MINUTES OF THE METRO COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT
REGULAR COMMITTEE
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Room 370A
Members Present: Scott Seibert, (Vice Chair), Norm Andreen, Kathy Everett, Dresden Skees Gregory, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, Jim Kimball, Moji Momeni, Darren Pennington, Christine Roth, Ed Ruttledge, Kate Schiele, Don Warner, Skip White
Members Absent: Elizabeth Tucker (Chair)
Also Present: Joanne Davis, prospective member, Kate Marx, Director, Public Affairs and Government Relations, Cheryl Grant, Office of Citizen Involvement, Gina Whitehill-Baziuk, Karen Blauer
Call to Order/Introductions & Welcome
Appointment of Timekeeper
Vice Chair Seibert called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. Darren Pennington was assigned to be timekeeper.
Approval of Agenda
Gina Whitehill-Baziuk was added to the agenda to discuss Goal 5 and Industrial Land open houses and the neighborhood summit item was postponed to a future meeting.
Approval of February 4, 2004 minutes
Motion: Norm Andreen moved, with a second from Don Warner, to approve the minutes as presented.
Vote: The vote was 6 aye/0 nay/5 abstain. Jim Kimball, Moji Momeni, Kate
Schiele and Christine Roth were absent from the vote. Darren Pennington,
Kathy Everett, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones and Dresden Skees Gregory abstained.
Chair Report
None.
Goal 5 and industrial lands open houses
Gina Whitehill-Baziuk reviewed the March calendar of Goal 5 and Industrial Lands open houses and showed the committee the mailers that will go to affected residents. She reviewed the details of the open houses and how staff would interact with the attendees. All comments, e-mail, phone, or written, will be collected and a report will summarize that information for council. All of the data gathered at the open houses will be available on the website, updated regularly. The website will go up next week. Mr. Andreen noted there was still not a Goal 5 open house scheduled for the Damascus area. Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk responded that there would be another meeting directly with them at a later date.
RSWMP Update.
Karen Blauer reviewed the draft Regional Solid Waste Management Plan (RSWMP) public involvement plan (PIP). She explained the purpose of the plan is a framework for coordinating solid waste programs in the region. It provides direction for the system and identifies the roles and responsibilities for all players. Information for the plan is being gathered in focus groups now and then they will take the draft plan out for stakeholders to give input. Then, if needed, it they will plan another round of stakeholder meetings for unresolved issues. Reports will be released in January 2005, a responsiveness report from Metro staff addressing all stakeholder input to date, and a summary of public involvement activities done to date. She said the final phase of public involvement would take place through the Council’s process where the public will have one last chance to comment before Council action.
Transportation PIP comments
Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk reported they had received one general comment to date regarding the draft public involvement policy currently out for public review. She asked if committee members had any comments or input as a result of their review of this document. None were provided.
She reported that over 800 responses had been received to the online Highway 217 survey in the week and a half it has been available. She had been to a policy advisory meeting previous to this meeting and noted a very different attitude from what she had seen years ago from those who had experienced hot lanes and other options being offered. They were willing to talk about it and had lots of questions. She said she would report back about their comments at a later date.
Mr. Pennington commented that there were still issues about who is lead agency on the I-5/99W connector road. He asked if Metro would be taking a role of getting public involvement. Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk replied that there is on-going discussion of Metro’s role with regard to this project and that at this point, there are no Metro staff or resources for public involvement assigned to the project..
Auditor Liaison Report
Camrynne Six presented a report on the status of audit recommendations. Since October 1998, 124 recommendations from 28 separate audit reports have been implemented, 31 recommendations are in process, 10 are stalled and have not made progress in the past year, 15 have seen no action to date, 4 are in unknown status and 14 no longer apply or relate to future activities.
Ms. Six announced this would be her last MCCI report as she is leaving Metro. Mr. Pennington thanked her for her time with the committee. He wondered if the auditor expected that all of the recommendations should be implemented. Ms. Six said yes, at the time of the recommendations that was true, but circumstances change as in the 14 that no longer apply. She added that management has an opportunity to review the recommendations before they are finalized and have agreed to the vast majority of them over the years. Mr. Kimball asked if there was a measure of the savings resulting from the recommendations. Ms. Six responded that they did performance auditing so many of the results were not measurable in dollars. Vice Chair Seibert commented that the audits have been an important part of Metro’s growth and wished her good luck with her new endeavors.
Draft proposal for information gathering through citizen outreach
Ed Ruttledge shared a letter he had drafted to other citizen groups encouraging them to share information with MCCI on issues they are working on. Vice Chair Seibert said the plan was to identify members of other Metro committees and subcommittees and invite them to help MCCI in terms of building a citizen involvement network. The letter will go out from the MCCI Chair.
Mr. Pennington thought some kind of listserve or online chat group where citizens involved with neighborhood issues could share information would be a good idea. The committee discussed the proposal and the legalities of such a group. Mr. Momeni suggested Mr. Pennington and Chair Tucker craft the question for the Metro attorney and bring back his response to the group. Mr. Kimball commented that the attorney’s last opinion on e-mail discussion had been pretty clear. Mr. Momeni clarified that this was a different question because last time they were just asking of this committee could have e-mail discussions about issues, and this time they want advice on how to start a listserve for any citizen who wished to participate, not just MCCI. Mr. Kimball objected to a listserve.
Community Planning Chair selection
Vice Chair Seibert reported that Lori Waldo has had to leave the committee and he had agreed to be the interim Community Planning chair. He said if any member wanted to have the job to let him know. He added there is a significant time commitment for this position.
Cooper Mountain conversation report
Christine Roth reported on her conversation with Ron Klein. It was her understanding that the stakeholder committee for the Cooper Mountain master plan had been chosen by Metro staff to include members of various interest groups and they had met for first time recently. She said this was the first master plan Metro had done on purchases from the last big bond. Vice Chair Seibert said Mr. Klein will be at the March 18th meeting with the PIP for discussion. He was still concerned that MCCI had not seen the PIP beforehand. Ms. Roth said there had been several discussions at the Parks subcommittee meetings on how to ensure adequate public involvement. She said they had not resolved the issue and had started working on a best practices document before the subcommittees were disbanded. Mr. Momeni commented they should have been in the loop when the process started and they should become more proactive with these PIPs. He commented that when advisory committees are being put together is where a lot of planning gets done and that the rest is just presentations. Mr. Pennington said that the MCCI had been very clear about wanting PIPs on public involvement and they are not seeing them from the Parks department.
Wish List for Regional Communication
After committee discussion, Vice Chair Seibert summarized that over the next few months they would pick items, such as how to communicate with CPOs and CCIs and how we work together; what are best practices, how do we honor and recognize folks who do best practices, how to work on things where Metro is not the lead agency but we have a partnership, and how to use those opportunities to improve citizen involvement in the region. He asked the members to come back to the next meeting ready to thrash out several of these items and possibly spin off groups to do some work and report back to the full committee. Mr. Kimball suggested offering prizes for excellent citizen involvement.
Public Comment
Roundtable
Mr. Kimball said he had attended a hearing at the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District about a proposed annexation plan that would affect nine different areas on the periphery of their district. He said the testimony mainly centered on the fact that they can’t afford more taxes. He said, as far as effective urban services, it was the first step for Washington County to rationalize public service delivery in unincorporated areas. He added he hoped to live long enough to see it.
Mr. Warner said Beaverton has been pushing for extension of 125th to Hall Blvd. He noted they were currently working on the intersection of 125th and Sorrento, turning it into a major boulevard. The second phase will be to do the same on Hall, and the third will be to complete the road. He added they had been working on this project since he first joined the committee and mentioned that the had asked them to put up sound wall for the existing homes. They were finally told they did not qualify for that.
Ms. Skees Gregory said it had been quite in her area. She said CPO 9 is in the middle of dissolution and CPO 8 is having issues as well. She said Hillsboro had sent out 400 surveys as part of their citizen involvement and received a lot of reaction from the Hispanic population in the community, which had received endless publicity in the press and at council meetings. She suggested the committee talk about the changing values and population in the region.
Ms. Roth said the Clackamas CCI had presented its annual update to the Commission. She added that Martha Shrader, who was a member of the CIAC at LCDC had requested a presentation of effective citizen involvement for the state CIAC.
Mr. Momeni commented that the project that Mr. Warner mentioned, connecting to Hall Boulevard, is a Beaverton project that will take a long time due to budget issues. He said the annexation of the Bethany area was on the radar for planning at the City of Beaverton. They are working to make sure all parties are included in the process. He talked about the Metro grant the city received from Metro to do a centers pilot study which was not in the hands of their planning dept. It will be used to study the downtown transit center.
Ms. Everett was pleased that Council President Bragdon mentioned downtown Gresham at the recent State of Region address. She mentioned that their regional center had received TMA funding.
Ms. Henton said she had attended a Springwater workshop, which was attended by over 100 citizens. She reported an interesting exercise where they sat at big table with “puzzle pieces” and a map and had to lay them out on a map following the rules and guidelines the planners had to follow. She found it very interesting and said it gave them a little sympathy for what planners go through. She said she is enjoying working with John Donovan and Rod Park on Councilor Park’s senate campaign. She is also working with Pam Peck of the Public Affairs department on MCCI membership issues. She said Joanne Davis’ presence at the meting tonight was a result of that work. She hoped Ms. Davis would choose to join the committee.
Ms. Davis said she had lived in the Lents area all her life except for a short period. She got involved with the urban renewal process when she retired and has been on an advisory committee for about 4 years. She is thinking of trying something new and had attended some of the Damascus/Boring/Happy Valley/Pleasant Valley meetings because she and her brother have property in that area and they are interested in what is happening there.
Mr. Jones reported that the Clackamas County commission was planning to raise SDCs for the parks and recreation district.
Mr. Andreen said they were still in discussion about hamlets and villages, etc., and the Beavercreek meeting was the next day.
Mr. Pennington reported that Charbonneau residents are unhappy about the industrial land study and the possibility of industrial lands being sited near them.
Adjourn
There being no further business before the committee, Vice Chair Seibert adjourned the meeting at 8:06 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Grant
Office of Citizen Involvement