Council Retreat

December 17, 2003

Attendees: David Bragdon, Rex Burkholder, Dan Cooper, Alexis Dow, Carl Hosticka, Michael Jordan, Susan McLain, Rod Monroe, Brian Newman, Rod Park, Kathy Rutkowski, Bill Stringer

Budget:

Discussion centered on a budget cushion and cap. New revenue from the excise tax increase would go mainly towards parks, but discussion indicated a desire by some of the councilors to see some money put into other projects. It was suggested that a broad view of Metro (a horizontal view) in its entirety might help the Council to decide how best to prioritize needs and where money should be funneled.

It was decided that the Metro staff should put together various scenarios that should include such things as total revenues, parks, planning, shifting, and mission drive that could be reviewed by the Metro Council at a later meeting. The information in these scenarios should be arrayed in such a way as to demonstrate the trade-offs. It was agreed that the issue of governance should be the first issue resolved before moving. It was agreed that members of the council would meet with various individual jurisdictions and groups to discuss MERC and Metro and then to set up a joint meeting to discuss the issue. It was decided that the Council would produce a letter for general distribution pertaining to this issue and how to proceed.

Information Dynamics:

Discussion revolved around communication and decision-making processes at Metro. Discussion also focused on the public involvement process and how Metro could continue and improve the good work in that area. Work session structure was also discussed. The desire was to have the work session structured to run more efficiently and perhaps even on more of a “schedule” or “pattern” that would cluster subject matter in a productive way. It was suggested that the amendment process needed some refining and that the budget amendment form was a useful tool that might be changed and utilized for all amendments.

It was again agreed that a “big board” calendar or work plan was needed to help the Council focus on rollout processes for issues over the next several years. The big board calendar/work plan should include an overarching of all the departments and facilities run by Metro including a communications plan. A good test case for this overarching plan would be the Goal 5 process. Other areas of importance were the industrial lands issue, transportation funding issue, and MERC (not necessarily in that order).

Respectfully submitted,

Kim Bardes