MEMORANDUM

Date:               4 November 2014

To:                  Mayor Hales
Commissioner Fritz
Commissioner Fish
Commissioner Novick
Commissioner Saltzman

From:              Southeast Uplift Board of Directors

Subject:           Portland Street Fees

When the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) proposed a new “Street Fee” earlier this year, a sense of urgency framed declarations about its absolute need.  Portland’s roads were falling apart, and if we failed to fix them, addressing the problem would only cost us much more in the long run.

In May, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, citing examples from a number of smaller cities in Oregon, proposed shifting tax burdens to home owners and local business and away from fuel users.  The discussion has been disjointed with little in the way of analysis and even less public involvement.

Southeast Uplift’s board representing the twenty inner southeast neighborhoods would like to make the following points:

1. A fee, requiring no vote of the people, requires more public involvement, not less.  The discussion has lacked transparency, involved a very limited number of participants, and is not well understood.
2. We need more time and more discussion about the choices between street maintenance and safety.
3. The design of the fee and its implementations have serious deficiencies

Public Involvement and Transparency

Portland’s neighborhood associations are the primary focus of public involvement in the city.  In this case, there has been very limited communication with the neighborhood associations or the coalitions, like Southeast Uplift.

Concerned citizens have had access to a disorganized web site, but this provided few comprehensible answers.

Over the summer, two committees were formed, one composed of low income and advocacy groups and one representing business interests, to provide feedback on the street fee proposal.  These committees were not representative of the broader citizenry who will be asked to fund this measure.  The standard public involvement framework:  Office of neighborhood Involvement, coalitions, and neighborhood associations were neither consulted nor briefed by city officials.

If the street fee does not face the vote of the people.  Public involvement should be more intense, not less, and it should be possible for the average Portland resident to understand the proposal.

Lacking a more inclusive public process, the new fee should be put forward for a public vote.
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