Carl Hosticka leaves no doubt that he's a regionalist. As a political science professor at the University of Oregon and a state legislator from Lane County, Hosticka helped shape Metro's formative structures; he moved to the region in the 1990s before running for Metro Council in 2000.
His term-limited tenure representing southern Washington County and western Clackamas County on the Metro Council ends Jan. 7. Last week, Metro News talked to Hosticka (and fellow term-limited Councilor Rex Burkholder) about their experiences as Metro councilors.
Here's some of what Hosticka said.
How has Metro changed in the last 12 years?
The thing I spent most of my time on, and will take the most credit for, is the transformation of the way we did the UGB, from the fixed-point, identify a numerical need and meet it numerically, to a range forecast and the outcomes and trying to make decisions based on what kinds of communities you want to build.
We wrote the six desired outcomes. (Metro planner) Ted Reid will go down in history as Moses from the mountaintop with the six desired outcomes.
We've sort of moved from a focus on the edge to a focus on development within the UGB and it requires a whole shift of mission and performance by the agency.
The other big thing was (urban and rural) reserves. For me, reserves was a way of signaling to the public where Metro is likely to go (with future UGB expansions) so they can make their decisions. If you want to stay away from urban development for 50 years, go into a rural reserve. If you go into an urban reserve, you're taking your chances.
Talk about the relationship with the suburbs and their leaders.
Is Metro a government of governments or is it a government of the people? I believe it's a government of the people. It has a home rule charter and it's charged with certain responsibilities directly by the people and not through the mechanisms of local governments.
I also believe that most of the citizenry isn't aware of the jurisdictional implications of how they live their life. We're sitting here in Washington County, where my house less than a mile away in Clackamas County, both are in the city limits of Tualatin, and people in my district have Portland addresses.
The reality is people live regionally.
We lapse into institutional rivalries over ego, money or power – who gets to control the money and who gets the credit. It's a constant theme in the political world.
Over the long run, regionalism is the direction we need to go. Traditionally, if you see the mayors fighting with Metro it's often over the issue of money and power… and occasionally, with one or two of them, it's over ego but I won't identify which ones those are.
One the one hand you hear "Metro's unpopular, stop Metro," and yet every time you go to the voters for something, the voters say "Here, we trust you."
And also, you can't remember an election since probably 1996 in which the agenda of Metro and the existence of Metro was contested in an election for a councilor or president – and the pro-regionalism side has won every time, usually with the same amount of the vote.
People say there's no disagreement on the council, everyone's coming from the same philosophical viewpoint, and the answer is "Yeah, they reflect the electorate." There's broad-based voter support for what Metro does. The friction against Metro is mostly from local institutions that are concerned about their own agendas.
All those times you were sitting quietly during heated debates, what are you thinking?
I want to pick my battles. That's one element of it. Another element of it is that if I'm sitting there silently it usually means I think I know which way this is going to end up so why do they need to get involved. It's sort of a political principle, if you're going to get involved, get involved where you're going to make a difference.
When I was an adolescent boy, Isaac Asimov was a big author, and Asimov had this theme through many books – the smallest possible action creating the maximum possible impact. That's what I've looked for in my life. Where can I intervene in the system that will make a difference?
So we'll start with moving from a point (population) forecast to a range forecast, and the reserves process. If you take those two together, and the six desired outcomes, there was a transformation of how land use planning is done in this region.
At the last Metro Council meeting, when you were talking about your granddaughter, it looked like you got a little choked up. What is it about the natural areas?
It's an important part of people's lives.
Hosticka pulls out his iPhone and shows a video of him pushing his granddaughter, Kennedy, in a swing.
I was motivated by a book that came out that talked about nature deficit. Remembering back when I was a kid growing up in Colorado, we could get on our bikes and we'd be out in it (nature). Or even, you'd run down to the end of the street, and there's a little swampy area with frogs and snakes and stuff like that. That's an important part of what I think it means to be a human being and to be involved.
So when I talk about natural areas, I'm not talking about their economic potential, or even their ecosystem potential. I'm talking about more of an emotional, spiritual thing. That's, I think, what's important and I think that's what people support. That's why they vote for this stuff. So I think it's a major responsibility for us, to keep that available.
"Park" is one of the first words she (Kennedy) ever learned. "Rain Rain Go Away" was the first song she ever learned.
Where should Metro go from here?
In the charter, I put in the words "Metro's responsibilities and other areas of metropolitan concern," and creating a blank slate that people could fill in. I think it's important that the agency continue to be expansive.
Where do you go from here?
For the short-term, I'm teaching a class at the U of O and I've got my granddaughter, and between the two of them that's half the week gone right there. I have a bucket list of things that need to be done around the house that haven't been done
I do want to leave time to go on the sailboat. It used to be, even when I was at Metro, I'd be gone for six weeks at a time because that's what it takes.