TO CITYWIDE LAND USE GROUP:
This year’s budget process is coming to an end. The Tree Manual
needs your help to happen.

This major element in the Tree Policy work completed to date is not a part of the Mayor’s budget request. The Tree Manual needs to be funded. We need to express our support for a very minor funding request (.0003 of the total City budget) that will provide permanent value to everyone in the City.

The Tree Manual is a basic educational tool to inform all types of
users within the City about the many values of trees and how to
protect them. It will explain how the tree code elements currently
found in seven different bureaus within the City have been combined,
clarified, and explained so tree policy is clarified. As
importantly, it will explain how to avoid unintentional damage to
trees and the species differences that need to be understood.

More than 50% of the trees in the City are on private property. The
role of trees as builders of property value, protectors of watershed
values, filters for water and air quality, habitat, temperature
managers, or simply contributors to quality of human life needs to
be compiled and shared so we can fully understand the multiple ways
in which trees make Portland the city it is. A common source of
comprehensive information is needed for builders, developers,
homeowners, staff doing development review, contractors working in
the field, the general public, and the next generations who will
live in Portland.

The Tree Manual is a really minor investment to provide for the
education of current residents as well as the next generation. That
is why one of fundamental uses of the Tree Manual will be as a
background for curriculum development in schools throughout the
City. This educational tool for multiple users will help change
tree protection from being a source of rule making and enforcement
to its more appropriate role as preserving a valuable asset for
everyone in the City.

Please ask the Mayor and City Council to restore funding for the
Tree Manual to the 2009-2010 City budget.

Here are some ways to do that:
Final Public Budget Hearing
Thursday, May 21
6:00-6:30 PM Community Fair
6:30-8:30 Budget Hearing (2-minute testimony only)
-
Mt. Tabor Middle School
5800 SE Ash St.
Parking: available in lot and on street
Bus Routes: 20, 71, 15

TESTIFY ONLINE
www.portlandonline.com/communitybudget

The Council will adopt the final budget on Wednesday, May 27, 2009.
Please make sure it includes funding for the Tree Manual.
Thanks for one more effort.

Bonny McKnight; Coordinator; Citywide Land Use Group

This is a great event for neighborhood association leaders who want to network and collaborate with school parent activists who care about Portland’s public neighborhood schools and youth in our community.

The 9th annual Community & Parents for Public School’s (CPPS) Parent Leadership Conference will offer workshops and other opportunities to help you to become more effectively involved with your student, your school, and your district. Translators will be available and a number of workshops will be presented in languages other than English. Childcare will be provided as well as a light breakfast and lunch. Keynote speakers will include Superintendent Carole Smith and our new Mayor Sam Adams!

For more information or to register contact
Debbie Gordon
CPPS 2009 Parent Leadership Conference Coordinator
503 318-6023
debbie@cppsportland.org or visit their website at www.cppsportland.org.

This should make it easier to know whom to contact with your ideas and concerns.

Reorganization is Afoot at City Hall (top) Mayor Elect Sam Adams recently announced bureau reorganization and new bureau assignments for each commissioner.

Here are some highlights:
The Bureau of Planning and the Office of Sustainable Development have been combined under a new bureau, now called the Bureau of Planning and Sustainable Development.

A new bureau called the Office of Healthy Working Rivers has been created and will pull in existing staff from the Bureau of Environmental Services and the Bureau of Planning. The Bureau of Housing and Community Development is being split, creating a new Bureau of Housing.

Community Development activities will move under the purview of the Portland Development Commission.

Bureau assignments:
Mayor Sam Adams- Office of Emergency Management, the Office of Management and Finance, the Portland Development Commission, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainable Development, and the Bureau of Transportation. Commissioner
Amanda Fritz-Office of Human Relations, the Bureau of Emergency Communications, the Office of Healthy Working Rivers, the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, and the Office of Cable Communications and Franchise Management.
Commissioner Nick Fish- Bureau of Housing and Bureau of Parks and Recreation.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman- Police Bureau, Bureau of Environmental Services, the Bureau of Fire and Police Disability and Retirement, and the Children’s Investment Fund.

Commissioner Randy Leonard- Bureau of Fire and Rescue, Bureau of Development Services and the Water Bureau.

Neighborhood & community city legislative agenda
City Council Chambers
1221 SW 4th
Tuesday, January 6
7 – 9 PM

Neighborhood, business and other community-based organizations play an integral part in assuring community and neighborhood livability. Mayor Adams continues to be committed to working with Portland neighborhoods, businesses, and community organizations to provide services and information to assist in empowering residents to identify and support issues that benefit Portland. One way we can support each others efforts is to explore joint legislative objectives and work together in Salem to achieve positive results.

Mayor Adams is inviting you to participate in a meeting, co-sponsored by the City’s Offices of Neighborhood Involvement and Government Relations, designed to provide you with information for the upcoming 2009 Legislative Session. An agenda has been designed to assure active participation from each of you and will include interactive polling to identify and prioritize your issues before we adjourn. To review the agenda, visit our website. A draft legislative agenda was presented to City Council during a November work session and is still not completed. To review the draft agenda click here.

Please RSVP to the Office of Neighborhood Involvement at 503 823-4519.

A follow-up meeting in February with legislators to impart priorities outlined at the January meeting will be scheduled in the coming weeks. Look for announcements regarding date, time and location.

Click below for survey:
Bureau of Transportation Budget Prioritization Survey

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has been going through a budget prioritization process since mid-summer as a result of sagging gas tax revenue and lower parking revenues.

In order to bring expenditures in line with the reduced revenue, a prioritization of all discretionary funded activities has been done. This prioritization has been done on the basis of criteria which assess the significance of the activity to the core mission and objectives of the organization.

A Budget Advisory Committee made up of members from the community and organized labor was selected in September and charged with reviewing the process. Additionally they’ve been tasked with helping Transportation identify the cuts necessary to cover the $6.4 million shortfall for FY 09/10 budget.

Twenty-five program listings were broken out into priority order. If you had to cut $6.4 million out of Transportation’s budget, how would you prioritize the following programs? Please respond by January 2, 2009.