Port of Vancouver Board of Commissioners

0:00 [ Music ] >> I'm the president of the board. Joining me are Eric LeBrant and Temple Lynch, both commissioners. We are conducting a hybrid meeting along with our in-person meeting we are having here. We're also set up so those who are not physically able

0:56 to provide oral testimony can do so virtually. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

1:24 >> Going to the agenda, the first action item is approval of the minutes. What do you say? >> I've reviewed the minutes and found them to be in order so I move approval. >> I'll second the motion. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. Passed unanimously. Juliana, what do you got for -- you're going to introduce a Celebrate Freedom program, yes? >> Yes, good morning commissioners. We have a special guest joining us today. We have Carol Ross with the Historic Trust. And if you want to come to the podium and provide us an update on what's happening with Celebrate Freedom. Thanks for joining us this morning. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Carol Ross. I'm the development and outreach manager for the Historic Trust. And I'm just really grateful to be here today to tell you all about the Celebrate Freedom programming we produce year

2:22 around for the Vancouver community in partnership with the City of Vancouver and a very important partner of ours as well is the Port of Vancouver. So one of the things I want to say is thank you. Thank you for your long standing support of this programming that we put together for our community. Next slide please. There are three main components of our Celebrate Freedom programming. First focuses on leadership. That's the General George C. Marshall Leadership Awards and pictured there is our class of 2026. We also build community by putting together large special events throughout the summer. We have a summer series and special this year. We're commemorating the America 250 celebration that started in June and is underway right now through September. And then we celebrate service in November, every November

3:19 with the low legacy veterans parade and Veterans Day activities around that. And again I just want to say thank you to the Port of Vancouver for sponsoring this with us for such a long time. Next slide please. We'll start a little more in depth with the Marshall Leadership Awards. This is more than just a scholarship program recognizing and uplifting young leaders in our community. Because it also includes an adult component. I think it's one of the few leadership recognition programs that uplifts young adult leaders who are doing the work on the ground in the community right now. But it is also a youth scholarship program as well for the Clark County High School seniors. So we follow two tracks. There is a youth award and a public award.

4:17 This year our 26th public award recipient is Rashaan Williams Jr. with Shifted Theory. He runs an after school program for the next generation of youth leaders. And it's Edsel Contreras Montiel from Prairie High School. She's on her way to University of Oregon this fall. Those were our two recipients. The award, there is a cash award associated with this, a scholarship for the youth recipient and an award for the public recipient to continue their professional development. So that's another component that I think is unique to this award. Next slide, please. Our summer event series, like I said, is underway right now. We're in the middle of nine free events that we put on for the community. And again, this year with America 250 celebration, we are making sure to lean into that. But there are three tracks.

5:16 There's that America 250 track of three events. There's a concert series of three concert events on the Howard House lawn and a track of family and cultural connections events. And I'll tell you a little bit more about those. Next slide, please. Those family and cultural connection events started last month with Craft Day, doing a bunch of different crafts for kids and adults, everything from basketry to origami. A lot of fun things for families to do. That happened to be a day that threatened rain. So it was an excellent indoor activity for free. And pets, of course, are members of the family. So we are celebrating that coming up, and not this weekend, but next weekend on July 25th, offering free portrait sessions for pets. And Family Fun Day, we've been doing that event for several years. Just all kinds of family activities, entertainment, that's August 8th.

6:15 Next slide, please. The concert series, again, on the Howard House lawn, we try to find acts that are engaging with the audience. It's hard to tell in that upper left photo, but that's a twist contest that happened a couple weeks ago with Michael John, who's a very interactive and engaging artist. But we've got two more bands coming up, not this Friday, but next Friday, July 24th, and then in August. Next slide, please. And the America 250 series, we kicked that off on Flag Day. Just a couple weeks ago, had the Vancouver's America 250 celebration in partnership with the City of Vancouver and the National Park Service on the Fort Vancouver parade grounds. It was a great day, couldn't have been more perfect weather. Pictured there is the pet costume contest, again, pets and members of the family, they should get their own contest.

7:15 And so a drumming group that was on stage there will conclude with a day of kind of civic engagement on Constitution Day, which is September 17th. So I hope you can join us for that. Ready for the next slide? Thanks. Veterans Day, so our veterans parade does happen on Veterans Day, which is Wednesday this year, November 11th. It has combined with the television component. So anybody who's not able to come out in person can see it. We have a pre-parade ceremony that honors a reviewing officer. That's typically a active duty person. Pictured here was the 2025. And the gentleman in the center is Colonel Jeffrey Yates. He's with the Air National Guard. And then on each side of him were our co grand marshals from this year, World War Two veterans, Harry Humison and Wink Lamb.

8:15 So we were grateful to have the opportunity to honor them in a big way with the grand marshal being the grand marshal of the parade. And then after the parade, our friends with the Community Military Appreciation Committee put on their veteran resource fair at Pearson Air Museum. So it's a day full of supporting service, thanking service members. Next slide, please. Actually, that brings me to the end. So the trust has been putting on events for a quarter of a century now, more than that. And the Port of Vancouver has been there along the way for with support of those events. And we really, again, appreciate all the support throughout that time. You can see here people have been celebrating in the historic district of Vancouver since the early times. There's a photo from 1910, and that's what it looks like now in 2026.

9:13 Just a little different. But we like to continue evolving to meet the needs of the community, to keep drawing people to the historic area among and to celebrate and make new memories among our historic background backdrop. So again, thank you. Thank you very much. Does anyone have any questions? So without you. No questions other than I appreciate the the wide variety of programing. I won't be able to make pet portraits this year, but we did make it last year. And that's when you discover how squirrelly your your credit really are. I think trying to get them to hold still. So thank you for thank you for putting all that together. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Good presentation. Appreciate what you do.

10:13 Thank you very much. Thank you, Carol, so much and appreciate all the activities that you do for our community. Incredibly important to remember our history and a lot of great celebrations. So thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Thanks. Next up is open forum. What do you say? We did not have anyone sign up for virtual testimony today, and we do not have anyone here that is interested in speaking. Next up comes. That's a long one. We have our action items up next, and we have two action items today. And our first action item is going to be presented by Laurie Kaler. She's our industrial and maritime sales manager. Good morning, Laurie.

11:12 Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. This agenda item is to approve the second amendment and extension to the ground lease between the Port of Vancouver and Kelly Pipe Company. The Port of Vancouver's strategic plan has established a goal to pursue opportunities that utilize the port's property and infrastructure investments to create jobs and support the local economy. Kelly Pipe and the port entered into a lease effective November 11th, 2022 to develop lease five or develop. And lease five acres at Parcel 1A for lay down and transport of structural steel used in regional construction projects. The first amendment established the possession date and extended the term through June 11 of 2026. The purpose of the second amendment is to extend the lease

12:11 for five years through June 11, 2031. There are no further options to renew. The port maintains the option to terminate the lease in the event of a long term opportunity to fully develop the 22 acres at Parcel 1A. If approved, the base lease revenue over the term of the lease is approximately one million two hundred and seventy thousand plus additional charges for L.E.T. cam and stormwater fees. There are three full time employees on site, and the revenue for this lease has been included in the 2026 budget. The recommendation is that the board of commissioners approve and authorize the CEO to execute the second amendment and extension to ground lease at Parcel 1A between the Port of Vancouver and Kelly Pipe. Any questions? Yes, thank you.

13:08 It's it's very clear, but I just think just to draw attention to something. So this is a and I'll state it the way I think it. And if it turns out I'm mistaken, you can correct me. But it's a smaller portion of a larger site, and it's just a lay down area, some extra space that they need. And as you said, at any point during this term, if an opportunity to develop the entire parcel, bring in a different business for more revenue generating and business creation opportunity, we have that ability within this lease. So, yes, it's all of that's correct. Winning all around. Yeah. Great. Thank you. I got a question. Yeah. Is this pipe, how is this pipe getting here? So some of it comes in through the Port of Vancouver. Some of it comes in through other ports. They do a lot of work with their next door neighbors, Far West Steel and construction in the local community.

14:08 So they have a lot of synergies between our tenants who are here and the local community. So is some of it coming in over the rail? No, nothing that comes in through there comes by rail. The this operation is. We have discussed it, and it's not a viable option at this time. There's always potential for them to grow. And if so, there's a real spur right there. And if we can, if it makes sense for their business to grow on that property, then we'll absolutely go that route. So the pipe is coming by truck and leaving by truck. Yes. OK. Do you read the recommendation already? I did. I can read it again, if you'd like. Everybody up to it? Well, I move that the board approve the recommendation as presented by staff. I'll second the motion. All those in favor. Aye. Aye.

15:07 Pass unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you, Laurie. Juliana. All right. We have one more action item today, and it's being presented by Greg West and West Rams gives me our senior project manager. Morning, commissioners. Greg West ran report engineering. Yeah, I heard a talk about adoption of the ports American with Disabilities Act transition plan. This project aligns with the port strategic plan goals to ensure alignment of key port planning documents and strengthen community outreach and communication. In September 2024, the Washington State Department of Transportation issued a requirement that all agencies having over 50 employees that receive federal funds must provide or at least begin an ADA transition plan by January 1st, 2025. The port responded, outlining our approach to meeting these requirements of the watchdog policy. Most of 2025 was spent investigating the publicly accessed

16:07 areas of the port to identify facilities that did not meet ADA requirements, primarily for grade and cross slope and maintenance deficiencies such as cracking. This data was further evaluated in order to develop remedies for the troubled locations, which in turn led to an assembled list of projects that compromised the plan. The draft plan was sent to WSDOT for a preliminary review, wherein they determined that it met the required metrics to satisfy their program. Plan was then publicly advertised on the Port of Vancouver's website for a period of 45 days, during which all input would be considered for inclusion into the plan, however, none was received. The final version of the plan is being brought before the Port Commission for adoption and implementation, according to the schedule contained therein. The plan consists of four projects totaling about $100,000 and is expected to be concluded by 2028. A copy of the Port adopted plan will be provided to WSDOT to demonstrate our compliance with the Title II of the American with Disabilities Act.

17:04 The recommendation is that the Board of Commissioners adopt the ADA Transition Plan and authorizes the CEO to implement it as per WSDOT requirements. Any questions? >> Thank you, Greg. For the benefit of the public, can you talk a little bit about what the four projects are? >> Certainly. So, I said we did some investigation of the publicly accessed areas of the Port, mainly some of the Gateway Avenue is actually a port road, the walking trails, and even some of the entrances into the buildings. And mainly looking for, there are minimal slopes for heading up and down ramps, and also the cross slopes for tipping. Truncated domes, when you come to the sidewalk, you see the little yellow bumps there. Those get damaged or they peel off over time and looking at things like that.

18:04 So, the projects that we came up with, there was actually five that we identified. One is a fairly minor damaged dome over on Gateway Avenue. Not much to do there. A significant one, though, is that we looked at the Gateway Trail. That is a pretty long project. It runs from Simpson down path, almost going to CPU and beyond, we're working on right now. But some of it's been in place for a while. We looked at this stretch out here in front of the Port Office. And the asphalt there is starting to see some damage. But it turns out, and we'll have to work with the city on this, is that actually that's included in a city maintenance program. So, although it is a Port Trail, there is an agreement with the city to maintain that. So, we'll be discussing that with them. So, it is on our list, but we don't have a project for it right now, because it might not be one that we actually perform.

19:02 However, the trail going west of here, there are a few things on that one that we need to take care of. Again, it's you get some of the asphalt received. The cracks can only be like a quarter inch in that. And so, there's some maintenance that we need to do on that. There were some that, around here, the front of the Port Office, some of the sidewalks and existing ramps. So, we're not quite up to code. And I mean, they're all surprisingly, well, not surprising, but very close, but just not quite. However, we do have a timing, being very fortunate in this, we do have a driveway entrance project that we're working on. We're going to be able to work some of those repairs in with that. So, even though that is on the list, we've already got a plan to address that. Another one is actually out at Terminal 1, which seems surprising, because that's all very new.

20:00 But I believe on our lot too, a similar thing, where some of the truncated domes, like I said, the little yellow bumps at the end of the ramps, have been damaged with all the construction that's gone on down there. And so, we'll need to replace those. So, what we have left to do, these will be worked into annual budgets, as you'll see. We're not approving any money for these today. With those, we should be able to have these things done within the next couple of years. And so, the total of what's remaining is about like $99,000. So, that helped. - Thank you. Thanks for your attention to this. I'm wishing that you could get with the city working on Burnt Bridge Trail, or Salmon Creek Trail, which is probably outside the city limits. But they need love. And paying attention to these, it's not just good for the disabled people,

20:59 but also for bicyclists. So, thanks much for your effort on this. And it's obvious by listening, that this is just ongoing. When you finish these five, there's going to be four more come up. - Yeah, we try to stay on top of it. And this was a good reminder for us to go revisit it. This is not the end of the program. This is something that part of it is, we do have contact to anyone that does notice a deficiency or some damage in some of these areas. We do have a process that we can be notified. If it's a support issue, then we'll look into it and resolve it. - Thank you. I don't have any questions, but thank you for your work on this. And I'll just echo the previous comments of my fellow commissioners. I think it's important work. - Thank you.

21:57 - And I'll move that we adopt the recommendation as presented. - Second. - All those in favor? - Aye. Done? Passed. - Thank you, Greg. - Thank you. Thank you. Right back to you, Juliana. - Yes. So under unfinished business, we have our port contract log. So every month included in your packet is a list of the active port contracts. Our service contracts, as well as our public works contracts. The highlighted portion of that list is the most recent activity. These lists are also available on the port's website. So anyone has the ability to see port active contracts. Any questions on anything? - Hearing none, I think what do we do next, new business? - No new business today.

22:56 - How about accounts payable? - Always. So we have Nick McIntyre, accounting manager, who will present payables. I guess that's a good thing. That means we've got a lot of work going on. - It is, yeah. And we have the cash flow to support it. - Yes. - Good morning, commissioners. We did not receive any questions prior to this meeting, so I'll start by reading the recommendation and then open the floor for questions. The recommendation is that the Port of Vancouver USA Board of Commissioners, by motion, ratifies and approves the payment of June 2026 vouchers, 128414 through 128777, in the amount of $7,446,687.72, including electronic payments generated between June 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026, in the amount

23:52 of $911,519.22. In June 2026 payroll checks, 52276200 through 52276202 in direct deposits, 240001 through 240137 and 260001 through 260143 in the amount of $835,822.32. - Hearing no discussion, I'll move that we adopt the recommendation as presented. - Second. - All those in favor? - Aye. Bashed unanimously. - Thank you. - Thank you, Nick. - CEO report.

24:50 - Yes, we have some environmental project updates this morning for you, and Matt Harding, our environmental project manager, is going to share some updates. Good morning, Matt. - Yeah, good morning, everyone. Yeah, Matt Harding with the environmental team, excited to provide some updates for you today, and the focus will be stormwater innovation. And I'll start with some of the less exciting high-level overview to get to the more exciting stuff. So you may remember this slide from Matt Graves' presentation back in the spring. And as you know, the port is required to treat stormwater before it discharges the Columbia River. And our tenants, there are multiple regulations and permits, as shown in this slide, that

25:47 we have to follow, and it really takes a village. In response, the port has developed a varied and comprehensive stormwater program that uses multiple tools to make sure we clean stormwater as best we can to maintain compliance. And two of our environmental team members, Matt Graves and Mark Tauscher, lead this effort, and they really are the right people for the job. They think outside the box, they innovate, which I'm going to get into later, and really have become leaders in their field. Agencies and industry people come to them for advice on issues that come up. So here we're going to dive a little bit more into what they all do, and it goes beyond just the middle slide there, which shows the port's infamous GRADX stormwater treatment

26:42 in a box, developed by our very own, invented by our very own Matt Graves and Mary Maddox, that's been proven to effectively remove heavy metals, such as copper and zinc, from stormwater. On the upper left slide, our image there, you can see Mark. He's out there inspecting a stormwater drain. Those stormwater drains often serve as essentially the front line to stormwater treatment. They go in and there is media in there that starts filtering the water, the first phase before it then heads to other treatment options. You can also see in the background there, the car, the van that Mark drives, which is wrapped with some pretty images of heavy fish, and the motto, "Only rain down the drain." And then just below that image, on the far left there, is a pilot system we've been developing

27:38 at Terminal 4 pond to polish the stormwater even further, and that's after it travels through the treatment pond, which is shown on the middle far right slide. Those tanks use bag filters and carbon-based media. Usually it's like a large Brita filter that you'd use in your house, but on a larger scale. This pilot project has been successful to the fact that the point we plan to install a larger system either later this year or early the next with a grant through the State Department of Ecology. On the upper right image, far right, are the vector truck that goes around and cleans and vacuums out buildup that happens through our stormwater lines, so we keep them clean so they can build up and if not cleaned out, maintained properly, can make things worse.

28:36 The lower right is our T2 stormwater pond. This is actually very similar to a Graddix box, but on a much larger scale and in the ground. Also layers of media filter that filter the water out. The T2 pond was actually a first of its kind put into an industrial setting when it was installed around 2010. And then the last image I want to focus on is the far left lower, which is our floating treatment wetlands, which I'm going to get into a little bit more here on the next slide. But before we go there, I'd like you to focus on the root system of those plants, because that's key to the floating treatment wetlands. So here's an update on our floating treatment wetlands project. So this was actually a pilot project that was installed in 2014.

29:31 It was the first of its kind amongst ports and really was just a concept back then that Matt had in his head and got some materials and kind of designed it on the fly. And it's worked very well for over 10 years now. And the concept is relatively simple. So those masses of roots you saw in the previous slide, below those plants, they grow down into the water. And as they grow down, they produce what's called a biofilm, which is essentially a slimy film of microorganisms that work to absorb materials to grow the plant, right? In this case, as the stormwater passes through those, the root systems, that biofilm, that slimy kind of gunk down there, actually the pollutants, the heavy metals, the sediment

30:29 all stick and attach to that root system, which then is absorbed into the plant and removed from the water. Also we use, as you can see, a lot of native plants, mainly sedges and grasses that grow well in this type of environment and also provide a bit of habitat. So we're now moving on from that pilot project from a few years ago for a few reasons. First, the pond itself needed to be cleaned out. They do need to be maintained regularly every 10 years or so as, you know, all the stormwater pollutants and stuff, you know, it takes a toll, it needs to be replaced. Filtering kind of takes a toll. So in this case, it was an excuse to also refine Matt's concept, working with a manufacturer to improve on the design.

31:27 And so we're going to see how these do and then potentially install more here in the next couple of years. But studies have shown that they work very effectively. So plenty of excitement going on down at Terminal 4. And switching gears now, wouldn't be summer if we didn't provide an update on the purple martins. As a reminder, the purple martins are North America's largest swallow species that migrate back and forth from South America every year. They suffered a population crash in the later 1900s due to DDT and competition from Starlings. The port's been doing what we can over the last 15 odd years by hanging special gourds that they like to nest in to help them out. It's actually one of the highlights of the bring your child to work day that we put on

32:19 in April shown in the lower right image there where all the kids come out and hang the gourds. We also partner with some retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service folks that track the birds in our area. There's also gourds out at Richfield and Steigerwald. And we've established a very healthy population here at the port and happy to announce as of last week we counted 77 eggs, 64 of which have hatched. And there's still plenty of nest building going on. So we'll be having some more coming up. So all really good news. Often get the question of how that compares to last year. We did have 92 hatches last year. Hard to say if we'll top that but we'll be pretty close this year. They do often lay sometimes multiple egg hatches through the year too.

33:16 So hard to predict but I'll have a better number in the fall when they leave with their new young and head back to South America. And with that, that's my update. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Very cool. Any questions? >> No questions. >> Slimy root gun. Is that a technical term? >> Yeah. Very scientific. >> Yeah. I'm curious on that, what do you do with the plant when it's -- because you probably don't want that thing in your compost pile, do you? >> Well, probably not. Not certainly with all the heavy metals and pollutants that it uptakes. So it's disposed of after. But they live, I mean, a pretty long time before they need to be replaced. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you very much. Thanks for what you do. A hell of a presentation. >> Thank you, Matt.

34:15 That's all for this morning, commissioners. >> Excellent. I can't remember the order of things. Do you want to start up? >> Sure. As far as commissioner's reports go, first, I didn't say anything during the Celebrate Freedom presentation because for those who don't know, I am actually my day job as CEO at the Historic Trust. So a little awkward there. But the Celebrate Freedom program that Carol presented on, you know, is something, like she said, that's been going on for 25 years plus. And the port's been a partner that entire time. It's a partnership between the city and the Historic Trust. And they're just really fabulous programs that celebrate service, community, and leadership. And some pretty wonderful things. So two of the things that I did that were both my regular job and my port job were going to the Flag Day and America 250 events, which it was just wonderful to see people coming

35:13 out to celebrate together and on our historic site, which, just to say, is one of the most important historic sites in the region. So we're pretty proud of it and pretty lucky to have it here. I also, since the last meeting, attended IBR Stakeholder Workshop, which was just before the Record of Decision came out. So we were just getting some updates on the project at that point. And then also spoke to a group from Leadership Clark County's Youth Summer Program, which I also did kind of double duty on. They were meeting at the Historic Trust. But they had also just been to the port. So I was able to speak with them about both of those roles. And I will just report back that whoever worked with them, they were super impressed. They loved it. So good job there. Had an RTC, Regional Transportation Council meeting, and transportation projects are moving forward in the region.

36:13 And then I went on my first official port tour just last week. And Erin did a great job. She was a wonderful tour guide. And to kind of tag into the environmental projects, folks were so excited about the Graddix boxes. I mean, the real ones, getting them pointed out and understanding how they worked. And then when everybody got a little mini one at the end, that was everybody, and by everybody I mean me, was super excited about it. So that was really great. Look forward to more of those. That's it. You shouldn't have told us about that. We didn't get Graddix boxes on our port tour. Europe. Well, I mean, I guess that just means that we'll have to sign up for more tours so we can get the swag. We want to be careful. They might give us an outhouse instead. Let's see here.

37:08 I think one of the highlights since our last meeting, I got to go to a launch of the Mount Adams brand new Tidewater barge, and that was over at Gunderson. So it's kind of out the beginnings of Highway 30 in the kind of the northwest corner of Portland. I had not been to one of those before. So it's kind of an exciting thing to watch this whole barge, and they are, our Columbia barges are pretty big once you get up close to them. So then you're really close and it's right there and it's massive, and then the whole thing just goes down sideways into the water. It was a sight to see. They smashed a little bottle of champagne on the side, it was the whole deal.

38:06 So that was probably the highlight from the last couple of weeks, and then I've had a couple of opportunities to check in with our CEO over the past couple of weeks, and I think that's about it for me. - Cool, thank you. I've had kind of a summer getting along. I had a chance to go to a place called the Vancouver Innovation Center, which I was curious about what they're about, and what they're about is trying to take small projects, mostly tech projects that people are developing, and take them from small to what they call scalable to something that will create jobs in the community. In an area that isn't just close to my psyche, but I can try to understand it.

39:02 And also as Temple was talking or bragging about the port and the community, on Saturday in particular, we had a pride day in the park here, and a most incredibly beautiful downtown park at Esther Shark Park, which is of course just walking distance from the historic trust you run. But also, I went from there across to, and we might like to deny it, but we're part of the Portland community. And we're having this amazing Samoan festival, I don't know if you all know it, but there's only a quarter of a million people that live in Samoa, and I swear to God there were several

39:57 thousand in North Portland cooking massive amounts of wonderful food and learning dances, and what have you, and just appreciating a lot of what is our community and our shared. And when we're talking about the bridge, about the middle of last week, I got a chance, I drive across to Delta Park to catch a max train to take me down to a basketball game by the women's team here in town, and it's just all, it ain't any of it just perfect, but this is a strong community on both sides of the river, and has all sorts of awesome potential. And I hope that we keep, the things that we're reporting on today is cleaning up and improving

40:53 you're talking about the waterways, and you're talking about our need to, our need to address ADA issues. All good. All right, I've run out of words, which is an incredible thing for a politician. I have a quick question for you. Yes, sir. Because I had a conflict and was unable to check out the Pride in the Park, did we have a booth there? We did. As far as I know, we did not. I think that might have some potential for future years, it might be something that we ought to talk about or urge on. I think Sea Tran had a booth, I think the city had a booth. I went through there and I couldn't tell you who did and didn't.

41:47 The church I go to had a booth and a bunch of others did. Okay. Yeah, I'd be interested in chatting a little bit more about us having, maybe next year us having a presence there. I would not be opposed to backing you up on that discussion, and if you want, I'll ask that we talk about it in the administrative, or we talk to the CEO about whether she wants to urge the community involvement of people to move us there. Sounds good. All right. Any more points? We got upcoming events coming and we're going to have a workshop after that. Yes. Just let folks know. Okay, so upcoming events, we have our next regularly scheduled commission meeting on

42:44 Tuesday, July 28th, and just looking down the list here of community events, a lot of exciting events happening, enjoying the sunshine, and yeah, we also have our sixth tour of the season coming up on Saturday, July 25th, and yeah, I think we are full, but we do have a wait list, so if people are interested in joining a tour and as you can hear, they are pretty exciting. There's a lot of fun stuff to see. You can get on our wait list on the website. And just a reminder on ways to communicate with the commission, so we can have folks join us here for open forum. You can also do that virtually. You can email the commissioners, call the office, we'll get folks in touch with the commissioners, and again, encourage people to get on our website.

43:40 We have a lot of excellent information to share with our community. Cool. Excellent. If I can ask you, Juliana, do we need to change the room at all for this workshop? No, we can either go right into it or if you'd like to take a brief break, we could do that as well. Anybody need a break? Roll, please. Okay. Well, I would like to invite Casey Bowman, he's our director of communications, and he is going to provide an update on our community outreach program. Good morning, commissioners and members of the community, I'm Casey Bowman, I'm the director of communications here at the port. As a port, we're proud to be part of this community and we have been for more than 100 years. Remaining in constant contact with the community is critical to the work we do here at the port. Throughout each year, we provide updates on our government affairs activities, our marketing

44:39 efforts and more, but this morning, I want to give you an update on our community outreach efforts. First, I want to start by introducing the team. Our chief external affairs officer is Ryan Hart, who is actually not here this morning, otherwise he'd be giving this presentation, but he's back in DC meeting with our elected federal delegation as well as agencies that have jurisdiction over the river and other matters, that are important to ports. We have Katie Odom, who is our marketing communications manager, Sadie Perdanovich is our social media and communications specialist, and Erin Masterson is our community outreach specialist. Let's go to the next slide. We talked about it, port tours. They continue to be extremely popular with the public within a matter of a few weeks of us announcing our 10 public tour dates in the spring.

45:37 They filled up and as I think all of you know, commissioners, once people go on a port tour, they're very engaged as they learn about the port, the river and everything that takes place here. We give you this in part as a way to build port ambassadors, people who go tell their friends and neighbors about what takes place here at the port. There are common themes in terms of what we hear when people are done taking a port tour. The most common thing we hear continues to be, Commissioner LaBrant, I don't know if you'll be able to fill in that blank, but I had no idea, exactly. We've completed five tours so far, and we have five more to go, and the five we've done so far have been really successful. We've also done special tours throughout the year for elected officials, community stakeholders and other partners. This year we've had additional tours scheduled for or have already done them for stakeholder

46:36 groups like Leadership Clark County, the Clark County Newcomers Club, Visit Vancouver, Washington Public Ports Association and others. Next slide, please. Sponsorships. We helped sponsor events in the community that support our mission and those of our partners. In 2025, we teamed up with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, ICC and CREDC in sponsoring their legislative outlook and review events. We sponsored a table at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in January. We supported the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce annual membership luncheon earlier this year. We also helped sponsor an event this year as part of the Taiwanese American Heritage Week. And as part of our environmental outreach, we partnered last year, and we're going to do it again this year, with Columbia Springs on their annual auction and dinner. And this event raises funds for salmon restoration and to help promote stewardship of healthy

47:34 watersheds come theme this morning. We also partner with Identity Clark County, particularly on transportation issues and similar legislative priorities. We always appreciate that ICC joins us each year for the ports in Maritime Day in Olympia. We partner with Washington State University Vancouver on their annual business growth mentor and analysis program, or MAP. And that's a program that allows students to provide pro bono consulting services to regional small businesses and nonprofits to help those organizations grow and prosper. These are a few of the event sponsorships we take part in throughout the year. And speaking of events, go to the next slide. Events we look at separately, these are, at least for our department, a way to separate things out. These are activities that we're involved in that allow us to share port successes, celebrate port milestones, and again, share information with the community about what ports do.

48:31 The photo on the left is from last fall's celebration for the first ever maritime technology class from Port Tenant, Cascadia Tech. And commissioners, you were there for that lunch and welcome. Each year we participate in National Night Out organized by the Furcrest Neighborhood Association. That's in August. They put on a large family-oriented event in Leroy Hagen Park, and this gives us a great opportunity to talk with port district residents who primarily reside over in East Vancouver, so the east part of our port district. And we are looking forward to participating again in August. Last August, we helped support the Fruit Valley Movie Night put on by Vancouver Parks and Recreation where we handed out, we hosted a booth, we handed out frozen desserts, bike lights, other port goodies to kids and families and answered questions and provided information about the port residents who wanted to chat about it. Our lecture series was another big success in 2026, and as you know, commissioners, these

49:27 events are formatted to allow sort of an informal meet and greet time with the commissioners beforehand so the community has yet another opportunity to come ask questions and talk about the port. Thank you for your participation in that. It's appreciated. It's a popular community event. The lectures this year so far, the topics were Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, or I should say presenters, Tidewater Transportation, and the Northwest Seaports Alliance. And interestingly, representatives from other ports attended. Port of Portland had people there, Port of Calama had people there, Port of Tacoma had people come down, they've come to multiple port lectures and actually directly inspired by the Port of Vancouver's lecture series, they've launched their own lecture series. We hope more ports do the same. It is a great way to sort of go in depth on those topics that are port adjacent or port

50:24 related that have the most interest to the community. It's fun. Next up, if you go to the next slide, the community fund. And the Port Community Fund is a way to support local organizations that share our mission of workforce training, economic development, and tourism. In 2026, we awarded funds to four organizations, the Vancouver Go Fest, Hudson's Bay High School Construction Trades Program, Latinos Unido y Floreciendo, and the Vancouver Ballet Folklorico. And these are great programs and events that have, they reach diverse audiences. Some help prepare tomorrow's workforces and others pull people downtown to eat, shop, and stay in hotels, which generates activity for Vancouver area businesses. The community fund was launched six years ago by our external affairs department, and the community interest in the program has grown significantly in that time. So in 2026, external affairs helped get it off the ground again and then transitioned

51:23 it over to the economic development department. And they'll be taking it and have been taking it moving forward. Thank you to you commissioners for your support of this program. It's much appreciated, and I know that the economic development team is coordinating with the 2026 recipients to give presentations to you as the year progresses to tell you how their projects turned out. Next up, public outreach and involvement. We do this because studies show that bringing perspectives, all different perspectives to the table leads to better decision making. Each month our community relations specialist, Erin Masterson, attends a variety of neighborhood association meetings. Erin uses these meetings to listen to neighborhood issues and concerns, and she also shares port updates. The relationships she builds are invaluable in our ability to be responsive to community needs, and it also provides a face and a name for the community if they want to get in touch with the port.

52:20 So far this year, Erin has attended neighborhood association meetings and provided port updates at the Arnada Neighborhood Association, Lincoln, Northwest, the Neighborhood Council of Clark County, and more. We also prepare labor roundtable reports for you, the commissioners, to bring to those events, and that gives information on port bid opportunities, port job openings, and other highlights from around the port. Many from the port team serve on various boards and industry associations, and this is another great way for us to stay in contact with the community. Those boards and organizations include Visit Vancouver Washington, the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project Executive Steering Group, Merchants Exchange, the Southwest Washington Contractors Association, Joyo Sister City Association, Rotary Clubs, Columbia River Maritime Museum Board, Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, and so many more. We also work to make sure port board meetings like this one are accessible to all.

53:18 All regular board meetings are broadcast live on CVTV and are recorded for viewing at a later date as are board workshops. Last year we returned to the Clark County Fair, and we will be back again this year in the marketplace area of the exhibit hall, and we sponsor what is called a parklet, and this is an area where people who are between Cotton Candy and the Pig Races can rest and charge their mobile devices, and while they're doing that, they have the opportunity to learn about the port because there are port educational videos playing on a loop. So charge your phone and learn about the port. Next slide. Publications, broadcasting, and digital outreach. These are more ways that we share port news with those in the port district. Our award-winning community report is issued twice a year to residents in the port district. This printed newsletter provides highlights and stories from the port and includes additional

54:15 ways to engage with us, so for instance, we'll include QR codes so that people can easily, with one click of their device, go to the website or read a certain story that has a video accompanying it that shows those vivid images of cargo moving on the port and more. The latest issue came out last month and our next issue will be in mailboxes in the fall. Email is another important tool for keeping people informed and engaged, and our most recent installment of our environmental newsletter, Solstice, came out in June. Targeted digital outreach is also, it's an increasingly important way that we communicate with key audiences. We launched a community outreach digital ad campaign in the second half of '25, and this focused on our environmental initiatives and our economic impacts and provided valuable information to port district residents and gave them an opportunity to learn more. The title of this outreach campaign was People of the Port because it focused in on a few

55:14 key port team members who do the hard work that keeps this port successful, and it was a big success looking at the ad views. There were 3.7 million ad views for this campaign, and of those people who saw it, 28,000 people clicked through to the landing page that educates residents about their port. We also expanded outreach specifically to Spanish-speaking audiences with Spanish-language videos garnering strong interest from the community. And we also aired commercials on TVW at the state capitol in Olympia that reaches legislators and others connected with state governments. Staying top of mind of decision makers up in the state capitol has been really advantageous for the port, for instance, Terminal 1 has really earned a lot of support up there, and state legislature has invested millions of dollars to date in this project, and just

56:07 in this most recent session, the Port of Vancouver and our partner ports received $15 million in state funding for vital Columbia River channel maintenance. The port report, in April we premiered this year's port report, which is our opportunity to take people inside port operations and show them our achievements from 2025 and then also look ahead to 2026, and the video format really allows us to take and share a port report with residents and port stakeholders across the region and far beyond. We've partnered with some ways that we get that so broadly distributed. We partnered with the Vancouver Business Journal and Greater Vancouver Chamber in distributing the video to thousands of members of our community, and we also had an aggressive digital ad campaign for that, which helped us gain traction on YouTube, LinkedIn, and other online spaces. We included a QR code in that Prince community report I talked about.

57:06 So just again, with one click of their device, people can be watching the port report after opening their hard copy community report. This is for Ryan to give you an idea of how many people saw it, because he likes to compare it to large arenas and sporting venues. Last year he had, you imagine, the Moda Center, Juliana presenting the port report to the Moda Center, which sold out as about 20,000 people. That's nowhere big enough for the number of people who saw it this year. Let's go Lumen Field, let's go sold out Taylor Swift concert, and then you're in the neighborhood of the amount of seats we would need to show people the port report. Furthermore we're able to view how people are engaging with the video, and those numbers are strong too. What we know is that when we take people inside the tenant businesses and we show them cargo on the move, and we show them what's happening on the Marine Terminal, people stay engaged, they watch most of, if not the whole video.

58:01 Speaking of living in digital spaces, social media, as you can see from this slide we have a very active and robust presence on various social media platforms, and Sadie Prodanovich oversees our social media. These platforms are very important because this is increasingly where people are getting their information. We know that people's news gathering habits continues to evolve, and a digital social media presence gives us access to our stakeholders in real time, and it helps us foster like a direct from the source relationship, so they're getting news because we're putting it out there for them. Social media allows us an opportunity for stakeholders and community members to communicate directly with us as well. Things are moving, the information is moving faster and faster, and it allows for a quick dissemination of information, which means we can share good news quickly, but we can also listen and know what's happening and what the community's raising as issues that they care about quickly.

58:58 Facebook has been our primary platform, and that's used for business and community-focused posts. Instagram is, it remains a video and image-centered platform, and so because we have a lot of cool videos and photos to show people, we've gained a lot of followers on Instagram. Twitter or X does remain a relevant platform for sharing news about port operations, and LinkedIn is a, as you know, it's a business-focused platform, and it's been really valuable both locally and globally. We're leveraging it more and more in strategic ways for maritime and commercial-related purposes. And commissioners, thank you, every time you interact with a social media post, it helps it gain more notice in the communities. The community just knows what's happening at the port, so we appreciate it. Media coverage. Media coverage and maintaining good relationships with broadcast, print, and digital outlets is a very important part of our work.

59:56 It remains an important part of our work. It helps us share port news and milestones, and this is called earned media when we're not paying to get that coverage. Yes, the value of social media is growing and evolving, but traditional earned media continues to have positive benefits for the port. There's a couple of examples on the slide. Newspaper, TV, and radio do continue to cover developments at, like for instance, at Terminal 1 or major port initiatives and our efforts to benefit the community, and we are still giving tours regularly to members of the local media, which gives them a better understanding of the work we do here, the value of the port, and then it does lead to positive coverage of those efforts. What's coming up? We talked about it. There's National Night Out coming up on the fourth, Clark County Fair, the second week of August, Fruit Valley Movie Night. We're not done adding events, I don't think, for this summer.

1:00:55 I won't say anymore, but I think we've got a busy summer schedule coming up. You're welcome, external affairs team, and I just really want to thank you, commissioners, for attending these events and participating in them throughout the year. They're a great way to engage with the community, and I do want to thank, I'll conclude by thanking the external affairs team. They do a lot of really hard work to make these programs and events happen, and it truly is a team effort, and so that is the conclusion of my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Do you have any questions, Roy? I don't have any questions, but I have a couple of comments. This is a fantastic presentation, and kudos to the small but mighty team because the diversity of venues and types of communication and ways that you're working on reaching the community,

1:01:51 clearly you're working, and in a time when we're so siloed and it's so hard to actually reach eyes and ears and bodies to let people know what's going on, the fact that people do know the port as an active member of the community, and also that the port lectures do so well and draw so many people, the port tours are full right away, means that people are seeing and hearing it, and every time you report back, people say, "I have no idea," and every time they learn something new about the port, they're just like, "This is so cool. There's so much interesting stuff happening here, so I'm really excited about how you're getting it out to the community." Port provides a lot of value to the economy, but being able to see also the value to the community at large is just awesome. So thanks. Thank you. Well, you want to follow that? I'll just second it.

1:02:42 Yeah, the variety ... I'm kind of piggybacking on what Commissioner Lutz was saying. The variety of avenues where we're engaging with folks really comes out when I'm talking with folks out and about in the community, because it'll be, "Oh, yeah, I went on one of those tours," or, "Oh, I went to one of the lectures," or ... I mean, but it's this wild variety of different ways that folks can kind of come into contact with the port and get introduced. Yeah, I mean, of course, the tours are extremely popular.

1:03:33 I wouldn't be opposed to even adding another couple of public tours to that, but rave reviews, consistently rave reviews, and I'm excited to see, this year being the first year that we've got Aaron Masterson leading the tours in kind of a change-up in format. I think that we need to see that just make it even that much better, so ... Yeah, and then kind of hearkening back to what we brought up earlier, I'd love to see if we could get a booth going at the Pride in the Park, and I'd be happy to volunteer to help staff that. Appreciated. Yeah, I have to give a nod to Julie Rawls, who, of course, was Aaron's predecessor who did so much work to build the port tour program, and then Aaron has brought a different but

1:04:33 equally compelling energy to it. People really enjoy those tours, so a nod to both Julie and Aaron, and yeah, there's so much ... The slide we saw earlier, there's so many great activities that take place in the Vancouver neighborhood, the Vancouver area. There's Pride. There's the Hazel Bell Parade, I mean, we've been asked, "You should consider so many different veterans events, church events." We're not done adding port events to it, so message received, and we're always assessing where's the best place for us to be, where's our time best spent, so we'll continue to assess all those opportunities, and we want to be at the places that make sense for the port, so thank you. Thanks for what you're doing, good presentation. Thanks for sure. Thank you, appreciate it.

1:05:30 That concludes the workshop, I think the next ... Do you have something to throw in here, Juliana? You're giving me a look-alike. No, I just ... Big thank you to the team, they do an amazing job, so just incredibly proud, and it shows. I mean, just like the commission mentioned, I mean, just the ... Everybody wants the port to be part of a lot of the things going on, which is a testament, because it's an exciting place to be, but people wouldn't know that, because if they didn't have this team representing us and sharing it, so thank you, big thank you, and small but mighty team, as noted. It's amazing that the work that they do. I have no idea. You have strange ideas.

1:06:28 I believe that that concludes the business part of this meeting, I believe we're going to sign documents, and there's no administrative update, there's no nothing. Thank you all for being here. When we get through to signing, I will adjourn, it'll be pretty boring, but I'll get it done. Thank you.