What has 20 members, convenes every 10 years, does a whole lot of thankless volunteer work – and has the power to completely reimagine Portland government?
You guessed it.
The Portland Charter Commission.
If you are reading this, chances are you have heard that Portland's City Charter is under review, and that some big changes may be coming. And you would be right about that.
Portland's Charter Commission has been at work since early 2021, methodically picking apart Portland's City Charter, the document that provides the foundational framework for our municipal government, only to put it back together again— with some transformational revisions.
As a policy nerd with a special place in my heart for citizen advisory boards, I have been following the Charter Commission’s work since its formation. I know the dynamics of citizen advisory boards well, having served for years as a planning commissioner, zoning appeals board member and library board trustee.
I’m currently tasked with charter review myself as a member of the Multnomah County Charter Review Committee. Yet in my experience I have never seen an advisory body try to reimagine government like the City of Portland Charter Commission is doing right now.
I’m intrigued, and if you care about local power and politics, you should be too.
That’s why I’m launching Rose City Reform.
What can you expect from this newsletter?
Rose City Reform will offer in-depth commentary and analysis about the City of Portland Charter Review process and subsequent charter amendments, while leaving it up to you, the reader, to make up your own mind.
As a recovering journalist with a sentimental attachment to media ethics - however unfashionable that might be these days - I won't go as far as to say this text is objective, but I'll do my best to be transparent about my own biases. I will also introduce you to smart minds working on reform in Portland to help you understand their “why”.
This newsletter is for anyone with an interest in Portland power and politics.
Oh, and subscription is free. Please forward to anyone who might be interested.
How Charter Reform affects you.
Truly, it is hard to overstate the impact of the decisions Portlanders may be facing at the voting booth in November of 2022.
Our city may be looking at a repeal of our commissioner-based city government structure, meaning Portland would swap its unusual practice of putting city council members in charge of city departments for a more traditional model where either a mayor or a city manager runs the city's day-to-day operations.
Other charter amendments may bring district representation to the City Council to replace Portland's exclusively at-large system (another practice that makes Portland an outlier among cities of our size), increase the size of the Council, eliminate primary elections and replace Portland’s winner-takes-all system with ranked choice voting.
The boldest proposed change entails creating city council districts with more than one representative per district, a system known as multi-member districts that’s popular overseas but still unusual in the United States.
Here's the kicker, though. The Charter Commission can recommend changes to the charter. The City Council can refer the changes to the ballot. But who decides the outcome? You guessed right again: The voters.
You may get to choose your own adventure.
Come November, Portlanders will find themselves at an important crossroads in our city's history. Only it won't be just one crossroads, but rather a whole traffic system of crossroads since every single ballot amendment may require an independent vote.
In fact, if the reforms can’t be bundled together, each ballot question could become a "choose your own adventure" of sorts, because your vote on one issue affects the outcome of the others. Although the number of amendments and their exact language and sequencing remain to be hashed out, what is clear is that when you consider the variance in outcomes between all amendments passing, or some passing while others fail, you are likely looking at alternative scenarios in the double digits.
For instance, consider the difference between all proposed amendments passing, which would result in a complete overhaul of local government, versus a scenario where the only thing that changes is the size of the City Council. This would distribute the responsibility of running city bureaus over an even larger number of commissioners, a scenario that might make even the harshest critics of the commissioner-based government structure long for the past. Charter Commissioners themselves are keenly aware of this.
Over the next few months, the subtle art of putting the reform puzzle pieces together will surely be at the forefront of discussions.
Here are two observations about the most important player at the moment, the Portland Charter Commission:
1. This Charter Commission is more ambitious than its predecessors.
Portland's history of convening Charter Commissions is short. The current Charter Commission is only the third of its kind. While its predecessors offered several amendments, many of which passed, no Charter Commission has attempted to reimagine Portland government like this one.
There are a host of reasons why this Charter Commission is going about things differently.
First off, consider the consequential timing. This Charter Commission's work has spanned both the pandemic and the Portland protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. There is a national appetite for systems change, and the Charter Commission is no exception.
Moreover, this Charter Commission is more diverse than its predecessors, and many of its most active members have deep roots in community organizing, thus bringing a more collaborative and aspirational style of review than what has traditionally been the norm.
2. The Charter Commission has momentum.
Ambitious as its goals may be, in my humble opinion it would be a mistake to dismiss the Charter Commission’s vision as unrealistic.
Sure, all of its ideas may not materialize, and it may need to kill one or two of its darlings to cross the finish line, but the general framework of the reform package enjoys broad support from influential community groups such as City Club, the Coalition of Communities of Color and the League of Women Voters.
The reform package also seems to generally align with national best practice, such as the Model City Charter published by the National Civic League.
Additionally, there is an intriguing psychological effect at play. Given that there may be as many as four or more substantial charter amendments up for a vote, voting yes on two or three may feel like a middle of the road approach. Voting no on all of them may feel too conservative—while voting yes on all of them feels too risky.
Marketing experts call this the “center stage effect”, referring to consumers’ tendency to choose the middle option when faced with more than two choices. The point being that while everything may not pass, there is a good chance that some of it will.
Hey, you're still reading!
If you've made it this far, we must be kindred spirits, even if it's only in our tolerance for wonky policy stuff. My next newsletter will dive deeper into the various recommendations coming out of the Charter Commission and what they might mean for Portlanders. If you’d like to read it, make sure to subscribe.
Until then,
Maja Viklands Harris
Maja Viklands Harris is a Portland resident, a recovering journalist, a policy activist and a serial citizen advisory board member. Her writing focuses on government reform, public process, decision-making psychology and policy best practice.