City Council Interview: Chris Henry

Trying to represent: District 4 (Westside and parts of Southeast)

Age: 60

Pronouns: He/him

Function: Self-employed as a driver

Fun fact: His grandfather was President Dwight Eisenhower’s speechwriter.

Of all the city council candidates running this cycle, Chris Henry is the most familiar with seeking elected office. He has done this more than a dozen times, for federal, state and local offices. Henry works as an Uber driver, but received support to qualify for Small Donor Matching Funds. Henry is a member of the Green Party and is most focused on clean energy and climate infrastructure, especially emphasizing the need for the city to prepare for the Cascadian subduction zone earthquake. Henry has served on a number of progressive nonprofit boards, including Oregon Voter Rights Coalition and Honest Elections Oregon. This is what he would do in the office.

Why are you running for office?

I’m running to give working people a voice and ensure that long-neglected issues like earthquake preparedness get the attention they need. For more than a decade, I have worked with Honest Elections Oregon to limit corporate influence in politics by achieving campaign finance reform for Portland, Multnomah County and Oregon. Now that our work has secured matching funds for the municipal elections, we have the potential to seize this political opportunity and implement the progressive policies that the majority of Portland supports. The next steps should be cleaning up the corruption at City Hall and democratizing our economy.

What are your top three priorities if elected?

My top priority is to help Portland get Cascadia ready! If you think the housing crisis is bad now, wait until the big crisis hits. Oregon’s top scientists reported in 2018 that hundreds of thousands of people will be displaced due to the destruction of countless homes. We need a systemic overhaul to prepare. My second priority is to make PGE a public utility district so we can decentralize the grid at the neighborhood level and build systemic resilience. Third, we need to restructure our finances. I support the creation of a Green Public Bank to invest in crucial projects.

How would you promote economic growth in Portland?

With a Green Public Bank, we have the institutional vehicle we need to invest in consistent green economic growth in Portland. By taking our money back from Wall Street, we can invest in a Green Jobs program, urban agroforestry, expanded public transportation, green manufacturing, and earthquake retrofits for homeowners, apartment buildings, and major infrastructure. This can all be funded through small business loans and nonprofit grants. Combined with policies that support economic justice – such as a $25 per hour minimum wage – we can stimulate economic activity and provide an attractive future for working families in Portland.

The city of Portland will face budget cuts next year. Where would you make cuts in the current city budget? Designate a specific program, desk, or place.

It’s terrible that Portland is currently paying over $100 million a year to Wall Street, as well as interest on loans! This is a huge corporate handout that must be stopped immediately. With a Green Public Bank as our financing vehicle, we would free up all these resources to invest in Portland and serve Portland instead. I would also seek to significantly reduce the budget for the planned water purification wave, which has needlessly quadrupled to $2 billion over the past five years. Decentralized water purification could be achieved more cheaply and would be more earthquake resistant.

Where is the city currently wasting money, or using money in a way that you believe is inefficient or unnecessary? Where is the swelling?

At a recent candidate forum, I spoke with a whistleblower who worked at Portland Parks & Recreation for almost fifteen years. She told me that the excuse of budget cuts was used to fire many park workers involved in essential maintenance, while upper management protected their enormously high salaries at the expense of the workers and parks. I would seek to conduct a comprehensive survey of all city departments to identify and correct such cases of bloat, while improving pay equity and strengthening protections for essential workers.

What is the Joint Office of Homeless Services doing wrong, and what do you think are things that can right the ship?

While the Joint Office of Homeless Services has made tremendous progress recently in helping our homeless residents obtain new homes and access needed services, significant challenges still face the department. One of the biggest problems is a lack of legal support, especially against deportation. Many people who need the Agency’s services do not receive the legal representation they need to access them. As a City Council member, I will work to increase resources available to public defenders and remove unnecessary legal barriers that prevent our residents from accessing essential services. Housing must be enshrined as a human right.

Is Multnomah County’s tax rate (including taxes on PCEF, Preschool for All, and Supportive Housing Services) too high or at an appropriate level? If it is too high, what do you plan to do about it?

The “hidden” taxes that concern me most are the exorbitant rental costs and utility rate increases that the city is currently allowing due to a lack of regulation. To eliminate these hidden taxes we must establish rent control and make PGE a public utility district. This would ease our transition to a decentralized renewable grid with greater neighborhood autonomy, lower prices, and resilience for when the megaquake hits. I also support lowering income taxes for the 99% to provide relief to working people.

What is the first policy document you would submit to the city council?

I would immediately withdraw Zenith Energy’s Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS). City Hall should never have allowed this in the first place, and the city auditor’s recent finding that City Hall allowed Zenith to illegally lobby them behind closed doors is appalling. Multnomah County’s own investigation in 2020 found that the CEI Hub’s fossil fuel tanks pose a tremendous risk to the health and safety of our community. It’s insane to have that much fuel stored on the banks of the Willamette on earthquake liquefied soil. Zenith is the biggest culprit here and must be stopped.

Beyond policing, what actions would you take to improve public safety in Portland neighborhoods, and where would you get the money to do so?

First, we must fully fund non-police community responses like the Portland Street Response. Second, we need to invest in green streets to revitalize and beautify our more neglected neighborhoods, especially downtown areas. Many studies show that simply having more trees and flowers improves people’s mental health and can help de-escalate conflict. Third, we must tackle the root causes of crime and poverty to ensure public safety. This requires more robust vocational training programs, especially for youth, and meeting residents’ basic needs such as health care and housing. With a Green Public Bank we can provide the money needed for this!

What experience can you point to and do you think would make you a wise policymaker on the city council?

What’s wiser than being prepared for earthquakes? My working-class background includes pouring concrete on the Northridge bridges after the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. I know what it will take to repair our infrastructure – and that includes political infrastructure. My experience from two decades of grassroots campaign finance advocacy has all been focused on combating the corrupting influence of corporate donations, which continually get in the way of wise policy choices. Today, corporate interests like Zenith Energy would rather have you pay with your life than pay with their money to get Portland ready for the Cascadia Megaquake.