MINUTES OF THE METRO COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT
REGULAR COMMITTEE
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Room 270
Call to Order & Approval of Agenda
Members Present: Dennis Ganoe (Chair), Norm Andreen, Kay Durtschi, Jane Gillespie, Kathy Henton, Jim Kimball, Darren Pennington, Christine Roth, Scott Seibert, Lori Waldo.
Members Absent: Dick Jones, Ted Kyle, Ray Sherwood, Elizabeth Tucker.
Also Present: Rex Burkholder, Metro Councilor; Janice Larson, Communications Manager; Moji Momeni; Cary Stacey, MCCI Staff; Karen Withrow, Associate Public Affairs Specialist.
Chair Ganoe opened the meeting at 6:59 p.m.
Introductions
Chair Ganoe asked everyone to introduce themselves for the good of the group. He appointed Mr. Pennington as timekeeper.
Approval of Agenda
Chair Ganoe said there would be no Auditor Report, and he proposed moving the Councilor Liaison Report to take its place. He said the committee would proceed with the agenda as amended.
Approval of August 21, 2002, Minutes
Motion: | Mr. Pennington moved, with a second by Ms. Roth, to approve the August 21, 2002, minutes as presented. |
Vote: | The vote was 9 aye/0 nay/1 abstain, with Ms. Henton abstaining, motion carried. |
(Tape begins)
Approval of September 18, 2002, Minutes
Motion: | Mr. Pennington moved, with a second by Ms. Gillespie, to approve the September 18, 2002, minutes as presented. |
Vote: | The vote was 7 aye/0 nay/3 abstain, with Ms. Henton, Ms. Roth and Ms. Waldo abstaining, motion carried. |
Chair Report
Chair Ganoe spoke to an online discussion he had had with Ms. Henton regarding an assumption by Bob Pung, former MCCI member, that MCCI should recruit disabled members. Chair Ganoe said it was his understanding that MCCI would strive for a diverse membership to include disabled members, rather than recruit for a particular type of member. Ms. Henton said that Mr. Pung had asked for MCCI support in approaching the Council to pay for 10 scooters at the zoo, at $12,000 a scooter. She said a letter supporting the project would be going before the Metro Council. Mr. Pennington said MCCI was not a policy-setting body and could not lobby for a policy change. Councilor Burkholder said that MCCI members should feel free to support the idea as individuals. He said he and Mr. Pung were exploring ideas of how to use enhancement grants or sustainability funding towards making options like Mr. Pung’s idea a reality. Chair Ganoe urged members to tell Mr. Pung if they supported the project but said it was not MCCI’s purview to do as Mr. Pung had requested.
Chair Ganoe said he was delivering an annual report to the Metro Council on October 24, 2002, to outline MCCI’s 2002 retreat goals and to indicate MCCI’s interest in filling as many citizen seats as possible on Metro committees, with the goal of first filling MCCI vacancies. He said he would like to set an April retreat date to get on track with Metro’s budget process as soon as possible.
He spoke to the first retreat goal, which was to appoint an Office of Citizen Involvement (OCI) Task Force, and said he would like to see an OCI communications and outreach plan completed by December for approval by the full committee. He asked Mr. Seibert and Ms. Durtschi to volunteer for the task force. They assented. Mr. Pennington volunteered. Ms. Gillespie said that Ms. Tucker had expressed interest in serving on the task force. Chair Ganoe said that the task force, with MCCI representatives Ms. Durtschi, Mr. Pennington, Mr. Seibert and Ms. Tucker, would meet the following week. He said that by the November 2002 full committee meeting, a draft OCI plan would be presented to the steering and full committees. He said a full plan should be presented to the full committee in December 2002, with the goal of then presenting it to council. He said the OCI plan should encompass 18 months and end with the 2004 budget cycle.
Council Liaison Report
Councilor Burkholder gave an update on the urban growth boundary (UGB) hearings. He said a mailing had gone out to minority groups in the region inviting them to attend a hearing. He spoke to the OCI and said that the agency transition period left questions open regarding staff and Council functions in the next year. and that nothing could be decided until the Council President was elected. He said a search firm had been chosen to identify a Chief Operating Officer. He said that the implementation of Measure 26-29 was underway with a series of ordinances adopted at the September 26, 2002, offsite council meeting in North Portland.
Mr. Andreen asked if the introductory comments at the public hearings specified that if a citizen didn’t testify, that citizen wouldn’t have standing in further processes.
Ms. Durtschi asked if anything new was happening now that Measure 7 had been thrown out of the courts. Councilor Burkholder said no.
Communications Plan Update
Ms. Larson said the Executive Communications Team was completing its first three-year communications plan. She distributed an accomplishments report, included as part of this record. A copy of the report appendices was available to anyone who might need one. Ms. Stacey would keep one in her office for reference. Ms. Larson said MCCI had contributed a lot to the process. She said that although overall goals were met or exceeded, some strategies were changed or dropped because of lack of resources. The imbalance between limited agency resources and high demand for communications support made it imperative that the council set clear priorities to guide the use of communications resources. It was hard to have limited resources, but it was also an opportunity that forced communications staff to focus efforts and work strategically. She said the new plan identified principles to guide communication efforts at Metro and defined a process to ensure the development of effective strategies for council priority "critical path" projects.
Ms. Withrow distributed Draft 3 of the Communications Plan, included as part of this record. She said that the team wanted to look at coordinating a strategy for talking to the business community. One concept is to do an internal audit of which Metro departments were talking to which business communities about which topics.
Ms. Waldo said that she would like to see Metro reach out to citizen involvement organizations in an ongoing effort to educate the public about Metro’s activities, how to access Metro and how to involve citizens. Ms. Durtschi said that MCCI would need to know which groups did training in Clackamas and Washington counties that weren’t geared towards Metro programs.
Chair Ganoe asked if there was an educational component in the plan. He spoke to looking at best practices in citizen involvement and using those as a communication and training tool. Ms. Larson responded that if MCCI was looking at an education component in its plan, the Executive Communication Team could work as consultants in that regard. She said MCCI should look at what its goals would be and how that idea would fit into the goals. She said an education outreach program could be very expensive.
Mr. Pennington encouraged linking MCCI with communications staff. Mr. Seibert said one of his big concerns was that by the time things got to Metro it was too late for citizen input. Mr. Andreen said that tools were already in place and that by piggy-backing on local jurisdiction programs and having captive audiences, money could be saved.
Ms. Withrow said the current plan was not as concrete as the previous one, but that one idea was to work through local public involvement offices to reach residents. Mr. Pennington spoke to partnering with local governments and how those governments would often make Metro the bad guy. Ms. Durtschi asked that there be a focus on local jurisdictions that didn’t practice adequate citizen involvement.
Ms. Larson said that MCCI comments were valuable and invited members to work through Ms. Stacey to give feedback. Ms. Withrow said there was no final date for presenting the plan to Council, but it would likely be within the next two or three weeks. Mr. Seibert suggested that if members sent comments directly to Ms. Withrow or Ms. Larson, they should copy Ms. Stacey.
MCCI Member Participation in Community Organizations
Chair Ganoe said that the Membership Committee was looking at including in the MCCI application a requirement or strong advisement to be involved in their local communities. Ms. Durtschi said that Multnomah Citizen Involvement Committee (CIC) candidates couldn’t apply without being nominating by a local community organization. Mr. Seibert said he had had a difficult time getting involved in his neighborhood association, and he wasn’t convinced that the majority of people with whom Metro dealt were involved in their neighborhood organizations. Mr. Seibert said he didn’t believe that it was MCCI’s role to go back to communities. Ms. Waldo said she had come out of the woodwork, and that people coming from different places could still move the group forward. Mr. Andreen agreed that fresh perspectives came from people who were not involved in other organizations, but that someone involved in another organization showed they could make a commitment.
Ms. Stacey read part of the MCCI job description that said, “At MCCI meetings members will be expected to represent the views of their district, unincorporated area or county citizen involvement committee. In conjunction with this responsibility comes the goal to act as a liaison with other citizen-related organizations in the member’s local community.”
Chair Ganoe said it sounded like the group was saying that community involvement should not be a requirement. Mr. Seibert said that it was important to recognize that the job description said “community” and not “neighborhood association”. Ms. Roth said it was important to ensure that members understood what their responsibilities were, and it was critical to know what community involvement an applicant had. Ms. Waldo said she believed having a mentor was critical. Ms. Durtschi spoke to Curt Winkler, past MCCI member, whose application was initially rejected because he had had no community involvement. Once he did join the group he was a dynamic member.
Subcommittee Reports
Ms. Durtschi, reporting for the Community Planning Subcommittee, said the Powell/Foster scientific study results had been presented to the subcommittee, including the fact that 70% of the residents of the area owned their own homes. 24% had lived there for two years and 20% had lived there for over 20 years. She said Metro had involved students at AIM High School to conduct similar surveys of their own parents. She said the school was the last resort for educational opportunities for these students, and that they would be reaching out to the community and comparing their school survey results with scientific survey results. She said she hoped to look at a public involvement plan (PIP) for Highway 217 at the next subcommittee meeting.
Ms. Gillespie, reporting for the Parks Subcommittee, said she had met with Ron Klein, Public Affairs Specialist, to get up to speed. She said that judging from the work ahead and the concerns brought up in the 2002 retreat, the subcommittee would be meeting every month. She spoke to Councilor Burkholder’s concerns about lack of citizen involvement with some of the Parks projects, particularly with the Bybee Howell House. She said she would be meeting with Councilor Burkholder and Heather Nelson Kent, Parks Planning and Education Manager, about that issue in the next week. She said there some upcoming master plans, including one in Wilsonville.
Mr. Andreen, reporting for the REM Subcommittee, said that the last meeting had been the second short meeting in a row. He said the subcommittee currently had five PIPs, three of which were due to sunset. He said the subcommittee would review those three PIPs to assess whether they warranted an extension or an evaluation.
Staff Report
Ms. Stacey distributed a current MCCI Subcommittee member list and an updated MCCI flyer, copies of which are included as part of this record.
She announced changes to the website, including an updated MCCI Representatives page reflecting current vacancies. Some minor changes had been implemented as a result of MCCI requests. She said that MCCI vacancies could not be promoted on the home page indefinitely but that they could be listed for a month or two. Pending changes included having an MCCI link on the “Advisory Committees” and “Volunteer for Metro” pages and improving the website’s search function.
She reported that out of the four councilors contacted regarding 2003 vacancies in their districts on MCCI, she had received direction from Councilors Hosticka and Monroe.
She said the committee had the option of meeting in either Room 270 or 370 for the rest of the year. The committee chose to meet in Room 370A, preferably with dividers installed so it would be a smaller space than Room 370 A&B.
Mr. Kimball asked whether the Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service newsletters could publish MCCI vacancy information. Ms. Stacey said Patt Opdyke of the OSU Extension Service would be publishing District 3 and 4 vacancies in the next round of the OSU Extension Service newsletters.
Public Comment
There was none.
Roundtable
Mr. Pennington said he had attended the Tualatin UGB hearing and was impressed with the turnout and the Metro Council’s willingness to interact with people. He said there had been no mention that there were open seats on Metro committees to the attendees. He said citizen participation organization (CPO) 5 was struggling.
Ms. Roth said the Clackamas Committee for Citizen Involvement (CCI) had conducted a training program for CPO presidents and officers. She said they were doing a lot more training and revising protocols and forms to make them more user-friendly. She said that there was an upcoming candidates’ debate for Council President, which would be televised through Portland Cable Access. She said there was a new technique to hold up cards if it was felt that a candidate didn’t answer a question. She said 300 people had attended the City Club gubernatorial debate.
Mr. Kimball said the Washington County CCI was concerned about whether citizen advisory committees were effective. He said three of them had developed a form to interview those involved with the Transportation Advisory Committee and he said MCCI could look at it as a model. He said he hoped to use the revised Public Involvement Planning Guide (PIPG) in further discussion with the group.
Ms. Durtschi said the Metro Council passed Ordinance 02-947A. She said a change had been made to reflect her concern about at-large appointments. She asked Ms. Stacey for a complete copy of the ordinance for the MCCI Membership Handbooks.
Ms. Gillespie said the Rose City Park Neighborhood Association was having its candidate’s fair the next week. She said she had attended the Salmon Festival the previous weekend and really enjoyed it.
Mr. Seibert said on October 29, 2002, Multnomah County was having an orientation for new citizen budget committee members.
Mr. Momeni said he would be submitting his application for membership.
Ms. Henton said she had attended the Community for Damascus public forum on October 6, 2002, and it was standing room only. She said she had also attended the Boring/Damascus UGB hearing. She said they were both good meetings. She said Gresham had come back to Mike Burton and had requested an additional 1400 acres on either side of Highway 26 for industrial and executive housing near Persimmon.
Mr. Andreen said he went to two Clackamas County Presidents’ Meetings and they were very good. He said over 60 people had attended the Beavercreek CPO meeting, with Council members, Clackamas County Commissioners and Clackamas County staff in attendance.
Adjourn
There being no further business before the committee, Chair Ganoe adjourned the meeting at 8:58 p.m.
Prepared by,
Cary Stacey
Council Assistant
AGENDA ITEM | DOCUMENT DATE | DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION | DOCUMENT NO. |
Communications Plan Update | 10/15/02 | Draft Accomplishments Report and Communications Plan Evaluation | 101602mcrg-01 |
Communications Plan Update | 10/10/02 | Communications Plan, Draft 3 | 101602mcrg-02 |
Staff Report | 10/4/02 | MCCI Subcommittee Member List | 101602mcrg-03 |
Staff Report | 09/17/02 | Nov. 2002- June 2004 Communications Plan, Draft 3 | 101602mcrg-04 |