Amid citywide budget crunch, Portland council offices are flush with cash

Members of the Portland City Council have publicly floated

cuts to police

,

economic development programs

and city administration as they grapple with Mayor Keith Wilson’s

proposed budget

and the large deficit it attempts to close.

Only a few, however, have suggested shrinking their

own enlarged coffers

, even as some hire more staffers than expected, transfer cash to their colleagues or cut six-figure checks for pet projects in their districts.

Those spending decisions are under scrutiny as two councilors plan to offer amendments Wednesday that would scale back the $18 million – or $1.5 million per office – earmarked for the 12 council offices next fiscal year.

Council President

Elana Pirtle-Guiney

of North and Northeast Portland said her proposal would reduce $2.4 million — or $200,000 per office — to instead hire more staff that support the city’s burgeoning legislative body.

“The teams that support council’s work and ensure we can run an accessible public process need additional resources,” Pirtle-Guiney said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I’m calling on my colleagues to take a small cut from each of our office budgets to fund these collective council meeting needs without dipping into funds for core services.”

Councilor Steve Novick would like to see an even steeper reduction of $3.3 million and have that money redirected toward the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. His proposed amendment would spare the council president’s office from any cuts.

“The money that we currently have is just not justifiable,” said Novick, who represents Southeast Portland, in an interview Tuesday.

Earlier this year,

councilors voted

to dramatically increase their office budgets in one of the first significant acts taken by the expanded council under Portland’s new form of government.

The move came in response to incoming councilors being budgeted to have only one designated staff member apiece — a number that most concluded was woefully inadequate to perform their legislative and constituent work.

Under the approved ordinance, each council office was given money to hire one additional staff person as well as an extra $262,000 for non-personnel expenses, such as opening a district office.

Only Novick and Councilor Dan Ryan of North and Northeast Portland voted against the measure, which also gave additional money to the mayor’s office.

Thus far, most councilors have exhibited a different set of spending priorities.

Nearly every councilor now has three or more designated staff members instead of two. Only one to date — Councilor Loretta Smith, who represents east Portland — has leased a district office while other councilors have delayed doing so or decided against it.

Meanwhile, many have found ways to spend down their surplus budget before June 30, when they’d be required to return the unused dollars to the general fund.

For example, Councilors Eric Zimmerman and Olivia Clark, who both represent the city’s west side along with the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood, are each planning to transfer $100,000 to launch a cleanup pilot project along Interstate 405, according to their offices.

Novick and Councilor Angelita Morillo have each given $230,000 to pay for parks maintenance in their Southeast Portland district while their District 3 colleague, Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane, has allocated about $100,000, records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive show.

Morillo and Novick have also

both proposed cutting millions

from the proposed police budget in order to backfill a funding gap in parks maintenance.

Clark, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Novick and Zimmerman are all up for reelection next year.

In an interview Tuesday, Koyama Lane said she planned to support the proposed amendments seeking to reduce council office budgets next year and was encouraging others to do the same.

“It’s one of the only votes I’ve regretted as a councilor,” said Koyama Lane about increasing council budgets. “It was too rushed. And while I thought our offices needed more money, we don’t need $1.5 million.”

Earlier this year, Koyama Lane, Pirtle-Guiney and Ryan each gave between $75,000 and $150,000 to help their three east Portland council colleagues open a district office.

Two of those District 1 councilors, Candace Avalos and Jamie Dunphy, each put up $200,000 for the office as well. But they’ve yet to secure a space. One location under consideration could cost as much as $1.2 million just for the build-out, according to

a report first published by Willamette Week

.

“I know that some people want district offices,” Novick said. “But what are they going to rent, the Vatican?”

Asked why he transferred nearly a quarter of a million dollars to fund projects in his district instead of letting that money return to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year, Novick said he would have preferred to not have the option.

“I’d rather we not have that extra money,” he said. “But given that we had it, we decided to put it into parks.”

Not everybody is spending their surplus money. Records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive show that Ryan recently clawed back the $150,000 he had given to the District 1 councilors, writing to them that “the plan is different than the one communicated to me when I agreed to financial support.”

Ryan said Tuesday he doesn’t plan to use that money for anything else.

“As tempting as it is to react to the multiple needs facing our city and provide my office’s unspent funds as a tiny Band-Aid, I am making the decision to return my office’s unspent funds to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year,” Ryan said.

— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh covers Portland city government and politics, with a focus on accountability and watchdog reporting.

Reach him at 503-294-7632

Email at


skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on X


@shanedkavanaugh


or on BlueSky


@shanedkavanaugh

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to


OregonLive.com


.

Stories by

Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

• Portland to hit residents with another new fee on top of historic water, sewer rate hike

• Portland City Council diverts new police dollars to parks during marathon budget meeting

• Portland’s heated budget battle turns into economic development power play

• Prosper Portland head slams councilors’ proposal to ‘decimate’ program funding

• Portland homeless service provider hailed as model by Mayor Keith Wilson says it got snubbed by city

About The Author