Okay, I think it's coming through now.

Yeah.

All right.

So there are three of us.

We have a quorum.

You can go ahead and put us on the record.

All right.

We are on the air.

Welcome to our March third.

It's March already.

Our March third uh work session.

Uh, we're starting, we have two one hour items on our agenda, and the first one is behavioral health and housing services update with Greg Elkins from our police department.

Brad Hush.

Uh, from our library director, Lance Hanukkah, who also works with the police department, and partners from Love One.

So maybe member of the Council, Joey B, thank you guys for uh helping us work.

Great.

Uh here tonight just talked about some homeless operations that we've done throughout the year, what our plan is kind of moving forward.

Feel free to shoot them out.

So just our agenda again just talk about who we are and kind of what we do and who we're partnering with as well, too.

Uh first off, we have our amazing Love One team right here with Brandy, who's the executive director of Love One, Don Holden is uh uh outreach person for Love One.

We have a Glensee Canada as well.

Deputy Director, sorry about that.

She's calm the uh They are a great team.

I know that you guys know Love One and what they've done, but without them, we probably wouldn't be where we are with outreach team that we have in Milwaukee and the help that we get.

They just do such amazing things for us.

Um I know that you and Luke, uh our former uh chief trader once we kind of really started that relationship with Brandy and Glenn as well, and then we got Glenn on board.

And it's made a huge difference for us.

Um as officers, we were really kind of, you know, I hate to say that we were hand tough of what we can do with um the health community as well, too.

It's just we didn't have the resources, and a lot of what they do is the important part, which is the follow-up with them and making sure that they're following up and getting the resources they need to help that they get.

So it's been just an amazing partnership that we hope that we can continue on for a long time.

So thank you guys.

You're stuck with us.

Um this is just kind of a slide just to show you where we're at with our officers right now.

Um currently have uh about 31 officers, that's including the three admin uh chief um operations captain, Chair Dino, and myself as well too.

Uh numbers down a little bit.

We've had some retirements, we've had some people leave, but we're looking to get those numbers up.

We have about three or four more officers in the background that uh asked their background to get them hired up in April, or they can start an academy as well, too.

Um did you say former officers?

Four.

Sorry, four more officers that we can get on board.

They'd be new.

We still have openings for laterals.

Um we just had um Johnny Van Break with Walton come over as part of our traffic team.

He's a lateral officer.

It's been a great addition so far as well.

Too um, just wanted to put those numbers up.

That's kind of one of the reasons why we're just had a little bit hand up, but I know that you guys have been working hard too to help us get those numbers up.

Uh with the utility fee that just passed, we've been able to get our iron process started more and get more going.

Part of that huge success with behavioral health is we're able to add another person.

If we go to the next slide, we'll talk about our behavioral health team, which consists of only Glency Kennick now.

But starting Monday, March 9th, we will have Trista Erickson joining our team as a behavioral health case manager.

Uh she's coming over from Classip uh behavioral health um unit over there.

She's been there since 2019.

She comes with a ton of experience.

Um she's got a great attitude, she's super outgoing and fun.

She's gonna fit in great here.

What we want to see with this is with Glenn right now.

We only have about four days of solid coverage that we have, and that's great.

And Glenn has done a tremendous job and helped with that, but we just have you know, three other days that we don't have anybody here.

So the goal with Trista would be to um Glenn works Monday through Thursday, and the goal with Trista was we're gonna put her on a Wednesday through Saturday schedule.

So we'll have six days of coverage of behavioral health support, which is gonna be tremendous and huge.

Is this also be more evening hours, or is it gonna be a day?

It'll be mostly day shift hours, but like Glenn does too, is you know, kind of those hours kind of fluctuate as need.

Um Glenn's working tonight and we go late, help somebody get to the stabilization center, which we'll talk about here in a little bit as well, too.

So she's probably will train with Glenn right off the bat for a few weeks, so she'll be on that Monday through Thursday schedule with Glenn.

Um, and once she kind of gets to know the area, the area uh the members and other resources around here, she'll be out on her own as well, too.

So we're really looking to do that.

That's gonna be just a huge benefit for the PD and the community itself.

So we're looking forward to that.

So and then uh when she starts Monday too, we'll set up a time to have her come down and say hi to you guys, introduce herself.

So she's just a really great person.

She's gonna fit it well.

You guys both really like her.

And you were saying we've got four days of early data behavioral health service right now.

Price will go up to seven days after we have this second person.

So typically Glenn works Monday through Thursday, and Trista will work Monday through Saturday.

I think the big goal of that is to have just two overlap with us so we can solve and follow through on stuff, and you know, hope uh give us some support on stuff.

So she'll be able to do everything I can do.

There's no right.

Um she's not master level clinician, but she is uh right under health support kind of what they do.

Yeah, they work.

Absolutely.

Um December November was three years, so in here in uh over three years, uh in November will be four.

Um a lot of mine are referrals.

I do a lot of police report follow-ups, and then I also follow uh along on uh on the radio on the times up here.

Um and the referrals can come.

I mean, I have them come in from the judge, and uh, you know, just different community partners, and um the goal is you know, I do a lot of I talk a lot about like people that just don't have any hope or don't want to live.

Most of my if I would say probably 98% of the people I engage with are uh housed, just our housed neighbors struggling.

I've met over I can drive by a lot of places in the town and say, Oh, I'm gonna um you know, and uh last year I had like 569 contacts this year, you know.

That means that things are are working out, people are not needing as long and they're getting connected to uh resources as a crisis worker.

My goal is to get them connected to resources.

You know, so I'm so thankful to um have the stabilization center here.

So thank you so much for being a big part of that.

Um we've had uh 17, just Milwaukee alone has had 17 uh stays in there, it's about to be 18 as soon as they go grab this person and take them over there tonight.

Um since they opened in mid-December, so that's that's huge.

Um that's 18 um deference from the hospital or jail, right?

Um so I'm really uh happy for that.

And then other resources before you move on from that.

Um I know the length of time somebody could be there could be as long as three three months or so.

No, so the stabilization center is 23 hours.

Oh, that yeah, 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

Okay, so you're not talking about the residential side.

No, uh yeah, we can talk more about that, and I'll actually let Randy talk a little bit about that since probably sort of runs that side.

Um, so yeah, 20 just under 24, one minute under 24 hours, and uh as a clinician, so even if law enforcement refers into the stabilization center, and say somebody needs a little bit more time to uh you know work with the counselor there, the peer or the EMP that's there, um myself or anybody from the mobile response team can uh place an extension to give in a little bit longer to work with somebody.

Um I've did that a few times.

I have somebody that's been in there she's been there five or six times, but uses it as a safe place instead of our local hospital, or you know, and I've helped her get to Rainier Springs, and I think that's another thing too, is if they need a little bit longer, or if somebody is active um has a plan um that to commit suicide, you know, that's probably more where it's gonna be a hospital stay.

Um, but then when they get out, they might still have some of those thoughts and want to save place so the stabilization center's been really great.

Um and then the peer works to make sure they got some aftercare, you know.

So are they reconnected with their primary care and their therapist?

Do they have a peer referral for outside uh the stabilization center?

So it's been really good, really good partnership.

And one of the things too is that I like to really harp on is the fact that the importance of the information that Glenn Brandy Donald brought to the officers for the TEM before they really came on board is like I said before, we kind of our hands were tied over what to really do with some of these people that were in crisis or having some difficulty finding houses.

We just didn't have the resources or ideas of kind of really where to guide them to get them in.

Ultimately, they're still the ones doing the follow-up for us, but they've helped the officers with so many ideas of how to approach it in the meantime until Glenn can reach out to them or get assistance with loved one as well, too.

So it's just giving the officers just so many more abilities to help these people in the in the short time if Glenn or these people aren't on shelf.

So it's been a tremendous, tremendous way of for us to really kind of really change the way kind of we do these stuff sometimes.

So it's been a really good benefit for us as well.

So and I would say the same same sort of support in our work at the library too.

I get you've given us tools, uh, and hopefully we've in turn uh sort of made those connections.

Yeah, and I think the biggest thing too that um about it is you know, it's not not being a billable service, which everybody is used to, like, oh I got 50 minutes with you, and we're gonna wrap this up kind of thing.

I can spend five minutes or I could spend five hours, it just depends on the situation, whatever it helps me get to the next step.

You know, the people I see are from seven, I think seven all the way to ninety-two.

So it kind of closes the the circle of it for us.

Um I know Brett was gracious and sat down with me, so I get copies of the Pitts reports.

And I had asked for a little more information because I thought one of the individuals described, but it didn't have a name with someone that we were also helping navigate through the 13-bed shelter portion of the stabilization center, and who we had had interactions with at the day center and some of our laundry events.

And it was now I can log in and see the other information.

And so we we like the library did this, or if it was Kelly or Jana, but they flagged one of our folks who actually was a resident in the 13-bed shelter for a while and just said, hey, so and so came in, they were trying to work on this, they got frustrated, they left.

So I was able to send that right over to the team and say, hey, she's on our way back.

This is what she was working on.

They're like, great, we'll sit down with her and we'll help her finish that document, you know.

And so it was just like the seamless.

So she was worked up, but we already knew what she needed, and then we were able to support that.

So it's really helping.

That level of coordination doesn't really exist in other places that I've worked.

This one is stats from just Glenn alone from the last year.

And I I really wish I would have added the stats from the previous year in there as well, too.

Because what you would see is the numbers that Glenn had from last year have actually gone down.

And it's a good thing.

Um it shows that that's working.

His help is doing a great thing.

He said less contacts.

That's because they're getting the resources that they need.

Um he's taking less calls, but he's just like I said, he's helped.

Uh you won't just go ahead and talk about that, sorry.

Yeah, no, no problem.

Uh last year it was 569 contacts, and I think we're at what it's at 200 and yeah.

Significant.

Yeah, 2008.

So probably about, I mean, if I went to right now, it's about 315.

Um, I think just since we pulled this data, and probably about 40 um uh engagements.

But if you see like the biggest two is my police report follow-up.

I think that's really important too.

Um that's a high number.

That means the officers are utilizing the service.

Um, they're shooting the reports over when I'm not around, going, hey, this person could use some follow-up, and it could be from um maybe later on a domestic and somebody's experiencing mental health, you know, during that, or they need some follow-up, or their kids are really struggling and parents don't know what to do, and I'm helping to get them connected to some other services, or they're they uh we're on a police officer hold, and I'm doing some follow-up.

So it's really a bit a gambit of services uh to offer.

Um, and then you can see you know uh mobile with police, you know, but then on scene 39 times um with officers, and then five times uh with you know without an officer.

Um and then mobile outreach too.

So that kind of goes with uh some of every time I I'm on scene or I'm off-scene, and I put on a mobile outreach form.

That's kind of a really uh you know, uh longer uh uh diagnostic of kind of what's going on.

I'm seeing what's going on with the person.

Um so you're gonna see more of that, and then the phone contacts, so it's just a lot of my follow-ups.

Um most of my phone contacts too are in the police report follow-ups.

That's the first thing I do is call and just say, hey, you know, I'm behavioral health specialist here, you know, how can I support you?

And it could be anywhere from you know, uh, like I said, from from kiddo that's really struggling, and I've had you know, I've joined uh the Clackmas County threat assessment team, and I have some uh in some of the um threat assessment for the schools um for our kiddos that are really struggling.

So really trying to um get more involved with some of the bigger systems on how I can help our people that are struggling in the city, and some of that will be a lot to be able to turn over to the case manager, some of that longer term follow-up where you know I'm spending every week with somebody or or longer term really getting them involved so they can do more than the case management.

So kind of been doing full thing.

Yeah, and we have a really good relationship with Lynn where he comes into our briefings every day, usually our afternoon briefing and updates us on what's going on, uh, what kind of cases he's working in, or if he's got somebody housed or resources, or if there's a plan set in place for somebody, so if in the meantime there is any sort of police contact, we know what the plan is with that person, and we kind of help guide them as well, too.

So you can tell it's not necessarily the ultimate solution for this, but it's making a huge impact just in the city of Milwaukee alone.

So it's been a really really good thing for us as well.

So before you go off of stats, could you um uh I mean we know that more people are using their housing, and we know that Portland is doing more enforcement that is probably pushing more people across our border.

Um do you have a general houselessness number of calls, which wouldn't necessarily all be behavioral health bases, obviously.

I can't think of a staff that we necessarily have to do that we could probably look up or you talk about just basically some of these work.

Just what's uh how has our number picked up over the last time?

I think you'll see some in the library numbers.

Yeah, in terms of behavioral incidents uh as well as contacts that we've referred on as also water bottles and uh food that we provide.

Like those numbers ticked up if you look one year ago, excuse me, like it's significantly more.

And it, you know, I think there's probably a tie-in to the enforcement of board, but it's hard to say, right?

It's also winter, and like we see a cyclical thing in terms of behaviors and and folks needing things.

Yeah, yeah.

I think the uh the numbers on you're seeing an average of at least five in tweet at the library.

I think you if you see Glen's numbers going down, I think it's showing that it helps, but you'll see Brent's numbers coming up and the year before aren't on there either.

But yeah, his numbers have gone up.

But also if they've done because it's working people know where to go to get resources, they know that this is a safe place for them to go.

They can get a bottle of water, they can get a bag of snacks, they can get the resources that that they need.

So this is definitely something that's healthy for that.

Countywide, uh they're seeing an increase of 120 people, 130 every month getting added to the list, and only about 30 coming off.

So today at 130, they had a um the county commissioners had a briefing from how from PCD.

And um the E gave a stat that they had oh I have it right here, actually.

Um there are 582 new houseless people every month.

There are about 332 that they are able to accommodate in existing programs, and then so there's about 250 going on served.

A month or a year.

Uh he said a month.

Um yeah, it was a very gloomy uh presentation, but I definitely recommend it.

It's only about 35 minutes long.

Um yeah, the numbers I was giving is through the chalk.

Um, then how many what was the numbers regularly at the heart?

So a year ago we were probably around 170 a day, and we're at about 200 a day.

And that's our only resource usually.

And about 20% of those are housed folks.

Oh, yeah.

Glenn, these numbers are really encouraging to see just the utilization that we're seeing of this program.

Do you have a sense of or is there some way that we're tracking if someone calls in, they're less likely to call in in the future, or if someone calls in, they're this percent are connected with resources, or how do we track the impact that these calls make on these people's lives?

I think most of my uh connections are one time.

Um I mean, there's some that I have.

I would probably I probably have about these almost 300 uh contacts.

I'd say probably about 20 other people who are follow-ups, more than one call.

Um, usually it's uh a one, you know, hey, are you connected?

Do you want to be connected given resources?

Um sometimes though they'll want to meet, I'll go meet them for coffee, or you know, somewhere that's outside the police department where they feel comfortable, and then um connect them to resources, and then some like you know, uh speaking of like uh people almost being houselessness I've been working with.

Um it's kind of a messed up situation, but two of our older population, one that she's had uh squatters in her basement for a couple years, more than that.

Um they stopped paying like three years ago, so I've been helping her through the innovation process.

Um so that's taking a lot of time too.

But usually it's you know, I'm calling them like, hey, uh when I do follow up, if it's on scene, that's usually a couple times.

But um, to really start to track uh multiple, I'd have to I could dig into my system and actually probably pull that out of Dr.

Cloud.

Sure.

Yeah, something I can look into to pull for you.

Thank you.

Thanks for that's just the 23 hour stabilization center if you guys want to hit this that you guys are on the show over there.

I can talk about the 23 and then we can talk about the M TA tree.

All right.

Uh 23 an hour, yeah.

It's been amazing.

Um really I'm over there a lot, just even if I'm not um uh taking people over there, just checking in with the staff and see how they're doing and seeing their process.

It's been cool to watch them uh go from like just starting it to you know uh they're two and a half months into it now.

Um like I said, they can be there 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.

Uh so it's really to you know for immediate crisis, it could be from somebody that's uh having suicidal thoughts, somebody that's you know having hallucinations, auditorial visual or really scared paranoia, um you know, having uh perceptional disturbances where they're just don't know what's going on.

The goal is to uh divert from our local hospitals and uh our jails.

So I mean, I've had I've had somebody over there that's had a plan, right?

But like was willing to engage with somebody and like you know didn't need that that hold.

I mean, if you think about when I put something on a designated hold.

The hold is only good for the ride to the hospital.

That's it.

Then they have to do their assessment there, so it just keeps them in the ambulance.

So if I can get them to go to the stabilization center, they're still gonna make a plan there, and then the uh counselor or therapist that's on site can determine if it's a higher need.

They've had to you know send somebody out.

Uh but it's been a an amazing uh opportunity.

And you have you altered through a bit before they had any, yeah.

Yeah, so it's just it's got seven uh recliners, and they have a few.

It's not like the I've worked in the PES unity, and that's just a bunch of recliners in a huge room, and you just lay there.

This one's got they got a TV and headphones, there's there's board games they can play at the table, they can go outside and smoke, which actually keeps people there a lot more than you would think.

They can go back and smoke and come back in.

Um the big thing about the stabilization center is they gotta want to go there, right?

So if somebody's in crisis and is so um in crisis that they don't want if they want the help, it's not that they don't want the help, then they're probably gonna go to the hospital.

Um, but if they want help and they're in the frame of mind to accept help and talk to somebody, it's an amazing uh opportunity.

Yeah.

The other side has 13 uh spaces for folks to stay up to 90 days.

Um the sweet spot is about 60, that's our goal.

Uh some folks have been there as little as two weeks, uh, and our screening process is to help identify folks who have a clear pathway out, or one that is relatively low barrier because it is that short-term like stabilize, um, and folks can go from our side to Claire Vita side needed and back.

Um, and so we can support that.

Uh, we have a housing navigator to help folks with their pathways out.

We have a couple of case managers and a couple of like just on-site kind of peer support roles, staff 24-7.

There's a kitchen, uh, and then we brought over one of our folks from the day center who has immediately turned it into this homey feel where it's very comfortable, it feels welcoming.

Um, it because it felt pretty sterile at first, and now there's artwork, which actually uh was all created by a resident in permanent support of housing in Tuckball Springs, and so the walls are covered, and there's plants and there's like pantry with snacks people can grab.

Um, they really enjoyed cooking together and learning some or relearning, repracticing some life skills um and engagement, and then our care coordination team.

Father's heart has a care coordination team, and we assist folks in qualifying for more supportive housing options, um, whether that's group home living or assisted living, getting their um social security set up, any disability benefits, and navigating those systems, and they are they're just stellar, and that that has been like the game changer for most of our folks having that team available just to come in and sit down.

Community paramedic comes over there regularly and works with folks as well.

Um, and a lot of our referrals come through community partners, community paramedics, and and others.

So it's been great.

And is this full?

Yes, there were only a couple weeks where we I think we have like one room, two rooms, and one was actually being held for someone while they were elsewhere.

So yeah, yeah.

Well used.

It's been great with us.

We've had a great relationship with the people that all work down there as well.

Myself or Ryan have talked to the people down there at least once a week just to keep the communication going, and it's been a great relationship with them.

They can also there's ever a problem, quite honestly, they only call us just to check in to see how it's going.

So or what we can do or what they can do to help us.

So it's great.

Yeah.

Do you know Brandy?

Do you have a sense?

How many of the folks who did the 23 hour stabilization and move on to more long term in the facility or a lot of the folks previously in 23 hours stabilization?

Like if they're in the stabilization and then move over to the shelter.

Yeah.

So that would be ideal if we could swing it that way, but once we fill up those rooms, they're full for 30, 60, 90 days.

So it hasn't been a lot of crossover.

But if there is someone there that Claire Vita has identified as a good fit, and we happen to have, we're absolutely happy to take those referrals for sure.

It's just the flow has been a little like we're still figuring that out.

Okay.

And I think on the BHU side, we're really trying to make sure that the stabilization center side, the 23 hour side is not utilized as a shelter.

Sure.

And more for our uh people in mental health crisis.

I understand that also is a crisis too.

Which a lot of the folks that on the Clarita side have been housed, right?

Some of them we are seeing here recently.

Uh there's that too.

Uh the rural area, some of our overpopulation getting locked out.

Um you think about all the prices going up, rent going up, and then on a fixed income.

Um most of those people, when you're 80, 90 years old, their only choice is the hospital.

You know, they can't go within a car.

So we've had a couple down here to kind of give them that um uh chance to kind of stabilize and get to the next step.

But all but one of my people that have been in there have been housed.

Um one wasn't housed.

Came from the library, actually.

Okay.

Um next to those library.

Brent said he was gonna do some advance.

True, I did say that.

Yes.

Uh Romeo Michelle, anyone?

One needs to leave.

I gotta go take someone into the stabilization.

Yeah.

Uh before I hand it over to Brent for a little bit, I just wanted to say a lot of the success that we've are having could not happen without the letter.

I mean, honestly, Brent, Janet, and Kelly have graciously opened out to the library to help out.

They have Tuesday outreach every Tuesday from 10 to 2.

Is that correct?

12.

Oh, sorry.

Until you decide to go on.

Yes.

That's they are dedicated warming and cooling center as well too.

They have bottles of water, snacks.

It's uh safe haven for people as well, too.

Um, I cannot prop up Brent and this team just for their graciousness of opening up the building for that.

It's been uh amazing.

So thank you, Brent.

Yeah, thank you.

That is the team.

Here we are.

I'm Brent, as all of you know.

Uh, and behind uh the mayor is uh Kelly, she's one of our two managers, and actually she is really doing like the good work, so much of the foundation of the work we're doing has been her vision.

Uh so if you look at the services at parole and probation monthly, that was a partnership she helped build.

Uh, really, this this desire to have the Tuesday outreach came from our two managers saying it's great that we have the support, but unless we can reliably uh tell people when it is, how do we connect people?

Um I think it's like two sides of the same coin, like the work that some of the work the library does versus uh level on and police.

Uh what's a little bit different is we have the full range of experience of people being in the space.

Um that is traditional library services as well as this folks who might be in various stages of crisis, uh stages of uh uh home status, um various stages.

Um, and we get to know them.

We get to uh and this is I've taken this from my good friend Don here.

Um we we see people, we build the relationships, uh, and then we're able to sort of uh sort of refer folks on and really sort of hey, you need to know about this.

Um and it isn't just simply we need help, it's like here's what we know, what can we do?

Yeah, um so I wanted to say that, and then specifically, oh I'm gonna lose my train.

Let's see what it's next.

To add that too, is with uh Trista coming on too is one of the uh things that Brent has asked for, and we're absolutely on board with is probably have Trista down there at least one day a week dedicated to that.

Do it kind of know what day that is gonna be, we need to probably feel that out, what is the best fit?

She won't be working Tuesday during the outreach day, but during the rest of the week, where she can go down and help out the team and what other people come in as well, too.

So that's just another benefit for having another person on the board as well, too.

So something you said about your officers is something I know is through the library as well.

It's when we don't have all the tools uh, like in the moments of crisis, so really having other folks uh help us is just so important.

So that's why this whole team helps.

Uh and I know it's hard for folks, maybe who are watching uh this table, you all know you've heard they go on and on and on about this.

Um, but there is something really special about sort of the partnership that we've built, and it's hard for people looking in, uh, like library police working closely together.

Folks are what is happening?

Uh but it's uh the good example that Kelly brought to me when we were preparing for this presentation of like how does the library like what's an example of like like a through line, right?

Uh here's one example.

You know, when it when it is below freezing, um, Father's Heart uh opens up the overnight shows uh and we get to know folks, so like we're putting up sign, we're making sure that our folks that we know may need that understand what's available.

You also know that we have uh we have by referral only uh overnight uh housing here on those cold nights as well.

Here's an example of like library coming in, like uh as Kelly was telling one of our regular folks that probably many people around this table would know.

Um, hey, uh, you know, the the shelters are opening up tonight.

Do you are you gonna be able to get there?

And that person was like, I don't think I can, I think I'm I'm excluded from there.

Uh and Kelly was like, well, let's actually see if that's actually what's happening.

Uh and she made a contact.

I don't know, was it to you or was it to have Rosio?

Oh, yep, yep.

And said, like, hey, this is this is this person, uh, and like it's cold.

It can he is he on the list of not oh no, he's fine.

By the way, he hangs out in Milwaukee.

We can write referral right now.

He doesn't need to come to Oregon City.

Yes, he can go directly three blocks away and house the night in the warm spot.

So I think that's sort of where we've gotten to.

But think about three years ago, and it would have been a cluster to make this thing.

So anyway, lots of words.

Yeah.

All right, let's see.

What did we put on this uh slide?

Put a lot for you.

Thank you.

Uh so yeah, I think that's what we're we really get to know folks, and we are connecting directly with staff.

We're not social workers, but we we build relationships.

Um, and it isn't uh like a police call where you're going out and folks are, but sometimes we're calling uh our partners, and sometimes it is uh that um you heard about the extended hours for cooling, um, but I really do think it's the library is a refuge uh for many people, uh, and it is no different for the folks who are in crisis or the folks who don't have homes.

Uh it is a place that they can be, and they're gonna find that respect.

Uh and from our perspective, everyone gets to be there as long as we're able to like find that balance and everyone can be safe together, and that's what we strive to do.

Um, and really these sort of connections and referrals, that is really not a new service.

The libraries have always connected people to information, it's just a different kind of information, um, or a new sort of information.

So let's see what let's see what's next.

Oh boy.

These are the stats for the this year as well, too.

And like we talked about earlier, you can tell that his numbers are going up.

You talk about Pitts reports from last year or 40, they've got 72 reports that have helped.

Um water bottles give it out.

We 184 uh this last year alone, 1779.

Like, so more than double.

Yeah.

Uh and and we use, and when we talk about pits, that is our system of doing two things.

One, it's a way to track behavioral incidents uh by a person, so we can see if there's a pattern we can sort of do um uh sort of a you know, if we need to exclude someone after many sort of bad behaviors, it sort of gives us that information.

It also uh we also sometimes get uh unsolicited sort of obviously, hey Brandy.

Oh, you you actually should be very careful with this person.

Yeah, uh so there's a lot of that stuff that we're able to sort of share that's been very very helpful.

What's it stand for?

Uh it stands for the paid excuse me, where it's patron incident tracking software.

It is uh software that libraries use.

Uh it was created in San Francisco where uh actually uh the library and police at the county level all work together, uh and now libraries sort of use it throughout.

We're using it a little bit differently here, go figure.

Um because I look at it, it is its biggest strength is actually the communication piece.

Um so anytime we uh have an incident, like something happens, there's a medical emergency, uh, there's a behavioral uh or a um mental health crisis, we're tracking that.

All of our city leadership uh and our police leadership and level one, they get a summary of what happens.

Um so that's the one piece, so everyone kind of knows what's going on.

Uh and secondly, we also use it as a way to sort of do referrals.

So sometimes it's not actually an incident.

It's just like, hey, there is a person here, they sort of share this story, we want you to know this person might need services.

And those things have prompted in various ways directly connecting people to things.

Yeah, that's a long way to say.

Patron and some interactions.

Oh, I was gonna go follow up.

But you jump in.

That's okay.

Sorry, yeah, you're good.

It really helps us too, because when we're working with folks and doing case management or housing navigation, and they come up somewhere in the system, or we don't, we haven't located them or heard about them, we can put the word out and say, hey, if anybody, and this goes to PD too, hey, we're looking for so-and-so, they're up on the housing list, or they have a check-in or whatever, and we don't always have to tell them what it is, but hey, we're looking for this person.

That collaboration has been a game changer to help us locate the person to get them whatever it is that they're needing to do, whether it's a court date or a check-in with pearl and probation.

So, like I'm kind of jumping ahead.

But served at Pearl and probation, 300 in the last year, that is outstanding.

That means folks are are checking in and staying in compliance, which is preventing additional barriers for housing and other next steps.

And it's really great to be able to say, hey, Dawn, have you checked in with your probation officer lately?

You don't even have to leave Milwaukee because we're literally standing outside right here.

Can you go check in with them on Wednesday or Thursday or whatever day it is?

And Dawn's like, oh, yeah, I can do that.

Like I'm familiar with the library, I know where that's at.

People love going to those appointments, and I don't know that people generally love going to their probation or moral channels.

But they really do at the library.

Yeah.

I mean that once a month or once a month uh in our community room.

And in fact, one time we let it go on when we enclosed the library, because like I guess people are coming, uh and we had a staff meeting where we're like, we trust you.

I mean they don't they're carrying guns.

Uh but I think it's another good example.

It is, I would say this is a hard one to explain to people.

You just say parole probations come to the library.

Why, why do you care?

Why do you want to know?

Well, uh again, people being able to come to a safe place and connect and like make sure they're going in a direction will help everyone.

But beyond that, there are also services, uh, it's not just oral probation.

We have many services that are in that room to make sure the folks who are checking in are able to connect.

Uh, and that is really what we're all trying to do.

Like make sure people know what's available and they're connected.

Um some of the some of the services are like Pericrete, DHS, um just available to like cover and at least make initial contacts or referrals for people.

So I know down in Oregon City, they do this monthly um Clackless Workforce partnership, and they do this expungement clinic and helping people get their IDs back and stuff, but are you guys sending people to that?

Yeah, absolutely.

As much as we can.

Yeah.

I think that is it.

Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, I was asked by a constituent that you know was approached by uh someone on the street who was uh trying to find some help.

She didn't have a phone.

And um so that's constituents reached out to me and says, Are there any you know paid phones right now?

I said about it.

And uh so I was asking about this and some other questions about referrals and that kind of thing.

And this might sound compared to the bigger issue, but tell them what you got.

We have uh an old-fashioned block phone uh that we can plug into any room and it gives people the ability to make like a private call.

It works on cell technology, but it's actually it turns a cell phone into like an old-fashioned analog phone, and we can book them into our one of our rooms, so when they need to have those private conversations, or maybe human conversations, we can give them that dignity and that privacy to like uh and it's it's a thing that's been used.

And I know people looked at me fine when I said we're gonna do this.

Yeah, and it's working.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I have heard of some talent actually putting some set some payphones back in.

Yeah, I mean it's it's complicated to do, I guess.

Well, but there are ways, right?

It's sort of like this is like one of the new technology ways to sort of meet that need.

I believe it's um West Glenn.

I think they have a public phone, like in their library, the library uh lobby, but it's not like a pay phone, but it really is sort of an accessible phone.

Uh and even folks who do have phones, like this is a problem.

The they the service uh phones get lost, they get stolen.

Like having a phone is such uh the the minimum.

Yep, yeah, and the charging and all of that.

One thing we didn't cover that came to mind is the the monthly uh Milwaukee houseless meeting that Glenn hosts over at the PD.

So library staff come, outreach uh other community partners, it's not just Love One Milwaukee and and um library staff, there's folks from NIA and uh folks from Clockamas Service Center, uh uh North Clockman School District, trying to think who else uh is it uh the county um uh oh Bill Stewart at BDDA um in his seem to be replacement attend.

Uh I don't know, there's a handful of other folks.

So every month we're gathering in person and we do updates, so program updates around the table, but then we also take time to case conference some of the folks that we're all interacting with.

Um so it's been really really helpful just to have that dedicated hour or so to know that we're gonna be in person, and we all just there's it's the same agenda every time, so we know what the routine is, um, and it's been great.

Yeah, uh Brandy, this is uh and all of you, this is a great presentation.

Um but the thing that kind of strikes me about this is this this required a lot of I guess I'll call it tribal knowledge, localized knowledge and networking.

Yes, put together and trust and trust, yeah.

I agree.

Uh you know, and and you know, you know, connecting the dots and everything like that, which I think is good.

You figured it out, but it's just kind of striking to me that you know um, you know, I I I guess like why isn't there uh a template somewhere that is easier for people to follow?

I don't know.

And so that kind of gets me to the other question about like there's these hot lines, statewide hotlines.

Is it 988 or what is your opinion of those?

Because they're statewide.

You know where those two in one calls go?

Tell me.

Is that right?

Oh yeah, they make referrals to us.

So they're just like out of the call, you need to call Brandy or they'll let me transfer you brandy.

It's sort of like a Roll index.

And they're like, oh, what area are you in?

Oh, you're in the Milwaukee area, you're in the Oregon City area.

Well, you can try calling Father's heart, you can call Love One, you can call, you know, here's the service providers, and then it's on us service providers to keep our information, our contact information up to date with them.

So every couple of months we get an email from 211, and they're like, hey, go in and check and make sure this is all accurate and what services you provide are up to date.

So let's the 988 is the the mental health uh yes, the crisis line.

And 211 is more the information, how do you connect to services?

So, yes, it's okay, but I think to your more to your point, uh Counselor Massie, it's the relationship piece.

And we that's where the template fails is if you don't have the relationships behind them.

Yeah, because like loved ones mission, and when we do uh outreach and engagement and laundry events and communities, we get to know the community, and then we tailor those things to the community.

So Malala's event looks very different than a Milwaukee event.

In Milwaukee looks even different than Orient City.

Our relationship with OCPD is much different than Milwaukee PD.

It's positive, but it's not the level of like I can go in and go sit with Greg, right?

And be like, hey, this is an issue, how are we gonna do this?

Can you use that with all of the necessary knowledge?

That's right.

But I but I also think that there's the reason it isn't like it's really and I mentioned trust specifically because if you're gonna really collaborate, you have to let go of control and see where this thing goes.

That's a good point.

And like libraries are not particularly great about like letting go of control of their room and saying, here, take it.

Uh or or like when we start dancing around these these questions of like what does privacy look like when we're collaborators?

It's very it's very thorny, and you have to like trust people in a ways that I don't think we are necessarily set up to do.

Our systemization of things doesn't hasn't done a great job of allowing for that.

Where with Milwaukee, it's like you come up with an idea and everyone's like, hey, how can we how can we collaborate?

What does that look like?

What is our collective end goal?

We don't really start it now.

Or like how do we do this?

Or hey, this is what we're noticing.

What are we gonna do about it?

Or so often that it is a question like how like when we're talking about people that we know, it's like how do we what do we do?

And we've had these conversations, and I've had it with B too, like where we at least have the conversation.

What do we need to do next?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's awesome.

This is a great place to be.

And we're working on that in other areas.

I have I have plans.

I have plans.

Yes, we have some plans.

And now that we have some actual like concrete data behind and our our talk about these things.

Like this is how it's working, and this is why it's working.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just I don't have questions.

I just want to say it's impressive.

The work that's being done all across the board.

Um, it was uh clearly Glenn was a great investment.

Uh and you know, it's it if this is what you guys all did with just one Glenn, we're about to get another one and some more officers, so uh, and some help uh in in your department.

So those numbers are I can see them going up and people getting connected to resources but going down, and how many people come back or how many people continue to need them.

So you just need the county to step up a little more.

Yes, we are, we are on the record.

And the I don't know, I would just add to being able to access the officers and and their engagement and investment in this community is also stands out significantly because I can go to any any of them rather than like, hey, do you have a minute?

I'm wondering about X, Y, or Z, but just that leading with curiosity and that humility of like what how can we help this person?

Because I'd love to not arrest them again.

You know, and like that that's huge.

That should never be what we've really learned is this works and it helps, and like I said before, it's a different way of policing.

You know, it was either for us, unfortunately, we have to make an arrest, or we have to leave them where they're at and not offer them some stuff because we're hands are tied.

But coming on board and getting uh input from everybody here is just gonna help, and officers are excited about it because it helps them, it helps reduce their caseload as well too, and it's just been a great, great asset.

So are there I take it from everything people have said that there are stories of someone who was a frequent uh arrestee five years ago or whatever, who's kind of been helped to find a path where they're not no longer being called for absolutely.

There's always the one person that you get to help, and you might not have contact with them for months at a time.

I mean um biggest one probably I can think of um person named Donald Jose, and he was a household person when I started here back in 2002.

Um, and he's in housing and finally got some.

Uh I think he was moved into assistance living.

Yeah, yeah.

And just the success story from him alone where we are five.

I mean, we I mean he was somebody who we would make multiple restaurants because we had no other option.

Um we would put a police officer hold on him to get him some help, but again, like Lensa, the hold's only good to get to the hospital.

Once they talk to a doctor, they're out.

And now that we have this ability with the teams that we've put together slowly, it took a while, it took a long time with Donald Donald, but um he's finally getting this help that he needed, and it's been amazing for that for him.

You we we have folks who like come at opening and stay until closing, and some of those folks we get to know, and I can think maybe maybe including this person, I can think of three off the top of my head that like have at least gone through that process of being with us all day and finding housing.

Now, again, like we can find those magical stories, and like finding housing doesn't mean that they're not gonna experience other problems in the future.

But like it happens, it's good work, yeah.

Also, I don't know if uh my um library director friends in other city like have everyone's phone number, and we're like all texting, like it isn't a someone's in trouble.

Like, if we we find a person that we don't know yet uh on our sidewalk, like I can sort of give the message like hey, I don't know if this person needs help, but I just need you to know there's a new person, and and depending on like the need, it it could be PD, it could be love one, could be day of the week.

Could be all of us together, correct?

It does.

Uh but it's really a really good approach here because uh what I see over and over, it's not you're in trouble, we you don't go on here, you need to move on.

What I see over and over from from our police now is like who are you, how are you, what do you need?

Uh and then we go from there.

So our new pilot is out to the well, I got it today at my house.

Um it's out this week.

And um there it is, yes.

Um and there's a piece in there about the opening uh hillside, you know, the new rest of the guys on the third.

I know the police department has been in um has been in contact with them.

Is Love One have any role at Hillside?

We do not we meet with them uh at least once a month for now.

Um hasn't been a lot of movement interaction.

I know they're slowly filling up some spots in there too, but um it's been quiet and they're really doing a really good job over there.

So yeah, like this so far.

And you talked about having everyone's phone number.

Um I know for my time I I was an advocate for OCBH in a past life.

Um, and they talked a lot about how and voluntary clinics it's so hard to get all of the touches you need to convince someone that they should seek help.

Um I just like real kudos to the two of you and to Brandy, but that's like our city I think needs to set step up to meet the moment, and the fact that you're in your own capacities working so hard to integrate with the services that Brandy provides, it just really um it's what we hear from our constituents, it's the direction that we should be going.

It's I think the way that we can morally get this moment, and I'm really really grateful to have the leadership of you two in the city and all the work you've spent as well, Brandon.

It's fun.

I mean, it's hard, they're hard to check out.

It's also the right thing, right?

Yeah, yeah.

It's kind of like the stars alliance sometimes, and you hear the angels being like how to work.

She crossed over it.

But the fact that like Love One have city badges, the fact that like Don can come to the library if he needs to meet someone, even if library folks aren't there, like these are like it isn't just helpful, it's like essential to provide those tools, and like there was a time I think that that would have been impossible to do.

That's true.

It I love it because Wikidia is really quiet and I can actually get some work done and not get more office, yes, but also if I'm in the hallways, uh I'm seeing the officers and we're checking in, you know, it's just like a normal thing.

They have just one question.

Um, I mean, I have a lot of clients, but I know how to find you.

You um do we collaborated decently on an individual?

We sure did, yeah.

And so that's um in part of my question is that um I have the fortune um of spending a lot of time downtown overnight and on the weekends when um a lot of outreach services are not available to folks, and I know that I'm not the only business owner that is connected to downtown in those off hours.

So, what sort of collaborations can we build with our business community so that they have um information to refer people to the right resources to connect with you know Glenn and like an off hours report or something like that that we can also help kind of wrap around our unhoused neighbors um because it's the middle of the night, a lot of crisis happens in the middle of the night.

Um, and I'd love to be able to provide more resources for folks that find themselves and their businesses connected in that moment um as like the only place for someone to get warm or the only place where someone can get a change of clothes, or you know, things kind of along those lines.

How can we make that connection and build those relationships?

I have like 200 ideas going through but then also a couple things that we're working on.

Can we set a time to sit down and like frames form whiteboards and love them?

Yeah, I really like that.

Okay, that yes, and this senior better.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

And that resonates with me because we also don't have uh service support seven days a week that the libraries have put, which is why we're so happy to have additional support coming on board.

But like for us, it's very clear, like we we know if we have no one else, but it is going to be our colleagues at least.

And I and I do really trust, I've seen them, uh they do good work and and right.

It's challenging though sometimes for police, and they don't want to talk to a uniformed officer.

And I totally understand that.

I mean, that's just the reality of it, what it is, and this is what is making this so successful, especially coal probation going over there on Tuesdays, it's a safer place for them to go and meet and talk and feel so they're like they're not going to jail and stuff, and you know, we're always open for you to call us late at night too, and uh we'd be open to getting their name to refer them to Glenn and stuff like that to see what they're looking for as well too.

And I we'd be open to getting their names to refer them to Glenn and stuff like that to see what they're looking for as well too.

That can be a challenge sometimes if they're not willing to talk to us.

Um it's always worth a shot.

It's always worth us coming down and talking.

So it's a lot of people.

Several of the instances that I've run into lately have been folks that are at the point of escalation where they're not in a place to talk about services quite yet.

Um which puts us and and that's fine in a position of de-escalating sometimes and saying, you know, that all the answer is for an officer becomes the offer of the 24-hour center as well, too.

Right.

And so something that we can offer them too, and they have to be willing to go and want to do that, but that's something that we can get them there so close to downtown.

It's too nice all right.

The library, and I heard I was here the night, the business survey results were here.

And I do think having talked with uh some of our partners on the screen work.

I think they're really interested, probably in some training, like how do we escalate.

Um, and I think there are maybe other ways that all of us could sort of create that space.

They're just we haven't yet in that way.

Yeah.

Yeah, I I mean I have found myself needing to make new policies for our team and our customers on the fly.

When someone has a moment of crisis and they're right next to our front window, we have a policy to get everyone away from that front window and in a space where they feel safe, and also the person escalating feels safe, so they don't feel like they're in a fishbowl and people are staring at them from inside a store.

Um and I really appreciate like um there have been instances, one instance in particular where I did call non non-emergency, um, because um I knew that officers were trained to respond with a trauma be you know, trauma-informed response.

And I probably wouldn't have called in other jurisdictions.

Um but having built this partnership between council and um and community and MPD has been a real benefit.

And so I think that is something that needs to be um replicated across other jurisdictions.

There is a culture shift.

I know that in that phone call, I could tell the person you know when someone responds.

Um they need to know this and this and this about this individual.

They need to come in in a very calm, very, you know.

I I was able to tell them what I needed as a business owner, and know that they would really get it.

And they absolutely came in in a very unassuming way.

They provided resources, they took the time, they stood back, they you know, they didn't the person didn't feel cornered.

Um, things, you know, things went up and down and up and down, and they surfed it with them.

Um, you know, in a way that I think made everybody, including our employees feel safer.

So I just really want to appreciate that.

It takes a lot to have that presence of mind, and um, you know, that in this situation they also had to reach out to um you know interpreters by phone, and because as someone gets more stressed out, they're going to revert to their native language, and you know, the officers pivoted immediately with like, hey, I know that we're having a communication breakdown, and that's that's on us to get more services to you right now.

Let's see who we can call.

Um, they did a really really good job, and I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um I I think that if we're able to build more connections with the businesses so that they feel like in a moment of of um crisis or trauma where they're seeing something happen, they have the tools to respond and um and make their employees feel safe, make customers feel safe, make community members feel safe.

I think that that will really go a long way in um in building that relationship with Main Street too.

And I know that across the whole city, but um, I think Main Street experiences a lot of it because of the concentration of services and the the uh transportation options that folks have.

Um it's different, like I'm I am seeing a lot more um presence of individuals that I haven't seen.

Yeah, new people are coming in and they're used to dealing with law enforcement in a different way.

They're used to dealing with businesses in a different way, the libraries in a different way.

Um so it's almost like you know, we have to we have to be a different sort of welcome pack, you know, folks.

Well, I I love that uh idea of collaboration with the businesses, and um I will just add it's not that kind of training.

Um but uh the library is gonna be hosting Clackamas County to do uh overdose training, the Luxone training, and then also a suicide prevention training.

Um so watch for details on that.

Maybe 25th and June 18th.

Okay.

I had a call with County Clerk McMullen yesterday, um, because she sends some of her staff out to help folks that are rolled and skit and uh sign up for voting.

And there was uh an interaction that her staff had with a community member who came in um that did not go well, and so she and I were debriefing about that because my staff didn't know about it.

And so what came out was her staff, like so well, one staff and Father's Heart staff.

We go through a lot of training, mental health first aid, de-escalation, there's a very long list.

Right.

And so I think that could be something that we could talk about for the downtown business owners.

And then I've been working with uh the head of NOCA in Oregon City for the bus the main street businesses.

Yeah, because the transit centers down there too, so a little bit similar.

And and Juliana and I actually were we're flip-flopping.

I'm gonna join the Doka board and she's gonna join Level One, both of us as representatives, not as voting members.

Um but I think we can talk about that too for downtown Milwaukee and what that looks like to just um bring all those pieces together, but then also access some of those trainings.

That's great.

Yeah.

Let's talk.

I love this.

Awesome.

Well, thank you guys so much.

We do have TriMet waiting outside, so um, we're not on time.

Sorry, you started us very much.

Thank you.

Um Mango went home with our shit and change.

But given that Rita was here, I'm thinking that that's good thing.

It's a good thing.

Um, I'm good to see you too.

It's good to see you.

How are you?

I was just gonna guess Rita was not here.

Love it.

Everything we ask everyone.

Yes, how can we help?

Like yourselves and other almost later next week.

We might have to write two rows.

That's what the sheriff's.

Yes.

So it's three of them.

And I just hired the former under sheriff budget and the jail as my CFO.

And he's a camera.

That's almost too much.

She is Deller.

Oh, he's right.

Oh, I cannot say enough good things.

Uh yeah.

Hi, Rebecca.

How are you?

So let's talk about it.

Yeah, we go.

Yes, we're gonna.

You have you.

I always have a speech on camera.

Oh gosh.

She uh she's done her fair share of public meetings.

I should have texted Eli on my way over here and like hang out with Will.

I would say about their staff, but we were PowerPoint up pictures.

Okay.

No, and that's okay.

Another time.

Yeah, say we need to.

I have a perfect baby holding location right here.

Just operate she um she really loves Sam, so at some point she may just start like talking to Sam and great for public comment.

She's like, I know.

I don't need so I want to thank our friends at TriMet for joining us here.

We haven't had TriMet at one of our meetings in a few years.

And um and often it's only been I'm not I don't want to say only, often it's been the government affairs team, so I'm we're really uh uh honored today to have the general director here as well as our elected official appointed, uh that's right.

Don't overstate.

Appointed representative.

So uh Tyler Frisbee represents Milwaukee and uh most or all of Southeast Portland.

Basically all Southeast Portland, yeah.

Yeah.

And then the rest of Clackmas County has a different representative.

Yeah, and then the rest of Clackmas County has a different representative, so we're kind of carved out of uh this county, but uh and then I'll let Sam uh introduce whoever else wants to introduce this whole team.

First, getting to Mayor Beatty and Council President Anderson, members of Milwaukee City Council.

I am Samu Sue, I'm the general manager of TriMet.

I've been with TriMet six years.

Uh prior to that, I served in Missouri, uh Kansas City, and then uh before that uh in Seattle.

So I've been in transit just about 35 years at four different public agencies.

Uh joining us tonight is JC Lynette here.

Um he's our chief public affairs officer and Grant O'Connor to the right of me.

He's our manager of service planning and development, and then John Sarah, he's a local government affairs manager, and then Tyler Frisbee, the electronic wards member representing Milwaukee.

And then already is who is my executive assistant uh with Tronat.

So I just want to thank you all for inviting us out here tonight to really discuss the budget and how we're working uh to address that deficit.

Uh, one of our most challenging parts of this conversation is our proposal to cut service.

Um did not move here to Portland to cut service as an organization.

And one of the things that really hurts me to my core is that we're in front of you talking about cutting service.

Um we announced these proposed cuts on January 5th, and we spent the last few months uh speaking to all of our partners around the region to get feedback.

I really find the best pathway forward.

So tonight, Grant O'Connell will be discussing the proposed cuts.

But first, I'd like to hand this off to JC Panetta to discuss TriMet's budget and then how we got here.

Yeah, thank you, Sam.

And thank you all for having us here.

We really appreciate it.

I think actually the last time we were here, we were talking about the orange line opening up.

So I think you've been here since then.

But um, I mean, our government affairs folks have, but um anyway.

So full-fledged team.

That was a much happier time.

That was a much happier time.

What I want to do, um here you go.

Um, what I want to do is kind of go and set the stage for where I why we're um doing the cuts.

So I'll have a couple of introductory slides for you just to show you where we're at, um, talk about some of the outreach that we've done, and then Grant will jump into where we're at with some of the service cuts.

So um let me just make sure we have slides so it's uh go along.

So kind of as you can imagine, where we're at today with um TriMet, we're seeing record layoffs across the the uh region.

Um there is you probably know this here in Milwaukee, um, record uh vacancy rates, and it continues to rise as well.

Um we're seeing a high teleworking rate.

If you don't know this, Oregon is number two in the nation for teleworking.

So a lot of people love to come to our great state.

Um they might be working somewhere else because of but living and loving it here.

And then you've also seen just the elevated concern around public safety.

So these are some of the conditions that we find ourselves um at TriMet in.

When we start to think about TriMet itself, our ridership is still is holding steady.

We're at about 70 percent of pre-pandemic ridership ballpark, which means it's about 1.2 million rides per week, and we have seen it continually tick up.

We do see people coming back, um, starting to kind of see a plateau.

One of the things that you all should know is that 35% of our riders are transit dependent.

That means that they depend on TriMet to get to where they need to go.

That's important because one of the things that we saw during the pandemic was the number of people who needed our service has started to grow, and it has continued to grow.

So it's something that we are watching very closely.

And the reason why we know it's growing is because we are seeing record enrollments in our low-income fare program.

HP 2017 created a low-income fare program for us.

We're seeing not only record enrollment, we're record use of that program.

So it's again, it is we know that a lot of people who use our service need our service.

Something that you'll probably be hearing more about in the coming weeks is um our payroll taxes are down.

I'm sure that you guys are probably seeing that at a city level.

Some of the taxes that you are encountering are down.

All four of our revenue sources are down, and so we that's one other thing that we are working to deal with.

And then, as you can imagine, um, with the loss of ridership, our fair revenue is down.

That's the revenue that we collect at the fair bombs.

And that all started as um the the chart belong behind me kind of shows um our ridership as we all were sent home, our ridership plummeted, so did our fair revenue, and so we're still working.

That was about 60 million dollars annually that we're still trying to recover from.

You um with the city, I'm sure that you're seeing this, our inflation, our costs have grown 56% since 2019.

That's done, you know, to a number of different um reasons.

Labor, obviously, your electrical rates have gone up, so have ours, things like that.

And so we've really seen our costs um increase.

But we've also made some uh serious investments in um the first and foremost safety and security.

You all have seen um what has happened on our streets in our community.

What we always say, what happens in our community happens on TriMet, because we're a moving sidewalk, and so for us, we have invested record amounts in uh safety and security, and we're making a lot of headway because we just couldn't wait for various um jurisdictions to to fill the gap.

So we've invested in safety and security cleaning, and then um Grant and his team really did a lot of good work as we were coming out of the pandemic.

We also saw demographics and people have shifted where they lived, right?

And so um Grant and his team really did a great job at tweaking our network, tweaking what we already had and figuring out where to put our service, and so we saw a lot and we invested in that as well.

And then as you can imagine, um, which I'm sure that you might be facing, we're facing a 700 million dollar backlog of just state of good repair projects that we need to do.

A lot of our system is getting older, our original max line is over 40 years old, our bus garages need um some upkeep, and so we continue to monitor that.

So, where does that leave us?

Right now, last summer on June uh July 23rd, we announced to everyone we are facing a roughly 300 million dollar structural deficit that we need to solve for.

And so, Sam when good government uh find has an imbalance of expenses and revenues, we try to solve the problem within three years.

And Sam has said we're gonna do that.

Our goal is by July 1, 2028 to balance our budget by 300 million dollars this deficit.

How are we gonna get there?

And these are all about numbers because just our numbers are changing with updated forecasts and stuff like that.

Um, administrative cuts, at least 93 million revenue.

We are hoping to raise a minimum of 48 million dollars.

Um, and I'll talk more about that, and then service cutting at least uh a minimum of 10 percent, and again, grant will go through some of that, but that's around 159 million dollars.

I would just note that if we don't raise uh additional revenue, that there will be more cuts to come.

So just want to point that out.

We have taken, we're doing a lot of internal work.

One of the things that we heard from lawmakers when we were down there asking for an increase in the stiff was get your house in order before you start coming and asking us for money.

And we are doing trust me when I say we are doing that.

We spent six hours this today just going through our neck our next round of cuts.

We're looking at efficient.

So far, we've reduced our spending by 150 million efficiencies, uh, discretionary spending.

We've canceled future bus uh service increases, and we had our first round of layoffs last fall.

Another round is coming um this year.

So more cuts, more layoffs are coming as we work to resize trimets so that our our expenses and our revenues are in order.

Um we have taken some external actions, we have increased our fares.

People uh we've heard from some lawmakers, you know, make sure that people have some skin in the game, right?

So we did increase fares um in January 2024.

We have been working with lawmakers uh crazy path last year with the transportation package.

If you were following it, the craziness continues.

Um, but really working with them.

I think that we have done a good job of proving our case.

We have to we have to figure out next steps, and so that's where we're at right now.

We had some service changes November 30th, a lot the in which um we're kind of calling trimming, so to speak, in November, and just a couple of days ago, March 1st.

Uh Grant's gonna talk about those that are happening in August 23rd.

So just wanted to let you know, we have done a lot of outreach.

We have been listening to folks like you, community members all across this region.

Um, so last fall we actually went out and we had um we went a number of every communication aspect that we have at our fingertips, um, open houses, you name it.

Grant was at many of them trying to explain what we were looking for, and we asked people to rate rank nine different areas like should we should the bus show up show up less or should we reduce our coverage?

Different areas that we asked the community to weigh in on where we where we should focus our the first rounds, and we got a lot of feedback.

So, from then again, all these different uh uh uh outreach opportunities.

We received about 5,000 responses to a survey, so really good turnout, and that all helped inform Grant and team of how and what to put in this proposal.

I think we now move on to our service planning.

Thanks again, I'll share my uh appreciation for having us here, and thanks for your class.

Um, Grant O'Connell, manual manager of planning.

Um we have a board adopted, um, we've worked through our wonderful board members to develop some guidelines that as we think about making changes to service, and this slide just kind of touches on all of the the key points of our uh guidelines as we think about service.

So I won't go through this, but the equity, demand, productivity, connections, and growth, all of those topics are important to us as we think about the prospect of changing our service and our top of mind as we look at this.

Um as JC kind of alluded to, we internally developed uh a large menu of things that we could imagine possibly doing.

And that outreach that JC was speaking about, and that survey was designed to speak to those different ideas uh in sort of abstract form.

Do you would you be willing to have a bus come a little less often?

Do you mind if we it doesn't come at night?

That sort of thing.

When we talk to folks about our service, because everybody's gonna say, don't cut my line.

But when we talk to folks about it in more abstract form, we're able to get more meaningful um input uh on how we might imagine making some changes.

So this uh service cuts considered column uh is is sort of a look behind the scenes of what all of those things that the survey mapped to.

So where it says FS bus, that's our frequent service.

So you know, we have uh you know, between 15 and 20 bus lines that come about every 15 minutes or better.

Um, frequent so FS bus that means that's that's talking about those lines.

Um we could look at dropping that from of every 15 minutes back to every 17 and a half.

So, for example, that was one of our menu items of things that we could that we considered.

Um limiting the hours of frequent service to 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Doing so on max and bus, etc.

I think you kind of get the idea, hopefully, but please ask questions if it's not making sense.

But this was our attempt at a at a matrix to crosswalk all our big menu of things that we could possibly do, noting first and foremost how much does it save, but also considering the ridership.

Um the degree of impact is is more or less how long would that person have to wait?

Is is it just two and a half minutes, or would the bus not even come at all?

So that's degree of impact.

And but most importantly, second most after uh cost was uh what the public said.

So we really wanted to look at that first and fourth column so that we were rooting ourselves in what saves the most and what does the public want us to do.

So this is a distillation now uh that same matrix, but all of the things that we didn't put in the January 5th proposal.

So what you saw go out to the the public on January 5th is represented here in this matrix.

Um we we did find the max green line to be uh an attractive option because it max is expensive to operate.

Um and so it does save quite a bit, and survey results did seem to indicate that would be palatable for the folks.

Um network clarified what we have to do.

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna ask.

Yeah, we're not cutting the whole green line.

No, um, having it so today um it operates from Clackmas Town Center up to Gateway at 99th Avenue, basically mirrors I-205, and then comes in towards Portland on the band field, and then turns south to PSU.

Um, and along the band field stretch from I-205 into downtown Portland, there are three max lines, all that do that.

And so having the green line just operate between Clackmas Town Center and Gateway and requiring a transfer where there's uh two other lines with a combination of those two means a train would be coming every seven and a half minutes.

So hopefully that's uh fairly palatable.

But the other key factor is is and we'll see this later on, um, is that uh well, let's just jump to that.

Uh the green line, it's hard at this scale, maybe to see it what we're looking at here, but notice along I 205 the green line segments at all but one, there is also a bus line that goes not only uh you know into town but through past PSU, and so in many cases um where somebody may be a green line rider today, um they may find that their alternative is not to stay on the green line and have to transfer, but rather take the bus that's already at that station and it's likely going the same place, and um with one small change that we'll talk about here in Milwaukee, um the 34 right out here uh goes up to the Tacoma Park and Ride, then turns east and goes out to Clackmas Town Center.

Well, at Tacoma Park and ride, we have line 40, and so we're proposing to essentially give the the eastern segment that runs on Linwood, um, you know, Clackmaster County, and you all have done a great job of really improving that streetscape.

Lynnwood's looking wonderful, and I think it's going to improve ridership.

But that segment of the 34 could be given to the 40 essentially, and that creates yet another one-seat ride from Clackamas Town Center uh on into PSU in downtown.

Yeah, I kind of jumped right into this slide.

But any questions on the green line proposal.

So the survey results that said cut first.

Do you have an idea of that breakdown?

How many of the survey respondents were primarily transit users or primarily use the green line or live in Clackamas County?

And conversely, you know, do you do you think that there was an influx of community input that didn't like the green line in the first place and flooded the survey?

Great questions.

We we required the um zip code of every survey respondent, and there was not any difference in geographic.

So it's a valid question to say, well, you know, maybe the folks who don't ride the green line took that and checked, yes.

But survey results isolated to zip codes directly around the green line, still showed um similar results that this was uh something that folks could tolerate in trade in consideration of all the other things that we were looking at.

And do you know that those survey respondents primarily use transit?

We do have we did have ridership information, and so um you know, people were asked to select um how often do I ride?

And so it's you know, of course, um, as self-reported, but yes, and so there was also not any uh differences there as well.

That that was still among the top things that was so in your analysis you cross tap between those respondents and the frequency of ridership, and you found that there was there was like these are people who are using the green line actively and we can't say that they use the green line, we can say that they use transit and live along the green line.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Because of the zip code and then self-reported zip code and ridership.

Good clarification.

That is a great that is a great question.

Um, this the survey was not scientific, so please understand it was not scientific, nor was it meant to be scientific.

It was just to get feedback around the the various questions.

However, our research people did dig into exactly what you just said to see if there were any anomalies.

Did someone stuff the ballot box so to speak?

And we found no instances of that because we have the identifying identifying like zip codes and stuff like that.

So we were very careful with that.

Yeah, the IP addresses and IP addresses as well.

As another email inbox that gets a lot of feedback about these cuts.

Umly no one is happy if no one, including all of us, is happy about it.

There's none of these that we would well actually that's there are a few that are cleaning up routes that actually, and I I think this example is actually an example of one where it's gonna end up being better service for people.

But 99% of these um are things that we do not want to do.

Um so everyone's feedback is I don't love this, and that's true.

Um, but the question is what is gonna cause the least harm.

Yeah, and um, and that's that's the question that we're looking at here.

That's what grants work was about.

Um and I will just say, based on the feedback that has come in again, not scientific through nightingale index.

Um I think the green line is one of our things, the change that we're making on the green line causes less harm than what the other options would have been when we look at saving that amount of money.

And then in the survey response, but um, what percentage of students were engaged through the survey?

Don't move that figure out we can get it right and get back to work.

So you do like your survey did receive feedback from folks that were under 18.

Well, we also held an open house um at PSU.

And I worked directly with the PSU staff to ensure that they had all of the survey materials and they were getting that to their students and staff also.

It went out in student newsletters and staff newsletters.

At a college level, right?

For PSEO.

But what about students that are high school students?

If they're signed up on the TriMet mailing list, then they got the patient.

Ah but we don't have school.

We can't, the schools don't get out there.

We also posted information about how to fill out the survey at all of our stops and stations that have the digital readouts.

Um so for students.

No reference.

Um for a lot of students I would assume that they are seeing those um, and we inundated our system with them during the survey period.

So yeah, so if they were using the Macs, the green line, there are huge QR codes on all the reader signs on station platforms that would say service changes, whatever, take our survey.

So you it's a QR code, they'd snap it with their phone and take it.

And the bus, the bus stops that have the bus stops too, yeah.

And we mailed out a uh notice to everyone within a quarter mile of a bus stop or station also.

253,000.

I'll talk about a mail uh the mail public.

I would have to see we don't have um I wish we did, but um, because of privacy concerns, we don't have their email nor their home address because those youth passes are distributed via the schools.

So okay.

Um and apologies.

I know I'm taking a little bit more space here, but um were those schools engaged in the outreach, like the schools were able to distribute survey information.

The schools were not a f this the schools, if they were on affected line, were contacted one way or another, whether it's was with our information, whether we reached out to them.

Some schools we actually engaged with because they have there were um some of our routes actually our uh our buses are their primary routes to school.

Yeah, okay.

I I would be super interested to hear more at some point about the engagement with Milwaukee High School.

Okay, what that looked like, given that there are so many students that would be affected by transit changes in this North Black area.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for the questions.

I think particularly with students, it's important to remember it's a it's a tough line to walk between privacy.

Um and um I think that's something you know my kids' elementary school is right on the bus line.

Um, but I appreciate that was not trying to contacts.

Um so it's a it's a challenge, as you can imagine.

Sure, yeah, I completely understand it.

It's also I mean arguably this is the next generation of ridership.

So they should very involved in um at least the opportunities to show out you know information about future training changes.

Keep going, Greg.

Yeah.

Um so on, you know, I I kind of covered a little bit beyond the city, but you know, there's connections to groceries and otherwise.

Um line 32 out in Oak Grove.

Um raids on Oakfield Road.

Um we're proposing to combine that with line 34.

So we're 34 here um comes heads south that goes along River Road, serves the seniors centers, Willamette View and Oswilla, and then heads out River Road and Town Cast Johnson House.

And um we're proposing then to have that uh cross over McLaughlin and uh Concord, although I'll cover this later, but um to so Oakfield and River, both the north and south, both they get increasingly close to McLaughlin, so much so that one might be able to walk.

So the idea is to try to serve the the furthest parts away from McLaughlin with um one bus line rather than having two running parallel there.

Um there are some little nuggets that I'm hopeful that will actually prove attractive.

For example, the senior centers along uh river um don't have a one-seat ride to groceries, and the Walmart neighborhood market and is on Concord.

Um, we're actually gonna have to revise that and probably use Oak Grove instead, and but there's a Friend Meyer there.

So uh you know, I'm we're trying hard to find ways, even in a tough situation to find where there might be some positive benefit here.

Um we already talked about before you move on.

One of these changes, and I'm not sure if it's that one, but one of these changes is what took the bus off of Lake Road from between Oakfield and and uh 22.

That's 32.

Is that the 30?

So I did want to bring that up.

These would be the questions Counselor Stevendort was asking about schools, because that's uh middle school there.

And that terrain there coming around on 32, like that steepness, and I mean there's nowhere to walk if you're walking places.

So was that the topography?

Was that considered?

Yeah, I'm happy to share.

We did do um an analysis that highlighted geographic challenges relative to these changes.

Um that one's definitely a challenge.

I'm not gonna say it's uh that we have a great solution there, but I what I will say is that the ridership is very low.

Um, where we in the city of Portland, where high schools we are the bus service, you know, other school districts have bus service, and so we don't we see a different ridership pattern around schools in um areas that are not uh Portland public schools, but um the portion along Oakfield north of Oak Grove, and then um along Lake Road there um there, other than that big draw, which is the big challenge, I think, is what you're pointing at.

Um parts of it do get closer to other bus routes.

But that's what's on this line on the left.

You see the line 29 that you're talking about at Lake Road.

We're proposing to shift that over to international way, which enables uh eliminating line 152.

So line 29 then becomes more continuously through focus on the industrial areas.

Um it does have some positive opportunity to potentially link together all the businesses along international way in a more direct way than they are now, and it reduces some loop duplication out in Johnson City along Webster roots and Johnson Road, where we uh shift some other bus lines to uh cover those areas.

Um those are the routes in the Milwaukee area that are up for proposal.

Can you clarify the 34 will now and after the commissation?

Or is it yes, okay?

That's a cost neutral change.

We're essentially just giving the Johnson Creek Linwood section of it to the 40 at the same frequency to create a one-seat ride to downtown from Clark's Town Center.

And does the frequency of the 29 change at all?

No.

And we took care to preserve uh the new connection to the Lake Road Health Center where we recently added midday service.

The 29th hasn't had midday service for many years, and we added that after the Lake Road Health Center is opened, and we took care to preserve that connection.

And is that seeing ridership?

She likes that much.

Some yeah.

But I know it's it may not be a lot, but I know it's a lifeline for a lot of folks.

With all of our um proposals we do as required through the FDA circular, we are required to do a Title VI analysis.

We've done a preliminary analysis based on the proposal that looks for um disproportionate um burden on low income or disparate uh impact on minorities, and uh that has it is not showing any impact there on a system-wide level.

Um we are where we operate service, then of course has an impact on where uh our we operate our paratransit, so um door-to-door service for those with disabilities, lift if you're familiar with the name, um, is determined on three-quarters of a mile from our fixed route bus service.

And so the good thing about this um network change focus um is that largely preserved the lift boundary.

So where someone in Milwaukee sees lift service today, that will go on by this proposal.

Oh, go ahead.

I'm just reading the just trying to clarify.

So the 2463 lift boardings is what's going to be impacted every year with these cuts.

So what what's the what exactly is the impact?

So that's not access to rights areas, which is Stafford, Lake Oswego, West Lynn, Tualeton, and South, a little portions of Pleasant Valley south of Gresham there, those are the areas where we've got some route changes that would affect the with boundary.

These are areas we would no longer serve with served with left.

What, if anything, do you know is going to fill that gap?

That's a good question.

We do um well, I will say, you know, just like I I kind of gave you a little preview.

So based on public outreach and some that I'll talk about more about in a well, JC will talk more about in a minute.

But um, we are looking at some revisions, and I'll already say that we solved the Tualeton polls so that that impact in Towallaton will not change.

Um Lake Coswego Stafford area.

Um we do partner with Ride Connection on some essential service for trips.

Um, so there may be some options for some folks there.

Um we also pass through some of our stiff dollars um to Clackmas County, and they are looking at what they might do to help backfill some things.

Um but those are the two things that luckily we actually know who these people are, and so we would um if this is approved, we would work directly with them to figure out a plan of attack.

So I appreciate that.

Yeah, thank you.

And what happens generally outside the tribe and med service district is they're either nonprofits or st or some limited state programs, um, depending on where you are that step up to serve.

But it's I mean that is not to minimize the impact.

Right, right.

I mean, you guys are faster and more responsive than most of those programs.

Right, right.

And easier to nav game really big deal.

It's a lot easier to get a ride with that.

Yeah.

So then when you say that um Clackamas County has some stiff dollars that might mitigate this um impact, what would that actually look like for what would Clackamas County feasibly do with an increase service through um radic connection?

Would they you know, are they thinking of standing up their own separate service?

What are their options?

We I I would say the best answer would be to talk to Clackhamus County.

Um Christina Babcock um manages that, but we coordinate with um Clackamas County a little bit.

Um I know that she is looking at they operate a shuttle in Oregon City that many people feel like is actually kind of duplicative with ours, and so she's exploring an idea where you would kind of untangle a loop that they do down just in Oregon City and extend it to actually can possibly cover some of the portions of Oakfield and Lake that we might be vacating.

Um but I would top line answer is talk to Clappins County.

And I think Council President Anderson gets some of this in C4.

Some of this four.

Yes.

So if they come up with potential solutions, I'll be sure when TriMet has presented in the past, I think some big themes that emerged were that McLaughlin area connection, that area around Wilson Mill concerns about just where do you find that transit access.

Um also the theme that I think Grant had mentioned before across the entire region, the priorities were very inelastic.

Everyone has similar priorities, and so I think it at least is some grounding principle that even the folks in Glackmas County see the challenges in the same way.

I guess I mean my overall worry is that we're rolling back some of the progress that's been made over the last 30 years in Clackamas County.

Um I mean, I remember the community outreach that I participated in when the green line was just a twinkle in our eye, and then there has been a lot of pushback around having transit extend into Lackmas County, and so that weakening concerns me.

There are a lot of different individual independent transit options that exist in Clackniss County that have been set up to mirror what Tremet does for a lot of different reasons.

But then I wonder, you know, if we're if we're changing course and investing in those to strengthen the network in rural communities, then what would that do to eventual transit um ridership expansion into those communities as we're seeing population booms you know on the edge of the urban growth boundary?

Um those things concern me.

Um and I know that that's not lost on you, but um, but what we're hearing and themes as far as the impacts to Clackamas County, um, it just it brings me back to those moments where you know there were there were tables much like this, and we were fighting so hard to get these expansions, and now we're watching those shrink, and I don't want that repetition of history to be lost in this process.

Really well spoken.

I'm glad you're in the position that you are.

I share a lot of that same sentiment, I think we all do.

Um, what I will say is that um the green line for so back up top level, the directive here is to reduce to cut by 10%.

This proposal uh what what likely that our board is gonna have to vote on is in the neighborhood of five percent.

So the bad news is we have more to come.

We'll be back next year.

Um but the good news is by looking the the approach that we tried to take by looking at like the green line where there are two other lines running in parallel and trying to reduce the redundancy.

This lift map would probably live work.

Um I I'm proud at how much we have been able to keep geographically by focusing on where things are redundant.

That's not to say that this is not still a cut.

Sure.

And I totally hear you it is.

I would also just say oh, go ahead.

That's why you're you mean the very first slide we're talking about cuts.

So, yes, I hear people understand you're the Buzz Guild team.

This, yes, I understand that, and it's not a good position for you to be in going out to all of the different communities and and delivering horrible news, right?

Um, and that's best news that your board is chewing on that you know, all of your staff and administration are chewing on.

That I I don't mean to diminish that in this line of questioning.

Um I think you're waiting to do that.

Your electors who wanted you to do, so your constituents it it just what worries me is that there has not been historically a lot of advocacy for transit expansion in Clackamas County, um, and as cuts are uh are being implemented for very valid reasons in isolation by line specific or region specific or service specific, um it I worry about us inching backwards um the progress that we've made in Clackmas County.

Um, and I just want to make sure that that is on the record, and I can see by your nods that this is also weighing on your voice.

And I can thank you.

Because I can maybe say things that you can't say, um, I did offer her up to my colleague actually for his trip out in some less friendly uh council meetings.

Um take her, I think he should have.

Um they can't throw things at you.

Um but I I think you have hit at what is my the fear that keeps me up at night when I think about this is less this I mean this set of cuts and the set of cuts next year absolutely keep me up at night.

What keeps me up at what makes me much more worried is what happens after that, right?

Um how what do we need to do as as a transit agency as a community um as a state?

Uh what do we need to do to make sure that this does not become the beginning of a death spiral for transit in our region?

We are seeing that happen in other places around the country.

Um we are seeing places like Philadelphia just eliminate entire huge chunks of their light rail lines just overnight, honestly.

Um so this is the question.

How do we make sure we have to make these cuts?

How do we make sure that there are people that we come back to to serve?

That this is something that we can build come back and build out of rather than Grant's job being really terrible for the next 20 years.

And I think that's something we all need to grapple with.

It's something that we're talking about at the board level.

It's something that I hope once we get through this first round of cuts, we can put some of our best and brightest to thinking about.

I also think that you are particularly well situated in Clackamas County to raise these questions and say, look, actually, Clackamas, we may not feel like it.

Sometimes we have really tense relationships with China.

Sometimes we're not the best of friends.

But we have actually all done a lot of work to try to get more service into Clackamas County.

And we don't want this step backward to be a retreat.

We just want it to be a step back.

And I think that can impact when Clackamas is thinking about how do they serve and support the lift customers who are impacted.

This is a literal lifeline for a lot of those folks.

So I am like, however, Clackamas County can step up is what they need to do.

But can they do that in ways that maybe don't duplicate service so that it is easy to untangle when you get to come back here in five years and rebuild service even better.

Right.

That's my that is my vision.

It's like how do we come back out of this?

Um can they think about uh okay we're gonna run this shuttle here, which is gonna keep these kids still understanding the concept of a bus and still used to getting around on a bus as part of the way they get around.

Um gonna serve that and then you know ready to shift that when TriMet can come back in and TriMet can run that on a full 40 foot bus instead of a smaller, you know, something smaller.

So I think I guess my ask um is that you can help remind Clackamas of the work that the county and all of your counterparts and cities across the county of the work that you've done together to get us here that we've done together to get us here, and let's this is bad times.

Let's not build something in this moment of bad times that keeps us from coming back.

Um I don't know what that is.

That's what we're as soon as we have a chance to take a breath, that's what we're thinking about.

I think that what would be very helpful for um for our records in our jurisdictions across BlackMass County would be that as you deliver this maybe also put in suggestions of like these are some of the adbacks that you can keep in mind as policymakers for the next five to ten years.

These are some of the things that you can be advocating for that offset these cuts because the we don't want these to be permanent.

Yeah, um, we don't as a region that supports transit, and we don't as individual entities that you know work hope collaboratively together in our best days.

In our best days, yeah, that this you know this is like the poorest I am really really like it.

I just my job.

I just I want to I I absolutely agree with you 100%, and you said it very well, and and I just agree so much, and I also just want to just share too, and I don't necessarily know how much you know, but TriMet does fund um Clackamas County for some of the shuttles working with Glackamas County, Christina Babcock with Clackamas County, Smart or some of the other smaller entities to help connect them to TriMet service and also to fill the gaps from here you know in their areas.

But I think it's something for us to take back to even ping Christina to say, hey, we heard some more um some feedback from Milwaukee, you know, how can we continue to work together?

And trust me when I say there has been a lot of creative energy, Grant and Tom on the team really like smart.

Could you take this part while we take this?

And yeah, and really working together because it I mean that's that's what our tax taxpayers expect of us like so your comments are absolutely uh well taken.

I want to just say also that um with the last three general managers of drawing I've made it my mission to work closely with Clackamas County actually a year and a half ago when we had connected Westland and all news in Lynn's County just to say that it is my priority to put more service in Glackamas County when we brought the line 76 to Westland.

I think the clear picture is as we continue to work with lawmakers, all of us, is to really start telling the story on how funding mechanism to be able to put more transit on into the areas.

And I think what we're doing now is really having that we've put a strategic plan together that we will leave with you as well.

And how we fold it.

I mean just quick like wrap-up.

Um unless you want to.

Well, just and just so you all know.

So we took the proposal that um uh the full proposal out to the public early January, um, went through all the rigor um of public outreach for, and we have heard a lot.

Again, I think Grant made mention we mailed it out to 20 uh quarter of a million people, um, and we have been doing a lot of outreach, much like you, we've been out in front of you taking questions from elected officials and really getting out in the community.

Um so that is underway, and all of that has been informing what Grant and team are going to be releasing to the public next week.

And so um a lot of work we have read every we have someone on our team who has read every comment in and has developed that um set of feedback that Grant and his team have been working on to really inform our uh our proposal.

8100 respondents, 5500 comments.

Again, we read every one of them.

Some some of the top themes that I wanted to share were you with you were about impact to work trips.

So really understanding that what impacts my work trip and longer wait times.

And I don't necessarily know if you know this, but one of the things that we know what builds ridership is frequency.

If you don't have to think about it, that's when we have hit the sweet spot for when people will just take uh TriMet.

Um, so uh one of the other comments, and just because we're dealing with some heavy stuff right now, one of the uh comments that made us warm inside was just the general appreciation for TriMed.

And I share that with you because of of all the things this people were saying, good and bad, one of the good things that they did share was just their appreciation for the service.

So I want to share that.

So all this feedback is being refined again, grant and team, and that proposal will go out next week.

So just kind of looking at the timeline.

We do have a board listing session um where folks were inviting people to come before our board on uh March 18th to um to just give testimony.

We then have our first reading uh March 25th, and there's a public hearing is at that as well.

Our board then takes a vote on in April, and then we move and implement all the changes in that proposal uh barring any changes by August 23rd.

So um, and then uh as Grant said there's still more bad news ahead.

We will go out this fall with our next round, probably uh third week in September is when we'll launch that to the public.

So we've talked to a number of between four thousand and what we're doing.

Well yeah, we're um right now we're in Salem, we're having lots of questions or uh conversations with lawmakers as the session is coming to an end.

Um we have really been working with them to figure out transit funding, right?

We've obviously we have heard, you know, with 200 plus people signing uh a referendum to put it on the ballot, that there is obviously less of an appetite for more taxes.

Um we have been pushing a bill, uh HP 4008 to put together a transit funding task force.

So we'll see where that lands, um, bringing a broad group of folks and electeds, business folks together to um to talk about what is a mechanism to further fund transit.

And when I say fund transit, it's not just TriMET, it's transit districts across Oregon.

So this isn't just a TriMet issue.

Um, but then also in parallel is the governor setting up a visioning task force around transportation.

Um Director Frisbee uh has been tasked to sit on that committee, which we're very grateful for.

So um I think that we're helpful in one or the other, or both working together, um, but that we know that we need to get more support from around the state, from electeds, from business people, um, to to figure that out.

And I think that with all of us understanding the taxes that we pay in Oregon, I think it now more than ever it's trying to find out what could work and what would work.

So trying to bring more voices to the table around that funding mechanism.

So we'll see what happens.

And I think to your point, um, you know, that is when we look at the next five to ten years, um, in the same way that the transportation revenue is not meeting the needs of a lot of our road system, yeah.

The way that we fund transit is not meeting the transit needs, and our transit needs are also changing.

I mean, I think COVID has shifted the way that people are interacting with actually almost every part of their urban landscape.

And uh we have to figure that out.

Um that's something that is part of our job is how do we how do we serve people?

Um I really one of our uh policy and planning leads talks about you know if people used to take trimet to work five days a week.

Um we met 100% of their community needs.

If they only go into the office three days a week now, they take TriMet all three of those days.

We're still meeting 100% of their needs, but our writership looks really different.

Yeah, um we have to figure out how do we meet and serve people.

Um the funding challenge is really significant.

The way we are funded now will not let us build a transit system that this region deserves and this region wants, and so that is something we need to work on in Salem.

Um we frankly, I don't know that I guess we I ask for your help going down to Salem and helping them understand how critical this is.

Yeah, um we need your help coming together as a region, getting all of our folks, all of our partners at the table to think about what do we really want?

Um, how do we figure out how this is gonna work?

Um, because we don't want to be here now, and we don't want to be doing this again.

Um, and so there will be a shift.

Um, what we're doing right now is not what we're gonna do.

Like if it is what we're doing in five years, we're in a we're all the card.

Um, and so that is to say I think we're at a time where all of our creative brains are needed.

We're all gonna have to think about this differently.

Um, and we are asking for your help um and your support as we start to work through this.

So and why would there even be any question in Salem about HB 4008?

I mean that is what they do in Salem is create task forces to send things.

Why would they not?

Why would why is is there some doubt of that about that passing?

Okay, okay.

It comes in a nominal cost, right?

To run task force.

There's their staff, sure.

There's staff and administrative costs associated with that.

Nothing's free.

I just want to thank you.

Um I want to let you know to it's starting internal to the organization.

So I am leading the executive team, and we're gonna race the internal portion of the organization to live within our means, um, meaning that the revenues that are coming in, we're gonna raise as an agency to live there.

So we'll have a more sliver organization.

Um we're gonna be more effective.

Um I'm asking the folks to do more with less um as we move forward.

So you'll you'll be hearing a little bit about that changes that are coming uh for this fiscal year budget, this next fiscal year budget that'll be taken to the board here in March.

We take our budget by FY27 to the board on March 25th.

So you'll you'll see a significant decrease in our budget as we move forward because Moin, I can't ask you to take cuts and and not take your audience on a trauma.

So that's the first piece of it.

And then as they talk about the 10% uh service cut, it's it's kind of last among most of the things we're gonna try to go out and look at every avenue that we can look at to have with the board and and with others to minimize the cuts to the community because we're about people, and they can cheer that people get offers funds, and that's the last thing that we want to do is to be able to do that, and then again our internal piece we're we're looking at a 99 million dollar cut internal to the organization along with the service reductions that that you'll see for next year.

So again, trying to right size our expenses to the revenues that we are bringing in.

So we are we're we're very steep.

Um so that's gonna change, and we're gonna run a little bit out in the next year.

So thank you all.

Uh really appreciate your time tonight.

Well, thank you guys for coming coming to our meeting and uh bring another inner bringing her the reality of child care in America is that she comes to a lot of public meetings.

And I don't think it's been since the orange line but we certainly shouldn't wait 10 more years.

I know that we met you at the community college I think that's exactly it.

Okay.

Any last questions before they go one last thing that I'll say um I know I talked to you about this a bit John as you were coming around talking about cuts but I'd love for us to have a follow-up conversation.

We talked about this a little bit in our SDC conversation but what are some of the things that we can do to encourage transit oriented development ridership PSU has done some great studies that show when we build places and areas that have transit service who generate rides and I think to your point Counselor Stafford there's a lot of a five year horizon of things that we can do and starting that now in our city I think would be a good role model for the rest of Clackmut in the region.

I know I can offer in my day job I run the Institute of Metropolitan Studies at PSU and if we could help host like a couple of PSU faculty and then TriMet staff and whoever from the city to do some planning or workshops or something.

I'll say also guilty president that we we have a whole TLU team at Tronet we're building our 204 apartment condo at our Hollywood station currently now that we're working with and one of the things that's really admirable about Tromat we have built quite a few different locations in the region and we could definitely partner with you and have those conversations.

Well Tyler's got the experience we got a lot too the TOD team is great.

Yeah yeah we've actually developed more affordable houses than some of the entities that are test with doing it totally okay well thank you very much 6 30