MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE

Wednesday, March 15, 2000

Council Chamber

Members Present:  Susan McLain (Chair), Bill Atherton (Vice Chair), Rod Monroe

Members Absent:  None

Also Present:    Jon Kvistad, Rod Park, Ed Washington

Chair McLain called the meeting to order at 1:42 P.M.

1.  Consideration of the Minutes of March 1 and 6, 2000 Committee Meetings.

2.  Ordinance No. 00-847, For the Purpose of Adopting the Annual Budget for Fiscal Year 2000-01, making appropriations, and levying ad valorem taxes, and declaring an emergency.

Chair McLain announced that the order of hearing the General Fund Departments today would be Parks, Growth Management (GM), Transportation, Executive and Council. After today's discussion of analyst questions it would be appropriate to present any further amendments to this fund.

Michael Morrissey, Council Analyst, spoke to Regional Parks and Greenspaces. A copy of Questions and Observations and the department's response, Budget questions FY 2000-2001 Budget are included in the public record. He said that the General Fund was declining. Both Parks and GM had been attempting to stretch limited funds and resources for some time. In regards to Parks, he recommended that Council 1). Address the issue of revenue source, 2). Conduct a study to find an additional revenue source, or 3). Prioritize activities to determine what might be let go. Their oversight included an extremely busy boat ramp, an urban regional park (Blue Lake), a cemetery and an increasing open space lands throughout the region. Parks managed a large portfolio that was difficult to supervise and maintain. Two Master Plans had been eliminated from this budget in order to meet cost cutting goals. He suggested that the Council should indicate its intentions for maintaining the open space acquisitions.

Charles Ciecko, Parks and Greenspaces Director, saw the major issue as long-term stable funding for a growing department. Chair McLain said that the Committee would address the issue of long-term funding in May, after the FY 00-01 budget was completed.

Councilor Atherton asked what the regular on-going maintenance costs would be if a legacy fund could be established. Mr. Ciecko said he was reluctant to pick a number since a thorough review of acquisitons was not complete, but estimated a range of $4-6 million per year to operate and manage those properties in a developed condition, i.e. open to public use. Low-end development might consist of a parking lot, rest rooms and trail system and range up to an infrastructure resembling that at Oxbow Regional Park. It would cost $83-120 per acres to land bank the Metro properties acquired with bond funds in as-purchased condition. The review would establish cost of the full regional system, as envisioned in the regional plan. Metro currently had approximately 9,000 acres in its portfolio, of which 5,000 acres had been acquired with bond money. He anticipated that at least 1,500-2,000 acres were still to be added. Councilor Atherton asked if a fee structure could possibly be put in place that would support maintenance. Mr. Ciecko said that there was some potential, but he had no specifics at this time.

Councilor Washington asked for details of the financial set-up of the Metro-owned golf course. Mr. Ciecko responded that Glendoveer Golf Course was operated by a contractor with 44% of the gross greens fees collected going to Metro, or approximately $800k/year. In addition there was a rental agreement with the concessionaires, who built the facilities, for $12k/year. In 1999 a 10-year extension was negotiated that would run until 2012. In it the concessionaire agreed to invest $1 million in capital improvements for the course.

Councilor Kvistad asked if plans were in place to open some of the purchased lands for public use. Mr. Ciecko said that the answer was no. He hoped to participate in a dialog in the near future between Council and the public about a possible bond measure to fund specific site improvements. The Regional System Plan must be completed, as well as an operation and maintenance plan. Parks had no funds available to do this work. Additionally, there are other lands within the targeted acquisition area that were key to developing certain Metro property for public use. Once these purchases were completed, a plan for the regional system and its cost could be done.

Councilor Kvistad asked what would facilitate opening this land to the public. Mr. Ciecko answered that two target areas that staff felt were ready for development had lost funding when the budget was cut. Mr. Morrissey said that his analysis showed that Parks was stretching a little money a long way, but in order to continue, they would have to find a new revenue source or relinquish some other portion of oversight.

Mr. Morrissey spoke to Growth Management Services Department Observations and Questions. A copy of it and Response to FY 01 Budget Questions are included in the public record. He noted that this department had little capacity to raise money on its own. The Data Resource Center budgeted storefront staff in relation to fees collected from outside the agency. He recommended that the travel and training budget should remain intact and, if possible, doubled, in order to maintain the current level of staff development. Elaine Wilkerson, Growth Management Director, submitted a list, FY 2000-01 Budget Priorities for Additional Funding, and is included in the public record. Mr. Morrissey said that he could find no areas of "fat" in the GM budget. He could not recommend further cuts.

Chair McLain said that the Add Package would be addressed as part of the budget if cuts could be found in other areas, and again in May as part of Metro's long-term needs assessment.

Ms. Wilkerson said that because of limited resources she had shifted FTE to Natural Resources and Storm Water issues. The issues that the department was working on included Uplands, the follow-through on Riparian Corridor proposals (Goal 5) and Storm Water. The Add package focused on hiring consultants to allow staff to put more of their time into program management and coordination with local jurisdictions, the Watershed Council, etc. Councilor Atherton asked what percentage of time staff spent on State-mandated work. Ms. Wilkerson responded that in the current year's budget she estimated 4 FTE and $400-500k that included the research required for need analysis.

Chair McLain thanked Mr. Morrissey for the reports. He took a risk and pointed out policy issues that had not been brought out previously and provided original thoughts.

Councilor Atherton asked about a possible FTE shift from Transportation to GM. Ms. Wilkerson said that her department hoped to draw on Transportation's expertise regarding public outreach matters in the future. In February they had worked with Green Spaces on five Goal 5 open houses and 26 meetings with local jurisdictions.

John Houser, Council Analyst, spoke to Questions and Issues Related to the Proposed FY 00-01 Executive Office Budget. A copy of it, Responses to Budget Questions FY 00-01 and Recommendations Related to the Executive Office Budget are included in the public record.

Councilor Monroe asked staff to explore the cost of a possible public vote on a charter amendment in November.

Councilor Park spoke on behalf of an amendment from Councilor Bragdon, who was currently in Montreal. The amendment would move the position of Salmon Recovery Coordinator from the Executive Office to GM. It is included in the public record. After some discussion it was decided to incorporate a cost allocation of the resource to the amendment.

Mike Burton, Executive Officer, suggested that a budget amendment might be made at a later date when cost allocation issues had been settled. He felt it would be a stretch to allocate costs against MERC for example. Included in this position was examination of the impacts on fish as related to Transportation and Parks. He pointed out that Metro was one of largest landowners in the region, just behind the Port of Portland. He cautioned against allocation of costs that might be made at the expense of a department's other funds. After this year's budget had been addressed, he proposed looking at a reorganization of Metro into 2 major divisions, planning and facilities. Councilor Atherton discussed the concept of management by watershed. Mr. Burton said that to some extent this is the role that the Salmon Recovery Coordinator fills.

Councilor Kvistad presented an amendment for Elimination of One Executive Analyst position from the Executive Office and is included in the public record.

Mr. Houser, Council Analyst, spoke to Questions and Issues Related to the Proposed FY 00-01 Transportation Planning Department Budget. A copy of it and Responses to Questions & Issues to the Proposed FY 00-01 Transportation Planning Department are included in the public record.

Ruth Scott, Assistant Director, said that a compensation/classification study of AFSME positions would be undertaken starting in July. Chair McLain asked if Mr. Houser's concern was to a 15-month delay before the manager-to-worker ratio was addressed. Mr. Houser agreed that the issue could not be addressed until the study was done. Chair McLain asked Ms. Scott if she believed that this study would address all of Mr. Houser's concerns. Ms. Scott said it would address most concerns, but would not deal with non-represented people who made up that span of control.

Richard Brandman, Transportation Planning Director, said that the workload was not going down, just the number of staff available to deal with it. In addition, staff managed $250-500k in contracts. He said that Rail-volution had been a national platform for Metro; it had helped put Portland on the map with transportation professionals. Councilor Monroe asked Mr. Brandman for an Add list with budget priorities.

Chair McLain said that no amendments had been presented for Transportation or Parks at this time. She had submitted an amendment to pay the Metro Water Consortium dues earlier. Metro paid a flat fee, far less than other members paid, as Metro was not a water provider. This membership fulfilled Metro's mandate for a water plan. She hoped to bring forward three amendments including $35k for Goal 5 and UGB Amendment Outreach, $35k for a Stormwater Handbook and $13k for Consortium dues. These amendments would go forward only if Councilor Bragdon's amendments to the Council budget passed.

Councilor Monroe said that he had attended National Associate of Regional Councils (NARC) conference in Monterey last year. He felt that Metro had a responsibility to be available as a resource in land use and transportation to the rest of the nation and to maintain the current high visibility through membership in organizations such as NARC. This region initiated rail-volution. He believed that Metro should continue to participate in that event as well and directed staff to make the appropriate amendment to continue participation. Councilor Atherton observed that sharing new information via NARC and Rail-volution could be more productive on a biannual basis.

Chair McLain and the Committee agreed to hold the next meeting March 29 with all General Fund amendments available for a vote. This would complete the General Fund segment of the budget. The Committee would then go forward with Enterprise Fund Questions/Issues. She understood that MERC had settled the Civic Stadium question.

3.  Councilor Communications

Councilor Atherton said that he was developing a source of planning funds; possibly as a utility fee, a per acre flat fee of $25/acre/year. It would not be a property tax but a utility fee. He was also working on a Legacy Fund for parks. Chair McLain suggested that he submit his plan to the MPACT subcommittee.

MEETING RECESSED UNTIL WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2000 AT 1:30 PM

There being no further business before the Committee, Chair McLain adjourned the meeting at 4:18 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Pat Weathers

Council Assistant

ATTACHMENTS TO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR THE MEETING OF MARCH 15, 2000

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

i:\minutes\2000\budget&finance/03150bdm.doc