Life-long advocate gives one more college try

City council candidate Jeff Bissonnette has been an activist and advocate in Portland for all of his working life.

Running for position No. 1 on the Portland City Council, Bissonnette said he wants to make sure the city council will look after all Portland residents to, “make sure that there are benefits for everybody, and that the city is doing something right for them.”

It was this idea that prompted Bissonnette to run for city council.

“It really offers a unique opportunity that works for everyone’s benefit,” he said.

As a freshman at the University of Oregon in 1984, Bissonnette had an early political victory when he and a group of other students worked to pass a ballot measure that helped create a citizens board meant to be a watchdog over utilities.

“We won,” he said. “It’s always inspired me.”

This success helped prompt his life of advocacy, he said, and he plans to find ways to work with college students because the enthusiasm of younger generations is essential to the political process.

Bissonnette has spent the last nine years as a consumer advocate on the Citizens’ Utility Board of Oregon and has worked with the Oregon League of Conservation Voters and served on Portland Community Media Board.

A commissioner’s job is to ensure opportunities for students and provide a strong economic foundation that will secure opportunities for future jobs and home ownership, he said.

“The greater economic picture isn’t looking so cheery at the present time,” Bissonnette said.

He said he wants to balance future investments, such as job creation, with making sure that there is access to high school and post-high school education. A related goal of his is to increase Portland’s clean energy economy, which he says will give the city a strong industrial base.

Bissonnette has a vision for his role on the city council. Communication between council members and the residents of the city is essential, he said. It is important to get “outside the bubble of city hall.” As a council member, he said, he plans to spend more time in Portland neighborhoods.

If elected, Bissonnette said he would create a system of field-offices, beginning with one east of 82nd Avenue in southeast Portland, and another in St. Johns where he lives.

Bissonnette said one thing that differentiates him from other candidates is, “I can have a very strong vision and opinion about things, but that doesn’t prevent me from working with others and being able to put those visions and ideas together.”

If elected, Bissonnette said his door would be open to a cross-section of Portland–including college students.

“I am happy to work with college students about issues that may be overlooked,” he said. “I hope to see PSU students coming and knocking on my door, and I will look for opportunities to show up on campus.”

Portland is unique in its sense of optimism, Bissonnette said, and he appreciates that Portland residents, “are willing to think about new concepts and new ways of doing things.”

“Portland is a great city,” he said. “And it’s an exciting time to be a part of it.”