The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-07-21
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (17,846 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are not yet identified (colors just separate consecutive turns). Auto-captions can contain errors — check the recording for anything that matters.
Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee met on July 21, 2025. After roll call and the standard statement of conduct, the committee heard a report on appointments and reappointments to the Portland Utility Board, including presentations from nominees on their backgrounds and interests; a motion to forward these appointments to full Council was made, and votes occurred, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. The committee then considered three PBOT-related ordinances: a land trade with ODOT to support a Safe Rest Village along Southwest Naito Parkway; authorization to use the Construction Manager/General Contractor method for the Burgard Bridge Resiliency and Multimodal Enhancement Project; and a property rights acquisition, including possible eminent domain, for the 82nd Avenue Glisan and Davis Signal Improvements Project. Discussion covered funding sources, timelines, community engagement, and coordination with other agencies. Votes occurred on each ordinance, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. Finally, Public Works staff presented an update on the One Water framework and the Unified Capital Improvement Program, discussing feasibility study findings, leadership integration, affordability strategies including a pilot discount program, and upcoming priorities. The meeting concluded with an announcement that the next session is scheduled for August 11.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
0 Good morning. I call the meeting of the transportation and infrastructure committee to order. It is Monday, July the 21st at 9:30 a.m. Diego, can you please call the roll?
1 Good morning.
2 Koyama Lane here.
3 Morillo here. Green.
4 Present.
5 Smith. Clark.
6 Here.
7 Thank you. Claire, can you please read the statement of conduct for us?
8 Good morning, and welcome to the meeting of the transportation and infrastructure committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at Portland.gov/agenda/transportatn and infrastructure committee. Or by calling 311. Information on engaging with committee can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone will be will be muted. When your time is over, the chair preserves order. Disruptive 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. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, please state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. And finally, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
9 Thank you. Claire. Colleagues, we have five items on our agenda today. We'll probably end up taking the full time. We have some unexpected items that have come to us because the finance committee isn't meeting today. So first of all, we're going to hear a report on the appointments to the Portland utility board, which has been postponed for a couple of meetings. Then we're going to move on to three ordinances. And they're all from PBOT. There's a land swap between PBOT and ODOT for the queer affinity village. The second is authorizing the use of ccmc, which is a construction manager, general contractor, alternative contracting method for bridge improvement project. And last, an ordinance authorizing a property rights acquisition for PBOT for improvements along 82nd avenue. And finally, we're going to hear about a brief update from public works on the one water program. I think we've all been looking forward to hearing that. And as well as the unified capital improvement project. So with that, diego, can you please read the first item.
10 Item one appoint and reappoint voting members to the Portland utility board.
11 Thank you. So, colleagues, this appointment report comes to us from the mayor and the city budget office. But I'll hand it off to dca. Donna paul and jonalyn bradford. Public, the public utility board staff to get us going. Thank you.
12 Good morning, chair and committee members. My name is paul. I'm the deputy city administrator for public works, and I'm happy to be here in strong support of this item, which recommends the appointment of five new members and the reappointment of two current members to the Portland utility board, or pub. Pub is a community based advisory body that provides independent guidance to the city council and bureau leadership on the budgets, programs and planning of the Portland water bureau and bureau of environmental services. And while advisory in nature, the board plays an important role in promoting transparency, accountability and public trust in how we manage these essential water, sewer and stormwater services. The proposed appointments reflect a strong mix of technical expertise, lived experience, and community perspective, and these members were identified through a public recruitment process and unanimously recommended by the current pub. If confirmed, they will ensure that a broad cross-section of portlanders have a voice in shaping long term utility investments and addressing key challenges like affordability, climate resiliency, resilience and infrastructure renewal. And with that, I respectfully, respectfully request your support and I will pass it on to jonalyn. Brantford brantford pub coordinator.
13 Thank you so much. For the record, my name is jonalyn brantford and I'm the coordinator for the Portland utility board, which we will typically refer to as pub. I'm here to put forth these these nominees. The pub is a community, community based advisory board. Let me share my screen. Sorry. Formed in 2015 with an extensive public process and I think dci donna paul described well its charge. The pub is composed of 11 of 1511 permanent voting members and three ex-officio members. The permanent voting members serve three year terms, staggered to provide consistency, as well as typical turnover of 3 to 4 members in each year. One permanent voting position is delegated for a union represented role. That seat is not up for reappointment today or appointment today, because it's still under recruitment by the unions. It takes time for pub members to get well acquainted with the role with. Given the broad scope of advice. For this reason, it is invaluable to have members serve more than for several years this year the pub had higher than normal vacancies due to the passing of one member and some other members having increased personal responsibilities to maintain consistency and retain their very valuable input to pub members whose first terms are expiring, were recommended by pub for reappointment to their second and final terms. Alexis ralph and lorraine wilson pub formed a recruitment committee subcommittee to fill the remaining vacancies. The subcommittee included current board members and staff from the utilities. A key goal of recruitment is to diversify and balance the skills, experience, interests and perspectives of the pub. The criteria for appointments and skills to serve the board are defined in code 3.123, and they range from technical knowledge of utilities and conservation to more generalized areas of financial analysis, group process and communications. An open application process was held that resulted in 11 applicants. The staff reviewed or conducted group interviews which were recorded and reviewed by subcommittee members. The group interview format allowed subcommittee members to evaluate candidates in a format similar to the way that pub actually engages during their board meetings to consider an issue and engage dynamically in conversation. The subcommittee was so impressed with the candidates and ultimately recommended the five appointees before you today, as well as one alternate in case a vacancy arises before the next full recruitment. The. The recommendation was approved in by the current board in a public meeting earlier this month. The subcommittee considered gaps in the areas mentioned in code, and those are noted in red and orange on the boxes on the slide. And we're really pleased to have appointees that bring complementary skills and experience in areas like health sciences, finance and civil engineering, as well as many other areas that benefit the board's work, including equity, which remains a particular area of focus and emphasis for the board's work and recruitment. Now, we would love for you to hear directly from the nominees, the appointees most of our appointees are able to join virtually or in person, and we'll let them each briefly share a bit about themselves. But first, we want to hear from one who is not available today. And I'll share a video that they that they shared. I just need to unsure or to share a new screen. Okay, so the first is cormac burke.
14 Good morning. My name is cormac burke, and I'd like to thank you all for the opportunity to join the Portland utility board. I've been a Portland resident for 35 years. In that time, I have always felt that it was my duty to give back in some way. In the past, I've participated in city and county volunteer positions, which I found to be very rewarding. My career has been in information technology for roughly 15 years, that I worked for a large investor owned power company here in Portland. My role there I learned a good deal about the challenges in running utilities, both from the provider and customer side. Utilities are among the most important services that virtually all of us require, and it's essential that utilities factor in both the technical as well as social and cultural aspects of delivery. I believe that in order for any utility to be successful, needs to maintain awareness and sensitivity to the diversity of its customer base, including cultural and language differences. I hope that in this role, I can help ensure that Portland citizens have cost effective and equitable treatment around utilities. Thank you.
15 Thank you. And so now I'd like to turn to those folks who are joining us virtually, if we could begin with doctor myra hunchbacked.
16 Hi, everyone. Okay. Oh, briefly introduce myself. My name is myra. I'm one of the emergency resident physicians at Oregon health and science university, and I have a particular interest in medical toxicology, with a focus in environmental toxicology. My background in social drivers of health is extensive. From working with people, doing memos and briefings as a legislative intern in congress about social drivers of health, as well as working with patients extensively both on a clinical as well as research front trying to address needs that we could help equip them with, both in the emergency department and from steps afterwards, with also experience with working with cancer patients and their drivers of health as well. And I believe that equity and focusing on creating quality water infrastructure for different groups from underserved backgrounds and historically marginalized populations is very important. This is preventative medicine, how we take care of our cities and plan around different communities ultimately affects their health. And so I've been very excited to be able to be recommended by pub for this, for this board.
17 Thank you. Next, could we go to darryl bob?
18 Hi. Hello.
19 You caught me out in the field here. Just give me a moment. Well, as you heard, I'm darryl bob. I work as a utility locator for the Portland bureau of transportation, and I bring a background in wind energy and military service. As a public servant working on the ground every day, I see how system level decisions play out in the field. And I care deeply about how those infrastructure decisions affect all portlanders, not just today, but for years to come. I'm excited to bring that frontline perspective to the Portland utility board to help make our utility planning more transparent, more equitable, and more connected to the people it's meant to serve. I thank you all for the opportunity.
20 Thank you so much. And next we have alexis rife, who is recommended for reappointment to the board.
21 Hello everyone. Good morning. My name is alexis rife and it's a pleasure to join you. Apologies for not being able to be there in person today. Thank you very much for consideration for reappointment to the Portland utility board. I have lived and worked in north Portland for ten years, and served on the pub for the last three, and my professional experience spans natural resource management, water policy and governance and collaborative processes. And it has really been my honor to work with the bureaus and the council to ensure that every person in Portland has access to clean, affordable water and healthy watersheds for our health, for our well-being, and for economic prosperity. Since water really does touch every single aspect of our lives, I am very excited at the opportunity to continue this work with the city and with our new form of government. It's been a real pleasure to work with the pub and with the bureaus through this transition, and I really look forward to continuing to do so in the next three years. I'm deeply committed to community and to collaboration and transparency, transparency and environmental justice, and really see pub as a key way to advance those values within my community. Thank you very much for the opportunity.
22 Thank you.
23 Next, we have our in-person folks, and I'm going to call all three of those to come up and speak with us. So that's. Lorraine wilson, brooke birhanu, and jennifer o'connor.
24 Welcome.
25 Thank you. That was good.
26 Would you like to start, jen?
27 Sure. My name is jennifer o'connor, for the record. And it's nice to meet all of you. Thank you for considering my appointment for the Portland utility board. I moved with my family to Portland 25 years ago. And the first thing, of course, that struck me was the abundance of natural resources we have here and our proximity to the mountain and to the ocean. But the fact that there's streams running through our community just kind of blew me away. I came from san francisco, where I worked for the department of public works. I was a I worked as a landscape architect and also as a project manager on infrastructure projects there. The last project I worked on before I moved up here was one that it was a pilot program using reclaimed water that was reclaimed from wastewater, using it to irrigate golden gate park. And once I got up here, I wanted to volunteer for the city of Portland because I was hoping maybe that I could get a job here. And what I what struck me was the fact that was how how welcoming the bureaus were for me to volunteer. I volunteered at the parks department first and then at the water bureau. I served five years on the citizen employee budget review board for the water department, for the water bureau. The last ten years, I've been volunteering on climate related programs. I worked with greenpeace with 350 and one of my last. The last attempts we did, we worked, we collaborated with. I was on 350. We collaborated with the sunrise movement and also with peace, which is the Portland employee act on climate emergency. The group was city employees. You have here that have formed this group to look at climate issues. And since then we did put together a resolution to bring to the city charter board or the city charter commission. It the resolution lost by one point. We wanted to implement a climate and environmental justice resolution. So we got close to being on the ballot, but not close enough. I stayed in touch with the bureau of environmental sciences and employees from the bureau of environmental sciences and the water bureau, so I'm pretty much up to date on what's going on in terms of climate and the infrastructure here on now. It's a really important and a lot of opportunity is coming up with the collaboration of the joining of the two bureaus, the water bureau, the alignment of the water bureau and the bureau of environmental sciences as they undergo the challenges coming with the one water initiative, the things that I have identified as things that I'd like to help with, I want to make sure we keep the affordability programs in place for the people, so everybody has access to water. I want to address the I want to see the address of deferred maintenance on our water system. I want to see that I want to do what I can to address that, to make sure we continue to have safe drinking water. And lastly, under the capital improvement program, I I'm hoping that we can I can have input on instituting some kind of reclaimed water system. I know that this is a big, big idea, but it's one of the main components of the one water initiative, and I'd really like to work on that as a member of the board. Thank you.
28 Thank you.
29 Sure.
30 Good morning, council members. I am lorene wilson. I am here to share with you who I am so that you learn more of what I represent as a public utility board member. This will be my reappointment to serve as a volunteer to the public. I am the daughter of daphne and lloyd gervais, both deceased, the last child of six children. I am, but do I dare to say it? An immigrant? I should look behind my back and naturalized citizens of these united states. I am a proud trinbagonian who has lived in the pacific northwest for the last 24 years. My mother was a housewife and entrepreneur. My father an educator from a family of educators, my mother being a quiet force who could create and achieve anything. She sowed, baked, cooked ice cakes, etc. And sold treats to complement my father's mother's modest income as a school principal. She was very involved in the community, taking part in events at the community center and always adopting someone or providing comfort to those in the community. Were we rich? I don't think so. We wore hand-me-downs, but everyone thought we were because there was tremendous privilege. Being the principal's daughter. Not so much for me because I had to deal with being the principal's daughter. My father, on the other hand, was out there and vocal legend. Legend has it that he fell out with the ruling political party leader of the day. He wasn't afraid to stand up when he saw injustice. Both my parents did the work, although no one will tell you that I am on the quiet side like my mother. These are the individuals who formed me in their image and likeness, along with my independent maternal grandmother. If interested, I can share some badass stories about her privately. I am a mother and a grandmother who defeated cancer twice. I am still convalescing. It didn't stop me. Get your screenings done now I will share what most individuals judge you on. I'm a graduate with an ms. Degree in organizational leadership. I have worked at many organizations since moving to the us, not by choice in some cases, but because of the reality of how I show up in my workplace. Meaning, it is tough out here for black professional women and the policing of black bodies. What excites me is the opportunity to advocate, resulting in better outcomes and greater impact. Having the opportunity to take the challenges and barriers that I and others have experienced, and raising them within the spaces that create them to develop better policies, procedures and practices that results in timely matter of fact change informed by community. The opportunity to work with others collaboratively to create empowered communities that are confident, advocating for themselves, but not always allowed to or listened to the opportunity to work within the system to create positive change. When I'm reappointed to serve another term, I will continue reflecting on what the board has accomplished over the last few years and how successful it has been in creating change. This foundation will continue to guide me in determining how I can move forward with ensuring that the board centers equity in all its work. I would like to learn more about the city's funding mechanism through utility rate changes apply to residents, and how these monies are spent. Calling this out keeps it in focus so that costing becomes more transparent and accessible to all residents. Ultimately, what I plan to accomplish through my service is ensuring that the city provides reliable service that are cost efficient and affordable for all residents. Understanding the customer's need intimately so that it's reflected in the water and sewage rates they are charged. What is my why? Because of my grandbaby. I am here to work collaboratively with you and city staff to achieve this. Thank you for the opportunity to do so.
31 Thank you.
32 And finally we have brooke birhanu.
33 Hello transportation and infrastructure committee, thank you for taking the time to hear from all of us today. My name is brooke birhanu. I'm a relatively new Portland resident. I moved here in April of last year after spending about a decade in austin, texas, and I'm originally from the midwest. Before that, I moved here because I have family here, and every time I visited, I immediately fell in love. And so I immediately started looking for ways to kind of start contributing back to the city and saw the opening for the Portland utility board and thought this was really the best way to give back in the way that I that I know how to. I live in district four and I sorry, I lost my place here. I spent I have spent several years working for water and wastewater utility in austin, texas. Before that, I studied water resources engineering in grad school at university of texas. And so it's a big part of my career, my experience, but also just my passions. And now I work as a as a research specialist for an environmental nonprofit, really studying how water efficiency and reuse strategies can can help utilities face some of the more pressing challenges they're facing today. I'm honored to be considered for appointment to the Portland utility board, especially during a time where water and wastewater is really at top of mind for a lot of folks, both in Portland and across the country, both the challenges, but then also just uncovering the ways in which infrastructure is really played a vital role in kind of creating and perpetuating a lot of the systemic injustices that we've seen over the last, you know, more than 100 years. And so it's really, you know, these are like hidden systems that we all interact with every day. But they have a really large impact in, in how we live our lives. And I've really been motivated to try to better understand that. And I'm really excited for the opportunity to kind of help increase both that knowledge and for the utility board, as well as take some of the lessons I've learned from my past life and my current job, to based on what other utilities across the country are doing to meet some of those challenges. I'm hoping to help the water bureau and bts navigate through some of these challenges. Rising costs, dwindling federal support, increasingly increasing distrust in local and government institutions. And that really has to come from a place of transparency and cooperation. And so I'm just really excited to kind of collaborate and really help the utility board and bts operate in a way that aligns with the city's stated values and principles. So I'll stop there. But thank you all very much.
34 Thank you. Did you have any closing remarks before?
35 We just briefly, I just want to say that these fabulous appointees would join members still serving, including julia degraw, kyle chipman and current pub chair lauren rosenkranz. Wanted to invite you all to ask any questions that you might have or.
36 Thank you. Very impressed by the breadth of knowledge and the passion that you all have for this job, and your willingness to do it as volunteers. I think I speak for my colleagues that we also appreciated the pubs weighing in on some decisions that we've had to make. We really appreciated your perspective on that. It was very helpful. So I'll ask my colleagues. Actually, let me find out from diego. Has anybody signed up to testify here?
37 No one has signed up.
38 Okay. Terrific. Colleagues, do you have any questions for our potential appointees here or appointees? I think there are. Presentations have been very thorough. We actually received quite a bit of background on all of you, which we've read in advance. Councilor Morillo. Did you want to say something?
39 Yeah. I didn't have a question. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I have to say this is one of my favorite groups of people that we get to appoint. Getting to hear all of your stories and everything that you've shared and that you're going to spend your time volunteering with the city of Portland, is so special. I'm just so grateful to get to learn more about you and lorraine. Your story really stood out to me. Just I appreciate you sharing your life and your background with us, because we do often put each other in these boxes about what's measurable, and you shared something that is immeasurable with us. And as the only immigrant on city council, I just want to say thank you for being here. And no matter what happens, we will have each other's backs in all of this. And I'm just so grateful that all of you want to serve at this time. I appreciate your humor, your knowledge, and your care for our city. So thank you.
40 Councilor Green.
41 Yeah, I just I don't have questions, but I just want to say that, you know, we are entering a period where it's increasingly challenging to deliver our services, our public services, at cost, at on time and with a rate schedule that is equitable and also sufficient to invest in our infrastructure. And I am very impressed with all of you. And I think that if we have you on this board, you will have a community advisory board that will provide you with all of the expertise that you need to be successful with one water. I'm super thrilled to see you all up here, and I thank you for your service. And I want to hear these stories about you being a badass at some point. So maybe not now, but but in the future. Thank you.
42 Councilor Koyama Lane.
43 Thank you so much for being here and for the folks that submitted their paragraphs and their videos. This work, this is so important. Oversight, work, accountability, transparency. It's so important to our work. The public cares so much about it. Really appreciate all of you.
44 Terrific. Thank you. All of you. Again, we're very excited to have you here. You're a great group of volunteers. We appreciate it. So I would like to entertain a motion to send the appointments of brooke birhanu, doctor myra cushman, jennifer o'connor, darrell bob and cormac burke. The appointments of them to and oh, the reappointment of lorraine wilson, excuse me, and alexis reif to the Portland utility board to the full council with a recommendation that the appointments be confirmed.
45 So moved. Second.
46 Thank you. Councilor Morillo moves to recommend the appointments and reappointments to the public to full council with the recommendation that the appointments be confirmed. And counselor Green has seconded that. Is there any further discussion? Colleagues seeing none. Will the clerk please call the roll.
47 Koyama Lane I Morillo. I Green.
48 With gratitude.
49 I Clark.
50 And with enthusiasm I.
51 With four eyes. The motion carries and the appointments and reappointments to the Portland utility board are referred to full council, with the recommendation that the appointments be confirmed.
52 Terrific. Thank you all again, those online and those here for your willingness to serve the city. We appreciate you very much and thank you for being here today.
53 Thank you, thank you. Thanks.
54 Diego. Can you read the next item for us, please?
55 Item two declare city property as surplus and authorize property trade between the Portland bureau of transportation and the Oregon department of transportation.
56 Thank you. Colleagues. This ordinance comes to us from PBOT and Portland solutions. The ordinance would authorize a land exchange between ODOT and the city to support continued and future use of a safe rest village along southwest naito parkway. When I drive by every day, I'd like to hand this off to dca, donna paul and PBOT and Portland solutions staff.
57 Thank you, chair Clark and committee members. Good morning. I'm dca for public works. This transfer will allow the city to consolidate ownership of two contiguous parcels along the west side of naito parkway and create flexibility for enhancing the naito safe rest village in the near term. I'm going to pass it on to the subject matter experts, for in the interest of time we have, I'll let you introduce yourself. Go ahead please.
58 Thank you, donna paul. Thank you, committee chair Clark, for introducing this ordinance to the committee. Good morning, city councilors. For the record, my name is kevin boec. I'm a supervisor in pbot's real property services group here to discuss the surplus property designation and city and ODOT land transfer at southwest naito parkway to orient you. These parcels are directly north of 405 along southwest naito parkway. Sorry. Before you today, PBOT is requesting this committee recommend to council to declare city property along the east side of southwest naito parkway a surplus, as seen on the slide highlighted in red. The city owns an undivided 60% interest in ODOT, owns an undivided 40% interest in portions of tax. Lot r699857.
59 Excuse me, kevin, we are not seeing the slide. Maybe I don't know if adam or someone can help you post that so everyone can see.
60 Can you see them?
61 There we go.
62 Okay. Thank you, thank you. Sorry about that problem. In exchange for PBOT selling, let me let me go back. I'm sorry. Let me do the slide again before you today, PBOT is requesting this committee recommend to council to declare the city property along the east side of southwest naito parkway. Surplus. As seen on the slide highlighted in red. The city owns an undivided 60% interest in ODOT, owns an undivided 40% interest in portions of tax. Lot r699857. These lots are bifurcated by south sherman street, which area would continue to be public right of way. The total of the lots for surplus equals 2020 3810ft■!s. N exchange for PBOT selling its 60% interest in the property along the east side of southwest naito parkway, ODOT would sell its 100% fee interest in portions of tax lot r713535 along the west side of southwest naito parkway, as seen on the slide highlighted in red. The total area of the lots is 15,030ft■!s. The background behd this property transfer is that the east side of southwest naito parkway is a jointly owned remnant from the 1940s era harbor freeway, in which the city owned a 60% undivided interest and ODOT owned a 40% undivided interest. A successful trade of these property interests will result in each agency having sole ownership of their respective parcels. To get here, PBOT went through the city surplus process. In 2024, the property was declared to be excess to pbot's needs and was then formally submitted for citywide review. The Portland water bureau will require water infrastructure easement over its existing pipes that cross the surplus property, having received no other interest from other bureaus, PBOT is requesting that this committee recommend to council to formally designate the property as surplus in accordance with adm 13.022 a2. This city property is eligible as a category one determination for direct disposition to ODOT due to their undivided ownership of the land. In June 2025, an appraisal was commissioned to value both areas involved in the land exchange. The city's property interest was found to be $120,000 less than the ODOT property. The proposed action before you today is to recommend to the full council to declare the city's properties interest as surplus, and authorize PBOT to transfer the city's 60% undivided interest to ODOT in exchange for the 100% interest in ODOT property. City will pay the value difference to ODOT from existing surplus land funds. The benefits to the city from this transaction will allow city to control two contiguous parcels along the west side of southwest naito parkway that will provide for increased capacity of the queer affinity safe rest village in the short term and provide opportunity for development as affordable housing or sale on the open market in the long term. With. With that, I'll turn it over to brandi westerman from Portland solutions.
63 Yeah, for the record, my name is brandi westerman. I work as the emergency humanitarian operations director within Portland solutions, and it's my job to oversee the city's sheltering program. So the safe rest village has been in existence now for three years on southwest nato. We had previously leased a portion of the ODOT property. However, we were not able to place sleeping units on that property due to ODOT rules. So this land swap will enable us to then utilize that property fully so that people can sleep at that safe rest village in that space. We're in the process of reallocating pods from the recently closed peninsula crossing safe rest village in order to expand southwest nato from the existing 35 sleeping units up to about 55 sleeping units. So that will allow for an increased capacity and allow us to not lose the full capacity from the closing of peninsula crossing. Safe rest village. This is one of our most successful safe rest villages. It has been very successful in moving about 55% of the people who have exited into temporary or permanent housing.
64 Thank you. With that, I'll take any questions you may have.
65 Thank you very much. So the let me ask a question about just the surplus property disposition process. It's very cumbersome, as it seems to me. I've explored it for other reasons, and it took about, what, a year and a half to go through this disposition process and all the different city bureaus had an opportunity to weigh in, whether they want that property or not. And the water, water bureau or bts did. So that's good. I just I know that's a very cumbersome process. It is difficult to go through. And the state has its own property disposition process. I think that's just as complicated as the cities, and I don't know if so. Odot it's just a simple sale. It's not a declaration of surplus property.
66 That's right. They run a parallel process, but they do have some things where they have to have findings that it's surplus to their needs.
67 Great colleagues will actually let me ask diego, do we have anyone who wants to testify on this ordinance?
68 No one has signed up.
69 Okay. Great. Colleagues, do you have any questions for our witnesses about this property exchange? No. Terrific. Well, thank you all for coming here today and presenting this. We appreciate it. And it sounds like a great move. So moving right along. I would entertain a motion to send the ordinance document number 2025 284 to the full council with a recommendation to be adopted.
70 So moved.
71 Great councilor Morillo moves the ordinance document 2025 284 to full council with a due pass recommendation. May I have a second?
72 Great. The motion has been moved by councilor Morillo and seconded by councilor Koyama Lane. Seeing no further discussion, will the clerk please call the roll Koyama Lane?
73 I Morillo.
74 I.
75 Green I.
76 Clark. I with four eyes. The ordinance will move to full council with a due pass recommendation.
77 Great. Thank you all for being here today and for your work on this.
78 Thank you. Councilors.
79 Diego, can you please read the next item.
80 Item three approve findings to authorize exemption to the competitive bidding requirements and authorize competitive solicitation for the use of the alternative contracting method of a construction manager. General contractor for the burgard bridge resiliency and multimodal enhancement project.
81 Thank you. Diego. This emergency ordinance comes to us from PBOT, who seeks approval for the use of the cmr construction manager general contractor method for bridge improvement project. I'm going to hand this off to dca, donna paul and winston sandino, who's the capital project manager at PBOT.
82 Good morning again. Chair and councilors paul public works. For the record, this is a critical infrastructure project. The bridge has been in poor condition since it's been struck by a train in 2020. And thanks to a federal grant from the bridge investment program, PBOT has now an opportunity to fully replace it. The cmc, as you mentioned, the that's the only path forward that allows us to meet the federal grant deadlines, and it enables early collaboration between the contractor, the design consultant, the city staff, reducing construction risks and allowing the project to move forward efficiently. And with that, I'm happy to pass it on to vincent sandino, PBOT capital project manager, to go into the into the details.
83 Thank you very much. This. Good morning, city council members. Okay. Let me.
84 Could you state your name for the record?
85 Yes, my name is winston sandino. I'm project manager for PBOT on the large cap section of project management, and I'm in charge of the bridge project. You can see the bridge is located north of the st. Johns bridge. It's the north side of the area. It's a very heavy freight location. There is a terminal for schnitzer northwest containers. The bridge is over the union pacific railroad. And the bridge was hit by the union pacific railroad in 2020. And it's currently in a very poor condition due to damage sustained by the train. Impact. Some traffic lanes have been shifted to avoid the running vehicles over the damaged pier. I wanted to explain a little bit about the funding. The funding PBOT apply for a federal grant in 2022 for over $13 million, and the PBOT received the grant in 2022 from the bridge investment program. Pbot will be providing a match 20% match over $3 million, and these funds are coming from the heavy vehicle use tax. The total project is expected to cost about 17 million, and this will be allocated through different phases of the project design right away, environmental and construction. I just wanted to kind of explain what the conditions of the bridge is and what we're proposing to do. You can see the cross section above is the existing bridge, which has five columns or four span bridge. Down below it's the railroad tracks. The new proposed bridge is going to be just a single span bridge, which will have plenty of room for the railroad to install new tracks or have. Plenty of space, so it would not damage the piers in the future. So the reason is why are we using cmjk contracting method? The traditional design bid build method and construction approaches would not allow us to meet the project deadline. In a nutshell, basically what we do originally is just design the project and once we the design is completed, then we go out to bid and then we have a contract doing construction. So and that takes about a year or so because we have to do environmental right of way utilities. So it takes a while to complete the project. So the construction manager general contractor cmjk, it's the only delivery method that will allow PBOT to meet the fiscal year 22 bridge improvement program requirement, because the requirement was to obligate the construction funds by September of 2025, which is in two months. So we would not have time to do the traditional design bid build method. So why is this method different than the design bid build? So the cmc approach allows for routine dialog between the owner, the designer and the cmc while the project is being designed. So right now we have a consultant doing the design, and we're going to bring a contractor on board to collaborate with the consultant while we're doing design. So this dialog allows for the team to identify risk constructability issues before design is complete, which makes the project faster and less expensive to construct. I think that's it. If you have any questions.
86 Thank you. Appreciate that. I'm sure we have questions. Councilor Koyama Lane, you were the first questioner.
87 Thank you so much for being here in this presentation and explaining this. I'm interested. Can you tell me a little bit more about the difference between the traditional design bid build method and the construction manager general contractor? What are some of the pros and cons? Is anything. Yeah. What are we changing risking for going? Are there especially around labor union union workers. Can you explain a little bit.
88 Well the big difference for this project is scheduled. So we were not going to be able to complete the design phase in in six months. So we would the designer right now or the consultant, we hired a consultant to do the design. So they are going to be doing the design. And about 30%, 60% design. We will bring a contractor to look at the design, and then both of them will be trying to figure out what's the best savings during the design phase and construction phase to save some money and risk when we design, when we do the design bid build, we just do the design. We don't have a contractor on board, so we just do the design, send it out to bid, and then the contractor comes up with their own method of construction. And at that point it could be risky since we, you know, they don't know what what they can encounter. But if we bring them earlier and we work with the designer, they can make some changes during the design phase. And also and the main thing for this one is actually the, the schedule because. The, the bridge investment fund required us to finish design by September 2025. And if we use the cmc method, we can do preliminary design and the environmental phase complete that by September of 2025. And we don't have to complete design until after. Next year. So all we need to do right now is complete the environmental phase. And that would then they can obligate the construction funds.
89 And.
90 If I may add, it's been a it's been a few years since I did the engineering construction. But from my experience, and you can correct me if I'm wrong in the design bid build, the contractor is chosen based on the lowest bid after the design is complete, which can lead to pressure to cut labor costs by, often by using less expensive subcontractors, regardless of workforce quality or union status. In the cmc, the contractor joins early during the design, which allows the city to set expectations around union labor, apprenticeships or equitable hiring from the start, leading to better job standards and workforce outcomes. And that's my understanding. And is that.
91 Very good.
92 In both situations. Thank you for bearing with me as I'm trying to figure this out. We're contracting out. Yes. There's not an option to do this in-house. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for clarifying.
93 I just want to add to that TriMet uses cmc all the time and it provides a lot of flexibility, a lot of iteration. But they're much larger projects than the bridge. But and they use union labor in that process. So it's a common form. Cmc is very common. Councilor Green.
94 Thank you, madam chair. Thanks for the briefing. I guess my question would be, does the city use cmc typically, is this new to us? And if it's not new to us, do we generally realize those cost savings that we expect?
95 Yes, we have done. I think the city of Portland has done several cmc bts, the water bureau PBOT has done maybe 2 or 3 cmc projects, but this is actually the first cmc project for PBOT using federally funded federal funds. So we have some experience doing this work.
96 I appreciate that. And, you know, colleagues, from my perspective, it's sort of a no brainer because we have to hit this schedule timeline. That's the biggest risk to the project. And what are the consequences? If we wouldn't hit that we would not be eligible for the grant?
97 Yes, they will remove the grant and we will lose it.
98 Okay. And this was a bipartisan infrastructure law grant iija.
99 It's a bridge investment fund. That's.
100 Yeah, but it was funded out of the bipartisan bipartisan infrastructure law. If I if I'm not mistaken. So we want to make sure we move quickly and get those monies. Yes. Okay. Thanks.
101 Thank you. I have a couple of questions. It's not clear to me from the design what happened when the when a rail car hit the bridge and damaged it? Was there no responsibility on the part of the railroad to help with this?
102 I knew you were going to ask that question.
103 Of course.
104 And I and I don't have the answer because I did ask the question. I think. That's I'm going to ask leadership to respond to that. But I think at this point there are two things to do. One is to fix the column that was hit and one is since we got the funds we're going to repair, instead of repairing that column, we're just going to replace the entire bridge and then just go. But I don't know if there is a if the union pacific railroad is going to pay for, for anything. So.
105 Jeff Clark, we have director williams here. If you would like to invite her to answer the question.
106 Sure.
107 Come on up, director williams. I have another question about this too.
108 Hello.
109 Good morning everybody. Millicent williams, director of Portland bureau transportation. Thank you.
110 My question was just about the responsible party and why they're not contributing to the cost of the bridge.
111 Well, there were a number of factors that were considered as the project was determined that we needed to move forward with the replacement and the party that was responsible did not necessarily feel that it was required for the bridge to be replaced. Our risk assessment is a little bit more stringent, perhaps, and recognizing our responsibility for making sure that we're moving portlanders through, or anyone using that right of way through safely, we made the determination that it was something that we needed to do, and we were able to, based on that argument, receive the grant funding to be able to deliver that project.
112 Well, the good news is that you got the federal money.
113 We did, and it is obligated. And so we will be able to move forward with the bridge as planned.
114 Well, let me ask another question. I noticed that you got the grant in 2022. Why did it take so long to get here?
115 Well, for large capital projects like this, it does typically take a fairly long time. The design process, the right of way, acquisition process, all of the components around locating utilities, all of the factors that lead into a major reconstruction really take a lot more time than I think most of us imagine. As I continue to dig into more and more of our capital projects, the discoveries that we find out along the way often impact timeline. But the larger components are that when we initially requested the funding for the grant, unlike other grants or other projects, it was not until then that we started the process of the design and all of that. Whereas in other projects cases, we often have a great deal of project development that happens. First, we have some pre-design that happens that helps to inform and shorten the overall schedule. But when you're starting from a versus maybe g in the process, it ends up taking a little bit longer than folks anticipate.
116 Thank you for that. Is there anything that this committee can do for you to expedite a capital project?
117 Keep encouraging us to be intentional about how we move forward. There are a number of steps that are in place, and the more that we're able to educate everyone about how long it takes to deliver a capital project, how we build out the funding for projects, often that leads to some of the delay. I often reference the fourth avenue project. That was something that was conceived many, many years ago, conceived of many years ago. It took many years to get the full funding that was necessary for us to be able to move forward. Our plan is to always ensure that we have full funding before we move forward with a project. So when we're seeking funds, as we're looking at our strategies for ensuring that we're delivering capital projects on time, within scope, within schedule and on budget, understanding that and having your support for us to be able to move forward is really important. One of the other components for capital projects that ends up causing projects to take long, and I'm not complaining about it as much as I'm explaining that from time to time. We are engaged in pretty extensive community engagement processes, and many times those processes take many months, sometimes many years. And to get to a point of consensus, or at least. People are equally dissatisfied on either side of the argument. But sometimes that takes a long time. And in the construction cycles that we're responsible for delivering on or within construction season, as you're experiencing now, is during the dry months. So we try to fit in as much as we can between April and October. If we miss the timeline, we'll have to wait another year because it's too wet. It's the conditions are not suggested. Did not suggest that we would be able to deliver the projects in a timely fashion, so it would require us to wait almost in some instances, another year. One of the things, however, that the mayor even encouraged us to do as we're thinking about our capital projects, is making sure we have everything together before we start, so that once we start, we can finish within that season. And that's really, really important for us to make sure that we're doing and a practice that we'll be engaging in and intentional around this coming fiscal year.
118 Well, I appreciate that explanation. I think it can be very confusing for the public to see a project when we're also talking about we don't have any additional resources, and it's just very confusing. And then the public participation process, which we've been very dedicated to as a city, definitely has a downside, if you will, in terms of delay. So I appreciate your pointing that out to us.
119 Absolutely. And there are maintenance projects in capital projects. And so that too is a space for an opportunity for us to provide greater clarity about the differences and the similarities. But sometimes folks are saying, well, you should be doing this, and we're like, this project only allows for us to do this. And capital projects are typically those projects that aren't maintenance based, although at the end of them we intend to maintain them. They're not something that's basic paving, basic maintenance all the way. Do try to fit that into all of the projects that we're working on.
120 Thank you. I think colleagues, that in addition to water, which we drink every day, and we should be aware of what's going on with the water bureau, it's really our transportation system, our streets that people are most fundamentally aware of as a public service and hyper aware of what's going on. So we do have a role in helping the public understand what's going on.
121 So thank.
122 You for that.
123 Thank you for that. Any other questions colleagues on this bridge reconstruction or no okay. Seeing none. Let's see I would like to entertain a motion to send the emergency ordinance document number 2025 285 to the full council with a recommendation that it be adopted.
124 So moved.
125 Thank you. Councilor Green moves emergency ordinance document number 2025 285 to the full council with a due pass recommendation. Can I have a second? Second councilor Morillo. The motion has been moved by councilor Green and seconded by councilor Morillo. Seeing no more discussion, will the clerk please call the roll.
126 Koyama Lane I. Morillo I.
127 Green I.
128 Clark I.
129 With four eyes. The motion carries the emergency ordinance will move to the full council with a due pass recommendation.
130 Thank you all for being here and continuing to be here.
131 Thank you very much.
132 Thank you.
133 Diego, can you please read the next item?
134 Item four authorize bureau of transportation to acquire certain permanent and temporary property rights necessary for construction of the 82nd avenue glisan and davis signal improvements project through the exercise of the city's eminent domain authority.
135 Great. Thank you. Colleagues. This is the last of our PBOT ordinances today. This ordinance is related to the ongoing traffic and safety improvements along 82nd avenue. Will be happy to hear about that. So I'll hand this off to dca donna paul to.
136 Good morning again, chair and councilors paul dc for public works. And this work is part of a broader efforts to deliver on the vision of the build a better 82nd avenue and directly responds to the urgent need for safer crossings and pedestrian infrastructure in one of portland's highest crash corridors. And with that, I would like to turn it over to brianna or from PBOT to walk you through the project and propose property actions.
137 Thank you.
138 Thank you. Good morning councilors. For the record, my name is brianna and I'm a capital project manager at PBOT and joined by my colleague. Introduce herself. Hi, I'm carly ruggles, PBOT. Right of way. I'm a right of way. Agent three. And thanks for listening to us. Today I'm chatting with you about a project 82nd avenue glisan and davis signal improvements. And just here to provide an overview of the project and let you know why it's so important. So overview this project originates from the jurisdictional transfer of 82nd avenue and our building a better 82nd avenue plan, which was council adopted. And the improvement goals include reducing the risk of serious injuries and fatalities for people traveling or addressing maintenance needs and asset needs. For this project, we want to provide safe and comfortable places for people to cross 82nd avenue, improve accessibility and mitigate the impacts of safety history. As you all know, 82nd avenue is a very unsafe street in our city. But this particular intersection that we're working at, 82nd avenue and glisan, is also one of the least safe intersections in our city. So in the top ten of our vision zero intersections with the highest numbers of reported collisions. So I included a lot of stats on this page just for reference, but a total of 236 collisions have occurred in the past ten years. We have eight serious injuries and two deaths in that time frame, and we know of another death in 2023 that occurred at 82nd and glisan as well. And then we also have a notable pattern of left turning crashes. Which part of our design will address through the implementation of traffic separators and median islands? So a little bit more information about the scope here. We're upgrading two traffic signals at glisan. And at davis. We have ADA ramps and push buttons. As part of the project. We're widening the sidewalk on the east side of the street and planting street trees. We are installing concrete separators and median islands with landscaping, new street lighting, upgrading inlets, and also have a little bit of pavement repair on northeast davis. Oh, and I wanted to just mention you all are probably very familiar with the area, but this area is serving Montavilla park, Montavilla community center as well as vestal elementary school. So a lot of activity right here with pedestrians, young people, families. We're currently at 95% design with this project and would like to begin the right of way process, which is why we're here today. Funding sources. We have 4.8 million from fhwa, as well as 500,000 from the Portland clean energy benefits fund. And we've been doing quite a bit of public engagement as part of the building a better 82nd avenue project program, but also this project specific. So we send out mailers and biweekly email newsletters. We had an online survey back at our 30% design phase two in-person open houses, seven meetings with community associations and stakeholders, nine meetings with business and property owners. We tabled that three community events, and then we have upcoming engagement that specific to right of way with property owner meetings and more construction notifications once we get there. But all told, about 1100 people we've engaged with to date. And then I'll hand it over to my colleague carly.
139 Yeah. Hi. So I am here from PBOT right of way. We are seeking authority to initiate the negotiations and extend offers of just compensation to property owners for acquisitions, for the easements that are needed to build this infrastructure. If negotiations are unsuccessful, the city may proceed with condemnation to obtain the easements to complete the project. Easement acquisitions.
140 Can you move a little bit closer to the mic?
141 Sure. This better.
142 Do you want me to start over? Okay. Easement acquisitions are required from seven property owners, and they include five permanent easements and eight temporary easements. One owner owns two parcels. The permanent easements are needed to facilitate the construction of the ADA. Sidewalk improvements, signal infrastructure, and the safe pedestrian walkways going in. Temporary easements will support construction of those construction activities, and all property owners have been notified of the city's intent to acquire these property rights. They've been informed of the upcoming council hearing, and we sent certified mailers that were all confirmed to be delivered, and we will be doing continual follow up calls as well.
143 And that's what we have for you today. Happy to take questions.
144 Thank you very much, diego. Has anyone signed up to testify today?
145 No one has signed up.
146 Okay. Thank you for that. Colleagues. Do you have questions for our witnesses on this project? Councilor Koyama Lane.
147 Thank you so much for being here and for your work. I'm wondering if you can tell us a bit more about the types of properties that they're requesting for eminent domain? Is there any displacement that the council should be aware of that we should consider?
148 I can speak to that. The types of properties are mostly commercially owned and they are small acquisitions. So there is no displacement, perhaps some inconvenience, but there is nothing that will be permanently changed to the property.
149 Do you can you share if the property owners are opposed or amenable to this?
150 Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit. In the design process, we have engaged with property owners and business owners and made design changes along the way to accommodate folks that engage with us. I would say, by and large, folks welcome these improvements knowing that they're very important for vestal elementary school and families who go there. And you know, the I would say the largest pieces of the easements that we're looking at are either required for the signal replacement, which I think most folks understand, that it needs to be replaced. And then also the sidewalk widening on the east side of the street. And I would say, actually, folks have been very amenable and have had personal, either personal experience or know somebody who has gotten hurt on 82nd avenue. And so they're pretty empathetic to what we're trying to do there.
151 Absolutely.
152 Okay. My other question is around the project funding sources, and I'm wondering if there are any concerns around the stability, especially of the federal highway administration. One.
153 Yeah. Great question. This funding from fhwa is fairly stable, more stable than maybe some of our other funding because it originated from the jurisdictional transfer. And, and ODOT has has expressed no reservations about obligating funding. It has not gone through a similar review process that some of our other federal funds have.
154 Okay.
155 Thank you.
156 Just to be clear, these are federal highway funds that are coming through ODOT.
157 That's correct. Right.
158 If I have a couple of questions, if my colleagues don't have any more. I just two questions. Did the engagement that you were involved in with the neighborhoods or organizations, did that result in any changes in the project?
159 Yes. Great question. It did. Especially around 82nd avenue and davis, the intersection improvements that we are doing there. We presented a few options early on and design a range of balancing safety and access for davis street. So what we resulted in is allowing left turns into davis from 82nd avenue and exiting davis will be a right turn only. So that's a change for traffic but also an improvement for safety. We're able to better protect pedestrians who are crossing 82nd avenue on the south lake o. 80.
160 Primarily residential, davis.
161 Davis is primarily residential. There are the food cart pod Montavilla yard food carts on that southeast corner of davis and 82nd. So we worked with them to really understand their access needs. And that was one of the things that they were really asking us for. And we were able to make that happen.
162 Great.
163 I have another question. The improvements that you're making here, are they being coordinated with the brt, the 82nd street brt? How does that mesh?
164 Yes, we chat with our colleagues at TriMet fairly frequently and they will be reviewing. They've been involved in reviewing designs on this project and vice versa. I know that they have their 82nd and glisan stop that will, you know, our project will rebuild part of that corner. And my understanding is there will be limited work from the TriMet side at that location. So yes, very coordinated with that project.
165 I sure hope so. I'd hate to see this work done and then have to redo it again once the brt project gets going. Great. Any other questions from my colleagues? Okay, if not, I would like to entertain another. Motion. Last of the day. Hopefully to send this ordinance document number 2025 286 to the full council with a recommendation that it be adopted.
166 So moved.
167 Councilor Koyama Lane moves ordinance document number 2025 286 to the full council with a due pass recommendation. Can I have a second? Second motion has been moved by councilor Koyama Lane and seconded by councilor Morillo. Seeing no discussion, will the clerk please call the roll.
168 Koyama Lane?
169 Thank you. I especially want to call out and appreciate the community engagement work you guys all engaged with. Thank you so much for your leadership on this safety initiative.
170 I vote yea Morillo.
171 Ditto I.
172 Green. I clerk. I with four eyes. The ordinance is referred to the full council with a due pass recommendation.
173 Thank you.
174 Thank you all for being here today. Good project. Okay, now we're moving on with what we've all been waiting for. Is the one water and unified unified capital improvement program update of diego, can you please read the next item?
175 One water and unified capital improvement program update.
176 So colleagues, we've mentioned this before. The public works with public works under the scope of our committee. We've spent proportionately more time on transportation issues, actually, along with a focus on asset management and budget priorities. But we haven't had a chance to really do a deeper dive into bees or water, which is why we've asked our dca to give us today just a high level overview of the work underway to integrate the city's water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure programing as well as our investments. So with that, I'll hand it off to dca. Dana paul.
177 Thank you. Good morning, chair Clark and councilors again this is dana paul and I'm the deputy city administrator for public works. It is an honor to share with you our one water journey from the past. Past one year, the then mayor wheeler and city administrator mike jordan endorsed portland's adoption of one water framework, which is a major milestone for our city and a powerful shift in how we think about infrastructure. This framework is more than just about water. It's about how we work. It promotes intentional collaboration between our utilities, our community partners and city bureaus to deliver better social, economic, and environmental outcomes for Portland. I'm pleased to report that even amidst the significant budget constraints we've discussed in recent sessions and the overall transitions happening in the city, the public works service area has made real, measurable progress on implementing some of the one water recommendations. And what we'll share today is both the status report of what we have accomplished so far, and a high level look at what is happening, our priorities up ahead. I want to give you a disclaimer that I probably will not be going into the details of any details of what is happening in the future, but I'm happy to talk about what we've done so far. It's a chance to show what we've accomplished and where we're headed next. Next slide please. Here's the agenda for today. We'll begin with a brief overview of what one water is and why we've adopted it as a guiding framework. I know this council many of this council were not here last year when we began the work. And so this hopefully the sessions is a level setting of what is one water and why. Why we adopt adopted the framework for moving forward with it. And then I'll walk you through the feasibility study that we did last year, which shaped our strategy and highlight the recommendations that came from that work. We'll also share about how the recommendations are being implemented, and I'll provide you with a some of the other broader public work service area updates and how we're aligning our capital planning and investments and so on. And I'll close by sharing our next set of priorities that are on the deck. Next slide please. At its core, one water is a mindset. It sees all water in its life cycle, whether it's drinking water, wastewater or stormwater or and even natural systems is a part of a single interconnected cycle. And one water can be different depending on the context. For example, for cities that are having water scarcity, it would mean reconnecting the connecting the pipes with water reuse. But with Portland, we don't fortunately don't have that problem, so we probably will not be thinking about connecting pipes. But there are other things in which, in the Portland context, is an approach that emphasizes multiple benefits from using the, you know, thinking at the watershed scale, designing infrastructure with both people and ecosystems in mind. And in Portland, it also means equity, like embedding community voice, partnering across bureaus, and making sure our investments serve all portlanders, especially those who have been underserved in the past. Both our utility bureaus, water and bees, share similar challenges. And they, you know, and they're some of the challenges is not limited to just the utility bureaus, things like funding and how we do projects also expand to transportation and parks and sometimes even planning. So making sure all these bureaus are at the table as we as we strategize and form, these solutions are very important in this process. And one water for us is in the Portland context, is working across systems, across agencies and across differences so we can steward water more holistically and serve the public more effectively. Next slide please. There were five key reasons why we adopted that approach. For the one water, the first item was long term financial health. Our infrastructure, as you all are very aware, as we went through the budget sessions, our infrastructure systems are aging and our investment needs are growing, and we have to be strategic about how we use every dollar. And the second is equity in service delivery. We want all portlanders, regardless of neighborhood or income, to receive consistent, high quality service. The third is environmental stewardship and climate resilience. One water is how we protect our rivers, prepare for seismic events, and adapt to extreme weather. The fourth one is we're building on our existing success. Portland already has strong partnerships and integrated projects, and one water gives us a structure to expand and build upon those successes. And fifth is we're in the middle. We're in the in the middle of a transition. We have the government transition, and we have other transitions that are happening which enables this. The concept of looking into intentional collaboration between water and biz. This is not the first time we're doing it. It's happened multiple times in the past several decades. And so for the first time, we have a public works service area that aligns leadership across our infrastructure bureaus. And this is a right moment to align how we deliver these essential services for portlanders. Next slide please. From August to October of last year, 2024, when the when then mayor, mayor wheeler asked us to conduct a one water feasibility study to understand how Portland was ready for this kind of shift and what it would take to be successful. We set together a task force. It had a. Set of about 60 staff across multiple bureaus, including water, biz, parks, transportation and planning, and it was a highly participatory process, and we also invited support from us water alliance. This is a nonprofit that influences policy on a national scale, on one water and also two consultants. Stantec, which is a planning, design, construction engineering firm, and also next strategies for the overall strategy of one water. And based on a feasibility study. What we learned is that Portland is well positioned for one water. We have the technical foundation. We have shared values between the bureaus, and we have the leadership support to do this work. But we also have real barriers, that is structural barriers. And then the most importantly, the cultural barriers and financial barriers as well that we need to address. The study culminated in nine actionable recommendations that now serve as a roadmap as we implement our work. Next slide please. To shape the nine recommendations that resulted from the feasibility study. The way we arrived at that was to use a structured framework called appreciative inquiry five d model, which is to define, discover, dream, design and deliver. This is a strength based approach that that we're using for multiple initiatives in the public work service area that helps us build on, that helps us do more than just fix problems. It helps us recognize what is already working. In our discover phase. We look at, you know, what is, what is working and what it helps us imagine what is possible and design a better path forward. We defined our goals, explored existing successes, and envisioned a future state of what one water would look like in Portland. And we are looking forward to designing the key building blocks and ultimately deliver a roadmap to leadership. This process built ownership and alignment across our the bureaus and the task force members, and that's been critical to getting us to where we are today. I also want to honor the cultural differences and some of the structural differences that were that were ongoing as we went about this process. And I want to give great appreciation to the staff who who brought their best to this process in trying to do the best for Portland, for the city of Portland. Next slide please. There were several key takeaways from the feasibility study. And one of the most important takeaways is that we are not starting from scratch. In many ways, Portland is already practicing one water from a building filtration project to a Green stormwater infrastructure we had. We have real world examples of integrated multi-benefit projects. One of them that you all recently attended is the Washington park reservoir project. It was primarily a water project, but there was also a PBOT and bts elements to it as well. And what's been what's been missing is a system that's supposed supports intentional integration at scale. There is some collaboration that's ongoing, but we want intentional integration across across bureaus and every, every level. This study also confirmed that our people are our biggest strengths. We have a highly capable, talented workforce that shares value around equity, climate resilience and community benefits. But our structures like funding streams, governance models and operational silos weren't built for true integration. So now with the formation of the public works service area, we have this organizational architecture to support the coordination one water requires. And that's why this movement is so important. But we also know this is not going to be an overnight transformation. It will take time, possibly 3 to 5 years in some cases to fully embed this approach. But infrastructure, as you know, is built in decades and sometimes even centuries. And we are laying the groundwork now for a city that future generations can count on. Next slide please. This slide shows the nine key recommendations that came out of the feasibility study that now guide our work. And I don't want to go through each one of them in detail, but one of the primary ones was to have a one water leadership team to provide strategic oversight and align decisions across bureaus. So we're making informed, accountable and collaborative choices. And this is a huge change. And I want to acknowledge that. And we want to implement change management systems and support our workforce through this transition with clarity and care. And one water framework also brought out the importance of having a unified strategic plan for public works. It it's not just about aligning strategy between water and p. Yes, but also across PBOT and parks. And, you know, we want to prioritize collaboration as an organizational norm and a value for the organization. And as one of the key things that came out was an integrated infrastructure management approach to maximize return, to maximize return on investment by creating a unified capital improvement plan, which I'll talk about shortly as well. I also want to give importance to the having integrated communication strategy. We want to make sure our messaging, our community engagement are aligned and consistent as well. And also equitable workforce strategy is also going to be very important as well as affordability strategy. Our one thing that we will be coming back to council year after year is the potential of increasing rates. And our current forecasted rates are looking at 5 to 6% increase year after year. So affordability strategy is going to be really important. We want to make sure essential services are more accessible regardless of how income or housing type. And we have a strong group of talented individuals who are really passionate about making sure we have really good, affordable strategy and are working on that. Currently, the one one recommendation that came out of this is the natural resources service delivery alignment. This has been a priority for the city, as well as advisory bodies like pub, and so we are looking to see how we can integrate better, integrate how we manage forest Green spaces and waterways. And with parks moving over to public works service area, there's opportunities to realize over there between boys and parks as well, and creation of the natural resources, service delivery. And I want to emphasize these are not aspirational concepts. They are operating firm framework. And our team has been already shaping how we plan, communicate and invest and deliver in all these recommendations. Next slide please. Since October, which is when the feasibility study was published, the recommendations were published. We've moved from vision to action. And we can go over to the next slide. And we've stood up a leadership team and an ambassadors team and began drafting a unified strategic plan and launching capital, capital integration and so on. What I'll walk you through next is how each of these pieces is coming to life, what's already in motion and where we're headed next. So in this slide, one of the most visible and powerful changes that you will see is a unified executive leadership structure of public work service area with with me as a as a dc and director williams, director of PBOT, director light the water bureau director director liu and director shymansky for parks for the first time, these historically siloed bureaus are governed through a single executive forum, and we meet regularly, making joint decisions, aligning strategy and budgets. So this group is also responsible for advancing one water priorities, with bs and water having the core priority. We also, as a team, resolve cross-border challenges and we focus on leading cultural and operational shifts required to truly integrate our infrastructure services. This level of coordination is what enables us to move towards a unified utility model starting at the very top. And that's not just efficiency play. It's about service alignment, fiscal sustainability and customer experience. Ensuring portland's seamless system. They look at us, they don't see the silos in the government. They look at us as city of Portland. And likewise, we shouldn't look at them as team water or team b as it's team customer. Next slide please. I want to give big kudos to the people in this in this slide over here. And one person that is missing here is becky tilson who is the original. The first one water project manager and ambassador who helped create the framework. Who helped set it all up. She's not in this. She's working with the city of city administrator right now. But along with her lisa staff across bs water and PBOT and the broader public work service area, and they have stepped up to lead from within. They have translating translating strategy into operational change. They're surfacing challenges and helping lead the teams adapt to this new way of working. This group is our change network. They have been essential in advancing the unified capital improvement plan. They have been developing tools for transformation, transparency and performance tracking. They have been supporting affordability, pilots and most importantly, maintaining a feedback loop between staff and leadership. Last fall, the one water and the public works ambassadors team led the functions inventory, which is a cross broad effort to identify where we have the most opportunity for shared services, coordinated planning and smarter resource deployment. And they're not just supporting the transition, they're helping shape it. And their work is laying the cultural foundation for a truly integrated service area, including future unification of programs between water and biz. Next slide please. I'm shifting from one water to unified capital improvement program as we move from vision to implementation in one water. Capital planning has been one of the most urgent and immediate focus areas. Why? Because the way we plan, design and deliver infrastructure projects directly affects community outcomes. Whether that's safe drinking water, cleaner rivers, reliable roads or accessible parks. And as councilor Mentioned, public councilor Chair Clark mentioned, many of our infrastructure bureaus have a very visible. Community, sees us as very visible. And when everything is working, there's no complaints. But when it's not, we hear about it at all levels, from from us to council to mayor's office. Each of our infrastructure infrastructure bureaus have a large and complex capital program, but for years they've operated with separate policies, planning cycles and even terminology. And as a result, there's duplication, inefficiencies and missed opportunities to coordinate investments and therefore, the unified capital improvement program, or unified cip, aims to change that. This is a citywide effort, not just a public work service area effort, effort to align our planning systems, delivery models and investment strategies so we can meet community needs more holistically, transparently and effectively. And unlike some of the rapid change we've seen in city government, we are trying to build the changes that we have in public works more intentionally. We are engaging subject matter experts, evaluating current systems, and designed and designing improvements that will be phased in over time and not like overnight or in a few months. This is a critical inflection point, and so it allows us to step back and examine how we do business and commit to a smarter, more strategic way of delivering portland's infrastructure. Next slide please. One of the most encouraging insights from a unified cip work is that we are already aligned in more ways than expected. Every bureau follows a process similar process to deliver capital projects. It starts with planning and asset management and then moves to design, funding, procurement and construction, operation and long term maintenance. But because each bureau has historically worked in a silo, these commonalities have not always translated into consistent collaboration. And so, you know, we want to get to a point where we want to lead, avoid duplication, try to avoid longer timelines and sometimes even confusion for the public, like when we pay a street one year and dig it up again the next for utility work. These are things that we are hoping to not have. By formalizing a collaboration, we can bring consistency to how we prioritize projects, staff them, and also, most importantly, engage communities. And ultimately, this means we can deliver better outcomes and more value and more clarity for the public. Next slide please. This slide here speaks to the scale and complexity of what we manage across the public works service area. We oversee more than $75 billion in infrastructure assets. That includes more than 1000 active capital projects, from major utility upgrades to transportation safety projects and Green infrastructure. And these assets form the backbone of portland's livability, safety and economic vitality. But with that scale comes responsibility under current systems, while designed for siloed management, are are not sufficient to oversee infrastructure of this magnitude. And that's why the one water framework and the unified cip are so important. They are about creating systems that match the scale of our assets and systems that are integrated, strategic and resilient. Next slide please. I, I did not have anything to do with with the creation of the slides. I want to give full kudos to ludwig, who is who was then with the bureau of planning and sustainability. And now, luckily for us, within the within bis. So this came from him. But I wanted to share this slide to show how each one of our bureaus has its own approach or, you know, timeline to strategic capital planning. And while that makes sense historically, it you know, we have opportunities to coordinate across bureaus in the long range and the mid range planning phase, the critical space between the long range visioning and near-term delivery is going to be so critical in how we approach coordinated infrastructure. This there's opportunities to avoid misalignment. And it highlights why unified cip is so important. By aligning how and when we plan, we can identify opportunities for joint projects earlier, reduce disruption, and ensure that every dollar we invest is going further. But this is a great summary of the planning process that each of our bureaus use, both in the long range and short short term as well. Next slide please. This slide shows why unified cip matters. We are coordinating between 2025 to 2030. We will be coordinating $77 billion in planned investments across public works. These are some of our city's most viable and impactful infrastructure projects. Projects that directly affect livability, safety, and resilience. And the unified cip is driven by three strategic goals. Which is better community outcomes. So infrastructure solves multiple problems at once. Improved delivery. So we complete projects more efficiently and with fewer disruptions and long term financial sustainability. So we invest wisely, look for coordinated funding opportunities. And we also look for equitable spending investing over time. This moment also reflects a structural opportunity created by a charter reform. For the first time, we are aligned under one service area, giving us a political will and operational structure to coordinate at scale. We are also facing a $1.2 billion annual funding gap to maintain and upgrade assets. And that's a sobering number. And it demands that we act collectively so there's greater, greater transparency, comprehensive solution, better stewardship of finances, and streamlined processes that reduce staff burden and improve delivery. And that's a process of unified cip, which is to be smarter, faster, more equitable infrastructure investment. Next slide please. This slide shows a unified cip implementation timeline. Given the scale of what we are coordinating, we have structured the unified cip rollout into three distinct phases. Phase one is a current state assessment that ran from March through may. And if you see this, it's somewhat similar to the one water which looked at the current state. What are we going to? What are we hoping for in a future state and how do we get there? So the phase one is a current state that ran from March to may of this year. We reviewed each period's capital planning systems, governance models, asset conditions and more. Phase two is where we are right now, which is focused on engagement. We have held six sessions so far with staff, leadership and subject matter experts, and we have one more this week. We're also interviewing peer jurisdictions to bring in the best practices from other cities, and we're doing that with the intention both for unified cip and one water. And we're learning a lot from what other cities across the country are doing. Phase three is the design phase. From August through November, we will finalize our recommendations, identify joint project opportunities, and start building decision making dashboards for transparency and coordination. And along these internal efforts, we are building a communication plan to help council advisory bodies and our staff stay informed. And this will include a website, faqs, briefings, visual dashboards, and clear tools to understand what's coming. Our long term goal is a unified five year capital plan that will reduce disruption and help us more deliver more integrated public works outcomes. And before I move on to the next topic, I want to give a shout out to kerry rubin, who is a unified cip manager who is sitting somewhere there. If you can raise your hand, who has been instrumental in, in in moving from strategy to action and operation, operationalizing the strategy with all, all levels of staff. So thank you to kerry rubin for that. Next slide please. So shifting gears again from unified cip, one of the more urgent challenges we are facing is affordability. And we have not missed a beat in trying to trying to come up with strategies for meeting the affordability challenges that we're facing. Portlanders, as you know, are facing intense financial stress, from housing to food insecurity to rising utility costs. And at the same time, our infrastructure system is under growing pressure. Aging pipes, seismic risks, climate impacts and expensive regulatory requirements. And we are being asked to do more with less. And ratepayers are carrying most of the cost. We also know that traditional affordability affordability programs don't always reach the people who need them the most, particularly particularly renters, multifamily households and small businesses. So we are developing a comprehensive affordability strategy that is rooted in data and shaped by community partners like verde and the african American alliance for home ownership, and informed by national thought leaders like the us water alliance, who is also a partner with the urban water framework. Our goal is to ensure that infrastructure doesn't just protect the city, but also does so equitably that it is accessible, inclusive and grounded in real world changes. Next slide please. Our this slide shows our affordability strategies and the innovation and pilot programs that we have done so far. Our draft strategy includes five interconnected goals, which is to assist, which is expand equitable customer assistance programs. Adapt which is introduce more flexible billing structures optimized to reduce the operational cost per customer served fund, which is to conduct a comprehensive joint rate study for water and biz and partner, which is a strengthened community community relationships and also race awareness. We're also piloting several innovative tools. The smartest program uses administrative data to automate automatically enroll eligible households with no paperwork or stigma. We also piloting payment matching programs like crisis vouchers and targeted support for small businesses. We're building a performance framework to measure what's working and refine what's not, and we have launched a joint study between water and biz, the first of its kind for Portland, which will let us evaluate affordability for customer perspective, not just by bureau. So in short, we are shifting from fragmented reactive programs to unified proactive strategy because affordability is not just a feature of a system, it's a requirement for its legitimacy. And I want to give a shout out to both. Quisha light and ting lu and Eric pacheco, who is here. And then sherry. Sherry is peterson from biz, who has been leading a affordability work for both bureaus jointly. Next slide please. One of the most significant structural changes underway is the growing integration of water and biz, which at this time includes integration of the water and biz leadership. These two bureaus operate deeply interconnected, interconnected systems, and water delivers clean water. Biz manages water, wastewater and stormwater. But for the customer, like I mentioned, it's all one system, one bill, one expectation of service. We're moving towards a unified leadership model that allows us to plan, budget and deliver, jointly align rates and capital projects, strengthen financial sustainability, and at the same time streamline service delivery. This is about not about erasing identity. It's about building shared strength. And it also supports integrated project delivery, shared emergency response and career pathways that spans both organizations and above all, it centers customer experience. Because, you know, we want to make sure that they are seeing it as one system, the future we're building one water system, one utility, one coordinated strategy. Next slide please. Earlier this month, Portland participated in the one water summit hosted by us water alliance, which was a leading national gathering of utility leaders, researchers, policymakers and community advocates focused on integrated and equitable water systems. We at this time, I want to acknowledge at this time we are at a budget constraint, which is really looking at travel and training opportunities, but we are looking at $1 billion worth of infrastructure changes. And so we sent a cross bureau of delegation from biz and the water bureau representing portland's progress, and also to learn from peers. And I'm proud to share that Portland stood out in just one year. We've launched the unified cip, built a joint affordability strategy, aligned capital planning, and began breaking down the operational silos that have existed for decades. And what we heard from a peer cities are was very clear. We're not alone in facing affordability pressures, climate risks or aging infrastructure, but it is was reassuring to hear that we are ahead of the curve in building the integrated, resilient systems that those challenges require. The summit also strengthened our national partnerships with utilities, researchers and philanthropic funders, and affirmed our role as a national leader in the one water movement. Next slide please. Our participation in the summit helped crystallize five strategic priorities that are now guiding our next phase of implementation, partnership and community engagement. We're leveraging both regional collaboration and local. We want to leverage both regional collaboration and local local partnerships to expand benefits, from workforce pipelines to neighborhood resilience. We are also exploring tools like public private partnerships and learning the importance of that, and advocating for stronger federal and state support for water infrastructure. And we will be coming to you both at the committee and full council to see how we can move that forward. And we also learned the importance of strategic communications and storytelling. We are reframing utilities not just as cost centers, but as economic engines, health protectors and essential public services. Campaigns around the one water framework are helping ratepayers understand the value behind the bill. Operational excellence. We are embedding performance management and using real time data and investing tools like dashboards and internal capacity building to improve how we deliver services every day. Performance metrics are an important tool that we will be using to measure the progress across the systems in the entire public work service area. And finally, we are integrating a rate planning with long term climate capital and equity strategies. So we're not just fixing yesterday's problems, but we're also building tomorrow's problems, tomorrow's solutions. These five priorities connect to internal work with the needs and values of the community, and they are already shaping how we invest, communicate and deliver. Next slide. I want to acknowledge that this this month, July, marks one full year since we launched the public work service area. And this structural shift is also already reshaping how we work. We parks, Portland parks and recreation has officially joined the service area, recognizing the critical role that Green infrastructure and community spaces play in public health and livability. We also completed a first joint business process aligning capital and operating plants across bureaus to reduce duplication and increase coordination. And we also had our first ever public works week together, thanks to council for attending and recognizing that it was a moment to honor the people behind the work and the crews fixing water mains and paving streets and planners designing safe infrastructure and crafting affordability programs and people behind water and stormwater systems as well. These milestones reflect more than just structure. It reflects a cultural shift towards collaboration, shared value and aligned public service. Next slide please. Looking ahead, we have several one water priorities on deck. First, we will be recruiting a permanent public Portland utilities director. This role will unify leadership across water and biz and bringing clarity, clarity, accountability and vision to a system that serves nearly every portlander and over a million customers across across the state. Thank you for your input in providing feedback on what kind of leader you're looking for from the council, and we also are taking feedback from our staff as well. A second we are we are launching the one water innovation forum, which is a space for piloting new tools, fostering cross-border collaboration and scaling ideas that improve service delivery across the city. Third, we will be finalizing and publishing our 2025 2030 affordability strategy with clear goals, performance metrics, and accountability measures. And fourth, we will begin the scope of work for the joint bts water rate study, ensuring that our financial planning reflects a customer centric, equity driven approach. And finally, we are focused on communications both internally and externally. We want our staff, our council, our partners and our community to understand what one water is, why it matters, and how it's shaping the future of our city. And the same with unified cip. So this next phase is about building momentum, moving from structural change to sustained impact. And with that, thank you, chair Clark and councilors, for your time and leadership and ongoing partnership. The work we share today represents not just a technical or operational shift, but a cultural transformation in how portland's towards its infrastructure and serves its people. We're moving towards a future where our systems are coordinated, resilient and built around equity, and we're doing it together with you, with our staff and our community. And with that, I welcome questions and look forward to the discussion.
178 Thank you so much, dana. Paul, that was a very thorough presentation. Lots for us to digest and lots of change. I don't know if my colleagues have any questions, I certainly do, but. Or comments. I don't see any hands up yet, but councilor Green.
179 Thank you. Thanks for the presentation and for being here all committee long to brief us. And you know, I'm really excited about the direction that you're going. And you've got a great team and I that that gives me personally a lot of encouragement. I'll have other comments, but I did want to ask one clarifying question and just understand a little bit more about the smart discount program. Can you walk me through a little bit about how how that works? Because I think I just want to make sure that we're not going down a road, that we're revealing too much information to communities who might be vulnerable in a very risky time using tools like ai and, you know, sort of that sort of thing. So I hope that my kind of intent to the question is clear, but if not, I can clarify that too.
180 Thank you. That's a great question. It's the smart discount program is a financial assistant initiative for water, sewer and stormwater customers facing hardship. And it's a automated, data driven discount system powered by machine learning, designed to reduce financial strain on eligible residential customers without requiring them to apply manually. And I do know there's an ai component to it. And if you would like more details on how that works, I'm happy to bring forward somebody to the podium. Great. With that, I request Eric pacheco to talk about the ai.
181 Thank you.
182 Hi. Good morning. My name is Eric pacheco. I'm the strategy, integration and policy manager at the water bureau and also the affordability lead, the smart discount program I'll mention is still in a pilot phase. It is not fully implemented and we're still fine tuning it, but we are partnering with service, which is a spin off of the university of chicago, and it uses both our customer data from our system as well as publicly available data. And it uses a proprietary algorithm of the company called service. And so what it does is that it uses an economic term called willingness to pay to automatically assign a discount. That is, a portion of the bill. It's a percentage based as opposed to the flat discount that we have right now. And what we found right now is that our flat discount is sometimes too large and sometimes too small. And so we're trying to figure out how do we expand the participation in our current assistance program without expanding the size of the budget? So it's really making a better and smarter use of the of the funds that we currently have, because those those programs are funded through rates. And so but one of the things that we found earlier on is that our those bills are not necessarily translating into increases of payment. And so we are coupling that with some incentives like providing more assistance. And I see director light is on, on the screen. So if she wants to provide more information.
183 Director light did you want.
184 To councilor.
185 Good morning. Councilor quisha light, interim director of the Portland water bureau. I did want to just add something to specifically address the question. I think that I heard from councilor Green regarding just the privacy aspect. And one thing that has been very thoughtful about in doing this is making sure that this what's called supervised machine learning. So we are not just letting this letting the algorithm go out and do whatever it wants to do. We are taking data in training and teaching it little pieces at a time. We are also very careful about the data that we're bringing in, and we are working with. We've been having conversations with our our city data teams so that they are prepared. Once we are ready to actually launch the algorithm, we will have an assessment done of the algorithm to ensure from an equity standpoint that it is it is behaving in the way that we needed to, that we're not pulling in anything that we shouldn't. So before we fully launch it, we, we, we intend to do an impact assessment on the algorithm. But we're we're still in the process of testing that algorithm. So it's not it's not it hasn't been launched. It hasn't. Nothing has happened with it yet. We my team is actually kind of reviewing some of the data coming out of it. So we won't let it go into the system and do anything with the with the community before. We are sure about that.
186 I really appreciate that that expanded nuance there. Direct light. You've anticipated my concerns around the privacy issues. I think I understand what the willing willingness to pay approach is. And I think, you know, I generally think it's kudos to you guys for figuring out how to stretch the value of our program offering and our kind of constrained resource environment. And I think that's my only question at this time.
187 Thank you, councilor Green. I'm also interested to hear that we're using ai. I've been wondering when that topic would be coming up in any in any situation. Councilor Koyama Lane.
188 It's great to hear about this unified program. It's been greatly anticipated and is very exciting. I know with any integration streamlining work, there are challenges expected and unexpected. Wondering if you can speak to any of them that you might be seeing pop up, or you're bumping against any growth areas that you'd like to share?
189 Yes. Thank you. On a very, very high level. You know, change is hard for anybody. And when we are trying to create organizational change and structural change in programmatic change, it is, you know, things have worked well in the past several decades. So doing it now might be change. You know, why are we changing? So making sure we understand the why behind it and what are we trying to get towards is being crucial. And we have worked towards communicating that with staff and other stakeholders as well. And it's it is a process and the for everyone to fully embrace it. It's going to take time. So I think understanding that is going to be critical. And then also there is with respect to one water or unified sip or anything in the infrastructure space. There's also the financial elements that is going to be challenging because we have the enterprise funds, which are different from the general fund we have operating out of different funding buckets. And so using a model that will work towards all of that is going to be very, very important. The way we handle finances, making sure we have a rate model that will financial model that will address those questions is also going to be important. So we are looking at the legal and the financial aspects of it as we implement the strategy. And we're working together with cbo and cfo and city leaders as we implement any, any changes as well. Those are some of the high level ones.
190 Thank you. I just want to riff on what councilor Koyama Lane is saying, as first of all, I think this is one of the most exciting byproducts of charter change is what's going on in public works and the public works service area. I'm very excited by what you're doing, and I know it's very challenging. I don't want to speak for my colleagues, but I think I can say that we want to be your partners in this. We're very, very interested in what you're doing and the culture change that councilor Koyama Lane mentioned. So let us know if there's anything that we can do to facilitate that culture change, to help you to appear whatever you need to support that effort. I think we're we would like to help you because we're all very invested and very excited in what you're doing. And now you've got parks as well, and we'll be very interested in how you integrate that, particularly with our earlier presentation from the pub. I think they have some very interesting ideas too. That may be premature, but I think they're there to help you as well. But I think this is really one of the most exciting byproducts of charter change. And we know it's a heavy lift for all of you to do this integration, but we're there for you. If there aren't any other questions or comments, I just thank you again. Thanks to your team. Everyone here, the work that you're doing. We appreciate your being here all morning with us as well. Priya, thank you so much.
191 Thank you very much. Appreciate your partnership and leadership.
192 So we just have a brief announcement and we're almost on time. Our next meeting is Monday, August the 11th. And just note that it's probably our only meeting in August because I believe we're taking a kind of a council recess the last two weeks of August. But what we're planning for that August 11th is a long awaited presentation, a discussion of the interstate bridge replacement. And we may also be PBOT may be bringing forward a something around parking as well. But we're just so you know, we're also working on trying to do some tours, possibly a tour of ibr and other projects as well. That's in the works, but it'll be a it'll be a big date for us to hear an update from the interstate bridge replacement. We also may invite some people from Vancouver to come over and join us, since they're on the other side of the bridge. So with that, I think I will adjourn the meeting of the transportation infrastructure committee.
193 Boom.