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With the cold and snowy weather, the County and City have opened a number of severe weather shelters. Volunteers are urgently needed tonight and tomorrow. I was able to volunteer for a night shift earlier this week at a Hollywood emergency shelter as the cold weather moved in. It's such a valuable experience that I recommend for anyone who can do it.
Interested in helping out with this urgent need? Find all the information you need here: Multco.us/Cold
Shelters remaining open today through at least noon Friday, Feb. 14, include:
Two more shelters will open starting at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, and remain open through at least noon, Feb. 14:
Following up on a presentation to council, Portland's new Mayor Keith Wilson invited me and colleagues to have dinner and visit an east Portland nighttime shelter that was opening up for operations at 8:45. Joining me were Councilors Morillo, Avalos, and state Rep Mark Gamba. It was an incredibly moving experience to see the level of need and care that exists in our community as we try to keep everyone safe and housed.
Council and City Update - Committees Begin, City Defends Sanctuary
This week, our new City Council Committees took flight. As we get started, Committees will generally meet twice a month, in the weeks between our full City Council meetings:
 This was my first week Chairing the Governance Committee. This Committee will be a place for open, public discussion of our new Rules and Procedures. This week we dove into the question of how we want to structure our Public Comment on new Ordinances. For example, if we have public comment in Committee, how much public comment should we then have before the full Council?
For a journalistic review of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on which I serve, read this recap from Bike Portland.
Those who are interested can follow all Committees (watch videos, follow agendas, find upcoming meetings) at this website by clicking on Committees. The Governance Committee has its own web page here.
Portland Joins Coalition of Governments suing over Sanctuary
The President has issued Executive Orders threatening to revoke important federal funding for cities and states that have laws or practices he does not like. Portland joined a coalition of governments arguing that it is unlawful for the federal government to threaten funds solely because we have passed laws defining the work of our own employees. In this case, we have laws saying our local law enforcement are not to be doing federal immigration enforcement work. As City Attorney Robert Taylor explained at the press conference, Portland has won this battle in court during the previous Administration, and we are filing again to reduce the risk of our federal dollars being revoked unlawfully. To read more, the City's press release is here.
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