MINUTES OF THE METRO COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT

REGULAR COMMITTEE

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Room 270

Members Present:  Scott Seibert (Chair), Norm Andreen, Dresden Skees Gregory, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, JC Kizak, Moji Momeni, Darren Pennington, Christine Roth, Ed Ruttledge, Kate Schiele, Skip White, Don Warner

Members Absent:  David Bikman, Elizabeth Tucker

Also Present:    Gina Whitehill-Baziuk, Cheryl Grant, two Portland Community College students observing the meeting.

Call to order/Introductions & Welcome/Appointment of Timekeeper

Chair Seibert called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Members introduced themselves. Darren Pennington was appointed as timekeeper.

Approval of agenda

The agenda was approved as presented.

Approval of June 30, 2004 minutes

Councilor communication

Councilor Susan McLain thanked the committee for their service to Metro and for volunteering for the county fairs this summer. She talked about the importance of outreach to the public. Councilor McLain offered her thoughts on the urban growth boundary (UGB) process. Pluses included some honest discussion with the business community about their needs and keeping in mind the larger picture of what the council is trying to achieve. An industrial lands study about what types of jobs communities wanted turned out not to be as helpful as they had anticipated. She felt the “hard edges” concept for the UGB had merit because it had people talking about what we want our region to look like in the future. There was discussion about how people not in the boundary could become involved in the process and how Metro decisions affected them. The committee asked how they could help with that process. Councilor McLain said educating them before they go to actual meetings would be very helpful to everyone involved.

Councilor McLain reported that the council is working on their strategic plan, trying to integrate Metro’s functions, including solid waste, parks, the Zoo, and their responsibilities from the charter and the legislature with their planning responsibilities

Bike There map distribution/marketing

Bill Barber, Regional Travel Options program manager, displayed some old maps and reviewed the history of the Metro Bike There map. He said the map is self-supporting, with money from the purchase of the maps going to reprinting costs. The map is to be updated for 2005 and it is hoped that it will out in time for Christmas. Marilyn Matteson talked about marketing strategies for the map. Mr. Barber asked the committee to take the paper copies of the map home to study and return them with any corrections they found needed to be made. The deadline for changes is 30 days from now. The committee discussed various ideas to help market or fund the map, including selling advertising. Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk reported that they had already investigated that element. They hope to put the map online for downloading, although funding for that is a problem. They have been applying for grants to do that.

Department Liaison reports

Moji Momeni, liaison to the planning department, reported that he would be watching progress on Goal 5 and several local issues including boulevard design concepts and the Highway 217 corridor as well as several trails and transit oriented development (TODs). He asked committee members to pay attention to issues in their districts. The committee discussed several ways to track projects. They felt it would be helpful to know which had public involvement plans (PIPs) and which didn’t. There was discussion regarding whether MCCI should be involved before a PIP was done. There was discussion regarding what exactly MCCI is authorized to do.

Chair Seibert reported for Elizabeth Tucker, liaison to the solid waste and recycling department. The Regional Solid Waste Master Plan (RSWMP) is on the radar as well as the St. Johns landfill closure, although that is not a Metro project. The Department of Environmental Quality is the lead agency and Metro is doing the work.

Christine Roth, liaison to the parks and greenspaces department, reported that the Cooper Mountain project was still working and they had a meeting coming up in August. She has concerns about the Fish and Wildlife Habitat Protection work and its impact on regional parks. Another concern is a potential bond measure for operations of the regional parks and greenspaces.

Chair report

Chair Seibert commented that he liked to see the passion of the public involvement discussions at this meeting.

Six Questions discussion

At the last meeting, Chair Seibert asked the committee to respond to the following six questions for discussion at this meeting.

•  When asked what the primary function of MCCI is, what is your response? Be as specific as possible.

•  Aside from reviewing Public Involvement Plans and helping to establish outreach standards that make it easier for people to access Metro, what ONE thing do you want the group to concentrate on in the coming year?

•  Do you feel MCCI meetings could be more productive? If so, do you have suggestions as to how we might improve them?

•  What is the most important message for us to share with the Council?

•  How would you rate Metro's Citizen Involvement program? Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent

•  What ONE thing do you think Metro needs to do to improve Citizen Involvement? Be as specific as possible.

A compilation of the responses received was distributed for discussion. The committee decided to take a look at their mission statement and their responsibilities to the Metro Council for review at the next meeting and talk more about the six questions.

Public comment/Roundtable

Darren Pennington said today was his birthday and he had taken the day off for a nice bike ride and to hang out with his family. He said CPO 5 is on summer vacation and he hadn’t been doing much in the way of citizen involvement. He added he would continue to monitor the

I-5/Highway 99 project.

Dresden Skees Gregory reported that her garden had been part of the Gardens of Natural Delight tour. She said she has been attending lots of Tualatin Basin partners meetings about Goal 5, which have had some pretty heated discussion about industrial lands. She noted that WalMart lost their appeal once more.

Skip White said for the second year, the Sauvie Island fire department had staged a marathon and a half-marathon on July 4, with traffic control by the Sheriff’s auxiliary. There were 772 runners and the event was carried off with minimum impact for emergency vehicles on the island.

Kathy Henton reported that Gresham will have a $5 million shortfall in their budget this year. A former MCCI member, Bob Pung, is running for city council. She attended her first LUBA hearing on Hogan Butte. She said she is excited about her work on the land use task force and shared a copy of the day’s Gresham Outlook, which had a picture of her on the front page doing task force work. She shared some pictures of a dreadful infill development currently being done in her neighborhood.

Scott Seibert said continuing work on plans the City of Portland has for making Burnside a two-way street, except where it crosses I-205, has been causing some consternation among some citizens who, even though they had known about it for 3 years, didn’t think it would really happen.

Norm Andreen said Oregon City had also voted down a WalMart store.

Dick Jones reported that the Trolley Trail walks are going well and new people are taking part every week. He said he attended the Clackamas County Coordinating Council meeting, made up of elected officials from the county, who debated a variety of issues. He noted that people in different parts of the county have different perspectives on what are the important issues and commented that people don’t seem to want to take ownership of regional roads. He said a permanent UGB would be a litmus test for how well cities cooperated with one another. He said he is now the chair of the North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce transportation committee. He is also on the board of the Clackamas River Basin Council.

Moji Momeni reported that Metro Council President David Bragdon and others had come to tour town centers on the west side. He said consultants noted the biggest hindrance to a downtown center is parking.

Christine Roth said Clackamas County is moving to their new building soon. It should be finished this week. She said a project that Lake Oswego has decided to implement, a multi-thousand dollar project to facilitate communication around issues of annexation, will take several years to do and has created an enormous amount of ill will. She said it could not have been handled more poorly and the planning commission is not planning any citizen involvement on the project.

Gina Whitehill-Baziuk said the Tualatin River Basin had recently mailed notices for public meetings for Goal 5. She said there are three workshops next week and a hearing the following week. She will bring information about how that ties to Metro programs to the next meeting.

Adjourn

There being no further business before the committee, Chair Seibert adjourned the meeting at 8:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Grant

Office of Citizen Involvement

MCCI staff