Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Good evening.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: It is 6:00 on Wednesday, November 19th.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I am calling to order the Portland City Council meeting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Keelan, can you please call the roll?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Clark.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Mayor?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Green.
Councilor Mitch Green: Here.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Oh, sorry.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Oh, okay.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Councilor Avalos.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Dunphy.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Smith.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Kanal.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Ryan.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Koyama Lane.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Present.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Morillo.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Novick.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Pirtle-Guiney.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Here.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And Nancy, could you please read our rules of order and decorum?
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Thank you.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Council President.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Welcome to the Portland City Council.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: To testify before Council in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the Council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Information on engaging with Council can be found on the Council Clerk's webpage.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Individuals may testify for three minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: The presiding officer preserves decorum.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up,
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: or interrupting others' testimony or Council deliberations will not be allowed.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Additionally, Council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Your testimony should address the matter being considered.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: When testifying, state your name for the record.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Your address is not necessary. If you are a lobbyist,
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: identify the organization you represent.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the Council Clerk calls your name.
Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you very much.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The first item on the agenda is agenda approval.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I will note that Agenda Item 4 has been pulled from the consent agenda and will be placed at the end of our regular agenda this evening.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Are there any other proposed changes to the agenda?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Okay.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Seeing none.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Do I have unanimous consent to adopt the agenda?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay, Keelan, there was no opposition there that I saw.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The next item on the agenda is public communication.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Keelan, can you please call up our first guest?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: First up we have Brad Krishnamurthy.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Welcome.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you for being here this evening.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Any chair you'd like.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Microphones aren't quite as sensitive as we'd like them to be, so make sure...
Brad Krishnamurthy: You're all the way.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yeah.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: There you go.
Brad Krishnamurthy: All right.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Brad Krishnamurthy: Should I start?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yes.
Brad Krishnamurthy: Okay.
Brad Krishnamurthy: So, yeah.
Brad Krishnamurthy: My name is Brad Krishnamurthy.
Brad Krishnamurthy: I'm here representing the Art of Living
Brad Krishnamurthy: Foundation as well as the International Association for Human Values.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We're sister nonprofits who work in the mental well-being sphere.
Brad Krishnamurthy: So we teach research-backed breathwork and meditation, positive psychology techniques for youth, adults, different sectors of society, including in prisons for veterans and so on.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We're one of the Safer Portland Grant awardees and thanking the City of Portland for your contribution for that.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We all know and we've heard many times from here that mental health resources are very important in Oregon.
Brad Krishnamurthy: While it's important to have counselors and medical staff and so on, but what is also needed is to proactively teach the youth of today techniques to handle their negative emotions and their stressors.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We regularly go to the Office of Violence Prevention CPC meetings and one thing I heard from one of our Portland police officers was any small disagreements between the youth of today could sometimes escalate into gun violence.
Brad Krishnamurthy: I don't blame them because in our schools we teach math and science which are important to be taught, but I feel like we should also have that as a part of a curriculum and there are research-backed techniques to help people gain these skills in life.
Brad Krishnamurthy: So that's what we did.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We did a two-week program thanks to the Safer Portland Grant at Kellogg Middle School and we had a very amazing response at the end from the staff.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We had like five periods throughout the day for two weeks and around 160 kids went through this program as a part of their Fit to Live classes.
Brad Krishnamurthy: So here is one testimonial that we had one of the kids shared at the end.
Brad Krishnamurthy: Three days before I went to bed I remembered and did some of the breathing exercises you guys taught.
Brad Krishnamurthy: I've gotten the best sleep I've gotten in so long.
Brad Krishnamurthy: Every time I leave your class and I have a period after that, it makes me feel so much more ready and focused on what we're talking about.
Brad Krishnamurthy: One more event we had recently for adults is we had around 1,300 people program at the Oregon Convention Center and 10 different CBOs and cultural organizations came together for this initiative.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We had several CBOs like Love is Stronger, Elevate Oregon, US First, Brown Hope, Chinese Coalition, APANO, NAYA.
Brad Krishnamurthy: So many organizations together came and we had an amazing testimonials from there as well.
Brad Krishnamurthy: One of the testimonials from Elevate Oregon, a partner organization is the students and adults really enjoyed the experience and experiencing our founder's presence was truly inspiring and powerful.
Brad Krishnamurthy: So our vision is for these techniques to reach every school in Oregon and every youth who's coming up and any support in that through connections as well as funding.
Brad Krishnamurthy: We're very happy to hear and I just wanted to give a status update on our progress.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you so much.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We appreciate hearing that. We often don't hear from people who have received grants and been able to do the work.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So thank you.
Brad Krishnamurthy: Thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Next up we have Alan Combs.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Welcome.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thanks for joining us this evening.
Alan Combs: So we'll begin soon.
Alan Combs: And we have just a three-minute comment.
Alan Combs: But President Pirtle-Guiney, I wanted to ask if I may share the three minutes with Patrick Alexander.
Alan Combs: We're here from a volunteer committee, part of the Portland Police Training Advisory Council.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Alan Combs: All right, very good.
Alan Combs: Thank you.
Alan Combs: Good evening Council President and Councilors.
Alan Combs: My name is Alan Combs and with me this evening is Patrick Alexander.
Alan Combs: We both serve on the Portland Police Bureau's Training Advisory Council known as TAC.
Alan Combs: Patrick serves as TAC's Chair.
Alan Combs: TAC was created by Portland City Council in 2012.
Alan Combs: Its members are volunteers from the community.
Alan Combs: We review and monitor training activities of the Police Bureau and provide ongoing observations and recommendations to the Bureau's training division and Chief of Police.
Alan Combs: TAC exists because of the fundamental need for community input into the Police Bureau training and practices, especially practices that allow officers to perform duties without the excessive use of force.
Alan Combs: This purpose is so important that TAC has a necessary role in identifying training improvements so that the Police Bureau can attain and maintain substantial compliance with the 2012 City of Portland DOJ settlement.
Alan Combs: As TAC members we regularly observe bureau training sessions and give feedback to the bureau training division.
Alan Combs: TAC observations in the past have held helped improve the quality of officers' training especially in the areas of crisis intervention, de-escalation techniques, and practices that significantly reduce the force.
Alan Combs: Along the way, TAC members learned about the police procedures, practices, and cultures.
Alan Combs: We share this knowledge with the community.
Alan Combs: TAC also joins the officers in a ride-along and participate in the one-day intensive training known as Community Academy.
Alan Combs: Community Academy is held several times in a year and it immerses approximately 20 community participants into realistic sometimes intense scenarios with officers.
Alan Combs: Participants get a better appreciation of the level of skills required to be a Portland Police Officer.
Alan Combs: Also importance of training to achieve our goals and policies becomes very apparent to all who participate in the Community Academy.
Alan Combs: TAC finds these experiences so valuable that we wrote our letter to the Mayor and you.
Alan Combs: In our letter we urge our elected officials to attend a Community Academy and an officer ride-along.
Alan Combs: Especially our letter recommends that the Mayor and all the City Council members participate within Community Academy in the next 12 months or in the future within 12 months of their election taking office.
Alan Combs: Ride along with Portland Police Officer also within the next 12 to 48 months and then again in the last sets of 48 after that.
Patrick Alexander: All right, very good.
Patrick Alexander: I'll take it.
Patrick Alexander: Now we know that several of you Councilors have participated in these recommended training experiences and we very much appreciate it.
Patrick Alexander: Our recommendation recognizes past participation.
Patrick Alexander: For you Councilors that have not yet been to a Community Academy, we sincerely hope that you will participate in one during 2026.
Patrick Alexander: The next one is currently scheduled for a day in April.
Patrick Alexander: Participation in these training opportunities will help you in your role of setting public safety policy and allocating resources.
Patrick Alexander: Once you've experienced Community Academy, we trust you will have a clear understanding of how training supports the mission of Portland Police and plays a crucial role in attaining the goal of a just, safe police force that's trusted by everyone in Portland.
Patrick Alexander: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you both very much for being here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: We have Aaron Bacus, Aaron Bacus, Nathaniel Hudson Hartman.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Welcome to hold up signs.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But if you do, if you could remain seated so that other people can see, that would be greatly appreciated.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Sorry, that's my bad.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: I told them to stand.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: That's all right.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: We can do jazz hands, guys.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Jazz hands.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: I did tell everyone not to clap.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: For the record, my name is Nathaniel Hudson Hartman.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: I've been a rideshare driver in Oregon for over eight years.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: And I'm honored to represent every single person in this room wearing a blue shirt as the voice for fairness for essential rideshare transportation providers in our city and our state.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: And I want everybody to close their eyes and I want everybody to picture being in one of our shoes or behind the wheel.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You with me?
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You start your shift, you go about your business, you finish your shift and you realize that you just made 100 bucks in eight hours.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Uber and Lyft would have you believe that drivers are earning more than minimum wage and that are competitive.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Our salaries are very competitive.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: But I think our drivers experiencing homelessness, or close to it, would tell you otherwise.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You still with me?
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You go home, you go to sleep, you tell your family how your day went, you wake up the next day, you say goodbye to your family, you gas up your car, you pay your car bill, you pay your insurance bill, you wash your car, you get ready for work, you go online only to find that there's a big red exclamation point saying that your account's been deactivated without a clear explanation why.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Oh, and by the way, maybe you're an immigrant driver.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Maybe you're still learning English.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You don't get to talk to a real person.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You have to text with an English-speaking chatbot.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: You get one chance for an appeal through an opaque process.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Still no clear explanation why. You do your best to try to formulate something.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Maybe you have Google Translate or a family member.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: And then maybe hours later your account gets permanently deactivated.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Now suddenly you're stuck with a really huge car loan, you're underwater and you don't know what to do next.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: So you went from making sub-minimum wage to now not having any income at all.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: And I have met with seven drivers in as many days that are experiencing this economic hardship, six of which are immigrants, all of which were deactivated by a false allegation of wrongdoing.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Maybe they said something that was inappropriate and it's the same story over and over again.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: How am I saying something inappropriate when I can barely speak a word of English?
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: But Uber and Lyft are deactivating our workforce without the right to representation.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: And this city identified a need through the TNC Ombuds program.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: But this program knew that drivers did not have deactivation appeals rights.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: The Driver Resource Center could act as this body, an independent advocate organization with deactivation appeals rights to make sure wrongfully deactivated drivers have a meaningful pathway to get their jobs back.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: We've needed this for a very long time.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: This is why we fight.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you for being here, for continuing to raise this.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I know that there are a few offices who are working with you and we hope to make progress on this soon.
Nathaniel Hudson Hartman: We will.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Next.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Next up we have Susan Bladholm.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Keelan. Colleagues, this is a second reading.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We debated this item at our previous meeting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Is there anyone in the queue for discussion?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Ryan, are you in the queue for discussion on this item?
Councilor Dan Ryan: Hello, colleagues.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I just wanted to get some words out before we go deep into this.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Earlier this week, I messaged out my thoughts regarding the upcoming week's council meetings, and one of the items I mentioned was the proposed AI algorithm legislation.
Councilor Dan Ryan: My position on the legislation is not a surprise to any of you at this point, since I've made it known many times before.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I cannot support creating legislation without proof of a problem that needs solving.
Councilor Dan Ryan: We need laser focus to improve our city's services and address Portland's most pressing issues.
Councilor Dan Ryan: My weekly messaging inadvertently transposed two words, which turned out, depending upon how you read it, could change the meaning to something very different than what was intended.
Councilor Dan Ryan: My intention was to say that the rental AI legislation comes from a socialist national playbook, but the words of "socialist" and "national" were transposed to read "National Socialist playbook."
Councilor Dan Ryan: And that, as I quickly learned from the continuing flow of uncharitable messages I was receiving, means Nazism, something I reject and stand firmly against.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I was genuinely caught off guard by how many people had misinterpreted and some purposely misconstrued my message.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Anyone who knows me knows that I don't play dirty and I don't rely on cheap tactics of name calling.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I would not ever knowingly make statements of this nature.
Councilor Dan Ryan: The original point I was trying to make is about transparency.
Councilor Dan Ryan: The AI algorithm legislation has been created for local governments by a national organization, Local Progress, who develops progressive policy legislation to be adopted by cities and counties.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I raise this for transparency's sake because this is not the last nationally driven policy that some of this council will bring forth, and it's not the first and won't be the last from Local Progress.
Councilor Dan Ryan: My point is that the national platforms are here in Portland, and I don't necessarily think that's good for my hometown.
Councilor Dan Ryan: There are two things that have popped out for me.
Councilor Dan Ryan: The big issue that everyone is paying attention to, regardless of where you are in the political spectrum, people want to see their government focus on economic relief.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Point of order.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I would like... Is...
Councilor Candace Avalos: Is there a reason why Councilor Ryan is getting to make an entire speech about a policy that we are not on yet?
Councilor Candace Avalos: Because I haven't heard an apology about the Instagram post that inadvertently called numerous counselors of color a N***, and all I heard was victim blaming assumptions that no one else can possibly understand.
Councilor Candace Avalos: An Instagram post.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor, I believe that this is related to the AI price fixing ordinance which is an open agenda item right now.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Am I mistaken? There need to be...
Councilor Dan Ryan: Listen to the President. I appreciate that, Madam President.
Councilor Dan Ryan: There are two things that have popped out for me.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Affordability is the big issue that everyone is paying attention to regardless of where you are in the political spectrum.
Councilor Dan Ryan: People want to see their government focus on economic relief.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I want to focus our work on this council to bring that economic relief through workforce development efforts, more efficient and cost effective services, and ensuring that our tax base is getting what they paid for.
Councilor Dan Ryan: And since we are talking about housing affordability today, we know the way to less expensive housing, both rental and privately owned, is by increasing our housing production of all kinds.
Councilor Dan Ryan: That is my focus.
Councilor Dan Ryan: If the backlash to my misinterpreted statement is an indication of future actions, I will have to continue to react to unfounded attacks from those who politically are not aligned with me.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I can take criticism all day long about my policy positions.
Councilor Dan Ryan: That is what we are here for.
Councilor Dan Ryan: But the personal attacks and disappointments, discrediting and distracting from the work that Portlanders need this council to do.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Share and thank you for listening to me.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Avalos, are you in the queue to discuss the AI price fixing ordinance?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yes, go right ahead.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Thank you.
Councilor Candace Avalos: First off, I just want to respond to what I just heard because what I didn't hear was an apology, and I find it really frustrating for colleagues to spend a lot of time posting about other colleagues.
Councilor Candace Avalos: I'm sorry, but I do not recall any of us going out of our way constantly to call out other colleagues, and so I expect professionalism and decorum from you.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Councilor Ryan, I'm really disappointed that you made that whole speech and council did not include an apology.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor, are you able to speak to this?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: He was speaking to the...
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: He was speaking to the ordinance. Are you interrupting me?
Councilor Candace Avalos: But you didn't interrupt him.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: He was speaking to the ordinance.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Can you please make sure your comments are to the ordinance?
Councilor Candace Avalos: That is what I'm speaking to.
Councilor Candace Avalos: I'm speaking to the fact that we are talking about an ordinance and yet there are posts that get made about people and I am rejecting that.
Councilor Candace Avalos: And if Councilor Ryan gets to make a big speech then here I am doing mine too.
Councilor Candace Avalos: So I think it is appropriate to call that out because I'm really tired of also being the recipient of vague posting, and I think that if we are going to expect each other to respect each other as colleagues, then we need to focus on the policies.
Councilor Candace Avalos: This policy is a no brainer.
Councilor Candace Avalos: This is a policy that goes along with what Attorney General Rayfield just announced today.
Councilor Candace Avalos: It is clear that there is a movement across the country to address the fact that landlords are continuing to collude with each other to the great disadvantage of Portlanders, and that is contributing to why we have such a high houseless population; it is contributing to the economic instability of Portlanders and of our city.
Councilor Candace Avalos: And so I would just encourage councilors to debate on the topic, and I discourage and I reject that non-apology.
Councilor Candace Avalos: So I am excited to support this, and I hope that our counselors in the future will focus their posts on the merits of the policies and not on personal attacks.
Councilor Candace Avalos: It's ironic to hear you say that that is what you experience when that is what we all experience from you.
Councilor Candace Avalos: That's all.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor. Let's keep to non-auditory support and dissension please.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Thank you, Council President.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I think we've said enough about Councilor Ryan's posts and so hopefully he will think more carefully about his words in the future when he's critiquing policy because it is a pretty big mistake to make.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I want to talk about how proud I am of the work that was put into to the algorithmic price fixing ban.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Me and my staff have worked on this policy for the past nine months.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We were able to develop it with community.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We were able to have multiple meetings with people who were opposed to the policy.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We came together with city council and had numerous presentations both in committee and at council.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we made amendments to clarify language to improve the policy and to make sure that it is solely targeting the corporations that we meant to target.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We did everything we could to make sure that our fellow councillors felt heard and that there were amendments made that frankly did not have to be made in any other jurisdiction.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But we did them.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I'm very proud of the policy that has come forward at this time.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We know that this is in fact a real issue in Portland.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Just this morning the Attorney General, Dan Rayfield, put out a statement showing that there was a settlement because they found wrongdoing with Greystar, one of the largest corporate landlords in Portland, Oregon.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We know that there are countless units in the City of Portland that are operated by these algorithms that do price fixing.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we owe it to renters and to people in our community to do every single thing that we can to change housing affordability.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I want to say this too.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Housing affordability and addressing corrupt corporations that are victimizing Portlanders.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That is not mutually exclusive with building and developing new housing.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: These are things that can happen at the same time.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And my office is proud to have worked on policies that both protect renters rights and policies that will help with development.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So I hope that my colleagues will join me in this.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: This is going to be a big win for our City.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: This is a win for renters, and this is one small piece of the puzzle when it comes to addressing housing affordability.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we should take every chance that we get.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I also want to add that today Senator Wyden, who our office has been working with him on this policy as well, because he hasn't been able to pass it at the congressional level, has decided to bring forward the policy again in an attempt to pass it in Congress.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Although speaking with his staff, we're aware that they simply don't have the votes right now to make something like that happen.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: What we have to do then, as a local jurisdiction, is to pass this here where we can.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And Senator Wyden's office has sent letters of support.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We're happy to forward that to you.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we're just really grateful that everyone has put in so much work into making this happen, and I look forward to seeing it passing today.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So thank you.
Councilor Mitch Green: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Mitch Green: Thank you for shepherding and leading on this Councilor Morillo, it's been a pleasure to work with your office on this.
Councilor Mitch Green: I want to say that this legislation doesn't come out of some special interest.
Councilor Mitch Green: This legislation comes out of the very long tradition in the United States to deal with antitrust.
Councilor Mitch Green: It dates back to the 1890s with the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Councilor Mitch Green: Senator Sherman famously quoted, if we will not endure a king as a political power, we should not endure a king over the production, transportation and sale of any of the necessaries of life.
Councilor Mitch Green: And so what you're seeing is actually a policy crafted after Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, in dealing with antitrust.
Councilor Mitch Green: Very much not a socialist thing, by the way.
Councilor Mitch Green: The evidentiary basis for antitrust, by the way, in the United States is tested in the courts.
Councilor Mitch Green: We had the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act and later stuff as the decades roll on.
Councilor Mitch Green: And the reason why we had all that is because it's constantly the case where private industry has a strong incentive to get together and collude to set prices above the market rate.
Councilor Mitch Green: And so if your position in the world is that we need an economic system that promotes free enterprise, you should be very much opposed to any form of price fixing.
Councilor Mitch Green: And so this is why I support it.
Councilor Mitch Green: It's good on the economics.
Councilor Mitch Green: It protects Portlanders from fleecing in the rental market that we can expect to continue unabated unless we take action.
Councilor Mitch Green: We are taking action.
Councilor Mitch Green: This is urgent and I am so ready to vote yes on this.
Councilor Mitch Green: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Dunphy.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Thank you, colleagues.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: 1,400 neighbors are falling into homelessness every month in the city of Portland.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: 1,400 families, roommates, children and people who have been failed by this economy are facing the worst, scariest moments of their lives every month.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: And we are living in a system that has failed our most vulnerable.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: If you are only going to build housing in our community because you want unfettered access to abusing renters and milking every dollar out of the people in my community, I will do everything in my power to cost you money, to waste your time, and to prevent you from hurting my neighbors.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: It is not hard to be a good landlord to the corporate apologists in this city, to the lobbyists, and to the delusional members of our community who believe that they are one or two good bootlicking moves away from becoming a millionaire themselves.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: And to the disappointing minority of my colleagues on this council.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: It is a moment for you to look within and to search why you are doing this work, who you serve, and what the h*** it is we're doing here.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: The Oregon Attorney General just announced a settlement with the price fixing companies who only exist to abuse the most vulnerable in our community.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I will save my colleagues a pedantic rant about my anti corporate positions.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I do not support Walmart.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I do not support Live Nation.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I do not support Uber and Lyft and Airbnb or any out of state corporate scum who want to actively work to undermine my community.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I am eager to pass this policy.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I am worked up right now and I will always vote for people over corporations and unfettered profit.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: I'm grateful that this fight has continued and I am grateful that this fight has exposed bare who we are.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: As my colleague Councillor Smith has said repeatedly, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Let's vote on this and move on with the next fight.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor. Colleagues.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I figured if we were all talking, I would say something.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I want to start by thanking Councilor Murillo for bringing this forward.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We know that Portland is asking our council to tackle many big issues that are facing our city and our country.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We live in challenging times that demand action.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And Councilor, nobody can say that you are not answering that call over and over again.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I want you to know that even when we disagree, I appreciate your hard work to bring forward innovative policies to this body.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: My goal, with all new policy ideas, if they match my values, is to find a way to get to yes.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And when this policy was first introduced as I shared with you at the time.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I wasn't yet at yes, but thanks to the collaborative efforts of many offices, we have before us a new version of the policy and the addition of an amendment which we adopted together last week, which solve many of the concerns that were initially brought forward.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: It's important to note that there are still some risks and it's unclear to me whether or not this policy will actively bring down rents in our community.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I don't ever want to give a false sense of hope to our renters who really do need help in this economy.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I worry about the legal risk as we've seen other cities enacting similar policies face lawsuits.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But risks should never handicap our ability to bring innovative policies forward that seek to solve big challenges.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We will never make progress for our community unless we're willing to take on a little bit of risk and take bold steps to do better.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: For these reasons, I plan to vote YES today.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I want folks who aren't yet convinced know that I am fully committed to receiving feedback and updates on how this works as it's implemented.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And this is not the end of the conversation.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: It's certainly not the end of the work to support renters in our community.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I am always open and ready to engage as we move big changes forward to make sure we get them right and to continue to take on this work collaboratively as we make policies better so that more and more people can get to yes.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Thank you, Council President.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I'm proud to be a co sponsor of this ordinance.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: A big thank you again to Councilor Murillo and her staff.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I know you have worked really, really hard.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: This legislation matters.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Renters make up about half of Portlanders.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: They deserve a city where housing is stable, affordable and fair.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: As a teacher, I've seen students lose their homes, mid year.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Co workers forced to leave Portland...
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: To live where they work.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: These disruptions hurt families, schools, and our whole entire community.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: This ordinance brings transparency and protections to our rental system.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: It's a step towards housing justice, especially for those who are the most vulnerable in our community, like immigrant families, asylum seeking families.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: So today, let's stand with Portland renters.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: And pass this ordinance.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Colleagues, thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Kanal.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I spoke in favor of this last week, so I'll just kind of confine my comments to the new parts of what has occurred here.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But I will say that it's really helpful to hear where everyone's at and I appreciate the comments.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think we could probably spend a long time speaking about that first sentence of the post that Councilor Ryan mentioned.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I want to talk about the remainder of it because it says that this is a solution in search of a problem, which is a comment that was made last week as well, last meeting.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I think that's a really important piece of this argument to refute here.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think we can't move the goalposts and say nothing is worth doing unless it does everything to solve the problem entirely.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: We have to to build solutions brick by brick.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I'm very grateful to the co sponsors, in particular Councilor Murillo and her office for building this brick.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But I also think it's really important to say that 10 states attorney generals joined in the coalition that filed the lawsuit that led to the settlement that our Attorney General, Dan Rayfield, announced today.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So Rob Bonta, Philip Weiser, William Tong, Kwame Raul, Keith Ellison, Andrea Campbell, Jonathan Scrametti, Jeff Jackson, and of course, Dan Rayfield all joined in that some of them, I think maybe one of them may be a socialist, but some of them are Republicans.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So this was a bipartisan coalition that felt that there was a problem that was involving price fixing in housing rental markets across the country and in this particular company was doing it for 950,000 rental units nationwide.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: That sounds like a lot, but it's not that many.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: When you think nationwide and when you read what is in the complaint, you read even just the announcement today, and I'll quote from Attorney General Rayfield, we're in the middle of a housing crisis and families are already stretched their limits.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: When the largest landlord in America uses an algorithm to price fix the rent, the result is simple.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: People pay more.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: It squeezes working families when the cost of housing is already at an all time high.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And he goes on to say the settlement holds the largest U.S. landlord accountable to win for Oregonians, our pocketbooks and the rule of law.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I think that's a really important piece here because as Councilor Dunphy put it, when the rent is high, we see more of those people that end up in the 1400 that every month become homeless in our community.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: The best way to reduce the population of people experiencing homelessness is prevention by preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: It is also the best use of the inordinate amount of taxpayer dollars that we use to address homelessness in our community, in addition to the ethical impacts.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: And so for those reasons, we have to work to stop the inflow into homelessness, which is really an outflow from housing and should be considered that way.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: And of course, the best way to do that is to lower the rent or at least prevent the rent from growing quite as quickly as it does now.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: As a renter, I was always going to support this.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: This was pretty obvious for me.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: But I'm really grateful for all of my colleagues who have taken time to join in with those 10 Attorneys General, as well as Senator Ron Wyden's office, in supporting the extension of the Sherman Antitrust Act to the local level in the housing rental market.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: For those reasons, I'll be voting yes.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Thank you, Madam President.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Smith.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Loretta Smith: I want to thank Councilor Morillo and Councilor Green for bringing this forward and everyone who is on this particular resolution.
Councilor Loretta Smith: It is important.
Councilor Loretta Smith: While I am a mom and pop landlord now, I was a renter for many years as a single parent, and the single biggest bill that we had was for housing.
Councilor Loretta Smith: The challenge is real for so many folks who were like me as single parents, and as families who can't afford the rent.
Councilor Loretta Smith: And I think there's a...
Councilor Loretta Smith: There are a couple things going on.
Councilor Loretta Smith: I think we need to have employers raise the salaries so that people can have a living wage to be able to afford just basic rent.
Councilor Loretta Smith: But that's not happening.
Councilor Loretta Smith: So as I looked over the data, I will be supporting you all today.
Councilor Loretta Smith: So thank you very much for bringing that forward.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Thank you, Madam President, for the work that you did on the amendment that would keep small mom and pop folks like me from having to adhere to this.
Councilor Loretta Smith: But it's important and it's critical, and I'll be a supporter of this.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, seeing no one else in the queue, we will move to a vote.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Keelan, could you please call the roll?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Clark.
Councilor Olivia Clark: No.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Green.
Councilor Mitch Green: Yes.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Avalos.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Aye.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Dunphy.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Aye.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Smith.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Aye.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Kanal.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Aye.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Ryan.
Councilor Dan Ryan: No.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Koyama Lane.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Lane.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Yes.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Morillo.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Hallelujah.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's over.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yes.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Aye.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The ordinance, as amended, passes with eight yes votes, two no votes and two absent.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Let's keep...
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We've got an item that's going to raise a lot of interest next with a lot of testimony, so I will remind folks again: jazz hands, thumbs up, thumbs down to show your support or opposition.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Keelan, could you please call agenda item 9?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Add detention facility impact fee code to ensure fair cost sharing and high impact land uses and to reduce burden on Portland taxpayers; Add code chapter 5.80.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Keelan.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And colleagues.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I want to note something before we jump in here.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Last month, I was going to say earlier this month, but it was last month we took up two pieces of legislation, an ordinance and a resolution which related to our response to the federal government and their actions within our community.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And we said at the time that we were bringing those straight to council because we were in the heart of an emergency where conditions on the ground were changing day to day and we needed to act a little differently in accordance with that.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: What we have before us today is the third of that series and the final item that I intend to refer straight to council related to response to the federal government.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We have over the course of the last few weeks, moved into a phase in this crisis that certainly is not out of the crisis.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We see that on the streets, at least in my district in North Portland, with the increased ICE action.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But a phase of the crisis where conditions are not changing as much day to day, where we can plan ahead a little bit more in order to make sure that we're deliberate in the actions that we take.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'm going to ask for silence in the room so that we can hear from everybody who signed up in just a moment.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: As we move into this agenda item, it'll move a little differently like those others because it hasn't been through committee.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I wanted to flag that in case folks were wondering why things looked a little bit different.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I do intend, as we move forward, to make sure that I know that there are other actions that folks are looking to bring forward to us to take in response to the federal government.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We'll make sure that those get their full review.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I am sure many other things will come to council, but assuming that we continue to have conditions on the ground that aren't changing as much day to day and week to week, we'll send those through the normal process through committee.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: With that, I want to turn it over to Councilor Morillo, who is the carrier of this ordinance, to give a brief introduction.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Thank you so much, Council President.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And thank you to the folks who are here today too, both who came to support the algorithmic price fixing ban and who are here to talk about the detention facility impact fee.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I know that this is a really important issue in our community, and as many of you know, I think local governments have to get very creative with how we address the harms that are happening in our community.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And the reality is that detention facilities create a unique harm and unique costs to Portland taxpayers and to protesters and to people who just want to exist here.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so this is our office's response to that harm within the powers that your local government has to address those harms.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: My office has worked very diligently with the relevant bureaus, with the city administrator, and we have created an extensive FAQ that is posted on the council website page for anyone who has questions that they may want to read through.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We sent that to all of you in advance and I hope that you had a chance to go through it.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I have invited my wonderful policy advisor, Susie Doister, who has put in countless hours of work and research and working with people in every space to put this together, up to give a brief presentation to explain the policy for folks, because it didn't get a chance to go through committee.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I hope that that will help alleviate some of the questions that people have, both from my colleagues and for the audience, because I think sometimes things go around that aren't always accurate to the policy.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So with that I would like to turn it over to Susie to present and hopefully that will help us with our discussion later.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And for any of the folks who are here to testify on it as well, so that they can inform themselves on their policy, thank you and colleagues.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: What we'll do today is hear from Councilor Morillo's office with an extended carrier report with Susie.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Since this doesn't have the regular reports out of committee, we'll ask any questions that we have and then move into public testimony, which I think will be relatively extensive, and then into debate.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Susie Doister: Hi everyone, Susie Doister, Councilor Morillo's policy advisor.
Susie Doister: I'll be talking you through the detention facility impact fee and our nuisance regulations.
Susie Doister: So we get a 2 for 1 today.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: This is going to be the run of show.
Susie Doister: Next slide.
Susie Doister: Okay, so what does this do?
Susie Doister: Why are we here?
Susie Doister: What is this all about?
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: Okay, we're going to start first with the detention facility impact fee, the most discussed piece of this two part ordinance.
Susie Doister: So this is going to establish an ongoing impact fee to be paid by property owners that lease, rent or otherwise allow their land or facilities to be used for the purposes of detention.
Susie Doister: So what is a detention facility?
Susie Doister: This is something that our ordinance indicates is defined in title 33, so the city zoning code.
Susie Doister: There's a well established definition of detention facility.
Susie Doister: Also what a detention facility is not.
Susie Doister: So a detention facility is not a group living situation like a halfway house.
Susie Doister: It's not a psychiatric care facility, it's not a behavioral health center.
Susie Doister: It is exactly what you think of when you hear the term detention facility.
Susie Doister: So this is going to be a fee that's annual.
Susie Doister: It's going to be levied again against property owners that lease their land or facilities for the purposes of detention.
Susie Doister: And it's going to be calculated using a methodology that's established by the city.
Susie Doister: So this is a fairly common approach to developing fees in the city.
Susie Doister: We present a fairly broad legislative mandate and then we say city administration, can you please work to develop the fee structure in concert with council that is in line with that guidance?
Susie Doister: What we do know about the fee structure, because we've outlined this in the text of our ordinance, is that this is going to be a fee that accounts for the costs imposed by detention facilities on Portland taxpayers, on the communities, on people who are here, as the counselor said, who just want to exist.
Susie Doister: So environmental remediation and assistance to businesses, apartment dwellers who are impacted by facilities.
Susie Doister: We also know that revenue from the fee will cover these costs.
Susie Doister: They will work to mitigate the costs that are established to be associated with detention facilities.
Susie Doister: So again, it's the same thing.
Susie Doister: Emergency response over time, assistance for households or businesses impacted by the facility.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: So the Pigouvian approach.
Susie Doister: You're going to hear me use the term Pigouvian often so much that you'll hate me, but I'll start talking about it now for the first time.
Susie Doister: What is a Pigouvian tax or fee?
Susie Doister: What is a Pigouvian measure?
Susie Doister: This is something that is imposed on a market activity that is generating negative externalities, which is just a really fancy way of saying costs harms, monetary or otherwise, that are incurred by third parties that are not involved in the market activity.
Susie Doister: So one of the quintessential examples of this is a factory that is engaging in copious amounts of pollution.
Susie Doister: They are profiting handsomely from this pollution and their operations generally.
Susie Doister: Generally, excuse me, as is the landlord that's renting the land and facility to this factory.
Susie Doister: But you know, you look at this on paper, you might say, wow, this is all benefits for the community.
Susie Doister: Look at all the revenue that we're generating.
Susie Doister: Incredible, right?
Susie Doister: But we are neglecting in that to look at the cost to third parties.
Susie Doister: So if pollution is going into the water, the air, those nearby soil, that is harming individuals in a way that is very likely to vastly exceed the ostensible benefits to the landlord and the factory operator.
Susie Doister: And we are prompted then to think, what is the right number of factories that we want in our community given this fulsome assessment of cost and benefits.
Susie Doister: So that's what the goal of a Pigouvian measure is.
Susie Doister: It's to optimize market outcomes by ensuring that the costs of behaviors fall on the parties that are best situated to prevent the behavior, not the innocent bystanders.
Susie Doister: So in that example, we would want the cost of the behaviors to be felt by the factory, the landlord that is renting their facility for that purpose.
Susie Doister: But in that hypothetical, they don't feel the cost, they don't see anything happen to their bottom line.
Susie Doister: So they're not very incentivized to change that behavior, and people continue to suffer.
Susie Doister: So the costs you feel or you don't feel are the costs you won't prevent.
Susie Doister: That's something that I'm just going to keep returning to.
Susie Doister: If you don't feel the costs of the harm that you're generating, you're not going to be incentivized to prevent them.
Susie Doister: So this is an approach that's not really concerned with assigning blame or moralizing.
Susie Doister: It's a pretty bland economic approach to correcting an issue of market actors behaving in a way that does not reflect the full impact of their decisions.
Susie Doister: So that's why you'll see Pigouvian measures often pop up in contexts where an activity is imposing real quantifiable harms.
Susie Doister: Pollution, congestion, things of that nature that are falling on the public.
Susie Doister: Again, innocent bystanders, rather than the actors that are actually bringing about the harm, who are, again, best situated to reduce the harm.
Susie Doister: You also will typically see this in contexts where parties impacted by the harm can't actually prevent it.
Susie Doister: They're going to be subject to this harm again and again and again, and they might be able to mitigate it on a temporary basis, but the reality is they're just going to keep being subjected to this harm because, again, the people who are doing it aren't incentivized to stop it.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: Thank you.
Susie Doister: So you can imagine perhaps, how we might apply this to the detention facility concept.
Susie Doister: So a private decision to lease land or facility for detention generates recurring public expenses.
Susie Doister: Again, externalities, what we talked about before, costs on third parties who are innocent bystanders.
Susie Doister: These are costs that are not felt by the facility landlords and operators.
Susie Doister: So again, it's all what we've talked about before.
Susie Doister: Overtime, emergency response, street closures, small business expenses, environmental cleanup, and environmental costs to nearby residents, apartment dwellers, homeowners, everyone.
Susie Doister: Right?
Susie Doister: These costs are collective.
Susie Doister: They're not traceable to one victim.
Susie Doister: Although we'll talk about how we can do that with our nuisance regulations without a corrective fee, though.
Susie Doister: It's the city's families, it's the small businesses that are footing the bill for the true costs of this, both through their tax revenue, because they are paying the city to subsidize the costs that should be handled by these businesses and these entities that are creating these harms, and also in purchasing their own mitigation.
Susie Doister: So time and time again, people purchasing out of pocket air filtration devices to guard against tear gas in their own home.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Right.
Susie Doister: So what is the goal in this context?
Susie Doister: It's the same as what I said a moment ago, which is reflecting the true cost of doing this business and ensuring that those costs and harms are not shifted onto the public.
Susie Doister: These are people who can't prevent these harms.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: So can't this logic be applied to other contexts?
Susie Doister: Yeah, it wasn't lost on us that this could be applied in other contexts.
Susie Doister: Pigouvian measure.
Susie Doister: You may not have heard the name, but once you see it, it's everywhere.
Susie Doister: A Pigouvian tax, a Pigouvian fee, is actually a foundational tool of policymaking and it's behind some of the greatest hits of policies.
Susie Doister: So congestion pricing, plastic bag fees, stormwater fees, cigarette taxes, noise abatement fees.
Susie Doister: The entire concept of a nuisance property is actually Pigouvian.
Susie Doister: But you can't just apply this in every single context.
Susie Doister: There are guardrails.
Susie Doister: You have to be certain things that are clearly present in the policy paradigm to have a Pigouvian fee make sense.
Susie Doister: So again, this is about...
Susie Doister: It's a fairly bland economic approach to addressing costs and harms.
Susie Doister: It's a cost benefit analysis, essentially.
Susie Doister: It's not an ideological regulation.
Susie Doister: And when you think about applying this into a new context, you have to ask yourself, would it actually be anti-Pigouvian to apply a fee here?
Susie Doister: So if we're discouraging an activity that's reducing harms, that would be anti-Pigouvian.
Susie Doister: If we're increasing overall externalities, that's anti-Pigouvian.
Susie Doister: So if there is an organization, you know, the organization to reduce the deployment of tear gas onto children's playgrounds, if we imposed a fee on them, that would be anti-Pigouvian.
Susie Doister: Because they're reducing externalities, we want to encourage them to act in service of that.
Susie Doister: But, you know, to state the obvious, cities have always had the authority to make policy however they would like.
Susie Doister: They can impose fees for any number of reasons, Pigouvian or not.
Susie Doister: And these are often ideological fees that will then be subject to legal challenge for lacking a rational basis, meaning that they're not substantiated by data, they're not substantiated by quantifiable costs.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: Okay, so what about the measurable harms that are occurring today?
Susie Doister: Why would we want to wait for an annual fee?
Susie Doister: The good news is that we are not waiting.
Susie Doister: This is a two part proposal.
Susie Doister: As I indicated, the second part of our ordinance creates a standalone nuisance section that's applying when detention facilities cause certain harmful conditions.
Susie Doister: So we don't want a property owner to be allowing chemical residues or other substances to escape beyond a facility in a way that interferes with the safe use of property.
Susie Doister: We don't want a property owner to be allowing adjacent or nearby structures to be rendered unsafe, uninhabitable, a threat to public health, can't live in your own home.
Susie Doister: So these nuisance provisions are not part of the fee and they operate independently, but they're in the same ordinance.
Susie Doister: I think the most important piece of the nuisance is that we are giving the city power, of course, to investigate violations, issue civil penalties.
Susie Doister: But we're very clearly articulating that penalty revenue may be used to reimburse property owners or occupants.
Susie Doister: So again, apartment residents for cleanup, mitigation and related costs.
Susie Doister: So if you're suffering as a result of this nuisance, we want to help.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: So why would the city want to use that penalty revenue to assist property owners and occupants or businesses surrounding detention facilities?
Susie Doister: Well, I mean, this is just, you know, a small number of clippings from recent articles, but people are having coughing fits in their own apartment because of tear gas.
Susie Doister: They have to sleep in gas masks because of tear gas in their own home.
Susie Doister: They're paying $500 out of pocket to build air filtration devices when they can't afford food.
Susie Doister: Children are choking on tear gas in their own house and enduring the potentially lifelong consequences of early exposure to tear gas in their own home.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: And it's also because people have asked for this.
Susie Doister: People have asked for help, they've asked elected officials for help.
Susie Doister: They need this support.
Susie Doister: And this is investigation.
Susie Doister: That and revenue coming from enforcement that will endeavor to provide that support.
Susie Doister: Next slide, please.
Susie Doister: So as you can see, there's a two track approach, right?
Susie Doister: So this is two pieces of an ordinance serving two different timelines.
Susie Doister: So today we're looking at nuisance standards that give the city authority to respond to harmful conditions and use revenue to support impacted residents tomorrow, meaning not literally tomorrow, but in the future.
Susie Doister: The impact fee structure ensures that any private detention lease, new, renewed or renegotiated in the face of a land use issue, say a compliance action like a permit revocation, must internalize its costs.
Susie Doister: They would be subject to a fee.
Susie Doister: Next slide please.
Susie Doister: So why do we need this?
Susie Doister: Next slide.
Susie Doister: Why do we need the detention facility fee?
Susie Doister: So I hit on this already, so I won't belabor the point, but detention facilities create quantifiable harm for people and neighborhoods.
Susie Doister: It's this confluence of chemical exposure risk, environmental risks, public safety concerns, administrative overhead, and of course, impact to the neighbors who actually live in this community.
Susie Doister: And again, all of these harms disproportionately fall on nearby residents and businesses.
Susie Doister: Communities demanding a tool to recover these costs.
Susie Doister: And they want protection from these spillover impacts.
Susie Doister: They want to see enforcement.
Susie Doister: This is in a broader context of detention infrastructure expanding nationally.
Susie Doister: Billions of dollars in appropriations to expand detention facilities, enforcement that will require the expansion of detention facilities, increasing the likelihood that we will see renewed or intensified detention facility activity.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: New leases, renewals, renegotiations—again, those triggered by compliance or permit revocation actions—could leave us unprotected if we don't have a fee.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we don't want to be developing a fee on the fly. I mean, it's already in the middle of a crisis that we are developing this.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But you know, the next best time to do it is today, right?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So things could, and likely will, get worse.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So let's have this infrastructure in place to respond to it.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Next slide, please.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And then why else do we need it?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I think these are the two most important reasons.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But advancing community well-being, making it clear that detention operations must be accountable for the local harms that they are generating, rather than shifting those burdens onto the public.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Again, this is Pigouvian logic.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Fundamentally, if there are harms, we want the people who have the capacity to reduce those harms to feel those costs so that they are incentivized to reduce them.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I think most importantly, it is about demonstrating local self-determination, providing a national model for how cities can responsibly govern high-impact uses and protect residents when outside decisions are creating substantial neighborhood-level consequences.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I mean, candidly, local governments don't have many tools in this space.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We all know that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And the tools that we do have move at a glacial pace.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: They move slowly.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Land use decisions come to mind.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: They take years through hearings, appeals, challenges, challenges after challenges.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: During all that time, the community is still living through the impacts.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Kids are still breathing in tear gas in their own homes while paperwork works its way through the system.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That's why we would contend that this ordinance matters.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's another tool.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's not a tool to supplant the land use process or any other process.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's just another tool in our toolkit while other tools are working in service of the same aims.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And you know, why wouldn't you want another tool to combat these problems?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Why wouldn't you want another thing at your disposal?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we also have to be honest about the limits of our authority so the city can apply its law in a fair and impartial way.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We can investigate violations, we issue determinations, we enforce our code.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But there are operators in this world that don't necessarily have to abide by our code all the time.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: They can in selective circumstances.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: The federal government comes to mind when compliance with local zoning is not super mandatory for them.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We can say all we'd like that, you know, this violates our rules.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But we can't compel federal adherence the way we can with other actors in this space.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So this leaves us with the classic dilemma that's articulated on this slide.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's a quote that's attributed to Andrew Jackson, which is essentially: the Supreme Court's made its decision, now let them come and enforce it.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Which is essentially the federal government's way of saying: you and what army, Supreme Court?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: How are you going to make me, the federal government, act?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so a determination on paper from a court might not stop chemical residue from drifting into a child's bedroom.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And even while we're waiting for that ruling again years down the line, potentially nothing is preventing a neighborhood from being enveloped in tear gas.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So this ordinance is aiming to fill that gap.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It gives the city a practical and forcible tool to protect people now, not just after years of process.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And it ensures that we're not left quoting Andrew Jackson while our residents continue for years to absorb harm and are ultimately left with nothing.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Next slide, please.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Okay, final slide.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So I hit this already.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But why do we need these nuisance penalties?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: The second piece of the ordinance, it's because harms are occurring today.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Kids are choking on tear gas in their own homes.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Playgrounds need hazmat cleaning.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We want to respond, and we're being asked to govern in the face of that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I think that sometimes there's this sense that we can proceed with governance only after we find that perfect combination of checks and balances or that policy that's entirely without trade-offs.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But people tend to get disenchanted with governance when harm proceeds while we wait for that ideal version of governance that possibly will never arrive.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So our contention is that it is our responsibility to protect people with the tools that we have today, as imperfect as they may be, and that we should keep building out our toolkit because we can always benefit from one more tool.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So, next slide, please.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Questions and discussion.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: This should be fun.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So, colleagues, we do have at least 36 people signed up for public testimony.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So why don't we take any questions now, but hold on discussion until after we hear from members of the public.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And while I'm waiting to see if anybody has questions, Councilor, I just want to make sure that we are all on the same page.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I know you had filed an amendment to the original language that you had proposed.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Was the presentation we just heard on the original posted language or on the posted amendment?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's for the updated language and it'll be a friendly amendment.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It was just edits from the administration.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So for anybody who's looking online, we are discussing proposed amendment, Counselor Morillo 1, which was posted yesterday as the baseline language that we're talking about today.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Is that accurate?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Perfect.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I am not seeing anybody in the queue for any questions.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So Susie, thank you very much.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I think we are going to turn to hearing from the public now.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Keelan, could you please call our first panel.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Oh, Councillor Kanal, last minute.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Just a process question.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So is the...
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Is the amendment going to be on the table then or has it?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Has it?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: We can't move it till later, but I think I misunderstood your last point.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Sorry to clarify, if you go in the exhibits and attachments, it's proposed amendment, Councillor Morillo 1, and it's because there was some tweaking of language that the administration requested of our ordinance and we saw this as friendly changes.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So yeah, we'll be looking at that one.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Great.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you so much.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Okay.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Let's call up our first panel.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Of folks for public testimony and just double checking testifiers.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Will have two minutes, is that correct?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Two minutes.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yes.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We should be able to get to everyone that way.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Okay, thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: The first panel includes Holly Brown and Isabella Shepard, Cole Donahue, Blair Glennon, and Camille Saunders.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go ahead, I'll start.
Holly Brown: My name is Holly Brown and I am with Portland Contra las Deportaciones and Revoke the ICE Permit PDX.
Holly Brown: Shame on you, shame on the entire City Council and the Mayor for your lack of action surrounding the abuses of ICE in this city and for your lack of action on revoking the permit.
Holly Brown: But in particular, and today, shame on Councilor Morillo and Green for putting forth this performative stunt in an attempt to gain political clout and get activists off your back, all while ignoring the most obvious solutions to ICE's terrorism in Portland.
Holly Brown: I want to speak to Councilor Morillo in particular.
Holly Brown: You've been speaking about me on Instagram recently.
Holly Brown: Our organization has watched as you put forth more effort than anyone else on City Council to stall the efforts to revoke the ICE permit, all while gaslighting Portlanders by saying you're the most sympathetic to your goals.
Holly Brown: We don't buy it.
Holly Brown: You continue to spread the right-wing narrative that this ICE facility somehow serves immigrants.
Holly Brown: And you continue to belittle activists who put their lives on the line at ICE.
Holly Brown: We don't want fees levied at the ICE facility for the attacks on the community in the future because we don't want the building to be there at all in the future.
Holly Brown: By putting forth this order...
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Everybody to stay quiet.
Holly Brown: ...you make it very clear that you plan to capitulate to allow the development of future detention facilities in Portland.
Holly Brown: Honestly, this is a pay-to-play ordinance in which the city can get paid off by these landlords in order to keep ICE functioning in Portland.
Holly Brown: That is insidious and it is dangerous.
Holly Brown: 60 days have passed since the ICE facility was cited for its land use violation.
Holly Brown: The reconsideration process should already be in motion, and yet the city is allowing ICE to stall the appeals process.
Holly Brown: 560 people were arrested by ICE in Portland this last month.
Holly Brown: How many of these people could have been prevented from being arrested if ICE did not have a literal staging ground in the center of Portland?
Holly Brown: How many lives will you continue to allow to be ruined while you sit here and say that your hands are tied?
Holly Brown: Portland City Council serves a people, not the other way around.
Holly Brown: The people are demanding the revocation of the permit, not this fee.
Holly Brown: Rescind the ordinance and put forth legislation to shut down the facility tomorrow, today.
Holly Brown: Immediately.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I don't want to eject.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I don't want to need to move to ejecting people this evening.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But if there continues to be applause and cheering, we will have to do so.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Jazz hands, thumbs up, thumbs down.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We've done it in other meetings.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We can do it.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Isabella Shepard: Hello, I'm Isabella Shepard, representing Portland Contra las Deportaciones and the Coalition for Revoking the ICE Permit.
Isabella Shepard: Some of my colleagues will argue that this ordinance does not go far enough.
Isabella Shepard: Others will argue that it's an act of detriment to the fight against ICE.
Isabella Shepard: I fall into the latter camp because it will set the precedent that violating the law comes only with the penalty of a fine that they can easily afford.
Isabella Shepard: Legitimizing their crimes and acting as a barrier to enforcing the law by revoking the permit.
Isabella Shepard: I'll let my colleagues argue that, however, because I'm here to express my disappointment in all of you.
Isabella Shepard: Councilor Morillo, your conduct has been especially unprofessional and disrespectful.
Isabella Shepard: You have spread misinformation about our movement.
Isabella Shepard: And repeatedly claims that you can't speak in favor of revoking the permit because you would be recused from the vote for showing bias.
Isabella Shepard: If that's the case, then you should be recused because you have shown blatant bias in favor of letting ICE have a base here.
Isabella Shepard: Yesterday, you name-dropped and lied about my comrade and friend Holly, one of the most principled and dedicated organizers I have ever had the honor of working with, saying they don't care about revoking the permit and are just being performative.
Isabella Shepard: What's performative is this ordinance and your egregiously childish social media conduct.
Isabella Shepard: Don't the rest of you think you're off the hook though?
Isabella Shepard: At least Morillo has the guts to say something and show us who she is, while the rest of you bury your heads in the sand.
Isabella Shepard: On one side of this table, we have residents who are dedicated enough to listen to you talk about trees late into a work night just for the opportunity to beg you to do something about ICE for the two minutes you allow us to speak.
Isabella Shepard: On the other side, we have bureaucrats who think it's acceptable to ignore their constituents for months, consistently make items pertaining to ICE last on the agenda, only to insult us with non-solutions, further wasting everyone's time on discussing pathetic half-measures.
Isabella Shepard: This is why we disrupt your meetings.
Isabella Shepard: As long as you show that you do not care to listen to us about this crisis, nor about the crisis itself, you don't get to carry on business as usual.
Isabella Shepard: Our demand remains: revoke the permit, nothing less.
Isabella Shepard: Thank you for your consideration.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We are not going to get through all the speakers.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: If I have to remind folks for silent support after every speaker.
Isabella Shepard: Your reminders are taking longer than the applause.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yet if we can shut it down, have the reminders every time and it will be much faster.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I personally want to hear from everybody who signed up tonight.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay, go right ahead.
Blair Glennon: Hello, I'm Blair Glennon, a Portland District 2 resident and registered nurse at Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
Blair Glennon: In the past few weeks, ICE has been bringing injured detainees to Portland area hospitals, including and especially Legacy Emanuel, for injuries obtained during violent detainments.
Blair Glennon: They are injuring people so severely during their detainments that they need hospital-level care.
Blair Glennon: Staff at Emanuel are told to treat ICE like any other law enforcement.
Blair Glennon: We have been told by Emanuel execs that they are in regular contact with the director of the ICE facility, that we cannot contact the patient's family until after the patient leaves the hospital, and that we cannot provide legal resources to the patient.
Blair Glennon: We have also been told we can't require ICE to leave the room even for sensitive tasks.
Blair Glennon: When Emanuel staff have brought up concerns about ICE, upper management has pointed to their subpar policies or ignored us, or in one case told someone to seek therapy for moral distress.
Blair Glennon: ICE has killed people during detainments in LA and Chicago in recent weeks.
Blair Glennon: There isn't anything special about Portland that would prevent that from happening here.
Blair Glennon: This ordinance doesn't go far enough as ICE is using the MacAdam ICE facility as a staging ground not only to terrorize the city of Portland, but also surrounding cities such as Hillsboro and Beaverton.
Blair Glennon: Our hotels, hospitals and the MacAdam ICE facility are providing infrastructure for ICE to operate.
Blair Glennon: Please act.
Blair Glennon: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you very much.
Camille Saunders: My name is Kami Saunders.
Camille Saunders: For the record, I'm here supporting Portland Contra las Deportaciones, Revoke the ICE Permit PDX, and all immigrants in our communities.
Camille Saunders: I'm testifying on the detention facility impact fee to make it clear that this ordinance is not what the community is asking for.
Camille Saunders: Instead, we want the Portland ICE facility shut down and the permit for the building revoked.
Camille Saunders: Every single day, people are being kidnapped off our streets.
Camille Saunders: ICE and DHS are brutalizing protesters—speaking from experience as a protester—and immigrants alike.
Camille Saunders: And the City of Portland is doing nothing to stop it.
Camille Saunders: Deadlines for appealing the land use violation have come and gone and the city has allowed landowner Stuart Lindquist to stall and delay the revocation process.
Camille Saunders: Portlanders deserve more than performative measures.
Camille Saunders: City councillors are taking action that favors landowners' interests and yet do not act in favor of what the people actually want.
Camille Saunders: The Cottonwood School was next to the ICE facility until this past summer and was gassed so heavily it was forced to move.
Camille Saunders: The building it relocated to was another building owned by Stuart Lindquist, the owner of the ICE facility that forced it to move in the first place.
Camille Saunders: Making it clear his team intervened to make this move happen.
Camille Saunders: Councilor Mitch Green said, quote: one of the things that we realized pretty early on was that we have a really effective Portland Permitting and Development Department.
Camille Saunders: We brought them in pretty early and kind of pulled together all partners of the schools, pulled my team into it, and just came up with a plan to tackle this pretty quickly.
Camille Saunders: Why is Councilor Green able to step in so quickly to move the school into another building owned by Lindquist so he can continue to make a profit, but can't use that same sway to actually challenge Lindquist and ICE?
Camille Saunders: Shutting down the facility would have prevented the school from having to move in the first place.
Camille Saunders: I condemn your inability to use that exact same effective department to protect your constituents and reduce terror in our neighborhoods.
Camille Saunders: That is happening every single day.
Camille Saunders: We demand that the City Council puts forth legislation to shut down the facility rather than putting forth ordinances that do not address the root causes of the problem.
Camille Saunders: We want ICE out of Portland entirely, revoke the permit and shut down the facility.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Cole Donahue: Hello, Council.
Cole Donahue: I'm Cole Donahue from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Coalition to Revoke the ICE Permit, and I'm testifying in opposition to the half-measure put forward by Councilors Morillo and Green.
Cole Donahue: This ordinance is entirely useless in putting any sort of pressure on ICE, DHS, or their Portland landlord, Stuart Lindquist.
Cole Donahue: Never mind the fact that the important fines wouldn't even begin to apply until after ICE renews their lease for the McAdam facility.
Cole Donahue: Never mind that it's unclear where the proceeds would actually go to and if it would actually affect those, you know, the victims of ICE terror.
Cole Donahue: What's most egregious here is the notion that the way to pressure ICE and Stuart Lindquist is through putting a monetary cost on their actions.
Cole Donahue: ICE's budget is going to skyrocket over the coming years, and whenever the city eventually decides to charge them, will be more than made up for by the tens of billions in extra funding they are receiving.
Cole Donahue: This isn't even a slap on the wrist.
Cole Donahue: It is just charging them a fee in order to give legitimacy to their actions.
Cole Donahue: Morillo, this is a quote from your FAQ on the ordinance that your staffer presented earlier.
Cole Donahue: Quote: costs you do not feel are costs you won't prevent.
Cole Donahue: I actually agree with the statement, which is why I think it is so outrageous that you are trying to cover the costs incurred by the city.
Cole Donahue: And before taking any meaningful steps towards addressing the root cause of this suffering and pushing to revoke ICE's permit and to operate the concentration camp on McAdam Avenue...
Cole Donahue: This ordinance, if passed, will give cover to the city's wholly insufficient response to ICE's terror.
Cole Donahue: It will give the city something to point to and say, "See, look, we're fighting back," while just offsetting the financial pressure on city government, leaving everyone else in the dust.
Cole Donahue: You don't want to feel the cost because this is something you evidently do not care about.
Cole Donahue: This is nothing more than an attempt to normalize ICE's presence while absolving the city of any responsibility to protect its inhabitants.
Cole Donahue: Do your jobs and revoke the permit.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Next up we have Vladimir Lopokov, Elijah Thahir, Casey DeSantis, Samantha Como.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead while we wait for others to come from upstairs.
Vladimir Lopokov: Hi, my name is Vladimir Lopokov.
Vladimir Lopokov: I'm here to support Portland Contra las Deportaciones and the Revoke the ICE Permit Coalition.
Vladimir Lopokov: I'd like to draw attention to the usual stubbornness of Democratic officials to adopt policies begged for by the community.
Vladimir Lopokov: The issue of the ICE permit violation has been in discussion for half a year at this point.
Vladimir Lopokov: When this coalition first raised the question of ICE violating the permit, the immediate reaction of Councilor Morillo was to denounce the attempt to rid our communities of ICE as something that is harmful to the community.
Vladimir Lopokov: As if the act of ridding ourselves of bloodsucking leeches is more damaging than leeches themselves.
Vladimir Lopokov: After pushing for months to have the city recognize the land use violation, we finally got you to recognize it.
Vladimir Lopokov: Just for the same cadre of politicians to adopt this as their policy win.
Vladimir Lopokov: Praising the City Council on social media for the first step against ICE.
Vladimir Lopokov: Yet now we appeal to the moderate voter, waving our fingers at ICE instead of rightfully pushing them out and raising a fee that would deter neither landlord who owns multitudes of properties around the city, nor the federal government agency which recently received $75 billion in funding and can afford to take on these costs.
Vladimir Lopokov: I'm not even sure whether to call this a finger wag, as this just looks like a shuffling of cash.
Vladimir Lopokov: You've listed paying PPB overtime wages for time spent near the facility as one of the first issues the ordinance addresses.
Vladimir Lopokov: You're effectively making the landlord pay cash to the police, which has been enforcing and blocking protests at the ICE facility.
Vladimir Lopokov: You're just ensuring PPB gets appropriately paid to protect ICE.
Vladimir Lopokov: This is just a city grabbing a piece of the pie for kidnapping people.
Vladimir Lopokov: All this in a sanctuary city recently codified.
Vladimir Lopokov: Shame on you.
Vladimir Lopokov: We hope the people of the working class see you for what you really are.
Vladimir Lopokov: Bureaucrats meant to stifle a movement when it gets inconvenient.
Vladimir Lopokov: You make small concessions, do your jobs, revoke the ICE permit.
Vladimir Lopokov: This performative nonsense is not enough.
Vladimir Lopokov: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Casey DeSantis: Good evening Council.
Casey DeSantis: My name is Casey DeSantis, representing the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and revoke the ICE permit coalition.
Casey DeSantis: Tonight I'd like to speak about how the detention facility impact fee is a watered down, performative piece of legislation.
Casey DeSantis: This ordinance normalizes the idea of having detention facilities in Portland by just slapping a fee on them.
Casey DeSantis: This ordinance allows privately owned detention facilities to remain in our state city while ensuring that the city does not incur any costs as a result of allowing them to be there in the first place.
Casey DeSantis: This makes it so that the only punishment for using chemical weapons or literally detaining people illegally is fines, which does not and will not prevent the use of chemicals or abuse of protesters or immigrants in the first place.
Casey DeSantis: According to Councilor Murillo and her office, the ordinance will not affect the Portland ICE facility as it currently stands unless there is a new contract that is signed.
Casey DeSantis: This makes the whole proposed ordinance performative and incapable of having any real impact.
Casey DeSantis: One can say that something is better than nothing, but I would say that ordinances like this play lip service and look good on a headline rather than create any real meaningful change.
Casey DeSantis: It is said that this ordinance will act as a deterrent, but detention facilities already have to apply for a permit to be in Portland, and the conditional use permit for the McAdam facility already has two fees for violating its terms, and it didn't stop Stuart Lindquist from leasing to ICE in the first place, due to the stipulation that this ordinance will only apply to new facilities and contracts.
Casey DeSantis: I do question if the council is preparing for a new contract for the McAdam facility or for new facilities.
Casey DeSantis: If this is the case, I would question why Councilors Murillo and Greene would put their political capital behind this useless ordinance.
Casey DeSantis: It's apparent that this council already wants to move on from discussing ICE and their terror in our city after enacting Sanctuary City Code last month.
Casey DeSantis: I'd recommend and prefer saving political favors and the community's precious time for any legislation that actually has teeth or will address the community's demands.
Casey DeSantis: Revoke the ICE permit and shut down the McAdam facility.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you folks.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'm still hearing snapping and other distractions and I would really like to give folks the ability to testify.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And this is the last time I'm gonna say it before I start issuing warnings where we will have to remove people.
Unidentified Speaker 1: You guys not paying attention to your community when they've shown up?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'm sorry, I can't see who is speaking right now, but.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: If we can't be respectful to the speakers, please go right ahead.
Unidentified Speaker 3: Kick you out too.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Please go right ahead.
Samantha Como: My name is Samantha Como.
Samantha Como: I live in District 1.
Samantha Como: I'm here today to give, I don't.
Unidentified Speaker 4: Even know if this is considered critical support, if I'm against the bill.
Samantha Como: I don't care if you pass this or not.
Samantha Como: I'm asking you to do more.
Samantha Como: You can pass this all you want.
Samantha Como: But this should and can be expanded upon.
Samantha Como: And not just that, but we need to be making sure that Portlanders are having their voices heard.
Samantha Como: From what I've seen, and this is with the absolute, absolute, like utmost respect to Councilor Morillo, people are not understanding what is really happening here.
Samantha Como: And it's not just that, it's that.
Samantha Como: People are feeling like their city council is not telling the truth to them.
Samantha Como: And whether or not you are telling the truth, whether or not you're not, I can't say.
Samantha Como: And whether or not you can revoke this permit or not, I can't say.
Samantha Como: I'm not a lawyer, but what I'm telling you guys is that you have not done a good job constructing, communicating to your constituents what is happening here, what you're doing to stop ICE and what you're doing to fight against the fascist movement this country is in. I'd like to note that currently, I believe it's over 1,000 people who ended up in Alligator Alcatraz are missing. Right now, that is a death camp. Their bodies are probably rotting in mass graves. And right now what we're doing is we're sitting here talking about fees when we could be doing so much more. It's a pretty open secret at this point that the Portland police has connections to these white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys. Why not investigate them? Why not investigate the fact that we've had all of these right wing agitators at the ICE facility, such as David Medina and Nick Shirley, who've come down and agitated our Portlanders trying to make content and trying to get money off of this. We are literally falling to a fascist movement and all I'm seeing from city council is just trying to adjust the way that we levy fees, trying to see if we can just add more fees onto this. I have a comment from Councilman Rayo replying to me, saying that this doesn't necessarily get ICE out of Portland. And not just that, but we saw during the government shutdown a billionaire went and paid the wages of all of our soldiers in the military. Why is that not just going to happen here? We have so much people, so much money, and they hate our immigrants and we need to protect them. Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you all very much.
Acting Council Clerk Rebecca Dobert: Elijah is joining us online.
Elijah Thahir: Hello, my name is Elijah Thahir.
Elijah Thahir: I'm with Pull the Permit Coalition.
Elijah Thahir: I'm speaking against this ordinance because it's clearly just another attempt by the Progressive Caucus to at best posture and grandstand while accomplishing absolutely nothing, or at worst, to actively disinform people as to what can be done to end the active threat to public safety that is ICE.
Elijah Thahir: Given that the City Council, as it currently stands, refuses to penalize ICE or Lindquist Property Management for the violations already listed on the conditional use permit, which include holding dozens of people past the mandated detainment limit of 12 hours, including the holding of someone for over 47 days, which, mind you, those cells are glass boxes with two metal benches and a toilet.
Elijah Thahir: There aren't even showers and no working phones for detainees to use.
Elijah Thahir: The active damage to the surrounding community with the deployment of chemical weapons, the setting of multiple fires, the use of drones to spy inside tenants apartments, and the use of an LRAD.
Elijah Thahir: Why should anyone expect you to start holding ICE accountable now?
Elijah Thahir: The only possible way you could hold them accountable and ensure the safety of immigrants and citizens alike and the people that live in that neighborhood is by removing that facility and preventing ICE from operating within this city.
Elijah Thahir: The people are not asking for ICE to be fined.
Elijah Thahir: We're not asking for city council members to hide behind a banner of victimhood, to justify not doing anything or to waste work hours on Instagram comments or to be in their group chats while in ongoing council meetings.
Elijah Thahir: We want the deportations to stop and we want the ICE facility on Macadam gone.
Elijah Thahir: And if you're either unable or unwilling to protect your constituents, why are you even here in the first place?
Unidentified Speaker 2: That's all.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Acting Council Clerk Rebecca Dobert: Next up, we have Susan Anglada Bartley, Pedro Anglada Cordero, Benjamin Gilbert, Andrew Norrie, Beatrice Ibarra.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Please go right ahead while we wait for others to come down.
Andrea Norrie: Hello, my name is Andrea Norrie, and I want to talk a little bit about why we should rec.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Sorry.
Andrea Norrie: Why we should not allow Angelita Morillo to vote on revoking the permit.
Andrea Norrie: Her insistence on creating ineffective policies instead of advocating for the removal of the facility's land use permit is indicative of her lack of care for Portland's immigrant community.
Andrea Norrie: She claims that she's unable to show support for revoking the permit because she'd be taken off of the vote.
Andrea Norrie: But that hasn't stopped her from showing support for letting the facility stay in Portland.
Andrea Norrie: She has accosted individuals and advocates for protesting at ICE.
Andrea Norrie: She has stated in interviews that she doesn't believe in shutting it down.
Andrea Norrie: She has spent more time arguing with people online who are actually advocating for real change than doing anything to help people in Portland.
Andrea Norrie: From ICE, she has stated directly that in talking with immigration attorneys and others about what the closures will mean for most people, I've come to the conclusion that shutting down McAdam is not the right approach.
Andrea Norrie: I urge Councilor Murillo to actually talk to the advocates on the ground in Portland's immigrant communities instead of for-profit immigration lawyers.
Andrea Norrie: I urge her to try and log out of your social media accounts and actually talk to people who are your constituents.
Andrea Norrie: You use your social media accounts to constantly attack advocates and people trying to make actual change.
Andrea Norrie: And most importantly, I urge every single member on this council who is not her to recuse her from the vote revoking the permit.
Andrea Norrie: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Susan Anglada Bartley: I'll go.
Susan Anglada Bartley: My name is Susan Unglada Bartley.
Susan Anglada Bartley: However, before my time starts, is it director?
Susan Anglada Bartley: I see people texting.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Many of us have come and gotten childcare for our families and faced accusations that we're being noisy.
Susan Anglada Bartley: My voice hurts from fighting with the fascia outside.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Could I be heard?
Susan Anglada Bartley: Because they're texting and giggling.
Susan Anglada Bartley: We even got video of it upstairs.
Susan Anglada Bartley: By the way, Councilor Smith, I love your butterfly, but please, before I start, may we have people not texting while we're talking?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: You have my attention.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I can't speak for my colleagues, but please, go ahead.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Thank you.
Susan Anglada Bartley: My name is Susan Anglada Bartley.
Susan Anglada Bartley: I'm a Celtic witch of mostly Irish heritage.
Susan Anglada Bartley: I'm a spiritual woman, a radical historian, and I have the gift of second sight, which means I have a strong predictive ability sometimes seeing what will happen in political reality before it happens.
Susan Anglada Bartley: This is part of why I wrote the petition to shut down the ICE detention center in March, long before the protests started heating up in June.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Today, I'm here to urge you to vote against Morillo's proposal because it is not an act of abolitionism or resistance.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Anyone who's for the abolition of ICE, or excuse me, or against ICE, cannot be for this plan.
Susan Anglada Bartley: It is a statist, authoritarian and capitalist plan that creates a pay to play system for detention centers.
Susan Anglada Bartley: In a moment when the federal government will spare no expense to perpetuate violence through ICE.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Though this plan will not even impact Macadam.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Private owners will not care that they have to raise the rent on ICE in order to pay the fee.
Susan Anglada Bartley: What this plan does is funnel more taxpayer dollars towards supporting detention centers in Portland.
Susan Anglada Bartley: The plan also refers to future detention centers in Portland in the plural, showing that Morillo's vision for the future includes a Portland with not less detention centers, but more detention centers.
Susan Anglada Bartley: This is sickening and abhorrent, effed up, disgusting.
Susan Anglada Bartley: And the people say no.
Susan Anglada Bartley: What you must do instead is revoke the permit as soon as possible.
Susan Anglada Bartley: But more immediately today, use eminent domain to condemn and repossess the building.
Susan Anglada Bartley: The city very much has the right to use eminent domain in the case where there are toxic chemicals or major violations of the law.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Stop fostering this genocidal crime scene.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Seize the property, pay the needed amount and reclaim it as a community center that centers the Native American and immigrant communities of Portland.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Extend the excellent work that is happening at the Portland airport, employing the same team to create a beautiful space that honors the protest community, especially the indigenous resistance that shall not stop until you shut it down.
Susan Anglada Bartley: There will be one or more deaths or very serious injuries if you do not do this.
Susan Anglada Bartley: Immediately condemn the building.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Please go right ahead.
Ben Gilbert: Good evening, council.
Ben Gilbert: My name is Ben Gilbert.
Ben Gilbert: I'm a Tenant in District 4, a professional artist here in Portland and a volunteer lobbyist for the Portland Democratic Socialists of America.
Ben Gilbert: As the richest Oregonians get tax breaks, the Trump administration is imposing austerity on our city and state budgets.
Ben Gilbert: This is an attack on the working class.
Ben Gilbert: But this administration's attack isn't just fiscal.
Ben Gilbert: And as we all know, the Trump administration is hell bent on sending its forces into Portland.
Ben Gilbert: As our city faces this assault on our residents and budget.
Ben Gilbert: Councilor Murillo has crafted this innovative mechanism to offset some of the costs of this assault to the landlords who profit from the detention of our neighbors.
Ben Gilbert: You made an investment that comes with risks.
Ben Gilbert: You knew that accountability was one of those risks.
Ben Gilbert: Council, I urge you to vote yes on the impact to show that in Portland, unlike D.C., accountability still matters.
Ben Gilbert: And to those who are singling out Councilor Murillo, shame.
Ben Gilbert: This is somebody who is doing more than almost anybody.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I need everyone to let this speaker.
Ben Gilbert: Speak and is a champion for this cause.
Ben Gilbert: And praising the right of capital Council, the right wing of council while going after those who are putting in a ton of effort on this is disgusting.
Ben Gilbert: I yield my time.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Beatrice Ibarra: Hello, my name is Beatrice Ibarra.
Beatrice Ibarra: I'm here presenting Portland Contras Deportaciones and revoke the ICE permit.
Beatrice Ibarra: Today I'm here to testify against the ordinance that was put forward by Angelita Morillo.
Beatrice Ibarra: There are many reasons why this is a failure for the community, but the main one I will be focusing on today is the lack of oversight or transparency into where the funds are going.
Beatrice Ibarra: Initially, all fee revenue was to be deposited into the detention fee impact fund.
Beatrice Ibarra: The new updated ordinance does not show where the funds will be going.
Beatrice Ibarra: It just says it will be going to the city administrator.
Beatrice Ibarra: Previously it also said the revenue of the detention was supposed to go and be deposited into a detention facility impact fund.
Beatrice Ibarra: Now there is no clear answer as to where those funds would be going.
Beatrice Ibarra: Not only do we not know where the funds are going, we do not know the fiscal impact of the size and we do not know the amount of the fee would be under the current contract.
Beatrice Ibarra: There is already a fee and the city has done nothing to help out the neighborhood and the issues that are happening.
Beatrice Ibarra: The Cotton School of Civic Science, nor the neighborhood, nor the nearby residential areas as Grace Landing or any other nearby apartment complexes.
Beatrice Ibarra: The city has helped clean or help with any other issues that the ICE facility is causing.
Beatrice Ibarra: City council members say that they're listening to immigrants and that that's why they won't close the ICE facility.
Beatrice Ibarra: With that, I want to know which immigrants you are listening to.
Beatrice Ibarra: Over the past week, 200 plus detainments have happened in the city and I want to know which immigrants you are prioritizing with your decision.
Beatrice Ibarra: You say this is a cost efficiency policy and I say that a human life does not have a price.
Beatrice Ibarra: We should not be acting like it does and we should demand more.
Beatrice Ibarra: We demand for ICE out of Portland and we demand for the permit to get revoked.
Beatrice Ibarra: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: My name is Pedro Anglada Cordero.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Revoking the permit of the ICE detention center at Macadam is the most consistent and effective action to combat authoritarianism in Portland.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: The people of Portland have made this very clear through consistent actions since the Trump administration started its second term.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: A petition to revoke the ICE permit was presented to this council in May.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: 2025 on grounds of human rights violations.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: These violations were confirmed through ICE's own detainment data and acknowledged by this council.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Stop overlooking the human rights violations.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Councilor Morillo's proposal of imposing a fee on the detention center is an attempt to normalize fascism.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Approving this fee would mean that while the city government is aware of ICE's human rights abuses through the targeting of racialized communities,
Pedro Anglada Cordero: the city is willing to fall into complicity by turning these oppressive dynamics into a transaction.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: The city knows what ICE does, and it does not matter how disgusting their actions may be, as long as they pay their fee.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: The city calls it good.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Since the beginning of summer this year, City Council has spent a great deal of energy making up stories to convince.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: The public that the detention center at South Macadam is vital to keeping immigrants safe.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Presently, these narratives have vanished because simply, they do not hold up.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Months ago, after the city issued ICE with a violation of the condition of their building permit, a long bureaucratic process continued.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Through land use regulations, the city privileges the building owner by allowing them to engage in appeal process of mitigating human rights violations.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: This establishes a dangerous path where a landlord may use their legal resources to remain untouched in keeping a detention center open after engaging in violation of human rights.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Human rights abuses cannot be mitigated through land use permitting.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Fascism cannot be normalized.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Revoke the permit.
Pedro Anglada Cordero: Stop the violence now.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you very much.
Acting Council Clerk Rebecca Dobert: Next up, next up, we have Sky Reimer, Lala Lou, Catherine Lynn, Brianna Nathaniels, David Pearl.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Right ahead while we wait for others to come down.
Sky Reimer: Hi there, my name is Sky, and I'm here today to urge City Council to reject this performative ordinance and to instead either put pressure on Permitting Development to begin the reconsideration process for this permit or to introduce legislation to revoke the permit yourselves.
Sky Reimer: Every moment not spent on shutting down that facility means more lives are ruined and destroyed.
Sky Reimer: That is what makes the slow pace of the city in dealing with this situation particularly harmful.
Sky Reimer: Finally, after months of activist pushing, the city was issued a land use violation notice to the ICE facility.
Sky Reimer: But now you continue to allow the wealthy landlord, Stuart Lindquist, to delay the process to shut down the facility.
Sky Reimer: A meeting was supposed to take place to sell his appeal during the first week of November.
Sky Reimer: Two weeks later, it's been postponed, it's been extended, and his appeal has not been shut down.
Sky Reimer: Why are we allowing him to stall?
Sky Reimer: City Council may say that they didn't have evidence, but there is evidence every single day of the facility, gassing the neighborhood and violating the terms of land use agreement that require it to not present a danger to the neighborhood.
Sky Reimer: The fact that no action was taken after school is forced to move due to the facility's use of chemical warfare makes it particularly clear that the lack of action on behalf of the city was a conscious choice.
Sky Reimer: 60 days have passed since the Portland ICE facility was cited with the land use violation for hoarding detainees for over 12 hours.
Sky Reimer: In these 60 days deportations have continued speeding up with 560 detainments in the span of a single month.
Sky Reimer: We've seen ICE prowl outside Portland schools.
Sky Reimer: Hospitalized detainees break into cars and racially profile Portlanders waiting for the bus.
Sky Reimer: Now that 60 days passed, Portland can begin the process to revoke the permit.
Sky Reimer: Yet instead of doing so, councilors are putting forth ordinances like this that not only don't even apply to the ICE facility unless a new contract is signed, but also assumes the construction of more detention facilities.
Sky Reimer: We don't want more facilities and we want the one that currently exists shut down immediately.
Sky Reimer: Instead of wasting Portland's time on this ordinance, please put forward legislation that prevents private landlords from leasing houses in general.
Sky Reimer: We will not accept any excuses.
Sky Reimer: Revoke the ICE permit, Shut down the ICE facility.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Brianna Nathaniels.
Brianna Nathaniels: I support the proposal to apply an ordinance fee to the McAdam facility and to all detention facilities, and I support that.
Brianna Nathaniels: We need to do more in order to make sure this facility gets shut down.
Brianna Nathaniels: And I know many of you know that.
Brianna Nathaniels: I know Councilor McCarthy knows that.
Brianna Nathaniels: And I'm sorry, women of color get so much hate.
Brianna Nathaniels: I think the only people who have taught an argument against her is Holly.
Brianna Nathaniels: So just everyone else, leave her alone.
Brianna Nathaniels: But you know, revoke the permit.
Brianna Nathaniels: The violations for the detainees is sure one violation.
Brianna Nathaniels: But under their own violations, enforcement of the planning zone, if there is a substantial increase in intensity from what was approved, or substantially increase the intensity of its operations, we can reconsider the land use.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay?
Brianna Nathaniels: We need to use every tool possible to get this facility out of here.
Brianna Nathaniels: And the ordinance fee is one tool.
Brianna Nathaniels: Revoking the permit is another tool.
Brianna Nathaniels: Using Stuart Lindquist insurance policy, can we make claims against there and make that information public?
Brianna Nathaniels: How do we get that policy cancelled?
Brianna Nathaniels: Or at least when it comes to renewal time, make it so no one wants to insure him, all right?
Brianna Nathaniels: We need to use every avenue possible.
Brianna Nathaniels: I want to remind folks, during the Trump administration, almost about as many deaths in the ICE facility have occurred as the entire Biden administration.
Brianna Nathaniels: And we have three more years left of this, okay?
Brianna Nathaniels: We're potentially sending people to their death sentence in Tacoma.
Brianna Nathaniels: Okay?
Brianna Nathaniels: Death is not worth the convenience of routine check-ins for families.
Brianna Nathaniels: We will see, support these families through virtual appointments.
Brianna Nathaniels: I will personally drive folks to Tacoma.
Brianna Nathaniels: We have done car caravans to Tacoma for the routine check-ins.
Brianna Nathaniels: We can provide subsidies for folks on daycare if they have to take time off of work.
Brianna Nathaniels: Okay?
Brianna Nathaniels: Some of these folks who say this facility is needed for immigration families.
Brianna Nathaniels: I want you to talk to Jose Sanchez's family.
Brianna Nathaniels: It's about one year of his death from the Tacoma facility, and ask them if it's worth it.
Brianna Nathaniels: It's not.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yeah, go right ahead.
David Pearl: I'll start by saying that, yes, I would support any measure that directly hinders.
David Pearl: Or challenges this regime in any way.
David Pearl: However, that brings up my next point.
David Pearl: Does this really effectively challenge or hinder ICE, DHS, Border Patrol, or whomever else has joined the SS?
David Pearl: Personally, I don't really see it as effective enough.
David Pearl: And while I'm left wondering if the people that are separated from their families are going to be, are going to have any solace in the fact that maybe Lindquist might pay an art tax later in the year.
David Pearl: At minimum, though, this amendment should go into effect immediately and should affect what has already been happening from June till now, as these institutions are inhumane, deplorable, and disgusting.
David Pearl: And quite frankly, these agencies don't even need to exist.
David Pearl: Contrary to popular belief, ICE and or Homeland Security did not always exist.
David Pearl: It was created in 2003 by George W. Bush because there were some bad hombres to the south of the border.
David Pearl: In other words, this is a mess that has been allowed to fester for over 20 years because we let a different war criminal be our president, and because, unfortunately, thinly veiled racism hiding under the blanket of pro-nationalism tends to be a stepping stone in the path towards fascism.
David Pearl: While, yes, the facility at South McAdam,
David Pearl: isn't technically a prison, it does serve in the process, a process that needs to be destroyed.
David Pearl: Because what happens when someone is sent to one of these facilities?
David Pearl: They are thrown into overcrowded holding areas where the lights are kept on 24/7, which is considered a form of torture.
David Pearl: Usually, are kept in the same clothes
David Pearl: for several days, deprived of showers, basic
David Pearl: dental hygiene essentials, medications.
David Pearl: Oftentimes you don't even get blankets or pillows.
David Pearl: You are given aluminum blankets sometimes, otherwise,
David Pearl: you have to wait for someone else
David Pearl: to leave so that you can take their blanket.
David Pearl: Food is given, depending whether or not the guards feel like it.
David Pearl: They typically give them a bottle of water, which the inmate has to then decide if they want to drink or
David Pearl: use to wash their persons.
David Pearl: ICE has even stopped reporting how many pregnant individuals it has in custody, as
David Pearl: miscarriages are a common occurrence, due in part to the amount of medical neglect and malnutrition.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Sorry, but we need to have you wrap.
David Pearl: Sorry.
David Pearl: Thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: I'm sorry, will you please state your name for the record?
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Oh, sorry.
David Pearl: David Pearl District one.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Okay, thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Checking to see if Catherine Lynn or Lala Lou are here.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay, thank you all very much for your testimony.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Next up, we have Jacob E. Lacey, Lilia Hines, Lydia Keisling, Kira Smith, M.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Lydia is joining us online.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Go ahead and unmute, Lydia.
Lydia Keisling: Hi, my name is Lydia Keisling.
Lydia Keisling: I'm a member of Portland GSA and a resident of District 3.
Lydia Keisling: Getting ICE out of Portland will take a diversity of tactics coming from many different directions.
Lydia Keisling: Using city code to deter private profiteering from ICE's campaign of terror is a first step.
Lydia Keisling: Step?
Lydia Keisling: It's obviously not the only step.
Lydia Keisling: I want to believe that this policy has a small role in a broader municipal struggle against ICE, which runs parallel to the popular struggle and which will have different tactics.
Lydia Keisling: I supported the AI price fixing ban.
Lydia Keisling: Do I wish we had a resolution that made it illegal for private equity to own housing?
Lydia Keisling: Yes.
Lydia Keisling: But I also know that both electoral politics and city administration involves chipping away at the wall in small and sometimes frustrating ways.
Lydia Keisling: Do I want the facility to be shut down?
Lydia Keisling: Yes.
Lydia Keisling: I want a resolution that sends every ICE agent and Stephen Miller to a place where they experience what they are doing to our neighbors.
Lydia Keisling: But doing nothing because you can't do everything should not be an option.
Lydia Keisling: I'm asking our council to take this first step and demanding, with many other Portlanders, that it not be the last step.
Lydia Keisling: Please don't let us down.
Lydia Keisling: Please pass this, but then keep pushing as hard as you can to get ICE out of our city.
Lydia Keisling: Thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Go ahead.
Lilia Hines: Hello.
Lilia Hines: My name is Lilia Hines, Council members.
Lilia Hines: I am here on behalf of my community and loved ones.
Lilia Hines: Across the country and in our city, families are ripped apart, children are separated from their parents, and masses of people are terrorized and kidnapped by ICE and DHS.
Lilia Hines: They are trafficking people into privately owned detention centers where torture is inflicted on those trapped against their will.
Lilia Hines: One of these detention centers operates here, a heavily populated residential neighborhood where illegal chemical weapons are frequently used on protesters and residents of the neighborhood.
Lilia Hines: People are kidnapped out of their actual homes, on the way to work, and outside of elementary schools.
Lilia Hines: ICE is terrorizing our city and enacting violence that calls to mind the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.
Lilia Hines: And we are here talking about a fee.
Lilia Hines: A fee is not enough and will not stop them from brutalizing our community, and is not what we have been asked.
Lilia Hines: A fee will not stop nothing.
Lilia Hines: When ICE will get probably more than $28 billion from this current administration.
Lilia Hines: Show us that you actually care about the people you represent,
Lilia Hines: because right now you're not doing enough.
Lilia Hines: I cannot emphasize how imperative it is that you put forth legislation to shut down the ICE facility and revoke the ICE permit.
Lilia Hines: Show us that you will do what it takes to protect our community.
Lilia Hines: Portlanders have been bravely showing up to protect each other.
Lilia Hines: It's...
Lilia Hines: it's time to catch up.
Lilia Hines: It is not too much to ask for our neighbors, friends and community to be safe from attacks that are based in racist hatred and violence.
Lilia Hines: Revoke the ICE permit and shut down the ICE detention center.
Lilia Hines: Prove that Portland actually is a sanctuary city that protects its people.
Lilia Hines: Thank you.
M: Before my time begins, I would just like to note that I think it was, quite frankly, disgusting to use a quote from a resident of Gray's Landing when that same resident came to you with very valid concerns and was ignored.
M: You can start my time now.
M: My name is M, and I'm here to state my opposition to the proposed facility fee.
M: Councilor Morillo has already publicly stated that this proposed fee would not apply to the McAdam facility unless the lease was rewritten, and to potentially future facilities.
M: This is alarming in and of itself because of the rapid escalation of ICE brutality in operation happening currently every day in our city.
M: The ordinance doesn't have any material benefits for affected community members in the here and now and makes the assumption that privately owned detention facilities will continue to be built in Portland rather than finding a way to prevent them from being built at all.
M: This ordinance is allowing privately owned detention facilities to remain in our city for a cost.
M: How much is a human life cost?
M: How much money are you willing to profit off of these fines at the expense of families being torn apart, neighborhoods being gassed, and people's livelihoods destroyed?
M: I don't believe that a city fine is going to outweigh the immense profit that landowners are making from aiding ICE operations.
M: That being said, the nuisance fee aspect of the proposed policy is only creating a fine for a violation instead of using the violation to push for the revocation of the permit.
M: If these rules that already existed have been violated, would it not make more sense
M: to adhere to the city protocol and follow through with the permit revocation process stated in the 2011 agreement?
M: Or is the city not going to follow through with their own protocol and allow wealthy landowners to throw money towards a fee that still allows them to profit off of human trafficking?
M: In the last month alone, there have been 560 detainments in the Portland area.
M: And I can't help but think about how many of those could have been prevented if ICE didn't have a home base to operate out of in our city.
M: This is clearly an attempt from the city to mitigate costs to them, not a solution to stop the abuses ICE continues to execute on the daily.
M: In our community, there has been effort put in by...
M: there's been more effort put in by city officials to discourage us from enacting real change,
M: than there has been in implementing policy that would actually work for the people of Portland.
M: Portland deserves better than performative actions and regurgitated policies.
M: Portlanders deserve nothing less than revoking the permit.
M: Thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Sorry, Kira is joining us online.
Kira Smith: I'm gonna leave my camera off because my connection's not very stable.
Kira Smith: My name is Kira Smith.
Kira Smith: I am a resident in District 3.
Kira Smith: This past summer, I watched DHS agents drop a can of tear gas onto an 11-year-old kid who was standing outside the Macadam Street ICE facility, protecting himself with a cardboard shield.
Kira Smith: He was not wearing goggles or a gas mask, yet he showed up to protest the unauthorized federal agents who are kidnapping people in our city.
Kira Smith: I am proud to live in a city where youth stand up for the rights of our immigrant neighbors.
Kira Smith: And I am deeply concerned that our city council doesn't have the same wherewithal to protect the people who elected them.
Kira Smith: The current fee proposal does not address the demands of the people to be protected from the agents of a hostile federal administration.
Kira Smith: It is a milquetoast attempt to pander to conservative centrist voters and in no way addresses the traumatic damage this facility is doing to our communities outside of an affluent neighborhood in Southwest Portland,
Kira Smith: which, yes, those people are experiencing damage, but they are not alone.
Kira Smith: If the council would listen to their constituents, they would use their authority to revoke the permit.
Kira Smith: As a former city employee, I know that this government is very capable of weaponizing bureaucracy, your bureaucracy, through burdensome permitting processes.
Kira Smith: If we can deny tree removal permits, then we can employ those processes towards a better outcome for the people who live here.
Kira Smith: Thank you.
Kira Smith: I yield my time.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you very much.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Checking to see if Jacob E. Lacey is here.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Next up we have Dina Yu, Kayla Davis, Geralyn Demeo, Irena Hess, Judas Graves.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead while we wait for others.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure everyone's paying attention here first.
Speaker 1: I'm an organizing member of PDXTD.
Speaker 1: I'm the wife of a military veteran, a deacon in my church, and I'm a frequent flier down at ICE.
Speaker 1: I have 20 years of volunteer work for various charities under my belt.
Speaker 1: My family moved here in May of 2020.
Speaker 1: As distracting as Tommy Allen and his violent friends have been,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that they made an impact appearance tonight.
Speaker 1: They're here today to confront this city council with the type of chaos that the residents of Gray's Landing and peaceful protesters have been experiencing down there.
Speaker 1: The harm being done to our immigrant community members is immeasurable, especially their children.
Speaker 1: This measure does nothing but roll over and give in.
Speaker 1: It puts a price on the lives of immigrants.
Speaker 1: A price on lifelong trauma for their children.
Speaker 1: The children of God are not for sale.
Speaker 1: A fine does not make that harm acceptable.
Speaker 1: Trump's administration has repeatedly shown how little they care for law and order.
Speaker 1: We pulled the data at PDXCD.
Speaker 1: Not one immigrant has been released out of that Macadam facility in three years.
Speaker 1: As your own presentation tonight admitted, you do have the power to make any ordinance you want and to use the existing nuisance standards to hold ICE accountable instead of a performative PR stunt.
Speaker 1: Why can't this council push for no unidentified goon ordinance with a default to no bail option?
Speaker 1: Why can't this council do something about the 70-plus traffic violations these Gestapo commit daily?
Speaker 1: Why can't this council seem to come up with anything other than lip service and platitudes?
Speaker 1: Portlanders don't want inaction.
Speaker 1: Comrades, lend me your voices.
Speaker 1: No lip service, no platitudes.
Speaker 1: Action.
Speaker 1: Action we want.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is an official warning that your conduct is now disrupting the meeting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: If there is continued or further disruption, we will start ejecting people.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you for your testimony.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Please go right ahead.
Judas Graves: Hi, my name is Judas Graves and I'm here tonight to give my two cents on the ICE facility impact fee, or as I personally see it, a participation fee.
Judas Graves: And you're damn right that I'm disenchanted.
Judas Graves: I'm disenchanted with the Orwellian newspeak coming out of this council tonight.
Judas Graves: My ears are still ringing from the promise that there are going to be more detention facilities when we are already the number one nation in the world for population of prisoners.
Judas Graves: We are done begging for incremental change and crumbs.
Judas Graves: We are demanding that you actually take us and our neighbors' lives seriously.
Judas Graves: This proposal will look great in the press, and I'm sure that it even may land Mario a cushy DNC gig in 10 or 15 years.
Judas Graves: Sadly, it doesn't even fall short, because you need movement upward in order to fall short.
Judas Graves: This is a pay-to-play, it's transactionally sanctioned terrorism.
Judas Graves: And although I do find Mario's complete rejection of closing this facility to be abhorrent,
Judas Graves: I'm ashamed of all of you.
Judas Graves: I had no idea who Clay Higgins was until yesterday.
Judas Graves: And now I will always remember his name because of a horrible decision that he made.
Judas Graves: And as long as these lungs draw breath, I will raise my voice to condemn cowardly leaders who use their positions of authority to allow Nazi Gestapo thugs to run around our streets terrorizing, beating, gassing, and disappearing our neighbors.
Judas Graves: Nazi Gestapo thugs who take their marching orders from pedophiles and pedophile apologists, mind you.
Judas Graves: Yes, it is this bad.
Judas Graves: And when St. Peter calls you home and asks you all to stand before him, what will your footnote say?
Judas Graves: There's a special word that the German people use for people around who just didn't do anything.
Judas Graves: They weren't necessarily card-carrying members of the party.
Judas Graves: They were just going along to get along.
Judas Graves: That word is Nazi.
Judas Graves: Most of those people are dead, and their nuances are forgotten, their excuses are forgotten, and even their names are forgotten.
Judas Graves: But you know what is not?
Judas Graves: Their silence.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Yes, Geralyn is joining us online.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Welcome.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Please go right ahead.
Geralyn Demeo: Hi, can you all hear me?
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: We can.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yes, we can.
Geralyn Demeo: Okay, fantastic.
Geralyn Demeo: Hi, my name is J, and I'm a licensed mental health therapist.
Geralyn Demeo: I'm testifying in opposition to this proposal.
Geralyn Demeo: And first of all, I just have to say that quoting Andrew Jackson is crazy work in the context about a detention center for immigrants.
Geralyn Demeo: So just keep that one in mind maybe for next time.
Geralyn Demeo: So I have many years experience in the state of Oregon working in crisis stabilization, specifically with teens and their families.
Geralyn Demeo: And during the first Trump administration, there was a spike in psychiatric inpatient admissions among adolescents from this population who were either immigrants or came from immigrant families.
Geralyn Demeo: So innocent bystanders indeed.
Geralyn Demeo: And in the last year, there has been a noticeable increase in self-harm, debilitating depression and anxiety, and attempted suicides within this population.
Geralyn Demeo: I have worked with families who are afraid to leave their houses to get their kids life-saving care and never followed up on referrals because they were afraid to be abducted.
Geralyn Demeo: And this is a rational fear.
Geralyn Demeo: And I'm sure that you guys saw that ICE had tried to enter Randall and Gorbecher earlier in the fall.
Geralyn Demeo: So even if kids are getting the care that they need, they still aren't safe.
Geralyn Demeo: So as a mandated reporter, if a kid came up to me and they told me that they were too afraid to come into treatment because an adult in their life was going to hurt them, I'd have to report that to CPS, right?
Geralyn Demeo: Right?
Geralyn Demeo: So how do I report ICE?
Geralyn Demeo: The data reflecting completed suicides among adolescent immigration populations in Oregon is not available yet.
Geralyn Demeo: However, anecdotally, I can tell you that
Geralyn Demeo: you are complacent in this and one is too many.
Geralyn Demeo: And we are living in a reality where children are taking their own lives
Geralyn Demeo: because of the terror deploying from the facility you are accommodating.
Geralyn Demeo: This proposal is as irrelevant as it is completely useless.
Geralyn Demeo: The supposed fine would have to be an exuberant amount accrued daily for it to be punitive.
Geralyn Demeo: Otherwise, what's a fine to a millionaire?
Geralyn Demeo: If only the immigrants being kidnapped had the same privilege to be able to buy their way out. Right? But they don't.
Geralyn Demeo: So the fine that you're proposing will simply be factored into future detention facilities
Geralyn Demeo: as an additional operations fee and increase the likelihood that they could continue to expand operations with no consequences for breaking lease agreements.
Geralyn Demeo: I have a lot more to say.
Geralyn Demeo: But please, this is, this is, this ain't it. This ain't it.
Geralyn Demeo: Thank you.
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: Okay, may I...
Council Clerk Keelan McClymont: May I ask for your name for the record, please?
Geralyn Demeo: It was submitted.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Geraldine De Mayo.
Dina: It was submitted.
Dina: Oh, sorry.
Dina: Yeah.
Dina: I'm just trying to identify you on the list.
Dina: It's fine.
Dina: I'm Dina.
Dina: Okay, thank you.
Council Clerk: Checking to see if Kayla Davis is here.
Council Clerk: Okay, moving on.
Council Clerk: Oh, and Arena Hess.
Council Clerk: Next up we have Katherine Esperanza, Samuel Diaz, Edith Gillis, Jordan Lewis, Jared Essig.
Council President: Welcome.
Council President: Please, go right ahead.
Catherine Esperanza: I'm glad I live in a city where people care.
Council President: They put in the energy and the.
Catherine Esperanza: Time to show it.
Catherine Esperanza: I am glad that Councilor Murillo has come up with a way in which those who are being harmed can get some sort of reparation, some sort of hope and affirmation and honor.
Catherine Esperanza: It's not the complete answer.
Catherine Esperanza: She knows it's the first step.
Catherine Esperanza: I know it's the first step, and it's a necessary step.
Catherine Esperanza: We need to get on it and get forward.
Catherine Esperanza: I have children who are renters.
Catherine Esperanza: And before they can go into a facility or home, they have to prove that they are financially responsible.
Catherine Esperanza: Their history and their intention, their ability, they have to pay first, last rent, cleaning deposit, pet deposit.
Catherine Esperanza: They have to show they have renters insurance, and they have to be held liable.
Catherine Esperanza: They will be evicted if they do harm to their neighbors.
Catherine Esperanza: If they pollute, they commit crimes.
Catherine Esperanza: We need to use the same Oregon landlord tenant law enforcement on ICE.
Catherine Esperanza: And we need to also have the Oregon Revised statute requirements of landlords enforced.
Catherine Esperanza: And in a way, the city is like a landlord taking responsibility and holding accountable those who are in its residence or in its jurisdiction.
Catherine Esperanza: And that includes Lindquist and ICE.
Catherine Esperanza: We need to make sure that we do all we can to promote the reason for trusting government.
Catherine Esperanza: And this is one first step.
Catherine Esperanza: I want you all to vote yes.
Council President: Thank you.
Council President: Go right ahead.
Jared Essig: My name is Jared Essig.
Jared Essig: I'm here today representing the Rose City Iron Front.
Speaker 2: We filed an amicus cuiro brief in.
Jared Essig: Oregon et al, versus Trump and urge you to adopt the proposed detention facility impact fee ordinance, but only as part.
Speaker 2: Of a broader legal strategy to shield.
Jared Essig: Our citizens from the financial liability and chaos created by these externalities.
Jared Essig: Also, immigrants made America great.
Jared Essig: I'd just like to say that for.
Jared Essig: The record.
Jared Essig: To protect Portland taxpayers, the.
Jared Essig: Council should not just adopt this fee, you should.
Jared Essig: This is a necessary legislative action.
Jared Essig: Pigouvian tax to recoup the local costs, such as the over $300,000 worth of PPP expenses generated by these high conflict zone.
Jared Essig: Number two, you should negotiate with the DHS to allow the Federal Protective Service and other cross designated DHS officer officers to adopt the cost and the liability for patrolling the area immediately outside their building.
Jared Essig: This is not a loss of state sovereignty.
Jared Essig: It's a strategic delegation of a police function to the civilian federal agency whose presence and whose accompanying political rhetoric instigate the conflict that we're all paying for.
Jared Essig: Now, we also suggest that the DHS learn from the PPB this, you know, layered enforcement model that was Assistant Chief Dobson spoke about at the trial.
Jared Essig: You know, you need to have dialogue officers and bumblebees talking to people.
Jared Essig: Now this creates a triple dividend.
Jared Essig: One, it gives you fiscal savings by.
Speaker 2: Transferring the operational cost.
Jared Essig: Two, it shields you from liability from the enforcement actions.
Jared Essig: We're currently on the hook for 9.1 million in civil liability payouts for use of force incidents in response to the riots of 2020.
Jared Essig: I was President some of those.
Speaker 2: And they were riots.
Jared Essig: Let's admit it, guys, at midnight it was riots.
Jared Essig: So impose a Pigouvian tax on the federal government by making them liable.
Council President: Yeah, please, go right ahead.
Catherine Esperanza: My name is Catherine, Dr. Esperanza.
Catherine Esperanza: For the record, I'm testifying on the detention facility impact fee to emphasize that this ordinance is not what the community.
Council President: Needs or is asking for.
Catherine Esperanza: We will accept nothing less than having the Portland ICE facility shut down and the permit for the building revoked.
Catherine Esperanza: Every day my loved ones live in fear.
Catherine Esperanza: Live in fear of stepping outside their homes and being kidnapped without due process.
Catherine Esperanza: Live in fear of being dragged into vans just because they're Latin.
Catherine Esperanza: They live in fear being deported to a country that they don't know or remember or have safety and supports in.
Catherine Esperanza: And I live in fear every day that today will be the day.
Catherine Esperanza: My loved ones who are my whole world, I live in fear that they will be disappeared without notice, without due process and without reason.
Catherine Esperanza: And I'm scared to even share this testimony out of fear for my loved ones.
Catherine Esperanza: I also work and lived in District 4 where the ICE facility is located.
Catherine Esperanza: The facility is affecting businesses, residents and co workers who are scared to come into work.
Catherine Esperanza: Utilizing this ordinance fee which does not apply to the ICE facilities permit anyways will do nothing to address our concerns.
Catherine Esperanza: You say the impact fee will avoid shifting the cost of the community, but it does nothing to address the costs that immigrant families and residents like me face.
Catherine Esperanza: We may say that we need the facility to do check ins yet we know that ICE is not operating in good faith during those check ins and is kidnapping community members when they report to the facility.
Catherine Esperanza: You may say that immigrants need to do things the right way.
Catherine Esperanza: Yet this administration continues to take away things like TPS that allow for people to be documented and detains and deports people when they try to do things the right way.
Catherine Esperanza: Okay?
Catherine Esperanza: So city council members please put forth legislation to shut down the facility.
Catherine Esperanza: Please revoke the ICE permit.
Catherine Esperanza: Thank you.
Jordan Lewis: Hello, can you hear me?
Jordan Lewis: Yeah, hello City Council.
Jordan Lewis: My name is Jordan Lewis.
Jordan Lewis: I'm a registered lobbyist for Portland DSA and I prepared a testimony for tonight that was going to hopefully persuade a lot of you to vote yes on this.
Jordan Lewis: Because I think a lot of people in the audience may not know know that there are people on city council who are soft on ICE and they would vote no on this not because they don't think it goes far enough but because they are too sympathetic for ICE to ICE.
Jordan Lewis: So I'm just going to move on past that and just say I think this is a step in the right direction.
Jordan Lewis: Obviously needs to go further but I just want to ask everyone in the room have other cities across the country revoked their ICE permits?
Jordan Lewis: I don't know.
Jordan Lewis: Maybe one has.
Speaker 3: Are we allowed to answer his question?
Jordan Lewis: No, I don't think so.
Council President: After, after testing I'm sure that anybody who would like to answer.
Jordan Lewis: Is it because they're literally pro ICE 2 Portland does not have an army.
Jordan Lewis: In the event that we started beef with the N*** federal government there might be some violent pushback.
Jordan Lewis: I don't know.
Jordan Lewis: Just offering that.
Jordan Lewis: 3.
Jordan Lewis: The singling out of Councilor Murillo is really really weird.
Jordan Lewis: You can get an Instagram beefs with her.
Jordan Lewis: I've had my fair share of Internet beefs with electeds.
Jordan Lewis: But asking other councilors, some of whom were going to vote no because they were soft on ICE to censure her is just freaking nuts.
Jordan Lewis: Maria's worked harder than any other elected, city, state, county, federal, while enduring constant bullying from other counselors all year.
Jordan Lewis: And I just wanted to let you know I appreciate the work that you've done.
Jordan Lewis: Four, there are right wing landlords, landlords in this room and I see them smirk and cheer when we gang up on the immigrant woman of color who is just trying to help tenants today.
Jordan Lewis: Lastly, I just want to ask you all to hate ICE as much as you hate the immigrant women of color on Portland City Council.
Jordan Lewis: Thank you.
Council President: Thank you.
Council President: Down there, ICE.
Public Speaker 1: You ain't been down there once, man.
Public Speaker 2: Where are y'all summer, man.
Public Speaker 3: Come on.
Council President: This is an official warning that this is disruptive content.
Council President: I'd like to ask our security team to please.
Council President: Okay.
Public Speaker 1: We haven't seen you down there.
Council President: Thank you.
Public Speaker 1: You're telling us eject.
Public Speaker 1: It's okay.
Public Speaker 1: Throw me out.
Council President: Ahead.
Council President: Go right ahead.
Sam Diaz: Good evening.
Sam Diaz: My name is Sam Diaz.
Sam Diaz: I am the executive director for 1000 Front of Oregon.
Sam Diaz: For over 50 years, we've worked on policies and brought funding to Oregon for clean air and transit, housing, brownfields, revitalization.
Sam Diaz: We partner with Oregon farmers and farm workers and ranchers to protect their lives and livelihoods against data centers and warehouses and luxury homes for the rich.
Sam Diaz: We've been the home for anti displacement PDX coalition in Portland for everyone.
Sam Diaz: And tonight I just want to thank you for proposing a new tool to the fight and that is zoning and permitting.
Sam Diaz: It is not often that I get to come to these city council meetings across anywhere in the state to figure out how to be creative and really fight for people, especially those looking for a better life for themselves and for their families.
Sam Diaz: We support the ordinance brought forward.
Sam Diaz: The two track approach is creative.
Sam Diaz: It's surgical, narrowly tailored.
Sam Diaz: It also reflects a standard approach for accounting for off site impact.
Sam Diaz: And we need penalties for now while the city proceeds with the enforcement order.
Sam Diaz: I do want to say and I want to share the frustration that I'm hearing in the testimony.
Sam Diaz: My experience working in Portland's land use planning and permitting is that if you're making pho, you'll get shut down if your neighbor complains about the smell.
Sam Diaz: If you are building a warehouse, bringing thousands of truck trips into a neighborhood of black and brown folks, and by schools that are 100% free and reduced lunch, you'll get a green light by bureau staff.
Sam Diaz: You'll get extension after extension to come into compliance with permit conditions and city code.
Sam Diaz: This is to the city bureau staff.
Sam Diaz: It is not fair for the electeds to receive the heat on this because I know I've worked for the city.
Sam Diaz: The city bureau staff need to stop enabling harm done to human beings and this place that we call home.
Sam Diaz: Stop slow walking.
Sam Diaz: Basic standard enforcement of written, clear and objective standards for land use in a conditional use permit.
Council President: Thank you.
Council Clerk: Next up, we have Beth Vilacek, Amy Lestat, Aiden Summers.
Council Clerk: Jayna Sweet, Catherine Vogel.
Council President: It looks like we may have somebody coming from upstairs.
Council President: Do we have anyone online in this group?
Council Clerk: No, not.
Council Clerk: Not for this group.
Council Clerk: I'll just read the names one more time.
Council Clerk: Beth Chevilacek.
Council Clerk: Amy Lestat.
Council Clerk: Aiden Summers.
Council Clerk: Jayna Sweet.
Council Clerk: Katherine Bogle.
Council President: If we have others on the list, why don't we call them as well?
Council Clerk: That's it.
Council Clerk: Okay.
Council President: Welcome.
Council President: Go right ahead.
Aiden Summers: Thanks.
Aiden Summers: Hi, councillors.
Aiden Summers: My name is Aiden Summers.
Aiden Summers: I'm resident of District 4.
Aiden Summers: I'm also a volunteer registered lobbyist for the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Aiden Summers: I had a lot of things that I thought I was going to say tonight.
Aiden Summers: I've kind of rethought a lot of things.
Aiden Summers: I want to acknowledge the difficulty of this time and the complexity involved in trying to deal with ICE invading our city.
Aiden Summers: And I know that the way that the system is set up affords you rare opportunities to be able to properly intervene in this.
Aiden Summers: I think the impact fee is one of those areas where we can actually have some impact on the federal forces being in our city.
Aiden Summers: I think there are many other ways, as some folks have mentioned, on, you know, unmasking agents, and I know that.
Speaker 4: Those kinds of projects are, you know.
Aiden Summers: In the works, and I think those are really important as well.
Aiden Summers: I agree with folks that have said that this is a first step in a continuing process.
Aiden Summers: And I want to emphasize that for everyone on council, that this needs to be something that we're continue chipping away at.
Aiden Summers: And I appreciate this starting effort because, you know, yeah, I, I acknowledge it's a lot.
Aiden Summers: We need to keep going, and me and a whole lot of the rest of the city will be behind you helping you work in this direction to help protect our neighbors.
Aiden Summers: Thank you.
Council President: Thank you.
Jayna Sweet: Hello, my name is Jayna Sweet.
Jayna Sweet: I'm a resident in district.
Jayna Sweet: District 3.
Jayna Sweet: There is so much that we could talk about, including the lack of accountability or protection for the hundreds of immigrants.
Jayna Sweet: And citizens kidnapped this month alone.
Jayna Sweet: But I'll focus on the violence at the McAdam building.
Jayna Sweet: You say that there's not enough evidence.
Jayna Sweet: You already have the evidence.
Jayna Sweet: But here's a little bit more I can share.
Jayna Sweet: One of my personal experiences recently.
Jayna Sweet: I stood across the street from the McAdam building on the sidewalk, nowhere close to government property, alongside some comrades.
Jayna Sweet: I was holding a banner and dancing.
Jayna Sweet: Let me make this really clear again.
Jayna Sweet: We were across the street after they threw dozens of gas canisters at all of us there who are just standing up for our beloved neighborhood.
Jayna Sweet: They aimed their guns directly at our banner.
Jayna Sweet: Shots fired.
Jayna Sweet: We were hit by at least 30 rubber bullets.
Jayna Sweet: For holding a banner.
Jayna Sweet: The welts.
Jayna Sweet: We didn't do anything to provoke this or earn this kind of violence.
Jayna Sweet: Obviously, the welts made walking difficult.
Jayna Sweet: You already know what the gas does to everybody.
Jayna Sweet: And this is like, an extremely mild example of the violence that DHS and ICE are enacting on passionate, peaceful, unarmed protesters and, of course, our beloved immigrants.
Jayna Sweet: It is baffling to me that your solution is to genuflect to capitalism and charge a fee.
Jayna Sweet: And, you know, you say the fee is an example for other cities in our nation.
Jayna Sweet: Why would you want to set a precedent that it's okay for the federal government to terrorize citizens as long as they pay a little bit more pennies out of their budget?
Jayna Sweet: Why would you want to make a path for more detention facilities to materialize in our cities?
Jayna Sweet: And this city.
Jayna Sweet: This city is supposed to be a sanctuary city.
Jayna Sweet: And if this ordinance is truly a first step, then you need to make that clear and show us that you are working toward getting ICE the hell out of here.
Jayna Sweet: Do not glibly make it more expensive for DHS and ICE to use chemical warfare against your constituents.
Jayna Sweet: Make it impossible.
Jayna Sweet: Possible wrap up.
Council President: Thank you.
Council President: Go right ahead.
Amy Lestat: Okay, so I don't have a prepared speech.
Amy Lestat: I'm not really a public speaker.
Amy Lestat: I am more of a public yeller.
Amy Lestat: I am an ICE protester.
Amy Lestat: I also am a patient at OHSU, so I'd be getting gassed anyways because I go to the OHS Unite Cancer center for some treatments.
Amy Lestat: I don't have cancer, but I am on chemo.
Amy Lestat: Homeland Security does not care about you if they know you're getting treatments like that.
Amy Lestat: I mean, they know and they beat you up anyways.
Amy Lestat: I got beat up for supposedly littering, and they put me in the emergency room.
Amy Lestat: They're not securing the homeland or anything.
Amy Lestat: That's not like what Homeland Security does.
Amy Lestat: ICE is not keeping anyone safe.
Amy Lestat: I mean, I sat in vigil earlier this week with members of the clergy and neighbors at a church out in Gresham.
Amy Lestat: Because ICE has been targeting people out there, arresting people right out in front of the church, and also knocking on the doors of the church.
Amy Lestat: It also is a bilingual church, and they have a daycare there.
Amy Lestat: That's not legal.
Amy Lestat: They're.
Amy Lestat: They're not doing legal things.
Amy Lestat: Everything I've witnessed out there is illegal.
Amy Lestat: Even their contractors are doing illegal things like brandishing butcher knives and stuff like that at us for just sitting there.
Amy Lestat: Anyways, I think you should all recuse yourselves for even proposing this to us.
Amy Lestat: We want you to revoke the ICE permit.
Amy Lestat: We're not here to talk about fees and, like, act like our lives are a drop in the bucket or it's okay to deport these people.
Amy Lestat: So we just want you to revoke the permit.
Amy Lestat: So you should just recuse yourselves, not just, like, pick on Angelina Morello, especially Dan Ryan.
Speaker 5: Like, what was that stuff about calling socialist Nazis?
Amy Lestat: Anyways?
Amy Lestat: I don't mean to be rude, because I actually voted for Angelina Morello.
Amy Lestat: And Tiffany Kwame and Steven, we need.
Council President: You to wrap up so we can hear from others.
Council President: Okay, thank you.
Council President: And could you tell us your name so that we can make sure to.
Amy Lestat: My name is Amy.
Council President: Thank you.
Council President: Go right ahead.
Amy Lestat: I'm for socialism.
Amy Lestat: My last name.
Catherine Vogel: Hi, my name is Katherine Vogel.
Catherine Vogel: I'm a resident in District 4, and I have been protesting against ICE in Portland since 2017, peacefully.
Catherine Vogel: And I have experienced a lot of violence from them.
Catherine Vogel: I stand peacefully with my sign, and I speak from my heart.
Catherine Vogel: And they are very sensitive to that.
Catherine Vogel: And they use violence to get at you for using your heart.
Catherine Vogel: And a lot of us are facing damage to our lives because of their sensitive retaliations to our peaceful protest.
Catherine Vogel: And I want to say that a fee is not an answer to the beginnings of genocide in our own country.
Catherine Vogel: It is maybe a tool in the toolkit, okay?
Catherine Vogel: But this response allows for the continuation of authoritarian repression.
Catherine Vogel: It is a weak action that takes energy away from the actions that must be taken to 100%.
Testifier 1: Remove ICE from Portland.
Testifier 1: ICE and DHS are using this facility as a headquarters to expand their operations in the state and region.
Testifier 1: The fascist Trump administration is using Portland as a test and starting point for their implementation of their agenda to militarize our streets and take away our human and constitutional rights.
Testifier 1: The only way to stop ICE from killing people is to revoke the permit and ban ICE from operating in future facilities.
Testifier 1: A fee will not stop them.
Testifier 1: It makes space for more.
Testifier 1: You may not be trying to normalize genocide in Portland, but unfortunately, half measures and capitalist useless fees do exactly that.
Testifier 1: Last time you took immediate unanimous action and we applauded you.
Testifier 1: Do not let that energy slow down by making moves that allow for authoritarian terror to continue for a fee.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Go right ahead.
Beth Javilicek: Good evening.
Beth Javilicek: Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Beth Javilicek: My name is Beth Javilicek.
Beth Javilicek: I use they/them pronouns.
Beth Javilicek: And I'm here tonight on behalf of Unite Oregon.
Beth Javilicek: Unite Oregon is a statewide organization led by people of color, immigrants and refugees, rural communities and individuals experiencing poverty.
Beth Javilicek: We work across Oregon to build a unified intercultural movement for justice, and we are proud to represent a robust membership base in Portland here today.
Beth Javilicek: I want to take a moment to be clear, and I just lost my place, so that's great.
Beth Javilicek: I want to take a moment to be clear and be put on the record.
Beth Javilicek: Unite Oregon opposes ICE and all the harm that they have caused to families, not only in Portland, but across the entire nation.
Beth Javilicek: As an organization led by immigrants and refugees, we are incredibly concerned with and adamantly oppose the abductions of community members without any cause, let alone just cause and due process.
Beth Javilicek: While we'd love to see the abolishment of ICE, we also recognize the importance of making change within the systems as they exist.
Beth Javilicek: We support this ordinance because it provides a vital opportunity to hold detention facilities accountable for the harm they inflict on our communities, rather than placing the burden on Portland taxpayers.
Beth Javilicek: Currently, we have witnessed the detrimental environmental and health impacts caused by detention centers.
Beth Javilicek: For instance, Portland residents near the ICE facilities have reported long-lasting health issues due to the excessive use of tear gas, which even led to the relocation of an elementary school for the safety of its students.
Beth Javilicek: While Unite Oregon advocates for changes in the tactics employed by police and federal agents against protesters, we also believe it is crucial to hold the agencies responsible for this harm.
Beth Javilicek: Now, at Unite Oregon, we examine all policies through the lens of our guiding principles, which include environmental justice, housing justice, economic justice, and reimagining community safety.
Beth Javilicek: This ordinance aligns with our vision of creating a more just and equitable Oregon.
Beth Javilicek: We must hold those who inflict harm on our neighbors and our broader community accountable.
Beth Javilicek: This unique burden that the detention facilities impose on Portlanders, including costs related to police overtime, environmental cleanup and public health services, should not be borne by the very people they affect.
Beth Javilicek: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you very much.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Acting Council Clerk Rebecca Dobert: Our last testifier is E.J. Wilczynski, ICE.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor, anything further?
Councilor Loretta Smith: No, thank you.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Okay.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Green?
Councilor Mitch Green: Yeah.
Councilor Mitch Green: I just wanted to talk a little bit about the administrative.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: An additional testifier online or no?
Councilor Mitch Green: The fee structure aspect of this and why the ordinance was designed in such a way to delegate that to administrative rulemaking.
Acting Council Clerk Rebecca Dobert: Okay, is E.J. Wilczynski here?
Councilor Mitch Green: It's very standard practice in devising fees and tax structures, although this is a fee that seeks to cure the externality, which is what is under consideration here.
Acting Council Clerk Rebecca Dobert: That completes testimony.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you very much.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, we now move into discussion.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is an ordinance not on emergency.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So we'll be considering any amendments and completing discussion today.
Councilor Mitch Green: To engage in a fairly robust benefit-cost analysis, the EPA publishes a manual called "Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analysis."
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Koyamalan.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I want to voice my
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: support of Councilor Murillo and Councilor Green.
Councilor Mitch Green: The latest edition is the third edition, and it outlines what the standard practices are for devising that fee.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Detention fee ordinance.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I think this is an important first step of many more needed, as many
Councilor Mitch Green: And so that's something that you don't want to write into an ordinance, into code, because that needs to be flexible based upon the data as it emerges, so we can look at the actual cost of the community, such as the $100,000 that the Grays Landing building has incurred already.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: members of the community talked about.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: And sometimes we do have to throw sand in the gears of systems, and
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I think this ordinance does exactly
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: that, creating some sort of accountability.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I would like to name that.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Councilor Murillo, as an immigrant, often bears the brunt of the criticism simply for showing up and doing the work.
Councilor Mitch Green: That's just one example.
Councilor Mitch Green: So that's why it was devised in this way.
Councilor Mitch Green: I also want to say more broadly that if we're going to be able to pass laws that protect Portlanders and stand up against the federal government or any actor that tries to threaten our citizens, we need those laws to have rigor behind them and be able to stand up to legal challenges.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: And a reminder that Councilor Green is also a co-sponsor of this ordinance.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I love you, Mitch.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: And honestly, it's not lost on me that your co-sponsor and a treatment of the woman of color up here is very different from how you're treated.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: This ordinance is about more than any one person.
Councilor Mitch Green: And so this is a really good ordinance that builds upon and is a first step to building a suite and array of rock-solid legislation that won't just be simply overturned.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: It's about coming up with as many different tools as possible.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: And honestly, if this is passed, it could help pave the way for other cities in our state to be thinking about ways to throw sand in the gears.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: I look forward to voting yes on this detention facility impact fee.
Councilor Mitch Green: It's really important to do that.
Councilor Mitch Green: It's not the only tool in the toolkit.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, councilor and colleagues.
Councilor Mitch Green: I know that I have colleagues who are working on other issues, like Councilor Kanal.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We did have one additional person come down for public testimony.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I apologize.
Councilor Mitch Green: You've got a range of things like a mask ban and a sort of tear gas ban.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Please go right ahead.
All right, thank you.
I wasn't originally going to speak, and I'm speaking as someone who wants the ICE permit revoked.
Councilor Mitch Green: I won't speak for you, but there is stuff in the hopper.
Councilor Mitch Green: This is one piece to basically say.
I understand that the ordinance presented today is a single tool that does not go far enough.
Councilor Mitch Green: Look.
Councilor Mitch Green: Portlanders are incurring this right now.
And we should use every tool at our disposal.
Councilor Mitch Green: The federal government is going to do what it's going to do.
Councilor Mitch Green: We shouldn't let them do it for free.
If one applies pressure to the landlord, then good.
Councilor Mitch Green: We need to create a fee schedule that recovers some costs.
I also understand that revoking the ICE permit is a when, not if, but is ongoing.
Councilor Mitch Green: So that way when community members approach this city and say, "Can you make us whole?"
Councilor Mitch Green: Can you do something about paying for the environmental remediation costs that I've incurred because I had to move my school, we have a pot of money there to pay those costs, and right now we do not.
And if it feels like your constituents in this room do not understand, I want to caution against blaming us for not understanding.
Respectfully, if it feels, or sorry, that's because the messaging on your end is not good enough.
Councilor Mitch Green: So that's the spirit behind this.
Councilor Mitch Green: I readily admit and agree with all the testimony that says this does not solve the issue.
And there is a communication breakdown somewhere.
Councilor Mitch Green: Of course not.
The building owner had until October 17th to hand over information regarding the investigation so y'all could move to vote on revoking the ICE permit.
Councilor Mitch Green: But this is not a mutually exclusive proposition.
Councilor Mitch Green: We are creating laws to build a stronger footing for our city.
Councilor Mitch Green: So that's why I support it.
However, his lawyers pushed that back to December 1st.
Councilor Mitch Green: That's why my staff put a lot of effort into the economic aspects of this, particularly the Pigouvian, which everyone now knows that word ad nauseam.
The reason revoking the ICE permit isn't happening today is currently because of the landlord and their lawyers.
Councilor Mitch Green: Spirit behind this.
And I want to ask how many in this room knew that.
Councilor Mitch Green: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Ryan.
For those sitting in this room, revoking the ICE permit is still ongoing.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I think this will be a question for either the attorney or for you, Michael Jordan.
We don't have the luxuries to act outside the system.
However, this tool applies pressure to the landlord and we have to.
Councilor Dan Ryan: And I've been an advocate for behavioral health treatment centers for most of my life as a person who also opened up Safe West Villages who have statistically moved more people from chronic homelessness to stability, especially when they have access to recovery services and workforce.
We have to wonder why people are pointing all the anger at y'all and not at the landlord and the lawyer.
I haven't heard a single person blame also.
Councilor Dan Ryan: As a person who's advocated for the transition from prison to free and independent living in society, I just want to make certain that those facilities are not further scrutinized and rejected by society because this ordinance would apply to them as such.
That is true.
You guys do have responsibility.
But I want to push that blame.
The responsibility for the communication breakdown is on our elected officials for that.
There is a communication breakdown here that needs to be addressed when, not if, they go to vote on revoking the permit and they don't have the votes to revoke because those who want it revoked successfully hinder our access to power, you will become partially responsible for ICE's destruction and the failure of our movement.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Are these much-needed facilities, will they survive the stigma that saves lives, or are they exempted from this ordinance?
Councilor Dan Ryan: Ordinance as it's written, I just want to make sure we don't have any unintended consequences with this ordinance.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I couldn't tell from the Q and A, City Administrator Jordan, do you...
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Want us to look under number two if you need to reference it, do.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor Kanal.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: You want us to look to the attorney, City Administrator, or do you want to take that?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I know this was a point of discussion as this was being drafted.
City Administrator Jordan: Yeah, thank you, Madam President, to your question, and I would certainly defer to the attorneys if I get this wrong, but the definition under our land use code of a detention facility would exclude any facility except ones that have policing officers there that are detaining people in the facility.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you to everyone who testified for coming and sharing your views.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And thank you, the people here or not, who've been standing up against ICE at the risk of your own safety at the McAdam facility up in Tacoma, around the country.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I have a couple questions for City Administrator Jordan, and I'm going to ask the Council President for a little latitude in asking these questions as it relates to how relevant they are to this ordinance, because I do think they relate to the testimony here and would help in ensuring that our meeting is not disrupted, because at least people could hear an answer to their questions that they raised in testimony.
City Administrator Jordan: For whatever reason, that may be parole and probation, it may be another use.
City Administrator Jordan: But I would say, other than mental health facilities, which folks have been through the judicial system put into for criminal reasons, other than that, I'm not aware of a mental health facility that would qualify under our definition and the county's.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And so I have three or four.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: The first is, can you please give an update, as you see it, on the permit revocation process, where it's at right now and what the deadlines are coming up?
Councilor Dan Ryan: Deflection center, which then they're going to be opening up a sobering center where some people will have warrants.
City Administrator Jordan: I don't know that I can quote you exact dates, Councilor, but I do know that.
City Administrator Jordan: The deflection center, I would say is not.
City Administrator Jordan: Definitely not.
City Administrator Jordan: I don't know about future facilities that the county would open.
City Administrator Jordan: The property owner and their attorneys did ask for an extension of time to get data, and it was granted, ostensibly because of the federal shutdown and they were having difficulty getting the data they were looking for.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I hope between the first and the second reading we just make certain.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I don't think anyone up here would want that to happen.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I just don't want us to pass this and then come back and realize that we passed something that made it even more difficult to put in these much-needed facilities for Portlanders.
City Administrator Jordan: So it has been extended.
City Administrator Jordan: I don't know the exact date that that clock runs out, and we keep the process moving, but it is still moving.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Council President, may I respond?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And Councilor Ryan, I want to turn to the carrier on this as well, because this was a question that was specifically addressed in the second draft.
City Administrator Jordan: And so that's where we are right now.
City Administrator Jordan: I don't know if anyone is here that actually knows the dates.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yes.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And if you look at the FAQ, question number two in the FAQ talks about how we defined a detention facility.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Sure, we might ask for anything you don't know here to be in the next monthly report, if possible.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But could you just clarify who granted that extension?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So we use Title 33 of Portland Zoning Code, and it has already...
City Administrator Jordan: I think the staff did, based on the.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It already has boundaries and exclusions for things like group living, residential treatment, psychiatric care, alcohol or drug treatment programs, halfway houses, etcetera.
City Administrator Jordan: It's an administrative process, and I think the staff granted the extension.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Okay, so you're actually leading me into the next question.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Can you tell me we're in a government that separates power between the mayor and council, whose responsibility it is as of right now to make a formal decision about whether or not to revoke the permit?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Those are not considered detention facilities.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So this is very narrowly tailored and is defined under existing codes like Title 33.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Is it the administration or is it the city council?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I believe.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Susie, is there anything else you would like to add?
City Administrator Jordan: Right now, it's the administration.
Susie Doyter: Yeah, just one additional thing on this, so in case it's helpful.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And can you also.
Susie Doyter: We have a list of all of the facilities that are currently classified as detention facilities under Title 33.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: My last question on this subject is when is the mayor's next public engagement where it would be relevant for a community member to bring up ICE?
Susie Doyter: And none of the facilities that you spoke to are on that list.
City Administrator Jordan: I don't know the answer to that question.
Susie Doyter: Again, it's all the facilities that you would expect to see.
City Administrator Jordan: When the mayor's next public...
Susie Doyter: Prisons.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Would you...
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Would you be willing to update us on that in the next city administrator's report?
Councilor Dan Ryan: Having had to do that hard work and taking all those headwinds and punches, I just want to make certain that we're not making a mistake here.
City Administrator Jordan: Certainly.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you.
Councilor Dan Ryan: And so I see what's written here and I will continue to make certain that we're clear about that as we go into the second vote.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I'm going to ask a couple questions to clarify.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I do appreciate the amount of work that has gone in from a technical perspective on this.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Thank you.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think these are actually related to some points that are going to be raised in the amendment.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Morillo.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah, I just wanted to speak a bit to this ordinance
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So I might wait on if it's appropriate to wait on it until the amendment's moved.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: because I agree with the testimony that this doesn't go far enough.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I'm happy to do that, but I would like to actually, you know, I will wait on that until the amendments move formally.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I don't think I've ever said that this.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I think even in the video that I just posted, I talked about the fact that
Councilor Angelita Morillo: we have to throw sand in the gears wherever we can and however we can.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But I will also note that we heard testimony on a different item in the technical adjustment ordinance piece.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That doesn't mean that one policy is going to resolve the way that the federal government,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: There was an amendment that related to Prosper Portland and a plaintiff in a lawsuit settlement asked for an extension on their ability to choose from properties they won in a settlement and was not, to date, granted that extension.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: with billions of dollars, is going to terrorize our immigrant neighbors, myself included, by the way.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so what we can do at the local level is sometimes
Councilor Angelita Morillo: as unsexy and un-fun as a fee.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Sometimes we have to find creative ways to deter the harms that happen in our communities.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So it is troubling to me when subjective authority is exercised to extend some deadlines for property owners and not for plaintiffs, who I will note are Black Portlanders displaced by a planned expansion of Legacy that didn't end up happening.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I think other folks have outlined this already.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But the permitting process, it has not come back to council yet for a vote.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I'm going to make it very, very clear for the record, because of some of the things that were said here,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I'll wait on the rest until the amendment is moved.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I have not given a final opinion either way on whether or not we should revoke the ICE permit.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you, Madam President.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor, I received a note from a staff person in the administration that the deadline is December 1st now, so we can put that on the record.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We as councilors are not allowed to have an opinion on that
Councilor Angelita Morillo: until we receive all of the evidence, because it's a land use decision.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And if we make up our minds beforehand, we cannot make a decision.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I believe the testifier got it right.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So thank you for that.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yeah.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Smith.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I think it's really important that all of us remain unbiased until it officially comes back to us
Councilor Loretta Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Loretta Smith: This goes to Councilor Murillo.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Do we have a schedule of fees that go along with this, this legislation?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: so that we can make that decision regardless of personal feelings about it.
Protester: What more do you need?
Protester: Cowardly.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We need it to come back to council from the permitting department.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I'd like to invite my policy advisor, Susie Doyter to come back up.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's not back to us yet, but we have within our responsibilities as a council.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: You will also note that in the detention facility fee FAQ that we created that is also posted online, questions 8 and 9 talk about the fees and how they will be used in case you would like to reference them.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: We can do fees, we can do deterrence, we can do other creative things to ensure that
Councilor Angelita Morillo: people who are trying to profit off of suffering in our communities, that there is a cost offset to that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But Susie.
Susie Doyter: Yeah, that's correct.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And I want to point out that this ordinance, the nuisance aspect of it, which I believe is listed in question nine,
Susie Doyter: So Susie Doyter, again, for the record, would just echo what the councilor indicated.
Susie Doyter: So it's in the FAQ.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: means that it does apply to any facility that is currently operating right now.
Susie Doyter: And this is something that I outlined a little bit during the presentation, but just to elaborate on that point a little bit, it is pretty typical for the development of a fee to have the legislative body outline the broad mandate that we're looking to have the administration then execute.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I believe Susie made that very clear in her presentation, but it seems like folks didn't hear that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So any harms that are currently being done, any harms that are currently being done by an open building right now,
Susie Doyter: So, you know, Executive Legislative Authority Division.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: for example, like the McAdam facility, they would have to pay the new state fees, too.
Susie Doyter: So the administration would be tasked with developing that fee schedule consistent with their experience and expertise in this space, and then they would likely, I believe, come back to council with that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And part of those fees are to go to people who are harmed,
Councilor Angelita Morillo: who are living in the buildings nearby, who are getting tear gassed, whose kids are suffering.
Susie Doyter: The ordinance requires a report as well.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: That was the question.
Councilor Loretta Smith: You don't have a schedule of fees?
Susie Doyter: Yeah, that's correct.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So the question is no.
Councilor Loretta Smith: And.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yeah, I've got to get conduct in the room
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so the answer is that that.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Is going to have to come back.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: that is disrupting the meeting.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: As a matter of process, and that's generally how it's done.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is a warning that if there is continued disruption, you will be ejected.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And then administrative fees are done afterwards.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I also need folks to understand that I have colleagues who have said that they are ready
Susie Doyter: Yes, that's correct.
Susie Doyter: So via the administrative rulemaking process.
Susie Doyter: Yes.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Okay.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: to go back to business as usual and to stop doing anything with regards to immigration, because this is a federal issue.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This does leave many things to administrative rule.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: If you have questions about the specific fees, we might turn to the administration, though I'm guessing they have not started that process yet.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so my job as a councilor is to negotiate with the values and the votes that I have here at the dais.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: They probably won't start it until this is passed.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And sometimes that doesn't get me the perfect policy that I would like.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: That would be my assumption.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Sometimes it means that I have to work within the confines of who I'm working with.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So I would hope that we would put pressure on those folks to do a little bit more.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But I'm ready to take any more questions.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I see Councilor Avalos has her hand up.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Avalos, go right ahead.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay, thank you.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Thank you, colleagues.
Councilor Candace Avalos: And thank you, Councilor Morillo, for bringing this forward.
Councilor Candace Avalos: I just want to be clear about what this detention impact fee is designed to do.
Councilor Candace Avalos: This isn't a revenue tool.
Councilor Candace Avalos: It is a deterrence tool.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Just like mandatory relocation fees made it an expensive business decision to displace tenants,
Councilor Candace Avalos: this fee makes it an expensive business decision to operate or lease space to detention facilities that cause harm in our communities.
Councilor Candace Avalos: And without a strong deterrent, our city becomes vulnerable to more facilities trying to open or relocate here.
Councilor Candace Avalos: If a current lease ends or is revoked, operators will be looking for new sites.
Councilor Candace Avalos: And this policy makes Portland a bad business environment for that.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Landlords and operators still have choices, but the city is no longer absorbing the...
Councilor Sameer Kanal: ...social costs of those choices.
Councilor Candace Avalos: And if someone wants to run or host a detention facility, that decision will come with a real financial consequence.
Councilor Candace Avalos: This aligns our market incentives with our community values
Councilor Candace Avalos: and it protects Portlanders before harm happens and it ensures that we're not an easy target for future facilities.
Councilor Candace Avalos: So again, thank you so much for bringing this forward
Councilor Candace Avalos: and having this be an important part of the many different steps that we need to take to protect our communities.
Councilor Candace Avalos: That's all.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Kanal.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I forgot to mention earlier, I agree with that last testifier.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I don't think we've communicated effectively enough about this as elected officials.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I also agree it doesn't solve the problem fully.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think the way I've been evaluating this problem, this particular proposal, is:
Councilor Sameer Kanal: does this move us forward even a little, or does it hold the line as is, or even move us backward?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I, I, I note that I did hear several testifiers say that,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: in your view, you think it moves things backwards.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And so I want to ask a couple questions to help understand that better.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I, and the reason I'm asking these questions is because I trust the intent from the co-sponsors.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think I align very significantly with the way that Councilor Avalos just described it.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But I also want to understand one thing that was just, sorry, yelled out, as well as an earlier question, the testimony.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So can we speak to both, because it's in the, I think,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: changes in the amendment where the money goes.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think that there is a fund established that a potential future amendment might remove a reference to.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I would just love to understand what the intended way that the money will be collected
Councilor Sameer Kanal: and stored is before distribution.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I'll just note that as we speak to this, our intent certainly matters,
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: but without...
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We also need to make sure that we're balancing what our intent is
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: and what our actual direction is.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So I would love to hear from the carriers about intent.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We may want to see if the City Administrator wants to add anything about conversations they've had as well.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So, in working with the administration, our policy originally had a specific fund that these dollars would go towards.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And then when we worked with City Administrator Jordan and some of the other folks that would have to implement this, they told us that there are...
Councilor Angelita Morillo: There's basically a layer of bureau when you create a specific fund
Councilor Angelita Morillo: that would increase the cost of implementation and just make it a lot more complicated and difficult to do.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so their recommendation was that it essentially just go into the general fund to be used for these things
Councilor Angelita Morillo: so that we don't have to, you know, make it a more difficult and bureaucratic process to get it implemented.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: There are also concerns that if there is a specific fund, that it could potentially be targeted by the federal government in different ways.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So this was a better alternative.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And in that scenario, would this be restricted in the way that, for example,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: general transportation dollars are, where we know that we can only spend it on certain things from a legal perspective?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Or how does that...
Councilor Sameer Kanal: How does it guarantee that it goes towards the things we're talking about operationally?
City Administrator Jordan: Sure.
City Administrator Jordan: Thank you.
City Administrator Jordan: First of all, Councilor Morillo is correct.
City Administrator Jordan: We did talk about the cost of administering a fund within our structure.
City Administrator Jordan: However, we can do things like accounts within funds to segregate revenues and expenditures.
City Administrator Jordan: The administrative rules, while we haven't designed administrative rules for this yet,
City Administrator Jordan: but I would envision, given the way this is structured and given the fact that the purpose of the fee
City Administrator Jordan: is not only to cover the costs that the city incurs in enforcement, but also to distribute money
City Administrator Jordan: to others that are impacted by the activity around the facility.
City Administrator Jordan: To do that, we are going to have to be fairly specific in the administrative rules
City Administrator Jordan: about how these funds are collected and how they're dispersed, and what are the rules for doing that.
City Administrator Jordan: So we're going to have to keep pretty close track of all of these funds to be able to accomplish the intent of the language.
City Administrator Jordan: As I see it right now, I don't know that...
Protester: We've done video of 10 officers dragging a woman across the street at ICE.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'm sorry.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'm sure this is important information, but the conduct is disrupting the meeting
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: as we are trying to move forward.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: If you continue to disrupt, you will be ejected from the meeting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I will ask to eject this individual from the meeting who's standing up, so that we can continue our work.
Protester: Work?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'm looking to our security team here.
Protester: We're still talking about, like, where do the fees go?
Protester: What, like 10 cops.
Protester: Come on, do something, please.
Protester: Like this just happened 10 hours ago.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Conduct is continuing to disrupt the meeting.
Protester: I mean, no collaboration.
Protester: But y'all sweeping.
Protester: Yeah, right.
Protester: You sweep the mutual aid.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: You in the front row.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I'm going to ask that our team eject the person yelling in the front row from the meeting.
Protester: I'll go.
Protester: Collaborator.
Protester: That's the Mayor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Are we able to continue?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Mr. Jordan, please continue.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Thank you.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Can we hear from the carrier first or the proposer about the amendment? That hasn't been discussed yet.
City Administrator Jordan: So, the...
City Administrator Jordan: The administrative rules will have to encompass both the way that the fees are structured and collected
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The presentation previously was specifically about the amendment, so we actually have heard extensively about it.
City Administrator Jordan: and the way they'd be dispersed.
City Administrator Jordan: And so, using an account in a fund and being able to have administrative rules that are fairly specific
Councilor Dan Ryan: Okay.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I, I want to first say I appreciate most of this.
City Administrator Jordan: about the criteria for how the fee is constructed and the disbursement, who would be eligible to get the fee?
Councilor Dan Ryan: I think it, I don't really have, and I don't really have questions on the idea of using the definition that's already in code.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Clarifying secure detention facility, annual review, anything like that.
City Administrator Jordan: Get proceeds from the fees.
City Administrator Jordan: That'll all have to be in an administrative rule.
Councilor Dan Ryan: The question I had was specifically, I had two.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So that's a little...
Councilor Dan Ryan: One, you, I think answered it as it relates to the fund, but I wanted to ask about the appeals process that was brought up in here.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I share a concern that I'm hearing, which is that you have administrative expenses and overtime,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: in addition to a lot of other things that might involve paying money out to nearby residents, to community members, non-city entities.
Councilor Dan Ryan: And how you anticipated that going and whether or not there's.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Right.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But the question I have relates to the concern that's being raised about police officers and overtime there,
Councilor Dan Ryan: Because I believe the question's been raised about the process for appeals already being a little bit more permissive than.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: because we've seen that, I think, of roughly $800,000 of overtime was spent in the month of June alone at the ICE facility.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Not a little bit.
Councilor Dan Ryan: A lot more permissive than maybe is intentional or intended.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And that could drain a fund pretty significantly before there's any money left to go to outside individuals.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Would you like to address that?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Sorry, are you asking about appeals within the permitting department?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Theoretically.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Right.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So, you know, I don't want to get too deep into the question of how do we ensure that,
Councilor Dan Ryan: No, it goes.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Where is it?
Councilor Dan Ryan: It's 5.8, 0.050.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Any private property owner aggrieved by determination under this chapter may appeal the determination of the code hearings officer.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: you know, we did pass a budget note to try and limit the amount of overtime that was being spent on protest response in the first place.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Provided by Portland City Code 2210.
Protester: We're talking about starving people in death camps.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Would you like the administration to address the need for that?
Protester: Yes.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But I do want to understand how...
Councilor Sameer Kanal: ...how that distribution would be determined.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yeah, the administrator.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Jordan, is that something that you can address?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I want to understand how a person who maybe doesn't...
Jordan: Well, I think so.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I don't have enough insight into administrative rules.
Jordan: I'll look to city attorney if I mess this up.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I can't imagine that the folks who are not elected officials, in terms of how they're developed.
Jordan: But we have a pretty standard process for many of the administrative decisions we make that allows citizens or property owners.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I can't.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: How would we be certain?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And how would someone who has maybe less familiarity be certain that there would be a...
Jordan: That we have made an administrative decision about regarding either the imposition of a fee or a penalty for their activity.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: ...a distribution of the funds that aligns with the sort of underlying principle
Jordan: To be able to appeal that to the hearings officer.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: that the people who are harmed are getting it, not the people who are bearing overtime suppressing protests.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Yep.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yep.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Thank you.
Jordan: And so that's in our code.
City Administrator Jordan: Fair question.
Jordan: The section that's cited 2210, is a fairly standard process among many bureaus that make administrative decisions.
City Administrator Jordan: I don't believe I understand the intent of the ordinance as it is presented.
Jordan: And that decision needs to have an appeal process.
City Administrator Jordan: At least, in my view.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Okay, thank you.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I appreciate the work you did on this amendment as well.
City Administrator Jordan: The intent of balancing who gets paid first between qualifying expenses, both internal and external,
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, I just want to.
City Administrator Jordan: isn't exactly clear in this, and we would probably need to get better clarity on that
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Want to note my appreciation for the definition change.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I shared some of the questions that Councilor Ryan raised previously in this meeting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And the change in definition leaves me assured that this is actually focused on the type of detention facility that has public safety officers present.
City Administrator Jordan: if in fact those expenses were going to be prioritized within the rule.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thanks.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I know the co-sponsor's intent here, but I want to make sure I'm not just asking the administrator
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And not the types of residential facilities that I was concerned might otherwise inadvertently be captured.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: to give you the opportunity to answer that question, because I do think it's fair for folks to ask that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Thank you.
Protester: Do you have a way to prevent ICE from reimbursing?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Morillo.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is a moment for discussion amongst councilors for reimbursing a landlord for the...
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah, thank you, Council President, for bringing that.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That up to our.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Bringing that to our attention early on so that we could make sure that was addressed, because that definitely is not the intention of this legislation.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The conduct is disrupting the meeting.
Protester: Does this not just let the landlords play the middleman?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I do want to point out to folks that anything that implicates these facilities will be sued.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is your, this is your warning that you will face ejection
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: if you continue disrupting the meeting, for the police to protect them.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And much like regular land use process appeals occur.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: There's an individual in the back who's still interrupting the meeting, wearing a red shirt, I believe.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Except that the regular land use process is also very extensively appealed, which is why a process like permit revocation can sit in the court.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: It's four years.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Do we need to add anything else to Councilor Kanal's question?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Like, for example, even if we were to revoke the ICE permit, it would likely be appealed again by the federal government.
Protester: Good luck.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Well, yeah.
City Administrator Jordan: Councilor.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And then go to DEQ, and then that could take years later.
City Administrator Jordan: The purpose in section 5.8.010 establishes that the chapter is to recover
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So while I'm just outlining the process, I don't like bureaucracy either.
City Administrator Jordan: the full public costs of the detention facility fee.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That's just how it works.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But I think that while we are handling that, people are still facing the harm every single day.
City Administrator Jordan: Now, while we are delegating to the administration to engage in the rulemaking process,
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That that's being done at these detention facilities.
City Administrator Jordan: the intent is clear that it is to establish the full public cost.
City Administrator Jordan: So there's no finite fund.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so this policy has to address those harms right now.
City Administrator Jordan: So if we figure out a situation, or that's the intent to the administrator, if we find out a situation
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That's the political reality that we live in.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And so this appeals process would be a lot faster than anything else that we're seeing right now.
City Administrator Jordan: where, like there's a surge in police overtime for instance, and that's a million dollars, the expectation in the ordinance is to say that's the basis of recovering the costs.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And that's why this is necessary.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you, counselor.
City Administrator Jordan: And it's backward-looking because you have to kind of look at the basis of evidence
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues seeing no one else in the queue for debate on the amendment.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Keelan, can you please call the roll?
City Administrator Jordan: to re-establish or kind of recalibrate your framework.
Keelan McClymont: Clark Green.
City Administrator Jordan: But the city has ample reserves to cover any sort of, you know, periodic cash flow issue.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Keelan McClymont: Avalos.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Aye.
Keelan McClymont: Dunphy.
City Administrator Jordan: So that's the intention, that's the intent of legislation, and as the City Administrator said,
Councilor Jamie Dunphy: Aye.
Keelan McClymont: Smith.
Councilor Loretta Smith: Aye.
Keelan McClymont: Excuse me.
Councilor Dan Ryan: I can all thank you for all the clarity.
City Administrator Jordan: it's not just the direct cost to the city, but rather the broader social costs, which is why it's the Pigouvian measure.
Keelan McClymont: Ryan.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Aye.
Keelan McClymont: Koyama Lane.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Yes.
Keelan McClymont: Morillo.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Aye.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So that makes sense for addressing the "fund could be drained" concern.
Keelan McClymont: Pirtle-Guiney.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Aye.
Keelan McClymont: The amendment is approved with nine yes votes and three absent.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I think what you're also saying, and correct me if I'm wrong,
Audience: Shame on you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: These are disruptions to the meeting.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: is that the middle sentence here of the first part basically means we'd be prioritizing the external stakeholders.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is a warning that if there is continued disruption, you will be ejected.
City Administrator Jordan: Yes.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So the money would first go to neighbors, and only then be prioritizing...
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Can we please eject the individual screaming in the back of the room?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Is that inaccurate?
Audience: Reviled or recall?
City Administrator Jordan: That's...
City Administrator Jordan: That's the intent in that section.
Audience: Revital.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Okay, well, I'll ask the question that the person asked.
Audience: Is it Jack?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: How do we know from this, and I'm sure you've thought this through, how do we know
Audience: Everyone.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: that this doesn't create a situation where a landlord raises the rent by the amount of...
Councilor Sameer Kanal: ...of the fee and ICE then pays that,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: or a detention facility operator pays that to them.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: That money is then collected, put into a fund, and a portion of it, not all of it.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: You've addressed that part, used to subsidize maybe the discretionary actions of the administration,
Councilor Sameer Kanal: the local administration, as it relates to police overtime.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: That's a fair question to...
Protester: To.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: ...to raise.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Maybe not in the method it was.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is a disruption of the meeting and council discussion.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Individual upstairs in the white sweatshirt.
Protester: Either.
Audience: Thank you.
City Administrator Jordan: Councilor Kanal, this ordinance is not designed to absolve us of broader oversight.
City Administrator Jordan: Okay.
City Administrator Jordan: So if we do not want to subsidize the actions of a landlord with our police department,
Audience: Options?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Can we please eject the individual?
City Administrator Jordan: we need to have hearings in caps that it's inappropriate to do so, and then we need to use our broader budget authority and provide legislation that says we want stricter boundaries.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Front here.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Who's chanting?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues.
City Administrator Jordan: This legislation is designed very specifically to recover
City Administrator Jordan: the social costs of the presence of the facility.
Protester: To stop ICE, you need a united front of working-class people.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, we are now in discussion over the amended version of this ordinance which includes Morillo 1.
Protester: You need general strikes.
Protester: You need all that, because that is the issue we're facing.
Protester: This ordinance can't possibly do all the heavy lifting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And the changes contained therein.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Anything further?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think I agree with that last piece, and I appreciate the responses to the questions.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Is there any discussion on the amended version?
Councilor Dan Ryan: Request for information.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Can you clarify what just got voted on for people who might not.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think as I'm looking through this, sometimes you read code through the lens that you have,
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We just voted to add an amendment to the underlying ordinance.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: or proposed code in this case, through the ones that you have.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: It's posted as Morillo 1, it is the.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And of course, it'd be read a certain way.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I think one of the great things about testimony is it lets you know how other people read this
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The amendment is what was presented on previously.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But because that language was filed after the posting deadline, we needed to officially adopt it in as an amendment.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: that maybe don't have that same context or that same experiences that I do, but have their own experiences that are helpful for that interpretation.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So I'm kind of trying to incorporate what I'm hearing through how we read this,
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Rather than it being the underlying that was posted.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Even though the intent by the carriers, I believe, was to have us support this amendment.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: and I think the rest will probably be through the context of the amendment conversation
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This amended version.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: because I am a little concerned about how that tweaks it a little bit, but I think we can talk about it if and when that is moved.
Councilor Dan Ryan: Great.
Councilor Dan Ryan: And so just to clarify, the underlying thing that we've been talking about with the detention facility fee ordinance as a whole.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thanks.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Can I respond a little bit?
Councilor Dan Ryan: Has not been voted on.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So you made a comment about how landlords could technically just increase the cost of rent to offset the fee.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Correct.
Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We are at just over three hours, colleagues, and we do need to give our staff a quick break.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And that is frankly how, unfortunately, landlords operate in many ways.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So before we have any further discussion on the underlying and a vote, and talk about the additional item here.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And the political reality is that ICE has billions of dollars right now.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I want to give us, and I hesitate to do this because I know that there are folks who may be waiting to catch us on the way out.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: The federal administration has given them billions of dollars.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And we can't legislate how people have those contracts privately.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But I want to give us a 10 minute break just to ensure that we're respectful of our staff's time.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: What we can do is to try to address the harm that happens through, again, one small piece of chipping away at the machine
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And then we'll meet back here to take our final actions this evening.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We will be back in at 9.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: 19.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: that is not going to stop the entire machine.
Audience: That's all.
Audience: You guys done?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: That's the reality of it.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Money can be tracked such that PPB could only be reimbursed for overtime
Councilor Angelita Morillo: related to actions that are taken at the facility where the fees are applied.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: And that's part of the administrative rulemaking that we're going to need to see.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: I think something that we've been advised as council over and over again is that we're the budget authority,
Councilor Angelita Morillo: we make the big oversight decisions and then we're going to have to work continuously with the administration for them to get those details out.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: But in my opinion, and I'll state it for the record, since it sounds like that's what you're asking,
Councilor Angelita Morillo: the top priority should be the people who are first impacted by these issues.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: So like folks living in the surrounding buildings that are getting tear gassed, people who are being, frankly,
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Portlanders, all who are being affected by tear gas entering our waterways and the environmental impacts of that, that should be the top priority.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor, anything further?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you for clarifying that.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I'm going to wait on anything else.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Appreciate it.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Okay.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Morillo?
Councilor Angelita Morillo: Yeah.
Councilor Angelita Morillo: As long as folks don't have any other hands in the queue, I'd like to move the amendment forward.
Councilor Candace Avalos: Second.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, is there any discussion on the amendment?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Kanal.
Audience: Sa.
Audience: Sam.
Audience: It.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: No.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Yeah.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We are reconvening our City Council meeting.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, we are in discussion of the now amended detention facility impact fee.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I will note that this is a non-emergency ordinance, so we are not voting tonight.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But this is the time for discussion on the ordinance.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I'll put myself in the queue to stall in case others want to talk.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, for years, and particularly in recent months, we have seen the impacts of the ICE facility on its neighbors and how these impacts have redirected city resources.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is certainly not the only detention facility in our community, nor the only facility that could be impacted by a fee like this.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But it is the one that I know is on many people's minds.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: As we've heard tonight.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Just a few of these impacts include the Portland Housing Bureau's allocation of funding to Graze Landing after residents suffered the impacts of tear gas getting inside their homes; PBOT crews who have been pulled from their regular work to provide street cleaning services around the facility in order to remove and dispose of toxic runoff from chemical weapons; and redirecting staff resources in order to expedite the permitting process to get Cottonwood School relocated for the new school year after chemical and projectile munitions were used in direct proximity to the school and its playground.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: The list goes on.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: What these instances have made clear is that we need resources available to pull from if any other government tries to locate a detention center here in the future.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: These resources shouldn't come from our community.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: They should not come from tax dollars from our city budgets.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We have so many other ways we want to invest in our community, so much other work to do.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This isn't where we should be spending our funds.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: But the reality is we can't always stop another government who also has jurisdiction on this space, that is the City of Portland, from siting facilities here.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: What we can do is ensure that we are not pulling dollars from other critical programs to cover the social and community costs that these facilities often lead to.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This ordinance is a sensible solution to manage the unwanted impacts and to take one small step in protecting our community from just a few of the many harms that facilities like this can cause.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I appreciate the conversation tonight.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I appreciate hearing from community members who want to see more and community members who want to make sure that we take this step.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I appreciate the administration working to ensure that this is something that we can move forward in enforcing and the councilors who brought it forward working to ensure that there were not unintended impacts.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: And I do plan to support it.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor Kanal.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thank you, Madam President.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I first want to just give a little insight to something as a lead up to what's going on here; sometimes there's delays in the process, and sometimes there's a little bit of a surprise that comes from the other side of our government.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I was a little bit disappointed, I want to note, with getting a memo last night from the administration that seemed very critical of this ordinance without necessarily any advance conversation, and also a very narrow focus on just the environmental side of it.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think that really deserves to be.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: To be stated out loud.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I also wanted to talk about the folks that, you know, we've heard from a lot of folks who have been asking about what happens if and when there is a proposal expansion from the federal government.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: What do we do in that scenario?
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And one of the potential solutions that was raised, and the only office that had both the courage and the technical acumen to actually go into that detail and figure it out, figure out a way to deal with this that could pass legal muster was Councilor Morillo's office for how to address that potentiality.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: That still has not happened yet, and I hope it does not.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But that's a conversation I am wanting to focus really quickly on the nuisance side of this because I really appreciated that part's inclusion and I think that it really strengthens what we would be doing now.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think we can focus pretty significantly on the side of it that is about the actual new fee possibility of a new facility.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: But I appreciate the clarity on the prohibited nuisance because I am very profoundly concerned about what we are doing to prevent the use of chemical weapons that are banned in war from being used on the streets of Portland and in our neighborhoods as well.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So I just wanted to express some of that here, and I really look forward to continuing the threads of this conversation that I think very similar to the two things we did about a month ago.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: This document has like four or five different parts of it that kind of create threads that we can carry on and talk about.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So I appreciate the work that's been put in here by Councilor Morillo and Councilor Green, both your teams.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I know, appreciate Susie coming and explaining all this.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I didn't know the word Pigouvian before, so I appreciate that particularly.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I also really appreciate the comment, the first part of what you were saying, Madam President, about ensuring that people are bearing the cost that they create.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: So I just, I want to close by noting it is really difficult to explain everything that we get legal advice about here.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: I think that that's been really challenging to try and summarize and not create a problem.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And I'm not asking you to trust us and I don't think any of us are, but to actually look and see the work that's being done.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: And so I want to draw that attention back to the work that's been done by my colleagues up here.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: In particular my colleagues that are women of color, because they're the people leading on a lot of the actual code that's been proposed in the city and getting beat up quite a bit for.
Speaker 2: It.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Both in and outside of this building.
Councilor Sameer Kanal: Thanks.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Thank you.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Councilor.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Colleagues, are there any other comments to the now amended agenda item nine?
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: Okay, seeing none.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: This is a first reading of a non-emergency ordinance.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So we will carry this over to our next meeting for a vote.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: There is one item left on our agenda.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: It is agenda item four.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: However, we recently passed rule changes that do not allow us to start a new agenda item after 9 o'clock unless it is an emergency or without a vote of nine councilors.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: I do not believe we have nine councilors present to who are interested in supporting a vote on this this evening.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: So we will carry this over to tomorrow.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: We are already planning to hold a recess meeting tomorrow afternoon and we will add this to the agenda tomorrow.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney: With that, I will adjourn our meeting.