People First Portland Citizen Initiatives on November 3rd Ballot.
Em Burnett, (L), Jason J. Shedlock, Regional Organizer for LIUNA! and Kate Sykes (R) Address the Press on November 4th Following the People First Portland Victory at the Polls.
The City of Portland staff is readying the implementation of the five citizen initiative ordinances that were passed by Portland voters during the November 3rd election according to a press release issued this morning by the city’s spokeswoman. Staff has completed its legal review of Question A (minimum wage); B (facial recognition); C (Green New Deal), D (rent control) and F (marijuana).
Question A will go into effect in January of 2022 rather than next month as the ordinance required according to the city’s press release. This has opened up the possibility that employers not following the ordinance, may be sued by employees for not following the law.
Specifically, the People First Portland campaign responded at the time: “The Council is turning its back on our essential workers. The Council is also putting our local businesses at risk of owing significant back pay should a business choose to listen to the Council and not implement the legal language. (Please visit post herein dated November 10, 2020 for more information on this).
The Portland City Council held executive sessions on November 10, 16 and 23rd. Implementation guidance and FAOs for all five questions will become available during the week of November 30th. The City will issue a press release with the information and post it on its website.
Proponents of the marginally failed referendum Question E (short term rentals) requested a recount last week. The recount which finished on Friday, November 20, confirmed that the question still failed to pass.
“The passage of most of these ordinances by Portland voters earlier this month is a giant step forward into the 21st century. Local institutions have failed to embrace the 21st century and rather have fought it tooth and nail. It took an educated public to correct the regressive policies stuck in place by city hall, the “Republican Press Herald,” the real estate industry and others that have been detrimental to the lives of so many Portlanders. These policy breakthroughs are representative of many people in Portland, rather than just the select few city officials and its mouthpieces prefer to pamper,” according to a press release issued by munjoyhillnews.com to munjoyhillnews.com. “May they just be the beginning of leaps forward in Portland policies to address the inequal distribution of power in Portland.”
Please visit post herein dated November 4, 2020 for some background information on the citizen initiative effort led by People First Portland and its many coalition members.