City Hall Can't Take the Heat; Portland School Board Calls an Executive Session

Portland City Council cancelled its regular morning session today due to the lack of a quorum. Commissioners Randy Leonard and Amanda Fritz, plus Mayor Sam Adams are out today.

On the other side of the river, the Portland School Board has called for an executive session tonight [PDF] to discuss labor negotiations and the 2010-11 budget. Under Oregon's Public Meetings Law, members of the media are excluded from executive sessions involving those designated to carry out labor negotiations.

But it's likely the School Board will want to talk about Superintendent Carole Smith's request last month that the Portland Association of Teachers union give up its recently negotiated raises. Those raises account for $6.4 million of the $19 million budget deficit the School Board wants to eliminate by July 19. The teachers union will argue the School Board doesn't need those raises to fill its budget gap and that it should instead tap reserves and use attrition to reach its $19 million goal.