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Hey Portland,
If you’ve been following this year’s budget process, or if you read my 2026 D1 Budget Survey Report, this next part is going to sound familiar:
East Portlanders are not asking for luxury in our budget.
You’re asking for the basics.
Safe parks. Housing that’s actually affordable for the people in our part of town. Maintained streets. Community spaces. Sidewalks. A city that feels like it works for the people who live here.
And yet somehow, every budget season, East Portland is still expected to settle for less.
Candace Call to Action: Sign up to testify or submit public comment on the budget here or here! On Monday, May 18, Council will be having a marathon meeting to hear from Portlanders about the proposed budgets for the City and Prosper.
My package of budget amendments is about putting District 1 to the front of our City’s priorities.
These amendments protect core services, make sure public dollars are spent the way voters intended, and push this city to better serve working families who are too often treated like an afterthought by decision makers and power brokers used to listening to corporations and the wealthiest individuals.
Here’s what I’m fighting for:
Protecting Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) dollars
Voters approved PCEF to invest in environmental justice. That means something very specific. PCEF is also governed by a very specific process. We have a community-led PCEF Committee and a five-year Climate Investment Plan developed through conversations with Portlanders.
The Mayor’s proposed budget would unilaterally shift millions in PCEF dollars toward things like sidewalk cleaning, trash cleanup, lighting, and other public environment management services.
Those services are a part of the City’s responsibilities.
But that is not what voters approved PCEF funding for and it’s not right that we keep looking at PCEF as “free” money to plug holes in our budget.
My amendment keeps those dollars aligned with voter intent and protects investments in clean energy jobs, environmental justice, and climate resilience.
Supporting immigrant and refugee communities
Right now, immigrant families are navigating real uncertainty as ICE and this fascist federal government continue creating fear in our communities. East County has been one of the hardest hit places in Oregon, and I know so many of us have personal connections to families struggling with the deportation or detainment of a loved one.
My amendment builds on the Protect Portland Initiative and strengthens the City’s ability to respond by increasing resources specifically meant to support immigrant and refugee Portlanders.
Because families deserve stability and they deserve to know this City has their back.
Restoring Parks services
Last year, many of you raised concerns about deteriorating park conditions in East Portland: broken play equipment, closed bathrooms, overflowing trash cans. In the last budget, I had to push for maintenance not to get cut at new parks I hadn’t even cut the ribbons for.
This year, I’m continuing that fight by restoring positions that help maintain parks, support community stewardship groups, and keep these public spaces safe, clean, and responsive to what East Portlanders need.
East Portlanders love our parks. The City needs to show the same level of care.
Fixing our homelessness response system
We need honest conversations about whether our current homelessness response system is working as efficiently as it should – especially when both the City and County are considering closing hundreds of shelter beds due to budget shortfalls.
My amendment creates dedicated planning resources to examine duplication, improve coordination, and make sure we’re prioritizing long-term housing stability.
This is about making systems work smarter and better, and giving Portlanders more for their buck. This is also about accountability: I teamed up with Councilor Kanal to call for better oversight of Urban Alchemy, a City shelter contractor where staff have been accused of sexual assault, harassment, retaliation, and drug dealing.
Protecting leadership programs for communities of color
I’m fighting to restore funding for culturally specific leadership development programs that help communities of color, immigrant communities, and historically underrepresented Portlanders participate in civic life.
Representation matters, and our communities deserve a real seat at the table.
Supporting Leach Botanical Garden
I’m proposing one-time operational support for Leach Botanical Garden as the organization works to stabilize its operations and continue serving Portland families. I’ve heard from many of our neighbors about what this space means for them and their loved ones. It’s a rare accessible green space in a part of town that is lacking in the kind of large, well-maintained nature parks we see on the westside.
Leach is one of our East Portland treasures and I intend to keep it that way.
What does this budget mean for District 1?
The bigger issue with the budget is this:
Our working families continue paying into a system that often fails to prioritize their basic needs.
I’m not interested in preserving that status quo.
District 1 was intentionally named District 1 because this city has spent far too long putting East Portland last.
That changes today, with us.
And I’ll continue fighting to make sure this budget reflects what our communities have been asking for all along:
Equitable investments.
Fair cuts.
People-first decisions.
And I need you with me in these budget negotiations. I’m grateful to anyone who chooses to sign up to testify or submit support for my amendments.
One Thing to Know from This Week’s Budget Work sessions
 $5.4 million in PCEF dollars: That’s how much the Mayor’s proposed budget asks us to spend on activities like lighting, greenspace-adjacent cleaning, stormwater drain management, Central City Concern trash pickup, and cleaning services through the Public Environment Management Office (PEMO). That’s on top of the $27 million in PCEF interest being used across the Mayor’s proposed budget, and the $750 million in PCEF funding already backfilling holes in City bureau budgets.
Let me pause there. I want to clear up some misunderstandings about PCEF that have been floating out there.
PCEF is not free money. And as I mentioned earlier, PCEF dollars are already spoken for and invested in climate projects that were selected by a community-led process. And most importantly, when voters cast their ballots, they created PCEF for a specific purpose:
To advance environmental justice.
Environmental justice doesn’t mean funding every service that’s kind of related to climate. It’s about addressing the harm and inequalities of a system that puts poor Portlanders and Portlanders of color on the frontlines of environmental pollution, extreme weather, and climate change.
At the May 12 budget work session, I asked “at what point does the definition of climate spending become so broad that virtually any public service could arguably qualify?”
Portland Solutions Director Skyler Brocker-Knapp answered:
“I think that, looking at those strategic program areas, trash collection and recycling is a huge part of that. So those are things that we were already doing. There's plenty of things within Portland Solutions or other city programs or bureaus that wouldn't qualify for those strategic program areas.”
I don't agree that picking up trash is the same as greening up streets. And I don’t agree that we can continue to use PCEF as a piggy bank for the City’s bureaus.
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Monday, May 18, 9:30 am: Budget Committee meeting for FY2026-27: Public testimony for the City and Prosper Portland budgets
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Tuesday, May 19, 9:30 am: Budget Committee meeting for FY2026-27: City and Prosper Portland budgets
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Wednesday, May 20, 9:30 am: Budget Committee meeting for FY2026-27: Rate and utility ordinances, councilor-submitted amendments
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