Enter a time machine for a minute: It’s September 22, 2022, the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce Business Advocacy Council has invited 110 Business professionals to the Key Leaders Breakfast to hear Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers and Clackamas County Commissioner Paul Savas speak on the facts of the Tolling system that was being built on I -205 and I -5. The presentation at that breakfast was named “Oregon Tolling Updates.”
We planned the Commissioners informative presentation because we continually heard from our business leaders when asked about tolling that:
- There is no such thing as tolling in Oregon.
- Our government in Oregon will never allow tolling on our freeways.
- “They” will only toll the Bridge over the Columbia and stop the toll when it is paid for.
- What tolling plan?
Since I was hired, our businesses were telling us that they were having trouble recruiting enough staff to run at full capacity. If the cost of commuting to work significantly increased, it would create an even more difficult situation for recruiting and retaining staff. Commuting is a big deal for Tualatin because 26 thousand people commute into Tualatin to work each day, and 11 thousand commute out to work. Clearly, Tualatin Businesses would be hit hard, and they were woefully uninformed about the iceberg they would encounter. One of the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce’s core competencies and most meaningful goals is representing business interests with government. Our dedicated Council, “The Business Advocacy Council,” specifically watches all government issues for our Tualatin Business’ best interests. So, at the end of that breakfast in 2022, 110 business professionals were shocked and upset with these new facts. As the CEO of the Chamber, I could not become a lobbyist…but I knew we could and should educate and inform our businesses and citizens because it was apparent ODOT was not going to. And so I gathered Susan Noack, Daniel Lacy, and Evan Olson together, and we created the website www.oregontollingupdates.com. It was launched for the first time on October 24, 2022, and we have never missed a Monday since. In a short amount of time, Daniel Lacy not only became a remarkable Editor in Chief, but he added an excellent short podcast. Daniel has a gift, and we are lucky to have his talent.
Through the past seventeen months, I, personally, and the Tualatin Chamber generally have taken a lot of flak for being so bold. I tried for a year to influence other Chambers, various businesses, agencies, alliances, and elected officials to join us. I was turned away…sometimes not so nicely. However, we persisted with consistent, accurate information. We delivered it with the highest standards of excellence in journalism and now and then with humor (listen to the December commercial on our podcast page). Despite opposition, we knew we had to keep doing what we believed was correct. We just wanted to educate, inform and state the facts.
March 11, 2024, was the day the Governor wrote a letter stopping the current tolling plans for I-205 and I-5. I received many phone calls and emails congratulating The Tualatin Chamber for persevering and standing our ground. I was actually shocked by the responses. Even some of my biggest opponents wrote lovely notes of gratitude. We are not finished! We will keep going with www.oregontollingupdates.com as we follow how this will change going forward.
It took many different people and groups to make up the “squeaky wheel” that accomplished this stop: our Mayor Frank Bubenik and his fellow elected officials, the food service union, The Clackamas County Commissioners, and West Linn’s Mayor Rory Bialostosky, to name a few…To quote Margaret Thatcher, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
