Port of Vancouver Board of Commissioners

0:00 that one minute is up we are live good morning welcome reported Vancouver Board of Commissioner meeting today is Tuesday April 28th I'm calling the public meeting to order at 9 30 a.m. there was no executive session held this morning please note this this meeting is being recorded my name is Don Orange I'm the Commissioner Commission president for the Port of Vancouver joining me our Commissioner Eric LeBrent and Temple Lynch we're conducting a hybrid meeting

0:57 along with our in-person meeting we're having today we are also set up so those who are not physically able 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 into the Republic for which it stands moving into the agenda the first item is approval of the minutes temple what do you say well chair I have reviewed the minutes and find them to be in order so I move a passage of the minutes of the April 14th meeting I'll second the

1:51 motion all in favor aye unanimous next is open forum yes good morning commissioners so we do not have anyone that has signed up for virtual testimony today however we do have Don Bryant that signed up to speak this morning so good morning Don you want to make your way over here to the podium morning Don good morning commissioners you get about three minutes okay it won't it probably won't take that long good morning I'm here to rip I'm here my name for I'm sorry Commissioner I don't know you so I am my name is Don Bryant I'm with local 28 ILW local 28 I'm a board member and I'm also a security

2:48 officer here at the Port of Vancouver I'm here in support I'm here to ask for your help we've been negotiating it's about our contract we've been in negotiation since August of 2025 and it's still going on for the most part we've had a really really good rapport with both sides getting things done but we're here recently we've come to a roadblock and this is where I'm going to ask that we need the commissioners helping the looking into seeing how we can get past this roadblock in both sides not just not just labor but management both sides need need your help looking into this if you can we represent you know we do a good job here and we had we come to our last meeting

3:44 we had a couple options and I won't get into the second option I'll just speak of the first first option was that we meet one more time on May 7th to see if we can resolve this we really want to resolve this contract because it's been going for nine months and it's too long it needs to be settled and we want to be we want the port to be fair with us but we want to be fair with the port too so any help from from the commissioners both sides need help you know reaching an agreement we just need to get it done and I got I have a lot of support here from my fellow union members here in the audience if you guys can stand up so we know who's here supporting this and like I said we just need some help we don't want to we want to get past this roadblock we just want to get it done

4:38 and we have a mutual agreement for the most part like I said we hit that one roadblock the commissioners can look at talk to the port to port management team that's doing the contract negotiations and see where they're at and then they can tell you where we're at too and if not you can reach out to us you reach out to myself Adam Joe Ross Parkhurst or Dan Hardesty and we'll be able to if you have any questions please reach out to us but any help would be appreciated so that's about where we're at we really need some help with this we just want to get it done so thank you so much for your time and thank you thank you so I do not have anyone else that has indicated that they are interested in

5:35 speaking but I'm just gonna make one more call to see if anybody else would like to speak today okay that concludes open forum this morning appreciate all of your service thank you all for being here next up next up is the next on the agenda yes we have two action items this morning and the first one is going to be presented by Mary Maddox our director of environmental services good morning Mary thank you Juliana good morning good morning commissioners I bring to you action item e1 which is to approve a contract amendment with Floyd Snyder for the terminal five sediment contamination consultant services the background so the terminal five sediment contamination consultant contract supports the port's

6:35 strategic plan environmental goal to protect air quality water resources and land managed by the port through deliberate and proactive efforts in all aspects of port operations in October 2020 the port issued a request for proposals and executed a contract with Floyd Snyder to assist the port through the Washington State Department of Ecology cleanup process of the contaminated river sediments at the port's terminal 5 property as the property owner the part port is involved in the cleanup both as a potentially liable person or a PLP under the modics model toxics Control Act or modka and to ensure that the cleanup work accommodates the ports current and future maritime and commercial activities in 2009 the port purchased the former Alcoa Vancouver property now known as terminal 5 to support

7:32 industrial use and economic development under a 2009 consent decree ecology required Alcoa to clean up the site including contaminated Columbia River sediments the port purchased the property in 2009 in 2009 contingent on Alcoa's cleanup of the property under the terms of that consent decree in 2018 the port collected sediment samples to support inclusion of the property into the port's maintenance dredge program sediment sampling identified areas of elevated polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs in subsurface sediments which were contaminations contaminants identified in the 2009 consent decree existing prior to the port's purchase the port submitted the sediment results to ecology in 2020 ecology named the port as the current property owner a PLP and ordered

8:32 additional sediment sampling to determine the nature and extent of the contamination although Alcoa sorry although ecology has not yet completed its periodic review report the results of sediment sampling indicate that the previous cleanup remedy performed necessitates further cleanup in September 2025 the port and ecology entered into an agreed order to complete an interim action cleanup project necessary to meet regulatory requirements the work performed under this contract will support the port's work required under the agreed order and other items related to accommodate current and future port operations of the site consistent with the original RFP which anticipated ongoing technical evaluation regular regulatory coordination and refinement of cleanup activities as additional information became available a summary

9:31 of work items for this contract amendment include provide technical support for ecology five-year review agreed order compliance including finalization and finalizing the cleanup work plan and conducting sampling field activities to inform remedial work evaluate and provide technical input on results of investigations to determine nature and extent of sediment contamination lead design and permitting of remedial work to assess address sediment contamination assist with bid specification development and construction oversight for remedial work assist future port commercial operations including best management practices for construction and maritime activities assist with financial forecasting and funding strategies and final can

10:27 coordinate with ecology Alcoa tribes DNR and other stakeholders the original contract amount was approved by the Board of Commissioners on October 27th 2020 for five hundred seventy thousand dollars contract amendment one was issued by CEO authority in accordance with resolution 10 - 2022 on September 27th 2023 for a hundred ninety three thousand seven hundred nineteen dollars contract amendment two was issued by the Board of Commissioners on February 25th 2025 for one million five hundred eighty two thousand nine hundred twenty four dollars contract amendment three is for one million eight hundred sixty six thousand one hundred sixty one dollars for a total contract amount of four million two hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred four dollars if the contract reaches this dollar limit additional funds will be requested in accordance

11:25 with resolution 10 2010 - 2022 administrative authority of the CEO and their designees or Board of Commission approval funding for these services are included in the 2026 budget and will be requested in subsequent annual budgets that concludes my background happy to read the recommendation when you're ready all right the recommendation is that the Board of Commissioners authorized the CEO to execute a contract amendment with Floyd Snyder for a not to exceed amount of 1 million eight hundred sixty six thousand one hundred sixty one dollars for a total contract amount of four million two hundred twelve thousand eight hundred and four dollars for terminal five sediment contamination consultant services mouthful be happy to answer any questions that you have you

12:23 get any questions you got a question go for it thank you for presenting this do you have a sense of the timeline for completion of the cleanup yeah we do under that agreed order that I mentioned there is a timeline associated with that and so we will will be permitting gathering more information and permitting up until we need to begin dredging which is next fall around the September time frame so there is an in-water work window for dredging so in 2027 sort of September through January of 2028 we'll do a first round and then we'll need to go back out in the next in water work window to accommodate the full scope of the project which is roughly 50,000 cubic yards of material and that will that will start September

13:14 2028 and run through January 2029 for completion yeah when we hear the words environmental cleanup it's like oh no what happened so could you go into a little more detail about the the transaction and and the status that was supposed to be in when we got it and sort of how we discovered new old contamination sure so we purchased the property contingent upon a cleanup under the Department of Ecology and so that included the river sediments to a cleanup level of 97 parts per billion when we went back out years later - so the project got final sign off by ecology in 2010 and so we went about our our lives and use the property to construct the West Vancouver freight loop out there and then wanted to bring that the sediments into our birth

14:14 dredging you know permitting process that covers all of our births under one permit - so that we can you know facilitate ships in and out of our births safely and we wanted to bring birth 17 into that which is hooked to terminal 5 and when we did that necessary sampling to bring that property in we discovered PCBs elevated above the cleanup level and were required to report that to ecology and that started a process of you know collecting more samples getting more information and ultimately led us to take over the cleanup to make sure that we could use the property as intended for you know commercial development so that's where we're at and we entered that agreed order with ecology to set the terms of that cleanup and that's the schedule that I just read to you and and that cleanup now will be done according

15:12 to that 2009 consent decree with a cleanup level of 97 parts per billion thank you yeah a couple of questions so just to just to make sure I'm understanding this right this dollar amount this isn't including the dredging this is planning going around the dredging that's right okay yeah that's spendy it's spendy yeah cleanups are not cheap endeavors I mean to the process of going through and doing the assessment and the sampling especially when you're talking about an in water environment which just ups the bar lowers the cleanup levels and you know to even go out and collect samples you have mobilize a drill rig and vibra core equipment and work around river conditions and there's vessels parked out there that we have to send divers

16:10 down so it just gets really expensive yeah it's or it reminds me that the cheapest cleanup art when we when stuff doesn't go on the ground in the first place avoidance and we spend a lot of time doing that now but yeah this was certainly in place before we purchased the property and that facility started operation 1930 so 1930 1940s they were getting up in operational so you can imagine back in the day there weren't the environmental regulations we have today so and our team the port spends a lot of time making sure that avoidance is where we're putting our efforts and that's why we have walkthroughs and tenant breakfasts as we'll have this week is to educate and you know walk

17:06 through tenant spaces provide that upfront knowledge that tenants sometimes don't have that we can share and avoid these types of incidents in the future by through proper management of chemicals and safekeeping of poor property yeah and my understanding is this isn't even the first this isn't even the only cleanup at that site yeah so the upland it's got caps so they there's six appropriate approximately six of them landfill areas that or have covenants and restrictive covenants there but they'll always remain in perpetuity this was this was a surprise the rest we knew about we know about and we handle that appropriately under those covenants and restrictions but this is yeah this was outside of that where where I'm going with that is the time

18:03 and an investment now in avoidance we can't even fathom what the what that payoff is gonna be yeah in 40 years yeah when someone looks back and says you know back in the day they got really careful about not pouring stuff in the ground yeah yeah yeah that I mean what do they say a penny saved is a dollar earned or something but yeah the main way ahead on avoidance yeah well thank you yeah I think these guys stole my thunder thanks for the work you're doing and and yeah I've said that it we're spending this kind of effort and energy and it's still going to be a brownfield one thank you I think you already read the resolution did you not the recommendation was read yes excuse

18:59 well chair I'd move approval of the recommendation of staff I'll second the motion all those in favor aye aye aye unanimous thank you thank you okay our second and final action item is going to be presented by Scott Goodrich our chief financial officer good morning Scott good morning Juliana good morning commissioners this is for the to approve change order to contract with RSM US LLP for enterprise resource planning ERP system implementation services this action item supports the strategic plan goals of organizational excellence specifically the strategy to develop and implement continuous improvement and innovation import business operations and financial responsibility under the strategy to strengthen financial sustainability through improved tools

19:58 and processes for decision making and reporting the ERP modernization initiative will replace legacy systems with an integrated platform designed to streamline operations reduce manual processes enhance internal controls and improve the consistency and accessibility of data across finance payroll human resources procurement marine and industrial operations and asset management functions in March 2025 the port issued a request for proposals RFP for ERP software and implementation services a cross-functional evaluation team supported by an external advisor conducted a copper or competitive salt selection process and identified the implementation consultant best suited to

20:52 deliver the project the board previously approved approved execution via of the initial contract with RSM US LLP since project initiation the port and consultant have progressed through a planned detailed design and requirements validation phase as is typical and large-scale ERP implementations this phase has provided greater clarity into operational needs data structures and system integration requirements through this process refinements to the original procured scope have been identified as necessary to ensure the system functions as a fully integrated sustainable solution which is consistent with a phased implementation approach in which detailed requirements are further defined during the design key additions

21:50 include expanded billing and operational integrations to support terminal and tenant activity enhanced tracking of inventory and storage related revenue streams integration of operational financial and labor data across systems improve grant tracking and reporting capabilities to support compliance and reimbursement processes additional configuration to support lease accounting and audit requirements expanded migration and accessibility of historical financial and operational data enhanced reporting capabilities to support internal management audit and regulatory reporting requirements these refinements aligned with the original project objectives by reducing reliance on manual processes and external tracking tools strengthen audit ability and better position the port for long term operational efficiency and

22:49 financial transparency the request requested change order increases the contract by one million seventy three thousand nine hundred twenty five dollars resulting in a revised total contract value of four million two hundred ninety one thousand one hundred forty seven dollars and fifty cents the increase reflects additional level of effort within system configuration integrations data migration and reporting requirements identified during the design phase the overall project timeline remains consistent with a phase implementation approach and a refined go live window now still within the mid 2027 year this approach is intended to maintain operational continuity while transitioning to the new system funds for this change order are included in the approved 2026 budget and will be requested in subsequent annual budgets

23:49 as needed the port will continuously actively manage scope risk and assumptions to minimize the need for future change orders and ensure alignment with project objectives the recommendation is that the Board of Commissioners authorized the CEO to execute a change order with RSM for a not to exceed amount of one million seventy three thousand nine hundred twenty five dollars for a total contract amount of four million two hundred ninety one thousand one hundred forty seven dollars and fifty cents for ERP implementation services I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have do you think is this one just want to increase the amount babe but thirty significantly by a million dollars are we gonna get hit with another one of

24:47 these in a year or two right now we are currently in our solution verification phase for several additional components of the project we are anticipating an additional change order that amount is yet to be determined whether that would be underneath the CEOs authority or we would need to come back that additional change order would be expected to take place in June or July of this year and I guess what I'd ask you because I'm not familiar with this kind of this is this is a monstrous and I monstrous isn't a positive term particularly so I'll change it's huge this this whole ERP

25:37 picture that you paint and you're a believer in it is it usual to have to come back and get another bite of the apple like we are and and you said that this was in our 26 budget and and I'm understanding the picture that you're painting is that the company can't know exactly what they're getting into it reminds me of the environmentalists that was here a minute ago can't know exactly what they're getting into until we're open up and developing that's that's the picture of what I'm getting is why it went up such am I is that that's what you're painting correct here yes that is accurate the port really worked hard to

26:34 best position itself through our RP process working with an external consultant to attract and retain that consultant for implementation services as that partner in RSM came to the Port of Vancouver and began to meet with our teams internally and the ports internal team provided additional information to that team we saw different opportunities throughout the project that's still aligned with our original RFP that would be increased enhancements that we really wanted to take advantage of through this process that has occurred at every level of our organization and every facet of different operational needs that we do in a day-to-day basis as you can imagine that changes things through the process and some reductions from a deductive perspective and some additive in another

27:32 nature this is the net of a lot of those transactions moving forward and and it's why indicated that we were still pursuing several different areas to wrap up that final solution that the port will then move forward through in that implementation phase so and maybe Scott if you can explain so this is a kind of the centralized system that is being that is collecting information from different systems that the port is using so could you maybe elaborate a little bit more on the number of systems that we have and you know kind of the goal with those those systems kind of feeding into it and the the risk mitigation and the efficiencies yeah so believe it or not the port has over 70 different software solutions operating here at the port on any given day it's a lot we have

28:32 payroll solutions we have a dock management solution that keeps track of all of those goods that are coming from overseas landing here at the port waiting and then being dispersed via rail or truck or barge we have all the maintenance that we do on a day-to-day basis and all of those different solutions feed into what today in our current state is a manual process into a central financial solution for us to be able to go in and analyze different events that take place requires a lot of work from very decentralized solutions this ERP enterprise solution is meant to connect all those solutions into the central area so that we can go to a single source of truth to then evaluate

29:31 different opportunities look at operational efficiencies and streamline different activities that will ultimately save the port time and money on a day-to-day basis our goal is to ensure that complete integration of all those tools so that we can really steer this great ship a lot more efficiently going forward I appreciate I just did some of us aren't from the financial world I when when you talk to me about a change order because we decided to move a door or or we got a fixed deciding on the building when we were fixing array and swap that that'll go through my calculator and understood I appreciate the explanation did you hope did go ahead I appreciate that greater

30:30 breakdown of what this system will be eliminating it's a huge undertaking so really it's a I think it's going to be fantastic when once it's actually up and running and everyone gets used to it I was going to ask about exactly what it was replacing and I'm really excited about the possibilities for more efficiencies for a lack of duplication of effort and there's always the possibility of errors coming from that so I didn't know there were 70 different systems that's that's great that gonna be able to move those down to one not necessarily one we will still have a lot of segmented solutions there but they will all be integrated and communicating into that central hub and creating like

31:24 you mentioned last duplicate of efforts so that of those systems that we're putting data into we won't have to go to three different systems to find out that answer yeah that's great yeah and maybe just for additional clarification part of so going back to the question of you know a change order today and a change order in the future what's happening is when the it was anticipated that we would be coming back as there was more clarity in the the solutions and so what has been happening over the last few months is there has been a lot of interviewing with the team members understanding the systems that we have in place how well does it effectively communicate with the ERP system do we have to consider additional solutions and so that has created a clearer

32:21 picture to understand kind of which direction we need to go so that we do mitigate the duplicate entry that we do have a system that can integrate with the the central system because what we don't want to have at the end of the day is that we are back to a kind of where we started is that you have some that's going to work well and some outliers that are not going to be part of the best solution so that's the process that we have been going through and based on that additional clarity is where this additional scope has has been identified and so that's going to continue and then that's what Scott was mentioning is that we will have again more clarity as as the as the the solutions get further refined and then once we start getting into implementation and that that's that's the fun part where then you got to put it into practice have you read

33:19 the resolution I think he did didn't you I did yes I'll move that we adopt the recommendation as presented second all those in favor aye aye unanimous thank you thank you Scott thank you Scott unfinished business I know in finished business new business I know new business today CEO report just one item to share I won't share too much about it because I have been suspicion that Commissioner LeBrent will probably talk about it but last week Commissioner LeBrent Reinhardt and I attended the Pacific Northwest Waterway Association mission to Washington so we went to Washington DC to advocate for Pacific Northwest Waterway Association or PNW a priorities

34:18 to protect our waterways and there's a few different policy areas we talked about navigation transportation energy trade economic development and tourism environment and preserving the waterways for example the Columbia River Treaty with Canada so we had an opportunity to meet with Washington Oregon and Idaho delegation to identify those priorities and with a with a large group of folks I think we had about 75 ish people I think attend that so so that's what last week was all about that's all I have today beautiful thank you Commissioner reports you got anything to say Commissioner yes just a couple of things I've been having consistent communications with some constituents

35:15 and then also last week was the port lecture was it just last week two weeks ago two weeks ago was the port lecture Jennifer riddle talking about Tidewater with handouts everybody got a cookie and toilet paper so that's a successful night out but it was a really it was a great talk and another packed audience so the next one is Tom the next and last one is tomorrow I believe so we'll see you there or be square Eric alright piggybacking on what CEO Marler mentioned I was able to spend a good portion of last week in DC with Pacific Northwest waterways Association mission I'm pleased to report that we got Washington DC all straightened out everything's fixed we as a we go as a

36:13 group and that's ports industry operators tug and barge companies just a wide variety of interests that are part of that organization and Wednesday we all sit in a room and members of Congress cycle through every 30 minutes from all across Oregon Washington and Idaho and and then Thursday we were in a different room different building but same same basic setup and all six of our senators either attended or or sent staff which was impressive that that some of them actually attended themselves because that was the night that they were up until it was 3 a.m. discussing Senate business so we talked some about

37:08 about tariffs and needing more consistent tariff policy more predictable tariff policy certainly well under the purview of Congress in the Senate we discussed confined aquatic structures within the Columbia River channel for for maintaining that for well actually for for handling dredge material that gets pulled out of the channel to maintain the depth the Columbia River treaty with Canada also came up and last but not least my personal favorite the interstate bridge replacement well well known within that within that group and so we have folks from literally across the region talking about how important replacing that bridge is so that that kind of took care

38:06 of that I had a chance to attend labor roundtable on Friday where I was able to talk a little bit about the port report video that is now out definitely encourage you to to check that out if you haven't had a chance to watch it it's it's fairly short it's actually it's a lot of fun to watch and yeah definitely encourage that that concludes my report thank you sir and I believe that the status of the Columbia River treaty is it's still kind of on hold is that still on on carryover status so okay thank you I have very little to report because I left my notebook at home I did some of the same things as temple over the last a couple of weeks but today is according to the labor

39:03 council I think it's an international holiday if not a holiday it's not a holiday it's a day of remembrance for working putting people that have died on the job and I want to thank everybody in here for the work that they do and aim to keep it safe and thank you for all you're doing and that concludes my report do you have some upcoming events for us we do have some upcoming events so up on the screen you'll you will see some events taking place I do want to note that we do have our next Commission meeting for Tuesday May 12th at 930 a.m. we anticipate that we will be canceling that meeting because we do not have any

39:59 business but we will confirm that by the end of the week so just wanted to highlight that a couple of other community events noted today is that tomorrow afternoon or evening we have our third and final port lecture series at the Kiggins so again this is a great opportunity for people to learn more about the port industry and this specifically is going to be the ports of Seattle to in Tacoma who formed the Northwest seaport Alliance and talking about that partnership so that's a that's a great lecture to attend and we're kicking off a public port tour season so an opportunity for the public to come see the secured area of the port and see what's happening we have ten public tours again the first one is going to be Thursday May 7th at 10 a.m.

40:54 and you can get on our the ports website and get signed up for those and as you'll note there's a few other events on there very cool thank you and just to the to the lecture tomorrow night a report is completely different from every other port and I I've had the privilege of touring the port of Tacoma if anybody's got the chance I think it's six o'clock tomorrow I think it's free and you can't 8 6 30 according to this but y'all let it come it'll be fascinating I I know we'll learn something about they they move ships that make what comes in here look tiny the massive container ships know I don't I wasn't even supposed to

41:50 get another bite of that Apple Commissioner if I could maybe mention how to communicate with the Commission on the next slide so just a reminder for folks again can have the opportunity here at our meetings to do open forum you can email the commissioners you can also contact the port offices we'll get everyone in touch with the commissioners and then also encourage folks to get on the ports website a lot of great information on there about what what the port's doing very cool I walked right over the top of you sorry about that we've got a workshop coming up here on sustainability let me see we wait to sign the documents till we're done with the workshop I think we can roll right into the workshop if that works for folks I think that works great yeah well I think we're all cued up I'd like to introduce Delagram she is our environmental

42:47 program manager who oversees the sustainability program and is going to highlight how 2025 was yes great thank you well never cleared a room like that before but here we go thank you Rihanna commissioners appreciate you having me here today it's my pleasure to represent the port sustainability team and to provide you with our 17th annual recap of the port sustainability and climate action efforts as an organization we work hard to support the economic vitality of our region while we do this we are also looking towards an environmentally sustainable future for the port and our community so that we can continue to be

43:44 a good neighbor to ensure that sustainable future the port established the we can committee to create a sustainability plan with the goal of meeting the ever-changing social environmental and economic needs of our community that is why our sustainability work focus is not just on environmental as some plans do but on the triple bottom line of sustainability social environmental and economic it's a balance of people planet and process profit these goals along with incorporating the strategic plan and climate action plan initiatives in our work are what have guided our sustainability efforts over these last 17 years as a result we continue to see these benefits listed on screen of focusing our sustainability efforts the six long-term sustainability plan goals remain the same for 2025 split between social environmental and economic drivers each long-term goal has multiple tasks

44:42 that we completed to achieve the goals the tasks helped to define the efforts we took as an organization to work towards achieving our long-term sustainability goals this annual report as well as previous annual reports are all available on our website today I'm going to highlight just some of the accomplishments from 2025 first we're going to take a look at what we accomplished under our sustainability goals we continue to invite people into the port and get out into our community as we work toward our goal of fostering positive and productive relationships with our port neighbors we were able to provide tours to over 450 of our community members in 2025 we hosted another successful take your child to workday event with over 50 children and grandchildren of port employees getting a close-up view and hands-on experience at the port our 2026 take your child to workday occurred just this last Thursday and I heard it didn't rain this time it's a great day we were able to get out

45:41 into our community and interact with families attending local events this included the Vancouver parks recreation and cultural services Friday night movie event where approximately 400 of our neighbors showed up for a movie in Fruit Valley Park and as mentioned a couple times today in partnership with the Kiggins theater we also hosted three in-person port lectures that attracted over 400 attendees in 2025 we continued our efforts to create a destination waterfront at terminal one we begin installing the new dock pilings during our phase three and water work window that began in October and wrapped up this January additionally in 2005 2025 zoom info began their operations on lot seven as part of our goal to provide access to public access opportunities we continued work on expanding our trails which are part of the regional

46:38 renaissance trail network trail segments four and five to the west of us begin construction in 2025 once completed we will have 1.55 miles of paved trail extending west of the office here which means you could all go run a 5k after your next meeting to support our goal of sustaining a productive and vital workforce we continue to support internships and apprenticeships and provide training and exposure to students trades people and invest in our future workforce we brought on two apprentices from local laborers and operator unions we hosted two port logistic interns a contracts and procurement intern and an accounting intern in 2025 safety and security remained a top priority at the port in 2025 our security team vetted over one

47:35 hundred and seventy seven thousand transportation worker identification cards and processed nearly 5,000 visitor escorts onto the terminal we were again able to support amazing community organizations and share port knowledge and resources with community partners to advance our shared goals the port sponsored or participated in many community events including the columbia springs annual dinner and auction the martin luther king jr. breakfast and the clark county fair we supported the vancouver public schools supply drive with social media posts and through port staff donations we continued our support of leadership clark county program again in 2025 staff were also able to volunteer at the fort vancouver seafarers donation drive to stuff over 250 holiday bags for visiting seafarers with care items donated by port staff and other community members we also awarded the port's third community fund to four

48:32 great local organizations the four days of a loa festival the vancouver b project historic trunk trust and providence academy small business incubator and the vancouver arena project now we're going to take a look at the environmental sustainability goals as part of our goal to minimize environmental impacts here at the port we continue to improve water quality for our neighbors we help to implement the new washington state department of ecology stormwater general permit requirements sorry next which expanded coverage area at the port in addition to requirements including training for contractors long-shore and tenants the poor also assisted 10 tenants who now trigger permit coverage with the new permit who previously had not been covered we also continue programs and efforts in stormwater management resulting in particulate levels that were well below ecology permitted benchmarks we also completed a

49:32 100% design for the department of ecology funded terminal for stormwater project which will improve port stormwater quality through the installation of a polishing system at terminal for vancouver bulk terminal broke ground on their new soda ash facility soda ash is a vital commodity that is used in the manufacturing of solar panels and EV batteries as Mary mentioned earlier the port assigned an agree order with ecology to advance the terminal 5 sediment cleanup project the order lays out a path for the port to lead and accelerate this cleanup to restore terminal 5 shoreline onto the birds since 2011 the port has worked to increase the population of purple martins which have low numbers here in southwest washington for reference a purple martin is the largest member of the swallow family but they're still only about eight inches long and weigh around two ounces last year we added

50:32 pre nesting material to our nesting gourds which resulted in a record 92 successful hatches pollinator habitats were established at the mitigation bank in partnership with the vancouver bee project pollinators are vital to the health of our environment most notably their importance to our food supply the 4,000 foot habitat will be replanted yearly an additional additional pollinator friendly habitat was also added along the terminal for stormwater bank I will touch on the renovations to this building a bit later but since I did just bring up birds I wanted to mention that part of the renovations included installation of new windows and all new windows include bird safe film to prevent bird strikes this year sustainability report has a larger focus on our climate action plan initiatives since 2025 was the first of our three implementation timelines as a reminder we created the climate action plan in

51:31 2021 to guide how the port will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions our goal to encourage healthy climate and clean air is helping keeping us move forward on with our climate action plan in the next two slides I'm going to cover the six initiatives and our climate action plan that were part of this 2025 implementation timeline all of these initiatives are ongoing and will continue into the future we met our goal of upgrading our equipment to run on renewable diesel in 2023 since then we continue to do use renewable diesel in all port operated diesel equipment we also continued our efforts to reduce emissions from employees commutes with the availability of public transportation carpooling bike infrastructure and flexible work arrangements the port has seen a reduction in employee commute emissions by 83 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent which in turn is equivalent

52:30 to about 9,000 gallons of gasoline consumed we also started focusing efforts on reducing our missions from business commutes starting in 2025 the port began calculating the emissions created from business related air travel in order to purchase carbon offsets for the calendar year 2024 the port purchase carbon credits from the South Puget Sound salmon enhancement group which planted 52,500 native trees across a 15 acre project area which is part of the Deschutes River floodplain restoration project in the middle photo there on your screen we are also focusing on some internal messaging to remind staff about the various options for reducing carbon emissions from business related ground transportation another important initiative we have is to reduce our emissions related to solid waste to do this we offer recycling services and all

53:27 of our buildings for both mixed recycling and shredding example back there we have an additional recycle we have additional recycling bins on our terminal that can be used to supplement our existing waste infrastructure during larger events such as staff meetings or tenant events we also work to collect other material during these events such as glass and food waste our last two initiatives that were part of this implementation timeline focused on our tenants during our regular environmental site walks we have been talking to our tenants about the potential to upgrade their fleet to lower carbon options these conversations include sharing information on our recent charger project potential funding opportunities for emission reduction projects and sharing what other tenants are doing to reduce their emissions another part of our efforts is encouraging our tenants to look at sustainability options including sharing information about funding opportunities for rail equipment

54:24 upgrade to electric we are also continuing work on other ongoing climate action initiatives in addition to just those six I mentioned as part as the 2025 timeline these initiatives include energy efficiency light and HVAC upgrades in our buildings and planning fraternal terminal lighting upgrade projects we also continue to electrify our fleet adding three all-electric Ford Lightning pickups in 2025 for our port security team and a second all-electric transit van our grant funded EV charger project included the installation of 14 level 2 and 3 level 3 chargers split between maintenance security terminal operations and here at the administrative building we completed our 2023 greenhouse gas inventory in mid 2024 for our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions our goal is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below

55:22 our 2005 baseline by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 as a reminder scope 1 emissions are direct emissions by sources owned and operated by the ports such as our vehicles and equipment scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from purchased energy for facilities the port owns and purchases electricity for such as lights and HVAC we do these emission inventories every few years to check in that we are on track to meet our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals as of 2023 we have reduced our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 973 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent which is approximately a 60 percent reduction from 2005

56:07 oh yes so for our reductions so in this graph here in 2005 we had about 1,600 metric tons of emissions per year and our goal was to be 50 percent below that by 2030 we are already at 60 percent below that in 2023 all right moving on to our economic goals our efforts to support the goal of diversifying revenue sources to support economic sustainability continued by diversifying our commodities the port is not rely on any one industry and is able to maintain a continuous flow of business even during times of economic disruption

57:02 notably with a skilled workforce the port handled over 76,000 Subarus in 2025 at terminal one we continue to deliver a varied blend of tenants with our mixed use commercial and residential development additionally in 2025 the port submitted five federal and state grant requests for over two million dollars some of which are still pending so far the port has been awarded grants for replacement of security cameras construction of the terminal for polishing system I mentioned earlier planning for substation at terminal 5 and additionally previously awarded the 22.5 million dollar EPA clean ports grant was obligated and grant expenses and project work continues advancing okay the port also continued to celebrate clean audit with the 16th consecutive

58:01 clean audit that took place in 2025 for audit year 2024 as previously mentioned the poor also had a major administrative office renovation in 2025 in addition to looking newer there were many efficiency upgrades added to the office this included the removal and replacement of 14 natural gas fired HVAC units with electric which will result in a decrease of 33.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions reducing our stationary sources by 47% and as a result reducing our natural gas costs by nearly $9,000 annually we also removed 161 existing lights and added energy efficient LED lights energy efficient LED lights can consume 80% less electricity than traditional bulbs resulting in additional cost savings for the port structurally we added a new air barrier to the building a roof overlay and new windows to our former records

58:59 room all of which helped prevent the flow of energy through the building structure keeping us cooler in the summer warmer in the winter and less reliant on our heating equipment next slide so speaking of that records room we were able to maximize our existing space here at the port to support our growing staff by converting our 915 square foot records room into a conference room and office space for five staff members as part of this project the port digitized and recycled over 970,000 pages of archival documents and recycled an additional 277,000 pages of unneeded documents digital records are now available to all staff reducing the amount of time needed to search for hard copy records the remaining records that need to be kept in paper form will be moved to a 116 square foot records room which is 87% smaller than our

59:53 previous records room the deport has a diverse group of tenants and customers and we know if we want to keep them here we need to be a good resource for them we provide comprehensive advocacy outreach and support programs for tenants which include multiple tenant events and opportunities for network networking and informational speaking with topics covering the previously mentioned stormwater permit requirements cybersecurity terminal projects social media and much more our next tenant event is actually taking place tomorrow we have seen great innovation from our tenants many of which have reached out to request additional information on operational efficiencies and energy efficient upgrades we are fortunate to partner with Clark Public Utilities to connect tenants to available upgrade incentives we continue to see high occupancy rates which is another indicator of success with our tenant

1:00:47 support programs we are proud of what we've accomplished in 2025 and look forward to continuing our efforts into the future we are accomplishing our goals through everyday efforts of working on tasks in support of our six long-term sustainability goals if you would like to know more about the ports program and take a look at our current or previous sustainability reports don't forget to visit the port sustainability page on our new website and on behalf of the weekend sustainability team I'd like to thank you for your time and continued support of these programs and if you have any questions I'd be happy thank you that's a great presentation so I don't have a question but just a comment what I I really like the the triple bottom line approach I mean we should be

1:01:43 taking care of the environment and working to reduce emissions because I mean this is our air and land and water and we need it but when we're also able to make a clear business case for it and show that there's I mean you just there's economic benefit to taking some of these actions as well it makes it even more clear that the port is a leader in showing that we can do robust economic development and be environmentally responsible and I just love love that and I love that we're we're the poster children for it and it's incredible work that the entire staff is doing I just appreciate the long the long time horizon view that each of these components takes and kind of like

1:02:41 I was mentioning earlier with the sediment discussion the payoffs down the road are huge so thank you for continuing that work it makes a big difference I second their notions I think it's unanimous okay great thank you thank you thank you Della great job and that concludes our workshop today thank you we're going to move on to sign in documents the public portion of this This meeting is pretty well finished. Thank you all.