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By unanimous vote, the city council of Portland, Oregon, on August 8, became the 25th governing council to endorse the legislation, H.R. 808, to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace.
Department of Peace activists Jackie Satchel,
Reverend David Alexander, and Ken Bryan address
Portland City Council
Ken Bryan, team leader for Oregon CD-1 and CD-3, reports on how it came about:
The first thing I did was research most of the City Council members. I tried to find out what each of them was doing in their work as a Commissioner that would relate back to the Department of Peace. This gave me a way to approach them with the legislation.
We made a packet of information, which included the bill, statistics on violence, frequently asked questions, and key highlights. One of our volunteers then delivered a copy of the packet to each office and asked about speaking to the Commissioner about the legislation and resolution.
The first one we approached was Commissioner Dan Saltzman. Commissioner Saltzman is chairman of the Children's Investment Fund, a fund set up by the City of Portland through a bond measure that supports organizations and non-profits that work on children's issues. It is set up in much the same way that I would envision the national Department of Peace office would be. In establishing the fund, Commissioner Saltzman worked to ensure that there was a process whereby the money was going where it was needed most and also where it was going to be the most effective.
Commissioner Dan Saltzman with
Department of Peace supporters after the meeting.
This seemed like a natural lead-in conversation about the legislation since part of the domestic agenda of the bill would work in a similar way. A small group of us were invited to meet Commissioner Saltzman at his office. We presented the legislation and the resolution to him. We answered several questions that he had. We also spoke about the personal reasons why we were each involved with the campaign. In the end, he told us he was supportive but, before committing to anything, he wanted to study the legislation more.
We met with the staff of some of the other Council members, but after Commissioner Saltzman committed to being our sponsor, we worked primarily with his office. An intern in Commissioner Saltzmans office edited down our Resolution, which they said was too long. She did a wonderful job (see the resolution here). Then the date was set for the presentation.
Another volunteer, Jackie Satchel, and I were invited to give two 3-minute testimonials at the Council meeting. They said we could add one more, so we invited Rev. David Alexander of New Thought Ministries of Oregon to give a testimonial from the faith community perspective. We presented our testimonials and then had several people from the audience speak briefly as well. The rest, including a unanimous vote, is history!
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