Acceptance Speech for AMPO Regional Leader of the Year Award: September
2012
Thank you very much for this incredible honor. And thanks to my colleagues at
Metro who nominated me, and did a very good job of keeping this a secret!
I see this as an award for asking awkward questions, and for knowing when to clear
the way, and for knowing when to get out of the way.
My habit of asking awkward questions (why, daddy, but, why?) led to study and
work in the sciences, then to neighborhood and civic activism and on into a political
career. Somewhere along the way I learned the important lesson of leadership—its
not enough just to question but one must create a vision, learn to communicate this
vision clearly and compellingly and to ask others for help.
My agency, Metro in Portland, Oregon, has a reputation for innovation, leadership
and controversy. Yet, despite spearheading regional land use planning,
comprehensive recycling and light rail, until I got elected we pretty much planned
and put together our RTPs and MTIPs like everyone else—collect a list, collate and
print it then divvy up the dough. And heaven help anyone who got between a mayor
and his pet project! Not everyone was happy but it was a comfortable groove.
Enter this asker of awkward questions. Being a community activist and not a
professional planner or administrator I didn’t know that it was enough to have a
world-class model (designed by rocket scientists at Los Alamos, no less!). So I asked
why. Why do we spend our money the way we do when we are getting results we
don’t like? Like growing traffic congestion, sprawl and collapsing rates of kids
walking and biking to school.?
So, I asked why. And, because I was now able to open some doors (and some budget
amendments) we went to the public and asked them directly: We collectively spend
over $700 Million of your money every year on transportation: are you getting what
you want?
What do you think their reaction was? You’re right. “What?”
They had never been asked this question before. Whether they were a business
person, a planner, a public health professional, a community activist—they had
never thought about why we built what we built. We just did it. And that’s when
something marvelous happened. I got out of the way.
The great staff at Metro rose to this challenge and figured out how to ask these
challenging questions in ways that were accessible and productive. In the end we
discovered a revolutionary but common sense way to move forward into a future
full of challenges like peak oil, climate change, declining revenues and skepticism
about government.
Through a series of guided discussions with a wide range of people, followed up
with surveys that confirmed our findings we found that the public actually knew
how we should be spending their money. There was amazing agreement on a set of
fundamental outcomes based on shared values:
1. a strong economy, so that they can take care of their families
2. a system that is safe and promotes good health
3. clean air and clean water, including taking action on climate change
4. choice in how they travel, and
5. transparency, engagement and accountability in spending their money
I knew enough by now in my career to just step out the way when my brilliant staff,
after a few deep breaths, dove into turning these outcomes into policies and criteria
to guide design of our transportation system and our investment priorities, creating
what I believe is the first outcomes-based RTP in the country. Thanks to them.
And I knew how to clear the way for them by securing additional funding for this
work, by deflecting criticism (“just send them to me if they have questions”) and by
reassuring, motivating or sometimes outmaneuvering those who were reluctant to
make the inevitable changes such a restructuring required.
What does this mean to you, leaders in regional problem solving from throughout
this country? The old days are long gone when MPOs could be satisfied with
bringing order to the chaos of a growing country’s transportation system. When we
could focus on LOS and v over c ratios and pretend that moving people and goods
were issues independent of the communities and societies we live in. The world is a
much more complicated place, or maybe, we are just asking the right questions.
The agenda of this conference reflects that increasing complexity and the increasing
maturity of MPOs and AMPO, as we recognize the unique role we play in our
communities. Every time we update our long range RTPs, we are charged with
looking at the big picture, and for looking into the future. We must take our
responsibility seriously, be leaders who dare to ask the awkward questions, that
open doors to ignored communities and ignored issues. We owe it to our people,
and we owe it to ourselves.
Thank you again for this great honor.