PORTLAND, Ore. — There is a proposed change to a city code that has many wanting more public discussion before a decision is made. A vote is scheduled Thursday night and will lay out how the city officially wants to recognize neighborhood associations.
Janet Hawkins lives in Southwest Portland and is a chairperson with the Hayhurst Neighborhood Association. She said she wants to see more transparency from the city as they move forward with their plans. Hawkins and her neighbors are worried that the proposal will wipe out their neighborhood association from the city code. They fear they won’t have as much as say when it comes to plans that being considered in their neighborhood.
“Anytime there is change the office of civic life has not been transparent on what those impacts might be," said Hawkins.
Hawkins and others are worried about the impact of removing references to neighborhood associations from the city code.
City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s office wasn’t available for comment, but she wrote on her Facebook page that “they aren’t dismantling the neighborhood association system." She said things will be virtually unchanged.
Those comments were made after she was speaking at an event last weekend and members of some of the neighborhood associations voiced their concerns to her about the changes to the city code.
The vote is scheduled for Thursday night at the Portland Water Bureau. Even though it’s not a public forum, there will be five minutes of public testimony.