Meet Eric Zimmerman, candidate for Portland City Council District 4

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.

Portland is facing a 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.

Name: Eric Zimmerman

Neighborhood: Markham

Renter or homeowner? Homeowner

Education: Bachelor of sciencemaster of business administration

Occupation: Chief of staff to Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards

Lived in the city of Portland: 21 years, born in PDX, raised in a suburb.

Age : 40 before Election Day

Pronouns: He/him/his

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 seven votes on the council to make them happen? Please avoid broad, sweeping statements and instead provide details.

I want to increase the number of Portland Police Bureau neighborhood response teams to help improve public safety and work on entrenched problem areas. These teams are incredibly important. They tackle an array of persistent problems and are a natural extension of our desire to expand community policing. These teams are a great service to every district, and I have experience brokering consensus on them and can use that skill to gain at least seven votes for this critical service.

Secondly, opening the next group of temporary alternative shelter sites and large pod shelters. These are our most successful shelters, and we need enough of them to reasonably enforce our camping regulations. Given their success rate and the services they provide, the entire current City Council and county Board of Commissioners have voted to support alternative shelter sites. I will stress their outcomes as a means toward seven votes in support.

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

With so many first-time candidates running, what sets me apart is my experience in government. Portlanders expect on-the-ground perspectives and approaches, but as councilors, we also need to make government work better by passing important measures among our colleagues. I have done both.

I crafted the strongest good neighbor agreement our city has ever had with the Brooklyn, Central Eastside, and Hosford neighborhoods for the new large shelter site near them. Today it’s the only good neighbor agreement that is improving the surrounding area with safer and cleaner streets and quicker responses to problems. Then at the county, I helped secure the largest shelter funding package in our community’s history.

I helped stop restaurant inspection fee increases, helped stop the terrible “foil and straw” fentanyl enabling program at the county and helped initiate the auto theft and retail theft task forces. My accomplishments in the district are unmatched.

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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?

My approach is to maximize units and minimize the aspirational design elements. As the representative for the central city, I have proposed deep reform to the Design Review Commission and its ability to stall housing projects based on subjective issues. I propose moving to a 90-day permit standard and a “permit upon review” for previously successful developers with proven track records of safe housing development. We also need to double the height limits to allow greater growth in our dense areas. These changes will speed up development and reduce the costs of the end product, for all housing types because we need all levels of housing developed. Incentives for affordable housing development and ownership models are also needed to signal the city is willing to finally start saying “yes” instead of dragging out “no” for months and years.

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?

Public safety is our first and most vital service as a city. Everything we do relies on whether our residents and visitors are safe to enjoy our community. Enabling future development and growth, taking care of our basic infrastructure like street paving, sewer systems and existing parks are core services. We have overlapping costs at the city because of bureau “mission creep” into services unrelated to their core function, and the next council and mayor will need to bring all city functions into alignment. Our general funds must be prioritized toward public safety first, and we need to reduce the use of general funds in non-core service areas, particularly in the fee supported bureaus. If we enable growth instead of restricting it, our available pot of money to invest in neighborhood enhancements, infrastructure maintenance and public safety will grow as well.

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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?

I do not support any new special taxes during this period. Portlanders are tired of not seeing the results of the promised tax increases. It is terrible that the Preschool For All tax and the supportive housing services taxes are not indexed from their starting points. Individuals and families who should not be paying additional income tax because of the rising costs of inflation are paying those taxes today, and it is wrong. I would support indexing all these special income taxes from their original intended income level to reduce the tax burden on middle-income earners.

With respect to the Metro homelessness tax, if the county continues to show poor outcomes in the services delivered by the Joint Office, I am supportive of changing part of the tax to support continued development of affordable housing units since we know those are at least having a positive impact.

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

Ultimately, I am dedicated to making the system work because Portland cannot afford to get this transition wrong. Of course I have some concerns. I think our largest city in the state should have a mayor with ultimate accountability. The public looks to the mayor when things are in crisis, not a bureaucrat. While I believe a city administrator is a good addition and will help professionalize our city workforce, how the balance of responsibility and authority is crafted warrants further consideration as this new government evolves. As a former deputy city manager, I am committed to the professionalization of the departments and looking forward to every city worker being aligned under a single decision-making executive. I am committed to working with my colleagues on the City Council to lean into our role advocating for our districts, shaping public policy, enabling the city with resources needed to accomplish what we ask.

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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?

If a person is resisting the broad variety of shelter services available today for every preference, then yes, I think arrest for violation of city code is appropriate. We have seen certain people just decide that the Portland “street life” is for them, and that’s unacceptable and dangerous for everyone.

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 must increase our patrol and specialty units. The public needs help right now and more police officers are part of the solution. I do not believe police should be subjected to budget constraint in 2025. As a core service, general funds should be used first for core services.

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

Yes, voters should have another say on the fund. The fund reputation had to be saved by Commissioner Rubio and she laid out a strong plan to broaden the use of it. I think making the case with voters is smart and would help rinse off distrust surrounding the program.

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

I do not support any more specialized bus lanes. They made our city streets more dangerous for drivers, riders and walkers. I think protected bike lanes are great! Every street should achieve a certain level of pavement maintenance before we do any more special projects in the central city.

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

Historically, too little. Recently, I think these problems get enough attention from leaders but not with action or resources from their operational bureaus. I think the county has given lip service to the struggles of downtown and my residents and business owners are right to feel ignored.