City Council Passes AI Software Ban for Landlords as Hard Feelings Fester Between Councilors

The Portland City Council approved a controversial ordinance Wednesday evening that bans the use of algorithmic software to set rents.

The legislation is intended to prevent large landlords and property management companies from using AI software to engage in “price-fixing,” which can falsely inflate rents. Councilor Angelita Morillo championed the proposal starting in the spring and took it up again this fall after she put it on the back burner this summer.

All six members of the council’s progressive caucus voted for the ban, as did Councilors Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Loretta Smith. Councilors Dan Ryan and Olivia Clark voted against it, and Councilors Eric Zimmerman and Steve Novick were absent from the meeting.

The legislation rankled business, industry and homebuilding groups, who said it would further hinder development of housing in a city that desperately needs more of it. Proponents of the ban said other cities had passed similar bans and that it would in no way make building homes more expensive or make being a landlord more legally dicey.

The Wednesday night meeting preceded a social media fight between Councilors Dan Ryan and Angelita Morillo that broke out Tuesday online. In an Instagram post, Ryan wrote that the AI ban came straight out of the “nationalist socialist playbook.” (National socialism is Nazism.) Though Ryan soon after edited the post to reflect that he meant it came from the Democratic Socialists of America’s national platform, the error didn’t escape councilors backing the AI ban.

Morillo, a Peacock (the name of the progressive caucs), took to her Instagram story to respond to Ryan’s post.

“It’s time we start talking about what’s happening with the more conservative side of council because it’s getting a little weird and, frankly, out of hand,” Morillo said to the camera. “He either intentionally or unintentionally called me a Nazi or fascist for trying to stop price fixing...It’s hurtful and unprofessional to call your colleague, who is Latina, a Nazi, especially when she’s been targeted by actual Nazis quite often.” Councilor Candace Avalos, a Peacock, responded in the comments: “I completely agree.”

The back and forth between councilors is the latest spat between a member of the council’s progressive caucus, called Peacock, and the councilors to their right, who are not formally organized.

Councilor Mitch Green, another member of the council’s progressive caucus, wrote on Bluesky on Tuesday evening: “Disagreement on policy is welcome and reasonable, but calling me a Nazi for co-sponsoring an ordinance to ban price-fixing is completely unacceptable.”

At the Wednesday meeting, Ryan read a prepared statement about the snafu, in which he said the phrasing was accidental and not what he intended to communicate.

“I would not ever knowingly make statements of this nature,” Ryan said. “If the backlash to my misinterpreted statement is an indication of future actions, I will have to continue to react to unfounded attacks from those who politically are not aligned with me,” Ryan said.

Morillo interrupted Ryan midstatement.

“I haven’t heard an apology about the Instagram post that inadvertently called numerous councilors of color a Nazi,” Morillo said, as Council President Pirtle-Guiney told her to let Ryan finish. “All I heard was victim-blaming, assumptions that no one else can possibly understand an Instagram post, and not an apology.”

Councilor Candace Avalos took issue with Ryan’s statement, too, saying that she found it “really frustrating for colleagues to spend a lot of time posting about other colleagues—I do not recall any of us going out of our way constantly to call out other colleagues.”

Pirtle-Guiney interrupted Avalos, asking her to keep her comments to the policy itself. “Why are you interrupting me but you didn’t interrupt him?” Avalos replied sharply. “If Councilor Ryan gets to make a big speech, then here I am doing mine, too.”

Dunphy, a Peacock, took a jab in his final remarks at the councilors poised to vote against the ban. “I’m grateful that this fight has exposed bare who we are,” Dunphy said. “As my colleague Councilor Smith has said repeatedly, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.”