MCCI REGULAR MEETING

Call to Order

Chair Ted Kyle opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Members present were as follows: Joe Annett, Gil Cobb, Kay Durtschi, Dennis Ganoe, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, Leeanne MacColl, Bill Merchant, Jerry Penk, Darren Pennington, Bob Pung, Ray Sherwood Meyer Siegel and Aleta Woodruff. Also present were MCCI applicant Keith Parker and MCCI Staff.

Introductions

Ted asked members to introduce themselves for the good of the group.

Approval of Agenda

Ted reviewed agenda items and asked for any additions or questions. There were none.

A Motion was made by Pat Russell and seconded by Dick Jones to approve the agenda as presented. All in favor, Motion carried.

Approval of Minutes

Kathy made note of two corrections as follows: 1) page 2, paragraph 2 needs clarification and 2) Kathy’s member roundtable should refer to a forum in March not April.

A Motion was made by Kathy Henton and seconded by Kay Durtschi to approve the minutes as corrected. All in favor, Motion carried.

Public Comment

None

Councilor Liaison Report

Councilor Burkholder did not present since he knew Councilor McLain would be attending.

Councilor Susan McLain is the deputy presiding officer this year. Ted introduced her and shared that he attended part of the recent Metro elected officials retreat and really enjoyed it.

Susan said that she is now serving her third term and 5 of the 7 current councilors have only been at Metro for 2 years and 4 months. She is excited about the current Council because she feels they have great energy and are ready to work hard on making Metro the best it can be.

She mentioned the retreat saying there was a lot to do but one thing they focused on was budget. Metro has a long-term funding problem. Much of our funding comes from fee for use charges on which an excise tax is charged. The Council and Executive Officer agree that this strategy is not stable or adequate in the long term. They discussed long and short-term options for addressing this and decided on a mixed strategy. They will continue to talk about the long-term need but also address a specific project, parks funding, which will run out in three years if something is not done.

The last parks measure was very successful. The only complaint has been that the recently acquired properties are not open to the public. These properties need to be master planned and prepared for public use before they can be opened to the public. No decisions have been made yet about what kind of request might be made for funding or what the funding might be used for. The Council Natural Resources Committee will be working on this along with the parks department.

They also talked about how Metro does business, how we connect with the public and how to do better. They discussed the most important functions of Metro and others that might need to be put on a back burner for awhile.

Ted said he heard the elected officials have a quality, open conversation together at the retreat. He was pleased to see that type of dialogue and desire for cooperation. He felt a great care and concern for staff and how Metro relates to the public as well as how Metro works as an agency.

Susan said the council has mentioned their pleasure about how well MCCI is working in several venues recently. They see that MCCI is extending its vision and productivity. They are excited about the job Ted has been doing as Chair. She asked how Council can be more supportive of MCCI and their goals. She said councilors would love to have more participation from MCCI at their committee meetings or in other council actions.

Susan said Metro will be putting a lot of effort into re-engaging the public about how we are doing with 2040 so far. There have been many processes and plans and decisions related to this and we need to check in to see if underlying values are the same. The reason we do things differently here now is because of public input in the past.

Question & Answer

Aleta said the Parks subcommittee talked about the need for funding and suggested more “friends groups” to help maintain and watch out for the parks in their area. Susan said we have worked on this through our volunteer program, which has nearly doubled since last year.

Dennis asked if the effort to fund parks will be a model for other financial needs. Susan said yes and one reason they chose parks is because we have been successful in the past and we have a real need. In order to maintain current programs and properties we already need more stable funding and costs will go up, especially if we plan to create access to new properties. Dennis said he thinks MCCI members would like to be part of giving public input on this subject.

Dick asked how we are doing on addressing jobs-housing imbalance questions, especially in Clackamas County. Susan said there are clearly sub-regional needs and these will not be easily addressed. Metro will likely have to help coordinate discussion on this. There are various layers of work going on to look at industrial land uses, transportation planning and other factors that impact the imbalance. Analysis is occurring to determine the cost to the region for development as it has happened so far.

Darren said MCCI feels a need to be review public involvement plans. If staff can be encouraged to create and forward these plans, it would be helpful. Susan suggested that MCCI look at the communications plan. She also noted that some councilors are new and not yet invested in the work of MCCI. She will work on helping new councilors to be aware of and invested in communications and public involvement. Ted noted that we have good working relationships with our liaisons but this information is not getting to the council. Susan said it sometimes comes through budget or other requests.

Pat asked how the 2040 re-engagement will influence private investors to get engaged with 2040. Susan said we have been at the table with a new business group talking about the newly adopted RTP. She is in favor of increased education, involvement and cooperation. Also, they are talking at MPAC about compliance with 2040 functional plan requirements. Using Intel expansion plans as an example, they totally comply with industrial planning and zoning rules but those were made before 2040 so the question is still open about how they will meet compliance requirements under 2040.

Darren asked if there is a division between the public and elected officials in 2040 re-engagement. Susan said she does not think there is. Ted confirmed this and said the Growth Management subcommittee received a report tonight that gives more up-to-date information.

Auditor Liaison Report

Camrynne said a report was issues regarding the TOD (transit-oriented development) program. The report was titled “Improving accountability through enhanced measures of service efforts and accomplishments”. Camrynne explained the goal of the TOD program and said future projects are listed in the back of the report.

The Auditor found that program goals and objectives are well defined and should be continued but prioritized for measurement purposes. Other recommendations said that results need to be identified and data should be improved.

Pat enjoyed the report and the ability to learn about the TOD program. He feels more citizen involvement is needed on this program. Camrynne clarified that there is very little Metro money involved. It is mostly federal funding. Bob agreed that this information should be more available to the public, at least a list of projects. Jerry said we should submit a request to the TOD program for a PIP. This would be an opportunity to be a lead agency and require public involvement.

Kay asked again that citizen involvement be measured as part of audits because it is required when using federal funds. Camrynne said she would pass this request on to the Auditor. Dennis said this type of report is new so there is no baseline to measure against. Darren agreed that we should ask citizen involvement to be included as a measure. Dennis agreed.

New Business

Approve Bylaws

A Motion was made by Pat Russell and seconded by Dennis Ganoe to approve the bylaws as presented. All in favor (with a total of 14 votes), Motion carried.

REM Subcommittee Report

Darren shared about a PIP (public involvement plan) on reducing Household Hazardous Waste (HHW). He feels the plan is long on reasons to act but short on details about what exactly will be done. Some of the “how” is being figured out along the way.

The key issue being addressed is that the amount of HHW because the amount being brought to Metro facilities and collection events is increasing. Metro’s goal is to engage people and send a message about using less hazardous products (quantity) or using alternative products instead.

Right now they have set up 35 local neighborhood-level opportunities to people to dispose of materials while getting some education about them. They plan to survey participants and have done some focus groups to test messages.

He struggles with how this effort aids communication between citizens and the council when this seems to have a lot more to do with providing a service. Aleta said notices will be sent in each local area, sometimes through neighborhood associations.

Dick asked if success would be no one showing up at an event next year because they all stop using hazardous material. Kay and Joe both said their experience shows that tons of people attend these events and more people will learn of them and use them in the future. Dennis said making the drop-off process more convenient is not likely to get people to stop using the products. Keith said it would be good to link up with existing events like the one in Beaverton that cannot currently take HHW materials.

MCCI Chair Report

Ted announced that we will take a final vote on policies and procedures in April. There have been no recent substantive changes. The Steering Committee has discussed them several times.

Ted received a list of legislation and asked Kay to report. She said 4000 bills have been introduced and it costs at least $1,000 per bill whether they see the light of day or not.

She gave the following bill numbers for members to watch:

•  HB2458-modifies rules for incorporating cities near other cities. Small cities at MPAC are against this due to infrastructure cost.

•  HB2733-about public notice for zoning changes

•  HB2909-has to do with parking and religious freedom

•  HB3767-requires local governments and special districts with populations of certain sizes to create urban service agreements by a certain date

•  HB2460-deals with SLAPP lawsuits (again). She said we may talk more about this at a future meeting.

•  HB2980-has to do with how system development charges are paid and it would cost taxpayers

•  HB2977-2981 all being brought forward by Homebuilders

MCCI Staff Report

MCCI Staff handed out FYI packets, a draft survey related to the 2040 re-engagement and meeting evaluations.

MCCI Staff explained the coding and italic sections on the survey and asked members for comments by March 30. She explained that a research firm will write the final questions so members should look at concepts and not “wordsmith” the questions.

Member Roundtable

Gil – City of Beaverton disenfranchised his neighborhood association this week because board members are not residents of the City (despite the fact that they cannot go anywhere without entering the City). Beaverton does not want to annex the small area due to infrastructure cost.

Jerry – credibility is difficult to earn and easy to lose. Canadian geese do not make noise on the ground.

Pat – the City of Beaverton is aggressively annexing in certain areas. His big concerns are the transportation system plan and whether it actually brings livability.

Keith – said he heard an entirely different story about the Beaverton city council and neighborhood association but he has heard people are open to compromise.

Dennis – the final Complete Communities Congress was held at Oregon City High School. From the reports he has heard and general consensus, it was well run. He is not sure what will come out of it but talking with citizens about what they want will continue. He will miss MCCI meetings again next month for another hip surgery.

Dick – he is working on an issue around development that will encroach on a wetland. He is also working on HB3767.

Bob – he has been working with the zoo on accessibility and has found electric scooters for them to use. They should be arriving soon. He offered to take any working computer with a pentium chip to give to senior and disabled people and said it can be done as a tax deduction.

Darren – Wilsonville is annexing property including the prison site. He met with Councilor Hosticka and suggested a standing monthly meeting with MCCI members. He encouraged Keith to get to know Councilor Hosticka as well.

Meyer – regarding HHW, the Oregonian did a story a few months ago that gave quite a bit of information.

Aleta – at all the meetings she goes to, she often sees other MCCI members. Madison South Neighborhood Association has had more attendees at their meetings lately due to three nearby construction projects. Opportunity Gateway is moving forward with many subcommittee meetings. She is serving on the transportation subcommittee. It will be an urban renewal district upon approval from PDC and the City of Portland.

Bill – Clackamas County commissioners will be meeting with all CPO’s in April. It should be a good dialogue.

Joe – he attended the Portland Neighborhoods Summit and would have liked to see a Metro booth there. Councilor Burkholder is doing a great job of pulling meetings together with MERC facilities. The current issue in North Portland is radio towers and mitigation on the old radio tower site near Expo. Neighbors want to see quality mitigation and nature walk trails in a mosaic.

Kathy – shared an Oregonian cartoon about Pleasant Valley not being such a pleasant place any more due to annexation. Said that the City of Gresham adopted their code simplification last night but left out some key components due to concern over Measure 7, things like where trees are cut down and whether hillsides are developed. She attended the MPAC Partners Forum and thought it was very informative but wished there was more time for questions.

Leeanne – she attended a Regional League of Women Voters board meeting recently where some members had attended the MPAC forum. They suggested that it be on public broadcasting. Another person said the councilor updates in local newspapers or newsletters should be in the Community Newspapers and Portland Tribune (owned by Robert Pamplin).

Kay – announced that PCPA is going to close their ticket booth July 1. Said City of Portland is doing a renaissance vision for the harbor area and the Columbia Slough group has done a new informational brochure. Announced some upcoming meetings hosted by the Urban Watershed Institute.

Ted – said that the West Linn City Council fired the city manager without having a public meeting and 70 citizens attended the next council meeting to express their displeasure.

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 MARCH 21, 2001

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