Windowbox · Portland City Council

Portland budget officials told the City Council on May 6 that the mayor's proposed FY2026-27 budget would cut 12 tree-permitting positions — six of them filled — and that permit inquiry turnaround has already grown from about two weeks to six or seven weeks since the program moved to Portland Permitting and Development. The session took no votes; it was the first of the Community and Economic Development Service Area budget work sessions, covering permitting, housing and planning, presided over by Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1).

Tree permitting cuts draw the most heat

Eric Kooch, director of Portland Permitting and Development, said the bureau proposes 300.9 positions, down from 337.9 at the current service level, with most of the service reduction landing in tree permitting. Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira later reconciled the tree program numbers: 26 positions moved from Parks last year, 20 now filled, and the proposed budget would leave 14 filled after cutting 12, six of them occupied (01:08:07). Oliveira said inquiry turnaround was about two weeks before the move and is "closer to about 6 to 7 weeks now" (00:45:51).

Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) pressed Mayor Keith Wilson on funding priorities, asking why the city could spend $75 million of Portland Clean Energy Fund money on the Moda Center but not save the tree jobs. Wilson called it "a false choice" (00:21:45); Novick answered, "you have made that choice" (00:22:18). Councilor Mitch Green (District 4) said cutting tree-code compliance staff while moving Clean Energy Fund dollars to a program office was "egregious" and told colleagues he would bring a budget amendment to restore the positions (00:34:34).

Councilors Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2) and Eric Zimmerman (District 4) traced the shortfall to the transfer itself. Oliveira and Kooch said only Clean Energy Fund dollars — roughly $3.5 million — came with the program, while general fund and Parks levy money that covered overhead, vehicles and office space stayed at Parks. Zimmerman said Parks and the prior city administration came to him "hat in hand" in August after realizing their staffing numbers were wrong (00:55:04), and said improved customer service was the point of the move: "I'll take 8 weeks with a path toward improving that."

Kooch's mention of possibly amending Title 11 tree code to offset the delays drew objection. Novick said a permitting cut and a rollback of the underlying requirement "should go together"; Green called code changes "a non-starter for me."

Councilor Loretta Smith (District 1) objected to document errors, noting a slide listed the service-area budget as "$1.235.5 million" when Oliveira confirmed the figure was $1.2 billion. When Oliveira said staffing for a future Code Alignment Project resolution would be worked out with the council president's office, Smith cut in: "you do not get to isolate everybody else and say you're just going to work with the council president's office when we're talking about the budget right now" (00:51:03). She said the service area "has a history of spending money before it is authorized." Oliveira replied, "for the record, this is the Permitting Development Bureau" (00:52:28).

Kooch also outlined a fee proposal — not yet approved — with most programs rising about 5%, accessory short-term rentals up 26% and noise up 41%.

Continue reading the summary and transcript on Windowbox: https://portland.windowbox.app/meetings/2026-05-06-ws-1

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The Housing and Permitting Committee voted 5-0 to send an ordinance conveying a 3-acre city lot to Habitat for Humanity for 50 permanently affordable, family-sized ownership homes to the full City Council with a recommendation to pass (00:41:34). Councilor Candace Avalos (District 1) presided, with Councilor Mitch Green (District 4) as vice chair.

Habitat homeownership project moves forward

The True North project would put 50 homes on a University Park site the Portland Housing Bureau bought from the Water Bureau in 2019, with every unit family-sized and reserved for North-Northeast Preference Policy households at initial sale. Interim Housing Bureau director Michael Bonaccor said 25 homes would be affordable to households at up to 60% of area median income (about $74,460 for a family of four) and 25 at up to 80%, with affordability regulated for 60 years. Steve Messinetti, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Portland Region, said the average Habitat buyer earns under $58,000 a year and that 41 of 42 families from prior city projects remain in their homes.

Green asked how the land transfer figured into the financing. Staff said the Water Bureau and Housing Bureau had agreed to a transfer price of $3.35 million based on a 2017 appraisal, and the parcel was appraised at $2.8 million in December 2025 (00:29:53). Bonaccor described earlier Housing Investment Committee approval of financing of "up to just over $8 million." Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), a co-sponsor, said she is "often very skeptical" of disposing of city property but was "so very excited" about this one. The motion, moved by Pirtle-Guiney and seconded by Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3), passed with all five members present voting aye (00:41:34).

Permitting fees to rise 5-9%

The committee voted 5-0 to refer the mayor's Portland Permitting and Development fee ordinance to the full council with a recommendation to pass (01:20:40). Most fees would rise 5 to 9%; building and mechanical, environmental, water review and urban forestry are set at 9%, while the facilities permit program and cannabis licensing see no increase. A short-term rental application would rise 26%, or about $104 over two years, and a typical new single-family home's total fees would climb about $1,000, from roughly $10,700 to $11,700.

The permitting director told the committee about 94% of the bureau's funding comes from fees, and that the bureau has been drawing down reserves as high-value projects slowed while workload held steady. Under the mayor's proposed budget, staffing would fall from 337.9 to 300.9 positions; of the 37 fewer positions, 14 are cuts (six of them filled) and the rest move to other bureaus in the city realignment (01:15:17).

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Portland Fire & Rescue would emerge as the least-cut city bureau at a 4% reduction, Mayor Keith Wilson told the council, yet its proposed budget still removes a fire engine from Station 22 in North Portland, cuts three rescue units to half-time in East and Southeast Portland, and reduces the CHAT community-health program by $500,000 — reductions councilors across all four districts said they would work to reverse.

The council held the first of two work sessions on the Public Safety Service Area, taking no vote. Three bureaus — the Bureau of Emergency Communications, the Bureau of Emergency Management, and Portland Fire and Rescue — presented together and answered joint questions. Deputy City Administrator Bob Causie said the service area budget totals $611 million with 2,250 staff, though a later slide and staff put the figure at $620.4 million; a budget manager said the $611 million may be a typo (02:49:57).

The Station 22 engine

Fire Chief Lauren Johnson said removing an engine from Station 22, a double-company house in Council District 2, would drop that station from eight firefighters to four, saving roughly $2.5 million. She told the council the choice "is not a value statement" but "simply data analysis" (01:04:03), noting the next-closest engine, Engine 26, arrives about a minute after Engine 22 (01:06:48). Only eight double-company stations exist, and Johnson walked through why the others — training, hazmat, downtown high-rise, and East Portland stations — were unsuitable to cut.

Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) said the closure "is unacceptable," pointing to Station 22's role backing up half of North Portland, the CEI Hub area, and Hayden Island. He noted the $2.5 million figure counts overtime savings, not just the apparatus itself, a point City Administrator Lee acknowledged with a nod (01:23:24). Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2) said the St. Johns peninsula, aging bridges, and proximity to Forest Park made it "one of the hardest areas to see reduced resource in the city" (02:19:10). Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2) cited low snowpack raising wildfire risk and said Johnson had not yet spoken with the Scappoose fire chief about the change (03:03:45). Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4) pressed on overtime accounting, calculating the engine costs roughly "$300 an hour in a 24-hour period" (02:25:56).

Rescue units and CHAT

The budget cuts three 2-person medical rescue units to 12-hour operation in Districts 1 and 3, in the Lents, Mount Tabor, and Rockwood neighborhoods. Johnson said the rescues topped the cut list because, unlike engines and trucks, they cannot also provide fire protection, and that 65% of calls in FY24-25 were medical (00:50:54).

The CHAT community-health program loses $500,000, eliminating a sworn deputy chief and a program strategist. Expiring one-time funding of $2 million is being replaced by a $1.5 million grant. On whether that grant is secured, the record is inconsistent: Johnson told Councilor Angelita Morillo (District 3) they had not received an update and would follow up on the SAMHSA grant (00:47:17), then told Pirtle-Guiney "We've been awarded the grant" (02:02:20). Councilor Ryan said emergency-room nurses had called CHAT the "ER unit that's on the ground."

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Portland's Parks and Recreation bureau and its transportation bureau laid out FY2026-27 budgets to the council's budget committee, a day after the council approved a new transportation utility fee that Parks leaders said reshaped the whole conversation — the work session took no votes.

Deputy City Administrator for Public Works Priya Dhanapal opened by framing a service area with roughly 3,000 staff and about $4.8 billion in total budget (00:05:04), and said the utility bureaus and the Office of the Deputy City Administrator would come back 00:04:36.

Parks cuts and the levy promise

Interim Parks Director Sonia Szymanski presented about 50 reduction packages that she said avoid closing any parks or community centers. Councilor Angelita Morillo (District 3) pressed on the parks levy voters passed at a $1.40 rate, arguing that rate "[is] not enough to actually maintain things" while the ballot promised to "maintain safe parks, nature, affordable recreation" (00:28:14). She relayed District 3 town-hall feedback: "if you guys don't maintain every single part of parks, We will never trust you to vote for another thing again." Szymanski said the most quantified levy commitment — daily bathroom cleaning and trash pickup — is "the last thing we would cut" (00:30:07).

Mayor Keith Wilson said he did not apply the standard 3% or 10% cut guidance to Parks, instead reducing the general fund about 12% to match the difference between the adopted $1.40 levy rate and the $1.60 current-service-level rate (01:42:14). Finance manager Claudio Campuzano put the general fund reduction at about $7.2 million, or 7.2% of operating expenses (01:40:13).

The package raises community garden plot fees 20%, from $66 to $79, though an access discount still cuts that up to 90% (00:15:23). It cuts splash-pad hours by two hours to save $50,000, closes community centers on federal holidays to save just over $110,000, and phases out the Free Lunch and Play mobile program's last two sites while cutting one of 23 fixed sites — a site Recreation Services Manager Maximo Behrens said has not yet been identified (00:49:38). Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), who said she has seen "the magic of Summer Lunch and Play" firsthand, warned that losing a park site means losing access for children who cannot walk to a second park.

Councilor Candace Avalos (District 1) said she plans to restore a volunteer position dedicated to East Portland that was cut while another was kept (00:57:00). She "respectfully really disagree[d]" with pushing Parks toward an entrepreneurial model reliant on volunteers and private fundraising, arguing wealthier neighborhoods can backfill while East Portland families cannot (00:56:04). Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) offered the contrasting New York Central Park model, where private funding frees public money for lower-profile parks.

Tennis center transfer draws a point of order

The proposed budget assumes Parks transfers Portland Tennis Center operations to the U.S. Tennis Association Pacific Northwest chapter halfway through the year, discontinuing city tennis programming and eliminating four positions. Campuzano said the center runs on a $1.6 million budget and earns about $900,000 in revenue (01:07:39). Szymanski said "if there is not a deal to be had that satisfies city leadership, then there's not a deal to be had" (01:05:15).

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Portland's City Council passed a new transportation utility fee 9-3 on its second reading, adopting a charge to fund basic street maintenance and safety (00:26:06). The council also advanced amendments to its chronic nuisance property code and continued a proposed foie gras ban after roughly 80 minutes of testimony.

Transportation utility fee adopted

The ordinance, introduced by Council Vice President Olivia Clark (District 4), Councilor Mitch Green (District 4), Councilor Angelita Morillo (District 3), Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3), and Councilor Loretta Smith (District 1), passed 9-3 on a non-emergency second reading. Clark, Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4), and Smith voted no. During the roll call, Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) said he was "so proud of this council for taking a— an act that has been vitally needed for the past 40 years" (00:25:42).

In the earlier open-comment period, Talia Giardini opposed the fee online, saying 76% of written testimony opposed it and that if it passes "every single penny should go to maintenance and sidewalks, not Vision Zero" (00:12:20).

Auditor's office contract ratified as layoffs loom

Council ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 189 for the Auditor's Office, 11-0, with Koyama Lane absent (00:36:12). City Auditor Simone Reddy said the three-and-a-half-year contract covers 30 represented employees. Labor relations analyst Sarah Daly said it includes $1.1 million budgeted for cost-of-living adjustments, $145,000 in additional spending from the auditor's budget, and $537,000 in ongoing costs, plus a one-time $3,000 lump payment.

Minden Vuong, an auditor's office employee and AFSCME member leader, told the council the mayor's proposed budget cuts two AFSCME positions in the office and that both members had already received layoff notices (00:33:00). Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) said a "spirited conversation" on the auditor's office budget was coming and that not discussing it during this item did not mean it was being ignored (00:35:20).

Foie gras ban draws 81 signups, continued

An ordinance to prohibit the sale of force-fed poultry products, introduced by Green, Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1), Morillo, and Koyama Lane, drew 81 people signed up to testify. Dunphy limited testimony to 80 minutes and cut speaking time to 90 seconds each (00:56:30). He noted the item was heard in the former Arts and Economy Committee, where it "did not receive support," but was placed on the schedule by release letters from four councilors.

Campaign director Sam Schillinger of Pro Animal Oregon said 58 Portland restaurants and 32 veterinary professionals endorsed the ban, that 84% of 250 Portlanders surveyed support it, and that only seven restaurants and one retailer currently sell foie gras (00:48:00). Supporters described force-feeding as inherently cruel and said the narrow scope was a reason to act now.

Continue reading the summary and transcript on Windowbox: https://portland.windowbox.app/meetings/2026-04-29-1

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Portland City Council Work Session - Budget Committee for FY 2026-27 04/29/26, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.

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A committee split 3-1 to send Portland's arts-tax overhaul to the full City Council with a recommendation to pass, raising the flat levy from $35 to $50 while cutting about 147,000 low-income residents from the rolls (03:08:36). Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4) cast the lone no, and Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2) had left before the vote.

Arts tax overhaul referred to Council

Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1), a sponsor with Councilors Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3) and Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), told the City Life Committee the 2012 voter-approved tax "was always flawed" and is now "at a crisis point," warning it will "stop paying enough to cover teachers" within a few years (01:09:29). Policy director Eben Hofer said the city had 31 K-5 art and music teachers before the tax and 113 now, and proposed retiring the name "arts tax" in favor of "arts education tax." Revenue Division Director Thomas Lanham said the goal is to make it "a normal tax" that matches other Oregon income taxes.

The package raises the flat assessment to $50 — what $35 would be if indexed to inflation since 2012 — and lifts the filing threshold to $20,000 for individuals and $40,000 for joint filers (02:39:21). Lanham said that would cut expected payers by about 147,000 people and end the requirement that residents below the poverty line affirmatively apply for exemption. The plan also draws the fund down to a roughly $5 million target ending balance to bridge lean years, and directs Revenue to report back to council by February 15, 2028. Grants to arts organizations currently range from $5,000 to $175,000, Assistant Director for the Office of Arts and Culture Darian Jones said (02:58:34).

Pirtle-Guiney held up her kindergartner's walrus artwork to argue for arts education and called the measure "a tax break for almost 150,000 Portlanders." Councilor Candace Avalos (District 1) backed the referral but pressed on why "our systems so often continue asking those with the least financial flexibility to contribute more," and asked staff about a future tiered rate; Dunphy said tiering is a change he would like to bring back after the first year.

Zimmerman objected that the change is "a 42% increase on the remaining" payers and that too many pieces were left to be figured out later (02:54:10). He asked to separate the code and definitional changes from the rate increase and to let voters weigh in, saying he was not prepared "to raise taxes on right now" residents earning near the minimum wage. In his vote he said, "I'm disappointed that once again our committee is not being used to work through something. Instead, it's just being used as a gate to pass through" (03:08:25). Dunphy said he viewed the bundle as "one bite of the apple." Ayes came from Councilors Angelita Morillo (District 3), Avalos and Pirtle-Guiney.

Continue reading the summary and transcript on Windowbox: https://portland.windowbox.app/meetings/2026-04-28-clc-1

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Portland councilors and Multnomah County commissioners met in a joint work session on the FY 2026-27 budgets and heard that even with both governments' proposed spending, the region expects a net increase in homelessness over the coming year — no vote was taken.

The session, presided over by Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1), brought city councilors, county commissioners, Mayor Keith Wilson and City Administrator Raymond C. Lee III into the same chamber to examine where the two governments overlap, where they leave gaps, and how their budgets fit together. County staff, the mayor, the county chair and bureau directors presented; councilors and commissioners questioned them.

The data

Ryan Deibert, Deputy Director of the Homelessness Response System, said the by-name list of people known to be experiencing homelessness stood at 18,250 as of February (00:04:00). Inflow into homelessness has outpaced outflow by roughly 360 people a month over the last six months (00:02:57). He also said the systems have collectively sheltered or housed more than 23,000 people over the first two years of the Homelessness Response Action Plan.

Presenters said the average cost to place one household in housing is about $13,000 (00:33:17), and that under the proposed executive budgets, inflow would still exceed outflow by a little more than 1,600 people across the fiscal year (00:34:36). Deibert said each additional $5 million in housing placement would increase annual outflow by more than 300 people (00:39:27). Commissioner Brim-Edwards confirmed with Deibert that even adding one-time Medicaid dollars leaves a net increase in overall homelessness (01:27:44).

Two budgets

County Chair Jessica Vega-Peterson described a homeless services budget carrying a $67 million gap, offset in part by a $10 million one-time investment to mitigate shelter closures and improve placement (00:09:55). She said 83% of people housed remain housed two or more years later (00:13:19) and that the county preserved 1,677 round-the-clock shelter beds.

Mayor Wilson said the city will no longer exchange funds with the county for homeless services, redirecting the roughly $31 million historically sent to the county. City shelter services face a 31% cut, dropping to just under $40 million, and city outreach a 37% cut to $2.8 million (00:16:34). Josh Roper of the Portland Housing Bureau outlined $134 million for affordable multifamily development (00:21:42). Skyler Brocker-Knapp, Director of Portland Solutions, said the number of shelter beds to be cut is not yet known and that scenarios will come to a budget work session May 12 (00:25:57).

City and county roles

Councilor Candace Avalos (District 1) questioned whether the two governments operate from "different theories of change," saying the city's investments "still appear concentrated in shelter activation, public environment," and warning against "managing the visibility of homelessness rather than reducing homelessness itself" (00:46:12). Mayor Wilson said the city's purview is public safety and that he would be "loath to close" the alternative shelters and Safe Rest Village sites where people are housed around the clock (00:49:15).

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Portland councilors spent nearly three hours questioning city budget officials over roughly $21 million in unbudgeted Portland Housing Bureau money that council learned of only on Nov. 20, less than an hour before it passed the fall budget adjustment, then placed the oversight item on file (02:59:01).

The first oversight hearing under the new charter

The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole, chaired by Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2), held what he called the council's first oversight hearing under Portland's new charter. Councilor Mitch Green (District 4), who sponsored the authorizing resolution, said oversight is "not about gotchas" and works best when it is "boring and it's uneventful" (00:17:13). Kanal said he would strictly enforce decorum and confine questions to the resolution's scope. City Administrator Raymond Lee, City Attorney Robert Taylor, Mayor Keith Wilson, and several bureau officials attended.

The subject: a roughly $12 million underrun in business license tax collections that then-City Administrator Jordan flagged to council on Aug. 8, and, around the same time, roughly $12 million in previously unbudgeted Rental Services Office funds that the then-Housing Bureau director told Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira about. That money never entered the fall budget adjustment.

When council was told, and who held the information

Oliveira told Green he first heard of the funds verbally in "late July, early August" and got a formal Aug. 27 memo stating the money "will need to be approved by council in the fall bump" (00:21:33). He said timing and the director's vacation kept it out of the adjustment, and that the mayor chose to inform council on Nov. 20 because "the invite came from his calendar" (00:28:24). Oliveira said the figure sat near $11.75 million until, days before the Nov. 20 briefing, an additional $9 million in reserve surfaced, pushing the total to about $20.7 million.

Councilor Angelita Morillo (District 3) laid out roughly a dozen executive actions taken over three to four months while council stayed uninformed, and pressed on the final week: after a communications manager warned on Nov. 13 that records were about to be released to OPB, the mayor directed Portland Solutions to draft new spending recommendations over a weekend. Asked whether council would ever have been told absent the records release, Oliveira said, "Oh yeah, council would have been informed, absolutely" (00:51:14).

Councilor Candace Avalos (District 1) drew the sharpest factual dispute onto the record: the City Budget Office had recommended putting the funds in the fall adjustment. CBO Director Ruth Levine confirmed, "yes, that's accurate. I did recommend that" (00:39:34), and said council was not told her recommendation was overridden. Chief Financial Officer Jonas Bieri later confirmed the override "was ultimately my call," noting Jordan was out and had delegated city administrator authority to him (01:57:00). Bieri said his confidence in the numbers was "zero" in October and that he did not see something reliable until Oct. 5 (02:04:39).

Councilor Eric Zimmerman (District 4) established through Oliveira and Lee that the former Housing Bureau director was aware of accumulating unbudgeted funds "as early as January of 2025" (00:52:47).

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Mayor Keith Wilson delivered a proposed $8.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2026-27 that closes a $171 million general fund gap through service cuts and one-time revenue, and the City Budget Committee received it and took nearly three hours of public testimony dominated by city workers fighting proposed layoffs.

The budget message and its numbers

Chief Financial Officer Jonas Biery opened by calling this budget "the most difficult task I've ever experienced" in 25 years of public-sector work (00:12:07). He put the total budget at $8.5 billion, down just under 1% from the current year, with the general fund discretionary pot falling about 8% to $743 million (00:13:37).

The precise size of the hole shifted over the meeting. Biery cited a gap of "just over $160 million" (00:14:26); Budget Director Ruth Levine later distinguished a $163 million current-service-level gap from the $171 million the city actually had to balance to (02:59:30). Councilor Dan Ryan (District 2), pressing on the discrepancy, drew out that the total is $171 million against a $742.5 million discretionary fund — "we're looking at 23% plus of our general fund being cut" (02:59:47). Levine said only about $60 million of that was closed through service reductions; the rest came from roughly $44 million in contingencies and reserves, about $27 million in Portland Clean Energy Fund interest, $30.5 million no longer sent to Multnomah County for homeless services, and about $10 million in fees (03:00:11).

Mayor Wilson said his budget keeps every fire station open, funds every park and community center, and keeps every police officer and investigator on the job (00:24:04). He read a long list of reductions: shelter services cut 31% to $39.9 million, city outreach cut 37% to $2.8 million, and Portland Police reductions including a $4.5 million (80%) cut to the Public Safety Support Specialist program, a $5.9 million cut to external materials, and a $1.6 million (50%) cut to precinct administrative staffing. Portland Street Response loses two aftercare teams ($659,000), and tree permitting is cut $2.9 million.

Councilor Steve Novick (District 3) told the mayor that "the deepest cuts" fell on the shelter program, "your own baby" (03:01:48), noting concerns raised last year that shelters stood up with one-time money would force later cuts elsewhere.

Testimony: workers against consultants and layoffs

Thirty-four people signed up (00:31:20), and the room was overwhelmingly AFSCME and city-professional-union members opposing about 145 proposed "core services realignment" cuts. Rob Martineau, president of AFSCME Local 189, told the council "Portland elected you to be its 12 consultants" and argued the city should not be "a great place to be a consultant" (00:33:37). Chris Gustafson of the City of Portland Professional Workers Union said the budget jeopardizes "145 families" (00:47:05). Jackie Tate, president of AFSCME Local 88, said Portland's management-to-worker ratio is "literally twice the state average" (01:00:34).

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