'An exciting time for us': Keith Wilson on being Portland's new mayor-elect

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Once Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that he would not seek reelection, things were in motion for a new mayor to assume the office.

But when the campaigns began, few thought businessman Keith Wilson would come out on top.
He did and beat three sitting Portland city commissioners in the process.

The owner of eco-friendly trucking company Titan Freight Systems and founder of the nonprofit Shelter Portland campaigned with a focus on solving Portland's unsheltered homeless crisis.

Along the campaign trail, Wilson said he intends to end unsheltered homelessness in Portland within a year of taking office. He said it all starts with "a simple 1-2-3 process" of setting up a network of low cost nighttime emergency shelters, adding more services to existing day shelters, as well as enforcing community safety.

However, he stressed community involvement is critical in these next steps.

"The election is a testament that the community is ready, the buy in. It was a significant win for the city and we've been very clear and transparent," Wilson said. "We need to continue to message to the community to come together to care for those that are suffering. So it is not something simple. The buy-in is going to be critical, and we're going to continue to message what we're going to be doing in the transition, and certainly in those first critical first few months of my administration."

The current Portland City Council tabled an ordinance to consider pulling out of the Joint Office of Homeless Services. Wilson noted his appreciation of the commissioners who originally filed the ordinance taking a step back.

"We're in a crisis right now, we should not be in a room negotiating a contract. We need to be out on the street taking action," he emphasized. "We can make discussion points while we're actioning to care for our community. This election wasn't about us talking about a contract. It was our citizens saying they want the leaders to come together collaborate to get things done."

Wilson said he has even begun conversations with the county, as well as Portland Fire & Rescue and Portland Street Response to help bring the pieces together for services such as a field hospital.

But regarding the recent rollout of deflection centers in Multnomah County, he argued a sobering center should have been first priority.

"The deflection center is good to address open drug use because we cannot have that in our community. But in the same respects, we have to get going on a sobering center and rapidly set it up, because we cannot have people on the street while we're walking by and normalizing that behavior," he said. "So it's a one-two. I'm sad that we went to the deflection center first when we were moving clearly forward on a sobering center. But now let's get both up and let's get both effective and running quickly."

Wilson is the first Portland mayor elected by ranked-choice voting. But going into a brand new system of government, the mayor does not have a vote on the council. However, he would get to select a new city manager to run bureaus.

Wilson sees this as an opportunity to "supercharge change."

"The new mayor now doesn't and doesn't have to do the politics or the policy. I get to focus on delivering core services. I get to focus on a high standards, high performing organization that's running complex seven days a week. I get to focus on delivering the services that the citizens need," he said. "Now, I will collaborate with the council, listen to all of them. But when they work on their policies, I'll help explain to them how that's going to fit into the city. But then I'll take those bills, we'll implement them well at the spirit and the intent of those bills as the relationship really is designed to be. It's an exciting time for us."

Watch the full interview in the video above.