The Portland City Council held a workshop Monday night to brainstorm goals for the coming year, and by the time it was over, councilors had whittled a list of at least 40 ideas to a core group of four.
Goals included improving the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs, doing significant work to alleviate the city’s housing crisis, acting on the recommendations of One Climate Future – a regional plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving climate resilience, and establishing an office of community engagement.
But they often disagreed on how best – and how aggressively – to pursue them.
The evening began with Craig Freshley, a professional meeting facilitator, handing out paper and markers. Councilors wrote down their goals and stuck them on the wall. All nine councilors and city manager Danielle West were present, though Councilor Roberto Rodriguez tuned in remotely.
At one point, at least 40 rainbow papers dotted the walls in the basement conference room at City Hall.
Every councilor came up with ideas related to housing, but the group diverged on how exactly to tackle the city’s housing crisis.
Councilor Kate Sykes kicked off the meeting with a proposal for a social housing program. Councilor Anna Bullett proposed that the city implement a social program to bring people into housing. Councilor Regina Phillips suggested reforming the short-term rental policy.
Councilors also introduced ideas on other topics, including childcare and operations. Rodriguez proposed creating a data collection system to get a better handle on the city’s homeless population. Councilor Victoria Pelletier suggested paying councilors a living wage so the council could get more done. Mayor Mark Dion wanted to install more bike lanes and walking infrastructure in the city.
Throughout the workshop, Dion reminded the council to be realistic.
“I could come up with some really superlative ideas but I know there’s no money for it … if we can be aware of our limitations it might help frame the kinds of goals we can actually get done,” he said.
West echoed Dion’s sentiment.
“We do have limited resources time- and staff-wise, so I just want to put that caveat out there,” said West.
But some councilors felt loftier goals were imperative.
“I feel like we’re in a really desperate time where we need to be proactive, we should be meeting in committees more than once a month,” said Sykes. “We need to build more housing, it’s almost unimaginable how much we have to catch up.”
Once the ideas were pasted on the wall, Freshley gave councilors stickers to place on the ideas they felt were most important. From their sticker-votes they crafted a narrower list. Housing and DEI proposals received the most votes by far, followed by operations and and climate initiatives.
There was some debate over how strongly to word the final list. Sykes pushed for strong wording, suggesting the council aim to “end the housing affordability crisis.” But she received some pushback from Phillips.
“We have 12 committee meetings and 24 committee meetings. I don’t think we can end the housing affordability crisis in a year,” said Phillips. Throughout the meeting councilors were divided on how ambitiously to approach the goals, but ultimately they agreed on scaled-back language.
“I would love for us to consider that limitations are a mindset and not a hard reality,” said Councilor Anna Trevorrow later in the meeting.
The council will meet next Monday for its second official meeting.
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