The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-03-05
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Portland City Council convened its regular session on March 5, 2025, beginning shortly after 9:30 a.m. with a roll call establishing a full body present. Public communications included testimony on downtown conditions, homelessness services, housing policy terminology, and earthquake preparedness for the North Peninsula. The council approved a consent agenda item and adopted a budget calendar and related meeting schedule for the FY 2025-26 process, with extended discussion on community engagement opportunities, committee capacity, and the timing and format of budget information from the City Administrator and Mayor. The council accepted a report appointing two individuals to the Steering and Oversight Committee for the Homelessness Response System, with discussion about independence and accountability in that role. Additional agenda items included approval of a labor agreement extension with Protec17, a settlement in a civil rights lawsuit involving journalists and legal observers from 2020 protests, a workers' compensation settlement involving Portland Parks and Recreation, first readings on four property foreclosure actions, and a first reading on a land exchange with the Oregon Department of Transportation to enable development of a skate park near the Steel Bridge. Votes occurred on several items; outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger. The meeting concluded with no afternoon session, as a previously scheduled matter was withdrawn.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
Procedural markers in this session
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0 Okay, let's.
1 Good morning. I am going to begin the council meeting on March 5th. It is 9:32 a.m. I hope everyone is doing well this morning. We have a pretty full agenda, but a lot of technical pieces to it that we should be able to move through without too much delay. We are likely going to take a break a few hours in though, if it starts to run pretty long just so folks can have a few minutes and we'll try to get through things in as timely a manner as we can. Rebecca, could you please call the roll?
2 Good morning. Avalos. President Dunphy here. Smith.
3 Canal here.
4 Ryan.
5 Koyama Lane here.
6 Morillo here.
7 Novick here.
8 Clark.
Procedural episode · turns 9–17
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9 Here.
10 Green.
11 Here.
12 Zimmerman. Here.
13 Pirtle-guiney here. Thank you. And could. Lauren, could you please go over the rules of order and decorum for us?
14 Welcome to the Portland city council. Nope.
15 There we go. All right. Welcome to the Portland city council. To testify before council in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the council agenda at. Portland.gov/council agenda. Information on engaging with the council can be found on the council clerk's webpage. Individuals may testify for three minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise. Your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The presiding officer preserves order disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or council deliberations will not be allowed. 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, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, state your name for the record. Your address is not necessary. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name. Thank you.
16 Thank you, thank you lauren. Are there any requests to amend or reorder the agenda? Councilors. Seeing none. Do we have unanimous consent to approve the agenda? Okay, without objection, we will approve the agenda and move forward. The next item on the agenda is our public communications. Rebecca, will you invite up our first commenter today, please?
17 First we have craig mosebach.
18 Welcome. Thank you for being here today.
19 Thank you all for being here. My name is craig mossback and I'm a proud resident of Portland and city council district three. I saw you all at the city club event a couple of weeks ago. That was great. I'm excited to be here in the first couple of months of our new city government. We have 12 members on this council, each person bringing their perspectives from various neighborhoods, backgrounds and experiences. I see mayor wilson here. I think I see your kind heart and clear vision and I say that's very inspirational. I appreciate that, and you all are here together in this chamber to make decisions, to move our city forward. I'm here today to highlight three projects, and when you hear about them, I hope that you say yes. The first is the james beard public market. 30 years ago, the Portland farmers market was started by three friends, ted snyder, rick hagen, and myself. This was near the beginning of portland's culinary renaissance, and you can just see where we are today. With that, the next step in highlighting the bounty of oregon's agriculture is the james beard public market. The market can be an iconic symbol for Portland and oregon's thriving food scene. This will be a benefit for residents, for visitors to our city, and for producers around the state of Oregon. When the james beard public market comes to ask for your support, please say yes. Another project I'm excited about is being led by Oregon walks. Now, this is a group that advocates for safe, attractive walking options, and this helps create thriving and more connected communities. Oregon walks is organizing community walks in each of the new four city council districts, hopefully led by you, our elected representatives. These walks are a way for you to build connections with the broader community. And so when Oregon walks contacts your office to see if you'll participate, please say yes. Finally, the big project in the room minimizing the negative impacts of the budget shortfall. And we can be honest that it would be more fun to govern with the budget surplus than the deficit. But whatever the budget situation, we should bring the same approach to these decisions. Valuing community input, emphasizing our core values, informed evidence based decisions, and doing the best for our collective future. I'm optimistic that you will make informed, thoughtful decisions that lead Portland to a brighter future. Is Portland on the upswing? With our best days ahead of us? Please say yes. I value your time and for listening to me today, and I really, very much appreciate the hard work and dedication you're showing to our city. Thank you.
20 Thank you so much.
21 Next we have thomas karwacki thomas, are you in the room? Thomas karwacki. Then we have christine burmeister.
22 Welcome.
23 Thanks. I thought I had another minute, so I'm still chewing my mint. Good morning. My name is christine burmeister. When I opened my diner, the daily feast, downtown in 2016, I loved Portland and felt we had shared values food, nature, books, liberal politics. I remember locking up at night and feeling a deep sense of contentment. When the pandemic hit and the protests started, we worked with boards on our windows for 18 months. We handed breakfast burritos through a slot in the plexiglas to our community. We used our ppe money to keep all of our people working downtown. There were tents on every corner, and we saw bodies and prostitution and drug dealing and drug use and all the criminal elements that show up when there aren't any rules in the world is upside down. But even then, I still believed in Portland, and I was devoted, and I was so devoted that in 2021, I opened another restaurant downtown called taylor street kitchen. Assuming that Portland would pull itself together now that the restrictions were lifted, many people doubted my decision. Portland was a mess. I should open somewhere else, but I stood by the city. Now here we are in 2025 and Portland is still not well. I don't know why. Rumor has it that some people want downtown to die, to stick it to the man, or that the city council can't work together. It's an east side, west side thing. I know there seems to be no unified strategy, because when I sat in last wednesday's joint meeting with Multnomah county, no one could even answer how much a shelter bed cost, or how many were long term, or how many people were actually helped off the street. You can't manage what you can't measure. I don't know a lot, but I do know that business taxes have gone up. But the state of our city discourages people from frequenting our businesses. I do know that our tax rate is the highest in the nation and people are leaving. And I know that I need to call the police every week that both my restaurants and all my employees cars have been broken into. One of our reviews said something like the pancakes were great, but my car was stolen. One star and I know that my soul is damaged by coming downtown to witness miserable people having the worst day of their life every day sad, sick, addicted, angry, traumatized in wheelchairs, shoeless, wet, filthy, hungry. Cold. Bloodied, their hands cracked. Swollen. Toothless. Confused. Desperate. Portland has inadvertently found a way to keep a vulnerable population at rock bottom in perpetuity, with more people arriving every day to take advantage of this laxity. This is why our children can't come downtown. This is why people are moving their families away. Where is our awareness of the fact that tourism and taxes pay our bills? Thank you.
24 Thank you for being here.
25 Next we have richard elmire, and richard is joining us in person. While richard is getting ready to approach the testimony table, I want to let councilors know that for the next testifier, number five, donna cohen, you all have a copy of her testimony. At at your workspace.
26 Welcome, mr. Elmire.
27 Excuse me. I'm a little out of breath. The TriMet closed the steel bridge, and I was stuck on the east side for about an hour or so. So I'm a little out of breath.
28 Thank you for still finding a way to make it here on time. And I'm sorry that happened.
29 Well, apparently there's a signal problem, but there's going to be chaos in transportation today. So you might find that with other people who are trying to take public transportation. My name is richard elmire. I first came into this building as the chair of the north community action council in 1975 to meet with mayor goldschmidt and his staff. I have been doing business with elected leaders and their staffs in city hall ever since. Commissioner erik sten pronounced with great triumphalism, a ten year plan to end homelessness. Nan roman, a leading national voice on the issue of homelessness, spoke before the city club of Portland. She ended her talk by saying that Portland could end homelessness. No member of the Portland city council ever talked to her. An excellent example of hubris and self-inflicted ignorance. The joint office of homeless services has repeatedly failed to deliver. It is neither transparent nor accountable. The metro regional government declared housing a regional matter under its control. Voters agreed and gave metro more than $1 billion to establish a publicly vetted regional housing policy and a plan to execute that policy. To date, metro has failed to fulfill the voters legitimate expectations. The authority over all housing policy in Oregon is the land conservation and development commission's goal ten, which was recently revised to include instructions that metro shall provide a regional housing policy and plan. That plan must address the disparities in public housing units in the counties under metro's jurisdiction, where Clackamas has 3%, Washington 5% and Multnomah county 11%. Excuse me, you cannot fix nor even have a meaningful conversation about housing if you don't understand the language and the process of how housing development works. The term affordable housing is meaningless and deceptive unless it is accompanied by for whom the terms public housing and affordable housing are not the same and are not interchangeable. When you use these terms incorrectly, you are deliberately misusing language to feel good about yourself, not to communicate. It is no different than the mountains of information, misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies that overwhelms our political discourse from congressional republicans and the white house. Most public housing is not affordable housing. Misusing the term affordable housing for public housing is the easiest, most fundamental way to assure no personal accountability. I look forward to meeting and discussing housing policy with every member of this council. Thank you and good luck.
30 Thank you for your time this morning.
31 Next we have.
32 Donna cohen.
33 Good morning council. Apologies for not sending my slides ahead of time and for giving you a kind of a poor print copy here. Donna cohen from st. Johns district two. I want to point out, if you look at the sheet, what we use most of the time for income is from HUD, and we use that to determine housing eligibility. It's part of our housing needs analysis. And it was part of how you your salaries were determined. But there's a problem with the HUD data and that is that it's for the metropolitan area, for the metro area, it is not for Portland. And if you look on the next page, you see what the census data says are median incomes. For Portland, they're considerably less. So we have in these two estimates from census 86,000 88,000. This is from 2023. So 25 to $30,000 less is the median income for portlanders. And I think we need to be using these figures because they will change much of what we do in our in our housing reports and other reports. And they reflect portlanders, not the metro area. So 50% of Portland households have incomes below obviously the median of 88,025% of Portland households, according to the portland's the need housing needs analysis, are below 25% or below 50% of median income. So under 44,000 it's one out of four households live on one out of on under 44,000, which is considerably lower than your salaries. Just point out. I hope you don't let your salaries get to your head and forget how many portlanders are living at these levels. Another topic the earthquake. If you look on the sheet that has the map so everybody is going to be in trouble then. But there are 30,000 of us, both residents and workers in the north peninsula, that are going to be particularly at risk. You see that we are across from the cei hub, the orange are the liquefaction areas that surround three sides of the north peninsula. And then you see the four stars that line up are four little bridges over the railroad cut, which is a 100 foot deep ditch that the railroad runs on. It bisects the peninsula. All those bridges are going to collapse in the earthquake, if not before, according to PBOT. We will be trapped. We will be cut off. Please, please. We want testimony when house bill 2749, which will supply money to PBOT so we can apply for a grant for a study for at least columbia and get that moving. So definitely thanks, Elana for being in Salem last week and hope to see you when this bill comes up later this month. Okay. And I will send these to you. So I think that's it, right? Oh.
34 Right on time.
35 Thank you.
36 Thank you for being here with us today. The next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Counselors. There were two items on the posted consent agenda. Item number three. The first of those was removed from the consent agenda, and the mayor's office actually asked to pull that back.
37 The president. Excuse me. I'm sorry. It's item number four.
38 Item four. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're right. Thank you. Item number four was pulled off the consent agenda. Apologies for the confusion. And the mayor's office actually asked to pull that back from the agenda today. They'll be bringing it forward another time. So the consent agenda has one item on it. Item number three is still on the consent agenda. Rebecca, could you call the roll for the consent agenda, please?
39 Avalos. I Dunphy. I.
40 Smith. I snell. Hi Koyama Lane I Morillo. I Novick. I Clark I Green I Zimmerman. Hi pirtle-guiney.
41 I thank you consent agenda passes moving to our regular agenda. We are going to hear items five and six on the agenda. Together they're related items. And rebecca could you please call the titles for these agenda items.
42 Item five adopt the budget calendar for fy 20 2526. Item six adopt schedule for specific council meetings to implement budget calendar.
43 Thank you very much. And these are the agenda items that will set our budget calendar and let the public know what our work will look like as we move forward in the council's work on considering a budget and eventually adopting our budget for next year. Councilor Zimmerman, this came out of your committee. Would you like to speak to the agenda items?
44 Yeah. Thank you, madam president. So colleagues, generally this type of action will take place at the end of our calendar years in in the years moving forward. And so this is one of those actions that we as a budget committee have to take to set an agenda to be transparent with our public about our process leading up to the end of this fiscal year, which is June 30th. And so the finance committee a couple of weeks ago heard this item. It was a presentation from our cfo's office and our and our city budget office. Out of it, what you'll find in your exhibits are an amended or strikethrough, I think is the term we're using strikethrough, calendar of events that you'll see actually started on January 24th and goes through until June 18th, and that lays out a number of work sessions for this, for this budget committee, a number of community sessions, and a number of second, first and second readings of certain, I'll say, administrative requirements, things like utility rates, so that we're really clear with everybody. What I would like to come off the page to you is that we, as the finance committee, added additional budget work sessions to this, given the nature of a new government, the nature of a first time where the executive budget is presented to a group who doesn't have that executive sitting on its board, and the fact that we are all only seven weeks into a new role. And so I've added those. The finance committee heard those and approved that amendment. And so that's why the strike through calendar is provided. That's the one we'll be voting to approve today. It also there is. A whereas that we added that well you'll see all the whereases. But I want to be clear this document also gives the variety of policy committees that we have the encouragement to engage in bureau level budget conversations at your specified committees with your specified expertise. And that's the whereas that you see strikethrough toward the bottom of that document. And then the other item, as the council president, I'm getting a little bit of feedback from somewhere.
45 I am.
46 But the other item that council president mentioned, item number six, as you may or may not be aware, our code for some reason actually dictates the time that council meetings take place. And so just to simply move the time of a meeting and to adjust the schedule to meet our budget passing requirements, we've got an ordinance changing that for a specified date on may 21st. Instead of an evening meeting, we'll use the date time. In order to maximize any time we need to finalize this budget. So with that, we have the cfo's office here. And my other finance committee members. And I can always answer questions. And I would appreciate this. And the next item both to be passed. Any questions.
47 There are a number of questions in the queue. I just want to check before we move on to questions. Rebecca, do we have any public testimony signed up for either agenda item five or agenda item six?
48 We do not.
49 Okay, let's move into council discussion. Counselor Smith.
50 Thank you, madam president. I just wanted to let the clerk know that I am here. And if someone from the clerk's office can put up the schedule on the screen.
51 Are we able to show this on the screen so that everybody can see it? Yeah.
52 One.
53 It's the amended exhibit a striking can. Yeah. Someone.
54 Councilor Smith while staff works on that. Did you have other questions, comments or remarks?
55 No, madam president thank you.
56 Okay. While we work on getting that up, councilor Morillo. Go ahead.
57 Thank you, madam president.
58 First I just want to say thank you all so much for the work that you put into doing this. I think that focusing on the budget in the next few months is going to be absolutely critical. So I'm really grateful that we're going to have more built in time to do this, because it's easy for time to get away from us and for us to get stuck in other meetings. And this is going to be such a critical thing to look into. I am wondering if a few things. So from what I'm seeing here, it looks like the only community feedback portion is going to be in the district listening sessions, where we're going to have each won district listening session. Obviously, people can testify in committee meetings and things like that, but this is very thorough. But I'm not seeing a ton of community engagement, and that concerns me a little bit, given the really drastic and brutal cuts that all the districts are going to face at this time. And I'm wondering if there are sections where people can publicly testify, like in some of the committee meetings, if that can be adjusted in the document, just so people can see where they're able to testify. In case I missed any, I guess that's more of a comment and kind of a question if we can adjust that somehow.
59 Counselor Zimmerman, would you like to speak to the conversations that the committee had?
60 Yeah.
61 That's a great question. It's one of the I think the bigger tasks that we tackled in terms of how do we incorporate community feedback opportunities. And so I, I do want to highlight the district listening sessions as a first time for this organization in this city to do so. That's important. And those I think will get a lot of attention. And I'm looking forward to not just the district folks, but all all councilors attending those as they as they find them valuable. I think you bring up a great point, though. Right there is the public comment that can happen at the policy committees that I expect will be where the detailed comments come from public when it when it when it references a specific program or specific need because that that idea is where those bureaus will be talking. One thing I didn't say in my initial introduction of this is that the work sessions that you see lined out here are the ones that are intended for this body. When we meet, as the budget committee and the council president's office and I are still working out exactly which service area will present at which time, and trying to put together a calendar of topics as well. And I think that the any of the meetings where we are taking an action is a time when the council president could have public comment, and I think it is worth noting this request and kind of seeing where we might be able to fit in those different opportunities for public comment, and particularly in some of the extra work sessions. It's unusual, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities to have comment during a work session. But we didn't build it in here specifically, and I want to note the finance committee is. It's important to note the finance committee is not the budget committee. And so a lot of this, a lot of this calendar and this action is to help the council president, who will be the presiding officer over our budget committee, to see what I would say is the bare minimum it's going to take to get enough feedback and enough information to all 12 of us and have an opportunity to work with each other and the city bureaus and service areas to pass this budget. That being said, I have heard from a number of members on this body that they have interest in some one on one type of town halls about stuff, things about their own district. In addition to the district based it. This document, I think, presents the bare minimum in what is scheduled and sanctioned is the wrong term, but it's something we're going to organize around and hold and do the cost for. And I know many are going to hold their own comment sections with people. And I would say each of those committees offer offers at least one, if not several additional opportunities. So I hear you. I think the council president and I are both open to if there's something in here that you think we should highlight, as this is an opportunity for public comment, we should do that and we can do that post passage today, I think.
62 Thank you.
63 Councilor Smith. Are you able to see what's up on the screen? Is that working?
64 Yes, ma'am. And I do have a question. When you get to my name.
65 Okay. Councilor Clark, go right ahead.
66 Thank you, madam president. So just to add on to what councilor Morillo was saying, thank you for the whereas thank you for changing the times. I really appreciate that. But also, as chair of a policy committee, I'm really interested in getting more direction from finance committee about how you want us to conduct our meetings with our bureaus. It would be nice, I think, if we had a standardized approach across all of the policy committees. So I'm waiting for your committee to offer something to us. And I've also just to confirm, I've gotten requests from district for our district to have additional budget hearings. So again, if you if the finance committee would like to offer us some guidance on how to conduct those, it would be I would be very grateful for that so that we have some sort of a standard approach across all of us. I know we're all different. We do things differently, but I think some guidance would be greatly appreciated. I just wanted to say that thank you.
67 Thank you counsel.
68 Thanks, counselor. I, I want to share with you just what's going to happen this week if this passes as it's presented, that on Thursday, the staff and I and council president's office are basically going to look at all the calendar dates, all of the committee timelines for this calendar and start penciling in what we think is a good schedule in terms of the topic, to take up by committee or by service area on what meeting. And we're working on, I'm going to call it a one pager, but I make no promise that it'll just be a single page of that kind of initial guidance for how to engage in the work, the basis for questions or priorities, knowing full well that each committee is going to have its own flavor. But we're working to get that out by the end of next week as well.
69 Great. Just one more question. I appreciate that that that will be really, really helpful. And I think digging in a little bit deeper as to how we collectively process the mayor's budget some direction on how we're going to conduct those hearings or work sessions, whichever we choose would also be helpful. I think we're going to need a little more guidance. Thank you.
70 Thank you, councilor. Councilor Green.
71 Thank you, madam president. I don't have too much more to add that councilor Zimmerman didn't already lay out, but I just wanted to reinforce this idea that when we talked about it in committee, in the finance committee, the whereas clause that really sort of explicitly encourages policy committees to also engage on this, I think is a really important thing to flag, because we are not the budget committee yet. And we shouldn't be waiting for that official budget committee to happen to have these conversations, which are quite deep, involving significant trade offs. And so the way that I see it just sort of philosophically here with this calendar is that we are already in the public comment period that started on Friday when the city administrator released the preliminary proposals. And so my intention and I would encourage all of us with our gavels and our various different forms of leadership in the community to do that to the best of our ability now and look for every opportunity. I know in the arts and arts and economy committee, we're going to be holding space in each committee meeting to take up budget hearing questions, budget process questions. And so it's a new form of government. But I really appreciate councilor Zimmermann's leadership on making sure that we act pretty swiftly to put this formula into process.
72 Councilor councilor Smith, because we hear from everybody once first, if they're in the queue, I'm going to go to councilor Kanal and then come back to you.
73 Thank you.
74 Councilor Kanal go right ahead.
75 Thank you, madam president. I have four clarification questions. So the first is a legal one, the may 21st meeting, if it were to move to the morning, as this document proposes, would we be able to recess that to the evening or. This is more of a process question evening or may 22nd afternoon. Does that remain an option for us?
76 My intention whenever we've moved evenings to mornings on this list, is to allow time for us to do our budget, work through the day, and still take on any regular items that would be on our council agenda for that week at the regularly scheduled time. So yes, we would recess and still have that evening meeting. Please continue to hold your evenings for those times. But if we were to start the budget process at 6:00 at night, we would be here until two in the morning, right?
77 My understanding. Second question is that the district listening sessions were scheduled both the weeks of March 17th and March 31st. Can did that change, or can someone speak to that? Because the document the exhibit only has that first week.
78 Yeah, I'll just say those are being currently worked out by civic life and the city administrator's office. I don't have the exact dates to give to you. I am going to glance softly at the staff to get a nod that I don't have anything new to present right now. That's the nod I'm getting. Okay, we're close to that, and we're going to get it out as quickly as possible. And I just want to, if I may expand on that question, I know you have two more. I really hope that the public is seeing those and knowing that they can go to any of the district ones, not just the one that's held in their district, and that they should expect more than just their own district councilors to come to the district one. I plan to do my best to attend all four. This is the old school high school gymnasium. Lots of people make sure that we are, for the first time, holding something in district so that we can hear from everyday portlanders. I'm looking forward to it, and I think it's one of those that will only get better as we go through it for the first time, and then the next time. Et cetera, et cetera. But I hope that you all, and your own social media and newsletters will highlight those four opportunities, and not just the one in your district, because I think they're going to be important for us. Thanks for letting me expand a little bit.
79 Yeah. Thank you, councilor.
80 I'll note on that. The reason that it is those two weeks is we are skipping the week of spring break to make sure that folks aren't out of town and do have the opportunity to come to those meetings.
81 Thank you for expanding on that too. On third question, on may 7th, would the proposed budget work session be a replacement for or in addition to the regular morning council meeting?
82 That may count that may 7th date, we will be hearing from the mayor about his proposed budget. So that will be the bulk of our council meeting. If there are other items that we absolutely need to take up that day, we will figure out the calendar to make sure that we can do that. But I am planning for the bulk of our agenda to be hearing from the mayor and having a discussion about what is in his proposed budget.
83 Thanks. And then finally on that, whereas which I'm very supportive of, I just want to make sure that that that would be not only encouraged, but allowed, because I want to make sure there's time for that. And I can speak to at least the community and public safety committee docket being very, very full and trying to create more opportunities. In other words, the committee meeting would not become a budget work session, but rather there would be an additional gap of additional amount of time for that budget work session.
84 This is a great conflict, right? It's a it's a rub here, right? Just in terms of time and what what we can get done. So a couple of things that are really important to get on the record is that when a policy committee meets and they're talking about budget, they are not convening as the budget committee. That is this body. When we gavel in as the budget committee, I look at those committee meetings as opportunities for more in-depth conversation at a smaller scale, in a smaller part of the budget. And so in the guidance that we're going to provide, we will also address kind of types of questions, that and commentary that could or should happen in committee versus types that should and could happen in the full convening of the budget committee. I think that will be important. But I think the rub here, councilor is that I think the committees and the chairs of each of the committees is going to have a lot to balance. I know that I've said previously on the record, I think that committees we've got our assigned sessions, but potentially meeting more frequently is something I'm in favor of that balance and that management of that time is something I think, between the clerk's office, the chair and the president's office. That's that's part of your leadership scope is to how to fit it all in. I'm not from the from the chair I'm sitting in and from this document we are attempting to provide a direction and an opportunity, but not saying what can't happen. I think it's a negotiation between you and all the things that go into putting a committee together. But if you have, this is me speaking from a person who has done many of these in other governments. If you have things that are part of the regular course of business for your committee, and it can be just as accomplished post the budget season, I hope you're taking a look at postponing that until post budget season. And speaking personally in my own, my own tactics and how I've always approached these seasons is that come March, come April, may, if it's not budget related, I'm generally not putting a lot of time toward it because I have lassoed this animal enough times in my career. I just know how sucked up into this topic we can get. And so that would just be. My advice is that if you can push something, it'd be wise to do it. Or you may not do things at the highest caliber that you want to just because you're going to be pulled in a lot of directions.
85 Councilor I.
86 Let me turn my microphone on, I want to acknowledge that councilor Zimmerman suggestion that things that are not budget related get pushed comes right at the time when our committees are starting to dig into their work. And because we didn't have the runway, right, because we don't have the tail behind us as this council, we're still in that crunch time of getting our work up and running in a way that I think will be less of a conflict in future years. And as you know, and I've had a conversation with many of our colleagues about the fact that we have, I believe, five different bureaus or groups of people who support our work as council. And each of your work as committees. And to put more time on the calendar for committees requires negotiations with each of those groups. And some of those groups don't have the staff right now, frankly, to support us adding much more time. So I am hearing loud and clear your request for more time. And I'm I'm saying it out loud so that we can start the conversation about what we need to do to make sure that all of the groups that support us have the resources to be able to support the caliber of work that I know each of you, as committee chairs, want to do, as we are in this in-between time, without the tail behind us, without the runway to get the work started, without all of the groups that support us really being resourced to support us in the way that we need, we have some crunches, we have some rub spots, and I don't know that we can fix all of those to the extent that we may want them fixed until we actually get through this budget, which is where we have the ability to provide those additional resources so that we can do our work in an effective way moving forward. So I can't say to you sitting here today, yes, we can add more committee meetings, but I hear that request, and in making sure that we talk about it thoroughly, I know that the folks who support us are also hearing that, and we'll need to have continued conversations about how we create that balance that councilor Zimmermann spoke to.
87 Thank you. That concludes my questions.
88 Councilor Smith.
89 Thank you, madam president. Chairman Zimmerman, I'm trying to figure out how to ask this question, whether it's to you or to madam president, the budget that was released last week by the city administrator. For me, it was incomplete and inadequate. And in terms of us being able to have a conversation that's meaningful with the public and with ourselves, I don't know who should ask him to complete that budget so that we can have a full picture. We only have one third, and we were given decision packages to cut. And I just wanted the public to know that we have the ability to cut the entire 8.2 billion. And so to be directed to cut a few packages, I think is unfair. And for us, I just think that it's not it's not going to be productive if we're having these work sessions and it's going to be limited information, and then the mayor is going to come out with something in may. It's going to be totally different. So I don't know if you can ask the administrator to do that or if the president should ask him to release something that's complete so that we can have a full conversation in March and April, because other than that, there's I mean, we're just talking theoretically, we don't have anything to talk about.
90 Really. Great question. I think that both the council president and the finance committee can ask for that information. And I will just highlight for all members is that we are we are in the period that qualifies. And no other words. It's the gray area of budget season until we see the executive budget proposed by by the mayor. And you'll see how much of our calendar happens before that. Date. So things that things that I'll be asking the staff to make sure that they're providing all of the councilors. Right. And what was what was released on the 28th? I keep referring to the only valuable page to me was page 12. And if we had that for every bureau and every program offer and every line item, that gives us a picture that is workable. And I think that gets to the heart of your question, councilor. It's what you and I are used to from our previous careers that is necessary. Council. Council, that is the document that's necessary, that kind of details, what's necessary to have these conversations and be informed about them. And when the public testimony happens to know what people are specifically talking about. Otherwise, it's just large numbers on top of other large numbers that is not meaningful. So I am not taking what was released on the 28th of February, the preliminary budget, as anything more than an indication of where the city administrator's mind is going, which is always dangerous to read minds. But I think that we are owed a full document and the city council work sessions that are in April, and toward the top of this document, you'll see them. This is an area where council president and I are are spending some time to understand what will we get, what how will we use those to be effective when we don't yet know the executive budget? And so I don't want to lessen those sessions, but I, I think it's an opportunity for us to get an idea of the direction. It's an opportunity for us to share our priorities, to inform that executive budget as much as possible. Council president I think it might be worth a microphone moment for the mayor city administrator on this answer, but I look at those as our opportunity to share some priorities back prior to the executive budget, and when that executive budget comes out, the way I will approach that, and I would encourage all of us to approach that, is that is the meat and potatoes of what we are reviewing at our committees to make sure that that makes sense and that we see that picture in our priorities are captured in that executive budget.
91 And, mr. Chairman, could you also ask the question, could they include if this money is in ongoing money or restricted money, if we could have the previous two years, if it was funded and what it was funded with, because at that point we can make some decisions on if this is a new program, if this is an old program, if this is an ongoing program that was put in one time only, that would make a difference in how we make decisions. So it would be great if you could ask him that question as well.
92 Yes, ma'am.
93 And councilor, I will just add, I think councilor Zimmermann answered most of those questions quite well. Not only do I think we have the power to look beyond the recommendations and make decisions about every part of the budget, I think we have, I think it is a necessity that we do that. I would expect that the work we are doing, both in committees and in the meeting of this body as the budget committee and before we meet, as budget committee, when we're just holding conversations about what we've seen from the city administrator and what we hope to see from the mayor, it is, I think, imperative that we look even more deeply than the suggestions the city administrator gave us to make sure that we're building the best budget possible.
94 Thank you, madam president, because I think it's going to be a shock when we see the mayor's budget. And it doesn't have anything. It doesn't look anything like the city administrator's budget. And so people are going to be so confused. And we can start to set those expectations here today and what we say to the public. Mr. Mayor, city administrator jordan, do either of you have any comments on on this question that you'd like to make?
95 I appreciate the discussion today. I think everything that's been said is relevant and important for us to take into consideration. This was a first time that we've ever done this. Prior to a mayor's proposed, and so I am fully expect us to have some pretty intense dialog about what kind of information can be provided to council so that your opportunities before mayor's proposed April 2nd, April 16th, at least those can be productive sessions for you. And so happy to work with the council president and the chair on how we can frame information. If it's if it's another manifestation of page 12 for a number of different parts of the budget. Great. And we'll, we'll do whatever we can. I know the council knows this, but for the public, the, the documents released last Friday weren't meant to be a budget. However, they in in that released document there is the entire budget document. There are all of the program descriptions in the entire budget. So I realize that's a huge volume of information and really difficult to process. So we'll work with with leadership to see if we can figure out how can we make. Particularly April 2nd and 16th productive sessions, because they will be before the mayor's proposed.
96 Thank you, mr. Jordan. I appreciate that first stab at it, but a description is not really what I need. I need numbers, I need an excel spreadsheet with numbers, and I need to know what budget was approved prior to this year. I need to know what you're suggesting going forward, what you're suggesting to cut in one basic document. It's great to read a bedtime story, but I just want to read a excel spreadsheet with numbers.
97 Mr. Mayor, anything to add or should we move on?
98 No, just just a quick comment. You know, I understand where the city administrator is coming from. It's such a fluid situation and we've had ongoing conversations, and I think this is a great conversation. Just a daylight for the city at large. But it's not just about cut packages we're talking about. It's also about ad packages. And that's what all of us know we've been actively looking at to really how do we, you know, raise up that revenue through other multi-jurisdictional relationships that we have and ongoing negotiations that I've really been highlighting with all of you. So it's a it's a twin approach. It's very flexible. And it's going to continue to be flexible up until that final budget, of which all you're aware of. But thank you for the conversations and we've got a lot of conversations ahead.
99 Thank you, mr. Mayor.
100 It is.
101 Is about cut packages because we're in deficit and we can't add anything until we cut something and until we get people into the practice, if they're going to bring something to the budget that's not already there, they need to cut that amount out of the previous budget, and they need to make the case why that is more important than what you're getting ready to add. We just can't do add packages, and you don't know where the money is coming from.
102 That's the discussion. It's councilor. I appreciate what you're saying, but there are opportunities in the city, and it is my responsibility to make sure we investigate those opportunities to lessen the burden on our community writ large.
103 That is so good, and I appreciate all the work that you've been doing around homelessness. And I just want to make sure that people know that we're not the regional homeless authority. We're the city of Portland. We do infrastructure. We need to make sure that the body of work and the scope of work that we do is our book of business. And our book of business is infrastructure. It's streets, it's potholes, it's water, it's bs, it's parks, it's street lights. That's what we do. And to put ad packages in without taking something out is irresponsible.
104 We will certainly be having more of that conversation as we move forward. And we talk about priorities. Of all of the councilors up here, the mayor will show us his priorities in the balanced budget that he releases, which will have to be balanced. And we'll then have to look at how that reflects the priorities that we've heard from portlanders and what changes, if any, we want to make based on the priorities that we are all bringing to the table on behalf of our constituents. Councilor Avalos.
105 All right. Thank you. I have a.
106 String of comments and questions. I'm going to try to put them together in a reasonable way. First, I'll say I share councilor Murillo's thoughts around increasing community engagement. We talked about that on the committee, and I plan to keep an eye on that. As it relates, though, to adding more to the agendas. I also share councilor Connell's concern for to what extent each policy committee should be making space for finance discussions. And to be clear, we, my committee, the homelessness and housing committee, our next agenda, we're going to be talking about the budget. So on Tuesday, we have an hour dedicated to have staff from each of the different areas that touch housing and homelessness to come talk through. Just give us very high level look at the budget, but so we can just start to get a sense for where certain things are living. And so I know that there's some guidance coming. I I'll follow up with you just to make sure that we're on the same page and that we're following that guidance ahead of the Tuesday meeting. But I think largely the larger point for me here is, I guess I'm curious when we're going to have discussions about increasing capacity of the council clerk. Like, are we expected to wait until the next fiscal year? Because I think, you know, for example, I had made a recommendation that on the fifth week because there is no council committees or council since we do one and two and three and four and was told that's just too much, there's no capacity for that. Again, I understand that. I'm not arguing that that's a that that's incorrect. I think I'm just concerned that I don't see what is the timeline or path for us to have that discussion. And if that timeline isn't until after the budget, then we're going to be missing several months, in my opinion, of opportunities to have more discussions. For example, in April there is a five week month, and I was planning on using that third meeting for my committee to do more budget discussion. So I guess I'm just feeling a little under-resourced and not sure how we're supposed to meet. The what I'm hearing is the expectation and what our capacity is. And I'm curious who has an answer to what we think is the timeline for those discussions about increasing capacity?
107 Councilor I've heard specific concerns from a few of the groups that support our work, and I have a sense of what they would need to be able to expand capacity. But why don't I get a specific proposal from each of the groups that support us of what they would need, both in increased capacity for the rest of this fiscal year and also an increased budgets moving forward starting next fiscal year, so that we can look at it as a potential, I'll call it, for lack of a better term, an ad package. If we wanted to add that capacity for folks supporting us this fiscal year, we would need to have a conversation about pulling funds out of reserves or cutting other programs for the rest of the year to be able to do that. It's a conversation we've had before here. It's one that I know folks were hoping not to have again this fiscal year, but why don't I get an official proposal for us of what that would look like across all of the groups that support council's work?
108 Thank you, I appreciate it. I think it is timely, and I'd like us to expedite that because I just again feel that there's too many that's too many months to wait to increase our ability to talk to the public. Lastly, I'll just say in, you know, yes, we have kind of this new process, right? We've got the city administrator budget that dropped. That's a new thing. We have the typical timeline of when the mayor will propose their budget. But compared to the old form of government, when the mayor was proposing the budget, they had a lot more leeway in the budget. They had a lot, you know, a stronger grasp of overseeing that process. That's not the case anymore. So let's be clear. It is our responsibility to approve the budget. So I know for now and for this year, we are just we're tight on time and I understand the constraints we have. I guess I'm signaling either whether this year we could build in some more checkpoints. I don't know what that would look like, mr. Mayor, but I feel like there needs to be a couple more checkpoints ahead of a may, you know, mayor budget, because I'm feeling like that's going to we're going to be in a time crunch to get to the rest of, you know, to get to approval. Right. And I am concerned that we're going to we got the city administrative budget. We're going to get a mayor budget. I have no idea how similar that's going to be to the city administrator budget. And then therefore we have to put our budget together. So that's three different kinds of budgets. That's already really confusing to the public. So I'm also trying to figure out how to minimize what we're communicating out. Because if we're like sending out oh here's the this person's budget and there's this person's budget, I think as a public that that would be confusing to me. It is confusing to me actually. And so I think we should assess what are some good, how we're communicating those different steps in this process. But yeah, I'd like to I can follow up, of course, with the chair and with the mayor's office, but I feel like we might want to look at building in some other kind of checkpoint ahead of the mayor's release. So I wanted to put that on the record to. That's all.
109 Thank you, counselor, and I I'll, I'll say this now for anyone listening, especially on the online stream, the city administrator proposes essentially what is a direction for where they think we should head based on what they're hearing from. All of the bureaus are needed for the city. The mayor then puts together a proposal of the direction that the mayor thinks we should be going with the budget, what the mayor thinks the budget should look like, to be able to run those bureaus in the way that as the head of the executive branch of our city, the mayor gets to do and council as the policy body, legislative body, representatives of the people put together the final budget that's adopted. So we take essentially those suggestions, hopes and dreams from the city administrator and then the mayor, the city administrator in more of a general way, the mayor in a formal balanced budget. And we run that through the lens of what we are hearing from our constituents. The values of the city are and make changes as needed. So it is three steps, but it's three important steps to make sure that we're hearing what bureaus are telling the mayor that they need, and what the mayor believes he needs to run the city in the way that he's hoping to. But we ultimately need to make that decision on behalf of our constituents.
110 One more quick comment to say I agree. And also, I think then we should be talking. I know when we were on charter, we talked a lot about this, this date by which the mayor needs to provide the budget. There was a lot of discussion around that and we ended up on what it is. It's still a little too late. You know, in my opinion. So I think we should also discuss what we need to fix in code or maybe charter to make the process start earlier in the future. And I think that for me is a question to the city administrator and the bureaus about what pace could they start to, you know, at what point in the fiscal year makes sense for them to start projecting forward? Because I get that you can't, you know, at some point, you got to wait until part of the fiscal year passes to be able to understand what the next one will look like. But I imagine that it can be much sooner than may, much sooner, maybe even than February. So I just want to flag that I'll bring this up as someone that's on the finance committee, but I'm just processing out loud what I'm seeing are things on our to do list to fix for the next process while we kind of get through this, you know, patch here. Thanks, councilor.
111 Can I respond quickly? I think I want to use that prompt of that question as an ask to all councilors and to the and to the deputy city administrators. Is that capturing what worked and what didn't in this year's process will be fundamental for the finance committee to make a better set of recommendations moving forward. And so, yes, I agree. In fact, I think I've said I think that the mayor's budget executive release can be earlier we did that last year at the county. There are flexibilities built in, but there are going to be a number of learnings that work for any number of us up here. Please capture those right when you're having a point of deep rub and frustration. If we can't fix it in the moment this year, this spring, capture that so that we can reflect on it in the summer as we prepare for next year's process.
112 Thank you, councilor. Councilor Novick.
113 I just wanted to say that I'm glad that the administrator did not give us a list of recommendations. Adding up to the total deficit gave us a list of recommendations that added up to a chunk of the total deficit, and then basically told us the rest is up to you. And I think that if he'd given us a list of recommendations that added up to the total deficit, it would have been easy for us to be lazy and say, all right, I guess that's what we'll do. He didn't do that. So that to me means that we all have to, as committees and individually dig further into the budgets of the individual bureaus here, information about what various scenarios might look like. For example, if you were going to cut the police. And I'm not saying we're going to do that, like what would a scenario look like that took most of the cuts from patrol, as opposed to a scenario that took most of the cuts from specialty units and, and the crime reduction plan. So it's unfortunate that we have so little time, but I think that the fact that we weren't given anything approaching a balanced budget puts the onus on us and gives us, you know, maybe feel like we have more power to dig in and shape the budget ourselves and tell the mayor what our priorities are, including councilor Smith telling him your $28 million for more beds comes at the expense of x, y, and z. So I wish it wasn't so compressed. But compared to what I saw ten years ago when it was to a great extent, we looked at our own bureaus budget, then waited for the mayor to come out with his budget, and then we reacted. I think it's better for us to have a process. We're all sort of forced to be more deeply engaged. That's my cheery way of looking at things this morning.
114 Thank you so much for that positive spin, councilor Novick. Councilor Kanal, we are going to come back to you after we get to councilors who haven't spoken yet. Councilor Koyama Lane.
115 Thank you for this work.
116 It's helpful to see this laid out. I agree with councilor Clark that it is important that we know in the different committees how to engage in this process and just want to share that in governance. We're doing some of that work trying to figure out a way to standardize it. And my vice chair, vice chair, Ryan, is working directly with councilor Zimmerman to come up with a plan to make sure that every committee is engaged. And it also just makes me think about how we can be thinking about our comms around the budget, how we can do some of that altogether, just like how councilor Zimmerman talked about putting stuff in our newsletter, maybe we can lean on our comms team to think about ways that we are making sure we're pushing out some of the same stuff for engagement. And for me, I think this is for the mayor and mr. Jordan, something that would be helpful for me, someone that is new to this. I mean, we're all new to being up here is, as we're looking at past budgets, to see specifically what the ad packages from the last two budgets have been and supplemental budgets, I think that would be helpful for me to see kind of things that were added in there.
117 I see the city administrator making notes. Hopefully it's about that. Ask councilor Kanal go right ahead.
118 Just one question on the ordinance, which is about the emergency clause, and I recognize the need to this is a this is a process question exclusively. I recognize the need to give as much community information as possible. Is there a practical effect to waiting and doing this through a regular ordinance that would prevent us from from doing it that way? In terms of the implementation portion of it that there's providing notice I know we'd be able to do, but the implementation side of it on the ordinance specifically, which is may 21st and June 11th.
119 There is enough time for this to go into effect without the emergency clause, given that the dates that it affects are not until may. The reason that this came with an emergency clause, frankly, was so that these two items could move together, otherwise we would be passing the resolution that changed dates without the ordinance or the resolution that listed dates without the ordinance that actually makes the changes to allow us to post those dates and those timelines. And we would have a little bit of a gray period there of saying, yes, we will be meeting at these times, but we haven't actually approved ourselves meeting at those times yet. So this was brought as an emergency ordinance to provide clarity and make sure that there wasn't any confusion for the public around whether that was actually going to happen or not.
120 I understand that, I agree with it. I don't personally think that that constitutes an emergency. But thank you for answering the question.
121 Thank.
122 Councilor Smith.
123 Thank you, madam president. I wanted to say to chairman Zimmerman, I think that the budget process is a year round process, and because we came in half the year, we're trying to get up to speed to where we are. But I want to make something really clear. The administrator's budget and the mayor's budget and their thinking should be aligned. They should not be dropping two separate budgets. They are one. They're they're on the executive side. So they can't have it both ways. They can't test the waters with the administrator's budget and see if people push back and then wait for the mayor's budget. They have to make a decision. They have to be deliberate, and they have to be intentional and wanting to give us the information that we need to be able to make a to do a balanced budget. So in the future, I would like I mean, I don't know if you have to put this in code. I don't want us to look at two different budgets. When the administrator drops something, it is on behalf of the mayor, not of himself. And so I think this is where, you know, chairwoman Avalos is talking about that. It's we're in a state of confusion right now. And because there there are so few people who have done a local budget before that, that's why we're having all these questions and we'll get into our rhythm once June, July 1st starts. But I think we need to understand that this is not going to just be after in 26 that we're going to begin the process of the budget all over again starting July 1st. It's the whole year process. So I'd like to see that implemented. So we're not, you know, behind the eight ball next year. Thank you.
124 Councilor Morillo.
125 I'll keep this pretty brief. I think first of all, for city administrator michael jordan, you have very clearly laid out that this was a recommendation and not a mandate in the media, in the emails you sent us in the documents. So I never took it as you overstepping on your power personally, it was very clear that we as council have the budget authority. We have it, frankly, over the mayor and over whatever recommendations you make as well. So I felt that that was very clear, and I appreciated how you gave this to us as a recommendation and as something that we could build on. So I don't want you to get beat up too badly here on that, because I think you were very clear. And I do think I want to emphasize what councilor Smith has brought up before, which is that having some line item details for all of the bureaus is going to be really helpful. So like, for example, with the police bureau, if we're talking about patrols or robot dogs or cars or whatever, I need to see line items of every bureau of what those expenses are personnel, patrol versus other staff, stuff like that is going to be absolutely critical, because we're going to have to look at every single little bit of the budget. And so having that line item out in as much detail as possible in an excel sheet would be fantastic. And I say that as someone who deeply, profoundly hates excel. So thank you. That was just the last feedback I wanted moving forward. But I appreciate you guys working with all of us as we're making adjustments together.
126 Councilor zimmermann, would you like to close this out?
127 Yeah, thanks. I, I have a full page of notes from these questions. So colleagues I have I've taken those I know other finance committee members have. So I appreciate it. I think in five years time this item will come up and we won't even have comments on it because we'll be so used to the regular order of business. So this has been very helpful. I do want to highlight I'm looking at this as a positive calendar, right? I think it builds into the our calendar, the flexibility that we're going to need. And for any of us who've been through a budget before, there are days when you think you're going to have a three hour meeting and it turns into a six, and there are days when you think you're going to have a three year meeting and it turns into 20 minutes. And that is the nature of budgets. And so we've laid out a bunch here. My hope was so that all councilors can clear their calendars, at least to a minimum of what you see on this calendar, and you will be happy when council president gives you time back on your calendar at some point, versus how you'll feel if she says tomorrow, you have to meet as a budget so that that's really the positive highlight. We wanted to carve out more time than we saw. Community has some time in here to reach us. Committees are encouraged and there's more to come, but I don't want to overcomplicate the calendar. But I did want to be transparent with all of you, and also so that the council president has all the tools she needs to lead us through this.
128 Thank you all for all of that conversation. And just highlighting a few things that you were told are coming. Still, details on each of these agenda items will be coming out. We can add listening sessions to some of those work sessions, and we'll have details on that as we move forward. We hope that you all will continue to have conversations in your own districts about this, and there will be guidance coming to each of you for work in your committees about how to have budget conversations in a way that complies with our local budget laws. Additionally, my office is having conversations with the executive branch about getting a budget analyst that we can all work with through this budget season so that we have somebody to help us work through all of those details that we're given. So more to come on. All of those pieces. Rebecca, could you call the roll?
129 Item five?
130 I.
131 Dunphy I.
132 Smith. I canal.
133 Thank you, madam president. Thank you. The finance committee I appreciate the red line or blue line form on this. I did want to make one comment, which is I want to make sure that we're not applying the same broad brush to all bureaus or committees. On the subject of engagement with bureaus. There's both broad idea in terms of different bureaus do different work, but also general fund versus non-general fund aspect of it. And on the subject of committees, the work of all committees is important. However, the urgency is not necessarily the same, and the urgency of the work on some, including the community and public safety committee, is different from some of the other committees. In other words, it's harder to push back legislation that's not directly budget related to July because some of that legislation would affect things now. And I also want to note that I share councilor Morillo views about the need for community engagement to be prioritized and commit to the public to continuing to hold town halls my own, as well as civic lives, to continue to hear from portlanders. I vote yes.
134 Ryan I.
135 Koyama Lane I.
136 Morillo I.
137 Novick.
138 I.
139 Clark. I Green,
140 I.
141 Zimmerman. I pirtle-guiney. I and the resolution is adopted as amended with 12 I votes. Item six. Avalos.
142 I. Dunphy I.
143 Smith.
144 I.
145 Know you just wanted daylight. I'm uncomfortable about the use of the emergency clause here. I think a preferable process in the future would be to hold the resolution until the second reading, daylight here, so that the timing lines up. And so I'd ask my colleagues to please be more sparing on this in the future, as this is the first time it's come up. I'm not going to stand against this specific document today on that basis, but I just want to be very transparent that I may in the future. And I also want to commit to working with all of you and supporting you so that we don't overuse emergency overuse emergency ordinance clauses, I vote aye.
146 Ryan.
147 Hi, Koyama Lane. Hi, Morillo. Hi.
148 Novick.
149 Sorry. Hi.
150 Clark.
151 Hi.
152 Green. Zimmerman.
153 Hi, pirtle-guiney. Hi.
154 And the ordinance is passed with 12 I votes.
155 Thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is an appointment item. Rebecca, could you call that agenda item, please?
156 Item seven, appoint anna allen and laura suarez to the steering and oversight committee for the homelessness response system intergovernmental agreement.
157 And councilors generally, as we've discussed previously, appointments will go through the committee process. First, governance has been having a robust conversation about whether those go through policy committees or the governance committee. This item is coming to you not having been through a committee. This is part of that tale of us not having our committees up and running until a month ago, and we have had a request to move this forward as quickly as possible, because the steering and oversight committee is waiting for these two members of the public to be seated on that committee. So it has bypassed bypassed our normal process. I just want to be clear that it is my intent that moving forward that not happen again, and that things do run through committees and that we make sure we get those requests in time for them to run through committees moving forward. But we wanted to respect the time of these individuals who are here today and make sure that we moved forward with the need that the steering and oversight committee has to have their appointments as quickly as possible. With that, I will turn it over to the mayor to introduce your appointment recommendations.
158 Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, council colleagues, for this opportunity. I'm honored to appoint two eminently qualified individuals to serve with me and councilor Zimmerman on the steering and oversight committee for the homeless response system chair megan peterson, and I appreciate all who applied for these positions and asked to serve their communities. Anna and laura not only meet the qualifications for these positions, but have also spent their careers serving the public and gaining valuable expertise in their respective fields. We are grateful you both are willing to serve and share your insights at this important governance table for our city and for our county. Thank you. Council president, council vice president and commissioners for your consideration of these appointments. I now invite skyler brock knapp and gillian schoen to share a bit about these candidates. Thank you.
159 So I just I'll.
160 Start by just with a big thank you because.
161 I'm sorry. Could you introduce yourself?
162 Thank you. Thank you. For the record, my name is julian schnee. I'm the director of the homelessness response system. And I just want to start out with a big thank you because we identified these individuals in the last quarter of 2024, and they have been patiently waiting for this day. My feeling is that delay was largely because of the previous city council wanting to make sure that we had all of the transition related items on the council agenda and done by December 31st, which of course was something I fully supported in my previous role. So I'm just grateful to be here today that we are getting this done so that they can join the second sock meeting of the year, which is next week, and rounding out the perspectives we need on that body. So thank you again, council president and your staff for getting this on the agenda.
163 Thank you. For the record. Skyler knapp, director of Portland solutions. Madam president and councilors anna allen, who is here with us today, has been nominated by the mayor to serve as the steering and oversight committee, supportive housing services taxpayer representative anna completed an interest application and participated in a series of interviews with myself and robin johnson of the homelessness response system. It is my pleasure to introduce you to her. Anna is a resident of troutdale and is the columbia river inter-tribal fish commission's first regional government affairs director. Anna brings more than a decade of experience working collaboratively across tribal governments, local public agencies and community based organizations to create equitable pathways for community members to help shape programs, policy decisions and funding priorities. For many of her young years, her family was forced to become adept in navigating government funded social services, correctional facilities, and shelter systems. We are honored to recommend anna allen to for your consideration today, and pleased that she is willing to serve. Anna.
164 Good morning. Council, mayor, council president and councilors. Again, my name is anna allen and I'm here. I'm a member of the shoshone-bannock tribes, and I currently serve as the regional government affairs director for critic. I know some of you have recently been engaging with critic on a number of policy issues, and I'm really honored to be here for consideration and appointment to the soc. You know, my background is skye mentioned, I think is nuanced. It comes from the nonprofit, from the public sector, from even corporate sector and tribal government sectors. And it runs across a gamut of political issues and policy issues. You know, during my time as the equity inclusion director with the city of bend, I worked closely with the human rights and equity commission on their time, place and manner ordinance and ensuring that there were voices from currently and previously housed houseless individuals that were included in that process. And that highly difficult, you know, policy that there were very differing opinions on in community and across politicians and jurisdictions in central Oregon. I also have worked, you know, regionally and locally within the public sectors as well, but also really building off of my background in nonprofit work and as a youth advocate, you know, but but really, the path that that brought me to be in front of you today starts long before my professional career that you have read in my resume, or that sky has shared a little bit about, you know, I was recently watching the movie, the disney movie outside in with my four year old daughter, and I was reflecting as she was giggling about, you know, when sadness, that character touches a core memory and it turns sad. And those thinking about that joy, those joyful core memories as well. And I was reflecting on my own core memories at her age and as a child. And I think that's, you know, when asked why I want to serve in this position as a thought partner with you all and with the county as well. I think about that, and I think about how grateful I am that my daughter will not have those same core memories, and I want that for others that are currently and have been and will live outside within the city of Portland and Multnomah county. Those experiences, you know, I want that joy. I want that comfort of knowing that that you're disrupting an ongoing cycle that might be happening for yourself or with your family, and that there is a different path forward. And I watched my mother navigate those systems, you know, in services that that the city and county provides and funds. And from that she became a pillar of the community and has served. I was reflecting, you know, after she was incarcerated and returned to us, her children, her three children, navigating those systems with us alongside of her. You know, she I was thinking about all the numerous committees that she served on and there were, I believe, eight city committees over her years. Once she was able to change the outcome of her future. And, you know, she served on the public involvement advisory committee, the human rights commission, the community police relations committee, and among many others that I won't name with the city of Portland throughout her career. And there was, I will tell you, there was an expectation. When she left in 2018, she left us and she was very clear with me that I was there was an expectation from her to utilize the grit that she had given me and that I had acquired along the way, along with my professional and lived experience, to continue that work, to serve in positions like this, and to utilize all of those skills and information that I've gathered over the years to benefit others. And so with that clear expectation, you know, I have served in many capacities. I understand the nuances of serving in these really highly difficult and political roles as a thought partner to the voting members on the committee. But I will I will stop there and just and just share gratitude and appreciation and hope to move forward in this process and looking forward to the next meeting as well. Thank you.
165 Thank you, thank.
166 You very much.
167 Join us.
168 So next up, also excited to have laura suarez before you today. She is filling our behavioral health position. Laura currently is a clinical social worker with a drug and alcohol certification currently employed by OHSU. She is also the program manager for osu's transitional care program, which focuses on both in-reach and outreach activities on houseless and housing insecure patients. She is very well aware and shares our problem solving approach to what is an incredibly complex population to serve and how important it is that our health and housing systems be integrated. Her professional expertise will be an invaluable contribution to the steering and oversight committee, and with that, I will hand it over to laura to say a few words. Who's joining us online today?
169 Yeah. Thank you so much. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there with you guys in person today. Thank you. Mayor wilson, council president and city councilors. Again, for the record, my name is laura suarez. I use she her pronouns. I'm a licensed clinical social worker here in the state of Oregon, in the state of Washington. And as stated, I also have a drug and alcohol certification too. I'm currently employed here in Multnomah county as the social work department manager for the division of care management at OHSU. I reside in Washington county. I've spent most of my career serving within the tri county area. As was also stated, I also support and manage OHSU transitional care teams, which are comprised of registered nurses and licensed clinical social workers who provide hospital in-reach and outreach to our houseless and housing insecure population. That is also a team that I started on here at OHSU. So as a core component of the work I've done and I continue to support that work as a leader, I let's see. I'm excited. I'm really excited to share my ten years worth of experience working within the tri county area, serving marginalized and underserved patients with chronic psychosocial and medical needs. My practice values include a collaborative, person centered approach to case management and care coordination for mental health, substance use, and physical health across the continuum. My professional interests include improving systems through programmatic and policy development aimed at health, equity and access and patient outcomes. And I'm really, really looking forward to sharing my professional experience and collaboration with the city and county and our key jurisdictional partners, including our neighboring counties, to find really meaningful solutions for our community through participation in the cco and the soc. So thank you all so much for having me. I look forward to working together with you all.
170 Thank you.
171 Madam president. Thank you.
172 Thank you both so much for being here today. And thank you to skylar and jillian for helping to introduce the agenda item. Do we have any public testimony signed up today?
173 We do not.
174 Okay.
175 Councilors, we are open for discussion. Councilor Smith, would you like to kick us off?
176 Thank you so much. I was really excited when I saw that anna's name was on the list as an appointee, but she's really someone who is a collaborator. She understands community and that is in her background. I first met her when she was working for nei, and then I had the great opportunity to see how she moved in a professional sense, when she got hired by deborah kafoury to be one of her her senior policy advisors. And so she really understands people and how to work collaboratively. And I appreciate that about her. So I'm really excited to see that you're going to be in this new role and watching you grow from nonprofit into into the chair's office and understanding about housing and homelessness. So I wish you well and I thank you for even considering doing this. Thank you.
177 Councilor Ryan.
178 Yes.
179 Thank you, madam president. Good morning. And first of all, I think both of the people who are willing to serve in this capacity seem like outstanding human beings with great professional backgrounds and, more importantly, life experience. I'll probably be directing some of my questions to you, jillian. And you, sky, as you know, as you both know, the rest of you might not. We had a pretty robust conversation about this, and I was, I'd say, the leading advocate for wanting the oversight system to have more independence than it previously has. I was a part of a brief little window when there was some independence, which allowed us to actually pass the policy to have built for zero work for us, that was being resisted upon by the culture at the joint office and by the houseless industry. And so my point is, I think everyone can agree that we have a lot of work to do. I think hopefully everyone can agree that we've had challenges being on. I think we've been in denial about some of the factors that have led to the humanitarian crisis that exist. So knowing that you both have backgrounds in behavioral health does please me immensely. The dialog was about having people that weren't connected to the actual system, because most of our checks and balances were quite limited. The accountability structure was mostly with people that were getting money from the sales tax. And so we were having, in my opinion, we were having trouble seeing those checks and balances that are often necessary. I would often say in private meetings. Now I get to say in this one, I just wish we could have a fraction of the accountability we have for police oversight for the houseless system that we're building. And so I think what I want to know is that, are both of you willing to be those independent thinkers that will challenge the status quo, which I think continues to need to be challenged and feel comfortable in that role as advocates.
180 I'm happy to respond. Thank you, councilor, for really naming that and also for posing that question. And I think, you know, time will tell and I can prove that to you over time. But I'm very I will say for myself, I feel very comfortable in navigating those conversations. There's a way to disagree with respect and not making it personal and making it about the mission, about the policy decision and being able to come back together afterwards. And that's something that I've had a lot of change makers throughout my life, in my career, and really just heavyweights in many different facets of life when it comes to policy, but also community engagement, equity work, dismantling institutional racism within a system like the county. When I was there, and within nonprofits and ngos as well. I work for tribal governments, I work on behalf of them. There are often really difficult, and those policy issues reach from a federal, state and regional level. And they're very nuanced and difficult conversations to have. There have been tears shed. There have been hugs after and also not hugs after. Right? That's part of the work. I'm used to that. You know, I've spent over a decade of my career engaging in those conversations throughout different levels of bureaucracy, and I'm always willing to lean in from a space of respect and understanding and a willingness to learn and grow as well. So I'm I would say I'm comfortable in that.
181 I'm happy to. Speak up in.
182 One moment. If I could just do a follow up on a sorry, I didn't have my light on, I really appreciate that response. It was it was refreshing to listen to my next question. Maybe this then could be you could think about this as to laura, a lot of my what I have witnessed since being thrown into the deep end to work on this back in 2020, but the end of 2020 was that we were using a document that a plan, the housing first plan, which has a lot of merits but is also written over a decade ago. I think it's much more than that now. And it was pre the new math. It was pre fentanyl and I was always frustrated that we weren't adapting to that reality on the ground here in Portland, Oregon, especially what we were dealing with after measure 110 passed and the open air drug markets became just more obvious to everybody. And so you will all I think what I experienced was your average voter, your average taxpayer was much more. They were noticing that and they were just asking us to please respond to it. And they were frustrated that that wasn't happening. So I had to listen to small businesses that would say they had trouble. They were compassionate, but they still wanted to open up their storefronts, and they were losing business and such. And I hope that you will listen to those small businesses that are compassionate to the tax payer that is paying this, that does care, but would like to know that we're actually measuring results and that we're in one year's time making some some progress. So my point, I guess is are you comfortable then also talking to that sector that is very active and many of them are providing the investments for this?
183 Thank you, counselor Ryan, I appreciate that question very much. You know, what I will say is my brother is a small business owner in Portland. My older brother is and my younger brother is also an artist in Portland and Vancouver area. And he is a vendor of many small businesses as well. With his artwork. My neighbors, my friends, my families, my family members, many of them are small business owners and I, throughout my career doing community engagement work as well. A lot of time was spent with those businesses. You know, I live in troutdale and even doing construction land use work right on the culverts. Those replacement projects out there, those have real impacts on the businesses around them. How do you engage with them and identify what the core issues are and what their needs and desires are? This isn't just about the needs of the of the folks who are currently sleeping and living outside, but it's also about the needs of our business owners and about others who are impacted by this crisis every day, whether that be professionally, personally seeing it in their neighborhoods, walking their children to the park. Right. I hear all of that. I know all of that, and I feel it. And how to identify those workarounds and address those needs as well, because, again, it's very nuanced. It's not just about a certain needs of a certain population. It's really it's a very there's a lot of intersectionality to this issue. And I and I promise you, I intend to bring that perspective to this work moving forward.
184 Thank you. You're already bringing that grit from east county in this dialog, and I appreciate that. Your mother would be super proud.
185 I can tell.
186 Yeah, sorry, laura, I, I wanted to make sure I finished that conversation. If you'd like to answer any of my questions, that'd be great.
187 Councilor, I think. Oh, is she still there?
188 I think. She is. Yeah. Okay.
189 I am sorry, guys. I'm not sure what to do with being on the virtual platform. I'm. Thank you so much for the question, councilor Ryan. And I'm happy to sort of chime in and give my $0.02. I, you know, this is certainly going to be a new experience for me. I think what I lean into is not only my position as a community member. You know, I live and I work in this in this community, and we're talking about our community members as well. Right now, the folks that have been impacted by this experience, not only the experience of houselessness, but as myself as an individual in this community wanting to be able to feel like we can safely engage in our community and have access to, you know, support our local businesses and everyone feeling safe and comfortable. And I do. As anna mentioned, this is a very nuanced it's a very nuanced challenge that we're facing. And I, I do think that it needs to be looked at and addressed from multiple perspectives with multiple considerations and not just at, you know, focusing on one individual, one community aspect of it. So I'm really I am really looking forward to engaging in a really thoughtful exploration of identifying all the perspectives that we need to consider all of the gaps and how do we come together and really, really reunify our community in a way that fits for everyone and addresses the core of the challenges that we're facing. So I'm just really looking forward to being able to lend my perspective where I can to be a listening ear, to bring my expertise and to collaborate and really explore how we can kind of come together and improve our community in the way that is really needed. I'm seeing I feel, I hear every day as well.
190 Thank you, laura, and thank you both. I, I really hope to witness the independent voice. You'll bring the courage to sometimes go against the status quo. People that we know. Well, it's in this job. I always find it more challenging to have some pushback to those that you've always usually been aligned with, and that's called being courageous to do the work that's needed for us to move forward on this humanitarian crisis. And so I wish you both well and thank you.
191 Councilor Zimmerman, thanks.
192 My first question for jillian. Can you clarify again which positions each of these nominations is filling? I know we've in that new agreement. There are like specific positions. Can you talk about that again?
193 Yeah. Laura is filling the behavioral health slot and anna is filling the qhs taxpayer slot. So that completes the membership okay.
194 Thanks. I agree both of your records and I know you and laura, I don't. But your records speak for themselves. I'm a little bit cautious about these nominations, and I am cautious from a perspective that we're nominating somebody from Washington county. And I didn't hear that that was a portlander. There are a few people in our district who are Washington county residents, but I'm cautious about that. And with respect to all that it took to keep the iga alive last year and incorporating the taxpayer, and I'm a little cautious that I'm not sure that negotiation intended for somebody who worked so closely with the joint office previously in your roles. And so that is that is my concern. And as a person who sits on the soc, I'm looking forward to, I think the independence that councilor Ryan is talking about, I think it was a lot of work to keep the iga together. I think the last seven days has put that challenge in even greater risk than I thought it was, and this time it's from the county side. And so I'm going to vote to support this nomination. And I, I could choose to just not say these things in to the record, but I, I am working from a perspective that I think that the chhs dollars, the iga in spirit are the right thing to have and that we continually are at risk of them falling apart and not meeting the public's expectations for them. And so I'm looking forward to working with you, anna, and with you, laura. I think that we have a lot of work in front of us. I'm looking forward to the perspective. And for two people who have been on the county side, I think trying to see it from a non joe's staff perspective, a non county policy perspective is a challenge I also hold, and so I think the mayor has the right to make the nominations that that he does in his role. And I'll, I'll vote to approve those today. But I, I think it's important that we talk about what makes this awkward in terms of this, this system. And I'm feeling some awkwardness. So I'm putting it out there and I'm looking forward to getting it over it. All right. Thanks.
195 Thank you. Councilor, I'm just going to quickly just respond. I really appreciate that. Councilor Zimmerman and councilor Ryan, two on the independent spirit, have the unique opportunity to engage with the previous council and the previous mayor on these specific appointments and what they were looking for. So I remember those discussions really well. And with the new mayor and trying to determine whether that these appointments are still the right fit, whether these are still the individuals that the chair and the new mayor wanted to bring forward. I just want to say, personally, I've had extensive conversations with anna and other folks who had applied for this position, and they were incredible conversations, very nuanced, and I'm really excited personally, for all the elements that anna is bringing to this position. I definitely remember some of the caution and some of the intention behind a lot of these appointments and these spaces on this committee, and I think anna will make you all very proud in how she addresses the many, many nuanced pieces of the steering and oversight committee under this system. So I just wanted to offer that as well.
196 That's an important endorsement from schuyler. So thank you.
197 Council president. If I may also just offer a response. Thank you, councilor Zimmerman. It's good to see you. And congratulations on your successful campaign. And to all of our new electeds who have taken seat. I hear you and don't feel awkward. We can have those conversations councilor and that's perfectly fine. And quite frankly, I agree with you. I understand, you know, now that I am working outside of Multnomah county and public systems within a tribal government, not only does that create some separation. And, you know, I had to work under those same public public meetings laws, those same public ethics laws. And now I sit in a different capacity and I'm able to utilize those, those experiences professionally to how I advocate in spaces like this today, because it's not always that you're going to agree on things, especially working with the city of bend. I will say I didn't necessarily agree personally with some of the decisions being made, but I was bound by those those laws to be able to work unbiasedly across different sectors to gain community input. And I think it's important to flag or just highlight that my role as a senior policy advisor and project manager under chair kafoury with Multnomah county and then moving later on into government relations as the tribal affairs advisor. My role was I was not. My policy portfolio did not include houselessness at the beginning of my career in 2015, I was the community engagement advisor, and really my role was to ensure that community input, diverse community input was being authentically and thoughtfully gathered to inform policy decisions of chair kafoury and others within the county. And so I have not worked for the joint office. I did not work closely with the joint office. My job was really focused on what is the policy issue that we're working on, who are the voices that we need to hear from, and I'm going to go get them. And so that just want to wanted to add that clarification and hope that that lends to, you know, ease your concerns. But also I welcome any discussions in the future if you feel like there are moments where you want to clarify my perspective or again, think through anything that from those meetings in the future.
198 I really appreciate that. Thanks for that. Walk through a little bit and as always, looking forward to working with you. I've I've appreciated that in the past as well.
199 Madam president, if I may go ahead.
200 For the record, my name is robin johnson. I'm a policy advisor with the homelessness response system team. Happy to be here today. Happy to have laura and anna ready to cross the finish line on this process of both the city and the county. I just wanted to bring two things into the into the discussion for clarification. One, the behavioral health seat had a requirement that the person who filled the role did not receive contracting funds from either the city or the county. And so to find a person that lived within the city of Portland who was a behavioral health expert that did not contract with the largest behavioral health provider in our region, was pretty, was was a pretty deep haystack. To find the needle in or to find the brightest shining star that we could. And so I wanted to bring that part into the conversation for the information of the councilors. Additionally, for the qhs taxpayer seat, the person was required to live outside the city of Portland. And so I just wanted to just so that all folks pardon me, all councilors were aware of those two pieces. So thank you so much for allowing me to share that.
201 That's great.
202 Thank you for sharing that with us. I had also noted that both of the nominees lived outside of the city of Portland, so it's helpful to understand some of the background there. Councilor Ryan, I see you back in the queue.
203 Yeah. Well, actually.
204 Robin, I appreciate you saying that. And I do know there were others that also met that definition. I helped recruit one not attached to the picking those. But please, for the record, it must be stated that there were at least I know of one other that did make that qualification. So thank you. Just want to make sure we heard that.
205 Thank you councilor. Right. There were exactly two.
206 Of all the.
207 I must've recruited the other one.
208 Yep. Great.
209 That was exactly right.
210 Councilor Kanal.
211 Yeah. So first, as someone who's sat on both sides of the appointment to community committees here in this room, I just want to say thank you for going through this. And it it is a little awkward, but you both seem great. I really appreciate it. I do want to make the point that often the people who have been part of a system aren't able to be constructively critical of it while they're inside it, given the either written or unspoken inability of employees or to speak in that critical way, what people who've been a part of the system can do is build their knowledge, and then when they are outside of it, then take that constructively critical eye. And I think that applies to lauren in particular to anna as well. And that constructively critical eye is vital. I agree with my colleagues, councilors Ryan and Zimmerman as it relates to accountability on the dollars we spend, because they are profound. I'll go a step further than councilor Ryan and say that we need more than a fraction. We need more accountability here than we see for police. And I believe that you both can do that. So thank you.
212 Thank you counselors. There is no one else in the queue for discussion. So rebecca, could you please call the role. And this is a vote to accept the report, which means to appoint these nominees from the mayor to the steering and oversight committee.
213 Council president, prior to the role, we need a motion to accept the report.
214 I apologize, you're right.
215 So moved.
216 Thank you. Counselor. And I see a second from councilor Green. There we go.
217 Thank you. Sorry, Avalos,
218 I.
219 Dunphy.
220 Thank you guys for serving I.
221 Smith.
222 I thank you both I.
223 Ryan yes I will definitely vote yes in support of these two outstanding humans I really appreciate I didn't think it was awkward either. I think we're called when we're of service and leadership to be courageous and to have such conversations. I appreciate that you demonstrated that on a I will offer caution that the mayor and the chair, I think, failed to meet some of the spirit that was needed to improve this system. That said, I hear what you're talking. I hear what you both said today, and I'm leaving this vote with much more optimism, especially in the dialog that we were able to have in person on us. So thank you. We didn't get a I didn't have a chance to do a briefing with you. So thanks for allowing this to be such a transparent conversation that I think it will help the system improve. So I really appreciate that and I hope that you will, both of you will have the courage to challenge the status quo. Clearly, it needs to be challenged because we must get better results.
224 I vote yea Koyama Lane.
225 Thank you for stepping up.
226 I vote yea Morillo.
227 Thank you so much.
228 I Novick.
229 Thank you very, very much. I.
230 Clerk thank you both for stepping up and I wanted to acknowledge your comments about your personal life and grit. I relate to grit. Thank you so much.
231 I Green.
232 Thank you for your service.
233 I Zimmerman. I pirtle-guiney.
234 I and thank you both for all of your time here today, as well as the time we know you'll put into the work moving forward.
235 And the report.
236 Sorry, I just was going to note for everyone just process. These two individuals are before the county board tomorrow, so we'll report back on that outcome.
237 Thank you.
238 The report is accepted with 12 I votes.
239 Thank you.
240 Thank you all. Councilors I will note that the next three agenda items are all emergency ordinances. I see councilor Kanal nodding. We are going to move on to item eight on our agenda, and we will likely take a short break after that. We are a little bit behind time, but I think we have a few agenda items that we can make it up on so that we don't go too much over today. Rebecca, could you read the agenda item please?
241 Item eight authorize letter of agreement with protech 17 to extend the expiration date of the current collective bargaining agreement from June 30th, 2025 to December 31st, 2025.
242 Thank you. And we have two members of our labor relations team and marie kevorkian, marty and sarah daly, here to share some information with us about this extension. Go right ahead.
243 Oh good morning.
244 Good morning. Mayor. Madam president and council, I'm anne marie kevorkian marty with the bureau of human resources. Wow. I don't know what happened there. Labor relations. And I'm joined today by my colleague, sarah daly. We're here to present this item for your authorization to extend the term of the protect 17 collective bargaining agreement through the end of this calendar year. Currently, the protect 17 agreement expires June 30th, 2025. And we have a mutual agreement with the union or a mutual desire, I should say, with the union to extend the expiration through the end of this year, December 31st, 2025. That will allow the city and the union more time to evaluate a work in progress, which is a comprehensive class comp study that's evaluating all of the protect 17 classifications. And then we will have ample time to prepare for the successor negotiations that will take place during this calendar year. There are no other terms in the existing agreement that will change, but this letter of agreement will also provide for the standard cost of living allowance increase that occurs on July 1st of 2025. That's already embedded into the proposed budget documents. And so there's no additional cost beyond that. As part of this agreement. Happy to take any questions that you might have.
245 Thank you. And I noticed that we have rachel whiteside from pro tech online. Rachel, were you wanting to offer some comments today?
246 Thank you, madam president. I don't have any prepared comments. I'm just here in case there are any questions by council members that I can assist with. I can confirm that through a vote of our membership, there is support for this extension. The classification study that's involved with this is long overdue. We haven't had a complete one for our membership in over 20 years, maybe closing in on 25 at this point. So that's a real priority for our members. And I appreciate the collaborative thinking on the part of labor relations to extend our contract.
247 Thank you. Rebecca. Are there any public is there any public testimony that folks have signed up for?
248 No one signed up.
249 Okay.
250 Councilors, any discussion before we look for a motion on this item? Councilor Kanal. Councilor Koyama Lane.
251 I was just going to say I love hearing what rachel just said, that there's collaboration between human resources and the union, and that makes me happy to hear.
252 Seeing no other interest in discussion, is there a motion to move forward?
253 So moved.
Procedural episode · turns 254–262
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254 Second.
255 Okay, with the motion and a second, rebecca, could you call the role and this is a vote to this is a vote on an emergency ordinance to accept the letter of agreement.
256 Avalos. I Dunphy. I Smith. I canal I.
257 Ryan I. Koyama Lane I. Morillo I. Novick I. Clark I. Green I. Zimmerman I.
258 Pirtle-guiney I thank you so much for being here councilors. We just made up five of the minutes we were over. Without objection. I am going to suggest, because we do have a couple of long agenda items coming up after this, that we take a five minute break so that our staff can have a quick break if they need it, and that we meet back here at 1130. Is there any objection to that? No. Okay.
259 Thank you madam.
260 The.
261 Once again.
262 It's a Tuesday.
263 Welcome back everybody. We are going to reconvene our council meeting. We are at agenda item nine on the regular agenda. Rebecca, could you please call the agenda item?
264 I think we have nine.
265 Councilor Dunphy, it's good to see you over there.
266 Item nine, pay settlement of woodstock. Of woodstock at all civil rights and personal injury lawsuit in the sum of $938,328 involving the Portland police bureau.
267 Thank you, rebecca and councilors. This is the first of two settlement agenda items that we will be hearing today. We have. Denise vignette, naomi sheffield. We don't actually. And commander dobson here, sorry. We had a fourth person listed who wasn't up there with you. All is perfect. And rose radic is here online. Wonderful. So we.
268 Have chief dobson.
269 Chief dobson, I'm sorry.
270 That's all right.
271 My notes don't say. Chief, I am really sorry. We will be hearing from the four of them about this agenda item. Go right ahead.
272 Thank you, madam president. Members of the council. My name is denny vanier. I'm a senior deputy city attorney. And with me here, as you noted, are naomi sheffield, chief deputy city attorney. Rose radic, senior claims analyst. And chief craig dobson of the Portland police bureau. The matter before you today is a proposed settlement in the case of woodstock et al. Versus city of Portland, u.s. District court case number three, 20 cv 01035 s.I. I will start by giving you an overview of the case and of the proposed settlement, after which miss sheffield and miss radic, chief dobson and I will be happy to answer any questions that you might have. This lawsuit began in June of 2020, when six individuals initially filed the initial complaint against the city following several amendments which added and deleted several parties. The lawsuit eventually involved nine individual plaintiffs and one corporate plaintiffs. The corporate plaintiff was indexed newspapers, llc, the owner of the Portland mercury. The lawsuit was complex. It involved numerous overlapping claims by the several plaintiffs, but in particular the nine individual plaintiffs were all journalists or legal observers challenging various aspects of the law enforcement response to the 2020 protests in the city that followed the murder of george floyd by police in minneapolis, minnesota. The plaintiffs alleged first amendment violations, fourth amendment excessive force claims, and violations of sections eight and 26 of article one of the Oregon constitution. The lawsuit asked for damages for those alleged injuries, as well as prospective so forward looking declaratory and injunctive relief, seeking certain changes in policing practices. In July of 2020, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit obtained a temporary restraining order related to the Portland police bureau's interactions with journalists and legal observers. The city subsequently stipulated to a preliminary injunction in the case that remained in effect until 2023. Then, in March of 2023, the u.s. District court for the district of Oregon, I'm sorry, ruled in favor of the city on a partial motion to dismiss, and the court dismissed as moot plaintiffs claims for declaratory and injunctive relief against the city. So those forward looking claims seeking policy changes. It also dismissed plaintiffs claims under the Oregon constitution, and it dismissed the claims by index newspapers. In doing so, the district court concluded that there was no realistic threat that conduct similar to that alleged in the complaint would occur again in the future. As the court explained, quote, the state legislature has changed the law that allowed for arresting journalists and legal observers who refused to disperse from an unlawful assembly. End quote. The court also noted, quote. As a result, PPB revised directive six 3510, which establishes how PPB responds to public order events so that failure to comply with an order to disperse is not a crime and shall not be the basis for an arrest, end quote. The court further noted, quote. The legislature has also limited ppb's ability to use tear gas for crowd control purposes, end quote. And the court concluded, quote, where intervening legislation has settled, a controversy involving only injunctive or declaratory relief, the controversy has become moot. The Oregon state legislature has effectively settled this controversy. End quote. And again, that was the ruling on the prospective relief. So following that dismissal, what remained in the case were the nine individual plaintiffs and specifically their retrospective claims for damages for the alleged injuries that occurred in 2020, plus those plaintiffs, those nine individual plaintiffs claims for attorney's fees and costs, because since this is a federal civil rights lawsuit, it does bring with it a right to recover attorney's fees. So following further discovery in the case, the parties eventually agreed to mediation before magistrate judge stacie beckerman here at the district court in Portland to attempt to resolve those remaining claims. And through judge beckerman's mediation, the parties eventually reached the tentative agreement that is before you today. That agreement would settle all the claims for damages by the nine individual plaintiffs, plus all of those plaintiffs claims for attorney's fees and costs, for a combined total of. $938,327.64. The city would also agree to make no material deletions to Portland police bureau directive six 3510, section 11.2 through December 31st, 2028, unless intervening changes in state or federal law require amendment. And that police bureau directive is that directive that the court cited in its order on this partial motion to dismiss that deals with how PPB addresses public order events. So the city attorney's office risk management of the Portland police bureau recommend that the city agree to this settlement. And at this point, mr. Sheffield is rajesh chief dobson. And I will be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you.
273 Thank you. And counselors, before we move to our questions and discussion, I do believe that we have a few folks signed up for public testimony. I'd like to provide them the opportunity to go ahead, since we're already a little bit behind schedule. Rebecca, could you invite up folks who have signed up for public testimony, please?
274 Hi.
275 First two testifiers, kelly simon and atul acharya, want to approach the table together.
276 Thank you both for being here today.
277 Thank you.
278 And please introduce yourself as you start.
279 Will do.
280 Good morning. Council president pirtle-guiney. Vice president Koyama Lane esteemed councilors, it is great to see so many of you who represent the city. My name is kelly simon. I use she her pronouns and I am the legal director for the aclu of Oregon. The aclu of Oregon is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization with more than 43,000 members statewide. We work in the courts, the state legislature, and with communities to defend and advance our democracy, civil liberties and civil rights. The aclu of Oregon urges you to approve the mutually agreed upon settlement terms before you today. We believe it is in the best interest of the city of Portland to resolve these claims, to avoid additional expense to the Portland taxpayers who have already borne too high a financial and emotional burden for police violence against protesters in this city. The aclu of Oregon would like to thank our clients, some of whom are here today. Our cooperating attorneys at brown, brown and borden, and public accountability, the reporters committee for the freedom of the press, of the press, legal observers for the aclu of Oregon, the national lawyers guild, and the over 60 news organizations that joined in an amicus brief in support of this case. We were proud to fight with all of you, to defend and advance the fundamental freedoms that protect our democracy. In 1971, the united states supreme court justice hugo black stated in the seminal case new york times company versus the united states that the press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The freedom of the press protected by the first amendment is critical to building a democracy in which the government is accountable to the people. A free media ensures that the public always has a watchdog that can investigate and report on government wrongdoing, like the violent police backlash we saw and experienced in 2020. A free press ensures we have access to the truth, even when that truth does not serve the narratives that those who abuse power would prefer to tell us. We continue to see that defending the truth in those who dare tell it is urgently vital to defending freedom for everyone. It was a recording that exposed the violent murder of george floyd, and it was recording. After recording that followed that exposed the racialized and violent police backlash that confirmed that these characteristics are the systemic and nationwide hallmarks of our policing institutions. I urge you to interrogate the history of the city to understand why the Portland police bureau became the national face of the violent police backlash in 2020, and I hope that we can find ways to work together to bring a different kind of leadership and culture to the city of Portland, one that welcomes accountability in the truth.
281 Thank you. Good morning. Council president. Pirtle-guine.
282 President Koyama Lane.
283 And the.
284 City councilors.
285 My name.
286 Is athula acharya. I am the executive director of public accountability, a nonprofit civil rights law firm. We litigate civil rights cases around the country, but we're based right here in Portland, Oregon. And these plaintiffs are my clients. Journalism is not a crime. It's a fundamental first amendment right. And in fact, it's the only profession that's explicitly mentioned in the bill of rights. Being a legal observer isn't a crime, either. Journalists and legal observers are a key part of accountability at protests for everyone. They're a key part of maintaining public order. They are what differentiates the public order of American democracy from the public order of, say, tiananmen square. The Portland police lost sight of that in 2020. They targeted journalists. They threatened, they beat, they gassed, they threw grenades at, they shot, and they arrested my clients even when there were no protesters around. When my clients were wearing big fluorescent press vests and carrying bulky professional cameras, and they left real injuries that my client still live with today. A lot has changed since 2020. The Portland police bureau has adopted new policies that recognize journalists right to report on protests, and this agreement protects those new policies from change. We have a new city council, a new mayor, a new form of government. And so I urge you to approve the mutually agreed upon settlement terms before you today. It's a fair settlement. It's a good deal for the city's taxpayers, and it will help bring to a close a dark and painful chapter in the city's history. Thank you.
287 Thank you both.
288 Next is mark morris. Mark is online.
289 Good morning. Can you.
290 Hear me?
291 We can. Yes. Thanks for being here.
292 Yeah. Fantastic. Council. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is mark morris. I use he him pronouns, and I'm with the group Portland copwatch. We understand that the two legal observers and seven journalists, who are the last remaining plaintiffs in the index newspapers lawsuit, have come to an agreement to settle with the city of Portland. The agreement calls for the civil rights and personal injury lawsuit to end, with compensation totaling $938,328. And we have no objection. We at Portland, copwatch, testify on settlements like this as a prompt for our elected officials to discuss the harms done when policies were either followed indicating a design flaw or disregarded, indicating that officers were at fault. Journalists and legal observers must be allowed to do their work observing and reporting on law enforcement actions during protests without being subject to police violence. The short version of this lawsuit is that PPB fired rubber bullets at tear gas, pepper sprayed, threw flashbangs at, and battered legal observers and journalists who were covering protests following the murder of george floyd. To quote from written testimony of one of the named plaintiffs. Our work was met with violence and disregard, which should never happen in a society that values freedom of expression, the press, and the right to peaceful protest. The lack of information about this lawsuit, and even the title of the ordinance, seem designed to let this nearly million dollar settlement slide beneath the radar. The ordinance states that it settles a personal injury lawsuit brought by woodstock et al. Relating to journalists and legal observers at the 2020 protests, and that it settles tort claims relating to journalists and legal observers at the 2020 protests involving the Portland police bureau. We've already pointed out that relating to and involving in this case mean that police tear gas, flashbang, pepper sprayed and otherwise used violence against the journalists and legal observers. We appreciate that this settlement is on the agenda, as all settlements, over $50,000 are now required to be. However, we ask you again to ensure that you revert to the prior policy of putting all police misconduct settlements over $5,000 on the agenda. This settlement brings the total paid out by the city for police brutality. During the 2020 protests alone, to over $4 million. What if the city and police bureau learned from this nearly million dollar settlement? What went wrong? What discipline was imposed on officers responsible for brutalizing journalists and legal observers, and what safeguards have been put in place to ensure that this doesn't happen again? This lawsuit covered abuses occurring on many different days in 2020, beginning with ppb's use of tear gas on June 2nd, 2020, also known as tear gas Tuesday. On that day, families who were peacefully gathered in pioneer square got exposed to chemical weapons by ppv. Nearly four years later, and after a stretch of time without significant protest activity, there were multiple days in may 2024 when the police bureau responded to protests at Portland state university. According to ppb's use of force dashboard, more force was used in may 2024 than any month prior dating back to 2017 and up until today. It's a bit misleading because prior to this, PPB did not include force used during protests on that dashboard. Nonetheless, PPB data show that chemical incapacitants were used on 16 individuals that month, most of which was during the protests at PSU. Thanks, and I'll turn it over to my colleague, Dan handelman.
293 Next is Dan handelman. Dan is online.
294 Hello, councilors. Can you hear me?
295 We can.
296 Yes. Great.
297 Thank you. My name is. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Dan handelman. I use he him pronouns. I'm a member of the group Portland copwatch. We are connecting the dots here because the PSU protests that you heard about fell during the second quarter of 2024, which was after the compliance officer community liaisons last report to judge simon, who oversees the doj settlement agreement and before the first expected report from the new court monitor, which will cover 20, 24 quarters, three and four, unless there's an independent investigation into ppb's use of force at the protest in may 2024, we will have lost the first real opportunity to understand what PPB has learned about crowd control during protests. Judging from the amount of force used, there appear to have been some missed lessons. And now many of the same officers from the rapid response team responsible for brutalizing portlanders in 2020 have been allowed to rejoin the rrc and will potentially be improperly policed. Peaceful protests also slipping through accountability cracks. The compliance officer noted in their final report that an officer had been found liable in court, and asked the monitor to verify that PPB had taken proper steps for the city to maintain compliance. They are referring to the million dollar plus jury award for the estate of michael townsend by a jury. Mr. Townsend, who was expecting a experiencing mental health crisis, call 911 for a welfare check and wound up being shot and killed by vpd in June 2021. The city is shamefully appealing the jury's verdict and racking up a 9% interest until the appeal is complete. We hope to testify before you when council asks the city attorney to withdraw that appeal. Paragraph 222 of the d.o.j. Agreement requires review of civil lawsuit information to help determine whether the bureau is, in fact, a learning organization that sees patterns and responds by changing policies and training to avoid making the same mistakes over and over. We reiterate our request for the monitor to pick up where the compliance officer left off in reporting on police lawsuits, and to focus on the policies that led to the suits. One time in the eight years the compliance officer published settlement data only one time, and they only talked about the amounts paid out rather than the underlying policies that led to the lawsuits. It's important also that they report on the amount of time money spent by the city attorney's office and risk management on settlements. In this case, the plaintiffs are each receiving $44,000, which means the lawyers representing them are being paid over $500,000. The city likely has racked up similar costs. At his confirmation hearing last month, he said. Other jurisdictions, including overseas, were interested in portland's approach to crowd control, but the new system has only been in place since June 2024. So were they actually interested in the violence they saw at the 2020 protests? It's worth getting clarification. We have a particular interest in making sure the city follows state statute 165 .540, which protects cop watching, that is, recording officers conducting their duties in public places, and the corresponding police director of 635 .20, which also protects the cop watching. We understand that settlement also assures that protections for observers stay in place until 2029, but ideally, the policy and training will be reworked so that nobody at a protest who's abiding by the law gets attacked by the police. Thank you very much.
298 Thank you.
299 Next, we have jared essig.
300 Jared.
301 Good morning.
302 Councilors.
303 Mayor wilson, administrator jordan, and.
304 Citizens of Portland.
305 And Multnomah county. My name is jared essig. I'm here. Because bastards lives matter. And that's why I was at the unlawful assemblies back in 2020 that were shut down by police, usually around 10 p.m, sometimes at 11 p.m. A riot would be declared around midnight or so. And that's when I got flashbanged and tear gassed and bull rushed and all that, because I tried to report on the events. It was a risk that I assumed by choosing to be at a riot, and my choice to engage in reporting and investigative journalism does not absolve me of the responsibility to not riot. So I did choose not to sue the city, because the money is simply coming out of our parks, our recreation, our sanitation and our clean water. Our community development for a lot of black and brown communities that need it. It's not actually stopping the police. The police are funded at record levels because you've incited a crime wave. And now everybody all over the state and all over the country are pointing to Portland as an example of why not to defund the police. Okay. And they hate it when I quote mlk jr. They hate it when liberals do that, but I will. Riots are designed to fail. And they are counter-revolutionary. And that's why this protest movement failed. Now, I want you to do not approve this. Okay. Fire the city attorney and hire a city attorney who can win. Their role is to defend the city. That means including through political and moral and intellectual arguments and leadership. That's what's needed from all of you. Okay, okay. Pay out $9,000 at most, maybe $1,000 to each of them. That's the most they deserve. Okay. This is a massive wealth transfer away from the taxpayers toward plaintiff's attorneys and toward media technology professionals who want to engage in the form of fight club style news entertainment. This was on the front page of the Oregonian today, by the way, and the Oregonian reported on all those protests as well. And their reporters were not parties to this lawsuit. It's possible to engage in professional journalism without rioting, or if you choose to riot, in order to get a really good story like I got, then you assume the risks. The problem is they've adopted the Palestinian strategy of protest, which is to incite violent revolution, start a fight, and then try to get sympathy by claiming victimhood afterward. That's what happened in 2024 of may at the PSU Palestinian intifada that a lot of these people have mentioned, by the way, that intifada caused $1 million for PSU, plus three months of the library being closed, and how many hundreds of people died in the murder epidemic in Portland as a result of this ideology? That might makes right that you can just join a mob as a solution to any problem. And that's what donald trump and his cohort are doing, by the way. You see their rallies, and that's why they're in power.
306 Thank you, sir. We appreciate your perspective. Thank you for being here.
307 That concludes testimony.
308 Councilors I don't see anybody in the queue. Is there any discussion on this agenda item? Councilor Kanal.
309 Yeah. I'd like to invite the presenters to come back, please. So this is our first settlement, and I had a couple questions that I had asked for as it relates to settlements going forward. And there are four things that I think we should be looking to do. Colleagues on these. And I'll, I think one of them's been addressed and I'd like to ask some questions about the other three. So I put in a standing request that settlements will no longer be on the consent agenda for the duration of my term in office. This ensures both transparency and the opportunity for public comment on the expenditure of public dollars to the community. You should not have to request that this happen. You deserve that transparency and opportunity to comment. So that's why I put in that request. I requested that staff also include in the presentation a specific description of the allegation, rather than just something like a motor vehicle collision involving ex bureau, but a summary of what the plaintiff alleged. So I'll ask the city attorneys, could you please put into the record what it is that the plaintiffs alleged in their claim? And that does not imply that the city agrees with it? I want to be very clear with that, but that we're putting into the record the allegation.
310 Yes, I should have those here. All right. So, as I said, there were nine individual plaintiffs. So plaintiff doug brown alleged that on June 12th, 2020, PPB fired a flashbang grenade directly at them and hit them with their bats. Also alleges that on June 14th, 2020, PPB threatened to arrest them so that they left the scene and were unable to continue as a legal observer, brian conley alleges that on June 15th, 2020, PPB launched a flashbang grenade directly at them after seeing that they were using their camera. They allege that they were later told they had to leave, even if they were media, and that PPB pursued them down the street. Plaintiff matthew lewis rowland alleges that on may 21st, 2020, they captured an image of a PPB officer aiming a gun at them, and that the officer then fired on them and that they were struck with what was described as shrapnel or and tear gas. Plaintiff kat mahoney alleges that on June 2nd, 2020, they were subjected to tear gas from PPB. They allege that on June 10th of 2020, PPB hit them with a rubber bullet that caused physical injuries. They allege that on June 29th, 2020, they were subjected to pepper spray and later were hit with a police truncheon that caused physical pain. And they allege that on August 8th of 2020, PPB took them to the ground and arrested them, causing physical injuries. Plaintiff olmos alleges that on June 6th of 2020, they were hit with a truncheon and threatened with tear gas because they were recording PPB. Plaintiff john rudolph alleges that on June 29th, 2020, they were subjected to pepper spray while they were documenting a protest, and that later they were pushed to move with the crowd by a PPB officer, who said that they did not care if that plaintiff was media. Alex tracey alleges that on June 2nd, 2020, they suffered exposure to tear gas when caught in a what was described as a PPB gas trap. They allege that on June 7th of 2020, PPB threatened to arrest them if they did not leave. After recording a PPB arrest of two people, and that later they were hit with a nonlethal round by PPB. They also allege that on June 6th of 2020, PPB threatened to arrest them and that plaintiff was unable to continue reporting on the arrest that they were documenting. And then they allege on June 29th, 2020, PPB threatened to confiscate their camera as evidence. Plaintiff tuck woodstock alleges that on June 30th, 2020. Ppb tackled and arrested people to either side of the plaintiff and then PPB then shoved plaintiff even after plaintiff and four PPB that they were media. And finally, plaintiff justin yao alleged that on June 5th of 2020, they were covering PPB dispersal of the crowd, and PPB threatened them with arrest, even after being notified that they were press. And then they allege that on July 1st of 2020, plaintiff was tackled by several officers and arrested, causing physical injury. And finally, plaintiff yao alleges that on July 2nd of 2020, PPB refused to return. Plaintiffs seized equipment within the time period required so that plaintiff was unable to publish their footage with two news agencies. That is a summary of the allegations in the plaintiffs third amended complaint. That is the complaint that would be settled by this agreement today.
311 Thank you. Would you also put into the record the aggregate amount of the settlements paid out from this bureau over the last year, as well as over the last 4 or 5 years, whichever is more convenient for you?
312 Yes. Councilor, actually, I believe miss sheffield has that data. Or actually miss.
313 The entire bureau. I think.
314 Miss ravitch has.
315 That information.
316 Yes I do. Thank you. Councilors. Let me.
317 Get that. And so just.
318 A couple.
319 I guess qualifiers on the data numbers is that this is the best information that I have right now. But just a couple of things on it. So the payment for this settlement. You know, hasn't been approved yet, hasn't been paid out. So it's that number is not included for the 938,000. Also some of the claims are open claims. So there is a possibility that something could be paid in the future on them. If there's a resolution or a verdict or something later. Or also on attorney's fees, there's often a little bit of a lag for those to get build into our file. So. Let me get so for one year for Portland police bureau. And I'm sorry, just to clarify, is this just are you seeking the numbers for total claim costs, like including legal expenses or just the amount paid out to like plaintiffs or claimants?
320 Actually, both would be great. I was only asking about the paid out, but now that you mention it, it does seem like a good thing to add for the record. Yeah.
321 Great. So for Portland police in the past year, and this includes all coverages. So not just sort of as we've been talking with protest claims where there might be like use of force or civil rights allegations, but also like auto liability if there's a, you know, vehicle collision, general liability, employment liability, things like that. So with all of my caveats in the past year, the total paid out for plaintiffs and claimants has been 12,977 and $0.41 for legal costs. That is 8792 and $0.03. And then expenses. So that can be like deposition transcripts, you know, expert witnesses for litigation, things like that. It's $1,038.72 for the past five years. Those totals. So I have for the one year, that was all property damage. Our files have the money sort of separated between property damage. And then like injury, bodily injury, which includes those civil rights. And like constitutional claims. And those are for the total paid out including both injury and property damage. But I can break that down further if you'd like. Is 4,525,367 and $0.29. And for our legal costs, that is. $6,487,107.57. And then expenses is $404,104.19.
322 Thank you, miss ravitch. And I think that's very helpful information contextually for the fiscal responsibility element and also shows a trend downward. And I want to recognize that as well. And I appreciate the representatives here for bringing up the policy change as well. I want to make sure that I also recognize the fourth thing, which is that asking a bureau director or their designee attend and be able to speak. And I appreciate dci myers being online and commander dobson for being here. Is there anything that you would like to add about the ppb's work to, to sort of ensure that we're not asked to pay out another $900,000 in the future on a similar type of claim?
323 Thank you. Thank you, madam president, as well as council. We have worked not only, as it was mentioned, city or state law has changed. We changed our policy. We now have body worn cameras to hold us more accountable to those things as well. We've changed our training as well. We have accepted the national tactical officers association's standards. We actually train our our normal officers to a standard that a team of a tier three team would be, which is eight hours a year. And our team that we have reconstituted receives 96 hours of those hours. It's not all tactical type training. It includes also de-escalation training, training on decision making, training on lots of the theory side of crowd theory and how does that work as well. And so with that, we believe going forward that there will be less. We have mitigated much of the exposure that we had prior.
324 Thank you so much. And I also just want to observe that when chief day was here, he also noted that he'd read the citizen review committee report on crowd control as well, and that was a part of it. So I appreciate the transparency there. And that concludes my questions.
325 Councilor Clark.
326 Thank you, madam president. I just want to express my appreciation to the legal team for briefing us in advance. I think we all had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and get a lot of answers, and I appreciate that. And I also think that we have all learned a lot since 2020 and obviously change practices, and I appreciate that as well. So thank you very much.
327 Thank you. Councilor.
328 Councilor Morillo.
329 Thank you, madam president. First, I want to thank the legal team for putting this together so well. It was extremely helpful, as councilor Clark said, to get the briefing beforehand and to hear about everything going on. And I want to also thank councilor Canal for laying out those questions. I think very beautifully to kind of point out the fact that we are in a budget deficit and we're having these hard budget conversations and the cost of these settlements for our taxpayers and for us as decision makers is not something that can be ignored. And I hope that as we move forward into another difficult time where people are going to be expressing their first amendment rights, and the tensions will be high, that our police bureau is prepared to handle things with as much de-escalation as possible. It kind of hurts my heart a little bit, revisiting some of this as someone who was in person for a lot of these things, I remember back then I was 110 pounds soaking wet and the, you know, wearing a little raincoat and the aggression that I received from police at that time was quite intense when I was doing essentially nothing other than standing around. I know some of the plaintiffs to just seeing viscerally how small some of these people are and how truly non-threatening they are in the face of fully armored police that look like bionicles. If anyone knows those 90s toys, you know it's there's a real difference in in that power and how you have to exert it. So I don't know. It's surfacing a lot for me revisiting some of this. I also think that we, as the city council, have a responsibility to right past wrongs and to make sure that we're doing right by our constituents, both as people who are expressing their first amendment rights in our city and who are taxpayers. And I think that there are improvements that have been made. Obviously, our police have body worn cameras and things like that, but I don't want to. I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that a camera in the hands of a civilian, a camera in the hands of a journalist, is a very different tool. You can capture a lot of different things based on who is behind the camera and whose perspective is being shared and what they're choosing to cover, and that that is something that's really critically important to protect. And the there is a lot of beauty, in my opinion, in those who are willing to bear witness to what is happening in order to record these moments in history so that we can fight for a more just future. So I want our colleagues to remember that the importance of citizen journalists and legal observers as well in this process, and I am grateful for all the work that was put into addressing the past harm. And I hope that we can move into a future where we don't have to do this again. Thank you.
330 Thank you, councilor, councilor Smith.
331 Thank you, madam president. I just want to say to the plaintiffs, I am so sorry that you had to go through that. And I had a question in terms of, was there any video on this, on any of these instances?
332 Yes, I mean some sorry.
333 Go ahead.
334 Oh, yes. You know, not for a lot of them, but for some of them. Yes.
335 And for which ones?
336 I think.
337 If we can.
338 Go through each of them.
339 I guess what I'm. So let me make it a little bit easier. Was that how you came to the conclusion that we should settle? Was it based on the video?
340 Not. Not solely. It was part of the analysis. Yes, yes.
341 And your sense was that we would be in court for the next so many months or years, and that it would be cheaper just to pay out a settlement.
342 I. You know, what I would say is, is no, I think that's too reductive. It's not simply about time. I also want to be mindful of the fact to not, you know, I basically I don't want it to have sort of attorney client privilege conversations. You know, in this open setting, I would be very happy, you know, to, to give, to give, you know, a sort of private briefing about the risk analysis. But definitely, yes, it was it was based on a review of the evidence and the case and a variety of considerations.
343 Okay. Thank you so much.
344 Thank you.
345 We are the client.
346 The public.
347 Is the client.
348 Councilors I don't see any other comments in the queue. I'll just add that I appreciate you beginning the information you shared with us today, with sharing what has changed, because one of the questions that I think is really important to always ask when we hear about settlements is what we've learned and what we're doing different. I never want to hear that. We have to settle for the same issues more than once. I know that will happen sometimes, but I think that's a worst case scenario, and I appreciate hearing that. Not only are we bound by change state laws, but that we have also changed our own procedures and our own directives within our police bureau here. I hope that that means that we won't see a settlement like this again. Councilor Kanal noted that we're seeing a downward trend. We also have had some easier years, the last few years, and I hope that if we have harder years, we continue to see those changed directives, changing what things look like so we don't have to see settlements like this in the future. Thank you all for being here. Councilor Clark, are you back in the queue or is that an old hand? Okay. Councilors, this is an emergency ordinance. We do need a motion to pass the ordinance and approve the settlement.
349 So moved. Moved.
350 Second.
351 Okay. Thank you for the change there, councilor Novick. Rebecca, could you please call the roll?
352 Avalos.
353 I agree with the overall sentiment that we want to reduce these kinds of settlements because we're reducing the incidents. So I will continue to look at that from a policy perspective. As a councilor, I vote I.
354 Dunphy a Smith.
355 No. Canal.
356 So start a note on the process. Thanks for answering the questions. I hope we move towards us being in the presentation and the document in the future. We shouldn't have to ask, and neither should the public for transparency. But I really appreciate the explanation of the state law directive changes and the work that pb has done in several places, including training changes and the differences and increased training not only for the pt but for other teams. This is how a presentation on a settlement should go when parks are coming up, when fire has a settlement or any other bureau that should apply. Equally, it's not a police thing. Transparency and fiscal responsibility should apply to everyone. Moving now to the content and the specific specifics of this, I want to talk about the circumstances that lead to a settlement like this in the first place, because they may come up again. As the council president noted, Portland saw a lot of protests in 2020. With the second trump term underway, we might see more in the future. Public protest cannot result in civil rights violations, and we cannot erase the first amendment in the context, especially of the trump administration. But even otherwise, we must respect the public's right to peacefully assemble and to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure as well as the fourth amendment. But because of the patterns here, I think we also need to start a conversation about how crowd intervention and crowd control can best be handled to support public safety without compromising first and fourth amendment rights. Because portlanders who are peacefully protesting or engaged in nonviolent civil obedience shouldn't have to fear for their physical safety. Another consideration is the potentially increased risk of liability that the city faces when it coordinates with federal law enforcement and protest response. The plaintiffs in this case also sued dhs and the us marshals in connection with incidents in the summer of 2020, and given that the likelihood in the current administration is that there will be more protests, and that those protests may be about the actions of the federal government, in particular ice, we may need to be prepared for both how we're going to handle not only our own police's response, but what we're going to do if and when federal agents show up. And in either case, Portland has a responsibility to safeguard its residents civil rights and uphold the constitution. So I appreciate what everyone brought up about the overall fiscal situation as well. In particular, councilor Morillo on this and make sure that we're acting in a from a space of fiscal prudence as well. But with that said, I do vote. I thank you.
357 Brian.
358 The protests and riots of recent years, especially those directed at the police who are the at who are the same frontline public servants who are called to provide crowd control, were complex and have provided a learning opportunity for local governments and law enforcement agencies. Perhaps nowhere in the country is this more obvious than in Portland. The toll that the protest intensity and duration of 2020 had on our city's residents, and on those in local law enforcement personnel was dramatic and has been lasting. Ppb has made changes to its practices and policies in response to more than 100 days of protest. Thank goodness we finally joined most cities in the country with body worn cameras. My greatest hope is that our city evolves from past violent expressions of disagreement, to showing civility during conflict and respect for our beautiful city. Although this amount seems extreme, I vote in support of the hard work of our legal team has been through a.
359 Koyama Lane I.
360 Morillo.
361 I hope that this brings some peace to the folks who went through this process, and that you feel that we have taken some responsibility here, and as many of my other colleagues have stated, we will continue to ensure that there is strong police accountability at the city so that we don't have to pay these settlements and these types of situations moving forward.
362 I vote yea Novick.
363 I was very pleased to see the widespread support for this settlement. I feel compelled to note that this is a time when freedom of the press is under assault, in a way that we probably have not seen since the first world war. And if I were a praying man, I would pray that we still have a free press four years from now. And finally, I hope that councilor Morillo did not mean to suggest that as a general matter, small people cannot be dangerous, because I would take offense to that. I.
364 Clark Clark. I Green.
365 I hope the settlement brings some closure to the plaintiffs, who have sought for nearly five years to find some measure of accountability and remedy for the infringed upon upon their rights by the Portland police bureau. This nearly million dollar settlement is a statement by the city that by the evidence, they believe they are likely to lose this case in court, and that judgment would show that the plaintiffs were unjustly harmed and their rights infringed upon. As one of the people that was out there many nights myself, I saw with my own eyes. So I'm not surprised to see this this case brought forward and so many others did as well. So I do appreciate that the bureau has revised its policies and has taken some proactive measure. But this outcome reaffirms to me, reaffirms for me a commitment to an independent oversight system that produces real accountability upstream to prevent this kind of suppression of free expression rights. And I'll be working to make sure that that's something that's that's in place on this council. So I vote yay, Zimmerman.
366 Hi.
367 Pirtle-guiney. I and the ordinance is passed with 11 I votes and one no vote.
368 Thank you all. One other. Ordinance. It is a worker's comp claim. So a little bit different from this settlement. Rebecca, could you please read the agenda item?
369 Item ten pay workers compensation claims of jerome johnson for $100,000 involving Portland parks and recreation.
370 Thank you. And we have, I believe, linda and vicki bisbee. And it looks like vicki's online. Perfect to share some information with us about this agenda item.
371 Great.
372 Thank you. Council president.
373 And councilors. My name is lynn vu. I am a chief. Deputy city attorney. On line.
374 With me is vicki bisbee.
375 Who is a senior claims analyst. With risk. Management. To provide.
376 You with some background.
377 On this settlement, jerome. Johnson worked for.
378 Portland parks and.
379 Worked for Portland parks and recreation.
380 Rebecca, is it possible to turn the volume up on the mic?
381 It is not. Our volume is maxed. You're going to have to.
382 Use your voice.
383 Speak straight to the microphone and project. All right.
384 I apologize.
385 For that. I will start over. I will provide you with a little bit of background on the settlement. Jerome johnson worked for Portland parks and recreation as an arborist for. On July.
386 26th.
387 2021, mr. Johnson sustained a work injury while removing a fallen tree branch that was blocking the road. Risk management, which is tasked with administering the city's workers compensation program, accepted the claim and processed it pursuant to state law. To date, the city has provided mr. Johnson with benefits under his worker's compensation in the form of medical services. Time loss, permanent disability benefits, and vocational assistance. Mr. Johnson, through his attorney, has requested a settlement of the remaining benefits to which he might be entitled to under his workers compensation claim. This is what the settlement reflects. Under the terms of the settlement, mr. Johnson will retain his rights to medical benefits under this claim, so long as the there's there remains a material relationship between the need for the medical benefits and his work injuries. I will stop now and then. If you have any questions for me or for miss bisbee, we're happy to respond to them.
388 And, rebecca, do we have any public testimony? Signed up for this agenda item?
389 We do not.
390 Okay, counselors, any comments? Councilor Kanal.
391 Thank you. And that, madam president, thank you for also pointing out that there is some similarity, but difference between this item and the previous one. Nonetheless, one portion of it does apply. Could you please let us know on the record the total paid out in workers compensation claims related to Portland parks and recreation in the last year, and the last 4 or 5 years, whatever's more convenient?
392 Yes. And we're talking about the total amount of benefits paid. Is that your question?
393 Yeah. In in similar situations to this one, there's a claim that's been coming in that relates to Portland park specifically.
394 Sure, sure. So over this, this current fiscal year, the total amount of benefits paid when I checked in with risk management last year is just a little bit under $86,000. It would not include most of the payment that's already been made for this claim. For the previous five years, fiscal year starting July 1st, 2019, about a little under $2.7 million have been paid out for parks. Portland parks and rec workers compensation claims about $600,000 of that represents payments on this claim.
395 Thank you. And then the second and final question is, are there any policy implications of this particular incident? Is there anything pienaar could do from a policy perspective, or which they've already done to reduce the likelihood of us being asked for $100,000 for a similar claim in the future?
396 So when work injuries such as this one occurs by state law, employees are tasked with with performing a root cause analysis. And so part of that analysis is what went wrong. What could we do better? I would say that in this case, all the employees who were involved were doing everything correctly. This particular job classification falls within one of those job classifications. That carries a little bit higher risk. They work at elevated heights. They also use lots of power tools. So when I checked in with parks and rec, with their risk team, what they did tell me was that one change that they have made is when they prepare a work plan. If there is any change to that work plan, they will stop and make sure everyone is on board and understands what the plan is or the change is and what the plan will be going forward. Thank you. Sure. My pleasure.
397 Councilor Smith.
398 Thank you, madam president. Question. You had talked about that this settlement would include benefits that he would have ordinarily received. Could you tell me what those benefits would have been?
399 Yes. So under workers compensation laws, injured workers are entitled to a slate of benefits. Particular to this claim is mr. Johnson would be entitled to a vocational assistance benefits as one of the primary costs. My understanding is that he would have been approved or was approved to engage in a vocational training plan that would have lasted about 18 months. So that's that's one one potential. Well, actually one actual benefit. The other are injured workers retain aggravation rights for a period of five years after a claim closes. So he may be entitled to additional time loss and disability. And then related costs for medical benefits, of course.
400 So was it the issue that he did not pursue voc rehab?
401 That is correct.
402 And did he say why he didn't pursue voc rehab?
403 I don't have any insight to that. Councilor Smith those conversations would have been between mr. Johnson's attorney and. Okay.
404 Thank you.
405 Councilors. Any other discussion? Okay. And, rebecca, do we need a motion on this item or do we just move forward with a roll call vote?
406 We can just take the vote.
407 Okay.
408 Avalos.
409 I.
410 Dunphy. I.
411 Smith. I canal. I Ryan.
412 Yeah. I just want to support the legal council's recommendation for the resolution of this case. And I want to thank mr. Johnson for his years of service to our city.
413 I vote yea Koyama Lane. I Morillo. I Novick. I Clark. I Green. I Zimmerman. I pirtle-guiney.
414 Perhaps I should have said this in discussion. I will say it now, though I said earlier, I always ask what can we do better? And I understand that accidents happen and that many of our employees across bureaus have very dangerous jobs where accidents do happen. But I hope that parks has looked very carefully at whether there's anything else they could do to ensure that our employees who put their own lives on the risk, on, on the line every day, are as safe as possible when they go to work. That's something that I think is really critically important. I vote I.
415 The ordinance is passed with 12 I votes.
416 Thank you.
417 Thank you very much, counselors. We are going to hear the next four agenda items together. They are all related to foreclosures. I'm going to have the clerk read all four agenda items. We will open it up for a presentation and discussion on all four, and then we will vote on each one separately. Rebecca, could you please call all four agenda items numbers 11 through 14?
418 Item 11 initiate foreclosure action on 11514 southeast alder street for the collection of delinquent city liens placed against the property. Item 12 initiate foreclosure action on 10218 north tyler avenue for the collection of delinquent city liens placed against the property. Item 13 initiate foreclosure action on 111 northeast killingsworth street for the collection of delinquent city liens placed against the property, and item 14 initiate foreclosure action on 4121 northeast grand avenue for the collection of delinquent city liens placed against the property.
419 Thank you. And dca, barry, would you like to kick off the presentation and introduce your team?
420 Yeah, great.
421 Thank you.
422 Madam president. Council, for the record, my name is.
423 Jonas barry.
424 Deputy city administrator for budget and finance and the city's chief financial officer council. Each of the four ordinances before you today begins foreclosure procedure proceedings against a property with delinquent city liens, each of which properties are eligible for foreclosure under administrative rule 14.1, the collections and foreclosure process. And I believe we're getting a presentation loaded up by way of introduction. These liens were placed against the properties by Portland permitting and development for code enforcement violations. The liens are delinquent and the violations have not been corrected. Each property comes before council as part of a coordinated city effort by Portland permitting and development and the revenue division to actively pursue remedies including foreclosure for vacant and distressed properties. Each of these properties has been identified as causing significant problems for neighbors, and has been the subject of multiple and frequent police calls and or numerous enforcement activities. The foreclosure prevention manager and the revenue division has reviewed each case to ensure it meets the criteria for foreclosure. He has also reviewed whether any aggravating or mitigating conditions exist within the case history, that would prevent the city from moving forward with foreclosure, or would warrant an adjustment of lien amounts the property owner and parties of interest have received notification of pending foreclosure action. Today, you'll hear from the foreclosure prevention manager, kevin foster, about the properties recommended to be included on the foreclosure list for sale. Also in the room, sharon nickleberry rogers from the revenue division, representative from city attorney mark rodriguez, city treasurer bridget o'callahan and mike leifield, with Portland permitting and development are also available. And with that, I'll hand it over to kevin.
425 Good afternoon, council.
426 For the record.
427 I'll start by stating my name.
428 My name is kevin foster.
429 I am the foreclosure.
430 Prevention manager.
431 For the city.
432 Next slide please.
433 Portland permitting.
434 And development, the city attorney revenue division and the city treasurer.
435 Are the team.
436 That works on foreclosures for the city. I'm going to start.
437 By.
438 Giving a high level overview.
439 Of what each team member does, Portland.
440 Permitting and development recommends. Priority properties to the revenue division.
441 For foreclosure.
442 The city attorney reviews each property. And identifies.
443 Barriers to. Foreclosure and advises. Us on. Legal matters.
444 The revenue division reviews delinquent accounts, reviews the recommendations from Portland permitting and development and our city attorney.
445 Prior to.
446 Moving a property.
447 Forward with foreclosure.
448 Consideration, the revenue division makes attempts to engage the property owner in a resolution.
449 For their property.
450 And the city treasurer conducts the foreclosure sale.
451 Next slide please. This targeted.
452 Approach for.
453 Foreclosure started back.
454 In 2016. This was in response to address the vacant.
455 And distressed.
456 Properties throughout the city. The city wanted to minimize the adverse effects that these types of properties.
457 Cause in.
458 The neighborhoods.
459 That they.
460 Are in. The goal.
461 Of this foreclosure program is not to foreclose on the property, but.
462 The goal is to motivate the owner to correct.
463 The violation on their property and put the property back into.
464 A productive use.
465 Foreclosure is.
466 Used as a last resort when all other.
467 Options have. Been exhausted. Next slide please.
468 These are some of the.
469 Characteristics of what the referral, what the foreclosure referrals will look like. They start with the community. Member complaint against the property. Which is routed through Portland permitting and development for each property.
470 That is referred.
471 To foreclosure. I will order a police.
472 Calls for service report.
473 This report. This report identifies the. Police calls that have been called to the property. The dates I use are the date that the first lien was assessed to the property through the current date.
474 All.
475 All the properties.
476 That.
477 I.
478 Will present.
479 Today have a record.
480 Of police involvement.
481 These properties typically have complaints for unlawful occupants at the property, uncared for, landscaping, excessive trash and debris being left at the property. If the owner doesn't clean it up the property, the city then incurs costs for having to hire a private contractor to do the maintenance of the property. We insure all properties are vacant. We do not want any lawful occupant occupant displaced by our foreclosure program. Last week, Portland permitting and development went to each property that I will present today and confirmed there were no lawful occupants at the property. The owners of these properties are typically unresponsive to our letters, our phone calls, and they're not motivated by the incentives to correct the violation with these. With these violations going uncorrected and nothing being done, over time, the properties get worse. Next slide please. The city offers many opportunities for property owners to correct the violations and solve the delinquencies on their properties. One option available is the lien reduction review program. After the case is closed, property owners can apply to have their lien reviewed for a reduction in the balance due. Engaged owners who qualify are given fee waivers to allow time for them to work on the property and correct the violation. In the revenue division, we offer payment plans we can extend up to 60 months. We can also offer hardship plans that extend out to 12 months. We're also willing to work with property owners to come up with a mutual agreement to bring about a resolution in a reasonable time frame. Consideration is given to those with financial, medical, or other hardships beyond the owner's control. We are not able to waive all fees, hard costs incurred by the city, such as for cleanup, demolition, etc. We are not able to waive those fees once a property is approved for foreclosure. All of these options are no longer available. Next slide please. These are the results of our foreclosure program since its inception in 2016, 57 properties were referred to foreclosure or referred for foreclosure consideration. 42 of those properties paid off prior to the foreclosure sale. $2.2 million has been recovered, 74% of the foreclosure referrals avoided foreclosure. Ten properties have been sold at city foreclosure sales, $1.3 million in proceeds was received from the sales. Because of the consistency of this program, owner engagement has has significantly increased since I started in this position in may of 2023, when I received this round of foreclosures, we started with ten properties. Next slide please. Today I will present four properties for residential properties with a combined total of 12 liens. All of the properties have code enforcement and nuisance liens on them. Roughly 265,000 is owed. Next slide please. This is just a map showing you where the properties are located in our city. Next slide please. This property is located at 115111514 southeast alder street. This property is located in district one. There are two liens against the property delinquent since 2020 for roughly $6,700 is owed. The property owner is deceased and the heir to the property is the owner's son lives out of state. The son's plan is to sell the property after probate is closed. The cases are closed on the property and the son did agree to a payment plan, which was to start last month. He has not returned the agreement or made the initial payment for the payment plan. That's why I'm proceeding forward. If the agreement and payment is received prior to second reading, I will have this removed from the foreclosure list. The property complaints on this property are for unlawful occupancy and trash and debris being left at the property. Next slide please. The next property is located at 10218 north tyler avenue. This property is located in district two. There's one lien against the property delinquent since 2008, with $232,000 owed, this property has been vacant for several years. Portions of the roof have collapsed, leaving it open to the outside. Elements inside the home. Inside the home, portions of the wall. Inside the home, portions of the wall coverings have excessive amounts of mold and mildew growing on them. The top picture is a is the current condition of the backyard. It appears there may be some someone camping back there. Most recent complaints indicate that there is a rodent problem generating from this property. The property owner did reach out to me and asked for six additional six months to figure something out, as a way to rectify the problem. After reviewing the situation, the delinquency date, and considering all people that are being affected by the property in this condition, I've decided we're moving it forward with foreclosure consideration. Next slide please. The next property is located at 111 northeast killingsworth, northeast killingsworth street. This property is located in district two. There are two liens against the property. The delinquent since 2024 with $6,800 owing. This property had two fires at it in 2022. The fire caused severe damage to the roof and structure of the home. This property is covered in debris, is covered in graffiti. In the past, there has been problems with unlawful occupants at the property. This property has generated many complaints. This property was approved for foreclosure by council in September of 2023. Prior to the foreclosure sale, the owner paid off the liens, causing us to remove it from the list. I have been speaking with the owner and they are currently in negotiations with habitat for humanity to purchase the property. Habitat for humanity plans to demolish the property, demolish the property and build four townhomes on the property. Next slide please. The next property is located at 4121 northeast grand avenue. This property is also located in district two. There are seven liens against the property. Delinquent sent to delinquent since 2020, with $19,600 owed. This property is a vacant lot originally purchased in 2016. The property was to be developed into a three story, 18 unit apartment building. The owner has not moved forward with the plans to build the apartment complex. The lot continues to have complaints for excessive vegetation growing, which is impeding the sidewalk. There are constant cases of debris and trash being left on site. Also, unlawful occupants were seen camping at the property. There's been no engagement from the owner, and the city is continuing to incur costs for having to maintain the property. Next slide please. The next steps in the city's foreclosure process. Council will vote at the next hearing on whether to move forward with these ordinances. If approved, it will authorize the council treasurer. The city will authorize the city treasurer to conduct the foreclosure sale. Property owners may pay the amount owed up until the sale date. After the sale, the former property owner can still reclaim the property during the 90 day redemption period. Thank you. That will conclude my report. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
482 Thank you very much. Before we move on to councilor Comments, rebecca, do we have any public testimony signed up for any of these agenda items?
483 No one has signed up.
484 Okay, councilor Smith.
485 Thank you, madam president. Thank you so much for the presentation. Could you tell me how much in assessed value did you did you assess before giving the foreclosure? What's the assessed value of the properties, the four properties.
486 That information I don't have readily available.
487 And the second one, the people that you think that there's some camping going on, have we given them some information about getting shelter.
488 That I can't speak to? That would be something the housing inspector would have to.
489 The who.
490 That would be something that the housing inspector would be in charge of. I could probably defer to mike with Portland permitting and development.
491 Hello? Mike. Portland permitting and development. Typically, our inspectors will try to make contact with occupants at the property. If they're available to speak with us, we can inform them of safety net programs, resources available. But oftentimes we're not able to find somebody. So we're not out there surveilling the property. It's a site visit. We check on it a couple times, but oftentimes we don't come face to face with anyone to have that conversation or legal notices go out to the listed property owner.
492 Right. I saw a couple of the tents where they were on site, and so I didn't know if someone was in those tents when you took the pictures. And so I just wanted to make sure that we offered them some resources for them to get off the streets so that they could have some safe and secure place to lay their head instead of on a foreclosed property, particularly the one that has rodents on them. There's one in district one, but I just wanted to make sure that no one is living in those properties, or if they are squatting, that we're giving them proper information.
493 We do our best with our right to entry when we perform those inspections. And oftentimes when we do these occupancy verifications, we're limited to the right of way. Or we can get permission from other properties, but we don't have explicit rights of entry to go knock on structures or announce ourselves and have people come out of temporary structures to talk with us.
494 Thank you.
495 Councilor Ryan.
496 Thank you, madam president. Thank you, kevin foster, for the presentation. And, jonas, can you explain to all of us that it was it was moved to three months. We voted on that last year. The journey after we vote on it to foreclosure. Correct. What was it before that?
497 It was one year.
498 That's what I thought. So. So that's kind of why I need to bring up the 111 northeast killingsworth property. That's been a long journey. And we did vote on that. And you're now on. So when I saw this on the agenda, I was quite surprised. And then you said that that the owner came about and made a payment. Could you explain that? Because I didn't receive any communication as a public elected official who has worked hard to advocate for many neighbors, some who had to, who have left the neighborhood over that property, could you explain when that happened and why there was no communication?
499 Sure. So we were preparing for the foreclosure sale in April of last year. The foreclosure sales are held on Monday. The owner actually paid the balance due on that Friday. So we it was a last minute thing. So we removed it immediately.
500 You removed it after we voted to do the foreclosure. So you removed it as an administrator, correct?
501 No no, no, we removed it after the owner paid off the delinquent liens and he paid him off right before the foreclosure sale.
502 My point on making, kevin, is that when we make these, when we do these votes, especially now that we're in district government and we're going to be closer to the constituents that we're communicating with. When there's a change like that, we need to ensure that your office communicates with the public, elected officials so they know what has changed.
503 Definitely. We will definitely do that going forward.
504 Okay. I was surprised to see this, and I hope that this journey goes much faster because that's been delinquent and causing challenges for that neighborhood for quite some time. Thank you. I think that's the point that I really needed to deliver. Thanks.
505 Councilor Green.
506 Thank you, madam president. Thanks for the presentation. I'm curious about the rules governing the process by which you move from code enforcement, delinquency liens to foreclosure. The opportunity to get it out of that status, go back in a couple steps and then, you know, go forward. Is that something the city controls by ordinance? Is that the county is it a state? State law? The city controls that. Okay. I just I asked the question because I think we are we are in a housing crisis and we cannot afford to spend years on properties. I many of these many of these owners are llcs, developers, trusts who, who who made speculative plays. And we're asking people in our community to suffer and wait for affordable housing so that these owners can realize the full value of their expected play. And so I would encourage us to think about policy that speeds this up and allows us to dispose of these properties in a much faster pace. That's the only comment I would like to make.
507 Second counselor Zimmerman.
508 Thanks, madam president. Counselor Smith, I have an answer for your question about assessed value. The total assessed value is $494,000 of assessed value. That's not real market. If you want the details of each one. I did that too. I have a question relative to because I've done this on the county side as it relates to not paying your taxes. So looking at these properties, I imagine there are some who also are delinquent in their property taxes. If that is the case and these are sold. Does the county property tax roll get made whole during the sale?
509 I'm going to defer to mark on that one.
510 Excuse yourself.
511 Good afternoon.
512 Councilors mark rodriguez, deputy.
513 City attorney. So can you just jump in? Can you repeat the question?
514 So I'm making an assumption that at least for some of these, they probably are also delinquent with their property taxes in the case where they are foreclosed. And then we sell is the county from its property tax collection standpoint made whole at the point of sale.
515 So not necessarily.
516 They can be so as foreclosure is being essentially and legally speaking it's a debt collection process. Right. So the sales price and the formula that's in the rules too. And they're state law that provides for this as well. But a 75% of the assessed value, market value or the liens plus cost of sale and so forth, whichever is greater. So that's the starting bid, whatever the end sale price is at the bid during the foreclosure sale, the city is paid back first from the sale proceeds. Right. And so the balance of that there is per rule or per administrative rule, now a sequence of order of events. So whoever is a lien holder, there's essentially priority tax usually has the highest priority. So depending on that and the amount that it was sold, a portion would in collaboration with the county. And we asked the same from them sometimes to pay the proceeds. And then other lien holders would be notified as well. So and essentially any surplus of that after the amount owed goes back to the property owner.
517 It goes back to the property.
518 And the surplus of proceeds goes back to the property owner that we're foreclosing on, that the city is foreclosing on. Does that make sense?
519 Okay, since I'm hearing whispers around the dais, I think it's worthy of a little discussion. So you foreclose on my property? I'm owed both the city because I'm. I'm allowed trash. I have code compliance issues. I have that lien. I also haven't paid a few years worth of taxes, and it sells for $100,000. But my debt to those two agencies was only $20,000. The remaining 80,000 goes to me as the property owner and not the city who foreclosed on it. Am I getting that correct?
520 That's correct.
521 Okay. And so are we then taking ownership of these properties at any point?
522 Yes. The foreclosure sale. Well, no, sorry, not the city. So during the foreclosure sale, it's an auction, right? So whoever bids the highest ends up the owner of the property.
523 Okay. Thanks. I think that clarified some things. Like I said, I've done this on the county side only from the tax perspective before, so appreciate that. Just in general. And I'll be quick. I just I appreciate that we are doing this and I and councilor Green, I appreciate your comments as well. I think these are blights on the neighborhood and they have real impact across neighborhoods in a way that is on the news almost every day and immeasurable at the local level if you're on the street with these. But I just want to highlight for the fact that I think some of our staff have tried previously and have been told not by this council in the in the past era, but by individual commissioners about how we're going to approach code compliance, particularly related to homes. And they were they code compliance at different times was told, we're not going to do that. And what it does is it creates these gaping holes of problems. And so any modern society, any, any city our size has some aspect of this work and it is important and it has third or fourth order effects in terms of the livability across neighborhoods. And so I appreciate the staff process, which is we bring these only to you in the last. This is our last effort to try and fix something. Because when we let things go too long, more of these show up. And a few years ago, we really had to turn that spigot back on because this went unchecked for way too long. And it's also, you know, you don't have to have it be occupied all the time, and you don't have to have a significant amount of money to keep things looking good. But once, once the property, you know, nosedives into becoming a problem for everybody who is just trying to get by in the neighborhood, that's when we've crossed the line. And I think that's important to note here that this is not a grab at at poverty situations. It's not a grab at vacancy situations. It's a grab on the impact that a property is having across the neighborhood. I will also say that this cannot go. This is an important action today and I'll be supportive of all of these. But to continue this same work relative to our commercial properties, and we have a number of them where we've got owners with significant means who are choosing not to do the right thing. And I'll have my eye to that as well. So thanks for the work. I'll support all of these. Thanks for clarifying some questions there. Thanks.
524 Councilor Dunphy.
525 Thank you, madam president. I want to reflect a lot of the words that my colleagues have said. We are in a housing crisis. And I also recognize that we have many exhausted neighbors across our city right now trying to deal with these properties. I have no sympathy for people who are in active negligence of their own properties. These cities, these properties, are being allowed to sit negligent and become attractive nuisances that detract from the quality of life for all the neighbors who are doing their best. That is a problem, and I will be actively having additional conversations about this in the housing and homelessness committee, including understanding what the carrot and what the stick is with regard to these vacancies. That said, I do want to raise a flag in that one of these four properties feels slightly different to me, and I'm going to be supportive of the ordinance. But the first one that is on 115th and alder, the specifics of this, looking at the amount of liens owed being roughly 15% of the assessed value, and this clearly having been an older adult who aged in place and then died, we have a we have a increasing a disproportionately aging population in Portland. A lot of times people's wealth is entirely tied to their home. And when people don't have when their kids move away, it often becomes complicated. This is obviously slightly different situation, but I just want to flag that there are older adults in our community who are struggling to be able to stay in place and to be able to maintain their options, and I know we also have additional programs around that. So I just want to make sure that we are keeping in mind that there is a difference between an institutional investor who buys a property with the intent of redeveloping, and when the market doesn't pencil the way they want, they let it sit fallow versus someone who is truly struggling to be able to maintain their home. I just wanted to get that out there and make sure that we are recognizing that there is a humane approach to this when it comes to an individual, and that we're not necessarily acting punitive toward someone who is of not of means to be able to actually maintain.
526 Councilor Kanal.
527 Thank you. I have a question. At the beginning of your presentation, mr. Foster, you mentioned police calls specifically. Is that the number? Are you looking at the dispatching out specifically to police or the 911 calls in the aggregate that relate because there are going to be fire related calls and things like that. And I'm trying to understand if those are captured.
528 Yeah, these are specific police calls. And they give how many calls came to the property within the time frame, and also what those calls were for.
529 So I'd love to see this be a part of the calculation if there's other types of first response required, because we have a broader system as well, not to erase the police portion of it that's unique, but there may be other considerations that come up as well. If it's a call that ends up going through fire or something like that, that's just a comment there. I'd also like to understand, I agree with councilor Zimmerman's point about commercial properties, and as well as just councilor Dunphy in general, but everything. But I also wanted to let the record show. He said, shucks, but the other point I wanted to make is that the city would ideally have a right of first refusal over some of these properties before they go in, and this is something that we'll need. That's the council action. I know it's not anything that our staff would be able to just do, but and I think we have a broader conversation to have around land banking and asset management and a lot of other things there that I'd like to explore. And that does relate to this conversation in a tangential at least way. But just wanted to flag that for the record. Thanks.
530 For better or worse, by allowing my colleagues to go first. Much of what I had written down has been said by councilors Dunphy and canal. I appreciate both of your comments. While properties like this are often are always a blight, they are occasionally also the only wealth development that an individual has. And as we see more of these coming forward, I'll be looking for where that line is between a property. That was a gamble, as some of my colleagues have talked about, and a gamble that the city shouldn't suffer from somebody making, and properties that are the only wealth an individual or a family has that has fallen into disrepair. I think that's an important line, and I appreciate councilor Dunphy for bringing that up. I am really interested in having the conversation that councilor Kanal brought up about why the city is selling off properties. When we hear over and over that we need to be land banking and turning properties into affordable housing, and I understand that the foreclosure process is in many ways a debt relief process, and that the delta in value of asset that we obtain goes back to the property owner. But I think that there is a policy conversation to be had about the city's role in ensuring that these properties, when they have been a blight on a community, are actually turned into an asset for that community through land, banking and development as affordable housing. I know it's a conversation not relevant to these individual items, but I think this is an important time to air that issue. Councilor Zimmerman, I see your hand back.
531 Yeah, I'm sorry, I, I was going to let it go, but while I'm supportive, I those last two comments, I just want us to think there may be no greater authority that we have than taking someone's property. And I don't want those comments to go without at least a nod to a very thorough conversation, because one of the things that makes this look not like a grab for our government is that we don't ever take control of it. We sell it out. And so I just I want to nod there. This is an important thing. These make some sense. And there are a lot of examples in the past where we have bad history. Right. And so I think we shouldn't keep things that we foreclose. I think it's in our nature, in our, in our best interest to not have that be part of the accusation ever. So and I was off by 3000 on that number earlier.
532 Councilor, I appreciate that point. And I think that's why we need to have the policy conversation at some point. Councilor Clark.
533 Thank you, madam chair. I was just going to suggest that we put a pin in this for the housing committee and definitely look at it, because there may be other options than us just taking it. Maybe we turn it over to a nonprofit in the area. There's got to be lots of other options for this. Thank you.
534 Councilor Kanal I'm so sorry, but councilor Clark's comment made me think of something you mentioned. One of them is potentially in the process of being sold to habitat for humanity.
535 Yes.
536 How would this process interact with that possibility?
537 Okay, so if they move forward with foreclosure, the property owner, they have a 90 day redemption after the foreclosure sale. So if they close, because the property will still be in the current owner's name, if they close on that sale prior to the redemption period ending the sale, the sale will go through.
538 Thank you.
539 Councilors. Any other discussion? Okay. These are ordinances that are non emergency ordinances. So we actually are not voting today. This is a first reading. They'll move to second reading at our next council meeting. Rebecca do you need any action from us other than an acknowledgment that we've now had the discussion and are moving forward?
540 No. We're good. All items will move to second reading at March 19th 6 p.m. Meeting.
541 So we will see these back on the agenda at our evening meeting later this month. Thank you all for.
542 Being here today.
543 Thank you.
544 Councilors. The final item on our agenda is a land transfer. Rebecca, could you please read the agenda item.
545 Item 15 declare property located at intersection of I-405 and southwest naito parkway as surplus property, and authorize bureau of transportation to dispose of property to Oregon department of transportation in exchange for accepting property at west end of steel bridge ramps.
546 Thank you. And counselors, this is also a non emergency ordinance. This is the first reading. So we are hearing information today. And then it will go to second reading. We'll turn it over to our dca to give us some more information and introduce your team.
547 Thank you. Good afternoon madam president. Madam vice president and members of the council, I am priya paul, deputy city administrator for public works. This item comes from Portland bureau of transportation and seeks authorization to facilitate a land swap between the city and Oregon department of transportation. The purpose of this land exchange is to consolidate property property rights at the west end of the steel bridge, enabling Portland parks and recreation to construct and maintain the future old town skate park. By doing this, the city can move forward with this project while ensuring that PBOT, ODOT, and TriMet can continue to operate and maintain their respective facilities in and around the site. This agreement represents a collaborative effort between multiple agencies to maximize the use of public land for both transportation and recreation, and with council's approval, we will take an important step towards activating the space for community use while maintaining critical infrastructure. And now I'm pleased to introduce kevin pawlak, supervisor with PBOT real property services, and travis ruble, Portland parks and recreation capital project manager.
548 Thank you, dca. Thank you, council.
549 President, for introducing the ordinance.
550 Good afternoon.
551 City councilors. For the record, my name is kevin boec.
552 I'm a.
553 Supervisor in pbot's real property services group here to discuss the property transactions associated with the old town skate park at the west end of the steel bridge. Before I discuss the proposed transfers, I'd like to turn it over to travis ruble, capital program manager from Portland parks and recreation.
554 Thank you. Kevin. My name.
555 Is.
556 Travis ruble. I'm a.
557 Capital project.
558 Manager for Portland parks and recreation. Thank you for allowing us here today to talk about this very important project. I'd like to start with a little history. Over 20 years ago, Portland parks and recreation began working with an appointed advisory committee known as the skate park leadership advisory team, otherwise known as splat, to develop a citywide skate park plan. This plan identified steel bridge skate park as the largest regional skate park destination. Council approval of this land swap agreement will mark a major milestone on realizing the vision set forth long ago by so many advocates of the project, including splat and many others. In fiscal year 2324, then parks commissioner Dan Ryan allocated $15 million in sdc funding and was joined by prosper Portland with an additional $364,000 in project funding. This skate park system plan, which was approved by council in 2008, included over 35 public meetings, analyzed over 350 sites with a focus on equity for all wheel riders. The plan identified 13 skate parks excuse me, skate spots, five district skate parks, and one regional skate park. The steel bridge skate park in old town. Upon council approval of this land swap agreement today, we will continue our community engagement plan with our current 18 member project advisory team. Site investigation work will move forward with survey, geotechnical and environmental investigation, and design concepts will begin in earnest. And with that, I'll turn it back over to kevin.
559 Thanks, travis. Appreciate it.
560 Before you today.
561 Pbot is requesting council declare surplus. The property currently located within the I-405 freeway and the southwest naito parkway overpass, outlined in red and highlighted in yellow, and sell the city's remaining undivided interest to ODOT.
562 In exchange.
563 Odot will sell its remaining undivided interest to the city in portions of property outlined in red. Located at the west end of the steel bridge, the background behind the property transfer is that both sites are jointly owned. Remnants from the 1940s era harbor freeway, in which the city owned a 60% undivided interest and ODOT owned 40% undivided interest. A successful trade of these property interests will result in each agency having sole ownership of their respective parcels. To get here, PBOT went through the city surplus process. In 2024, the property was declared to be assessed to pbot's needs and was then formally submitted for citywide review. Having received no interest from other bureaus, PBOT is requesting that council formally designate the property as surplus in accordance with adm 13.02 2a1 and two. This property is eligible for disposition under a category one determination. Both ODOT and city staff concurred that the property rights had similar values, therefore, no additional compensation is required. The proposed council action before you today is to declare the city property at I-405 and southwest naito parkway as surplus, and authorize PBOT to transfer the city's 60% undivided interest to ODOT in exchange for odot's 40% undivided interest in the steel bridge site. In addition, within one year of recording the property transfer deeds between the city and ODOT parks and PBOT will enter into a written agreement that describes the boundaries of the steel bridge. Skate park, creates springing easements or other protections for operation and maintenance of the steel bridge ramps and transfers, day to day control of the skate park property to parks, parks and PBOT would like to thank all the project partners, advocates and stakeholders that continue to support the skate park at the west end of the steel bridge. These include ODOT, TriMet prosper, Portland old town community association, steel bridge, skate park coalition, skate like a girl, and many others. Thank you councilors. We'll return to answer any additional questions and discussions after the invited testimony is over, along with any public testimony that there might be. I'd like to now introduce the invited testimony of Ryan hashagen, who is the director of the steel bridge skate park coalition.
564 Welcome, Ryan. Thank you for being here.
565 Thank you. Councilors, appreciate your time.
566 Yeah.
567 I just want to say that Portland parks splat skaters from Portland.
568 Skate parks and.
569 Many others.
570 Have been working on this.
571 For over 20 years. This day.
572 Is one to celebrate. Our group. Came into.
573 Existence in 2017 when. Pbot decommissioned a remnant harbor drive ramp through the site.
574 We conducted a ceremonial ribbon cutting, a groundbreaking and.
575 Our first.
576 Pour of concrete.
577 For.
578 The site, along.
579 With a press conference with speakers from chicks.
580 And bowls.
581 Portland's all wheels.
582 Welcome.
583 Skate like a.
584 Girl and other organizations.
585 Prosper Portland.
586 Was very supportive, provided 250 over $250,000 in initial planning, and then in 2024, commissioner Ryan stepped up and identified $15 million in sdc funds.
587 To realize.
588 This crown jewel of skate parks.
589 Councilor Ryan. Continues to be a great.
590 Champion for.
591 This project.
592 Helping provide.
593 Guidance to city staff.
594 Ensuring this project will.
595 Become.
596 A world class skate facility.
597 A new landmark for downtown Portland.
598 A track showcase.
599 Events and international talent. The skate park will.
600 Be an inclusive, welcoming public.
601 Space with.
602 Plazas for spectating. There are plans for a potential.
603 Kids section.
604 And beginner's.
605 Section that will activate the north.
606 Section of waterfront park, and also. Plaza spaces.
607 For parents, grandparents and tourists.
608 To spectate. The steel bridge skate park coalition.
609 Would like to thank.
610 City council commissioner and Portland parks.
611 Leadership and staff.
612 For all.
613 Their work on this project.
614 Project manager travis rubio deserves significant appreciation for shepherding this project through the property transfer with ODOT and PBOT, all the while keeping.
615 An eye on.
616 Building a skate park.
617 And plaza that will attract international attention. Finally. We'd like.
618 To thank the partners, the additional partners that have been crucial to the process. Individuals at prosper, including.
619 Sarah king.
620 And director shay. Flaherty benton at PBOT, gabe graf, david mceldowney, kevin balik, director millicent williams, art pearce and deputy city administrator, ODOT. We'd like.
621 To also call out.
622 To. Thank them for their their participation in the transfer as well. Odot staff, along with Ryan weinsheimer at region one and director chris strickler, have been incredibly helpful, making.
623 This process.
624 Move smoothly.
625 And then. Trimet TriMet.
626 Is going to be helpful here in the future.
627 And they've.
628 Been helpful to date. Libby, winners at TriMet has helped in the process, and they will be working. On the easements.
629 And the.
630 Access of their ramps. But they also.
631 Will.
632 Be hopefully benefiting from having activation at the old town max station. And TriMet will serve this location as a regional destination, allowing youth and others to be able to get here by transit from throughout the metro region. With that, I'd like to just say thank you, council for this landmark decision and I appreciate all your work.
633 Great.
634 Thank you very much for being here. Rebecca. Do we have any public testimony signed up?
635 We had one person signed up, libby winter. Libby. Winter. Looks like libby is not joining us. And that would conclude testimony.
636 Councilors, I see a number of hands in the queue for discussion. Councilor Zimmerman, would you like to kick us off?
637 Thanks. I put my hand up in the queue to hopefully set a tone as the district councilor for this area. I am fully supportive of this swap. I am fully appreciative of all the staff and advocates and neighbors who've been involved in this. I know absolutely nothing about skateboarding, and I think this is a testament. You can be supportive for cool stuff that you know nothing about, right? And when I when I think about old town, I've said it before, I think it's ground zero for so many of our other issues. And when you are at the north part of waterfront park, it feels like you are a mile away from land. So chinese garden, given how difficult this area of our community is just to get from one part of a neighborhood to another, it's been it's been the subject of so many challenges over the years that this is an exciting swap and an important step toward, I think, a real solution, something that's innovative and something that the neighborhood needs significantly. I want to appreciate the nods to a variety of different cultural aspects that I think are going to be highlighted by this project in the future, a nod to the improvement of walking, biking, types of transit situations in that area, and the connection that old town I think will feel by being connected to the north part of waterfront park, where we have an option besides just going across the steel bridge now. And lastly, a deep appreciation to councilor Now and former commissioner Ryan for putting some real money at this, because real money makes real things happen. So thank you for that. I hope everybody will be supportive today. Thank you.
638 Councilor Clark.
639 Thank you, madam president. This is even more shocking than learning that our councilor Zimmerman doesn't doesn't use a skateboard. I don't either. Never been on one watch my brother skateboard a lot, but what I wanted to say is that this is a classic example of intergovernmental coordination. And I'm I'm all about that. I'm a real nerd for intergovernmental relations and making these things work. And thanks to everybody. Thank you Ryan. Thank you all for making this happen. I'll just echo what councilman Zimmerman said is that this is really important to activate this part of old town, the far north part of old town. I'm really looking forward to that activation and what it can do for more than just the skateboarders, for really everybody in the area and citywide. So thank you for all the hard work over the many, many years. I really appreciate it. And thank you to councilor Ryan as well.
640 Councilor Green.
641 I'm glad that the thank you, madam president. I'm glad that the first three of us are from district four. Yeah. I just want to praise I want to start by saying I praise the staff work that went into this. I think we're in this moment now where voters are like, what the what the heck's going on at the city, what's going on in our levels of government? And this is a really good example of sort of identifying constraints and working to clear those in a very sensible way that rationalizes a problem. So keep that up. And that's a model. I also I also want to uplift as well. Councilor Ryan, your vision and support here, I know it takes a little courage to go out and say there are scarce resources and use that for this thing that I believe very strongly in, and I think it's going to support the arts and economy work we're doing in our committee. We're talking about downtown activation. You know, we're hearing from community members who are saying, you know, there's no reason for us to come downtown with my children. My children don't feel safe. Bring your children and teach them how to skateboard. We have, you know, girls skate like a girl, I think is the organization that's on there. They do great work. It's very accessible. And that's that's what the skate park is going to be. I'll note that I, I am a skater, but not a very good one. Okay. I had my career stunted when I moved to a gravel road at the age of 13. So it doesn't work out, but I but I have fond memories of hanging out at the Burnside bridge and just observing, trying to learn to skate, and feeling like a certain level of mentorship that you get from older people in the community, and learning how to behave and conduct yourself. And I think that's that's part of the skater community. It's going to lend some public safety benefits, not just to this area, but but but citywide, I mean, if we provide places for skaters to skate, then you'll, you'll see less sort of guerilla skating innovations made that people can complain about. So just to slam dunk here, I'm going to support it. And I look forward to buying a skateboard, I guess, and breaking my leg. Thanks.
642 Councilor Ryan.
643 Yes, thank you so much, madam president. And I'll just say a few things. First, I want to say when ODOT and PBOT can make a land swap, anything can happen. Thank you. I've been involved in a couple now and it's they seem to take quite long, so. Bravo. I want to also say when this investment was made from the system development charges, there was a lot of heat coming. Like why would this be a good investment? And I want to acknowledge how the hospitality community downtown, all of them were really excited about this, and it kind of makes me go back to like how the world's changed quite a bit in over 20 years. So I'll wear my uncle danny hat right now. So like all of you, I, you know, we had really bad skateboards back when I was somebody that would have done that in my teen years. They really improved. And so I watched my nephews and nieces as I got older, do that. Now they have children. They're in their early 40s, tattoos with children, and they skateboard. Right. And it was, I think, an activist thing over 20 years ago for some reason. And now it's more like, hey, this is a thing. Like, everyone really likes this and my kids want it, and I don't want to go traveling into cities like Portland when there's nothing for my kids to do. So basically, we heard from the owners of hotels and bed and breakfast and such that our clients, when they come to the city, their children are often looking for something to do, and so they will be able to hang out with the ryans of the world. And down in this wonderful park. And I think it's something that will really lift Portland once again as that magical place where we take life and joy to a different level. And so I think it's really important that we keep leaning into this. And I want to thank Ryan and all your community members for being patient. I think all of you have probably you've all aged, of course, 20 plus years on this process as well. And so it's a long time coming. And co-chair Green didn't mention because he's a humble guy. But on the next arts and economy committee meeting, we will have panels, three panels that look at investments that we're making to activate downtown, where we already are in motion. So we don't need to stop that motion. In fact, we have to expedite it. And we look forward to all of you coming to be on that panel at that, on that at that time. And I just want to let my colleagues know that we'll be drilling down into this at the next committee meeting. And with that, I'm looking forward to voting yes on this. Thanks.
644 Councilor Dunphy.
645 Thank you as quickly as I can, because I know this is the final issue, but this is not in my district anywhere close. And I am no longer a skater. But I was for quite a while. But this is the kind of complicated, community driven, cross-jurisdictional issue that I ran for office on, taking something that is currently a nuisance in the community and turning it into an asset in response to the community around it is the exact kind of thing that we should be spending our time on, finding opportunities to uplift those kinds of projects, both specifically this project as well. I'm really bullish about where the future of this and excited to be as supportive as I can, but also looking for opportunities like this in every section of our city. These are the kinds of things that the community wants us to do. They want us to take properties that are a problem and turn them into something that people actually feel proud of. So thank you to everybody for the patience that has been involved in this. It is an extremely long process to get anything through government. And thank you, councilor Ryan, for your your prior work on this and making sure that this is actually going to happen. So thank you.
646 Councilor Kanal.
647 Yes.
648 Thank you presenters. Thank you Ryan. Thank you to councilor Ryan and then commissioner for your work on this. The magic word here I do think is activation. And I appreciate the call out by multiple colleagues on the public safety side of this. I think that is something that connects this, even though it is it's many things, but it is one of those things as a public safety thing. So I appreciate that. I do think we should all have to be on the record as to whether or not we were skaters or not, and I think it's not just were you or were you not, but also can you, can you point to if you skated on a playstation, which is how I got into the tony hawk, pro skater two, goldfinger, superman, all that stuff. So yeah, that's that's an important thing. We should have to do that as part of our votes. And thank you.
649 I don't even know.
650 I'm happy to explain tony hawk to you some other time, councilor Ryan. It was a large part of my time spent with some of my cousins.
651 Councilors.
652 This item will move to a second reading on our March 19th agenda. This is the last item on our agenda. I want to note for the record that the afternoon council meeting that we were previously recessing until has been canceled. That noise violation, or rather noise, the appeal of the noise ordinance exception was withdrawn. So we will not be seeing that any longer tomorrow. We do have an executive session, but there are no other public council meetings this week. So with that, I will close today's meeting and councilors Avalos, Smith, Clark and Morillo. If you all can hang back for just a minute, she is wanting to do a picture. Thank you. Thank you all and have a good rest of your day.