Portland Council restores $800,000 to finish City Data and Privacy Office
Portland Council restores $800,000 to finish City Data and Privacy Office
Publish Date: 2026-05-22 02:26:00
Source Domain: katu.com
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Portland City Councilors wrapped up their marathon budget session late Wednesday night still divided on many issues.
Following three days of deliberation over more than 40 amendments to Mayor Keith Wilson’s proposed budget, 16 were approved, and only three were approved unanimously.
One of those amendments City Council fully supported was restoring $800,000 for the completion of the City Data and Privacy Office.
It comes after the Council already approved the creation of the office earlier this year and directed the city administrator to create a proposal to staff it.
District 3 Councilor Steve Novick, who co-sponsored the amendment, told KATU the idea for the City Data and Privacy Office came from city employees who were doing data-related work and realized there was no consistent policy across bureaus for how data was collected and secured.
Novick said each city bureau has contracts with vendors who have access to the personal data of Portlanders and said it’s important to have a clear and consistent system and tracking method to ensure vendors are not able to move or sell personal information.
“We have a good information security program, so I don’t believe what we are looking to resolve is information security,” said Deputy City Administrator Tracy Warren. “What we’re looking to resolve is governance over the data that the city has access to across our enterprise and making sure that it’s governed across the city in a way that is consistent, protects folks’ information, and provides the support to bureaus so that they know what the standard framework is.”
Approving the amendment finalizes the deployment of the office by filling the positions.
“This is not just creating a new bureau with new employees and things like that,” said District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo. “It is a realignment of existing workers and things. So it’s centralizing the work that’s being done, and this is, since we voted on it unanimously…
