Publication Date
5-3-2002
Document Type
Report
Subjects
Urban policy -- Oregon -- Portland -- Periodicals, Portland (Or.) -- Politics and government -- Periodicals, Portland (Or.) -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/13910
Recommended Citation
City Club of Portland (Portland, Or.), "City Club of Portland Ballot Measure Study: Oregon State Ballot Measure 26-30" (2002). City Club of Portland. 508.
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/13910
Notes
Measure 26-30 would replace Portland's commission form of government with a “strong mayor/city council” form—seven of nine council members would be elected by district. The Majority of your Committee found that between 1961 and 1999, four City Club committees urged that Portland’s commission government be changed to a strong mayor/council form. The City Council has tried for 15 years to patch over the deficiencies in the commission form and to better coordinate the city's administrative functions and bureau operations. These efforts have fallen far short of what is needed. Portland's current city government, as Mayor Katz correctly notes, remains “Byzantine and dysfunctional.” A “Yes” vote to change Portland's form of government will remove the structural barriers that increase costs of government and leave citizens disenfranchised. If adopted, this measure will unify executive responsibility under the mayor—resulting in better value for our tax dollars; change the role of council members to full-time legislators—which will improve citizen representation and legislative effectiveness; and make it less expensive to run for office and diversify the potential candidate pool by electing seven of the nine new Council members from districts around the City.
Published in City Club of Portland Bulletin Vol. 83, No. 49