MINUTES OF THE METRO COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT

REGULAR COMMITTEE

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004

Room 270

Members Present:  Scott Seibert (Chair), Norm Andreen, Dresden Skees Gregory,

Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, JC Kizak, Ed Ruttledge, Elizabeth Tucker, Skip White

Members Absent:  David Bikman, Moji Momeni, Darren Pennington, Christine Roth,

Kate Schiele, Don Warner

Also Present:    Gina Whitehill-Baziuk, Cheryl Grant, Kristin Hull, staff, and

David Posalski and Angela Rysdam, MCCI applicants.

Call to order/Introductions & Welcome/Appointment of Timekeeper

Chair Seibert called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Members introduced themselves. New member applicants Angela Rysdam and David Posalski introduced themselves. Elizabeth Tucker was appointed as timekeeper.

Approval of agenda

The memo discussion was moved to the September meeting so Christine Roth can be present for the discussion as it was on the agenda at her request. The Parks and Solid Waste liaison reports were deleted from the agenda.

Approval of July 21, 2004 minutes

Several typographical errors were noted in the minutes. Mr. Jones also noted that he had been mistakenly identified in the Roundtable section as Vice Chair of the North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee. He is, in fact, the Chair of that committee.

Chair report

Chair Seibert explained the new agenda style. He noted that breakout groups will work on two topics of interest at each meeting and report their conclusions to the committee. The same topic could be addressed at several meetings if the participants felt it was necessary to do additional work. He said modifications can be made to the new agenda style as necessary.

Department Liaison reports

In Moji Momeni’s absence, Gina Whitehill-Baziuk reviewed and distributed a chart of Planning Programs and Projects regarding public involvement and the status of each. See a copy of the chart included in the permanent record of this meeting.

The committee liked the information that was included in the graph. They hoped for periodic updates. They also discussed inviting representatives from other citizen involvement committees to talk about their work in regard to citizen involvement on the various projects.

Breakout sessions

•  Best Practices questions

Chair Seibert reported that the group identified a number of issues they would like considered. One key issue that comes up frequently is how roles and responsibilities are determined for various projects and what outreach oversight, if any, Metro can have on projects where we are not the lead agency or when we do not have public involvement dollars assigned to staff. It was determined that Andy Cotugno, Metro Planning Director, would be asked to address the committee at its next meeting to better understand how IGA roles and responsibilities are determined.

MCCI staff and members will undertake information gathering with regard to the breadth and scope of citizen involvement and organizational practices in the cities and counties within Metro's jurisdictional boundary. Staff will begin developing a chart that will outline answers to questions such as who takes on the role of filling the requirements of State Land Use Goal 1, whether they have a Citizen Advisory Committee and what is the role of this committee and who does it report to, how are members identified/recruited, how is the committee staffed, does the committe have a budget, what is the size of this budget and what are funds used for, what is considered good public involvement, and do they have a way to evaluate their public involvement.

Other potential questions will be identified by committee members and preliminary findings will be presented at the September 15 MCCI meeting. The "Best Practices" break out session will assess findings and begin to identify sample cities and/or county representative that they would like to have a more in-depth conversation with. The group hope to identify "Best Practices" that could be shared region-wide in the hopes of identifying some minimum outreach standards that could be adopted by all cities and counties in the region.

•  Providing testimony that helps the Council with its decision making and agency-wide volunteer and committee opportunities

Kristin Hull reported the group’s four key points:

o  they would like to have the council distribute in writing ahead of time, either on the website or before a meeting, a document explaining what criteria the council can legally use to make their decisions so people can give relevant testimony, and also have the council remind folks of that criteria before the meeting.

o  they would like thorough written material educating the public aboutthese new procedures to be distributed through the chairs of neighborhood associations and CPOs.

o  they would like to allow people to pre-register to provide testimony on the web or by phone. When people pre-registered on the web they would also be encouraged to provide testimony in writing.

o  they would like to see this implemented agency-wide.

Public comment/Roundtable

Ed Ruttledge said he had recently helped work the Metro booth at the Washington County fair. He said it was quite interesting to be next to a booth of a different political persuasion. He added that he was going to work the booth at the Clackamas County fair the next day.

Kathy Henton reported she is now chairing the Gresham CIC. She also reported that the Land Use Task Force had given their recommendations to the city council and they had accepted them. The next step for the task force is writing standards. The next topic will be density and Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk will join them for that. She said the next state Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee (CIAC) meeting is Friday and there is a slap suit on the agenda.

Dick Jones said the Trolley Trail walks are continuing as is the brush cutting on the trail. He said conversations are still going on with Oak Lodge and Arbor Lodge regarding governance. New to that mix is the neighboring water district has merged with Rockwood, which he said would probably cause some waves.

JC Kizak said Kathleen Todd, director of the Multnomah County Citizens Involvement Office, had e-mailed her saying she had heard a rumor that the MCCI was planning some kind of summit and that they would be interested in being involved in something like that.

Scott Seibert reported that he has been involved in the new budget process with the City of Portland. He said it had been several months of pretty intense work.

Elizabeth Tucker commented that her neighborhood has a new business association that is chaired by her mother.

Dresden Skees Gregory said MPAC had not met in August, but that their next hot topic would probably be Goal 5 and whether homeowners should have the same restrictions as businesses or whether the businesses should be held to a higher standard. She also noted that they had beat WalMart again.

Norm Andreen reported that Clackamas County is moving forward on the hamlet and village concept and the council is looking favorably on it. He said it looks like there will be a public involvement process on it. He added that he had received e-mail from Lori Waldo, a former MCCI member, that Washington County is looking into those concepts. He said he had attended the largest public involvement meeting he had ever seen as a Republican supporting John Kerry. He said it was interesting to see that many people involved in the political process.

Gina Whitehill-Baziuk said she has been asked to participate in a federal highway peer review for Tucson, Arizona to look at their public involvement procedures. She is looking forward to it because she can also learn a lot by doing it. It will be in October. She reported that she, too, had done her stint at the county fair, but it hadn’t been very well attended the day she was there. She is looking forward to participating in the land use task force in Gresham. She commented that September 27 is federal government certification for transportation projects. There will be a public meeting that night to talk to the federal partners about public involvement and invited MCCI members to attend the informal gathering in room 270 at 6 p.m. This certification occurs every 3 years.

Skip White said there is a mystery at Sauvie Island. Someone is dumping solid waste in the Willamette and the island is the recipient of it. They are trying to resolve the source of it and think it could be ships. They have a neighborhood alert to determine if there is a pattern to the dumping. One of the neighbors is taking samples to a lab to see if they can learn anything from that.

Adjourn

There being no further business before the committee, Chair Seibert adjourned the meeting at 7:38 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Grant

Office of Citizen Involvement

MCCI staff