CEI HUB-related QUESTION BANK for CANDIDATES, 2024
with a focus on candidates for City offices-some questions are applicable to candidates for County, State, Federal office.
Asking Effective Questions:
· Ask a question. Don’t make a statement. Don’t give a speech.
· Ask questions that determine the candidate’s knowledge of the topic.
· Ask questions that determine the candidate’s decision-making process.
· Ask questions that determine the candidate’s priorities.
Emergency Preparedness and Risk Mitigation/Prevention
Considering the serious health and safety dangers documented by numerous studies of the CEI Hub: What specific metrics will satisfy you that there are sufficient resources and trained personnel in place to meet the emergency needs of those living and working both in the immediate vicinity of the CEI Hub and at greater distances across the city/metro area?
What will you do to ensure that first responders are fully prepared to respond to a train derailment in or enroute to the CEI Hub?
What are you going to do to protect people and the environment against the predicted risks of CEI Hub storage tank collapse, explosions, and/or spills and toxic releases which threaten the entire city?
How will you make the CEI Hub dangers part of a public awareness and emergency preparedness program?
In what ways will existing neighborhood entities, including the Neighborhood Emergency Teams [NETs], and Neighborhood Associations and Coalitions be part of your CEI Hub public awareness and emergency preparedness program?
What will you do to protect people who live within one mile of the CEI Hub from the immediate dangers from toxic spills and releases caused by earthquake, wildland-urban interface fire, train derailment, equipment malfunction &/or human error?
What will you do to ensure that there are earthquake-safe emergency evacuation routes out of the CEI-hub area, on both the east and west sides of the river?
Land Use (zoning, regulations, enforcement)
How will you ensure that the city code prohibiting new or expanded fossil fuel infrastructure is enforced?
Would you advocate and support the adoption of a Public Health Overlay zone that will protect people living in Heavy Industrial zones from air pollution, fire rise, and toxic chemicals in areas zoned Heavy Industrial -- similar to the overlay zoning adopted in Eugene?
◦ [Background info for question-asker; do not use this to make a statement/speech] Eugene’s public health overlay zone (aka Clear Lake Overlay zone, adopted 2017), prohibits and limits “incompatibilities between odorous emissions or particulate discharges and nearby residences schools, or parks”]
How will you address the inherent conflict between the fact that the CEI Hub is in the midst of one historic residential neighborhood (Linnton) and sits directly across the river from another (St. Johns), YET it is zoned Heavy Industrial -- a zoning intended for industries that city code defines as “not desirable in other zones due to their objectionable impacts or appearances”
◦ [Background info for question asker – this quote is from city of Portland, Base Zones webpage]
What are your thoughts about the Heavy Industry (aka “industrial sanctuary”) zoning?
If you could change the Heavy Industrial zoning code, what change(s) would you make?
How do you plan to mitigate the noise and air pollution coming from the Portland International Raceway (including lead) that has plagued neighborhoods on the North Portland Peninsula for years?
Fossil vs Alternative Fuels
· What do you know about bio-fuels? Do you think that storing them at the CEI hub would be more or less dangerous than storing fossil fuels?
· Do you think Portland should become a bio-fuels hub? Explain why or why not?
If there are calls to transition the CEI Hub to a “Biofuel Hub” or “Renewable Fuel Center” -- Who and where would you turn for information about what this would/could mean?
· (If the candidate does not know much about bio-fuels): How would you find out about the safety and climate footprint of bio-fuels? What individuals or groups would you ask? What books or publications would you refer to?
Decision-Making & Community/Stakeholder participation
What can you do as a [insert position candidate is seeking] to protect residents, workers, the river and riparian areas from toxic spills and releases at the CEI Hub?
How would you respond to legal action/threats or lobbying that seek to prevent adoption or enforcement of CEI Hub risk mitigation codes and regulations?
What sources and processes will you use to learn about the operations at the CEI Hub, the dangers posed by those operations, and possible risk prevention and mitigation measures?
What are your strategies for involving the community in your decision making and legislative priorities? Please give examples of what you mean by "community" and how you have involved community in your past activities.
The city’s Community Involvement Principles call for full participation of neighborhoods in any plans that would affect them. How would you decide when these Principles should – and should not – be robustly followed?
◦ [Background info for question-asker: Portland’s Community Involvement Principles]
Efforts to protect the city from the safety and health risks of the CEI Hub have been blocked by The Working Waterfront and The Portland Business Alliance. How have you demonstrated an ability to stand up to lobby groups that threaten our city’s health and safety?
Broader CEI-Hub and Climate/Environmental Issues
· CEI Hub related:
o What city legislation would you introduce to make the region safe from the well-documented risks posed by the CEI Hub?
o What are the three most important ways to address the health and safety issues associated with the CEI Hub? Explain why.
How will you specifically address the points raised in [Neighborhood Association & Community groups/other group] letter to public officials?
· Climate Justice:
o What would be your plans to address climate justice in your first year, and what would you address in the subsequent years?
· PCEF:
o Explain your position on using PCEF funds to ameliorate budget shortfalls for important programs?
Superfund Site:
How will you address community impacts related to the Portland Harbor Superfund Site cleanup as listed in the EPA's Community Impacts Mitigation Plan (CIMP)
How will you ensure that current and ongoing source pollution, along with legacy wastes in the superfund site, will not harm human and wildlife health and habitat?
Transportation:
How will you address increased traffic on the peninsula with its dangerous and unmaintained streets, and absence of enforcement of traffic laws?
Will you support climate transportation solutions like the Frog Ferry?
Other:
In your new capacity as [office candidate is seeking], if you could form committees: What are the top 3 committees you would form?