Should Portland amend the FY 2026-27 Budget to appropriate $13,076,892 in Portland Clean Energy Fund interest income, $5,491,002 other fund resources, and $335,000 in…

The City of Portland ordains.Section 1. The Council finds:For FY 2026-27, the City's General Fund shortfall measured against the cost of maintaining current services is $169.3 million. The City's Current Service Level Budget Report attributes this gap principally to expense growth above inflation, including a 22.7 percent increase in health-benefit costs, growth in internal materials and services, and to approximately $104.6 million in expiring one-time revenues that had supported ongoing programs, including shelter ($53.6 million) and public-safety ($29.5 million).The Mayor's Proposed, now adopted, FY 2026–27 Budget adds new positions and costs at the management and executive level, including an Assistant City Administrator position eliminated by Council in the prior year, a new chief of staff position, and several high-level managers, totaling 7.0 FTE and $2 million.The FY 2026–27 Budget reduces frontline staff positions through two distinct processes: 1) the Citywide Core Services Realignment, a centralization initiative in the second of two years, and 2) separate constraint reductions proposed in the budget. Together, these identify a net of 204.65 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions for elimination across multiple bureaus and funds. The Core Services Realignment reduces approximately 91 positions citywide and is estimated to produce $16.7 million in savings. The separate constraint reduction packages eliminating frontline staff positions result in a reduction of 135.65 FTE and total savings of $27.4 million.The staff cuts described in finding 3, advanced in the Adopted FY 2026–27 Budget, are not accompanied by a multi-year financial plan, position-by-position service-impact analysis, filled-versus-vacant position detail, or a City Budget Office assessment of the impact of eliminating the affected positions. As a result, the record does not establish for the positions identified for elimination: how the work each position performs will be reassigned or whether it will continue to be performed; the effect of each reduction on bureau service levels and on the populations served; whether any statutory or contractual obligations will fail to be met; or the cost of redistributing the work, including any new interagency or internal-services charges to bureaus. At the time the budget was adopted, the significance of these gaps was not fully apparent to, or ascertained by, Council. It has since become clear that these analyses are necessary to responsibly evaluate reductions of this scale, and that no such analysis was before Council when these reductions were considered.During the FY 2026-27 budget process, administration leadership identified errors in the proposed frontline staff reductions, including position reductions it stated it would seek to reverse and positions erroneously slated for elimination, attributing errors to the speed at which the reductions were entered, and stated that, absent the budget-adoption deadline, it would recommend different timing and levels of reduction after further study.The positions identified for elimination perform frontline, direct-service functions and include positions with statutory or contractual obligations.The FY 2026-27 Budget concurrently eliminates filled frontline positions, adds new management and executive positions while leaving these and other positions unfilled, and creates new positions through Core Services Realignment. The convergence of these actions, separating the employees who currently perform essential work before the new, centralized, or vacant positions are filled and operational, creates gaps in service delivery and compliance that were not fully ascertained by Council when the budget was adopted.Since the adoption of the FY 2026-27 Budget, public engagement from impacted residents, City employees, and labor organizations has identified service and operational impacts of the reductions that were not fully ascertained at the time of Budget Adoption. This input has enabled Council to more fully ascertain the implications of the reductions addressed by this Ordinance.As the Core Services Realignment and frontline staff reductions have moved toward implementation, their concrete operational effects have become apparent through public engagement with impacted residents, City employees, and labor organizations, effects that were not fully ascertained on the compressed FY 2026-27 Budget timeline. This ordinance seeks to address these implications, by adding back, for FY 2026-27, 55.0 FTE proposed for elimination across a number of bureaus:10.0 FTE within Parks related to Decision Packages (DPs): 26888, 26918, 26996, 26864, 26961, and 2686810 considerable-risk positions previously identified in Pirtle-Guiney – Novick 5: 5.0 FTE in PBOT: 1.0 FTE Business Systems Analyst III, 2.0 FTE Business Systems Analyst I, 1.0 FTE Analyst II, and 1.0 FTE Transportation Operating Specialist1.0 FTE in Fire: Office Support Specialist III2.0 FTE in BES: 1.0 FTE GIS Tech III and 1.0 FTE Engineering Tech III2.0 FTE in Water: 1.0 FTE Office Support Specialist III and 1.0 FTE Admin Specialist III15 considerable-risk positions identified by CPPW:4.0 FTE in Parks: 3.0 FTE Coordinator II and 1.0 FTE Analyst II3.0 FTE in PBOT: 2.0 FTE Analyst I and 1.0 FTE Admin Specialist II4.0 FTE in Water: 1.0 FTE Analyst I, 1.0 FTE Analyst II, 1.0 FTE Admin Specialist II, and 1.0 FTE Coordinator II1.0 FTE in Revenue: Admin Specialist II1.0 FTE in BPS: Coordinator III2.0 FTE in BES: 1.0 FTE Coordinator II and 1.0 FTE Analyst III6 additional considerable-risk positions identified by Ordinance 2026-223:3.0 FTE in PPB: 1,0 FTE Sr. PASS, 2.0 FTE Desk Clerks1.0 FTE in BHR: 1.0 Coordinator I1.0 FTE in OEHR: 1.0 Analyst IV1.0 FTE in BES: 1.0 Engineering Tech III2.0 FTE Customer Service Rep 1's in 31112.0 FTE Public Safety Support Specialists in PPBBy maintaining the affected positions identified in finding paragraph 10 through FY 2026-27, Council intends that the City Administrator use that period to bring a report to Council by November 2026 that includes information on how the work each position performs will be reassigned or whether it will continue to be performed; the effect of each reduction on bureau service levels and on the populations served; whether any statutory or contractual obligations will fail to be met; position-by-position service-impact analyses; and the cost of redistributing the work, including any new interagency or internal-services charges to bureaus. The report shall further describe steps the City Administrator took to consult with affected employees and their recognized labor organizations.The FY 2026–27 Budget also reduces the operational hours of three Portland Fire & Rescue vehicles, increasing emergency response times and adversely impacting public safety. This ordinance recognizes the critical role of this service and fully restores operational hours at a cost of $1,650,000.The FY 2026-27 Budget also reduces external materials and services in the Portland Police Bureau that would be utilized for training. This ordinance recognizes the need to continue funding training at a cost of $3,000,000.Council also recognizes the importance of the Business License Tax Reserve and will transfer 1.75M in PCEF interest to it in recognition of potential future BLT Tax volatility and its potentially negative effects on City programs and operations.In order to restore the positions identified in finding 10 and services identified in finding 12, this Ordinance appropriates $ 13,076,892 of accrued PCEF interest income on a one-time basis, $5,491,002 from other fund contingencies, and ensures the City deploys $335,000 in IGA revenue with Multnomah County for the Senior Center Project. The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund has accrued interest income in the amount of $24.3M so far in fiscal year 2025–26 that is available for one-time appropriation; the City has in the past relied on this interest income to support General Fund services, without transparent specification of line-item allocations.The staff reductions proposed in the FY 2026-27 Budget take effect on August 3, 2026, at which point employees in the eliminated positions would lose City wages and healthcare coverage. These reductions were developed on a compressed timeline and process for selecting reductions was top-down, with the administration acknowledging that affected employees had limited or, in many cases, no time for engagement. The transition support included in this ordinance continues wages and healthcare benefits on timelines that differ by reduction type: for employees in positions reduced through the Core Services Realignment, wages through October 2026 and healthcare benefits through November 2026; for employees in positions reduced through other budget reductions, wages through July 2026 and healthcare benefits through August 2026. Currently, no appropriations for these extensions exist in Bureau budgets, which could drive further cuts later in the fiscal year. Transition support is estimated at $2,485,451, of which the General Fund share is $706,620, to be held in a contingency set-aside and reallocated based on actual costs, with the balance funded by the bureaus and funds that carry the affected positions.Together, these restorations maintain direct public services reduced in the Mayor's proposed, now adopted, budget, including maintenance of approximately 8,000 acres of natural area and 120 miles of soft-surface trails, after-hours repair of facility infrastructure that prevents extended closures of community centers, pools, and restrooms; the adaptive Senior Center program serving adults with disabilities; staffing at the Peninsula Park and Charles Jordan community centers; emergency rescue response; 311 customer service; and prevents elimination of the Public Safety Support Specialist program, Portland's unarmed responders to property and automobile crimes as well as funding for PPB training.NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:The FY 2026-27 Appropriation Schedule is hereby amended to appropriate $13,076,892 in Portland Clean Energy Fund interest income, $5,491,002 from non-General Fund contingencies, and $335,000 in intergovernmental-agreement revenue from Multnomah County, as detailed in Exhibit A.Position authority is restored for the 55.0 FTE identified in Exhibit B for fiscal year 2026-27, and the operational hours of three Portland Fire & Rescue vehicles are restored.The City Administrator will report to Council prior to the fall 2026 revenue forecast work session the position-by-position service-impact analysis. Council urges the City Administrator to consult with affected employees and their recognized labor organizations.The actions amending the FY 2026-27 Budget contained in this ordinance are binding City policy.