PORTLAND, Ore. — Amid significant budget cuts in Multnomah County, the proposed elimination of four positions within the Office of Sustainability has raised alarms among environmental advocates.
The proposal aims to redirect funds toward homeless services, but critics argue that such cuts would jeopardize crucial efforts to combat climate change and protect public health.
Mary Peveto, co-founder of the grassroots organization Neighbors for Clean Air, emphasized the significance of the Office of Sustainability in addressing environmental issues in their communities.
“If we lose that, we’re losing that proactive, effective work to protect our community from the climate crisis that we’re in,” Peveto stated.
For the past 15 years, Peveto’s organization has worked to close regulatory gaps that expose communities to harmful air pollution, and they attribute much of their success to the support of the Office of Sustainability.
“They’ve been our key ally almost from the beginning,” she added, highlighting the office’s role as a central hub for climate initiatives in the region.
The office has implemented various programs to reduce Multnomah County’s carbon footprint, including enhancing energy efficiency in county buildings and minimizing diesel emissions from construction projects.
Additionally, it spearheads advocacy for environmental laws, such as the wood smoke ordinance that limits wood-burning on poor air quality days.
Earlier this month, the Office of Sustainability unveiled its Climate Justice Plan, which sets ambitious goals to transition the county to 100% renewable electricity by 2035 and to 100% renewable energy by 2050.
With a small team operating on a modest budget, any cuts would profoundly impact its work.
Commissioner Meghan Moyer proposed to cut four of the five positions, leaving just one to manage the office’s initiatives.
Peveto expressed her dismay over the proposal, stating, “Stunned, absolutely stunned, for an office that operates on a tiny budget, the outsized impact that it’s had on proactive public health work related to air pollution, to the climate, to the critical energy infrastructure… them being the only government entity that’s really stepped in and stepped up to address how we mitigate that risk, I mean, the problems they are taking on are huge, and they do it at a tiny cost, so it makes no sense.”
The proposed cuts would save the county just under $700,000, which Moyer intends to allocate towards expanding a homeless mobile intake team and supporting mental health services for individuals experiencing homelessness.
A rally against the potential cuts is scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. outside the Multnomah Building, drawing support from those who believe that climate and homelessness issues need not be pitted against each other.
Former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal also expressed her concerns in a letter to the board of commissioners.
“This is such a hard budget year the county is facing… But the reason I decided to say something about sustainability is, to me, this is a different kind of cut — this is gutting an entire body of work; it’s gutting the county’s work on sustainability and climate change when we know climate change is the most existential threat that we’re facing,” Jayapal stated.
She asserted that the Office of Sustainability holds invaluable credibility and expertise in addressing climate change and should not be sacrificed for immediate budgetary concerns.
Jayapal argues that the agency’s accomplishments far outweigh its operating costs, reinforcing the need for the county to address both climate change and homelessness simultaneously.
“The message that (the cuts send) to say climate change and sustainability are not a priority… is also pretty, pretty damaging,” she added.
Moyer, however, maintains her commitment to sustainability and incorporating such principles into every county department.
She has raised questions regarding the effectiveness of the Office of Sustainability, suggesting that the office has been more focused on a form of ‘greenwashing’ rather than delivering substantive results.
Moyer advocated that funding should be redirected toward initiatives with tangible outcomes.
“The Office of Sustainability, without the authority to do so, went down to Salem and told the legislature that we were okay with being preempted from doing something locally for a bill the legislature’s putting forward, which is far less ambitious than one I was working on,” she asserted.
Moyer’s comments underscore a growing division within the county regarding priorities for funding amidst budget constraints.
As the budget discussions unfold, the fate of the Office of Sustainability hangs in the balance, with advocates urging county leaders to consider the long-term implications of their decisions on both environmental sustainability and the urgent needs of the community.
image source from：https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/multnomah-county-sustainability-office-cuts-homeless-services-budget/283-74e288d8-cd97-4048-a1f2-c167cb470323
