Meet Tony Schwartz, 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: Tony Schwartz

Neighborhood: South Waterfront

Renter/homeowner: Renter

Education: JD - University of Denver, BA – University of Colorado

Occupation: Lawyer

How long you’ve lived in the city of Portland: 15 years

Age: 55

Pronouns: He/him

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.

Work with the City Attorney’s Office to determine why it has taken such an aggressive stance opposing Public Records requests in “attorney fee bearing” cases, costing taxpayers significant sums of money when courts order disclosure of the public records and also grant attorney fees in obvious cases. The taxpayer would want records that would be deemed public by the courts to be made public, and should not have to put tax dollars toward significant litigation costs.

Increase budgeting for Portland Street Response. We should keep law enforcement as far away as possible from confrontations with individuals that should be better handled by Portland Street Response. The City continues to pay 7-figure settlements for wrongful death lawsuits where police negligently kill citizens under circumstances that never warranted a law enforcement response to begin with. By making Portland Street Response funding a priority, the City would save on wrongful death lawsuits.

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

Most of my 24 year legal career has been spent in the Criminal Justice System, as a law clerk to a federal judge, a deputy district attorney, a deputy public defender, and, for the past 15 years, almost exclusively representing indigent individuals in federal and state court.

From my standpoint, a pressing issue is the livability of the City and to make it a safe, secure place to work, play, raise a family, visit, and retire. To do so, we must fully fund the work of prosecutors, criminal defense lawyers, and law enforcement. I believe a robust system that ensures the most fair outcomes is dependent on qualified, fully-resourced individuals within the system. Law enforcement has the resources to respond to and investigate calls, while the prosecutors and defense lawyers are able to work the resulting cases fairly, quickly, and ably.

Related: What you need to know about voting in Oregon and Southwest Washington

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?

The quickest way to increase housing is to work with owners and management of underused or vacant office buildings, and consider dual purpose use: residential and office. Of course, such use is dependent on agreement from the owners/management of the building.

The country as a whole is about 3 million residential units short. The lack of housing requires a federal response. The city and/or the state can take action like eliminating single family zoning, or reducing the steps in the permitting process, but unless builders can pencil a project, there will be no building of residential units accessible to lower and middle income residents.

Frankly, if there was a way to “dramatically and quickly increase the availability of housing” this question would not have been asked. City Council could work with other cities to lobby the federal government for local affordable housing subsidies to build housing to help private builders make their projects “pencil.”

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?

At a minimum, the city has a duty to make its citizens safe and secure, at all times, and should fully fund essential services such as a functioning 9-1-1 call center and law enforcement or Portland Street Response to respond to those calls.

The city must also prioritize transportation issues, including road and sidewalk repair, construction, and maintenance. Every single day, we are dependent on good, safe, walkable and drivable roads and sidewalks for our commutes to work, school, entertainment and for the delivery of goods and services to our homes, stores, schools, and hospitals. We must make sure that the transportation corridors within the city are in the finest condition possible.

Related: Issues important to Oregon voters

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 will oppose any new tax or new bond during my two year term. The taxes the City has levied on citizens has grown to the point that Portland has one of the highest tax burdens of any major city.

Indeed, as a recent Oregonian article makes clear, individuals are leaving because of the high tax burden even though the services the City provides are subpar (” “What’s the value proposition?” ... “It’s not just that taxes are higher. It’s that taxes are higher relative to the service provision.” People are looking at long response times for police and ambulances, potholes on the road and the quality of public schools.”)

The city could tax its way into a considerably lower revenue stream by pushing taxpayers away. We need to be mindful of how continuing to squeeze taxpayers, without the attendant corresponding increase of service, could lead, in future years, to less revenue that would jeopardize all programs.

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 am excited to see how ranked choice voting works. Of course, a concern is that individuals don’t understand how ranked choice voting operates and may not fill out their ballot correctly.

However, any other concerns are TBD. We shall see what happens. It all might work out perfectly.

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?

No. Absolutely not. This is outrageous. Plus, what crime have they committed under the scenario presented in this question? What right would the government have to arrest and jail a person here?

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?

No. As noted above: I will oppose any new tax or new bond during my 2 year term on City Council.

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

No. I will oppose any new tax or new bond.

A solution to the climate crisis must come from the federal government. I will oppose any additional taxation on Portland citizens, particularly under any scenario that will have a negligible impact on the imperative need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas.

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

We need to fix what we already have. Let’s improve surfacing of existing degraded driving lanes particularly in parts of the City that have roads cratered with enormous potholes. It is shameful to live in Portland – a first world city – and see our communities suffer from terrible roads and sidewalks.

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

Too much lamenting. Too little action and progress. We need to immediately improve public safety while also encouraging the creation of business in the downtown corridor. Maintaining our existing tax structure with the possibilities of tax rebates may incentivize business creation.