OR: Editorial: Who should decide how some Bend transportation dollars are spent?

Where the money goes in transportation changes how we all get around. And in the greater Bend area, who decides about millions in transportation dollars may be changing.

This involves the Bend MPO, or Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization. The Bend MPO “is the lead agency for regional transportation planning and the decision-making body for federal and state transportation funding for the Bend area,” the city says.

It’s responsible for millions of dollars every year. Much of its money consists of federal dollars passed on to the city of Bend and other organizations to spend.

A simple example of what it does: The Bend MPO kicked in about $33,000 in 2021 to restart Bend’s bike share program.

A grittier example: Bend gets federal Surface Transportation Block Grant funds approved by the Bend MPO. It’s been authorized for things such as the pavement preservation in Bend, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway under crossing at Brosterhous and so on.

Now who makes those decisions?

There are currently five people on the policy board of the Bend MPO. There are three members of the Bend City Council. There is one member of the Deschutes County Commission. And there is one person representative of the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The three members of the Bend City Council get one total vote between the three of them. It’s currently Councilors Barb Campbell, Ariel Mendez and Mike Riley. The county commissioner, currently Phil Chang, and ODOT, Central Oregon Area Manager Omar Ahmed, each get one vote respectively. Two votes mean passage of a motion.

So, the power is a three-way split. One county commissioner or the ODOT representative has the same voting power as the three councilors.

The idea of changing the makeup of that policy board is being discussed. The idea is to add a vote from the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which runs the regional bus service, Cascades East Transit. The representative could be the director of Cascades East Transit or that person’s designee.

One way to implement that idea would be to reduce the number of Bend City Councilors on the policy board to two and give them each a vote — and then also add the voting member from Cascades East Transit. That has the advantage of keeping the total number of board members at an odd number, five, which helps avoid vote splits.

Bend votes would not be able to control what the board does. It would have two people on the board with voting power. Bend is arguably more impacted by the spending of the Bend MPO than either the county or ODOT.

Another aspect of this change is that it would elevate the voice and the voting power of Cascades East Transit and the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council in any debate. That person on the board could continually vote and argue for things that benefit it as an agency. The change would, in any case, grow its power.

We are not sure if that is something to worry about. Bus transit is not exactly a malignant force in the world. You could argue it is the opposite.

What is also true is that the switch to this form of a five-member board is the added power of people who are not elected officials making decisions about spending for the Bend MPO. The person designated by ODOT or a person designated by Cascades East Transit cannot be held directly accountable by voters.

That’s also probably not the biggest deal. The policy decisions of the Bend MPO don’t typically seethe with political overtones. The policy board, though, does debate. It does make choices. It does authorize how millions are spent and shapes how we get around. And once Cascades East Transit is on the policy bus, it will likely stay there.

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