Portland street fee hearing

PORTLAND, OREGON - June 25, 2014 - A public hearing was held Wednesday night for people to give input to city leaders on the residential street fee proposal. Mayor Charlie Hales (shown here), City Commissioner Steve Novick and Portland Bureau of Transportation director Leah Treat heard testimony. Stephanie Yao Long/The Oregonian

(Stephanie Yao Long)

UPDATE: This post was updated with additional reaction from Hales and Fish.

After several weeks of postponing a vote on a charter amendment measure related to a controversial and yet-to-be adopted street fee Portland Mayor Charlie Hales decided to put his idea "on the shelf" indefinitely.

In an interview with The Oregonian, Hales acknowledged the charter amendment was confusing to residents and business owners considering a street fee hadn't been enacted. "There's more confusion than reassurance," Hales said of the charter amendment, which would've mandated a majority of street fee funds be spent on safety and maintenance work.

Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick first floated the charter amendment proposal in late May, and the ballot measure was first scheduled for a City Council vote on June 4 along with their proposed street fee on residents and businesses. Only voters can amend the city's charter.

The proposed ballot language was tweaked between the first delay on June 4 and the proposal that Hales removed from the City Council agenda on Thursday. Weeks ago, Commissioner Amanda Fritz proposed making the language stronger and requiring 8/10 of revenue go to maintenance and safety. But Hales' staffers said the language in Fritz's proposal was too precise for a charter amendment.

In a press release, Hales said the confusion was "muddying the real message" of addressing the city's crumbling roads.

Thursday's announcement has no bearing on the street fee timeline. Advisory groups will be formed and meet in the coming months to discuss ways to improve the fee, or another funding tool, that would raise up to $50 million annually. City Council is expected to vote on a new plan in November.

In an interview, Commissioner Nick Fish applauded Hales' decision. "I'm pleased the mayor withdrew the charter amendment," he said. "I agree with him that it was confusing. I was planning to vote no because I thought we were putting the cart before the horse."

Hales said Thursday that the city faced a July 2 deadline to pass the charter amendment language and put it before voters in November.

He said the November election was the target, but he admitted to assuming the city would want the charter amendment in place because a street fee would've been adopted by council in June.

But a nearly six hour public hearing on the street fee and hundreds of emails filling City Hall inboxes in late May, Hales and Novick decided to pull the street fee vote itself ahead of a June 4 vote.

When asked if he regretted the handling of the charter amendment process, Hales said he was sorry people were confused. "The only thing I'm sorry about is that people keep looking for my ulterior motives in proposing the charter amendment," he added.

The mayor said the charter amendment was a response, in part, to a city poll conducted earlier this year. In the street maintenance poll, released in April, respondents were more likely to support a street fee if they had assurances the City Council's spending would be restricted.

The document pulled on Thursday provided new definitions for safety and maintenance projects. The new language included crosswalks, safety beacons bicycle lanes, but also projects such as "removing vegetation to improve visibility, enforcement mechanisms such as speed enforcement equipment and driver education."

Now the charter amendment will be tabled until at least November, when the City Council is expected to vote on a street fee or other funding mechanism to pay for road safety and maintenance work. Hales and his staff will continue to refine the language and return in November after a street fee -- or other funding plan -- is approved. "I still believe that people will want that reassurance," Hales said.

He said voters may trust this version of the City Council to spend money from the street fee or another funding mechanism on road work, but other future councils may be a different story. Hales believes once a fee is approved, voters will want assurances written into the city charter. "That demand will erupt when the fee is real rather than something that we're discussing and arguing about," he added.

-- Andrew Theen