There is so much going in the world around and
we’re all living in such a state of tension over the election, that it is easy
to lose track of the continuing work in the City. I offer this blog as a
way to temper some of that heightened anxiety. Good work is
happening.
Council this week moved forward on three important pieces. On Monday night,
Council reviewed the revised plans for community workshops and focus groups to
review the Community Safety Initiative investments. These discussions are
an opportunity for the City to return to organizations representing BIPOC
communities, in particular, for a deeper look at the allocation of funding
within the Community Safety Initiative. Councilors wanted to be sure that
enough time was allowed for staff to engage in smaller group discussions, as
well as to offer an opportunity for the community as a whole to revisit the
matrix of investments. The CSI includes funds for police staffing,
municipal court and community court, as well homeless services and CAHOOTS. In
response to the protest demands this summer, we understood that communities of
color had not been offered enough opportunities to identify how the public
safety system could best meet their needs. Staff will begin outreach to those
organizations this month and conduct workshops, focus groups and a survey over
the winter before returning to Council in early 2021.
On Wednesday, Council returned to their discussion of Urban Reserves and
voted in favor of the plan that identifies a 27-year supply of developable land
outside the existing Urban Growth Boundary (UGB.) This land would be eligible
for incorporation into the UGB after the year 2032 if all existing development
options have been exhausted within the UGB. This 27-year option was one
of four possible options presented to both County Board and Council. The
County Planning Commission recommended a 30-year option that included some
Class 1 agricultural land which was excluded in the 27-year option. The
Board will vote on November 10th. The two jurisdictions must agree on a
single recommendation. This is an important planning step and a
challenging one. We need to ensure we have land available for our growing
community while also preserving farm and forest land. It is not easy to
predict the need; but the decision ties together our commitments for compact
development, responsiveness to climate change, and resiliency.
The second discussion on Wednesday revolved around a recommendation from the
Human Rights Commission that the City recognize “housing status” as a protected
class. Staff presented an elucidating clarification of Council’s options and
the implications of their choices. There are two different governing laws
that could be amended to include this language. The first is the City’s
Human Rights Code, which protects people from discriminatory actions in
employment, housing, public contracting and public accommodations. It was
not clear how this might conflict or confuse the City’s Ordinance against
camping, for example. For some advocates, that is the motivation for
requesting the change. Council requested a follow-up work session to have
a deeper discussion of the intended and unintended consequences of this change.
The second option is to add protection to the unhoused in the Hate and Bias Law
that forbids intimidation in the second degree. This is separate from the Human
Rights Code and can be more readily changed. The City is already in the
process of updating some of our code language to “true up” with changes in
State law. Council voted to include homelessness or unhoused as a
protected status in a code amendment to the Hate and Bias Law to be included
with the other code amendments coming to council shortly. This is an
important step in shining a light on the predation that endangers people who
are living without shelter and specifying those hate and bias crimes for
criminal charges.
This is all work that acts on our commitments to racial justice, to compact
development and climate change, and to protection of the most vulnerable among
us. Take heart. We often don’t move fast enough, but we are moving
forward.