 Hi, I'm Lisa Savage. Thanks for joining us. I'm your host at Pathways to Progress and I'm here with Portland City Councilor's Victoria Pelletier and Roberta Rodriguez to talk about the 13 referenda items on the upcoming ballot here in Portland. The first question is going to be read in its entirety. It is the land acknowledgement that the Charter Commission proposed be added to the preamble of the city charter. It goes like this. Portland is located in the unceded territory of the Ocosisco Band of the Wabanaki, which also includes the Aabanaki, Malassee, MacMac, Pasamaquoddy, and Penobscot people. European colonizers displaced Wabanaki people by force and went on to displace and harm indigenous peoples throughout what is now main in the United States. We acknowledge that displacement and that harm with sorrow, even as we celebrate and honor the Wabanaki knowledge and culture that continue to thrive in the tribal nations that called and always will call this place the Donland their home. Okay, so this is this is the big one definitely I think for a lot of people that are looking at the ballot and I certainly had some trouble with this one not for the reason people may expect. I was actually fine with the strong mayor model. It was more the expansion of the council that actually gave me a little bit of pause and I had to work through and I think the thing that helped me the most was taking myself out of the conversation and thinking of myself as a constituent and also thinking about what Portland I want to see moving forward and I certainly want to see a Portland that is accessible and accountable and I also want to see a Portland where we are voting individuals into these positions who can be policymakers and who can actually craft policy. I want the people making the policy to be the ones that I voted for. I think of the council right now as a council manager setup so we are really subordinate to the city manager and at times that makes it very challenging for us to really craft the policy that I think that we want to especially when the policy is not status quo and maybe a little bit different than what's been done historically. So I am in support of question two because I'm thinking about the accessibility of the council I'm thinking about the representation of the council and again I'm thinking who is crafting policy and those are the individuals that I want to know that I voted into office to do so and I'm also thinking about again the part that was tough for me which was the expansion of the council but taking myself out of it because my first thought was there's nine of us already and how are we going to do anything with 12 people but I'm thinking about smaller districts I'm thinking about a better constituent to councilor ratio I'm thinking about the fact that we are stretched very thin in the fact that we have committees that we're on we have commissions and boards that we're serving on if we have additional counselors that's more room for collaboration that's more hands on deck and that's more accountability for us to the people that voted for us because we're not so stretched thin by managing these very large districts so yeah I'm in support of question two I know that it's scary for a lot of people but I think that's just in the nature of change I think change is scary for individuals but I want to know that I am part of and have been part of a government system that really works for everybody and represents everybody and also I want the counselors that are going to come after me to be empowered enough to be able to craft policy without worrying about being overruled or undermined and just based on what the policy is so yeah I'm in I'm in full support of question two and I really encourage individuals to think about the Portland that they want in their future it's different it's definitely going to be a change but I'm really excited for that and I do think that again this will make Portland government more representative to the people knowing that the ones that we elected can and can craft policy and are in power to do so so I can't believe I made it I kept waiting for the buffer to go off with ten seconds Outstanding, nice job You can take her ten seconds So what I'll say you know since I have an extra ten seconds I'll take a moment to first thank all of the charter commissioners who stepped up to do this work I know the sacrifices that elected office requires but I like to point out that the charter commissioners were not compensated for their work so they were literally volunteers at least I get a small stipend for the work that I do so again a big big thank you and shout out to all the commissioners for their work I really appreciate what council pillow tears just said what Tori just said about removing herself from the picture and and thinking about what is the Portland that she wants to see and asking all Portlanders to look at it that way I agree with that sentiment strongly I however with this proposal I'm worried that the mayor having so much of the policy-making responsibility can actually weaken the counselors on positions so for that reason I'm a little bit hesitant to support it on top of that I think that the current system certainly has some flaws and it's not the most effective way to have constituents feel like the representatives are advancing policy that represents their concerns however on the school board side which has the very same model I experience a change in ideology and approach to the work simply when we change the people that were there not the process so we were able to get an executive director superintendent that was very well aligned with what the elected officials the school board had in mind for policy and then we were able to really shift direction significantly from what we're doing before just by changing people so as much as I believe that the current system is not perfect I believe that if we had the right people in place we could use systems of accountability to have a city manager that is very responsive to the elected officials I will not be voting in support of that proposal but I do want to create a system in Portland where the elected officials do challenge the manager and do have a stronger voice in policy-making and in the direction of the city and I also want to acknowledge that that was the very basis of forming the Charter Commission itself that was like I think the most fundamental reason that voters wanted to do it because they found that their their elected bodies were not really addressing the issues and concerns that they were raising I believe that the current system does allow those accountability measures to be used it just has to be that we step up to do it right like counselors have to have that political will to actually put themselves on the line and hold the the executive manager accountable for their actions I probably left a lot of time on the clock 30 seconds so I can I have a follow-up question the current city manager is an acting city manager because the former city manager departed and the council has held off on filling that position permanently until the election am I understanding that correctly there's a there's a search committee in place right now and they've been working almost for a year now and they've I believe they've already selected the hiring search that's going to be doing the that's going to be helping us identify candidates so that work has actually been ongoing the super the city manager search committee has been working almost for a year now okay so hasn't really been the pause it's just been taking a while okay and I think too there there was some conversation about not knowing what the outcome will be and so I think that might make things move a little bit slower but yeah I think that they're still going forward with the search regardless so great all right we are on to question three clean elections counselor pellet here um yeah I mean I don't even know that I'm gonna use all my time for this I am in a full support of clean elections I always have been I certainly ran on somebody with very limited income now just wanted to get involved and make a change and when I think again about what do I want out of Portland to do I want leading Portland I certainly want individuals that aren't going to be funneled in there with corporate money and corporate interests and so I'm thinking about the counselors that I want I want you know a recent graduate for a counselor I want service industry individuals for counselors I want single parents for counselors I want to make sure that the people that are serving Portland are really reflective of the disenfranchised community of Portland and not privileged community of Portland the working class of Portland which really makes up the majority of our city it's just unfortunate that for so often those with the loudest voices and the most privileged often get the most attention so yeah thinking about clean elections it's really not a controversial topic for me I think that it is again something that I will continue to support because I think about who do I want to make sure that I'm empowering and whose voice do I want to make sure I'm ample amplifying and I am never nor will I ever be in support of corporations getting involved in financially funding individuals campaigns I also really like the thought of a clean election fund which is part of this too so that we can empower more people to run for office who don't have the means at all to really be spending the time on campaign materials and in canvassing and all of the things that you need to do in order to really make yourself known so yeah I'm I'm in full support of that and I'm hoping that that one passes and that we can really set a precedent in Portland that we are fully on board with clean elections and that we are taking a stand to say this is who we want representing us these are people like us these are working-class individuals like us and we are not going to stand behind individuals that have corporate interest in our again being paid to to run and run a campaign that is not authentic so great seven seconds to spare you're amazing Roberto yeah so this is probably the one question about it that I'm most excited to support I think that what this is question I can fundamentally change the you know the barriers to access to run for office and you know I'm I like to think a lot about what I experienced last year in my at-large race where I raised less than $10,000 and that includes the money that I had to raise to pay for the legal fees of the recount versus my opponent I believe I would raise me or they funded or fund raised close to like $50,000 so I there was not even there was no way that I could compete with that when you look at the list of donations I didn't have anyone that maxed out I didn't have anyone that gave me 500 bucks or anything major like that all my donations are really small so I I couldn't compete but yet I have been in service in public service in the city for five years you know I had definitely shown that I have been dedicated to the work and public service and I had given a good example of how I would carry myself in office so that's that's what carried me forward I believe that candidates not having to worry about fundraising can really focus about running campaigns on issues get to talk to their constituents and get to really fundamentally engaged with their community and voters and get them out to vote for the real reasons not just get you know the most face time on social media ads or even TV ads which right now we're seeing you know being exploited with the amount of money that's being dumped into these campaigns so I think again clean elections is to me probably one of those important things is in the ballot and I'm enthusiastically going to support it okay great we're gonna have two minutes each for this next one question four is on proportional ranked chosen choice voting for Portland okay yeah this one again I don't think I'm gonna use a lot of my time it to me is more of a procedural change more than anything and I think you know thinking about the charter commission race that was in 2020 I think that this is an amendment to to possibly amend how that election turned out for a couple of individuals I think currently for multi-seat races the threshold you have to meet is 50% I think that this would diminish it to 25% and I think that that makes sense especially given how few people are running for office I don't think that we're having an influx of individuals that are running I ran against one other person I think there are two people or one person in your at-large race like we're not having tons of people that are getting involved in public service so I think it makes complete sense I also think in the conversation around vote no one everything and enough is enough and the Charter's too progressive and everything's too progressive this to me actually if this the way that it is being proposed now existed when the Charter Commission was in place the Charter Commission slate would look very different the Charter the Charter Commission wouldn't be nearly as progressive as it is now if this proportional ranked choice voting was in place prior so I'm putting that out to the people that are like I'm too moderate for everything and I don't want to vote for anything this actually I think will stop the chances of people being voted that aren't fully reflective of the electorate that elected them in based on this procedural change so I am supporting it again I think it's just going back to tweaking something that happened in 2020 and yeah I don't really have a lot else to add about it okay good job Roberta yeah same thing I probably don't have very much else to add to it I am supporting this you know I when you look at the cycle of elections you often have two seats for example this year on the school board you have two at large seats that are open at the same time you know so you could potentially have a you know pretty large slate of people that are running for it and and as I'm a strong proponent of rank choice voting and I think the more that we can do to tweak it to make sure that it has that intended purpose or that intended outcome of having it being a more democratic way for voters to elect their officials I think that we've experienced some hiccups per se when we saw what happened with the charter commission and this addresses those concerns that were raised there what I think it's really neat about this proposal and then the press world for once give them credit they did a really good job at representing this is that the charter commissioners that they themselves admitted they would not have won their races if this is somewhere in place they're supporting this yeah because again they see it as a way to to clean up what rank choice voting is and to make it more democratic so that to me is is the biggest endorsement that you can get someone that would have they would lost their own race they're advocating for the change to be placed to be in place so I'm strongly supporting it as well great okay moving on here's a big one rent control we've got two minutes each to discuss question see so this is a citizens initiative and Victoria go for it I'm in full support of rent control I'm a renter I at this rate I might be a renter forever and I think that the more that we can protect tenants the better there's a huge power dynamic between tenants and landlords there always has been there always will be I think a huge component of this initiative is getting rid of the application fees which is really huge because when you're looking for a place everybody's saying housing is a human right but also you have to pay a $50 application fee it's one of the most inequitable ways that we're moving forward in terms of trying to house people in apartments because on top of that you also have to pay first month's rent last month's rent a security deposit and all of this is on top of making sure that you are furnishing your own place to live so I am in full support of that I also really like the condo conversion fee my building is being sold for $1.1 million I have no idea what's gonna happen maybe everyone will get evicted and it will turn into luxury condos I really don't know but that is such a common story that's happening in Portland for my friends and community members and neighbors as we are getting priced out by Airbnb's which is also something that we'll talk about but I want to ensure that I as a tenant and protected as far as I can be protected because it's getting really scary to be a renter in Portland we really have very limited power we have very limited rights and as long as there is some sort of protection in place we can at least feel like we're not going to be evicted for nothing we can feel like you know we don't have to save up a ton of money if we want to look at multiple apartments and it's $50 for every apartment that we even want to look at not even saying we want to rent it so I I'm in full support of making sure that we can continue to protect renters I think that this is a city of renters this is a working-class city a city of service workers and if we aren't moving forward with protecting people we're not going to have anyone to be in Portland we're not going to have the really rich wonderful melting pot that Portland is so as a renter and as somebody that is in community with a lot of renters I'm fully in support of question see okay Roberto yeah so I am also in support of this question right now I believe that renters are probably one of the least advocated for a group of constituents that we have in this city I am incredibly worried about the reality that renters are experiencing in our city right now anecdotally speaking I'm hearing about an increase of of people that are being evicted from from their apartments I know that the emergency rental assistant is sort of kind of like a just a band-aid on it on the on the problems that we have right now I would honestly at this point I think it's such an urgent issue I would like us to start exploring going back into a state of emergency so we can have an eviction moratorium in place I'm just beyond worried particularly with a lot of the families a lot of our really low socioeconomic families you have multiple families that are staying in one apartment so when one person gets evicted you're evicted multiple families at once and this is just a reality that we've seen we've seen entire buildings you know dozens of families all at once lose their housing that means their kids are displaced from schools often these are the kids that are depending on schools for their meals so like you know the trickle down effect of these evictions is it reaches so so far so I'm with Victoria 100 percent we need to do everything we can to protect renters in this city and again I feel like they're one of the least advocated for groups and of constituents in our city and I'm beyond worried about what they're experiencing I had a conversation with the city manager this morning specifically talking trying to figure out what we can what actions we can take as a council to protect them including an eviction moratorium so I'm again just wildly concerned about the reality that renters are experiencing in our city. That's great I have a friend that works at Preble Street and she said oh you haven't seen anything yet because the pandemic rent support went away and then it took some months for the evictions to go through the system and she said a lot of them are new manors too that will be losing their housing so okay we're going down to one minute each as we get down to these other questions yeah feet is on question D the minimum wage Victoria I support the minimum wage I don't think this should be a shot to anybody I feel like it's not a mic drop I was very you know adamant on hazard pay in January and February and we also you know that conversation that happened I believe that I believe in the minimum wage and there's no like but for me and there's no like accept for me it's just I believe in the minimum wage period especially in a city like Portland the minimum wage is not raising to 18 dollars in January it's going to raise gradually and I very much believe that our the current wage that we have in the cost of living are not a community with one another at all Portland is continuing to get more and more expensive people are continuing to get priced out and so with that in a city like Portland I just I certainly believe that we need to raise the wage and I will be supporting question D I know it's a very very challenging one it's a spicy topic for a lot of people but I again want to pay and support workers the wage that they deserve 18 dollars an hour to me which is not going to be in January it's going to be gradual but to me that's not even a living wage I also really oh no I knew it was coming I knew it was coming I knew it I was like maybe I can okay I'm gonna I'm done you got the quack yeah so um I'm again a strong strong proponent of increasing the minimum wage actually from what we've heard in committee work I believe that we can support the 18 dollars an hour right now because so I believe that somewhere between 16 80 percent of the area total median income is what we use to determine and 18 dollars an hour gets us within that range however I'm not supporting this question because I feel like there is a huge rather divide in eliminating the sub-minimum wage piece I think that workers has spoken pretty colloquially around that and what I would like us to do in all of the citizens initiatives actually if they don't pass I would like to commit the council to put those issues on committee work and tackle them through our ordinance through our capacity and I believe that this is one that we all have the appetite to take on and have a collaborative and transparent conversation with the workers with the with the restaurant community to see how how eliminating the sub-minimum wage really will impact us I'm also worried that if this passes we'll we'll have five years where we won't be able to touch it and if there are unintended consequences I like us to be able to address them good job questions a and b we're putting together they're both about Airbnb's or short-term rentals Victoria go ahead do you have a minute uh okay uh so I will be supporting question be I mean I I think period that we need to really get a handle of the on the air b&b's I'm supporting question b because I campaigned on you know I essentially campaigned on banning non-owner occupied air b&b's and I want to make sure that we are pushing the restrictions as far as we can again I'm getting concerned with the fact that individuals are getting priced out left and right there are blocks and blocks of just non-owner occupied air b&b's we'll still have 250 of them people will be need people will be notified within a 500 uh I think it's 500 foot radius if they're living next to an air b&b uh and I think that by doing this we can at least start to take the steps to really make sure that we're not continuing to price out individuals who are running these hotels blocks by block by block it's I'm under no illusion that this is going to return on influx of housing stock I know that we have a ton of work to do around affordable housing as well but I am certainly concerned with the fact that air b&b's have continued to go unregulated you're gonna really hate ducks after this are you Roberto yeah um so I am I am actually uh I'm super super eager for us to to have a conversation about short-term rentals in the city particularly the non-owner occupied units however I'm not supporting this because of the impact that it will have on Peaks Island I've heard from a lot of residents in Peaks Island and they're really worried about specifically how this is going to affect them and they have a really unique sort set of circumstances in the island I'm with Tori that I think going into our ordinance for short-term rentals and I'm super I would be supportive of limiting uh or further limiting the number of non-owner occupied units and anything else that we can look into that ordinance that we believe is going to help mitigate some of the issues that we're seeing with the housing crisis but again because of the issues on Peaks Island and the uncertainty of how they're going to be impacted by this I don't I don't think I want to take the chance on getting stuck with a policy for five years that could affect them negatively so you're no on A and B exactly Victoria are you no on A and no on A yes on B and yes on B okay because A is grandfathering in the air B and B right no on both yeah all right question seven police review by the people I'm just looking at the time okay one minute so I of course am in full support of this I think the current way that it's set up individuals need to go to the police department with their complaints I think that that is a huge um issue in terms of again a power dynamic that's triggering for people that's trauma for people I like the fact that with this new setup complaints can go directly to this new board and then the board will send them to internal affairs I think that makes sense I think it removes the police presence from fielding these complaints it's awkward to go to the it's not even awkward it's kind of terrifying to think about going to the police department to make a complaint about the police department so I'm really excited about this the way that we're gonna shift things I also think that there are it will be positive to have more members with this currently there are seven now there can be nine or more and the council can appoint some board members as well which I think is great so yeah I'm in I'm in full support on this this is a big yes for me and I think that we can really take steps towards making sure that people are feeling safe in Portland but also not having to do to give their complaint to the person that they're complaining about and not understanding the dynamics that that creates for a lot of individuals thank you yeah I'm also strongly supporting this as well this is just going to improve the assistance of accountability and transparency for the police department there's so much in this proposal to like and there was so much and or there is so much in the current citizens review panel that just really is ineffective so I believe that this addresses so many the issues and concerns that we've heard over the years about this process and yeah enthusiastically supporting it okay great now we're going down to the real short time we're going to give you 30 seconds to talk about question eight which is code of ethics and an ethics commission uh and Victoria yes um so this is a yes for me I I like we did adopt a code of ethics in the council but I do like the fact that we're gonna this could potentially expand on it um you know which I think is really helpful especially as we're getting into the world of of figuring out you know ethics and in the broader scheme of things and and I think with an ethics board and a commission I think it will just make it easier for individuals to make sure that everything is by the book and there are no issues I also really like the accountability officer that's part of this because I think and that's it good stuff I love the clock um yeah I'm absolutely in supporting this um you know codifying the the ethics commission in the chart I think it's just an important piece um yeah I think it's just another another system of accountability to make sure that we are doing public service the way that we all want to care you know hold ourselves accountable too yeah wonderful all right now we're going down to 15 seconds to talk about question six peaks council uh question six I'm getting like nervous question six peaks i'll counsel is a yes for me they already exist this is just again um cementing it into the charter so I think people were like what's going on with the peaks out they they already exist they have existed this is just writing them into the charter it's a yes for me yeah absolutely codifying a system that's already in place as an advisory body to the council uh you know again we talked about peaks island being an important group of constituents to the city so giving them uh a codified way for them to have representation and council decisions is important wonderful I messed up I accidentally skipped question five school budget direct vote go so I am in support of question five um you know the the board of education it's its own governing body the city council is not the parent of of the board of education and I also think that um individuals were worried about them writing a blank check they're still accountable to the voters they're still going to be a joint uh school board city council board that's going to happen during the budget season I think it's going to be easier for voters to pay attention to one governing body rather than two volume it back and forth at the end of the day at the end of everything voters still have the ultimate decision as to whether or not they want to pass the budget and I think individuals who are on the school board will be responsible with the budget if they want to continue to be arrested again so I don't see an issue with that same thing I'm a strong supporter of this one I believe that the joint committee that will be formed between the council and the school board and the school board is going to create those systems of checks and balances that people are worried about losing and I 100 percent trust the school board to put forward the budgets that are necessary for our schools to provide a high quality system of public education thanks everyone we ran out of time to talk about question e cruise ships but the longshoremen down at the docks and dsa negotiated agreement to that one so most people are going to skip that one I think on their ballots I want to thank our tech crew tonight Robert Quebeca Jeffrey Cooper David Bedell of course our director Warren Edgar we couldn't do this without you Portland media center thank you audience for being here get out and vote on Tuesday if you haven't voted already uh we'll see you at the polls thank you