City Council Entrance Interview: Nabil Zaghloul

Seeks to represent: District 2 (North and Northeast)

Age: 58

Pronouns: He/him

Job: Director of Multnomah County’s Bienestar de la Familia program

Fun fact: He enjoys live stand-up comedy.

Nabil Zaghloul, who has lived in Portland for 30 years, doesn’t want the city to return to what it was like before the pandemic and riots.

“No, we do not need to take Portland to the way it was,” he says. “We need to move forward. We need to move past that. We need to make it better.”

Zaghloul is the director of Multnomah County’s Bienestar de La Familia, a county program that serves as a bicultural and bilingual social service hub in the Cully neighborhood. Before that, he worked at the Hacienda Community Development Corporation, assisting community members with getting driver’s licenses and insurance, and then was a manager at the county’s Department of Community Justice.

Zaghloul’s campaign has raised almost $40,000, and as a result has received another $40,000 in matched funds through the Small Donor Elections program. He’s been endorsed by The Street Trust Action Fund, former Portland Mayor Tom Potter, County Commissioner Sharon Meieran and former County Chair Deborah Kafoury.

We spoke to Zaghloul about his campaign. His responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

WW: What are your top three priorities if elected?

Nabil Zaghloul: Economic growth, enhanced public safety and investing in future generations. I am proposing a 10% reduction in current response times for emergency services by expanding alternative response models. I propose creating 5,000 new jobs in green industries and technology sectors through tax incentives and streamlined business permitting. And I’m proposing to invest in affordable housing and youth training programs that aim to reduce youth unemployment by 15% over the next five years.

Do we need more or fewer police officers than we currently have?

Not long ago we conducted a public safety survey in District 2, and one of the three major issues that came up was police visibility. Police presence deters crime activities. I am in support of increasing the capacity of police to ensure public safety and protection.

Do you support the city’s camping ban, and do you think the Multnomah County sheriff should be booking people arrested for violating the ban?

We need to enforce the city of Portland ordinance. It’s not about targeting the homeless community. It’s more about addressing public behavior, about orderly behavior. It’s about addressing cleanliness and hygiene. It’s about looking after the well-being of the entire community. We empathize with the homeless community because they are the most vulnerable community members, but it always comes to the carrot and the stick.

It might be ethically unsound to jail people for being homeless. However, when individuals refuse placements and services over and over and over, I think we need to enforce the law.

Which current City Council member do you and your policies most align with?

They are all capable, and I would welcome the opportunity to work with any one of them.

Do you support Carmen Rubio shifting some Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars to city bureaus?

I am all for diverting public funds to programs that have performance metrics and deliver an outcome. We need to acknowledge that we currently have programs that may not be performing, and we shouldn’t continue to waste tax dollars on them. These days it’s really hard to make a dollar, and everyone has the right to know where their dollar is going and how it’s being spent.

See the other Portland City Council Candidates here!