The “No on Charter Reform” Campaign starts now

A couple of weeks ago, I asked readers to give me advice on the ethical choice in my testimony to City Council on the Charter Reform proposals, at the hearing next Wednesday morning. The Mayor has not responded to my request to move the hearing to the evening, to allow more citizens with daytime jobs to participate, so it’s still on for 9:40 a.m 2/7/07. I thank everyone who commented, on and off the blog.

Tom Potter, Dan Saltzman, and Sam Adams, have announced their intention to send the Charter Reform proposals to the May ballot. Three votes, in a Council of five. Ostensibly, the hearing on February 7 is supposed for discussing the content of the Charter Reform Commission’s proposal, since the last hearing was to determine the process to review it. The Council rejected my proposal for what a good public process would look like.

Here’s the rub: Even if citizens point out details in the language to be sent to the ballot that should be changed, and even if three members of the Council agree that it should be changed, there isn’t time before the deadline to submit the four ballot measures’ language to Multnomah County, to review, process, and adopt substative changes. There may be time for one or two minor changes, adopted by emergency ordinance if all five Councilmen agree on them. But for the extensive amendments I see as necessary, to send four Charter proposals to voters in May that would keep Portland the great city and exceptional place for citizens that it is, there isn’t time for public review and Council adoption before the final language has to be at the Elections Division.

I am accustomed to testifying at Council with little hope my comments will make any difference. But we have only three months now, to inform voters about the measures. We who believe the Commission’s (and soon the Council’s) versions are fatally flawed cannot waste any time in the quest to combat the coming onslaught of advertising by Big Money and laudatory editorials in the mainstream corporate media.

So my testimony to Council next week will not be helpful suggestions on how to improve the Charter Review Commission’s recommendations. It will be one of the first volleys in the “No on Charter Reform” campaign. Or whatever folks decide to call it. “No on making Portland worse than Fresno”, for those reading Scott Moore’s Hall Monitor article in today’s Mercury. “No on increased patronage in Portland city government”? Perhaps a bit obscure. How about “No on making Portland City Council run like the Mean Girls’ Multnomah County Board”?

The only reform to be sent to voters that I will support, is Erik Sten’s proposal to make the Portland City Council the budget committee for the Portland Development Commission. The recommendations on form of government, Civil Service rules, ongoing authority of the Charter Review Commission, and Portland Development Commission range from woefully inadequate to horribly wrong.

Next week, I’ll tell you how I really feel about them, without the sugar coating.

In the meantime, please follow the details on the Portland’s Future Charter, set up by The One True b!X. And one of the most insightful discussions I’ve read on Charter Reform was in the comments of Mercury Blogtown‘s Let the real debate begin post on January 24.

As they say: