Three easy, no-cost ways to improve Portland City government

One of the reasons I don’t support the proposed shattering changes in Portland’s Charter or form of government, is that the City isn’t doing the simple things that would improve efficiency and citizen access. Oh wait, those favoring the Charter changes don’t promise increased citizen participation, only efficiency. Still, I don’t believe the two are mutually exclusive. Here are three easy steps to less time-wasting and better communication for both citizens and city officials & staff:

503-823-4000

Yes, one number, Eight-two-three-four-thousand. That’s all you need to know, to find anyone in City of Portland or Multnomah County government. You don’t even need to know the name of the person you want to talk to, or the proper term for your problem. Call 823-4000, and the Information & Referral Specialists will help you find the right extension, even if your request is as vague as, “I want to talk to someone about a tree being cut down”, or as specific as, “Please connect me to the person in Randy Leonard’s office who works on water bills”.

During the hearing on Charter changes, one of the Councilmen said, “People don’t know who to call when they have a problem”, and all the others nodded. Folks in the audience active in Neighborhood Associations and other civic participation groups were fit to be tied. What’s so hard about remembering 823-4000? If we put it on the rear and sides of transit vehicles for a few months, wouldn’t that solve the problem of citizens not knowing who to call? What if the Mayor announced it at the beginning of every Council meeting?

Links on City Council Agendas

It takes me a couple of hours or so to prepare “Next Up at City Council” each week (coming tomorrow probably, as the agenda for next week is not yet posted). I’m glad to provide the service, as I believe it’s important for citizens to know what elected officials are discussing – beyond the titles on the agenda, which mean nothing to most folks. But it’s appalling that a volunteer citizen has to research and give this information to the general public. It would take city staff a whole lot less time than it takes me, since I have to hunt for the background documents and web pages, while bureau project staff provide Council with briefing documents on each item. Citizens don’t even have access to minutes of past Council meetings until long after the votes – only the general outcome is posted in a timely manner.

Imagine a Portland where there were links on the Council’s current agenda for information on each issue, and on the past agendas for minutes of completed items. Imagine how efficient City Council meetings might be, if each Monday or Tuesday after briefings, each Commissioner posted their pre-hearing opinions on the matters to be discussed in public hearings. “I’m satisfied with this part unless I’m persuaded otherwise, I’d like to hear more about citizens’ views on that nuance”, so citizens would know what to focus on in their three minutes of testimony. Imagine if each Friday, each Commissioner’s office posted a “This Week in Review” saying what they learned in the Council sessions, their opinions on the votes, which projects their bureaus are working on, etc. Wouldn’t those practices make Council decisions more accessible and understandable to citizens?

Make PortlandOnLine easier to use

Let’s suppose you’re a citizen new to Portland, who hears about the item on Wednesday’s agenda on the Transportation System Plan, and wants to find out more.

Being a computer-user, New Citizen heads to the front page of PortlandOnLine.com. The three highlighted, front page articles today are Women’s History Month, something about the Bull Run Watershed and the US Forest Service (“huh?” thinks our New Citizen), and a link for five classes on Green Building techniques. There are photos of the Mayor, four Commissioners, and Auditor, with no indication of who does what. If I want to find the elected official overseeing Transportation, I either use the search function, or choose between the “Services” menu and the “Agencies” option (“huh, again?”), or play guess-the-commissioner by clicking on the photos then searching through their pages to find out what each is responsible for.

Now, the Mayor might say that under the proposed form of government, New Citizen clicks on the Mayor, and all the options come up. But is giving the Mayor all power over all bureaus, and hiring a Chief Administrator and several Deputy Chief Administrators, necessary in order to fix New Citizen’s problem? No! As with nuclear missiles, we shouldn’t buy more until we’ve made better use of what we have. Fix the web site, don’t change the whole structure.

Further down the page, under “Government”, the top link is News & Issues & Proposed Policy. “Ah HA!” says New Citizen, “That’s what I want!” Umm, no. There is a link to an announcement before the budget hearing that happened last night, and…. the Women’s History Month, the Bull Run thing, the Green Building classes. Nothing on what’s coming up on Wednesday. Not a peep about projects being worked on in the bureaus, that New Citizen might be willing to contribute to. What if all Council members required their staff to post “News & Issues & Proposed Policies” under the header on the main page that says, “News & Issues & Proposed Policies”? Would that be so hard to do? It doesn’t require major upheaval at every level from volunteers and temporary employees on up to a Curiously Strong Mayor and a new level of hired bureaucracy, to make important items easy to find on the City’s web site.

We don’t need to change our entire form of government, gut the Civil Service protections, and let future Charter Review Commissions send directly to the ballot whatever additional changes their appointed members desire, in order to improve efficiency for citizens and staff. Start with these three items, and see how it goes.