Commissioner Steve Novick Says He'll Run Again Next Year

Portland Mercury:

No surprises here, but worth noting: No one's giving up their chair on the Portland City Council dais willingly, if at all, next year. Commissioner Steve Novick told the Portland Tribune yesterday he, like Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Amanda Fritz, plans to run for re-election in 2016. "There are a number of issues I'm working on, any one of which could keep me busy until 2017 and beyond," Novick wrote in an email to a Tribune reporter. You can easily guess the first one Novick listed. Since he was handed the Portland Bureau of Transportation in mid-2013, he's had to pour much of his energy into the debate over finding millions in new money to help fix Portland roads. When we talked to Novick at the outset of his tenure as transportation commissioner, he shied from claiming much expertise but had clearly been boning up. He's since become a chief evangelist for the city's cracked roads—it's pretty clearly the issue most voters will remember him for, come election time—but has struggled to gain enough believers to make the sermon count. Beginning last spring, Novick and Hales put forth several options for new taxes or fees that would salve the city's roads, but repeatedly withdrew them amid questions and dissatisfaction from different camps. Then, earlier this year, they put the whole process on hold while the legislature considers increased transportation funding. The street fee discussion won Novick both affection and frustration from lefty groups, who liked that the commissioner was touting the benefits of a progressive income tax to fix roads, but were rankled when he didn't follow through. Anyway, the street fee's the biggie. But Novick this term has also delighted in chastising the Oregonian's editorial board. He's gone against the grain by advocating slashing police funding (including gasp a suggestion we chop the mounted patrol), and as the commissioner in charge of emergency management he badly wants you to bolt your house to the ground. Read Novick's lengthy, far-ranging (later school start times?) list of things he hopes to tackle in a second term after the jump. There are a number of issues I'm working on, any one of which could keep me busy until 2017 and beyond. In no special order: (1) We need to figure out a way to pay for transportation maintenance and safety. If we do not, the city will gradually die as the street network crumbles. And we need to build sidewalks and safer crossings in areas where it's now dangerous for kids to walk to school and seniors to walk to transit stops. I obviously hope that we will adopt a transportation tax or fee by the end of 2016, but assuming we succeed, I would want to be around to make sure the money goes to the right places. (2) we need regulations requiring that unreinforced masonry buildings, which are major safety hazards in an earthquake, be retrofitted. And we need to help identify some ways for owners of such buildings to access the money they need to do this expensive work. We have task forces working on those issues now, and I hope we will have something in place by next year, but if we don't I'd like to see it through. (3) this is outside the city's control, but the city has a keen interest in it: I am spending some time trying to build support for the school districts to start high school classes no earlier than 9 a.m. Research shows that teenagers just can't get to sleep until at least 11 and need 9 hours of sleep. When they don't get enough sleep, they have a hard time learning; they overeat (which makes them less healthy, which drives up health care costs, which hurts the economy) and they get into more car accidents (which concerns this transportation commissioner). Some researchers also believe that later start times would reduce crime. (Less time in the afternoon to get into trouble, and sleep-deprived people do dumb things). This could require a long community conversation; being on the Council gives me a bully pulpit. (4) assuming the legislature allows us to use inclusionary zoning as a tool to require developers to build some affordable units, I want to be sure we take advantage of that. Crafting the rules would take time. (5) we are working toward having either bus rapid transit or light rail in the southwest corridor and on Powell / Division out to Gresham, both of which are critical to reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, but I don't know that we will be assured of success by late 2016. (One reason I really want inclusionary zoning authority is that I don't want the new transit lines to just be tools for gentrification.) (6) we need to fix up the Portland Building (see my email earlier) so that it doesn't leak and will survive an earthquake. (7) hope that by 2016 we will have a system in place to better coordinate public and private utility work in the streets, but it would be nice to see that in action for a while and see how much money we save. (8) right now when 911 gets a medical call we send fire and ambulances out as a matter of course and most times the ambulance takes people to the emergency room (and insurance pays them to do so, which gives them an incentive to maximize the number of ER trips). In some jurisdictions - including Reno, Nevada, where I'm going tomorrow morning - when a medical call cones to 911, they ask a couple questions to determine if the person is in immediate danger, and if not, they might put you on the phone with a nurse, who might conclude that you would be well served by taking a cab to urgent care or something. We are interested in exploring that kind of system in order to get people appropriate care and reduce health care costs by avoiding unnecessary, expensive ER visits. It's something we'd need to develop in partnership with the County, and it could take a while. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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