Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 07/23/26

1:59Let's thank you.

2:03Test, test, test, test.

2:06We see captions.

2:07That's better.

2:07Oh, I hear it.

2:08That's better.

6:49Good morning.

6:50We'll call this meeting of the Committee of the Whole of the Portland City Council to order at 9:33 a.m. on July 23rd, 2026.

7:00Rebecca, will you please call the roll?

7:02Koyama Lane?

7:03Here.

7:05Morillo?

7:05Here.

7:06Novick?

7:07Here.

7:08Clark?

7:09Green?

7:10Here.

7:12Zimmerman?

7:12Here.

7:13Avalos?

7:17Dunphy?

7:17Here.

7:17Smith?

7:19Pirtle-Guiney?

7:22Ryan?

7:23Kanal?

7:24Here.

7:26Hi, Avalos is here.

7:27Apologies.

7:28Noted.

7:29Thank you.

7:29Avalos is present.

7:31Thanks.

7:31I know we have a couple people who are just running a couple minutes behind today.

7:35Uh, Christopher, will you please read the statement of conduct?

7:39Welcome to the meeting of the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole.

7:41To testify before this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at www.

7:50Portland.gov/council/agenda/committee-whole, or by calling 311.

7:52Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link.

7:55Registration for virtual testimony closes 1 hour prior to the meeting.

7:57In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard.

8:01If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the chair states otherwise.

8:06Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.

8:08The chair preserves order.

8:09Disruptive 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.

8:15If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.

8:16Further disruption anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.

8:23Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

8:27Your testimony should address the matter being considered.

8:29When testifying, state your name for the record.

8:31If you're a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.

8:33Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name.

8:36Thank you.

8:38Thank you.

8:39We have 3 items on our agenda today.

8:41We have reappointments of 2 members of the Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners.

8:45We have Vision Zero updates.

8:47We also have an ordinance proposing yes.

8:50Approving consent to franchise transfer from Zenith Energy Terminal Holdings LLC to ISQ Springer Holdings LLC.

8:56Um, we normally do the chair update.

9:00I can do it in my remarks and just do it, but it won't be allowed to be put into the record.

9:04There was a little mistake in filing, so in order to let me put the written document into the record, I'd ask for unanimous consent to let me add that as a formal agenda item.

9:13Seeing—.

9:14Okay, thank you very much.

9:15Um, all right, so we have the Chair's update today.

9:19I've updated all of the document.

9:21This will be posted online shortly for the public.

9:23Sorry for the delay on that.

9:25It's just a slight update to the first table that you've seen, which is what's coming up on the agenda.

9:31Trying to be as transparent as possible while noting, of course, that things do get moved around a little bit.

9:36For example, we just got told there will be a proposed ordinance on pinball and pool revenue regulatory program changes.

9:41And so trying to make sure there's space and time for that on the agenda.

9:45The other thing I wanted to flag is on August 6th, Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

9:49Today we're gonna hear a presentation on Vision Zero updates.

9:52There were a lot of people who wanted to be able to testify on that, in particular in line with the last couple weeks and what's occurred in Portland with traffic deaths and injuries.

10:05And we were unable to get that on the agenda for this week's meeting.

10:10After the filing deadline, there's a process and it just wasn't able to happen.

10:14So we'll be putting that public hearing on the agenda for our next meeting, which is in 2 weeks.

10:19Testifying on that.

10:20It is a little bit separated temporally from today's presentation.

10:24We want to make sure that folks have the opportunity to talk to us about Vision Zero as well.

10:30We're picking up our budget process discussion as well, and you can see a few different touchpoints along the way there between August 6th, September 3rd, and so on.

10:38The other thing that's worth mentioning is that next week would've been a Committee of the Whole meeting.

10:42That has been replaced by a full council work session on the Moda Center term sheet.

10:48So we'll pick back up on August 6th as a Committee of the Whole.

10:54Moving on to the second part, updated list there.

10:58I'm gonna be asking councilors if there's anything that's not on this list, please let me know.

11:02And if there's something that you put on here that I could use more detail on, in particular the potential oversight topics, please update me there so we can get that added or changed.

11:13And then the other thing is I'm gonna be adding a section to this report with updated, sorry, with upcoming report backs from the administration.

11:22So for example, we set a, we did a resolution last year on that adopted the investment policy for the city.

11:30We also amended it to ask the administration to give us some information back on that by August 31st.

11:35And just to have that all in one place where we're tracking it, I'm gonna add that to this list so you can see what's coming up.

11:41Okay.

11:43Probably not more than 20 of those at any given time is my guess, but between budget notes and legislation, they do exist.

11:49So if there's anything you know of, please let me or the vice chairs know.

11:53We can get that in here as well.

11:56And that's kind of it for Section 3.

11:58So I will pivot to Section 4 in a moment, but I do see 2 people in the queue.

12:03So if you have questions for me, and then I'll pass it to Chair of the City Life Committee, Councilor Zimmerman, and then Novick.

12:10Thank you.

12:10Um, Chair, I noticed that it looks like foreclosed properties have been getting sent to the Housing and Permitting Committee for some reason.

12:19That historically was going to the Finance Committee.

12:22This committee now is the Finance Committee, as best I can tell.

12:25And so, uh, while a foreclosure may— if you don't understand what a foreclosure is—.

12:30May seem like a housing issue, it is not.

12:32It is a financial issue.

12:34And so I'd encourage you to argue within the leadership team that those start coming back to the Finance Committee, which is in my estimation the best and most appropriate place for them.

12:42Thanks.

12:43Thanks.

12:44Yeah, I'm happy to bring that up and see where it's at and talk to the folks.

12:48I believe Chair Avalos, her committee had it this last time, so we'll make sure that we're talking with her as well.

12:54Councilor Novick and then Green.

12:57Thank you, Mr.

12:57Chair.

12:59So I was wondering, maybe this is a thing for City Life, but I think something we'd all be interested in under oversight.

13:05I was wondering if we might have time at some point to do like a span of control session starting with the 50-odd people that supervise fewer than 4 people.

13:16That would, I think, fall into the category of one of those budget-related things that we should talk about before we get into next year's budget.

13:23Thanks, Councilor Novick.

13:25Happy to add that to the list.

13:26Councilor Green.

13:28Yeah, thank you, Chair Kanal.

13:30I just jumped in the queue to lend some support to the idea of the foreclosures coming to this committee.

13:36I think that we've made an effort to make sure that we have district representation on all of our committees.

13:41But I think we— there was a lot of foreclosure actions that we were considering on Tuesday.

13:48And we're getting into some interesting stuff there.

13:51So it really is appropriate for this.

13:53So just as another plus one.

13:55Thanks.

13:55And for either Councilors Green or Zimmerman, there were commercial properties in that list.

14:00There were a few, yeah.

14:01Okay.

14:01That to me also is a distinction that we should— Misunderstanding of what a foreclosure is.

14:06Okay, it's a finance issue.

14:09Thanks.

14:11Seeing no one else in the queue, I, I'll, uh, pass it over to Chair Pirtle-Guiney for the, uh, committee report.

14:16Thank you so much, Chair Kanal, and thank you broadly for the opportunity for us to provide these reports and make sure that everybody's hearing about the, the work of the committees.

14:25For today, this is the first update from the City Life Committee.

14:28I want to start with a bit of a broad I'm going to start with a broader theory overview and then touch on some of the specifics that the committee is working on as well.

14:36So as you all know, City Life Committee has a very broad portfolio, and I know that there was some concern amongst folks at the dais when committees were first formed that given the broad scope of the work, important issues within our purview might get lost.

14:52Sharing that concern, I've tried to set up some of our early meetings to take a broad approach, because I do believe that the purpose of the committee is to think holistically and creatively about the everyday experience of Portlanders in our city, and that we can do that best with all of these topics together.

15:10I'll take a moment of personal privilege and just say, when I ran for City Council, I first started thinking about this work because I was asking questions about the experience my kids would have growing up in Portland.

15:23Will they have a safe, clean environment around them, access to good parks to play in with summer programs, real career prospects in a labor market where everyone who works in our city can afford to live in our city?

15:35Will they be able to appreciate arts and culture scenes and even want to be here as they get older?

15:40And these questions in many ways form the fundamental propositions that this committee is meant to grapple with.

15:47So when I started as thank you.

15:49So as chair, my team helped to create a visual to break down our work into 3 distinct buckets, and that visual is up on the screen just so that everybody has the opportunity to see it.

16:02And this is how we are focusing our committee work.

16:05What is the future of Portland's economy?

16:08How are we building an economy again where people who work in Portland can afford to live here, creating the jobs of the future, good jobs that will actually second, how are we building community resilience?

16:22And what does that mean for Portland?

16:24How do we make sure that each of our distinct communities prepare for, withstand, and recover from disruptions, whether natural disasters, economic downturns, or social challenges?

16:34And how are we building that fabric within our community?

16:37And finally, what is that everyday experience of Portlanders?

16:40Thank you, Councilor Smith.

16:42People both who live here and who visit here.

16:442 separate and important things, but with lots of areas of overlap.

16:49How do we make sure that this is a city with public spaces that people want to visit, a thriving arts scene, strong venues, sports teams that we rally around?

17:00How do we make sure this is a place people want to live and a place that people want to visit?

17:06So on the first day of committee, we had this very strategic meeting where we invited in more than a dozen of stakeholders, more than a dozen community stakeholders.

17:13And partners to think through each of these topic areas.

17:18And I'm happy to share more information there individually.

17:22I don't want to take too much time on that today, but that was really meant to help committee members start to frame out what it is that we want to tackle in our work.

17:32So this is a lot on the ideas end.

17:34I want to get to some of the specifics, which is what I'll hope to report on regularly in these in the upcoming reports as we move through our rotations.

17:43As you all know, because you see what comes out of committee and comes to this council, we have had a significant amount of our focus over the last few meetings on what I call the, the get it done items from the administration, those things that we just kind of technically have to get done to ensure the city keeps working.

18:04But we've also made sure to prioritize time in every meeting for some large council items.

18:09So the council president's arts tax legislation, work being done to protect TNC drivers, Council Zimmerman's EV charging station ordinance, and a robust conversation just last week about ESDs.

18:24Looking ahead, there are a couple of large items coming up on our agendas.

18:27One of those my team has shared information about with all of you.

18:31We'll be having a discussion about city-owned performance venues, including both what the landscape is for our venues, how the P5 transfer, the Portland 5 venue operation transfer from Metro back to the city is going, and then looking at the future of our large performing arts venues and the work that's been happening with PSU and advocates for the Keller facility.

19:00Around ensuring that we have a state-of-the-art large-scale performing arts venue in our city moving forward.

19:07We also will be having a climate-focused session that we'll get information to— out to everybody on coming up in about a month and a half, where we'll look at the city's progress in meeting our climate goals and actionable strategies to move us closer to those goals, including work that is being done in our city there's certainly a lot more coming, and I am working with a few folks around some big conversations around economic development, workforce, and labor, among others.

19:44And importantly, I would love to hear from all of you if there are topics you want to make sure we take on beyond individual legislation.

19:52Legislative items that you're introducing.

19:54I'd like to make sure we get those on the agenda now before things fill up too much.

19:58And I will look forward to having another update in— what is it, 4 weeks?

20:03With the gap, it'll be a gap of 6 or 8 weeks.

20:05Yeah, perfect.

20:06Well, thanks so much, Chair Kanal, for the opportunity to share a little bit about what we're doing.

20:11Thank you, Chair Pirtle-Guiney, and credit goes to Vice President Clark for the suggestion.

20:16But also, thank you for raising the bar by having slides here.

20:20I see Councilor Green in the queue.

20:25So go for it.

20:27Yeah.

20:28Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

20:31I also appreciate the slide.

20:33I wanted to kind of link— thanks for mentioning the kind of visioning around the future of the large-scale performing arts venues and just sort of highlighting that flows through your committee.

20:45I want to appreciate that your office sent an email a couple days ago saying, heads up, colleagues, councilors, this is going to be a big one, and mark your calendars.

20:56Maybe you want to come testify and provide some of that.

21:00You know, it is a resolution that will be considered, but in the broad context of the asset management work and the other things, I'm wondering if you've had any thoughts or—.

21:10Yes.

21:12Discussions around the potential to sort of link together a joint committee conversation.

21:19Maybe it's moot because we have a Committee of the Whole at this point, but maybe sort of saying, okay, there is a sort of prioritization theme in that item that's going to be coming from the mayor's office to your committee, but there's also a big financial aspect to that.

21:33And then do you think that's appropriate to kind of spin off as a side conversation?

21:36I think that's appropriate.

21:37Before it goes to the full council?

21:39I'd be, I'd be very interested in that because I think that's something we really need to ground ourselves in.

21:42I know that a lot of my constituents are really concerned about that.

21:46So I think there's 3 layers to this, and the first is that there has been an ongoing work group of folks from across our performing arts ecosystem around how we continue to have operation of a large performing arts space, right?

22:08That 3,000-seat space.

22:11And what, if any, gaps there are in our performing arts venues in the community.

22:16And the resolution that's coming will absolutely have financial implications, but it is at its core a conversation about what do we do with the recommendations from that workgroup.

22:31To ensure that we are, that we have the performing arts venues that we need.

22:38So I think that's why that conversation is coming to City Life.

22:43There will absolutely need to be a conversation about what the city's investment is in any changes.

22:51This resolution is just saying, hey, the preview, it's posted, anybody can look it up, but the resolution solution is essentially to ensure that we are giving direction to the administration to have conversations with PSU if that's the direction that we decide to move in.

23:08That's the recommendation from the workgroup.

23:11And then also to give us a space to have a conversation about what do we want the next steps to be on Keller, because we need to make sure that that work is moving forward simultaneously.

23:24So we are not committing any dollars in this resolution.

23:28We are saying, yes, we want the conversations to move forward on these paths.

23:33I think that's very much a City Life conversation.

23:35There will be a next step where we will certainly be asked to commit dollars that comes out of those conversations.

23:43And while I may ask that we first touch that in City Life so that we can have that policy overview, I do think that's I think that's very much a conversation that needs to come through this body as the finance body to talk about what we want to be on the hook for, what the trade-offs are between having state-of-the-art performing arts venues and the cost of that, and what other funding mechanisms there might be outside of city dollars.

24:13So that's 2.

24:13Separately, placing this within the conversations I know that you all are having in Councilor Clark's Committee about asset management, I think, is a really great idea because we do, I think, want to make sure that one piece of asset management doesn't get so far ahead of the others that we are prioritizing without having a conversation about prioritizing.

24:38And I'd love to work with either or both of you about thinking around thinking about what that might look like.

24:44I I appreciate that.

24:46And I think you've probably heard it in your own conversations with folks who are vested in this.

24:51I know that we have in the old Arts and Economy Committee.

24:55I know that there was some frustration from like the Downtown Neighborhood Association folks and folks close to the Keller for feeling that they didn't really get much of a place to speak to the public and with the public about this.

25:07And so I expect what will happen next week is you'll get some of those folks to sign up for Aye.

25:15Recognizing that there's a couple layers to what is going to be actually on the docket and that other financial considerations will have to happen.

25:25So I'm committed to helping facilitate those conversations in whatever the appropriate committee space is.

25:31I think that my— I think Councilor Clark, we've had conversations to this end that are sort of making sure that those folks have a space to talk with us.

25:40So I don't see—.

25:42Councilor Green, not only will we have room for public testimony, but the presentation from the administration on the recommendations from the workgroup will be followed by panels both speaking to the PSU project and speaking to the future of Keller.

26:02And we will have an invited panel I appreciate that.

26:09And I'm going to try to make time to come to your committee and also provide some comments.

26:14And we do for District 4 have Councilor Zimmerman on the committee.

26:17So I'm expecting that he'll have some things to share on behalf of those groups as well.

26:22Thank you.

26:23Great.

26:23Thanks.

26:24So I'll go to Councilor Clark next and then I'll close us out.

26:26Thank you, Mr.

26:26Chair.

26:26I appreciate that privilege.

26:28Just to build off of what Councilor Smith said, what Councilor Green has said, that I think, um, I'm hoping that you're open to amendments on the resolution.

26:35Uh, I think that some of us may be coming in with those, um, possibly not immediately, but, um, given, uh, having been a participant in the ex officio committee and working closely with, um, the Downtown Neighborhood Association, I think you can expect some of that.

26:53There's a lot of, um, detail that's not in that resolution.

26:56Just, I just skimmed it.

26:58I haven't looked at it in depth, but it needs, uh, it needs work.

27:02Um, you probably didn't expect to have this much conversation on this particular issue, um, but the dollar figure does really, um, bother me, uh, what we're going to be expected to do.

27:12And I realize that we have to do this resolution in order for PSU to access the bond money— sound familiar, folks?— to access the bond money that the state has set up for them.

27:22So I appreciate that.

27:23But I, um, I do think that we need to put a finer point on what's in that resolution.

27:29And just one other thing, thank you for the chart.

27:31I see that you listed Parks and Recreation.

27:34I think their parks also comes under Public Works.

27:38We've been dealing with parks as well, so we can talk more about that offline later if there's any kind of complication.

27:44Thank you, Mr.

27:45Chair.

27:45If I remember correctly, parks kind of and parks as an asset of the city and part of the Public Works portfolio is years, and we'll have to continue navigating that.

28:01And I am expecting we'll need to have a lot of discussion on the resolution and even outside of the resolution what our intent is for the administration to be pursuing around both of the venues and the venue itself.

28:17Thank you.

28:23Um, I'll close this out by just adding, um, on a different topic, I'd love to have a conversation, um, or for— have your committee have a conversation about, um, equity and about the future there of the office.

28:37Um, I think now that there is a citywide equity officer, who I'm excited to, um, see in action, I think that's a great opportunity to have in place.

28:41I think having the conversation about everything ranging from the KPIs that were in the budget, which I mentioned earlier, but also just kind of how do we integrate that work better where it's less forced into a place of being commentary after the fact and actually helping shape things.

29:00That's great.

29:01And we had not done as much in that space because we didn't have a director.

29:04And I appreciate the highlight that now that we we can bring that back in in a more meaningful way.

29:10Thank you.

29:11Thanks.

29:12Seeing no one else in the queue, that'll close out the chair update.

29:15Thanks everybody for letting me add that to the agenda, and I'll get the slide as well as the report added to the document with the clerk's office.

29:25Rebecca, could you please call what is now item 2?

29:29Thank you for pointing that out.

29:30I just want to note that the agenda is in the process of being reordered.

29:33So yeah, the remaining items will now be items 2, 3, and 4.

29:37Item 2, reappoint Marcelino Alvarez and Eric Kress to the Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners for terms to expire September 5th, 2029.

29:46Document number 2026-224.

29:50Thank you.

29:50And colleagues, this is a report that's being proposed, uh, with the request to be forwarded on to the— referred on to the full City Council from Mayor Wilson.

29:58We have with us, uh, Cornell Wesley, Executive Director of Prosper Portland.

30:01Gustavo Cruz Jr., the board chair of Prosper Portland, and I believe one of our 2, uh, candidates for reappointment.

30:08But I'll pass it to Director Wesley, or I guess whoever is going to start.

30:20Well, good morning, Chair Kanal, Vice Chairs Koyama Lane and Ryan, and members of the committee.

30:26Once again, for the record, I am Cornel Wesley, Executive Director of Prosper Portland.

30:30Glad to be joining you again.

30:33Next slide.

30:36I will provide some introductory remarks about our agency before turning it over to our board chair, Gustavo Cruz, and one of the mayor's appointees, Marcelino Alvarez, for their remarks.

30:47We hope the majority of the time can then be sent and be spent in discussions with you all.

30:53I'd also note that due to the reappointment deadline approachment approaching, we needed to get this on your schedule soon.

30:59And unfortunately, that means we were not able to have Commissioner Kress in person with us due to previously scheduled travel.

31:06He sends his apologies, and we hope that the conversations you had with him when you considered his reappointment in March are present and still relevant.

31:15Next slide.

31:18Prosper Portland is the city's economic and urban development agency.

31:22Like hundreds of economic and urban development authorities around the country, we were established as a separate entity by voters to carry out certain work on behalf of the city government.

31:32And we also implement city goals pursuant to Oregon state statute.

31:37That being said, we work closely with the mayor and city council to deliver on the city priorities.

31:41Our budget has been approved by council since 2007.

31:45Council appoints our community leadership committees.

31:48And every tax increment finance district and subsequent action plan is directly approved by council.

31:54I would like to now turn it over to Chair Cruz for a brief overview of the board.

32:01Good morning, everyone.

32:01It's a pleasure to be here today.

32:03Thank you very much for hearing us.

32:05I really appreciate your time.

32:07For the record, my name is Gustavo Cruz, and I currently serve as the chair of the Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners.

32:13I've been a member of the board since 2015.

32:16Prosper Portland is governed by a 5-member volunteer board who are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the full city council.

32:24These volunteers donate 3 years of their time each term, and some are reappointed to subsequent terms as determined by the mayor and as we're dealing with today.

32:33Next slide, please.

32:36DCA Donny Oliveira couldn't be here this morning, so it's my pleasure to introduce—.

32:40To Excuse me.

32:41To remind you all of the qualifications of Eric Kress, who was recently appointed to fill a 7-month board vacancy, and to introduce you to Marcelino Alvarez, one of the mayor's nominees for reappointment to the Prosper Portland board.

32:55As Director Wesley stated, due to scheduling issues, Commissioner Kress is unable to join us in person, but I know that he appreciated his time with you and appreciated your perspectives and support.

33:07In this critical time for our city, it's essential that we continue strong community-centered leadership on our board.

33:13The mayor believes, as do I, that Commissioners Kress and Alvarez demonstrate the values, the real-life experiences, community leadership, and volunteer service experience to guide Prosper Portland through this pivotal period of our city's future.

33:26As a reminder, Commissioner Kress is a real estate principal and civic leader.

33:30He currently serves as president and founder of UDP Partners, Excuse me.

33:35Urban Development Partners, UDP, and brings nearly 2 decades of executive leadership in the real estate sector.

33:42Eric has built a reputation for managing complex urban mixed-use projects that drive economic activity.

33:48He's organized 7 private equity funds deployed across projects in Oregon and Northern California.

33:55He has led the acquisition and development and asset management of projects valued at over $500 million.

34:01Including multiple LEED-certified developments.

34:04As an added bonus, Eric began his career as an engineer.

34:07His earlier work included roles in design and research for technology firms such as Cypress Semiconductor and Maple Optical Systems, as well as the National Science Foundation's Research Center for Computational Field Dynamics.

34:19He holds 8 US patents and multiple publications in error-correcting code research.

34:26Prosper Portland has already benefited from the extraordinary real estate and business development acumen that he brings to this volunteer role.

34:34Now I'd like to spend a moment discussing Commissioner Alvarez.

34:37It's been my pleasure to work alongside Commissioner Alvarez for the last 3 years.

34:42During that time, his perspective and experience have been invaluable, especially through several key moments of agency transition.

34:50Commissioner Alvarez is the CEO of Photon Marine, which is building the world's most powerful and intelligent electric outboard motor system tailored to commercial boat fleets.

34:59Marcelino began his career in advertising, producing digital campaigns at firms like Wieden and Kennedy.

35:05He later founded Uncorked Studios, a product design firm that helped companies like Nike, Intel, and Adidas bring innovative software and hardware products to the market.

35:15Marcelino also serves as a mentor for PIE— that's the Portland Incubator Experiment— and as a member of the board of directors of the Freshwater Trust.

35:23It's my pleasure now to turn it over to Commissioner Alvarez, who would also like to share a few words.

35:29Good morning, Chair Kanal, Vice Chairs Koyama Lane and Ryan, and members of the committee.

35:33For the record, my name is Marcelino Alvarez.

35:36Thank you, Chair Cruz and Director Wesley, for the warm introduction.

35:40It's certainly been an eventful few years since my first appointment.

35:43Our city has navigated a few transitions, certainly the director of Prosper Portland as well as this new form of government.

35:51As an entrepreneur, I can say that I feel kinship towards each of you as I watch you iterate upon the design of our city, perhaps from version 1.0 to 2.0, to manage a limited set of resources and the trials and tribulations of that iterative process.

36:12If no one has done so yet, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the startup community.

36:17It's the world that we live in.

36:20And we're now living through a moment that I believe is really going to define the next generation of Portland.

36:26It has certainly been a tremendous honor to be a part of it for the last 3 years and to have played a small role in all of this.

36:34Sitting here in front of you is an extreme privilege.

36:36I'm grateful for all the work that you are each doing every single day to carry our city forward to its next chapter.

36:44I thought it would be helpful to perhaps share a little bit more beyond the bio that Chair Cruz shared about me, and I'd like to preface it with a quote from the '90s band, the Toties.

37:00I come from the water.

37:01I was born in Dominican Republic.

37:03I am the son of a Cuban and Puerto Rican father and mother, and I grew up in South Florida.

37:10I spent most of my free time above, in, or around the water.

37:16It has played a transformational role in my life.

37:20It helped convene my community.

37:24It served as a source of inspiration and recreation.

37:28And now it is an absolute privilege to call it my professional focus as we try to decarbonize marine.

37:36I came to Portland in 2006, so nearly 20 years ago, to work in advertising.

37:41I had the fortune of working on the Nike account and really discovering how important the apparel and outdoor industry is to our region.

37:49I left advertising to run a design studio where we placed human-centered design and led with empathy to build technology products that solved real-world problems.

37:59It was then that our then-landlord Brad Malsin from Beam Development connected me to the Portland Development Commission, now Prosper, and encouraged us to get involved with them.

38:10And at the time, that felt strange.

38:12We were just a 6-person design studio, and I had no idea what I could offer our city.

38:17But he pushed, as Brad does, and we got involved.

38:22First, participating in neighborhood initiatives like Produce Row.

38:26I got to judge the city's Startup PDX Challenge for a number of years, contributed to ecosystem development programs like TechTown PDX.

38:36And even traveled as part of a delegation to Oakland on a best practices trip where I spent some time with then-Director Branham learning about Oakland and some of its trials and tribulations.

38:49I had an opportunity to witness the agency's commitment to moving the city forward and building an economy that's both thriving neighborhood by neighborhood.

38:57My vision for Portland is putting innovation to work in a way that solves problems through technology innovation and human-centered design.

39:05With a focus on growing businesses.

39:06And it'll surprise no one that I'm incredibly passionate about the efforts to reimagine our waterfront, which I think could be transformational for our region.

39:15Efforts like the Albina Vision Trust, the OMSI redevelopment, the Willamette Falls Trust, and even MLB PDX have the potential to convene community, provide inspiration, recreation, and most importantly, drive economic development for decades to come.

39:29As a father of 3 who's now married to a native Portlander whom I met in advertising.

39:34I'm incredibly proud to call Portland home, and as I enter my 21st year here, it would be an honor and a privilege to continue to serve you as a commissioner to the Board of Props of Portland.

39:43Thank you.

39:46Well, thank you again for your time and consideration.

39:49That concludes our remarks.

39:52Thank you, Director Wesley.

39:53Thank you, Chair Cruz.

39:55Thank you to Marcelino as well.

39:57Colleagues, we have testimony later, so we're going to start with all right, we'll start with any clarifying questions or any proposed amendments, and then we'll get into— or I guess floated amendments— and then we'll get into testimony and come back and do discussion.

40:11Is there— sorry, is nobody in the queue right now?

40:14I'm gonna pause however many seconds the council president normally tells me to pause, and then I have a question.

40:21Okay, I'll go first just to make sure we get it out of the way here.

40:26First, Director Wesley, you said when you were talking about Eric Kress, that the conversation— you hope that the conversations we had in March when we considered his reappointment are present and still relevant.

40:38Yes, sir.

40:38Missed something?

40:39Were there— I don't remember there being—.

40:40No, his appointment, meaning when he originally came before you.

40:44Correct.

40:44Okay, copy that.

40:46Awesome.

40:47So my question, I guess, is good in this case because it's only for Marcelino in this case, 'cause I'm asking about something that occurred last year.

40:55You were in office, If I recall correctly, prior to June 5th of last year?

40:59Yes, that's correct.

41:00On that date, there was a settlement of a lawsuit that was approved by the City Council.

41:06It was proposed to us.

41:07It was from some of the people who were displaced in Albina during the proposed expansion of Legacy Emanuel.

41:17It was proposed to us as $1 million from Prosper Portland and $1 million yes.

41:24It was amended up to a total of $8.5 million.

41:28At the time, we were told that because Prosper's board had not weighed in on it yet, we would need to approve it as $7.5 million from the City of Portland and the original $1 million from Prosper Portland, but that that conversation would continue through and that it might need to take until the next budget year, which is the one that Budget Prospectus is going to be approved.

41:47Which is the one that finished last month, to get Prosper to pay its fair share.

41:52That has not happened yet as far as I'm aware, and I'm wanting to hear why Prosper has not ponied up the full $4.25 million and when we can expect there to be a vote on the remaining $3.25 million from Prosper to make whole both the city and the people who were displaced.

42:13Councilor, we appreciate that question.

42:17The displacement of Black Portlanders caused real generational harm.

42:24Prosper Portland has acknowledged its role alongside other institutions as well.

42:32However, EDPA II resolved the claims of the 26 individual plaintiffs in that lawsuit specifically.

42:41It is also not the full scope of Prosper Portland's work on displacement.

42:47Prosper Portland and this city have invested more than $135 million in North Northeast Portland over the past decade through affordable housing, homeownership, home repair, and community development, including $10 million in recently the Williams and Russell Redevelopment, supporting Black wealth building, are the first of its kind from a reparative project.

43:15However, investments don't erase displacement's harms, which is why the agency continues strengthening community partnerships and reparative development work throughout the city.

43:28But in respect to the claim, the bottom line is Prosper's committed share has always been $1 million, the same figure from the original deal.

43:41It was never half of the $8.5 million through the city's insurance and claims fund.

43:46An accurate recollection will say that on May 30th, $1 million from the city, $1 million from Prosper Portland, $2 million total, plus non-cash terms.

43:56Then, to your credit, June 5th, an amendment was mentioned.

44:00Introduced that raised that from $1 million to $7.5 million.

44:03Prosper's $1 million obligation was never changed by that amendment.

44:08The final approved amendment reads $7.5 million from the city and $1 million from Prosper Portland.

44:14Now, if we're having a different discussion, or rather there's a desire for deeper involvement, I would point to our record and what we're also doing throughout the city.

44:26But I think at this time, Prosper Portland has honored its commitment and it is still going well beyond that particular investment for those 27 plaintiffs.

44:39Thanks.

44:41And Director Wesley, you weren't in the room when this conversation happened, so I want to respect that, that I don't hold you accountable for any of this because, yeah.

44:50And I'll note that D.C. Oliveira is not here.

44:52So if this is referred on, I will probably ask that he is available, and if the administration and the council president can coordinate so that it makes sense with his schedule, so that I can ask this question there, because that's the source of this conversation, this interpretation of what the next step would be.

45:11Because I asked this question repeatedly on that date of whether or not— and I don't mind putting up to the $7.5 million for the city.

45:18That's the dollar amount to us is not my concern.

45:21My concern is who caused the harm putting up an equal share of the money.

45:28Yes.

45:28I'm taking that answer to mean that there is no current plan to discuss this.

45:35My vote on this at the council will be dependent on this issue because I've raised it for well over a year now.

45:41So when we, when we get to that point, I have a pretty significant concern about it.

45:48Councilor Dunphy.

45:50Yeah, thank you.

45:51I had a couple questions for Mr. Alvarez.

45:54So you've been on the Prosper board through a pretty rough patch of Portland's economy and through the transition of this new form of government, which was also rough.

46:06What do you think success looks like in this new chapter, this new term that will be in there.

46:10What can we expect from you and how you will influence the outcomes from Prosper's board?

46:17Yeah, absolutely.

46:18Thank you for the question.

46:20You know, as an entrepreneur, I bring sort of the perspective of a startup.

46:25I bring the perspective of having run a small business from beginning to end.

46:29And as I think about some of the challenges that we face, you know, I think it starts with livability, affordability, being able to build and grow here.

46:38And I think, you know, through the last 3 years and certainly, you know, some of the time that preceded that, like, I think we've seen real challenges to our ability to grow businesses here in our region.

46:48I think, you know, for me, success, maybe through the lens of the small business owner or entrepreneurs, I'd love to be able to see local homegrown talent take an idea from concept to formation and success and to be able to recruit and build employees both locally and regionally.

47:05To come here and for those people to be able to afford to live here and get to work and feel safe along the way.

47:11There are times where we see glimmers of that, where we see pieces of that.

47:15And I think that, you know, sitting on the board of Prosper has afforded me the opportunity to see the very real effects that the Prosper team has put into action through, you know, some of the community leadership councils that are part of TIF districts to enable those efforts on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.

47:32I'd love for us to be a city that is not just a cool place on the West Coast, but that people come to because it's the best place on the West Coast and not the least worst of a bunch of other options.

47:44And there are glimmers of that every day, and there's certainly challenges to that every day.

47:49But I'd love to see it thrive in a way that, again, starts with small business that can grow and succeed.

48:04Building off of that, you know, Portland is a small business town, right?

48:089 Out of 10 employers employ fewer than 10 employees.

48:11But we're also facing a crisis in our downtown core.

48:15And the reality is that 10-person small businesses are not going to fill up the office space that is downtown right now.

48:21Do you think it is Prosper's responsibility to try to attract more small businesses to downtown?

48:23Absolutely.

48:24To attract larger employers to come to Portland or to try to support existing or new smaller employers as a core of your mission?

48:32Yeah, I mean, you have to do both, right?

48:34And I say this as someone who currently has fewer than 10 employees, and it's my goal to grow it to greater than 10 employees, but it's also my goal to get acquired by someone that's much bigger and that would keep us here and allow us to grow, right?

48:47You have to be able to do both.

48:49There are not enough small businesses to support the tax structure that we need to support all the social programs that we need.

48:56We have been part of economic development trips where we have led groups to New York to work with ecosystem development partners to build out our capacity.

49:06And I think part of it involves connecting the small businesses here that are on a high-growth trajectory with the financial resources and the customer resources that exist in other markets.

49:18I build electric motors.

49:19I don't have a customer in Oregon.

49:21My customers are Washington and California.

49:24And that is because of a lack of policy at a state level, right?

49:28And so I still choose to be in Portland even if my customer base is elsewhere.

49:32And I think that that's going to be true of some of the businesses that you're talking to here.

49:37This is an incredible place to live, but you need to get to scale and you need a flywheel in order to achieve that.

49:44So I think you need to be able to do both.

49:45And it's certainly the role—.

49:46Thank you.

49:46Of an economic development agency to both balance out retention, because you don't want to, you know, have talent leave, while also creating sort of the acquisition and growth paths that are going to be part of a larger economic ecosystem.

50:01So you absolutely have to do both, period.

50:03Well, you know, one of my kind of worries is that we're with such cheap real estate suddenly developing in Portland because everybody's trying to get this lot I think Portland is equipped for a great next chapter.

50:16But what I'm worried about is giant predatory corporations coming in and using their large capital positions to be able to push some of our smaller local businesses out.

50:26I'm very worried about, I mean, monopoly power and influencing local folks here.

50:32I've said repeatedly I'm still worried about Live Nation coming to Portland and forcing out our local independent music venues.

50:38How do you see the responsibility of Prosper Portland as the economic development agency to balance that, to try and protect our local businesses in a very intentional way while recognizing that, as you said, we need to attract bigger employers anyway?

50:54What should the role of Prosper be in protecting our locals?

50:57Yeah, I mean, I think of a number of the loans and programs that are run through the Office of Small Business.

51:01I think of the efforts that Mitch Doherty has done for decades, even before joining Prosper Portland.

51:05You know, those are grants and programs that are never going to go to a large outside organization, right?

51:10And they help businesses with amounts from $10,000 to $200,000, which move the needle for those businesses.

51:18Again, a large company is not ever going to come in and take that.

51:22I also think just the role that Prosper had in connecting a number of businesses that are contemplating Portland to the right real estate developers and landlords.

51:35And this is a region that has a number of people who put the portfolio of companies that reside in their buildings first over necessarily the unit economics of it.

51:48And Prosper as a facilitator, as a convener, as a connector to those small businesses can help ensure that a small business or a startup is entering into a 1, 3, 5-year relationship with someone who's not going to turn them around, flip them out on the street when someone comes in and acquires that building.

52:06And then the other part of it is just the ecosystem development programs like incubator programs that give those startups and small businesses opportunities to thrive and the resources that are part of that.

52:17And again, these are resources that aren't available to larger corporations, nor are they going to be a part of it.

52:22However, they could be housed within some of those larger corporations and within it.

52:26And we benefited from— we helped co-create a program that Autodesk held in their headquarters here.

52:32And then many years later, I resided in Autodesk's Portland offices for free, leveraged all those incentives that a large startup might have when we had no money, and were able to be part of a bigger ecosystem.

52:47And again, I think that as we think about the types of corporations and businesses that we want to be the larger fish in our pond, I think that Prosper and others play sort of a role in cultivating the right types of businesses that are going to cultivate because they might ultimately acquire some of those companies, right?

53:06And might help grow them and see them to the next chapter.

53:07So I'd say we play a role at both ends of that, at the small end and then at the larger acquisition.

53:13Make sure you've got the right people here in town.

53:15And look, I'll be honest, I share those concerns too.

53:17I share it from a— I'm in tech and I worry about tech.

53:21And I say that not necessarily to sort of wave this, you know, sort of cudgel of fear of technology, but just making sure—.

53:29Yeah.

53:30We're entering into business with people who are asking the right questions about the technologies that we're building, how they're used, and what their impacts are, whether intentional or unintentional, on the communities that either get pushed out or displaced because of them.

53:42Thank you.

53:43My last question, which builds, I think, well off of that, is you have— we have all been deep in the conversation about the future of the Moda Center.

53:52What do you think should be Prosper Portland's role in the redevelopment and the future of the Moda Center?

54:00Yeah, I'll answer this a couple of ways.

54:02I mean, I think first and foremost, I'm a sports fan, right?

54:06I came here to work for a sports brand.

54:08I've seen the stories that Wyden Kennedy told, you know, on the pitch, on the basketball court, on the baseball field.

54:18It would be a travesty if we were to lose our team.

54:22And I say this as a person who grew up in South Florida as a Marlins fan.

54:25I'm not sure if there's a lot of baseball fans here, but it has been a very painful existence my entire life.

54:31We went through various owners from a garbage truck magnate that looked like a Tony Soprano knockoff to a hedge fund manager to an art dealer from Canada to Derek Jeter, who took our marquee player and traded him back to the Yankees.

54:49I have been through a lot as a sports fan, and I would say that it is really easy to look at the conversations ahead of us and say this is between us and an owner.

55:03And I think the 13-year-old in me would ask you to think of all the 13-year-olds in the city and think about the passion that they have for their sports teams.

55:14The connective tissue that it is for their families, and how we find the balance to find an ability to keep that team here that doesn't necessarily put us in a place that is gonna leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

55:29And I get that that's not an easy thing to do.

55:32All of that being said, there's currently not an issue or an item for consideration of the board.

55:37We are here to implement the mayor and council's decision on this.

55:45Thank you very much.

55:49Thank you, Council President.

55:50We'll go to Councilor Green, followed by Pirtle-Guiney.

55:55Uh, thank you so much, uh, Chair Cruz and Director Wesley and Mr. Alvarez for, uh, signing up again to, uh, continue to serve.

56:03Um, I just have a couple questions and then we'll get into testimony.

56:06I might have more later, but I just wanted to but make sure that I had the right information.

56:08I'm going to follow up on what Council President had raised around the Moda Center piece.

56:14I know that publicly it's been floated as potentially Prosper might contribute some money from the Strategic Investment Fund as part of this capital stack.

56:22And, you know, the Strategic Investment Fund has been a topic of conversation at this body over the last year and a half.

56:29I've been at the center of a lot of that.

56:31But I think what I'm interested in from your position as a commissioner, as someone who cares about development and incubation in support of our kind of homegrown economic development projects, the SIF is there to provide opportunities for capital and then also get a return to Prosper.

56:54And so every capital choice is a choice about opportunity costs.

56:59And so how are you going to kind of move when that decision ultimately comes to the board to consider maybe using the SIF as part of the Moda Center capital stack in terms of articulating the tradeoffs?

57:12What are we not going to do with the SIF that we would have otherwise done with the SIF, and how are we going to evaluate that?

57:19I'm curious what your thoughts are at this moment, understanding that there's no item before you yet, but just broadly.

57:24Yeah, I understand the question and understand, again, there's no specific issue to respond to.

57:29Yeah.

57:29Just in a hypothetical, how am I gonna look through this decision?

57:32Again, I'm gonna bring my expertise to bear as a former small business owner and a current entrepreneur, right?

57:37I think for me, understanding like what are the impacts to, you know, starting first with the potential redevelopment project, like what are the impacts of the small businesses around the Moda Center?

57:50What are the impacts to the employees?

57:52What are the business-first decisions that are gonna affect our community?

57:55There is a large organization, but there are ancillary businesses that are affected by any of the decisions that we need to undertake.

58:02The second part of it is sort of related to community livability access, right?

58:09How do the decisions that we make impact the ability for people to continue to enjoy these facilities and recreate?

58:18And I say this as a father of 3 kids, it is really expensive to go to a Portland Pickles game.

58:22Right?

58:22Like, you know, and this is the neighborhood, you know, sort of ballgame, right?

58:26So how do we ensure that the decisions that we are making are such that they're gonna provide equitable access to communities and people down the line?

58:36And yes, every dollar spent is an opportunity cost against, you know, a dollar spent elsewhere.

58:44But also, it is our job to look at, you know, Individual requests in the service of that specific request or among others that are alongside it.

58:55And it would really depend, I guess, on the timing of it, what it is up against at a particular moment in time to understand like what are the trade-offs relative to a specific thing versus the hypothetical of, well, how might we spend this elsewhere 2, 3, 5, 7 years down the line?

59:11So again, I think it would be—.

59:13Yeah.

59:14I think helpful, you know, as I think about ways that we can, we as Prosper can collaborate more closely with council, understanding, you know, maybe some of the, maybe kind of flipping that on its head, like what are some of the pulls and considerations that you would like us to, you know, contemplate as part of that, I think would be helpful inputs into our conversations and negotiations.

59:36I appreciate that.

59:37And just to kind of follow that up just a little bit, during the budget process that Portland City Council just went through and also Prosper Portland, one of the innovations I was more excited about was a kind of a refresh around Advance Portland and some opportunities for the Strategic Investment Fund to seize the moment we're in to provide kind of an opportunity to acquire maybe some commercial and/or residential properties.

1:00:04I think with the goal of providing both returns to Prosper but also kind of lower that burden, that hurdle rate for some of our commercial tenants in this town.

1:00:13And so I guess as we get into this conversation more, I would ask you to keep in mind that that's a plan that is in place that I think has a lot of promise.

1:00:22And if we're going to make decisions on the SIF that are not in line with that vision, I would be concerned.

1:00:28And so I just would want a pretty transparent conversation around what we're going to give up on some of those opportunities.

1:00:35Sure, I'd welcome an opportunity to learn more.

1:00:36And then certainly I wasn't absolutely part of all those conversations, so would defer to Director West and Lulu.

1:00:40Appreciate that.

1:00:41Uh, the other piece I have is you, you mentioned something about waterfront activations and, uh, connectedness to the water.

1:00:49That's something I care a lot about.

1:00:51Um, I think there's a lot of folks in this room right now care about that for a lot of different reasons.

1:00:55But, um, one of the issues that some of my thank you.

1:00:58One of the issues that my constituents in District 4 have been grappling with in the South Portland Neighborhood Association in the kind of, you know, the area, the newly redeveloped area down by Zidell Yards and the like, is really wanting access and completion of a trail system.

1:01:15And I know that that's conversations that folks like Roger, if you're listening, and others have been pushing on.

1:01:23Partnership with Prosper Portland.

1:01:24And I think those are small grants and those are small pieces and not part of the bigger picture, but I was piqued in interest that waterfront access and connectedness is a big part of kind of your own story.

1:01:36So I wonder, as a commissioner, how you might communicate to this council and then my constituents some level of commitment in sort of not waiting another couple decades to finish a trail.

1:01:49Sure.

1:01:50Again, I'm not able to make necessarily any commitments, but like I said, I'm pro-water, if that's a platform, and I would welcome an opportunity.

1:02:00I mean, I think certainly as real estate decisions have come in front of PROSPER, I have always asked, is there an opportunity to connect this to the water?

1:02:09And I know that Live Nation, as an example, was contentious, but one of the things that I asked in that testimony was, are there opportunities to connect the docks nearby on the Springwater Corridor such that someone might be able to get there by water, whether by kayak or personal boat or other form of modality?

1:02:27I live, you know, the Springwater Corridor runs through my neighborhood and I'm very familiar with the trail of which you speak.

1:02:34So as a personal Portlander, I also would love to see us, you know, move forward on waterfront developments and also not necessarily to have decades, you know, part of this.

1:02:42I mean, I think, you know, some of the, Projects that you mentioned and I've mentioned, you know, have all been in the works for many decades.

1:02:48And, you know, I'd love for it to not be my children's grandchildren that are the ones that get to enjoy it, but that we can see some of the benefits of these programs in our lifetime.

1:02:56So—.

1:02:57Thank you.

1:02:57And, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't also talk about the other part of the north reach of the Willamette River and the future of connectedness between the communities who live in the area around the CEI Hub and being able to get access to the river there.

1:03:12That is inherently linked with economic development.

1:03:15So as a commissioner, I'm curious what you're thinking about over the next few decades.

1:03:19What does redevelopment down there look like to you?

1:03:22Sorry, I missed which part of it.

1:03:22Sorry.

1:03:24So the north reach of the Willamette River is everything kind of like downriver from our last kind of local bridge, and it speaks to the area that's part of the Northwest Industrial Area that's historically kind of closed off from folks who want to access the river in a more connected way.

1:03:40And so cities change.

1:03:44Oftentimes if you do a good job, your economic development gets cleaner and cleaner and cleaner and relies less on dirty, heavy industry.

1:03:50And so do you have a vision for that?

1:03:53I mean, I would point to 2 things.

1:03:55One is, not to be self-promoting, I gave a talk a couple years ago just about reimagining our city on the water.

1:04:01And part of it was connecting to both the economic development that Kaiser did while building ships in our region and sort of how that transformed it to how we got rid of a proposed 6-lane highway that is now where Tom McCall Waterfront Park is.

1:04:18So consider me an ally for how we reimagine that waterfront and access.

1:04:24I, again, would love to see more access, more restaurants, more entry points into the water, just a friendlier ecosystem.

1:04:36I'm out on the Willamette testing electric boats multiple times a week, and I can't tell you how many times it's a beautiful sunny day and the river's empty, and it breaks my heart.

1:04:47And you go to other places and it's not that case.

1:04:50I will also acknowledge having at least, no pun intended, tipped my toes in the water in some of these areas to understand what are some of the restrictions.

1:04:59Clearly a lot of stakeholders involved at a state, federal level for some of these access points.

1:05:05I know that at a state level, Department of State Lands obviously has purview into some of this.

1:05:10Would certainly welcome conversations that could allow us to move things more quickly.

1:05:16I look north to the other side of the Columbia River and see what Vancouver has done, and I constantly ask myself, well, why not here?

1:05:22And would love to see more of that here.

1:05:23So.

1:05:23Thank you.

1:05:24Let us know how we can help.

1:05:26Thank you so much.

1:05:27I appreciate it.

1:05:28Thank you.

1:05:29Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, then Novick, then Ryan.

1:05:32And Chair, my questions are more in line with some of these what are your thoughts questions.

1:05:37Do you want me to wait until after testimony and do just technical questions now, or is this an appropriate time?

1:05:42I mean, if you think it's helpful to, um, the potential testifiers to hear here the topics you might raise, I think it makes sense okay.

1:05:50Why don't I ask just one question now then?

1:05:57And that is, you know, I had 2 questions written down about kind of what is your vision, how do you approach your work?

1:06:04And one was around the work of Prosper broadly that I think you answered well as you were in conversation with President Dunphy.

1:06:13But I'm wondering if you can speak to your thoughts on the work of Prosper on the role of the PROSPER Board of Commissioners in coordination or not in coordination with the role of City Council as you are tasked with doing some very specific and important economic development work, and as we as an elected body representing Portlanders take on some economic development strategies ourselves, and how do we make sure that there is some coordination and collaboration there, or should there not be?

1:06:44100% Should be collaboration.

1:06:47I mean, we are the implementers of the strategy that is set forth.

1:06:51So whether that is Advance Portland, whatever comes beyond Advance Portland, it is our role to implement that.

1:06:57I think the advantages that we have by, you know, well, I'll say this, being independent does not necessarily mean separate, right?

1:07:06I would say that opportunities for conversation to understand like what are priorities for each of the councilors.

1:07:12What are priorities for some of your constituents?

1:07:15You know, it's just encouraging your constituents to attend our board meetings, right?

1:07:19They are publicly held.

1:07:20We listen to testimony from people.

1:07:22So I would welcome more opportunities to connect, you know, on a month-by-month basis so that we can hear the voice of your constituents.

1:07:32I think the second part of that is, you know, some of the scope of the projects that we are undertaking.

1:07:39Sort of either exceed the term of office for any one of you or perhaps span multiple terms.

1:07:46And so having some level of consistency across those where we can be carrying those and not necessarily be driven by, you know, an electoral cycle, I think is beneficial.

1:07:57It only works if we're all talking.

1:07:58So I think, you know, pragmatically speaking, I would just encourage more dialogue versus less.

1:08:05More productive dialogue versus just talking in circles, right?

1:08:08Like, how do we, how do we get to the heart of the matter?

1:08:09What are the issues that are driving you and your constituents so that we can make the best use of that as we consider items that get brought to us?

1:08:17Great, thank you.

1:08:18I appreciate that.

1:08:20Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:08:22Councilor Novick and then Ryan, and then we'll go to testimony.

1:08:25I can hold my question till after testimony.

1:08:27Thank you, Councilor Novick.

1:08:28Councilor Ryan?

1:08:28Yeah, thanks.

1:08:29I think this is big picture and would thank you, Mr. Mayor.

1:08:31Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your help with the testimony.

1:08:33It's good to see all of you.

1:08:34Thank you, Prosper Portland leadership, for being here.

1:08:36Mr. Wesley, Mr. Cruz.

1:08:39First, I will be supporting both you, Mr. Alvarez.

1:08:42Thanks for being here.

1:08:43It's been wonderful to listen to you.

1:08:46And also Mr. Kress' appointments.

1:08:48But this is more for Prosper leadership.

1:08:51I want to listen to you share thoughts on how we can learn from recent challenges that we've experienced.

1:08:56Some before you were here.

1:08:59I watched the developer walk— was it '21 or '22 on the Broadway corridor?

1:09:05It was— what year was that?

1:09:07Those years are all blended together, right?

1:09:09When the developer walked from the Broadway corridor, is that '22?

1:09:14'21?

1:09:15Yeah, somewhere in that.

1:09:17Okay, we're all saying it's one of those 2 years.

1:09:19Okay, got it.

1:09:21And that area is continues to sit shovel-ready.

1:09:25That's the good part.

1:09:26And we even have some of the infrastructure all set up.

1:09:28And we all know earlier, a decade earlier, that wouldn't be the story.

1:09:33There would have been major development already taking place there, and all the renderings we voted on when we were excited about it would have all come to fruition.

1:09:41We also have the Centennial Mills that's experienced so many fits and starts over the years, and it kind of sits there waiting as well.

1:09:48These are projects that Prosper's driving, and I just want to hear what we've learned, how City Council could be better partners with you, because this is kind of red alert time that we have such activity taking place that just sits there.

1:10:03Give me some hope that there'll be some development occurring sooner than later.

1:10:07And again, how can we be partners to see this through?

1:10:11Okay, so let's start with the partnership.

1:10:14Um, question in that I want to tag on to what our commissioner has already stated.

1:10:20This is an opportunity for us to work closer with council, which is my desire, which is why we tried to double down on transparency and communication and being more consistent and clear in what we're working on.

1:10:32But I also want to call out the lessons we've learned around some of those deals.

1:10:35Some of those deals are independent of Prosper.

1:10:38Some of those things slow down because of economic conditions, and they're changing, right?

1:10:43Real estate is where it is today because of economic conditions, and there are a lot of different reasons why we are in this space.

1:10:49But from an organizational standpoint, how can we be more efficient in our— in financial stewardship and underwriting?

1:10:55And so we've done a couple things internally to ensure the product and how we underwrite and review the product improves.

1:11:022 New recent hires that we've made here, is direct evidence in correlation to that.

1:11:08We, we're doing some structural reform with development and investment, which is what it was historically known as.

1:11:15Now it is capital access led by one particular executive and real estate and community development led by another executive, because what we found is having it embedded in one person diluted them both.

1:11:27And so we have to do a better job in how we underwrite and, and how we review and what we invest in, but also calling out that Prosper is designed to make big swings.

1:11:37We're not a bank.

1:11:38We, we invest in projects that are at times speculative in nature, because if the bank wanted it, then Prosper wouldn't likely exist.

1:11:46So there is a space that we play in that is unique, but we can also bring, uh, more robust tools to make sure that the end goal is still met, even if economic conditions change.

1:12:02Did you want to add anything, Chair?

1:12:04Um, no, that's—.

1:12:05I think what I'm trying to get at is this is a decade earlier, this would have happened.

1:12:09Yes.

1:12:09And I know we can talk about the national conditions.

1:12:12Yeah.

1:12:13But let's focus on Portland conditions.

1:12:15Yeah.

1:12:15And what is— because some of these same projects in some other parts of the country would have been developed by now.

1:12:23Well, I think I, I, I hear you and I agree with you to some degree, uh, but I think with respect to Broadway Corridor, um, we've seen a pretty dramatic change in capital availability since that project was begun.

1:12:36Um, and I don't think there's any— you know, the, the number of folks that are willing to come to Portland and invest dollars from money centers, uh, is far different now than it was 10 years ago.

1:12:48Um, and when we When we initially embarked on the post office project, if you will, it was a totally different environment.

1:12:57And I feel like, and I think most people would agree who've watched the whole thing come along, that the city actually got a very good deal on that property.

1:13:09And I still stand by that.

1:13:11The post office, they needed to move out of downtown.

1:13:15That was the economically rational thing for them to do.

1:13:17I think the city And we were able to facilitate that.

1:13:20We were able to buy a sizable piece of downtown real estate that was suddenly available for development and that would provide a lot of activity and economic development activity and other benefits, housing activity for our city.

1:13:35So it was, you know, I think if you look back on it, we've had some bad timing with COVID and capital access.

1:13:43And we had other problems with the site.

1:13:45There are environmental issues with the site and a variety of things that have come along over the years.

1:13:52But I think we will get back to it.

1:13:53And we've got development online now.

1:13:55There's things coming up with respect to affordable housing down there.

1:13:59And I think gradually over time it'll come back.

1:14:02I think, you know, I think all of us run a danger of looking at things in a very short short-term environment.

1:14:11And that's actually one of the benefits of having commissioners on the Prosper board that are independent from regular election cycles, that we do see things in a long— from a longer view.

1:14:23So for example, way back when, Dan, you know, I know you're a native Portlander, as am I.

1:14:30We saw the transition in Portland from a resource-based economy to a totally different economy, you know.

1:14:36We watched the spotted owl issue go by.

1:14:41We saw the movement of timber companies out of Portland.

1:14:46People said the sky was falling.

1:14:48And to Commissioner— Councilmember Dunphy's point about cheap real estate and what that does in activity, well, what did that bring?

1:14:56That brought activity amongst restaurateurs and other investors in downtown.

1:15:02Which brought Portland along.

1:15:03And 10, 15, 20 years later, we had tremendous activity by the '90s that we didn't have in the early '80s.

1:15:10Right.

1:15:11You know, so we have to take a long view.

1:15:14And I would just say with respect to Broadway Quarter and with respect to Centennial Mills, Centennial Mills is another, a whole nother issue that we could talk about at some length.

1:15:26But these projects take, do take a long time and are subject to a lot of external factors that unfortunately we don't really have a lot of control over.

1:15:35Yeah, I appreciate that, and I definitely take the long view.

1:15:39And we're partners in this work.

1:15:42Yes.

1:15:42And it is embarrassing sometimes that it's not moving the way it should.

1:15:48And that's on us.

1:15:49That's on you.

1:15:50Like, how can we do that?

1:15:51And I noticed it wasn't lost on me that our investment ranking nationally really tanked after the exit of the developer at that— at the Broadway corridor.

1:16:02So these dots are all kind of connected.

1:16:04Yeah.

1:16:04So we have to be working together as a team.

1:16:06And I hope when you're on the board that you all have these really serious board-like conversations about vision and culture restructuring and how to work in a maybe a more bold way with us so we can get some economic development going again.

1:16:20Because all right, clearly I'm more comfortable with development than some of my colleagues, but it's because I like revenue.

1:16:28I want our budget to actually have money in it again.

1:16:32I want us to see the revenues coming back to our city.

1:16:35And when business taxes are flat, when property values are going down, that's taking quite a hit on both the county and the city.

1:16:44And that's why we're in our budget conundrum that we're in.

1:16:46I agree.

1:16:47So we have to figure out how to be more active with Prosper Portland, and we have to be more bold.

1:16:52And I'm expecting the board to really have those serious conversations and keep us up to date on that action.

1:16:59Keyword, action.

1:17:00Thanks.

1:17:01Thank you.

1:17:02Thank you.

1:17:05Thank you, Councilor Ryan.

1:17:06Councilor Clark, is it for before or after?

1:17:08Just a quick question.

1:17:09Just to build off of Councilor Ryan.

1:17:12I'm just I'm really excited about what is happening at Broadway Quarter.

1:17:16I have been down to look at the infrastructure and walk around.

1:17:20What's the thoughts on the train station?

1:17:24Well, we have recently signed a new lease, and so we are still obviously the landowner.

1:17:34That one is far more complicated because, you know, this is federal and multilayered.

1:17:40But it is an amazing asset for us.

1:17:44I would love to debrief you in a different setting around what the possibilities are on that site and what are the current conditions and constraints.

1:17:53Let's do that.

1:17:54I appreciate that.

1:17:54Thank you.

1:17:55Thanks.

1:17:56And just a quick question, would that normally be in City Life?

1:18:02Which piece of it?

1:18:02The conversation about the future of—.

1:18:05Sort of prosperous general activity.

1:18:06But yeah, I guess the future of the train station.

1:18:08Yes.

1:18:09Okay, thanks.

1:18:14I feel that way about our committee too.

1:18:16All right, I think that we'll pick back up with Councilor Novick after testimony.

1:18:20Rebecca, will you please call testimony?

1:18:22Then we might have questions and discussion with you after as well.

1:18:26Thank you.

1:18:27First, we have Jordan Lewis.

1:18:30Emily H., Skylar Cruz, Victoria Burka.

1:18:37Jordan is online.

1:18:39You can unmute and go ahead, Jordan.

1:18:45Hello, can you hear me?

1:18:47We can.

1:18:49Awesome.

1:18:50Good morning, Committee of the Whole.

1:18:51I'm Jordan Lewis.

1:18:52I'm a volunteer lobbyist for the Portland Democratic Socialists of America.

1:18:56I'm using this opportunity to speak on the topic of Vision Zero because there was no formal opportunity to testify on it at today's meeting.

1:19:02This was distressing for a lot of community members who recognize just how cheap life is, human life is, when a car is involved.

1:19:10We have exhaustive scientific evidence that driving speeds correlate with traffic injuries and deaths for all road users.

1:19:16We know this.

1:19:17Leaders choose to do nothing because they enjoy traveling at high speeds through urban environments and have decided that bodies in the hospital and in the morgue are worth their commute.

1:19:26As a chemist, one of the most fundamental concepts we learn is the ideal gas law.

1:19:30This law states that properties of a gas are proportional to each other.

1:19:33If you take the same quantity of gas and put it into a larger container, the pressure must go down.

1:19:38If you increase the temperature, the pressure must go up.

1:19:41We see a similar phenomenon with traffic safety.

1:19:43We have to slow down cars to save lives, period.

1:19:47To save lives, we must depart from the throughput overall mentality of the 20th century.

1:19:51We must slow cars down by putting things in the road: traffic lights, tighter curbs, bollards, and rocks.

1:19:58We won't get there by taking out another traffic diverter or doing a stealth repave of Burnside with no transformational project elements, or by watching transit service get cut and say, not my jurisdiction.

1:20:16I'm going to apologize here.

1:20:17We have to slow down cars to save lives.

1:20:19I apologize here for interrupting, Jordan.

1:20:22Um, we do have rules of conduct that say testimony has to be on the matter at hand.

1:20:26I apologize for that.

1:20:27Uh, we are going to have testimony on Vision Zero after the presentation at our next meeting.

1:20:33Uh, so I apologize for having to cut you off there, but we do have the rules of conduct.

1:20:37And I'll ask any, any future testifiers who may have signed up for this item with the intent of doing that to, uh, refrain and please sign up as soon as we make that testimony available, which I do intend to do and, uh, did try to get it on for this, this week's agenda as well.

1:20:52I just wasn't able to do it, and I apologize for that as well.

1:20:56I look forward to the next shoe incubator.

1:20:58Thanks.

1:21:00Um, sorry, go for it, Rebecca.

1:21:04I don't know who—.

1:21:05Uh, Emily Hawley, Skyler Cruz, Victoria Berka.

1:21:10Skyler, you can unmute and go ahead online.

1:21:16Hello everyone, uh, my name is Skyler Cruz.

1:21:18My pronouns are she/her.

1:21:20I'm a resident of District 4 here in the Goose Hollow neighborhood.

1:21:24I wanted to speak to Prosper about, you know, I think your work is incredibly important.

1:21:28I think we do need to focus on economic development of Portland.

1:21:33And I kind of want to talk about my experience of living on West Burnside for the past, what, I think 5 years at this point.

1:21:40Um, you know, I moved into my building and I was very happy to see several businesses around me, even during COVID that could supply me with things like pizza and services.

1:21:51And over time, I've just seen a lot of places close.

1:21:55There's a lot of reasons for this.

1:21:56You know, I'm not putting any blame on Prosper here, but I would like to just remind everybody that, like, part of the problem with a lot of the local businesses is how difficult it is to get around.

1:22:09I live right on West Burnside, and I find it very uncomfortable to walk around this neighborhood for a variety of reasons.

1:22:16So I hope that when we look at what is development, we're not just saying, let's give a bunch of money to a shoe manufacturer.

1:22:23Let's look at the broader picture of how we make this place, the city of Portland, not just a place where people drive in and visit, but a place where people live, work, and play.

1:22:33I have a car, but I try to avoid using it because I work in Vancouver, Washington, but I prefer to spend my time in Portland, Oregon.

1:22:40I take a tax hit.

1:22:41To be able to stay here in Portland because this is the city I love.

1:22:45I think it's worth our time to invest in our neighborhoods and our communities.

1:22:49I think since, you know, looking at how we pretty much kind of agreed that the Lloyd Center is not an economically viable option, we need to move away from sort of this infrastructure of driving people in and having the people who live here have affordable rent, be able to have that extra money to spend in the city.

1:23:08I know a lot of people who live in the city of Portland who can't really afford to spend at their local businesses.

1:23:15They end up DoorDashing because they're afraid of things like even tipping.

1:23:21They don't want to have to deal with the commute time, the travel time.

1:23:25Paying for parking becomes difficult, and I think parking is something people should pay for.

1:23:30The problem is housing.

1:23:32We don't have enough money to spend after we spend all of our money on rent.

1:23:36So I hope that we can spend more time thinking about how the people who currently live in Portland can have the extra funds necessary to actually support local businesses.

1:23:46Housing is our number one priority, in my opinion, and spending money on shoe manufacturing companies with bad business models is a waste of our time.

1:23:55I think we should be really prioritizing low-income folks who would love to spend money here in Portland, who would love to provide the economic growth.

1:24:02But end up ultimately just giving all their paycheck to their rent until they're unfortunately forced out of their homes and living on the streets.

1:24:10And that causes other problems.

1:24:12You know, if we don't address that problem first and foremost, everything else crumbles, and we can't do things like have police to take care of it.

1:24:19It doesn't make any goddamn sense.

1:24:20So thank you for your time.

1:24:22I hope you do great work in the future.

1:24:25Keep up the good work, and I hope to see good things from you in the future.

1:24:28Thank you so much.

1:24:28Thank you.

1:24:29Thank you.

1:24:31Christopher Olson, Robin Bogusiewicz, Anthony Resh, JP Nash.

1:24:47That concludes testimony.

1:24:51All right, thank you, colleagues.

1:24:51We'll now move into discussion, uh, and eventually consideration of the report.

1:24:55Uh, Councilor Novick, you're first in the queue.

1:24:59Mr.

1:25:00Alvarez, I just wanted to say that I really appreciated everything you had to say, with one exception.

1:25:05To old baseball fans, thinking of Florida Marlins fans as long-suffering is a deeply offensive concept because this is a team that won 2 World Series in its first 11 years of existence.

1:25:17I also, if time allowed, would love to ask you about the prospects for electrification in the marine industry because that's a really encouraging thank you.

1:25:28Thank you, Councilor Novick.

1:25:29I believe there was someone else who had mentioned they had other questions for after.

1:25:33Is it okay?

1:25:35Um, I have a question for Council President, which is, you know, I have questions that are going to affect my final vote that are unable to be answered based on, you know, DCA Olivera not being able to be here today.

1:25:49Um, I, at the risk of not wanting to pull this off of the consent agenda at the full council, but also not wanting to hold this up here, I just wanted to know if you had preferences on how we handle that.

1:26:02You know, the consent agenda is for when we have broad consent because we have done the work, we have heard testimony, we have debated the merits and don't need to debate it again.

1:26:12We didn't get the full presentation today because there's questions to be asked, so I would have no I have no problem putting this on the regular agenda.

1:26:18Okay, I'll try to ask, uh, if, if the 2 members, uh, can come up, I'll try to ask enough questions to get to what I'm getting at here.

1:26:27The first question is actually for the Chair Cruz, and the second question is for the prospective reappointee.

1:26:32Um, but I'll let— while you're coming up, I'll let Councilor Koyama Lane go first if you're okay with that.

1:26:39Do you mind questions first?

1:26:40Yeah, that's great.

1:26:43Thank you, Chair.

1:26:46We're aware, all aware of the challenges related to Prosper, specifically in Old Town.

1:26:52That's played out really publicly in the press.

1:26:55Although it is important to know what, what has happened and where things are at, it makes me also think about oversight and the role that Prosper plays in that.

1:27:08And I'm just wondering if given the challenges, the failure of Made in Old Town, other related real estate and business investment in that area, what's Prosper's vision for where we go next and how does oversight play a role?

1:27:25So in reference to Made in Old Town, we're not going to hide the fact that the loan didn't perform the way we had hoped.

1:27:33But I will also call out that Prosper Prosper's tools exist precisely to fund higher-risk, higher-impact projects that, again, conventional lenders won't touch.

1:27:44And that means some will fail.

1:27:46I think the relevant question isn't whether Prosper ever takes a loss.

1:27:50It's whether the agency responds with discipline when one occurs.

1:27:53And here's what happened.

1:27:56This board acted immediately.

1:27:59They did not provide any additional inducement.

1:28:02There was no additional renegotiating of favorable terms and unanimous— unanimously voted to reclaim the collateral through a deed in lieu of foreclosure rather than absorb further losses that protected the public's position as a secured lender and not a grantor.

1:28:18And so they exercised their accountability with the tools available to them.

1:28:22Now, there is also a structural issue here that is worthy of calling out.

1:28:26How did we get there?

1:28:27Which is why I called out the structural reforms in my previous comments.

1:28:31It was embedded in one particular department, which diluted both.

1:28:34These 2 new leaders will prevent these style of deals from occurring in the future, and I have full faith in that.

1:28:42Anything, Matt?

1:28:43Yeah, I could just elaborate maybe.

1:28:47Executive Director Wesley did a great job, I think, of explaining some of the details, but big picture-wise, I would just note that Prosper councilor Smith.

1:28:58Our role is not to be a commercial bank.

1:29:01That's the background that I come from.

1:29:03I was a commercial lender.

1:29:04I'm now a corporate lawyer.

1:29:06I represent banks and financial institutions.

1:29:09The deals that commercial banks do are completely different from what Prosper does.

1:29:14Occasionally we will have a deal that a lender would look at, but oftentimes we're driven by community requirements and what do folks in the community want and what are people in industry doing and how are we activating a neighborhood that that needs activation.

1:29:30There's sort of, there's subtle drivers of some of these projects that are difficult to work into an ROI calculation.

1:29:41And this was one of them.

1:29:42Made in Old Town was backed by the Old Town Chinatown community.

1:29:49It was heavily pushed by the sneaker and apparel industry.

1:29:55There was a lot of industry momentum behind this.

1:29:59And I will say that a lot of the deliberation that goes on at PROSPER, a bit of it happens behind the scenes just as it does at City Council.

1:30:10We have to be careful about quorum requirements.

1:30:14But we do talk about things and we do go back and forth with staff quite a bit.

1:30:20On our deals, and this was one that actually consumed quite a bit of time.

1:30:25And there were other things that I think the board would've preferred to have in the Maiden Old Town deal that we didn't actually get.

1:30:33But at the end of the day, there were enough public policy reasons and investment reasons and activation reasons, if you will, that encouraged us to make the loan.

1:30:46It was not— it was obviously not something that one of my clients would have done.

1:30:53So in any event, we, as Executive Director Wesley mentioned, I think we've dealt with it well from a workout standpoint, and I think we move on to the next project.

1:31:04So, and I think there's good news in the sense that we have the building back.

1:31:09You know, Prosper knows that building well.

1:31:11We used to be in that building.

1:31:13So we know that it's of good quality and that there will eventually be uses for that that will provide a good return.

1:31:22So I hope that helps.

1:31:23Thank you for speaking to that.

1:31:25And as a longtime public school teacher, I know there's always room for growth and reiterating and learning lessons.

1:31:32And I know when I, you know, I'm knocking doors, I'm talking to constituents, the public really wants to feel like they can trust that funds are going to be managed well and there is oversight.

1:31:45So thank you for speaking to this.

1:31:47Are you able to share some high-level lessons learned or things that will be different going forward based on that experience?

1:31:55Absolutely.

1:31:57What I can tell you is when I first got here, that was one of the things that dropped right in my lap as the new executive director.

1:32:06And so immediately I audited every programmatic lane within the Prosper.

1:32:11Every grant, every loan, every policy and procedure has been audited.

1:32:16I've commissioned 2 independent studies to reimagine how we chart our new policies and procedures and guardrails and underwriting guidelines forward, moving forward.

1:32:28So we have gone through robust structural change and it will be reflected Thank you.

1:32:41And appreciate, as you're sharing about the need to activate certain neighborhoods that need activation, and when I think about that, I think about who's included in that conversation.

1:32:50I hear with this specific project that the Old Town Chinatown community was supporting this, but what I know about that area and some of that well, I know that a lot of people actually don't know that all of that area of Old Town was called Nihonmachi at one point, was Japantown before World War II.

1:33:11And I know that there are communities, community organizations down there like the Japanese American Museum of Oregon that is really important, the China Portland Chinatown Museum and Lan Su Gardens.

1:33:27And I know that there's been question if those folks are at the table and are also considered part of that community and heard.

1:33:34And I'm wondering if you can speak to how it's decided which groups are brought in, because it's really important to think about which groups are representing historic and present-day communities when we're trying to activate those neighborhoods.

1:33:50Well, our cultural institutions are extremely important to us.

1:33:53They are economic drivers for our city.

1:33:56They drive tourism.

1:33:57People come in town just to see Lan Su.

1:34:01And so our door is always open.

1:34:02We— I have been extremely loud about my view, my personal view, and my economic experience with cultural institutions as tourism drivers.

1:34:11In real time, we're working with Lan Su right now on a project hopefully that will reinvigorate Old Town if it comes to fruition, and Prosper Portland stands ready to play its role.

1:34:23That's so great to hear.

1:34:25And I would love to personally invite you to come to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon with me if you'd like to.

1:34:30I would love that.

1:34:30Okay, sounds great.

1:34:31We will set that up.

1:34:33Thanks so much.

1:34:35If I could also add, you know, Prosper has been heavily involved in promoting those projects over the years.

1:34:41So we're on that side of it too.

1:34:45We've also been involved in lots of other economic I'm thinking off the top of my head, the Hoxton Hotel project.

1:34:54Prosper was involved when that was originally spearheaded by the Naito family and then was later sold to the Hoxton Group, which is actually based in London.

1:35:05And so we've had— there've been a lot of iterations over many years with those projects.

1:35:10And unfortunately, as I was describing with respect to Broadway Quarter, it takes a long time, but we're very sensitive to that.

1:35:19You know, looking back over many years, you can see how the makeup of businesses down there has changed dramatically.

1:35:27Yeah.

1:35:27I'd like to see some of those businesses come back.

1:35:30The fact that there basically aren't any Chinese restaurants left anymore, you know, there aren't any small shops left anymore.

1:35:38It's, to me, that's a tragedy, and I'd like to see more of that come back.

1:35:42And there's a lot of communication and connection between Prosper and the Old Town neighborhood— excuse me, Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association.

1:35:52And there's been turnover in that group lately.

1:35:54I won't elaborate, but we're working on it.

1:35:57So thank you for hearing me out.

1:35:59Thank you.

1:36:00This opened up a lot of questions for me, but I'm going to— I think I'm hearing that we need to have a broader conversation about Prosper, so I'm just going to ask the ones so the first question for Chair Cruz, how are agendas set?

1:36:14Do board members all play a part in that?

1:36:16Does that come from the director?

1:36:17Does it come from you?

1:36:21The director, well, staff and the director typically put together a first draft of the agenda.

1:36:29They circulate it.

1:36:30There's usually a kind of a pre-briefing call or meeting between me and the staff who've developed the agenda to kind of run through it and talk about things that we might include or not include.

1:36:44Sometimes specific commissioners might have some issue that they have asked to be raised on an upcoming meeting, so there can be input there too.

1:36:54Okay.

1:36:55But again, we're always worried about public meetings laws, so usually those are just— those meetings are just me and Executive Director Wesley and maybe a couple of other folks.

1:37:05Okay, so my question then for Marcelino and specifically for Marcelino is, would you be willing to ask that there be a discussion of that settlement at a PROSPER board meeting in public?

1:37:18Again, I think Executive Director Wesley set it up in such a way that kind of established the history of it.

1:37:26I think if there was a, Thank you.

1:37:27Thank you, Mayor.

1:37:27I think that's a very pressing conversation.

1:37:29Obviously, it seems to be a clear point of discussion.

1:37:34If there is a, I guess, if there is standing for Prosper to take that on, and we're saying that's input coming from council, I'm happy to recommend that as a discussion point.

1:37:44I can't commit to any sort of action or changing necessarily the basis for it.

1:37:48But if you're saying, hey, we think that Prosper needs to discuss this as input from the city, I mean, this is what we're here to collaborate and listen.

1:37:56You're saying it's an issue.

1:37:57Let's have a conversation.

1:37:58Again, that doesn't change whether or not Prosper has standing on it.

1:38:02So if the input is we'd love to talk about it and create a forum for it, I'm happy to make that recommendation.

1:38:08Thank you.

1:38:10Councilor Green.

1:38:12Thank you.

1:38:14Councilor Koyama Lane kind of touched on some stuff with the Main and Old Town that I think was an important conversation.

1:38:20Thank you.

1:38:20It's been a bailiwick of mine.

1:38:21It's in my district.

1:38:22So I won't repeat a lot of that.

1:38:24There's one element to it, though, I want to connect back to.

1:38:27This is relevant for you, Commissioner, is under the charter, PROSPERS, our urban renewal— well, we don't call it that anymore, but our economic development and our sort of TIF district management entity, and we've delegated that to yes.

1:38:46But it's always conditioned upon council-approved plans and action plans.

1:38:51That's Chapter 25 of the charter.

1:38:52And so for Old Town, that was the Old Town Action Plan.

1:38:58And I think what I'd like some assurance with, just to kind of close the loop a little bit on this conversation, is there is the underwriting part of that conversation, and we've talked about that, but there's also the sort of, is the investment yes.

1:39:15And the Old Town Action Plan had significant outlays or sort of intention for investing in cultural institutions and kind of the building up of a cultural district.

1:39:25And it does point to sort of like grounding that in community.

1:39:29I think community is ill-defined and maybe lacks a little bit of definition there.

1:39:34And so I think when you have a board that gets taken over by interests thank you.

1:39:37So when we're talking about board of directors who are principals in the party to transaction, that's something that I always want the board at Prosper to be looking at carefully.

1:39:45It's like, does the Old Town Community Association represent the community more broadly, or is it representing the commercial interests of those who have the majority votes on the board?

1:39:55And that's going to be true for all of our TIF districts.

1:39:57That's going to be true for all of our neighborhood associations.

1:39:59And so that's an important piece of this kind of like I think that's a soft oversight question that we need to be engaging on.

1:40:07We recently had a briefing from Metro on the polling numbers on the next housing bond, and it's not looking good.

1:40:14And when you ask respondents why they're not going to open their wallets up again, they say there's been a lack of oversight and transparency on public funds.

1:40:22And so I think that's probably directed at the jurisdictions, City of Portland, you know, All the city governments.

1:40:29But I— but we— but people are reading stories about Made in Old Town during all, all that.

1:40:34And so Prosper Portland's balance sheet matters too when we think about that public confidence and transparency.

1:40:40And so, um, before we move on from this episode with Made in Old Town, I, I really need to understand— I really need to know that we are looking closely at what does it mean to have good governance around the connectedness between our action plan on the and I think Councilor Colonel Millane kind of hit on that there, and I just, I wanted to connect it back as a councilor for this district.

1:41:03I don't know if you have a response for that.

1:41:06Happy to.

1:41:06Sure.

1:41:07I mean, I think at a high level, obviously I don't have a sense of who's on the board of the neighborhood association for Old Town specifically or the background and context, but I think through the lens of what we saw at the process Portland board, you know, there were a number of members from community, from industry, from the neighborhood that, you know, did pledge their support in terms of the program.

1:41:28You know, I think Executive Director Wesley talked about, you know, some of the lessons from, you know, the Prosper perspective and how we look at programs like this in the future from a peer governor's perspective.

1:41:40And I think that's an important part of it.

1:41:42You know, I think again, through the lens of an entrepreneur and of someone, you know, who is and, you know, obviously the risky business of starting companies, you know, there are, you know, 70% of companies that will fail, right?

1:41:54And I think anytime that we present our company to an investor, we have to present, you know, a set of due diligence documents.

1:42:02I think when we're on the receiving end of that, on the Prosper side, we're kind of asking, we are asking the same questions that, you know, through the lens of investment.

1:42:10And, You know, we have to take what is presented in front of us and do the research on top of that to come to an equitable decision.

1:42:20And sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong.

1:42:22I think to your point, and maybe this is more of a personal point for me to kind of take and carry on forward, just understanding whether or not the voices that are being heard at a particular testimony are necessarily representative of the community writ large.

1:42:36And again, I think perhaps that's an invitation for more connections with Council, where as agenda items are coming up and there are, you know, issues that perhaps, uh, or agenda items that are, um, you know, important to the communities or will have impact on the communities, uh, working with your offices to make sure that the right voices are there at the table and just making sure, you know, if you have the beat on who those should be, that we're inviting them to participate for either public testimony or even just meeting with, uh, the Prosper Board ahead of, ahead of a I appreciate that invitation.

1:43:10Thank you.

1:43:11Thank you.

1:43:11Seeing that the queue is exhausted, we need a, uh, we would need a motion to refer this item to council, uh, full council.

1:43:18So moved.

1:43:19Or second?

1:43:19I'll take the motion from Vice Chair Ryan and second from Councilor Clark.

1:43:24Is there any further discussion?

1:43:26Seeing none, Rebecca, will you please call the roll?

1:43:32Calling the roll on 2026-224.

1:43:37Koyama Lane?

1:43:38Aye.

1:43:39Murillo?

1:43:40Aye.

1:43:41Novick?

1:43:42Aye.

1:43:42Clark?

1:43:43Thank you for your willingness to serve.

1:43:46Aye.

1:43:46Green?

1:43:47Aye.

1:43:48Zimmerman?

1:43:48Aye.

1:43:49Ryan?

1:43:51Aye.

1:43:59Kanal.

1:44:00Thanks for stepping up.

1:44:01Looking forward to talking about this at council.

1:44:02Aye.

1:44:04And the motion is approved with 11 ayes, 1 vote.

1:44:07The report, document number 2026-224, is, uh, referred to City Council with the recommendation it be accepted.

1:44:15Thank you.

1:44:16Thank you.

1:44:17Uh, colleagues, we're going to take a, a 10-minute break for, uh, before we come back and do Vision Zero.

1:44:22And I just wanted to mention also, for those who who signed up to testify for Zenith, we're not shortening testimony.

1:44:28Anyone who doesn't— we don't get to today, we will pick up at the next meeting.

1:44:32Um, so you will get your 3 minutes.

1:44:33I just wanted to be clear about that.

1:44:35Thanks.

1:44:35We'll be back at, uh, 11:21.

1:54:41We have someone back.

1:55:57All right, we're gonna bring it back.

1:55:58Welcome back.

1:56:00It appears our committee room has gotten very lively.

1:56:06We'll, we'll be resuming the meeting.

1:56:07Um, I'm about to do a clap once if you can hear me thing, but I'm not going to get there.

1:56:18Uh, all right, we're gonna pick back up with, uh, item 3.

1:56:24And we will, which is, sorry, Rebecca, would you please call item 3?

1:56:29Item 3, Vision Zero Updates, document number 2026-262.

1:56:34Thank you.

1:56:35And I'm gonna pass it, I'm not sure if I should be passing it to who first, but I think to Vice Chair Koyama Lane to introduce the item and then to Dana Dickman.

1:56:43Thank you, Chair.

1:56:44It will be no surprise to anyone that I'm looking forward to this discussion about Vision Zero today.

1:56:50Dana Dickman, our citywide Vision Zero lead, is here to talk with us about what she and many of the city employees often call hard work and heart work.

1:57:00As a reminder, in September 2025, we unanimously recommitted to Vision Zero, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

1:57:09Our commitment on this council backs up the work that city staff and community have been doing and reaffirms that we because of that commitment, Vision Zero is truly a citywide initiative impacting all districts in Portland.

1:57:24We asked for this briefing to come before the Committee of the Whole so every councilor has an opportunity to ask questions and get information at the same time.

1:57:32Like many of our constituents, I've personally seen and felt the impacts of deaths in District 3 very directly in my own neighborhood and community.

1:57:41This includes a beloved community elder, a neighborhood librarian.

1:57:46Each life lost matters, and each person lost is a neighbor.

1:57:51These preventable deaths leave huge holes in our communities, and I would like to honor them with a moment of silence.

1:58:00Aye.

1:58:09The numbers this year are not going in the direction that we want in specific areas and districts.

1:58:16Even while overall rates are trending downward, the numbers are always more dire in marginalized communities, communities of color, low-income neighborhoods.

1:58:25This is not okay.

1:58:26Reaching and sustaining zero traffic deaths and serious injuries will require significant investment and changes to our streets and our communities.

1:58:35I want to genuinely thank every single one of my colleagues here for their support on our Vision Zero goals, and I want to continue to underscore the need for ongoing collaboration.

1:58:45As requested by my colleagues, the presentation we're about to hear will touch on trends in all districts because this touches all of us.

1:58:52So please help me welcome our citywide Vision Zero lead, Dana Dickman.

1:58:56She's going to talk about the city's work to further develop a citywide approach to eliminating traffic deaths and to share some current crash information to get us on the same page for future budget and policy decisions.

1:59:08And with that, I will pass it over to Dana Dickman.

1:59:11Thank you for being here.

1:59:18There we go.

1:59:19Now I see the green light.

1:59:21For the record, good morning, councilors.

1:59:23My name is Dana Dickman.

1:59:25I'm the Vision Zero policy manager for the city.

1:59:28Thank you so much for having me here today.

1:59:31I'm really excited to have this conversation.

1:59:34There's no specific decisions or actions that I need you to take today, but this is really setting the stage for shared information, shared understanding, for discussions that we're going to continue to have in the future, and for opportunities for you all to reach out to me and our colleagues across the city to understand more about the policies and the budget decisions that you're making.

1:59:56I really want to be a resource.

1:59:59In that frame, I just want to remind everyone that my role is now focused citywide to be a technical liaison and lead to help guide the city towards zero deaths.

2:00:11I work with our city administrator, our DCAs, directors, and staff within the bureaus to help us figure out what implementation looks like for Vision Zero and Safe Systems.

2:00:24And in that role, I'm also a resource to all of you.

2:00:28So again, this is an open discussion for you all to get more information and to think about the places that you might want us.

2:00:36And when I say us, that's broadly myself and folks working across all the service areas to come back and talk to you about Vision Zero work.

2:00:47There are staff here today from PBOT, from the Police Bureau, from BPS, and agency partners, including Multnomah County.

2:00:55Public Health that will can support our discussion.

2:00:59If there are questions that are very specific to their work, we can call them up and bring them in as part of the discussion.

2:01:04I also just want to acknowledge and thank the tireless and dedicated community members who are true ongoing partners in this work today.

2:01:15I know that Oregon Walks and Families for Safe Streets are here, and.

2:01:21I just want to continue to lift up that those community members are so important.

2:01:25I heard during the previous piece that there are more folks that want to engage and talk about Vision Zero, and I just want to acknowledge that dedication.

2:01:36So our agenda today is really an update on last fall's resolution.

2:01:40We haven't had a chance to kind of come back and talk about the work that's ongoing.

2:01:45A lot of that is sort of largely unseen but happening.

2:01:48Share what's called the Safe Systems Pyramid, which is really helping to ground us in those connections to a public health approach.

2:01:57Have some current data, some district data, and then kind of some— make some of those connections from that data to that multidisciplinary approach.

2:02:07Councilor Koyama Lane already went over this a little bit, but I want to just remind everyone what was in that resolution.

2:02:13There was that recommitment to the work of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries, the direction to really have cross-bureau collaboration and to implement strategies to reduce traffic violence and fatalities, and a specific direction to establish a Vision Zero task force and to update our action plan with a citywide focus, meaning that we would have actions across all the service areas.

2:02:38There was also a specific reference to more reporting and accountability.

2:02:44So that is part of the reason why I'm in here today, to make sure that we are having this ongoing dialogue about the work.

2:02:51So we'll first talk about the task force.

2:02:54We have established a group internally to work, again, across all the service areas.

2:03:02We began meeting this last April, and the task force is essentially 2 different bodies working together.

2:03:08We have an executive leadership group.

2:03:09Thank you.

2:03:10Which is comprised of deputy city administrators, directors from key bureaus, and chiefs or their designees from police and fire.

2:03:18That's about 14 people.

2:03:21And then we also have the technical team, which includes subject matter experts from across all the service areas and leads, folks that are really deeply involved in implementing the work in their various disciplines.

2:03:32So that comprises about 40 people.

2:03:35Really working to focus on Vision Zero across the city.

2:03:42The work that we're focusing on this year is developing that shared citywide action plan, understanding the work across teams.

2:03:50One of the most amazing things that I've found when we're getting together in these groups is how eager people are to more deeply understand each other's work and to support each other.

2:04:02We have sort of a long history of keeping our blinders on and working on the thing that we work on.

2:04:07And it's been really inspiring to see folks just get, you know, pretty jazzed about collaborating to eliminate traffic fatalities.

2:04:17The last piece is just like identifying those areas where we can really leverage each other's skills, data, and the investments that are happening across the city for this shared goal.

2:04:31The work of the action plan is, it's really just a beginning, but we are, we have started that work.

2:04:39This graphic that you're seeing is really just a high-level timeline for a year-long process where we are gonna be developing a prioritized work plan across the bureaus that move us towards zero fatalities.

2:04:55We know that a 1-year timeline is fairly ambitious for something that we're trying to create collaboration across the whole city, but we're moving towards that in order to create a framework for allocating staff resources, supporting annual budget discussions, and providing clarity to the public about the work that we are doing.

2:05:15So I frame that up because I wanna lift up that it will be an iterative process.

2:05:20We're looking at a 5-year plan, 2027 through 2032.

2:05:24Thank you.

2:05:2431, But there will be iterative actions within there, things we're working on the first year that will then build in, in the subsequent years.

2:05:35I will just reference the schedule, a couple of things.

2:05:39We are already in, you know, July, August, so we're working into this sort of gap analysis phase where we're looking at where do we want to be and where are the gaps in the work that we're doing.

2:05:49As you move through that schedule, you can expect to be hearing back either through committee or through council what some of the drafts of those actions are coming out.

2:06:01And around April or May, that's when we're looking to come back with a draft plan and share that.

2:06:07So not too long from now, really looking at an updated action plan, but you can expect to be getting more updates throughout the process.

2:06:18And and to that point, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the reporting.

2:06:23You all have been getting weekly updates on year-to-date crash data.

2:06:28Sometimes I don't send them weekly.

2:06:30If there has not been a fatal crash, I send them biweekly.

2:06:34That's in part because I want to preserve everyone's brains, including my own, and not necessarily focus on that every week unless we need to.

2:06:45Also, on a monthly basis, you're getting the year-to-date update, which is also a public-facing document in the City Administrator's Report.

2:06:53And starting next month, there's going to be a resolution update memo in the City Administrator's Report quarterly.

2:06:59So just a short memo that's going to update on all the different things happening with the action plan, the task force.

2:07:06So you'll have access to that information, and also the public will have access We'd also like to add district briefings on alternate months starting in September and October.

2:07:18And that can be either things that I know that you having more information would be helpful, or I can work with you and your chiefs to understand what the district might need more information about.

2:07:29And then when timely, committee briefings on policy and program issues.

2:07:34I know this sounds like a lot.

2:07:35I think it's a lot.

2:07:36But you're already engaging with Vision Zero issues every day.

2:07:41And this is an opportunity to make sure that you are getting the right information and have the ability to act in a really proactive matter on these issues.

2:07:49But be thinking about that there are new opportunities through those district briefings, and I'm always willing to work with our bureau partners to come and bring more information to committee meetings.

2:08:01I want to touch on a couple of key amendments from the resolution as well.

2:08:05There was deep concern amongst council members about the overrepresentation of folks experiencing houselessness in our community in our fatal crashes.

2:08:15It's a deep concern of everyone who works on this, of our partners at Public Health.

2:08:20In early winter of this year, we worked with our partners to essentially scope a deeper analysis of risk factors for people experiencing houselessness.

2:08:32We're kind of working through that, looking at the findings and developing recommendations, and we hope to have a report that will come back to you in the fall that can then inform actions and next steps in our action plan.

2:08:47Another piece that was brought up and lifted up in that conversation was the desire to have meaningful public engagement in the analysis.

2:08:56In the action plan.

2:08:57But a big kind of sticking point was around informing communities of the new action plan, making sure that people understood what work was coming, what changes were coming, and how it might impact and engage in their neighborhoods.

2:09:11That is something that is really important to all of us that work on this.

2:09:16I really want to underscore that we already have a lot of information from community.

2:09:22We are fortunate to have been working on this for 10 years.

2:09:26We have information that comes through projects, through programs, through 311.

2:09:31We know a lot about what people want to see in their communities in terms of safety.

2:09:36So I'll just sort of say that before I jump into the piece of— we requested specific funds through outreach internally through a response to the budget amendments last We're all very well aware of our fiscally constrained situation.

2:09:55So we do not have those specific funds for outreach.

2:09:58We also asked for external funds, for grant funding from the state.

2:10:03They limited those funds, and those funds are also not available this year.

2:10:07So as we are working as a broader city team to work on community outreach, what I am doing is working to look at existing events and see if we can places where people are already out in community and connecting with those opportunities to talk about Vision Zero.

2:10:24An example this summer is typically transportation wouldn't have a big presence at National Night Out, but we are connecting on Vision Zero with our public safety partners and talking about it.

2:10:36That is a place where community members are already gonna be gathering.

2:10:39There's already organizing behind it, and we're gonna use those opportunities to get out in community even though we don't have resources specifically I'm going to pivot.

2:10:54That's kind of the end of the update on the resolution.

2:10:59Again, we're going to have time after where you can ask more questions, dig deeper.

2:11:05I'm also happy to come back and dig a little bit deeper into information.

2:11:11We're going to talk about the Safe Systems Pyramid, which is a framework that further connects the work of, sorry, transportation safety to a prevention and proactive approach through public health.

2:11:26Vision Zero policies are rooted in safe system principles.

2:11:30You've all seen this graphic before.

2:11:33This is looking at the layers, protective layers in a system that we are using to create that, Ability to avoid crashes or reduce severity should they occur.

2:11:49I'll reiterate some of the basic principles.

2:11:52Deaths and serious injuries are preventive— I'm sorry, are unacceptable.

2:11:57Safety is proactive and grounded in prevention.

2:12:00Humans are vulnerable.

2:12:03People are going to make mistakes in the system.

2:12:06Responsibility is shared and redundancy is crucial.

2:12:09Thank you.

2:12:10Again, these are things that you've heard before, but I want to kind of ground us in that as we talk about kind of public health practice.

2:12:20Public health practice, I'm gonna read this slide, just bear with me, is founded on the idea that health problems are preventable when addressed at the population level, and that we should focus on preventing and controlling risk factors while promoting protective factors when possible.

2:12:37So think about how we are moving to that population impact frame as we think about traffic safety.

2:12:47Many road interventions are effective at the individual level, but require individual effort to have the attendant effect.

2:12:56Think about seatbelts or other mechanisms that require an individual action to have that effect.

2:13:05This can result in decreasing population health impact.

2:13:09So improving road safety in the aggregate as we're shifting is really about prioritizing effectiveness of the intervention itself as well as the public health impact.

2:13:23So let's take a look at this graphic.

2:13:25What this is showing is a series of measures, series of things that we can do to impact traffic safety and where you need more of that increased individual effort for it to be effective and where it's going to have more of an increased population impact.

2:13:41So at the bottom of the period, we have a, like, a big chunk through socioeconomic factors.

2:13:50Socioeconomic factors are things like affordable housing.

2:13:56Areas designed to have access to transit, zoning reform, big picture pieces that are connected to people's income, social determinants of health, ways in which people are accessing their community.

2:14:10At the next level, it's built environment.

2:14:12So this is what we typically think of.

2:14:14These are street design changes, can be roundabouts, can be road reorganizations, raised crosswalks, different interventions on the street that really change the built environment.

2:14:27Then we're moving up into latent safety measures, signal timing, speed safety cameras, active measures.

2:14:34And at this level, you're starting to have more of that need to have individual action.

2:14:41So looking at signs, officer enforcement, and then at the top, we have driver education programs, And campaigns.

2:14:49I want to be clear that I'm not saying we don't need to do all of these things.

2:14:53We do.

2:14:56But that we're going to have more of that population or more impact at those population levels.

2:15:02Those investments take longer.

2:15:06They're more expensive.

2:15:08And I'll also add that they may be something that creates more pushback in community when we're talking about changes to housing, land use, built environment, those are gonna be changes that are gonna be felt by community members.

2:15:23And so we are talking about investment both financially and politically in those population impact layers of the pyramid.

2:15:36Again, I wanna be really clear that I'm not saying that we can't— we're gonna accept bad behavior and that we don't expect people to be decent, Thank you.

2:15:45I don't think that we need to be decent and we don't need to have education and active measures, but relying on individuals is not the most effective investment strategy or prevention strategy to get us the safety outcomes.

2:16:03We're going to leave this here, but we'll come back to it.

2:16:05We'll come back to it today, and I'm going to continue to come back to it as we talk about kind of policy and budget and how we think about the citywide approach to Vision Zero.

2:16:20Now we're going to push into some data.

2:16:23I know that a lot of you were asked what you wanted to hear today.

2:16:27Folks definitely said they wanted to understand what was happening with current data and then have a little bit about district information as well.

2:16:34I know we don't have a ton of time, so I'm not diving super deep into the data, but there— if there is something that you want to dive into, again, we can do that follow-up.

2:16:48I think all of you know that this is actually one off by one.

2:16:51We are at 25 fatalities this year.

2:16:55Um, I prepped the data before we had a fatal crash on Sunday night.

2:17:00Um, that's worse than last year in July, but it's still noticeably better than the previous 4 years.

2:17:06You can see as you're looking at this data, we did have a significantly better year last year, but we are still doing better than we had in the previous 4 years.

2:17:22This graphic represents kind of a change in that 4-year data by mode and overall.

2:17:29We're still trending 12% down.

2:17:31From that 4-year average.

2:17:32So we're still seeing a decrease.

2:17:35We're still seeing a decrease in pedestrian deaths, which is great to see.

2:17:40A significant drop in our vehicle crash deaths.

2:17:44But you can see that big orange line in the center.

2:17:48We have a huge spike with motorcycle fatalities this year.

2:17:52We're up 67%.

2:17:5311 Of our 25 fatalities have involved people on motorcycles.

2:18:00There's some trends we're seeing, not just this year but previous years.

2:18:04Definitely some driver behavior with people turning in front of motorcycles, but also on the part of the motorcycle operators, excessive speed, impairment, lane splitting, passing on the right, behaviors that are very dangerous when you're riding a motorcycle.

2:18:24When we see trends like this, there's not a lot that we can do to pivot really quickly.

2:18:30But there are some things that we can do.

2:18:33PPB and PBOT have now partnered twice on news releases to again raise awareness of this spike.

2:18:40In April, when we saw multiple motorcycle crashes, there was a news release and some press.

2:18:46And then also this week, you may have seen the press on Tuesday, just again reminding folks how vulnerable people are on motorcycles.

2:18:55And how powerful they are, really trying to get those messages out.

2:19:00So when we see something like this, we can't shift super fast, but we can be talking about it in community and really acknowledging these challenges.

2:19:11This graphic is an extended period of data, and I just wanted to share it because what it shows us is that significant spike kind of for all modes during the COVID periods.

2:19:25This is a rolling average over 12 months, but you can see we're starting to trend down.

2:19:32We're still far too high.

2:19:3539 people last year is still far too many, but we're getting down more to that baseline that we were before we saw that really significant spike during the COVID years.

2:19:45So that gives me—.

2:19:45Thank you.

2:19:46A lot of hope that we can press in and reduce that number further.

2:19:54I'm going to get us into some district data now.

2:19:58This is just a high-level map that's a little bit different than what you've seen before.

2:20:03This is a 5-year data set.

2:20:05I'll remind everyone that when we're looking at serious injuries and fatal crashes, we're relying on data from the state 2024 is the most— is the last year that we have complete data of serious injury and fatal.

2:20:20That's why we have it only through 2024.

2:20:24This graphic represents a more detailed view, concentration of serious injuries and deadly crashes.

2:20:34So this is looking at segmented segments across the city.

2:20:39Where we have repeat crashes on roadways in the city.

2:20:49The information on the side— oh, I should mention, and you probably are all realizing this, you all have versions of these in your packets.

2:20:57So high-resolution versions that you can look at, you can look at in more detail, and they have a little bit more information than what is on the slides.

2:21:04Thank you.

2:21:05Mr.

2:21:06Chair, what constitutes a serious crash?

2:21:10It's usually someone in— it usually includes bicycle and pedestrian crashes, but it's some sort of—.

2:21:19It could—.

2:21:20It doesn't always include life-altering injury, but something that requires transporting or something that requires medical attention.

2:21:27So if you are in a vehicle crash and you have some aches and pains and you never reported it, that would not be included in this, even though there might be an injury.

2:21:46So the information that's included on this slide is really just compiling that deadly crash data.

2:21:52Again, we have almost 70% of our fatal crashes involve impairment, and that's impairment of all people involved in the crash.

2:22:01That could be driver, that could be the pedestrian or bicyclist.

2:22:05And about 40%, it's— we know it's the driver.

2:22:09We have a significant number of hit-and-run crashes that we don't know the impairment of the driver.

2:22:16So I share that because we know that it's a significant contributing factor, but the data isn't always 100% In 49% of our fatal crashes, speed was noted to play a role.

2:22:28So in almost 50%, we know that it was excessive speeds or something contributing to the crash.

2:22:34I flag this because this wouldn't be noted as a contributing factor to the crash if you're driving on a street that's 40 miles per— posted at 40 miles per hour and you were going 40.

2:22:46But we'll talk a little bit later about speed, and we heard in some testimony that when we're operating at those speeds, it is a contributing factor to the crash, but it doesn't get counted as that in kind of our fatal crash data.

2:23:0156% Of our fatal crashes were on streets with 4 or more lanes.

2:23:05Again, I flag this because it's such a clear street design issue.

2:23:09And for pedestrians, that number rises to almost 60%.

2:23:16Now we're going to jump a little bit more into the district data.

2:23:22One of the reasons I wanted to share this is because it's pretty interesting that we have some, a lot of similarities across the districts.

2:23:29We see that pedestrians are represented at about 15, 16%.

2:23:34There are some differences in percentages, but those modal trends are consistent across the districts.

2:23:43We see higher numbers in District 1 overall.

2:23:47I know that we didn't have that last year, but that's— that was last year was sort of inconsistent with the ongoing 5 and 10-year trends.

2:23:55And then we see District 2 and District 3 being fairly similar often, and District 4 being kind of the lowest for overall traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

2:24:07This is a cropped-in view of just District 1.

2:24:12I want to call out sort of the high density of multi-lane streets and intersections with those high crash concentrations.

2:24:19You can see it's like virtually all of the east-west corridors are some of the streets that are having those high-risk factors and those repeated crashes with injury and fatalities.

2:24:35I don't think this is a surprise to anyone, but I can list multiple corridors, like on both the north-south and east-west, where we can expect to see serious injuries and fatalities.

2:24:50In District 2, you can see a little bit more spread, but the couple of things that I really want to call out is we continue to have issues with the areas with industrial industrial land uses and our freight corridors.

2:25:01Again, no surprise to the District 2 councilors that we can— we continue to see a lot of fatalities on Columbia Boulevard, on Lombard, on Marine Drive.

2:25:11One of the unique things that your district experiences though is a preponderance of street racing and sideshow activity, and that has contributed to fatal crashes and certainly injuries and injuries.

2:25:26So that again, like, you see that there are these trends across the city, but each one of the districts is facing slightly unique problems around traffic safety and traffic violence.

2:25:38In District 3, again, we have those high-volume multimodal streets.

2:25:43We have state-ordained corridors.

2:25:45Powell Boulevard is consistently in our top 3 for fatalities when we look at 5- and 10-year data.

2:25:52And then a kind of a unique thing about the district is we have multiple schools directly on high-crash streets.

2:25:59We have Cleveland and Kellogg directly on Powell, and we have Vestal and McDaniel directly on 82nd.

2:26:06And those are a vulnerable population, and it really brings together that nexus of wanting to care for our most vulnerable and like those issues around high-crash wide streets.

2:26:18So that it's something that's a bit unique to District 3.

2:26:23While I'm talking about that though, I'll just sort of bring up that the corridors, the crashes don't care anything about the districts.

2:26:3182Nd is a really good example of where multiple districts intersect that particular street.

2:26:37It's a high-crash corridor.

2:26:39We have a number of challenging intersections.

2:26:43I'm thinking of Holgate and McLaughlin that is both District District 3 and District 4.

2:26:48So when I'm sharing the data with you this way, because it's easier for you to understand and how you're thinking about the work that you're doing in your district, but we're, we're not necessarily thinking about that way.

2:27:00We're looking at the corridors, we're looking at how they're intersecting with each other all the time.

2:27:07And then in District 4, you can see those concentrations in the density sections of downtown.

2:27:15But then you're also seeing, like, there isn't a lot of— there aren't a lot of corridors, but what there are are those multi-lane streets with little friction and high speeds.

2:27:25And when I say that, I'm talking about Barbur Boulevard, Beaverton Hillsdale Highway.

2:27:30They have lower density land use.

2:27:32They function a little bit more like a highway.

2:27:35And those are some of the highest crash areas in District 4.

2:27:40Those larger streets, those places where you're seeing a lot of volume and not a lot of cues for people to look for multimodal use and to slow down.

2:27:54Now I'm going to jump a little bit into something that's bringing together the data, the citywide work, and what we learned about the safe systems pyramid.

2:28:07I know you've all seen this graphic before, but it's really important again to ground ourselves in that information that risk of death and serious injury rises dramatically as speeds go up.

2:28:20When we're talking about population-level impact, when we're talking about the work we need to do, that piece of slowing speeds in the city is truly fundamental and needs to be part of In the 5 years between 2020 to 2024, 555 people were killed or seriously injured in crashes where speed was a primary factor.

2:28:46That's a lot of people in a 5-year period that were impacted by high speeds in the city.

2:28:55If we think about that in this public health frame, Speed is acting as essentially a pathogen in our environment that can impact severity or incidence of a crash.

2:29:07We really want to hone in on that risk factor and try to address it in our prevention framework.

2:29:17This graphic that you're now seeing is data over a longer period of time, and what this is is speed-related deaths and serious injury data by time of day and day of week.

2:29:28Oh, wow.

2:29:29And what you'll notice is that you can see that the red, the higher number of crashes, are really spreading towards those darkness hours.

2:29:38Again, this is something you've all heard before.

2:29:41We have more crashes, particularly pedestrian crashes at night.

2:29:46But what I'm seeing there is that is places where we have the least congestion in the city as well.

2:29:52So that means that speeds are able to go up, people are able to travel faster.

2:29:56Yeah.

2:29:57And that's leading to more serious and fatal crashes.

2:30:01I'll just note that last piece on the bottom of the slide.

2:30:0468% Of traffic deaths and serious injuries with pedestrians occurred from dusk to dawn.

2:30:11We have the increase in speed and a lessened ability to actually see people and interact out on the street.

2:30:20So you've got kind of the double whammy of increased speed with less knowledge and less ability to react to it.

2:30:30This data essentially shows highway speeds on non-highway streets.

2:30:35So what you're looking at, the dots that you're looking at, are representing areas where we have count data, or not count data, but speeds data, 5-year data that is telling us where we have 85th percentile or 85% of the people traveling on roads where they're exceeding 40 miles per hour.

2:30:56And if we're going back to that acknowledgement that if you're going 40 miles per hour, you're outside a vehicle, you're basically 80% likely to have a fatal incident.

2:31:09We have places all over the city where people are traveling significantly over that.

2:31:15And many of these, we— I think most of you know, we don't have a lot of places with 50 and 60 mile per hour.

2:31:20Yeah.

2:31:22These are places where folks are traveling 10, 15, 20 miles per hour over the speed limit on a regular basis.

2:31:29So we're going to expect to see fatal and serious crashes in these locations.

2:31:39This is a graphic that takes the data that you've been looking at in all of those district pieces and just highlights where we have streets with 4 or more lanes.

2:31:48Again, not a lot of surprises here, but I want to hone in on the fact that this is only 4% of the streets in the city, and that's where we're having that 56% of fatal crashes is just on 4% of the streets.

2:32:03So that combination of the ability to speed, challenges with crossing, challenges with turning movements, that multi-lane environment, those are the places where we're seeing kind of the most We're going to go back to our safe systems pyramid and talk through the ways in which we're doing work currently and things that we want to dig in on more to kind of address this issue.

2:32:30So at the top of that pyramid, I know that many of you weren't here, but most of you were in the city.

2:32:35You'll remember our 20 Is Plenty campaign, really trying to get people to recognize slower speeds on local streets are safe.

2:32:43I think that's a great point.

2:32:43Were very important.

2:32:45We've had the Struck campaign and other speed-focused campaign work.

2:32:51We also have officer enforcement.

2:32:53Our traffic division focuses on the high-crash network, really does a lot of work looking at those places where we have consistent history of crashes, really focusing the limited resources we have on the places where we think we can have the most impact.

2:33:12We have a speed safety camera program.

2:33:14We're working on Rest in Red on signals.

2:33:18You've heard a little bit about that.

2:33:19That's essentially having signals on main corridors stay in a red focus for in the evening hours between 10 PM and say 6 AM so that people aren't seeing a green all the way down the corridors.

2:33:36I bring that one up because it's an opportunity to use existing infrastructure to help us figure out how to slow speeds and address these safety issues.

2:33:45We also do have road reorganization, center medians, things like trees in the curb zone.

2:33:51We're about to have a significant investment in climate that could also be connected to Vision Zero.

2:33:57Thousands of trees could be used to create vertical enclosure, a different environment that can help us to deal with this issue of speed on our streets.

2:34:07And then in that socioeconomic factors, the work that we have done as a city to focus on Main Street development with pedestrian-oriented streets and access to transit, that actually does help us in this work around speed.

2:34:22So it's like making those connections and continuing to understand how there is this through line between all of these different pieces that we're doing in order to address that's all the information that I have for you today, but I have a couple of requests, and then we'll get into the discussion.

2:34:44The first one is just to reach out and ask questions when you get those weekly and biweekly crash notes.

2:34:51If you want to know more about the crash, I can connect you with the crash investigators.

2:34:55If you just want to understand more about what's happening in your districts, Please do use that as an opportunity to get more information.

2:35:03Because we do not have a lot of resources to do outreach, I'm asking all of you to share summer and fall opportunities when you will be out in community and can share Vision Zero information.

2:35:16Myself or other staff from the bureaus could join and could have just an opportunity to engage around Vision Zero.

2:35:24So please do share if that feels like a good opportunity with work that you're already going to be doing.

2:35:32And then contact us early for data and information when conflicts arise in implementation of projects or policies.

2:35:40I am a resource.

2:35:41The folks in the— technical folks in the bureaus are amazing and ready to help support you in policy and budgeting discussions.

2:35:49So please contact us early so we can get that information.

2:35:52Thank you.

2:35:52To you.

2:35:53And with that, I just want to turn it back over to you.

2:35:57Thank you so much.

2:35:59Thank you, Dana.

2:36:00Appreciate it.

2:36:00And thank you to Councilor Koyama Lane, Vice Chair Koyama Lane as well.

2:36:04Um, colleagues, we have a limited amount of time for this item before we get to the next, so I'm going to ask 2 questions.

2:36:11Um, just process-wise, are you able to come back to us when we do the testimony on this as well?

2:36:16Oh, absolutely.

2:36:17Okay.

2:36:18Uh, and then we We'll probably talk about continuing as opposed to closing the item then as a result of it.

2:36:23So I'm going to take myself out of the queue.

2:36:26I'll ask if we can keep this going for about 8 more minutes.

2:36:29And then, yeah, so I'll go to Clark, then Green.

2:36:32And if we can just try to keep it as brief as you can.

2:36:33Thank you, Mr.

2:36:34Chair.

2:36:34I'll try to be real quick.

2:36:35And you don't have to answer this today, Dana.

2:36:37Thank you so much for all the data and information.

2:36:40It's very helpful.

2:36:41I understand that Vision Zero is really a national program, and I was wondering if maybe you can come back with some comparative analysis, how we stack up against other comparable cities, what's going on nationwide, and—.

2:36:53Absolutely.

2:36:54You know, what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong compared to what other cities have done?

2:36:58You don't have to do that today.

2:37:00I think that would be helpful for us.

2:37:02I also would like to hear more about what our plans are for more of the, what you call the reader boards, and some of those higher things that are higher on the hierarchy.

2:37:14And more speed cameras, how we can get more speed cameras.

2:37:17I know they've been really effective in District 4 on Beaverton Hillsdale Highway.

2:37:21And I'd like to hear also, maybe you can bring in somebody from the traffic division to talk a little bit about their resources, how they deploy their resources.

2:37:31I think they have very limited resources to deploy.

2:37:34Where are they focused?

2:37:36You mentioned high crash corridors, but there's also the speed racing issue that I'd like to hear more about.

2:37:42Um, I think that's really dangerous, and it's happening in probably all of our districts.

2:37:47I can hear them at night, um, through my bedroom window on the Sewall Bridge.

2:37:51Um, yeah, um, and just other, um, other deterrents.

2:37:57Um, you know, we can't control human behavior.

2:38:01I know that when I've been involved It's amazing the distracted drivers putting on their makeup, brushing their teeth, whatever, on their phone.

2:38:11Unbelievable.

2:38:12Anyway, if you could come back with some of those, I'd be really appreciative.

2:38:18We have a couple of folks from the traffic division here with us.

2:38:21I feel like that is a larger conversation to have.

2:38:27But if you want to hear just about how they deploy their current I don't know, do we have time for that, or should we— I'm happy to have them come back and do more of a presentation on their work too.

2:38:38There's a lot there.

2:38:40I would like to hear from the traffic division maybe next time you come back.

2:38:44Great.

2:38:46And I do have a colleague here, Michael Espinoza, that's taking detailed notes so that I will have all the things that you're asking for.

2:38:52Terrific.

2:38:53Thanks, Dana.

2:38:55Thanks.

2:38:55Councilor Green, then Ryan.

2:38:57Thanks.

2:38:57And I'm being mindful of time here.

2:38:59I'm going to tee some questions up or some themes that maybe when we have more time at the next— when we carry this over, we can get into more detail.

2:39:06But I really appreciate the work and the dedication to the data.

2:39:13It's not lost on me that West Burnside in my district is one of the big high-crash corridors.

2:39:19It's also one of the corridors that has like maybe some of the narrowest sidewalks proportional to the vehicle volume that happens through there.

2:39:28And then we're also going to pursue a repaving project right now that doesn't address some of the lower-tiered investments that we would do to address the threat of pedestrian deaths there.

2:39:43And I'd like to hear a little bit more from DCA Donna Paul and the city administrator next time when we have more time why we're proceeding on a paving project like this.

2:39:52What is the decision process that has led us down that road when we also know that we've recommitted as a council to take Vision Zero seriously?

2:40:00And you can't do your job if we don't have the partnership with the rest of the city administration and organization to say, let's sequence these things in a way that makes sense.

2:40:09Because if we just do a paving project without considering those other aspects, we're probably not going to come back to it anytime soon.

2:40:15And that's just the fact of the matter and the reality.

2:40:17And so I'm really curious to see where that's coming from, because it's not coming from the adopted plans, because if it were, it wouldn't happen this way.

2:40:27So I guess— and I'm also really worried that most recently, very recently, we were scrapping or shelving plans to do bike lane enhancements on Alder, and that seems to be a sort of thank you.

2:40:40I think that's a theme where it's like there's a narrow set of feedback that pushes back against a thing that's really rooted in our plans, that is designed to address pedestrian safety.

2:40:49And then I don't know if it's a few councilors or it's the mayor or someone who says, don't worry, I got it, we'll roll this back.

2:40:54That is not Vision Zero.

2:40:56And so I know that you can only do so much here because your role is— I mean, you're not a deputy city administrator, you're not the city administrator, but and I know that we're on the clock here, but these are really pressing issues for the community and they're in my district.

2:41:11So I just invite a conversation around this and would like to know more.

2:41:17Thank you, Councilor Green.

2:41:17This is DC Priyadana Paul for Public Works.

2:41:22We are taking notes on all the different issues that you brought up and we are happy to follow up at the next presentation or an email to council.

2:41:29Thank you.

2:41:30Thanks.

2:41:31And we'll probably not have a chance to get too deep into this today, but I am going to continue the item on.

2:41:36I'll just say I want to make sure that all 4 of the folks in the queue have a chance to get questions on the record that we can revisit going forward.

2:41:43So I'll go Councilor Ryan and then Koyama Lane.

2:41:47Thank you, Chair.

2:41:48Thank you, Dana Dickman, for showing up and giving a thorough update.

2:41:51When reviewing the data from '21 to '24, 2 things continue to stick out very clearly to me.

2:41:57Our homeless population, which makes up 2% of the population, represents 49% of the pedestrian deaths.

2:42:05And so I want to dig into that a little bit more.

2:42:08It's so sad.

2:42:09I'm focusing on this population and getting to the bottom of these challenges and being bold to actually improve services so that things can improve will always be my North Star.

2:42:19And with that in mind, I'm going to pivot to our meeting that we had in March.

2:42:22A little over 4 months ago, I was able to finally receive information that I asked for several years ago about the data coming from the coroner's office on who tracks the level of methamphetamines, um, AKA fentanyl and meth, in the bloodstream of those pedestrians who perished on our streets from traffic accidents.

2:42:43And as you recall, the data was, um, it was lagging, mostly due to what was told, not being a budget priority.

2:42:52And so I think it dated back to '21, '22.

2:42:57And the number of those revealing that methamphetamines were in their bloodstream was quite high.

2:43:03Do you recall that percentage?

2:43:05I recall 82% to 84%.

2:43:07That sounds right.

2:43:09Yeah, that it was in the high 80s.

2:43:11Yeah, it was in the high 80s.

2:43:12Yeah.

2:43:13So that was startling.

2:43:17And so I think when I listen to you talk about the safe system pyramid, what are we doing with this information?

2:43:24What's the action plan to get to the bottom of the fact that of those people who are perishing on our streets, according to the data from the coroner, quite scientific and accurate, it's in the 80% that have methamphetamines in their bloodstream?

2:43:41That's sad.

2:43:42Like, what are we doing with that information?

2:43:44It took me 3 years to even get an answer.

2:43:46Right.

2:43:48As I said earlier, one of the things that we're doing is doing that cross-analysis, digging into some of that data and comparing it to other risk factors, things that we understand from the crash data, and combining it with that information from the medical examiner that the city doesn't typically have access to.

2:44:06So we are trying to look at those risk factors to determine what some next steps should be.

2:44:11We're kind of in the middle of it right now, but as I said, we hope to bring a report back this fall where we're going to have some findings and just a deeper understanding of kind of the multiple risk factors.

2:44:24We know that just exposure is one of the risk factors.

2:44:27If you are out on the streets 24 hours a day, you have more exposure to traffic and to traffic violence.

2:44:35So we know that that's part of it.

2:44:36But this is a deeper dive to understand it in a more complete way, and we'll bring that information back to you.

2:44:42Yeah, the impact of our drug crisis is, is very sad, and Portland-McLennan County Behavioral Health has really failed to focus on this.

2:44:53And I think that I had to daylight it here in this meeting.

2:44:57I've been very patient and persistent to try to get to the bottom of it because I care.

2:45:03Right.

2:45:03And I think that unless we start doing better cross-referencing with public health when it relates to Vision Zero and bringing in more of a, like, SWAT team analysis to really get to the bottom of this, I think we're going to continue to see high numbers.

2:45:18And we can't mask it with, with other things because that's a significant number and an impact.

2:45:26And I'll end there, but I wanted to make sure that that was daylighted because I had the privilege of getting that information finally after waiting a few years, and I wanted to make sure other people understood the severity and the challenge we're dealing with here.

2:45:39Right.

2:45:39Thank you.

2:45:40Thanks.

2:45:41With the permission of those still in the queue, I'd like to continue this on to next week— I'm sorry, next meeting, which is in 2 weeks, to make sure we have the chance to have the presentation on the next item today.

2:45:55Mayor, I have a very short yes or no question that is kind of timely.

2:46:00Okay, I'll let each of you go through it.

2:46:02Councilor Koyama Lane, then Morillo, then Pirtle-Guiney.

2:46:05All right, real quick, piggybacking on Councilor Green's questions and comments about what has come up from advocates with respect to the Burnside repaving project, I'm wondering if there's an opportunity for PBOT to conduct safety analysis— analyses before there are projects that was one question.

2:46:23And the other one is wanting to hear a little bit more about how Vision Zero and Safe Systems connect specifically to neighborhood greenways and areas near schools.

2:46:34And I will leave my other questions for now.

2:46:35Thanks.

2:46:36Councilor Morillo.

2:46:37Thank you.

2:46:38I'll be very brief.

2:46:39For one thing, I don't want to leave us on a note, especially for folks here in the audience, that the people who are getting hit by cars are in any way at fault regardless of whether they have used drugs or not, because it is the vehicle that is killing people, not the person.

2:46:51And the reality is that a few years ago, houseless advocates didn't advise us on what would happen if we were doing more sweeps, moving people around.

2:46:59And the reality is that puts people who are unhoused in more danger of being hit by cars because they don't have their regular pathways cleared that they have established and are familiar with.

2:47:08Secondly, my question actually is about how these budget cuts are going to impact your team, specifically around doing community outreach and engagement for Vision Zero.

2:47:20And I just wanted to know what council can do to support you moving forward when we get the chance to hear from you again.

2:47:24Thank you all for being here.

2:47:26Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

2:47:28Thank you, Chair.

2:47:30Has the Vision Zero team been engaged at all in ensuring that when I-5 is closed later this year and we have people who are used to traveling on a freeway on neighborhood streets, worried about getting to work on time, navigating neighborhoods in North Portland.

2:47:46Have you been engaged at all on what tools you might be able to help provide to keep our neighbors safe during that period of time?

2:47:54I have not, but I believe that PBOT has.

2:47:57No, PBOT is engaged.

2:47:59I'm wondering if we're looking to our Vision Zero tools to help, and if not, if we can make good morning.

2:48:05Melissa Williams, Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

2:48:08The PBOT team has established an internal tiger team to address the very things that have been mentioned.

2:48:16And so one of the folks that is on the list for us to engage is Dana and our Vision Zero team members within the bureau.

2:48:25So yes, that is going to be happening.

2:48:27More transparently, um, but it is a priority for us.

2:48:33Thank you.

2:48:35Thank you.

2:48:36So, uh, we're going to continue this item, uh, to 2 weeks from now.

2:48:40We will have testimony.

2:48:41Again, my apologies to those who wanted to testify for us not getting that on the schedule.

2:48:45Um, as we're cycling out to our next folks, I'll just, uh, put into the ether, um, that I would like a, a data point on not just how many streets are high— are wide but what's the vehicle miles traveled on each?

2:48:58That weighting, that is the most important way for me to assess.

2:49:01Um, with that said, we'll continue this on.

2:49:04Um, if we could get item 4 please called while our Zenith transfer folks come up to present.

2:49:11Item 4, consent to franchise transfer from Zenith Energy Terminals Holdings LLC to ISQ Springer Holdings LLC.

2:49:17Amend—.

2:49:18Uh, excuse me, amend Ordinance 188551.

2:49:21For document number 2026-263.

2:49:25And I'm sure everyone here has probably deduced by now, we were told that this presentation's about 15 minutes.

2:49:30So we are going to go up those 15 minutes, hear the presentation, and then there's probably not gonna be time to testify.

2:49:37I did wanna tell everyone that everyone who is currently registered will receive an updated meeting link the next time that this is called, which will almost certainly be August, uh, 6th.

2:49:50Yeah, August 6th, the Thursday morning on that date.

2:49:53Um, and testimony sign-up remains open for this item.

2:49:57Um, we'll be continuing it at the end of the meeting.

2:49:59So just wanted to flag all of that, but we will hear the presentation today and then pick up with, uh, clarifying questions and, um, all of that next time.

2:50:08And with that, sorry, I'm going to introduce, uh, Eric Engstrom, the director of BPS and our franchise utility program manager Andrew Spear.

2:50:16Thanks for being here.

2:50:17Thank you, councilors.

2:50:19Again, my— for the record, my name is Eric Kingstrom, Director of Planning and Sustainability.

2:50:23Andrew Spear, Franchise Utility Manager.

2:50:25We're here today to talk about the requested transfer of a utility franchise from Zenith Energy to ISQ Springer Holdings.

2:50:32Andrew's pulling up the presentation as I speak.

2:50:36I'm going to cover a couple things in my brief presentation.

2:50:39First, we'll talk about what a franchise is and a little bit of background on the proposal.

2:50:44We'll secondly just remind you what else is happening in this space surrounding the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub.

2:50:52Third, we'll talk about what we're allowed to consider with a transfer of this type.

2:50:58And then finally, talk about what we found in our research of the material we were given.

2:51:04Next slide, please.

2:51:06So just to remind you, a franchise is a contract between the city and another entity, in most cases a utility provider, that allows the entity to install or maintain or operate assets in the city's right-of-way.

2:51:19And the picture on the right side of the slide here just illustrates the types of things you might see be subject to franchise agreements.

2:51:26Very often it's pipes and other infrastructure under the street, sometimes wires, sometimes wireless facilities.

2:51:33Um, a franchisee pays the city, uh, compensation for the access to the right-of-way, and we have 3 different payer types.

2:51:41Some payers pay per foot, others pay as a percentage of their gross revenues, and others pay per site, for example wireless facilities.

2:51:51Um, franchise agreements are adopted by council via an ordinance, as are transfers, as we're here to talk about today.

2:52:00Negotiations of those agreements tend to be multi-year processes.

2:52:05And just a reminder, the city has moved away from negotiating new franchise agreements and is now operating with a more standardized right-of-way code model that applies a more uniform set of requirements to right-of-way users rather than individually negotiating franchises.

2:52:19But this— what we're considering today is one of our legacy agreements that predates that new approach.

2:52:26And our current franchise users will eventually transition to that new system as their agreements expire.

2:52:32Franchise agreements can vary in length from 5 years to 30 years.

2:52:38Andrew, correct me if I get this wrong, but I believe this one expires in 2037?

2:52:42Correct, yes.

2:52:46Next slide, please.

2:52:48So this particular franchise is related to a pipe that's operated under Northwest Front Avenue.

2:52:54The picture on the slide, you can see the area of the Zenith facility, and the area that we've marked in red is the portion of the right-of-way that the pipe in question crosses under.

2:53:04Zenith pays an annual payment to the city to use the right-of-way.

2:53:08I believe that's roughly— last year's payment was roughly $48,000 for reference.

2:53:15The facilities in this case again are pipes that transport next slide.

2:53:24Franchise agreements generally have a section in them that governs how a franchise can be transferred from one owner to another.

2:53:31This happens periodically, and I believe it's actually happened before with this particular franchise.

2:53:37Um, the terms also usually identify the specific review criteria for that transfer.

2:53:42In this agreement, Section 8 outlines the specific process for a transfer, and it allows the city to review the transfer in terms of technical, legal, and financial capacity of the, of the company requesting to take over the franchise.

2:53:57These are the lenses that staff are allowed to review the request, and that's what informed our questions that we asked of, of ISQ when, when this application was received.

2:54:08Next slide.

2:54:10So I want to just take a quick step back and remind you that there's other work happening related to the, the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub.

2:54:20As you're probably all aware, we have some other pending policy proposals coming to council this fall, notably Title 33 and comprehensive plan policy updates to further limit expansion of existing bulk fuel terminals.

2:54:33And then there's a corresponding Title 17 proposal to require terminals to reduce their storage capacity by 2036 by 20%.

2:54:42So, um, just want to take note of that other activity.

2:54:48The next step for those projects is slated for the fall when we intend to bring findings and the proposals to this body, the council, that is.

2:54:57Um, is there any legal connection between the franchise transfer and that CEI Hub project?

2:55:03No.

2:55:05Um, the transfer we're discussing today is a, is a business agreement between a seller and a purchaser where the city can verify that the purchaser has the technical and legal and financial ability to take on those duties.

2:55:17Um, the CEI Hub projects are code changes, and they don't address these specific facilities in the right-of-way or franchises in general.

2:55:27Um, so while we have that ongoing work, um, to regulate bulk liquid fuel facilities.

2:55:33Those are on a separate track from this particular transfer.

2:55:37And whoever the future owner of the franchise may be, the franchisee will be subject to those future codes at any time that policy might become effective.

2:55:46And today's decision has no impact on that or the decision you'll eventually make on this action.

2:55:52Next slide.

2:55:56So returning to the, the question of this transfer, per Section 8 of the franchise agreement, staff evaluated the information provided by ISQ using the lenses of technical, legal, and financial.

2:56:08So the technical refers to whether the company has the technical background to safely operate the facility in question.

2:56:14Next slide.

2:56:17The legal lens refers to whether the company has a legal understanding and experience with local, state, and federal laws to ensure compliance with those laws as they operate that facility.

2:56:27Next slide.

2:56:30The financial lens refers to whether the company has the financial backing to ensure long-term stability of those operations.

2:56:37Next slide.

2:56:41I want to, um, just briefly before we talk about the— our findings, I want to just talk a bit about the structure of the company.

2:56:49This slide depicts the corporate structure of ISQ Springer Holdings, which is owned under another company.

2:56:57And as you can see on the slide, there's kind of a chain of ownership that goes up to I Squared Capital Advisors.

2:57:03And this is relevant to some of the analysis we did.

2:57:08Next slide.

2:57:10So to— I'll talk about the staff findings regarding the regarding the technical capabilities, we found that the company does own similar facilities in other jurisdictions.

2:57:20We also— and so we concluded that the company— sorry, and we concluded that the company has a plan to staff the facility with employees who are experts in operating this type of facility and to ensure safe operations.

2:57:33Next slide.

2:57:35Regarding the legal expertise, we found that ISQ will retain local counsel and ensure compliance with which has expertise in ensuring compliance with local and state laws.

2:57:47ISQ also stated that they will be hiring in-house counsel to manage the federal regulatory components of the facility.

2:57:55Next slide.

2:57:57To the financial capabilities, as a holding company, ISQ has significant financial backing to ensure long-term stability of operations.

2:58:05The business structure of the parent company also provides additional stability regarding the payment of franchise fees.

2:58:13Next slide.

2:58:19Sorry, I lost my place here.

2:58:22Under the franchise agreement, the city has certain obligations to how we look at the transfer.

2:58:27As I mentioned earlier, we're focused on the things I mentioned above, the legal, technical, and financial qualifications.

2:58:34And any conditions we may attach to that should be tied to those particular issues.

2:58:42So we must review those criteria stated in the agreement, and the agreement also mentions that we can't unreasonably delay the transfer.

2:58:50This happens through an ordinance, as I mentioned earlier.

2:58:55Next slide.

2:58:59So before I conclude, I just want to remind you what's in scope and out of scope in this decision.

2:59:03The city can verify and inquire about the qualifications that I mentioned above under Section 8 of the agreement that I talked about, and we can condition the transfer based on those criteria.

2:59:15Um, we can't otherwise renegotiate the franchise or change the basic terms of the franchise agreement through this action.

2:59:24And next slide.

2:59:26I'll just conclude with that based on our review of the criterion in Section 8 of the agreement, again, the technical, legal, and financial, we believe ISQ has sufficient qualifications to operate the facility to the satisfaction of these criterion.

2:59:42Therefore, staff has recommended that you adopt the ordinance to transfer the agreement from Zenith to ISQ.

2:59:48And we'll of course remain in the room as you hear testimony to answer Thank you both for being here, and thanks for the presentation.

2:59:58Um, Rebecca, how many people have signed up to testify so far?

3:00:0153.

3:00:02Okay, so obviously we're not going to get through that today, uh, in a meeting that's scheduled to end in 3 minutes.

3:00:08Um, does anyone have any, any brief technical questions?

3:00:11You can also— you'll also have this chance at the next meeting.

3:00:15Mr. Chairman, I only only questions that are outside the scope of the franchise agreement, and, um, which legal, technical, financial.

3:00:25So I would hope that the people who are in line to testify understand, uh, what are— what kind of questions you can actually ask that are inside the scope of the franchise agreement.

3:00:38Yeah, you know, we're going to be posting, um, if we can get your slides as well as a link to the Yeah.

3:00:47Councilor President?

3:01:00Yeah, thank you.

3:01:00I just had a very quick question.

3:01:01It seems like this is sort of a by-right, almost, uh, an action that, that we have to counsel as a body why is this a legislative action then if it's a— it feels like it's almost an administrative action.

3:01:21I believe it's by charter that franchise agreements and transfers have to be an ordinance.

3:01:29But just to be clear, I mean, you know, in theory, there are consequences if we as legislators take our legislative power and say yay or nay, we are somehow violating parts of this?

3:01:42Is that my misunderstanding?

3:01:43I mean, it seems like we are required to approve this.

3:01:48Is that wrong?

3:01:49You always have a choice.

3:01:51Okay.

3:01:52And I would maybe look to the city attorney to elaborate.

3:01:55Hi, Nancy Thorington, Deputy City Attorney.

3:01:58You're not required to approve it.

3:02:00You're required to consider it.

3:02:02Thank you.

3:02:04Thanks.

3:02:05All right, so we're going to continue this item after Councilor Pirtle-Guiney's question, and then— and actually last after her, and we'll continue it.

3:02:14But go for it.

3:02:15I, I just want to dig a little more on the way that you worded that.

3:02:20We don't have to approve it, we have to consider it.

3:02:23But I think Council President was getting at an important piece by saying, is this similar to a by-right item?

3:02:30Maybe it's not precisely that.

3:02:34Can we amend it, or is this really an up or down vote given the legal limitations in what we look at?

3:02:44The legal limitations are you— what you can do is you can, you know, look at the legal, technical, and financial qualifications and if in looking at what's in the record you don't think that that's sufficient, you can condition it.

3:03:04Um, you know, uh, you don't— or you could find that they don't meet the qualifications, but you would have to have evidence, you know, articulable evidence that they don't meet one of those criteria.

3:03:19Thank you.

3:03:22Thank you, Councilor.

3:03:23Um, so with that, we're going to continue the item to the next meeting, uh, which will be Thursday, August 6th at 9:30, uh, AM.

3:03:32Colleagues, in about a minute we're going to adjourn.

3:03:35I just wanted to take a moment to observe and thank you all for bearing with us as we fill up our agendas and see whether or not the requested timelines of items lines up with the allocated time on an agenda, lines up with the the actual time spent.

3:03:46I think, um, Prosper obviously requires some conversation, as do all of these.

3:03:51So, um, on an unrelated note, but just since we have the floor, I wanted to take the opportunity to share support, uh, for friends in the Midwest.

3:03:58We're in the Twin Cities.

3:03:59People are remembering Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, whose murderer was sentenced in court, uh, today.

3:04:06And to the people in Madison, Wisconsin, we're on the same street where police killed Tony Robinson in 2015.

3:04:11Uh, Corey Ruiz was killed by police yesterday.

3:04:14Uh, my thoughts are with everyone affected by gun violence regardless of who caused it, and I appreciate the opportunity to take a few seconds today.

3:04:21Our next meeting is Thursday, August 6th at 9:30 AM.

3:04:24It is 12:31 PM, and this meeting of the Committee of the Whole is adjourned.

3:04:28Thank you.