The record · Transcript

Council session — 2026-02-26

Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (16,118 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are AI-suggested and editor-reviewed (low confidence — auto-captions garble names); each color marks a speaker.

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Are we waiting on councilor Kanal? I think councilor Ryan is out of town.

I'm sorry. What was that? Co-chair Novick?

Yes. Are we waiting on councilor Kanal? I think councilor Ryan is out of town, but his councilor Kanal expected.

Sameer Kanal: I'm on.

Oh, I didn't see you. Weird. Sorry about that. Okay, in that case, hang on a second. Good morning. I call the meeting of the climate resilience and land use committee to order. It is Thursday, February 26th at 9:30 a.m. Diego, you please call the roll.

Good morning. Avalos. Present.

Kanal present.

Ryan. Morillo here.

Novick here. All right. Claire, would you please read the statement of conduct?

Good morning, and welcome to the meeting of the climate resilience and land use committee to testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at Portland.gov/council agenda, slash climate resilience and land use committee. Or by calling 311. 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 and 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, please state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. And finally, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.

Thank you claire. We have two items on our agenda today. We'll be considering appointments to the community involvement committee, and we'll also have a chance to talk with staff and leadership from our planning commission and our sustainability and climate commission. But first, we need to. And by the way, I should note that I haven't had much sleep for the past week, so I tend to be discombobulated. So, co-chair Morillo, I'm counting on you to step in and recombine things if things get out of hand.

And I.

So first we need to adopt committee minutes for the month of January. Minutes could be improved by unanimous consent unless there's any objections. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections. Without objection, the minutes are approved. Diego, you please read the next item.

Item two appoint members to the community involvement committee.

Our our colleagues at the bureau of planning and sustainability are here with appointments to the community involvement committee. And I'm delighted to hear that many of the proposed appointees are here as well. Mr. Engstrom, take it away.

Good morning. For the record, my name is Eric engstrom. I'm the director of the bureau of planning and sustainability. Next, I guess you're running the slides. Yes, I am. Next slide please. We're here this morning to talk about appointments to the community involvement committee. The I'll start by giving you a little background about what the committee does. I will turn it over to harmony to give some background on the recruitment process. And then we will introduce the appointees, many of which are here. There's a few or at least one online and a recorded message from one. Yes. Next slide. So the community involvement committee is a committee that guides bts on best practices for our long range planning program. And this is driven by state mandates that such a committee exists. It provides structure and guidance for staff to to refine our practices around how we engage the public. It's a sounding board for, you know, when we run into trouble spots or have something we want to think through with, with an outside voice. It's codified also in chapter two of the city's comprehensive plan. It reviews and advises staff with engagement on land use and transportation. So it's not purely bts things related to comprehensive planning. And it they give us feedback early in the process of the of the developing plans. And then they also are a sounding board, often midway through the process or partway through the process as we run into questions or issues. They work with planning staff throughout the city to have strong community engagement process, and they also have a task of maintaining and update our best practices manual, which is established through again through chapter two of the city's comprehensive plan, which governs land use and long range planning. The community involvement committee has 5 to 12 members, three year terms. It's intended to have a broad representation of geographies and diverse communities in Portland, and also varied professional experience from and lived experience. And I'll turn it over to harmony for the recruitment process.

Thank you. Harmony dashiell. She her pronouns, equity and engagement manager for the bureau of planning and sustainability. Going through this recruitment process. Our timeline is on the screen here. We started in late September, ran the recruitment for four weeks. We received 22 applicants. That is actually double the amount that we received the last time we put this committee out for recruitment. During the month of October, our staff reviewed and scored those applicants and determined that 14 we wanted to move forward to have interviews. We had two separate interview panels, the first round and a second round comprised of bts staff from various teams, said the community and economic development service area staff and then participation from civic life as well. From there, we elevated our ten candidates. That is a combination of three appointees and seven new members for the committee for a three year term. And that brings us to today, where we have the mayor's appointments to consider at this committee. Looking at demographics, we did get applicants from all over the city, which was our goal. We did a concentrated outreach to district one, knowing that that's a place where we typically struggle to get more engagement and more applications. We received 9% of our applicants from d one and then a variety from other places, including outside of the city, recognizing that that was not exactly where we wanted to be across the board, we did hold two positions. As Eric mentioned, we can have up to 12 on the committee, so we held two, so we could do a subsequent recruitment to do a focus on the outer east Portland, just because our our efforts unfortunately didn't yield quite as many results as we wanted, even though we did a more concentrated push in that part of town. And now I would like us to talk about our appointees again. We have seven new members and three appointees. Tweeden is, I believe, online, but if not, he is traveling. So I do have his statement that I can read out loud. We have sara weller and lauren elizabeth summer. I would like to invite sara and elizabeth to come up and say a few words about themselves.

Please do.

Go ahead and state your name for the record. And then just about a minute about yourself.

Hi, my name is sara weller pena. It's an honor to be here and to have the opportunity to serve on the community and involvement committee. The thing that really excites me about the community involvement committee is it really brings together aspects of my personal and professional lives. Professionally, I am a public health practitioner. I've worked in public health for over 15 years at the intersection of local government and local public health. I consider myself to be a policy and systems practitioner, which really means that I work to examine how our governmental systems advance equity and well-being for all residents. In this, a really big part of my work with cities across the country has been to examine civic infrastructure and how residents are engaged and involved in decision making processes. I've worked most recently with the national league of cities and their health and well-being team as the program director. Prior to that, I was with the national association of city and county health officials, and then I spent over six years at the local level working in local government. So this is really an area that's really special and important to me professionally. But also personally, I consider Portland to be home. My family moved here in 2021. I have three young daughters, my husband, our family. This is where we spend our time. This is where our friends. This is where our neighbors are. And to be able to bring kind of my professional expertise and my experience working with communities across the country to bear here in my home community and be part of the comprehensive planning process and ensuring that all residents here in Portland have a voice and how the city grows, and what that looks like is a really meaningful and powerful to me. So thank you.

Thank you lauren. Thank you.

Hi. Good morning. My name is lauren sommer. I am so excited to be here. I am a student at Portland state university studying urban and public affairs. I am focused on economic development as well as sustainable practices for the future of our cities. As we face the growing climate crisis. I am incredibly passionate about services and policies that serve our communities and create opportunities for people from every background. I am especially interested in the growing movement of cooperatives and union led businesses, and I hope to learn more about what this amazing city council and the amazing people at the bureau are planning for the city, and I look forward to serving amongst my very accomplished and very passionate members at the cac.

Thank you. And just confirming that he is not online with us, is that correct? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and read a statement on his behalf. Good morning, chair and members of the committee. My name is onlything. I grew up as a in a series of strong, curious curiosity shaped by my journey transitioning from an immigrant family to life in the us. And that curiosity has driven me to keep learning, exploring new skills, and getting involved in my community. Over the years, I've applied this in work, school, and volunteer settings, developing leadership, collaboration, and problem solving skills along the way. Building on these experiences, I founded the pasadena soccer organization, a nonprofit that started with seven players and has grown to over 50, including a recent launch girls team. While managing the club's social media to connect with over 3000 followers and strengthen community engagement. Through this experience, I've seen firsthand how creating spaces for people to gather builds belonging, trust, and stronger communities. I'm passionate about serving, giving back to the community that supported my growth. After seeing this opportunity, I couldn't resist joining and I'm excited to contribute and be a part of it in any way I can. I look forward to working alongside with all of you. Thank you. All right. Next I would like to call up bing, jenna, jacob and caitlyn. Okay. Go ahead and introduce yourself.

Bing theobald for the record. Morning climate resilience and land use committee members and guests. My name is bing theobald. I'm a first generation immigrant and have lived in the metro area for more than half of my adult life. My husband and I raised our daughters here, so Portland. So Portland truly likes home to us. Over the past decade, I have served in several advisory and civic committees working to strengthen trust and collaboration between residents and the local government. Through these experiences, I have learned even some small act of involvement can make a meaningful difference in our community. I'm honored to join community involvement committee and looking forward to contributing in any way I can to help our city stronger and more connected.

Thank you jenna. Hi everyone! My name is jenna ringelheim. I use she her pronouns and I'm really thrilled to be here this morning. It feels like a full circle moment. I've lived in Portland for 25 years and I started my journey here doing a master's in environmental policy and planning, and actually wrote my master's thesis on the tipping point of sustainability in Portland as one of my case study cities. Obviously, most of my career has also been in the environmental space at the intersection of environmental and social justice. But most of my work has actually taken me away from the city. And I had a child in the pandemic, and that for most people, reorients to your backyard. And it felt like a really important moment to be just closer to the work and working in community. And I live in concordia. I've also worked quite a bit in the transforming justice project that has been happening in Portland, and facilitated quite a bit of community engagement work in that space. So I'm a facilitator and coach and thriving workplace practitioner in my day job. But in this work, I'm really here also to learn as much as I can contribute. So thank you.

Thank you jacob.

Hi everybody. I'm jacob duggan. I'm very glad to be here today with everybody. I currently live in southeast Portland in the richmond neighborhood, but I grew up and spent most of my life living around the Portland area, and I'm really excited for this opportunity to give back to the community that I grew up in. And I care so much about. My professional background is in the tech sector, working with software for research institutions that do medical research, and I hope to bring my experiences in that field and working there to assist everybody on the committee. I've always been fascinated with politics and policy, and I spent a lot of my personal time studying and discussing it. Though it's been more of a hobby in the past, I'm very passionate about it, and it's something I care a lot about, including public policy, land use and sustainability. I hope I can bring this passion to help everybody on the team. I'm very grateful for this opportunity to volunteer for the city to learn and grow with everybody here. So thank you.

Thank you. Jacob. Caitlyn.

Hi, my name is caitlin burke and thanks for having me. Originally from canada, I've lived in Portland for about 20 years. I married an American and had a kid and I love this city. I graduated from Portland state university where I studied political science, and I also did a year long mediator training with resolutions northwest. During my career, I've really focused on working with organizations that create spaces for diverse communities in our city. This included working with the city commissioner's office to increase equitable access to community garden plots, and connecting diverse communities with opportunities to own a home through a regional community land trust. More recently, I was manager of the micro-enterprise program at the cdc, and through that effort, we worked with the community to build the Portland mercado and develop its food business incubator. I also work with the city's joint office of homeless services on the relocation of women's kenton's, the women's Kenton women's village, which meant a lot of working with different communities. I'm on maternity leave now, but I did apply to Portland state university's master's in urban and regional planning program for this fall. I speak english, conversational spanish and some french. I'm really excited to be to be a part of this committee as it ties together my interests in urban planning and community engagement. Thank you.

Thank you. And now we have our three appointees. We have james and calvin here with us in person. And then I have a video for susan who was unable to join us. Okay, james, why don't you go first?

Good morning. My name is jim gorder and I am finishing my first three year appointment to the cic and look forward to continuing to serve for another term. This is my first time in the revamped council chambers and I am impressed. I am impressed, but I do miss the maps on the back wall. I am one of those rare Portland natives. I grew up, was born in northeast Portland, or north Portland at immanuel hospital, grew up in westmorland and attended Portland public schools, and I'm now a homeowner and resident in the south burlingame neighborhood. In addition to living in district four, I represent the old guy constituency on the planning on the cic, bringing a lifetime of history, community engagement and perspective to the committees actions and deliberations. I have two goals for the community involvement committee this year. One is to increase the level of involvement for all, all populations and all individuals in the city of Portland. The second is to help move the bureau of planning and sustainability to a more collaborative planning model, which will ensure that all voices are heard and that the their concerns are acted upon. Thank you.

Thank you jim calvin.

Hi, my name is calvin hoff. They them I'm a resident and I moved to Portland in 2016 from chicago. I moved here taking a job as a neighborhood business district organizer working for districts like gateway, parkrose, Kenton, and st. Johns. And there I really saw on the ground what a lot of community engagement looks like on behalf of city bureaus, working with business owners and facilitating that engagement between bureaus and the business owners on different projects, and even in some cases, facilitating engagement between what was then commissioners, not councilors. And then in 2020, I went back to school to get my master's in community and regional planning from university of Oregon. One of my more accomplishments there that I'm most proud of is coauthoring two peer reviewed journal articles on immigrant experiences on decision making bodies in the state of Oregon, which I thought was very interesting and is extremely relevant to my time serving on this committee. In my free time, I volunteer with groups like adopt one block and kind of am a block captain for cleaning up there. And then I also like to lead themed group bike rides, including the Portland music ride, which is a lot of fun, but also, I think is useful for actually challenging dominant narratives about what Portland music is and showcasing the full diversity of people and communities that make art here in Portland. And then, needless to say, cic is really, really important. I find, to activities of city bureaus. I think it's a outside perspective that can kind of can help get city bureaus outside of the cultures within them, and really talking to different people who, as you've heard, represent a lot of different communities here in Portland and really helps guide that in a way that's productive and constructive. It helps build people's faith in the efficacy and their participation in government.

Thank you calvin. And now I'm going to go ahead and play the video that susan provided for us.

This morning. I'm susan novak, and I would like to thank you for considering my reappointment to the cic, being a member of the cic over the past several years has been a privilege. It has enabled me to continue a career long commitment to facilitating and building capacity for community engagement and collaboration in decision making about development. It allows me to take my professional experience in urban and regional planning and in international development, and apply my knowledge and skills to the development of my adopted home community of Portland. I particularly appreciate the opportunities to work with the city's urban and transportation planners to support the city's commitment to equity, inclusiveness, and increased resilience through the comprehensive plan. I am excited about the continued opportunities to work with the existing and new members of the cic and the b.p.s to ensure that the diverse voices of portlanders are heard and have effective ways to participate in and influence the planning decisions the city will take to revitalize the central city, to address climate change, to expand affordable housing, and in general, to create opportunities and capacities to benefit from development, as well as to mitigate any adverse consequences. Thank you.

That concludes our presentation from our members or potential members. We request as a committee that we get approval to move forward with these mayor's appointees to full council to get them seated and be able to continue the work here. Happy to answer any questions that councilors may have today.

Councilor Avalos.

Candace Avalos: All right. Thank you so much. Not so much questions. Just some comments. First, thank you all so much for your service. This is really critical. Community involvement is not optional. It is essential to good planning and also just required under state law. Thankfully. So we have some mechanisms to ensure that our communities are heard in this process. The cic really helps to make sure that our land use and transportation decisions actually reflect community voices. And that kind of work really strengthens transparency and accountability in the city of Portland. And so I'm grateful that you all are willing to step up into that role. I really appreciate the mix of new members and returning members. Sounds like there is quite a broad range of fresh perspectives that are being brought here, and that experience is a really strong combination for us. And I just want to again, thank you. These volunteer roles, they take a lot of energy, a lot of time. I know as somebody who sat on many of these boards and commissions, and I know the commitment that it takes and how much it matters. So I just offer my sincere gratitude and open up my office to you all to be a support. As you all are navigating your volunteer leadership. So thank you again. I'm looking forward to confirming all of you.

Councilor Morillo.

Angelita Morillo: Thank you chair Novick I don't have any questions either. I'm just delighted to hear from this group of people. I think we have such incredible perspectives here that are going to really enrich our city, and I'm very grateful that you're taking time to serve your city and do this, and especially heartened to hear from folks in d3. I feel like we have always very exciting testimony and interest in d3. I also just wanted to take a moment to thank staff for, you know, making sure that this process, they were really trying to bring in folks from district one and trying to do outreach for our outer east Portland. I know that was feedback that was given, and I think that that's going to be a longer journey as far as how we as a city engage districts that have never really had representation before. But that doesn't mean that folks aren't trying and that we we're going to keep pushing for that more and more. So just very grateful for the staff for taking that feedback and doing that. We noticed that we see that you guys are doing great work, and I'm so delighted to just see all of you and excited to see everything that you do. My door is always open as well. If you have feedback, suggestions, if you have policy ideas you want to throw my way, make my life easier. I'm happy to hear them. So thank you all so much. Look forward to appointing all of you.

Councilor Kanal.

Sameer Kanal: Thank you chair Novick. First, I did hear everybody's as I was on my way in. Thanks for bearing with me while I was dealing with some stuff on the way in today. Thank you to staff, particularly harmony, for the work on conducting the recruitment process. I'll join in the. I'm glad to see significant district two representation among the applicants, and particularly as a canton resident. I've seen a lot of folks, even not those based in canton, who have experience in our area. I'm impressed with the slate of nominees. On the whole, I think it's been a really strong recruitment. I'm going to vote yes or for the group to the full council. And I do have a couple questions, and the basis for that is on process, because I did community engagement for the city, I managed a few community advisory boards. Community involvement is very important to me, and bringing communities who have historically not had a voice in a local government is the core of the work of being a councilor, in my view. So first, thank you to the appointees for caring enough about equity and engagement to want to share your expertise and your your time with this, with this body, and for serving the city. So my questions are going to be process focused. I'm curious, is 22 a normal number for the size of the recruitment? I understand it's a more technical group in the sense that it's not necessarily doing the engagement, but helping advise on it.

Yeah, this is actually a larger amount than we have had in the last couple recruitments. I can only speak to the last two since I have had an active role in the cic, but I think there's a couple of things that play into that. I know some of our advisory bodies get more prolific numbers. This one is not a decision making body. We're not as high profile as the sustainability and climate commission or some of the police advisory bodies. So it's a little bit more of an intro and recognizing that this group just did it. Not just this is important that we advise staff versus doing actual decision making. This is passing forward to planning commission. That's not part of the role of this. And so it is typical. And actually this is above what we have gotten in the past.

Great. Yeah I don't think you can compare groups to groups, but I think you can compare groups to their previous recruitment. So I think that's super helpful for me to know. I saw in city code that it's it's 5 to 12 members by code, which is unusual. It's a very large range. And we have city council resolutions that have talked about getting rid of ranges and having a set number of members. So I was hoping to ask, this is something that I will be taking up in our new committee structure and was hoping to to talk more about trying to to lock in a higher number, because I think if we hypothetically ever had five, that would be insufficient. So I just wanted to ask about that.

We have had five and it is insufficient. So yes, we definitely want to have more. And our goal is to get up to the full 12. But we really felt like it was important to make sure we could focus on that d1 we are happy to make those adjustments, especially as we go through things like realignment, and we're really taking a look at how advisory bodies operate across the city, that if it is just it's a standard 12 to update that code to, to reflect that.

So are the two people that are listed.

On the website still as they're they're not currently still on it. Right.

The two no. Their terms end well. Calvin and james are listed on the website and so is susan. So they will continue to be on the website. But brian I think is still on there. And so he will sunset and we'll move forward with this new group.

Great. Look forward to working with you on that. Because obviously code would require council action to change. And then just a general note for everyone because transportation planning is a part of this. And when we talk about community engagement, there's been some recent somewhat high profile tension over whether or not community engagement was sufficient, not based on the depth of it or who or how. Well the people that were reached out to were reached out to. But based on who was reached out to and specifically around whether or not changes, I'll use the Willamette example, Willamette boulevard, as an example here of of whether or not the people that are living on a street are the only people that are going to get reached out to, or whether the people that might use the street. And that's a very specific, PBOT focused example. But I think it kind of illustrates what we're talking about here is, is sometimes even when we have very good deep engagement as a city, it's not always broad enough. And sometimes the opposite problem exists. So my encouragement is just to look at both the depth and the breadth as you are evaluating. And I think given the backgrounds and experiences that you've all shared in your examples, I feel that you are more than up to the task to do that. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Councilor Kanal. And I reiterate, my colleagues, thanks to all of the perspective and reappearing appointees and to staff for all their work. Really appreciated. As is my custom, I do have a couple of irrelevant asides. Jacob, I'm going to be calling you to ask what the dominant narrative about music in Portland is, because I'm ashamed to say that I'm not aware of it. And then I'm going to call councilor Dunphy and see how his answer lines up with yours and caitlin, I hope that you're willing to help build the underground railroad to canada once that becomes necessary.

But canada.

Diego, is anyone signed up to testify?

No one has signed up.

All right, colleagues, is there any. Is there any discussion? All right. In that case, may I have a motion to send the appointment? Report to full council with a recommendation to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion? Diego, can you please call the roll?

Avalos I.

Kanal thank.

You for stepping up.

I Morillo. I Novick. I with four eyes and one absent. The motion carries and the appointment report document number 2026 087 will move to the full council with a recommendation it be accepted.

Thank you counselor.

Thanks. Diego, could you please read the next item?

Item three planning commission and sustainability and climate commission briefing.

So we've asked staff and leadership from the planning commission and the sustainability and climate commission to talk with us about their current work and what big projects the council has to look forward to in the coming year. Thank you. I also specifically with regard to the planning commission, I have a question about in what form, to what extent can council members interact with the planning commission before the planning commission sends us land use proposals? Because I know that's kind of complicated by the legal process and making sure we know what's on the record and what's not. But we were talking yesterday about the the PCEF advisory committee and how there's sort of a delicate balance between, you know, do we act as a do we act as a rubber stamp or do we come in and upset the apple cart without consultation and the context? And I think there's ways we can thread that needle with, with PCEF. But with the planning commission, I think some of the legalities might make it difficult. So I just appreciate folks pontificating on what kind of relationship, what kind of interaction there can be between council and the planning commission before an item comes to the planning commission and council. So with that said, go ahead.

Oops. Good. Sorry. Good morning councilors, can you hear me? Okay. That's working all right. Yes. Thank you. Good. Good morning, chair Novick. Chair Morillo councilors. My name is patricia diefenderfer. I'm the chief planner at the bureau of planning and sustainability. We are here to present about the Portland planning commission to familiarize the the council with the work of the planning commission. I was here last in this capacity in July of 2025 to receive your recommendation on five appointments to the planning commission. So I'm glad to be back today presenting on the commission's ongoing work. This is just a brief agenda of what we will cover today. So we'll give some background on the planning commission. We'll introduce the current planning commissioners we have with us. Of course, the chair, steph routh, who will also be participating in this presentation. And we will talk a little bit about some notable past projects and what's on the docket coming forward in the near future. So first, want to give a little bit of history about the planning, the history of the planning commission in the city of Portland. So the planning commission was first established in Portland in 1918. It served as a traditional planning commission, which means, you know, its function has generally been to make recommendations to the city council on legislative actions related to land use and development regulations, and that the the Oregon state statutes require and a planning commission and bestow those kinds of duties upon the planning commission in the city of Portland. In 2020 ten, the planning commission was constituted as a planning and sustainability commission, and the purpose of the commission at the time was to integrate sustainability into land use and planning policy and programs, and it certainly did serve that purpose during a time when there was many, many large planning projects and initiatives going on, such as the Portland plan, the update and development of the Portland plan, and the new comprehensive plan, which is the comprehensive plan 2035. I will give a little bit more background on a subsequent slide, but ultimately the planning and sustainability commission was dissolved in 2023 and it was reconstituted by ordinance to kind of focus on the land use roles and responsibilities that it has. And that same ordinance directed the bureau of planning and sustainability to bring to city council a proposal for a new climate and sustainability commission. And you will hear about that commission more in the next presentation. So just to provide a little bit more history, specifically on the planning and sustainability commission, as I have noted, it was established in 2010. It kind of had this dual focus of land use planning and sustainability and climate action. There was a study done by a former commissioner, commissioner Carmen rubio, to kind of consider the scope and breadth of the planning and sustainability commission. It was determined that the scope and the breadth of that the work of that commission was quite broad. It had to balance the code and land use mandates that it has with the climate action and sustainability. And that's what led to kind of the move to establish a separate planning commission and then establish a new sustainability and climate commission, which you'll hear more about. So just very quickly wanted to kind of share what the purpose of the planning commission is. The planning commission role really is to guide portland's long range planning through the development, maintenance and update of the city's comprehensive plan and the zoning code. Planning commission does have purview over some other sections of city code, but largely the zoning code. It makes recommendations in making its recommendations. It considers the economic, environmental, and social well-being of the city in an integrated fashion, and the commission deliberates using a climate and equity lens and is committed to effective community involvement. And those that purpose was really reaffirmed and reestablished in the process of developing and standing up the new planning commission. These are the formal duties, powers and duties of the planning commission. These are in the city's code, in the zoning code. So it specifies that the duties of the planning commission are to hold hearings and make recommendations to city council on policies and updates, amendments, etc. To the comprehensive plan zoning code. Significant transportation policies. You can see the list here. It also has the role of advising city council on plans and policies regarding a wide range of issues that you can see on the slide here as well. Pardon me. And they include housing, transportation, urban design, economic development and environmental protection. The commission also provides a forum for community members to learn about principles, policies and programs that promote sound land use planning practices. So now I'll tag team with staff. I think very quickly I'll just introduce the technicalities of the planning commission, which is as as was noted, you know, the code specifies what the makeup and membership and terms of the commissioners are. So they're the planning commission has nine members. They typically includes a youth commissioner. And that means a person who was is between the ages of 18 and 25 at the start of their term. The terms are four year terms. They're staggered. The youth term or position is a two year term, and the membership is intended to really embody a broad representation of portland's diverse communities and geographies. It's intended to have varied professional expertise and lived experience to bring a variety of perspectives, much like the community involvement committee, as we just heard. And there are some specifics about the types of occupations, and specifically that there be no more than two members engaged in the same occupation, and that the commission cannot include more than two members who are involved in for profit real estate development. So with that, I would like to have steph introduce herself and introduce the commission.

Great aye, Morillo team. For the record, my name is steph roth. I'm chair of the planning commission. It's a delight to be with you. I think on your penultimate committee, before we reconstitute. Well, gosh, do we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of who is serving on this commission for you? We have people who are involved in development in architecture, civil engineering. We have just the full gamut. And so we have I'll just share eli spivak, who's one of our vice chairs. We have two vice chairs. Commissioner spivak has been our longest serving and so serves as like the institutional memory in a lot of ways. We currently have a couple of projects before us that involve relation to fossil fuel. And he was really he was involved in the last fossil fuel terminal conversations. So that's just really great. Lucas pollack you're not supposed to have favorites, but he was my former student at PSU. And one thing that that is phenomenal about him as our youth commissioner is he is not afraid to ask questions that might be elementary and are rarely so. David knowles, our most senior commissioner in terms of his resume, has been a metro councilor, former planning director, has a great deal of experience. Also share. Lucas was identified as our vice chair, nominated by david, and they are sharing kind of a an informal partnership of mentorship between each other which which I think has been just such a boon to our commission even in the last few months. Commissioner alvarado, former city councilor of pasco, current executive director of community cycling center, the person who has who leads in workforce development and actually our trades and stem around bicycle mechanics and has a depth of of understanding of environmental justice as it relates to both retail space and and workforce development in the stem trades. Thank you, commissioner Brandon. Fellow, district one civil engineering has a deep relationship with partnership with the stem groups and has just been asks questions that I wouldn't have even thought of and just a delight of a human being and environmental justice advocate. Commissioner thompson, who is also been on the the body for a number of years as an architect, our former vice chair and just really thoughtful commissioner O'mara, who works at the central city concern, has a depth of understanding of what it takes to make affordable housing happen in the city of Portland. And our our inaugural chair of the newly constituted planning commission, commissioner Ames, who is a construction manager at walsh, has also done a lot of project management around both affordable and market rate housing. Yeah, I think that's great. Teams, please.

Yeah. So very quickly, I just have a few more slides left. I want to just share a little bit about the legislative process. So I think we've shared this with you before. You know the the land use legislative process is a is quite a lengthy process. Many plans can take in the vicinity of 1 to 3 years. There's many reasons for that. But among, you know, technical analysis and a lot of, you know, technical work that is done for most projects, but it's also about the engagement process, the public engagement process, the every project that we work on in planning goes through many different iterations, many drafts, and they have each draft has a role in the process and has opportunities for public comment. So for example, the discussion draft is the draft. That is the first sort of widely publicly available draft. And input on that draft from the public comes to staff. And then as it goes through the process, a proposed draft is prepared, and that is the draft. That is the staff's recommendation to the planning commission. And public comment on that draft is comment to the planning commission. And then ultimately, planning commission holds a hearing, deliberates and makes a recommendation to you as the city council. And that draft that comes to you is the recommended draft, and it is the recommendation of the planning commission. After much deliberation. And I can I can vouch for the fact that the planning commission takes every project very seriously and deliberates. You know, it's a good thing, deliberates on projects, and really questions the public outreach process and the public involvement in a way that enriches the projects. And then ultimately, those projects come to you for for action and final adoption and implementation. Wanted to just share some notable past projects in the in the recent past, since the new commission, the 2023 commission was constituted, they deliberated on many substantial and substantive projects. Among them was the montgomery park area plan, which was both a transportation plan that identified the locally preferred alternative for the streetcar extension, as well as a land use plan. The. This. The commission made a recommendation and council adopted the housing regulatory relief zoning code amendment, which was temporary suspension of a number of different zoning code regulations to try to facilitate housing plan for the lower southeast area, called the lower southeast rising plan. Updates to land division code. Updates to tree code. They were more minor updates, I believe at that time there was amendments to the sign code of the city to update and create different allowances for the rose quarter to to establish, you know, to reinforce the entertainment district there. They had a role in adopting the tax increment financing district. State law requires that the planning commission make a finding of conformance or consistency with the comprehensive plan of any redevelopment plan that is being established or tax increment financing district I mentioned. The commission also gave input to the 82nd avenue locally preferred alternative, and the council recently approved the code alignment project. Currently at council, our two projects, which I'm happy to report. You all know you were there yesterday, that these two projects have been before council and are making their way through the council process. The affordable housing opportunity project was adopted by council yesterday. You all know that that's a project to rezone 19 select sites for purposes of future affordable housing development or preservation of existing affordable housing. Also at council and had its hearing yesterday was the public infrastructure environmental code project. And that will have one more meeting before council to before it becomes finalized upcoming. And I think we shared this with you at a, at a presentation that we did some time ago, a few months back about the comprehensive plan, just kind of like an orientation to the comprehensive plan. We shared some of the projects that are on the horizon. So they're listed here again with kind of a timeline for what stage? What stage they're in right now. So as you know, we do a project called the regulatory improvement code amendment project, which is a code maintenance project, just continually kind of updating the code to make sure it's it's responsive to evolving needs. That project is called recap or recap 11. That project was a recommendation was made by the planning commission and that is pending council. We're trying to get that scheduled for council committee. Right now. The you can see the next three items are projects that are at the planning commission right now. And those are pretty substantive projects that the planning commission has had several meetings on. And we'll have a few more to complete its deliberations on. And then the last four here on the list are projects that are in sort of the more staff development stages right now, but are soon slated to be coming to the planning commission for hearing. And that means that they will they will soon, soon after that, make their way to the full count to committee, council committee and then the full council. So that's what's on the horizon in terms of the planning work. And these are these are all projects that are really the the last four in particular projects that are amending the the code, the zoning code and the central city plan district, which involves code for the central city and essentially with a focus really on trying to facilitate development, both housing and commercial development and and revitalization of the city. And then much later, we expect that there'll be updates on the transportation system plan, which is a project that the PBOT is leading, but that we do we work on jointly with them, and that the planning commission has a role in as well. So I think that concludes our presentation and happy to answer any questions.

Do you want to take councilor Novick.

Steve Novick: Yeah. Oh yeah. That's yeah, we can certainly do that. Maybe I'll stop sharing here really quickly. Councilor Novick, I know you had a question at the very beginning about the the interaction between the planning commission and city council, particularly before something when something is has before the formal process comes, before the formal process of city council. And I would say, you know, that is that is something that is is we're trying to establish I think it's always helpful for the planning commission to be aware of the city council's priorities. So I think opportunities like this for the commission to hear about the priorities of city council is very important, so that that can be factored in to their deliberations. As you mentioned, there are land use projects, have a lot of legalities associated with them. And, you know, there's a public record that's established for purposes of. You know, if there are any challenges or appeals to projects. And so one of the things that is important is to keep a clear kind of line between what what deliberations before council and council committees are part of that public record versus that are kind of more informal conversations. So I'll just I'll just stop there and happy to have more conversation as needed.

Yeah. I wonder if you could go back to the list of upcoming projects and pick a couple of them out and give your thoughts about, you know, given where the project is and what kind of project it is, what kind of council interaction would or would not be appropriate, like, you know, the economic opportunities analysis or the central city code amendments at, you know, is might there be opportunities for council to share priorities or with based on what they are and where they are? Would that not be appropriate at this point?

Sure.

Well, I'll also say that I think it the opportunities to brief councilors in advance of items coming to council or at important junctures in a project is also very helpful. So you all may recall that we we did I think it was summer of last year, did do briefings for councilors on the economic opportunities analysis. So that's that's another way for the councilors to provide some feedback early on and to express priorities as it relates to projects that staff can take into consideration as staff recommendations are being developed. So those briefings are a very important tool. And I think that the central city code amendment package, again, that's something that we'd be happy to brief councilors on. The briefing format is is a great opportunity to have those kinds of conversations. I know there was an example of the there have been a couple of examples I'm trying to remember. There was an example of the the critical energy hub policy project, and when we had a discussion draft. So before the draft was even before the planning commission, during the discussion draft phase, which is the phase where the the general public is giving comment to staff, I recall that we did a presentation for this committee on the alternatives. That particular project was one in which we had alternatives as part of the discussion, rather than a single recommendation, given the complexity of that project. So, you know, that that I think was a good example of a moment when because there were alternatives in that discussion draft, being able to present that and get some preliminary thoughts from a committee was was a helpful thing. So those are some, some ways, I think, in which we can create that opportunity for council to give feedback on priorities.

If I.

Thank you.

If I can add I think this this is such an excellent question. And in some ways it's the question, right? As we're we're building the connective tissue in this new form of government. And you know, so what is what how do we be responsive and how do we be collaborative. And also how do we be fair and transparent. And and I think that that's that's really a dance especially, you know, as we're, we're currently like all just, you know, the, the three pieces that are before us now people have a lot of deep held feelings and priorities and needs. You might have heard from a few of your constituents about it. And, and, and we had a hearing and then we closed testimony. And I think that there has also there's I have heard that there's some questions and some consternation in among a lot of community members about like, how can we provide responsive feedback to what we are seeing that from your deliberations, I think that that is an open question, that that's something that we need to talk with, talk about, because our unique value proposition to you as a council is that we have the time that you do not have given the the breadth and depth of and scope of, of issues that come before you, that we can really dig into some of these, these projects in a deep way. And but how do we do it in a way that is collaborative and responsive and fair to all various shareholders? And it's made a little more complicated because I think, like Portland is the city that talks. And like I go to a grocery store or I am at the stoplight and there happens to be someone who wants to talk to me about their feelings about the ca. What is my reporting requirement at the next planning commission? So I think and and how do we have conversations with our friends and, or, you know, and, and other folks on around city council and staff about, you know, what what are you thinking? Are we calibrating? Are we thinking about things in the same way? It is an open question to me.

Thank you. Councilor Kanal.

Sameer Kanal: Thank you everyone for being here. Good to see you all. And I appreciate all the presentation in particular, that last piece, I think the city that talks, as well as the narrative, which I believe to be literally true about being stopped randomly and asked about cei just knowing my own experience, which I appreciate, the level of of interest that people have, I wanted to ask about. A couple of the questions that so the the answer that you gave patricia to councilor Novick's question about about the feedback process, I think is really the normal process is really good for conveying information to staff from council. I think it's really helpful for either the public as well as the commissioners or just the commissioners, at least to hear directly as well, because sometimes it's just helpful to hear what's a high priority directly from a councilor who might have a very strong priority. I think what was done on the cei hub issue was actually a really good example, and I think a model for those high profile ones issues that may come forward because, for example, I think, you know, in that particular case, some of us, I think the way I put it was, you know, alternative four is the starting point. And I think having that information going in helps to avoid wasting anyone's time because I'm one councilor. But if a few of us said it, then it's good for you to know that there's some interest in saying one, two and three are probably not really starting. They're nonstarters from at least several councilors. Maybe. Maybe just one, maybe 20. I know that of the commissioners too, but so that that's the the only kind of comment I'd have on that. But I think it is also helpful for the public to know. And one of the tension points is how do we respect the experience and time that commissioners put in in the front end by not getting up in your business all the time? And how do we also respect it on the back end by not having someone or a group go on what would would ultimately be a wild goose chase that they didn't know was right. And so that can that conveying of information ahead of time, I think might be helpful, at least in terms of a. Parameters of what might be helpful at council. So that's that's my only comment. I think we've we've got all these ideas out there. I just wanted to to kind of clarify where I'm at on that chair. Thanks, thanks.

Councilor Morillo.

Angelita Morillo: Thanks, chair. Novick. Thank you guys so much for this presentation. I am very grateful that we have people that can spend all their time digging into these very complicated things, so we don't have to as much. It's very, very helpful because we don't have a lot of time. And you are experts in this, and it's just an immense resource for us as councilors. So thank you for your time on that. I have just curious about what you would say are best practices for us as councilors representing districts. Obviously, some of these different projects end up impacting different districts. So we might have more focus or we might be getting lobbied on a certain project more, more emails, calls, that sort of thing. Should we, you know, what would you recommend to us if there's a project in our district that we should do to make sure we're getting information ahead of time, when people start coming at us and telling us things that they want and need, should we talk to an individual? Should we attend a meeting? Will you reach out to the district counselors proactively? What's the best practice?

And to to clarify, are you talking about like a project that is currently before or about to come before or.

I think for either either way, really, because I think the earlier we get involved in the process, the less annoying we will be later on, because then we will have all the information and we can convey that to our constituents as well. But I guess it's more of a hypothetical. It's not about anything specific really.

Can I take it? Okay, so this is a great I think that part of our community involvement process that we were chatting about last year around like do does, does the community involvement committee, who you just repanelled do we like kind of take that in as the planning commission? Do we become the cic? And we decided the answer is a resounding no in in part because the needs for identifying and helping inform what an involvement process should look like has a slightly different skill set than what needs to be on the planning commission. And also because we didn't want to put our. This is my personal assessment. So I have not connected with my fellow colleagues on this, but that we didn't want to put a thumb on the scale of the information that was coming to us. So I think in part, what would help us is ensuring like through the community involvement committee, that they are helping staff understand how and who to engage with your constituents and how to how to reach out in a way, because your your outreach with your constituents, you understand that better than, than we might on a project by project basis. And then helping constituents understand when and where in the process a project is, so how they can most effectively engage. I think one thing that would help us is also how do we package and what should we be thinking about? And I think this goes back to a councilor Novick question. That is, again, an open question, like what is that feedback from commissioner to councilor and staff? Like, how are we calibrating and making sure that we're that we have a 360 view of a project that will that will faithfully inform your ultimate decision? Is that an answer? What what did I miss?

No, you didn't miss anything, steph. Thank you. That was very helpful. I think the eternal thing I always ask for at the city of Portland is like, can I just have a tree, a contact tree for the different committee commissions that we have that inform our work? Who do we contact for different issues? Who for? Frankly, for all the bureaus? That'd be cool too. But I think there are so many different advisory bodies that help us with our decision making. And I don't sometimes you don't even know what you don't know of. Like, who should I be talking to? Am I missing something? And then I think sometimes it can become almost personal, where people think that we're not reaching out intentionally. And it's like, no, we didn't even realize, I think is something that's come up a lot. So I think finding proactive ways for district councilors to be engaged because our committees are going to change soon. So the briefings that people get are going to be different as well. And then oftentimes, like just logistically, what I've seen with committees is people don't have time to track the other ones, even if it's an issue that they care about because they're just so busy with their own policy work or their own committees. So I think that's helpful. And just trying to figure out how best we can proactively plug in and learn about things ahead of time.

Councilor aye, Morillo I just wanted to add, you know, that I showed the slide about the legislative process. And, you know, there's it's kind of designed in such a way that each step builds on the next step and from, you know, kind of an urban planners perspective, there's really it's important to maintain the integrity of that process. And for each, you know, sort of decision maker or recommending body to have its, its role in, in the time that the process allows for that role. So, you know, the planning commission is in an appointed body, but really an independent body that is comprised of people who have a lot of different expertise and as we've noted, have the time to spend to really dive deeply into the issues. And and then they make a recommendation to you. That recommendation comes in the form of the recommended plan that also has a transmittal letter in which, you know, the transmittal letter describes the the commission's deliberations, perhaps what they struggled with, but ultimately where they landed and often highlights issues that maybe the commission didn't specifically have purview over but wanted to communicate priorities based on what they heard from public testimony and their own assessment of the of the proposals. So I think those those are built in ways in which that communication happens. And I think, for example, just going back to the example we gave of like the cei hub, and I'm recalling now also the we came and presented on the inner east infrastructure analysis that was done, those kind of very early stages of a project is is a great time for us to hear from the priorities. We certainly heard some of this committee's priorities on that project as well. And so those those inform staff. I mean, we certainly take that back. And that's also, you know, staff communicates those priorities in many respects to the commission for the commission's own kind of situational awareness. And also it's embedded in the proposals that that staff bring, you know, obviously supported by technical analysis and other information that's important to factor into the the proposals. So I just wanted to kind of share it is it is a very, you know, it's a very process that that has a lot of variables in it. Let's just put it that way. Yeah.

Thank you for that detail. I really appreciate that. And I have zero interest in being involved in the nitty gritty of all of that. I'm so glad that we have all of you to do that so that then we can get those recommendations. So appreciate that. And just I think it's always helpful when there are opportunities for public for the public to go and talk to you guys. Getting updates regularly on like this is coming up. If you want to advertise it on your social media for your constituents or whatever, that's always very helpful. Thank you guys so much. Really appreciate your time today. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Seeing no one else in the queue. Thank you so much for that presentation. And I think it's probably now time to hear about the planning and sustainability commission. I'm sorry, the sustainability and climate commission.

Can I quickly segue?

Sure.

Great. Because I was the chair of the planning and sustainability commission when we dissolved, and I get to be chair now. So I'm going to take this moment to say a reason that we dissolved one to set up both was because we realized that climate action was mission critical in this city, and that it was getting short shrift because of our statutory requirement to focus on land use as a as a planning body. So that was why we wanted to make sure that the sustainability and climate commission like that, that work had its own body, as we saw in the. And I'm just going to chill because no one has I have not said this to anyone, but if you saw from the opb article yesterday, the sustainability and climate commission does not have the funding that it needs. It was stood up by a meyer memorial trust grant, for which we are very grateful to meyer. And and also it is mission critical that that funding that that funding be prioritized. That was the promise on which we made that very hard and long suffering decision. Please, elaine, take us to a different place. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilors.

Thank you. Council and climate resilience and land use committee and co-chairs. Thank you, chair ralph, for that presentation. For the record, I'm vivian satterfield. Can you all hear me?

You sound a little underwater, vivian.

Well, I, I am under the weather. Underwater, so please excuse my virtual attendance today, but thank you for helping to make it possible again. For the record, vivian satterfield, I use she her pronouns or my name, and I'm your chief sustainability officer in the city administrator's office. Thank you again to our planning colleagues who really set the stage quite well for the origin story of sustainability and climate commission. And from here, I'm going to pass it to my much better colleague who's feeling much better. Elaine livingstone, who's our ability implementation leader. Elaine has been alongside me from the very beginning of this.

Vivian, we really can't hear you very well.

Okay.

I think your microphone.

There's nothing much I can do about that. I'll go ahead and just hand it over to elaine. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Vivian, next slide please. And thank you. Committee co-chairs and members, for this opportunity and your time today. For the record, my name is elaine livingstone. I use she they pronouns and I'm the sustainability and climate commission coordinator in the sustainability office of the city administrator's office. We're here today to give you a snapshot of the sustainability and climate commission, including a brief overview and its scope of work, who is currently serving on and is leading the commission. What we've accomplished since we've been codified by the current city council and our upcoming work plan, and how we plan to engage with council going forward. After our presentation, you'll hear directly from our co-chairs, joey jordison and co-chair aisha taylor, who will share the commission's perspective on this work. Next slide please. The commission was codified by this this council, with an effective date in June 2025 under Portland city code chapter 3.136. The core purpose is to advance climate action across the city, with a focus on environmental justice and accountability. The commission's chief responsibility is to create and evaluate the city's climate action plan. This means identifying specific actions to accomplish our sustainability and climate goals, outlining expected outcomes, and holding the city accountable to those commitments. Next slide please. The commission's scope of work includes these nine initial focus areas that council helped shape last year. These span from buildings and energy to transportation and urban form, from climate resilience to environmental justice, from Green workforce development to waste prevention and youth. As we continue to work with the commission, these focus areas will be further refined and defined. Next slide please. The commission has clear codified powers and duties. It holds hearings and work sessions. It can create committees and joint committees to dig into specific topics. And it advises all three of our city leaders city council, the mayor and the city administrator. It recommends actions and provides a forum for community input. It evaluates and creates accountability for city's climate work, and it can advocate to external bodies that aligns with our climate goals. In short, the commission is here to be your community advisors on climate, bringing you informed recommendations grounded in both technical expertise and lived experience. Next slide please. Among the first things council did in 2025 was codify our membership requirements, which included robust discussion around representation. We have 20 active members, including four dedicated youth seats for commissioners ages 16 to 24. These members represent portland's diverse communities and socio economics, with at least two commissioners from every city council. District terms are four years staggered to maintain continuity. Youth terms are one year recognizing their transition to continued education or careers. Every commissioner Brings either expertise or lived experience in sustainability and climate issues, and they're motivated towards collaborative climate action. Next slide please. These are our current members that you all met last year in this committee. And you can see their full biographies at the link on the slide. For our first recruitment, we received 245 applications, of which 39 were youth. We interviewed over 100 applicants to seat these 20 commissioners and four alternates. This was one of the most vigorous civic recruitment processes the city has ever undertaken. Next slide please. Let me introduce our leadership as elected by our by their peers. Jose guerrero from district one serves as co-chair. He brings deep expertise in environmental justice, community organizing, and served on the government transition advisory committee. Issa taylor from district four, serves as co-chair and is also a youth commissioner. He's a passionate advocate for climate action, including with the Portland public schools, and brings the urgency and fresh perspective of his generation. Having a youth co-chair is structural to this commission with their voices co-leading this work, you'll hear from both jose and issa after our staff presentation. Next slide please. Now on to our work to date from April through June 2025, the council codified the commission in our new form of government, and the mayor appointed all members with council accepting the report. From June to July, I met with each commissioner Member one on one to get their input on the work ahead of them, assigned them our past climate action plans as readings. In July, we held a retreat where commissioners developed their working agreements, read through the values, their vision and goals they shared with me, and completed public official training with the city attorney. September marked our first official meeting. From there, they received briefings on our form of government, the role of advisory bodies and government relations, and they created the bylaws committee to finalize their bylaws. Then commissioners received comprehensive technical briefings on portland's climate work, including our climate action and planning history, the climate emergency work plan, Portland clean energy fund, or PCEF, and the emission inventory. In this new year, the commission is making the transition from achieving a shared knowledge baseline to action. They held their first work session to create the policy and implementation committee to begin developing recommendations on near-term climate priorities, and begun creating a youth framework for the next climate action plan. Next slide please. If I were to distill the last year into four key accomplishments, here's what stands out. Establishment. We codified and created a commission with 20 members representing portland's diversity. Operational launch reestablished governance structures including legal and government briefings, creating bylaws and committees, and electing leadership knowledge baseline. We completed a high level briefing series on portland's climate work, so commissioners had a shared understanding. And then lastly, transition to active work. We've moved from onboarding to focusing on near-term climate priorities and the next climate action plan development. Next slide please. As we look ahead to our 2026 work plan, we organize ourselves around three major bodies of work. First, climate action plan development. Our youth commissioners are leading development of a youth framework for the next climate action plan and engage the full commission on this. Just this past Monday. This framework will center youth perspectives in the climate action plan, and we will debut it at the citywide community wide earth day event called earth and motion on Saturday 11th from 12 to 3 p.m. At parkrose middle school through summer and fall. We'll engage the community and finalize the climate action plan work plan. This will be an iterative process with community, the commission and subject subject matter expert staff across all of our service areas. The climate action plan development is a multiyear process that runs through mid 2028, but 2026 is when we establish the foundation, the second body of work this year is the policy and implementation committee. The commission just approved the proposal to create this committee at their work session last week. The policy and implementation committee is designed to advance near-term climate priorities and policies, ensuring we're not just planning. We're also acting. In the interim. They'll identify the priorities, engage city leaders to understand needs and feasibility, and will bring recommendations to council, the mayor and city administrator. The third body of work this year is membership and recruitment. We opened applications for our next cohort of youth commissioners this week, and the mayor's appointment will go through council processes this spring, and hopefully they will begin serving in early June. In late this fall, we'll begin recruitment for the eight seats that begun as two year terms, and will serve as four year terms to ensure that we had staggered membership from the beginning. Similar to your city council terms. Next slide please, and we'll try to pass it back to vivian. Thank you.

Please let me know if you can hear me better now.

Sounds better.

A little bit.

All that work brings us to council engagement, which I know has been a topic of conversation for you all in this committee, and the touch points where we hope you'll hear from us this year. So for the climate action plan development, you'll be receiving ongoing updates as the climate action plan work plan is developed with the adoption of the next climate action plan, expected in 2028. This is the commission's signature deliverable, and we seek to engage counsel at key milestones. I think, much like our planning colleagues who offered the form of briefings as being a critical touch point for you to engage our staff, to engage with you and to hear your interests. That's also a vehicle that I'll be seeking to utilize on the policy and implementation committee. This committee will bring recommendations and guidance on near-term climate priorities. These are the actionable items that can inform future decision making. And depending on the nature of those near-term climate priorities, I'll be looking forward to engaging both the administration, city council and the mayor again through that that briefings vehicle for all of those recommendations and for membership by may, we'll be bringing you a council report on the next cohort of youth commissioners, with the goal that they begin serving in early June. And this continues the through line of the youth leadership model that is central to our work here. Next slide please. And that's the conclusion of our presentation. So to summarize we've built a strong foundation and we are ready to support councilor Kanal. We're here to provide informed community input to help translate climate priorities into practical policy and to hold the city accountable to its climate commitments. And more importantly, we're here to make council's climate decision climate decisions easier, not harder. You've got 20 plus community members with deep expertise. With that lived experience and a commitment to portland's future, ready to serve as a resource. I'm so pleased that one of our co-chairs was a is able to join us here in person. And so I'll hand it off to him, and then you'll also hear from co-chair lisa taylor in a prerecorded message to share the commission's perspective. Thank you so much.

Thank you, vivian, again, jose jorgensen he pronouns district one. Currently the co-chair of the sustainability and climate commission. Thank you all, councilors, for having us here today. I've actually had the privilege of being able to get the commission going. You, I think, more than most bodies know, that a new body has a lot of systems and processes to work through, even when trying to do the work it's tasked to do. And that's what we've been doing. I've had experience in doing that. I've had a lot of work working through processes and researching processes for the council. Now I can apply that to this commission, and I'm happy to share my experience and help with that work so that we can ensure that we can work efficiently and effectively. Going to the future. I know we're tasked with making the city as Green as possible and creating a climate plan, and ultimately one of the most important things as we continue to secure portland's future. But I know that many, including many my community immediate threats don't allow you to look at those things. Luckily for me, I know, like councilor Green put it, that you all can walk and chew gum at the same time, so I know you can look at many things at once. Policy is not just housing policy. Everything should be climate policy. That's the way we're going to move forward. Originally, I was a little disheartened when the climate centered committee disappeared, but that gives me hope that climate policy will then be included in every committee and every conversation so that we can move forward, because some people can't think about climate because they're worried about where they can live and sleep. So if you're all thinking about climate with housing policy, you can bring people along to all those conversations. And that's ultimately how we're will be more successful. And I also hope that with that, you will allow our commission to help you with gtac. We helped with the new government and helped a lot to do that research into the nitty gritty and offer guidance into what should be done, what can be done, what are the options? I hope you take me and my commission, the commission as a same kind of sounding board for policy. We will give you our feedback, but also if you have things you're working on, send it over our way. We want to be able to help and walk alongside you and not be our own thing off to the side. We want to do as much as we can to help you move this work forward, but we are a little limited. You've heard already that we're not properly resourced. And again, you know that that's limiting. We're a public body, so we want to have a committee has to be noticed and staffed and streamed and all the things. So we are limited because we don't have the resources to create other committees. We've created one, but we're waiting to start it until one ends because of staffing limitations. So a lot of us have talked. We would love to start getting community engagement going, doing different things, but we don't have the resources to do that. But we're ready. I think there their expertise on the committee is so wide ranging, and it's sometimes I feel like, why am I here? Because there are people on the committee that are impressive in the climate work. But I know that all of us hold a completely different skill set that will help us move this everything forward, including my own, and I hope that you will take us along with you when you move things forward. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, co-chair jose. I'm now pulling up co-chair isa's prerecorded video.

Good morning. I'm co-chair of the sustainability and climate commission. I use he him pronouns and I live in district four. Firstly, I would like to thank the committee for having me today. Serving on the commission has been an incredible experience for me thus far. It's allowed me to connect with leaders across Portland, engage with members of our community and educate myself and others on climate issues facing our communities. Serving as co-chair of the full commission and bylaws committee, I've had the opportunity to work with my fellow commissioners to write the rules governing the commission. As a commission, we've come together to discuss the most pressing climate change issues facing our beautiful city, and in the future, I look forward to working with the commission to have a real direct influence on our city's climate policies. As a youth commissioner, this commission has been my first time engaging with the world of governance and the professional work behind it, standing side by side with other commissioners who have dedicated their lives to fighting climate change gives me a feeling that words can't describe. This position as a youth commissioner Also represents the fact that the youth of today are the climate change leaders of tomorrow. Us youth will be the ones to carry on the torch from this current generation to fight climate change. And that is something that the other leaders of the commission understand. Well, to that end, this commission has committed itself to involving youth voices as equals. On February 23rd, we held our first power to the youth retreat for the commission, highlighting youth voices in leadership on the commission, in our contributions to the fight for climate justice, especially in regards to the Portland climate action plan. I hope to see this commission play a central role in advising the city council on its climate policy initiatives and directives, uplifting youth voice to contribute to citywide discussions. In order to make this a reality, we add the sustainability and climate commission will need support and resources from city staff to ensure a cleaner future for Portland.

Thank you colleagues. Any questions? Councilor Kanal.

Sameer Kanal: Thanks.

It's it's not a well, I do have one question actually. There's I've seen a couple competing things around the timeline for the climate action plan. I just wanted to ask. We were told it needed earlier, we're told needed to be in place by 2027. Some of the documents here say 2028. I just wondered if you could speak to that and the timeline versus the requirements.

Thank you, councilor Kanal.

Sameer Kanal: For the record, vivian satterfield, your cso. Under the guidelines of c40 cities, we are planning to complete the work of our climate action plan and have a document ready by the end of 2027. However, we anticipate that getting through the legislative process may bring us into the first quarter of 2028. And so that's just the recognition of that. But we are planning to complete our work by the end of 2027.

That that is a good assumption, and I appreciate the clarity there. And also, we can hear you a lot better. Now, the other thing, and this I think relates to both that and some of the other pieces. And thank you for the I should have led with thank you for the presentation, by the way. Is that I think it was mentioned in staff's comments as well. But the opb article, the audit, the number of things that have been brought up about the under resourcing of not only the commission, but the chief sustainability officer and the office of sustainability in general, is, I think, really important. That's not a knock on either of you. I worked in under-resourced spaces in the city before, and it often you're the one who's here. And so you're visible when people say that there's not enough capacity. And it looks like we're talking about you, and it is literally the opposite of that. And I want to be super clear about that. And so can we get some some help, please. That's a I don't know who I'm asking right now in the room, but in the future, the mayor in the budget proposal should be looking to resource this office sufficient to not only its needs now, but its needs that will develop in the future, which we anticipate growing. Just knowing the issue, areas that are under discussion and what they're likely to do in the future. I'll note that that managers and staff from not only the sustainability, this is a quote the sustainability office and other bureaus told us, meaning the climate justice auditors, that the chief sustainability officer still does not have the authority to ensure bureaus are accountable for the climate action plan either. So I think that's related to the capacity conversation, and I want to make sure that that, that, that that's a quote from the audit was highlighted here today as well. Thanks.

Councilor Avalos.

Candace Avalos: Well, first I'll just say for both of the presentations we just had, thank you so much. Really good to see the work that you're doing and just the unique role that these boards have in our kind of infrastructure here in our city. I just want to elevate what councilor Kanal was just talking about, and maybe just put it out in the ether for us as colleagues, as we're about to enter budget season. It is of high priority to me that we find some resources for the cso office. I think that is a the minimum step that we should take. So I know I plan to do some work on proposing some amendments. So I just want to flag for my colleagues that I'd love to work together on pushing the mayor to include that in the budget. And if he does not, then for us to find money for that when it comes to our desk, I think that ultimately, you know, creating the cso position, the goal of it, the goal is clear. But the actions to make that goal a reality are clearly not. And that's what the audit said. That's what a lack of resources will do. So I do hope that we can push our colleagues to see the broader need for a more unified and cohesive strategy for our climate projects and our climate vision, because, yeah, I think that we need to it sounds like we need to do there's some politics here. I think there's some political aspect to our role as councilors to push on the administration, to ensure that there is enough authority given resource and direction, so that, you know, vivian can feel empowered to do the very important role that we've asked her to do, which is to unite the city on our climate goals and our climate vision. So I just want to put that into the ether. I think it's an important discussion that we need to have, especially as you know, we have a reworking of our committees, and I hope that where climate now sits in the city life committee, luckily, councilor Morillo and I will be sitting on that committee, and I know that we'll be doing our best to elevate these issues and make sure that they don't, you know, go into the foreground. Great point, jose, that, you know, could be an opportunity to say and that now that it's more blended, let's actually talk about it in a more blended way. But we know history shows that the opposite could happen. So just flagging that I'm very aware of that. And we'll make sure to keep elevating those issues in those committees in that structure. Thank you guys.

I delighted to hear both my colleagues talk about the need for more resources for the chief sustainability officer. I think that in order to complete the climate action plan update, she cso satterfield needs some additional staff and I think all three of us, hopefully all four of us, will be fighting to ensure that in some way. So I have a question for the chair and for and for the cso about what is the relationship or what should be the relationship between the climate and sustainability commission and PCEF do you think, do you do you expect to be involved in the process of, you know, the annual adjustments to the cip? Do you expect to be involved in the development of the new cip? It seems to me intuitively obvious that if you have a climate sustainability commission, it should have some discussions with the people who are figuring out how to spend $200 million a year on climate related things. And I'm just wondering what kind of relationship there has been to date and what kind of relationship you think there should be in the future.

Thank you, co-chair.

Novick, for the question, and I'm glad that you all can hear me better now. So shout out to our team at bts for ensuring that these meetings are accessible to all. I appreciate the question about the relationship with the Portland clean energy fund, and this is going to be something that will continue to work through. The commission has had an initial briefing on some of the work of the Portland clean energy fund, and I'll leave it to co-chair josie to speak a bit more to that. After my comments here, I see the work of developing the climate action plan as being necessary to help inform the way that PCEF will be developing their next climate investment plan. And so to look at the community wide emissions, to look at the broad ways that will be driving down our emissions in order to meet our 2030 and 2050 net zero goals, to be in direct relationship with the spending plan that pccep will develop through the next ci, cip, you know, through their not just community grant making, but also the way that it interacts with the work of the city bureaus. And so these are in relationship with one another. I'll also just bring in that. I'm also in conversation with how climate adaptation through our natural resource plans can be a part of that. I think that the exciting work that's happening in the planning in the public works service area, with their capital investment strategy, capital investment plan, also has a relationship here as well. So these are all major plans that should be speaking to one another. And the climate action plan is I think that that that stake in the ground, which will help them better understand how they should be developing their plans in concert with it.

Thank you.

Yes. And I guess I'll add, after the first presentation, there was immediately a request for more information from PCEF. And I've seen appetite from other commissioners to continue that relationship and keep it going. But there an existing body where a new body is just figuring out how that will work. But the appetite is there on our side to get that going and it makes sense. Like cso vivian said, our work is linked no matter what we do, whether we talk to each other or we don't, our work is linked and they're going to have to talk to each other at some point. So it's just working that out.

Co-chair george said. I actually have another question for you. Hate to put you on the spot. Of course you don't have to answer. But I'm curious, do you think that it makes sense to spend $75 million of PCEF money rehabbing the moda center?

This is my own personal thoughts. The commission. The commission has not talked about this. I do not see how that is in the best interest. We keep peeling away PCEF for non PCEF functions, and I understand that vote yea is an economic driver, but I also know that moda center had previous renovations that were taken apart a lot by the ownership of moda, and the current ownership is not taking part of this renovations. And I want to know why. Why in the past the ownership did and now they're not. And part of me thinks that maybe the idea that there's this body that's going to pay for the renovations is keeping them out of it. I don't know enough about that. I know what I've seen in the media, what I've seen in the news. But there are a lot of things we can do that I can even personally think off the top of my head. That will help advance our climate goals more with that money than rehabbing the motor center. But that's my own personal views. Again, the commission has not discussed this, so I do not talk for the commission.

I really appreciate your being willing to share your personal views. Unfortunately, the city does now own the moda center, but that to me doesn't decide the issue of whether PCEF money should be spent to rehab. Colleagues. Are there any more questions?

Way to put a guy on the spot. Novick my gosh.

Apologize on behalf of councilor Novick I'm just kidding. It's a fair question, but it is very loaded. And thank you for taking the time to diplomatically answer that. I mean, I think councilor Novick's point, right, is that we do want to hear we I think we're getting close to the point where we want to start hearing directly from people. So maybe, you know, I think it's tenuous with what's going on in Salem right now, but maybe that is a good flag that like if there are thoughts that are bubbling, I know I want to hear them. So keep those in mind for the future.

Councilor Kanal I'll just also add.

Sameer Kanal: It would be super helpful in addition to those thoughts, to also have the thoughts on where folks would want the money for moda to come from elsewhere. I think that that helps to inform those on the administrative side who are currently in the conversations that they're having before it comes to council.

Okay, okay.

No pressure.

I don't see anyone else in the queue. Do you think, colleagues, do you think that we can give ourselves and others 14 minutes back?

Let's do it.

Thank you. Really, really appreciate the presentations today. I think this was an excellent use of our penultimate meeting of this particular committee. And by the way, councilor Avalos, I can't remember who it was. Oh, I think it was steph who raised the point that one of the reasons for the divisions was that they were spending so much time dealing with the mandatory legal land use issues, that they were giving climate short shrift. And I am a bit worried that the same is going to happen with land use being lumped in with housing. So you're going to have a huge job figuring out how to deal with all the land use issues will be coming to us, and while still having discussions of housing policy. So I'm glad that you're the chair and not me having to deal with that. And I wish you all all the luck in the world, and I'll help you as much as I can.

Thank you, councilor.

All right. The hang on a second. I need to take a look at what I'm supposed to say at the end, which is on my phone, so I need to, like.

Do you want me to do this part? Councilor Novick.

Steve Novick: No, I think okay, our next meeting is March 12th. At that meeting, we'll consider appointments to the historic landmarks commission. And we're anticipating a resolution from councilor Morillo. And with that, the meeting, this meeting of the climate resilience and land use committee is adjourned. And I will then use my hooker's gavel hitting my computer.

No, no, no.

Thanks everybody.