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Dueling proposals to restore some of the public safety and jobs cuts baked into in the recently-passed 2026-27 city budget have emerged from the Portland City Council.
Both proposals seek to preserve much of the same services and jobs across the city and specifically the public safety bureaus.
Even as they passed the budget last week by an 11-1 vote, councilors had indicated they were not done tinkering with the budget. And as happened throughout the budgeting process, competing proposals from the progressive and moderate factions of the council one again face off.
Last week, councilors from the progressive “Peacock” caucus proposed using a mixture of climate tax interest and various contingency funds to fund a $12.7 million package.
The package would preserve 48 jobs, restore reduced hours for Portland Fire and Rescue vehicles, restore funds cut from the Police Bureau’s unarmed response teams, and restore some cuts to parks maintenance and operations that are now baked into the city’s 2026-27 budget.
Councilors Angelita Morillo, Sameer Kanal, Candace Avalos, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Mitch Green are sponsoring the package. They aim to fund the $12.7 million ordinance using $7 million in future interest accrued by the city’s climate tax and by tapping other contingency funds for an additional $5.6 million.
Then on Wednesday, a different proposal from four non-Peacocks emerged. It would preserve many of the same things the Peacock proposal would.
The primary difference is the funding source. The proposal from the more moderate councilors would take just under $10 million from the General Fund contingency and $2.25 million from “other funds” in order to “preserve 30 positions across the city, [and] restore cuts to critical public safety functions,” including the police’s unarmed response program and fire vehicle hours.
It would also extend benefits to laid off employees and return $1.75 million to the Business License Tax Reserve Fund, which was tapped by councilors during the budget process to preserve some services despite concerns voiced by budget staff about dwindling reserves.
The council consistently split 6-6 on proposals seeking to save jobs during the recent budget process, and that two such proposals have again emerged is no surprise.
Where Peacock and non-Peacocks are likely to tangle is over how the moderate councilors propose to replenish the General Fund contingency used to restore the jobs and services: by using funds primarily from the city’s new police accountability office, which in the upcoming fiscal year has a budget of $16 million.
Peacocks shot down a handful of proposals aiming to tap the Office of Community Police Accountability to preserve jobs and public safety funding during the budget cycle. They argued the office should preserve its full budget because voters, by ballot measure in 2020, overwhelmingly approved a new accountability apparatus.
Their latest proposal is not all that different from proposals made by moderate members of the council during the recent budget process, and the Peacock proposal from last week is a slimmed-down version of a proposal made by its members during the budget process. But all of those proposals died, most facing the 6-6 fate.
The sponsors of the latest ordinance—Councilors Olivia Clark, Steve Novick, Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Loretta Smith—said in a joint statement that the ordinance would “not delay, defund, or interfere with the OCPA in any way. Portlanders voted for strong police oversight and accountability and we will deliver it.”
