Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement Regular Committee

Call to Order & Approval of Agenda

Chair Ted Kyle opened the meeting at 7:00p.m. Members present were as follows: Joe Annett, Gil Cobb, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, Leanne MacColl, Bill Merchant, Jerry Penk, Darren Pennington, Bob Pung, Ray Sherwood, Meyer Siegel, Helen Richardson, Pat Russell, and MCCI applicant Keith Parker.

Members absent were Aleta Woodruff, Kay Durtschi and Dennis Ganoe.

Introductions

Mr. Kyle asked members to introduce themselves for the good of the group.

Approval of Agenda

Mr. Kyle changed the agenda. The changes included a discussion from Joe Annett on the subject of the Metropolitan Exposition-Recreation Commission (MERC) public involvement, and the Auditor addressing public involvement.

A motion was made by Mr. Bill Merchant and seconded by Mr. Bob Pung to approve the agenda as presented.

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Mr. Merchant and seconded by Mr. Darren Pennington to approve the minutes as presented. The motion carried except for Ms. Aleta Woodruff, Ms. Kay Durtschi and Mr. Dennis Ganoe who were not present.

Ray Sherwood said that the minutes showed him present at the meeting when he was not.

Public Comment

No public comment.

Mr. Kyle announced that Mrs. Karen Withrow had accepted another position and was working on the 2040 Re-engagement project.

New Business

Mr. Kyle announced Mrs. Sandra Newstrom’s integration into the group and announced that support would now come from the Council Office. He said the reason for the change was because there would be a complete transition with the Executive Office within the next two years. He announced that Mr. John Donovan was present to give an update on Council Outreach.

Councilor Rex Burkholder talked about the changes made in staffing, he said while people are making changes in the Executive Office they are looking for opportunities for those positions to be filled in the Council Office. He said the goal was to provide the same services to MCCI as they have had. He said he would appreciate feedback from MCCI, and that can be given to Ted Kyle or Sandra Newstrom.

Chris Billington then spoke regarding the transition. She said that the MCCI budget had been transferred to the Council. She said that the agendas would be sent in the same fashion as the Council committee agendas. She noted that the MCCI agenda would be posted on the website.

Councilor Burkholder said that he would continue his topics after Alexis Dow, Auditor of Metro was able to go over the Auditor report.

Auditor Report

Auditor Dow noted that her assistant, Cameron Six, had informed her of the interest in citizen involvement with audits. She gave a status report on the upcoming audits and how they were chosen. She said at the last meeting, Cameron talked about the food service contract at the Convention Center (ARAMARK) and said they would analyze how that was being handled. She said they are also interested in the construction at the Zoo and the costs of that project. She noted that the end of the fiscal year (June), they would accumulate these reports. She explained that every year she goes through a planning process to select audits. In this process, she surveys different interests and then selects 10-12 audits to undertake. She invited the group to contact her if they had any ideas. She said that in the past she had not addressed citizen involvement in her audits. She said citizen involvement had not been identified in the Metro Code or in her professional standards.

Mr. Kyle said the Auditor should take a look at citizen involvement as a component of citizenry. He gave the example of having a comment card at a restaurant.

Ms. Dow said that she would research citizen involvement types of audits. She explained that there are certain projects that would be more appropriate for citizen involvement.

Mr. Pennington asked the auditor to look at the group and help them with direction in filling their responsibility. He added that their role in the Charter was to aid in communication between citizens and the Council.

Other members expressed options to the auditor to keep in mind for further citizen communication.

Councilor Burkholder talked about the reapportionment process (a copy of the outline can be found in the record). He added that 16 people volunteered to be on the Reapportionment Citizen Review Committee.

Mr. Pat Russell asked where the idea came from to align the neighborhood boundaries in the reapportionment.

Councilor Burkholder said that it was a staff suggestion. He asked John Donovan to continue further.

Mr. John Donovan, Council Outreach Coordinator noted that there were 5 MCCI members on the Reapportionment CRC. He explained how the process was organized. He said that they had received comments about where the locations of the public hearings should be. He noted that postings of the public hearings would be placed on the website, encouraging public involvement. He said a series of maps would also be provided.

Mr. Pennington said he was impressed with the work that had been done on the reapportionment process. He asked what types of issues the public might bring to the public hearings.

Mr. Donovan said that people would bring their own community and personal issues. He said they asked the citizen review committee to brainstorm on what was important such as small cities, neighborhood associations, town-centers/regional centers, special districts, county boundaries and freeways.

Ms. Leanne MacColl asked if the map would show the old and new boundaries.

Mr. Donovan said that mapping experts would be present to explain the changes.

Mr. Bob Pung said that Metro had great software that was able to crunch the numbers to reshape the boundaries.

Mr. Kyle said he would look at delaying the steering committee to attend one of the public hearings.

Appoint election committee

Mr. Kyle appointed Bill Merchant, Dick Jones and Bob Pung to the election committee.

Performance Measures

Mr. Jerry Uba, Program Supervisor, Planning Department presented the Performance Measures Program Update. He said that he led the charge to evaluate the implication of the 2040 process. He said they have to measure their progress to show to the Council. He said there is also an Oregon statute to measure its performance. (The report can be found in the record.)

Councilor Burkholder directed the group to Page 3 of the 2040 Re-engagement report and asked what the public process was to establish the benchmarks.

Mr. Uba said 2040 Re-engagement will be a vehicle for public involvement to incorporate the public into work on 2040 Growth Concept Evaluation..

Mr. Jerry Penk said he was troubled. He said that the information was subjective and ambiguous.

Mr. Pennington said he was impressed and that he thought it was good work. He said that the hardest part would be to operationalize the values. He said it was subjective data.

Ms. MacColl asked why there were no affordable housing details.

Mr. Uba pointed the group to a page of the report that had affordable housing details.

Communication Plan

Ms. Karen Withrow talked about the Communication Plan and then distributed the 2040 Re-engagement handout: Where do we grow from here? (A copy of which can be found in the record.) She said she was willing to arrange a monthly report to include what was going on in different areas of 2040.

The group concurred.

Ms. Withrow highlighted four status reports. These reports included Spring 2001 Strategic Outreach, Fall Table Talks, and Town Halls.

Mr. Pennington asked if kids were being included in the shaping of 2040.

Mr. Donovan said yes, and explained that they would be heard at a conference for kids of all school levels. He said there would be children activities to integrate their views.

Mr. Gil Cobb suggested soliciting high schools to be host of the Table Talks.

Mr. Joe Annett asked if Metro was depending on citizens to involve themselves with different projects in different areas.

Mr. Donovan said that the partnership needed to go both ways at all levels.

Mr. Ray Sherwood asked what the plan was to pay for this.

Ms. Withrow said that there were two main sources of revenue. Various departments of Metro being one of the sources who have already committed $250,000; the other would be through matching of private donor sponsorships. She said they had already started that partnership.

Member Comment

Mr. Annett noted that he had attended many meetings at MERC and that there was no representation of citizen involvement. He added that there was not a citizen involvement advisory committee related to MERC.

Mr. Kyle asked how urgent the need was to get involved. He suggested drafting a letter to MERC and the Metro Council to let them know that MCCI was concerned regarding the lack of citizen involvement.

Mr. Bill Merchant said citizen involvement should be looked at with all things.

Mr. Pung said that Tri-Met being the lead agency but there is nothing that shows citizen involvement in the process of federal funding.

MCCI Staff Report

Sandra Newstrom asked the MCCI group to distinguish how they wanted to receive the Council committee and MCCI agendas.

MCCI Chair Report

Mr. Kyle presented Karen Withrow with the Rock of Gibraltar Award for her dedication to staffing MCCI.

Meeting Evaluations/Adjourn

The average of the meeting evaluation was 6.8.

Meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM

Respectfully Submitted,

Sandra Newstrom

MCCI Staff

ATTACHMENTS TO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR THE MEETING OF APRIL 18, 2001

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