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.
Michael O’Callaghan, Portland mayoral candidate, in an undated provided photo.
Courtesy of the candidate
About the candidate
Name: Michael O’Callaghan
Neighborhood: Brooklyn
Renter or Homeowner: Neither/Unhoused
Education: Tigard High 1961, four years of college
Occupation: Lawyer
How long you’ve lived in the city of Portland: Born here
Age: 80
Pronouns: He
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 mayoral candidates’ perspectives on the big issues in this election. Here’s what they had to say.
For each of the following questions, we asked candidates to limit their answers to 150 words.
Why are you the best candidate to serve as mayor at this time? Please point to specific accomplishments as part of your answer.
I have organizational skills and have a long public service record. I am not beholden to any one cause nor seek celebrity. I am not a member of any union, invested in any business or any political parties. Rather than representing an economic or geographic demographic, I would be an agent of all the people of Portland.
To that end, my #1 priority is to create Portland People Polling, a process where ideas from Portland citizens are submitted in an open forum online, vetted for authenticity, discussed, then finalized as proposals. Citizens then vote on them; Yes , No and/or I want to get involved. If the poll shows 65% or more yes votes, the idea is implemented with government assistance if needed.
Truly democratic, PPP will help direct Portland’s future.
My public record requiring organizational skills and cooperation is exemplary.
What are one or two issues that you’d like to draw attention to or champion as mayor that are overlooked or receiving less attention than they deserve?
Air, water and noise pollution. These affect all of us and enforcement of standards is the challenge.
The other important issues are as yet unsolved: housing, shootings and overdose deaths. I have 6 housing solutions. Briefly:
1. permit garage rentals
2. remodel offices to alternative housing
3. impose vacant housing fines
4. allow more unhoused self-governing villages of 25 residents
5. prohibit corporate ownership of housing
6. reexamine the unreinforced masonry code to allow more shelter for humans.
To reduce shootings and ODs, I propose providing a safe place where one can buy any drug on a per-dose basis. There are models for this in NYC and in Europe. We would have chemists, pharmacists and doctors to ensure purity and safety of drugs. There would be clean needles and shoot-up areas. Life support, access to counseling and addiction services on site. Peer support for sobriety would be at the ready.
What specific examples do you have that demonstrate your competence to oversee a city with an $8.2 billion budget?
My record speaks of competence, openness to ideas and the ability to learn. With that, I am smart enough to hire someone who is more learned to teach me what I don’t know. I am not a financial expert but I would like to see where the money is going, and where it is coming from. I prefer to view the budget process as a learning opportunity where I dissect and share information while receiving information from 12 commissioners. The idea is to find majority support as a team player. Our elected commissioners and city departments will reach a consensus. I only vote in a tie.
Related: What you need to know about voting in Oregon and Southwest Washington
What are your biggest concerns, if any, about the new form of government? What role do you think the mayor should play in it?
I have no real concerns; all candidates care. City government is truly better with 26 ears to hear. The existing silo system was difficult to penetrate; there are fiefdoms of power in city bureaus.
Adopting Portland People Polling will give people a platform for gathering around a popular idea through to implementation. The other commissioners will be directed also by the will of the people. Such a system would aid me in finding majority support for an issue.
How would you work to promote and boost Portland nationally as mayor and reinvigorate people’s sense of civic pride?
I would like to rebuild the largest log cabin in the world which burned down in the 1964. It was built in 1905 in NW Portland by Montgomery Park for the Lewis and Clark Exposition. We still have a thriving forestry industry and skilled workers to do this.
When the world sees that Portland has solved housing, overdoses, open drug use, shootings, and air pollution, they will come. Watch downtown become vibrant with integrated office/housing and safe neighborhoods. We will again be the model for other urban areas. Remember, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
What are your biggest concerns, if any, about the new form of government? What role do you think the mayor should play in it?
I have no real concerns; all candidates care. City government is truly better with 26 ears to hear. The existing silo system was difficult to penetrate; there are fiefdoms of power in city bureaus.
Adopting Portland People Polling will give people a platform for gathering around a popular idea through to implementation. The other commissioners will be directed also by the will of the people. Such a system would aid me in finding majority support for an issue.
How would you work to promote and boost Portland nationally as mayor and reinvigorate people’s sense of civic pride?
I would like to rebuild the largest log cabin in the world which burned down in the 1964. It was built in 1905 in NW Portland by Montgomery Park for the Lewis and Clark Exposition. We still have a thriving forestry industry and skilled workers to do this.
When the world sees that Portland has solved housing, overdoses, open drug use, shootings, and air pollution, they will come. Watch downtown become vibrant with integrated office/housing and safe neighborhoods. We will again be the model for other urban areas. Remember, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
Related: Issues important to Oregon voters
How can the city of Portland and Multnomah County improve their existing partnership to more effectively address the homelessness, addiction and behavioral health crises?
The county and city housing bureaus should be merged! They are at odds and as powerbrokers for jobs and departments, are not effective. The conflict should dissolve with the adoption of housing folks in garages and encouraging more self-governing villages. If churches want to house people, they certainly can be encouraged.
Editor’s note: Multnomah County does not operate a “housing bureau.” The county does oversee the Joint Office of Homeless Services, which works to place people into housing and it funded by both the city and county.
If elected, you will oversee the police chief. What is your opinion of police bureau priorities and operations and what changes, if any, would you make? Would you push for the city to fund hundreds more police officers than the City Council has already authorized? If yes, where would you find the money?
I think the police priorities are in order. I see no need for change. Violent crimes are their No. 1 priority. Trafficking humans is No. 2. After that, they must continue to have a presence to ensure the safety of everyone. On our streets and sidewalks, our schools and where crowds congregate.
No, I would not move for more police when there is a budget shortfall.
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 have refused repeated offers of shelter, such as the option to sleep in a city-designated tiny home cluster?
We don’t have all the money to arrest the unhoused! Nor do we have enough places for them to live. You arrest people for bad behaviors, for acting in an unsafe or threatening manner. Not for sleeping on a sidewalk. Adopting my 6 housing proposals would render this question moot.
Have the problems impacting downtown Portland received too much or too little attention among current city leaders? Are there other specific neighborhoods in the city that have not received enough attention?
The problems of Portland are everywhere, yet downtown gets the majority of the press. Portlanders living and traveling east of 42nd daily see areas that have gotten the short end of the media stick. City commissioners representing districts will soon bring their needs into the limelight.
Do you support the decision to use millions from the Portland Clean Energy Fund to backfill budget holes in various city bureaus? Would you seek to continue, expand or halt that practice?
I would not disturb a one-time backfill to bring us closer to meeting needs. Beyond that, we need to use the money as voters intended. Halt the practice by the next fiscal year.
Do you support a potential change to the region’s homeless services tax that would direct some of the program’s unanticipated revenue to construct more affordable housing? Why or why not?
That is yet to be decided. With my proposals, there is no need to build affordable housing because I have six housing solutions.
Describe the qualities and experience you will seek in a city administrator. Describe the working relationship you plan to build with the top administrator and their half dozen deputies.
Qualities: experience, education, past history, family, ease of communication, knowledge, outdoor activities, quirky. With the administration, I would seek a free flow of all information without hierarchy. I would seek in others, as I try to do, have the qualities of listening, collaborating and implementing.