 Hi I'm Lisa Savage welcome to Pathways to Progress. I'm here with your Portland City Councilors Victoria Pelletier and Roberta Rodriguez. We're going to be talking about the encampments tonight and what some counselors have been trying to do about that issue based on hearing from constituents and trying to solve the problems for everyone who lives in the City of Portland and we are going to also be talking about the election coming up because this is our last show normally we have our show on the second Friday of each month and by the second Friday in November the election will have already happened so we're going to take you through the municipal ballot a little bit and the state ballot as well. How are we doing this evening counselors? How is your week? I've had a really busy week and I think since last meeting you know we've been pretty busy and we're we're gearing up for a meeting on Monday night which probably doesn't seem as as contentious as some of the more recent meetings and workshops have been but yeah it's been busy I'll give you a little bit more context of what we've been talking about but I want to say hi to Tori too. Yeah hi it's been it's been a really yeah it's been a busy week I think we're just like we're right back in it this happens every year now when we get back until like we're starting to have our regular meetings again starting to have regular committee meetings again there's just a lot happening as always in Portland so yeah we have a we have another meeting on another council meeting on Monday the last one that we had last week last Monday two Monday's ago because we had Indigenous People's Day. That's right yeah we had a holiday so I'm a little off the time I guess but that one was a lengthier conversation as well around the encampments around shelter and so it's it's pretty we're working with some pretty significant issues and I think we're all just like trying our best to really have productive meetings and also know that we're dealing with some just really really challenging conversations for everybody. Yeah so so in that last meeting we had we had a vote that we were considering a proposal to add 50 beds to the homeless services center and that kind of proposal was in light of some of the recommendations that were made holistically of you know how are we going to facilitate our goal of housing people in the encampments so the vote failed and my interpretation of some of the people that voted against it was that there wasn't some other policy you know change attached to it something that would really aim at changing the outcomes that we're seeing from our currently current policy and so since then taking that feedback from my colleagues I started having conversations with the city manager and with other counselors about what does it look like to to change our camping policy and more specifically to change the way that we're resolving the work in our encampments with sweeps and clearing of encampments now just to plant a flag on that over the last several weeks we've had work two workshops at the council and this meeting where we've been discussing the encampments and there's been a majority of counselors that have voiced their own opinion that the policies of clearing encampments that they disagree with it on top of that all three members of the health and human services committee wrote a letter that they shared with staff and its constituents that clearly state that they disagree with the policy so we've seen repeatedly over the last month counselors speak in in the majority that we don't agree with that so I started this discussion with the city manager to aim to get something in the agenda that would give the council an ability to suspend that policy and in essence suspend the sweeps and we started to make progress towards it I got it all the way to where we were about to put it on the edge or it was about to be posted on the agenda and at the very last minute there was a communication from staff that something that had not been mentioned to me all along that as a result of the way that I was aiming to do this hazard pay would be kicked into effect because I would have been declaring a state of emergency now unfortunately nowhere along the process of me asking of how this would be done that was mentioned so I felt like it was a really important piece of information that was kept from me and then at the last minute because that was something that I think would have really jeopardized the chances of this passing I had to pull it from the agenda now through that process I learned that the the right path for the council to take to change our policy we're aware of it now we're working on that and unfortunately we won't be able to bring it in time for Monday's meeting but I'm working with counselor Travaro and we're going to create an ordinance that aims to change the way that we're concluding our work in the camp and so that we stop the sweeps and we hope to have that in the agenda or the next meeting which will be the first November meeting for the council great knowing you as I do I'm pretty sure that you also are part of the let's stop the sweeps movement and you're also on the health and human services committee yeah I've been on the stop the sweeps movement since the movement has begun my position on that has not changed you know and I I I think it's really interesting to look at it from the lens of like someone who is pro sweeping because we've seen displayed in Portland the sweeping is not working at all you know it's not only re-traumatizing our unhoused neighbors but it's also just not a solution to the encampments and we're seeing that very clearly we have the trader joys encampment with the marginal way encampment we have a hard review encampment we've encampments all over the city and we've done three sweeps now two or three sweeps and it has not gotten rid of the encampment so I think for for people that are very pro sweep I guess I'm just curious on like what are whatever they're hoping to obtain from sweeping because whatever the results are that they're hoping to see we're clearly not seeing them so I'm looking forward to councillor Rodriguez and councillor Travarro's ordinance and being able to look at the options of stopping the sweeping in Portland because I just think as we've displayed since May it just has been a really unsuccessful route in terms of trying to eliminate the encampments and I also think we owe it to our entire community our own house and house community to really look at a lot of policy work through this to ensure that we're doing one that we're aligning with our goals and two that we're actually making sure that we're looking at this from a systemic lens and not just saying like sweep sweep sweep and hoping that that solves the problem because it's clearly not working didn't you have a constituent tell you will you put them there meaning you being the council or the city government and there being the marginal way encampment you're like who did I put there and they said well you swept that encampment and now they're all over here like and it's a great kind of example that demonstrates how our own policies are kind of counterproductive to our goals our stated goals the goal of the ECRT the encampment crisis of response team is to house the individuals that are in the encampments and they're doing that by going out there and interacting with them right these are providers and I know as a clinician as a healthcare provider that continuity of care is the most important thing right because it takes a long time to carry out a plan of care now these providers in essence what they have to do is evaluation plan of care in discharge in a matter of days that's not realistic and then before they get that work accomplished successfully we're clearing encampments and if you lose contact with your clients then all that is thrown and not only that but the trust that you've been building is broken so all that is out the window so now if the if the purpose of clearing the encampments and this is what staff has told us this is what the city manager has says the resolution of the ECRT works in the encampment being a sweep is supposed to be an incentive for people to accept the offers of beds at the shelter so we're trying to incentivize people to accept offers of beds by threatening them of clearing them over there currently are that makes no sense and it's not working as a because just like you said just like the constituent said why did you put them here we didn't and then he pointed out well when you clear for river they all marched over here and I said yes and you know why they all congregate in one area because our current policy that declares emphasis areas throughout the city has eliminated the options that people have once we clear them from one place so in essence we've created this this we funnel people into one massive area and then we're wondering why they we have these massive encampments what do we think is going to happen when margin away gets cleared where are they gonna hang where people gonna eventually go to when all the other areas in the city have been declared emphasis areas we're gonna end up with a massive encampment Tori take a wild guess where these people are gonna end up probably Harbourview yeah so it's it's one of those things too I think where yeah I I'm wondering what's the what's the end goal for this because of every location we have in the city is being swept and then designated an emphasis area and then we still have a shelter as well that individuals aren't feeling comfortable going to I'm just like what's the plan like what's the next step in terms of making sure that if every area of Portland is emphasis as an emphasis area where no camping is allowed I'm I'm very curious so like where individuals are supposed to go and then it's like are we gonna start submit issuing criminal trespass what is that see what are those things CTO criminal trespass orders orders yeah I just feel like it's it's just not a solution and yeah Roberto said at best it's just not working it feels punitive it feels like people are being punished for they are the crime of being unhoused is what it looks like to me but let me also clarify so would I be right in thinking a majority of the city counselors at this point in time want the sweeps to stop they are against the sweeps they've said publicly stop the sweeps yet the city staff will not stop the sweeps now I know that the state also is planning a sweep November 1st and city government can't control what the state does but would that be a fair statement of the situation or most of you against the sweeps yet I think by assessment at the very least the majority of counselors want to stop the sweeps at the very least for the winter because we see it as an immediate crisis that could just be exacerbated significantly over the winter months so at the very least I know for a fact now that and just anecdotally speaking yes I think long term there's a majority of people that that would support a change of ordinance or a change of policy that eliminates the sweet all together but the very least I know for a fact that majority of us do not want sweeps to happen during the winter months and when you say what do you what do they want to happen I'm guessing what they want to happen is people to cross the bridge to South Portland across the bridge to Falmouth or you know cross the bridge into what or go into Westbrook what they want them to do is like leave the city of course of Portland so that it's yeah Portland's problem anymore yeah I mean people hate when I say this because but we're we're turning into a city and I know people hate when I say that but I just think this is this is these are things that happen in a city like Portland and a lot of people are like why why are they in Portland and why aren't they in like insert any other place and then wondering looking at Portland like why why do they have to come here we have the all of the resources are in the city of Portland and we're very lucky and privileged to be like a semi walkable city so naturally there are gonna be a lot of individuals that are here in order to the resources in order to get the things that make Portland so great in order to get the services that make Portland so great so we are having some growing pains I think of turning into a city getting more populated diversifying and I think with that are going to come things like this no city is I don't know any city in the United States that does not have at least one or two individuals that are dealing with housing insecurity at like the very very least so even the small small small city you're gonna have individuals that are still gonna be dealing with not having a place to live you're still gonna have you can has a big homeless yeah which I mean this is this is yeah this is something that people are just gonna inevitably realize like it's it it is everywhere I mean we just heard the numbers in Lewis and they were they were making assumptions of something like 50 or 80 people that were on house come to find out there's upwards of like 300 people out their own house so they most people are clueless of how bad the problem is and it is in small-town Maine you know they we have Portland has gotten so bad and the resources have been so dire that people are like I can't even end up in Portland because that's not even a safe bet so they're standing in in communities that have zero resources zero support structures and so if the consequences are dire here now when we are who has had historically the resources to help people it's only gonna get worse and our policies are exacerbating the problem we got a change direction well I want to thank you both for working on this I don't live in Portland but people I love live in Portland and I know that you have been very sincerely addressing this problem for a while now and you're not gonna give up no matter how frustrated you are no matter how much they try to do the bureaucratic maneuvers on you I'm not gonna give up okay we have about 15 minutes remaining in our show about half our show so we probably need to turn our attention to the election and well last time we did this there were 13 measures on the municipal ballot this time there are several candidate elections right but there's only one citizens initiative on the ballot so let's start let's start with the mayor obviously people have heard a lot about that city council district four five and at large are up four grabs this election school board district four five and at large are up for election and the Peaks Island council four seats that's an advisory board those are all three-year terms except mayor four-year term and then the Portland water district also that's a five-year term did you guys endorse anybody this time around no I I don't ever endorse actually I made that rule for myself when that before I started because I just think that it can get very complicated so I was like let me just not ever ignore it so it's nice to just across the board I just say no I don't do endorsements I will say I am very interested to see what happens with the council elections because we have that can drastically change the council and that will be our last year will be next year yeah so it'll be interesting to see in terms of the at large seat district four district five in the mayor that is the significant amount that could change what we're doing as well so I am curious to see of course who the mayor is because three of our colleagues are running which has been really interesting to watch I said that it's like I keep saying it's like watching your co-workers try and get like a promotion it's been funny watching the debates of just like people we work with very regularly but that'll be really interesting and then yeah I think depending on the district seats I mean I'm I'm just curious on how it's gonna pan out and I know that councilor fornier is running for reelection which I'm like really hopeful and this naturally that she wins her election she's the chair of the endorsement you know naturally we work together on the HHS committee obviously she's the chair there's a lot of great work there that we can continue to do next year and I think that it's it's been really nice having that committee with myself her and councilor to varro so I'm hopeful in that regard that you know she will remain on the council as someone that I've now served with for almost two years but like well you know we'll see it's always really it's always really interesting to see how the tone and the tide of the council changes just based on the election so yeah but we'll be seniors you know what's funny I used to have a similar kind of like not endorsing folks kind of sell policy and then a while back I sort of kind of crossed the line and I've never but in this election I've stayed out of it for the most part there are some signs in my front lawn but people forget like my wife she also has her own preference of candidates and often we disagree so you have a daughter that's old enough yeah she definitely has her preference in certainly in the mayoral race I so I've actually stayed out of it and it's been actually I've had constituents that have asked me you know particularly because we have three current counselors running and I've said you know if they've watched the forums and I said you know what just tune in to watch our meetings because you get to see them within the context in which they're kind of you know aiming to work out and and I've had them people say like what a great recommendation that was so helpful and I'm you know outside because in the they've had forums like almost every other day over the last like three or four weeks if not longer and at one point I remember in my you know election these they become almost like just taglines that you're just repeating over and over again like you know clearly you're you're you know you're evolving in your in your stance and positions and your knowledge of of issues but at the same you're just repeating yourself but when you watch us in the meetings you really get to see the context of the work and by the way let's remind viewers at home you can watch recordings of the meeting even if you missed that city council meeting you can go on and watch it there's one citizens initiative on the ballot I think we're going to make quick work of this one it is question a rent control act to amend rent control this ordinance would ensure that landlords who own nine or fewer units are exempt from rent control I mean other than land we're both looking at the same time yeah it's you know that one it it's like it's back again I think from the the ballot measure that we had in the spring that was similar but I'm I'm still very pro rent control is one of the resident renters on the council that's not something that I'm gonna be supporting I also think nine units is pretty significant in Portland so I know that there was like some context about like these are kind of small mom-and-pop type of landlords I still think 90 nine apartments not a mom-and-pop operation so there's yeah no I don't think I'm shocking anybody with with my stance on not supporting that and again I'm really hopeful that you know I love and need rent control in a city like Portland and so do so many individuals that I represent in district two and so many community members so I'm hopeful that we can just enjoy having rent control without the constant need to amend it in any type of way but yeah it's not it's gonna be a no for me on that one I strong though I was yeah same thing right like I we've talked in here you in like election last election as well you know renters are some of the most you know in terms of housing some of the most vulnerable people in our community and and and rental protections and anything that we can do to protect them is crucial so eliminating any layer of that is a non-starter for me so yeah I'm a strong though okay so people who are looking at their municipal ballot probably are not going to be terribly confused they've seen lots of communications from the candidates and you've got one measure do we you know kneecap rent control most people in Portland are likely to vote no on that we're gonna move on to the state there are a lot of these and we only have about ten minutes left but I think we can take a minute to just go over the ballot a little bit I already voted early in my town because I knew I was gonna be away on election day and but I have kind of put together a list of them and I put them in roughly the order I thought was the most important but with something that's interesting out of the eight ballot initiatives on there five of them have to do with CMP one way or the other that's a lot yeah so starting off with question one this one I call the should we kneecap pine tree power before we even pass it because it's basically putting a huge obstacle in the way if pine tree power passes so people that want pine tree power and are going to be voting yes on question three are going to want to vote no on question one because they don't want to you know hobble question three before it gets passed how are you on pine tree power are you supporting pine tree power you think it's a little risky or that's question three on the state ballot you know what's risky my CMP bill every month that I mean every month like it's like what happened it's like who left the lights on it's like no this is I knew you review it I was like no it's legit it's just crazy expensive yeah I think is what we need to like figure it's just like we're talking about things that don't work we have to like move into a different direction and and I totally understand I think I understand a lot of the red flags of people are racing but I'm yeah I'm gonna be a known on one and then yes on three yeah it's the same for me I'm excited for pine tree power I'm hopeful that it actually that question three does pass because yeah I agree my CMP bill is regularly concerning and I also just think to like the the feeling of of care and control and community feels like it is more centered with pine tree power of having it be local and like they remain centered in terms of see like in in regards to CMP which is not I feel so yeah I'm I'm super excited for the potential of what could come and I'm hopeful that it that it passes I think that there's with anything like this there's gonna be significant opposition just because it's something new I think people just don't want to like I think we maybe said this before people just don't like change but I think that we need it I think especially again going back to renting and being a renter and being on you know significant limited income living in Portland and trying to balance how much it costs to live here I think if we can have something that makes sense to all of us in Maine and especially in Portland and it is local and it's something where we feel a little bit more like we have control and ownership then I think that's great so okay so fingers crossed that three passes and one doesn't question to another CMP related one an act to prohibit campaign spending by foreign governments and promote an anti-corruption amendment it to the US Constitution this one is in direct response to how much spending there was on the CMP corridor valid initiatives where foreign governments were poor at Canada Spain where does CMP's owner is we're pouring money in to Maine's elections so I'm anticipating that question to will pass that's very much of a Maine kind of yeah we don't want them telling us what to do we'll see question six stand with the Wabanaki this one's interesting the Maine Constitution when it split for Massachusetts said and you will honor all the treaties that you made with the Wabanaki people while they left those parts out when they reprinted the Maine Constitution and they've been leaving them out ever since who knew so Molly and Dana Wabanaki Alliance Penobscot Tribal Ambassador has said it's it's sort of just yes it's not going to actually change anything but it's a show of good faith on the part of the state to say we did say we'd honor our treaties with the Wabanaki look it's right here in our Constitution so I'm kind of hopeful that people vote yes on six that's very interesting absolutely it would be left out it is very quite interesting yeah question four is an act regarding the automotive right to repair so can the big car manufacturers keep their proprietary software so that my great mechanic that I've been taking my car to for years can't diagnose what's wrong with my car if we vote yes then my mechanic and your mechanic and your mechanic will still be able to work on our cars I'm guessing again Mainers they're definitely I think 100% my husband was shocked to hear that it did not include farm equipment the way it was written because in some states that have already passed such measures it has to do with farm equipment same problem the computers are set up so you can't fix your own John Deere tractor or whatever but for whatever reason that isn't part of the main one all right questions five and seven are both proposing amendments to the Constitution question five is another CMP related one it asks do you want to extend the time that judicial review of petition signatures can take it right now the limit is a hundred days from the filing this one if this one passes questions five it would become a hundred business days which is quite a bit longer than a hundred calendar days so it's basically asking do you want the period of judicial review to drag on even longer well I'm not sure if people will even understand it well enough to know no I don't want it to drag on longer it's like pretty confusing one probably we're gonna I'm gonna vote no on that one question seven is a voting rights one no sorry wrong one question seven is amend the Constitution oh right now the main Constitution says in order to circulate a citizens initiative you have to be a main resident and that has been ruled unconstitutionals a court struck that down so question seven is an attempt to fix that through a ballot measure saying okay we're gonna do away with that requirement interestingly it doesn't apply to candidates when I was getting signatures to get on the ballot I had people out of state coming it only applies to like people's veto and citizens initiative again we're getting into the you know small details here question eight is about voting rights people that are under guardianship because they're living with mental illness should they have their right to vote restored again that in Maine they don't have that right to vote this is not just anybody living with mental illness but someone who has a guardian due to their level of of disability with mental illness and a court struck that one down also saying that's not constitutional you can't deprive them of their right to vote yeah pretty I was kind of disappointed to see one that's not didn't make it on the ballot and that is I thought we were gonna get to vote on the state flag hasn't there been a lot of talk oh yeah didn't make it did not qualify so to recap the state ballot items number one kneecap pine tree power number two ban outside money and elections number three pass pine tree power number four right to repair our own cars number five time limit judicial review of citizens initiatives number six is stop hiding tribal rights that are already in the Constitution number seven allow non-mainers to circulate petitions and number eight voting rights for those with mental illnesses busy ballot very busy ballot yeah boy do you mean it does mean like we've talked about this before sometimes Portland's loaded up with them right time it's the state ballot that's loaded up with them I'm curious to see what happens I'm the most curious obviously for the mayor and city council that's gonna impact I think that's most immediately it is our senior year it's gonna be your senior year I might you know I I'm definitely gonna have at least one person you know because I have councillor Diane next to me so we'll have at least one councillor that's right one of a new person and I'm hearing a lot of people say it's coming down to Dianne or Pius or Dianne and or Zaro or so you know it's a good thing that it's a ranked-choice voting ballot so spoiler effect will not be you know there is no spoiler effect with ranked-choice voting yeah ranked-choice voting I think is gonna be really significant in this race because I think it will come down to who people put for their second vote because I don't think any of them will probably get 50% that's just so much like nothing for any of it's just like 50% of the city is I don't know that that's ever happened it's too many of them just to you know it's too many of them to get 50% so I just think it'll be interesting to see who gets eliminated first and then where those votes go and I think that will determine I think they have to get 51 51 yeah on the first which is like not yeah yeah it's gonna be I don't I don't make any predictions I really could go could go anyway yeah and it's a mayor like elections those every four years of people I think tune in differently to those and you know you're at large in district races so who knows well believe it or not we're out of time already thank you so much viewers at home for joining us we couldn't do this without you thank you for the Portland Media Center for hosting us thank you counselors for always taking time out of your busy week to do this with us I'm Lisa Savage join us on the next first Friday of November and you know my last reminder is stand with the oppressed free Palestine