Celebrate the Washington Park Reservoir project on June 14!  

Join the City of Portland’s Public Works Service Area as we celebrate Portland’s investment in resilient water system improvements critical to the west side. This once-in-a-generation project provides a seismically resilient water supply for 360,000 west side water users with beautiful reflecting pools and walking paths on top. The new underground reservoir has been supplying water since 2021. 

Please plan ahead for your commute to the event! Parking is extremely limited. We strongly encourage using public transit.  

In this issue

• Hello from the City: Protecting Portland’s rivers with pride 
• News: Portland Street Response's future; 15,000 portable cooling units
• Opportunities: Foreclosure sale
• Make your voice heard: City Council budget amendments
• Events: Parklane Park expansion
• Your Portland Moment: Tistilal Village, culturally specific affordable housing

Stormwater. Wastewater. Protecting streams and rivers. The Bureau of Environmental Services -- Portland’s sewer and stormwater utility -- operates 2,500 miles of sewer pipes, nearly 100 pump stations, thousands of green streets, and two treatment plants, one of which is the biggest plant in Oregon. That takes a lot of teamwork by people like project coordinator Debbie Caselton. For the last 26 years, she's helped neighbors stay informed about construction projects and helped our community’s voices be heard so that our projects work better for each neighborhood. 

There's another reason we're talking to her during Pride Month. Debbie was one of the founders of DEEP, the Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland, an umbrella project that gave rise to the City's employee affinity groups (technically known as employee resource groups.) She's one of the leaders of the Queer Alliance. 

So what is community outreach, anyway? Let's say we have a construction project on your street. We need to think about how it's going to impact the public. Who lives here? Who works here? What are their needs? Is there a day care on this corner? Is there a school? Can we find ways to minimize the disruption? Then we engage with the public and inform them of what is going to be happening and get their input. If we're installing a green street planter, we really work with the neighborhood and the adjacent property owners very closely to get their input. How would this impact them? Does it remove parking? Are there ways to work around that? 

What do you tell someone who doesn't want this in their neighborhood? That happens every day. I understand how they're feeling. I say, let's try to work through this. Let's work together. Let me try to find as many other opportunities as possible without disrupting your property. And I'll explain. I want you to understand why we're doing this. I'll show them maps of the neighborhood where houses are being flooded with sewage in their basements. I try to provide information. I try to find a solution if possible. 

What if they're just dead set against it? It's my job to help try to find those solutions or ideas and then also engage the public in that decision making and input. Technically the city owns the right of way, and we could move forward without them, but that's not the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to work with the public and engage them and try to find solutions. I'll work with our team. We accommodate as much as we can, but sometimes we just absolutely have to have something there. Then I'll just say I'm sorry, we have to do this, but here's how we're going to try to make it nicer for you. One time I had a neighbor who said, “I park in front of my house, I just need a walkway.” So we provided a path across the really long planter in the planting strip (which also had a step out zone so he could park by it) and he was happy with that. I get to work with the community, and that's fun. 

When did you come out as gay? I came out on national television. It was on MTV. It was during the 1990s when the Oregon Citizens Alliance was attacking us as immoral people. I was a single mom with a young child. We did a short documentary about being a gay mom in Oregon. 

What prompted you to start the Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland? It was about 18 years ago. Tom Potter was the first police chief to march in the Pride Parade, and then he became mayor. And I thought, we need an affinity group at the City for our LGBTQ+ employees. He put me in touch with another group of employees who were trying to organize other affinity groups, so we started DEEP. Now we have 13 employee resource groups and something like 2,000 employees as members. We network, provide peer support, work on policy issues with the Bureau of Human Resources, and provide input and training and stuff like that. One project that Queer Alliance worked on was acquiring trans health care for City employees. 

Read our whole interview with Debbie at Protecting Portland’s Rivers with Pride. 

• Public Safety Deputy City Administrator
• Vehicle and Equipment Mechanic 

Volunteer (Non-Paid) Position - East Portland Community Leadership Committees 

Volunteer (Non-Paid) Position - Private For-Hire Transportation Advisory Committee 

City Council continues budget deliberations ahead of final vote 

Portland City Council continues deliberations this week to finalize the city's $8.5 billion budget for the financial year that starts July 1. After making some key decisions last month, council will host two more meetings as well as a public hearing with the Tax Supervising & Conservation Commission Public Hearing this week. City Council will convene again on June 18 for their final vote on the budget. 

Not sure what district you’re in?  

Check our district map to find your district and your City Councilors. 

Last week, a reimagined and expanded affordable housing development with 57 affordable units in North Portland was celebrated at a ribbon cutting ceremony. The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) owns and operates Tistilal Village. 

The Portland Housing Bureau invested voter-approved Metro Affordable Housing Bond funds into the development of 24 new units. Sixteen of these are integrated permanent supportive housing units, with wraparound supportive services and deep affordability for those exiting homelessness. All residents will benefit from culturally specific supportive services from NAYA and the Native American Rehabilitation Association. Colas Construction was the construction partner. Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) dollars were used to install high-efficiency systems and appliances, above-code insulation, and a solar array.