Metro is doing a responsible job protecting land across the region for water quality, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation opportunities, an independent citizen committee said Thursday in its third report on the region's voter-approved 2006 natural areas bond measure.
The Metro Natural Areas Program has reached major milestones, the report found, surpassing the halfway point toward a goal of purchasing about 4,000 acres from willing sellers. The Natural Areas Program Performance Oversight Committee also recommended ways to fine-tune Metro’s work, such as assessing the cumulative impact of Metro’s natural areas on the region’s ecological health.
“We can see what each parcel brings to the overall region,” committee Chair Linda Craig, an accountant who is active with the Audubon Society of Portland, told the Metro Council. “Our challenge now – and it's a big one – is to see whether or not there's some way to combine all those parcels so we can see what the impact has been to the region as a whole.”
The 21-member oversight committee is charged with providing the Metro Council and the people of the region with an independent, outside review of how Metro invests the $227.4 million bond measure. Members span the region – and the finance, real estate, banking, ecology and law fields. They have been asked to share their professional expertise to ensure that bond measure spending is effective and efficient.
“The work your committee does will leave a positive mark on the people of the region,” Metro Council President Tom Hughes said Thursday, “by virtue of holding us accountable for the way we spend their money and making sure the program operates as it should.”
As of June 30, the Natural Areas Program had protected nearly 2,900 acres across the region with the 2006 bond measure and secured rights to build 2.7 miles of missing trail segments. Local cities, counties and park providers had invested half of the $44 million allotted to them to protect nature close to home. And Metro has awarded $4.7 million in Nature in Neighborhoods grants to 18 projects.
Metro's natural areas team has responded to previous suggestions from the oversight committee, such as developing performance measures for each new natural area purchase and grant project. Craig, the committee chair, said the process has been collaborative; this year, natural areas staff have already begun implementing suggestions published in the new report. Among this year’s findings:
- A new “dashboard” report tracking natural areas progress is working well, as are performance measures for individual purchases and capital grant projects. To build on this work, Metro should develop an evaluation for local projects funded by the bond measure and explore a way to assess the total impact on the region’s ecological health.
- At the committee’s suggestion, Metro recently wrote new guidelines for “stabilization” – the short-term work to stop deterioration of a property’s natural resources and put it on track for a healthy future. The committee felt Metro’s two-year timeline for this work was too rigid, and needed to be tailored to each natural area based on its condition and staff goals.
- Administrative costs account for 5.3 percent of total program expenses, falling well under the 10 percent limit required by the bond measure.
- Natural areas staff are appropriately using the “unusual circumstances” rule, which requires Metro Council approval for certain purchases – if Metro plans to pay more than the appraised value, for example. Adequate checks and balances are in place, and the policy defines a reasonable cutoff point for involving Council.
- Metro’s cash management and investment procedures are sound, and Metro should sell additional bonds by fall 2012, as planned. Metro issued $124 million in April 2007.
Metro councilors praised the oversight committee for helping Metro do the best possible job protecting the region’s natural resources. Building on the work from a previous bond measure, Metro has now put a total of 11,000 acres in public ownership.
“This land is so important to what this region will be in the future,” Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette, who represents the southern part of the region, told the committee. “And a lot of how well this program is working is through your work.”