Decisions/2025-221
Emergency ordinance2025-221

What is Portland deciding about pay settlement of E.F., Daniella Araujo, and Ayva Levin’s bodily injury lawsuits in the sum of $942,600 involving Portland Parks &…

This Ordinance settles a bodily injury lawsuit brought by EF (a minor) and Daniella Araujo (their parent) and a bodily injury lawsuit brought by Ayva Levin, resulting from a light pole in a northeast Portland park falling after Ayva Levin hung a hammock to the pole.

Official impact statement
See the official legal title

*Pay settlement of E.F., Daniella Araujo, and Ayva Levin’s bodily injury lawsuits in the sum of $942,600 involving Portland Parks & Recreation

Next appearanceFinal action is posted; watch for implementation updates.
Follow this matter
01 · Understand it

What this proposal would actually do.

Plain-language orientation first. Every substantive statement below links to its official basis.

What would change

This Ordinance settles a bodily injury lawsuit brought by EF (a minor) and Daniella Araujo (their parent) and a bodily injury lawsuit brought by Ayva Levin, resulting from a light pole in a northeast Portland park falling after Ayva Levin hung a hammock to the pole.

Official proposal and impact statement
What would stay the same

The reviewed sources do not clearly identify every existing policy, service, contract, or obligation that would remain unchanged.

Official matter record
Who may be affected

This Ordinance settles a lawsuit resulting from a light pole falling involving Portland Parks & Recreation. No public involvement or input was sought regarding this Ordinance. The City Attorney’s Office and Risk Management have concluded that it is not appropriate to have public involvement in settlement negotiations regarding tort claims or lawsuits against the City.No future public involvement is anticipated or necessary. Approval by City Council of this Ordinance will fully settle a tort claim against the City of Portland.

Official community impact statement
What happens next

Passed

Latest official agenda appearance
02 · Evaluate it

What the record establishes and what it does not.

Votes show choices. They do not, by themselves, prove why a member made that choice.

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.

Financial implications

This legislation will have no impact on City revenue.Total cost to the City to settle the lawsuit is $942,600. The source of funding is the City’s Insurance and Claims Fund. All cost of the settlement is in the current fiscal year. This Ordinance does not amend the budget.

Official financial impact statement
Open questions
  • 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 agenda
03 · Verify it

Inspect 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 actionEmergency ordinance 192062

The operative official record after Council action.

Open at Portland.gov
Read the full official text

The City of Portland ordains.Section 1. The Council finds:EF (a minor) and Daniella Araujo (their guardian ad litem), through attorney Jane Paulson, has filed a bodily injury lawsuit against the City for damages caused by a light pole in a park falling after Ayva Levin hung a hammock to the pole on June 23rd, 2022. Ayva Levin, through attorney Erik Wilson, has filed a bodily injury lawsuit against the City for damages caused by a light pole in a park falling after Ayva Levin hung a hammock to the pole on June 23rd, 2022. The two lawsuits were consolidated in Court after filing. The claim has been investigated by Risk Management Services. The investigation indicates there is risk the City may be found liable. Therefore, in order to avoid the risk of an adverse jury award, it is prudent to compromise the lawsuit at this time.City Attorney, Risk Management Services, and Portland Parks & Recreation recommend the lawsuit filed by EF and Daniella Araujo be compromised for the total sum of $782,600, subject to the plaintiffs providing the City with a release in a form to be approved by the City Attorney. City Attorney, Risk Management Services, and Portland Parks & Recreation recommend the lawsuit filed by Ayva Levin be compromised for the total sum of $160,000, subject to the plaintiff providing the City with a release in a form to be approved by the City Attorney. NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:The City Administrator is authorized to settle the lawsuit in the amount of $782,600 made payable to Paulson Coletti Trust fbo EF.[1]The City Administrator is authorized to settle the lawsuit in the amount of $160,000 made payable to Jacobs Wilson Callahan PC fbo Ayva Levin. Risk Management Services will execute a payment authorization in the amount set forth in sub-paragraphs (A) and (B) above. Section 2. The Council declares that an emergency exists in order to avoid undue and costly delay in settling this Bodily Injury lawsuit; therefore, this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage by the Council. [1] EF’s full name will be written out on the check.

Meetings, motions, amendments, and votes1 meetings · 1 votes
Final Council action · Jun 4, 202512 yes · 0 no

Final action on 2025-221: *Pay settlement of E.F., Daniella Araujo, and Ayva Levin’s bodily injury lawsuits in the sum of $942,600 involving Portland Parks & Recreation

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

The official title and operative text identify the requested action.

Complete
Official legal text

Official text was found. This check does not certify that every referenced exhibit is complete.

Complete
Financial impact

The official impact statement includes financial information.

Complete
Funding source

The impact statement identifies funding information without an explicit unresolved-source qualifier.

Complete
Supporting documents

No linked attachments were found on the official page.

Unknown
Referenced exhibit integrity

No explicit exhibit reference was detected in the official text.

Not Applicable
Counterparty acceptance

The reviewed action is not expressly identified as a non-binding agreement.

Not Applicable
Implementation

A direction, reporting requirement, or deadline appears in the official text.

Complete
Document stability

Stability requires at least two observed snapshots; the system will update this after another ingestion.

Unknown
Source record
First discovered
Aug 13, 2026, 1:14 PM PDT
Last checked
Sep 14, 2026, 2:22 AM PDT
Evidence hash
ef3b5a0a50c66a31
Guide status
Deterministic baseline
Append-only timeline
  1. SOURCE UPDATED

    Passed

  2. DOCUMENT PUBLISHED

    Observed in the official source.

  3. Council Action

    Passed