OR: Details on Gov. Kotek’s new transportation advisory group remain fuzzy

In the week since Gov. Tina Kotek announced the formation of a group that will shape Oregon’s approach to transportation funding and policy, her office has provided few specifics about its structure, membership or leadership choices.

The group will provide recommendations to the governor ahead of next year’s legislative session, in which lawmakers will again attempt to pass a major transportation funding package to keep the Oregon Department of Transportation afloat long term.

That package could include billions of dollars in new taxes and money for megaprojects and other spending priorities.

Last week, the governor’s office announced the new workgroup would be led by a transportation expert and a former Republican lawmaker and would meet for the first time in April, and then again monthly through November. Susan Peithman, director of the climate office at the state transportation agency, will be the agency’s lead representative on the group, Kotek’s office said.

But the governor’s office hasn’t said who else will participate in the group, how Kotek’s office is selecting members or when the membership will be made public. In addition, key lawmakers of both parties, who will negotiate any package that stems from the group’s work, say they don’t know if or to what extent they will be included.

“I wasn’t surprised she brought forward a group that doesn’t include us,” House Republican Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I think this is setting itself up to be something of a spectacle.”

In convening the group, Kotek is setting out to do what lawmakers failed to do during last year’s five-month session: find a bipartisan solution to ensure the Oregon Department of Transportation can continue to plow roads, pave highways and complete projects.

This May, voters are set to decide whether to approve or shoot down a series of transportation tax hikes that Democrats passed last fall in a special session in an attempt to close the funding gap at the state transportation department. Regardless of the outcome, lawmakers say they must find a long-term solution to take care of Oregon’s roads and bridges.

The Oregonian/OregonLive interviewed more than a dozen lobbyists and people in the Legislature who have been involved in recent transportation discussions. All of them said they are waiting for the governor’s office to provide more specifics, and several expressed concern about the lack of clarity.

The advisory group will have three main goals: determine how much it will cost to maintain Oregon’s transportation network in the next decade, take a closer look at the state’s projected funding for transportation services and public transit and provide a framework for a transportation package leading up to next year’s session.

To accomplish those goals, the governor’s office will convene multiple subgroups composed of various experts and advocates. The main group is expected to deliver its recommendations around November.

Lawmakers will not be included in the main group or the subgroups, the governor’s office confirmed, although several lawmakers said they had heard differently from Kotek’s office or legislative leaders.

“The governor decided not to include lawmakers on the workgroup because there will be other opportunities for them to be briefed on progress and engage in the final outcomes of the group’s work,” Kevin Glenn, spokesperson for Kotek, said in an email.

Although lawmakers of both parties raised concerns about the group, only Republicans shared those concerns on the record.

“Putting together another workgroup just shows they don’t know what they’re doing,” said Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, a Republican from Albany. “Puke. Spare me.”

Some lawmakers said they remain optimistic about the group’s work and look forward to engaging with it.

“I really do think that a big group of folks from the community is exactly where you should start,” said Rep. Susan McLain, a Democrat from Forest Grove who leads multiple transportation committees. “That is the responsibility we have. When you don’t first get the finished product you want, you keep going until you do.”

Leadership questions

Some close observers and lawmakers of both parties have privately questioned Kotek’s choices to lead the workgroup, but for different reasons.

The group will be co-chaired by former Republican lawmaker Bruce Hanna of Roseburg and longtime transportation policy administrator Grace Crunican, who once led Oregon’s transportation agency and has held top leadership positions at transportation and transit agencies in Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and at the federal level.

This is the second time this year that Kotek, a Democrat, has tapped a Republican to lead a group she convened. Former Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp is serving as Kotek’s chief prosperity officer and working with her new “Prosperity Council.”

Multiple people who worked with Hanna in the Legislature said he was well-respected but doesn’t have significant experience in transportation policy. He left the Legislature in 2015 after serving in elected office for 10 years, including two years as co-Speaker when the House was evenly split between both parties.

Hanna is the president of a business that delivers Coca-Cola products throughout Northern California and southern Oregon. He did not immediately respond to a voicemail left at his company phone Wednesday morning.

Crunican, meanwhile, has directly benefited from the Oregon Department of Transportation’s reliance on private consultants.

As owner of a consulting firm, Crunican has been awarded a contract worth nearly $2 million to work on the controversial effort to replace the aging Interstate Bridge between Portland and Vancouver, program records and records published by City Observatory show. And between 2020 and 2023, her business billed the state transportation department about $61,000 for work on the controversial effort to widen and cap Interstate 5 near Portland’s Rose Quarter, state records show.

In an interview, Crunican said her work on the massive bridge replacement project will wrap up before construction begins in 2028. When the governor’s office tapped her for the advisory committee, she said she disclosed to them that she was actively consulting on work with the state transportation agency.

“I told them about the work I was doing now, and they said that would be fine,” Crunican said. “I don’t think ... I bring much from that.”

Glenn confirmed that the governor’s office was aware of Crunican’s work on state projects before she was hired, but didn’t say whether any steps have been taken to disclose or address a potential conflict of interest.

“Crunican’s significant experience is an asset to the workgroup,” Glenn said. “She is an established transportation leader with a track record of bringing people together to solve problems.”

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