01/18/2012 - Minutes City of Tigard
Neighborhood Involvement Committee-
Minutes
MEETING DATE/TIME: Wednesday,January 18, 2012; 7:00 p.m.
MEETING LOCATION: Tigard Public Library- 2nd Floor Conference Room
13500 SW Hall Blvd,Tigard OR 97223
1. CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Christopher called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: Chairman Basil Christopher, Sue Carver, Cathy Olson, Connie Ramaekers
Excused: Bev Froude
Staff. Joanne Bengtson, City Manager Marty Wine and Asst. City Manager Liz Newton
3. APPROVE NOVEMBER 16,2011 MINUTES
Basil requested a change on Agenda Item #9. Minutes should reflect idea of: "ya civic
leadership course was offered,would there be interest from the public?" Sue motioned to
approve the NOVEMBER 16,2011 minutes with Basil's change, seconded by Connie, none
opposed.
4. INTRODUCE NEW CITY MANAGER MARTY WINE
Joanne introduced Tigard's new City Manager, Marty Wine. Marty shared her bio and thanked
the committee for making time to meet her.
5. 2011 COMMUNITY ATTITUDES SURVEY RESULTS
Marty reviewed results of the most recent biennial citizen attitude survey. The city puts this out
for bid and then hires an outside company to conduct the survey. Some questions remain the
same so we can track trends, and some topics (decided by City Council) are topical and gauge
resident interests and perceptions.
Overall Satisfaction: The survey showed that residents of Tigard are widely satisfied with the city as
a place to live. A city's safety, streets, utilities and neighborhoods are perceived most important
in terms of desirable characteristics of a place to live, and Tigard residents are most likely to say
"residents feel safe" and "streets and utilities such as water and sewer are provided and well
maintained" are excellent descriptions of Tigard.
Growth:Just 39% agree that "to accommodate future growth, the city should encourage
greater residential density than exists today in both new and existing neighborhoods" and
56% disagree with that statement. There is no consensus from respondents as to where
most of the future population growth should occur, although widening 99W is the leading
Neighborhood Involvement Committee MINUTES — 1/18/12
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traffic solution.
Contact.• One-in-four residents reported contact with a city employee or elected official in the
past year. The most frequently contacted departments include the police (28%) and public
works/streets/sewer/water (24%). Overall, residents' experiences were widely positive and
more than 90% agree that Tigard city employees are courteous, fair and honest,with a
significant percentage who "strongly" agree.
Information Sources:The most widely cited source for information specifically about the City of
Tigard is "Cityscape, the city newsletter,"with nearly half(49%) of respondents saying they
received information from that source in the past year. Other responses included, "the
Oregonian" (180/6), "the Timei" (150/o), "local television news" (130/o), "word of mouth"
(130/6), the "City of Tigard website" (80/o), a "local mailer" (60/o), a "neighborhood network
website" (5%), "public library" (4%) and "radio" (4%). No other source was mentioned by
more than 3% and just 14% have no opinion.
6. DISCUSS CITY'S FY 12-13 BUDGET FORECAST
Marty started off by saying that Tigard made some tough choices two years ago that allowed us
to maintain our reserves to provide a bridge over the worst of the recession. But now Tigard
and other cities and counties are seeing a slower economic recovery than the public sector.
Local government relies on property taxes to fund services and property taxes are not growing
at the same rate that expenditures do, making for an unsustainable long term outlook.
In order to hold the line and balance revenues with expenditures the city will have to make some
changes. The task at hand will be finding a way to focus city resources on the programs and
projects that residents have identified as their highest priority. That's where the latest survey
comes into play. It tells us what residents want and by matching that information with the 2012
Council Goals,we have a foundation for crafting a long-term focus on the issues most
important to Tigard residents. Marty reiterated the need to align our resources with the public's
highest priorities.
The next step is all departments looking at priorities, seeing what we can afford to provide and
then building a budget that meets the community's needs. Budget Committee meetings begin in
April and May and by June 2012, the proposed budget goes to Council for adoption.
7. SHIFT IN FOCUS FOR NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK PROGRAM
Liz noted that between July (new fiscal year) and November (when property taxes come in), the
city will spend between $6 and $6.5 million to provide city services, but our reserve is only$5
million. We are looking for savings everywhere we can, but some programs will lose funding.
This is the sixth year of the Neighborhood Network program. It was designed by residents to
empower residents to engage with the city and each other to come up with tools to fix their
neighborhood's issues. The websites have done well, but the community building grants and
small works funding have remained unclaimed. Without the public `clamoring' for these funds,
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the money will be redirected to the general fund to provide savings for the services that Tigard
residents are asking for. Other shifts to the neighborhood program are driven by budget as well.
Liz noted that the priority for the City Management office is communication. She asked
committee members if it is reasonable to shift membership of the NIC to the area web
administrators since subtracting steering committees and community grant oversight, the NIC's
mission switches to communication and connecting neighbors through neighborhood websites.
Liz proposed NIC membership transition to a web administrator for each neighborhood (or
shared service in areas with joint representation) over the course of the next year and regroup
around connecting with residents through the neighborhood sites. NIC's mission would be to
focus on building connections for residents to take advantage of, using the blogs as the lynchpin
of a communication program. This takes pressure off the steering committees to get people
involved, but still provides steering committee members with an informal way to connect
neighbors and serve as a "sounding board" for web administrators regarding issues that are
cooking in the neighborhood.
Cathy asked about plans for newly annexed River Terrace area in west Tigard. Joanne
responded that community development staff recommend waiting for the area's Community
Plan to be completed since it provides the framework for infrastructure and service provisions
necessary for connecting residents to the city. Once those are in place,we can apply the
Neighborhood Network component to citizen involvement.
Basil noted that Portland provides residents with opportunities to meet and give input on issues.
Liz said that their program is heavily funded and staffed by the city and that neighbors usually
gather to weigh in on a neighborhood specific or contentious item as opposed to a general
"what do you think" question.
8. NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK PROGRAM OPEN HOUSE I FEBRUARY 4,11-2 Q) @
LIBRARY COMMUNITY ROOM"HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE?"
Joanne will post material from the city survey for residents to check out, along with asking folks
about whether or not they are interested in a Tigard leadership series.
The committee approved changing the event hours from 11 to 3 to 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
9. OTHER?
The next meeting is Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 7 p.m. in the Red Rock Conference Room at
City Hall.
10. ADJOURN
Basil adjourned the meeting at 8:29 p.m.
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