County Leaders sit with full City Council, Budget discussion draft released, Committee week #2 heats up
Joint Session with County and City elected officials
On Wednesday of this week, Multnomah County's newly-seated group of 5 Commissioners joined us in Council Chambers to sit alongside City Council and discuss a presentation on our region's Homelessness Response System.
5 Multnomah County Commissioners join 12 City Councilors and Mayor in City Council Chambers for a public work session.
Days before the meeting, reporting emerged that Multnomah County is heading into the next fiscal year with a shortage of funds to maintain its current homelessness service levels. This surprise announcement from the County elicited significant disdain from partners at the state, Metro, and City levels.
The opening portion of the meeting in City Chambers was dedicated to explaining how a significant 8-figure shortfall in funding could be possible. In short, as director of the Homelessness Services Department (HSD) Dan Field explains at 37 minutes of the video, Metro's Supportive Housing Services tax is "fickle" and fluctuates year-to-year. In the past, it's been pulling in more-than-expected revenue, causing the County to have a speed up its spending and build new programs (beds, sites, supports) to spend all the windfalls.
Now, heading into fiscal year 25-26, the County has built out significantly more capacity, and has spent down most of the reserves that had built up in early years of the program when incoming revenues were greater than the County's ability to spend. Heading into the next fiscal year, the County, like the City, is now seeing declines in revenues from some of its more high-variance revenue streams. The County is short of the money it would need to carry forward the significant Homelessness Response System spending that has built up over the years.
The Homelessness Response System staff came to elected officials saying, "Given the numbers we face, we want you to give us direction in how you'd like us to proceed." They are right, they have significant policy decisions to make, and we are the policymakers who have pledged to be accountable to constituents who put us into office to make tough decisions. While Councilors and Commissioners gave feedback during the session, we need to use the next couple of months to develop clear and uniform guidance from both elected bodies - city and county - that sets a Homelessness Response course for the next year-plus that the public can judge us on. We hold these joint meetings quarterly. By our next meeting, we'll be nearing our final budget decisions. We need to use our Policy Committees, our Finance Committee, and our Council Budget meetings to hash out a way forward. We hope you follow and share your thoughts in the coming months.
Committee Week #2 Heats Up
Your City Councilors were busy this week with the 2nd round through our Committee week. This week, 6 policy committees and 2 general committees met. Two policy committees met for the first time: Arts and Economy, and Labor and Workforce Development.
Several Committees held their first "Public Hearings" on proposed Ordinances and Resolutions, meaning we had Portlanders in the Chambers and online expressing their opinions and feedback. We had an Ordinance that would ban the use of AI-based rent price fixing, which I have signed on to in support. We had a proposed Ordinance that would change the definition of bias for members of our newly-forming Police Oversight Board. And we had a proposed Resolution receive its First Reading in my Governance Committee.
In each case, the item did not move forward, either because the Committees need more time to hear testimony (AI and Police Oversight), or the Councilors wanted to go back and reconsider changes to the proposal (Governance Committee Resolution).
Former Portland Mayoral Candidate, current director of Street Trust, Sarah Iannarone testifies before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on which I sit under the Chair Olivia Clark, opened up space for community testimony. The testimony was amazing!! We had so many people I know from the community come in to give moving and eloquent testimony in support of the kind of safe, accessible streets for all (children, the elderly, those walking, rolling, and riding) that we all want for our city. It was amazing to feel the organizing and streets of Portland live in our Chambers.
To find any agendas, videos, and meeting materials, both for Council or any Committee, you can go to this page:www.portland.gov/council/agenda
District 3 Councilors pose with reporter Sophie Peel before City Club's sold-out District 3 Town Hall this week. Your Councilors want to hear from you to inform hard choices on the City's Budget, which we will finalize in May.
Portland's First Budget Discussion Draft Released
On Friday, February 28th, City Administrator Mike Jordan released a discussion draft of Portland's 2025-2026 City Budget. Because Portlanders voted to radically change our government, for the first time ever we have an early draft of a full city budget for the wider city to deliberate on for 45-60 days. Councilor Angelita Morillo and I released a statement today in response to the budget release. But we want to hear from you! March and April will give us time as a community before the Mayor makes a proposal for a fully-balanced budget in early May. Council will make its final budget decision by early June.
As it is for many municipalities country-wide, this will be a challenging budget year, and a good test for our new Council, our Administration, and our constituents counting on us. We look forward to hearing from you and rising to this challenge together!! One upcoming time when you can meet me face-to-face will be at my monthly Constituent Coffee. The next one is Saturday, March 8th, held this time at 9am at Kolectivo, at 959 SE Division St, Portland OR 97214.
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