Portland City Council Regular Meeting PM 01/15/25

5:22I am going to call this council meeting to order.

5:25It is Wednesday, January 15th at 6:01.

5:31Keelan, could you call the roll please?

5:33Avalos.

5:34Dunphy.

5:38Here.

5:38Here.

5:42Now.

5:44Here.

5:45Here.

5:47Here.

5:47Here.

5:48Here.

5:49Here.

5:49Here.

5:51Here.

5:57Thank you.

5:59Uh, we, for this meeting operating under our current rules, need to approve the agenda before before we approve the agenda— President Pirtle-Guiney, I'm so sorry to interrupt.

6:13Um, may we ask the city attorney to read the rules of decorum?

6:17Yes, thank you.

6:17Okay, thank you.

6:20Thank you, President.

6:21Welcome to Portland City Council.

6:23To testify before council in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.

6:32Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's webpage.

6:36Individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise.

6:40Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.

6:43The presiding officer preserves order.

6:45Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others' testimony or council deliberations will not be allowed.

6:54If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.

6:56Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.

6:59Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.

7:03Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

7:07Your testimony tonight should address the matter being considered.

7:10When testifying, first, state your name for the record.

7:13Your address is not necessary.

7:152, If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.

7:19And 3rd, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls their name.

7:23Thank you.

7:24Councilmember thank you.

7:30So our first item of business tonight— and Keelan, do we need you to read the— these first couple of items that are administrative, or— okay, great.

7:41Our first item of business is approval of the agenda.

7:44Before we approve the agenda, um, I would accept a motion To amend the agenda to refer item— let's get the right number, I apologize— uh, to refer item 10 back to the mayor's office.

8:04This is a reappointment request, and because we have not had time to create a process for consideration of appointments, the mayor has graciously agreed to take that item back and bring it to us a little closer to when that reappointment is actually up.

8:19Thank you.

8:20Second.

8:20So moved.

8:23Oh wait, you already did the motion.

8:25I believe we had a motion.

8:28Oh, I move to, uh, refer that back to them.

8:32Second.

8:36Keelan, could you call the roll for us?

8:42Um, would you—.

8:43Is that—.

8:43Yeah, okay, sorry.

8:45Avalos.

8:46Aye.

8:47Aye.

8:47Smith.

8:48Aye.

8:49Ryan.

8:50Aye.

8:51Uh, Kanal.

8:52Aye.

8:53Koyama Lane.

8:54Aye.

8:55Morillo.

8:56Novick.

8:57Aye.

8:57Clark.

8:58Aye.

8:58Green.

8:59Aye.

9:00Zimmerman.

9:01Aye.

9:01Pirtle-Guiney.

9:02Aye.

9:04Great, that passes.

9:06And are there any other requests to reorder items or reschedule any items on the agenda?

9:15Okay, hearing none, that approves with unanimous consent.

9:20We also, under our current rules, need to accept the president's recommendation of the items on the agenda.

9:28This is where, once committees are established, we would have the opportunity under these current rules to refer things to committee or to the council as a whole.

9:38Because we don't have committees established yet, I am recommending that we refer everything to the council as a whole to consider tonight.

9:47Um, are there any requests to amend the president's recommendations as listed on the agenda?

9:55Okay, hearing none, the president's recommendations pass by unanimous consent.

10:00We are now moving on to the Regular agenda beginning with public comment.

10:08Keelan, would you like to invite up our commenters?

10:11Yes, thank you.

10:12Uh, first up we have Yume Delgado.

10:21Good evening, councilors, President Pirtle-Guiney, Mayor Wilson.

10:29For the record, my name is Yume Delgado, and I'm here in my personal capacity as the chair of the Citizen Review Committee, or CRC, which I've served on for the past 4 years.

10:38I am also a former member of the Police Accountability Commission, which proposed our city's new system of police oversight.

10:45Last week, the Citizen Review Committee wrote to this council outlining our concerns about the transition process and asking for a voice in that process.

10:54I am here to reiterate this request and to emphasize the precarious nature of our current system.

10:59Thank you, Councilor Mitch Green.

11:01Recognizing that it is rare for a sitting chair to appear before this body, I will hope you— I hope you will understand the importance of my presence here.

11:10For many years, much of the burden of compliance with USP City of Portland has rested squarely on the shoulders of volunteers.

11:19Key amongst those duties is a review of officer-involved shootings, a term which I think belies the full weight of that task.

11:26Thank you.

11:27So let me be less oblique.

11:29This city routinely asks us volunteers to watch police and community members interact in some of the most harrowing situations possible.

11:37They ask us to watch people die in some of those encounters, frame by agonizing frame, and then to rewind and to watch again and again and again.

11:49We are asked to make sense of these moments.

11:52Knowing that we do so as part of a system that Portlanders voted to overturn in 2020.

11:57We are asked to carry that moral dissonance case after case.

12:02For 4 years, we have done this work with less than half of the volunteers proposed for the new system, a fraction of the budget, and none of the supports that were proposed for that new system.

12:13We have done this work to the best of our ability, but we cannot do so indefinitely.

12:18It is perhaps worse for the dedicated employees of the Independent Police Review.

12:23We have asked them to place their careers in limbo indefinitely.

12:30The task of seating our replacements has fallen to this council, so I am here to ask you, please set a clear timeline for concluding this process.

12:39The CRC stands ready to assist you in any way we can and to the best of our ability.

12:45You will likely hear from community members tonight who have concerns about bias and other provisions of the new system.

12:52I share some of those concerns, and I hope this council can address them in the way that it sees fit.

12:58But I also know that we owe it to the public, to our volunteers, and to the officers that serve in the police bureau to provide clarity about what comes next and to finish the task we started.

13:09I hope that you can strike that balance.

13:10Thank you.

13:11Thank you.

13:13Councilor Kanal, you wanted to make a brief remark?

13:17Yeah, thank you, Yume, for coming to speak with us today, and thank you for sharing your story and the impact it's had on you and your colleagues to watch something that traumatic and then have to watch it again and again.

13:28I think everyone on this council is committed to ensuring that we have a Portland where there are no traumatic deaths at all.

13:34Um, and also thank you for your service on the PAC and CRC.

13:37It I've gotten a chance to work with you there.

13:39It has been unusual for committee leadership to speak to council, but it shouldn't be.

13:43You all deserve a voice in this process.

13:45You've earned it.

13:47We must move rapidly to set up the new accountability system and move rapidly in the right direction.

13:52And I know I'll be discussing it further with colleagues to ensure we're not creating unnecessary delay and that this council ultimately determines that direction.

14:00I share some of your concerns with both the timing and the provisions you mentioned, and I'm not willing to sacrifice getting it done right to get it done fast because we can do both.

14:09Thank you.

14:09Get it done right and get it done fast.

14:11Thank you.

14:12Thank you, Councilor.

14:14Thank you.

14:15You may— next up we have Wayne Wigness joining us online.

14:24Hello, can you hear me?

14:26Yes, we can hear you.

14:28Okay, um, well, 3 minutes isn't enough to say everything I wanted to say.

14:32Uh, I tried emailing your representatives only to find that the email addresses of public representatives are now being withheld from the public.

14:41Not a great first impression for this new government.

14:43Makes me feel it's more bureaucratic, less of a representative democracy.

14:49But for those who are interested, my full testimony, I posted on my website.

14:54I don't know.

14:55I think you can see that.

14:57Anyway, my main concern is that, Keith, you aren't saying much in the way of quality standards or tenant rights in regards to building shelters.

15:04Thank you.

15:05Instead, you seem to be operating on the principle that if we build it, they will come, dot dot dot, and they will do what they're told.

15:12Now, I hope we're not allowing the Grants Pass decision to go to our heads.

15:16There may be a big difference between a small town case like that and cases that will evolve if cities like Portland choose to really push the envelope here.

15:26Personally, I, I think there's a reason why the Supreme Court has refused to review that case yet.

15:31Yeah.

15:32And other cases like it for a very long time.

15:34It's because this issue goes straight to the heart of private property rights.

15:40And let's face it, rights to private property are a thing that doesn't really make sense when you scrutinize it.

15:46Take land ownership, for example.

15:47Land is known as a fictitious commodity in the sense that nobody built land itself, so you can't really justify earning it.

15:56I like what the Russian peasants, emancipated Russian serfs, used to say: it's God's land.

16:01It belongs to those who use it.

16:02Thank you.

16:05Um, but honestly, thank you, you, Keith, because what you're not telling us is housing first.

16:12We know what works— housing first.

16:14Personally, I think homelessness is a family issue much more than a private housing issue, and our focus needs to be on legitimizing alternative forms of family more than shoving people into small and overpriced boxes, which actually take them away from their street family.

16:31Councilmember somewhat related to that, what about outdoor shelters?

16:36And I'm not talking about pods like you, Dan Ryan.

16:39You have unethically reduced our notion of a— our collective notion of an outdoor shelter down to— talking about just places where people can go to sleep, find safety in numbers more than tents, and God forbid, a sense of community and pride.

16:54I think things like that are what used to make Portland cool way back before Charlie Hill's street sweeps.

17:02As for the study of shelter systems, our quality standards are so poor, it's unethical.

17:08PSU grad students, they make a few phone calls to shelter operators and they make a whole paper off of that.

17:14It helps get them a thesis.

17:15It doesn't really give us a clue.

17:18I'll close saying too much change too fast is dangerous, and I, I explained why I think that this is— that is particularly true in this case in my full, uh, communication.

17:30Thank you.

17:34Thank you, Mr. Wigness, for sharing those thoughts with us.

17:36We appreciate hearing from you.

17:41Next up, we have Dan Handelman, Portland Cop Watch.

17:46Uh, good evening.

17:46Can you hear me okay?

17:48Yes, we can hear you.

17:50Thank you.

17:51Hello, members of City Council and city officials.

17:53My name is Dan Handelman.

17:55I use he/him pronouns, and I'm a member of Portland Copwatch.

17:57My colleague Mark Porras will continue our formal introduction.

18:01Portland Copwatch is a grassroots volunteer organization promoting police accountability through community member action.

18:06Our philosophy is that so long as there are police, we need to hold them accountable.

18:10We're working toward a police bureau free of brutality, corruption, and racism.

18:14We're a project of Peace and Justice Works, which promotes nonviolent conflict resolution on local, national, and international levels.

18:20Thank you.

18:21We have met every chief of police, nearly every city council member, and other officials, including auditors, since we began in 1992.

18:28Our newsletter is published 3 times a year.

18:29You should have received a print copy of the January 2025 issue, number 94.

18:34It's also available on our website at portlandcopwatch.org.

18:37We run an incident report line at 503-321-5120, which takes reports of incidents involving the PPB and Multnomah County Sheriff's deputies.

18:45In line with our goals, we respond to people with information about how to resolve their cases.

18:49Thank you.

18:50To help prevent future occurrences.

18:52We conduct trainings on your rights and the police in association with volunteer lawyers, and how to cop watch.

18:57Cop watching is a generic term for observing police behavior created by Berkeley Cop Watch in 1990.

19:02It's an international movement, not a franchise, though many other groups use the name cop watch.

19:08Much of our work surrounds our goal of promoting and monitoring an effective system for civilian oversight of police.

19:12I've been to nearly every meeting of the Civilian Oversight Community Board since 1992.

19:17First, the Portland Internal Affairs Auditing Committee, which was created in 1982, 10 years before we were formed.

19:22Then the Citizen Review Committee, which succeeded them when the independent police review was created in 2001.

19:27We sat on the mayor's workgroup that proposed the system, which eventually became IPR, albeit with parts missing.

19:32I was also on the Police Accountability Commission, which spent 20 months designing the new oversight system outlined in the 2020 ballot measure 26-217.

19:41Some key police accountability issues you'll be facing in the coming months are, first, you have until February 6th to appoint the nominating committee, which will in turn nominate 21 members of the new Community Board for Police Accountability.

19:51Each district has to agree on one person for the 10-person committee, which will include designees from the chief's office and the police association and the Police Commanding Officers Association.

20:01This month, the Portland Police are required by city policy to present a report on the substance and frequency of their work with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

20:08Given what a flashpoint this issue has been since the year 2000, we urge that the JTTF report Number 3, again, as you establish rules for council meetings, we urge you to place lawsuit settlements about police misconduct on the full council's regular agenda, even when they are less than the $50,000 limit that may be settled by the city administrator without— Issue of police misconduct comes and goes from public attention.

20:31We started shortly after the LA police beat Rodney King in 1991 and the subsequent uprising.

20:36The PPB shot and killed 12-year-old Nathan Thomas in early 1992.

20:39And the PPB has used heavy-handed tactics to repress protest actions when those actions become popular and widespread.

20:44After the death of George Floyd in 2020, the city seemed to embrace the concept of not the movement of Black Lives Matter.

20:49It's problematic that the police violence against that movement doesn't stick in people's minds the way that focusing on property damage done during the protest perpetuates the narrative.

21:01I'm sorry, Mr. Handelman, the time was up there, but we appreciate your comments.

21:04Thank you for speaking to us today, and I know that you've reached out to a number of council members as well.

21:11Next up we have Mark Porras, Portland Copwatch.

21:16Uh, hello, Councilor, can you hear me?

21:18We can hear you, Mark.

21:19Fantastic.

21:20Hi, my name is Mark Porras, I use he/him pronouns, and I'm a member of Portland Copwatch.

21:25I learned about Portland Copwatch when they were working on a community campaign around collective bargaining with the Portland Police Association in 2019 and 2020.

21:32I've learned that with one exception, there have been at least some public meetings for those important negotiations with PPA since at least 2010.

21:39We've been clear that Copwatch supports the rights of workers to organize for fair wages and benefits.

21:44Our concern comes when PPA reaches too far into dictating policies that lead to unchecked violence against the community.

21:50The current PPA contract was set to expire in June of this year, so we asked the city attorney about the timeline for negotiations.

21:56They revealed that an April 2024 memo extended the contract until June of 2026.

22:01The extension gives this council more time to engage the community and ensure public meetings will happen.

22:06However, it is troubling that problematic parts of the contract will remain in place for another full year.

22:12The city's been under scrutiny of the U.S. Department of Justice since they conducted an investigation and entered into a settlement agreement with the city in 2012.

22:19That agreement is meant to reduce the amount of force used when police encounter people in mental health crisis.

22:24Data provided by consultants who review deadly force cases indicate that the use of deadly force in such cases has actually increased since the DOJ agreement went into effect.

22:32And last week, the city's status report to the court did not even mention mental health.

22:36Thank you.

22:37Copwatch has been testifying about the agreement from the beginning.

22:40Mr. Handelman also has participated with the enhanced amicus, or friend of the court, the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform since 2003, and as a steering committee member since 2010.

22:52The AMA coalition has asked DOJ to— had asked the DOJ to investigate patterns of the Portland police after the death of Aaron Campbell in 2010.

23:00Sharing bureau data that showed disproportionate policing against Portland's relatively small Black community did not persuade the feds to investigate the obvious racial disparities.

23:09Roughly 25% of deadly force cases, 25 to 30% of all force, and 20% of traffic stops are of Black people in Portland, which has a 6% Black population.

23:18One of the city's core values is anti-racism.

23:21A serious look into where these disparities come from is long overdue to fulfill that promise.

23:25Regarding settlements, Portland Copwatch has tracked over $3 million in payouts just for the 2020 protests.

23:31We also track other misconduct settlements, judgments, and jury awards and keep a running top 25 list on our website.

23:36Thank you.

23:37Another core city value is transparency.

23:39Putting lawsuits on the regular agenda is important, both so the public knows about them and so council can discuss underlying policy issues and legislate improvements.

23:48The previous council often put smaller settlements on the consent agenda, which only leads us to pulling those items for public discussion.

23:55The city's values around fiscal responsibility require you to keep in mind the most vulnerable populations.

24:00This means more compassionate policies towards the houseless community, starting with not criminalizing those who have nowhere to sleep but outside.

24:11We look forward to engaging with all of you collectively and each of you individually.

24:14It's important to keep in mind that public safety means much more than using police to address every issue on Portlanders' minds.

24:20It takes alternatives to police, creative nonviolence programs, and properly holding officers accountable to achieve public safety.

24:26Thank you.

24:28Thank you for being here with us today, Mr. Porras.

24:31We appreciate your remarks.

24:34Next up, we have Michelle Mila.

24:38Hello, good evening, Council and Mayor.

24:40My name is Michelle Mila.

24:41I am a resident in the Northwest Stadiumhood neighborhood, and today I bring 2 related and pressing issues that threaten the safety and livability of my community: the harmful operations of the Portland People's Outreach Project, or PPoP, and the importance of safeguarding our essential services budgets.

24:59PPoP is the volunteer group that distributes syringes and crack pipes in our school zone each Friday night.

25:05They are not a 1-for-1 needle exchange.

25:08On a daily basis, we pick up syringes that are used and discarded foil laced with drug residue all around, all in our school zone.

25:15Today, it happened to be the needles we picked up were on the ground near Cathedral School.

25:20We have been documenting criminal activities spilling over into the community that radiate from the hub of PPoP activities.

25:26And these problems are also impacting the lives of the unsheltered people who have to navigate the biohazards on the ground, and they're also feeling a decreased sense of safety.

25:36Stadiumhood has security footage, photos, and eyewitness accounts, interviews that confirm that PPAP's operations have drawn organized groups, including Antifa-affiliated individuals, into our safe route to school.

25:48The proposed cuts that are coming up that you're going to consider to our safety budgets will further strain an already overburdened neighborhood.

25:56So today I offer 4 considerations to help alleviate some of these burdens.

26:01Number 1, the immediate enforcement of permit and zoning city codes and a commitment to relocate PPAP out of a school zone where they can work without compromising community safety.

26:10Number 2, collaboration with the county for harm reduction programs.

26:14Let's ensure they address the needs of the entire community.

26:17Number 3, I invite each of our new 12 councilors out to tour our neighborhood, a personal tour.

26:23And witness the things that we have been bringing to your attention at these council meetings.

26:27When it comes to demographics, the East Portland people and stadium neighborhoods are actually more alike than they are different.

26:33And that's according to the Northwest and Mosin research.

26:36And we want to partner with you and help address the commonalities that we have in these problems.

26:42We appreciate that Councilor Clark is going to be joining our stadium hood call this Saturday so we can talk about some of these things.

26:48Number 4, please protect our safety budgets.

26:51This is critical.

26:52Our police, fire, and emergency communications cover critical services, and they are the backbone of our public safety programs.

26:59We're not asking for perfection.

27:01We're just asking for some collaboration.

27:03Right now, we're on the ground working really hard.

27:05We're forging new relationships with our community members and stakeholders each and every day, and we want to share what we've accomplished with you.

27:12The bottom line is that our— Our parents are afraid to let their children walk to school around here, and residents are leaving the city.

27:20Cutting safety budgets might very well push us over a tipping point of no return.

27:25Resources must be prioritized to ensure the safety and well-being of the community and not towards padding bureaucracy.

27:32Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for your service.

27:38Thank you, Ms. Milla.

27:38We appreciate you being here and sharing some information about what's happening in your community.

27:47Oh, that completes communications.

27:49Okay, the next portion of our agenda, the next 3 items we have are all budget items, uh, 2 grants and 1 budget adjustment.

27:59Uh, councilors, you should have received a memo from our DCAs about items 4 and 5.

28:07Uh, clerk, could you read our next agenda item please?

28:11Appropriate grants totaling $7 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the development of Barber Apartments affordable housing project.

28:21And I believe we have Helmi Hisarach from the Housing Bureau presenting this for us.

28:29Thank you both for being here today.

28:31Go ahead and introduce yourself and you can launch in.

28:35Thank you, Council President.

28:37Good evening, City Council.

28:39Donnie Oliveira, for the record.

28:40I'm the Deputy City Administrator for Community and Economic Development.

28:44So on behalf of the City of Portland's Housing Bureau, Congresswoman Susan Bonamici, with the support of Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, uh, we submitted a federal appropriations request for $2 million towards the construction of Barber Apartments.

28:59The request was approved in the Consolidated Appropriations Act in March of 2024.

29:04This economic development initiative community project funding was— is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

29:12Tonight before you, along with this $2 million, the request also includes allocating the remaining $5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds from previous years to complete a land acquisition for the development of Barber Apartments.

29:25Upon completion, the project will add 149 new units of permanently affordable rental housing targeting low-income families.

29:33Thank you.

29:34The project helps to meet the demand for affordable family-sized units, with 68% of the units having 2, 3, or 4 bedrooms.

29:41I want to acknowledge that this is a really important moment as we keep the housing production pipeline going in our city.

29:47All across the city, all types of housing is needed, and this is a great example of federal leadership working with the city to help us find the resources to complete this investment.

29:55I'm now going to turn it over to my colleague, Director Helmi Hisarik, to talk about the project specifically and some details.

30:02Good evening.

30:02Helmi Hisarik, Director of Portland Housing Bureau.

30:05I use she/her pronouns, uh, and before you today is an increase in the fiscal year '24-'25 budget by $7 million from federal grants administered by HUD.

30:17The purpose of the ordinance, as I mentioned, is to increase— oh, let me go to the— I have a short presentation on the project really for your information, uh, and I'll go through it.

30:26We also are joined by, uh, by Joni Hartman, who's the director of real estate at Innovative Housing, who's the developer, if you have any more detailed or technical questions on the project.

30:37So let's go to the next slide, please.

30:41We request council to accept and appropriate $2 million of HUD community project funding awarded by Congress, and we thank Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, along with Representative Suzanne Bonamici, for their advocacy to secure this yes.

30:54I'd also like to acknowledge the Office of Governmental Relations, who was a great assist in this project, in, in the funding.

31:02We appropriate $5 million of HUD Community Development Block Grant funding from our— the city's prior year balance.

31:10These resources will support the development of the Barber Apartments, which are located in Council District 4.

31:16It's a new multifamily affordable rental project in Southwest Portland.

31:21Next slide.

31:23The Barber Apartments is a 100% affordable project providing 149 affordable housing units plus 1 manager's unit in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Southwest Portland, targeting immigrant and refugee families.

31:36The project will be developed and owned by Innovative Housing Inc. Barber Apartments was created to prevent future displacement of the diverse communities of color along the Southwest Portland corridor due to planned infrastructure investments and development, including the extension of light rail.

31:54This is also the 2nd PHB-supported project to receive congressionally designated funding via the Economic Development Initiative Community Project Funds administered by HUD.

32:07To ensure long-term affordability, the borrower will enter into regulatory agreement with Portland Housing Bureau to maintain the affordability of the project for 99 years.

32:17Thank you.

32:18Next slide.

32:22The Barber Apartments, as I mentioned, consists of 149 affordable units.

32:26These are at or below 60% of the area median income, plus a manager's unit.

32:32The majority of the units, 68% of them, are sized for families, with 82 2-bedroom units, 16 3-bedroom units, and 4 4-bedroom units.

32:4420%— 21% Of the units, or 32 of the units, will be affordable to households with incomes under 30% of the area median income.

32:5313% Of the units, or 19 of them, will be affordable for households with incomes up to 45% of the area median.

33:0138 Project-based vouchers from Home Forward, the housing authority, make these deeply affordable units possible.

33:10Next slide.

33:12Site amenities in the project include a large central outdoor play area, laundry facilities, bike and vehicle parking, resident services management offices, and 2 large community rooms.

33:26All 3 and 4-bedroom units will have in-unit washer and dryer.

33:30The project is pursuing an Earth Advantage Gold certification.

33:34Additionally, the project is applying for PSAP Uh, Portland Clean Energy Funds to pursue additional sustainable greenhouse gas reducing options in the building's construction.

33:45The project team will strive to meet the PHB, or Portland Housing Bureau, and Metro— it's Metro bond-funded project— uh, equity and contracting goals, including 30% hard cost and 20% professional services participation by COBID-certified firms.

34:03The development team will also make a good faith effort to meet and exceed the 14% hard cost participation subgoals of the, um, DMWBE, or disadvantaged minority women and emerging small business firms.

34:18Due to federal financing included in the project, Section 3 hiring and the Build America Buy America Act requirements apply.

34:27The project team must prioritize efforts to hire and train Section 3 workers with a goal of at least 25% of all labor hours worked.

34:36Buy America preference under BABA applies to all iron and steel products used in the construction of the project.

34:45Construction is projected to start in March 2025 and be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

34:52Next slide.

34:55This is a little bit about resident services.

34:58The Innovative Housing Inc. will provide resident services in the Barber in partnership with the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, IRCCO.

35:06IRCCO will provide culturally specific programming to residents of the community rooms and meeting spaces and have priority referral for housing opportunities.

35:15IHI also plans— that's Innovative Housing Inc.— also plans to work closely with nearby community centers, mosques, and organizations including Community Services Network, Neighborhood House, Islamic Social Services of Oregon, Somali American Council of Oregon, and Black Parent Initiative to provide an array of culturally specific and culturally responsible support services for residents.

35:40Next slide.

35:42The federal grants that we are— that are before you today will leverage over $70 million, or 10 times of other public and private financing for the project contributed by Metro, the Oregon Housing Community Services Department, The Energy Trust of Oregon, Portland Clean Energy Fund, and the limited equity investor Raymond James.

36:05Last slide.

36:09So appropriate federal grants— so what's before you is to appropriate federal grant— federal grants totaling $7 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the development of the Barber Apartments.

36:21Thank you.

36:21Thank you.

36:26Thank you very much.

36:27I think we have 2 questions from councilors.

36:29Councilor Smith.

36:32Thank you, Madam President.

36:34I noted that you said that the 3 and 4 bedrooms would have their own, um, washer and dryer.

36:41Do you have on-site laundry for the other, uh, residents?

36:48I will have to ask the Uh, developer.

36:52Thank you.

36:53And the answer to that is yes, there are multiple laundry rooms on the various floors in the multifamily.

36:59Thank you.

37:00Can we have you introduce yourself for us?

37:01I'm sorry.

37:03I'm Joni Hartman.

37:05I'm the Director of Housing at Innovative Housing.

37:08Thank you so much.

37:10Thank you, Joni.

37:11Councilor Dunphy.

37:13Thank you, President Pirtle-Guiney.

37:14Um, I noticed that, uh, on there you'd mentioned there's a 99-year affordability.

37:19Uh, 3 questions about that.

37:20One, why 99 instead of 100?

37:24Um, 2, when does that begin?

37:26Does that begin when construction begins, or does that begin when the first tenant is given a lease, or is it when the last tenant is fully, you know, when they're fully booked?

37:35How does that 99-year timeline start?

37:37That was 2 questions.

37:40Yeah, right.

37:42And the third was, what happens after 99 years?

37:44Those are all really good questions.

37:45The first question, I can answer the question regarding why 99 years.

37:4999 Years is by legal definition of the longest term that we can have for essentially an in perpetuity lease in, in the United States.

37:57Um, uh, the, um, when it starts is a, is a question I, I'm not sure I can answer.

38:04Do you happen to know if it starts upon, uh— generally, the regulatory agreements are signed at closing and they're dated as of okay, so it would be as the date of the closing of finance, which precedes any occupant getting in.

38:18At the end of 99 years, uh, what typically happens is the useful life of a real estate asset is 30 years.

38:26At that time, the developer has the opportunity to consider refinancing.

38:31Often during a refinancing, we will look to extend out the term of the affordability beyond the 99 years for an additional period of say 30 or 40 years.

38:40And we keep doing that every time we refi.

38:42Sure.

38:43And just to follow up, um, does the financing happen— does the final transfer of financing complete prior to the first shovel in the ground, or is that a process that, uh, it can occur simultaneously?

38:56It's a 2-step process.

38:57The first step is construction financing closes.

38:59Once the construction is completed, it'll convert using the tax credits into a permanent financing.

39:05So there's a, there's a 2-step process in the financing closings.

39:08Okay, thank you.

39:13I appreciate the presentation and the proposal.

39:18Um, so this is just mostly federal money, and this is essentially authorizing us to make use of that federal money, is that correct?

39:26The appropriation before you today is 100% federal dollars from HUD, Housing and Urban Development.

39:32Thank you.

39:33Um, and I just want to put a comment That, um, the Southwest Corridor, this specific area, is my neighborhood, and it is currently underserved by affordable housing.

39:43So I support generally attempts to go after federal money and move quickly in affordable housing production in a high-opportunity transit corridor.

39:52Thanks.

39:53Thank you, Madam President.

39:59Thank you for the presentation, and thank you to our congressional delegation and our government affairs folks upstairs years.

40:05Um, I also, um, live not far from this district, and this summer when I was at the Multicultural Fair, uh, in one of the parks, I heard a lot about the need for housing along the corridor.

40:16I actually worked on the Southwest Corridor light rail project, or a one-time light rail project.

40:21Um, so I'm really happy to hear about this, and I hate— and I'm thinking that we also need a greater effort to preserve the affordable housing that is in the Barber Corridor as well.

40:30I heard a lot about that and Councilor Kanal.

40:38Thank you.

40:39I have a series of process questions around the emergency ordinance aspect of this.

40:45Um, my, I, I, my understanding is that under our new form of government, accepting a grant no longer requires a council vote.

40:52And the only thing that I've seen in the emergency clause is that there would be a concern around delay of accepting the funds.

40:59And if that's correct, my question is, why is this proposed as an emergency ordinance specifically?

41:07I can take it.

41:07Thank you for the question, Councilor.

41:09So in this particular moment, um, we're, we're looking to activate all federal dollars as quickly as possible.

41:14That's one step.

41:15And because we're appropriating new dollars that this council or prior council hadn't contemplated, we need your action to get—.

41:21To give us the green light to complete the capital stack.

41:23So this is almost a keeping up with the development, you know, timeline that's already been in process for for many years.

41:292019 Is when we took out the purchase offer on the land.

41:34There you go.

41:35Okay, thank you.

41:40Councilor Zimmerman.

41:41Thanks.

41:41Uh, this is a great area for this, so I appreciate that.

41:46Um, and maybe you said it and, and I've missed it.

41:49I was looking— one of these areas is, um, A fairly, I'll say, old school but important business in the area.

42:00Do you know if they have any— are they closing down or do they have transition plans?

42:04I'm talking about the rental group there that provides a lot of, I'll just say, the things that we all need but we can't afford to own ourselves, right?

42:13Um, do you have any idea about the future of them in terms of how they've been involved in this thus far?

42:18Well, we have been working with Barber Rentals for— since 2019.

42:23Um, my understanding is that they are wrapping up their business after the end of the holiday season, and between now and— we're supposed to take control of the site on the 26th of February— they will be disposing of all of the very interesting articles and useful things that they have on site.

42:44Used them many times.

42:47Turns out it's, uh, It's great to have somebody in town who owns all the things that, uh, you need for a good party, right?

42:52But, um, but, but they're fully involved in this, and, and they've been, they've been supportive.

42:58And to that, would you describe it that way?

43:01They've been very good partners.

43:02Great.

43:02Thanks for touching on that point.

43:08I believe we have one person signed up for public testimony.

43:13Is that the case?

43:16Okay, we have one person signed up.

43:18Um, we don't have any more questions from council then.

43:22I will thank our guests and, um, move on to public testimony, please.

43:28Bridge Crane Simca Junta.

43:30Good evening, councilors.

43:31The way the procedure works is you don't reserve seats for testifiers, so if you would allow me to come downstairs, I'll be with you shortly.

44:51Thank you for joining us.

44:54Hello, old friends and new.

44:57I am Bridge Crane Simcoe Charles Johnson, and, uh, apropos on Commissioner Kanal's mention of the word emergency.

45:10Long ago, when the Honorable Ms. Smith was on the County Commission, mayor sitting here passed a housing emergency.

45:20This is still the best we can do.

45:24Go to the electronic agenda and scroll through how long this is.

45:31Observe that nowhere in this presentation, which I cannot find linked on the public agenda listing, so I could not preview these slides and discuss and prepare for this, uh, but I, I knew, I knew that it's just a glory show, that there's no concern about the timing of life-saving deliverables.

45:56Councilmember Herbold.

45:58People are dying on our streets, and we're investing this much time on 140 units that are going to prioritize people who came here after many of these people got on their first waiting list.

46:13Now, I'm very in favor of us pushing very hard to wrestle from the federal government money to give adequate and proper living conditions to all.

46:25Refugees and asylum seekers.

46:28We can't throw them in a pot with neighbors that have been on housing waiting lists for over 12 years.

46:38And regardless of whether I'm right or wrong about how we're doing that, you need to, I believe, in your fiduciary duties, look at the fact that we've just said that this project is probably going to take.

46:512 Years.

46:55I'm not an expert in commercial real estate.

46:58The Housing Bureau is, and the things that they don't talk about are the things that need to be talked about.

47:05What is the per square foot cost of these units, and how does it compare to what we're giving normal, ordinary working families that can't get into any assistance program?

47:18The reason that's ultra critical is because y'all, in partnership with the Joint Office of Homeless Services, create castes, a caste system and striation among poor and homeless people.

47:30So some homeless people sleep in a situation where our taxpayers spend $2,100 plus per month just on housing, and then throw the cost of wraparound services on top of that.

47:42Thank you.

47:43And then another caste, discriminated class of homeless people get told, no, you can't have that.

47:48You have to go to congregate shelter, and we're never going to talk about how much that costs per person either.

47:55That is why hordes of people like myself are spending years sleeping on the streets around you, is because you don't address the problem in a systemic scope.

48:06I realize that this is just one agenda item that's an emergency so we can get the contextualize every publicly funded housing program as a piece in the puzzle with specific numbers that line up with the point-in-time count.

48:23And we also—.

48:24Sir, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to cut you off, but we have a—.

48:27Thank you, thank you, Madam President.

48:29Uh, so obviously this is a yes vote, but contextualized and built into the system for real thank you.

48:36Thank you for, for drawing our attention to the bigger picture that we need to make sure we're paying attention to.

48:46Is there any other final discussion before we take a vote?

48:51Okay, and this is an emergency ordinance, so it does mean— need 9 affirmative votes to pass.

48:59Clerk, can you call the roll, please?

49:04I just want to appreciate the efforts to, um, seek PSF dollars and make the building climate resilient, and also to work with community partners to ensure we're not displacing the very people this project is meant to help.

49:16I vote aye.

49:18Aye.

49:21Aye.

49:24So I, I asked the question about emergency ordinances because I have concerns about the overuse of those in previous councils.

49:29I, I do think that in this particular case, with an incoming change to federal oversight of, of some of these dollars and how those will be done, that makes sense to, to go through this process.

49:41I want to appreciate Senators Merkley and Wyden, Congresswoman Bonamici.

49:45I also just wanted to shout out this is near a grocery store.

49:48There's cultural programming with ERCO, which is great, and it's a Portland-based developer, which is always nice to see as well.

49:54And those are really great attributes of this particular program.

49:58Thank you.

49:59Broadly speaking, affordable housing is good.

50:00One of the renters on this council, I'm excited to support something that helps renters be able to stay in their homes.

50:06I'll just note that I do support the idea that if we're going to get a presentation, it should be posted in advance in the future so that everybody in the public can see it too.

50:14And, uh, but yeah, on the whole, this seems like a good project, and I vote yes.

50:20Yes, this checks all the necessary boxes of success— federal, state, local governments coming together.

50:25COVID goals have been met and thrilled with the workforce development targets, namely the 20% or more hours worked by trades and job site hours will be done by state-registered apprentices.

50:36And I got to also add that it's great to see 3 and 4 bedroom units, and I can't believe I finally heard about the 45%, um, AMI target.

50:44So, um, that's wonderful because there's such a big gap between 30 and 60.

50:47You've heard me say this many times, a few of you.

50:49Anyway, bravo.

50:50Aye.

50:53Aye.

50:53Aye.

50:55Aye.

50:57Aye.

50:58I just want to acknowledge that this is going to benefit the immigrant and refugee community, uh, community which has longstanding presence in West Portland Park and along this corridor.

51:10And I object to sort of this idea of distinguishing normal working-class people from Immigrants.

51:18They are also normal working-class people as well, um, displaced in no small part by our federal government's actions.

51:24So I vote aye.

51:27Aye.

51:28Aye.

51:28Ordinance passes.

51:37We will move on to our next agenda item.

51:41Appropriate grant for $125,000 from Oregon Health Authority for the thank you.

51:51And we have our same guests back up.

51:54And is John Trinh joining you as well?

52:01If you can all introduce yourselves as you begin speaking, that would be great.

52:05Thank you so much.

52:06Thank you, Madam President.

52:07Donnie Oliveira, for the record, Deputy City Administrator for Community Economic Development.

52:11I'm going to keep this brief.

52:12You have a long night ahead of you.

52:14Uh, Councilor, this is a great opportunity for this council to see a service area at work together.

52:19So, um, the state of Oregon, um, has provided these Healthy Homes grants for many years, and this is an opportunity for the Housing Bureau, the Permitting Development Bureau, uh, Prosper, and BPS to work together to deliver, um, services to our communities, um, through a grant program providing funding from the state.

52:37I'm going to immediately turn it over to my colleagues to walk through the specifics so we can move on with the city's agenda.

52:42Great.

52:42Once again, Helmi Hisarik, Director, Portland Housing Bureau.

52:45I use she/her pronouns.

52:47Um, I'm joined today by John Trinh, who manages our Neighborhood Preservation Program, and I'm going to actually let him do most of the presentation.

52:54Uh, I just wanted to mention that this is a state grant from the, uh, Oregon Health Authority.

53:01It is leveraged by federal dollars that we run called the Healthy Homes Program, and I'll let John explain what the purpose of the program is and who we serve and how many people we anticipate serving with the state grant.

53:14Good evening, John Trinh, Neighborhood Housing Preservation Manager for the Housing Bureau.

53:21It's exciting to be able to present to you and ask for an appropriation of $125,000 to be utilized this fiscal year.

53:28We apply for $750,000 with the Oregon Health Authority Um, for the 2024 State Healthy Home Grant on April 5th.

53:39Um, the State Healthy Home Grant will leverage our federal Healthy Home Grant that we received back on May 15th, 2023.

53:47The grant—.

53:47The program serves as a critical anti-displacement resource for low- to moderate-income families citywide.

53:54The Oregon Health Authority has notified the City of Portland that it will award the grant for the 2024 State Healthy Home Grant to the Portland Housing Bureau, um, and Portland Permitting and Development in the amount of $750,000.

54:09The grant, um, hopes to serve 21 to 30 households within the 3-year grant period.

54:16Thank you.

54:20Thank you very much.

54:23Uh, Council, does anybody have any questions?

54:28Okay, do we have anybody who signed up for public testimony?

54:31No one signed up.

54:34Oh, there are now questions.

54:35Perfect, thank you.

54:37Councilor Kanal.

54:39So this is a similar question to the preceding one.

54:43Um, other than the fact that housing broadly is an emergency, as was pointed out to us, uh, why is this an emergency ordinance?

54:53Yeah, I'll take it.

54:55Thank you, Councilor, for the question.

54:56Donnie Oliveira, for the record.

54:58In this particular case, it's because we were trying to expend the resources as soon as possible.

55:03Just given the transition, we may have taken this to council a bit earlier, but we had a little bit of delay with new form of government taking shape.

55:10So we're a little bit behind the work planning.

55:12So that $125,000 that you're approving tonight would almost go immediately into action.

55:18Is that Is that not always the case, that it would always be good to spend the money we receive in a grant as quickly as possible?

55:26Absolutely.

55:26And in this particular case, just given the situation of our government, if, if we were here 4 months ago, it probably would have been on regular agenda, but we're a little bit behind the, the project timeline.

55:39Thank you.

55:39DC Oliveira.

55:46Thank you.

55:47Um, sorry, I'm doing a little bit of quick math because I'm not good at that.

55:52Um, this works out to be— you're saying about 20— what does it say, 25 to— or 21 to 30 people over a 3-year period.

55:58Can you give me an example of, uh, who we're helping in this situation, uh, homeowners versus renters, what we're doing with that money?

56:05It works out to be about $25,000 per person if that's the, the goal.

56:09Uh, where— what are we getting for that?

56:11So this is going to be leveraging our federal Healthy Home Grant that we received back in 2023.

56:17We're hoping to assess homeowners who are 80%, uh, less AMI, area median income.

56:25We're looking at in terms of working with Portland Permitting and Development under their program called Empowered Neighborhood.

56:35And so they have homes household homeowners that they're working with that have code violation.

56:43And so we're working with them to, to resolve those code violations.

56:48Some of our grant programs that we have right now are smaller amount, and so using a bigger dollar amount, we're able to successfully take care of some of those violations.

56:56For example, fixing a roof, fixing, fixing a plumbing, broken pipes, and so forth.

57:02Will those I mean, um, that sounds fantastic, and I know that there are especially a lot of older adults who are aging in place who are having a hard time keeping up with repairs, low-income families who simply cannot afford to replace their roofs.

57:15I'm worried though, will any of these dollars be used to resolve fines that have been leveraged by the permitting bureaus?

57:23These dollars are particularly for bricks and, uh, bricks, um, for construction, not fines.

57:28Okay.

57:29But, uh, if I'm a homeowner, I'm getting my new roof out of this, I assume that if I'm on the list for this program, then it's been a while and bureaucrats have been involved and know me on a first-name basis, and probably there have been some fines or fees leveraged against that homeowner.

57:47Um, do we resolve those in some way with this program?

57:53Yeah, I can Yeah, Councilor Donnie Oliveira, for the record, I think in the case where you're describing where someone may have a fine because of a non-compliance or an ordinance issue, if we were working with the Housing Bureau to rectify that, we have, um, you know, forgiveness programs.

58:09I would want to speak absolutely on that.

58:10Of course, it's going to be case by case.

58:12In some instances, there's code violations that span a range of issues, but I do think the Permitting and Development Bureau is definitely a kinder Permitting Development Bureau, and we're trying to be more supportive of our communities.

58:24Great, thank you.

58:29Okay, any other discussion from council?

58:36Okay, again, this is an emergency ordinance and requires 9 votes.

58:41Keelan, could you please call the roll?

58:43Avalos.

58:46Thank you again, um, and I am very grateful to see the partnership with the state on the Healthy Homes Bill.

58:51Um, Obviously biased because I was part of that coalition, and I think that work to create more clean energy opportunities is critical, and I appreciate your partnership.

59:02I vote aye.

59:04Aye.

59:06Aye.

59:08Uh, yeah, thank you to you, to the Oregon Legislature for making the funding available, to the Oregon Health Authority.

59:13Um, because this doesn't change our bottom line as a city and we're just taking the money we've already received in a grant and appropriating it, I think your argument makes sense on the emergency ordinance side, so I'm happy Ryan?

59:27Aye.

59:28Aye.

59:29Aye.

59:30Aye.

59:32Aye.

59:34Aye.

59:36Aye.

59:38Aye.

59:39Motion passes.

59:43Uh, thank you to our guests.

59:46And Keelan, could you please read the next item for us, adopt a supplemental budget for city council and mayor staffing.

1:00:00As we sit here tonight, uh, we are about to enter into a discussion about a budget adjustment, and I want to remind everybody that our council was not set up for success.

1:00:17And in fact, the former mayor brought forward a proposal for our council staffing that went against the recommendations of his own transition team and the public.

1:00:29We were not set up to serve Portlanders in the way that you all, the voters, asked for in charter reform.

1:00:39We are not trying to solve the entirety of the budget problem that we have inherited.

1:00:45And we've heard the response from Portlanders and the fear from our frontline workers that this budget adjustment adds to an already very, very difficult budget conversation that we'll be facing over the next few months.

1:00:59I want to be clear that every single one of my colleagues that I've talked to about this proposal is committed to engaging in that broader budget process yes.

1:01:09In a way that ensures the outcomes that best serve Portlanders.

1:01:14We will prioritize protecting services that Portlanders rely on and right-size the administrative management, the piece of city leadership that received the most additional funding under Mayor Wheeler's implementation of the charter.

1:01:28Tonight, though, we are focused on right-sizing our ability to do the work that Portlanders are expecting from us under charter reform.

1:01:39I am looking forward to a robust conversation about this measure.

1:01:43Um, I will point out as I say that, that this is the start of 3 hours and 40 minutes of agenda items that we have left on our agenda at 7 o'clock.

1:01:53So I hope that we can have that robust conversation and also make sure to be as efficient with our time as possible.

1:02:04Um, as we move forward, are there any questions?

1:02:13Um, we'll get to comments and debate, but are there any questions about where we're starting from, from councilors?

1:02:23Um, go ahead, Councilor Avalos.

1:02:25Thank you, Madam President.

1:02:27Um, so As the— my fellow councilors know, because I alerted them a few days ago, I was prepared to offer an amendment today that would reduce the overall ask to just 1 FTE per council office and change the funding source to contingency for a total of $1.2 million.

1:02:45Partially, I was introducing— planning to introduce this amendment due to my personal feelings and feelings that I've heard from other councilors and members about the trade-offs in the way that the proposal was originally written, and it was unclear at the time why we would need a lot of one-time funds in order— and spend them within 5 months.

1:03:06So those were some of the original reasons why I was considering this amendment.

1:03:11But however, it's come to my attention that we are planning to have a larger discussion.

1:03:15There are many various proposals on the table, so I just wanted to inform the body that I'm not going to put the amendment forward at this moment, but I am prepared to offer that if that is what folks are desiring, again, bringing it down to one staffer per office.

1:03:32So I just wanted to put that at the forefront as well so that the community can respond to that as we begin this discussion.

1:03:37Thank you.

1:03:39Thank you, Councilor Avalos.

1:03:41Councilor Smith.

1:03:44Madam President, I just want to say thank you for your courageous leadership at this time early in the, in the process, that you're willing to build an infrastructure to make sure that we're effective and that we can do the work of the people.

1:03:59I noted in your, um, amendment that this would be coming from the, uh, city administrator's budget, but is this the time that we can add to, to take that from the contingency budget instead of the, the city administrator's budget?

1:04:18We can absolutely consider an amendment to do that.

1:04:21I believe we have a fair amount of public testimony signed up And I think, as folks have heard hinted at, we have a number of councilors who have ideas about amendments to this proposal.

1:04:33So what I'd like to do, if it's okay with you, Councilor Smith, is hear from the public, um, if there's any other clarifying questions from councilors, then hear from the public, and then have a broader conversation about level of funding and space that we could get funding from.

1:04:47Perfect.

1:04:48Thank you so much.

1:04:49Absolutely.

1:04:52Madam President, I think a few of us have hands up before we make that move.

1:04:57Before we hear from the public?

1:05:00Yes.

1:05:01Okay, uh, Councilor Green.

1:05:04Uh, thank you, Madam President.

1:05:06Um, as we get into this discussion, I would encourage my colleagues, um, not to think about this in terms of FTEs, although that's a proxy, that's a good yardstick for measurement of dollars, but really this is about dollars that we can— that we have the authority and really the obligation to manage that best fits our districts and our constituencies.

1:05:27So as we get into that, I would like to sort of offer that framing.

1:05:30Thanks.

1:05:32Thank you, Councilor Green.

1:05:33Councilor Zimmerman.

1:05:35I'm hoping that perhaps you can describe where this funding package sits currently.

1:05:44I think that we have been in an unfortunate few days where some bad misinformation was put out into the public sphere by an employee outside of their scope.

1:05:54Right.

1:05:55And I think it's led to a lot of misunderstanding about what would be given up.

1:06:01And I have a feeling that a significant amount of testimony today will address that.

1:06:05And I think that if we can get in front of that, it will help alleviate some concerns that exist probably within this room and online.

1:06:14Um, to shore up some time, because I'd like to do that.

1:06:18I'm certainly not happy with how some stuff came about, and I think that we're going to hear from that.

1:06:23So perhaps we spend a little bit more time before we just open it up.

1:06:28Why don't we take comments from Councilor Dunphy, and I believe I see Councilor Smith back in the queue, and then Councilor Zimmerman, I would be happy to run through what we have thank you, Madam President.

1:06:53Um, I just want to, before we begin this conversation, recognize that, um, you know, many of us in this body have had many years working in public service and recognize the specific demands that this job has.

1:07:04I spent 5 years working for a late City Commissioner Nick Fish has a team of 7, and the job was the hardest job I've ever had until now.

1:07:12Um, today I am working as hard as I can with one staff member, and he's an amazing human being who's doing great work.

1:07:20But the work to act— adequately represent District 1 cannot be done by 2 people.

1:07:27It cannot be done from City Hall.

1:07:29And the work that is currently, uh, before us is simply not— is simply more than 2 people can ever handle.

1:07:35And it can— and we must meet the needs of what the, uh, the voters actually put into place when we move towards a district representation.

1:07:44This current staffing arrangement does nothing to help deepen, or nothing but deepen the inequities that have happened east of I-205.

1:07:52And so I am bullish in making sure that we can adequately meet the needs of the community and meet community where they are.

1:07:58And I'm looking forward to a more robust conversation with my colleagues.

1:08:02Thank you.

1:08:03And I can just say ditto, ditto, ditto.

1:08:07We were at an East Portland Action Plan, um, meeting the other night, and I had to get there a little late.

1:08:13And me and my staffer, my one staffer, went.

1:08:16But as we were leaving, um, Councilor Dunphy's staffer was still here in the office at 6:30.

1:08:23He could not come over to the meeting, but I had my staffer.

1:08:27So it's, it's a trade-off, and we're, we're trying to figure out how to do more with less.

1:08:32Thank you.

1:08:33And I think what you were talking about, um, Councilor Zimmerman, that there was some talk about us taking money from the homeless, uh, Portland Solutions.

1:08:44That is not where we're planning to take this money from.

1:08:47And we, we're going to have this conversation later, but the original request was out of the city administrator's budget, and this new money is going to be taken from the contingency, uh, pot of money.

1:08:58So that's where we can shore this up at.

1:09:04Thank you, Councilor Smith.

1:09:04So building off of Councilor Smith's remarks and in response to Councilor Zimmerman, what we have before us is a budget adjustment which would increase the appropriations to council offices by $4,318,424 amongst the 12 of us.

1:09:24Yes.

1:09:25And increase funding to the mayor's office by $269,810, offsetting that by a decrease in operating expenses from the city administrator's budget.

1:09:40There has been conversation, not started by this council, that one of the places that that cut could come from in the city administrator's office is a specific program.

1:09:52And I do want to clarify that I don't believe anybody on this council directed the city administrator to that program.

1:09:59In fact, we have been very specific that we trusted the city administrator to find the best cost savings available within his budget.

1:10:09Um, we have since heard a number of suggestions on other places we could look for.

1:10:15Thank you.

1:10:16To pull those funds if we wanted to ensure that we avoided taking money from specific programs rather than leaving that choice up to the city administrator, one of which you heard Councilor Smith refer to, which is the contingency.

1:10:29And part of the debate that I expect we'll be having is where those funds come from.

1:10:34There also has been some conversation about whether we are looking at a lump sum amount, and if so, what the— What's the number?

1:10:42Councilor Smith.

1:10:43General amount is that a councilor might need for their office budget to be spent in probably different ways in different offices because we all have different needs and priorities, or whether we should be talking about building up as to a specific amount of staff and specific line items.

1:11:01So that is also part of the debate that I expect we'll hear today.

1:11:04As we invite up the public to comment, I do want to just I just put a bit of a finer point on that by saying there is a lot of debate to be had.

1:11:13We'd like to hear from you first to hear your concerns, but please know that there is much conversation still to be had before we hone in on a specific solution this evening.

1:11:27So, Councilor Smith, is that a legacy hand?

1:11:31Okay, great.

1:11:34I believe we have a number of folks signed up for public testimony.

1:11:39Keelan, could you please call up our first testifiers?

1:11:42And if you are in the balcony and have signed up to testify, is this an okay time to have people start to make their way down?

1:11:48It is.

1:11:48Great.

1:11:49So please do that if you're here to testify on this agenda item.

1:11:54First up, we have Fred Neal.

1:12:03Oh, sure.

1:12:05Okay.

1:12:07Welcome.

1:12:07Good evening, Madam President and councilors, Mayor.

1:12:13My name is Fred Neal, and I am the co-chair of the Government Transition Advisory Committee, or the GTAC.

1:12:19I'm here with my co-chair, José Gamero Jorgensen.

1:12:23The GTAC serves as the primary advisory committee for the city's transition.

1:12:27The GTAC agrees that the current staffing levels for City Council are inadequate.

1:12:32And recommends sufficient staffing of both individual councillors and shared council operations to support effective legislative development and community engagement.

1:12:42The GTAC has not considered staffing for the mayor and is not commenting on that portion of today's proposed ordinance.

1:12:49Early last year, the GTAC sent a letter to the previous council arguing that the allocation of one staff per councillor, one shared administrative staff per council district.

1:12:58And 5 shared council operations staff was insufficient to staff an effective legislative body.

1:13:05We've submitted that letter as written testimony.

1:13:08Our recommendation for increased council staffing is based on research of 15 peer cities, as well as our collective personal and professional expertise and that of city staff.

1:13:19Our research shows that Portland's current staffing is one of the lowest per-councilor staffing levels among peer cities.

1:13:25Thank you.

1:13:26Yes.

1:13:27Comparable cities average 2 to 4 staffers per councilor.

1:13:30Furthermore, 1 staff per councilor is only half of what the previous council adopted in its organizational structural resolution over a year ago.

1:13:39Research also shows that Portland's total combined staffing levels for a presiding officer, shared legislative, and operations staff is otherwise likewise among the lowest thank you.

1:13:56Staffing must accommodate the basic functions of both individual councilors and the city council as a whole.

1:14:04In the new form of government, councilors need support for both legislative policymaking and budgetary analysis and adoption, now solely the council's responsibility.

1:14:15Furthermore, the new district-based council must have the staff to support constituent service and community engagement within their districts.

1:14:25The GTAC debated but ultimately decided against recommending a specific number of increased staff.

1:14:32Our primary point is that based on research, no other city has this low of a level of staffing as Portland does.

1:14:42The GTAC declined to weigh in on where the funding for additional staffing should be found.

1:14:48The City Budget Office outlined several strategies to the previous City Council at a budget work session about how to fund these expenses, and we defer to the City Budget Office's expertise on that.

1:15:02The new government strives for more efficient and targeted service delivery, and constituents expect participatory, accountable government through their city's councilors.

1:15:14We—.

1:15:16Okay, we believe that to optimize your new roles, you need adequate support and funding, of course.

1:15:25And we strongly recommend that you do pass increased funding for the council.

1:15:31And, uh, since I do have a little bit of extra time, I will say, not on this agenda, but I want to appreciate you all for this early in the process making council meetings more accessible to everyone by having some meetings at night, that was also a GTEC recommendation.

1:15:48We appreciate you acting on that so early in the process.

1:15:51So thank you so much.

1:15:52Thank you.

1:15:55Thank you both for your comments, and thank you both for all the work you put into your recommendations.

1:16:01We appreciate that guidance as we move forward.

1:16:05Next up we have Terry Harris.

1:16:14Welcome, thank you for being here with us.

1:16:16Hi, um, I'm Terry Harris from Hillsdale.

1:16:20I am also a member of GTAC.

1:16:22Um, those guys that just were up here did a great job, so I'm going to be super brief, um, and let you get on with the business of the day.

1:16:32I did want to just emphasize that you have different categories of staffing, and you're only addressing one of those categories in what you're doing tonight.

1:16:42You have big problems in your other categories as well, for your operations staff, your legislative, um, uh, staff, shared staff, and, um, staff for the presiding officer of this body.

1:16:58Yes.

1:16:59Um, just sort of to keep the legislative engine running.

1:17:03Um, we just going to make that point that that's going to be still out there until you address it.

1:17:12And, um, you have committees coming up later here too.

1:17:16I'm sorry, I do that every time.

1:17:20Um, you're going to talk about committees.

1:17:24The committees are going to need staffing.

1:17:25Yes.

1:17:26Um, in all of those areas.

1:17:28So I just emphasize that you're not done.

1:17:31This is a difficult thing you have to do that was just landed on your plate.

1:17:37It's not your fault, but governance is not an option.

1:17:42You need, you need the mechanisms to make it work.

1:17:45Thanks.

1:17:47Thank you for being here and for your work on GTAC, and thank you for that closing and that reminder.

1:17:53Next up we have Irvin Siversen, followed by Alan Combs.

1:18:03Let's see, Alan Combs.

1:18:09It's okay.

1:18:16Yeah.

1:18:21Uh, thank you, President Pirtle-Guiney and councilors.

1:18:28My name is Alan Combs.

1:18:29I'm pronounced he/him.

1:18:32I'm a resident of District 3, and I will start off by thanking, um, uh, the councilors or the leadership for making it clear that at least as of tonight, um, the Portland Environmental Management Organization, PMO, and I guess, uh, some of the, uh, houseless, uh, services are not on the chopping block.

1:18:55Um, that said, uh, I'm coming to you today to recommend that you not move forward with the proposal to add 15 full-time equivalents or FTEs.

1:19:06And I'd just like to point out a couple of things.

1:19:10Um, um, so the— when the Charter Reform Council, uh, Commission put out their recommendations, they did not signal that the— your city council would cost this much.

1:19:22They didn't really signal the need for 3 to 4 staff per councilor.

1:19:28So when you say you need to do the work that the city wants, I, I agree, you're all now seated and you need to do your work, but it's not really what Portlanders expected when they approved charter reform because the true cost of a 12-member council that's full-time wasn't really ever communicated.

1:19:49And although I very much appreciate the work at GTAC and I've supported their work as a citizen, and I, I think their recommendations on benchmarking were important and accurate, I don't think they really explore whether the comparable city councilors are all full-time staff, like full-time paid councilors like you all are.

1:20:11And so what I would just suggest for today is that maybe you propose some incremental funding to improve shared services.

1:20:20I heard Councilor Avalos propose maybe one additional staff per office.

1:20:27I think Portlanders need to see you operate, uh, in a coordinated fashion in your districts, because right now the idea that you have 3 councilors just simply running their little fiefdoms now with 2 staff at, you know, basically a budgetary cost of almost, um, you know, the round number is $1 million a person FTE, right?

1:20:51So at that level this is a very high coverage cost for a decision-making organization for a city of 640,000, and I don't think GTAC would dispute that, actually.

1:21:04So thank you.

1:21:07Thank you for your comments and for being here today.

1:21:10Councilor Zimmerman, we do have more public testimony.

1:21:12I'm aware.

1:21:14I would request just a moment to clarify.

1:21:16We clarified the PMO piece.

1:21:18Okay.

1:21:18I would say additional erroneous information that was in that terrible memo was the indication that all this money was just for a singular FTE, and I think it has led a lot of us astray.

1:21:31And so I would apologize that that occurred.

1:21:34And so, um, thinking of this in terms of overall numbers versus— certainly I would not want out there that a million-dollar FTE exists anywhere in the globe, uh, in this proposal.

1:21:47And I think that It's again misinformation.

1:21:50All right, it's at $500,000 then, right?

1:21:53It's, it's, it's, it's a lot of money, and it's not what was originally advertised when the Charter Reform Commission—.

1:22:00I'm not trying to debate.

1:22:02I'm just trying to clarify a piece of information.

1:22:03You're clarifying what I just said, so I'm, I'm responding.

1:22:06But thank you.

1:22:07Yeah, I believe what Councilor Zimmerman is referring to is that there were a few things in a memo that went out, one of which was the total cost here and one of which was a staffing number.

1:22:23And those 2 things didn't actually go together.

1:22:25The, the total number in this proposal was a round number for councilors to work within on potentially district offices, potentially constituent outreach, potentially staff, some combination thereof.

1:22:39I believe we have a number of additional testifiers tonight, um, we'll try Irvin Siversen.

1:22:47Irvin?

1:22:48Okay.

1:22:48Um, Taylor Boudreau.

1:22:54Taylor?

1:22:59David Gray?

1:23:02Yes, I'm here.

1:23:03Can you hear me?

1:23:04We can hear you.

1:23:07Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening.

1:23:10My name is David Gray.

1:23:11I live in the Stadium neighborhood in District 4.

1:23:15We all know that the city is projecting a shortfall of $27 million.

1:23:19We are now 2 weeks into your administration, and you're proposing to add $4.5 million to increase your staff for 6 months.

1:23:27According to the city's chief financial officer, to make these changes permanent would actually cost $12 million per year.

1:23:32That is almost half the shortfall.

1:23:34Thank you.

1:23:34Right there.

1:23:35We hear you talking about government accountability, fiscal responsibility, shared sacrifice, and we are comparing that— those words with the actions that you take.

1:23:46You've been in office 2 weeks.

1:23:48How could you possibly know that your staffing needs are a higher priority than the million other things that need to be prioritized?

1:23:56For example, our police force is one of the most understaffed in the country.

1:24:01$4.5 million would pay the salaries of 50 police officers.

1:24:06$12 million would fund 150 police salaries.

1:24:11Is increasing the city council staff more important than hiring police officers?

1:24:16Is it more important than cleaning the trash off our city streets?

1:24:20Is it more important than funding shelters, deflection centers, and neighborhood programs?

1:24:26In hard times, you make do.

1:24:27You do more with less, more with less.

1:24:30I'm not saying that you don't need this money or that you wouldn't use it well.

1:24:34What I am saying is that you should not make this decision today.

1:24:38Please take the time to understand your own staffing needs within the broader context and make your case for this alongside all of the city's many competing priorities.

1:24:50You made a lot of promises, and we look forward to actions on those things.

1:24:55But none of you made promises about increasing city council staff or spending more money on administration, bureaucracy, and bloat.

1:25:04We voted for you.

1:25:07We are rooting for you.

1:25:08We appreciate you.

1:25:11Give us a reason to trust you when you say that you believe in fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice.

1:25:18Give us a reason to believe in you.

1:25:20Thank you.

1:25:21Take the time to figure out what the most pressing issues are and where the money is most needed.

1:25:27I urge you to vote no on this supplemental budget ordinance.

1:25:31And I do want to thank you for making this happen in the evening.

1:25:36I think that is— I agree with the person who said earlier that that's a very important thing and very much appreciated.

1:25:43Thank you.

1:25:45Thank you, Mr. Gray, for joining us this next up, we have Rob Martineau, followed by Robert Butler.

1:26:00Good afternoon, councilors and mayor.

1:26:15My name is Rob Martineau.

1:26:16I am a city employee.

1:26:18I work in the Portland Water Bureau.

1:26:19I'm also the president of my union, AFSCME 189, and first vice president of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council.

1:26:26I've provided the clerk with written copies of testimony that I believe Lori Wimmer has sent me to deliver, that she may have also submitted online, and that provides some analysis of comparative legislative bodies that I will let you read for yourself.

1:26:40I don't need to read her words, you're entirely capable.

1:26:49It's regrettable that the prior city council failed to adequately staff this legislative body.

1:26:55As a unionist, I support the Portland City Councilors Union's demand for adequate staffing and resources to do the job our city has asked you to do.

1:27:06This is not a negotiation.

1:27:07Let's imagine for a minute in a main break repair I remove 30 yards of material, roughly 2 dump trucks, and as we make that main repair I say, get me 2 more, 2 trucks of rock, and my supervisor says, you got one, figure it out.

1:27:25I'm sorry that that's the position that our formal council— that our former council put you in.

1:27:31I support this.

1:27:32I support workers having the tools to do their jobs.

1:27:35Thank you.

1:27:37I'm in a similar fight.

1:27:39You all know that I represent 1,100 other city employees that are, are asking for a fair contract that will ensure 1,100 people continue to deliver city services.

1:27:55I understand this is controversial and that you're asking for more money, money that would make our council A million dollars a month, and that's okay.

1:28:04It's what it costs for good governance.

1:28:07Let's find the money.

1:28:08Let's deliver the council Portland asks for, and frankly, that we all deserve.

1:28:15Last night, our mediation in our contract fight ended abruptly after a mediated supposal that was anti-union, divisive, short-sighted, and lazy.

1:28:30Simple things like a jailside premium for hazards experienced in that space, back pay and pay parity where the city is not in alignment with the state's pay equity laws— these are things that we have had to deliver numerous tort claims notices in order to help the city be the employer it thinks it is.

1:28:51I'm frankly a little surprised that your agents at the bargaining table have upstaged the motivation and the work and the organization and demonstration of my members last Thursday, but they have.

1:29:04I'm left assuming that they must have already delivered their notice and have found gainful employment elsewhere at the offensive nature of what was delivered last night.

1:29:14For you and I both to have what we need is about 3/16 of 1% of this city's budget.

1:29:21We can find that money, and I encourage you to have us all have a safe workplace.

1:29:27Thank you.

1:29:29Thank you very much, Mr. Martineau.

1:29:30Thank you for your support and for sharing with us that experience.

1:29:34Next up, we have Robert Butler, followed by Dr. Dennis Scollard.

1:29:39I'm Robert Butler, Portland native.

1:29:43I, um, actually have I have the same feeling that we are jumping way ahead of ourselves with the analysis presented to us.

1:30:03And the analysis is that it's hard to even get straight what the numbers are listening to this group now, because I don't think we've had the communication or Internal communication to, to bring this forward in, in the manner that the public is hoping for.

1:30:27And I'll remind you that back when this was on the ballot that we approved, we were approving something very experimental and with the possibility that we are creating the best city council arrangement in the country.

1:30:43Thank you.

1:30:44And also the possibility of the worst in the country.

1:30:49And there's a lot of people who left the city knowing that they think it's the, the worst.

1:30:56But we were promised that for $900,000 or maybe $9 million, which in itself for the budget of the City of Portland budget officers to even put something on the ballot with a range of something well, this will cost you from $900,000 to $9 million.

1:31:16That we should even— that should even be on the ballot for, for people to judiciously vote on.

1:31:24And now we have these numbers floating around here which really scare me.

1:31:32And, and I can do the math that it's annualized.

1:31:36We're talking $12 million no matter how you cut it.

1:31:39Thank you.

1:31:40And you hope it's perpetual.

1:31:42And now we're being told this is the bare bones minimum.

1:31:45We have no idea how much we need.

1:31:47We just know we're buried.

1:31:49And what, what is— where do we end up?

1:31:53And I ask you, where do we start?

1:31:56How much have we spent so far on this?

1:31:59So far?

1:32:02We were promised $9 million tops.

1:32:04We're way over that already.

1:32:06And we're talking about another 12 million.

1:32:10And so we're not ready for this.

1:32:14And we were promised good governance, but we were promised good governance for a price.

1:32:23And the price is a sham because we're way, way, way, way over that.

1:32:31And so better communication to the public.

1:32:37Where are we now?

1:32:38What have we spent?

1:32:39What does this cost?

1:32:41And how can we be efficient in going forward before we make these rash decisions?

1:32:50Thank you.

1:32:52Thank you for your comments and your time.

1:32:55Next up we have Dr. Dennis Scullard, followed by Janice Thompson.

1:33:00I'm one of those Oregonians that read the article in the Oregonian about the budget shortfall.

1:33:06I'm sorry you guys are going through that.

1:33:07I think you all are really dedicated to doing a good job.

1:33:11By the way, a shout out to District 3 councilors.

1:33:15I hope I get to know you.

1:33:17Um, we have in Woodstock really faced some dire consequences with some of the homeless camps.

1:33:23I've had people defecate in my In front of my property, a lot of needles around.

1:33:28Kids have been threatened.

1:33:30It's been really quite horrific.

1:33:32The one thing I'm going to end saying is that our people that do the cleanup are phenomenal.

1:33:39They do a great job.

1:33:40You have great employees, and I think sometimes we don't recognize the wonderful job they do.

1:33:46Corinne is one of the people that's the coordinators for the homeless camp, and I can't tell you how many times That I called her and she's taken and cleaned things up, and a week later Woodstock looks much better.

1:33:56Please recognize them.

1:33:58So I'm one of those that also came down and said, don't cut the program that's so important for keeping our wonderful Woodstock neighborhood clean.

1:34:08And thanks for all the hard work you're all doing.

1:34:11I'm, I'm really impressed with you.

1:34:12I've learned a lot tonight already from being here, and I'm under 3 minutes.

1:34:17Thank you.

1:34:18Thank you for that time back, and thank you for being here.

1:34:22And our apologies, my apologies, that you and others didn't have the, the full information about what we were doing tonight to be able to know that we weren't looking at cutting those programs.

1:34:33But it's always good to hear that city staff are doing a wonderful job out there.

1:34:37We know that's the case, and we know that they also don't always get enough recognition.

1:34:41That is really true.

1:34:42Thank you so much.

1:34:45Absolutely.

1:34:45Next up we have Janice Thompson, followed by Bridge Crane Simka Johnson.

1:34:53Uh, I'm Janice Thompson, testifying this evening as an individual who has been a close observer of the charter review and the implementation process.

1:35:02Um, related to some of the comments about cost, um, I just think the challenges of estimating the kind of transformational change long needed for over 100 years was basically impossible.

1:35:21So, you know, in terms of people saying, oh, it costs this much, or we were promised this, I would set that thought aside.

1:35:30Specifically on what's before you, I support adding one person per councilor office.

1:35:37Thank you.

1:35:38That's right.

1:35:39Per councilor office.

1:35:40I mean, that was not only what was originally proposed by the transition team, it was also consistently recommended, as you heard, by the GTAC and their research.

1:35:50I don't support adding 3 positions to the mayor's budget.

1:35:55That—.

1:35:56The current staffing level in that office is exactly what was recommended by the transition team.

1:36:03It was Yes.

1:36:04What was funded by the previous council that included the former mayor.

1:36:09So especially given budget constraints, this element of what's before you seems premature.

1:36:18Under the commission form of government, the mayor and commissioners had 2 full-time jobs, legislative and administrative.

1:36:25I think that contributed to the staff sizes in both of those offices.

1:36:32I think we need to stop comparing previous staffing levels to what we need in the future, because now each elected official has one job.

1:36:42You all have a huge, big, full-time job legislatively, but at least you're not also trying to run bureaus and needing staff to help with that.

1:36:52The mayor has, you know, a whole new administrative branch.

1:36:56Yes.

1:36:56Which appropriately is now reached, you know, kind of moved into the modern era of municipal management with the city administrator and deputy over service areas.

1:37:11And so the administrative branch has grown, but it's grown with professional public sector managers.

1:37:21Thank you.

1:37:22So that influence— I think that you just need to keep that in the back of your mind when you think about mayoral budget considerations.

1:37:31So looking ahead, you know, either retain— I do think for the next budget year we should probably, you know, either get to or retain like the 2, uh, counselor— 2 staff per counselors, the current mayoral.

1:37:49I mean, there's just these budget constraints.

1:37:50Yeah.

1:37:51Kind of moving into that, I do think that the emphasis, if anything, should be on adding staff capacity related to committees.

1:37:59Those are the people who, with policy experience, who are going to have institutional continuity and expertise development over time, and that's a real major priority.

1:38:14Thank you so much for your testimony.

1:38:16We appreciate your time this evening.

1:38:19Bridge Crane Simka Johnson.

1:38:22Thank you.

1:38:26Um, holy catch-22, bad person.

1:38:29Um, you know, when I talked on the first item, there was no link to the slide presentation.

1:38:35On this agenda item, I think we get 2 exhibits and a thing.

1:38:40Um, they're not persuasive.

1:38:46If y'all are feeling understaffed, which I think is a very legitimate feeling, um, and if you're understaffed, you wouldn't be able to present what we need to see to rally and cheerlead for you, which is, hey, instead of just these 2 little lists of FTE things, tell us what you do.

1:39:08Say, we're doing this.

1:39:08I think that's a good point.

1:39:10Our staff receives 27 emails per day, 270 emails per day, 34 phone calls, 340 phone calls.

1:39:19Um, there's lots—.

1:39:21I don't know if you've heard of this thing, but it's called MBA, management.

1:39:26And so there are professionals who can prepare proposals that tell us about workloads and stuff like that.

1:39:33And maybe I missed it.

1:39:36But as you work to get the public to understand why you deserve more money than we paid the previous batch of city councilor commissioners, I think it's a reasonable expectation for us to be like, we need to know what this money does.

1:39:52Not just that it creates an FTE, as we had the little exchange here with Mr. Zimmerman in the prior testimony.

1:39:59FTE.

1:40:01Is sort of a meaningless thing when we don't talk about base salary.

1:40:06The FTE for the young 18-year-old who works for the Parks Department is different than it is for a bureau director that gets like $300,000 a year, I think, for the Water Bureau, I think is the highest paid one.

1:40:18So maybe we don't need the improved transparency and understanding, but since— I think it's important.

1:40:26This whole budget item has been couched in the sense of public concern, maybe public outrage.

1:40:34I hope that you'll be able to pass something today and tell us how much more staffing each councilor will have.

1:40:44And, um, it seems like we have a process problem of if it passes today, do we really know where the money comes from, or does the city administrator have to report back later exactly what budget items have had to take the cut.

1:41:02So, but generally, uh, put both that information in front of us so we can support the understanding that the one staffer that you have is going to be run into the ground very quickly.

1:41:14Uh, good to see you back, Mr. Dunphy.

1:41:15When I go to see my primary care physician, there's a portrait of Nick Fish with others on the wall inside Prism Care Access.

1:41:21And when we talk more about permanent supportive housing I know as he left this world, he was working very hard to make sure that'd be a real thing, not a buzzword.

1:41:30Thank you for those comments and for being here, and I hope that we can make the case to you and to all Portlanders.

1:41:36Um, what we have up on the agenda are some technical budget documents, definitely not the, the persuasive case that we know that we need to make to Portlanders.

1:41:48That completes testimony.

1:41:50Okay, with the completion of public testimony, Mr. Mayor, before we go into council comments and potential proposals of amendments here, did you want to just say a few words about the proposal that you have included?

1:42:08Um, Council President, it's going down.

1:42:11Some comments and testimony.

1:42:14Council President, Vice President, and council I appreciate this opportunity.

1:42:19The experts on what is needed to pass legislation, respond to constituents, and effectively lead the City of Portland are in this room.

1:42:28In fact, they are seated before me.

1:42:31City councilors are the experts on the staffing and resources you need to best serve our city.

1:42:36I don't have to tell you how consequential staffing decisions are.

1:42:40You're not just thinking of yourselves, you're setting a path and a precedent that may well be followed for years.

1:42:48Everyone has had a chance to do their homework.

1:42:50You've researched how peer cities have higher staffing per councilor than Portland.

1:42:56You've read the Government Transition Advisory Committee memo to your predecessors, which stated that the current staffing level is, and I quote, not enough to run a city.

1:43:08You know the budget constraints we're up against and the sacrifices must be shared.

1:43:11Thank you, Councilor Mitch Green.

1:43:12We've talked about it for many weeks.

1:43:14We've talked about it for many months.

1:43:18But most of all, you know, responding to constituents and legislating on the critical issues requires good people by your side.

1:43:25Our staff, past, present, and future, are the unsung heroes making possible the hard work we all signed up to do.

1:43:33I've asked myself the same difficult questions, and I request that the mayoral staff be cut down.

1:43:40Not from 20 to 5, but from 20 to 8.

1:43:47My responsibilities remain largely the same as my predecessor, but my staffing does not yet reflect the realities of the job at hand.

1:43:55I want every Portlander who reaches out to me to be heard, and I want them to know that they are being heard, and I want the same as you want.

1:44:05You can't put people first if you don't hear their voices and if you don't have the resources to respond.

1:44:11And I want good people by my side to help me make the right decisions on issues that will impact the city I care so deeply about.

1:44:18City Administrator Jordan and I are here to assist you.

1:44:23We're here to work with you to the best of our ability and will support the decision that you make internally with our administration.

1:44:31Thank you.

1:44:31Thank you for this opportunity, Council President.

1:44:35Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

1:44:37Uh, we have a proposal before us.

1:44:42We also, I know, have, um, each heard a lot from the community, and I know that some of you have had conversations with a few others and have mentioned to me that you might have changes that you'd like to make tonight, um, I think we have 3 categories of items that we're talking about.

1:45:03We have our staffing needs, we have the conversation about our in-district footprint, and we have the, the many other things that are needed, such as constituent outreach and the funds to be able to do the rest of our work.

1:45:18And I've heard from a few colleagues that they want to make sure that what we're talking about isn't thank you.

1:45:24Specific FTE, but that whole bucket of what we need to do, knowing that in some parts of the city that footprint is more important than in some parts of the city that outreach or the staff to do so are more important.

1:45:36I would like to kind of open us up broadly now.

1:45:41I see a couple of folks with comment, and maybe we can start by just putting some ideas out there.

1:45:48I would like to invite up, because I think we will need them, um, our fiscal staff, DCA Biery, and our CFO Ruth Levine.

1:46:01And, um, Mike Jordan, I may put you on notice that we may have some questions for you as well as we move through this conversation.

1:46:08So we have staff here on hand who can help us as needed.

1:46:12Councilor Smith, would you like to kick us off?

1:46:17Yes, Madam President.

1:46:20As one of 2 councilors who have been an elected official before, like you all talked about earlier, Multnomah County is a legislative— a total legislative body, and they have 3 staffers, and they have some concerns about being understaffed, understanding that we do need to communicate with our district.

1:46:48I'm a council person from District 1, which is the furthest from the city of Portland and City Hall.

1:46:57Our communities expected us to have district offices and to be able to communicate with them in a way that we have never been able to communicate before.

1:47:09Candace Avalos, Jamie Dunphy, Loretta Smith, They virtually have more representation today than they have ever had in the history of Portland.

1:47:21Good government, good governance, it costs.

1:47:26You cannot create a city administrator's office with a bunch of infrastructure without putting infrastructure in your policy side.

1:47:37You cannot expect us to communicate with other offices if we have no one to communicate with.

1:47:44My staffer, my one staffer who lives in my district, and he travels to work every single day.

1:47:51He is my communications press person.

1:47:54He is my policy director.

1:47:56He is my communications and constituent services director.

1:48:00He is also the person that drafts the resolutions that come before you, understanding that we know One of the top issues in this community is public safety and housing and homeless.

1:48:16We're not suggesting to take money from either one of those places, but what we are suggesting is we have a $13.8 million contingency that we can actually take those funds out of that contingency fund $4.6 million to be able to fund us at the level that we need to be.

1:48:39That would also pay for some of those things like offices and being able to— like, we went to the meeting the other night, uh, the EPAP meeting.

1:48:49They had food for people.

1:48:50They had daycare to watch the children while they had a government conversation.

1:48:58If we cannot communicate in a way that's meaningful That's effective, and we're overworking the one staffer that we— I'm afraid that my staffer is going to leave.

1:49:10I'm afraid that he's going to be so burnt out in the next month that he's going to leave.

1:49:15I can't afford for you to leave, Elijah.

1:49:21I can't.

1:49:22And so for me, I have, I have seen what it looks like when you can have good staff.

1:49:27And I want to make sure that Eric Zimmerman, who I worked with over at the county, can give you an example of what the day in the life of a city commissioner or, or county commissioner is.

1:49:43It is early in the morning and late into the night.

1:49:46Me and Jamie Dunphy were over in East Portland until about 9 o'clock, and we talked to every last person until every person got their Yes.

1:49:56So I implore you all to really think about good, effective, good governance and understand that we are not trying to take the people's money or to expand our operating budget.

1:50:09This is money that's already in the queue, and we will not— and I will not personally take money from Portland Solutions or homeless or housing ever.

1:50:21But we do need some assistance.

1:50:26Thank you, Councilor Smith.

1:50:29Councilor Dunphy.

1:50:31Thank you, Madam President.

1:50:33Um, first and foremost, I want to uplift absolutely everything that my fellow District 1 colleague Councilor Smith said.

1:50:39Um, I want to be directly responsive to some of the testimony we've heard, and I want to be a little bit more directly responsive to the testimony we have heard broadly.

1:50:47I've heard tonight that the presentations were not made available online, that there were not clear memos explaining why what we are doing here tonight, and there was confusion around process.

1:50:59This is partially an example of the fact that we do not have the capacity to be able to think through the details that we need to be able to think through.

1:51:06And it's embarrassing.

1:51:07It's embarrassing to know that the PowerPoint presentation wasn't available online for people to know.

1:51:12It's embarrassing to know that I have been spending 40-plus hours a week here in City Hall when I have my constituents in District 1 who are not coming to District— coming to City Hall in order to seek grievance from their government.

1:51:22They are not seeing themselves in these— this building, and so they do not show up.

1:51:26Um, in response to, uh, the testimony from Janice Thompson, um, who— it's lovely to see her.

1:51:33Um, we don't have just one job.

1:51:35We did lose the executive function.

1:51:37The, the previous commissioners did have to have an executive function over bureaus, but we, we don't have that.

1:51:42But we do not have just one job.

1:51:43We have legislative responsibilities in this building.

1:51:46We have committee work, but we also have deep work that is necessary for our constituents to help try and make sure that government works for the people.

1:51:53And that does not happen necessarily just from this seat.

1:51:57Uh, we must bring government to District 1, and I must be allow— able to allow my one staffer to go to those communities where they are not seeing the results of government.

1:52:06And if you look at this last election, the voters overwhelmingly voted for change, but the voters in District 1 overwhelmingly did not vote.

1:52:14We have so much work to bring government to the people in my community.

1:52:19I simply cannot do it if I am tied to this building for 40 hours plus per week.

1:52:23We must do better on communicating what we are doing and why we are doing it and why the people who are in this audience and the people watching at home and the, the hundreds of thousands of people who are not watching this procedure right now should care about having good government.

1:52:37The number of emails, phone calls, and actions that I must make in a day is not less because there are 12 of us.

1:52:44I do not have 1/3 of the work to my, my neighbors because there are 3 of us representing my district.

1:52:50And the number of decisions that I must make is not fewer simply because my salary is higher than the predecessors.

1:52:57We have to make these decisions.

1:52:59This is hard work, and our city is in a moment of crisis.

1:53:02We are not choosing to sacrifice anything, uh, to address that crisis in order to try and do this.

1:53:07This is about us moving numbers around on a piece of paper, and we will do the work that we were sent here to do only if we are adequately staffed and able to appropriately and timely respond to that.

1:53:18So I'm, uh, eager to move this forward, and thank you all for your time.

1:53:24Thank you, Councilor Dunphy.

1:53:25Councilor Murillo.

1:53:28Thank you, um, Councilor Dunphy.

1:53:31You're such a great speaker.

1:53:32I'm not going to say anything as beautiful or impassioned as you just said right now, and Councilor Smith as well.

1:53:37Thank you for your comments.

1:53:38Um, I, I want to uplift what you guys have said because it's true that District 1 has unique needs as we're having this budget conversation.

1:53:46And I want to highlight that we're here to support you guys as well in that, that those people in Outer East Portland deserve representation, deserve in-district offices more than I would say anyone else.

1:53:59Uh, you know, I think we all want district offices for every district, but If a choice has to be made tonight, I feel very strongly that District 1 needs to be prioritized because of where you are and the outreach that's needed to be done.

1:54:11So I just want to say thank you for, for saying that and for fighting for your folks over there.

1:54:16I want to give a real-life example about what our office work looks like because I don't think it's very tangible to people.

1:54:25Back when I worked in, in a council office, I did constituent services work.

1:54:30And there was a point where there were some big news stories coming out, and council offices received 75,000 emails in a month about one topic.

1:54:4375,000.

1:54:44And I was the lone person answering those emails.

1:54:47They did not all get answered, mind you, because it was physically not possible.

1:54:52But right now, we have really been reduced so severely that it is impossible for us to address constituent needs.

1:54:59And that's the thing that's going to impact everyone the most.

1:55:01We have a shared constituent services person who also does the work of an executive assistant via scheduling, who also answers constituent emails, who also does admin work.

1:55:13That staffer themselves is already severely overstaffed.

1:55:18Anyone who does executive assistant work and scheduling for one city councilor knows that that is a full-time job, let alone doing it for 3 separate people.

1:55:27That means that your emails and your calls are not getting answered as quickly or as diligently as they need to be.

1:55:35That also means that you are having your questions answered by one person that represents the district and not your individual council members.

1:55:42And we have very different perspectives across our council districts as far as the things that we want to push, the things we want to do.

1:55:50So you're not getting as refined information about what each of your city council members wants to do, and that prevents you from being an effective organizer.

1:55:58That prevents you from putting pressure on us as elected officials to get the outcomes that you want.

1:56:04That prevents us also from communicating to you what we're trying to push and getting your help.

1:56:09You know, maybe when, when I'm on a transportation committee, I'll want to call on the bike advocates to do something with me, but I need to be able to communicate that to you so that you can help us push those things.

1:56:19So I think that Um, it has been framed as this, this desire to just boost our budgets, and that is not at all true, and that's not at all what I've seen from our colleagues.

1:56:30This is really a plea so that we can serve you as best as possible.

1:56:34And I just wanted to leave you with that one tangible example so that you know what's happening behind the scenes.

1:56:39You're also always able to look at people's calendars, so they are publicly available online, so you can see what we're doing, who we're communicating with, how many meetings we have.

1:56:48And I would also note that anytime there's a blank spot on our calendars, I see everybody running around back and forth having negotiations, discussions.

1:56:57There is no free time.

1:56:58There's not a spare moment to breathe.

1:57:00You're lucky if you get a chance to eat.

1:57:02So we want to do the work for you, and I hope that, you know, we'll make a diligent budget decision, and I'll have some questions to ask on the budget as well.

1:57:11But that's the lens that I will be approaching this from.

1:57:13Thank you.

1:57:14Councilor thank you, Councilor.

1:57:16Councilor Green.

1:57:18Thank you, Madam President.

1:57:20I'm not going to kind of reproduce the comments that my councilors have made about being available for constituency services or the kind of shared, you know, kind of the model of a shared staff and how burdensome that is.

1:57:34I'm going to speak to the economic question because I think that's why I was elected, because I have a certain expertise in that.

1:57:40I did hear a lot of concern from the public about fiscal responsibility and, uh, this, this idea that, you know, we are in a very tight budgetary year, and that's no question.

1:57:50I have no dispute with that.

1:57:52But just for context, we have something like an $8.2 billion adopted budget, maybe like $6.5, $6.3 net of intergovernmental transfers.

1:58:00It's a very large budget for a city the size of Portland.

1:58:03And so I enter this task with this idea that City Council needs to have the independent capacity to look at that budget ourselves proactively and then ask the very hard questions about what decisions do we make today that will have long-term fiscal impacts tomorrow.

1:58:24For example, last City Council approved 6 new TIF districts.

1:58:30Okay, that's 6 new tax increment financing districts which will have that may or may not have been a good idea.

1:58:41I'm not here to litigate that right now.

1:58:42But what I am saying is, if we are in a position where we don't have time to do our independent thinking with our staff to say, you know, what is the cost-benefit proposition here and what are the costs down the road that we haven't considered, then we're always going to be sort of in a reactive mode where we have to sort of say, well, I guess we have to choose between one or two options that the administration has presented with us, which is not a good way to do business.

1:59:03Councilor again, may or may be the right choices, but we'll never know if we don't have that capacity.

1:59:08And so I have that skill set, many of my colleagues have that skill set, so it's not really a good use of my time if I'm, you know, doing things that I can hire staff to do as well.

1:59:18And that's the first thing an economist will tell you is, you know, you know, why fix your toilet when you can hire someone to, to do it for you?

1:59:24Because, you know, your, your opportunity cost is so high.

1:59:27Anyway, I'll leave that there.

1:59:28Thank you.

1:59:29Well, I'll finish by saying that, um, we were elected, uh, to do robust constituent services and committee work.

1:59:36And specifically, if we want the budget ultimately to reflect the policy priorities of our community, we have to have the time and the resources to bring those folks into this— these chambers, into our meeting places where we do committee work to, to inform that, um, that, that work that will then ultimately, uh, determine a budget.

1:59:54Thank you.

1:59:57Thank you, Councilor.

1:59:58Councilor Avalos.

2:00:01Thank you.

2:00:02Um, a couple of notes, and want to echo everything that my fellow councilors have said.

2:00:07I think it's important to remember that in the old commissioner system, uh, the commissioners were really buried in bureaucracy and administration, which was actually what was leading to the extreme dissatisfaction of the people with their lack of accessibility their lack of constituent services.

2:00:23So that means that even though our roles do not include those specific duties, it does not equal a vacuum of duties.

2:00:29In fact, I would argue we have way expanded duties, um, in this new form of government.

2:00:36Portlanders are asking for representation, engagement, and access.

2:00:40And as Councilor Smith has said, good governance costs money.

2:00:43And it's important that we make smart decisions about how to spend our money and understand that spending money for the people— this is us Spending money for the people.

2:00:51It's not for us.

2:00:52I'm prepared today, as we continue to discuss this, to support a package that could provide a stopgap for the rest of this fiscal year, understanding that we will need to continue this larger discussion during the budget process.

2:01:07And hopefully that could inform, you know, over the next few months what really we are going to need in a future staffing model.

2:01:16But I just wanted to signal—.

2:01:17Councilor Smith.

2:01:18That I would like us to move towards at a minimum adding another staffer.

2:01:22I know, definitely agree with, um, commission— with councilors that, uh, my staffer is incredibly stretched, um, and it's, you know, I, and I'm stretched, frankly.

2:01:32I'm overwhelmed by the inbox and all of the requests.

2:01:34And so it's not just the staffer, it's also us as councilors that are feeling stretched by our responsibilities, and having more staff is going to help us reach the people.

2:01:44Thank you.

2:01:45Councilor Zimmerman.

2:01:49Thank you.

2:01:51I have been a chief of staff in 2 political offices that were district representatives, one in as far east as Multnomah County can get and, uh, one directly across the river.

2:02:04I've worked in this mayor's office.

2:02:06I've been a deputy city manager sitting in that seat in 2 other cities.

2:02:16And it is a question about the staffing that I posed to everybody who ran for council president, if they'd be willing to put what is a difficult measure forward, because I think it's part of the role of the president is that there's going to be some difficult things, and I think that the president sits in a role to be able to do it.

2:02:34And I asked each of you that, and, and you all said yes.

2:02:36Councilor were willing to engage in this, and I appreciate it.

2:02:39And so to you, Madam President, I do appreciate that you've brought this forward.

2:02:44I think it's been deliberate.

2:02:45I think it's been well thought out.

2:02:47I think the prorated factors are important.

2:02:54Um, I—.

2:02:54So my concerns come overall for the, the staffing and the effectiveness of this council.

2:03:00I have concerns about the president's role but I'm willing to address those later in the, in the budget form that, that Councilor Avalos speaks of.

2:03:10Having been in the mayor's office in previous administrations, I have concern around the mayor's capacity in an organization that turns in $200 million a year at the end of the year of unspent dollars, has 800-plus vacancies right now.

2:03:26I think that in this consolidation and this movement to this new government that no consolidation occurred in any part of this city except in the 2 areas of oversight, the publicly elected areas, in the mayor's office and in— and on this council.

2:03:45And we are the ones who represent the public.

2:03:47The mayor represents the entire city.

2:03:48I represent a district.

2:03:50I don't know who oversights— who has oversight and who has enforcement to ever talk about $200 million of unspent funds every year and 800 vacancies every year.

2:04:00Thank you.

2:04:00If we were the ones who were consolidated.

2:04:04I think that was deliberate.

2:04:05I think it was bad planning.

2:04:07I think in December, the reason I asked all the council presidents about a staffing package is because, as an expert witness, I knew that we had been kneecapped.

2:04:16I feel very strongly about that.

2:04:18And it has been a history over this transition of small moves that have added to a major cut.

2:04:24And I think that's the problem here.

2:04:26Councilor and so in a body that took 9 votes to find a council president, I'm warmed by the fact that across the comments around this dais is that there's general support.

2:04:36I don't know what the final number will be, but there is general support.

2:04:40And we have a model at the— across the river, uh, with our Multnomah County Commissioners who are district representatives, who they're not told by, by the organization you can hire this many FTE or you can have this kind of office.

2:04:53They are given a fund.

2:04:55That fund is the responsibility of that chief of staff and that commissioner to not bust through it, to spend it wisely, to spend it legally.

2:05:04And you're accountable then to your districts, to your voters, on how well you spent that money, if you did or if you didn't.

2:05:11But you can't go over it.

2:05:13I think that's important.

2:05:14I think we need to move that direction.

2:05:16I think that, uh, The way in which I have heard all 12 of us talk about how we're going to spend time in our district is amazing.

2:05:25I think that's what's going to make this transition of government survive, because protecting this form of government, protecting the districts, protecting the fact that the council has oversight and representative— we are the representatives of the public.

2:05:41The city administrator is a great professional, but at the end of the day, he's an organizational professional and organizational representative, and we, the other 13 electeds up here, are the representatives of the public.

2:05:53To do that well, I think each of you should have the ability to, to bring on staff that you think complements your skills.

2:06:01I certainly need to bring on some staff that complement my skills to do this job at the highest peak that I can, to go from Sellwood to the Northwest Industrial Area to downtown I don't want to focus too much on what I think has happened previously, but this is the right action to move forward.

2:06:21I'm ready for the rest of the discussion, but I will move for the vote as soon as possible.

2:06:26Thank you, Councilor, and thank you for the note on time.

2:06:30Councilor Kanal.

2:06:35Thank you, Madam President.

2:06:36Uh, first I want to say I agree with you, uh, Madam President, that we were not set up for success.

2:06:41Um, I think your problem statement is accurate.

2:06:43I'm prepared to help find a solution collectively to it.

2:06:45I got a couple big picture notes, and I think when we get into more on this, I have some, some specific ideas as well.

2:06:51Um, I disagree with some of the framing that's been presented here.

2:06:54Um, this proposal is not about me or my staff or about anybody else up here.

2:06:59This is about you, uh, Portlanders watching at home and watching in this room, and the government that you deserve.

2:07:06The testimony earlier was correct.

2:07:07None of us ran specifically on increasing I personally said that being a city that works— that's our city slogan— requires being a city that listens, and that you deserve a government that listens to you.

2:07:23You are entitled to be heard, and you have a right to see your policy priorities reflected in city policy.

2:07:29And we can't do that if we can't be in 5 places at once, if we can't respond to all the emails coming in, if we can't be in the field, if if we can't be in we the parks, if can't we can't be in the schools.

2:07:35Meet with you, uh, and listen to you and build solutions to your problems and have the time to check them with attorneys, to run them by our colleagues and, and get an idea of what that's going to look like before it gets here.

2:07:48Um, so that's, that's, I think, what this is about.

2:07:51And I want to keep that in the front of my mind, that the people that I'm here to worry about are not in this building, but there are 155-ish thousand people in District 2.

2:08:00Uh, I am going to support district offices, uh, in the long run, beginning with District 1.

2:08:04I think District 2 is just behind.

2:08:06Um, I'd prefer to look at siting for those offices as the, as the goal for this fiscal year and seek funding for the ongoing expenses in the future.

2:08:14Um, but I'd be very happy to see District 1 go first on that.

2:08:18Um, I think that makes sense.

2:08:20I support a small number of additional shared staff, solely the ones that provide staffing to committees and the legislative support there.

2:08:27And then just one other note, fiscal responsibility is a core value, and I, I believe in it strongly.

2:08:32It does not only mean less It does often mean that.

2:08:35It also means better spending, and that means spending on our highest priorities and not on lower priorities like out-of-state contractors that we pay to think for us.

2:08:44I have a specific contract in mind, just one, that would cover one-third of this if we were to terminate it.

2:08:51And there are hundreds of those contracts around the city.

2:08:54And this is not an either/or with labor either.

2:08:56And I really want to thank Rob Martineau and Lori Wimmer.

2:08:59Thank you.

2:09:00For making that clear.

2:09:01And I'll stop here and get into the specifics as this progresses.

2:09:05Thank you.

2:09:07Madam President, I would like to suggest that you change the language on your current ordinance and change it from the city administrator's budget to the, uh, contingency budget to allow us to restore funding to the '23-'24 levels of the City Council, because we have certainly been defunded.

2:09:40And in this marginalized position, it has put us in a space where we can't plan properly.

2:09:49If we take a vote on this, And if we can get 9 votes to make this an emergency, we can act fairly quickly.

2:10:00So I move that we add those changes and take a vote.

2:10:09With permission, uh, Councilor Ryan is in the queue and has not had a chance to comment.

2:10:15Could I ask you to withdraw your motion to allow him to comment, and then we'll come back to you to repropose that motion.

2:10:22Thank you.

2:10:23Thank you.

2:10:24Gee, this better be good.

2:10:26Um, this is really awkward because I've been in this conversation now 3 times.

2:10:31Last spring, um, when we had the big budget conversation, and all of you as my witness know I was speaking— um, I feel very supported right now, um, unlike last spring.

2:10:42And there was one other commissioner that, um, had Um, empathy for, um, adding more staffing.

2:10:49And but when you vote on the big budget, as we all know, you don't get everything you want.

2:10:53And this was at the top of my indigestion.

2:10:57Um, but it went on, and then all of you started running for office, and you must have thought, gee, this is going to be fun with one staffer.

2:11:04And then, um, and then the bump came along.

2:11:07That's the fall bump.

2:11:09And as Jonas knows, I tried really hard to get the carryover money, the money that was not spent by commissioners' offices in '23-'24, and the money that was not spent in the first 6 months to carry over.

2:11:23I felt really good about that one, but that also got blocked by 3 of my colleagues.

2:11:30So here I am wanting to jump up and down on one hand, but also saying, whoa, this is a little much.

2:11:37So I'm going to pause and say that I've always been aligned with the GTAC's minimum recommendation of 2 staffers per councilor at this time.

2:11:48And I do think we need to take time to see how this overlapping staffing works out.

2:11:53I don't know what I don't know yet.

2:11:55The committee meetings haven't started.

2:11:58I haven't experienced what it's like to share the staffing in that more tangible level.

2:12:04I have noticed that all of the people who are doing our calendaring are working really hard, and their, their nonverbal over this past week really dramatically changed with all 4 of them.

2:12:14So I can tell you that those jobs are, um, too much for one person.

2:12:20And I do know that the constant complaint was, um, there was— there's not enough constituent services.

2:12:27So I do think the combination of legislative work and constituent services is really big.

2:12:32Thank you.

2:12:33Uh, and I'm grateful that we're not doing the executive oversight, and that did require at least 2 or 3 more staff members.

2:12:40So I do have a little bit of pushback, in all due respect, Councilor Smith, to restore to the exact same levels, because I do think the apple and the orange is, is there.

2:12:51So if you could follow that, that's my way of saying that I'm supportive of stopgap to get through this year to, um, experience the next couple months so that we come into the new, um, year with, um, in the budget process with more clarity.

2:13:10I also really appreciate Councilor Smith's, um, going to the contingency.

2:13:15As Jonas knows, that's what we're trying to do in the fall bump process.

2:13:19And, um, I got way off my notes, as you could probably tell, but I wanted to make sure that I covered as much as this possible.

2:13:26And, um, that's all you get at 8:09.

2:13:28All right, thanks.

2:13:31Councilor Novick is up in the queue for the first time, and then we're going to go back to Councilor Smith.

2:13:38So I'm not going to be a vote for this package because I don't feel I know enough to take an informed vote.

2:13:46Um, I totally understand everything my colleagues have said.

2:13:50When I first saw that we were going to get one staff person I was shocked, and I quickly looked around and saw, well, in Denver they have 3, and in Seattle they have 3, and in San Francisco they have 3.

2:14:01And I didn't see how we could do this work with one staff person.

2:14:05But I asked my one staff guy yesterday, do you feel totally snowed under yet?

2:14:09And he said, not yet.

2:14:11Now, I suspect that's because people in our district aren't making too many demands on me because they figure, well, Novick's an old guy, what can we really expect?

2:14:18So I think other people have gotten more requests.

2:14:20But I mean, so I don't really know yet how much more help my office will need.

2:14:26I don't know how much the committee offices will need.

2:14:30And I also don't feel like I know enough about where the money would come from.

2:14:35If it were 10 years ago, I would say, well, we can get some of the money by cutting the mounted patrol, which I always thought was rather ornamental and could be cut.

2:14:41But now there is no mounted patrol, so I can't say that.

2:14:44It may be that there's fat in the administrator's budget, but I don't know yet what that fat is.

2:14:51And I also know that we are going to be facing millions and millions of dollars in cuts in the overall budget, which mostly goes to police, fire, parks, and housing homeless services.

2:15:03So I just feel like I can't support this package until I have a better sense of what our internal needs are and a better sense of the other budget issues we're facing.

2:15:15I would support immediately adding a couple of staff, and I would say more than one, to the council president's office, because I don't see how you can ask a council president to go toe-to-toe with the mayor with one person.

2:15:29And I would expect— I would support adding a couple of folks to the mayor's office, because I don't know how you can be mayor of a big city with just 5 people.

2:15:37Thank you.

2:15:37And I would support, as a couple of other colleagues have said, adding a district office in District 1.

2:15:46So I don't think I'm going to get support for this, like, slimmed-down proposal, but I would— I could support that and having it come from contingency because I don't know at this point where else to take it from.

2:15:57But so I just wanted to— again, I don't expect to— I'm not offering a motion because I don't expect that's a huge amount of agreement, but I just wanted to let people know where I am.

2:16:13Have you had an opportunity to speak?

2:16:16I didn't think so.

2:16:16No, I haven't.

2:16:17Thank you.

2:16:18All right, Madam President.

2:16:19Well, I really hesitate to say anything, uh, because I think I'm going to start whining, um, and apologizing to all the people who are emailing asking for meetings that we can't keep up with.

2:16:34And I didn't want to whine.

2:16:35I think everybody's been very articulate.

2:16:37I don't have a lot to add, but just to say that it's impossible.

2:16:42It's absolutely impossible to do what we're expected to do as the people's branch of government.

2:16:49Um, it—.

2:16:51I'm very supportive and appreciative of what you put forward here.

2:16:54Thank you.

2:16:55And I will vote for it, to be clear.

2:17:00I think I whined a little bit last week about the committees because I thought there were so many committees.

2:17:05I could not see how we would ever be able to be effective and spread ourselves so thin, which is another argument for having additional staff.

2:17:15I think I mentioned that we don't have legislative research.

2:17:18We don't have a legislative fiscal.

2:17:20There are lots of things— legislative counsel.

2:17:22Yes.

2:17:22There are a lot of things that we don't have, and we're about to make committee assignments tonight, and some of us are on 4 committees.

2:17:31How is this going to be possible without additional help?

2:17:34I, I, I don't know.

2:17:36Constituent relations, uh, serving as a chair or vice chair or just a member of a committee, and then providing the kind of oversight that we're expected to provide over the city.

2:17:47It's, it's impossible without it additional help.

2:17:50So, um, I'm sorry I'm whining, but, uh, I— to all those people that are emailing that I haven't responded to, the phone calls, the requests for meetings, I'm really sorry.

2:18:01We'll get to it eventually.

2:18:04Thank you.

2:18:04Hopefully quite soon.

2:18:07I see a number of other people in the queue, but I did promise that once everybody had an opportunity to speak, we would get back to Councilor Smith.

2:18:14And Councilor Smith, you put forward, um, a motion.

2:18:21Yes.

2:18:21And your motion had 2 parts: amending the, uh, the current proposal to pull funds from the contingency fund as opposed to pulling funds from the city administrator's office.

2:18:37You also talked about restoring to '23-'24 budgets, and I believe that's the number that we are working off of already.

2:18:43Kind of, sort of.

2:18:45Um, it's a little under that, but I just— in general, it is restoration back to those numbers.

2:18:53But what you put forward, I would urge my colleagues to support.

2:18:59And with the change of having the money come from contingency instead of the city administrator's office, I think that we, you know, I don't know if we could get 9 votes to do this as an emergency, but I think it is so important and it's critical that we get started.

2:19:18People have an expectation that we're going to be up to speed right now, and I think it's very egregious to expect us not to expect the best from our own staffs and not to treat them as if they are expendable, because they're not.

2:19:33And as we listen to folks, and I also want to thank Rob Martineau.

2:19:41That was a big, huge step for the president of AFSCME.

2:19:47I don't know if y'all know about this.

2:19:49For him to come up here in budget negotiations to say that he supports what we're talking about, that's a big deal.

2:19:58Yes.

2:19:59And I see us moving closer together when we can see each other's, um, what we're trying to do.

2:20:09And so I thank you, Rob, for your support.

2:20:12And I would just like to say that if we could put something to a vote, um, we've, we've probably— we've, we've talked about this, and, and, and as Commissioner Clark said, uh, Councilor Clark, that we will seem like we're whining, um, but I just want us to take a vote.

2:20:34Let's see where we're at.

2:20:37So I think there are 2 separate things.

2:20:39There is the potential for you to make a motion to amend the ordinance, um, to, uh, Section 2.

2:20:48No.

2:20:48Yes, in A.

2:20:51I'm sorry, A1.

2:20:54A1.

2:20:55A1 to hold the funding from contingency.

2:21:00Yes, the $13.8 million.

2:21:02So why don't you make that motion first and then we can speak to the broader proposal?

2:21:06Okay, perfect.

2:21:07Um, I propose that we change this from the city administrator's, uh, budget to the, um, contingency budget, and I think we all would have stomach for taking that from that, that pot of money.

2:21:22And do we take that vote first?

2:21:24Uh, we need a second.

2:21:25Second.

2:21:26Okay, is there any discussion?

2:21:29And we do have our CFO here if there are any technical questions.

2:21:35Any discussion?

2:21:39Councilor Zimmerman.

2:21:40I am— thank you.

2:21:41I am a protector of the contingency.

2:21:43I think they're important.

2:21:44I've been at places where they've had to be used.

2:21:47And when I look at it in the time left in this fiscal year, I think this is the right move.

2:21:51So full support.

2:21:56Any other discussion?

2:21:57Just clarification.

2:21:59So this is right now just to approve, uh, Councilor Smith's, uh, amendment to have it come from contingency?

2:22:07Correct.

2:22:08A1 currently says decrease bureau operating expenses in the city administrator's office by $4,500,000.

2:22:15$4,588,234 To balance.

2:22:17I believe that the technical language would be decrease the contingency fund by $4,588,234 to balance.

2:22:26Is that correct?

2:22:28Yes.

2:22:28So, um, sorry, Ruth Levine, I'm the budget director.

2:22:31Uh, Jonas Biery, the CFO, um, had another commitment that he had to leave for.

2:22:35But, um, the, uh, I would say, so if you're keeping the amount the same.

2:22:41All you need to change is that language that currently says city administrator to say general fund contingency.

2:22:48So you could amend it to strike it and do decrease general fund contingency by the number.

2:22:58Is that right?

2:23:01Yes, I, I think it's clear and the clerk has it.

2:23:04Yes.

2:23:05Okay.

2:23:07Yeah, question?

2:23:09Uh, Councilor Zimmerman, are you— were you—.

2:23:13Okay, larger comments.

2:23:14I got it.

2:23:16Councilor Ryan?

2:23:17Yes, thank you, Madam President.

2:23:18Ruth, good to see you.

2:23:19I wanted to make sure that I just heard, um, because we had this conversation not long ago and it was a much smaller amount and it was voted down, um, because we couldn't justify taking it out of contingency Could you tell me, um, a little bit more about what that really means?

2:23:38About what?

2:23:39Taking it out?

2:23:39About what this really means.

2:23:40Like, what, what will— what are the consequences?

2:23:43Yeah, sure.

2:23:43So, um, budget person, you have opinions on this?

2:23:47Yeah, sure, happy to.

2:23:48So, um, the general fund contingency is set by council every year, and typically it's been done in the fall bump, and so that's what we have.

2:23:58Yes.

2:23:58This year, um, and, um, it includes a couple of different accounts within it.

2:24:05There is what's called a policy set-aside account, there's unrestricted contingency, and then there's capital set-aside.

2:24:13At least that— those are the buckets we have allocated this year.

2:24:16Um, the unrestricted contingency we generally set at $3 million per year, and, um, at this point in the fiscal year, I would avoid against using it given the, the things that, you know, we may, um, face in the rest of the fiscal year.

2:24:30We just need that.

2:24:30It's not, not a big buffer.

2:24:33Um, and so the remainder of it is you're looking at policy set-aside and capital set-aside based on what's currently in there.

2:24:41Um, and, um, so this year in the fall bump, the, um, there's, there's a number of line items which I don't Um, have a slide of right now, but, um, I could get you of what is in policy set-aside, um, and what is in capital set-aside.

2:25:03The conversation, um, Councilor Ryan, in the fall bump was around sort of reducing some of the capital set-aside, um, amounts.

2:25:13I would say the reason that was the conversation then is because I would say they are the most flexible in that there would be no current year impact to reducing those amounts.

2:25:27It really is there to help the council with balancing the 25-26 budget.

2:25:34So that is still kind of the most flexible pot of money.

2:25:39And, you know, that's frankly anywhere in the general fund at this point in the fiscal year.

2:25:43Fiscal year.

2:25:44Um, so that is probably what you would be looking at again, is reducing that capital set-aside account.

2:25:52Does that answer your question?

2:25:52And I recall it was a number that was around $400K, or what was the—.

2:25:57The, the number that I believe that you had put forward was in that ballpark.

2:26:01I can't remember exactly what it was at that time.

2:26:03That was, um—.

2:26:05It was a $400K that was not spent by the commissioner's offices this year.

2:26:08That's right, yes.

2:26:09And we couldn't That went into the capital contingency.

2:26:13Yes, that's correct.

2:26:15And that— and we voted that down 3 to 2.

2:26:18That's right.

2:26:20President Pirtle-Guiney, may I—.

2:26:21Just had to do a little bit of history for y'all.

2:26:24I just want to make sure, because this is the budget, we're having to balance things.

2:26:27I want to make sure, do we need to amend any of the exhibits or add additional exhibits in order to effectuate commission yes, thank you.

2:26:38Thanks, Lindley.

2:26:39Yes, um, we do.

2:26:40Um, so the, the amendment that you're putting forward, just—.

2:26:45I—.

2:26:45You just need to add update Exhibit 1 to reflect this change.

2:26:49I suspect we will have conversation about additional amendments.

2:26:55Legally, can we vote on this amendment without those exhibits being updated, so long as those exhibits are updated before yes, and, and I think, um, Ruth and I anticipate that once we have a sense of what all the amendments are, we're going to ask for a short recess in order to allow her to amend the exhibits, because those need to be complete for you to amend them and vote on the whole package.

2:27:22I suspect when we're done with this portion, we will all need a recess, and I recognize that we have a number of bureau staff here and guests for things later in the agenda, I apologize.

2:27:32Um, we are required to take up budget items first, which is why we are doing this this early in the agenda despite knowing that we have guests here.

2:27:42Uh, Councilor Avalos, are you speaking to the motion?

2:27:46Yeah, it's a question.

2:27:47Okay.

2:27:50Um, a question, uh, is— my question is, can you project project how much will be added to the contingency pot for FY26?

2:27:59In other words, um, do you expect that the dollars we potentially use for this resolution would be replenished in the next budget?

2:28:07So I, I can't project today what will be in the contingency pot in, in the fall of— essentially, we, we allocate that in the fall, so it— that would be normally, um, Okay.

2:28:21Let's say October of 2025.

2:28:23So I can't project what that looks like today.

2:28:25It's just too early in the fiscal year to really have any confidence in that.

2:28:29That being said, I think, um, there are sort of leverage points to increase the amount of underspending in the current fiscal year, if that's what you're getting at.

2:28:45Um, so I mean, I think that's more thank you.

2:28:48I think that's a question for the city administrator than for me, but there— I mean, I think there's sort of— there are a number of reasons, there are a number of ways that we build contingency.

2:29:03One is there's a certain amount of underspending that you want every year.

2:29:06It's actually in the general fund, it's not that big, but you wouldn't want to be spending up to your limit because you'd be in trouble.

2:29:14Okay.

2:29:14Another is sort of, I guess, true underspending, vacancy savings, external materials and services underspending and the like.

2:29:25So I think that is the place where there's room to sort of reduce those spending categories in the current fiscal year, and that would increase your contingency.

2:29:38And by So by sort of April, May, we will— by the time you all are taking up the approved budget, we will have a better sense of what the, um, what we call the ending fund balance for the current fiscal year will look like.

2:29:52So, you know, between now and then, we'll get a little bit of a lens on that.

2:29:56Does that help?

2:29:57Thank you.

2:29:58Councilor Smith, is this to the motion?

2:30:02Yes, to the motion.

2:30:03And, and, and, um, Madam President, thank you so much.

2:30:08And I want to go back to what you— the question was asked about '25-'26.

2:30:12And under Oregon budget law, we can't talk about budgeting for '25-'26 while we're in '24-'25, because the idea is that everything that we— our operating budget is supposed to be spent to the penny.

2:30:24But the real reality is, like, uh, Councilor Zimmerman said, we've been bringing over $200 million for the last 4 years that I've seen of underspending.

2:30:35So if history repeated itself, even in times of cutting, that it would suggest that we would have more money to bring over this '25-'26 year.

2:30:47But we can't talk about '25-'26 while we're in '24-'25.

2:30:53So a couple of things just to clarify.

2:30:57The, the sort of true general fund underspending this year was like $24 million.

2:31:02Um, so I'm not entirely sure where the $200 million number is coming from, but we happy to talk about it.

2:31:07Yeah, the carryover from unused FTEs, the, the beginning, um, capital that we started with this year was $200 million.

2:31:16Um, that probably includes like fund balance for things like PSF and the water and the sewer funds.

2:31:24So happy to talk about that more offline, but the true general fund underspending is right.

2:31:33And we're talking about restricted funds versus, um, general funding.

2:31:37But I'd like to get to this point, and, um, let's take a vote on whether or not we want to take this from the, uh, contingency or not.

2:31:46I believe we have one more comment before we get to a vote.

2:31:51Um, oh, Councilor Green, do you want to—.

2:31:54I just want to make a comment for my colleagues.

2:31:56Um, So when you're at the beginning of a fiscal year and you are forecasting, you have a lot of uncertainty.

2:32:03And so it's really important to kind of keep your contingency balance unencumbered at the beginning.

2:32:08But as you move through time and you get closer to the end of your budgeting period, your uncertainty and the variation in risk gets narrower.

2:32:16We are very close.

2:32:16We're 5 months away from the end of the fiscal year.

2:32:18And so I feel very comfortable using that contingency set-aside because this is one-time money for this fiscal year.

2:32:25Right.

2:32:26Um, because that's the allowable use for that fund.

2:32:28So that's, that's what I would offer to my colleagues.

2:32:34Is that a legacy hand, Councilor Avalos?

2:32:36Okay, cool.

2:32:37Any other comments before we have the clerk take roll on the motion?

2:32:44Okay.

2:32:46Uh, Councilor Morillo?

2:32:49Oh no, I did the same thing.

2:32:52Okay, hi, Keelan, could you please take a vote?

2:32:55Avalos?

2:32:57Aye.

2:32:58Aye.

2:33:01Aye.

2:33:02Aye.

2:33:03Aye.

2:33:03Aye.

2:33:05Aye.

2:33:28I know that Councilor Smith has expressed interest in another motion.

2:33:30I also have heard from a number of colleagues pieces of proposals.

2:33:36Um, Councilor Zimmerman, you have your hand raised.

2:33:39Yeah, uh, this is a plea to Councilor Novick.

2:33:45So I hear you loud and clear, I really do.

2:33:47And, um, I'm also hearing District 1 councilors loud and clear.

2:33:56I think that coming into office and throughout the last year, I heard a lot in the community at different times about having council or geographic-based offices.

2:34:08And for me Being the person who represents this real estate, that was never really a big important thing to me.

2:34:14And so I didn't spend more than 2 brain cells on that ever.

2:34:18And then I heard from all 3 of you, and I heard loud and clear.

2:34:21And then I heard, uh, from the other districts on that importance.

2:34:25And I, and I, um, I am going to support that in that I think that y'all need some space.

2:34:34Thank you.

2:34:35Space to figure out what that looks like.

2:34:39And what I would say, Councilor Novick, is that you might not be ready to make a staffing change yet, but I hope that we can support this.

2:34:52Because if, if you're not ready, or any one of the 12 of us is not ready to execute that, then I think you can turn it back in, and I think that's fine.

2:35:00But for those that are ready, and those that have a bigger ask, and for District 1 in East Portland, and I've, I've said I, I think a nod from District 4 occasionally is going to be an important part of this body.

2:35:11That would be my ask.

2:35:12And, uh, because I, I am trying to defer to what I think will be a better form of government for you all to hire up and staff up in that district differently maybe than I will.

2:35:25And so for that reason, I, I hope that whatever ends up being the package that we can also support that.

2:35:37I have— oh, Councilor Avalos.

2:35:43I guess I would, uh, pose to the group, maybe it would be helpful— it would be helpful for me to understand what are people's comfortability— is that a word?

2:35:52I don't know if that is.

2:35:54Um, uh, on what level we They would want to fund.

2:35:58And I would argue— I mean, also want to appreciate what everybody has said about supporting District 1.

2:36:03I think that really speaks to the important nature of having districts, but also understanding the shared impact on Portlanders and knowing that East Portland deserves more right now.

2:36:15So I appreciate that.

2:36:16I wonder if we could maybe separate those asks, because I'm hearing at least right now that other districts aren't eager to go into talking about getting funding for district offices, but we like that District 1 could have that.

2:36:31So I would maybe ask that those be 2 separate things.

2:36:33So this is a little bit of process question, but my original question would be helpful if we could maybe— if I could get a sense of what people's thresholds are also, because then I could maybe propose another amendment.

2:36:46See a number of hands going up.

2:36:48I also want to recognize that we are coming up on the time we had set aside for this in the agenda.

2:36:53Um, we can blow through that, and that's okay, but if we all speak to every question, I think we're going to blow through that toward a long night.

2:37:03Um, Councilor Avalos, does it make sense for what you're asking to separate out a few of the things that we've heard, which is 1 or 2 more staff each, district offices in District 1 versus all districts, some additional shared staff either within council operations to do our policy analyst work, council president's office, any other proposals around shared staff that folks have, and think about all of those separately?

2:37:33Is that what you're asking for?

2:37:36Maybe not necessarily that they all be separate.

2:37:38I guess I was just trying to get sense because it sounds like we want to move towards something and it maybe would need to be amended unless everybody is supportive of the current $4 million, etc., amount.

2:37:51So, okay, I'm seeing some head nods.

2:37:54Um, I just wanted to get a sense on if, uh, people were open to another proposal in cost.

2:37:59So, but I do think that the district office maybe could be a separate item.

2:38:05I don't think it needs to be separate I just want to answer directly, right?

2:38:16I appreciate the question.

2:38:16So I support the package as it stands, and I've said it very clearly.

2:38:22I'll say it again clearly.

2:38:23I think that that number is important to go to each councilor, and then that those folks are the ones who make decisions on those individual things, Councilor Avalos.

2:38:33So I wouldn't be in favor of breaking it out because I think that's on your responsibility and on my responsibility.

2:38:39So that's where I'm at.

2:38:40I'm at the full 4.3 or 5.

2:38:43Um, and I, I think that, um, the area that I feel like I'm giving up some compromise right now is on the— is on putting some council president assigned staff.

2:38:58So it's not her personal staff, but it's the offices staff.

2:39:01I think that's incredibly important moving forward, but I recognize that maybe that would be a later action.

2:39:06And in this one, it's just for these and for the mayor's.

2:39:10So that's where I'm at.

2:39:11I support the full package currently.

2:39:15Uh, I support the full package as it's written right now, um, as well.

2:39:22Um, I, I do want to just note, I, I, I think District My comments about District 1 going first are—.

2:39:29They all—.

2:39:30I stick to all of them.

2:39:32Um, District 2 does need a district office.

2:39:35I think that we should take a little time to get that scaled up and find a site and get that ready to go so that in our '25-'26 budget we have the money for the ongoing expenses.

2:39:44And I think, I think it can wait that long.

2:39:47I, I don't know that I'd want to wait that long for D1.

2:39:50Um, but I think the people and, you know, this is maybe unique to District 2 and my interest here, and, and I've, I've said publicly, I, I hope we have a district office for District 2 in, in historic Albina, which is both the geographic and cultural heart of District 2.

2:40:04And I also know that a lot of the folks who come worship, come play, come go to school, come hang out and visit their, their grandparents and their aunties and uncles in, in District 2 in Albina currently live in D1.

2:40:17And so I think that there is a connection there.

2:40:19To, uh, to this work.

2:40:21So I, I don't want to have it be, uh, misunderstood that it's not a priority.

2:40:25I, I do prioritize it very highly.

2:40:27I think in terms of which budget cycle it ends up in is how I'm approaching D2.

2:40:32But, um, I just wanted to clarify that I do support, uh, the package as is.

2:40:40Madam President, I do support your package as is.

2:40:43And as probably the only grandmother here It is so hard for me to— I, I'm touched by you all's support for District 1.

2:40:51I really am.

2:40:53But it's so hard for me to accept something that— a different package than everybody else.

2:40:59So I think that if we're going to take something, y'all, we need to take it together in what the president has put forward.

2:41:06And everybody, they figure out what they want to do with their own budgets.

2:41:10But I am so, um—.

2:41:11Councilwoman?

2:41:13I am so very touched by, by you all's understanding of what District 1 is.

2:41:17And, um, let's see if we can take that vote.

2:41:23Councilor Smith, is that a motion, or should we continue taking comments?

2:41:26No comments.

2:41:26Oh, I'm sorry, can't say no comments.

2:41:28But then, if, if that's the case, then I need you to make a motion.

2:41:31I'd like to make a motion to support your ordinance as is.

2:41:37As amended.

2:41:37So I don't think we need— I, I don't want to interrupt, but we don't need a motion because that's the ordinance that you have on the table.

2:41:44So I think we can just call the vote.

2:41:46You can—.

2:41:46You maybe, if you're wanting to get a, like, a sense of the council that that's the way they want to go and don't want to make other motions, that might be appropriate.

2:41:55Well, I would want to make this motion, and let's see how this goes, and we may not need another motion.

2:42:03If we don't need a motion—.

2:42:04There's a motion on the floor and I call the question.

2:42:05Point of information.

2:42:07Can I ask a question?

2:42:08Hold on, you're calling the question on the resolution as amended?

2:42:14Yes.

2:42:15Okay, let's take the point of information and then we will continue discussion in the queue.

2:42:23My understanding is that this is not currently an emergency ordinance.

2:42:27Do we need to Add an— can we vote on this without doing that?

2:42:31So there, there are 2 things that— and again, step in if I'm, if I'm overstepping right now— 2 things that need to happen.

2:42:39To answer your question first, there is not an emergency clause.

2:42:41One would need to be added.

2:42:43So yes.

2:42:442, Um, the budget officer needs to amend an exhibit before you can take a vote on the ordinance as it stands, and we would need a short break to do that.

2:42:54So If the answer is there are no further amendments, we like the ordinance as it was amended to change to general contingency, we would go make those changes, we would show them on the screen, and then it would be appropriate.

2:43:06Do you want to make— add an emergency clause, I think is the question.

2:43:12Let's do this.

2:43:14Retta wants to get to a vote on what we have.

2:43:18We may need— we may have interest In an emergency clause.

2:43:22I'll point out that without that emergency clause, we come back and vote in 2 weeks, and then we have 30 days before implementation.

2:43:32So for anybody who is looking to hire staff before the next 6 weeks, we may want an emergency clause.

2:43:37Sorry, um, sorry, just on that, I, I think it's a budget ordinance, so it takes effect immediately, even if it's not on emergency.

2:43:45Okay.

2:43:46Okay.

2:43:46Thank you.

2:43:47I see the attorneys, but it is, it is a delay there.

2:43:49It is a delay there.

2:43:52Um, what I would like to do to get a sense of where we are at, since we need to take a break before we can actually vote, is to ask that if you are going to— if you were hoping to offer further amendment aside from an emergency clause yes.

2:44:14Can you put yourself in the queue so that we can hear what the other proposals are?

2:44:19Let's get all of the proposals on the table.

2:44:22Let's figure out what we want to vote on, if we want to add an emergency clause, and then take a break so that we can actually have things on the screen to look at.

2:44:32Does that work for folks?

2:44:36Okay, Councilor Ryan.

2:44:41I want to support this, and I am not there yet in terms of how much we're asking for.

2:44:47So I was, um, I know I have to get to eventually putting out an amendment or a new proposal.

2:44:54Okay.

2:44:55I liked when we were having a conversation about breaking this apart.

2:44:58I'm glad that we already voted on contingency.

2:45:02I think that, um, An incremental step towards having more staffing to do constituent work out in the districts, to allow District 1 to be first in the queue to move towards having a footprint in District 1, the one that is the biggest need at this moment.

2:45:21And then using the rest of this year to prepare us for the budget dialogue for '25-'26, where we actually talk about what we're experiencing and what kind of staffing we really do need.

2:45:35I, I think we're getting ahead of our skis a bit by asking for this big of an amount, so I'm struggling to get to a yes on the big picture, uh, proposal at the moment.

2:45:45I'm probably halfway there.

2:45:47Thanks.

2:45:49That wasn't, that wasn't a proposal.

2:45:51That was not a proposal.

2:45:53I feel I, I'm still, um, want to take up space to say that.

2:45:59I, I need an— I need to, uh, put this—.

2:46:02You need to see something.

2:46:04I support adding one additional staff for each council office and moving forward on the District 1 footprint for a council office in the district.

2:46:20Do you have a position on the mayor's staff included in the current proposal, and do you have a I'm not in the mayor's office.

2:46:34I don't have the perspective.

2:46:36It sounds like I would say yes to that based on what you presented earlier.

2:46:41I don't have anything to say yet about the shared staffing because I haven't experienced it yet, so I don't have enough knowledge on the crosswalk of that.

2:46:51I will tell you that our council operations has suggested that they could use one more policy analyst as we get started on our policy work.

2:47:00For committee staffing and actually for council leadership, that would be you, the president, the vice president.

2:47:07I also want some shared staffing that would be shared with the 2 of you so that you can do your extra duties.

2:47:14I know that our staff would appreciate that.

2:47:16So Hi, Lindley and Keelan.

2:47:22Do you want to translate what I tried to say?

2:47:25I could use some translation because I've never seen a— where we asked for a bunch of amendments when we have a question called.

2:47:31So I'm quite—.

2:47:31I've never experienced a lot of what we're experiencing right now.

2:47:35I was told that we do not need to call a question, but that we have to know exactly what we want before we can call the question so that we can take a recess and have it written up.

2:47:46So I am trying right now, Councilor Zimmerman, to respond to what staff say they need and respond to the fact that I think I'm hearing some dissension across council, especially if we want an emergency clause, which would then require 9 votes.

2:48:00And I am trying to feel out where we're at.

2:48:03So we could certainly recess right now, but I just—.

2:48:07I just haven't heard anybody say I am moved to amend, so Correct.

2:48:12That's out there.

2:48:14And that's what I've asked for, is if you are going to move to amend, but to put yourself in the queue.

2:48:20I move to amend that we have an exhibit that gives us a dollar amount for adding 1 staff member per council office and to get District 1 foot— office footprint in motion and hopefully be established soon, and also the mayor's 3, and shared staffing for the council committees and one for the council leadership.

2:48:47So that probably totaled 2.

2:48:49Is that the same exact exhibit as you asked for?

2:48:53It's not.

2:48:54It's much less, right?

2:48:55It's about half.

2:48:56It's much less.

2:48:57Good.

2:48:57Sorry, can I just clarify the, the last part of what you just said?

2:49:01You want it— it's Is it 2 staff in council operations or 3?

2:49:06I didn't quite track.

2:49:07Yeah, I said 2.

2:49:08One, one additional for the leadership and one additional for policy work.

2:49:15Okay, got it.

2:49:16Yeah, yeah, we can do that.

2:49:17For the committee's staffing, which is shared.

2:49:20Yeah, yeah, got it.

2:49:23I'd like to see that exhibit as we go forth after the break so I can compare.

2:49:29So this is not a motion, this is a request for information from our budget team.

2:49:34Is that correct?

2:49:37Mhm.

2:49:37Okay, Councilor Avalos.

2:49:40You want to make an amendment, go for it, Councilor Avalos.

2:49:43Oh boy.

2:49:44Um, okay, I'm trying to respond to all the stimuli here.

2:49:48I, I, I guess what I'm feeling I agree that the 4-point-whatever feels like too much right now.

2:50:00So I do agree with that.

2:50:01I don't know what amount I want.

2:50:03I think I'm looking at what the outcomes are, and the outcomes I want are definitely one other staff per person, definitely more staff for the council president operation, right, including the policy analyst.

2:50:18It sounds like, uh, Councilor Ryan suggested 2, but was your original proposal the original proposal was based on a number that gave folks some flexibility.

2:50:32Likely it would have been 3 if you were looking at a district office immediately.

2:50:37If you were looking at having a smaller district office footprint and focus more on constituent outreach, it may have been a little bit more.

2:50:45This proposal came in at a restoration budget number.

2:50:48So it's not a proposal?

2:50:50Hold on, I think what I'm asking is, uh, was 3 the number for president's staff in particular?

2:50:55Is that—.

2:50:55Yeah, because I feel like what you're describing is like for each of them.

2:50:58Got it, got it.

2:50:59You were talking about president's staff.

2:51:01So I believe the conversation that, um, a few folks had was 1 additional staff for our council operations policy team and 2 staff for the president or the leadership.

2:51:14Okay.

2:51:15Um, and then, you know, we don't— because the original proposal was flexible funding essentially for each district so that they could decide about the district office, so I'm not clear like what that number is.

2:51:28And but I would like to— I'm hearing from Commissioner— Councilor Smith, $398,000 more for District 1, or per per councilor for district offices.

2:51:42For everything.

2:51:43For everything.

2:51:44Yes.

2:51:44Okay, okay, okay.

2:51:51Um, if, if commission— if I keep doing that, why do I keep doing that?

2:51:56Um, if Councilor Ryan, um, is— yours was technically not an amendment, right?

2:52:00So it was a request for information, is that what I'm understanding?

2:52:04Yes, correct.

2:52:04We have another exhibit.

2:52:06Okay, um, maybe I will put myself back in the queue.

2:52:12I kind of want to hear what everyone else is thinking because I'm not quite sure yet, and I'm trying to gauge the room here.

2:52:16But I think I'll tell you what my gut is telling me is that I would like to make that amount smaller.

2:52:22So I'm trying to figure out what that smaller amount is, but that— those are my intentions right now.

2:52:26So I'll, I'll hold off and just kind of hear what everyone else has to say.

2:52:32Thank you.

2:52:34Um, so I, I have a proposal, I guess, um, but I want— I would like to see— I don't know if there's a numbers person out here, a numbers city staffer that can whip this out real quick, but, um—.

2:52:47We're looking at you.

2:52:49Okay, thank you.

2:52:51Um, I would like to see the proposal stay pretty much the same with one major change.

2:52:56So yes.

2:52:57One staff person, uh, one additional staff person per city council member, one staffer for the council president because you're doing insane levels of work and you deserve support, um, 2 policy analysts that are shared amongst the city council, the 3 staffers that the mayor requested because I know you're here on Saturdays and you also deserve some assistance, um, and that for now only District One, get the funding for a council office.

2:53:26And the reason I say that is because I feel like we haven't done a clear analysis, or I have not seen one, where we actually see the cost of in-district offices when that comes to rent, to, you know, internet, phone, setting up the tech, setting up security for our safety.

2:53:44I haven't seen a meaningful analysis on those in-district office conversations yet.

2:53:49Councilor Loretta Smith.

2:53:49And I think that District 1 needs to be prioritized right now, and I think that the other districts are able to hold off until a little bit longer.

2:54:00We can wait to get that analysis.

2:54:02We— most of our constituents are able to access City Hall by bus.

2:54:06District 1, you know, it takes an hour to get here.

2:54:09So I really want to prioritize that district for that need, but that's a suggestion that I have if I think it's really important that we get additional staffers as soon as possible.

2:54:20So if the district offices are a place where we can cut that for now in order to advance getting staff, that is what I would propose.

2:54:30And I typed this out, so if I can email that to you, just let me know.

2:54:35I don't know what your full email is, but I'm happy to.

2:54:39Councilor, I will send you, or maybe the clerk I can send you in Teams Ruth's email so you can send it to her.

2:54:47Okay, thank you.

2:54:50Councilor Green.

2:54:52Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

2:54:53I guess this is— I'm a little bit stuck with this process here, um, because I, you know, as am I.

2:55:00We, we had, we had a motion as presented in the agenda.

2:55:04We had an amendment to that motion which we, we voted to accept.

2:55:10And then you would go back to the original— you'd go back to the original question, right?

2:55:14And I understand that there's some process here about the exhibits, but what I— what we're stuck in now is now we're back in a world where we're, we're bandying about proposals that's very— it's difficult to quantify because we're going based upon FTEs.

2:55:28Well, what's an FTE?

2:55:29Is it a senior council aide?

2:55:31Is it a, you know, junior constituent services?

2:55:34I would urge us to step back from that space, colleagues, and, and just go back to the numbers.

2:55:40If you don't like $4.5 million, give me a different number.

2:55:44I can vote on that.

2:55:44But that's— I don't think we can move forward in this conversation unless we can go back to just the aggregate dollars, because then we can trust ourselves.

2:55:52I trust all of you to make good fiscal choices with your dollars for the rest of the 5 months.

2:55:57That's where I'm at.

2:56:01Ruth, are you able to show us some numbers around district office costs and staffing costs?

2:56:09No.

2:56:09No?

2:56:09Okay, I'm seeing a no.

2:56:13So alternately, we can decide if we would like to put an emergency clause on this or not, take 5 minutes, vote on the original Or take the emergency clause off and just vote on the original.

2:56:29Yes, though we can't vote on the— we can't vote on the original today.

2:56:34I mean, if—.

2:56:34Unless we put the emergency clause on.

2:56:37That's—.

2:56:37Can't vote on—.

2:56:39Is that what you said?

2:56:40Is it?

2:56:41I thought she said the budget one goes live.

2:56:43The budget one still needs the 2 weeks but then doesn't have the 30-day wait period.

2:56:49Correct.

2:56:50You still need 2 readings.

2:56:52That's correct.

2:56:52But you don't—.

2:56:53You—.

2:56:53But it goes into effect immediately even without an emergency clause.

2:56:57So what I—.

2:56:58All I'm trying—.

2:56:59I'm not trying to force a whole bunch of discussion.

2:57:03I'm just saying that before council votes on the— or if before you vote on it, you would need to add an emergency clause, and to make it comply with budget law, you would need to amend an exhibit.

2:57:13That's— that is all I'm saying.

2:57:18Okay, Councilor Koyama Lane, you are in the queue and have not spoken.

2:57:26Maybe this is not possible information, but what would be helpful for me, and I'm guessing other members of the public, to see is a breakdown in everyday language of what these different scenarios are, what they look like, Um, it's, it's hard.

2:57:47I don't— we don't have a slideshow.

2:57:49I don't have clear information that explains, that is clear for me what $4.5 million looks like.

2:57:56I am wondering what Councilor Ryan's scenario, how much would that be?

2:58:01What does that look like?

2:58:02Um, thank you.

2:58:05Yeah, so if you give me a couple of minutes, I can make a few changes to the costing I have, and I can get you some numbers and show you, um, show you what that desired amendment looks like.

2:58:19I think without having done the costing that what Councilor Murillo and what Councilor Ryan said are very probably very close in number.

2:58:26And for the purposes of what you're doing today, you need a number.

2:58:32We do need to split out in when we go budget it the difference between personnel and External materials and services, that's just for this fiscal year.

2:58:40You can change that obviously for July 1st.

2:58:43So I need to have some understanding of, you know, whether like you're looking at 2 staff or 1 staff per office, just because that affects the number for personnel.

2:58:52Um, but other than that, I just— we need to get a rough number on the budget, and, you know, then you, you all can decide how to use that.

2:59:00Um, and then you have more time to figure out what you need for 25-26.

2:59:04Thank you.

2:59:04So that's— if you give me a couple minutes, I can give you that.

2:59:07Thank you.

2:59:07And just to clarify, I believe there definitely is a need here to have this conversation and talk about increasing our budget, and I just want to make sure we're proceeding really carefully and thoughtfully with this and not rushing into it.

2:59:29We have a number of other folks in the queue.

2:59:31I'd like you to be able to work on that.

2:59:34We are at almost 9 o'clock and we have a number of other things on the agenda, so I am going to propose that we take a 5-minute break, let folks stretch their legs, let Ruth get some numbers up for us.

2:59:45I think we need to understand if we've passed an amendment yet.

2:59:48We have passed an amendment.

2:59:50Okay, what, what amendment did we pass, Madam President?

2:59:53We passed an amendment to A1.

2:59:56Roger.

2:59:56So my question with that is a point of order of why would we be now tasking ideas that have come from this dais without an amendment to them to bring forward several proposals?

3:00:11As it stands, the last motion to call the question was from Councilor Green on, on the package as it sits.

3:00:19We got direction from the budget office that they need to put together an exhibit But then no other action has occurred.

3:00:26We can't call the question today unless we put an emergency clause on, which is why I had originally opened it up to say, are there other amendments?

3:00:35Do folks need to talk through it?

3:00:36What do we want to do here?

3:00:38So we're a little bit out of order at this point because there was a lot of discussion when I said if you have another amendment, put yourself in the queue.

3:00:49I think what I'm hearing you say is let's just come back, get this all ready, and move on with our business to vote on this in 2 weeks.

3:00:57Is that what you're hoping for?

3:01:05I'm uninterested in seeing packages developed on the fly from the staff that have not been voted as amendments by this body.

3:01:15I think that we should take votes on amendments so that we can give clear direction to staff, because I think we look like a shotgun blast right now to staff, and I don't think that's good, right?

3:01:27Because we scattered.

3:01:29So I would prefer that this body indicate what it is and isn't supporting, and that that is the clear direction that we owe to staff for this product development.

3:01:38So let's— I'm gonna suggest something to that end.

3:01:42Alternately, from what I suggested before, we could go back to the proposal from Councilor Murillo and say that we would be voting on an amendment which would be prepared by staff but which would be at the cost level of what she listed.

3:01:59Or would you prefer to put out a number?

3:02:01Well, I would say that— I would say that this number was rooted in fact, right?

3:02:04It was— it is a restoration number to the Council offices previously prorated with the remaining 5 months given what has already been assigned.

3:02:13So these numbers didn't come out of nowhere.

3:02:15This is not a magic wand number.

3:02:17I think that those numbers already exist.

3:02:19They're rooted in that prorated data.

3:02:21And, um, Councilor Morillo, I, I agree with you, and some of us are like ready to go on, on certain spaces and others.

3:02:28And, and, and, and I think that, you know, I'm not one of them, but I agree with Commissioner Smith.

3:02:35If this council takes an action, I think we take it together so that each office has the same budget that doesn't place any other districts out of the ordinary with everyone else.

3:02:45I think it would be bad for us to be able to point to different districts, um, in a way that makes them— I'm just not there yet.

3:02:52So that's why I'm going to support equal numbers across the board.

3:02:54Thank you.

3:02:55That 4.3 that's out there is the equal number across the board.

3:02:58That's the one that was amended for for out of contingency.

3:03:01And as far as I can tell, that's the only direction right now that staff has.

3:03:05And I think that's important, right?

3:03:08We should amend if we have amendments, but if we don't, the only one that should be given any product development is the one as it stands, I think.

3:03:20We have a number of folks who would like to speak right now.

3:03:26Councilor Zimmerman, you are asking us not to speak, but it's— nope.

3:03:32Madam President.