City Council · afternoon

4:07Good evening.

4:08Before we officially begin our meeting, we have a pre-gavel celebration of the life of District 4 constituent Steve Griffith.

4:16I'm turning this over to Councilor Green.

4:19Thank you, Council President.

4:20Good evening, everyone.

4:21I'm Councilor Green, and I'm honored to host our pre-gavel ceremony today in honor of the late Steve Griffith.

4:28Um, Steve was best known to many in Portland as a volunteer head coach for more than 20 years of the Lincoln High School Constitution team right here in Goose Hollow, District 4.

4:38Steve's team won 4 national titles and 10 state championships during his tenure.

4:43He was a 2-term member and chair of the Portland Public School Board, a devotee of our outdoor and natural areas, a very well-regarded lawyer at Stoll Reeves, and a Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford.

4:57He was a civic leader and a champion for civic education in public schools.

5:01I want to thank Steve's wife, Chris Dickey, his daughter Meg, the students and staff of Lincoln High School, past and present, Jonathan Pulvers, and Colleen Shoemaker of City Club, who I'd love to invite up to speak next and offer some words.

5:14Thank you.

5:14Thank you so much for being here.

5:17Just introduce yourself for the record when you get up.

5:20Thanks.

5:26Good evening.

5:27I'm Colleen Shoemaker.

5:29I'm secretary of City Club of Portland and a resident of District 4.

5:37I am also recently the chair of City Club's membership committee, on which Steve Griffith served and inspired since 2024.

5:46It's a great privilege to honor my friend, cherished colleague, and mentor whose life and work exemplify the ideals of public service.

5:56Steve had many passions and interests, but central to all was his love of people.

6:02At his birthday party in December, Steve said, these days some see people as the means to the end.

6:11But that's not right.

6:13People are the end.

6:15Steve lived this principle with a gusto that was contagious.

6:19He was a true humanist.

6:21He saw the good in everyone.

6:23He opened doors and hearts with his enthusiasm, curiosity, generosity, and faith in people.

6:29Steve built community and made a difference everywhere he went.

6:34Oregon, and Portland in particular, have been touched by Steve's vision and humanity, but his impact spans the globe.

6:41From Bhutan in the Himalayas to Liberia in West Africa.

6:46Steve took action, embraced life, and had a Midas touch for connecting with people and making a difference.

6:53And if you know Steve, you know his interests were wildly varied, but 3 of Steve's commitments stand out: public service, civic involvement, and dedication to young people.

7:06Steve first combined these as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia teaching high school.

7:12And in 2015, Steve and Chris established a preschool, the Garden School, in the Liberian village where Steve served.

7:21Closer to home, as Councilor Green reminded us, Steve served 2 terms on the Portland School Board as chairperson 4 times, 1987 to '95, and ran for Oregon State Representative in 2008.

7:36Thank you.

7:37In the Portland community, Steve served on the boards of the Metro Crisis Intervention Service, Wilderness Society, Faces Foundation, and Chanticleer.

7:48He founded the Portland Youth Choral Festival and supported the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

7:54He helped found several organizations serving youth or run by youth, including For Our Children's Future, Mission Citizen, and Portland Supreme Court Project, as well as other youth-focused projects, too many to list.

8:10Steve shared his passions for civics and youth development through mentoring, teaching, and supporting students.

8:16He fostered curiosity about the law, policy, and issues.

8:21He inspired students to volunteer for causes they care about, to prepare for a lifetime of active civic involvement.

8:31I met Steve in 2011 through City Club of Portland, serving with him on a research study about civic education requirements in the state and city.

8:41And then we did advocacy for civics education in Salem through 2016.

8:47In late 2023, when civics— when City Club was rebuilding, Steve joined the membership committee.

8:54His spirit guided us.

8:56He proposed and named the welcome events to bring people together in person after the long COVID isolation, and he hosted several in his and Chris's gracious home.

9:08Steve gave us the wording and the ethos for invitations to events.

9:15Please come.

9:17There are so many people who want to meet you.

9:21Steve did make a lasting contribution to fostering civic engagement through his 25-plus-year tenure coaching the Lincoln High School Constitution team in the We the People competitions.

9:34OregonLive said this about Steve, quote, his ability to bring constitutional law alive for young people impacted hundreds of students over those decades and saw 10 State and 4 first-place national championships during his tenure.

9:51After losing Steve in February of this year, his Lincoln High School Constitution Team students again earned distinction at the national competition, taking 6th place.

10:03Portland's Grant High School took 3rd place.

10:07Steve maintained relationships with dozens of his students over the decades.

10:11He inspired them to be stewards in their communities, of their communities.

10:15He made and kept lasting friendships with people whose lives he touched.

10:21Steve's dedication to the program also extended beyond Lincoln High School.

10:25He coached the De La Salle North Catholic High School team from 2013 to '17, and informally Salem's Sprague High School's 2025 team, which shared with Lincoln the national championship.

10:41Steve created and nurtured the relationship between City Club and Constitution teams.

10:45Also, the record doesn't give Steve credit, but my memory says Steve was the engine of the City Club Civic Scholars program that brought high school students to the City Club Friday Forums, introduced them to policymakers and to engaged City Club members the year was 2012.

11:06Lincoln won its first national championship, and Steve created a path to future civic engagement for high school students.

11:15When we lost Steve, the membership committee was in the early stages planning events with Constitution Team students from around the region.

11:23Steve said, correctly I believe, that Oregon has more civically aware and prepared young people than most, or maybe any other state, because of its many and exceptionally successful Constitution teams.

11:39Steve's legacy can be seen and felt in almost countless places, not just in our region.

11:46We honor Steve with gratitude for what he gave, the example he set, and his inspiration to us thank you so much for sharing that large volume of legacy that Steve has left us with and gifted us with, frankly.

12:07I'd like to offer Councilor Murillo an opportunity to say a few words 'cause I think you had direct experience with this legacy.

12:15So why don't you take a few moments?

12:18Thank you, Councilor Green.

12:19Thank you so much for being here tonight.

12:21I knew Coach Griffith, as we called him, because he taught the Constitution team when I was in high school.

12:27When I was there in 2013, and I was very sad to hear that he passed away.

12:32I think that something that you said that stood out was you described him as enthusiastic, and I have never met a teacher who was more knowledgeable and more eager to share that knowledge than him.

12:46He was the type of person that you meet when you are a student and you learn so much from them just by getting to engage with them and having casual conversation.

12:56He never made anyone feel bad for asking a question.

12:59To him, there was never a single stupid question.

13:02All questions were good.

13:03All questions were an opportunity to teach people, and there was just always an opportunity to connect with others.

13:10I feel like we were so lucky at Lincoln to have him there, and it's such a— it's— I also, you know, I grew up in a family that was not civically engaged.

13:20My mom's a single mother, an immigrant.

13:23If it wasn't for my time on the Constitution team and for his work and connecting students to this, I probably would not be here today being an elected representative.

13:31And so I'm just very grateful to have gotten to know him.

13:37And thank you for being here to honor his memory.

13:41Thanks again.

13:42This was the first pre-gavel moment that I've used with this privilege, and I'm honored to share that with you and the family and those of you who have been touched by Steve.

13:53Thank you, Council President.

13:54Thank you, thank you very much.

13:58I am with that now calling to order this meeting of the Portland City Council.

14:03Keelan, could we please call the roll?

14:08Good evening.

14:09Kanal?

14:10Present.

14:11Here.

14:13Here.

14:14Here.

14:16Here.

14:16Here.

14:17Clark?

14:18Here.

14:18Green?

14:19Here.

14:20Here.

14:20Here.

14:20Present.

14:21Councilor Loretta Smith.

14:23Here.

14:23Councilor Dan Ryan.

14:24Here.

14:25And good.

14:26City Attorney, please read the rules of decorum for the chamber.

14:31Welcome to the Portland City Council.

14:33To testify before council in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.

14:45Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's webpage.

14:50Individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise.

14:55Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.

14:59The presiding officer preserves order.

15:02Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others' testimony or council deliberations will not be allowed.

15:14If you cause a disruption, A warning will be given.

15:18Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.

15:22Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.

15:27Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

15:32Your testimony should please address the matter being considered.

15:36When testifying, please state your name for the record.

15:39Your address is not necessary.

15:40Good evening, Mayor Wilson, members of council, If you are a lobbyist, please identify the organization you represent.

15:46Virtual testifiers should please unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name.

15:51Thank you.

15:52Thank you very much.

15:53Colleagues, our first item on the agenda is agenda approval.

15:572 notes to flag.

15:57First, colleagues, I wanna flag for you that the initial council agenda did not have the presidential update section listed, which is where we have generally gotten updates on city response to federal interventions.

16:10That item has been added back to the agenda as item 3.

16:133.

16:14Uh, also, I understand that the item related to the renaming of Cesar Chavez Boulevard has been pulled from the agenda back to Councilor, uh, Smith's office for some additional work, uh, to have it heard by the Planning Commission.

16:25Uh, Councilor Smith, is that still accurate?

16:27Correct.

16:27Thank you.

16:27And Keelan, is there anything else that we need to do to settle this action for now?

16:33No.

16:33Okay.

16:34Uh, colleagues, are there any other requests to amend the agenda, to reorder items, or reschedule an item for a future meeting date?

16:44Are there any— okay, thank you.

16:46Seeing none, do I have unanimous consent to approve the agenda?

16:51Lots of happy nods.

16:51The agenda is approved.

16:53Thank you.

16:54Keelan, can we please move to public communications?

16:56First up, we have Matthew Henderson.

17:02Welcome, folks.

17:03As you're coming up to testify, please give your name and you're welcome to share your pronouns.

17:09You have 3 minutes.

17:09I'm not sure.

17:10I think Matthew is sharing his pronouns.

17:13Okay, we'll pause for just a moment until they're able to make it down.

17:17Keelan, could we give the next person on the list just the heads up that they're next?

17:21Sure.

17:22Next up we have Alex Garcia, uh, followed by Lacey Sutton, Camille Saunders, and Samantha Ibarra.

17:32Excellent, thanks.

17:33We will wait just a moment for our first speaker to join us.

17:45Hey.

17:45Hello.

17:46How was that dinner?

17:48It was a good time.

17:51Thank you.

17:54Um, I can be more brief than the past few times I've been here.

18:00I don't have prepared words this time, but I'm here to—.

18:04Make sure to say your name for the record.

18:06Thank you.

18:07I'm Matt Henderson.

18:08I'm with the Save Lloyd Campaign.

18:11This is the grassroots initiative to prevent the wholesale demolition of Lloyd Center Mall.

18:20And we've gathered very close to 10,000 signatures verified through change.org.

18:28We have hundreds upon hundreds of public feedback comments, and we've shared a lot of those with each of you.

18:35And mainly I'm here to say that this time next week, or next Wednesday morning, we have a hearing to look forward to.

18:452 Appeals that have been filed against the development plans for Lloyd Center Mall.

18:52And since I'm going a little off the cuff, I just want to also acknowledge that we recognize that these plans have been in the works for many months.

19:04Many months and a few years, in fact.

19:08And I think one thing I'd like to impart today is that this is a little bit of a flawed part of how this process has unfolded.

19:17A community fixture such as Lloyd Center is too important and too memorable for just countless members of our community.

19:31To have the entire planning process occur more or less outside of public view, and then the public being invited in at such a late stage to give their feelings about it and have those feelings meet the city's Design Commission and have it really just be only lip service to the process.

19:56Hence the 2 appeals.

19:57Okay, so I come trying my best to represent thousands of Portlanders as well as tourists.

20:11Lots of people who just were traveling to Portland signed our petition as well.

20:17So with all that said, what you all could do to help this process, I think, be successful and fair is review in advance some of the public comments that were given for this upcoming hearing, but also the previous hearing that occurred with the Design Commission, because there were 200-plus formal comments given then, and there were lots of in-person testimony then that were very moving, and it wasn't lost on anyone in that hearing.

20:53So thanks for the time and just flag next Wednesday.

20:57I know everyone has a lot going on, but it's an important public hearing.

21:03And thanks for the time.

21:04Thank you very much for being here tonight.

21:08Next up, we have Alex Garcia.

21:15Alex Garcia.

21:21Lacey Sutton is joining us online.

21:26Hi, I've never done this before.

21:31Sorry, can you hear me?

21:33We can hear you.

21:34Thank you.

21:35My name is Lacey Sutton, and I'm here virtually because my elected representatives won't meet with me anymore because fire inspector the fire chief has refused to communicate with me about the dangerous conditions here at Cherry Blossom because there's pending litigation.

21:55Those are the words everyone keeps using anyway, but let me tell you what's actually happening.

22:01Last summer, after being ignored, denied answers, and lied to by PF&R, PP&D, and even the ombudsman, I filed a tort claim notice.

22:09I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

22:10A notice to protect my right to file a lawsuit within 2 years, one of which is already up.

22:17A notice the assistant fire marshal told me to file.

22:21I knew it was a shot in the dark, but I had tried everything else, and I thought that preserving the minutest chance that I would be able to take legal action couldn't hurt.

22:31Boy, was I wrong, because even though I don't have and have never had an attorney, I never filed a tort claim, and there is no pending Public officials, the only people who can do anything about this, have been advised by the city attorney to stop talking to me.

22:50I asked for that in writing, and what I got back from the city attorney's office was almost entirely irrelevant to my situation.

22:56The only thing that applied was this: if they have filed a tort claim notice, they can direct their inquiries to the city's risk management division.

23:05But tell me, do you think risk management is an appropriate stand-in for a fire inspector?

23:10I don't know.

23:11The fire chief for you?

23:14Hey, can I still call 911 if my house is on fire, or do I need to go to risk— through risk management?

23:24I've been told there really isn't a way to retract a tort claim notice, but if there is, I would be tempted.

23:31Not because I think the city would finally start giving me answers and everyone would start doing their jobs and requiring remediation of code violations, because every second counts, even in East Portland.

23:44But because none of that will happen, just like it didn't happen before I filed that notice, the city will keep doing nothing for no stated reason at all.

23:54But at least I wouldn't have to hear the words pending litigation anymore.

23:58It's a slap in the face every time.

24:01I wish there was justice pending, but I can't afford justice.

24:06Here's the thing.

24:07Even if we were headed to court, I'm still a citizen of the City of Portland, and I have immediate safety concerns.

24:15There are code violations on this property and code violations on other properties that I have no affiliation with.

24:22The city can't just ignore that.

24:24You can't just ignore me.

24:26So here's my ask: meet with me, listen to me, look at the evidence I have with an attorney present.

24:32Thank you.

24:33Bring risk management, bring whoever you want, I don't care.

24:37I have nothing to hide.

24:39I'm not afraid of the truth.

24:41Thank you.

24:42Thank you, thank you very much.

24:48Next up, next up we have Camille Saunders.

24:53Welcome.

25:00My name is Cami Saunders, and I'm a member of Portland Contra las Deportaciones and Revoke the ICE Permit PDX.

25:07I spoke to you 7 months ago demanding the revocation of the permit for the ICE facility and that you take immediate action to protect Portland from federal overreach.

25:16I have been disappointed by your inaction since and abdication of responsibility.

25:21As you know very well, ICE has been terrorizing our communities and attacking protesters at heightened levels for over a year now.

25:28In November, I said we didn't have time to wait for the federal government to act.

25:30To waste on bureaucratic processes.

25:33Our undocumented communities are in danger and severely impacted every single day you allow ICE to operate out of their home base at the McAdam facility here in Portland.

25:43The Department of Homeland Security claims over 1,200 people were detained in Portland during Operation Black Rose in the months of October to December alone.

25:53The land use violation for the facility was issued in September of 2025.

25:57So in those months, we could have been in the process to revoke the permit and shut the facility down.

26:01Councilmember it is now June, and not only did the city refuse to begin the revocation process every time you had the chance, but you have continued to use the Portland Police as a weapon of oppression against activists who dare to call on you to take action.

26:17You know the people want the revocation of the conditional land use permit for the McAdam ICE facility.

26:22What you don't seem to know is the power you have to act.

26:25Your job as city councilors includes writing ordinances and city code and delegating their enforcement.

26:31Councilor Smith.

26:32City Council, specifically Mitch Green, had no problem pushing permitting and development forward when the Cottonwood School next to the ICE facility was forced to move.

26:40Mayor Keith Wilson had no problem pushing the administrative review decision forward after we protested at his house demanding movement in the process.

26:48We don't need performative ordinances that do not address the root of the problem.

26:53What we need is for you to do everything you can to take real action to stand up to Trump and his masked thugs.

27:00The Portland City Charter specifically grants this council authority to regulate land use, exclude nuisance business, and even pass ordinances barring ICE facilities.

27:09Use this authority.

27:12Clearly, the McAdam facility is a nuisance and a threat to the safety of the surrounding area.

27:17ICE operated out of 2 small administrative offices prior to the land use permit granted in 2011.

27:23Your stances that keeping the building open helps immigrants somehow is not only defeatist, it is dangerous.

27:28Councilmember Herbold.

27:29Yes.

27:29Glenwood Springs, Colorado City Council revoked the permit for their ICE facility after data showed the facility repeatedly held people longer than the permitted 12-hour limit, like they did here in Portland.

27:41It is possible.

27:42Kansas City, Missouri, Jackson County, Missouri, Seattle, Washington, and El Paso, Texas city governments have banned ICE facilities in their cities.

27:49So why in Portland, with so-called progressive councilors in office, are we not trying to do the same?

27:55Take immediate action.

27:57Revoke the permit and shut down the McAdam facility.

28:00Shame on you for not doing your jobs while immigrants are in danger in our community.

28:21Stop sending PPE to ICE.

28:25Next up, we have Next up, Samantha Ibarra.

28:37Hello, my name is Samantha Ibarra.

28:40I'm a first-generation Mexican-American Marine Corps veteran and a new member to this community.

28:45It's been disheartening to move to Portland to find a city where so many people feel that their rights are under constant threat.

28:52What is even more troubling is how many people are afraid to show up and use their voice.

28:56When I exercise my First Amendment rights, I should not have to worry about being brutalized by federal agents, law enforcement, or politically motivated extremists.

29:05Yet we fear that we— yet that fear exists because many of us have witnessed this firsthand time and time again.

29:14I have watched people be assaulted, detained, or intimidated for simply expressing views that those in power did not like.

29:21Let's be honest.

29:22What's happening?

29:23We are told that these aggressive tactics are necessary to protect public safety, yet the same explanations fall apart under scrutiny.

29:31The reality is that people are gathering to express outrage to an administration and the city government whose response to these injustices has felt often inadequate, delayed, or entirely absent.

29:43Many of you are quick to issue statements, appear in headlines, and post videos, but my question is simple: what are you actually doing to protect the people of Portland?

29:50I think that's a great question.

29:51What are you— what concrete actions are you taking beyond public messaging and political optics?

29:58I was presented— I was present at the ICE facility on May Day when officers forced Dr. Katherine Esperanza to the ground and placed a knee on her neck the same way that they killed George Floyd.

30:09This was already when she had suffered a broken leg, so she had a boot on her leg already, but—.

30:13Sorry.

30:14Councilor Loretta Smith.

30:19Booo!

30:21Because they had broken her leg months earlier.

30:23I still struggle to understand how the level of force used against protesters that day or any other day is necessary or can be justified.

30:31So I ask you, when is enough enough?

30:34Are we going to wait until someone is killed until something meaningful— meaningful action happens?

30:39Because that's what we're trying to avoid.

30:41What's especially frustrating is the double standard that so many of us see.

30:45Right-wing extremists have repeatedly harassed, assaulted, maced, and stolen from members of this community.

30:50Often with little to no visible accountability.

30:53But I will say this: many people in this city see a system that is far more comfortable scrutinizing marginalized voices than protecting them.

31:02As a veteran, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and that oath did not come with the exceptions for political convenience.

31:09The rights guaranteed by the Constitution belong to all of us.

31:12The people standing in streets demanding accountability are not the threat.

31:16The threat is the government that becomes comfortable ignoring the rights of the people it serves.

31:21The people of Portland deserve better.

31:22We deserve leaders who will do more than just acknowledge these concerns via social posts.

31:28We deserve leaders who will act.

31:31Councilor Smith.

31:48I'm gonna see if Alex Garcia has arrived.

31:53Okay, and then our alternate tonight is Ivan Vargas.

32:01Folks, I'm gonna remind folks, we appreciate your appreciation with some nonverbal things, please.

32:08We did rules against clapping and congratulations, but okay.

32:15I apologize, uh, my name is Ivan Vargas, by the way.

32:18Uh, I didn't have anything written since I wasn't on the list originally, um, but I will go off this.

32:26City Council, we demand you shut down the Portland ICE facility.

32:29The clock has been ticking for over a year now regarding the revocation of the permit while immigrants have been wrongfully and violently detained.

32:35Put in jail cells in this so-called sanctuary city.

32:38The people ICE has taken away are responsible, well-respected members of our community, and people with families.

32:44Those people are our neighbors.

32:47The holding conditions of the facility are disgusting, especially when you take into account that ICE is known to hold people for longer than 12 hours.

32:54There is no bedding, no access to showers, nowhere private to use the restroom.

32:59For context, the longest time ICE has held someone in the facility is 52 days.

33:05Shame!

33:06Shame!

33:07Shame!

33:07We refuse to let City Council and the mayor sit passively by while our neighbors are being terrorized by these fascist thugs.

33:12We say revoke the permit and shut down the ICE facility.

33:15Thanks.

33:22Okay.

33:23There's blood on the fucking wall!

33:26Blood on the walls in there!

33:27Have you ever been in there?

33:38There we go.

33:41Now we're back.

33:56Okay, that concludes communications.

33:58Thank you.

34:00Item 3 is our— the presidential update.

34:02We're now going to hear an update from City Administrator Lee on the— It has been over a year of inaction in the face of federal overreach and terror in our community.

34:23That if there continues to be other disruption at this meeting, the person engaging in disruptive behavior will face ejection from the meeting.

34:29Revoke the permit!

34:31Revoke the permit!

34:34You will have to listen sometime!

34:43We will now hear an update from the City Administrator Lee on the status of the ongoing response City Administrator.

34:53Thank you, Council President and Council.

34:56We have 2 updates, one on the land use hearing and also on the detention facility impact fee as well.

35:04First, on the land use hearing.

35:07As you recall, the hearing officer held a 2-day hearing in May on the notice of the violation of the ICE facility.

35:15The hearings officer in office was prepared to issue a decision in early June.

35:22The building owner filed a writ of review in the County Circuit Court and obtained a stay to stop the hearing officer from issuing a decision.

35:33The city objected to the stay, and the city is challenging the stay in the County Circuit Court.

35:40Thank you.

35:41Most immediately, we have a hearing on July 10th in the Circuit Court to try to get the writ dismissed and the stay lifted so the hearing officer can issue its decision.

35:55If the writ is not dismissed on July 10th, then there will be a follow-up hearing on August the 14th.

36:04After filing the initial writ of review, The building owner has since filed additional writs of review in circuit court, and a hearing is set for August the 14th on these additional writs of review.

36:19The city will seek to have those additional writs dismissed as well.

36:25The city's goal remains to have the notice of violation resolved on the merits and for the hearings officer to issue a decision As soon as possible.

36:35As it pertains to the detention facility impact fee, next Friday, June 26th, we will be publishing a draft of the permanent administrative rule for the detention facility impact fee legislation for public review and comment.

36:54As a reminder, these rules address the ordinance that council adopted in December.

36:59Thank you.

37:00We had a temporary rule in place since February the 27th.

37:05The temporary rule allows the city to take enforcement action relating to the use of chemical munitions at detention facilities while a permanent rule is currently being developed.

37:20It establishes an enforcement framework, includes a citation process, Fine schedule, service requirements, and appeal procedures.

37:31Under city code, that temporary rule can only be in place for up to 6 months, and it is set to expire in late August.

37:40The city's process to adopt a permanent admin rule requires posting a draft for public comment for 30 days.

37:50So that's what we're— we'll be kicking off on next Friday.

37:53Thank you.

37:55Members of the public can view the draft rule online and provide comments once it's posted.

38:02The current temporary rule is also currently posted online.

38:07The comment period will run through July the 26th.

38:11After the comment period closes, staff will review the comments received and consider updates, with a deadline to finalize the permanent admin rule by August the 26th.

38:24Thank you.

38:25Thank you, City Administrator.

38:26Uh, Councilor Kanal.

38:29Thank you, Council President.

38:31Thank you, City Administrator Lee.

38:32Can you speak to what—.

38:33The voice of the people will be heard.

38:35I'm here to speak on the individual to give a face—.

38:37Conduct is disrupting the meeting.

38:39Please be seated and allow the meeting to continue to meet.

38:51This is a warning that if there is continued or other disruption from this meeting, persons engaged in disruptive behavior will face ejection from the meeting.

39:03Councilor Kanal.

39:05Thank you.

39:08Can you speak to what the potential contents of the, uh, the hearings officer's report would be and what the next steps would be, uh, depending on what that is.

39:22I will either lean on, uh, legal to kind of update that, or we may have staff that may be able to, uh, talk through the actual hearing officer's, um, ruling when it gets to that point.

39:33Okay, let me rephrase.

39:35If it's released and it is not in the favor of the landowner, Or even if it is, for that matter, it would be appealed and that appeal would come to City Council.

39:43Is that correct?

39:46Okay, I'm seeing no.

39:50Yeah, Robert Taylor, City Attorney.

39:51Uh, the, the decision of the hearings office will decide whether the, the notice of violation that the city issued, uh, should be upheld or not.

40:03And, and we want that decision from the hearings office so we know what the hearings officer has concluded.

40:10At that point, the building owner or the city, whoever, if you don't like the result, we can appeal that to circuit court and have that decided on the merits in the circuit court.

40:23Our goal here is to litigate this issue to conclusion on the merits from the hearings office to circuit court and wherever else we need to, to get a final decision from the court on the merits of the violation.

40:36Okay.

40:39And once we have that, and if it's in our favor, Council can act on that in the land use proceeding.

40:46So that is the goal of this.

40:48And we, as the administrator said, we are working very diligently, and our goal is to get a decision on the merits through the judicial process as soon as we can.

41:00And we will continue to do that.

41:02Thank you.

41:04Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

41:06Councilor Murillo.

41:08Thank you, Councilor— or Council President Dunphy.

41:11So in very plain terms for the public, because I think a lot of the legal stuff and the writ and this and that, basically the city said, we think that maybe the McAdam Ice Facility and the landlord in charge of that did something wrong.

41:26We are going to issue something against you about the things that you did wrong.

41:31Then he is saying, I did not do anything wrong.

41:33I'm going to continuously challenge that.

41:35We keep appealing it.

41:36And so that's the process that we're in right now as it's going through the court system, correct?

41:40That is correct.

41:41Okay.

41:42And so the city, every step of the way thus far, has been actually trying to appeal those decisions with the legal powers that we have?

41:50That is correct.

41:51Okay.

41:52And this is a question perhaps for Robert Taylor.

41:56Could the city unilaterally well, I think—.

42:05Okay, Maria, we can jump.

42:09I think the ultimate goal of the city, in my judgment, is to make a decision that we can defend and succeed on in court.

42:17And I think if we did, if we did as you had suggested, just unilaterally take an action like that, I think we, we would be putting ourselves in a position are gonna have a difficult time defending it successfully.

42:27And I think that type of action might be counterproductive to the city's ultimate decision here.

42:35So what we are trying to do is to go through the legal process to—.

42:41We don't have time for that.

42:43And they have billions of dollars to back you down.

42:45I'll escort myself out.

42:47Go ahead.

42:48Thank you.

42:51Thank you, Robert, for your answer.

43:04I think, um, yeah, thank you for your answer.

43:08That makes sense to me.

43:10Um, I think something that we need the community to continuously consider is the that laws are enforced through force or through the legal court system.

43:20And if the legal court system does not support our findings, then we don't have any standing and we do not have a standing military like the federal government does.

43:30So I think that's part of what we're honestly having to address here.

43:34But thank you for answering those questions.

43:37Thank you, Councilor Morillo.

43:38Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

43:40Thank you, Council President.

43:41Mr. City Administrator, you read through a lot of dates and upcoming actions.

43:45Is that something you can get to councilors in writing?

43:48We have a number of constituents who are interested in this as well who don't watch council meetings, and I'd like to make sure that when I'm providing this information in community, I can do so accurately.

43:57Most definitely.

43:57We'll get that to the full council.

43:59Thank you very much.

44:00Thank you, Council President.

44:01Thank you.

44:04Keelan, can we please move to item number 4?

44:08Would you like me to read the time-certain items altogether?

44:12Yeah, let's go ahead and read all the time-certain items together, please.

44:15Item 4, memorandum for adoption of the FY 2026-27 budget for the City of Portland, document 2026-193.

44:24Item 5, document 2026-194, certify that certain services are provided by the city to establish eligibility for state shared revenues.

44:33Item 6, document 2026-195, approve accepting funds from the State of Oregon under the State Revenue Sharing Program for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026.

44:43Item 7, document 2026-196, adopt the annual budget of the city and establish appropriations for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026, and ending June 30th, 2027.

44:58I love you, Raymond.

45:00Item 8.

45:00You're a fascist.

45:03Item 8, document 2026-197, approve letter—.

45:06Anyone who's calm and sensible is insane.

45:09That's grooming.

45:14If there is continued disruption in the chambers, including cheering and applauding, I'm going to be— I will be clearing the chamber and moving us to convene.

45:24So please go ahead and continue.

45:29Thank you.

45:30Document 2026-197, approve levying taxes for the city for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027.

45:38Item 9, document 2026-198, Document 2026-198, authorize a temporary inter-fund loan not to exceed $600,000 from the Parks Capital Fund to the Hydroelectric Power Operating Fund to provide interim funding to avoid negative cash and fund balances at 2025-26 fiscal year end.

45:55And item 10, document 2026-199, adopt the supplemental budget for the FY 2025-26 over-expenditure process and make budget adjustments in various funds.

46:07Second.

46:07Thank you.

46:09That was a lot of reading.

46:10Good job.

46:11Um, colleagues, item 4 is the memorandum for adoption of the fiscal year 2026-27 budget for the City of Portland.

46:18This is the final step in the fiscal year 26-27 budget.

46:22Last week we closed the difficult session, and I feel the need to go back and reflect over the, the full scope of this year's budget process.

46:31We started with the thick part of this budget year with the mayor's proposed the mayor's budget sought to close a more than $160 million gap between the money we have and the current service level.

46:42And those gaps existed for 2 reasons.

46:44We had been funding services with one-time money, which we didn't have anymore.

46:48That's about $105 million of the $160 million gap.

46:52The 2 big buckets there were $68 million for Portland Solutions, which is shelter and cleanup, and $35 million in public safety stretched between CHAT, community safety programs, police and fire overtime.

47:04We're bringing in less tax money than needed for the services we fund with the ongoing dollars.

47:09That's about $55 million of the $160 million gap.

47:12Per CBO, $25 million of that gap came from us— came to us directly from the United States President and Congress via the one big beautiful bill, which allowed corporations to write off more expenses, which in turn blew a huge hole in our business license tax.

47:26At the same time, the city's health insurance plans also got about 20% more expensive.

47:31Then there's a $9 million decrease in franchise fees and the losses in property taxes and hotel taxes we hear about so often.

47:38And finally, this council referred and voters approved a parks levy that we all knew would not pay for the current level of service at that bureau over the life of the levy.

47:48The mayor closed that gap with cuts across all across the city government.

47:52There were major cuts everywhere, first to materials but also to people.

47:56The big cuts to public safety programs and parks got a lot of attention, as did the loss of 69 jobs to the core realignment process.

48:04In total, 150 individuals were on the block to be laid off.

48:09And what the mayor didn't cut, he kept by drawing from reserves and taking money back from the county.

48:16This council filed about 95 budget amendments and notes to try and save those programs and those jobs and make other tweaks.

48:22Thank you.

48:23Councilor Morillo led a huge cut to the council security services and saved a lot of the community safety and parks programs.

48:29Councilor Koyama Lane drew from PCF to restore the tree permitting program.

48:32And Councilor Kanal drew from tax reserves to save a fire station.

48:36Many others contributed important fixes with a range of profiles and sexiness.

48:41And a lot of ideas died 6 to 6.

48:43Why exactly that happened is a topic of great debate and endless spin, and it should lead us to consider how this process can change in the future.

48:49To allow all of us to be more solution-oriented, to separate the things we want to support from the things we can't live without losing, that is work for another day.

48:57Today, we are left with a budget mostly shaped by Mayor Wilson and oddly by congressional Republicans and Donald Trump.

49:04The mayor's proposed budget remains in significant part before us today, much discussed but largely untouched.

49:10This isn't the end of the conversation, of course.

49:13Layoffs are not effective until August 3rd.

49:15The, the tow is coming sooner than we think, and then elections, and if we're lucky, the rest of our human lives with people that we love in a city we're lucky to call home and continue to fight for.

49:24So, uh, there's no council action on this item, and the presentation is placed on file.

49:30Playing with the lives of Portlanders!

49:33This is a disruption.

49:36Please eject the gentleman from the floor, please.

49:40This is a disruption.

49:42I'm asking you to please escort the gentleman from the chambers.

49:52Keelan, uh, we're now moving—.

49:58You already read it.

49:59I don't need anything else from you.

50:00Uh, we're now— we are now moving to item 5.

50:06Colleagues, this resolution, Item 5, affirms that the city is eligible to receive shared tax revenue from the State of Oregon.

50:14It received testimony and debate last week and was carried over this week— over to this week to vote on the budget in one hearing.

50:20It requires 7 affirmative votes to pass.

50:22Is there any discussion?

50:26Council President, do you not do the presentation with— it says Ruth Ruelibean is doing a presentation.

50:33Is that not happening?

50:34There's not a further presentation, no.

50:35It was just your speech?

50:38That was all we had, and the documents that are posted online.

50:44Councilor Smith.

50:47Thank you, Council President.

50:48I just wanted to acknowledge some of the comments that you had.

50:52There's always going to be 6-6 until we have the ability to have the mayor to break a tie, or we have an uneven council.

51:02That is going to happen all the time.

51:03It has nothing to do with whether or not we want to agree with each other.

51:06We have an even Council.

51:10And so we need to do something about that.

51:11We need to change the rules to meet the charter.

51:15And until we do that, we're going to continue to do this on every single vote.

51:20Thank you, Councilor.

51:25Okay, is there any further discussion of item 5, specific to, uh, the city certifying that certain city services are provided by the city to establish eligibility for state shared revenue Seeing no one in the queue, Keelan, can we please call the roll on item 5?

51:43Kanal?

51:44Aye.

51:45Pirtle-Guiney?

51:46Aye.

51:47Ryan?

51:47Aye.

51:48Koyama Lane?

51:49Aye.

51:49Murillo?

51:50Aye.

51:51Novick?

51:51Aye.

51:52Clark?

51:52Aye.

51:53Green?

51:54Aye.

51:54Zimmerman?

51:55Aye.

51:56Avalos?

51:56Aye.

51:57Smith?

51:57Aye.

51:58Aye.

51:58Novick?

51:59Aye.

52:00Resolution is adopted with a vote of 12 ayes.

52:03Colleagues, we're now moving to item 6, which is the, uh, approving— accept— approve accepting funds from the State of Oregon under the State Revenue Sharing Program for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026, ending June 30th, 2027.

52:17This emergency ordinance accepts shared tax revenue from the State of Oregon.

52:21It received testimony and debate last week and was carried over to this week to vote on in the budget for— in one hearing and will be effective upon immediately upon passage.

52:29It requires 9 affirmative votes to pass.

52:32Is there any discussion of item 6?

52:38Seeing none, Keelan, can we please call to a roll call on item 6?

52:42No.

52:43Aye.

52:45Aye.

52:46Aye.

52:47Aye.

52:48Aye.

52:48Aye.

52:49Aye.

52:50Aye.

52:54Aye.

52:54Green.

52:55Aye.

52:56Zimmerman.

52:57Aye.

52:57Avalos.

52:58Aye.

52:59Smith.

52:59Aye.

53:00Dunphy.

53:01Aye.

53:01The ordinance passes with a vote of 12 ayes.

53:05We're moving to item 7, which is the adoption of the annual budget of the city and establishing appropriations for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027.

53:14Is there disruption?

53:16Thank you.

53:26This is the second reading of the budget ordinance.

53:29Colleagues, this item right here is the fiscal year 2026-2027 adopted budget ordinance.

53:35It has received just under 2 months of this body's committed attention, most recently having received testimony, debate, and amendments last week.

53:43This is the final vote on next year's budget.

53:45It requires 7 affirmative votes to pass and must pass in this meeting to comply with our timeline under state law.

53:54As a reminder to my colleagues, I am recused from voting on this item or debating the underlying item due to my wife's employment with the Bleach Botanical Garden.

54:05So given all that, I believe it's in the best interest of the body for us to pass this budget without a lot of fireworks today, certainly with comment, And I encourage my colleagues to get in the queue to comment on this one, but without much back and forth.

54:16And so to that, I'm asking that we limit ourselves to speaking only once to the underlying.

54:20Colleagues, to discussion.

54:20Councilor Green.

54:23Thank you, Council President.

54:24Before we get into this right here, I just wanna—.

54:30This is a disruption.

54:32Security, go ahead and escort her out.

54:47Good night, Councilor Green.

54:53Thank you.

54:54Um, before we get into the discussion, uh, I'd just like to ask some clarifying questions, and I might need either Robert Taylor or It might require our CFO to help us understand a little bit.

55:07But, you know, I had been working with Councilor Pirtle-Guiney to try to salvage, I think, some negotiations that didn't quite land last week.

55:16And yesterday we were told that an amendment, if an amendment were to be brought tonight, it would result due to some noticing requirements, in us failing to meet the sort of deadline that we need to meet in order to publish our budget books and kind of close it out.

55:38And so CFO Biery, can you please come to the dais?

55:43Carefully.

55:50Thank you.

55:51So yeah, just kind of walk us through that.

55:53I just want to make sure I understood that clearly.

55:55You know, we sort of stopped that effort because we said, look, there's no pathway here because if we were to adopt an amendment tonight, even if we had found 9 votes for it, it'd be impossible for the city to sort of reconcile that and move into the next fiscal year.

56:08Yeah, Councilor, thank you for the question.

56:10And for the record, Jonas Biery, City's Chief Financial Officer.

56:14How is the city going to reconcile PBB sweeping out ICE's driveway, acting like they're unpaid tenants?

56:27If security could also please pay attention to the folks who are continuing to clap and walk.

56:35Thank you.

56:36Oh, you poor thing.

56:37You're such a crybaby.

56:40Please go ahead and escort folks out.

56:41Thank you.

56:44So, Councilor, there's 2, um, elements to your question.

56:49There's a legal element around the legal timeline to meet the state budgetary requirement.

56:55The deadline that you're describing, which is also reflective of the council adopted budget calendar.

57:04So I wanna acknowledge that we did talk about this last year in the budget.

57:07We talked about this in December when council passed the budget calendar that we are currently following.

57:13That calendar set an intentional deadline with an intentional—.

57:162 Years.

57:18Reason of June 17th as the drop-dead date.

57:22The reason for that is because humans have to do the work to implement council's action.

57:27And in prior years, we've requested 10 business days to ensure that that work is done, is done completely and done accurately so that city employees can get paid on July 1st and we can continue to provide city services on July 1st.

57:41We've squished that.

57:42Thank you.

57:42To 8 business days.

57:45So that is the limitation.

57:47We are putting extreme strain on the systems and people who do that work.

57:52Continuing to expand and move that discussion not only will prevent us from having an implementable budget on July 1st and incorporating those extremely high-risk and dangerous scenarios, including exposure to potential labor complaints potential vendor complaints, potential legal risks.

58:14So extremely dangerous and high-risk behavior.

58:19It also, as we're shortening that, increases the possibility and likelihood of errors that we know from experience this council does not respond favorably to.

58:28So I just wanna be really explicit.

58:31Legally, can you do it?

58:32Yes.

58:34From a functional, responsible perspective, can you do it?

58:36No.

58:37Thank you.

58:38Thank you.

58:38I appreciate that, 'cause that's what I heard from my colleague on the phone, kind of expressed that concern and that, you know, we were really working hard to land a plane for, to sort of close this loop and negotiate and compromise and do something for labor.

58:53And I think we both agreed on the phone that this would be reckless if an amendment were to be brought tonight.

58:59So I just needed to hear that from you.

59:00And then I just, Mr. Taylor, just can you, clarify what the sort of legal aspects are facing us tonight?

59:08Yeah, thank you.

59:09Thanks.

59:10Thank you, Councilor, and thanks for letting me know you might ask this question in advance.

59:14That's very helpful.

59:15City Council, it has been over a year of inaction.

59:17This is a disruption.

59:18Thank you, security.

59:20Go ahead and escort people out.

59:28Thank you for looking—.

59:29What about those people that have been please send that gentleman from the chamber.

59:48Council chamber rules that we do not allow applause.

59:55Security is welcome to escort some folks out.

1:00:07So there's really—.

1:00:08To answer your question, there's really 2 legal issues.

1:00:11One is, uh, to, to meet the logistical constraints that we have, we'd plan to pass the budget today.

1:00:21And if we pass the budget today, That gives Jonas and his team the ability to do what he needs to do to implement this by July 1st.

1:00:31If you make an amendment today to the budget, then to pass it today, you would also need to amend it to add an emergency clause and pass it as an emergency ordinance with 9 votes.

1:00:44So that would be possible.

1:00:46The other legal issue is— I have a question.

1:00:49If you—.

1:00:50If that amendment changes appropriation in a fund by 10% or more, that triggers additional notice requirements under state budget law.

1:01:00We'd have to do that and we'd have to come back next week.

1:01:03And that would really compound and make impossible, really, the logistical challenges that Mr. Biery has addressed.

1:01:11So those are the legal constraints and logistical constraints we're operating under.

1:01:15Thank you.

1:01:16Thank you.

1:01:16And just last question, if— because I've heard from some of my colleagues that they plan to vote no on this budget.

1:01:23We already know one councilor has to recuse himself from the budget.

1:01:29And so if we failed— so if we passed an amendment and we failed to then get the 9 votes to adopt an emergency clause on this, what would the legal consequences be?

1:01:41They've ransomed us.

1:01:49Well, uh, if you, if you amended the budget tonight, could not pass it as an emergency ordinance tonight because you couldn't have 9 votes, you'd have to carry it over at least 5 days, um, under the charter to vote on it on second reading.

1:02:09So you'd be pushing it into next week.

1:02:10I think we should just do it tonight.

1:02:12Depending on the size of the change you make in the amendment, you may or may not have to abide by the additional notice requirements.

1:02:18So you'd force us to take action next week, and at that point, Mr. Biery and his team don't have time to do what they need to do.

1:02:27So it's not a great result to push this into next week, which is why the calendar for this is built the way it is and contemplates the council passing the budget tonight.

1:02:38Thank you.

1:02:38Thank you, Mr. Taylor.

1:02:39And I'll just note the council approval rating is about 24%.

1:02:44Thank you, Councilor Green.

1:02:45Councilor Smith.

1:02:47Thank you.

1:02:48I just wanted to make sure that we were not saying things that were not legal because we can do this.

1:02:53And if we want to amend it, we can amend it on the last day.

1:02:58That is a part of our charter.

1:03:00And understanding that it's not going to be like 20 or 25 amendments.

1:03:05If someone puts one amendment in, that's not going to cause a lot of work.

1:03:08Yes.

1:03:09And so for me, I think that when we get information from the administration, we should get information that is very clear, not information to push us away so we won't do something that you don't want us to do.

1:03:26Because if you can't add one amendment to this budget tonight, and if we get 9 votes you should be able to do it.

1:03:36So my second question to you is, what if we don't get 7 votes tonight, period, and we don't pass a budget?

1:03:43Then what happens?

1:03:47So on, on this item, it's, uh, it's— well, if you don't amend it and it— and you just take it as it is right now, it's final passage of a non-emergency ordinance.

1:04:00But what if we don't get 7 votes?

1:04:01The mayor, because this is final passage of a non-emergency ordinance under the rules adopted by council, the mayor can break a tie on that.

1:04:10No, I'm not talking about breaking a tie.

1:04:11I'm talking about what if we don't even get 6 votes and we get 5 votes tonight?

1:04:17If it looks like this item is going to fail, then what I would recommend that the council do is use the procedure to move for reconsideration.

1:04:29So somebody on the prevailing side—.

1:04:30We take a recess, is that what you're saying?

1:04:32Well, you would— if this item fails, you need to follow the procedure to reconsider the vote, to revive it.

1:04:39City Council!

1:04:39To revive the item.

1:04:41Over a year, over a year they have not shut down 2 electric ice facilities.

1:04:52Fuck you, Keith Wilson, fuck you!

1:05:00Who's paying you to keep our facility open?

1:05:04City Attorney, could you please answer— finish the, the answer, please?

1:05:08Yeah, if, if this item fails to, uh, to pass tonight, you're going to want to reconsider, uh, and in order to do that, you need to be on the prevailing side to make a motion to reconsider, which means you need to have voted no.

1:05:24So you need to to pay attention to how you're voting.

1:05:27You may need—.

1:05:27Somebody may need to change their vote so they vote no.

1:05:31If you vote no, you can move for reconsideration.

1:05:34I would strongly advise Council to vote yes on the motion to reconsider.

1:05:39That would revive the item so it's at least still alive and before the body.

1:05:46And then you may want to take a recess and we can talk through what is possible at that okay, thank you.

1:05:56Thank you, Councilor Smith.

1:05:58Colleagues, is there further discussion of this item?

1:06:03This is the— yeah, if folks want to make comments on the vote on the budget, this is a good time to do it.

1:06:07Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:06:09Hope no one else is going to get in the queue.

1:06:12Um, colleagues, I have a few things to say, but I need to counter a false narrative first that we've heard a few times through this process.

1:06:20When we asked you Portlanders to pass the parks levy, we told you it would maintain the current level of service in some very—.

1:06:34This is a disruption.

1:06:35Thank you, security.

1:06:36Please escort this gentleman out.

1:06:45Portlanders, we said that that levy would maintain current service level in parks in some very key and specific areas.

1:06:52We meant that.

1:06:55Many of us very specifically asked the mayor to make sure that any budget he brought forward maintained those areas within the parks budget.

1:07:05Parks also has general fund that mixes with levy funds and some other funding funding streams and including user fees in their budget.

1:07:12And as we have had to cut general fund, there have been some cuts in parks.

1:07:18But to continue to say, as multiple people have, that we put forward a levy that wouldn't fund current service level, or that we are cutting things that we said we would fund in the levy, is false, and it will not help us restore Portlanders' trust we need to represent where we were at and be clear about why we are making the decisions we are in other parts of the parks budget.

1:07:43I also want to note that there are many councilors who brought and passed critical amendments to this budget, not just those who are named previously.

1:07:53But colleagues, what I really want to say is this is not a great budget.

1:07:58It's not.

1:08:00We knew it would not be.

1:08:02We knew that a budget with the level of cuts that we thought we would be making in a city with the needs that we have, and frankly with the population with the inspirational, brilliant ideas that Portlanders have about ways we could be doing more and doing better by our community if resources allowed, there was no way this could have been a great budget.

1:08:19But this is not even a good budget.

1:08:22We have left so much on the table.

1:08:25Our city administrator with all due respect, Mr. City Administrator, I know the work your team does is critical, but your team is doubling at a time when we are cutting frontline services.

1:08:36I think most Portlanders would find that unacceptable, but we did not even discuss that despite the fact that many of us brought forward proposals to change that.

1:08:46We all agreed on some positions that needed to be saved: our international program, fire rescues, PS3.

1:08:52That I think the vast majority of people up here talked about, but we couldn't come together to get there and close that deal.

1:09:01We gave up opportunities to respectfully debate big issues and the trade-offs that they presented to us.

1:09:08I am disappointed in that, and I hope that Portlanders expect enough of us that they are too.

1:09:15So colleagues, this is not a good budget.

1:09:19I want to be clear, our city is too important to me, and because of that, I won't risk this budget failing.

1:09:25I won't risk our staff not knowing what July 1st holds for their employment or their paychecks.

1:09:30I won't risk Portlanders not knowing what July 1st holds for summer camps that their kids are enrolled in or public safety in their communities.

1:09:38So sure, I will vote yes today, Mr. President.

1:09:42I will vote yes today.

1:09:44But I want to be so clear that this is not a good budget.

1:09:48There is work that was left on the table.

1:09:50There is work to do to support Portlanders and to respect our city employees.

1:09:59Thank you, Mr. City Administrator, for picking up on the asks some of us had to make sure our city employees aren't looking at losing their healthcare in 2 weeks.

1:10:08I appreciate I appreciate you doing that when we could not.

1:10:12I hope, colleagues, that we can do better in future years.

1:10:16Thank you, Mr. President.

1:10:17Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:10:19Vice President Clark.

1:10:21Thank you, Councilor President.

1:10:22I don't really have a speech prepared.

1:10:26This is a disruption.

1:10:29If security can please escort this person out of the building.

1:10:33Thank you.

1:10:37And security, if you could also please take care of the people up front here who are continuing to disrupt the meeting.

1:10:44Thank you.

1:10:45Thank you.

1:10:46Security, please escort the folks out of the room.

1:11:01This is a disruption.

1:11:03And the folks who are standing in the back of the room, can they please, please be removed from the, from the chambers?

1:11:10Security, if you could please remove the individuals who are standing in the back of the chambers.

1:11:14Thank you.

1:11:15Go ahead and please remove the people in the back of the room.

1:11:17They're causing a disruption.

1:11:19Thank you, security.

1:11:21Shame on him!

1:11:24Shame!

1:11:25Shame!

1:11:26Shame!

1:11:27Let's go, let's go, whole back row, let's go!

1:11:33Vote no to this ordinance!

1:11:37Vote no to this ordinance!

1:11:39Vote no to this ordinance!

1:11:41Vote no to this ordinance!

1:11:43Vice President Clark.

1:11:55Thank you, Council President.

1:11:57I got to get my blood pressure to go down here a little bit.

1:12:02Uh, this is a disruption.

1:12:05Thank you.

1:12:06Please go escort this person out of the chambers.

1:12:09Council security, please go ahead and escort the person standing out of the chambers.

1:12:15No justice, no peace!

1:12:23Vice President Clark.

1:12:26Are you sure it's safe for me to speak?

1:12:28Probably not.

1:12:29Probably not.

1:12:30Okay, deep cleansing breath, get that blood pressure down.

1:12:35Uh, okay, so I'll—.

1:12:39All right, thank you, thank you, thank you, security.

1:12:47They're running over our progress.

1:12:50What are you guys doing to protect us?

1:12:52We deserve our counselors to protect us.

1:12:54Thank you.

1:12:55I don't want to hear the people.

1:12:56You don't want to hear the people?

1:12:58Progressive counselors.

1:13:00Dang.

1:13:02What's funny?

1:13:02But that's so funny, right?

1:13:03That's so funny.

1:13:05Democratic socialists.

1:13:09Okay, okay, I'll try one more time.

1:13:10Try one more time.

1:13:11Deep cleansing breath.

1:13:12Mhm.

1:13:16Um, I want to just say that I really appreciate the comments of, uh, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:13:22I agree with many of them.

1:13:23I also appreciated the comments of Councilor Avalos last week when she mentioned that we might be arguing over the sources of money as opposed to the substance.

1:13:34And, um, I think we're actually much closer as a a group than we are apart.

1:13:42So I agree with those comments.

1:13:44But this is a very difficult vote because I'm not really happy about the budget.

1:13:49Clearly, I'm not happy about the cuts that we're approving, potentially losing vital employees.

1:13:56We're cutting public safety.

1:13:57I think that's really inappropriate.

1:13:59That's—.

1:13:59We're going to be less safe.

1:14:01We're going to create longer 911 response times.

1:14:04Councilor Loretta Smith.

1:14:07And at the same time, we've been asking our public safety department to do more and more to implement ordinances that we pass that they may not have the resources to do.

1:14:21So ultimately, while I'm really unhappy with this budget, I'm not going to give up.

1:14:27I am not going to give up and find other ways to restore the cuts to public safety.

1:14:33To police training and support and fire rescue.

1:14:38I think we've made multiple attempts to do that, and we have failed 6 to 6, as people have pointed out.

1:14:44But I am undaunted in working to restore those cuts.

1:14:49I will very reluctantly be voting for this budget tonight, but I will say I am not giving up.

1:14:54Thank you, Vice President Clark.

1:14:56Councilor Murillo.

1:14:58Thank you, President Dunphy.

1:15:00I feel like we don't get a chance to say good things to one another, and I want to thank you for your process this year for a few reasons.

1:15:10Because you have a really hard job and everyone's always mad at you when you're the council president, as everybody knows.

1:15:15And we had a very— a much more comprehensive process.

1:15:20We worked on this.

1:15:21We had 9 work sessions to discuss the budget in depth, the entire council.

1:15:25It wasn't broken up by committee, so everyone had the same information.

1:15:27Thank you.

1:15:29Each of those work sessions was 3 hours.

1:15:32So we had 32 hours of deliberation for the approved budget and then 7 hours of deliberation for the adopted, plus 6 hours of testimony on the approved.

1:15:41And that means that we had about 72 hours total on the budget, 75 if you count some of what's happening tonight.

1:15:48That is more process and that is more information sharing than we had last year.

1:15:53And I think it was much more comprehensive when we brought amendments forward this time around because because we had time to look at everyone's amendments and sort of grapple with what was coming forward.

1:16:01So I want to say thank you for that because I don't think you've gotten a lot of public thanks for that, and you do deserve it because it's a hard job.

1:16:12I also want to say, you know, when we're talking about parks and what's happening in the budget, there are a lot of different areas that are being cut.

1:16:20The Parks Board did share a letter with the council that flagged issues with the mayor's proposed budget.

1:16:25With regards to the levy, the proposed budget—this is a quote from their their letter—the proposed budget calls for 14.3 million reduction to parks and recreation funding from the general fund.

1:16:36This is a cut on top of the additional 7 million in the core services realignment measures that are understood to have a negative services impact on parks and recreation.

1:16:45The board believes that such cuts would immediately and unacceptably reduce parks and recreation service levels and would break any.

1:16:51Trust between the city's government and the city's residents that was established with the passage of the parks levy.

1:16:57While there are certainly, I think, technical aspects to the levy, I don't think that when I talked to my constituents that they understood the way that those technicalities were framed.

1:17:07Because when I speak with people, regular people, they think that the parks levy fully funded maintaining services as is.

1:17:14Nobody understood the nuance that it was not.

1:17:16So.

1:17:16So to me, I don't think that's because our constituents are foolish or don't understand it.

1:17:21I think it's because we poorly advertised and explained it, and it's our duty to make sure that we're the ones properly explaining it.

1:17:30I also want to talk about what compromise means on this council, because I'm kind of glad that we're starting to have the discussion about the fact that there are actually 2 blocks here.

1:17:39The word compromise doesn't mean that everyone eventually agrees to your position.

1:17:44It means that we are all trying and negotiating with one another based on the things that are important to us.

1:17:51The progressives on council brought roughly 6 different funding sources for the fire and rescues over 2 days.

1:17:58Every single one died on a party line of 6 to 6.

1:18:01You don't get to bring 6 offers and be called the inflexible one.

1:18:06We moved to negotiate, and that was voted down.

1:18:10When Councilor Green moved to recess specifically to get to a yes on other people's package, the Pirtle-Guiney-Novick 4 one, that motion failed 3-8-1 with one person I think being absent, and they voted against taking the time to reach an agreement on their own amendment.

1:18:25Councilor Smith's recess to renegotiate a combined package failed 2-10.

1:18:29We asked to talk and that was adjourned.

1:18:33So we cross over to past things.

1:18:36And that is the actual test.

1:18:38We voted for Zimmerman 7.

1:18:40I thought that was a good one.

1:18:41We built, uh, Koyama Lane 9 with Eric Zimmerman.

1:18:46It passed 11 to 1.

1:18:48Crossing the aisle to pass something is collaboration, and voting no on every single funding source for fire and rescues is not.

1:18:56What actually dies on a tie on our side is a 6 to 6 that kills fire and rescues.

1:19:02A 911 call taker, union jobs, everyone with a real name, a named funding source.

1:19:09On the other side, the thing that they killed repeatedly is one thing: protecting the police accountability fund that 82% of voters approved.

1:19:18That's the real divide— restorations versus a voter mandate that they want to raid.

1:19:24The fiscal responsibility line does not survive contact.

1:19:28The CFO has admitted under questioning—.

1:19:31I'll wait till they're removed.

1:19:45Councilor Maria.

1:19:46Thank you.

1:19:47The fiscal responsibility line does not survive because the CFO has admitted under questioning that there's no model tying any of these amendments to credit rating the mayor's own budget draws down $44 million in reserves.

1:20:02We're lectured that $6 million for fire and rescues is reckless by people who are comfortable with $75 million-plus of climate funds on an arena.

1:20:11The door is still open for anyone who wants to negotiate or anyone who will pick up the phone or come in person to a meeting.

1:20:20GAM 2, the package that saved every single affected job and core service, was left on the table.

1:20:24We are not negotiating.

1:20:25We worked overnight on a compromise, were ghosted by the morning, and if anyone is actually serious about a compromise, it can still land at the June 17th second reading, and we're going to be there for that.

1:20:38We keep hearing that compromise means working together, and I agree.

1:20:44So count the offers, count the crossover votes, count who moved to recess and to negotiate, and count on who voted no.

1:20:52And record the answers to those questions, and please give me that breakdown when you have it.

1:20:56I would love to see it all laid out.

1:20:59I don't think that this budget is good enough.

1:21:01I think that we have sacrificed the workers that do everything for our city.

1:21:05I think we have sacrificed a lot of core services.

1:21:07I think that we have not bought ourselves the time.

1:21:10We have not bought ourselves the time to save these employees, many of whom are immigrants.

1:21:19We have not taken the time to save the core workers who do our core services when we could have bought this.

1:21:28We could have bought ourselves time to do this the right way.

1:21:31It didn't actually have to go this way.

1:21:33Because I believe that we have to be responsible with the budget, I will of course be voting yes.

1:21:39I think it would be frankly embarrassing for this council to not be able to pass a budget without having the state intervene.

1:21:44Thank you.

1:21:46But it is honestly sort of devastating that we can't get our colleagues in the room when we are repeatedly offering that in order to work together.

1:21:59And I'm sorry.

1:22:03Thank you, Councilor Mariano.

1:22:07Councilor Novick.

1:22:09This is a disruption.

1:22:10Can you please go ahead and remove Move this person from the chambers.

1:22:12Thank you.

1:22:13Threatened to shoot us with a gun.

1:22:15Isn't that interesting?

1:22:17You care more about threatening us than ICE.

1:22:20You are collaborating in fascist takeover.

1:22:37Councilor Novick.

1:22:39I was not planning to say anything, but Councilor Morillo has repeated that there were negotiations going on and she was ghosted, and that is simply not true.

1:22:48My, my— while we were on the dais last week, my chief of staff was discussing with staffers for your side, um, details of a possible agreement, and then you guys walked away.

1:23:02And because— and when I questioned— when I raised that with you Last week, you said—.

1:23:06I'm talking about the week before with Elana, not you.

1:23:10Well, I was, um, I was hearing from Elana all the time, and our staff was continuing to talk that morning.

1:23:16So apparently—.

1:23:17Councilor Morillo, this is my time.

1:23:20Thank you.

1:23:21Uh, so the, the fact that your idea that you bent over backwards to forge an agreement is false, and you're stating that we were the ones that walked away is false.

1:23:32Sometimes you just can't reach agreement.

1:23:34For example, one of the reasons we couldn't reach agreement was that one of your bottom lines is no money for police training, because for some reason you think that poorly trained police is a public safety priority.

1:23:44We couldn't reach agreement.

1:23:46It's not that some of us didn't try.

1:23:49Thank you, Councilor Novick.

1:23:50Councilor Zimmerman.

1:23:57A weird day to to weigh in on something.

1:24:02Um, I walked into this budget well aware of the budget cuts that we were facing, and my line that I was trying to adhere to was the, the frontline service, right?

1:24:15If you mow the grass, if you respond to the call, if you're the carpenter, you make sure that the play structure is safe for kids to, to play on and slide down you know, those frontline services.

1:24:29And I think that in large part, a lot of that was protected here.

1:24:35And there's a lot to be left that is not— it's not okay.

1:24:41This budget should not have been crafted with as much public safety cuts in it as far as we've come in the last few years.

1:24:47And that's really troubling.

1:24:50And the last 2 council presidents ruling that the mayor doesn't have a tie-breaking vote has really hampered but I think that, you know, we live to fight another day.

1:25:03I don't think that any mayor in the future should craft a budget this way because we cannot build it back without the vote.

1:25:13But overall, I think I generally feel like we stuck to that line of frontline service.

1:25:19But that also means there are plenty of city workers who are uncomfortable or mad or frustrated with the way that this budget was crafted.

1:25:23Or outright angry with my position on that because I've said time and time again that the multiple layers of coordinators and analysts are not the area that in a budget like this that I was really looking to fight really into the late hours for.

1:25:40And I recognize that.

1:25:41But I was willing to look at a park worker, at a PS3.

1:25:46I was willing to look at people who teach your kids how to swim that's where my— that's the kind of basic frontline service that I described with District 4 as we entered into this.

1:26:00And I think that at the end of the day, when Portlander calls 911 on July 1st, they're not gonna get a slower response time on July 1st than they would've today.

1:26:12And I care about that.

1:26:14Thank you.

1:26:16Pools, pools are going to be open.

1:26:19Kids are going to get to swim.

1:26:21That part, that part matters.

1:26:22And I think that this is a very frustrating policy process.

1:26:26I've not enjoyed it.

1:26:27I, I appreciate that Councilor Murillo gave some praise, but I think this has been a rough process.

1:26:32I think we ended at early hours in the afternoon for kind of erroneous reasons, um, and we could have gotten there.

1:26:39So didn't go great, but I wanted to I'm going to just end it here.

1:26:43Mr. Mayor, Mr.

1:26:44Administrator, I don't know that there is another city in Oregon who has as lacking of a transparent budget as the City of Portland.

1:26:52I cannot make well-informed decisions in this process with this budget moving forward.

1:27:00I have worked in 4 governments as a senior official.

1:27:05I should have a fairly good grasp of the funding to programs, the employees to programs, and how that fits on an org chart to programs, to people, to processes.

1:27:18And I think that part of this, at times explosive, but just this undercurrent that is kind of— we feel today has a lot to do with, of all the councils across the state of Oregon, I think we had the least amount of information.

1:27:34Thank you.

1:27:35Because by providing an abundance of information that's not usable doesn't make it actually a more informed process.

1:27:41And so I'm asking for basics next year, really basics.

1:27:49Please, God, look at Multnomah County.

1:27:52I can look at the Health Department, who has multiple divisions and multiple sub-offices of those divisions, and within a flip of a page, generally get within the 90% mark of this is a grant-funded program, it has 5 employees to it, it also has some general fund, that's another 5 employees.

1:28:14That's called the East County Clinic, or that's called the Downtown Mothers and Infants Clinic, or what have you.

1:28:23We don't have that granularity to get here.

1:28:26And so So for decision-making purposes, when a person brings an amendment that says 4 FTE, to not be able to raise that against the relativity for the whole program and how it all fits together makes it an impossible task.

1:28:41And so I am begging you, I am asking you, there are resources across the river, there are resources across the state.

1:28:47It doesn't have to be this hard.

1:28:50And these budget documents the comments, frankly, were not adequate.

1:28:57Were not adequate.

1:29:02And I've done it a lot.

1:29:05This isn't my first time.

1:29:07No, no, no.

1:29:08It's not my first time.

1:29:09I've done this a lot.

1:29:10And, and I, I can agree with my colleagues.

1:29:14I think sometimes maybe this point gets a little glossed over because it comes from some of the newer colleagues, but I am doubling down they are right.

1:29:21I am right.

1:29:21We need your help to do it.

1:29:23And if, if we don't get it, the forcing function is a blunt instrument.

1:29:27The forcing function is 6 to 6 constantly.

1:29:30The forcing function is a bunch of work sessions that frankly were just about cuts.

1:29:35Nobody came and presented about what they were going to go achieve next year.

1:29:40We need your help in that.

1:29:41The story of this year didn't have to be about cuts.

1:29:44The story of this year could have been, yes, we are dealing with cuts, but here's also what we're going to deliver.

1:29:48There's only one section that was able to talk about that, and that was in the mayor's sheltering plan.

1:29:54And the reason I think that is, is because you have deep ownership over that, Mr. Mayor.

1:29:58I would encourage you and the city administrators and the deputy—.

1:30:01Sorry, this year should be revoked permanently.

1:30:04And the deputy city administrators to please have that type of deep ownership over what you're going to deliver next year's presentations, because the moms, the dads, the brothers, the sisters, the seniors, They want to hear about what we are going to continue to fund.

1:30:18The cut doesn't have to be 99% of the conversation.

1:30:22So this is a challenging, challenging budget.

1:30:27It was not helped by a challenging process and challenging documents, and so it's been compounding.

1:30:33But for Portlanders, again, when you call 911 on July 1st, we're going to answer, we're going to respond, we're going to give you help.

1:30:41When you sign your kids up for lessons or camp, Thank you.

1:30:47The things that bothered you a few years ago are becoming fewer and fewer, and I think that that is a good thing.

1:30:52So let's not lose sight of that, which can be a good thing.

1:30:56That's your legacy, change it or not.

1:31:01And with that, thank you, Mr. President.

1:31:03That concludes my remarks.

1:31:05Thank you very much, Councilor Zimmerman.

1:31:07Councilor Koyama Lane.

1:31:08Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

1:31:09Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Councilor Zimmerman, for being really specific about some things that we need to see in upcoming budgets.

1:31:21And I want to note, I don't know if you saw, but there were a lot of people nodding along with what you were saying.

1:31:27And I also want to say that to the media, because it is maybe more fun or interesting to focus on when we are locked in 6-6, but there also are there are quite a few times when we agree, oftentimes unanimously on things too.

1:31:40So we can talk about that a little bit too.

1:31:44I also want to thank Council President, Council Vice President for this process, for all the work that's gone into it.

1:31:51I also want to thank your staff.

1:31:54I know that they have done a ton of work in building timelines and giving us updates and making sure that We all have the right things in our inboxes.

1:32:03So props to the staff that don't get as much recognition as they should.

1:32:11I think budget season— people had said this— is like the worst part of the year, and we're almost done.

1:32:18We're so close.

1:32:20I also want to thank Councilor Pirtle-Guiney because you put a lot into it last year, and I don't think I understood as much until we got to this year.

1:32:29Thank you.

1:32:30And I kind of am like, I don't even know how you did.

1:32:33I think just like, I don't think I would have known how to like pull it out of nowhere because you had gone through budget process, you've seen other people do it.

1:32:40But I believe, and I think Council President would agree, that he added on to a lot of what you had started.

1:32:46So I'd like to acknowledge that.

1:32:54I'm bummed that but we didn't, we weren't able to come with some amendments that were compromises to save more jobs.

1:33:01And I'm holding on hope, holding on to hope that there will be some work in the coming weeks, and I'm going to push for that, and if needed, be part of that.

1:33:13I do hope that a place we start is like, it's really simple.

1:33:16I feel like I've said it a lot, like let's just draw a Venn diagram and like see where we overlap in the middle and let's start there.

1:33:23And what are your non-negotiables?

1:33:26And let's just try to see where we can overlap.

1:33:30And I know there's like a lot of back and forth and who was available and blah, blah, blah.

1:33:34And honestly, like, I don't really care.

1:33:37Like, I just, I just want us to, to get to a good place.

1:33:42And I also do feel the need to say, because I know that we're all going to be allowed to just talk once, so I don't think Councilor Pirtle-Guiney is going to get a chance to talk.

1:33:51I'll let her have one more.

1:33:53Okay, well, I kind of already teed it up, so I just want to say, more than any other elected up here, um, I have a special connection to you because we're moms that go home to little kids, and I know that that comes with different challenges.

1:34:12And, um, whatever happened with the text messages and who was dodged, I I know that and believe that you were taking your kid to the dentist that morning.

1:34:21And you have had my back when I've— actually, was it just last week when I wasn't going to go to a procedure for my own kid?

1:34:28And you encouraged me to remember that I'm also a mom.

1:34:31Okay, so I just want to acknowledge that.

1:34:34And whatever happened, I believe that, and I support you putting your kid thank you.

1:34:42I think we should put our kids first in that way.

1:34:47This job is so weird.

1:34:54And there's— I'm processing a lot.

1:34:57Like, I think being at a year and a half, I have realized there's like always a group mad at you, and that's kind of how it's supposed to be.

1:35:03I think if you're doing it right, there are people that are mad at you.

1:35:06But I did want to tell us this.

1:35:08I've shown this to Council Vice President many times.

1:35:10Thank you.

1:35:10I want to show you guys a postcard that was sent to my office that is to all of council, and there's some beautiful art of the Pacific Northwest on one side.

1:35:19It says, once we begin to act, hope is everything.

1:35:22And it's from a 4th grader in my district who wrote this to all of council.

1:35:27So I want everyone to hear this.

1:35:29There's a peace sign and then it says, to City Council, from Rufus, you da best council ever.

1:35:36So I just want us to remember that, like, there are kids like Rufus that are watching us and are rooting for us.

1:35:42And this is hard, but it's worth it.

1:35:46And I'll leave it there.

1:35:49Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.

1:35:51Councilor Green.

1:35:52Thank you, Council President.

1:35:54Um, I'm going to keep this brief.

1:35:56I actually wasn't going to say anything to the sort of substantive part of the budget, but I I don't know if I'm going to be sitting next to Councilor Zimmerman next year.

1:36:07You know, you may get bounced, I may get bounced.

1:36:09We're up for reelection.

1:36:11But you're spot on in everything that you said about the process.

1:36:17I know that the city administrator is hearing that.

1:36:20I know the mayor is hearing that.

1:36:21I know that our finance staff have heard that every step of the way.

1:36:25It's important for the public to hear that too.

1:36:27So thanks for making those points.

1:36:28Thank you.

1:36:30That's an area of great unity, I think.

1:36:34You know, I think for my own amendments, it could have been easier to make the case perhaps if it was easier to go through a budget that was much more transparent and I could communicate more easily about, you know, where chopping from the— what chopping from the top might look like, for instance.

1:36:49That's one piece of the puzzle.

1:36:51But I just wanted to reinforce that.

1:36:52I think it's an important point to make.

1:36:54I think we all were nodding along.

1:36:56And, you know, I agree, this is not a great budget.

1:37:01We're dealing with terrible conditions, and we need to get serious about raising the revenue from the large corporations who do business in the city of Portland so we can actually afford the core services of our city.

1:37:13And I'll leave it at that.

1:37:16Thank you, Councilor Green.

1:37:17Councilor Ryan.

1:37:20Thank you.

1:37:21Thank you so much, Council President and Council Vice President.

1:37:24I agree that although the content was rough, I thought the way you managed the meetings was actually really helpful.

1:37:35I liked that you stuck to time boundaries, and I think it forced us to be more on point.

1:37:43And anyways, and I think the two of you did a good job as a team.

1:37:47Thank you.

1:37:47So I just wanna lift both of you.

1:37:50I don't know if anyone's mentioned Jonas and Ruth, but the two of you in your offices, you put in so many extra hours.

1:38:00You're called up to answer complex questions on the fly, and you always show up and you do it.

1:38:07And so a lot of gratitude to both of you and your staffs.

1:38:11Thank you.

1:38:15You know what?

1:38:15I just wanna start by saying happy Pride.

1:38:18Happy Pride, everyone.

1:38:19It's June.

1:38:20It's actually June 17th.

1:38:22I'm an old gay at this moment, and I've been celebrating Pride longer than any of you.

1:38:29Well, I don't know, Olivia, you were probably out there with your allies, weren't you?

1:38:32You were an ally.

1:38:33But I just think it's really important that I name that.

1:38:37Wow.

1:38:38I was real active.

1:38:40That's what got me involved in politics as a gay activist in my 20s.

1:38:44Yeah, I was in my 20s once.

1:38:46And I've really— I've seen Pride evolve where it was only a protest.

1:38:53And especially for me, who's lived with HIV for over 40 years, it was fighting for our lives.

1:38:59And it's so awesome today that there's allies everywhere.

1:39:04And it's truly a celebration.

1:39:06So I know we celebrate it in July, but June is Pride Month.

1:39:09And so I just wanted to acknowledge that with everyone on this dais.

1:39:14I also want to acknowledge something else that's bigger picture.

1:39:17For nearly 6 years, I've been able to represent Portland in this role, and for 18 months I was the Parks Commissioner.

1:39:23And I really made a big focus on the beautification, renovation of the downtown parks and plazas.

1:39:30Thank you.

1:39:31And I got a lot of pushback on that.

1:39:33But it was about the big picture strategy, because as you know, I always say the city's like a body.

1:39:38The heart is downtown, and you better hope that there's a lot of activation and it pumps resources out to District 1, out to Delta Park and the far reaches of St. Johns and District 2.

1:39:49And if our downtown doesn't come back, I don't know how we're going to come back as a city.

1:39:53That's my way of saying I hope you can come celebrate.

1:39:56There's a ribbon cutting tomorrow at Darcy Plaza, and there'll be a big, big fun celebration next Thursday night, complete with basically a Darcelle show outdoors.

1:40:08So it's something I pushed hard on, a lot of pushback to get it to where it was, and I'm just delighted that tomorrow we'll be cutting a ribbon.

1:40:18Okay, now as I have to get focused on the budgets, sorry, allowing me to go off a little bit, Thank you.

1:40:24Maybe providing some levity, and I needed to do that for my own self.

1:40:31You know, we are— we're split.

1:40:32That's just a fact.

1:40:346 Councilors are consistently loyal to one another.

1:40:37I actually kind of envy it.

1:40:40We're learning how to do that a little bit more.

1:40:43We're learning how to— as independent as we are, we're learning how to come together and do strategy ourselves.

1:40:51Councilor Gonzalez, thanks for smiling.

1:40:54And, you know, I know that that's just part of moving Portland forward.

1:40:59And I don't— I'm not upset that the other side is doing that, and congratulations, but it's just the reality of where we are right now.

1:41:11So let's just name it.

1:41:12Mm-hmm.

1:41:12And I'll join the chorus of hoping someday that there'll be a ruling that allows the mayor to break I think we can all agree on that tie, because I haven't met one person that looked at the voters' pamphlet that sees it any other way.

1:41:25For this council, finding ways to improve the mayor's proposed budget was really limited.

1:41:31It was very limited.

1:41:32It was to additional staffing cuts, tapping into a variety of funds, and reprioritizing the mayor's proposal.

1:41:41Like many Portlanders, who have reached out.

1:41:44I've struggled with these trade-offs.

1:41:46I've seen each and every one of you struggle with the trade-offs in this council's biggest vote of the year.

1:41:52So please allow me to explain my vote.

1:41:54I'll start with the mayor's proposed budget.

1:41:56I thought it was reasonable and focused on improving the humanitarian crisis on our streets.

1:42:01I know at least 6 people don't agree with me on that, but thank you, Mayor, for understanding the connection between economic recovery and providing services to those on I believe the mayor's budget was shortsighted on public safety.

1:42:15Make no mistake, cuts to training budgets are cuts to police reform.

1:42:20Cuts to PS3s are cuts to property crime services.

1:42:23We are second worst in the nation after Memphis.

1:42:28Let me repeat from earlier in the budget deliberations, the only bureau that has experienced a net loss in staff from the City of Portland over the past 10 years is police.

1:42:42Lastly, the budget was out of touch with Portlanders' affordability challenges.

1:42:47Fee and rate increases are well above inflation rates.

1:42:50We can't keep adding higher costs for those living on fixed incomes like working-class families and seniors.

1:42:58Overall, Mayor, I'll give you a, I don't know, a B- or C+.

1:43:02Thank you.

1:43:04I doubt if they even give C's anymore.

1:43:07Today I must decide on if I will support and adopt a budget that now includes 29 amendments and notes.

1:43:14And boy, have I been reflecting.

1:43:17And it's clear to me our amendments and notes actually made the mayor's budget worse.

1:43:23If the amendment Councilor Clark, myself, and others had passed to spend $8 to $10 million of unused money collecting dust, in my opinion, over the next year to bring back the public safety system to include police and fire, I would have been a clear yes today.

1:43:39It was simple, legal, and fiscally responsible.

1:43:44Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

1:43:45Instead, we're going to backpedal.

1:43:47We're going to backpedal on emergency response times.

1:43:50We're going to backpedal on police reform due to less training.

1:43:53We're going to backpedal on helping with property crime.

1:43:56Thank you.

1:43:59The City of Portland and Multnomah County are sending a clear message to our residents and their current electeds that their current electeds do not prioritize their public safety with these continued cuts.

1:44:11The comparison of our county's public safety budget with neighboring counties is darn right embarrassing.

1:44:18We also continued a bad habit of draining accounts and watching reserves and contingencies dip too low.

1:44:27Our city's financial professionals tried to educate us, and the majority of this council dismissed their sage cautionary tales.

1:44:36It often felt like we suspended reality.

1:44:39We simply can't preserve every city program while our resources decline and our fixed costs continue to rise.

1:44:47Thank you.

1:44:48You know what?

1:44:49I always have hope.

1:44:51I wouldn't be alive if I didn't have hope.

1:44:54And it happened on the Willamette River in a dragon boat.

1:44:57On that boat, I was on one team with 3 members of this council, and they all happened to be members of the Peacock Caucus.

1:45:09We did our best to sync up for the best interests of everyone on the boat.

1:45:13That's right.

1:45:14So ideology didn't matter.

1:45:16We are one team paddling forward together.

1:45:20And damn you, Mayor, for winning.

1:45:25We'll get you next year.

1:45:28This independent public servant right now is really struggling.

1:45:33I hear everything you're all saying.

1:45:35I really have been listening a lot, especially this year.

1:45:38I listened a lot more than I And I hope the majority can come together with shared goals that we can all accept.

1:45:49But I hate to say it, this budget is out of touch with the majority of Portlanders, and I'm leaning no.

1:45:57Thank you, Councilor Ryan.

1:45:59Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:46:01Thank you, Council President, for letting me back in the queue, and thank you, Councilor Wilson, for your leadership.

1:46:05Councilor Koyama Lane and Councilor Novick for taking me at my word, recognizing the work that was done, and standing up for a colleague.

1:46:16Portlanders have already heard me have to refute the claim that I ghosted my colleagues in negotiations to try to preserve jobs and services in this budget, and I don't want to belabor— but I don't want to belabor the point and waste time on an interpersonal conflict at this dais, but I cannot continue to have people tell lies about my work and my motives and not say something.

1:46:41So I want to be very clear: at no point last week— I believe that was Thursday— did I stop trying to find a compromise.

1:46:56At no point At no point did I ask my team to do anything other than whatever it took to find that compromise.

1:47:06At no point did my team walk away from the table.

1:47:11At no point did I ghost anybody.

1:47:17Thank you, Council President.

1:47:19Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:47:20Councilor Kanal.

1:47:23Thank you, Council President.

1:47:25Thank you as well to Ruth and Owen.

1:47:26Mayor Wheeler— sorry, now I'm typing it.

1:47:29I really strongly apologize for that.

1:47:33There you go.

1:47:34Oh my, my, my.

1:47:36Can we all thank Councilor Kanal for this moment of grace?

1:47:40We just got to sit with that for a minute.

1:47:43Moment of levity.

1:47:44To Mayor Wilson, to the City Administrator Lee, to everyone else involved in the process this, obviously, everybody said, is a brutal budget year.

1:47:56I think it often gets forgotten that there are real impacts on real people beyond the numbers on a page, to city employees, of course, and to Portlanders writ large.

1:48:07I am disappointed in the budget on the whole.

1:48:10I'm aware we're working within several constraints, most notably the overall budget situation which the mayor worked within to propose a budget, and certainly political constraints as well.

1:48:18Thank you.

1:48:19I have several process comments, some about improvements since last year and some about steps backwards since last year, some about the council part of the process and frankly more about the pre-council part of this process.

1:48:29I'll save all but one of those for the committee of the whole budget debrief next week, but I will say one.

1:48:33I agree completely with Councilor Zimmerman's statement that I cannot make well-informed decisions in this process with this budget moving forward.

1:48:40This has to be better next year.

1:48:43To the content, This budget does not fund everything I'd hoped for.

1:48:46It does many things I'm proud of, and I want to talk about those.

1:48:50But first and foremost, protecting the will of the voters by ensuring that every single dollar of climate justice and police accountability funding goes towards climate justice and police accountability.

1:48:59As a member and former co-chair of the Community and Public Safety Committee, I also want to set a record straight with regard to public safety funding—not so much for the folks up here, but for a media that I think.

1:49:09Has often run out of tired narrative instead of looking at the facts.

1:49:13First of all, council did not cut public safety budgets.

1:49:17The mayor's proposed budget cut public safety budgets, and this council worked very hard to restore many of those cuts.

1:49:23Not a single council amendment cut from public safety other than cutting our own security budgets.

1:49:30Secondly, and Portlanders, I want you to hear this, it was progressive councilors who successfully restored many of the mayor's public safety cuts, and obviously those restorations required a crossover vote or two, and I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who did that specifically for Canal 2 and 8.

1:49:45And 2 of those people are— yes, and I'm getting to you.

1:49:48I'm calling— I got your name in here.

1:49:50Don't worry about it.

1:49:53We restored funding to the Office of Violence Prevention, Ceasefire, and Portland Street Response.

1:49:58We gave CHAT ongoing funding for the first time in the history of the program with Canal 2, with the vote of Councilor Loretta Smith.

1:50:05We restored funding for the St. Johns Fire Engine.

1:50:07Thank you.

1:50:08And I will say you're right to councilors who have said that we cannot afford to drain all the funds because there are negative consequences associated with draining reserves, including new reserves that don't exist yet.

1:50:19And I am mindful that there are risks associated with that.

1:50:22And those risks are less— are less than living in St. Johns and not knowing if you are going to get a fire response because the station does not have a fire engine with water in it.

1:50:39It's not enough for the people of Linton to be told, well, we needed money for a reserve, so we could not fund a St. John's fire engine.

1:50:44And now we don't have anybody near us unless they're coming from Hayden Island or coming from across the St. John's Bridge.

1:50:51It's not enough for the people of Linton to be told, well, we needed money for a reserve, so we could not fund a St. John's fire engine.

1:50:59And for the people councilmember Herbold.

1:51:01Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

1:51:01I think that the people of St.

1:51:02Johns specifically, but Linton as well, I don't think that it rings true to them that having a new BLT, Business License Tax Stabilization Reserve, is more important than the seconds it takes for someone to get there faster or not faster based on our decision not to fund that particular fire engine.

1:51:20And so I'm very grateful to all 7 folks who voted for Canal 2 and restored that.

1:51:25I'm also grateful for those who restored the 911 call taker this second round of the budget with Canal 8, because when we start with response times, our first first responder, the first person you talk to, is the person on the other end of the call when you call 911.

1:51:42And so I'm very grateful that we managed to save one of the 3 cuts there.

1:51:46It wasn't enough.

1:51:47We saved 6 PPB jobs.

1:51:49You heard that correctly.

1:51:49Progressive councilors successfully added money back to the Portland Police Bureau to save we did all of that without defunding police accountability, which for the record is also a critical component of public safety.

1:52:04Do we want to do more?

1:52:05Absolutely.

1:52:07There were amendments proposed, many amendments to fund fire rescues, public safety support specialists, and victim services jobs at PPB.

1:52:14We tried to fund the fire rescues colleagues in so many ways.

1:52:17We tried in Green 1 to use one-time general fund contingency to fund restoration of a unit.

1:52:21We tried to fund the fire rescue we tried in Canal 5B to use opioid dollars currently allocated to Portland Solutions, which the administration responded to saying that those dollars would be taken from Bybee Lakes and Grand Recovery.

1:52:31We tried in Green Avalos-Murillo 1 to use PCF interest from 2025-2026, the current fiscal year.

1:52:37We tried in Canal Koyama Lane 10A to use some of the money for expanding the North Portland Temporary Alternative Shelter site to nearly double instead of more than double capacity there to restore 1 unit.

1:52:47We tried in Canal Koyama Lane 10B and 10C to use money from the Impact Reduction Program used for campsite removals for sweeps to restore 2 rescue units, and it was split in half so that you could vote for either just half of that or the whole thing.

1:52:59All of that failed 5— 6-6.

1:53:01That's 5 different sources of funding, all with the same 6 on either side.

1:53:06I should note there were other amendments which failed to restore the rescues.

1:53:09They fall into 2 categories.

1:53:11First, the ones which use an inefficient funding source by cutting general fund overhead spending.

1:53:15To add general fund discretionary spending, which basically means you have to cut a dollar to spend 43 cents when there are other more efficient ways to use that, and they have value where they are.

1:53:23I couldn't support it, but I don't think that was an immoral proposal or anything like that.

1:53:27But there were amendments which aimed to defund the new police accountability system.

1:53:31RISE is starting to get stood up, and I do need to correct the record on that because that is against the will of the voters.

1:53:38And I'm grateful that 5 of my colleagues stood with not only me But with the thousands of people, in particular those from marginalized communities, who that new system will serve.

1:53:46And when they come back— not if, but when they come back for the police accountability funds, when they could easily cut the phrase from the OCPA from the amendment and address our concerns— when they come back to defund it again, we will all know that it was never about where the money was going, but always about defunding the police accountability system and cutting its legs out from under it.

1:54:05And if you didn't know that before, you heard it from my D.C.

1:54:07Colleague just a few minutes ago when he said he'd vote yes on the budget if and only if we defunded police accountability.

1:54:13Clip it.

1:54:15Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't fund those public safety needs.

1:54:18We should.

1:54:19And I will keep working on responding to concerns from Portlanders, including the Parks Board, that we must uphold the parks levies promise.

1:54:26I will keep working to respond to concerns from Portlanders, including the NAACP, that we must ensure unarmed responders remain a core public safety service.

1:54:33There was money available for PPB and 311, which was offered up as a compromise, and it was turned down.

1:54:43I'm okay with a no.

1:54:44Let's also say here's another option in the future, I hope.

1:54:47I'll keep working.

1:54:47I'll keep working on preserving our ability to work with the world outside of national borders for our economy and our culture both.

1:54:54On ending the violence associated with sweeps, on ensuring that we stop spending police overtime dollars on protest response, on ending the violence associated with sweeps, on ensuring that we stop spending police overtime dollars on protest response, Instead of combating human trafficking and street racing and all the other stuff which came from their list of priorities at PPB.

1:55:08And I'll keep working to try to preserve city jobs, union jobs, and make our org chart look more like a pyramid and less like a pillar.

1:55:15And to those union employees who are going to be laid off here, I am sorry that we did not do better.

1:55:21Colleagues, we all need to do better by looking not only at our priorities but each other's, but also each other's red lines.

1:55:26And finding more solutions.

1:55:28And I'm grateful, as I mentioned, Councilor Smith voted to restore the St. Johns fire engine.

1:55:32Councilor Pirtle-Guiney voted to fund hygiene programs and small donor elections.

1:55:36And I also want to highlight Councilor Avalos and Pirtle-Guiney partnering to preserve the integrity of PCF.

1:55:41But before I get to that, one last thing to the state, because we need your help.

1:55:46Not with money— well, sure, with money, but with the public meetings law.

1:55:50And I want to speak to a specific situation.

1:55:52Last Wednesday, 2 amendments that used this year's PSF interests to save jobs failed 6-6.

1:55:57We did not have enough time scheduled for this year's adopted budget, but we did have overnight to solve it.

1:56:03And the 5 sponsors, and I believe the council president was involved at one point, they went off to compromise and for whatever reason they couldn't.

1:56:09But the other 6 of us couldn't be involved in that solution.

1:56:13We could hold the line or we could just vote to go the other way.

1:56:16And you, the state legislature, who has written a public meetings law that you could not apply to yourself, Because you know that it doesn't work, made our jobs much harder.

1:56:26And given that constraints, we still should have done better.

1:56:29And this year, on that particular compromise opportunity, we didn't.

1:56:33We did pass the test on another one, which is Councilor Avalos and Pirtle-Guiney partnering to preserve the integrity of PCF, and I'm grateful for that.

1:56:39And that made it possible for me to vote yes on the underlying budget.

1:56:42And finally, to the mayor, I do appreciate your courage to make bold choices that past mayors wouldn't make.

1:56:47Thank you.

1:56:48I think you got plenty of criticism, including from me, for specific decisions on what was cut or not, the process, the communication, and more.

1:56:56I'm not walking that back, but I do see that.

1:56:58I do appreciate it.

1:56:59I know you had a lot to work with.

1:57:02And so I did want to express my gratitude to Mayor Wilson on that and to express the hope that we are iterating and getting better each and every time.

1:57:12Thank you, Council President.

1:57:13Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

1:57:14Councilor Novick, last word.

1:57:16Thank you, Mr. President.

1:57:18First of all, Councilor Kanal, I thoroughly agree with you on the public meetings law.

1:57:21I just wanted to note that Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I brought forward a proposal which you did not mention to fund the rescues using the PSAP interest, which was the preferred funding mechanism of the Peacock Group, and 5 Peacocks voted against it.

1:57:36And I also wanted to say that We attempted to restore one of the rescues with cuts to council office budgets.

1:57:43And you're right, not every dollar of the council office budgets can go to general fund, but the rest would not have been wasted.

1:57:49They would have gone back to PBOT and water and BES.

1:57:53So I just wanted to— said that last week, just need to say it again.

1:57:56Thank you.

1:57:57Thank you, Councilor Novick.

1:57:59Colleagues, this is the second reading of a non-emergency ordinance.

1:58:02As a reminder, I am recusing myself from this final vote.

1:58:05It requires 7 votes.

1:58:06The vote is to pass.

1:58:06Keelan, can we please call the roll on item number 7?

1:58:11Sorry, Kanal.

1:58:13Aye.

1:58:14Aye.

1:58:15Ryan.

1:58:17No.

1:58:19Koyama Lane.

1:58:20Aye.

1:58:21Aye.

1:58:21Aye.

1:58:21Novick.

1:58:22Aye.

1:58:22Clark.

1:58:23Aye.

1:58:24Green.

1:58:25Aye.

1:58:26Zimmerman.

1:58:33Avalos?

1:58:34Unfortunately, aye.

1:58:36Smith?

1:58:37Aye.

1:58:39Dunphy abstains.

1:58:40The ordinance passes with a vote of 9 ayes, 2 nos, and 1 abstention.

1:58:46Thank you, colleagues.

1:58:47We still have 4 additional items before us, but it is 8 o'clock.

1:58:50I'm gonna give us a 10-minute restroom break, and everybody please be back here at 8:05.

2:12:56And we are coming back to order.

2:12:58Thanks so much for your patience, everybody.

2:13:00We are now moving to item 8, which Keelan has already read.

2:13:05Item 8 is the approving levies— approve levying taxes for the city for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026.

2:13:12And ending June 30th, 2027.

2:13:15Colleagues, this is the— an emergency ordinance that confirms rates for local property taxes, uses funds, specifies uses of those funds, and enables tax increment financing districts as required by state law.

2:13:28It received testimony and debate last week and was carried over to this week to vote on the budget in one hearing and will be effective immediately upon passage.

2:13:35It requires 9 affirmative votes to pass.

2:13:38Is there any discussion?

2:13:38Yes.

2:13:38Discussion?

2:13:41All right, can we please move to a roll call on item 8?

2:13:49Roll call on item 8.

2:13:53Aye.

2:13:55Aye.

2:13:56Aye.

2:13:58Aye.

2:13:59Aye.

2:14:00Aye.

2:14:01Aye.

2:14:03Aye.

2:14:04Clerk?

2:14:04Aye.

2:14:04Green?

2:14:06Aye.

2:14:07Zimmerman?

2:14:07Aye.

2:14:08Avalos?

2:14:09Aye.

2:14:10Smith?

2:14:10Absent.

2:14:11Dunphy?

2:14:12Aye.

2:14:13The ordinance passes with a vote of 11 ayes and 1 absent.

2:14:16Okay, colleagues, moving to item 9, uh, authorizing a temporary interfund loan not to exceed $600,000 from the Parks Capital Fund to the Hydroelectric Power Operating Fund to provide interim funding to avoid negative cash and fund balances for the 25-26 fiscal this is an emergency ordinance that authorizes a short-term internal loan to ensure that hydroelectric power operating fund does not end the year in a negative in violation of state law.

2:14:42It received testimony and debate last week and was carried over to this week to vote on the budget in one hearing and will be effective immediately upon passage.

2:14:48It requires 9 affirmative votes to pass.

2:14:50Is there any discussion?

2:14:55Seeing none, Keelan, could we please call the roll on item number 9?

2:14:57Aye.

2:15:01Aye.

2:15:03Aye.

2:15:05Aye.

2:15:07Aye.

2:15:08Aye.

2:15:08Aye.

2:15:09Councilor Council President Jamie Dunphy?

2:15:15Aye.

2:15:15The ordinance passes with a vote of 12 ayes.

2:15:18Thank you, colleagues.

2:15:19Item number 10, this is adopting the supplemental budget for the 25-26 fiscal year.

2:15:27This is the second reading of a non-emergency ordinance of the annual overexpenditure ordinance.

2:15:32It received testimony and debate last week and was carried over this week to vote on the budget in one hearing and will be effective immediately upon passage.

2:15:39Nope, that's not right, 'cause it's a second non-emergency ordinance.

2:15:42This requires 7 affirmative votes to pass.

2:15:44Is there any discussion?

2:15:46Councilor Kanal.

2:15:48Hi, yeah, I just wanted to say thanks to the folks that got me information after the last meeting.

2:15:53Last reading on this about the grants.

2:15:55There were a couple that I asked about.

2:15:57I appreciate it.

2:15:58I don't have my notes in front of me, so I can't make it a public thing at this moment.

2:16:02I don't want to say anything incorrectly.

2:16:03And I, so I just ask that that be made, if we can add that as an attachment to the record later or something like that to make sure that that's public what those grants were.

2:16:12But that was all I wanted to get on the record.

2:16:15Thanks.

2:16:16Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

2:16:19Seeing no one else in the queue, Keelan, can we please call the roll on item number 10?

2:16:25Kanal.

2:16:26Aye.

2:16:27Bertolghini.

2:16:28Aye.

2:16:29Ryan.

2:16:30Aye.

2:16:30Koyama Lane.

2:16:31Aye.

2:16:31Murillo.

2:16:32Aye.

2:16:33Novick.

2:16:33Aye.

2:16:34Clark.

2:16:35Aye.

2:16:35Green.

2:16:36Aye.

2:16:36Zimmerman.

2:16:37Aye.

2:16:38Avalos.

2:16:38Aye.

2:16:39Smith.

2:16:40Aye.

2:16:40Dunphy.

2:16:41Aye.

2:16:41Ordinance passes with a vote of 12 ayes.

2:16:44Keelan, can you please call item number 11?

2:16:48Document 2027.

2:16:5126-165, Authorize sewer revenue bonds to finance sewer system capital improvements for an amount sufficient to produce net proceeds of up to $235 million and to refund outstanding sewer revenue bonds.

2:17:04Colleagues, this is the second reading of a non-emergency ordinance.

2:17:06Is there any further discussion?

2:17:11Seeing none, Keelan, can we please call the roll?

2:17:13Kanal.

2:17:16Item 11, right?

2:17:17Item 11.

2:17:18Yes.

2:17:19Aye.

2:17:20Pirtle-Guiney.

2:17:22Aye.

2:17:23Ryan.

2:17:24Aye.

2:17:26Koyama Lane.

2:17:28Aye.

2:17:32Smith.

2:17:33Smith.

2:17:34Dunphy.

2:17:35Dunphy.

2:17:37The ordinance passes with a vote of 12 ayes.

2:17:39Thank you very much.

2:17:41Keelan, can we please move to our last item of night, item number 12?

2:17:45Amend City Code— oh, sorry, Document 2026-174, amend City Code to transfer oversight of portable sign placement in the right-of-way and remove registration requirements, amend Code Title 32, and add Code Chapter 17.110.

2:17:59Colleagues, this is the first reading of a non-emergency ordinance.

2:18:03With us is Christopher Hare, Policy Analyst with Council Operations, for a committee staff summary report.

2:18:08Take it away, Christopher.

2:18:09Thank you, Council President and councilors.

2:18:11For the record, Christopher Herr, Council Operations Policy Analyst.

2:18:14I serve as staff to the City Life Committee.

2:18:17The ordinance before you, document number 2026-174, was considered in the City Life Committee on May 26th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation that it be passed.

2:18:26The ordinance amends City Code Title 32, Signs and Related Regulations, as shown in Exhibit A.

2:18:31The amendments add portable signs to the list of signs exempt from permit and registration requirements and make conforming changes throughout Title 32.

2:18:38The amendments also add reference to City Code Chapter 17.110.

2:18:43The ordinance adds City Code Chapter 17.110, Portland Signs, as shown in Exhibit B.

2:18:48The chapter establishes definitions, standards, and enforcement provisions related to portable signs.

2:18:53General requirements include compliance with applicable standards in Title 32 and provisions requiring sign owners to maintain signs in good condition, ensure signs remain upright and placed outside of pedestrian through zones.

2:19:04Thank you.

2:19:05Chapter 17.10 identifies locations within the public right-of-way where portable signs may not be placed, including roadways, traffic islands, medians, traffic circles, and areas within 5 feet of a crosswalk.

2:19:17The city administrator or a designated representative may inspect for compliance and enforce the chapter pursuant to TRN-8.14, Right-of-Way Use Enforcement Program.

2:19:27Violations are subject to penalties assessed on a per-day basis in accordance the full impact statements on the ordinance includes financial and budgetary impacts, community impacts, and community involvement.

2:19:40There was no verbal or written testimony provided prior to committee action on May 26th.

2:19:44And that concludes the committee staff summary.

2:19:46Thank you.

2:19:46Thank you, Christopher.

2:19:48Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, this came out of the City Life Committee.

2:19:51I'll turn it to you.

2:19:53It did.

2:19:53And that overview was fantastic.

2:19:55Fantastic and thorough.

2:19:56Thank you, Christopher.

2:19:58I will reiterate that this was a unanimous vote, and there was a fair amount of discussion about some of the technical specifics and how this works, but not dissension or significant concern raised on any of the topics covered.

2:20:16Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

2:20:18Councilor Novick, this is your item.

2:20:19Turning to you.

2:20:21Thank you, Mr. President, and thanks to the members of the committee.

2:20:24Thank you, Councilor Smith.

2:20:24Thank you, Mayor Wilson.

2:20:24Thank you to the committee that voted this out 5 to nothing.

2:20:27And thanks to Caroline Holcomb of the Central Eastside Industrial Council who brought this issue to my office's attention as part of a list of silly unnecessary requirements that burden small business.

2:20:38The fact that small businesses are required to get a permit to put a simple sandwich board out in front of their business struck us as extremely silly.

2:20:47It's a requirement that is frequently ignored.

2:20:50It actually is one of these things that places a burden on particularly well-informed and conscientious people who are aware of it and say, okay, I'm not gonna break the rules, I'm gonna send in my $100 and I'm gonna get a permit.

2:21:02And so, whereas other people either aren't aware of it or just ignore it.

2:21:07So we thought that this is a simple enough thing to do to alleviate a small burden on small businesses.

2:21:13And as Christopher said, It simply clarifies that PBOT has the authority to enforce rules against them being placed in the right-of-way in ways that are problematic.

2:21:25Thank you very much, Councilor Novick.

2:21:26Keelan, is anyone signed up to testify on this item?

2:21:30We do have a handful of folks signed up.

2:21:32Okay, colleagues, before we move to testimony, is there any— are there any technical or clarifying questions or comments?

2:21:41Okay, let's move to public testimony, please.

2:21:44Okay, I'll call people up in groups of 5.

2:21:48First up, we have Taylor Long, Stephanie Wilde, Parrish Weber, Blair Glennon, Taylor Goss.

2:22:12Good evening, councilors.

2:22:14Uh, my name is Taylor Goss, and I am here today to discuss something that I think is important, uh, regarding the oversight of portable sign placement.

2:22:25Uh, namely why, during a time when Portland's residents are being abducted off of the streets, we're bothering to discuss it at all.

2:22:34Uh, I don't need to tell you that for an entire year, your constituents who were here this evening have been demanding that City Council take immediate action to shut down the Portland ICE facility.

2:22:45And for an entire year, we have been met with either inaction or frivolous legislation like this or the ethics of foie gras and, you know, the Lloyd Center.

2:22:59It would seem to me that City Council's priorities are currently misplaced.

2:23:04Uh, you did in September of last year finally issue the land violation, the fine for which has never been enforced.

2:23:11And since then, the city has willingly allowed ICE's landlord, Stuart Lindquist, to repeatedly appeal and delay the violation process.

2:23:19I know that you have told us, and you will tell us, that you're trying, but we don't have time for bureaucratic nonsense.

2:23:28As we sit here and discuss signage, immigrants are being kidnapped off of the streets and communities are being terrorized.

2:23:35But it's not just your inaction on the ICE permit.

2:23:42While cities across the country are enacting policies to fight back against federal oppression, Portland actively takes a hand in suppressing those who would defend our communities.

2:23:52Councilor Murillo, you mentioned earlier this evening that Portland doesn't have an armed force to enforce laws, but but in May, on May Day, the Portland Police Bureau was sent to defend the ICE facility, and officers brutalized and arrested activists.

2:24:09In February, they were sent here to City Hall to silence protesters who were exercising their First Amendment rights.

2:24:15This is not only unacceptable, it is a betrayal of your community's values.

2:24:21Now, I know that this evening was frustrating for you, I saw it on all of your faces as I sat here and watched the proceedings.

2:24:31Understand that we're just as frustrated with you as you are with us.

2:24:37You see, we are willing to risk our lives, our bodies, our well-being to step up to that blue line.

2:24:46We know that you're trying.

2:24:48We know that your heart is in the right place.

2:24:52But why aren't you willing to do more?

2:24:56Thank you very much for your time.

2:24:58Thank you very much.

2:25:02Uh, next up we have, uh, Evelyn, PDXCD, Vlad, PDXCD, Rafael, PDXCD, Ray, PDXCD, and Izzy, PDXCD.

2:25:16Followed by Holly Brown, Bailey Ulam, Maddie C., Bridge Crane Simka, and Caroline Holcomb.

2:25:36Welcome.

2:25:40Hey, happy Pride, y'all.

2:25:43All right.

2:25:44Thanks.

2:25:45I'm Bridge Crane Simca Charles Johnson.

2:25:47I'm supposed to slosh the shirt today.

2:25:51So thank you for this effort to save me from the burden of having to affix a little plastic sticker on a sandwich board sign.

2:26:05I, you know, there was a summary that talked about the decrease and between this and the foie gras ban, I'm sure we've instantly turned around things in Portland.

2:26:17Portland was able to survive for up till today with this burdensome legislation.

2:26:27But now that this burdensome legislation is gone, whoo, fast-tracking success.

2:26:33Thank you.

2:26:37I too, yeah, yo soy contra deportaciones.

2:26:40But there are many pathways to trying to minimize and hopefully remove totally the harm that this asinine bullshit racist presidential administration is bringing to cities all over.

2:26:56I don't always empathize with every tactic of PDX.

2:27:01PDX, but they are spot on when they say we can't just have every few months an excessively long, long session like this where we talk about whether we're going to allocate $150,000 or $300,000 to assisting immigrants that are fighting deportation.

2:27:24Of course, things have been really busy.

2:27:26That conversation that I was here for, February, when I think we were taking some of the city attorney's money.

2:27:35We were going to take money from the city attorney to make money available to— so I hope to soon hear a progress report to know the positive impact we're having on how many people.

2:27:48And if— I think there was even a little very Portland-esque episode of different nonprofits feeling not all equally, like they weren't getting equally treated.

2:28:00So let's, even though it's nice that there's a little banner on top of the Portland website, now that we're putting this— actually, we have put the budget to bed.

2:28:12Now that that's done, let's be sure that we have clear visibility in every channel of city communication, not just where thank you very much.

2:28:34That completes testimony.

2:28:38Okay, colleagues, is there discussion of this item?

2:28:42No.

2:28:42I am actually going to kick us off.

2:28:44As the— as I've talked about before in the past, I am a former small business owner myself.

2:28:50My wife and I opened a coffee shop in the Sellwood neighborhood in 2008.

2:28:54I handmade my sandwich board.

2:28:58I cut out plywood and attached door hinges and then went through the complicated process of trying to get all the permits that my business needed, including spending my $100 on a sticker on that sign that I realized very quickly after we opened none of my neighbors had stickers on their signs, or if they did, they were many years outdated.

2:29:18Nobody from the city ever came by to look at it, and admittedly, when it expired, we did not renew it.

2:29:23I think that this is one of the times that it was a really good intention to try and regulate the public areas, but we do truly nickel and dime the smallest of small businesses, and some of the things that were really good intentions 10, 15, 20 years ago are just not providing value now, and they are a continued burden.

2:29:41Another example is the city's efforts back over 20 years ago, maybe 15 years ago, to limit access to spray paint so that we could cut down on tagging.

2:29:53And we required small businesses to collect the driver's license information from every can of spray paint that was ever sold.

2:30:03The general manager of Parkrose Hardware told me that they have a physical copy of every every spray paint can receipt that has ever been sold.

2:30:11It was 2 feet tall in the corner of their office.

2:30:14And when he called the North Police Precinct to see what he could do with all of these documents, there was no intake ability for the police office to even be able to have that.

2:30:24There are 1,000 little things like that that all across our system are deeply inconveniencing small businesses.

2:30:30And Councilor Novick, thank you for tackling this one, and I look forward to seeing all the different ways we can continue to support small business.

2:30:37So you'll be having my support on this.

2:30:40I think everybody else is pretty close to being tired and ready to go home.

2:30:43So, Councilor Green.

2:30:45Thank you, uh, Councilor Novick.

2:30:46Thanks for bringing this.

2:30:47I remember when the sort of germ of the idea began, and we were like, how can I— how can we get this in front of the Arts and Economy Committee?

2:30:54And I think maybe we even had a policy preview discussion at that time, um, maybe maybe I'm remembering a different committee.

2:31:01This all feels like a blur.

2:31:02But yeah, I agree with everything the council president just said.

2:31:05I just also note that this is certainly not the most important thing in Portland right now, but it is something that is a very tactical problem to be solved.

2:31:16It can be solved very easily with a very low cost, and it can improve, I think, the function of the city, and in particular these small businesses who are you know, looking for a signal here.

2:31:28So appreciate you bringing it forward.

2:31:30Also note your presentation has a slide where there's a hot— there's like advertising Big Dog Hot Dogs on the vendor.

2:31:37I don't know if that's intended to curry my favor.

2:31:40I think it was.

2:31:41Okay, well, well played.

2:31:44I plan to support this.

2:31:45Thank you, Councilor Green.

2:31:46Councilor Knell.

2:31:47I was going to make a comment about hot dogs too, actually, but so no need.

2:31:52Thanks.

2:31:52I, I think, um, I just want to comment, we can't solve everything in a single ordinance.

2:31:58We never will.

2:31:59And so if, if the standard of what meets our, uh, is, is worthy of our time is it, it has to solve everything or it's not worth doing, that's, that's a standard that will never be met.

2:32:10And it's worth, um, sort of adjusting expectations in that regard.

2:32:15Um, I think this is something we could spend several hours on, or we could spend a few minutes on, and we should probably do the latter.

2:32:22I plan to support it.

2:32:23Thanks.

2:32:24Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

2:32:30Colleagues, seeing no one else in the queue for discussion— pausing for dramatic effect— this is the first reading of a non-emergency ordinance.

2:32:39This item now moves to second reading.

2:32:43That is our final item on the agenda.

2:32:45Colleagues, is there anything else for the good of the order?

2:32:46Councilor Knell?

2:32:47I just wanted to get an idea if there was a proposed timeline for the, um, the item that was withdrawn— or, or that was referred back, I should say, not withdrawn.

2:32:56Oh yeah, Councilor Smith.

2:32:58Let's get a little more info there if there's— if there is available.

2:33:01There's, there's no information.