Item 2C: Ratification of IGR Committee Minutes

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Mayor Piercy said that there were three people in ODOT. Ms. Wilson said that up until last year, ODOT had been regulatory and therefore had no planning people. That was why the OTC was reaching outside of the agency to set up the authority to make those policy rec- ommendations. Mayor Piercy said that the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center for Regional Development was trying to put together three committees – one from Eugene to Portland, one from Portland to Seattle and one from Seattle to Vancouver; which would work towards some kind of agreement/authority. Ms. Wilson said that the effort was being funded by the, and that the region was very lucky to have that re- source. She said that Cascadia would be co-hosting the transportation conference in Portland in September. Mayor Piercy said that there was a lot going on, but not soon enough and not fast enough. Mr. Smith said that they had to start somewhere, and if there was anything SDA could do, to call on them. He said that SDA tracked these issues closely, and had met with Joe Szabo, the Federal Railroad Adminis- trator a couple of times. Mayor Piercy said that Oregon was ready to talk about the issue, but it was a matter of where and how it could happen. She said that the more successful they were with one, the more pressure they would put on freight. At that point there would be a dual conversation occurring about freight and passenger rail capaci- ty. Mr. Smith said that high speed rail could not be talked about without talking about freight. Ms. Wilson said that they were lucky that freight rail's public affairs director for the Northwest was heavily engaged in this conversation. Mr. Smith asked if she was referring to Union Pacific. When she said that she was, Mr. Smith said that Un- ion Pacific's lobbyist was a good friend of his, and he was telling Mr. Smith that they had been very engaged in discussions with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Administration was using all the le- verage they had to get freight railroads to be more cooperative. Mayor Piercy said that she was on the committee that was dealing with flexible funding options, and would work towards that goal as well. Ms. Wilson asked CCIGR members to start thinking about projects they had in mind, and to send them to her. She said that they did not need to be well-vetted, and could consist of just one sentence. She asked CCIGR members to pass this information on to their fellow Councilors, who also had the ability to submit those to her. Ms. Taylor said that she believed the rail and bus projects were the most essential as far as legacies were concerned, but everyone knew that something had to be done about transportation. She asked if a request could be made for the matching funds. Ms. Wilson said that the recent funding announcements were the second and the third rounds that came out for rail funding and they required a very high match. MINUTES—Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations June 30, 2010 Page 11