City Hall: Blogtown, PDX, Portland Mercury

Solidarity Against Mayor's Bid to Kill Union for Police Brass: "We Are Not Wisconsin"

Denis C. Theriault — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:44:33 -0700

Mayor Charlie Hales hasn't been especially cozy with the city's big three public safety unions since taking office. He's lined up political support for major cuts in the city's police and fire bureaus while, at the same time, making a play to de-certify the union representing police lieutenants, captains, and commanders.

Muttering about the budget cuts has been mostly quiet and behind the scenes. (Mostly.) But Hales' move against the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association (PPCOA)—claiming that police supervisors are, well, supervisors and shouldn't be allowed to unionize under state law—is attracting some serious heat. Never mind that the PPCOA has been in some awkward spots over the past few months.

In a rare show of solidarity (not really seen since a group of unions all got together and pointedly decided, in December 2011, not to endorse Hales or his two rivals for mayor), six union leaders sent a letter to city council urging city commissioners to publicly challenge the mayor and not let him take down the PPCOA without a fight. It helps that there are rumblings Hales might look to do the same to Portland Fire Fighters Association—which has nominally supervisory employees in its ranks.

The letter (pdf), obtained by the Mercury and signed by the fire union, the District Council of Trade Unions, AFSCME, COPPEA, and both city police unions, PPCOA and the Portland Police Association, (PPA) spares no feelings by comparing Hales directly with union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

The decision on the PPCOA is up to the state Employment Relations Board and could easily result in a court challenge. The city also is lobbying against a bill, HB 2418, that would explicitly let police supervisors join unions.

Stripping bargaining rights from supervisors comes down to a couple of things. One of them is money. They tend to have bigger salaries and often earn big payouts in overtime. Hales wants the right to clamp down on those costs without having to bargain. The other issue is discipline. Supervisors working without a contract backing them up could be fired or demoted or suspended more easily when the chief or police commissioner decide they've been guilty of misconduct. Because no more binding arbitration—where discipline decisions, in use of force cases, often go to die.

Discipline already is seen by many cops as a political tool—something Chief Mike Reese hasn't helped ameliorate with discipline that some observers see as inconsistent. Add in the potential restrictions on pay and the ability to bargain over working conditions, and a lot of cops privately will say there's absolutely no reason why any top-flight sergeant would ever risk trying to climb the ladder further. Cops with stripes also argue that the chief and assistant chiefs make all the real decisions, downplaying to some degree their role in advising and reviewing the cops they supervise. Union reps also argue the PPCOA has been easy to work with.

Legal questions aside, it's been endlessly fascinating to see Hales go at not just public safety unions, but labor as a whole. He was proudly out front when SEIU's private security guards, some who work for the company that holds the city contract, battled over their last contract. AFSCME sources say Hales has been decent—even though they backed Jefferson Smith until the end.

But the police unions and the fire union not only didn't back Hales, but they also didn't back Amanda Fritz for re-election and have picked a fight with Commissioner Dan Saltzman over fire and police pension reforms that he put to a public vote over their outcry. On a council where three votes achieves much,
those unions are starting out in a hole.

That hole is even deeper given, what I'm told, about Hales' favorability ratings and the city's overall.

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If You Missed KBOO's Election Roundup (with Yours Truly as a Guest), Listen Here

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:29:48 -0700

It was pretty early, this post telling you to put on KBOO this morning and listen to host Joe Meyer talk with little old me about last night's ~~full measure of election results~~ thorough flogging of water fluoridation. So maybe you missed it. I get it. Wednesday mornings are tough.

But it's online now—and it makes for a nice, punchy back-and-forth. Just in time for your lunch hour!

Oh, and for the record, not a single fluoridation supporter called in. Like, zero. I figured maybe one of you 40 percenters might. But nope. You did not. We did hear a lot from people who think I'm corrupt/lazy/naive/stupid. And also from some people who pointed out that eating fluoridated toothpaste in great quantities is ill-advised.

(I confessed that as a kid I ate far more than a "pea-size" daub of the stuff on more than one occasion, because I liked Aqua Fresh, and never once had to call the poison hotline; maybe you'll say that's why I joined our endorsement of fluoridation.)

Anyway. Thanks! I had fun! And it wasn't nearly as awful as this commenter earlier today made it out to be.

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Memo Sheds Light on Touchy Budget Talks Between Fire Union, Mayor's Office

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:29:59 -0700

Peace has largely reigned over Portland's budget process this year. Despite filling a $21.5 million budget gap, Mayor Charlie Hales has tried to deliver what good news he could to safety net advocates and parks boosters and others, even as he's proposed big cuts to the police and fire bureaus.

And there has been curiously little public pushback against those public safety cuts. Neither residents nor groups like the Portland Business Alliance have lined up to decry the pending loss of 50-plus sworn police positions and ~~26 firefighters.~~ 38 fire bureau workers, including 26 from the bureau's battalions.

Behind the scenes, that's not quite the case—especially when it comes to the fire bureau. A memo (pdf) obtained by the Mercury—essentially a script for Hales to follow during a meeting Tuesday morning with the Portland Fire Fighters Association—reveals intense deliberations in private over the best way to meet Hales' goal of saving money without maybe having to lay off so many firefighters.

The memo also expands on simmering discontent with managing another of Hales' main goals: swapping in two-person rapid response vehicles, designed to handle medical calls, in place of four-person fire engines and ladder trucks. PFFA President Alan Ferschweiler wrote a stinging op-ed in the Oregonian on Monday criticizing the mayor's initial attempt at the change. Later that day, Fire Chief Erin Janssens leaked to the O a plan that would ameliorate some of the fire union's concerns, something that came up in the meeting.

I've left a message for Ferschweiler, and I'll update with his comments when they come.

Labor negotiations also appear to be on the table. Though the firefighters agreed on a new contract last year, Hales' office has suggested the union could avoid some layoffs by reopening the deal and agreeing to forgo some cost-of-living increases. The memo claims Ferschweiler personally supports the idea but doesn't think his members will go along.

"We should respond that the COLA is a one-time thing to get us to a new normal, and it is up to them," Hales' talking points say. "You are dead serious about the RRVs and overall savings. They can either choose jobs or trucks."

Members, according to the memo, want the city to apply for grant money that would help mitigate layoffs in the short term while waiting for better economic times. But Hales' office tells me there's still "a gap," because that grant money would only be a "band-aid"—although, "who doesn't like free money?"—and wouldn't help the city get even over the course of it's five-year budget.

"We've been flexible," says Noah Siegel, a policy adviser for Hales. "The goal is hitting the savings number and introducing innovations."

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City Finds Extra Money; Hales Saves Mounted Patrol, Buckman Pool

Denis C. Theriault — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:07:00 -0700

Portland's still closing a $21.5 million budget hole. But Mayor Charlie Hales has found a way to take the sting out of some of the more unpopular cuts he'd put on the table when he unveiled his budget late last month.

Under a revised plan previewed for a "scrum" of reporters and city hall staffers this afternoon, Hales announced he'd be keeping around a smaller police Mounted Patrol Unit, using unspent levy money to keep alive Buckman Pool and the Sellwood Community Center, partially funding human trafficking and youth shelter services, and finding new money for parks maintenance. He's also keeping tree planting inside the Bureau of Environmental Services, a nod to environmentalists worried BES was backtracking into a mere sewers bureau.

Hales said he's been listening at public hearings, where residents have lined up to demand reprieves for their favored programs. He's taking advantage of new money scared up after the city won a lawsuit over its landline phone tax last year and new savings captured from state pension reform and a reduction in planned raises for some city employees. And, also important, he's relying on heavy offers of community donations and reserves from funds outside the city's operating budget.

"Public hearings matter," Hales said. "And when people show up in the city of Portland and have something to say about the community, this city council listens. And we endeavor to take that into account."

Hales has been entertaining a series of changes in the days before his revised proposal becomes official. He struck a deal with Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen last Thursday that preserves other safety net programs meant for the chopping block, including the county's Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center.

And Monday, the fire bureau announced a deal with Hales that will tweak his plan to swap out engines and/or trucks at four stations with lighter-staffed rapid-response vehicles. Hales says the bureau will use the RRVs to augment staffing at busy bureaus and achieve cuts by deploying hybrid firetrucks called "quints." Hales said the city will mothball old trucks in case of an emergency.

The deal for the mounted patrol, though, was perhaps the most perplexing in city hall. Friends of Portland's Mounted Patrol have led a full-court press to save the unit, but even with that pressure, sources say Hales had more than enough votes in hand to do away with the unit. Instead, he's embracing an offer by the Friends boosters to raise $200,000 this year and next to pay for upkeep.

"We're gonna make a little hay here," Hales joked.

The unit's hay provider, Maxson, will pay for a year of hay (the source of Hales' joke). And Chief Mike Reese, despite putting the horse unit on his cut list, is shifting officers around to keep it staffed, but with two fewer riders. Curiously, the bureau will take someone from the training division, even though the bureau is in the midst of teaching to new use of force standards mandated by a federal settlement.

• Two officer positions are eliminated
• One sergeant position is transferred from property crimes to the Mounted Patrol Unit, or MPU
• Two officer positions transferred from personnel division to MPU
• One officer position transferred from training division to MPU
• One officer position transferred from complaint signer/detectives division to MPU
• 2.5 non-sworn positions transferred from non-sworn positions currently vacant to MPU

Other clever money is keeping alive Buckman Pool, a perennial target. Hales is tapping unspent revenue from a parks levy to keep the pool open until the city figures out how to build a community center at Washington High School. He's using the same source to keep Sellwood's community center open for another year. Grant money, meanwhile, is also being diverted to trafficking services.

Hales also announced that the city's voluntary retirement program has been successful, encouraging 73 city workers to leave early in exchange for health care payments. Seventeen of those seeking the package are from the police bureau, the most of any city bureau.

And he signaled that his deal with the county was only the start of a restructuring that's far more substantial. He held firm in not paying for a district attorney's post when the county is adding one, too.

"They're adding positions. We're subtracting them. We're not gonna pay for them."

He said there was a bigger picture in play.

"The negotiation over the budget emergences of the moment just highlight what a patchwork of shared funding we have between the city and the county," he said. "We're really interested in digging into those questions, who does what. Let's figure out what our lanes are and how to stay in them."

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Hales, Cogen Strike Deal over Crisis Center, Needle Exchange Program, Other Services

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:45:12 -0700

In a move that bodes well for future working ties between the leaders of the region's two most important governing bodies, Mayor Charlie Hales and Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen this afternoon set aside differences that had flared in recent weeks and unveiled a budget agreement meant to preserve a handful of endangered social services programs.

The deal reportedly came together quite rapidly—and after a great deal of pushing by city and county commissioners who had been concerned by what loomed as an awkward standoff. Some staffers hadn't even heard all the details when reached by the Mercury. It was also something of a surprise to commissioners.

"I went out for Thai food and when I came back, they had an agreement," Commissioner Steve Novick says. "I should go out for Thai food more often."

In a year that saw the two governments trade places, with the city making deep cuts (to solve a $21.5 million deficit) and the county holding its own (thanks to last fall's library district vote), the two leaders had been attempting to take tough stands in the name of principle.

"Both of us appreciate the collaborative spirit of our discussions to help the city deal with the budget shortfall it faces this year," Hales and Cogen said in a joint statement first revealed by Cogen's office on Twitter. "We are optimistic this spirit will be a model for our future discussions. The good news today is that we have reached an agreement that will benefit our entire community."

According to data provided by Hales' office, both governments agreed to split the cost of three county SUN schools the city had been paying for, but wanted to stop funding. The county is picking up a needle exchange program, senior recreation services, and helping to pay for the regions' one-stop domestic violence shelter. It's also paying the city for the city's efforts collecting business income taxes.

The city, in turn, will continue to pay $634,000 for the next year to fund its share of operating costs for the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center—something that emerged as a lightning rod in the burgeoning budget debate, especially after Cogen fired some harsh barbs at Hales over his decision to pull funding.

The city appears to be agreeing to spend a bit more than Hales had initially proposed when he unveiled his budget last month. The two governments aren't trading money so much as they're picking up programs both prized but that had been zeroed out. Advocates for many of those programs were expected to crowd a budget forum tonight at city hall.

The City:
· Funds CATC one-time ($634,107 cost)
· Funds half of the SUN Schools pass-through (adding back 1.5 schools for $136,000 cost)
· Further reduces senior center pass-through ($141,454 savings)
· Gets County agreement for additional BIT collection ($200,000 savings)

The County:
· Funds the remaining SUN pass-through ($135,000)
· Funds the domestic violence cuts ($64,300 plus $77,000 for victim’s advocate position that was previously one-time funded, total of $141,300)
· Funds needle exchange ($65,000)
· Funds some of the senior center pass-through that was cut, but not all (about $282k

City and county relations have been hot and cold in recent years, but mostly cold. Cogen and former Mayor Sam Adams were known to have a contentious relationship, even as individual commissioners and bureaucrats got along well. The county has long kvetched about Portland's penchant for passing urban renewal districts, which wall off property tax dollars that otherwise would fill the county coffers in the short term, under the promise that improved neighborhoods will one day pay dividends.

Hales made a signature push to cozy up to Cogen—a potential political rival and former city hall insider (he was Commissioner Dan Saltzman's chief of staff) also known to have been intrigued by the mayor's race last year. It was another way to draw a contrast between himself and Adams, who did manage to work with the county on funding part of the Sellwood Bridge rebuild and on deals to give the county two new buildings downtown but failed at attempts to negotiate a grand bargain redrawing the two governments' lines.

Today's deal is a good omen for letting those deeper talks continue. The city auditor's office has called out the muddy nature of the mutual relationship and pressed the city to do more to clarify it.

The CATC stood out as the biggest sore spot in this year's discussions, though it didn't seem that would be the case when Hales took office. It wound up as part of the budget discussion after the Mercury first reported in January that, though it was built as a police resource, the police bureau hadn't ever taken anyone there directly.

Hales wound up recommending cutting it based on the word of the bureau. Cogen knew for weeks that was likely but pushed back with a fury after Hales released his budget plan. As the Mercury reported this month, the disconnect over the cops' use of the CATC has been the product of extreme miscommunication that Hales appears willing to let sift out for another year—in part because the city agreed, under Adams, to help pay for the thing.

Stopping payment would amount to a loss of beds. The CATC conversation, sources say, is also expected to change in another year after federal health care reform expands Medicaid rolls and potentially reduce operating costs at the facility.

Cogen's hardball approach puzzled some in city hall. And solving the impasse over the CATC likely opened the way to the rest of the agreement.

Novick, who helped raise CATC along with Commissioner Nick Fish, said the agreement "looks like a good resolution." And he pointed to the CATC funding in particular.

"I hope the CATC and the police will work things out and police," he says, "and will be able to start taking people there."

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Arts Tax Update: Deadline to Pay, in Person or Online, Extended to Next Week

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:00 -0700

Earlier today, we told you about lingering problems with city's overloaded arts tax website (the $35 tax was supposed to be due yesterday) and the still-uncertain deadline for procrastinators who have yet to square up.

The city just sent out another update confirming that payment will now be accepted into next week, in person or online, but that the website won't be ready for another couple of days. Read it here:

Wednesday night, the City’s website experienced a problem related to the overwhelming response of Portlanders paying their Arts Tax. As a result, people were not able to pay their tax that afternoon and evening. Wednesday was the original deadline for payment.

The City has extended the Arts Tax deadline.

The online payment option will be brought back next week, as will an announcement of the new deadline. Currently, the Arts Tax cannot be paid over the Internet, but can be paid in person or by mailing in a check or money order. Forms can be found here.

The City has also extended the deadline to pay in person or by mail, simply to keep the deadlines together and to create simplicity for taxpayers.

The online payment option will remain offline for the next few days as city technical personnel implement measures to limit the number of concurrent filers on the site at any one time. This will ensure that usage does not exceed the system capacity and allow people to pay their Arts Tax online. Once implemented, when the site reaches capacity, the user will receive notification that the site is currently unavailable and to try back later. Technical staff will also be working on increasing the overall capacity of the payment site.

I've also asked, under admonishing from commenters, how this latest snafu affects collection and administrative costs that are supposed to be kept under 5 percent of collections. I'll update if and when I hear back.

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The Arts Tax Website Still Isn't Fixed.

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:59:24 -0700

Last night, you'll recall, enough people tried to pay Portland's $35-an-income-earner arts tax just before the midnight deadline that the city's payment website apparently collapsed under the strain.

The Office of Management and Finance and Mayor Charlie Hales' office both sent out statements last night saying the deadline would be extended indefinitely while the problem with the website was fixed.

Hales' spokesman, Dana Haynes (probably tired of writing releases and statements about the arts tax), has sent word this morning that the problem with the website has not yet been fixed.

Wednesday night, the city’s website experienced a problem related to the overwhelming response of Portlanders paying their Arts Tax. The computer problem is being addressed this morning. The city has extended the Arts Tax deadline, and will maintain that extension until this problem is resolved. We appreciate everyone’s patience and hope to have further details later today.

Keep your debit cards handy. And we'll holler when we hear something.

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Arts Tax Deadline Delayed. Again. Because of Procrastinators. And the City's Balky Website.

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:02:00 -0700

The arts tax originally due April 15 was supposed to due by 7 pm tonight, if you were paying in person, or midnight if you went online to the city's website. That deadline has been now been extended. Again. Because the city's website wasn't equipped to handle the onslaught of last-minute payers.

Says the city's Office of Management Finance, which oversees the Bureau of Revenue, which oversees the arts tax:

Due to the overwhelming response of Portlanders paying their Arts Tax, the City's website is experiencing a capacity issue.

We are working on the situation. At this point the deadline to pay the Arts Tax will be extended until the problem is resolved. We appreciate everyone's patience with this situation.

On a high usage day the website will see about 230 concurrent users. Throughout the day we have been experiencing approximately double that number just on the Arts Tax website alone.

It's a fitting turn on the would-be last day for legal payment of the tax.

Previously, city officials announced the arts tax, as of noon today, had only collected $6 million out of the $8.6 million expected by the end of the fiscal year. Then there was the problem with the public pension and Social Security collections. And the new $1,000 income minimum, which forced the initial deadline extension. Oh, and besides all of that, the $35-per-income-earner tax is the subject of lawsuits claiming it's really an unconstitutional head tax, forcing an awkward workaround with schools counting on their share of proceeds.

Two other points are worth noting. The arts tax passed with 62 percent support from voters (and, yes, we endorsed it; it's still a worthy idea in principle). And Commissioner Dan Saltzman has made the Revenue staff promise not to send bill collectors after scofflaws until they miss at least two years of payments. (But pay anyway, because it's the law.)

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Should Portland's Environmental Bureau Revert Back to a Sewers Bureau?

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:44:31 -0700

Budget negotiations are well underway in Portland City Hall—although, by most accounts, with less intrigue and cloak-and-dagger than in previous years. That's because Mayor Charlie Hales made a lot of people happy with his budget plan, announced April 30—cutting public safety bureaus to pay for safety net programs and front-end services like parks (except for Buckman Pool). That reveal came after he involved city commissioners in his work to an unprecedented degree. Thusly, for a lot of observers, there's not much to fundamentally quibble with.

But not much is not the same as nothing. Hales thought he'd deliver on campaign rhetoric—and please activists and business interests—by lowering planned increases in the city's water, sewers, and stormwater rates. The mayor did that partly by cutting money for needs like watershed management and then shifting the work from the Bureau of Environmental Services back to bureaus by the city's general fund.

That gesture, it turns out, has pleased few people. Water rate activists wonder why Hales didn't cut rates instead of reducing increases. And today, in city council, environmentalists accused the mayor of stripping away environmental work that brought United Nations' laurels to Portland earlier this year. (They echoed some of the concerns Commissioner Amanda Fritz raised when I spoke to her just hours after Hales unveiled his budget.)

"We believe this budget takes us back 25 years—both in substance and in philosophy," said Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, "back to the time when the city had a sewer agency and the the city didn't have an environmental agency."

Hales is shifting more than $2 million in programming from the city's Bureau of Environmental Services. BES also is no longer contributing to the on-the-chopping-block Office of Healthy Working Rivers. Not all of the shift is directly connected to promoting watershed health—a key means of filtering the filth and runoff that makes it into our sewers and then, eventually, the Willamette River. But much of it is. The Oregonian in detailing the shift last week offered an interesting breakdown.

The list is long: $125,000 for invasive species removal, $811,000 for tree plantings, $175,000 for a youth conservation group, $750,000 for street sweeping, $62,500 for elm tree protection, $81,000 for a tree inspector, $72,000 for a Forest Park ranger, $105,869 for stewardship of the Willamette River and $112,000 for environmental education and outreach.

Hales has defended the shift as "honest budgeting"—he thinks the Bureau of Transportation should take on more street cleaning. The parks bureaus should take on the Forest Park ranger. But it's less clear whether the parks bureau, which is taking on street tree planting and other Gray to Green infrastructure, is the best bureau for the job. And there are real cuts beyond the shifts.

Sallinger noted the demise of the city's ecoroof program, river-focused positions in the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, and rapid-response testing in the event of a calamity.

Mike Houck of the Urban Greenspaces Institute says he was concerned after he heard from the mayor's office that there's no plan in place to pick up that work.

"We're very concerned with the shift in philosophy that seems to be occurring," he said.

Houck said he was told the city would rather fund environmental work through bonds and levies.

"We all know how difficult it is to pass levies," he said. "We're out there competing with children's levies, parks levies, to fund environmental programs It makes absolutely no sense."

Sallinger said the environmental community understands the needs for cuts and would be willing to step up with outside funding to help do the work of changing and reshaping BES' environmental work. Sallinger suggested waiting year on watershed programs before deciding to "gut them and move them around randomly."

Both Houck and Sallinger worried the limbo, as they see it, in Hales' budget plan would amount to a "dismantling" of expertise that's made BES, as Sallinger put it, "the best urban environmental agency in the world."

"The environmental community is willing to step up," Sallinger said. "But not with proposed cuts on the table."

It's not terrible likely, however, that the outcry will persuade Hales to backtrack. After Sallinger and Houck spoke, a parade of rates activists and business reps wrung their hands about the crippling cost they're already enduring and accused Hales of breaking campaign promises even though the pushed a combined increase of 15 percent down to less than 5 percent.

Hales also submitted an op-ed to the O last week touting the reduced rate increase—seemingly drawing a big fat line in the sand and daring city commissioners to round up three votes to cross it and endure, as a result, the ire of motivated activists.

Walking out of council, Hales privately offered a revealing statement of protest to Commissioner Dan Saltzman: "We're not going back 25 years."

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Please Enjoy the Following Clip of the Mayor and First Lady Tango-Dancing Saucily

Denis C. Theriault — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:59:39 -0700

What gives, you might ask? Then maybe you've forgotten Charlie Hales and his wife, Nancy, were supposed to be entrants in a local charity version of Dancing With the Stars. Nancy Hales is particularly on point—loose enough to twirl while also getting into character. The mayor has a natty outfit and isn't so awful himself.

Hales' spokesman, Dana Haynes, says his boss took a lot of tango lessons. He hadn't seen the video either.

"Dude, he’s good. I just watched it for the first time and have aspirated coffee all over my keyboard."

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Hales Offers Deal to Schools over Challenged Arts Tax Cash

Denis C. Theriault — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:22:00 -0700

Legal challenges and other problems besieging the arts tax enthusiastically approved by voters last fall have cast a cloud over the program's signature promise: millions to help local school districts staff up with arts teachers.

Treading lightly in the face of lawsuits calling the $35 tax an unconstitutional head tax, Mayor Charlie Hales announced this year he wouldn't be handing out any of the money promised to schools or arts organizations. Hales fretted over the nightmare of having to refund taxpayers in case the city loses—even though some districts, like Portland Public Schools, had already built the expected revenue into their upcoming budgets.

But today, Hales responded to that pushback and announced a major compromise. Hales offered to distribute up to half of the estimated $6 million scheduled to be distributed this November—$3 million—"pending favorable rulings or settlements" on the two lawsuits challenging the tax.

To make that pencil out, if the city loses and has to hand back the money it's collected, he's putting the risk on three pots of money, grabbing $1 million each from (1) the $3 million contingency fund he's proposed for his next budget, (2) the city's future appropriations to the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and (3) a pot of reserve money put up by the six districts benefiting from the tax: PPS, Centennial, David Douglas, Parkrose, Reynolds, and Riverdale.

“The superintendents and I have been working to find a way to be true to the taxpayers, whose money this is, and to the voters, who approved the arts tax,” Hales said in a statement. “We think this does it.”

Hales' office notes that though districts like PPS had been planning to spend the money, others were banking it to see how the grappling over the tax shakes out.

“We are not in the business of telling superintendents how to run their districts,” Hales also said in a statement. “These decisions have been tough to reach, but it’s been a combined effort all along, and we’re grateful to the arts community and our school districts for working with us to find a practical solution. In the end, getting teachers in our classrooms will pay dividends for generations to come.”

Last week, Hales announced a change in the arts tax after the city attorney's office decided it wasn't allowed, after all, to tax Social Security and state pension income. That wasn't clear when the tax was proposed and approved. Previously, Hales asked council to approve a $1,000 income minimum. A review of changes, also commissioned by Hales, is due by July.

Anyone who makes $1,000 in private income a year, so long as their household is above the federal poverty line, is obligated to pay. The deadline is Wednesday—after it was extended from April 15.

Read the full release after the jump.

Mayor Charlie Hales on Monday proposed a deal on the 2012 city arts tax, which should allow all six school districts to hire art instructors for the coming year.

The arts tax—OK’d by voters in November, 2012—has been challenged in two law suits. If the city were to lose either suit, the money might have to be given back to taxpayers. Consequently, the mayor announced in March that the city could not distribute the money to the schools, or to arts organizations, as intended; he understands, however, the importance of having teachers in classrooms.

Distribution of the money – an estimated $6 million – was scheduled to begin in November, 2013.

Under the deal proposed by Hales, some city money would be freed up to help the six districts – Portland Public Schools, along with Centennial, David Douglas, Parkrose, Reynolds and Riverdale school districts.

The city will disburse $3 million in November, but no more during the 2013-14 fiscal year, pending favorable rulings or settlements on the law suits.

“The superintendents and I have been working to find a way to be true to the taxpayers, whose money this is, and to the voters, who approved the arts tax,” Hales said. “We think this does it.”

Of that $3 million disbursement, the risk will be shared equally: $1 million from the city’s contingency fund; $1 million from future budget appropriations to the Regional Arts & Culture Council, or RACC; and $1 million combined from the six school districts.

The money disbursed fall overwhelmingly to Portland Public Schools, the largest of the districts. About two-thirds of the dollars are earmarked for PPS; one-third to the other districts.

Each district will decide how it wants to spend the money. For instance, Superintendent Carole Smith of Portland Public Schools will recommend hiring an estimated 30 FTE arts teachers – not 45 FTE, or full-time equivalent – and spreading those 30 positions evenly across her district.

Other districts could spend the money to hire, or bank it in case the law suits go against the city and money has to be returned.

“We are not in the business of telling superintendents how to run their districts,” Hales said. “These decisions have been tough to reach, but it’s been a combined effort all along, and we’re grateful to the arts community and our school districts for working with us to find a practical solution. In the end, getting teachers in our classrooms will pay dividends for generations to come.”

The mayor said his focus has been on elementary school students in the Portland area. “We want these students to have the benefit of the arts education that taxpayers have supported, and to do it in a financially responsible way,” he said.

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Judge Okays Phone Tax for Portland Police Reforms

Denis C. Theriault — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:29:32 -0700

A Multnomah County judge managed to rain down bad news on both CenturyLink and the Oregonian editorial board today—upholding an incremental land-line phone tax proposed by former Mayor Sam Adams (and loathed by the O) to help pay for police reforms put forward by the US Department of Justice.

CenturyLink had been hoping the courts would shut down the tax—approved unanimously by the Portland City Council last fall despite lobbyists' concern for senior citizens (who don't use cell phones), furtive threats of legal action, and a creepy robocall campaign by the Taxpayer Association of Oregon.

Under Adams' plan, Frontier and CenturyLink are now subject to the same tax revenue formula as every other landline provider in town. Frontier and CenturyLink had been paying taxes only on their basic voice plans, at 7 percent of revenues. They'll now pay 5 percent on all revenues—a smaller rate, but on a broader base of income—an increase that could bring Portland $3 million to $5 million a year.

CenturyLink, filing under the name Qwest and represented by high-powered law firm Stoel Rives, argued the tax was unfair because of other fees it already pays the city. It's also argued the city should similarly target wireless companies, which dominate the phone market and don't pay the same taxes land-line operators do.

Judge Henry Breithaupt had other ideas in his ruling (pdf), siding with the city and its argument that a 1997 case in Eugene on a similar dispute gave it legal cover. It's not clear yet whether CenturyLink will appeal Breithaupt's ruling.

"CenturyLink is disappointed with the court’s decision today and continues to believe that the city’s proposed fees on local telephone companies are in conflict with applicable state and federal restrictions," Chris Denzin, CenturyLink's vice president and general manager for Oregon and Southwest Washington, said in a statement. "CenturyLink continues to be committed to protecting our customers’ interests, and is considering its options, but has no further comment pending a review of the court’s decision."

The uncertainty surrounding this tax revenue probably played some role in Mayor Charlie Hales' decision to seek a $3 million council contingency fund next year. I'll update when I hear back from Hales' office with their reaction to the ruling. Even if the tax isn't further appealed, I don't expect Hales will back down from his decision to keep the piggy bank densely packed.

Update 4:46 PM: Hales' office is obviously pleased with the ruling. But Hales' spokesman, Dana Haynes, has confirmed my suspicions about the contingency plan. At least, related to this issue.

"The mayor plans no change in his recommended contingency, which, if approved, still would be less than 1 percent of the general fund."

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The O Takes Its Shot at Bureau Assignments. Here's Ours!

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:44:27 -0700

No one should be too surprised that Mayor Charlie Hales has decided to deviate from a posted schedule that had him handing back, right about now, all the bureaus he took from his colleagues in February as part of his new-look budget process—something the Oregonian has definitively reported this morning.

Hales made the move to promote citywide thinking about the budget (and maybe hold some leverage when corralling votes for his preferred version of it), and it always struck me as strange that the handover would happen before council finished haggling with Hales. And it would be strange, but he's not doing it.

But the O piece, by city hall reporter Brad Schmidt, caught my eye for a different reason: It handicapped where the bureaus will land. You'll remember we had city hall staffers make their very own guesses in a survey we published in January. Schmidt's take is "unsubstantiated," he writes, but it's a pretty good look at the possibilities.

Here's my take, blatantly stealing from Schmidt's format, since playing along seemed like a good idea when I started writing this post.

Mayor Charlie Hales: Nothing much to see here. Hales has told us most of the bureaus he plans on keeping, bureaus that traditionally sit with the mayor. He's made police reform one of his top priorities, so he'll keep the police bureau. He's claimed the Office of Equity and Human Rights. He's not going to ditch the money and/or executive power bureaus: Office of Management and Finance and the Portland Development Commission (which could be in the cross-hairs), and the Office of Governmental Relations and the City Attorney's Office. I say he hands off the Bureau of Transportation, though, to someone he trusts. And I vote he keeps the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability—too important to economic development, another major issue for Hales.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz: The Office of Neighborhood Involvement is seen as a rookie's assignment, a bureau most commissioners would see as punishment. But Fritz, who had the bureau during her first term, will still wind up with it again. She's not a rookie, but she doesn't see it as punishment. She wants it. And since no one else does... why not give it to her. The bigger question is what else Hales hands her. I'm softly guessing she'll wind up with Bureau of Environmental Services, a nod to her advocacy on utility rates and her desire for meatier work. (I think Schmidt is correct in saying she's too close to water rates activists). Yes, she's been vocal in city hall about Hales' proposal to shunt programs from BES to the general fund, keeping rates down, part of a long shopping list for budget changes. Maybe that's annoying for Hales. Maybe he'll be impressed she's so familiar with the bureau's sewer and stormwater and watershed mission.

Commissioner Nick Fish: Fish has been closely identified with the Bureau of Parks and Recreation and the Housing Bureau. The parks system, under Fish, has earned a slew of awards and begun to turn an eye, slowly, toward East Portland. Housing, under Fish-hired director Traci Manning, has also earned a reputation as a well-run bureau—winning a big gesture of faith from Hales, who gave them every bit of money it asked for in his proposed budget. The conventional wisdom is Fish will get those bureaus back. That conventional wisdom seems to be slipping a bit as reassignment comes closer. Schmidt argued Fish will lose parks because his effort for a parks bond measure is no longer in play. I argue the opposite. He'll keep parks and lose housing, despite his good stewardship—picking up a bureau that desperately needs a political makeover and Fish's gift for earning good PR: the Bureau of Transportation.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman: Like we wrote in our survey story, Saltzman also has a reputation as a bureau fixer. He's seen as having helped the Bureau of Development Services walk the straight and narrow over the past year and a half. He'll keep that, though I could see Hales maybe snapping it up on the grounds it's central to economic development. BDS once was a Randy Leonard bureau. Leonard was no friend of Hales. Saltzman also will wind up with two other bureaus closely allied with Leonard: Water and Fire and Rescue. Saltzman thumped Leonard for months over the need to use SUV units instead of large-staffed firetrucks for medical calls. He's getting his wish in the current budget—and he seems to want to dive into the bureau's business. He'll do for water what he did for BES—navigating the rough politics of rates and rate increases, but at a cooler level than Leonard did.

Commissioner Steve Novick: Let's say Novick winds up with the Portland Housing Bureau—a testament to his interest in working across jurisdictional lines, especially on safety net issues. Housing, as tax-increment money for construction projects tapers off, will rely more and more on that broader perspective and cooperation with agencies like Multnomah County and the state to deliver on its mission. (Not that anyone should think Fish wasn't good at that, either. He was.) Novick also led a review of the housing bureau's budget before he was an elected official. He'll receive both of Portland's emergency bureaus: 1) the Bureau of Emergency Management, which handles preparedness, a peculiar passion of Novick's, and 2) the Bureau of Emergency Communications, in charge of 911 dispatchers and public safety technology, which will also keep him with some skin in the public safety conversation he's shown a passion for.

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Now the Arts Tax is Taking Money from Pensioners

Denis C. Theriault — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:29:51 -0700

For those keeping score at home, yet another strange problem with Portland's well-intentioned-but-troubled arts tax has come to light. This time, says Mayor Charlie Hales' office, it's that the city has been collecting its $35 from people living off state pension and/or Social Security checks—income sources the city is technically barred from considering for tax purposes.

And that means the city now must figure how out how to pay some of that money back. The snafu affects anyone who relies on entitlements and—crucially—didn't also earn more than $1,000 in eligible income from a part-time job or what have you. That $1,000 income threshold, approved in March, was the first big change for the arts tax. Hales is commissioning a broader review of changes, due this summer.

“This arts tax puts us in a bind,” Hales said in a statement. “We want to be true to voters, who approved it in November. We have to be good stewards of taxpayers’ money. And we want to support the public schools and arts community. These problems – which stem from the way the tax was written – make it difficult to meet all those goals.”

The city's revenue bureau isn't sure how many people qualify for the refund. Revenue Director Thomas Lannom, however, says $4.25 million has been collected so far. With eight days before the new May 15 deadline, that's about half of what officials said they expected to collect for the tax's first fiscal year.

The arts tax was approved by 61 percent of voters and is expected, pending legal challenges, to pay for school arts teachers and also help nonprofits and arts institutions expand access for low-income kids and other free programs.

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Advocate on Hales' Pulling Money from Crisis Center: "No Worries"

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:23:24 -0700

Mayor Charlie Hales' bid to pull the city's share of funding for Multnomah County's Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center—a 16-bed facility billed as a resource for police officers—has clearly irked County Chairman Jeff Cogen and even raised questions from at least one city commissioner, Amanda Fritz.

The status of the CATC, as the Mercury first reported in January, has been something of a sore spot between Cogen's office and the city, which spends $600,000 a year to help operate the facility even though its officers have yet to directly drop anyone there in the nearly two years it's been open.

And while Cogen has vowed to lobby Hales to reverse the proposal—calling himself "shocked" and "stunned" and reminding everyone about the federal government's lawsuit against the police bureau over its rough treatment of the mentally ill—he may not get his wish.

An email sent to Hales' office this week reveals the mayor's staff is pushing ahead with other plans for a walk-in-style crisis center for people with mental illness that presumably would receive city funding instead. That email, sent by Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland, goes so far as to counsel the mayor's office "no worries" over the pullback from the CATC.

"About the CATC. No worries from the mental health advocacy community on that one," Renaud wrote to Baruti Artharee, Hales' public safety director, in an email obtained through a public records request. "Telecare [the company that runs the CATC for the county] did nothing for us except cash your checks.
The place was clean and quiet and the patients there felt safe—but it was also empty a lot of the time and unresponsive to the initial needs of the community."

Further, an internal police memo (pdf) obtained by the Mercury—drafted in May 2012 by Captain Sara Westbrook, recently installed as head of the bureau's new behavioral health unit—shows that police bureau's complaints about the CATC's admissions rules had been known for months before our story revealed the dysfunction between the two agencies. That memo appears to be the source of a statement the bureau sent to the Mercury after our story ran.

Renaud's email casts the CATC as something that's already gone. But Cogen has said the county will continue to run the facility without the city's money, shaving off five of its 16 beds and potentially keeping hundreds of people from getting service. The city and county each pay 20 percent of the CATC's operating budget, with the state making up the difference.

Hales has said he thinks the CATC is a fine facility, just that it's not good for police officers who say they can't use it because of rules that say someone must be stable and not a dramatic danger to themselves before being taken to the county. The county argues, in turn, that cops are unwilling to spend time calling ahead to the CATC, another rule, and sifting through which people need to be settled down and might be a a danger to themselves but aren't such a danger that they can't still be taken to the facility.

Renaud, in an interview, also disputed something Cogen said about the CATC's origins. Cogen said it came from recommendations that sprang directly from the death of James Chasse Jr. at the hands of police in 2006. Renaud, who produced a documentary about Chasse's life and death, Alien Boy, says "that's not accurate." He said it was former County Chairman Ted Wheeler who championed, years later, the idea of a drop-off center.

"It was developed in an antagonistic process where the police came looking for one thing and the mental health community came looking for something different," he told me. "The result satisfied neither.
The police haven't used it as they should have or could have. It's a lot of money for a service that probably isn't our highest and greatest need."

Renaud pointed to the kind of walk-in facility he's trying to help the city and county design instead—something like the drop-off center envisioned in the Department of Justice settlement with the city.

"It's one of the few items in the settlement on the mental health side that seems viable and vital," he says. "But it needs to be a place where all people can come voluntarily and not be blocked or told they're not eligible—and also a place police officers can use efficiently and effectively, like Hooper Detox."

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Rival Facebook Group Has Seven Reasons to Keep Police Horses on Ice

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:59:00 -0700

Yesterday, we told you about a quickly rising Facebook group devoted to keeping alive the police bureau's mounted patrol (It's up to 1,500+ likes!).

Today, we can point you to a Facebook group that really likes Mayor Charlie Hales' proposal to get rid of the popular (and occasionally unnerving) horses and save the city $1.1 million. This one's called the Coalition for Alternatives to Mounted Police. Some of its supporters include people who supported a never-considered charter amendment that would have banned the use of police horses during protests.

And how's it doing? It's only got 50 likes. For now! But more interestingly, it also has seven reasons why mounted patrols aren't a good idea. One of those reasons mentions the several decades between the Depression and 1979 in which the police bureau went without a horse unit. Hit the jump and take a look at the rest.

1) Cost: The cost of horses, compensation for specially trained officers, veterinary bills, food, maintenance, facility usage, and other fees make the mounted police more cost-intensive than the average officer.

2) Equity: The Mounted Police Unit is only deployed in the downtown core, not available to deal with complaints or crime issues in the other regions of Portland.

3) Antiquated Program: In 2011, the cities of Philadelphia, Boston, and San Diego eliminated their Mounted Police Units, and New York City, (population 8 million) reduced their Mounted Police Unit from 125 to 60. The City of Portland must justify a long term goal with the operational benefits of having a Mounted Police Unit if they are to continue funding.

4) Clean Streets: Mounted Officers currently do not clean up after hose defecation. There must be a proposed, and pragmatic strategy to deal with this public inconvenience.

5) Budget Cuts to other Police Services: Continuing to fund the Mounted Police Unit could jeopardize funding to more prioritized police services, including school officers and property crimes detectives.

6) Ethics: Exploitation of animals is a major concern of animal rights groups. The over militarization and physical stress on horses in custody of the police can lead to controversy and protests.

During the Great Depression, Portland disbanded the Mounted Police Unit. It was reinstated in 1979. We have opportunities to reduce the cost of Mounted Police. Put the horses on furlough, reassign mounted officers to regular duty, and if economic conditions improve, then we have the opportunity to resume the program. But now, Portland faces a big budget constraint.

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Cogen Calls Plan to Pull Money from County Crisis Facility a "Very Bad Choice"

Denis C. Theriault — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:42:00 -0700

Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen found little to smile about today after Mayor Charlie Hales shared plans to cut hundreds of thousands in cash the city had been spending on county social services programs. But in a conversation with the Mercury at 4:30 this afternoon—it's had to wait to go up because of our print deadline—he railed against one cut in particular as falling in a "different category": a proposal to pull $600,000 from the county's 16-bed Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center.

As the Mercury first reported in January, though the city and county planned and built the facility specifically as a mental health resource for police, the cops have yet to take a single person there in the nearly two years it's been open. Losing the money will force the CATC to give up five of its beds—which translates to losing help for an expected 200 people over the fiscal year.

The police bureau has complained that rules limiting who can be taken to the facility (someone must be stable and lack private insurance) pose too many "obstacles" for cops. The bureau prefers a much more expensive drop-off center where officers don't have to call ahead or spend any time helping with intake. City commissioners and the mayor appear to have been swayed by that argument, which the county has rejected as the cops looking for "convenience" instead of good public policy. The recommendation came in a report submitted to Hales by Commissioners Steve Novick and Nick Fish.

“The notion that the police bureau is convincing people to disinvest in a facility that provides a safe place for people in a mental health crisis is unbelievable,” Cogen says. “This is a bureau that's being sued by the federal government."

Captain Sara Westbrook of the police bureau, city sources say, was charged with talking to the county about ways to make the CATC work better for the police bureau. Westbrook's lack of progress was seen as a sign that accommodations weren't possible. But Cogen, when asked, says the bureau "never" actually came forward with specific suggestions.

"Because police don't find it convenient, the city should back off on its obligation?" Cogen says. "Because of their backing off, hundreds of people will be in a crisis with nowhere to go, except for encountering police, and it doesn't make sense to me."

"They have not tried to sit down with us and make it work," Cogen added.

Cogen says not only did the city help conceive of the center after the death of James Chasse Jr. at the hands of police in 2006 but that the city also signed a contract to pay for it. "We relied on it to invest in the facility," he says, suggesting Hales wasn't familiar with the history. Cogen thought it worth mentioning that this was one of the few areas where he and his political frenemy, former Mayor Sam Adams, had no disagreements.

Cogen, using words like "stunned" and "shocked" to convey how much he's "deeply disappointed," has urged Hales to reconsider.

"This is the one current investment the city makes" in the mental health system, Cogen says.
"It's a very bad choice. I sure hope the mayor and his colleagues, in the course of the coming month, decicde not to do it. I'm pretty hopeful they will. It's not a decison that's consistent with the values of this council."

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Mayor's Budget Unveiled: Here's Our Live Blog

Denis C. Theriault — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:14:50 -0700

Mayor Charlie Hales is unveiling his stab at a budget plan meant to close a $21.5 million deficit right now. It's filled with major job cuts—182.5 positions, including 55 police officers and almost 42 fire bureau positions.. And it would get rid of the police bureau's mounted patrol, Buckman Pool and funding for the county's Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center.

Significantly, it keeps open all fire stations. And it appears to mark a major victory for the safety net campaign working to protect social services and housing programs. City-operated SUN schools will stay open, and city funding for the CHIERS van and Hooper Detox center will remain in place.

Other highlights? The city's getting a larger contingency fund: $3 million.

"It's not a shoebox of money but it's a real emergency fund," Hales says. "That's why it's there."

And utility rate increases (for water and sewers) will be kept to a combined increase of less than 5 percent—down from 7.8 percent hikes proposed by each bureau. The mayor also delivered on a pledge to minimize layoffs of newly hired cops, finding onetime bridge funding to let the bureau reduce with vacancies.

He's also keeping school resources officers and keeping most of the property crimes unit in place.

"We're not going to be able to keep our horse patrol unit, as much as we all love it."

The mayor says his goal was to craft a "humane but responsible" budget. He's also hitting on his goal of getting his fellow commissioners to serve as a "board of directors"—highlighting their work in finding savings in overtime and in reductions to management-level staffers.

"We're directing the fire bureau to make more use of four person rescue units. They're staffed with two EMTs, not four," Hales says. "That will make a much better result for our neighborhoods and move the fire bureau into its core business, which is medical response."

He's also signaling the need for more work with the county.

"There are a number of programs that are shared between the city and the county," Hales says.

Update 11:25 PM: KGW asks why this is all "austerity." Hales says he's tapping, responsibly, some of the city's reserve fund. "We're coming out of a difficult recession," Hales says on revenue. "This doesn't feel to me the time for a general tax increase in the city of Portland."

Those are his closing remarks.

Update 11:23 PM: "I'd have liked them to be zero," Hales says when asked about water and sewer rate increases. Hales also says he doesn't fret for the safety of the city based on his proposed cuts.

"They're navigation documents," he says of budgets. "I've started taking it personally... I never thought that I'd do that. Every single line item is important. These are real people we'll be laying off. These are real services we won't be doing."

Update 11:20 PM: "You can't cut" other bureaus that much without cutting police and fire bureaus. "The principle of shared sacrifice applied to all bureaus," Hales says. This year's budget marks a shift from past budgets, when police and firefighters were spared pain historically spread around, at a deeper level, to other bureaus. Hales says these cuts won't hurt patrol staffing and won't damage progress, as he sees it, in the bureau's attempts to mend its relationship with the community.

Update 11:18 PM: The final number of layoffs, thanks to vacancies, could be under 100. Hales is highlighting housing budget wins: women's shelters and the Clark Center, foreclosure counseling and other programs are in. It's close to the $1.1 million in add backs the Housing Bureau wanted from the general fund.

Update 11:16 PM: Bureaus did a good job of separating "nice tos" and got tos," Hales says to a question from Aaron Mesh on "Washington Monuments"—programs bureaus historically suggest knowing they'll never be whacked.

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Mayor Charlie Hales' State of the City Speech! The Live Blog!

Denis C. Theriault — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:14:08 -0700

If Commissioner Steve Novick had his way, because he's such a kidder, Mayor Charlie Hales would start off his State of the City speech with a quip: "The city is in a state." Hales is good with a quote. But the mayor won't do that. His speech, as teased a bit by the Oregonian at 6 this morning, is expected to stick close to the staid and serious themes we've been hearing ever since Hales was on the stump.

Basic services. Police accountability. Fiscal discipline. Finding ways for Portland to shape the state's and metro area's schools budgets. Et cetera—and a lot of the ground covered in our oral history of the mayor's (almost) first 100 days. He's expected to tip his hand a bit on the his plan for a city budget, which he'll unveil on Tuesday—which is one reason why this year's speech is a bit later than some others.

Of course, like all mayoral speeches, hosted by City Club at the Governor Hotel, Hales' appearance has attracted a packed house of politicians and bureaucrats and functionaries. They're all eating right now. He hasn't started talking yet. We'll be updating once he does! And follow @dirquez and @portlandmercury on Twitter.

Update 1:15 PM: Aaand he's done. And an ovation. And one "whoo!"

Update 1:14 PM: Should we save the police horses? Hales says he won't tip his hand but warned that in "some cases we'll have to stop doing things we like." Hales mentions the tradeoff for the police bureau if cops remain assigned to the mounted patrol.

Update 1:12 PM: And a very interesting question on homelessness and sidewalks. He's echoing the Portland Business Alliance. "We also have to have civility on the streets," Hales says. "We don't have that balance right yet. It's causing an economic problem and a livability problem." Hales also nodded to a street count showing 1,700 people on the streets and called that "unacceptable." Expect attention after the budget. BIG applause.

Update 1:11 PM: Is the greenway work in South Waterfront going to be done? Or is it just the ICE immigrant jail no one wanted. "The greenway will be built," Hales says, with one more grab at the "social contract." But he says it'll take development, which will serve as the engine to pay for that trail. The questioner didn't care for that.

Update 1:07 PM: Hales says it was great that hundreds of people came out to stump for priorities at budget hearings. But the city needs to do more to rethink it's advocacy and outreach to and with neighborhoods, something more formal: more young people, more recent arrivals, more nonprofits.

Update 1:05 PM: Talk now of Portland's "exotic businesses" and whether we lead the nation per capita. Member is asking Hales to discuss the city's approach to those businesses, to keep kids away, and to combat human trafficking" "Local governments are very limited in its ability" to crack down on adult businesses. He's using that to segue into a complaint that the Oregon Liquor Control Commission isn't letting Portland combat late hours for bar patios. (This may also apply to potential support for a bill that would get Portland back to its days of "sit-lie" rules.)

"There's an ongoing tension between the city and the Legislature," Hales says. "We will be advocating for more local control. We'll take the heat. Give us the tools to do our job and do it differently in Portland. Portland may be joined with Prineville in school funding, but we're very different places. We want that authority."

Update 1:02 PM: Dan Saltzman left early to catch a plane, which Hales said was "too bad," since someone just asked about domestic violence prevention, one of Saltzman's passions. Hales says the police bureau, despite cuts, should keep its family and domestic violence unit, calling it "significant."

Update 1 PM: Someone reminds Hales that "it's very easy to talk about the social contract." Hales invokes "equity" and mentioned how the parks bureau spends its money and Nick Fish's efforts to get a parks measure to fund parks in East Portland. "We will pass that parks measure"—though that measure is dead. Hales also thanked Adams for starting to map the city's spending.

Update 12:58 PM: Hales gets asked about Measure 11—mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles and others. Hales says Novick has been on point in working with other jurisdictions on reducing prison sentences in exchange for front-end services funding. He says there's a need and demand for modifying it. "We can make M11 more cost effective without directly overturning it."

Update 12:55 PM: Hales answers a question about the costs of doing business in Portland and how we need to pay attention to water rates and permitting red tape. (Though his colleagues didn't like his office being too helpful, without consulting them, to the developer of the no-parking apartments on Division. And, oh man, is he bullish on South Waterfront. "Take that Dallas. Take that Balitmore."

Update 12:52 PM: The first question, though it was difficult to tell, was about West Hayden Island. Hales says he normally likes land use first and then transportation. He says it's better to figure out the Columbia River Crossing and then wait to "determine what to do about West Hayden Island."

"I think we'll know that in the next 30 days."

"I don't think it's responsible to take a shot at West Hayden Island until we know about the CRC."

Update 12:48 PM: Short speech. He's done. He got in a line about our mercurial weather and the beauty of the place. And said he's lucky and privileged. Now come questions.

Update 12:47 PM: We're getting our first glimpse at Hales' priorities: Reconfiguring the Portland Development Commission. Attacking the "epidemic of panhandling and homelessness" on our streets. Building sidewalks and roads in East Portland. Cleaning up our river, "not just spending money planning how we will." This section also touched on the young entrepreneur economy he wants to build, after a gathering of designers, and he used it to nod to our near-miss with Nike. "The next Nike was in that room... and they're not leaving Portland.

Update 12:44 PM: And now a reference to a "barn-raising style" of collaboration between governments.

Update 12:44 PM: Back to the house metaphor. And the Old Testament. Next year we hope to pass inspection and "get our house in order."

Update 12:43 PM: Hales says gun violence is very local, punctuated by the Clackamas Town Center shooting. But he's focused on the shooting death of a teen out on NE Killingsworth. "It's unacceptable." He's announcing Portland won a national grant for black male achievement. "It's a win for the whole community."

Update 12:41 PM: More substantial applause for another one of Hales' goals: Lobbying for increased gun control in Salem. He gave a shout out to State Senator Ginny Burdick for her gun bills and for the Multnomah County Commission and its approval, yesterday, of some tighter gun laws. "Do what you can with what you have where you are," Hales says.

Update 12:40 PM: Hales told the story of this year's two police shootings, Merle Hatch and Santiago Cisneros. He called them "terrible events" but said they're terrible for the cops, too. "They need to know that the city and the council have their backs, and we do." But! "We expect to see important changes ensuring they practice peacekeeping and deescalation." Hales says the bureau isn't waiting to start in on changes in force policies, mental health, and training as mandated by the Department of Justice. "So far, so good, chief," he said to Chief Mike Reese. "Thank you."

Update 12:37 PM: Police are the roof of the house, protecting us. "But we shouldn't feel the need to be protected from the police. Our police officers sign the social contract, too." People of color should trust the police, he says, and not "be surprised that the officer they call upon for help actually looks like them."

Update 12:34 PM: Hales says parents kept telling him they worried about the city's and community's commitment to schools. That's why lobbying for a robust education budget was the city's top legislative priority in Salem. He's also telling the anecdote he told us in our profile about 50 mayors coming together to stump for schools. Hales asks: "When's the last time" that happened? "We're not done, but there's a budget proposal on the table in this Legislature that will hold the line on school funding."

Update 12:32 PM: Hales' budget plan is in its final draft. "Don't let a good crisis go to waste," he says in describing one of the five principles underpinning his work. He also picked up the "board of directors" mantra, referencing the work of council budget subcommittees that came up with innovative budget ideas. And he says he's done with the "nonsense" of having bureau budgets pay for city commissioner's staffers via murky agreements.

Update 12:29 PM: "Why did I want to be mayor?" "And why am I up here with a smile?" Hales asks those after logging the reasons for our $21.5 million budget. "We will balance our budget in a human and responsible way because that's what's written down in the social contract." He says that social contract essentially encompasses everything and everyone ever and that it's like the foundation of the house he built. It's also filled with words like "equity" and "livability."

Update 12:27 PM: Hales starts on the budget by lamenting the slim state of the city's operating contingency fund: "$65,000 in the coffee can on April Fool's Day. Yeah, April Fool's Day on us." He's using his lectern to illustrate it.

Update 12:26 PM: He's telling a parable about rebuilding an old stone house in his Virginia boyhood. In city government, "we clear rubble." "I know how to build for tomorrow and do heavy lifting," he says. He then pooh-poohed the Space Needle and Arch in St. Louis and said Portland build's better things, like the Rose Garden and transit.

Update 12:22 PM: Hales is thanking county commissioners, including Chairman Jeff Cogen, and state representatives and public schools officials. The four city commissioners he calls his "board of directors" were directed to stand up, too. And Hales called out, in a good way, the work of the city hall reporter I'm sitting next to, the O's Ryan Kost, who profiled Hales' chief of staff, Gail Shibley, over the weekend. To big applause.

Hales started, though, with a thanks to "Sam," as in Sam Adams, his predecessor who's now running City Club.

Update 12:19 PM: Hales brought his toolbelt.

Update 12:16 PM: No, Hales hasn't started talking yet. But City Club has. And the audio is cavernous. I feel like I'm at Altamont, from the history books.

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Poop and Parking, Fees and Fines: City Council This Week

Denis C. Theriault — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:29:00 -0700

Two seemingly minor and unconnected items on the upcoming Portland City Council agenda are worth noting this week, mostly because they concern subjects everyone has at least some kind of opinion about: Parking. And... shit.

First the parking! In the next step for Portland's ongoing plan to frustrate annoying/clever drivers who park in the Central Eastside Business District and hoof it over a bridge to beat downtown meter costs, the city is looking to raise the amount it charges for all-day permits (pdf) in the zone.

If approved, neighbors and businesses hoping to park all day at nearly 5,000 on-street spaces would pay $70 a year, up from $60. The $10 surcharge is a tiny one. sought by the neighborhood's business group, is meant to help fund an advisory committee charged with overseeing all other parking reforms in the zone, including new meters on MLK and Grand.

And now the poop! After years of tolerating scofflaws who let their idiot dogs run free at parks and terrorize people, as well as the countless oafs who can't be bothered to be pick up their dogs' stinky brown leavings, the city's parks bureau wants to give park rangers permission to punish the wicked with civil fines as big as $150 (pdf).

The city used to pay Multnomah County Animal Services $70,000 a year to help police poop-and-leash violators. But it stopped the contract because of budget cuts. Revenue from the fines is expected to help pay for four part-time rangers and someone to run the new enforcement program (a total of $100,000). Right now, rangers aren't allowed to write tickets—just issue exclusions. Leftover revenue would help fund regular parks programs.

And it's not like Portland, which touts its 32 off-leash areas in its parks system, is known for its unfriendliness to people who bring pets for parks.

"Despite these efforts, and the efforts of many dog owners to encourage respectful behavior," according to talking points on the ordinance provided by the bureau, "a culture of non-compliance with leash and scoop laws exists throughout Portland's park system."

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Nike Passes on South Waterfront, Will Stay in Washington County

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:14:34 -0700

Portland's great white hope for caffeinating its listless South Waterfront district—a shiny new Nike campus, with lofty promises of some 6,000 new jobs—has evaporated.

Nike announced this afternoon that it will expand in Washington County, where it already lives, on land it already owns. By spurning Portland, which would have offered a 29-acre site for the company to sprawl into, Nike is passing up what the Oregonian reported were tens of millions of dollars in city and county tax incentives and abatements.

Mayor Charlie Hales' office issued a release that does its best to put a good face on the company's decision—coming after months of civic pursuit, threats by Nike to leave the state, and a crash special legislative session last year that, in turn, handed the company a tax deal meant to quell those threats.

“The city, the Portland Development Commission, and Multnomah County presented Nike and its representatives with a comprehensive and compelling proposal,” Hales said in the statement. “I’m proud of the effort our team put together. And I’m thrilled that the project, and the jobs, are staying in the metropolitan area.” Later, Hales said, “This expansion will have a huge impact on the regional economy.”

The statement said the negotiations with Nike started last summer after Nike approached Portland about a potential move. The company was interested in a swath of land owned by the Zidell family. The city put that land in a state enterprise zone, back in December, a clue that Nike was likely considering the property.

PDC Director Patrick Quinton echoed the mayor in the prepared remarks, talking up regional "efforts to present greater Portland as the global hub for the athletic and outdoor industry."

Hales also promised to find another taker for the Zidell land, still seen as a linchpin for giving South Waterfront the critical mass of humans it sorely lacks right now.

“The site offers a unique opportunity for Portland to create an urban corporate campus,” Hales said. “It’s a 30-plus-acre site, on the riverfront, connected to a public transportation system and – hey, it’s got a view of Mount Hood! If there’s a better urban site for redevelopment in America: Show me.”

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Unpaid Fines for Right 2 Dream Too Now Top $17,000

Denis C. Theriault — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:29:33 -0700

Right 2 Dream Too—the thriving Old Town tent refuge for the homeless currently waging a legal battle against Portland over code violation fines—has posted its latest bill from the city's Bureau of Development Services.

The city, you'll recall, is treating the place like an unpermitted "recreational" campground—a characterization organizers, clients, and their attorneys vehemently dispute. But the city hasn't budged, and so the new unpaid total, as of this month, has hit $17,128.93. That's a sizable but steady bump since the last time organizers posted their bill, back in January. With interest and penalties, the monthly hit is now more than $1,500.

The well-run refuge opened in October 2011. Though cops anecdotally say it's helped, not hurt, crime, the site quickly annoyed groups like the Portland Business Alliance and has been blamed by developer David Gold for the failure of his heavily city-financed plan to redevelop the old Grove Hotel across NW 4th from the rest area.

It's even received the back of the hand from social services providers like Transition Projects Inc., which runs shelter beds and helps operate the city's multimillion-dollar homeless day center, Bud Clark Commons. TPI director Doreen Binder, who's also backing the PBA's attempt to tighten sidewalk laws and is close to Police Chief Mike Reese, called Right 2 Dream Too a "blight" in a recent piece by the Daily Journal of Commerce.

"It’s an unacceptable temporary situation,” she said. “It’s a blight on our visual, and it’s a blight on the statement about what we think about people and what we’re willing to do to help people. I don’t think it’s an acceptable way to live.”

Spokesman Ibrahim Mubarak, however, says the site, which rents its land for pennies a month, is soldiering on. Last month, he says, 11 people left for permanent housing while others took advantage of the chance for a quiet and safe night of sleep.

"We're meeting with our lawyers today," he says.

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Slight Hiccup in City's Bid to Fight $306,000 Jury Award in Police Brutality Case

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:29:29 -0700

Portland City Council this afternoon gently pumped the brakes on a request by the city attorney's office to appeal a $306,000 jury award in favor of a Portland man punched, Tasered, tackled, pepper-sprayed, and hog-tied by Portland cops down the street from an Old Town nightclub in 2010.

As reported last Friday, the city attorney's office wants a new trial in the case. It's worried less about the force used against the victim, Gallagher Smith, as much as where the force was used: on a city sidewalk. Because a judge told jurors the the cops lacked probable cause when they told Smith to move along, attorneys and police brass are worried the case abrogates cops' right to direct traffic on Old Town sidewalks.

But in council today, Commissioner Amanda Fritz joined activists in pulling the item of the consent agenda, where it otherwise would have been approved unanimously and with no debate. And then Commissioner Steve Novick persuaded his colleagues to approve a modified version of the request that lets the attorney's office file only a notice of its intent to appeal—not any actual legal briefs.

More action will require another city vote. In the meantime, the city attorney's office has been asked to look into whether it can pay Smith his money while still contesting the sidewalks issue. An appeal could take years. The city, if it loses, could pay what City Attorney James Van Dyke estimated was $55,000 more in interest, not including a potential 10 percent penalty.

Fritz, however, still voted no—the only commissioner to do so. (Dan Saltzman was absent for the vote on the appeal.)

In remarks touching on ongoing legislative attempts to tighten sidewalk rules, she strongly suggested the city council discuss code changes without trying to get an appellate judge to permit what she seemed to think would be unchecked authority by cops.

"The appeal seems to be saying officers have the right to order anyone off any sidewalk for whatever reason they want," she said before voting. "I believe we won't win this appeal, and it's costly to the city, more than just money."

Accountability advocates who showed up to speak were even more forceful in urging the council to let the case die.

"They beat this guy so badly he's still suffering after a couple of years" Joe Walsh said. "Now you want to appeal it? Give the man his money, apologize and move on."

"The city attorney is asking you to go to Vegas," Charles Johnson testified, arguing the odds of a successful appeal are too slim, especially at time of budget cuts. "You want to cut your losses and not appeal this case, not say that it's okay for police officers to brutalize citizens."

Van Dyke bristled at suggestions from commissioners and advocates that the city wouldn't win and said he and his team felt clearly that cops, even though "they can't abuse that authority," have a clear right, or "broad authority," to tell people what to do on sidewalks if they believe they're quelling a disturbance.

"We think we're right," he said.

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Hales Will Meet with Former Police Chief Rosie Sizer to Discuss Community Policing

Denis C. Theriault — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:08:59 -0700

Mayor Charlie Hales' office posted his weekly calendar this afternoon. It's mostly what you'd expect for a mayor two weeks from tipping his hand on the city budget, at his State of the City speech: check-ins with the city budget office and human resources and city commissioners. But one entry, this Wednesday, jumps out.

Hales is going to be sitting down for half an hour with Rosie Sizer, the police chief fired by then-Mayor Sam Adams amid a nasty budget spat in 2010. Sizer was replaced by someone long seen as a rival for the top job, Mike Reese, the current chief, who'd earned a lot of respect in political and downtown circles during his time as Central Precinct commander. Before Sizer moved him to East Precinct.

Hales' spokesman says the mayor personally reached out to Sizer to talk about one of his major agenda items: community policing. Sizer started, at former Mayor Tom Potter's behest, a racial profiling committee. That committee has become the city's current Community and Police Relations Committee, and its come up with a training program on institutional racism that's been given to all of command staff as of December and will soon roll out to the rest of the bureau.

I asked Hales' spokesman, Dana Haynes, if the call was about something broader—leadership concerns atop the bureau. He says the half-hour meeting was built around a simple pitch to Sizer.

"We're talking about community policing," Haynes says, "and we want your input."

A message left with Reese's spokesman, Sergeant Pete Simpson, seeking comment on the meeting has not yet been returned.

Portland Copwatch's Dan Handelman remembers Sizer's racial profiling work, naturally, but not so much her ever using the words "community policing."

That said, "it's not a bad thing for [Hales] to be looking at what it means, what's it going to turn into..."

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Do You Plan on Paying the Arts Tax?

Denis C. Theriault — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:44:42 -0700

Earlier today, we reminded you about the new deadline for the arts tax: May 15. The post, like every post, has stirred up the usual smattering of promises and warnings and exhortations not to pay it.

Are these naysayers speaking for most of Portland? Or themselves? Let's find out! Here's a very official Blogtown poll—your chance to put your casual and anonymous opinions and/or plans on the line!

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