Latest news with #ElanaPirtle-Guiney
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Portland City Council President Pirtle-Guiney weighs in on cuts to mayor's proposed budget
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland mayor Keith Wilson released his proposed $8.5 billion budget this week. It showed layoffs, fee increases and program cuts to close a $93 million budget gap, while also adding money for public safety and Portland livability. Now it's up to Portland's new 12-person City Council to approve the budget, including president Elana Pirtle-Guiney from District 2. Councilor Pirtle-Guiney — who represents North and Northeast Portland — has been a union organizer, a policy expert for the state, as well as a member of former Governor Kate Brown's executive team. She joined this week's Eye on Northwest Politics to discuss tackling the proposed budget, her take on the mayor's proposed reductions, city workers' threats to strike and more. Watch the full interview in the video above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New poll asks Portlanders what services they would prefer to cut from city's budget amid $93M shortfall
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portlanders in Districts 2 and 3 are at odds with those living in Districts 1 and 4 when it comes to potential priorities for the city's upcoming budget cuts, including spending cuts to police, housing and homeless services, and parks and recreation, but generally found consensus when it came to potential cuts for fire services, according to survey results commissioned by Portland's City Council. The , which surveyed 600 Portland residents in mid-April, asked respondents how they would prioritize cuts from the city's General Fund, which predominately funds police, fire, smaller public safety programs, parks and recreation and homeless services, as the . The survey's release came hours before Portland City Administrator Michael Jordan announced a 20% reduction in core services across the city. Unhappy homeowners protest Habitat for Humanity luncheon District 1 covers the majority of East Portland, while District 2 covers North and Northeast Portland. District 3 covers most of Southeast Portland; meanwhile, District 4 represents residents living in Northwest Portland, South and Southwest Portland. Spending cuts to the Portland Police Bureau had the most approval in the survey, with 42% of those surveyed approving the cuts to 55% disapproving; however, the survey found there was higher approval for spending cuts within the police bureau in Districts 2 and 3, with 46% and 51% respectively, compared to those living in Districts 1 and 4, which only approved 32% and 38% of potential cuts. Meanwhile, proposed cuts to housing and homeless services in the City of Portland had the second-highest approval in the survey, although it was along the lines of 38% approving and 60% disapproving. The breakdown in support became more apparent along district lines, with residents in Districts 1 and 4 more likely to approve cuts to housing and homelessness services at 42% and 49% respectively compared to those in Districts 2 and 3, which only approved 32% and 31% respectively. Proposed cuts for the city's parks and recreation bureau also saw differences by district, while in total 28% of Portlanders approve of parks and recreation cuts to 71% disapproving, according to the survey results. Police seize enough fentanyl 'to kill everyone in Portland twice,' arrest 46 in multi-agency trafficking crackdown 'More residents in Districts 1 and 4 approve of cuts to parks and recreation (33% and 34%) than residents of Districts 2 and 3 (22% and 22%),' according to the survey results. The one potential cut the majority of Portlanders surveyed disapproved of? Fire services. According to the poll, only 17% were okay with cuts to fire services, and the disapproval was consistent across the city's districts. 'This City Council is committed to better engaging Portlanders in our work. When we do, people are willing to stand with us and make hard choices,' City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said in a statement about the poll's results. 'We had a 'don't know' option on many questions and Portlanders could have said, all these choices are terrible, I can't choose. But most people, on most issues, were willing to make the tough call.' Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'All of us politicians, bless our hearts, like to think we know where the public stands on the issues we're working on,' City Councilor Steve Novick said in a statement. 'But when it came to the tough choices we have to make in this budget – on many of which we are torn ourselves – President Pirtle-Guiney and I realized we should not presume we know where Portlanders stand. So we thought we'd just ask them. Now, as we move into budget crunch time, we'll have the benefit of knowing what a representative sample of Portlanders thinks about some of the trade-offs.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Portland postal workers to rally against Trump USPS changes, ‘degraded' conditions
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland postal workers, union leaders and local politicians are joining others in a nationwide rally Sunday to demand fair wages and protest proposed changes to the United States Postal Service by President Trump. The rally, titled 'Fight Like Hell,' will call for living wages and an end to mandatory overtime, as well as the two-tier workforce system. Providence nurses begin 2-day ratification vote Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Tiffany Koyama Lane, the President and Vice President of the Portland City Council, will also be among the speakers at the event. According to the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the current conditions have caused post offices to close, a reduction in delivery days and mail delays. They further claim workers compensation and conditions are 'degraded.' 'Mail carriers are overworked and underpaid. Turnover of new hires is close to 50%. Service is suffering,' they noted. Paramedics hurt when unconscious driver awakes in Northeast Portland The 200,000 postal workers in the NALC recently rejected a 1.3% wage increase offer from the postal service and Sunday's rallies aim to pressure the arbitrator for a fair contract. The rally will take place at the USPS East Portland Post Office at 1 p.m., where attendees will also protest against President Donald Trump's intent to fire the Postal Board of Governors, who are responsible for directing an independent USPS. Trump's announcement also came after the resignation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Monday. The President further added he may put USPS under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency, which has operated as an independent entity since 1970. He called the move a way to stop losses at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has struggled to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail. 'If this reporting is true, it would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally,' The American Postal Workers Union president said in a statement. 'Any attack on the Postal Service would be part of the billionaire oligarch coup, directed not just at the postal workers our union represents, but the millions of Americans who rely on the critical public service our members provide every single day.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Sunderland RV Safe Park's lease extended for an additional three months
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Northeast Portland shelter will remain open for at least three months longer than previously planned. On Friday, the that Sunderland RV Safe Park's lease has been extended through June. It was initially set to expire on March 31. Weather Alerts still in place around the PNW The shelter was 'created through a collaborative lease agreement' between the Port of Portland and the Portland Bureau of Transportation, according to city officials. It first opened in June 2023 with Salvation Army as its manager, through the organization's contract with the Joint Office of Homeless Services. Portland City Council of the Sunderland RV Safe Park during a meeting in early January. While Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said the site could be considered as a 'potential budget trade-off' for the city's multi-million-dollar deficit, leaders and residents expressed their interest in keeping the site for the nearly 60 people it serves. In a statement, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said he supports the lease extension and welcomes cost-effective proposals for maintaining the shelter. Presidents Day: Is mail delivered, trash collected on Monday? 'RVs are uniquely vulnerable to fires, leaks, mold, carbon monoxide, and other hazards, which makes it all the more important that occupied RVs are in RV parks and not on the street,' Wilson added. With the shelter's lease slated to expire in June, its next steps are dependent on the budget package that city leaders establish for the next fiscal year beginning on July 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
