So here’s how this works: Every year, the mayor’s office releases a budget, and everyone who’s interested takes their best shot at changing it to their own ends. Members of the city council are already doing this—pretty amicably, this time around—but tonight it’s the public’s turn. It’s a packed house in council chambers, and sort of like a Price is Right taping in here, with different groups repping their set via placards and t-shirts.
Firefighters’ union is out in force, and I’m guessing they’re not happy with a suggestion that would keep 26 jeopardized positions, but leave 13 in question next year. There are guys in hi-lighter yellow safety vests, and I’m wondering if they’re here on roads. That would be weird, since infrastructure—and in particular Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT)-managed infrastructure—got a lot of shine in Mayor Charlie Hales’ budget proposal. Some people across the balcony from me definitely are advocating safer roads, with “Mind the Gap!” signs that I think advocate wider shoulders on the road? (Hard to see.) One contingent is going to be pushing for more money for the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI)
“The council has given the mayor pretty high marks,” Commissioner Nick Fish tells the crowd. “I’ll let you in on a little secret: If it’s already in the budget it’s a little harder to take it out. If it’s not in the proposed budget… that’s especially important.”
It’s the best budget year of Hales’ mayoral tenure, with $49 million on top of the current budget, and $3.7 billion to put toward city services. So far, the knives haven’t come out with any real vigor. Will that change tonight?
VOZ Workers Rights Education Project are apparently the guys in the safety vests. They don’t want to talk about Hales’ budget, but the Portland Development Commission’s, which is also up for discussion. They’re asking for $30,000 in the PDC budget for help with becoming a “more viable organization.” VOZ says it can guarantee $12 an hour for its workers. The city council loves VOZ, and publicly stood by a member of its staff when he was nearly detained by ICE recently. “It’s a place people can go,” one man says of the day laborers center.
6:53 pm: Heather Hale with Venture Portland is up now, touting her groups help for small businesses and community involvement. She’s thanking council for continuing funding to her organization. Feel good stuff. We’re still on the PDC’s budget. People are checking their phones. One guys got the New York Times splayed luxuriously out in front of him.
6:59 pm: Okay, onto the city’s budget. Metro Councilor Bob Stacy is first up. “It would be silly if I were to advise you of how to spend your budget dollars,” he says. Instead, he’s sort of making promises. Metro is prioritizing Safe Routes to School this year, he says, and there might be a chance for the City of Portland to reap some of those benefits. But we’d need to put something down to match, Stacey says. The current budget has $60,000 for Safe Routes—which active transportation folks love, and is important. PBOT requested $300,000. “Very helpful,” Hales says.
7:03 pm Bob from HIllsdale wants to see $15,000 for trails maintenance in SW Portland. He says it doesn’t matter that the trails were created without permits.
Next Hales says elementary students get to come up and they being streaming in droves out of the balcony pews. This thing is scheduled until 8:30 pm, but kids are notoriously long-winded. The first bunch wants a better playground in Couch Park. Fantastic work, and matching hats. Loud applause.
I should point out that this hearing could have a big effect on the city’s budget. The mayor’s office will submit that budget tomorrow. It will be subject of a council hearing next week. Council can still take action to change that document on May 27th and June 18th.
7:11 pm: Still talking about Couch Park. More applause.
Now a group of kids who frequent the Boys and Girls Club. “The club has given us a place to eat, a place to meet new friends, college preparedness, and work readiness,” says their spokesman, who’s admirably terse. She wants $2 million Hales has promised to use on increased teen access in community centers to extend to the Boys and Girls Club.
7:17 pm Here’s a young man who wants the Youth Pass program, which offers Portland Public Schools students free TriMet service, to extend to more students. It’s funded this year, but not available to the other school districts in Portland. “It’s not enough,” this young man says. He’s from OPAL.
And there are more kudos to Hales for a $2 million initiative that would make some community centers more available to gang-affected teens. That’s been thrown into question by labor strife within Portand Parks and Recreation.
7:22 pm: A woman is breastfeeding her toddler as she sits in front of council to testify. Boom, Portland.
7:31 pm Jose Martinez, a student at the SE Works career center, was a dropout. He’s turned his life around, and is going to graduate and go to PCC. He didn’t explicitly say he wanted momney for SE Works, but we all got it.
Now a woman is touting the $2 million Hales wants to give to Indoor Track and Field Championships, which are coming to Portland next year whether they have that $2 million or not. The mayor says the money will be the difference between a so-so track meet and an event that brings “the eyes of the world” on Portland. None of his colleagues have much questioned that premise. Anyway, this woman speaking was a javelin standout back in the day, and she loves track and field.
I know what you’re thinking: No one’s griping about the mayor’s budget, as promised in my poorly thought out headline. Stick with me, though! You never know.
7:35 pm Longtime former commissioner Mike Lindberg in the house. He gets to jump the line because he used to be on council. And all he’s saying is he loves the budget, but he wants more money for special projects like the new beach south of the Hawthorne Bridge slated to get $300,000. But loves the budget.
7:41 Now some folks from, sigh, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, which restores steam engines and lets the public look at them. “When I first got here they were mouldering on Oaks Bottom,” says Jan [didn’t catch last name]. Council got the center off the ground with a loan. It’s asking for forgiveness on a part of that loan. And Jan says the center’s “moment” is coming once the new Max Orange line opens. I’d bet these people get money.
And now Commissioner Amanda Fritz says we might not get to everyone tonight. And the Parks Board is saying they like the budget. I was totally spitballing when I wrote “budget bloodbath,” okay?
7:45 pm: Now it’s Ken Forcier, who lives in the Concordia Neighborhood. He’s got a “Stop Demolishing Portland” shirt on and speaks of “side-yards, gardens, and grand trees” that are the hallmark of his subdivision. Forcier says Vera Katz’s administration passed a law that’s led to TOO MANY SKINNY HOUSES, and supports a Bureau of Planning and Sustainability study of this kind of reshaping. As long as that study finds the skinny houses can’t come to his neighborhood. Side-yards over density, etc.
A woman from Causa says Hales should have funded the Portland Ready Initiative, which assists undocumented people with seeking citizenship or deferred action. “It wouldn’t be only beneficial to these immigrant families, but also the city itself.” BOOM, a legitimate gripe. Hales says thank you
7:51 pm YES: “SHAME ON YOU COMMISSIONERS,” this next guy yells. “YOU’RE LYING TO US. YOU SAID THE STREETS ARE THE MAIN ASSETS OF PORTLAND. NOW YOU’RE SPENDING MONEY ON EVERYTHING ELSE. AND YOU STILL WANT TO PUT A STREET FEE IN.” We’re rolling! FYI, this is maybe the most general fund money that’s ever been spent on PBOT. More than half the surplus is headed that way. But that guy’s got a gripe. Don’t know his name.
7:56 pm Don Grotting, superintendent of David Douglas School District, wants $100,000 for College Possible for his district. The money would go toward helping students of color, students who speak English as a second language, and students in low-income homes. Grotting says David Douglas’ first-ever Harvard acceptance was this year, and a College Possible participant. Hales was just talking today about how the city needs to be more intentional about its gifts to school districts. I’m not betting on Grotting’s request.
8:02 pm Now we’ve got active transportation advocates Noel Mickelberry (Oregon Walks) and Mychal Tetteh (Community Cycling Center). Mickelberry’s praising improvements to 122nd. “Seeing this investment is really important to us.” BUT, she says there needs to be full funding for Safe Routes to School. It’s been the most-consistent beef from people like Mickelberry. Wonder if Hales will listen. Tetteh is wearing a sign around his neck that I can’t see from the balcony. He wants Safe Routes money, too. “Consider the impact that amount of money can have.”
Here goes the Fire Union Prez Alan Ferschweiler, and all the union members in the balcony are standing. Told y’all. Ferschweiler calls Hales proposed funding a “bandaid to a bigger problem.” He wants permanent, ongoing funding for the 26 positions that are in question. Fish asks if he’s speaking for the 30-plus firefighters standing, and he gets more time. “We lost almost 40 budgeted positions two years ago,” Ferschweiler says. “Before we look at how we cut further stations and staff, continue to build to what we had before.” Applause
There’s also a woman (works for Washington County?) who’s happy Hales wants to give $500,000 to a new Unity Behavioral Health Center, a “drop-off” center for people in mental health crisis. It’s a $50 million project, I think, but a privately run conglomeration of various mental health services in town. Interesting thing: Fritz doesn’t want to contribute to the center, and she’s been heavily involved in helping people in crisis. Fritz notes the center wouldn’t increase the inpatient services in town. Useful rundown here.
8:23 pm There are three board members for Lan Su Chinese Garden here, appreciative of city money ($638,000!) that will help fix a leak in the garden’s pond. They are aggressively not Chinese. This thing seems to be winding down.
8:28 pm From up in the balcony you can see the papers that commissioners have in front of them. Hales appears to have a rather elaborate drawing of an old train. It’s beneath his notes, but still.
8:36 pm We’re over time and a guy’s calling the fence designed to prevent suicides on the Vista Bridge “unsightly,” though he acknowledges it’s stopped the too-frequent suicides there. He wants money to replace what was supposed to be a temporary solution with something lovelier. A net maybe?
8:50 pm. Council chambers nearly emptied, and this hearing is winding up after some last-minute pleas for money for the arts, programs for aging Portlanders, the Nepalese community, and even an off-topic chiding about the proposed propane terminal in North Portland. More important, my laptop battery is flagging.
Will any of this matter? Did I waste more than two hours of my precious life? I truly don’t know.