Vote Key: 
= cast progressive vote 
= opposed progressive vote 
= absent
< MORE PROGRESSIVE OVERALL LESS PROGRESSIVE OVERALL >
| Vote | Ethan Strimling 100% | Pious Ali 93% | Brian Batson 87% | Justin Costa 67% | Belinda Ray 67% | Spencer Thibodeau 60% | Jill Duson 60% | Nick Mavodones 47% | Kim Cook 40% | . |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affordable Housing Fee for Hotel Developers | Progressive Vote = YES The council voted to require hotel developers to build one affordable housing unit for every 28 new hotel rooms or else pay a fee of $3,806 per hotel room into the housing trust fund, which is used to fund affordable housing. (Market-rate housing developers were previously required to pay a similar fee under the city’s inclusionary zoning law.) | Motion passed 9-0 (January 23, 2019) |  | | | | | | | | | |
| Cook Budget Cut Amendments | Progressive Vote = NO Councilor Kimberly Cook proposed a series of amendments to cut $1.02 million from the city budget, including funding playground equipment at Riverton Elementary School, public art, separated bike lanes, upgraded traffic lights, and the Fort Allen Gazebo. | Motions failed 1-7 (February 20, 2019) | | | | | | | |  |  | |
| Stop Drive-Throughs and Suburban Style Development on Forest Ave | Progressive Vote = YES The council voted to ban drive-throughs, large parking lots, and other suburban-style car-based development on a small stretch of Forest Avenue north of I-295. | Motion passed 9-0 (March 4, 2019) | | | | | | | |  | | |
| Paid Sick Days Ordinance | Progressive Vote = YES After two years of committee deliberation, the council defeated an ordinance sponsored by Mayor Strimling, crafted by Health Committee Chair Belinda Ray and backed by the Maine Women’s Lobby and Southern Maine Workers Center, to require earned paid sick days for all workers. State legislation signed by Gov. Janet Mills shortly after this vote exempted approximately 8,000 workers in Portland and banned local governments from extending protections to exempted workers. | Motion failed 4-5 (May 6, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Restore Funding for Munjoy Hill Fire Engine 1 | Progressive Vote = YES Despite fierce opposition from Portland firefighters, City Manager Jon Jennings proposed decommissioning Engine 1 on Munjoy Hill, leading to slower response times to fires across the city. Mayor Ethan Strimling proposed restoring $400,000 in funding to keep Engine 1 in service. | Motion failed 3-6 (May 20, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Reject Phase-Out of Asylum-Seeker General Assistance and Homeless Shelter Cap | Progressive Vote = YES City Manager Jon Jennings’s budget phased out housing and food aid for asylum-seekers and imposed a cap on homeless shelter capacity, ending the city’s 30-year commitment to never turning away anyone in need of shelter. A successful grassroots campaign for a “moral budget,” led by the immigrant community, homeless advocates, and progressive advocates, called on the council to reject these cuts by restoring $95,000 to the city’s social services budget. These restorations of funding were sponsored by Councilor Costa. | Motion passed 9-0 (May 20, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| School Budget Final Passage | Progressive Vote = YES The Portland School Board unanimously passed the strongest school budget in more than a decade to begin implementation of the “Portland Promise.” The budget increased school funding by 6 percent to expand pre-K, add support staff for at-risk students, and close the achievement gap. The school board’s budget was passed by the council after a reduction of $450,000. | Motion passed 8-1 (May 20, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Transition City Athletic Fields to Organic Pesticides | Progressive Vote = YES City Manager Jon Jennings did not include funding in his proposed budget to fully implement the City’s pesticide ban. The Council added $51,864 to the city budget to fund an additional city staff position in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities to transition the city’s athletic fields to organic standards as required by the pesticide ban passed by the council in 2018. | Motion passed 7-2 (May 20, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Riverside Homeless Shelter | Progressive Vote = NO The council selected 654 Riverside St., six miles from downtown, as the site for a 200-bed homeless shelter to replace the overcrowded Oxford Street Shelter. The council had previously considered sites including the Barron Center, Angelo’s Acre near the Casco Bay Bridge, and County Way next to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s office. 654 Riverside St. was the only site opposed by Preble Street and Homeless Voices for Justice, due to its inaccessibility to people without a car. | Motion passed 5-4 (June 17, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Protect Portland’s Working Waterfront | Progressive Vote = YES Following a grassroots effort to collect signatures for a ballot initiative limiting non-marine development on Portland’s working waterfront, the Council voted to reduce space allowed for non-marine from 150 to 125 feet from Commercial Street. In response, the organizers of the working waterfront ballot initiative elected not take their initiative to the ballot. | Motion passed 9-0 (June 17, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Clean Elections for Portland City Council Races | Progressive Vote = YES The council voted to block a ballot initiative led by Fair Elections Portland to enact a system of public financing for city council and school board races, despite a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for a referendum. The council majority claimed that clean elections could only be enacted through a charter revision, the city-level equivalent of a constitutional amendment. Fair Elections Portland has sued the city for illegally denying ballot access.| Motion failed 2-6 (September 16, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Clean Elections for Portland City Council Races (Charter Revision) | Progressive Vote = YES After the council voted to block the ballot initiative to create a public financing system for city council and school board races, an alternative option was presented to create a charter commission, the city-level equivalent of a constitutional convention, that could re-open the charter and potentially create a clean elections program. | Motion failed 3-5 (September 16, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Plastic Straw Ban | Progressive Vote = YES Eight million tons of plastic flow into the ocean every year, polluting the ocean and ending up in the tissue of fish. Starting in Seattle in 2018, cities across the country have voted to ban single-use plastic straws to reduce plastic pollution. Portland’s ban, sponsored by Councilor Batson, will go into effect next year. | Motion passed 8-0 (October 21, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Moratorium on Racially Biased Facial Recognition Surveillance | Progressive Vote = YES Facial recognition is a racially biased surveillance technology that gives law enforcement the ability to scan photos taken in public without probable cause or judicial review against government databases in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Facial recognition is inaccurate up to 90 percent of the time, especially for people of color. This ban, sponsored by Councilors Ali and Batson, would have banned any use of facial recognition without the express consent of the elected council. | Motion failed 3-5 (November 18, 2019) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Ranked Choice Voting for City Council and School Board Races | Progressive Vote = YES The council voted to advance the charter amendment proposed by Fair Elections Portland to use ranked choice voting in all city council and school board races. Ranked choice voting, listed as Amendment A on the March ballot, passed with 81 percent of the vote. | Motion passed 8-0 (November 18, 2019) | | | | | | | | | |