09/27/2012 Summary 11
rr�
Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force Summary
Thursday, September 27, 2012, 7:00 PM—9:00 PM
Public Works Auditorium Tigard, Oregon
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Jason Rogers,Mike Stevenson,Dan Goodrich,Tom Woodruff, Margaret Doherty, Barry Albertson,Troy
Mears, Chief Michael Duyck,Melody Graeber,Jessica Cousineau, Sue Yesilada
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Mark Haldeman, Bob Smith,David Burke
STAFF PRESENT:
Marty Wine-City Manager,Liz Newton-Assistant City Manager;Toby LaFrance-Finance&Information
Services Director;Liz Lutz- Confidential Executive Assistant
1. Recap of previous meeting—There were no comments or changes to the 9/6/12 meeting notes.
2. Review of Information Requested—The committee members requested the following:
a. Annexation Report
i. Area 64 was annexed in 2011.
ii. Island annexations stopped because of a lack of county support. Council wants to clean
up islands like Hillsboro did-the timing was not right after the Bull Mountain annexation
issue.
b. SEFA
i. The city is required to do federal grants-even when we get Washington County grant
money, they still usually come from federal resources and we are required to track them
as federal grants.
ii. For budgeting purposes,grants are considered soft money and are not projected.
c. Community Development Director Recruitment Information
i. Received 103 applications,narrowing down to 4 for interviews in a few weeks.
d. Oregonlive.com City of Gresham article
i. Articled highlighted that they charge $7.50 Utility Billing fee for existing services and
their approach to communicating with the community.
ii. Chicago is looking at a$5.00 public safety fee for Police.
e. Lands (map handout)
f. Marty-what do developers want?They assess land opportunity and market opportunity. They
want to minimize risk and maximize return on their investment.
i. Tigard has not done a lot of work on identifying our strengths and weaknesses in the
economic development area,but it can be part of minimizing risk for developers and has
an attractive business environment.
Page 1 of 3
ii. End of year—get feedback from different developers to determine how they see Tigard
in terms of development.
iii. Tigard doesn't have an economic development person that knows properties,
community and is relationship oriented.
iv. It is hard to "build our way" out of the economic problems that Tigard faces now.
3. Roundtable #1- Community
• Recent staff reduction-perceived by citizens as needed. Library closure on Thursday is noticed.
Park maintenance,Police shifts, Friday closure=haven't heard comments from the public.
• Have heard lots of complaints about electrical franchise fee-over 50 calls.
• Marty was commended for voluntarily reducing her salary in light of the budget cuts, as a "lead
by example" move.
• Direct tax to residents-wonder how many complaints there would be.
• Tigard has a good batting average in terms of bond passing because the city does what they say
they are going to do-however, there is only so much people will pay.
• What would citizens put in their shopping cart if they were to pick services?
• It's important to have a clear vision of what the city wants to accomplish and communicate that
to the public.
• Cityscape articles and website could include: tax rate, employee-population ration,library hours,
need to make people aware that money is needed and do a comparison with other cities.
• Economic development is key-invest in business community-beautification, absentee owners
that don't want to update their property is an issue.
• Fee on business side re beautification, etc.
• Community Development Director-need to have staff available to help the public.
• Priorities:
o #1-Marketing and education
o # 2- Connect with other cities similar to Tigard and connect with the Oregonian
o # 3- Community survey 2013-questions and maybe focus groups
o # 4-Add more fee for service.
4. Roundtable #2—Partnership
• Schools-facilities,grounds and ball fields
• Cook Park-we try to maintain fields so everyone can use them
• Tualatin Hills Park and Rec-expand into Tigard and how much money would be freed up?We
could look into this more-ownership,maintenance and recreation activities.
• Photo Red Light-3Td party company takes some of the fee
• YMCA Recreation Program
• What do citizens want?
• Don't do all or nothing-can be a mix of things in the partnership area.
• Can services we provide be done with a partnership of some kind?
5. Roundtable #3-Tigard Identity
• Constant communication that markets the city
• All signs (like Park signs) should say City of Tigard
• Vision, communication,involve the business community
Page 2of3
6. Roundtable #4-New Public Dollar
• Vibrant downtown-create a heart of the city
• Safety-remove transients
• Spend money that would leverage additional money
• Tracking donations-is there a way to do this?
Staff To Do
✓ What partnerships do we have?
✓ Has the commuter rail helped or hurt Tigard?
✓ What would it take of different revenue sources to raise$100,000?
The next Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting will be held on Thursday, October 18, 2012 at the
Public Works Auditorium, 7:00pm
Page 3 of 3