Transportation committee now set, despite district representation concerns

Late last night after their first-ever evening meeting, Portland City Council confirmed membership of the policy committees that will drive discussions around eight key topic areas. The council also adopted rules about how the committees will work. We’re watching these committees closely because they’re where many policy ideas will originate.

The Transportation and Infrastructure (T & I) Committee will be chaired by District 4 Councilor Olivia Clark and District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo will be vice-chair. Other members include councilors Mitch Green (D4), Tiffany Koyama Lane (D3) and Loretta Smith (D1).

The lack of District 2 in that committee was discussed during last night’s deliberations. D2 Councilor Sameer Kanal — the lone “no” vote on the resolution — said he was concerned about the lack of District 2 on the T & I Committee (as well as lack of District 3 on Arts and Economy and lack of District 4 on Climate Resilience and Land Use).

Prior to his vote, Councilor Kanal said, “When I talk to folks who live on N Trenton or by McCoy Park [in New Columbia area of Portsmouth Neighborhood], where the schools and the students are and the crosswalks aren’t; or by the Montessori School on Lombard and Mississippi, I’ve been committed to ensuring that those voices are heard in the committee.”

That school on N Mississippi and Lombard was the subject of a harrowing opinion piece in The Oregonian in December 2023 written by one of the school’s teachers who was hit and seriously while crossing Lombard on foot by someone driving a pickup truck.

Kanal said he’s “disappointed” that no District 2 councilors are on the T & I Committee. Councilor Mitch Green also noticed the lack of a D2 rep on the committee. He said, “I think that’s okay for now,” because he trust the councilors on the committee are, “going to be thinking about District 2.”

Throughout last night’s meeting, it was made clear that if a lack of representation becomes a problem, changes to committee membership could be made in the future. Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said committee memberships technically last for one year, “But in this first year we may need to re-evaluate things.”

Pirtle-Guiney explained that the reason some committees don’t have all four council districts represented is because it was a challenging “puzzle” to ensure each committee had the requisite interests and expertise they needed. She and Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane instead aimed to have at least three reps on each committee.

Pirtle-Guiney said a resolution to change committee member could be brought to council at any time. And she offered further reassurance that, according to council procedural rules, any councilor can bring a policy to any committee, even if they don’t sit on that committee. It’s also important to note that the rules state committees can have anywhere from four to six members.

Since committee meetings haven’t begun, we don’t have a clear picture about how the process will work. But with council rules adopted yesterday, some outlines are coming into focus. Here are a few highlights from the rules:

• Committee meetings will likely take place in City Council chambers at City Hall.
• When councilors raise a proposal, they can refer it to a specific committee, or indicate no preferred committee. If no committee is named (or if the proposal comes from the Mayor or City Auditor), President Pirtle-Guiney will designate its committee.
• Committee chairs can refer an item to other committees, or discuss it and refer it to full council.
• Policy items will mostly originate in committees, but any four councilors can request that an item be brought to the council directly.
• Emergency ordinances will not get committee consideration before being brought to council. The rules also state that, “Resolutions, reports, and items for the nine-twelfths agenda may be assigned to the full Council without Committee consideration.”

Given that committees are new to our city government, it will be very interesting to see how they interact with council. I’ll share more once I learn more details about where agendas will be posted, how/if committees will accept public testimony, the time and place of the meetings, and so on.

See the full list of committee memberships here.