MCCI REGULAR MEETING

Call to Order

Chair Ted Kyle opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Members present were as follows: Gil Cobb, Kay Durtschi, Dennis Ganoe, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, Bill Merchant, Jerry Penk, Darren Pennington, Bob Pung, Pat Russell, Shannon Turk and Aleta Woodruff. Also present were MCCI applicant Joe Annett and MCCI Staff.

Introductions

Ted introduced Joe Annett and new Councilor Rex Burkholder to the group and asked the group to introduce themselves.

Approval of Agenda

Ted reviewed existing agenda items and asked for any additions. He clarified that the bylaws will be introduced tonight for final action at the February meeting.

Ted announced that Kay is now chair of the Growth Management subcommittee so her elected position on the Steering Committee is now vacant. He declared the elected position vacant and opened nominations until the meeting next month when we will take a vote. Members already on the Steering Committee identified themselves and Ted briefly explained what the Steering Committee does: help set the agenda, coordinate subcommittees, pre-think through policy issues.

Gil volunteered to fill this position and was formally nominated. Aleta suggested voting tonight and Ted said our bylaws require notice before a vote so we will wait.

Aleta asked for 1 minute on the agenda. Ted agreed to include her under the agenda item for presentation of draft bylaws.

Approval of Minutes

A Motion was made by Pat Russell and seconded by Jerry Penk to approve the minutes as presented. All in favor, Motion carried.

Public Comment

None

Councilor Liaison Report

Councilor Rex Burkholder said he is our new liaison from the Metro Council. He shared about his background as a citizen activist, especially in the area of transportation. He ended up running for office based mostly on interest in transportation issues (and the fact that he couldn’t convince anyone else to do it) but he has many interests at Metro.

He feels Metro needs better ways to connect to citizens, an ability to speak to them on their terms and in ways they can relate to. We need to meet people where they are and not always ask them to come to us. He knows staff is reorganizing internally to work on this but he sees that MCCI has a role in ensuring that we use good techniques for citizen involvement not just the latest, greatest idea. He has only been on the job since January 4 so he is still trying to figure out what all his roles are.

He feels citizen involvement is critical to making Metro work. Darren said that MCCI has heard about Community Conversation but there is more going on at Metro than that. Councilor Burkholder said this is his full time job and he asked to be in this liaison position for MCCI.

Auditor Liaison Report

Camrynne said there are no new reports but they published a winter newsletter that highlights recent reports and other information. It also gives people an option to get reports via email to conserve resources. Pat asked if neighborhood associations get these newsletters. Camrynne said some do. Bob suggested sending mailings through other private organizations that do mailings.

New Business

Subcommittee Reports and Discussion

Ted said we are using this time for reports since we haven’t heard from subcommittees in awhile. First we will hear about what is working and what isn’t and then we will review, and hopefully ratify, a proposed meeting schedule.

REM Subcommittee

Members: Darren Pennington, Chair and Aleta Woodruff

Darren said he and Aleta have worked hard on this subcommittee. He has information on four PIPs to share with the full committee. The projects described in the PIPs were selected out of a list of 22 department activities created last year at MCCIs request. After reviewing the list MCCI was able to work with the subcommittee liaison to determine which projects had public involvement components and then work to create PIPs. The first three are related in that they all focus on various businesses. Each of them were discussed in the subcommittee and Steering Committee and it was determined that they are primarily stakeholder processes so the subcommittee will only monitor them from time to time. Their focus will be on the fourth PIP related to Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) outreach.

1.  Business paper recycling

2.  Finding ways to funnel useable organic “waste” to those who need it

3.  De-constructing buildings rather than demolishing them so materials can be reused

4.  Household Hazardous Waste outreach is an effort to educate people about hazardous waste – how to reduce purchasing, develop better habits and dispose of them safely. There is a new employee named Lisa Heigh working on this and there will be public involvement components but they are just beginning to develop this program. Aleta had a chance to meet the new employee at as part of planning her neighborhood cleanup.

Overall, Darren is excited about the PIPs and the relationship with the liaison.

Councilor Burkholder asked if the subcommittee has reviewed the effectiveness of the citizen involvement of REM Enhancement Committees. He is now chair of both the North and Central committee. Aleta knows Katie Dowdall and is familiar with the program. Darren said we have requested a review of the use of enhancement funds but have not had the opportunity to do so yet. Bob doesn’t feel there is enough publicity about the funds.

Councilor Burkholder said the committees are geographically limited but they should still be doing outreach in their areas. Darren said he would look into this. Jerry noted that enhancement funds can impact beyond the neighborhood and there doesn’t seem to be public involvement at the point when funding is granted. Kay said she feels that the City of Portland gives out a lot of information on these grants.

Dick asked if there is still discussion about using material that can’t be recycled in place of natural gas. Darren since he has chaired the subcommittee, the focus has only been on citizen involvement directly.

Kay announced the foam pick-ups around the region.

Pat said recycling seems to work for single-family dwellings but not multi-family. He wonders whose purview this is. Darren said it is beyond the work of the subcommittee. Aleta said, however, that this issue has come up in the past.

Transportation Subcommittee

Members: Dick Jones, Chair and Kay Durtschi, Ted Kyle, Bob Pung and Ray Sherwood

Dick said that in the last six months there has been a series of disruptions. Andy’s father and uncle passed away leaving the liaison (Gina) unable to discuss and share about public involvement plans. Next Gina was at Railvolution (a national transportation conference) and on a speaking trip to Scotland. To add to this, there seems to be a real uncertainty about what work will be done based on available funding. Another issue has been changing meeting times and some miscommunication associated with that. One of his biggest concerns is that we are halfway through the year and do not have a clear idea of what public involvement projects will be focused on. We do know about South Corridor and MTIP (Metro Transportation Improvement Program). A big, upcoming topic is the question of how the RTP (Regional Transportation Plan) will be funded. This will require citizen support.

Lead agency is another issue – who accepts the responsibility for citizen involvement. A recent example of confusion is the senior and disabled transportation process that is apparently being led by Tri-Met but the group regularly updates TPAC (Transportation Policy Advisory Committee) and public involvement is being done by someone in Eugene. Kay said she researched this due to Bob’s concern at the last meeting and found that the Steering Committee for this effort was requested by the Governor and is very large. It is clearly beyond Metro’s purview. Bob feels Metro is responsible since he believes all federal and state transportation money comes through Metro. Councilor Burkholder said he couldn’t confirm whether that is true. He did say the Council Community Planning Committee is considering requiring a public process to adopt the full MTIP package of projects at the local level before it comes to Metro. He said we also have a public involvement process that we ask local jurisdictions to do but we cannot pre-empt all other agency’s projects. There is no single agency through which all transportation projects flow.

Growth Management Subcommittee

Members: Kay Durtschi, Chair and Gil Cobb, Kathy Henton, Bill Merchant and Pat Russell

Kay said the subcommittee has missed a few meetings and tonight was her first night as chair so she will have limited items to report. The main thing, however, is that Ted came to the subcommittee tonight asking if they would be willing to focus on the 2040 Re-engagement/Community Conversation process on behalf of MCCI. This request for committee interest came from Mike Burton and fits well because the work of Growth Management completely overlaps with this effort. Ted asked this with the proviso that all other MCCI members be welcome to attend this subcommittee, especially those like Darren and Dennis who have expressed specific interest in this effort.

Kay said we did get a PIP for the first phase of Periodic Review but the work is now done. We will be expecting a PIP on the rest of that work sometime soon.

Kay explained that the Council Community Planning Committee is now handling both Growth Management and Transportation and will be chaired by Councilor Park.

She, as the new subcommittee chair, is asking members to bring information about public involvement in their area as related to Metro. They also hope to keep some track of land use legislation. Pat mentioned that the next biggest project being worked on by Growth Management is Habitat Protection or Goal 5, which is very affected by BM7. Pat shared that city, county officials and planning commissioners have been invited to a Metro orientation that are being hosted in four locations through the region.

Parks Subcommittee

Members: Dennis Ganoe, Chair and Leeanne MacColl, Jerry Penk, Shannon Turk and Aleta Woodruff

Dennis said they have spent time talking about a regional plan for parks and greenspaces. Staff has been working on an inventory using satellite imagery. Ron is very good about listening to input and suggestions but there has not been much formal paperwork. It seems that Parks is very open with the public and good at community outreach. The committee is encouraging constant attention to closing the communication loop.

An issue, that may be similar to what Dick expressed about transportation, is that initial public involvement is done to create a plan but then funding or other factors delay the process and there is no further involvement prior to implementation. This can cause problems.

A major upcoming issue is stable funding for parks and openspaces. Parks is currently using up their reserve funds, so new sources are very necessary. The Blue Lake Master Plan is being worked on with a goal of making this park pay for itself. It currently operates at a $300,000 deficit.

Aleta shared about the Council committee related to Parks, which is called Natural Resources. This will involve work on several topics including the regional park system. At the committee today, Charlie Ceicko, Regional Parks and Greenspaces Director, gave an overview of the work of the department for the benefit of new Councilors on the committee. Among the other statistics he shared, he told them that 1 million visitors went to Metro parks last year.

Councilor Burkholder asked if there is an MCCI subcommittee for facilities. He is chairing the council committee, Council Regional Facilities and Operations, on these subjects. Ted said no and asked for help to break down the barriers. Dennis asked how big an opportunity there is. Councilor Burkholder said he feels there is a lot of opportunity for improvement considering the public involvement that he is aware of. There is also a need to reach out to employees in those locations.

Nominating Committee

Members: Bill Merchant, Chair and Kay Durtschi, Jerry Penk and Darren Pennington

Bill said are continuing to look for new members and have four going through the appointment process now.

Pat said that the Growth Management and Transportation departments are being combined and will also be in the Council Community Planning Committee. He favors MCCI keeping separate subcommittees but thinks they may need to be sensitive to working together.

Meeting Schedules

Ted put the schedule on the board and asked for member comments and affirmation. Ted noted that this schedule can allow for joint GM and Transportation subcommittee meetings as needed. Ted also said that we fall under the open meeting law, which means we need to notice our meetings, and that we should not change the times. The subcommittees may not fall into this requirement but as a citizen involvement group we should be open anyway. There were no objections to the schedule as proposed so it will be implemented in February.

Present Draft Bylaws

Bill introduced the two items in the packet explaining why and how changes have been made in the bylaws and why and how we have developed policies and procedures. He asked members to review these things carefully and provide comments to MCCI Staff. Bill said this bylaw change will allow us to change the name of the Nominating Committee to Membership Committee since this group is really looking at membership issues. However, we will need to keep an election or nominating committee to address election of MCCI officers, Steering Committee and Nominating Committee members.

MCCI Chair Report

Ted said that he has a date to report to the Council on February 1^st, 2001 to share our progress including the role statement we have been working on. We will also share where we are going from here.

Aleta asked MCCI Staff if Executive Officer Mike Burton could write similarly persuasive letters for MCCI recruitment as he did for REM Enhancement Committees. Kay said he has done this in the past.

MCCI Staff Report

MCCI Staff explained that there has been some delays and conflicts in scheduling meeting rooms this year and that is why we are meeting in room 270 tonight instead of 370 as usual. This may also happen next month.

Member Roundtable

Gil – nothing to report

Jerry – engaged in battles with Multnomah County Commission and Metro regarding the Bybee-Howell House whose master plan was adopted in 1997 (without details). He feels we need to see involvement past the master planning process.

Dick – asked when the Community Forums are. MCCI Staff will provide this when all the details are available. He said people are interested and he keeps a calendar of events in his area.

Bob – a city attorney in Gresham is hosting a meeting on ethics issues related to citizen involvement and he thinks we may want to do something similar. He has been appointed to the Multnomah County CCI.

Pat – there is a legislator out of Canby seeking to protect citizen activists against SLAPP lawsuits. Washington County and all of its cities are engaging in their transportation system updates. He has been frustrated with lack of information on adopted RTP projects but found out that the full RTP is now available.

Darren – went home to be with his new baby (a girl).

Dennis – out for surgery next month.

Bill – nothing to report.

Aleta – met the new REM household hazardous waste (HHW) education employee, Lisa Heigh. Her neighborhood association will do two, their regular one plus one for HHW.

Kay – offered materials on the elderly and disabled master planning process for transportation to anyone interested.

Kathryn – said Pleasant Valley urbanization is being worked on because it was recently brought into the UGB. The Pleasant Valley Concept Plan Steering Committee is making a good effort to involve citizens and will be holding public forums.

Joe Annett, applicant – his neighborhood association (Kenton) has been involved with MERC for years as Expo is in their neighborhood. He recently got Mark Williams to meet with him at Forst Lake right behind Expo to talk about issues there. He believes they need to do more citizen involvement.

Shannon – In Troutdale they are working on deciding what will go in the site where the water treatment plant used to be in the old downtown area.

Ted – the West Linn City Council recently changed their meeting time. This caused them to miss notice deadlines.

The meeting was adjourned to the next Regular Meeting of the Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen Withrow

MCCI Staff

ATTACHMENTS TO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR THE MEETING OF JANUARY 17, 2001

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