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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.
About the candidate
Name: Keith Wilson
Neighborhood: Concordia
Are you a renter or homeowner: Owner
Education: University of Portland/MBA, Business Administration and Management; Oregon State University/BS, Business Administration and Marketing; Portland Community College/AA, Business Administration and Management; Roosevelt High chool/Graduate
Occupation: President and CEO of TITAN Freight Systems, Founder of Nonprofit, Shelter Portland
Age (and when/whether that will change before the election): 60 years old. Yes, Keith will turn 61 in October.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Why are you the best candidate to serve as mayor at this time? Please point to specific accomplishments as part of your answer.
Portlanders are dismayed by how our city became a national symbol for failed leadership. Our city has the lowest job growth, the highest downtown vacancy rate, and burdensome taxes on working families. Families and businesses have fled. We can’t keep electing the same failed city politicians and expect change.
I’m a green business leader, an innovator, and an operations expert with a proven record of advancing bipartisan legislation and environmental transformation. My nonprofit Shelter Portland shows we can end unsheltered homelessness for a fraction of what the city already spends.
I’m running because I no longer recognize the city I was born and raised in. It isn’t normal to have blocks choked with tents and open drug use or graffiti, boarded-up windows, and empty storefronts where we should have thriving neighborhoods. I can bring real change to Portland where our insider politicians have failed.
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?
The unsheltered homelessness and economic missteps at our doorstep have made it easy to deprioritize the climate crisis. Throwing more taxpayer money at Portland’s poorly managed PCEF fund won’t make a difference, but smart environmental policy will.
Black carbon is a nasty greenhouse gas with up to 1,500 times the potency of carbon dioxide, and a major cause of health and environmental damage. I was the chief petitioner of HB 3590, which passed committee with unanimous, bipartisan support. Fully implemented, it would remove 35,000 tons of black carbon from the skies of Oregon annually.
Between federal grants, state rebates and credits, and the plunging cost of high-capacity battery technology, there has never been a better time to convert Portland’s vehicle fleet to electric power. As one of the first freight carriers in the nation to go electric, I have the experience to do the same for our city.
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What specific examples do you have that demonstrate your competence to oversee a city with an $8.2 billion budget?
I have decades of experience in team leadership, complex logistical and financial operations, process management, and systems improvement. I hold a Master of Business Administration at the University of Portland with an emphasis in operations and technology, and a Lean Six Sigma black belt certification, the highest level.
My leadership at TITAN Freight Systems has demonstrated exceptional management competence for large-scale operations. TITAN earned a B-Corp status for commitment to the environment and community, is a national safety leader, and was named National Innovator of the Year two years running.
As a citizen, I’ve dedicated my life to lifting up the voices of others. I’m vice chair of Word is Bond, an organization dedicated to mentoring Portland’s future leaders, and founder of Shelter Portland, which seeks to end unsheltered homelessness in our city. My experience is vast, and relevant, and will meet Portland’s moment of crisis.
Keith Wilson, Portland mayoral candidate, in an undated provided photo.
Courtesy of the candidate
What are your biggest concerns, if any, about the new form of government? What role do you think the mayor should play in it?
My biggest concern about the new form of government is that we miss our moment. The next Mayor of Portland will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to break through political gridlock and highly siloed bureaucratic inefficiency.
This failure of our current city politicians has cost our city billions in lost wages, rent, and tourism dollars, forcing painful cuts to the city budget and public education. While we’ve seen some encouraging “green shoots” of economic development, the overall financial and social picture shows how badly our leadership has failed. Electing one of our failed city leaders into the Mayor’s office will double down on the dysfunction of the status quo.
The role of mayor will be both operational and inspirational. Portland has historically been a highly sought-after destination for residents and businesses alike. Bringing in a new generation of young Portlanders requires city leadership, families, and businesses to trust and believe in.
How would you work to promote and boost Portland nationally as mayor and reinvigorate people’s sense of civic pride?
Portlanders are not fair-weather champions of the city we love. Our city, our culture, our natural environment, and our citizens are exceptional. Reinvigorating civic pride and inviting back families, jobs, and businesses requires just one thing: getting basic governance right.
Families want to stay, but they need safe routes to school. Businesses want to grow, but they need a thriving downtown and neighborhoods. Tourists want to visit, but they need clean, bustling streets.
The Portland renaissance we all want is within our reach. We can end unsheltered homelessness and open drug use. We can revitalize our communities and businesses. We can support our first responders and fix the overwhelmed systems that have cost lives. We can be a Portland that no longer leaves our most vulnerable to suffer. Best of all, we can do all this with the time, energy, people, and taxpayer money we’ve already committed to our city.
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Mayor Ted Wheeler has already warned that next year’s budget will be a difficult one as costs rise and forecasts call for lower revenue. What would guide your decisions in developing a budget, what specific ideas would you explore to minimize service reductions and are there specific areas where you would look to make cuts?
The latest municipal budget saw a citywide cut and the next budget promises more painful cuts. Portland’s tax base is melting away, due to entirely preventable, self-inflicted wounds. We’re losing families and businesses in droves. The consequences of this area felt everywhere, including a $30 million cut from our transportation budget despite passing a critical gas tax.
Portland spends about $300 million annually on the aggregated costs of unsheltered homelessness. Peer cities have proven that for less than $25 million, we can end unsheltered homelessness altogether. Instead, we are shoveling money into the unaccountable, ineffective Joint Office of Homelessness Service.
If civic livability continues to deteriorate, we’ll continue to see a downward spiral and outwards migration of Portlanders, jobs, and businesses, tax revenue, and service erosion until our failed city leadership is replaced by elected representatives willing to follow the proven solutions enacted by other cities.
How can the city of Portland and Multnomah County improve their existing partnership to more effectively address the homelessness, addiction and behavioral health crises?
Portland city government must no longer delegate or lay blame for our fundamental responsibilities. Until 2016, Portland was in charge of sheltering the unsheltered within the city. Costs increased substantially and efficacy sharply dropped once that responsibility was delegated to the Joint Office of Homelessness Service (JOHS), a Multnomah County-controlled department. The result was that costs exploded without adding any additional beds and now Portland/Multnomah County has the highest unsheltered rate in the nation, outside of California.
We are in the midst of a declared homeless emergency. As mayor, I will re-establish clear lines of what each jurisdiction provides. We must listen and learn from those who have found successful solutions in their respective cities. We must lead, compassionately and cost-effectively, to shelter our unhoused population, end public camping, and once again enforce our community safety laws on tents, RVs, and public sanitation.
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?
From 2005 to 2024, Portland’s population increased 31% while the number of Portland Police Bureau officers shrank by 23%. Due to the unsheltered homelessness crisis, our current leadership has allowed it to go unaddressed, approximately 50% of all arrests in Portland now involve our unsheltered.
The consequences of this failed leadership have been severe. For years, Portland had no traffic division, compounding a nationwide spike in traffic deaths, and more recently dissolved the property crimes unit despite 96% of property crimes going unsolved. Response times have quadrupled, if there are any officers available at all.
Portlanders must feel safe in their city and confident that calling 911 means help is on the way. This is not negotiable. As mayor, I’ll focus on freeing up first responder resources by dealing with the unsheltered homelessness crisis, and once more focus on law enforcement issues that matter to the safety of our families.
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 cannot arrest our way out of our homelessness crisis, and I do not support jailing individuals for simply refusing shelter. We can, however, provide enough emergency nighttime shelters to legally enforce our existing laws on tent encampments, RVs, car camping, and illegal dumping.
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?
With a vacancy rate among the highest in the nation and a decimated commercial property market, Portland’s downtown has received far too little attention and action from city leaders. City leaders have also critically neglected North and East Portland neighborhoods.
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?
City leadership has siphoned away millions from the Portland Clean Energy Fund without a clearly articulated goal or financial accountability. I strongly oppose diverting PCEF funds to any purpose other than originally intended by Portland voters. We must return this critical program to effective renewable energy projects and jobs.
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?
Multnomah County’s poorly designed supporting housing services tax has contributed to the flight of high-skilled workers from Portland. The tax has not been adjusted for inflation, and the “unanticipated revenue” encourages irresponsible, unaccountable spending. I support adjusting the tax to fit a clear, measurable goal of ending unsheltered homelessness.
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.
I will hire a city administrator capable of breaking through political gridlock and bureaucratic inefficiency. My role will be to contribute operational expertise and inspirational vision as we serve Portland, setting the city on a path to a greener, brighter, more pragmatic, and successful future.
