Portland City Council PM Session 07/16/26

7:38Good afternoon.

7:39I am calling back to order this recessed meeting of the Portland City Council.

7:45Rebecca, do we start with the roll?

7:47That's always a good thing.

7:47Let's do the roll.

7:50Good afternoon.

7:51Koyama Lane?

7:53Here.

7:55Morillo?

7:55Here.

7:56Novick?

7:58Clark?

7:59Here.

8:00Green?

8:04Zimmerman?

8:04Avalos?

8:05Present.

8:06Smith?

8:07Here.

8:08Kanal?

8:10Present.

8:12Pirtle-Guiney?

8:15Ryan?

8:15Here.

8:16Dunphy?

8:17Here.

8:17And can we please read the rules of decorum for the chamber?

8:21Yes, Council President.

8:22Welcome to the Portland City Council.

8:24To testify before council in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.

8:34Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's webpage.

8:38Individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise.

8:43Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.

8:47The presiding officer preserves order.

8:48Disruptive 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.

8:56If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.

8:59Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.

9:02Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.

9:05Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

9:10Your testimony should address the matter being considered.

9:12When testifying, state your name for the record.

9:15Your address is not necessary.

9:16If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.

9:20Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name.

9:23Thank you.

9:24Thank you very much.

9:26Colleagues, before we get started today, I want to briefly discuss how things are going to flow during this meeting.

9:29As you'll recall, last night, We held over 2 proposed supplemental budgets to continue their first readings to the end of today.

9:36Those items have been placed at the end of today's agenda to allow us to move forward some necessary business before returning to that discussion.

9:43As my office has communicated on multiple channels, we have extended this meeting to be no later than 6:00 PM to allow the appropriate space for work to be concluded.

9:52We're gonna start today with 2 administrative items that are critically time-bound.

9:56We'll then work through 2 pieces of councilor-originated legislation that carried public notice.

10:01Thank you.

10:02That carry noticed public testimony, rather.

10:06I intend for us to take up the supplemental budgets no earlier than the end of public testimony on item 9, likely no later than 4:30 PM.

10:16Items 8 and 9 may not complete a vote or a first reading today.

10:20If not, there is enough flex in next week's meetings to bring them back then.

10:24Regardless of where we are, I'll be moving to pass the supplemental budgets to second reading no later than 6:00 PM today, as our labor partners deserve clarity on a second reading meeting at least 2 weeks before scheduled layoffs.

10:37Onwards.

10:38Keelan, can we please read item number 6?

10:42Item 6, authorize letter of agreement with the Laborers International Union of North America Local 483 for premium pay to assistants and aides as defined in the Preschool for All program, document number 2026-241.

10:56Colleagues, this is an emergency ordinance, and, uh, with us is— is it Sarah Daley with Labor Relations?

11:02Hey, hiya, welcome, take it away.

11:06Try and share my screen here for a moment.

11:09There we go.

11:14Good afternoon, councilors.

11:15For the record, Sarah Daley with Labor Relations, City of Portland.

11:19I'm here to, um, bring before you a letter of agreement with LIUNA.

11:24You may recall that I was here approximately a year ago for the first version of this Premium for recreation associates working in preschool classrooms.

11:36Just a reminder that Multnomah County runs the Preschool for All program, and we have 11 classrooms in the city at 9 separate parks and recreation sites, and that all Preschool for All funding comes from Multnomah County.

11:55So this is a letter of agreement that has a yearly renewal that's required.

12:01Because Multnomah County sets their own yearly adjustments.

12:06And so therefore the difference has to be made up between their minimum wages that they share with us in approximately late winter, early spring, and our entry wage for recreation associates.

12:19So for the last fiscal year, the minimum wage rate for Preschool for All aides was $22.27.

12:26The entry wage for a recreation associate, which is the classification that fills that role, was $19.50.

12:31Okay.

12:33$2.99, And therefore the premium was set at $2.28.

12:37That's for any hours worked in preschool classrooms.

12:43For this year, the minimum wage rate set by Multnomah County for, uh, the Preschool for All aides is $23.16.

12:53After the July 1 COLA, the entry wage for a recreation associate was $20.59, and therefore the premium will be $2.57.

13:02And then Um, with the same caveat that I will be here again next year to do this all again.

13:12Excellent, thank you.

13:14Um, Rebecca, do we have folks signed up to testify on this?

13:20We do.

13:20We have 2 folks signed up.

13:21Okay, let's go to testimony before we do any technical or clarifying questions, combine that with council discussion, and get our folks to come.

13:28Uh, uh, we have Anne Casper and Ryan Sotomayor.

13:41Ryan's online.

13:42You can go ahead, Ryan.

13:49I think the tech is working.

13:51Hello, Council President.

13:52Hello, fellow councilors.

13:54Nice to see you all again.

13:56Appreciate your time.

13:57Uh, just want to encourage an enthusiastic yes vote.

14:01Uh, from each of you on this.

14:04Uh, Preschool for All aides do remarkable work.

14:09They support the lead preschool teachers.

14:14They do so much positive work for our communities, and Multnomah County is paying for this.

14:20So, uh, I was an enthusiastic signer on this, and I will yield the rest of my time.

14:26Thank you.

14:26Thank you so much.

14:28Thank you very much, Ryan.

14:32And Casper.

14:35That completes testimony.

14:36Okay, colleagues, is there any discussion, technical clarifying questions, or any further comments on this?

14:46Councilor Koyama Lane.

14:47Yeah, I just quickly want to say that, um, a wage of $23.75 16 cents an hour means that a worker is making about an estimated take-home pay of about $2,700 a month after taxes.

15:02And thinking about rent and living expenses, that's not quite enough to meet ends meet in Portland.

15:10I want to specifically call out that care work is really important and vital work, especially taking care of our children.

15:16And systemically, it's really undervalued.

15:19Every worker deserves to have a living, thriving wage, and I hope that in the future we can— it can be even more.

15:28So while I support the increase, I hope that we can be a better example down the road and make sure that our staff are getting paid what they need to both work and live here in Portland.

15:38Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.

15:41Colleagues, seeing no one else in the queue, this is an emergency ordinance.

15:44It requires 9 votes.

15:48Rebeca, can we please call the roll?

15:50I'm sorry.

15:50Councilor Koyama Lane?

15:53Aye.

15:56Novick?

15:57Aye.

15:59Clark?

15:59Aye.

16:00Green?

16:01Ditto to everything Councilor Koyama Lane said.

16:03Aye.

16:03Zimmerman?

16:04Aye.

16:05Avalos?

16:06Aye.

16:06Smith?

16:07Aye.

16:08Kanal?

16:09Aye.

16:10Thank you.

16:11Pirtle-Guiney?

16:12Aye.

16:13Ryan?

16:13Aye.

16:14Dunphy?

16:15Aye.

16:16The ordinance passes with 12 aye votes.

16:20Thank you very much.

16:20Can we please call item number 7?

16:24Item 7, extend lease with Urban Office and Parking Facilities for the City Kids Child Care and Development Center space by 5 years, amend CLM Contract 10014, document number 2026-216.

16:38Colleagues, this is the first reading of a non-emergency ordinance.

16:41I believe Christopher Hare with Council Operations is here for a committee staff summary report.

16:46Welcome, Christopher.

16:48Sorry to make you jump.

16:50No, that's, uh, my apologies.

16:52Um, good afternoon, Council President, Vice President, and councilors.

16:57For the record, Christopher Hare, Council Operations Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the City Life Committee.

17:03The ordinance before you, document number 2026-216, was considered in the City Life Committee on June 23rd, where it was referred to Council with a recommendation that it be passed.

17:12The ordinance authorizes execution of a 5-year lease with the Clown Plaza landlord for childcare space to be occupied and operated by Joyful Noise Incorporated, doing business as City Kids Childcare and Development Center, or City Kids.

17:25The ordinance requires that all lease documents receive approval as to form by the City Attorney or designated deputy prior to execution.

17:32It assigns responsibility for the lease's fiscal and performance obligations to the Bureau of Fleet and Facilities, BFF, while the Bureau of Human Resources, BHR, will ensure its contractor, Joyful Noise Incorporated, occupies and uses the space in accordance with the lease terms and supports BFF's lease administration.

17:50The city's contribution towards City Kids operating costs will continue to be funded through the participating city bureaus and facilities in the Downtown Blended Rate Program.

17:58The ordinance authorizes— ordinance also authorizes the city administrator or designee to prepare future budget documents necessary to account for the city's legal, contractual, and fiscal obligations under the lease.

18:10The estimated total cost for the rent and associated landlord operating expenses over the 5-year lease term is $1,256,283.

18:19The full impact statements on this includes financial and budgetary impacts.

18:23There is no verbal or written testimony provided during committee.

18:27And that concludes the committee staff summary.

18:28Thank you.

18:29Thank you, Christopher.

18:30Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, this came out of the City Life Committee.

18:33Any opening remarks for me?

18:35Yeah, colleagues, this is a simple lease renewal with the Crowne Plaza for a child— childcare space.

18:45The City of Portland used to offer childcare services within the Portland Building.

18:50When the Portland Building was remodeled, that program was moved to this space at the Crowne Plaza, and this is a renewal of that lease.

18:58It is a pretty simple renewal I will note that during the committee, there was a discussion amongst a few of us about tuition rates, accessibility, and enrollment in the program, including how to maximize the benefit of the program for city employees in the future and how we might think about this program moving forward.

19:19I'll note that there was also a conversation related to the remarks that Councilor Koyama Lane made regarding the need to have a program made on the last item about the fact that without subsidy, the cost of child care will never be able to meet the need for wages within the child care industry at a level that is affordable both for child care users and provides a living wage for child care providers.

19:44And one of the ways to address that is through subsidy.

19:47This program provides a subsidy through the provision of thank you.

19:51Councilmember Herbold, you have the floor.

19:51Thank you, Mayor.

19:51This is a lease for a space by the city in order to guarantee slots at what is a more affordable level than most child care of this quality in our city, uh, that provides a preference for city employees.

20:06This lease allows us to continue that program for the next 5 years.

20:10It's something that the committee felt was important and that the administration wants to make sure we continue to provide.

20:16Thanks so much, Council President.

20:17Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

20:20Um, Rebecca, has anyone signed up to testify on this item?

20:23No one has signed up.

20:24Okay, great.

20:25So colleagues, we are now into technical clarifying or council discussion.

20:30Uh, Councilor Smith.

20:35Thank you, Council President.

20:37I have a couple of questions.

20:40Um, I'm not sure what side of town is this we have folks from Bureau of Human Resources here to help answer those.

20:50But Christopher, I appreciate you jumping in.

20:53And I wanted to also know what is the percentage of city employees' kids that attend this daycare?

21:05Yeah, thank you, Councilor, and good afternoon, Council President, Council Vice President, city councilors.

21:12Ron Zito, HR Interim Director.

21:16In terms of the location of the facility, City Kids is located, I believe it would be just to the, let's see, it would be the south of the Keller.

21:28Okay, it's downtown.

21:30That's correct.

21:31Okay.

21:32And so what's the capacity?

21:35Yeah, the capacity currently, there's 96 children.

21:41I'm sorry, that's incorrect.

21:42Let me get up to the current numbers here.

21:46The facility is licensed for 87 children.

21:48Okay.

21:49Yeah.

21:50And how many city employees are using it?

21:56Total city enrollees is 37, or 58% as of June of 2026.

22:0258%.

22:03Okay.

22:05And so do they also get a subsidy In addition to having the space subsidized, are they also getting a subsidy for the actual childcare services?

22:17There's no direct subsidy for city employees' families that participate, but there is priority consideration in enrollment.

22:24Okay.

22:25And the overall rate of the support is much less than typical competitors in the area.

22:33Okay.

22:34And so that doesn't— the Preschool for All, this couldn't be like a Preschool for All daycare?

22:40Or, or, uh, Oregon Promise?

22:42It does participate in Preschool for All.

22:44Okay, so there is a subsidy on it of sorts?

22:48Correct.

22:48For those participating in the Preschool for All, there is the county arrangement.

22:51Okay, okay, perfect.

22:53Thank you.

22:54Of course.

22:55Thank you, Councilor Smith.

22:56Councilor Avalos.

22:59Yeah, thank you.

22:59Um, at the committee, I asked a lot of these similar questions too about just who is benefiting from City Kids and how the program supports city employees.

23:09Uh, I raised those questions because childcare is one of the biggest challenges that are facing working families, and I do appreciate that the city has had this longstanding commitment to provide this resource.

23:20Um, but I also think it's important that we continue elevating whether we're maximizing the value of this investment, because we are committing, you know, $1.2 million over the course of a 5-year lease.

23:31Um, but the, the primary benefit to employees is priority enrollment rather than you know, significantly reduced tuition or other direct financial assistance.

23:40So I think as we're continuing to talk about employee recruitment and retention, I hope we're also exploring the ways that we can make childcare more accessible and affordable to our employees.

23:51I had asked also about whether, like, why it wasn't in the Portland building, right?

23:57And like, it was originally there, there was the renovation.

23:59It doesn't sound like there's any potential for it to return to the Portland building, which I think is a shame because I think that was a benefit to have it nearby.

24:08I know it's kind of close to City Hall, but still.

24:12So yeah, I just wanted to raise that as we are having a lot of tough labor negotiations and a lot of what we are able to put on the table is not often financial.

24:23And so this to me, I mean, obviously this is a financial commitment in a way, but It's a different kind of investment in employees that I think we should elevate.

24:33And I would love to see the city, you know, propose ideas to us in upcoming labor negotiations or just upcoming budgets about how we can expand this benefit.

24:45I think it's good that it does qualify for Preschool for All, and I think we need to expand that.

24:50But what I'm hearing too is that it's not necessarily as accessible and I want to increase that.

24:55So I will be supporting this ordinance, but I wanted to put on the record my expectation that we continue to find ways to increase subsidy to employees for childcare.

25:04Thanks.

25:05Thank you, Councilor Avalos.

25:06Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

25:07Thank you, Council President.

25:10Councilor Smith, I just wanted to add to your line of questioning that what we heard in committee was that this program is both— both has Preschool for All slots and participates in the ERDC program, the Employment Related Daycare program.

25:25So there are 2 paths there for subsidy, and their rates are— I will just say anecdotally from my knowledge having young kids— a few hundred dollars a month less than what you would typically pay for child care with these extended hours.

25:39It runs from, I believe, 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening, I think.

25:43So it's a full workday coverage for your base price as opposed to having to pay additional for extended hours.

25:53I will also add to what Councilor Avalos said, that there was a pretty robust discussion about how we subsidize child care and whether we should think about subsidizing child care for our employees in a way that benefits more city employees than this program is able to.

26:12Obviously, this level of investment thank you.

26:29Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

26:33Colleagues, seeing no one else in the queue to discuss this, this is a non-emergency— first reading of a non-emergency item.

26:39This, uh, ordinance, this now moves to second reading.

26:45Rebecca, can we please call item number 8?

26:49Thank you both.

26:50Thank you.

26:51Item 8, direct the city administrator to reestablish a permitting improvement team to lead the second phase of the code alignment project, document number 2026-203.

27:02Colleagues, this is a, uh, resolution coming out of on behalf of the Housing and Permitting Committee, Claire Adamsick with Council Operations is here for a committee staff summary report.

27:10Take it away, Claire.

27:12Thank you, Council President and councilors.

27:13For the record, Claire Adamsick, Council Policy Analyst and staff to the Housing and Permitting Committee.

27:19The resolution before you, document number 2026-203, was heard in the Housing and Permitting Committee on June 16th, where it was referred to full council with a recommendation it be adopted.

27:29The resolution urges the city administrator to reestablish a permitting improvement team within the Community and Economic Development Service Area to initiate the second phase of the city's code alignment project, or CAP 2.

27:41The resolution requests that the city administrator and the deputy city administrators ensure participation in this effort by all relevant city service areas and bureaus to identify and resolve code and regulatory conflicts with the goal of consolidating the city's permitting authority, reducing regulatory burdens, and encouraging economic development.

27:59The resolution further clarifies that the permitting improvement team, at the city administrator's direction, is authorized to serve as the coordinating lead of this work, including convening an external advisory body with stakeholders experienced in design, construction, permitting, and development to provide guidance to the team.

28:17The city administrator is asked to ensure that all improvements to city administrative rules, procedures, and city code be made in collaboration with council and focus on improvements to encourage economic development.

28:27Finally, the resolution requests delivery of the following from the city administrator to the city council.

28:33A report within 60 days of adoption of the resolution that outlines the CAP2 project scope, timelines, staffing, and resource needs.

28:40A work plan within 150 days of adoption that identifies a permanent code team responsible for code and administrative rule drafting, a list of city code chapters requiring amendment, and a framework for centralizing development review and permitting under a single city entity, an assessment of the benefits and challenges of this consolidation.

28:58And finally, identification of staff and resources needed for this work, as well as quarterly progress reports on CAP2 improvement work.

29:07The full impact statement on this item includes information on economic and real estate development impacts and analysis, and community impacts and community involvement.

29:152 People provided verbal testimony at the committee meeting on June 16th, and 2 people submitted written testimony prior to the committee's action.

29:22The general themes of this testimony that the committee heard included highlighting the increased complexity of the permitting process and adverse impacts to project timelines.

29:30Recognizing the urgency in removing barriers to develop needed housing of all types for all income levels.

29:36The need for mechanisms for the city to hold housing developers accountable and ensure compliance with fire life and safety standards, particularly for affordable housing properties.

29:45And finally, support for the resolution's emphasis on a single coordinating authority focusing on codes that.

29:50Drive costs and delay, and identifying a sustainable funding strategy and centering accountability and stakeholder input.

29:58And that concludes the city staff summary— committee staff summary.

30:01Thank you.

30:01Thank you very much, Claire.

30:03Councilor Avalos, this came out of your committee.

30:06Yes, thank you.

30:08It came to committee.

30:09I won't add much more than what Claire said.

30:11It passed out of committee with little discussion with a 5-0 vote.

30:16So I'll leave it at that.

30:17Thanks.

30:18Thank you.

30:19Um, as the chief sponsor of this, I have a couple of opening remarks.

30:24Um, so colleagues, Portland has the slowest permitting system in the region, averaging 413 days for a multi-family permit, which is nearly double the time of Vancouver or Hillsboro.

30:38So even though our processes are nearly identical across cities, for some reason it just It takes way longer to move through ours.

30:46And even though it's cliché, time is money.

30:50These delays don't just cost individuals.

30:52The city lost an estimated $700 million in development investments last year alone.

30:58To be clear, I don't think any of this is intentional.

31:00The slow process is simply what happens when you have decades of siloed operations and code writing with every bureau having some control but no one having accountability for system-wide performance.

31:13CAP 2 is our chance to change this, to empower a team— this team to cut red tape resolving conflicts across zoning, right-of-way, admin rules, internal procedures, and more.

31:25It's an opportunity to look at permitting and code reform as a tool for economic development and to ask ourselves, how will we ensure that permittees get the same answers from permitting and development and Bureau of Transportation staff every time.

31:38To me, this resolution is just asking for simplicity.

31:42We have limited staff and resources, so we need to ensure that we are not wasting time by continually negotiating project issues that should have clear and objective standards.

31:52We need simple code writing systems that ensure issues raised— that ensures issues are raised by the implementing staff and that our customers are— and from our customers.

32:04At the end of the day, we're public servants, and I hope that in revisiting this work, we're reminded that permitting in the city isn't a privilege that we grant, but it's a service we owe.

32:13It's an integral part of what it means to be a functional city.

32:16And so I'm happy to be bringing this resolution forward with my co-sponsors, Councilors Avalos, Ryan, Murillo, and Novick, to support the administration's Cap 2 work, ensuring that we're not creating obstacles to housing and economic development but instead being the development partner that Portlanders deserve.

32:33And I'd love to turn this over to any of my fellow introducers on this, Councilors Ryan, Murillo, Novick, or Avalos.

32:42Councilor Ryan.

32:46Thank you, Council President.

32:47It's an honor to be a co-sponsor on this.

32:49It's legislation I've been active on since early 2021, and that's when we got the task force started.

32:57And the big issue was that we had too many.

33:00We had a lot of bureaus that did permitting and they were siloed and their communication internally was not good.

33:07Therefore, that customer experience was shared with the customers.

33:10And that's really what was part of the delay.

33:13The integration of the bureaus began in 2024 officially.

33:20And this is a big culture change.

33:24It takes a while.

33:24Thank you.

33:25So I really think this, to me, I'm experiencing us doing oversight to say keep going with what is already in the code to do.

33:33But moving from a culture that you're familiar with to a new culture is difficult.

33:38It's called change.

33:38It's called organizational change.

33:40And human beings have a lot of trouble with change.

33:43In the education world, we noticed that the children, they were really adaptable, but not so much with the adults.

33:49And so adult behavior change is hard.

33:51Thank you.

33:51And so I just hope that we can continue to move forward.

33:53I want to thank all of those professionals that have moved from their bureau assignments within the specialty, say water, to this new integrated team.

34:03And I really am rooting for you to continue to become a part of that new integration that will provide more efficiencies for the customers in Portland so we can start to really improve our efficiency and time, as was said.

34:15It's a cliché, but it's true.

34:17Thank you.

34:17Time is money, especially in the construction and development world.

34:21And for all of those residents that really suffer from how complicated those emails can be.

34:27So anyway, this is really about customer service.

34:29It's about culture change.

34:31And this council, I'm grateful, has adopted the same tone as the last council on this issue.

34:36And I'm really rooting for us to continue to move forward.

34:39Thank you for all of those that have integrated into this change.

34:43And I hope that you can inspire others thank you, Councilor Ryan.

34:48Councilor Avalos.

34:50Thank you.

34:52We're just speaking to it as a co-sponsor.

34:54Okay, great.

34:55Um, yeah, thank you, Council President.

34:56Very proud to be a co-sponsor of this, and thank you, Council President, as well for your leadership on this effort, um, and to all of the other co-sponsors.

35:05Um, so my thoughts on this are that this resolution is building on years of work.

35:10It is including the creation of PPND and the first phase of CAP.

35:15And I think CAP 1 showed that targeted reforms can reduce unnecessary barriers.

35:21And CAP 2 is hoping to take that next step by addressing the structural issues that continue to slow projects and create inconsistency across bureaus.

35:30For me, this is fundamentally about making government work better.

35:33Whether someone's building affordable housing or opening a small business, they deserve to understand a clear permitting process that's coordinated and predictable.

35:42Um, you can imagine that as Chair of Housing and Permitting, I hear a lot from people, applicants and architects and housing providers, um, that are navigating this.

35:50And just, um, it is our duty to keep improving on their experience.

35:55And I also believe that permitting reform is housing policy.

35:58And if we want to increase housing production and reduce development costs, we have to continue removing these unnecessary process barriers while maintaining the health, safety and environmental standards that protect our community.

36:09It is tricky to balance those things, but it is important that we do.

36:13And I appreciate about the resolution that it doesn't treat permitting reform as a one-time project.

36:18This is about establishing an ongoing framework for identifying problems, resolving conflicts across bureaus, and bringing continuous improvements back to council over time.

36:26So I'm grateful for that commitment from staff to continue bringing things to us that we can approve.

36:32Thank you.

36:33That's kind of the nitty-gritty work of government.

36:35And so I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, where there are changes we can make over time that at the end of it will hopefully have a big impact in summation.

36:44So yeah, I look forward to supporting this and thank you to everybody for your work on it.

36:48Thank you, Councilor Avalos.

36:49Second, Councilor Morillo.

36:51I don't have much more to add that my colleagues haven't already stated.

36:54So appreciate your time on this.

36:56And I was wondering if the city administrator had anything to talk about with the timeline extension or anything else in the ordinance as far as how your branch of government will be executing it?

37:09Thank you, Councilor.

37:10I think this is important work.

37:12This is work that the city already had going in process to make sure that we were addressing some of the timeframes as it relates to people making their way through the development process.

37:24I think this is a great effort to continue that process.

37:28Ensuring that we are being responsive to our customers, which is our development community and our citizens when they're coming to us to have a development permit process.

37:40Timing of this is going to be key as we continue to work through this with the other things that we have on our plate.

37:47I just ask council to work with us as we get deeper into this process and evaluate the timing of this process, that we have the opportunity to come back to council and give updates.

37:57Thank you.

37:57Of where we are within this process.

37:59And if it needs to be extended longer because we need to do some more due diligence on the project, that is something that we can take under consideration.

38:07But administration is in full, uh, full in favor of moving forward with a process like this.

38:16Thank you very much.

38:17And, uh, check last with Councilor Novick, see if he had any opening remarks he wanted to give as a fellow co-sponsor.

38:24I don't think I have anything to add to the eloquent remarks of my co-sponsors.

38:28Thank you.

38:28Okay, perfect.

38:30Um, colleagues, we have about 7 folks signed up to testify on this item.

38:34I'd love to get moved to public testimony first, and then we can do technical and clarifying questions and then council discussion.

38:39So Rebecca, can we please call up our first panel of public testifiers?

38:44Terry Harris.

38:46R. Forrest Fora Alexander.

38:55Welcome folks, come on down.

38:57Please feel free to introduce yourselves.

39:00You have 3 minutes, take it away.

39:01Terry.

39:03Um, hello everybody, I'm Terry Harris.

39:05I'm from Hillsdale.

39:06I'm happy to be here supporting this resolution.

39:10Um, as you know, my interest in this comes from My time with GTAC and combing through codes and regs and understanding how those work in the new form of government.

39:27So I'm here in support of the health and hygiene of our codes and regulations generally, and thinking that this process is probably going to be useful as a pilot and applicable across other codes and regulations.

39:43Thank you.

39:44So that's, that's why I'm here.

39:46So in support, I think this resolution has the problem statement clear, um, fixed permitting.

39:53It has the diagnosis clear, fragmented authorities and, and code and regulation conflicts.

40:00And the direction is clear, cooperation, urgency, efficiency, and maintaining the standards that are already built in.

40:09On implementation, I've got 3 points that I want to address to you all, but it's— it might, it might be the implementation team over here.

40:20You have set up in this resolution a permit implementation— permit improvement team.

40:26That team needs a leader, a leader that has the authority and accountability, the focus, and the responsibility for that effort.

40:37This can't be everybody's second job in the next 150 days.

40:43Somebody needs to take charge of this.

40:45Um, if it's a permitting improvement czar that you need, I think that might be an individual that you can point to that says this is going to happen.

40:57Similarly, the resolution has a code and policy coordination group.

41:01Yes.

41:02Again, I support that.

41:04I've testified here several times about having a code commission to take a look at these things.

41:08But that also needs authority, focus, accountability, something like a code keeper whose responsibility it is, is the health and hygiene of your codes.

41:20And this, we're talking about the land use codes, the permitting codes, but a guy, somebody sitting there with a room full of the books working on this stuff all the time.

41:32Finally, the 150 days that you have here needs to be focused on the procedures, not really the substance of the CAP underlying this effort.

41:47You don't want to predetermine some of the outcomes of the policy choices that you're going to have to make in the CAP.

41:53Right.

41:54This is about streamlining, accelerating, improving process internal to the city.

42:03Council has to retain its policy prerogatives.

42:06Thank you for your time.

42:08Thank you.

42:10Whoever wants to go next, jump in.

42:15Oh, sure.

42:16Are you—.

42:17Okay.

42:19Hello, friends.

42:20My name is Rabbi Fora.

42:22I am an advocate and also the political director of a consulting firm, but I also got started in housing policy as Human Rights Commissioner for the City of Austin shortly after we did our Zucker Report, where we implemented a lot of these changes.

42:43I'm really happy to hear that the attitude is so positive among the councilors.

42:47This is something that a lot of people ignore until it's too late.

42:52But I wanted to go over some of the highlights of what you can get out of this process.

42:58When San Diego did something similar, they were able to accomplish 45,000 permits in one fiscal year that were worth about $8.9 billion.

43:10Wow.

43:11Phoenix focused more on concurrent digital routing, so different phases happening at the same time digitally.

43:18They were able to get a 90% first round completed on time.

43:24And Austin, you know, my former home, we reduced from 223 days.

43:30I'm so sorry to hear that you're at over 400.

43:34We reduced from 223 days to a 120-day mandated minimum, and that lowered rents by 7% overall, saving people about $60 a month.

43:45Okay.

43:46So, uh, also my personal experience— I've been a case manager and housing navigator at a homeless shelter.

43:54It was a motel style.

43:56I really enjoyed working in that, but whenever we were looking at how to grow, the permits for trying to change those units are more expensive than just building them a new unit.

44:11And people, as was mentioned earlier, people don't get paid to wait.

44:16So we're purposefully, or not purposefully, purposelessly building in extra time into this process that wastes money and effort that contractors can't really afford.

44:31So I strongly urge a yes vote.

44:33Thank you for your time.

44:34Thank you very much.

44:37Hi, good afternoon.

44:39My name is Peter Finley Frye.

44:42I'm not—.

44:43Okay, I'm a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and, uh, I as a consultant serve Portland business owners and property owners, and I'm here to advocate on their behalf you hear a lot from developers, but my experience is actually just with people.

45:04Yesterday, a friend of mine, client of mine, called me and she had finished, her and her husband, a project in Hasbrouck and Abernathy.

45:12It took them 4 years.

45:14It's a 1904 Victorian building.

45:16It's beautiful.

45:18They restored it and they now have a nationally award-winning restaurant in it.

45:26They were successful primarily because a person at Portland Permitting and Development took hold of the situation and helped them navigate through what was a nightmare at times— frontage, seismic, structural occupancy, American Disability Act, everything.

45:51There was no compromise to public safety.

45:54These were technical solutions dealing with the floor, the ability of the floor to carry the weight of the restaurant, things of that sort.

46:02I'm not going to get into that kind of detail right now.

46:05Portland has a culture of restoration, a culture of rehabilitation, and a culture of people doing this on their own.

46:15Thank you.

46:17And they utilize professionals, but often professionals like me can be part of the problem.

46:23And so I am strongly advocating for this solution.

46:28I really respect you moving forward on this, and I'm confident that this will help empower Portland citizens and families to develop their property.

46:42And continue to own their own future.

46:48Thank you very much.

46:49Thank you.

46:51Thanks for being here today.

46:54Todd Gooding, Steve Wong, Kip Silverman.

47:04You can go ahead at the table.

47:08Thanks.

47:08I'm Steve Wong, Senior Vice President at SKB.

47:13Todd Gooding wasn't able to make it.

47:15He's our president, so I kind of consolidated our comments.

47:19SKB is a Portland-based real estate company owning and operating primarily commercial real estate projects in Portland, Seattle, the Bay Area, Denver, and Phoenix.

47:29Here in Portland, many of our projects involve renovations of office and industrial properties.

47:34Thank you, council members, for considering ways to centralize the permit process.

47:38We hope the city can find a way to streamline the process so it is more transparent and consistent, and hopefully a process where the city can work with building owners and their teams to get projects approved and completed in a more efficient manner that focuses on getting projects done in ways that make sense and not just flagging objections to overcome.

47:58Now, most of the permitting issues we encountered occurred 3 or more years ago, As we frankly have not recently pursued many projects in Portland, particularly when extensive permitting would be needed.

48:08Back then, while costs are always a consideration, the time to get through permitting had the largest implications.

48:14Delays not only have financial costs to us, but to the companies that make up our tenants or prospective tenants.

48:22The vast majority of our tenants here are small to mid-sized companies under 10,000 square feet.

48:27When these companies need to expand, they don't have the luxury of the 6 or 12-month permitting times we experience to have the space they needed to grow.

48:36These are tenant improvement permits, not larger project-level renovations.

48:41Causes for the lengthy permit times include permit intake and final issuance processes, inconsistent direction from different bureaus, sequencing of the permit response, and changes required after permits are issued.

48:54An example I have is our own Iron Fireman project located in Southeast, over by Southeast 17th and Holgate.

49:02There, after the occupant load, in this case the maximum number of people who could be employed by the tenants of the building, had been determined by the building department, building department changed their mind and tried to reduce the number of occupants allowed.

49:15We spent $100,000 and 12 months going through multiple appeals to finally get an acceptable It may be that permitting times in the past few years have improved, although that may be due to fewer permit applications representing less investment in the city.

49:31If Portland's to attract investment in the city, having a predictable and efficient permitting process is required in order to attract that investment.

49:40I should point out that the city has the facilities permit program that has been very efficient turning around tenant improvement permits, typically in 30 days or less.

49:49It is a centralized process, allows plan check comments to be reviewed right away, and the Iron Fireman program is now in that, uh, Iron Fireman project is now in the program, but it wasn't allowed to participate until each individual space had been processed.

50:05That's 20 or more spaces through the standard process, which took 6 years.

50:10So thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak to you.

50:12Thank you very much.

50:15Kip, you can go ahead online.

50:17Great, thank you.

50:18Uh, good afternoon, my name is Kip Silverman.

50:21I use he/him pronouns and I represent District 2.

50:25Go D2!

50:26I'm testifying today in strong support of this effort.

50:30My perspective comes from unique personal history.

50:33When I worked in City Hall, I spent 4 months diving deep into our permitting challenges and speaking with Everyone from leadership to frontline workers.

50:43Now, 9 years later, it unfortunately looks like very little has changed from the outside.

50:49Historically, as has been stated, the biggest hurdle has been fragmented ownership and a miasmic approach to regulation creation.

50:57Different bureaus owned different pieces of the process, and no one had the authority or wherewithal to align them.

51:04Even under our new government structure, it seems we have merely replaced bureau-managed silos.

51:09We have DCA-managed silos without solving the underlying structural issues in many areas.

51:15We need this cross-organizational team with the authority to streamline decision-making, both for big-picture strategy and small day-to-day workflow improvements.

51:25While there has been talk of physically and technically consolidating everyone into a single bureau, that simply doesn't make sense in and of itself as a solution.

51:36Expertise should stay where it's best served.

51:38When I analyzed these challenges back in 2017, I approached them through a technological lens.

51:45At the time, there was a project underway to force an off-the-shelf permitting system to fit our highly complex, unique processes.

51:53From its very first month, that project went red and never recovered.

51:57While I cannot speak to its current status, it sounds like the same issues persist.

52:02Back then, it was already $20 million over budget and past delivery.

52:06Today, we are likely talking about millions more spent without a viable solution in place.

52:12The answers, in my very humble opinion, are pretty straightforward.

52:17First, we needed to tiger team these bottlenecks within a larger structure authorized to unblock challenges.

52:24Second, and from a technological standpoint, Instead of breaking a rigid off-the-shelf system to fit our needs, we should utilize a generic document management and workflow solution.

52:36Scripting module components allows us to adapt to our actual processes, processes that exist now, and easily swap out antiquated methodologies as things change.

52:49This proposal is an important step forward.

52:52It aims to solve these genuine systemic issues from a strategic level.

52:56Thank you.

52:57Building on what's already been started.

53:00As a senior technical program manager, this is exactly the enterprise management approach I would employ to ensure success, and I fully support it.

53:09Thank you for everyone's time.

53:12Thank you very much.

53:14Marty Kehoe.

53:22Welcome, Marty.

53:23Thank you.

53:25My name is Marty Kehoe.

53:26I'm the president of the Kehoe Northwest Properties.

53:30We've been in business in Portland building homes for 33 years.

53:33We've built 3,000 homes, most of them in the city of Portland, and I'm thankful that you're, you're undertaking this process.

53:41Um, when Councilor Duffy, you said it was 413 days, uh, I would take that in a minute.

53:46Um, we, 3 years ago, we built 118 houses in Washington County and Clackamas County, and in the same year we couldn't get permits to build 2 duplexes.

53:57If you were me, where would you spend your time and resources?

54:00Um, one of the, one of the, the, one of the things I'll show you right here is an interesting one.

54:06I'll be brief on it.

54:07It's zoned R— it's over in Northeast Portland.

54:10It's zoned R-5 and CE, but the property was never bifurcated.

54:14So in a normal world, you'd hire a surveyor, you'd get You'd get it surveyed, might take a week or 2, take it to the city, get the administrative approval of it and record it, and then you can plat your, your property.

54:28No, in the city of Portland, it took 10 months and cost $50,000.

54:32So where do you think the $50,000 comes from?

54:35It gets tacked on to the price of the houses.

54:39There are 100 horror stories like this that go on and on with a system that has so many conflicting rules, not just with PBOT, BDS, and BES, but within BDS itself there are conflicting rules.

54:54We joke that every time we have a project, we come to the city and we play 20 questions.

54:59One, the answer is no, you can't do that.

55:02One down, 19 to go.

55:03Well, what can we do?

55:05How can you help us?

55:06How can we work collaboratively?

55:08And we don't, we don't get that.

55:10Councilor Um, your— the fee-in-lieu for trees has caused more properties to not be developed because it just doesn't work.

55:19Uh, the SDCs, the abatement was a great idea, but the reality of it is what you should have done is had— is said we're going to take the SDCs and we're going to limit them to $5,000 or $6,000 and leave it there.

55:31But by doing an abatement like that, you're going to inherit the same problem you inherited with inclusionary zoning.

55:36Councilor Smith.

55:36You're going to have a massive glut of intake, and 70% of those were never built.

55:42So that will clog your system for absolutely nothing.

55:46Just all I'm talking about is the common sense thing.

55:49Please.

55:52There are so many stories of projects that have been delayed or completely canceled because we can't get them pushed through in a timely way.

56:03If you truly want homes to become affordable and you want to see more homes built, then you need to work with us.

56:10And I, I know some of you, and I've reached out, and I'm available to tell you from 33 years in this business what works and what really doesn't work.

56:19And I would recommend an office of an ombudsman that would have the ability to step in immediately when we're meeting things that don't make common sense, where we need help.

56:31Thank you very much for being here today.

56:34That concludes testimony.

56:37Excellent.

56:37Colleagues, let's go ahead and jump into the queue for discussion or technical clarifying questions.

56:44We do have additional folks here for technical and clarifying questions.

56:47Start us off, Vice President Clark.

56:49Thank you, Council President.

56:50I just applaud your initiative and your co-sponsors.

56:53This is a great initiative.

56:54So needed to continue this process.

56:56I'm, I'm so pleased that you're doing it, and I really appreciate the testimony that we've heard today.

57:03It's remarkable, um, the horror stories, the advice, the ideas.

57:08Um, I really appreciate that, sharing your perspective.

57:12I'm just wondering, uh, I think it was Terry Harris mentioned a change manager, code keeper, and I just wanted to ask, um, City Administrator Raymond C. Lee, I know that you're thinking about bringing in a change manager, and I'm hoping that this is a part of that.

57:31Can you talk about that a little bit, where you are in that process of change management?

57:34Because we need so much culture change.

57:38You know, I don't understand why we have this— what I think maybe it's Mr. Silverman said— a highly unique and complex process unlike any other.

57:46Can you talk about change management?

57:49Thank you, Councilor.

57:50And just on briefly where we are in the process, this is something that we will be doing a national search on to try to find someone to fit into that strategy and change management role for the organization.

58:04Once this person is coming on board, they will be looking at holistically several different key projects that we have as a city.

58:11One is the city going through its comprehensive strategic planning process and what that process will look like and the work that needs to be done internally to the organization in partnership with the City Council to try to help move that endeavor forward.

58:25There are some other key projects that I want this individual to be looking at as well.

58:31A part of this is our realignment process as we go through this transformational process as an organization, kind of going on lessons learned and best management practices As we move forward, what should we be putting in place as an organization from a framework that helps us make better decisions, but also help communicate the organization, the changes that we're making and the why behind those changes is going to be key.

58:57This is another particular project that is going to be a culture shift for the organization.

59:02We're taking aspects of the organization that has been over the years and decades been done in a siloed kind of process between each bureau.

59:11This is gonna be a communication and framework that we're gonna have to establish to really break those things down and really working on the why and the outcomes that we're trying to achieve as an organization as it relates to permitting and development.

59:25So projects like this, other, other projects, I know the list for this individual who hasn't even started yet is growing by the day, but I want this individual to focus on these type of projects.

59:36Thank you.

59:37And help us develop the framework for change management that needs to take place as an organization so these projects can move forward.

59:44'Cause we can sit in these rooms and come up with a million different policies and a million different work instructions and SOPs, but if the culture of the organization is not ready to make that type of transformation, we're doing it in vain.

59:59So we just wanna make sure that we're setting up our organization, these processes, But also being responsive to our community as it relates to the changes that need to be made within our organization so we can be more efficient, effective, and economical in the services that we're providing to the community at broad.

1:00:15But this role plays a critical, uh, plays a critical point in this process of helping us figure out what is that game plan and strategy on our approach and how we're gonna move this forward.

1:00:27And this is in conjunction with the DCAs in the bureau heads that are running these departments.

1:00:33But so much of the day, of their day, is putting out the fires.

1:00:36And I want to look at what is the long-term strategy and what are we trying to do and how do we build towards that.

1:00:42Well, thank you for that.

1:00:43It sounds like this process that we're talking about today in this resolution is going to proceed before this person or persons come.

1:00:51But I hope that they'll be incorporated into the change management that you're looking forward to.

1:00:56Most definitely.

1:00:57And that's why I say work with us, 'cause if this person comes on board and sees we need to tweak something a little bit because we're moving at a rapid pace that the organization is not quite ready yet to turn to, or if there's some other things we need to take under consideration as we are going through this type of comprehensive change, I wanna be able to have that input in the process.

1:01:17But there's still a lot of initial work that can be done without the change management process, just to review of our current processes and procedures.

1:01:25The change management person is really looking at the culture of our organization and how are we setting up the culture of our organization or equipping it to be able to take these type of changes and implement them and operate and produce some great outcomes.

1:01:39Terrific.

1:01:39I really appreciate learning more about that.

1:01:42Mr. President, do you think that we could ask Eric Engstrom to come up and just get his perspective on this?

1:01:49I'd like to hear what he has to say and if he's thinking about a change manager or how he's going to deal with this and maybe the timeframe as well.

1:02:01Sure.

1:02:01Yeah, absolutely.

1:02:02Well, we have Eric Engstrom.

1:02:03Eric Kooch is not here today, turns out.

1:02:07Oh, sorry.

1:02:08But we also do have Christina Gann here from DCA's office.

1:02:11But before, Eric, before we turn it over to you, I actually just found out that we— I screwed up and there was one additional testifier.

1:02:17Oh, Moni.

1:02:18So I want to invite up the CEO of Hacienda CDC, Ernesto Fonseca.

1:02:24Yeah, so sorry about that, Ernesto.

1:02:26No worries at all.

1:02:27It seems like the last 2 times I've been in the same space.

1:02:32Council President Dunphy, members of the council, thank you very much for having me here today.

1:02:37I am really excited to speak about this issue.

1:02:41Councilor Ryan and Mingus Mapp started this process identifying some of the inefficiencies that we continue to see, some of them, not all of them to this date, you know, from dealing with 7 departments back in the day individually as permitting candidates, now we deal with 4.

1:03:01So after the creation 2024, the Planning and Permitting Department, yes, it is one single point of submission, but we still have to work with PHB, with Public Works permitting.

1:03:14And design review with months and months sometimes of wait.

1:03:18Despite some of this progress, the time to get a permit in multifamily projects remains the same.

1:03:27I was excited to hear some of the stats in other cities, and I have put as an example the city of Phoenix, where I did significant work as an architect back before I moved to Oregon about 10 years ago.

1:03:39And it's day and night.

1:03:42From 8 months to a year and a half of permitting, it's a lot of money that we have to carry in interest in pre-development cost into the hundreds of thousands.

1:03:52When you multiply that by all the projects that we have on the city, it becomes very, very problematic.

1:03:59In addition to that, there are some inconsistencies that every, you know, probably every department that reviews plans, you know, sees, but not as much probably as we see in the city of Portland.

1:04:10Every time we submit a set of plans, Councilor Smith.

1:04:12They do a redline review.

1:04:14That redline review goes back to our architects, and every time we come back, there are new redlines, new redlines, as opposed to having one single set, one shot to tell us, you know, what is wrong or what isn't.

1:04:27What is interesting in every city— this is not isolated to Portland— is that we developers and architects and builders, we're the ones that are liable for these buildings.

1:04:36The city is not, and the city is giving us the permission.

1:04:38Thank you.

1:04:39To do it or not, but we still— we're still the ones that will pay the price if we don't do it right.

1:04:44We're still the ones that will pay for everything and every construction defect.

1:04:48So it is in our own interest to deliver the best project that we can.

1:04:53So we're not trying to submit something that wouldn't meet the threshold.

1:04:57In addition, planning, obviously land use, continued to be a big bottleneck.

1:05:03The statutory day, you know, Timeline calls for 120 days.

1:05:10The City of Portland typically permitting asks us to waive those 120 days because obviously, you know, we're not going to meet the 6-month deadline for, for us to get our permit.

1:05:21And permit— so really, that, that statutory, uh, rule has no meaning if we cannot meet those deadlines.

1:05:28I would say that, you know, having our, our process managers was an improvement that was led and championed by previous council members, but we still need to see a lot more.

1:05:38Having one single point of contact, one project manager that really understands or is the convener of the many, many different departments and bureaus that we have in the city so we can get our permits sooner than later.

1:05:52One more example that I want to share with you that I find troubling is that we can have more than one permit at a time.

1:05:59Yes.

1:05:59So if you have a mixed-use project and you're trying to remodel the housing on top of that project, you can get that permit, but you couldn't get the permit to remodel the commercial space on the bottom because you can only have one active permit per address.

1:06:15That is a problem.

1:06:16Other issues, you know, we have— we've been waiting for just a tenant improvement permit for ourselves for about almost 2 months now, and we haven't seen that.

1:06:27It's just moving a couple of walls and adding one single bathroom.

1:06:31So we have a lot of work to do.

1:06:33I am excited to be part of, uh, this, at least this testimony.

1:06:36I was part of the permit, uh, improvement, uh, task force back then, and I'm hoping that I can contribute in any way, form, or shape.

1:06:44So with that said, I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to speak on this issue.

1:06:49And finally, I want to invite you to visit the project, the 57-unit project that we have in North Portland on District 2.

1:06:58Hopefully you can come and see the work that we're trying to complete in that space.

1:07:02Thank you so much, everyone.

1:07:03Thank you so much for being here.

1:07:07Okay, Councilor— Vice President Clark, we're going to jump back into some technical questions.

1:07:10We're going to invite Christina and Eric back up.

1:07:13Thank you.

1:07:13Just as they're walking up, I just have to say, you know, long ago I formed a nonprofit to build farmworker housing.

1:07:20And when— I'm not associated with them anymore, but when I checked in with them last and asked them about what they're doing around the state, they refused to work in Portland because it's too complicated.

1:07:31It's too complicated to do affordable housing projects here.

1:07:33So I applaud Hacienda for continuing to, to work at it.

1:07:38But I just wanted to hear, uh, Mr. Engstrom's perspective on this and whether or not we need a quote-unquote change manager, or how do we move to something I think that was just suggested, sort of a case management for a project.

1:07:54This kind of reminds me of healthcare, you know, when you go from doctor to doctor to doctor to doctor and nobody works together.

1:07:59It sounds very, very similar.

1:08:02But do you mind addressing this to some degree?

1:08:05Sure.

1:08:05And I'd invite Christina to add on from the DCA's office perspective.

1:08:10You all said the right things in your introductory remarks, and I want to just agree with a lot of what was said earlier.

1:08:16The regulatory improvement and process improvement is a not-ending exercise.

1:08:21It's something that we're always going to be doing, and it needs periodic reinvigorization or a shot in the arm periodically.

1:08:30And this is one such moment.

1:08:31I appreciate that this council is embracing that.

1:08:34Thank you.

1:08:35And it's, you know, we have always struggled with some of these issues in part because of the form of government, and, and we have a new form of government that allows you all and the city administrator to take this on from a different level, from a different perspective.

1:08:49We've tried some of these things in the past and not been able to get them over the hurdle because of that distributed authority and no one having the single authority to actually make it happen.

1:08:59So I just want to appreciate it from that perspective.

1:09:00Thank you.

1:09:01Also want to just appreciate, um, uh, Councilor Zimmerman, I think you had comments, um, in the recap, um, hearing about, you know, looking at the big picture when we're doing regulatory improvement and sometimes asking the question of not only how can we improve the regulation, but do we need it?

1:09:19And so that's, that's part of this as well.

1:09:22But absolutely, to your question, the having a centralized you know, it seems like we need more.

1:09:32It's more than a shot in the arm.

1:09:35It seems to me it's almost like— I may excuse my French— but kind of an enema.

1:09:38You know, we, we need something bigger here than just a shot in the arm.

1:09:43But thank you.

1:09:46We'll embrace that analogy.

1:09:49Thank you.

1:09:50Thank you, Vice President Clark.

1:09:51Do you have further questions?

1:09:52I have a question.

1:09:53Great.

1:09:54All right, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:09:57Did I hear you say that you just want technical questions?

1:09:59No, no, we're in full discussion.

1:10:01Okay, thank you.

1:10:02Um, I, I wanted to just jump in the queue to reiterate a few of the things that I said in committee because I think there actually was some, some really important discussion during the committee process.

1:10:16Um, the the testimony that we heard today is raising very real concerns that very reasonably need to be addressed.

1:10:26For it to take twice as long or more for a permit to go through in Portland than in some of our neighboring cities is a problem that we can fix and that we've started to fix.

1:10:38But it's important that we do that in a way that focuses on the process concerns the duplication, the timelines, the consistency, the predictability, and not on shortening the timeline by making policy changes, by— through technical justifications taking away some of the policy decisions on what it takes to get a permit in Portland without a policy discussion about those changes.

1:11:10I think that's really important, and I think as we approach this absolutely critical work, it's important that we do so with a commitment to separate the work around streamlining from any discussions around policy changes to ensure that that work around streamlining is— that folks can trust that process, that folks know when you come back that what we have doesn't have hidden pieces in there.

1:11:40And I brought this up in committee and I asked a lot of questions in committee because I had some concerns about this.

1:11:46I was reassured in committee that what we will receive back from our bureaus will be strictly technical changes.

1:11:55But I thought it was important to reiterate it here as well in case there were other councilors who shared those concerns.

1:12:03When we heard testimony previously, we heard the comment that council has to retain its policy prerogatives.

1:12:12And I think it's just very important that as we go through this process, we get a piece of work back where we can all wholeheartedly say this will help to address the problems without needing to dig into policy pieces that should get their own robust discussion.

1:12:33So thank you to the staff who provided the assurances that that is what we will be getting back in the future during committee.

1:12:40And I'm looking forward to seeing some of the solutions that our teams can come up with to make sure that this is a, a good place to do business, a good city to work in.

1:12:49Thank you, Council President.

1:12:51And Councilor, I think the thank you.

1:12:52I think the main thing that we want to drive home through this whole process is predictability.

1:12:56I think as you're going through a process of permitting and development, you want to be able to predict the timeframe and your outcomes and what your cost is going to be.

1:13:06And that has varied through our current process tremendously.

1:13:10And I think as we look towards the outcomes that we're trying to drive to in this is making this process predictable from a timing and Council President, if I may.

1:13:22I appreciate you making that comment, and I think increasing predictability, decreasing timeline, increasing the understanding of when you're going to get a yes and when you're going to get a no, and the speed at which you get a yes or a no is absolutely critical.

1:13:39And I want to make sure that we're not tweaking with when you get a yes or a no.

1:13:44No.

1:13:45In the name of speeding up the process and the predictability and the dependability, because everybody doing business in our city should, should have an understanding that there's a clear timeline and you will be told yes or no.

1:13:57And if the answer is no, you'll get a clear path for how to get to a yes if you choose to take that path.

1:14:02And we can do it quickly and effectively and efficiently and consistently while still maintaining those pieces we've put in place that uphold our community's needs and values about when it's a yes and when it's a no.

1:14:17Thank you.

1:14:18Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:14:20Councilor Ryan.

1:14:21Uh, thank you, Council President.

1:14:23Is the other Eric—.

1:14:24Is Eric, uh, permitting here?

1:14:26He's out of office this week.

1:14:27He's at a conference this week.

1:14:29He's at a conference?

1:14:30He's out of the office right now.

1:14:31Out of office.

1:14:32Okay, um, that's too bad.

1:14:34It'd be great to have him here today.

1:14:35But anyway, we'll, uh, You'll channel him.

1:14:38As the first elected official that brought together all 7 permitting bureaus and all 5 offices to finally get serious about this after 3 decades of people running on this issue and everyone promising, I have a lot to say, and I'll be careful here to not say too much.

1:14:52But there were 2 things, 2 things that we did weekly— monthly with former bureau director Esaw that was so helpful.

1:15:01We—.

1:15:01It took about 6 months to establish datasets So we actually knew what was going on and not just wait for an audit every 10 years that told us we were bad at this.

1:15:10And so we— that helped a lot.

1:15:12So we looked at issuance to completion.

1:15:16And at first it was like watching paint dry because I think the culture here isn't used to looking at data.

1:15:22This is for you, CA Lee.

1:15:24And so when we actually brought data to the table, 'cause that's how you do continuous improvement in the real world, is you become accountable.

1:15:30Yeah.

1:15:30To that data.

1:15:32And then we also had the DRAC board be very active.

1:15:35And I recruited a DRAC board, very diverse board that had lived experience in the field as customers.

1:15:41And then they were part of the permit task force.

1:15:45So I'm asking 2 things, is to make sure that we have datasets that are frequently looked at all the way down to the line staff that are doing permitting so the whole team can be a part of winning, which means improving the datasets that they're looking at, because you can find yourself in that data.

1:16:01It's not shaming.

1:16:02It's called a way to do accountability and do continuous improvement work.

1:16:06And so I hope that that becomes a part of it.

1:16:09And then again, that we have the checks and balances of having customers actually engaged in this work throughout, which a couple of people in testimony made that really clear.

1:16:17So if other Eric was here, I would ask him directly.

1:16:21This—.

1:16:21Your bureau was more— you guys were not free of causing challenges.

1:16:26Your bureau was the fact that you had code clutter that was absurd, that was going back quite a few decades 'cause people up here would do a lot of last-minute amendments and make our codes quite confusing.

1:16:37And so we just had all these codes that were literally choking each other, which made it hard for the staff to help the customers because they were arguing amongst themselves on which code to use.

1:16:49So I just want to hear from your bureau that you guys are all over this code clutter cleanup, which has been one of the challenges.

1:16:56Absolutely.

1:16:56From a BPS perspective, that's a top priority.

1:16:59I can also say that data structure you helped set up continues on and we give monthly— we brief each other monthly on that same sort of improvement data.

1:17:08Alex, you know how satisfying it is to hear that something that you started is still existing 6 years later.

1:17:13Thank you.

1:17:14Thank you, Councilor, if I may.

1:17:15And Christine, again, for the record, I work for DCI Oliveira in the Community Nictative Service Area.

1:17:20Yes, if Director Kooch were here, I think he would acknowledge that there is ongoing data enhancement work happening in the bureau.

1:17:27Those of you who have had a chance to talk with him and meet with him know he's very passionate about reform and improvement work, and so that is definitely a lens that he's bringing to his role as director of PP&D.

1:17:37And then in the context of the kind of code alignment work, the team is very focused on looking at the data, customer surveys, and other information to help understand and where the pinch points are in the process.

1:17:50And then trying to validate that information with customers.

1:17:53They've gone to DRAC, they're doing targeted stakeholder engagement as they start to scope the second phase of the cap work.

1:17:59That work is happening right now and underway.

1:18:01And so we fully expect, you know, the team to have a package proposal that reflects kind of the real challenges folks are facing while also recognizing Councilor Pirtle-Guiney's concern around, you know, what topics are, are big enough that they really are their own project and they're not— it's a meaty enough policy debate in and of itself and probably doesn't make sense to be part of a multifaceted piece of legislation like a coded amendment package.

1:18:31So that's kind of the balance we're trying to strike right now.

1:18:33What's the body that's now meeting that we used to have the permit task force meetings frequently?

1:18:38What's the body that includes internal and external at the same table trying to improve this work?

1:18:44I don't believe that there's a current standing body equivalent to the Permit Improvement Task Force, but there are multi-bureau internal kind of code coordination groups happening.

1:18:57And then of course DRAC is serving in its current capacity as well.

1:19:00I just—.

1:19:01Okay.

1:19:01Yeah, sure.

1:19:02Sorry.

1:19:02So I'm just disappointed that that doesn't exist.

1:19:05I think that that needs to come back because that was really helpful.

1:19:09That's when you started having real nuanced conversations, and you would see a person in the city actually talking to a customer, not because they're in a heated moment about getting it done on a specific timeline, but talking about the big picture.

1:19:26And they started treating each other like peers, and you just saw that was the secret sauce that was really moving this along.

1:19:32So I think when the city moved— has currently moved away from that practice, I really encourage that to come back.

1:19:38And I know one time I was talking to the other sponsors that that was something that I wanted included in here.

1:19:44So that's why I wanted to talk about that.

1:19:46Thank you, Councilor.

1:19:46It's quite possible that, as you know, this resolution is intended to kind of restand up some of that infrastructure that was previously in place and recentralize it back into the community active service area.

1:19:57And so that might provide a forum for reconvening those types of conversations.

1:20:00I think we thought when we moved the deck chairs that things would be fine, and that isn't the case.

1:20:05It just means that the chairs move, but people are still behaving the same way.

1:20:09And so we need to have that checks and balance system of oversight.

1:20:12And that's— I think when we took that away, I feel like some of the momentum got lost and the silos within your new deck chairs started ramping up.

1:20:20That's my gut.

1:20:22Thanks.

1:20:24Thank you, Councilor Ryan.

1:20:25Councilor Green.

1:20:27Thank you, Council President, rest of the sponsors for bringing this forward.

1:20:31I supported this out of committee.

1:20:32I think it's a necessary recommitment and it's a good— in the new form of government, it's good to provide a resolution like this that says, here are our priorities.

1:20:43It's related to the broader conversation around how are we setting priorities in and outside of the budget process.

1:20:50We had our little retreat earlier in the year.

1:20:52I think one of the top-line issues in that retreat was a shared commitment to this type of building of administrative capacity and building of our ability to execute and unlock things that don't cost us a lot of money, but can unlock the ability to do development.

1:21:09So I think this is a— I think it's in that spirit.

1:21:14I was—.

1:21:15There was something someone said in testimony that struck with me, which was it matters how you do it.

1:21:22Like, you know, the— and I was encouraged to hear your— I think it was Kip Silverman, but I was encouraged to hear your connection, City Administrator Lee, to the change management role that you're trying to staff up.

1:21:36I think that's gonna be an important piece of this and that connects with the kind of I keep calling it building administrative capacity because that's what it is.

1:21:46It's the ability to say, okay, how do we align our codes?

1:21:49How do we align our processes in such a way that just create these like positive reinforcing feedback loops to generate the efficiency we need to generate and to get to yes more often than not?

1:22:02As part of that though, as like in my prior career, I worked in a bureaucracy, worked in the public sector.

1:22:06Yeah.

1:22:07I've seen these things happen before, and there's a pretty common lifecycle.

1:22:13Starts with an idea, says, okay, we need to get away from spreadsheets that are spread around different shared drives here and there.

1:22:20Let's get to a common system.

1:22:21And then you hire a vendor, and then the vendor's not flexible.

1:22:23Now you're in a change order problem.

1:22:26And there were staff members along the way that were like, I don't know if we want to go down this road.

1:22:31So I guess what I would like to know yes.

1:22:35Is from your seat or your seat, Director Engstrom, how do you see sort of rank-and-file staff who are currently doing this work contributing to the sort of idea generation process and helping that change management?

1:22:48Because I know they always have good ideas.

1:22:49They might not always have good ideas, but I want to make sure that we're not losing the opportunity to hear from them.

1:22:55They might be sitting on a treasure trove of, of like innovative concepts.

1:22:59Councilor Smith.

1:23:00And I would say they have to play a role in this process.

1:23:03That's the only way you can truly understand the true flow of operations and the process that we're currently following now and kind of the historical knowledge of how did we get to this point of why we're doing it this way.

1:23:16So I think it plays a critical role in how do we develop what our future will look like, because at the end of the day, these are the individuals that are still going to have to produce those results that we're looking for from a standpoint of outcomes as it relates to having timely, predictable decisions being made as it relates to our permitting process.

1:23:36So we want to make sure that our staff who is doing the day-to-day operations of this understand that, but we also understand for them what are those milestones or troubling things that they have to go through on a daily basis that is hindering their ability to do their work.

1:23:52Thank you.

1:23:52And be successful at doing their work.

1:23:54So, Councilor, you have— I think you hit the nail right on the head from the standpoint of ensuring that we have those staff members at the table to play a critical role in this.

1:24:04I appreciate that.

1:24:05And, um, yeah, I want to sort of echo support for this idea.

1:24:11I mean, because I actually think this is one of the big things that we need to do in the city right now.

1:24:14I mean, obviously we've got housing production goals, um, We need to generate economic activity, and if the City of Portland's bureaucratic processes are a deterrent to that on the margin when other capital is not there, that's a big problem.

1:24:30So it's, to me, it's like probably one of the highest target things.

1:24:32So I want to echo support for some of the concepts about a czar, a sort of, as you hire your change management person, maybe one of their early priorities is to find someone who's on point to make sure that we're kind of pulling the team together and having these standups, having it be very sort of efficient in that process and connected back to council in some sense.

1:24:58There was— I think the idea of an ombudsman type of function is pretty compelling because it does provide some relief for the development community to say, okay, we've been here before.

1:25:10Some promises have been made, but, you know, again, I'd have to make a choice between Portland and some other jurisdiction.

1:25:16So that might be an interesting sort of like, let's take a chance on this, maybe on a pilot basis to say, is there a place where we can go that provides some relief in that sense?

1:25:28Might be something to consider.

1:25:30I don't know exactly what that looks like.

1:25:31But, and then finally, I just want to, one thing that I am worried about though, and yes, change management has to happen.

1:25:40I get that.

1:25:41But I, but I do worry that I, I want to know that we're not going to substitute performance management for change management.

1:25:52Like, are we going to do change management by firing people, or are we going to give them an opportunity to, to sort of adapt and contribute and help and, you know, go along with the process?

1:26:00I think that's a great question.

1:26:01Because I, because I worry about this idea that let's just purge and then rebuild, because I don't think that's good for our city.

1:26:07And change management is not taking the approach of getting rid of individuals.

1:26:13It's making sure that we have the right individuals at the table as a part of the decision-making process that are being communicated with and engaged with, so we're making a comprehensive change that everyone understands the why.

1:26:27Behind the change and the expected outcomes of those change.

1:26:31So when, when change management comes in, it's not looking at the organization saying what we need to get rid of.

1:26:37It's how do we create a more integrated organization that are really driving towards the strategies and outcomes that we're trying to achieve as an organization?

1:26:46And how are we incorporating the council's priorities along with the mayor's vision to achieve those things?

1:26:52So I'm not looking at this, and I wouldn't want a change manager to look at it from the standpoint of who we need to get rid of.

1:26:59It's how do we bring people along in this process to help achieve outcomes that we want.

1:27:05Thank you.

1:27:05I think that's gonna be a really important thing to make sure it's kind of consistent and clear throughout all this, 'cause I think we've got a lot of opportunity under the hood.

1:27:13Thanks.

1:27:15Thank you, Councilor Green.

1:27:16Councilor Kanal.

1:27:21Thank you and good afternoon, everyone.

1:27:23Thanks for the presentation.

1:27:25Thanks to the co-sponsors for bringing this forward.

1:27:27I'm broadly supportive of it.

1:27:28I have one concern that I think we can address in the implementation through some of the questions I'm going to ask here.

1:27:34Before I get to that, I just really appreciate— want to add to what Councilor Ryan said about, you know, some of the turmoil associated with moving positions and change management.

1:27:42Change is inevitable.

1:27:43I do think we need to support the staff.

1:27:45Better.

1:27:46I appreciate those who have been working professionally for the city on behalf of the city's residents while in a season of change.

1:27:52And just to double down briefly on what Councilor Green just mentioned, I do think this will result in consolidation that yields efficiencies, and I hope that those efficiencies are put back into the system effectively to resolve— result in faster improvements, faster permitting, and not layoffs.

1:28:09Thank you.

1:28:10Thanks to all the testifiers.

1:28:11I'll be touring the Monarca, so I appreciate that invitation.

1:28:15Ernesto, I agree with Terry Harris's point about having a person in charge of this.

1:28:19On a different note, Terry, that you also raised, the Committee of the Whole will be discussing periodic code review in August or September.

1:28:25Okay, so getting to the questions.

1:28:27Can I think the administrator or staff clarify what specifically the PIT will be empowered to resolve immediately versus what will still require future Council action or code amendments.

1:28:40And just getting a little bit of that on the record would be helpful for me.

1:28:44Sure.

1:28:44Yeah, I'm happy to speak to at least my understanding of that and of course welcome one of the sponsors to jump in here if I get something wrong.

1:28:53So the resolution directs us first to reestablish the permanent improvement team and have that team put together the second phase of the code alignment project code package.

1:29:08And so that work would be happening in the coming months and then would eventually— I think the intention is for us to return in a few months with a proposed scope and schedule.

1:29:18If we think it's going to take longer than 2 years, you'd be asking us to come up with a clear resource statement for what we would need in order to achieve that.

1:29:26Appreciate that.

1:29:27It's one of the tensions we're always navigating in this space.

1:29:30And then separately, as a second deliverable, looking at our permit structure and finding opportunities to explore further consolidation and returning in, I think, about 5 months, 150 days with that work.

1:29:43And so the permit improvement team, full transparency, right now it is one person.

1:29:49That is all, that is all we have funded for currently in the budget.

1:29:55But so restanding up that team and and using that, that person to coordinate the work across other bureaus and other folks in the city.

1:30:04I, I could see that person as potentially helping kind of shepherd those conversations, not leading them, not driving them, but it just really helps to have a person at the city whose job, whose whole job is to talk about these things and make sure all the right people are involved and all the right conversations happen.

1:30:22And so, um, That person would work very closely with both DCA Oliveira as well as other city leadership as well, bureau directors, DCA Dhanapal, to kind of deliver those 2 work plan deliverables that are included in the resolution.

1:30:35Does that sound right, Council President?

1:30:38That's, that sounds my expectation as well.

1:30:39Yeah, absolutely.

1:30:41So, so what I'm hearing from that is, is largely that the answer to my question is largely going to be answered when we hear recommendation back in, in pieces over those different timelines.

1:30:53I guess maybe another way of phrasing it to get to the underlying question here is when eventually there is a proposal from this team, and this is maybe for the co-sponsors, is the intention that we're going to receive multiple options or a singular recommendation from staff for in terms of how to continue the process, sort of what the second I'll tell you, Councilor, it's my intention to bring something to Council for us to—.

1:31:23Not just an up and down, uh, to understand sort of holistically where we are going with these things and why.

1:31:30Some of these things I think will be very obvious up or down answers.

1:31:33Do we have multiple people writing the same sort of code?

1:31:36Do we have the same sort of people interpreting this code?

1:31:39Some of them will be a directional change that Council could have to take, but all of it will be very intentional about bringing it with not just what people think is the right way, but also based off of customer complaints and experience that we've had in the past.

1:31:57Okay, so, you know, these questions, both of those are informed sort of by the same thing that Councilor Pirtle-Guiney brought up.

1:32:02I also want to do both streamlining and consolidation and policy changes.

1:32:06I just want to make sure that we're not transferring power from the legislature to the executive through this.

1:32:11And I was hoping you could speak to that, Council President.

1:32:13Yeah, that is absolutely not my intention.

1:32:16In fact, really, this is about getting our house in order from my perspective, not about giving new authority or new delegating any additional decision-making, but rather getting the bureaucratic structure in place so that there is somebody to be able to say, I'm in charge and this is how it's going to happen.

1:32:37That is the biggest thing from— for the biggest problem that I see we're trying to solve, where right now someone from PP&D cannot be directive or prescriptive towards someone who is issuing partial permit in transportation or in water.

1:32:52To be able to come back and affirmatively say this person is in charge, but not that that intervenes with our authority or our decision-making powers.

1:33:00Councilor, if I may.

1:33:01Please.

1:33:02I'm just going to say, um, any, um, in regard to the code alignment kind of policy work, obviously any changes to the city's development codes need to come back to council for approval as part of your role as a legislative body.

1:33:15There might, there might be very minor things that can be handled via administrative rules, but I'm guessing the bulk of the recommendations will be in the code space.

1:33:24So that would come before you all hopefully next year, or sorry, in the next okay.

1:33:28Hopefully in the next 2 years.

1:33:29And then separately, as part of the second body of work around kind of permit structure and organization, as happened last time when PP&D was first created, that ended up being a package of legislation that came to council kind of aligned with the budget process because it is very real in terms of staffing moves and financing.

1:33:51Not trying to suggest that anything specific will happen, but thanks.

1:34:01And I— that answers my next question.

1:34:03I guess the only other thing to add there is just the more that we're given options, the better.

1:34:09I feel like technically speaking, we're still the legislative authority when we get a singular recommendation, but especially, especially when that's tied to the budget and the budget is already proposed as if we've accepted the proposal legislatively, that does not feel like we are the final authority, in my personal opinion.

1:34:30I'll give the example that the Tennis Center is maybe the best.

1:34:32Like, we, we, in order to make a change, we had to come up with money because the budget was already created around the idea that a policy decision would be made that hadn't been made yet.

1:34:41So that's more just a point in the implementation.

1:34:44My last question.

1:34:45Yes.

1:34:47I guess, and I'm not sure again who this is directed to, but are we looking at the desired outcomes being better timelines, number of times there's a review cycle, customer satisfaction rating, cost reduction, consistency of code interpretation, some combination there?

1:35:08What are the metrics that— and I'm mostly asking because I believe it's probably a little bit of all of it.

1:35:12Yeah.

1:35:13But I'm curious how we will measure success relative to today, um, in 2 to 3 years.

1:35:22I think that that is still an open question, Councilor, at this moment.

1:35:25I think that that is part of the process.

1:35:27I don't think we've actually been in a place to define what success is.

1:35:30And I think that, um, this is— this authority question is going to give us the first opportunity to say, actually, what is the better option?

1:35:36Is it number of permits or how long each permit Is it the amount of money the city is bringing in?

1:35:40Is it the number of big developments?

1:35:42Is it the number of steps?

1:35:44Or are we going to simply pat ourselves on the back because we've reduced our permits from talking to 7 engineers to only talking to 2?

1:35:51I think we need to hear that from the way that the system— and this, you know, I don't want to preassume how this permit improvement team or any future improvements might lead.

1:36:02So I— that was a bit of a garbled answer, but— Thank you.

1:36:05Council President, can I just add?

1:36:06Yeah, Councilor.

1:36:07The datasets that you mentioned got to all those questions that you just mentioned.

1:36:11So we've worked that out.

1:36:12We had discussions about what success looked like.

1:36:15We were looking at it monthly.

1:36:16So I actually think that there should be there still.

1:36:19So maybe the council just needs to be exposed to that.

1:36:24We have a starting point with that for sure.

1:36:26Thanks.

1:36:27Yeah, I think I appreciate that and I appreciate Councilor Ryan, you bringing your experience into this conversation and obviously the work that you've done on this.

1:36:36A, um, maybe this is just flagging for the next time we talk about this when we come back in a couple months to have, um, something clearer in terms of like our goal is to reduce average permitting timeline from X to Y for this type of, um, this type of application, I think is helpful, even if it's not, that's not necessarily a legally binding standard, but just understanding what the goal is.

1:37:01You know, yesterday we had a conversation about Home Forward and we asked what is the goal for a vacancy rate?

1:37:07And they had a very specific number.

1:37:08I don't know if they achieve it.

1:37:10I don't know if it's, you know, because it's not— there's different timelines for different numbers too.

1:37:14But it is helpful to understand what the guiding principle is, the sort of short-term North Star.

1:37:21Just to close out, I talked about this issue a lot on the campaign trail.

1:37:25I talked to developers regularly, actually.

1:37:27Money matters, of course, but the thing that I heard consistently was that time is the thing that we keep coming back to.

1:37:33Time and sort of the less quantifiable experience of feeling hassled.

1:37:39And so I appreciate this proposal.

1:37:43I'll be supportive of it when we get to that vote.

1:37:45But I really just wanted to say that this, the testimony we're hearing today is perfectly in line with what I was expecting to hear from folks who have experienced this directly.

1:37:56And I believe that this can kickstart a process.

1:37:59I don't think that passing this alone will necessarily achieve that, uh, those, those outcomes.

1:38:05Um, but I do think that it, plus the built-in check-ins that you put in, I think pretty wisely, will do that.

1:38:11So, um, thank you.

1:38:14Thank you very much, Councilor Kanal.

1:38:16Councilor Zimmerman.

1:38:18Thanks.

1:38:19I'm curious at the— we talk a lot about the system, but when we're talking about 400-day timelines, what what is the driving accountability function that exists for what is expected and how much time you spend on this?

1:38:45Because I ask that question as I get a lot of— the public is complaining about a lack of access to employees.

1:38:53Yeah.

1:38:53And it doesn't seem like a good experience.

1:38:55But then I've got employees complaining about required to come back to the counter, so to speak, or having to come back into the office.

1:39:01And so I don't know a lot about that because in these types of presentations we don't really talk about the effectiveness of, of the teams doing this work.

1:39:13Yeah, I think we'll do our best on that one here.

1:39:15Councilor Zimmerman noting that the person who's probably best suited to answer is not available to join us today.

1:39:19Yeah.

1:39:20I could maybe say a few things as a former development review manager in the former BDS Bureau.

1:39:26I was there for a decade or so as a manager and we track permit timelines, then we did, and I know they still do within teams.

1:39:34And we're aware as managers of what those timelines are and we actively manage staff around that.

1:39:41So do we have meetings like a weekly that say, All right, Eric, you've had that permit for 10 days.

1:39:48What are you doing with it?

1:39:49Do we do that?

1:39:50Yeah.

1:39:51And, you know, there's variability.

1:39:53Why are you at 10 days?

1:39:54There's variability in both the people and the project complexity that makes it more complicated.

1:40:01But yes, there's active management of that and training and culture building and to varying degrees.

1:40:09And there's, as a manager, you're aware of when the phones aren't being answered and when they are.

1:40:14And you get awareness of who's generating complaints and who's not.

1:40:19And so that's an active process of building a positive culture within the organization.

1:40:25And as CA Lee said earlier, you've gotta bring your staff along with change and it's a constant process of trying to improve those outcomes.

1:40:36I'm a little worried we're more concerned about bringing our staff along than we are of being a high-efficiency organization and meeting the needs to the public on this.

1:40:46And so I'm concerned we've actually— 'cause I think the point you're making would seem reasonable to me if we were trying to be the best in the state.

1:40:54And at this point, I just think we're trying not to be the worst in the state.

1:40:57And so I'm not sure that that measurement is the one I really want to hear about.

1:41:01I am worried that what you're describing is the tools you would use in an organization who is already doing well.

1:41:11Yeah.

1:41:13And so that's challenging for me.

1:41:15Yeah, I mean, to be clear, what I just described was my experience 10 years ago in this agency.

1:41:20I think right now we are in a different moment and, and, and a more dire moment.

1:41:25So I would agree with you.

1:41:26Because I take these, I take these public testimonies and these, you know, various conversations very seriously because they're embarrassing.

1:41:34I'm, I'm embarrassed by them.

1:41:35I'm very embarrassed by them.

1:41:37I, I have said this many times as I watched when the city enacted residential infill, and I was excited about that.

1:41:47And when I came back, I thought, I'm going to look into doing that on my own property.

1:41:51And what I was told is, you don't have enough finances to outweigh the city's timeline.

1:41:59You can afford the project, you have the land for the project, but you can't outdo the city's timeline.

1:42:04And the only people who can are the developers.

1:42:06The developers, right?

1:42:09Which was the opposite of what residential infill was supposed to be about, I thought.

1:42:13So that has stayed very true with me.

1:42:16The reason I kind of bring this up is I'm not— I am fully supportive of this and I don't think it's going to work.

1:42:26That's where I'm at.

1:42:31Question if we should, you know, zero-sum budgeting.

1:42:34Isn't that where you just scrap out last year's budget and you start filling it in from the very bottom?

1:42:39Well, I need one secretary, I need one police officer, I need one car, and then you figure out what the budget is.

1:42:44I'm kind of wondering why we don't do that with our code.

1:42:48Why don't we go and, and just eliminate and build from the ground up a code instead of, hey, can you tell us about what's kind of annoying in your workspace and maybe what you want to get to be more aligned with somebody else?

1:43:01Because that that seems like a very foundationally bad start.

1:43:08If the City of Portland were to go far more aggressive, if we were to start from zero and start articulating the codes of 2026 that we'd like to see, that's a really different kind of process and a different outcome.

1:43:24But I'm worried that if we start where we're at, and I'll say it's not the start, I know that Dan Ryan started it, but I'd like to have more faith in it, but I'm not sure I have a lot of faith in it.

1:43:38And to be honest with you, Councilor, for that type of process, that would be a multi-year endeavor.

1:43:43Oh, and it should be, right?

1:43:44Because land use is important.

1:43:46Very much so.

1:43:47Permitting is important.

1:43:48Safe buildings are important.

1:43:50But we have gone so far, and I don't have a good analogy there, but we have just gone so far in the other direction and very few City of Portland employees who are involved with it have ever said, I too am embarrassed by 400 days.

1:44:05That worries me a lot.

1:44:07That worries me a lot.

1:44:10So, you know, I, I do appreciate the efforts.

1:44:13I would love it if we could play the tape and say, Councilor Zimmerman, you were wrong.

1:44:22I'm not sure that's going to happen though.

1:44:23Councilor Councilor, as the goal matters, as the BPS director and, and the one who deals with zoning code, I think I'm in a space where I'm, I'm trying to agree with both you and Councilor Pearl-Guinney on these questions.

1:44:38And my reality is, is that you're both somewhat right about this, in that we do need significant policy discussion, and we need to do that transparently and not confuse it with this process improvement and the, and the more routine code maintenance.

1:44:53That's fair.

1:44:54And I think Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I offer 2 different types of leadership, right?

1:44:58Process leader, crisis leader, right?

1:45:01And I think the question for ourselves is, are we in crisis or are we in a process improvement?

1:45:06I would surmise that we're in crisis.

1:45:08We are 80 outta 81 in terms of places in which people invest.

1:45:13We have a person who testified who says, I do projects everywhere except your jurisdiction, folks.

1:45:19We are in crisis.

1:45:20And so incrementalism to me is a failure.

1:45:23But you're 100% right, Director Engstrom, that there is a discussion of which one do we want to have.

1:45:28And I'm offering that I think that process improvement is not the thing you do when your house is on fire.

1:45:36You flood that sucker with as much water as you can and you worry about the bushes later.

1:45:41And I think that's where we need to be thinking about this.

1:45:43Thank you.

1:45:46Thank you, Councilor Zimmerman.

1:45:47Uh, colleagues, I'm going to limit debate to those in the queue right now.

1:45:51Uh, Councilor Smith.

1:45:55Thank you, Council President.

1:45:58Thank you, Councilor Zimmerman, for your, for your comments.

1:46:01Um, I don't sit on the Housing Committee, but I do want to say thank you for tackling this issue.

1:46:05It's a big, it's a big issue, and I appreciate where we're starting for and thank Councilor Ryan for, uh, for getting this started because it's so important.

1:46:16This is, this is our book of business.

1:46:19I know Councilor Green loves it when I say that, but this is our book of business.

1:46:24And so we have to be good and, and be about our business when we're doing our book of business.

1:46:29And so whatever we can do to be helpful— I didn't get a chance to hear the whole entire, um, presentation from the Housing Committee, but I think We, we have to begin and, and continue and, and, and streamline, and I support what you're talking about.

1:46:45Um, I, I understand what Councilor Zimmerman is talking about.

1:46:49He's been around for a long time, and it— and he has a historical knowledge and a working knowledge of what this looks like.

1:46:55But I am rooting for you all.

1:46:57I am.

1:46:58Thank you.

1:46:58Thank you.

1:46:59Thank you, Councilor Smith.

1:47:00Vice President Clark.

1:47:01Just really quickly, thank you, Council President.

1:47:03I think Councilor Councilor Zimmerman, I think you were referencing what Ezra Klein talked about in his book Abundance, um, and I think you're also referencing the medical procedure that I mentioned earlier.

1:47:14Um, I just, I, I have just a quick question.

1:47:17Uh, when I was reading this for the first time, I was a little concerned about the timing.

1:47:23Uh, is this enough time, the 60 days, 150 days?

1:47:29I would always say you're gonna need more time, especially for code changes or anything like this for evaluation.

1:47:36Thank you.

1:47:37I would say give us some more time to evaluate this and bring back a solid product to the council.

1:47:43Okay, thank you.

1:47:44Thank you, Vice President Clark.

1:47:45Councilor Ryan, last word.

1:47:47Oh, okay.

1:47:47Thank you, Council President.

1:47:49I just wanna acknowledge how helpful it was when we had a process where we had a continuous improvement team of 4, and that was a hard battle to get into the budget in 2022 for 2023.

1:48:01And am I hearing now there's one person left on that team?

1:48:05Yeah, we received from federal resources a pro-housing grant that are supporting one of the positions for the next year or 2.

1:48:11Okay.

1:48:12I think that is part of the challenge is we don't have that.

1:48:16That team of 4 was very helpful and they were very artful of herding cats, if you will.

1:48:23Having those positions that were just focused on this, which is what CA Lee is speaking of, I think, when you're talking about a change management team.

1:48:32And you probably didn't even know we had a team like that because there's a lot of institutional memory.

1:48:36It's really sad when I'm in.

1:48:38So I hope that we have some honesty about what it takes to do this work.

1:48:45And it can't just come from the dais up here.

1:48:47We all know that.

1:48:48But it also can't always come from of folks that are already doing other jobs.

1:48:52So I'm rooting for the CA Lee and all of you to embrace again an upgraded version, a 0.2 version of whatever that team looks like to do that cat herding to move this along, because I think it slowed down after the— those positions went away.

1:49:08Does that make sense?

1:49:10Thank you.

1:49:10Yeah, it's my understanding that one of the homework assignments given to us by the resolution is to do that kind of thinking and figure out what can we do with existing staff resources, right?

1:49:21And then what would be the kind of boosted up version of that that might require more than we have right now?

1:49:26And then presenting that information to you all to weigh and—.

1:49:29I hope when you come back, it's about that decision package.

1:49:34Thanks.

1:49:35Thank you, Councilor Ryan.

1:49:38Rebecca, can we please call the roll on this resolution?

1:49:47For document 2026-203, Koyama Lane?

1:49:54Aye.

1:49:55Murillo?

1:49:56Aye.

1:49:57Aye.

1:49:58Aye.

1:49:59Aye.

1:50:00Aye.

1:50:02Aye.

1:50:03Zimmerman?

1:50:04Aye.

1:50:05Avalos?

1:50:08Smith?

1:50:10Aye.

1:50:11Kanal.

1:50:12Aye.

1:50:13Pirtle-Guiney.

1:50:15Aye.

1:50:15Ryan.

1:50:16Aye.

1:50:17Dunphy.

1:50:18Aye.

1:50:19And the resolution is adopted with 11 aye and 1 absent.

1:50:24Thank you all very much.

1:50:25Colleagues, it is 3:45.

1:50:27I'm gonna give us a 10-minute restroom break.

1:50:29Please be back here at 3:55.

2:03:08And we are coming back.

2:03:10We have 8 folks— look at that, 9 folks!

2:03:12Look at that, we're all here on time.

2:03:15All right, Rebecca, can we please call item number 9?

2:03:21Item 9, amend vehicles and traffic code to clarify applicability of ride fees and establish a driver's resource center for transportation network company drivers.

2:03:31Amend code sections colleagues, this is the first reading of a non-emergency ordinance.

2:03:46We are not going to be moving this towards second reading today.

2:03:48We are going to get to hear from all the folks who have signed up to testify, though.

2:03:53There's some additional work that still can be going on, but first reading of the ordinance.

2:03:56Thank you, Deputy City Administrator.

2:03:58First, I need to— where is it?

2:04:00There it is.

2:04:00First, I'm going to turn it over to Christopher Hare, Council Operations Committee staff summary.

2:04:05Take it away.

2:04:06Thank you, and good afternoon again, Council President, Vice President, and councilors.

2:04:10For the record again, Christopher Hare, Council Operations Policy Analyst, and I serve as staff to the City Life Committee.

2:04:16The ordinance before you, document number 2026-192, was considered in the City Life Committee on June 9th, where it was referred to council with a recommendation that it be passed.

2:04:24The ordinance amends City Code Sections 16.40.030 and 16.40.240, as shown in Exhibit A.

2:04:33The amendments to Section 16.40.030 revise definitions used within Chapter 16.40.

2:04:40While the majority of the changes are technical and conforming in nature, the definition of conducting business is substantively amended to specify that a trip occurring within the City of Portland is considered business activity conducted in Portland.

2:04:51Regardless of where the trip originated and is subject to applicable permitting and regulatory requirements.

2:04:57The amendments to Section 16.40.240 establish new requirements related to transportation network company, or TNC, driver deactivations.

2:05:08When a driver's access to a platform is deactivated for an alleged violation of a TNC's terms of service, the TNC must provide written notice to the driver within 48 hours.

2:05:17The notice must include a stated reason for deactivation, The specific terms of service alleged to have been violated, the effective date and duration of the deactivation, any actions the driver may take to seek reinstatement, and instructions for filing an appeal as provided by the city administrator.

2:05:33The ordinance also prohibits the disclosure of customer identifying information to the driver as part of the notification process.

2:05:39In addition, the ordinance requires TNCs to provide the city administrator and authorized representatives with direct access to to the company's highest level of customer service for the purpose of assisting drivers and addressing issues related to compliance and appeals.

2:05:53The ordinance authorizes the city administrator to adopt administrative rules necessary to implement and collect permitted ride fees on trips that either originate or terminate within the City of Portland.

2:06:04It also authorizes the establishment of and adoption of administrative rules for a driver's resource center, center within the private-for-hire transportation regulatory program.

2:06:13The center may assist drivers with eligible deactivation appeals, provide translation and interpretation services, support access to required operating documentation, offer culturally responsive information, education, outreach, training, and related services for hire drivers operating in Portland.

2:06:30The ordinance further authorizes the use of a portion of permitted ride fee revenues to support administration and operation of the center.

2:06:37Finally, the ordinance authorizes the city administrator to conduct the ordinance directs a competitive procurement process and enter into contract not to exceed $1.5 million annually with an independent organization to operate the center.

2:06:48The selected contractor must be independent of TNCs and free from conflict of interest.

2:06:53The ordinance also directs preference be given to nonprofit organizations with demonstrated experience advocating for the civil and economic rights of drivers, contractors, and workers from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups, including experience providing representation in grievance proceedings and delivering services and resources to TNC drivers.

2:07:10The full impact statements on this item includes financial and budgetary impacts, economic and real estate development impacts, community impacts, and community involvement.

2:07:182 Amendments were approved in committee on June 9th, the effects of which can be read in the committee staff summary posted online.

2:07:253 Individuals provided verbal testimony in committee and 4 submitted written testimony prior to committee action.

2:07:31The general themes of testimony included drivers' experiences with platform deactivations, including concerns regarding limited information provided Thank you.

2:07:38Questions or comments about the reason for deactivation and challenges communicating directly with TNCs, language access barriers and the availability of translation interpretation services to assist drivers in navigating TNC systems and resources, compensation levels for Portland TNC drivers compared with drivers in other jurisdictions including Seattle and Denver, requests for greater clarity regarding the definition of deactivation and which categories of deactivations would be eligible for review through the driver Drivers Resource Center, concerns that additional regulatory costs or transportation fees could increase the cost of rides for passengers, questions regarding the city's role in providing resources and support services for independent contractors and the potential impacts on competition between TNCs and traditional taxicab companies, perspectives regarding the potential business impact of the ordinance on TNCs operating in Portland and the relationship between driver compensation, business sustainability, and profitability.

2:08:34Thank you, Christopher.

2:08:36Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, not only are you a sponsor of this, this also came out of your committee.

2:08:41Turn to you.

2:08:41It sure did.

2:08:42Thank you so much, Council President.

2:08:44And I want to start by thanking my co-sponsors, Councilor Novick, Council President Dunphy, Councilor Murillo, and also thanking Councilor Zimmerman, who brought an amendment forward during the committee process to address some concerns he had.

2:08:58Had heard with the underlying.

2:09:02So I'm going to go through a little bit of detail here because there's a lot to this measure, and I want to talk about the why behind it.

2:09:11So Portland has relied over a number of years now pretty heavily on rideshare as a core part of our transportation system.

2:09:21The people who make that system work, the drivers, are increasingly left behind as changes in that industry progress.

2:09:30Drivers face unpredictable wages, sudden deactivation without recourse or even a clear explanation as to why, and as independent contractors, lack access to benefits like healthcare, paid leave, and other job protections.

2:09:44I'll note that they also, as independent contractors, lack the standard means of forming a union to advocate for their needs that are available to employee workers.

2:09:56The rideshare model relies on classifying drivers as independent contractors.

2:10:01It, in practice, allows many of the costs of doing business to be borne out by the drivers and by the city.

2:10:09When a driver is unfairly deactivated, they face employment and housing instability.

2:10:16When they make poor wages or lack benefits or face that instability from deactivation, they increasingly rely on state and city services.

2:10:26The model isn't just hard on drivers, but it creates instability and cost in our systems in Portland, including instability in our transportation system.

2:10:36We need Portland's economy to work.

2:10:39Portlanders know that a strong economy is impossible without good jobs.

2:10:43And Portlanders know that a working economy in our transportation system has to have a system that works for these drivers.

2:10:52Right now, that's not the case.

2:10:56There are a number of solutions to address a variety of concerns that have been brought up in this industry that we'll hear over the coming months.

2:11:04But today we have before us one critical part of the solution.

2:11:08Which specifically addresses deactivations and the need to have experts, people who have experience contacting and working with our TNCs, our rideshare companies, who can support drivers as they navigate the world of working as independent contractors and who can walk beside drivers as they attempt to contact and work with TNCs.

2:11:34We've heard that one of the core challenges is just the ability to reach somebody, have a conversation, and truly understand what a deactivation is about.

2:11:44But when you've addressed that 100 times before, it's much easier to do.

2:11:49And we need to set up a system where there are experts who have done this hundreds of times before and can help.

2:11:56So to do that, the ordinance establishes a driver resource resource center, or DRC, which is a centralized independent resource to support rideshare drivers.

2:12:07The DRC is a place where drivers can go when they get deactivated, when they're facing wage issues, when they're navigating benefits and protections that don't currently exist within the system.

2:12:17I'll note that in the past Portland contracted for an ombudsperson that did much of this work.

2:12:25The question came up in committee about whether this was within scope for Portland to do, and it most certainly is given that history.

2:12:32That system with an internal ombudsperson was somewhat underutilized.

2:12:37We had an internal person who didn't have the experience to provide drivers with the services that they most needed.

2:12:47By contracting for this work with a driver resource center, we have seen in other states and cities that we can successfully successfully ensure that drivers are getting those services that they need and truly taking advantage of the system that's in place.

2:13:02I do want to clarify a little bit about what is and what isn't here.

2:13:07This ordinance will not change any rules around deactivation.

2:13:12It does not change the authority over who sets those rules.

2:13:17It does not do anything to change the relationship between drivers TNCs, or PBOT, or to change the scope of PBOT's regulatory authority or regulatory work.

2:13:29It simply provides a resource, an advocate, a partner for drivers who are navigating some really complicated regulations and really complicated rules within the TNC environment by ensuring that they can work with an expert who has done this and knows how to help support them.

2:13:48So how do we pay for that driver resource center?

2:13:52As was mentioned in the committee staff summary, one of the changes in the code before us is to say that regardless of where a ride originates, it can be regulated by the City of Portland.

2:14:05That's the case in many other cities and states.

2:14:10By making that change, we actually free up a funding stream without raising costs.

2:14:16Today, the way that our code is written, Portland only charges ride fees on trips that originate within the city, but not those that originate elsewhere and end within our city.

2:14:29Other jurisdictions charge fees on rides within their city, including those that begin or end there, and we have the authority to do the same.

2:14:38This ordinance, by clarifying the regulatory applicability of rides that end but don't begin in our city, allows us to extend the fee that currently exists without expanding that fee to cover the costs.

2:14:53This is not a new concept.

2:14:55In fact, the mayor and PBOT have previously explored this approach for revenue raising, and I'll note that this ensures that the cost of the fee does not go up.

2:15:08Those were questions that came up in committee.

2:15:12So to clarify, this is that fee that council in our budget a year and a bit ago raised to $2 per ride.

2:15:22That increase made rides more expensive, theoretically reducing demand and directly impacting drivers' earnings.

2:15:28I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

2:15:30And provided no support through the increases to drivers.

2:15:34We have the opportunity here through this change in how we regulate rides and, and where we collect fees to provide the funding for the Driver Resource Center, again, without changing the level of the fee, without cutting into PBOT funding, and in a way that has been considered previously by the administration.

2:15:55Thank you.

2:15:56And is very workable.

2:15:59As long as TNCs maintain the independent contractor model, we can't fully get them to take on the social and economic costs created by a somewhat unstable work environment for drivers.

2:16:11But through this measure, we can ensure that drivers get the support that they need within the driver community to be successful at their jobs.

2:16:21So I want to end.

2:16:21I started by thanking my co-sponsors.

2:16:24I want thank you.

2:16:24I want to end by thanking the folks within this industry, starting with the drivers union for your advocacy.

2:16:31You came to us a little over a year ago asking if we could figure out a way to have a driver resource center in Portland, and your patience as we have looked for the best way to get it done and to fund it here is appreciated.

2:16:46And second, to Uber and Lyft for engaging on this.

2:16:49They've provided They have raised some concerns about clarifying that this does not change how deactivation works within the system.

2:17:01It merely provides that advocacy path to support drivers who are facing deactivation and other changes in the system, other concerns with the system.

2:17:11My understanding is that because of timing and the need to move forward on some other measures that are on the agenda, that this is not going to be on the agenda today we're only able to hear public testimony.

2:17:21And I think we're going to take advantage of that delay that we are unfortunately facing on this measure to figure out if there is some easy language that we can use to clarify and ensure that those concerns don't persist.

2:17:38I want to be clear that any clarification wouldn't change the, the language here, the impact of that language, the intent of it, or the funding mechanism.

2:17:49It would merely add a line or two of clarity to the end that I described here today.

2:17:55We'll see if we get that or not.

2:17:57If so, we'll bring it forward when this comes back for the continuation of the first reading.

2:18:02With that, I will just finally note that there is work being done at the state level coordinated by Senator Jama.

2:18:10He has shared with us that this work is a supplement rather than a conflict with the work that he is doing.

2:18:18We have a letter to that end posted in the record in case there are any questions there.

2:18:23I welcome the testimony today and discussion and questions later and would ask colleagues for your ultimate support on this measure.

2:18:32Thank you, Council President.

2:18:33Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

2:18:34I'll turn to Councilors Novick yeah, um, I just wanted to say that, uh, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney eloquently explained the proposal, and we're going to hear really eloquent explanations of the need for the proposal from the drivers that are going to testify.

2:19:01Thank you, Mayor.

2:19:03This is a driver-driven proposal.

2:19:06No pun intended.

2:19:09Thank you, Councilor Novick.

2:19:10Councilor Mariah.

2:19:12Yeah, I just want to say thanks for all the folks that put this together and worked on it.

2:19:16And thank you so much to the Drivers Union for— you guys have been pushing for this for a long time.

2:19:20It was one of the first things you chatted with me about when I first got into office.

2:19:23And if it wasn't for your lead and your expertise, we wouldn't be here today.

2:19:28I wish we were voting on it today because I just want to get it done, and I'm so excited about it.

2:19:32And I, again, because I don't have a license, I take Lyft and Uber all the time to get places when I'm not taking the bus.

2:19:39And this is something that I've heard from almost every single driver, that it's really essential for your guys' rights to be maintained.

2:19:45And as an immigrant too, I'm especially thinking about the immigrant drivers in our community that really need these resources and the language access who have been specifically and uniquely targeted because of these policies or because of the lack of clarity in the policies, really.

2:20:01So I'm really excited for the potential that this has to really help establish people's rights in that way.

2:20:08And thank you so much for leading us to come to this conclusion and do a lot better by the workers in our city.

2:20:14So I am very eagerly looking forward to the day that we get to vote on it.

2:20:18Thanks.

2:20:18Thank you.

2:20:19Thank you, Councilor Morillo.

2:20:20I'm also a sponsor on this.

2:20:22I'm proud to be a co-sponsor on this.

2:20:23My colleagues have said everything that I would add.

2:20:26TNC drivers need a strong permanent advocate.

2:20:30This ordinance creates and funds that.

2:20:32It's a straightforward and appropriate mechanism and it's well worth it.

2:20:36It's simple and more to come.

2:20:38So, Rebecca, I'd love to jump into public testimony right now, please.

2:20:48First up, we have Sam Araya, Clint Hillis, Craig Bethel, Bob Casanelli.

2:20:59Sam is online.

2:21:00You can go ahead, Sam.

2:21:07Thank you.

2:21:11Sam, you can unmute.

2:21:13Go ahead.

2:21:19Looks like he's having trouble.

2:21:23You can start at the table.

2:21:26Okay, I test—.

2:21:28Gave testimony about 6 months ago, I think it was, for the Driver Resource Center, and I started off with this introduction.

2:21:36I'm a 5th generation Oregonian.

2:21:39Oh, and your name for the record.

2:21:41And I've lived, I've lived in the Portland metro area for 69 years.

2:21:47And 10 years ago I joined Lyft, and it's one of the most enjoyable jobs I've had.

2:21:54I am saddened by the way Uber and Lyft treat the drivers.

2:22:02Closing down our only resource for each of those places is why I'm really endorsing this driver's resource center.

2:22:11And now I am the president of Fare Co-op, a third resource, a third rideshare coming to Portland.

2:22:20And we have a lot of, a lot of good things for the drivers because we're based for the drivers, for the community.

2:22:28Thank you.

2:22:29Without being told by the corporate what we have to do.

2:22:32They oversee us, but they don't tell us what we have to do.

2:22:36So I want to thank everyone who worked to create the Driver Resource Center.

2:22:43Point of order.

2:22:46Please say your name on the record real quick.

2:22:49Craig Bethel.

2:22:50There we go.

2:22:51Thank you.

2:22:52Craig Bethel.

2:22:53I have been working with Fair for four years trying to get them here.

2:22:57They're finally here.

2:22:59We we're operating, and we're operating for rideshare drivers.

2:23:04This is more than just another program—the Drivers Resource Center.

2:23:07This is a place where drivers can find support, guidance, and someone to turn to when they need help.

2:23:15Whether it is assistance with deactivation, language barriers, documentation, or simple understanding of.

2:23:20The system, the center fills the need for our industry.

2:23:25I'm especially proud today that I am representing Fare Co-op, a rideshare company.

2:23:31And let's see, I think I'm the only rideshare company here representing and speaking for the Driver Resource Center.

2:23:40And of course, I'm president of Fare for Portland.

2:23:44Fare Co-op is different.

2:23:46We're a A majority driver-owned cooperative built on belief that can work better for everyone instead of maximizing profits for outside shareholders.

2:23:59Our mission is to provide fairer opportunities for drivers while delivering reliable and respectable service to the customers.

2:24:09We support the Driver Resource Center.

2:24:12Because an informed and supported driver is a better driver.

2:24:18When drivers have access to resources, education, advocacy, everyone benefits— drivers, riders, and the community as a whole.

2:24:31As cooperative, we believe in the future of transportation should be built on fairness, transparency, and partnership.

2:24:42We look forward to working with the Driver Resource Center, city's leaders, fellow drivers that make Portland— and make Portland a model of what rideshare can be, can become.

2:24:54Thank you for your time, for your commitment to the drivers, and for giving FareCo-op the opportunity to be part of this important conversion.

2:25:07Thank you so much.

2:25:08Thanks, Craig.

2:25:10Sam Araya online, can you unmute and go ahead?

2:25:17We're seeing you online but not hearing you.

2:25:20Can you hear me now?

2:25:21We can hear you now, you can go ahead.

2:25:24Yeah, good afternoon, committee members.

2:25:26My name is Samuel Araya.

2:25:28I live in District 3 in Portland, and I was a rideshare driver for over 10 years before Uber and Lyft wrongfully deactivate me because of an error on my background check.

2:25:40They don't make it easy for me.

2:25:42We don't get to speak to a real person.

2:25:45They make me text them in English, which is not my first language.

2:25:49I just got reactivated on Uber but still struggling to catch up on my bills because of the time I lost on the road.

2:25:58Even before I got deactivated, there was many times I was underpaid.

2:26:03It was almost impossible to contact someone.

2:26:06You get bounced around like a pinball.

2:26:09They close the chats on you and they don't even understand what you're trying to tell them.

2:26:16Like many drivers, I need help to communicate with the companies and help translate, but every time I need assistance, I have to drive across town.

2:26:27Thank you.

2:26:28To a coffee shop where the music is loud, or to the library where you have to be very quiet.

2:26:34It's hard to get interpretation when you are worried about the sounds around you and when you don't have as much of privacy.

2:26:44But I hear that drivers in Colorado and Washington can go to the place and get support if they were owed money or if Uber and Lyft take their jobs away.

2:26:54Thank you.

2:26:54Why can't Portland drivers have their own driver resource center?

2:26:59Thank you, Councilors Pirtle-Guiney, Novick, Mariello, and Dulphy and others for supporting your local rideshare drivers and giving us a place to go and get help where we need it the most.

2:27:14Thank you.

2:27:15I appreciate you all.

2:27:18Thank you so much.

2:27:19Have a good day.

2:27:22Joe Jackson, Juliana Gonzalez, Ben Gilbert, Jordan Lewis.

2:27:30Welcome.

2:27:32Please introduce yourself for the record.

2:27:34Take it away.

2:27:37President Dunphy, Vice President Clark, members of the council.

2:27:40My name is Joe Jackson, for the record.

2:27:44I've been a rideshare driver in the Portland metro area for 11 years.

2:27:47I have driven thousands of trips and amassed hundreds of thousands of miles on these streets.

2:27:52I'm here in strong support of this ordinance to create a driver resource center.

2:27:58Not much longer than a year ago, I was in this very seat— that seat, close enough— asking for this, and I praise the hard work of our sponsors and supporters.

2:28:12Who have helped bring life to the ask that I had back then.

2:28:16I just want to take a chance here to thank you all.

2:28:18Thank you.

2:28:21Drivers need a place to go to get help, or if we have issues with the TNCs, regulatory issues or questions, trouble understanding, the Driver Resource Center could offer legal help at little to no cost to drivers who are worried about feeding their families after they've lost their job.

2:28:44Translation and interpretation services for the culturally biased English-speaking AI chatbots that dominate the customer service that both of the current TNC giants offer.

2:28:57And finally, outreach and education to the massive and diverse driver community.

2:29:03The $2 trip fee has been in effect for over a year now without supporting the drivers that So desperately need the support.

2:29:12And we understand that Portland has needs, but so do drivers.

2:29:17And without us, the new funding wouldn't exist.

2:29:23So please support our Driver Resource Center so that we drivers can get the support we need.

2:29:29Thank you.

2:29:30Thank you for supporting drivers.

2:29:32Thank you so much.

2:29:34Juliana's online.

2:29:35You can go ahead.

2:29:37Thank you so much.

2:29:39Good afternoon, council members.

2:29:41My name is Juliana Gonzalez, and I serve as the executive director of Colorado Independent Drivers United, or CIDU.

2:29:49We represent rideshare drivers across Colorado and work every day to help workers navigate the unique challenges of app-based work.

2:29:57I'm here today to support funding for a driver resource center in Portland.

2:30:02Our experience in Colorado has shown that drivers need more than just rights on paper.

2:30:06They need accessible, trusted institutions that can help them understand and exercise those rights.

2:30:12The app-based workers often face language barriers, technological challenges, complex company policies, and processes that can be difficult to navigate alone.

2:30:24Through CIDU, we help drivers understand workplace protections, navigate the deactivations, access legal resources, Connect with government agencies, and advocate for fair treatment.

2:30:37Many drivers come to us after spending weeks or months trying unsuccessfully to resolve, resolve these issues on their own.

2:30:45Having a dedicated resource center creates a place where workers can receive support from people who understand the industry, speak their language, and can help them navigate the systems that are often confusing and inaccessible.

2:30:59Thank you.

2:30:59Thank you.

2:31:02These centers also benefit the broader community.

2:31:05They improve compliance with labor standards, increase awareness of worker protections, they reduce the misinformation, and create a more stable workforce.

2:31:16They serve as a bridge between workers, government agencies, and transportation network companies.

2:31:23As policymakers across the country continue to address the growth of app-based work, driver resource centers have proven to be an effective and practical investment.

2:31:32They help ensure that workers can access the rights and protections that lawmakers intended them to have.

2:31:39I encourage you to please support this funding and help create a resource center that will provide meaningful assistance to Portland's rideshare and delivery drivers for years to come.

2:31:48Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

2:31:51Thank you for joining us today.

2:31:58My name is Ben Gilbert, and I'm a volunteer lobbyist with the Portland Democratic Socialists of America.

2:32:03Please support the ordinance by Councilors Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Steve Novick, Jamie Dunphy, and Angelita Morillo to establish a driver's resource center for transportation network company drivers.

2:32:14Online platforms like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.

2:32:18Have long exploited gaps in legislation to deny workers their basic rights because they lack status and recognition.

2:32:24Online platforms deny them regular work contracts even though they exercise control over their labor.

2:32:30This has given rise to degrading work conditions.

2:32:33Platform workers have irregular income, work long hours, are often effectively denied collective bargaining and labor representation, and do not have access to paid sick leave or holiday entitlements.

2:32:43Online platforms emerged with the 2008 financial crisis At a time when governments were aggressively pushing for austerity policies, implementing severe cuts to social services like health and education, and making moves to liberalize the labor market, the gig economy promised workers autonomy, but instead— sorry, but instead institutionalized precarious, insecure, and underpaid work.

2:33:05For corporations, this became an opportunity to circumvent hard-earned rights of workers to maximize profits.

2:33:11Workers are resisting this naked exploitation and degradation of their rights.

2:33:15The drivers union is one way workers are fighting back.

2:33:18It is encouraging that council is recognizing this problem and taking action, however small that action is.

2:33:23Platform workers in Portland deserve fair pay, protection from unfair deactivations, transparency for drivers and their riders, and inclusion in public benefits like workers' compensation, paid family medical leave, and more.

2:33:35Thank you.

2:33:36Thanks a lot, Ben.

2:33:39Uh, Jordan Lewis, um, registered volunteer lobbyist with the Portland Democratic Socialists of America.

2:33:45Um, I'm here today in support of this ordinance.

2:33:48I want to congratulate and thank a lot of the rideshare drivers in the area for organizing however possible to them.

2:33:55I know that a lot of the legal pathways that other sectors have aren't there for them, so they've really come together and Demanded better, which I think is an awesome thing.

2:34:07When it comes to transportation services like this, it ends up being exploitation.

2:34:13Like, the business model for a lot of these companies is human labor, and they end up trying to crunch as many labor hours through as few people as possible.

2:34:23And that's why taxi companies traditionally had unions.

2:34:27That's why transit agencies have unions.

2:34:30That's why postal delivery services have unions.

2:34:33Yeah.

2:34:34And this is an awesome first step.

2:34:37And I think I've listened to, I've heard their testimony.

2:34:39It's very clear why this Driver Resource Center is so important.

2:34:43And it's great that the Driver Resource Center is paid for without raising rates.

2:34:48That's really cool.

2:34:50But this hopefully is just the start and we need to see even more.

2:34:55And I think everyone should have a dignified life and— Thank you.

2:35:01Control over their labor, and they should be rewarded justly for it.

2:35:04So hopefully we can go even further than this, but who knows what that'll look like.

2:35:08Thank you.

2:35:09Thank you very much.

2:35:11That completes testimony.

2:35:14Okay, colleagues, as I mentioned, we have, uh, we were going to hear testimony, and then I'm going to be continuing this item to, uh, next week's calendar, our next week's agenda.

2:35:26And we'll work with Councilor Pirtle-Guiney on some of that last tightening that needs to happen.

2:35:32So I am moving this— I am continuing item number 9 to future agenda.

2:35:40Keelan— I'm sorry, Rebecca, can we please call items 10 and 11 again?

2:35:46Item 10, amend the FY 2026-27 budget to appropriate $7,150,007 in Portland Clean Energy Fund Interest income and other fund resources to restore frontline positions and services reduced in the approved budget and to provide transition support for affected employees, document number 2026-222.

2:36:07Item 11, adopt a supplemental budget for FY 2026-27 to reduce potential risks to city services, document number 2026-223.

2:36:18Colleagues, this is the continued first reading of both of these ordinances.

2:36:22We have— we took votes on the pre-filed amendments yesterday and carried these items over in order to allow additional time for public debate of the underlying ordinances this afternoon.

2:36:32As I said earlier, reasonable time has already been provided for these items, and I do intend to move them to second reading today before adjournment.

2:36:41So colleagues, to further discussion, go ahead and hop into the queue.

2:36:45Thank you, Mayor.

2:36:50Okay, sorry, apologies.

2:36:53Great, we'll give it a second.

2:37:01Uh, I have both of the ordinances open at the same time.

2:37:03We can talk about either.

2:37:04And, uh, yes.

2:37:09Okay, Councilor Murillo.

2:37:11Um, thank you, colleagues.

2:37:13I think yesterday's discussion, I think, was a healthy one, actually.

2:37:18And I think that upon hearing everything that folks had been saying yesterday, I worked with my team overnight, and I think that there are more spaces where we are able to come to a compromise based on some of the things that people said were their stated interests.

2:37:33So I'm sorry, I'm waiting for my team to send the clerk some written amendments.

2:37:39Okay.

2:37:39So that should be coming in shortly and to the council offices as well.

2:37:42So check your inbox.

2:37:43And I will also have a brief presentation just to go over what the new amendment will do.

2:37:49I'll be honest, I think that this is a little bit of a tough amendment for some of us up here to stomach.

2:37:56It's not something that we necessarily wanted to bring forward at all if we didn't have to.

2:38:01But I understand that we're in a season where compromise is really necessary.

2:38:05Thank you.

2:38:06So I see the amendment language was just sent.

2:38:10If folks want to take a moment to review it, this is going to be an amendment for our ordinance, the one that we brought forward, not the other one.

2:38:19And part of that is because I think that the revenue source in our ordinance is a bit more stable than the one brought in the other one.

2:38:27So that's why it's an amendment to our ordinance, in the hopes that maybe this change will get some other folks on board.

2:38:34Thank you.

2:38:37And I'm just checking with my team to see where things are at, but feel free to pull up the amendment language and review it now for a moment if you'd like.

2:38:46And I have not— I have not received it yet.

2:38:49It was sent to council.

2:38:51It was emailed to everybody, I believe.

2:38:53Oh, it was sent to the council clerk.

2:38:54Okay.

2:38:55Okay, team, if you're watching this, if you can just email it to the council offices to make it easy for everyone, that would be great.

2:39:01Great.

2:39:01And if possible, also maybe some printed copies would be nice.

2:39:04Um, should we take a recess for a brief moment to get that, or—.

2:39:09Um, Council Clerk, do you have the presentation up?

2:39:12Are you able to share that?

2:39:27The presentation is up.

2:39:30Thank you.

2:39:31I'm happy to go through that.

2:39:32And I would also request that my team just sent a written copy of the amendments to all of the council offices as well.

2:39:41But this presentation, I'll go through it briefly.

2:39:43It will go over what's in the language anyways.

2:39:46If that's— may I, Council President?

2:39:48Go right ahead.

2:39:49Okay, next slide, please.

2:39:53So this amendment is going to fund 55 positions, and many of them were found in the other ordinance as well.

2:40:00So I think that there was a lot of shared values in what was being brought forward.

2:40:05The positions that we're saving are going to be in parks, transportation, water, environmental services, fire, 311, and the police bureau's unarmed responders, PPB, PASS, and desk clerks, and the Office of Equity and Human Rights.

2:40:19Along with BHR.

2:40:21This restores the 24/7 fire and rescue vehicles, and it funds the $3 million in the PBB training for EMS, which I know was something that folks for the other ordinance were really prioritizing.

2:40:37So that's something that we're bringing forward.

2:40:40The— we also are changing it to include the BLT reserve, which was something that was thank you.

2:40:45I know that, as indicated by some of our other colleagues, that was a concern before, so we wanted to make sure that that was included as well.

2:40:52This continues to include the healthcare through August for the over 200 employees whose jobs were cut in the mayor's budget, and it directs the city administrator to deliver a service impact analysis for the positions restored in this package to understand the impact of the loss of these positions if not preserved beyond the 2026-27 fiscal year.

2:41:15The city did not conduct this analysis before eliminating all of these 200 positions in the mayor's budget, so we thought it was important to include that as part of fiscal responsibility.

2:41:27Next slide, please.

2:41:30This is going to be funded by appropriating— the full package amendment appropriates around $18 million in 3 broad parts.

2:41:40It restores 55 jobs in city services.

2:41:43You can go through that list there if you'd like.

2:41:45And it has a transition to support affected employees as well who are going to be losing their jobs, as well as a restoration of the BLT reserves out of PSF interest.

2:41:57Next slide, please.

2:42:00The reason I think that, you know, there are a lot of us up here who have this is not easy for any of us up here, and many of us are not interested in using even PSF interest to fund some of the things that have come forward.

2:42:13So I want to state very clearly that this is a sacrifice for everybody involved in a lot of different ways.

2:42:20The reason we chose PSF interest is because it is a one-time stable funding source that already exists.

2:42:27And we just found out this morning as well that now PSF interest has $27 million available to be appropriated, which is 2 times $2 million more than was originally budgeted.

2:42:37Our ordinance uses about half of that already accrued total, and our source does not require backfill, unlike the other ordinance.

2:42:45So it's just a more stable funding source, and I think that's really important to talk about.

2:42:50Our proposed use is transparent and clearly defined.

2:42:54If we don't put the PCF interest towards this ordinance, that PCF interest just goes back into the general fund, and it's a We have no idea what it actually gets used for specifically.

2:43:03This actually tells us and the public what it's going to be used for.

2:43:07Next slide, please.

2:43:11To me, this is my final stand for a compromise with this council, and I think that it's really important because it restores key city positions and services, includes PS3s, desk clerks, the 3 critical fire rescue units, And every position that's included in the Save Our Services, Councilor Clark's ordinance.

2:43:33It requires that the administration consult labor unions and frontline staff for position impacts to ensure that this isn't just a delay of cuts that the mayor wants.

2:43:42It provides transition support.

2:43:45It protects the BLT without prioritizing that reserve over restoration of core positions.

2:43:51It does fund the police training, and I think for a lot of us, Yes.

2:43:54We didn't think that adding police training was a priority when we wanted to save actual positions, but because we heard so strongly from all of you that that was a priority, this is something that I'm really trying to compromise on, even though I don't necessarily agree with it.

2:44:09I'm trying here.

2:44:10So this also maintains our parks levy promise by funding the parks positions that the mayor cut, and it doesn't keep— spend down the city's rainy day fund, the general fund.

2:44:20Fund reserve in the hopes that we can backfill it later.

2:44:24Next slide, please.

2:44:28I think it's really important that when we told voters that they need to help us with the parks levy, that we fulfill our promise to them.

2:44:36And so this restores the 14 parks positions and some park services that the mayor cut.

2:44:41It ensures that community gardens are maintaining current service levels and prevents increased fees to them.

2:44:47It prevents extended closures of community centers, pools, restrooms, event spaces, and canceled or disrupted events.

2:44:55It keeps the really critical senior center project by preserving equity in our service offerings.

2:45:00And that was something we heard a lot during our town halls and how important that was for our seniors who don't have a lot of other spaces to be connected.

2:45:08It keeps the park— the rec leaders at the Peninsula Park and Charles Jordan for after-school staffing.

2:45:13And we know that childcare is a really big issue in our city right now.

2:45:16It's extremely expensive.

2:45:18And it keeps the Parks Community Engagement Coordinator who coordinates with 40 community groups.

2:45:24Next slide, please.

2:45:30Here is a chart that shows what the difference would be if you'd like to take a closer look at it, or if anyone in the audience wants to as well.

2:45:37We'll get it posted to the website soon so folks can take a look at that chart.

2:45:41But the Save Our Services amendment and— or ordinance and the other one have different funding sources, but the spending is actually fairly similar.

2:45:49I think we have similar goals in what we're trying to save.

2:45:52So both are willing to spend the same total amount, including transition support for impacted employees, and both ordinances spend about the same on actual police positions, but the Clark ordinance adds $3 million of training on top.

2:46:05Councilor Smith.

2:46:05Next slide, please.

2:46:09So we tried to take what was in the Clark ordinance and included the $3 million in PPV training and $1.7 million for the BLT reserve and $1 million for positions included in the Clark ordinance, but not— that were not previously in our ordinance.

2:46:25Next slide.

2:46:26Councilor Smith.

2:46:31And that is the summary that I have for you guys today.

2:46:34I'm looking forward to this discussion, and I really hope that we can come to a compromise today because I think that we really took your feedback seriously on all the things that we've heard in the last few days.

2:46:45You should have the amendment language in your inbox if you want to take a look at it directly, and it will be posted soon.

2:46:52And again, I want to reiterate, these are very difficult choices for us as we all have a lot of different groups that we are responsible to.

2:46:59Councilor Smith.

2:46:59And community advocates that are passionate about these issues, both with PSF dollars and with police training and that type of thing.

2:47:07But we are really trying to do our due diligence and work as the legislative body was intended to work under the new form of government.

2:47:14So I hope that you will take this in good faith and really consider it as we have this discussion.

2:47:20Thank you.

2:47:21Thank you, Councilor Morillo.

2:47:22And are you formally moving, uh, this memo?

2:47:25Oh yeah, I should do that, huh?

2:47:26I would like to move this amendment forward.

2:47:28Second.

2:47:29Councilor Morillo moves— is it Morillo 1, I suppose?

2:47:32And then, uh, Councilor Green seconds.

2:47:35Colleagues, discussion of the amendment?

2:47:37Councilor Novick.

2:47:41So I said last night I'm not voting for any more amendments.

2:47:44I voted for an amendment that was a linguistic change that had no substantive effect, but I frankly am not interested in negotiating with Councilor Morillo.

2:47:54A few weeks ago, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I tried to negotiate with Councilor Rio and her fellow peacocks, and part of the negotiation was they said they had a red line— no money for police training.

2:48:04The peacocks had a strong position that they want poorly trained police, and then they walked away from the table, and Councilor Rio kept on publicly accusing us of walking over the table.

2:48:12So then Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I came up with a solid, responsible package with Councilor Smith.

2:48:18Hmm.

2:48:19And Councilor Clark.

2:48:20So I am sticking with that solid, responsible package, and I have to say that I do not really regard this as a true effort at compromise.

2:48:29I regard it as a desperate effort to save face.

2:48:33Thank you, Councilor Novick.

2:48:34Councilor Smith.

2:48:39Thank you, Council President.

2:48:42Um, Councilor Morillo.

2:48:48You did an excellent job of putting up, you know, the differences and what the similarities were, which really made it easy.

2:48:57And I am— I'm sitting here, I'm shocked that you put the police training in there because that's so important.

2:49:07And I think you did make a good faith effort.

2:49:11This is amazing and outstanding what you written, and I, I like it.

2:49:17So thank you for doing that.

2:49:19I think that our constituents, they want us to do something in the gridlock that we have as a result of having an even-numbered council.

2:49:33But you did make a, a really good effort of, um, bringing some of the things that we wanted.

2:49:41How'd you do that within 24 hours?

2:49:45You did a great job.

2:49:47Thank you.

2:49:47I, I, I like it.

2:49:50Thank you, Councilor Smith.

2:49:52Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

2:49:54Thank you, Council President.

2:49:57Um, 2 questions.

2:49:58We ran through those slides kind of quickly.

2:50:02The first is, can you speak to the funding sources?

2:50:07Is it— is the complete funding coming from PSF interest, or are there additional funding sources?

2:50:13It wasn't really clear in the presentation.

2:50:15There were pullouts of some numbers, but not all pieces of it there.

2:50:23Yeah, let me pull up the language, but it's all PSF and bureau contingencies where appropriate for those funds.

2:50:31So, yeah.

2:50:33So when you say bureau contingency is appropriate for those funds, does that mean that for positions that are in non-general fund bureaus, the funding is coming from their contingency funds, but for positions that are general fund positions, it's coming from the Clean Energy Fund interest account, or is the breakdown different from that?

2:50:56Yes, you are correct.

2:50:57And if we want to share slide 3, that has that outlined as well, if it helps to look at it at the same time.

2:51:03Sorry, I went through it quickly.

2:51:04I was trying to preserve our time for discussion.

2:51:10Are you getting that back up?

2:51:21So I'm seeing $13 million total cost, just under $9 million from PSEF.

2:51:28Does that mean that I should assume that the additional $4 million is from contingency or reserve funds within those non-general fund bureaus?

2:51:41I'm sorry, can you repeat your question?

2:51:43I see $13 million total, just under $9 million in interest From PSF, and that's the, the next years of interest, the interest that's just being certified.

2:51:53And then is the additional $4 million from contingency and reserve funds within other funded bureaus?

2:52:00Yes.

2:52:01That's the number that's missing here.

2:52:03Okay.

2:52:03And do we have information on whether that's coming from contingencies or reserves and what that bucket of money that's coming from other bureaus was otherwise set aside for?

2:52:18Let me see if we have that breakdown and if I can give that to you.

2:52:21Okay.

2:52:22It would be good to understand what bureaus those are coming from, how much is coming from each bureau, and what it was otherwise set aside for.

2:52:29I'm also wondering, this is pretty expansive.

2:52:33Has it been through budget review?

2:52:36Do we know that the numbers add up and work and all of the i's have been dotted and t's have been crossed?

2:52:44Yes, it was, uh, it went through budget review.

2:52:46We spoke with the budget team and they checked on it all this morning.

2:52:50Okay, and legal review?

2:52:52Uh, let me confirm with my team, but I believe so.

2:52:55We do have another week.

2:52:58Okay, I'm looking to our folks in the back of the room and not seeing head nods yes or no from our budget and our legal folks.

2:53:06Sorry, yes, it was for both budget and legal, and it blends both existing ordinances.

2:53:11So some of these items were already checked on previously as well.

2:53:15Okay, I hear you and I believe what you're saying, but I'm also seeing heads shaking no from the back of the room.

2:53:24Council President, I don't wanna step on your toes inviting people up.

2:53:27Yeah, come on up.

2:53:29No, no, come on.

2:53:30No, no, no, no.

2:53:31Yeah, I was saying no to the being— my toes being stepped on.

2:53:34Come on up, Heidi.

2:53:37You're always welcome at the dais.

2:53:38Thank you.

2:53:40Good afternoon, Council President, councilors.

2:53:42My name is Heidi Brown, for the record, and Council Vice President.

2:53:44Sorry to leave you out.

2:53:46Heidi Brown, Chief Deputy with City Attorney's Office.

2:53:49So we had advised on an earlier version.

2:53:52I haven't reviewed this one yet.

2:53:54We were just in the back with Director Levine Kind of going through it together.

2:53:58So apologies, but we had reviewed an earlier one and that might be what Councilor Merlo was thinking of.

2:54:03Okay, but we still need to get the thumbs up from you all on this version.

2:54:07And does this have the thumbs up from budget that it works?

2:54:13Welcome up, Budget Director Levine.

2:54:18I appreciate that you both coordinated stripes.

2:54:22It was well planned out this morning.

2:54:25Hi, sorry, Ruth Levine for the record, budget director.

2:54:29Owen did look at it this morning, and I'm just— I just relooked at it now and have one outstanding question.

2:54:39But other than that outstanding question, it's good.

2:54:43Okay, great.

2:54:44Thank you guys for those responses.

2:54:46I will look forward to hearing from legal and hearing more about that one outstanding question once you both have time to loop back with the sponsors.

2:54:55Thank you.

2:54:56Council President, we're all just seeing this.

2:54:59I look forward to hearing the thoughts from my colleagues.

2:55:02I will say I am a little shocked by the extent of the price tag on it, to be honest.

2:55:11Thank you.

2:55:11Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

2:55:13Councilor Green.

2:55:16Thank you, Council President.

2:55:19Councilor Morillo, I appreciate your willingness to— I know this is a tough move for you.

2:55:25It's a difficult thing to take a firm, hard line on saying, I don't want to spend this money on that specific use.

2:55:32But I think— and I'm speaking for myself, I don't want to speak for where you're at, but this has been over a month now of a conversation around how do we protect certain funds and protect certain values.

2:55:45And so this is a nimble way to, I think, address some of the— where we left it yesterday and say, let's focus on the jobs being restored.

2:55:55Let's focus on making sure that we're consistent with our source of funds and how we can just close the chapter on this stage.

2:56:02And so, you know, I mean, I think I had similar conversations with you, Councilor Smith.

2:56:08I had reservations not long ago on funding the training.

2:56:11Yeah.

2:56:12And so if that's what it takes to move it off of that other funding mechanism that we had problems with, that I had problems with yesterday, then I can get there on that today.

2:56:23And I think it's really important that we fund these fire trucks and that we fund these workers who've been watching every minute of these proceedings and just get this done so we can close the chapter on this.

2:56:35I know that this is one-time money.

2:56:36I know that we have work to do, but what this will do is it will give us the opportunity to ordinance does do is it provides a pathway for the city administrator to work with these workers to figure out how we can hit the reset switch a little bit on how to prepare for the next budget so we don't find ourselves left out like that.

2:56:51And so I think that's a big opportunity for us in the city.

2:56:56Colleagues, I hope we can pass this amendment.

2:56:57I know that there's still some outstanding kind of pieces to get knitted together, but if we pass this amendment, then I think we have an opportunity to show Portlanders that we did have some compromise, and we're going to step above individual grievances.

2:57:11I know I've felt some kind of feelings through this process, but it's not about me.

2:57:15It is about the workers.

2:57:16It is about the city.

2:57:18And so I will take my lashings probably for funding police training with PCF.

2:57:24That's okay.

2:57:25I can have that conversation.

2:57:26But I would take lashings for another of other choices too.

2:57:29And our job is to make tough decisions.

2:57:31Thank you.

2:57:32Thank you, Councilor Green.

2:57:37Councilor Morillo.

2:57:40Yeah, thank you, Council President, and thank you, Councilor Green, for saying that.

2:57:44I agree.

2:57:44I think that this was a tough decision for a lot of us for a lot of reasons, both on personal principle and because of the communities that we were sent here to represent and what we're meant to do.

2:57:55And part of being in elected office is also having to make some tough decisions.

2:57:58And I think that this was a tough decision for a lot of us.

2:57:59I think that this budget has been nothing but tough choices for everybody up here, and especially for our frontline workers who have been sort of being treated like a yo-yo and being told maybe we'll save your jobs, maybe we won't, and the long-term impacts that that's been having on people.

2:58:17I wanted to assert again that this has been through review with Owen, and we are waiting for Final legal review, but I also want to say that this is a blend of the 2 ordinances that already went through legal review.

2:58:31So I don't suspect that this is going to be drastically different than anything that we've already seen.

2:58:38And that, you know, moving forward, that we're going to have to really commit to working with a lot of these different groups that we have ignored when making these decisions.

2:58:48Councilor Smith.

2:58:49The— to me, part of the reason I brought this forward was because of 2 reasons.

2:58:55The OCPA is something that I think really needs to be protected.

2:59:01It passed with 82% of the vote, which is unheard of for a ballot measure.

2:59:06And after the testimony from Tim Pitts yesterday and a lot of what we heard from Leroy Haynes as well, I was really concerned.

2:59:17I mean, I have been concerned, but I think hearing that solidified the impact that this will have on the Police Accountability Board.

2:59:24And I think with everything that we're seeing across the country, we can't send a message that we are going to take money away from something that uplifts police accountability to give to police when we have alternatives that make more sense.

2:59:38PSF interest right now, Always goes to the general fund, and maybe there are discussions to be had about that moving forward, but that is the standard practice right now.

2:59:49And so because that is the practice right now, this is a stable one-time revenue source to fund this, and that is why I made that tough decision.

2:59:59I don't even like it, but I'm bringing it forward because I really hope that we can, we can do that today.

3:00:06Thank you.

3:00:06Um, and so thanks for hearing me out and for considering.

3:00:10I appreciate that people are even taking time to consider it.

3:00:13It does mean a lot, um, after a hard week.

3:00:15So thanks.

3:00:18Thank you, Councilor Murillo.

3:00:19Councilor Smith.

3:00:21Thank you.

3:00:22I just kind of want to go over something.

3:00:24So yesterday we approved amendment that, um, changed the language of where we took our money originally from from OCPA, and it, it, it, it— with the new amended version of our ordinance, it, um, will take money from unknown bureaus, right?

3:00:45That we don't know who's going to have the underspending.

3:00:48But compare it to this ordinance that identifies specifically where the money comes from.

3:00:55We know exactly where the money's coming from.

3:00:57Yes.

3:00:58We're not guessing, and we're not, we're not giving our power to a bureau to pick.

3:01:04We are the policymakers, and that's what I like about this.

3:01:07So am I correct on this?

3:01:08Is, is that right, uh, Councilor Morillo?

3:01:11I'm so sorry, I was trying to get some papers printed for everyone.

3:01:15So the answer is yes.

3:01:16So I just want to make sure, so, so we know that we, we have a clear choice on the one that we approve.

3:01:22And I did not vote for that that amended ordinance, even though I was a sponsor for it, because I didn't like how sloppily it was written.

3:01:29But I want to make sure that the public knows that this is important to know where your money comes from, so you can be really clear.

3:01:39And I don't have any, any problem with the PSF interest because we've been given permission to use the PSF interest, not the PSF principal.

3:01:47And so I'm real good with this.

3:01:48Thank you.

3:01:49I think that people also, also, if they're going to consider this, because I am considering voting for this, that we make this an emergency so we'll know that we can get done with this and move on.

3:02:05Thank you, Councilor Smith.

3:02:07Councilor Koyama Lane.

3:02:11Um, I wanted to appreciate, um, Councilor Morillo for her work on this and just wanted to confirm which positions, um, looking at the amendment that I was trying to bring between the Senior Center, International Relations, and Ceasefire Coordinator, um, which of those are saved in this.

3:02:33The Senior Center project is saved in this.

3:02:36Um, unfortunately, the other parts are not.

3:02:39Thank you.

3:02:40But yeah, you know, yesterday went the way it did, so at least we're going to get one of them Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.

3:02:48Councilor Novick.

3:02:53So Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I a few weeks ago said that we were open to using PSF interest as a funding source.

3:03:02Um, what I did not want to do is be fiscally responsible and dig too far into any source of money that we can help Balance next year's budget.

3:03:11So the difference between our, our proposal was limited to $10 million, which I thought was within the realm of responsibility.

3:03:21This is significantly more than that.

3:03:23This, I believe, is about $13 million in general fund.

3:03:27So that's more money that will not be available to balance next year's budget, and next year's budget is going to be a bear.

3:03:33Right.

3:03:34So Thank you, Councilor Novick.

3:03:40Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

3:03:42Thank you, Council President.

3:03:43Sorry to be back in the queue.

3:03:44I was still processing all of this the first time.

3:03:48But I appreciate Councilor Novick's introduction to what I was going to say, which is that this appears to me to be a combination of just about everything.

3:03:57Again, we're choosing not to make cuts, but we're also not making increases.

3:04:00We're abdicating our responsibility to make hard decisions.

3:04:04And I want to be clear, I don't want to make any of these cuts.

3:04:09I don't want to cut a single job.

3:04:12I also don't want to be staring down $20 million in additional positions that were funded with one-time funding that we have no plan to address next year.

3:04:23And I want to be clear about something.

3:04:25When we take funding that in the previous course of how we fund things would have been available for next year.

3:04:35All of the funding that we're talking about is funding that in the normal course of things we would have used at the end of this year and going into next year.

3:04:44That's the case for all of these funding sources.

3:04:47When we take that funding and we spend $5 million extra using those funds this year, that doubles in terms of our cuts next year.

3:04:59We have the $5 million in positions that we funded this year that we don't have funding for next year, and we're in a $5 million deficit compared to where we otherwise would've been, where we would've been in the normal course of business going into next year.

3:05:14So that $5 million in additional this year becomes $10 million.

3:05:18So when I've talked about, and when Councilor Novick has talked about, wanting to make sure that we are capping how much we spend, that we are addressing the immediate life safety needs, that we are addressing the positions that labor raised as red flag positions that we know absolutely should not have been cut, when we say yes, we want to restore all of the other things because Portlanders deserve those services, and because we should know the position and the name of every person cut in a budget, because we should never take that lightly— not this year, not any year— when we say that and say we should be careful, it's not because we don't take that lightly.

3:06:05It's because by expanding this from $10 million to $20 million We don't expand our cuts next year by 10.

3:06:14We expand our cuts next year by 20.

3:06:19That's not something that I take lightly, and I am concerned by the extent of this.

3:06:27Again, not because there's anything here that I want to cut or think we should cut or think we ideally would cut or that I take lightly.

3:06:36But because that cut doubles in terms of its impact in the next budget, since we are in any of these proposals drawing on funds that would otherwise be available at the end of the year and the start of next year.

3:06:50And we have debt service dropping.

3:06:52Thank you, Council President.

3:06:53We have debt service dropping, Councilor.

3:06:56Councilor—.

3:06:56I'm sorry.

3:06:57Councilor Pirtle-Guiney has been recognized right now.

3:06:58I had the floor there still, and so I will just respond.

3:07:01I would respond to that and say, Councilor, you know quite well that many people up here have ideas of other things that we want to use our debt service for, yourself included with SIP.

3:07:10So I don't doubt that we are going to have many plans for those funds.

3:07:21Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

3:07:24Councilor— actually, Councilor Clark has not spoken yet on this.

3:07:27I'm going to— oh wait, neither has Kanal.

3:07:30I'm reading my wrong thing.

3:07:32Sorry, Kanal, Clark, Morillo will have the last word.

3:07:37Thank you.

3:07:39So speaking to the amendment here, I want to appreciate the conversation that's happened here, and I want to appreciate Councilor Morillo for putting this forward.

3:07:47You know, I think we're looking at this from a perspective that's been informed by more voices.

3:07:54And by the way, I've mentioned this before, and I'll mention it again.

3:07:56There were some people in the room when we originally were discussing this back in the amendment process during the full budget consideration, and it wasn't everybody.

3:08:07And because of time in the budget process, it couldn't be everybody in public.

3:08:10So it had to be a few people who went and tried to negotiate a compromise behind.

3:08:14I think this conversation as a whole is benefiting from having more people involved in it.

3:08:19I think it's also benefiting.

3:08:20Thank you.

3:08:21This specific amendment proposal.

3:08:23And I wish we could have done this earlier, but the state has not gotten its act together on public meetings law.

3:08:28So now that we're here and we're having this conversation, I'm going to speak in support of the amendment as the— as an idea here.

3:08:35I personally did not have all the same concerns.

3:08:38I had different preferences.

3:08:39And I think what my preferences led into was a similar calculation to what Councilor Pearl Guinea made, which is If you can't have everything, where do you spend money?

3:08:49And you— where— what are the risks that you're putting forward?

3:08:53And I think we all have different risk tolerance levels individually, and we're coming together to try to figure out what that collaborative endpoint is for our risk tolerance.

3:09:04I agree with the broad analysis that my colleague Councilor Perugini just made about, you know, you were— we're taking risks and we are pulling money forward in time and it won't be available later.

3:09:13I think the question has to be, what's the trade-off?

3:09:16And the trade-off is ideally where the cost is greater than— or sorry, the benefit is greater than the cost.

3:09:22And if the benefit is less than the cost, then we shouldn't do it.

3:09:26So all of these meet, um, pose that challenge.

3:09:30All— every proposal we've had in this.

3:09:32And I think the idea here is by using a stable named funding source, we are improving improving the, the, um, the process by looking at these particular positions, some of which are really important to some of our colleagues.

3:09:47We are, um, trying to make this a better proposal on the whole.

3:09:52Certainly people can look at the 2 proposals, uh, 2 underlying ordinances, but I think as we're talking about the amendment right now, does this make this proposal better?

3:10:02And I think for many of you it meets the, the specific things you mentioned.

3:10:06For others, it's maybe not ideal, but it's, it's, I think, an improvement from the perspective of trying to come together.

3:10:16And I think Portlanders want to see us try to come together.

3:10:19And I appreciate Councilor Murillo putting up a proposal that does that.

3:10:22Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

3:10:24Council Vice President Clark.

3:10:27Thank you, Council President.

3:10:28Boy, isn't this interesting?

3:10:31It, uh, it's quite a surprise.

3:10:33Uh, I appreciate it, at least for the dialogue, if nothing else.

3:10:38Um, I, uh, had been very conservative in my original ordinance, and the suggestion of some of my colleagues, I would have included other things, uh, in the pot, but we kept it to under $10 million.

3:10:54Um, I feel like I haven't really had a chance to digest I don't think it's an emergency.

3:11:00I do think that generally we are kicking the can, and we will have impacts.

3:11:06This will lead to more impacts in the next budget.

3:11:11But I'm interested, kind of interested in keeping it alive and mulling it over for the next week.

3:11:17So I do not want to declare an emergency, with all due respect, Councilor.

3:11:22Thank you.

3:11:24So, um, I'm gonna— I want to think about it for another week, and, uh, I am— I want us to be responsible, and I, I appreciate what you've done here, Councilor Murillo.

3:11:38But let me, let me think about it for another week.

3:11:43Thank you, Vice President Clark.

3:11:44Councilor Murillo.

3:11:47Um, thank you everyone for that feedback, and I want to respond to a few things.

3:11:55I think one thing that someone brought up was our ordinance does include some of the red flag positions that were identified by labor.

3:12:05And as far as I see it, some of those positions and what we could save was sort of arbitrarily limited.

3:12:11I didn't really understand or get rationale for why certain numbers were chosen as the limits.

3:12:16So that's part of what we're trying to address here.

3:12:20So ours includes all the red flag positions, and I think that's really critical.

3:12:25The other thing that I would say is that we're trying to include positions from both ordinances because that's something that I think— thank you very much.

3:12:36You should be getting printed copies now if that's also making it a little bit more easy and accessible for you.

3:12:41Thank you.

3:12:43We're talking about protecting the city from future financial errors, right?

3:12:49But the way that I would describe the other ordinance, and I'm— is that we're trying to do— it's a little bit predicated on pixie dust because we're saying that maybe there will be leftover funding in some of these things to fund these positions later.

3:13:06To me, what would make more sense is We use the PCF interest now, and then if there is leftover funding later, then that can backfill the PCF interest.

3:13:16It doesn't make sense to do it in the reverse order because we have the PCF dollars right now, and those are one-time funding dollars.

3:13:24So there's sort of an order of operations here that needs to happen, and only one of them is a secure funding source right now in this very minute.

3:13:33Thank you.

3:13:34I am fine with having more discussion on the amendment and waiting till later, as long as, you know, the attorneys and stuff tell us that that's not going to mess up our ability to make sure that we save those jobs before people are laid off.

3:13:46That's my top priority.

3:13:47So if that needs to happen, then I would be concerned about pushing this off even further.

3:13:54And I also want to point out that this ordinance also does require a plan.

3:13:59It's in the analysis that we're asking the administration for on the impact, which is something that I think should have been done long before layoffs were proposed, but that we can ask for now.

3:14:12So that's sort of some of the things that we're trying to look at.

3:14:23And I know that Heidi— or sorry, City Attorney Heidi Brown, would you be willing to come back up and—.

3:14:29Yes.

3:14:30I think maybe you have an update for us on the legality of this.

3:14:37Yeah, thank you, Councilor.

3:14:39Yes, I did look this over.

3:14:41Thank you for giving me a few minutes to do that.

3:14:42And my understanding is that the bases that you are using to propose the changes that are related to the jobs in 2026-223 are the ones that were identified in that.

3:14:56In that ordinance, which was we talked about unascertained occurrences or pressing unforeseen needs, which are the bases, one of a couple of the bases why you can adopt a supplemental judgment— budget, excuse me.

3:15:12And so given that you're relying on those bases that are reflected in 223, then I think it's fine.

3:15:18I would also note that I know Tracy Warren's not here and we can ask her to come down.

3:15:22I'm sure she's—.

3:15:23She's here.

3:15:23On standby.

3:15:25But I do know that I had heard from HR that if it's already going to be challenging for them to undo the layoffs, and so if you don't go to second reading by next week, that could cause real problems.

3:15:39So, but I'll see if Tracy can come down if you'd like to get more information on that.

3:15:44Thank you, Attorney Heidi.

3:15:46For the clerk, I also want to announce that there was a Scrivener's error, and we emailed you the language as well, but I'll just read it out loud.

3:15:54In section, I think it's 15, sorry, I'm looking at a small screenshot here.

3:16:00The number was $5,826,002, but should be $5,491,000.

3:16:08And just wanted to verify that that's corrected.

3:16:13I believe those numbers are reversed.

3:16:19It was $5,491,002 and has been updated.

3:16:25The hard copies that were just handed out were updated to $5,826,002.

3:16:32It's Section 5.8, and I believe it's— sorry, I think Kristen Johnson emailed the amendment to you.

3:17:01Are we verifying numbers or verifying the doc that— what is in the clerk's?

3:17:07I, I think I'll sidebar with you to correct the scrivener's error and just make sure we have the correct and I'll double-check to make sure the printed copy we just received has the correct numbers as well.

3:17:16I don't want to add to any confusion.

3:17:19It's— it shouldn't be a huge deal, but just a quick number change.

3:17:24But colleagues, I am really concerned about our inability to pass an amendment and get this done today because I am worried that if we don't do this in a timely manner, like we're running up against the clock.

3:17:36I think we're going to be able to do this.

3:17:38This is genuinely not an attempt to trick anyone.

3:17:42As you can see, my team put together a million charts to make this as clear as possible.

3:17:46They were— poor them, they were rushing and trying to help as much as they could to make it clear.

3:17:51And I'm very grateful for them.

3:17:52So I would consider if we could vote on this today.

3:17:57I would like to push for that so that we can get to a second reading on something.

3:18:01Agreed, Councilor.

3:18:03I intend to move us towards a vote on the amendment.

3:18:05But not on the underlying.

3:18:07So, okay.

3:18:11And Councilor—.

3:18:13Council President, point of personal privilege, if I may.

3:18:16I apologize.

3:18:18I have a town hall scheduled for 6 o'clock tonight and didn't learn until just a few hours ago that this meeting was extended and I need to leave.

3:18:25I just wanted to share with everybody why it is that I have to go.

3:18:29Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

3:18:31Apologies for the late schedule change.

3:18:34Councilor Morillo, are we still waiting on that, or should we move to Councilor Kanal for this?

3:18:39Let's move to Councilor Kanal and I can sidebar, or perhaps, yeah, yeah, I'll figure the Scrivener error out.

3:18:45I will come back to you before we are moving to a vote.

3:18:48And I think the printed copy you have has the Scrivener error, so I'm getting a new copy sent just to make sure you have the correct one.

3:18:54Thank you.

3:18:54Okay, Councilor Kanal.

3:18:57Thank you.

3:18:58I'm not sure if she's leaving right now, but I just want to first appreciate Councilor Pirtle-Guiney's conflict.

3:19:02I also have a conflict that I'm trying to get pushed back a little bit, so I should be good, but just wanted to flag it.

3:19:08And at the risk of sounding contradictory to that point, I did want to respond to Councilor Smith's point.

3:19:15Obviously, I've been a stickler when it comes to emergency ordinances and their use.

3:19:22I would be comfortable If this was an emergency, I think that that's the appropriate thing.

3:19:30That saves us one week.

3:19:31To be clear, non-emergency budget ordinances don't have a 30 days after, is what I've been told.

3:19:38And so that would apply here too.

3:19:39We know it applies to the full budget, but either way, it would save us the week.

3:19:43So I'm open to that conversation if there's something that can get to 9 votes.

3:19:47And I just wanted to flag that I wouldn't be and I think I can leave it there.

3:19:56Thanks.

3:19:57Thank you.

3:19:57I'm going to limit debate to the amendment, uh, to those in the queue.

3:20:00Councilor Novick.

3:20:01Oh, and Councilor Avalos will have the last word on the amendment.

3:20:04Councilor Novick.

3:20:05Yeah, I just wanted to remind people that our proposal had PSAP interest as a possible funding source.

3:20:13It said that— it said look to the PSAP interest in the amendment.

3:20:16Under-projected underspending, but it also listed PSAP interest as a funding source.

3:20:20So, um, there's, there's no argument that we were relying purely on, um, unpredictable sources of money because it had that predictable source as a backup.