Katz, Vera.

Vera Katz was the 45th mayor of Portland, Oregon, serving three terms between 1993 and 2004. Before becoming Mayor she served twenty years in the Oregon House of Representatives and six as the first woman Speaker of the House. A concern for public safety, education, government efficiency, infrastructure development and pragmatism characterized her political career.

Vera Katz was born Vera Pistrak on August 3, 1933, in Düsseldorf, Germany. When she was two months old her family moved to Paris and then in 1940 traveled through the Pyrenees Mountains and Spain, eventually making their way to New York City. At Brooklyn College in New York she earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in 1955 and 1957. There she also met and married her former husband Mel Katz. Between 1957 and 1962 Mrs. Katz worked as a market researcher for B.T. Babitt and Timex. With their son Jesse, she and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon in 1964.

After her introduction to politics working on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, she was elected in 1972 to the Oregon State House of Representatives. During her twenty years in the legislature Representative Katz focused on education, public safety, and balancing the budget. She served as Speaker Pro Tempore from 1981-1983 and as Oregon’s first female and only three-term Speaker of the House from 1985-1990. While in the Oregon House, Vera Katz sponsored the Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century, a landmark school reform bill. From 1982-1991 she also served as Director of Development and Executive Secretary for the Portland Community College Foundation. Additionally she helped pass measures on gun control, as well as legislation prohibiting discrimination based on gender in places of public accommodation and credit. As a Representative Vera Katz helped create the Oregon Progress Board, which serves to focus the energies of Oregon State government in critical areas.

Vera Katz was elected Mayor of Portland in 1992, the first of three terms. As Mayor she continued to emphasize public safety, education, and governmental transparency, but also focused efforts in long term urban planning and development. As the Bureau of Police Commissioner, Mayor Katz created the first multi-jurisdictional Auto Theft Task Force and Domestic Violence Units, as well as new anti-graffiti initiatives and Prostitution Free Zones. As a Board Member of the National Committee for Education and the Economy, she established “Prosperous Portland” in 1994, an economic development program to better train the workforce, develop international trade and improve infrastructure. She also established "Meet the mayor sessions," the Mayor’s Office of the Ombudsman and a new Public Utilities Review Board.

While heading up the Portland Development Commission and the Future Focus/Portland Progress Board, Mayor Katz actively pursued investment in a livable future through city housing projects, public transportation, and revitalization of the city’s neighborhoods. After being selected as the Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine in 1994, Vera Katz was reelected handily in 1996, receiving 83% of the vote. Despite fighting off the preliminary stages of breast cancer in early 2000, she was also reelected that year. In 2004 Vera Katz was diagnosed with a rare form of reproductive cancer and did not stand for reelection.

In November 2004, the Eastbank Esplanade was officially renamed the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade in honor of the former Mayor's service to the city. In January 2005, the former Mayor began an unpaid position as a Dean's Visiting Fellow in the College of Urban and Public Affairs' Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies at Portland State University.

From the guide to the Vera Katz Papers, 1973-2004, (Portland State Library Special Collections)