Commissioner Amanda Fritz looks back on her 12 years on the Portland City Council

When Amanda Fritz joined the Portland City Council in 2008, things looked a lot different. The council was all white, all male besides Fritz, and the country was in the midst of the Great Recession. After 12 years on the Portland City Council, Fritz retires this week and with that, ushers in the most diverse city council in Portland’s history. Commissioners-elect Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio will join Jo Ann Hardesty and Dan Ryan on the council, along with Mayor Ted Wheeler. Mapps will be the fourth Black member to serve on the council. Rubio will be the first Latina member.

Fritz is a retired psychiatric nurse who first got involved in civic life as a neighborhood activist. She won her first seat on the council with the help of Portland’s original attempt at public campaign financing. And near the end of her tenure, she successfully created a new public financing system that took effect this year.

Commissioner Fritz joined OPB’s Crystal Ligori to look back at her three terms on the Portland City Council.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Crystal Ligori: So what are you feeling now, at the end of your time in office?

Amanda Fritz: I came into office at the beginning of the recession, the Great Recession. And now here we are, at the end of 2020, which — well — we have no reason to talk about 2020, it’s had so many challenges, and opportunities as well. So I’m feeling tired, obviously. Happy with the work that we’ve got done. Happy with the new council, who I believe is going to do even more good work. And, kind of wondering what’s going to be next for the Fritz family, and for all of us in 2021.

Ligori: You began your work in public life here as a neighborhood activist, and you’ve been a vocal advocate for neighborhood associations during your time on the City Council. That system has been subject to some increased scrutiny and criticism in recent years. Some say that the current setup maybe gives white or wealthier Portlanders disproportionate influence. What’s your response to that concern?

Fritz: It’s always been about community involvement, and about making sure that everybody’s voices are heard and everybody feels welcome. So we created the Diverse Civic Leadership Program when I had the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, to bring in some communities of color whose affinities are not geographically based. I was actually working on a program known as Communities Beyond [Neighborhood] Boundaries when I was in charge of the neighborhood system in 2016. We need a community engagement system in Portland, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all, and it hasn’t been ever since Tom Potter. Everybody needs to feel welcome, and neighborhood associations are valued by some, and they do a lot of really good work. And they are now partnering with other community organizations to make sure that everybody’s voices are heard and valued.

Ligori: And we know you also helped create the city’s system of publicly funded elections. If we look ahead a few years, how will we know that it’s working?

Fritz: I think we only need to look at this year, with three of four candidates elected using the program, the first majority minority council ever. It’s been successful for women, for people of color — and for white people, for Commissioner [Dan] Ryan, for example. So, it’s already been hugely successful. I am a big supporter, also, of the commission form of government. I think it works really well to share power and make sure that people get a response from me, whether I live in Southwest, and they live in East Portland, or anywhere. I’m responsible for the whole city, and I believe that that’s a system that works really well.

Ligori: Do you think the tone of City Hall, and city politics in general, has changed in your 12 years?

Fritz: It’s never static. Obviously, for the last four years, we’ve been dealing with a national administration that has been divisive and hasn’t fostered the desire for true community engagement and civic discourse. So that has been very challenging, because Portlanders — I mean, we used to get scolded for being “Portland polite,” and never talking about challenging issues like racism and poverty and houselessness. That has now changed. And yet we have not yet, in some cases, figured out, how do we talk about those issues in ways that are constructive and productive, rather than destructive and hurtful?

Ligori: What is the thing that you’re most proud of, in your time on the Portland City Council?

Fritz: It probably isn’t one thing, but if they had to pick one thing, I would say the establishment of the Office of Equity and Human Rights with Mayor Sam Adams in 2011. It truly has changed how City of Portland government does business, and how we are more aware of our responsibilities to all communities, to serve them, to include them, to employ them. It’s made a huge difference. On December 17th, we had a resolution at council that talks about the progress we’ve made towards the city’s core values over the past decade. And the Office of Equity and Human Rights, first led by Dante James and now by Dr. Markisha Smith, has made a huge difference in how we do business.

Ligori: Portland has lost a number of its veteran leaders over the past few years. Commissioners Dan Saltzman, and Nick Fish, and now your retirement. When you depart, Mayor Ted Wheeler will be the veteran member of the Portland City Council after just one term in office. Do you have any concerns about the impact on city policy? And do you have advice for this new generation of city leadership?

Fritz: Well, unlike the very sad loss of Commissioner Fish, I will continue to be here in Portland and engaged in different ways. So I will certainly — I haven’t been shy over the last 12 years giving mayors my opinion about things — and I will continue to give Mayor Wheeler advice. He’s the first two-term mayor that we’ve had this century. I believe that’s a very positive thing for Portland. Commissioner Dan Ryan, although he’s only been on the council for a few months, has a lifetime of service in nonprofits and as an elected member of the Portland Public Schools Board, so he has a lot of experience. Commissioner [Jo Ann] Hardesty has been active in Portland for 30 years, and brings a wealth of knowledge about city business. So certainly, each of us has our strengths and our areas where we don’t know as much. I will certainly be chiming in on land use and planning issues, because that has been my passion ever since I was on the Portland Planning Commission, and not something that any of the council in 2021 are going to be particularly focused on. Although Commissioner-elect Carmen Rubio, who’s succeeding me, is going to be in charge of [the Bureau of] Planning and Sustainability. So I’m really excited for her, that the combination of that and Portland Parks and Recreation and the Office of Community Technology has some huge opportunities for what we can do to make Portland even better for even more people.

Ligori: And we know that this year has created new challenges, but also exacerbated existing ones for the city. What are you most worried about as you’re leaving office?

Fritz: I’m concerned that we are not talking to each other constructively, collaboratively, that we are not supporting people who are trying to do the right thing, and recognizing that people are trying to do the right thing, and that improvements can always be made. But our police officers, for example, are striving to do the right thing, the vast majority of them. And we need to respect and support those who are doing the right thing, while at the same time making sure that those who do not do the right thing are held accountable. We can do both. We have to do it by sitting at the table and talking and figuring it out together, rather than by vandalism and destruction in the streets. And we have to get back to civility in the way that we talk with each other, both on the council and nationally. I’m very hopeful that our new president will be less apt to say things that divide people, and more trying to help people get together. Now more than ever, as we’re all so sick and tired of COVID-19, we need to remember that only by working together are we going to make things better.

To hear the full conversation with outgoing Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, click play on the audio player at the top of this article.