A look inside the Mayor’s Transportation Cabinet

Chris Smith, Streetcar

Jason Tell, ODOT

Scott Bricker, BTA

Rex Burkholder, Metro

Mark Ginsberg, Lawyer

Sue Keil, PBOT

Besides bike boulevards, another component of Mayor Sam Adams’ “First 100 Day Action Plan” that caught my eye was his promise to form a Transportation Cabinet.

Here’s the the official language:

“Appoint a Transportation Cabinet

–Establish cabinet, including representatives from labor, business, regional government partners, community stakeholders, non-profit organizations and academia.”

I ran into Adams’ Transportation Policy Director Catherine Ciarlo in City Hall yesterday and asked her who was on the cabinet. Below is a list of people that have been selected:

Andre Baugh
Transportation Consultant/Diversity and Project Manager, Group AGB Ltd.

Richard “Buzz” Beetle
Laborers’ Local 483

Scott Bricker
Executive Director, Bicycle Transportation Alliance

Rex Burkholder
Metro Councilor, District 5 (Portland)

John Carroll
Developer/Managing Director, Carroll Investments

Steve Clark
President/Publisher, Pamplin Media Group (Portland Tribune)

Corky Collier
Executive Director, Columbia Corridor Association

Judy Craine
Chair, Oregon Restaurant Association

Mike Dennis
Willamette Pedestrian Coalition

Marianne Fitzgerald
SW Neighborhoods

Mark Ginsberg
Lawyer and former Chair of City Bicycle Advisory Committee

Greg Goodman
President, City Center Parking
Jay Graves
Owner, Bike Gallery
Rick Gustafson
Director, Portland Streetcar, Inc.
Charlie Hales
Former City of Portland Transportation Commissioner
Tom Imeson
Public Affairs Director, Port of Portland
Sue Keil
Director, Portland Bureau of Transportation
Todd Borkowitz
Willamette Pedestrian Coalition
Richard Ross
Hosford Abernethy Neighborhood Development (HAND)
Bob Russell
Oregon Truckers Association
John Russell
President, Russell Development Company
Chris Smith
Chair, Portland Streetcar Citizen Advisory Committee
Kevin Spellman
City of Portland Bureau of Transportation Audit Committee
Jason Tell
Region 1 Manager, Oregon Department of Transportation

According to Shoshanah Oppenheim, who works on Transportation Policy with Ciarlo, this cabinet will meet quarterly (and will likely be called together for “special issues”). She also pointed out that this group is much smaller than the 80-90 member cabinets that have been put together to focus on Education and Planning.

The reason for that, says Oppenheim, is because Mayor Adams already has an 89 member stakeholder committee left over from his attempted “Safe, Sound and Green Streets” (SSG) funding measure that he withdrew back in November. Oppenheim told me today that Adams will re-convene that committee to continue their work to find ways to fund transportation projects and maintenance.

This new Transportation Cabinet will be tasked with taking a higher-level look at transportation issues; things like how City of Portland policies mesh with state transportation guidelines, coordination of the City’s legislative efforts, advising the Mayor on conversations with TriMet and Portland Streetcar, and even weighing in on Portland’s transportation funding prospects on the Federal level.