Meet Candace Avalos, candidate for Portland City Council District 1

Editor’s note: Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Stay informed with OPB on the presidential race, key congressional battles and other local contests and ballot measures in Oregon and Southwest Washington at opb.org/elections.

Name: Candace Avalos

Neighborhood: Mill Park

Renter/homeowner: Homeowner

Education: James Madison University, B.A., M.Ed.

Occupation: Nonprofit Executive Director

How long you’ve lived in the city of Portland: 11 years

Age: 35 (36 on Oct. 2)

Pronouns: She/her

Portland is facing an historic election involving a new voting system and an unusually high number of candidates. Journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive and Oregon Public Broadcasting share a goal of ensuring that Portland voters have the information they need to make informed choices, and we also know candidates’ time is valuable and limited.

That’s why the two news organizations teamed up this cycle to solicit Portland City Council candidates’ perspectives on the big issues in this election. Here’s what they had to say:

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For each of the following questions, we asked candidates to limit their answers to 150 words.

Name two existing city policies or budget items you’d make it a priority to change. Why did you select those and how do you plan to line up at least 7 votes on the council to make them happen? Please avoid broad, sweeping statements and instead provide details.

We need the right first responder, at the right time, for the right reasons. Overtime for police and fire has devastated budgets while burning out workers. Portland Police Bureau has a record high budget, yet response times are abysmal. I would call for an audit to fix response times and ensure people get the help they need. I’ll also prioritize expanding Portland Street Response, which has proven highly successful in supporting people in crisis.

We need to protect and maximize the Portland Clean Energy Fund. PCEF is a historic investment designed by and for frontline communities. Portland voters overwhelmingly agreed on the need and approach, so we need to safeguard these funds and ensure their efficiency. PCEF is not the well to draw from when city budgets run dry. Rather, we need to make sure our frontline communities lead in addressing the climate impacts that harm them most.

What previous accomplishments show that you are the best pick in your district? Please be specific.

I’ve proven my ability to work with diverse stakeholders to tackle tough issues and get results, including my service on the Citizen Review Committee for police accountability and Portland Charter Commission to modernize how we govern. In these roles, I built compromises and coalitions with folks from different walks of life and perspectives, the same role and strengths I’ll bring to Council. In my role as Executive Director of Verde, we have helped tackle some of the biggest environmental issues facing East Portlanders by cooling people’s homes to protect their health and planting trees to reduce heat islands.

Portland is on track to permit the fewest number of multifamily units in 15 years and remains thousands of units below what’s needed to meet demand. What steps would you take to dramatically and quickly increase the availability of housing?

I appreciate Commissioner Rubio’s work to streamline our permitting system and create a roadmap to seeing more housing, quickly. I would build on this foundation and draw on my experience working in housing as Executive Director of Verde and on the board of Street Roots and Portland: Neighbors Welcome. Community-led TIF districts like the one I helped launch in Cully can provide the capital to build now by leveraging future property taxes. I would also make sure we follow through on the housing production strategies we have been working on for years: increasing housing capacity in high-opportunity neighborhoods, revising zoning bonuses and incentives to make sure we’re getting the development we need, and creating more housing opportunities for people along 82nd Avenue as we rebuild vital transportation infrastructure there.

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The next City Council is going to have to make some very difficult decisions regarding what to fund and how. What essential services must the city provide and how should the city sustainably fund them?

Portland has always faced these tough decisions. In some cases, we already have the resources we need — we’ve secured funding for affordable housing and supportive services, and we need to continue to spend them well. This means creating shelter and housing options that are proven to work and expanding our mental health and substance abuse treatment, not reproducing old strategies that don’t work. In other cases, we need to look at new funding streams in collaboration with our partners. We must improve our emergency response times, especially in East Portland, and make sure Portland Street Response has the resources it needs to respond to calls that don’t require police or fire presence. We also need to invest in environmental infrastructure for East Portland, including safe streets to walk, bike, and ride transit and interventions that help frontline communities deal with heat waves, air pollution, and other impacts of climate change.

Portlanders have approved many tax measures in the past decade — supporting affordable housing, free preschool programs and green energy initiatives. Are there specific taxes or levies you want eliminated or would choose to not renew? Are there specific taxes or levies you would support creating? Why?

Our housing bond was successful. Targets and timelines were met or exceeded, and the funding has all been accounted for. I support a new housing bond as well as continuing to ensure that people living in that housing get the wraparound services they need to stay there. This includes but is not limited to rent assistance, job training, the support of social workers, and mental health and addiction treatment people need to get and stay healthy. Importantly, we need to continue asking our highest-paid residents and companies to contribute to the well-being of our city — now is not the time to turn our back on solutions that have been proven to work.

Do you have any concerns with the changes coming to city elections and city governance? If so, what would you like to see change?

I’m proud of our work on the Charter Commission. Seventeen of 20 volunteer members appointed by the City Council passed a series of sweeping reforms to our elections and governance that were adopted by a healthy majority of voters last election. I believe in our new system, particularly for East Portland, and I believe it will finally bring the representation, attention, and accountability our district has lacked for decades. We need to let these changes play out while monitoring their impact. If voters see additional tweaks that need to be made in the future, I would be open to hearing concerns and proposals. I remain concerned about sufficient voter education to reach voters to make sure they have clear and thorough information, especially given people fanning the flames about our new form of government being “chaotic” and “confusing”.

Related: Listen to 'OPB Politics Now'

For the five remaining questions, we asked candidates to answer in 50 words or fewer:

Do you favor arresting and jailing people who camp on public property in Portland who refuse repeated offers of shelter, such as the option to sleep in a city-designated tiny home cluster?

We do not have, and have never had, sufficient options for unsheltered people.

Hyper-fixation on the small population of people refusing services when we have not met the need, and are not investigating why our options do not meet people’s needs, is a red herring. Let’s use our resources effectively.

Would you vote yes on a proposal to fund hundreds more police officers than the City Council has already authorized? Why or why not? How would the city pay for it?

I would not vote for additional police officers until we can fill our existing vacant funded positions. PPB has shown that it is unable to spend the funds they already have. I would prioritize funding for Portland Street Response, which allows police to respond to higher-acuity calls.

Do you support putting the Clean Energy Fund measure back on the ballot? What, if any changes, would you support?

No. Voters spoke decisively when they approved PCEF in 2018. Portland voters overwhelmingly agreed on the need and the approach, and we’ve seen successful outcomes since. We need to safeguard these funds and ensure their efficiency.

Which would you prioritize: Creation of more protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes or improved surfacing of existing degraded driving lanes?

East Portland has some of the most dangerous streets in Portland and lacks paved roads, never mind bike lanes, sidewalks, or bus lanes. It’s not one or the other — we need to look at our transportation system holistically, and we need to center this community’s needs.

Have the problems impacting downtown Portland received too much or too little attention from current city leaders? Why?

Downtown is Portland’s economic driver and does deserve special consideration, which is why I served on the Governor’s Central City Task Force. However, East Portland has continuously been neglected for generations. I am running to champion this community and ensure they receive the attention and solutions they deserve.