Windowbox · Portland City Council
by Windowbox
Audio of Portland City Council sessions, work sessions, and committee meetings, with agenda chapters and transcripts.
Episodes
-
Portland City Council PM Session 11/05/26
The Portland City Council voted 11-0 Thursday, with Councilor Olivia Clark (District 4) absent, to write its earlier amendments into the final text of two ordinances regulating Portland's Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub fuel terminals, setting up final votes Nov. 12. Fuel hub ordinances move…
more -
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 11/05/26
A City Council committee voted 11-0 to send Portland's 2027 investment policy, amended to add outside human-rights scoring of corporate bonds plus screens for labor, environmental and consumer-protection records, to the full council with a recommendation to pass (02:46:19). Councilor Sameer Kanal...
-
Portland City Council AM Session 11/04/26
Portland City Council voted 12-0 to adopt an emergency ordinance setting an event parking rate in the Lloyd Event District and Zone V permit area, so the rate takes effect immediately (01:15:54). Lloyd parking rate amended, then passed Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2) moved an amendment,...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 10/29/26
The Portland City Council adopted the city's fall supplemental budget for fiscal year 2026-27 on a 12-0 vote Thursday, without discussion, and on the same unanimous margin created a reserve subfund for business license tax revenue. Budget ordinances pass without debate Council President Jamie...
-
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 10/29/26
Portland police leaders urged councilors not to ban tear gas, and Committee Chair Sameer Kanal (District 2) continued both the discussion and its public hearing without a vote (02:47:41). Police make case against a ban Assistant Chief Franz Schaning told the Finance and Governance Committee of…
more -
Portland City Council AM Session 10/28/26
The Portland City Council voted 12-0 Wednesday to make it illegal to carry a handgun into City Hall, the Portland Building or the 1900 Building, even with a concealed handgun license (01:04:48). Concealed-carry ban passes after floor dispute Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1) sponsored…
more -
Portland City Council Work Session - Joint City/County Homelessness Response 10/28/26
Portland city councilors and Multnomah County commissioners pressed in an Oct. 28 joint work session to make behavioral health their shared top request to the 2027 Legislature, as staff warned that state homelessness money the region relies on will lapse unless lawmakers renew it despite a budget...
-
Portland City Council City Life Committee Meeting 10/27/26
The City Life Committee voted 5-0 to send full City Council an ordinance declaring two Portland Bureau of Transportation parcels in District 1 surplus property and authorizing their sale at fair market value, with a recommendation that it pass (00:26:54). Surplus lots near I-205 sent to full...
-
Portland City Council Public Works Committee 10/27/26
The Public Works Committee voted 4-0 to recommend that the full City Council pass an ordinance letting Portlanders paint their own driveway clearances for a $200 permit (00:34:09). Committee Chair Olivia Clark (District 4) presided over Tuesday's meeting, attended by Councilors Mitch Green...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 10/21/26
The Portland City Council voted 8-4 on Wednesday to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the State of Oregon and Multnomah County creating the Oregon Arena Joint Authority (01:25:34), after rejecting 5-7 an amendment to the measure's impact statement. Arena authority approved after...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 10/22/26
Portland City Council members voted 9-1 to amend the fall supplemental budget so the council's operations manager can give staff merit raises above the current 2% cap, then sent that budget and a companion business-license-tax reserve ordinance to a second reading (00:50:56). Councilor Loretta...
-
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 10/21/26
The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole voted 9-2 on Oct. 21 to recommend that the full City Council reappoint Weinstein as an alternate member of the Community Board for Police Accountability, a condition of settling the lawsuit he filed after his removal (02:27:16). Councilor Sameer...
-
Portland City Council Community & Public Safety Committee 10/20/26
The Community and Public Safety Committee received and placed on file an advisory committee's eight recommendations to move Portland Street Response into a new stand-alone city bureau, a step city staff priced at about $144,000 a year and Councilor Loretta Smith said she did not believe would…
more -
Portland City Council Housing & Permitting Committee 10/20/26
Housing and Permitting Committee Chair Candace Avalos (District 1) held off a vote on her proposed climate and health standards for large Portland buildings on Tuesday and set a Dec. 1 return "for hopefully a vote" (03:02:37), after about 44 people testified. A majority of those testifiers asked...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 10/15/26
The City Council voted with 12 ayes to tentatively deny the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association's appeal of the Ida B. Wells High School rebuild, upholding the hearings officer's approval and adding a condition, offered by Portland Public Schools (PPS) during the hearing, that sets guaranteed…
more -
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 10/15/26
Portland's Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole voted 12-0 to send the city's fall supplemental budget to the full City Council with a recommendation to pass it, after amending it to add $600,000 for construction pre-apprenticeship programs (01:48:57). Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2)...
-
Portland City Council AM Session 10/14/26
The Portland City Council voted 11-0, with Councilor Loretta Smith (District 1) absent, to authorize the city attorney to notify the state that the council may consider a moratorium on facilities that launch commercial drones (03:24:56). Council preserves option of drone-facility moratorium The...
-
Portland City Council City Life Committee Meeting 10/13/26
The City Life Committee voted 5-0 to recommend that the full City Council approve giving the former Menlo Park Water Tower site to Habitat for Humanity Portland Region, a transfer the Portland Housing Bureau said would double a planned East Portland homeownership project from 11 to 22 homes...
-
Portland City Council Public Works Committee 10/13/26
The Public Works Committee referred two Portland Bureau of Transportation ordinances to the full City Council on 5-0 votes while hearing — and splitting over — a staff proposal to regulate self-driving taxis that two members said should simply be banned. Self-driving cars draw a ban demand PBOT...
-
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 10/08/26
The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole continued the Fair Share Tax — which would raise the business license tax exemption to $500,000 and restructure the CEO pay ratio surtax — to its October 15 meeting after hearing roughly 30 public testifiers, taking no vote (03:09:31). The Fair...
-
Portland City Council AM Session 10/07/26
Portland's City Council voted 9-2, with one member absent, to raise Portland Fire & Rescue permit and inspection fees projected to bring in about $800,000 a year, over the objections of two members who said the increases arrived outside the budget process. (03:09:02) Fire fee increase draws…
more -
City Council Work Session - Fall TAO
The Portland City Council held an informational work session on the Fall Technical Adjustment Ordinance, taking no vote, where staff previewed a reclassification of $1.08 billion from contingency to long-term reserves and councilors flagged a workforce-training amendment, a Moda Center set-aside,...
-
Portland City Council Community & Public Safety Committee 10/06/26
The Community and Public Safety Committee referred an updated Secondhand Dealers Code to the full City Council 4-0, after adding a $25 background check fee and stripping a catch-all data-collection clause over privacy concerns. Secondhand dealers code heads to full Council The committee voted…
more -
Portland City Council Housing & Permitting Committee 10/06/26
The Housing and Permitting Committee referred a measure extending Portland's property-tax exemption for nonprofit low-income housing to the full City Council on a 3-2 vote, over objections about a possible for-profit loophole (02:42:18). The committee, chaired by Candace Avalos (District 1), also...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 10/01/26
Portland City Council deadlocked 6-6 and rejected a proposal to strip the aviation-fuel exemption from its plan to shrink fuel storage at the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub (02:34:02), while advancing the broader package of hub safety amendments it has worked on for years. The council spent…
more -
Portland City Council AM Session 09/30/26
The council passed the Psychedelic Health and Safety Code 10-0, with two members absent, after holding four more ordinances for a second reading on Oct. 7 during a short Wednesday session led by Council Vice President Olivia Clark. With Council President Jamie Dunphy (District 1) on an excused...
-
Portland City Council Work Session - Federal and State Legislative Agendas 09/29/26
Portland's Office of Government Relations told the City Council at a September 29 work session that the 2027 state legislative session will likely be "the most difficult legislative session for this body since the Great Recession," as councilors pressed to narrow a sprawling draft agenda and...
-
Portland City Council Work Session - Civic Engagement + Neighborhood Program 09/29/26
Portland councilors spent a three-hour work session on September 29 debating how to rebuild the city's shrunken civic engagement system, after staff reported the Office of Community and Civic Life had fallen from about 50 employees to fewer than 10 before a realignment brought it back to roughly...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 09/24/26
The Portland City Council continued both ordinances of its Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub policy project to October 1 after hearing roughly 60 public testifiers, closing the oral record while leaving written testimony open until noon that day (02:53:21). The CEI Hub proposal and its drawdown...
-
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 09/24/26
The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole voted to send Portland's payday-lending fee ordinance to the full City Council with a do-pass recommendation, 9-0 (00:26:52), one of four regulatory-fee measures the committee advanced after splitting a fifth off for more work. Councilor Sameer...
-
Portland City Council AM Session 09/23/26
The City Council passed a franchise transfer of the Zenith Energy fuel terminal to ISQ Springer Holdings on a 7-6 vote, with Mayor Keith Wilson breaking a 6-6 tie to approve it (02:05:31). Zenith fuel terminal transfer The transfer had failed the previous week, and Council President Jamie Dunphy...
-
Portland City Council City Life Committee Meeting 09/22/26
The City Life Committee referred a surveillance- and dynamic-pricing ordinance to the full City Council as amended on a 4-1 vote, after rejecting a broader rewrite that would have barred retailers from using personal data to set discounts. The committee, chaired by Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney...
-
Portland City Council Public Works Committee 09/22/26
The Public Works Committee voted 4-0 to send three transportation ordinances to the full City Council, then took an hour of testimony on how Portland will spend and bill the new street fees residents start paying January 1. Council Vice President Olivia Clark (District 4) presided over the...
-
Portland City Council PM Session 09/16/26
The council rejected the transfer of Zenith Energy's fuel-terminal franchise to a new owner on a 5-6 vote, then spent much of the night in a procedural fight over whether to bring it back — ending with an 8-4 vote to postpone that question to next week. Zenith franchise transfer fails, then…
more -
Portland City Work Session 09/17/26
Portland planners told the council a proposed CEI Hub package would cut in-service fuel storage capacity in the city's riverside fuel hub by 20% by December 2036, a target industry and environmental advocates both urged the council to rework before a September 24 hearing. The Bureau of Planning…
more -
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 09/16/26
The Finance and Governance Committee took no vote on how Portland finances its police and fire pensions, placing a discussion of the $3.6 billion legacy plan on file after staff said the city's best option is to stay its current course. Councilor Sameer Kanal (District 2), who chaired the…
more -
Portland City Council Housing & Permitting Committee 09/15/26
Portland's Housing and Permitting Committee took no action at its September 15 meeting, using two hours to examine the city's decade-old mandatory relocation assistance policy and to hear renters and landlords debate whether the payment that renters get when a rent hike forces them out should be...
-
Portland City Council Community & Public Safety Committee 09/15/26
The Community and Public Safety Committee laid a firearms ordinance on the table 3-2 after passing an amendment to it 5-0, deferring a proposal to strip the concealed-handgun defense for guns carried into three downtown city buildings. (01:51:24) Steve Novick (District 3) chaired the meeting. The...
-
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 09/10/26
The Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole voted 9-0 to refer the appointment of Omar K. Salomon to the Homelessness Response System's Steering and Oversight Committee to the full City Council with a recommendation to accept, with three members absent (01:53:22). Councilor Sameer Kanal...
-
City Council Work Session - Budget Process Revisions 09/10/26
Portland's budget team laid out four areas of possible changes to the city budget process for the 2027-28 cycle at a September 10 work session, taking direction from the 12-member council but casting nothing as a recommendation and taking no vote. Chief Financial Officer Jonas Biery and Budget...
-
Portland City Council AM Session 09/09/26
Portland's City Council adopted a resolution 8-4 directing the administration to open planning talks with Portland State University on a new city-owned, 3,000-seat Broadway-capable theater estimated at $447 million, while committing no money and pledging to keep the Keller Auditorium in use....
-
Portland City Council Work Session 09/09/26
Portland's council held an informational work session on regional behavioral health and heard a four-part proposal to press the 2027 Legislature to backfill 55 recently closed inpatient psychiatric beds, add about 50 psychiatric respite and 50 subacute beds, create a sustainable...
-
Portland City Council City Life Committee 09/08/26
The City Life Committee heard four climate presentations anchored on a $20 million Portland Clean Energy Fund grant for industrial decarbonization that launches in October, taking no votes but asking members to consider concrete proposals at a later meeting. Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney…
more -
Portland City Council Public Works Committee 09/08/26
Portland's Public Works Committee held a discussion-only session on parks partnerships and volunteerism on Sept. 8, taking no vote but placing both agenda items on file — and used it to press Portland Parks and Recreation over a 25-year Portland Tennis Center contract signed without a council…
more -
Portland City Council PM Session 09/03/26
Portland's City Council voted 12-0 to direct the city administrator to negotiate exclusively with Albina Vision Trust as the development partner for city-owned parcels next to the Moda Center, capping negotiations at 12 months (01:55:00). Albina development partnership adopted unanimously...
-
Portland City Council AM Session 09/02/26
Portland City Council voted 12-0 to adopt an emergency ordinance giving every city employee a free annual TriMet pass, and amended it 12-0 to extend the benefit to contracted janitors and security staff who work full-time for the city. Free transit passes for city workers ahead of the I-5 closure...
-
Portland City Council Community & Public Safety Committee 09/01/26
The Community and Public Safety Committee referred a 27% Portland Fire & Rescue fee increase to the full City Council on a 4-1 vote after first stripping its emergency clause, and spent the rest of its meeting dissecting why police response times keep rising even as call volume falls. Councilor...
-
Portland City Council Housing & Permitting Committee 09/01/26
A Portland City Council committee voted 4-0 to send full Council a resolution urging the City Administrator not to sign non-disclosure agreements for data center deals, after amending it to add the Council's intent to pursue a moratorium or zoning limits on hyperscale data centers. The Housing…
more -
Portland City Council Finance & Governance Committee (Whole) 08/13/26
A committee panel of health, toxicology and environmental experts urged the Portland City Council to ban chemical weapons in the city, telling the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole that tear gas and related agents pose respiratory, reproductive and ecological harms — a presentation…
more -
Portland City Council AM Session 08/12/26
Portland City Council adopted a non-binding term sheet 8-4 to begin negotiations to renovate the Moda Center and keep the Trail Blazers in Portland for at least 20 more years, after amending it to add rent from the team and raise that rent to $3.17 million a year. (04:22:42) Trail Blazers term...
About this show
Audio of Portland City Council sessions, work sessions, and committee meetings, with agenda chapters and transcripts.
Hosted by
Windowbox
Categories