Councilor Sameer Kanal at a Portland City Council meeting on Feb. 5, 2025, Portland, Ore.
Anna Lueck for OPB
As Portland city leaders muddle through a new era of city governance, they’re considering whether to bring back an old tradition: weekly city council meetings.
“We’re currently short on time at council meetings, regularly,” said District 2 Councilor Sameer Kanal, who has introduced an ordinance to return to a weekly meeting schedule. “We can change the constraints.”
For decades, Portland City Council met each Wednesday, spending between two and four hours discussing, debating and voting on policies. If necessary, the five-person council could also meet Thursday afternoon.
Under the new voter-approved form of government, the full 12-person council only meets every other Wednesday: The first meeting is at 9 a.m., the other is at 6 p.m. But their off weeks are jam-packed with more meetings: Each councilor sits on between two and four policy committees. These two-hour long committees, each made up of five councilors, focus on hammering out the details of specific legislation before it heads to the full council.
The committees were meant to save time hashing out policy details before the full council. But that’s not been the case. It’s become commonplace for the bimonthly full council meetings to run far over time as councilors parse policy decisions made in committee meetings they weren’t a part of. These delays have often forced testimony from members of the public to be cut short.
“With a larger council, we have a greater number of items being introduced and a greater number of people to discuss them,” Kanal said. “It’s created the recipe for what we’re dealing with now: An artificial scarcity of meeting time and public comment getting cut off.”
The meeting length is felt most in the monthly council meetings held in the evening. Each of the four evening meetings held this year have run past 10 p.m. One wrapped shortly before 11:30 p.m.
Kanal’s proposed ordinance would address both meeting frequency and length. It calls for holding full council meetings every Wednesday, alternating between morning and evening sessions. And, for night meetings, it directs the council to not introduce any new agenda items after 9 p.m., unless councilors vote to suspend that rule.
Kanal said he believes more meetings will save everyone time.
He also believes the proposal won’t put additional strain on the employees tasked with overseeing city council meetings. Every council meeting needs the support of technology, security, facilities and administrative staff to run smoothly. Staff in the council clerk’s office have already raised concerns about not having enough employees to offer administrative support at every council and committee meeting.
“We are eager to support council in building a new legislative process that is inclusive, accessible and efficient,” Council Clerk Keelan McClymont told OPB last month. “Councilors have clearly stated they want the option to meet longer and more frequently, however.”
Kanal pointed to Mayor Keith Wilson’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts on July 1. If adopted by council next month, that budget would cover the cost of technology, security and facilities staff to cover at least 24 evening council sessions — two per month — for a year. Wilson’s budget also suggests hiring three additional council operations staff.
The ordinance calls for these changes to go into effect July 9, after the new budget dollars have been distributed.
He said he sees his proposal as a way to show the public that the new voter-approved form of governing has their interest in mind.
“We are at a time where there is a decreased trust in government in general,” said Kanal. “We have the opposite of that in Portland, there’s a groundswell of support for our new system. We need to protect our process and let it flourish.”
Kanal is one of several councilors who’ve raised concerns about lengthy, rushed council meetings.
At a council meeting Monday, councilors discussed how the new city governance structure could be improved. District 4 Councilor Eric Zimmerman was straightforward.
“I need more City Council meetings that are focused, weekly and predictable,” he said.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, who presides over the full council meetings, agrees that Kanal’s proposed changes may be needed. But she told OPB that she’s hesitant to take on a structural overhaul before the city’s budget is approved next month.
“Weekly council meetings could provide more opportunity for the public to engage and for us to get through the work of running the city during the day,” said Pirtle-Guiney in a statement. “However, if we move forward with this structure, we all need to be respectful of Portlanders’ time and resources.”
Pirtle-Guiney and others have hinted at plans to potentially reconfigure the city’s committee meetings after the budget has passed.
Kanal’s ordinance is expected to be heard at a council meeting early next month.
