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(from left) District 1 city councilors Candace Avalos and Loretta Smith with a constituent at an East County Rising event.
Saundra Sorenson
Published: 18 December 2024

Smith brings an impressive political pedigree to office: Upon graduating from Oregon State, she began working for Ron Wyden, who was then a U.S. representative. She stayed in his office for two decades, specializing in constituent services. In 2011, she won a seat on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, was termed out in 2018, and ran for both a congressional seat and twice for city council.

The third run was a charm for Smith, who will join Candace Avalos and Jamie Dunphy to represent East Portland, newly minted as District 1.

The Skanner sat down with Smith, who told us why she’s excited to be a part of the most diverse cohort of city representatives Portland has ever had.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

The Skanner: What are your priorities in East Portland?

Smith: The first thing that I’m going to be prioritizing is trying to make sure that we get district offices, like the charter wanted and the (Government Transition Advisory Commission) recommended.

That’s so important. Particularly, I think it’s more important for us. I think we should all have district offices, but it becomes more important the further away you are from downtown, the base of power. And if we have district offices in East Portland, where we can meet people where they’re at and they can tell us what’s going on in their community so that we can be more effective as city legislators.

We have more representation today than we’ve ever had for people east of 82nd, and so we really need to hold the mayor and the city manager (accountable). We need those offices paid for in the budget. I think everybody understands that it’s a new day, and we have a new front door to city hall. And that front door enters in east Portland, because we’re on the edge of east Portland and Gresham. 

The Skanner: How do you see representation changing for East Portland?

Smith: We had about 16 people who ran for that office, and they really had an opportunity to go out and talk to people over the summer and during the fall to pitch their ideas. Everybody had a niche group of folks that they were talking to, so I actually think that the people that ran against me and with me in District 1 are actually going to be a resource. Everybody brought a constituency to the table that had not been heard, that felt that they were vulnerable. (District 1 candidates) understood that finding opportunities for vulnerable people who were living on the streets to come inside was a big issue. It’s not just public safety alone, it’s identifying workforce opportunities for people that are houseless, finding those wraparound supports that we have an abundance of money for over in the joint office.

Candace and Jamie Dunphy – these folks are all workers, and we all are going to represent District 1 in a big way. I think it’s about being relentless, and going back to those people that we talked to and met with so many times, engaging them in the process, putting them on advisory committees to be a voice – now we have those people who are out there, who want to be called upon. I think it’s just been a matter of us not calling upon people in East Portland.

The Skanner: What are your thoughts on the recent election, where voters were introduced to ranked-choice voting and asked to select multiple representatives for a new, larger city government?

I think the outcomes would’ve still been the same because of the trending of where those votes were coming from, but it was just really disappointing. It was voter suppression, in a way that we didn’t think would happen. We just assumed everyone was going to be really happy about having this new form of government. I just think that on top of everything else that’s going on nationally, people just got overwhelmed with the whole process. And you say, you could’ve at least spent five or 10 minutes just researching the people. In our district, there were 16 (candidates) – that’s 160 minutes. People don’t have that kind of time. They were not as ambitious about learning about so many new people.

I think that was our training ground, and I think we have to educate earlier. We had a sense of community that I felt among the people that were running in District 1 and District 2, 3 and 4. There was about 98 of us, and we were trying to support one another. That was the first time I really felt that sense of community like we did. We were really rooting for each other. 

The Skanner: What are your impressions of the incoming city council?

Smith: I’m very optimistic that everyone is going to do their homework and they’re going to do a great job, and they really are coming in with great ideas. Like I said, they all have constituencies within constituencies, and they are going to bring their best ideas forward. They’re going to bring their best strategies and talent – this is going to be an opportunity for East Portland to really rise, and to have that kind of representation that people envisioned when they redid the charter.

Do you realize that we have a BIPOC caucus? It’s five women of color, and we’ve got Sameer (Kanal), who are on this council.

I’m so excited, it is just now hitting me that I’m actually going to be a part of this historical run to change this government that has been around so long. I’m excited to be one of the ones that will get the opportunity to build something that can be held up as a model across the United States. 

The Skanner: What inspired you to run for a seat on this new council?

I was not going to run, but then I thought of the opportunity. I thought of my three grandkids, and my two granddaughters, and I was like, if I don’t do this I’m just going to kick myself forever. I don’t care how many times I run for this office, I will run again. Even though I might be the Susan Lucci of this district, I’m running because I think there are still voices in those communities of color – they matter. And this is where we’re at, and we did such a great job in District 1 of capturing voices of BIPOC communities, and I think we needed to make sure that we had that same opportunity for the city of Portland.

When I heard and I understood that offices were going to be put out in East Portland, and that we were going to have some real public engagement and constituent services – that’s where I come from, that’s where I started, in Congressman Wyden’s office, doing constituent services – to be able to do that, I thought, this is really going to be good. The management that was taking place, with each of the current councilors and the bureaus, that was one issue. We have to reset those skill sets and energies and put that into constituent services.

We flipped city hall on their heads. We have a new front door, and that front door starts in East Portland. 

The Skanner: You’ve done some city onboarding activities with your fellow city councilors in the lead-up to taking office Jan. 2. What is your sense of how this new council will work?

You’ve got all these different experiences, and then we have a thread that runs through all of us. That thread is that we all want to make sure that people are being represented who have never been represented in this way before.

We got the right mix. You have to trust the voters. 

The Skanner: How will this new district system change how city councilors work with constituents?

Smith: Instead of just having one person that is citywide that might come out to your district, now we’re set up where we’ll be going to neighborhood association meetings on the regular.

And I’ve already done one already, two weeks ago: It wasn’t official, but Wilkes (Neighborhood Association) invited me and gave me a whole hour to talk to them. I had a chance to listen to some of the concerns they have out there and the concerns, like: People are buying homes who are straw buyers, and they’re turning homes into group homes without letting the state know.

There are a lot of things going on around public safety they told us about. I was really happy to have that opportunity and to have that venue, to be able to listen. That’s the thing. They haven’t had city council people out here to listen to them in Wilkes – on the border of Gresham and Portland.

I’m really excited to bring some of those budget hearings out here to East Portland. Generally we’ve had those hearings in city hall. I’m excited for the opportunity to have a budget hearing out here and really hear from the people who live out here in this district.

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