the conflict between the city and Rose City Transit was far from resolved and appeared likely to go to court. On October 1, 1969, the city council passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a new Portland metropolitan area transit district. More specifically, the resolution called on Governor Tom McCall to appoint a seven-member board to administer the transit district, under the provisions of the new state legislation (House Bill 1808). The area would soon have a regional transit authority, rather than one run by the city of Portland. Within one week, McCall had made all seven appointments to what was provisionally referred to as the Portland Metropolitan Mass Transit District. About one month later the transit district had been formally named the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District, or "Tri-Met" for short. In mid-November, RCT was still asserting that the city's termination of its franchise was "illegal" and was awaiting a Multnomah County court ruling on the matter. The contract with its union employees had expired on October 31, and negotiations on a new contract had broken down, with the union calling for a strike to start on December 1, the date that Tri-Met was anticipating taking over the service. Meanwhile, the city council granted Tri-Met a permit to operate buses – over RCT's "strenuous objections" – and Tri-Met was trying to make arrangements to buy or lease about 100 buses from other cities, with which to provide service if RCT declined the city's offer to purchase its fleet. The city and RCT were far apart on a purchase price for RCT's buses, and negotiations were not bringing them significantly closer. On November 19, RCT President Charles C. Bowen offered to allow the city to take immediate possession of the transit system if they agreed to continue the current litigation and abide by whatever the courts ultimately decided, on both the question of whether the franchise termination had been legal and on determining the fair value of the assets involved, for compensation to RCT and Landport Inc. (A third lawsuit was also in process, to determine whether RCT would be required to pay retirement pensions of its retired employees.) After additional negotiations, an agreement for the city to take possession of the system – and immediately transfer it to Tri-Met – was approved by the city council on November 28, only a little more than 48 hours before a strike