Councilor Green Proposes to Restore Funding for Fire Engine and Rescue Teams

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(PORTLAND, OR.) - Portland City Councilor Mitch Green announced a budget amendment that restores frontline public safety personnel and services by trimming managerial bloat across City bureaus. The amendment, Portland Fire and Rescue First, delivers on years of demands from organized labor to stop the replacement of workers who deliver services with redundant layers of highly paid administration.

"I've heard from nurses, teachers, and city workers: the people delivering services are being cut while management ranks continue to swell," said Councilor Green. "Our city has seen a disproportionate growth in managers relative to frontline workers since 2019. The Portland Fire and Rescue First amendment reverses this trend. It restores first responders that Portlanders depend on, and it pays for them by trimming where it makes the most sense."

The amendment protects and restores union jobs that deliver core services that the Mayor's proposed budget eliminated:

• Fire Station 22: Fully reverses cuts that would eliminate the fire engine and reduce on-duty firefighters serving the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub and the St. Johns community. This amendment preserves the station that provides necessary capacity for routine and disaster response in residential neighborhoods and industrial areas.
• Advanced Life Support (ALS) Rescue Units: Reverses half of the cuts to ALS services. This amendment prioritizes shorter response times and rescue units' ability to manage simultaneous incidents.

To fund these restorations, Portland Fire and Rescue First would apply a 20% reduction to management up through the deputy city administrator positions across City bureaus.

Labor unions have long argued that adding well-compensated administrators while eliminating the workers who directly serve the public erodes both service quality and worker morale.

"Workers in every corner of the public sector have been raising this alarm," Councilor Green said. "We're told there's no money for first responders, but we keep finding money for another layer of management. This amendment protects Portlanders and the people who protect us."

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