MINUTES OF THE METRO COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT
REGULAR COMMITTEE
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Room 270
Members Present: Norm Andreen, Kathy Everett, Dresden Skees Gregory, Kathy Henton, Dick Jones, Jim Kimball, Kate Schiele, Don Warner, Skip White
Members Absent: Elizabeth Tucker (Chair), Moji Momeni, Darren Pennington, Chris Roth, Ed Ruttledge, Scott Seibert,
Also Present: Kate Marx, Director, Public Affairs and Government Relations, Cheryl Grant, Office of Citizen Involvement
Call to Order/Introductions & Welcome
Appointment of Timekeeper
Acting Chair Norm Andreen called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Kate Schiele was appointed timekeeper.
Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as presented.
Approval of the February 18 and March 3, 2004 minutes
Kathy Henton noted she had attended a Springwater workshop, not an industrial lands workshop as stated in the roundtable discussion..
Motion: Dick Jones moved, with a second from Kate Schiele, to approve the
February 18, 2004 minutes as corrected.
Vote: The vote was 9 aye/0 nay/ 0 abstain. The motion passed.
The committee agreed that since a quorum was not present at the March 3 meeting, the record of the meeting was in reality meeting notes and approval was not necessary.
Chair Report
Kate Marx, Public Affairs and Government Relations Director, reviewed a discussion with Chair Tucker, Vice Chair Seibert and Cheryl Grant regarding information management challenges. After discussion, the committee suggested whoever is running the meeting should e-mail their reports to MCCI staff before the meeting to make it easier for the meeting to proceed in event of emergencies.
The committee was reminded to send their available dates and times to Chair Tucker and/or Ms. Grant so the new member orientation tour could be arranged.
Assigned tasks
This item was moved to a future meeting.
Office of Citizen Involvement report
Ms. Marx reviewed a memo from the Metro Attorney regarding Metro employees being considered for membership on the MCCI and whether MCCI members could have discussions over the internet or via e-mail on various issues. A copy of the memo is included with the permanent record of this meeting.
There was committee discussion regarding chat rooms and the possibility of someone feeling like something was happening behind closed doors. Mr. Jones noted that no matter who is involved or what the issue, they should be very careful not to give an impression of trying to work behind the scenes. The committee agreed.
CCI/CPO summit
Ms. Marx reminded the committee of a previous meeting when they had listed some questions and talked about gaps in networking with CPOs and CCIs. After discussion, they agreed it would be productive to convene a workshop with these groups and set some expectations of MCCI’s role in helping close some of the gaps in that network. Ms. Marx said the Office of Citizen Involvement would work with the committee to make the workshop happen.
Kathy Henton reported on a meeting with Ms. Marx, Ron Bunch, Kay Foetisch and others in Gresham about their unique problems and the lack of parity among jurisdictions about how Metro issues are handled with citizens. She said that could be a good place to start as they have good people but some problems in acting. They were looking for help on how to present a resolution to the Gresham council to adopt citizen involvement policies. She added that other jurisdictions need accepted principles of citizen involvement also.
The committee discussed ways all the jurisdictions could be partners in putting on the summit. A work group including Norm Andreen, Kathy Everett, Dick Jones and Don Warner was assigned to meet with Gina Whitehill-Baziuk of the Office of Citizen Involvement to find common themes, outline an agenda and plan who would coordinate, sponsor and promote the workshop. Mr. Kimball suggested collaborative planning is best and others besides Metro should be included in the planning. Mr. Andreen assured him that this group was only to start the outreach to others to get them involved in the planning.
Public comment/Roundtable
Dresden Skees Gregory reported that she had attended Metro meetings on both industrial lands and Goal 5. She found the Goal 5 open house a little bland but was impressed by the briefings by various people at the industrial lands event. She said people asked really good questions there. She said she would probably have an update on LUBA’s decision on the WalMart issue by next meeting.
Skip White said Metro is doing a great job at the Bybee-Howell site on Sauvie Island, but the historic house on the property is falling apart. He noted that the Historical Society used to take care o fit but had backed out of doing that. He hoped to find someone willing to take responsibility for taking care of it. He plans to get in touch with Councilor Burkholder about the matter.
Kathy Henton said she had attended the Damascus industrial lands open house. It was not crowded when she was there. She commented that staff there was basically giving the impression that Metro was not likely to add land in the Boring area. She said she had also attended the Damascus Goal 5 open house and was disappointed in the poor attendance of maybe 80 people.
Dick Jones reported that work on the Trolley Trail was ongoing now that the trail had dried out from the rain. He said an Eagle Scout had done a project for the trail, putting up stations with plastic bags for folks to clean up after their dogs as well as receptacles for disposing of them. He also noted some problems with four-wheelers ruining the path and folks dumping brush there. He said they continue to keep the existing trail clear of blackberries as well as opening up new areas. He noted he had attended the Goal 5 hearing in Oregon City last Monday and estimated about 40-50 people there when he was.
Kate Schiele reported that while the interactive wildlife habitat inventory maps on the Metro website were a good tool, some people, i.e., the older folks in her neighborhood, were not computer literate and suggested the maps were maybe not as useful as they had hoped for everyone. Mr. Jones agreed that a lot of folks couldn’t access the maps. He also noted some errors in habitat information included in the maps. Ms. Skees Gregory said her property showed more restrictions in the economic category than in the environmental category. She said she had asked staff how that could be but did not get a response.
There was roundtable discussion regarding the fact that most folks who live along a stream take pretty good care not to pollute, but a bigger problem comes from folks 12-15 blocks up the hill, i.e., painting contractors washing out his tools and it draining into creek. There needs to be an all-inclusive discussion of protection from contaminated water and the like going into creeks from pipes.
Adjourn
There being no further business before the committee, Acting Chair Andreen adjourned the meeting at 7:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Grant
Office of Citizen Involvement