Three decisions that will shape City Hall.
Voters have passed reform. Now comes the conundrum of how to implement it.
The trailblazing reform package passed by Portlanders last November requires City Hall to undergo a complete metamorphosis.
No one knows exactly what the new system is going to look like.
But three upcoming decisions will influence what ultimately hatches on January 1, 2025 – when the Rose City’s new system kicks fully into effect.
From now on, everything’s a countdown at City Hall.
Charter reform, which needs to be wrapped up by the time Portland’s next government takes office in January 2025, has set off a series of nonnegotiable deadlines for both city staff and officeholders.
It’s going to take a Herculean effort to pull it off on time.
A job made harder by the fact that the new city charter comes with sparse instructions on how to accomplish the adopted changes.
In 2023, Rose City Reform will be watching three decisions that will have an outsized effect on Portland’s future.
Here’s why they matter.
Decision #1: What will Portland’s city council map look like?
Unlike most American cities, Portland doesn’t have any city council districts.
That’s about to change.
But Portland isn’t getting any closer to the mainstream. On the contrary, the Rose City will soon become the only major city in America with multi-member districts, meaning districts that elect more than one representative.
The new charter calls for the city to be divided into four voting districts. Each district will elect three council seats.
So, to whom falls the mighty responsibility of birthing Portland’s district map?
The Independent District Commission, comprised of thirteen volunteers appointed by the mayor, will be chosen this month, says Carrie Belding, public information officer with the City of Portland’s Office of Management and Finance
To adopt a district map, district commissioners need to pass it with a supermajority, meaning nine out of thirteen votes. Otherwise the plan passes to council for consideration.
A total of 279 Portlanders applied for the job, Belding says.
On January 25, City Council will vote on Wheeler’s appointments to the commission.
Why does districting matter?
District lines can affect the voting power of common interest groups, boost the ability of locals to lobby policymakers, and influence the level of support political candidates can draw from their base.
One of the commission’s most highly anticipated decisions will be which neighborhoods east of the river to include in the westside district. Districts must be equal in population, and the westside district needs to pull from across the river to reach the required number of residents.
Another consideration will be how to optimize voting power for historically underserved communities in areas of east Portland.
Commissioners will reflect Portland’s geographic and demographic diversity. The city is also in negotiations with a consultant to advise on the process, says Carrie Belding.
“It was important to the Charter Commission that the process of creating a district map truly be done by an independent body, not city officials, employees, or those who have plans to run for a city office,” Belding says.
Candidates who have already filed for office are barred from the commission. However, since no candidate can file to run for City Council until the district map has been adopted, that rule will serve primarily as an ethical guideline for commissioners.
Decision #2: How much will officeholders get paid?
Mayor Wheeler currently makes around $151,700 per year. Portland’s four city commissioners are paid approximately $127,700.
Will those salaries remain intact as commissioners transition to a purely legislative role in 2025? And should the mayor get a raise when the mayor’s office assumes control of city operations?
That’s for the Salary Commission to decide.
This group of five human resource professionals, appointed by the mayor, will begin its work in the spring. Its decision is final and can’t be modified by city leaders.
Why do elected leaders’ salaries matter?
It goes without saying that compensation impacts who can afford to run for office.
Noncompetitive salaries favor political candidates with generational wealth and dual-income households. Given the racial wealth gap, low pay for officeholders disproportionately disadvantages people of color.
In many cities, being a city councilor is a part-time job. But Portland’s charter prohibits council members from pursuing other vocations or holding other “positions of profit”, which likely ties the Salary Commission’s hands to full-time salaries.
Some may think that councilors should be paid less once they no longer manage bureaus. Others might argue that higher salaries are a carrot for district reps to keep ample office hours, which will ultimately benefit constituents.
Opinions on the mayor’s compensation may vary as well. Despite the mayor’s new status as the city’s chief executive, it’s not necessarily the mayor who will do the heaviest lifting.
The new charter places actual bureau administration in the hands of a professional city administrator, while the mayor’s role is to supervise city affairs.
Decision #3: How will Portlanders vote, exactly?
Starting in 2024, Portlanders will elect all city leaders via ranked choice voting.
That means the city needs new election procedures.
“This is a high priority, and we anticipate finalizing a new elections code in the spring,” says Carrie Belding.
The responsibility for developing the code ultimately rests with City Council. But given the scope of the job, city leaders are going to need some help. The city is looking into hiring a consultant to advise on the implementation, Belding says.
One such consultant is Chris Hughes, policy director for the nonprofit Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center. Hughes, who is not currently working with Portland, says the city should waste no time digging in.
“My number one piece of advice is to really get cranking on those granular policy details,” he says.
“Make sure you produce a piece of legislation that resolves the policy questions that the charter by design leaves open.”
Why does the elections code matter?
For starters, City Council needs to decide exactly how votes will be transferred between candidates. In the case of City Council elections, where voters’ rankings will be used to elect three winners, this could be a challenging mathematical equation.
Also pending: How many candidates will voters be able to rank on the ballot?
“In my experience, it's a very small number of people who will use every ranking available to them,” says Chris Hughes, citing research from the The Center for Civic Design that shows most voters are comfortable with five to eight rankings.
“The vast majority of people are going to top out at three rankings. Since Portland’s elections will be three-seat races, I expect a lot of people to just rank three.”
According to Carrie Belding, the city is already in close talks with Multnomah County, which administers Portland’s elections.
For the Multnomah County Elections Office, the switch to ranked choice voting will be a double whammy. Like Portland voters, Multnomah County voters have also recently passed a ballot measure to adopt ranked choice voting. That means county staff must now transition not one, but two jurisdictions to their respective adopted systems.
Portland will hold its first ranked choice voting elections in 2024.
Multnomah County has until 2026 to make the change.
Hold on to your hat, Portlanders.
2023 is shaping up to be as wild a ride as 2022.
Rose City Reform looks forward to bringing you in-depth coverage as Portland begins its historic transformation.
Portland's pathetic failure to recover from the nadir of the past few years is second only to San Francisco. (https://downtownrecovery.com/death_of_downtown_policy_brief.pdf)
It's 2023, and basically we have the same leadership that we've had since the days of the riots of Antifa and BLM. Only a few names have been changed. Dwelling on things like the city council map, what salaries will be, and rank choice voting, is the very quintessence of what bikeshedding is.