support the region’s environmental agenda. (These requests can be found in written testimony, signed by Mayor Katz and Commissioners Hales, Francesconi, and Sten, attached to the meeting record.) He referred to a separate letter from Commissioner Jim Francesconi (also attached to the meeting record), suggesting a project relating to the Willamette River Greenway.

Chair Washington recessed the public hearing at 1:45 PM.

2.  REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR’S UPDATE

Terry Petersen, Acting Director of the Regional Environmental Management Department, said that at the last REM Committee meeting, Dennis Strachota had discussed performance measures for the department. Councilor McLain had raised several questions about those measures. He said the measures were still being revised in response to her questions. The revisions would be brought back before the committee at the next meeting.

Mr. Peterson gave a summary of the department’s recent activities. (The summary has been attached to the meeting record.) Items included the following.

• A hazardous waste collection event held in Aloha was the last such event this spring.
• The compost bin events held on Saturday and Sunday, June 12 and 13, at five different locations around the region distributed a total of 8,400 bins.
• The department, encouraged by Councilor McLain, has been investigating whether Metro should participate in a program called “The Natural Step.” This program looks at ways governments and businesses can develop more sustainable practices. This issues would be considered at a cabinet meeting of the department directors in July.
• The Department recently hired Janet Tolopka to fill the Associate Management Analyst position vacated by Dave Given.

1.  CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF JUNE 9, 1999

4.  HILTON, FARNKOPF, AND HOBSON TRANSFER STATION OWNERSHIP STUDY

Dennis Strachota, Policy Analyst, REM, said Hilton, Farnkopf and Hobson, a management consulting firm, had been hired to study whether Metro should continue to influence transfer and disposal rights through ownership of transfer stations and major contracts or through rate regulation only. Precipitating factors for doing the study included increased consolidation in the hauling industry and Metro’s recent approval of direct haul. (A copy of the study’s final report has been included in the agenda packet in the meeting record.)

Scott Hobson of Hilton, Farnkopf, and Hobson, Fremont, California, summarized the study’s final report. He called attention to the report’s epilogue, which was added to address the effects of contract changes made after the study was completed. The report concluded that it would be economically prudent for Metro to continue to own Metro Central and Metro South transfer stations rather than focus on rate regulation alone. The only challenge to this would be if Metro lost the authority to control flow.

Councilor Park referred to Table EX-1 in the Executive Summary of the report. He asked if the numbers listed had taken into consideration the $2.00/ton rate buy-down that is scheduled to disappear when the rate-stabilization fund has been depleted

Mr. Strachota said the numbers do not reflect the buy-down. He said the buy-down currently is not $2.00/ton, but in the neighborhood of $.50/ton. The amount varies according to several factors.

3.  PUBLIC HEARING CONCERNING ALLOCATION OF PROJECTED SAVINGS FROM METRO’S SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM (CONT.)

Chair Washington reopened the public hearing at 2:20 PM.

Amanda Fritz, Friends of Arnold Creek, 4106 SW Vacuna, Portland, OR 97219, testified in favor of Metro’s retaining the savings rather than lowering the tipping fee. She suggested that the money be kept in a lump sum, intact, and only the interest be spent. That money should be spent on truly regional interests and projects that can’t be funded in other ways, particularly greenspaces management. She said the voters were promised that the greenspaces would be managed. She also suggested that Metro set up a competitive grant program for cities and citizen groups. She said small amounts could leverage much larger projects. She said her group leveraged a $4,000 grant from Metro into a $70,000 project. She said the Willamette Greenway is an example of a suitable regional project, and it is under-funded. She said her group’s priorities for spending the savings would be greenspaces management first and the Greenway second.

Bob Phillips, 8512 SW 62nd Ave., 97219, testified as a rural landowner and chair of the newly formed Illegal Waste Disposal Committee of the Clackamas County Farm Forest Association. (Mr. Phillips’ written testimony has been attached to the meeting record.) Mr. Phillips suggested Metro spend some of the savings to fund free disposal one Saturday a month at transfer stations, as a means of reducing illegal dumping. He said dumping of appliances and furniture has been a particular problem.

Councilor Park asked Mr. Philips if he would also support increased enforcement for those that ignore even the free days. Mr. Phillips said yes.

Councilor Atherton asked Mr. Phillips if he had considered requiring a deposit on the containers of materials such as pesticides and paint, to encourage the return of those materials. He said that is done in some parts of Europe. He thought a deposit would provide an incentive and therefore be more effective than enforcement.

Mr. Phillips said he had not considered requiring such a deposit; however, he said that those materials were not the problem his group was concerned about. Me said Metro’s hazardous waste collection program has been very successful in getting those things returned.

Rachel Bristol, Executive Director of the Oregon Food Bank, 2540 NE Riverside Way, Portland, OR 97211, read her written testimony (attached to the meeting record). In summary, she asked that Metro contribute $1 million toward an $8 million project, to help the Food Bank expand its facilities. An expanded facility would enable the food bank to not only provide more food to low-income people, but also keep a large amount of organics out of the waste stream.

Barbara Coles, Clackamas County Planning Commission, 750 S. Rosemont Rd., West Linn, OR 97068, read her written testimony (attached to the public record) urging that the savings be used to help local jurisdictions do unfunded or unfundable planning work necessitated by Metro’s 2040 Growth Concept and other mandates.

Jerry Powell, Oregon Recycling Markets Development Corporation, PO Box 10540, Portland, OR 97209, urged Metro not to reduce tipping fees but spend the money on programs to reduce waste, particularly those involving market development. (Mr. Powell’s testimony is attached to the meeting record).

David White, 1739 NW 156th Ave., Beaverton, OR 97006, testified on behalf of the Tri-county Council of Haulers. He said that if the savings are not passed onto rate-payers in the form of reduced tipping fees, they should be used only for solid-waste related activities. Those might include recycling programs, markets, facilities, development and planning, hazardous-waste material programs, and programs like the Oregon Food Bank’s proposal. The money might also be appropriately applied to providing more service. For example, one hauler suggested the need for a publicly owned transfer station in North Portland. Mr. White noted that at the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) meeting that morning a number of unknowns within the industry had been discussed, including future tonnage, the status of Metro’s authority over flow control, facility needs, the cost of meeting the recycling goals, and developing markets to meet those goals. He hoped there would be a discussion of the ethics of excise taxes as a means of raising public money. He said that he understood their legality, but he questioned their appropriateness.

Kim Vandehey, MCCI Subcommittee Chair for Growth Management, 17207 SW Silver Ridge, Aloha, OR, 97007, read his written testimony (attached to the meeting record). He suggested the savings be applied to money be used to restore to a single account the money taken from the department of public involvement budgets. He said citizen involvement is the key to citizen support.

Sue Bullington, Shipping Manager, Nordstrom, 5703 No. Marine Drive, Portland, OR 97203, urged Metro to spend part of savings on widening North Marine Drive. She said the project, which cost about $15.5 million total, is about $2.3 million short. She noted that the project had involved a number of citizen, business, environmental groups who would like to see it completed it correctly. Any amount Metro could contribute toward that would help.

John Sherman, Friends of Forest Park, 1912 NW Aspen, Portland, urged Metro to spend the savings on increasing public access to already purchased greenspaces and openspaces. He said regional greenspaces and openspaces have enjoyed tremendous support. He noted that Friends of Forest Park has been supported to a large extend by small donors, which demonstrates the depth of commitment residents have to green and open spaces. However, some of the spaces remain closed to the public. Part of the reason has to do with lack of funds to manage the spaces. He saw no conflict in taking funds from one source and spending them on other programs.

Estle Harlan, Consultant for Clackamas County Refuse and Recycling Association, 2202 Lake Road, Milwaukie, OR, read her written testimony into the record (attached to the public record). She urged Metro to apply the money only to programs related to solid-waste reduction and recycling. If that is not done, then the excise tax attached to disposal should be reduced to help stabilize rates in the face of market fluctuations.

Jean Grimm, President of the Board, SCRAP (School and Community Reuse Action Project), 2015 NW 23rd, Portland, OR 97201, urged the Council not to return the projected savings to rate-payers. Any benefit to rate-payers would be small and short-lived. They would have longer-term benefits if applied higher in the waste-stream hierarchy--reduce, reuse, recycle. Of those three, reuse is the forgotten tier; recycling has been well-developed. She noted that the state had set a goal of 50% recovery goal for the year 2000, and although Metro has done a good job achieving the goal, the rest of the state lags. That could be addressed through Metro’s leadership in the reuse area. Reuse is better than recycling. It is concrete and can be measured. She said she was recommending going beyond encouraging people to use string bags or reusable coffee mugs. Organizations like SCRAP can promote reuse.

Julia Wolffe, Executive Director, SCRAP, explained the organization’s mission. She said it is a nonprofit organization that takes in clean reusable remnants and cast offs from local businesses and makes them available to those who can use them. Examples include taking in flawed paint-brush handles and providing them to teachers to use as puppet rods or gardeners to use as markers. Part of the organization’s mission is to inspire ways to reuse. This program provides a disposal alternative to businesses as well as low-cost materials to those who can use them. Such programs kept eight tons of material out of the landfill last year. A considerable amount was turned away for lack of space. Up to 200 tons could potentially be removed from the waste stream and for reuse if the program had the space.

Rob Guttridge, Recycling Advocates, PO Box 3786, Portland, OR 97228, asked that Metro not reduce the tip fee, as a reduction in the tip fee would reduce the incentive to recycle. The savings should instead be applied to continuing to encourage recycling, reuse, and waste prevention. Metro has a good plan and recently established priorities, among them increasing recovery of food waste and other organics. The money could be used to bring a food waste facility into the local region. A subsidy if, say $0.5 million a year, would help with start-up costs for a variety of waste-prevention programs, such as the food bank program mentioned earlier, or food waste collection from businesses for reuse or composting.

Jeanne Roy, Recycling Advocates, said her organization’s priorities are increasing commercial, construction demolition, and organics recycling. Although they did not want to specify a particular program or dollar amount, they did want to suggest three general types of program in which a total of $1.3 million might be spent each year until 2005. Those programs are commercial recycling, media campaigns, and business-waste evaluation. Grants to local governments would be for new programs to boost commercial recycling rates, including construction demolition materials. Programs that receive grants would need to measure the commercial rate before and after the grant to provide a performance evaluation measure. This grant program would not duplicate revenue sharing, but rather be earmarked for new programs that promised to significantly increase the tonnage recovered. Metro could either open the program up or restrict it to a few top priorities. An example of a priority might be providing bins for small and medium-sized businesses. The City of Portland did a survey of small businesses and found that they need better information about services available and bins to put recyclable material in. As to media campaigns, Ms. Roy noted that Metro has done some successful campaigns in the past. She cited the “paper train your staff” as a good one, as well as the compost bin distribution flyer inserted in The Oregonian. The greatest current need is for a campaign directed at businesses. In spite of Portland’s aggressive business recycling program, the city’s survey revealed that 60% of the businesses did not know about it. A third area that needs funding is business waste evaluations. Ms. Roy suggested six evaluators be funded for the region. She said that to be effective, waste evaluations must be done onsite by trained personnel. They need to include written recommendation and a follow-up visit or call.

Wayne Rifer, 1975 NW 113th, Portland, OR, Recycling Advocates, addressed market development. He said markets are as crucial to recycling as landfills are to disposal. He said governments need to help the recycling industry during its initial stages in the same way they helped extraction industries when they first got started. After they get started, the industries can take care of themselves. He said our society has been one of “take, make waste, return,” but that way of doing business cannot be sustained. We need to develop markets for recyclables, but currently they must compete against subsidized disposal. The market for recycling has been volatile and this instability hurts those who are trying to develop the industry. Mr. Rifer offered five key suggestions: 1) develop a market-development fund; 2) fund that fund ($350,000 annually?), 3) participate in strategic planning so the money is used well; 4) create incentives for businesses--grants, loans, other options; 5) support and work with organizations that promote those goals.

Councilor Park asked Ms. Roy to clarify what the $1.3 million would cover. Ms. Roy said that would cover all the programs she had suggested in her testimony.

Lise Glancy, Port of Portland, 700 NE Multnomah, Portland, OR 97208, read her written testimony (attached to the public record). She urged that Metro reinvest a portion of the savings to help protect environmental resources. She urged that some money be used to fund the $2.3 million gap in the Marine Drive widening project, which would provide noise protection and other improvements to the Smith and Bybee Lakes wildlife area.

Betty Patton, Environmental Practices, 32 NE 44th, Portland, OR 97213, offered six points: 1) keep the money--quarters in her pocket amount to nothing, but all the quarters added up could do quite a bit; 2) keep the money in waste diversion. Recycling rates historically have declined as tipping fees fall. 3) target commercial recycling. Residential recycling works pretty well, but commercial recycling needs help. 4) develop recycling education programs for adults at work; 5) target materials that already have programs set up. For example, this area already has infrastructure to recover and process fiber, but transportation for fiber is minimal. 6) incorporate haulers into the recycling team. Haulers charge based on the amount of materials taken to the landfill. It is not in their best interest to encourage waste prevention or diversion. Programs need to be developed to encourage haulers to recycle.

Theresa Huntsinger, Coalition for Livable Future, 534 SW 3rd Ave, Portland, OR 97204, urged that funds be allocated to local jurisdictions to help them implement local planning. The coalition’s priorities for allocation of funds are 1) regional land use and transportation planning; 2) regional natural resource planning; 3) affordable housing and economic revitalization; 4) parks and greenspaces.

Richard Ross, City of Gresham, 1333 NW Eastman Parkway, Gresham, OR spoke on behalf of Mayor Becker. He said among the many worthy ways to spend the disposal savings, the one he was there to support was to help local jurisdictions fulfill Metro’s charter responsibility of regional planning. Local jurisdictions like Gresham do not have the money to hire help to do the planning nor to implement the plans once they are made. The true costs of effective regional planning include the costs of local planning. Local jurisdictions need a dedicated source of funds they can count on for, say, a 5-year period, so they don’t have to go out for grants to do this planning.

Linda Bauer, 6232 SE 158th, Portland, OR, pointed out on a map a transportation project out on Foster Road that needs financial help. She noted that the traffic in the area is regional traffic. She said the city would pay for it, but it needed more help. She referred to written testimony submitted by Charlie Hales that also addressed this project.

Kay Durtschi, MCCI member, 2230 SW Calder, Portland, OR 97219, referred to a letter she had sent to the Council in recent weeks asking that it reinstate money into the Metro Growth Management budget for citizen involvement. Metro needs to do more education and outreach on how its budget works. She said the money does not belong just to REM, but to the entire agency. It belongs in the general budget. Her primary concern, however, was citizen involvement. She referred to Kim Vendehey’s testimony, previously presented. She said Metro has a duty to see that the mission of citizen involvement is carried out. MCCI is a chartered committee. She urged that money be earmarked in the budget for citizen involvement.

David McMahon, Cloudburst Recycling, PO Box 12106, Portland, OR 97212, said Metro should not to use the disposal fee for anything except solid-waste programs. He said he personally supports greenspaces, environmental remediation, and planning, but he does not think disposal fees should be spent on them. He said the excise tax has been used for those things at Metro. He thought Metro needed other sources of income. He thought planning should be supported by real-estate transaction fees, permitting fees, and other fees related to the true cost of development. If Metro chooses to retain the savings, then he said the additional $6.50/ton savings should be applied to all tons sent to transfer stations in the area, whether they are owned publicly or privately. In the past few years, Metro has allowed development of private transfer stations. If only those companies small enough to have to use the publicly owned facilities are assessed these fees, obviously that puts the small companies at more of a disadvantage compared with those doing direct haul. The small companies don’t want to be the last ones left to pay the $6.50/ton excise tax.

Councilor Park told Mr. McMahon that the state has made collection and use of real-estate transactions fees illegal, thus eliminating that as a source of money for regional planning.

Daniel Lerner, Portland Mayor’s Office, 1221 SW 4th Ave, Suite 340, Portland, OR 97204, summarized his written testimony (attached to the meeting record), which urges Metro to apply the disposal savings to develop a battery recycling program. Batteries are toxic. Mr. Lerner noted that such programs exist elsewhere. Although this region’s curbside recycling program is extensive, it does not include batteries. Metro accepts batteries as hazardous waste, but most people don’t think about it and throw them away.

Chair Washington closed the public hearing at 3:30 PM. He thanked the testifiers for sharing their suggestions and assured them their ideas would be considered.

5.  REGIONAL TRANSFER STATION SERVICE PLANNING

Chair Washington postponed this item until the next REM committee meeting, scheduled for July 7, 1999.

6.  COUNCILOR COMMUNICATIONS

Councilor McLain announced she had just become a grandmother for the first time. She has a healthy, 8 lb 1oz grandchild, a boy.

There being no further business before the committee, Chair Washington adjourned the meeting at 3:32 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Pat Emmerson

Council Assistant

ATTACHMENTS TO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR THE MEETING OF JUNE 23, 1999

The following have been included as part of the official public record.

Testimony Cards

Charlie Hales, City of Portland

Amanda Fritz, Friends of Arnold Creek

Bob Phillips, Clackamas County Farm Forestry Association

Rachel Bristol, Oregon Food Bank

Barbara Coles, Clackamas County

Jerry Powell, Oregon Recycling Markets Development Corporation

David White, Tri-County Council

Kim Vandehey, MCCI

Sue Bullington, Nordstrom Distribution Center

John Sherman, Friends of Forest Park

Estle Harlan, Clackamas County Refuse and Recycling Assn.

Jean Grimm and Julie Wolffe, S.C.R.A.P.

Bob Guttridge, Jean Roy, Wayne Rifer, Recycling Advocates

Lise Glancy, Port of Portland

Betty Patton, Environmental Practices

Teresa Huntsinger, Coalition for a Livable Future

Richard Ross, City of Gresham

Linda Bauer, Pleasant Valley

Kay Durtschi, MCCI

David McMahon, Cloudburst Recycling

Daniel Lerner, City of Portland