Next Up at City Council, 11/12/08 – Full-service returns!

It’s so nice not being a candidate any more! It is remarkably refreshing to be able to go item by item carefully through the following Portland City Council Agenda, instead of the rushed process of skimming-and-posting-briefly-hoping-I-didn’t-miss-something-crucial, that has been necessary most weeks this year. I realize I still have to consider my words carefully, perhaps even more than before. But over the next eight weeks, I hope to have a little more time to share some of the things I’ve learned over the past 13 months, and to track the Council’s work more closely. Then starting January 2, I will be able to tell you more information that I will find out as I become an “insider”, and also have helpful staff telling me answers to questions.

The Agenda for Wednesday is jam-packed with interesting issues. Wednesday morning starts with three Time Certain items:

1507 TIME CERTAIN: 9:30 AM – Accept first annual Customer Service Advisory Committee report (Report introduced by Mayor Potter)

The Report reviews what each Bureau is doing to improve customer service, compiled by a Task Force set up by Mayor Potter’s office in the “Bureau Improvement Project #7” process. Likely another study that should not be set on a shelf to gather dust.

1508 TIME CERTAIN: 10:00 AM – Accept Expanding Sustainable Development Practices in Portland report and recommendations of the Development Review Advisory Committee (Report introduced by Commissioner Leonard)

The cover letter and summary for this item is here. The Development Review Advisory Committee (DRAC)’s Report suggests 22 Recommendations on green building, titled, Expanding Sustainable Development Practices in Portland. The document was developed by the DRAC Green Building Subcommittee. The subcommittee met 10 months with stakeholders, City staff, and a facilitator to develop recommendations that focus on the creation of more sustainable buildings “within the existing regulatory context” (which I assume means, without changing the rules). The subcommittee’s process involved:

1. Identifying obstacles to sustainable development and green building
2. Examining existing programs and policies
3. Proposing solutions

The resulting report represents 22 specific recommendations for action that the City, its bureaus, other organizations, and the development community can take.

1509 Accept the Final Report on Impact Assessment and promulgate the Impact Assessment Game as a tool used to review policy prior to implementation (Report introduced by Commissioner Leonard)

This report is listed as a Time Certain, without a certain time. Perhaps it will be heard in combination with the previous Development Services report. Kudos to Russell Neighborhood Association chair Bonny McKnight for continually hammering on this issue, for close to ten years. A relatively simple concept – consider potential impacts before passing new regulations and/or policies. Not done consistently, and should be. So the committee has designed “The Impact Assessment Game”, to help staff/developers/neighbors talk, consider aspects they might not otherwise include, and find ways to get good projects. Hey, if making it more fun makes it happen, it might be worth trying.

On the Consent agenda, there are five grants being awarded to the Police Bureau, for a total of $350,000. Four are from Oregon state organizations, one is from the US Department of Justice for $150,000 for Gang Resistance Education And Training. Getting some other entity to pay for city functions seems one way to avoid some budget/service cuts.

Here’s a former pilot program being reauthorized and funding extended:

*1524 Amend an Intergovernmental Agreement with Multnomah County and Housing Authority of Portland by $534,418 for services and programs to support the city-wide Schools Families Housing Initiative and provide for payment (Ordinance; amend Contract No. 37754)

This money is administered by Multnomah County and the Housing Authority of Portland, to provide rent assistance to struggling families with children in schools. I learned when I was Principal For A Day at Roosevelt High School last week that 25% of the students at the three high schools on the Roosevelt campus will leave or arrive during the academic year. It’s hard to make benchmarks on tests when students are continually changing schools. This program is a “Housing First” approach to school/student improvement – keeping the families in the same home gives kids more chance to succeed.

Knowing how concerned many Portlanders are regarding civil liberties, I’ll highlight this on the Consent Agenda:

*1531 Extend Intergovernmental Agreement with Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon for exclusion hearing services and expand TriMet responsibility to defend challenges to exclusion orders (Ordinance; amend Contract No. 52186)

It’s introduced by City Auditor Gary Blackmer.

First on the Regular Agenda:

*1532 Authorize the Bureau of Housing and Community Development to contract for winter warming centers for families and the medically vulnerable and provide funding to support existing winter shelter (Ordinance introduced by Commissioners Fish and Leonard)

This looks like a product resulting from discussions initiated between the two commissioners soon after Nick Fish took office. Although the Council fully supports the Housing First funding model, putting most resources into permanent supportive housing, there is an ongoing problem with inadequate numbers of shelter beds to allow people to sleep somewhere. The ordinance allocates up to $200,000 from the Bureau of Housing and Community Development’s Contingency fund for shelter spaces for families, teens, and medically vulnerable people, and up to $40,000 from the same source for shelter for single men and women. It doesn’t say how many people will be inside in response to the funding – still not sufficient, likely. I visited Human Solution’s refurbished “DayBreak” center in East Portland a few days ago. I learned that many local churches offer night time shelter, then families go to DayBreak for their kids to catch the school bus and parents to take classes and look for permanent housing and jobs using the center’s resources. Still, we need more safe warm places for people to sleep at night until they can find a permanent home. At another campaign event at the Portland Women’s Crisis Line, I learned that some nights, all the shelter beds and vouchers for motel rooms have been used up, and staff on the phones have no other options but to suggest women fleeing domestic violence spend the night riding buses. That is not OK, I hope you agree.

Here’s an “Oops”:

1537 Deny application and rescind termination for Limited Tax Exemption on certain properties (Resolution)

The Resolution explains that one property was given a tax break that shouldn’t have, and that another tax break was terminated due to lack of response from the owner, but the owner was serving in the military overseas and didn’t receive the notice. So the Portland Development Commission (PDC) is taking away the break on the former, and giving it back on the latter.

All the above happens on Wednesday morning. And it gets even more interesting on Wednesday afternoon:

1539 TIME CERTAIN: 2:00 PM – Adopt and implement the Skidmore/Old Town code amendments and the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District Design Guidelines (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter; amend Title 33)

1540 Direct City bureaus to prioritize reuse of artifacts from the Eric Ladd and other cast-iron artifact collections in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District (Resolution introduced by Mayor Potter)

The first item is controversial. The proposal is intended to address stimulating development in Skidmore/Old Town, while preserving the historic character. I haven’t read the briefing documents yet, but I’m already prepared to be fascinated.

*1541 TIME CERTAIN: 4:00 PM – Adopt budget adjustment recommendations and the Minor Supplemental Budget for the FY 2008-09 Fall Budget Adjustment Process and make budget adjustments in various funds (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter)

*1542 Adopt the FY 2008-09 Fall Major Supplemental Budget in the amount of $511,513 and make budget amendments in two funds (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter)

*1543 Adopt a FY 2008-09 Major Supplemental Budget for the Grants Fund (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter)

*1544 Adopt a FY 2008-09 Minor Supplemental Budget to make grant-related budget amendments required by the implementation of the Enterprise Business Solution (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter)

Money, money, money, it’s a rich man’s world, according to ABBA. I plan to follow the money very closely. As the Oregonian‘s endorsement said, “Meticulous about city finances? We could get used to that. Portland voters could use some of that, right about now.”

So there you go, a full-service Next Up at City Council for a change. It took me about two hours to read the reports and write up this summary…. and perhaps ten minutes for you to read, if you didn’t bother following the links. An example of the service I plan to provide for the next four years as your City Commissioner. Thank you, all AmandaFritz.com blog readers who supported me in the election campaign!