McEuen 4/27/13

Last week, Chief City Attorney Mike Gridley held a second breakfast meeting of “stakeholders” to discuss his new visioning project called CdA 2030. You might recall that I was invited to attend the first meeting of this group but declined, detailing my reasons in an Open Letter published in the Press.

Since the introduction of this concept in CdA, the city of Bend, Oregon has been held up as a model of success in the visioning process.  Even Bend’s visioning consultant, Mr. Steven Ames, is now part of the package being developed for CdA. So let’s take a closer look at Bend, Oregon and their visioning.  According to Bend’s local newspaper, the Bend Bulletin, their process started in late 2005 and, over the next two years, the city of Bend spent more than $300,000 on visioning.

What did Bend get for its money?  I’ll let the Bend Bulletin tell you about it with four excerpts from the 15 articles and editorials the newspaper published on this topic. (My thanks to the alert reader who forwarded the articles to me. I will bold up some key phrases, underline and add some comments in parentheses.)
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1.  Article, June 23, 2006:
“…Many of the items in the vision have been part of the community dialogue for years. They are goals the city is already working toward, such as finding a way to provide a public transportation system, maintaining a vibrant downtown, providing affordable housing and bringing a university to Bend. But the process also generated support for ideas that have not been widely discussed, such as having a regional light rail system, making Bend a national leader in using environmentally friendly building materials and virtually eliminating smoking in public places…
At the City Council meeting Wednesday, Councilor Chris Telfer wanted to know at what point the process starts calculating how much it would cost to complete the vision.”
(Why does this remind me of McEuen?  Remember how long it took to get any prices at all?)
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2,  Editorial, June 26, 2006  
“…the council voted to endorse the vision that Bend 2030 developed. The council resolved to make the city’s plans consistent with the vision and to help implement it.   Councilor Chris Telfer brought the meeting back to the nitty gritty with questions: How much will it cost and when will we know?… The city has chipped in about $130,000 so far and plans to spend another $160,000 to develop it further. The vision’s goals are laudable and about as tempting as grandma’s cookies. Consider the subtitles of the vision document – “A Well-Planned City,” “A Quality Environment,” and “A Creative Learning Culture.” You can’t argue with those generalities. Like grandma’s cookies, though, if Bend just gobbles them all down, it could hurt…This is an important time to follow the work of the committee. The vision endorsed by the council may lead to taxes or more regulation….
The visioning process in Hillsboro has served as a model for the visioneers in Bend. And there were important lessons that community has learned as it has gone through the process. It takes more than just continued community support and input to keep it on track. It takes money.  The city of Hillsboro has about 82,000 people…The total budget for the city staff time and equipment for Hillsboro 2020 (their visioning project) was $2.8 million for this fiscal year. That doesn’t include the price tag of various projects.”
(So Hillsboro, Oregon, population 82,000, spent $2.8 million on their visioning with Mr. Ames as their consultant.  Bend, population 77,000, spent  $320,000. And now Mr. Ames is coming to CdA, population 44,000.
And Bend City Council’s resolution to follow the vision could be a dangerous commitment, and it looks like they did so before they knew the costs.)
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3.  Editorial, July 9, 2006
The Bend 2030 “visioning” process has wrapped up Phase 1…Those fully committed to the process are very excited, and they should be… But they should also be wary, as should the tens of thousands of Bend residents who played no part in the creation of the Community Vision that purports to be theirs… So treating it as a community vision when it comes time to shape public policy, and spend public money, could alienate the very public – the vast majority of Bend residents – who played no part in its creation, and who perhaps disagree with its conclusions. They’re likely to feel angry and betrayed when some councilor or other points to the Community Vision as an unassailable expression of community values, then votes to spend zillions of dollars on light rail because, after all, that’s what the public wants. That would not be democracy. It would be tyranny by focus group…”
(This is the most important excerpt, in my opinion, and a very good reason to keep our City officials out of the driver’s seat in the visioning process)
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4.  Article, March 27, 2008
“It’s been a year since…Bend 2030, was finalized — the product of hundreds of hours and several hundred thousand dollars…the plan is progressing slowly and with only a handful of on-the-ground results. The projects run the gamut, including planning more mixed-use neighborhoods and attracting high-tech businesses to encouraging high school graduates to save money for a trip around the world instead of buying a car.  Many of the actions are projects that would have happened anyway… Other actions, like making emergency response and evacuation plans, are mandated by the state and federal government…”

A sidebar on this article shows two photos of Bend 2030 outcomes:
1. … An initiative to get more youths into the library.
2. … Biodegradable bags at some dog waste stations.
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And now back to Coeur d’Alene. Here is what visioning CdA 2030 is planning to spend: (info taken from Mike Gridley’s email of 4/26/13, after the second meeting)

1.  Project Coordinator (0.8 FTE*)……$42,000
2.  Administrative Assistant (0.5 FTE)…$10,400
3.  Consultant (15 month contract)…$50,000
4.  Advertising and Web site….$12,000
5.  Community Surveys…$14,000
6.  Dissemination Materials…$12,000
7.  Food, Travel, Misc….$10,000
  TOTAL….$150,400

Mike Gridley’s email does not say exactly where this money will come from, nor does it  tell us if this is for the total package or just for Phase I, like Bend’s start.  It does caution, though, that “it is important that the funding come from the “community” and not just from taxpayer supported entities.”
(I wish the word “just” was not included.)

The email specifically says that we need “more information and clarity on the likely benefits of the visioning process.”  But then he goes on to state the project will be “ready to rock and roll by June 1”, and that they will hire the Project Coordinator by that date.

Shouldn’t they wait for more “information and clarity” on what we might get for our money, before they push forward?  There is no end product defined in this process!

And let me conclude this very long newsletter (sorry, but I thought you’d want to read from the Bend newspaper) with two important questions:

1.  Why is our Chief City Attorney, who is the highest paid city employee, spending his time on this visioning process?

2.  Why is the Government even running this visioning?  Shouldn’t the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and/or other community oriented organizations be undertaking this effort?  That way the City Council would have a more objectivity during any future decisions about implementation.

Please keep your eyes on this issue, dear Readers, as we move forward into our lovely summer days. (The photos at the top of this newsletter are visions of McEuen about a week ago.)

Best to you,

Mary

PS:  This week’s important meetings:  Tonight at NIC, there’s the final public meeting on where the college should build the PTE facility (Professional-Technical Education).  Come to listen and give your opinion.  7- 8pm in the Edminster Student Union building, Driftwood Bay room.  See you there!

Tomorrow night, Tues, May 7th, is the CdA City Council meeting at 6pm in the Library’s Community Room.  The Agenda looks light and innocuous, but keep in mind the City is pushing ahead on the acquisition of Lake Coeur d’Alene Drive out near Silver Beach.  They will discuss it with ITD on May 20th, at noon, in a workshop in the Library Comm. Room.  It’s a public meeting but they usually don’t allow public comments at a workshop. You can comment on it at the city council meeting tomorrow, though.

*FTE = full time equivalent.  So a 0.8 FTE person would work 80% of full time, the 0.5 FTE person would work half time.
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Mary Souza is a 26 year resident of CdA, local small business owner and former P&Z Commissioner.   Her opinions are her own.  To sign up for the free weekly newsletter, or access a free archive of past columns, visit www.marysouzacda.com  Comments can be sent to marysouzacda@gmail.com.  Please visit the local issues web site www.OpenCdA.com for more discussion.