Murmurs: Fire Chief Pans Budget Officer’s Overtime Advice

FIRE CHIEF PANS BUDGET OFFICER’S OVERTIME ADVICE: As city budget season approaches and Portland Fire & Rescue faces a funding gap, city budget director Tim Grewe offered some tough love in his Feb. 23 budget memo. While he had many suggestions, the main thrust of Grewe’s memo is that the fire bureau must cut down on overtime and, if possible, find alternatives to avoid slashing the budget of Portland Street Response, the non-police response program to mental health calls that operates under the bureau. (Fire officials have warned they may need to slash PSR’s budget to sustain emergency response times.) Fire Chief Ryan Gillespie took umbrage with Grewe’s recommendations. In a March 8 response, Gillespie wrote that he wanted to “correct numerous errors, omissions, and false assumptions” in the budget director’s memo. The chief wrote that Grewe’s recommendations for balancing the budget “each will result in station or apparatus closures, immediately resulting in reduced on-duty emergency response staffing, reduced community and firefighter safety, and increased response times.” Gillespie added that “only the status quo full funding scenario and the Fire proposal will maintain our current level” of response. WW previously examined how the fire bureau’s contract with the firefighters’ union has resulted in abundant opportunities for overtime (“Paying Extra,” Jan. 10).

END TO BOTTLE BILL EXEMPTION LOOMS: The April 1 expiration date approaches for a 30-day exemption from the Oregon Bottle Bill that Gov. Tina Kotek granted Feb. 29 to the Safeway at Southwest 10th Avenue and Jefferson Street, and an adjacent Plaid Pantry on 11th. The goal of the exemption was to see whether pausing the return of individual bottles and cans to those two stores would decrease the open drug dealing and use in surrounding blocks (“House of Cans,” WW, Feb. 7). Neighbors, who have deluged Kotek’s office with emails in the past week, say there has been an improvement in their quality of life, and implored Kotek to extend the exemption. “We appreciate the novel and effective approach you applied to the localized fentanyl problem plaguing the blocks surrounding our homes by eliminating the availability of drug money,” nearby resident Dorothy Kemp wrote in a typical message. “Please, please permanently extend the program suspension. Our safety, livelihoods and health depend on its continuance.” Kotek spokeswoman Elisabeth Shepard says the governor hasn’t made up her mind what she’ll do but will announce a decision after consultation with city and county leaders.

NONPROFITS RELEASE JOINT QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CITY COUNCIL HOPEFULS: More than 60 candidates have filed to run for Portland City Council this November, which creates a logistical challenge for organizations that issue endorsements: how to sort through so many hopefuls. A group of progressive nonprofits has agreed on a joint vetting strategy. Oregon Futures Lab, a progressive political advocacy group, released a list of questions for City Council candidates earlier this month. It will send all responses to a group of progressive nonprofits that plan to endorse in the fall election. The questions offer a peek into what the participating nonprofits—all of whom were supporters of the charter reform measure that created the upcoming government overhaul—are looking for in candidates. Questions include: “Which groups, organizations and/or notable individuals do you consider among your base?” and “How should communities of color and other intersectional communities continue to hold you accountable as an elected official?” Candidates are also asked to name their top three campaign issues and how they affect communities of color and “other intersectional communities.” Organizations participating in the questionnaire include APANO Action Fund, Building Power for Communities of Color, East County Rising, and NAYA Action Fund, most political arms of prominent social service nonprofits in Portland.

VEGA PEDERSON VOICES SUPPORT FOR CITY’S OUTREACH CONTRACT: Meanwhile, controversy has intensified around the role nonprofits will play in educating voters about Portland’s new ranked-choice voting system. Last month, City Commissioners Dan Ryan and Rene Gonzalez raised concerns about a $675,000 city contract and which groups would receive portions of the funding. But on March 21, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson wrote in a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler that “this is not a concern shared by Multnomah County.” Ryan and Gonzalez note that the nonprofits likely to receive funding for voter education also have political arms that will endorse candidates in the November City Council races. The two commissioners asked city staff, unsuccessfully, to prohibit any nonprofit that received contract funds from endorsing in the upcoming election. Ryan’s office later requested that city staff add a provision to the contract that would ban nonprofits from receiving any city money for five years if they violate federal rules governing political activities by 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations, another suggestion that was shot down internally. In her March 21 letter, Vega Pederson wrote: “There are deep inequities in voter participation, and these targeted activities are crucial for ensuring that all voters, including those from underserved communities and locations, are prepared to vote using the new system.”