City Council Increases Staffing for Council Offices and Mayor

The Portland City Council voted Wednesday night to spend $4.6 million to increase the office budgets for Mayor Keith Wilson and city councilors after expressing frustration that the former administration equipped them with too few staff and resources to responsibly legislate.

The decision, passed by a 10-2 vote, will nearly double each of the council offices' current budgets until the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Should the City Council want to extend that same level of funding into the 2025-26 fiscal year, it would require an $11.3 million funding package.

The funding approved last night will provide Wilson with an additional three staffers and authorize each of the 12 councilors to hire one more staffer apiece. (Wilson was originally authorized for only five under the new form of government.) The council decided to take the funding from the city’s contingency fund, which is money set aside by the city in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

The funding package will also allocate money for each of the 12 councilors to use as they see fit on items like in-district offices, which some councilors—most vocally Councilor Loretta Smith in District 1—have said they’re intent on establishing.

The two votes against the proposal, a blueprint written and presented by Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, came from Councilors Dan Ryan and Steve Novick. Both Ryan and Novick expressed concern that the proposal was rushed and that they needed more time to understand exactly what the staffing needs were before taking money out of the city’s contingency fund to beef up the city’s legislative branch.

Wilson, for his part, said at the top of the discussion he needed more staff.

“You can’t put people first if you don’t hear their voices and if you don’t have the resources to respond,” Wilson told the council.

Some councilors, including Councilors Candace Avalos and Angelita Morillo, proposed tweaks to the motion; Avalos had originally said she wanted a proposal with a smaller price tag due to the city’s projected budget shortfall, which could run in the tens of millions.

Both Avalos and Morillo did, ultimately, vote in favor of the proposal.

Avalos said she was “convinced” by her colleagues’ points that the larger proposal was the right one and that taking the money from contingency funds—rather than city programs—helped convince her.

As WW previously reported, the City Council’s desire to increase their budgets comes at a time when the city is facing a steep budget deficit that city officials said Friday would likely rise to $100 million.