Michelle DePass, a two-term member of the Portland Public Schools board, said Wednesday that she is running for Portland City Council.
DePass said her work on the school board – and decades’ experience working in city bureaus – makes her a strong candidate.
“I am qualified to do the work in front of us right now with the city needs,” DePass told OPB. “We need strong leadership with vision. We need people that can work together.”
DePass is running for District 2, a newly established voting district that encompasses North and inner Northeast Portland. DePass joins the council race with the largest campaign pool thus far: At least 20 people have signaled their intent to run for one of three district seats in November. And more are expected to join.
It’s the same district where DePass was born and raised – and where she chose to raise her two sons.
It’s also roughly the same region that DePass has represented on the school board since 2019. DePass oversaw the district during a turbulent time. She started months before COVID-19 shuttered schools and oversaw the longest teacher’s strike in PPS history last Fall.
Michelle DePass is running in the upcoming election, to represent North and inner Northeast Portland on the newly expanded Portland City Council.
Courtesy of the campaign
DePass said she was also able to make the district more accountable to the public during this time. In 2020, DePass pushed back on the closed-door, informal process of selecting a school board chair, deeming it inequitable. After successfully lobbying to elect the chair in public, DePass became the first Black woman elected to the position. She said she also played a role in restructuring the PPS auditor’s office so that it directly reports to the school board.
DePass’ term on the school board expires in 2027. It’s not unprecedented for board members to hold elected office – Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards is a current Portland school board member – but DePass said she would step down if elected. She believes the stress of both jobs could be too much.
She sees similarities between her work on the board and the skills needed to lead the city next year. The November election will triple the number of city council members to 12 and significantly change the job description. Instead of overseeing city bureaus, commissioners will focus on creating policy that reflects the interests of the district they represent. Voters will elect three council members to represent each district through a new ranked-choice voting process. DePass said that this change in responsibilities was a major draw.
“The fact that I wouldn’t have to manage a water treatment plant, or a housing bureau or a planning bureau, is very attractive to me,” DePass said. “Those are not my areas of expertise. My expertise is in relational leadership and getting stuff done.”
DePass has spent the majority of her career working for the city. She’s overseen construction projects while at Portland Parks & Recreation, helped develop equitable homeownership and rental programs while in the city’s Housing Bureau, and currently works as a climate analyst in the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.
If elected, DePass said she’d prioritize drafting policy to address homelessness and public safety. To her, public safety is beyond just hiring more police.
“The idea of safety is really creating safe spaces, whether that be the sidewalks, bike lanes… whether it’s a senior that feels vulnerable, whether it’s a mother with a stroller, whether it’s people that are interacting on the streets,” said DePass, who often commutes by bike. “I want to create a sense of safety for all people.”
She also strives to have an “empty office” policy, meaning that she will spend her time in the community she represents instead of waiting for constituents to come to her.
“I need to go knock on some doors and hear what the voters want because it’s not the ‘Michelle show,’” DePass said. “It’s the ‘Michelle representing 160,000 people show.’”