MINUTES OF THE METRO COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT

REGULAR COMMITTEE

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Room 270

Members Present:  Scott Seibert (Chair), Norm Andreen (Vice Chair), Kathy Henton, Dresden Skees Gregory, Dick Jones, JC Kizak, David Posalski, Moji Momeni, Christine Roth, Ed Ruttledge, Kate Schiele, Elizabeth Tucker, Skip White

Members Excused:  Angela Rysdam

Members Absent:  Don Warner

Also Present:    Kathryn Harrington, interested citizen, Katie-Jaye Scott and Kristine Chapman, PSU students observing a public meeting for class, Metro staff Gina Whitehill-Baziuk, Kate Marx and Cheryl Grant, and Metro Councilor Rod Park

Call to order/Introductions & Welcome/Appointment of Timekeeper

Chair Siebert called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. The committee members introduced themselves for the benefit of the visitors. Kate Schiele was appointed timekeeper.

Approval of agenda

The agenda was approved. Chair Seibert noted that Councilor Park would drop in after the MPAC meeting to talk about the Goal 5 resolution he and Council President Bragdon have crafted.

Approval of October 20, 2004 minutes

Department Liaison reports

Moji Momeni, planning liaison, reviewed the Highway 217 work that has been done. He reiterated his opinion that there were indeed favorite options being discussed. He noted that at neighborhood association meetings he had attended, the feedback after presentations of the options had shown that people were not in favor of toll lanes. He felt those options were being pushed in spite of quite a bit of resistance. He said in spite of being told that certain options have not been eliminated, he feels that when the report says those options don’t make sense, it means they have basically been eliminated.

Elizabeth Tucker, solid waste and recycling liaison, reviewed the report from the Let’s Talk Trash events. She urged committee members to find the report on Metro’s website and read it in its entirety. She found it very interesting and informative. There was some discussion about the Solid Waste and Recycling department’s methods of public outreach and involvement.

Christine Roth, parks liaison, summarized Ron Klein’s e-mail comments regarding Cooper Mountain. Committee discussion related that master planning for open spaces acquisitions takes money and time, and that, by law, bond measure money for capital purchases cannot be used for operating costs.

Chair Report

None.

OCI Report

•  MTIP update

Gina Whitehill-Baziuk, Office of Citizen Involvement manager, talked about the public notification process for the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) open houses, which were done in concert with Region 1 ODOT. She said they had received approximately 300 MTIP comments so far, and there had been good attendance at the Portland and Beaverton meetings with lots of favorable comments for the 150% list. She found it interesting that Beaverton had overwhelmingly supported trails when in the past they mostly supported highways. The comment period closes December 6 and she will have more concrete reports for the committee.

She said that people really liked the new process used for public testimony where folks were allowed to sign up ahead for a certain time to testify so they didn’t have to wait through the whole meeting. She noted that the new process was a direct result of MCCI feedback about public meetings.

•  Highway 217 Update

Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk reviewed the public comments and survey results from the Highway 217 open houses. She noted that the on-line survey had not had as many hits as they had hoped, but they thought new people were being reached via the website. She thought they would try that method again in the future. She said the Highway 217 PAC had voted overwhelmingly to move forward three of the six options, including options 3, 5 and 6. She noted that when there was information from the next phase of the PAC’s work, she would bring it back to MCCI.

•  Community Planning Day at OMSI

Ms. Whitehill-Baziuk reported on the success of the OMSI Community Planning Day the previous weekend, which had included Metro displays and information.

Clackamas County citizen involvement discussion

Christine Roth reported that she had been under the impression there were written guidelines regarding Clackamas County’s public involvement process, but after speaking with their planning department, she found that each process is different, depending on the project and its budget. She will go back to the Clackamas County CCI and talk about the need for adequate written guidelines.

Kathy Henton’s amazing Gresham stories

Kathy Henton said the Gresham City Council had honored her request to put the public involvement principles and guidelines back on the council’s consent agenda at their meeting last night. She was surprised that it went through with no comment even though she had been told that a councilor planned to take it off the agenda. A citizen involvement commission has now been established in Gresham. Ms. Henton said she asked the council to clearly define their goals and responsibilities. The MCCI gave Ms. Henton several suggestions about the new commission, including having them formulate their own goals to present to the council. It was also suggested that a commission may have a higher status than a committee and it could be a good thing.

Councilor Communication

Councilor Rod Park explained the reasoning behind, and responded to questions about the Goal 5 resolution he and Council President Bragdon have written.

Breakout sessions/reports

The committee broke into two groups, one discussing best practices and the other reviewing MCCI’s mission statement. Reports of these sessions will be presented at the January 2005 meeting.

Public comment/Roundtable

None.

Adjourn

There being no further business before the committee, Chair Siebert adjourned the meeting at 8:01 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Grant

Office of Citizen Involvement

MCCI staff