Portland Measure 26-228 brings Portland's city government into the new millennia, but opponents say it's too complicated and will limit a mayor
Measure 26-228 proposes significant amendments to the city charter that would alter the form of government and voting system, and be among the most significant changes to city government since voters enacted the charter commission in 1913.
The city’s charter commission, which convenes every 10 years to assess government operations, proposed the changes. If passed, the measure would enact four main, interconnected changes to Portland city government: ranked-choice voting, the creation of four new geographic districts, the expansion of city council, and most significantly, the elimination of Portland's antiquated commissioner form of government in favor of the city manager style of government.
The city charter is essentially the city’s constitution — it’s the foundational document determining how the city government functions, and it mandates a commission form of government.
Portland is the only remaining large city in the nation with a commission form of government, and it’s unique because its members have legislative, administrative and quasi-judicial powers. Currently, City Council members make policy and oversee day-to-day operations of the city — council members are each assigned various city bureaus and are tasked with overseeing them.
Measure 26-228 would end the current commission form of government and replace it with a system in which City Council would focus on policy and cease managing city bureaus. A city administrator would be hired to run the bureaus and day-to-day operations alongside the mayor. Most large city governments are structured this way.
It would also create four geographically-based districts that would each elect three representatives for their district, and expand the city council from five to 12 members. Currently, the mayor and four commissioners comprise the City Council. They serve four-year terms and are non-partisan positions.
The measure would also adopt ranked-choice voting, allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference when they fill out their ballot. In this system, if a candidate wins a majority of first choice votes, they are elected. If not, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated and the second choice votes from that candidate are counted. Then the votes are recounted. This process is repeated until a candidate has a majority.
At least every 10 years, City Council is required to convene a charter commission to review the inner workings of the city and recommend possible amendments to the city charter. The charter commission is appointed by members of City Council, but is an otherwise independent body that sets its own scope of work. If 15 or more of the 20 appointed commissioners agree on a proposed change, then the changes are put on the ballot and brought to voters to decide.
This most recent commission came at a time when the city faces significant challenges — pandemic recovery, rising crime, housing and homelessness crises, among others — and corresponding citizen frustrations.
For over a year, the commission investigated the current form of government through research and a robust engagement process with communities and stakeholders citywide and also researched alternatives. This effort included 87 public meetings and hearings, 34 policy discussions, 127 charter review sessions, 26 community listening sessions and thousands of surveys and public comments. The findings of this effort prompted the proposed changes to Portland’s city government.
If passed, the measure is estimated to cost between $900,000 and $8.7 million a year. This would absorb 0.1% to 1.4% of the city’s discretionary budget, which provides about 10% of the city’s total budget. These estimates do not include possible savings from potential improvements to city operations.
If the measure passes, new district-based council elections chosen through ranked-choice voting would begin in November 2024. The new council would begin office in January 2025.
Support for the bill is led by Portland United for Change, a PAC composed of organizations and community members. More than 50 local organizations (including Central City Concern, which the city contracts to provide services to homeless people) endorse Measure 26-228, including dozens of social justice nonprofits, nearly 20 elected officials, dozens of businesses, political scientists and community leaders.
Proponents of the bill say creating City Council districts will increase the accountability to the public because elected officials will be more directly tied to the communities that elect them, whereas in the current system, commissioners are elected at large, serving the entire city and not a particular district. They also say increasing the number of officials representing each district to three, in combination with creating geographically-based districts, will provide more representation, in particular to Portlanders of color and neighborhoods in the city overlooked by the current structure.
They also say that the changes will make the government more effective and transparent through professional city management that will be achieved by the mayor and city manager. This would also, in theory, allow commissioners to focus on policy and community engagement because they would not be simultaneously running the city alongside their political demands.
“Our region faces serious challenges, and our current approach to solving them is not working,” Portland United for Change said on their website. “Measure 26-228 will strengthen our democracy by giving Portland voters more voice and more choice in City Council elections and making our government more accountable and responsive to community needs.”
The measure is opposed by several existing elected city officials — Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioners Dan Ryan and Mingus Mapps have all spoken out in opposition. Mapps released an alternate charter proposal that will likely be on the May ballot in 2023. A recent study by the Sightline Institute found Mapps’ plan, which includes one-winner council districts, could lead to a drop in housing construction.
“I’m voting ‘no’ because I think that we don't need a weaker mayor,” Ryan said in an interview on KGW. “I think that the executive mayor position should be on the City Council; I think having the mayor in dialogue with the rest of the City Council is very healthy. I think local government is hands on, and relational, and I think it's important for us to not be separate from one another.”
Broadly, the opposition agrees Portland’s antiquated form of government needs to be improved — but they believe the proposed system is problematic. The Partnership for Common Sense Government is a lead PAC advocating against the bill and was created specifically to do so. Members include many from the business community and a roster of city employees and current and former elected officials.
Leadership for the PAC has included Vadim Mozyrsky, federal administrative law judge and former candidate for the Portland City Council, and Charles P. Duffy, who was an assistant to former Mayor Bud Clark. The website lists no nonprofit or community organizations among its supporters.
Opponents of the measure say it is a mistake to strip the mayor of authority. Under the measure, the mayor would not vote on policy except as a tiebreaker, which would bring Portland City Council in line with other modern city governments. The mayor would also be stripped of veto power and opponents argue removing veto authority will contribute to a lack of accountability.
They also say that the salaries of 12 commissioners will be too costly, noting that it will add up to $43,800,000 spent over three years. Opponents also criticize multi-member districts, saying that the system will create confusion about who is accountable to each district, and argue that having single-member districts would create more accountability.
Ranked choice voting will mean that candidates who win will have broader support, said Maria Perez, co-director of Democracy Rising.
“If your favorite candidate gets eliminated, your vote is still in play,” Perez said. “So as a voter, your vote is not going to be lost. In other words, you don't have to hold your nose and vote for a candidate that you think has a good chance of winning, even if you don't really support them.”
Ranked choice voting is gaining popularity nationally. In 2020, Alaska, Nevada, Hawaii, Kansas and Wyoming adopted ranked choice during the Democratic presidential primaries, along with at least 20 counties and towns across the country. In 2021, 29 states were weighing measures to adopt ranked-choice voting, many of which had bipartisan support.
Proponents argue ranked-choice voting increases representation and is shown to lessen the potential for electing candidates that don’t actually receive a majority of votes. In some cases, supporters note, this will reduce the chances of extreme candidates. They also say that ranked choice voting levels the playing field for candidates — because voters won’t fear “throwing away” their vote on a candidate unlikely to win. To use a well-known example, Democratic voters could have theoretically voted for Bernie Sanders if he was their first choice without fearing that it would amount to a vote for Donald Trump, because they could choose now-President Joe Biden as their second choice candidate.
Opponents, including the Partnership for Common Sense Government PAC, argue ranked choice voting is confusing for voters, and that voters should know how their votes will be counted. (The Charter Commission has explained the process and information is available.)
Perez refutes the idea that ranking candidates is confusing.
“There isn't really any data that I've seen, and I've been doing this for a long time, that says that ranked voting is difficult for voters,” Perez said. “People know how to go to a restaurant and figure out what their favorite menu item is. And if that's out, they know what to ask as a second option, like people intuitively know how to rank … People have no problem understanding what's asked of them, when they have to fill out their ballot.”
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