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A seven-hour “priorities setting” retreat for the Portland City Council, reported in last week’s Murmurs, will cost at least $27,000, according to city staff.
The March 7 retreat, led by a Texas consulting firm, focused little on the city’s upcoming budget deficit of more than $100 million and instead became a session in which councilors expressed their policy hopes and dreams.
The final bill, as it now stands, is $27,422; $12,900 for the consultants, and $14,522 for security, tech and streaming provided by city employees.
However, the bill doesn’t yet include travel expenses for the consultants, who flew to Portland for the retreat, so the total figure is expected to climb.
Councilor Dan Ryan originally sponsored the resolution that created the retreat. He tells WW he thinks the retreat was important, because “in Council Chambers during legislative sessions, we’re not looking at each other or talking directly to one another.”
“The outcomes of the March 7th meeting include providing Mayor Wilson and City Administrator Lee with a sense for where City Councilors have priority-alignment as they themselves develop the City’s 2026-27 Proposed Budget,” Ryan says. “Unsurprisingly, there were some disagreements during the session. But that’s the positive tension that comes with critical thinking. We were able to discuss our understanding of different terms like community safety’ and ‘public safety’—our working definitions are surprisingly varied."
Other councilors WW spoke to said the retreat felt like too little, too late—and that the consultants didn’t understand the complicated nature of councilors’ relationship with one another enough to meaningfully break through walls.
