Proposal to Increase City Councilors’ and Mayor’s Office Budgets Would Cost $4.6 Million

A proposal filed on Tuesday by Portland City Council president Elana Pirtle-Guiney to increase the budgets of the new 12-member council and the mayor would cost an additional $4.6 million in the current fiscal year and allow councilors to use those dollars for a variety of purposes, including in-council offices and staff.

In addition to the $4.6 million in the current fiscal year, the increased office budget would cost $11.3 million for the upcoming fiscal year, 2025-26. While the proposal does not mandate that the money be spent on additional staff, a memo submitted with the proposal suggests each councilor hire one additional staffer and that Mayor Keith Wilson hire three more.

The City Council would have to amend the current year’s budget by a majority vote to increase their office budgets and the budget of Mayor Wilson. Should the council want to continue that level of funding in the coming fiscal year, it would cost $11.3 million for the entire year. The council would have to approve that during the spring budget process.

The call for increased council budgets has swelled over the past month as incoming councilors, particularly Councilor Loretta Smith from District 1, have lamented that one staffer apiece isn’t enough. (Last year, the five-commissioner City Council approved a budget of $306,000 for each of the 12 current councilors—enough to allow for roughly one staffer apiece.)

Smith led the charge early on to increase the councilors’ staff. But almost unanimously, the new council expressed a desire to increase their staffing numbers, arguing that having only one staffer apiece would curtail their ability to make well-informed policy decisions and interact with the public, particularly constituents within the districts they were elected to represent.

According to sources familiar with the discussions that led to the proposal, Pirtle-Guiney incorporated requests from various city councilors into the document, including ideas from Smith and fellow District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos. The proposal is subject to change based on the council’s discussion next week.

As the proposal stands, it does not lay out exactly how the councilors must spend their additional money. It allows for flexibility based on the councilor’s discretion and could be used to establish a district office or hire additional staff, among other potential uses.

The 12-member City Council will mull the proposal as it stares down a bleak budget year. City administrators late last year warned that the city was facing a $27 million budget hole. But that hole will likely grow due to ongoing labor union negotiations, expiring one-time funds that have been used to stand up popular programs, and rising health care insurance costs for city employees.

Pirtle-Guiney, who won the coveted position of council president last week by a 7-5 vote after nine rounds of voting, submitted the ordinance to the council clerk on Tuesday morning.

The City Council is set to hear Pirtle-Guiney’s proposal at next week’s council meeting.