Earlier this year, regional stakeholders and leaders completed a daunting task – come as close as possible to consensus on a half century's worth of land use planning.
But that was just a warm-up for the coming conversation, an even broader discussion of the region's goals, and how to achieve them.
Metro staff and an exploratory committee of 16 businesspeople, elected officials and community advocates are working on developing a think tank to discuss what Metro Chief Operating Officer Michael Jordan describes as a vexing problem – what does the public develop to attract the most private investment?
First, though, the Metro staff and regional volunteers working on forming this proposed non-profit, called the Community Investment Initiative, must overcome a uniquely Portland roadblock.
Members of the Community Investment Initiative exploratory committee
Bev Bookin, The Bookin Group
Dom Colletta, Oregon Urban Land Institute
Carlotta Collette, Metro Council
Corky Collier, Columbia Corridor Association
Rey Espana, Native American Youth and Family Center
Steve Gutmann, Portland Sustainability Institute
Jim Irvine, The Conifer Group
Bob LeFeber, Commercial Realty Advisors
John Mohlis, Columbia Pacific Trades Council
Linda Nettekoven, community representative
Kelly Ross, Western Advocates
Burton Weast, Clackamas County Business Alliance
Karen Williams, Carroll Development
The exploratory committee is working behind closed doors to try and choose 15 to 25 people to put on the so-called Leadership Council, the think tank that will work within the Initiative to try and come up with a plan that attracts wide consensus.
Hand-picking a committee behind closed doors doesn't necessarily mesh well with what Jordan has called Portland's hyper-pluralistic decision-making process.
The Council is modeled on the Reserves Steering Committee, which, over nearly three years, sorted through myriad issues relating to development before turning the final phase of negotiations on urban and rural reserves over to Metro and county leaders. The committee didn't just set the table for the regional reserves agreement, they worked as the prep chefs before the Core 4 made a four-course meal. When the Core 4 was done with its work hammering out a reserves agreement, it was adopted by Washington, Clackamas and Multnomah counties and Metro.
But the Leadership Council will have some key differences from the Reserves Steering Committee. Members, at times, had difficulty seeing past their constituencies to focus on larger ideological issues. The goal of the Leadership Council is to get past that.
A Metro report listing desired attributes of steering committee members includes, above all, that they're "Not 'representative,' of an interest." Candidates should also be "regional thinkers," have a reputation as trustworthy, be able to bring people together, "have a broad world view," be passionate and committed and able to work well in a committee setting.
It seems doubtful the Council will include any elected officials, although retired politicians might be appointed. There seems to be more of a movement to have the Council led by private sector representatives.
"This time, it's going to be cross-sectoral," Jordan said. "We're going to hand-pick the leaders. One of the things we ran into with reserves was people didn't leave their bags at the door."
That made it difficult to move toward compromise, Jordan said.
"If we're going to move this agenda, we have to be together. And they (the Leadership Council) have to figure out a way to do that that isn't the lowest common denominator," Jordan said. "'We all love mom and apple pie, so let's just get to that' – I'm not sure that moves us on tough questions."
Linda Nettekoven, a Southeast Portland community activist and an exploratory committee member working on selecting Leadership Council members, said the region doesn't need more process as much as it needs a higher level of conversation.
"To me, it's more analogous to a group of people coming together and saying, 'We see some problems, and we'd like to work on those,'" she said. "They'll give good advice, come up with strategies and suggestions, take some initiative and try to help that happen."
Jim Irvine, another exploratory committee member and a principal at The Conifer Group, said the region's future challenges are great because, in part, no group has sat down to identify what the challenges are.
"The people sitting around the table are damn afraid," Irvine said. "We are thinking a little differently We're trying to say, wait a second – maybe we are siloed. Smart businesses today are multi-discipline businesses, they spend a lot of time thinking about how do they break the barriers down within their institutions? How do universities break barriers down between various schools?"
The group will have a loose affiliation with Metro, which has dedicated $3 million worth of staff time and resources over three years to get the nonprofit off the ground and complement its work through Metro's Community Investment Strategy.
If the endeavor is successful, the Leadership Council, supported by the nonprofit's board, will develop a tiered list of goals that can most benefit the region – and be supported by the region. They'll also drum up scenarios on how to pay for those goals.
There are precedents for such a broad regional effort, with some of the premier examples coming in the reddest of states.
Voters in Oklahoma City have repeatedly supported a one percent sales tax to pay for projects like a new basketball arena, canals in downtown, school reconstruction and development of a central park. After raising more than $1 billion in its first 17 years, voters recently approved a third round of funding, this one for $770 million. The effort has already brought in billions worth of private investment to Oklahoma City.
In Salt Lake City, the Envision Utah public-private partnership is working on projects like improving air quality, conserving water and promoting housing options. Envision Utah isn't as old as Oklahoma City's OCMAPS program.