Finance & Governance Committee (Whole)

9:12Good morning.

9:12I'm going to call this, uh, meeting of the Portland City Council Committee of the Whole to order.

9:20It is 9:34 AM on September 10th, 2026.

9:25Rebecca, will you please call the roll?

9:27Good morning.

9:28Koyama Lane?

9:30Here.

9:31Murillo?

9:32Here.

9:33Novick?

9:34Here.

9:35Clark?

9:37Green?

9:38Here.

9:40Zimmerman?

9:42Avalos?

9:44Present virtually.

9:46Dunphy?

9:47Smith?

9:50Pirtle-Guiney?

9:51Here.

9:52Ryan?

9:53Here.

9:53Kanal?

9:56Here.

9:56And Christopher, will you please read the statement of conduct?

9:59Welcome to the meeting of the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole.

10:01To testify before this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda/committee-whole or by calling 311.

10:12Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link.

10:14Registration for virtual testimony closes 1 hour prior to the meeting.

10:17In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard.

10:20If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the Chair states otherwise.

10:25Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.

10:27The Chair preserves order.

10:28Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others' testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed.

10:35If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.

10:37Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.

10:39Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.

10:42Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

10:45Thank you.

10:45Thank you.

10:46Thank you.

10:48I'll note that today we have our Council President and Vice President have preplanned absences.

10:54We do have a couple folks online.

10:55So if you're watching at home and seeing this looks pretty empty up here, we do have a couple folks online as well.

11:01Today we're gonna be doing only 2 items on the agenda.

11:04One is a little bit of a 2-parter.

11:06The Chair update will also include a continuation of the City Administrator update.

11:11You may recall that last week at the full Council meeting, there was a, Uh, packed agenda, and, um, the city administrator update was something that we felt could, could kind of be continued here.

11:23Um, so we might— if anyone has any questions on that, feel free to, um, be prepared for that as part of the, the chair update.

11:29And then after that, we have one sort of traditional agenda item, which is a proposed appointment to the Steering and Oversight Committee for the Homelessness Response System for a 1-year term.

11:39Um, as a result, I will maybe unwisely put into, into the world that I hope we can end a little early today.

11:48We do have a work session later today as well, so I'm hoping we can get not too much day's time.

11:54All right, with that, I will ask if Rebecca, could you please read item 1?

12:02Item 1, committee chair updates and continued September 2026 city administrator update, document number 2026-313.

12:12Great, thanks everyone.

12:12I'm getting printed copies.

12:13They are online as well, um, for the chair update.

12:17And, you know, towards the end of this one, we are going to hear from, um, uh, I think actually the date— huh, we're going to actually skip the committee update because it would have been Chair Clark today, I think.

12:29Um, or no, actually it's your turn, isn't it?

12:32My, my apologies, it is City Life Committee.

12:33That's an error in the, uh, in the report.

12:35So we'll hear from, uh, Chair Thank you.

12:38Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, before we get to the city administrator.

12:42All right, so the big things to note here, you'll notice that I'll mention 3 things.

12:48One is we erroneously did not include 3.02 in the unscheduled items last time.

12:53So my apologies for that last week.

12:57So that's been added back.

12:58The second thing which came up yesterday is that foreclosures have been added back to the unscheduled agenda items list.

13:05You may recall that yesterday when we were talking about this, Council President Dunphy noted that although the batch that we were dealing with on the council agenda yesterday had come through the Housing and Permitting Committee, that future ones would come to the Committee of the Whole.

13:17Um, so that is something that, that's been decided there, but I don't have the timeline, so it's in the unscheduled items.

13:23The third thing I wanted to mention is you'll notice that CEI Hub items are no longer reflected on the meeting calendar.

13:31Last week there was a 4-councilor discharge to pull this item to the full council rather than having it routed through the Committee of the Whole.

13:39The plan for the CEI Hub items is now to discuss them at a full council work session on the afternoon of September 17th.

13:47So my guess will— that'll be 2 o'clock, and then the items will proceed to the full council shortly after.

13:53Please feel free to reach out to my office or to the council president's office if you have any questions about how these items will be routed or how they'll be heard.

14:02So those are the, the 3 updates to this first section here, and the second section is sort of related.

14:07I did want to flag that we are putting the future of downtown— we're going to be adding in some folks to that group, work group.

14:14This is on page 3, to join with the vice chairs on planning out that agenda item.

14:19I know we're asking all 3 of the District 4 councilors, and then based on their responses, see how much space we have left, because obviously we can't have a majority of this group do that.

14:29And then I'll be reaching out to Councilors Novick, Murillo, Clark, and Zimmerman about how to start planning for the street renaming code conversation.

14:36And how we do that discussion.

14:39Um, yeah, that's all I have for my part.

14:41So any questions for me before we go on to Chair Pirtle-Guiney?

14:46When is the future of downtown?

14:49It's not currently scheduled, but I think it, uh, there was a, there was a request to have it moved later than what is showing on this, uh, update.

14:59Um, so I'm still discussing, and I want to talk to the vice chairs about it, but I haven't had a chance yet because our schedule hasn't aligned yet.

15:05Okay.

15:06Um, I'm not— I personally don't have a strong opinion either way.

15:10I just want to make sure it works for everybody who's—.

15:11I don't know who brought the title, so I'm not sure what the intention of the agenda is.

15:17Uh, Future Downtown was, uh, you'll see it's actually— my apologies, I was incorrect.

15:21It's on November 12th right now, penciled in.

15:23Um, the— that's my placeholder title.

15:27If, uh, those who are planning the agenda item would like to retitle it, I welcome it.

15:31That's just how it was discussed when we first debated having a Committee of the Whole.

15:35We are moving our planning meeting to a different time than Wednesdays at noon, I understand.

15:39So that's why we have a planning meeting discussion here at this meeting, because we haven't had one in a while.

15:44Yeah.

15:44So I look forward to understanding what that means.

15:47I know that I've been in conversations with Chair Pirtle-Guiney about how we have to get economic development back on the calendar somewhere on this council, since it's one of our biggest issues.

15:57And downtown's such a big part of it, as everyone knows.

16:00That's where a lot of the revenue comes from.

16:04Yeah, I appreciate you, uh, highlighting that, Chair Ryan.

16:07And just for transparency on that, we do have a planning meeting for the, the chair and vice chairs to talk about it.

16:13And as everyone has noticed, I'm sure recently our council meetings have run long and that's eaten up our time.

16:18So, uh, we're, we're rescheduling.

16:21Um, all right, uh, I'll pass it over for our, uh, committee update to Chair Pirtle-Guiney from the City Life Committee.

16:27Thank you, Council President.

16:29Thank you, Chair Kanal.

16:32I really appreciate these opportunities for us to each reflect on our committee and share what we're doing and hear a little bit more about committees we're not sitting on.

16:41I want to start this week by highlighting the work that the City Life Committee did on Tuesday, where we had a committee session focused on climate policy.

16:52This was, I think, a really important opportunity for us to take a step back from individual policies coming forward and think strategically about how we are advancing Portland's climate goals across our portfolio of work.

17:05We heard from multiple panels, all of whose presentations urged us to recommit to our 2030 carbon reduction goals, pair high-level strategy with evidence-based initiatives, build on some strong cross-sector interest in working collaboratively on climate issues that's already underway, And across the board do more.

17:27We heard from our Chief Sustainability Officer.

17:32We heard from a group that is bringing together city bureaus, community activists, and our business industry to create a clean industry partnership.

17:42We heard from a number of members of our Multnomah Youth Commission and from a group called the Climate Optimists who look for win-win situations that pair climate action with other good policy goals.

17:57And they actually brought forward some concrete examples of actions they think we could take to make a big difference on both climate policy and each of them either some environmental justice goals, affordability goals, economic development goals.

18:14I'm hoping that the discussion will help us identify concrete opportunities for the city to move forward because one of the things that we heard loud and clear is that we are behind.

18:23We are not currently on track to meet our goals.

18:27One of the things that I committed to as chair was to make sure that these broader policy conversations had space, but that they were also tied to tangible actions.

18:36And that presentation from the Climate Optimists was an important way to make sure we were really tying into tangible actions that we can take.

18:45Previously, since I last presented, the City Life Committee has also heard a number of pretty big issues that have already advanced we moved forward the resolution that will initiate city action on working with a community partner to develop city-owned land surrounding the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, something this council passed unanimously.

19:05We also spent an entire session and then some on the resolution we passed just yesterday directing the administration to engage in future planning for our city venues.

19:16Looking ahead, you have in front of you a sheet of paper that says City Life Draft Year-End Schedule.

19:22Yes.

19:23And I think we are getting this to the clerk to make sure that it is posted online as well.

19:28And this is a draft subject to change.

19:31Please don't hold us to the specifics here, but this includes everything that has currently been brought forward to the City Life Committee where folks, either councilors or the administration, have asked for things to be scheduled.

19:46Councilor Ryan just mentioned an interest in making sure we're having economic development conversations, and we are beginning the big picture conversation with a presentation on Advance Portland, which is technically our economic development strategy and direction to Prosper Portland, to ground ourselves in that work.

20:08From there, I know, Councilor Ryan, there are a number of other conversations we need to have and actions we need to take.

20:14We will also, in that same meeting— that's 2 meetings from now—.

20:17Yes.

20:18Have a discussion around privatization of publicly owned land and try to take a big picture view on when and how we do that, what the current policies are, and what council's priorities might be.

20:30That will lead into the first ordinance brought before this committee around the privatization of publicly owned land, which happens to be a property in the Menlo Park neighborhood that Habitat for Humanity is interested in developing and has already had significant conversations with the administration around.

20:50Our next meeting— I'm backing up here, going in reverse order— we have 3 items coming from councilors: an ordinance and a resolution that Councilor Zimmerman is bringing forward asking us to consider prohibition on certain types of dynamic pricing and surveillance pricing within our retail establishments.

21:10And a resolution looking at some of the job-related risks that our firefighters face that we currently don't have protections for them on.

21:20And then a resolution from Councilor Novick around immunity for big oil companies.

21:25So those are our next 2 meetings.

21:28You've got the rest of what our year will look like laid out here, and I'm happy to take any questions.

21:35Thank you, Chair Pirtle-Guiney.

21:37I'll just wait to see if anyone would like to get in the queue and ask any questions.

21:43I wanted to ask one.

21:46Do you know if there's information available for— on October 27th, I note the declaring 2 parcels of land as surplus property.

21:54You know if there's information available already on what those are, or if we've just been given the title as we often are?

22:01Let me find out.

22:02I do not remember offhand.

22:04I do think we have it, but I want to look back and make sure that I'm not confusing that with the October 13th that will be our second potential privatization of publicly owned land conversation.

22:16Okay, great.

22:19Any other questions?

22:21All right, thank you, Chair Pirtle-Guiney.

22:25I do see that we've been joined online by City Administrator Lee, and so I did want to just kind of recalibrate here again.

22:31Last week we, um, were just starting to discuss the, um, city administrator update, um, and for the purpose of protecting the rest of the agenda and the rest of that meeting for the items on the City Council agenda, we kind of deferred that to here.

22:47So the item is— the report itself is reposted on this, on the chair update item online, but you can also find it in last week's City Council agenda.

22:56And if there were any questions that anyone wanted to ask, we wanted to give space for that here.

23:02I have some, but I would be happy to defer to anyone else who'd like to go first.

23:04I have a couple.

23:05Okay, I'll get started.

23:08Um, thank you for being here, uh, Administrator Lee.

23:12Um, there's a lot of good news in here, and I wanted to just, uh, start with that.

23:16I did want to, um, ask that if, if you could give a little bit more information on where we're at with the Equity Core realignment.

23:25I noted that in the report it talks about it being part of the fall TAL.

23:30But I'm not 100% sure if you can kind of give the sort of paragraph level of, um, what exactly we're— we should be expecting to hear.

23:38This has been an item where I think several councilors, maybe all, are getting, uh, asked about by city employees and certainly by some of the folks out in the public as well.

23:48So I wanted to start with that one.

23:52Currently right now, there's just internal discussions that are happening with respective bureaus and the equity staff that they have within their respective bureaus.

24:03There's also conversations of what does realignment mean with necessarily pulling some of those staff into a centralized system within our engagement— I'm sorry, equity department.

24:18Those conversations are continuing.

24:20We're still having conversations with bureau directors.

24:22Thank you.

24:24Way before we started having conversations regarding any realignment, we are aware that bureaus were looking at their own alignments and how do they build equity into the just daily work and fabric of who they are as bureaus.

24:41And we're still looking at that and where does it make sense to keep those built into the bureaus themselves.

24:48And where does it make sense to actually pull those out and, and have those a part of our equity team?

24:56I know our equity, uh, Chief Equity Officer Latricia Tillman will be meeting with me in the near future to kind of break, uh, the logistics of what will be coming, what will be staying in the near future before we actually get to the fall town conversation.

25:13And We will also work through kind of the communication strategy as it relates to the organization as a whole.

25:22What are those expectations?

25:23Uh, some of you may not be aware of now our first, uh, work unit, which was communications and who went through the realignment, now is working through those service level agreements as it relates to kind of expected outcomes for services to be rendered.

25:40Yes.

25:41We'll be doing that same thing with our technology arm, our HR arm, and then last to follow up would be that equity arm.

25:52There is no other realignments outside of this that we will be really doing this fiscal year.

25:59We want to assess from lessons learned as it relates to how do we better do realignments moving forward from a communications standpoint.

26:07And implementation standpoint, but we're committed to ensuring that whatever we move forward with is ensuring that our government is operating in the most efficient, effective, and economical manner.

26:21Thanks, Administrator Lee.

26:22I'll pass it over to Councilor Green.

26:26Thank you, City Administrator Lee.

26:29Thanks for joining us today.

26:31I have a question about— there's, there's an update on Koyama Lane 11A, which is utility rate setting.

26:38Um, I, I, I see in there that, um, it says the, uh, public utilities group will be retaining, um, the service area will be retaining a consultant to engage with, um, uh, the, the study work as well as the community engagement.

26:58And I, I, I'd just like to know a little bit about Like, what is that RFP?

27:02What's the scope of that?

27:05And whether or not any local utility analysts are involved in that.

27:11Yeah, I don't know if we have anyone from our DCA office that can speak to that component of it, and I'll allow them to come to the dais to speak.

27:23There's some folks looking at each other here, so I don't know if they're checking who it would be.

27:28And by the way, while anyone may be coming up, I did want to express a lot of appreciation for all the staff who are making time a second time for this, uh, city administrator update, for being here.

27:37I know that your schedules are incredibly busy and appreciate it.

27:41Welcome.

27:44Good morning.

27:44Thank you.

27:45Millicent Williams, uh, interim deputy city administrator for public works.

27:49Um, thank you for the question.

27:51I am sorry that I'm not able to answer that question yet.

27:53I am still getting myself up to speed.

27:56I'll be meeting with the, uh, shared utility director on Monday.

28:01Running through all of the key areas of concern and will be happy to report back to this body about what I am able to glean from that conversation and to support the ongoing conversation that needs to happen here.

28:15Thank you.

28:15And I recognize you just stepping into this role.

28:18Day 3, 4, yes.

28:20And you haven't stepped out of your other role, so you're—.

28:23I have not, but looking forward to digging in.

28:25I know this is important.

28:26There are several key priorities even as we initiated the work, the city administrator shared with me the things that he knew that I would need to prioritize.

28:37This is but one.

28:37There are several other key areas of concern, all of which I know this body would be interested in knowing that I am intentional around supporting the conversation and getting to some solutions.

28:51Thank you.

28:52I'll just share a little bit what I shared with DCA Donna Paul on, you know, on this topic, is we do have a pretty robust local bench of expertise on rate-making and sort of— it's just because Bonneville Power Administration is here and there's a whole cottage industry of people who engage in our very public rate-making process.

29:16And so I would want us to not lose that local level, even though that's electric utility work.

29:21Sure.

29:21It's still a lot of those municipal utilities also do water and sewer.

29:26Yeah.

29:27And so making sure our RFP looks locally as well, I think, will be important.

29:31And then I'm glad to see that PUB is mentioned there as an engagement partner.

29:36I would also think about reaching out to Citizens Utility Board, which is routinely engaged with Oregon Public Utilities Commission.

29:46They might have an interest in this as well, and it might strengthen the process.

29:49so those are my suggestions.

29:51Thanks for the recommendations.

29:52We will certainly note those, and you will likely see an update in the information that's shared to ensure that we are including that wider range of stakeholders.

30:02Thank you.

30:04Thanks, Councilor Green.

30:05We'll go to Councilor Ryan next.

30:08Thank you, Chair.

30:09Raymond Lee, CA Lee, good to see you.

30:11I think it's the first time I've seen you without a suit on.

30:15Anyway, you're always so dapper.

30:17My question is more of a curiosity.

30:19I was listening to your statements about core realignment and then about the equity system.

30:26That's been a conversation about 4 years.

30:29You know, do you integrate it centrally?

30:31How is it integrated within the bureaus?

30:33So I'm really pleased that you're going to get to the bottom of that, because I know back in 2023, that was a confusion point.

30:42And I appreciate that.

30:44Did I also hear that that's the only core realignment system that you're looking at this fiscal year, or is it just that's the only one you're looking at right now?

30:52Only one that I'm looking at this year, in this current year.

30:55What I told everyone from an organizational standpoint, I wanted to ensure that the realignments that we went through this previous year, that all those have been implemented appropriately.

31:09But also have kind of an after-action after we've gone through all this to kind of get lessons learned.

31:15How can we better do these type of realignments in the future?

31:21How can we apply that so we are better at how we engage with employees, how we are engaging with the outcomes that we're trying to deliver upon with these realignments?

31:33Engagement and also equity.

31:36Uh, was some of the things that we were doing, just at the tail end of the engagement work outside of HR, procurement, and IT.

31:46But those are things that are still being worked through today.

31:49And we'll be having a work session around engagement work in the near future before we finalize anything as it relates to the outcomes that we're trying to obtain through engagement alignment, I want to make sure there's clear direction from the City Council of what those deliverables are that you want to see us deliver on as administration.

32:12Okay, and when, when is that work session?

32:15I'd have to look.

32:17council president may know if he's in the room.

32:19I know we've been working with his office to actually have a separate work session.

32:23I believe it's this month though.

32:25And I'm happy to hear that.

32:26I think getting on top of that In the first quarter, second quarter is a lot better than doing it in June.

32:34Yeah.

32:35And so I hear translation then is that a lot happened last year and there's a lot of lessons to learn from and there'll be adjustments.

32:45So it's not like core realignment's on a pause, it's more that it's in a continuous improvement state.

32:53Always.

32:53And I think as an organization, we're approaching everything from a continuous improvement I think as we go through this and you think about all the transition that staff has gone through, through this transition and transformational period of this organization, it's just trying to— pace and timing is going to be key in how we move forward with realignment work moving forward.

33:17And I just want to make sure the organization is equipped from a cultural standpoint and a resource standpoint to be able to make sure that realignments are done in a way that is efficient for the organization and also beneficial to the employees.

33:31And employees feel like they were engaged in this process and it just wasn't happening to them but happening with them.

33:38And I, I think all of us respect what you just said.

33:42Uh, thank you.

33:43We look forward to that work session so we can, um, do the tough work and learn, um, from what did work and what didn't work.

33:50Thanks.

33:52And just clarification, Councilor Ryan, that work session is really around the future of civic life and engagement work that we do and ensuring that we have council's outcomes that they would love to see us be able to accomplish, that we have a clear understanding of that.

34:09That will help shape some of the work around civic life and engagement and how we move forward in that work and the resources that are needed to ensure that work is done successfully.

34:20Yeah, I think I've done this work in terms of doing continuous improvement work to do core realignment, to do system change work.

34:27And it's really the secret sauce is how you engage those on the ground and get their wisdom during the process so that we have our partners at the unions involved at the front end in those difficult conversations so there's not surprises or there's—.

34:46Yeah.

34:47Not the authentic dialogue that you need, the tough, um, necessary authentic dialogue that's necessary, that doesn't really provide a space for that when you're in the last minute of doing a budget.

34:59Most definitely.

35:00Thanks.

35:03Thank you, Councilor Ryan.

35:04I, I did want to note, to, uh, add to, uh, Administrator Lee's comment, um, Council President is absent today, um, but we'll check with his team if we can get, uh, information on the date for that work session.

35:16I'm next in the queue, so I wanted to just kind of continue a little bit here.

35:21First, I did want to highlight that once again, Portland remained in the top 10 cities in the United States for its gun violence reduction efforts.

35:29I think we're number 7.

35:3057% Year-to-date reduction in gun violence is a pretty notable thing, and I wanted to commend you, Administrator Lee, in your role as administrator and in your role as interim DCA for Public Safety, as well as the whole service area for that.

35:44Thank you.

35:45I know the work has been significant.

35:47Relatedly, I am grateful for the PBOT PPB collaboration with relation to the messaging around motorcycle safety.

35:54I hope that that leads to even more down the line and appreciate it.

35:59For those who have been tracking the Vision Zero updates, we have an increase in traffic deaths this year and it is primarily driven by motorcycle, by deaths of people who are on motorcycles.

36:11So I think anything we can do there Is a good place to focus.

36:16I did want to ask 2 questions.

36:19One, and I'm not sure if this is something that's part of it, but I wanted to ask how we're going to be part of the decision-making process.

36:25But I would like to ask about how we are messaging around it.

36:29I noticed that there is a 3rd contractor which is joining the PMO sidewalk cleaning program in October.

36:36And generally speaking, the people who are doing the sidewalk cleaning are interacting with folks are houseless and are going to be involved in sometimes their stuff.

36:48Uh, and the, the name of the contractor is Junk It Junk, and I'm curious about how that is going to play, um, out in the community, uh, with folks who are often separated from their items and how we can get to a place where we're not conveying a sense of heartlessness And I, I imagine that can't be— that's not part of our, um, procurement standards directly, but I am concerned that that, uh, although maybe in their other work makes a lot of sense, in the context of this particular line of work might be something that we would need to, um, accommodate for and mitigate the harm of.

37:29I just wanted to kind of put that on the record and ask if you had any thoughts on that, CA Lee.

37:35No thoughts on that.

37:36I'd have to look at that individual but what I will share with you, Councilor Kanal, is anytime we're doing this type of work throughout the city, we want to make sure we're doing it in a respectable manner.

37:50We know that the belongings that people have, this is their life belongings.

37:54They are carrying these things with them every day.

37:57It's not trash, it's not junk, it's nothing like that.

38:01It's their personal belongings, and we want to make sure We're treating them with dignity and respect.

38:06And anytime we're trying to clean a public right-of-way to ensure that that is safe and secure and clean as well, but respect the people that we are encountering and that we're dealing with to make sure that work is performed at a high level.

38:21But I will take a look at that individual contract.

38:24I'll have my team make a note of that to get some more details as it relates to the actual work.

38:30Uh, that will be performed and how that work will be performed long term.

38:35Thanks.

38:36The other question I had, and I appreciate you responding to this one, um, is maybe something that I, I would ask, um, if DCA Warren might be the best person to answer it, or someone from the mayor's office.

38:50There were— there was a report about 6 different, um, uh, investigations into PPB From 2020, of which 2 of them related to former chiefs of police.

39:02And there were reports about them being different recommendations coming from independent police review or internal affairs.

39:11And I had 2 questions about the specifically the 2 related to the former chiefs of police.

39:16One is, as someone who's worked in the system for a while, I can't recall a previous time where the decision on whether or not to accept the discipline recommendations was made by the DCA as opposed to the chief and the mayor.

39:33And I wanted to, to understand sort of the, the rationale for that as well as the legal authority for that, um, and just understand why that position was involved in it at all.

39:46That's the first question.

39:47I'll get to the second one, which is about the decision itself.

39:50Um, so I'm not sure if you wanted to start.

39:52DCA Warren is here.

39:55Yes, I'll give it to DCA Warren to start out.

39:57Okay, thanks.

39:58Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

39:59For the record, DCA Warren.

40:02Um, you know, the investigation presented some unique circumstances through the 2020 protest.

40:10Um, you know, one of the, uh, persons who were subject to investigation was a residing chief during the time the city does have a past practice of asking for a neutral party to review outside of the Portland Police Bureau so that folks who are at the same rank are not reviewing.

40:38So a current chief of police is not reviewing a previously residing chief of police.

40:45I think that's a good idea.

40:46Activities and making decisions related to that.

40:50So we did work— the mayor's office did work in consultation with the city attorney's office in prior instances to ensure integrity of the investigation, avoid any conflict of interest.

41:05The Bureau of Human Resources has provided that recommendation to the mayor, and the mayor has made the decision.

41:12At the time that this decision was made, I was the Human Resources Director, and it was determined that by the mayor that it was appropriate for me to review the cases and provide him with a recommendation that he would then ultimately make a decision based on.

41:29Okay, so just to clarify on that, that means that although at the time of the reporting you're in the role you're in now, the involvement in this was in the that's correct.

41:41It originally was assigned to me as the Human Resources Director.

41:45When I transitioned into the interim role, we had a follow-up conversation and decided we should just keep the consistency and I would finish it out.

41:53Would you describe it— is it more accurate to state that you were a second recommender in that role, along with independent police review, to the mayor who ultimately made the decision?

42:05Or is it more accurate to say Independent Police Review made a recommendation to you and the mayor, who were the deciders, quote unquote?

42:13It would be the first.

42:16So IPR did their investigation.

42:19They completed reports.

42:21They then handed that off to me for review.

42:25I then reviewed all of their recommendations and reports, and then I provided a follow-up recommendation to the mayor.

42:33Um, we reviewed that information and then he made a decision.

42:37Okay, I, I think it's appropriate to ask this from a, a process question because I'm not familiar with it happening this way before.

42:48Can you— are there any previous times where the HR director was involved in this process?

42:53I understand this is not out, you know, these are not, uh, unionized positions, the chief of police, so I understand it's not in the normal structure that's but if you could, are you aware of previous conversations around this?

43:04Um, I have been told by the City Attorney's Office that there is precedence for this and it has happened before.

43:10Um, it has not happened while I have been the sitting Human Resources Director.

43:14Okay, so this is the only occasion that I've been involved in.

43:18Okay, and this is maybe the, the broader question.

43:21You know, Independent Police Review had a different recommendation than yours.

43:26Um, the memo that you wrote on in June was recommended not, um, imposing any, uh, discipline or response.

43:36And I wanted to ask about, you know, as we move forward, this is, um, particularly relevant in the context of current conversations around similar uses of force around chemical weapons that are happening today and the need to, to sort of you know, rid our city of the environmental scourge of that, but also from the perspective of public trust as we're setting up the new system that obviously you're very aware of and heavily involved in.

44:04And I wanted to ask about that and just sort of, to the degree that you're able to, because I understand there's some things you won't be able to say, to just kind of talk through the thought process as it relates.

44:14I understand that there are some that IPR made a different IPR didn't recommend for everybody, and so I'm just talking about the ones where they recommended a finding, a sustained finding, and you recommended not.

44:25Um, so for those, can you give a little bit more as to the thought process on that?

44:31Um, I can.

44:32So, um, you know, there, uh, were 5, um, cases, um, and, and for the record, 2 were sustained, 3 were not sustained.

44:43And there were, I believe, one or two that were different from the IPR's recommendation.

44:51And I'd have to refresh myself with all the pieces.

44:54And, you know, when I'm reviewing it, I'm looking at it from a perspective of did this individual do everything that they could in that moment to mitigate the, the potential charge that is being investigated.

45:16So in my documentation and the findings memo that I provided, I kind of outlined the why, right?

45:27Which is in different instances, there was corrective action being taken place.

45:35Um, during the moment, and in other situations, there did not appear to be corrective action that was taking place.

45:44So that's the, the big, big picture basics on it.

45:50I want to just understand that last piece.

45:55When you say in different instances there was corrective action taking place during the moment and in other situations there weren't, Is that talking about the precedent, uh, for people in this type of role before, or are you saying that they actually imposed it on their— the people that reported to them?

46:09So let me be clear, when I'm talking about corrective action, I'm not talking about discipline, right?

46:14Um, I'm talking about they took steps to work the process and create the, uh, and correct the outcomes that they were receiving on the other side of that, right?

46:25So they were taking steps internally to look at policy, add additional personnel, really working hard to meet the policy standard.

46:38But based on the circumstances, they were not able to fully achieve that.

46:44Okay.

46:46I would ask, I guess, 2 final things on this, and that's— this is my last topic.

46:52One is, I note that multiple times in the reporting on this, in the background documents, and even referenced in your memo, it talks about members of the rapid response team asserting that they were not provided with sufficient training and support to underline the levels of uses of force that were used in 2020, including in August when, you know, the colloquial term Tear Gas Tuesday in August 2020.

47:18I think that's a fair statement.

47:21How is it, is it fair to say that the idea that that does not require any sort of corrective action to the people that were supervising and were responsible for that means that those assertions by RRT members were untrue?

47:39Or how is it possible that those could be true and yet nothing be done about it?

47:46I can't speak to that specific.

47:50So I mean, I would need to go back and review that specific piece.

47:58Okay.

47:58I may—.

47:59I can't speak to that.

48:00Follow up with that as well.

48:02Absolutely.

48:03Happy to have a follow-up.

48:05The last thing I wanted to say, and this is— I want to give you a chance to respond.

48:08It is more of a comment.

48:11This is on page 3 of the memos.

48:14You have, you know, sort of one file with all the different memos about the different cases.

48:18There's a line in here that says, compared to the Bureau— sorry, quote, compared to the Bureau's usual operation of around a dozen uses of forces a week, the Bureau was faced with dozens of uses of force an evening for a sustained period, end quote.

48:34The the use of passive voice there obscures the responsibility of the people who are using the force.

48:45Was faced— if I was faced with banging the gavel, that obscures the fact that I'm the one who banged the gavel to start this meeting.

48:54And I am concerned about, especially as we have conversations around force usage, the implication that the force that was used by Portland Police was something that was imposed upon them when it was choices that were made.

49:12Perhaps not by the individual officers, perhaps by their command staff, and I think there's a lot to talk about there.

49:17And whether or not that's misconduct or not is a separate question, let alone whether there should be corrective action or not.

49:22I recognize all of that.

49:24But in terms of the basic idea of who did the thing, and so I wanted to just kind of talk about the language that we use here because it sort of obfuscates what actually occurred and who did the thing that we're talking about.

49:37And I want to give you a chance, if you'd like, to respond to that.

49:40I don't want to just talk at you and cut the mic, but I did want to get that on the record.

49:44Thank you, Councilor.

49:45I appreciate the feedback.

49:47You know, I can speak to the intent was not to minimize the impacts of individuals who experienced use of force during that activity and time period, right?

49:56The intent was to speak about the process itself around increase in numbers and the capability of folks to be able to keep up with the review process.

50:08So my focus was really limited and not on the intent or the impact to the individual.

50:14So, okay, thanks for that.

50:16I'll be following up on a couple of the things.

50:18CA Lee, I don't know if you had anything you wanted to add before I move on.

50:23No, not at this time.

50:24Okay, thank you very much.

50:27Seeing no one else in the queue, pausing for dramatic effect, I'll say thank you for the CA's update, and that'll conclude this item, and we can move on to the next.

50:41Thank you, CA Lee, for joining us remotely, and thanks again to all the staff for making time a second time for this.

50:49Rebecca, could we please call the second item?

50:52Item 2, appoint Omar K. Solomon to the Steering and Oversight Committee for the Homelessness Response System for a 1-year term to expire September 30th, 2027.

51:02Document number 2026-310.

51:06Thank you.

51:07And I'm gonna invite up to present, yeah, Jillian Shoney from the—.

51:15I told him to aim for 10:45.

51:17He's not here yet.

51:18Oh, okay.

51:19So what do we want to do?

51:22That is—.

51:24I can't remember the full agenda.

51:26Yeah, it's, it's a little unusual to take a 28-minute-long break, um, but does anybody mind having a longer break than normal?

51:35No.

51:36Okay, everybody grab a coffee.

51:38We'll come back at 10:45.

51:40Uh, for those following at home, that is a 28-minute break.

51:43See you again in a little bit.

51:44Thanks.

1:22:09I'm just going to be super quiet with that.

1:22:14Thank you.

1:22:16We're now going to come back from recess.

1:22:19Uh, thanks for bearing with us.

1:22:20I realized I didn't say, for those online, um, may have not had the mic pick it up earlier, uh, we were running a little early, but our next item has an employee who we had told a later time, so we took a break to align that, and I appreciate everyone bearing with us.

1:22:36At this point, we'll invite back up Jillian Schoney, Robin Johnson, as well as our nominee, Omar Salomon, and ask— I don't think we read it already, so Rebecca, would you please read?

1:22:48Oh, we did read the item into the record.

1:22:49Okay, great.

1:22:50Well, we're resuming that one.

1:22:52We're ready to go.

1:22:52Okay, thank you so much.

1:22:54Welcome.

1:22:54Thank you everyone for the accommodation.

1:22:57By way of reminder, the city and the county have worked in partnership on homelessness and housing since 1983.

1:23:02The Homelessness Response System is simply the latest iteration of that partnership.

1:23:07It is a shared oversight and accountability structure that primarily oversees 2 bodies of work.

1:23:12First, data-driven decision-making, primarily through the identification of performance indicators and any goals set there within that are then reported out on a quarterly basis and used to inform our collective budget processes.

1:23:26And second, oversight of the action plan, which is where the policy work lives.

1:23:31Looking at numerous policies and programs and identifying opportunities to improve or use data to inform the work we do.

1:23:39You experienced a bit of that yesterday with the behavioral health bed simulation tool that we've used to inform the next state legislative ask.

1:23:47So we, the HRS staff, if you look at this graphic, we and our 3 oversight bodies, we hover above, so to speak, all those who are funding implementing policy, or providing the direct services of the homelessness response system.

1:24:03Next slide.

1:24:05Today we're here because we need to fill a vacancy, the business sector representative on one of those oversight bodies, the Steering and Oversight Committee.

1:24:13That position is one of 5 non-voting members of the committee, and the process by which that person is appointed is dictated by the HRSIGA.

1:24:23Per an amendment by the previous City Council, that person may— must be nominated by a Chamber of Commerce Staff then recommend one or more persons to both the chair of the county and the mayor of Portland for their support.

1:24:35And after that, after we receive that green light from both of them, we then bring the recommended nominee to both the City Council and the Board— County Board of Commissioners for the official appointment.

1:24:48Our previous appointee was nominated by the Portland Metro Chamber.

1:24:52That was Peter Andrews.

1:24:53He was an absolute joy to have on the committee.

1:24:56And the nominee before you today was elevated by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

1:25:00Next slide.

1:25:02Before we get to further detail on the process and the official introduction of Omar, here is a slide that shares with you the overall membership of the Steering and Oversight Committee, just so you have that context.

1:25:12There's 5 elected officials, 5 community leaders, the CEO of Home Forward and Health Share are dictated by the IGA, and then the other 3 positions are the business rep a person who works in behavioral health, and a person who is subject to the SHS tax that does not live inside the City of Portland.

1:25:29And those are the 3 positions that, um, come to you and the County Board of Commissioners for approval.

1:25:35With that, I'll hand it over to Robin Johnson, my colleague.

1:25:38Great, thanks.

1:25:39Uh, Chair Kanal, Vice Chairs Ryan and Koyama Lane, for the record, my name is Robin Johnson.

1:25:45I'm a policy advisor on the Homelessness Response System team.

1:25:50So you see the timeline.

1:25:55Thank you.

1:25:57You see the timeline for the recruitment process.

1:26:00It took us about 4 months working, outreaching to 17 chambers and business associations across the county.

1:26:11And we used email, public announcements, and good old-fashioned person-to-person outreach, uh, to, um, to find, uh, folks who both had the background, um, and the interest to serve on the SOC.

1:26:29Um, all recommended candidates filled in an application.

1:26:32Those applications were evaluated by staff.

1:26:35Um, then we had a meeting with them, and, um, Omar was the singular person that sort of met the very specific recommendation standards, the background, and being a business owner in Portland.

1:26:54And so I'm very excited to— and he was enthusiastically recommended by the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber.

1:27:03So I'm very pleased to Thank you.

1:27:07We're very excited to have Omar Solomon here today.

1:27:10He's the CEO and founder of Zocotl, which is a juice and smoothie bar with 2 locations here in Portland.

1:27:18In addition to being a business owner of 2 brick-and-mortar businesses, Omar brings an extensive background in social services, having worked at 211 and in housing, and an extensive experience in public service.

1:27:36And so with that, I just want to— I think he's going to be an excellent addition to the SOC.

1:27:42And with that, I just wanted to hand it over to Omar to introduce himself for a moment and then answer any questions folks may have.

1:27:51Thank you very much, Robin.

1:27:52I truly appreciate the opportunity to be here.

1:27:56I feel really honored of, um, having this, um, position offered to me.

1:28:04I've been, um, a business owner for, um, a little bit over 8 years here in the Portland area.

1:28:12Um, it's been, you know, like a, an up and down, um, a great adventure too.

1:28:19But, um, I, um, I feel that I have to give back something to to the city.

1:28:26And, um, I love this city.

1:28:29Been here for many years, and I've seen good changes, some not so good.

1:28:34But, um, I am really committed to give back to, to the city what I have learned and experienced through all these years of, of work.

1:28:45And, um, as a social worker and a business owner, I think that, um, Thank you.

1:28:52This opportunity will— I will use this opportunity to express my voice and my opinion and recommendations probably to see this city to grow and thrive.

1:29:10I understand that many small businesses are part of this economy that moves Portland.

1:29:21And I think also we have a big problem with homelessness, which I previously had worked with families who were experiencing homeless— homelessness or were at risk of becoming homeless.

1:29:35And I think that this combination of experiences gives me a lens that I can use to give back to the city and express my interest in making the city better.

1:29:57So I really thank you for the opportunity of being here, and I'm also ready to learn a lot, I think.

1:30:07Thank you.

1:30:10Thank you so much.

1:30:11Uh, I think that that concludes the presentation.

1:30:14Yes, thank you.

1:30:15Great.

1:30:15I just— one clarifying question.

1:30:17Um, what's the timeline with— this has to go through the Board of Commissioners too, right?

1:30:22What's the timeline relatively there?

1:30:24Um, it's, um, tentatively on the consent agenda for September 17th.

1:30:29Okay, okay, just to give everyone an idea there.

1:30:32All right, I'm going to open this up for questions.

1:30:34Please feel free to ask.

1:30:35Questions of the staff or the, um, or our nominee.

1:30:40Um, I'll start with Councilor Ryan, and feel free for everyone else to get in the queue.

1:30:45Thank you for being here, Omar.

1:30:47You're a busy guy, especially running 2 businesses.

1:30:50Um, when we were building this, as Julian recalls, I was really a strong voice to say we needed to have independent thinkers that aren't connected to the industry, if you will, but are impacted by it.

1:31:03And are providing revenue for the city and the county through their business taxes.

1:31:07And so you have a really big role to play.

1:31:10And so I'm just so grateful to read about your biography, just persevering through the fires at the Mercado.

1:31:17I remember that story vividly.

1:31:20And so you're that person.

1:31:21I remember some of the times you— I heard from you during that period, and that you now have 2 businesses.

1:31:26So that says a lot about your resilience and your perseverance and where you get all this energy.

1:31:31Um, I also acknowledge you're on the board of the Hacienda Community Development.

1:31:37Yeah.

1:31:38Um, can you tell me how the experience of serving on that board also connects the combination of being a private business person coupled with your perspective of being at that board table?

1:31:50It seems like that's a good match, right?

1:31:54Um, so I, um, yes, I had a business at the Portland Mercado for about a little bit over 5 years when the fire happened.

1:32:04And my experience as a tenant at the Portland Mercado and interacting with the management from the city and the CDC led me to express my interest of being as part of a committee for the reconstruction there.

1:32:25And I think that she ended up being a key partner in the community, you know, developing affordable housing for a specific niche and also promoting Latino businesses, which we were part of that cohort about 8 years ago.

1:32:49I think that I felt the need of expressing my opinions about the administration of the property and some kind of rules among the other business owners.

1:33:04So I think that it connects well because I've seen the CDC as a housing developer and basically one of their their vision and their mission is to close that gap of affordability and housing among the Latino population mainly.

1:33:27It goes well.

1:33:29I, when I sit down in the meetings, I see how they're, you know, managing properties and facing challenges.

1:33:39Thank you.

1:33:40Problems here or there with tenants or with permits and things like that.

1:33:46It gives me a broad perspective of the housing situation in Portland too.

1:33:56So on one hand, the economic development is very important for the city and to get revenue and income through taxes.

1:34:09So I think that having the opportunity of seeing like the, what happens with the developers and what is happening also with the small businesses, it correlates a little bit.

1:34:27It connects.

1:34:28There's a relationship.

1:34:30Okay.

1:34:31And I think that we can use that lens to make things better here.

1:34:38Well, I really appreciate it, and I hope that you feel comfortable expressing yourself at the meetings.

1:34:45I've had people be on meetings like that that are from the entrepreneur, independent, creative side of the world, not in government.

1:34:53And they get in the meetings, they're like, I don't know what people are saying.

1:34:57So there's sometimes a lot of jargon.

1:34:58So feel free to speak up and really own your voice.

1:35:03Jillian recalls I really wanted all of you to be voting members, so I'm still a little bummed that you're categorized as a non-voting member.

1:35:12Don't let that stop you, okay?

1:35:14Express yourself.

1:35:15We need you.

1:35:15Thank you.

1:35:16Thank you.

1:35:18Thank you, Vice Chair Ryan.

1:35:20I am next in the queue.

1:35:23First off, I feel like this is a very good nominee.

1:35:26I'm intending to vote yes on it.

1:35:27I ask questions about process on board recruitments largely to try and prevent a problem in the next recruitment.

1:35:35That's how I always view it.

1:35:36So don't take it as anything about you.

1:35:38I intend to vote yes today for sure.

1:35:42But I did want to ask a couple questions about the process.

1:35:46Can you speak to how many of the— you mentioned, I think, 17?

1:35:5017.

1:35:52Business associations and chambers of commerce.

1:35:55You reached out to all of those folks, and I think that's great.

1:35:59How many of them gave recommendations of candidates?

1:36:072.

1:36:08Okay.

1:36:08And did they each give 1 recommendation, or were there multiple from either of those?

1:36:12Each of them gave 1 recommendation in this round.

1:36:16I know that this is a new setup, so the sample size is pretty small, small in terms of recruitments for this type of role, because as Councilor Ryan mentioned, Vice Chair Ryan mentioned, there's— it's not— this is a relatively new position.

1:36:28But from your knowledge, is that normal to get 2 of the 17 to apply?

1:36:36So on the first— so we have recruited for this seat twice, and we received 2 The first time, 2 direct responses from Chambers, and then 2 additional— no, no, no, that's— it was just 2 the first time.

1:36:54Sorry, I was confusing it.

1:36:55And then 2 the second time as well.

1:36:57So yeah, in this realm, normal.

1:37:00So previous to this position, I've worked in community engagement across Multnomah County and other statewide organizations, and we've— in other— at other recruiting for other positions, we've received Hundreds.

1:37:13And so part of— and part of it is the process, uh, that was the process that was recommended and adopted sort of shrinks the candidate pool.

1:37:25Yes.

1:37:25Um, and intensifies the level of outreach that we have to do because it's so specific.

1:37:30Luckily, our team holds a lot of relationships across the county, the business world, And I was truly walking into businesses, introducing myself to people.

1:37:42If someone said, oh, hey, you should go talk to this person, the owner of East Gleason Pizza, for instance, like, I went and talked to her and she's like, we just rebuilt our business because we just rebuilt our business.

1:37:51I need to be sitting here for 6 months.

1:37:53I can't do anything else.

1:37:54And so part of that was to really hear and understand what's happening for business owners across the county.

1:38:01And then, I mean, the sincere story is I went to talk to Omar because he was a business developer across the region.

1:38:07And I said, Omar, do you know anyone?

1:38:09And then we just kept talking.

1:38:10I was like, oh, it's you.

1:38:11So, um, and yeah, so it— all of us have done outreach.

1:38:17So the process is person-to-person and, um, relational, but it, it takes months to fill these types of positions.

1:38:26And not everyone wants to sit at a table like this, you know, at a table like the SOC.

1:38:31Absolutely.

1:38:33Um, you know, as a son of a small business owner, uh, it's— I am very aware of how, how it is difficult to get the time and to even imagine that you might have it, um, at a, at a consistent time to do this.

1:38:47And obviously it's not a paid position.

1:38:49So, um, I will ask, were the 2 chambers that were in—.

1:38:55Or, or associations that were involved in nominating somebody last time the same 2 as this Um, one was consistent, which was Portland Metro Chamber, and, uh, previous was the East County Chamber recommended someone who came onto our Community Advisory Committee, which was amazing.

1:39:15Uh, and this time it was the Portland Metro Chamber and the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber.

1:39:21Okay, great.

1:39:22I think, um, you know, as we, we currently have a vacant position for the city's Chief Engagement Officer.

1:39:28When that person, uh, is hired, I think maximizing the number of folks that are, are providing nominations is probably a good look, and they can help.

1:39:39Um, obviously the good news is it's good to have as many candidates as possible, but ultimately you only need one that's good.

1:39:48Um, so, and having more helps raise the chances you have one that's good, but you have 2 nominees and have at least one that's good, as we've seen.

1:39:56So for this, it doesn't have a huge impact, and I'm not concerned about it.

1:40:00I'm mostly thinking about the future and I guess committing the, the city administrator, uh, to, you know, that new position when hired, um, helping assist in the, in the, the liaising with the, uh, the, the folks, the different associations and chambers.

1:40:16Thank you.

1:40:17Um, so that's it for me.

1:40:18Thank you for the answers to that.

1:40:20Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:40:21Thank you, Chair.

1:40:24Omar, thank you so much for stepping up and being willing to do this.

1:40:29I wanted to just give you the opportunity, if you're willing, to say a little bit more about what you're hoping to accomplish on the board.

1:40:41Robin said that in talking to you, it was obvious that you were the right and you spoke a little bit to your experience as a business owner and working with Hacienda CDC as a developer, right, and in their role as a developer.

1:40:56But it also occurs to me that in that role you've seen the work that they do as a housing provider slightly different than the developer side, that social services side.

1:41:06Um, I'm guessing that you have seen the work interacting between the city and the county and the work that we need to do to make sure that through the SOC we are staying on the same page as we provide services.

1:41:22And I'm wondering if you can just share a little bit more with us what you're bringing in terms of your thoughts on the system and what's working well, where we need to go, anything like that.

1:41:36Yeah, well, um, first of all, um, it's a lot of curiosity you know, as an entrepreneur, I think that's what drives us, right?

1:41:47Curiosity is one of the things that is driving me to learn more about how things are managed.

1:41:56Because as a business owner, in my own— as my perspective as a business owner, you know, we're paying taxes and we understand that they go to expenses from the city and the local governments and all that.

1:42:08But we really question sometimes things that are happening in the area.

1:42:17And a lot of people who I interact with, they're always like, oh, you know, where are my taxes going?

1:42:24Like, why I see a lot of tents?

1:42:27What is happening with the services here and there?

1:42:30So also, you know, when I worked with Northwest Housing Alternatives, I was in charge of a homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing program.

1:42:44I had the opportunity to learn a lot of what people would go through when they became homeless or when they were at risk of becoming homeless.

1:42:54So I miss a little bit of that work.

1:42:57Where you are like interacting with people sometimes in dire straits and sometimes in situations where they're helpless.

1:43:07And that is some of that compassion I, you know, miss to apply because in the business world is a little bit different.

1:43:18You have to be a little bit more aggressive and probably use different—.

1:43:23Tactics.

1:43:24Ways to communicate.

1:43:27And I miss that part where I sit down and help someone to, you know, get out of the situation that they're living.

1:43:43So I think that that's what drives me the most, if I can use a little bit of my experience in both worlds to express my view under that lens and help.

1:44:05It's what drives me, really, that need of helping others.

1:44:12Thank you.

1:44:16Thank you, Councilor Pearl Guinea.

1:44:17Councilor Ryan?

1:44:18Oh yeah, just a couple quick things.

1:44:20Um, yeah, I just want to acknowledge it's actually good to say that it's a charitable act when someone from the private sector is on a commission like this because you don't get paid.

1:44:29Others that are there, the voting members, they actually are paid to be at the meeting.

1:44:33So I really appreciate that, hence giving the freedom at the meeting.

1:44:36And also, I just want to acknowledge Peter Andrews for his service.

1:44:39I think he was on for 2 years.

1:44:40Yeah, so thank you so much.

1:44:42I look forward to supporting this.

1:44:44Thank you, Councilor Ryan.

1:44:46Councilor Zimmerman.

1:44:47Um, thank you, Chair.

1:44:49Omar, I look forward to working with you.

1:44:50I sit on the SOC, and it's been, um, a voice that's been missing for a few months now since Andrew had to step away.

1:44:56So welcome to the team, I hope.

1:44:59Thank you.

1:44:59And, uh, I look forward to seeing your perspective, working with you.

1:45:03And it is a hard committee to serve on.

1:45:07It deals with the hardest issues and it has the most complex set of opinions.

1:45:13And so, but it has been worth my time these last 2 years to serve on it.

1:45:18And so I hope that it will be worth your time.

1:45:19So thanks for stepping up and I will certainly support you.

1:45:25Thank you.

1:45:26Thank you, Councilor Zimmerman.

1:45:27Councilor Green.

1:45:29Thank you so much for stepping up to volunteer for this.

1:45:33I'm gonna echo what my colleagues have already said about service.

1:45:36And about your willingness to take time out of your life to contribute to the greater good here.

1:45:42I'm excited about the recruitment.

1:45:44I'm impressed by your background.

1:45:46And it's a voice from a part of the business community that doesn't always have a seat at the table.

1:45:50And I'm glad that we have that.

1:45:53I do have a question for you.

1:45:55This would be a non-voting board membership seat.

1:45:58So how do you imagine interacting and influencing the discussion as someone who's not a voting member?

1:46:04Like, what tools do you have to engage on that?

1:46:09Well, just coming up with ideas.

1:46:12I think that part of having an entrepreneur brain is that ideas flow to you all the time, a little bit of ADHD, you know, and you have always this input of different things that you connect in your brain and you bring probably a couple more ideas than someone who's not probably a business owner.

1:46:42And having that ease of bringing alternatives, you know, just a little bit different from the norm.

1:46:54And I, as I said, I don't have like, I don't have experience in politics or government, but I know that sometimes you need to be out of that box to bring something different.

1:47:09And I— it resonates to me, like in the business I own, I have to create like almost every day a new thing, a new drink, a new recipe.

1:47:21And it It flows to me like almost naturally and is that feeling on having probably ideas coming and expressing them and probably one of those would work.

1:47:38I think that creativity is one of the things that drive most like small business owners.

1:47:46You know, they have to be creative in order to survive.

1:47:50Thank you.

1:47:50You know, we, um, many of my colleagues at the mercado, they, they survived the pandemic when it was like very difficult, um, to continue with your sales, and they had to, um, be very, um, you know, just creative in, in making it.

1:48:13So, um, I think a little bit of that is what I'm expecting, you know, to bring that set of ideas on the table.

1:48:25And if one of it, probably from 10, works a little bit, I'll be happy with that.

1:48:32Thank you, sir.

1:48:33Yeah, I just want to interject here since the voting keeps coming up.

1:48:37I just wanted to let y'all know that the Steering and Oversight Committee ended up adopting sort of a let's call it a 2-step voting process.

1:48:45We do consensus voting for the first vote, which is a 3-2-1 model that every member of the SOC participates in.

1:48:53And we all definitely understand.

1:48:55What?

1:48:56I said, and that we all definitely understand.

1:48:59Yes.

1:49:00And then we move to the official vote by the 5 voting members, just for context.

1:49:06Thanks for that context.

1:49:08And, um, That actually sort of reminds me that as I was preparing for this nomination hearing, I was going back and trying to sort of look through the minutes of previous SOC meetings, and I found it difficult to find minutes.

1:49:22I think there are some recorded—.

1:49:25Yeah.

1:49:25The meetings are recorded, but it'd be helpful if the public could have access to maybe some vote tallies or some summaries of what some key decisions were made in there.

1:49:35'Cause I think it's very difficult to parse that and for folks to follow along.

1:49:39'Cause these are big decisions and big conversations that happen in there.

1:49:44And so I think it's important for us to be able to really understand what's happening there.

1:49:48So thanks for clarifying on how the voting stuff works.

1:49:50I'm glad that there is a 2-step process.

1:49:53I think that gets more opportunity for someone like Omar to help steer this.

1:49:59Yeah.

1:50:01That entrepreneurial thinking is actually very important because we're dealing with a situation right now where the resources that we have in the community to address our homelessness crisis are at risk, frankly, because voters are kind of like, I'm not seeing the problem being solved.

1:50:17And so I'm worried that they're going to make a decision that turns off the flow of those funds.

1:50:21And so being able to have new voices at the table to think differently is super critical.

1:50:26So I'm— for that reason, I'm, I'm going to support— I'm going to vote to support you, Omar.

1:50:31Thank you.

1:50:31Thank you.

1:50:32Appreciate the feedback too, Councilor.

1:50:34Thank you.

1:50:36Um, I just wanted to— anyone else want to get in the queue before I kind of ask for the, the motion here?

1:50:41Um, I just wanted to add, I, I agree with everything Councilor Ryan said about, um, it being a sacrifice to join, I'd say, any volunteer, um, putting in their time.

1:50:50It's a—.

1:50:50It's something we're, we're grateful for as a city.

1:50:54I had a question that's not exactly related, but as someone who went to the Mercado frequently and obviously, like many, is looking forward to its eventual reopening and repopulation, all that stuff, do you have plans to go back?

1:51:10Not to the Mercado.

1:51:11We just opened a second location at the moment, and the Mercado has some limits on how many people can and come back.

1:51:22I think now they're going to have only 6 food carts and 2 other businesses.

1:51:28The space that was occupied by my business, it's been basically removed and they're expanding operations in the bar area, which I believe brings more revenue to the mercado.

1:51:42So they're doing that, but we're not—.

1:51:45Councilor Herbold.

1:51:46Going back to the Mercado, we want to explore probably other areas.

1:51:52Right now we're on Division and we have a commissary kitchen there where we do the preparation for the other smaller locations.

1:52:02So right now we don't have any plans to go back to the Mercado.

1:52:06It's still in reconstruction and probably In water space, I could— thank you.

1:52:16Thanks.

1:52:16Well, I look forward to, to coming to one of your other locations.

1:52:19Um, all right, colleagues, um, this is a report, uh, introduced by Mayor Wilson.

1:52:24In order to refer it, we would need a motion to refer it to the full council with a recommendation.

1:52:29So moved.

1:52:30Second.

1:52:30Okay, I'll take motion from Councilor Zimmerman.

1:52:33I think Councilor Pirtle-Guiney with the second.

1:52:36Um, is there any further— I beat you By a half second, sorry.

1:52:39Uh, any, any, um, further discussion on this item?

1:52:43All right, Rebecca, will you please call the roll?

1:52:49Calling the roll on document 2026-310, uh, moved by Councilor Zimmerman, seconded by Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:52:58Koyama Lane?

1:52:59Aye.

1:53:00Murillo?

1:53:02Aye.

1:53:02Novick?

1:53:03Thank you for serving.

1:53:04Aye.

1:53:05Clark, absent.

1:53:06Green?

1:53:07Aye.

1:53:08Zimmerman?

1:53:08Aye.

1:53:09Avalos?

1:53:10Aye.

1:53:12Thank you for being willing to serve.

1:53:21Aye.

1:53:22And the motion to refer the report, document number 2026-310, to City Council with recommendation it be accepted.

1:53:31Is accepted with 9 aye, 3 absent votes.

1:53:35Thank you.

1:53:36Just 2 quick housekeeping notes before we adjourn.

1:53:38One, for this item, we expect that it'll go on a consent agenda.

1:53:43It's Council President's decision.

1:53:44I won't speak for when that would be, but soon.

1:53:48And then secondly, colleagues, this is— and anyone listening at home, this is welcoming week, and I wanted to take the opportunity to shout that out.

1:53:55There is a proclamation that is, I believe, being read right now over at the Portland building.

1:54:00And if anyone has the extra time, because we're adjourning a little early and you may want to join, uh, for that celebration, it is out front.

1:54:07What's welcoming?

1:54:07Welcoming Week, uh, the proclamation.

1:54:11Yeah.

1:54:12And, um, so, uh, you know, we did just on the consent agenda yesterday approve, um, the nominees that came out of this committee to the, uh, New Portlanders Policy Commission and just wanted to, you know, thank our immigrant affairs lead, Bryn Alvarado, the mayor for the proclamation, and Wafa Almatari for her work in supporting all that.

1:54:32And if anyone has some time to go over there, please feel free to join me over there.

1:54:37Yeah, yeah.

1:54:38And just to clarify for folks listening who don't know, Welcoming Week is when we intentionally have events work programming to recognize New Portlanders, to recognize the work of the New Portland Policy Commission, and to make sure that immigrants and refugees within our community know that this is a welcoming city and that we see all of the value that they bring to our community.

1:55:05Thanks for putting that in.

1:55:06Yeah.

1:55:07All right.

1:55:08With that, this meeting of the Committee of the Whole is adjourned.

1:55:12See you at 2 o'clock for the work session.