Transcript of the 2018 State of the City Address by Mayor Denny Doyle 

Good Morning!

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for starting your day in Beaverton.  What a great turnout.  I hope you are enjoying breakfast – provided by our great partner, the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce…Lorraine Clarno and team…raise your hands to be recognized.

This year we decided to do something a little different. More conversation, less speechifying.

My remarks this morning will be brief, and we will have a very short video, which I hope you will find somewhat entertaining, and then we will get back to networking with friends.

First, I would like to thank my City Councilors for yet another great year.  We worked hard, adopting over 260 agenda bills; held 51 Council and urban renewal meetings; 45 staff presentations; 33work sessions; and, unanimously passed a $287 million dollar budget - which includes $73 million in contingencies and reserves -- that’s 25% if my math serves me correctly.  

Council President Lacey Beaty, Councilor Cate Arnold, Councilor Betty Bode, Councilor Mark Fagin and Councilor Marc San Soucie. Please join me in thanking them for their great work, yet again.

For me, the accomplishment I think we can be most proud of in 2017 is the work we did to prepare for our much-needed Public Safety Center.  Thank you to our residents for their generous vote of support.  We will break ground this summer and open the doors in 2020.  

I can’t be more proud of Beaverton’s stance last year on all of the sanctuary city conversations, and embracing ourselves as a welcoming city for all.  Our equity and inclusion plan is underway! Our Diversity Advisory Board continues to produce a deep bench of future leaders and has sprung to life ideas like our two night markets attended by nearly 14,000 people. Mandatory diversity training for all city employees has been implemented. We can all be proud, as a county and as cities, of what we are doing locally during this time in our Nation’s history.

Speaking of our Nation, we saw some flat out terrifying weather events in 2017, from Houston to Florida to us right here at home. Severe cold weather gripped Washington County last year, and my Homelessness Task Force came forward with an idea that received full support by our Council: joining the network of severe weather shelters countywide here in Beaverton. The need was great.  Over 200volunteers contributed nearly 1,500 hours of their time, manning the shelter for 21 nights, housing nearly 447 guests, that’s right, 447 guests right herein Beaverton. This year we expanded the shelter’s operations two additional months. We are also supporting the opening of a new family shelter this year.  

As we all know, resources are tight. As cities, we are asked to provide more and more and more services to our residents. Say what you will about federal dollars drying up, competing interests at the state level, or the tax system here in Oregon, the bottom line is those requests are outpacing our general fund revenues. I look to my friends in Hillsboro, Forest Grove, the Beaverton School District, and now Tigard having to take matters into their own hands asking for local option levies to support essential services. Here in Beaverton, 2017 was no different for us.  We worked with our utility partners, our right-of-way providers, and our hoteliers, to assist in enhancing locally contributed revenues for essential services.

Some of those additional revenues will reveal themselves as part of a robust and ADA-compliant active transportation grid for Beaverton that is more pedestrian friendly. Our staff and advisory committees are completing a new active transportation plan for Beaverton that focuses on safe routes to schools, sidewalks in our neighborhoods, bike lanes throughout the city, and, dare I say, actually connecting “smart signals” that help move us closer to the frontier of being a connected city.

Our Development Division, which we created three years ago, has been very busy with land acquisitions and the writing of what we all like to call disposition and development agreements. In Beaverton, we’ve supported the construction of more than 1,000 housing units over the last five years.  More than one-third, or 338 of those units, are affordable housing. In sum, these infill projects are something the Council and I are extremely proud to see constructed in Beaverton’s core. However, we will explore all areas of our city for affordable housing as that is critical when building a healthy city.  Our planners are focused on bringing forward more urban design standards and best practices as Beaverton transforms from a 1970-80s footprint into the 21^st century of density and vertical form.  

Finally, I need to say thank you to all of our community partners.  We have strong relationships with the Beaverton School District, THPRD, TVF&R, the County, and many more.  We could not do our job, to serve the city, without your support.  It is my strong belief that we do not reach our dreams or face our challenges alone.  We are 1 community, 1 city, and we stand beside our partners.

 With 2017 behind us, I can report the “state of our city” is as strong as ever!  As we look to 2018, I anticipate not slowing down one bit.  Full speed ahead!  Look around. This is Beaverton.  You are Beaverton.  We are Beaverton.  We need each of us to lean in.  Let’s keep rollin’!

 So, thank you for coming out this morning I hope you enjoyed seeing old friends, business colleagues and your Washington County peers. What I love most about our group is that we can sit down at a table and take on the challenging issues of the day and work together, dare I say collaboratively, in our respective attempts to do what’s best for the people we serve. With that said, I know we all like to poke a little fun at each other along the way.  My staff convinced me that poking fun at myself is no exception.  Without further ado, please enjoy the following five painful minutes of my attempt to rewrite the history of some of our most favorite movies, with a bit of a Beaverton twist….

Lights,Camera, Action!!!