191571

The City of Portland ordains: 

Section 1. The Council finds:

1. Peninsula Drainage District No. 1 (PEN 1) provides flood risk reduction and drainage services for lands within its jurisdiction by operating and maintaining levees and drainage works as authorized under ORS Chapter 547. PEN 1 is the smallest of four drainage districts responsible for operating and maintaining: the 27 miles of levees; 45 miles of sloughs, canals, ditches, and culverts; and 12 pump stations that reduce the risk of flooding along the Columbia River and Columbia Slough in urban Multnomah County.
    
2. Approximately 94% of PEN 1’s 995 acres are public lands including the Portland International Raceway (PIR), Heron Lakes Golf Course, the Portland Expo Center, and the Vanport Wetland, with small businesses making up the remaining 6%. The City owns 77% of the land in the district, including City assets and properties at the lowest elevation in the managed floodplain.
    
3. PEN 1’s primary source of revenue is through property assessments levied on property owners based on property size. Between the land zoned as open space and the number of properties that are already under Measure 5 tax compression, PEN 1 is unable to assess enough revenue to support the basic operations of the district.
    
4. Within PEN 1, there is a failing pump station that provides critical flood risk management for City assets, including PIR (“the PIR Pump Station”). The PIR Pump Station protects not only City facilities but also other properties, roads, and light-rail infrastructure. The PIR Pump Station is the only facility that pumps water out of the managed floodplain and over the levee system during heavy rain events. Its operation is vital to protect public property in PEN 1 from flooding.
    
5. The PIR Pump Station is at the end of its useful life. The structure and pumps were built in the 1950s. This pump station has experienced four major equipment failures in the past seven years, as well as multiple minor repairs, and the supportive structure itself is failing.
    
6. Current ownership of the PIR Pump Station is unclear, but the City will have no future liability for this asset. PEN 1 will assume ownership and responsibility for the new pump station once the constructed facility meets all testing criteria, it is operational, and sufficient easements or other property rights are obtained to support PEN 1’s long-term access, operations, maintenance, and capital improvement needs for the PIR Pump Station.
    
7. A PEN 1 capital project to entirely replace the PIR Pump Station, including the supporting structure, is underway, but PEN 1 expects construction of the new pump station will not be completed for at least another five years. In the interim, additional failures of the current pump station are likely.
    
8. Short-term responses to failures at the PIR Pump Station may include installation of sandbags at PIR, temporary pumping services from a third party (with a monthly cost of approximately $30,000), or replacement of failed components.
    
9. The larger of the two pumps at the PIR Pump Station is inoperable due to a broken impeller and associated parts. The conservative estimate to repair the broken parts is $130,000.
    
10. The City recognizes the benefits received from the functional operation of the PIR Pump Station and PEN 1’s ability to operate and maintain the facility. In order to support PEN 1’s ability to repair the PIR Pump Station and to ensure its continued operation, in October of 2023, the Council allocated funding through the Fall Supplemental Budget Process to support repairs and emergency response expenses (Council Ordinance 191482, adopted October 11, 2023).
     
11. The City now desires to transfer those allocated funds to PEN 1 in an initial maximum amount of $130,000, with the total amount not to exceed $220,000 over Fiscal Years 2023-24 and FY2024-25, subject to the availability of Council-allocated City funding.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:

1. The City’s Chief Administrative Officer to execute an intergovernmental agreement with PEN 1 in substantial conformance with Exhibit A, provided it has been approved as to form by the City Attorney’s Office.
2. The City’s Chief Administrative Officer or their designee is authorized to execute amendments to the scope of services or the terms and conditions of the intergovernmental agreement, provided the changes will not increase the City’s financial risk.

Section 2. The Council declares that an emergency exists because delay in providing financial support to PEN 1 would interrupt PEN 1’s ability to maintain operations, which provide substantial benefits to the City; therefore, this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage by the Council.