Contract and Compliance Board adopts public‑comment policy and approves safety KPIs

The Contract and Compliance Board voted to adopt a formal public‑comment policy and to begin tracking a core set of safety and payment metrics after a staff and consultant briefing on March meeting materials.

The board adopted a public‑comment procedure drafted by Metro legal with an amendment to allow eight speakers at two minutes each, rather than the five‑speaker cap the memo recommended. The board voted to adopt the policy on a motion and recorded vote; the chair announced the motion passed with the amended speaker limit.

Why it matters: Board members said the rule balances community access to the board with time for the board’s business and legal advice that oral questioning during public comment carries liability risks. Derek Smith, Metro counsel, said the recommendations are legal department guidance and cautioned the board about unscripted on‑the‑spot questioning: "These are our universal legal recommendations to boards," Smith said, arguing that oral questioning during a public meeting can create partial or incomplete disclosures that raise liability concerns.

The board also accepted a set of performance indicators recommended by consultants Julie Viello and Eric Mendoza of Intelligent Partnerships that the board will display on a dashboard for oversight. The adopted KPIs include incident rates, near‑miss reporting, safety‑training completion, safety audits and inspections, lost‑time injury frequency rate (LTIFR), total recordable incident rate (TRIR), number of safety violations, and corrective‑action tracking.

Eric Mendoza summarized the rationale: the KPIs are intended to surface systemic safety problems and markers of contract performance such as worker classification and timely subcontractor payment that can correlate with risk on worksites. "One of the biggest ones we've seen is the classification of workers and making sure that's correct," Mendoza said, noting that misclassification and irregular pay can be associated with safety lapses.

Trey, the board’s executive director, told members the safety platform can capture these measures and display them on a dashboard once the board narrows its priorities. He also reported operational updates at the meeting: he passed an OSHA 510 course and is pursuing further instructor certification; he said the juvenile justice center project remains on schedule but noted a recent MEP trade worker slipped and fractured a wrist.

Next steps: Staff will circulate the consultants' more detailed KPI recommendations and the draft intake SOP to the board ahead of the April meeting. Board members also requested a follow‑up presentation from procurement so members can better understand contract documentation, payroll and lien‑waiver data that staff use to audit payments and to consider whether contract language or procurement reporting should be expanded to track lower‑tier subcontractor payments and worker classification.

The board adjourned after completing its agenda.