Transcript
Automatically generated transcript. It may contain errors and includes testimony in languages other than English that is not individually marked up for assistive technology.
Sameer Kanal
Keeling, this is Councilor Smith, and I'm online.
Thanks for letting us know, Councilor Smith.
Leila Taylor
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
Hey, we're not starting quite yet, but if you are online, uh, we might need you for quorum.
Can you turn on your cameras, please?
Good morning.
I'm going to call this meeting of the Portland City Council Committee of the Whole to order.
It is September 24th at 9:34 AM.
Rebecca, will you please call the roll?
Rebecca Dobert
Good morning.
Koyama Lane?
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Morillo?
Angelita Morillo
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Novick?
Steve Novick
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Clark?
Olivia Clark
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Green.
Zimmerman.
Avalos.
Dunphy.
Jamie Dunphy
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Smith.
Loretta Smith
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Pirtle-Guiney.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Here.
Rebecca Dobert
Ryan.
Kanal.
Sameer Kanal
Here.
And Claire, will you please, uh, read the statement of conduct?
Leila Taylor
Thank you, Chair.
Good morning and welcome to the meeting of the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole.
To testify before this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at portland.gov/council/agenda/committee-whole or by calling 311.
Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link.
Registration for virtual testimony closes 1 hour prior to the meeting.
In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard.
Rebecca Dobert
If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the chair states otherwise.
Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.
The chair preserves order.
Disruptive 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.
If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.
Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.
Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.
Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.
Your testimony should address the matter being considered.
When testifying, state your name for the record.
If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.
Leila Taylor
Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name.
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you, Claire.
All right, so today we've got committee chair updates.
We've also got continuing discussion of the 5 ordinances that were filed and we started discussing last week on the regulatory program changes.
We'll have updates on those as we go.
Get into them.
Um, will you please call item 1?
Rebecca Dobert
Item 1, committee chair updates, document number 2026-337.
Sameer Kanal
All right, so as per usual, updating everything on here.
Uh, everything that's been discussed that I am aware of is now on a calendar, save one thing going into the, the rest of the year.
And I think that thing is actually, uh, foreclosures, which actually is on there now.
So we are in a situation where I appreciate that, that 2 weeks Aye.
Thank you.
So just a couple of quick updates.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked if anyone knows of something coming up that needs to get on this committee's agenda before the end of October, please let me know.
And the response was sufficient to actually fill up most of the rest of the year.
So I appreciate both the administration and colleagues for doing that to help us be more predicting— able to predict what's happening.
The main takeaways from page 1 is just that there is no meeting on October 1st, and instead we'll have a meeting on October 29th.
So we'll still have 4 in October.
And some of the rest of the items are still in the possible tentative getting confirmed state as we go forward, just waiting on— each thing's got some slightly different things happening.
I did want to flag going to page 2 that some of the items on here are probably going to be in a sort of transition memo I give to the next year chair of this committee should it be retained in this format, um, or try to get done in January.
We probably have a meeting in January, um, before the— any switches may occur.
So most of this— these kinds of things are, are probably not going to get done this calendar year, and I just want to be upfront about that.
But if anybody has, um, things on that that get filed and are approved by, you know, clerk and, and, um, code review if necessary, attorneys if necessary, we can try to get it in as well.
Um, just wanted to, to flag that.
Switching gears and talking about the leadership requests and work groups, I did want to flag the street renaming code piece.
We've discussed this in the discussion around Campesinos Boulevard renaming and having a broader conversation about how this code works and what we're going to do about it.
I want to thank the folks who volunteered for that.
We do have this penciled in for October 15th as a discussion item.
So I'm gonna ask if those 5 councilors that are listed can help to plan the discussion in terms of run a show and things like that.
DCA Williams has confirmed that PBOT is available to give their sides of it.
And I've also given all your chiefs of staff a heads up that I was going to mention this today.
The discussion we're gonna have on the 15th about street renaming is primarily for councilors.
PBOT is going to be present to answer questions and give feedback on feasibility of ideas, but not to— kind of like how DCA— sorry, how CFO Beery yesterday said, here's the implementation challenges or ease, not so much here's my opinion on them.
It's kind of going to be like that.
It's not a formal presentation, but it is designed to sort of lay out options.
And I'll give— I've been using this behind the scenes, but for those who may be a little curious about what's kind of the goal of these discussions that don't have that don't have legislation tied to them yet.
The example I've been giving is they're first downs, meaning we're not trying to score on the play, get a touchdown or a field goal, but we are trying to advance the conversation so that it gets— it keeps going and we're able to have future action to resolve the problem.
Sorry for the non-sports fans out there that I just got you to glaze your eyes over with that.
But yeah, so that's the workgroup update, and that's pretty much it for my part.
But I did want to just see if there's nobody in the queue.
I'll go to Councilor Novick to give us an update on the work of the Community and Public Safety Committee.
Steve Novick
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Well, yesterday we actually have— the full council was looking at a couple of the issues that have come through the Public Safety Committee, the psychedelics ordinance and the 2 police grants.
Some big picture things we've had.
We had a presentation on the report that Councilor Smith requested on what the timeline would be and the expenses would be for significant ramp-up in police staffing.
And the police also had some suggestions as to where such staff might be assigned.
That was an interesting conversation that I think is probably worthy of follow-up.
We also had a presentation on police response times at Vice Chair Murillo's request, which frankly I think left a lot of questions unanswered.
And I told the police bureau that I'm planning to bring them back to continue that conversation.
In terms of specific— oh, and I should also add that—.
Thank you.
In the context of discussion of police response times, I got a reminder that we should schedule a discussion of clearance rates, solving of crimes, particularly because in that presentation, the Bureau said that currently we only count in our clearance rate statistics cases that are referred for investigation.
So if there's a crime that's not referred for investigation, it's not counted.
So I told them I'd like to see statistics that include both.
Both, because something that's not solved and not referred should be treated as not solved.
In terms of specific legislation, after numerous discussions about the protecting public buildings guns concealed carry legislation, which would've, pursuant to a state authorization, eliminated the affirmative defense for criminal charges for having wait a minute.
For having concealed carry.
We finally, after numerous discussions, came to a vote on that issue, and the legislation did not— we did not recommend moving to full council.
We had a preliminary discussion of an idea of Councilor Zimmerman's, the Safe Parks proposal, which would expand the city's ability to exclude people from parks.
And over next month, we're gonna have a report from the PSR Committee, and we'll also have a discussion about the Great ShakeOut for earthquake preparedness.
We are going to have a presentation on fireworks enforcement, which is pretty much nonexistent.
Wanna have a conversation about whether it's possible to have some level of enforcement of the fireworks ban.
And also, We had in the committee earlier this year a discussion of restorative justice, and the restorative justice folks said that the police bureau doesn't really refer many cases to restorative justice.
And Chief Day said, well, he actually believes in that concept.
So I'm going to ask Chief Day to come back and give us his thoughts on whether it's possible to increase police use of restorative justice.
So that's what I got.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you, Chair Novick.
I'm going to give everyone a second if they want to give him a cue to ask anything of Chair Novick.
That was comprehensive, so thank you so much.
Dan Ryan
With that—.
Steve Novick
And I forgot, we also need to schedule, uh, a discussion of disparities in traffic enforcement.
Appreciate it.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you.
Uh, so I guess with that, we'll wrap up the chairs update, and I will ask Rebecca if you could please call items 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 Item 2, amend Regulation of Payday Lending Code to update program fees, amend Code Section 7.26.030, document number 2026-325.
Rebecca Dobert
Item 3, amend Pay and Park and Non-Pay Private Parking Facilities Code to strengthen compliance and public notice requirements and update program fees, amend Code Chapter 7.25, document number 2026- Item 4, amend Secondhand Dealers Code to strengthen compliance requirements and update program fees.
Amend Code Chapter 14B.90, document number 2026-327.
Item 5, amend Social Games Code to strengthen compliance requirements and update program fees.
Amend Code Sections 14A.70.060 and 14A.70.067.
70, Document number 2026-328.
And item 6, repeal Amusement Devices, Games, and Machines Code, repeal Code Chapter 14B.110, document number 2026-329.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you.
Um, so before we, uh, just wanted to confirm we finished all testimony, there wasn't anybody who had to wait, right, last time?
Um, okay.
So we've heard our presentations, we have heard testimony, we're in councilor discussion and the ability to amend, to refer on.
We can refer these on individually or as a package to the full council as well.
But I want to start by recognizing, I know that Councilor Novick, you had something you wanted to start with, so I will start with you.
Steve Novick
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, partly in response to Chair Kanal's questions about background checks and the secondhand dealers item, 2026-327.
We were taking a look at that item over the last week and concluded there's some language issues that need to be worked out that I think that we're not— I don't know that we're quite there yet.
I apologize for that.
So I think that it's appropriate to— so I asked to refer that item to the— actually to the CAPS Committee.
I think that's appropriate because the whole reason for this part of the regulations is concerned about secondhand dealers potentially dealing in stolen goods.
So it's— there's definitely a public safety nexus.
The 4 remaining items I hope to refer on to council today.
Look forward to the discussion.
I think given some of the discussion last week, my preference would be to vote on them separately rather than as a package in whatever order the chair deems appropriate.
So I'll begin by making a motion to refer document 2026-327. to the Community and Public Safety Committee.
I would ask for a second.
Sameer Kanal
Second.
All right, so just for everyone's knowledge, under City Code 3.02.020, it is that many subsections.
This is something that the council is allowed, or sorry, committees are allowed to do, refer to another committee.
So there's a motion from Councilor Novick.
There's a second from Council President Dunphy.
Is there any discussion on the motion to refer this to the CAPS Committee?
And this is item, I wanna say, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Chair.
Councilor Novick, when you had originally presented these items together as a package, there was a budget implication for not moving all of them at the same time.
And can you speak to the budget implication if we don't move this forward?
And have you talked to the bureaus?
Steve Novick
Do they have any concerns about budget gaps that might create something, yeah, but it's right now we're not at full cost recovery for these programs.
So I think it's something we can live with, and I, I think that we can resolve the secondhand dealer issues, um, in the next several, several weeks.
I don't think it's going to take forever.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So by the time we're at our next budget cycle, this should be resolved and we should be back to about the balance that you had originally proposed?
Yes.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you.
Seeing no one else in the queue, uh, Rebecca, will you please call the roll on the motion to refer item 4, secondhand dealers, to the Committee on Community and Public Safety?
Rebecca Dobert
Okay, calling, uh, moved by Novick, seconded by Dunphy.
Koyama Lane?
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Murillo?
Angelita Morillo
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Novick?
Steve Novick
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Smith.
Loretta Smith
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Kanel.
Sameer Kanal
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Ryan.
Dan Ryan
Absent.
Rebecca Dobert
And Dunphy.
Jamie Dunphy
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
And the motion to refer is approved and apologies for the out-of-order vote.
Sameer Kanal
Great, thank you so much, and thank you, Councilor Novick, for, uh, the motion.
We're back into the main queue to discuss the other 4 items.
Um, here again, they can be referred to the full council together or as, uh, individual items, as Councilor Novick has expressed the preference for.
And I'm not seeing anyone in the queue yet.
So I know we're all still waking up, but, uh, just want to give everyone a chance here.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I guess— Would a motion to, uh, move agenda item 2, document 2026-325, to full council with the do pass recommendation be appropriate right now?
Sameer Kanal
That would absolutely be appropriate.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So moved.
Sameer Kanal
Is there a second?
Steve Novick
Second.
Sameer Kanal
It's a motion from Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, seconded by Councilor Novick, to refer item 2 onto the full council.
Is there any further discussion on this motion?
Seeing none, Rebecca, will you please call the roll?
Rebecca Dobert
And to clarify, that was 2026-325.
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
Yeah.
Rebecca Dobert
Moved by Pirtle-Guiney, seconded by Novick, uh, to refer to the full council with DuPas recommendation.
Koyama Lane?
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Murillo?
Angelita Morillo
Aye.
Candace Avalos
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Smith.
Loretta Smith
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Hurdle-Guiney.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Steve Novick
Aye.
Sameer Kanal
Aye.
Dan Ryan
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
And the motion to refer is approved with 9 aye, 3 absent.
Steve Novick
Great.
Sameer Kanal
And just as a reminder, we still need 7 votes for everything today even though we have 3 people absent.
I don't think that's going to be relevant today, but just wanted everyone to be aware of that going in.
Um, we're back into the main queue to, uh, discuss the remaining 3 items.
So those are, uh, Pay and Park, Social Games Code, and Amusement Devices, Games and Machines.
Uh, and a motion would be appropriate to refer any of those on to the, uh, to the full council at this time.
Councilor Dunphy.
Leila Taylor
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you.
Um, I mean, I'm going to be supportive of all of these.
I think this is a great direction for us to be going as a city.
There are actually a few other things that I have seen since looking into this that I also would love to just dig in and get rid of, including some of our requirements around locking up spray paint and taking people's driver's license information, which the police cannot even actually process or claim those documents in any way.
As such, I'm— would it be appropriate to move are we looking to do these individually at this point?
Steve Novick
I was proposing to do them individually in an excess of caution because frankly I wasn't sure we'd have the same number of votes for all of them.
But given what I've seen so far, I think it would be appropriate.
Jamie Dunphy
Okay.
We still have items, is it 3 and 5 and 6 remaining?
Sameer Kanal
It is 3, 5, and 6, yes.
Jamie Dunphy
Okay, thank you.
Well, I'd like to first reiterate some of my concerns about number 3, but I'll I'll still be supportive today.
I think that we should be tying some of our parking, our surface parking lot goals towards some of our environmental goals.
We have some land use goals around trying to disincentivize parking lots in highly zoned areas or highly densely zoned areas.
However, that's not relevant to this motion.
And as such, I would move that we refer items 3, 5, and 6 to the full committee with a do pass recommendation.
And I would seek a second.
Steve Novick
Second.
Sameer Kanal
There's a motion to refer items 3, 5, and 6 together to the full council.
Moved by Councilor Dunphy, seconded by Councilor Novick with a do pass recommendation.
Is there further discussion on this item?
I'm gonna be in the queue on this.
I'm gonna support this motion as well.
I did wanna ask while I had the chance, last time we discussed on the— this is related to item 3. about what portions of the, uh, comments that were received got integrated in.
And I just— there was supposed to be more information on that, and I don't think I got it by email.
So I just wanted to know if there's— if it's not resolved today, I'll still ask at the full council, but I, I just wanted to know if there was anything.
Mr.
Steve Novick
Chair, can I ask the team to come up and help answer that question?
Jamie Dunphy
The revenue team?
Sameer Kanal
And, and for the record, I asked this on a few of them, and I got the answers on the other ones.
So, um, I do appreciate that.
Tim Mercer
For the record, Tim Mercer, Revenue Division.
Yeah, sorry for the oversight there.
I didn't realize we owed you something on that front.
But yeah, so in terms of Payne Park comments that were integrated, we got comments across a pretty broad range, particularly negative comments around the increase of fees and some comments related to some of the changes around requirements for parking machines, the actual machines that give you a ticket.
We modified our approach in regard to the machines as a direct result of the feedback we received.
Did we make any other changes there that was a direct result of feedback?
Leila Taylor
Leila Taylor, Regulatory Program Coordinator.
We also discussed modifying the fees or the penalties that can be assessed for parking.
Tim Mercer
Yeah.
And we also adjusted the language around grace periods, I believe.
Yes.
'Cause we heard feedback that what we were proposing might be difficult for operators to implement.
So we adjusted there.
Leila Taylor
Okay.
Sameer Kanal
What was, just outta curiosity, what was the original proposal on the grace period?
7 minutes.
Leila Taylor
And we adjusted it down to 5 minutes as defined within the pay and park definition of parking.
Rebecca Dobert
Okay.
Sameer Kanal
I don't know if you had anything more you wanted to add, Councilor Novick.
Okay.
That was all I had.
I appreciate that clarification.
And that's it for me.
Councilor Ryan.
Dan Ryan
Thank you so much, Chair, and I apologize that I'm late.
And so with some humility, I will ask a couple questions and someone could say, well, you were late and you missed that.
I didn't really hear the modification to— so the modification to the pay in part to the meters was from 7 to 5, is that what you said?
Sameer Kanal
That's the grace period in which a company—.
Dan Ryan
That's what the modification was?
Tim Mercer
Yes, we made a modification.
We had proposed language that said We would have a 7-minute grace period around ticketing at lots, and we rolled that back to 5 minutes.
It would've been 3 minutes previously?
Sameer Kanal
There hadn't been any such grace period.
Tim Mercer
Oh, no grace period.
So the grace period was a direct result of, you know, sort of feedback that where a citizen that got a ticket was saying, you know, I was en route between the machine and my car when I got the ticket.
Jamie Dunphy
Yeah.
Tim Mercer
And so adding a grace period seemed to offer some relief for citizens that might get a ticket in that circumstance.
Dan Ryan
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
And that wasn't really why I even put my hand up, but I was curious 'cause I didn't understand what was just said.
So thank you for explaining.
I put my hand up because I had a good conversation actually with you, Councilor Novick, of course, about what I've been discussing with private parking systems around especially Pearl and Belltown.
This is a workforce issue.
When we try to do all we can for our small businesses, our small business restaurants, at the top of a lot of their complaints is that there's not adequate parking for their employers, their employees, and their employees have to run out and they'll like this grace period, trust me.
And so they often get—.
I'm sorry.
Ticketed.
And we have a system at SmartPark in Central Portland, Downtown Portland, where there's a spring— there's a swing shift type rate, which is better than the usual rate.
And we're trying to get the private parking folks to do something similar to that.
And so I'm socializing something that I don't have an amendment for today 'cause I think it would I think it's an and, and I hope that we can come back with some— this council actually caring about workforce issues and caring about our employers in the private sector that work at restaurants and such and offer them some opportunities to have some relief with the challenges of finding parking spots, A, and finding a price that's somewhat similar to what we have in our downtown SmartPark.
Thank you.
Again, we don't have SmartPark locations in Upper Pearl and Slabtown.
The closest one, as you know, is down on the waterfront.
And so that's what I want to work with, hopefully you, Councilor Novick, on.
And I think that that was what needed to be voiced at this moment.
I can go along with this.
I was fine with all of them.
That was the only one I really wanted to have further discussion with.
I see that we pulled off one, and I'll find out a little bit more why.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks, Councilor Ryan.
Councilor Novick.
Steve Novick
This is a little off topic, but in response to Councilor Ryan, I want to note one of my parking peeves, which is that when people put up temporary no parking signs, often the no parking is in very big letters and the from, you know, August 23rd at 3:00 PM to August 26th at 2:00 PM is very small.
So people just see no parking and go on So I wanted to have a conversation with PBOT about, can we require the lettering about the time for no parking to be as big as the no parking part?
But yeah, this is off topic, but you just reminded me of my own issue.
Sameer Kanal
All right, thanks.
Seeing no one else in the queue, there is a motion to refer the item on.
It's been seconded.
All 3 items together, sorry.
Items 3, 5, and 6.
Rebecca, will you please call the roll?
Rebecca Dobert
This is the motion to refer ordinances document numbers 2026-326, 2026-328, and 2026-329, moved by Dunphy, seconded by Novick.
Dan Ryan
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Murillo.
Angelita Morillo
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Novick.
Steve Novick
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
Clark.
Olivia Clark
Aye.
Dan Ryan
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Rebecca Dobert
The motion to refer is approved with 10 aye and 2 absent votes.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, well, that is, uh, the whole agenda.
I have 2 quick housekeeping notes, um, and I think Councilor Ryan wanted to say something, so I could, for the—.
Dan Ryan
Anyway, could someone just gimme a brief summary on why we pulled the other one?
Sameer Kanal
I'm gonna let Councilor Novick speak to that one.
Dan Ryan
Yeah.
Steve Novick
Yes, on the secondhand dealer provisions, partly in response to Councilor Kanal's questions about background checks last week, we were looking through the language of that provision and concluded that there's some language issues both in the In the preexisting rules that I think needs to be addressed.
I'm not quite sure we're there yet.
So I just want to have some time to work with the team and come back with language that I'm comfortable with.
Dan Ryan
Will it come back to this committee?
Steve Novick
Oh, we referred it to the Public Safety Committee because it's— those regulations exist because of concerns about dealing in stolen property.
Dan Ryan
Yeah, so that's good.
So the public safety system at the city can then weigh in on this in a deeper way.
Sameer Kanal
Yes.
Dan Ryan
Good, thank you.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks.
Okay, so 2 quick housekeeping notes from a Committee of the Whole side of things.
We are— we don't meet next week.
We'll be meeting on October 8th.
That is a Thursday at 9:30 AM.
And then we do have a work session today at 2 PM of the full City Council, which is about the CEI Hub.
So hope to see you all back there.
But I promised that if we got done, we would not take up your time.
So I'm happy to give An hour and 58 minutes of everyone's time back.
Jamie Dunphy
Not a work session, that's a real meeting.
Sameer Kanal
Oh, sorry, it's a full council meeting at 2:00 PM, but the whole agenda's about CEI HUD.
My apologies.
Full council, full council.
But yeah, happy to give an hour and 57 minutes back.
And with that, or actually more, with that, we'll adjourn the meeting at 10:02 AM.
Steve Novick
Thanks.