OPB’s First Look: Complaints against Portland police initiative

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Good morning, Northwest.

A controversial ballot proposal would divert a quarter of the Portland Clean Energy Fund to hire 400 police officers.

Earlier this month, the group behind the initiative announced it had collected more than 63,000 signatures in support. But some opponents say canvassars misled people in order to get enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

OPB’s Monica Samayoa begin’s today’s newsletter with this story.

In other news, a statewide hotline for Oregonians affected by wildfires has been set up as a fire weather watch is in place for much of the state tomorrow.

Here’s your First Look at Friday’s news.

— Sukhjot Sal

Top story

Portland police funding initiative generates dueling complaints of misleading canvassing, ‘manufactured’ opposition

Suzanne Thorson was at a North Portland parade earlier this summer when a man approached her and asked her to sign a petition to “reduce emergency response times.” When she asked how that would happen, he said, “I guess hire more people.”

Thorson signed the petition, but the following day, she learned that it proposed diverting funds from the Portland Clean Energy Fund to hire more police.

“I was duped!” she wrote in her formal complaint to the secretary of state’s elections office on June 28 detailing her experience. She requested to have her signature removed and said she no longer supported the measure. Thorson’s is one of 97 official complaints filed with the state regarding the Enhanced Community Safety initiative.

The ballot initiative in question proposes using 25% of the Portland Clean Energy Fund’s annual revenue to hire 400 police officers. That’s about $50 million that would be diverted from the city’s climate action fund each year.

The campaign has been critical of the complaints, saying opposition was “manufactured” and represents a small number of people who signed. (Monica Samayoa)

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3 things to know

• The National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch for tomorrow in large areas of north-central, northeast and southeast Oregon, including where two massive wildfire complexes are already burning more than 300,000 acres each. (Casey Frizzell, Jen Baires and Lillian Karabaic)
• Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek announced yesterday she is canceling the sale of state-owned property at Salem’s Mill Creek Corporate Center where developers have plans to build a data center. (Lauren Dake)
• Portland Trail Blazers officials arrived at City Hall yesterday, saying that the city needs to do more than just help fund a roughly $575 million renovationof the Moda Center if it wants to assure the Blazers’ long-term presence in the state. (Dirk VanderHart)

A Southwest Washington race could help determine who controls Congress

Reporters Lauren Dake, Erik Neumann and Elena Neale-Sacks discuss the hottest races in the upcoming Southwest Washington primary and what to watch in Clark County.(Lauren Dake, Erik Neumann and Elena Neale-Sacks)

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Northwest headlines

• PAC spending surges against Dems hoping to flip Southwest Washington House districts (Erik Neumann)
• Lawsuit says Portland, Multnomah County could fail disabled residents in a wildfire or other disaster (Courtney Sherwood)
• ‘Our livestock depended on us to be there’: A Warm Springs rancher tries to keep wild horses safe from fire (Crystal Ligori)
• Portland moves to regulate robotaxis (Julia Pickar)
• Seattle Police Chief Barnes has resigned; mayor makes it official after hours of silence (Catharine Smith, Katie Campbell and Scott Greenstone, KUOW)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• ‘Light of Day’ memoir tells story of Portland family’s heartbreaking struggle with childhood cancer
• Warm Springs radio station KWSO keeping community up to date with latest on wildfires

One more look

More breaking newts on the way from Oregon Zoo

The Oregon Zoo just announced the hatching of their first Mazama newt babies.

The zoo’s effort to breed these rare newts is part of an effort to revive the critically small population in their native Crater Lake.

This cohort of 20 (and counting) newtlets represent the first time this imperiled amphibian has reproduced under human care. (Courtesy of Michael Durham via Oregon Zoo)

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