To find out where we are in the process now, read on.
The first HHS & PS meeting about paid sick leave was in November of 2017. At that time, after a brief presentation, the committee went through the ordinance section by section, asking questions and requesting information from city staff on numerous aspects of the ordinance.
The second committee meeting dedicated to this issue was a public hearing on April 24, 2018, at which fifty-nine people testified with varying views on the proposed ordinance.
At our third meeting devoted to paid sick leave (May 8, 2018), the committee received information from city staff in response to the questions and requests posed back at the November meeting and we began to identify areas of the ordinance that will require further examination, deliberation, and potential editing.
Our next HHS & PS meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 12th, in Room 209 at City Hall. At that meeting the committee will be receiving information on two fronts:
- The estimated cost of the ordinance to the city, in terms of material changes that would need to be made to the City's paid sick leave policy as well as the costs of implementation and enforcement; and
- The results from two surveys of members of the business community here in Portland. One survey was conducted by Portland Buy Local, and another by the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce with some questions submitted by the City of Portland.
Once the committee has had a chance to go through this information, we will plan out our next steps.
To stay up to date with this process, you can check back here. You can also sign up to receive the agendas for future HHS & PS meetings as soon as they are posted (usually about 5 days before each meeting).
Just go to the City's Notify Me page, enter your email, and click the envelope icno next to HHS & Public Safety in the Agenda Center tab (about 3/4 of the way down the page). While you're there, you may want to sign up for a few other automatic updates or alerts. There's a lot of good information to be had, and it's only a click away.