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Throughout this budget process, many of us raised concerns about cuts to frontline services, parks, public safety support positions, immigrant services, and other programs Portlanders rely on every day. Councilor Green, Councilor Morillo, and I came together around the Services First budget amendment to offer a different path.
It’s built around a simple idea that if resources are available, we should use them to protect services first. Our amendment would save more than 100 City jobs – many of them union represented – that are currently slated for elimination.
The Services First budget amendment directly responds to community need by protecting:
- Positions across City bureaus set to be cut in realignment
- Advanced Life Support (ALS) Teams
- Public Safety Support Safety Specialists (PS3s)
- Victims Services Unit positions
- Parks and Recreation maintenance and programming
- Relay Janitorial services
- PDX 311
The amendment would also reserve funding for the creation of the new Office of Immigration Affairs. I am particularly proud of that last piece. At a time when immigrant and refugee communities are facing fear, uncertainty, and increased federal enforcement actions, Portland should be expanding our capacity to support communities, not shrinking it.
This office will help coordinate outreach, engagement, policy development, language access, and community response efforts so Portland families know their City has their back.
And ultimately, that's what this amendment is about. Last year, Council approved transferring PCEF interest to the General Fund because we were told those dollars would help protect core City services during a difficult budget year.
I supported that transfer because I believed protecting services and workers mattered. That was the justification – that we could avoid deeper cuts to critical resources.
Instead, we saw services cut. We saw parks cut. We saw frontline positions cut. And we saw additional PCEF dollars redirected away from climate and environmental justice priorities.
We can make a different choice. We're restoring those cuts, we're protecting frontline workers, and we're protecting the services Portlanders rely on every day.
We're putting Services First.
Avalos 8 – Protecting Workers from Future Healthcare Cuts
This is the same healthcare budget note I brought forward last year. I'm bringing it back because my concerns haven't changed.
Healthcare costs continue to rise. Federal attacks on our healthcare system continue to grow. And I believe we have a responsibility to protect the workers who keep this city running. Our employees are the people who maintain our parks, answer emergency calls, respond to crises, and serve Portlanders every day.
This note asks the administration to come back with information on projected healthcare costs, available reserves, anticipated fiscal pressures, and options to mitigate future benefit reductions. This hasn’t always been the practice during budget development– meaning City workers often saw their health benefits on the chopping block during budget shortfalls.
Avalos 8 is following through on the commitment I made during our last budget to protect employee health benefits. Our employees should expect that they will be covered when their family has an emergency or when they're sick.
Avalos 9 – Homelessness System Governance and Regional Coordination Review
Over the last year, I've heard growing frustration from Portlanders across every neighborhood and every political perspective.
People want homelessness addressed.
People support investments in housing.
People have repeatedly voted to fund solutions.
But increasingly, people are questioning whether government is producing the outcomes they were promised. Avalos 9 is about answering calls for results and transparency, and making our homeless response system more efficient.
It directs Portland Solutions, the City Administrator, and relevant partners to evaluate opportunities to improve coordination, reduce duplication, clarify responsibilities, and assess whether our homelessness response infrastructure is producing the outcomes Portlanders expect and deserve. Commissioner Singleton is advancing a similar proposal at Multnomah County because this work needs to happen together.
This is not about blame.
It's about accountability, oversight and rebuilding public trust.
As Chair of the Homelessness and Housing Committee, I intend to spend significant time next year focused on performance, outcomes, and accountability.
Because Portlanders deserve a homelessness response system that is coordinated, outcome-focused, financially sustainable, and capable of earning back their trust.
Candace Call to Action: Submit written testimony or sign up to testify for Green-Avalos-Morillo 1, Avalos 8, and Avalos 9 here! You can see the email contact information for council offices here.
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