Portland is getting out of corporate investing altogether. The Portland City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to end the practice following pressure from activists to withdraw from companies that are problematic for the environment, human rights or government.

The city has $539 million invested in corporations this year, City Treasurer Jennifer Cooperman said.

Activists for months have urged the Portland City Council to divest from controversial companies. They pleaded with them in December to withdraw from Wells Fargo due to its investments in the Dakota Access Pipeline and from Caterpillar, a company that makes trucks and bulldozers, some of which they say are used to harm Palestinians in the Israel Palestine conflict.

A group of women who call themselves the Raging Grannies sang testimony urging the Portland City Council to divest from Wells Fargo.

Instead, commissioners decided not to invest it in any corporations period, in part to avoid the trouble of having to perpetually decide which corporations the city considers bad actors.

As it divests, the city will put its money in federal bonds and other non-corporate options, Cooperman said. She said the switch will cost the city at least $4.5 million a year.

"This is a win," said Hyung Nam, a member of the city's Socially Responsible Investment Committee tasked with looking into companies' environmental, social and government impact scores. "The city is actually willing to lose money to their budget because they want to get out of these big corporate nightmares."

While the vote was unanimous, Mayor Ted Wheeler said his yes vote was solely to support his colleagues.

The mayor and former Oregon treasurer said he opposes divesting because he worries about the financial hit to the city, which he said will impact his ability to deliver on his campaign promises.

Cooperman estimated divesting could cost the city a minimum $4.5 million or more this year and even more the following year. The mayor estimated that amounts to more than 200 affordable housing units or more than 600 new shelter beds based on current costs.

"I think the hit is too hard," Wheeler said. "I'm erring on the side of doing what I was elected to do."

Wheeler said he also generally opposes divestment because he sees it as a lost opportunity to influence corporations from the inside. He shared examples of times that he said he successfully changed corporate policy as state treasurer, including a time Oregon's pension fund joined with other Chipotle Mexican Grill shareholders to oppose the bonuses and salaries of top executives. Wheeler said he also influenced the Security and Exchange Commission's decision to require corporations to publicly disclose the ratio of their chief executive officers' salary to that of the average employee.

"Is the right way to simply be out of it or the right way to run towards it and fix it head on?" Wheeler asked.

The city will divest over time, Cooperman said. It will take about a year and three months for the city to withdraw from half of its investments and until December 2019 before its final investment, in Wells Fargo, is over.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman told the activists that he based his decision on having limited time that he'd rather spend addressing the city's housing crisis and potholes than regularly evaluating which companies belong on the do-not-buy list.

"I fully respect and appreciate what you're saying, but I think it's the wiser course to get out of the business altogether because I don't want to do this every year," Saltzman said.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly's office is working on a proposal to study the feasibility of creating a municipal bank.

Activists said they hoped the council will create the bank as a next step.

The council on Wednesday took testimony from about 40 activists who spoke in favor of socially responsible investing, urging the city to consider creating a municipal bank and to add Wells Fargo, Caterpillar and other companies harmful to the environment and human rights to a do-not-buy list in the meantime.

As a member of the city's Socially Responsible Investment Committee, Katrina Scotto di Carlo researched many companies in the city's investment portfolio. That the city continued to invest in companies that her research found problematic confounded her, she said.

Ted Gleichman, policy adviser for the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club, said some activists are concerned divesting from all corporations will limit the city's ability to call out particularly bad corporations.

"A lot of people in the room don't know how to react to this," he said.

Wednesday's discussion of the city's corporate investing policy attracted an older group of activists than the twenty-somethings wearing black and red, sporting mohawks and bent on creating anarchy more typically seen at council meetings.

People waved paper ribbons. Fingers silently twinkled in support of testimony. A group calling themselves the Raging Grannies and sporting an eclectic variety of hats sang testimony to the mayor.

"I appreciate that we've had a very civil dialogue here today," Commissioner Nick Fish said. "This is the way Portland has hearings and discussions."

--Jessica Floum

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