From: LIVERMAN Alex
Sent: Fri Jan 29 10:26:31 2021
To: WIRTIS Lauren
Cc: SEIDEL Paul; ELWORTH Susan
Subject: RE: Heads up on the Portland Parks penalty
Importance: Normal
Attachments: Briefing for leadership on Forest Park PPA CO resolution.docx; Microsoft Exchange Server;converted from html; Hi Lauren. Thanks so much for your help on this. Attached is the chronology (through Sep 2019) Paul mentioned, which also includes somewhat confidential discussion topics for decision making, but I thought this would help you get a handle on DEQ’s thinking to date about this issue. Here is a continued chronology, since Sep 2019: Dec 2, 2019 – Nina and Paul developed a justification for not following the enforcement matrix and issuing a penalty. Dec 17, 2019 – Alex sent Parks a Warning Letter with Opportunity to Correct, requesting corrective actions (immediately commence design and permitting reviews to construct just the paving and permanent stormwater features by Oct 31, 2020 and immediately6 identify a qualified contact to oversee the work). Jan 17, 2020 – Alex provided additional information about the enforcement process, in response to Parks request to extend the Oct 31, 2020 timeline Jan 21, 2020 – Parks provided written notice of qualified contractors and DEQ accepted them on Jan 31, 2020 Mar 2020 – Parks provided development permit application information and Alex coordinated with Parks staff on review and process info May 15, 2020 – Parks let Alex know the land use process had been appealed with a hearing set for July 2020 Sep 1, 2020 – Parks notifies Alex that land use was upheld, but another appeal could happen within 21 days Oct 28, 2020 – Parks submitted their Annual Report indicating paving and permanent stormwater features had not been installed by the deadline Nov 12, 2020 – Alex sends Parks a Pre-Enforcement Notification and refers to OCE for formal enforcement Dec 8, 2020 – Parks and DEQ meet virtually to discuss enforcement process Dec 15, 2020 – Parks submits written response to PEN Dec 31, 2020 – DEQ requests cost information on paving and stormwater features Jan 25, 2021 – Parks provides cost information Jan 29, 2021 – OCE provides draft penalty docs for internal review, with substantial penalty amount Let me know if you want to talk about any of this and what you think we need to put together for Nina, etc. Thanks! --Alex From: SEIDEL Paul Sent: Friday, January 29, 2021 9:31 AM To: WIRTIS Lauren ; ELWORTH Susan ; LIVERMAN Alex Subject: RE: Heads up on the Portland Parks penalty Thank You. Alex has an excellent and detailed chronology alreadyJ From: WIRTIS Lauren Lauren.Wirtis@deq.state.or.us> Sent: Friday, January 29, 2021 9:24 AM To: ELWORTH Susan Susan.ELWORTH@deq.state.or.us>; SEIDEL Paul Paul.SEIDEL@deq.state.or.us>; LIVERMAN Alex Alex.LIVERMAN@deq.state.or.us> Subject: RE: Heads up on the Portland Parks penalty Thank you for the heads up! I will review these docs and start outlining a comms plan, but will definitely need some help/review. Lauren Lauren Wirtis | she, her, hers Public Affairs Specialist Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Northwest Region 503-568-3295 Website | Twitter| Facebook | News | Blog From: ELWORTH Susan Susan.ELWORTH@deq.state.or.us> Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2021 12:55 PM To: WIRTIS Lauren Lauren.Wirtis@deq.state.or.us>; SEIDEL Paul Paul.SEIDEL@deq.state.or.us>; LIVERMAN Alex Alex.LIVERMAN@deq.state.or.us> Subject: Heads up on the Portland Parks penalty All – I wanted to give you a heads up that the penalty against the City for violating the Consent Order will include a substantial penalty, considering that they have and continue to avoid spending over $400,000 for the construction required under the order. I’m sure that Nina will want some talking points (considering it is the city and the amount of the penalty) so I thought you should probably start to work on those now. I attached the draft documents – they are nearly complete without a final penalty amount as I am waiting for the EB factor to be calculated. I’m guessing I will have that today and then I’ll send the complete documents through the review process.