Portland City Council

The Portland City Council heard hours of testimony about a controversial plan to ban tent camping across the city for much of the day.

The agency that oversees Multnomah County’s homelessness response is at risk of losing key support from one of its founding members: the city of Portland.

The Portland City Council voted last month to indefinitely table a proposal from the city auditor to create a new transparency advocate position. Instead, they passed a different transparency resolution introduced by Commissioner Dan Ryan.

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty joins us to share her thoughts on the most recent election and the future of the city.

In other news, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler will reassign Portland bureaus to City Council members and mussel harvesting reopens along Oregon Coast.

An OPB investigation found Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and his staff sent and received thousands of text messages between 2017 and 2021 that were never available to people requesting city records. Thousands of messages from Portland elected officials and their staff have been erased in violation of city policy that they be kept permanently. Some experts say the city has now opened the door for every single records request for texts that came in during the mayor’s tenure to be re-examined.

Voters in Oregon’s largest city ousted an incumbent and agreed to radically remake the city’s form of government and process for electing its leaders.

From day one, the council race was dominated by voter concerns over homelessness and crime — two issues that polls show are top of mind for Portland voters.

Portland leaders approved a controversial plan Thursday to ban unsanctioned camping in the city as constituents seethe over the region’s unabated homeless crisis.

Also inside: Researching "Main Streets" across Oregon and an accusation in the race for Portland City Council position 3.