Portland’s City Council and Police Bureau contract negotiators have no ground to stand on until they first fully staff the 100-plus officer vacancies. Portland’s citizens are underserved, and officers are over-stressed going from call to call. This is how police errors get made; but City Council members don’t seem to get this, and their stubbornness reflects it. While calling Portland a “cesspool” might be an overstatement, the council’s failure to firmly deal with street camping and ignoring the reality that a growing portion of homeless are in need of institutionalization is in itself a national embarrassment. Hopefully, this year’s crop of candidates for four out of five council seats will speak out in support of fully staffing the Police Bureau. They will get my vote.

Frank DiMarco, Portland