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Portland Mayor Charlie Hales' and Commissioner Steve Novick's plan for more street funding includes 59 new positions at the Bureau of Transportation.

(Brad Schmidt/The Oregonian)

Update: This post has been updated with new information after The Oregonian reviewed public documents headed to the City Council for consideration next week. Read the business proposal and the residential proposal.



The Portland Bureau of Transportation plans to hire up to 59 full-time-equivalent employees, and the city's revenue division expects to add 22 full-time-equivalent positions as part of a $46 million annual transportation tax.

That's significantly more employees than the city said it needed six months ago under a plan that would have raised more money.

The costs for the new positions have not been released publicly. But adding 59 positions to the Transportation Bureau would increase its staffing by 8 percent.

City officials buried the job numbers in a packet of documents shared Monday when Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick announced their new funding plan.

The Oregonian asked the Transportation Bureau for more information about the new positions – including per-position costs, total costs and job assignments – on Wednesday. A spokesman has yet to provide the information.

City officials have already outlined their plan for the new positions.

Next week, the City Council will consider a plan that includes 49 positions for safety- and maintenance-related work. Eight positions would be allotted for engineering. Up to two positions would be created for administration.

That matches the 59 positions that officials listed in materials released Monday.

The city now says it will create 14 full-time-equivalent positions for revenue collections tied to the business portion of the street tax. The city also wants to create eight revenue-collection positions for the residential portion. That matches the 22 positions listed in Monday's documents.

Portland's transportation funding plan would impose income taxes on residents and flat fees on businesses. In the first six years of the plan, Portland expects to net an annual average of $33.8 million for transportation work – 74 percent of gross revenues.

The projected new positions mark a significant increase from those announced in May, when the City Council considered a plan what would have netted about $40 million a year.

According to that plan – later shelved by the City Council – the city would have added 25 positions.

Of those, 23 full-time-equivalent positions would have been created to "provide direct implementation of safety and maintenance work." Up to two positions would have been created to administer the fee.

The May plan made no reference that any more than 25 employees would be needed, under any scenario.

Dylan Rivera, a spokesman for the Transportation Bureau, said in an email Friday that officials didn't account for all the necessary positions in May because they weren't working from a detailed project list.

Of the 34 proposed positions beyond the initial 25, Rivera said: 13 are for paving, 10 for sidewalks, eight for engineering and three for signs.

Rivera did not respond to other questions. This post will be updated when the Transportation Bureau provides more answers.

Documents for next week's City Council meeting will be released publicly later Friday. Employment numbers are part of those documents.

City officials estimate that money from the street tax could generate 143 private-sector jobs.

-- Brad Schmidt