Loading...
12-26-2019 Council Newsletter • ouncel Newsletter S Provided to the Tigard City Council on a weekly basis to stay abreast of current city issues. December 26, 2019 1. FYI: Sen. Wyden Open House Jan. 5 @ Noon Tigard High School is the site of Senator Ron Wyden's first 2020 Washington Co. Town Hall. The event is Sunday,January 5 at noon in the THS auditorium. Everyone is welcome to attend. 2. Next Steps—Solid Waste Mgmt. Franchise John Goodrich attached a memo that follows up on items discussed during Council's 10/8/19 meeting about the city's solid waste management franchise. 3. News Articles - Public invited to comment on transportation investments at Jan. 13 Metro Council hearing - New Metro, ODOT program assesses how to transfer highway routes from state to local ownership - The year in review: 2019 4. Council Calendar Wed.January 1 City Offices Closed New Year Tuesday,Jan. 7 Business Meeting One 6:30 p.m. -Town Hall Tigard Tuesday,Jan. 14 Business Meeting 6:30 p.m. -Town Hall Tuesday,Jan. 21 Workshop Meeting 6:30 p.m. -Town Hall Tigard Saturday,Jan. 25 Council Outreach Event 11:30 a.m.Library Community Rm Tuesday,Jan. 28 State of the City Address 6—8 p.m.,Broadway Rose 12850 SWI Grant Ave, Tigard 13125 SW Hall Blvd.Tigard,OR 97223 1 Web www.tigard-or.gov Phone:503.639.4171 FAX: 503.684.7297 TDD 503.684.2772 Item# City of Tigard Newsletter:! Memorandum To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: John Goodrich, Public Works Executive Manager Re: Follow Up from Solid Waste Management Discussion Date: December 23, 2019 The purpose of this memo is to follow up on items from the Solid Waste Management Franchise discussion on October S, 2019. Council was asked to consider three options regarding the future of solid waste management in Tigard: • Option A - Make no changes to the current franchise agreements and continue pricing based on the most recent cost of service study; • Options S - Amend the current franchise agreements, and/or adjust the schedule of fees and charges based on council policy changes; • Option C - Open the solid waste management franchise and terminate the existing agreements, under the provisions of the Tigard Municipal Code. After additional research, staff is now recommending Option A for the follow=ing reasons: • The seven-gear franchise renewal period is consistent wVith national and local practices. • Council did not raise any rate or policy concerns in October that would require amendment to the current franchise agreements and/or fee schedule. • Re-opening the franchise would require significant reprioritization of staff and require solid waste management consultant resources. It may also be a lengthy process. Project costs would be sourced through the city's general fund. Seven-Year Franchise Renewal Period The solid waste management franchise provisions are in TN1C 11.04 Solid Waste Management. Pursuant to code, franchises automatically renew every seven years. Mayor Snider posed a question to staff regarding the justification or using a seven-year franchise renewal period. The seven-year period matches business standards related to schedules of depreciation. These standards are used by the IRS as described in IRS Publication 946. • The United States uses a current tax depreciation system called the Modified Accelerated Cost Rccovery System (NL-�CRS). Under this system, the capitalized cost (basis) of tangible property is recovered over a specified life by annual deductions for depreciation. • Under the AL CRS, regular depreciation (General Depreciation Schedule) for most of the class assets (not real property) falls between. a 5-year, 7-year, and 10-year depreciation schedule. • Based on this concept of 11IACRS, Tigard is using a 7-year franchise renewal schedule. Staff opinion is that this is a reasonable approach. It allows a franchisee to utilize and depreciate most of their asset capital equipment prior to the end of the franchise (7-year notice) and ensures that the franchisee's trucks and equipment are safe and reliable based on this replacement schedule. Staff reviewed other jurisdictions and found they automatically renew their solid waste management franchises anywhere between 5 to 10 years. It would be reasonable to use this as an explanation as to how neighboring jurisdictions mai-use the 5-year (which applies to automobiles), 7-year (which applies to all other property not assigned to another class), or 10-year (applied to vessels and water transportation equipment, refining, etc.). At the state level, 16 cities are 5-rear, 10 cities are 6-year, 38 cities are 7-year, and 17 cities are 10-year for their renewal period. Conclusion & Recommendation Staff provided a briefing to council during a study session on October 8, 2019. This included information regarding adoption of the FY 2020 master fees and charges schedule on June 11, 2019, including a rate adjustment for the city's solid waste franchise haulers—Pride Disposal and Waste Management. Based on the review of nearby comparable cities regarding their franchise agreements, service fees and charges, staff supports continuing pricing based on the most recent cost of service study (Option A). Option B is available if council feels that fees and charges or customer service policies need adjustment to meet goals and objectives. Option C requires significant repriontization of staff time and requires solid waste management consultant resources. Project costs would be sourced through the city's general fund. Next Steps Please let the city manager know if there is anything further that staff needs to prepare or provide regarding solid waste management, franchise agreement and renewal, aggregate reports, or other requirements that council may request. Item# ° Metro News [Newsletter; Public invited to comment on transportation investments at Jan. 13 council hearing Photo by Steve Morgan Dec. 17, 2019 4:09 p.m. Next month, the Metro Council wants to hear y= directly from the public about transportation investments that could be a part of a 2020 transportation funding ballot measure. " On Monday, Jan. 13th, the public is invited to comment at a special Metro Council hearing dedicated to testimony on the potential r ®►- funding measure. The Get Moving hearing will take place from 6-9 p.m. at the Metro Regional Center at 600 NE Grand Ave. in Portland. Beginning at 5:30 p.m. and continuing throughout the hearing, Metro staff and local transportation planners will be on hand to answer questions about projects and programs that could be included in a funding measure. Since January of this year, the Transportation Funding Task Force appointed by the Metro Council President has met regularly to advise the Council on a possible 2020 funding measure addressing traffic and safety on some of the region's most dangerous and congested corridors. At each meeting, the Transportation Funding Task Force has heard public testimony from community members. If you wish to provide verbal testimony, please plan to sign up in person at Metro between 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Jan. 13. Verbal testimony at the hearing will be limited to two minutes. Written testimony of any length may be shared at the meeting or by e-mail at getmoving@oregonmetro.gov. Written comments received by 2 p.m. on Jan. 13 will be shared with Metro Councilors prior to the meeting. New Metro, ODOT program assesses how to transfer highway routes from state to local ownership Metro News Dec. 20, 2019 9:58 a.m. f r � ` This year Metro and the Oregon Department of Transportation began evaluating which corridors are best suited to transfer ownership from the state to a major city or county. Many state-owned roadways throughout greater Portland no longer fulfill their original role as rural or farm- to-market roads. Instead, they're bustling city streets carrying cars, bikes, buses and freight trucks. "These are roads that have often been left behind as the state has shifted its emphasis to fund and maintain Interstates that were built in the 60s and 70s," said Metro regional planner John Mermin. These roadways all across greater Portland are often better known by their local designation than their state highway number. Some examples include U.S. 30 Bypass (Lombard Street) to the north, Oregon Route 99E (McLoughlin Boulevard) to the south, Oregon Route 26 (Powell Boulevard) to the east and Oregon Route 141 (Hall Boulevard) to the west. "They go through communities where many people who have been historically marginalized live and work," Mermin said. "Often, they have some of the worst safety outcomes as well." Metro's Regional Transportation Plan has long recognized the need to take better care of these roadways. This year Metro and the Oregon Department of Transportation began evaluating which corridors are best suited to transfer ownership from ODOT to a major city or county. "Our belief is that if the agency responsible for these roads better matches up with how people are using them, the agency will be in the best position to care for them," Mermin said. Metro and ODOT are looking at the whole region to create a framework that helps evaluate and facilitate transfers from the state to local jurisdictions in the future. This week Metro and ODOT hosted a technical workshop where staff shared guidelines for such evaluations. "We're identifying priorities and providing more organization to the way transfers occur," Mermin said. "We're hopeful this this will help facilitate transfers in the future," said Metro's planning deputy director Margi Bradway. A final report, expected in fall 2020, will include lessons learned from past transfers around the state and recommendations for action in the Greater Portland region. Year in Review: Looking back at 2019 Pamplin Media Group Tuesday, December 24,2019 Some themes emerge, like consequential political battles,new construction and bigger, better community events. PMG P140TO:JAIME VALDEZ-Espn Esparza tries to get the attention of Tualatin Valle} Fire&Rescue firefighters at the start of the Sherwood Robin Hood Festival Parade. Like any other year,2019 had its ups and downs. The Times is taking a look back at the year that has been,just as this paper does every year. In 2019, our Westside communities Y celebrated new beginnings, mourned losses and—as always fiercely debated how to move forward. Local lawmakers were at the heart of major decisions in Salem, including how to fund school systems that endured cut after cut this past decade. Businesses, nonprofits and public entities heralded new developments, as urban renewal programs ramped up in Beaverton and Tigard this year. Community members came out to celebrate what they love about the places they live, marching to show their pride and speaking out to defend their values. One article about 2019 can't include everything. There's too much that happens in a year, especially a year like this one. But less than a week from a new year and a new decade, let's look back on 2019 and what we are likely to remember from this year. The Times' news coverage varied from triumphant celebrations, like Jesuit and Valley Catholic's state championship victories this fall, to tragic losses, like the death of longtime Beaverton community advocate and civic leader Betty Bode after a battle with lung disease in August, as well as the slaying of a bank customer at a Beaverton Wells Fargo just last week. Most striking about 2019,though, is that many things happened this year that will have ripple effects for years, perhaps generations. The Times catalogued many of these developments, and they feature heavily in our look back at the year that was. From it all, a few key themes illustrate what 2019 was: PMG PHOTO:JAIME VALDEZ-Invited dignitaries prepare for the ceremonial breaking of ground on Red Rock Creek Commons.a four-story affordable housing complex in the Tigard Triangle.on Oct. 1. A groundbreaking year It's poetic, in a sense,that so much work was done in the last ' year of this decade to sow seeds for the next decade and beyond. Likely the grandest example of this groundwork that was laid came in November, with a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts on Nov. 13 —followed days later by construction beginning in earnest. The Reser Center was a glimmer in the eye of civic leaders and philanthropists, like major donor Patricia Reser, for years. But the project is finally underway. The regional arts center, which Beaverton city officials hope will drive an economic boom in the fast-changing suburb, is slated to open by the end of 2021. It's being paid for with a mix of private dollars and municipal bonds. A few miles to the south, Tigard officials and downtown business leaders also celebrated the first phase of what they envision as a crown jewel for the community—and a major step forward in their goal of making Tigard the most walkable community in the Pacific Northwest. On Aug. 29, a crowd gathered on a sunny evening in downtown Tigard for the groundbreaking of the Tigard Street Heritage Trail. Effectively a three-piece project rolled into one—there's a trail that is replacing an old temporary asphalt path running parallel to the railroad tracks between Southwest Main Street and Tiedeman Avenue, a paved open space on the east side of Symposium Coffee named Rotary Plaza, and a series of interpretive signage and public artwork collectively called Tigard's Outdoor Museum—the trail will connect neighborhoods north of Highway 99W with Tigard's downtown core, a long-neglected (or forgotten) district that is in the midst of a revitalization campaign. The project has been planned, in some form or another, for years. It's finally coming to fruition now as a partnership between the city,the Oregon Department of Transportation, Tigard's Rotary chapters, downtown businesses and the Washington County Museum. Washington County is also getting a new, expanded 9-1-1 dispatch center. The Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency, which handles emergency calls from across the country, has outgrown its existing space in Beaverton. On Nov. 14, the agency held a groundbreaking ceremony for a dispatch center in North Hillsboro. Officials say the Hillsboro facility better suits their needs and will better serve county residents in need of emergency services—especially as Washington County's population grows, year over year. There was more, too, in the private sector. Red Rock Creek Commons, a long-awaited "affordable housing" complex in the Tigard Triangle, broke ground on Oct. 1. Community Partners for Affordable Housing, a nonprofit that provides housing for low- income residents, spent years planning the project and lining up money and permits to build it. Now, it's one of several active construction sites in the Tigard Triangle. After Beaverton voters approved an urban renewal plan in 2011, swaths of the city are now undergoing rapid redevelopment. One of those downtown development projects is the Hyatt House, a five-story hotel that broke ground April 22 at the corner of Southwest Rose Biggi Avenue and Crescent Street. It was one of multiple hotels that began construction throughout Beaverton this year. Beaverton will also welcome a new,high-end athletic club sometime in late 2021. Life Time Fitness held a groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 18 at Southwest Barnes Road and Cedar Hills Boulevard. It's the same site where plans for a Walmart supercenter were thwarted in 2006 over congestion concerns and an outcry from neighbors. Instead of offering low-cost goods and groceries, the Life Time facility will be a four-story mixed-use space, with its own parking garage and space for commercial offices. It will feature an outdoor pool,nutrition services and child care. It's also just a few blocks from the Cedar Hills Shopping Center, which a developer plans to remake into Beaverton's answer to the Platform District at Orenco Station in Hillsboro. That plan hasn't been finalized, but it took a big step forward this year when it won planning commission approval in October. In other words: Stay tuned. 70 PMG PHOTO:JAIMF V.ALDEZ-Tigard-Tualatin teachers carr} signs during a rally in support of more state spending on public schools on Feb. 11.Beaverton Sen.Mark Hass co-developed a commercial actiti ity tax.which the Legislature approved in May,that dill provide$1 billion more in state school funding per year IL A politically active year It was bound to happen after Democrats seized legislative supermajorities in the "wave election" of 2018 —the 2019 legislative session brought no shortage of sweeping legislative changes and clashes over policy. But few would have predicted that in Salem, where elected officials have made a well-worn tradition of patting themselves on the backs for maintaining a collegial, bipartisan atmosphere, the Legislature's work would be derailed not once, but twice,by partisan acrimony that led nearly every Republican state senator to walk out. Republicans staged two key revolts, denying the Senate a working majority to conduct its business, in 2019. In May, all but one Republican stopped showing up for work in an attempt to block a vote on the Student Success Act. A little over a month later, with the clock ticking down to the end of the legislative calendar, every Republican left most,if not all, actually fleeing the state to avoid being hauled back to the Capitol by state troopers —to keep a cap-and-trade proposal from passing. (As it turned out, Democrats didn't have the votes to pass the bill anyway.) The second of these two walkouts was colored by a different kind of controversy, as state Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, who represents a slice of Washington County, threatened Senate President Peter Courtney in comments on the Senate floor, then said in a television interview from the halls of the Capitol that if the Oregon State Police came looking for him to bring him back for a vote, they should "send bachelors and come heavily armed." When the walkout ended and Boquist returned to the building, one Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Sara Gelser of Corvallis, refused to be on the Senate floor with him present. A Senate special committee voted days later to require Boquist to give 12 hours' "Titten notice before entering the Capitol building, a highly unusual restriction for an elected official. Beyond the rhetoric, the Legislature actually did enjoy a productive session, although much of its most significant legislation passed in spite of Republicans' objections. State Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, played a pivotal role in crafting and pushing through the Student Success Act, which will plow$1 billion per year into public schools across Oregon. So pleased was Hass with the accomplishment that, after the legislative session ended, he declared he had finished his mission as a state legislator and would not run for re-election next year. He is running for secretary of state instead. Results were mixed for a trio of bills to curb plastic food waste. Rep. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, successfully pushed a bill to ban most single-use plastic bags from checkout counters and restaurants. Rep. Sheri Schouten, D-Beaverton, offered another bill to ban polystyrene food containers, but it failed in the Senate. One of Schouten's legislative neighbors and fellow Democrats, Rep. Margaret Doherty of Tigard, argued vehemently against the bill, noting that Agilyx Corp. in Tigard specializes in recycling polystyrene and other foam products. Another bill cracking down on plastic straws passed, albeit in a watered-down form. Instead of banning straws outright, the new law will prohibit restaurants from giving out plastic straws unless a customer specifically requests one. Some restaurants have already begun implementing the policy. Other major developments out of Salem included: • The most robust paid family and medical leave law in the United States. Nearly every worker in Oregon will be able to take up to 12 weeks off with pay starting in 2023, if they meet certain conditions.New parents will be eligible regardless of sex or whether their child was just born to them or newly adopted. • Changes to housing and zoning laws. Among other tweaks, nearly every city in the Portland metro area, including Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood, King City and Durham, will have to allow duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhouses and cottage clusters to be built in any residential neighborhood where single- family homes are permitted. Another significant change caps the amount by which landlords can raise rent in a year—at 7%plus inflation and prohibits them from evicting a tenant without cause. • Stiffer limits on who can be sentenced to death in Oregon. Lawmakers approved a change to the criminal code that tightens the definition of"aggravated murder," which carries the maximum penalty of death. Now, only the premeditated murder of a child under 14 years old, the murder of a law enforcement or correctional officer, the murder of two or more people in a terrorist attack, or the murder of a fellow inmate by someone who had previously been convicted of murder qualify. Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton argued against the change, saying it's too restrictive and severely curtails the number of situations in which prosecutors can call for a death sentence. A festive year PUG PHOTO:JONATHAN HOUSE-Mahathi Sridhar performs a traditional Indian A, bharatnayam dance at new community festival Viva Tualatin!on Sept. 14 Washington County is full to bursting with community events, parades and festivals—so why not add a few more? On June 23, Beaverton celebrated its first Pride Parade, one year after the city's first-ever Pride event was staged by the LGBTQ community. The half-mile parade route started at Beaverton City Park and featured eight- time Paralympic cyclist Allison Jones as grand marshal. Organizers hope to make the parade an annual tradition. Pride in the Park itself was much bigger this year than it was in 2018, with nearly 100 vendors, live entertainment, a beer garden and more. "The growth has been exponential," said Kate Kristiansen, Pride Beaverton executive director. In Tualatin, city officials both changed up the format of their most popular festival and introduced a brand-new one. ;Viva Tualatin! effectively replaces ArtSplash in Tualatin's annual festival lineup. ArtSplash was held by the Lake of the Commons on a paved area that could become very hot and uncomfortable at the height of summer. ;Viva! was held a little later in the year—on Sept. 14, although organizers plan to move it back to July 20 next year—and in the more comfortable, spacious venue of Tualatin Community Park. Like ArtSplash, ]Viva? is a celebration of Tualatin's arts scene. But unlike ArtSplash, it also specifically celebrates Tualatin's cultural diversity, especially its growing Latino and Pacific Islander populations. "We wanted to make it all-inclusive for all communities," explained Betsy Rodriguez Ruef, Tualatin's community engagement coordinator. The event was deerned a success, and the city hopes to make it an annual tradition that will grow over time. Meanwhile, Tualatin turned its beloved West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta into a two-day event for the first time ever, on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19_ The evening before the main event—pumpkin-racing on the Lake of the Commons, not to mention activities like pumpkin golf, pumpkin bowling and a pumpkin pie eating contest— Stickmen Brewing Co. hosted Pumpkins & Pints, as well as the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers' Terminator Weigh-Off. And while it wasn't a festival, per se, communities in the South Metro area did do something new this year as well. Lake Oswego High School hosted a Multi-City Equity Summit on Oct. 19, with representatives from Tigard, Tualatin and local schools in attendance. The summit focused on what city governments, schools and law enforcement agencies can do to foster a welcoming environment for all people and ensure that people are treated fairly. Nearly 400 people attended the conference,the first of its kind held in the area.