The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-12-09
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Arts and Economy Committee met on Tuesday, December 9th, at 9:30 a.m., with roll call confirming attendance and a statement of conduct read for the record. The October 7th minutes were approved without objection, and no one signed up for general public comment. A presentation on the Portland Winter Light Festival covered its mission, upcoming dates, attendance and economic impact figures, participating businesses and artists, and a new proposed initiative called Illuminate Bridge City to light Portland's bridges, described as being in early planning stages with partners including Multnomah County. Discussion touched on storefront activation downtown, extending activities to neighborhoods including east Portland, funding and infrastructure needs for the waterfront, and coordination with city offices. No public comment was submitted on this item. The committee then discussed an ordinance to establish nondiscrimination requirements for signage on single-occupant restrooms in places of public accommodation, including its history dating to 2016, projected costs, implementation timeline, and enforcement approach, with comparison to a similar Seattle program. An amendment shifting enforcement responsibility to Portland Permitting and Development was introduced, discussed, and put to a vote, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. Two members of the public testified in support of the ordinance. Discussion included questions about outreach to non-English-speaking business owners and coordination with city bureaus. A vote occurred on the amended ordinance, with results recorded in the vote ledger. The meeting concluded with a preview of items for the next scheduled meeting.
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0 Good morning. I call the meeting of the arts and economy committee to order. It is Tuesday, December 9th at 9:30 a.m. Wendy, will you please call the roll?
1 Good morning. Clark.
2 Here.
3 Dunphy, here. Smith. Ryan.
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4 Green here. And, folks, just for the good of the order. Councilor Ryan is running a few minutes behind. He had to take an opportunity to go to elementary school and make the kids happy. So you do it for the kids. Craig, will you please read the statement of conduct? Good morning. Welcome to this.
5 Meeting of the arts and economy committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at w-w-w. Agenda slash arts and economy committee, or by calling 311. Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone will be muted when your time is over, the chair preserves order. Disruptive conduct such as shouting. Refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
6 Thank you craig. Colleagues. Today we have two substantive items of discussion. We will we will we'll have a presentation on the winter lights festival, which we're very excited to kick off. I went last year was was lovely. And then we're going to hear our first sort of formal reading of the ordinance that councilor Dunphy has been working on pursuant to sort of establishing nondiscrimination requirements for single occupant restrooms and public places. Very excited to have that before we get there. Clerk, will you please or sorry, wendy, will you please read the first item?
7 Item 1st October seventh, 2025 arts and economy committee minutes.
8 Okay, looking at my colleagues, are there is there any objection to approving the minutes? By unanimous consent? Okay, without objection, the minutes are approved. Wendy, will you read the. Oh, and by the way, before we get going, we we've started this practice where we were really trying to have general public comment at the beginning of our committee meetings, kind of kind of similar to the way we do it at city council meetings. We think that's good practice. So for those kind of watching along and wondering if, if, you know, if they have an opportunity to bring broad arts and economy public testimony to the committee, the answer is you do every time we meet. So just look for that public comment item and sign up for that on the on the website. But we'll see if we have anyone signed up. Will you please read the next item?
9 Item two public comment on arts and economy issues. Mister chair, we do not have anyone signed up.
10 Okay, we'll do a better job of advertising that. Come, come tell us what you like, what we're doing, and if you don't like what we're doing, you can also tell us that too. Okay. Will you please read the next item?
11 Items three and four. Winter light festival presentation and public comment.
12 Great. At this time, I'd like to call forward alicia sullivan with the who's the executive director of the winter lights festival. And we have about 30 minutes total for this item. We could probably go a little bit longer if necessary. So when you get set up, please state your name for the record. And thanks for thanks for being here.
13 Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to have the frogs here. My name is alicia sullivan. I serve as the executive director of the Willamette light brigade, and I'm going to connect this now and start sharing my presentation with you all. Okay. Sorry about that. Okay. We're up there. Almost. There we go. Okay. So thank you all so much for having me and for your work and service on this committee and for our city as a whole. I really appreciate it. I know it's a strange time right now, so thank you all. So the mission of the Willamette light brigade, our mission is to enrich the public realm by harnessing the power of art and artful lighting to transform our city scape. At its core, our work is really about utilizing the public appetite for art and creativity to invigorate Portland. So I hope to show you through this how we've learned that this is really more crucial than ever, ever before right now. So we do this, and we support this mission through two core programs. We light bridges. So we have the morrison bridge lighting program, which has actually been around since the mid 80s in partnership with Multnomah county. And then we produced the Portland winter light festival. We're celebrating our 11th anniversary this year, and both of the programs are really geared around touching on placemaking and enhancing the nighttime identity of Portland. We believe that cities should have an identity at night and and really shine. So please mark your calendars. The Portland winter light festival is coming up the sixth through the 14th. Hundreds of artists will be making absolutely incredible work. It will be displayed throughout the entire city. This is a free citywide event. It's really about providing access to art, allowing people to have firsthand experiences of art. And people come out in droves to explore our city because of art. This event has a point of view, and in that exploration, people go to restaurants and food carts and they check out local businesses. On our team, we often joke that we're in the business of creating positive memories for people who don't live downtown. So if you live in the neighborhoods, if you live in the burbs, coming down here and seeing our city full of art and people is really moving. This year, our theme is all the little things. So artists will be reflecting on the small things that make up the larger whole in many, many different creative ways. So it's really moving to see downtown in particular at this moment, really full of life through this event. Every day I get to talk to people about what I do, and they tell me stories about how the festival has moved them. The other day I was speaking with a woman and she was almost in tears telling me about her experience coming downtown, riding her bike, riding her bike home from work and falling into this festival. And she had just moved to Portland. It was February, dark and lonely time of year, and she was just moved by telling me how she felt like she found her people at that time. So that kind of experience that people are having firsthand paired with the quantifiable data that we collect every year is is a huge case for the importance of this type of art and activation. Last year, we counted 250,000 in attendance. That's every night. If you come out every night, you're totally counted every night. That's an economic impact of around $9 million, with people spending 36 bucks on food and things like that. So it's a huge impact. And this really is a proven equation. So our team likes to think of Portland as kind of a canvas for art. We're really concerned with moving people around the city. We're not really interested in having an event that's at a place, and then people just go home afterwards. We want to move people around Portland and have them explore our city and feel it again and feel what it feels like and see each other together. So last year, we had a record breaking number of art installations, 229. Last year was our 10th anniversary, so we did everything we could to blow out of the park 193 participating businesses. And that doesn't include our sponsors. That's just groups that are organizations that want to get in the mix with us. Pro photo supply is a great example. They aren't presenting art, but they do a photo walk where they teach people how to use photography equipment for nighttime photography. So really cool, creative ways that businesses and groups organizations are getting involved. The event last year featured the work of 586 artists, performers, lots of artists, teams as you can imagine. Like big groups sometimes make these these pieces. But that's a huge section of our creative community regionally, definitely locally, some nationally, and even a few international artists last year. So we're very proud of that. And I think really notably, one number that pops out to me is that we activated 38 empty retail spaces last year, and most of them concentrated downtown. Not every single one, but most concentrated downtown. And nobody else is doing that at that scale. It's complicated, but it's really incredible to see those spaces enlivened by art. None of this would be possible without really strong public private partnership. It's the backbone of what we do. Again, this event is a free event for the for the attendees, but it is no way free to produce, not even a little bit. Our presenting sponsor, pge has been an incredible partner. We are very grateful to receive support from the arts and culture office here at the city of Portland. We are a general operating support recipient and that is so meaningful to our organization and to other arts organizations across the city. So thank you for that and thank you for continuing to support that and hopefully increasing that support over time. The same goes for prosper Portland. We receive a grant from their event office for the Portland winter light festival specifically, and that's incredibly meaningful for us. We we receive foundation support. Many, many small businesses really see the value small local businesses giving us, you know, $1,000 here and there, see the value. And that is what makes the whole thing possible. We've got labor on here. So lots and lots of people involved and interested in in making this thing happen. So all of this to say is that we have evidence here that art is a totally transformative force. And on the back of that evidence, we have kind of taken the momentum of the festival and reimagined our Willamette light brigade organization's original mission of lighting portland's bridges. It started in the 80s, and back then the bridges were largely dark aside from traffic lights. But we've reimagined that for 2025, and we have a big idea that we're calling illuminate bridge city. So this is an initiative, is an idea to light as many of portland's bridges as we can in dynamic, color changing lighting, create a cohesive vision for the design. So they're not just like one off kind of pop ups. They're like a whole a whole installation of art led, color changing leds. So we'd like these lights to be programable. That's part of the plan. And then they would be able to reflect causes and movements and events that are important to portlanders. So what if you know all June, the whole river is full of rainbow lights for pride. Every time the Portland fire play, every national drone shot is of our bridges all lit up in color, putting Portland on the national stage for light based art and placemaking, we plan to incorporate elements for artists to put their own vision on it in between these lightings. So maybe there's an artist residency or things like that. So really, really art led placemaking activity with this. So it's an ambitious vision. It is. It's a big idea, but it's also attainable. Other places have lit their bridges before. We already have two lit bridges here. And we can do this. And it really touches again on foot traffic, waterfront vitality, tourism. And frankly, we don't have a central landmark in our city that is a place that people seek out, especially at night. But what if we did? That's what this idea is pushing for. And I think personally, I think most importantly, this project is going to be able to act as an amplifier for the other things. There's so much energy around the waterfront at this moment. So many of us are looking to that part of our city to revitalize it, to build it into something for the future. And this project can literally. And I don't want to be cheesy, but literally point a light at the great things that are happening on both sides of the river. From 1803 projects to omsi to the waterfront park. All of these things coming together, this project really can amplify and connect with those other projects. So we're being very careful and pragmatic about this. We're starting by building a plan. And yet again, this cross-sector partnership is really the backbone of that plan. We have initial investment from alaska airlines and travel Portland tourism folks really got it immediately. Strong, really strong civic partnership. We would love for the city of Portland to be one of our civic partners, and to walk with us hand in hand as we build this project. And where are we now? So we're at the very beginning. I want to be very clear. We're really at the beginning of building this plan right now, but we're approaching it in an extremely pragmatic way. The plan will incorporate a beautiful, splashy, cohesive design vision, but it's it's actually rooted in feasibility and understanding the logistics of lighting the bridges, something that's attainable and practical and maintainable. We're working very closely with Multnomah county and the bridge engineer shop over there to make sure that we understand what is possible on these bridges. Bridges are strange. They jiggle, they have different power issues. We're wanting to make sure that we come up with something that's attainable, and we don't waste our energy coming up with something that's not possible to do. So that's really one of the main priorities. The other main priority as we build this project is to bake in requirements for best practices in sustainability and energy conservation, and care for the ecological environments that are around the bridges, the water and the sky. Obviously, there are best practices around how you can light things without disturbing those ecosystems, and that is going to be baked in to day one for the project. So we have a team assembled. We're working on this plan now. It also includes an economic impact assessment, which we're working with northwest to build. So we want to understand what the implications of the project will be once it's at full freight. What could it mean and how will it how will it impact our community. So we have an ambitious timeline. Also, we're working towards completing this design phase. In the spring. We raised funding for this mini campaign. We're almost done with that. But we are highly motivated to get this done and we will complete it early in 2026. So my call for action for you. I hope this is the easiest call for action that you see, you know, in the coming weeks. But really, what we would love for your support is to amplify the projects, promote the Portland winter light festival within your districts, amplify support, come out. That's really the most important thing is participating. We're in the beginning of the bridge lighting project, so we are we don't yet know what the path is towards making this happen. We know that we're going to have a plan and be ready to move forward when it's time. But you know, your support in identifying channels for funding would be greatly appreciated. We won't be able to do this without, again, that that partnership. There's no scenario that I can see for this coming and just appearing or having some angel wanting to just pay for the whole thing. So I think it's going to be collaborative effort, and we would love your support in figuring out how to get there. And in the future, when we do have more specific asks of the city. Yeah, but most importantly, come to the festival and we will be having some events around the bridge lighting once. Once we get a little further down the road. And we'd love your attendance as that to. Yeah. So all of this to say is to talk to you all about what you already know, which is that art and levity and play and creativity are really the backbone of our community here, and they're catalysts for connection and economic impact and foot traffic and well-being. That that mixture of people desiring this kind of activity, plus what happens when they come out and they go to restaurants and food carts is really potent combination. So thank you for your support and for the work you're doing on this. I'd be happy to take questions.
14 Yeah, I see that. We got a couple hands up. Thank you so much for the presentation. And I just I think I speak for everyone when I say thanks for giving us some concrete call to action steps. Oftentimes it's like, okay, how can we help? You've laid it out. So appreciate that. With that I'm going to go to councilor Clark first.
15 Thank you, mister chair. Thank you so much for being here today. Great presentation. Really exciting. I love your future vision in particular about the bridges. And I just want to ask a little bit more about that. Having worked to construct or fundraise and construct the tilikum, I think that has a lighting system already that's maybe triggered by the water temperature, I believe. Have you first question, have you talked to TriMet about that.
16 A little bit? Yes. And actually somebody who was on that project is also on my board. So I have a little information on that. Bob hastings was heavily involved in that project, but that is a different it's kind of a one off. So that's a percent for art project. And the art itself is the lights. So we don't have a clear path towards programing those in a changing way yet. But we hope that over time that project can can come into this project as well. But it's a it's a very specific set of circumstances.
17 Okay. No, I appreciate that. And bob hastings is a great guy to have on your team. He lives on the river, as do I, just down from the tilikum bridge. So that's a that's good to know. And have you had any outreach with Multnomah county?
18 Yes. We are working really closely with the county. We since the Willamette light brigade has lit it's we've been focused on county bridges since the beginning. We haven't actually ever lit a bridge that wasn't one of the county's bridges. But the morrison bridge is owned by the county. Most of them are owned by the county. So we're working very closely with them in their bridge shop. And actually one of their senior engineers has been around there since we were doing the lightings in the 80s, and is a wealth of knowledge around how those relationships worked and systems worked.
19 That's great. You probably don't even have an idea what the budget would be at this point, but I'm sure there's folks in the philanthropic community that would be interested in this from an art perspective as well.
20 I certainly hope so.
21 Yeah. No, I just love the ambition and putting us on a national map and making this an another icon for Portland. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
22 Thank you. Okay.
23 Councilor Dunphy, go ahead.
24 Thank you. Yeah. First, just again echoing off councilor Clark. I'm really excited about the bridge lighting project as you came and presented to me earlier this year. And I'm still very enthusiastic about making sure that happens, even though it is incredibly far from my district, which is east Portland, because it just. You're absolutely right. I think it will be. I mean, I can only envision driving over the the I-5 bridge as we're coming into town and seeing what that would look like. It's just it's already an incredible view and I'm excited to see this be successful. I'm also really excited about, well, what you did last year, and I'm hoping it will continue this year with the storefront activation. Have you had are you planning on doing similar scale of storefront activation? Are you having a hard time getting ahold of landlords who are willing to have a conversation about activating their currently vacant, boarded up storefronts? Is there any way we can be helpful with that side of this?
25 Yes, absolutely. We have some really amazing relationships with some of the landlords who are incredibly generous, and I feel like I have the keys to half of downtown right now. We're working really closely with melvin, mark and with with other groups who are who kind of have a system with us. Sometimes we are taking photos of the, you know, leasing sign and making phone calls randomly. But yes, we intend to activate as many storefronts as we can. Those do change. And, you know, they get rented, which is good sometimes. So I'm not sure exactly the number this year, but we will be doing everything we can to fill those up. And another note is we pay the artists, we pay all of our artists. We pay the artists to be in those spaces. Absolutely. Sometimes they are willing to stay up a little longer as well. Great.
26 Yeah. And my last question is just I assume the answer is is certainly not a lack of talent or interest, but I assume it's dollars. How do we get a winter light installation in east Portland?
27 Oh well, we have some. We have temporary ones. It's absolutely dollars, as you imagine. We have we have pieces. Our group, our organization has some rental pieces that are designed for designed to be public art, so they don't have to have a security guard or a babysitter. But those things are possible. Absolutely. Yeah.
28 I'm very interested in trying to make sure, you know, we have some specific challenges in certain parts of east Portland. Specifically, I'm thinking about the gateway neighborhood where the fred meyer just closed, and it's a ten acre lot, huge, beautiful open space. The possibility of doing something cool there, but also possibility of some bad stuff happening. So my office will be following up.
29 Wonderful. Thank you. On that note, we also have it's down here, but we have an idea to put a piece out in the front of this building if you have any interest. So I would love to talk more about that too.
30 Let's do that.
31 Councilor Smith.
32 Thank you, thank you, chair Mitch Green I would like to see public activations like this. And particularly at this time of the year, it is something that, you know, all of us can, can look forward to. And I think that these opportunities to light the bridge and others is something that we can look forward to. And councilor Dunphy asked my question because. And I wanted to find out how we could include residents of district one, you know, for the future and how to activate them. People have been as much as as far as we are away from the central city. But people have been asking us, you know, how can they be activated and and participate more?
33 Yeah, I one of the things with the festival, you know, over the last few years, the downtown central city area has been such a potent area of interest, but we've always been concerned with getting art out in the neighborhood districts and really, honestly providing an opportunity for people to see art where they live, and then also come down for an evening into the downtown. But but it's really important to highlight the art in communities and in any way we can help facilitate that. We always love doing that. We do have installations. There's groups. There's a group in Lents that always does a really, really fantastic show and some other pop ups, but it ends up being financial for us where we have resources. We're we are very small but mighty little organization. I have a really small team, but we always want to we always want to do more if resources allow and also help highlight the artists that live in communities, there's lots of artists that all of the artists live in east Portland. There's a lot of artists out there, and it's about finding folks who want to do something and finding the spot for them to do it, providing some resources around that. So we're always happy to to try to make that happen. Thank you.
34 Thank you.
35 Co-chair Ryan.
36 Thank you so much. Co-chair Green. Sorry I was tardy. The good news is the Portland timbers were connecting with the elementary school out of north Portland this morning, and it was just too precious, right, to watch these kids play soccer in the gym this morning. Anyway, I just wanted to start off by saying thank you for coming. I've been so impressed with you as a leader. I think it says a lot when people assume you're a bigger organization than you are, so you punch up really well. And I've seen your tenacity. I've seen your perseverance. You and I met when no one was coming downtown. And I think of the winter light festival as something that really changed that for a moment, especially in the winter, obviously. And I remember last year was the we had snow and ice for the light festival. And I'll just start with the story. It was the night where the, you know, everyone was saying, don't drive, don't drive, don't drive. But, you know, it was it looked like you could get around. So my husband and I went downtown and it was, I think, the best night ever to attend, because it wasn't as crowded and there was snow and ice, which just added art, nature's art, to the the light festival. And I was able to listen to tourists were in town. So our hotel industry downtown has really been suffering. Unlike any downtown in the country. We've suffered in terms of getting our our rooms rented out. And that's killing the economy, that's killing the coffers also of the county and the city, because we really rely on those rooms to be rented. So I want to thank you for your perseverance and even through storms making it happen. And also just nature did provide the most magical night that Friday night. Was it the second weekend?
37 There were snowflakes in the forecast both weekends? Actually, I won't tell you how stressful that was personally, but it wasn't actually that big of a deal. It was the second weekend.
38 It really felt like a winter light festival, and so I just want to acknowledge it will be one of those magical moments that I'll always remember. I also just want to talk about the importance, and I'm grateful that the co-chair and I didn't have any problem wanting this to be on the agenda. We're both really aware that art and festivals in general ignite foot traffic like nothing else. There's been so many studies over decades and decades about the power of arts. That's why arts and economy are grouped together in this committee. And I really see that. And when you talk about that, you bring in nearly 9.3 million in economic impact to the city. That's that's that's remarkable. And I think as a council, we need to I look at you now as part of the og rose festival winter light festival. There's festivals that have been around a while and we have to covenant you and we have to support you, because it's really is a part of our economic indicator that will bring us back as a city economically. And so thank you for being a part of that system. I know when we went down to Salem to lobby to get the investments for the waterfront, it was so powerful to see such a cross-sector of Portland down there acknowledging that together we're stronger. And I think a lot of people in the how can I say in the extremes and the political rage world that we live in, it's so important for us to see those moments when there's cross-sector coming together to actually be positive about what we could do for Portland. So I always see what those tables, and I want to thank that. Thank you for going beyond your specific role, but being a leader in this city that's working with others to come together and not see each other as competitors, but see each other as part of the same band that must play together. So thank you so much for that as well. I hope that we, as a, as a committee, continue to lift festivals, continue to do economic analysis of them. And like it was mentioned earlier, we have a crisis when it comes to so many things. But it's economic development is really what's killing us right now. We'll we'll learn more about that as we go along with the budget this year. And so I just want to say how important it will be for you to, to keep persevering during that time. And I think as a committee, we have to just continue to look at the data and say, what does it tell us? And we know that if the winter light festival didn't take place at that time of year, there would be so many more vacancies in our hotels downtown. Our convention center bookings are down right now, so we have to make it up with some of these types of festivals. But that makes me ask a question. Do you think that you're seeing the synergy between when they're booking conventions? Are there any that are tied in to then saying that when you book your convention for the national association, of you name it, I just want them to come here and spend money, to be honest with you. Would would you be excited? Wouldn't it would help if they came the same weekend as the light festival?
39 Always. Sure. Absolutely. We love showcasing and showing off the art from the festival. I think the bridge lighting project has a huge opportunity for that to potentially, you know, leveraging the lightings for a group coming at any time of year. And I think that sometimes the festival is actually more of a reputational play. People may be want to go somewhere that has things like this, and whether or not they want to come in February is a question. So we see we see something around 9% of of people coming from out of town and that's like that. That calculation with the 50 mile radius. And then another 9% of people who report that they don't live in Portland proper. So it's like burbs and then further away. But I believe that people come here because it's the type of thing that happens. And this, this event, I feel like I always feel like our, our tourism should count for double because nobody's just coming here because it's nice at this time of year, they're coming here for something like this or another cultural activity or other kind of activity, but it's a draw that's stronger than just Oregon in the summer. That's utterly gorgeous, you know? So yeah.
40 No, that makes a lot of sense. You just made me want to. So it is a year round program because just putting on a big festival is year round. A lot of people don't realize that some of your busiest months are when no one would realize it. That said, because of the lighting project with the bridge brigade, is there a tie in to say the say the national teachers association is coming to Portland. Can they they can light up a bridge in honor of them 100%. Okay. Is that starting to take place.
41 A tiny bit, yeah, there was a teachers group if I'm not saying it correctly, but there's a teachers group this summer that lit up our morrison bridge, you know, sort of a test case. But yeah, it's happening a little bit. I think if we had something more impressive, it would it would probably be a better leverage point.
42 Now I'm curious what colors did they choose?
43 I think it was blue, but I don't remember. Yeah, okay.
44 I just I'm meeting with people from travel Portland later today. So that's partly why I'm having this conversation with you. I just want to keep seeing that synergy that takes place. But I think that you being here is, I hope you can see, is a commitment from the city council and the mayor that we really are all in. Funny story, you used to use my former office as a way to light whatever you had in front of the city for the light festival. Yeah, it was a little cold that one year. I do remember.
45 We made you leave the window open. Yeah, yeah.
46 But no. So I've been heavily involved from that aspect as well. So you said we still need to find something for the city.
47 Well, we've got an idea of a piece that we could put down in the front area. We have this gorgeous piece. So I can follow up with you guys separately on that.
48 But the frogs are here. They might have something to say about that. Yeah. See, they're already they're waking up in this late conversation. Anyway, I just want to say how important it is that we continue to embrace these festivals. I think when I first got in office, some people treated them as like it was light or soft, and it's completely connected to our economic comeback. And I hear what you're saying and I do. I'm glad that you mentioned there's things in Lents. There's also you have activation in saint john's, as I recall last year, and I love that you're doing that. But let's not make any mistake that when downtown is successful, when downtown has a lot of revenue coming in district one benefits, district two benefits, we all benefit because that's the way it's set up. It's like a it's I always say, if you think of the body, the body pumping out blood, that's the main artery and it pumps out to the rest of the city. And when you're downtown is failing to bring in the revenue like we've been doing, it really hurts the entire city. So I'll always be a champion no matter what district I represent, to make sure that we have a vibrant downtown, because everyone, when they're traveling, they want to go to the city that has a vibrant downtown. Isn't that true? Yeah. So anyway, thank you for being a part of the team. I really appreciate the way you show up.
49 Thank you so much.
50 Thank you. Co-chair Ryan. You know, we don't always agree, but but when we do agree I think it's oftentimes around this issue and it's very strong. So as being a district two councilor, you know on this issue, I would invite you to be an ambassador for district four because you're one of the strongest voices for downtown.
51 I am a revenue guy, so I'll always be there.
52 I wanted to kind of respond to a couple of things I heard in the presentation. So I, I would encourage the committee to the extent that we're, we're allowed to do so, not violate, you know, public notice law to come down together during the festival, maybe, you know, maybe pitch that to our constituents and say, come join us, come shake our hands and participate, if not the kickoff, if you know otherwise, you know, important kind of moments in that, I think that'd be pretty powerful. I went last year, it was really fun and I wish I could have gone to more of it. So I'm really excited that you guys are building on previous successes. I'm excited that you're working on an economic impact analysis for the the broader project with echo northwest. As I see it, the 253,000 foot traffic is a marginal impact because of the festival. Would you agree with that?
53 Yes.
54 So those are those are visitors that would not have otherwise come to councilor Ryan's point. And so it's with that kind of lens that I think about, I think the importance of maybe having some early conversations with the city administrator and the mayor to see if the budget that will be proposed will reflect, perhaps, an investment in the standing capability of these bridges to be lit. Because I, I think about where you're going with the bigger vision as creating a new asset for the city that yields benefits year round, and that can be then flexible and scalable to certain types of things that we want to activate. Right?
55 Absolutely. Yeah. That would be very meaningful. I think that honestly, at this point, we kind of we're still learning where to ask the question, and we're going to be standing by with a plan that will bring some of that vibrancy downtown year round, or to the waterfront, specifically on both sides of the river year round. It's totally contingent on the other elements of the waterfront being vibrant and being places that people want to go. But our group, even, you know, will probably do events down there and, you know, get some music and some things like that. But we're hopeful that other groups will, too, and that that space will become a really vibrant and activated center of our city like other cities are doing. I personally think it's our 30 year move where where that's how people are moving here later and looking to us as a beautiful place. That river is our absolute biggest resource. But yes, I think, you know, any, any support would really be meaningful. I would love to have your permission to put the city of Portland logo on our list of partners and, and continue building a group that that really has a buy in and the project.
56 Yeah, we really look forward to kind of developing this conversation as we go. I think, you know, when I think about the pop ups, I, I think about for someone to be able to say, okay, let me test the waters with this space in a very kind of low barrier way, can oftentimes be the catalyst to to then turn them into a brick and mortar, perhaps down the road or kind of build out their enterprise. You see that with street vendors all the time. Icicle tricycles got their start as a as just a sidewalk sort of street vendor. So I, you know, I see these things as connected with other efforts to make it, you know, easier to kind of engage in micro enterprise, maybe with a hot dog cart down the road. So I couldn't miss the opportunity to see that for you guys. The ordinance will come back next year. Not in time for this, of course. But, you know, I'm imagining a world where we're out on, you know, on a chilly night and someone gets a little, I don't know, cup of, you know, chili to maybe a warm cup of soup that they got from a vendor to kind of keep warm as they walk through. I think that's a bit all I wanted to say on this. It looks like you're back in the queue.
57 Councilor I just have a couple.
58 Curious. Yeah.
59 Hi. You know, I'm always curious about things. So in the last form of government, I was pretty aware of how you coordinated and how you communicated, how you were served as a partner with the city. I'm curious today, is that how is that going? Is it through prosper? Is it through the mayor's office? Who are your liaisons at the city? Like I knew who they were into the commission form of government, but I can't tell right now. That's for friends.
60 That's a great question. Yeah. I think in the past, the mayor's office. Did you know that was the first time they did a press conference for us and said, oh, this matters. And we all knew.
61 We were all in for it.
62 It's all new. And last year we we coordinated our own effort to reach out to all of you, to invite you to a tour, which we'll do again this year. We canceled it because of the the weather last year. But we we do work closely with our partners at prosper and others. But it's a little it's a little rogue.
63 We're who's the point person at prosper.
64 Amanda park is in the events in film office.
65 Okay.
66 Yeah, yeah.
67 Maybe I'm the only one that needed to ask that question. That's a good question. I was being facetious. And then when it comes to the waterfront, we all know it's an infrastructure issue. Or maybe we don't all know that. But what we spend, we force our vendors, our partners, when they come to the city to spend so much more money than they do when they go to an equivalent site in other cities, because we haven't spent the upfront infrastructure money. So we're merely asking for assistance from the state as an economic driver, as the economic center of our state, to help us out with building that infrastructure. How's that coming along with all of our partners?
68 It's very much at the beginning. It's at the very beginning. We were very honored, honestly, to be included in that group. It's a huge deal for us to be considered to be one of the major festivals in in Portland. We are really young compared to the others. We're only going on our 11th year, but it's very much at the beginning and we're working closely to collaborate. We have partnership with the blues festival in particular. You know, we share some staff and things like that, trying to think outside of the box in the in the administrative realm to the things that are not so flashy. But we are, you know, we're really interested in this idea of iteration and testing and seeing what works and coming up with plans and designs that reflect the needs of our community. We do that with art all over the place. We never put the same thing in the same place twice. We change and we move and we adapt. And I would love to see that kind of behavior on the waterfront as well. But I think you hit it on the nose. It's not a venue and it's not a park, and it's not really serving either. But it could. It has so much potential.
69 And I know I was when I had a moment to be for 18 months with parks, I tried to get them to understand the importance of being a true partner with all of you and not hold on to it so tightly. And so I hope that that soil has been loosened. Kind of a weird day to say that with our ground so saturated. But my point is, do you think we're on the right path with that loosening and that that partnership is becoming more shared?
70 I certainly hope so. I've had lots of interesting conversations. To that end, we will be investing in art at the at the waterfront park at summit springs more than ever before this year, partially to make up for the dragon because it will not be back. And it was just too good. But yes, I think that they are coming up with ways when when communities like mine, like the art community, come up and say, hey, I have an idea, they need an avenue in which to say yes to that idea. And I think that has become clear. And their work, from my vantage point, it looks like they're working for for that from the bureaucratic side and from the leadership side, it seems like everybody's converging on the ability to say yes to these cool and interesting ideas.
71 So it's still with representative win in the economic development committee down in Salem, where this was socialized and discussed.
72 It's it's building on that. But I have not been privy to those particular conversations one or more on like on the ground here.
73 We had a legislative focus session last week and there were a lot of questions, but this was rattling my head. I wish this would have happened before then. I would have been more persuasive in discussing it, but I hope that all of us on this committee can see how important it is to continue to move forward with making those infrastructure investments for the waterfront. I think it will be one of those examples of an investment multiplying in ways that most do not. And I think that's what people don't get about the arts, is that $1 magnifies more so than almost any investment you can make in the economy. And I really think that the group that you're a part of and you're worthy to be at that table, you're so humble. I love that about you. Please know that this council, at least I know I my office and I'm going to try to be evangelical with my colleagues to make sure that we are all on board to see this momentum continue to move forward. And I think the voters spoke in the parks levy. They want to see parks not behave the way they have in the past, or they simply will not continue to get funded. And so we have to start thinking out of the box more and more and more to work with our arts partners so we can really activate this economy, especially on the recreation side and the arts side of our parks and recreation department. So I just wanted to make sure that we had that dialog while you were here today and thanking you for being a part of that team.
74 Thank you. Yes, I think there's ample evidence that our community here sees themselves as creatives in one way or another, whether they're working with their creativity to serve their job at a company or designers or advertising, or they're making art on the side. It's such a thread here that is really powerful.
75 So you would just to conclude, you would say, right now you don't really have a point person. There's not really an office called office of arts and festivals or festivals.
76 Well, we work.
77 In events.
78 We get to work with both of the offices at prosper, the events in film office and at the city, the arts and culture office. We're lucky to get to be sort of this hybrid in between both of those things and receive the resources there and then. Yeah, we work with we work with lots of different partners. But but you know, a point person I think would be helpful. But I think honestly it's about getting to know all of you, building personal relationships and making sure folks are aware of the event and and the projects in general.
79 Know your diplomacy is so appreciated. I do think when we have an incoming city administrator, this is an important conversation with this office. I think the office of arts and culture is amazing and they have a really full plate. I just want to make sure that we really have a person that is responsible to be responsive to groups like you, because this is one of our ways to move forward with our economy. Thanks.
80 Thank you. Councilor, co-chair, thank you so much, alicia, for coming today and just kind of getting us excited. I look forward to getting out there and maybe seeing if we can pull the whole committee down for, for some celebration. So happy holidays and.
81 Thank you so much for having me.
82 Yeah. Wendy, can you or can you please read the next item?
83 Yes. For item for the winter lights festival. Public comment. We do not currently have anyone signed up.
84 Okay. Thank you. Can you then please read the next item?
85 Yes of course.
86 Item five add nondiscrimination requirements for single occupant restrooms in places of public accommodation. Code to establish equal restroom access by requiring gender neutral signage. Adding code section 23.01 .071.
87 Thank you. Councilor Dunphy, this is your item. Why don't you go ahead and kick us off? Looks like we have 15 minutes allocated for a panel to kind of talk through motivating the ordinance. And then we'll get into discussion for the remainder of our perfect.
88 Thank you. Yes, colleagues. This is actually our second time hearing about this policy proposal, specifically, this is closing the final gap with regard to signage outside of single stall restrooms. We are talking about four walls with a toilet and a sink inside of it. In 2016, the city of Portland took the first steps in our region to identify how many single stall restrooms we have and to change the signage to convert over 650 individual single stall restrooms from gender specific to all user restrooms, focusing not on who gets to go into the door, but rather what is hiding right behind that door. A toilet. Immediately following that, rather than moving towards a mandate, council commissioner Nick fish issued a challenge to the private sector and said we were successful in converting over 650 individual single stall restrooms. I think the private sector can do that better without a mandate, and they did in less than I believe it was about nine months time. The the private sector converted over 1000 single stall restrooms on their own, simply by changing the sign outside of the restroom. In 2020, the state building code changed, and in 2023, the city of Portland updated our codes to require that all new construction and new businesses that have public facing single stall restrooms are required under code to have all user signage on the outside of those restrooms. And so this ordinance is the final step in that process. We are making sure that existing public facing, single stall restrooms inside of businesses align with our current city values and our standards. We are reinforcing that what we are changing here is the sign outside of the bathroom. Not a requirement for construction or remodel. A single stall restroom can still have a urinal, so long as it also has a flushing commode. This is a simple, low cost, high benefit policy that addresses access, safety, and dignity for portlanders. This is certainly something that came to us in 2016 under the original auspices of talking about equity and inclusiveness for the LGBTQ community. But the reality is that when you remove these barriers to accessing public health, it benefits a whole spectrum of people. It benefits parents with young children, especially as a as a girl dad, I know the exact challenges of taking my then six year old into a public restroom. It helps an older adults or adults who have a with a disability, who have a caregiver who need to go into a single stall restroom and avoid some awkwardness. And yes, it also helps increase choices for the trans community. I'm excited to bring this final part forward and I will tell you also, colleagues, I'm really grateful to the the co-chairs of this committee because we brought this forward as one of the first policy previews, and it was absolutely valuable. Not only did we hear from the community and from folks who care about this, but we also heard from within the bureaucracy some ideas of how we as a city should implement this better. And so I will actually be introducing a very small amendment to my original filed document. The amendment is on the record, but specifically permitting and development stepped up and said that we actually think that rather than enforcement going through the city attorney's office, which we had originally proposed, that permitting and development is able to take this on and we will hear some specific remarks from them in the in the staff presentation. But I would like to invite president pirtle-guiney up if she is able to make her way up here with her crutches, because she is my co-sponsor on this, and I'd love to give her the opportunity to also talk about why this is important.
89 Take your time. We don't want to exacerbate your injuries, madam president.
90 Thanks, mayor. It's amazing what a tow can do to you or what you can do to a tow. Thank you, councilor Green. Councilor Ryan, members of the committee. For the record, my name is Elana pirtle-guiney, and I want to start just by thanking councilor Dunphy for bringing this policy forward and inviting me into co-sponsor it with him. When you brought this forward, we had a lot of conversations about all of the impacts, and this is something that I think is a small change that we are asking for that will make a big difference for a lot of people. This ordinance matters a lot to me, and not just for the obvious reasons, but let's start with the timely issue. Right now, we know that the federal administration is engaged in an all out assault on people and families who don't fit their narrow definition of what they think an American family should look like. With all that going on, it's important to me that we make life as easy as possible for portlanders who are under constant attack, and this ordinance does matter. As councilor Dunphy said to the LGBTQ community and to gender nonconforming portlanders who face every day fear around something as basic as where and how to use a restroom. Portland should be a safe place and a comfortable place for everybody, but this ordinance matters to my family on another level, too. Yes, my wife and I don't fit the model family that this administration wants to support, but I'm also a mom, a mom of two kids, a son and a daughter. And the issue of public restrooms comes up in our family all the time. Councilor Dunphy brought up being a girl dad and as a boy mom. I have faced those same challenges. When my ten year old son was young and I had to explain to him why I took him into one bathroom. But if he went to the bathroom with, say, his uncle, he went into a different bathroom. And we reached that point where people started to look funny at us. When I took him into certain bathrooms. But now he's older, he goes to the bathroom by himself, and sometimes when we are at a restaurant, he offers to take his little sister to the bathroom. A nice relief. Five minutes for my wife and I to check in while we're out at dinner without kids. At the table, we can see the restroom from where we're sitting. This shouldn't be an issue, but he, as a kid, walks up to two single stall restrooms, one labeled for him, one labeled for his sister. That's not a choice a ten year old child should have to make. He tries to figure out how to not break a rule and still help his sister. It's confusing for him. It's stressful for me as a parent watching him trying to make that decision, and it's stressful for his sister who's standing there really just wanting to go to the bathroom. My family is not unique. This is a problem that so many portlanders face, and it's unnecessary. It's unnecessary because what is behind that door is a bathroom for a single person or two people who have a need to walk into that stall together. If anyone has ever been out in public, really needed a restroom, and found that the one you're allowed to use is occupied while a perfectly good one is available right next to you, but not labeled for you. You also have experienced this challenge. When councilor Dunphy first brought this forward, I was worried about the lift. For businesses, though, they're juggling a lot. We know the economy is still a struggle, and I wanted to be attuned to how much we ask of our business community. Councilor Dunphy, your team was incredibly responsive to the conversations we had there, and really, we have brought forward a proposal that I think makes this as easy as possible for our local businesses. It applies only to existing single stall restrooms. It doesn't require anyone to make any remodels. It doesn't require anyone to build a new restroom. And it doesn't change any expectations around multi-user restrooms. In the future. I'm proud to be a co-sponsor of this ordinance. It's straightforward. It's inclusive. It's going to make everyday life a lot more comfortable for a lot of people in our community. At a very small ask, I urge you to vote I.
91 Thank you, council president.
92 Joining us online to do a staff presentation. Unfortunately, she's not feeling well today. My chief of staff, madeline west, is going to walk us through some of the specifics of the policy, some of the substance, some of what has what implementation will look like and the feedback we received from permitting and development. Madeline, take it away.
93 Hello, madeline west, for the record, thanks for having me today. As both of our chief sponsors have noted, this is a really straightforward ordinance that covers a gap in city policy where we have current permitting requirements that mandate all user restrooms that started in 2023. And we have public facing single stall user restrooms that already have this all user requirement in place. This covers the gap in between those. So it's simple, it's straightforward. And it's quite frankly past time that we close this gap in our city policy. As they've noted, no structural changes required. This is a signage only ordinance that really should cost businesses no more than $5 per sign to change their restrooms to to comply with this new ordinance in terms of the cost and implementation, we will need approximately $60,000 to adequately inform the business community next year, and that is scheduled to be budgeted in the 2026 2027 fiscal year. So that is the cost to the city that we believe is necessary to properly educate business. We're envisioning a process where that where businesses will receive clear instructions and even perhaps model signage in that mailing, where one side of the mailer could have a sample of a compliant restroom sign, and the enforcement is not going to be a systemic, ongoing enforcement process where folks have to come check on site. But a complaint driven one. So if members of the community see a business that's not in compliance past the compliance date, they can report it in to 311. And and if the amendment is passed today, will handle a light touch compliance, which has worked for most businesses in many of the other comparable cities that have taken on this policy, such as seattle. So our philosophy and the way this would roll out is education first and enforcement only after ample notice. So the ordinance would go into effect in January 2027. So that gives us over a year before it goes into effect. And compliance would not begin until July of 2027. So that gives us even more time, a full fiscal year from next year's budget to inform businesses and get them to comply before anyone might be calling in to 311 and asking pnd to step in. Now I really want to shout out ppe and today they were not able to join us in this presentation because of a preexisting conflict. But they have noted to me, and I'm just kind of sharing their talking points here, that they've appreciated the opportunity to engage in the administrative rulemaking process, and they will actively engage in that process should this pass. They're very supportive of a robust communication plan to help ensure compliance with as little engagement of ppe and property compliance division staff as possible to enforce. So they're really envisioning, envisioning a process that begins with a phone call rather than a site visit just to flag that for you all, which we agree with. We want this to be, you know, as low lift as possible for the city ppe and does not anticipate the need for additional staffing based on this proposal, and therefore don't have additional budgetary impacts past the education component of this ordinance. And should ppe and ultimately be responsible for ensuring this requirement is met? Complaints will be assigned to staff and investigated in the order they are received, along with other complaints. So these won't be prioritized in their queue, but they will be handled in the queue, along with other code complaints that come into compliance office. So with that, I will pass it along to our next special speaker, stephanie thorp, who is the seattle program compliance lead on this policy to to tell you a little bit more about how a similar program runs in seattle. Thank you so much for joining us today, stephanie.
94 Yes, thank you for having me. So good morning. Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. My name is I am the testing and compliance manager with the city of seattle's office for civil rights. Part of my responsibilities include code enforcement, including our all gender restroom law. So the city of seattle's all gender restroom law came into effect in 2018 as a result of organizing and advocacy by seattle's LGBTQ plus commission and in partnership with local community organizations. All gender restrooms increase access to public spaces for transgender and non-gender-conforming people, families with children, and individuals with caregivers of a different gender. And our law reflects our city's commitment to becoming a welcoming and inclusive city for everyone. When we implemented this law. We utilized business contacts to spread information, business contacts from that other city departments hold and created mailers that were sent to businesses. Just so everybody's on the same page. Our law allows the use of single occupant restrooms by any person, regardless of sex or gender identity, and prevents those restrooms from being restricted to a specific sex or gender identity. And ours applied to newly built city facilities as well as public places in seattle. So no construction changes. When this law came into effect, our mailers were printed cards, and they were large enough to be used as an all gender restroom compliant sign on one side, and the other side gave information about the law on the back of it. And that's what we sent to businesses for reporting. The public can report a non-compliant single stall restroom sign by phone, email and also on social media. We had a hashtag created for this. In addition to the community tip pathways, if someone were to randomly visit a business, including our own office, we could bring our materials and also check for compliance while we were there. We offer multiple opportunities to comply before imposing any kind of fine compliance. Education is the goal. We wanted this as easy to comply with as possible for businesses, and even at that fine stage, there's a way to request the fine be waived. We have this year done a little bit with our testing program looking at compliance, but this is the first year that we tried that, so we will see the results of that. And it's just spot checking throughout the city. We approach enforcement focusing on education for businesses and offering easy ways for compliance. Our information about our all gender restroom is part of our trainings to businesses. It's part of our community know your rights outreach to educate everybody about this protection. And when a business is found not in compliance, we issue what's called an advisory letter and provide copies of that mailer with the letter. So if the business gets the letter and needs a compliance sign, those mailers provide that right away. They can put those up because they are large enough and thick enough to be a sign. With this, I will. Pause. Like my main takeaways I'll pause for if there's any questions. We're low resistance and our focus is also education.
95 Thank you stephanie, and I suspect that some of my colleagues do have questions for you in seattle, given that you've got that experience. I think first up, we have councilor Smith.
96 Thank you. Thank you for giving the the presentation. And thank you, councilor Dunphy. Being a girl, a boy, mom, and being a single parent of one kid, I do understand the bathroom thing because I had to bring him into a bathroom. Always with with women. And and it was different from what he had to do on his own. So I do appreciate you bringing this forward. And if I want to make sure that I heard correctly. So you said the total cost of this would be $60,000. Madeline.
97 Yes, that's the the estimate, the budget estimate this the estimate was done most recently in 2024. And and when we sent this through code review, they believed it would be about the same amount with. That's essentially the mailing cost. And it could be done on the current staffing levels. So no additional fte.
98 Okay. Thank you. And, counselor Dunphy, you plan to bring this forward as an amendment?
99 I have.
100 A budget.
101 Yes. I plan on bringing the the financial component forward to the budget. Yes.
102 Okay. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for bringing this forward.
103 Councilor. Ryan. Yes.
104 Thank you, co-chair Green. And thank you, counselor Dunphy. I've had many life experiences that have empathy for what we're trying to do here, and I do hope it can be implemented successfully. Why you're here with us. Stephanie, thank you for your time. I thought it would be appropriate to actually ask you a couple questions. What I haven't heard yet, and it's been on my mind about this since you brought it up or since you brought it up, is that we have a lot of small businesses, storefronts that are owned and operated by people who don't speak english as their first language. They speak spanish, vietnamese, russian, swahili, you name it. And this could really not be very responsive from them to receive this note. And I think with all of our small businesses who are barely making bank, who are on snap benefits and trying to survive themselves, any burden that they perceive as a burden is is tough timing at the moment. But I'm particularly sensitive to those small businesses who don't speak english as a first language. So even though it hasn't been mentioned, at least I have not heard that from the sponsor. I want to hear in seattle how you navigated that very important audience.
105 Yeah, and I am. Thank you for that question. A lot of times in our experience in seattle, small businesses are the harder ones to reach, especially with some of the changes in the laws. But with us, it was really important to have compliance be very easy, which is why we designed our mailer in that way so that there was no additional expense for a business that had a single stall restroom or two single stall restrooms that had gendered signs. Our announcement of the law could easily show that if we were to do a site visit, it's not about finding and punishment at all. It's about just educating awareness of the law and providing an easy way for the business to comply. So the outreach, whether it was by mail or by someone coming into the business and talking to them, we would have the resources to try and be able to support them as best we can. So that was our our attempt to to make it as easy for all businesses to not have to worry about. I've got to pay to change these signs. For example.
106 Thank you. Stephanie, I'd like everything I heard. I didn't hear about the specific audiences who don't speak english as a first language. How did you communicate with them?
107 Let me. So I was not here with part of the implementation, but I would love to actually get back to you and see how we engaged in language, because it is something that our office does look at is the like majority languages in different parts of the city, especially around the small business when we're trying to do engagement.
108 So no, I so appreciate that and I appreciate your honesty. I realize I'm diving into administrative rules and I don't like it when council gets too far into them. I do think it's important, though, that we vision this forward. Our new arrivals are always been a big part of the American dream about how to part of building our economy, which is why this current administration is just bananas when it comes to economic prosperity. So it's so important that we continue to covenant our new arrival communities and make them feel welcomed. And little things like this really can spin someone out that doesn't speak english as their first language, and they can't always rely on their kids in the school system that are five that help translate for them. We all know these stories, at least I do because I've been involved in education for so long, so I'm just really sensitive to how we implement this and not have it come across as another burden. But it's an asset and why it's an asset and how we make it easy and breezy. And I do love what I heard about the sending out the email. Just put this on your door and it sounds like you can tape it on your door. And so I really appreciate that we're not getting into some of the persnickety permitting details that can often just be the final thing that allows a Portland business to say, I'm done. And so I know it's not much, but I think we have to tread very, very carefully when we ask our business community to add one more thing. What they'd like from us is aspirin for their headaches and, you know, response times to improve. And so I worry when we just always are adding things for them to put on their to do list. And so making this easy breezy and making sure that we are sensitive to those who don't speak english as a first language.
109 Thanks and councilor. If I can just jump in, I'll say that one of the reasons I am particularly enthusiastic about the amendment that I'll be proposing here, moving enforcement from the city attorney's office to permitting development, is that a pad is well equipped to be able to interface with hundreds of thousands of Portland residents in different capacities. And they have a lot of that, that knowledge already built in. So we're not having to reinvent it. We can tie into the people in the city who are already doing a good job of communicating with our businesses.
110 And councilor Dunphy, I really appreciate you brought this forward. So the 60,000 is the initial cost, but we don't I would like to hear from permitting what the annual operating costs would be. Again, adding one more thing. When we're all going to be up here dealing with some cuts, it's really important that we constantly ask those follow up questions about operational expenses and adding one more thing to their docket of regulation.
111 Yeah, the the 60,000, you're right, is up front. That is mostly mailing. That's the effort for us to mail out a postcard equivalent to all of the registered businesses that we know of. Pad specifically came back to us and said that they are they do not anticipate any budgetary impacts on this proposal, nor any need for additional staffing. Based on this proposal.
112 I look forward to having a longer conversation with the new city administrator that when we say the burden, I think we we look at it to a it's a shallow scan. It's like these are the initial costs, 60 k time is money. And what I've experienced with our public servants is how they're overburdened. And I think we need to start putting in labor costs. So if you're spending, you know, ten hours on this every month, factor out your salary. And that should be the real cost. I think the city doesn't do a full scale scan of what economic burden is to the budget. And so that's where I'm pushing back a little bit on that.
113 I want this to pass. I'm asking questions.
114 So when we come to the full council we have you have a chance to reflect on these questions.
115 Yeah. And I'll just say lastly just that they have a there's an entire compliance regime within ppd that responds to if you you know, if someone complains about a gutter being knocked down or a fence requirement or some other building code compliance issue that goes through 311, it goes into the queue and this will go into that queue the same way. Obviously we are adding an additional category, but the vast majority of our of our code enforcement broadly is done through a complaint based system. And so it's hard to anticipate. You're right how many complaints we will expect. And as seattle has sort of demonstrated and other cities have demonstrated, there is an initial compliance rush, I suppose I wouldn't say full rush. We're giving 18 months from this point to begin enforcement of any kind. But there there is a very limited number of these bathrooms that exist. And so I think you're right. I think we do need to have a better accounting broadly as a city about where our staff are spending their time and what those things cost us. But as of right now, ppd feels confident that this will fit into their compliance regime without additional burdens.
116 And so the final thing is, a complaint based is exactly why I wanted to make sure that we were sensitive to those who don't speak english. First, the scenario we don't want. Actually, my favorite places to eat are little holes in the wall that aren't really that flashy out in district one because I, I, I love the new restaurants that open up from people, from new arrivals. And clearly I like food, as I've noticed the last ten years, but I don't want them to have someone like me come in and then be upset that the city passed this and I'm not seeing that on their door. And then I don't want that. It's just we've experienced that in the city. It's ugly. It's not the kind of city we want to live in. So again, I just raising this because I don't want that story after we after this is passed, which I'm sure it will be. And thank you for bringing it up early. So we know this is coming into the 2627 budget. All right. Thanks.
117 I'll go to councilor Clark, but just colleagues were about three minutes over this part. I think we're still okay, but I, you know, we have to hear a couple people testify and then get into the broader debate. So if this is a question for stephanie, can can it wait till we get into the okay and you're back and can it wait until we get into okay. Great. Thank you so much for the presenters on the panel. And at this point, wendy, do we have anyone signed up for actually, before we go to testimony, do you want to just introduce your amendment, just state it verbally into the record and then we can hear public comment?
118 Absolutely.
119 Yeah. Thank you. So, Dunphy, amendment one would change directive d within the the ordinance as it's currently read, and the new language would read directive d failure to comply may be reported to code review via 311. The new language reads Portland permitting and development will investigate and take further action to enforce this code for any non-compliant business. It removes references to the city attorney's office or city administrator around legal action for noncompliance. It simply says pnd will investigate and take further action to enforce this code for noncompliance.
120 Thank you. And at this time, wendy, can you please call up our first public testimony?
121 Thank you, mr. Chair. And I believe we also need a motion and a second on the amendment.
122 So moved.
123 Okay.
124 I'll second it.
125 Thank you.
126 We have two individuals to provide testimony. The first one is online. Merilee carr. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony.
127 Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to explain. I am merilee carr, md, mfa. I'm the president of flush usa, which led the effort 20 years ago that brought forth upon city streets a new kind of public restroom, the Portland loo. I'm also a retired family physician, a neighborhood emergency team team leader, and a disaster sanitation regional trainer. As a forum. As a former english major, I'm trained to recognize the power of words and I notice all gender signs outside some restrooms. All gender is a fancy word snatched from the headlines. It reminds people of conflict and stirs up anxiety. When you just need a restroom, you don't want to have to think too much. If all user, on the other hand, is plain english, everyone, including councilor Pirtle-guiney son knows what it means. It welcomes everyone and excludes no one. I believe labeling single user restrooms all user could even lower the temperature of disputes over gender roles. Now getting the all user signage message out will take funding a projected 60,000. This will not be money down the drain, so to speak. It will help advance portland's revival as a welcoming, vibrant place. Most decision makers, public or private, don't realize how decisive restroom quality is to their customers opinion of them and to their customers choices about whether to return to that business or that city. Let me share with you this article in convenience store news, an industry trade journal titled why the restroom experience is the next competitive advantage for c stores. Recent research reveals that the state of public restrooms can make or break visitors willingness to return, with 52% of people saying they've changed their behavior after a poor restroom experience, including reducing food and beverage purchases, limiting visits, or avoiding a facility altogether, the path to customer loyalty may be hiding in plain sight. The public restroom. In other words, once we accomplish this inclusive restroom signage change, which some have been working on since 2016, Portland and portland's business and arts communities have a lot of work to do to bring our restrooms stock up to the level that will restore portland's economy. Thank you.
128 Thank you, mayor lee, and special thanks for the pun. Never lost on me.
129 Our second and final individual who signed up for testimony is maureen mcgovern. Maureen, are you here in the room? Yes.
130 Good morning. My name is maureen mcgovern. When I was a high school student, I had a part time job at coin center cinemas just a few blocks from here. I remember an assistant manager there once saying no one should be denied access to a restroom. Even back then, I understood that to mean it was a matter of dignity and fairness. Now, many years later, when reading about the numerous efforts across our country to deny transgender women access to public restrooms, I have often thought about what my assistant manager said and how these efforts deny transgender women dignity and fairness, and also put at risk those who do not conform to preconceived ideas about gender. So I am here today to speak in support of this ordinance, but it is not only in support of the rights of transgender women, transgender men and non-binary individuals, because denying anyone access to public restrooms based on gender robs everyone of dignity and fairness. Therefore, I am also here to speak in support of the father who needs access to a baby changing station. I'm here to speak in support of the mother who needs to assist her disabled son. I am here to speak in support of individuals like myself. Assist gender women whose appearance does not conform to many people's definition of what a woman should look like. I am here to speak in support of everyone's access to public restrooms, regardless of gender, gender identity, or gender expression. I urge the committee to approve this ordinance to help ensure the safety and dignity of all by providing fair access to public restrooms, and thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony.
131 Thank you. Maureen.
132 That concludes public testimony.
133 Thank you wendy. Okay, colleagues, at this point, we are into discussion of, well, we're into discussion of the amendment on the floor any further. It looks like we've got councilor.
134 Clerk just a comment. I just want to thank you for introducing this. I'm a boy, grandma, and I just feel like this has been such a long time coming. I remember on the campaign trail I talked about the need for more Portland loos, and it's a little more expensive alternative to this, but I think that we have you have dotted every I crossed every t great witnesses. Thank you, council president, for testifying. I just think we need to expedite this. So thank you so much.
135 Councilor Smith to the amendment.
136 Yes. To the amendment or to the general.
137 Well, we're discussing the amendment, which just changes the verbiage from the enforcement being the city attorney action to pnd action. And then we will move after that vote will move to the underlying.
138 Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Dunphy. I went to the Oregon business plan yesterday, and they were talking about how government can be more responsive. And of course, you could imagine the permitting, even though we the permitting department, was one of the ways that we could help business. And I wanted to make sure since we cut the permitting office, that we're sure that it will not put any more labor intensity to that group, because we did cut them a considerable amount. And I want us to keep that in mind. I do support your amendment, but I just want to make sure that we are not causing any unintended consequences.
139 That is absolutely my understanding from both dca oliveira and from direct interim director david kuhn, that they do not believe that this will be a burden on their current workloads and that they have the capacity within the bureau to to handle this.
140 Excellent.
141 Thank you. I see that madeline raised her hand. Are you responding to counselor Smith?
142 Yes, and ditto to what councilor Dunphy said. We had a really productive conversation yesterday with them that was over 30 minutes about design and compliance and wanting to continue to engage with them to make sure it remains a light burden. But as as scoped in our ordinance, it is totally reasonable within their current staffing levels, even after their cuts this last fiscal year.
143 Thank you. Seeing no other hands in the queue at this time, I'd like to move us to a vote on the amendment.
144 Clerk I.
145 Dunphy. I Smith. I Ryan. I Green. I the motion is approved with five votes and no no votes.
146 Great colleagues. It looks like counselor Dunphy.
147 You know, before we move to a final vote on this and to advance it to the to the big council, I just want to give a couple of quick shout outs because I mentioned I started working on this policy in 2016 through 2020. We weren't able to get it over the finish line at that point, but at that point. Aubry chen, lex jenco, jack kossovsky and with at the time the office of equity and then ann milligan and the city attorney's office picked up the ball and ran with it. And the reality was, commissioner Mapps had every intention of bringing this before the end of his term last year, and because of just sequencing at the end of the year, they weren't able to get it over the finish line. We recognized that there was still some work that had to be done, and I'm really grateful for the extra time, but it did take us an extra year to get this across the finish line. So I just really want to give extra thanks to to commissioner Mapps and his former staff, to ann, to lex and to aubry for all the work that has gone on in the interim and the patience that the community has had as this new council has gotten our feet under us and are able to actually move policies forward. So I just wanted to give my last little bits of shout out.
148 Thank you, council. Dunphy councilor Ryan.
149 Yeah, I will be.
150 Supportive of this.
151 I just have some caution. I'm disappointed that p p d isn't here today. I think that was a missing dialog that the committee had in this pathway. And I want to hear that p and and your office have really thought about the equity issue, about how we include those who don't speak english as a first language. And so with the hopes that that will be I'll get more information on that before it goes to council. I just want to put that out. So thanks.
152 Councilor Smith.
153 Councilor Ryan, I'm so sorry. I do have a direct response to that. I was just able to connect with aubry, who did the design, you know, an extensive design under the former commission where there was more involvement on the administrative side and that that budget analysis of $60,000 also did include signage and multiple languages and interpretation budget. So there has been a lot of thought that has gone into this. I'm sorry I didn't connect that loop in that question ahead of this presentation, but there is certainly more follow up to be had, and that has definitely been scoped into the project.
154 That's helpful to hear and remember. It's not just about the signage, it's about how we communicate with them in the email and the phone calls. So thanks.
155 Thanks. Important dialog, councilor Smith.
156 That was good information. Madeleine. So you are going based on some information that's a year or two old. You haven't been working with the current folks.
157 The the project scope and design was held by the office of equity and inclusion, and there's been a lot of work done on how it will be rolled out under our current system. That goes a little bit past our purview in policy making, but our office plans to remain deeply engaged to make sure that the administrative side of execution remains the, you know, has the high quality that it did last year when they scoped this project kind of past the point we're at right now. So the idea would be to connect all the dots.
158 Thank you. So, councilor Dunphy, so who have you talked to and worked with in the permitting office like right now? Have you? I mean, who have you worked with? And I want you to answer another question, too. You said it twice. Three times. You said help to get over the finish line. What were the issues that caused it not to be put on the docket in and voted on?
159 Thank you. Good question. Yeah. So we spoke with with ppd as recently as yesterday, but we've spoken to them multiple times, including the director of or the interim director of ppd and have had a number of conversations with staff in the implementation side of it. Those conversations have happened. Like I said, as recently as yesterday, and then I'm sorry, what was the second part?
160 The second part. You're going to make me think. The second part of the question was if. You hadn't worked.
161 What were the humps?
162 There we go. Thank you.
163 What were the humps?
164 Yeah.
165 Thank you. There was an ongoing. It's the exact attention that we were having today is how do we do the enforcement side of this? Is this a carrot or a stick sort of approach? Are we going to be, you know, where within the city government are we going to be? Basing that enforcement side of it? Would it be pnd which a year ago was facing. Oh thank you madeline. Just let me know that we specifically talked to to beth within ppd, who also oversees a number of other compliance programs, but. Specifically, it was the question of who's going to be doing what. And at the time, the city attorney's office felt that they individually had the capacity to do it. There wasn't a broad buy in from the from robert taylor, as I understand it. So there was some conversation that's happened and we landed on this place.
166 Okay. So you fix some of the most. Worrisome things, and I get the sense that this has not been a partnership with ppd all the way for from this year, but I think I'm going to I am going to piggyback with councilor Ryan. You're going to have to have somebody from pnd because it I mean, you've you've got support on this committee, but this is not something that they are recommending that that's what I get. The sense of this is something that that a year ago may have happened and but this is this, this is, this is a little shaky to me right now.
167 If you'd like, I would be happy to read the email that I received from director kronhausen. As of yesterday at 330, he said specifically due to a meeting conflict, neither beth benton or he is available for the council meeting, but this specifically that they are they appreciate the opportunity to engage at the administrative rulemaking process. Should this pass, they are supportive of a robust communication plan to help ensure compliance with as little engagement from the property compliance division staff as possible. They do not anticipate budget impacts based on this proposal, and that if they are ultimately responsible for this, making sure this requirement is read, complaints will be assigned to the staff and investigated in the order they receive, so they are willing and able to assist as needed.
168 And I appreciate that. I appreciate that, but the fact that you're just now getting responses from them, like yesterday, that's that is. A little troubling to me because it the original made it seem as if you guys were working hand in hand over the last few months, and that has not been the case. So and, you know, every time we go into council, to the big council and councilor Pirtle-guiney, she won't let us get deep and bring all these people in because she's going to say, y'all should have worked that out in the committee. And so that's what I'm, I'm thinking that we're going to run up against. And I know she's one of the, the co-sponsors, but that that's going to be an issue. Because if we're asking these questions right now, the other nine eight will ask the same questions about this. And and so those are signs that it wasn't a, a, you know, a process that was that went very smoothly.
169 Well, you're right. And we will make sure that if this passes this committee today, that not only hopefully city attorney and milligan will be present, but also someone from ppd will be present to answer.
170 Any questions. Thank you very much. I support this going forward to the bid committee. So thank you for bringing it forward.
171 I'll just go ahead and take the privilege here for a moment. Obviously, I support this ordinance. I'm looking forward to voting yes on it. I think it's important to remember that, you know, for most of the first year that we've been in office, we have been in some sense, responding to ongoing and lurking threats from the the federal administration to target members of our community across the range of, of positionality. And I think this, to me feels like a contribution to that broader defense work where we keep Portland safe. I think it's important to codify that work in ordinances, and in particular, the trans community has been wondering, what are we doing for them? So I think that this is doesn't solve all the problems, but it is it is a meaningful thing that we can do. I also want to note that I'm glad to hear that the policy preview helped you get it to a place of broader support. I think the original intent was to have the city attorney do the enforcement. Then you heard some some feedback from the bureaucracy. So that does tell me that there was some iterative engagement from that other side of the house that is a little bit more thoroughgoing than just sort of like last minutes. And so we we will have, I expect more dialog when we go to full council with this item. But I'm very I'm very eager to to get this passed today out of committee. So thank you for your leadership on this. At this time, I don't see any other hands in the queue. So let's go ahead and just move to a vote. Colleagues.
172 May I have a motion.
173 At this time I would I would entertain a motion and a second for this.
174 I would.
175 Like to move this now amended version.
176 Of second.
177 Thank you.
178 Clerk I.
179 Dunphy I.
180 Smith I Ryan. I Green. I jordan. For to the city council with a due pass.
181 Thank you wendy yeah thank you. Colleagues that's the end of the agenda here. Just want to give a quick preview of what to expect at our. We were eligible for a special meeting this month. We've got some important stuff to take up. So that'll be on the 16th. We're going to hear an update on councilor Ryan's storefront program. If you'll recall, the save our storefronts resolution was passed by this committee and full council, so we're going to get an update on that, as well as some conversations with the us tennis association.
182 So a bunch of follow ups.
183 Yeah some important stuff there. So it'd be a nice way to go into the recess with that update. And council co-chair Ryan will will gavel that meeting. So. Thank you so much for your attendance. Do you want to have any final words?
184 No.
185 Our choice was next week or the week after and we realized no one would be here. So yeah. So thanks for packing a lot into next week.
186 Thanks so much. All right. At that. At this time, I will go ahead and adjourn the meeting of the arts and economy committee.