Transcript
Automatically generated transcript. It may contain errors and includes testimony in languages other than English that is not individually marked up for assistive technology.
Unidentified speaker
Good evening.
It is 6:01 PM on June 18th.
I am calling to order our City Council meeting.
Okay, well, we had a great opener.
It's time for the main show.
Um, Councilor Novick is joining us online.
For folks in the room, we do have him joining us as well.
Uh, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Aye.
Here.
Ryan.
Here.
Koyama Lane.
Here.
Morillo.
Here.
Novick.
Here.
Clark.
Here.
Rain.
Here.
Chairman.
Avalos.
Present.
Dunphy.
Here.
Smith.
Here.
Muldooney.
Here.
Thank you.
And Robert, could you please go over the rules of order and decorum for us?
Thank you, Madam President.
Welcome everyone to the Portland City Council.
To testify before council in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.
Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's webpage.
Individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise.
Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.
The presiding officer preserves order.
Disruptive 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.
If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.
Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.
Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.
Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.
Your testimony should please address the matter being considered.
When testifying, please state your name for the record.
Your address is not necessary.
If you are a lobbyist, please identify the organization you represent.
Virtual testifiers should please unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Clerk Keelan McClymont.
Thank you very much.
Tonight we have, um, a big meeting with a big agenda and a couple of really big things on it that, colleagues, we have spent a lot of time preparing for, not just the budget.
Um, I want to thank everyone for the time that's put into getting to tonight.
Um, we've had a couple of big processes lately that have been firsts.
Thank you.
And as we go through our work tonight of finalizing that, those, those items that we have started, I hope we can do that together, do that collectively, do it in a way that honors the hard work that's been put in.
I know we've all learned a lot.
I know I've learned a lot as we go through this process, and we're not done yet.
So there will be much more to say, but I would just ask that we try to work together, work efficiently to get a couple of big things over the finish line this evening.
The first thing on our agenda is agenda approval, colleagues, and I am wondering if there are any amendments or motions to reorder the agenda.
No.
Thank you, Madam President.
It's my understanding that many of the members who would be appointed, uh, in the current draft of Item 14 are present.
I move to move Item 14 above Item 4 on the agenda, that is the, uh, appointment of members to the Community Board for Police Accountability.
Councilors, we have a motion to move Agenda Item 14, appointment of members to the Community Board for Police Accountability, to the start of the regular agenda.
That would be after public communications and the committee Referral report.
And before we start our suite of budget items, in order to respect those volunteers' time, do we have a second?
Second.
Thank you.
Is there any discussion?
Okay, Keelan, could you call the roll?
Kanal.
Aye.
Ryan.
Mark Porras
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Koyama Lane.
Aye.
Morillo.
Aye.
Novick.
Aye.
Clark?
Aye.
Green?
Aye.
Zimmerman?
Aye.
Avalos?
Aye.
Dunphy?
Aye.
Smith?
Aye.
Pirtle-Guiney?
Aye.
Colleagues, are there any other motions to reorder or amend the agenda?
Okay.
The next item on our agenda is public communication.
Keelan, could you please call up our first First, we have John Carter.
Welcome, John.
Thank you for being here.
Hi, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Uh, it's great to see this new council in action.
Um, anyway, I'm sure you've all noticed the pent-up anger among Portlanders right now.
What we're witnessing, I think, is a boiling energy without an outlet.
I myself have spent an incalculable amount of time fretting at what is happening on the national stage, and at the heart of my grief is a sense of powerlessness.
When I notice myself falling into traps of despair, I try to best tune to what is in my control— the love and attention I give to my partner, friends, community, work, What we as citizens need is an outlet for power and influence that is clear and equitable.
While our federal government has completely severed its ties to the needs and consent of its people, our city has been a mixed bag in this regard.
Portlanders resolutely strove for change by ditching our commissioner system to put the new council structure in place.
Thank you.
I believe this group has done a great job so far.
You all have had a tough go with the budget deficit, took it in stride, and brought us out of catastrophe.
That being said, what still feels problematic in this new arrangement is the faltering infrastructure for direct citizen involvement.
Prior to moving to Southeast Portland in May, I had been on the board of the Overlook Neighborhood Association for 4 years.
What I learned in my time there is that the neighborhood association system is a bit of a relic from a bygone era.
The city's investment in these groups is no longer clear.
It seems to me that the city would be content to let these groups kind of just phase out.
The vision of the Office of Community and Civic Life seems adrift after Chloe Eudaly's failed attempt at reform.
I think reform ought to be on the table again and revisited.
Councilmember I want Portland to have a civic power structure that is the envy and inspiration of the rest of the nation in these dark times.
I believe what went wrong during the last attempt was that you daily tried to throw the baby out with the bathwater and drew the ire of the neighborhood associations rather than collaborate with them.
Instead of burning fridges, I think we need to have a collective conversation as a city on what meaningful modern civic involvement looks like.
Portland has the energy to build a civic power structure for generations to come.
Let's be the city that gets national headlines because we are inspiring and forward-thinking.
As C.S.
Wood—.
As C.E.S.
Wood said, good citizens are the riches of a city, and here in Portland we have a bounty.
I hope to see the council institute policy that utilizes us to our fullest potential.
Thank you.
Let's have a conversation about it.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much.
Keelan, could you please call our next guest?
Next up, we have Maureen McGovern.
My name is Maureen McGovern.
City councilors and Mayor Wilson, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening.
I am here to urge you to pass a resolution declaring Portland an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city.
Growing up in Portland and living and working here now, I am fortunate to have had acquaintances, classmates, neighbors, friends, and colleagues who are members of the LGBTQ community and to enjoy Portland's rich LGBTQ history and culture.
From 1967, when Walter Cole purchased the tavern that became the Darcelle XV Showplace—.
Aye.
1975, When the first Gay Pride Fair was held in the Park Blocks.
1977, The founding of Parents of Gays, later to become Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Portland.
1985, When Portland Mayor Bud Clark declared June 28th Portland Gay Men's Chorus Day.
The 1980s and '90s, when the City Nightclub was a haven for Portland's queer youth.
1991, When Tom Potter became the first Portland police chief to march in the Portland Pride Parade.
2004, When Sam Adams became Portland's first openly gay elected official.
2013, When the Portland Thorns, Timbers, and Trail Blazers became the first major sports teams to endorse marriage equality.
2014, When Portland Trans Pride became an official event at Portland Pride.
And multiple Portland City Council resolutions and ordinances passed since 1974 addressing discrimination towards and recognizing the contributions of the LGBTQ community.
Portland has already declared itself a welcoming city, a sanctuary city, and an inclusive city for all under Resolution 37277, focused on affirming our commitment to protect and support immigrant and refugee communities— more important now than ever.
But with executive orders erasing transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse people, threats to gender-affirming care access, and hundreds of pieces of discriminatory legislation being introduced across the country, it is critical that we join other cities like Erie, Pennsylvania, Boston, Massachusetts, Lake Worth Beach, Florida, Olympia, Washington, and most recently Corvallis, Oregon, to further resolve that Portland, as a sanctuary city, is a safe place, a welcoming and supportive city for LGBTQ individuals and their families, and that local resources are not used enforce federal and out-of-state laws that threaten the ability of any person to access healthcare, education, housing, and employment.
We can show the state, the country, and the world that Portland treats all people with dignity and respect regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Portland Pride is next month, and what better time to commit to our LGBTQIA+ community that they are welcome here and we stand with them and their families.
Thank you.
I know this is who we are, and we know this is who we are, but we need to do this, and we need to do it now.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much for being here with us tonight.
Next up, we have Christopher Hale joining us online.
Hello, council members.
My name is Dr. Christopher Hale, and I'm a resident of Woodstock in Southeast Portland and an ER doctor.
My family and I chose the Woodstock neighborhood because of its walkable, bikeable characteristics that allow us to move through our community safely and feel connected in ways that are not possible in car-dominant areas.
We have multiple amenities within a 10 to 15 minute walk or bike ride, access to multiple bus lines.
Our kids can bike to their elementary school, and I'm able to bike to work.
These benefits should be available to all Portlanders.
Unfortunately, we also often have close calls due to issues like drivers speeding along Woodstock Boulevard, or parked cars illegally blocking visibility at intersections as our kids approach them on bike or foot, even right outside their school.
Many drivers are either unaware that it's illegal to park within 20 feet of an intersection or simply don't care, and enforcement in Portland is almost entirely absent.
My wife recently became a board member of our neighborhood association and co-chair of its transportation committee in order to make positive changes to our neighborhood, such as improved daylighting and traffic calming.
However, we often run up against bureaucratic hurdles.
Even minor asks like daylighting treatments at problematic intersections are stalled by a lack of funding, lack of city resources, and code restrictions and standardization that don't solve the problem specific to a given location.
Frequently, changes are not made unless someone has actually been hit and potentially killed, and often even those changes are ineffectual.
We applaud your commitment to Vision Zero, but we, we must also point out that our streets will never be safe if our remedies to an inherently unsafe transportation system are reactive rather than proactive.
For this reason, I strongly urge you to look to other cities that have adopted tactical urbanism policies and critically work those into city code and practices.
Atlanta and Nashville, for example, have created their own tactical urbanism guides that allow individual communities to make inexpensive short-term changes to their streets and other public spaces in the interest of safety, community, and economic viability— vitality to demonstrate the potential for longer-term change.
Once potential projects are identified by those communities, the guide then instructs them on how to engage with the rest of the community on the project, identify funding sources, and get fast-tracked permitting for the project.
In short, it's a city-sanctioned and engineered-improved method for enabling neighborhoods to quickly enact temporary changes that demonstrate proof of concept to both the city and the community's residents.
And importantly, in our current situation of tight finances, it's a way to make positive change inexpensively.
I'm happy to send over Atlanta and Nashville's tactical urbanism guides to give you the idea of the types of projects being implemented there and the design guides being offered for specific projects and the funding mechanism.
And for additional information, I encourage you to reach out to groups like Strong Towns PDX, which specializes in tactical urbanism and affordable community-led improvement projects.
Thank you again for your commitment to the safeties of the— and livability of the city, especially with regard to Vision Zero and transportation choice.
Thank you very much for being here.
Next up, we have Emily Dumerk.
Emily?
Doesn't look like they've joined us.
Uh, last we have Captain Peter Wilcox.
Good evening.
Thanks for being here with us tonight.
Hi, I have some speech problems and, uh, Marnie's going to speak.
With your permission, please.
With your permission.
Go right ahead.
Thank you.
Good evening, city councilors and Mayor Wilson.
My name is Marnie Glickman and I'm here to testify on behalf of Frog Ferry, an all-electric public passenger ferry service the pilot project will connect Cathedral Park in North Portland to River Place in downtown Portland and will not require pothole maintenance.
First, we ask you to sign a memorandum of understanding with Frog Ferry by July 31st to increase our chances of receiving PSAP funds so we can move forward to introduce ferry service to Portland.
PSAP decisions will be made this summer, and that is the reason for our deadline.
Second, we request that we work together to foster collaboration and accuracy.
On May 13th, a Public Works memo was shared with you that outlines 5 significantly incorrect assumptions about Frog Ferry.
It is not responsible to judge Frog Ferry plan based on outdated information.
This week, we provided you with 2 key emails outlining our current financial plan as well as corrections to the Public Works memo and what we need from a partnership with the city.
Both documents outline our need for PSF funds, a grant program for which we are very qualified.
A partnership with the city will increase our chances of a grant award.
Our request is minimal, as we know that you are facing many urgent needs and our city bureaus are resource constrained.
We ask to use 2 existing city-owned docks that we can improve with city oversight.
Thank you.
And we ask for cross-bureau monthly check-in meetings to ensure alignment.
A funded Frog Ferry would cover a high percentage of city costs related to permitting, public management, and dock upgrades.
Portland needs your courageous leadership and willingness to take big swings at livability now.
Please help us get there with a partnership commitment.
An all-electric Frog Ferry can be on the water in 3 years to provide a new transit mode an underserved community, create clean green jobs on our working waterfront, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, be a tool in our emergency response planning, and add to our downtown livability and fun.
Thank you very much.
Thank you both for being here tonight to share that updated information.
That completes communications.
Thank you, Keelan.
Colleagues, the next item on our agenda is the committee referral list.
I have referred appointment of members to the Planning Commission to the Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee, appointing members to the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing to the Community and Public Safety Committee, appoint members to the Civil Service Board to the Governance Committee.
Second.
Declare property surplus to the Finance Committee.
Declare property surplus and authorize Bureau of Transportation to dispose of the property to the Finance Committee.
Vacate a portion of a road in Northeast Portland to the Finance Committee.
Vacate a portion of a road to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
I'll note those are different because one of them is attached to declaring a property surplus and therefore a sale, and one is not.
Authorizing temporary— a temporary operating loan from Solid Waste Management to recreational cannabis tax to the Finance Committee.
I believe the others on this list I read through at our last meeting.
Colleagues, that brings us to our regular agenda.
Keelan, could you please call the next Agenda item, agenda item 14, appointment of members to Community Board for Police Accountability.
Thank you.
And colleagues, because this is an agenda item that we heard specifically at a work session, we don't have a committee report.
Um, So what we do have, I'm trying to pull up the information here, is a list of nominees who we talked about yesterday at our work session.
And following that work session, as promised, I sat down with Councilor Knall and then on the I spoke on the phone with Councilor Novick to talk about how to take the information we had heard in this room and put it together.
You will see in the information attached to this agenda item the final list, both committee members and, or council members, excuse me, and alternates, as well as a breakdown by district.
Thank you.
Showing what the final count by district was.
You'll note that my district is heavily overrepresented.
My district was heavily overrepresented in the nominees who we considered as a whole.
I'd love to call up Sarah or Kristen if either of you are in the room right now.
I'm here.
Thank you.
And I know that you have both worked hard to make sure that the nominees are available today, at least most folks, to just share a few words with us.
And councilors, I know you've seen this in committees before.
We don't generally do this in full council because nominations often go to committee.
I think it's a good idea.
But I'd like to offer the opportunity for folks who are on this list to say a few words about their interest.
Then we will hear public testimony, and then we will open it up for council discussion.
Councilors, because this is a report, we will be voting on it today.
So Sarah and Kristen, would you like to invite up the nominees?
Of course, Council President.
For the record, my name is Sarah Morrissey.
I'm going to start with the people who are in person today to come up.
And as I call your name, please come to the front.
I'm going to move over to the side so you can have the middle.
But the first 2 you'll hear from today are Trish Garner and Terrence Hayes.
Thank you.
And I'll just say in advance, thank you to everybody for being here.
We know that this was short notice because of our internal timeline with when we were able to host our work session.
And I really appreciate everybody being willing to make the time in 24 hours to be here with us tonight.
Go right ahead, Trish.
All right, Council President, Vice President, and members of the council and mayor, my name is Trish Garner.
I'm currently a member of Portland Police Bureau's Focused Intervention Team Community Oversight Group, FITCOG.
Yes.
That's a mouthful.
Anyway, my professional background includes many years as an attorney, primarily as a criminal defense attorney, but also as a federal prosecutor in Chicago and chief trial attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Greensboro, North Carolina.
I've taught trial practice at the University of North Carolina Law School, earned a master's degree in social work from Portland State University, and obtained training in mediation and conflict resolution.
I've also served in leadership roles with public policy and equity-focused organizations.
I chair the Inclusion and Equity Committee for the American Association of University Women, AUW, lead the Speakers Bureau for the League of Women Voters of Portland, and previously served as a state public policy chair for AUW of Oregon, where I helped lead advocacy for Oregon's equal pay bill, which passed unanimously in both houses.
Not easy.
These experiences reflect my commitment to community-centered justice.
I am eager to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders to help ensure Portland Police Bureau policies and practices reflect fairness, accountability, transparency, and the needs of the community.
Thank you so much.
How y'all doing?
My name is Terrence Hayes.
I don't know if my list is as long as Patricia's, but we definitely worked together on the FITCOG.
I chaired it at that time, and we can boast in the fact that we had no community complaints about the officers that we overseen at that time, and I'm really grateful to work with her.
What I want to say is that when my little cousin was killed by a Portland police officer-involved shooting, I had to serve the news to his mom.
That is why I'm here.
That is why I do this work.
That is why I've been committed to this work, even at the risk of my own health at certain periods of time.
I will continue to— for her face to be the thing that I'm looking towards as we do this work.
I am not a friend of police.
I am not an enemy of police.
I am an advocate of a community that is often unheard in these spaces.
Councilor Sameer Kanal.
I am tasked with bringing their voice, their concerns, and their expectations to this space, and I will do that with pride.
I have not lied, and I will continue to have integrity and transparency in these spaces, especially because I answer to a community that is looking and expecting me to be excellent in these spaces when they come to police accountability.
Thank you.
Thank you both very much for being willing to be a part of this new All right, next we will hear from Kyle Ashby and Skyler Halsey.
Kyle Ashby
Council President, Vice President, councilors, Mayor, thank you so much for having me and giving me a chance to introduce myself.
I just came from the airport and I wrote this on the plane, but, uh, I have lived in Portland for 12 years in the Irvington neighborhood.
I really love it.
I've been an active community member there.
I run a small nonprofit in Portland, Dodgeball PDX.
It's really important.
Community building is my life.
I've worked in politics, I've worked in nonprofits, and the locus of my work has always been the dreams I have are often forced with compromise, but that doesn't mean we still don't try to change things anyway.
I've also witnessed the best and the worst that Portland policing has to offer.
When a mentally ill man broke into my home in the middle of the night and scared my chosen family, I was the one who discovered him, called the police, and was told he needed mental health care before he was sent to jail.
What persisted was 2 years of that man harassing us, entering our home, and me having to work with the Portland Police again and again to get the justice my household needed.
Portland Police helped us there.
I really believe that.
They cared about my issue.
Sometimes, yes, I had to remind them who I was, but they helped me every step of the way.
I had somebody I could talk to.
However, I've also seen what happens when that power is abused.
I shielded a Black state employee during the 2020 protests when she fell on our streets that occasionally have potholes, and the Portland Police shot a tear gas canister directly at her, breaking open the skin on her forehead.
That was an abuse of power.
But I'm here because I believe that people want systems to work.
Thank you.
I believe in building systems that work for everybody.
Portlanders again and again say that they want public safety that works, that they can trust, policing that protects without relying solely on the mechanism of force, and a justice system where accountability is not optional.
That means supporting officers who serve with integrity.
I myself come from a family of law enforcement and military.
I know what it means to serve well.
I also acutely know what it means to not serve well, and I wanna create a credible process to address misconduct when it occurs.
Thank you.
I believe that thorough, thoughtful, evidence-based, and enforceable action will create a board that can help foster a culture of accountability that builds community and trust in the role of public safety.
I consider the shared goal here clear, to make Portland a city where the role of police is carried out with integrity, where every resident and every officer is treated with dignity.
Thank you so much.
Unidentified speaker
Councilor Hello, friends.
My name is Skylar Halsey.
So glad to be here before you today.
I am a chaplain in training at Legacy Emmanuel, and I am new to Portland, so it's such a blessing to be able to be here and to be participating in this important work.
I don't have the history that others have, and it's going to be an amazing thing to learn more about the needs of this specific community.
But I have in this short time been of service in my own neighborhood.
The police of Portland are, for many marginalized people, the main point of contact for our local government.
While this remains true, it is crucial that those of us living in Portland are positioned to hold those sworn to serve and protect accountable as individuals and as a larger institution.
In order for policing to be safer for the people, there must be civilian oversight.
Of this policing.
I believe that it is the duty of every citizen to find ways to be of service in their community, and I am honored that this is one way that I may be of service to my neighbors.
Thank you.
Thank you both for being a part of this work.
All right, next we're going to hear from Ash Jimenez and Tita Lane Howe.
All right.
Um, hello, Mayor, President, Vice President, and councilors.
My name is Tita Lane Howe.
I go by she/they pronouns.
Um, after my time in administration and my time with the state of Oregon and my current role in the District Attorney's Office through the Investigators Unit.
I am committed to serving as a volunteer community board member of the Police Accountability Commission because I believe in fostering transparency, justice, and trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
As a member of this board, I am dedicated to ensuring that all voices, especially those from historically marginalized communities, are heard and respected in shaping fair policy I see this role as an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to systematic change, promote accountability, and help build a safer, more equitable society for everyone.
Excuse me, I'm still hoarse from the No Kings protest.
I appreciated all of your speeches, by the way, and I hope to be of a lot of assistance here.
Good evening, uh, Council President, Vice President, Mayor, um, and council members.
Uh, I've been asked to tell you who I am, why I'm here, and what I hope to do as a volunteer on the Community Board for Police Accountability.
My name is Ash Jimenez.
I am a Mexican-American woman who has called Portland home for over 10 years.
Uh, in my professional life, I work for Multnomah County, um, where I utilize my trades background, problem solving, project management, and communication skills daily as a facilities manager.
I oversee the Department of Human Services and Department of County Justice portfolios, so I have the responsibility of ensuring the health and well-being of these buildings so the frontline staff are able to provide the essential services to the community.
In my role, I serve the people who serve the people.
What drives me to pursue this opportunity on the Board of Police Accountability is that I have a strong desire to seek a better present and future for the city that I love.
I believe that being able to evaluate fairly, think critically, and hold those responsible for public safety is a big responsibility and not one that should be taken lightly.
I believe that my unwavering commitment to honesty, ethics, and respect will help guide my contribution to this board.
Um, I would be honored to serve my community further in this capacity.
Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you very much.
Thank you both for being here and for stepping forward in this work.
All right, and our last representative in the room is Dina Ross.
Dina Ross and Charlie Wesley.
Wesley.
Good evening.
Oh, good evening, Council President, Council Vice President, Mayor, and council members.
My name is Dina Ross.
My pronouns are she/her, and I am a constituent of District 4.
I am a licensed tracked social worker with a Master of Social Work and a background in policy analysis, harm reduction, and mental health advocacy.
I've worked as a policy analyst, researcher, and outreach coordinator across the states of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona, supporting underserved communities through systems change.
I love Portland's vibrant culture, and I often spend my weekends hiking on our beautiful local trails and exploring the city's diverse neighborhoods.
I'm drawn to this board because I believe community-led oversight is essential for rebuilding trust and ensuring fairness and public safety.
My direct experience with street outreach, peer mental health support, and policy advocacy has shown me how deeply policing affects our marginalized communities.
I'm committed to advancing accountability through transparent, evidence-based decisions.
It would be a privilege to serve on this community board and help move Portland towards a more just future.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So hi, um, my name is Charlie Michelle Wesley.
You have me down as Charlene Wesley.
Um, I am Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
Uh, I wasn't prepared for this.
Uh, I got the call this afternoon, so I am using actually a bio and a, a statement of intent from 3 years ago.
But it kind of gives you an idea where I came from and who I am, other than what you read on my application.
Kind of complex person here.
Mm-hmm.
As a, a, a, a Confederate— a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, I've been on a healing journey from intergenerational and historical and current-day trauma, including neglect, poverty, abuses unimaginable.
As a child, teen, and adult— addictions, mental illness, extensive physical and emotional police brutality, incarceration, tragic death of friends and loved ones, including my mother, who they would refuse to investigate her death, her killing, a police beating and imprisonment for my schizophrenic father.
20 years ago, I was able to turn my life around and now I'm on another healing journey recovering from all of the above trauma.
And during this healing process, I discovered the common thread was that all of the above was smothered and designed in society's racist systems.
I experienced racism while still in the womb of my Native mother and unfortunately will always anticipate racism.
However, I also found my voice.
Thank you.
My passion, my calling to be of service to all those who struggle in colonized America and fight the fight of a lifetime for justice, equity, equality, anti-racism, anti-oppression, for respect and reparations so we can start living without fear of those who should protect and serve all of us.
As a Native woman in colonized America, I first and foremost will be the uncensored voice of the people adversely affected by societal racist roots because my entire life has prepared me for this very critical moment in history.
My intent is to rise up and fight the injustices that prevail for all the people who disproportionately are affected by colonialism.
I have committed myself to uprooting policing as we have experienced it.
Thank you.
No longer allow justification for no accountability as police act as judge, jury, and executioners, and instead provide anti-racism, bring a healing solution to policing in all its forms to truly serve and protect the people, not just the blue line, and hold any public servant accountable and address the racial construct that was invented to oppress with violence and control.
With unjust policies.
My intent is true justice through real accountability, and I've been accused of being radical and worse by the last City Council, but I have been radicalized, as my t-shirt says, by common decency.
Thank you.
Thank you both for being here and for putting your names forward in this work.
All right, next we're going to move to online.
So Jesse Nielsen as well, and Timothy Pitts.
I'm ready, so I'll jump in ahead of Jesse if that works.
All right, ahead, Timothy.
Thank you, Council President, Vice President, council members, and Mayor.
My name is Tim Pitts.
I use he/him pronouns.
I am a small business owner in Northeast Portland, lived in Portland for about 25 years now, love it here so much.
Was a member of the Police Accountability Commission, which is the workgroup that put together the framework for this new board.
And through that work, I learned so much from so many people about police accountability efforts around the country.
And what I learned in that work was just how important it is to have a system that works well, that provides fair outcomes to everyone involved when there is something bad that goes on that should not have.
And so I'm just really excited to be able to continue my work and to continue my efforts to bring accountability, because I believe that an accountable police force is going to be the best served to protect our citizens and build the trust that we should have in those individuals.
So thank you so much for Thank you very much for being here.
I think we are still waiting on Jesse Nielsen.
Jesse, are you available?
Okay, I think we're not seeing him online, so—.
All right, let's move forward.
So Bendix Springer, as well as Atticus Summerfield.
Hi, I could just hop in.
Thank you, everybody, so far.
Hello, my name is Erica Summerfield, or Atticus is my chosen name, and my pronouns are they/them.
I'm very passionate about holding spaces for community members to gather, uh, particularly trans, BIPOC, and disabled-focused spaces.
I've done such in the past by helping out with local skate parks and hosting music events.
I love to spend my free time with my 2 cats and take part in educating my community on mental health from a trauma-informed lens.
You can usually find me reading about history, sociology, politically driven essays, and diving deep into tasks that flex my analytical analytical part of my brain.
Thank you so much for choosing me as an alternate.
I'm interested in volunteering, mostly lies in my sense of duty to my community to contribute my data analytical skill set and my lived experience as somebody who has done a lot of work to understand why and how traumas manifest in the mind and body to foster a safe and accountable PPB.
I'm here not only to I have a strong interest in working here, and I, um, as a volunteer, and I take this role very seriously.
So thank you all for having me, and I look forward to working with you all.
Thank you very much.
Benedict, go right ahead.
Benedict Springer
Hey, this is Benedict.
It looks like my car, but I swear I'm not driving.
Um, members of the council, For the record, my name is Benedict Springer.
I think lots of the important things and why people want to participate in this, I think, have already been said.
And I think I have also lots of the skills that would be helpful in creating more effective policing in Portland, which probably relies on accountability and I think this is— this board is a really good step in creating more accountability, but I think it's also important to build a system that not only the community trusts, but that also police officers trust.
And so I think this— we can unlock some kind of positive cycle between more trust between everyone.
I hope we can create a better system.
So just a little bit about me.
I'm originally from Germany, but I've lived in Oregon for over 12 years now.
I have a PhD in political science from the University of Oregon.
I've worked in different analysis and advocacy roles, and I currently work for the Oregon Public Utility Commission as staff.
And so I have a lot of experience in semi-legal proceedings that try to find facts, apply the law, and trade off various interests in trying to define what is actually in the public interest.
So that's me.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you very much.
Thank you for being available tonight.
And Council President, I think that completes Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah and Kristen.
And again, thank you to everybody who was available at the last minute.
We really appreciate you taking the time to introduce yourselves to us and to the public tonight.
This is a very important, a very important board, and we know that a lot of people put a lot of time into recruiting and, um, and into applying for the board.
So it's great to be able to see some of you here and, and meet you.
Kristen, did you have something additional?
Sorry, Council President, we do have one more here.
I apologize.
Um, Harry, please.
Thank you.
On the spot.
Welcome.
Good evening.
Um, my name is Harry Sheehan.
I'm a senior telecommunications operations manager with, um, Simply Fiber here in Oregon.
I spent 16 years working in Hawaii before moving to Portland 3 years ago.
Um, I'm results-driven and I have broad experience dealing with various levels of organizational management.
My experience managing large complex projects in telecom industry has given me a strong foundation in regulatory compliance, stakeholder management, risk assessment, ethical decision-making, and clear communication.
I understand that the work of reviewing cases of serious alleged misconduct and fatal uses of force is one that requires a deep commitment to fairness, justice, and accountability.
I know the profound impact that these cases can have on individuals, families, communities, and public trust, and will approach this responsibility with the utmost seriousness and diligence.
I also recognize the importance of ensuring transparency in these proceedings, both to maintain public trust and to ensure that all involved are treated equally.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for being here.
Sorry about that.
Thank you.
That's all right.
Uh, Keelan, do we have anybody signed up for public testimony?
We do.
We have about 9 people signed up.
Okay, could you please call up the first 3?
Sure.
Uh, first up we have Tyler Fellini, John Lace, and Karen Chire.
Tyler is joining us online.
Please go ahead, Tyler.
Tyler, you're muted.
Can you hear us?
Tyler Fellini.
Maybe we'll come back to Tyler, um, if you would like to go, sir.
Sure.
Hi, I'm John Lace from Kerns.
All right, try not to make this too long.
I think I wrote too much.
Uh, hello, City Council, and thanks for letting me speak.
My name is John Lace from Kerns.
Uh, I applaud y'all's initiative in bringing more accountability into this city's institutions.
And I in no way envy the bevy of issues y'all are facing.
I believe it's clear to most that there's an earnest culture of reform here in our beautiful city.
Good egalitarian reform.
This is a good example of that.
And you councilors have proven yourselves to be just about the only people with power in this city who care about brown folk.
Shout out specifically to you, Mitch Green.
Thank you.
When you saw PSU persecuting pro-Palestinian protesters for protected speech, Folks who had exonerating evidence illegally withheld against them, you spoke out for them.
You got those kids justice, and I appreciate that.
We all do.
But I guess I'm more here looking for clarity than anything else when it comes to upholding our sanctuary city status than anything, which I promise directly relates to police accountability and the issues this board will undoubtedly end up dealing with.
A sentiment I believe is widespread in this town is that we do not support ethnic cleansing and that asylum seekers should have legal rights to attend hearings without fear.
Thank you.
Yet last weekend, PPD openly worked alongside federal officers towards that very same ever-expanding objective: targeted arrests in service of ICE.
With the full support of our mayor, they have been actively clearing the way towards ICE's objective of punishing brown folks in our communities like ours.
ICE has been unleashing cocktails of dangerous gases and rubber buckshot into some of the only people who might be slowing down what is clear as day ethnic cleansing of American communities.
Order.
PPD has been collaborating with ICE blatantly by systematically arresting brave young activists at their behest, serving those who are shooting old men, disabled folks, marginalized folk in the back, in the head, gassing folks, assaulting peaceful demonstrators a dozen times over.
Do you abide by that, councilors?
You saw our thousands marching peacefully, and that should not be ignored.
I'd be disappointed If y'all just want us to resist in a way you can ignore, because I know you don't abide the cruelty that I so joyously, joyously release upon those who need our help the most.
What is the greater crime, mass kidnapping and assault, or blocking a driveway?
I only ever hear city leadership mention the importance of that driveway, or as y'all's take, we won't clear the driveway, but we'll clear the whole neighborhood.
Is fascistic order going to always be the easiest path, the one of least resistance, the path we inevitably take?
Half-hearted reform after we snuffed out every hope left for immigrants here.
I can see it in the faces of some of those PPD officers that they genuinely believe that they can operate outside of this fascist dragnet.
I see an earnest belief in some of them that they can avoid serving the executive.
Sadly, this is untrue, at least as we've seen it.
Councilmember with all due respect, I believe, with all due respect, that it's a cowardly waiting game the city's leadership is playing, hoping beyond reason that federal partisan politics will— I wrote way too much, my apologies.
Skipping to the end real quick.
Very nice.
Please, just doing anything to reassure us that this will continue to be a moderately safe place for the marginalized, that would be sick.
Stop forsaking those who care the most and free those prisoners.
They're heroes, and every institutional evil in this world doesn't want you to see that, but they were the most effective deterrent to those mass kidnappings in the city that started 3 weeks ago.
Thank you very much for being here.
We really appreciate hearing from you.
Uh, Tyler Fellini is joining online.
Tyler Fellini
All right, can you hear me this time?
Unidentified speaker
We can hear you.
Tyler Fellini
Great.
Um, So for the record, my name is Tyler Fellini.
I am a registered lobbyist for and the executive director of Portland Jobs and Justice.
Good evening, councilors.
So when I read the news from around the country, it looks like we're gearing up for another long, hot summer.
And with PPB's rapid response team back on the streets, I got to be honest, I'm a little worried.
From what I've already witnessed firsthand this year, many on that team act like bullies.
They're quick to hurl insults.
Escalate tension, and use force without cause.
That's not public safety.
That's intimidation.
Now, I believe that people and institutions should be judged by their track record, and the Portland Police Bureau does not have a good one.
We've seen patterns of retaliation and impunity over and over again.
Let's not forget about how PPB officers in 1985 responded to the murder of Lloyd Stevenson at the hands of an officer by making shirts that read, don't choke them, smoke them.
Let's also not forget former Chief Outlaw saying on radio, quote, you get mad because I kicked your butt, and then you go back and you wail off and whine and complain, after PPB officers sent multiple people to the hospital during a protest in 2018.
Lastly, let's not forget about how the Rapid Response Team quit in protest because one officer faced discipline in 2021.
That's not professionalism.
That's a culture of entitlement and defiance.
Thank you.
We need a strong, independent oversight board because nothing else has worked.
The city's past oversight mechanisms have been toothless or too entangled in politics to be effective.
And across this country, police departments have spent decades perfecting the art of avoiding real accountability.
Councilors, I need to say, you're asking a lot from the people of Portland.
Many of us have watched for years as city leaders promise reform only to back down under pressure from PPB, PPA, or the business interests that hold way too much sway in the city.
So yes, many of us are cynical.
We've been here before.
We've seen this movie.
And when I hear arguments like the ones raised in yesterday's work session questioning whether this board might be too focused on defunding the police, it only deepens that cynicism.
Because from where we sit, the real risk isn't that the board will be too aggressive.
It's that it will just be another body with no power, no teeth, and no impact.
You all have a responsibility now, not just to seat this board, but to ensure that it's able to function free from, from political interference and police pressure.
The credibility of this entire project and your commitment to justice depends on it.
Thank you, councilors.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Uh, next up is Karen Chire joining online.
Can you hear me?
We can hear you.
You're muted.
Okay, we can hear you now.
My name is Karen Chi Ray, a business owner in District 4 and resident of District 3, and as we consider these candidates, I hope that they will embody the principles of fairness, equity, and impartiality throughout their tenure.
The establishment of the CBPA is a pivotal step in enhancing police accountability and fostering trust within our community.
However, we need to ensure that those selected possess the qualities necessary for this important role.
While I am mostly supportive of the candidates presented for your I must express my concern regarding the distribution of members across the districts.
It is disheartening to see that there are more members from District 2 than from other districts.
This imbalance may affect the board's ability to represent the diverse perspectives of our entire community effectively.
Additionally, there were a few candidates whom I had hoped would be appointed, as their unique insights would have greatly enriched the board's mission.
Councilor Smith.
Nevertheless, it's my hope that the appointed members will approach their responsibilities with a mindset dedicated to evaluating all evidence presented to them fairly and equitably.
Their ability to remain unbiased will be crucial in maintaining the integrity of the board and ensuring that all community voices are heard and considered.
In conclusion, I hope that selected members will uphold the values of fairness, equity, and thoroughness in their work.
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
If any biases arise in the future, I trust that they will be addressed promptly to maintain the integrity of the board.
The creation of the CBPA is a significant milestone in the journey toward effective oversight and accountability with police system, and it is my hope these individuals have the potential to serve our community with the integrity this responsibility demands.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor Jamie Dunphy.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Next up, we have Joanne Hardesty, Donna Hayes, and Mark Porras with Portland Cop Watch.
Joanne is joining us online.
Go right ahead.
Uh, good evening, uh, Council President, Vice President, Mayor, and City Council members.
Uh, for the record, my name is Joanne Hardesty and I live in the Lloyd District area.
I just wanted to start by saying it's clear that there are, from the people who are being moved forward, there are people who have the right heart, the right spirit to actually create the kind of police accountability board that the city of Portland deserves.
However, I will say I'm concerned because there's no one with a deep history of police accountability in Portland.
Thank you.
That has been appointed to this particular board.
The IPR, which is being replaced, was put together by Mayor Vera Katz and her auditor Steve Marsh back in 2001, and it was supposed to be evaluated in 2002, but it took us almost 20 years to actually get an evaluation.
Okay.
I will say, since the implementation of IPR, because the prior board, PIAC, actually all the members resigned in protest because they did not feel like they had the independence to actually provide the appropriate level of police accountability for the City of Portland.
Councilmember Smith, I think you're muted.
I will say that the— I applied because I wanted to give my 30 years of expertise around police accountability to this brand new oversight board.
And I was given 2 reasons why I was not selected.
One was because I had sued the City of Portland, which in fact the application said would not be a factor.
The second reason was because I didn't answer a particular question appropriately.
I will say that there is no plan to actually train this new oversight board on the history of police accountability in the city of Portland.
It is vital for these new committee members to know where we've been if they have any hope of actually getting us to a future that is fair and just for community members and for police.
I'd like to spend the last 30 seconds of time I have in silence, uh, in memory of Dan Handelman, who has been a champion of police accountability as long as I have in this city.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'm not sure who was next on the list, but, uh, go ahead, Mark.
Mark Porras
Good evening, Council.
My name is Mark Porras.
I use he/him pronouns, and I'm with the group Portland Copwatch.
Since 1992, Portland Copwatch has been working towards a police bureau that's free of brutality, corruption, and racism, and our group continues to advance the work of co-founder Dan Handelman.
Dan was one of 30 community volunteers, diverse in background and experience, who served on the Police Accountability Commission and worked extensively to create the blueprint for the CBPA.
We extend our gratitude to all the former commissioners who worked for 20 months, held more than 150 meetings and events, And produced a final report that's over 500 pages long.
We're grateful to be one step closer to having a community-led police accountability system, and we remind you that we're here because the Portland Police Bureau is unable to hold its officers accountable for harm done to community members.
We're here because 82% of Portlanders voted for real, actual police accountability, the kind of accountability that has the potential to rid the bureau of its worst actors, those who abuse the immense power they have to decide when to use violence to enforce state power.
Thank you.
We testify today to ensure that the CBPA meets voters' goals for a board that's community-led through its membership and accountable in its scope.
You were given 40 names for potential CBPA members from a nominating committee which was not envisioned by the Police Accountability Commission, 3 of whom have direct ties to the Portland Police Bureau, the very organization that so many Portlanders recognized is unable to hold itself accountable.
One member of the nominating committee is the president of the Portland Police Association.
Last year, the Portland Police Association attempted to repeal the community's power in this system with a cynically titled ballot measure.
When the court ruled that their title was misleading and would have to change, the PPA dropped their effort.
We can't help but notice that there's a city council candidate who is endorsed by the PPA on the list before you today, but we testify not in favor of or against any particular candidate, but rather to remind you that the purpose of the new accountability system is to empower this community-led board.
To decide when officers have violated policy and to impose discipline.
We also encourage the City Council to again review the final recommendations of the PAC.
A well-functioning community-led police accountability system is essential for public safety to prevent harm done by officers who abuse their power and supervisors who do not hold them accountable.
2 examples of the changes we'd like to see that were recommendations from the PAC so that this new system can work for the betterment of the community number 1 is to allow the chief of police to be investigated and disciplined by the CBPA if the chief commits misconduct.
No officer should be exempt, and the chief must lead by example.
And number 2, restore findings to match the PAC's recommendation of 4 options: out of policy, in policy, unfounded or insufficient evidence, as are currently available in PPB's administrative investigations directive and as are available in many of the systems studied by the PAC.
Unidentified speaker
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
Donna Hayes.
We'll move on to Jesse Dreyer and Matt Levine, Aiden Summers.
Jesse is joining us online.
Jesse, go ahead and unmute.
Mark Porras
Hi, Council.
Unidentified speaker
My name is Jesse Dreyer.
I'm a registered lobbyist with the Portland Democratic Socialists of America.
I'm testifying today to, you know, really commend the Council for putting forward, you know, this final achievement of the ballot measure language that, you know, has created this police accountability body.
I also just wanted to highlight that I think the city has done a really good job of You know, this meeting itself was pretty— it was pretty rushed to schedule, which might not have the greatest opportunity for a wider variety of Portlanders to give public comment on this very serious advancement.
So I just wanted to raise my concern that perhaps we should, you know, take a delay and consider this later on so that we can, you know, have a fuller public comment period.
Thank you.
Go ahead, Matt.
Hello all, I'm Dr. Matt Levine.
I live in North Portland and work in Northeast Portland.
For the last 2 decades, I've been an activist for, scholar of, and consultant regarding racial environmental and social justice.
Since both racial and social justice require police accountability for literally centuries of police abuse, I've also given public testimony regarding 26-217, the PAC, and CBPA many times.
I must say, the most encouraging action I've seen in quite some time regarding holding PPB accountable To the community they are supposed to protect and serve is the appointment of Charlie Michelle Westley to the CBPA.
Thank you.
I would encourage all CBPA members and city councilors to follow Charlie as a model for your work.
Her lived experience, knowledge, and wisdom concerning justice, advocacy for and knowledge of the core city values, and commitment to humanity and the planet are unparalleled in our community.
Please specifically follow her understanding of accountability, her understanding that accountability must involve radically shifting power to the community.
26-217 was passed because the vast majority of Portlanders recognized that police were not taking accountability, and by definition, the police cannot hold themselves accountable.
Councilmember And please also reject the police and prison industrial complex model that accountability must necessarily involve tearing people down.
Please follow Charlie's lead in recognizing that accountability requires healing.
Please read Resmaa Menakem's My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.
And thank you also to John Lace for Thank you, Councilor Herbold.
Councilor Herbold, I would like to thank you for your courageous words, recognizing that the history of PPB's racist, xenophobic, and colonial abuse that they must be held accountable for continues to the present day in their complicity in ICE's white supremacist settler colonial raids and protest suppression.
And finally, I would like to add that it is an absolute travesty that Joanne Hardesty That is an obvious injustice that requires repair.
Thank you, Council, for your time.
Aiden Summers.
Uh, hi, Council, Mayor.
Uh, my name is Aiden Summers.
Um, I'm a resident of District 4 as well as a registered lobbyist for the Democratic Socialists of America.
Um, I'm here to echo some concerns that Mike Ahmed spoke to earlier.
While I appreciate, you know, trying to get this body up and running as quick as possible, it also, you know, makes it very difficult for the community to keep up with all of this, like, you know, the information of seeing where maybe the structure of this or the people that are being presented, like, might be a problem.
You know, I'm here because I was already talking with folks about, like, the budget and debriefing from that, and that's how I heard about it.
Thank you.
But I wouldn't have otherwise.
So, you know, it's— I think for something this important, it's important for the community to be able to have a bigger space to weigh in.
I hope that this project, you know, goes forward with the intentions that everyone laid out.
It was great to hear from the folks having not, you know, again, very short notice.
Rachel Jamieson
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
With the intentions they stated, I think this is a very strong group of people, and I hope that they are allowed to fully represent the community in the wishes for police accountability.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much for being here.
That completes testimony.
Thank you, colleagues.
That moves us into discussion, and following discussion, a vote.
I will remind us all that the Portlanders who are before us today went through a robust process that started with a screening for qualification based on the answers to the questions in the application, then a vote up or down by the nominating committee, many of whom we had the, the benefit of getting to appoint from our districts.
They were then prioritized by each of us, and the list of folks who made it that far were discussed and debated at length yesterday.
I took that list back and with our chairs of the Public Safety Committee made a couple of final tweaks based on the conversations we had had, and then terms were assigned with a few exceptions based on A random number generator that was operated by our council operations staff.
Today we have this list before us to vote on, and there is a final step even after that that these individuals will go through.
There is an extensive background check, and part of this final step will also be a final look at the eligibility to make sure now that the names are attached to the applications that there was nothing missed in terms of the eligibility requirements.
Thank you, Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira.
Um, so we're on the second to last step today for these individuals who clearly have stepped up for a really important task for our city.
Um, is there any discussion about the list before we move to a vote?
Okay.
Kyle—.
Oh, Councilor Zimmerman.
So I'm just curious what what types of things in a background check are going to be used?
What are we looking for?
What are qualifying?
What are disqualifying?
Is this where the bias check occurs?
I would not characterize yesterday's conversation as an in-depth debate about people.
I think it was pretty cursory.
So it, it does seem a little bit cart before the horse with the background checks still to be done because I think that has a lot to do with the the eligibility, and I'm just not sure what, what they'll be using.
Thank you.
I might ask Sarah Morrissey to come up, if you don't mind.
And what, what I can tell you while Sarah is coming up is that there are 2 pieces to what is next: the background check and the eligibility check.
But I'll let Sarah— and it looks like we have Heidi as well speak to what is generally included in a background check.
And then I believe there are 3 pieces to eligibility that will be double-checked as well.
And I'm going to allow— hi, Sarah Morrissey, for the record, DCA City Operations.
I'm going to have Heidi speak to the eligibility first.
Good evening, Council President, Council Vice President, and Council and Mayor.
Heidi Brown, I'm Chief Deputy with the City Attorney's Office.
So pursuant to Code Title 35, the background check is a criminal background check to make sure that they are able to access criminal justice information.
So CJIS, Criminal Justice Information System.
So that's part of what's required in code.
So that's the background check.
And then the eligibility criteria is a person cannot be current or former law enforcement officer.
That's in charter.
They cannot be an immediate family member of a current law enforcement officer.
And then they cannot have a bias, a demonstrated bias for or against police.
So those are the eligibility criteria and then the background check information.
And how does the— How does a background check, which I've been through many, how does it determine bias in this situation?
We don't have something set out in code.
I think if there's a demonstration that somebody thinks police officers can never do wrong, I think that would be a bias for police that would not make them objective.
In their analysis of a case in accountability.
Similarly, if there was somebody who said all police officers are horrible and they never do anything right, that may also demonstrate that somebody would not be able to be objective and unbiased in their analysis.
Okay, thank you.
And then with respect to access to CJIS, and you mentioned a criminal record, one of the I think intents that we talked a little bit about yesterday was experience, lived experience, etc., some of which may have experience with a previous record in our system, having gone through that.
Is the determination that if somebody has been convicted of a crime, they cannot then— therefore access the information?
Or what is a parameter for when we say a criminal background check?
Because I don't think that we're looking for people who never had any criminal background check, can't be involved.
Can you explain that a little bit better?
That is correct.
Nancy Thorington
We are not—.
Unidentified speaker
There is no prohibition, a complete prohibition from access to CJIS information based on your criminal history.
There are some offenses, and I cannot list them all out for you right now, but there are some offenses that can be— criminal history background that can be waived.
And pursuant to code, what we said was that the The Deputy City Administrator, so in this case Sarah Morrissey, would be able to apply and allow for a waiver if somebody has a criminal history that could be disqualifying but could be waivable.
And so that's something that DCA Morrissey will be determining.
Okay, that's really helpful.
If you all come to the situation where you think somebody either is not eligible for one of those reasons that you listed, what would then be the process for Either going down the list for appointment into the main or to come back to council?
What does that look like for us?
Pursuant to code, it would come back to you all and you would have the authority determined whether they no longer meet the eligibility criteria and should be removed.
Okay, thanks.
I appreciate it.
That's all my questions.
I was just gonna, sorry, just add one thing just for transparency.
We are going to be using an outside vendor to do the background checks for Uh, the volunteers, and then CJIS is through the Oregon State Police.
So just want to make sure everyone's aware.
Thank you very much.
Uh, Councilor Smith.
Thank you, Madam President.
Um, Heidi, could you stick— could you stick here for just a sec?
Um, if I remember yesterday's work session, I believe we were told that there were preliminary background checks to make sure that all the folks who we received today, that they were eligible.
And now today I'm hearing there's a secondary, um, criterion to go through.
We didn't hear about this yesterday, and I'm wondering why.
Um, well, as far as why you didn't hear about it yesterday, right?
Because what we were told yesterday was that that I believe it was Robert Taylor or the city administrator had already looked at those folks and kind of vetted them for background checks and those kinds of things before they got to us.
And now we're hearing something added, and I'm concerned and troubled by it.
Thank you, Councilor.
I appreciate you clarifying.
Um, so what we reported yesterday, and I think that was me, was that my— our office did a legal conflict of interest check To sort of see if somebody maybe had, you know, a lawsuit against us currently pending, or if they had, you know, maybe a tort claim notice where they could bring a lawsuit against us.
That would be the kind of thing that we were looking for.
And then if we came across any information of that sort, then I shared that with DCA Morrissey, and she made that determination of whether there was a conflict of interest.
So So that was done previously, but we did not do a search to see if somebody had a demonstrated bias for or against police.
Our office duty under code was to do the legal conflict of interest check.
So I think what we were sharing yesterday was that that legal conflict of interest check was done.
And I'm sorry if that wasn't clear that this other, the bias check, and also there's not an easy way At least, you know, on a legal conflict of interest check, that's not something you can easily determine if somebody has a family member that might be an immediate family member who's a police officer.
So those are some things that maybe that could be further looked into, those 2 things.
But they weren't part of the legal conflict check.
And so what you're doing, it's not in code.
This is—.
The eligibility criteria is in code that you can't be a member of law enforcement currently or formerly.
Loretta Smith
Right.
Unidentified speaker
And that you can't have a current law enforcement member who's an immediate family member.
That's all in code and in charter.
And then the objective demonstrated bias for or against police, that's both in the DOJ settlement agreement and also in our code.
And it's just listed underneath after the conflict of interest check, kind of in sequence of where it is in code, it comes, it's listed after that, and it's eligibility criteria for service on the board and is a basis for removal from the board.
And so this secondary information that you're asking for and that you're talking about today, it is all statutory?
Nancy Thorington
In city code, but yes.
Unidentified speaker
Right, in city code.
I have 2 questions.
One concern, uh, former Commissioner, um, Joanne Hardesty said that she was taken off the list because she had sued the City of Portland.
I just want to clarify that.
Was— is that true?
No, uh, the legal conflict of interest check was only done on 43 names, and we never— our office never received—.
She didn't say it was a legal conflict of interest.
She said she was eliminated because she had sued the Portland Police in the past.
That's, that's not my understanding.
My understanding is that when the nominating committee did their initial review of applications, it was all anonymous, and that, um, and that, uh, that, that, that, and throughout their process, and that she was— her name was not one of the names put forward.
Okay, I just wanted to clarify.
Because that was, that was stunning.
And the last question, Madam President, I am concerned about the number of people we have in District 2 versus the other districts, particularly District 1.
We only have 2 people, one that is a permanent and one person that is on the alternate side.
And so when we get ready to talk about that, I do want I want to— I have some comments on that when we go to another issue around this, unless you want me to.
I, I do want to draw your attention, um, there are 3 people on the, um, board from District 1 and 1 alternate from District 1 for 4 total by my count.
But you are right, disproportionately this board is District 2.
Disproportionately, the nominees who we received were from District 2.
Loretta Smith
Mm-hmm.
Unidentified speaker
And both in our discussion yesterday and in the conversations that I had with Councilors Kanal and Novick, we tried to ensure that we were not making the District 2 representation more disproportional, that in fact we were moving in the other direction, but we were pretty limited in our ability to do so given the preponderance of applicants we received from District 2.
From my list, I only have Terrence Hayes, Shelley Maddox, who are permanent, and then alternate is Harry Sheehan.
I believe Ash Jimenez is also a resident of District 1.
Loretta Smith
I'm sorry, what's her name?
Unidentified speaker
Ash Jimenez.
Loretta Smith
Okay, okay, perfect.
Unidentified speaker
Yes, but if you have concerns you'd like to raise, now would be the time.
Okay, I, I do, and, and I want to thank you all for, for bringing this process forward and to having this discussion and the discussion that we had yesterday.
Um, Council President, thank you for compiling your thoughts on this final proposed list.
Um, in yesterday's work session, it surfaced concerns about district representation.
And I appreciate that the final proposed list seems to take this into deep consideration, but the one area that's really lingering that I just talked about were the term assignments.
And you said that there was some sort of mechanism in which we determined who got which assignments, whether it be a year, 2 years, or 3 years.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Unidentified speaker
And I think that District 1 has 6 years of representation, uh, 1 alternate.
District 3 has 6 years of representation and 1 alternate.
District 4 has 11 years of representation and 1 alternate.
And nominees outside of the city of Portland have 1 year of service and 1 alternate.
And District 2 has 20 years of service with 2 alternates.
So the number of total applications from District 2 significantly outweighs all the other groups, with 16 of 40 nominees elevated by the nominating committee, meaning that 69% of D2 finalists were selected.
And as I look through a lot of those, um, the background, it was very clear to me that a lot of those folks came from the Irvington Neighborhood Association.
And if you look at District 1, our District 1 representative, I'm not clear if he was able to do a lot of neighborhood association outreach because there was none represented.
And for me, I just automatically assumed that Timur was going to do that outreach, but no one came from the neighborhood association, and we certainly had We have really strong neighborhood associations.
And for me, I, I, I just don't think that there was enough to be able to support the list in a way that, that it feels meaningful.
I, I respect the process, but I have to speak up for District 1 because I think there's a disproportionate number of people in District 2 versus and District 3 and 4 versus District 1.
I appreciate the names that you put forward.
And for me, that is great and that's wonderful.
But I think how you can kind of level set this is to probably increasing the number of years that these folks serve in relation to how many people we had appointed.
Thank you.
So as it relates to the terms, and I, I should mention, Councilor, that folks will be able to apply for reappointment.
So I, I hope we don't assume that somebody who has a 1-year term— the terms are staggered so that the start of service is staggered.
The terms will be 3 years moving forward.
Thank you.
I hope that we don't assume that somebody who has a 1-year term would only be able to serve for 1 year total.
And I'll, I'll say to folks who are in the room, I hope that if you have a 1-year term and you feel like the service is meaningful, that you do consider reapplying.
The direction, again, after a few people who either because they had requested a specific length of term or for reasons, for example, the person who doesn't live in Portland, we had had a discussion here about concerns about people not living in Portland.
So our colleagues and I made the recommendation that the individual who doesn't live in Portland begin with a 1-year term so we could see how that worked.
Thank you.
With a few exceptions like that, the direction that I gave to Christopher Hare was to randomize so that we had balance within the district.
So that, for example, if we started with everybody in District 1 having, for example, a 2-year term, Mm-hmm.
Then after 2 years, if those folks were not reappointed, we would be left with nobody from District 1 on, potentially, depending on who else applied.
So being very intentional to say, please distribute terms actually within each district and make sure that we have 7 people up each year as was required.
We asked Christopher Hare from Council Operations to do randomizations.
So the, the balance where you see for Districts 1 and 3 that it's 1 person per term, was by intention to ensure that you weren't left with the potential of not having people choose to renew and not having new people apply.
But within that, there was randomization for who got what length of term.
But I also look at that a different way.
I look at that as a way for District 1 to lose people who are very qualified to be in position to be able to speak for a community who, um, historically have not participated in a lot of community engagement.
And when you get folks who are willing to commit themselves for longer than a year, and then they're put up for a year— and, and by the way, he is, to my knowledge, the only Black man, Terrence Hayes, um, that has been appointed.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Unidentified speaker
So when you— is that not the truth?
I believe that there was one other person who self-identified as a Black male, but we didn't ask specifically.
Right, right.
And so I don't know if that was statutory that we had to ask that question, but it's important and it's critical, particularly since the police accountability that this community said they wanted.
It was based around how communities of color have interacted, how folks who have mental health and disabilities.
And so I think it's very important that you have the people who, who have had the most concern and the most need to have public safety in our community, that they're represented in a way that's meaningful.
Councilor Loretta Smith.
And when I look at one year, that kind of— that was the gut punch.
But if I don't speak up for District 1 when I see glaring disproportionality, I wouldn't be doing my job.
I appreciate what you did, but I have to speak up and, um, bring it to your attention.
Thank you, Councilor.
And I, I hope that Councilor Smith.
We all bring up inequities that we see for our districts.
And again, um, I had hoped we would have a better dispersal of applicants from amongst districts, and it is a little bit awkward for me that it is my district that is overrepresented.
And again, that was the case in the applications that we received, unfortunately.
But I, I do hear you, and certainly you know, I, like I said, I, I would encourage folks—.
I push back to our District 1 representative.
That was their responsibility, was to make sure that we had a, um, a well-outreached community to, to participate.
So—.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilors, are there other questions, concerns, or points of discussion?
Okay, seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Um, for this report, I think we would want to ask for a motion to accept the report.
So moved.
You are right, it is a report.
Thank you.
Second.
Did you catch that?
Was that Councilor Avalos second?
Okay, thank you.
This is the vote.
Thank you.
Uh, this item and this vote is about stewardship and it's for the people.
Portland, you voted 1,688 days ago for Ballot Measure 26-217, the greatest number of votes cast for any ballot measure, uh, in support of any ballot measure in the history of the city.
You've been waiting 4 and a half years to see the independent, fair, impartial police oversight board you voted for.
Today will not achieve all of it, but actually creating the board through this vote today is a large step.
You've waited a long time for this step.
That's important because independent, fair, and impartial police oversight matters.
It's critical to achieving many of the goals of the community as well as of the Portland Police Bureau, including Chief Day's goal of, quote, transforming the dynamic between police and the people we serve, unquote.
Accountability breeds trust.
An accountable police force is an effective police force, much in the way that having and following sanctuary policy makes community members that may be at risk from federal immigration authorities know that they can talk to local law enforcement without fear, which makes local law enforcement more effective.
The community at large knowing that law enforcement will be held accountable in the rare event of misconduct will help local law enforcement be more effective by making community more able to trust not only in police but in the city government at large.
The National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement has 8 attributes it considers critical to oversight being meaningful.
It has to be proactive, independent, community-driven, empowered, transparent, Thank you.
I'm grateful to our predecessors on City Council for referring the ballot measure to the voters in order to not only be reactive to the murder of George Floyd and the movement in the streets, but to try to proactively build something that can stand the test of time and work towards an independent, fair, and impartial system of police oversight.
I'm also grateful that that previous council set up a volunteer police accountability commission The 29 volunteers of the PAC heard directly from hundreds of attendees and received input from 1,500+ community members over nearly 2 years as they crafted the code recommendation.
I remain immensely proud that the PAC, which had members with widely different views on police and on accountability, finished its work on time.
Proudest of all, that they did so unanimously.
It is a testament to what can be done when a diverse group of people, take the time and care to find compromise, and I encourage the new board to look at their methods and culture and try to find places to come together and build consensus as well.
I'm grateful as well to Sarah Morrissey and Kristen Thorpe for their work, as well as all 10 members of the nominating committee and all the applicants for their work leading up to coming to council.
To the staff, the process was imperfect, and I commit to not just pointing out its flaws but supporting you in making it better next year, including through better recruitment and district District 1.
Colleagues, while a small portion of this process directly related to us and it was faster than ideal, it was given the attention and priority it deserved, and I thank you all for doing that.
And I specifically want to thank the council president for her collaborative leadership on this item.
One quick note on process not previously addressed: for next year, we need to ensure that what the voters approved, which does not involve the mayor, does not come to us as a mayoral report but as a councilor-filed resolution.
Council owns these appointments, not the mayor, and I want documentation to make that clear in 2026.
I also want to request 3 things of you as you get appointed to the new CBPA.
First, that all 21 of you and 6 alternates attend a July meeting of the Community and Public Safety Committee together, and I'll work with staff to schedule that.
Second, that you hold your first meeting on or before July 28th, which will make our city attorneys very happy as we have a settlement agreement check-in at the court the next day, the 29th.
And third, that the CBPA begin a quarterly cadence of checking in with the finally, to the 21 appointees, thank you so much for stepping up and serving.
This role will be difficult, but you will be supported by staff as well as by councilors, including this office.
If you ever need assistance, please feel free to ask my office for help.
You are now the stewards of an ongoing project of moving us to having a better police oversight system, better because it is independent, fair, and impartial.
You will hear so much from councilors and members of the public as we move forward.
From complainants, from police officers.
And my advice for you to be— would be to remember that this board was made for the people by the vote of the people, and that regular Portlanders are the ultimate group that this board's work will serve.
I encourage you not to think of yourselves as the whole community, but as conduits through which the whole community can participate, and go out and bring more people in.
I think you'll succeed, and that's why this is a vote about your stewardship and a vote for the people.
I vote yes.
Point of order.
Are we voting or are we doing discussion?
Because we need to make sure that we don't have a whole Gettysburg Address before people vote.
I love to hear him talk because he's very eloquent, but we need to get to the vote.
Councilor, this is a vote and you are previewing something I'd like to talk about after we get through the budget and at a future council meeting.
Excellent, excellent.
Thank you.
It's always fun to follow you, Councilor Kanal, and congratulations on your recruitment for this body.
I want this body to exist.
I think we had— I don't think we reached the balance that we need for this.
Both by district, by demographics.
And I believe that this vote will pass, and I'm great.
And I just need to put some dissent in there because I don't think we landed this right.
And so at this moment in time, with this body coming forward, it has nothing to do with the staff.
And it's always hard to vote no on a report 'cause you all did some hard work.
Councilor Smith.
But for whatever reason, the denominator on who was applying was quite skewed.
And by the time it got to us, it was not as balanced as I would've liked.
And yesterday we talked about the limitations on what we could read into the questions that were asked.
So based on all the information I have at this time, I can't support this report.
I vote no.
Councilor Dan Ryan.
Thank you for stepping up.
I vote aye.
I just want to thank Councilor Kanal for all the work that you've done over the years to get this up and running.
I know why it was really important to you, and you get to take a moment to shine when you've done really great work, and we get a moment to celebrate you.
I also would be remiss if I didn't thank my former boss, Commissioner Joanne Hardesty, who was the first Black city councilwoman.
Who came into Portland City Council at such a difficult time, who had to deal with police brutality both on a policy level and on a personal level.
And I watched everything that she went through, and while I didn't experience it directly, having to even witness everything that she went through and how she had to be stronger than everybody else in that moment in a way that was completely unfair, the fact that she spearheaded this and helped it come to fruition, I'm very grateful that she did that work.
Councilor And I'm very grateful that this has been put together.
I think there are a lot of people on this board that some of us will love and some of us won't like and will disagree with.
And I think that means there's probably an appropriate balance there.
So thank you to everyone for all of the work that you put into this.
We're happy to give you your flowers, and I proudly vote aye.
Novick.
I really appreciate the volunteers on the nominating committee, the people who volunteered to serve in these roles.
I want to thank my fellow councilors and the council president for having a— coming up— coming forward with the process for us to reach a resolution.
I also want to say, Councilor Smith, that you've given me a great idea.
The Gettysburg Address was 272 words long.
I think we should all agree that all of our speeches shall be no longer than that.
Aye.
Clerk?
Thank you to everyone who stepped up.
This has not been a perfect process, I agree, um, but I have to have faith that everyone will be fair and impartial, and I vote aye.
Thank you to all the volunteers.
You're part of a historic moment in our city, so thank you for your service.
Um, ditto to everything Councilor Kanal said, and thank you for all the hard work you put in.
And just I just want to take a moment to recognize the work that the council president did in pulling this together.
It is not easy.
I think you balanced a lot of conversations that we had yesterday, so I appreciate that work.
I vote aye.
Aye.
Thank you.
Um, completely agree with Councilor Morillo's remarks, and I'll just say there are a lot of people on this dais that take up a lot of time, but seems to be Councilor Kanal that is constantly chastised for it, and I'm getting pretty sick of it.
So I think that you have the right to speak about this.
You worked really hard.
I feel really passionately about this too, as somebody who's worked for years in police accountability, and I'm going to take my few minutes to say my speech.
As someone who served as the chair of the Citizen Review Committee and helped architect these reforms, I understand the weight of this moment.
Portland is trailblazing, from our new charter to this police oversight structure.
But we didn't get here overnight.
This represents the decades of advocacy from community members who demanded a different relationship between police and the people that they serve.
These first appointments are going to set the tone for everything that follows, and we must choose these members with mindfulness and intentionality, understanding that they are carrying the hopes of communities who have fought hard for accountability for generations.
I'll be honest, this doesn't feel like the bold start I and others who fought for for this had envisioned, but it is still an important step forward, and the community members who will serve on this board deserve our support as they take on this critical work.
The eyes of communities across our nation are watching Portland, and so let's make sure that we get this right.
I proudly vote aye.
I want to thank everybody who stood up, everybody who applied and did not get nominated, uh, everybody who is going to be serving our community.
I also want to, uh, have a special call out to Tamura Ender, my neighbor and former colleague.
Who stepped up and served on the nominating committee on behalf of District 1.
So thank you, Tamora, for your service, and thank you all for the service you're about to give our community.
I vote aye.
Thank you, Councilor Kanal, for all your work on this.
Thank you, Council President.
This is not easy, and I vote aye.
Aye.
The appointments are confirmed with 11 yes votes and 1 no vote.
Thank you.
Thank you to the staff who helped put this together and to everybody who stepped up, and we look forward to seeing your work.
Uh, Keelan, could you please call the next agenda item?
Thank you.
Would you like any of the items to be called together?
We're moving on to item 4.
I think because most of these are, um, second readings and don't have public testimony, we should just do them one by one.
Okay, great.
Thank you.
Item 4, conduct a proposed use hearing on state shared revenue.
Thank you.
And this is just a presentation that we moved forward from the last agenda, so we don't actually have action on this item.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
Okay, let's move on, colleagues, Item 5, certify that certain services are provided by the city to establish eligibility for state shared revenue.
Colleagues, this is the first of, I believe, 6 budget items that we will be hearing today, and we had a discussion during our last meeting about state shared revenue.
This is the opportunity to vote on the State Shared Revenue Resolution.
Is there any discussion?
Okay, seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Kanal.
Nope.
Ryan.
Aye.
Koyama Lane.
Aye.
Murillo.
Aye.
Novick.
Benedict Springer
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Clark.
Aye.
Green.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Smith.
Aye.
Aye.
The resolution is adopted with 11 yes votes and 1 absent.
Thank you very much.
Could you please read the next agenda item?
Item 6, approve accepting funds from the State of Oregon under the state revenue Sharing program for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025, and ending June 30th, 2026.
Thank you.
And colleagues, the last agenda item established what we could do with our state revenue sharing dollars.
This ordinance allows us to actually accept those dollars from the state.
This is a second reading.
Is there any further discussion?
Seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Kanal.
Ryan.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Point of order.
Go right ahead.
I'd like to change my vote to an aye.
Thank you, Councilor.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Thank you.
Keelan, could you please read the next item on the agenda?
Item 7, adopt the annual budget of the city and establish appropriations for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025, and ending June 30th, 2026.
Colleagues, I believe this is the actual budget.
Is there any— this is a second reading.
We had a first reading at our last meeting.
Is there any further discussion on the budget?
Councilor Dunphy.
Thank you.
Colleagues, before we begin, I'd like to start with an additional disclosure and a preview that I will be abstaining from the final— from voting on the final budget.
I've said from the beginning of my service that I will be unapologetically pro-East Portland and the few precious things that we have.
I have a decades-long relationship with Leach Botanical Garden as a community advocate.
More recently, in 2018, I joined my former boss Nick Fish at the groundbreaking of the new Skywalk at Leach Botanical Garden.
In 2019, Commissioner Fish's office held our final staff retreat at Leach Botanical Garden, and when Commissioner Fish died in 2020, Leach Botanical Garden hosted almost every member, former or current member, of Team Fish for one last chance to meet and grieve and celebrate the closing of a chapter of our City.
Leach Botanical Gardens holds an— a place of enormous importance in my heart.
Further, I am proud to be part of a family that has dedicated decades of our lives to public service.
There are only so many places you can go to be a public servant in East Portland.
It's a finite community.
And 2 years ago, my wife got her dream job working for a botanical garden in East Portland.
Either of us could have made a lot more money in the private sector, but we chose to to serve the least served part of our community.
When I brought forward the Leach Garden Amendment, an amendment that passed 10 to 2, I did so understanding that it consulted a— constituted a potential conflict of interest under Oregon law.
And so in every public meeting, I have declared that my wife works at Leach Botanical Gardens.
You all now know more about my family than I know collectively about yours.
My wife hates that.
But I received a phone call from the city attorney yesterday saying that he believes this may be an actual conflict of interest rather than a potential conflict.
This was a surprise to me.
My wife's position at Leach Botanical Gardens is not contingent on the outcome of this amendment, nor is it grant-funded, nor is the nonprofit's continued existence under threat.
Leach is not a private interest group.
It's a nonprofit community garden partner and a semi-public institution providing one of the only green spaces and enrichment programs for families in District 1.
The amendment would not— would have been proposed whether or not my wife is employed there.
Her role was not at risk.
What is at risk is the health of the future of a vital resource in my community, which is why I acted.
In the months since I have started discussing my intention to protect Leach Botanical Garden, I have been as transparent with my colleagues and the public about my family's continued service to East Portland as I possibly could have been.
Yet 2 of my colleagues have taken the opportunity to openly question my integrity From this dais, but neither have said a word to me directly.
I object to the insinuation, and I will not forget the unnecessary low blow.
Out of an abundance of caution and transparency, I will follow the recommendation of the city attorney and recuse myself from the final vote on the eight billion dollar budget over a one hundred thousand dollar grant to the only garden partner in East Portland.
Why this is only coming up now after my repeated and public disclosures and the potential conflict over the course of a month.
Both when the amendment was posted and the 5 or 6 times I have raised it on this dais, I don't know.
Perhaps I can thank the new comments from my colleagues on this dais, but regardless, I will be abstaining.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Koyama Lane.
Thank you, Madam President.
I want to take a quick moment to speak to a comment made on June 11th, the June 11th budget meeting regarding Koyama Lane 3, the amendment that moves the Vision Zero lead position from PBOT to the DCA's Office for Public Works.
This is a strategic move that reflects a citywide scope of this— the citywide scope of work of Vision Zero.
And DCA Dhanapal's career was spoken about quickly in passing on the dais as being limited just to water, and I'd like to clarify for the record that in fact she has a 20-plus long-year career that spans transportation, parks, stormwater, wastewater, drinking water.
She's led nationally recognized cross-jurisdictional infrastructure efforts and currently oversees 4 of our major public works bureaus during a really big transition time.
So transportation, water, environmental services, and soon parks.
And she's responsible for aligning all these efforts around shared goals, and I believe this is exactly why she is the right person with her integrated leadership style to be leading Vision Zero and our city.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilors, is there any other discussion on the budget?
Okay, seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Councilor Kanal.
Thank you, and thank you to thank you, Council Vice President Koyama Lane, for saying that.
Put some respect on Deputy City Administrator Dhanapal's name.
First, I want to say thank you to the mayor and administrator for improving the amount and timeliness of information provided to us before this process formally started with the mayor's proposed.
I want to really thank the city budget office for all the things, you know.
Mayor, you truly listened to my colleagues and I in formulating your proposed budget.
This is the first budget I can remember where we didn't have to save from existential cuts Portland Street Response, Safe Blocks, and Rose City Self-Defense.
You prioritized the resources necessary for compliance with federal law and settlements as well.
And perhaps most impressively, you were willing to go out and fight for Portland and get people to invest in Portland, to go out and raise external funding for the new programs you wanted to create.
I'm committed to not getting in the way of the shelter plan that Portlanders voted for when they entrusted you with the role you have and simultaneously to conduct oversight for this project.
I want to note that we didn't all get everything we wanted in this budget.
We didn't get enough rent assistance or eviction protection money, enough resources for the units in North and Northeast Portland preference policy, ongoing resources for Community Health Assess and Treat, and we didn't invest enough in the Office of Equity and Human Rights, specifically in the ADA program, LGBTQIA2S program, and the racial equity program.
The other bad news that I want to acknowledge is for those who are tagged affected employees, some of whose jobs were restored and some whose jobs were not.
I imagine it doesn't give much solace in the moment to hear this from me, but I need to say it anyway.
I tried.
I'm sorry to those whose jobs we couldn't save.
I do want to point out we achieved a lot of really important things.
We invested in parks maintenance and safety, invested in emergency management, and reversed many of the years of cuts, some of the many years of cuts faced by PBEM.
And we invested in the CEI Hub approach.
We also created greater transparency across the system and started exploring possible long-term solutions to our long-term budget structure.
Thank you.
So on balance, I think we improved upon a mayor's proposed budget that was already pretty good.
And so on the whole, I think it isn't perfect, but it is good, and I vote aye.
Thank you.
According to Novick's definition, this will be longer than the Gettysburg Address.
I apologize in advance, Councilor Smith.
I want to start by reaffirming my support for Mayor Wilson's proposed budget.
You captured the moment well last month with your speech at Franklin High.
The entire city felt a renewed sense of hope and inspiration.
Thank you.
Your budget strikes a balance, tough choices, and your back-to-basics approach captured the reality of most Portlanders.
And that's what I think they're experiencing today, is wanting that back-to-basics modality.
I commend the city's administrators team, especially CBO Director Ruth Levine and CFO Jonas Biery, for their steady professionalism throughout this process.
Bureau leaders too, you deserve a lot of credit for your countless overtime hours and tireless work in educating and informing us and responding.
I also want to lift the clerk and councilor operations staff, and I must begin with you, Keelan.
Some people say I'm the only person from the last council on this council, and I pause, I say, wait, there's Keelan.
Anyway, I really appreciate your experience.
It's really been a game changer for, I think, all of us.
In this new governance model.
Thank you.
And finally, thanks to the IT and security team for staying late day after day, missing time with your, with your families, and to help this council.
Okay, and while I'm offering these acknowledgments, I must thank my colleague, Council President Pirtle-Guiney.
Your leadership has been exactly what this divided council needed, balancing grace and poise with persistence.
Thank you so much for stepping up.
Thank you.
And finally, I want to acknowledge my amazing team of 3, Kezia Warner, Will Nesbitt, and Edna Velasquez.
You have sacrificed so many hours from your children and families over the past 2 months, and I thank you on behalf of all hardworking Portlanders for your service.
You're hiding behind a pole.
And now it's time for a little bit of tough love for my colleagues from this elder councilor who also voted no the most on amendments.
As such, my salt is perhaps not a surprise to any of you.
Here's what concerns me.
There's a disconnect that has formed between this elected body and the people we serve.
Too often we've ignored the very people who are feeling the pinch of reduced services amid rising costs.
We hear their voices on every street corner, at every community gathering, and I'm afraid we're not listening or believing them in this budget crunch.
Councilor the question remains for future budget cuts.
What happens when temporary fixes like raiding golf funds, fee increases, and using up contingencies run dry?
How do we fill the gap without burdening struggling families and seniors?
Lately, I've been asking some of my colleagues on the political insider group, the members of the Peacock Caucus, please tell me, what is your North Star?
For starters, do you want to eliminate the private sector serving our city?
Is Portland the testing site to eliminate capitalism in favor of socialism?
Please, again, tell Portland how this works.
So it's part of a nation that exists under a capitalistic economic system.
I'm asking for a lot of Portlanders.
The private sector isn't going anywhere, and with no one knocking on our door to build housing or relocate their businesses here, how are we going to generate revenue to replace them?
Do we have the authority to mint currency?
There isn't a game of Monopoly.
I sincerely want to know your vision to both keep and grow businesses here.
Meanwhile, I will continue to listen and believe the elders feeling trapped in their apartments in Old Town and Lloyd District due to safety concerns.
I believe the mom who's upset after packing up her kids and taking them to the park, who must suddenly rush back home because the restroom is closed Or too dirty to use.
I believe the storefront merchants who are on the brink of collapse, the ones who, after multiple generations of doing business in Portland, realize conditions are too intolerable for them to remain here, and it breaks their heart as they finally give up on Portland.
These stories should break our hearts too.
Increasingly, Portlanders feel abandoned by a city whose priorities no longer align with their daily struggles.
They have no money left to give and are often taking out second mortgages to pay their staff.
They say, and quote, Portland used to be a partner with us.
Lately, the increased expenses and decreased services makes it clear that you don't care about us.
Why should we stay?
Why should they remain in a city that the parks budget is artificially pitted against the police when virtually everyone wants both.
This council successfully planted a false narrative to the public.
Why?
And let's be clear, this won't be our last budget challenge.
Current forecasts show continued deficits.
Revenue will be unable to keep up with fixed costs to deliver basic services unless we address root causes, namely the livability on our streets.
Let's all get behind some basic goals.
Can we all agree that we need fewer for lease signs and more foot traffic?
We need families and young entrepreneurs to move here to build something, to hire people and provide living wage jobs.
And we need multigenerational Portlanders to feel seen, respected, and included in our city's future.
I believe in inclusion and restoration, not exclusion and retaliation.
I'm heartened that we have maintained critical elements of the mayor's budget and found common ground to restore funding for police and public safety.
I want to thank Councilors Novick, Green, Dunphy for leading that effort.
We also passed a meaningful amendment to support storefronts that have been neglected for too long, and another budget note resolution will be heard in Arts and Economy soon.
Thankfully, thankfully, we also rejected amendments that were punitive I'm hopeful that we learned valuable lessons in the past 6 months.
I believe we can set egos aside and move forward with data-based solutions.
I look forward to the day when my friends' children want to return to Portland and contribute to this community.
We can do this if we listen to the people, believe them, improve services, and be mindful of their expenses.
Thank you.
The helpers of my hometown, the ones that provide revenue, are at the end of their rope.
Please believe them.
It's with that hope I'll support this adopted budget.
I vote aye.
I vote aye.
I actually wasn't going to give a speech, but I guess I have to follow that.
I mean, I don't know why people don't seem to comprehend what a majority is on a city council, but we were elected by Portlanders.
Welcome.
So we were elected to represent certain types of people who are asking for certain types of things, and I think that inherently means that our influence on the budget is one that was selected by Portlanders by district.
There is nothing stopping my other colleagues who disagree or who have center-right politics from organizing collectively and getting the wins that they want.
In fact, I think there are usually around 6 of you, a few of you that were able to peel off for certain votes, And a few of you that were not, depending on the issue, because you are self-described centrists.
So if people are frustrated with the budget up here, I highly recommend coordinating better so that you can achieve the political wins that you want rather than disparaging your colleagues for effectively organizing for the communities that we were elected to represent.
Thank you.
The reality is that this budget did not change very much.
It is pretty much brought to us in the form that the mayor presented, and that largely happened because we had very little time to make changes and amendments.
We had around 2 weeks, and our staff were at their wit's end with all of the research and information that they had to get to us through a very complicated triage system that made it very complicated and difficult for us to get information.
This is a good budget, and it has some big wins in my opinion.
And it does not get to the root of the problems that are facing Portlanders.
When we talk about who we're representing and who we're listening to, this doesn't address the needs of renters necessarily.
There were a few wins for renters.
This doesn't address the needs of unhoused people.
Unhoused people are getting swept more under this administration than they ever were under Mayor Wheeler's administration.
The sweeps have been very violent and painful for my unhoused neighbors, and we have invested more in shelter systems and temporary solutions than we have in getting people into long-term housing.
And I expect that in the next budget, we are going to change the system so that we have a longer runway.
More community input from all types of community, not just business, because people who don't have money and property and who can't pay for their voice at City Hall also deserve to have influence over this budget.
As the youngest member of City Council and probably the only one under 30, at least since the 1700s or something, um, I I feel like we are representing a different type of person up here, and we have different backgrounds.
And I think that growing up with a single mother who was an immigrant, uh, living in this country that clearly does not accept us and fighting very different fights than some of my colleagues are fighting means that I'm going to bring a different perspective.
And Councilor Ryan, whenever you want to go to the renters town hall, you are still invited.
Thank you.
With that, I vote aye.
I just want to second Councilor Morillo's point about the rushed process.
I really hope that next year, when the mayor will no longer be brand new, when all of us will no longer be brand new, we can have a mayor's proposed budget, say, February 1st, and we will have ample time to develop and refine our amendments.
Hopefully Send some of them through committees.
I think that if we do that, then we will have fewer mistakes, less confusion, and fewer hard feelings.
I vote aye.
Clerk?
Well, I'm the last person to give a Gettysburg Address, but I do want to say that this is an amazing conclusion tonight, uh, to listen to my colleagues, and I'm definitely not the 1700s, um, but I may be the oldest member of the City Council, um, but I do think that we've been on a rather an emotional roller coaster, or at least I have, through this whole process.
And you're right, Councilor Murillo, we've just been nibbling really around the edges but revealing our differences and our commonalities.
And, and so it's been a good process.
Mm-hmm.
But I really want to thank the mayor thank you.
For listening to each of us, to meeting with each of us multiple times, to listen to what our priorities were before you sewed up your budget.
And I can't tell you how much I appreciate that, even if you did steal my line about back to basics.
But it—.
Sorry, but it has been an emotional roller coaster, sometimes an e-ticket.
And for those from the 1700s, sometimes a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
And I know that we're going to make improvements the next time we do this, and I look forward to that, and I vote aye.
Green.
So I just want to say here that when we changed our form of government, we did not change one into a model that tries to presupposed consensus.
We created a multi-member, 4-district system which is proportional representation.
This is what they have in other parts of the world where you get to have a voice on the council based upon the politics that you have, and that is okay.
That is by design.
And so I think that we're not going to ever reach full kumbaya sort of consensus on some issues, but we can work together where we have values alignment, and I think we've seen that on this council.
I do want to kind of I want to speak to what my North Star is because Councilor Ryan has asked the question.
When I came into this seat, my North Star was to pursue an economic development strategy for this city as we come out of the bottom that takes a bottoms-up approach to resiliency, to investing in people from the bottom of the income distribution, not the top.
That's my North Star.
I want to note that half of this city are renters, and half of those renters are rent burdened.
They pay more than 50% of their income in rent.
So we got to this place because for decades, for 100 years, we had people who said, that's okay, we can just step away, we'll just let the market decide.
And what did the market deliver us?
The market delivered us a housing market where people can't live here anymore.
And so they left our county.
And so there's a lot of misinformation going out that the people who are fleeing are the wealthiest people.
That's simply not true.
It's not what the census data shows you.
Thank you.
Most people who leave Multnomah County go to adjacent counties, and the median income of those people is about $56,000 a year.
And that's a fact.
And so I think part of the issue that we're playing with is if we want to address the resilient growth of our city and our, our community, we have to be serious about what these data show.
And I'm willing to work with anyone who wants to get serious on that.
That's why we're championing things like social housing.
This budget reflects the fact that some of us were elected to fight really hard.
I think all of us were elected to fight really hard for our priorities, and that's what you see here.
And so I feel fine, you know, advocating for that.
I'm proud of the work that we did.
We got some good money for some good things.
I'm going to take a harder swing at it next year.
I vote aye.
Councilor Zimmerman.
Uh, thank you.
I want to go back to, um, I also appreciate your development of this budget in large part, Mr. Mayor.
I think that your, um, constant, and I am sure for Salem at times annoying, a level of fundraising has helped us significantly this year.
I am deeply appreciative to the To the legislators and to the governor who played along with your fundraising.
So that is something— I've been in a lot of city budgets and other communities and county budgets.
I've never quite seen that.
So I want to give you some acknowledgement on that.
I also appreciate— while I don't think I'll ever agree with a preliminary budget again and having such a release, I do appreciate that you rejected a significant number of, I think, community-killing items that were in that.
And I think that you saw clear-eyed, I think that all 12 of us saw clear-eyed on that.
And so Councilor Clark and I said it when your proposed budget came out, is that at the end of the day, that was a passable budget.
And that is notable, right?
We carved a little bit on the edges of that, but it was— It was a passable budget.
A passable budget as it stood on its own merit.
So thank you for that.
The CFO's team, the entire city operations team, the budget office, I am a hard boss to please.
I made your life very difficult, and I appreciated everybody's efforts significantly.
Of all the budgets I've been a part of, this probably qualifies as my least favorite budget season, and I'm somebody who is a little nerdy and loves budget season, but this was a tough one.
So that is not lost on me.
We all have a great need for moisturizer and wrinkle remover after this last 4 months.
But I appreciate, I appreciate that work even when I'm being real salty.
Okay.
You know, I think that as the finance chair, I took seriously one of the tasks the council president Uh, gave to me.
It was an unofficial task in terms of trying to help her shape a process.
And while this building stood 12 months ago, this government did not exist 12 months ago, and this is a first time.
And I, at the beginning, asked all my colleagues to think about what were the pros and cons to this year's system so that we can improve in next year's system.
And I, and I mean I mean that wholeheartedly.
I've kept some running totals about, you know, we call it an after-action review.
What went well?
What was supposed to happen?
What do we want to have improve in the next time?
And I hope that folks will be serious in those comments because we'll need them.
And I think that we can do it constructively.
When I got the original schedule of the budget, you know, in large part it was modeled on the last government's version of that.
Right.
And I think the first thing that Council President and I did is we tripled the number of hearings, the number of work sessions, the number of listening sessions for the public, because at least in the first SWAG, we felt that we had an inadequate amount of time with the public to make very big decisions, particularly given a cuts year.
So I'm proud of that, even if it didn't go the best way in which we all wanted to make decisions.
But I am proud of— sometimes you see a problem, you attack it immediately, you make the change, and we did that.
Thank you.
And I think that was good.
So thank you.
And then every budget season, we can all walk away with a list of accomplishments that go unaccomplished, or a list of priorities that go unaccomplished, right?
We always have the thing to come back to, and that's okay.
I think actually most of our initiatives will get better with time.
They will become more mature.
They'll be less reactive.
Mine will be.
And there are— while this city budget's going to go forward, there will be parks that are maintained, there will be 911 calls that are answered, there will be fire calls that are put down.
In fact, there's one happening right now.
There will be folks who are helped by the city, but we also are facing significantly larger challenges than anything that we can swirl around here in this city and that we're going to solve from this dais.
And I think there's a collective unity that can be achieved by a city who is able to frame up disagreements and be focused on the bigger challenge.
And I think that we all are sensing that in this time.
And so I'll be supporting the budget.
It doesn't have everything in it that I want.
It certainly has a few things that I'm not a huge fan of, but I'm there.
And colleagues, I think that we are in a—.
Thank you.
I think it was good that the last City Council and the last County Commission extended the joint office agreements and the funding that we do, but we're in a really a prove it, show us, show us the work moment in this coming 6 months to 9 months about whether or not we stay in this thing.
I am so concerned about the amount of money that we are sending to the joint office, to Multnomah County, and the amount of work that we're not getting back.
Thank you.
While at the same time really increasing the amount that we're doing here.
And I think it was right of us to approve it, but it is an area that we should have great concern and great oversight in the future about if that's going to be the continued path.
And so, Mayor, we've funded your shelter plan.
It is now your time to deliver.
Don't let us down.
To my staff, to Luke and Christopher and Ryan, I am deeply appreciative.
You came with the receipts for me.
We got some initiatives through.
We worked you along and told you we would.
And thank you to my team.
So I vote aye.
I'll start where you ended in thanking my staff for all of their very, very hard work keeping me up to speed and to all of the staff at the city who were helping us get through this process.
This budget process has been hard and messy, but that mess was democracy in action.
I am proud that Portlanders witnessed our different opinions play out in public because that tension caused by deep, diverse representation is good, actually.
We're adopting this budget during a down year, which makes our decisions even more consequential.
And while we're operating under a new form of government, this process unfortunately felt too much like the old days.
Where the council simply rubber-stamped the mayor's proposal.
But we are not just a check on the mayor's budget.
The charter demands that we be informed, that we be in the weeds, because budget authority is one of our most important responsibilities.
We secured some meaningful wins for East Portland, and I'm grateful for the representation that we achieved.
But I cannot ignore that we failed to prevent disproportionate harm to our communities.
The cuts in this budget were not felt equally across our city.
Councilmember East Portland, home to nearly half of our city's children, our most diverse district, continues to bear an unfair burden.
When you have 10 years less life expectancy and $30,000 less in average income than any other part in the city, every cut hits us way harder.
I'm here to ensure that next year it's easier for East Portland to be part of this process from the beginning, not fighting for scraps at the end, but helping to shape priorities from day one.
I vote yes.
Councilmember but with the commitment that we must do better.
Thank you.
Acknowledging that Councilor Dunphy is abstaining.
Smith.
I want to first express my thanks to all the folks on the executive side, um, and a special thanks to, um, City Administrator Jordan, Jonas, Ruth.
And I can remember Jonas saying to me, I've never been asked to have this much granular information from a city councilor.
That is on the top of a notebook that I have.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
And I know I was really exacting and demanding in my request for detailed information, and you responded each time for sure.
And me and my staff appreciate the work that you've done.
We will be a better version of ourselves in this coming year for sure.
Councilor Smith.
This is very hard.
This is tough stuff.
I want to say ditto, ditto, ditto to everything that my colleagues have said.
Um, my staff, I look forward to working with you.
I think I have probably the youngest, the most diverse, and inexperienced in, in local government.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Unidentified speaker
Of the City Council, and they have showed up and they're ready.
They're excited, uh, they're excited about the idea of the future.
When me and Councilor Zimmerman talked about coming here, I talked with him and we were talking about sidewalks.
That's how this whole SIP came together.
We talked about sidewalks, and lo and behold, I only knew 4 people coming, coming here: Councilor Zimmerman, Councilor Clark, Councilor Ryan.
And I never thought that I would build an alliance with Councilor Mitch Green.
Here he comes in all of his DSA glory.
Loretta Smith
Look at that chap.
Unidentified speaker
And he asked if he could co-sponsor SIP.
And I'm thinking, SIP, why does he want to do this?
I thought he would do something that was more social oriented.
But I appreciated you, and I appreciate your work, your thoughts.
I appreciate you being into the weeds on the numbers.
This is something that is really good.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
It's not only going to be good just for District 1 and District 4, it's going to be good for the entire city.
So I appreciate your, um, your partnership.
And, uh, I know you appreciate some things about me too, because I never give up.
You know that.
And I want to thank my fellow, uh, District 1 councilors.
We hit some rough spots along this way, but we ended up with a good budget, and all of us have gotten something that we really wanted.
The budget was not perfect, but it was a good one.
Out the gate, I was so intentional.
I wanted to make sure that those jobs in the permitting office.
Those 60 jobs, those were represented jobs.
I could not imagine that we would have a budget that took away 60 represented jobs, and I put up an amendment.
That was my number one priority.
Aside from that, Mr. Mayor, you did a great job.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
You kept your promise.
I kept mine.
I said I was going to support you, and I've supported you.
And I know that this is just the beginning because I think we're going to be all better versions of ourselves, and I appreciate it.
So this is what a functioning democracy looks like.
Councilor Smith.
I am so happy for the people who called our office, who wrote us letters, who sent us emails, who text us and said we're off base or we're doing the right thing.
This is all so new to us, but stick with us because I guarantee you it is going to be better going forward, and I look forward to seeing how all of us can work together Not only with this budget implementing and see how we can do over not just next year but the following years.
So I am going to support this budget, and I say yes, aye.
Colleagues, I'm going to try to keep this short and not address what's in or out or process or wins or losses because I will miss something and we don't have time.
Councilwoman Herbold.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney.
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
But I want to address some of the people who are a part of this, because this was never going to be an easy budget.
It wasn't going to be an easy budget because a cuts budget necessarily leads to layoffs.
And this is a bit of a somber vote for me because this vote finalizes job cuts for many of our city employees.
Councilor Smith.
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
I want to acknowledge that there are a lot of people who have put in a lot of work for our city who are going to be looking for new work elsewhere after we make this decision today.
I want to acknowledge some folks who have helped us get here, though, as well.
And I want to start with the people who support us here in Council Chambers.
Our clerk, Keelan, and your team, Rebecca Dobert, and all of the other clerks who have helped us through this have worked such long hours to get us through all of the meetings that brought everybody up to speed and that helped us get the information that we needed to be able to move the budget through, all while still maintaining a rigorous committee and council schedule for the rest thank you.
I know that you are assisted in this room by our team at BTS, at Open Signal, by our security team both in the room and out in the hallway.
And I know that many of those teams are coordinated through DCA Morrissey.
Thank you for helping us make sure that all of our staff had the time to be here.
To support the work that we're doing.
I want to thank our council operations team led by our council manager, Lori Brocker, who is only part of our team for a few more weeks.
And Lori, your policy analysts, Christopher Hare and Claire Adamsik, who made sure that we had all of the information that we needed through this entire process.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I want to thank— good gracious, my list is all out of order here— our budget staff led by DCA Biery, Budget Director Ruth Levine, Owen Saitz, who spent a whole lot of time with all of us, Haley Blonsie sitting up here who did math on the fly for us correctly every single time.
Thank you.
And Ben Smith, who supported our offices as well.
There are so many people who it took to get here.
I also want to thank my staff who, in, um, taking on their roles, didn't all know that they would be working for the council president and have had a lot of extra work put on them because of that as we move through the budget process.
So thank you to my team for taking a lot of incoming and helping All of our offices move through this important work.
Mr. Mayor, you came in with big plans, and a lot of us pushed back.
We raised questions, we raised concerns, and you told us you were going to make it work.
You told us you were going to make it work by still funding our other shelter programs first.
You told us you were going to make it work by finding other money.
You asked you've got a lot of work to do, but I want to thank you for taking the time for dialogue with us to figure out a way that we could support you in your big plans.
Mr. Jordan and the rest of our DCAs who I didn't call out by name, thank you for spending the time with us.
Spending a lot of hours in here with us as we went through each of the service areas, and City Administrator Jordan, everything within your portfolio as well, to make sure that we understood as best we could the decisions we were making with a new council.
We learned a lot of things that will need to change next year, including the schedule, as everybody has— many of us have referred to.
And I think we'll have an even better process Thank you.
Next year.
But in the meantime, my last thank you is for the people of Portland, because you beared with us through a process that was not always easy, through a process that at times felt very rushed.
And every time we asked for your feedback, you stepped up and gave us that feedback quickly.
You turned out in numbers greater than we could accommodate at every single listening session you held.
You turned out in numbers greater than we could accommodate for public testimony every time we had room for public testimony.
And while there are some people we heard from over and over, most of you were different people who turned up every time.
You participated in multiple different exercises in providing your feedback in writing, and that has helped us do a better job in this budget.
It will also help us do a better job as we move forward with our work.
Knowing all of the feedback that you gave, the comments that you gave, and incorporating that into the work that we do over the course of the next year.
I appreciate your patience, and I appreciate you working with us to make this the best budget it could be given the money that is available and the time that was available.
With that, I vote aye.
The ordinance passes as amended with 11 yes votes and 1 abstention.
Thank you.
And without any pomp and circumstance, councilors, I'm going to turn the page.
And Keelan, could you please read the next item on the agenda for us?
Item 8, approve levying taxes for the city for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025, and ending June 30th, 2026.
Councilors, this is the next in our budget items to allow us to levy taxes that we use to afford the budget that we just approved.
Seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Councilor Kanal.
I just wanted to note, I forgot in the last item to thank one other person, our City Attorney Robert Taylor.
You've been an invaluable part of this process and are an invaluable part of the city government in what is definitely one of the top tier of most difficult positions in the city.
And I want to make sure everybody knows that and appreciates that.
Councilor Mitch Green.
Mitch Green
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
The work you did.
On item 8, I vote aye.
Thank you.
Aye.
Aye.
I was also too cranky to thank anyone, but I would also like to thank Robert Taylor, who has dealt with all of us being very annoying and asking many questions over many days.
So thank you for all the work you do.
I vote aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Mitch Green
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
I would also like to, uh, take an opportunity to, uh, thank Robert Taylor.
Um, don't give up on us yet.
And, uh, DCA Donapal.
Um, I know your work across transportation, water systems, public works.
That is your thing.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for always trying to be there and making sure we're doing the right thing in District 1.
I recognize you and I appreciate you.
Aye.
Well, I feel like a big jerk now because I missed the paragraph on the legal team in my written remarks when I was giving my thanks.
So gratitude to my colleagues for filling that in, and gratitude, Mr. Taylor, not only to you, but to the members of your team who supported us through this.
We have had a lot of questions for you, and you have been there in the moments of question in the middle of our meetings as well when we had to make some quick decisions on how to move forward, and I really appreciate your guidance and support.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Thank you, Keelan.
Could you please read the next agenda item?
Item 9, authorize a temporary interfund loan not to exceed $50 million from the Portland Parks and Recreation System Development Charge Fund to the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund to provide interim financing for fiscal year 2025-26 cash flow deficit due to the timing of property tax collections.
Thank you, Keelan.
Colleagues, we're almost Through our budget agenda items.
This, if you remember, is the loan to allow us to continue to pay out of our fire and police disability and retirement fund system.
This is a second reading.
Is there any discussion?
Seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Kanal.
Thank you.
I want to note that we need to at some point talk about the long-term solutions here, and I look forward to calling— talking about that at the Community and Public Safety Committee meeting.
So that we can meet all of our disability and retirement obligations for all of our current and former firefighters and police officers while building in some long-term planning that can reduce the aggregate financial impact over the next 55 or 60 years and assessing the pay-as-we-go structure.
This item, however, is not about long-term solutions.
It's about short-term ones.
So I vote yes.
Ryan?
Aye.
Koyama Lane?
Aye.
I look forward to having that discussion in the Public Safety Committee, and I vote aye.
Novick.
Aye.
Clark.
Aye.
Green.
Aye.
Zimmerman.
Yes.
Avalos.
Thank you.
I do wanna make a couple comments because of what Councilor Kanal is saying.
This FPDR funding crisis has been on my radar for a few years since 2020, and I tried to address it during charter reform.
Today's $50 million loan from Parks is another band-aid on a fundamentally broken system.
We're borrowing money because our pay-as-you-go pension model passes costs to future generations.
So current taxpayers are paying for retirees from decades past, and that is intergenerational inequity.
Portland has the most expensive pension system in the United States, with FPDR taxes projected to grow over 40% in 4 years.
So we are hiding the true cost of police and fire services from voters.
Councilmember while I'll support this loan, this council must commit to comprehensive pension reform with actuarial funding that creates long-term taxpayer savings.
This broken system demands more than temporary fixes like we're doing today.
It demands real reform.
But with that, I will vote aye.
Yeah, what Councilor Avalos said.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Thank you.
Keelan, could you please read the next item?
Item 10, amend private-for-hire transportation code to clarify uses of transportation network company fees.
Councilors, this is an item that has been submitted on emergency ordinance.
That means we need 9 votes to pass it because we raised fees on our transportation network company system.
There were some questions about the use of those fees and whether it fell within the narrow definition of the current allowed uses.
This clarifies the uses so that we can spend that money as, as intended.
Councilor Novick, you introduced this item.
Do you have anything you would like No, just to, uh, reiterate what you said, uh, Council President, um, we raised the per-ride fee from 65 cents to $2, um, and our intention— what I mean, current code requires that the per-ride fee only be used for the regulatory program for private-for-hire entities.
Rachel Jamieson
Our intention is to expand that to Um, include all private-for-hire entities.
Unidentified speaker
This would allow us to use it to help pay for the critical infrastructure that those entities rely on.
Um, and, uh, I will note that I've been going back and forth a bit with the aforementioned wonderful city attorneys about some last-minute language changes.
If you— and I think my staff has passed out 2 versions of the final language, changed language in Exhibit A, uh, the actual code language.
Thank you.
If you look at the one paragraph with the actual changes, what it should read is permit fee rates will be established to fund all program costs required to adequately administer the PFHD program, including the provision of safe, fair, and efficient private-for-hire services, and to verify compliance with all relevant requirements pursuant to Chapter 16.40, and then added language, and to help maintain a functional transportation system.
Thank you.
So permitted private-for-hire operators can safely, efficiently, reliably operate their businesses in fair and innovative ways.
That's language from the findings that we took to add to the code to make it crystal clear what we are authorizing here.
Thank you, Councilor and colleagues.
Keelan just passed out this most recent version, and Councilor Novick, I just want to clarify because this is this is your new Exhibit A, which you would like us to discuss and vote on today.
Is that correct?
Yes.
I think that the previous— the language that was posted online technically probably was expansive enough, but I wanted to make it very explicit that this allows us to spend the money on the critical infrastructure that the private fire companies as well the rest of us rely on.
Thank you.
Councilor Smith.
Perfect.
Thank you, Councilor.
Uh, Keelan, I believe we have a few folks signed up for public testimony.
Is that correct?
Let me check.
Sorry.
Keelan is checking that.
Is yours a technical question that should be asked before we hear from the public?
Go right ahead.
Thank you, Madam President.
Uh, thank you, Councilor Nova, for bringing this forward this amendment.
Uh, in my question is to you, in your estimation, do you think this language, or maybe even the standard language, is permissive enough to allow for, at a future date, not tonight, um, some investment in a resource center for those TNC drivers?
Um, well, let's take a look at the, uh, um, what it says is, um, Established to fund all program costs required to adequately administer the PFHT program, including the provision of safe, fair, and efficient private provider services.
I actually, off the top of my head, I would want to ask the city attorney what they think.
I think that some of the language there would lend itself to— I mean, it says to adequately administer the program, so I would think that that would include a resource center.
It could, but I'd want the city attorney to opine as to whether they think the language is sufficiently expansive.
I appreciate that, and I just would note that safety of the system I think involves and implies drivers feeling like they are not at risk.
And so I think, yeah, I would be hopeful that this definition would be expansive Mr.
Taylor, do you have any immediate reasons to believe that this definition wouldn't allow for us to have a conversation at a later date about a driver resource center?
I think we could accommodate that additional conversation.
Okay, thank you.
Uh, why don't we move to public testimony and then we will come back to a broader discussion.
Keelan, could you please call up the first speaker?
The, uh, Portlanders who have signed up for public testimony.
Yes, thank you.
We have Nathaniel Hudson Hartman, Ahmed Alshamani, and Joe Jackson.
Nathaniel is joining us online.
Nathaniel, you're muted.
Go ahead and unmute.
Can you hear us, Nathaniel?
If you're on the phone, try star 6 to unmute.
Yeah, I don't think they are going to testify.
Um, it doesn't look like they're unmuting.
Are either of our other guests here?
Um, Ahmed Alshamani or Joe Jackson?
Okay, colleagues, with that we will move to discussion.
Is there any discussion on the ordinance?
Uh, point of order, has this been seconded or are we too— are we premature for that?
Um, we, we will need to have a motion to substitute the new Exhibit A for the old Exhibit A, and we've not yet had that motion.
I wanted to allow Councilor Novick to put the new Exhibit A on the table before public testimony, but we could start with a motion to substitute it if anybody would like to make that motion.
So moved.
So moved.
Second.
Okay, is there any discussion on substituting the new Exhibit A for the old Exhibit A?
Seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Kanal?
Tyler Fellini
Yes.
Unidentified speaker
Ryan?
Aye.
Koyama Lane?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Tyler Fellini
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Zimmerman.
Avalos.
Aye.
Dunphy.
Aye.
Smith.
Aye.
Pirtle-Guiney.
Aye.
The amendment is approved with 11 yes votes and 1 absent.
Okay, so we now have the substituted version before us.
I believe because this is an ordinance, we don't need anything else specific to move it to discussion.
Um, so councilors, is there any further discussion on the new Exhibit A?
Okay, seeing none, I'll note again that this is an emergency ordinance, so we do need 9 votes to pass it.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Kanal?
Aye.
Ryan?
Aye.
Mark Porras
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
See, the details matter in our budget amendments notes.
Aye.
Aye.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Aye.
I'm going to take a moment to acknowledge the rideshare drivers who took the time from their work to testify before us and share their concerns.
Your voices matter and we do hear you, and I am committed to ensuring that as we consider how to use these expanded authorities, that we're centering these voices of the workers who make this industry possible.
The idea of a driver support center that was raised deserves serious consideration, and any future investment should reflect the real needs that you've shared with us.
So I really appreciate that.
This is about more than just regulatory flexibility.
It's about recognizing that transportation equity includes supporting the work who provide these essential services, many of whom live in my district and communities that have been historically underinvested in.
So I'm looking forward to continuing this conversation with you in the coming weeks as we explore how these resources can best serve both drivers and our broader transportation goals.
I vote aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The ordinance passes as amended with 11 yes votes and 1 absent.
Thank you.
Keelan, could you please call the next agenda item?
Item 11, adopt the supplemental budget for the FY 2024 through '25 over-expenditure process and make budget adjustments in various funds.
Thank you.
And councilors, I should note technically that last item was the last of the package for this year's budget.
So we're moving on to the next part of our agenda.
Colleagues, this agenda item I believe comes out of the Finance Committee.
And we have Christopher Hare here to give us a committee staff summary.
Good evening, Madam President, Councilors.
For the record, my name is Christopher Hare, Council Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the Finance Committee.
The emergency ordinance before you, document 2025-228, was considered in the Finance Committee on June 9th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation to pass.
The emergency ordinance amends the FY 2024-25 appropriation schedule to reflect adjustments across 20 funds to reflect actual spending.
There is a resulting net total increase in appropriations of $324,099.
Second.
An emergency clause has been added to this ordinance to allow the appropriation adjustments within to take effect immediately upon council passage, ensuring the FY 2024-25 budget remains balanced and aligned with actual spending.
The full impact statement on this item includes financial and budgetary impacts and analysis.
There was no verbal or written public testimony provided prior to committee action.
This concludes the committee staff summary.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor Zimmerman.
You presided over the meeting where we heard this largely housekeeping.
There was a slight adjustment given councilors' needs and just the shortness of our normal technical adjustments, so it includes some items.
We had some discussion about that, and it passed with 5 ayes.
Thank you, Councilor.
Keelan, is there anyone signed up for public testimony on this agenda item?
No.
Councilor Lents?
No one signed up.
Okay, perfect.
Councilor Green, are you in the queue for discussion?
Yes, I am, Madam President.
Um, I just wanted to note that yesterday I submitted a technical amendment to clean up, uh, the effect and the impact of the— I think it was Green 13, which is a public safety set-aside.
So this language just adds to the OEO the action that moves $2.2 million of the '24-'25 funds from the Portland Police Bureau and then increases the general fund contingency in fund and debt management by $2.2 million for the next fiscal year.
And I was in contact with Ruth about this yesterday.
So I think that that's— it is very technical and boring.
Okay, Councilor, are you making a motion to adopt this amendment?
Yes, I move that we adopt this amendment.
Second.
Councilors, is there any discussion on the amendment to agenda item 11?
Seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll on the amendment, which is posted on the website, colleagues?
It is the Second item on exhibits and attachments.
Kanal?
Yes.
Ryan?
Donnie Oliveira
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Koyama Lane?
Aye.
Morillo?
Aye.
Novick?
Aye.
Clark?
Aye.
Green?
Tyler Fellini
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Zimmerman?
Donnie Oliveira
Yes.
Unidentified speaker
Avalos?
Aye.
Dunphy?
Aye.
Smith?
Aye.
Pirtle-Guiney?
Aye.
The amendment is approved with 12 yes votes.
Thank you, Keelan.
Colleagues, is there any discussion on the amended agenda item?
Okay, I would note that this is an emergency ordinance.
We need 9 votes to pass.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Kanal.
Yes.
Thank you, um, Councilor Novick, for your work on this.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Thank you.
Keelan, could you please call the next agenda item?
Item 12, authorize a temporary operating loan from the Solid Waste Management Fund to the Recreational Cannabis Tax Fund of not more than $800,000 to provide interim funding for approved carryover allocations and avoid negative fund balance at fiscal year end.
Thank you.
And colleagues, this is another emergency ordinance, and I believe, Christopher, you have another staff— committee staff summary, correct?
Correct.
Yes, once again, for the record, my name is Christopher Hare, Council Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to The Finance Committee.
The emergency ordinance before you, document 2025-229, was considered in the Finance Committee on June 9th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation to pass.
The emergency ordinance authorizes a temporary inter-fund loan in an aggregate principal amount of not more than $800,000 from the Solid Waste Management Fund to the Recreational Cannabis Tax Fund in accordance with City Finance Policy FIN 2.18.
Second.
The loan is to be repaid by June 30th, 2026, and the interest rate will be equal to the city's investment portfolio monthly average yield.
An emergency clause has been added to avoid negative cash balances in the recreational cannabis tax fund at the end of FY 2024-25 to ensure compliance with state budget law and generally accepted accounting principles.
The full impact statement on this item includes financial and budgetary impacts and analysis.
One person provided verbal testimony prior to committee action.
No written testimony was submitted prior to committee action.
And the general themes of testimony included the potential impacts of an interfund loan on constituents.
This concludes the committee staff summary.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And Councilor Zimmerman, this also came through the Finance Committee.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
We had some discussion just about what were the reasons behind it and as such of that.
And how does, how does the fund get tapped if it's needed?
But ultimately, I think we all understood the housekeeping aspect of it, and it was voted 5 aye.
Thank you, Councilor Keelan.
Is there anybody signed up for public testimony?
No one signed up.
Okay, Councilors, is there any discussion on agenda item 12?
Okay, seeing none, I would note that it is an emergency ordinance.
We need 9 votes to pass.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
This ordinance does the city a solid.
Aye.
I have to say, Councilor Zimmerman, your committee has all the fun.
Aye.
I'm not going to waste any time.
Aye.
There's no fun to be had.
Aye.
I'm sad I don't have any puns.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Councilor Clark, I just want to let you know how much fun we actually do have in finance.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Keelan, could you please call the next agenda item?
Item 13, ratify a collective bargaining agreement with the City of Portland Professional Workers relating to the terms and conditions of employment of represented employees in the bargaining unit for 2025 through 2027.
Thank you.
And just before Director Levine sneaks off because I think we are actually done with all of the budget items now.
I want to thank you for another evening meeting of being here with us.
Councilors, this is ratification of a collective bargaining agreement.
Collective bargaining agreements generally don't go through committee because we hear them in— hear about them in executive session, but we do have members of our team here just to share with us some details on the, the final elements of the collective bargaining agreement from when we last spoke.
Go right ahead.
Ron Zito
Thank you, Madam President.
Good evening, city councilors.
A historic night, a first budget and now a first contract.
For the record, my name is Ron Zito.
I'm the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Human Resources, and I'm here with CPPW President Carrie Coe and some members of the CPPW team.
As well as Kelly Hess, a member of our labor relations team.
We're very pleased to be able to present for your consideration this evening a first labor agreement with the city's newest labor partner, the City of Portland Professional Workers, or CPPW.
I have just a few slides to provide context and costs, and I'm going to pass it over to Carrie for some comments as well, and then we'll open up to any questions you may have.
Before I begin, I do just Councilmember Herbold.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
I just want to take a minute to say thank you to CPPW and the city bargaining team for reaching this first contract.
It's no easy task.
CPPW and city staff who came together over 25 bargaining sessions over the course of 18 months, they did a remarkable job of working together through tough topics, through developing mutual understanding, and really ultimately making compromises to find, find a WISE First agreement.
So to begin, let me give you just— if we can advance this slide.
Oops.
There we go.
Yeah, there we go.
Just some perspective on this bargaining unit.
This is a new labor association which was recognized by the city in June of 2023.
This is a new unit that represents 15 classifications who perform a diverse range of duties, including all of the city's analyst classifications, the coordinator classifications and series, the administrative specialists and financial analysts, as well as environmental coordinators, technology representatives, and multimedia specialists.
In January of 2024, the parties began negotiations for an initial collective bargaining agreement, and we reached the comprehensive tentative thank you.
The bargaining unit and the city agreed to a tentative agreement on May 22nd, and just last week, CPPW leadership confirmed that their membership ratified the tentative agreement before you today with a 98% approval.
Okay.
And then for your reference, CPPW bargaining unit is approximately 800 members.
They have members in almost every city bureau and service area.
And accordingly, they have large numbers within our largest bureaus, including Parks, PBOT, Police, BES, and Water Bureau.
So that's a little bit about the unit.
Let me tell you a little bit about our TA here.
And again, like I mentioned, this is a first contract and would be effective upon council ratification and run through December 31st, 2027.
And given that this is a first contract, this agreement provides a host of new benefits, including just cause grievance procedures and bumping rights, as well as union security items such as union dues procedures and reasonable time for designated representatives.
The contract also provides members with some new leave provisions, including 40 hours of city-paid time for immigration, tribal, and citizenship leave, as well as 3 additional personal holidays for fully in-person staff.
And finally, it's important to note that The parties will be reconvening to reopen several important articles in January of 2026, including wages, layoff and recall, standby, and hours of work.
And the reason for this reopener is that the parties have a class comp study currently taking place whose results will inform future bargaining on these matters.
However, in the interim, CPBW staff will remain on salary ranges and provided with several financial improvements as a part of this first agreement.
Okay.
So that's a bit about the TA.
As it relates to cost impact, just a quick look at how this unit breaks down by fund across the city.
What you'll see here is just about 50% of this unit is, is in the general fund.
The other 50% is in the Fund, capital fund.
Whereas transportation operating, sewer system operating funds, they make up about the other 20%.
And the remaining 30% stretches across other sources, including water, PSF, and others.
And I think that will bring us to our final slide here, which covers the cost-by-item breakdown.
And as mentioned, this is a 2.5-year agreement and includes provisions for 4 articles, including wages, to be reopened in January of 2026.
And the costs here for fiscal year '26-'27 and subsequent years will depend on the results of the contract reopener.
So what you see here on this slide is $5.9 million in total.
There's about $4.8 million in new spending and an additional $1.13 million in a one-time investment for a total of that $5.9 million.
In the coming fiscal year '25-'26.
For your information, the general fund impact for fiscal year '25-'26 is $2.4 million, including approximately $2 million in discretionary and $400,000 in overhead costs.
So that's a bit about the costs.
I'd like to give the floor to Carrie Ko to present some comments of her own.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, thank you.
Um, so my name is Carrie Ko.
I'm president of I'm also a coordinator over at Portland Permitting and Development as my full-time day job.
And I wanted to just thank you for having us here and making the time on a busy, a busy day.
And also to give a shout out to the people behind me, the members who are here, some of whom showed up to work at 6 or 6:30 this morning and are still here right now putting in the work for their union.
So I am here to support the ordinance for the ratification of our contract.
We are the newest We are the newest union at the city, as was said, and this is our very first contract.
So we wanted to take a few minutes to just share our perspective on it and to highlight a couple of details from the contract that we think deserve your attention and a special shout-out.
So before I jump in, I also want to take a moment to refocus everyone on who CPPW is.
As Ron said, we represent nearly 800 people across the city in nearly every bureau, and our union represents a variety of trusted professionals.
As we like to say, and as you've heard us say, I don't know, A million times during this budget cycle.
We are the glue that holds this city together.
And throughout our contract campaign, dozens of members provided testimony on the work that we do.
And I brought tonight another one-pager sort of detailing stories of the kinds of work that members do, so you can continue to sort of learn and grow about— learn or grow your knowledge about the kind of work that we do.
I'll hand that out after I'm done.
So the main reason why I wanted to be up here is to frame to you the way that we're thinking about this.
Thank you.
Contract.
So like the budget, we actually believe that the contract— contracts are a moral document and that they represent our priorities.
And that's the approach that our bargaining team took in this process.
So we approached this to win a just contract, a progressive contract, and a strong contract.
A just contract, we believe, is one that offers protections to our most vulnerable members.
A progressive contract is one that balances what has worked for other unions in the past with the needs of the new union moving forward to the future.
And a strong contract is one that protects, is accessible, understood, and supported by the majority of members.
So you're going to hear today from 2 members, uh, uh, that were on the bargaining team with me about how this is both a just and a progressive contract that elevates the needs of members from marginalized communities in ways that are unique to our contract.
This is also a strong contract that's coming before you today, um, as Ron mentioned our own membership voted with 98% to ratify this contract, an overwhelming majority ready to put this into action.
This contract is an incredible step forward for us.
We are really very proud of the work that we are— we're able to do in this first contract.
It's not everything, but it's really great and we're very proud of it.
CPPW will always be strong advocates, not only for our members, but actually for all workers and for the community that we live in, that we represent, and that we serve.
So we're also your partners.
We're problem solvers, we're advocates, we're subject matter experts, and this is only the beginning of our working relationship together.
Our union has a vision for this city to be a model employer, a defender of the community, a safe haven, a leader in accessibility, and as a workplace that sets a high standard for public sector leadership.
And that's the work that we'll be advocating for in the years to come, and we believe this contract is the foundation for all of that great work.
So thank you again for hearing from us today, and I am extremely ready to ratify this contract.
Ron Zito
That concludes our presentation.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, that's it from us.
We have our folks giving testimony, but I'm not sure if you want to do questions first or hear from folks.
Why don't we do testimony so that we can hear from your members, and then we can have folks ask any questions that they have.
Great.
Keelan, would you like to call up our testifiers?
Sure.
Uh, first up we have Tyler Fellini, followed by Kimberlea Raffu, Rachel Jameson, and Jeanette DeCastro.
Tyler Fellini
Hello again, and, uh, in person.
Rachel Jamieson
Great.
Tyler Fellini
Uh, for the record, my name is Tyler Fellini, and I am a registered lobbyist I'm Councilor Sameer Kanal, and I'm the president of the Portland Workers for and the executive director at Portland Jobs with Justice.
Democracy is facing an existential threat.
Multiple genocides are happening as I speak.
The Doomsday Clock is currently at 89 seconds to midnight.
Christian nationalists have taken control of the federal government.
Across the country, and even here in Oregon and Portland, we are living under the unelected rule of millionaires and billionaires who use their power and money to influence every aspect of our lives.
And in the midst of all of this, we find hope in the rising voice of workers fighting back and demanding more.
We spend a majority of our lives toiling at a job, and yet many of us have no voice in our working conditions.
Unions are how we find that voice, but more than that, unions are the bulwark of democracy.
Historically, workers have always played a crucial role in defending their communities against the tides of despotic rule.
We need that bulwark now more than ever.
Tonight, you are being asked to ratify the collective bargaining agreement with the City of Portland Professional Workers, this is a historic moment for CPPW members and labor in Portland, and yet it took the threat of a strike for the city to finally come to an agreement with its own workers.
CPPW members, the analysts, specialists, and professional workers who keep the city running, showed tremendous courage and unity in taking that step, but it shouldn't have had to come to that.
Portland Jobs and Justice is proud to stand with CPPW and with all city workers.
We believe that a strong union contract is the baseline not the ceiling of what working people deserve.
Now more than ever, we need workers to be empowered, and we believe that in a true union town like Portland, we don't need a strike threat for city workers to be treated with dignity and respect.
I urge all of you tonight to ratify this long overdue contract.
Thank you, and solidarity with CPPW.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Kimberly.
Do I start?
We're doing for the clock.
Yeah, and, and I'll start.
Okay, um, first time.
Uh, good evening, councilors.
Thank you for your time during a challenging and busy budget season.
My name is Kimberlea.
I use they and she pronouns, and I'm a Coordinator 2 at Portland Parks and Recreation.
I've been serving in a parks levy-funded position for 2 and a half years now, providing support to our amazing maintenance teams and the land stewardship Division.
A primary part of my work is relationship building and management with community partners who help tend to and steward the land in developed and hybrid parks on the east side of the Willamette River.
Tonight, I'm here in my role as a bargaining team member with CPPW to share with you why our hard-won member benefit of offering up to 3 flexible holidays per year is important.
For context, these are city-observed holidays that members may opt to work on and instead bank the holiday for future use.
We know that CPPW represents a membership with diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural lineages and backgrounds.
This includes many different traditions, observances, holidays, ceremonies, and practices that are not formally observed by the federal or state government.
We also know that some observed city holidays may be painful remind— painful reminders when we were advocating at the bargaining table, we knew that by accepting our flexible holidays proposal, the city would take a small but actionable step that would result in further alignment with their stated core values of equity and anti-racism.
Dismantling systems of harm requires action and the willingness to adjust common practices.
Most are rooted in white settler colonial norms and forms of governance.
Councilor Smith.
Our union amplifies the voice of the members, and we seek to partner with the city to foster and sustain a workplace environment that creates space for new and more inclusive practices and that values the diversity of its employees.
Upon ratification, members will now be able to make more time for their own cultural, religious, and personal practices that support their well-being and the needs of their communities.
More than ever, time spent with friends, loved ones, and in community offers much-needed sanctuary.
I also want to highlight that this is a unique public employer benefit.
King County is the only other government entity on the West Coast that we're aware of that provides a similar benefit to employees.
Equity-centered benefits like this only advance the City of Portland in their goal of being a model employer.
As a city employee, bargaining team member, and labor rights advocate, I encourage you to ratify this contract.
After this vote, I encourage you to continue supporting the rights and protections of all city workers, which as a sanctuary city includes opposing ICE operations and expansion within the city of Portland to the fullest extent possible.
Thank you.
Rachel.
Rachel Jamieson
Thank you, Madam President, council members.
Thank you for having me.
My name is Rachel Jamieson.
My pronouns are she/her.
I'm a lifelong Portland resident and a constituent in District 1.
I serve as a change manager at the Water Bureau, so as you can imagine, things are busy right now.
I am a member of the CPPW bargaining team and a member of the Indigenous PDX group.
I am here tonight on behalf of a colleague and a friend who has prepared a statement for you.
My colleague's name is Katie Robb, and she serves as a safety and training development officer with the Water Bureau.
And she holds another important role as chairwoman of Indigenous PDX, which is a deep employee resource group for city employees who are Alaska Native, Native American, First Nation, and Métis people.
As members of Indigenous PDX, we continue to urge the city to put action behind stated values when it comes to partnerships with tribal nations and the treatment of indigenous employees.
Last year, Indigenous PDX.
Approached CPPW leadership to add tribal leave as a new component to the immigration leave we customarily see in other city contracts.
Including tribal citizenship leave to this article supports the indigenous members here at the city and provides the same rights and protections to tribal citizenship that we provide to U.S. citizenship.
The tribal citizenship provision in this contract will allow Native employees to use up to 40 hours of leave per year to support their tribal membership applications.
This would issue the same amount afforded to our colleagues dealing with immigration issues or seeking U.S. citizenship.
This provision supports the values of the City of Portland while also providing for the practical reality that the enrollment process for Native people is at best complicated and at worst traumatic.
There are heavy documentation requirements involving records that are kept by state and local governments that hold the same working hours as we do at the City of Portland.
Having this workday flexibility and paid time is critical for the Indigenous members of CPPW.
We in Indigenous PDX believe this tribal leave protection is a first of its kind.
It is unique to the CPPW contract at the City of Portland.
It is a first in the state of Oregon and likely the first of its kind in the country.
We don't know of any other labor contract that has the same language.
We developed it ourselves.
It is rooted in our values.
We are grateful for the CPPW bargaining team's work to get this important language into our contract, and we wish for you too to support it today through ratification.
We encourage you to ratify this contract and stand in your values.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Jeanette DeCastro is joining us online.
Jeanette, go ahead and unmute.
Hello and good evening.
My name is Janette DeCastro.
My pronouns are she and they.
I wear several hats, including as a City of Portland employee for PBOT, as a steward with Protect 17, and as a member of Portland Democratic Socialists of America.
Today I'm here as an individual, and I'm here in solidarity with my union siblings, with CPPW to say, uh, I'm so excited that you're at the precipice of ratifying your first contract.
Um, we support you and stand with you.
Um, I would love to see more strengthening of relationships with city labor and our council and our executive.
That's very exciting to me.
Thank you.
Love the idea of not having to go to the brink of a strike before getting an agreement.
That would be amazing.
I think that building our relationship with city labor helps this council to prioritize valuing workers and valuing the city core values.
I do have a very gentle rebuttal, Madam President.
The nature of public sector Budgets are definitely cyclical.
The job stability for represented workers does not necessarily need to be that harsh, and I would I would love to ask folks on the dais to look at those budget notes, look at contracted work, look at ways that you can really keep stable employment for.
And going back to CPPW, um, yeah, please ratify the contract.
Very, very excited for you all.
Um, and I'll finish.
Thank you.
Good night.
That completes testimony.
Thank you all, and thank you to our testifiers from CPPW for being here to share with us some of the things that are important in this Contract.
Uh, colleagues, uh, does anybody have questions, discussion, or comments on the contract ratification?
Councilor Green.
Thank you, Madam President.
I'm trying to remember to do this not when the vote happens in, in this space, so I want to say a couple things about unions right now.
Um, I think Tyler said it I think I can answer that best by linking the kind of moment we're in right now, that our democracy is frankly at the brink.
And when we are faced with that risk, people are sort of looking around at what do we do, you know, how do we protect ourselves.
And where I always go first is you need to practice democracy, and there's no better place to practice democracy than a rank-and-file worker inside of a union.
Councilor and you guys have all done that, right?
And thank you for your hard work that you've done.
You haven't just won yourself a contract, you've also strengthened our position in our democracy.
Thank you.
I'm going to be happy to vote for this contract, and I'll just note that when we think about the recovery of our city, it's sales that creates the profits that then creates the tax revenues for our city.
So at the end of the day, every dollar that flows into our city comes first from someone's paycheck.
And when you have high wages and you have good benefits, you get more of that flowing around.
And so when we invest in our people, um, we're going to see those dividends.
So I'm going to be supporting this contract, colleagues.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Dunphy.
Thank you.
Um, first of all, just— I'm excited to be voting to ratify this.
Congratulations, everybody, on your first contract and I just want to make sure that the city also makes sure that after we ratify this, that we implement it with a timeline.
And I understand that that is also a challenge that is happening within the city right now more broadly, and want to make sure that we are living up to the contracts that we sign, and that means timely execution of the contracts.
Councilor Dan Ryan.
So I will be enthusiastically voting yes and also making sure that we follow up on this and every other contract that we've been ratifying, 'cause I know it's a lot of work.
So thank you all for all that you do.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Koyama Lane.
Thank you, Madam President.
Huge heartfelt congrats to all of the members of CPPW for ratifying your first contract.
This is a huge, powerful milestone, and there will be more milestones in the future, I know.
Um, also, thank you for taking the time to unpack some of the— some parts of the contract.
That felt really helpful to see some of those highlighted.
Um, I'm really excited to support this.
Congrats on this historic achievement.
Thank you, Councilor.
I want to just recognize that while this contract lasts for, what is it, 2 and a half years, I believe, you have more work to do in the meantime.
And that means that we have more work to do in the meantime.
I've heard the frustration both today and other days of bargaining going right up to the point of strike votes.
And I know that as we continue the work with you all over the duration of this contract, to address some of the wage pieces through the middle of it and to make sure that things are right as we move through because a first contract is always hard and always takes a little tweaking that we'll need to work in partnership there.
And I just, I want to recognize that as we move forward.
Thank you all for being here.
Councilor Kanal.
Yeah, I just want to add one more piece to this conversation, which is the impact of The positions that are being eliminated on CPBW, I've talked a lot about OEHR, the Office of Equity and Human Rights, and I believe that all the programmatic staff that are having their positions eliminated are CPBW members in this process.
And that shouldn't have had to happen.
And I wish we'd had this got, you know, get done before the budget process for that purpose.
Thanks.
Tyler Fellini
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Councilors, is there any other discussion?
May I respond to one thing?
Is that okay?
Yeah, because I do think that there's some other additional information there.
Go right ahead.
Is that okay?
Um, yeah, I just wanted to respond quickly with just— I appreciate all of the support, and I wanted to say a big thank you too to the folks on council who were our just strident supporters and who were advocating for us and who were helping us, um, sort of have the moral support we needed to get to the finish line.
So I just wanted to first say thank thank you.
And then second, to underline what Councilor Dunphy said, that one of— about the timing of this and how long it takes to implement a contract and how detrimental that is to the workers.
And one of the reasons why our bargaining team decided to go with or agreed to sort of one-off benefits, the $1,000 cash bonus and the 40 hours of leave, is because we knew that we were going to have folks face— in our contract bargaining unit facing layoff who would not benefit from a raise over the course of time.
And who— if we could get them that up front, that would be really beneficial to people who were going to be experiencing layoff.
And so that for us was one of the reasons why we agreed to that in the contract, was really thinking about how can we support our workers who are facing layoff right now.
So time is certainly of the essence in that way and in many others.
So thank you for naming that.
Thank you.
Councilors, is there any other discussion?
Okay, I would note that this is an emergency ordinance so that we can, um, get this contract ratified and implemented for our workers as quickly as possible.
So we need 9 votes.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Thank you to Human Resources for bringing this to us.
Thank you to the members of CPPW for coming and showing up to the bargaining table in good faith since January 2024.
Uh, while I was promoted out of an analyst 3 position just before CPBW was formed.
I recognize the important work of the classifications included in this bargaining unit.
I support the CPBW and its organizing, and I would have loved to have been in a union back then.
CPBW, you're the dedicated individuals who provide many of the critical services that make our city run each and every day.
All of you matter, but I want to particularly shout out the important emergency communications workers and the equity employees and the employees working standby duty and on callback, and I'm glad they're receiving appropriate pay and recognition for their essential roles, and would note that that is itself a critical win for public safety in the city.
I agree this shouldn't have taken this long and that we need to put into practice our commitments around equity, in particular in light of the ongoing threats to equity from the federal government.
That is, of course, outside the scope of today's contract.
I do just want to note the ongoing need, even as I simultaneously appreciate the progress.
This is Pro Worker Council.
I'm a pro worker councilor.
I get to go first and I'm excited.
You've waited long enough.
I vote yes.
Congratulations.
Aye.
I'm just really excited that we get to vote yes for this today, and I have to give a special shout out to Karen Brooks, who's part of the unions.
Sorry to embarrass you, Karen, but we worked together years ago and now And now I get to vote on your first unionization effort and you get to see me on council, and that's just kind of a special moment.
So happy to vote aye.
Thank you for everything that you've done.
Novick?
Donnie Oliveira
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Clerk?
I appreciate the work of our team, the work of your team.
As someone who organized a union and who had to first fight for the right to organize that union, I appreciate all the work that you put into this.
So congratulations, and I vote aye.
Green.
All power to the working class.
Aye.
Councilor Morillo, what if I wanted to shout out Karen Brooks?
She's my friend first.
I think Eric before you.
Well, because she wasn't born when we met.
There's, there's no, uh, winning on timeline here, our young councilor.
So anyway, uh, thank you, appreciate it, appreciate your work.
Aye, vote aye.
First contract, I'm so proud of y'all.
Um, today we're ratifying more than just a contract, we're affirming our commitment to you all, the city workers who serve Portland every day.
This agreement really represents a hard-fought victory for our professional workers, achieved with an extraordinary 89% turnout and 98% approval.
And those numbers really tell a story of solidarity and determination that I think we need to recognize and honor right now.
The voices of city workers will be heard, and this contract is proof that collective action works.
These workers are the backbone of city operations, and they connect our communities to services, translate policy into action, and ensure that government works for the people.
And in East Portland and across our city, residents really depend On their dedication and their professionalism.
This ratification also comes at a critical moment for our city.
The communications, engagement, and professional expertise that these employees provide are needed now more than ever as we're navigating a new form of government and working to rebuild trust with Portlanders.
And strong unions make for a strong city.
So when we invest in our workforce, we invest in our ability to serve all Portlanders effectively.
Finally, I want to give a special shout out to my chief of staff, Jamie.
Thank you.
Who before joining my office was a critical organizer and leader on the bargaining team of CPBW.
You see, everybody loves her.
Um, she, uh, really worked hard to get this contract over the finish line, and she regrets that she's no longer part of the union.
But there's more unionizing we can do.
There's more people could be unionized, and I know you will champion that.
I'm proud to vote aye.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Aye.
The day after we had our long 15-hour, um, meeting, that morning I got up maybe, what, with 3 hours sleep, drove to Seattle the next day to get a passport.
And I was on my way back into Portland after spending the day in Seattle getting the passport and then coming right back home.
I got a text from— or email.
I got an email from Council President saying it's an emergency, you need to look at this right now.
It was about your contract.
So I had to pull over.
I had to pull over.
I said, I got to get this done and look at what she had proposed and what you were talking about, you know, the $1,000 and the other stuff.
It was, it was amazing.
I wanted to make sure that I was not the holdup for you all staying at the bargaining table.
And just know I had no sleep, and I was like, yep, yep, to do that.
And so it, it was, it was a, it was a day.
It was, it was just like one long day, 2 days.
But thank you so much for staying at the bargaining table, and I vote aye.
Councilor Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Woo!
Almost done, but we do still have a few things left, and I've had a couple of folks ask if we can take a quick break because it has been about 3 and a half hours.
So we are going to take this opportunity to take a 10-minute break.
Uh, let's meet back here at 9:31 after a short recess.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
I am calling us back in from recess to our council meeting.
Colleagues, we have, I believe, 4 things left on the agenda.
Keelan, could you please call the next agenda item?
Item 15, amend Building Regulations Code to adopt State of Oregon 2025 edition of Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code.
Thank you.
And I believe we have a committee staff summary.
We do, Madam President.
Madam President and councilors, for the record, Lori Brocker, Council Operations.
I'm here on behalf of Claire Adamsick, who, uh, staffs the Homelessness and Housing Committee.
Claire is unable to be here tonight.
The emergency ordinance before you, document 2025-211, was heard in the Homelessness and Housing Committee on May 27th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation to pass.
It amends Portland City Code Title 24, Building Regulations, to adopt the 2025 edition of the Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code.
The full impact statement on this item includes economic and real estate development impacts and information about how the ordinance meets the city's 100% renewable goals.
One person provided verbal testimony during the committee meeting on May 27th.
There was no written testimony submitted on the item prior to committee action nor prior to agenda posting.
The general themes of the verbal testimony included aligning local and state building code, with particular attention to how building code is applied to property in unincorporated areas.
That concludes, concludes Clara's committee staff summary.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lori.
Uh, Councilor Avalos, I believe this came out of your committee.
Do you have anything you'd like to add?
It was pretty procedural and it passed easily, so not, not much discussion.
Thank you.
Keelan, is there anybody signed up for public testimony?
No one signed up.
Okay, councilors, is there any discussion of agenda item 15?
Rachel Jamieson
Okay.
Unidentified speaker
And councilors, this is on emergency ordinance in order for it to, um, go into effect more quickly, so we do need 9 votes for passage.
I'm looking around, it looks like we've had enough people filed in that we can go for that.
Uh, so Keelan, could you please I do think that last piece is worth mentioning.
Given that this was done months ago at the state, this could have been brought to us before it was an emergency, and I want to observe that for the future.
And I don't like being put in a position where it's metaphorically gun to head and we have to do this to avoid being out of compliance with state law.
That's not what the purpose of emergency ordinances are.
Thank you.
Having said that, it is an emergency now, and I do recognize that, and I vote aye.
Ryan.
Councilor, we're voting on Agenda Item 15, amend Building Regulations Code to adopt State of Oregon 2025 edition of Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code.
What number is this?
15.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Novick?
Yes.
Clark?
Aye.
Green?
Ron Zito
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Zimmerman?
Aye.
Avalos?
Aye.
Dunphy?
I would just make one note that it was pointed out that these new additions to state code, which we have no choice over, are, are a higher bar for developers to meet.
Um, it will require additional work, and unfortunately that means it will become more expensive to build in this state as a result of this.
We don't have a choice.
I vote aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Thank you.
Keelan, could you please call the next agenda item?
Item 16, approve the Mt.
Hood Cable Regulatory Commission FY thank you.
And Christopher, I believe you have a committee staff summary for us.
Yes, thank you, Madam President.
Once again, for the record, my name is Christopher Hare, Council Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the Finance Committee.
The emergency ordinance before you, document 2025-227, was considered in the Finance Committee on June 9th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation to pass.
The emergency ordinance approves the the City of Portland has approved the Mt.
Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, also known as the MHCRC's FY 2025-26 fund budget.
The city's special appropriation for the MHCRC FY 2025-26 budget is $355,622.
An emergency clause has been added to this ordinance to enable the implementation of the adjustments without delay in order to provide authority to transact the financial affairs of the MHCRC.
Thank you.
The full impact statement on this item includes financial and budgetary impacts and analysis, economic and real estate development impacts and analysis, and community impacts and community involvement.
One person provided verbal testimony prior to committee action.
No public testimony was submitted prior to committee action.
General themes of testimony included clarification that this allocation is accounted for in Portland's FY 2025-26 capital program.
2025-26 thank you, Councilor Herbold.
City budget.
This concludes the committee staff summary.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And Councilor Zimmerman, this came out of your committee.
Do you have anything to add?
Uh, thanks.
What I'll add here is just we've got a couple of items, um, or a couple actions in terms of related to Mt.
Hood, and it can be confusing.
So yes, we contribute to Mt.
Hood communi— uh, not community—.
Mt.
Hood Cable Regulatory.
We contribute to their budget And then we're one of many signatories to their budget.
And that can be sometimes confusing.
And so as a first time for us, I just wanted to highlight that.
We took care of our contribution already, and now this is our role as approving their budget.
And that's going on in other cities as well.
So I would encourage, and it did get 5 ayes at the Finance Committee.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Councilors, is there any— oh, I apologize.
Keelan, is there any public testimony?
No one signed up.
Okay, thank you.
Councilors, is there any discussion on this agenda item?
Okay, seeing none, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Yes.
Ryan.
Aye.
Lane.
Aye.
Morillo.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 12 yes votes.
Thank you, councilors.
We're doing well with these last couple of items.
Keelan, could you please read the next agenda item?
Item 17, adopt solid waste and recycling rates and fees for franchised residential collection and the commercial tonnage fee effective July 1st, 2025.
And Christopher, please go ahead.
Once again, Christopher Herr, Council Policy Analyst, serve as staff to the Finance Committee.
The emergency ordinance before you, Document 2025-230, was considered in the Finance Committee on June 9th, where it was referred to Council with a recommendation to pass.
The emergency ordinance adopts yes.
The ordinance adopts the updated residential solid waste and recycling rates fee schedule, ENN-2.9, and the per-ton fee for commercial solid waste disposal, ENN-2.10.
It also authorizes the city administrator to implement a discount program for qualified low-income customers who receive residential solid waste and recycling services from the city.
The ordinance reflects a mean monthly increase of $1.84 in residential the commercial solid waste tonnage fee is increased by $1 per ton, raising the rate from $16.60 to $17.60 per ton.
The low-income assistance program discount sets the rate for eligible customers at 50% of the standard rate for 35-gallon roll cart service, resulting in a discounted monthly charge of $21.90.
Thank you, Mayor.
An emergency clause has been added to this ordinance enabling it to become effective at the start of the upcoming fiscal year on July 1st, 2025.
The full impact statement on this item includes financial and budgetary impacts, community impacts and community involvement, and economic and real estate development impacts and analysis.
One person provided verbal testimony prior to committee action and no written testimony was submitted prior to committee action.
General themes of testimony included the role of the Portland Haulers Association within Portland's residential collection system.
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Thank you.
Thank you, Christopher.
Councilor Zimmerman, do you have anything to add?
You have a first shot at any puns you want to make right now.
I am just dealing with, you know, Councilor Clark knowing how enjoyable the Finance Committee is with all these really barnburner topics that we get.
And there's always so much to do that we can change, where it's, this is required, you must do it, there's no change.
It's the nature of the work of finance at times.
But I did appreciate— this is an important conversation too, right?
We contract out a very important public service to providers in the community.
Metro has a big role here.
Yes.
And we see a lot of just pass-through increases We've seen increases throughout the years.
And there was a time, if you look at graphs in the presentation that you were provided, where rates stayed pretty similar, and we've seen some increases.
And there's just been a lot of those little increases.
But when you get hit by 20 little increases across your daily life, this is part of it.
But one thing— well, I'll just— I'll leave it at that.
But it was fine at Finance, and we should pass it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Keelan, is there anybody signed up for public testimony?
We have one person signed up.
Okay.
Joe Heiberg.
Welcome.
Thank you for being here.
Good evening, Mayor Wilson and members of the council.
My name is Joe Heiberg and I'm treasurer of the Portland Haulers Association.
And my family also owns Hybrid Garbage and Recycling.
For over 77 years, Hybrid Garbage has proudly serviced the residents of Portland.
We take pride in being a locally family-owned business who is involved in the community that we also live in.
I am here tonight representing the Portland Haulers Association, PHA.
Every Portland hauler providing residential garbage, recycling, and organics collection service is a member of PHA.
Thank you.
Several PHA members are family companies, which is a point of pride in this industry.
PHA members are committed to their service for all people of Portland and to meeting rigorous standards for health and safety while providing city residents with affordable, efficient, and environmentally responsible operations.
This commitment has been seen and felt during heat events, ice storms, and smoke-filled fires.
Our commitment also shows as we, in partnership with the city, Implement mixed food, food waste recovery, clean fleet standards, safety side guards on our trucks, collection of batteries, and bulky waste curbside.
We also look forward to starting the proposed program in support of eligible low-income customers.
Regarding rates, as you know, PHA members are highly regulated by the city, and each year we engage in a robust rate review process, which we support, and it's important for the integrity of the franchise system.
Thank you.
And so the people of Portland know they're getting a service at a rate that is fair.
Through this process, PHA, the city's residential service haulers, worked cooperatively, cooperatively with the city, providing detailed financial information.
The city's rate consultant reviewed the financial information and rates to determine the cost of all our services and projecting costs for the coming year.
The haulers and city staff collectively discussed the calculations and projections ensuring accuracy for both the haulers and the ratepayers.
Rates cover the overall cost of service, an 8% franchise fee to the city, and a target 9.5% operating margin or rate of return for franchise haulers.
Note that the operating, operating margin is different from profit.
Haulers pay for corporate taxes, make capital investments, and cover unexpected shortfalls from the operating margin.
Thank you.
PHA believes the rate review and setting process has the right balance of independent review, collaboration to assure reasonable rates for the haulers for their service and to the Portland customers they serve.
We support the rate adjustments that city staff presented.
We ask that the Portland City Council adopt the rates as presented by city staff.
We look forward to partnering with the city in the future, and PHA appreciates the opportunity Thank you.
That completes testimony.
Thank you, Keelan.
Councilor Ryan.
Yeah, thank you, Madam President.
I have a question about this process with Metro.
I asked this question last year, Donnie, you might recall.
It doesn't seem like we have any influence over this.
It's done to us.
And then next thing you know, it's like on our table here.
And as someone that really is concerned about rates going up, 'cause that's always passed on to renters, I like to always advocate for us being, I just don't like to rubber stamp these increases every year.
And on this one, I feel like we don't have any control.
What am I missing here?
Donnie Oliveira
Thank you for the question, Councilor.
Donnie Oliveira for the record, and congratulations, Council, on your first budget.
Adoption.
Councilor, to answer your question directly, yes, the City of Portland and all the regional jurisdictions that are part of the Metro boundary are reactive to the rates that are set by Metro Council.
That's absolutely true.
And simultaneously, we have our own process that absorbs those costs with our own, as the— as our colleague Erb Heiberg described, through rate model setting that we do with with the haulers to ensure that they have revenues for their operations.
We're collecting our administrative fee, and, um, and that incorporates the Metro Council's, uh, fee setting.
The opportunity we have with— to work with you all going forward is— and I think this came up during the Finance Committee— is what does that model look like more broadly, and how do we work with you all to set that standard, set those algorithms up in time?
And having said that, will always largely be at the mercy of that Metro rate setting.
All right.
And the timeline— and the timeline that they adopted too, by the way, which is why we're on emergency.
Unidentified speaker
So I'm just calling out the systemic, uh, confusion and, uh, failure, I would say, on this one, that we— it's done to us and then it comes, um, for us to approve.
This was really obvious last year when we were listening to the Portlanders and we were trying to stop the increase in rates, but on this one we had no control over it because of Metro, and it's still in that same pattern.
How can we ever break this pattern?
Donnie Oliveira
Well, I want to acknowledge that Councilor Murillo did submit a letter on the city's behalf again, so thank you, Councilor.
Unidentified speaker
Oh, thank you, Councilor.
Here's— look at me agreeing with something that you did, and I really appreciate it.
And likewise, historic moment.
Donnie Oliveira
Yeah, I want to acknowledge that last council also submitted a joint letter, and staff continue to advocate on behalf of the city of Portland Portland's residents and businesses with council at Metro about the process.
And we continue to ask for more transparency in rate-setting models, and we'll continue to advocate for that in our partnership.
And we had this conversation last year, and we have it on a frequent basis with staff.
Unidentified speaker
And so nothing changed?
I would say—.
Donnie Oliveira
Actually, I'll leave with a positive note, Councilor.
Please.
Metro staff continue to work with our staff to improve the process, to show more detail into the rate-setting models.
But our regional waste system is very complex.
We have several both public and private owners and system operators, and that provides a lot of nuance that continues to be improved.
And I'll say that as the sort of the, the big kid in the region, we have an outsized responsibility to continue to advocate for that transparency because Given the size of the city.
So we'll continue to advocate and push for more transparency.
Unidentified speaker
And in many metropolitan areas, there isn't a metro, so this would just go to the city, correct?
I wanted to get that into the record.
Donnie Oliveira
That's simplifying it, yes, but that's generally how it works.
Unidentified speaker
Thanks.
Thank you, Madam President.
Donnie, as a former chair of the Impact Board and Metro, I really— I understand the critical nature of adopting the new fee schedules to keep pace with the mounting economic pressures.
Having said that, I do take this opportunity to center the residents of District 1 who often experience disparate service levels comparatively, and I'll be looking for ways to support a more equitable fee schedule and applaud you all for the work that you've done in the Bureau of Planning and sustainability, especially around the low-income assistance programs.
So thank you, but I had to get on the record like, um, Councilor Ryan and, and talk about this because they're going to be getting so many slices.
People in District 1, as you know, they only, um, the average salary is $60,000 comparatively to about 92,000.
And so all of the, all of these new changes from, you know, the water changes to the rideshare and everything, it's, it's coming at the same time.
And I appreciate your explanation, but I just wanted to make sure that I got on the record about how it's going to impact my district.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Building on the remarks from my colleagues, I also just want to acknowledge that while we have no choice and staff did nothing wrong about this, in Portland, landlords are required to provide trash service.
And I'm not, as a landlord of a single unit, I'm not able to take advantage of if my tenant qualifies for the low-income thing, I'm not able to take advantage of that.
Mark Porras
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
To take advantage of that.
So those costs are still going to be passed on regardless of that.
I'm really thrilled about there being a low-income opportunity for, uh, especially older adults who are house-rich and cash-poor.
Um, but I just again want to acknowledge that, um, while this makes total sense of how we got to where we are, this is going to lead to increased costs of living for most of our neighbors.
So thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
I think I'm next in the queue, and DCA Oliveira actually stole my thunder because I wanted to thank our colleague, Councilor Murillo, for the letter that you submitted to Metro as our representative on the Regional Waste Advisory Committee.
I appreciate your advocacy for the need for them to be judicious with rate increases.
Thank you.
So that we are not stuck year after year wondering why we have such big increases to pass on to our constituents.
So I appreciate that advocacy on all of our behalf.
Thank you, Madam President.
I just want to jump in quickly to note that, um, we, we will be taking up, uh, just a conversation about rates, um, in Public Works more broadly.
I see this as part of that.
You noted that we had this conversation in finance, DC Oliveira.
So I think we have an opportunity to be proactive on this.
Rate setting is hard work and it takes some care and attention.
So I think the staff did a great job.
The timelines are compressed, but I think we have an opportunity to sort of see if there's rate design solutions to this.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Kanal.
Thank you.
I agree with many of the comments that have been made here, and I just want to daylight something that we talked thank you, Mayor.
Rachel Jamieson
Thank you, Mayor.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Deputy City Manager Donnie Oliveira, and Director Edstrom.
Building off of something that Councilor Dunphy said, one thing that I think 53% of our city might not know about is that renters cannot choose the size of the can.
They have no ability to do so.
And every place I've lived, unless you're— and this is different if you're in a 5 or larger unit place, but if you're a single family up to 4 units, It's up to your landlord to call in and ask for a larger can.
And the reason that we have that problem is because, as Councilor Dunphy pointed out, landlords are obligated to hold the account.
And that is a good thing on the whole.
It means that there is no scenario where a renter might be low income enough that they terminate that service and then trash piles up.
Well, I would argue that if you have to have a service yes.
—A smaller, you know, a 20-gallon roll cart because your landlord won't make the call into— to get that increased, you might have the same problem.
And it's not just about the trash that might pile up or the bags that might have to sit outside until they get picked up.
It is also about just one little piece of agency that you can have in your life as a renter.
And I want to figure out a way to solve that problem because this is a really, really small thing.
Many ways, but it's one of thousands of ways that renters don't have agency in their lives.
And so I appreciate that when I brought this up.
I know it's something you can't solve in the however many days it was since we brought it up to today, but I, I'm looking forward to helping, uh, discuss that and, and come up with a way to resolve it in the future.
Um, thanks.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Clark.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Um, I was under the impression that We were going to look at different ways to deal with multifamily housing and condominium groups when it comes to exactly what Councilor Kanal is talking about.
And I think I actually talked to Mr. Heiberg about this at some point when we met.
What— are we doing that?
Is Metro doing that?
How's that going to unfold?
Yes, for the record, Eric Kingstrom, Director of the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.
We are launching a project to do a more comprehensive review of how we serve multifamily residential properties, which are part of the commercial system, not the franchised system that serves single-family.
And because of that, there are differences in the types of services that folks receive when they're in larger apartment buildings or condos.
And so that is one of our major projects for the next year.
Oh, great.
I'm glad to hear it because I would like to recycle batteries.
I would like to recycle some other things that our condo association doesn't— isn't able to do.
I give batteries to somebody else.
I give my kitchen waste to somebody to take care of for me.
So I'm looking forward to seeing those changes.
And I'll also just add, in response to Councilor Dunphy and Kanal's comments, those are some of the things we're looking at specifically in the next Councilor Kanal, are you back in the queue?
I forgot to ask if we can get more information on the question that I also raised in the future, which is around why we do franchises only for residential.
I think that's a conversation that I've been asked about, and I did not have as much info on it.
Will do.
We can give you some background on that.
Councilors, is there any other discussion on agenda item 17?
Okay, seeing none, uh, this is an emergency ordinance, uh, because of the time frame within which we got this from Metro and then needed to approve it.
So we do need 9 votes.
Councilor Knohl?
Yes.
This is tough because I had the same conversation last year and nothing's changed, so, um, I, I, I just have to dissent.
Uh, no.
Aye.
Aye.
Um, I really appreciate all the substantive comments my colleagues have made.
I just need to add that as a baby boomer, I have I, of course, feel some nostalgia for the days when in every American city you counted on the Mafia to run waste hauling, but it's nice to know that our waste haulers are mostly local family-owned businesses, even if it's not family with a capital F. Aye.
I want to thank Mr. Heiberg for coming tonight and testifying, sticking it out so late.
I vote aye.
Sometimes this is dirty work.
I vote aye.
We're in that phase of it, huh?
Uh, I, I do hope that, that Portlanders, uh, more than just Portlanders, um, knowing the name of your Metro counselor is an important thing.
And a whole lot of rates get passed on when you don't know the name of your Metro counselor.
Um, not everything has to be a cost recovery model exclusively.
But love this conversation.
I look forward to this City Council talking about all of our relationship with Metro moving forward.
I vote aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The ordinance passes with 11 yes votes and 1 no vote.
Thank you.
Keelan, could you please read our final agenda item?
Item 8C, Welcome back, Christopher.
Thank you, Madam President.
Uh, once again and for the last time this evening, my name is Christopher Hare, Council Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the Finance Committee.
The ordinance before you, document number 2025-197, was considered in the Finance yes.
The ordinance grants a cable service franchise agreement for a term of 10 years to Comcast of Oregon.
Elements of this agreement include several updates to align with current regulations and practices.
The public educational and governmental access, also known as PEG fee, will decrease from 3% to 2.5% in accordance with federal communications thank you.
The agreement also updates the city's revenue reporting to reflect the Federal Communications Commission Order 621, which permits cable providers to recover certain marginal costs.
Gross revenue reporting will now follow generally accepted accounting principles, improving transparency and enabling standardized audits.
References to the INET have been removed to reflect regulatory changes.
The agreement also clarifies information and reporting requirements to ensure data security and establish clear expectations.
Additionally, the notification process has been modernized to allow official communication via email.
The full impact statement on this item includes a financial and budget impacts and analysis and information on potential community impacts and community involvement.
There was no verbal or written testimony on this ordinance prior to committee action.
This concludes the committee staff summary.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Councilor Zimmerman, do you have anything to add?
I'll just note for the record that Councilor Clark just whispered to me to somehow make this fun.
So I am good at a lot of things.
That's not one of them.
Um, this is complicated in terms of this is the way that the city gets paid for people chopping up our rights-of-way, having access to that for their company.
The people who subscribe to this type of service are declining, right?
And so these numbers are changing in terms of what the city expects, but it is a very standard practice across all cities and municipalities I've ever been a part of.
And I have appreciated the staff work on this to bring this forward.
And Andrew from the team and Matt Hood Regulatory Group has been great getting us through it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Uh, Keelan, do we have anybody signed up for public testimony?
No one signed up.
Okay, Councilors, this is a non-emergency ordinance on first reading, so we have our discussion today, but we will move this to second reading at, um, our next— well, in a couple of meetings.
Um, Councilor Knoll, are you in the queue for discussion?
Yes, Madam President.
Please go right ahead.
I have a couple questions about this.
This didn't— this raised a couple concerns for me around 2 specific things.
One is the previous franchise agreement expired in 2021.
We've been operating on it the way it has been for 3 and a half years, it sounds like, maybe 4.
And I am curious as to why— I understand that there was delay, but It seems like the only thing that comes out of us negotiating a new contract is that we're reducing the peg fee from 3% to 2.5%.
There's some modernization, I recognize all of that, but the— it seems like we, um, the, the briefing that I received on this implies that we are effectively over a barrel here, and it doesn't appear to me that the leverage analysis made sense.
So can I— I don't know if you could speak to why Why are we doing this now and why are we taking the cut?
Sure.
Could we have you reintroduce yourself?
Yes, for the record, this is Eric Engstrom, Director at the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.
This is actually related to an earlier item you dealt with because the cable franchise is negotiated by the Mt.
Hood Cable Regulatory Commission on behalf of the jurisdictions that are part of that group.
And that body has been, with support from staff who are housed in the city for the last year or so under negotiation of the contract.
The reason now— there was a robust debate about this in the Cable Commission.
Eventually we get to a point in that negotiation process where we can be brought into more formal mediation, and the judgment call there was that there's a higher chance of a less desirable outcome in that situation.
So there is some need to get through this process.
The 2.5% is still one of the higher percentages of a PEG reimbursement that any jurisdictions get in this country.
And so we feel pretty good about the outcome.
Was the 3% at the time that the original— the now expired agreement was originally negotiated, was that higher than average?
Yes.
Or is it that we have seen a nationwide decline?
Nationwide, the regulatory leverage that we have for this sort of thing has declined as various FCC rulings have kind of undermined local authority on this and pulled some parts out.
So some of the things that were included in the 3% are precluded now under current law.
And so that's part of the reason.
Okay.
I have one more question, but I want to follow up on that, which is, does this not fund part of the budget that goes to Open Signal at MHCRC?
Correct.
The PEG fees, one of the things that that's used for is supporting the community media centers, both Open Signal and Metro East.
That's— and to be clear, the City of Portland funds operations out of your budget, and then the Mt.
Hood Cable Commission funds capital investments for them out of these peg fees.
And so, yes.
So does that mean that there will be less money from MHCRC for the capital needs of Open Signal as a result of this peg fee declining from 3% to 2.5%?
Not in the short term.
The, the commission also spends money on peg fees in grants out to community organizations, and they balance the expenditures between grants and capital Disbursements to the community media centers.
So they can manage that in a way in the short term.
In the long term, yes, there's a larger problem that cable subscriptions are declining and eventually will go to zero.
And that does present a longer-term existential threat to the community media centers' viability.
We're dealing with that by bringing the Mounted Cable Commission through a strategic planning process to look at Their longer-term finances.
And you'll probably be hearing more about that later this year.
So just to clarify, would I be correct in saying that it is not going to see a decline because of the 3% to 2.5% because some of the uses of the 3% are no longer available to us due to federal changes?
Correct.
Yeah, that isn't gonna affect the decline.
It's not gonna cause a decline for the community media centers, but in the long term, It's because of what it's a percentage of.
Yeah, the long term, there is a threat because cable subscriptions are declining, and eventually there aren't going to be cable subscribers.
Was there any negotiation with any other provider as part of this process from a due diligence perspective, or was it just, let's look at Comcast again?
Comcast is the only remaining provider in the City of Portland.
Kyle Ashby
Right.
Unidentified speaker
There was another company, Ziply, that left the market.
So it's not a process where we solicit providers.
It's a process where they do business here, so they need a franchise from us.
Why is it not a process where we solicit?
Yeah, it's a free market.
Any company can choose to provide cable service in Portland, and, and, um, they're the only ones who are choosing to do that right now.
I'll— I'm happy to hear that, so I'll stop here for a second.
Okay, Councilor Zimmerman, you are in the queue as well.
These are great questions, but it's, uh, it's different than like where I live in the city of Portland determines who picks up my garbage, right?
Right.
Um, that is not the case, uh, By a city process or by a Mt.
Hood regulatory process.
If there were other providers here, and there were at one point, you could have those options, right?
But that isn't where we just are in business with Comcast because we have chosen that they're going to be the only provider you can.
In other communities and previously in the City of Portland, there could be, and that we would be having franchise agreements for them as well.
So you're saying that there could be other providers?
But you've keyed into a really important point, and I hope that people are noting it.
If you believe that media is part of an honest government, which I do, and I've worked in a city where there was no local paper doing anything, and let me tell you, it's not a great situation.
All forms of that kind of open, honest government And public access and that nature of it.
Like, we are at a long-term risk here because if you look at the declining subscriptions, and I bet many of us are one of those declining subscriptions, that we're not paying that anymore.
And so this number is real and it is a— I don't know if it's a short-term threat, but it's certainly a long-term threat to the viability of community-based And I would extend it to, you could say that for newspapers as well, but right now we're in the cable and on the online and YouTube and then stuff like that.
But the PEG fee, as I understood too, Eric, is that because of some federal changes that I was looking at my notes from the Finance Committee meeting and I thought that Andrew had shared with us that we had one of the largest the 2.5, the new one, is still one of the largest in the— in— I don't know if he said the state, but that was in my head.
We did a scan of the nationwide, and, and this is still one of the larger ones.
Okay, nationwide.
And because there were some new regulations in, it looked like, 2019 that affected PEG, and I don't, I don't know exactly if that's been a direct impact, but, um, that I guess when they came to finance, I didn't take I don't think their presentation as they negotiated down for any reason other than the market had generally moved that direction.
And you've got to also, I think, have peg fees related to a certain cost model because it's either subscriptions or percentages of revenue.
But anyway, I think your points that you're asking, Councilor, are important.
And in a long-term way, I think we have some threats.
Thank you.
But I also just wanted to be clear that it's not the City of Portland who makes Portlanders have a Comcast subscription if they want cable.
That is, the market has made that choice.
I think that's an accurate statement.
Correct.
And as I said, most people are choosing to not have cable and move towards an internet-based way of receiving television.
So over time, we won't be getting PEG fees because people won't be using traditional cable.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilors, is there any additional discussion on agenda item 18?
Okay, seeing none, we will close this agenda item and move it to second reading.
Um, I want to thank everybody for efficiently getting through 8 There were a number of folks who did not think we would end before 11 o'clock tonight and thought we might even go to midnight.
So my gratitude to all of you for making sure that that didn't happen, uh, because the finance items are so interesting.
Um, tomorrow is Juneteenth, so I will not see many of you.
Happy Juneteenth.
Okay.
Um, I do want to note that we have 2 meetings next week.
Um, that's a week that we normally wouldn't be in council, but we have a work session on the parks levy, and we have a special council meeting.
Thank you to everybody who signed to get that scheduled.
We have 2 items that our fellow councilors have brought forward that, because we needed to prioritize Budget things are nearing the 90-day clock to get them scheduled, uh, the ordinance addressing noise code and a resolution on Portland Street Response.
So I wanted to make sure we could get those scheduled before we leave for 4th of July break.
And there are 2 other ordinances that for various reasons, um, I'd like to have us move sooner rather than later.
So I will, um, see you all at those 2 meetings next week and appreciate everybody who helped us get that special meeting scheduled.
And with that, I will close our council meeting.