PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has revealed the full list of members of the Portland Central City Task Force, an initiative she announced earlier this month aimed at coming up with a plan to jumpstart economic revitalization and recovery in downtown Portland.
The full member list came a few hours before the group's first scheduled meeting Tuesday morning. Kotek and task force co-chair Dan McMillan, CEO of Portland-based insurance company The Standard, held a news conference shortly after the meeting ended.
The task force will focus on issues like crime, homelessness and taxation, and Kotek and McMillan previously said the membership list would be a cross-section of local elected officials, business owners and community leaders. The group will meet monthly from August to October, with the intention of developing recommendations to present in December at the Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit.
Speaking after the meeting, Kotek said the task force is deliberately moving on a tight timeline in order to try to quickly come up with recommendations for action steps. The first meeting involved looking at data to compare Portland with other cities and the ways the downtown area has shifted in the years since the pandemic began, she said.
"The types of challenges facing Portland are similar in other large cities," she said, "particularly cities like ours, which has been very focused on a downtown core that's very office-centric. The pandemic has changed that norm, and so we're trying to figure out what does that mean for us going forward?" The level of unsheltered homelessness sets Portland apart from some other cities, she added.
Kotek and McMillan also detailed the missions of the five task force subcommittees, each of which will tackle a specific issue: Vision & Value, Clean Streets, Crime & Vandalism, Unsheltered Homelessness, and Tax Competitiveness. McMillan said the bulk of the task force's work will be done by the committees.
There will be a big emphasis on the cultural nature of the central city, Kotek added, trying to draw more people and foot traffic into the downtown Portland core.
"Our numbers are not where they should be compared to other cities," she said.
Wheeler's requests
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is one of the members, and on Tuesday morning his office released a lengthy list of requests he intends to make at the first meeting, such as at least $4 million more per biennium for ongoing maintenance and cleanup work along Portland roads controlled by the Oregon Department of Transportation and $12 million to make sure encampments don't return to those sites.
Wheeler also planned to ask for commitment of $21 million to fund the Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites, the large-scale sanctioned campsites that the city has been developing, echoing a similar request he made to Multnomah County earlier this year.
In addition to renewing calls to speed up new police officer training at the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Wheeler also asked for 96 Oregon State Police officers to be immediately reassigned to Portland, and said OSP should open a branch office downtown. Kotek has previously directed state troopers to help Portland police crack down on illegal street racing, but Wheeler's request would be a significant escalation of that kind of collaboration.
Asked about Wheeler's list at the news conference, Kotek said Wheeler was the opening speaker at the meeting and she had heard his recommendations. His list "is certainly going to get added into the mix," she said, but added that the problem won't be solved purely by one government.
"It's one set of recommendations," she said. "There are going to be others, and our goal is to put them all together and say 'here are the three to five things we can do now to make progress.'"
The full list
Kotek's office said additional leaders or subject matter experts not included in the official list will be invited to join some of the task force's committees, which will focus on topic areas like community safety, housing and homelessness and taxes for services. The full member list is:
- Governor Tina Kotek, State of Oregon, Co-Chair
- Dan McMillan, CEO, The Standard, Co-Chair
- Senator Ron Wyden, US Senate
- Congressman Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Congressional District 3
- Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, U.S. Congressional District 1
- Representative Janelle Bynum, Oregon House District 39
- Representative Rob Nosse, Oregon House District 42
- Representative Tawna Sanchez, Oregon House District 43
- President Lynn Peterson, Metro
- Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Multnomah County
- District Attorney Mike Schmidt, Multnomah County
- Mayor Ted Wheeler, City of Portland
- Oscar Arana, Native American Youth and Family Services
- Candace Avalos, Verde
- Kimberly Branam, Prosper Portland
- Jessie Burke, Society Hotel in Old Town
- Kimberly Cooper, Fortuna Group
- Kathryn Correia, Legacy Health
- Graciela Cowger, Schwabe
- Patrick Criteser, Tillamook County Creamery Association
- Ann Cudd, Portland State University
- Nicole Davison León, Hispanic Metro Chamber
- Stacey Dodson, US Bank
- Brian Ferriso, Portland Art Museum
- Ernesto Fonseca, Hacienda CDC
- Robert Gootee, Moda Health
- Erin Graham, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
- Stephen Green, Business for a Better Portland
- Dewayne Hankins, Portland Trail Blazers
- Nkenge Harmon Johnson, The Urban League
- Andrew Hoan, Portland Metro Chamber
- Duncan Hwang, Metro Council, and Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon
- Renée J. James, Ampere Computing
- Cobi Lewis, Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon
- Nolan Lienhart, ZGF Architects
- Jim Mark, Melvin Mark
- Jan Mason, Mackenzie, Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon and Greater Portland Economic Development District, Chair
- Jeff Miller, Travel Portland
- Andy Mendenhall, Central City Concern
- Lance Randall, Black Business Association of Oregon
- Curtis Robinhold, Port of Portland
- Lisa Schroeder, Mother’s Bistro
- Alando Simpson, City of Roses Disposal & Recycling
- Vanessa Sturgeon, TMT Development
- Michelle Weisenbach, Wells Fargo Commercial Banking, Greater Portland Inc Chair
- Charles Wilhoite, Willamette Management