Multnomah County bond team highlights workforce diversity, North Portland Library opening and budget moves

Multnomah County officials briefed the Board of Commissioners about the library capital bond program during the board briefing's morning session, reporting recent budget adjustments, workforce equity gains and the North Portland Library opening.

County staff said the library bond portfolio is exceeding apprenticeship and social equity goals while managers are directing contingency funds to priority items. "Our portfolio level contingency remains very healthy," Deputy Director Kate Vance told commissioners.

The update explained where recent budget changes came from and why. Vance said the North Portland project required an additional $300,000 for owner changes and late scope additions, and St. John's required about $230,000 for additional permit and land-use costs. Staff also reported a portfolio-level contingency release of about $2,600,000 for construction sequencing and low-lift adds. The presentation noted a roughly $40,000 increase in Energy Trust of Oregon incentives primarily tied to East County Library work, and that interest income has been applied to some bond audit and permit needs.

Why this matters: the bond funds pay for multiple new and renovated libraries and staff say program decisions about transfers, contingency releases and targeted buybacks are intended to protect the long-term investment and to keep projects moving while the county manages tight internal labor capacity.

Project managers also highlighted workforce equity efforts tied to the regional workforce equity agreement for the bond. "The bond portfolio is exceeding the apprenticeship and social equity goals that we have," Multnomah County supplier diversity officer Maggie Chavez told the board. Chavez described changes to reporting, a labor-management-community oversight committee meeting and partnerships to expand pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship pathways. She said the bond projects have generated about 515,000 cumulative labor hours so far across the portfolio.

The briefing included a focused presentation on women in construction. Kate Vance and Chavez presented project-level workforce breakdowns: on the East County Library project the team showed roughly 8.5% of journey hours performed by women while nearly 48% of apprentice hours were performed by women. Tradeswoman Michelle Roberts, who completed her apprenticeship in 2022 and is working on the East County Library, told the board about her training and mentoring work. "I finally found a career that promised more than I could ask for," Roberts said, describing how a pre-apprenticeship led to a journey-level job and to mentoring two female apprentices.

Staff noted several program-level items relevant to future reporting and oversight. The portfolio team said it will finalize workforce reporting as projects close, will continue to coordinate with library leadership and executive sponsors when reallocating funds across the program and will present an enhanced audit to the bond oversight committee in coming months. Vance said interest earnings and a favorable bond sale created additional funds that helped compress the construction schedule, and she said roughly $13,000,000 of the bond premium remains.

County staff also described project-level investments: East County funded a battery energy storage system (about $1,000,000 within project contingency), and the bond paid to move funds for bond audit fees and other owner-directed changes. Staff said portfolio contingency releases will focus on items that enable construction sequencing or cover small, timely improvements to reduce downstream costs.

Ending: Commissioners thanked staff and Michelle Roberts for the presentation and said they want continued detail in monthly project-level briefings and in the appendix materials staff share with the board. Staff said forthcoming materials will include finalized workforce and budget appendices once projects complete reporting.