The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-04-10
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
This April 10, 2025 session of the Portland City Council's Labor and Workforce Development Committee opened with roll call, a statement of conduct, and an agenda reordering before taking up three combined emergency ordinance items related to Preschool for All staffing, including a new Lead Preschool Teacher classification, wage premiums for Recreation Associates, and adjustments to trip-excursion pay under existing labor agreements with LIUNA Local 483. Presenters from the Bureau of Human Resources and Parks Recreation Division explained wage structures, classification rationale, and program funding through Multnomah County, addressing questions about emergency-ordinance timing, staffing thresholds, and potential community center closures. Votes occurred on each item, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. The committee then heard an extended panel discussion on internships, apprenticeships, and workforce needs, featuring representatives from Work Systems Inc., the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, Espousal Strategies, building trades unions, AFSCME, the Portland Police Association, and pre-apprenticeship organizations including Portland Youth Builders and Constructing Hope, who discussed labor shortages, wraparound supports, and diversity in construction trades. Data on public works contracting and workforce demographics were also presented. The session concluded with discussion and amendment of a resolution on funding for pre-apprenticeship and Summer Works youth employment programs, followed by votes whose outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
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0 Something like we're keeping the space.
1 Okay, perfect. Are y'all ready?
2 Okay. We got a.
3 You guys.
4 Don't want to leave this home away from home, but I'm still going to. Have some leadership and keep the partner students in the same room.
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5 Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining our labor and workforce development committee for this afternoon's meeting. I am your committee chair, councilor Loretta Smith, from district one. To my left is our vice chair, councilor Mitch Green. We are also joined here by ashley hernandez from the council operations and keelan here today. And I want to introduce our other councilors. And that would be Jamie Dunphy, councilor Canal and councilor Novick. Thank you all for joining us this afternoon. And colleen, could you call the roll canal.
6 Here? Novick here. Green. Here. Cathy, here. Smith, here.
7 Thank you. And, ashley, could you read the statement of conduct, please?
8 Welcome to the meeting of the labor workforce development committee to testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at. The agenda. Labor and workforce development committee, or by calling 311. Information and engaging with this committee can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In person, testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If a public testimony will be taken on on an item, individuals must testify. Testify for three minutes unless that the chair states. Otherwise, your microphone or phone will be muted when the time is over. The chair preserves order, destructive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberation will not be allowed. If you cuss disruption or warning, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespassing. Additionally, the committee might take a short recess or reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When being considered. When testifying, state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist identified organization, you represent, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls or calls your name. Thank you.
9 Thank you ashley. Thank you ashley. We have some interesting discussions planned for today, and I'd like to reorder the agenda posted on the web. If there are no objections, I'd like to consider the three emergency ordinances together as one agenda item. That they would come up together and then move into our presentations. That should last about an hour, and then we'll consider the vote on the cip workforce resolution. Do I have any objections to this?
10 No objection. No.
11 Thank you. Killeen, could you please read the first agenda item, please?
12 Item one create a new non-represented classification of lead preschool teacher and establish a compensation range for this classification. Item two authorize letter of agreement with the laborers international union of north America, local 483. Recreation to amend wage scale premium for recreation associates. Leading trip excursions with adaptive and lifelong recreation. Item three authorize letter of agreement with the laborers international union of north America, local 483. Recreation for premium pay to assistants and aides as defined in the preschool for all program.
13 Good afternoon.
14 So we're going to combine these together, but we're going to vote separately on them. And if you could begin the testimony or the presentation that would be great.
15 Thank you so much. Council chair Smith. I believe we have slides for the two items related to preschool for all. I know that there's a separate low in the middle, but we're hoping that we can speak to both of the preschool items together.
16 Okay. Okay. Thank you.
17 I have this slides or. No. Fantastic. Okay. All right. We're going to wing it with no slides. We're really excited to be here. My name is sarah daly. I'm a labor relations analyst in the bureau of human resources.
18 I'm Jamie sanders. I'm a manager in the recreation division, and I oversee the implementation of the preschool program.
19 So in September, the parks department submitted an application to become a pilot site for preschool for all. Preschool for all is run by the Multnomah county and is funded through a tax on top filers. And we were granted in December. All of the current preschool rooms. There's 11 of them at nine different sites. In portland's community centers. And we were granted for 154 student slots. The funding, as I said, is through a tax. It impacts less than 10% of the filers in Multnomah county, and it will pay for all of the wages and salaries for the folks working in that program, and a program that would have been cut short of this funding. So the first item that they read off, item 153, is for the new lead preschool teacher classification. We have how many current teachers working? 1212 current teachers working in portland's preschool classrooms. However, the body of work is changing such that the existing classification did not really address the requirements put forth by the preschool for all program as far as educational levels and professional development, as well as the length of the workday, and so classification and compensation wrote up a new classification specification that we're hoping to get approved through emergency ordinance because parks needs to start hiring these folks in. And we are looking to retain as many of our current preschool teachers as we possibly can. So we have met with both that workforce and their current labor representatives. Liuna to discuss the change and after this classification gets approved, hopefully they will be able to do a promotional recruitment only for folks working in Portland that currently hold that classification of preschool or recreation leader. Preschool is the current classification, so we're running a sheltered promotion because these are folks that have very deep roots with our communities and relationships with families, and we're looking to honor that work. And because the new classification has a higher top step than the current one under hr 8.01, they would be also receiving a 5% promotional increase when hired into this position. After that, the bureau plans to run an external recruitment to fill any vacancies. Or if there's a need for sub coverage, and also to establish an eligible list. That's kind of all that we have about that one item. If you want, we can then address the recreation associate preschool premium. Okay.
20 Yes, ma'am. Could you go ahead and do that?
21 Sure. So the recreation associates fit very well with the preschool defined teacher's aide and assistant. And so there would be approximately two rec associates working alongside lead preschool teachers in each of the classrooms. And one of the program requirements for preschool for all is that the folks working in our communities, preschools are paid a fair living wage, and so they establish their own minimum wages. That change with the Multnomah county's cola each year. So we've received the minimum wages for the coming school year, which roughly aligns with our fiscal year here in the city. And currently, the entry level wage for rec associate is $19.52. After this year's cola is implemented, that will be at $19.99 and the minimum wage set forth by preschool for all is $22.27. And so we have met with liuna, who currently represents those through the rec contract. Liuna has advocated very hard for a preschool for all and has lobbied for that. And so there have been pleased with the transition thus far. And we worked out this premium that would close the gap between the entry wage for rec associates and the minimum wage for preschool aides and assistants, and that will have to be renewed each year, because preschool for all, as I said, publishes yearly what their new minimum wages are for both sets of employees. The assistants, as well as the lead teachers.
22 That I'm clear on this because I noticed something that the purpose statement says the preschool for all program sets the minimum wage for teachers and assistant aides, with a wage set at $22.27. And after the July 1st, 2025 cost of living adjustment, the entry wage for recreation associates will be 1999. Does that make sense that it goes down.
23 So the existing wage rate for rec associates is 1952. After cola on July 1st, it will become 1999 preschool for all sets a higher minimum wage. And so the premium will be closing that gap between the entry wage after cola on July 1st and the preschool for all minimum wage for the assistants, which is a higher rate.
24 And so that I'm clear that they will be paid $22 an hour.
25 Correct. Okay. Well, unless that they are at a higher step. Right. So every person for all hours worked in the preschools will receive the same $2 and 28 cent premium on those hours. So the lowest that anyone would make in that classification while working in preschools would be $22.27.
26 Okay, perfect. Thank you.
27 You're welcome.
28 So we're going to.
29 We're going.
30 To call up the third. Hour. I can wait until after.
31 That's okay. Let's councilor Green has a question. Thank you.
32 Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for presenting today. I'm really excited about this. Of course, but I do have a question for the lead preschool teacher classification. Why is this non rep.
33 This is what I have learned. I've been with the city for just over a year. But when we establish a new body of work that it starts as non rep and we've communicated with liuna who we fully believe will do a card check once folks are hired into that. But it allowed us to start the process, get folks hired in and then negotiate with liuna, who will likely be the representative body for these folks to establish kind of what all of their what parts of their current contract will apply and what parts need to be rewritten or refigured based on this new body of work.
34 That's helpful. And not that I don't trust you, but is there anyone from liuna in the room? Can you just give me a thumbs up? If not.
35 I let them know we were coming today and they.
36 Okay, I just I wouldn't be a good labor champion if I wasn't pressing the issue. So I'm glad to hear that they're going to go right into a card check and they'll build a negotiate. Thank you.
37 Correct.
38 Keelan can we take a vote on this or do we have to hear the third?
39 You can make a motion. And second to send this item to full council for consideration. You would just want to do that for each of the three items you can.
40 Okay. We'll start with the first item. Could I get a motion?
41 I moved that we vote on. We approve this motion and advance it to the full council for consideration with a due pass recommendation.
42 Second.
43 Okay.
44 And this was for item one.
45 Item one.
46 Okay. It's. And then we'll call the roll. Canal.
47 Excuse me. Don't we normally ask for discussion first on this motion?
48 Yes. Do we have any discussion? Councilors.
49 Can you hear him? Okay.
50 I do. It's sort of an open question on this. I'm very supportive of this being implemented by the full council. I do want to ask why this is an emergency ordinance. Because it appears to me that nothing new has come up on 153, item one on our agenda today, other than simply the administration not doing it sooner, which does not constitute an emergency. So I'd like to just get some clarity around that. And also, it's not just a question, but it's a clarity in the context of our approach to it. And maybe why? Because we adopted city code in January that says emergency ordinances will generally be assigned to the full council without committee consideration. And I'm curious why we're deviating from that best practice that we that it wasn't the old council that did it, it was us.
51 Councilor Kanal one of the things that we try to do, and we try to be consistent in making sure that all of these resolutions and ordinances that they come through committee first. And I know if it's an emergency, it can go directly to the committee. But we still need to have folks like you and councilor Dunphy and councilor Greene and Novick to be able to weigh in to say something about it on the committee level before we push it up.
52 So that makes sense to me, because I don't think this these particular ones sound like an emergency, but I'm.
53 Can I respond to that? Okay. Thank you. Preschool for all requires that all folks hired into their program slots be paid in alignment with the preschool for all minimum wages by July 1st. If this is an emergency ordinance, as soon as it's approved by council, it goes into effect immediately and parks can start their recruitment process right away in the hopes that all of the seats will be filled by July 1st. The not having an emergency ordinance. I understand that the classification would take another 60 days to go into effect, at which point there might be an issue with ensuring that everyone can have their jobs secured, and that we are ready to start planning for the new school year. And so I understand the hesitation. But this is one where our timeline was very tight, which is why we moved it towards an emergency ordinance we were hoping to seek. An audience with the full council on April 2nd, and then again on April 16th, and then that was changed due to process. And so that's why we're here today. And then we'll be again before council on the 16th.
54 So this is this is going to go to the council on the 16th.
55 That is correct. Okay.
56 And then sorry. Go ahead. One one more question. This is more of a process question. In the old form of government, five votes were required out of five on an emergency ordinance. Now we're doing nine. 12 is the threshold for approving an emergency ordinance, a motion about an emergency ordinance 3 or 4 fifths or five? Like what is the voting threshold?
57 Councilor Kanal we don't have any rules to our committees yet. That's going to come through governance. But to make this go, it's going to be three.
58 Okay. And I also just one last thing on this it I'm only referring to 153 I think it makes sense that 154 and 155 would be would be emergency. Or I guess I might have the numbers. No, they're right would be emergencies. Given that it takes time to negotiate and to bargain with with labor. So no concern on that one. I also, I guess I should have asked this one earlier, where would the locations for the preschools be? I know that when parks is proposing cutting community centers, now, we're talking about a compounding issue of reducing third spaces for the for the community, if that were to happen. And now I'm curious how and where we would be expanding that capacity in parks for.
59 Preschool currently expanding any there's currently 11 preschool rooms in community centers. Jamie can likely speak better to the closing of community centers, but it's not an expansion. It's the same capacity that our programs are serving now.
60 There are 11 rooms within the neighborhood and regional centers across Portland. Three of those classrooms are in neighborhood centers, and we have established within the bureau the ability to maintain the preschool program, even if the remainder of the op functions in that building closed for this year, the funding for the preschool teachers and the preschool comes through Multnomah county for the one year. That way, we can commit to the county that those preschool classrooms will occur in those locations for the upcoming school year, regardless of the closure. While there's still process, if whatever happens next with the community center.
61 So.
62 The preschool classroom will continue for the upcoming year. If there is a closure of a neighborhood center.
63 Thank you. That that opens up a confusion. So I'll just clarify here that the neighborhood community centers you're talking about are st. Johns peninsula park and Montavilla.
64 Correct.
65 My understanding is that if those were closed down as part of the budget conversation, that effectively the plan had been to mothball the physical building. And you're saying, am I understanding you correctly, that you're saying the building would just have that one room open for a year.
66 Would be deferred for a year.
67 For just that one room.
68 And then for the following year, we can potentially either mitigate and move a classroom to another facility that remains open or decide not to hold that. Classroom. The enrollment for preschool for all actually opened this month, and so the confirmation and decision had to be confirmed that those sites would be available to deliver the programs.
69 Just to clarify.
70 You're saying for just those one, that one room in each of the three community centers.
71 For that one function in that community center?
72 What is the distinction between function and room?
73 Well, preschoolers use restrooms and they use gymnasium. They use spaces in the building. But that would be the only functioning program in the facility.
74 Okay.
75 Councilor Kanal, I need to kind of get to the next one. And just if this makes makes you feel any better. When the council president came to ask me about this last week, I denied her the first time and the second time, and until they came back and said why this was so important and that was the reason why I put it on the committee, because they want to make sure that everything comes through committee. And I'm glad you asked those questions, because that's important. I thought the same thing. Why are we putting these here if they're going to close it down? So that was that was very appropriate and necessary. Thank you very much.
76 Thank you.
77 Can we go with the first vote? Are we good. Are there any other questions? Thank you.
78 Canal I hope.
79 We have the opportunity to have enough time to discuss this at the full council on the 16th, but I vote aye.
80 Novick I.
81 Green.
82 I think it's great the city is creating these classifications for preschool for all we need to support this program, and we should use the full weight of our city to do that. I vote I.
83 I Smith I. The item is passed to full council.
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84 Thank you. Can we go to the second item on the agenda and take a vote?
85 Chair.
86 Chair okay.
87 I move that we approve item two with a due pass recommendation second.
88 Put question point of order. Are we talking about item two or item three? We only heard the presentation.
89 Well three.
90 Oh we we're talking about we combined three together okay.
91 Just clarifying.
92 Yeah okay. Thank you.
93 Thank you councilor Kanal.
94 Okay. So this is for item 2020 5-15 for number two on the agenda.
95 Exactly. To authorize the letter of agreement with the laborers. To. Yes.
96 Sorry. I do think that that one is the one that we haven't spoken to yet.
97 That's not the one.
98 It is item three.
99 Yeah. It's item.
100 It's item three.
101 Dash 155.
102 Okay, great.
103 155 okay. Yeah.
104 So you would like to vote on that one now.
105 Yes.
106 Okay. Great. Thanks. Canal.
107 Okay.
108 Thank you. I'm glad to see the city stepping forward to host preschool for all sites. We've seen that while the county's exceeding its self-defined goals for success, the need is deeper than the county has been able to achieve. So far, 3800 slots this year. Applications are due April 30th. So if anyone's watching this, who wants one? Please put in your application. We also heard just last committee meeting from our own city staff the challenges of working while parenting, and this program fills a deep need from our entire community, 71% of attendees being from low income families, 65% being children of color. And I'm very supportive of preschool for all serving the children who are most vulnerable and with the highest need. And on this particular item, as it relates to the letter of agreement. Workers traditionally in early childhood education are largely women and people of color. They earn lower wages than k-12. Workers on average have a lower percentage unionization. These are the same workers that we see that we deemed essential during the pandemic. I'm a pro-union councilor. This is a pro-labor council. I think it's a really good priority for us to have to bring into the city fair wage and benefited jobs. So I'm pleased to support this. I vote I.
109 Novick I.
110 Green ditto everything, councilor Kanal said. And I'll just add, if we're going to support labor, we also need to support the materials they need to do their jobs. So let's think about that in the budget cycle. I.
111 The item passes to full council.
112 Thank you. And the third the third item.
113 The third item is another letter of agreement with liuna to amend the recreation cba. And this is kind of a function of a body of work changing slightly, such that an existing premium would have no longer applied. And so this is referring to trip excursions that rec associates take adults on. And in the past they have been assigned an inclusion specialist that attends with them that they are overseeing. Who is another city employee. However. Those trips have changed a little bit in that many adults that attend with disabilities bring their own inclusion specialist or aide. And so the rec associate who's leading the trip is still doing the same work. However, they may not be overseeing another city employee, but rather have just more people with them such that another city employee would not fit on the trip. And we wanted to make sure that the rec associates doing this work were still paid the same way that they were prior to this change in how people attend these trips. And so this would just ensure that all of those folks continue to get paid in the way that they have in the past.
114 And that would be document 2025-154.
115 Correct.
116 Thank you so much. Do we have any questions? No discussion. Can we take a vote? Keelan.
117 Yes. You'll want to make a motion to pass the full.
118 I move that we pass item three, document 2020 5-154 with a due pass recommendation to the full council second.
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119 Can I.
120 Did you discussion is.
121 No discussion okay.
122 Canal I Novick I Green. I Smith I. The item passes to full council.
123 Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate it as we are. We're going to move to our second agenda item. And I will ask the first panel to come up. And that will be andrew mcguff, janelle bell, greg johnson. Keelan. We were originally going to hear and I said it in my opening. We were going to originally hear the resolution, but I'm going to wait until after we hear the testimony, before we drop the resolution for the workforce and move that down. If I have any objections to that.
124 Would you like me to read number five, the title for number five?
125 Yes, please.
126 Okay. Internships, apprenticeships and workforce needs throughout Portland.
127 Thank you. And before we start, I really want to set the table on this as as a member of the Portland city council, I want everybody to know that I'm dedicated. And the council is dedicated to fostering inclusive economic development and ensuring that all communities within our city have equitable opportunities to thrive. Considering the findings from the disparity study conducted by bbc research consulting for the state of Oregon, it has been become increasingly clear that Portland businesses owned by people of color face significant barriers within our economic landscape. The disparity study indicates a stark lack of representation of minority owned businesses in state procurement, a direct reflection of systemic challenges faced by these communities. I would like the city of Portland to bridge this gap because most of the affected businesses are from the Portland area, it is imperative that we invest in programs designed to cultivate entrepreneurship among underrepresented groups and provide youth with meaningful employment pathways. And later, I will be introducing a resolution on this, and I want to also put a finer point that these programs not only aim to enhance job readiness, but also seek to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs who can contribute their unique perspectives and innovations to our city's economy that have an enormous amount of opportunity to be successful. And with that, ceo mcgoff from work systems, I will have you begin your testimony or presentation first to kind of lead us into where we're at with the workforce here for local for local projects and public and private.
128 Sure. Thank you so much, councilor Smith and committee members. My name is andrew mcgoff, and I'm the executive director of work systems, the workforce development board that serves the city of Portland, Washington and Multnomah county's. So as the workforce development board, we are designated by the governor, in collaboration with local elected leaders, to receive and manage certain pots of federal and state money. That are essentially intended to improve the quality of the workforce and support the regional economy. We combine and coordinate these resources with a variety of other funds, including some from the city of Portland, to build a comprehensive approach to workforce development, one that aligns and maximizes available resources, increases our capacity to meet people where they are in a culturally and population responsive environment, reduce fragmentation and duplication, increase scale, efficiency, sustainability, and overall results. The city is an integral partner in the regional system. The reality is we're all facing funding challenges and we need to work together to respond in a way that allows us to best preserve what works and position the city for better times ahead. To that end, I would be happy to meet with the committee or any of its members to do a deeper dive into the regional workforce system, how the city is served and participates, our goals, our partners and our ideas to respond to current challenges and future opportunities. While I would love to have this conversation now, I'm here really to support a couple of initiatives that I know are near and dear to many of us in the room, and that is our registered pre-apprenticeship programs in subsidized work activities for low income youth. I've included fact sheets of these programs as part of my submission to the committee, which hopefully I'm able to upload later today. My apologies, but we are moving offices and I'm not quite sure what's going on with this mic because it sounds weird over there.
129 Maybe to close that.
130 Usually I'm accused of being too quiet. Okay.
131 Bring it closer.
132 I think I got to step back a bit. So most of the funding that we receive from the city to support pre-apprenticeship programs comes through the community opportunities enhancement program, otherwise known as coep work systems, manages the workforce components of the coep pre-apprenticeship training and support is delivered by registered pre-apprenticeship programs, including poic, constructing hope, Portland youth builders and Oregon tradeswomen. Community outreach services are provided by central city concern and the urban league, and labors community services offers retention and advancement services. The coep workforce network ensures we are able to meet people where they are, enhance program access and create the collaboration needed to maximize resources and results. From an economic perspective, the construction industry is a cornerstone of portland's economy, a critical engine for upward mobility, and can play an essential role in responding to economic challenges. Yet the sector faces escalating labor shortages. The Portland metro region employs over 60,000 construction workers, but nearly 25% of them are 55 years or older, signaling a significant wave of retirements in the near future, Oregon expects to add over 17,000 new construction jobs by 2031, with replacement needs pushing that number even higher. And I want to go off script for a second here, because I did notice that in some of the materials that were submitted to the committee, there was some confusion about a recent ibr study that we conducted. And I think john will be able to speak to this also in detail. The reality is that ibr study did focus on regional projects, so there was no assumption that all of these projects were city of Portland projects. But I think it's really important for us to understand that the regional, the, the, the, the construction industry does not function at a regional level or at a jurisdictional level. It functions at a regional level. So in order to best prepare portlanders, we have to look at the broader regional opportunities that are out there. And I think the infrastructure we've set up really does position the city to take advantage of those broader regional opportunities. So I just wanted to bring that to the fore.
133 Thank you.
134 I would also say that construction jobs offer really strong wages without requiring a four year degree. And as of 2023, the median wage for a construction.
135 Worker.
136 Finding high quality.
137 All right, that wasn't me. The median wage for a construction worker is $27 per hour, or over $56,000 annually, with many skilled trades earning much more, upwards of $80,000. So registered pre-apprenticeship programs, especially those serving women, bipoc communities and people facing barriers are essential for preparing workers to fill these roles. They provide hands on training and direct pipelines into registered apprenticeships and good paying jobs, ensuring Portland has the skilled labor force it needs to build and maintain housing, transit and climate infrastructure. If I quickly just shift to youth employment issues because I know that's another critical component of the ask. So we have to address the growing number of young people who are struggling in our community. We did another study recently. Again, a regional study, but an estimated 11% of youth ages 16 to 24 in the region, or that's about 27,000 young people, by the way, are disconnected from both school and work. So and that number is growing, by the way. So this disconnection is also disproportionately high among minority populations in the region. So the kinds of programs suggested, like the summer youth works program, it provides critical connection to work where young people can learn the essential skills that they need to be competitive in the labor market. It offers mentorship and, of course, income. As they're engaged in the program. We also did a study in collaboration with econorthwest a few years ago, but the study showed definitively that participation in work experience during the high school years significantly reduces involvement with the justice system, improves school retention, and increases lifetime earnings. There's a major return for these kinds of investments, and I just hope that you all can keep that in mind. And I do want to point to councilor Smith's long standing connection to these programs, both pre-apprenticeship and summer works programs. We work together. While she was a county commissioner to build summer works, and over the history of that program, we have served more than 11,000 young people in the city of Portland and Multnomah county and connected them to work experiences. So just my hat's off to you, councilor Smith, for all that work. Thank you. So finally, I want to just say, you know, Portland has long prided itself on being a city that leads with equity. Youth, employment and pre-apprenticeship programs are precisely the kinds of investments that reflect that value, even in tight fiscal times. If we fail to invest in these young people, in emerging workers today, we will pay far more tomorrow in public assistance, emergency services and lost productivity by investing. Now, we grow a local, diverse construction workforce to meet critical needs. We interrupt generational poverty and create long term taxpayers and community leaders. We maximize state and federal matching funds, amplifying the city's impact. I urge you to protect and expand funding for pre-apprenticeship and youth employment initiatives in this budget cycle. Thank you for your leadership and commitment to portland's future. Thank you.
138 Thank you, thank you for your comments. I want to introduce greg johnson, administrator of the interstate bridge replacement project, and could you give us an overview of how you work with apprenticeships and the need for a pipeline of new workers for your project?
139 Thank you, madam chair. Members of the committee, if I could, if you could indulge me for a second just to give folks a little bit of background on the program, the interstate bridge replacement program is a joint venture between Oregon dot and Washington dot to improve a five mile corridor and replace a very large bridge that sits in the middle of it. This project will have the extension of the yellow line across the river into Vancouver, as well as bike and pedestrian facilities, creating also. A larger bridge to accommodate the traffic flows that are projected going into the future. So currently, our estimated cost for this project sits between 5 and 7.5 billion, and we are looking to have an updated estimate sometime later this year. And the importance of that is that when you make these type of investments on a mega project, you create your own. Environment for workforce. One of the things that we did early on that we recognized workforce was going to be one of our great challenges, so we brought on. Both entities, workforce entities on both sides of the river to produce a study for us that looks at what will be the environment for the workforce once the ibr program gets fully underway. So right now, we know that there will be a shortage. And andrew spoke of the graying of the workforce, and that's fully recognized. But we have been reaching out to partners like work work systems inc. And others in the region to have a robust conversation about what ibr can do to help this situation. So right now, we know that for every billion dollars we spend, we will create over 5000 direct construction jobs. So this is going to be a huge need in this area. So we are we're trying to work with partners to say okay, how can we help solve this, this looming issue that's out there. So we are having conversation with our federal partners about using some of the grant dollars that we have been awarded to say, okay, we need to take some of those dollars and put them towards workforce efforts here regionally. So that is an ongoing conversation. We are hoping to get some positive response for the use of those federal dollars to help aid us in being a good regional partner on this issue, but we have been talking to folks like awami, like narmak. Latino, build others who have a, a, a horse in this race to say, how can we be helpful? How can we bring the gravity of the ibr program to help get folks to the table? Because it's our opinion that there are folks who are currently in junior high right now who will be able to journey out by the time this program is built. We are hoping that if our schedule holds, that we will have what is called a record of decision, which is the final federal action before we can begin construction, we're hoping that will happen early next year, and we will have a shovel in the ground. So this is a pressing issue for us. So we are we're looking to make sure that we understand what the city is doing, what the city of Vancouver, what the region is doing, and how can we be helpful in that effort. So once again, we are engaging. I just had a conversation with the talent acquisition manager for Washington state, dot. They have a program called high school to highways, where they are looking to give a pathway for students to become washed out employees who can inspect and test materials for the dot. So those are just an example of some of the efforts we're trying to do to address this issue.
140 Thank you. I appreciate that and I love to hear about the high school to highways. I'm all for it. And I think it's so important that we keep that pipeline not only in Washington, in Oregon, that will help these regional projects like the interstate bridge replacement project, because those are jobs. Those are real jobs that are going to be here for a long time. And I want to thank you for your efforts. Thank you for being here. And you have been here for five years. Correct?
141 I it will be five years in July.
142 Okay. Thank you so much. I know that we've tried this before with the columbia river crossing, and it appears to me that you all have done a lot of great work in terms of identifying funding on the state level in Oregon and in Washington. I'm still crossing my fingers about that money in d.c, so I want to make sure that we don't have any problems with getting that money that biden had identified for, for the state of Oregon for this particular project. But the struggle is real for young people in Washington and in Oregon. And as a counselor here, I want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can do to maintain the projects that we have right here in within the city and those outside of the city that are done with ODOT monies and washed out monies. We have to maintain this pipeline. We have to keep summer works programs. It is important and it is critical that we keep the apprenticeship programs through the coed program with with you as well. Andrew. And you both are right. We're going to have a silver tsunami of retirees, of the baby boomers. And if we don't have a way to have a pipeline to make sure that those folks are getting pipeline into these projects and into these programs and gain the necessary skills that they need to be successful, we won't be successful as a city. So I appreciate your work. And I'm going to call janelle bell, ceo of the strategies. Thank you so much for your efforts, and thank you for coming today. So can you kind of give us an overview of why it's important to have young people and the importance of having a diverse workforce.
143 Yes. Thank you so much, chair Smith, members of the committee. For the record, my name is john bell, president and ceo of espousal strategies. And we do have a couple of slides. I think we're going to try to work through here. Let's see if this works.
144 I believe if we had a summer works intern here, we could probably get those up.
145 I know we followed the instructions, so perhaps the slides will come up. If not, I'll just go ahead and start my remarks. Thank you. And I think they are being populated here.
146 There you go. What did that okay. That pop up. They're popping. It's popping up on our on.
147 Our screen. Terrific. Well thank you. Thank you again. This is an incredibly important issue chair and committees. You know small businesses and dbes represent the entrepreneurial back bone of Portland. As we all know, about 80% of businesses in Portland proper are small businesses, which really brings the innovation, specialized expertise and community connection to public projects. There are a number of benefits to having small businesses and dbe firms integrated into city contracts. These businesses hire young people who are in the internship program. That will then get the life and training skills in order to later work for those firms. They create a platform for growing local businesses, strengthen our local economy, create job opportunities and shared prosperity across the city, and generate more value for each dollar spent. When these businesses are part of city contracts, they really, as I indicated, hire locally, creating a multiplier effect across the city and region. Small businesses and dbes aren't just the beneficiaries of these efforts. They're essential partners in creating the Portland we all want to see and thrive. Programs like pdx youth at work as well as summer works. And again, thank you, commissioner Smith, for your leadership on that. I had an opportunity working with you at the county, so thank you for continuing that. As andrew indicated, these are valuable job experiences for young people in our community, connecting youth from diverse backgrounds to paid internships. The program provides payroll and employer of record services to the employers they partner with, as well as job coaching and transportation assistance to youth who enroll. It is essential that we continue investment in internship programs because they are the future of small businesses and critical to our overall workforce development and economic opportunity. Many qualified small businesses face significant hurdles in obtaining and maintaining dbe certifications. Some of these hurdles include complex documentation requirements, which create barriers for small business owners with limited administrative capacity. The certification process can take up to six plus months, during which businesses might miss out on contracting opportunities or hiring opportunities of youth and others. Recertification demands, which create ongoing compliance burdens that disproportionately impact smaller firms and many business owners from historically underrepresented groups, lack access to the technical assistance, which is so critically important needed to navigate the certification process. These barriers unintentionally exclude the very businesses that dbe program were designed to support. And as we're talking about construction and a significant opportunity of both hiring youth as well as re-envisioning our communities, I want to thank commissioner Smith for her leadership around the sidewalk investment program in areas like east Portland that have been woefully underfunded for decades. The areas of our city that have the highest concentration of communities of color are also the areas where our roads and pedestrian infrastructure are the least safe. While there has been progress over the last several years, improvements to our transportation infrastructure in east Portland have been too slow, and the delay has cost the lives of our neighbors and family members. Instead of getting better, the problem has gotten worse. This map shows the first name of victims of traffic crashes in 2024, placed approximately at the location of the crash. In 2024, 58 people were killed in traffic crashes on Portland streets, according to Portland. 2024 deadly traffic crash report, significantly higher than the average 41 killed in the five years before the pandemic. 2015 to 19. Nearly half of traffic deaths took place in district one, portland's most eastern city. Eastern city council district, located mostly east of interstate 205. A study by Oregon walks found that portlanders who identify as black, who are experiencing homelessness, who are older adults or who are persons with disabilities, are at all a disproportionately high risk of being killed in collisions. So this is critically important. Pedestrian deaths alone have risen significantly since 2020, averaging 24 deaths per year from 2020 to 24, compared to 15 per year between 2015 and 2019. And you know, I'll just say this this issue is really a deeply personal one for me. A few years ago, my cousin, while trying to cross 82nd avenue, was hit and killed. And so it's unconscionable and frankly, unacceptable that our city has been slow to make infrastructure improvements where they are needed most. And we continue to see lives lost. Every corner of our city is worthy of investment. I urge the city council, with geographic representation for east Portland to focus investments both in uplifting small firms and creating new opportunities for workforce, as well as making these investments in areas where we know we most need it. Thank you for your time.
148 Thank you so much, janelle. That was great. And you hit the high points and I am sorry for your loss. Once again, it's important that we invest in district one and in district four where we have the highest rate of no sidewalks, paving potholes. And I believe that we're going to get there. I think that marrying these programs around summer works, apprenticeships and being a pipeline into cip, into ibr, into the rose quarter, and even our bull run project, that is a $2 billion project. I'm not sure how many workers I think we have. Priya, priya, she she could tell me exactly how many people, how many businesses or contracts that we have on that project. There's a lot of work out here. And if, if trained, we could put a lot of people to work in east Portland and around the city of Portland. But I think we need to identify, you know, how we can plug plug folks in and how we can maintain what we have going right now. I want to give councilor Green an opportunity to speak. Could you please answer your question? Ask a question, please?
149 Thank you. Chair, I just wanted to respond because it's so important to an earlier comment. I want to thank you for clarifying and frankly, pushing back a little bit about on the financial impact or budgetary analysis section that I think conflated the city versus the regional because labor markets are regional. When you think about doing a project small, big, you need to tap into a regional labor market. The city of Portland is the center of a regional metropole, and it has an obligation to invest in our entire pipeline of workforce. And so I want to appreciate that. And I just want to also say that, you know, throughout all this discussion, and we're talking about investing in our young people, in particular, those who are underserved. If you look at the unemployment rate over time in the united states, there's a series for everyone as a whole. And then there's a series for black or african American as defined by the census. And it is always the case, without exception, that if you are a young black man in the united states, you will have double digits, higher unemployment rate than anyone else, particularly acute. In 1982, the unemployment unemployment rate was 20% for the black community. And part of that is because we do not invest in providing jobs directly with intention for our communities who are underserved. So I just really want to thank you for your leadership and prioritizing this conversation and making sure that when we go into a tight budget season, we are not once again throwing away people who have always been not at the table. So just some high level comments in response to the presentation of her today. Thank you for the time.
150 Thank you. Any other questions? Councilors. Well, a question that I have is that I know that we are always looking for opportunities to have sites for our summer works, and I hope you all will be willing to have summer works interns in your office and at the ibr office and at espousal strategies, because it's so important, because it's you have to see people visioning where they want to be. And I don't mean to put you on the spot, but it would be great if you could participate with summer works and be a site for interns that would be able to gain some of that information and experience with transportation projects and with equity. I know it's not a popular thing right now. Dei has taken a beating nationally, but that should not be the case here locally because there's struggles for everyone, and particularly as commissioner Green said, for folks of color. And I want to make sure that I'm doing everything that I can do to highlight the need in the necessity. We also have I don't know if you know, our new procurement director, sylvester, if you turn around, can you stand up, please? Y'all need to know who he is. Okay? And then we have director millicent williams. She's sitting right next to the next to him. And so you need to know who she is, too, because the cip program is going to go up to the big board next week to be voted on. If we refer this resolution that we're going to hear later on in the program that will be referred next week. And so it will be important that we have both of these paths at the same time. And councilor Green and I are both working on the financing piece, which is the third leg to this, on how we actually put this in place, but we also need to have that direction and make sure that the workforce and the and the summer interns are solid, and that's why we're doing it in three separate resolutions. I want to, andrew, if you have anything else that you want to say, any any last plug that you want to put in, I will give you the last word before we go to our next panel.
151 Not much of a plug, but I again, I just appreciate y'all listening and engaging in this topic. And because I do think it's really, really important and I do want to encourage an opportunity for us to have dialog because the system that we've built is pretty impressive. The challenge is it's like a jenga tower, and when you start pulling stuff out, it gets more, less and less stable. And I really would. And we're in co-investor, by the way. So when the city puts money in, we put federal dollars in state dollars. We go for competitive grants to make it a better program and a more comprehensive approach. And so I think it's really critical as we're looking at reductions, as we're thinking about changes, that we really bring all of the funders together so that we can get a more comprehensive view about how those changes will impact the programs and our capacity to sustain them over time. So, please, any time you're curious about the public workforce system, call me, email me, I'll come right over. So thank you so much.
152 Thank you. And administrator greg johnson, thank you for this project. Thank you for making sure that we know what's going on in our region. This is one of many projects that we have in addition to the rose quarter project, in our bull run project, that we're going to have to make sure that we continue to be partners. And I hope that we're partnering with ivr in a way that's meaningful in, in in a way that it makes sense. So we want to continue to be a partner with you and do what we can do to make sure that it's successful.
153 The city has been an excellent partner, and we are we're moving the project forward.
154 Thank you. Thank you so much.
155 Thank you, thank you.
156 I'd like to call the third agenda item or the second. Actually the second panel.
157 I have a question while they're coming up.
158 Yes.
159 And just a question while they're coming up is.
160 About.
161 Randall friedman.
162 Go for.
163 It, rob martineau, lauren bowling. Aaron smoltz, you thought you were going to get away.
164 Go ahead. Are we going to have access to that slide deck.
165 From the previous one? When we get to the resolution? I mean, can we get it displayed when we're discussing the resolution later?
166 Yes. Thank you. Yes.
167 Thank you. As you have heard earlier, we're wanting to make sure that the city of Portland has the appropriate interns apprenticeship programs that we're supporting. And I want to hear a bit from you all who who actually work here in the city and how important it is to have interns, apprenticeships and what that looks like. And I was going to start and we also have randall, who is online. He's in dc right now. He couldn't be here. He's from the building trades and I wanted him to speak first. Is he online?
168 He's hello. Hello chair Smith, I am online. Can you hear me?
169 Yes, I can hear you.
170 So? So I'll have to be brief because I've got to leave here in a minute. Go catch the plane so I don't want to. Yeah. So thank thank you. Chair Smith and the labor and workforce development committee members. I'm randall friesen, the chief operating officer from the columbia pacific building construction trades council, the columbia pacific building trades council represents 22 local building and construction trades unions, representing more than 20,000 skilled construction trades professionals that specialize in numerous sectors of the construction industry, including infrastructure projects, our various state registered apprenticeship programs focus on training and diversifying the future skilled and local workforce, while creating pathways to the middle class. I'm here to speak in support of the resolution to effect to the effect that the pre apprenticeship model the council supports continues to have real value in connection to state registered and approved apprenticeship programs. These programs have a proven track record of retention through connections with wraparound supports such as tools, equipment, rent assistance, gas cards, childcare and transportation, to name a few. We appreciate the council's support of existing programs and support their efforts to continue to provide funding that help prepare our next generation of construction professionals for family wage careers through state registered apprenticeship. Unlike college options, apprenticeship starts with a job. These programs are a great way to build up a supply of viable candidates to fill those roles. Once, once more jobs become available to minimize tax, to excuse me, to maximize taxpayer value, these programs must include direct connections to state registered apprenticeship programs, curriculum aligned with state registered programs that balance classroom and hands on vocational training, and avoidance of cheap labor practices. Mandatory enrollment in a registered training program before job site work instruction in soft skills and transferable skills like math, construction, tool skills and punctuality, as well as demonstrated by as demonstrated by the successes of initiatives like Portland youth builders, constructing hope and Oregon tradeswomen. In closing, we appreciate the opportunity to speak in support of these much needed and valuable programs. We recognize the council's desire to keep pathways to the middle class strong and equitable, providing equitable and fair opportunities for all community members and most importantly, the marginalized and traditionally underserved. So the columbia pacific building trades council is here as a resource and proud to assist, wherever possible in this need. So thank you very much for your time and appreciate everything you at the council are doing. I know a lot of times these are can be thankless jobs, and we appreciate all the efforts you guys are putting in to making our city better. So thank you very much.
171 Thank you, randall, and thank you for representing the columbia pacific building trades has always been a great partner of the city, and we want to do what we can do to be helpful to our young people and to apprenticeship opportunities. So I'm going to let you go and catch your plane. If there's something else that any of the councilors want to ask randall before he leaves, this is your shot.
172 Yeah. Please do.
173 Well, I think you covered it and you covered it well. And thank you so much. I'm going.
174 To go.
175 Yes, I want to go over to lauren bulling because he is a member of the building trades and he's here today. And I appreciate you so much from the ironworkers to be able to give us a few remarks. I know we're running a little bit behind. So if you all could kind of cut your your remarks down, but give us an idea of why this is important.
176 Sure. Chair Smith, vice chair greene and members of the committee. For the record, my name is lauren bulling, and I'm here on behalf of the ironworkers local 29. We represent more than 1600 journey workers and registered apprentices in Oregon and the five and a half counties in southwest Washington. And we're here in support of funding for the workforce pre-apprenticeship program and summerworks youth employment initiative. Just by way of background, local 29 hovers between 35 and 40% diversity in our in our apprenticeship program, we have roughly 300 apprentices at a given time. As folks graduate on to journey status. And I think as most people are well aware, that's about 2 to 3 times more than what the 2020 census data shows for diversity in our state. And again, pre-apprenticeship really represents a diverse segment of our population and really gives them access to the skills that they need to succeed in a registered apprenticeship program. As randall already hinted at and touched on. Again, this is really focused on the hands on training in a classroom setting. This is not to put apprentices on a job site. We really need to ensure that they are in a classroom, in a managed space, that they're safe on these construction work sites. For the ironworkers specifically, we have two state registered pre apprenticeship programs. One is a four week ironworker specific, where we partner with akana to provide a weekly stipend to these workers. And again, I think most of you are well aware at this point, a lot of pre apprentices do come from historically marginalized communities or do not have the financial benefits that some of us have. In addition to that, we have a three craft pre apprenticeship program in the prison system where we have direct or preferred entry for the women who graduate from coffee creek there. I think one thing I would note for you all in the council is typically when someone graduates from a pre apprenticeship, this is cutting off between 3 to 12 months of wait time for them to actually get into a registered apprenticeship program. I will only speak for our program, but our our apprentices day one on the job are making more than $30 an hour and also have full employer paid family health care and retirement benefits through the local. So that includes an annuity and a pension. I've submitted this to the record, so I'll touch this very briefly. But in 2021, the university of Oregon labor education research center did a study on apprenticeship and specifically on women and how bipoc folks are affected by apprenticeship programs. For the union side, we saw between 2011 and 2015, 50% of the women enrolled in union apprenticeships actually finished those, compared to only 29% of the nonunion programs. So there is a very clear difference in outcomes for women and people of color when you're entering into a union registered apprenticeship program. I've heard as well, there seems to be a big misconception that there is a labor shortage for construction. And let me be very clear that there is absolutely no labor shortage on the union construction side. However, we are limited on the number of apprentices that we can bring in to our programs by apprentice work hours in the state. And this is because we have a legal obligation through the bureau of labor and industries that that regulates our apprenticeships to provide a reasonably continuous employment to our apprentices. So we are only able to bring in a certain number of folks each year to ensure that they are not sitting on our out of out of work list. I would just note as well, Portland is signatory to the regional workforce equity agreement, but this can only apply to projects that are $5 million or more, and then only if the procurement departments decide to pursue alternative bidding for the project. And this would be really big to expand those apprentice utilization requirements to more projects. And this is really how we create that pathway from pre-apprenticeship into a registered apprenticeship program. In addition to that, I'd really hope that in the future, through the equity lens, that waivers are not granted to contractors to exempt them from utilizing apprentices. This is really how we actually diversify our workforce now and create a pathway to the middle class for folks and also to create homeownership opportunities, which is how we build that generational wealth for our members. Thank you for your time, and I am happy to answer any questions.
177 Thank you. Councilors. Do you have any questions? Thank you. You are you all are hitting it out of the park. And I'm going to go with aaron swartz from the Portland police association.
178 Thank you. Councilor Smith and board. You know, the thing that's been interesting for me in my history with the Portland police bureau, I was running the youth services division before it was disbanded. Active youth, engaged youth. Youth who have purpose are those who are going to come into our city and really thrive. One program we were working on before we shuttered was working with the black and latino student union at david douglas, just talking about those kids future, how they wanted to engage in district one. That has always been my passion. East Portland is where I did most of my patrol work, and one thing that they, they did not know for sure is kind of what work they wanted to do and what we wanted to do then, and what I think is really important is building opportunities to get into our workforce, building internships to ensure that these young people can start looking at the jobs they want to do. We know it takes a long time to get employees through. We talked in one of these other meetings about nine months it takes to get someone hired, and a lot of that has to do because we have to do very robust background checks. And it's not just for policing, but for all jobs. And from my perspective, activating our parks, activating our spaces with young people, with summer programs is the key to both a safe city but also a thriving city with a growing workforce. So from my perspective, programs like our cadet program, programs like the fire cadet program, just getting people engaged, giving them a good paying jobs, give them things to do during the summers, and giving them a hope for the future in city employment is really critical.
179 Thank you. Do we have any questions, councilor Novick?
180 Yes.
181 My question is for mr. Bolling. Do you think that you might have some suggestions for actions this committee might take in order to ensure that the regional workforce equity agreement requirements are extended to more contracts?
182 Sure. I think thank you for the question, chair Smith and member Novick. Really, I think lowering the threshold where that can kick in or just having a blanket application of apprenticeship hours on each project would be incredibly helpful. One thing I forgot to mention in my testimony is that to get a cobid certification for minority contracting work, you have to have demonstrated work experience in the construction field or the relevant licensure. So this is not an either or proposition for us. We need to have the equity on the contracting side but also on the workforce so we can build that pool for the future.
183 Thank you.
184 Thank you. Do we have any other questions? I just want to say to you, aaron, I, I appreciate the work that you're doing and that you've done in the past and that you'll do in the future around young people and especially reaching out to young people in the david douglas area. And as I always tell my students, every year when we worked with summer works was, I've never seen a kid doing a drive by on their way to work, and that is our responsibility. Our responsibility is to make sure that they have places to go. Absolutely. And so thank you and keep up the good work. And I'm going to go over here to my friend rob martineau from afscme. Could you please introduce yourself and give me some remarks on what our apprenticeship programs are doing here?
185 Certainly.
186 My name is rob martineau. I am a water operations mechanic in the Portland water bureau. I'm the president of afscme local 189, representing almost 1100 workers throughout the city, and first vice president of the northwest Oregon labor council. And I'm here today as a success story of the city having an apprenticeship. I started as a water operations mechanic in March of 2000. So just a little over 25 years ago, that was a 6000 hour apprenticeship. And it has been life changing to learn a skilled trade and do the work I do in delivering potable water to the city of Portland with really with very little post-secondary education, I was able to get into this apprenticeship. I spent. You know, just over three years learning what it takes to make a water system work. I also want to talk a little bit about a friend who was here earlier in the week with with us, isaac mcclymont. Firefighters have never put out a fire with a hydrant that the water bureau didn't install. That is how it happens. And, you know, prior to seeing a hydrant go in the ground, I frankly thought they were magic. It's one of those things that until you actually see it, it's really hard to comprehend what that infrastructure does and how critical it is. I went from learning to have a level one certification, to have the highest level drinking water certification in the state, which is a level four in water distribution. We have training programs that help people with the water treatment side of this as well. We now have classifications of maintenance worker that do outreach and bring folks in to really get them some experience so that they're able to come into a system like the water distribution worker, which really is in some ways a pre apprenticeship to the apprenticeship that I went through. So the city, particularly in the water bureau, has done a great job of creating a pathway for people to grow and do what they need to do. I did not know what the pythagorean theorem was. I thought there was no way I'll use this in real life. My teacher also told me, you have to do this by hand because you won't have a calculator with you everywhere I go. Well, I guess we all kind of carry a calculator everywhere we go now, but just knowing why a squared plus b squared equals c squared, how you connect infrastructure with that is a very real thing. And the hypotenuse of a right triangle matters when you need to connect two pipes that are not aligned. This is education. This is math. I don't know that pythagoras foresaw this however many thousand years ago, but this is how people grow and engage in their community. I became a unionist because I went through an apprenticeship program because of this opportunity. Isaac mcclymont worked in a summer works program in corvallis, maintaining working on painting, cleaning up fire hydrants for that city. We also have had that in our city, and it was really routine that every summer we would have a group of young adults come in and inspect and test and, you know, work on those hydrants. Getting that really those those basic skills. You come to work at 7 a.m. And you're going to go do all of these things all day and, and you're going to fill out the reports and that, that work ethic that, you know, feeling good about a job started and completed are all really important components of this apprenticeship. So I, I would kind of bookend that with isaac also said if he was here today, he would talk about the firefighter apprenticeship program that Oregon has, but that the city doesn't currently utilize but could. It's another opportunity we have to really grow our own in-house, ensure that we are meeting all of our own, holding ourselves to our own standards around equity and being accountable to ourselves and our our messages, our core values, the things that we say when we control those in-house. We also have that opportunity to really walk the talk that we put out into the world. And one of the things that I would also end with is civic engagement. When you grow these employees and through these programs, they have an understanding of what our city does at an infrastructure level, at a at a service level, at this is what PBOT does, or the water bureau or this is where surveys or surveyors are and when they are participating in the other programs that happen in our cities. Certainly a lot of the Sunday parkways and other events like this, it creates a place where they understand they see themselves in the city, and that really is the dividend that it pays to the city. Is those employees having civic engagement and seeing the value of contributing in their own neighborhoods and to their city.
187 Thank you. And while you're on this, I want to call dca donna paul to the to the to the mic. I have a question about how much does public works service area invest in infrastructure design and construction contracts, and do you have any data on what percent that includes cobid participation? And I'll read that again. Thank you so much for coming up. How much does public works service area invest in infrastructure design and construction contracts, and do you have any data on what percent of that includes COVID participation?
188 Thank you. Councilor.
189 Could you introduce yourself?
190 Yes, absolutely. My name is paul. I'm the dca for public works. I use she her pronouns and that's a great question and very relevant to today's topic. So the public works service area initiated approximately $1.76 billion in infrastructure design and construction contracts in the past 12 months. And this scale represents represents a significant opportunity to drive inclusive economic participation and workforce equity. I also have some data with respect to cobid contracting. If you look at the total, again, I want to share that we got these numbers in the past 24 hours. So we haven't done any data validation. But I want to give the disclaimer. But with that disclaimer, I want to share that the cobid, if you look at the total prime and subcontracts together, the cobid representation is only 3% of the total contract value, which is about $45 million of the 1.76 billion. However, if you look at the subcontracting alone, which is where we have a city's cobid goal of 20%, the cobid firms make up about 50% of the participation by dollar value, which is significantly higher than our goal. And this signals strong subtier participation, but also persistent barriers for cobid firms to have access to prime roles. And did you also have a question on did that answer your question? Did you also have a question on workforce diversity?
191 Yes, and I wanted to know if you had any data on workforce diversity and in these contracts at all.
192 If you're looking at we have about, oh my goodness, we have about 17 to 18% of the workforce work work hours logged by people of color or minorities. And the one that I really want to highlight is if you're looking at the total number of hours logged, only 4% of that is women. That's represents significant underrepresentation of women. And, you know, there's persistent even though there is some, you know, with respect to cobid participation in subcontractors, we have, we can see that targeted outreach is effective. And we are also seeing significant amount of participation in construction contractors. But there could be improvement with respect to workforce diversity and advancing workforce diversity or equity by funding apprenticeship or apprenticeship and navigation programs could be helpful. Breaking up our overall contracts into to improve access for smaller cobid firms could also be helpful. And we also are doing a great partnering with dca sara morrissey in also tracking these metrics. We have a great team that looks into the data, and we are hoping to share that with you all soon. So improved demographic reporting. And also we had a procurement day last year in November of 2024. It was a first public works service area procurement day in partnership with central procurement office. And we invited cobid firms and prime contractors to demystify the process of procurement with the city of Portland. And we shared the pipeline of nearly $1 billion worth of contracts that are upcoming with everybody and encourage partnership among the contractors, and also give resources on how they can connect with our procurement groups to encourage more participation. And we this is a priority for public works, and we will definitely be doing that again this year. And we encourage we also partnered with cbdg latino build and other and other organizations as a part of the procurement day, and we will continue doing that this year as well.
193 Thank you. Thank you for those comments and for those statistics. I'd like to at some point get us together with andrew mcgough to maybe if we can get this summer works passed so that we can create some pre-apprenticeship summer works programs so that we can train our next generation of young people to work in the water bureau, work at PBOT, work in the parks so that we can have a clear pipeline to fill to fill the labor shortage. You don't see it now, lauren, but it is coming again. There is going to be a silver tsunami in this next ten years of people retiring. And we have to we have to be at the forefront of making sure that we're we're funneling people in and that they have a pipeline and especially a pipeline that we're supportive and that we're a partner that we're in partnership with. Thank you so much. I'm going to go to our last panel so we can talk to some of those pre-apprenticeship programs that really benefit in the community. And so could noah cohn from constructing hope, rana usman from youth builders Portland youth builders come up. I know your last. And you had to sit there and wait for about an hour and a half before you could actually speak. But we saved the best for last because you are the end user of the pre-apprenticeship programs. What they were talking about, it's it all starts with you. And so the good experience that they have or the bad experience that they have it it starts with you. So could you could you could you actually introduce yourself, rhonda, and give me a few remarks on why this is important?
194 Absolutely. Thank you. Chair Smith and committee members.
195 My name is rana zaman. I am the executive director of Portland youth builders. We are a registered pre-apprenticeship program, a registered pre-apprenticeship apprenticeship program, and this year we will be celebrating 30 years of service, doing workforce development work. And I have the privilege of being there for almost half of it. We serve young people. We started in saint john's and we ended up moving to the Lents neighborhood due mostly to cost of living and our population that we need to serve moved out to southeast Portland as well. We serve predominantly bipoc folks and around almost 100% of our participants are low income. We serve young people 18 to 26 to go into the skills trades. We have an eight week program helping young people go into living wage jobs. And this long standing experience that we have helped us create partnerships within the highway trades. So partnerships that give us direct or preferred entry for our young people. We serve about 140 folks a year. And just a bit of context, it is very difficult to get into apprenticeship, union or nonunion. It requires a lot of support, familial support, communal support. Folks need to pass a ua. Folks need to have a valid driver's license, a reliable vehicle, and some of us take that for granted. And the folks that we serve don't have the means physically, emotionally to meet these standards and rigors. And the funding provided to us to help support our folks gives us the wraparound services to help with getting them a driver's license. Some of our folks can't even pay for the driving test. Some of our folks don't. Never thought that they would be able to buy a car. And our goal here at pyb is to diversify the landscape of skilled labor in Portland, Oregon as a whole. And through these funds and the support of these dollars, we're able to do that one youth at a time. And I am living proof that it's amazing to witness this change. And our students talk about it all the time. I just I never had I never thought I deserved to be successful. I never thought I deserved to be happy. And they are some of the most hardworking people I know. And our program is a rigorous program. It's not an easy program, and a lot of our students just tell us that one of the main reasons they're able to be successful is because we never let up the gas on them. We know that they can achieve success, and we didn't want to lower our standards for them. The standards are very high and we kept it high because they can meet it. And they just met folks that believed in these young people for the for most the first time in their life. And something one of my participants said really stuck with me. At one graduation. This participant thanked us for helping him break generational curses. That curse of not being able to pay the rent, the curse of wondering if they're going to get evicted. The curse of my car is going to get repossessed. How am I going to take care of my family? It's a life changing. Pre-apprenticeship is life changing, and it gives back to the communities because these folks that are going into these living wage jobs are only bolstering the communities that they live in. These low income communities will become less low income. They will give back to the system. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak here at this panel, and I give every committee member an open invitation to please come and see what we do. Please come and more importantly, talk to the young people that we serve so you can hear from them firsthand how this has helped change their lives, how this opportunity they didn't think was available or deserved of them. And thank you, miss Smith. You have been a part of Portland youth builders for a long time, supporting our program and supporting the work that we do and being a champion for workforce equity. So thank you.
196 Thank you, thank you. And I'm going to go over to constructing hope. Noah, could you introduce yourself?
197 Yes. My name is noah cohen, and I'm the deputy director at constructing hope. We are also a nonprofit pre-apprenticeship training program, also fully certified. And our mission is to serve individuals that are just as impacted primarily, but we also serve individuals that are coming from low income situations, with an emphasis on the bipoc community as well. And just wanted to talk about the importance of support services as, as rina highlighted, and how it's oftentimes the difference for people getting that upward mobility and being able to go into their respective career pathway. For context, our program is able to serve up to 100 individuals a year, but we have to talk to nearly 200 folks to get to that figure. And that's because of what rhonda highlighted in terms of the prerequisites necessary to enter into the trades. You have to have a ged or high school equivalent. You have to have a driver's license. You have to have reliable transportation. And also to the same standard, you have to pass several random drug screenings before you can even even graduate our program. That commitment or that tier system that we use, is our commitment to our trade partners to say that whoever we're going to send to you is going to be ready to go to work as soon as they arrive. And also with the extended support services that we offer, there's going to be additional support for that individual to navigate the difficulties of starting that job, whether it be, you know, addressing transportation or child care or other resources. When you look across the board, pre-apprenticeship programs are one of the few resources in the city that outreach and take referrals to other community based organizations that also support the houseless community. They also support folks coming out of low income situations, those that are just as impacted, those coming out of recovery. And that combination allows us to set folks up for success again in conjunction with those programs. For the individuals that we can accept, we oftentimes have to tell them, you're not going to be ready to go to work because the trades have this benchmark that you have to meet, and so we aren't able to serve them, and we have to refer them to another community based organization. But oftentimes once those people meet those prereqs, they try to come back into the trades. And so if we have the resources to again extend the amount of support services we can offer, we know that attaching a vocational opportunity on the back end of support services is a great way to motivate folks that allows them to see where that light might be at the end of the tunnel. And we just want to thank you for giving us a chance to talk, because your support means the difference.
198 Thank you. And I appreciate you all coming up and talking, and I'm glad that you were last, because this is what we're talking about, making sure we have those wraparound supports to make sure that everybody has a shot at having an opportunity to have an opportunity and an opportunity at a good living wage job, a house buying job. So thank you so much of what you do. I am going to if you stay right here for just a second, I'm going to open this up to my colleagues to see if they have any questions of constructing hope or youthbuild. Councilor Dunphy.
199 Thank you. I think.
200 This was.
201 The first time you had mentioned some of the specific requirements for getting into an apprenticeship program, requiring a high school degree or a ged. I assume urine urine analysis? Yeah. Who sets those? Are those set by the programs? Is that a state thing? How how are those or, you know, why are those requirements? I guess.
202 The yeah. So the trades that those requirements we have some trades folks here. I'm sure they can speak to it as well. But our programs are we mirror those prerequisites because there's no it better serves the people we serve. If you're following those same standards so that by the time you get to the end of your eight weeks or ten weeks, you're already in line and set to go into that apprenticeship, do.
203 The urinalysis requirements include cannabis?
204 They do. There are some trades that are changing their stance and policy on how they go about screening for it, but because that would still preclude you from working on a federal job, for the most part, we want to make sure that our folks have the most opportunities, and so we still screen for it, and it still is a barrier for graduation for us.
205 Yeah.
206 Thank you.
207 I believe that establishing these partnerships with community based organizations and with local businesses and other organizations, we can continue to develop a pipeline that is lasting and making sure that we empower our minority youth and adults and equip them with the essential skills and experiences needed in the job market to not just survive, but to thrive. I think that's what you all do. And I appreciate your efforts because this is tough. This is tough work that you have to do because many times when you're working with people and if they have problems, you have to figure out how to solve their problems. They become your problems. And so you have to take all of that in and the trauma that they're feeling, you take that in as well. So I appreciate you and I understand the hard work that you do. And I've worked with youthbuild for many years, back in my days working for senator widen and your previous ceo. She was amazing and outstanding, and you are perfect to fill her shoes. Yes, you know it, you came from it, and you have been just a rock star over the years, and I appreciate it. And your ceo, I am so amazed at at the work that she has done over the years, working with folks from the reentry groups from Multnomah county. And I appreciate it. And, noah, you you showed up like a rock star to and I called you last minute last week and you and you said you could come. You wanted to do it, but I wanted to make sure that I gave you your flowers about the kind of work that you do. Because youthbuild constructing hope, Oregon tradeswomen you all are the gold standard of pre apprenticeships, and I want to make sure that we're helping give a pipeline to what you do, to make sure that we have opportunities and everyone is able to work in this community. So thank you so much. I'm getting ready to go to the next agenda item, and it will be a resolution that will kind of cement that kind of partnership between the city of Portland and apprenticeships and summer works. So if you could hold on for just a second. Keelan. Can we go to agenda item five?
208 Direct funding for the workforce pre apprenticeship program and a summer works youth employment initiative.
209 Thank you. As I said earlier, I have put together three separate resolutions that would kind of tie in to my cip legislation that I co-sponsored with councilor Green, which is the sidewalk improvement and pavement program. We're still trying to figure out how much is going to go into, but my goal is to get $400 million. To spend to create better pathways and walkways in district one and district four. I know that that is going to be a big, heavy lift. And I know we have never done anything of this magnitude before, but we have to invest where we have underinvested for many years. We have an entire ecosystem of roadways and walkways throughout the city of Portland that need deferred maintenance. But we have other places that don't have anything to maintain, and security is key in janelle. Bill brought up a statistic about the high crash corridors. District one is a high crash corridor and it is an accident waiting to happen. And so I want to make sure that we're doing whatever we can do to make sure that there's safe routes to school, that folks who want to work, seniors who want to go to parks, that they have those opportunities in a safe and secure way. And there's a way that we can do it. There's an ordinance on board right now that says homeowners have to pay for their own sidewalks. Well, the average salary of someone in district one is $60,000 compared to the other parts of the city that range from 90 to 92,000. They can't afford to fix a sidewalk, and in many cases, it may not be a four foot, six foot sidewalk. It may be paving. It may be filling a pothole. There are many ways we can get around it, and I'm trying to make sure that I say it right, because I'm looking at director williams and she's going to be leading this effort. If this pass passes. And so I, I appreciate the support and I appreciate you all coming to, to make to kind of filling that gap, because the folks that you work with are going to be the same folks who, if this passes, there's a job that they can go on to get their journeyman to, to build those sidewalks and pave the streets in district one and district four. And that's why I'm introducing this new resolution. Ultimately, the resolution aims to underscore our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as fundamental values that strengthen our community. And I believe by investing in our youth, maintaining apprenticeship opportunities for adults, and supporting the growth of minority owned businesses, we can build a more equitable and prosperous Portland for all. I want to refer the resolution to the big board and keelan tell me what I need to do. You need a motion on the. Okay. If we have some amendments, can we put the amendments in.
210 My notes on it?
211 Okay.
212 Take a second look.
213 We got the right one. Thank you. And I'd like to put some amendments to the resolution. I don't know if you were given a copy of it.
214 No.
215 Okay. So in the one, two, three in the fifth whereas I want to add can I do I need to put this on the do I need a motion to do this.
216 Yes.
217 I'd like to make a motion to be able to amend the workforce development resolution. Can I get a second?
218 Second?
219 Thank you. The amendment is whereas as a prosper Portland manages the community opportunities and enhancements program. Which receives its funding through an intergovernmental agreement between the city and prosper Portland. And whereas the city's current 2024 budget 25 budget allocated approximately 2.6 million for co-ep, council expects that this funding will continue through fiscal year 2526. Under that intergovernmental agreement. Next. Next change under it, be it further resolved and we will actually cut out the next, whereas the current budget allocation. And I have those changes that I'll give you the second amendment. Is that be it further resolved, council believes that summer works youth employment initiative should continue to offer summer and year round employment opportunities for portland's youth, helping them gain vital work experience and fostering skills and development. Next, be it further resolved, I am striking the workforce and pre apprenticeship program and the summer works youth employment initiative shall continue to be administered by work systems, inc. In partnership with community organizations and industry stakeholders. We are canceling that because that is a given and it will say, be it further resolved, the summer works youth employment initiative will be operated by work systems, inc. And staffed by councilor. Smith's office period. And the last, be it further resolved, work systems, inc. Shall deliver an annual report to prosper Portland and the city council detailing the programs, accomplishments, demographics of participants, outcomes, and potential areas for enhancement. And I will send you the electronic copy of that as well.
220 May I ask? Looks like there may have been a resolve statement that was added one, two, three. The third resolve statement looks like it's additional. I see the second resolve statement where there were amendments. Then there's a yes.
221 Be it further resolved, council expects to allocate funding to summer works in the fiscal year 20 2526 city budget at a level sufficient to meet portland's workforce needs in the future period. Can we take a vote on this, or how do we have to do that? Or have a discussion?
222 Once council has finished any discussion, it has been moved and seconded. It sounds like you're bringing this all as one motion, so then you can call for the vote.
223 Councilor Green.
224 Thank you, chair Smith. You know, first of all, I just want to say that I'm broadly supportive of this investment in our pre-apprenticeship programs. I think it's really critical. Young people need jobs. If they were busy with a job, they'd have less time to roast me on tiktok as an older millennial. So I care about that idle hands, right? But there there are some things that I am not quite comfortable in with in terms of the amendment, in particular, based upon testimony from mr. Bowling, I would probably go back and offer further amendments on the, you know, claims to labor supply. I'm also not really comfortable with couching this in terms of mega projects, because from my office, from my personal position, I, I would prefer we spend our transportation dollars on transit and fixing our local roadways, which also create jobs and pipelines for career development. I also believe that I don't think I don't think a committee needs to hold up something that is 90% of the way there in terms of our consensus view, because we have time to make some adjustments before we go to council. I don't want to hold up your your resolution. So my I see that you have made changes that are responsive to the staff analysis, which was most of my concern kind of coming into this. So I'm I'm prepared to support this, but I wanted to state on the record where I'm going to go between now and, and you know, if we pass this at the full council vote, I'm also I have questions about your your office staffing this that I hope maybe you can elaborate on. So I'll just I'll just stop there.
225 Thank you. I want to go back to what you to go back further to get a finer point on. What do you mean as a as a mega project. This is not specifically for mega mega projects. It's for it is for apprenticeship programs through the city or other programs outside.
226 Yeah, that's a great question. So because I, I do believe that it's what it's resolving is to say this is for anything. Yes, yes. I don't think it's necessary to lead up and build the case based upon the mega projects being the driver of that demand. I'm just not comfortable voting on something that could be suggestive that I support the interstate bridge replacement project as it stands in the rose quarter project as it stands. And so I have different policy preferences for those dollars. But the amendments that I might offer between now and city council wouldn't. Yeah, wouldn't, wouldn't undermine the broader.
227 Yeah. I don't think I made that clear. There are two separate things that we were talking about. We're talking about giving people opportunity to get apprenticeship programs. And I think with administrator johnson said, is that some people may be able to get their journeyman on that project alone. It's not that you support the interstate bridge replacement project that you that you support us offering a pipeline of folks through the pre-apprenticeship program so that they can work on programs to be able to become a journeyman. And that's what we're trying to trying to do. We didn't we didn't say that we wanted these folks to be on their projects specifically. We send them everywhere. And if andrew could come up and. Kind of answer his concerns, our summer works interns, they go all over. They don't just go to mega projects. They go everywhere. They go into commissioners offices, they go into different departments at the at the health department, at Multnomah county here. So could you give commissioner Councilor Green an idea of where our summer works interns go?
228 Sure. I would just say that I don't need to. I'm going to vote yes on this. Thank you. We have nine minutes, and I just want to provide space for these folks to ask.
229 Their questions. I just wanted to let you know that we are not supporting the mega projects in that way. I think those mega projects, they have paid for themselves, pre-apprenticeship programs. They are putting money into those programs saying that this is a great opportunity and so we can pipeline our summer works into the to the apprenticeship programs.
230 Yeah, I thought my job was done when councilor Green said yes.
231 Okay. But okay.
232 But but I would say I think that's exactly right. I mean, we work with pre-apprenticeship programs because they are feeders for multiple trades, multiple projects to really just a great launching pad pad pathway to multiple trades. Now on summer works, it's we have over 100 organizations that refer young people to summer works and over 250 work sites from the public sector to, you know, clerical jobs to yard maintenance. All it's sort of the gambit. So, yeah, I think from that perspective, it's more widespread.
233 Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Novick.
234 So I'm frankly concerned about the be it resolved, council expects to allocate funding to summer works in the 2526 budget at a level sufficient to meet portland's workforce needs in the future, because at this point, I don't feel like I can expect adequate allocation for funding of anything in this budget and also at a level sufficient to meet portland's workforce needs in the future. Seems pretty broad. So I'm just curious what kind of dollar amount you think that we can reasonably expect to see and why we expect to see it.
235 Current. Currently, summer works has has been zeroed out of the budget.
236 And it's and again it's supported by general fund money.
237 It is supported by general fund money.
238 So I don't know that I can vote for something saying we expect to allocate sufficient funding until I know where the money is going to come from.
239 Well you could amend it.
240 I would be fine with hopes as opposed to expects.
241 There you go.
242 There you go. I'm easy.
243 All right. I'll move that amendment.
244 We'll add that to the global amendment that we're putting on this. The idea is that we've supported this ever since sam adams, this this program. And he got me involved when I was at the county. And I started with $50,000 at the county, and I actually grew, I grew the program to 2.5 million in the ongoing budget. And, you know, sadly, that budget has gone down to 647,000. And so we have not had as many kids in the system in the in the last 4 or 5 years that we had in previous years. And I think it is so important for the city of Portland to step up and to make sure that we have at least $1 million to be able to make sure that we have kids who have youth employment over the summer, particularly in east Portland. Thank you. And I accept your your friendly amendment. Councilor Dunphy. No, councilor Kanal.
245 Thank you. Before I go into what I was going to say on the amendment, can I just clarify the friendly is that to change both the times where it says expects to hopes because there's one in the whereases as well. It's in the second new whereas.
246 And I think.
247 Resolved is the most important thing.
248 That's true. I'm just clarifying whether or not that's the what where we're at.
249 I would yeah, I would actually want to amend both to say hopes.
250 Thank you.
251 Thank you. So I'll keep my comments to the amendment. I do have comments on the resolution as well. But before I do that, just a broad appreciation for all the panelists here in the last presentation and to everyone for being a part of this and staying over for the resolution as well. I'm broadly supportive of the idea behind this resolution. I have some concerns about it. Three of them specifically, two of which relate to the amendment. So one of them is what councilor Greene raised with relation to staffing by councilor Smith's office. I just want clarity on what that means before having an opinion on that. That's not something that I've seen before, and I imagine there'd be some question about, to what degree, something on the operational side or administrative side. So the legislative.
252 Side.
253 So on the at Multnomah county, because they had never had the program before. I ran the program out of my office, which is probably unusual. And actually the person who ran summer works and who knows the most about it, she is no longer here. I don't know if you knew Tiffany pinson. She ran the summer works program, so we don't have anybody else here who actually knows the program. Like me and Tiffany knew the program. And what I did was I just had a separate person that's separate from my office that we checked in about what's going on, because there are a lot of meetings. There are a lot of matches that we have to make in the city and outside the city. And so in order to make sure that that happened, we did it out of my office. So we're equally as understaffed about summer works right now because Tiffany was the lone person who did summer works.
254 Yeah, I guess my question is not about your or tiffany's expertise on it, which is not in question at all. It's about the does this either a commit us to disproportionate funding later on when we're going to want to, when we're restricted from having it not be funded through your office. And now we're looking at funding additional staff or.
255 No just one. It's a, it's one person. It's just the one person who will go to the sites, help set up the sites within the city, make sure that there is that the students have student job readiness counseling. It's a lot of that matching up pre work that you have to do before you actually put someone on the site.
256 Okay. And then I guess the other part is just that the structural part, which is at some point none of the 12 of us are going to be in office anymore. And how does this continue on?
257 And that is why we're putting a resolution in. And hopefully we will put it in a more permanent place. But until then, it is giving priority to summer works in a, you know, in a space where we're in a limited budget cycle. And I wanted to put a finer point on this particular project, these two projects, the apprenticeship and the summer works, that this is important. We have way too many projects throughout the state that are public and private, that we need to have a pipeline for and with, with the with these programs being zeroed out, that is going to take a huge pipeline away from not only the city but from, you know, private construction projects.
258 Yeah. I guess before this were to come, assuming it is considered by the full council, I would want to clarify with attorneys prior to that about the particular mechanism. And then the other concern is I am I am sufficiently addressed by councilor Novick friendly amendment is also the expense. And whether or not that commits us, I may bring that up again at the full council, but not again here. I think that's this is sufficient for us to explore and perhaps look into it. And then I have another thing unrelated to amendment, but I'll stop my comments there.
259 Yeah, let's and let's talk offline on this. I appreciate you asking those questions because that's important. This is kind of a new program to many, but I am happy to work with you on it before it goes to the big board to address any of the needs that you have. Councilor Green. You're good, counselor Dunphy.
260 Thank you, madam chair. I will say I'm supportive of the amendment. I'm supportive of the resolution. I wanted to just also express that if Tiffany penson is no longer in the city, you are the most qualified person to be able to be in charge of this. But I do observe that, in my opinion, some of the worst choices to come out of city hall have been when an elected official takes something into their office simply because of the long term. I mean, I'm thinking of the small donor elections program and commissioner Fritz's office, the office of film. So I look forward to learning more about that and then also helping your office to find the permanent home where it's most appropriate. But in the interim, there's not a good option for it elsewhere, and this program must continue. So thanks for clarifying.
261 And I did it for eight years at Multnomah county. I don't think anyone else wanted to do it. They didn't want they didn't want that problem. But I think I, I see our city attorney down here and he looks like he wants to say something. Is there anything you need to say? Could you introduce yourself, robert?
262 Thank you for the record. Robert taylor, Portland city attorney. It's been a great conversation and this is certainly a valuable program. I do think there have been legitimate questions raised here today about, in our new form of government, whether elected members of council can run programs out of their office. I would love an opportunity to look at that in more detail, but I do think that that is there are serious questions about that under our new form of government.
263 Okay. Work with me on that. We just want to make sure that we get the appropriate bureau to handle it, and the appropriate staff that will make sure that the that the program is running as it should.
264 Thank you.
265 Thank you. I appreciate that, robert. Councilor Novick.
266 I was just wondering if we should add a whereas the council hopes that Tiffany benson returns to city employment.
267 Whereas Tiffany benson is at the Oregon department of transportation with a big job. As my aunt would say, she has a big job. I don't think she's coming back, but I'd love for her to come back to because she was amazing and outstanding, and she did work under the human resources. Department. Tracy. Yes. Thanks, tracy. And she did a lot of good work. She was there from the beginning with sam adams when it originally started. So I think our concern from councilor Smith's office is we want to make sure that it that it stays in a great place where someone will be able to champion this particular program if funded. Take a vote. Yeah, I'd like to take a vote on it to refer it to Portland city council.
268 Chair. We have a motion to amend the item still open. Okay.
269 Can we take a vote on the amendment?
270 Canal.
271 I'm going to vote I on this, noting that I may circle back to that last piece just based on that by the full council.
272 Novick I.
273 I've already hinted towards some amendments I make make between now and then, but I vote I.
274 Dunphy. I Smith I.
275 So now can we can I get a motion to take this to the big council.
276 So moved.
277 Second, second. Can we take a vote on it?
278 Keelan canal I had.
279 Discussion on this piece.
280 Okay, let's let's have discussion. Councilor Kanal.
281 And I'd like to get that slide 13 from that previous slide deck pulled up here. While I do that, the same clause that councilor Green brought up from a different perspective about the mega projects. My concern is about specifying a document as an example that we haven't yet approved. And I understand the intention is to bring the sidewalk improvement and paving project at the same time. But my concern is about the idea of referencing it as if it's already, you know, partially baked the way that bull run I-5, the other ones in here are in that same clause, especially in light of the fact.
282 That they're separate.
283 So that I mean, but it's mentioned in here, right? I'm referring to the it's the sixth, it'll be the eighth whereas clause either way. Whereas this financial support is essential for construction projects, the cip as currently proposed, directs money to d1 in a way that I think was justified very, very well by yourself. But I have profound concerns about mentioning d4 and not d2 in it, especially in light of that map that I'd really like to see put up on the screen at some point that shows how many people in d4 and d3 and d2 have died in in traffic collisions as well. D2 is by far the second most in there, and also one of the historically underinvested in neighborhoods, and I'd like to be able to support this without it referencing something else that I have profound concerns about, because this on its own makes sense to me. But in the light of that, until and unless we discuss that which, you know, that didn't come to this committee. So I haven't been a part of that conversation yet, but we will when it comes to the full.
284 Council.
285 It's in the same spirit that we get a deficit of $91 million that we have to fill when we have a person's wish list on there. It's in that same spirit. I look at a deficit of $91 million as huge, but when we really do a finer point on it, some of those are just wish lists. And this is in the same spirit. So we can discuss that at the big at the big council meeting. But until we give that kind of scrutiny of our larger budget, then I'm prepared to be able to answer these questions. When we go to the bigger group. It's just a whereas as giving examples of why we need to maintain apprenticeship programs, because in order for us to meet the demand of the labor needs, we're going to have to continue to have a pipeline of folks so that those were just the two big ones in the Portland area, but there are 115. Am I correct 115? In the area, in this region.
286 Approximately might be 117.
287 117 okay, I couldn't remember if it's 115 117. So there are 117 projects. I just identified a couple that are going to be big, big. Owners that that are going to hire a lot of our kids ultimately to work.
288 And I appreciate that. And I understand that. I agree with you that the higher priority in a $92 million situation, which I also agree is not a deficit because some of it is a wish list, needs to be discussing the $28 million. But I also want to note we haven't weighed in on that yet. I will weigh in on that. This is the opportunity to weigh in on this, which references a particular program that that is being invested as, as proposed in the district with the most need and the district that has had the most investment over the last 100 plus years.
289 Okay. Great. Councilor Green, could you please address that, please?
290 Councilor Kanal, I look forward to a spirited debate about what district four investment looks like when it comes to sidewalks, which is significantly lower than district two or district three, but I think I can assuage your concern, because what I'm going to do in the amendment between now and then is I'm actually going to work to strike this entire reference to specific projects. And you may have some quibbles with it, but I think I can craft a language that meets your spirit that doesn't specify a piece of legislation that's still aspirational, still hasn't been passed by council, and it still has to be some debate on it. This isn't really the venue to talk about why we think district four deserves priority for sidewalks. And I think if I can express that, I'm actually going to try to strike that out, maybe that will assuage your concerns.
291 Yeah. And I, I it does. And I'll just note, I wish that we had representation on the transportation and infrastructure committee to be able to talk about it, but our district does not. And that I am looking forward to discussing both the sidewalks and the paving side from that perspective. When we get to that spirited debate on the other document, I will not hold up this document based on that, given what I just heard.
292 Thank you.
293 And then I invite you to do your own legislation for district two. You can do that too. So, I mean, it's you you are open to do what you want to do for your district. And this goes back to what I was talking about before last week. Whenever we talk about doing something for underserved folks and people of color, people want to challenge it. And I am not going to not bring things forward for my district when they've been horribly underinvested in over the years. I can stand tall on it. I will stand on it. Ten toes down, and we can go back and forth about what's important, what's critical. There are some things that are critical in your district, which I used to live in, that you may want to invest in, and I have no problem doing that, particularly if you bring me the data like I've brought you the data about, you know, high crash corridors. Title one, schools, underserved people, salaries at 60,000. They cannot afford to do their own sidewalks. This is not the cip conversation, but this is one of the third of the legs to cip. And I appreciate that. And I welcome you to put forward anything that you want for your district specific, because my mind is very global, and I understand that everything is not going to be for every district. And I still understand the need, the importance, and, and this using this platform to be able to level the playing field for all of our districts. And that's what we were elected to do. And that's why we got three people elected. We're trying to level the playing field, and this will level the playing field in terms of minority entrepreneurship, internship and apprenticeship. And so I will be fighting for that for the next four years and making sure that it goes on past the years that I'm here. But I appreciate you.
294 And I just to clarify, I said at the beginning, I have no concerns with mentioning district. One zero whatsoever. Okay, that's all I'm saying.
295 I'm just clarifying. Okay.
296 All right, all right. I'm feeling that smoke from all sides right now, but I can handle the smoke. So can we take a vote on this?
297 Yes.
298 Canal I.
299 Novick I just want to say that I will check to see if we've got some extra sidewalks in district three that we can spread around a bit. I.
300 I Dunphy.
301 Is this this is the final vote on this resolution. All right. Well, I have a I have a quick statement. I just want to say I'm really proud to support this resolution because it reflects not only our city's values and my own personal values, but invest directly in the people of district one. We can't balance the budget by eviscerating the vital programs that serve the most underinvested in our community. As a former educator in the david douglas school district out in east Portland, I saw how our system has demonized the trades, demeaned labor unions, and told generations of children that the only way to provide meaningful career worthy of dignity and respect is to go to college, to spend the equivalent of a mortgage on a fancy piece of paper. And for most students, college was never going to be an option. So where does that leave the thousands of young people in our community, in Lents and park roads, and in neighborhoods across east Portland, young people are looking for their first opportunity to step into the workforce, and summerworks helps make that possible. So it's not just a summer job, it's mentorships, it's skill building, and it's the kind of experience that can change the direction of a young person's life, hopefully into a well-paying, family wage, unionized career. And the co-op is equally important as we invest in the future of our city through construction, infrastructure and housing. We have to be just as committed to investing in the workers and small businesses that make the future possible. And it's not just the right thing to do. It's smart policy. These are the kind of programs, programs that we don't just talk about equity, they actually live it out in action. They keep wealth circulating in our neighborhoods, they build local leadership, and they show our youth and communities that they belong in the story of portland's future. So I'm really grateful to councilor Smith for bringing forward this important resolution and to everyone who makes these programs successful the way they are. So I vote I.
302 Smith.
303 Thank you. Thank you all for really having a deep dive on this, because I think these programs not only aim to enhance our job readiness, but it also seeks to inspire the next and a new generation of workers, entrepreneurs who can contribute their unique perspectives and innovations to our city's economy, and that it will have an enormous amount of opportunity to be successful. And we have to continue. It should not be any gaps in service. So I'm going to vote yes on this. I.
304 The item passes to full council.
305 Thank you. And we will conclude.