Video of Me with CVTV

http://old.cityofvancouver.us/cvtv/cvtvarchive2/Election_Programming/2013_Events/Primary_Election_Coverage/Primary_Video_Voters_Guide/Vancouver_City_Council_Position_1/4_Brian_Joseph_Smith_VVG.mp4

Enjoy

Brian

Budgets

Citizens pay a great amount of tax, to support systems like schools and city government, libraries and public services.  I would like to find a way to get colleges to help drive technology advancements and possibly management to merge some budgets.  We are in an age of Technology that we can really minimize some workflow and administrative process.  Lets be creative and use those to our advantage allowing the majority of our money to be available for people focused on their duties of protecting and educating.  We should also be able to find ways to combine budgets for Insurance, technology integration, communications, supplies, third party research, council and more.  I am working on this direction today with Washington State University Civil Engineering department and the completion of sidewalks along Evergreen Highway.

NTSA

I was at City Council on July 8th, just to listen...

Two members of another Neighborhood Association (Marrion) came to City Council to stress their request for a sidewalk along NE 104th from Mill Plain North.  This is a very busy area, with a Wal- Mart right next door.  For 10 years they have been requesting updates and planning on a sidewalk.

The City's answer:  That the Marrion NA should work with the NTSA on getting into a approval process to be funded.  I agree with that part.

The City manager then went on to say that the NTSA gets $100,000 per year from the City to work with.  Seems generous right,   however with just over 60 Neighborhood associations wanting to lobby for this money, it leaves many of us in disbelief that our projects will ever get funded.

I truly believe the City needs to find ways to increase this to a minimum of $1,000,000 per year as we (Amy Asivido and myself) were told over 10 years ago at City Council by the then City Manager.  If you read my "why" this is back to square one, the NTSA was not getting $1,000,000 per year from the City......

How do we find this money to support the Neighborhoods?

- Try to get the City to negotiate with the County for more revenue from Property Tax?  When was the last time the City tried to negotiate that?

Is Light Rail Fiscally Responsible?

I spent some time doing research on some of the nations transportation systems, specifically Light Rail.  If People are wondering why our roads are not maintained, look at this beast of a financial burden.  Portland strikes me as the most upside down, closing schools and public resources to contribute upwards of $240,000,000 per year to a light rail system from local Employment tax.  We are raised to spend wisely, not over extend ourselves, and be responsible citizens, it does not take an economics degree to clearly see these Light Rail systems is not Fiscally Responsible.

Transportation financials

C-Tran –

http://www.c-tran.com/assets/CAFR/C-TRAN_2011_CAFR.pdf

Looking for 2012

2011 shows going from a $500,000 loss to almost $6.9M (I believe this was for the purchase of some new buses, pretty reasonable price tag)

TriMet –

http://trimet.org/pdfs/publications/2012-audited-financial-statements.pdf
$488M in operating revenue (includes local income tax contribution of $248M)

$65M loss in operating costs before capital contributions

$134M in capital contributions

Phoenix
http://www.valleymetro.org/images/uploads/lightrail_publications/Rail_CAFR_12.18.12FINAL.pdf
$31M in operating revenue

$47M loss before capital contributions

$27M in capital contributions

$19M asset depreciation (-1.7%)

Los Angeles

Not online – I have on CD. LA does not separate out Light rail from the rest of their transportation system.

Denver
http://www.rtd-denver.com/PDF_Files/Financial_Reports/2012Comprehensive_Annual_Financial_Report.pdf

$118M in operating revenue

$489M operating loss 2012

$311M in capital contributions

Sacramento (all transportation)

http://www.sacrt.com/budget.stm

$136M in operating Revenue

$27M loss before state and federal contributions. This one is an anomaly and asset appreciation after the state and federal contributions.

Dallas

http://www.dart.org/ShareRoot/debtdocuments/FY2012ComprehensiveAnnualFinancialReport.pdf

$80M operating Revenue

$227M operating loss

$197M in capital contributions

Philadelphia

http://www.septa.org/reports/pdf/annual-2012.pdf

$477M in operating revenue

$49M in operation loss after capital and federal contributions

-$161M in asset loss

Proposal to Vancouver City Council June 24th 2013

Good Evening Mayor and Council.  I would like to discuss the Old Evergreen Highway Neighborhood Association and the federal grant we received for building a sidewalk.  With $925,000 ready to go, we are only short the $140,000 for engineering.  We have raised about $70,000 and still need another $70,000 and its looking bleak.

Two weeks ago I listened to the council commend local groups working together to cut costs and save money.  I would like to take that a step forward with the proposed sidewalk project.  I’m wondering if the City will support OEHNA working with Washington State Civil Engineering department to help with the required studies.  Additionally oversight review and stamp from the chosen PE firm Berger ABAM who have done extensive studies already.  David Sacamamo and I are meeting tomorrow to move this forward and give Professor Dave Pallack the requested information.  Professor Pallack stated as long as we meet three of the four required criteria they would fit this project into the Fall schedule for a 4 student senior project.  The proposed trail will meet all 4 of the requirements according to ABAM.

Will the city support this proposal, and will the city please help outline any requirements to fulfill.

I would also like to understand if the approved design can have an extended vesting from City planning so that if we can not complete 100% of it in 5 years, that we do not have to come back to the drawing board like the last time design was planned and engineered prior to 1996.   I would like to propose a 20 year vesting period so that we can limit use of resources required the future as we try and complete the trail.

Thank you in advance for the consideration, this will save us around $100,000 or more and we can use the excess revenue towards the trail project in other ways or help fund a program at WSU. 

Lets take advantage of WSU, ABAM and hopefully the City generosity and move this project forward.

Thank you, and I hope to have an answer by next Monday to make sure I do not affect Professor Pallacks timeline to make sure our project gets fit in.

_____

Update from City Council meeting - Funding for the initial build is 100% complete with the federal contribution and City contribution to help with Engineering and permits in kind.  We only need to find an in kind solution for the Engineering of 3 miles more of trail...

More to come

Approved City of Vancouver Land swap with BNSF

On June 17th, the Vancouver City Council approved a land swap with BSNF to make way for an easement for high speed rail from Seattle to Eugene,  however no one asked exactly what Vancouver get’s in return other than land of equal value.

Wouldn't it be prudent to think or ask if BNSF might have plans to upgrade their bridge and limit that bottleneck too?

Whether Freight, Amtrack, high-speed rail or Light rail, they all have the same principles of engineering, where grade is concerned.

If light rail where to come to Vancouver, why not one of the conditions in the land swap to have BNSF leave an easement for light rail. This would allow our community to improve our train station using the new starts funding from the federal government.

Check this article out: http://couv.com/crc-light-rail-project/third-bridge

Instead everyone let the crooks at the CRC believe bringing light rail over I5 was the only feasible option. Crooks are people that do not have accountability of accounting, the CRC exemplified that.

I’m blown away at the waste of resources and lack of foresight or willingness to have public, private and federal transportation work together to find a means of success to improve the Oregon and Washington transportation system.  If light rail was not the driving factor to move forward, construction of a new vehicle bridge could be commencing forward by 2014.  Citizens would have their jobs, Vancouver would keep its historic and growing appeal, Portland would get what they want more light rail debt, i guess.

Interesting right?

Coast Guard hearing - June 5th 2013

Another moment where I’m not a politician, simply a concerned citizen with questions and feel there should be better direction.  Being nervous was not my intent, thus I did not read my statement, instead spoke clumsily from the heart.   

Only one gentleman touched on the law that summarizes no bridge shall limit commerce upstream. 

Here is what I wanted to say, however Brian Dunn chief of the Coast Guard office asked that we focus the comments on why the proposed project would hinder commerce or not abide by coast guard regulations.

My name is Brian Joseph Smith, I would like you to think about a couple items that are questions I’m still asking to help with direction and vision.  Not all pertain to Coast Guard regulations, but offer some insight to the lack of clear vision the CRC has offered

CRC spent 170M and the only example of the projects vision is a document or online 3-D video?  Where is that 3D scale model for people to get a real visual of the proposed project including BNSF and the port effected area’s We spent so much on Library children's toys, and some have little function. A scale model could have been built with the ability to incorporate change options over time and offer information like History…

Why has the CRC made this project dependant on Light rail?  Why not focus on getting traffic away from I-5 corridor and the heart of Portland.  What about building west, direct routes to Hwy 30, Portland NW industrial, and Beaverton.  Gas and power Utilities use these routes to help with diversity of their routes and increase access.  They go form Vancouver directly to Beaverton, why not People. 

Also the CRC seems to be unable to offer clear accounting of where the $170 million was spent, does that seem reasonable to you?

Even if there were 5 lanes across I5, what happens at Delta Park or the Rose Quarter, there are still only two lanes and no talks of making changes on their planning as documented through 2030.

On Monday June 3^rd the City passed a motion to do a land swap with BNSF.  This is to vacate Lincoln street between 11^th and 12^th to make room to support high speed rail.  Wouldn’t it be reasonable that if BNSF has plans to make changes to their rail system, which will most likely include a new bridge in the future that if light rails was to come to Vancouver it could use the same route.  Vancouver operates the third busiest train station in Washington and there is plenty of room for development and construction without demolition or any inconvenience to the citizens or business that use the current I-5 system and highway 14.  The estimated amount of job loss and commerce effected is mute if the Bridge and improvements were built west. Here is an opportunity for private money to work with public on a billion dollar project. Again I’m not for light rail, however since it would be government subsidized, wouldn't it be reasonable that it connect with the other government subsidized facility Amtrack ?

From the 3-5 Billion dollar estimate budget for the project, how much of that is towards deconstruction or paying off large businesses so they can move?  Building a bridge to the West will not have that adverse effect.

Everyone wants a new bridge everyone wants jobs, and the major hold up was light rail and where mass transit systems should be.  The biggest factor I see with the CRC proposal is the finances don’t work, especially considering one third is funded by tolls. The mayor suggests studies show light rail is lower cost to support over time for tax paying citizens. However he did not factor the toll fee burden to local residents, including citizens going to Oregon for work.

I want to see Vancouver as a smart city with clear direction and vision.  My name is Brian Joseph Smith and I’m running for City Council.  And I would like to encourage you tonight to deny the current CRC project as proposed.