The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-03-27
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (21,640 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are not yet identified (colors just separate consecutive turns). Auto-captions can contain errors — check the recording for anything that matters.
Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Portland City Council Labor and Workforce Development Committee met on March 27, 2025, with roll call confirming committee members present. The first agenda item addressed the city's return-to-office and hybrid work policy, opening with remarks on the rationale for requiring managers and supervisors to return to in-person work by April 7, followed by a councilor's reflections on hybrid work experience at a community organization. A Bureau of Human Resources presentation covered historical timeline, policy parameters, and workforce demographic data, though figures on employee work locations were presented with some inconsistency across slides and discussion. Councilors asked about downtown revitalization motives, ADA accommodations, productivity data, vehicle miles traveled, and contract negotiation timing. Representatives of the Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland (DEEP) and affiliated employee resource groups presented concerns about impacts on caregivers, disabled employees, and retention, followed by public testimony expressing support for maintaining hybrid work. The committee then addressed a proposed ordinance to reinstate a fair wage policy for contracted janitorial, security, and parking workers, with discussion of procedural questions about referral to full council. Public testimony, including interpreted remarks, supported reinstating the policy. Additional testimony on the return-to-office topic was heard before adjournment. No vote outcomes are reported here; any votes taken 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.
0 Good afternoon. This is the March 27th, 2025 meeting of the labor and workforce development committee. Deidre, would you please call the roll? Is it deidre? Yes.
1 Yes. Sorry. Hold on just a moment. Let me get that up.
2 Is that dera. Deidre deodora?
3 Thank you for asking, Dunphy.
4 Here.
5 Canal here.
6 Novick here.
7 Green.
8 Here.
9 Smith.
10 Here. Megan, will you please read the statement of conduct?
11 Good afternoon. Welcome to the meeting of the labor and workforce development committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at wwe. Council agenda slash labor and workforce development committee. Or by calling 311. Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone must be. Your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The chair preserves order disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying. State your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
12 Thank you. Deirdre, could you please read item one, please?
13 Item one. City's return to office in hybrid work policy.
14 Thank you. I'm going to call up mayor keith wilson. And I also want to add we have councilor. Candice Avalos who is an invited presenter. She's not on the list, but she should have been. She she will speak after the mayor. Good afternoon, mr. Mayor. How are you?
15 Good afternoon, chair Smith. Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for this opportunity.
16 Thank you. I thought it was important that we have this conversation. These conversations are being had in different spaces and places, and we have not had the conversation at city council around coming back to work. And the and what you have instructed folks to do who are in management. So I just wanted to give you an opportunity, give the community an opportunity and give the workers an opportunity to say their piece. So I know you and I want to say ahead of time, the mayor does not have a lot of time, but he is going to speak and he won't be able to answer questions. And we will have tracy who will answer the questions. So if you could please give us a presentation on what your thoughts were around coming back to work.
17 Thank you. Chair. This is a very much appreciated moment. I provided a town hall when I was newly elected, and the staff asked what was the perspective on this particular topic? And I said something and I learned a valuable lesson that day. I said, return to work. And they corrected me quickly, and I think there were 1500 people that corrected me. It was returned to workplace or returned to office. And so I've learned a very valuable lesson on the term. So I want to just say we should always not talk about return to work.
18 Return to.
19 Office always.
20 And thank you for the clarification provided.
21 I think it's a great context of setting the stage of our discussion. But thank you. And I've also written testimony as well, and I've testified on this issue, and I'm looking forward to hearing those who will testify today as well. Your time, advocacy, dedication to our community, and service to the city of Portland are commendable, and we all owe you a debt of gratitude as we consider this change in policy. I believe Portland has reached a long awaited moment of promise and transformation. I'm grateful to work alongside our city workers as we reimagine Portland to embody the best of our innovation and values. I continue to believe we must meet this once in a generation investment in our future by rebuilding togetherness across our city, starting with our workforce leaders. We've seen how technology and new practices can give us increasing flexibility to help us navigate complex lives. That said, it is also shown us there is no replacement for the creative energy team, building, leadership and learning that comes from in-person managers and supervisors. This is especially important important when it comes to the role of managers in nurturing our next generation of city employees. We are in a period of great change. We have so many new faces, and the new relationships that follow could not be more critical. We have a new mayor. We have new councilors, we have a new form of local government. We also face an unprecedented budget crisis. The more we work shoulder to shoulder to face and face to face, the more effective we collaborate and the more we'll succeed. That collaboration is critical to becoming a high standards, high performing organization that we must be to meet this moment. This is not a change I take lightly. The managers and supervisors who will soon join us on site full time will join the majority of our workforce. Most who serve our city do so in person today. With this change, nearly 80% of all working hours will be performed in person at the city of Portland. I'm grateful for the stories and advocacy shared with me over the recent weeks. As a data informed organization, it is vitally important that we ensure these these concerns are founded, in fact, especially any facts related to issues of fairness, equity and staff retention. The city of Portland maintains a leading retention rate and a thriving workforce, and one that we should all be very proud and make sure that we are a destination employer. Did you know that over the past five years, from fiscal year 2019 until 2024, 60% of our staff are new or have been promoted into new roles. Compare that to the previous five years before COVID, when just 36% of our staff were new or promoted into new roles. Here's the problem with that. We're learning and growing, but we're not always learning and growing together. The most powerful learning and relationships are forged in person. That's why leading cities have led with a return to in-person work in these cities, fears and warnings of unfairness and inequity did not materialize. Instead, these cities were empowered to unlock opportunities and efficiencies. Portland will soon match. I believe learning from these cities is critical to accomplishing the organizational goals that we've set forth for ourselves. I'm incredibly grateful for the service of our managers and supervisors, and I continue to believe we can be best execute the mission and vision we share for the future of Portland together in person. The humanitarian crisis on our streets and our budget shortfall will demand much of us in the coming days. We will rely upon our workforce leaders to build face to face, cross team relationships. Our future depends on these relationships and the innovation and collaboration that come with them. Thank you to everyone for participating in these critical discussions. Our managers and supervisors have an invaluable role in setting the tone for our organizational culture and leading our staff. They also have a critical role in sharing their perspectives, especially on days like today, and I hope they will continue to do so with candor and earnestness. Councilors chair, thank you so much for this opportunity to provide my perspective. I have tracy warren, who is our bureau of hr director, and I'd like to invite her up when you're ready. Thank you. Present to you as well.
22 Thank you so much, mayor wilson. I appreciate you making time on the schedule. I knew that tracy was supposed to be here, but I really appreciate you changing your schedule so that you could actually address us personally and make sure folks knew that this was important. And it's critical. And I think your. I think they will be coming back to work, coming back to the office. Thank you. On April 1st. Right.
23 April 7th. So that the Monday of the seventh. Yes.
24 Okay, great. Thank you so much. And, tracy.
25 Tracy. Thank you.
26 Councilor, please. And we'll see councilor Avalos after tracy is finished. Thank you so much. And I failed to introduce my committee. And I have my vice chair, councilor Green to the left. Councilor Novick, councilor Dunphy and councilor Kanal. We have been here trying to make sure that we are keeping you with updated. Committee hearings, that that are important, that are that are. Now that we're present, we hear you when you see so many emails that have come through our emails. And this was something that was asked for not just once, but twice, but three times, four times. And so we're giving this platform today to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to speak. And, tracy, could you introduce yourself, please?
27 Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Council chair Smith, my name is tracy warren and I'm the human resources director. I am having a bit of challenges with getting my email to pop up to share via the zoom link. So I am working on that.
28 Because you have you have a presentation as well.
29 I do, I have some slides to share with you all. What I hope to do is go over a little bit of historical context that helps the council to have information on kind of where we've been, and then also wanted to provide you all with some data and some brief information related to the policy.
30 So it was asked of me to bring councilor Avalos up to the table. Right now, while you're working on your tech. Yeah.
31 Okay. Yes.
32 Is it okay if I stay here and do that?
33 Yes. Stay here. Stay here. And I know councilor Avalos had a few minutes, and I just wanted to give her a chance to have a few remarks. You've heard the mayor and you heard the mayor's priorities. And why he. Why he established this new return to office policy. And councilor. Could you say a few words about, you know, where you are with that?
34 Yeah. Thank you, everybody. For the record, councilor Avalos from district one. And I'm here to talk a little bit about my experiences as an employer during the pandemic. And, you know, just what we were going through as we were navigating this return to office and the policies. And so I'm, I'm here to just offer some perspective to help with your discussion. Does that sound right?
35 Yes. Yes. Please offer your perspective. That's important. And I do say that we have all of district one here today.
36 What up? Great. Well, first and foremost, I won't bury the lead. And I'll say that the world has changed and we and work has changed with it. And so that is really the core of what I'm going to talk about, of how we were trying to adapt to a new world. I got to read the in the in March of 2021. So thinking back to where we were in 21, that was like vaccines were starting to roll out and people, you know, we were like a year ish into the pandemic. And so it was the beginning of the discussion of what it was going to start to look like for people to return to the office at the time. Verde before I got there, they had downsized from their office. They had an office they were renting in on columbia boulevard, and, like many other workplaces, decided that that was too expensive to keep paying for. That was obviously not being used. And so we went to just like a, a little office somewhere else. And then actually, it was my first task to find us a new office. And so I spent a lot of time in that process of deciding what was the kind of office we needed to accommodate the kind of workforce that we had. You know, we had to weigh the cost of possibly having an office that people didn't want to use, but also an office that could accommodate this new way of working. And even now, in 2025, the culture of online meetings is clearly here to stay. I mean, we as a council are obviously hybrid. We have created long term opportunities for people to plug in virtually, and I think that's great. And I think it speaks to the fact that, again, the way we do our work has shifted. So when you consider that during an average workday, many employees need to be on these online calls, that drastically affects what kind of work, space and environment you have. You know, as we were looking for new space, I'm looking in the cully neighborhood and looking at d2. You know that the cully neighborhood is severely under-resourced. And similarly to districts or neighborhoods in our district, district one, lacking in commercial assets. So we already just had a limited ability of options. And I do think that's important to say because as people are deciding, you know, what their workplaces look like, especially when you look at places that are people and orgs that are working in our district, options are severely limited. So we have to get creative about what to do with that lack of access or to larger space. And we ended up leasing a space in the by the fall of 21, but we didn't have folks move into it until spring of 22 because we had a bunch of tenant improvements. So at the time, I made a decision to not make a specific requirement for an amount of days, right? So that was where everyone was like, oh, it's two days or not. We decided not to do that, and we kind of wanted to see what would happen. Plus, we were struggling to accommodate our growing, our the workforce that had grown. I think that's another thing you need to consider, and it applies to the city as well. That especially for organizations that were responding to community during the pandemic, we had to really staff up quickly. And therefore, like any space that we had, we had already outgrown it because we couldn't accommodate the fact that our workforce grew faster than our options for space did. Right. And we were. Overall, I would say that the policy was positive, right? Employees felt empowered to flex their schedules more, which I think is crucial because I know as somebody who was a 9 to 5 coordinator at PSU and it'd be like, oh, well, if you have to work late, then you can come in later in the morning. That never happened. It was much harder to do that. But much easier in a flexible at home environment that people could decide if I'm going to have to work late and be in community meetings, then I can sleep in a little more and not have to make this onerous commute. So I think that's critical to note. Also, I think it it goes without saying, and it's a part of this discussion. People were able to accommodate their work schedule to their family needs. Right. There were many various things when schools were closed and all of that. But even after schools opened back up, we knew that working parents, you know, they struggle to manage the 40 hour workweek with the needs of their kids. Lastly, I'll just say, you know, ultimately and what I'm hearing, too, with mayor wilson, there's kind of this what I feel like are the themes that come up are about collaboration and about accountability, right. Those are kind of the arguments that I hear for why returning to work is important. And I think what we experienced, and I've said this a couple of times too, and I think this is why you asked me to come speak here. It's not perfect. Trust me. Like it is not all rainbows and roses. It was really hard to find ways to build connection with each other and hold folks accountable. A good example of holding people accountable would be like, you know, if we're all online and I'm messaging you on teams and you're not responding for an hour or for two hours, it's like, where are you at? Right? I'm looking at the calendar. And so we struggled a lot with that and trying to again, it's like, okay, well we recognize that people are using work from home to flex and move their day a little differently. And I definitely did that too, because I'm more of a night person. So I would rather not have, you know, any rather start working at like 11 a.m. At the earliest, if I could. But, you know, so there was some of that kind of discrepancy we were dealing with. But I and I think what we decided to do as it relates to that, I mean, I think to me, and when it comes back, bringing it back to the city, when it comes to accountability, I feel that that is a supervisor's responsibility to build in good mechanisms for that, and that is not dependent on where they are physically located. And when it comes to in-person connection, which is the other big argument, we really got creative in how we built connection, because I think we this idea of forced like we are connecting because we're in a meeting, right? Like to me, like that's work. That's not necessarily me engaging in a, in a, you know. Meaningful in a meaningful way. Thank you. And so we chose to our teams all took different approaches. And this is what I think we need to be doing at the city. I think that every team is responsible for accommodating what works for them. So we had some teams that would come, you know, they would all gather once a week in the office so that they could have that touchpoint. We had some teams that only gathered in person for more bonding events. They're going to go to lunch or they're going to do something to just connect outside of the day to day work. And ultimately, you know, we were able to be responsive to people's needs while also holding them accountable and creating a workplace that was flexible and to me, competitive, because that's the other thing that I think we're competing with now, especially with federal employees being laid off, that is a huge market, in my opinion, of future awesome city staff that I do not want us to lose because we are choosing to go the same archaic route that the trump administration is by forcing everybody to be in office, when that's not necessarily how you produce good work. So anyway, I think I feel like I covered all the bases.
37 I appreciate your comments, and I appreciate you giving us a standpoint from a community based organization and how you were able to manage that and to and to be present and still get the work done and be accountable. Do any of the council committee have any questions of councilor Avalos? Thank you so much for your presentation. I appreciate you taking the time to come by. Thank you.
38 Yeah. Thank you. All right.
39 Can we pick back up with tracy? Are you good?
40 I am good.
41 Thank you so much. Thank the tech folks as well.
42 Absolutely. All right, there we go. So let's start this over. Thank you for having me today and allowing me the opportunity to present to the committee. I appreciate all the opportunities that you've afforded me thus far. I'll spend a little bit of time. Let me reintroduce myself for the record. Tracy warren, human resources director. Today, I plan to go over a little bit of historical context. The manager and supervisor return to workplace overview, and then some demographics and data review. We'll start with historical context. As you can imagine, and I think as councilor Avalos, who is just up here explained, you know, it's been quite the journey for many employers in the city of Portland has been no different in that journey. As you can see, I've outlined a timeline that kind of goes over all the different phases that we've been through over the last five years. As we've kind of adjusted and readjusted to the pandemic. What you'll notice is March 2020, which was a pivotal moment for the city of Portland. I can remember it very vividly today myself. At the time, I was a human resources business partner, and we had spent the morning interviewing a new hr director with seats spaced out all throughout the room, trying to keep appropriate distance while trying to also continue business while moving into the afternoon, being told that we needed to pivot and help support the entire workforce to go home while we figured out what to do next as an organization, we spent, you know, quite a bit of time working with in our team and across the organization to think about how we could support employees who could maintain working from home and still deliver services. That was roughly about 40% of our workforce at the time. And then also worked to develop new safety procedures and protocols for those folks who needed to remain in the workplace so that they could deliver core services to portlanders. That was roughly about 60% of our workforce. This was a very trying and difficult time for all folks involved, and I want to acknowledge, as the mayor did as well, that our employees did tremendous things through that time to continue services to the community. We continue to operate that way until about October of 2021, when we started to think about what would be our reentry into the workplace. After we started to see numbers level off for COVID 19. We were delayed several times during that process because there had been continued spikes in COVID 19 cases, which created a pause because we wanted to make sure that our employees felt safe as they returned to the workplace. In April of 2022, we introduced phase one requirements. Phase one requirements were for employees who were working hybrid to are working fully remote as part of the pandemic process, where we sent everyone home to come back into the workplace one day a week while folks were coming back into the office one day a week, we took some extra steps. We did an employee survey to really understand how the workforce was adapting, what types of things they wanted us to consider in a workplace model. We took all of that information and we made recommendations to council. So you'll see in October of 2022 omf recommendations. As you may recall, in our prior form of government, the office of management and finance was where the bureau of human resources sat, and we worked as a team employing the survey data and putting together committees to get feedback, to put together some recommendations. In July 2020, that survey had 3500 employees responding to provide input on workplace models. Those results were ultimately recommended to council in October of 2022, and then in December of 2022, mayor wheeler and city council asked the bureau of human resources to implement a new workplace model that included five components. Those components included designating a small percentage of positions as fully remote based on defined criteria, requiring hybrid employees to do in-person work, at least half of their total work time, maximizing flexibility for both in-person and hybrid positions, with employees and managers collaborating to set schedules and update telework agreements to create a citywide exception process. Providing a pathway for employees with special circumstances to modify in-person work requirements. One of the things that we learned in the survey is that while things were starting to ramp back up, there were still several delays that were challenging, especially parents, for example, not access to daycare or enough daycare to be able to provide quality services for their employee or for their children. Additionally, we were asked to bring a rule to city council for adoption requiring employees to work from either Oregon or Washington. As you can imagine, the city of Portland is not set up as a multi-state employer as as most of our work is done within the city of Portland. And so we had tax challenges, compliance with worker compensation laws, and then concerns about employee and labor relations law, compliance for folks who are working outside of the Oregon and Washington area. That policy is still in effect today. Between January and March of 2023, the bureau of human resources worked to implement the direction from the mayor and the council at the time. In may of 2023, employees working one day a week from a city work site or in the field providing services to the community were required to return to the workplace half time from a city work site. And we've worked from that model ever since. You know, I think it's been expressed in other in the prior conversation, but that wasn't without challenges. We had missing connections between staff and folks working in silos without feeling like they had a connection to get the resources and support that they needed. We had differing implementation depending on the bureau. I think that that is primarily a result of the prior form of government and structure that we had. While a portion of our workforce welcomed the new flexibility and experienced increased savings. A large portion of our workforce has felt left out and have not been able to see the benefits. Because they're in a position that just does not allow them to have that same level of flexibility. We've seen teams thrive and we've seen teams struggle to work through the challenges of a split workforce, right? Half of our folks, or nearly half of our folks working in person, and then the other half either working fully remote or hybrid. In January of 2025, mayor wilson took office and made the decision to bring to begin the implementation of a new workplace model, starting with managers and supervisors returning to the workplace full time in the next few weeks with the April 7th date. Now, I'll talk a little bit about the return to the workplace for manager and supervisors. I'm just going to go over briefly the basic parameters of it, which is that the expectation is that April 7th of this year, managers and supervisors are required to return to the workplace full time. There are folks who have 80 accommodations for remote and hybrid work, and that will continue. We will also continue to evaluate if folks have a disability that is supported best by working from home through telework or fully remote. Those actions will continue to be reviewed. We also have provided guidance and resources regarding flexibility for managing personal appointments, working on projects. And so on. So for example, you know, if you are a manager or supervisor, the nature of your job typically allows, as an flsa exempt person to be able to flex your schedule to meet the demands of both your personal life and your work life. Additionally, if there are times in which someone is working on a high priority project and they really need to close themselves off from disruptions that may occur in the workplace, they still have that flexibility to work with their manager and supervisor to say, I need some time at home or away from the work space to be able to work on this and do that. So I want to spend a little bit of time talking about demographics and data review, just to kind of show you who we're talking about, right? Who's working where. So what you have first are a couple of pie charts. To your left are current employees work locations. This is fresh data. It shows about 54% of our workforce is working in person. About 38% is working hybrid. That means that they are spending half of their time at a city work site or in the community providing services, and about 8% of our employees are working fully remote. Fully remote does not distinguish from still having a requirement to come into the workplace, should it be needed. So those folks are still showing up for meetings when necessary. And then to the right is anticipated employee work locations. So this is based on the requirement for managers and supervisors to return to workplace full time. That does increase 64% of our employees working in person moves to 28% working hybrid and then fully remote stays about the same with 8%. There's just a small percentage deviation. And again, that's a small percent of our workforce already. So here's a here's a bar graph that shows work location by job group. So these job groups are a way for us to bucket classifications into broader job families. And so on the left you start with administrative support and then you kind of move through the different groups. You will see council office and administrative support, councilors, officials and administrators, professionals, protective services, non-sworn and then protective services sworn. And then service maintenance, skilled craft and then technicians, which you'll see is that we primarily have folks working hybrid in officials and administrator capacity and then in professional positions. Those positions are typically coordinators, analysts, financial analysts, accountants, folks who are identified as being within what's considered a professional field. Here's work location by race and ethnicity. What I'll say is a challenge of the data that you have in front of you is that I think it's not probably really clear for you to gauge what's that representative of our entire workforce. And I had a hard time figuring out a visual that would fit on the screen for you, but I'm happy to provide that as a follow up. But what I can say in reviewing the data is that it's pretty representative of what our workforce looks like. And then I would say, in addition, what you'll see is that all of this information is kind of interdependent on each other, right? Depending on the profession, depending on, you know, different barriers that someone might experience going into the workplace may determine where they end up in their career. And then as a result, if they're able to work hybrid or remote, right. So it's fairly inter-tangled and probably deserves a better analysis. Here you have work location by gender. You'll see you have it dispersed between fully remote, hybrid and in-person with male female. Folks who prefer not to answer in those that identify as x. One thing that I will say is I did take a look at data from January 1st, 2020 snapshot to say how many female employees did we have? And we had 38.31% of folks who identified as women. And then on January 1st of 2025, another snapshot of data, we had 39.15% who identified as women. So again, that's something that probably needs a little bit of additional dig in, but there's not much of a difference in our demographics for folks who identify as women. This last graph shows ADA telework accommodations by work location. So what you have is in the light blue, you have all of the fully remote positions that do not have a telework accommodation as a result of an ADA request. That's not that. All the other folks have different ADA accommodations. That's just the total workforce. So of that, 97 folks have an accommodation to work remotely for some period of time. And it varies. So fully remote. You have 153 in person you have about eight. And then we have a group of employees where we don't have a recorded position of where they're working, and that's for various reasons either, you know, there's an error in the data and it hasn't been updated, or they're too new and have not yet updated the information. So there's a there's a combo of that.
43 Megan and tracy, I know that we have a stop at 1235, but I'm going to take some minutes off the last agenda item so that we can complete this item. And if councilors have, give them an opportunity to ask questions.
44 Absolutely. Thank you. And so that was it.
45 That was perfect.
46 Perfect timing. So are there any questions.
47 That I might be able to help answer?
48 Councilors do you have I don't see any. Hands up. Does anyone want to vice chair councilor Green?
49 Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for the presentation. I guess my main question I have today is how much of this policy is motivated by downtown economic revitalization, if any?
50 That's a good question, and I can't be the one to answer that. Because that has not been the conversations that I'm a part of. The conversations that I'm a part of are related to bringing the workforce together and finding ways for us to collaborate and provide services to the community by being in person together. I mean, that's those are the conversations I'm involved in.
51 That's actually, in itself a very helpful answer. So I just note that for the record, thank you.
52 Councilor Novick.
53 Thank you, madam chair. My question is you mentioned people who have telework as an ADA accommodation. As people are returning to the office, has there been an effort to remind people of what their accommodation, what the accommodations are available and what the process is for receiving accommodations for disabilities?
54 When? Thank you, councilor Novick. Yes. When we sent out the notification to managers and supervisors, we did say that we would continue to evaluate ADA requests for new conditions. And that and I sent a separate message to anyone who had an ADA accommodation already in place to say this return to work place does not impact you. We your accommodation remains in place and the support to you remains in place. I think that there are opportunities, and I've been working with the team to refine the ADA process for us to improve upon it, and we're working towards that. When we are finished with that, we do plan to roll out communication related.
55 But you did communicate to everybody that reminding them that when you're coming back to work, remember that if you need accommodations, they're available to you. And here's what the current procedures are.
56 Yes, we well, we did not say these are the current procedures. So I want to be clear. What we said is that we would provide telework or we would continue to provide accommodations should someone need them.
57 Okay. Accommodation in the office, not just through telework.
58 Correct. Any accommodation that someone needs. Absolutely.
59 Thank you. Councilor Kanal.
60 Can I just ask before I get into this, are we having members of deep come up and speak to.
61 They're going to come up after you ask your question.
62 Okay. I'll wait till after that.
63 Okay. Thank you. Tracy, I want to thank you so much for. Oh. I'm sorry. Councilor Dunphy.
64 Thanks. Tracy.
65 When we considered this policy along your timeline were productivity, employee retention, cost, or carbon emissions considered as part of that calculation?
66 I can't speak to the carbon emissions. I know that there was a broader conversation around the city's climate policies and how this might impact it. I will say that there were lots of conversations around, you know, space planning and what does that mean? And if we were to move to all of our workforce to return to a workplace, that there would need to be additional planning related to space. You know, we also had conversations around, you know, impact to employees and, you know, the challenges that they may experience in returning to the workplace. And what were additional resources that we had the ability to provide to support that?
67 Were there any specific conversations around productivity, though? I mean, do we know I mean, this probably is not for you to say from an hr perspective, but do you know if those conversations were had in any of the conversations you were in about how our employees are doing their jobs and whether this policy informs that?
68 There were lots of conversations. But, you know, to be honest, they are anecdotal and not backed with data to support, you know, are there decreased or improved productivity? It's right. It's based on what has been my experience or the experience that I've heard of from my colleagues or managers. And so I think that, you know, productivity is a very hard thing to evaluate. And we have such varying work across the city that it would take a real lift to try to come up with like a tangible data point.
69 Yeah. I will say that my observation working in the city is that first, public employees have incredibly hard jobs. And the city has not done a great job of defining metrics for what success looks like across different bureau types, different job descriptions. I think that we have a responsibility to define what success looks like, and then hold our public employees accountable to those standards, and let them find the ways to figure it out. I think that Portland has the potential to be an incredible. And I think in many ways we are an incredible employer, a place for people to want to stay and have their careers and raise their families, live in this city. But if we don't know what success is, we can't judge these folks against it. And I don't I'm worried that we are. Potentially taking away something that will risk, you know, really good employees who want to be here. So thank you for letting me ask you questions you don't have answers to.
70 Councilor Kanal.
71 Yes. Sorry. Councilor dunphy's question made me realize there are two things that came up here. One, just. I was in a previous meeting here earlier today with climate, the climate sustainability committee. Sorry. Climate resilience. Land use. Were PBOT said we need a 20 to 30% reduction in vehicle miles traveled. So piggybacking off of that, I asked, you know, how can we be encouraging 700 employees, roughly 10 to 10% to drive more when we need to be reducing vehicle miles traveled? And they said that was not a question for them and directed me. I mentioned that there would be this conversation in labor workforce development that directed me here. Maybe this is better for the mayor, and that's okay. But I just wanted to ask you how how do those two things square?
72 Yeah, we do have a trip reduction program. So I think that the return to workplace directive is not requiring folks to drive in. Right. That may be what is necessary for some people because they need it. Right. Like maybe they live in a location where they have to drive in. Maybe they're traveling at hours that they need to drive in. Maybe they have small children and they need to be able to pick them up, and they have to be able to get there quickly. So this is by all means not a blanket statement, but I think that there we've been in, you know, a very long process with PBOT to think about and rethink our trip reduction program, which includes, you know, discounts on TriMet passes. Incentives for carpooling, reduced costs for or incentives for riding your bike or walking ride and walk bucks. And so I do think that there's an opportunity in the future to think about how we continue investing in that program so that we can provide alternative options that also meet our climate needs.
73 Okay. I'll pivot and ask a different question that I think is more within directly your wheelhouse. I noted this in the vote on the dct contract that as part of that, we gave three additional. We agreed to three additional personal days for employees that worked in the office. And while I support that and I voted for it, I did want to observe that that there are costs associated with this during a budget deficit year and that we would need to do that. In parallel to that, I noticed that on slide nine, you noticed that the highest the highest bar of hybrid employees, which are the employees most affected here, are professionals. And we have received a lot of feedback from cp that there are they would like to have the contract resolved quickly. And so my question for you is does the timeline for cp w relate to this in any way? Is it was there any conversation around having the new policy take effect prior to conversations, or any portion of it, or any step along the way with cp?
74 No.
75 Thank you.
76 Yeah, thank.
77 You, councilor Canal. And if you could go very quickly, councilor Dunphy. Absolutely, very quickly. Director warren, prior to COVID, prior to March 2020, how many telework agreements did we have in place with employees?
78 That is a hard question to answer because prior to 2020, we didn't have them electronically. And they were it was managed differently through individual bureaus. After the pandemic, when we did the reentry process, we updated our system to be able to account for it, which made it much easier for us to pull data associated with that. So I don't have a good I don't have a good answer to that.
79 Thank you. Councilor Dunphy. And I want to thank you, director warren, for coming. Thank the mayor for coming and giving remarks. And if you could stay here until the end, just in case we need to ask you a question. That would be great.
80 Absolutely happy.
81 To stay.
82 Bring up the deep, folks. Could you all come up to the dais, please? We have 15 minutes. And, megan, I will yield my time at the end to reflect the time that we went over ten minutes. Okay. Good morning.
83 Good morning. Good morning. Afternoon.
84 Good afternoon. Now who's going to go first?
85 I am, but I need to know how to share my our presentation.
86 Tech technically challenged. So do we have some tech folks that can help her out? So technologically challenged as. Thank you, chair Dunphy. I don't need to give myself any more. Marginalization than I already have.
87 I am. There we go.
88 Thank you so much. Hello. My name is debbie castleton. I go by she her pronouns. I work for environmental services for the past 25 years plus. I am one of the founders of deep, which is the diverse and empowered employees of Portland. And we're an umbrella organization that it's a volunteer group of employees that oversee the 13 employee resource groups. And we exist to create an a safe space for employees for connection, support and shared identity across diverse affinities. We play a key role in making sure the employee resource groups are recognized and supported by the city. Allows us to meet during work hours, access resources, and engage with leadership on important issues such as this. Our mission is to foster an inclusive and respectful work environment, provide leadership opportunities, and support the growth and retention of diverse employees. We were founded in 2007 and we continue to build community and advocate for a more equitable city workplace. Let's see. I'm going to go to our next slide. Like I said, we have 13 employee resource groups. They're all voluntary. All city employees are invited to join the groups. This is an employee driven group of employees. We're organized around particular shared interests or dimensions. We envision that the city employees will or the ergs will be organized around the protected classes set forth in the nondiscrimination law, such as race, disability, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. However, we have considered approving employee resource groups that are organized around other historical barriers to create a more equitable and inclusive work environment. We have approximately over 2000 employees that are members of the employee resource groups. And so you can kind of see on the screen that those are some of the 13 groups and how many members are in each group. And I'll hand it over to courtney.
89 Hi. Thank you. Chair Smith and councilors. My name is courtney duke. I use she her pronouns. I'm a 28 year city employee. I'm currently working at the bureau of transportation and emergency management. I've been a deep leader and a pdx parent leader since 2008. And thank you for the time for this conversation. So the pdx city parents, along with deep, sent a letter to all of you, as well as a bunch of information. It was a sort of a grassroots effort by members of the pdx city parents team, people outside the leadership team. So I really appreciate the work that they did on that on their own initiative. I, as pdx city parents leader, I signed the letter and I'm here to represent them as well as the other folks from deep. So some of the I'm going to share some concerns regarding the return to the office. As well as some requests. So some of the concerns that we have is that the new requirement for managers and supervisors to work full time in person does not consider the benefits of hybrid work for employees in the city, and also does not consider the negative impacts that this could have, especially towards working parents. We have heard from a number of people already that they're interested in possibly getting demotions because of this, or not choosing to take promotions, and there that could lead to the conversation we had earlier about being an employer of choice and wanting more folks to work here. We've already had people have already been making these decisions and thinking about this before this has even been put into place. The policy fails to acknowledge the changing social norms around remote work, especially for caregivers. One thing I wanted to mention with the remote work with using teams, zoom and hybrid has increased our participation in pdx city parents three fold and I would say exponentially for deep. We're able to reach many more people because of the hybrid work, because of the technology that we know we're not going to get rid of. As we just discussed, I really appreciated councilor Just bringing that up as well. We're all going to be in these type of meetings, but it has definitely increased our participation, which we're very grateful for and has increased the way that we reach our folks and some of our. Things that we focus on, including our neurodivergent group, our foster and adoption group, and working collaboratively across those groups. There's negative personal impacts, including decreased, increased commuting costs. We just discussed commuting time management struggles and the challenges of balancing work and caregiving responsibilities and caregiving not just for our children, but also for our elders. Many of us are in the sandwich generation and are looking at caregiving for both sides. Hybrid work was already here at the city of Portland. It was a common practice before the pandemic, and it's aligned with the city's goals of being a model employer, which is resolution 37235 and as mentioned earlier, is a part of our climate and transit goals to reduce our vehicle miles traveled. I'm also a transportation planner in my regular life, so that is important to me as well. So some requests that we have, although we know that you're part of a committee and not sure what you can do for these requests, but here they are. Rescind the full time in-person work requirement for managers and supervisors. Form a committee that includes parents and caregivers to develop a more flexible hybrid work policies, explore options to enhance hybrid work practices while maintaining collaboration, innovation and excellence. Which city employees have been doing for the 28 years I've worked here and will continue to do so. Define clear expectations for employees who request or require hybrid schedules. I noticed that two of the councilors brought that up in terms of expectations. With management expectations related to your supervision and to your work. If there's an issue with your work, that should be something between you and your manager, not necessarily a blanket discussion. Increased child support by improving access to affordable childcare near city work sites. As many of you may know or may not know, there used to be a city. City kids childcare center in the Portland building. Decisions were made by the last council and the last mayor to not include child care in the Portland building. Child care is very expensive downtown, and there's less child care and less aftercare activities available after COVID because of hybrid and because of funding, and because of a wide variety of issues, we have definitely had people have to change their childcare situation, and many people who cannot afford child care downtown, even on a city of Portland salary, offer incentives and benefits to support caregivers, including reduced schedules, and provide a longer adjustment period for any future changes in work requirements. I wanted to just say briefly off my notes that someone here was discussing the next generation of employees. I have seen again that some of that next generation making decisions to not work for the city. These are some people that I helped hire, that I've helped mentor, and that I would like to have be here once I am no longer at the city. And I've already heard from folks that that may not be possible. I'll end it at that. Thank you for your time. And I don't know who's next.
90 Thank you so much.
91 Thank you.
92 Hello. Thank you everybody. You can hear me? Yes. I'm anna brophy. She her pronouns. I'm a diverse empowerment leader. I lead the deep apa group, which is advocacy, policy and accountability. I also partner with leah on the growth group, where we're trying to grow employees. And I'm a leader of women's empowerment. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Honorable council and communities. I'm going to briefly highlight the key points of the letter we sent to council, addressing the return to the office requirement on February 28th. This letter is a compilation of feedback about the mandate to return to office for supervisors and managers. The letter is signed in support by almost 200 folks and partners, and it is backed by the three Portland unions. Protect 17 asked me and cpi-w. So now I'm going to go over the letter, which focuses on hybrid work benefits. It covers five areas, so hybrid work improves employee satisfaction and wellbeing by reducing stress and giving the employee the flexibility to balance work and family while earnestly contributing to their work. This makes the city of Portland an employer of choice. It helps us to recruit and retain employees. It also allows employees to handle unsafe situations like microaggressions, aggressions they may experience at work or traveling to work to manage disabilities. And for new parents, it gives them the opportunity to bond with their babies while being productive and feeling supported. Hybrid work provides cost savings to the city by limiting additional costs for modifications to existing work stations, specifically in the Portland building, and if you need to do additional tenant improvements, which may include leasing buildings and parking areas. That's another cause we I actually reached out to people. Facilities and got a breakdown of different moves. And we came up with $22 million to bring back 350 employees back to the building. So this is other savings that the city could do is by going and managing capital projects remotely. Pbot environmental services and water bureau is already doing this. Or by implementing consistent city practices in areas such as procurement and budgeting. So with the reduced rent and lower turnover, the city could save $11,000 for every employee working on a hybrid schedule. Hybrid work provides cost savings to employees by not adding additional childcare and transportation costs. Flexibility allows employers to arrange, drop off and pick up of their children, as well as manage medical appointments and other commitments. This could reduce costs for infant care or need an extra car or child care for a child. Car seat, plus the gas and the parking, and we calculate that could save an employee $5,543 per month. And like courtney said, we don't have a child care center because when they rebuild the building, even though women's empowerment pdx parents went to the mayor, they said no. So this is where we are now. So the additional cost of this economy, you know, all this cost is a reduction in pay for the employees. This is money that they can save and invest in their families and in their local communities and in their wellbeing. Hybrid work helps the city of Portland meet climate resiliency in the transportation system plan. The city of Portland made a commitment to Portland communities to restore a safe climate and get to net zero carbon by 2050. It is all documented. You all can go research it. It's in the 2022 climate emergency plan. Hybrid works helps the city to meet title six goals, which ensures equal access and participation of our communities and to build climate resiliency by reducing greenhouse emissions, reducing costs from less wear and tear on the road and the infrastructure from driving endless pollutants, from cars entering our stormwater systems and waterways. All these costs, we pass it to our communities, right? I was in environmental services for 32 years. I'm in parks now, so I know how all that works. Hybrid work helps with succession planning and diverse leadership. With the current mandate to return to office. Employees are at a crossroad. Choose family or choose career. For some, they will take a demotion and not accept the promotion to continue to fulfill their care responsibilities. Others will continue to balance short term absences from work to do caregiving, which can be misconstrued as being less productive and influence future promotions. And historically, this impacts women more. Succession planning depends on leaders staying with the city of Portland and implementation of the mandatory return to office with a flexibility and consideration for the economic impacts to employee signals that it is acceptable to city leadership. To all of you here sitting in this room to have fewer women in the workforce. And in turn, less diversity, which impacts innovation, the ability to solve complex problems and bottom line. Thank you so much.
93 Thank you so much. I we're trying to get back on schedule. I appreciate you for bringing this matter to our attention and asking for this forum. When the mayor initially released his return to work policy, there was a lot of mixed emotions around city hall due to the benefits of hybrid work. And when I read deep's letter to the mayor, I saw a consistent theme of flexibility enhances productivity. I realized that this policy change may not be ideal to some, but my intent here today was to provide a public hearing and a venue for everyone to have their voices and their concerns addressed. I look forward to the hearing later on in the in the meeting of the hearing, in the public hearing that's on agenda two. And so if you have one quick question, councilors, I see councilor Kanal.
94 Sorry.
95 I we aren't quite done with our presentation. I know this, that we probably don't have enough time for this. And the thing is, this is teeing up the preparation of the testimonies that are going to be shared in the in the upcoming portion of the.
96 We had you for 15 minutes and we have we have gone over the 15 minutes.
97 Okay. I started my timer at the beginning and I had.
98 At 1248 is when we started. That's what I wrote down, 1248 and it's at 103. And so that's why I'm going to give councilor Canal an opportunity. I really want to hear what you have to say. Could you email that to me? Because I want to make sure.
99 Sure. So we have a lot of people here ready to give their.
100 But we have testimony for not that we're going to take from nine people after you. We're going to take nine folks and to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to speak. We're going to take our minutes from 3 minutes to 2 minutes.
101 So. This is a really this is a really important thing that we're here to talk about today. We're leaders for deep. We're here to represent the voices of 1200 city staff. Okay.
102 And we have heard you. And what I'm saying to you is that we hear you. We heard the comments on what you wanted us to do, and I really want to. I don't want to want to have this go on back and forth, because we're wasting the time that people could give their testimony. But please understand that we have a time constraint. And I allowed everyone to have longer than, than they've, than they were assigned for. And I think I need to ask councilor Kanal, could you please quickly ask your question?
103 It's not a question. So I can wait until after the testimony if that's helpful. And take a minute then.
104 Okay.
105 Megan. Could we. How many folks do we have signed up?
106 For? Item oh seven? We have nine folks signed up.
107 Okay.
108 So we have nine folks. If we have some time later, I'll try to bring you back, but I appreciate the comments that you've had. Thank you so much.
109 So the nine people that are going to be here talking, this is based on the outcomes that you need to prepare for. This is on the slide right now. I, I my I'm on spring break. I'm supposed to be at home with my kids. I came here today to talk about this, to tee up this conversation. If there's not enough time, I want you to understand that everything about the, the concerns that that will be talked about by the testimony, nothing has been addressed. We are not ready. The city is not ready for this in-person mandate. It is not ready. We will destabilize the city. And I'm talking from I'm talking about this from from like severe concern. Okay. If I came to the to on my day off to try to talk about this.
110 And you already gave your testimony, you were the first one to give your testimony.
111 I haven't spoken at all.
112 Ma'am.
113 I'm sorry. I haven't spoken at all. You said I already gave my testimony, but.
114 I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought you gave your testimony.
115 I want to hear you.
116 I understand, I understand what it's like to have a kid and you're in spring break. I want to make sure that you heard. Go ahead and finish your start. Start it.
117 It's just a.
118 Three minutes. I just want to try to say something very important here. And I'm not trying to be dramatic, I.
119 Okay, okay. I think you're being dramatic.
120 I think you're being very concerned. You want to make sure your voice is heard. So let's hear your voice.
121 You're good.
122 Can you go to the previous slide, please? Sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Just. Director warren shared a timeline. We want to make it clear that there's been telework options at the city since 2002. We know that there's been a shift. Global shift in telework preferences for computer based work. Now, there was a survey that was done in 2022 by the city leadership. 30% of hybrid staff said in that survey that if they work more than one day per week, they would look at options outside of the city and more than two days per week that they would. Another 30% of staff said that they would be looking outside of work, outside of the city for work. That's 60% of staff who are going to look outside of the city. Once you reach five days per week. We have 10.4% of staff left, 10%. I myself did a job application, took me ten hours on Monday for the city of hillsborough, where I live, to be closer to home, to be able to work a hybrid work so I can be closer to home and closer to my kids. We also had in 2023, city council directed the establishment of an individual exceptions process. These are not not needed anymore. These are needed. We have people with disabilities, people in special circumstances. These are still needed. It only lasted for one year. What are people with disabilities going to do? What are people in caregiving situations going to do? What are people who are caregiving for, for people with, with, in their in their families in situations going to do without an individual exceptions process a one size fits all never works. And the in the mayor is trying to say that that's going to work for all supervisors and managers. I have one direct report. What does that make sense? To come to work five days a week for one direct report? How does that make sense? Here's what hasn't been addressed. City policy allows for telework. What does this mandate say? That we're not going to allow for telework. This is this is not allowing for city policy that already exists to be to be something that people have access to. We have a noncompliance issue. Ada process improvements. You know, what's bhr director said she said that she she said that things were clear that ADA process is allowed. You know, her first email was about the about the return to office mandate only previously approved ADA exceptions and ADA exceptions due to new circumstances will be granted. That's illegal and that is not the answer that we need for. Do you need exceptions? Do you need help? Do you need help to make this in-person mandate work for you? We will lose people who are struggling to work. We will lose people. There are improvements in process. City disability network who I'm a leader for and sorry. My name is leah espinoza, leader for city disability network. There are people who are trying to make the ADA accommodations process work for them. There are some improvements in process. We need time to make that happen. Okay. We need time if we don't have time for that, the outcomes are risk of lawsuits, including class action ones, because we will gather all the people who are not getting their needs needs met in a group. Next workplace survey results, survey results. How many could we lose? Up to 80% of our of our managers and supervisors. Then we have individual exceptions. Process that we have nothing in place for city core values. Do we just not care about them at all? We're losing diverse staff. We've already lost diverse staff and we have no alignment. This this process and mandate has no alignment model and model. Employer. Are we doing anything to attract people? Are we doing anything to retain people? These things are completely not in connection with that. There's city budget constraints. We have a complete budget crisis on our hands. Okay. Public servants are under immense pressure. The federal, local and personal levels. We are trying to be committed public servants. We are operating the city with incredible expertise, and we are keeping hundreds of thousands of portlanders off the streets. So instead of increasing barriers to our jobs, how about you let us do our jobs with autonomy? How about you trust us? We are the ones keeping the city running. We are the ones who need to be able to lead by example. To show what reasonable and sustainable work life balance looks like. We are the ones who are going to be showing what a new generation of career public servants looks, what what work looks like. And that example is not coming from keith wilson. He doesn't even know what work looks like. He doesn't know what we're doing. He's not trying to understand us and what our needs are. The climate and transportation considerations, unknown amounts of environmental harm. And we are the largest landowner in the city. The land stewardship and the and the and the disrespect to the native peoples who lived before us, the disrespect to the land and the environment and the transportation and climate that we're giving through unnecessary mandates is unreasonable. We don't need you to rush this. You have the opportunity as a new city council. You have the opportunity to just say, we need time to develop a policy that makes sense. You can say we want hybrid work to be a way that we work the city. We want hybrid work to be the way that Portland leads the nation. We want hybrid work to be the way that our employees do their work right. And at the very least, put together an exceptions process for the people who need it most. Do not let the people who are marginalized and suffering to suffer more and to leave. We need them so badly. And these are the people who you're going to hear from. And it's only nine people, and you have so many more people who want to talk to you, and we need to hear from them. So we need to have a committee set up or some another committee. Oh my god, we need to have like time to talk more about this. Like, not today. We need like lots of months for this. We like slow action. This is the this is the thing we need. We need to slow things down. We need to not freak out and do things in such a timeline that we can't sustain. Okay, we're going to if we if we if we don't do anything, we will destabilize the city. We can't do that. So we need to slow things down, pause, think about what we're going to do with policy.
123 And I hear you, miss espinosa. You have had about eight minutes. Thank you. So thank you very much. I appreciate you, and I appreciate you bringing your concerns forward. And we will follow back up with you and director warren. I wanted to make sure that we address we did address the ADA issues that are up on your your slide, but there was a concern that miss leah was talking about in terms of the ADA and, and folks with disabilities, that they were not being addressed. So I would really like you to, to address that because that really stuck out to me. And then we'll go to public testimony.
124 Happy to.
125 Happy to address the conversation. I think there's a confusion on what my email was trying to distinguish the difference between, which is that we weren't going to be engaging in a new exceptions process where folks had an opportunity to say, I have an individual circumstance that fits outside of the legal requirements for ADA family medical leave, right? I have daycare challenges. I have challenges with commute. I have challenges with the expense that it's going to cost me. That was something that we engaged in in the first process for reentry, and we made the decision not to reengage in that. And so what I was trying to distinguish the difference between is that we weren't going to have that process again, but we would have an ADA process for any new requests that are needed.
126 Okay. And so what about the workers with disabilities? There was a statement that was made that they were not being they didn't have a comprehensive plan to bring them into hybrid work. So could you kind of address that.
127 So I'm a. Little confused by that question. I mean, I think that the team has worked diligently and by the team, the human resources team is responsible for managing reasonable accommodation requests. They've worked really hard to make sure that they're able to meet the needs of folks and ensure that they have what they need to be successful at doing their job by providing additional equipment when needed, making accommodations for them to work fully remote, or maybe part of the time from home based on whatever the need is. You know, we do have folks that have a varying degree of needs, and so it's not one size fits all. It's a process with every single individual to try to figure out what will work best for the for the workplace or being outside of the workplace.
128 Thank you. I want to make sure that the folks who have who need ADA accommodations and folks who who are workers with disabilities, that they're able to have a conversation with you. And to go further, those folks who need further accommodations because listening to the testimony, it appears that they don't feel that they have any way to contact you to talk about this further.
129 Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm happy to answer any questions or meet with anybody who would like to meet with me. I can also work with my team to send something out to reaffirm the process, show where the forms are. Happy to do all of the above.
130 Excellent. I appreciate it and I appreciate you coming back up. We need to go to agenda item. Thank you, director warren, we need to go to agenda item number two. And we are going to cut this down from 3 minutes to 2 minutes so that we can make sure that we hear from everyone.
131 Item two city's return to office in hybrid work policy public hearing. First up we have eli bonilla, grace sabina and stacy brewster.
132 Thank you to charlie neil. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
133 Members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is eli bonilla and I work as a communication strategist here at the city. As you all consider this policy. I'm here to urge you to reflect on the negative impacts this would have, especially for those of us with disabilities, and to implore you not to move this forward. Rather, I hope that staff continues to have the hybrid option that has served the city well for quite some time now. You see, in my role, I create and implement communication plans that help Portland meet its climate goals and develop strategic initiatives that help my team identify and connect with diverse audiences. This work employs over two decades of expertise to ensure that portlanders, the media, and you are all informed and included in this critical work. I also happen to have a disability and one of the people with an ADA accommodation to do this work remotely. My location doesn't negatively impact my performance or my collaboration. If anything, I'm able to get more done in less time and have more opportunities to directly engage with the communities we serve. I'm also more satisfied in my work, a better employee, and an overall happier human. Hybrid work is not only critical for some of us, it benefits all of us. It allows people with different communication styles to work through challenging situations together, make space for intentional inclusion, and helps folks from diverse backgrounds, approaches, and cultures work and find common ground. Help staff connect more effectively with one another and the greater community. Requiring folks without accommodations to return to office not only limits those benefits, it also risks significant bias against people with disabilities. It will separate those with accommodations from those without. Mayor wilson already imposed this mandate for managers. That creates a divide if other non-disabled staff are required to be in office, that's only going to exacerbate that. In the first meeting of this committee, you noted that the goal is to strengthen our workforce and support equitable job opportunities, and ensure that every portlander has the chance to not only survive, but to thrive in that city. I love that I am confident in that, and I'm confident that the hybrid work format does just that. Also really quick. I had trouble getting into this meeting or into the meeting before this because of my service dog. If people do not have accommodations, how are we supposed to get into these places? Thank you.
134 Thank you.
135 Miss.
136 Okay, before you.
137 Begin the clock, I have one sentence.
138 Introduce yourself please.
139 My name is grace sabina. I just have one sentence. And then I would ask you to start the clock. Respectfully. Councilor. You allowed others to go over and through no fault of my own, you're shortening my time and silencing my voice. Please allow me three minutes.
140 We have two minutes, ma'am.
141 As a person with disabilities, I urge the city to repeal the return to office mandate. Because of my hybrid schedule, I'm thriving at work. This mandate will have devastating consequences for me and others. Though I'm here to share my own story. Make no mistake that there are countless others too scared to come forward who also oppose this mandate. I'm here to do my part and make sure at least one voice is heard. I have multiple lifelong invisible disabilities that negatively impact my experience in the workplace. The city provided me temporary ADA accommodations for my permanent disabilities disabilities that put me at a permanent disadvantage, disabilities that require me to fight for what I need every day, disabilities that I didn't ask for. Like most people, I need to work to support myself. I feel proud when I'm a contributing member of society. I'm pleased with my success at the city, and in fact, I was recently promoted. Since this testimonial is public record to protect myself, I will only share about one of my disabilities, the only one I feel safe disclosing. The reality is in 2025, there is widespread stigma against disabilities, and that stigma causes real harm to the individuals like me and many others who live with them. So light sensitivity is a disability. Under the Americans with disabilities act, signed into law in 1990, I've been dealing with it for years. It shows up most days in the office. The brightness from the lights caused me eye pain and brain fog. Sometimes as early as 9 a.m. Requires me to wear these light filtering glasses, take additional breaks and medication in my home office. I control the lighting. I don't have this issue. My productivity skyrockets when I'm not managing these problems. While I can manage this on a hybrid schedule, office full time is more than I'm capable of dealing with. As a high performing, recently promoted employee, I ask you this why doesn't the mayor and the city.
142 Move on?
143 Want me.
144 To.
145 Produce quality work for the community? I'm proud to serve on my hybrid schedule. Thank you.
146 Thank you so much, sir.
147 Good afternoon, chair Smith and councilors, my name is stacy brewster. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you about return of office mandates and hybrid work. I'm not a manager, but I fear this mandate is a precursor to undermining all city workers with hybrid or remote schedules, including people like me with disabilities. In my experience, these fears are valid. I'm in the city of Portland professional workers union, or cp, and can share. The city bargaining team is resisting any attempt to make hybrid work standard in our contract. This moves us backward as a city. It is ableist and wrong. I worked here 16 years, ten at city hall, here in person, doing public facing constituent and policy work, then six and a half years at the Portland bureau of transportation, where I currently work fully remotely on their communications team. While working here, I developed chronic neuropathy in my arms. Despite corrective surgery, I still sometimes require the use of assistive technology to control my computer by voice. Because this software works poorly in loud, open office floor plans like we have in the Portland building, or when I'm wearing a mask. I have an ADA exemption to work from home. To get here, I've had to be a tireless advocate for myself for nine years. As someone with an invisible disability. My experience is not dissimilar to colleagues of mine in the city disability network. People with chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, anxiety, light or noise sensitivity, or neurodivergence conditions requiring basic accommodations and flexibility. In my case, I've had to convince managers fight with city risk and human resources, move cubicles, submit myself to an insurance doctor for a painful nerve conduction study, and provide documented medical proof of my not only my neuropathy, but other unrelated conditions just to fully claim my exemption. It should never have to be this hard. The extraordinary lack of trust in our city workers when it comes to disability or child care, as others have testified, is shameful by every metric. I'm a valuable member of my team, not in spite of, but because I work remotely. I get more projects done, do more quickly. You've heard of this all I will just say, because tracy warren didn't mention it, that we all go under success factors, this quarterly performance review process. So our our work, our performance, our tasks, our deadlines, these are all tracked by our by managers. This is not an unknown. Thank you. Yeah. So I.
148 Appreciate it. Thank you. Deirdre could you bring up the next group.
149 I was the only one who got cut off. Okay.
150 Next up we have michael szporluk, janet tucker, and anna shook.
151 Michael, can you start?
152 Yes, ma'am. So, chair Smith, councilors. My name is michael szporluk. I should be clear, I am not a city employee. Back in 2016, I so I.
153 Run my own small sole proprietor llc. Back in 2016, bhr hired me to conduct a review of city policy and in relation to the model employer resolution. Back in 2012, the city passed a resolution stating that it would be a model employer of people with disabilities. In 2016, I was hired to review a survey that had been conducted and to make my own recommendations on what the city would need to do to move that forward. The. I developed a strategic plan that was adopted unanimously by city council, including, of course, councilor Novick, who was a council member at that time. The arto is a real step backwards, even as director warren mentioned, the reasonable accommodation request process needs to be done on a case by case basis. So sort of overarching one size fits all rule is a contradiction to what our own what your own because it was adopted and unanimously what your own strategic plan on model employers states. Mayor wilson's comments earlier seemed to be premised on five major assumptions that I didn't hear any evidence in support of them. One was an assumption about it would address the budget shortfalls. Another was that it would increase collaboration. It would make the city more efficient and more productive. It would better nurture new leadership, and it would encourage more learning. But none of those seem to be actually based. In fact, they're just wild assumptions.
154 Thank you. Michael, you've reached your time.
155 Thank you. Can I finish my sentence? No.
156 Next.
157 You're cutting off my mic. Thank you.
158 Go ahead, ma'am. Thank you.
159 Thank you. I'm janet tucker. I'm a 24 year city employee. And I just want to make it clear I'm here on my own time. There's been concern when mayor wilson brought up the return to office in December, the response from represented employees was swift and loud and publicized in the press. But managers and supervisors are not vocalize their opinions about return to office out of concern for retaliation. And their concerns around retaliation are justified. I've experienced it as someone who complained all the way to city council about the sexist and racist hiring practices that were happening in my bureau. Things only changed after commissioner Amanda fritz took action. Please help us today. Speaking of disabilities, I submitted a medical accommodation request years ago for my disability and you wouldn't believe the laughable response I got from hr. It was not accommodating. As you heard from others. This return to office creates a barrier to career growth for people with disabilities. It discriminates against people with disabilities. This is also a pay cut, especially given that in the last few years, wages have not kept up with inflation and you want to add commuting costs, an additional cost for parents having to pay for extra daycare. I work in environmental services in the engineering group. The engineering staff at other regional utilities very close to us, including their managers and supervisors, work remotely unless needed on a job site. They're told when they're hired that there are no desks for them. How are we supposed to compete for job applicants against these other utilities? This one size fits all mandate covers removes a cost effective way of supporting employees who are working hard to solve and present prevent problems for the people of Portland. Equity and fiscal responsibility are still city of Portland core values. Clearly, there is no interest in equity here, but let's be fiscally responsible if we want to beneficially if we want to beneficially diverse group of managers, that means having a hybrid work available through all of our throughout our careers at the city. Let's not regress to an outdated model of working in the office full time. Let's innovate. Thank you.
160 Thank you ma'am. Go ahead. Ma'am.
161 My name is anna shook. I am a co-leader of the city disability network. I am hard of hearing. I have worked for the city for about 18 years. I was hired for the sap project in 2007, and I moved to the housing bureau in 2009. I'm currently the bureau's contract administrator. I was one of the first employees to be provided a laptop and vpn access when we were sent home in March 2020. Due to my job responsibilities at the time, nothing worked and very few employees even had laptops at all. During the pandemic, the federal government inundated us with emergency funding. The housing bureau was responsible for spending tens of millions. I had to execute more than 40 contracts to get the money to portlanders in crisis. I was one of the key staff responsible for our household assistance program, which provided 30,000 residents of Portland with $500 debit cards for disaster relief. I did all this work while caring for my sick husband, who passed away in 2024. The rhetoric from our leaders around return to the office decisions is insulting to all office workers who were sent home through no fault of their own. Leaders regularly compare us negatively to people who do other sorts of work, such as firefighters or utility workers, or park personnel who do not work from home due to the nature of their jobs. When we were sent home, working from home was not a privilege or a choice. We helped thousands of fellow portlanders in a time of deep crisis. Now we are told that every single employee town hall that we do not show up. Unlike field employees. I love the city and I am proud to work for it. This is the first time in my 18 years as a city employee that I have been disrespected by elected leaders. I implore you to understand what you are doing to morale. Every workday, at every location I show up. Thank you.
162 Thank you, mr. Shuck. Can we bring up the next three?
163 Next.
164 Next we have is miranda. Would kristen anderson and anna dibenedetto. They'll be joining us online.
165 Could you start?
166 My name is miranda wood. I am a city of Portland employee. But speaking today in a personal capacity, I ask the council, city administrator and mayor to reconsider the full time office requirement for managers and supervisors. Hybrid work is critically beneficial for city jobs that do not require significant collaboration for our system. Modelers, gis and data analysts, engineers and managers of fully remote staff every day is a heads down workday. Is the quiet and interruption free environments conducive to independent, focused work that increases productivity and better outcomes for the city services they support. Telework also provides more work opportunities for people with disabilities, and supports the city's equity goals. In the face of overwhelming political pressure to abandon these principles, we wring our hands at all of the statistics about underrepresentation and unequal pay for equal work. But when these types of blanket policies are implemented, I ask you, who has more barriers to consider in meeting these conditions, and who are you actively encouraging to hire and promote at the city? For my last point, I would like to refer to the city town halls, where it's been repeatedly cited that 60% of our workforce has been in person for the last five years. Most of our frontline workforce operate out of several facilities across Portland that are not located in the downtown core. I would encourage the council, city administrator, and mayor to visit these locations to understand that they are dealing with overcrowded occupancy conditions, and the bulk of aging facilities are past their useful life. The detailed and data informed letter from deep and the ergs estimates costs of almost $4 million to bring back managers and 19 million to expand unneeded executive office space that was given up to reduce cost to taxpayers, thoughtfully allocating that money to frontline workers would directly benefit and provide safer working facilities and better service delivery for Portland community. Thank you. Miss listening.
167 I appreciate it.
168 Kristen.
169 Chair Smith and.
170 Councilors, I'm.
171 Kristen anderson, an employee of the city.
172 In the.
173 Water bureau.
174 I have previously been.
175 Involved in advocacy work.
176 For.
177 Caregiving employees in the pandemic.
178 And submitted written testimony that.
179 Speaks to that.
180 What I want to speak to here, however, is.
181 More.
182 A. Message from the heart. I have come to see that I really must love myself to be a full presence in the world, in the way I want to be.
183 And if my.
184 Head disdains my body, or if my head refuses to listen to my heart, I can't fully be all that I want to be. And I think the same is true for an organization with love here translating to every person's humanity being acknowledged in its fullness and its messiness. And we're messy, right? But we are beautiful and amazing, and we can do great things together, especially when we choose to see each other fully. An organization can see its employees as the machine that delivers the mission. And that's true. And there's another possibility local government is uniquely positioned to be potent in this, to bring this into being. Its mission is in service to the community. Its employees are also themselves community members, making them a direct pathway of the delivery of a vision into a community via policies and work culture. This affects employees, families, neighbors and ripples outwards. I want to share with you what I see in my colleagues, which is a profound and unflagging commitment to service and deep values of community. We have in the city of Portland a vision of compassion and community. And I would describe a core of compassion as trusting and honoring the truth of another's experience. I became involved in advocacy not because I'm a fighter. I'm terrible at fighting, but because I felt this pull toward a possibility and one that is called for in this moment, a possibility of letting some things fall away, maybe a few parts of the machinery, some of the controls to allow for something bigger that finds coherence in diversity. And the key to this possibility is trusting and honoring the truth of your employees experience those same employees who care as deeply about the community as you do. Thank you.
185 Thank you kristen. We have someone online. Thank you.
186 Hi, my name is anna dibenedetto. I am a 21 year city employee and a working parent of two elementary school aged kids. My husband has a fully in-person job and his schedule does not allow him to help with school drop off or pickup at all, except for one day a week before and after school programs were not available enough even before the pandemic, to cover to cover all of the families that attend the school. But now it's even worse. Before the pandemic, I had a fully in-person job with the city, and the way my family made it work was to get to get the kids to and from school and taken care of in the morning was to have a roommate or a nanny. We were creative. Their rent was childcare. That was a very difficult arrangement during the pandemic and it ended in a lawsuit. My kids are older now and cannot share a room, so we don't even have the space to do it if we wanted. I never want to have a roommate again, and working from home has allowed me to get my kids to and from school in the morning and pick them up from school in the afternoon. We walked to school and the school bus is not possible for us because we live so close, so in person. Drop off and pickup is our only option. I need to be there. I need to be available to do the pickup and drop off. If I had to return fully in person work, I would need to change my schedule to start later, and then I would need to compete for limited after school programs to keep my kids longer, which is a financial burden. But more than that, there literally aren't enough spots for all the kids that would need it. If all of the remote workers went back to school fully in person after the pandemic, I had signed my kids up for the program called art for life at my school, which is the after school program. Right before school was about to start, we got an email saying that there weren't enough spots for all the families and somebody had to drop out. I volunteered because my job had flexibility, and we'll skip a lot of my testimony and just say, you can't unring the bell. We all know that remote work is working. I am a great employee. I've been here 21 years. I get good reviews and success factors. I was also recently promoted. Please don't force everybody to go back to in-person full time.
187 Thank you, miss anna. We're I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to come here and to give your voice to this platform. This committee thought it was important to make sure that we did hear your voice publicly and that we heard from the public. I'm going to take one question from councilor Kanal, and we have a time certain that we have to do next for the agenda. Three.
188 Thank you, everyone for being here. Thank you, madam chair. My question is actually for you, if we're going to have time to discuss this, because I think one of the challenges I have is we are the place that people come with things because we hold public meetings and the mayor and administrator, that's not their role. And so when we have a strong opposition to a policy, as I do, as the only member of the city council who has experienced these changes that we all went through on here, I'm unclear on where we're supposed to express that. So is there a possible time that we will have for this in the future? And if I understand, you probably haven't set the agenda yet, but I'd like to request this. And I understand that our next meeting is going to be after this policy takes effect. And that's not the only thing we're doing. And I want to say that, but I do think this is an important thing to discuss, because I have immense reservations about this, as I did for the previously announced and then walked back policy for represented employees not below the managerial.
189 Level and councilor Kanal. I'm looking at my schedule. I looked earlier just to see if we needed to go overtime, if the committee, if we have a at least three folks willing to stay until 230 to hear other folks who haven't spoken, we can actually do that. If you have the time.
190 I do.
191 And this is for the clerk. Do we do we have another use for this space after this committee meeting?
192 I don't believe so. I think if you need extra time, then you can do that.
193 Okay. Let's do this first. Let's do our our 245 our 145 now and then we'll go back to folks who have not spoken, give them an opportunity to speak so that we can hear every everybody's voice.
194 Thank you, madam chair.
195 Thank you. And so can we go to agenda item three.
196 Agenda item three reinstatement of fair wage policy code chapter for certain city service contracts.
197 And as that group is coming up, for those of you who have not had a chance to speak, if you could stay, this is a 15 minute agenda item and we will hear your voices between 2 and 230.
198 Not really low.
199 Good afternoon, councilor Dunphy.
200 Thank you, madam chair. Colleagues, I'm here today to present the fair wages ordinance to reinstate important worker protections that were removed from code in the 605 page code update on November 20th of 2024, which was ordinance 191973. I want to thank my co-sponsors, councilors Green and Novick, on this item. The fair wage policy allows annual allows annual cost of living increases for outside contractors in janitorial, security and parking attendants. It's important that this cost of living increase remains codified, so that this is not the first thing on the chopping block. In lean budget years, we cannot balance the budget on the backs of our lower paid city employees, who keep our parks and public buildings running. In doing our due diligence as an office, we met with all of the impacted work areas and across the board. Those teams had not changed procurement practices since the former code was removed, and most departments didn't even know about the change. So reinstating and strengthening this policy should have minimal budget impacts. This year, we're on a tight timeline being heard first, being head first into the budget season and wanting to make sure that this policy is effective before July 1st. So I'm asking for your support to advance this to the full council on the April 16th meeting. The ordinance, as written, has passed legal review and is in the process of the clerk clearance on the impact statement.
201 Councilor Dunphy so just so that I'm clear, this is this is not a ordinance. This is a presentation. And you're going to bring that back? Yes, on the 16th. Thank you.
202 We're hoping we're hoping to get it to the full council by the 16th. So hoping to have a quick vote on the next meeting in order to advance it.
203 So I'm not clear. Are you bringing an ordinance forward or are you bringing a presentation?
204 Right now? We're doing a presentation because the council clerk had not provided the clearance on the impact statement. So we're doing this as a presentation at this moment, and we'll have it on a future agenda in order to advance it to the full.
205 And if you're going to advance it to the full council, you have to have it read twice in the in the workforce committee.
206 I don't only need to have it read once in council. In committee.
207 Okay.
208 Yeah. To get into some of the specifics, I'm going to pass it over to my joint chief of staff, madeline west, as well as yasmin ibarra, political director for seiu 49. Welcome, friends.
209 Hello. And just to be clear on the guidance we've received from the council clerk is that if folks today state their support on the record in this committee, we will be able to have this on the agenda on April 16th without returning to this committee. That's the guidance we were given.
210 But normally you have to go to two meetings. I first reading and the second reading.
211 In the full council, not at not at the committee level, but I'm seeing a shake of head from the council.
212 Council, could you please advise.
213 So it's my understanding that this item is coming as a presentation with the documents attached for council committee to consider. If the committee indicates support, no action will be taken today, but if they indicate support, then that item can then be turned into a full ordinance that will be routed through the legislative workflow. To get all the reviews and approvals required, that item will need to be referred to this committee by the council president. But then once you all vote to refer that item to full council, it can be placed on the full council agenda now. Yeah. So if.
214 That was not my understanding and this is the first that I've heard of this, but it's fine. I think it's important. I think we need to hear it. But could you could you come up?
215 Is it not in the draft ordinance okay. Yeah.
216 Good afternoon. Council heidi brown from the city attorney's office. I've just been monitoring and I heard this discussion come up. And so I missed the last two minutes as I came down here. So is there something specific or that I can.
217 It's my understanding that you have to have two readings inside of the committee before it's pushed up to the big council, but there's a presentation today, so could you tell me what is the. I think she was telling me that you don't have to, to have two within the committee.
218 Right. So my understanding the process that council adopted when you when you first on your first day was that in order for a ordinance resolution or report to be referred from a committee to the full council, that it would be referred by the council president to the committee? So that's the first step that needs to happen for it to go to the full council. And that's under, I think, 3.02.050, I believe maybe subsection b. And so I think you can have a presentation where you're considering concepts that you might want to then provide through that process of having the council president refer it to the committee, to then be referred up to the full council.
219 Oh, okay.
220 Does that I see councilor Canal do you have concerns?
221 Councilor Kanal yeah. Sorry.
222 I.
223 I'm trying to find the, the.
224 Do you want me to briefly do my presentation while you.
225 Well, why don't we do this? Because we're we're pressed for time. But I just want to make sure I know what we are as the chair, what we are actually doing, whether it's a presentation or the first reading of an ordinance. And since we don't have the first reading of the ordinance, it is not approved yet. I need to figure out if what we do next. Okay, so go ahead, heidi.
226 Yeah. And it's I don't I don't believe that you need two readings in the committee, but you do need it. If you're going to have something referred to council, you need it referred by the council president. So I think I think that you are fine to consider a presentation today. That's my understanding is this is this is being considered today as a presentation with some concepts that you are hoping to then have the council president refer to an ordinance, or maybe you're going to request that it be taken up.
227 I got to sorry.
228 I have to cut in here. It's 3.02.020 section b, 1a1a. Sorry. A proposal for council action will either be presented to the full council or raised in a council committee. Any councilor May present a proposal and may designate a committee for review or indicate no preferred committee. It's only the council. President's role in referring to committee is only when the mayor or auditor proposes it.
229 And so.
230 Today that doesn't that doesn't change the impact of this.
231 Excuse me, councilor, today is not an ordinance request. Today is a presentation, y'all. I'm just trying to tell you okay, so this does not bump you automatically to the city council. If the if the if the council president says so. Okay, okay.
232 Yes.
233 I am agreeing with with you, madam chair, but I'm also pointing out that that the council president does not determine what committee something goes to. That was the entire that was half of the conversation on this code section.
234 And I know you're pressed for time, so I'm happy to talk about that further unless you want to do it now. Councilor Kanal whatever.
235 I want to defer to the chair.
236 Respectful to you.
237 And we have to be respectful for the people who are presenting. I appreciate you jumping in, heidi. I appreciate the legal counsel. We'll straighten all this out afterwards. But today is a presentation for the viewers who are watching this on tv. And could you go forward and start your presentation?
238 Yes. Thank you so much, chair. Thank you, councilor Dunphy and the co signers on this. So just a little bit of background here. Our fair wage policy repeal, as councilor Dunphy stated, happened on November 20th. That policy ensured fair wages for our city contracted janitors, security and parking attendants. This repeal took effect on January 1st, 2025. The. The key impacts of this policy removal were loss of code protected cola increases for workers for workers and city contracts for important sectors, security, janitorial and parking attendant services, weakened labor protections. Our contractor labor protections are a model for the region and potential decline in service quality. Higher worker turnover, loss of experienced staff and poor worker morale. This proposed ordinance that we're doing a presentation on today enables annual wage adjustments based on cola, as determined by cpi for the west region. Prevents race to the bottom contracts, ensures transparency in wage increases and there is also a stop gap for the city administrator or mayor to make requests for specific contract exemptions to council. And that is actually strengthening the policy from what it was before. There's community and economic benefits, protects vulnerable workers, increases economic stability, higher wages, mean strong local businesses and job retention. Improves quality of city services through experience in a well-paid workforce. Aligns with union standards and portland's commitment to fair labor practices. So the next steps I'm going to move by because we don't agree on them. I appreciate your time.
239 Thank you.
240 Good afternoon, chair Smith, members of the committee. My name is yasmeen ibarra. I'm the political director for seiu local 49. Our union represents the essential health care workers and property service workers in Oregon and southwest Washington, including the subcontract, subcontracted janitors and security officers here at the city. We're here to express our support and appreciation of, hopefully, the committee taking action to reinstate this policy. Local 49 has worked for a very long time with the city to strengthen worker protections and strengthen the policies and the standards that we have for janitors and security officers who are subcontracted here. We are consistent in our advocacy at the city to invest in good jobs for all, and that includes the subcontracted workers by providing wages that keep up with cost of living through, but through adequate budget allocations, procurement policies and innovative policies like the fair wage policy that got passed way back when. So for nearly 30 years, this policy, the fair wage policy, has improved the lives of thousands of Portland, or portland's residents by ensuring that the security officers, the janitors, the parking attendants earn wages that keep that are that keep up with the cost of living in the city in return. I think the city taxpayers are benefiting from your investment in good jobs and the form of high quality services that that ensure that the maintenance of public buildings and public spaces are maintained and protected. I also just want to highlight that the city's leadership in this policy has influenced other government employers who to prioritize good jobs in this type of workforce. For example, the city of the port of Portland followed the city's lead back in 2015 and adopted a similar policy for its subcontracted workers. And we know that Multnomah county is also interested in doing the same. And so I think this has a ripple effect, and we know that the city has played a crucial role in, in, in these types of policies. So we're just asking for a reinstatement of this policy to ensure that the city's actions align with the values. As you continue to lead in our region and improving the quality of life of Portland residents. So thank you for your time and your consideration.
241 Thank you, yasmeen, for your comments. Thank you, councilor Dunphy. We're going to straighten out what we need to do going forward. And do we have any question, councilor Green?
242 Thank you, madam chair, because we're not voting on this today. I just will offer my say that I intend to vote for this when I have the option to do so. And I'll say why? In addition to yasmeen's comments, which I fully support, I will say that it is highly problematic that this policy was repealed as part of an ordinance last November that was just being characterized as a inert code cleanup. You do not remove the fair wage policy by deleting a whole section of it. If it's just a code cleanup. And I read that code and I am getting heated, colleagues, because there was no mention of this in the impact statement for that ordinance. It said not applicable. No mention when we looked at the economic and real estate impacts for repealing the fair wage policy. Not applicable. I don't know if that was an intentional move, but I now have deep concerns about the rest of this ordinance. I am now going to go through line by line and see what else was taken out without any discussion. I, I will yield because I am upset.
243 Sorry that you're you're upset, councilor Green. I don't want you to be upset sitting next to me. But I hear you and I understand it was it's unconscionable. And if we have any other folks who are speaking on this or. Yasmeen, do you have something else? Okay. Councilor Kanal.
244 Yeah. I first share.
245 The frustration here. I think this is actually ordinance 191957, not 191973, because that's the one that said repeal and replace title five, but also shares all the things that that councilor Green mentioned here. And I am curious about this. I think that the transition team is still in place and they're the ones who put it forward. So I'd love to ask them. I also think that we need to we need a lot of this is about not just the conversation on this item, but the conversation about what this item even is, is about where power lives within the city, relative between and the last item too, between the administrative side and the council side, and also within the council side. Because we have an interpretation that is clearly not within the line of the code, saying that only one member of council, the president, gets to decide where something goes in committee, which is literally a conversation we had not, not three months ago. So setting that process point aside, this is the same question here is how burying something like this in and this is one of many ordinances that were ostensibly cleaning up code. And it may have been an error. I don't want to assume bad faith here, but the impact has a lot to do with what we're talking about now. So I also have one question that I'll get to just very clarification question, which is effectively, why do we need to even observe under impacts on businesses and institutions that that some, quote, some corporations may push back against the wage requirement, arguing that it increases operating costs. I think they're welcome to do that pushback and argue why it's better to lose the city contract in that scenario. I think that's they're welcome to do that. But I don't know that we need to make the argument for them. And so I just would ask if there's any thoughts there. But I also want to share that, that we should probably have some sort of group of councilors or staff go back through every single one of these ordinances that was done. Because these were these were also, if you watched the meetings and I watched a few of them, there wasn't a lot of time spent on them because the council, the previous council, was told by presenters that these were cleanups. And, and I think there should be trust in the, in the people who are coming and, and bringing that in. And that doesn't mean that they're not going to be innocuous fully, you know, unintentional errors that may happen from time to time. And I don't want to imply anything else, but did just did just want to start by airing that.
246 Councilor we need to go to public testimony.
247 Yeah. I'll just.
248 I'll close by saying we contract with the same employee, same companies that that other large employers and institutions use. I believe the largest employer in my district, private employer, uses the same janitorial service that we do. So when we do this, it has an impact on the private sector as well. And so I also share councilor Green's general sentiment of intending to vote yes. Thanks.
249 Thank you. Thank you all for your presentations. I need to find out. Do we have any public testimony?
250 We do.
251 We have four people signed up.
252 How many?
253 Four people.
254 It's actually.
255 Three people.
256 Four.
257 The fourth person couldn't come.
258 Oh, okay.
259 Thanks.
260 Coming up.
261 Three, three.
262 Thank you so much.
263 We have mark jefferies, maria flores and gloria hernandez. Mark jefferies has requested an accommodation for his testimony and would like one additional minute. And maria and gloria have requested and a translator for their testimonies.
264 Thank you.
265 Mark. Okay.
266 Good afternoon, chair Smith and committee members. My name is mark jefferies and I'm a day porter here at Portland city hall. And I'm a member of service employees international union local 49. I have worked for relay resources since 2002, and as I recall, I've been working for city hall when I was working at city hall, when mayor adams was near the end of his term. I've continued working here through the terms of mayor hales, mayor wheeler, and now mayor wilson. I take pride in the work I do here for the people of Portland, along with my fellow union janitors and security officers. I had the opportunity to testify and express my appreciation. Ten years ago, when the council voted to increase the city's fair wage policy to $15 an hour, thanks to the city's decision to raise the wage. My wife and I were able to save money for our retirement. My wife was able to retire, but we are now on a fixed income. The way things are going right now with the economy, we're concerned about groceries and paying for other necessities. We also drive a 2005 car and know we will need to replace it soon. But now even used cars are so expensive. Earning a good wage for the work that I do is really important. The city's janitors and security officers work hard to make sure city buildings and spaces are comfortable and welcoming for everyone, and the city's fair wage policy is really important way for the city to make sure all of its workers can live and thrive in Portland. I want to thank this committee, and I trust you'll be restoring such an important policy. And I thank you.
267 Thank you so much.
268 Thank you mark.
269 Thank you.
270 Gloria.
271 Good afternoon.
272 Buenas tardes. President Smith and miembros del comité.
273 My name is gloria. Hernandez. Soy janitor at the justice center. Trabajado para la compania de relay. También soy miembro de mi. Union is a local 49.
274 Good afternoon, chair Smith and members of the committee. My name is gloria hernandez. I'm a lead janitor at the justice center I have worked there for. I have worked there and for the company relay resources for 22 years. I'm also a member of my union, seiu local 49.
275 Aurora. De seguro médico eso cambio cuando relay me contrato. Finalmente seguro médico asequible un plan de pension diaz festivos para los mejores salarios.
276 When I started as a janitor, I earned 7.85 an hour with no paid vacation or medical leave. That changed when relay resources hired me. I finally had access to affordable medical insurance, a pension plan, paid holidays, and better wages.
277 The justice center. Siempre especialmente durante la pandemia, las protestas fuera de llegar al trabajo en ocasiones, incluso me lanzaron basura solo por tratar de entrar a edificio. A pesar de todo a trabajar todos los dias porque mi trabajo es importante.
278 Working at the justice center hasn't always been easy, especially during the height of the pandemic. Protests made it difficult to get to work, and at times I even had trash thrown at me for trying to enter the building. Still, I showed up every day because my job mattered.
279 La ciudad de la politica de salario justo aqui por hora. Una diferencia para mi familia. Cuando mi esposa no puedo trabajar durante nueve meses, it's me ayuda a la renta y los costos algo de otra manera no perdido hacer.
280 When the city raised the fair wage policy to $15 an hour, it made a huge difference for me and my family. When my husband couldn't work for nine months, the wage increase helped me cover rent and expenses, something I couldn't have done otherwise.
281 As the political association sindical gano veintiuno veintitrés por hora y cuenta con beneficios solidos de mi familia.
282 Now, thanks. Thanks to the city's policy and union bargaining, I make 2123 an hour with strong benefits that support my family's well-being.
283 La politica de salario justo de la ciudad de trabajadores como yo la salario nos ayuda a seguir adelante y hacer este trabajo dificil pero essential.
284 The fair wage policy shows the city values workers like me. Fair wages help us keep going and doing this difficult but essential work.
285 Continuing apoyando a los trabajadores.
286 Please restore this policy and continue supporting workers.
287 Gracias por su tiempo consideration.
288 Thank you for your time and consideration.
289 Thank you.
290 President. Miembros del comité. Hola. Mi nombre es maria flores. Soy trabajadora del empieza en el edificio Portland a trabajado para la compania de relay durante mas de un ano y también soy de la llegada sindical de mi union visto a me or my colleagues limpiando algunos pisos.
291 Good afternoon, chair Smith and committee members. My name is maria flores. I'm a janitor, a janitorial worker at the Portland building I have worked for over a year and also a union delegate. You may have seen me or my colleagues cleaning some of the floors.
292 We. Su apoyo in la restauracion de la politica de san giusto de la calle de la ciudad. Secu esta politica. Marcado una gran diferencia para muchos de mis companeros llevan anos, trabajando como janitor personal de seguridad en los edificios de la ciudad.
293 I'm here today to ask for your support in restoring the city's fair wage policy. I know that this policy has made a significant difference for many of my coworkers, who have worked for years as janitors and security staff in city buildings,
294 And ustedes tienen el poder de garantizar trabajos con salarios. Cuando empecé hacer un ano mi salario era de veinticinco por hora, pero. Gracias a esta politica a un aumento. Noventa para mi familia. Es diferencia ha sido muy importante.
295 I understand you have the power to ensure jobs with fair wages. When I started a year ago, my wage was 1825 an hour, but thanks to the policy has increased to 1890. That difference has been very important for me and my family.
296 Dueno de una casa ahora con un salario mas y un trabajo estable. Gracias a la. Union. Estoy orando para solicitar un préstamo de casa saber. Tengo un empleo seguro. You de la confianza para planificar un mejor futuro para mi familia.
297 My dream is to own a home now with a fair wage and a stable job. Thanks to my union, I'm. I'm saving to apply for a home loan, knowing that I have secure employment. Employment and fair wages gives me the confidence to plan for a better future for my family.
298 La politica de salario justo es una manera en la ciudad puede demostrar Elana respeta a sus trabajadores. Una. Compensation no solo reconoce nuestro dispuesto, sino también nos permite seguir adelante con este trabajo tan importante.
299 Fair wage policy is a way for the city to show its values and respect its workers. Fair compensation not only recognizes our hard work, but allows us to continue doing this important job.
300 Gracias por su tiempo y por su esfuerzo para establecer esta politica. Attention is apoyo. Maria flores.
301 Thank you for your time and for your your efforts to reinstate this policy. I appreciate your attention and support. Maria flores.
302 Thank you so much for your presentation. Do we have any other.
303 Do you have any other.
304 Folks who who need to speak?
305 No one else signed up.
306 Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yasmeen. So I want to go back to. We have a we have a, a agenda item five. And that was to talk about summer works. But I am going to push that out of the way just for a second and say this, this presentation about summer works and about apprenticeships, the need for those in the city and in the region is an important conversation. It is going to be on the agenda for April 10th, and so I would like to just go forward with anyone who we're going to go back and talk to the folks about return to office. If there are any folks who want to testify who have not had a chance to testify, this is your moment. Thank you. Could you say your name? Yes. Yes.
307 My name is sydney panis, and I work for the city of Portland in the bureau of environmental services.
308 We're going to do two minutes.
309 Okay.
310 I just want to firstly say thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Mayor wilson has stated that the return to office mandate is being implemented due to claims of increased productivity, enhanced workplace collaboration and other benefits. However, the reality is that current research contradicts these claims. I firmly believe that when such a significant change affecting hundreds of employees is proposed, it should be supported by concrete evidence rather than assumptions. I'm respectfully requesting that before this mandate takes effect, mayor wilson and the administration present objective data demonstrating how full time office presence definitively improves the metrics they've cited. Decisions of this magnitude should be evidence based, transparent and considerate of their impact on employees lives and work arrangements that have been proven successful over the recent years. Thank you for your consideration.
311 Thank you so much, cindy, for coming up. I appreciate you waiting. Do we have any other testimony? Well, then I will double back to the original presentation of summer works and the pre-apprenticeship programs, and the reason why we wanted to make sure that we talked about that early, because there is such a need for additional resources to be spent on workforce pre-apprenticeship programs and new year long youth employment. We will go in further detail going forward, but I just wanted to let the committee know that it will be on the docket on April 10th, and councilor Dunphy. I'd like to be very clear, and I apologize what happened to you earlier, because we we're getting different information from different folks. And I sent a note over to councilor Green that we are going to discuss this with the council president and with our attorney, robert taylor, and get some kind of consensus, because I had another third assumption as well. So we're going to get it right and make sure that we have this this rhythm. I want to thank everybody councilor Kanal I know you have I'll give you the last word on this, but I want to thank everybody for coming today and really being very patient with us. We had a very packed day today and hopefully in the future we will make sure we have enough time so that we can appropriately and in a timely fashion, let everyone speak when they're supposed to speak. Thank you. Councilor canal.
312 Yeah. I just.
313 Wanted to say, you know, I think it's important for us to have a conversation about return to work as a return to office. Sorry. As a council, because there's a lot of different parts of this conversation that affect people differently based on where they're at and their experience. I'm one of the professional workers. I would have been kpbs had it formed by then. And also, there are a lot of employees that never were hybrid or remote during the pandemic. Our maintenance crews, people who fill potholes, people who read water meters, take 911 calls or respond to them or dispatch them. And these roles are critical. And those employees have had less access to this conversation. And that's because we have, to date, actually allowed the type of work to, to some degree, to direct the location of the work, which actually is the preferred option that we've been hearing from folks is look at what the job actually is and let that direct it, as opposed to trying to use process to dictate better management. Because if the issue is that employees supposedly are less productive than we should be asking our managers to fix that problem, not creating a policy to do so. We have managers that are willing to do that, and I think unless they're being getting guidance from above, which is a whole separate issue not to do so, then that's why. But we've also heard the argument about not being responsible. City employees are not responsible for the economic vitality of downtown, and that's an impression that exists for several years, because that was an argument that was made before. If you live in district two, please do buy lunch in district two, of course. But I also want to note that, you know, that's that's reflective of, I think, a culture of how these changes have been made. I don't know to what degree deep was consulted before this policy was announced. I hope that it is more than I fear that it was. And I do want to also note that this conversation focusing on equity is a really important thing. People with disabilities, immunocompromised caregivers, and I want to acknowledge and agree with what director warren said, which is that different barriers that someone might experience going into the workplace may determine where they end up in their career. And we saw the clear separation in terms of more women working hybrid relative to men in that chart. We heard from deep that the message was sent that they didn't matter by not consulting them. We heard from deep that this will disproportionately affect employees of color. I read an npr article yesterday about the federal government's mess, bringing people back to work, that there was an office of personnel management survey at the federal level that that found that $230 million was saved by the federal government in 2023 due to telework. And we heard that the estimate that it'd be 23 million for us. And then, obviously, both councilor Dunphy and I noted the climate impact. So when we're doing the cost benefit analysis, we've seen tons of costs here. We've also seen the cost associated with we do need to work with labor partners and on the non on the represented side. But there will also be long term implications for how we work with our managers on their compensation and also on which employees decide to move up and which which city employees are able to move up and do the job. If it's fully in person, when they're coming from something that's not. And then on the benefit side, something that could easily be determined through a different means. So I am interested in pursuing this. I do think it's important that we bring it up. I think it's important that when we have these conversations, we're not just an audience up here, but we're also able to tell the people who came here and shared their time and their opinions and their experiences with us, that that we agree with them or when we don't that we don't. And so I just wanted to make sure I said that on the record before we ended this meeting.
314 So, councilor Kanal do you think that we should have a work session?
315 I think there's I'm going to look into what the levers and tools we have available to get involved in this conversation. Before I answer that, I would love to connect with you outside of it. Once I have.
316 Let's let's do that because there's some folks who have some really strong feelings on both sides. And I want to make sure that we can fully engage in a meaningful conversation with the committee. And if it needs to go to the council in a work session or in a city council meeting, then we need to see what we can do. Okay. And I appreciate deep for bringing this forward and for including my office on the email because I would have never known about it. Because you were you were you were communicating with the mayor and then you added the council on it. So I appreciate you all adding the council on it. That's the only way that I knew that there was such a, a strong need to have some public testimony and have a platform. Well, I want to, megan. We're going to adjourn. We're early. I know we said we're going to we're going to do it at 230, but we are early. So I would like to adjourn the meeting and look forward to seeing you in two weeks.
317 Thank you.
318 So.