In the pursuit of intentional dialogue, the WAIC team developed, discussed, debated, and approved a questionnaire for Wilsonville’s Mayoral and City Council candidates. Our goal is to raise awareness of Wilsonville’s greatest diversity, equity, and inclusion gaps, and how we together might solve them.
After reading this, check out their responses on homeownership, police oversight, homelessness, and universal broadband.
Wilsonville’s South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) is nationally recognized as one of the top small city transit systems in America. Although we are fortunate locally, we lack the robust regional connections to alleviate the cost, safety, and environmental burdens on people who are most in need.
4. Do you support continued and furthered investments in SMART to grow this service and enhance regional connections? Please answer and explain.
Mayor candidates:
Ben West
Yes, I support continued funding for SMART. Our city staff works hard to make sure that regional connections are in place for everyone in our community. The city has struggled getting the needed cooperation from TriMet to make these necessary connections possible. I want to build a bridge of better collaborative relationships with our intergovernmental agency partners. As a city councilor I have always been a strong advocate for more transportation options for seniors. Especially, transportation that gets our residents to vital medical appointments.
Julie Fitzgerald
Yes, I support SMART's continued operation, and I hope for ongoing improvements to its regional connections. Currently, SMART serves most of Wilsonville, except for some areas under the control of TriMet (because SMART was established before Wilsonville's Urban Growth Boundary was expanded). Local businesses are required by law to pay a payroll tax of .5000% toward SMART's operation. If SMART were to be eliminated, TriMet would have the right to re-start operations in Wilsonville. TriMet's current billing rate is .7737% of payroll. City staff has successfully secured grants to fund energy and cost-efficient vehicles and in winning awards for their service. I led the Transit Master Plan update in 2016, and in that process, we changed some routes to make it more efficient for SMART customers to access regional connections. More progress could be made with regard to improving regional connections to shorten trips. Effective regional connections are important for people needing to access work, education, medical, and other essential services via mass transit. Though it is said to be nearly impossible to achieve, I would like to explore how SMART could be expanded into the Coffee Creek and Basalt Creek industrial areas. The benefits to Wilsonville could lower costs to businesses and local control over the routes. It may be possible for SMART to extend into the Frog Pond residential area one day. Presently, that too is a TriMet option.
City Council candidates:
Kristin Akervall
I am very proud of the work SMART does to serve the residents and employees within our community and I happily support our current and future investments in SMART. The SMART department is continually working with partners to improve service opportunities and during my time on council I have seen them try to implement new routes, and make adjustments to routes when data shows resources can better be used to serve populations in different ways.
Currently, we have three routes that make connections outside the city: the 1X Salem, 2X Tualatin Park & Ride, and 3X Canby routes. The 3X route is run in collaboration with Canby Area Transit and I believe is important in allowing for transfers to social services located in Oregon City, however, connections like this take considerable time.
The ongoing assessment that SMART participates in is needed to maximize resources, find more efficient solutions, and will ultimately produce better service for all riders. I support the investments to do this work and have confidence that they will continue to improve the services available for our community members.
Joann Linville
I do support continued and furthered investments in SMART including options for regional connections. During this time of economic downturn and restrictions placed as a result of the pandemic, it is unreasonable to ask businesses to increase payroll taxes to provide these enhancements.
The City and SMART leadership has been incredibly creative in securing grants funds and using STIF funding to expand service and make the fleet environmentally sensitive. Recent survey information has guided service availability and priority. Clearly our low income citizens will benefit from regional connections for a viable transportation option. Ongoing funding of expanded services may be dependent on securing additional funding sources in addition to employee payroll taxes.
Imran Haider
SMART has a solid foundation already built here in Wilsonville. I support further investments that make sense for our city’s use of funds. In reading studies about public transportation in the suburbs, there was a finite number of users, regardless of routes and connections. We really should look at a way to incentivize using the public system if that is what we believe is the best way to travel (considering traffic issues and the environment).
John Budiao
No response provided.
All of the candidates were provided the same timeline to respond. After multiple attempts to reach out to candidate John Budiao, we were still unable to receive any responses. We will update our website with his response should it become available.