The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-05-08
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (36,215 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 recessed meeting of 2025-05-08 convened at 2:02 p.m. with roll call confirming attendance of all councilors present that day. The session addressed carried-over agenda items, including confirmation votes on appointments to the Urban Forestry Commission and the City Sustainability and Climate Commission; discussion covered recruitment processes, geographic representation across council districts, and committee engagement practices. Council then opened first readings on several fee ordinances covering water, sewer, stormwater, transportation, and permitting fees, discussing rate-setting rationale, alignment with the mayor's proposed budget, and a discrepancy regarding transportation network company fees that was identified and addressed during discussion; no fee votes were finalized, as these require a second reading. The council then heard a presentation on the Portland Insight Survey and Performance Portland dashboard, covering survey methodology, resident satisfaction with city services, budget engagement outreach results, and questions about representativeness and future budget engagement processes. The council reconvened as the Prosper Portland Budget Committee to review the agency's proposed budget, hearing presentations on tax increment financing districts, economic development programs, and general fund reductions, followed by extensive public testimony from community members, nonprofit representatives, and business owners regarding workforce development, small business support programs, and cannabis industry concerns. The meeting closed before all budget committee discussion items were completed, with plans noted for a future work session and continuation of the Prosper Portland budget matter to May 21st. Votes occurred throughout the session; outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
Procedural markers in this session
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0 It this afternoon.
1 It I am calling the recessed council meeting to order. It is 2:02 p.m. Councilors. You will remember that we carried over a number of agenda items from yesterday's council meeting. We are going to get through as many of those as we can, but we may not be able to get through all of the fees today. This is a first reading on the fees, so they do need to come back for a second reading anyway. But we're going to do what we can. We are for folks who are watching. We will get through some of the business that we carried over from yesterday. We will then hear the insight survey, and we will then move into a budget committee hearing as the prosper Portland budget committee. We will likely be starting the work of the insight survey, and then the budget committee hearing between 30 and 50 minutes later than scheduled. So if you are here for either of those agenda items, bear with us while we move through a little bit of our previous business. Rebecca, can you please call the roll.
2 Canal.
3 Here.
4 Ryan. Here. Koyama Lane.
5 Here.
6 Morillo here. Novick. Here. Clerk. Here. Green. Here. Zimmerman. Here. Avalos.
Procedural episode · turns 7–15
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7 Present.
8 Dunphy.
9 Here.
10 Smith. Pirtle-guiney here.
11 Thank you. And could we get the overview of our rules of decorum and order from our attorneys, please?
12 Good afternoon. Welcome to the Portland city council. To testify before council in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the council agenda at. Council agenda. Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's web page. Individuals may testify for three minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise. Your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The presiding officer preserves order disruptive conduct, such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or council deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, please state your name for the record. Your address is not necessary. If you're a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name. Thank you.
13 Thank you very much. Councilors. The first two items on our agenda are appointments that had been pulled off of the consent agenda because they were pulled off of consent. We don't have committee staff summaries. Rebecca, could you please call the first agenda item for us?
14 Item 22 appoint matthew sanchez and vessela lee to the urban forestry commission for terms to end March 31st, 2029.
15 Perfect. And I'm sorry, do we need to go through the agenda approval process? Because this was a recessed meeting, I wasn't sure we still needed to do that. No. Okay, great. We'll keep going. So I will turn to our committee chairs for any information that they want to share about these appointments. And I'm not sure councilors who was presiding over that meeting that councilor Morillo or councilor Novick.
16 We can't remember either.
17 Is there anything either of you would like to share with us before we have the folks from parks and rec come up?
18 I think maybe I was presiding, but everything feels like eons ago. I don't have anything new to add. I think all the candidates for this were really wonderful. They took a lot of time to answer tough questions from our committee, and we're very thoughtful in their approach. So we're very grateful for their time and the fact that they are leaning into helping our city at this time. So I would recommend that we approve them and move forward.
19 It was a five to nothing committee vote to approve matthew in a 4 to 1 vote to approve in the committee.
20 Perfect. Thank you for sharing that information. I see councilor Zimmerman in the queue, and I'm going to pause for one minute. Rebecca, these came off of consent, but I don't believe we have public testimony because they had originally been posted on consent. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. Councilor Zimmerman, go right ahead.
21 Thanks. Since they got pulled from consent, I got a couple questions. Do you know and this to really to anybody if there are any members of this urban forestry commission who've ever experienced the tree regulation enforcement wing of our operation, is there any perspective like that represented on that commission at all?
22 I believe we have somebody coming up from our bureau who can answer that question for you. Councilor.
23 Thank you.
24 Hi. Good afternoon, councilors. I'm brian landa with urban forestry. I staff the urban forestry commission, councilor Zimmerman. I am not aware of any enforcement actions. I imagine they have interacted with our permitting program in some ways, just through being property owners or other ways. I'm not aware of any enforcement specific experience.
25 Thanks.
26 I.
27 I agree with the councilors who said that they look quite qualified. Et cetera. I think given what I've learned over the last few weeks, that's a perspective that I'm going to be looking for. And I don't know that we've got time to build it in, but I'm not going to support the appointments today simply because I think with everything going on in urban forestry that I would actually like us to go recruit somebody who has had some pretty deep enforcement so that that perspective is on this commission. And I've heard in other branches that there are some parts of the commission that have had problems with the administration of this. And I just think that there there can be an elevating here. But that's all I'll say on it. I appreciate everybody's work. Thanks.
28 Thank you. Councilor councilor Morillo.
29 Thank you. I think that's, you know, a fair thing to want a variety of perspectives in this space. And I would just say, as I've seen a few hands go up, that the people who are doing this are coming to volunteer their time at the city to help us with projects. And I just want you to think about the perspective of being someone who is maybe not regularly a bureaucrat who's going through the committee process, which is a little bit daunting, then going before the full council and what that would feel like, because I think there are broader political questions that we may have about urban forestry that have nothing to do with the volunteers that come to serve for us. So I just wanted to lay that framework out there. Before we get move into any further discussion.
30 Thank you. Councilor, councilor Ryan.
31 Thank you, madam president. I was in that meeting and I am the person that voted yes on one and no on the other. And it was a little bit with that. It was with that lens for sure, of just lived experience and engagement. And I experienced the appointee, matthew sanchez, to answer questions with that depth of responsibility and knowledge coming into this commission. And I actually just didn't hear anything from the other person that that it didn't seem like they understood. That is where a lot of the tension is and challenge. And so I usually don't do this, but I just couldn't get any enthusiastic, didn't have to be enthusiastic. I didn't get anything from them that allowed me to sense that they knew exactly what the roles and responsibilities were of the committee. They seemed to be a fine. Their camera was off. They weren't here. That probably didn't help. The other person was here in person. We had more dialog, so I seldom have ever done that, if ever. But I just wanted to be honest about why I was a no vote, and it was in that in that lens as well. And having overseen parks, I became more sensitive to that lens.
32 Thanks.
33 Thank you, councilor Councilor Kanal.
34 Thank you, madam president. I'm going to say two things. First, why I pulled it from consent. And this will also cover the next agenda item. And then something specific to this. Before I do that, I just want to be up front that I do intend to vote yes on, on this. And I think both I'm personally supportive of both nominees and want to just state that up front. You know, I've had the privilege of sitting on that side of the table in both roles as a appointee. When then commissioner Ryan appointed me to the parks board with council approval, as well as I don't know how many times as a advisory board staff member for the city. And I've also been in that role when advisory groups have come and presented their findings and their recommendations to city council and this city council in the past has often not engaged with those recommendations, not engaged with those members, and said it was because we didn't know that the group was going to be so biased, or we didn't know that the group didn't have this or missed this perspective, or that they, whatever the reason was, but they appointed those people, right? Those previous councils appointed those people. And it is incumbent upon us if we're going to do this exercise and not have it be performative, to have advisory bodies at all, that we engage with the recommendations. And if one of the barriers to doing that is not engaging with the appointment process and not ensuring that we have the level of representation and importance on each of these groups that they need, then we should take that barrier away. And removing it from consent agenda allows for that. If you have thought that maybe that's not a real thing. Yesterday alone, we heard from the co-chairs of the Portland utility board about feeling not consulted in advance. And we also heard reference to the PCEF committee, who has some of the co-chairs and some of the councilors have had meetings with the co-chairs where they've talked about needing to be consulted in advance and having their opinions be engaged with. On the flip side, we've had a really good relationship. I thought, with the final report of gtac, where we did engage in a in a strong way. So that's what philosophically we're looking for. And I think the conversation that councilor Zimmerman and Ryan have is exactly the kind of conversation we should be having here of what does this commission need to be successful, what perspectives are necessary. And we cannot do that if we're not talking about that here. So that's that's the statement in the general sense. And that will apply to the other one as well. For this particular one, I would say I get a lot of feedback. Constituent input on urban forestry. It's probably the second highest level after zenith of city actions that have been taken that I hear about from constituents. I think it's worthwhile to have a conversation about how we build a community body that is advising the urban forestry staff on how to engage and how to do their jobs, and I know there's going to be conversations about what their job should be over time as well. So while I definitely do support the idea of these particular nominees, I want to at least cosign for future nominations. The idea that councilor Zimmerman raised that we should be looking at some of the folks. And if you just go to Willamette week, you'll find their names who have had have tried to get approval from the city and from urban forestry to do something, warning that if they are not able to do it, there will be dire consequences, not been able to do that and then have those dire consequences. I think that's a really important perspective to get, and I would hope that in the future we have those nominees here. The fact that any 1 or 2 in this case nominees don't have that is not for me a reason not to vote for them today. So I will be voting for these two nominees. But I did want to raise that issue, and I really appreciate my colleagues having this this discussion. Thank you.
35 Thank you, councilor, councilor Green.
36 Thank you, madam president. Just a quick clarifying question. Do these appointees fill the full allotment of the commission?
37 Yeah. Thanks for I was I was looking to mention that we do have one more vacancy and we plan to return to council later this year with an additional appointment. So we still have to do recruitment for that. And so I appreciate all these comments for us to consider when we're when we're filling that next seat. So thank you.
38 And I asked that because I wanted to be sort of responsive to the councilors concern that we have a broader set of voices. I, you know, I've looked at I've looked at these appointees and their backgrounds, and I think both of them are going to be good contributors to the leadership we need from community. On urban forestry. I do support urban forestry, even though I'm I'm pretty sensitive to the arguments that councilor Zimmerman has made about kind of the enforcement arm, but I don't see that as needing necessarily commingle with this decision today. So I intend to vote yes on this.
39 Thank you. Councilor. Councilor Novick.
40 Just partly in response to councilor Zimmerman's remarks, I think that we should all make it clear to the bureaus that our committees want to be involved in the recruitment process early, and they should not expect us to be a rubber stamp. As to the issue of consent agenda, I think that we might get to a point where we know the committees have been thoroughly part of the process, and we might be comfortable putting the thoroughly vetted appointees on the consent agenda for the full council. But I thoroughly agree that we need to be more deeply engaged in the recruitment process.
41 Thank you councilor. I wholeheartedly agree with your statement. I believe councilor Kanal, are you back in the queue or is that former hand okay? I believe that is all of the discussion that we have in the queue. Rebecca, could you please call the roll?
42 Are they both together or are they separate still.
43 The urban forestry commission candidates are together. The sustainability and climate commission is the next agenda.
44 We voted on these two separately. Each person in the committee.
45 Who.
46 Just fyi.
47 On a single report. I'm not sure how that happened. If they were voted out of committee separately.
48 I apologize. That's our fault.
49 Okay.
50 The item was voted out in whole, but we did not have.
51 We voted on each separately in the meeting.
52 If it was voted separately in the meeting, then I think we should vote on them separately in our council meeting despite them being posted together. Is that possible from a recording standpoint? Rebecca.
53 I believe we could do a motion to divide, but that that I feel like that would be necessary.
54 That may be what we need to do. It looks like our clerk and our attorney are consulting, so let's see if they have something else they want us to do. And if not councilor, I would entertain a motion to.
55 Move that we move these forward separately as they were voted upon in the committee.
56 Councilors, we have a motion to divide. Do we have a second?
57 Second?
58 Do we have unanimous consent to divide this agenda item? No. Okay. Let's take a roll call. Vote, please.
59 Canal on the motion to divide. No.
60 Ryan.
61 Yes. For the sake of consistency and transparency, I.
62 Koyama Lane I.
63 Morillo.
64 I Novick. I Clark. I Green.
65 I.
66 Zimmerman I. Avalos I. Dunphy I.
67 Smith I.
68 Pirtle-guiney I.
69 Motion carries.
70 Okay so we are dividing these two appointments I believe because we have divided these we now probably need a motion to move each of them forward separately. So I would entertain a motion to appoint to confirm appointment of matthew sanchez to the urban forestry commission.
71 So moved.
72 Okay, I heard a motion from councilor Novick and a second from councilor Canal. Rebecca, could you please call the roll canal?
73 Thank you for your service.
74 I Ryan. I Koyama Lane. I Morillo I Novick. I Clark.
75 Green I Zimmerman.
76 Can you clarify the name of the person for this vote?
77 Matthew sanchez.
78 I. Avalos I. Dunphy I. Smith I.
79 Pirtle-guiney thank you both to matthew for serving in this position and to our committee for doing the work of vetting and bringing this name forward. I.
80 12 ayes. It passes the report, councilors.
81 I would entertain a motion to confirm appointment of vessela lee to the urban forestry commission.
82 So moved.
83 Second.
84 We have a motion from councilor Kanal and a second from councilor Novick.
85 Canal.
86 Thank you for your service.
87 I Ryan.
88 No.
89 Koyama Lane I.
90 Morillo I.
91 Novick I Clark.
92 I Green. I Zimmerman.
93 No.
94 Avalos I. Dunphy I. Smith.
95 Hi pirtle-guiney.
96 I thank you.
97 Ten ayes and two nays. The motion carries.
98 Motion carries. Councilors, we are moving on to our next set of appointments. Rebecca, could you please call the agenda item.
99 Item 23, confirm appointments and alternates to the city sustainability and climate commission.
100 Thank you. And again, because this came off of consent, we don't have a committee staff summary being presented. Councilors, Novick and Morillo. Is there anything that we should know and did these come as a single item out of committee or did they come as individual votes?
101 Thankfully, they came all together.
102 It's a long list.
103 Yeah.
104 One thing I would like to say about this group is that I had concerns that the climate commission, hardly any of these nominees, have any background in transportation, and I was wishing that we'd been involved earlier in the process to make sure there was a special recruitment to people with an interest in transportation and that interaction with climate. I actually asked all of the nominees, I made that point in committee and said, raise your hand if you're willing to commit to pay attention to the connection between transportation and climate. And I think most of them raised their hands. So that was somewhat reassuring.
105 Thank you. And councilors, I don't see anybody from the city administrator's office in the room, but I believe we have at least two in the room. So I'm hoping there are people who are hearing the call to work with our committees earlier in the process on appointments, and I will bring that to the city administrator as well. Councilor canal, you are in the queue for discussion.
106 Yeah. Thank you. I gave my general comment on why I pulled it from consent in the last item. I won't repeat that. I'm intending to vote yes on everyone here, and I'm very grateful for everyone's service. I want to just specifically highlight that this one is one of the more important commissions, both from a community perspective and because we just put it into code. So this is a one of the few city advisory groups that are in our code. Of the several hundred, the only thing that I wanted to flag on this one and I'm going to vote yes anyway. But I do want to note that there are these five names that are great people at the bottom that are listed as alternates. There's no alternates written in code, and we don't necessarily have an answer for what happens if one of the members full members resigns or leaves. For how does an appoint an alternate come forward? I would like to explore something that doesn't require us to appoint them twice at council. Now as an alternate, later as a member, and also has some criteria and some empowerment to ideally, in this case the bureau director or the stand in for that would be the chief sustainability officer. So it's a little removed from the staff, but it's someone who clearly knows the space and can say, well, someone left. The person that will best make a representative body is one of these alternates, and it's this one of those five alternates. And council has effectively by appointing them as an alternate with those criteria allowed for that, that that's something that I would like to see. There's a little bit of ambiguity here. I just wanted to flag that it's not a reason for pause for me, but it's something I felt needed to be addressed in full council. Thank you.
107 Thank you councilor. That's a good point. We'll make sure that that's passed along. If we don't have our folks from the sustainability commission in the room. Councilor Zimmerman, thanks.
108 I'm just wondering if we have any information about if any of these nominations are direct or their or their organizations are direct recipients of city funds to include any of our variety of funds, general fund PCEF restricted funds. I'm curious about that. Thank you.
109 We have.
110 One of our staff coming up to answer that for you, councilor.
111 Good afternoon.
112 Council. Thank you for having me today. My name is elaine livingstone and I'm the sustainability and climate commission coordinator. I do not have on hand if any of the nominees, as their affiliations receive funding from PCEF or otherwise from the city. However, I will note that although their affiliations are listed in their biographies, that's for identification purposes only, and they are expected to represent themselves as individuals and not from the organizations that they work at.
113 Thanks. I think that's admirable, but I, I think that's also wishful thinking. In a sense. We I will support these, but I do think that it raises an interesting question, given some of the dynamics of how we are continually told. The advisory committee says this, and then you find out the advisory committee has a whole lot of interest in where this goes. And so I think it's a to further councilor Connell's point is there remains information and experience to be a little bit more daylighted as we see these moving forward. And so this list I will support, and I think there are some spots in here that should raise some eyebrows. Thanks.
114 Thank you. Councilor, councilor Dunphy.
115 Thank you, madam president. I just would like to point out first, it's a great list of folks, and specifically the individuals who are on this list to represent district one. I met them all, and they're great. But I will point out that there are four members representing the east side of Portland. There are six plus one alternate for district two, five plus one alternate for district three nine plus two alternates for district four. Just calling that out. I know we have fewer trees, but we're not going to get trees if we don't have representation. So thank you.
116 Thank you, councilor.
117 Councilor Ryan.
118 That happened. I just want to acknowledge elaine. Did you want to respond to councilor Dunphy's? Because that did come up in the committee. So I think it would be helpful if you provided some feedback.
119 On.
120 The data.
121 Yes. Thank you. Councilor Ryan. I appreciate that. To respond to that. From the pool of applicants of the 245 people, we only had 13 applicants from district one and 60 to 70 from all three other districts. We made the choice to weigh all of the district one applicants and invite all of them to be interviewed. So that was how we tried to overcome that imbalance from recruitment going forward. We have been starting to already think on for the next recruitment cycle, how we can really engage district one. And I think that those three representatives we do have from district one will be a key part of that, where we're leveraging their community pathways, their pathways of trust to do a larger, hopefully a larger pool of recruitment from district one.
122 Yeah, I do appreciate that. And I know that the level of engagement in district one is difficult because people stop showing up because the government hasn't shown up for them. I get that we also have an incredible group of very talented community engagement staff all throughout this community. I'm certain that more could have been done. I don't blame you, but I know that it is indicative of the broader problem and we're going to start fixing it. And it's worth just calling it out every time we can. So thank you.
123 Okay.
124 Thank you I that's not why I put my hand up. But I didn't want that to drop because we had that dialog at the committee meeting. I wanted to acknowledge you and vivian satterfield for when I met with her prior to this. I just said I'd like to see some balance and point of view, and it just helps when there's people who have lived, experience working with the infrastructure in the energy and transportation services to be included with those that might come from a more academic, environmentalist lens. All are good. It's just I've always been asking for that diversity of point of view at the table, because that kind of tension leads to better outcomes. It doesn't mean everyone gets what they want, but it tends to be more pragmatic in terms of moving work. And so I just want to say I was really satisfied with what I saw in the complete lens. There was a lot of a lot of willingness to really bring that type of collective table together. And I haven't always seen that in these types of bodies. So I wanted to acknowledge that and give you some thanks.
125 Thank you.
126 Councilor Kanal.
127 Yeah, as I mentioned, I've done a bunch of recruitments for this. And when I heard the description from elaine and vivian for this of what they went through, how they did it, it's encompassed in brief in the impact statement under community impact and community involvement. I didn't have any notes and I was surprised by that. And it's because you did a fantastic job, and I want that to be stated publicly. And although there is nobody here from the mayor's office or city administration, I don't know if the office actually is here. There are dca's here. Please look at this as a model for what we can do to recruit people. This is, I think, the second biggest recruitment after the charter commission in recent years at the city. We have work to do for district one for sure. There's room for improvement always. But this, this should be a model that is done when we recruit these high profile commissions, in particular those in code. And I just wanted to make sure I said that publicly. And thank you, elaine, as well as chief sustainability officer vivian satterfield for the work that you did on that. Thanks.
128 Thank you. Councilor. Councilor Zimmerman, are you back in the queue or is that old hand okay? Councilor seeing no other discussion in the queue. Rebecca, could you please call the roll?
129 Canal.
130 Thank you to all 25 of you for your service.
131 I Ryan. I Koyama Lane.
132 I also want to acknowledge how much hard work elaine and vivian have put into getting us to this point for the sustainability and climate commission. I hope you feel really proud of your work. You've worked so hard and maybe celebrate somehow. Today I vote I.
133 Morillo this is a really exciting day for Portland. I'm really happy for us to have this entire commission set up and started.
134 I vote yea Novick.
135 I'm very grateful to everyone who has agreed to serve. And I want to say again, as I said in committee, that I've been waiting for 28 years to vote for angus duncan for something, so I'm happy to have the opportunity today, I.
136 Clark.
137 Thank you for your work and trying to find balance. I know that was an issue I brought up in committee, so I really appreciate your efforts.
138 I vote yea Green.
139 Yeah, I echo everything everyone said about the thoughtfulness that went into composing this, the balance of this committee. I see people on here that were displeased with my vote on a recent land use decision. I also people see people on here who were pleased with that. So I think that's an interesting cross section, and I think I'm really bullish on the chief sustainability office. So I vote I.
140 Zimmerman I'm mostly appreciative of the inclusion of students and that representation. I think that was an important step. So thank you for that. And I vote for I for all.
141 Avalos.
142 Thank you for your work. And I look forward to partnering and ensuring that we're increasing district ones representation. I vote aye.
143 Dunphy.
144 I. Smith I. Pirtle-guiney as.
145 Everybody up here knows, being the first on any body to help start it up and make it work is not easy. And I am grateful to everybody who applied to be a part of the work of our sustainability and climate commission. Thank you all for being willing to be a part of not only the work of the city, but the work of building something new.
146 I and the report is accepted and confirmed with 12 votes.
147 Okay.
148 Councilors. Yesterday we opened heard the committee staff summary and some information from our committee chair about and heard public testimony on a number of fee ordinances. What I would like to do is figure out if any of these are going to be easy to move forward. Today we're about a half an hour over time. At this point, I'm going to try to keep us to about 20 minutes of work here. So I'd like to open these all up, and then I'll run through and just see if there are any that we can do without too much controversy. Move those through, and then we can figure out where we need to spend additional time. Rebecca, could you please read agenda items 23 through 30?
149 Items 24 starting with item.
150 24 I apologize 24.
151 Yes.
152 Item 24 amend fee schedule for tree permits. Item 25 adopt rates and charges for water and water related services for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. Item 26 revise sewer and stormwater charges and fees for fy 20 2526. Item 27 revise sewer and stormwater rates for fy 20 2526. Item 28 adopt fees and charges for water system development and water related services during the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. Item 29 revise transportation fees, rates, and charges for fy 20 2526 and amend transportation fee schedule and fix an effective date and item 30. Amend Portland permitting and development development fee schedules to improve cost recovery and service levels for customers.
153 Thank you. Councilor Green. Are you in the queue on a specific fee?
154 I was going to offer insight on how we can maybe take these up. If you're open.
155 To it, go right ahead.
156 Well, I think I would propose that perhaps we take the combined sewer and stormwater and water rates question up first, and I could maybe explain why I amended that one in the finance committee. I think that's less controversial. Well, counter-intuitively, I think that's less controversial than some of the other ones that have very specific line items.
157 I wholeheartedly agree I was going to hope we could start with those, then move to things that hadn't received amendment in committee, and then end with trees.
158 It all ends with trees.
159 So let's look at we.
160 Actually have a big.
161 Picture question.
162 Some of us work.
163 On the finance committee. So this is the first time we're having a conversation about this. Is that true?
164 Yes.
165 I we opened them yesterday and heard the committee staff summary and public testimony yesterday.
166 We did yesterday on this.
167 Yes.
168 And then it got cut.
169 Off and then it got cut off before we could have discussion.
170 So big picture repetitions are key to learning. The mayor proposed a budget that had different rates than what is here. I just need to understand the rationale on the difference between what we have here and what's in the mayor's budget, and if there's an increase of what the mayor proposed and why. And my point of view on this is the last council made decisions that were to not increase the fees as much because portlanders, like most people in the country, are hurting. And this is an increase in expenses to their households and businesses. So I just need to understand what the differences between the two.
171 We have.
172 Dca coming up who can answer the technical question, but on a less technical level, councilor. The mayor made proposals to a number of fee increases, and for the most part, the finance committee either chose to accept those or chose to lower those fee increases.
173 Oh, that's.
174 Yes.
175 There's one.
176 For the most part. There's one increase, right? And we'll talk about that one. But that does mean that there are differences between what we have before us, which we won't pass today. These are first readings of non-emergency ordinances, but hopefully we'll get them right today. And then so there are differences between what we will pass today and the assumptions or what we will discuss today and the assumptions that the mayor made in his budget. So his budget is a bit out of balance compared to this work.
177 It apologies, if I may, for the record, jonas berry, dca budget finance and city chief financial officer. The actions before council today are consistent with what's in the mayor's budget. There are 1 or 2, I think, small fees that are scheduled to come back at a future date aligned with budget to align, but at least as far as I know, the water and bts utility rates, parking, short term rental and urban forestry fees that are in the current ordinances are consistent with the assumptions in the mayor's proposed.
178 I apologize, that is not what we had been previously told as it related to the fees. Does that answer your question, councilor?
Procedural episode · turns 179–187
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179 Well, I think.
180 It answered a lot of people's questions. It just wasn't mine. We just got new information correct that they're all in alignment with the mayor's budget.
181 Is my understanding from review with staff over the last 48 hours.
182 Okay.
183 Point of order. Can I just I and I apologize for jumping the queue, but no, I'm. I have to ask a clarifying question regarding that because in committee, we adjusted two minor fees for the tree code. But in my budget briefing, I, I thought what I had been told was that no change from the committee perspective had been built into the budget. And I think that's what the president is clarifying.
184 Yeah. And I apologize, because that may have been our belief at the time those briefings occurred. We've given the conversations over the last few weeks, have tried to do a very diligent line item review. And the information that I've discovered, as it appears to all be consistent.
185 I will also say, even if it wasn't true, it is. What I would say is 0.000000 of a single percentage point. And so the diminutive nature of it is I'm comfortable with it.
186 But we didn't.
187 Go.
188 Above the mayor.
189 In one case we did.
190 Okay.
191 Okay. Councilor Green, you are talking about agenda item 20. Seven. Is that correct or 26 is.
192 It's 2525. And I believe also 26 okay.
193 Go right ahead.
194 Okay. So councilor Ryan, you raise a good question. So I want to sort of daylight an amendment that I made in the finance committee that did change the previous mayor. So ted wheeler had given guidance in the formulation of this budget to lower the water and sewage rates and stormwater rates, well, lower the projected increase by 5%. So that's a rate cut by 5%. And during the finance committee briefing and thinking through the information we got from the public works staff, what we what we learned was that the impact to ratepayers, the average impact to ratepayers would be $0.50 a month on a combined basis. The impact to the bureaus would be in the millions of dollars, and it would impact their ability to execute on their planned asset management expenditures in the near term. And so the consequence of that was for a very small kind of a nickel and dime, for lack of a better term level of impact. And this is actually quite common in rate making institutions. You would see very large impacts to the actual service delivery. And so I offered an amendment that just restored the pre mayor. This is complicated. Restored the previous projections for the combined 6.3% rate increase prior to mailer wheeler's then mayor wheeler's guidance to lower the increase by 5%. So that's a mouthful. That is a.
195 That is a clarifying question right there. So that means that the rate would have been 1.3% to the person paying the bill, because you said 6.3% was projected. The mayor said no more than five. Would you say cut it by 5%?
196 I was 5%.
197 And so that means there's a 1.3 difference.
198 Councilor if you look at the amended version that's included, I believe this is agenda number 25. It was an increase from $3.87 to four. Seven. Hold on. There's a few numbers in there, so I'll let you read them. What?
199 There's a lot of numbers in that exhibit.
200 It looks like 73, 87 to 7414. You can see going down the list the numbers in the amended version. This is agenda item 25.
201 Right.
202 So the dollar impact on the bill was $0.50 per month to the ratepayer. And so by restoring this we're increasing the rate to ratepayers by $0.50 a month for the combined bill. But we're giving back the bureau the several millions of dollars that they need to do their infrastructure upgrades. And then I think, as I understand it now, that's actually in the mayor's proposed budget, which he anticipated this, this vote. So I just flagged that. So I'm not sure if that actually clarifies anything for you, but that's that's what that's what I did in that in that.
203 And we explain.
204 A little special here. I hope I'm the only one that needed clarification.
205 And, you.
206 Know.
207 Maybe I'll just yield. Looks like.
208 Can I jump the queue just for a second and just add on to that councilor?
209 Go right ahead.
210 Just so you know, councilor Ryan, that this was fully vetted in the transportation and infrastructure committee. We had quite a discussion about it and about the programs that assist low income families, that the water bureau has excellent programs. And we actually asked our member, councilor Green, to take it to finance committee, which which is what he did. So we had a very thorough discussion of this and that, and we came to this conclusion.
211 That helps. And I think all of us just learned from jonas that this has all been trued up in the budget. And that's what was confusing. And so we had that clarification for all of us just now, since we are in budget season.
212 Yeah.
213 Thanks.
214 Councilor Smith, are you in the queue to talk about agenda items? 25, 26, 27 or 28, which are the water and sewer related items?
215 Yes.
216 Okay. Go right ahead.
217 In fact, I'm going to. I'm going to let councilor. Councilor Ryan, are you still.
218 I'm good.
219 Are you are you good?
220 Yeah, I'm just looking.
221 At you. Okay.
222 I appreciate.
223 That about the stormwater. We heard testimony yesterday during the cip resolution. The sidewalk improvement, and pavement program. One of the things that we heard was that there are very few sidewalks and very few drainages in, in, in district one. And I wanted to ask the finance chair, was there any conversation about leveling the playing field? Because we have so few sidewalks and our sewer rates are going up. And when we actually did enter into the city of Portland, we all had to pay that $25,000 to connect to the sewer fees. And now we're getting another rate change. Was there any conversation about how to, you know, level that out so that district one is not paying so many higher fees? Was that a conversation at all?
224 As a representative of southwest, where our stormwater plan is gravity? No we didn't it did not come up. Councilor.
225 I just wanted to bring.
226 It up. Good. But it didn't.
227 Come up. I just wanted to bring it up as another point. I know commissioner Novick is concerned about how we would have different rules for different people and putting our resources, but I just wanted to say, I know I looked at it briefly, but I don't remember any conversation, and I just wanted to put it on the record that we are now taking another hit in addition to the sewers that we had to put in, in addition to higher rates. And we have very few drainages. So I mean, we have to pay the higher fees. So I'm just bringing that up, sir.
228 Yeah, it it did not come up in the finance committee. But I do think it it introduces an important perspective, which is when you're in the city, are there certain basic services we consider part of basic services or the way we've treated east Portland? And the way we treat a lot of southwest Portland is you can have that basic service if you cut us a check. Right. And I never thought that that was a very healthy perspective for people who are already in a city and already paid taxes. But that is unfortunately, I think, a philosophical mountain for us to climb, and we should climb it. But I don't know if it's going to happen.
229 I don't know if it's I don't.
230 Know if we have the time to do that right now. But, you know, I never thought that the city of Portland would have the philosophy of rasheed wallace and saying, ctc, cut the check.
231 Yeah.
232 You know, I agree.
233 I agree with you. Councilor. I agree with you.
234 Councilor Green. Are you back in the queue on agenda items 25, 26, 27 or 28?
235 Actually, no.
236 I'm going to.
237 Stick to those agenda items for now. Councilor Novick are you in the queue to talk about sewer, water and stormwater?
238 No.
239 Okay. Is there any other discussion or proposals for amendments to agenda items 25, 26, 27 and 28? These are our water, stormwater and sewer rate agenda items. Okay. Seeing none, I am going to have us close those agenda items. We don't take a vote today. This is a first reading. They will be back before us for a for a vote on the 20 morning of the 21st.
240 They passed a second reading on may 21st.
241 Okay.
242 9 a.m.
243 Perfect. Thank you. Councilors, I would like us to look at agenda item 29. This item was not amended in committee. This is our fees and rates for transportation. And I am wondering if there is any discussion needed or proposals for amendments to agenda item 29. Number 29. Revise transportation fees, rates and charges. Counselor Zimmerman.
244 So, colleagues, this this passed I believe it was a41 vote from finance. The point of and I was the no vote. The point of this there are some I'll call them standard increases. The one that got some attention at the finance committee was the parking rate increase. And the parking rate increase. There was an amendment that failed, but otherwise I, I don't remember any point in this schedule that got much more discussion. And I offer that just up. So to focus us if there are questions for any specific areas.
245 Councilor Green.
246 Thank you, madam president. And I maybe someone knows the answer to this, but I believe this ordinance has the transportation network company fee schedule and is. Does anyone know the answer to that?
247 I believe that is the case, but I'm going to look. I see our PBOT director nodding yes. So are there questions about that or are you just pointing out that that is in here?
248 I guess I have a question. You know, I offered a budget amendment yesterday, and I know there's a number of other colleagues who were thinking about changing the tnc fees as part of this process. I just I wonder if it makes sense to do that now rather than as part of the adopted budget. Does that make sense? Do you guys hear me?
249 We have a couple of options. We could do that now. We could also we haven't voted on this yet, so we could do that on the 21st to make sure that it's in line with what we think we're going to do in our budget. We would then need to add an emergency clause to this so that we could vote it out that same day that it was amended. But that is the other option is we could wait to do that as part of our budget process. But within this agenda item on the 21st.
250 That's helpful, I think. I think we should think about this over a week. And maybe be prepared to have that happen on the 21st. Does that, and I'll just leave it there.
251 As a point.
252 Of information.
253 Go right ahead, counselor.
254 Just because I'm I think I'm just struggling to keep up with the conversation because we're talking about different ones at different times. So how are we approaching this? Like, are we talking about all of these at once? And people in the queue are doing that. We're going to have to vote on them individually. But I guess I'm just expressing I'm having trouble keeping up.
255 So I open.
256 Them all at once so that we could try to take, first of all, those water storm water sewer as a group, but figure out what we could get through the first reading on today to ensure that we have that discussion, knowing that all of these will need to come back for a vote on the 21st, because I have promised staff we won't run more than an hour late today, and we still have other meetings ahead of us, so we're closing in on eight more minutes. So I'm trying to get us through as many of these first readings as possible with discussion, but also noting that some of the things on the list may be more controversial than others.
257 Then maybe my request would be if people are speaking on an item, just be real clear about which one you're talking about, because then I can't like, look at what you're describing because I don't know which one you're talking about. So thank you.
258 And right now we're specifically talking about agenda item 29, which is the transportation fee schedule.
259 That was actually my other question. These numbers are different scroll. New numbers.
260 They were posted for today. So there are new numbers I apologize councilor I should have drawn your attention to that.
261 Thank you.
262 Councilor Dunphy.
263 Thank you. Two points. First, I want to thank jeremy patton for updating. Yesterday, I pointed out that exhibit g was incorrectly posted online. Not only did the email it, but it is corrected online. So thank you for doing that. Second, I just wanted to echo to the rest of my colleagues what councilor Greene was saying, that specifically, I would expect a further conversation regarding to tnc fees. I think they need to be higher.
264 Councilor Zimmerman.
265 So given what councilor Dunphy just said, can you highlight for us what was wrong in exhibit g? Because I'm going to show something that was wrong in exhibit f.
266 Specifically when it was uploaded yesterday. Exhibit g was just a blank pdf.
267 Okay, so given that I am looking at what passed out of finance and that is exhibit f, and I would say it looks like it is the second line item and it reads that tnc transportation network company fee per ride. The current year is $0.65. This was proposed to the finance committee and left the finance committee at $0.65. The mayor's proposed budget yesterday included $1.30, which is a significant increase. So I will go back to I am not sure that the mayor's proposed budget actually includes. And I will caveat that with if the exhibits have been adjusted, that's great, but that's not what passed my committee. So I'm going to pause to give some time for that statement to mature and marinate, and then we can maybe get an answer.
268 And councilor, I ask because you said that exhibit may not may have been updated, that exhibits after something passes. Committee are never updated unless they are amended by this body or by going back to committee to be amended. Because if we have a recommendation from a committee, we should be voting on the same thing in this body, unless we have explicitly changed that item.
269 You and I are speaking the same language, madam.
270 Otherwise, we're going to have some significant issues. I also just want to flag for my colleagues that it is my intent on the 21st. When we are deliberating amendments to the budget for us to have some sort of omnibus fee bill before us as well that day, so that any changes that we make to fees can be reflected in a fee bill that is available that day, that we will be building as we build the budget, probably going back and forth between budget committee and council meetings. To do that, though, I need to talk to our lawyers about exactly how we want to get that done. So if there are changes that we need to make to fees that are not reflected today, we will have the vehicle to do that on the 21st.
271 The last part of my sentence before I yield is just that this transportation network fee, otherwise known as the uber and lyft fee, was not discussed in any way that I can remember at the finance committee. And so that was a surprise in the mayor's proposed budget.
272 Thank you, councilor, I apologize. I thought you were done. I jonas, would you like to address this?
273 Yes. Thank you. And thank you, councilor, for flagging that. And apologies if that wasn't clear in my prior statement. There is one fee that we're aware of that is misaligned, and that is exactly that transportation network fee, which my understanding is, is in the queue, so to speak, to come to finance committee in time to align with that action that council president identified. So thank you for flagging that.
274 Thank you, councilor Canal.
275 Yeah. Well, while we have.
276 You here, jonas, sorry. Could you what is our estimate based on our actuals for this year, of how many rides? There are a year that are currently paying the $0.65?
277 I don't know if I have that. I know there's PBOT staff in the room. If they happen to have that handy, I would welcome.
278 I want to be right behind.
279 You.
280 As you speak.
281 Good afternoon, jeremy pan with PBOT the rides that for the current rides that are paying, which means that they're starting in Portland is 8 million per year.
282 Approximately million rides or dollars.
283 8 million rides. Thank you. Yes.
284 And then to councilor Zimmerman's question does, does the conversation, just so I'm clear, mean that this exhibit is accurate? But the previous statement of was not. That's my understanding of interpretation okay.
285 This is the exhibit that that has tnc at $0.65 per ride. That's what past finance and should be here. That's not what was proposed in the mayor's budget. That has to be a later action. And that's what mr. Berry just highlighted. But this exhibit did pass because and there was no discussion of it.
286 Thank you.
287 Thank you. Councilor. Councilor Zimmerman, are you back in the queue?
288 Yes.
289 All right. I had.
290 To remember my question. So given the transportation network fee and since we're here, let's have the chat. Is that fee when it was set up? And actually, I also will just note councilor Novick experience here is that fee directly related to a cost recovery model for a certain service, or is it is it movable to whatever level the city wants to determine? And I've heard a variety of answers, so I'm looking for some clarity on how that was set up and what its intent was. And perhaps why it didn't grow with a cpi or other types of percentages. Thanks.
291 Yeah, I would say it's both. So currently the current fee right now is set up in a way to recover costs for the regulatory function, the regulation of the tncs it can be increased and go towards other transportation related purposes, which is what is included in the mayor's proposed budget.
292 Councilor. Oh, I'm sorry council, did you have a.
293 Follow up?
294 Has it changed since it was in place, or has it always been $0.65 since old commissioner Novick there, over there. Put it in place.
295 Did actually change this last year. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Yep.
296 Councilor Dunphy?
297 Yeah. Councilor Zimmerman, I want to also note that we were the first city to implement a local ride fee, and it was originally $0.50. It is worth noting that the tnc committee recently recommended that this fee get increased to. I believe it was $1. 60 and the city council, the previous city council raised it to $0.65. So there is a recommendation for a higher level fee coming from that committee, but it was not reflected by staff. Also worth noting, though, we were the first. But cities like new york charge four bucks. I think airports charge multiple dollars. Seattle, I think, is at $4 or roughly there. There's a lot of room in this area.
298 Thank you. Councilor, councilor Ryan.
299 I'm just going back to good old parking meters topic. So I haven't met one storefront business owner that would probably think this is a good idea. So what was the dialog with that lobby like in your meetings that decided to project this increase?
300 Councilor Zimmerman you actually proposed lowering the increase. Do you want to speak to that?
301 Yeah, I'd like to speak to it, but I'd also like to attempt to speak to why the increase has been proposed. So first on, I think to represent the best I can. Why the increase has been proposed is that from a, you know, testing of the wind, it is hard to get parking in downtown Portland from that perspective that parking is being used, but that the more aggressive your parking schedule is or excuse me, your fee schedule is, the more turnover you'll have. And that that's a that's a supportive thing for a good for business. And I would also say as a person who used to run a parking district in a sense that there's a lot of truth and thought to that. The reason I proposed not to increase it at this time had very little to do with our cars parking in downtown and everything to do with incentivizing more reasons to come downtown. And I and I admit that that fee doesn't have much to do with the economics of cars moving out of spots, but it does have to do with the storytelling and the economics of reasons to come downtown. And I thought that increasing parking fees in downtown wasn't a headline I wanted to see Portland have at this time. A couple of years ago, when I was working for the previous mayor, I even proposed a free day of parking on a particular day of the week to see if we could get some juice on that. And that was all about free redescribing Portland, downtown portland's story. And so that's where I was coming from in my decrease. Not it wasn't about our parking lots filled or our people staying in positions long enough. And so I, I still think that the wrong thing to do is to increase the parking fees. But the I also recognize and acknowledge the math in terms of the turnover of a spot. So I think it's going to be hard for downtown portlanders and downtown businesses to swallow this idea. I wish that we could we could help them out with the narrative, but I was not able to pass that amendment.
302 That was helpful. So that was the dialog. You kind of summarized it. Okay, great.
303 Thank you.
304 Councilor Kanal.
305 Just to follow up on that conversation, was was there a discussion around because this is about street parking? Was there a discussion around smart. Parks as well? Was that related? Just get a little insight there.
306 Yeah.
307 So the.
308 There was and the goal would be that the off street the parking garages remain more affordable per hour than am I saying that. Right. More affordable per hour than the on street parking. And that that remains the case even with this increase. And to drive folks to make a choice to go into the smart park. So that remains the case even with the increase. I was just trying to make the case even bigger.
309 Yeah, not not disagreeing at all with with your point, I'm just trying to understand what exactly is happening here. Yeah. Where can you where in the exhibits is that the.
310 I believe it's exhibit a councilor Never started.
311 The back.
312 End, the exhibits right way forward.
313 Yeah.
314 So if you look into exhibit a, you'll see a significant part of downtown was about 240 or 140 in lloyd. Or five bucks for providence park. Each of those have gone up to things like $3, two, 60 or $7. So some relative increases, but most of all for downtown Portland around the Portland state area, $2.40 goes to three. A an event at providence park goes from 5 to 7. Moda center from 3 to 5. And I think it's fair to say that across the board, you see about a similar increase in percentages on all those parking districts.
315 Thank you.
316 Councilor Green.
317 Yeah, I just to follow up briefly on the question, because it's an important question, part of that discussion in that committee hearing was really on the economics of price signals. You know, you've heard councilors remembrance arguments, which we talked at at length about, I think I think the point I was making in that discussion was more germane to the, you know, we want to incentivize people to pay the true cost of the trip and the cost of storing your car in the street and the turnover. It's actually good for business to have that turnover of shoppers. And yeah, the lower cost in the garage would be incentivizing that. Also, you know, sort of in sending the price signal to take transit, I think was part of the discussion as well. So I'll note also, I think these rates were developed with a price elasticity of demand model that try to estimate like what is that optimal? When do people say, I'm not taking that trip at this price? And this is what I think staff proposes being a reasonable, incremental change at this time. I wanted to go higher, but I wasn't going to touch it at this time.
318 Councilors I see folks getting back in the queue. We are over time for when we need to start the insight survey. These will be back before us for more discussion.
319 This is the only time we have an opportunity for discussion because we vote next week. So the first reading is built for this. So I actually actually have a really appreciating this because I'm not in the committee. So this is my opportunity to understand what's going on.
320 I understand and it's.
321 My.
322 Job to try to balance that.
323 Yeah, I look forward to talking to some of you over there that have all the knowledge what the dialog was like with the storefronts, who complain about the following. They don't have access to their places. So what they want is turnover, but they also want just access. So whether it's all good stuff, it's trade offs. So PBOT you did all the wonderful during COVID, providing places for people to sit outside and eat. Those have also taken up valuable parking spots for cleaners and people who are selling things that flourished and such. Then we have bike paths downtown that took out parking in front of those same businesses. So maybe because I've been here for just a little while, I've heard those complaints consistently over the last three years, and they're all begging for businesses to come back. So I just want to daylight the complexity of this conversation more than just the parking meters, but about having access to those businesses who are all barely making ends meet. Thanks.
324 Thank you. Councilor, councilors, we need to move on on our agenda. It sounds like we do not have closure on whether or not we want to make changes on this agenda item. We also haven't had a time to dig in on the tree fee permits or on the Portland permitting and development fee schedule. There are some proposed changes in that schedule, I believe in the mayor's proposed budget as well. So these will be back before us on the 21st. If there are amendments, we will need to add emergency clauses so that we can pass them that day. While we're doing the budget, I will make sure that we schedule in some time for additional debate that day. If there are proposals you all want to bring, I would encourage you. If you have questions, but not proposals for changes, to bring those to our committee chair. I'm also happy to have those discussions as the finance committee vice chair, so that we can get everybody's questions answered, though we can't have that debate. Obviously, off the record, I am going to close the rest of the open agenda items. That is 24, 29 and 30 and. Could you please read agenda item 31?
325 Insights survey and budget listening session presentation.
326 Thank you. I am looking to ruth. Are you leading this conversation for us?
327 Starting okay.
328 So councilors, one of the tools that we have in understanding where portlanders are as we do our budget work is the insight survey that's done annually. Obviously, we have a number of different ways to hear feedback from portlanders, but this is one of them. And today we will have 45 minutes for a presentation. And then some questions about the insight survey so that we have that background as we go into our budget work. Ruth, go right ahead.
329 Great.
330 Thanks. Thanks, council president. And for the record, my name is ruth levine. I'm the director of the city budget office. And I'll have the team here introduce themselves when they start speaking. But we're very excited to be here with you today on this topic. So you can go to the next slide. So today we have a quick presentation for you. We're going to provide a quick overview of the insight survey and some highlights. I also just want to recognize that before we really get started, that sort of as we've transitioned the form of government and are in the process of updating the budget process, we knew that one of the major changes we were going to have to make was around public engagement in the budget process. And so we see the two sort of products that we're going to talk about today as part of that evolution. And look forward to all of your comments and feedback around how we can continue to incorporate those in the budget process going forward. Next slide. So we're going to give you a brief introduction to actually three different sets of information about portlanders priorities and some data about trends that are impacting portlanders. The main focus of the presentation will be on the Portland insight survey, which is a biannual survey that provides a snapshot, a representative snapshot of portlanders thoughts on the city and on its government and services. And that survey also includes an outreach component that ensures that we have the sentiments of community members who might not typically engage with government and might not show up to testify or or historically respond to surveys. So while this data is sort of less frequently updated, I think it's very useful as a complement to some of the other information that council gets as you're considering the budget process. We will also preview performance Portland, which is a new data dashboard, which is very exciting. And we will talk a little bit about the budget engagement feedback that portlanders have shared throughout the over the last few months. So hopefully together, these three sources provide a more complete view of perspectives at this important stage in the budget process. With that, I will pass it to ning to talk more about the insight survey.
331 Thank you.
332 Good afternoon. My name is ning yang, project manager of the insight survey from the budget office. Today I'll share the project approach and some key survey findings. The insights project combines a biennial survey with focus groups. We conducted the 2024 survey last summer in collaboration with Portland state university's regional research institute. Doctor debbie elliott and her team are here today to assist with any technical questions. What distinguishes the insight survey and what we take particular pride in is our hybrid hybrid sampling approach that ensures more equitable representation of portland's diverse communities. This approach has two component. First, through randomized mail survey, we selected 20,000 households to receive survey invitations, giving each household an equal chance of participation. Second, recognizing that traditionally underserved communities often don't respond to mailed survey requests, we partnered with community based organizations to directly engage these communities and increase their response rates. With this hybrid sampling, we gathered and analyzed more than 4000 valid and completed responses. Due to this rigorous scientific approach, the respondents represent the diversity of Portland, and the results can be generalized to the Portland population as a whole. As ruth mentioned, in addition to the insight survey, we are also sharing with you the newly published performance Portland dashboards. In this project, we've worked to make performance data more approachable and easier to understand. On the right hand side of this slide, you can see a snapshot of what the dashboard looks like, where you can click into each metric for charts and explanations.
333 Next please.
334 Now, I'll quickly walk through some of the highlights from the survey report and the performance dashboard. The 2024 survey includes 37 citywide high level benchmarking questions, alongside 17 service specific questions designed for program development. In addition, the survey asked 15 demographic questions allowing for disaggregation. Now let's review some of the key results. Here. We asked residents if they were satisfied with living in Portland and various aspects of it. On a scale of not at all satisfied to extremely satisfie. Generally, as highlighted in this orange box, portlanders are between somewhat and moderately satisfied with different aspects of living in Portland. They are most satisfied with outdoor and the natural surface natural areas at the top of the graph, and the least satisfied with cost of living and the downtown towards the bottom of the graph. To see how various portlanders experience the city differently, the data was further disaggregated by demographic factors such as the district they live in. On this slide, indicated by a lighter Green color, district one respondents were slightly less satisfied with Portland as a place to live, as a place to raise children, and with their own neighborhood. I want to add that although these differences are statistically significant, the effect size is small, meaning that the actual variation in satisfaction are small among districts. Participants were asked to rate the quality of city services on a scale from poor to excellent. Respondents were overwhelmingly positive in their quality assessment, with parks and natural areas at the top of the graph and the least positive, with street maintenance as fair. Survey respondents were asked here to consider which city services are the most important to fund, given city's limited resources. The strongest support is for affordable housing and homeless services, followed by city streets, sidewalks and transportation and safety services. From here, I'll pass it to lilian nguyen for the rest of the results and the performance. Portland. Thank you. Ning.
335 My name is lilian nguyen and I am the interim performance manager in the city budget office. I'll share the remainder of the data highlights with you. We also asked respondents about the greatest challenge facing Portland. It's probably not surprising for you to see that homelessness, cost of living and community safety ranked as the top three. Over the next few slides, we are showing data from the performance Portland dashboards to contextualize these challenges and to give you a glimpse of the types of data you and members of the community can find on these dashboards. Regarding the top challenge of homelessness. As you know, unsheltered homelessness appears to be continuing to rise. For the second challenge of cost of living, the number of households that are burdened by housing costs seems to be increasing as well. This increase is driven by a rise in cost burdened renter households. Finally, for community safety, we are seeing that some crime has decreased. But as evidenced by what we've heard and what we've seen from survey results, the impact of the spike in crime from a few years ago is still felt acutely by residents. Digging into that third challenge a little more in the insight survey, we asked respondents about how safe they feel. What is on the slide in front of you are results from the questions about feelings of safety while walking in their own neighborhoods, disaggregated by district. As you can see, portlanders from district one reported feeling less safe within their neighborhoods, both during the day and at night. On this slide, you can see the disaggregation of that question by race and ethnicity instead. This is the last result that we have time to share with you today, but we hope that this preview gives you a sense of the types of data that we have available through the survey and through the performance dashboards. I'll pass it to jonas for the next section.
336 Great. Thank you. Next slide please. And so just one more slide. I just wanted to close with just kind of a quick summary of the data of all the feedback that was received. As ruth noted at the top, improving community participation related to the budget is a work in progress. We're proud of the advancements we've made this year, but as noted previously, we continue to aim to improve opportunities for education, for community participation and providing multiple pathways for meaningful budget engagement. As you can see here, the city's district based budget listening sessions were redesigned and a promising exercise. We're grateful to the hundreds of portlanders who showed up to share their perspectives. All of the additional pathways for input, including comment card handouts that were available at the listening sessions, the online budget comment form, newly developed ranking exercise. All of these provided new opportunities to capture the passions and priorities of respondents. And as the mayor noted previously this week, that community input has meaningful, meaningfully informed the proposed budget that was published this week. You can just see on the slide the levels of response that we received via each of the various pathways. And I know further detail is available in a full report that was previously provided to you on April 14th. We're excited about the opportunities to continue to improve, both for actual engagement and ultimately for results into the budget and opportunities to increase our ability to hear from all portlanders, to enhance translation through outreach and implementation of other best practices. I believe that's the end. And that's there's more. Comment from the cbo team. Great. Thank you.
337 Thank you all for the overview and councilors. The full report is attached to the agenda item. I know that a number of folks saw it when it was first released a few weeks ago. Councilor Smith, are you in the queue to kick off debate?
338 Yes, ma'am.
339 Great.
340 Thank you, madam president. Thank you all for putting this together and actually submitting a survey during the listening sessions. That was great. One of the things that I noticed was that the city of Portland does not do any listening sessions after the mayor's budget, so it's kind of disingenuous in a way, to give people a survey for something that is totally different than what the mayor's budget is. And so I while I appreciate what you did, I would like to see you all do more listening sessions and participate in budget listening sessions after the mayor's budget. And I'd like to see the mayor's budget out there for a couple months so that people can really digest it the way it's set up right now. We looked at the budget, the 21st, we have to vote on it, and luckily, district one, we recognized that there were no listening sessions after the budget was released. So we have a listening session on Saturday at parkrose middle school, and we're going to get some feedback on the budget, not the proposed budget. That was, by the way, it was unbalanced. So you can't give folks an invalid document and expect to get the response that you really need. One of the things I also noticed was that in district one, respondents expressed more fear than other respondents and other districts that they would be a victim of a violent or property crime in their everyday life. That being the case, when I looked at michael jordan's budget and looking at the current mayor's budget, the public safety department was flat. They did not get any additional monies to make those folks. If the idea is that police is not the answer to making communities feel safe, then we need additional, additional program dollars for programs like cease fire so that they can go into the communities and tell them what they can do to be helpful in in how to move folks who are gang related off of the off of the streets and into jobs and apprenticeship programs that we actually pay for. So I would just say thank you for what you did, but it really has to make it make sense. We really have to make sure that we have these listening sessions. After the mayor's budget, the balanced budget, and we have to have it earlier. The last question that I wanted to deal with. The example is the executive summary stated that folks in district one had the lowest affordability ratings across all service areas except child care, and reported the highest need across the programs. And I don't know how we can be helpful with child care. I do know that our pre-apprenticeship programs are part of the reason why we do pre-apprenticeship programs, because they have trouble with transportation, child care, housing affordability. Those are the things that the money through the next generation pays for. With work systems. They they also have those kinds of things. So while I am mentioning these things as I appreciate what you did, but we need to be smarter about how we're going to engage with the community and we need to give them we need to give them true facts so that they can actually give us the right feedback. There are a lot of good things that are in this mayor's budget that we didn't have in, in the, in the administrator's budget. And so I would have liked some of those things to be talked about. Number one, I like the pilot project, the $500,000 pilot project for home sharing. There are a lot of seniors in the city who are house rich and cash poor. And what this program does, it allows seniors to stay together. And it it actually helps those those families in in communities that are struggling with livability and affordability. I have a lot more. I'll email it to you, ruth. I don't want to take up all the time, but I just wanted to give you a suggestion for next year. I know we're going to be better next year. We're going to be bigger, better, bolder, and we're going to be more informed. We I mean, we are just actually trying to get it together. July 1st. We have a whole year to kind of work on this. And you all are dealing with a new form of government and 12 people that you have to respond to. And I get it and I understand it, but I just wanted to tell you, thank you for what you did. This is good information and keep up the good work. Hang in there with us. We're trying to we're we're trying. Thanks.
341 Thank you.
342 Thank you, councilor and councilors. I was remiss in not flagging a time check for everybody. We are supposed to move to the budget. Work on prosper Portland at 345, but that still gives us 20 more minutes. Councilor Avalos.
343 Thank you so much for your work. I thought the data was very informative, but I do have some questions. So first off, some residents criticized the budget reduction exercise as presenting false choices, and I do agree with that. So how do you all plan to improve the next version so that it better reflects real options and trade offs?
344 I can.
345 Take a pass and then hand it to you. I mean, I think generally I think what, what I would love, at least for I won't speak for anyone else, but for, for next year, as we think about the budget process, is to really think about, you know, I think the insights survey gets like high level things that are supposed to be more stable over time. So that serves a slightly different purpose. But then to be able to get at some of the more concrete choices. I would just love to have a conversation with you all about when and how you want to do that, whether that is something you want to just do through your own offices, through through, you know, your own polling and outreach, or if it is something that you want to coordinate and have a citywide approach for. And just really think about that. I mean, I think, I think, excuse me, to councilor Smith's point, there are there are trade offs about, you know, the earlier you ask folks, the less relevant the information may be versus if you kind of try to rush it at the last minute, there's kind of less time to incorporate that feedback potentially. And so there are trade offs. But I think we just need to have a dialog over the next 4 or 5 months to figure out what could that look like next year, and how do you all want to do it differently? I think, you know, there's no perfect answer. And I do think, you know, one of the things I'll just highlight is there is the focus group portion of the insight survey, and that could be used in the future to do more. Kind of like it wouldn't be as it wouldn't be as scientifically rigorous as the survey portion, the quantitative survey. But you could at least do some consistent focus grouping that you could choose, you know, a set of budget reduction or budget choices for to do consistently. So I think there there are lots of options for how to do it going forward. We just need a little more time to be able to develop it. Well.
346 If I if I may, I would take even a step further. And councilor Smith, I'm going to quote you bigger, bigger, bolder and better. Absolutely. I think in addition to everything ruth said, I think recognizing that we've developed a habit which most many governments do, of treating the budget as a one time, once a year conversation rather than an annual conversation, and that's where I think we need to shift this conversation so that we're having conversations this summer about what the priorities of portlanders are, so that when we start that early development, when we start those early community conversations, we're working from a set of ideals and priorities that when we get to this moment, I want to say it's going to make the job easy. But then we're working from a document in February and April and March that already has benefited from that annual conversation, and then we can come back and look at it in June and say, how did we do? Did we actually meet that objective? So that takes a lot of person power, that takes a lot of resource to make that happen. It's going to take a couple of cycles to get there. But I've said since I came into the city, I think when we sat down for orientation with with all of you in the winter, laid out that that's the vision that I have for evolving this budget process. And so I appreciate the support and trying to get there.
347 Thank you. And I definitely plan on working with you all on that. I have a hidden talent which is making budget timelines. I'm actually really good at it and I have a lot of ideas.
348 I seem to remember.
349 I am, I am thanks to all my work with student fee committee at aspsu. All right, moving on. Another question. So only 3.5% of respondents said that contacting the city is extremely easy and 3.3% are extremely satisfied with city communication. And district one residents reported the hardest time reaching the city. So what is being done to fix that? What is our plan to rebuild trust and accessibility in our communications?
350 That is another great question. I don't know that we're able to answer it here at the dais, but I'll just say appreciate flagging it. And I think the broadly the enterprise efficiency exercise that's going on and learning and both learning to and leaning in to operating as a true collaborative organization that's responsive to the community is the broad vision for how we ultimately implement at that more detailed level. It's a great question.
351 Yeah, I understand I know these are big questions, but mostly this is also an opportunity to daylight that these are the things I want us to be working on. And I'm happy to be a partner in that. Next question. The top preferred ways to receive city info were email and mail, but we still rely heavily on online portals and social media. So do we have a plan to align our communication strategy with what people are actually using?
352 Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's answers in the context of budget specifically. I'd say broadly at the city. Yes. That's part of the objective. I don't know if you have an answer specific to budget engagement.
353 No, not specific to budget engagement. I mean, I will say generally, I think and maybe nick can speak to this a little bit more. We are really pushing, and one of the sort of goals around the insight survey is to actually take some of the data that's in here to bureaus and programs throughout the city that have a nexus with it and actually help work with them on, like, how do you how do you how could you interpret this data for sort of decision making in your programs? So I think that's an excellent idea. And hopefully some of the comms folks are listening. And you know that we can follow up with them on that specifically.
354 For sure. And I'll also just comment on what you had said a little bit earlier. I do think that we should have a city wide strategy. You had said, oh, is it coming out of the budget or the council offices or not? No, I do think it needs to be a citywide strategy and happy to talk about that. And then my last question is many residents in these surveys pleaded for progressive revenue, such as taxing the wealthy. So is the budget office considering a pathway for council to explore some of these options?
355 Thank you.
356 I believe the question is for the budget office, but I'll take it. Yes. I mean, I know there's a lot of ideas out in the ether about revenue generating ideas. And so there's conversations, I think, ongoing about trying to find a forum to have that collaborative conversation. Finance committee is perhaps one of those there's a lot on the agendas, but I think broadly and I'll say, just maybe the cfo role I sit in, we've never been good at that at the city, at having a collaborative citywide level approach, lots of little popcorning of ideas, whether it's from our bureau or from a single touchpoint. And so I'm really hoping that we can build that new dna so that we have those collaborative conversations, look at impacts up and down and sideways and diagonally, and not just look at it from sort of one lens. So appreciate the comment. Absolutely. And hope to have some bandwidth and support to really elevate that that approach in the coming fiscal year.
357 Councilor for what it's worth, I would suggest that any of us could and ought to if we wanted to bring up that conversation and that could come to finance. If you have a proposal that you'd like to bring forward.
358 Yeah, I definitely have ideas. And mostly I'm just signaling that I really want the city budget office to work with me on what are ideas that have come up in the past that maybe weren't politically viable? That could be. What are other ways that we've been looking at progressive revenue? Every time I go into mayor wilson's office, I always say, so how are we going to tax the rich? So he knows that I've been asking this and I have lots of thoughts about it. But again, just want to flag, especially because the survey showed that lots of folks want us to come up with these options. And I want to add some urgency to us doing that, likely not able to do much in this budget cycle, but I want to start early on the next budget cycle on finding these progressive revenue options. That's all. Thank you.
359 Councilor Novick.
360 What I'm about to say is meant as a criticism of anybody who is doing what they could in the time they had with the resources they had. But I do want to underscore that the people who came to the budget listening sessions are not and representative group, they're a group of people who are upset about cuts they saw in the city administrators proposed budget. So that's extremely self-selecting group. And as councilor Smith pointed out, if we could have gotten a different group of people, if we'd had the listening sessions after the mayor released his proposed budget. And I heartily agree with councilor Smith that it would be ideal if the mayor released his budget a couple of months earlier. As to the insight survey, it's my understanding that although it's a big sample, it's not really a scientific representative sample either, right? Because it's dependent on who happens to respond to a request they got in the mail.
361 That's a very good question. I'm debbie elliott, I'm with the regional research institute at Portland state university. And the survey is actually representative. And it's generalizable to the Portland population based on the random sampling done and the outreach done, to be able to represent and overrepresent the, the, the subgroups that are actually small in the population, so that when we do the weighting, the statistical weighting to bring it back into proportion with the population, their voice is elevated and ensures representation. So it is actually generalizable and representative.
362 Do you want to talk about.
363 Would you say that it has a 4% margin of error with a 95% confidence level or something like that?
364 It actually okay, I don't I didn't memorize this number, but the sampling error is actually where is it. It is 1.49. And the standard general acceptable rate is plus or -5%. So it's an extremely good with a 17% response rate, which is a reasonable response rate for many surveys such as this.
365 So you've weighted it to make sure that it's demographically accurate.
366 Yes.
367 What did you want me to say.
368 Response rate.
369 But you got it okay.
370 Thank you.
371 Councilor Green.
372 Thank you, madam president. Thank you to all of you up here today. I actually really, really love the Portland insight survey. It's really valuable tool I have. I have some technical questions on it. I'm going to continue this sample selection bias. Line of line of questioning. I did note and I looked at the tables. I think it's table four. And these are the unweighted just the descriptive statistics. And I, I saw that and I read your methodology that it's actually really difficult to sample and pick up a representative random sample of across racial and ethnic groups because there are some there are some social and political factors that that obstruct that. And I see that you've made an effort on that in the unweighted table. I think it's 60% owner occupied in like 39% renter occupied. But the city of Portland is about half and half. And so I didn't see like a corresponding weighted post weighted descriptive statistics table. And I just wonder if you could speak to that weighting piece of that.
373 You mean how weighting is done? Well, I just.
374 I guess specifically on like who, whether you own or rent and whether that that piece entered in into the directly or indirectly into the weighted outcomes.
375 Yes. In the weighting section, it talks about all the various all the all the characteristics that are going to not use the words we always use, but we. All of the, all of the demographic variables that were used in the weighting process are listed in there and housing situation, which is that rent owned was included in that. And what happens is, is that with weighting, it mathematically takes the distribution in the sample and it adjusts it so it brings it in line to the proportions in the population. So some subgroups that are overrepresented in the survey are their answers are kind of decreased in emphasis. And then those who are underrepresented are increased. But housing situation was included in that okay.
376 That's really helpful to know. And that's actually the only thing I wanted to ask. Thanks.
377 Great.
378 Councilor. Thank you so much, councilor Ryan.
379 Yes.
380 Thank you, madam president, and thank you for being here. I always look forward to this. I was focusing on those who moved away. I appreciate that you included them. We've lost portlanders at record levels over the last five years. Last time we experienced this was in the early 80s, which was an economic reason. This has been characterized as much different than that, and I think this starts to get at it. So when I look, you see affordable, affordable housing, found something safer and better schools, which really hurt to see that because that usually wasn't there. I wouldn't think historically, but I couldn't find the demographics of those who. You're ready to say something. No, I don't think I need to finish because I want you to finish my sentence. Do you have the demographics of those who answered that section?
381 We do. We just did not include them in the report. We can add that.
382 Okay. I just assumed I'd experience one more time in this meeting that it's somewhere I just couldn't find it. So it's somewhere I couldn't find it because it wasn't there.
383 Right? Legitimately it.
384 Wasn't on the tip of your tongue.
385 No.
386 No, I don't have all the data memorized from the report, so can.
387 Oh, can I just add one other thing, which maybe you were about to add, which is that this is not representative of folks who moved away. So keeping so these are the people who are picking up here, who moved away, are people who who were who previously had a Portland address, who happened to have moved away. So we can't think of this as a movers survey. It just is like an ancillary bit of information that got picked up. If you wanted.
388 To do a case. Actually.
389 If you wanted to do that, you'd have to kind of do a different survey happen.
390 So you send it out to people who used to live here. It actually tells the story. And of those that you sent it to, this amount of people have actually moved away. And then they gave us the reasons why. So like in the world of sales, like when you're trying to not lose your sales, you really pay attention to that information because you'd like to recoup those sales again, so you could be prosperous.
391 And if I may just add sorry to interrupt. No you're not if I may just add one more thing. So the group that have moved away and given us their responses is there are only 37 of them. So the sample size is really small. Debbie may add to it. It may not be a practical choice to separate 37 people into more demographic groups, to tell us a story.
392 That helped to here the sample size being so low, I appreciate that. That said, this is called insight survey and this is quite an insight, in my opinion, that what I'm seeing here and it would be great to have more information and perhaps there could be an insight survey to those who have moved over the last five years, and we can understand why. Is there anything else you'd like to say on those? I think they were pretty predictable. I councilor Avalos I just want to ask you a question. Earlier, you used the terminology. When you meet with mayor wilson, you ask him what the proposals are for taxing the rich. But I just want to know. I just want to know the definition of rich.
393 To me, we have a lot of folks who in Oregon actually that it has exponentially our millionaires have grown by a huge amount. I don't have the number on the top of my head, but I will give you the data that I have. I think that we need to be looking at various corporations and looking at higher income earners to make sure that everybody is paying an amount that is contributing to all the services that we have. So obviously, yeah, that definition, I can't give you an exact definition. It's not a number. It's more so an idea that I have that we need to be ensuring we're bringing in the right revenue so that we can provide the services to portlanders, obviously up for debate.
394 But I just.
395 Think it's important that we highlight that because it's a it's a quote I hear often right now. So I just want to understand what the definition of that was. And I think when we listen to and look at some of the data that talks about taxing the people who have more means, Portland is known as the second highest tax city for that category. The number one is new york city. And the difference is our threshold is more 200,000 per family. And maybe that's the definition of rich for you. And the new york is 25 million. So that's a big difference. So I'll just in my point of view, I think we're one of the best practices nationally on how to tax the rich. I that's just where I sit. So I don't see that as a motivation as much. I'm trying to get some revenue back in the city. Please invest in Portland. All right. Thanks.
396 Thank you. Councilor, councilors, I think we're going to end after councilor Kanal so that we can move on to the next part of our meeting today. Councilor, you want to close this up?
397 Sure.
398 I apologize, I had to step out for a moment. Is the only slide on the budget engagement one. The slide 21 that was shown the reduction exercise that we had people go through.
399 Yes.
400 I believe the full report is attached to the item.
401 I reached.
402 Out to the clerk to ask if we could show page eight of that report. It is. It's the third attachment on it. This is the cuts that portlanders preferred. You can get to it on the presentation here where it's shown on the website. I'd love to see that up on the on the screen here. And I did ask the clerk in advance if we could get that posted. While I'm doing that, I'll just comment on the conversation that I thought was really fascinating a moment ago between councilors Ryan and Avalos. I think, you know, it is a worthwhile endeavor for us to look at where we draw the line. 200,025 million is very different, and I just want to comment that that's something I'd love to talk about with this council going forward. The what's shown on the screen right now is the results of that 4700 person survey of folks at what was the things that they wanted to cut. And I want to first say that, that this this had an incompletion, this, this budget reduction exercise because it only asked about cuts. And it also, we've already talked about the weakness of a survey that doesn't compare things. So there's an incentive for people to say that they don't want to cut anything because there was no hard choice forced. So I personally do want to pursue looking at new revenue as well, where that's appropriate to do so. And in fact, you can see that born out. In fact, only one of the 21 things on here actually had a majority of people that wanted to cut it. So there are some some weaknesses to that data. But I want to specifically point to the very I think it's the second to last thing on the bottom there, which is reducing fire response coverage or closing a fire station. I saw that that got floated as a way of trying to affect the overall public safety budget. And I just I really, especially for my colleagues in, in district one who is already underserved by fire stations but but citywide really point to how this needs to be something that's off the table. And I've heard it floated from a lot of different people here. It's the second least popular cut. And even if there's some deviation from the perspective of what is popular and what's not, and you can you can all look at the top couple of things on there to see what is popular to cut but fire second least popular cut. So I just wanted to bring that up and daylight it here. And again this is page eight of the report which is the third attachment there. Spring 2025 budget engagement summary. Thank you, madam president.
403 Thank you councilor. And thank you so much to our team who put together the insight survey and who pulled through the results not only of that survey, but of the. Folks who showed up to our various listening sessions and who filled out the budget exercise at our listening sessions. We really appreciate all the work you put into helping us understand where portlanders are in a variety of different ways, so that we can see where the commonalities are and where there are divergences depending on the approach. Councilor I am now going to close our council meeting and we will open a meeting as the budget committee for prosper Portland, and we have, I believe, now until 6:00. We're delayed by about an hour. So until 6:00 for a hearing on the prosper Portland proposed budget. We are going to start by hearing from the prosper team about their proposed budget. We have a significant amount of public testimony, so we will move to public testimony to make sure that we can hear from the public. And then my hope is that we will have time available at the end for our comments and questions, much like we had yesterday, though probably a much more abbreviated amount of time. I also understand that we have some councilors with hard stops before 6:00, so we will reevaluate periodically to make sure we still have a quorum, and I suspect that we will have some questions for you all in writing via email, because we won't have as much time for discussion today. So please go right ahead. Shay, are you starting or. Okay, donny, kick us off.
404 All right. Thank you. Council president donny oliveira, deputy city administrator for community economic development. For the record. So as council president noted for this item, city council is convening distinctly as prosper portland's budget committee. And while this action is a part of this. Larger city budget process, this step.
405 Is, as.
406 I said.
407 Distinct, and I flagged this nuance as an opportunity.
408 To daylight for the public. The unique governance structure of prosper Portland and its relationship with city of Portland. I know this has come up at committee. Several times, but, you know, there's been a few discussions at committee, so this feels like a fine opportunity to offer a high level overview.
409 Of that relationship.
410 So as a part of the budget presentation, prosper staff will outline the governing code and charter that.
411 Defines this relationship.
412 And as codified. Prosper Portland is the city of portland's economic development agency and among other functions that staff. Will outline. Prosper is the steward of the city's inclusive economic development strategy, known as advanced Portland. And what I hope it becomes obvious to you all is that prosper programs that support small businesses and our workforce training programs are essential and are centered in our city's values. Also, as you listen to the staff presentation, as you listen to our invited panelists and testimony, I encourage this body as the prosper budget committee, to contemplate what signals that you want to send out to our local business community and even those emerging entrepreneurs that might consider Portland as a place to start or grow a new business idea, concept or innovation here in our city. So I ask you this how do we as a city want to cultivate a truly inclusive economy for our collective prosperity? How do we encourage people to create a life here, which includes having meaningful employment or careers? And perhaps how do we even spark interest in starting a new business? And to that end, how do you want to work with prosper to deliver that vision? Lastly, on behalf of mayor wilson, I want to thank board chair talbert cruz and the prosper leadership team for making tough decisions to meet the reduction targets that they were directed to find to help balance our budget. There are no good cuts, but they handled it with rigor to minimize impacts as much as possible. And to that, I'm very grateful for their partnership in that. And thank you, team for that. I'm going to step away to make space for tony barnes, but I'll be available for questions as needed. Thank you. Council president and council.
413 Before you begin, I am so sorry. I thought because we were seamlessly moving between meetings, we did not need to call roll again, but it turns out that we need to call roll again. Could we take care of that brief administrative order of business before you jump in? Thank you. Rebecca, could you please call the roll?
414 Canal still here?
415 Brian?
416 Koyama Lane here.
417 Morillo.
418 Novick here.
419 Clerk. Green here. Zimmermann. Avalos. Dunphy. Smith.
420 Pirtle-guiney here. And almost conducting the meeting appropriately. Naomi, do you want to read our rules of conduct again, or should we skip that part?
421 I can't.
422 I can't if you like. I do not think it's necessary, but.
423 Okay, if it's not necessary, then let's let our guests continue. Thank you so much for that brief interruption.
424 Okay, great. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Council president pirtle-guiney and city councilors. I'm gustavo cruz, chair of prosper Portland board of commissioners. I'm joined by our interim executive director, shay flaherty. Beteen economic development director andrew fitzpatrick, development and investment director lisa buffo. And chief financial officer tony barnes. We are pleased to be here this afternoon to present the fiscal year 20 2526 proposed budget to city council, serving as prosper portland's budget committee. This is also my first appearance under the under the new before the new city council structure, and I'm looking forward to working with all of you. I will kick us off and then shay will provide an overview of the budget, key outcomes and our strategic priorities. Lisa and andrew will then share how those priorities show up in our programs and projects, and how that programing is supported by returning tiff and other general fund resources to the mayor's proposed budget, as well as Portland clean energy fund allocations for a new grant program for small business owners and landlords making clean energy infrastructure improvements. We will also summarize the impacts related to general fund cuts included in the mayor's proposed budget and the estimated impact of those cuts. The team will also highlight items in our portfolio that will play significant roles in our overall work this year, including six new tif districts, the recently launched office of small business, the ongoing work of the office of film and events, and our ongoing collaboration with partners on significant initiatives like the omsi master plan, albina vision trust, the Portland mercado, the williams and russell block, and the james beard public market. On behalf of our five member volunteer board, I offer thanks to the members of the community budget committee listed later in the presentation, as well as the many community partners and staff involved in the presentation of the. Excuse me in the preparation of this budget. We appreciate the considerable time, energy and commitment from everyone involved to refine and prioritize investments in alignment with both citywide and geographically specific priorities, as well as a racial equity lens. Thank you for your consideration of this budget and for your support of prosper's mission to create economic growth and opportunity for all of Portland. And now I'll hand the presentation over to interim executive director shay flaherty.
425 Thank you. Chair.
426 Crews.
427 Angela, can we.
428 Go forward? Two slides. Good afternoon. For the record, my name is shay flaherty. I use pronouns like he, him, and l, and I'm currently serving as interim executive director at prosper Portland. Our agency was established in 1958 as the city government's economic development and urban renewal agency, formerly known as the Portland development commission. We changed our name to prosper Portland in 2017 to more accurately reflect our strategic direction and commitment to shared prosperity. Our role here is to work with all of you, our community partners, and our development partners to make Portland one of the most globally competitive, healthy and equitable cities on this planet. I also recognize we have a lot of testimony here, so I'm going to go through these rather quickly. If we can go to the next slide, we often receive questions about our status as a separate legal entity as as director laura mentioned, as a reminder, irs 457 and our city charter name prosper Portland as the city's redevelopment authority. Our board of commissioners, led by chair cruz, oversees our agency's day to day operations. They set our direction and they approve expenditures in alignment with you, our city council, and all the plans that you approve. As our city council, you approve our annual budget, including both our tif budgets and the general fund. You approve economic development and housing related policies that guide both our work and the Portland housing bureau's work. Finally, you also vote on the creation of tif district and tif district action plans. Next slide. A citywide vote on the city's charter established prosper Portland as a legally a separate entity with separate internal services. Our internal service teams have subject matter expertise specific to our work. They make up approximately a third of our agency. That includes our legal counsel, finance, it, hr, procurement, equity policy and comms with specialized expertise in public private partnerships and agreements across areas like lending, small business finance, real estate, property acquisition. Now, in other cities and counties across Oregon, often there are different elected methods for exercising the powers of rs 457. Many times, a county commission or a city council will gavel in and out as the redevelopment agency's board. We do often hear that that structure can limit the innovative and collaborative tif planning that prosper has pioneered, which has been called the tif gold standard in Salem. I'll also note that changing the structure would require another citywide vote to amend the city's charter. So in the past, I'll also note we've received this question, particularly at times when prosper's financial future has been uncertain. We've examined we've examined alternative models for these internal services with a focus on customer service, timeless of delivery, and cost efficiency. We technically could have additional intergovernmental agreements that would allow the city to provide these services to prosper. Portland. And while a recent internal analysis showed that contracting with the city could be a similar cost to us at prosper Portland than providing the systems in-house, the additional cost to the city is another story. There'd be complex moves to make from a labor standpoint, given our separate unions. It would cause delays and be administratively burdensome. So just putting that out there, if we go to the next slide again, while recent city charter amendments didn't create changes to our government structure or the relationship between our board of commissioners, the mayor and city council, the image on screen shows how prosper integrates into this new structure with the city administrator and the service areas. We're still governed by our board, who are all local residents, appointed by the mayor and approved by you all at the city council. Our editor, our executive director reports directly to that board. And additionally in this new structure, also coordinates closely with the community economic development service area and deputy city administrator, all while still technically reporting to our board. Here you can also see the five operating departments that I mentioned, including our separate legal, procurement and finance functions that support our business lines and economic development and redevelopment. If you go to the next slide here, you can see our prosper Portland board of directors. They should come up on screen shortly. Proud to say that for the first time in our history, they are all representing portland's diverse communities as well as our total. You can also see our total resources and budget beneath their. These mayors have been. These numbers have been updated to reflect our proposed budget and changes from the mayor's proposed budget. Again, I'll remind folks that our total resources number on the left is higher because we are often carrying project investments over multiple years. Our capital investments also can be carried across different projects. Our funds are often pre-committed, so the difference you can account for by understanding that we are waiting for often certain phases of development to happen in construction before expenditures are made. If we go to the next slide on screen now, you can see our major business lines. You'll hear more from directors abeloff and fitzpatrick on their respective departments shortly. But for now, I'll point out that in general, the economic development programs on the left are predominantly funded by city general fund and recreational cannabis tax dollars. These tend to be more service or program based work funding activities in community like small business support, workforce development for job seekers, events and film production support, employee retention, expansion and recruitment. And while all of these non tif funded activities that are coming from general fund and recreational cannabis tax that collectively represents less than 25% of our agency's budget, we consider those resources to be among our most precious because they fund the work that legally tiff cannot. Our general fund investments are often complementing tif investments as the critical community capacity to stabilize businesses and residents on the right. Our development investment team oversees and deploys the bulk of our agency's budget in the form of tif resources that may be part of those development projects or grants and loans, and in the ongoing maintenance and management of assets that range from spaces like affordable commercial tenant spaces all the way to larger properties that we own, like union station. Lastly, everything you see on screen reflects the work of 105 staff as well as countless nonprofit and private contracted service delivery partners. Next slide please. Now, in terms of context, we know that economies operate at a regional level, but local investments are influenced by city level growth management strategies. So achieving inclusive economic growth in Portland depends not just on the success of the actions described in advance Portland, but also in ensuring connectivity between related plans like the regional ceds, the comprehensive economic development strategy and work system strategic plan, as well as with the city's own comprehensive plan, climate action plan and housing production strategies. Our own plan, advanced Portland is the city of portland's strategy for inclusive economic growth, as donny mentioned, was approved by council in 2023. Advance Portland is our north star on how we get the economics right. In order to have jobs for people who are receiving job training, generate wealth to enable people to buy homes, increase income to create demand for retail and other amenities, and support the tax base that enables public goods and quality of life. We do host an advisory committee of public and private implementation partners to help keep us accountable and on track across the five years of the strategy's objectives. And again, I'll note from a policy context, because because 45% of the tif funds are allocated to the Portland housing bureau through the tif set aside policy for affordable housing, and because the remaining 55% of the tif funds that remain at prosper can be spent on both mixed income and market rate housing, it is important to note that that is how we connect with the city's housing production strategy. We go to the next slide, I think briefly trying to go quick here. We often acknowledge the complicated agency history that we have as pdc, including the harm that occurred to and within communities as part of past urban renewal efforts. The equity statement that you see on screen reflects some of the changes our agency has made to learn from the mistakes of the past, and statements are great, but for me, the focus is on our outcomes and how we continue to address disparities in our community. At a time when the work of lifting all boats gets dismissed in dc as dei and is defunded nationwide, I wanted on the record today that we will not be backing down from our commitment to address disparities in our city. Next slide. Evidence of that is what you see on screen. Some of our outcomes over the last year or so. Job numbers reflect our work to retain and expand and attract firms. These are companies participating in public benefit agreements and often receiving enterprise zone tax abatements. The 1400 plus businesses reflect clients served through our inclusive business resource network for diverse construction firms and the new office of small business workforce reflects our fantastic and ongoing partnership with work systems. I believe folks from work systems are here today and you'll hear from them. Volunteer hours reflect community support in the neighborhood prosperity initiative districts. You might recognize some of them as the division midway alliance or culley boulevard alliance or the rosewood initiative. The access to capital numbers are comprehensive. That's all our grants, our loans and programs like the recent repair restore and the winter relief for things like damaged pipes and broken windows. We're proud of that. 36% number of funds spent with cobid certified firms. And then I will point out, the last number reflects leasable space that we operate in. Properties like the nick fish, the Lents commons, the alberta commons, and now the fairfield. Again, I fully acknowledge that using acronyms like poc and bipoc can perpetuate erasure of specific communities. So please know we do have disaggregate data by race, ethnicity, and gender. But we're short on time for these presentations. So with that, I'm going to pass it to tony barnes, our cfo, because I know we're trying to move quick.
429 Thank you. Shay.
430 Hi. Good afternoon, council president pirtle-guiney council members. For the record, I'm tony barnes. I use pronouns like he and him. Portland prosper Portland cfo. The next several slides will recap our budget process and some high level trends. Before we get into some more details on the tif budgets and economic development budget. Next slide please. With city council serving as prosper, portland's budget committee to approve the budget prosper's budget process is aligned with the overall city of Portland schedule, as displayed on this slide. Our process begins in November as we update work plans and forecasts and engage with our community budget committee to seek input on our work plan and draft budget. While no specific action is taken at these early stages, prosper staff present the draft budget and forecast in January to the prosper Portland board of commissioners, prior to submittal of the recommended budget, the council and the budget office in February. Ongoing outreach occurs through April, and our team continues to work with tif district stakeholders to seek input on district plans. And that brings us to today, where we are presenting the proposed budget to council, acting as the budget committee. Budget approval is scheduled for the 21st may 21st. The budget will then be submitted to the tax supervising conservation commission on may 22nd. And then finally, the prosper board will take final action to adopt the budget on June 18th, following a hearing and certification by the tsek. Next slide please. As noted in the budget process, we engage with our 15 member community budget committee. Throughout the early stages of the process. The committee's members include partners and representatives from across tif districts and economic development programs, and some of our partners will be joining us this afternoon to speak on the budget. The committee this year provided direction on prosper's general fund 10% reduction package for the initial recommended budget, which carried through into the mayor's proposed budget. These challenging conversations around programmatic reductions to workforce business development, inclusive business resource network and small business supports will be further highlighted in andrea's presentation this afternoon. We also reviewed the budget with the action plan updates with specific tif district stakeholders, including the central eastside industrial council, old town community association, cully leadership committee, the north northeast action plan leadership committee, and the south Portland neighborhood association. Next slide please. So moving to some key themes for the upcoming year. These key themes focus on the completion of projects and priorities in active and sunsetting tif districts. While new tif districts and citywide programs are implemented. Active and sunsetting districts include approximately $135 million in resources to deliver on remaining plan priorities in gateway, Lents, north northeast, broadway corridor, and north north macadam. Over the next several years, several new six new tif districts are anticipated to receive very limited tax increment first year tax increment resources in the upcoming year, most resources will be dedicated to setting up the districts and creating the respective action plans to help guide future investments and the strategic investment fund, a revolving investment pool created in 2020 2023 to support small business, commercial lending and real estate investment citywide, with $50 million to deploy over the next several years, will becoming more critical tool paired alongside general fund and other citywide economic development resources to help increase access to capital goals of advanced Portland. Next slide please. This final sorry summarizing recent history and forecasts. This graph illustrates the level of spending by major type of funding source looking at the last five years, as shown in blue compared the upcoming five years forecast shown in Green from left to right. General fund shows slightly higher forecast amounts from the prior five years to the returning tax increment in the next five years, due to returning tax increment allocation from the last budget cycle. However, general fund will change to show a decrease if the proposed reduction in ongoing resources for one-time general fund of $2 million is approved, that would result in a reduction in the general fund five year forecast of approximately $8 million. Federal and state resources show a decline over the next five years, mainly due to one time resources such as expiring resources, such as the American rescue plan. Of all the categories, the largest shift will be a decline in the available tif district program spending as district resources are spent, and new district spending will take some years to grow over the next five years. Also shown are the strategic investment fund and revolving loan resources, which provide increased funding for lending programs over the next five years. Next slide please. And a final key theme moving forward in this proposed budget is the continued pivot of prosper's operating budget to a more diversified funding model that supports projects and programs, as existing tif district resources spend down. The approach includes three primary components. Ongoing support from the general fund to provide a firm foundation for citywide economic development program delivery that leverages other public and partner resources. Return on investment from some expiring district resources, and those from the strategic investment fund to help support delivery of those programs and new community based tif districts that will help deliver on economic development and affordable housing priorities over the longer term, as shown by this graph as terminating district resources shown in Green continue to be expended over the next couple of years, prosper's operating budget becomes more dependent on investment returns and new tif district resources over the longer term, while general fund resources shown in blue provide a firm foundation for all the work. And with that, I'll hand it over to lisa for the next phase of the presentation. Thank you.
431 Tony, for the record. Good afternoon. Council president pirtle-guiney and council members. I'm lisa. I use she her pronouns. I am the director of development and investment with prosper Portland. Happy to be here with you today. To share a bit more, both about our tax increment district budgets that you see individual funds for in the proposed materials, as well as our citywide investments via the strategic investment fund that tony mentioned. Next slide please. As you can see illustrated on this slide, it provides a timeline of when tif districts started and where they are in their life cycle. And what you see is we are, in fact, at an important moment of transition for tax increment finance districts in the city. The majority of districts that started in the 80s, 90s and the aughts have either terminated or are sunsetting. You see those to the left of the timeline and the tif. The tif investments that will be sharing more about today are largely in the sunsetting districts. Those are the districts in yellow. These are districts where all bonds are paid off and tif revenue is no longer being collected. But there are tif proceeds to spend. These are districts like central, eastside, Lents and interstate, as well as those districts in Green that are mid cycle. They currently collect tif revenue and have more significant resources available to invest in projects. Districts like gateway and north mac. And finally, we also have active districts that are relatively new and include districts such as cully and the six new tif districts that tony mentioned, three in the central city and three in east Portland that have pretty limited funds because they're so new. But they will continue to issue tif for some time, and remaining maximum indebtedness exists over the 30 year cycle of the tif district. Next slide please. This map provides an overlay of city council districts with tif districts and shows where tif plans, action plans and resources are available to invest in each council member's area. We're looking forward to coordinating closely with council offices and anticipating, in anticipation of bringing east Portland community leadership committees before you here in the next few months, and then new tif district action plans in all four council districts for your approvals over the next year or so, as well as continuing to engage with council offices on major projects and at key project milestones like the street construction getting underway at broadway corridor or the williams and russell groundbreaking that recently occurred this past spring. Next slide please. This slide represents two ways of showing our tif district investments. The bar graph on the left illustrates total available resources for investment, including page views, affordable housing, work by specific tif districts. As you can see here, the active and sunsetting districts have the most resources. Those are largely the areas on the right with north macadam resources dedicated to things like infrastructure and redevelopment, and the remaining funding and interstate committed to affordable housing via the set aside and redevelopment via commercial property loans and grants to projects like williams and russell and the cultural business hubs that are contemplated in the north northeast action plan. Conversely, the block chart on the right actually shows the aggregate of investments across all the active tif districts by different business lines, including how much is programed to the housing set aside, as well as to infrastructure and redevelopment. You'll note those are the three largest spending categories where redevelopment does include both our lending activities, our grant activities, as well as our property management activities that tony mentioned. Next slide please. As the six new tif districts were being approved, we received a lot of questions about how bringing those new tif districts online compared to the retiring set of tif districts that were terminating. This graph illustrates those two impacts in Green is the impact of the tif districts as they come online over the next ten years or so. In blue is the amount returning to the city from the terminating districts. Acknowledging these returns have been factored into the city's budget, and forecast that council is currently reviewing as as part of this year's budget process over the first ten years, you'll note the impact of new tif districts to the city is approximately 71 million, while the city is receiving back about 448 million from the growth in those terminated districts. In total, over the 35 year period that new tif districts will be in place, this amounts to a net 1.3 billion back to the city's general fund. Next slide please. The majority of our tif district investments are guided by action plans. This is an occurrence that we put in place over the past ten years where we moved to having action plans developed with community input and oversight to guide investments over a multiyear period. Each of the action plans shown here in old town, Lents, north northeast and gateway are approved by the prosper Portland board and city council. An action plan outlines specific community priorities and measurable outcomes that guide what we invest in a tif district. And you see that in each of the tif funds for old town, for Lents, for interstate, as well as for gateway. These plans are typically five year initiatives that can be extende, that are developed with significant community engagement and focus on community goals, investment priorities based on those available resources over the five year period, and offer specific investment and community outcomes. You'll note that themes of stabilization and inclusive growth for small businesses, residents, and opportunities for community gathering are consistent objectives across most of the action plans. As we're out in community co-creating those plans. Next slide please. I'd like to now touch on how we implement on those community plans within the development and investment department. We have staff working in three major areas. First, we provide direct loans and grants to stabilize and grow small businesses, property ownership and commercial development, both within tif districts and now citywide. Via the strategic investment fund. We offer access to capital via a range of financial programs, from smaller grants like our repair and restore grant that we just closed out in 2024, or our smaller business prosperity investment program grant that's available within tif districts all the way through to larger scale loans for business retention and commercial property redevelopment that can be also used for middle income housing. In each tif district. We have dedicated district staff who work closely with businesses, property owners and stakeholders, and they manage a portfolio of projects. This includes acquisition and disposition of property, as well as working in close coordination with our infrastructure bureau partners. When working on larger scale equitable development projects involving new streets, new utilities, new parks. And finally, we have a team of real estate professionals that manage the district leasing and tenanting, a prosper Portland owned commercial spaces that also offer small businesses opportunities, as well as community hubs for the community to gather and deliver on the community action plans. Next slide please. So now I'm going to jump into a bit more detail of describing the breakdown of some of the outcomes that shay shared a bit about. We're going to showcase a few programs and projects that we've supported and have delivered significant community benefits through. We've launched the small business repair and restore program. We actually launched it about five years ago, back in 2020 to 2020, with the goal of providing rapid financial support to small businesses who were impacted by the physical damage from break ins and vandalism, or by ongoing economic hardship due to increased costs related to security, insurance and operations. This was originally intended as a short term response to help businesses recover from the effects of the pandemic, and the program has had lasting impact and benefit to our small businesses over the past four years. You can see by this number that our team disbursed more than 1500 grants to over 1000 small businesses, totaling just under 7 million in investment. Next slide. And as illustrated on this map, businesses from all four city quadrants and along most of portland's commercial corridors received support through this program. By adapting to the evolving needs of small businesses, this grant program has played a critical role to stabilizing many of portland's small enterprises, including during emergencies such as the 2024 winter winter ice storm. Initially funded through one-time ARPA funds and limited tax increment finance council, later allocated important and critical general fund dollars to extend the program through the end of 2020 2024. While there is currently no funding for the repair and restore grant program, prosper Portland does retain the internal capacity and infrastructure to quickly relaunch the program if needed. Next slide please. We also offer direct business and commercial property loans, both citywide through the strategic investment fund and in designated tax increment finance districts. The strategic investment fund, or sif, is a revolving loan fund supported by loan repayments, property sales and income from prosper owned assets in closing tif districts. This allows us to then invest citywide beyond the limits of a tif district boundary. Previously, our working capital loans were very limited and only available via eda resources that we had, and the sif now enables larger scale investment in portland's small business ecosystem, supporting companies like mctavish shortbread, pan's mushroom jerky or nomad cycles. Our loan programs don't compete with private lenders. In fact, they fill gaps in access to capital for businesses and for projects that can't secure traditional financing. Over the past two years, our underwriting team has closed 27 loans, investing over $44 million into small businesses and commercial development. This includes 3.5 million that we did invest into. The project that you see here in the picture, the short stack mississippi project, which is a 36 unit mixed income housing development that is using innovative cross-laminated timber construction for more rapid delivery, recently completed and now in the market, the project helps to advance portland's housing production goals. Applies clt to deliver replicable missing middle housing production, all while demonstrating strong performance in both our construction and professional services equity requirements. Next slide please. As andrew will elaborate, elaborate on a bit more as he presents. We also have a five year, 30 million or so funding agreement with pcf to support strategic priorities outlined in the city council approved climate investment plan. This partnership focuses on three areas first, providing business support, technical assistance and contractor capacity building to align with our climate action goals. Second, we will be launching a new citywide energy efficiency small business grant program, including targeted resources for 82nd avenue to help businesses and commercial property owners invest in energy efficiency upgrades, and priority will be given to high energy use sectors like food service, small manufacturing, lodging, lodging and laundromats. And then finally, we also are offering resources that expand access to capital for energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation improvements, including for large scale energy retrofits and pilot commercial to residential conversions. We're excited about this new partnership and the opportunity to offer integrated, climate aligned financial support both through Portland prosper portland's programs as well as the pcf resources. Next slide. So I'm going to move on now to the equitable development component of the work that we undertake each year. And I want to highlight a few equitable development investments reflected in the specific tif district budgets that are before you in the gateway tif fund. The budget directly supports the council approved five year gateway action plan, which focuses on three areas. This is the rendering that you see in the upper right hand side of the slide. To grow an inclusive economy and celebrate diversity, to activate the district and improve livability, and to produce a range of housing opportunities. Recently, with the resources that you see in the tif plan or in the tif district budget, prosper Portland acquired a five acre site at 102nd and pacific, adjacent to a david douglas school district property plan for future elementary school expansion. Near-term plans that you also see in the tif fund for the coming years include partnering with PBOT to design and build a new segment of 100th avenue, which will improve access to both sites as well as fulfill the gateway master plan master street plan that called for better connectivity within gateway. We will also be supporting pre-development for a mixed income housing project, with a private development partner aiming to deliver at least 200 new units of housing units near the gateway transit center. Next slide please. In the interstate tif fund, you'll notice that the fund aligns directly with the goals of the north northeast community development action plan, with rfbs set aside funds also supporting their north northeast housing strategy and the related preference policy. Within the non set aside budget, you'll see funding for the williams and russell project, a collaborative effort led by the williams and russell cdc in partnership with prosper Portland, the Portland housing bureau and legacy health. With the resources on the non set aside, going to the black business hub, this project reflects over seven years of community led planning and involves the return of a 1.7 acre vacant parcel from legacy health to the cdc. Guided by the cdc, the project seeks to restore economic opportunity for portland's black community through affordable rental housing to be developed by homeownership townhomes and a black business hub that will provide business tenancy opportunities. You see the rendering of the hub in the lower right. The cdc has successfully leveraged over 23 million coming from both set aside dollars and non set aside dollars in interstate tif resources to secure additional funding and the land transfer. And if you go out on site today, the site cleanup is actually just getting underway. With construction of 20 affordable home ownership townhomes set to begin this year and finish in October of 2026. Next slide please. And finally, we also play an important role in providing stable tenancy opportunities for small businesses as key at key community anchors within the tif districts. For example, in the interstate tif fund under the mlk and alberta property management line item, you'll see that we master lease alberta commons and then turn around and provide. We sublease and provide affordable commercial tenancy opportunities to culturally connected local business owners, including champions, caissons, fine meats as well as the miso makers market. Similarly, in the town center budget, you'll notice we have resources to help small businesses to tenant approximately 7400ft■!s of groud floor commercial space. This is. This building is located in the heart of the town center, and we're excited to have just moved in pro gear bike shop as one of our tenants. This is a family owned business whose founder actually started repairing bikes as a hobby. And then it was something he learned from his grandfather, and then he parlayed that into a business. And in fact, they are also an important community partner, donating 10% of their net sales to nonprofits within community. Next slide. This slide highlights the various ways we engage with community in the tif district, investment and decisions beyond just annual budget outreach. We work closely with the community to ensure that our annual investments and our ongoing investments align with tif district plans and five year action plans for major projects like broadway corridor. You see this on the left. We convene initiative specific committees such as the labor management community oversight committee, to track construction equity throughout multiple phases of the project. In smaller districts like old town, we actually partner with existing neighborhood and business associations to track and report on the action plan progress. And in larger districts like north, northeast and cully, you'll see this on the right. Prosper and fps both convene and work with formal oversight, or what we are increasingly calling leadership committees to guide and monitor implementation in cully, a unique community leadership committee supported by a community liaison, are developing the action plan with us and will lead investment decisions and maintain strong connections with local businesses and residents. Next slide please. And in each of our east Portland tif districts, which included a governance charter as part of the tif district plans, there will be committees to help guide the implementation of both the tif plan over time, as well as the five year action plan. This builds on the model that we did develop in cully. These committees will reflect diverse lived experiences and expertise with members who support inclusive growth and prioritize benefits for historically disadvantaged communities. The application process is currently open for the three east Portland community leadership committees, and we'd appreciate your help in spreading the word. If you go to our website, it's at prosper Portland. Backslash pdx. Following the application period, community partners and city staff will review submissions and bring recommended committee rosters to council for approval in and around fall 2025, and then the subsequent district action plans will also come before you in 2026. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to andrew to talk a little bit more about our general fund and economic development work.
432 Thanks, lisa. Good afternoon, madam president. City councilors. For the record, I'm andrew fitzpatrick, interim director of economic development at prosper Portland, and I use pronouns like he and him. I'm proud to highlight our citywide economic development business lines, illustrate how each of these are funded, and then to share with you an overview of anticipated program impacts resulting from the general fund cuts and the proposed budget. As shay mentioned, general fund resources are absolutely critical to implementing citywide programs because they do not have the same geographic or use restrictions as tif funds do. Angela, if we go to the next slide, please, our economic development business lines can be split up into four areas business retention and expansion, small business support, workforce development and business district capacity building. Next slide. First, in terms of our business retention and expansion programing, this work really focuses on traded sector job creation, competitiveness of our local economy and equitable economic growth. Recent results have included 25 relocations to Portland, or local business expansions from employers like danner, boots, dos hermanos bakery, daimler truck north America and many others. $126 million in investment into Portland through the enterprise zone program and business expansions last year, and just under half $1 billion in cumulative spend at local bipoc owned businesses through Portland means progress since 2019. In the upcoming fiscal year, we will offer direct assistance to 250 traded sector businesses, including companies like birch biosciences and ranger chocolates, to support local growth and generate at least $125 million in local investment from zone and business expansion projects. With 44,000 employees at companies participating in public benefit agreements. Next slide please. Our small business support programs provide technical assistance to entrepreneurs at varying levels of need across the city, including one on one and peer support workshops and specialized professional services like accounting, legal services and capital advising. Last year, the inclusive business resource network served over 600 unique clients and 145 construction industry businesses received assistance through the community opportunities and enhancements program, or coep. Mercatus serves as the growing business directory that facilitates greater procurement and spending with diverse local businesses. Through collaborations with Portland means, progress business Oregon and regional supplier diversity initiatives. Ibm and coep together will seek to serve 660 firms in the upcoming fiscal year. Our office of film and events strengthens portland's film and events industries to drive economic activity, attract tourism and enhance the city's brand. This is achieved through investments in high impact events, navigation and permitting assistance with expert guidance for event producers. The office showcases more than 150 businesses at each my people's market, drawing thousands of shoppers and visitors. The Portland winter ice rink drew families from throughout the region and as far away as seattle and southern california to downtown Portland, and our film team has facilitated about a billion and a half dollars in spending by the film industry in Portland since 2015, with the proposed budget, the office of film and events can deliver 19 event grants for local event producers who are focused on adding to our city's vibrancy. Provide navigation support for 15 large scale events that draw visitors and guests who directly support small businesses and offer film navigation support for 150 production permits. With a target of $100 million in local spending by the film industry. I'm excited to announce the newly created office of small business, which focuses on a customer centric approach and the centralization of small business assistance from the city of Portland to our city small businesses. Officially launching this month, the office has already begun casework with individual businesses and has participated in community listening sessions with many of you. The liaisons of the small business office will be holding in community office hours, and an informational website will soon be available to provide new access to a myriad of small business resources. The office's first year goal is to serve 500 unique businesses throughout the city. Next slide please, in partnership with work systems, inc. Who's here today with us? Prosper Portland funds adult and youth workforce development programs for low income portlanders. These programs include services like career counseling, vocational case management, and work readiness training. These programs serve approximately 900 portlanders annually, with up to three years of individualized job training and preparation, with an emphasis on high paying industries. Providers include central city concern, our just futures, erco, southeast works, trash for peace, new avenues for youth, Portland youth builders, p.c. And Portland community college. The community based workforce navigator program serves about 500 residents each year. The providers include Portland community college, the urban league of Portland, rosewood initiative and division midway alliance, and finally the community opportunities enhancements program that I mentioned earlier also serves about 150 individuals in the construction workforce annually. The partners that deliver this work are service providers like central city concern, constructing hope, Oregon, tradeswomen, Portland youth builders and the urban league of Portland, and the upcoming fiscal year, 150 people will be served across each of these programs cumulatively. Next slide. To the neighborhood prosperity network. Seven community based organizations and districts receive grants, training, and technical assistance. These organizations create economic opportunities, small business growth, and neighborhood capacity. Prosper Portland is also partnering with other city bureaus to coordinate a comprehensive business district strategy to efficiently deliver support to business districts citywide. We will continue to coordinate quarterly meetings with each council district and deliver direct grants and training to business districts themselves. We are actively looking at new partnerships to help efficiently address the spectrum of needs of business districts across the city. Next slide. Each of the key programs and investments I just described are available citywide, meaning they're not restricted to tif districts. As you can see in this graph, they are funded by a blend of general fund cannabis tax, strategic investment fund, Portland clean energy fund, federal community development block grants and enterprise zone funds. So many of them, you can see that there's actually kind of a braiding or blending of these different funds to fund single program offerings in total, this this graph shows $14.8 million in technical assistance contracts and grants, and $11.5 million in lending capital into the community. The brown band on the right shows the level of general fund cannabis and cdbg allocated in our current fy 2425 budget. Just to give you a sense of how the 12% general fund cut and the loss of one time general fund and cannabis resources impact each of these programs, the 12% general fund reductions show up in community based district support, and the office of small business and workforce development one-time general fund. Impacts from the current year also show up mostly in the office of film and events. However, there are also one-time impacts in workforce development from the expiration of ARPA funds. One-time cannabis impacts show up in the reimagined Oregon grant, mainly from the spend down of one-time grant resources. The business advancement area at the top of the chart shows higher funding than the current year, due to the inclusion of pcf funding for the clean industry hub, which we can talk more about if you're interested, and some one-time retention funds included in the 2526 budget. This graph does not include $1.2 million in repair restore grant resources that were also programed in one time in nature in 2425 fiscal year. Next slide please. The 12% general fund budget cut removes funding to venture Portland, but keeps funding for direct grants to business districts. It reduces the administrative capacity that operates our community of practice meetings within ibm, which are important settings that facilitate learning, capacity building and client referrals across our ibm and service providers. It reduces by about 112 the number of portlanders who benefit from youth workforce development under the next gen program, in partnership with work systems. Fortunately, through our lending team's hard work, we have been able to utilize the strategic investment fund to absorb about 50% of this proposed cut to mitigate program impacts and stabilize the programs that will be delivered in the upcoming fiscal year. It is also critical here to note, on the right hand side of this slide, that the $2 million of ongoing general fund that was replaced with a one time general fund resource in the proposed budget, without addressing this replacement for the next fiscal year, fy 2627 significant programs that rely on general fund may have to be fully eliminated in the workforce development or business support program areas. With that, I'll turn it back to shay to wrap up our portion of the conversation.
433 Thank you. Andrew. If we go to the next slide, angela and the next one after that, I know we're short on time. So in summary, our total proposed budget totals 189 million or 153 million. Once you take out the affordable housing, set aside, tif district spending remains. Most of this, and the citywide revolving strategic investment fund represents a growing portion of the budget, as does investments from the Portland clean energy fund. General fund remains a significant foundational component of the overall budget, providing necessary funds to deliver citywide economic development programs and simply do the work that tiff cannot. Next slide. I want to end briefly on our expected impacts for the next fiscal year. What you see on screen is a sneak peek of the key performance indicators that we'll be sharing alongside our community economic development service area partners on may 14th, and the budget work session that day. I also just want to appreciate all of you for your time and for your questions and for your engagement. I know you're likely tired of hearing from us, so because I know we have some invited panelists that we've invited here today, and what I'm hearing and I'm told is I understand there's quite a few folks that have registered to testify, so I'm going to cut my remarks short and just say thank you.
434 Thank you.
435 Thank you, thank you all for all the information. And thank you for the cognizance of time. We do have a one more panel of folks to share information with us councilors. I think we should bring that whole panel up at once, since a few folks are online, and then we can run through everybody. So in the room, I believe we have steven Green from better Portland, michael harrison from OHSU and rana usman from Portland youth builders. But we are actually starting this panel with sam taylor from nia who is online. So sam, when you are ready go ahead and unmute and you're welcome to introduce yourself and start.
436 All right. Thank you chairman.
437 Good afternoon city council members.
438 My name is sam taylor and I am the community community development manager for nia. I am from the hopi tribe in arizona. Thank you for the opportunity to highlight the important work that the family center, along with our small business technical assistance program and our neighborhood prosperity network programs, have contributed to more than a decade to small businesses in the Portland area, particularly in the cully neighborhood. Our collaboration includes dedicated staff support for businesses on cully boulevard and 42nd avenue, reinforcing the principles of place based economic development that empowers primarily small and bipoc entrepreneurs. One of our key initiatives is the basics of business, or bob. This program outlines essential business components through a standard perspective, featuring insights from successful, experienced entrepreneurs. Topics covered include mission development, marketing strategies, financial management, and more. Participants receive one on one coaching, helping them identify and achieve both short and long term goals. We have seen remarkable success stories from our programs. For instance, be still images began as a concept and has now successfully established a food photography business. You can look at her progress at b stills images.com. Similarly, javelina indigenous dining started with local pop ups and has now established a brick and mortar thanks to the financial readiness that they cultivated through our support. Since launching our native business accelerator, or mba in 2019, we celebrated numerous achievements that highlight the impact of economic development programs. Out of 43 graduates, 41 businesses remain operational, collectively preserving 73 jobs and creating 39 new ones, which significantly bolster wages and economic conditions in our community. Importantly, the foundational support from prosper and the city has been critical in enabling us to secure additional funding from the state and various foundations, which in turn fuels initiatives like the mba. Participants have reported enhanced capabilities in bookkeeping, marketing strategies, and operational understanding, showcasing the transformative power of our comprehensive economic development efforts. A couple inspiring stories include katana, connolly, and indigenous artists join nea's marketplace and the nba program. With comprehensive support, she rebranded her business and secured over $15,000 in grants and more than doubled her income. Her journey illustrates the power of culturally informed business support in fostering economic growth and enhancing community impact. Another example is sita simonet and leilani ovalis, who have transformed their acupuncture business into a thriving wellness center post-pandemic. Their innovative approach not only generated substantial income, but has also created a supportive environment for other wellness practitioners. Practitioners for marginalized communities embodying equity in the wellness industry. Neha oversees two neighborhood prosperity networks, or npns. In cully, our 42nd avenue and the boulevard, which culley boulevard alliance excuse me, which has been instrumental in place based economic development for the past 13 years through strong community relationships. Neha, our 42nd avenue and cba leveraged federal funding to inject over $1 million into businesses in the northeast. Portland 97218 zip code during the pandemic, contributing to business growth in the job creation. And there were no businesses lost during the pandemic, as highlighted in a 2023 prosper Portland report, the npn support small businesses by offering technical assistance, facilitating hiring, promoting events, securing grants and connecting businesses to loan. We've managed two affordable master leases that provide below market rate commercial spaces, enabling some businesses to expand and grow their operations. Some have even purchased their own properties. Additionally, we have had two businesses grow and ultimately purchase their own land and buildings. Those businesses are essential quality care that specializes in in-home care for elders. And the Portland bloom, which was a plant based business, is a plant based business. Neha, the npns and several other cully based organizations played a leadership role in developing a new model of tax increment financing, or tif, in cully. Together, we've led a thoughtful community engagement process for several years that helped inform and design the plan that was ultimately unanimously approved by the mayor and city council. The tif district is the first of its kind in the nation. Co-created entirely by cully community members, business owners and partners. Currently, 13 members of the community leadership committee have collaborated with prosper and to co-develop the first five year action plan and budget. Our approach and mode were replicated in other areas of the city. The community's active involvement has been instrumental in shaping the npns in cully, and driving their success over the past 13 years, the city's long term investment has created an environment for small and bipoc businesses, and it's important to continue funding this work so businesses can continue to operate, grow and succeed. Thank you for your time.
439 Thank you very much, sam. Next we have steven Green with better Portland.
440 Thank you. Good afternoon. Councilors council president I'm steven Green, executive director of Portland. We're a business chamber with over 300 members here in town. We're working towards a Portland where bettering businesses means bettering everyone. We're trailblazers, renegades and the ones who think big have a place to feel connected and are supported. In this Portland, we'd like to open the kind of doors that can't open on their own. Over the last three years, myself, along with one of our board members, have worked closely with prosper staff and elected officials to inform what has become the city's most recent economic development strategy. Advanced Portland, one of the key pieces of the better. One of the key pieces for us at better Portland was the office of small business. I've spent two plus decades running funding and supporting businesses here in Portland. One of the things that sets our city apart from others across the country is our default to community and supporting each other. While that works well when you're connected, it also is meant if you've lacked some of the resources and see other cities, we lack some of the resources that other cities our size have. As of 2024, we were the largest city in the country not to have an office of small business or center for entrepreneurship. For small business owners, that meant we were a great airport, but lacked the air traffic control tower to figure out which one way we should be on, when maybe you'd get lucky and get connected to better Portland, or had a neighboring business owner who could help you navigate the landscape. But most people struggled to find answers to basic questions, and even more lacked knowledge around how the city could support their journey. The announcement of the office of small business was a commitment by the city to go from being reactive to proactive. We're already seeing positive results from the office with a strong manager and experienced team. We had to fight last year to keep the office's budget hole and we're at it again this year. It's time for the city to continue to be the one that works and works for small businesses. Thank you.
441 Thank you.
442 Next we have michael harrison with OHSU.
443 Good afternoon president pirtle-guiney and Portland city commissioners. My name is michael harrison I use he him pronouns. And I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I serve on prosper portland's budget advisory committee. I work for Oregon health and science university and a longtime board member of the south Portland neighborhood association. I guess I'm here to share a tif success story, which makes me optimistic for the outcome of the tif districts that are new and emerging in the city. In the 1990s, the city council had a goal of revitalizing a brownfield, bringing people closer to the river and ensuring that OHSU grew in Portland rather than expanding into the suburbs. Ohsu also shared the goals. We wanted to stay here, we wanted to grow here through a combination of OHSU, public dollars, private investments and the city's tax increment financing. Much of this work has been accomplished by creating a new neighborhood in south named south waterfront. While there remain some crucial roadway and greenway greenway infrastructure to be built, significant headways in removing and capping contaminated soil, extending the Willamette greenway, and building transit and bikeways and roads have occurred, and, crucially, tif funding has invested significantly in affordable housing as well. As you probably know, OHSU also carried through on our commitment by growing significantly down by the river. We've built two outpatient medical buildings, a patient housing building, the knight cancer research building and the robertson collaborative life sciences building that we share with PSU and osu. Given the neighborhood's extensive transit availability, the good paying jobs, excellent education, and high quality health care that takes place in these five buildings is much more accessible to those living throughout the city than they would have been had we grown somewhere else. And through apprenticeship programs and esb contracting, good jobs have also been created and supported during the construction of these buildings as well. I appreciate the time to speak with you today and to celebrate the significant partnership that has existed between OHSU and the city for decades. We hope that the city will continue to utilize the remaining tax increment funds in south waterfront to complete our shared goals. Thanks so much.
444 Thank you very much. Next, we have alyssa kajikawa online. Go ahead and introduce yourself and you can get started.
445 Thank you. Good afternoon councilors. My name is alyssa kajikawa. I use she her pronouns and I'm a community development director at apano, a local nonprofit profit that works to build power, develop leaders and advance equity. I'm here to speak to the impacts and effects cuts to prosper portland's general funding can have on the communities I work with and our future work. One program I oversee is the jade district. The jade district is one of the seven neighborhood prosperity networks, or npns, that you've already heard about, that were created by prosper portland's neighborhood prosperity initiative more than a decade ago. We are centered around the intersection of southeast 82nd avenue and southeast division street. This program focused on micro tif districts, which are overseen by the npns, and how hyper local investment with community input could help stabilize small business districts and spur community and economic development. Over the course of the ten years, each micro tif district has generated up to $1 million in tif funding that could only be used for physical improvements in the jade district. We've helped small businesses with painting new windows and business signs to hvac units, fences and permanent security measures, all aimed at helping our local economy thrive. While having tif funding is great and of course, helps our small business owners, it was, is and will be the general aka nonrestrictive fund that has the most impact. Tif funds are highly restrictive and have used on its own. Without the guidance of community, it does not truly help stabilize communities, but can rather displace them to use tif funds through an anti-displacement lens, we must have unrestricted funds for stabilization programs. Because of prosper's partnership and unrestricted funding, a piano has become a trusted resource navigator, resource finder, emotional supporter, solutions collaborator and advocate for the jade district small business owners, many of whom identify as bipoc and or immigrants. Because a prosperous partnership and unrestricted funding, the npns have gained, learned and lived experiences and now hold institutional knowledge about the community centered approach to tif districts. This knowledge and our experiences will be vital for the success of the upcoming east Portland tif districts and the other npns understand how important it is to have programs and resources that complement tif districts to help mitigate the potential harm and displacement that can happen with this type of investment to a local area. The truth is that if budget cuts to prosper Portland lead to cuts to the npn program, much of apollos jade district community work with small business stabilization, development and support will pause, and we're not sure for how long our direct work helping helping small business owners and navigate the confusing and often convoluted systems will slow putting unneeded emotional burden on our small business owners. Budget cuts will impact the opportunity for us to share our learned and lived experiences, and advocate for a community driven and centered tif district. I know these are not easy decisions, and that this council and the mayor have a seemingly impossible task in front of you with the budget. I hope my testimony has given some clarity of the current and future work that can be impacted by cutting general funds from prosper Portland. Thank you for your time.
446 Thank you very much. Next we have paula bird, who I believe is also virtual. Go ahead paula.
447 I am. Good afternoon, president and councilors. My name is paula bird and I'm the community liaison for east Portland tif. I served as the community project manager during the tif exploration process last year, and before that. I have been working deep in east Portland community for about eight years. I am testifying today to bring the experience to the rosewood community. Working at the rosewood initiative. I have seen firsthand the direct impact that support from prosper Portland in both providing and connecting our team with resources has had within our neighborhood prosperity network. As a community anchor, we provide vital services to community members who have been affected by displacement and underinvestment in east Portland. We do this more immediately through our workforce development program in english classes to families whose first language isn't english. Small business workshops and makers market for home based businesses in east Portland. In the long term, we will be working alongside the community to fully realize the direct investments that tif will bring. This impact is evident through our workforce development and small business grant numbers. Last year, we supported 159 people to prepare for employment and job search, with nearly 50 people securing jobs. Just this year, after working with our workforce navigator last year, the rosewood initiative awarded $85,000 to small businesses throughout prosper, portland's small business enhancement grant, with 87,000 awarded so far in 2025. Small businesses and nonprofits are looking for dollars to stabilize their business and expand their service. These numbers include only the areas in the npi district. But imagine the reach that we can have that we can make in east Portland during the next phase of tif. It is not lost on me that there is still a level of mistrust in our government. And if you ask me if tif is the perfect tool, the answer would be no. I don't think there is a perfect tool. When we talk about government systems and spending. However, it is a tool that will bring much needed dollars to the disinvested area of east Portland. This is an opportunity to do things differently, and I believe that in this new chapter of community led engagement, we have a chance to do things better. We recently spoke to one of our enhancement grant awardees, hollis school, about the impact that the grant has made on them and their students. Our grant supported them in building a new and secure fence where their students can play and learn outdoors, they said. This project has allowed us to focus on the students who we believe are abundant, brilliant and creative. It just frees us up knowing that there is a fence that's tall enough and safe enough, but also beautiful. It gives us the ability to focus on them and not worry about what's happening on the other side of the fence. Thank you.
448 Thank you. Finally, we have rana usman from Portland youth builders. Rana, please go right ahead.
449 Good afternoon, madam president and councilors.
450 I really appreciate appreciate.
451 The opportunity.
452 To be here.
453 My name is rana.
454 I am the executive director of.
455 Portland youth builders.
456 A bureau of labor and industry certified pre-apprenticeship program that will be celebrating 30 years of service this year. And I had the privilege of being there for 14 of those years. For 30 years, Portland youth builders have helped thousands of young people change their lives through a combination of education, vocational training, counseling, career development and long term wraparound support, bridge to construction program serves adults 18 to 26 and with the goal of diversifying the construction trades and skilled labor as a whole in Portland, the bridge to construction program has largely been been made possible due to the financial support through community construction training program, including funds from the city of Portland, Multnomah county, metro, prosper Portland, and other funding collaboratives. Our youth build program serves 17 to 24 year olds who have dropped out or fallen behind in school, and are interested in learning about pursuing careers in the construction trades or technology, being in the next gen network and receiving city of Portland funding has been essential to pyb being able to provide the long term placement and advancement supports needed for youth to jumpstart their careers in high demand, high wage industries. Pyb has received city of Portland dollars for years to help supplement wioa title one youth workforce funding, which is never enough to fund the demand for the services in our region and for our program. And of course, right now there's additional concern about how funding cuts at the federal level may impact our our availability to deliver our work. Since pibby, pibby has received funding from the start of community construction training program since the start that was 2020. Since then, we have served 367 youth ages 18 to 26. 71% of that is bipoc youth. The youth specifically funded through the cope program. That equates to 77% bipoc youth and over 95% low income folks and families. 90% of the youth we enroll completed their boley certificates, 70% graduated who have exited as of December 2024 have verified construction industry placements. And I'm sure those numbers are higher, but we have a hard time reaching our folks as they are busy working. And of that, 46% of the graduates have gone into apprenticeship, and going into apprenticeship is very difficult. The road to apprenticeship is hard. It requires drive, grit, familial support, communal support, a clean, clean driver's license, access to a car. It is. It is very difficult. I want to close by just saying that. In serving low income communities to become empowered and break the cycle of poverty. The money that is given to us through these programs are essential for these communities. And if we're looking to serve these folks, is the antithesis to take away from little that they have. And I'm just here advocating for that. Thank you.
457 Thank you, thank you all for talking about the importance of these programs. Counselors, we have an hour left in about an hour of public testimony. I know that folks have a lot of questions and comments that you wanted to make. Today, I am working on figuring out how we can make sure we have time to do that. It likely won't be today, though. Do folks want to take a ten minute break before we get into public comment, or do we want to power through so we can hear from as many people as possible?
458 Yes, yes.
459 Does anybody want a quick break?
460 I.
461 Madam president, yes. There could be some time to be able to ask questions because I have a couple of questions that I need to talk with prosper Portland about. This is our first time they were in finance and some other places, but this is our first time being able to talk with them about their budget, because I have a couple things that are really burning.
462 I we all have a lot of questions and we will make sure we have time for it. We have folks who have come today to testify. I want to make sure that we hear from them. But you have my word that I am. I'm literally already sending messages to people saying, we are going to need to find time, right.
463 And but the issue I just want to push back just a little bit and say, while we're here in a full city council meeting, that we should also take precedence as well as the community. And I think some of our questions may help some of the people who are online, because we're going to have to be the ones to vote on their budget. And they're they're important people who are here in regards to what we want to talk about, and to get this same room again is going to be very difficult.
464 Councilor we will tell the folks from prosper that we need them to come back to have that room.
465 You're talking.
466 About small business people who can't just come here when we want them to come here. I'm just telling you, if we have to push it to 7:00, we need to be able to ask folks a question while they're here today.
467 We can come back to the question of whether we extend later. I don't know if that's a possibility or not. Right now, I'm trying to take a temperature check on whether or not we need a break, or whether we can plow through to hear from as many people as possible.
468 I'm just trying to tell.
469 You there's a.
470 Temperature check up here.
471 Plow through. I.
472 So, madam president, I would just say, I think that a break is healthy, but we do need to plow through. Frankly, that presentation went incredibly too long. I have never had invited testimony to a budget briefing before. So with respect to what was expected today and the ability to get into this, I am very concerned that in the rest of our month we do not have prosper. 2.0 scheduled.
473 I hear you councilor and I have checked in with folks about that. Most of the schedules I have seen are much less. I want to note that all of this conversation is taking away from our public testimony time. I'm hearing a call for a quick break, so why don't we take a seven minute break? We will come back at 512, and I am happy to have these conversations during that break.
474 Thank you.
475 Reconvene as soon as we have a quorum of counselors back up here. We are working on getting folks back so that we can start public testimony.
476 Council president, just so you remember for numbers, I'm here.
477 Thank you. Thank you, counselor and counselor Zimmerman. No, that's just his logged in. Perfect. Thanks, councilor. Koyama Lane.
478 Thank you so much. Through the chat.
479 We have six in the room and one online. So we do have a quorum back. Rebecca, could you please call up our first three people for public testimony?
480 First, we have hector marquez, andrew mcgoff, and james taylor. You can sit anywhere. All the mics are live.
481 Thank you all for being here. Go right ahead.
482 Good afternoon. Councilors. My name is hector marquez. I'm the executive director of historic park rose, a nonprofit working in close partnership with prosper Portland to serve one of portland's most diverse and historically underserved neighborhoods. Since 2012, we've partnered with prosper to strengthen our business district through storefront storefront improvement grants, technical assistance, and events like the summer nights and indigenous marketplaces. We support over 60 local vendors and youth performers each season. These aren't just community events, they are economic engines that build visibility, revenue, and local pride. We support, with support from the bureau of planning, of planning and sustainability, we led the parkrose community plan, engaging hundreds of residents, especially youth and communities of color, to shape priorities around housing, jobs, transportation and entrepreneurship. That work helped informed the newly approved space tif district, bringing long overdue investments to east Portland. The plan supports most businesses stabilization, workforce development, affordable housing, and future community hub. It's a once in a generation opportunity to grow with not away from our neighbors, but to make this vision happen. We need continuity. A substantial portion of our operation funds, including leadership and technical assistance, comes from prosper. The rest is raised through grants and donations. Without foundation funding, we risk losing one of prosper most trusted community partners. We urge you to maintain funding from prosper prosperous neighborhood partnership and ensure parkrose is not left behind. Again, thank you so much.
483 Good afternoon. Council president, pirtle-guiney and city councilors. My name is andrew mcgoff and I'm the executive director of work systems, which is the Portland metro workforce development board. On behalf of our board of directors, I'm here to express our deep concern with the proposed general fund cuts to the prosper Portland budget, which will severely impact the long standing partnership between prosper Portland and work systems. Our collaboration is one of the city's most effective tools for advancing inclusive economic development and ensuring that all portlanders, particularly those historically excluded from prosperity, have access to opportunity. At its core, our partnership aligns economic and workforce development to ensure that the investments we make in neighborhoods, industries, infrastructure translate directly into jobs, training and business growth for city residents. It connects people to opportunity and opportunity to people through prosper and work systems. Alignment. Public investments are directed towards individuals who need them the most bipoc communities, immigrants and refugees, youth disconnected from school and work, and residents of east Portland and other underinvested neighborhoods. Joint initiatives like the economic opportunity program help people access career coaching, skills training, wraparound services, and ultimately, family wage jobs. As andrew fitzpatrick mentioned, it is estimated that proposed cuts mean 112 portlanders will not have access to services through the economic opportunity program next year. So imagine if 91 of those 112 people, which reflects last year's 81% success rate, all got a job paying $22.15 an hour. That was the average wage at placement for programs graduates last year. In one year, those folks would earn more than $3.8 million, nearly four times the dollars invested by the city. I hear the bell. My apologies, and I will just say thank you for your leadership and your continued commitment to equity and shared prosperity.
484 Good afternoon, council president and esteemed city council members. My name.
485 Is james taylor, a Portland resident here to offer my support for prosper Portland. I moved into Portland 43 years ago as a young banker, eager to raise my family and contribute to the growth of this city, a city that I grew to love and still love today. From virtually the moment I started working in Portland, I became aware of the work of prosper Portland, known then as the Portland development commission. We collaborated on many things beginning in the mid 1980s, whether it was finding headquarter locations for companies being recruited to Portland, small business, manufacturing loans, real estate development projects, or the development of portland's living room, pioneer courthouse square. With its opening in 1984. From 1992 to 1995, I had the pleasure of being employed by prosper Portland, being on the team that spearheaded the implementation of the albina community plan. This was a tax increment funded economic development plan for northeast Portland that not only included direct small business loans and grants, but also real estate development projects. Many of you are familiar with the current vibrant redevelopment of neighborhoods surrounding northeast williams avenue, northeast Vancouver avenue, northeast alberta street, and northeast mississippi. I am confident that these areas wouldn't be what they are today if it weren't for the direct and collaborative involvement of prosper Portland. You look further into prosper portland's work in film and television, workforce development, tax increment financing projects in southeast Lents neighborhood, interstate corridor, Oregon convention center, south park blocks downtown waterfront, including tom mccall waterfront, riverplace marina, and pioneer place. This is not an exclusive list, but it tells me that Portland excuse me that prosper Portland is the economic engine that drives Portland. In closing, the reason we are here today is because Portland is in a crisis. Before the crisis, we were the envy of most cities.
486 I'm sorry. We need to make sure we have time for everybody.
487 Thank you very much.
488 I appreciate you all being here. Thank you so much.
489 Deanna d'souza. Jason. Franklin. Anna.
490 Anna.
491 Sorry. Anna. Pickle.
492 Okay.
493 Good afternoon, city councilors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is deanna d'souza and I'm the community programs manager at work systems. I'm here representing work systems and the Portland economic opportunity program known as Portland eop, which is funded by prosper Portland. I want to share how the economic opportunity program is transforming lives by connecting portland's most underserved residents with the tools and supports they need to find stability and meaningful employment. Thanks to funding from prosper, we've been able to provide vital employment services through Portland eop for over ten years. We have the honor of partnering with southeast works, central city concern, erco, our just future and trust for peace to deliver essential employment and training services to city of Portland residents. Eop Portland focuses on helping people that are facing barriers to employment. Residents with low incomes, housing instability, prior justice involvement, those in recovery, and immigrants and refugees. Last year alone, eop Portland served over 650 residents. Nearly 6,060% identify as bipoc, and over a third have prior justice involvement. Portland economic opportunity program offers long term, relationship based career coaching and employment assistance, combined with essential support services and job training resources. This comprehensive approach is what makes success possible. As a result, 84% of participants exited the program with unsubsidized jobs and with an average wage of over $21 per hour, nearly half landed in career track roles and 56% advanced in employment, gaining benefits and higher wages. This is more than job placement. This is economic mobility and action. Portland eop works with participants to move from crisis to self-sufficiency. Thank you.
494 Good afternoon, president pirtle-guiney and members of the city council. My name is jason franklin. I'm the avp for planning construction real estate at Portland state university. I oversee the physical campus there. Prosper Portland is a valued partner to PSU, and we're grateful for their investments in our campus community. Yesterday, propel PSU hosted the grand opening of the science and education center building, which brings the Portland state business accelerator onto our downtown campus. Recently renovated with $2 million from prosper Portland, this 37,000 square foot space in downtown Portland is designed to support innovation and entrepreneurship for PSU faculty, students, and our broader community and regional entrepreneurship ecosystem. This space will be the hub for new initiatives for propel PSU that they're launching to support innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. In addition to this recent work, prosper Portland was an important partner in other projects across the campus, including the vanport building, which is a partnership building with OHSU, pcc and PSU, and the city of Portland, as well as our business school and vital placemaking grants that they're providing for the livability of downtown Portland. Over the last 30 years, I've personally been involved in planning and development here in the city, and I've watched as prosper. Portland has done great work throughout the city, and that's led to the revitalization not just of downtown, but surrounding neighborhoods. And as a longtime resident of northeast Portland, I'm particularly proud of the work that they've done and that I've been able to participate from the neighborhood level. So I encourage you to further empower prosper Portland through an appropriate budget allocation so they can continue this important work and allow them to support the resurgence of not only downtown but also the Portland neighborhoods. Thank you.
495 Thank you very much.
496 Nicole. Sorry. Anna pickle in the room. Stephen miller, ezra hammer, abby guyer. Bryson davi, and leah. Nancy.
497 His team.
498 City council members. My name is abby guyer, and I'm executive director of accelerate women, a 501 c3 that supports oregon's women and gender expansive business owners on their journeys to success. I'm here today in support of continued and robust funding of prosper Portland and the critical work they do to support small businesses in our city. Accelerate is a proud member of prosper inclusive business resource network. Through this important program, we provide women owned businesses with the tools, resources and support needed to help them grow and scale their businesses. In 2024, accelerate proudly served 499 women owned businesses in the city of Portland, 167 women, generating nearly 17 million in gross revenues and collectively employing 338. Portlanders participated in our business advising and peer mentorship programs. 71% were low to moderate income individuals, with 59% of owners reporting income below 80% of oregon's median. We also delivered educational workshops and events to 322 community members, for a total of 919 service interactions. About 57% of the services we provided in 2024 were funded in part by prosper Portland. Accelerate is one of 18 nonprofits that receive funding through the prosper convenes regular meetings of the network where connections are made, collaboration is fostered, and best practices are shared. We regularly partner with other members to avoid duplication of services and fill gaps in resources. Your full support of ongoing general funding of prosper Portland, including in fy 26 and 27, will help ensure that accelerate and all of the organizations can continue to support underrepresented business owners in our community, leading to stronger economies, increased employment, and vibrant neighborhoods across Portland. Thank you.
499 All right.
500 Hi everyone. I'm leon and I'm the vice president of real estate and facilities for the omsi district. Thank you everyone for taking your time today. Omsi is a cornerstone of Portland, inspiring curiosity and lifelong learning in millions of visitors each year. The omsi district represents a visionary opportunity to transform 24 acres into a vibrant, inclusive new neighborhood and community rooted in innovation, arts and culture, and science learning. We are working with our indigenous partners to use the opportunity to reestablish tribal presence on the Willamette river. For nearly a decade, the city of Portland has been a dedicated partner in shaping the vision for the omsi district, and prosper Portland has played a key role. The bureau has served as a liaison to other city bureaus and facilitated collaboration, collaborative conversations that ultimately paved the way for the design commission approval of omsi central city master plan in 2023. In addition, prosper has been instrumental in forging public private partnerships needed to make the district a reality to complement the $11 million in funding from the state of Oregon, an additional 7.75 million for metro prosper has helped champion city funding for the project, which has been approved by the city council in September of 2024. This investment builds on portland's strong tradition of investing in neighborhoods that define the city's character in the future, and our partners played an active role in the central city tiff exploration process and supported the recommendation to create a new tif district in the central eastside corridor. Tif funds will help support the development of housing in the omsi district, where there is currently no housing, and the redevelopment areas, surface parking lots and brownfields prosper and support for the district will result in more than 11,000 jobs and significant tax revenues for the city. It will also unlock $1 billion in economic development in private development, inspiring future growth and opportunity. We encourage the city council to invest in prosper Portland so that it continues to deliver important programs and spur economic development in our city and our region. Thank you for your support.
501 Both for being here.
502 And bryson davis is online.
503 Bryson. Bryson. Thank you.
504 You can go ahead. Bryson.
505 Good evening council. My name is bryson davis. I own a small business here in Portland. I'm the president of the williams and russell cdc and I work with prosper Portland several areas over many years. First as part of the williams and russell project. But I'm also currently working with prosper as a service provider for the inclusive business resource network, working with reimagined Oregon, evaluating grant applications. And I've been involved with the community budget committee for the past several years. Being on the community budget committee, I see the tough choices and valuing that goes on in order to make the numbers work and best support the various values that go into the prosper Portland budget. You know, lisa talked about the high level details of the williams and russell project itself. It started as a project working group under prosper Portland, with support of the housing bureau, and evolved into a nonprofit and nearly $130 million development project. Through their support, the project would not be where it is. There would not be workers out there today digging without prosper support and ongoing engagement, more than direct funding for our buildings and our tenant improvements. We've had continuous support since 2018 to help us navigate the development process, and the programing that prosper provides, supports our future tenants and our fellow community members there in the room, sitting in our side to help us secure our funding for remediation, they showed up to support us in Salem and programs and supports like this is how we build community trust in our government. Further, the work that prosper does is how our government really provides some of the justice and reparation that many of us and the city government has had a rough relationship with many of portland's minority communities due to the actions of the government in the past, that lost trust can only be rebuilt through city employees on the ground, providing sought support directly to community members. Shay mentioned the focus on equity, especially to repair the harm done from ill conceived urban renewal programs. And prosper is out there doing that work. General fund dollars can help fill gaps in prosper's budget that tiff dollars can't fill, and I hope you will consider when you are finalizing your budget priorities.
506 Thank you.
507 Thank you very much.
508 Next, we have Elana dabrowsk, supriya joshi, sardar wali.
509 Thank you.
510 So sardar.
511 Wali will.
512 Testify in.
513 Farsi and frozen.
514 Will be interpreting for him.
515 Because we couldn't.
516 Arrange interpreter earlier.
517 I'm sorry we couldn't get somebody earlier for you all, but thank you. Go right ahead.
518 Elana is first up.
519 Thank you.
520 Good afternoon. Honorable members of the council.
521 My name is.
522 Elana dubrovskaya. I was born and raised in ukraine and came to this country two years ago as a refugee. Due to the war in my homeland, I am a certified ophthalmologist, surgeon, a. Specialist in laser vision. Correction. I have 27 years of experience in this field. I was able to start working in the usa only a week after I came. Even though it was a job as a caregiver, an adult foster care. I was grateful for this opportunity to work hard to earn an honest living and pay taxes. But I was hoping for the chance to return to the profession of an ophthalmologist, to which I dedicated my life. I reached out to dhs and was referred to as iworks, and I want to say that welcomed me with such warmth and kindness. The glisan asked thoughtful questions and began helping me create a clear plan through the pip program. At the time, my english was very limited. It works helped me enroll at Portland community college, which was a wonderful experience. The second step was to talk to the examining board to see if I could be allowed to take a trial test. The organization helped me prepare for the exam by buying the textbooks. For me, studying was difficult, but I passed the first trial trial exam and was allowed to take the test as he works. Helped me to fill out the paperwork and get a letter of recommendation from ukraine. In time they also paid for my exam. I couldn't believe such kindness and concern. The exam was incredibly difficult. It lasted three hours with no breaks. I struggled with understanding some questions. After all, english is my third language, but I passed. I passed the first time and when I saw the results, I burst into burst into tears. The moment. That moment represented the beginning of rebuilding my career in America. I am now a certified ophthalmologist assistant, and during job interviews, several clinics wanted me to start immediately. There is a serious shortage of specialists and ophthalmology here in Portland. Thank you for your time and for supporting the program that help immigrants and refugees like me rebuild our lives and contribute our skills to the Portland community. Thank you.
523 Thank you.
524 And rebecca, can we make sure to get extra time when we have a translator?
525 Yep. Next up we have suria.
526 Council president and councilors. My name is jose. I work for economic. Opportunity program at irco as a program coordinator.
527 For many.
528 Years, irco has been participating in federal matching grants that work system coordinates for the eop and nextgen program service providers. Through the snap 5050 matching program, we generate matching funds. From from department of agriculture for cities investment into workforce services that service snap recipients. These matching funds are placed back into our urko's and other service providers contract to serve more low income portlanders with more resources to make a greater impact. Urko was the first provider to partner with work system to pilot this program. Over the past decade, we have leveraged millions of dollars of federal funding into city and invested that that serving more residents with better funding service and for urko, primarily, our participants are from east Portland. This year, we are generating about $170,000 in federal funds from our economic opportunity program and nextgen program funded by prosper Portland. At this challenging time, urko is experiencing major reduction in federal funding to serve immigrants and refugees by making these investments into anti-poverty employment programing, we can leverage more federal funding back into the community to support the communities that urko serves this year alone. At this point, urko have 124 participants, and we have more than 25. People waiting to get into the program before our next program year even begins. We are holding on to our new enrollment for training because of lack of funding. On the success side, 90% of our participants are successfully employed by the end of the program, while 75% make an advancement through the increased wage and our benefit. And for the record urko have all of our participants are bipoc 100%. Please consider fully to this legacy program and know that by doing this, we will be leveraging additional federal resources to support Portland residents. Thank you.
529 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
530 Thank you, council president.
531 You take my time.
532 What are.
533 The best?
534 Afghanistan as.
535 As afghanistan? America.
536 Where would.
537 Cdl.
538 Driver what.
539 Left them?
540 My February.
541 Maps are.
542 Eop airco who are.
543 The majority as a.
544 Cdl who are.
545 The majority?
546 My name is sardar wali. I came from afghanistan. In afghanistan, I used to drive a. Truck when I arriving in Portland, so I was working as.
547 An uber.
548 Driver.
549 But my major field by occupation is the truck driving and I would like to start truck driving in here. Back for this. My occupation and my passion is that for ten years, because of that, I just apply for the enrollment and eop Portland program that will help me in to how to I get my cdl training for cdl training, dissipate of barrier of language of english language. Again, they they support me and I get my license. And after that when I get my license, I start to work in here. Currently he's working in here as a truck driving and he's very excited and very happy for that because he's now finally fulfilled need of his family in here. I would like to thank you for this eop program that is always be helping many people in our community that they really don't know how to get a job, a good job in united states. So they're always be help them. So kindly support them with the funds so they will continue their supporting with the immigrant and refugees in here so they can easily find a good job, and they can go for the training that they really want to do and get a better life in here. Thank you.
550 Leadership.
551 Thank you so much for all of you.
552 Thank you all for being here today. We appreciate hearing.
553 From you. Okay.
554 Mark lakpa sherpa and tony birch.
555 Go right ahead in the order you were called.
556 All right.
557 Good evening.
558 All council members.
559 My name.
560 Is lhakpa sherpa.
561 I'm from nepal.
562 When I get into Portland.
563 I do.
564 Not have any, like, serial driver's license. I just have the license. Regular license? I was doing something. Delivery job and something. And then somehow I find, like I met my friends in the restaurant and we talk about it all. What you do, like, you know, all the job things. And he recommended like there's a. Portland. What is it called? Is Portland economic opportunity program. And then I get there and I got a free training from this program from them. And then I got a my cdl license. Then I'm working in the Portland disposal recycling right now. So this is kind of stable job for me. So it's easy to survive beside of like doing something different job you know. So I'm very happy with that. And I wish I would say thank you for Portland economic opportunity company and keep doing this things people who likes me. Thank you.
565 Thank you.
566 Okay.
567 Thank you to the president and the council for hearing me. And to the city of Portland.
568 For.
569 The funding, the. Resources that help formerly incarcerated people. With the. Transition back to society. My name is mark poirier, and I've been in southeast pdx reentry program since September 2023. I'm here to ask that you.
570 Continue funding the important.
571 Work of the Portland. When I enrolled in pdx entry, I was in intensive outpatient. Treatment for substance use disorder.
572 And criminality.
573 About five years.
574 Ago, I was.
575 Living in a tent in warm springs, Oregon, because I chose to walk out on my. Wife so I could.
576 Get high all the time.
577 I was under the influence of meth. When I committed my crime, I got 36 months for assault with intent to do bodily harm from prison. I went to the halfway house to and from the halfway house to treatment. After six months in treatment, clients were allowed to get employment and start paying for rent. My counselor referred me to southeast works for help. With employment. Pdx reentry helped me find a job. I could not have done this without their help. Up until 2008, I was a wildland firefighter. After that, I was just an addict. I had 30 years of active addiction. When I started with southeast works, I needed to find a new career. My career coach taught me with the resume and got me on. Indeed, she taught me how to navigate the employment search. When I came in, I didn't have a smartphone and the program provided me one. This way I could check my emails and being able to. Being able to check my emails every day is how I got a job. Thank you. Okay, while I was in pdx reentry, I completed my crm program. I wanted to become a mentor to show people like me who are getting out.
578 That there.
579 Is hope if they do the right thing. While working towards my career goal, my career coach helped me find a short term job so I could pay my rent. When I started looking for jobs in the recovery team, I was getting. Turned down because I didn't.
580 Have a license.
581 Thank you.
582 Yeah.
583 Tony is online.
584 Good afternoon. My name.
585 Is tony burch. I'm the.
586 Owner of the local.
587 Dispensary chains broadway cannabis market and mint cannabis company, which four of our locations are in downtown Portland, making us the largest cannabis retailer in downtown. Collectively, I employ over 150.
588 Employees in the. Portland metro.
589 Area and am currently a member on the city of Portland cannabis policy.
590 Oversight team.
591 In Multnomah county alone, the cannabis industry generates. Over $200 million in annual revenue, which translates to easily over $1 billion in annual local economic activity. Despite our business, despite our industry being responsible for generating over $1 billion of local economic activity annually prospers. Portland and seaport are the only groups in the city that support us, support our industry in any way. The da is not supporting us when we bring them criminals on a silver platter. The underfunded police aren't supporting us when we call 911 to try and get irate, drugged out homeless people out of our stores, and pnd isn't doing anything other than putting, permitting. Building, permitting hurdles and fees on anything they can. This $200 million local industry gets zero support from the city, despite the egregious taxation happening to all businesses in the city. This continues. The continued support from Portland is essential to keep the fatigued operators in the city going in this atrociously anti-business environment of Portland and especially downtown Portland. As an example, I reached out to prosper Portland last summer. Last summer, after we had after our fifth window was broken at our downtown stores in a period of six weeks, several of those happening in the middle of the day. And I want to make this clear. This was these were not break ins. We have solid security shutters on the inside of the windows, and each of these broken windows were cased. Each of these cases was done by senseless vandalism, was committed by the countless drug zombies that the city just lets roam city, roam the streets, the cost of repair. The vandalism was in the many thousands and the work was written in collaboration with new projects were enough to secure some funding to offset those expenses. While it did not cover the full expense, we had to bear at least show that there was a group associated with the city that would at least take our calls and work with us on these issues.
592 Thank you very much for sharing those concerns with us.
593 Next we have brett, born, adriel person and joy church.
594 Good evening council, thanks for.
595 Having me. I'm here on behalf of district one and two cannabis dispensaries in rj and specifically in the boise neighborhood. I'm here to talk about cannabis tax allocation, c pot and prosper Portland. The city of Portland has a duty to be transparent and accountable in its use of cannabis tax revenue, a resource generated.
596 By a.
597 Regulated industry that emerged in response to decades of unjust criminalization. These funds are intended not only. To support. Core services, but to repair harm, uplift impacted communities, and build equitable economic opportunity.
598 To truly honor these goals.
599 Portland must implement clear, accessible. Public reporting on cannabis tax spending, formalize the cannabis policy oversight team as a permanent advisory body, and invest in prosper Portland to lead citywide cannabis economic development plans. Transparency is essential to building public trust. Voters support cannabis taxation with the understanding that it would directly benefit communities through public safety, treatment services and economic support. Yet without transparent, disaggregated data showing how funds are allocated and who benefits, Portland cannot be held accountable. Clear, publicly accessible reports broken down by agency, program and demographics are crucial to maintaining integrity and credibility. Establishing c pot as a permanent and powered advisory body ensures community led oversight. Pot brings lived experience and equity centered insight to cannabis policymaking by formalizing its role in granting its real influence over cannabis tax allocation, Portland ensures decisions are shaped by those closest to the industry and the harms of cannabis prohibition. Prosper Portland is critical to economic justice, with appropriate investment, prosper Portland can develop and implement a cannabis specific economic development plan focused on workforce development, entrepreneurial support, public safety, education, and social equity. This plan should be designed in partnership with c pot and the community to prioritize opportunity for those most harmed and past enforcement, and ensure long inclusion in the cannabis industry.
600 Thank you.
601 Thank you. I hope you continue to support prosper.
602 Next, we have dirk crimmel, stephanie huff, and paul andrews. Molina romero molina is online, followed by con tron and Eric larpenteur.
603 Molina.
604 Yes, I'm.
605 I'm sorry.
606 Sorry. Apologies. Do we see you?
607 No problem. Good afternoon, madam president and council members, I'm melina romero.
608 Empresarios. Program manager.
609 At hacienda cdc, which is a latino led organization dedicated to advancing the social and economic mobility of all communities. I'm here to submit testimony today in support of prosper Portland. In particular, support for its inclusive business resource network that funds the launch, stabilization and growth of small businesses. Iberian funding has supported the empresarios program, which serves over 130 women, minority and immigrant owned small businesses. We provide necessary services, including one on one advising, workshops and digital literacy skills in english and spanish. The Portland mercado served over 100 entrepreneurs through the commissary kitchen, and is a melting pot for small businesses that, through our partnership with prosper Portland, is laying the groundwork for the city's communities we serve who might otherwise not have the same resources afforded to them as others. Through funding, the empresarios program worked with a local entrepreneur to help launch her pistachio spread business, pistachio. Since launching one year ago, pistachio went from concept to being in over 100 retail stores nationally. Small businesses like pistachio generate tax income, create jobs and stimulate local spending, all of which support public services and infrastructure. We must continue to invest in the creation of new business and support emerging ones. The long term success of our city is directly linked to the success and sustainability of prosper Portland. Supporting it ensures economic growth and helps to close wealth gaps and inequities. Values important to us all. Hacienda cdc stands in solidarity with prosper Portland and seeks to minimize or eradicate budget cuts. If the council wants our city to thrive, I urge you to vote to amend the proposed budget cuts for prosper Portland. Thank you for your time.
610 Thank you.
611 Okay.
612 Contract here for the.
613 Record, good evening, city.
614 Council president pirtle-guiney and city councilors. For the record again, my name is con tran.
615 I am the policy director.
616 For the Oregon chapter of the national association of minority contractors.
617 Or namc.
618 For short.
619 We are a nonprofit business association with over 300 members companies across Oregon, all of whom are minority owned. I'm here today to express our support for our close partners, prosper Portland, specifically their community opportunities and enhancement program, or coep. Coep is not just a line item in a budget, it is a vital investment in the future of portland's economy and workforce, as you've heard. So from the gentleman two two cycles ago, co-op is one of the city's most intentional strategies to increase diversity and equity in the construction industry by supporting women and people of color, both as workers and as business owners. Through coop, namak alone has served 242 small businesses owned by people of color and delivered 1700 hours of technical assistance. Cvp has about almost a dozen partners. You can do the math. This. These aren't just numbers. They represent real people building sustainable livelihoods, growing local businesses and contributing to the economic resilience of our city. At a time when Portland must be preparing for a stronger and more inclusive economic future, this is precisely the wrong moment to scale back such a targeted and effective program for such an effective organization. Public dollars should reflect public values. I know these are difficult decisions, but I urge you all to give due consideration to these proposed cuts and stand by the commitment to equitable economic development. Thank you for your time and as always, your service to the city. And I beat the bill.
620 So thank you.
621 Thad. Fiscal thad's online.
622 Okay. Hello.
623 Good afternoon.
624 Sorry that I can't be in person today. I appreciate all that testimony.
625 Very powerful.
626 From all of these folks who have taken time to do this. I want to speak with you first.
627 As a.
628 Business person in Portland. I've run businesses in Portland for 25 years, raised my kids here. Tomorrow I will attend graduation for my younger son from lead school in boulder. My elder son is going to be here as well. He works in manhattan. He's in the design industry for a large multinational corporation. The point of me telling you this is that these two kids are gifted. They grew up in Portland, and they have no intention of coming back to our city as a father and as a businessman. It breaks my heart, but they feel fairly strongly in speaking with them that they will tarnish their opportunities moving forward by coming back to our city because of the negative, overall negative aspects that they feel concerned businesses in our community. As a volunteer for prosper on the community budget committee and as a volunteer on the northwest industrial business association, which runs from about thurman street over to Lents, between the park and the river. Large industrial zone there, I can say that businesses in general, in Portland and in our area are supported massively by prosper. The opportunities that they bring and being the only economic development agency in the city are tremendous for the businesses that have stayed and are still operating in our in our district. This isn't the time to defund that. The appearance of defunding it would be tremendously negative for the entire business community, and one that I would ask you please to take pause and spend time thinking about before you move forward with it. Overfunding may be a better option. Thank you.
629 Next is renisha hayes and their online.
630 Sorry, just one second. I did not hear that I was going. Hi, my name is. Can you hear me?
631 We can.
632 Okay. Perfect. My name is renisha hayes and I am the owner of consulting and coaching. I am a small business owner here in the Portland metro area, and I just wanted to make some support for prosper Portland, where a contractor with Portland means progress and the mercatus initiative, which are focused on supporting supplier diversity in the Portland metro regional area and also connecting local like large industry leaders with small local bipoc businesses in the area. So as a fourth generation portlander, the contributions from prosper Portland has significantly impacted my business. It has impacted the community. We have been able to scale and grow, extend our work across county lines, so we've been able to scale. Portland means progress to Washington county, and really, our hope is to continue scaling so that we can have universal and aligned programing across that, that crosses over city lines, county lines, state lines, because that's something that business owners tend to have a problem with. Right? They're they're going to Clackamas county, they're going to Multnomah county, they're going to Washington county. And it's different procedures and processes. And prosper. Portland has really been a leader in changing and innovating and developing partnerships across county lines and across lines. So as a contractor, as a supporter, as a portlander, that's been here for generations, I think it's super important to continue supporting the initiatives, the local infrastructure, supporting the small businesses that are here. And I think that's everything that I have. But I just want to just show a moment of support and thank you for your time.
633 Thank you.
634 Andrea wade. That concludes testimony.
635 Thank you very much. Thank you for everybody who was here for testimony tonight. Councilors. We do have staff who are willing to say stay, but it sounds like we may lose a quorum. So I am going to have us call it a night. And we will have to find time to come back to our conversations. Councilor. Yes.
636 I think we should just get this done. Right now. We have everyone in the room. People have really good questions they want to ask. We just heard really valuable testimony that I think will inform all of the questions we're going to ask. Our staff are here. Can we soldier on for 15 minutes and let some of our folks ask some questions? I don't even have questions. I just know some folks up here have really good questions.
637 Councilor, I hear you, but we have a number of folks who are gone at this point, and a few more who have events now. I know it's not ideal. So to that end.
638 We don't.
639 Have enough people. I agree.
640 With you.
641 Well. I believe that councilor Zimmerman has to go. Councilor Smith is getting ready to go. That's going to take us down to seven, which means that we would be having a discussion with a quorum, but with almost half of our colleagues not here to be able to participate.
642 Sorry.
643 I share your frustration, councilors, because it means we're going to have to find another time. And I know that we don't.
644 Well, why don't they just go and we just ask our questions and we get more time?
645 I'm okay if we have the full body. Hear the questions I want to ask. I want the full body to hear. But my expectation is that the chair of the commission will be present for that. Okay.
646 Okay.
647 So, councilors, we will continue the meeting of the prosper Portland budget committee to may 21st, but we will find time for a work session to discuss more between now and then. With that, I will carry over this conversation and close tonight's meeting. Is that correct, naomi? Or are we recessing?
648 So if you.
649 You we can we can close the meeting. The report is on file, so you don't have. That's fine. It's informational. And you can schedule a work session if you want to continue discussion on this before the perfect.
650 And we will close tonight's meeting.
651 Live on.