The 2022 charter amendments established a mayor/council form of government. Under the voter-approved charter, the City Attorney is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by Council. Robert Taylor was appointed by Mayor Ted Wheeler and has been serving as City Attorney since February 2021. Mayor Keith Wilson is submitting this resolution for the appointment of Robert Taylor as City Attorney for council confirmation per the requirements of the updated City Charter.
Official proposal and impact statementResolution2025-012
Should Portland appoint Robert Taylor as City Attorney?
The 2022 charter amendments established a mayor/council form of government. Under the voter-approved charter, the City Attorney is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by Council. Robert Taylor was appointed by Mayor Ted Wheeler and has been serving as City Attorney since February 2021. Mayor Keith Wilson is submitting this resolution for the appointment of Robert Taylor as City Attorney for council confirmation per the requirements of the updated City Charter.
Official impact statementSee the official legal title
Appoint Robert Taylor as City Attorney
Next appearanceFinal action is posted; watch for implementation updates.
Follow this matterWhat this proposal would actually do.
Plain-language orientation first. Every substantive statement below links to its official basis.
The reviewed sources do not clearly identify every existing policy, service, contract, or obligation that would remain unchanged.
Official matter recordThis proposal concerns government & democracy and requires action through Portland’s public legislative process.
Official matter classification and recordThe Charter Commission lead an extensive process to develop their proposals that were submitted to voters for approval. Information about the community engagement can be found in the Charter Commission’s final report at https://www.portland.gov/charte….
Official community impact statementWhat the record establishes and what it does not.
Votes show choices. They do not, by themselves, prove why a member made that choice.
Final Council action
Passed · 12–0
Read the exact motion or vote question
Final action on 2025-012: Appoint Robert Taylor as City Attorney
Rationale review not yet published
We will not turn the roll call into invented arguments.
The vote above establishes who supported or opposed that exact motion. A source-validated account of the competing reasons will appear only after human review of the meeting transcript and documents.
This Fiscal Impact Statement includes the pay range and relevant terms for the City Attorney. Actual pay is to be negotiated, but estimated to be substantially similar to budgeted amounts in the current fiscal year and planned in the FY 2025-26 budget. Pay Range: $190,008.00 to $282,796.80 annuallyTerm: 36-month contract, yearly renewal thereafter.Severance package: 6 months of severance pay if separated without cause during the first 36 months.
Official financial impact statement- The source-linked record has not yet received a human review of competing arguments. A yes or no vote alone does not establish a Councilor’s rationale.
- What implementation evidence will show whether the intended result occurred?
Can residents still participate?
Official testimony on this decision has closed. Residents can still contact their district Councilors about implementation and follow-up.
Official Council agendaInspect the complete research record.
Official text, source files, exact motions, roll calls, provenance, and the technical completeness check remain available without crowding the explanation above.
Official documents1 sources
Final legal actionResolution 37698
The operative official record after Council action.
Open at Portland.govRead the full official text
WHEREAS, on November 8, 2022, voters approved Portland Measure 26-228 (the Measure) which amended the City Charter, establishing a governance structure with an executive Mayor and legislative Council; andWHEREAS, Section 2-401(g) of Portland’s City Charter provides that the Mayor appoints the City Attorney, subject to City Council confirmation; andWHEREAS, on February 22, 2021, Mayor Ted Wheeler appointed Robert Taylor as the City Attorney; andWHEREAS, in this capacity, Robert Taylor has acted as chief legal counsel for the organization and managed an office of attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, and others that represent and advise on legal affairs of the City’s elected officials, employees, bureaus, offices, programs, boards and commissions; andWHEREAS, Mayor Keith Wilson has carefully reviewed Robert Taylor’s qualifications and years of service to the City of Portland, further outlined in Exhibit A; andWHEREAS, Mayor Keith Wilson has appointed, subject to Council confirmation, Robert Taylor as City Attorney; andNOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council hereby confirms Robert Taylor’s appointment as City Attorney.
Meetings, motions, amendments, and votes1 meetings · 1 votes
AdoptedAgenda item 6
Read all 1 exact motions
Motion to call the question: Moved by Green and seconded by Zimmerman.
Final Council action · Feb 5, 202512 yes · 0 no
Final action on 2025-012: Appoint Robert Taylor as City Attorney
Data quality, timeline, and provenanceRules v2
Why technical findings are hidden above
Unreviewed keyword matches and machine-extracted fragments are not presented as authoritative findings. Only 0 human-reviewed findings are available for this matter.
Technical information-completeness check · Ready With Caveats
This checks whether decision-relevant categories appear in the published packet. It does not recommend approval or opposition.
Decision definition
CompleteThe official title and operative text identify the requested action.
Official legal text
CompleteOfficial text was found. This check does not certify that every referenced exhibit is complete.
Financial impact
CompleteThe official impact statement includes financial information.
Funding source
CompleteThe impact statement identifies funding information without an explicit unresolved-source qualifier.
Supporting documents
UnknownNo linked attachments were found on the official page.
Referenced exhibit integrity
UnknownThe text references exhibits. This guide has not yet automatically verified that each referenced exhibit is present, populated, and internally consistent.
Counterparty acceptance
Not ApplicableThe reviewed action is not expressly identified as a non-binding agreement.
Implementation
UnknownAn implementation owner or milestone was not found deterministically.
Document stability
UnknownStability requires at least two observed snapshots; the system will update this after another ingestion.
- First discovered
- Aug 13, 2026, 1:18 PM PDT
- Last checked
- Sep 14, 2026, 2:26 AM PDT
- Evidence hash
- 2a6f20b7ce8f261a
- Guide status
- Deterministic baseline
- SOURCE UPDATED
Adopted
- DOCUMENT PUBLISHED
Observed in the official source.
- Council Action
Adopted