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The Portland Trail Blazers and Portland Timbers waded into a fraught budget season late last week, sending a letter to the Portland City Council urging that it reject any cuts to public safety bureaus.
The May 16 letter from the top executives at the city’s largest professional sports franchises, Trail Blazers president of business operations Dewayne Hankins and Timbers chief executive officer Heather Davis, expresses alarm at the possibility of councilors redirecting funds from the public safety bureaus—police, fire and emergency communications—to restore funding to other bureaus.
“We ask you not to pass a budget that puts new strains on a public safety system that is already stretched thin,” Hankins and Davis wrote. “Portland is at a crossroads, with the path we choose leading either to a prosperous recovery or a continuation of the negative economic pressures Portland families and businesses have felt since the pandemic.”
The letter appears to be a response to several proposals floated by city councilors in recent weeks. As WW previously reported, both Councilors Steve Novick and Candace Avalos have suggested restoring funds to park maintenance by redirecting parts of the police budget.
In reply to the letter, Novick tells WW that he weighs budget allocations on a case-by-case basis. “I’d rather be adding police in some areas,” he says. “But having all the cuts fall on parks, while increasing the police budget, isn’t acceptable to me. So I support cutting $2 million from the Mayor’s proposed [budget], to help offset some of the $6 million in parks maintenance cuts, and I think they can pretty quickly start saving around $2 million a year by having people other than armed offices go to ‘welfare checks’—a move they should have made long ago. I’m going to be supporting new revenue options in the future, and one of my priorities for that new revenue will be adding a 10-person burglary investigation unit."
The letter from the sports franchises adds a delicate new element to that debate. It’s unusual for the Blazers and Timbers to weigh in on city budget line items—and the plea comes as the Blazers go up for sale, sparking civic worry over their future in Portland.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney was not immediately available for comment.
In their letter, Hankins and Davis expressed concern that cuts to the police budget could further lengthen 911 response times.
“Our staff call on Portland’s first responders for aid when appropriate,” they wrote, “and in the past year, we have experienced unusually long response times from public first responders on non-event days—some in excess of 10 to 20 minutes—when calling for assistance.”
Mayor Keith Wilson proposed the $8.54 billion budget on May 1. Wilson’s ‘back to the basics’ approach has opened a debate over whose funding should be prioritized during citywide budget shortfalls.
The two franchises have made it abundantly clear where they stand.
“We will continue to dedicate meaningful resources at Providence Park, Moda Center, and Veterans Memorial Coliseum to promote safety for those entering our doors on game or event days,” Hankins and Davis concluded. “And also, we rely on you, the City’s leaders, to ensure people feel safe in reaching those doors. That is why we request that you maintain the public safety spending levels found in Mayor Wilson’s proposed budget.”