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The Portland City Council on Thursday discussed revoking Mayor Keith Wilson’s decision to extend paid parking hours in some parts of the city.
Members of council, led by Councilor Eric Zimmerman, said Wilson’s unilateral directive to extend the hours of paid parking from 7 to 10 pm in pockets of the city this summer—a move that has frustrated many Portlanders—is an overreach of Wilson’s administration.
“We could revert back to the paid parking hours as they were on the last fiscal year if we want to get serious,” Zimmerman pitched to his colleagues, “and take back our control as the legislative body at this city.”
Though the council took no concrete action during Thursday’s meeting to reverse or challenge Wilson’s policy change, members delayed a vote on a boilerplate parking ordinance Wilson brought forth. That indicates the council intends to bring up paid parking at its Sept. 24 meeting. Zimmerman suggested the council could revert the paid parking hours as an amendment to Wilson’s ordinance.
The discussion highlighted the tensions between the city’s legislative body and its administration, which have grappled off and on this year about what decisions are administrative versus legislative. The separation of powers under the city’s new form of government has been murky at times.
Wilson opted to extend the parking hours this spring during budget season to raise revenues for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, which has been hit with successive years of budget shortfalls due to declining revenue from gas taxes and parking fees. Though the City Council did vote on the increased rates to parking, they had no vote on Wilson’s extension of paid hours.
Parking hours extended beginning Aug. 1 in the Central Eastside. Extended hours took effect in Old Town, downtown and Northwest in early September.
Wilson’s administration justified the change by citing PBOT data that showed a “rising demand for space across the city as events, shopping, and dining continue to rebound from the pandemic.” But councilors worried that extending the paid hours would deter those very same visitors the city said had returned.
“Extending on-street pay-to-park hours will provide more turnover and better options for people parking for local businesses, particularly restaurants and entertainment venues open late,” the city said in a statement this summer about the extended hours.
Councilors from both the progressive caucus, called Peacock, and non-Peacock councilors took issue with Wilson’s unilateral extension during Thursday’s council meeting.
“I think you’re raising a really important point about the legislative authority that we have to codify law,” said Councilor Mitch Green, a member of Peacock, who said he actually supported the extended hours but didn’t like Wilson’s unilateral decision. “It’s uncomfortable for me to be in a position where I’m told I cannot direct the administration to do things by resolution, I can only do it by code, but when I try to do it by code, I’m told that’s also interfering. It’s not clear to me how we have any legislative ability beyond rubber-stamping things.”
Zimmerman told his colleagues they had a “moment here when the legislative body can undo an administrative stretch.”
When asked by Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney if he knew which parking matters the mayor had final authority on and which parking matters the council had final authority on, City Administrator Mike Jordan said: “I’m afraid I do not.”
The city’s administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment about which arm of the government has purview over which aspects of parking policy.
