PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland City Councilman and Commissioner of Public Safety Rene Gonzalez said that he will spend the next three months considering ways to reestablish a municipal court in Portland in hopes of prosecuting more misdemeanor crimes, which he said are going mostly unprosecuted by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
Gonzalez included the announcement in his “90-day action plan,” which Mayor Ted Wheeler asked each city commissioners to present for their respective service districts during the Feb. 2 city council meeting. The preliminary action plans outlined the immediate and long-term goals of each commissioner as the city prepare their service districts for the drastic changes coming to Portland’s city government in 2025.
During his presentation, Gonzalez said that the Multnomah County DA’s office is prosecuting far fewer cases than it has in previous years. Data provided by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office shows that misdemeanor crimes plummeted in April of 2020, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt was elected soon after in May of 2020. Nearly a year after local COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the number of misdemeanors handled by country prosecutors is still well below what it is pre-pandemic.
“Some 50 years ago, the city made the choice to outsource that to the county and the district attorney,” Gonzalez said. “We’d like the next 90 days to reevaluate some of the underpinnings in that decision — specifically to address something we’re all seeing and feeling today. High level, we’re prosecuting a fraction of the misdemeanors we used to in Multnomah County. That goes back more than a decade. That predates any elected official [on the council].”
While the city operated its own municipal court more than 50 years ago, the Portland City Council opted to transfer the duties to the DA’s office in 1971. City courts are not uncommon in the U.S. Salem, Beaverton and Eugene are among the more notable local cities with municipal courts. Salem Deputy City Attorney Thomas Cupani told KOIN 6 News that the typical difference between county and municipal courts, outside of regional boundaries, is the level of crimes that are prosecuted.
“Circuit courts have jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters with some exceptions,” Cupani said. “The jurisdiction of municipal courts is usually misdemeanors and violations. [Cities] may branch out and handle traffic cases. Our courts handle things like DUI and reckless driving and other violations of traffic codes.”
The creation of a municipal court would also mean more taxpayer dollars. Cupani said that the city would essentially have to duplicate the needs of a circuit court: establishing a system for administering penalties and hiring city employees, including court staff, prosecutors, defense council and judges.
Five days after KOIN 6 requested a comment from Schmidt about Gonzalez’s proposed plan, new spokesperson for the Multnomah County DA’s office Liz Merah said that Schmidt and Gonzalez have maintained an ongoing discussion about the idea.
“Schmidt has been in contact with Commissioner Gonzalez on this topic, and he will continue to engage in discussions over the coming months,” Merah said. “The DA looks forward to seeing the results of the Commissioner’s 90-day evaluation.”
Gonzalez said that by prosecuting more misdemeanors, he hopes to reduce local crime rates and improve living conditions for Portland’s working-class neighborhoods.
[Crimes like vehicular theft and vandalism] impact our marginalized communities to the greatest extent,” Gonzalez said. “If you’re in a working-class neighborhood and your vehicle’s catalytic converter is stolen, that’s the vehicle you use to go to work. It’s not just an inconvenience, it can be life-altering. Historically intervention on low-level crime has been a key diversion. It has been a key trigger to mandate or compel folks to engage in addiction services. You remove the stick, the judicial system for a lot of low-level crimes, it’s interfering with our ability to provide diversion in the region.”