FY 2018-19 Requested Budget

Portland Bureau of Transportation FY 2018-19 Requested Budget TABLE OF CONTENTS Commissioner’s Transmittal Letter Bureau Budget Advisory Committee (BBAC) Report Portland Bureau of Transportation Organization Chart Bureau Summary Capital Budget Programs Administration and Support Capital Improvements Maintenance Operations Performance Measures Summary of Bureau Budget CIP Summary FTE Summary Appendix Fund Summaries Capital Improvement Plan Summaries Decision Package Summary Transportation Operating Fund Financial Forecast Parking Facilities Fund Financial Forecast Budget Equity Assessment Tool FY 2018-19 to FY 2022-23 CIP List Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Dear Transportation Commissioner Saltzman, Mayor Wheeler, and Commissioners Eudaly, Fish, and Fritz: The PBOT Budget/Bureau Advisory Committee (BBAC) is a collection of individuals representing a range of interests impacted by transportation decisions, including neighborhoods, businesses, labor, bicyclists and pedestrians, and traditionally underserved communities. We serve on the BBAC as volunteers who have our city’s best interests in mind. With helpful support from the Director and her staff, we have spent many hours over the last five months reviewing the Bureau’s obligations and deliberating over its budget and strategy priorities. Together we have arrived at the following recommendations. Investment Strategy: The Bureau’s proposed Investment Strategy prioritizes funding projects that address three primary concerns: maintaining existing assets, managing for growth, and advancing safety. Underlying the selection and evaluation process is the Bureau’s laudable focus on equity. We support the adoption of this “triple-win” strategy. We are pleased to see safety and equity as top priorities of the Director and her staff. The City has been allocated transportation funding as a result of the Oregon Legislature passing the historic Oregon Transportation Package in House Bill 2017. We support PBOT’s proposed use of those funds as defined in the five-year Capital Investment Program. Those investments focus on maintaining transportation infrastructure and prioritize projects involving Safe Routes to Schools, high-crash corridors, bicycle and pedestrian networks, and transit and freight. We believe these proposed projects support and embody PBOT’s “triple win” strategy. We would like to highlight the importance of transparency and adherence to the Investment Strategy as the budget is finalized and projects are chosen. The Investment Strategy includes funding projects based on community input and expectations, and the public’s trust in the process must be maintained and respected. It is not acceptable to allow powerful interests to elevate certain projects, especially if that means bypassing the Bureau’s Investment Strategy. Capital Set Aside and Build Portland Allocations: We support PBOT’s proposed changes to the City’s Capital Set-Aside investment strategy. As this committee has noted in past years, on average, every $1 spent on street maintenance prevents $10 that will have to be spent in future years. Preventative maintenance not only makes a difference, it also makes good fiscal sense. As the City’s transportation infrastructure represents 77% of the city-wide deferred maintenance backlog, we believe the Bureau should receive a proportionate amount of the funding available under the Build Portland program. Staffing Capacity: We support the City of Portland in prioritizing vendor selection of local businesses, especially Disadvantaged/Minority-owned/Women-owned/Emerging Small Business (DMWESB) firms. With additional staffing capacity, PBOT should be able to show that they are meeting city-wide racial equity goals by increasing contracts awarded to DMWESB businesses. Page 5 One-time funding and ongoing budgetary constraints continue to dictate that PBOT hire outside contractors. We support increased staffing within PBOT to ensure effective and efficient project management, public outreach, and contracts management. At the same time, we encourage PBOT to provide educational opportunities with the goal of keeping more contract work in-house. General Fund Decision Package: Commitment to Safety The City of Portland and PBOT have made a strong commitment to Vision Zero; however, we continue to see more deaths and serious injuries on our streets. We are deeply concerned by the disconnect between the City’s stated safety goals and the magnitude of the deaths and serious trauma that occur on our streets. We support PBOT’s asks for additional funding for education and engineering so that Vision Zero may become a reality. Commitment to Americans with Disabilities We disapprove of the City Council’s decision to redirect $2 million of General Fund resources from PBOT to fund debt service payments for the Build Portland program. It is counterproductive to cut existing funding for needed maintenance and capital investments simply because funding may be awarded through Build Portland. This redirection of funds has forced PBOT to propose reductions to the ADA curb ramp and signals and streetlights capital programs, which we feel are essential programs. PBOT proposes reducing capital funds for ADA sidewalk corner repair ($1.5M). This would result in halving the number of ramps being repaired each year from 500 to 250. The City’s legal commitment to the Americans with Disabilities Act notwithstanding, it is important to keep in mind the significance of safe and working ramps to Portland citizens with disabilities. A defective ramp (or no ramp) can be the equivalent of a brick wall in terms of blocking movement and access. The City has made a commitment to making Portland the most inclusive city possible; cuts in the ADA sidewalk corner repair program negates that commitment. For these reasons, the BBAC does not support cuts to the ADA corner-repair program unless that work is guaranteed funding through another source. Ongoing Budget Cuts 64% of PBOT’s ongoing general funding goes to pay for street lighting. The amount of electricity used to light our streets cannot be meaningfully reduced. Therefore, any reduction in general funding disproportionately impacts the other programs funded through the general funds PBOT receives; including Out of the Mud, Sunday Parkways, Sustainability Initiative, and Street Cleaning. In order to meet the Mayor’s request for a 5% reduction in General Funds, PBOT recommends cuts to its Street Cleaning program. BBAC members advise against this budget reduction. A properly designed and implemented street cleaning program is essential for ensuring pedestrian and cyclist safety, ensuring functionality of ADA ramps, enhancing the livability of our Page 6 community, and keeping our storm drains clear of debris. The BBAC strongly urges that the cost of Street Cleaning be shared by the Bureau of Environmental Services, which is greatly benefit by it. A 5% reduction would mean the reduction of three full-time staff. This removes maintenance staff while there is so much backlog maintenance to do. Further, with the implementation of the Fix Our Streets tax that the city specifically targeted on street maintenance, cutting maintenance staff may be viewed as an insult to the taxpayer. A group of BBAC members have written a minority report that also addresses this 5% reduction. Please find their letter attached. We thank you for the opportunity to highlight our support, appreciation, and concerns. Page 7 Page 8 Dear Transportation Commissioner Saltzman, Mayor Wheeler, and Commissioners Eudaly, Fish and Fritz: This letter supplements the BBAC budget letter on the topic of ongoing budget cuts. The undersigned members of the BBAC agree with the greater part of the committee’s position as set forth in the budget letter, and also advise against taking the 5% reduction in the General Funds budget from the Street Cleaning program, for the reasons set forth in the BBAC budget letter. The nature of General Fund allocation to PBOT, with 64% of that allocation dedicated to street lighting, leaves little room for modifications to the PBOT General Fund Allocation. The 5% reduction cannot come from street lighting, which is a cost that cannot be reduced without unacceptable service cuts. Allocation of the funding reduction to any of PBOT’s other General Fund programs would either eliminate them completely, or reduce the program funding such that we question how effective those programs could remain after a cut of the magnitude requested. The Out of the Mud, Sunday Parkways, and Sustainability Initiative programs work toward key City goals and should not be eliminated. Because of this, in the event that the Mayor and Commissioners determine that a General Fund budget cut cannot be avoided, we support PBOT’s recommendation to make that cut from the Street Cleaning program. We recognize that this cut will reduce services to Portland’s citizens but it will prevent the alternative of eliminating programs that are critical to the City's equity and sustainability goals. We thank you for the opportunity to highlight our position on this matter. Page 9 Page 10 Portland Bureau of Transportation Dan Saltzman, Commissioner-in-Charge Leah Treat, Director Percent of City Budget Bureau Programs Bureau Overview Revised Requested Change from Percent Expenditures FY 2017-18 FY 2018-19 Prior Year Change Operating 314,959,763 375,752,909 60,793,146 19.30 Capital 139,014,287 214,439,657 75,425,370 54.26 Total Requirements 453,974,050 590,192,566 136,218,516 30.01 Authorized Positions 911.02

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