The 10-2 vote, passed as an emergency ordinance, authorizes the $4.6 million spending package to be drawn from contingency dollars in the city’s general fund rather than from the City Administrator’s Office as had been initially submitted by Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney.

Portland City Council held a meeting Wednesday night to discuss the potential for increasing the city budget by up to $4.6 million. Read online:

"Kneecapped." "Defunded." "Not set up for success." Portland City Councilors had blunt words to describe the budget bestowed on them by the prior Council. The city’s new 12-person City Council voted Wednesday evening to increase their budget by nearly $4.

Three years after Portland voters said yes to government oversight, the Portland City Council is still working to establish an ethics commission.