Authorize Intergovernmental Agreement with Portland State University to design and execute a summit in early 2023 on equitable civic engagement and co-governance for amount not to exceed $108,850
The City of Portland ordains:
Section 1. The Council finds:
- The City of Portland (City) recognizes that in order for our City government to be connected and responsive to all Portlanders, we need to improve how we engage with community.
- The Office of Community & Civic Life (Civic Life) is currently working on updating the citywide engagement framework that will allow Portlanders to work with City government to create solutions for common concerns.
- This IGA will fund Oregon Kitchen Table and Center for Public Service at Portland State University to help design, implement and support a three-day Summit in early 2023. This public summit will convene social scientists, public engagement experts, and community builders to present their unique concepts to Portlanders.
- Civic Life will use the ideas and lessons learned from this summit to update its citywide engagement framework and provide programming and resources to its constituents.
- The City desires to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement with Portland State University, which has the capacity to perform community-based research concerning civic engagement.
- ORS 190.010 to 190.030 authorizes units of local government in the state of Oregon to enter into written agreements with any other unit or units of local government for the performance of any or all functions and activities that any of them has the authority to perform.
NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:
- The Director of the Office of Community & Civic Life is authorized to execute an intergovernmental agreement with Portland State University in an amount not to exceed $108,850 provided it has been approved as to form by the City Attorney.
- The Director of the Office of Community & Civic Life is authorized to amend the intergovernmental agreement with Portland State University, provided such amendments have been approved as to form by the City Attorney.
Official Record (Efiles)
An ordinance when passed by the Council shall be signed by the Auditor. It shall be carefully filed and preserved in the custody of the Auditor (City Charter Chapter 2 Article 1 Section 2-122)
Passed as amended by Council
Auditor of the City of Portland
Mary Hull Caballero
Impact Statement
Purpose of Proposed Legislation and Background Information
Civic Life is currently engaging Portlanders as part of updating the City’s engagement framework. The current system began in 1974 and was augmented in 2008 but has not been fully adjusted for programmatic efficacy since then. The purpose of the City’s numerous apparatuses for civic engagement is to ensure that ALL Portlanders are engaged in the decisions that most impact their lives. However, the framework is poorly understood and its underlying approaches are unclear. This results in uneven community engagement within and between bureaus and often times deficient community engagement and discord between residents and their City.
Civic Life’s strategic planning process, called the Portland Engagement Project, includes a wide array of assessments and alignments internal to the City and with the public. An important facet of this update is drawing upon local and national engagement expertise. This IAG with PSU’s Center for Public Service/Oregon’s Kitchen Table will fund a summit on engagement and urban co-governance to be held early in 2023.
Oregon’s Kitchen Table and the Center for Public Service, both part of the Hatfield School of Government, will work with Civic Life to identify and invite national, international, and local scholars and practitioners with expertise in equitable engagement and co-governance. In addition, both centers will work with Civic Life to design a three-day Summit to spur creative thinking about how Portland might become a global leader in equitable engagement and co-governance. The goals for the summit are two fold. First, to gather leading ideas to inform Portland’s engagement framework updates. Secondly, to provide opportunities for a common understanding of the meaning, purpose and practices of equitable engagement to emerge.
Oregon’s Kitchen Table was created as a piece of permanent civic infrastructure to bring all Oregonians to the table. It is the creation of the Hatfield School, Kitchen Table Democracy and a group of non-partisan, non-profit community organizations dedicated to helping Oregonians have a voice - to share their ideas, opinions, beliefs, and resources in improving Oregon and its communities.
The Center for Public Service aspires to enhance the legitimacy of—and citizen trust in—public service institutions and the people who work in them. We do this by:
- Cultivating and empowering effective, ethical and innovative leaders and managers in government, nonprofit, and other mission-driven organizations
- Improving personal and organizational performance
- Expanding capacity for effective participation in governance networks
- Providing intellectual leadership through applied research and the dissemination of practical knowledge.
Financial and Budgetary Impacts
As part of FY 21/22 Spring BMP, Council authorized the one-time use of $648,000 in personnel savings to update the City’s engagement system. In addition to this IAG for the summit, another accompanies this in a separate ordinance to fund Portland State University Population Research Center to complete the updated data rich neighborhood profiles in the amount of $61,250. Additional contracts for this work include our principal engagement consulting group PreGame for internal and external listening, design and plan development in the amount of $149,000 and Centre for Public Impact for $70,000 to facilitate the launch of a cohort training program for our engagement practitioner network across all bureaus.
Community Impacts and Community Involvement
This project is designed for maximum community involvement in learning from local and national engagement innovators and experts. Oregon’s Kitchen Table and Center for Public Service have as their primary missions advancing community and government collaborative engagement. OKT creates simple, easy-to-use platforms (online and in person) for statewide public engagement, promotes in-depth public engagement with the tough trade-offs and challenges decision makers confront in governing our state, provides leaders with high-quality feedback on issues that matter to Oregonians, increases Oregonians’ interest in participating in local, regional, and statewide decision making, and empowers citizens and decision-makers to communicate and work together in a fact-based, civil, and creative way. Using culturally specific and targeted outreach, Oregon’s Kitchen Table has a particular focus on hearing from Oregonians who have been left out of traditional engagement processes.
Specifically, the summit will take place in 4 venues. One will be downtown, one will be in North Portland, one will be in outer Southeast and one will be held in inner Southeast neighborhood. Precise venues have yet to be determined but each even will allow for participation in the form of Q & A and possibly break out groups. Learnings from the summit activities will become part of the strategic planning process for the City’s engagement system updates.
100% Renewable Goal
Not applicable.
Agenda Items
890 Consent Agenda in October 21-27, 2022 Council Agenda
Passed to second reading as amended
Motion for reconsideration: Moved by Wheeler and seconded by Hardesty. (Y-5)
Motion to remove the emergency clause: Moved by Wheeler and seconded by Hardesty. (Y-5)
Passed to second reading November 2, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. as amended
924 Regular Agenda in November 2-3, 2022 Council Agenda
Passed As Amended
- Commissioner Carmen Rubio Yea
- Commissioner Dan Ryan Yea
- Former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty Yea
- Commissioner Mingus Mapps Yea
- Mayor Ted Wheeler Absent