By Nancy Hiser
Portland City Council’s first 100 days has modeled leadership, transparency, accountability and community inclusion. Watching 12 Councilors representing all four Portland districts has consistently shown they are following their campaign promises – they call for community inclusion regularly as the way to rebuild public trust in City government. They are respectful, listen well, and compromise.
Council passed two measures that 1) tasked the mayor with investigating Zenith’s franchise agreement for possible violations that could invalidate Zenith’s Land Use Compatibility Statement, and 2) rejected the City Hearings Officer’s decision to grant PGE’s Harborton proposal to cut 370 Forest Park trees, agreeing with thousands of people who opposed the proposal.
The biggest news is how the City will address the huge $93 million budget deficit. Councilors held multiple public hearings to listen to constituents and are now opposing the Parks’ cutbacks proposed by City Administrator Michael Jordan. Calls for increasing public safety are also high priorities for the City Council; they are hoping to amend the Mayor’s budget proposal.
When the Mayor was asked by Councilor Clark why he did not allocate funding for the extremely dangerous CEI Hub, Wilson responded that he felt it was best to leave it to the State and the County to do the heavy lifting on the Hub. It’s well known that State and County budgets are both severely strained like the City’s.
Mitch Green at Linnton candidate forum, September 2024. Photo credit: Mitch Green.
The Government Transition Advisory Committee (G-TAC) ended their 2-year commitment to help guide the new government transition with a final report to the City Council on March 19th. Notable was their strong support of Council and Council priorities because they are critical to changing “poor practices and bad habits.” G-TAC charged city administrators with not providing adequate staffing or resources for Council and not sharing important communication for them to do their job.
For more info:
• Portland City Council regular meeting, March 19, 2025 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVRS5PbMsjU&t=8513s
• Tank the Tanks – Instagram reel of councilors thanking G-TAC – https://www.instagram.com/tankthetanks/reels/
• A District 4 Advocacy Team is being formed to help citizens share their opinions on major issues with Councilors Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and Eric Zimmerman. They want to hear from you! Please contact Nancy Hiser to learn more:
nancyhiser@comcast.net