Facing a $160 million city budget gap, Portland city councilors are proposing a slew of amendments to Mayor Keith Wilson’s proposed 2026-27 budget that would trim top administrative pay, save a North Portland fire station, stop the mayor from raiding clean energy funds, and divert $10 million in police oversight funding to offset cuts to police and other public safety services, among other proposals.
City councilors submitted the bulk of their amendments Friday afternoon ahead of budget hearings that started Monday, May 18. The city’s rapid timeline left next to no time for the public to digest the proposed changes or weigh in.
Here are some of the most consequential budget amendments on the table:
Moderate bloc proposed public safety funding using police oversight money
District 1 Councilor Loretta Smith, along with District 2 Councilors Dan Ryan and Elana Pirtle-Guiney, District 3 Councilor Steve Novick and District 4 Councilor Olivia Clark, floated an amendment that would divert about $10 million from Portland’s new independent police oversight system toward the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) and other public safety programs slated for cuts. The amendment failed in a 6-6 vote, after a heated conversation between councilors. (Councilor Candace Avalos called the amendment a “slap in the face of voters…[and] police accountability.”)
The councilors wanted to shift $10 million in what they say are under-utilized funds from the Office of Community-based Police Accountability (OCPA), which receives funding proportional to 5 percent of the Police Bureau’s annual budget, by law. The OCPA isn’t fully operational yet and has yet to hire a professional investigative staff or begin reviewing complaints.
The amendment would have divided OCPA funds to restore cuts at Portland Fire & Rescue and PPB’s administrative and public safety support specialist teams. Some of the money would’ve gone to the Community Health Assess Treat (CHAT) street team service and police training, among other programs.
The proposal garnered sharp opposition, including from the Mental Health Alliance—an amicus to the US Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the city of Portland over police use of force on people with mental illness. The lawsuit spurred a settlement agreement regarding policing practices that remains in place today.
The Mental Health Alliance called the proposal “misguided” and said it would “siphon funds dedicated by public vote and secured by city charter.”
“We assure you any unspent funds within OCPA are not due to an inflated budget, but rather because the OCPA is not fully functioning yet,” the Alliance stated in correspondence to City Council. “The funds are allotted because the OCPA will need capable attorneys of their own, investigators who can reach conclusions independent of police, top administrators, volunteer coordinators, public outreach, communication support, and a location away from city hall. While these investments are costly–they are voter approved.”
Dunphy proposes salary freezes for top-paid administrators
Council President Dunphy floated minor spending adjustments to preserve neighborhood prosperity networks and wants to nix a proposal to spend $200,000 for a downtown marketing campaign to instead restore arts and culture programs and small grants that were on the chopping block.
Two of the more notable amendments Dunphy is pitching would target the city’s highest paid employees and reduce administrative positions in the city administrator’s office.
Dunphy proposes pausing cost of living adjustment (COLA) increases and merit pay raises for the city’s highest earning employees, while reducing raises for another bracket of high-income employees. Under Dunphy’s plan, non-union employees making $150,000 or more annually would take the pay freeze, while those earning between $145,630.10 and $149,999 would see reduced COLAs and merit-based pay raises.
The council president also wants to add $700,000 to the city’s general fund by cutting top administrative positions that were slated to be added under the mayor’s proposed budget.
Councilors Avalos and Novick to mayor: Hands off PCEF
Citing concerns about a proposal from Mayor Wilson to use nearly $5.4 million in Portland Clean Energy Funds (PCEF) toward the Public Environment Management Office–essentially a public clean-up and beautification operation—District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos wants to restore those cuts to PCEF, as well as another $500,000 the mayor wanted to divert from PCEF toward the Impact Reduction Program, which mainly sweeps unhoused people from public locations.
Avalos also proposes redirecting $1 million in one-time funding from Portland Solutions and the Portland Environment Management Office into a restricted reserve for “homelessness system governance, regional coordination and transition planning.” The money would more or less fund an audit of the city’s homelessness spending to ensure the city isn’t duplicating county services, and ensure services are being rendered with the intended outcomes.
The District 1 councilor is also looking to restore funds for parks programming using the parks levy, and using Prosper Portland storefront funds for immigration affairs and liaison services.
Similarly, Councilor Steve Novick has his own “Protect and Preserve PCEF Integrity” amendment.
Novick’s plan? Move PCEF funds from the Public Environment Management Office (PEMO) and use them instead for tree protection, care, and workforce development. Novick says his plan would take general fund money allocated toward tree care and put it back into PEMO to prevent any reduction in service the mayor had planned.
Kanal wants opioid funds to pay for alternative response programs
Among several amendments put forward by District 2 City Councilor Sameer Kanal is one that would help restore funds to Portland Street Response and Community Health Assess and Treat (CHAT). Kanal wants to amend the mayor’s proposed budget to add $1.8 million from the city’s share of opioid settlement money to send $660,000 to Portland Street Response to avoid cuts to the alternative response program. Another $591,000 would avoid cuts to Portland Fire & Rescue’s Community Health Assess and Treat (CHAT) program, and $550,000 would prevent the fire bureau from cutting hours of operation on one of its two-person rescue teams. Kanal says $1.8 million would be cut from the city administrator’s office budget that currently funds the Portland Solutions shelter program.
Kanal is also proposing cutting from the city administrator’s office budget to save other jobs at City Hall. A move to preserve a position at Portland’s Office of Community and Civic Life, and add another staffer in the city’s budget office would be achieved by eliminating a deputy director position in the Office of Government Relations and slashing a chief of staff with a proposed salary of $360,000 for City Administrator Raymond Lee III.
Zimmerman & Ryan: More money for more cops
This year’s Portland Police Bureau budget would not cut any sworn officer positions, but Councilor Eric Zimmerman, with Councilor Dan Ryan as a co-sponsor, is proposing adding funds for an extra 20 patrol officers at a cost of $3.24 million. The money would come from the already cash-strapped general fund. Zimmerman also wants to throw an extra $2.5 million at PPB for training. Portland Police Chief Bob Day had identified training as one area where the Bureau could cut its expenses to meet city-wide budget constraints.
Morillo: Restore health and safety funding
Wilson’s budget included a $2.5 million increase for security services for city councilors. District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo proposed diverting those funds toward several health and safety-related programs. Her plan, which passed in an 8-4 vote, proposes spending the $2.5 million as follows:
- Add $211,000 to restore reductions for Portland Parks Summer Free for
All lunch and play program
- Use $1.1 million to restore funding for the city’s ceasefire program and the Office of Violence Prevention
- $660,00 and four full-time staff to prevent cuts to Portland Street Response
- $500,000 and three full-time positions to restore reductions to the Community Health Assess and Treat (CHAT) teams.
Koyama Lane pitches restoring Urban Forestry resources using Clean Energy Fund
District 3 Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane is floating an amendment that would pull $3.2 million in Portland Clean Energy Funds (PCEF) to restore proposed staff reductions to Urban Forestry and the tree permitting program within Portland Permitting & Development.
Koyama Lane also has parks programming amendments geared toward seniors and rebuilding a demolished Montavilla Park picnic shelter.
Councilor Green’s proposal would trade sweeps for hygiene services
District 4 Councilor Mitch Green is no fan of paying for programs that often cause more harm than good. One of his budget proposals would see that actualized by diverting money from the Impact Reduction Fund, which typically funds homeless camp removals, Green wants to set aside $1 million in general fund money to pay for “hygiene, health, laundry, and cleaning programs serving the unhoused community.”
District 4 Councilor Mitch Green put forward public safety budget changes of his own, in an effort to restore cuts to Portland Fire & Rescue. Green wants to utilize $2.5 million in one-time contingency funds to restore cuts that threatened to close fire station 22 and $825,000 to restore one Advanced Life Support team.
This is by no means a full list of amendments. The full list of proposals is available here. The Mercury is also regularly updating a story with details from the ongoing City Council budget meetings.
