Decisions/2025-480
Ordinance2025-480

What is Portland deciding about add Code to establish a City Data and Privacy Office (add Code Chapter 3.39)?

The purpose of this ordinance is to direct the City to create an Office of Data and Privacy, located in the City Operations service area, and to establish the role of Chief Data Office (CDO). This office will be tasked with improving privacy protections, steward data assets, and minimizing risks from data brokers, uncontrolled sharing of sensitive personal information, and secondary data use, including Large Language Models (LLMs) for the use and development of artificial intelligence, and assessing other privacy and data governance issues as outlined in this resolution.Establishing this office will create for a more centralized authority on data governance and privacy in the city, allowing for a more unified approach to technology use. Upon establishment, data governance shall be consolidated within the City Data and Privacy Office, with the Office functioning as the City authority. The City Data and Privacy Office will continue to collaborate with the Office of Equity to ensure appropriate consideration of equity impacts and will work closely with the Bureau of Technology Services to ensure data governance needs guide information technology decisions and information technology planning supports long-term stewardship of City data assets.

Official impact statement
See the official legal title

Add Code to establish a City Data and Privacy Office (add Code Chapter 3.39)

This is one chapter of a larger storyData and Privacy Office

Can Portland turn broad privacy principles into enforceable, funded controls over City data, vendors, surveillance tools, and AI?

Start with the full topic dossier
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

The purpose of this ordinance is to direct the City to create an Office of Data and Privacy, located in the City Operations service area, and to establish the role of Chief Data Office (CDO). This office will be tasked with improving privacy protections, steward data assets, and minimizing risks from data brokers, uncontrolled sharing of sensitive personal information, and secondary data use, including Large Language Models (LLMs) for the use and development of artificial intelligence, and assessing other privacy and data governance issues as outlined in this resolution.Establishing this office will create for a more centralized authority on data governance and privacy in the city, allowing for a more unified approach to technology use. Upon establishment, data governance shall be consolidated within the City Data and Privacy Office, with the Office functioning as the City authority. The City Data and Privacy Office will continue to collaborate with the Office of Equity to ensure appropriate consideration of equity impacts and will work closely with the Bureau of Technology Services to ensure data governance needs guide information technology decisions and information technology planning supports long-term stewardship of City data assets.

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
What happens next

Passed as amended by council

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 does not require changes to current FTE or budgets and does not result in new financial obligations. Instead, staff are directed to establish a Data and Privacy Office and create a transition plan, detailing what staff is necessary for the office. After functions and staffing are identified, a plan for resourcing both data governance and privacy work will be produced to be taken up in 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 actionOrdinance 192143

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:The City of Portland has built a legacy of privacy protections through prior Council actions, including Resolution 37437 (adopted June 19, 2019) establishing Privacy and Information Protection Principles; Ordinances 190113 and 190114 (adopted September 9, 2020) prohibiting the use of face recognition technologies by City bureaus and in public accommodations; and Resolution 37608 (adopted February 1, 2023) establishing a Citywide Surveillance Technology Inventory and privacy review processes; andThe City of Portland has a core value of transparency to support accountability and democracy and has adopted the Open Data Resolution 36735 (adopted September 30, 2009) and established an Open Data Policy (Ordinance 188356, May 2017); and Since these policies were adopted, new generations of surveillance technologies, AI enabled camera networks, automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems connected to nationwide sharing platforms and interconnected "smart city" sensors embedded in traffic systems and public spaces, have expanded the scope and precision of government and commercial monitoring. These systems generate continuous streams of data, often analyzed in real time, and combine disparate sources, from geolocation and license plate scans to facial recognition, enabling the creation of detailed patterns of movement, association, and identity across entire communities; andData brokers play a central role in this evolving surveillance ecosystem by aggregating and selling personal information from multiple sources, including public records and state and local data streams. These brokers increasingly provide services to federal law enforcement agencies and other entities seeking to circumvent local privacy and sanctuary safeguards, allowing sensitive data originally collected for municipal purposes to be repurposed for unrelated enforcement or profiling activities; andFederal law enforcement agencies exploit these brokered datasets and also access state and national information sharing systems, creating indirect pathways to City originating data that bypass local oversight and frustrate the intent of Portland's privacy principles and sanctuary policy; andSensitive data most at risk including but not limited to categories defined by the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act, personally identifiable information, biometric identifiers, and geolocation or utility data, which, when aggregated or deanonymized, enable comprehensive surveillance of individuals and households well beyond the original context of collection; andThese risks fall disproportionately on marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; immigrants; unhoused Portlanders; people living with mental health conditions; and individuals engaged in protest or civic activity, exacerbating inequities and eroding public trust in government; andEnterprise data governance enables organizations to make decisions about data and hold those that work with data accountable to data policies; and Effective data governance requires knowledge and experience with business needs and strategy, data collection and analysis, data management, data culture change management, and is distinct from information technology expertise; and To address these emerging threats and close gaps in current protections, Council seeks to establish a City Data and Privacy Office to enable data minimization, strengthen contractual controls, improve data security and advance data governance maturity, while enhancing public transparency and community oversight to prevent the misuse of City originating data and reaffirm Portland's sanctuary and privacy commitments.NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:Add City Code Chapter 3.39 as shown in Exhibit A.

Meetings, motions, amendments, and votes3 meetings · 4 votes

Recorded amendments

Jan 29, 2026 · Passed

Motion to amend Exhibit A as shown in Novick 1: Moved by Kanal and seconded by Koyama Lane. (Aye (11): Avalos, Smith, Kanal, Pirtle-Guiney, Ryan, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Novick, Clark, Green, Dunphy; Absent (1): Zimmerman) Passed to second reading as amended February 5, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.

Dec 9, 2025 · Failed

Motion to amend Exhibit A to remove the second sentence in Subsection 3.39.020 B.1.: Moved by Zimmerman and seconded by Smith (Aye (1): Zimmerman; Nay (4): Smith, Morillo, Novick, Kanal). Motion failed to pass.

Read all 3 exact motions
Jan 29, 2026 · Amendment · Passed

Motion to amend Exhibit A as shown in Novick 1: Moved by Kanal and seconded by Koyama Lane. (Aye (11): Avalos, Smith, Kanal, Pirtle-Guiney, Ryan, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Novick, Clark, Green, Dunphy; Absent (1): Zimmerman) Passed to second reading as amended February 5, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.

Dec 9, 2025 · Amendment · Failed

Motion to amend Exhibit A to remove the second sentence in Subsection 3.39.020 B.1.: Moved by Zimmerman and seconded by Smith (Aye (1): Zimmerman; Nay (4): Smith, Morillo, Novick, Kanal). Motion failed to pass.

Dec 9, 2025 · Main · Passed

Motion to refer the Ordinance, Document Number 2025-480, to City Council with the recommendation it be passed: Moved by Morillo and seconded by Novick. (Aye (4): Zimmerman, Morillo, Novick, Kanal; Nay (1): Smith)

Final Council action · Feb 5, 202612 yes · 0 no

Final action on 2025-480: Add Code to establish a City Data and Privacy Office (add Code Chapter 3.39)

Meeting-level motion or recommendation · Jan 29, 202611 yes · 1 absent

Motion to amend Exhibit A as shown in Novick 1: Moved by Kanal and seconded by Koyama Lane. (Aye (11): Avalos, Smith, Kanal, Pirtle-Guiney, Ryan, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Novick, Clark, Green, Dunphy; Absent (1): Zimmerman) Passed to second reading as amended February 5, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.

Meeting-level motion or recommendation · Dec 9, 20251 yes · 4 no

Motion to amend Exhibit A to remove the second sentence in Subsection 3.39.020 B.1.: Moved by Zimmerman and seconded by Smith (Aye (1): Zimmerman; Nay (4): Smith, Morillo, Novick, Kanal). Motion failed to pass.

Meeting-level motion or recommendation · Dec 9, 20254 yes · 1 no

Motion to refer the Ordinance, Document Number 2025-480, to City Council with the recommendation it be passed: Moved by Morillo and seconded by Novick. (Aye (4): Zimmerman, Morillo, Novick, Kanal; Nay (1): Smith)

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

The text references exhibits. This guide has not yet automatically verified that each referenced exhibit is present, populated, and internally consistent.

Unknown
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, 1:07 PM PDT
Last checked
Sep 13, 2026, 2:26 AM PDT
Evidence hash
1348f25e624628ea
Guide status
Deterministic baseline
Append-only timeline
  1. SOURCE UPDATED

    Passed as amended by council

  2. DOCUMENT PUBLISHED

    Observed in the official source.

  3. Council Action

    Passed as amended

  4. Council Action

    Passed to second reading as amended

  5. Council Action

    Referred to City Council