The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-04-22
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (22,967 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 Community and Public Safety Committee met Tuesday, April 22, 2025, with roll call confirming attendance and the standard conduct statement read into the record. The session opened with a presentation from Portland Solutions staff describing the program's four pillars—shelter services, impact reduction, public environment management, and street services coordination—along with its problem solver meetings, collaboration with police, the time/place/manner camping ordinance, and a case study involving RV removals near Northeast 33rd. Figures on approached campsites, arrests, and shelter acceptances were discussed, though some numbers were stated inconsistently across speakers. Discussion followed on the program's permanence, budget implications, and interactions with 911 dispatch and Portland Street Response. The committee then considered a resolution to support and expand Portland Street Response as a co-equal branch of the first responder system and to establish a related advisory committee. Presenters included invited guests describing alternative-response models in Albuquerque and Seattle. Extensive public testimony followed, with speakers expressing both support for and concerns about funding, staffing, independence from police, and bureaucratic structure. Committee members raised questions about costs, staffing definitions, labor input, and compliance with a federal settlement agreement. Votes occurred on ending discussion and on referring the resolution to full council with a recommendation for adoption; outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger. The meeting adjourned, with the next session scheduled for May 13.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
0 An order? Tuesday, April 22nd at 2:30 p.m. Okay.
1 Let's repeat that. Oh, my mic stopped working. Now it is. All right. Once again, I call the meeting of the community and public safety committee to order its Tuesday, April 22nd at 2:30 p.m. Keelan. Could you please call the roll?
2 Canal. Yes. Here. Maria. Here. Zimmerman. Here. Smith. Here. Novick. Here.
3 Christopher. Could you please read the statement of conduct?
4 Welcome to the meeting of the community and public safety committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance in the committee agenda at w-w-w. Md.gov. Slash. Agenda. Slash community dash and public safety committee. Or by calling 311. Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. For today's meeting, testimony will be one minute and 30s per testifier. Your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The chair preserves order. Disruptive conduct such as shouting. Refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered when testifying. State your name for the record. If you're a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
5 Thank you christopher. Our agenda today is full to the brim, so we're going to do our best to move quickly through items in order to allow for as much time as possible for public testimony. We'll begin with the presentation from Portland solutions on their operations related to community and public safety. Followed by questions and discussion by, by, and with councilors. We're hoping to hold that to end at three at 3:15 p.m, because subsequently we're going to be considering an ordinance pertaining to Portland street response. Councilor canal will give a presentation on the resolution or. Yeah, sorry resolution. A presentation on the resolution, followed by public testimony and committee discussion. And finally a vote on the item, because we currently have more than 30 people signed up for testimony. We are planning to limit testimony to one minute and 30s. If when we get to the public testimony portion of the agenda, we somehow have more time, we might expand that. But I apologize for the time limitation. But in any event, we will make sure that people get the same amount of time. So I'm afraid that I will probably have to cut people off after one minute and 30s. Keelan can you please read the first item?
6 Item one Portland solutions.
7 Thank you to the Portland solutions team for coming to us today to share how they work and interact with the continuum of community and public safety services across the city. You may begin.
8 Thank you, chair and councilors. For the record, skyler becker, director of Portland solutions, here with hank Smith, our deputy director. We will go very quickly. I know we have a short timeline. Next slide please. Just a quick overview that I think you all are aware of. But we have four pillars within Portland solutions. One is the shelter services program that provides stabilization on the continuum for folks living on the streets and connecting them to permanent housing. We currently manage nine alternative shelter sites, one congregate shelter and two overnight shelters that we added in January. We are working with the mayor and his team to add more right now. The impact reduction program manages the city's camp reporting and removal operations. They provide trash removal and hygiene service programs that serve people experiencing homelessness. The public environment management office, or pmo, maintains and activates public spaces through creative lighting, murals, landscaping and improvements. It brings city partners and stakeholders together to the problem solver network. We'll talk about that a little bit more. And the street services coordination center, or our city outreach team, facilitates communication and collaboration with internal and external partners to better address the impacts of homelessness and provide outreach and homeless services in a more streamlined way. Thank you. Portland solutions closes some critical gaps in public safety. So we just wanted to address some of those pieces today. We partner with a lot of different aspects within the city and externally, but these are just some things that we offer as part of this program and across the entire city. We problem solve for persistent issues and coordinate with the right teams to get results. We're providing an outlet for community grievances and non-emergency concerns, freeing up police and fire in Portland, street response and other really important first responders in the system so they can focus on more urgent concerns. This is we have an outreach first approach. It's proactive. And we provide case management for folks living outside or through our shelter program. Next slide please. We have a problem solver network through pmo that brings together business districts and neighborhood associations. As well as community organizations and other stakeholders. We include some often forgotten corridors in the city, or seems we like to think of as like the areas between neighborhood associations or business districts that have often been lost or forgotten. These problem solver meetings give portlanders time to engage with city staff so they can start to see neighborhood challenges addressed and have an opportunity to feel heard. We keep those meetings to about 30 minutes, except for a couple meetings that require one hour meetings just to the amount of folks who show up. But we try to provide a punch list, what we call a punch list, for items that the neighborhood or the folks who are providing, who are participating are really interested in solving so small things within their neighborhood or their business district that we can address as a city really quickly and collectively. Thank you. This is just a map of all those problem solver meetings. I know it's a little hard to read, but you can see the red meeting areas that kind of overlap with different districts and different neighborhood or business associations. We work in 16 different areas around the city, from downtown to east and north Portland. We cover every inch of the city. Every problem solver area meets every two weeks and is online, and we can send out those invites to anybody who's interested. Portland solution dismantles a lot of silos that were previously within the city of Portland. So we were created to really break down barriers and cut through some red tape in order to bring different aspects of the city together to work more efficiently and collectively. We work across jurisdictional barriers to solve community problems. And we work within the city, but also with external partners and teams, so closely with Multnomah county and others throughout the city. I think.
9 Great. Good afternoon, councilors. I'll take over presentation from here. Portland solutions works closely with the police bureau. So in those 16 problem solver meetings that skylar just mentioned, police are almost always present. It's a chance for them to speak about recent operations. Also, give some advice. There's often a lot of calls of when do I call 911, when do I call non-emergency, etc. And they can provide some counsel to the community and also hear directly from the community about hotspot areas, problems that may not have surfaced to their radar already. The impact impact reduction program, which does campsite clean and removals throughout the city. Sometimes has to rely on police to help address an escalating situation for their own safety and security. At the same time, police often reach out to our impact reduction program to highlight campsites of concern, often just like this morning. At one of our weekly meetings, police mentioned a campsite that was on a dangerous high traffic corridor, a little too close to traffic for their comfort, and so they were looking for help from the impact reduction program to address that site. And a lot of this interaction with the police takes place under the umbrella of the street services coordination center. So that was the weekly the meeting I was speaking about this morning, one of those weekly meetings with the those bring together various parts of the city, breaking down those silos that skye mentioned. So it's from housing inspectors. Sometimes they're vacating a property and they need they want to highlight it to our teams that there may be ten or so individuals leaving that vacant property who are maybe squatting in it, that are going to be in need of assistance, and we can get our outreach team there. We can make sure it's on police radar. Just to keep everybody on the same page. We see a lot of our work as an alternative to policing. We know police can't be everywhere at all times to stop or prevent crime. Also, it's not really appropriate to call 911 for every single thing happening in a community. And so what we're looking to do is leverage our team's skills and connections to proactively address some hot spot areas throughout the city. Those areas often need a lot of deep conversations with the community about what's going on. And so we rely on pmo and our outreach to our to the community to guide those conversations. We include the police, and we try to lean on expertise like those from the septet, analysts and safe blocks to help guide solutions. And then it's our team that tries to carry forward with the last that hard, last 25% of taking a good idea and seeing it through to completion, finding the funding, getting the permits, etc. To get something done. In the streets of Portland to for benefit of the community. Some examples that come up. You know pmo is often put in murals in graffiti hotspots, you know. So every night a wall was getting tagged. And when a nice mural goes up, sometimes that's when the tagging stops there. Adding lights throughout the city, especially in areas where drug dealing might take place. So knowing where that's happening. What can we do? We're not going to be able to have police there 24 over seven. But lights sometimes make it an unattractive area for drug dealing. And also engaging with some of the schools around Portland who are often concerned about rvs, lived in rvs near their property. How can we address that? So highlighting it through pmo and then we work with PBOT and our street services coordination center to engage with the individuals there and get those rvs moved to a different location. Okay. We wanted to highlight the time, place, manner, ordinance. This this was a change to city code that was passed in may of last year. And it addressed rules around camping in the public. When a violation of this rule occurs, the city code says the penalty could be up to seven days in jail if somebody is arrested, or up to $100 of fines. The map you see up there is a heat map of our campsite assessment report. So the impact reduction program sends out teams that assess a site for its impact on the community. We focus in on those highest impact sites when we think about the time, place, manner, ordinance. We also take feedback from the community and the police, especially about campsites that might be really high impact. Think about campsites that might have numerous calls to 901 about the behavior going on there. And also areas where our own outreach team has spent a lot of time and maybe been rebuffed in their efforts to connect somebody to shelter. So since the code was updated, 42 locations have been approached. The process for doing that is it's a lengthy process where we coordinate closely with police and also Multnomah county corrections counselors to make sure everybody's on the same page, and as well with the impact reduction program, so that when a campsite is approached, if somebody is accepts shelter, the impact reduction program can move in and clean out that campsite so that the materials don't stay on the street after somebody leaves it. Of the 42 times that we've approached sites, the vast majority of results were shelter was accepted by an individual who had previously refused it. And that's really the output we want to see. In two of those cases, arrests were made. I'll just note quickly here that we haven't approached a site under this tpm ordinance since February of this year. Our team is heads down on building overnight shelters. That's our focus. So while our outreach team does coordinate virtually every day with police about high impact sites, we haven't employed this tpm methodology at any site since February. Also kind of to conclude, wanted to highlight a mini case study. I think most portlanders would be familiar with a lot of the rvs along northeast 33rd, just south of marine drive. A year or so ago, and a really persistent issue PBOT had been there multiple times. Police have been there multiple times, kind of one off efforts to address some of the issues there. But finally, we were approached by some of the neighbors and neighborhood associations, and we said, let's really do this cohesively. And so we set a date where PBOT could marshal its resources for towing. But prior to that, we had our outreach team go for weeks really building relationships, working in conjunction with the county outreach workers, just making sure everybody there knew what was about to happen and knew and how to contact in outreach. And we also had the unique situation of having just opened a shelter. And so we had a lot of spaces available. And so when we did go in to address the situation, we were able to connect. Almost 60 people to shelter pods that we had available, and we were able to tow over 60 of those vehicles off the road. So when somebody went to shelter, they said, yes, you can take this vehicle, I don't need it anymore, it doesn't work, etc. And so we were able to tow it off the road. Later on, impact reduction program came in and took out literally tons and tons of materials to clean up that area. And the port of Portland, who we collaborated with closely because it's their land on either side, installed some signage, but also was there while we were doing a lot of the outreach and removals to help maintain order to things. And the result is today it remains free of lived in rvs. Sunderland rv site is nearby, as you know, and so we consider that a success where there's a lot of tools in our collective tool kits and the city and the county, etc. But when we collaborate this way to work together, we can kind of maximize everybody's ability for a more long lasting solution. And that concludes our presentation. If there are any questions.
10 And we have three of our managers for three of these verticals here to answer questions as well if you need. Thank you.
11 I'm not seeing any hands up. But it could be that I'm like mismanaging my.
12 Great ever done.
13 Councilor Zimmerman.
14 All right.
15 Since there weren't a lot of questions, I'll just take the opportunity to reiterate my actions that the city administration treat Portland solutions as a significant part of the public safety fabric. I think what grew out of the last administration of a variety of programs that each of you represent into what's now Portland solutions, is about the most responsive city service provided in the community for the last couple of years. And so I appreciate it. And in my approach to this upcoming budget, when I say no cuts in public safety, that extends to this section. The power of the problem solver meeting is unmatched in terms of cutting through this city's enormous and confusing level of bureaucracy. And that is that is something that every portlander who I've met, who has interacted with, with problem solvers has appreciated. And so that that aspect cannot go unnoticed. And in a lot of ways, I think we sit up here in districts in response to a city who desired a more responsive, geographically based, centered on districts and problem solvers meets that in a lot of ways. The. The amount of problems that your team is involved with is just something that that I don't know that you could I don't know that you could design a program from the ground up and come up with what Portland solutions is. It's one of those that we built structure around a bunch of problem solving efforts that occurred. And so I appreciate it. I will on the record, though, say I'm very concerned that we have stepped away from enforcement of the camping rules since February. Now, that's not that long ago. And I can recognize that maybe there are some reasons for that. But when the mayor shared that the other day on kgw last week, it caused me alarm not knowing that, and it continues to cause me alarm today. While this city has only enforced a handful of cases, it remains an important backstop. And when we designed those rules, they were designed as an important backstop. And while none of you are the mayor and you all work for the mayor, and I'm on camera, and so this is the time I get to say that that is concerning, that we are not doing that. We worked way too hard to backslide. And so I welcome a further conversation to understand the reasoning behind that. And also when we plan to turn on enforcement of the most egregious cases, because what I think about in these situations are the neighbors who have called each of your guys's different numbers or registered on each of your websites, not just dozens, but hundreds of times for the most egregious and damaging behavior that has occurred in the variety of neighborhoods and those neighbors. They still need some level of enforcement for the people who refuse to engage in civilized society. Right. And so I think that that is really important. The fact that a person remains homeless cannot be the reason that they get to ignore all the rules of society. So you guys have done a great job creating, I think, a very soft touch approach. And I think most, most homeless folks in our community have responded well with your variety of your teams. It's unmatched, but we have such a tiny percentage who can also make a big impact. So that's where my biggest concern goes. And then as we move into the budget season, you know, lucas and others who have, you've done great work in terms of expanding, you know, rapid response and the. The warehouse where we keep folks things to make sure that we're meeting people's needs, their rights, and doing that as ethically as, as we can. And, nate, you know, the, the rv towing and I don't know what the right word, the destruction of the derelict rvs that have just been left all over the city. I hope that you signal what you need to keep doing that work, at whatever level you expect in the coming year, and I'll be supportive of it in the budget season. That's all my comments. Thank you. Thank you.
16 Councilor Kanal.
17 Thank you, co-chair Novick. Thanks everybody for being here. I would love at another point, and maybe this is not the right committee, but to actually get some time to talk to brandi as well. I think so much of the conversation we have around the sort of ethical aspect of it, that the things that that councilor Zimmerman touched on near the end of his comments there, I think is has a lot to do with with that team as well as as earp as well.
18 Councilor she is on vacation, but she would be here if she was not on vacation. I promise. Sorry.
19 Appreciate it. Yeah, maybe another time. But. But I also want to make sure she gets some of the flowers she well deserves. So. But I will ask here if, if. And I imagine it's primarily a question for anne, but it could be for anybody. Can you speak to the collaboration between Portland solutions and the safe blocks program?
20 Sure. Councilor Kanal. My name is anne hill. I'm the manager at the public environmental management office. The safe blocks team is invited to the all of the problem solver meetings. But specifically, they have been integral at the dawson park or northeast Portland meeting. They've also been we've worked closely with them at the hazelwood gateway meeting. And I was most recently I think one of their newest locations is brentwood-darlington, and we were just communicating on which problem solver meeting was that? Lents. So we have worked with them from the beginning of pmo, and we've briefed both the teams. We've worked with them. I've met with andrew, talk to him about different initiatives, funding. So when we have a problem that comes up that meets safe blocks mission and is something that they are spearheading, they take it and run with it. Another example would be I know that around dawson park, the staff did a septic assessment of one of the buildings. We then followed up with a site visit to see how we could help fund some of those suggestions or recommendations for that clinic. So that they could actually make that assessment a reality for their property.
21 Thank you. I'm really excited to hear that. I think it's helpful for me to know and colleagues as well to know that there's collaboration, but also slightly different focus area as well. Because I think we get asked about that sometimes that people may know about one and not sure about the need for the other, but saying both why they're different and how they work hand in hand is really helpful for me. And then councilor Zimmerman mentioned this as well. So, lucas, my other question would be for you. Can you give us a little bit of information, maybe for those who don't know about the warehouse and the storage and how people's items are stored after they're collected?
22 Thank you. Yeah. Lucas hillier I use he him pronouns, and I manage the city's impact reduction program. We have two storage warehouses. One is like a day storage facility on fifth and hoyt. I think kind of next. It's where tpi used to be. That's for folks living outside. Can come drop their stuff off and then come pick it back up. I think we have about a 30 day max on that. So if somebody can't get there that night to pick up their stuff, they can come back a couple days later. That's usually all the way maxed out at capacity. We have several hundred people using that on a daily basis. And then we have the property storage warehouse over on avon street that we took you guys over to. That is two warehouses. We cut the wall out of one of them so they're jammed together, and now they're one 17,000ft■!s. We have rows of ras that are six levels high and is usually about 90% full. Everything that we collect at an encampment that would classify as property under both our policy and state law, which is anything that's reasonably assumed to be of utility and value or value, gets stored in the warehouse for 30 days. So when we're doing a cleanup, we try to get in and out of that spot location in the community as quickly as possible. We take obvious garbage and put it into black plastic bags that goes straight to the dump. Anything that could possibly be property goes into clear plastic bags. Goes over to the warehouse, and then we have a team over there that kind of sorts through it inventories. It takes pictures of everything. And that gets stored at the warehouse for a period no less than 30 days. And then in instances where if somebody was arrested on or before the removal, we know that person is incarcerated or unable otherwise to come pick it up at that time. We can store it for longer than 30 days. And if somebody is staying in contact with our folks and for whatever reason, can't pick it up by the 30 day deadline, we will hold on to it as long as they they stay in contact with us.
23 Thank you very much. I think that's good for me now. Thank you.
24 Co-chair councilor Smith.
25 Thank you. Chair co-chair. Skyler, thank you so much for the presentation. I noticed that on your third slide, one of the ways you reduce burdens on first responders is by addressing low level safety concerns so police can focus on emergencies. What type of incidents are we talking about here? What qualifies as a low level safety concern versus a high level safety concern?
26 Yeah. No, it's a great question, councilor. Thank you. The I would say hank jump into. But the ones that come to mind for me are when our outreach team is proactively engaged in the community. Maybe instead of calling 911, they would be able to talk to someone, figure out what their needs might be, whether they need a coffee or a sandwich, or maybe access to a different resource. So it might be some of those unwanted person calls that police sometimes get burdened with. If that escalates, obviously we would call 911 and it might be the purview of Portland street response or the police, depending on kind of what the issue is. But prior to that, if they're able to engage with the individual and really offer them different resources, that would be one that I that comes to mind on a regular basis. Is there anything else that you would think of?
27 Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of this is proactive, proactively addressing some of those low level concerns. So I mean, this morning there's a campsite, I'm in touch with the neighbor part of the city where a campsite been in front of their location. They want to lease it out as a warehouse they want to lease and campsites in front of it. But the individual there had a hammer, right? So kind of walking around with a hammer, not necessarily threatening anybody, making that individual feel uncomfortable. And, you know, some individuals might call police at that moment. But we were able to get our outreach team there, who then then did work in conjunction with police to address the situation. But we're able to we have different tools than just simply calling 911, which is oriented towards that immediate response to ongoing crime and prioritizing that way. So we kind of try to proactively get out to sites or locations before they escalate to that situation where it would be more appropriate to call 911 to come take immediate action.
28 So in terms of Portland solutions, how does Portland solutions partner with Portland ceasefire, Portland street response if someone calls, for example, if someone calls 311, how do they determine who actually answers the call?
29 It's a great question. So we work very closely with 311. Hank specifically meets with them weekly just to help them understand what different programs responses can be, what other tools, basically, that we have to offer in terms of portland's ceasefire, just last week, we were working with victims of a crime. They reached out to us to say, we don't have anywhere for these folks to go because they don't have housing right now. And we were able to work with our street services coordination center and our outreach director to get folks into a motel short term, and then connect with other resources to try to get them housing. So we do that on a pretty regular basis and try to collaborate together to figure out any resources in the community that we can access for different individuals. We're serving different purposes, but we know there's a lot of overlap sometimes. And so we want to make sure that we're offering those resources. 311, I think is a great tool to be able to differentiate between different city services that I think the public might get confused by, and we work really regularly with them and actually answer their questions in real time on teams, or can take a call directly. They can forward it to our numbers. We have a crisis number now that they can forward to. So if there's a question that they really can't answer, then we can be an immediate response.
30 Excellent. I think you all have, in a short period of time, have been working with the community and the business community in a way that is, as counselor Zimmerman said, unmatched. And so I appreciate you doing the good work. And this is this is hard work. So thank you for the service.
31 Thank you. Councilor appreciate it.
32 So first of all, I'd like to take the opportunity to make a sort of public service announcement, which is this if ann hill ever offers you a ride in her car, you can expect to see the temperature cranked up to about 90 degrees. However, she's more than willing to listen to the bangles or the go-go's. So before you die of heat stroke, you can at least enjoy some good 80s music. The question I have is, do we think of portland's solutions in the various aspects of it as being permanent things? Do we think that if we can resolve the unsheltered homelessness crisis, these things will go away? Or do we think that the services that you provide will, will, will be needed on into the future?
33 It's a great question, chair. I, hank, and I like to think of portland's solutions as the response the city needs. So whatever the city needs at that moment, we will be nimble. We will meld into whatever. Is not being addressed. So we're trying to kind of fill in the gaps from different city functions. We're trying to do the thing that kind of everyone else has said no to. And so I think we're going to be a part of the city as long as there's a need for that function, frankly. And so I think there's a world in which maybe that's not necessary. I don't think that world is in the near future, to be honest. I do think that homelessness is going to continue to be the biggest issue that we are facing, for a variety of reasons. If that's no longer the case or we have a global pandemic, I would imagine that we would also be called upon to immediately switch to address that need. We try to address things kind of from an emergency management approach. So we work closely with pbem. And whenever there's an emergency, I think we will be called upon to do that function. But I would love to live in a world where Portland solutions doesn't need to exist, to be honest. I think it is incredibly important work, but I think we all know that we're filling a lot of different gaps and needs that were just in existence. Councilor Zimmerman spoke to this as he helped create a lot of these functions. We were really trying to manage a lot of emergencies at once.
34 Councilor Zimmerman.
35 Thanks, chair. Novick I am going to use your question as a as a point to just highlight. Sometimes I think the work does get confused with just being related to the challenges that are faced with, you know, open drugs, homelessness, things of that nature. But the question is really important. And, and, and maybe not all of the of the, you know, offices that are represented on the dais there. But for pmo in particular, if I think about some of the neighborhood enhancements that have happened over the last few years, I, I hope regardless of the homeless situation, I hope that we note how well pmo has helped neighborhoods, businesses, business coalitions. Et cetera. Navigate the bureaucracy of city of Portland government. I think about the decorative lanterns that are strung across in old town today. I think about similarly what occurred in the central east side. I think about the just blocks and blocks and blocks of the expansion on the street, tree lighting programs that some others were already doing, and pmo is now helped expand to the whole neighborhood. And so I think it's a great question, because sometimes we think of this group as only tackling those issues. However, this city of Portland, in its old form, has created so many darn silos that there are not enough phds in the city of Portland government to understand how to navigate through those in a way where you keep your own sanity. And so pmo is helping neighborhoods do that on a daily basis. And I hope even after the fact, if we magic wand it and solve that, there's no more graffiti, no more open trash, no more homelessness that we still and we probably still won't have solved the bureaucracy of the city of Portland enough to say pmo shouldn't exist. So great question. But also really important in terms of it is part of a larger way in which we serve as district representatives. I actually think way more than our community engagement world. I actually think our greatest engagement for me as a district councilor is through pmo, because they're the ones helping me navigate, even on behalf of, of my constituents. So thank you.
36 Seeing no one left in the queue, I think that we have ten minutes to get back to you. Thank you very, very much for joining us. Keelan. Could you please read the next item.
37 To support and expand Portland street response as a co-equal branch of the first responder system and establish the Portland street response committee.
38 This item comes to us from councilors Avalos, canal, and Morillo. It's our intention to vote on this item today. However, as I mentioned previously, you have many people signed up for public testimony, so we'll do our best to move quickly and accommodate everyone. With that, I pass it over to my co-chair, councilor Kanal.
39 Thank you. Co-chair Novick. While we're getting the slides up, colleagues, today I'm introducing alongside colleagues councilor Morillo and councilor Avalos, a resolution to support and expand Portland street response as a co-equal branch of portland's first responder system. I'll give a brief overview of the document, then pass it to my two colleagues. We also have two invited presenters I'll introduce and hand it to. After that, we'll have time for q&a, public testimony and committee discussion on referral to council. We'll just wait a moment to get the slides up, it seems. Showing for me on zoom, I don't know, not on the screen yet. Here.
40 I need to do something.
41 Here we go.
42 All right, well, Portland street response is a relatively new part of our first response system. It's had several steps on its path from a community initiated pilot program to where it is now. It has many steps left to go. However, it has had numerous indicators, including independent evaluations, showing that it is already successful within its current scope of work and that this success is scalable. It's also a highly popular program, which I'm sure we've all heard about. I certainly have in town halls and listening sessions. Next slide please. This document would publicly express council support for Portland street response, which has endured some critical words from councils past and which has faced higher than expected staff attrition. It would clarify council's intent to move to 24 over seven for Portland street response as an independent, and also integrated part of our first responder system. Stating this intent would meet an Oregon health authority rule, which is one of the prerequisites for being able to bill medicaid for some of sers work. It's whereas clauses document sers history, which to date lives in various people's minds, some who work for the city and some who do not, as well as various documents, but not all in one place. It establishes a general council direction and framework for eventually putting Portland street response into code, as parts of the city government, ranging from Portland fire and rescue to urban forestry to police to noise control, all are. Finally, it indicates council's values as we approach budget conversations without committing to specific dollar amounts or outcomes. This resolution serves as a first step and expression of values and a roadmap for where council intends to go. Next slide please. It's also important to note what this resolution does not do does not affect bargaining rights in any way. In particular, it does not change the committee that has representatives from staff on it which has been discussing it. You may have seen it in the mayor's announcements previously, which was part of the letter of agreement already bargained. It doesn't affect Portland fire and rescue or its firefighters. Psr is already independent of the fire bureau for about nine months now. Pfa does have employees at psr. We did speak to them about this document. It doesn't affect the Portland police bureau or police officers. Psr already is allowed to hand off calls and receive calls handed off between them and the police, and is moving towards having some calls designated to have both psr and police on scene, each doing what they're designed to do. And this doesn't change that much in the way that fire and police are co-equal with each other without either diminishing the other, adding an additional co-equal branch over time that includes psr would not negatively affect either. This document is a resolution so does not immediately appropriate money to psr, nor does it have any impact on this year's budget. All budget related conversations around psr remain part of the conversation that we have coming up on the 2025 2026 city budget. And finally, it does not immediately move psr to 24 over seven service. That will take time to do in terms of budgeting, hiring and training new staff and the administrative setup necessary to get there. Next slide please. What the resolution does do is affirm psr is designed for mental and behavioral health crises, and that it can respond to 911 calls in line with de-escalation best practices. Next slide please. It encourages the mayor to do several things, including some the mayor's already in progress on, such as shuttling communications and outreach, formal designation as a first responder, hiring and training, and the call type review. It also encourages the mayor to reestablish our independent evaluations of psr, which help psr evolve to meet community needs and to hire permanent psr leadership. Next slide please. Finally, this resolution brings regular portlanders back into the process of shaping psr s future. As noted, this doesn't change the workgroup that has employees on it, so their input remains a core part of this as well. When the program was first launched, it was launched with community input and support to help shape it. Now, there's no formal, direct way to do so. Creating a psr committee to advise council on its future does not duplicate existing committees and again has no current budgetary impact. It does bring community back into the discussion and meets our previous commitment as a city to form a committee. Next slide please. And all of this is in service of bolstering psr as a co-equal branch of our first responder system, fully equipped and supported to do the work of mental and behavioral health crisis response. To wrap up my part of this and then pass it along, there's been a lot of instability and change for the program to date. Writing all this down and committing us to psr future as a city and as a council has meaning because psr does good work and we want it to continue. I'd also like to thank all the groups that we consulted in developing this document. All these groups have different opinions, opinions and focuses, but they shared their expertise with us and we appreciate them. They include Portland street response leadership, the office of the deputy city administrator for public safety, protect 17, which represents some psr employees. The Portland firefighters association, which represents some psr employees, the Portland police association, and friends of Portland street response. We also got some advice from our final two presenters that you see on screen. We'll introduce them in a moment, but with that I will pass it over to councilor Morillo for her thoughts. Thanks.
43 Thank you so much, chair. Canal I think that this is something incredibly important. It's obvious that this was important to the community that we do, and take steps to bring Portland street responsibly to fruition, and we have an opportunity to do that with this roadmap laid out before us. I deeply appreciate the presence and continued work of mariella and chief barton. Thank you for showing up and sharing the important work that's already underway, and for continuing to hold space for the vision of a better public safety response that's rooted in ensuring the right response, care and compassion. Thank you to the community advocates who, even during periods when there wasn't clear champions on city council. Your commitment never wavered. You stayed rooted in the mission and helped mobilize over 10,000 petition signatures, community endorsements, and sustained public pressure. And this resolution would not be here without your assistance. It's time for Portland street response to become the first responder system that it was always envisioned to be. The community, data and national models all show that an unarmed mental health behavioral health crisis response saves lives, reduces harm, and builds trust. Now, Portland street response deserves the full support of city council. Portland can and should catch up to national progress. Cities like albuquerque and seattle have moved forward with co-equal branches of unarmed responses. Portland was a leader at the start, and now we're falling behind. It's time for us to lead again by rightsizing Portland street response, expanding its call criteria and ensuring long term stability. This is not a new practice. This is a response system that soon every city and the country will embed into their first responder system, and the data confirms that this is needed. With over 7400 calls responded to without a single team injury. Portland street response has proven that safe, effective and better to be a safe, effective and better alternative to traditional law enforcement for behavioral health crisis calls. Removing its limitation, expanding its calls and hours will create a more holistic, efficient and effective 911 system and allow officers to focus on high priority calls, which is what portlanders have been asking us to do. This resolution protects Portland street response's original mission, and it ensures that Portland street response is not used for sweeps, not forced into enforcement roles, and stays focused on crisis response, connection and healing. We are taking this moment to honor the intent and integrity of Portland street response's creation. This is about listening to the people, to the research, and to those with lived experience. We are realigning Portland street response with its roots unarmed, trauma informed, community centered care. Thank you so much.
44 Thank you. We'd like to invite up councilor Morillo. Sorry, councilor Avalos to come up here. Thank you. Councilor maria.
45 Latina.
46 And also we have our next presenter. After that will be online. Take it away.
47 Thank you. For the record, councilor Avalos from district one. Thanks for the invite. I am proud to join councilor Kanal and councilor Morillo as chief co-sponsors of this crucial resolution to establish Portland street response as a coequal branch of our first responder system. Together, our office has worked for months crafting and researching components of this resolution with community advocates, and it has earned the support of pro-tech 17 and psr program staff. It's important to emphasize that this resolution does not force the city to do something it isn't already supportive of doing, but rather it aligns the purpose and scope so that we are setting the sails in the same direction and making a unified commitment toward improving how we care for portlanders who need help. As a city, we must prioritize compassion and dignity in how we respond to behavioral health crises. Portland street response has shown time and again that it is a better alternative to traditional police responses for people in mental health or behavioral crises, reducing the likelihood of force and connecting people with the support that they need. By making psr a co-equal branch, we are formalizing its role as a critical part of our public safety infrastructure and ensuring that this program can continue to grow, reach more people, and save lives. One thing I heard often from portlanders during my campaign was that they wanted the right responder at the right time, and for the right reasons. And expanding Portland street response fits perfectly within this vision. We must widen our entire public safety system to ensure that the right resources are available for every situation, and psr is a key component of that approach. This is particularly needed in east Portland, where my constituents often face unique challenges and barriers in accessing timely and appropriate care. Portland needs this expansion, and I urge my colleagues on the committee to pass this resolution so we can take the next critical step toward a more effective, compassionate and comprehensive public safety system. Thank you.
48 Thank you, councilor Avalos. Next, we're lucky to have with us online mariela ruiz angel, formerly of albuquerque community safety and now the director of alternative response initiatives at the center for innovations in community safety at georgetown law.
49 Thank you so much. And good evening, council members. My name is mariela. Angela and I serve as the director of alternative response initiatives at georgetown law center for innovation and community safety. Many of you know me from my time in albuquerque, where I had the privilege of founding the albuquerque community safety department, one of the largest and most robust alternative response programs in the country. Just this year, that department celebrated its 100,000th 911 call for service. Since launching in 2021. Now at georgetown, I work closely with jurisdictions nationwide to build a modern, more responsive public safety infrastructure through research, policy development, technical assistance, and convenings. We've supported a growing national movement of behavioral crisis response programs that are changing what public safety looks like and what it can achieve. We've seen these programs up close. Programs like albuquerque, which now responds to over 3500 calls each month as a third branch of public safety, alongside police and fire, or durham's hart program, responding to over a thousand calls a month with teams of clinician, peers and emts. These programs aren't just promising, they're delivering results, higher quality of care, stronger connections to services, fewer unnecessary police responses, and less strain on fire and ems systems. And importantly, in many cities, the strongest supporters and cheerleaders of these efforts are law enforcement officers themselves. Most of them don't want to spend time on calls that are better suited for a clinician or a peer responder. They want to focus on serious crime and prevention. Back in 2020, many of us were building these systems without a blueprint, just a belief that we could do better. Cities like Portland helped forge that path. And today we have an expanding network of programs across cities, big and small atlanta, san francisco, evanston, rochester, the list goes on. And providing what works and how to sustain it. We have a blueprint. What I find to be the most effective in programs that are sustainable and that have in common, are three things. Direct dispatch from 911. People do trust 911 in some communities, and even those that don't. Still, unfortunately sometimes have to call 911. That is how people reach crisis responders. Adding layers slows responses and creates risk. Two a broad call type spectrum programs must address both low acuity calls and high acuity calls to reduce police burden and prevent crises from escalating. And three competitive pay responders need to be compensated like the professionals they are, and even then, these programs are still more cost effective than overreliant on police in every issue, for every issue. But none of this works without political courage. These programs thrive when leaders, both elected and operational, treat them not as experiments, but as core components of first response. That requires a shift in mindset, not just from governments, but from professional fields involved, many of whom never imagined their work might take them into the streets at 1 a.m. In the morning. But that's what it means to truly meet people where they are at. Let me close with this. Public perception of crime often doesn't align with reality. Even in years with historically low crime, residents feel unsafe. Why? Because they equate visible disorder with mental health crisis, substance use. Homelessness with danger. Some argue this is why we need more police presence, but research tells us otherwise. That approach not only fails, it often deepens the very cycles we're trying to break. Alternative response isn't a silver bullet, but it is a crucial first step. It's how we start building cities that respond with care, with precision and with purpose, where people in crisis are met with help, not handcuffs, and where all residents, not just those in immediate need, begin to feel what real community safety looks like and feels like. Thank you. And I stand for questions.
50 Thank you very much. And before we open it up for questions, I'll pass it to our last presenter here. Amy barton, who's the first chief at the community assisted response and engagement department in seattle, better known as seattle care.
51 Good afternoon. It's so nice to be here. I am amy barton. I am the chief of seattle care department, which is a fully independent third public safety department. I'm unique in the country and that I have oversight of seattle 911, which feels about 900,000 calls every year for service. And then I've got a division of community crisis responders who go out alongside police and fire or independent. So I do study 911 data locally and all across the country, and I can confirm that at least half of the calls for service relate to mental health issues, to homelessness, to substance use in king county. Two of our top priority one calls are overdose and suicide. Crime up and down the west coast does correlate with substance use. It is crucial to acknowledge that many of today's 911 calls simply require a different professional discipline. In seattle, the care department was legislated to truly be co-equal with police and fire. My title was even legislated in Washington state. These community crisis responders are first responders by the legal definition. And so they have liability protections and provisions. In seattle, our care responders are backgrounded like police. Their siege is cleared. I dispatch them over police channels directly. We've been to thousands of calls in the last 18 months without any incident whatsoever. I can confirm I feel more popular in law enforcement circles than any others. It's been a great relief to police. Additionally, I've studied what it actually costs when I dispatch care responders. Now we do pay them well. We pay them like first responders. It is a profession, a professional path that really needs to be strengthened. It still saves about $0.50 on the dollar every single time I dispatch care instead of police or instead of fire. And so providing the best first response. It does save money. It saves time, and significantly, it saves lives. So in closing, I want to share with you that Portland is always going to be my hometown. My folks are from southeast. I had my kids in northwest. I started my career in the lloyd district. I love this city. I was reflecting as I arrived today. When I was ten, I begged my dad to take me on max for my birthday, and I was thinking about rocco's versus escape from new york. I love it here, and I can tell you I always felt safe here. I felt safe working here. I never thought twice about walking my young children around the neighborhoods. And so it has been very painful to watch how politicization here and in other cities has really impacted public health and public safety. It is my contention that we've conflated accountability with punishment, and that under the auspice of compassion, we have ceased to interrupt these cycles of crime and crisis so we can absolutely reimagine how we respond to and how we prevent suffering. We need to provide the right first response, and then we need to be able to swiftly refer people into a system that will predictably repattern these behaviors, the crimes and the crises. So I commend you for your willingness and your courage to advance this significant change. This is such a smart, talented, innovative city. I know it can be better than it is right now, and I'm happy to answer questions today and forevermore. I'll always be a resource for you.
52 Thank you, chief barton. That concludes the presentation. So I'll pass it over to you, co-chair Novick.
53 Any questions for our invited testifiers? Councilor Smith?
54 Yes.
55 Thank you. Co-chair. I have a few questions, but are we listening to the public first?
56 I think that we've got a couple of minutes to just ask the questions of the invited speakers before we move on to public testimony.
57 And thank you for your for your presentation. My questions are more so based on the makers of the resolution. I'm trying to get some specific information so this is not the appropriate time.
58 Okay. Thank you. I actually wanted to ask I think both of you talked about responding alongside police and fire, but I, I know that some I just sort of wanted to know for both albuquerque and seattle, how often are the alternative responders responding along literally along with police or fire? And how often is it just the alternative responders going to the scene?
59 I'll go first, mariella. So I can tell you, during the first six months of the pilot design, I dispatched a co response. So I had care responders in their own vehicle. Police dispatched alongside so that I could really study it and make sure that there was not any harm or risk incurred at all. During the first 600 calls, about 88% of the time police were actually requesting care, which was a really interesting metric, because people had floated this idea that law enforcement will never buy in. They won't like this. They did. They loved it. I heard it over the radio all the time. This is not for us. Can you send a care team? Right now it's about half and half. What I want to stress for you is the overlap. How often you ideally would have police, fire and community responders on the same call. And that's why it's really important to design an integrated system where you can deploy the right configuration. Sometimes I've got a mental health thing and a medical thing, right. Sometimes there is a criminal justice aspect of it. So you want a very simple design and first response.
60 Yeah, I definitely second what chief barton said. We already had in albuquerque a co-response model, and it was actually only for clinicians for an entire city of 650,000 people. But what we found is that we didn't always need a clinician, and we definitely didn't need a cop. So our fleet is actually made up of about, I think our our co-response where police goes out with the clinician is about 5% of our entire fleet. Everything else is non-police and non-police response. So we're at about 120 with capacity of 130. In our department. About 100 of those are actual responders, and only four are co-response individuals. So it's the majority. And what we find is that we've had to only call out police less than 2% of the time. And just like chief barton, we found that once officers felt very comfortable on scene calling out acs, they just did it more often. And vice versa. If there's ever a need that we have to tier it right with ems and police, the 911 system, right, just like they have in seattle, is the best way to really be able to connect these.
61 Thank you very much. If there's no further questions for our invited speakers, I think that it's time to ask keelan if we have any public testimony on this item.
62 We do. We have 36 people signed up.
63 And let's get rolling.
64 First up, we have mary emerson, al nguyen, and kaia sand.
65 And again, I, we are running a tiny bit ahead of schedule, but not enough, I think, to increase the amount of time we're allocating. So we're still asking people to speak for no more than 90s.
66 My name is mary emerson. I live in district three and I support this resolution. Since its inception, Portland street response has taken a uniquely Portland approach with extensive community involvement. It was developed to meet the needs of people who do not have the luxury of going to a private, quiet space of their own when experiencing a behavioral health crisis. Moreover, by responding with psr, an independent, unarmed team that is trained specifically to deal with behavioral health crises, the city can address these needs without eroding capacity to address other public safety issues. Portland street response was a trailblazer, a program on which many other cities modeled similar initiatives. After psr's initial successes, the previous city council allowed the program to languish, reversing commitments for increased funding and redirecting the team to do things that were not consistent with their charter. Today, you have an opportunity to reverse that trend with proper funding and guardrails as outlined in this resolution. Portland street response will provide cost effective help to those experiencing crisis, making Portland a better place for everyone. It gives me hope that we now have a city council that is listening to the people, and that is actively seeking out solutions that will make a difference and help the people of our city in these challenging times. Thank you for giving me hope and thank you. Thank you for your approving this resolution.
67 Good afternoon councilors. My name is nguyen. I live in district three and I support this resolution. When you need medical care, it is important to choose the right service provider. You wouldn't go to a dentist for lasik, now, would you? It is the same with 911 emergencies. If there is a criminal activity, the dispatcher will send the police. If there is a mental health crisis, they will send psr. Besides being the right response for the right situation, psr is also a much more cost effective solution. If you take the annual ppv budget of $256 million, divide that by the 881 employees on staff. Police cost about $290,000 per headcount. Do the same with psr budget of $7.4 million divided by 52 staff. Psr costs about $142,000 per headcount. That's less than half the cost per employee. It's a basic fact. Police response is an expensive resource. Portland is facing a difficult budget this year when money is tight. Most of us try to be thoughtful about how we spend money. We think the city should do the same. Portland should fully fund psr so that it can provide 24 by seven service citywide. This will relieve the police from responding to welfare checks and unwanted persons, which in turn will allow them to focus on solving crimes and prevention. It's a win win for all of us. Thank you. Hi.
68 Good afternoon. Chairs. Canal and Novick. Councilors Morillo, Smith and Zimmerman. My name is kaya sand. I'm a constituent of district three and organizer with friends of Portland street response, and I'm writing a book on the national movement to create these first responder systems. This research has taken me out to albuquerque and next, durham and atlanta. I first got involved with this model in 2018. I was working daily with people on the streets and concerned that too many shopkeepers, librarians and anyone else on the front lines had to de-escalate crises. My commitment only grew, as I said, along with 911 call takers who not only were overrun with these calls, for which there was no appropriate responder, but also suffered moral injury from this. Back in 2019, Portland street response was cutting edge, and with denver the largest city, to attempt such a new system. People came from all over the nation to learn from us. Since 2020, other cities have doubled down on building their programs. There are now more than 100 911 dispatch programs nationwide. While Portland has ground to make up, we're also fortunate that we can learn from other proven models now, and we've long talked the police and fire departments and created deep stress for them. This resolution is a thoughtful approach to develop and fortify Portland street response. Through that combination of a community advisory committee evaluations and call reallocation studies. And I'm just I'll thank you.
69 Next up, we have Eric Clark, odelia zuckerman and hillary nichols. Eric is joining us online.
70 Now.
71 I'm grateful to the councilors. Avalos canal come to speak in favor of its passage. My name is Eric Clark. I'm a pastor and organizer and a resident of the city, and that works all over with mutual aid networks, often providing food and supplies and temporary shelter for some of my unhoused neighbors. And I am aware as a pastor who, you know, often deals with situations of houseless folks camping in our parking lot or trying to, you know, find safe places to be when there aren't safe places for them to be and how challenging these issues can be. And that when trying to build relationships with my unhoused neighbors, how unsafe and overpoliced they are, and yet how often we don't have other tools, how it would be unhelpful to call in an officer with a gun in a situation that will likely only escalate the situation and create worse outcomes for my neighbors. So we need these other tools and solutions. We need Portland street response to be fully funded, to be fully staffed 24 over seven, to be a co-equal branch of our community safety system and to be available where and when we need it. Another part of my work has been with the pacific northwest family circle, which is an organization dedicated to supporting families that have lost loved ones to police violence. In the past decade, I've had I've had the privilege and sorrow of organizing and attending far too many memorial services, angel bursaries, and grief retreats for these families. So I can tell you that the cost of using police when they are not the right solution don't end once the city settles its lawsuits, but continues years and decades into the future. So as a father of two kids enrolled in PSU this fall, I would like to make our city safer for them, and psr is part of that solution. Thank you.
72 Onelia.
73 Hello, my name is odelia zuckerman and I am co-chair of the Portland committee on community-engaged policing, also known as pccep. Pccep was born out of the settlement agreement between the PPB and us department of justice. The settlement agreement stems from organizers calling for an investigation into ppb's excessive use of force against people with perceived or actual mental health crises, or against members of the bipoc community. Pccep exists as a fully independent advisory body to keep that community voice involved. The foundation of this settlement agreement speaks to the importance of passing this resolution today, based on input from two town halls, numerous public meetings, discussions with Portland first responders, city officials, pccep formally recommended the following and more to mayor wheeler in April of 2024 that psr be expanded to operate citywide 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that the city secure ongoing, sustainable funding to support psr operations in its growth. That the mayor that the mayor pursue removing restrictions on psr staff. These changes may include the right to provide services if a weapon is present, the right to respond to calls about potential death by suicide, the right to distribute supplies that serve street response needs, and the right to respond to calls about people who are in the public right of way. And finally, that psr be recused from all enforcement activities such as sweeps. I believe this resolution will take steps to actualize the needs of the community and is crucial to pass today. Thank you.
74 Good afternoon. Committee. My name is hillary nichols. I'm a resident of district three, and more importantly, I'm a deep lover of everyone who lives in the Portland community. I work as a community organizer at a community health center in southeast Portland, where I connect daily with patients and neighbors about the social pressures that impact their health. It's from this place of listening and learning that I'm here to urge you to approve the solution. The resolution in support of Portland street response. Over and over, I hear how the criminal legal system deepens harm for people in crisis incarceration, especially for those struggling with mental health or addiction, doesn't offer healing. It severs connection, interrupts care, increases trauma, and often leads to worse outcomes. These aren't just unfortunate side effects, they are a public health failures. Portland street response is one of the few systems we've built that truly aligns with public health values responding with care, calm, and dignity instead of punishment. But it needs your full support to thrive. I urge this committee to fully staff and fund psr for 24 over seven citywide coverage. Recognize psr as a co-equal branch of our public safety system. Keep it from having to do enforcement roles like sweeps or force service, and establish a community advisory group for accountability and guidance. This council can make its mark by protecting and expanding this program, by delivering on the promised 24 over seven coverage and preserving psr original mission. Fully funding psr in this year's budget is not only the right thing to do, it's smart policy. It modernizes our approach to public safety, relieves pressure on the first responders, and saves money. Let's choose to lead. Let's choose care. Let's get this right. Thank you.
75 Next up we have tim pitts, jules boykoff, connor woods. Tim is joining us online.
76 Yeah. Hi. Thank you very much. My name is tim pitts. I'm a longtime resident of northeast Portland, where I own a small real estate brokerage and multiple rental properties. And I'm here to lend my strong, strong support for this resolution. Over my years in those capacities, there have been a lot of times that I've needed to call somebody out to a property. A tenant is maybe feeling unsettled by somebody that's on site that's not supposed to be there, people camping behind the office, all kinds of things where you really feel like you need a little bit of help, but you don't feel like you necessarily need to call the police because there hasn't been something happen so severe to call the police, who we know are so strapped for resources in Portland, street response has been so perfect at sort of filling that gap of help for me as a small business owner and as a landlord, really helping out when there are those situations where you don't need to have people there with guns, you really need someone with de-escalation tactics and being able to help people understand resources that are out there where they can go instead of where they are. So I really feel like expansion and everything that is in this resolution would really, really help the city to become a safer place.
77 Jules boykoff.
78 My name is jules boykoff. I'm a professor of political science at pacific university and a resident of southeast Portland. District three. Now is the perfect time to stabilize and strengthen portland's street response, a proven program that is popular with portlanders and the people who the program serves. I urge you to fully fund and fully staff Portland street response so that it can provide citywide 24 over seven coverage. Let's make Portland street response a coequal branch of our community safety system alongside police, fire and ambulance services. Let's help portland's street response workers succeed by making sure they have all the lifesaving supplies they need, including naloxone, clothes and food. Being able to share snacks and water is a crucial tool in the de-escalation toolbox. As we do all of that, it is crucial that Portland street response remains an unarmed de-escalation program that is operationally independent from police, and it is dispatched through the 911 system and empowered to respond to 911 calls independently. Because the program serves so many of our unhoused neighbors. Portland street response was not participate in sweeps and other enforcement activities. Let's build from the trust psr has established, not undercut it. This is a remarkable political opportunity you have in front of you a bonafide chance to solidify a significant, innovative program in our city. And it's a terrific opportunity to create a positive legacy for this city council. I urge you to pass this resolution, send it to full council, and make Portland street response expansion a reality. Thank you.
79 Connor woods. Benjamin coleman. Spencer jones.
80 Obi. Hi, my name is ben coleman. This is my first time doing one of these, so I may not be as polished as everybody else. For about a decade, I worked at the gretchen kafoury commons, which is a large income restricted housing building over by PSU, named after a former city councilor. And I worked the graveyard shift. I dealt with a lot of people having mental health or substance abuse crisises. I'd say about 20% of the population there was either moving out of homelessness or into it, and I had to call police, fire, medical on a pretty regular basis, sometimes all three at once on a single night. And I would have loved to have had Portland street response as an option for that. There's just so many situations where you don't want to bring a gun into a situation where someone's just having a bad day, and yeah, I just came out here to lend my support and to say that there really needs to be a path forward for having the right tool, for the right job and the housing police that I worked with, they were doing their best, but they were always stretched really thin. All these situations often require time, and that was one resource they very rarely had enough of. So anything that can give people an opportunity to, you know, finish their bad day and go home in peace, I think is worth having. So that's that's what I came here to say.
81 Spencer jones, casey chaffin.
82 Nine.
83 Hello. My name is casey chaffin, and I am a Portland resident. I'm here to testify in support of the city council resolution on Portland street response. The impact of this program is not hypothetical to me. I live with bipolar disorder and have experienced psychosis. At the time of my psychotic episode, I was not in the city. I was far away from home. In my case, the police were my only option. There was no alternative support to help me navigate my very public health crisis. When police arrived on the scene, I could not understand their instructions. I didn't think they were real. I was scared, I was forced to the ground, put in handcuffs and put in the back of a windowless police van. This traumatic arrest was preventable. In fact, had I been home, Portland street response could have prevented it. Recovering from a mental health episode is so much more difficult when you also have to recover from the trauma of an arrest. And yet, Portland street response has been systematically underfunded and understaffed since its inception. Psr should be a fully staffed, 24 hour resource and be treated with the same respect and government support as any other emergency response program. Behavioral health crises can happen to anyone at any time of day. Restricting the availability of psr does a disservice to all portlanders, and especially those who live with behavioral health conditions. Living with bipolar disorder and experiencing mental health crises is not criminal activity. Portland street response should operate independently from police whenever possible. I encourage the council to pass this resolution and thank you for your time.
84 Next up we have david gray, followed by bradley dirlam and babs vanelli. David is joining us online.
85 Can you hear me?
86 We can hear you.
87 Good afternoon. Councilors. My name is dave gray and I'm here today on behalf of the stadium neighborhood. We love Portland street response. It's an important service, a caring and compassionate alternative to law enforcement. It may not be perfect, but it's working. The mayor is already making moves to support and expand Portland street response without raising costs. And in a time when we are facing severe budget cuts, creating a new independent department we feel is unnecessary, potentially costly and doesn't get us any services we don't already have. Portland is already a fragmented, disconnected, uncoordinated system with overlapping jurisdictions and unclear lines of accountability. What we need right now is not another department, not another committee. We need more integration and better coordination. We are so grateful for portland's solutions and pmo who showed up today. They are doing that important, very important coordination and integration work. We love the Portland solutions in pmo and we love Portland street response. But we feel that we need to stop expanding the bureaucracy and getting better, get better at working together. Trusting each other, working together. Coordinating our actions. We need to be a city that works together to solve our problems. Thank you.
88 Bradley.
89 Hello, my name is bradley dirlam. He him. I support this resolution. I work with central city concern. I'm not speaking on their behalf. Just some context. I interact with a lot of folks who are experiencing homelessness. And yeah, I guess I'll try to share a quick story. I spoke to a gentleman a few years ago who shared with me an experience he had. In April of 2018. He was at an aa meeting. I'm also a very emotional person. He was in a meeting at a homeless shelter. The city team ministries. When a man ran into the lobby was followed by police. Within a few moments. And this is from the police report, not his telling. Within a few minutes of entering, several police fired upon him. And he was fatally wounded. And I just think about how in a place that should feel safe. For very vulnerable people in our community. What a terrible experience. And I think situations like that make me ask the question, like, was that preventable? Was that inevitable? And I don't think it was. And I think that giving Portland street response the support that they need and their original mission. Can prevent things like that. Thank you.
90 Bob spinelli is online.
91 Hello, everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. Hi. Thank you. Babs, for nearly 76 year old lifelong portlander. Currently in district two. And I practiced my 90s for a couple hours today. But now realize since this is the order in my testimony, all I have to do is say ditto, ditto, ditto. Agree, agree, agree with all who have gone before me today. Thank you. Council members who've put forth this resolution. I am pleased and extremely grateful that I've had the opportunity to meet all of you in person, and I feel confident that all of you, along with your other city councilors, are committed to a vision to improve our beloved city of roses. So that being said, I implore you to pass this resolution. Thank you.
92 Alan combs. Brian orndorf, heather riggs. Alan is online.
93 By the sound. Combs, can you hear me? Okay.
94 We can hear you.
95 Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is alan combs. I'm been a. Can you see me? Sorry. All right. Well, my name is alan combs. I'm a resident of Portland for 25 years, and I love all portlanders. Thank you for the opportunity to comment before this committee today. I urge the council to vote against the proposed resolution to establish a Portland street response as a fully independent, co-equal first responder branch. Many cities in the us have deployed models where mental health responders are deployed to provide services where people in need are doing so avoids undue stress, and possible criminalization is highly valuable. And I certainly support the services that Portland street response provides. That all said, I come today to oppose the resolution for the following reasons. The city is in a budget crisis, and this resolution implies a level of independence that may be costly. Perhaps independence is needed, but I don't think that information presented today supports that. I'll point out that you had psr equivalent experts from seattle and albuquerque that have, respectively, 25% and 15% higher police staffing than Portland. So you need to consider if you're balancing the services correctly. Last but not least, I'd like to point out that this resolution creates a committee of Portland street response committee, or psr committee. It's not clear who would be on this committee or who would appoint the committee members. And I think you need to refer that to the governance committee before you create a new committee. There are many advisory committees.
96 Thank you, mr. Combs.
97 Brian.
98 Brian orndorf, district four I support psr. I don't support.
99 Another half baked, rushed policy where adequate time is not provided for public input to begin with. What does it mean for psr to be a co-equal branch? Are team members going to undergo the same rigorous background checks, training, and continuing education requirements as Portland police officers? That phrase needs clear definition. Going 24 over seven model is added cost. Why does commissioner Canal propose no financial impact? These costs were never a part of the PPB budget. This proposal comes at a time when we're facing constrained city budget, a large deficit, and threats to essential services. Furthermore, we need to talk about funding, specifically medicaid reimbursements. This has been a lingering issue for over a year. If psr is to continue growing responsibly, the city must have a transparent and public conversation about billing medicaid through the county. Portland taxpayers deserve clear, direct answers on the following. How much will these proposed changes actually cost for psr? What tangible benefits will bring to stakeholders? Do psr staffs and leadership actually support the direction of a 24 over seven operation? What legal liabilities will fall on civilian committees proposed to lead psr, especially if they go beyond recommendations into decision making? Will the city's unions need to reopen bargaining agreements if these structural changes take place? Lastly, while psr helps manage certain calls more efficiently, it does not eliminate the need for police. We cannot responsibly reduce police budget and expect that to translate into faster or more efficient 911 response times. Looking at the bigger picture, the city should explore whether the county is a better equipped to manage psr under the umbrella of project respond. Thank you.
100 Heather riggs is joining us online.
101 My name is reverend heather riggs. I am a resident of southeast Portland and I am pastor of Montavilla united methodist church. And you've heard from the experts psr and programs like it are less expensive and more effective. I want to speak to you as both a mandated reporter and as a pastor who is dealing with people on our streets who are having mental health or addiction issues in real time. Having as a mandated reporter, knowing that someone is suicidal, especially a young person, is suicidal, and knowing that when I call it in, it's going to result in police showing up at their home. It makes me think twice. Adding police to an already unstable situation is not always the best option. Also, when somebody is just shouting at the world, shouting at god if you will, and having a really bad day. Adding an armed response to someone who really just needs somebody to respond with kindness is not what we need. We need Portland street response. We need it to be 24 over seven. We know it works. Thank you.
102 Next we have isaac mcclymont, gabriel granillo, and Loretta guzman.
103 Good afternoon. Chair Novick co-chair, canal city councilors. My name is isaac mcclymont. I'm the president of the Portland firefighters association. Also a resident of the rosewood neighborhood in district three. I want to speak on a couple of things. A few things, actually. First, I want to speak.
104 To the collaborative.
105 Effort reached.
106 Out by. Councilor Kanal staff. I really appreciate that.
107 I welcome that, and I'd like, you know, anybody who's working on any resolution to continue that sort of pathway. I think that's extremely, you know, constructive and allows for just a streamline approach. I do have 100% support. Psr, clearly, as a citizen and as a representative for them. I do have a few concerns in this resolution, specifically on the use of the word independent, because as a firefighter, we operate with every agency out there, whether it be the Portland police association members or the amr, the teamsters, the you name it, there's just red cross, just we are a we are a network. And I want that to make sure that we don't use that word incorrectly. So if it means just having equal footing, that's one thing. But if it means operating separate of every other response agency, I think that's a problem. And then the last thing is, I know we've talked about this previously, but we really need to work de-politicising this organization. These workers work really hard. And so, you know, these resolutions are great, but I really want to continue to work on strategies to, to really take that out of that.
108 Thank you.
109 Gabriel. Loretta guzman. Loretta.
110 Okay.
111 Hi. My name is Loretta guzman. I was born and raised here in the city of Portland, and I am the owner of bison coffee house. I'm here in response to the proposed change to psr. My number, my number one question is how will it be paid for? We need transparency within our public in district two and other parts of the city. I have only seen psr handing out water to people who are passed out on the streets or standing around screaming and yelling. This is from my personal experience. And when I called 911 or called 311 for psr to come check on someone half lying in the street and the other half on the sidewalk not moving. I was told psr was unavailable, making psr its own bureau. We need to know how it will be paid for as our tax dollars need to have limits. If you're taking money from other from another budget to fund psr, what budgets will it be cut from? We know there are a lot of cuts currently in progress as our city continues to spiral down. So where is the money coming from to make these big changes to hand out water? Will they will they be accountable for their decision making? And who holds the responsibility if they make a bad decision? Is it going to be doing the same as project response? If so, why don't they collaborate together? We are constantly under the experiment of the leaders in these experiments. Need to stop, look back what, what is or used to work and get back on track as we are losing lives and souls on our streets. A lot has been broken and many lives lost. I'm not in response or in agreeance to this.
112 Next up we have paola santiago, karen cherry, james johnson. Paola. Karen sherry is joining us online. Go ahead karen.
113 My name is karen cherry. I'm a resident in district three, a business owner in district four and a member of stadium hood. I support Portland street response resolution. However, I endorse the mission and goals set forth by psr, but it's crucial that we emphasize the importance of maintaining robust funding and support for police services, particularly the neighborhood response team and the bike squad. These teams play a vital role in ensuring public safety and community engagement. We must ensure that the expansion of psr does not come at their expense. As we look to broaden the scope of crisis response in our city, it is essential to recognize that the psr team and our police forces serve complementary roles. While psr is designed to address nonviolent behavioral health emergencies, the nert and bike squads are integral to maintaining order, managing crime, and ensuring the safety of all citizens. The collaboration between these units can foster a more holistic approach to community safety. I urge you to ensure that the budget allocated for psr does not divert essential resources from our police department. It is vital that we invest in both the psr initiative and our law enforcement to create a balanced and effective public safety strategy. As the council moves forward with this resolution, I encourage the inclusion of provisions that guarantee ongoing funding for nert and bike squad. This will prevent any potential impact on their operations and enable them to continue serving our community effectively. Thank you.
114 Next up we have ames johnson. Benjamin fisco, followed by michelle miller. Michelle is joining us online. Michelle, you can unmute.
115 Hello. Good afternoon, council members. My name is michelle miller and I live in the district four stadium neighborhood. I want to begin by affirming something that we all seem to agree on, and that is we love Portland street response. It fills a vital gap in how we respond to people in crisis, and it's shown us what's possible when compassion instead of confrontation is the default. But compassion alone doesn't build lasting systems. Structure, funding and coordination does. We're being asked to back a vision that pits psr against police, rather than integrating them in a system where the right team shows up at the right time every time. What concerns what concerns me most about this resolution is not the intention behind it, but the architecture that it proposes. Elevating psr as a standalone bureau creates another storehouse in a city already fractured by siloed services. Councilor Kanal you've positioned yourself as a systems thinker, and that's someone who should be interested in understanding that lasting solutions require alignment across agencies, not isolation. This resolution doesn't reflect that. It lacks depth and coordination required for real success. Rather than creating creating another silo. Psr should be integrated laterally into the citywide strategy that is already in place. The that that you know of that is the Portland solutions. When a resident is in crisis, what they need is not a bureaucracy with 4 or 5 phone numbers. They need one coordinated team that knows how to talk to each other, work together, and act. Thank you.
116 Next up we have randy Smith. Leslie Smith. Todd littlefield. Kip silverman. Go ahead.
117 Hi. Todd. Littlefield, Lents neighborhood livability association. I live in district. One, I live across the multi-use path and two houses away from the Lents or the pickle ball stadium. To hear these people talk about the not to not have the need for police. Is maddening. We've got people. I've got four tents across street from my house right now, encampments, and we've got people yelling all night long. These people need help. They're living on the street. They're living in concrete. They're living in tents and tarps. This is Portland. This is the city that we love. That that that that this is a standard that we want. It's disgusting. So let's do something radical. Let's change the race to the bottom. Let's get these people help. So the county has project respond. Why don't we merge pcr with that? And any inadequacies or inadequacies or inefficiencies with project respond. Let's fix. But to leave these people out on the street, in neighborhoods, in the businesses is absurd. It's disgusting. It's maddening. It's not Portland. Let's fix it. So I hope you have a strategy. Thank you.
118 Chip silverman.
119 Hi.
120 Thank you. Co-chairs and councilors. My name is kip silverman, and I use he him pronouns as a resident of Portland, my chosen home for over 25 years. Now a district two resident and as a policy and reform subcommittee co-chair on the Portland committee on community engaged policing. I fully support this proposal to promote Portland street response to a co-equal first responder. People suffering from various crises need trained professionals to help evaluate the situation and ensure the best possible outcomes. As I learned during a ride along with Portland street response, it often takes several interactions with an individual to build a trust relationship to a point will they, where they will accept help and coordinated care beyond just a bottle of water or snack. As my committee cohort of delia testified, this proposal reflects the recommendation our committee made to mayor wheeler and was accepted. This proposal will help address remaining issues from the 2012 lawsuit against the Portland police bureau by the united states department of justice. The recommendation pccep made has also been supported by federal circuit judge simon, as well as those who is also overseeing the lawsuit. Lastly, Portland police association president aaron schmaltz himself had stated the nexus of options for police is limited when encountering people in crisis, and Portland fire and rescue should be primarily focused on fire and rescue. I fully support this. Thank you for bringing it forward.
121 Kelsey. Smolin, greg. Sandeep diwaker.
122 Sorry.
123 Hi, my name is sandeep divekar. I live in district four and I know some of the folks up there. I live a block from the safeway downtown so I can claim with lived experience with the homeless problem and the mental health issues are here in Portland. To see yet another bureau being stood up with its attendant overhead when we're already short of money is a ridiculous idea. Mitch Green had actually pointed out how many city bureaus there were, each one with its own spokesperson and all the different non-profits, with each one with their own overheads that are doing all of this stuff. Let's enforce the rules that we actually have. It's disheartening to hear that the camping ban is not being enforced. There's 6/10 right now on 10th street right next to the safeway. There's drug dealers there. There's feces on the sidewalk. I grew up in a third world country. This is not what I expect from Portland. I there's people handing out needles in front of a preschool, which the county is funding it. Things need to be done in a coordinated manner. But without all this empire building, we already have enough of that going on in the city. In the county. Thank you.
124 Concerned citizen 5000.
125 Sorry.
126 So this is my first time here. Sorry about my unimaginative pseudonym. I'm just doing this spontaneously. No script. I just wanted to invite anybody who hasn't seen Portland street response operate. I'd like to invite you out onto the streets of downtown where I live. My partner and I, we work all night, and we we're often working when psr is not on and chat's not on. The only thing we have is we've got amr ambulances, which are operating really well right now, a lot better than they were a year ago. And we've got fire responders to come out to calls of the people, the people we see in distress. We are very frequently checking on people who are down and unchecked and in, in psr, psr response to those same people during the daytime up until 10 p.m. Very frequently, they're they're responding to people who say no to their services. And we see those same people in those same spots down on the sidewalk. Needing help for up to five days at a time. But that's kind of our limit. When we say this is enough, we need to escalate this to medical care because psr is not doing it. We've been through this over and over many times, especially in this recent, this last year where we're calling 911. And we were wanting services to for these people who are really not caring for themselves. And we just want everyone to give it a shot. Check on people. See that they're breathing. Bring your narcan along with you. You can do it. Because we don't always have these services out there to help us. We need more of everyone checking on our neighbors. And psr, could we just think they could do a lot better at escalating to necessary medical care for needy people? People in desperate need. Sorry. It's my time. Yes.
127 Thank you very much.
128 Thank you.
129 Aden summers. Followed by benjamin fusco.
130 Hi, councilors.
131 My name is aden summers. I'm a resident of district four. I'm also a member of the Portland chapter of the democratic socialists of America. So I'm partly speaking on behalf of them and myself. I really support this resolution. I think that expanding these services out to 24 hours is vital to their success and the health and safety of the community. You know, I know personally like dealing with mental health issues that, you know, it's those times when you're lonely at night where things can get the roughest. And so I think it's, you know, having that 24 hour service is, is, is really vital. I also think that creating a new committee is important because that helps the, you know, the councilors keep the public in the loop on this and the, you know, how psr is functioning. And I think that's a very important part that speaks to a lot of the concerns that folks have voiced today on, like, how this would how this would progress. I think this program has shown great success, both in its initial version and its expansion, and I think continuing to expand it while holding it to that same, you know, initial vision of an unarmed and non enforcement body is critical. So I fully support this. And thank you so much for bringing this forward.
132 Benjamin fusco.
133 Hi. Good afternoon. Just take a moment of your time. D4 resident. I feel that every bureau in the city of Portland is a fiefdom. It is an extremely expensive endeavor to invite another one. Each one of our bureaus is covered by a union. The union will take advantage of every opportunity to make the new bureau that you're proposing. An extremely expensive enterprise for the city that is now broke, for the most part. We're cutting budget, not expanding it. The. I'd like to just point out that you can't, in my honest opinion, tack on concepts and precepts to a city that is in a mode of failure. Which I hate to say that about Portland, but it really is the direction that we're going. We have economic degradation going on in our city. If you don't have a strong foundation to work off of, and I would urge you again, as I did the last time I came here, to focus on the foundation of our government. Okay. Clean our streets. Fill our potholes. Get some new police cars out there. Let's get the people who you are trying to help with this concept off the street. Instead of giving them resources to stay on the street. Incentives make people continue to do what they do. We are outclassed by only two two cities in the nation. In our peer group. That would be Washington, dc and san francisco, california, and the amount of tax per individual in our city at almost 12 $12,000 per person. It would be great if the resources and our city was able to take care of itself with the resources that we have and show us that what we pay is actually being used to get us the value out of those monies.
134 Thank you very much.
135 Thank you so much.
136 That completes testimony.
137 I want to thank everybody who testified for doing such a great job of keeping to 90s and saving me. The very unpleasant task of cutting people off is hugely appreciated. May I have a motion?
138 To ask some questions and get some discussion?
139 I thought, hey, sorry, I thought that I thought that we did a discussion after we had a motion in the second. I might be confused.
140 I think I think because it's already on the docket, we don't have to have. All right. Yeah.
141 Councilor Smith.
142 Thank you. Thank you so much. I have a lot of questions. I just want to say out of the gate, I support psr and the work that they do to assist folks who are experiencing difficulties, particularly mental health difficulties, on our city streets. But for this particular resolution, councilor Kanal, I want to get some information first. Creating this new first responder position is what what do you have to do to do that? We have anybody here from human resources. Because there was a specific note that you were requesting that. What does that mean? Someone else asked that question. What's the definition of a fully first responder? What what does that mean? What do you get that you don't get right now? Why are you adding that?
143 Councilor Kanal.
144 Yes, yes.
145 So let's let's start with what the resolution directs the bureau of human resources to explore designating psr staff as first responders. And that explore means, because it's not 100% clear what it does under state law in the context of the actual, excuse me, the actual work that they do. They are first responders, right? We see that they're responding to calls from 911. And then I will also note that if you look at some of the other other cities around, including we heard this from. Sorry, chief. The sorry coughing here in Washington state, first responders legally have liability protections and provisions. So there are there are things related to that aspect of it that's relevant. And so bhr, I think is the appropriate people to ask. So exactly the question you're asking the resolution is asking the question. It's not trying to answer it.
146 And it's very confusing to me. And that's why I think that we should flip this. And you ask for a committee at the end of the resolution. I think the committee should be created to identify what those things are, what it would do to make folks a first responder, and what benefits they get as a first responder as opposed to what they get today. And the second question, the biggest question is how do you plan to pay for this, for this new department, when we're at a $91 million deficit? And where would you suggest getting those resources from? I have a couple other questions. Does psr currently participate in sweeps, because you put in there that you didn't want them to participate in sweeps? Are they participating now in sweeps?
147 So I'll answer both of those if that's okay. Okay. No. And that's the goal is to continue that. On the sweep side, there's been a conversation about making that a part of their role. And yeah, in earlier this year and this is I think I'll take the opportunity that in the previous item chair sorry councilor Zimmerman gave about a comment from the mayor that was brought up. And I'd like to state publicly it's not something that I support. And I think it's important that that we make a statement as to whether or not we support that as a council with relation to the budgetary impact. Again, there's no impact on this year's, this fiscal year's budget whatsoever. So the conversation around it, much like some of the other conversations we're having around the council, would be part of the broader budget conversation. The city budget office said that if we were to give the committee members a $500 stipend, which is not yet determined, then that would be 7000, $7,500 per year. So that's fairly negligible in the grand scheme of things, and that's a decision that hasn't yet been made.
148 So the cost to go from not a full day, but a 24 over seven day that wouldn't cost you more money.
149 So that is a separate question. Right now the budget is about $8 million. The adequate staffing model, which is not 24 over seven, but that would have increased coverage to cover all the calls within the current service hours. It's about 9.5 million, and taking it to 24 over seven would cost about 10.5 million. So that's about.
150 So that would increase the that would increase the budget to do this new and improved version of psr.
151 Yes. But again, that's not what this resolution does.
152 And it mentions it, it says in the whereas to put this to 24 seven.
153 Yes. And the reason that's important is one cannot be reimbursed under what we're hearing from the state through medicaid Oregon health authority rule, unless you signal an intent or actually achieve going 24 seven. And that's meetings that co-chair, Novick and I have been on trying to explore how to get medicaid reimbursement for not only psr, but for some of our other really critical programs like chat. And I'll just one other thing on that. Currently, a manager three and a director get paid the same amount. They're the same pay ranges. A manager two gets paid. I think it's the midpoint is $23,000 a year difference. So if the in terms of the leadership position or reclass and that's before any conversation that, you know, human resources bureau is having around whether or not bureau directors need that range.
154 And so that would be a cost. So if the reality is it is going to cost to do what you're suggesting in this new resolution.
155 And the resolution does not do that.
156 Well, it it talks about that. It talks about going from 24, going from, from a one shift to a 24 over seven shift. The other issue is in terms of the committee sunset date, I think the first part of the last resolution established an end date of December 31st. And I'm just concerned that will six months be enough time or should we extend the sunset date to March 31st? That would provide the committee about nine months of time and work, but still provide city council with enough time for the 2627 budget period. But we're doing this very early in. And so for me, I there's so many different questions that I need answered. And in terms of labor unions, have we heard from the labor unions representing the public safety workers, if they're in support of this or not, have they agreed to?
157 Councilor Morillo.
158 Yeah, I just wanted to respond to some of your comments, and then I'll let councilor Kanal take over again. But I think that a way that might be helpful in framing what this resolution does is that it's actually quite similar to the cip proposal that you're bringing forward, in the sense that it is exploring these questions and funding mechanisms and not necessarily committing us to them yet. And so the point of the committee, in my opinion, is that we are reinstating and reaffirming our commitment to Portland street response and to finding a future solution for it and actually committing to expanding it the way that it was originally meant to be, because what the audience said is correct. It's not always working in the way that it should be, but that's not because the program is at fault, but because it hasn't been given the resources. So I hope that is a helpful comparison.
159 Not a good analogy. Cip is a mandate to require PBOT to create a plan, to create a plan for four years, and to and for them to tell us how much it's going to cost. So I'm trying to get someone else who is responsible for that technical work, who knows the ins and outs and what it costs, and to give us a cost before we bring the financing back. This cip that you'll see tomorrow is a non revenue resolution. But this in this current form, especially with the whereases going 24 over seven, it will require some thinking about how much it's going to cost to create a new department. We are right now in deficit. And so I'm trying to figure out how do we how do we manage that. But so in the interest of time, I will allow my other councilors to, to speak because we're we're limited on time. Thank you.
160 Thank you. Councilor, councilor Zimmermann.
161 Thank you chair. I do see that stephanie howard from the safety division is here. I think these questions probably fall in your wheelhouse, but I'm I'm going to willing to, you know, to the co-sponsors or welcome. But stephanie, did the mayor or the dca request to establish a psr specific committee and did the mayor or the dca for public safety request a budget to provide enough shifts for 24 over seven coverage in this upcoming budget?
162 Thank you, councilor Zimmerman. Stephanie howard, for the record, I'm the director of community safety for the public safety service area, and I oversee Portland street response and some of our other community safety programs. With regard to the advisory committee, I don't believe I don't know for certain, but I don't believe the mayor requested I don't we did not request it, but we did consult with councilor Kanal staff in advance of this and had the opportunity to provide feedback on that. Okay. With regard to your budget question, we presented to the mayor and the dca is presented to the mayor. The options for a plan to reach 24 over seven over a two year period. And so I think if I understand this resolution correctly, this is not demanding that that happen immediately. But it is it is to resolve that this would be an ultimate goal, which I think is a shared goal across the public safety service area and with the mayor.
163 Thanks. I'm curious. So one of my understandings, I'm hoping you course correct me if I'm wrong here, is that right now, the way the shifts for psr are set up, for when the most calls are coming in in in that if you as there director were to determine that actually we need to have psr available from 10 p.m. To 6 a.m, that's the most critical time when we're getting the most types of calls that could you make that change now in, in, in theory and I mean that in that, could you choose what shift of the day to keep vacant in order to reallocate to a certain time when we have to, quote unquote, surge, if you will?
164 I think the answer is technically yes. I think we can build shifts around need, but we would need to do that in partnership with our labor partners, of course, and I, I, I think that it would be very challenging to have periods during the day, which frankly, our data shows is the most frequent time that Portland street response is needed. If we were to pull back resources from those times, that would be a big challenge, I think, for the community and for our our teams to try to meet.
165 That's because that's when the majority of calls for psr type service are coming, are during the current shifts that you're staffing today.
166 That is accurate, that that's accurate right now. And I will also say we are continually working with partners to maintain, you know, an accurate vision of what the call load is, what the call volume is. And so there's a lot of conversation ongoing that I think will happen regardless of what happens here with this resolution.
167 Okay. Thanks. In terms of. It's probably less you, stephanie. Thank you. And more more others in terms of philosophical, some of the stuff that I'm just like, what does a co-equal branch mean? And why don't you consider it already in our structure, a co-equal branch? That part's kind of unclear to me. And I'm trying to understand the, you know, not just the first, but the second and third order effects of that type of language.
168 Councilor Kanal.
169 Yeah, thank you for that. And I think this relates to one of councilor Smith's questions as well, that you'll note that it doesn't say create a bureau anywhere in this document. And that's because, you know, there are many different models. We heard two of them today from the two guests we had from formerly of albuquerque, currently in seattle. And so the idea behind it is to keep it independent in the org chart from police and fire. You may have this came up that last year there was a suggestion to put it under police and that that's a thing that's documented. I don't want to relitigate it, but I think there and by the way, this relates to the comments about the labor partners as well. Pro-tech 17 did write in and support. There's written testimony there. We heard from PFA, which, you know, raised one particular concern, which is about this exact question and just a wording where how do finding words that are interpreted by everybody the same way that there is integrated response, which I think we all agree is a good thing, but that in terms of how it is situated in the org chart, that it is not under police fir. 911 boec or pbem, but itself separate. That's that's the intended thing. So I think I'm addressing both of those questions.
170 I appreciate that. And then I guess I'm also a little bit confused by this idea of fully staffed. You said in your comments that it hasn't been allowed to. I'm going to paraphrase, but to thrive, mostly because of the budget has not been there. I am curious how many positions are vacant or how much it's not fully funded because I when I worked at the county for commissioner Julie edwards, we made a proposal at the county to fund psr from a county perspective to fill a gap that didn't gain support at the county commission. But I thought that psr was able to I thought they were funded at the for the request this last or in the current year that we're in. So I'm not sure what fully staffed means right now relative to the fact that we're not necessarily equating that to 24 hour coverage. We're talking I think these are two different things. And I'm and I am trying to understand where that is, what that means to you.
171 Yeah. There are two models. One is referred to as adequate staffing. That's capital a capital s here. Just trying to use that for simplicity, which essentially is and I'll oversimplify here. So please, you know, wave me down if I'm wrong April. But that effectively it's the hours already in existence. But having enough staff to answer more of the calls. You may know there's been reports about many of the calls that are coded for psr dispatch through psr. By the time psr is able to get to them, they're unable to locate the person who is down or in need, the potential psr client. And that's largely because there's only two rigs citywide, except when they overlap, and then there's four for two hours a day. So that's that's what effectively it means in terms of fully staffed. It's having authorized positions and the money to fill them to get to whatever that level is ideally first, adequate staffing, which is above what it currently is. And that's that 9.5 million eventually. And then ten and a half would eventually get to full share.
172 All all hold other questions in discussion. I know you've got others in the queue.
173 Thank you. Councilor councilor Kanal I see you put yourself in the queue or. Sorry.
174 Yeah.
175 Councilor Morillo.
176 Maybe it's because I was a part of this thing, but personally I motion that we close discussion and move to a vote.
177 Second.
178 Move to a vote has been moved and seconded. I keelan could you please call the roll?
179 Canal?
180 Just to clarify, we're voting on the motion to end debate. Yes.
181 Morillo.
182 Yes.
183 Zimmerman.
184 I would like to have discussion. Continuing on this resolution, I asked some questions, but we didn't get into discussion or or philosophical about this, what this means. So I think this is premature ending. So no.
185 Smith.
186 I still have additional questions in regards to point number nine that states that city council will support the committee with staff support and other resources, including a volunteer stipend, that we didn't have a chance to talk about. And I wasn't quite sure how many staff support we were talking about. 1 to 2 people, five people, ten people, and where those costs were going to come from the city. Was that going to come from the city council's budget or council operations? And so, no, I don't want to cut off discussion right now.
187 Novick before I vote, I want to ask a question. Keelan am I correct that we turn into pumpkins at 445? That's our hard stop.
188 We don't have a hard stop.
189 We don't have a hard stop. I think that if we somebody told me that at some point, I think that we should take a few more minutes. So I'm going to vote no. But I will entertain the same motion at 440. So nay.
190 Motion fails.
191 Let's see who's next. Councilor Smith.
192 Thank you. I'd like to go back to my question that states, and I want to address this to councilor Kanal. And it states in number nine that city council will support the committee with staff support and other resources, including a volunteer stipend. And so I'm I want some more clarity on that. What that means is that coming from our budgets or council operations, what does that look like?
193 Thank you. So first off, apologies I didn't realize you were still in the queue on that for the previous vote there. And thank you for clarifying to the to the clerk's office. To your question, councilor Smith. Again, that's the thing that the city budget office said could cost $7,500. I've, I think you and I have have shared this, that sometimes we think, well, we've got the if we've got extra money in our budget, we'd be happy to put it towards that. I've mentioned that for our council offices, but also the other part, which is the staffing that's really up to us. And it's something that is part of the broader budget conversation because there's so many different ways to staff a committee. I've I've supported several of them myself, myself at the city, and there's a lot of different ways to do it. Sometimes it's taking existing staff and having them just attend a committee meeting, in which case there's zero budgetary impact. Sometimes there's up to two full time staff on it. I don't think this would require that personally, but that's the most I've seen.
194 But you're saying if you want to use your staff, that you can use your staff to, to be a part of this.
195 Or put money from the budget into a different location to hire staff there. There's a lot of options available. And I think the idea that the idea is that we have a lot of questions we have to answer in the budget process, and a resolution is not necessarily the most appropriate time to do that, because, as you know, resolutions can't allocate money.
196 Right. And I think that the, the one of the best qualities of this resolution is creating a committee to come up with some strategic antidotes to, to the things that you're putting in the whereas whereas clauses the third supporting whereas statement said that Portland remains out of compliance with the 2012 settlement agreement with the united states department of justice civil rights division created due to a pattern of occurrences of excessive use of force against people experiencing mental illness. Is that accurate? And what parts of the settlement agreement has the city failed to comply with?
197 Yes. It's accurate. There are several. I mean, there's 200 plus paragraphs in the settlement agreement.
198 Are they still not?
199 No, no, no, not all.
200 Of them. We are not in complete compliance at the present time. There are several paragraphs. Several is not. There are dozens of paragraphs, I would say that are that are in compliance sufficient to where the city is either in self-monitoring or effectively complete with it. There are also, you know, many paragraphs that are not yet in compliance. They have a wide range of remedies within the settlement agreement that some of which are not PPB alone. Some of them have to do with how calls are coded at boec. It's a pretty.
201 Are you.
202 Suggesting that psr is a remedy for that?
203 I am not suggesting that judge simon, in the court case has suggested.
204 That that that we use psr to meet some of those criteria.
205 Yeah. Okay.
206 Thank you.
207 Thank you. Councilor councilor Kanal.
208 Sorry. Thank you. Yeah. So the only thing that I wanted to add here is that as we work through this, the idea is to give a sense of values, a sense of commitment, and to try and ensure that the staff there are aware of council's commitment to it and then to allow the remaining processes, including the committee itself, as well as the ongoing conversations that we've referenced pursuant to the labor agreement to the letter of agreement. Sorry to continue as well and inform the how to enact those values into policy to the specific question asked around the date of the of the committee. There is a important element of this, which is to try and ensure that we're not letting it linger forever, and to allow for a report back and for council to potentially choose to continue the committee when it's codified on potentially not if it's not meeting the needs. So having a date of December 31st for that evaluation allows for us to not codify something that may or may not be relevant. I think it will be. I personally am a strong believer in the idea that a well structured committee for this will be very helpful, but I also don't think it's appropriate necessarily to commit until we've seen it to. So to try it very similar to what you said as well. Thanks.
209 Councilor. Is everyone.
210 In the document a few times, but particularly in paragraph eight of the be resolved, you say we reference PSU evaluators. My question is who are the PSU evaluators? From? What academic discipline do they come and who has paid for their work?
211 Sorry.
212 There we go. I'm going to ask stephanie howard to come back on the second part of that at least. Or maybe I'll let you go first and then add anything.
213 I think greg townley, I believe, was one of the original evaluators, and I believe that was paid for through Portland street response budget through commissioner, then commissioner Hardesty. Maybe I'm wrong about that. April, give me a look.
214 Good afternoon. April, interim program manager for Portland street response. Yes. Greg townley was the person through Portland state university that was part of creating the ongoing evaluations. It was paid for by Portland street response. We have reached out to greg townley to investigate starting these again. He's no longer in that same position. We've been working with PSU to get some recommendations, and from greg townley on who could pick up that body of work.
215 Or do you have on the top of your head what academic discipline greg comes from?
216 I don't remember.
217 The professor of psychology.
218 Thank you, thank you, I appreciate that.
219 And just to clarify, it's not just one person. It's the homelessness research and action collective at PSU, which I believe he was the leader of at the time.
220 Correct? Yes. Correct. So sorry.
221 I'll just you know, I know that councilor Novick is going to start entertaining end of discussion motions here. So I'm going to just I don't think I have any more questions. I, I am troubled by this resolution in this idea that we want first responders, but then we're going to, in the same document, say what they shouldn't go to. When I look out there and I see a couple of uniformed people from our other first responder bureaus who job duties have changed over the course of our existence as a society and have changed over the course of the last even couple of decades. And one of the great responsibilities of a first responder is that you take orders and get in there. And I am troubled by this idea that this document will somehow independently set aside a different city bureau who will not to use the bureau the wrong way. Councilor I respect that. But another, another part of this, this first responder network who is then not going to take direction from either the mayor or or chief or or the dca for public safety, so that that part of it is concerning for me, because I think that I've been clear on the record, I think one of the really important adjustments to psr's footprint has been their ability to shuttle moving forward. I think that the ability to shuttle moving forward secured psr future in Portland for many years to come because not being able to shuttle no one calls 911 to have the problem stay in the exact same spot in which it was called from. So I think that is paramount. And that's why I'm going to support funding packages that come from the mayor to fund psr. But this is a this is an odd paragraph for me in that, in that part of it. And then here another aspect that's important, and I think one of the strange we heard a few testimonies about this. I have certainly experienced it in my work as a staffer and now as an elected. This idea that when people say they don't want to call police, right, that's a that is a very valid understanding. But there is, there is when you're in when you have a crisis that you need help with, there is one number in which you're supposed to call, and it's 911. And mr. Bob cozzie has stepped out. It is his employees at 911 who then make the determination for what is the best service to come. And I this is starting to confuse the matter again, because what we want the public to do is call 911 when you or your neighbor is in crisis, and we will do our darndest to send the right person in the right place. And I think a lot of this, the spirit of this and the spirit of the way that everybody has rallied around psr is getting there. But there was a point said earlier, and I'm starting to feel like this is reintroducing a politicization, politicization of psr in a way that feels like not just a few steps backwards, but quite a leap backwards. That I don't think is going to be helpful. And the partnerships that have been built between police, between fire, between ems at the from amr, from project respond, from outreach workers and from psr has grown a lot. But this independence move, this committee move and this co-equal which I think has real meaning behind the words, is not something that I'm going to support today. And I think to councilor Kanal to your point, this is an opportunity for the city council to show a commitment to psr. I think that the city council in less than one month is going to approve the budget, and I think the city council is going to send that commitment in our budget decisions, and we're going to show our commitment because they are funded right now. They have the staff they've requested. I believe that stephanie howard and the dca and the mayor, if they feel like the ramp up to a larger footprint for that, for that office or that that service is necessary, that they'll make that ramp up over the next couple of years. And that would happen without this resolution. And I certainly think our commitment is shown without an extra committee being created. At the same time, the city is saying we have probably too many committees. So I'm going to show my commitment to psr in the budget. And I've been clear about that. And I don't think that this resolution should leave our committee yet, and I certainly don't think it's ready for the full council to pass. And that's where I'm going to leave my discussion, mr. Chair.
222 Thank you. Councilor, councilor Smith.
223 Yes. Just quickly, I wanted to go back to the resolution on the now therefore, number one, where it says should remain an unnamed de-escalation program, operationally independent from police response that's dispatched through the 911 system and fully authorized to respond to 911 calls independently. That is concerning. And then for three direct, the deputy city administrator for public safety to support councilors, including the community and public safety, as council drafts amendments to Portland city code to include psr as a co-equal first response branch of the city's emergency response system anticipated by 2025. And it is still not clear to me what that co-equal first response branch means. And what more will they get that they're not getting right now? Because I do agree with councilor Zimmerman that we have come a long way in terms of psr and people wanting to support it and give it the adequate resources that it needs. And surprisingly, mayor wilson, he gave us a report about a month ago on his on his intentions to make this 24 over seven. So I would say he has met much of what you're talking about in this particular document.
224 Councilor Kanal.
225 Yeah. So let me let me start with, I guess there's three things here. One is the paragraph, I guess sort of these numbers got reformatted here. It's the seventh total, be it resolved, but it's marked as number three direct the deputy city administrator to support councilors. That's to ensure we you know, we cannot direct dcas in that way, but we can ask the mayor to do so. And that's to ensure that we're having the support of some of the folks that you're seeing here who report to the dca in the development of code so that it aligns not only with council direction, but also with best practices and current practices where where appropriate, the code does not. It doesn't guarantee that code will be created. It just says that that's trying to give some information to the mayor to try and get the that support on a timeline that makes sense. Can you remind me of the other paragraph that you were referring to?
226 It was.
227 It was the one before that said, dispatch through the 911 system and fully authorized to respond to 911 calls independently. Not sure what.
228 Yeah. So there's sort of two parts to that. One is the co-equal aspect and one is the independent. So I think just to respond to the question about labor and also to the testimony from mr. Mcclymont, again, I think there was sort of two goals here for that paragraph. And I think there's I intend to find language to, to tweak for this one clause. That's the only thing that's, that's come up for me is to try and figure out a word, that or phrase that meets the goal from the perspective of me as a co-sponsor, which is to ensure that it's it is not able to be put under the police, but also to guarantee that it doesn't address, doesn't create a challenge or a risk of the disintegrating unintegrated, whatever that word is. Sorry. The type of response we're getting, which I think is, is sort of one interpretation of it, and it's not the interpretation I had when reading those exact words, but it's someone else's.
229 Yeah, I.
230 Would actually say in terms of scope of work, what psr is doing that under this new co-equal branch, they're going to have a different scope of work and how they're going to be treated, so that I know what the difference is. This is a it is a it is an alphabet soup of stuff. And it sounds good, but it doesn't have a scope of work attached to it. What makes it different from what it's what it is today, because I agree, I think it's a public safety prevention model that that has been working.
231 Right. So to that, and I think this also addresses councilor Zimmerman's point. This would not be changing the scope of work, and it would not be taking it out of the line, the org chart reporting line that goes up through the dca or the mayor. So just to clarify that for councilor Zimmerman, co-equal is essentially a way of saying it's one of the three ways that we the four ways, I guess if you count amr that we respond to things when a call comes in to 911, it's going to this, this, this or this and that. It's protected from being a sub item that under one or the others.
232 How we get dispatch now for that under 911. Correct.
233 It gets coded as psr, which makes it very hard, by the way, to document the number of calls that are not sent to psr, but otherwise would be if it's ours were operational. But yeah, I think that's extra.
234 Yeah.
235 Councilor Morillo.
236 Thank you. I think the reason this question of the co-equal response is so tricky for people is because we have this discussion about the politicization of Portland street response, but we always talk about things being politicized when we're pushing up against the status quo, as if though the status quo isn't itself inherently political, it is inherently a political choice to have a non-armed, non-police response for the first time ever, after our city was in noncompliance, because our police killed too many people who have a mental health crisis. It is inherently a political question that people are not getting this expedient service. When this was a program that has been stalled for years at this point, that the community has been begging for. So the reason, the question of it being co-equal is so threatening to everybody is because we're having a hard time expanding our political imagination about what's possible. It is very normal for us to change things when they're not working. Back in the olden days, I'm sure we didn't have a fire bureau. And then we have it. And now it's standard, right? We didn't have a police bureau. Now it's standard. We have our agencies evolve with the growing and changing needs, and it's very obvious in every discussion we have in the housing committee that mental health crises are one of the main reasons we have unhoused people on our streets. And also we have a lot of housed people who have mental health crises who deserve that service. So pushing to veer away from the status quo is always going to be inherently political, and the status quo is itself political. So and I also kind of believe that, to be honest, I think we could have this discussion for many more committee meetings, and some folks would not move because it's not really a question about getting some of those things answered. I think there is just a values difference here. So with that, I would motion to I don't know what the next thing is, end discussion and move it to refer the resolution to full council.
237 I'll second that.
238 It's been moved and seconded to end discussion. Keelan could you please call the roll?
239 Canal.
240 So just clarifying, because the motion that was made is slightly different from how it was restated. Is this a vote on referring it or is this a vote on ending discussion?
241 I think we have to end discussion first and then make the motion to refer it to council.
242 I took it as a motion to end discussion. Is that what you intended? Councilor Morillo?
243 If that's what must be done, then yes.
244 Morillo. Yes.
245 Zimmerman.
246 Yes.
247 Sorry, I didn't hear that.
248 Yes.
249 Smith.
250 Yes.
251 Novick.
252 Yes.
253 Motion passes.
254 Okay. Chair. Novick I move the resolution support and expand Portland street response as a co-equal branch of the first responder system and establish a Portland street response committee. Whew. That's a long name to be sent to full council with a recommendation that it be adopted.
255 Is there a second second? It's been moved and moved by councilor Morillo and seconded by councilor Canal. Let's see. There's no further discussion because we've just voted against that. Kayla, will you please call the roll again?
256 No,
257 I.
258 Maria.
259 I Zimmerman.
260 I at times have felt like this discussion and this committee at times continues to feel like I'm at a carnival game playing what's under the red cup. And where are the real facts? I think that this seems performative for a thing that is going to be funded for a thing that is already getting support, and I am concerned about the. The, the other motivations that are here. And for that reason and all the reasons I stated earlier, this resolution is not ready and does not need to go forward. I vote no Smith.
261 I just want to say that we cannot legislate a sense of obligation or. Status quo or level of consciousness. So I vote no.
262 Novick.
263 Although I share some of councilor Zimmerman's reservations, I vote I.
264 The resolution is passed the full council with a recommendation for adoption.
265 Thank you. Our next meeting is Tuesday, may 13th. I will now adjourn the meeting of the community and public safety committee.
266 Thank you.