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.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Good evening.
I am calling to order tonight's City Council meeting.
It is 6:03 on Wednesday, October 15th.
Welcome.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Evening, Clerk.
Keelan McClymont
Here.
Here.
Here.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos.
Present.
Dunphy.
Here.
Smith.
Here.
Kanal.
Here.
Keelan McClymont
Ryan.
Here.
Here.
Here.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And Lindley, could you please read our rules of order and decorum?
Thank you, President.
Welcome to 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 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 or trespass.
Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.
Your testimony today should address the matter being considered.
When testifying, state your name for the record.
Your address is not necessary.
If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.
And finally, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls their name.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lindley.
I'll note that after we get through some administrative business, we just have 3 3 things on the agenda tonight, but we are expecting a lot of testimony on all 3.
If you did not see the notice, it was sent to everybody who had signed up to testify, but unfortunately we had to cut testimony down to 2 minutes a person because we have almost 80 people signed up to testify between those 3 items.
So we wanted to make sure to let everybody know that as soon as we could.
I also will just note that in order to keep the meeting moving, we know there will be things that people will be excited or upset to Jazz hands, thumbs up, thumbs down.
Feel free to express that, but please do so in a way that is quiet, silent, so that we can keep moving through the meeting while also acknowledging folks' support or dissension from the things that we hear tonight.
Colleagues, the first thing on the agenda, as always, is agenda approval.
Is there any motion to reorder or add items to the agenda?
None have been filed in advance.
Keelan McClymont
So moved.
Second.
Second.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, seeing none, do I have unanimous consent to approve the agenda?
Okay.
The next item on the agenda is public communication.
Keelan, could you please call up our first guests?
First up, we have Robert Butler.
And while Robert makes his way up, I just will note, in case folks didn't hear it during the roll call, that we do have 2 of our councilors participating virtually tonight.
Councilor Clark and Councilor Ryan are online.
They are participating.
They just weren't able to be here in person with us.
Mr. Butler, thank you so much for being here.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you for saying that.
This is Robert Butler.
I'm a native of Portland here.
I'm going to talk a little bit first about the fact that we should be realizing now that Portland probably has the worst charter in the United States.
It's inefficient, it's slow, and it's very expensive.
Business is falling back, things are falling back.
I haven't heard anything about the annual report of the Bull Run Water Bureau that was due in July.
I haven't heard any progress on getting a new City manager.
There are a lot of things that, that are moving slowly instead of fast.
This is costing the city money when things move slowly.
So I think everyone should be trying very hard to get out of this position that we are now and streamline.
Secondly, downtown is a ghost town.
It is so disgusting.
We should all be ashamed of it.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
And we're not, we're not.
We're spending our time besides downtown.
We're spending our money besides downtown.
Last year we probably agreed to spend $1 billion on urban renewal outside of downtown.
Should have been inside downtown.
So about financial responsibility, fiscal responsibility.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yeah.
Keelan McClymont
This Parks Bureau increase of 75% for the next— this coming 5 years, a 75% increase for parks.
We're crazy, totally crazy.
I just talked about downtown.
Secondly, uh, the Bull Run.
With still plenty of time to turn back and beat the schedule And save about $2 billion.
So take your time because we're only spending about $35 million a month and $2 billion savings.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We got—.
Keelan McClymont
Wait till next year before we walk away for how much money you want.
We'll still be cheaper and finish sooner on schedule.
But I wanted to mention how you were so impressed with sand filtration.
Sand filtration brings stuff down from above and puts it through the sand such that it doesn't get in our drinking water.
Well, what, what happens to sand filtration?
If you have a mudslide, all that mud comes down and plugs up the sand.
You have a fire, all that fire ash comes down and plugs up the sand, and we're out of water.
So you know what doesn't sink down in the sand?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Oil.
Keelan McClymont
That we're not taking out of the water?
Cryptosporidium, the parasite, the microscopic parasite.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
You know why?
Keelan McClymont
It floats.
Crypto floats.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Think about it.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you and good luck for the rest of the year.
And thank you, Mayor, for being upbeat and positive.
And the rest of us are doing a good job.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Very much for being here.
Next up we have Justin Wood.
Good evening, welcome, and thank you for being here.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, um, good evening, members of the council.
Uh, my name is Justin Wood.
Uh, I am a home builder here in Portland.
Uh, I— my company name is Fish Construction.
I'm a former chair of the Development Review Advisory Committee here in the City of Portland.
I also served on Governor Kotek's Housing Production Advisory Council.
Our company has been building affordable homeownership homes in the Portland area for over 40 years.
The majority of our buyers make below the median family income, and they buy homes that are below the median family home price.
That's our passion and something we pride ourselves on filling a much-needed niche for middle housing in this city.
The city has for many years offered programs that provide us an opportunity to assist these buyers Through the SDC waiver program and the limited tax abatement programs.
These programs are not programs intended to make builders any more money, but they help us sell the homes at a price range needed for these buyers.
For the few of us builders who have long utilized these programs, we've had a wrench thrown at us earlier this summer when the City Council passed a resolution removing SDCs on all new construction in the city.
Well, I— while this is a great step, and I applaud the council for doing this to help provide more homes in Portland, There is an unintended consequence in how it's affecting those of us trying to build affordable homeownership opportunities.
Because our homes that had STCs waived through the Portland Housing Bureau program, our buyers have to provide income documentation and are limited by the price-income cap.
Builders who are now building homes who have just simply had their STCs removed are able to lower their prices, sell them on the market, and do not have any restrictions on who they can sell their homes to.
They don't have any income restrictions like we do.
Councilor If a buyer had an option of 2 homes that were similarly priced and similarly sized and finished, but one of them they had to fill out an application, pay an application fee, and provide wage documentation to the Portland Housing Bureau, and then the house across the street they did not have to do those, you can imagine that most buyers are just gonna simply go with the one they don't have to go through all the extra steps and hoops.
This is something that's gonna become a major problem for a handful, a small handful of us builders who utilize this program, and we're really gonna start to see these impacts within a couple of months.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Portland Housing Bureau estimates there's maybe up to 200 homes that are affected by this.
The solution must come from council.
It's a policy decision.
It's important to recognize that, well, this will not impact the city financially.
These are homes that have already had the SDCs waived.
The simple solution that I and the Portland Home Builders Association are advocating for is to simply remove the income cap requirements, but retain the price cap so that we still are trying to sell those homes affordably.
That would remove the ability for buyers to need to qualify.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
For years, a few builders like myself have been good partners with the City of Portland in filling the critical need for affordable homeownership opportunities in the city.
I ask the council to please be a good partner back so you don't inadvertently punish those of us trying to do the right thing.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for bringing forward that solution.
Next up, we have Angeline Adler.
Yes.
Is that something that we can consider in our homeless committee to monitor?
That's certainly something that either could be considered in committee through a discussion or that somebody could bring forward as an ordinance and bring to that committee.
Great idea.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Angeline Adler.
James Lee.
Mr. Lee.
James Lee.
Welcome, Mr. Lee.
Thank you for being here this evening with us.
Keelan McClymont
I am James Bernard Lee.
I reside in Southeast Portland and speak only for myself.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for hearing me today.
Keelan McClymont
On September 3rd, Mayor Wilson was to speak about transportation At an informal gathering of cyclists on Southeast Ancony.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
When he began, an obnoxious young woman with a bullhorn began to harass him.
Keelan McClymont
His security detail asked her to desist.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
She continued, continued, as did her posse, also armed with bullhorns.
I approached the miscreant and with a single swipe of my left hand swatted her weapon 10 feet down the pavement.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
The diversion enabled the mayor's security detail to make a discreet exit.
Quiet ensued.
In 2008, I experienced how our governance worked by filing for mayor.
At a campaign event, I answered a pertinent question: What useful ability beyond the political do you possess?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I am a physicist.
Throw a problem at me and I'll give you an answer.
In the— Most basic terms possible.
Keelan McClymont
On July 8th, Charity Montez, Director of the Office of Arts and Culture, made an extensive presentation to the Arts and Economy Committee.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I was astonished.
The first objective assessment of our major arts facilities, recapitulation of predictions I had made 40 years ago.
Keelan McClymont
A priori, the Performing Arts Committee had decided To repurpose the Paramount as a concert hall.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
All issues Ms. Montan elucidated ineluctably followed.
Keelan McClymont
There was no systematic planning.
Ted Wheeler has done likewise.
We are headed into the same black hole as the Performing Arts Committee drove us last century.
I ask you, as I asked Wheeler without response, To hear my 30-minute synthesis of the issues from the point of view of theoretical physics and history of architecture.
We ought to rehabilitate Keller seismically, then plan a proper concert hall and opera house.
In Charity Montez and Carl Lyle, we have 2 extremely competent and dedicated civil servants to do this.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
I possess peculiar competencies.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
They too should be used.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for being here.
Next up, we have Cassie Wilson.
Welcome.
Thank you for joining us this evening.
Good evening, council members.
Keelan McClymont
My name is Cassie Wilson and I'm a resident of the Buckman neighborhood.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
My testimony tonight is on behalf of myself, not my employer.
When I moved to Portland last year, there was a small group of folks living outside across the street from me, and they lived there for months, but then they were forcibly moved across the street late last year and continually broken up and displaced after that.
While it was upsetting to witness my neighbors be destabilized, it's nothing compared to what I've witnessed since Mayor Wilson took office.
Nearly every day this year when I leave my apartment to walk to work, people are being swept right outside, and I get to the office and people are being swept there too.
There are rapid response trucks taking people's stuff away every day.
They are forced to start over every day.
Councilmember Wilson, There's a terrible misconception that sweeps are good for disabled people using the sidewalks.
This couldn't be more wrong.
Not only are our unsheltered neighbors disproportionately disabled and elderly themselves, but when people are forced to move from block to block every day, I am forced to find a new route through my neighborhood every day.
And that's not their fault, it's the city's.
Sweeps destabilize entire neighborhoods.
Keelan McClymont
Councilmember I couldn't believe it when the mayor's office sent out an email asking Portlanders to consider donating to his overnight shelters and implying that if we don't personally help get the housing crisis under control, that the feds would come in.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Well, they're here flying helicopters and brutalizing protesters anyway, and it has nothing to do with our housing crisis and everything to do with fascism.
We have little control over how the feds try to attack us, But full control over how we treat our unhoused neighbors.
Sweeps, RV and camping bans, and overnight-only shelters have proven to be ineffective, yet the mayor continues to double down on them instead of proven solutions.
It's an obsession with the appearance of solving the problem and hitting shelter bed goals for political points without actually housing people.
Keelan McClymont
It's just destabilizing and disappearing people, something fascists Stop with the sweeps and false solutions and reallocate those resources to housing people.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And the work doesn't end when we get people into housing.
My experience as a renter forced me to become a housing advocate because protection for renters is so nonexistent.
Renters need and deserve stability and protection without having to beg or take legal action for it.
And disabled people deserve truly accessible housing.
Just ask the councilor who helps take my laundry in and out of the dryer because I can't reach it.
If you want to truly address our city's housing and homelessness crisis, you'll help to stabilize unsheltered folks and renters.
No one wants to constantly be moving.
Keelan McClymont
Make it possible that Portlanders don't have to.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Uh, we'll go back.
Angeline Adler.
That completes communications.
Thank you to everybody who's here tonight to share your concerns and thoughts with us.
Colleagues, the next item on the agenda is the committee referral list.
The only item on the committee referral list is Acceptable Run Treatment Projects Annual Report, referred to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
I believe we may be missing some things.
I'll make sure that we get them on for next The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda.
Keelan, could you please call the roll for the consent agenda?
Keelan McClymont
Clark?
Here.
Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
The consent agenda is approved with 12 yes votes.
Thank you, Keelan.
That moves us to the regular agenda.
Keelan, could you please call the first item on our agenda?
Item 5, adopt the Portland Urban Forest Plan to improve public health, build resilience, to climate change and promote environmental justice.
Thank you.
And this is an item that came out of the Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee.
And Craig, are you filling in for Claire tonight?
Keelan McClymont
I am.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Fantastic.
Could you go ahead and give us the committee staff summary?
Yes.
Keelan McClymont
Madam President and councilors, for the record, Craig Cook, Council Policy Analyst, and sharing the committee staff summary on behalf of Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira.
Keelan McClymont
Next up on the agenda is the approval of the ordinance before you, document number 2025-351, was heard in the Climate, Resilience, and Land Use Committee on September 11th and again on September 25th, where it was referred to council with the recommendation to pass.
The resolution directs city staff to engage in activities implementing the recommendations of the Portland Urban Forest Plan.
The recommendations include prioritize the preservation and care of the urban forest, reduce the cost of tree care for Portlanders, design and create new space for trees and other vegetation, expand the urban forest through planting, stewardship, and collaboration, provide inclusive communication, training, and education about the urban forest and tree care, use data tools and monitoring to support climate adaptation, meet canopy targets, and equitably distribute canopy.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Improve city codes, standards, and guidelines to support community resilience and urban forest health.
The full impact statements on this item include information on financial and budgetary impacts and analysis, economic and real estate development impacts, and community impacts and community involvement.
The committee adopted 3 amendments relating to reducing the cost of tree care for Portlanders.
Each amendment modifies language in the specified action items in the Portland Urban Forest Plan recommended draft.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Second.
Keelan McClymont
Exhibit A of the resolution.
Amendment 1 modifies Action 2-3 by directing the city to establish a plan by November 2027 to assume legal and financial responsibility for street trees.
Amendment 2 modifies Action 2-5 by directing the city to establish a plan by 2028 for how it could assume legal and financial responsibility for street tree-related sidewalk repairs.
Amendment 3 modifies Action 2-1 by clarifying that low-income Portlanders would be eligible for financial assistance under a new tree care program for private property.
6 People testified during the committee meeting on September 11th.
76 People submitted written testimony prior to committee action on September 25th, and 1 person submitted written testimony prior to council agenda posting.
General themes included trees as critical climate infrastructure in reducing extreme heat, improving air and water quality, and providing habitat for birds and other wildlife, inequities in the tree canopy across districts, particularly east of I-205, Request to add measurable outlines and clear timelines to action items identified in the recommended draft, urging the city to take legal and/or financial responsibility for street tree maintenance and sidewalk repairs related to trees, encouraging ongoing community participation and education, and a request for increased publicly accessible data to track tree canopy progress by district.
That concludes the committee staff summary.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much, Craig.
Councilor Novick, I believe you presided over this meeting.
Is that correct?
Keelan McClymont
I did.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Do you have anything that you'd like to add to the committee staff summary?
Keelan McClymont
No, although I don't know if you noted that there was dispute over at least one of the amendments.
So was that a unanimous recommendation?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
The report came out of committee unanimously, correct?
Keelan McClymont
It did not, actually.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, the report came out of Committee 4-1, and some of the amendments were unanimous and some were not.
Is that—.
Keelan McClymont
That is correct.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, there we go.
Thank you.
I knew there was some mix there.
Okay, colleagues, are there any technical questions about what we have before us before we move to public testimony?
Councilor Smith, is your hand in the queue for this?
Yes, I wanted to find out what was the dissenting votes.
Keelan McClymont
Which amendments?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Which amendments and—.
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, okay.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And committee.
Councilor, are you able to speak to that?
Keelan McClymont
Yes, I was a dissenting vote on the change to recommendation item 2-3, which now reads fund and implement a comprehensive citywide street tree maintenance program, and by November 2027, establish a plan for the city to assume legal and financial responsibility for street trees to improve the health and safety of the city's street trees and support habitat connectivity, because I was concerned about ordering that we establish a plan for the city to assume all responsibility for maintaining street trees when we don't have a financing mechanism for that.
And I think that the implication would be that the Portland Clean Energy Fund would take over that forever.
And although there is a current 5-year plan, during which the Portland Clean Energy Fund will provide initial funding to move in that direction.
I think we need to have a further discussion before making that a commitment in perpetuity.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Can I respond?
I, I think you're absolutely right, and we passed SIP, the Sidewalk Improvement Paving Program, that includes, uh, tree canopies.
And, uh, it will be also— I love that, I love that smile.
And, and it It will also pay for some of this, but not in perpetuity, and we've already passed that 11-0.
So I just wanted to remind folks.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Clark.
Uh, thank you, Madam Chair.
Um, the 3 amendments that were made— I guess this is a question to Councilor Novick or anybody else— those 3 amendments, are, are they all just plans?
That will come back to the council, unfunded plans, or actually, are we actually going to implement these?
Councilor Novick, can you speak to that?
Or Councilor Murillo, you were raising your hand.
You also co-chair here.
Keelan McClymont
I'll defer to Councilor Murillo.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I guess I just wanted to say, because we had differing opinions on the amendment, so I just wanted to speak to that a bit.
We, and I think some of the staff, were under the impression that because it does not list PSF, that Councilor Novick was reading into it that it might implicate PSF, but there's nothing explicitly written on it that does.
So other members of the committee did not share those concerns, but we all agreed that there has been a lot of attempts to use PSF for all sorts of things.
So there's a reason why people are concerned about that, but I just wanted to state that there's—.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
I would add, Councilor Clark, I think that they did all refer to plans or something like plans, but I have a concern about even instructing the executive to draw up plans for something that I don't think that we identified a funding mechanism for.
I'd rather identify the funding mechanism, then tell them to draw up the plans to spend the money.
No, I agree.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I think that's a good point.
I hear what you're saying.
I just wanted to know that there's no commitment to do these things.
This is an aspiration.
Keelan McClymont
I think that's correct.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Kanal, did you have technical questions for before we hear from the public?
Keelan McClymont
No, I had an answer to the previous question as I was the one who authored the amendment.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Has it been answered or is there more to add?
Keelan McClymont
There's one more piece to add, which is so There were 3 amendments.
The 3rd one has nothing to do with plans.
It was actually refining a program that's being recommended by the staff to prioritize low-income property owners for a different section of this.
And then the 2 parts that are plans, they are designed to create comprehensive enough information that the future council can decide whether or not to commit to these things.
And so the answer remains yes to Councilor Clark's question, but there is no commitment going forward.
And I'll also note that the word PCF does not appear anywhere in any of these 3 documents.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Murillo, did you have technical questions or clarifications?
Keelan McClymont
No.
No, sorry.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, I'm gonna add a question to, I think, the line that Councilor Clark was going down.
We are amending a policy So we are not putting these in code as commitments, but we are saying that this is the direction that the city intends to go.
Is that accurate for folks who are on the committee?
It's a plan for a plan.
As the city tends to love.
Okay.
I may ask this in more detail when we have folks from the bureau up here later, which I suspect will happen.
Councilor Kanal, are you back in the queue?
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, it is designed to acquire enough information from the staff to create— so that council can understand what path we could go down before deciding whether or not to go down that path.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I think that's what I'm trying to understand.
And again, I may ask again when we have staff up here.
I want to make sure that we're not binding ourselves to something in code.
That we would have to undo later if we're not able to afford it.
Keelan McClymont
Next slide.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
Colleagues, seeing no other technical questions in the queue, I'd like us to move on to public testimony.
I know that— actually, before we move on to public testimony, I will just note that we do have some amendments that have been filed online.
I know that it's sometimes helpful for people who are testifying to know what those are.
So before we move on, Councilor Dunphy and Councilor Novick, could you just do a brief run-through of what your amendments are if you plan on proposing them today?
And then we'll move to public testimony.
Councilor Novick, I think Councilor Dunphy is deferring to you to go first.
Keelan McClymont
Okay, sure.
On the item about street tree maintenance that we were mentioning earlier, The language where currently it says fund and implement a comprehensive citywide street tree maintenance program, and by November 2027 establish a plan for the city to assume legal and financial responsibility for street trees.
I'm proposing to replace that with by November 2027 report on the cost and feasibility of the city assuming legal and financial responsibility.
Because to me, as I said before, Saying that we're gonna establish a plan sends a strong signal that we are moving in that direction, whereas asking for a report on the cost and feasibility makes it clear that we're just exploring it.
Second, I had a proposed amendment to item 2-4, which I'm actually going to now replace with a different proposed amendment.
And this is something that I think I supported the amendment when it was offered.
After subsequently, particularly after conversations with PBOT, And subsequently learning something about what's in our charter about sidewalk responsibility.
The current language before us says identify financing strategies that include new funding sources, cost-saving measures, and other ways to improve pedestrian accessibility and reduce cost to property owners for repairing sidewalks damaged by trees.
And by 2028, develop a plan for how the city could assume legal and financial responsibility for street tree-related sidewalk repairs that takes into account current projects underway for the city and includes an estimate of potential costs.
The amendment that I filed that you could find online says by 2028, report on the cost and feasibility of the city assuming, as my previous proposal.
Since proposing that, I've learned that the city charter actually assigns responsibility for sidewalk maintenance to homeowners and says the city is not legally responsible.
So knowing that we're actually trying to mess with something that's in the charter, I propose reverting to the language that was originally in the proposal that came to— the version that came to committee, which simply says identify financing strategies, cost-saving measures, and other ways to improve pedestrian accessibility and reduce costs to property owners for repairing sidewalks damaged by trees.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So Councilor, your first amendment would change the changes that were made in committee, but still look different than the original, your second amendment would revert back to the original language.
Is that correct?
Keelan McClymont
Exactly.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, thank you.
Councilor Dunphy.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Colleagues, the most recent version is posted online, but I also emailed you a copy.
My amendments are in response to some of the voices of my constituents Folks in my community, specifically Thrive East PDX.
These are intended to strengthen the urban forestry plan by centering equitable and measurable outcomes, especially for District 1 and other low-income, low-canopy areas where tree canopy coverage and resilience investigations lag well behind the city average.
If district parity is the goal, and it needs to be, equitable outcomes must be written into each and every city plan that we create.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
So these specific— it is originally introduced as 7 amendments.
It is now 6 amendments are intended to support and weave into one another.
The centering of trees in the curb programming, we set up the urban forest plan, urban forestry plan to integrate with programs like SIP.
And as we look towards large infrastructure investments.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
And my hope is that by making these changes, commissions of the future will start working in towards by-district parity into their programmatic thinking from the very beginning of the work.
When we don't put those details into plans, very often district parity goes out the window in execution.
And because the issue is deep and longstanding, we need an era of being more detailed in our expectations and outcomes until the cultural norm has changed.
Outcomes are just as important as And it's up to us as electeds to step in to demand that action plans are in fact actionable and center our core values.
So each amendment I'm proposing ensures that the Portland urban forest and canopy grows more equitably and sustainably.
And before I dive into them specifically, I am willing— I'm open and happy to bring this forward as a package of amendments, but I'm also willing to pull any individual ones out.
And I thank you all who have given some input to trying to refine these.
Councilmember Including especially the public works staff.
Dunphy Amendment 1 would amend Item 3-2 on the recommendation and implementation strategy to create and expand trees in the curb zone.
Currently it reads, create a permanent trees in the curb zone program for streets without enough space for trees in the furnishing zone.
My amendment would add, quote, and to complete a funding plan ramping up annual Project completion goals, prioritizing low-income, low-shade residential neighborhoods, reporting annually starting in November of 2027 on locations, funding strategies, innovation, and district-level key performance indicators.
Dunphy Amendment 2 would alter item 2-2 to develop a street tree maintenance pilot program that specifically includes District 1 corridors.
It currently reads develop a street tree maintenance program Including a pilot program to inform— a project to inform program and cost specifics prior to citywide implementation.
My amendment would add, ensuring that at least one pilot area is located in District 1.
Dunphy Amendment 3 would amend Action Item 2-3 to fund and implement a citywide street tree maintenance program to include phased approaches that prioritize low-income and low-canopy My amendment would specifically add— it says currently, the current language is fund and implement a comprehensive citywide street tree maintenance program and by November '27 establish a plan for the city to assume legal and financial responsibility for street trees and to improve the health and safety of the city's street trees and support habitat connectivity.
I would add—.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor Smith.
Keelan McClymont
Phased to prioritize low-income and low-canopy areas.
In between the words street trees and to improve.
Dunphy Amendment 4.
I apologize, everybody, this is how lawmaking works.
Amend Action Item 2-5 that expands access to the Leaf Day program to highlight increasing access to areas without curbed sidewalks.
Current language reads, explore funding opportunities to support expansion Expansion of the Leaf Day program to more neighborhoods and provide more frequent service to improve stormwater management and expand program access.
My amendment would include, quote, would add, quote, including areas without curbed sidewalks.
The street sweepers can't sweep your streets if there's not a curb.
And East Portland doesn't have sidewalks, so we don't have curbs.
I have withdrawn the previously proposed Amendment 5, Due to charter concerns.
Dunphy Amendment 6 amends the performance measures to include a district-level lens for performance metrics.
Current language reads, performance measures, in addition to tracking each action in the plan, the city will use performance metrics to track— measures to track progress towards achieving plan goals and urban forest management outcomes.
My amendment would include at the end, quote, by council district.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Second.
Keelan McClymont
And last, add action item 2-6 to create a cross-bureau team to propose potential permanent funding mechanisms to council by March of 2027.
This is specifically a cross-jurisdictional effort to try and answer the question that Councilor Novick correctly raised about obligating future action without identifying sources.
My language would add As an action item, quote, establish a cross-service area team led by the city CFO to recommend potential permanent funding mechanisms for neighborhood climate retrofits, street tree maintenance, trees in the curb zone, and street tree-related sidewalk repairs, and report back to council by March of 2027.
So those are my 6 amendments that I would— am proposing.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Um, Councilor Green, I see your hand up.
Is this something that we should take before we go to public testimony?
Keelan McClymont
No, the charter considerations has raised a question for me, but that can wait until after testimony or whenever appropriate.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, we'll get to that first thing after public testimony.
How about that?
Keelan, could you please call up the first panel of testifiers?
And I know we have a lot of people tonight, so let's try to get as many people up at a time as we can.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Um, first up we have Keena Rubin, Terry Prigg Rigsby, Melinda McMillan, Darlene Sherman, and Micah Meskel.
Go right ahead, Ms. Rubin.
Do I have 2 or 3 minutes?
Unfortunately, we had to cut it down to 2 minutes this evening.
Okay.
All right.
The stakes for all of us are high.
First of all, I'm Kina Ruhm with Trees for Life Oregon.
The stakes for all of us are high if we don't work now to bolster the city's climate resilience.
Protecting and expanding our urban forest plays a vital role in doing that.
Please approve the urban forest plan.
It has lots of features to celebrate.
Here's just a few really important ones.
To address the city's dramatic shade disparities, it sets ambitious citywide and geographically specific canopy targets, plus canopy minimums for individual neighborhoods.
It spells out urban forest challenges and design solutions to create more space for trees.
And it calls for a city-run street tree maintenance program that will lift the cost burden of street tree care from property owners.
Relevant to this last issue, we recently read Councilor Novick's suggested plan amendments, including a language change to Action 2.3 on street tree maintenance.
Majority of the Climate Committee has already approved this action's original wording, which asked for the city to establish a plan to assume responsibility for street trees.
The councilor's amendment asks instead to report on the cost and feasibility of the city doing this We do not support this amendment as the city has already spent time and resources on cost estimates, several over the years.
More up-to-date and ground-tested estimates will be coming from Urban Forestry's street tree maintenance pilot program, which starts next year.
It is appropriate that this plan state the intention for the city to create a plan to take over street tree care.
Residents of every district want relief from this financial burden, and they want it sooner rather than later.
This onus keeps many people from planting street trees to begin with, or from being able to care for them properly.
Please do the right thing to protect the citywide residents you collectively represent by approving this urban forest plan.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Keelan McClymont
Terry.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Hi, good evening.
My name is Terry Parig-Rigsby, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.
I am with the West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District.
I represent District 5, and I'm chair of the board, and I'm here tonight to express our strong support for the city's updated urban forest plan.
This plan represents a historic opportunity to recognize Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Councilmember Herbold.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Mayor.
I'm pleased to support the proposed Portland Greenway Plan.
Greenways are critical to Portland's resilience to climate change.
Greenways are not just trees as public infrastructure.
They are integral to protecting our community's health, supporting biodiversity, and strengthening climate resilience for generations to come.
We must invest in green infrastructure to protect our neighbors and also to protect our investments in our public infrastructure.
The plan's ambitious canopy goals are grounded in clear equitable actions.
They expand Portland's Clean Energy Fund-supported planting programs, but they don't necessarily rely on those funds alone.
And I do want to note that the Urban Forest Plan is distinct from the tree code.
The plan does not propose specific code amendments, but it establishes a policy framework and vision that we need.
This clarity will help align future regulations, design standards, and inter-bureau practices Thank you.
I also wanted to just mention that this, in response to some concerns earlier about amendments, this effort will result in actual plans that do include costs, funding sources, legal impacts, and will bring science to the table so that we can better understand the ecosystem and, uh, community investments, um, that we need here for improved, um, health of our people and, um, ecosystem.
So thank you.
Please vote yes.
Thank you very much.
Melinda.
Good evening.
I'm Melinda McMillan, currently serving as an Urban Forestry Commissioner.
I'm offering testimony in favor of adopting this urban Forest plan, speaking as an individual and not for the commission.
I'd like to share insight to the community outreach portion.
You have looked over the document.
I'd like to share something about the process.
I was the Urban Forestry Commission's representative and participated on the Community Advisory Committee.
As an architect and urban designer, I have regularly worked with community advisory committees and participated in public outreach.
However, at the end of this period, I was convinced that this outreach process has been the most thorough, responsive, and equitable I've experienced.
Participants reflected a diverse Portland, both culturally and economically, while also representing different neighborhoods across the city.
As advisory committee volunteer members, we participated in a year-long process to contribute a vision for what the Portland canopy could become to citizens, underserved neighborhoods, and overall climate resilience for the city.
Additionally, our group wanted Portland to remain a leader in urban forestry across the country with the goals we helped define.
These aspirations were broken down into achievable, actionable, measurable steps by our community volunteers and others with whom the UFP team regularly met.
The team received a wide spectrum of inputs suggestions and direction, and would return to each meeting with disparate information thoughtfully integrated into each draft.
We are at a pivotal time for Portland as we experience increasingly extreme seasonal temperatures leading to significant risk to public health.
Increasing tree canopy is the most effective tool we have for mitigating these threats to Portlanders.
However, our urban forest is stagnating.
This While you surely reviewed the team's process and final plan, please be assured that the community outreach was not a superficial box to check.
It was genuine.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Darlene.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Council President and council members, I am Darlene Sherman, a resident of District 3 and a volunteer with 350 PDX on the Shade Equity Team.
I am testifying in support of the Portland Urban Forest Plan, including the three amendments that the Council Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee forwarded with recommendation to adopt.
I'm a retired ecologist with a career as a restoration biologist.
Our organization is a member of the Thrive East 350 PDX Coalition, and I'm.
Also speaking today on behalf of— on their behalf.
The revisions to the current plan have incorporated some of the urgency reflected in public comments to the draft plan, increased shade cover in the city, prioritizing low canopy neighborhoods where the heat island effect is the most pronounced.
With all due respect to my own District 3 Councilor Novick, I I cannot support the suggested revisions for the amendments in that it moves the can down the road.
I think that a lot of the work has already been done in terms of cost estimates for the street tree maintenance, and what we need is looking at funding options, and that can be done ahead of time with a presentation to the Council months ahead of the date of November 27th deadline, and I think that would be similar also for the funding options for the sidewalk repairs.
So in summary, 350 PDX and Thrive East Portland PDX strongly urge the City Council to adopt the Urban Forest Plan, including the three amendments.
Approved by the Climate Committee.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Micah.
Good evening, councilors.
My name is Micah Mescal, Bird Alliance of Oregon, and I'll start with acknowledging that I know this is not the main event today, and I want to send appreciation to you all for considering the ways that the city can lever its tools to fight back against fascism.
And I'm really emboldened by you all doing that today.
So as I mentioned, I am the Urban Conservation Director with Bird Alliance of Oregon, an organization that has been engaging on tree policy for 40-plus years and has been eagerly awaiting an update to the Urban Forest Management Plan.
And we are very excited and urge you all to pass it today.
I sat on the committee that Melinda summarized for over a year and alongside A diverse array of committee members representing East Portland and North Portland and Northeast and Southeast.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
North.
Keelan McClymont
And what we ultimately came to in helping inform a plan, I think is really strong.
And in that space, I was representing the 10,000+ local members of Bird Alliance who have remained steadfast in their support to push policy programs and funding for the city and the community Collectively and equitably tend and grow our urban forests to benefit birds and people alike.
Through this, urban forestry staff put a lot of effort over the last few years to update this plan, which included significant collaboration across city bureaus, incorporated other citywide initiatives, and included the voice of community to ensure the plan took a holistic approach to improving the city's efforts to grow and steward The canopy.
What we see in front of you today was further strengthened through deliberation at the Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee, where we worked alongside partners, council offices, urban forestry staff to craft some amendments to strengthen the plan, which were incorporated.
There's some additional amendments in front of you today.
I ask that you judge them based on if they are strengthening the plan or not.
I would say the revised Dunphy amendments appear to strengthen Strengthen the plan.
And I also think that Novick's amendments, though were not intended, feel that they negatively impact the plan.
So I would urge you to vote no on those amendments.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for your comments, all of you.
We appreciate you being here.
Next up, we have Abe Mullen and Noelle Studer-Spieback.
Go ahead.
President Pirtle-Guiney, Vice President Koyama Lane, councilors, my name is Noelle Stuter-Spievak.
350 PDX Shade Equity Manager and coordinator of the Shade Equity Coalition, with members from more than a dozen livability, health, climate justice, and environmental nonprofits representing thousands of Portlanders.
I'm here to support passage of the Urban Forest Plan as amended by the Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee.
Through this plan, we are building a lifeboat for the Portlanders of 2080.
Thank you.
And I hope you'll consider adopting amendments by Councilor Dunphy, which will expedite heat relief to thousands of residents who live in local heat islands throughout the city, but are most concentrated in District 1.
This is not the time to weaken action items with Councilor Novick's amendments, which would forestall relieving Portlanders of the burden to care for public right-of-way infrastructure.
Instead, it's time to set in motion planning that would need to take place to to get to our tree canopy to the level that will provide climate resilience to all Portlanders.
Cost estimates and feasibility studies for street tree care have already been completed by Parks Urban Forestry 2 times, and that there's a 3rd study on the way, along with a pilot project.
As for tree-related sidewalk repair, this expense is a primary reason Portlanders on fixed incomes and low to middle community income members do not want public street trees.
In my written testimony, I included sidewalk repair budget data from 6 comparable cities, all of whom managed to fund their street trees and sidewalk repair without having access to a program like PSUF.
Creating the plan in Councilor Connell's amendments would offer the opportunity to identify funding mechanisms.
There are ample examples from other cities and would also provide the opportunity to identify legal pathways and would not require the city to take on these costs immediately.
But could be phased in further funding as further funding is allocated.
We launched the Shade Equity Coalition in response to the city's inaction in the wake of the deadly Pacific Northwest heat dome of 2021.
This shook all of us who experienced it to the core.
Thank you so much.
There's no substitute for good ancestors who take action today.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Abe.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Good evening, good evening.
My name is Abe Moland.
I use he/him.
I'm a senior research evaluation analyst with the Multnomah County Environmental Health Program within the Multnomah County Public Health Division.
Thank you for this opportunity for the division to submit testimony on the Portland Urban Forestry Plan.
We're pleased to share strong support for the plan.
We view it as a critical investment in the health of Portlanders.
The health benefits of tree Canopy are well documented, and abundance of trees in neighborhoods leads to improvements in cardiovascular health, mental health, and birth outcomes.
Furthermore, we are all aware of the growing need for the shade and cooling that trees provide as we continue to see increases in heat-related illness every summer.
We strongly support the goals and strategies outlined in this plan, and want to highlight the alignment with our own division goals to improve community health.
A plan to improve Portland's urban forest is.
Plan to improve the health of Portland's residents.
To this end, we support the development and use of performance metrics that continue to center health equity to ensure further accountability in closing tree canopy gaps in communities that need it most.
We appreciate the use of the Multnomah County Heat Vulnerability Index to help accomplishment— accomplish this.
As your friendly neighborhood public health department, our team is available to consult on the health effects of the plan's implementation or other policy or system changes, and we welcome collaboration.
I'd like to share a final thank you to the community, the staff, and this council for the time and investment in developing this plan to improve the health of Portland's urban forests and the health of our community.
We look forward to the opportunities ahead to promote health and well-being through Portland's urban forest together.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you both very much.
That completes testimony.
Thank you, Keelan.
Colleagues, that moves us into discussion.
Councilor Green, you wanted to bring us back to the question of the charter.
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, I'm curious to understand a little bit more.
Thank you, Madam President.
I'm curious to understand a little bit more about these charter concerns that the City Attorney's Office has raised with those of you who've had those conversations.
When I read Section 9-407 of the charter, Yes.
Which is titled Sidewalk Improvements and Repairs, Duty of Owners.
You know, there's, there's a sentence, maybe 2 sentences in there that speak to the specific duties of owners of land abutting any street in the city to construct, reconstruct, and maintain in good repair those adjoining sidewalks.
But the rest of the section speaks to the city's responsibility and duty to ensure that sidewalks are in good repair, they are regulated, and we treat them with the Yes.
Same kind of authority and scope that we do the rest of our infrastructure.
Elsewhere it talks about if the parcel owner doesn't do a good job at this or fails to do a good job at this, then we'll just go ahead and do it for them and we'll charge them a fee.
So when I read this, I don't see it preventing the city from making a plan and saying, by the way, we can commit to lifting the financial obligation of the homeowner.
The charter doesn't prohibit the city from offering that, is the way that I read it.
But of course, I'm not a trained attorney.
I'd be curious to hear from the City Attorney's Office on this.
But I really think this could potentially be a conservative reading of the charter, and I wouldn't want that to stand in the way of the intent, which is to relieve these homeowners of the burden of not only maintaining these trees, but it solves I mean, part of the reason we're in a situation where we plant a tree and the tree dies is we have a principal-agent problem.
We do not have a system where we've said, this is infrastructure, by the way.
We are going to commit to this for equity reasons and climate reasons, and we're going to put our money where our mouth is.
So I would really appreciate some sort of clarity on kind of the legal reasoning there.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Lynley, are you prepared to help us navigate this?
Well, I'll start by identifying that there are a couple of other charter provisions.
There's also an attorney, I believe, on the Zoom call who advises urban forestry.
But let me at first point out, there is 9407, but there's also 9408, which provides no action shall be maintained against the city by or for any person injured because of any sidewalk defect.
There is also Section 1-105, which provides no recourse shall be had What that means is that if you're going to ask the executive side to review, you know, how would we go about doing what you want to do, they're going to have to analyze whether a charter amendment is required to do that for the sidewalk portion.
These don't speak to streets.
Keelan McClymont
Right.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So I just, um, and if Rob Yamachika is online and wants to speak to it, feel free.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Thanks, Lindy.
I'm online.
Uh, I think, uh, good evening, uh, members of the City Council.
My name is Rob Yamachika.
I'm a senior deputy city attorney.
I advise, uh, urban forestry, PP&D, Fire Bureau, and the Rangers.
Uh, Lindy identified, I think, the, the major Section of your charter is 1-105, which is the non-liability of defective sidewalks.
So that's— I used to do litigation as well for 13 years for the city, and that's the section that we use to tender defense to adjacent property owners, coupled with the appropriate section of the code, whether it be the visibility standard in Title 16 or, um, 17, which is your vehicle code.
So I think that the operative one is Section 1-105, not necessarily 9407 and 9408, although those are important as well.
That's helpful.
And when we think about the previous— I mean, the plan as proposed before the amendments that calls for the city to provide recommendations on feasibility on either a legal or financial basis, Does that rule out part of that saying, well, we recommend maybe a charter amendment to effectuate this?
A charter amendment would be required with the approval of the voters.
I will say I looked at, um, I spoke with Ken McGear who advises PBOT, and most street sidewalk maintenance is, uh, is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner in most cities in the United States.
And I looked at Seattle's code as well as San Francisco.
So our code is not— our charter and code is not unusual in putting the burden on the adjacent property owner.
Okay, I appreciate that.
I guess what I would offer colleagues is that I'm interested in passing an urban forestry plan that communicates to our city that we actually don't think this is a good way to continue going forward in time.
I actually think that we want to have a city that does not leave our homeowners in a position where they have to make a decision on whether they want to be in favor or against a requirement to have an urban canopy.
And this is kind of what our current situation is telling us.
And so if the resolution provides the administrative branch The sort of mandate to say, well, as part of this recommendation to council would be perhaps a discussion with the voters around a charter amendment.
That's, I think, what we need to see.
And I would hope that we would entertain that rather than sort of roll back the original language, which I think was stronger.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
I'm having similar concerns.
I mean, I'll start with it's deeply irresponsible for a charter to go into the details that ours does on a lot of stuff that should be in code.
If you take a look at Multnomah County's charter, it's pretty straightforward.
Portland's, you need a law degree just to get through the first paragraph.
So insofar as where should such a, matter be dealt with.
I find it deeply inappropriate to be in the charter.
And I have really appreciated the movement by, I think, the city apparatus and urban forestry and PSEF and everybody who's been involved to recognize, to Councilor Green's point, the infrastructure aspect here.
Having, you know, I've had a 5,000-some-odd repair to a sidewalk in a different city that I lived in.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
It—.
Keelan McClymont
No matter what you're making, that is a, that is a tough repair to get a notice from the city about because of the tree damage to a sidewalk.
One of my earliest memories with my grandfather is being out on the sidewalk on 47th and Holgate and helping him repair where his trees had lifted the sidewalk and He'd gotten a notice, obviously, and then we were— this was the late '80s or early '90s, and we were out there doing it Ralph style.
That's his name.
Just with some concrete, and I'm sure it was not by code at all, but we were trying to fix the sidewalk.
I'm looking at that house today.
He's been gone many, many years, but I'm looking at that house today on Google Maps, and on one picture, if I go to the old picture, I can see those old 4 enormous trees who were there, and they populated that parking strip.
And the sidewalk is walkable, but it's not in the best condition.
You can see it being raised up.
And that's the old picture.
Today's photo, not a single tree is in that parking strip.
And I bring this up because I have a feeling that if Ralph had not just gotten a notice on how to try to keep things going on an area that we don't— most of us don't know how to do, that if the city had been a willing and able partner, or even in this sense responsible perhaps those trees would still be there today, some old-growth large trees, uh, instead of being a completely— there are 2 lots now that have no coverage in Southeast Portland that I think probably would had the city been responsible for it and not a, a layperson.
So that is a bit of a statement.
My question to Councilor Novick, I'm a little bit surprised by the pushback that we're hearing about the language in your amendments because— and I'm wondering if you can highlight why— what is it about your amendments that are causing this concern?
Because it seems like, for me, it seems like some basic language, but I'm not— there's some connective tissue I'm not understanding from what we're hearing, and I'm wondering if you can enlighten me.
Um, thank you, Councilor Zimmerman.
To be honest, I'm a little confused myself.
Um, the original— we just heard people talk about what a great process we had and how much outreach there was from urban forestry leading to the plan that was presented to the Climate and Land Use Committee.
And on this sidewalk issue, I'm proposing returning to the original language that went through that wonderful process.
The original language was identify financing strategies, cost-saving measures, and other ways to improve pedestrian accessibility and reduce costs to property owners repairing sidewalks damaged by trees.
I'm all for exploring reducing cost to property owners, and I would like to do that in a measured way and see if there's any way in particular we can reduce cost to property owners who don't have very much money.
I'm not as excited about saying that we're going to change the charter and assign legal responsibility for all sidewalks to the city, including responsibility for sidewalks adjacent to people in Eastmoreland and the West Hills.
Now, as a matter of principle, I think that— We don't really have too many sidewalks in the West Hills.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
That's true.
Keelan McClymont
All right, let's just say Eastmoreland.
Let's keep it my district.
Well, no, my district and District 4 and adjacent parts.
Eastmoreland and Laurelhurst.
I didn't mean to get you.
But anyway, I mean, so I just want to go back to the original language that was presented to us.
And yes, I think it would be great if the city maintained all the sidewalks.
I also think it would be great if the city was maintaining our streets.
I also think it'd be great if there were police officers patrolling the area around McDaniel High School so that students aren't continually subjected to human trafficking.
There's a lot of things I think we should do, but I do not want to, in the context of a— what's supposed to be a visioning document about urban forest canopy, do something that I think commits ourselves to spending a bunch of money that we don't have and is also contrary to the charter.
Thank you.
I would say, as other colleagues comment, I hope that You'll weigh in if the words report on cost and feasibility is a sticking point that we're hearing from public testimony, because I'm just, I'm not understanding that sticking point.
I also just, from a comment, this is a pretty significant piece of work, and I will say I'm a little bit disappointed.
No, I'm a lot a bit disappointed that urban forestry or the Parks Bureau did not walk this urban forestry plan across the floor, so to speak, in the way that I get a lot of outreach from the bureaus on their big products that are coming.
I find that disappointing because I think in review of this, there has been a significant amount of public outreach, community outreach, some really important goals here.
And I appreciate those of you that put some hard work into amendments.
But this to me feels like a significant portion of the decision-making was left out, which was walk your plan with the council.
I feel like that has really been missed given the way that we post things later, because I would've liked to have been able to ask some questions of the bureau staff, especially as these amendments came in.
And so I'm looking forward to some of the discussion on these amendments.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I will note, and I appreciate you bringing it back to the underlying resolution, because we don't actually have any amendments on the table that have been moved, and we do have the bureau director and the, um, DCA here if we need to ask questions of them.
Councilor Smith.
Thank you, Madam President.
I have a couple questions.
Um, are there any preliminary numbers that we can attach to the— to these amendments at all?
I know that the report is requiring the department to bring together some numbers, but I mean, just Just a ballpark idea of any numbers.
DCA Dhanapal, would you like to answer that, or Acting CA Biery?
We happen to have somebody with deep financial knowledge of the city up here with us today.
Would you like to take a crack at that question?
I think we have DCA Dhanapal coming up.
Thank you, DCA Dhanapal.
Good evening, Councilor.
This is Priya Dhanapal, DCA for Public Works, and I have Brian here with me from Parks who will be able to answer the question.
Go ahead.
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, thanks for the question, Councilor Smith.
Brian Lando with Urban Forestry.
I can't speak to the sidewalk piece, but in terms of street tree maintenance, we have done a few cost studies over the years with a consultant, and it really depends Depends on the level of service you're looking to have.
There's different options within it.
But if we were to implement a system where— which is really the best practice— where every tree is inspected on a 5 to 10 year cycle, appropriate maintenance is done, between $15 to $20 million a year.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Really?
That seems pretty low to me.
I mean, it does.
I, I was, I was thinking more along the lines, particularly if you're having to, um, maintenance the trees, hire the personnel.
Keelan McClymont
Mhm.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And we have just downsized, um, the personnel in that department.
Keelan McClymont
Mhm.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And that, that, that alone would probably get you $15 million without even replacing the canopies and/or Does this plan address and mitigate for the potential of ongoing funding that you're going to have to do for— does that include the maintenance as well?
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, the plan identifies that many of the action items rely on existing funding or existing commitments from the Portland Clean Energy Fund, which we know are allocated in 5-year increments.
So it does assume certain levels of support would continue in order for them to be— for the plan action items to be accomplished.
And we know that some items don't have funding attached yet or would need future resources for them.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Exactly.
I appreciate it, and I appreciate the reports, the folks that they reached out to, and all the community engagement that took place.
Place with this.
But the other piece to this that we're even, um, grappling with is our, uh, our risk fund.
And my concern, if we're responsible for every tree, every sidewalk in the city of Portland, that we now have to be responsible for, like, my grandkids who are riding their bike down the street and they fall and they break their their knee or, or leg.
And I, I can see this as a, um, a gift that keeps on giving.
And that's something that I think that needs to really be put in there.
You know, I, I didn't see anything about the risk fund possibilities of where this could go or not, because I can, I can see it going a long way.
We just played Close to $1 million, um, for a kid who, um, unfortunately had some brain issues falling off of a, you know, the, the light.
And it was, it was horrible.
And so that alone, I— if everyone can file a claim, we also need to put that in your equation when you're talking about the $15 to $20 million.
Keelan McClymont
Mm-hmm.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Um, it's going to be huge.
But at any rate, I would have liked to have heard some additional— I just got my colleague's amendments today, um, on the 15th about the proposed.
And, you know, I'm going to always say, um, if we've already passed something like SIP, and we have to always circle back, and if SIP is going to be the vehicle to getting some of this done in the low-income and vulnerable neighborhoods, that we try to add a friendly amendment or something so that SIP can be included because we've already passed it.
Keelan McClymont
Mm-hmm.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And also identify funding sources because, you know, it's not lost on me or anyone up here that we have a hole in our budget and we've been talking about it for the last couple of months.
And adding additional operating expenses, we also have to think about that.
So I know where SIP is coming from, limited revenue bonds, but we need to identify funding for this new thing.
I think we all should have trees in our neighborhoods and adjacent to our homes, and our children should understand, you know, the value of trees.
And I think that's so important.
But just like Councilor Dunphy said, in District 1, Councilor Loretta Smith.
We have the fewest trees in the city, and this would definitely help District 1.
But we also need to stack up the, the wins and losses on each side and see what it's going to cost us.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Brian.
Brian mentioned the cost for the trees, the $15 to $20 million.
If you look at the long-term responsibility for the sidewalks, the curbs, and the drainage and everything else, it could be, uh, hundreds of millions of dollars.
So just wanted to make sure it's, uh, that it's, that it's clear.
So it's a lot of— I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
It's, it's probably, um, uh, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars if, if you— the long-term responsibility for the sidewalks could be larger.
Thank you.
And, and that's what I wanted us to be realistic, not just like, oh, we can just take $15 million and we're going to be able to serve everyone.
We have one of the largest urban forests in the country.
That alone would take $15 million to, to take care of.
Um, at any rate, I will pass it on, uh, Madam President.
Councilor, Councilor Kanal.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you, Madam President.
I move to limit debate on the urban forest plan resolution to an additional 20 minutes.
And then either move to a vote or to a motion to postpone.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
I believe—.
Keelan McClymont
Second.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
There we go.
We need a second.
I believe this is not a debatable motion.
Is that correct?
Lynley's shaking her head no.
Okay.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Keelan McClymont
Clerk.
No.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Green.
Keelan McClymont
Can you please repeat what we're voting on?
What's the motion on the floor?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
A motion to limit debate to 20 minutes and then move automatically to a vote on any motions on the table or to postpone.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Definitely in favor of postponing.
I don't think we're going to get through this.
Thanks for this proposal.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Ryan.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Also in favor of postponing, although I think this is incredibly important.
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
I'm confused again.
It's to limit and postpone?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Limit to 20 minutes, and then if we are in a place where we can vote, vote, and if we are not, postpone.
Keelan McClymont
Okay, aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Motion carries with 11 yes votes and 1 no vote.
Colleagues, I would ask us to try to move forward as much as we can tonight.
The proponents of this resolution specifically requested that we do this today.
Councilor Dunphy.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Colleagues, I would like to move Dunphy Amendments 1, 2, 3, and 4 as a package of amendments for consideration.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Second.
Keelan McClymont
Do I need more than that?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I don't believe so.
And I heard a second, but I wasn't sure from who.
Councilor Kanal?
That was seconded by Councilor Kanal.
Colleagues, we have Dunphy Amendments 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the table as a package.
We are moving to debate on that motion.
Councilor Novick, are you in the queue to debate that motion?
Keelan McClymont
Yes, I would ask to separate it.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
To separate all of them or to separate out one of them?
Keelan McClymont
To separate out, well, let's see.
I'm looking at, Councilor Dunphy, I'm looking at your emails.
There's Amendment 1 and Amendment 2.
Let's, uh, 2, 3, 4.
Um, let's see.
Um, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
1, 2—.
Keelan McClymont
I would, I would separate out 2 because I think that, um, well, no, let's see.
Uh, so, um, basically I'm okay with them except for 4, so I don't want to vote for all of them except for So you would ask that the motion be to vote on 1, 2, and 3 separately?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yes.
Keelan McClymont
Okay.
I accept that as a friendly amendment.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I believe this is a motion to separate, so we don't need a new amendment.
Councilor Kanal or Councilor Novick, would you like to vote first on 1, 2, 3, or on 4?
Uh, let's see.
Um, point of order, that decision is with the motioner, so that should be— I believe the ultimate decision is, but we usually do take a recommendation.
Okay.
Keelan McClymont
I vote first on 4.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, Councilor Dunphy, are you okay with that?
Keelan McClymont
Sounds good.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Colleagues, we are in debate.
On Dunphy 4, Councilor Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
So, Councilor Dunphy, I guess, um, with what I believe is going to be the inevitable postponing, I want to offer up comments of I could get there on most of what I've seen you propose.
It's hard in this moment with respect to— my real question is not just with this but others is perhaps why weren't they included in the plan given how robust this thing is?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yeah.
Keelan McClymont
And so I'm going to be looking for responses from you, from the Bureau.
I don't see the Director of Urban Forestry at the table, but I expect that she's probably here.
That's what I'm hoping to get.
And, um, I will probably ask that question for each of these as we go through it because of— we have such a trend that usually includes the language that you've indicated, but for whatever reason it wasn't here.
And, and, and I'll just make a comment, Madam President, in the way in which we're posting exhibits in the council.
I, I have found this one particularly—.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
On the agenda.
Keelan McClymont
Informative in that Exhibit A posted multiple times and then not really saying what Exhibit A is and the changes has, has created some, I think, unfortunate misprintings here that I think could have cleared this up earlier.
So that's my question to you.
But I, I'm looking forward to a larger conversation on all this so that we can all get there and support it, because I agree with Councilor Murillo, it's super important.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor, I believe the question to Councilor Dunphy and to the folks before us is why these amendments were not originally included.
Is that the case?
Keelan McClymont
And if they are passed, the expected impacts, outcomes, et cetera, what do they mean from a bureaucratic standpoint?
Yeah, I will just respond to that.
Based on testimony we received from Thrive East PDX and a number of other folks, they were very thankful Thankful for the robust outreach, but they didn't see that their outreach was, or that their recommendations were reflected in the action items.
That there, that it is a lot in the recitals and the beginning part, but not so much in the back part.
And that these were some specifics that they thought would match our previous investments and our previous discussions about the particular need in District 1, which they thought they had properly conveyed but didn't see it reflected in the file.
So they asked for some specifics that would help strengthen these specific items.
Thank you.
Are you aware— and I think since 4 is about curbed sidewalks, road cleaning, I don't know enough about road cleaning to know what a curb sidewalk plays in that mechanism.
Yeah, is it a guideline or is it just a— they can't physically be done?
I don't know enough about that.
My understanding broadly is that The street sweepers have the big brushes and they extend beyond the length of the car or the vehicle itself, but it goes— they drive it up to and brush along the sidewalk.
But if you do that into an unpaved sidewalk area, it pulls dirt and shrapnel of other kinds into the brushes and makes it ineffective.
And so streets that don't have sidewalks or don't have curbs historically don't get street swept.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Right.
Keelan McClymont
I live on one of those streets, and I put gravel down every couple of years in what would be a sidewalk and in the beginning parts of my driveway.
So I do get it.
And I also, I love a street cleaning situation, right?
But I also would like, is that, I want to know the mechanics from the Bureau in terms of what this means.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilors, rather than presuppose, I'd ask that we look to our urban forester, our parks director, and I see I see that we also have our PBOT director here.
If you'd like to come forward, maybe you can speak to street sweeping as well so we can get some technical answers for council and then get through as much as we can in the next 17 minutes.
Good evening.
Millicent Williams, Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Thank you very much.
I almost got out of here without having to answer any questions.
The street sweeping, it varies depending on the character of the streets.
So yes, of course there are some where you see the brushes going down the street, uh, clearing, uh, debris of all sort— of, of all sorts.
Streets that do not have curbs, um, we are not able to use the traditional street sweeper, but there are mechanisms that we use to clean them.
It's mostly forced water flushing, um, that we are, are able to do, uh, for those streets that are mostly gravel or the ones that we have declared to be gravel streets.
Keelan McClymont
We go through Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And that serves as the opportunity for us to do some cleaning.
So there are several different ways that this can and does work.
There are, however, quite a few streets, and especially now, that we've not swept in any way, shape, or form in the past 3 years.
So we're pleased that we're able to begin to reintroduce street sweeping in communities that have not had it, which is every community for the past 3 years.
Keelan McClymont
Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We are also pleased that we've been able to establish 23 new leaf districts.
I know that leaf districts is a portion of what you'd like to see us increase, but even in those areas where the street sweeping or the leaf districts are increased, we have to look at the different ways that we do that cleaning to ensure that it's actually effective and that we're not just Yeah, and I'll just note that this, this is not directing additional street sweeping in areas without—.
Keelan McClymont
This is specifically exploring funding opportunities to support the existing planned expansion of Leaf Day programs.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Programs and explicitly calling out including areas without curb sidewalks simply so that it is a future consideration.
Okay, thank you.
That, that was my last piece because I'm wondering why this is different than the opposition we're hearing to Novick's, which are tell us about the funding mechanism to the thing.
And that's another thing I'm just continue to not understand here.
So I'm going to move into listen mode.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Green.
Keelan McClymont
I'll be brief.
This comment applies to all the amendments to follow for, but as a District 4 councilor, as a person rich in trees, I'm always going to show up for District 1 when you're asking for trees.
I appreciate that the amendments are all sort of saying, let's prioritize District 1 here.
And I think it's not just about me sort of offering goodwill, it's about the climate challenges that we are going to face in this city.
Whether I vote yes or no on this, or if this passes or not, are going to affect District 1 in the largest way, disproportionately.
And so everything we can do will pay dividends down the road for people who grew up in District 1.
So I'm going to vote yes on 4.
I'm going to shut up.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Novick.
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, actually, my question— the reason I was prepared to oppose Amendment was that my staff told me the PBOT staff said that there's a liability issue here due to the fact that PBOT staff won't be able to see the frontage zone without sidewalks may intrude into people's yards.
I just wanted to ask Director Williams, is that a valid concern?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Could you repeat what you said we said?
Keelan McClymont
Sure.
What my staff said, somebody in PBOT said, is, quote, there is a liability issue here Due to the fact that PBOT staff won't be able to see the, quote, frontage zone without sidewalks and may intrude into people's yards, end quote.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Um, that's a thing.
Uh, but, um, uh, we do have the opportunity to work with our, our survey teams to identify, uh, where property lines begin and end to be able to most appropriately to how we are, if in fact, uh, directed to and funded to do this work, uh, able to make sure that we're not encroaching upon people's personal property.
We do that with every project.
So, um, there is a liability if we were to just willy-nilly go out and do something like that, uh, but that is not a standard practice that we would have.
Keelan McClymont
So as far as you're concerned, Amendment 4 doesn't freak you out?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Um, if I could be reminded of what Amendment 4 says again, I'm sorry.
Keelan McClymont
Basically expands leaf day to— or has an intent to expand leaf day to areas without curbed sidewalks.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I'm not concerned about that.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I doubt that folks would be mad if we picked up leaves in their yards unintentionally.
I wish they would.
Thank you, Councilor.
Thank you, Director.
Councilor Kanal.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you, Madam President.
I'll just I'll also keep my comments brief and say I intend to support all of these amendments.
I will note that District 2 is actually the district that has the lowest level of canopy in the city.
And but what I think that your amendments do, Councilor Dunphy, is offer a framework.
There's no harm to District 2 when you say at least one in District 1.
I think encouraging district-by-district thinking, not necessarily in the allocation of resources, but in terms of how we collect and display data is really helpful.
And I'll be happy to support 1 through 4.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Clark.
Thank you, Madam President.
I'm really struggling with all of these amendments.
And I thought Councilor Zimmerman's question was good.
Why weren't these included in the report earlier?
And I'm just guessing that this report was really meant to be a policy framework, a very high-level vision without a lot of these kinds of specifics.
I'm just musing about that.
And I'm also very concerned about the funding.
I feel like we're potentially committing ourselves or obligating ourselves to a lot of unfunded possibilities.
And that really bothers me, particularly because we're coming up on an election on Parks Bureau.
We're looking at reduced property tax revenues.
I'm very concerned.
So I'm really hoping that we can postpone this conversation to take a little more time to really wrestle with all these amendments.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And I also, I don't understand the conflict I'm just confused over asking for cost information in one amendment and supporting it in one amendment and not in another amendment.
So I'm just— I guess I'm just expressing my frustration with this whole process and particularly with potentially obligating ourselves to fund things that we don't have the money for.
But I think it's— I appreciate the work that's gone into this, the outreach that's happened.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I understand it's a guide.
I love trees.
I'm practically a pagan, you know, but we also have a financial responsibility here that is really weighing heavy on me.
Councilor, colleagues, seeing no other debate, I believe we are looking at Amendment 4 first.
Keelan, could you please call the roll on Amendment 4?
This is Dunphy Amendment 4.
Keelan McClymont
Clark?
No.
Green?
Yes.
Zimmerman?
Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos?
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Dunphy?
Aye.
Smith?
Aye.
Nowak?
Aye.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
The amendment is approved with 10 yes votes and 2 no votes.
Thank you, colleagues.
Is there any additional debate on Dunphy 1 through 3?
Councilor Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
Thanks.
Um, I think before getting to the separation of these I guess I would look for a— well, I'll put it this way.
The City of Portland has, in many documents and many plans over the years, we've included a prioritization or a focus on low income, right?
It's kind of a norm for us.
To see that it was taking an amendment to bring that language back in, Leaves me to think there was a reason or a purpose that this workgroup chose the language they chose in the original document and not what's being proposed.
So I'm looking for a take on that.
Then I'm looking for a staff summary or staff report on what Amendment 1 in particular would do.
I am not particularly sure I care about number 2 saying District 1 gets a pilot.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Cool.
Keelan McClymont
But for 3 and for 1, they have added language that y'all chose to keep out, and I'm hoping you can weigh in on that and then talk about its impact down the road if and as this was adopted.
Yeah, thank you, Councilor Zimmerman, for the question.
Urban Forestry has established priority service neighborhoods.
Those are based on income and canopy coverage.
The language in the plan says that everything we do in this plan is prioritizing those areas.
And so we actually made maybe more of a layout choice to not add that prioritization in every action item because we have 50-plus action items.
At the start of the action section and throughout the plan, we highlight that these are the inequities the plan is intended to address and to bring areas particularly in District 1 and District 2, up to the canopy levels that we see elsewhere in the city.
So we had that woven throughout the plan.
They were not in every specific action item simply because we felt like we'd be repeating the same language every time.
So with that in mind, the impact of these amendments— I think the language in here, particularly 1 and 3, is precisely in line with how we intend to roll these programs out, to prioritize those areas, and is Absolutely in line with all the community engagement and guidance that we receive through this plan, and that is embedded within it.
So given that, I appreciate that, like just the overarching, and you decided to go, that makes a lot of sense to me.
By adding it into the specific action language in this document, would it, Would it prevent or skew projects in light of trying to meet these words in the action item, um, for a project that is ready to go, it's easily attainable in an area that didn't qualify as one of these but otherwise would have met all the metrics of this plan?
But now that we've put this language in there, Does it put some things on the back burner that actually are quite achievable in the short term, even when others are not ready to go yet?
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Having that flexibility is helpful as we're trying to roll out major initiatives like street tree maintenance.
I think what we appreciate in the language is that it specifies prioritizing those areas, which we do intend to do, but not precluding delivering that service in other areas.
And some examples we have are Safe routes to school, transportation routes, freight routes will span neighborhoods, but low-income priority communities will use those streets that will go across different neighborhoods.
And so we wouldn't want to limit the ability of a service like street tree maintenance to address safety issues, canopy issues that are not just limited within a priority neighborhood, knowing that people travel and work and play across, across different neighborhoods too.
Thank you.
Okay.
And then can you just spend a little bit of time helping me better understand what a permanent Trees in the Curb Zone program really is trying to achieve?
What's that all about?
Yeah, so Trees in the Curb Zone is a PBOT-led project that provides a design solution for configurations of the right-of-way where we can't plant trees.
And so there's a pilot project that is underway right now.
I think the idea is that this is something that we are seeing really positive responses to and a lot of successes with the pilot, and we want to keep it going.
So the idea with a permanent program is that it may be identifying a permanent funding source or might just be proactively looking for funding whenever we can through different opportunities to continue installing these these street tree facilities because it addresses areas where we cannot plant trees right now.
Okay.
Okay, I think that has been helpful.
Councilor Zimmerman, if I can just very briefly add.
I fully recognize and acknowledge that the plan overarching goals do acknowledge prioritizing low-income and low-density canopy areas.
My intention is to be annoying and explicit about District 1 and areas where I think we should say it in every sentence that we can.
I do appreciate that that is a style choice, but I did want to be also intentionally flexible, recognizing that we don't want to put all of our effort into areas of the city where there are no trees, because there are also areas that desperately need extra attention and they have well-established trees.
So this was about signaling that intention, that overarching intention on the microscopic level without being too prescriptive.
Thank you, Councilor.
In number 3, you added the language phased to prioritize low-income and low-canopy areas.
From a bureau perspective, If we add the words phased, again, going now into number 3, and this is with respect to tree maintenance.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Mm-hmm.
Keelan McClymont
If there are— I guess I'm feeling not informed enough to be able to understand if you were going to roll out a street maintenance program without that language in versus if you're going to roll it out now that we say it has to be phased.
What differences can we expect in the program given that amendment?
I think— I don't think it significantly changes, again, the work plan we developed and where we see that program going.
We would— this is a major undertaking to maintain 250,000 street trees, so it was going to be phased already because of the need to bring on contractors, all the capacity building that's going to happen over a 5-year period.
And then in terms of, again, that prioritization, that is what we intend to do to reach the areas of the city that have not been well served in this capacity in the past and bringing that service to them first.
So I don't think it significantly changes where we saw this going.
And so, um, in this situation, so as this rolls forward, fund and implement, Yes.
Etc., etc.
It is going to be great to see contracted or city crews come out to a neighborhood and maintain the street trees.
Like, that is such a win for, I think, the city.
I would take that to mean still that me, especially because I'm one of those people whose tree covers like the whole neighborhood with its own leaves, so I'll be raking concrete here quite soon.
But if a limb falls, regardless of whether or not your team's got out there, a limb falls and lands on my neighbor's I'm taking it as I'm still on the hook to that.
And it kind of gets a little bit to some of the liability questions we had earlier.
But I take it as it's nice that the city will maintain my tree, but I still have ultimate responsibility either to call ahead of damage happening or take it upon myself to take responsibility for the property that I have that can affect others.
Is that the correct way to read these plans?
I think that's probably correct.
Our plan really focuses on the service that urban forestry can deliver and where our area of expertise and focus is.
We envisioned that as part of that, we'd be working with the City Attorney's Office, working with CityRisk at what is— how does the liability question play into this?
Because there are different models around the country where sometimes the adjacent property owner retains the liability.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Mm-hmm.
Keelan McClymont
But the city has committed to a level of service.
There's also ones where the liability does shift to the, to the actual city.
So I think there are options that we intend to explore as part of this, but the plan is more focused on reducing the cost burden, which really relies on Urban Forestry building that program.
Thank you, and I appreciate the language you're using because it is about planning for this service coming to our community versus We vote today and tomorrow everybody stops maintaining their trees.
That's not what's happening tonight, right?
And so appreciate that and your thoroughness in asking my— or answering my questions.
Thanks, Brian.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Colleagues, we are past our 20-minute time.
Seeing no one else in the queue for debate, Councilor Novick, I believe that was an old hand.
Is that correct?
Keelan McClymont
It actually— I was going to clarify something.
But I can wait.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
I would ask if folks are okay if there is no more debate here, moving to a vote despite being past time on these 3 amendments.
Keelan McClymont
Oh, sorry, Madam President.
Actually, if we're going to move— I thought you were just going to shut us down.
If we're going to move to a vote, I do have a couple of things to say.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, then we will postpone without the vote on these.
I want to just make sure we're Just to be clear for the record, we are postponing in the middle of debate on Dunphy's 1 through 3 amendments.
We will pick back up on debate on amendments 1 through 3 and then debate presumably on the underlying or any further amendments that are proposed after that.
This will come back at either the meeting on the 22nd or the 29th.
I need to check agendas to see where we have the most room.
So I apologize that I can't tell you which date yet.
Unfortunately, because we have a work session scheduled for tomorrow, we're not able to bring this back tomorrow, but it will come back later this month and we will continue debate and, uh, move to an ultimate vote on the resolution.
With that, Keelan, we are, I believe, opening the next 2 agenda items together.
And I'm sorry, thank you so much, all of you, for being We will pick this back up.
Colleagues, I believe we are opening the next 2 agenda items together.
As I noted in an email to you all earlier this week, because we have a significant amount of overlapping testimony, we will open these 2 items together, give the carriers time for an introduction on each of them separately.
Thank you.
Daylight any pre-filed amendments and then move to public testimony on both items.
We'll then separate back out for debate and votes on each item separately.
Keelan, could you please open agenda items 6 and 7?
Item 6, denounce any attempts to deploy the United States Armed Forces, the National Guard, or militarized federal immigration enforcement in Portland And establish the Protect Portland Initiative.
Item 7, add code to enact sanctuary city status protections.
Thank you, Keelan.
And for folks who are here with us today watching in the room or online, I will note that because both of these items were referred directly to council and we did not have a prior work session on them, that's Usually things either run through committee or have a prior work session.
We don't have a committee staff summary or chair report.
We're just moving directly into presentations, something we don't usually do in full council, but we're doing things a little bit differently tonight on these 2 items.
I want to thank everybody for being here today for this.
I know this is the, the main show that many people have been waiting for, and I just want to take a moment to appreciate all the collaboration that went into bringing these items forward today.
I have said many times over the last 2 weeks that there are a number of different councilors who are working on different ways that we can approach this moment.
We have a federal administration who is working in our city in ways that are against the values that many Portlanders hold, and today is just one step in what I'm sure will be an iterative process as everybody up here looks to different ways to respond to that.
I want to thank everybody at the dais who has put in work here and also everybody who is here to have conversation with us about how we move forward.
I also want to acknowledge that for many members of our community, there is a lot of fear right now and a lot of fear wrapped up in the conversations we're going to have Tonight, and there are people who are not with us tonight and are not testifying because they did not feel comfortable coming to a big public event.
I think it's important to acknowledge that and acknowledge those folks who are living daily with the consequences of the actions of our federal administration.
So with that, we are going to move first into a Presentation on the resolution before us.
Then we'll have a presentation on the ordinance.
We'll then move into a panel of testifiers who are here to speak to both of these items, and then into public testimony.
The resolution before us has been co-sponsored by 4 councilors, including myself.
I will open us up Then we'll turn to Councilor Avalos, Council Vice President, and Councilor Clark.
As leaders, I believe it is incumbent upon us to use every single tool we have to stand up for our community as we face a federal administration that is frankly hell-bent on singling out Portland in their attempts to move an ideology in our country that does not move us forward.
This joint resolution is one of the ways that we are standing up to these attacks and standing up for the incredible progress that our city has made over the past few years.
Like every city, Portland has our challenges, and we on the dais show up every day to do our part in addressing them.
But the reality is that Portland has seen decreases We have seen increases in Portlanders and visitors who are out enjoying our city, and Portlanders from every neighborhood and across the ideological spectrum have united to voice their opposition to federal intervention in our city.
This council has also been united on many of the actions that we have taken as a city.
Mm-hmm.
And we might not always agree, but as we face down federal actions, in many cases we are on the same page.
I want to express my gratitude as we move forward this evening to Councilor Avalos for initiating the resolution before us.
Your work with Council Vice President, myself, Councilor Clark, and with so many stakeholders has been instrumental in giving us a framework for the conversation that we know we will be having over the coming weeks and months.
I want to acknowledge that as we put together this resolution and had conversations with the mayor and his administration about some of these pieces and the feasibility of moving them forward, the mayor jumped at the opportunity to begin some of this work.
And Mr. Mayor, it has been fantastic to collaborate with you on these efforts.
I appreciate the places where you have already begun the work And look forward to being able to help move that forward as we pass this resolution tonight.
Perfect timing.
And I want to thank the many community members who have worked with us as we move this forward: our city employees, partner groups who are here today, and others in the community who have provided feedback on how we can address, how best address some of the challenges our city is facing.
The ACLU.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
I want to thank the many people within the city who have helped us to make this the strongest resolution possible today.
Our city attorneys, Police Chief Bob Day, DCA Bob Casi, and others who sat down to make sure that the work we were putting forward is as strong as it can be, is implementable, will lead to programs that actually accomplish what we're looking for.
I am proud of every single Portlander who is showing up and pushing back on the Trump administration.
At the city, there is much work to do, but I am grateful that today we get to take some steps forward.
I'd like to turn it over to Councilor Avalos for a brief presentation on what this resolution will accomplish.
Thank you very much, Council President, for that amazing introduction.
Um, Council Clerk, if you could get the PowerPoint up for me.
All right, here we go.
So, uh, I'm going to take a couple of minutes to walk through the resolution.
Next slide.
So this diagram shows the full framework of the Protect Portland Initiative, the coordinated framework structure our city will use to respond to threats of federal overreach and militarization.
These components form a comprehensive, values-driven framework that keeps Portlanders safe, informed, and protected from escalating threats from the Trump administration.
Next slide.
This first section formally calls on the mayor to establish and implement the Protect Portland initiative as the city's coordinated framework.
It ensures that our entire organization, from City Hall to our community partners, is aligned and ready to respond to any threats of federal overreach or unconstitutional force.
Next slide.
This section directs the mayor to protect Portlanders' constitutional rights Our rights to privacy, free speech, assembly, and protest, and to take an active stand against any attempt to deploy the U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard, or militarized immigration enforcement in Portland.
The city must pursue all legal avenues to stop unconstitutional actions, and city bureaus, including the Portland Police Bureau, are prohibited from assisting in the suppression of peaceful protests.
Finally, it requires transparent reporting so that residents know if any federal operations are happening in our city.
Second.
Next slide.
To put this framework into action, the resolution directs the city to coordinate across all levels— city bureaus, the county, the state, and community partners.
It creates immigrant affairs liaisons in each service area, launches a public-facing Protect Portland information hub, and mandates quarterly reports to council.
It also strengthens rapid response networks with community partners and secures city facilities from unauthorized federal access.
Next slide.
We are also asking our Office of Government Relations to advocate for stronger federal laws that protect civil rights and limit federal militarization.
Next slide.
This section ensures that Portland Police remain accountable to Portlanders, not to the Trump administration, and focused on local public safety.
It prohibits deputization of our officers, Bans joint immigration operations, and directs PPB to create a clear protocol for any interaction with federal agents.
Those encounters must be logged, verified, and reported.
Officers will be trained to follow these protections rigorously.
Next slide.
This section ensures that every city bureau must document and report any known federal enforcement activity involving city property.
That's all.
This resolution reaffirms that Portland is and will remain a sanctuary city.
No city resources will be used for immigration enforcement, and any exceptions required by law must be documented and reported.
This ensures we continue living our values of inclusion, equity, and local democracy.
Next slide.
Our values extend to those who work with the city.
Contractors will be required to comply with sanctuary city policies, complete training on residents' rights, and refrain from sharing personal data with federal agencies.
They will also receive multilingual know-your-rights materials, and compliance will be closely monitored.
Next slide.
Lastly, the council also commits to working with the mayor and the city attorney to identify any future ordinances or code changes needed to safeguard Portlanders.
We have reaffirmed that any deployment of military personnel, including the National Guard, without local consent is unacceptable.
Thank you.
Portland will always stand for transparency, accountability, and local control.
Next slide.
And with that, I will pass it back to you, Council President.
Thank you, Councilor.
Council Vice President.
Thank you, Council President.
I know that we are in terrifying times, and now is the time to speak up.
Now is the time to stand firm in our values.
Now is the time for us to model being brave rather than staying silent and hoping things will be okay.
In World War II, many Portlanders thought being silent and complying was the best way forward as their neighbors were being disappeared.
I truly wish that more community leaders and everyday constituents had stood up and spoken out when the federal government forced my own grandparents and many other Japanese Americans into U.S. concentration camps.
This evening, this council has the opportunity to stand up and speak out.
I'm proud to be part of the work to defend our neighbors and our democracy.
Thank you to all of our community partners for everything you do, have done, and continue to do.
It's an honor to be in relationship with you all as we fight together for democracy.
Councilor Clark.
Thank you, Madam President.
I want to make a personal statement.
I'm very proud to co-sponsor the Portland Protect Portland initiative in response to the Trump administration and federal overreach.
The federal government is wasting tax dollars, violating the Constitution, and disrupting our lives.
I believe that as an American, as an Oregonian, as a Portlander and a city councilor, but also as a resident of a neighborhood, I believe this.
I live a 10-minute walk away from the ICE facility, and I hear the actions, I hear the noise, I hear the helicopters.
It's simply unacceptable.
It's reminiscent of what happened in Kent State when helicopters were constantly circling the university, intimidating the college students, creating anxiety.
Councilor Smith.
It's disruptive, creating fear and anxiety now.
I want to say that growing up, I learned the value of hard work in my family's small diner where my mother worked as a waitress.
My brother and I waited tables, washed pots, and let me tell you that my family business could not have survived without immigrants.
They are our neighbors, our teachers, our doctors, They help build the affordable housing that we need, help pick and prepare the food we eat, and make the beds we sleep in.
They deserve justice and they deserve dignity.
The Trump administration's actions have become untenable and they are calling into question the very nature of the rule of law.
And this is where the Protect Portland Initiative comes in.
Your city councilors Councilors are listening and we're taking action where we can, can to safeguard Portlanders from harm.
We don't want this.
We don't want this in our neighborhood.
We don't want our neighborhoods overrun by chaos and confusion.
We don't want Portlanders feeling scared, anxious, or intimidated.
So in short, these are not our values.
Colleagues, I ask for your vote for this resolution.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
That concludes the introduction to the resolution.
Councilor Kanal, would you like to give an introduction to the ordinance?
Keelan McClymont
Yes, thank you, Madam President.
Thank you to everyone for being here tonight.
I'm just going to give a second for the slides.
In 2017, the City of Portland adopted a resolution that enacted sanctuary city status.
This resolution followed actions by the state beginning in 1987, as well as Multnomah County's sanctuary county resolution from 2016.
The resolution that we have as a city is comprehensive, but as our attorneys have told us, it's not legally binding.
These protections that we have are meaningful when they're strong, especially in light of recent heightened threats to the legal protections guaranteed to everyone here in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, as well as to our institutions.
We've seen violation and violation after violation of due process rights, and we've seen the current federal government rescind a policy that protected schools, hospitals, and houses of worship from immigration raids.
These are also not hypothetical risks here in Portland.
All of us have constituents impacted in our district, including District 2.
Last month, 3 people in North Portland were kidnapped by federal agents without any right to due process over a 48-hour period.
They were violently ripped from their cars, they had their windows smashed in, and most heartbreakingly, taken in front of school while dropping off their children in a couple cases.
This is happening in other districts too.
In District 3, parents are being stalked with ICE agents staked out in front of a public elementary school, and we also, even today, are receiving reports in Cully around the PCC campus.
That's bad enough, but we also know where it could go.
In Chicago, we have videos of ICE agents arresting a 15-year-old girl who's screaming that her parents won't know where she is and that she's 15, and the response is that ICE agents throw her down and briefly kneel on her neck.
Closer to home, we've seen in Milwaukee, Oregon, a U.S. citizen born in California detained by ICE, profiled for the color of his skin and his name, as the Supreme Court has said is legal, but as Portlanders know, is immoral.
We have both state and local protections against police officers collaborating with ICE here on federal immigration enforcement.
There is a directive of the Portland Police Bureau which operationalizes that resolution for police.
And while there are edge cases that have raised questions, we've seen that on the whole, the rules that we have at the state and local level work.
They've reduced not only the chances that police officers will support immigration enforcement absent judicial order to zero, but have also shown Portlanders that they can share information about a crime that they've witnessed with Portland Police Bureau officers without risk of themselves being rounded up and deported.
And this ability to trust in local police is one of the main reasons that sanctuary status supports public safety.
The 2017 study, The Effects of Sanctuary Policies on Crime and the Economy, which was cited in our 2017 resolution, shows that crime is lower and economies are stronger in sanctuary counties compared to non-sanctuary counties.
And that's great.
It's really great.
But we are more than a sanctuary police bureau.
We are a sanctuary city.
And we need to provide support to our employees and their supervisors so that they know their rights and can meet their responsibilities.
For example, the 2017 resolution created trainings for staff and resources for people who are affected and impacted by immigration enforcement, which were deployed once back then but not deployed again.
And that's a problem that we can solve with this resolution.
I want to pause for a moment and recognize that Councilor Murillo, one of the co-sponsors of this ordinance, is an immigrant.
Councilor Avalos and I, also sponsors, are children of immigrants.
These issues are not theoretical to us.
We not only work on this legislation to bring justice and support for our communities, but we go home and we live the impacts of it, as we currently go home and live the lack of this legislation.
Councilor Koyama Lane, one of the co-sponsors, has spoken strongly about the risks of rounding up people without due process, including earlier today in the context of World War II.
Councilor Novick, who is also a co-sponsor, has been working with me— we're co-chairs of the Community and Public Safety Committee— for months on how to improve public safety, and sanctuary status is something he and I know, and I think everyone here knows as well, is something that enhances public safety.
I'd also like to, to note Councilor Smith, the final co-sponsor, is one of the key sponsors of the 2016 Sanctuary County resolution when she was a Multnomah County Commissioner.
And just to go back into what we've been talking about here, our city workforce is also affected.
Uh, staff in the city have contacted my office and shared their fear and their trauma around contacting and encountering and enforcement actions at home and at work.
If they themselves were kidnapped at work, would their supervisor know what to do?
And that despite 9 months of staff and, uh, and specifically Latinx PDX, our employee resource group for Latino employees, asking, as of last month, no trainings nor safety rapid response plans have been offered.
Today is the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month.
I joined the Latinx PDX earlier today for empanadas and for celebration But also for solidarity.
And I wanted to highlight and celebrate the partnership that our offices have enjoyed working with Latinx PDX on this legislation.
There is not one page in here which your words and advocacy have not affected.
We need to act on those concerns by passing this ordinance.
And then I also want to acknowledge the mayor for taking important steps to address these concerns.
Today I want to celebrate he's implemented centralized internet web resources.
Thank you.
Moved forward with immigrant liaisons, made available trainings, distributed Know Your Rights cards, signage for facilities has been posted here.
There's a lot more as well, and I want to thank the mayor for that and say that I want to make sure that this city is resilient if there's a mayoral change in the future, as well as whatever comes from the federal government.
And finally, I want to note that this ordinance stands on the shoulders of those who've gotten us to this point.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
This picture on the right here, I'll come back to this slide later, is of Councilor Smith, then County Commissioner, speaking in favor, testifying here in support of the resolution in 2017, just after the December 2016 Multnomah County resolution.
The city resolution back then was also authored by now State Representative Andrea Valderrama, who was then a City Hall staffer.
She went on to work on the State Sanctuary Act in 2021, making it binding law.
And it's, it's important to note it is binding law at the state level, but for the portions that are relevant specific to the city, those have not been put into binding city law.
And that's the reason for this ordinance.
I'm going to pass it to Councilor Murillo to talk about the impact of, of having no binding protections, and then we'll come back and explain a little bit about what's in the ordinance.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor Kanal.
Um, I'll keep my comments brief because I really want to hear from all the folks who have been waiting for a long time to testify, and I appreciate your patience as we handle some other city business tonight.
I think you explained the policy really well, so I won't get into that.
But it makes me proud to be standing here alongside my colleagues who are bringing forward both a framework and this code change, to know that as a Paraguayan immigrant, that my colleagues have my back, that they have our community's back, and that with the tools that we have at the city level, we're going to do what we can I also know that I am an immigrant, but my colleagues also have family members who are immigrants.
My fellow colleague, Councilor Koyama Lane, has family members who were impacted by a fascist federal government as well.
We all here hold different identities, whether we're queer, Jewish, immigrants, people of color, anything really, because we know that when we stand in solidarity, we stand stronger.
Thank you.
With one another that it means that they're going to come for us next.
So unless we move through this together, then we're not going to get very far.
I think that there's oftentimes where we want to talk about our values, and that matters, but I really appreciate Councilor Knoll putting this into code and making sure that this is solidified and that it is going to be more legally protective of our community.
I think that implementation is the oftentimes less sexy but far more important work that ends up happening behind the scenes that leads to long-lasting change.
And so I'm just very grateful to be here with all of my colleagues today and for all the people who showed up to testify and for all the people that have been protesting day in and day out, because I actually think that we're going to win.
It's just going to be really hard and it's going to take all of us doing our part, but I do believe that we're going to win.
So thank you for being here tonight.
Keelan McClymont
Thanks, Councilor Murillo.
So just to nuts and bolts here, the, the ordinance does a few core things.
It takes the 2020— yeah, 2017 resolution's content, updates it to mirror the changes, uh, to the state law that were enacted in 2021, and puts them into code.
What's not included in the state laws but are included in the city-specific components components established by the resolution and now going into code with this ordinance are things like trainings for employees and protocols and procedures for employees or community members are picked up by ICE.
It will require that the administration finds a way to ensure that all city staff know their responsibilities and have the tools necessary to fulfill them.
And that might include revising existing trainings and establishing notification processes.
New to this ordinance is incorporation of ideas being implemented Thank you.
And I'm sure that in addition to Portlanders at home watching this, at some point this will be watched by people in Chicago, in LA, in DC, and in so many other places around the country.
And if you're fighting against an authoritarian government anywhere in this country, we are with you, and I want you to hear that from us.
Some of those ideas are labeling public and private spaces within city buildings and ensuring that people cannot enter the private spaces without a city badge or a judicial warrant, providing companion resources explaining why the signs exist.
And this is because ICE can access any public space to kidnap people, but to enter backroom areas and private event spaces within a public building, they must have a judicial warrant.
And so making that clear protects space.
And this empowers staff asking for ways to protect our community members who may be visiting them.
And also For even us.
If you come to my office to meet with me or any of my colleagues in their office, that's a private space and nobody's getting in without a warrant.
Finally, it directs the city to initiate— to report on Freedom of Information Act requests to get information on the federal government's activities in Portland.
There'll be an adjustment to that text being proposed here, but broadly speaking, Portlanders deserve to know who's in our community and what they're doing.
I'll start to wrap up here by expressing appreciation Appreciation first to the city attorney's office and the auditor's office for their assistance in this process, which has been pretty significant.
Ordinances take a lot of work, and I appreciate that.
I also want to highlight that we've been talking about this issue for several years.
The moment is now where it's back on the front pages, but we needed to do this for a while, and a lot of the organizations that you're going to see on this slide have been in support of this for a long time, and it's just that the moment is aligned.
So I want to, to thank everyone, um, on this list.
I won't name everyone, but I did want to shout out Latinx PDX again, uh, CPPW, SEIU.
I'll also note the entire Multnomah County Board of Commissioners and the entire Portland Public School Board of Directors, as well as their student rep, their, their superintendent, and that does include the student, uh, representative on the school board, um, have all supported this, and it's for good reason.
In closing, as the federal government escalates its horrific attacks on our city.
It's more important than ever that we take steps to protect our communities.
Let's show what Portland stands for by aligning our laws with our values.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Colleagues, we're now going to invite up 2 panels of speakers to provide some context for what we're talking about today, and then we'll hear from members of the public and then move into conversation and debate.
For the first panel, I'd like to invite up Mercedes Elizalde, Ryan Sotomayor, Greg Parsons, Bob Cossie, and Frank So.
Thank you.
Are we waiting for Mercedes to come downstairs?
Keelan McClymont
Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, as we wait to see if our other panelists are able to— oh, here we go.
Call again as we get started.
Ryan Sotomayor, if you are in the overflow room or upstairs, if you want to come on down, we'd love to have you join us here.
Mercedes, go right ahead.
Why don't you kick us off?
Thank you.
Hello, Council.
My name is Mercedes Salazar.
I am the Director of Advocacy at Latino Network.
Latino Network was founded in 1996 to serve the Latino community.
We now serve nearly 1,000 community— 11,000 community members a year.
We are here strongly in support of the proposed ordinance and resolution, particularly to codify the city sanctuary policies and set clear expectations for protecting Portlanders.
As tensions with the federal government continue to grow, the city of Portland must remain steadfast in its values.
We have local laws that should be respected, but we know that they can and often are already being tested to subvert our policies and Attack our communities, but let's be clear: there is no America without immigrants.
There are only Americans who have forgotten their immigration story.
Codifying sanctuary policies and practices will create clear expectations for city staff who may be caught in the middle of of these tensions.
It's critical for staff to have adequate training tools and consistent procedures so they will not be taken advantage of or caught without the information that they need.
When they receive inappropriate requests from federal law enforcement.
As an organization, we provide Know Your Rights trainings.
Prior to this calendar year, um, we did approximately 1 or 2 a month.
We are now doing these trainings nearly daily with over 2,000 community members who have been trained.
We've created youth-specific training to help parents talk with their children about what is happening.
And we are doing this at the same time that funding partners are either canceling grants or contracts, or asking us to remove language that merely acknowledges our diversity and our equity work.
Doing more to take care of our community members when every entity with more power than we have continues to demand that we do less— our love in this moment is a radical act.
Our local law enforcement resources and our local employees and public money must be spent on livability, community and cultural thriving, health and well-being.
We simply do not have the money or time to waste on a political agenda that does not center or provide care for all Portlanders.
Supporting these ordinances makes it clear that our local government is focused on local work and that we will not let our resources be used to hurt us.
I want to thank you all very much for taking this action tonight, for taking care, for having love for the community.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Ryan Sotomayor, I believe you're online with us.
Keelan McClymont
Hi, are you able to hear me?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yes, we are.
Go right ahead.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, Council.
My name is Ryan Sotomayor, and I'm the business manager Secretary-Treasurer of Labor's Local 43, a local union which represents workers of the City of Portland and the Bureau of Transportation and the Bureau of Environmental Services and Portland Parks and Recreation, as well as other locations.
We also represent workers at Metro, at the zoo, and in parks and nature at Blue Lake, Oxbow, and Moreland Yard.
And relay resources, landscaping crews on the east and the west side, and the Port of Portland.
So our folks work at within all four districts of the city of Portland, and we represent public workers who work in primarily front-facing positions and do the work that help keep Portland running.
We appreciate council elevating all these issues.
That we're experiencing with the federal government.
When people think of our members, they think of what the city is and what it will be.
And we maintain the infrastructure such as the roads we drive, bike, and walk on, and down below the street level in the sewers to protect our health and waterways.
We are there for working families and children of all ages at community centers, at schools, with a focus on accessibility.
We maintain parks, public spaces, and buildings throughout the region that are enjoyed by all members of the public.
We interact with people of all backgrounds in all 4 of Portland's districts.
Interactions can be brief but meaningful for the people we encounter.
They tell us about a pothole or a broken swing.
They want to talk about an upcoming event in the community.
They check into the community center and pools for preschool arts programming and family lap swimming and fitness classes.
They thank us for the well-designed and maintain landscapes where their families enjoy a picnic, walk their dogs, play tennis, pickleball, basketball, and more.
We see on the news and social media that ICE is stalking community members at their schools, on their commute to work.
We're worried that it's just a matter of time that we'll see an uptick in these experiences that our marginalized communities are facing in the public public places that people want to trust and feel safe.
We're worried that it's just a matter of time before ICE comes to our work where we want to feel safe to take away one of our co-workers and friends of color, or anyone to be honest.
What will our managers do if that happens?
Is there a plan in place?
We community members and workers do deserve to know when and where ICE is operating in our community and the city's more than 7,000 employees that work for the city have the tools to ensure that they are ready for when ICE comes to our public spaces.
With Congress's recent allocation of an unprecedented $165 billion of funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP, it is beyond a doubt that Trump's administration will intensify its efforts to fulfill their promise of an aggressive and militarized crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
We don't want to see any of our family members, friends and neighbors, co-workers, or any members of our communities abducted by masked and armed federal agents.
It does not keep our communities safer.
Policies, ongoing trainings, updated signage, support resources for workers are needed to guide how the city handles interactions with federal agents engaged in immigration enforcement activities, thus providing more clarity for city employees.
Thank the mayor and council for starting this work, but code makes this a permanent requirement.
Councilors, on behalf of our workers and our communities, I urge you to vote yes on this and the other proposals.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Greg Parsons?
Keelan McClymont
Uh, yes, thank you.
Um, For the record, my name is Greg Parson.
I'm an electrician retired from IBW Local 48 for over 30 years.
Prior to becoming an electrician, I served in the United States Air Force for 6 years.
Security police was my AFSC.
And over 49 years ago, I took an oath to uphold and defend our United States Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
I organize with other veterans across our state and nation.
I do this work with the Chamberlain Network, which mobilizes and empowers veterans to protect democracy through organizing, education, and community engagement.
I also meet with others In IBW 48, we have a veterans caucus, which I'm on their council.
I believe on behalf of the many veterans who can't be here today, I want to thank you for the work that you are doing.
This is an example of our democracy and how it's supposed to work.
Our active duty military service members are proud to be Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
I would like to thank our law enforcement and public safety agencies for protecting our country nationally and while it's abroad.
Our National Guard and Reserve service members are designated to protect and serve our nation by responding to real emergencies like natural disasters stateside.
That is the work they took an oath to do.
While our local law enforcement agencies are proud to serve protecting our communities every day, neither of these brave groups of Oregonians should be used to advance a divisive, reckless, and unnecessary political agenda coming from Washington, D.C. We, the state of Oregon, have our autonomy.
We decide what is best for our great state of Oregon.
Do not let this opportunity pass.
A wannabe dictator from the East Coast has no clue What would be in the best interest of the citizens of Portland or our home state of Oregon.
Please note, please vote for both sanctuary city resolution and ordinance tonight.
Our Oregon National Guard and local law enforcement deserve to see this council put your values on the record.
They also need you to take action by passing the ordinance and making these sanctuary policies Thank you so much for your leadership tonight.
So many people serving our communities in many different ways.
Greatly appreciate it.
With my deepest respect.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, Council President, Vice President, and Council.
Um, I'm Bob Cossie.
Deputy City Administrator for the Public Safety Service Area.
On behalf of Chief Bob Day and the Portland Police Bureau, I want to express our appreciation to City Council and the drafters of this legislation for the opportunity to contribute to an open and constructive dialogue as it relates to federal immigration enforcement.
The Portland Police Bureau recognizes the expectations outlined in this legislation and affirms the importance of preserving local control and our duty to protect the rights and safety of all Portlanders.
We further acknowledge the necessity of ensuring that PPB members are not deputized by federal or military entities without the express authorization of the city, and we remain committed to upholding these principles in practice.
We appreciate the thoughtful approach City Council has taken in addressing these sensitive and complex matters.
The actions outlined, from deputizing and joint operations to establishing clear protocols for interactions with federal immigration enforcement, reflect shared values around transparency, accountability, and the protection of civil liberties.
PPB looks forward to continuing collaboration with council, the mayor's office, and the city administrator to ensure our policies and procedures are both responsive to community concerns and are operationally sound.
We're also committed to providing our officers with the training and support they need to understand and adhere to these evolving expectations.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
We view this legislation as part of a broader ongoing partnership between PPB and the city, one grounded in accountability, transparency, and a shared commitment to serving our community.
That's signed by Chief Day, and from my perspective as Deputy City Administrator, I appreciate the collaboration that we as a service area And particularly PPB has had with council on this issue, and thank you for the opportunity to continue collaborating.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Frank So.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, members of the council, Mr. Mayor.
Um, buenas tardes.
My name is Frank So, and I serve as executive director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.
I'm also the proud son of 2 I'm a very proud Portlander, especially here right now listening to what is being said.
Thank you for the invitation to share with you why IMO strongly supports both the resolution and the proposed ordinance before you this evening.
IMO has been rooted in this community for over 50 years, offering services to thousands of Oregonians annually, and as a community of people of faith and people of good will for over 100 years here in Portland to do justice.
IMO, through our SOAR legal program, provides representation for our neighbors who demand due process in immigration matters.
For the past year, we have received an average of 100 calls per day for immigration legal assistance.
Let me repeat that— every single day.
100 Calls.
Those calls mostly ask, how do I protect my family?
Those that we serve may not be Americans, but we serve them because we are Americans.
That is true patriotism.
The City Council has a duty to do everything to protect Its residents, EMO urges the city council and the mayor to support codifying our sanctuary city status to ensure that no city resources are used to support immigration enforcement and no city employees assist ICE beyond what is required by federal law.
This ordinance is needed because city code is law.
The Protect Portland resolution is an important declaration.
And it contains necessary details for how we must fight the federal overreach.
But code is needed to make it permanent, no matter who our president, mayor, city administrator is in the future.
We thank you for your leadership, and I welcome the opportunity to partner with you in protecting our community and our values moving forward.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you all very much for being here this evening with us.
I'd like to invite up our second panel.
I'd like to invite up our second panel: Harper Haverkamp, Reverend Allison Miller, and Jessica Maravilla.
Thank you.
Reverend Miller, why don't you go ahead and get started while we wait to see if Harper's coming from another room?
Sure.
My name is Allison Miller, and I serve as the senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of Portland.
Thank you for having me and for what you are doing here tonight.
I am one of 70 clergy who are accompanying immigrants and immigrant communities at immigration court And at the ICE building, coordinated by Together Lab and in partnership with community organizations like the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition.
I want to share just a glimpse of why I felt called to show up in this way and a hint of what I've seen.
As a Unitarian Universalist minister, I have covenanted to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person in our community.
So I've been showing up as a chaplain supporting my neighbors.
I've witnessed people who are terrified to show up on that block or to go inside the ICE building, and people who are concerned about the right-wing media filming them outside and how they might misuse this footage that was filmed without their consent.
I have listened to their personal histories, their work life, their family life, their faith life here as people who are a vital part of our neighborhoods, our city, and our state.
And if you spend time with residents going to these appointments, you quickly recognize that our neighbors, like our city, are so much more than a headline.
Beyond our city, there are political leaders who are succumbing to A twisted version of religion, a Christian nationalist narrative that divides communities and fuels fear and fascism.
It is a version of Christianity that is neither faithful nor fair.
Instead, let us follow the path of the beloved community charted for us by Jesus.
Thank you.
By the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and by many moral leaders of different faiths today.
On behalf of myself and so many other faith leaders tonight, those in this room and those who could not be here, please vote for both the sanctuary city resolution and the ordinance.
It is a vital response to federal overreach and militarization.
Thank you.
Surges in ICE activity and other acts of federal aggression.
It makes such a difference to us to witness our elected leaders showing up and upholding our collective values and supporting our whole community here in Portland, including our neighbors who are immigrants and refugees.
We invite you to take a Thank you very much.
And I apologize, there had been a slight change in the run of show from my printed documents.
I would like to make sure that we have Ariana Jacob and Matthew Rock available.
Are either of you available remote to go ahead and jump in with testimony?
Yes, I'm here.
Ariana, go right ahead.
Hi, Cam.
Good evening.
Um, thank you for having me.
My name is Ariana Jacob, and I'm part-time faculty at Portland State University, and I'm the elected president of our statewide labor union, American Federation of Teachers Oregon.
AFT Oregon represents around 18,000 education professionals across Oregon's universities, community colleges, public schools, and child care nonprofits.
Since Trump's first election in 2016, AFT members nationally and, and in Oregon have been vocal and strong supporters of sanctuary classrooms, sanctuary campuses, and sanctuary cities.
Today we face an escalation darker than in Trump's first term.
Tens of thousands of undocumented students are facing renewed threats of deportation.
Faculty and staff are being placed on right-wing watch lists and harassment campaigns.
Our city, Portland, is being attacked by a sitting president in unprecedented ways.
As union workers in education, we have a duty to protect our students and our co-workers from targeting, imprisonment, deportation, family separation, and harm.
We have a duty to defend the rights and freedoms for learners of all ages.
And that's partially because, as we all know, education is one of the foundations of our democracy.
In this political moment, workers in education from cradle to career are at the forefront of movements to resist ICE, to push back against xenophobia, and to stop our communities from being torn apart.
We are so proud to stand with you as as we work together to keep our communities whole and defend the institutions that are necessary for a functioning democracy.
Please vote to pass both the resolution and the ordinance tonight.
Education workers and the communities we serve are relying on your leadership to codify and clarify a rejection of federal overreach in our city.
Continue this important work into the future by finding ways the city can be united with our movements on the ground to keep students and communities safe.
We must stand united and loudly push back and say Portland is a union town, Portland is a sanctuary city, and we are so proud to work with you on this.
Thank you for your leadership.
Thank you very much.
And Matthew Rock, I believe we have you online as well.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, can you hear me?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yes, we can.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Well, good evening, council members.
My name is Matthew Rock.
I own a number of small businesses here in Portland and across the state.
I firmly believe that it is the moral duty of Oregonians and above all Portlanders to send a strong message to Trump against his campaign of terror on our immigrant communities, communities that have always and will continue to make our state a better place.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
State and city so great.
As you likely know, the path of an immigrant is a long and laborious one, riddled with bureaucratic hurdles.
We need to stand beside those navigating these processes now more than ever.
They are an essential part of our communities and economies.
Not only are they our friends, but they are an integral part of everything from agriculture, construction, child and elder care, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and so much more.
The overstep of the federal government must be stopped.
I urge you to vote for the resolution and to codify our great city as a sanctuary city in order to solidify these protections for our immigrant families, friends, and co-workers.
Let us demonstrate that Portland stands strong against the tyranny of Trump.
I sincerely thank you for your Thank you for your time and the hard work that you've put into addressing these pressing issues.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Jessica Maravilla, go right ahead.
Thank you, Mayor Wilson, Council President Pirtle-Guiney, Council Vice President Koyama Lane, and councilors.
Um, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
My name is Jessica Maravilla.
I serve as the policy director for the ACLU of Oregon.
We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen and defend our civil rights, civil liberties, and our democracy with over 48,000 members statewide.
Tonight, you have heard strong support from across our city.
I've heard faith communities, local businesses, organized labor, community-based organizations, public safety officials, and veterans.
All recognizing that these measures are urgently needed and aligned with Portland's values and responsibilities.
Tonight, I echo these voices in sharing that the ACLU of Oregon strongly supports both the Protect Portland Initiative resolution and the sanctuary city ordinance.
The resolution provides a critical executive direction.
It tasks the city manager— the city administrator with clarifying and designating non-public areas in city buildings And urges the mayor to ensure that no city resources are used for immigration enforcement except where legally required.
It establishes a vital operational framework to respond to federal overreach, militarization, including threats of National Guard deployment, surges in immigration enforcement, and other acts of federal aggression against our cities and our communities.
The Sanctuary City Ordinance begins to translate some of these directives into binding Together, the resolution and the ordinance build the legal infrastructure you need to uphold Portland's values of justice, fairness, and community care, including towards our immigrant and refugee neighbors.
And it ensures that local policies align with the full spirit and intent of Oregon law.
But these actions must be seen, please, as the beginning, not the end of what this council can Thank you.
This is what we can and must do to protect our democracy.
Continued action is needed to guard against unconstitutional surveillance, militarized policing, and discriminatory enforcement.
I ask that this council please remain vigilant in protecting our shared democracy values.
This legal infrastructure is not theoretical.
It is a necessary response to real and escalating threats.
Federalized National Guard troops have been threatened in our streets.
Immigrants and refugee neighbors continue to face harassment, detainment, and family separation.
We have seen how the federal power can be abused to suppress protest, erode civil rights, and target vulnerable communities.
The Protect Portland Initiative and codifying sanctuary protections are these crucial first steps in coordinating the city's response to these unlawful and undemocratic assaults.
On behalf of the East Lead of Oregon, I want to express.
Express our deep appreciation for your leadership in meeting this moment.
By adopting both the resolution and the ordinance, you are not just only defending the rule of law, you are affirming that the dignity, safety, and rights of everyone that calls Portland home.
I urge your strong yes vote tonight.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of our invited panelists for setting the stage I will note as we move into hearing from members of the public that there are no pre-filed amendments to the Protect Portland Initiative resolution.
There are 2 pre-filed amendments to the sanctuary codification ordinance.
One of them, pre-filed by Councilor Kanal, would add an emergency clause that would allow the mayor to declare an emergency To the ordinance, which would allow it to go into effect upon being voted on and would allow us to vote on it this evening instead of on a second reading in the future.
The other, filed by Councilor Smith, would remove the codification of FOIA requests.
I believe these are still in the resolution, but they would not be in the codification.
Thank you.
And it would add a portion to the codification that would require the city administration to provide an annual report to council summarizing immigration enforcement communication requests and activities and a description of the city's response.
We like to make sure folks know what is proposed in advance in case you'd like to testify to it.
With that, Keelan, could you please call up Our first panel of folks for public testimony, and I'll note that we have about 70 people signed up.
So we will try to get as many people up here as possible.
And if we're waiting on people to come from overflow rooms and upstairs, I'd encourage the people who are able to get to the table first to jump in so that we can hear from as many people as we can before it gets too late.
First up, we have Shannon Singleton, Rachelle Chase Miller, Maria Segoviano, Angela Bonilla, and Salome Chimuku.
Commissioner Singleton, go right ahead.
Thank you so much.
Um, it's my honor to be here tonight, uh, Council President and council members, For the record, my name is Shannon Singleton.
My pronouns are she and her, and I'm the Multnomah County Commissioner for District 2.
My district spans north and northeast Portland from St. Johns to Parkrose.
And in keeping up with the history of this district and showing up for sanctuary policies, I'm really pleased to be able to be here and testify in support of item 2025-402.
Thank you.
I firmly believe that while words are nice and sometimes symbolic actions are needed, we must operationalize our values and implement them throughout every facet of the city and the county.
Codifying our sanctuary status into city code is a necessary step.
Portlanders deserve to have their city support them not just with words but with action.
I want to thank Councilors Kanal, Murillo, and Avalos for bringing this forward.
Thank you.
When the when the city and the county were making our sanctuary policies, many were focused only on law enforcement.
But it is important that we include all public employees.
City employees deserve clarity about current policies regarding ICE, what they should do in various scenarios, and whether current guidelines align with sanctuary with state laws.
This legislation aims to do just that.
I have the honor of serving some of the most diverse neighborhoods in.
Portland.
I believe both this and Councilor Avalos's resolution go hand in hand to make a powerful statement that Portland values our immigrant and refugee communities.
Putting our sanctuary status into code lets everyone know that we are here to protect community.
I have begun similar work at the county to ensure that people know that leaders at the local level protect our immigrant and refugee communities and stick to our values of equity.
I ask you to vote yes on both 2025-401 Thank you very much.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Great.
Good evening, Council.
My name is Angela Bonilla.
I use she/they/eyya pronouns.
I am an Afro-Latina child of immigrants.
And I am the president of the Portland Association of Teachers.
Typically, I work as an elementary Spanish immersion educator.
As public school educators, we have the privilege and duty to serve everyone in our city, regardless of ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, or national origin.
We work to not only educate but build connections between folks with diverse identities.
At our schools, everyone belongs.
Thank you.
What we are seeing in our schools and outside of our schools is fear and uncertainty due to the presence of ICE in our communities.
We have had at least 4 reports of parents of Portland Public Schools students who've been kidnapped off the street after dropping off their children at school.
In the days following some of those kidnappings, educators across North Portland shared with me that their families were too scared to send their kids to school, scared to pick their students up, to attend evening events.
And this fear has been paralyzing, and as educators, we have sprung to action.
We are following the lead of those most impacted and who are doing the work, like the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition.
We see what has happened in LA and DC and Chicago, and we see how governance in Chicago is standing up against ICE, and they have done that through both words and actions.
We community members deserve to know when and where ICE is operating in our community.
And that the city's more than 7,000 employees that work for the city have the tools they need to ensure that they are ready for when ICE comes to our public places.
This ordinance is needed because city code is law, and the code will make sure that this is permanent.
These protections are crucial to making sure every Portlander feels like this city, the city that we love, is not just for those who already feel safe.
Keelan McClymont
Safe.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I know it's hard to hold an elected position while the federal government works to dismantle everything we love about our public services, but we can do hard things, and I know you can pass both the resolution and ordinance to ensure that we are safe across our city.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Uh, good evening, Mayor and councilors.
Uh, for the record, My name is Maria Hernandez Segoviano, an employee with the City of Portland and a proud member of Line-X PDX.
I want to first begin expressing my gratitude to my fellow Line-X PDX members for your courage, your solidarity, and for continuing to show up for one another.
I also want to thank you for your leadership on this issue, approaching immigration with empathy, urgency, and action.
Thank you for strengthening Portland's commitment to immigrant and refugee Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilor Dan Ryan, for your leadership on this issue.
I want to thank you for your commitment to our communities and for standing on the side of dignity and human rights.
When I testified before the Committee— Public Safety Committee last month, I said that sanctuary policies are not abstract.
They are lived realities.
Today, I want to be very clear again.
Racial profiling is not hypothetical.
It is a lived reality.
I want to ask both council and everyone in this room, who here carries their passport every day?
Who worries about being question, detain, or profile simply for existing in public space, for simply being here.
See, that's the difference between those impacted by these policies and those protected by them.
I carry my passport with me every day at all times, not as a choice anymore, but as a survival strategy.
This is what it means to live in Portland nowadays as someone perceived as an immigrant.
Council must also acknowledge a critical fact.
Most of you hold positions of racial and institutional privilege.
That reality brings responsibility.
Equity is not about intent, it's about outcomes.
Outcomes only change when those most impacted are centered in decision-making, when we follow leadership— when our— when we follow the leadership of immigrant, refugee, undocumented, Black, and brown communities, and when we fund and put our money where it is in equity and engagement work rather than cutting it.
The resolution and ordinance before you are important steps forward.
Resolutions set principles, ordinances make them enforceable.
Together they form the foundation of a city that acts with compassion and accountability, ensuring non-cooperation with ICE, protecting community members from unlawful detainment, and embedding clear accountability across bureaus.
Lastly, my great-grandfather used to say, policy is only as strong as the details and the commitment behind it.
The difference between good leaders and bad leaders is whether we— they codify protections into law and stand behind them.
So I ask you today to please vote for both the resolution and the ordinance and stand around permanence, accountability, and lead with courage.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Good evening, Council President, members of the council.
My name is Salome Chimuku.
I use she/her pronouns, and I am here in my capacity today as chair of the Multnomah County Democrats.
We urge that you support both the resolution and the ordinance Because they work hand in hand together to make each other stronger.
As a personal note to myself, I am also a first-generation immigrant.
My parents both came here as political asylum refugees after a long 15 to 16 years in a refugee camp in Zambia.
When my family came to the United States, we understood very early on that your action, your existence is political.
There is no hiding behind ideas.
There is no putting your head down because Because when you are the way that you are and when you look the way that you look, you will be targeted from the very first day you take a breath.
I stand here proud as a Portlander who has spent all of my life devoted to public service and to speaking up for those in my community as they are oftentimes marginalized, pushed aside, or just simply told to endure as others get to be comfortable.
Keelan McClymont
I ask you today to make sure that as you're making these decisions, whether it be on the amendments or on the resolution or the ordinance, that you take a moment to reflect those in your life who are actually truly impacted by this legislation.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
These— this legislation and others do a lot to show community that we are not standing just behind words, but we are standing behind action, that we are putting into action the things that they are asking for, the things they are looking for, the things that they have died over.
Because at the end of the day, when folks are just now waking up to The fascism that has been here in this country for as long as it's been here.
We have already lost many immigrants, many folks of color, many women, many queer folks who have gone before us.
And I'm here to say that I'm happy that my county commissioner is bringing this to the county because, as we must know, our most vulnerable are actually our most resilient because within them are the keys and the tools to survive something like this.
Thank you.
Councilmember Thank you all very much.
Rochelle is joining us online.
Good evening, Council.
My name is Rochelle Chase Miller.
I use she/her pronouns, and I'm a parent, an early childhood educator, and a member of the Portland Public Schools Board representing North and Northeast Portland.
In my career, I've worked with hundreds of children, each of them unique, but there were a few things each of them had in common.
Because despite differences in race, ethnicity, or ability, every child has to feel safe for their brains to be ready to learn.
Every child needs consistency and stability to help them regulate their bodies and emotions.
And every child needs the safety and security of a loving family to develop a strong sense of self, autonomy, and resiliency that will lay the foundation for all future growth and development.
Recently, a father from my community was kidnapped by ICE while taking his child to school.
The loss of a parent through forced separation creates waves of trauma that last for children's whole lives and ripple through subsequent generations.
In the plight of the immigrant families in our communities, we see echoes of the internment of Japanese Americans The separation of indigenous children from their families, communities, and cultures; the forced separation of black families during slavery, and the brutality of slave patrols.
The persecution of our immigrant neighbors is another horrific chapter in a national national story written in the blood and tears of black and brown people.
However, there are other chapters to our story: chapters of abolition, resistance, and liberation.
It is up to us.
To determine what chapter we are living in now.
By codifying our status as a sanctuary city, we have the opportunity to write a chapter that rejects our history of oppression and discrimination and prioritizes our shared humanity and the dignity we are all entitled to.
I urge the City Council and the mayor to support codifying our sanctuary city status and passing the Protect Portland resolution.
Making this commitment to our community is to live the world we want to see into existence, one where we take care of one another, respect the rights and dignity of all, and protect the most vulnerable.
This is how we resist.
This is how we survive.
Our diversity is our strength.
Stronger together.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Next up, we have Alex Reedlinger, Darren McCormick.
Lydia Hodgins, Jamie Partridge, and Jennifer Shook.
Go right ahead.
Keelan McClymont
All right, uh, Council President, uh, Pirtle-Guiney, Vice President, um, Koyama Lane, and councilors, for the record, my name is Alex Friedlinger and I am the child of immigrants.
I am here as a registered lobbyist representing the Coalition of Communities of Color And have been a resident of Portland for over 30 years.
I thank the council for proposing this ordinance and resolution and urge you to swiftly codify our city's sanctuary protections.
I also acknowledge the powerful testimony I anticipate hearing tonight from the community members, advocates, and attorneys working on the ground.
The Trump administration will always act in bad faith, forcing our city into binary choices that leave us morally compromised and materially worse off.
Councilmember Sameer Kanal.
Given the nation's bifurcated justice system and erosion of legal norms, it is imperative that we continue to demand greater transparency and accountability from local law enforcement in their management of protests and responses to attacks on our residents.
I believe that council is taking measures to address these concerns now.
Historically, the city and police bureau leaders have failed to adequately address misuse of force, prosecute offending officers, and implement meaningful accountability processes.
This failure has been most felt most deeply by Portland's Black community and its survivors and advocates, myself included.
The city and police bureau stand at crossroads.
How will you resist being drawn into this Kafkaesque crisis and fully embody, embody your oath to serve and protect?
A core question remains: protect what and serve whom?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Will it be federal property and the integrity of ICE operations, or those being harassed, abducted from their communities, and exercising their First Amendment rights?
How will you finally address the historically disparate application of justice in department policies and procedures?
While the mayor and chief of police intend to exercise restraint, resist federal demands, and protect our rights, further effort is required to build community trust.
We must devote resources to deconstructing any existing blue walls of silence with the Bureau meaningfully extending the practice of we protect our own to all residents of the city.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Right ahead, Jamie.
Oh, should I go ahead?
Okay.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, Council.
My name is Jamie Partridge.
I'm a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 88.
I'm Councilor Mitch Green, District 2, and a resident of District 2.
My union has declared itself a sanctuary union, and we voted to support the codification of our sanctuary city status.
Just a line from our resolution: we declare ourselves a sanctuary union that will protect the rights and safety of all our members, their families, and the communities We proudly serve regardless of one's immigration status.
We will not voluntarily cooperate with federal agents in the arrest, prosecution, or attempted deportation of our members, their families, or our community members.
We as letter carriers will immediately report ICE, DHS, or Customs and Border Patrol presence when we see it to the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition Hotline 888-622-1510.
As you know, mail carriers are on every street every day, so we're a big set of eyes and ears.
City workers are also on many streets and public places every day.
We encourage the council to add to this ordinance To train and direct city workers to recognize and report any ICE, CPB, DHS presence to the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition.
And again, we urge the council to vote yes to codify our sanctuary city status.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Baron is joining us online.
Keelan McClymont
I'm Darren McCormick.
I was born and raised in Portland.
Please stop labeling anything that you don't like as fascism and tyranny.
The government is not attacking Portland.
No one has been kidnapped by ICE.
This manipulative and extremist rhetoric contributes to political intolerance and radicalization.
We had an election, and the country voted for the common-sense policy of deporting people who are not supposed to be here.
And this is hard maybe for you to understand, but ICE deportations are actually the moderate middle path.
They are the law and order off-ramp.
If you didn't want Trump to deploy the National Guard, you should have allowed the police to enforce the law and prevent illegal interference with ICE.
If the police needed more personnel to do this, you should have provided them more funding, but you didn't.
So you created the legal and moral justification for sending in the Guard.
And regarding sanctuary policies, I think that the mayor's If you oppose any cooperation at all with immigration law, if you oppose every single deportation, if you reject the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, then you oppose our national borders and you oppose the country itself.
If that is your position, you should leave.
Instead of the mild secession that is complete sanctuary I ask you to carve out a small exception so that when a person is convicted of a crime, their immigration status can be ascertained, and if appropriate, ICE can come get them.
Make this one reasonable change and start to make Portland America again.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Everybody remain respectful of other people who are testifying.
While there may be people whose views we don't agree with, we still owe them respect as we listen to them the same way we do those whose views we do agree with.
Next up, we have Jennifer Shook joining us online.
Hello, my name is Jennifer Shook.
I'm a resident of District 2 in the Concordia neighborhood, and I'm testifying in favor of the Portland Protection Initiative and codifying the city's sanctuary policies.
I love Portland so much.
Since I moved here in 2014, I have seen advocates and activists take to the streets, show up at City Council and Planning Commission hearings, and gather together to host events envisioning how we can make Portland a better place for everyone.
Right now, people in the highest levels of government are lying about our city, saying it is a war zone, a hellhole, that the people gathering and dancing and yes, In reality, ICE has demonstrated it is a far greater threat by kidnapping and threatening people with guns, tear gas, pepper spray, and other munitions.
The idea that this could be escalated by a military presence is terrifying.
I've been an anti-fascist my entire life.
My grandparents, Holocaust survivors, were victims of the Nazis.
The victims of fascism who lost everything and had the opportunity to start over here in the U.S., where they believed their children and grandchildren would have access to the freedoms they were denied.
The people gathering in our streets who are bravely putting their bodies on the line to protect their community, our community, deserve protection.
The immigrants in our community who are afraid to go to work or school or routine appointments.
Please pass these items and do so urgently.
We cannot wait.
We need to protect our community from this senseless political violence.
Thank you.
Checking to see if Lydia Hodgins is here.
Colleagues, it is 3 hours in.
We are going to take a 10-minute recess so that our staff who are supporting this work can take a quick break.
We have something like 60 more people signed up to testify.
We will get to you all as soon as we get back.
We are going to go on recess for 10 minutes and we'll be back Here at 9:11.
Yeah, I work at 7:30.
Oh my God, that's not good.
Sorry, that's, that's like, that's a 2-point extra credit.
Stop working on your computer.
Keelan McClymont
I know.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Colleagues, welcome back.
I believe as long as we have our colleagues online still here that we are at a quorum.
Uh, there's councilors Clark and Ryan.
Can we just get a thumbs up from you that you are back and present?
Oh, perfect.
Okay, we are at quorum.
We are going to continue with public testimony.
Thank you.
As a reminder, we had to cut testimony to 2 minutes a person so that we can get through everybody here, from as many people in the community as possible.
I will note a couple of people asked over the break, is it okay to come up to testify and say, I agree with what has been said?
That is absolutely fine if you want to keep your testimony short.
I also will remind everybody that when you testify, Come up, introduce yourself.
We don't need broader information than that.
Our clerk has everything they need from your sign-up, and as long as you introduce yourself, they'll know who you are and we can match the information that we need.
That also helps us for folks who are listening to the recording or are using an e-reader to have— or the, um, the— a reader, an electronic reader— to have your name stated for the record.
Um, and if you're a lobbyist, please identify that, but otherwise we don't need any additional information.
Councilmember Herbold.
Keelan, could you please call up our next panel of public testimony?
Andy Seaby, Eleanor Cassidy, Gabrielle Johnston, Leticia Navarro, Randall Blazak.
Go ahead.
Go right ahead.
Hello, good evening.
My name is Leticia Navarro.
I am here to voice my support for the ordinance to codify sanctuary city status and the resolution to denounce military occupation.
With the increased ICE activity and potential deployment of the National Guard, These are necessary first steps in protecting Portlanders, especially immigrants, from attacks from the federal government.
I ask that the city introduces an emergency vote to approve these pieces of legislation tonight.
We cannot wait any longer to stand up against Trump and his attacks on the people.
In addition, I believe a critical part of protecting Portlanders is that should be advanced immediately.
Is to revoke the permit for the ICE facility at 4310 South McAdam Avenue.
On October 4th, on Saturday, me and 6 organizers got detained by ICE.
I spent 11 hours inside the facility, and even though we know how inhumane those conditions are to be in there, Councilmember Garcia.
Participating and living it is a complete different story.
The way the cells are set up establishes the inhumane conditions, from the abuse and harassment that I faced, that I faced from the agents while I was in there.
The temperature in those rooms are always cold, and there's only metal benches to lay on.
The whole time I was in there, my heart broke for all the immigrants who have been there in that same cell.
There were posters to self-deport yourself and your family.
There were mocking posters of how detainees can contact their children and how DHS does not commit sexual abuse, both of which we know are false and a slap in the face to whoever reads them.
I was thinking of all the individuals who have been in that facility, especially the one that has been in the facility for 47 days.
I could not imagine how they were able to survive in those conditions.
My heart shatters for them and my soul gets anger, and I am here to approve of the conditions that got posted.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Go right ahead.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, Mayor and Council.
My name is Dr. Randall Blazak.
I'm the co-founder of Cure PNW that was started by a federal grant from the Biden administration to find Community-based ways to interrupt political violence.
That grant was canceled in February by the current administration.
Surprise, surprise.
But we managed to find local funding through the Jubitz Family Foundation and are doing this work.
I have been down at the ICE facility monthly and now weekly and now nightly, both documenting and doing some de-escalation work.
We did a training with the community members and the activists back in August.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
We had a lunch gathering where they could sort of share each other's concerns and learn each other's issues.
We did a de-escalation training for activists last Sunday.
And the dynamic down there is very complex, but there is all kinds of good work being done.
There's been good work to de-escalate the tensions that are there and not give President Trump his narrative that Portland is a war-torn hellhole.
That work is done by trained de-escalators who are down there, myself.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
And other people.
It's done by the DLO, the Dialogue Liaison Officers.
I mean, I think we learned a lot about how to police protests in 2020, and the DLOs have played a crucial role in keeping the peace down there.
But the majority of the de-escalation is from the protesters themselves.
They have been courageous, and it just impressed me to no end, their ability to have restraint, but also find the hotspots and calm those hotspots down.
Again, preventing the escalation from happening.
That includes a gentleman that's probably here dressed as a chicken.
But that dynamic has changed recently because the MAGA folks have showed up because of the rhetoric from the president and the tension has gone up.
Those folks are largely from outta town and from outta state.
And so we are seeing a new dynamic down there where it's harder and harder to deescalate.
So that's why what you're doing is so important.
But I'd also, on behalf of the women who are on the forefront of this movement and the indigenous people who have been down there fighting, Also think about removing this cancer from our city, removing this ICE facility and taking away the thing that drives that conflict to begin with.
Thank you very much.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Okay, let's make sure.
Andy Seaby, Eleanor Cassidy, Gabrielle Johnston.
Destiny Magaña Pablo, Nathan Williams, Liz Kay, Anne Casper, Carlos Covarrubias.
Go right ahead.
Okay, um, good evening, councilors.
Thank you.
Council members, Mayor, and specifically Council President Pirtle-Guiney, thank you.
For the record, my parents immigrated to the United States, found each other in Oregon, and welcomed me into this world at OHSU.
They gave me the name Destiny Magaña Pablo.
Today I stand before you as a 26-year-old woman, only a few— sorry, I might cry— only a few years older than they were when our small family was formed.
And also terrified after hearing what is happening in Gresham, only a few minutes away from my home.
Recently, I was described as "quote very compliant." It hurt as if they were describing a dog.
But then I thought about my childhood again.
Apologies for the tears.
My family experienced federal swatting and raids.
When I was in elementary school.
I lost my father to the prison industrial complex, and eventually he was deported, and along with him, my sense of safety and protection.
I lost my father— my mother, sorry again— to the workforce.
I lost the chance to build healthy and critical relationships with my grandparents aunts, and cousins.
Effectively, I lost my childhood.
I share this— instead, I was forced to experience metal detectors, handcuffs, and body searches as a young child.
I developed a deep and constant fear of loss, pain, of violence and separation.
My broken family fell into extreme poverty, which deeply affected my development and access to education, health, and personal freedom.
I share this difficult and deeply personal experience because too often and historically, this council body and those who engage with it do not reflect me or my family.
Those who protest and put their bodies on the line often do not carry the lifelong sentence of separation.
That my family does.
I don't know if that's the second one.
It is, but if you need a few seconds more, I know you had to take a pause there.
I'm a proud Portlander, a homeowner, and a kind stranger who wants to protect other families and children from similar harm.
I appreciate and urge the full council to codify Portland's sanctuary status, to denounce and reject the unconstitutional violence and overreach by the federal government directed at both undocumented and documented immigrants and refugees, and to strengthen safety for Portlanders and Oregonians through the Protect Portland initiative.
Keelan McClymont
And I'm going to hand it to Nathan, who's an amazing community friend.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Nathan Williams.
Um, I'm here not representing my organization but in solidarity with my friend Destiny.
Um, here, right?
Yeah.
I also urge you to push your bravery and leadership even more at the Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
I urge you to act now and for the first time by setting a standard of justice and responsible use of governmental power, one that other cities, counties, and states can model.
I urge you to include visitors in the ordinance that directs the city to create and implement a central— a, quote, centralized and coordinated workgroups to inform best practices and recommendations related to federal immigration enforcement impacts on staff and the community, including employee safety and accommodations, interactions with federal immigration enforcement agents, And protecting the dignity and constitutional rights of City of Portland residents.
And throughout 2025-401's resolution language, when explicitly stating residents.
Portland city limits include embassies such as the Mexican Embassy and the only actively operating USCIS office in the state of Oregon, which serves immigrant and refugee residents across the states from different counties and cities.
Even including some Washingtonians, it would be negligent for our city to ignore the documented and undocumented immigrants, refugees, and their families who visit, reside in, and serve Portland, and who rely on access to essential services, resources, and public space.
I also encourage the city to offer and share all best practice training, policies, and educational campaign materials with counties throughout Oregon, since immigrant and refugee residents and families from all.
4 Corners of the state visit our city for their personal needs.
I strongly urge the city to specifically seek the feedback and recommendations from the people most impacted and protected by your sanctuary status, the Oregonians who build and make up our neighborhoods, business, economy, and safety.
Finally, I also demand the city consistently identify and respond to misinformation explicitly targeting Portland, as it can be used to harm our families and neighbors.
Furthermore, encouraging such responses be done in coordination with neighboring counties, the state, and appropriate governmental and public agencies.
Thank you for using your governmental power to better represent and protect our immigrant and refugee communities who are often systematically disenfranchised.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you both.
Good evening.
I am a member of District 1 here in Portland.
I did not have much time to prepare for this testimony because Attacks on our city by ICE this week are the worst they've ever been, and today was the worst of all.
Just today, for the first time that I know of this year, our community witnessed a GEO bus entering the McAdam facility around 4:22 PM this afternoon.
Usually the transport vehicles coming into the facility are GEO vans, vehicles that can potentially transport a small number of about 6 people to the concentration camp in Tacoma, Washington.
However, a GEO bus Can potentially hold around 30 passengers or more.
The arrival of this GeoBus to our city of Portland today demonstrates the increased intensity of ICE kidnappings in our neighborhoods and promises ominous intentions of the federal government toward our communities.
Although I am grateful to the city councilors who helped bring this sanctuary ordinance forward, I am worried it will not be enough.
I ask all city— I ask all councilors to please Do everything you can to protect our neighbors.
And I see Mayor Wilson is here too, so please help.
Um, this includes voting yes to pass the resolution and codify sanctuary status in our city.
Um, I want to also make clear that I do not support Councilor Smith's amendment to remove the Freedom of Information Act request In the sanctuary ordinance, how can our city hope to efficiently respond to ICE in our community if city leadership does not have all of the information possible?
I hope you will rescind this amendment to grant added transparency and security to our city.
I would also like to reiterate to the whole council that an annual report from city police on sanctuary exemptions is not sufficient to keep our neighbors safe.
Please amend that an exemption report is completed at least quarterly, if not monthly, to ensure state.
Police are watched closely and justice can be swift when they break sanctuary law.
We have seen them historically and presently break many other laws and violate human rights.
Again, thank you for all of your work and vote yes.
And could you please identify yourself so that we have that on the record?
Your name?
Your name?
Keelan McClymont
Liz King.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Um, Anne Casper Carlos Cavar Rubias, Camasia Denson, Minister Nathan Jimenez, Kathleen Hannan, Holly Brown.
Go ahead.
You want me to go first?
Okay.
Um, hello, Council.
My name is Holly Brown.
I'm a part of Portland Contra las Deportaciones, Portland Against Deportations, and also Revoke the ICE Permit PDX.
I want to voice my support for the Protect Portland resolution in the sanctuary city With increased attacks on our community, it is extremely important that the city takes all emergency actions it possibly can to provide protections for immigrants and Portlanders alike.
I hope that the council takes an emergency vote on these items tonight to pass them, as we need to be aggressive in our approach in fighting back against the Trump administration.
I also want to support the city doing FOIA requests.
This is extremely important and has helped us in our campaign to shut down the ICE facility.
I myself was tackled by DHS and ICE 2 weekends ago, dragged across the concrete.
I still have wounds and held inside the facility for hours while other friends detained that day who already spoke were sent to a jail in another county.
I now face federal charges for peacefully protesting outside of ICE.
I am upset because we have been asking for months for that building to be shut down, and it led to that the other day.
And there's so many others who have been harmed by that building.
We really need this— the city to start treating this as the emergency that it is.
And today, as someone else mentioned, we saw a huge bus entering the ICE facility, and ICE activity has drastically increased in Portland over the last few days.
We cannot wait.
We seriously cannot.
And we must go even further than these 2 pieces of legislation.
That is why I'm urging that the City Council vote yes on these pieces of legislation and And also goes further and revokes the permit for the ICE facility.
I am terrified for immigrants.
I am terrified for Portland.
The people are strong together.
That facility is a hub for ICE activity, and we have the power to shut it down.
I was very glad to hear the mayor say that the city could take over that lease.
I think that's a great idea, and we need to look into everything we possibly can to shut it down.
And I also, yeah, really want to encourage that we take an emergency vote tonight.
We need to move these things forward ASAP.
The situation Thank you very much.
Keelan McClymont
I'm Kathleen Hannan.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I come before you and Mayor Wilson today with a full heart.
I came to thank all of you so very much for your principles and courageous words and actions taken on our behalf in the last few weeks.
Back on January 2nd of this year, You boarded the Enterprise all shiny and new, rising to your leadership roles, finding an agenda and allies, and at the same time charting a new form of governance in Portland, one dedicated to the principles of equity and recognition that an expanded people's table is a richer and better table.
Now, 10 months later, you're all still shiny and new, a most beautiful body.
You started with buses, rivers, and pipes, pipes and parks and police, which all still needs attention.
That work needs to get done, and again, so proudly it is.
Thanks, city workers.
When the federal government began to call out and verbally attack our beloved Portland, Mayor Keith Wilson— well, let's just say I don't call him Ted Lasso anymore.
He's tough.
So is Ted Lyles.
He's our elected leader.
The feds are telling a story.
It's a narrative.
It's a lie.
They think if they keep saying it day after day that it will be true, that others across the country will believe it.
We all know Portland is not war-ravaged, disgusting, burned-down place where most all stores are gone.
It's simply not true.
With courage, You could flip the narrative.
I do hope in the days to come, with time running out, that the Portland— those of us already pushing back, that the business leaders here will stand up and support us.
Where are they now?
Just as we need them.
We need a broad and united front in order to win.
Students, business, labor, seniors, religious groups, all together.
Trump's message is just not true.
We don't need federal troops.
We have our own capable police.
We want to and can govern ourselves.
We voted for you, our amazing, brave local leaders.
We elected you.
We support you.
One Portland, one people.
I support the resolution.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for being here today.
Okay, uh, let's check to see if, uh, Kamasi Adenson Minister Nathan Jimenez.
Jack Dickinson.
Kerry Ko.
Cole Donahue.
Isabella Shepherd.
Keelan McClymont
All right, my name for the record— oh, Sorry.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Go right ahead.
Keelan McClymont
Okay, my name for the record is Jack Dickinson.
I'll start with the codification.
I testified on this item when it was in committee.
I maintain my support for this.
Onto the denunciation.
The only thing I have to say to this one is finally, finally, this is the kind of direction we need to be taking in response to this moment.
And it's something that I think a lot of us have been begging for for a while.
I support both agenda items and ask I also wanna talk about kind of 3 additional actions that follow in the spirit of the PPI.
2 Are medium-term outlooks.
One, I think the city should explore any and all possible avenues for a defamation lawsuit against Fox News for their continued lies, intentional lies about our city.
I would also like to see the city consider a halt of purchases from Texas, Or Texas-based entities, or any other states that think it is acceptable to send their troops into our streets against our will.
There's one urgent issue, though, that I want to talk about.
That's tomorrow.
The Design Commission will hold a hearing on the renovations to the Centennial Mills site.
It has recently come to light that the LLC given rights to develop may have been a front Thank you, Mayor.
I would like to ask for a motion to delay the approval of the ordinance for Stewart Lindquist.
Lindquist is the landowner of the ice facility and is a habitual violator of our laws.
Now, I am of the belief that Lindquist should not be given another square inch of land in Portland given his track record.
God knows he misuses enough of it already.
But all I am asking for today is that all of you use your platform to advocate for a delay in that approval until we can get answers on Lindquist's involvement and plans.
We cannot just rubber stamp this and hope that it won't come back to bite us.
The hearing for that is tomorrow at 1:30.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Um, hello, Council, Mayor.
My name is Carrie Ko.
I am an employee here at the City of Portland.
I'm also the president of the City of Portland Professional Workers Union, CPPW, and I'm speaking in support of these 2 items and on behalf of the 800 members that are in our union who know that what happens in our community happens to our members.
The current federal program to target, terrorize, and kidnap immigrants and citizens in our communities is not just an injustice requiring solidarity from our union.
This is an aggression that directly impacts CPPW members and our families.
When the threat is roaming our streets, as our employer, you're doing the right thing to make our workplaces as safe and secure as Our members deserve a workplace with clear and consistent protections.
Some of the things that I'm hearing from our members right now are about giving employees the training that we need on when and how to say no, to not comply in advance with federal agents, being protected from discipline if we refuse to provide information to agents or allow ICE into our workplaces, requiring the bureaus to put a safety plan in place for our members who work in the field By themselves all day long.
Not only are our members and their families being terrorized by the actions of ICE in our community, but the actions of ICE are mirroring the kinds of authoritarian tactics that are often used against organized labor and social movements.
Our struggles are inextricably linked.
In our first contract, our members prioritized fighting for language that protects paid time for members to deal with tribal citizenship and immigration status.
For themselves and for their families.
We know that nice thoughts and good intentions are not enough, but enshrining enforceable protections is the only option.
So we will continue to push for more enforceable protections and see this ordinance as an aligned and important step towards a city where our members can safely live, work, and play.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Hello, Council.
My name is Cole Donahue, for the record.
I'm in support of both items 6 and 7, as I believe them to both be steps in the right direction when it comes to legislative resistance to the abhorrent actions of ICE, DHS, and the Trump administration as a whole.
I call upon the council to take an emergency vote tonight and put these items into action as soon as possible.
With the looming deployment of the National Guard and increased federal activity in recent weeks, this is an emergency, and I thank the councilors who put these forth.
In addition to these resolutions, I'm imploring the council and mayor to do all you can to revoke the permits I support the mayor's recent suggestion to take over the lease of the building in order to remove ICE.
The council must do all it can to speed up the process of revoking the permit and shutting that facility down.
Trump is ordering so much terror to be inflicted on Portland precisely because he sees us as a credible threat to ICE.
Now is the time to play the leading role as a city in fighting back and kicking ICE out of our communities.
Additionally, I have a question regarding agenda item 6.
There is a section that, among other things, prohibits Portland Police from assisting in or coordinating with federal agencies and the military in actions intended to suppress peaceful assembly.
On the afternoon of October 12th, PPB aggressively corralled hundreds of protesters onto the sidewalks in front of and around the ICE facility, separating the assembled crowd into several smaller sections that were more difficult to travel between.
ICE and DHS have been very prone to violently forcing protesters away from the area in front of the ICE drop-off.
If DHS had stormed through the gate while PPB was corralling protesters in front of the building, there would have been very few avenues for protesters to escape, and it would have likely led to many violent arrests, as DHS will often grab whoever is within reach regardless of what they are doing.
Would this resolution prevent PPB from corralling protesters at ICE like they did on the 12th?
Because if that is not suppressing federal agencies and suppressing peaceful assembly, I do not know what is.
Councilmember Again, please pass the resolution and ordinance and revoke the permit.
We do not have time to wait.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Go right ahead.
Hello, I'm Izzy representing PDXED and the Coalition for Revoking the ICE Permit.
I'm here to voice our support for the denunciation of a military occupation of our city and for the codification of sanctuary city status into the law.
Keelan McClymont
I'm also here to talk about concerns surrounding PPB's involvement in the protests and the abhorrent behavior we've seen from DHS and ICE.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Portland police have increased their presence at the ICE facility recently.
Keelan McClymont
Last weekend, they opened the streets in front of ICE by force and threats of arrest.
This was during a protest which had turnout in the thousands, which would be dangerous to drive cars through.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
It must be noted that no force or threats were used by PPB against DHS, While they stood in the street.
Keelan McClymont
I personally think PPB should be instructed to arrest DHS and ICE for such violations since they are not above the law.
But if it can't be done, then as a bare minimum, they must be instructed to stay out of it.
As a sanctuary city where city resources are forbidden from being used to enforce ICE's rule, our police cannot be used in cooperation with DHS to suppress protests against ICE.
The weekend before last, 5 of my good friends were arrested by DHS at another protest.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Their treatment that they went through while in detention was horrible.
Keelan McClymont
Something noteworthy is that they were denied phone calls, citing that all the phones were supposedly out of order.
Since the main argument for keeping this facility seems to be that detainees need to be able to access their families and legal counsel during their 12-hour detention, I think you should be especially concerned with the fact that we've been seeing more cases recently where detainees are actually denied contact with the outside world.
While my friends were locked up and we waited outside the ICE facility for their release, and continued protesting, their treatment of us was brutal.
At one point, they pushed us down the block all the way through camp and up to the intersection at South Bond Avenue, where they deployed over a dozen canisters of tear gas.
They shot us with pepper balls.
They shot me on the other side of the street in the head and in the groin.
Allowing this facility to exist may seem like a strategic retreat, but all this repression and brutalization and breaking of the few rules imposed onto them is the inevitable I implore you all to keep this in mind when the conditional permit returns to your desk for reconsideration next month, or if you decide to take over the lease.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you very much for being here tonight.
Next up, we have Jessica Salas, David Pearl, Lawson D'Ambrosio, Andre Tokuyuk.
And Karen Shirai.
Please go right ahead.
Hi, I'm Jessica.
Hello, city councilors and mayor.
I'm here to ask you to do 2 things.
First, show us some courage.
Please join your constituents like myself and countless others this Saturday for the No Kings March here in downtown Portland.
These individuals make Portland what it is.
They are the reason our city is known for its progressive spirit, boldness, and unwavering commitment.
They continue to show up even as officers become increasingly aggressive towards them.
Night after night, they face intimidation, tear gas, and harassment.
Yet they still stand peacefully for their rights.
Your presence matters.
It shows that you see them.
It shows that you stand with the community you were elected to serve.
Remember, Portlanders pay your salaries.
Even simple gestures like bringing snacks or water through groups like Pizza Protest, who collect donations and provide food for protesters, remind everyone that you care, that their courage isn't going unnoticed.
With tensions high and talk about Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, it's more important than ever that local leadership is present to protect the community and ensure the protests remain peaceful.
Remains peaceful.
Second, help Portland stand our ground.
Trump wants to paint us as lawless and dangerous, but we know the truth.
Our city is peaceful, organized, and is standing on the right side of history.
When our leaders are present, when you speak out and defend the rights of your constituents in real time, you show the country that Portland will not be intimidated.
We defend our values, our friends, our neighbors, and our future, even under pressure.
Right now, That pressure is real.
Earlier today, a bus carrying around 20 ICE agents arrived at the ICE facility.
Their presence increases tension and fear, making it even more urgent for our elected leaders to stand visibly with the community and protect Portlanders.
It is the beautiful people of Oregon and Trump's consistent authoritarian attacks that inspired me to run for Oregon's 3rd Congressional District.
Standing side by side with the peaceful protesters reminds me why we are here.
To defend our home, to make our voices heard, and to be a beacon of hope for the future we all stand— want to see.
I will be at the No Kings rally this Saturday, and I hope you listen to me when I say this: Portland is watching.
Your voter— your voters are watching.
Do the right thing and join us on the front lines.
Thank you.
Good evening, Council.
Keelan McClymont
My name is David Pearl, District 1.
I want to I'm going to follow what pretty much everyone here is saying in that I agree with the agenda items 6 and 7, but I want to specifically say that it is not enough for this to be the only thing that we are doing.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We need to be standing strong and doing everything we can to be prevent—.
Keelan McClymont
To fight fascism, which means that we need our mayor to step forward and issue as many Executive orders as possible to lay the groundwork to continue fighting for what we need done.
We need to stand up for the people that are continue to be assaulted and attacked by DHS and ICE.
We need for the mayor and everyone that has agency to step up and talk up, to step up and challenge the DA from his unlawful, immoral.
And immoral challenges of the— shoot.
To challenge the arrests that are unlawful.
We need to continue to fight.
Fascism does not take a rest.
Once the fuse is lit, it will continue to go, and they will continue to pick new and more— and be more egregious in their attacks on our society.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Go right ahead.
Keelan McClymont
Greetings, Council, Mayor.
My name is Lawson D'Ambrosio, and greetings to all my fellow residents here in Portland, which I have been incredibly privileged to call my home for the last 10 years.
I'm here today, like many of my fellow residents here, to urge you to adopt the measures before you.
Reaffirming and enshrining Portland's sanctuary city status.
Make no mistakes, the actions of the Trump administration are just the first stages in a fascist authoritarian attempt to cripple what remains of American democracy and lay the groundwork for an autocracy in the image of fascists like Stephen Miller.
Everyone in this country, no matter their immigration status, has the right to due process, legal representation, and a fair trial in the court of law.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Second.
Keelan McClymont
And when those rights are threatened for any one of us, they are threatened for all of us.
Right now, here in Portland and across the country, our neighbors, friends, and family members are being abducted off the streets by masked, unidentified jackboots working for the branches of our federal government that have already succumbed to this fascist rot.
It is imperative that we do everything in our power to push back against these unconstitutional authoritarian abuses.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
And in the sake of time, I will yield the rest of my message and again encourage you to pass these measures in front of you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Please go right ahead.
Oh, me?
Oh, sorry.
Good evening.
My name is Karen Chi Ray.
I'm a lifelong Portland resident, a veteran, a resident of District 3, a business owner in District 4, and I'm not afraid to say I want a no vote on the resolution and the code.
I'm sure your heart is in the right place.
I too care deeply for all people, but what I don't want is illegal immigrants in our community breaking laws, bringing drugs, trafficking women and children, and not paying taxes.
Technically, we're all immigrants, but we cannot stand by and let illegal immigrants continue to cause harm to our communities.
I have spoken countless times in front front of you and county commissioners on how you should be focusing on making our streets safe and livable for everyone and keeping our businesses open.
Yet what I've seen lately has now taken the focus off those important issues and instead mocked our crime victims, homeless, and mentally ill by saying Portland is fine.
Portland is not fine, but it definitely can be if we all work together to hold people accountable.
While we are not a war zone, like our president said, every day people are fighting for their lives, their homes, and their businesses.
What is our democracy— that is what our democracy is supposed to protect.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Please go right ahead.
Okay, uh, checking to see if Andre Tokayuk Next up we have Eddie Wang, Philip Weeks, William Hare, Charlie Michelle Wesley, Michael Yurkovsky.
Go ahead.
Keelan McClymont
Hi, thank you.
Um, I'm really glad to be here.
Um, my name is Eddie, Eddie Wang.
I'm the PPS board chair.
Thank you, City Councilors, Mayor, for being here.
I really appreciate all that you do in these challenging times.
We really respect— I just want to share that for the first time probably ever that I hear across the city that people feel like they're actually finally being represented, and that includes me.
And so thank you for all the hard work that you do.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I'm here, uh, but I want to—.
Keelan McClymont
I want to hear to kind of share some time or speak for a population that doesn't often get represented, and that's our students, our, our school-aged kids.
Um, Director Chase Miller stole my thunder and said everything I want to say, so ditto on that.
So I'm going to get real with you and just share a personal story of mine.
Um, kids are— I was a teacher for 21 years.
Kids are weird, right?
Uh, I mean, I, I— in one year I had a kid that wouldn't stop arguing arguing with me that black holes were proof that our universe was a digital simulation.
At the same time, another kid spent 2 months on a dare and succeeded that proved that he could put a noodle in his mouth and pull out of his nose.
However, the day that one of our students in our class parent got deported, you could say that the music died.
That was the day the music died, and there was The thing about trauma is it spreads.
And one thing that, you know, as board members we try to do as hard as we can is protect our kids in our schools.
But we can't protect the kids right outside of our schools.
As you know, I'll keep this brief.
We need this code— sorry, to be— the sanctuary status to be codified because it strengthens the foundation We need your help.
Our kids need your help.
So please, please vote yes.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Go right ahead.
I'm next?
Okay.
I'm Charlie Michelle Wesley and a descendant of multiple Northwest tribes.
And lately I've been making sure that I carry my tribal, federally recognized tribal ID just in case.
Yes.
Then I'm going to paraphrase a quote from an amazing racial justice activist and dearest friend, Matt Levine.
What people care about and what they don't is heartbreaking and mind-numbing.
I, I had to really agree with that in that moment when we were discussing the response to counter-protesters who claimed to love ICE, revealing the racist lack of caring for immigrant lives.
Those that do actually care about our immigrant communities and fight for them, like our courageous protesters and several city councilors who came to us with care in their hearts to actually include the most vulnerable and have the courage to prove it.
They tackle the historical performative acts created to pacify us, such as core city values, land acknowledgement, protect and serve, DEI, Green Portland.
And yes, sanctuary city.
They get criticized and bullied for the humanitarian courage to do what caring leaders do for community.
They serve us.
They fight to protect us.
They hear us and speak out to flip the script from us being the problem to where it rightfully belongs— those with violent racist powers that are ripping a hole large enough for fascism and hate to invade.
In the already flimsy fabric of freedom and democracy.
The war being waged on our immigrant communities is nothing less than a systemic racist profiling and seizure for no other reason than to fulfill the evil regime with the form of indigenous genocide.
Codify Portland as a true sanctuary city.
Vote with your heart.
Show us you care.
Be the model for true humanity.
Vote to keep families together and reside safely here.
Councilmember This is urgent.
We need a moral code to double as a city code.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Hello, I'm, uh, William Hare.
Uh, I'm a resident of the 3rd District.
Um, the phrase exercises unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees seems a more apt description of federal immigration enforcement, with each passing day.
We mustn't allow Portland to condone the creation of a dual-state justice system in such a way, and we are seeing a normative and prerogative state created in our very backyard.
Uh, but more than that, we may— we, we can never allow any state funds or city staff to be involved in this insidious enterprise.
The current administration enforcement agencies are steeped in a culture of violence and lawlessness that I believe will infect any city personnel that become involved with them.
We must not allow the imperial boomerang to land on our doorstep.
And this is just the very first step and bare minimum we can do by codifying this within our city statute.
We hear stories about everyone suffering and struggling today.
And as we stand in this marbled, beautiful City Hall, we have to ask ourselves if one Portlander Regardless of citizen status, is kidnapped ever.
What's the point of all of this if a city can't even keep its own civilians safe when masked thugs just show up and, and tear them away from their families?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
What's the point?
Keelan McClymont
What are we even doing?
I yield the rest of my time.
Good evening, council members and mayor.
I'm here to speak in support of the Protect Portland Resolution and Certification of Sanctuary City Status.
My name is Phillip Weeks.
I go by he/him.
I've been a resident of Portland for 2 years and reside in the 4th Council District.
Prior to moving to Portland, I worked with numerous organizations in St. Louis that investigated transparency and accountability in law enforcement.
There are many similarities to the out-of-control law— to an out-of-control law enforcement agency and the pattern and practice That is why I support the codification of Portland as a sanctuary city.
I also support the— I oppose the resolution that would support only an annual report.
I think the FOIAs are necessary.
Portland has an opportunity to offer a different vision for America than the Trump administration.
The immigrant families and U.S. citizens that are caught up in the brutal dragnet approach of ICE will need trauma assistance to cope with what they are experiencing.
The motivation to establish this assistance is unfortunately becoming more prevalent, as seen by the videos and filming of ICE.
The militant raid of Chicago apartment complex not only violated the norms of policing and numerous amendments of the Constitution, but also caused an incredible amount of trauma to those terrorized by ICE agents.
If what happened in Chicago is the tip of the iceberg of what might happen in Portland, then Portland should offer its.
Recently, Chicago made a similar pledge to its residents who experienced the horrifying and traumatic policing of the Chicago Police Department Commander John Burge, who, according to The Guardian, tortured 118 Black U.S. citizens in public custody between 1970 and 1991.
Chicago has made trauma counseling available to those victims through the Chicago Torture Thank you.
Justice Center, which was established as part of the historic reparations ordinance.
In addition to the mental health of those ensnared by the terrorizing tactics of ICE, there's also the financial harm to immigrants and citizens who are brutalized by ICE.
LA County is enacting an eviction moratorium for renters who have been financially harmed by this administration's grossly irresponsible crackdown.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Portland can do the Thank you very much for being here.
Uh, Michael Yurkovsky, Matt Levine, Madeline Carroll, Deborah Stevens, Casey DeSantis.
Keelan McClymont
Hello, community members.
My name is Dr. Matt Levine, and I'm an activist, academic, and facilitator who specializes in intersectional racial justice.
I'm here today in enthusiastic support of Councilors Kanal, Avalos, and Murillo's efforts to live up to the words that we've committed to as a sanctuary city.
We absolutely must make our city's current sanctuary city resolution binding law by putting it in city code.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yes.
Keelan McClymont
In fact, we need to go much further than that.
So to directly respond to the white supremacist Darren we heard from earlier, yes, we need to question our approach to borders and immigration wholesale.
You may not think that's appropriate to your job as a city council member, and I understand your trepidation, but that would be to not recognize the reality of the situation.
The reality of the situation is that the president of what is now known as the United States Yes.
This has started a civil war, and our city, what's now known as Portland, is one of the first battlefields of that civil war, along with what's now known as LA, DC, Chicago.
And remember, that civil war was started because there is no limit to what the current administration will do to wage war against Latinx communities, Black and brown communities, people who speak Spanish, and people who work certain jobs.
To think about that wholesale reframe of borders and immigration, please remember that this city we love is actually the nexus of rightful ancestral occupied lands of Tualatin Kalapuya peoples, Multnomah peoples, Cowlitz peoples, and more indigenous peoples of the Lower Columbia River.
Put simply, a government that was created by people coming to a land to which they weren't invited, who committed genocide upon arrival, have no right whatsoever to say that others are not allowed to cross the imaginary lines that that genocidal government imposed.
Furthermore, Mexican people and Chicano communities have much more of a right to be here than any white people from Europe.
Remember, Americans like Lewis and Clark in the 1800s were perpetuating settler colonialism on top of settler colonialism, and even after that, Oregon was the southern border of the US.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Time.
Others as well.
Thank you for being here.
Madeline Carroll, Deborah Stevens, Casey DeSantis, Gregory Parson, Pedro Andrade-Cordero, Jose Gamero-Georgeson.
I think Casey's online.
Oh, okay, great, thanks.
Keelan McClymont
Hello, councilors.
Uh, my name is Jose Camara-Jorgensen.
Um, I'm speaking for myself, but I am a school board member in District 1, um, and I am an immigrant.
I I came to this country when I was 7 years old and lived in a mostly immigrant community.
And I lived most of my life quietly turning around if a police officer was nearby, afraid of what they could do to me or my friends or my family, being uncertain of if even going to college is worth it, because what do I do if I don't have papers, or I don't— not knowing what to do.
I can only imagine how bad it is for my community now in the current state that we're in, because it was so hard on me, and it's a fraction of how, how it is now.
And as a school board member, I'm hearing that from the families.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We're hearing recordings because they don't want to show up at the school board or come anywhere, of them saying, I don't know if I should take my kids to school.
Keelan McClymont
I don't know if we have to move back to our country because they've deported my husband and I can't afford to raise 4 kids by myself.
These is what we're hearing from our parents.
We also passed a resolution and codified it, so I'm glad you're taking that step to put strength behind your words.
And honestly, I've been very, very happy to see most of you on TV lifting your voices because you have the platform to do so when so many people are afraid to do it for themselves.
So thank you for this, and thank you for what you're doing.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, uh, we'll just run through the names one more time.
Deborah Stevens, Gregory Parson, Casey DeSantis is not online, Pedro Anglada Cordero, Justin Skolnick.
Jay Amayachi.
Tyler Fellini.
Jacqueline Moezer.
Welcome, go right ahead.
Keelan McClymont
For the record, my name is Justin Skolnick.
I'm speaking in support.
I'd be lying if I said I'm surprised by events.
I know that many have seen— many have been caught off guard by the speed with which this crisis has arrived and by the fragility of our institutions.
Many have said this is not normal, as if everything depended on one single election.
This crisis has been rolling our way for centuries.
Broadly, we're up against the descendants of slaveholders who refuse to accept We're up against strands of Calvinism that mistake wealth for virtue and interpretations of the Gospels that are iffy at best about Jesus ever being human.
We're up against sadists who get off on causing suffering.
We're up against some who experience the dissonance of city life as a personal assault and who want the police to stop the blue hair.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We're up against others who want to make Portland a safe place for everyone.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
No amount of empathy will bridge the gap between us and them.
There is no compromise we can reach to make them be kind.
The world in which that style of politics works is gone.
Our job in this world is to protect those among our neighbors the regime is trying to enslave or eliminate.
We will also need to reject the propaganda launched at us by self-interested groups like People for Portland and the Business Alliance.
For instance, the eugenic language of cleaning up the city.
The greed that inspires this language that we've long just let slide has impaired our solidarity.
What has been normal is a game of keep away played with the basic human needs, and this is not a game we can win.
We can't sacrifice our neighbors and expect to thrive.
This proposed suite of protections is an important first step.
We do need more.
This regime trying to occupy our streets The regime that has flooded our streets and stealing our loved ones has also threatened to blast its detractors out of the water like a Venezuelan fishing boat.
It's time to accept that our destinies were already intertwined.
We are on this boat together.
We sink or swim together.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Hi, councilors.
Councilors, my name is Jackie Motzer.
I'm a constituent of District 2.
District 3.
I serve as the education program manager for a nonprofit here in Portland that provides mentorship for youth involved in the child welfare system.
I'm going to be brief.
I'm really still here in the room because I want to be here when this passes, so I hope you can help me out with that.
Uh, please vote for the resolution and ordinance tonight.
Many of the youth I work with came to Portland as unaccompanied minors seeking asylum and refuge.
My job is to support these youth in accessing an education and building the skills and mindsets to feel smart, capable, and inspired about their future.
I cannot do this work if my students are afraid to go into the community to study or explore their interests, or if they're afraid to go to school.
These youth need to feel connected to their community and protected by the adults and public servants of the city they call home.
I'm also the proud parent of a 6th grader and a 1st grader who attend Portland Public Schools.
Their education is enriched by the experiences, culture, and the nothing short of miraculous resilience that their immigrant classmates bring to school with them every day.
I need to know that they're safe in their schools, that their friends are safe in their schools, they can play in the park or go trick-or-treating without having their right to be here questioned.
Please support the resolution and ordinance and stand firm in the face of intolerance by adding an emergency clause to the ordinance today.
Thanks.
Thank you both.
Next up we have— oh wait, let's check Jay Amici and Tyler Fellini.
Next we have Ross Taylor joining us online, followed by Enzo Carpio, Hugo Flores, Mindan Okan, And Ricky King.
Keelan McClymont
Hello, my name is Ross Taylor.
Uh, hello, city councilors, other folks that are there.
I live in District 4 and I'm a member of the organization SURJ PDX, Showing Up for Racial Justice.
I just want to provide a little context.
We need to remember the racist basis for all the immigration law and policy since at least the 1600s.
Immigration laws defined who was white and eligible for citizenship, defined who was in the country legally, and it defined on a racial basis who was covered by labor protections and who had the right to organize.
Currently, ICE is open using racial profiling to decide who to kidnap.
Um, this resolution and ordinance are the minimum of what needs to be done tonight, including Councilor Kanal's proposed amendment.
Uh, I've had a list that I was going to give of further steps that are needed, but I think the important thing right now is to pass this resolution and ordinance on an emergency basis, uh, so these things can go into effect.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Good evening, Mayor Wilson and the Portland City Councilors.
My name is Enzo Corpio and I am a high schooler.
I'm here to support the sanctuary city ordinance, and I am deeply concerned about the expansion of the threat of immigration and the unlawful use it has, not just in Oregon, but in the whole country.
My family and most of my friends are immigrants.
They have done nothing illegal, though.
They have committed no crime.
They've harmed nobody.
Nothing wrong, morally or legally.
And yet they are still scared of going on public transportation, of going to work, going to school because they believe that if they are seen by ICE, they will be arrested because of how they look or because of an accent.
Now, since January of 2025, the Trump administration has rescinded protections for sensitive locations like the schools, hospitals, and houses— and houses of worship.
And there are reports of ICE agents arresting people without due process, refusing to identify themselves, and targeting individuals based on race and ethnicity.
In Oregon, an estimated 108,000 people alone would face potential deportation under these, under these aggressive actions.
And this climate of fear tears apart the families, it disrupts the children's education, it prevents people from accessing healthcare, and undermines the trust between the communities and the local law enforcement that's supposed to keep everyone safe.
And immigrants in Portland, they make up 50% of the workforce, they are 19% of the entrepreneurs, and they contribute $12.4 billion annually to our regional economy, including $5 billion in taxes.
Protecting immigrant and refugee families protects Portland's prosperity, its safety, and values.
By passing this ordinance, you will keep families together, protect children, uphold constitutional principles, strengthen the community safety, and affirm that in Portland, no matter where you were born or what language you speak, you belong here and you deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
I urge you all to vote yes on this legislation.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Hugo Flores and I'm a member of District 4.
As a first-generation Mexican I am part of the community that this measure is written to support and protect.
I want to say thank you for your sincere compassion and make a stand against this unjust, racist federal government.
I support this measure.
I want it to pass.
However, unanswered questions on cost and with Portland Police made me ask you to hold off another week and try to provide some answers to ensure better transparency.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor Sameer Kanal.
Keelan McClymont
This rush to put something out there so that we can, as a word, as the president of his council says, meet the moment with unanswered questions regarding funding, is eroding public trust.
This resolution speaks of Portland Police Bureau's deep commitment to constitutional policing and mental health supports.
However, my experience with Portland Police has been far from that.
My own recent painful experience with them, I Involving was pulled over by Portland Police and asked to step out of my car.
Order.
A mental health crisis with my family member resulted in the violations of my civil rights and the loss of my dog Snoopy.
This act of solidarity to show your support to fight a very real threat towards immigrants from the feds is noble, yet I just can't wrap my head around that when a direct request for justice and accountability was sent from the son of those very immigrants, my request was met with complete silence from every one of your offices.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Think about that.
You're enacting your response to local police abuses from your constituent makes me kind of understand the point of view that it is easier to politically be a hero fighting the federal boogeyman than it is to actually be a responsive public servant solving local crises.
It appears the resources are there and public commitment is immediate and the bureaucratic gears can turn right away.
Which is fine because this is much needed.
So I believe that the city can also act with the same urgency that us as locals face.
And I just wanna say thank you to Mayor Wilson's office 'cause they were very kind to respond to my email.
So thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
I thought there was a mendon before me, my bad.
My name is Ricky King and I'm a resident of District 3.
I'm also the grandchild of Afro-Latin immigrants and a living descendant of the Caribbean Arawak tribes.
I'm here in favor of the sanctuary ordinance.
I'd like to thank your offices for supporting and for bringing it here, and to support leaving in the FOIA request language in the ordinance as is.
We need our city workers to be prepared for an increasingly weaponized ICE, especially since as of this summer they are now better funded than most of the militaries in the world.
Our City of Portland workers, especially those from immigrant and Latin communities who are most Thank you.
I think that immigrants impacted deserve clear infrastructure about what to do when queried or confronted by ICE agents or other federal agencies.
A lot of time when I hear talk about law enforcement, it's— there's the assumption that any and all law enforcement is by default fair, constitutional, and itself lawful.
But the constitutional right to legal counsel is denied for immigration proceedings.
And 2017 research into migration policy showed that one of the most effective ways to prevent these deportations and to keep our community members here was by addressing the due process gap at the local level.
The 2017 resolution addressed the issue of legal representation and the due process gap.
From what I can tell, it was in the short term.
That part of the resolution reads, be it further resolved that the City of Portland will support the Multnomah County Public Defenders in its work to help immigrants fight deportation, including through the February 2017 allocation of $50,000.
I'm not saying that they need to go specifically through the Public Defenders, but how are other ways that our city can address the due process gap at the, at the local level?
I know I'm about out of time, so I urge you and your staffers to vote yes.
I vote— I urge you to vote yes and for you and your staffers to look further into ways that we can protect our immigrant population further.
In what ways does PPB still help ICE by corralling nonviolent protesters, um, like you heard about today?
In what ways are we not meeting the due process gap?
Um, thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Tyler Fellini has joined us online.
Keelan McClymont
Hi, good evening.
Uh, my name is Tyler Fellini, and I'm the executive director of and a registered lobbyist for Portland Jobs with Justice.
I'm a resident of District I'm in regulation with Chicago, D.C., and L.A., and I fear that the worst has yet to come for Portland.
I appreciate the spirit of the resolution and ordinance before the council this evening, and I appreciate how this council has chosen to be bold at a time when so many organizations have preemptively complied.
However, we know this doesn't go far enough, and I want to encourage you to push for more.
Please continue investigating ICE's land use violations and encourage the city attorney to take action.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Please consider other ways to impede federal agents' assaults on Portlanders, like bans on them concealing their identity and legal challenges targeting their indiscriminate use of chemical weapons, similar to recent legal efforts in Illinois.
And lastly, please continue reviewing the ways in which local law enforcement engages with protesters and federal agents.
On this point, I'm going to echo what others have said, and I'd encourage the council to review the ways in which PPB's rapid response team is actually causing more chaos and potential danger to protesters by attempting to keep the one block in front of the ICE building clear and open to vehicular traffic.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Only to vacate the area the moment federal officers begin pushing protesters back into the street.
This reckless endangerment of peaceful protesters runs counter to the language within both the resolution and the ordinance, and it seems to me that an easy fix would be for PPB to actually shut down the street to vehicular traffic.
Citizens of Portland are looking to all of you now to protect our rights, to defend our values, and to fight for dignity and safety for all of us.
I have faith that you're up for the task.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I'm checking to see if Mindan Okan is here.
Next up we have Brittany Jones, Stephanie Engelsman, Annie Naranjo Rivera, Aiden Summers, Brian Kim.
Go ahead, Brittany.
Hello, my name is Brittany Jones.
I am a Democratic candidate for Governor of Oregon, founder of the Ravens Party, and a PLRC for District 50 for the Multnomah County Democrats.
I'm mixed indigenous of Patawomeck, Mexican, and Welsh descent, and I'm here to talk to you today about ICE.
But I want to start with a reminder that if you are of European descent, then you are a descendant of illegal immigrants.
Even if your ancestors didn't directly steal land, you are actively benefiting from stolen land, benefiting from the genocide and forced assimilation of our community, benefiting from the death and enslavement of the Black community, and benefiting from the low-cost labor our Southern relatives provide.
With that being said, Indigenous People's Day is a state-recognized holiday.
Yet this year, our community had to gather outside of the ICE facility to take a stand for our stolen relatives.
ICE does not have the authority to detain citizens, and yet they have detained an elder multiple times, one time cutting off her bra and stealing her skirt.
They have detained a 17-year-old Two-Spirit and stole his flag, pinning it to the wall like a trophy.
Just a few days ago, they seemed to flashbang protesters, people gathered to exercise their First Amendment right Talking among themselves, some even wearing inflatable animal costumes.
And I know how terrifying that might be for some of you.
So I want to ask you a question that I hear every time I have delivered supplies to camp, every time I have stood shoulder to shoulder with my community: where are our leaders?
So I want to ask you, where are you?
What are you doing besides signing papers?
Because our community knows all too well how little a signed piece of paper means to your government.
Today, if you— if any of you plan to vote no, I come here demanding that you join us, that you stand with us until you are Tired, cold, hungry, and thirsty, and then stand with us longer until ICE gets bored and irritated, until you get tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and flashbanged.
Then take what you learned and use it to make change, to see why keeping ICE from being militarized is important and why we must keep the Guard from deploying in our city.
Silence is compliance.
Compliance is complicity.
If you are not willing to lead from the front, then step down to allow someone who is willing to fight for us to take your place.
Turning a blind eye, hoping it goes away, won't work with a fascist wannabe dictator in the White House.
Keelan McClymont
Councilmember Herbold.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Uh, thank you all for still being here.
It's 10:22, um, and I just wanted to say, Council President, Vice President, and councilors, my name is Annie Naranjo Rivera, and I serve as the state director of the Oregon Working Families Party.
Um, we're a statewide grassroots political organization made up of community-based organizations and labor unions.
Who are committed to building a society that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected.
We advocate for economic justice, racial equity, and a democracy that centers working people and their communities.
I am also the daughter of a Cuban refugee, so the issue under consideration today is personal to me, as it is to so many of you and your constituents.
Working families in Portland and across all of Oregon value safety, free The current immigration enforcement violates these values and must be opposed with all the tools at our disposal.
We support both this ordinance with the emergency clause and the resolution under consideration tonight to improve Portland's commitment to all of its residents that they'll be protected from excessive immigration action and overreach by the federal government.
Thank you, Councilor Jamie Dunphy.
All people deserve to feel safe in our neighborhoods, and in the current political climate, our immigrant and refugee communities do not feel safe.
Immigrants and refugees face all the same hardships that working people across the country face, and they also face possibilities like being rounded up and thrown into detention with no due process at any time.
It's crucial that Portland take these practical steps to protect and provide for our communities.
As we've seen across the country, citizens as well as noncitizens have been terrorized by the federal government's immigration policies.
And so it's essential that Portland take action tonight to protect and inform our most vulnerable communities.
You have the opportunity and the people's mandate to lead with courage so that other cities may follow, not just here in Oregon, but across the country.
Councilmember We look to you for leadership at this time, and we're here to amplify the voices of tens of thousands of WFP members in Oregon who stand with you as you stand on the right side of history.
At the Working Families Party, we stand with everyday Oregonians who believe in upholding community safety, and we look forward to a unanimous vote from others.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Hi, uh, for the record, my name is Aiden Summers.
Um, I'm a registered lobbyist for the Portland chapter of the Democratic Social of America.
We fully support both the resolution and the ordinance before it, especially with the emergency amendment to pass this tonight.
I think it's been encouraging hearing from folks of all, or at least most walks of life around this city coming here in support of this.
I'm also really encouraged by the ordinance including Partnerships with community organizations.
I think that's the kind of thing that we need a lot more of— partnerships between all these different organizations that have had many different representatives here today and council.
I think that's the only way that we're going to have the strength and presence to push back against what the federal government is trying to do in the city.
So I thank you for this, this great first step, and I look forward to the many, many other resolutions and ordinances that'll come forward to try and face this difficult time.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, uh, let's see.
Stephanie Engelsman.
Okay, um, next up Uh, Brian Kim, Makwa Crow, Jeremy Bosole Smith, Elizabeth Mintz.
Hello everyone, my name is Makwa.
I'm a Portland resident, a community organizer from Bad River Reservation and the Anishinaabe Nation, and at my core, I am an Indigenous land defender.
Over the past several months, I've been doing Know Your Rights work outside the Portland ICE facility, offering Know Your Rights booklets, connecting neighbors with legal support, and the occasional comfort to my neighbors as they attend appointments.
In this time, I have seen families ripped apart, individuals go in but not come out of that ICE facility.
And I cannot ever forget the faces of detained immigrant community members transported via white GeoVans and now buses out on their way out of state.
As an organizer, I know that real safety depends on trust, and trust can only exist when people know their city will not turn them over to ICE.
And as a resident of Portland, I carry this truth that no one on this land is illegal.
Keelan McClymont
Order.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
All of us are living on indigenous territory, and that understanding calls us to protect people seeking refuge and belonging.
I urge you to pass this code and make sanctuary not just a declaration but an action.
I ask that you vote yes.
Thank you for your time.
Keelan McClymont
My name is Jeremy Bosley-Smith.
I am a member of the Portland Democratic Socialists of America, but speaking on my own behalf today.
Thank you to those who have brought these resolutions forward.
The world's looking at Portland right now.
You can hear the Customs and Border Patrol Black Hawk overhead.
I know I've been hearing it for the past month at my house, just a reminder that we're all being collectively punished for not complying.
Now's the time to lead by example and show this fascist regime that we're not afraid of them.
These resolutions are the first of a thousand steps we need to take to protect our neighbors.
The passage of these resolutions is not the end.
It is the beginning of a greater campaign against the rise of fascism in our country.
Keep taking the fight to the feds.
I know we'll keep doing it in the streets.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
I believe we have someone online.
Yes.
I don't know how to do this.
I'm just gonna fast time.
So what do I do?
Uh, go ahead and introduce yourself, and you'll have 2 minutes for testimony.
All right, thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Let me—.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Hello, I'm Elizabeth.
I encourage you to vote yes on the Protect Portland Initiative and the Sanctuary City Ordinance.
I am a proud neurodivergent immigrant rights activist Born and raised in the U.S., I spoke English as my first language and Spanish as my second.
I was blessed to grow up in both the U.S. and Bolivian cultures and was taught to love all people and cultures just as God did.
Currently, our democracy is at risk.
Nirmal's Holocaust poem says, when they came for said minority, I did not speak up because I was not them.
Thank you.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to protest.
Today, dictator Trump is coming for the immigrants and people who speak a different language or with an accent.
Eventually, they will come for us all.
So vote yes on both Section 3 and Protect Portland so that all can feel safe and welcomed.
We as a collective must make a strong statement against the military occupying our cities.
At this point, every single citizen at risk.
We have witnessed ICE agents use chemical weapons on peaceful protesters, myself included.
Unbadged federal agents aggressively arrest people and threaten an ambulance helping an injured activist.
Next, we must broadly stand up to defend our city sovereignty, because once it is taken away, we cannot regain it.
We must also work in unity with the city and community partners Helping immigrants as they face budget cuts and arrests.
Give immigrants some relief by standing behind them.
Please encourage PPB to not engage in immigration enforcement, um, because everybody should be safe.
They are already or not— people are already or not calling 911 out of fear.
And lastly, please uphold the city's promise to solidify Portland's sanctuary status.
Revoke the ICE permit today and say no to fascism.
By voting yes on the emergency clause, by on emergency clause, and yes, revoke the permit.
God bless.
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
How do I mute myself?
We might be able to help you on our end.
Okay.
Uh, Brian Kim.
Mahogany Bennett.
Kim Jones.
Simab Husseini.
Go ahead.
Hello, my name is Kim Jones.
I am a 4th generation Mexican-American, and I've lived in Portland since 2017.
I come here I'm here to stand in solidarity with my Latino siblings and all undocumented peoples who have sought safety in Portland but instead have suffered persecution for their citizenship status.
Portland is being attacked due to its commitment to equality, diversity, and community under the guise of fighting domestic terrorism.
How can we call ourselves a sanctuary city before holding those terrorizing our community accountable?
How can we protect Portland when we are protecting the pockets of the elite.
Hold the real domestic terrorists accountable and revoke the ICE permit.
Hold Stewart Lindquist, who makes $2 million a month by leasing the ICE building, accountable and for allowing 25 violations to its conditional land use contract.
There has to be some sort of accountability factor amended into this resolution.
I would like for our city council to consider that when drafting future— There should be no vagueness to abuse or loopholes for federal agents to use to continue committing acts of terror against our community.
I'm here to express my support with changes for the Protect Portland initiative and ordinance to codify sanctuary status.
I support this resolution and ordinance with the following changes: emergency resolution to revoke the ICE permit and expand and elaborate on the prohibition, not just decline in participation, on city cooperation with federal agencies.
This City Council paved the way for what we are seeing today by allowing this permit in 2011.
You have the power and moral responsibility to revoke it.
Thank you for your time, and chinga la migra.
Keelan McClymont
Yes, greetings.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Can you guys hear me?
We can hear you.
Yes, we can.
Keelan McClymont
Okay, wonderful.
Uh, good evening, Mayor and City Councilors.
My name is Sima Husseini, a community organizer working alongside immigrant and refugee communities who live every day with the threat of the fascism and the tyranny of immigration kidnapping and have been victims of civil rights violations over decades.
I'm here in strong support of codifying Portland's Sanctuary City Resolution and Ordinance.
This is an important step, one that moves our city from promises and resolutions into binding law.
It says clearly that Portland will not allow its people or its resources to be used to harm our neighbors because of where they were born.
But I also want to be clear, passing this is only the beginning, not the end.
The strength of this law will depend on how it's implemented.
How city staff are trained, and how communities most impacted by ICE and federal overreach stay centered in oversight and accountability.
Codifying sanctuary must come with a living structure that ensures city employees, departments, and partnerships all understand their obligations and that immigrant communities have a seat at that table.
We also know that sanctuary without investment is fragile.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We cannot just declare safety.
Keelan McClymont
We must, we must build it.
Portland modeled this commitment through the Diversity and Civic Leadership Program under Civic Life, which invested directly in community-based organizations, many immigrant and refugee-led, to build civic and leadership, civic power and leadership across communities.
I know because I organized under this Precious funding for 3 years.
We need to build on that same spirit now, but matched to today's realities.
Reinvesting in programs like DCL and expanding funding for immigrant and refugee organizations that provide legal support and advocacy and healing is how we meet the needs of this moment.
I know the city faces real budget constraints, but even in scarcity, we must invest in what keeps people safe and the networks that prevent harm.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
Before it happens.
So yes, codify this resolution and ordinance, and let's commit to building a Portland where sanctuary is not just law but practice, culture, and care.
Melt ice, free Palestine.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Okay, um, Adina Wing, Katie Cowie, Robert Butler.
Keelan McClymont
By popular demand, I'm back.
Well, 108,000 people in Oregon, immigrants at What are you going to do about it?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We have a problem.
Keelan McClymont
There's this guy who opened the borders, let in millions of people.
We didn't even know what they were, who they were, what they were going to do.
Millions.
We got 108,000 of those in Oregon.
Maybe with kids now.
Maybe they're criminals.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
What do we do?
Keelan McClymont
How many of those are in Portland of the 108,000?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
What are we going to do?
Keelan McClymont
This is not the answer.
We need answers.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
What do we do?
Keelan McClymont
The other thing is that, just for example, no city employee will help ICE.
So if I'm a city employee, And I call whistleblower on some criminal immigrant.
I have violated no city employee will help ICE.
The mailman that was just here on your side, he's a federal employee.
Reverse that.
Reverse that.
Reverse that.
What if he was a city employee helping Trump?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
What would you do?
Keelan McClymont
That guy had the safety of coming here and being safe.
Otherwise, what would you do his job as an employee?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Okay, just.
Doing one more check.
Mahogany Bennett, Adina Wing, Katie Towey.
Thank you very much, Keelan.
Thank you to everybody who has been here to share your thoughts, support, and concerns with us this evening.
Colleagues, it is 10:39.
We have 2 items We have staff ready to stay until 11, and I am working to see if we can stay later to get through things.
But how long this takes will depend on how well we work together.
So we are moving back to separate debate and discussion on these 2 agenda items.
We will take agenda item— what is this, 6?
Keelan McClymont
6.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
First, which is the resolution which creates the Protect Portland Initiative.
I see a number of folks in the queue.
Councilor Smith, are you in the queue to debate the Protect Portland Initiative?
Yes.
Yes, Madam President.
Go right ahead.
I, uh, first want to commend my colleague Weeks for sponsoring this legislation, for coming together to shape this powerful resolution.
As Portlanders, we are sick and tired of folks taking down— talking down to our city, um, fearmongering and launching baseless accusations about our city.
I'm proud that despite our many differences, we can stand together and denounce the chaotic lawlessness of the Trump administration.
It has gone on for too long.
The Protect Portland provisions underline a management philosophy, and I recognize the emphasis on the city's leverage as an employer to reinforce our obligations to our labor partners and city staff in creating safe working environments.
Creating a public-facing information hub is something I strongly support.
The city contractor preparedness plan is particularly compelling.
If private contractors, uh, receive public dollars, they should be held to the same standards as public servants, extending to protecting the public.
I won't take up a, a lot of time, but I look forward to working with everyone on council closely and with the mayor and the Public Safety Service Area to successfully enact the provisions relating to the Portland Police Bureau.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Green, are you in the queue to debate this resolution?
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, I'll keep my comments very brief.
I'll post a longer statement about this, but I just want to say The value of this resolution is that it expresses this body's will in one document, in one vote.
And we're— I'm very grateful to have a mayor who has led with the same values that I see in, in the resolution, but we may not always, always have a mayor that's like that.
And so the ability of this resolution here today is to lay our values down here on the table and say, this is who we are as a city.
It's never been more urgent to denounce this administration and its attempts to use our city as a site of increased fascism.
I'm personally going to also denounce a number of the comments I heard tonight saying that we need ICE in our community and that ICE is somehow a compromised position.
We'll never compromise on that.
That's where I stand on that.
Thanks.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Morillo, to the resolution.
Yeah, this is me urging my colleagues for us to stop talking and just vote this through tonight.
Our constituents have been waiting for months and months and months for this to happen.
This is a good resolution.
It outlines everything our city values, and we have some codification stuff that is also going to materially hit really hard and is going to be really helpful.
So, uh, let's just get it done tonight, guys.
I'm begging you.
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
Thanks there, Angelita.
Um, I don't disagree.
I think perhaps I will request to violate the rule in the spirit when we don't speak when we vote, and I'll share some comments then.
I'm in full support of everything that's on the table tonight.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Why don't we give ourselves each about 3 sentences when we vote?
Councilor Kanal.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you.
I will withdraw this if it's not friendly, but I wanted to ask, I heard in the testimony the request that we adjust the word residents to residents and visitors throughout, and that was a compelling argument to me.
And so I would both, I would make the proposal, move to amend in all scenarios in the document residents to residents and visitors, ask Councilor Avalos and the other co-sponsors if it's friendly, and then ask the council president to ask for unanimous consent.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor Avalos's thumbs up.
Councilor Krejci-Molay's thumbs up.
Councilor Clark?
Councilor Clark is nodding yes.
Uh, I don't know that we can do that through unanimous consent.
We had this discussion about— Let's take a quick vote, please.
Okay.
Um, I will second that, and if there is no discussion— Councilor Ryan, are you in the queue to discuss this amendment?
Keelan McClymont
No.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Keelan McClymont
Clark.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Green.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos.
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Ryan.
Aye.
Liam Elaine.
Aye.
Murillo.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
The amendment is approved with 12 yes votes.
Thank you very much.
Councilor Ryan, are you in the queue to discuss the resolution?
Keelan McClymont
I am, I am.
First of all, I agree that we should try to keep this brief now.
I just want to say thank you to all my colleagues that worked so hard on this.
I'm so sorry I'm not in the council chambers.
I do believe in science, and I had an opportunity to get my vaccines today.
I think going forward I'll get them one at a time, but I just am really supportive of this.
I do have a question, and I have to get to it.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
Keelan McClymont
Just to get it out there, can we get information about the budget impacts of the legislation in front of us tonight?
I just want to make sure that the budget office, uh, or someone speaks to the cost of the training, um, because we're in such a budget challenge.
I just want to make sure that what we're voting on actually gets implemented and that, um, we're aware of the cost.
That's all.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for that question, Councilor Ryan.
I'll note that we did work with the administration to try to ensure that things could tag onto other trainings that existed.
But we happen to have Mr. Biery here filling in as Acting City Administrator, and I'd ask if you could answer this question.
Keelan McClymont
Yes, Council President.
For the record, Jonas Biery, Chief Financial Officer, sitting in for the City Administrator tonight.
That's correct that we believe the training is aligning and consistent with other activities in motion using existing resources.
And so anticipate that budget impact, incremental budget impact should be minimal.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
Keelan McClymont
I appreciate that.
I wanted to make sure that we didn't find that out 6 months later.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thanks.
Thank you, Councilor.
Colleagues, seeing no one else in the queue for debate, we have had a request to give everybody outside of our normal rules just a few sentences in order to try to speed things up tonight.
Let's try to keep it to that.
To just a few sentences.
And Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Keelan McClymont
Clerk.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor, you are on mute.
All right then, I won't say anything.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
I'm proud of my colleagues.
I'm proud of Portlanders.
Aye.
There's a little bit about meeting the moment, and I think that there— that speaking to this is important.
For those of you that introduced it and how you shared whether each one of these— I'm going to speak at all right now.
I just appreciate how each of you introduced this, both of these items.
Uh, I've been really proud of Portlanders over the last few weeks.
Um, we're winning the information campaign.
I, you know, who knew that humor in the form of a green frog was going to be the great tactic of our time to push back on a paramilitary overreach by the federal government, but it is, and it's working.
I'm also very cognizant of that it's not a joking matter, and for a lot of our members of our community, this has been— it remains an incredibly stressful, sad, maddening moment.
And nobody on this council is making light of that.
Nobody is, is considering it humorous.
But we are in an information campaign against those who would do us ill. And so I've appreciated the way Portlanders have shown up.
Snatch and grabs are not a normal American practice.
Law enforcement hiding their faces is not a normal American practice.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
I've said for a long time that confusing camouflage with law enforcement and continuing to blur the lines between law enforcement and our military is not normal practice, nor should it remain.
But here we are.
We're continuing to see it happen more and more, forced on us by a president who seeks unknown ends, by sycophants who seek to advance an information campaign against an American— against American communities, To inspire action of some sort against American communities, again, to unknown ends.
There's nothing honorable about what's going on right now in the federal government.
There's nothing honorable about what they've introduced into Portland or in other cities across these United States.
We have longstanding due process for a reason.
That reason is our Constitution.
It's our American way of life.
They demand that we protect due process through laws, through practical process, and ignoring it is an affront to everything American.
I have to speak with respect to the federalization of the National Guard members to Portland.
This action has now multiple times been determined unnecessary, out of compliance with the intent of federal laws, and unconstitutional.
For a political party who has long preached states' rights and the issues of states' rights, all I hear is silence and the occasional bursts of glee by the cowards that are beating the drum for military intervention inside American cities.
Shame on the United States Congress of these, of these states.
Shame for them enabling these actions.
Shame on the governors of states not joining us in our court cases to stop this infringement of our states' rights.
I don't want to end on shame.
I will just state again just how damn proud I am of the way Portlanders have shown up In this moment.
You've shown your dissent.
My colleagues have written good documents tonight.
I know that people are sad, they're mad, they're scared.
Uh, we are winning this information campaign.
We are winning our court cases, and we will win history of these times.
The sad is a little bit too much for me, so I'm going to stay in the mad category 'Cause I think I'm more effective in the mad category.
And I'm gonna stay steady in preventing any further federal overreach and any other un-American norms growing far too damn normal.
I vote aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you to my colleagues, to the community for standing up to protect Portland.
I vote aye.
Keelan McClymont
Ditto.
See you guys on Saturday.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this forward.
You all have made me grow in a way that I didn't think was possible.
But one thing is very clear, this is a ferocious federal overreach, and this will help to combat that.
And I hope that everybody follows this lead because it is important and it's critical.
Thank you, and I vote aye.
Keelan McClymont
Thank you to the co-sponsors, to everyone involved in drafting this, the council leadership for getting this on the agenda.
Uh, I'll probably put more out on social media and keep it short here, so I vote aye.
Thanks.
I need to start with how deeply sad it is when we separate children from their parents and guardians.
May we hold those dealing with such trauma in our hearts tonight.
And going forward, rage politics won't help us, but pragmatic politics can help us get through this current storm tonight.
Because of all of my colleagues, we are taking a pragmatic step centering those most impacted.
Remember, everything this president has touched has gone into bankruptcy.
So please, we need him out of our business.
And finally, to quote one of my favorite inspirational leaders.
While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep us safe, I encourage you to continue to go advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I vote aye.
Our neighbors are worth fighting for.
I vote aye.
Thank you to everyone who brought forward this resolution.
I think it gives us a great outline of what to I heard a lot of the testimony say that this is the first of many steps, and I agree, there is more coming.
So I just wanted to let the community know that my office is bringing forward 2 more policies, a detention facility impact fee and a surveillance policy to make sure that ICE and other federal agencies are not able to use our data to track immigrants and protesters, and that we're going to be protecting people's rights on all levels.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Novick.
Keelan McClymont
I'm grateful to my colleagues who drafted this measure to give us the opportunity to join our immigrant families, uh, people in, in animal suits, and Judge Karen Emmergut in opposing inhumanity and lawlessness and fascism.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilmember Pirtle-Guiney.
I feel like I need to continue to set the example of not speaking too much, so I will simply say aye, and I am so glad to join my colleagues in support here.
The resolution as amended is adopted with 12 yes votes.
Okay, we have another item before us.
I know I am The killer of celebration at every exciting council meeting.
We are moving on to agenda item 7.
That agenda item has already been opened, which is why we are able to go there after 9 o'clock at night.
Colleagues, I know that there are some amendments that were pre-filed.
Right now we do not have any of those open, so we are speaking to the If it is helpful to allow everybody 2 to 3 sentences at the end, as we just did, to move along debate, um, let's do that.
We have staff available until 11:30 tonight.
Councilor Ryan.
Keelan McClymont
That's legacy, sorry.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Keelan McClymont
I'll make this brief, uh, if I can.
Uh, I also agree with Councilor Murillo.
This isn't enough.
We know that there's more coming.
We daylighted 7 of these, uh, pieces of legislation among several councilors at the Community and Public Safety Committee.
So after this, there's 5 more to go.
I'm excited to work on mass identification verification and an ordinance coming up.
And, uh, also we're working on chemical weapons-related, uh, legislation as well.
Um, and I also want to say I'm aware the government has a role to play, but ultimately resistance to authoritarianism is led by the people, and I'm committing to commit continue to support community response to everything we're facing here.
Uh, also, and a chicken suit.
I just wanted to shout that out.
Uh, so, uh, second, thanks for the testifiers that wrote in.
Um, you saw a lot of testimony in person, but also County Chair Jessica Vega Peterson, SEIU president, principal of a middle school in D4, and a couple people I met cheering for the Timbers together.
Um, I just want to also make the same motion I made on the last thing, uh, which is to change residents to residents and visitors in 3 places: paragraph 9 of the underlying ordinance, C1 in the underlying ordinance, and in the code Appendix A 23.20.030.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Second.
Keelan McClymont
Thanks.
In paragraph 9, it documents the problems we're facing, says only residents are being questioned when we know that visitors are too.
In C1, it talks about protecting the dignity and constitutional rights of all residents, but if you're a visitor here, we have that responsibility too while you're in our city.
And in the code section, it says the training needs to include at a minimum guidance for staff on how to respond to requests for information from the federal government regarding city employees or residents.
But city staff might also have information about those who do not live here but simply visit here, or who work at a private business in Portland.
So this is changing in 3 places, quote, residents, end quote, to residents and visitors.
I have a second, and I will stop there.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Colleagues, if you are in the queue to debate this amendment, Can you please raise your physical hand?
Okay.
Seeing no debate on this amendment, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
This is an amendment to change residents to residents and visitors in 3 places.
Um, may I confirm who seconded?
That would be me.
Keelan McClymont
Councilor Mariah.
Clerk?
Aye.
Green?
Aye.
Zimmerman?
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos?
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Dunphy?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Powell.
Aye.
Ryan.
Aye.
Toyama-Lane.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Murillo.
Aye.
Novick.
Aye.
Rogini.
Aye.
Aye.
Uh, the amendment is approved with 12 yes votes.
Thank you.
Councilor Green, to the now amended ordinance.
Keelan McClymont
I, I'd like to speak after Councilor Smith.
I believe that Councilor Smith has an amendment.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor Smith.
Thank you, Madam President.
I just want to say to my colleague Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor Kanal, for your leadership, uh, on this legislation.
Uh, he and his staff and my staff worked very diligently and brought in a broad array of stakeholders and administrative leadership to introduce it here today.
So I want to tell you, I'm going to support this.
And where did you get that picture from?
Keelan McClymont
It's a screen grab from the video from Open Signal.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Where did you get that picture?
I want that picture.
I do still have that jacket.
So I don't throw away clothes.
One of the most important things about this legislation is the training.
It's important.
I think training builds organizational culture and norms, and it also makes expectations and values operational, and it allows us to hold each other accountable.
I didn't have a problem with the FOIA request.
I think we need to FOIA them every day for 8 hours every day.
But the issue that I had, I thought we were getting very, um, rigorous in our direction to, uh, bureau staff where we were on the line to what the charter required for our duties.
That's what I had a problem with.
I think that, um, the FOIA request They, they may not come back at all, but we still need to keep the pressure on.
So I'd like to put a motion forward, and I wonder— I'm not sure, I'm not sure I know what the compliance looks like, but regular FOIA requests, and I wonder if this tool is better used in the context of specific, um, I don't know.
I'm going to switch this around.
But if, if we can forego the FOIA and somehow figure out how to less direct the bureaus in a way that is consistent with our charter, that would be helpful.
And you can help me out, uh, Councilor Green.
Keelan McClymont
I'm already talking.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, Councilor Green.
Keelan McClymont
Uh, thank you, Councilor Smith, um, and thank you for your early leadership on this, uh, the spirit of this legislation almost a decade ago now.
Um, I did prepare a friendly amendment to your amendment that you posted.
Yeah, um, I, I, I hear your reasoning about your motivation for pulling that FOIA piece out, and I thought what I would do is in Section E, okay, uh, under Under the new item that is now about 2, which is really about the— it speaks to the reporting.
Your clause says the city will also provide an annual report to council summarizing— and here's where I'm proposing, if you're friendly to it, adding back in summarizing Freedom of Information Act requests for immigration enforcement, communication request activities, and detailed description of the city's response, because then that ties back to the resolution we just Yeah, I totally—.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I agree.
I accept.
It's very friendly.
Keelan McClymont
Okay, then I'll send that language to the clerk.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Has this been moved and seconded?
I'd like to move that we support my amendment with the friendly amendment that Councilor Green has put forward.
Keelan McClymont
Second.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And this would remove C as you had put forward, Councilor Smith, and in the new 2, add in language about FOIA.
Is that correct, Councilor Smith and Green?
Yes, we do have the language that we're going to send over to the clerk.
Do you?
Okay, I think she has it.
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, and I'll send it to—.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, you already have it?
Keelan McClymont
Okay, great.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Point of information, can you just explain it one more time?
I'm looking at it here, but I'm not seeing what you're describing.
Okay, hold on just a second.
Keelan McClymont
So if you're looking at the Smith Amendment in Section E, what is now the newly numbered Item 2 under E, there is a statement there that says the city will also provide an annual report to council summarizing, and then I'm adding in Freedom of Information Act requests to then complete for immigration enforcement communication requests and activities and a detailed description of the city response.
So it codifies in the reporting under the sanctuary city code that we're, we're going to summarize Freedom of Information Act requests that we are then providing some urging to the mayor to do in the, in the resolution.
So that's, that's what that's doing.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And that's But are— and that's also including removing her whole amendment, right?
All of C and—.
Keelan McClymont
Okay.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
All right, I understand.
Thanks.
Keelan McClymont
And just, you kept saying Section E, and I think you mean D. Yes, thank you for that.
The numbering gets— yep, it's late.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
It gets confusing.
All right, Councilor Koyama Lane, are you in the queue to speak to this amendment?
Keelan McClymont
Councilor Yeah, I just had a— this may just be a syntax issue, but I think that word for, F-O-R, should be a comma, because otherwise you would have only immigration enforcement communication requests and activities that are in a Freedom of Information Act request, which I don't think is the intent here.
Yeah, I'm picking up what you're laying down.
So I, I think that, yeah, if it It should say, if you're trying to add Freedom of Information Act requests there, it should say Freedom of Information Act requests, comma, immigration enforcement.
That is my intent.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
Keelan McClymont
Is that acceptable to you, Councilor?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
It is acceptable.
Keelan McClymont
And I'll just— sorry.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Go ahead.
Keelan McClymont
I'll just say, I'm going to say I would accept this as friendly.
I am supportive of FOIA requests.
I can't count votes legally under state law.
But I know I need 9 to get an emergency clause done today, and that's what I'd like to do.
So that's why I'm going to accept it.
And I also have faith that the mayor will be doing these FOIA requests.
And if that changes, then we'll talk again.
But I think that the mayor and team are well suited to be working on it.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Lynley, do you have what you need for us to move forward on a vote?
Maybe just confirm for me and Keelan, it would read summarizing Freedom of Information .
Just making sure that is clear.
Okay, we're good.
.
Okay, um, and you're comfortable with this amendment moving forward given that this is an ordinance?
Yep, we're good.
Okay, great.
Keelan, no— seeing no one else in the queue, can you please call the roll?
Clerk.
Aye.
Green.
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
The amendment is approved with 12 yes votes.
Okay, uh, Councilor Green, are you still in the queue, or was— okay, that was from previous action.
Keelan McClymont
Stand down.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor Avalos, are you in the queue to speak to the Now amended ordinance.
Yes.
I also have a quick friendly amendment.
So I want to add a friendly amendment that was caught by Councilor Kanal's team that would strengthen the ordinance to be consistent with the language that we have in the Protect Portland resolution.
So I'd like to add a friendly amendment to where public-private signage is posted.
So in Section 23.20.030D, Uh, we're going to add the words and leased spaces, and so that whole phrase, um, so that it encompasses both spaces owned, operated, and occupied by the city.
That is something that we were specific about, uh, including leased spaces, uh, in the PPI.
Um, so we are just trying to standardize this in, um, the ordinance.
Keelan McClymont
Second.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So in D, after city-owned and before buildings, you would add leased—.
Keelan McClymont
Correct.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Or after buildings rather and before will.
City-owned buildings and leased spaces will display.
Keelan McClymont
Correct.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Lynley and Keelan, you have what you need?
Okay.
Councilor Koyama Lane, are you in the queue to debate this amendment?
Can I just confirm?
'Cause we'd gotten some written language and I just wanna make sure Councilor Avalos, this is what you had.
You— it had said city-owned buildings and leased spaces and buildings, and you're intending to not have the second and buildings in there?
Just making sure.
So it's going to say city-owned and— oh, um, it's going to say city-owned and leased spaces and buildings will displace Uh, visible signage.
I can copy-paste this real quick to you in the chat.
That's fine.
Thank you.
Colleagues, seeing no one in the queue for debate, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Keelan McClymont
Clark.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Green.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
For folks online, we are waiting to make sure our staff are on the same page on what just happened.
Um, yeah, maybe we should.
Um, we're— couple just quick clarifications.
Um, just want to confirm that in every instance where it says resident, we will add and visit Because there's some discrepancy around how many instances there are, so we just want to confirm that.
Keelan McClymont
I have 3.
I'm going to pull up the right— Your intent matters most.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yeah, but—.
Keelan McClymont
Yeah, everywhere it says residents, it should say residents and visitors.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
Okay, thank you.
The amendment is approved with 12 yes votes.
Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.
Thank you, Council President.
The violence that the federal government is inflicting on our communities is an emergency.
I formally move that we add the emergency clause as pre-filed.
If this isn't an emergency, what is?
Keelan McClymont
Second.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I think that Councilor Kanal just deferred to Councilor Murillo for that second.
I believe that's what I saw.
Colleagues, seeing no one in the queue for debate on the addition of an emergency clause, Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Clark.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Green.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Zimmerman.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Dunphy.
Aye.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Novick?
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
The amendment is approved with 12 yes votes, and the emergency clause is added.
Colleagues, seeing no one in the queue to debate the now amended emergency ordinance, we will move to a vote.
There is an emergency clause, so we get to vote tonight, and this requires 9 votes for Councilor Passage.
Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Keelan McClymont
Clark.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Green.
Keelan McClymont
I want to thank you guys for bringing this forward.
I'm proud of us for coming together unanimously on this.
Well, I'm presuming so.
Um, it's— this is just the beginning.
Uh, we're gonna need to see you guys out there on Saturday.
Um, I'm going to be out there with a veterans contingent at Friendship Circle on the Waterfront Park, so I hope to see you then.
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Uh, sorry, Zimmerman?
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos?
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Dunphy?
Keelan McClymont
I'm incredibly honored to do this work on every day, but especially today.
I vote aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Smith?
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Knoll?
Keelan McClymont
I, I want to just take an opportunity to thank, uh, everybody involved in this, and specifically, it's, it's behind the scenes a lot of the time, but Councilor, uh, Koyama Lane, our vice president, has done a lot to ensure that this happened from a process perspective.
Council President as well, uh, and so many other folks that are involved in it.
But I, I wanted to make sure that, um, that the flowers are being circulated where they need to go.
Um, this is not, this is not the end of the story.
This is second chapter that we just wrote today.
I vote aye.
Yeah, I want to start by saying thank you, Councilor Kanal, for our spirited conversation last night.
In my office.
Thank you for that.
I want to offer my appreciation of all of our city employees, including police, who are weathering their personal worries and continue to serve our city.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I vote aye.
Colleagues, I feel really proud of us.
I kind of was caught off guard that I feel a little emotional, but I am grateful that we are going to defend democracy together, and I know that we Duke it out on the dais sometimes.
But see, Council President, I told you earlier today it's going to be a really good night, and it is.
I vote aye.
Thank you, Councilor Kanal, for all your work on this and for everything else everyone contributed.
This is, uh, the start of some really great and wonderful work that we're going to do to protect our communities.
I vote aye.
Keelan McClymont
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We said, uh, early on that we were going to try to never have one of these late-night meetings again, along with my gratitude for all of my colleagues.
I want to express immense gratitude for our team, BTS, our security folks, Open Signal upstairs, our clerk and attorneys and others for agreeing to stay late so that we could finish this work tonight.
I know that it was important to a lot of Portlanders who were here today to be able to see us take this vote.
So thank you to all of you and to all of our staff that work in our offices for being willing to stay late so we could do this.
If ever there was a reason to break that commitment to not stay this late ever again, I think that this is a worthy one.
Aye.
The ordinance as amended passes with 12 yes votes.
I'm here late.
Colleagues, thank you for working quickly.
We will have a work session tomorrow, if you haven't noticed, and we are canceling our morning check-in tomorrow so folks can sleep in.
I adjourn our meeting.
Thank you.