Members of the media,
Please see remarks below shared by Mayor Wheeler during today’s City Council vote on a proposed amendment to cut $18 million from the Portland Police Bureau budget as part of the City’s fall Budget Monitoring Process.
Thank you, colleagues, for your thoughtful comments.
I cannot support this amendment, and I’m going to vote against it, but I’m going to take a few minutes to explain why, because Portlanders deserve for this conversation to be transparent.
In terms of process, and the integrity of our debates, I am very troubled that the proposal was not shared with our independent City Budget Office for review and analysis – they are our budget watchdog, and they weren’t given the chance to weigh in.
Without their input, we were unable to nail down even basic facts about the proposal – for example, last week we heard that it won’t require layoffs, which is wrong. It will require layoffs. This is not a detail. This is a critical piece of information. But at the end of the day, this is a discussion about values, not about process, so that’s where I want to focus my remarks.
I am grateful to the many Portlanders who have written to my office, my colleagues’ offices, the City Budget Office, and the Portland Committee of Community-Engaged Policing.
As Mayor, I have the responsibility and the privilege to hear and read this testimony, these deeply personal stories from residents of our city, and to learn more about the community work that is bringing people to the table.
I have met, and continue to meet, with residents, local businesses, mission-driven organizations, and elected officials from Multnomah County, neighboring counties, the State, and the Federal government to learn, align, and coordinate our collective work to change the criminal legal system.
The testimony we’ve heard is clear: the status quo is unacceptable. Many Portlanders, and most of the people who testified about this item, do not trust the current criminal legal system – they do not trust the Police Bureau.
There are many ways to change the status quo – to stop the criminalization of the poor and those experiencing houselessness; to stop the over-policing of community members who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; to end the use of excessive force against those with physical disabilities or overcoming mental health issues.
I am committed to preventing and interrupting these patterns of injustice.
And I have been reflecting on a piece of testimony that quoted Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.”
We need to identify the root of our problems and identify and invest in upstream solutions.
I believe we succeed in changing the status quo by continuing these conversations and phasing investments in a wide array of services, policies, programs, and skillsets that prevent and interrupt harm, and promote healing.
I am grateful for all of the testimony we received – it will inform the execution of my 19-point police reform action plan and the City’s vision of a community safety system, and help us identify new onramps for community engagement.
Again, I thank my colleagues for their commitment.
Respectfully, I vote no on the amendment.
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