New City Council to take up controversial urban renewal plan January 03 2021
Some oppose spending $67 million more in North and Northeast Portland until previously displaced residents are compensated.
The new City Council will consider a controversial urban renewal proposal for North and Northeast Portland when it meets for the first time Wednesday.
The Jan. 6 meeting will be the first with new members Mingus Mapp and Carmen Rubio. Mapps defeated Commissioner Chloe Eudaly in the November runoff election and Rubio won the race to succeed Commissioner Amanda Fritz in the May primary election.
Mapps and Rubio will be participating for the first time with the previous council members: Mayor Ted Wheeler, who defeated Sarah Iannarone in the November election; Dan Ryan, who defeated Loretta Smith in an August runoff to fill the remainder of late Commissioner Nick Fish s term; and first-term Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who will be up for reelection in 2022 with Ryan.
December 30 2020
Commissioner Carmen Rubio is part of a new center-left coalition on the City Council following the 2020 elections.
Carmen Rubio finally feels prepared for the next challenge of her life becoming the first Latina member of the Portland City Council in a transformational time. Sometimes in the past, I ve felt like an impostor, said Rubio, who was elected to succeed retiring commissioner Amanda Fritz at the May 2020 primary election and sworn into office on Dec. 28. But now I feel like all of my experiences have prepared me for this.
Rubio s previous doubts will sound familiar to many members of immigrant families who broke down barriers. The daughter of Mexican and Mexican-American farmworkers who grew up in Hillsboro, she was the first member of her family to graduate from college, after almost dropping out because she felt so isolated. Inspired by groundbreaking Latina Multnomah County Commission candidate Serena Cruz, Rubio quit a secure job to work
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announces new bureau assignments for commissioners
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
Posted Dec 23, 2020
Mayor Ted Wheeler and Jo Ann Hardesty during a meeting of the Portland City Council. (Oregonian file photo)
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Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Wednesday announced new bureau assignments for himself and the city’s four commissioners.
The assignments, which become effective Jan. 1, include new bureaus for returning council members Jo Ann Hardesty, who will now oversee the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the Office of Community and Civic Life, and Dan Ryan, who will be in charge of the Portland Housing Bureau.
The assignments come after a shakeup in the 2020 elections, which seated three new city commissioners: Carmen Rubio, who won the seat held by retiring commissioner Amanda Fritz in May; Mingus Mapps, who defeated incumbent commissioner Chloe Eudaly in November; and Ryan, who was elected in August to finish the term of late commissioner N
Wheeler assigns bureaus to incoming City Council December 23 2020
Portland is the only large American city where council members oversee bureaus instead of a professional manager.
Mayor Ted Wheeler has announced the bureau and liaison assignments for the City Council that takes office on Jan. 1, 2021.
Portland is the only large American city where council members oversee bureaus instead of having them all supervised by professional city managers. Assigning bureaus is one of the few powers of the Portland mayor.
Two of the council members, Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio, will be new and have never overseen bureaus before.
As expected, Wheeler is keeping the Portland Police Bureau, even though Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has asked for it.
by Alex Zielinski • Dec 23, 2020 at 2:01 pm COSMONAUT / GETTY IMAGES
Mayor Ted Wheeler has released his much-anticipated bureau assignments for Portland city commissioners in 2021. The decision one of the rare executive powers of a Portland mayor offers a peek at what roles Wheeler wants his freshman commissioners to take on in the coming year.
Here s the breakdown:
Comissioner Jo Ann Hardesty
Hardesty has been assigned two of the top bureaus overseen by outgoing Commissioner Chloe Eudaly: Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Office of Community and Civic Life (OCCL). The later assignment is most notable, since incoming Commissioner Mingus Mapps is a former employee of OCCL and centered much of his campaign on decrying Eudaly s work in the bureau. This decision shows that Wheeler s cautious about tearing down the work Eudaly put into the bureau, including her contentious proposal to allow other community groups the same