Portland City Council torpedoed a plan to pull funding from an anti-racist advocacy organization Wednesday. The decision comes after the original plan drew strong opposition from Black lawmakers and community leaders.
The last-minute decision came during a meeting where commissioners can propose mid-year changes to the budget. Last week, City Commissioner Mingus Mapps proposed an amendment that would pull nearly $5 million promised to Reimagine Oregon, a racial equity advocacy organization. The money comes directly from the city’s cannabis tax fund, which can be used on public safety, substance abuse programs, and small business supports.
This funding was initially promised to Reimagine Oregon in 2020, at the height of Portland’s racial justice protests, and was expected to go toward programs that help create economic stability and growth within Portland’s Black community. Those programs were never identified or funded, however, because the city did not release the promised money to Reimagine Oregon.
Mapps accused Reimagine Oregon of mismanaging the funds last week, despite the organization never receiving that money. He proposed taking the money back to use for programs focused on public safety and substance abuse treatment. His budget amendment passed with the support of Commissioner Dan Ryan and Rene Gonzalez, advancing to a final vote this week.
But that decision was quickly condemned by Black leaders. In a Wednesday morning statement, four Black members of the Oregon legislature wrote that, “promising dollars, not ensuring the delivery of the dollars, and then yanking them, is not how we should continue to treat any organization.” Former state Senator Avel Gordly, a Black woman, wrote an email to city commissioners calling Mapps’ amendment “disingenuous, anemic and shameful.”
Mapps’ amendment didn’t make it to a second vote. On Wednesday, City Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Dan Ryan introduced an amendment to repeal Mapps’ proposal.
“What happened last week shouldn’t sit well with any of us,” Rubio said. “Part of good government is leading with curiosity, asking questions and engaging with one another before we walk into these chambers. And that didn’t happen last week and harm was done.”
Rubio and other commissioners learned about Mapps’ amendment just hours before last week’s council session.
Ryan said he changed his mind after supporting Mapps last week after researching why Reimagine Oregon hadn’t received the money. He said he found that the city had “dropped the ball.”
“We need to accept this responsibility and reset this work,” Ryan said. “We are committed to create a path forward for accountable action and expedite community impact.”
Justice Rajee, the director of Reimagine Oregon, thanked Rubio and Ryan for pushing back. “None of this was necessary,” Rajee said. “No one needed to do this. Let’s get the work done. If there’s a difference of opinion about what the work is, fine. But we don’t need to play these games.”
Rajee implored commissioners to contact him directly if they ever had questions about his organization before making these kinds of surprise decisions in the future.
The city hasn’t clearly explained why the cannabis funds reserved for Reimagine Oregon were never distributed. The cannabis fund has long been overseen by the city’s Office of Community and Civic Life, yet an office spokesperson said it wasn’t the department’s responsibility to distribute the money. The spokesperson also said the process may have been delayed due to staffing turnover in that department.
The cannabis fund program was moved from the Office of Community and Civic Life to Prosper Portland, Portland’s economic development agency, in January. Chabre Vickers, Prosper Portland’s equity director, said she’s confident the funds will now be passed through the Reimagine Oregon swiftly.
Mapps and Gonzalez remained skeptical of how Reimagine Oregon will use the city’s dollars.
Reimagine Oregon said it hasn’t yet held community meetings to hear from Black Portlanders about how the money could best support economic opportunities because the money never arrived. But Vickers said those dollars will be reserved for job training, small business grants, and other programs that directly aid Black-owned businesses.
Mayor Ted Wheeler joined Rubio and Ryan in blocking Mapps’ plan. Before voting, he shared his disappointment in Mapps’ prior proposal.
“The bigger point here is people don’t trust us. And this is one more reason why,” Wheeler said. “We stumbled and we had an opportunity to show the community we trusted them, and through last week’s actions, the council went in a different direction. And I’m saddened by that. I’m asking that we as a council aspire to do better by the people that we serve.”