Meet Dan Gilk, candidate for Portland City Council District 3

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: Dan Gilk

Neighborhood: Hosford-Abernethy

Renter/homeowner: Homeowner

Education: B.S. computer engineering, Northwestern University

Occupation: Full-time caregiver to infant daughter, background in software engineering

How long you’ve lived in the city of Portland: 5 years

Age: 37

Pronouns: he/him

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:

Related: Issues important to Oregon voters

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.

The headline goal of my platform is to make systemic and sustainable improvements to our housing supply and density. I propose:

• The city dedicates more permanent funding to the Bureau of Development Services and reduces reliance on permitting fees for day-to-day operations. The current funding model increases uncertainty and instability in our permitting process and makes development slower and more costly.
• The city institutes a one-more-floor zoning policy whereby any parcel of land can be developed by right into a structure up to one more floor higher than its tallest neighbor. This allows our city to grow organically over time without concentrating development in one neighborhood.

I won’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, so anything that moves us toward housing abundance (ideally without cost increases) is on the table. I believe as a moderate candidate, I’ll be able to negotiate the votes needed to make progress.

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

As a private citizen with no government experience, I can’t point to specific “accomplishments” like some of the other candidates. Instead, I’ll use this question to tell you about me: I have led a successful career as an engineer in the private sector and I’m presently a full-time caregiver to my infant daughter. I love this city and I’m running because I want it to be a safe, successful and prosperous city for us and for the future.

Related: Listen to 'OPB Politics Now'

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?

We have a severe housing shortage and need to spur massive amounts of development. The only way to stimulate this much development is through enabling the private sector. As a dedicated proponent of protecting the Urban Growth Boundary, we must encourage building up rather than sprawling whenever possible. I went into a few of my housing policy specifics above, but to expand on that:

• Repeal or reassess any regulation that is not related to health, safety or infrastructure. This includes Inclusionary Housing requirements.
• Loosen zoning restrictions and target specific corridors for large increases to height and density limits.
• Stretch goal: Reform the property tax and replace it with a land value tax. Replacing the property tax with LVT would be the most equitable and powerful way to pave our way forward.

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?

The city is facing a budget reckoning. I see this as an opportunity to refocus on the basics of government. My priorities are: safety, schools, public spaces and infrastructure.

The city routinely spends more creating housing than it would cost the private sector. For this reason, I believe we should reduce funding for the housing bureau and get out of the construction business. In addition, we should reduce duplicative spending in sectors that are legally the responsibility of the county: this includes homelessness and mental health services.

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?

Yes, as follows:

• Portland Clean Energy Fund: Change the revenue stream from a tax on gross receipts to a tax on net profit. Gross receipts taxes are nearly identical to sales taxes - they are regressive and unfairly impact low-margin businesses and low-income households.
• Portland Housing Bond: Instead of focusing on income-limited “affordable” housing, I would rather see public housing money spent on fully supportive housing for those that need serious and/or permanent help. True affordability can only happen with drastically increased supply, not through income limits and price controls.
• Gas tax: Replace with a per-mile-driven usage fee. The gas tax is intended to be used for road maintenance. As electric cars become more common, the city has less money to maintain roads (for cars that are heavier!). The best way to fairly fund road maintenance is through a per-mile-traveled usage fee.
• Arts Tax: Eliminate or roll into standard property tax payments.

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

The new government system will be a huge improvement and I am very optimistic about the city manager system. The only change I would make is: City council elections should be top-1 from 12 districts, instead of top-3 from four districts.

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?

Yes, although I think consistent enforcement and short sentences (days/weeks) will be more effective than overly punitive sentences.

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?

Yes. We have far fewer officers per capita than other U.S. cities. However, this needs to come with increased accountability by police. The city could pay for this by cutting back on programs mentioned previously.

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

Yes. I mentioned this earlier but change the revenue stream from a tax on gross receipts to a tax on net profit.

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

Increased density requires more scalable transit solutions. To that end, we need to focus more on alternative transit like bus lanes, bike paths and pedestrian walks.

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

Too much. The city should not be wasting money propping up real estate downtown and should be more concerned with the prosperity of the city-at-large.