Windowbox · Portland City Council

The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole continued the Fair Share Tax — which would raise the business license tax exemption to $500,000 and restructure the CEO pay ratio surtax — to its October 15 meeting after hearing roughly 30 public testifiers, taking no vote (03:09:31).

The Fair Share Tax proposal

The ordinance, introduced by Councilor Mitch Green (District 4) and Councilor Angelita Morillo (District 3) with four co-sponsors, does two things. It raises the business license tax exemption from $75,000 to $500,000 in gross receipts, which sponsors said would exempt about 18,000 small businesses — 97.8% seeing their tax drop to zero — at an average saving of $900 a year, roughly $14 million kept in the local economy. And it adds new brackets to the pay ratio surtax Portland adopted in 2016, affecting about 405 publicly traded corporations that report a CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio under federal law. The current 2.6% business license tax carries a 10% surtax at a 100-to-1 ratio; the proposal starts the surtax at 50-to-1 and ties the rate to the ratio, reaching a 500% surtax on the business license tax for firms at 500-to-1 or greater.

Green opened by saying corporate profits after tax as a share of gross domestic product are the highest on record since 1947: 00:17:08 Morillo said CEO pay at the largest U.S. corporations rose 1,094% since 1978 while a typical worker's pay grew 26%, citing the Economic Policy Institute. Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1), a co-sponsor, said nine of ten Portland employers have 10 or fewer workers. Councilor Candace Avalos (District 1) framed the $900 figure as "real money" to a neighborhood business.

Sponsors offered two revenue figures. Using fiscal year 2024 as a counterfactual, the revenue department estimated an incremental $72 million, but the city economist and chief financial officer applied conservative assumptions and projected about $33 million a year going forward. Green said the ordinance delays the small-business exemption until the year after new revenue begins to collect, to manage volatility.

Questions from the dais

Councilor Steve Novick (District 3), who sponsored the original 2016 surtax, asked whether top payers might refer the measure to the ballot, noting San Francisco voters rejected a pay ratio tax increase. CFO Jonas Beery said there is "broad litigious risk" and that liability is heavily concentrated: he said at least two taxpayers each pay more than $5 million a year, and that one taxpayer paid over $20 million in a single year (01:06:00). Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4) asked whether phasing in the exemptions would make the revenue more predictable.

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Portland's City Council voted 9-2, with one member absent, to raise Portland Fire & Rescue permit and inspection fees projected to bring in about $800,000 a year, over the objections of two members who said the increases arrived outside the budget process. (03:09:02)

Fire fee increase draws process complaints and two no votes

The fee ordinance, introduced by Mayor Keith Wilson for Portland Fire & Rescue, updates charges for inspections, alarms, sprinkler systems, assembly-space floor plans and permits for events, theatrical firearms and laser shows. Budget analyst Angela Wright told the council most of the fees — roughly 88% — had not been updated since before 2012, and that the city's current fees run about $146 below comparable cities, or $53 below after the increase. Wright estimated the change would generate about $800,000 a year.

Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1) voted no, saying the move toward full cost recovery across bureaus falls hardest on small businesses and arts venues. He said the city "should not be granting dollars with one hand and then taking them back with the other" (02:24:00), citing permits for music venues, galleries and events. Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2) also voted no, questioning why the fees arrived months after the budget. "That was my editorial opinion," he said after describing the increases as "aspirin to the headaches of expenses for businesses" (02:29:05). Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4), who was absent for the final vote but had voted no in committee, said "there has to be a line in our professionalism, Mr. Administrator" (02:57:04).

Several members voted yes while sharing those frustrations. Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) said he was "stunned that we're sitting here talking about blowing an $800,000 hole in the budget of the Portland Fire and Rescue Bureau" (02:47:12), noting the St. Johns fire engine cost $2.5 million and rescue units $1.65 million. Councilor Mitch Green (District 4) said cost recovery does not fit a public safety bureau but the hole was too large to accept. Chief Financial Officer Jonas Biery said the fees had been a decision package in the mayor's proposed budget, discussed at a May 5 work session and carried into the adopted budget, and that the city would align fee analysis with the budget going forward (02:52:46).

CEI Hub fuel reduction advances with two amendments

The council passed to second reading, as amended, the ordinance reducing fuel storage at the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub by 2036. Members adopted a substitute amendment, drafted by Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) with Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), committing the council to work with the Portland Clean Energy Fund committee to bring transportation investments more in line with the 40% of emissions from the transportation sector. The amendment passed 8-4 (01:55:42), with Councilors Candace Avalos (District 1), Loretta Smith (District 1), Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3) and Dunphy against. Avalos said the next climate investment plan is the right venue and the language predetermines fund allocations: "I'm pretty disappointed to hear that" (01:54:05). Smith wanted the question as a standalone issue rather than "an amendment to an amendment to an amendment" (01:33:27).

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The Community and Public Safety Committee referred an updated Secondhand Dealers Code to the full City Council 4-0, after adding a $25 background check fee and stripping a catch-all data-collection clause over privacy concerns.

Secondhand dealers code heads to full Council

The committee voted 4-0, with Councilor Loretta Smith (District 1) absent, to send the amended ordinance to City Council with a recommendation to pass (01:19:49). The measure, introduced by Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) through the Revenue Division, eliminates a separate fee classification for occasional secondhand dealers and updates program fees. Tim Mercer, Tax Division Manager for Revenue, said the occasional-dealer category was dropped because "it takes the same amount of time for us to administer an occasional dealer permit as it does the full permit" (00:23:49).

The committee first adopted an amendment, Novick 2, 3-0 (00:29:17) clarifying that only owners, managers and people authorized to buy regulated property need a background check — a security guard would not. Novick said the change also added a $25 background check fee for a process the city already performs without charge (00:36:16).

Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) pressed on data privacy and moved a second amendment, Kanal 1, striking a provision that let the city administrator require "any other information the city administrator may reasonably feel is necessary." It passed 4-0 (01:04:06). Mercer said he had never used that clause and that it was "okay to withdraw" (00:45:18); the City Administrator said such language gives flexibility to address issues "that need to be added to it" later (00:45:33).

Kanal and Councilor Angelita Morillo (District 3) both tied their reservations to the city's Data Privacy Office, which is not yet staffed. Morillo asked whether personal history forms, including arrest records, are disclosable public records. Novick later relayed that city attorney Ken McGare believed the personal-privacy exemption would cover at least some of the form, though not necessarily all (01:17:46). Morillo noted she had voted against a recent police surveillance-technology grant for the same reason, saying it is "much more difficult to claw things back once they have been approved" (01:16:00). The City Administrator said the office's bureau lead should be hired by December and the independent review operational around January (01:14:29). Kanal said he would vote aye but "reserve the right to change my opinion at the full council" (01:19:38).

A drafting dispute surfaced when Kanal found deleted language (a fee-assessment line, D2) that was not marked as removed. Spencer Knowles, Chief of Staff for Councilor Steve Novick, said drafting guidelines bar redlining amendment language. Kanal said "Not trying to imply there was any bad intent there" and asked that the guidelines be revisited (00:43:05). The clerk confirmed no one signed up to testify (01:19:14).

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The Housing and Permitting Committee referred a measure extending Portland's property-tax exemption for nonprofit low-income housing to the full City Council on a 3-2 vote, over objections about a possible for-profit loophole (02:42:18). The committee, chaired by Candace Avalos (District 1), also forwarded a zoning-code update and heard a long presentation on a climate policy coming back in two weeks.

Building climate standards previewed before an October 20 vote

Avalos used most of the meeting to walk the committee through a draft Climate and Health Standards policy her office filed earlier that day, scheduling a vote for October 20. The proposal would add roughly 1,200 multifamily buildings to the roughly 1,000 commercial buildings already required to report energy use, covering about 40% of Portland's building-sector emissions, and would require covered buildings to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% every five years starting in 2030, reaching zero by 2050 (00:24:27).

Vin Mason, a senior climate policy advisor at the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, told the committee that Oregon's own building rules would cut emissions from Portland's covered buildings "by only 5%," short of the city's zero-by-2050 goal (00:15:29). Vivian Satterfield, Deputy City Sustainability Officer, said natural gas is the only major local fuel with rising emissions — up 18% since 1990 overall and 62% in the residential sector (00:31:26).

Panelists from Multnomah County, community groups, and other cities testified. Andrea Hamberg, Environmental Health Services Director for the county, said that during the 2021 heat dome nearly 80% of those who died were seniors, more than 70% lived alone, and 94% died in their own homes without sufficient air conditioning (00:39:08). Rajeev Ravalapati of the Institute for Market Transformation said about 93% of covered private buildings in New York filed first reports under that city's standard, and Washington, D.C., buildings cut energy intensity about 13% from 2019 to 2024 (00:50:24). Quinton Zondervan, policy director at Run on Climate and a former Cambridge, Massachusetts, councilor, described Cambridge's standard requiring buildings over 100,000 square feet to reach zero by 2035 (00:57:18).

Steve Novick (District 3), who said he started "heavily biased in favor" of the proposal, relayed questions from Multifamily Northwest about rent impacts and asked how the policy's carbon pollution impact fee reached $380 per ton (01:47:17). Mason said the figure drew on a 2023 EPA social-cost-of-carbon table rather than aiming to raise revenue. Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2) pressed on what "zero" requires, and Mason said a gas-served building cannot reach zero without ending fossil-fuel use, barring emerging carbon-capture technology.

Pirtle-Guiney questioned the pace, noting councilors were "getting a lot of incoming from groups who are raising concerns" without public workshopping. She asked whether the committee would have time to review details on the 20th. Avalos said she had "not determined" an outcome and had heard no concern "that require[s] me to pause," adding, "that is what the legislative process demands... If you're asking a request for more time, please reach out to my office" (01:56:29).

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Portland City Council deadlocked 6-6 and rejected a proposal to strip the aviation-fuel exemption from its plan to shrink fuel storage at the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub (02:34:02), while advancing the broader package of hub safety amendments it has worked on for years.

The council spent the entire October 1 session on two ordinances tied to the CEI Hub in Linnton, the riverside complex that stores most of Oregon's liquid fuel in an earthquake-prone zone. Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1) presided. Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2) said at the start that he was on "family bereavement leave" and would participate "off camera," joining for the aviation fuel votes (00:04:48).

Comprehensive plan and zoning amendments

The council first took up the comprehensive plan and Title 33 zoning changes (document 2026-311). Supervising Planner Tom Armstrong of the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability walked members through the amendments, which add new policy language on hazard risk, expand neighborhood notification, and collapse three types of discretionary land-use review into two: a storage tank replacement review and a capacity and transloading expansion review. New tanks would have to be built to risk category 4 seismic standards and set back at least 250 feet from the Willamette River. The amendment passed 12-0 (01:16:54).

Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) pressed on whether requiring a lengthy Type 3 review before a company could replace a vulnerable tank with a sturdier one would slow seismic upgrades. "I just don't see logically why we wouldn't have to want to have a speedier process for that," he said. Councilor Mitch Green (District 4), the lead sponsor, said community advocates "want the most robust processes possible" to build trust and gather data. Staff said a Type 3 review runs at most four months under the state's 120-day rule. Novick said he would have offered an amendment to downgrade the review but would not "waste time in an 11 to 1 or 10 to 2 vote."

Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4) repeatedly asked BPS staff for a non-advocacy assessment of what the amendments gave up compared with the bureau's original package. Staff said the main loss was an automatic 20% capacity reduction that had been tied to transfers between terminals, replaced by a needs-based criterion. Councilor Loretta Smith (District 1) pushed the bureau to reach "historically underserved communities," telling Director Eric Engstrom, "Look around the room to see who's here and then look to see who's not here."

The aviation fuel fights

Green then moved a standalone amendment to remove the 5% aviation-fuel expansion allowance from the zoning code. "I don't think it's credible to say that there's gonna be as much growth in aviation fuel as we see in the record," he said, arguing that higher fuel prices would push travelers to drive. It failed 5-7 (01:30:29).

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The council passed the Psychedelic Health and Safety Code 10-0, with two members absent, after holding four more ordinances for a second reading on Oct. 7 during a short Wednesday session led by Council Vice President Olivia Clark.

With Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1) on an excused absence and Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2) also out, Vice President Olivia Clark (District 4) presided over a condensed agenda that recessed before 10:09 a.m. until Thursday afternoon.

Psychedelic code adopted

On its second reading, the council adopted an ordinance adding a Psychedelic Health and Safety Code to city code, passing 10-0 with Dunphy and Ryan absent (00:24:42). The measure was introduced by Councilors Mitch Green (District 4), Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), Angelita Morillo (District 3), and Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3). Pirtle-Guiney thanked advocates and "Commander Shaning with the Portland Police Bureau who worked alongside us to make sure that this did in fact align with their current practices" (00:22:34). Koyama Lane said hearing the first-reading testimony was "really moving" (00:23:16).

Fire fee schedule and three transportation items advance

Four ordinances cleared their first reading and were set for a second reading on Oct. 7.

The council advanced an amended Portland Fire & Rescue fee schedule, which aligns permit, inspection, and service fees closer to the cost of providing them, removes the permit fee for retail fireworks sales in structures or tents, and adds fees for fire-system testing and an annual laser display permit. Council Policy Analyst Kevin Alvarez said the Community and Public Safety Committee approved one amendment removing the emergency clause (00:31:20). Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) said he offered that amendment to give the public 12 days rather than 5 to react before the fees take effect, adding he supports the increases and wants Fire to reach full cost recovery "within the next year" (00:36:56). Angela Wright, budget analyst for Fire, told Koyama Lane there is no directly comparable surrounding jurisdiction because Portland runs one fire bureau while neighbors operate as districts (00:33:48). Pirtle-Guiney asked that the move to full cost recovery not inadvertently remove fee incentives for safety systems (00:38:26).

Two Bureau of Transportation ordinances authorizing the acquisition of temporary property rights through the city's eminent domain authority — for the Southeast Division Street project between 148th and 174th and the Southeast Stark Street project between 111th and 151st — passed to second reading. Council Policy Analyst Claire Adamsick said both were heard in the Public Works Committee on Sept. 22 with a do-pass recommendation and drew no public testimony. A fourth ordinance amending city code to allow advertising on city-owned streetcar benches and shelters also advanced without public testimony.

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Portland's Office of Government Relations told the City Council at a September 29 work session that the 2027 state legislative session will likely be "the most difficult legislative session for this body since the Great Recession," as councilors pressed to narrow a sprawling draft agenda and sharpened over how early staff should set priorities. No vote was taken; work sessions carry no formal action.

The session was the first of two on the city's 2027 federal and state legislative agendas, with a second set for December 2 and a council vote expected before year's end. Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) presided at the council president's request. Office of Government Relations Director Sam Chase said the office received just over 100 issue sheets — 00:42:46 — and that 20 state issues are not yet on the agenda. State Relations Manager Evan Mitchell said 00:33:36 and that legislative leadership has told members not to seek new programs or funding. Chase described the office's role as facilitation, not policymaking: "We speak on behalf of the city. We do not speak for the city."

Pressure to prioritize

Several councilors said the draft was too broad. Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4) said the agenda "seems kind of like a standard block of platform, and I'm not feeling particularly standard," warning that if the city came in "with our same old thing but we just also added behavioral health," it would be 00:54:06. He later said he was "so tired of status quo" in legislative agendas. Mitchell acknowledged "it's virtually impossible to make all of you happy."

Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2) pushed to elevate behavioral health funding, saying 01:22:41 Councilor Mitch Green (District 4) resisted cutting to a single issue, arguing the eight priority areas are interdependent. Mitchell proposed keeping most of the agenda as internal bill-review guidance while giving legislators a simpler document of top priorities. He warned that shelter and rent assistance face state cuts, with co-chairs saying shelter is 00:48:58 Zimmerman asked whether bureau submissions had been vetted above the deputy city administrator level; Chase said deputy administrators sign off on bureau asks and no further cutdown has occurred.

Smith disputes the pre-session process

The sharpest exchange came over how early the office coordinates with legislators. Councilor Loretta Smith (District 1) said she worked over the summer with Senator Dick Anderson on a 01:04:38 to let cities convert vacant, unused city property to residential use while limiting Land Use Board of Appeals review. She faulted the process for not giving council a separate pre-session bill list.

Mitchell said he was "horrified" to learn when he arrived that council did not weigh in by pre-session filing deadlines, and that the budget-setting calendar left no time, so staff pre-arranged placeholder bills with legislators. Smith responded: 01:14:17 She added, "You took our job away because you don't think that we can do a budget and identify priorities at the same time. And that's not true." Chase said, "if we are taking some of your job away from you, that is not our intention." Smith replied, "Just give me a choice. That's all I'm asking you." She later said her bill would move through the Public Works Committee and that she targets vacant and unused land, not active industrial sites. Pirtle-Guiney said she would 01:18:44, citing the need for job-producing land.

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Portland councilors spent a three-hour work session on September 29 debating how to rebuild the city's shrunken civic engagement system, after staff reported the Office of Community and Civic Life had fallen from about 50 employees to fewer than 10 before a realignment brought it back to roughly 30.

The session took no vote. Councilor Olivia Clark of District 4 opened it, said she had arrived late with a flat tire and would leave early, and handed the gavel to Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane of District 3 to preside. Koyama Lane organized the afternoon around three policy questions put forward by Civic Life staff.

What staff told the council about the bureau's decline

Laura Oppenheimer, Interim Chief Engagement Officer and the long-term Chief Communications Officer, walked the council through the bureau's history. She said that over five budget years Civic Life shrank from "50-some staff down to fewer than 10," with only 4 of those positions filled in July as the city headed into a core service realignment, and that the bureau now has about 30 staff (00:10:03). She said the period included three interim or acting directors without a permanent director.

Harmony Dashiell, Senior Engagement Manager, said the realignment that went live August 4 moved bureau engagement staff into Civic Life, creating a core team of 9 positions and embedded teams of 21 positions across three service areas. She said staff had been "anxious about being part of the engagement realignment because of the reputation that Civic Life has," which she described as a place "where people go to get laid off or for things to get cut" (00:33:00).

Adam Lyons, the city's interim district and neighborhood liaison and a former director of Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, said Portland has 94 recognized neighborhood associations supported through four district coalition offices. He said the office that supports them had dropped from five staff to "a single funded coordinator position" this fiscal year (00:37:40). Lyons recommended updating the ONI standards — the Office of Neighborhood Involvement standards adopted in 2005 — through a community-driven process starting in 2027.

The councilors' arguments

Clark delivered the sharpest critique. She called the support level "completely ridiculous, inadequate," and said it was "absolutely bananas" that "one person is going to do that for a city of 165,000" (01:01:37).

Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney of District 2 warned that overlapping systems confuse residents: "when we try to have a no wrong door policy, what we end up with is nobody actually knowing where the door is" (01:16:04). She later laid out three distinct places for community input — what the council puts on its agenda, what it debates, and the decision it makes — and said the city must be honest about which it is asking for.

Councilor Sameer Kanal of District 2 drew a line between communications and engagement, calling engagement "co-creation" and saying communications is "one way, engagement is 2 ways" (01:22:21). He said he was "really disappointed" that the interim structure combined the two disciplines under single managers.

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The Portland City Council continued both ordinances of its Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub policy project to October 1 after hearing roughly 60 public testifiers, closing the oral record while leaving written testimony open until noon that day (02:53:21).

The CEI Hub proposal and its drawdown fight

The two ordinances — item 2026-311, amending comprehensive plan and zoning Titles 33 and 24, and item 2026-312, adding Title 17 bulk fuel terminal capacity reduction rules — target the fuel terminals along Highway 30 and the Willamette River. Tom Armstrong, a supervising planner with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, told the council the existing code bars new terminals over 2 million gallons and that the proposal would require all terminals to cut in-service storage capacity by 20% by December 1, 2036 (00:15:35). He said that date was chosen to match the rough timeline of Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality seismic stability program.

Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) pressed on that date, noting DEQ had said retrofits may not finish until 2038 to 2040. Staff acknowledged the DEQ date "has been a moving target that has been slipping through this process" (00:20:30).

Councilor Mitch Green (District 4), with co-sponsors Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), Sameer Kanal (District 2), Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3) and Olivia Clark (District 4), previewed a package of amendments built from community coalition recommendations, worked out with staff and Deputy City Attorney Lauren King "into the wee hours of the night" (00:23:14). Green said the Title 17 amendment preserves the "20% by... 2036" target while adding a directive to begin a new drawdown methodology the following year (00:24:40).

Novick introduced three separate amendments, the sharpest being Novick 1, a commitment that at least 40% of Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars in the next climate investment plan go to transportation (00:27:00). He argued that "unless demand goes down, any drawdown requirement we have is going to go away. The legislature won't let us cause a fuel crisis."

What the public said

Jose Gamero Jorgensen, co-chair of the Sustainability and Climate Commission, gave invited testimony that the commission "voted to support this package as written with no amendments" but had not seen the new amendments (00:31:18). He said the hub holds roughly 350 million gallons across 11 bulk terminals and carries over 90% of Oregon's fuel supply.

Most of the public urged the council to go further than the staff draft. Testifiers repeatedly asked for a drawdown measured by fuel volume rather than tank capacity, beginning in 2027; a single definition of "fuel" covering renewable and aviation fuels; closing expansion loopholes; and stronger enforcement. Residents from Linnton, St. Johns, the Multnomah Channel floating homes and other neighborhoods described living in what several called a "sacrifice zone." Civil engineer Ana Tijerina Schino said a conservative spill scenario "would likely be larger than the 134 million gallons released in the Deepwater Horizon disaster" (01:23:57). David Labbe said CEI tanks sit unanchored while PDX tanks rest on 130 cement-filled pilings (00:59:38). Lillian Weaver, a PSU doctoral student, cited a finding that "every dollar invested in hazard mitigation saves 6" (00:57:32).

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The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole voted to send Portland's payday-lending fee ordinance to the full City Council with a do-pass recommendation, 9-0 (00:26:52), one of four regulatory-fee measures the committee advanced after splitting a fifth off for more work.

Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2), who presided, took the committee through continued discussion of five ordinances introduced by Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) and the Revenue Division to update program fees and compliance rules. Councilors Mitch Green (District 4) and Eric Zimmerman (District 4) were absent, and Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2) arrived at 9:55 a.m., midway through the votes. The committee adjourned at 10:02 a.m.

Regulatory ordinances referred to Council

Novick opened by asking to pull the secondhand dealers ordinance (Document 2026-327) from the group, telling the committee "there's some language issues that need to be worked out" and that he was not sure "we're quite there yet." He asked that it go to the Community and Public Safety Committee rather than the full Council, citing a "public safety nexus" because the rules address "secondhand dealers potentially dealing in stolen goods" (00:21:56). The issue had surfaced the prior week around Kanal's questions on background checks.

Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2) asked whether splitting off the item created a budget gap, since Novick had originally presented the five as a package with a revenue implication. Novick said "right now we're not at full cost recovery for these programs," that the city "can live with" the delay, and expected the secondhand-dealer language resolved "in the next several, several weeks" and the balance restored by the next budget cycle (00:23:53). The committee referred that item to the Public Safety Committee; the roll was recorded out of order and the clerk apologized, with Ryan noted absent at that point (00:25:12).

The committee then moved the payday-lending ordinance (Document 2026-325) to full Council on a motion from Pirtle-Guiney, 9-0 with three absent. The remaining three — the Pay and Park and private parking code (Document 2026-326), the social games code (Document 2026-328), and repeal of the amusement devices code (Document 2026-329) — were referred together on a motion by Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1), passing 10-0 with two absent (00:36:29). Novick had wanted separate votes "in an excess of caution," unsure the measures would draw equal support, but agreed to a package once discussion showed otherwise.

Dunphy said "I'm going to be supportive of all of these" while reiterating that the city should tie surface-parking-lot policy to its environmental and land-use goals (00:27:27). On Kanal's request to hear which public comments the Revenue Division had folded into the Pay and Park changes, Tim Mercer of the Revenue Division said the comments ran "particularly negative" on fee increases and parking-machine requirements. The division modified its machine approach and added a grace period before ticketing — originally proposed at 7 minutes and reduced to 5 — where none had existed before (00:31:29). Leila Taylor, regulatory program coordinator, said parking penalties were also adjusted.

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