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← Recent meetings · September 2026

The record · Transcript

Council Session — 2026-09-22

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Tue, Sep 22, 2026 · meeting length 2 hr 43 min · council salary-time ≈ $2,089

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Where the council disagreed

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0 Care. Clark, this is councilor Smith. I'm on line. Clark. I'm online. Okay.
1 Good morning everyone. I call the meeting of the public works committee to order. It is Tuesday, September the 22nd at 9:30 a.m. Diana, can you please call the roll?
2 Certainly. Koyama Lane here. Green is absent.

Procedural episode · turns 3–11

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3 Smith here.
4 Kanal. Absent.
5 Clark here. Thank you. That's it. Okay, here we are. Did I hear councilor Smith or did I miss that? She's a yes. Okay. Councilor Smith do you mind maybe occasionally turning on your camera for us? Thank you. Claire, can you please read the statement of conduct?
6 Thank you chair. Good morning, and welcome to the meeting of the public works committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at Portland.gov/council/agenda/pubc works committee or by calling 311. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting in person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone will be muted. When your time is over, the chair preserves order disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered considered when testifying, state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. And finally, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
7 Thank you. Claire would help if I turn the mic on. So for today's meeting, fortunately, we do have a quorum. May not look like it, but we have people online. That's great. So we can conduct business today. So first we're going to consider an alternative contracting method for the montgomery park streetcar extension project akm-gsi, which is terrific. And then we're going to have two ordinances to secure temporary property rights for pedestrian improvements. And then we'll probably take a break. The second half of the meeting. We're going to return to the implementation of the transportation utility fee and the street damage restoration fee. We're going to dig in a little bit to that, get a progress report. Really important. But before we get to our main items, we need to approve the committee minutes for the meetings of July 28th and August 11th. Do I have a consensus on that? I think everybody nodding there's a yes, yes, yes. Okay, great. The minutes are approved by unanimous consent. I don't see any objections. So, diana, can you please read the next item?
8 Item number two, document number 2026-333. Approve the findings to authorize exemption to the competitive bidding requirements and authorize competitive solicitation for the use of the alternative contract method of a construction manager. General contractor for the montgomery. For the montgomery park street extension project.
9 Thank you. This ordinance that we're looking at today approves an alternative contracting method for the construction phase of the montgomery park streetcar extension project. It's called affectionately known cmgci worked on it at TriMet. It's a great way to do business. It is the construction manager, general contractor. So we've got our PBOT and procurement folks up here to explain away.
10 Good morning, chair Clark and committee members. I'm pleased to be here this morning in my new role as interim deputy city administrator for public works and for one more day acting director of the Portland bureau of transportation. Thank you for giving PBOT the opportunity to share information about a series of items, the full three hours to discuss the four items on the agenda, as you've already mentioned. First, we'll ask you to consider approving an alternative contracting method for our upcoming streetcar expansion to the montgomery park office building. And fun fact in. In case folks didn't know, montgomery ward buildings all over the country are on the same model. So if you look at the ones across the country, about eight of them, they all have the same design elements. So that's kind of cool. Anyway, staff will bring forward two small temporary property rights as well for safety projects for your consideration and approval. And then finally, the PBOT team will bring forward an update on the implementation plan for the transportation utility fee and street damage restoration fee. The first item before you is an ordinance to approve the findings to authorize exemption to the competitive bidding requirements and authorize a competitive solicitation for the use of an alternative contracting method. As you've already mentioned, cmg construction manager and general contractor or slash general contractor for the montgomery park streetcar extension project. Our partners in central procurement are represented today by chief procurement officer sylvester donaldson, as well as the project team, including project manager david baccus. They're here to present the project details, but I'd like to start by providing brief context related to how impactful the Portland streetcar has been to mobility and housing in the central city, and secondly, how important it is to advance this extension project on schedule today. So the first point that I'd like to share is that opening in 2001, the Portland streetcar has been a model for modern, modern streetcar systems in the united states. The system is owned by the city of Portland, building the streetcar alignment, alongside community and housing development partners, has significantly shaped the character of our central city. Since 2001, the number of housing units built matches daily ridership growth on a 1 to 1 basis. We have dense, walkable neighborhoods that are served by streetcar. Our streetcar transit system has helped create climate friendly communities for people of all ages and abilities. Portlanders have seen what investing in streetcar can do to create thriving neighborhoods, with the pearl district and south waterfront being examples of dense communities, active open spaces, and thriving business corridors. The montgomery park area served by this extension reflects a new public private partnership aimed at providing middle wage jobs, affordable housing and a neighborhood park. The second point is that the extension project entered into the federal transit administration capital investment grant, or sig funding process, at the end of 2024. The project has advanced several critical milestones in the past two years and is now approaching 30%. Design with environmental review underway, maintaining the project delivery, maintaining the project delivery schedule is critical to demonstrating federal project readiness, as the team will present today. Use of a cmg contract would be able to best support successful completion of the project in an efficient manner to reduce and manage risk and deliver community outcomes. And now I'd like to hand it off to PBOT project manager. David. Solve a problem, bacchus, take it away.
11 Hi. Thank you. David bacchus, PBOT capital project manager. All right. We are going to go through just a few background slides here and really get into the project and why cmg is the right fit. We have ten slides total. I like to know what I'm getting into ahead of time. So we're already done with two. And here's the third. All right. So as dca williams mentioned Portland streetcar is an important system. And it's really important to note that this is PBOT transit system. The city of Portland owns this and operates it in partnership with TriMet. We have three lines today. And what we're looking at here is this little Green part right now. It goes up. Northrup down 23rd. But we're going to swing right and head up into what is going to be a new neighborhood up in northwest Portland. This is also the largest modern streetcar system in the us. So from montgomery park streetcar extension, more specifically, this is a streetcar project, but it has many elements that are going to bring a lot of benefits to the neighborhood as a whole. Northwest 23rd avenue was recently repaved as kind of a stopgap measure.
12 Yay!
13 And that is great. It looks good now. What the streetcar project will do is reconstruct the street as a concrete street, with the track bed on it, to extend the lifespan. That street is going to look great for many, many years after. It'll add street lighting, ADA upgrades to all of the corner ramps, in addition to the station platform pairs that we have on 23rd, and also constructs new streets in what is now a former industrial site up in northwest in this purple area. So it unlocks development potential up in northwest, supports jobs, housing many other benefits, and extends the streetcar line about 1.3 miles total in this loop. The project has been in the works really since about 2009. Through various planning efforts. More recently, the montgomery park area plan and the locally preferred alternative were adopted by city council in late 2024. These kind of set the direction for the capital project, which is in the works right now. I came on board a couple of years ago. Once the planning phase was really set, the alignment was set in. My job is to bring the project through the design and construction phase, get it built so we can have riders on the line looking like 2030 for our schedule. Here you can see draw a little line where right around this point here, working on our preliminary design, environmental clearances are underway. And what we're looking to do is get our cmgc contractor on board in early 2027. You can see this overlaps with our design phase. So what this means is we have the contractor who's going to build the project, reviewing the plans as they go through that process. A typical low bid project wouldn't bring a contractor on board until here. So the first time they're seeing the plans is when they're bidding on them. A low bid project doesn't allow for the opportunity to have a contractor say, you know, we could sequence the work in this way. We get that message out to the public early. And a cmg really helps us mitigate risks throughout. They can help identify, you know, potential challenges that they might encounter during construction so that the design can be responsive to those challenges and make changes while we're still in the design phase, we've completed the topo survey of 23rd and the new neighborhood area further up in northwest. So our survey crews have been out. You know, people have been seeing things happening. There's been a lot of spray paint on the ground. We've completed about a 10% concept design and our advancing to 30% design here right now. Project budget for this. Since the funding is coming through the federal transit administration, the fta being passed through to TriMet PBOT is a subrecipient. The total project budget is kind of the container for this entire new extension, which includes vehicle replacement. About half the cost is vehicle replacement. The portion that we're talking about today is what the eventual construction contract would be. Oh no, we disappeared. Let's try to get back here really quick. And we're going to try this way. Slide show from current slide. And we're back. Okay, so our construction cost is likely in the 60 to $70 million range. This ordinance doesn't require PBOT to advance with that construction contract itself. What it allows is for pre-construction phase with the cmg, it's a much smaller portion of the budget, usually 0.5 to 1% of the construction cost, and gives the contractor budget to review the plans, provide value, engineering assistance and that kind of thing. Once we get closer to the end of the design phase, the contractor and the city will work together on the guaranteed maximum price. That's the actual construction cost. It's much further down the line, and we have opportunities to kind of work with the contractor on, on the budget itself. So when we have a project that is large like this, we work with procurement on a scoring sheet and kind of look at a bunch of different factors, some of which are required by Oregon revised statute. When we are trying to exempt a project from the low bid method of project delivery. And for this one, council approval is required to allow that cmgc method. The scoring sheet has a maximum score of 32 points. This is kind of like those quizzes at the end of a magazine. You know, if you get a certain score, it tells you which area you're slotted into. I haven't seen a project score this high. This got 30 out of 32 points, which really strongly points it to an alternative delivery method. And I mentioned some of the benefits earlier, but it really allows the city and the contractor and the neighborhood at large to begin working on the relationship. You know, what is construction going to look like? Well ahead of construction. It offers a lot more flexibility around construction sequencing and mitigates impacts in a way you can't do through low bid contracting. One example is you can get out ahead of certain work scopes and begin construction on some items while you're still doing design of others, so it can also help shorten the overall schedule, reduce the pain for the traveling public, especially the businesses along 23rd, we want to be really sensitive to keeping, you know, foot traffic high any way we can, making sure we're supporting that community to. And cmmc isn't the typical method that PBOT does for most of our projects. The majority of them are low bid, but we do have really good examples of using cmmc for larger scale projects. 82nd avenue is probably our most recent kind of success story. On the cmg front, we had a contractor, ramer came in at about 60% design and were in the room for right of way conversations, constructability vegetation changes. They're also really helpful on working with businesses along 82nd on how, how do we keep businesses going during construction? Fubon is out there. They have really heavy traffic in and out of their parking lot. That's directly accessed through 82nd. So the cmg was able to work with us in fubon on making a secondary new driveway, access of a side street, so that traffic was coming in and out of their parking lot uninterrupted during the main construction push. And what it really does is help limit last minute scrambles when you're in construction and confusion to the public. When we have a low bid project, the project manager and design engineering team work together on kind of anticipating what a future contractor might do, and we convey that message to the public the best we can. You know, we expect this part of the work to take four months. And, you know, based on past projects, we can get pretty good estimates for that kind of thing. But we may end up with a contractor who has a different idea about how they're going to deliver the project for a low bid. And the thing that we've been telling the public for, you know, a year or two sometimes looks pretty different from their experience on the ground. So with cmg, we can, you know, get ahead of those kind of issues and get a message that we're delivering to the public for what they're actually going to see during construction. And that's it. This is slide number ten. Thank you for hearing us out, and I'm happy to stick around for any questions.
14 Great. Do we have any comments from sylvester, from any anything you want to add to that?
15 No, I think I think pretty much that it's been covered. I do want to just to give council, the committee a, a brief update in regards to engagement with dbs and so forth, that we will be working with TriMet this week to kind of kind of button that up and see where we can actually do as much engagement with our we as we possibly can, although this is a federal project.
16 Right. Terrific. I'm glad to hear that. I really think that colleagues, this is a great leap forward for PBOT. I don't know what took us so long to get to cmg, but having worked on it at TriMet, I understand all the advantages of having a cmg. I think that going to low bid is really kind of a misnomer with these kind of projects. You know, there are change orders, there's a lot of complications. They don't necessarily low bid, doesn't necessarily work with the neighborhood association very well. And I've seen the construction of light rail under cmg and just know how much more of a benefit it is. And I think you've demonstrated that on 82nd street. David. So, colleagues, do you I see that councilor Smith has her hand up, and I'm open to entertaining. Any questions here, councilor Smith or comments?
17 Thank you, madam chair. I wanted to ask about the dbs. So will that dbe contracting come through procurement at the city or through TriMet?
18 It will be in a coordination with TriMet, the city, as well as coordination with TriMet. In order for us to be able to maximize the regional workforce equity agreement. So we will be working together with them and we meeting with them. The meetings start this week. Hopefully we can give if necessary. We can definitely give you an update later on.
19 Okay. Thank you. So just give me some kind of idea. I'm trying to figure out if the RFP are going to come through our shop or if it's going to come through TriMet, or you just don't know.
20 We will be we will be reviewing the the proposals.
21 The cmg contract itself will be held by the city. But TriMet is the reviewer of that.
22 Oh, okay.
23 Yeah.
24 Okay. That's that's what I needed to.
25 Yeah, yeah.
26 To find out. Thank you, thank you.
27 Good question. Councilor Smith and I can tell you from the TriMet experience and TriMet has a great db track record. And I think we have we can benefit from that. Any other questions? I think we have one person signed up to speak to this. Is that correct?
28 Correct. One person.
29 Shall we call that person up now?
30 Sure. Jordan lewis.
31 Are they online?
32 If they are online, they can't be online because they signed up too late to do online testimony.
33 Okay, we have a jordan lewis in the house.
34 If not, then that completes testimony.
35 Okay. Thank you colleagues. Any other questions about cmc and whether we should move forward? We have an ordinance here to send to the full council. If there's not any other questions, I would entertain a motion to move ordinance document number 2026-333 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
36 So moved.
37 Second.
38 Great. Okay. It's been moved by councilor Smith and seconded by councilor Koyama Lane. If there's no further discussion with the clerk, please call the roll.
39 Certainly. Koyama Lane aye, Morillo Smith,
40 Aye, Morillo.
41 Kanal aye, Morillo Clark. Aye, Morillo with four eyes and one absent the motion to refer the ordinance document number 2026-333 to the city council with a recommendation it be passed, has been approved.
42 Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. Appreciate your work. And let's see. Diana, will you please call the next item?
43 Item number three. Document number 2026-334. Authorize bureau of transportation to acquire certain temporary property rights necessary for construction of the southeast division street to southeast 148th street to southeast 174th street. Project. Through the exercise of the city's eminent domain authority.
44 Thank you. I don't think I need to repeat that, but I would say that this includes a number of pedestrian and ADA improvements. I believe at least one of these does. And I remind the committee that southeast 148th and division is the same intersection we heard about from the traffic engineer and the then and now, I guess interim PBOT director wendy cully. Earlier this summer, when we were talking about vision zero, we did talk a little bit about this. So I hand it off to the PBOT staff to introduce this item for us.
45 Thank you and good morning, madam chair and members of the committee. For the record, my name is elizabeth tillström. I serve as a capital project manager for PBOT, and I am joined today by my colleague carly ruggles, right of way agent for PBOT. We are here today to bring forward a right of way ordinance for a temporary construction easement to the southeast division street, southeast 148th to 174th avenue. Project. And can you all see my screen here in the presentation? Okay, let me press that again. There we go. So for background, we've been working for over a decade to address the serious safety issues on southeast division street, a designated high crash corridor. Through numerous capital projects, we've been using a multi-pronged safe system approach to help reduce the high incidence of crashes that have historically occurred along this corridor. This includes a reduced speed limit speed, safety cameras, additional street lighting, greater frequency of enhanced pedestrian crossings, protected bike lanes, and raised center medians. The project before you today will address the two remaining segments on southeast division, where we do not currently have raised center median. As we continue to work on and study the southeast division street corridor, we have found that areas on southeast division where we've applied all of these safety countermeasures, including race center medians in those areas, we've seen crashes reduced by 55% compared to only seven 7% reduction, where we haven't added medians in these same areas, pedestrian crashes have gone down 38% compared with 18% where we do not currently have medians. Medians help to improve safety by reducing the number of conflict points related to vehicle turning movements that lead to crashes. They provide people walking with a safe refuge at crossings. They enhance crossing visibility and support safe driving speeds. The two remaining gaps in race center median are on southeast division between 1/52 and 1/60 and 1/66 and 1/74. These sets of medians will include breaks for left turns, u-turns and pedestrian crossings. We will also be allowing left turns directly into certain properties where we have high turning demand, such as multifamily residences, or for businesses that have large vehicles needing direct access that can't u-turn, such as an rv business. In the easternmost segment of our project area. This project also includes modifying an existing signal at 157th in division, converting it from a pedestrian signal to a full signal to better support neighborhood access. So we are currently in the design phase for this project and will continue and design will continue through summer of 27. We anticipate advertising the project for construction in fall of 27 and then beginning construction in spring of 2028. This is a federally funded project through odot's all roads transportation safety program. The local match is being funded through gas tax revenue and fixing our streets funds. We've had extensive engagement effort related to the development and safety action plan on southeast division over the years. Early on, when we were developing the safety action plan, which introduced the concept of race center medians, direct community engagement around these next two segments is ongoing and will continue through design, and then we'll continue communicating directly with adjacent businesses and property owners and the surrounding neighborhood through construction. And now I will turn the presentation over to my colleague carly to discuss the specifics of this one right of way file on the project.
46 Yes, hi, great background there, but we actually only need one right of way file, and that is for a temporary construction.
47 Would you put your name on the record?
48 Oh yeah. Carly ruggles, PBOT right of way agent. So we, like I said, we need one temporary construction easement that is technically a slope modification, temporary construction easement, and that is needed from an owner on the corner of 166th place and division street. So we are here today to get authority to initiate those negotiations with the owner and extend an offer of just compensation for the acquisition of the easement. And if negotiations are unsuccessful, the city may proceed with condemnation to obtain the easement if necessary. The affected property owner has been notified of the project and the impacts via certified mail, and they have been invited to this meeting and the council hearing, and I also have spoke with them on the phone.
49 Well, thank you, great presentation. Appreciate it. I know this is you answered my questions about community outreach, and it sounds like it's ongoing. I'm going to ask councilor Smith, since this is in d-1, if you have any questions or want to make any comments here.
50 Yes. Thank you for giving the presentation. Just curious to know, are there any other residential folks who are experiencing or or having some difficulties with our new construction project other than the, the one that you're you just talked about, right?
51 I think initially for the community adapting to the new travel patterns, like when we first implemented the medians, we received a lot of feedback in some of those areas that have already been installed. We're going back to modify again for those areas that really have high turning demand and need increased access. Yeah. And then we are continuing to have discussions with the community on this project and, and briefing the neighborhood and, and businesses and neighborhood associations, east Portland chamber of commerce. And so. We haven't received any direct pushback or feedback. I think everyone's just kind of getting ready for this next round.
52 Yeah. Or they're just not paying attention. Question what is the impact on pedestrians and folks who are rolling down division or between the 148th and 157th? What in terms of access, are they still able to to use the road at all?
53 Are pedestrians able to use the road?
54 Yeah. Well, the, the street, you know, adjacent to it.
55 Absolutely. Yes. Yeah.
56 Okay. Okay. I just I would just like to add one quick thing. If, if we can't come to an agreement with the resident who has a problem with the easement, that if you plan to go into eminent domain, could you please schedule an executive session? Because there's some questions that I'd like to to ask you before it, before you put that on the agenda, if it if it actually comes to that point.
57 Absolutely, absolutely. And just a little bit more background on this specific right of way file. So maybe no, yeah, I'll start with this image. So the reason we are. So this right of way file will establish a new driveway connection to that corner corner parcel off of southeast 166th place. And so it will not only serve as additional access for that corner property, but for the 175 mobile home units to the north, which is highlighted with that red boundary. They currently have an easement across the property and access a driveway that exits out directly onto division. And so in order to, you know, again, wanting to provide as much access as possible, those residents and the property owner and any patrons going to that commercial site will be able to use the new driveway access of 166, which has a signalized is a signalized intersection. So they'll be able to make safer left turns to head east. Yeah. So we're hoping, I mean, the residents at the mobile home park, this is a concern they raised when we first started talking about this project of restricted access for them with the this next set of medians. And so this is responsive to that. And we're also hopeful that this property owner will see this as, as a betterment to their property as well.
58 And since this has been going on for ten years, when was the last time that we connected with the community in terms of outreach, just to update them on, on, on what the latest movement is on this project?
59 As, as recent as this summer we were last at. So this entire project is within the centennial neighborhood. We've presented to them three times on this project and went to their most recent meeting this summer. We've also been out at community events, tabling, and have information for this project out whenever we're talking to the community as well.
60 Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you.
61 Yeah. Thank you. Great questions.
62 Thank you, councilor Smith. Can I just clarify, elizabeth, that this is a temporary easement or correct?
63 Yeah. So the temporary easement I'll go back to cali slide allows us to construct the driveway connection. The the permanent improvement. The new driveway will be entirely in the public right of way. But since will be stepping onto the property to construct. And there could be some grading work in order to make that driveway connection feasible, not have vehicles bottoming out. We'll be doing some slope adjustments with the construction of that driveway, but it's all it's all temporary. And the improvement itself again, will be in the public right of way.
64 So we're not actually purchasing anything?
65 No.
66 We're just we're just purchasing the ability to access for now for construction.
67 Yes. Yeah.
68 Clarify that.
69 So but property owners still need to authorize that temporary.
70 Gotcha. Well, fortunately we won't. I'm hopefully we won't get to eminent domain. Fortunately, they'll understand that and be justly compensated. Yes. Colleagues, do we have any other questions for these two? Councilor Kanal.
71 Yeah, I guess two questions. First, are they here? Because I understand that they're invited for.
72 They are they are remote owner. The address we have is in seattle.
73 And so are they here online then?
74 No, we invited them to come, but they didn't want to.
75 And my understanding is the process by which we do that is a mailing. How far in advance are those sent? How does that process work?
76 We send them at least two weeks before.
77 But I, I called them over a month ago to discuss the project and let them know about this upcoming process and the tce that's needed. And we hadn't heard back from them on the phone, but I'm glad to hear you did.
78 I did, yeah, I spoke with them and. Okay. Yeah.
79 Great. Thanks.
80 Great.
81 Thank you. Good. Good question. Councilor. Koyama Lane.
82 Thanks so much for being here. I just wanted to say how encouraging it is to see this safety project and see the scope of it, and see how the safe system approach is at the center of this, and have these examples of buffered bike lanes and sidewalks, and having the raised center median and safer crosswalks, more street lights. This is very exciting. Thank you.
83 Thank you.
84 Terrific. Since there's no one here to testify and we don't have any other questions, I would like to entertain a motion to move the ordinance document number 2026-334 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
85 So moved.
86 Second.
87 Great. So we've the motion has been moved by councilor Kanal seconded by councilor Koyama Lane. If there's no more discussion, would the clerk please call the roll.
88 Koyama Lane. I Smith.
89 I I.
90 Kanal Clark. I with four eyes and one absent the motion to refer the ordinance document number 2026-334 to the city council with a recommendation. It be passed, has been approved.
91 Great. Thank you both for being here today. Appreciate it. I now I assume you're on the next one as well. Diana, can you please read the next item? Sounds familiar.
92 Item number four, document number 2026-335. Authorize bureau of transportation to acquire certain temporary property rights necessary for construction of the southeast stark street, 100 and 111th to 151st street avenue. Project. Through the exercise of the city's eminent domain authority.
93 Thank you. Diana, I'm not going to repeat all that, but this is our second property rights ordinance to support infrastructure and safety improvements. I'm going to hand it off to elizabeth again and welcome heather.
94 Thank you. Thank you. And thank you again. For the record. My name is elizabeth tillstrom, capital project manager for PBOT. And I am now joined by my colleague heather byers, right of way agent for PBOT. And we are here to bring forward a right of way ordinance for temporary construction easement to the southeast stark street, southeast 111th, 251st avenue project. Some background on this project. So outer southeast stark is another designated high crash corridor in east Portland, where we've been working to address safety for all modes since 2018. And as part of this work, PBOT applied for and was awarded a grant through odot's all roads transportation safety program to construct enhanced pedestrian crossings at six key intersections on this corridor that includes 111, 119th, 137th, 141st and 151st in stark. And those crossings are designated with the blue pedestrian circles in the map below for reference. So for these crossings we have two different design concepts that will be applying. The concept on the left will still allow left turns into the neighborhood, while restricting left turns out to avoid the left turn movement conflict across that pedestrian crossing. We selected this design where we wanted to maintain and support access into the neighborhood at the intersection. Due to the surrounding grid street network either not being fully connected or would involve routes on unimproved streets. So we'll still be allowing left turns in at the intersection under concept one, but will be restricting left. Turns out the second design on the right is a full median concept that restricts left turns in and out. And so our traffic engineers recommended this version where we have good street connectivity and where alternative routes into and out of the neighborhood are on paved streets. We are also currently in the design for this project. It's very similar schedule to division. We'll continue design through this summer, and then we anticipate advertising the project for construction in fall of 2027 and beginning construction in spring 2028. This is a federally funded project through odot's arts program. The local match is being funded through gas tax revenue and fixing our streets funds. And finally, there's also been extensive public engagement related to the safety action plan on stark. Pbot conducted an 18 month engagement process when developing the safety action plan for stark through a funded planning process and crossing improvements were continually identified as one of the top priorities for the community community engagement around this project and the six plan crossings and other safety improvements along stark. Just as an aside, we have a larger capital project bringing additional safety improvements to the corridor also in design. So we've been talking about all of this comprehensively in the community and then direct outreach to the adjacent businesses and properties where we are planning. These crossings will also continue through design. And then, oh, I will now turn this over to heather to talk specifically about the two right of way files. We need, again, temporary construction easements related to our crossing at 119th aye, Morillo heather byers PBOT right of way.
95 So as liz said, we're seeking two temporary construction easements for this project. No permanent easements are being sought. So today we're seeking the authority to initiate negotiations and extend offers of just compensation to owners for the necessary easements. And again, if negotiations are unsuccessful, we may proceed with condemnation to obtain easements. Affected property owners have been notified via certified mail of the city's intent to acquire the easements. Again, similar to cully. Those are sent out a couple of weeks ago and both received, and they're notified of this committee and the council meeting. So these are the locations of the easements we're seeking. One of them is 65ft■!s. The other is 6363ft■!s. Just that those two properties in Green.
96 Well thank you. That concludes our presentation and available for any questions.
97 Great. That's not a lot of property. It's just a little sliver, isn't it? Yeah. Let's see. Councilor Smith, is this in your district?
98 Yes, ma'am.
99 Would you like to speak to it?
100 Yes, I would, a couple of things. And I've been listening to both of these easement requests. And you all say very confidently that you've sent letters, I think, in these kind of situations, in addition to sending letters, I think you all need to get folks on the phone because sending a letter, you know, it's, it's probably not going to work. And if you haven't heard a response, if you I know in that area, there are a lot of older residents and they may not be reading this, but it would be better if you could talk to them and not just depend on sending a letter and thinking that you've done your due diligence, because I think that's kind of. Not really hitting the mark for me. And particularly since you're talking about eminent domain, so that it's very clear what it is, if it's temporary, if it's permanent, and I I'm not feeling too comfortable with our, with our method of outreach. So could you tell me what, what you do if you don't hear from them, do you send out another letter or.
101 Good morning. Good morning, councilor Smith. This is millicent williams, interim dca for public works. I've asked that david mceldowney, our right of way manager, come forward to speak to the overall process. While we do engage through usps as a matter of making sure that we have things on record and that people are signing off, that they've received the information, we do hear you in suggesting that folks may not always understand what the ask is. And so I'd like for him to share what our overall process looks like, that people are not rushed to make decisions, that there are periods of negotiation that folks are engaging in. And generally speaking, we are pretty successful with moving forward items like this. But I just wanted you to hear from dave mceldowney, who runs the program and is able to speak with a great deal of experience, both from the city's perspective as well as the state's perspective about these types of transactions.
102 Well, I.
103 Appreciate that, dca williams, but I also understand that there's process and then there's actual what we actually do. Yes. So that that's what's concerning to me. I know we have a process.
104 And that's what I wanted dave to speak to. Councilor is not just the process, but some of the extra things that his right of way agents do to ensure that we're connecting with community appropriately.
105 Okay. Thank you.
106 Yes.
107 Good morning, counselors david mceldowney, property services division manager. I do want to say that this process is a long process. I mean, we're talking nine months or more from start to finish. So we do typically, the project managers have the initial contact with with the property owners or tenants so that they know the project's happening. But more to your point, for these meetings here, we do reach out by mail. I know carly was talking with the property owner either this morning or yesterday. Again, we do reach out. We will. I will take a finer look to make sure that we are calling everybody up beforehand. To your point, to ensure that that happens. So we will do that. But that's just for this meeting too. I do want to let you know that we either hand deliver and, you know, in person, or we certified mail. And plus all these letters that are sent out are certified mail to they have to be signed for they're not going out, just regular mail. And, but we, when we go into the offer phase, we, we make offers to the people, we meet with them. Nothing ends up, you know, going to imminent through the eminent domain route without several meetings that take place over months and months, the minimum federal laws, you know, 30 days in Oregon, we're at 40. We we stick to the the longer. But at the city, it's more like, you know, 90, 120 longer than that even before, because we always try to reach resolution. We have not had a trial. I cannot remember the last time, probably when I came on board the city, I think they had a trial for the big pipe project like 20 years ago, but we have not had any, any trials. We we typically resolve everything through through negotiation.
108 Thank you.
109 Okay. That kind of makes me feel a little bit better. I'm just concerned that, I mean, we use a lot of these words and we're familiar with them because we work with with, you know, easements every day. And I just want to make sure that they understand what's going to take place and that they're comfortable with knowing what is exactly happening. I appreciate you all taking care of some of these safety issues, particularly in district one, because we are we have many of the high crash corridor, highest locations in the city. And so to be able to make things a little bit simpler, to stop all the crashes, and I think this is important, but I also think that we also need to, you know, we could speed up the process by, by at the same time that we're calling that we're sending something out that we should be calling to just letting them know we're sending you out a letter, and that letter is going to explain what this is. And please don't hesitate to call me at that number that's in that letter. You know, and I think this process could kind of be streamlined too. And the reason why it's taking long is because people probably don't understand what's going on.
110 Now. I'll just follow up with that. You know, we share the same concern. We want to make sure that every property owner is comfortable with what we're doing. They understand the plans. They understand, you know, where our driveway is going to go, the timing of it. We don't want surprises from them. We we don't want them calling you saying that, you know, we didn't know what was going on. So we want to be very certain that they are comfortable with what the project is.
111 Thank you counselor.
112 Thank you.
113 Thank you david. Thank you. Counselor Smith councilor Kanal. Okay. Councilor. Koyama Lane. Did you have that? Was it legacy? Okay. All right. Well, thank you for the presentation. If there is no one here to testify on this and we don't have any other questions or comments, thank you so much. Let's see. I think we can proceed with entertaining a motion to move ordinance document number 2026335 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
114 So moved.
115 Second.
116 It's been moved by councilor Koyama Lane and seconded by councilor Smith. I don't see any other discussion. So the clerk, will you please call the role for us?
117 Koyama Lane. We're really cruising today. I.
118 Smith.
119 Aye, Morillo Kanal. Aye, Morillo clerk. Aye, Morillo with four eyes and one absent the motion to refer the ordinance document number 2026-335 to the city council with a recommendation be passed, has been approved.
120 Terrific. Thank you all for your good work. We really appreciate your being here and presenting such a clear overview. We really appreciate it. We are ahead of schedule, but I would like to recommend that we go ahead and take a break now, because we're going to have a long session updating the the tough and the street damage risk ratio. Do you feel okay, counselor Smith, are you okay with the break right now? Why don't we come back at I want to say 1035. That's a long break. 1035 thank you. All right. Welcome.
121 Your phone is on. Do you know how to turn that on? You can.
122 Her phone was on.
123 She might need help getting connected when she comes back in now. Okay.
124 Sorry. Just a slight slight delay. Technical. I think we turned it off.
125 Ocean.
126 She's outside. All right. Well, I think we can go ahead and proceed. Diana, would you please read the next item?
127 Item number five, document 2026-336. Update on local transportation funding. Investment strategy. Nonresidential methodology and financial assistance.
128 Thank you. Diana colleagues. This is our second update from PBOT on its work to implement all the directives from our work on the transportation utility fee and the street damage fee that we passed this spring. We specifically asked them today to really focus on the methodology that will be rolled out for commercial payers, as well as low income residents. So with that, I'm going to hand it off to dca williams and PBOT team.
129 Good morning again, council vice president Clark and members of the committee. For the record, my name is millicent williams, and I'm the interim deputy city administrator for public works. And I'm also temporarily acting as director of the Portland bureau of transportation until wendy cully returns later this week. So 37 more hours, and then I will be doing just one job. What fills me with pride as I step into this role is having had the opportunity to see firsthand the collaboration happening across our public works bureaus as we work in tandem to launch the transportation utility fee and street damage restoration fee programs. I'm glad to be here today in both of these roles, because this work is truly a service area wide effort. It involves teams from maintenance, engineering, project management, planning, vision zero finance, utility billing partners, and others. I want to take a moment to particularly thank the water bureau and the bureau of environmental services teams who've been involved with this work. You'll not hear a lot about this behind the scenes work, but it is essential to the success of this entire program. I also want to thank the PBOT staff you'll hear from today, as well as so many others. I especially want to thank gabe graf, who has stepped in as the project manager for this effort, working to ensure that the many different pieces are
130 Are all kept in motion at once. We have many updates for you today, so I will very quickly hand this end my comments and hand this over to shoshanna cohen to start the presentation.
131 Thank you. And good morning, council vice president Clark and members of the committee. For the record, I'm shoshanna cohen, chief of staff of the bureau of transportation. Here is our agenda for the presentation today. We'll start by quickly checking in on the implementation timeline. We'll go over the updated investment strategy. We'll update you on the work on financial assistance and nonresidential rate methodology. And we'll wrap things up with a quick update on the implementation of the street damage restoration fee. And then of course leave time for questions and discussion. Next slide please. This is the timeline for our work. We shared this with you before for July and August. Now as you'll see there shaded out and our September milestone is this morning's presentation. Next you'll see that though there will be a notification about the transportation utility fee in the fall utility bill mailer. This is just one of the items that we've been collaborating with the water bureau on. We also expect to be back before council with a final cleanup ordinance as we get ready for implementation. You'll see that in November, we'll be doing another update for utilities in the fall related to the street damage restoration fee also. And you can see along the bottom of the timeline that we've been working on, the administrative rules and other behind the scenes work to get ready for the street damage restoration fee over the summer. And that work will be continuing all fall. Of course, January 1st is the implementation date for both of the new revenue sources. In February, we will hold a hearing for the nonresidential methodology, and also in February will be hosting an open house in each district to share more information about how the revenue is being invested with the public. In a moment, gabe graf, our new project manager for this program, will go over the investment strategy. However, before I turn it over to gabe, we have stephanie landry here to say a few words. I believe stefan is online and stefan is the chair of the fixing our streets oversight committee. This committee previously oversaw our work related to the ten cent local gas tax and the heavy vehicle use tax. And while they're continuing with that work, they're also now taking on the oversight of these two local funding sources as well. We are incredibly grateful for stefan and the other committee volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to working with us, asking us critical questions, and providing direct community feedback. And so again, I believe stefan is online and I will pause. Oh, there he is. Okay.
132 Welcome, stefan. Hi.
133 Thank you. Shoshana. I'm stefan. I am one of the co-chairs of the fixing our streets oversight committee. I'm just going to touch quickly on our structure, our members, and our process. So we have about 15 folks. Myself and wayne bauer are the co-chairs. And currently we have six meetings a year to discuss updates on project selection process and project selection plan, project scopes and budgets and project scope and budget changes. And as co-chairs, wayne and I make recommendations on our meeting's agenda to ensure the committee is given a clear understanding of our committee's scope and that our committee has time to ask questions and give feedback during our meetings. The committee members are chosen by PBOT, and our membership has diverse experience and covering a lot of different roles in and outside of the transportation community. I myself a civil engineer, members obtain the members that we have have a genuine support of PBOT and their goals, but also possess a healthy dose of skepticism, which. And we are not shy to respectfully push back on on certain directions. Our members are invited. Were recently invited to step down in advance of this expanded role, which is now going to cover the two new fees. And so far, I don't believe anybody has done that. And the members are looking forward to the expanded services and projects that are going to come from the new funding sources, and that the bylaws are. I'm not sure they're either in the process of being updated or have already officially been updated. Lastly, I'm going to talk about our our process. Our oversight focus is centered around PBOT process in translating the funding increase into maintaining and expanding the existing service and capital improvement projects that are receiving funding from these aforementioned services. And the committee reviews the changes to previously agreed on projects and project scopes. And lastly, from my perspective, having PBOT prepare for and present their work to our committee on this regular basis is bringing us citizens, both taxpayers and transportation system users alike, a great value before anyone on the committee even starts to ask the first question. So that that is how our committee operates. And and I'm here if folks have some questions on that. And now I'll turn it over to gabe graf, who's going to discuss the programing.
134 Thank you so much. For the record, my name is gabe graf. I'm a capital project manager at the Portland bureau of transportation, and I'm the project manager. Standing up this transportation utility fee and street damage restoration fee. I appreciate the opportunity to provide you with an update on our work on the new local funding programs. As dc williams and shoshanah mentioned, when we last updated the public works committee, we shared how the transportation utility fund was being invested in our current fiscal year budget and promised to return with an investment strategy providing more details on how PBOT will invest funds from both the transportation utility fee and the street damage restoration fee. Looking forward to next fiscal year. Our first full year of revenue collection, and thanks to the hard work of many teams, I'm pleased to share that we have completed this investment strategy that was guided by council directives when enacting these revenues. Over the next few slides, I'll walk you through the strategy and the six programmatic funding areas and our projected investments in each for the next fiscal year. We've also included the full strategy as an exhibit. Should you wish to delve further. Next slide. Thank you. The investment strategy speaks to the investment revenues from both the transportation utility fee and the street damage restoration fee. In all cases, we grounded our work in council direction provided in April. By this direction, 100% of the revenues from the street damage restoration fee are to be invested in pavement maintenance and coordination. To this end, we have established a dedicated street damage restoration fund that will house these revenues and invest in this much needed work. Can I get the next slide? Thank you. Similarly, for the transportation utility fee, we have established a transportation utility fund which will house the revenues for this fee brings in and will invest in categories of work per council direction and the ordinance that established the fee. You'll see here that our direction was to dedicate three quarters of all the revenues in the transportation utility fund to maintaining and preserving our transportation infrastructure. As shared previously, this funding has been critical in avoiding severe cuts in our five year forecast and stabilizing our maintenance and operations program. One quarter of the revenue is dedicated to safety, with an even split between vision zero safety work 12.5% and on objectives outlined by council for the sidewalk improvement and paving program, or cip. Also at 12.5%. The programing of this safety funding builds off prior good work in both these program areas. Next slide. Thank you. This table outlines the full investment framework for fiscal year 2027 and 2028 across the street damage restoration fund and the transportation utility fund. Beginning with the street damage restoration fund, you'll see that projected revenues are entirely dedicated to pavement maintenance and coordination. We are programing this $10.7 million for next fiscal year as contingency in our budget due to forecast uncertainty specific to this fund. Working down the table for the transportation utility fund, three fourths of the revenue again is dedicated to maintenance work with 15.7 million for pavement maintenance, 3.2 million for pavement striping maintenance, 8.1 million for signal and street light maintenance, and 5.1 million for local street cleaning. On the safety side, 25% dedication works out to 5.3 million for next fiscal year to be invested in vision zero work, and another 5.3 million to be invested in sidewalks and alternative pathways consistent with cip. Finally, we are budgeting $4 million for next fiscal year and the transportation utility fund program contingency to allow for revenue impacts from proposed methodology changes that mark will talk about extending low income discount tenant to tenants in multifamily units not eligible for financial assistance under the city's existing financial assistance programs, which cynthia will discuss and forecast uncertainty with the fund. All told, the investment strategy details 57.4 million in investment in the next fiscal year. Can I get the next slide? Thank you. Now I'll provide an overview of each of the six programmatic investment areas, starting with the largest category which is pavement maintenance. Here you'll see we're programing up to $26.4 million in this category for next fiscal year, including the $10.7 million of funding from the street damage restoration fund, which we are showing as contingency. This category of work is focused on pavement maintenance, including grind and paves seals, including crack seals and slurry seals, which prolong the life of existing pavement by preventing water from getting through base repair. Where we tackle segments of road where water has gotten through, and damage to the supporting structure underneath the roadway surface filling potholes. And we also will be evaluating contracting out more complex and challenging paving projects to local contractors utilizing that street damage restoration fund. And all the categories will be discussing today. The team has put time into thinking about how to prioritize projects and maintenance activities across the city. You'll see these criteria in each of these slides for each of these six programmatic areas for paving, work will be spread across all four districts in the category, with a focus on streets of citywide significance. These are streets that play critical roles in moving people and goods across Portland. These streets support transit, high volume travel, freight movement, emergency response, and neighborhood greenways, which are our priority pedestrian and bicycle routes. We also look for opportunities to further our safety work and leverage opportunities with our sister bureaus across public works and other partners. Our pothole work is responsive based on community reports and regular staff assessments, and I'll note that our long term goal is to be able to perform timely pavement maintenance, preventing the potholes from developing in the first place. On all categories of work we'll be discussing today, we are committed to transparent reporting, and you'll see here our reporting metrics in this category are Lane miles paved and the number of potholes filled. Moving on to signals and street lights. This work is also in the maintenance category, also funded by the transportation utility fee, with $8.1 million programed in next fiscal year. The work will be focused on a few areas repairing streetlight, knockdowns and vandalism, applying protective coatings to street lights and signal and rapid flashing beacon maintenance and reconstruction. Like all of maintenance work, while this is maintenance in the maintenance category, there are clear safety benefits to these investments as well. The signals and street lighting lighting maintenance team is coordinating closely with our vision zero team to leverage opportunities to enhance safety alongside maintenance work. Work in this category will also be spread across all four districts, with work prioritized based on the asset condition, how long the disrepair has lasted, and whether the infrastructure in question is on our high crash network for performance metrics in this investment category, we will track the number of signals rebuilt and street lights repaired or repainted. Starting next fiscal year. The transportation utility fund will ensure our long line pavement markings are well maintained across the city. The $3.2 million allocated for fiscal year 2027 and 2028 will allow the bureau to perform twice yearly striping maintenance on the long yellow and white lanes across Portland, roughly 4100 miles of them. This refreshed striping will be retroreflective, improving visibility at night and in the rain. Crews will perform a third restriping refresh on priority high crash corridors like marine drive for these investment areas. For this investment area, we will report on the total Lane miles striped. And I'll just note that PBOT has separately funded programs for other pavement marking maintenance, like the refreshing of crosswalk markings and of sharrows and that kind of thing. Next slide. Now on to local street cleaning. Our local street sweeping program was eliminated in fiscal year 2020 324 due to severe budget constraints, and we're pleased to be able to restore and expand the program thanks to the transportation utility fund, which will fully fund the program in fiscal year 2020 728 with $5.1 million. We've already begun gearing up for this work, which will clean local streets multiple times per year starting next fiscal year. Street sweeping equipment is specialized and has long lead times, and we have already ordered four new street sweepers to get ready, with one already in the lot. Our performance metrics for this work are the number of local street Lane miles swept. And I'll note, similar to the striping that we have separately funded street cleaning programs for major arterial streets and for the downtown core. And our bike Lane sweep sweeping program is also separately funded and supported by PCEF. Next slide. And now we move to the safety category and the sidewalks and alternative pathways investment area. Here we have $5.3 million programed in next fiscal year. This work is informed by the prior work on the sidewalk improvement and paving program, or cip. Our project selection here builds off existing plans such as ped pdx, with a careful look to project readiness so we can stretch our limited dollars as far as possible. Initially, these funds will be focused on a few sidewalk infill projects like the one you see on southeast flavel, pictured here for the first year of the program. We've identified shovel ready small projects in districts one and four that we are able to complete easily. Looking forward, we are drafting a more comprehensive list of potential sidewalk and alternative pathway projects, building off previously previous planning and engagement efforts, and we'll be sharing this longer list and gathering feedback on it through our community engagement at our February open houses plan for each district. Our performance metrics in this category are the number of sidewalk and alternative pathway projects built. And last but not least, our final investment areas in vision zero. With $5.3 million programed in next fiscal year, with funds supporting both programmatic and capital investments. On the programmatic side, we are investing in safety analysis, project identification and development, community engagement, and safety evaluations that ensure our capital investments in safety are having the desired results. The capital investments in vision zero category for this fiscal year are focused on high crash intersections and segments, where we can make the most cost effective improvements that will make our streets safer. We will have additional candidate small scale vision zero projects to share with the public. Also this February during our round of public open houses. Like all our vision zero work, these projects will be data driven and focused on the high crash network. Our. Like I said, our vision zero work is data driven at every level, including project prioritization, prioritization, and will be focused in this category on our high injury road segments. Our performance metrics will be the number of high crash intersections and high crash roadway segments improved. And I'll hand it over to cynthia.
135 Thank you gabe. For the record, my name is cynthia castro and I'm PBOT policy and special projects analyst. It is a pleasure to be here today to update you on the progress of our work to fulfill council's direction related to transportation, utility fee. Financial assistance. Next slide. This slide summarizes directives from the transportation utility fee adoption ordinance that have been guiding our work. The city has existing utility financial assistance programs available to income, qualified single family households, and regulated, affordable multifamily residential properties that will extend to the tough. We are tasked with ensuring that income qualified multifamily residents who do not. Who are not directly billed for water, sewer and stormwater services and are therefore not eligible for the existing city utility. Financial assistance programs receive an equivalent discount provided to single family residential accounts. Providing financial assistance directly to multifamily tenants is a challenge that our utility bureau and water utilities nationally, nationally have grappled with for years. This is because water, sewer and stormwater charges are frequently master metered and embedded in rent, which means most traditional bill discount programs miss individual tenants entirely. To inform our work to develop approaches for providing transportation utility fee financial assistance directly to multifamily residents, we were directed to consult with the city's data and privacy office and to engage with community based organizations, nonprofits, nonprofits, renters rights organizations, and the Portland utility board. Finally, we are to provide a report and recommendations to council on options for assistance, discount amounts, and delivery methods by December 31st of this year. Our goal today is to provide you updates on our on our progress. Next slide. Here are additional transportation utility fee financial assistance directives from the ordinance that are related to implementation. We are to provide a simple and accessible application process with options for online, in-person and community based assistance. Residents approved for the relief shall remain eligible for a period of no less than two years before they are required to recertify, and whatever program we establish will not be effective unless residents are aware of it and can access it. To help achieve this, we are to conduct outreach and partner with community based organizations to spread the word. Next slide. This is a slide to remind you of the city's existing utility financial assistance programs, as well as the amount of discounts provided to residents through each individual program. The figures you see on this slide are for fiscal year 2025. I will talk more about the two programs on the far left linke and ramp, as they are the most relevant for the transportation utility fee. I will take a moment, though, to mention that the utility bureau also offers the crisis program, which provides one time vouchers for customers who have had a personal crisis that affected their ability to pay their bill, and the clean river rewards program, which provides a discount to ratepayers who safely manage stormwater on their property. You'll see the bureau of planning sustainability logo on the slide, and that's because the bureau's new garbage billing financial assistance program is also partnering with the utility bill to provide discounts to single family garbage customer accounts. Next slide. Link is the single family, low income discount program offered by the utility bill by the utility bureau. The link discount is available to low income, qualified single family residential utility customers. Currently, there are approximately 12000 active link participants. What this means for the transportation utility fee is link participants will automatically receive the discount, so no additional application or steps are required of link participants. To receive the discount. Participants will receive a 50% discount, which is $6 per month. Link already offers online and paper applications and community based assistance options, which aligns with council's directions for financial assistance. Link also requires participants to recertify every two years. This will be the same for the transportation utility fee discount applied through the link program. Next slide. The utility bureau also manages the regulated affordable multifamily assistance program, also known as ramp. Ramp provides utility bill discounts for multifamily properties approved through the housing bureau's nonprofit low income housing limited exemption program, with the expectation that they will pass the discount savings to their tenants. There are 194 properties participating in ramp, reaching over 11,500 units. Those properties participating in ramp will automatically receive the transportation utility fee discount. So again, they do not need they do not have to take any additional steps. They will receive a 50% discount, which amounts to $4.20 per month per dwelling unit. Ramp has their own program guidelines that we will follow, including their annual recertification recertification requirement. Next slide. Now I will talk about our work to develop approaches to provide transportation utility fee, financial assistance to income qualified multifamily residents who are not eligible for the financial assistance programs I've just mentioned, because they are not directly charged for water, sewer, and stormwater services. I want to acknowledge the team behind this work, including my PBOT colleagues, adriana aguilar and angel ortiz. Our team also consulted kenny scott, the water bureau's financial assistance program manager, throughout our process. Kenny has been a tremendous resource and sounding board, and we greatly appreciate his ongoing partnership. Beginning in June, we reviewed online research of existing financial assistance and community resource programs. We looked at transportation, utility fees, specific discount programs, utility bill discount specific specific programs, and other low income discount and community resource programs. More broadly, in the early stages of our work, our team met with staff from the city data and privacy office who shared resources related to data protection, best practices, and provided direction about the kinds of program information that we need to contemplate. And it has helped, and that is helpful for them to advise us. We also met with representatives of several organizations and programs to learn about their experiences with providing financial assistance and other community resources. This included some internal programs like the bureau of planning and sustainability, garbage billing, financial assistance program, and PBOT transportation wallet access for all program, as well as outside organizations like the city of hillsboro, the city of austin and suma. There were some themes that stood out to us through our research for transportation utility fee discounts, we saw a reliance on bills to apply the discount, which still excludes tenants not directly billed. We saw approaches based on income, qualification and other approaches that are based on incentivizing behavior change. Many cities have spent years, if not decades, looking into solutions to provide multifamily residents who are not directly billed for water services with financial assistance. We've seen cases where programs were implemented with a phased approach to fine tune as they learn and adapt over time. We also looked at how financial assistance programs are funded, and found that many programs may set standard rates higher to fund financial assistance programs and or add surcharges. Next slide. These are the different discount approaches that emerge in our process. The first is a property based discount pass through model. In this model, the utility discounts the master metered property account with the expectation that the owner will pass the discount through to the tenants through different forms like rent reductions, credits, or service enhancements. Another utility discount approach we looked at is across utility crediting model. For this model, another bill that the tenant does receive, such as an electric bill, is used as the vehicle of delivering the discount. The third model is a direct tenant rebate or credit model. Tenants apply to receive the discount and they are sent a rebate via a mailed check, loaded debit or gift card, a digital app or potentially another delivery method. The last model would take a similar approach at PBOT transportation wallet access for all program, which provides prepaid cards to portlanders living on low incomes to help them pay for transportation related services such as transit, rideshare or e-bike and e-scooter share. Next slide. For each of these models, there are things we must consider and that are that we are continuing to examine. The property based model relies on the property owner or manager to comply and pass the discount to their tenants. It can be hard to know if the discount ever reaches the tenant. The utility bureau's rent program is an example of this property based model and is. One means in which we are providing transportation utility fee financial assistance. We know that the utility bureau is continuing to evaluate ramp, and we will stay in close coordination with them. We are also aware that there are other affordable housing models out there that have not fit into our utility financial system programs that we are interested in learning more about. Our team met with the city this. Sorry. Our team met with staff from the city of austin to learn more about the utility model. In practice, it has proven effective. There. However, austin's utility environment is different than Portland because the city controls multiple utility services, including including electric. In Portland, the city manages water, sewer, stormwater and garbage services, but electric services are provided by pg and pacific power. Adopting a cross utility approach for the tough would require our utility partners willingness to partner with us, as well as agreements and ongoing coordination between our agencies. We are still evaluating the feasibility of the cross utility approach with our utility partners. The rebate or credit model would allow us to reach tenants directly, and it does work in our utility environment. This approach would also provide participants with agency to choose how they spend the funds. This option would require significant administrative setup. However, we are also still evaluating the feasibility of this option using an approach like the transportation wallet. Access for all model would also reach tenants directly. There would be a nexus with transportation, and we could leverage an established program. However, this. This approach would limit funds to being used on transportation services and would require administrative capacity and or efficiencies to scale up. We are continuing to evaluate the feasibility of this option as well. Next slide. Over the past seven weeks, we met with 17 organizations or groups representing housing providers, tenants, utilities, and community based organizations and nonprofits. We also attended a Portland utility board meeting to present to them about our work and elicit their feedback. During this period, we expanded our internal engagement by meeting with additional city offices and programs, including sf's e-bike rebate program and accounting services. Some themes that stood out, some themes that stood out to us through these very rich conversations included a strong emphasis on communication and education to prospective participants, including being present out in the community to share information. We heard how important it is to keep the program low barrier and accessible for participants. For example, technology, language access and application requirements were shared consistently as barriers for participation. We also received feedback to design a relief program that minimizes the administrative burden for both city staff and community organizations. We received varying feedback about the different discount delivery methods. We heard a sentiment that property owners or landlords pay the bill, so they should receive the discount. But more often we heard concerns about relying on property owners or landlords to provide the benefit to tenants providing a discount on another bill, such as an electric bill, was the most popular option because it is provided directly to the tenant and is efficient. This was followed by prepaid cards, which would again be provided directly to the tenant, and gives participants flexibility in how they spend the funds. Many organizations that we spoke with had direct experience with providing prepaid cards to community members, such as. During COVID, we heard about some challenges like utilization, hacking, added costs, and administrative load to minimize administrative burden and to make the discount more attractive. There was agreement that providing the full year's value of the discount, which is $50 per year upfront and in one installment, would be preferable. The transportation wallet access for all program was also one that one organization shared was well received by residents they worked with, because it helped them cover the cost of transportation to get to places like doctor appointments. We greatly appreciate the time that staff from these organizations and our city colleagues spent with us to share their vast experiences and feedback. Next slide. There's still a lot of work to do to evaluate the feasibility of the different discount options. We plan to further engage with our utility partners about the feasibility for across utility crediting partnership. We will continue to evaluate the feasibility of the different financial assistance approaches overall, and we are aiming to return in November with a recommendation for transportation, utility fee multifamily financial assistance approaches. Thank you. And now I'll pass it over to mark lear.
136 Thanks, cynthia. I'm mark lear. I serve as PBOT resource partnership and policy manager. Today I'm going to provide an update on the work we are doing related to the transportation utility fee, commercial nonresidential rate methodology and appeals process. Next slide. As this slide indicates, the first year of the. In the first year of the program, the commercial rate is 4.3% of a businesses water, sewer and stormwater charge. This phase one approach ensures that businesses pay their fair share. While we develop a phase two methodology and a billing system database. In phase one, council directed PBOT to provide relief for nonresidential users where the water, sewer and stormwater bill is disproportionate to the transportation impact. Council also directed PBOT to work with the revenue division in coordination with this public works committee for a phase two impact based transportation utility fee for commercial properties that could begin January 1st, 2028. Next slide. We are currently in the process of developing alternative methodologies for February rate hearing. The transportation utility fee ordinance requires that, at a minimum, we present two potential methodologies. First, a trip based transportation utility fee similar to 31 other cities that currently have transportation utility fees and a second a land use based methodology with a combined per unit and parcel square footage rate model. In order to develop these alternative methodologies, we are currently reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of other tough programs in Oregon and across the country, developing a database that will allow us to establish a rate structure, analyzing revenue and billing system implications, and analyzing impacts on small businesses. After holding the rate hearing, PBOT will report back in April with a recommendation that could be implemented January 1st, 2028. Next slide. In order to provide a little more background on this work, I have included a couple of slides that highlight how the nonresidential portion of transportation utility fee is collected in hillsboro. This slide. This slide shows the basic principle behind hillsboro's transportation utility fee. Different land uses generate very different amounts of traffic, so they shouldn't be charged in the same way. On the residential side, hillsboro distinguishes between a house and an apartment, as we do in Portland. Based on the average trips per property type. The difference between types of properties and trips generated per 1000ft■!s of improvement is much larger for commercial properties. As this slide highlights, 1000 square foot office generates about 11 trips per day per 1000ft■!s, while 1000 square foot drive thru restaurant generates about 67 trips per day, roughly six times as many, six times as many. So the important takeaway is that hillsboro's exact rates. It's the methodology. The. The fee is meant to reflect the transportation demand associated with the type and size and intensity of the land use. That's particularly relevant to our phase two work in Portland. Some good news is we can use the same general concept. We're relying on Portland specific trip generation information and land use categories included, including the work already embedded in our development review system. Hopefully this will give us a path forward or path toward a commercial rate structure that is more proportional to the transportation impact, more defensible, and easier to explain. Next slide. These next slides show how the principles translated actual monthly charges mean hillsboro residential customers pay fixed amounts based on average trip generation by property type, house or apartment, not residential properties pay a rate per 1000ft■!s based on the type of business and expected trip generation. So an office or a manufacturing facility may pay less than a much smaller fast food or drive thru business because of because the smaller use can generate more trips. Next slide. This slide provides a little more detail on how hillsboro sets its commercial rate, rather than creating a different rate for every individual business type. Hillsboro groups businesses into seven categories or bins based on similar trip generation per 1000ft■!s, each bin has its own rate per 1000ft■!s, so businesses that tend to generate more trips pay a higher rate for the same amount of floor area. Hillsboro also includes a base charge, which helps ensure that every commercial account contributes at least a minimum toward the transportation system. This general approach is pretty consistent with how transportation utility fees are structured across Oregon. Cities vary in the details, particularly in how many categories or bins they have and how they set the rates within each of those bins. For Portland, we plan to develop one phase two scenario using the trip generation approach based on square footage of improvements similar to other Oregon cities, and also to create a second scenario based on parcel size. So at this point, we are not selecting a specific methodology. We are developing alternatives that we can evaluate and compare. Next slide. The last piece I want to cover is how we are thinking about the transition from phase one to phase two, and how we are proposing to handle the phase one appeals process. Once we finalize the phase two methodology and develop the billing database, we will be able to calculate what every commercial account would have paid under phase two and compare that with they actually paid in phase one. If an account paid more under phase one, the billing system will automatically credit the full difference. At the beginning of phase two, businesses would not. Under this proposal, businesses would not need to file an appeal or provide supporting documentation, and we will not go back and charge businesses that paid less in phase one. Next slide. We think that there are several advantages to doing this automatically. First, it's fair. Second, it's efficient and transparent. We can run the same calculation for every commercial account instead of requiring hundreds of individual appeals. We're hopeful that this is particularly helpful for small businesses that may not have the time or information to challenge the initial bill in in a traditional process, and most importantly, this process ensures that no commercial commercial account would end up paying more in phase one than it would have paid under the final phase two methodology. Next slide. This last slide highlights the remaining work and schedule. Over the next couple of months, we will continue developing the alternative rate methodologies, including the trip generation approach. We discussed, approaches we discussed today, and an alternative based on parcel size. We will also be developing materials and doing outreach so businesses can understand the approaches before rate hearings and inform those decisions. And we will continue looking specifically at how different approaches affect small businesses. Our current schedule is to hold a rate rate design hearing in February 2027, followed by city council consideration of a phase two rate design in April. Now, I'll hand it back over to shoshana. Thank you.
137 Thank you. Mark, I will just provide a quick update on the work underway on the street damage restoration fee. Next slide please. So just as Portland residents are supporting street maintenance with the transportation utility fee, the street damage restoration fee ensures that utilities and others who dig trenches in our streets contribute their fair share toward long term pavement preservation. Since we last presented to you, our team has made significant headway on the stakeholder outreach and cross bureau engagement front, we've analyzed feedback from our comprehensive utility survey sent to both private utility partners, including electric, gas and telecom, and our public utility bureaus. Additionally, we've met directly with leadership from the bureau of environmental services, Portland water bureau, Portland parks and recreation, our unified capital improvement team, and Portland permitting and development effective coordination between our public works bureaus and with both external and internal utility partners really is going to require dedicated capacity, and we're committing a program coordinator exclusively to this ongoing work. Finally, on the administrative front, PBOT staff are currently finalizing updates to the draft administrative rules governing street openings and utility permitting, and this will include going through a public comment process, which will begin in a few weeks. These updated rules will establish clear, consistent fee calculation standards outlined permit requirements, define exceptions for emergency repairs, and integrate our permitting software to track utility cuts and assessment data. And these structural preparations are really hoping to ensure that when the fee takes effect in January, the rules will protect our pavement investments and incentivize smarter pavement management of our public right of way. Next slide. Wrapping this up. Now, I know we've been talking for a long time, just quickly with some next steps. So as mentioned, we expect to be back in November with a clean up ordinance to ensure that the code reflects the final amendments that were part of the April ordinance will also bring recommendations. We expect at that time around the financial assistance. Then the next. Of course, everything will go into effect in January, and then in February we'll be holding a rate hearing, and in April we'll then come back for action on the phase two methodology after that rate hearing. And I think in February, we're also going to do the open houses which are on there. So thank you again for the opportunity to present. And that concludes our presentation.
138 Thank you. This is an amazing lift. This is a lot of work. I really appreciate every member of the team and you are a team. I see that really pulling together. These are very some very complex issues. I think particularly for the low income side. Thank you cynthia. That was a great presentation. I can see you've done a lot of work on that. And we could be plowing really new ground. I'm glad to see that you reached out to other entities. I'm really glad to see, mark, that you provided us with another example from hillsboro. I think it was helpful to think about that. This is this is what this is so important because it's what people touch every single day, you know, top to bottom. I have lots of questions. I'm sure my colleagues do too. I'm not even sure where to start. I this is so much material, but let me if you don't mind, colleagues, I'll just kick it off with a few questions. It really ranges the the gamut here. There's just so much to it. Back to the very beginning on the pothole repair. This is what everybody, you know in Portland is concerned about. I'm just wondering, and we can do this offline too, but I would like to learn more about how the pothole repair will be prioritized. You know, I hear about this from my constituents all the time. They all have their own ideas of what priorities are. So I want to talk to you more about that. We can do that offline. And I'm wondering, where do stop signs fall in these categories? You know, I hear a lot about, oh, we want a stop sign. We want a four way stop. I get a lot of that. Where, where does that fall in, in this overall.
139 Councilor, if I may, regarding the pothole prioritization, and I know we've talked about it a lot, we will continue to do what the bureau has done in terms of when we receive a report which any resident can call in a pothole, we within 30 days go out and make repairs. So I think that we will need to continue to make sure that people know that they can help us to address the needs that they see, by helping us to know that the need exists. In addition, however, as we're out preparing, say, one pothole, if we see an area that is particularly riddled with places that need attention, we'll do more than just that singular location. The goal is really smoother streets. As we've also discussed, it's not just about filling the hole, it's about creating the opportunity for us to not have to fill potholes. And so some of those instances will require or give us the opportunity to do a little bass repair or a half block, quick grind and pave where that's allowable. So, but people can help us to prioritize that. There are also areas that we know that people don't report. And so we've discussed how we've done a pothole palooza or excuse me, a March madness where we knew that people were underreporting in district one, and we went to locations east of 82nd avenue and did a full assessment and created the opportunity for the teams to respond in that way. So we'll be looking at a different a series of different ways to address that really pronounced need to fill potholes. And I know the team can provide greater context and insight there. But and thank you for the opportunity for us to get back to you on that with regard to stop signs. And I do wish that wendy was here as the city traffic engineer who helps to inform the technical expertise on the placement of stop signs. I know that a lot of complaints and concerns come in to the bureau about, oh, we should be able to put a stop sign here. It looks like we should mark a crossing here. There are reasons for the placement of the direction, of the frequency of stop signs and other traffic management concepts and tools, and so allow us to provide that insight to you. I know that shoshana can probably also share some things, but as we talk about safety, we would not fail to look comprehensively at a problem if we're solving for one thing. The hope is that we would be able to solve for others. And this is not vision zero. This is basic maintenance. This is basic safety and something that is on the forefront of our minds all the time as we're working to do our basic work. So one of the things that we will share is that often when community comes to us to suggest a treatment, the team does go out. A two three staff team does go out. They do the assessment, they determine what is appropriate and what's warranted. Sometimes the treatments that people would like are not the tool that is most appropriate. And there are any number of reasons for that. So we're going to have to work in partnership with community to help them to understand that if we say, no, it's not no, period, it's no but or yes. And because sometimes the solutions that people think would be the most expedient and helpful are not the ones that align with the broader system need. So more to come on that.
140 And if I may just add one piece, in addition, the 83 safe program, which was just referenced, actually one of the reasons we didn't talk too much about that is it's not currently being covered by the transportation utility fee. So this is helping stabilize many of our programs. But we also still have other, you know, other small safety programs and various other things. So that's one of the reasons we didn't get into it too much here.
141 I think it would be helpful.
142 For me and potentially my colleagues, if you would send us something that we could put in our newsletters. Just to remind people, if you have a pothole or some other request, here's what you do, and we can push that out so that people have a better understanding. I don't think everybody knows what to do. Maybe they call, you know, the 3311311. Yes. But I.
143 Think it's also a tool.
144 Yeah. But and other cities have things like that called fix it. I think seattle has a fix it line where you can anything that you need fixed and there's some sort of triage. But I think that would be helpful for me anyway, if you could send me a paragraph or something that I can put in my newsletter to let people know, this is this is what you do, how you process it, shift gears. I want to talk a little bit about the commercial side with mark. I'm I'm really this is one of the things that makes me the most nervous about the implementation of the tough and the fact that we're going to go ahead and use the 4.3% in the first year and then come back and, and reevaluate. I'm really nervous about that. I guess I just want to say, and I don't know, this may be blasphemy, but if we were to delay that implementation, what that would cost us, and I'm curious to know which business organizations you've reached out to, if any, so far. And I'm I notice in the hillsboro example, I'm glad they've carved out restaurants because we heard a lot about the water use of restaurants may be artificially high or very high, higher. So they're going to be paying even more in the first year and then get a rebate the second year. Just I'm concerned about that, how that's going to work, how we're, you know, businesses are going to get this 4.3% and later we'll we'll help you out on that. It just it's just awkward. Anyway, I just want to throw that out there. I'd like to know more about your outreach efforts to the all those constituencies and the commercial area. And you can, you know, we can talk about that now. I don't know if you're if you're all interested in that and hearing from mark a little bit about that.
145 Sure. I can say a couple of things about it. First, just the revenue impact of delaying the commercial side of the transportation utility fee would be about 30% of the total revenue. And we did the calculations at a high level based on the number of trips that are generated by residential and commercial properties. The basic math was about 30% of the trips, and the way they did that model was on the commercial side. So that would be the impact, the outreach that we've done so far. The first steps that we took on our outreach to businesses was to reach out to a team of people in prosper at prosper, especially in their small businesses group, because we want to be as proactive as we can in getting that information out. We also are going to be including some information in the utility bill that goes out that gives, you know, when people get that information on the commercial side, will be able to understand that process will include information related to the appeals as a piece of that. So I think that's going to be really helpful. The one thing that is just a little bit challenging is that, you know, we can be really clear about what's happening in phase one in that first year of the program, but because we're, you know, committed to having a real process where we bring two scenarios to those February rate hearings. It's, you know, we can't really describe the outcome of those rate hearings or council's deliberation on that. So we're going to do our very best to make sure that we're really engaged and really working closely with prosper's small business team. Mitch over there has been really helpful to make sure that we're getting information out. We're meeting with the different groups. Again, I do think the appeals process is much better than it could have been if we had that process of trying to have people do the paperwork in that first year period. But we are, you know, it's going to be a little bit of a step by step process where we're describing phase one, we're describing the options in that deliberation related to phase two. I mean, that's going to happen pretty quickly between now and February with council making decisions in April. But it's a little bit hard to describe what happens in phase two until we've gone through that deliberation.
146 I appreciate that. I'm really glad to hear you're reaching out to the small businesses through prosper. I think Mitch does a great job. Can you just remind me how we got to the 4.3%? How did we calculate that?
147 Yeah, the we the because we reached recently had done the work related to the flood safety benefit fee, which they they generated that revenue as a percentage of the commercial nonresidential accounts. It was once we knew what the 30% of the revenue needed to be based on, you know, doing the math of how much revenue was generated by the residential side at the at the residential rates. Then we could the math was pretty simple because we knew kind of how to prorate that based on the revenue that was coming in from the flood safety benefit fee.
148 I think, mark, to say there's in all 31 cities, there is this balance between what the residential and and the nonresidential are paying. And so that's the right starting with what would what is the overall balance that makes sense based on trip generation in Portland? That's how we got to the 70%, 30%. And then the 4.3% followed from that.
149 Yeah. Thanks for the real reminder of that. That was a while back that. We discussed that. I appreciate that. I'm going to ask councilor Koyama Lane to speak next. Thank you so much.
150 Thank you.
151 Thank you. Chair. I first wanted to start with, I remember a few years ago, I was meeting with different advocates about, you know, what their hopes are for this new council and, and how we can fix our streets. And I was like, what are some of them worked in PBOT and I was like, well, what do you think we need to do? And they described the tough. And they were like, it's, it's going to be hard to pass. And I'm just, I was just thinking about like how we're here. And we really led on that. And you were an amazing leader. And I think leadership is like when you're willing to do something that you're going to get pushback on, even like people that are your supporters disappointing them. And so I just want to say thank you to that. That's, that's how we got here. I wanted to ask a little bit. I mean, I'm really interested in the financial assistance piece. I'm wondering if someone can talk a little bit more about it's called my suma. It sounds like we've like bts has contracted with them. And I'm wondering if someone can talk a little bit more about the benefit of that, comparing it to kind of the prepaid debit cards and the checks. I know that sometimes those come with fees. I know we my husband and I just took my for my kids birthday. We went to a hops game and we're like, oh, we'll get visa cards so the kids can go get their own lunches. And it's like $5 to activate each one. So we didn't even do that. We just were like, we'll use just everyone come with me in order at the same time, but wondering, what are some of the benefits? Can we hear more about suma? Is that a real thing that we can really consider? What are some pros?
152 Yeah, sure. I'm happy to jump in. So yeah, we did engage with alan and learned about suma through the during the development of the tough phase. And so we were introduced to that community resource app during the development phase. During my engagement process, I did ask about specifically this concept of, you know, resources being added to like a phone app or then people can use it to access, you know, whatever vendors are available on that app to, you know, access those different resources. Like I mentioned with in the engagement technology was brought up as a barrier that many community members still face. We did receive feedback specifically from an organization who had experience with suma. And it, I mentioned in my, my notes that, you know, considering the administrative load for not just city staff, but community organizations as well. And so because of those continued technology barriers, it required a lot of capacity from staff in order to help individuals navigate that. So certainly we are still, you know, exploring and in the process of evaluating different approaches. As I mentioned, prepaid card was something that many organizations had more familiarity and experience with, including our own utility bureau, who said that it was very popular when they were providing that during COVID. You mentioned transaction fees. That is something we also heard as something to consider. And but we also know that through potential like program design, there are many elements that we could address as well.
153 Can I add? I think it is still sort of in consideration as one of the options in that direct, you know, direct financial assistance category. And if we were to want to if, you know, in the continued outreach and evaluation, it seems like something like an app based mechanism is the way to go. I think we would have to do an RFP and see who could, you know, even if even if all, all directions point to that, we can't say here, we're just going to contract. We assume it would be an RFP, RFP process at that point to find a vendor.
154 And I wanted to underscore that in order for us to engage any vendor, any contract support, we would need to go through a competitive, fair, consistent process that aligns with procurement expectations. And so while I think there are any number of benefits with the tool that you've raised, and our team has met with alan and understand the app in ways that we could align it with this work. It will be important for us to, especially given the scrutiny of the program overall, that we cross every t and dot every I regarding who we engage as partners in support of implementation of this work.
155 Yeah.
156 That makes sense. And bringing up the point of you also need to have resources to help people figure out how to navigate this. You know, every time I get a new app, I'm like, oh, I am getting older. Technology isn't always as easy as it used to be. Well, thank you so much for bringing this forward. I'm really excited to see this move forward. And as always, I'm really excited to talk about vision zero and how that intersects with also age friendly Portland priorities. Looking at slide 13, I'm excited to see the program programmatic bullet points and some of those capital improvements. I love seeing that. You know, that's what's important is we're really looking at these limited funds and thinking about how are we using the data to make sure that we're using that money in the best way possible. And I'm just wondering if, you know, while I know I see some people who focus on vision zero, I also know dc a, you also know a lot about vision zero and that there's a lot of commitment. And I'm just wondering, is there anything that you or others would want to add to this capital improvements list or have on our radar? Not that like it's set in stone, but what are are there any things that you want us to be focusing on a little bit more? I know that my team just got to tour the traffic center. Thank you so much, dc williams for that and got to learn more about lidar and that new tool, which are being being installed along powell. And they, they sense when pedestrians and bikes are in crosswalks. And if we want to do this offline also. But, you know, I hear like different things like do rest and read, do like, are there any things that you, you want us to be thinking about and making our one of our next things that we highlight?
157 Thank you, councilor, for the question and for the opportunity to provide some feedback. I think what would be most helpful for the bureau is the continuation of the broader themes versus the very specific prescription for what we will do. As we know, every corridor has different needs.
158 Every part of town has different concerns, and we'd like to be able to come forward with any number of solutions that come out of a toolbox that we're able to develop in order to be able to be responsive. The rest on read that we're doing on powell, which actually isn't even our facility, although the lights are to maintain, is something that we are finding success with. And that's potential potential tool. There are any number of tools, but I think the broader ask is that we continue to engage in the conversations about some of the problems that we're seeing, and allow the team to bring forward a series of options for consideration versus us, even in this setting, saying, well, this and that and that, because often out of the need to satisfy one problem, it's kind of the balloon squishing. We we make something bigger and harder in another place. So the strategy around how we can best be most effective, I think, is something that we can continue to develop iteratively. And my ask and hope is that we could have the blankets versus the very specific fitted sheets, so that we can provide the most comprehensive and meaningful response.
159 I hear that, and that makes a lot of sense. I'm even looking at a letter from the pack, the pedestrian advisory committee, and there are things that they're calling for in here that I know that the bureau is working on. And so some of my wondering is how how can we be how can I be helping to share that or explain that we might not need to write a resolution to direct that if it's already happening? And would you say some of those big blankets are what's on slide 13?
160 I would say that those big blankets are what's on slide 13. I think it's important for us to also acknowledge that while the tough is going to be covering mostly maintenance and preservation activities, that that does not suggest that there won't be other actual true cip projects that are happening. We have a list of about 250 capital improvement projects that will do some of that more transformational work, that corridor transformation work that I think people are desirous of. This again, is this tool again, and this funding source will help us to do the things that portlanders have expressed to us time and time again that they'd like to continue to see or start to see us do in, in the spirit of maintaining our streets at the most basic levels, that does not, again, discount from our opportunity to do that more comprehensive work. But there are the discrete buckets within which that type of work will happen. I know that you often will hear, especially from the constituencies that you engage. We aren't doing enough of x on y, z. There are reasons for that, and it's, as we know, tough to describe. Well, we can do this here. We can't do that there. I know that we get any number of emails saying, why are you adding another bike Lane here when my street is riddled with potholes? Because we have funding to do that very discreet thing in that very specific location. The funding was available. We wrote for it, we were awarded it. We were able to do that work. This provides us an opportunity to do what we have not been able to do in the history of the bureau, which is to be thoughtful and strategic about planning for the basic maintenance of those streets and corridors and sidewalks that our folks are depending on using. So we encourage the continued engagement. Part of why we're excited about the oversight committee and their lens in terms of bringing forward the advocate voice as well as the practical. Not that advocates voices aren't practical, but the less connected voices of community as well as their particular expertise in the fields of work that they've been identified to represent. We're excited about that because, as stefan acknowledged, they push on the bureau to think more broadly, to ensure that we're being comprehensive and ensure that we're being thoughtful in our approaches so we can continue to hear, again, those voices. But it's important for there to be, I don't want to say, a segregation or distinction between as much as clarity around what maintenance and preservation dollars can do versus what capital improvement dollars can do. So if there's if there's support that the bureau needs, it's in your conversations with community to say, I hear you, yes, this can do that. This is is this is for that. These are restricted completely. I mean, the amount of our budget that we can't spend on either of the things that we're talking about is unfortunate. But, you know, we continue to figure that out. But this this is a the beginning of what I anticipate will be a really meaningful demonstration of the city doing what residents have been asking for for a long time.
161 Thank you for all of this. And full disclosure, councilor Smith and I do love to throw out ideas. So we do have some fitted sheets that we've been playing with, but we will not just push it forward without a conversation.
162 We know how to fold fitted sheets and so we can we can make it all work. We don't just ball them up and throw them in the corner. Okay.
163 Thank you for your partnership.
164 Absolutely.
165 Thank you, councilor Koyama Lane. I would just include we need silk pillowcases for the curly hair.
166 We do need pillowcases.
167 Pillowcases.
168 Okay.
169 Councilor Kanal.
170 Thank you chair Clark. Thanks everybody for being here. And for the presentation. First, I just wanted to say I appreciate how much work has been done since the last time. And pretty much every area of this, it's been noticeable. In particular the outreach piece. I really appreciated seeing that slide. I particularly also appreciate that that the financial assistance delivery, that there wasn't a predetermined outcome to that. That was really important to me. And I appreciate that that's been broadened. Speaking on the financial assistance piece, one of the challenges that we're facing is, you know, there's cost associated with how the discount is delivered. There's overhead, you know, all those different things. And without knowing the relative cost of that compared to the revenue received by that particular subset of folks who are not billed directly, it's hard to even know if it's, you know, viable and whether it makes more sense to just skip that charge altogether than to try to come up with a discount that costs more to administer than it would, you know, get. And it seems like we're avoiding that or at least moving in that direction. So that's great. I want to just kind of observe that before probably any of us were here, we started this conversation where we were comfortable leaving a subset of people behind on this side of the dais. We were comfortable with that going back years, and so not offering financial assistance to folks who are in that particular situation. I'm really grateful that we've all acknowledged that that's no longer an option. And so I just wanted to to kind of really start there. Generally speaking, I was really happy to see the transportation wallet piece be implemented. That's something that has happened, has been interesting expressing that for a while. And we see folks have used it for other things. The ability to send a single check at the beginning or end of the year. I know that they're both options there. When we I used to staff advisory bodies over across the street, and we switching the stipend from a monthly payment to twice a year was a huge improvement in terms of overhead time spent on it, things like that. And the recipients appreciated it more as well. So anything that we can do on that. The other thing I really wanted to, to explore, I know it's going to be harder, but unless they get back to us, but the partnership with the electrical companies, where there is usually a bill there, and then I just wanted to observe, you know, when we're talking about the different discount opportunities, feasibility is a subjective term, right? It's it's based on who's analyzing it and who's analysis is used on it. I think that if it's infeasible to deliver a discount to cost burden people, in particular renters, that's something that has to be a part of it in the first place. And that's why I raised the skipping process. At the same time, I know that it's not going to be easy to get this done quickly, and it's not going to be a flip of the switch. And so I want to make sure that we're clear, clarifying over time what the expectation is from council in terms of when each of these discounts are available. And I think that the commercial side where you have a phase one and phase two is sort of a model of we don't have to get it all right on day one, but we have to get it right relatively quickly. I guess I'll stick on the tough for a minute. And then I have a couple questions on other things or comments on other things. I've always felt since the beginning that I appreciate the clarification of where the 3070 came from. I don't really know why the flood piece is is relevant. It always seemed pretty punitive to residential side users to have it be 70%. And so as we shift to a less blanket structure for the commercial side, that might be something that we could do in parallel to that to increase that, that share, so that small businesses that aren't major transportation use drivers aren't seeing their rates go up higher because that's, it's paired with the adjustment of how commercial is calculated. But that larger impact businesses like drive thrus, or there's a giant new facility going in for trucking in northeast Portland that should be paying even more than drive thrus, you know, and I think that's a good opportunity to, to have that conversation. And on the residential use side, is there a conversation yet around a phase three to shift that conversation? Because we're using averages of trip impact or trip counts based on, you know, apartments versus houses. You have a slide with the little two graphics there on it. And I think it's fair to say that there are a lot of folks who in both categories that, you know, use TriMet when it's available, which is obviously decreasing. But to help ensure that someone who is writing TriMet every day is, is charged differently than someone who's driving every day. And so we, I've been hearing conversation on the commercial side shifting in that way. I think that's the right calculation. The right direction to be going is saying not just 4.3%, but what's your actual impact as an individual business? And so where's the conversation at? Is there a conversation yet about a further in the future shift to the residential calculation framework?
171 Sure. Maybe just a quick couple quick comments on that. Thanks for your interest. And, you know, support for this phased approach to continue to refine the process. One thing that I think is going to be an advantage going forward is we had an amendment, I think it came from councilor Green when we were when the ordinance was being developed. That has us on an annual basis, checking in with council regarding the methodology. So I think that's going to really require that phase two won't be the end, that there'll be additional conversations to have as we go forward related to the same things that you're talking about. So again, I think it's really important that we move from phase one to phase two as efficiently as we can, and that we're really thoughtful to the comments that councilor Clark was bringing up as well about the impacts to businesses. I think the structure we have in place will allow us to do that. But it's not the end of the, you know, the the productive sort of changes to the program that I think will work best for Portland and be really thoughtful to the needs that are on residents and businesses.
172 Okay. So I guess how I heard that is nothing's in the works yet, but as we do the annual review, that's where that would come up.
173 Yeah. I mean, maybe just tweak it a little bit is like, we're definitely working really aggressively to present to the business community and all portlanders a phase two approach, and that's going to happen in February, and then council is going to get a chance to give us that direction in April. So we're working. And the feedback that we got today is really helpful. And we're happy to have one on one meetings to talk more about that. So we're really that's a, I think, a super important time for us to try to get it as right as possible, but that then we'll be continuing to evaluate that going forward. And we can share information. I mean, shoshana made a good point earlier that all the tufts in the state have some balance between the amount of the fee that's paid by commercial versus residential properties, and that's information that we can share. Again, we use the our math for modelers to come up with that initial 70/30 percentage distribution based on trips we only use, the only thing we use from the flood safety benefit fee was just how much revenue do you generate per, you know, 10th of a percent or something like that. When you charge commercial accounts just for that one year, when we were using that as a way of generating revenue, you know, that will be as we move into phase two, that will no longer be an issue. So that'll be good, I think. But I mean, this is perfect time to engage on these conversations.
174 Okay. Thanks for that. And just to kind of follow up, you said the math for modelers was based on trips. Is that just raw count of trips?
175 Yeah, it was based at a macro level, right? They were looking at trip ends from like residential and commercial properties and then saying for the whole city, what should that distribution be in total? And so once we, once we knew that, like, you know, 70% of trips being credited to residential properties, 30% to commercial, that allowed us to do the high level math of how much should each of those parties be paying into the overall. And that's what we use to establish the rates.
176 Okay, so just one thing to flag is I think, you know, the facility I mentioned, there's several of these, obviously around district two and around the whole city are they're semis.
177 Yeah.
178 Right. That's going to have a significantly different impact on the roads than, you know, a passenger vehicle. So for sure, you know, finding a way to incorporate that piece over time is just an interest of mine.
179 Can I just add one quick thing on that Portland. I feel kind of proud of this because I think it was good work by PBOT as well as our freight committee when we established our local gas tax, you know, we were really thoughtful about the fact that Oregonians have for a long time it was actually done through an initiative process, said that they think heavy vehicles should pay their fair share. It's a requirement at the state level. It's not actually a constitutional requirement at the local level, but we thought it was really important. And we set up a program called the heavy vehicle use tax, sometimes referred to as heavy. And what it does is with our business license tax, anybody who delivers into the city pays the business license tax. And we asked eco northwest, help us figure out like, what should they be paying. And we use the heavy. And then we use a percentage of their statewide weight mile tax to actually collect revenue from trucking companies. And it's been really I mean, it's been the freight community was very helpful when we established that fee. We worked with them and how we spend those resources. And it's actually a part of when we talk about fixing our streets now, having these four different revenue sources in it, the heavy vehicle use tax is a part of that. So we should continue to make sure that as we're having conversations with the council and the public that we that we talk about that and it's included in these conversations. So thanks for bringing that up.
180 Yeah, thanks. Three not related to that particular line of, of, of conversation, going back to the to the cip side on slide 12, it says a comprehensive project list is being created. Is that a city wide list? Okay. I'm seeing nods there.
181 Yes.
182 For those who are maybe not hearing this on video, there's just revving engines, several of them in the background that are very loud.
183 On the pavement.
184 Yeah. Stephen said that members were invited to step down. Can you can I get a little bit more on that? That that was an alarming turn of phrase.
185 They were.
186 Thank you.
187 Oh, sorry.
188 Sorry. I didn't realize you were still on. Go ahead.
189 Yeah. Just to put that in context. So basically the our charge originally was to oversee the. Gas tax through the fixing our street ballot measure. And that once the role got expanded, we actually increased our meeting frequency, adding two additional meetings a year. And the goal is to sort of get everybody to volunteer to like, keep going with this expanded role and expanded time commitment. And so it was couched in a way like, we're not asking people to step down. We're asking you to volunteer more hours, but put it through a way that, that folks don't actually have to affirmatively say, I'm, I'm down for more.
190 Okay.
191 So that was the context of that.
192 Okay. Thank, thank you for clarifying that. The last thing I wanted to say, this conversation around potholes is really interesting to me because I understand that from an engineering perspective, it's often better to wait and redo the whole street. I think there's a separate element of it, which is the government trust piece. And I'm watching. I don't like being behind other cities. I, when I especially cities I've lived in that I know are not better than Portland because I've lived there and my experience here is a lot better. And so when I see 200, I don't even know, 200,000 potholes being repaired this year in new york. And I get that the scale is different. I think that's not just about the the actual impact on the roads. It's the idea that if you ask for it, you might get it back and you might get something done that you asked for. And so I understand that there are people who studied traffic and actually do know better than the average person, and I appreciate that point. But there's also I want my pothole fixed. Can you just fix that?
193 And yes, we can. We do. Yeah. And so I was I'm sorry.
194 I'm yeah, I think it's a scale concern. Like I've said for years, I think the existence of the 823 bump number is a, is a acknowledgment of a systemic failure. The idea that you have to go and be the squeaky wheel. And I understand we did a lot for people in d1 to not make them have to be the squeaky wheel, but the idea that we're just not going to get to them unless we get prioritization based off of something. And so I, I want to just bring that up in the. And that's why I think the March madness thing was so great, right? Because that was a very clear human being putting input to government, seeing a result piece of it. And I think that's where there's there's been a disconnect. And one of the reasons for the disconnect is wanting to do things more comprehensively than they necessarily need to be. On daylighting, I've asked the quote, I always get back is, well, we have to pave this. We have to do all this stuff. The basic blue bolted into the ground bike rack could daylight a corner of of an intersection for much, much cheaper. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but I asked for them and I think it was 5 to 1, if I recall correctly. So, you know, if that meant that we're kind of, I don't want to say, you know, doing it half as well, because it's not necessarily half. It's maybe not quite as esthetically pleasing, but it, it a, it can be done faster and cheaper. And b we also actually need bike parking. So there's that too. And so that's, that's where I think like the potholes question to me is broader than just that they got 100,000 done in 100 days in new york. And if even if you scale that down to the size of the population and the size of the budget, that's significantly better than what we do numerically. But it's also that they actually take the time to tell the story. And I would love to see that we, I would love to see us talk about how many we've done and not why we couldn't do more often, except in rooms like this, where that's our job to talk about it. But I also know that there's a lot of why it's not as good to fill potholes narrative. And I got to say it, there are a lot of folks that that really appreciate that clarity, really appreciate the, the thoughtfulness that goes into that. And also, there are a lot of folks, and I imagine my colleagues are hearing this too, where that message goes over like a lead balloon.
195 Sure. And thank you for raising that. And allow me to explain a little bit more or provide greater context. When I said that we we don't wait to fill it. We look around to see if there are more to fill. So there are oftentimes that the maintenance operations team will receive a information about a pothole that needs to be filled. They will go to fill the pothole, and they will see that there are 20 others that need to be done. And so it looks like, according to the triptych, that they've done one, but they've actually done 20. And so we do record that much like the city of new york. When we did pothole palooza in 30 days, we did 30,000 potholes. So we're on track for that type of effort. The challenges we had to, in that instance, redirect the team that was dedicated to pothole. Addressing potholes across the city a little bit to make sure that we could do that focused outreach. That said, even with us doing those comprehensive, intentional efforts for that 30 days, we still kept on track with getting potholes filled within 30 days that were outside of the zone that we had selected. So if again, if reported, if we know about the problem, because we can't see all of the things that we would love to be able to see, at least we haven't been able to for the past several years. We can be responsive. We don't even have to be. We can be proactive. We don't even have to be reactive. We can be proactive. And so I also know that in previous conversations that we've had before this body, there were questions about, well, why don't you do that while you're doing that? Sometimes it does require a different crew. But what we did not say, or I did not say in that convening was that often when a team is out doing a repair or preparing a system for something, they will report that there was something else and the appropriate crew will go out and do that work. And again, look around to see what else needs to happen. We got a request for some restriping just in a few blocks away. The team did come out restriped, but they also looked around to see what else needed to be done. So that is happening. So if it's if it sounded like I was suggesting we just wait for everything to go to seed, we aren't. We aren't waiting to see through to another country while we're looking at the depth of a pothole. But we are trying to make sure that we're getting the biggest bang for our buck when we're going out. And sometimes that does require a little bit of extra effort. But the goal is, and we've been meeting that consistently for the past several years to go out. When we know about something, to do something about it. The general expectation is if we see a problem, we can solve a problem. And working together to make sure that we're doing that in ways that make the most sense. Again, we need the community's partnership in that, and I know that often we'll receive messages from councilors about specific locations that people would like for us to go to. Sometimes we've already gotten the report through 311 through a two three safe. It's already on our list. So we keep the list. We can report out on that. We can let you know where we've been from a district perspective. That's what we're excited about in terms of the tough and crf we'll be able to track in real time. Everyone can be will be able to see in real time where we are, what we're doing and how we're addressing those really very basic, fundamental needs. But I would love for our storytelling to catch up with the way that we are actually out there. We do a lot of engagement with community in ways that are making impacts on a daily basis. The opportunity is ours to identify the capacity to be able to help with that storytelling.
196 Yeah. So the, I will say I that all makes sense to me. I'm also aware that in terms of the, like the public trust piece of it. January 15th, the last year when we voted on committees, I brought up painting a crosswalk, which I was told cost about $300 to do at the time on the south side. Well, actually like near mccoy park on trenton, where there are cuts for wheelchair users to go mid-block. But there's no daylighting. So the the parking spots are there. There's no painted crosswalk. And I was told daylighting is too hard. Got a crosswalk, still hasn't been painted. And if I'm a city councilor, I don't know what it tells my my constituents. Why would they call? Right. So, you know, because I've been bringing it up publicly. I've talked about this one at least eight times on this dais, and it's still not done. So I get like, that's, that's what I'm talking about there. I'm going to move on to the last thing I wanted to flag, which was that the sdr piece is related to this as well, which is the idea that you do things together. And I do appreciate that a great deal. One of the things that I think relates to the another thing that's related to it, not in the same direction as sdr, but in the section of like how prioritization works is it might be better to just do everything of a type. I know that's less efficient, but it feels like a fluke when you see potholes fixed in one area and then you go to another place and they're still on the same drive and then they're not fixed. Whereas if and I know that that's because PBOT has, you know, probably 100 people scoring, what the most important thing is to do. But I.
197 Think in terms of the potholes, it's true.
198 For potholes. But I'm saying in terms of like we do a couple potholes here, there everywhere we do crosswalks here, they're everywhere. We do daylighting here. Like I it would be and this is maybe not for the five people here. And I'm maybe more frustrated with the empty box over here. Just do one of them for a year because then next year we wouldn't have any potholes. And then in two years we wouldn't have any crosswalk issues. And like, and I'm oversimplifying and I get that totally acknowledging that, but I think there's been a, a idea of, of sort of a lot of prioritization and scoring and all that, and not a lot of just doing the thing that's visible. Because I hear more about PBOT than any other bureau. And as I'm sure you can guess, people come to me for, for like police all the time, but I still hear about PBOT more.
199 Sure.
200 That does not require a response. I think that your point is well taken, and I think you're right on. We all we all get those calls. And like I said earlier, PBOT is the one bureau that everybody touches every single day. And, you know.
201 And I want to acknowledge we've systematically underfunded you forever. And all this is a moot point until you get the money that's coming from these two fees that I.
202 And we thank you for agreeing to that.
203 And we are we are changing the trajectory right here, folks. Councilor. Koyama Lane, did you want to follow up?
204 Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on some of that. Appreciate the conversation. And it did remind me of this conversation about there's overarching work, long goals. And then there's the, the, the fitted sheets. What was the bigger? Was there another metaphor for that?
205 The blanket, the.
206 Blanket blanket, the blanket. Okay. You know, because as I've learned more, I've learned that potholes really are a symptom of not having paved. And so yeah, you can go in and, and fix those. And that's going to be kind of flashy and exciting and quick, but it's a symptom of a bigger problem. And I also hear that when people see some, some, some visibly things not getting fixed, you lose public trust. And you also have to be thinking about that blanket. And so I, I just want to acknowledge that complexity and I don't know what that right ratio is, but I mean, usually I feel like most things are some mix of the two. And so I do appreciate that there are there have been some blitz filling in, but that we don't lose sight of the blanket two and just want to say it's complicated. And I appreciate that you're all willing to have this discussion.
207 Thank you.
208 Thank you for that. Just a couple quick questions. And then I'm going to try to get us out of here even a few minutes early. I just wanted to say something to stephen. If he's still there, just how much I appreciate your, I guess, tenacity and enthusiasm, your willingness to serve. Really appreciate that. Just thank you for being here today and sharing your committee's work and, and the change that you all are going through and additional commitment. But just thank you so much, stephen. I really appreciate you.
209 All right. Hey, thank you for having me.
210 Appreciate it.
211 Second real quick. You were coming back in November with cleanup pieces. Can we start to generate that list right away? Because our agenda is getting very crowded and we need to know what you need, what you absolutely need before the end of the year, if possible. But I'd like to get that list as soon as possible,
212 Sir, and I can. It's the three things that we're doing. We're really just like pure cleanup, making sure that the last three amendments that happened in April, they made it into the ordinance and they didn't make it into the code. And so it's just sort of cleaning up the code before we hit go in January. We're not doing anything new meaningfully.
213 Good to know, good to know. I wasn't sure, just really technical, not anything substantive. Okay, great. And you mentioned, shoshana, that you are going out to the public in February. Is that because of the business side or what? What are you looking for when you go out?
214 The idea in February is just, you know, the people will start to pay the bill in, in the in January, February, depending on their water bill schedule. And we're really just going to be out trying to show what the work is doing some of that storytelling. And so we want to have a open house in every district. And at that point, I think in multiple ways, just really start to say, hey, this is what, you know, these are the potholes we're filling. Here's the list of sidewalk projects. Here's the list of vision zero projects that we've collaborated with our team on. And, you know, just what is the actual work at that point? It's really just trying to engage folks.
215 In that. That sounds great. I know some really, really appreciated the ones that you did pretty tough when we decided to pursue this was really, really helpful. I know that I think the mayor went to every single one, but and some of us went to, I think I went to three, I saw you at a couple of them, I think. Yeah. Right. Okay, great. Super. Thank you again. So much material, so much work. Cynthia. So much work. Mark. Just really appreciate everything that you're doing. You're really trailblazers for the city. We appreciate that. And it was a great presentation. I think we all agree. Very, very helpful. Thank you so much. We we look forward to seeing you in November.
216 Thank you, thank you, thank you.
217 Okay, colleagues, our next meeting is October the 13th. We're going to hear finally about the asset management strategy report. Yeah. And we're going and even more exciting, we're going to talk about autonomous vehicles. And I'm really hoping at that meeting to have all of us contributed in advance to potential policy piece. So that's exciting. And then PBOT is going to be bringing forth an ordinance on the northeast parking event district to address neighborhood parking challenges near the motor center. So that will be an action packed meeting on October 13th. So I'm also going to share for councilor Koyama Lane that we're planning to have the utility rate setting initial conversation in October if we can. So that's definitely on the radar screen. So with all those announcements, I will adjourn the meeting of the public works committee.