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Mayor-elect Keith Wilson has told the incoming Portland City Council that he’d like additional funding for staff when he takes office Jan. 1.
The current budget gives Wilson just five staffers—a steep reduction from the 20 staffers current Mayor Ted Wheeler has working under him.
Wilson will request additional money so he can hire more staff, his chief of staff, Aisling Coghlan, confirmed in an email to WW. “The reduced staffing has forced difficult decisions about critical policy and constituent relations roles,” Coghlan said. “Mayor-elect Wilson agrees that the council offices and mayor’s office need additional staff to do the work to serve the city and their districts.”
Wilson’s desire for additional staff means he’s in lockstep with the incoming 12 city councilors, who all want funding for at least one additional staffer apiece. (Each of the councilors was given a budget that supports roughly one staffer. The current City Council approved that budget this spring, much to the chagrin of candidates running for the council.)
The councilors argue that one staffer apiece would limit their ability to communicate with constituents in their districts and curtail the scope of their work. Councilor-elect Loretta Smith has led the charge to increase the budget for each councilor when they take office Jan. 2.
One idea Wilson discussed with City Council, Coghlan says, is to increase the mayor’s staff from five to 10 positions. She says no decisions about a specific number have been made yet.
Should the incoming City Council opt to increase staff numbers for themselves and the mayor, they would do so by passing an amendment to the current year’s budget.
The desire to increase staffing comes at a time when the city is staring down, at minimum, a $27 million budget gap in the upcoming fiscal year. The city is also in ongoing contract negotiations with several labor unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—another line item in the budget deficit should the city and the unions reach a compromise on employees’ pay demands.