City Council · afternoon

8:13Good afternoon.

8:14I am calling back to order.

8:16This recessed meeting of the Portland City Council.

8:18It is 2:03 on Thursday, October 22nd.

8:21Keelan, can we please call the roll?

8:23Good afternoon.

8:24Clerk?

8:25Here.

8:26Green?

8:27Here.

8:27Zimmerman?

8:29Absent.

8:30Avalos?

8:30Present.

8:31Smith?

8:32Here.

8:33Kanal?

8:36Absent.

8:36Pirtle-Guiney?

8:37Here.

8:38Ryan?

8:41Absent.

8:41Koyama-Lane?

8:44Here.

8:45Morillo?

8:47Absent.

8:48Here.

8:48Dunphy?

8:49Here.

8:50And could we please read the rules of decorum for the chamber?

8:54Thank you, Council President.

8:55Welcome to the Portland City Council.

8:56To testify before council in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda.

9:06Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's webpage.

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9:17The presiding officer preserves the order.

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9:28If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.

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9:37Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.

9:41Your testimony should address the matter being considered.

9:44When testifying, state your name for the record.

9:47Your address is not necessary.

9:49If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.

9:52Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name.

9:56Thank you.

9:57Thank you very much.

9:58Uh, colleagues, we got 3 items on our agenda and we're going to call the first 2 together.

10:02Could we please call items 11 and 12 together?

10:04Item 11, document 2026-366.

10:08Adopt the FY 2026-27 fall supplemental budget and make other budget-related changes.

10:16Item 12, document 2026-368, add budget and financial procedures code to create and direct the use of a subfund within the general reserve fund specific to the city's business license tax revenue at code chapter 5.90.

10:32Thank you very much.

10:33You know, colleagues, we've already had a work session on this and a committee of the whole meeting about this, but our budget director, Ruth Levine is here as well as our chief financial officer Jonas Biery.

10:43I don't know if we have further presentation.

10:45Oh, and also our city treasurer is here as well.

10:54Are we doing a presentation on this?

10:55No.

10:56Okay, great.

10:56So we're going to jump into where we left the conversation off at the Committee of the Whole, colleagues.

11:02And I'm going to go ahead and put myself in the queue first because where we left off last time, we had a couple of amendments that I was trying to—.

11:09That we were discussing.

11:12I'd like to work on that now.

11:13So I'd like to move Dunphy 1, which is related to merit pay for council ops.

11:19So I'm following discussion in committee and some additional work that got done on the back end.

11:26I have redrafted Dunphy 1 and pre-filed it with a final legal approval.

11:31I appreciate the conversation that the amendment triggered last week about governance of council operations and the scope of the council president the president's power over that office.

11:41As Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I can both attest, the question of what exactly is council ops is wildly underdefined in our code, our rules, and our practices.

11:50And another part of the plane that we've been building while we fly.

11:54Just for fun, just to unpack it a little bit, we appropriated money for council ops in the budget, and that budget has a program description.

12:02The council operations manager is hired by contract executed by the council president.

12:07And in code, All that we are working with is 3.02.040, which states, I quote, the president is the presiding officer and will promote efficient council operations.

12:22That's it.

12:23So let's just be clear and say this is an area that needs tightening up, and I will likely bring— be bringing a proposal before the end of the year that would do some of that basic definition of governance.

12:33As for the amendment before us today, operations is clearly part of the legislative branch and not subject to the executive branch the manager should be empowered to manage her staff within the authorized appropriations.

12:44The most straightforward way to do this and still have elected oversight is to have the president be the final sign-off.

12:51So we should sign— we should pass this amendment today, and we should also come back to this topic sooner than later.

12:56So I would like to formally move Dunphy 1, and I would welcome a second.

13:01Second.

13:03I think Councilor Avalos was just slightly above that, so thank you, Councilor.

13:08Thank you, colleagues.

13:08We, uh, we are now in discussion of Dunphy 1.

13:11Is there any discussion or debate?

13:14Yes, Councilor Kanal.

13:16Just a clarifying question, Council President.

13:18Um, because this is an amendment to the, um, the fall technical adjustment, um, would it just take effect— it's only for this year, right?

13:27Like, we'd still have to navigate this for future fiscal years, right?

13:31There is still certainly a lot of work to for the— but this is specific to the appropriations currently within Council Ops.

13:37This is like allow— giving a specific authority to this year only for the Council Operations Manager to use their budget as they, uh, in line with other guidance.

13:49So this is the—.

13:50Yes, it's a long way of saying yes.

13:52Thank you.

13:53Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

13:55Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

13:57Thank you, Council President.

13:58And Councilor Kanal asked my first question, so I will just ask 2 quick questions.

14:05Are there changes in this language from what you brought to us last week, or is it just that we have been able to have further conversations about separating the current immediate need to be able to pay folks well who work for us from the longer-term need to have a conversation about the, the operations of council operations?

14:26Yeah, substantively there should not be anything different than what we had discussed.

14:30However, we did do some tightening of the language, but great.

14:39And does this meet the needs of our Council Operations Director?

14:43I'm not in the room, but if you can solicit a nod or a thumbs up or thumbs down and let me know, that would be great.

14:49We have a thumbs up from the back of the room.

14:51Okay, thank you very much.

14:53Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

14:54Councilor Smith.

14:56Thank you, Council President.

14:57Could I have the Council Ops Director come up?

15:00And somebody from legal counsel or HR.

15:08We have our answer in the box.

15:10Yeah, so thank you for bringing this forward.

15:13I just, you know, adding this, this seems so, um, I don't know, I, I don't want to say that, but this is something that should be discussed on its own.

15:24Adding this to the TAO has nothing to do with the TAO.

15:28I mean, it really literally has nothing to do with the TAO.

15:32And from what I was told— thank you, thank you for coming up, Director.

15:36Um, what I was told that— and this is the second request that I've had in the last month from Council Operations to change how people were being paid, their classifications, and now because the council president and the council operations directors believe that they want to give people raises, that they want to change who can give a— who they can give a raise to.

16:05So there's been all sorts of things that have happened.

16:10And the first one, council operations and elected staffers have elected to be organized.

16:19They will come up with a contract, a binding contract, probably within the next 2 years.

16:25They're working on it.

16:27And Council Ops cannot wait for that time to give someone a raise.

16:33I believe, and I want to ask you this question, Director, when you hire people right now in this form, do you tell them that We are going to organize and that they're under organization and that they may not be able to get a raise for 2 years.

16:52Do you do that?

16:54Council President and Councilor Smith, when we have hired new employees in the recent past, we have indicated that they will be part of a union.

17:03We don't indicate— I have not indicated whether or not they should or should not expect any sort of pay increases.

17:09So they don't know that they have the ability to get a merit raise, because this is what this is about.

17:15This is about giving you the ability to give a merit raise.

17:19They already get COLAs, and that's— they've done that for the last 2 years.

17:24But you want to be able to give merit raises and, and raise people's salary against the other administrative folks, because when we got here, these folks were already hired.

17:36And we didn't have any, um, we didn't have any say in who we got.

17:42And that was done by design by Michael Jordan.

17:45And so he designed this whole thing.

17:47And my issue is, and that's why council operations would need a union, so that if you came in at this level— but basically all of these folks came in at about $85,000 a year.

18:00And then some folks who were admits, they came in at $100,000.

18:04Yes.

18:05$110,000.

18:05$110,000.

18:05So it was just a— it was just whoever they felt like giving a raise or, or a larger salary.

18:12So now you have a discrepancy, and I understand your dilemma that some people who are doing the same job and they're admin, they're sitting at the front desk answering telephones, doing our schedules, some of those folks are making $20,000 more and you want to make them whole.

18:28And I get that, but but the way that looks, because those folks who are admins, some of those folks were making more than my staff members.

18:40And they knew what they were gonna make when they accepted the job.

18:43And that's why I asked you that question.

18:46They knew what they were gonna be making.

18:50It is really uncomfortable right now because we are in such a deficit that we're gonna be in.

18:58Yes.

18:59And the mayor, he's not giving any merit, any merit to any of the executive side.

19:07So it's just, it seems kind of off balance and it seems not placed correctly.

19:15We should not be doing this in the TAO.

19:17We should have had a conversation about this in the Committee of the Whole to talk about how we do that, because what we're doing is we're, we're actually giving folks things that should be bargained in the labor process.

19:33Merit raises and when you get them and who gets them and how much you get them, all that stuff should be bargained.

19:39And now we keep taking— we just gave Shuli a $20,000 raise.

19:45We changed it as a council.

19:47And so we as a council can't be subverting the labor process.

19:50And I feel like this is what we're doing.

19:53We're subverting the labor process.

19:55You get to decide who gets the— who gets a raise and how much.

19:58Councilor Smith.

19:58You don't ask me about it, and I supervise those folks every single day.

20:02You don't.

20:03But you decide how much money they get.

20:05I don't.

20:07So I'm feeling really uncomfortable about it.

20:09But if that's what the council president says he wants to do and he has the votes for it, then he can.

20:14But I'm just telling you, there are folks who are going to file a labor relations complaint against this because we are not waiting to have all of these things bargained.

20:24That's why they got into a union.

20:26And I know some of the people who you're hiring, they, they did not vote for it.

20:28Councilwoman Smith, I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt you.

20:30It.

20:31But they have to understand.

20:33And I— and, and if you're not telling people as you're hiring people, you need to tell them so that there's no expectation that they're going to get a merit raise.

20:40They don't even know that they have the ability to get a merit raise.

20:43I haven't even had a COLA for the last 2 cycles, and baking costs just as much for me as it do my staff, and I'm tired of it.

20:52So I'm not mad at you, Dana.

20:54I am just saying this is the second thing that you've brought forward in the last month that has something to do with— that has to be bargained.

21:04And I don't feel— I don't, I don't want to go outside the process because we're going to get sued.

21:09And this council has— we don't care about being sued.

21:15That's why we're being sued about the mask bill.

21:18Our legal counsel told us not to do it, and we did it anyway.

21:21Councilor Smith.

21:22So my thing is, if we get sued on this, you all are going to have this on your back, not mine, because I don't think we need to be doing this right now.

21:32And I think people are making a decent living, and you have a different pay scale than we have already.

21:38So I'm not sure why this need to, to give people a raise, a merit raise, at this point is so important.

21:46And Councilor, just to be clear, uh, Dana is not able to file legislation.

21:49I have brought— this is the second item that I have brought as Councilor.

21:51Because she asked you for it.

21:53I work closely with all folks who report directly to me, and I am proud to sponsor this amendment.

21:57I'm glad, I'm glad she, she got you to do it.

21:59Thank you.

22:01Uh, thank you.

22:01I don't like it.

22:03Thank you.

22:04Thank you, Councilor Smith.

22:05Councilor Green.

22:08Uh, thank you, Council President.

22:09Um, this is a perfectly appropriate place to file an amendment.

22:13This is an appropriations ordinance.

22:16This is the mid-year budget adjustment.

22:18This is where we say here's how we spend our money, and when we do that, we put directives in there to provide clarity on how we can spend our money.

22:29So there's no other place more appropriate than in the TAO.

22:33Um, I will also note that, uh, you can give your staff merit raises right now, so you can just check the rules and just get up to speed on what the rules are.

22:46They're in the middle of negotiating a contract.

22:48That doesn't mean you wait forever on that.

22:50Um, so it's really appropriate that we give a director the ability to manage their salaries like we do everyone else.

22:58So I'm going to support this.

23:01Um, I don't, I don't think it's appropriate to come up here and, and name individual people's salaries too and talk about what, whether they got a raise here and there and speculate on whether or not, um, They're going to sue on baseless speculation.

23:17That's, that's my thoughts on that.

23:20Thank you, Councilor Green.

23:21Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

23:23Thanks.

23:24I'm sorry to get back in the queue.

23:25I thought we were just on technical questions previously.

23:29You know, we just heard a lot about raises and who should get them and who shouldn't.

23:37When folks don't have a union, They don't always have step increases.

23:43And generally there are 2 types of raises folks in a union, in a public sector environment get, those COLAs and step increases.

23:53And our staff within council, both our personal staff and council operations, don't have defined steps right now.

24:00So a, a raise like this is the only way To acknowledge increased experience and good work.

24:11Unionized staff have the steps.

24:13These folks don't.

24:14We have the ability to give these same raises to our personal staff.

24:18I believe we actually got permission from the union that our folks are working, working with to form their own staff union to continue to give those raises until the contract is signed.

24:29It's a really important step during Uh, the bargaining of a first contract to get that permission so that you don't get an unfair labor practice filed against you.

24:39And I personally asked if we had that permission or not as I was looking at some changes on my team.

24:45I was told that we did have that permission.

24:48So we are in the clear with our union, and we are not doing anything different from the equivalent of what we can do.

25:01I know that some of the council ops positions are tricky because our director is their boss, our council operations director is their boss, but we, meaning councilors and our chiefs, assign some of the work, the daily work, direct some of what they do day to day.

25:19But there are other members of council operations who are solely supervised by the city manager.

25:23Thank you.

25:24I think that it's critical that we give a director the ability to provide raises, just like we have with our own personal staff, and just like or equivalent to, frankly, how these folks will ultimately be treated once we have bargained that first contract moving forward.

25:47This move doesn't guarantee that anybody gets anything, but it means that these workers are treated as equivalently as possible.

25:52Thank you.

25:55To other folks within the city and within our own personal offices.

26:01Thank you.

26:01Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

26:03Councilor Kanal.

26:05Thank you, uh, Council President.

26:08You know, I really appreciate you pointing out the flaw in the, the code, um, that council operations isn't defined, and, and I think you mentioned 3.02.040.

26:19Um, I'll also just I just continue to point out that B1B6 also requires the council president to ensure councilors confine themselves to the question under debate and refrain from personal criticism.

26:30And I would love to see that equally enforced in this chamber because I don't think it's fair to criticize folks who are not the ones putting up something for what they have not put up.

26:41I appreciate you being here as a subject matter expert on this particular thing, Dana, and I really appreciate the work you do in general as well, of course.

26:50Thank you.

26:53With relation to— Actually, before I get into the merit of this, I just need to correct a gross misstatement of fact here.

27:01While some may have different levels of risk tolerance to being sued, it is not true to say that we were told by lawyers not to do the mask conversation.

27:13We all have memos in our inboxes, and we can hide behind the fact that they're attorney-client privileged and just categorically lie about them.

27:21Or we can read them.

27:22And I'd encourage everyone to go look back at the email from March 16th with the first version of it.

27:27I don't have the date for the second version of it after the revisions were made, but please read the memos once again from our attorneys before categorizing or miscategorizing that particular piece of legislation.

27:39More broadly, of course, I don't believe we should comply in advance with an out-of-control federal government, and I still don't believe that.

27:44Getting back to this amendment, I think the— my main I think concern remained, was addressed by the question I asked earlier.

27:54I do think that not only does that mean that it is appropriate to put into the fall technical adjustment ordinance if we so choose to do it, but also that it allows for us to have a broader conversation about this council operations team and what the powers of the director are, as well as the council president.

28:12I will say that, you know, what it says in the text, and I appreciate you and your team, council president, writing this in here, is that it still remains as an amount as determined appropriate by the Council Operations Manager.

28:24And so it's still discretion being applied to it.

28:27And I think I share some of what Councilor Smith was sharing in terms of concern around how the team was originally made up.

28:34I've expressed that several times.

28:35I don't need to remention it, but also around not being 100% sure last year in particular how much direct oversight exposure leadership had to the folks that are embedded.

28:50And again, we're very fortunate in D2 that we have someone who's very great.

28:56But I also just, in terms of a systemic process, just wanting to understand that piece.

29:01But I think the way that you've written it in here ensures that there is someone who's responsible for doing that and that that person remains the council operations manager because I don't actually supervise our District 2 admin.

29:11Okay.

29:13And so it would be, you know, I think that's a relevant thing, especially as we're talking about how we treat our employees in here, in this building.

29:21I deal with my own staff, and I'm very grateful to be served by a very good District 2 admin, of course.

29:31But I think that you've kind of addressed the structural problem, and I appreciate that.

29:35So I'm less uncomfortable with it than I was when it was described verbally and now able to be supportive.

29:40Thanks.

29:41Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

29:42Colleagues, I put myself in the queue.

29:44I will just affirm that, uh, what much of what has been said, that we work directly with the attorneys to verify that, uh, this is legally allowable.

29:53We have, uh, had conversations on this dais about the pay spectrum and the pay range that we give to our, uh, member— our individual staff.

30:02Um, I want to make sure that my staff are as well paid as, uh, they need to be for the job that they are providing, and that gives me my discretion to be able to do that, and I am deeply appreciative.

30:13There have been other councilors on this dais who have been vehement about their ability to pay less than the pay scale that is made available to them.

30:20As a councilor, certainly anybody's individual right to determine how to spend their budget.

30:25Within this current structure, with the vagueness that I have already laid out about the role of council operations and the authority there, this feels like an affirmative step forward in the right direction to reward good work from really highly qualified professionals, both at our front desks.

30:42Deeply appreciate my District 1 admin.

30:46David's doing a great job, but also our council committee staff who are doing phenomenal job going above and beyond.

30:51So I am— this is the— and lastly, this is a technical adjustment.

30:57This is a technical adjustment to pre-appro— to already appropriated levels of this is the exact right place for this conversation.

31:06So, Councilor Ryan.

31:11Thank you, Council President.

31:13I would describe this item so far as awkward, and I didn't expect it to be, but that's what happened.

31:23I don't like to hear people talk about how someone's doing on the job.

31:28Council Chambers meeting, so it started to feel like a different type of meeting.

31:33Um, I believe you that you worked with legal, but it would be helpful to have legal say something, um, because I thought Councilor Smith brought up some really good points about what almost feel like we're shoehorning something in that, that is part of a bigger system.

31:49I think all of us at the tip of our tongue want to talk about how we're building Council operations, and I think we have the right people here to do that.

31:59But I would like to hear from legal, um, out loud in this meeting since it's been brought up.

32:05Uh, City Attorney Porter, do we know if, uh, Heidi Brown is available?

32:09Have we heard if she's—.

32:11I've reached out to her and I'm waiting to hear back.

32:13I'm following up right now.

32:16Okay, well, I think that is a reasonable request to have our attorney come?

32:22Well, I'd want to go there.

32:23I was just going with the flow until I listened to the conversation.

32:27So, okay, well, uh, and I don't want to talk about personally about anyone that's on Council Operations right now.

32:34I just want to hear something, someone to validate that, because I got into a place of confusion and doubt.

32:40Okay, I think that's absolutely reasonable.

32:43Um, can we just table until we hear from—.

32:45I think what we will do is go on a brief recess until a city attorney is able to be here.

32:50And so I'm going to give us a 5-minute recess.

32:52Thanks.

32:53Thank you.

39:09All right, welcome back everybody.

39:11Thank you all for your patience as we, uh, frantically got our amazing city attorneys folks to come down and interrupt whatever important thing they were doing.

39:21Heidi Brown, welcome.

39:23We have a specific question from Councilor Ryan, but more—.

39:26He's good for doing it.

39:27I'm happy to answer it.

39:28Yeah, I'll have to ask the question specifically.

39:30Are we legally allowed to give merit increases to our staff in this current moment, knowing that there is a pending organization effort by some of our staff?

39:43Oh yes.

39:43So good afternoon, Council President, Councilors.

39:46Heidi Brown, Chief Deputy City Attorney.

39:50Yes.

39:50So if the question is about are you allowed to give merit increases despite the fact that staff is currently unionized, the answer is yes, because we are in status quo.

40:02And right now, status quo is that council sets the amount of merit that you provide to council staff.

40:18So, yeah, so you had— so just to be clear, so you— council had previously, while they were, while they were in their organizing process, you had already authorized merit, um, for, for all non-reps, which at that point council staff were considered within that bucket under the status quo provision of being in the unionization effort, but without a collective bargaining agreement yet.

40:47And so then you authorized merit of 2% up to $100,000.

40:55So this would— so that's already been allowed.

40:58And similarly, this would be allowed.

41:01This would remove that cap, in other words, and allow the council ops manager to set with approval from the council president to set that merit increase at whatever amount is deemed appropriate within their budget appropriations that currently exist.

41:19Thank you, Heidi.

41:21Councilor Ryan, do you have any further follow-up?

41:24No, and thank you, council president, for setting this up.

41:26I thought this needed to be on the public record based on what we were discussing.

41:30Thank you very much.

41:31Councilor Smith.

41:32Thank you, council president.

41:34Thank you.

41:35So now we're getting to the meat of this.

41:37I see what this is.

41:40Council Operations has the ability to give a merit increase that we already pre-gave in the budget to 2%.

41:49What they're asking for is to go above and beyond the 2%.

41:54That's what this is about.

41:56That wasn't explained properly.

41:59Well, this would just— you already approved it up to 2% for $100,000, up to $100,000 for 2%.

42:06Correct.

42:07This would just allow, if the council ops manager, in collaboration with approval of the council president, would allow that merit, um, to be above that.

42:19Because this was what I said, they want to give more than the 2%.

42:23They already have permission to give 2%, which they should give, and they should wait.

42:28So let me ask you this question: is this going to cause us to have some issues?

42:33Because I'm seeing a pattern here with um, with Council Ops.

42:37They keep coming back asking for individual upgrades so that individual people can get, um, additional merit, additional classifications that's giving them $20,000 raises.

42:50And I'm telling you, I'm not with that.

42:54So if we're going to put something forward, we need to tell the real story.

42:57So the real story is they do have the ability to give a 2% increase plus their additional 3.5% COLA.

43:05So where are they getting all this extra money from to give all these merit raises beyond 2%?

43:11They only had enough money to give up to 2%.

43:14So where are they getting the extra money from?

43:18My understanding is that any money beyond— and just to be clear, it's, it's the— they were subject to the caps that all of us non-reps were subject to.

43:28So it was COLA Uh, full COLA but up to $100,000, right?

43:33Anything that— if you had an employee who earned more than $100,000, they wouldn't get that COLA above $100,000.

43:43Similarly, you offered, uh, you allowed for and authorized previously the merit of 2% up to that $100,000.

43:52So it's only the 2% that goes—.

43:54That would go—.

43:54So they want to be able to give the people who make who already make over $100,000 an additional 2% for the rest of their money, and no one else in the city is getting that as well?

44:05How can you justify that?

44:07Well, that part I can't answer, but I would— in it, you did ask another question before about how would they afford it, and—.

44:15Right, but—.

44:15This would be within their current budget appropriations.

44:17This is a bait— it's not you, um, Attorney Heidi.

44:21This is a bait and switch.

44:23It was billed as, oh, we can't give our people a merit raise.

44:28It wasn't like, oh, we give— we can only give a 2% merit, but we want to give more than the 2% merit, more than what the moratorium is, and everybody else is not getting it.

44:38And so, and I get that, that we're in the legislative— we are in the legislative piece, and then the executive piece, the bureaus can do that.

44:47But I have a real problem because I'm glad you explained that, because the last conversation me and you had, You told us that we could not raise our, um, our, our staff salary.

44:57That's what you told me.

44:59That was before we had the union, um, figured out.

45:04Yeah.

45:04And then once we had the union figured out, you all were free within your own budgets to give your own staff merit increases.

45:12And you don't have that cap, um, because you use your individual budgets.

45:17Council Ops is in a different situation, right?

45:20In that you all authorize as a council in its entirety.

45:24As a council operation.

45:25Right.

45:25And it would've been great if we could have had another— I don't remember executive session telling us that we can do that.

45:32And I heard Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney say that we got something from CWA that said it's okay for us to give raises.

45:44Did they send that to you?

45:47I haven't seen it.

45:49Councilor, I'll make sure you get whatever that— yes, and this is important between them.

45:53You should have gotten that.

45:54This is important.

45:55I don't know that I didn't get it, but I don't remember it, and it should have been put a part of the exhibit if that's what was going to happen.

46:03But, you know, this happens every single time, um, Heidi, and it's, it's not fair.

46:08You, you do something at the, at the dais a week ago and say, oh, I want to do this, Because they need a raise.

46:15Well, they already have the ability to get a 2% raise, and they've been getting a COLA.

46:19So folks is not starving around here.

46:22And I just want to know how we are paying for these things that we're not budgeted for.

46:28They're not budgeted for past 2%.

46:30So I don't know.

46:31That's a, that's a whole nother issue that the council president— he's the presiding officer.

46:35He has to make sure that they're within their budget, I guess.

46:38But, um, I, I am just concerned.

46:41I didn't want to break any labor rules, and I'm glad you were able to come up here and kind of explain what it was that they're trying to do.

46:51Thank you.

46:51Thank you, Councilor.

46:53Thank you, Councilor Smith.

46:54Councilor Kanal.

46:55Thank you.

46:55It's my understanding that there's vacancy savings in council operations because we have not every position filled.

47:01We budgeted for every position that exists, and those—.

47:04Council President, did you follow him?

47:06I did.

47:07Okay, please continue.

47:10Thank you.

47:12Uh, it's my understanding there's vacancy savings because we budgeted for all the positions for a full year.

47:18So if any of the positions are vacant for a period of time, that money remains in the personnel major object category and then is available for use on other personnel-related items if this amendment should pass.

47:30And that's my understanding as to why it wouldn't exceed the existing appropriation.

47:35Can someone verify that?

47:46Yeah, my understanding is that they have enough projected vacancy savings to cover the raises they've indicated they would make if this amendment passed.

47:57Great, I appreciate that.

47:59And while I am very, very interested in ensuring that all those positions get filled, and I'm— I wish that they were already filled, in particular the one related to engagement.

48:08Um, while they are not filled and they are creating vacancy savings, I think that's an appropriate conversation to have as to where, um, it goes.

48:16Um, thank you, Council President.

48:18Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

48:20Councilor Smith, last word, and then we're going to move to the vote.

48:22Okay, I would like to know what raises are they planning to give and for how much.

48:28Until that authority has been granted, uh, that will come at My— with my approval, and I have not, uh, since there's no authority to even begin contemplating it, uh, that has not happened.

48:38It sounded like Budget Director Levine has requests in the queue, or did I misunderstand what you said?

48:46She is shaking her head no.

48:49I don't— okay, I don't see her.

48:51Um, but if she does have some requests, and when we do get the request, since some of these people are under our purview, I want to know what you're giving them and without getting any input from me, who I actually supervise every day.

49:08And that is a problem.

49:12Okay, uh, Councilor Knoll, very briefly.

49:16It's just a request for information.

49:18Does anybody in the Council Operations Program report to Councilor Smith?

49:24And this is a formal request for information under Robert's Rules.

49:31Structurally, no.

49:32Great, thanks.

49:33Council Operations does not report directly to— they work with councilors, but they do not directly report to any of the individual councilors.

49:42Uh, Councilor Clark, truly last word, and then we're moving to a vote.

49:45I, I thank you, Council President.

49:47I'm sorry, I'm home sick.

49:48I'm trying to follow this, and I just wanted to ask one last question.

49:54So Is it true then that, uh, Council Operations Director cannot give a merit increase beyond the 2% now?

50:03Is that what we're talking about?

50:04Yes.

50:06Okay, so this would allow whoever is Council Ops Director to go over the 2%?

50:13For this year only.

50:15For this year only.

50:16This is for the current appropriations from the '26-'27 budget.

50:21Okay, thank you for that.

50:26Thank you, Councilor Clark.

50:27Keelan, can we please call the roll on Dunphy 1?

50:32Moved by Dunphy, seconded by Avalos.

50:35Clark?

50:36Aye.

50:37Green?

50:38Aye.

50:39Zimmerman?

50:39Uh, absent.

50:40Avalos?

50:41Aye.

50:42Smith?

50:42No.

50:43Nall?

50:44Aye.

50:45Pirtle-Guiney?

50:46Aye.

50:47Aye.

50:48Aye.

50:49Murillo, absent.

50:53Novick?

50:55Aye.

50:55Aye.

50:56The amendment is approved with a vote of 9 ayes, 1 nay, and 2 absent.

51:00Thank you, colleagues.

51:02That was the only amendment that I saw pre-filed.

51:04Colleagues, are there any other amendments or conversation or discussion on the underlying— now amended underlying Councilor Kanal.

51:14I just wanted to thank the staff for clarifying on all my questions that I had on, I think, 6 different decision packages throughout it.

51:21CBO was really helpful for me.

51:22I think we do need to tighten up on the way things are described.

51:27There was one that talked about 2 new TIF districts that does not actually create or authorize the creation.

51:32It refers to TIF districts we already created.

51:36But I just wanted to express appreciation for that clarification and the quickness of that.

51:40That number of responses that I asked for.

51:42Thanks.

51:42Thank you, Councilor Knoll.

51:44Uh, Councilor Clark, just verifying, is that a legacy hand or—.

51:50Sorry, legacy.

51:51Okay, thank you very much.

51:53Colleagues, is there any further discussion of these 2 items?

51:57Seeing no one, then document 2026-366 is passed to a second reading and document 2026-368 is passed to a second reading as well.

52:07Keelan, can we please call our last item for the day?

52:10Item 13, document 2026-367, adopt the budget calendar for FY 2027 through '28.

52:19Thank you very much, colleagues.

52:20This came out of the— this is our budget calendar, which came out of the, uh, Committee of the Whole conversation that we brought along with our TAO conversation.

52:31Um, are we doing a committee staff summary report on this one?

52:36I'm seeing head shaking.

52:38So no, we're not doing a staff summary report.

52:42I, however, as discussed last time, colleagues, I have an amendment for this item and this Dunphy 1, which has been pre-filed.

52:50This amendment adjusts the exhibits in the ways that we were— that were asked for in committee and a few tweaks to help with readability.

52:57So we have moved the budget hearings to accommodate the second night of Passover.

53:01Thank you.

53:02We have added Thanksgiving break back to this calendar.

53:06We changed up the names of our committees to more generic names for the committee blocks in case the next council president decides to change the scale or scope of those committees.

53:15And we have added explanatory text for why the non-standard meeting times happen when they do.

53:21Hopefully this resolves the questions raised and gets our roadmap to where it needs to be.

53:25And so I would, I—.

53:27Thank you.

53:27I formally move Dunphy 1, and I would ask for a second.

53:31Second.

53:32Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane, with the second.

53:35Colleagues, we are now in discussion of Dunphy 1, which makes those changes to our schedule, our calendar, as per discussion in the Committee of the Whole.

53:44Councilor Kanal.

53:45Thank you.

53:46Just a question.

53:47So the changes made to Exhibit A make sense to me.

53:51The changes made to Exhibit B below that first table all make sense to me.

53:55I just had a question about the first table.

53:57Yeah.

53:57And just, it implies that that's relevant to the budget calendar.

54:01Was the idea here just to kind of note the— what is the purpose of the first table that got moved from A to B, I guess, is the question.

54:09Yeah, let me pull that up in front of me so I can speak with authority.

54:13Uh, yes, this was— this was— no, I'll let Eben say this because—.

54:19Thanks, Eben.

54:19Howdy, Councilor.

54:21Um, thanks for your work on this throughout.

54:22I know you do a lot on thank you so much.

54:26Essentially, it's just—.

54:26Introduce yourself for the record, please.

54:28Thank you so much.

54:29My name is Evan Jindal, Policy Director for Council President.

54:32These are included here because we have budget activities that are happening in the January, February area.

54:40So for information about the flow of the year, they're just included as a tentative orientation.

54:46It's really just to understand the flow of the calendar.

54:49You'll note that we have also included, at the request of some folks on the dais, Thanksgiving break, which happens after the end of budget season, adjustments to, you know, committee meetings that happen late in the year.

55:02So it's just about completeness.

55:04Thanks.

55:05And I appreciate the header update as well.

55:07So thanks.

55:08I'll be supporting this.

55:09Thank you, Councilor Kanal.

55:12Seeing no one else in the queue, Keelan, can we please call the roll on Dunphy 1?

55:16Yeah, moved by Dunphy, seconded by Koyama Lane.

55:24Clark?

55:25Aye.

55:27Aye.

55:29Aye.

55:31Smith?

55:33No.

55:35Kanal?

55:36Aye.

55:37Pirtle-Guiney?

55:41Aye.

55:44Ryan?

55:45Aye.

55:46Koyama Lane?

55:48Aye.

55:48Morillo?

55:49Oh, sorry, absent.

55:51Novick?

55:51Aye.

55:52Dunphy?

55:53Aye.

55:54The amendment is approved with a vote of 9 ayes, 1 nay, and 2 absent.

56:00Thank you very much, colleagues.

56:01We are now into discussion of the now amended underlying resolution.

56:08Actually, I have a very brief technical note to add, but we don't need to vote on this.

56:12But I just wanna note that if we adopt this calendar, Council will need to pass an ordinance to change Council meeting times to match because our usual times are set in code.

56:22But we have made a couple of small tweaks to this that have been adjusted outside of what is currently in code.

56:31So my staff has already drafted that ordinance, and I would be happy to introduce it and place it on the consent agenda in the coming weeks if Council is comfortable with me taking that action.

56:41As with all this, if there is a major change to the budget calendar in the future, another conforming ordinance would also— could also be passed at that point.

56:48So I'm interested just to hear from colleagues if there is a level of comfort of including that as a consent item.

57:00Councilor Smith.

57:02Thank you, Council President.

57:03I'm just concerned that you're taking some of the powers away from the incoming president that would normally be done So that is my— that's my issue with this.

57:13And I, I don't like it.

57:15And I think that, um, we should keep it as it has been.

57:20And it's going to be too much to change when the new person comes in, when they've been able to, to change things like you did.

57:27You changed everything from the way Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney did things.

57:32And now you're setting it up where the new person already has a standard set of way of, of doing the committee hearings, the our meetings, and now we have to change everything.

57:43And if the new president wants to come in and change something because you all have voted for it, then they will be outnumbered again.

57:52So it just seems like it's too early to be doing this, and I just— I, I think that you're taking some of the powers away from the new leadership when they come in.

58:02Thank you.

58:02Thank you, Councilor Smith.

58:04Um, Evan, could you, could you speak to some of that also?

58:06Um, Actually, yeah.

58:09Sure, happy to speak to this.

58:13So in code, committee meetings happen on Wednesday mornings, and if there's a recessed meeting, it happens on a Thursday afternoon.

58:20If we adopt this calendar as set, for example, having a hearing in which we hear the testimony on the city and PROSPER budgets on a Friday for Passover, we need to pass an ordinance that moves the actual council meeting to that date.

58:39So this ordinance, if the council president moved it, would essentially true those things up.

58:43So the resolution is sort of done and baked.

58:48If a new council president wanted to change the calendar, you could just package together a new resolution and a new conforming ordinance, pass those together.

58:58Ultimately, the purpose of this of this action is to provide a roadmap that exists if somebody steps into the breach.

59:06It is all subject to change.

59:09Council President, can I ask them a question?

59:11So you're going to move council meetings to a Friday as opposed to Wednesday?

59:17Yeah, one of the items in here is an amendment to move one of the items during Passover to a Friday because Wednesday is the first night of Passover and Thursday is the second night of Passover.

59:26We heard from Councilor Pirtle-Guiney that the Thursday would be unworkable for her schedule.

59:30And so the proposal in this amendment is to remove— to move that date to a Friday.

59:35Because of Passover?

59:36Yes.

59:36Okay.

59:38The, uh, the, the council meetings relative to the budget are packaged within regular council meetings, so we do have to sort of say when they'll be.

59:46But they still will remain on Wednesday?

59:49Regular council meetings, yes.

59:50But on, on that week where we need to have another one on Friday, you just I just need to say that, basically.

59:55Okay.

59:56All right.

59:56Thank you, Evan.

59:57Thank you.

59:58Thank you.

1:00:00Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:00:02Thank you, Council President, and thank you for putting this together early.

1:00:05I think having, um, something that we can use to place holds on our calendars, knowing that things may change when we elect our next council president, is really helpful for everybody to plan for, for us to plan for, for Portlanders to plan for, and for the administration to know what the deadlines might be.

1:00:29When you talk about bringing forward an ordinance, I am assuming, but I want to make sure I'm not assuming incorrectly, that that would be the conforming ordinance that we have had to pass in the past that just says for these specific dates, the meeting will be at this different time instead, and that it wouldn't be anything broader than those specific one-off scenarios.

1:00:55Is that correct?

1:00:56That is the intention, yes.

1:00:58Okay, if that's the case, then I'm comfortable with you bringing that forward.

1:01:02Um, you asked for our feedback on this, um, so that we have things lined up and whoever is sitting in that chair in the middle of the dais next doesn't have to worry about cleanup work.

1:01:15Uh, though I, I do want us to all be ready for the that if the next person is weighing different variables and decides to adjust the calendar some, we would then need to pass another ordinance to make further adjustments.

1:01:28But as long as everybody's comfortable with that potential future reality, I think having this all lined up is really helpful.

1:01:35And I appreciate you doing this forward-facing work to make sure that we're all prepared for next year because we don't know yet what that transition will look like.

1:01:44Thank you.

1:01:44Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.

1:01:47Councilor Green.

1:01:49Uh, thank you, Council President.

1:01:51Thanks for doing the hard work to kind of figure out how we can take, uh, the conversations that we've had over the last several months, frankly since the end of the last budget, that have been sort of, hey, this isn't working, how can we make it work better, and then build that into a formal proposal so the next council president can, can have a roadmap.

1:02:09That's really I think, I think it's entirely appropriate to set that stuff in motion now rather than wait for just the sake of waiting.

1:02:19I don't really understand that, that worry.

1:02:21So, um, if we were to change our committee structure, of course we would need to make some dramatic tweaks here, but even that's probably something we can contemplate.

1:02:30But it's really good to have this sort of key milestones on the calendar so the public can start to think about this too.

1:02:37So thanks for doing that.

1:02:39I will support this, and I would support the consent agenda item.

1:02:42Thank you.

1:02:42Thank you, Councilor Green.

1:02:43Councilor Avalos.

1:02:44Yeah, I just wanted to chime in to say that I too really appreciate that you're thinking ahead because I don't want to go into another year, one, wasting all of the time that we could be spending right now in the fall to actually talk about the next budget.

1:03:03But 2, you know, we need to get to a place as a body where we have some basic standards and expectations of the budget calendar, of what to look forward to and where we're going to be participating in the budget process.

1:03:17And I think you have laid out a plan that allows for that and also allows for flexibility.

1:03:24I think that it, again, we're just such a new body that it, you know, the idea of transitioning to another leader and them wanting to do something different, feels very new, and it is, but I, I really hope we can get to a place where some of the things that you've proposed become standard, because we have, um, agreements that no matter who the president is, we're going to commit to this level of, um, process and engagement for the budget, and we need to start building that in now.

1:03:49So I definitely plan to support it, and I would support the consent agenda item too.

1:03:52Thanks.

1:03:53Thank you, Councilor Avalos.

1:03:54Uh, colleagues, I threw myself into the queue very quickly to say, um, just to add a technical just a technical clarifying note.

1:04:01We just passed Dunphy 1 as an amendment to this, which encompassed changes to both Exhibit A and Exhibit B, but unbeknownst to us, these were listed as separate amendments as a Dunphy 1 and 2.

1:04:11So just to be clear, I believe that we voted on both exhibits just now, but just confirming, was that everyone else's understanding?

1:04:19Mm-hmm.

1:04:20Okay, perfect.

1:04:21Thank you very much, colleagues, for helping us really nail that yeah, great.

1:04:28Colleagues, seeing no one else in the queue to discuss either my technical note or to discuss the underlying— pausing for dramatic effect— great.

1:04:41Keelan, can we please call the roll on the now amended item or resolution?

1:04:48Aye.

1:04:51Clerk.

1:04:52Aye.

1:04:54Green.

1:04:55Aye.

1:04:56Avalos.

1:04:57Aye.

1:04:58Smith.

1:05:02Aye.

1:05:04Aye.

1:05:09Novick.

1:05:10Aye.

1:05:12Dunphy.

1:05:13Aye.

1:05:14The resolution is adopted with a vote of 10 ayes and 2 absentees.

1:05:19Fantastic.

1:05:20Thank you so much, colleagues.

1:05:21That concludes our agenda for today.

1:05:24Uh, with that, we are adjourned.

1:05:26Thank you.

1:05:27Thank you.