Measure 26-90 deletes core values

Both the Oregonian and the Tribune carried good articles last week about Measure 26-90, which would radically change Portland’s structure for ensuring city employees are not subject to undue political influence. Please read both, if you missed them last week.

Here’s my Letter to the Editor in response to Nick Budnick’s excellent article:

“Nick Budnick’s article on Measure 26-90, proposed changes to Portland’s Charter’s Civil Service section, is outstanding. Proponents urge us to “modernize and streamline” it, and say the changes eliminate “outdated, conflicting and confusing language”. Those claims are simply not true.

Here is what the current Charter says:

Policy and Purpose: It is the purpose of this Chapter to establish for the City a system of personnel administration which:

3. Improves efficiency and economy of the agencies of City service by the improvement of methods of personnel administration.

Sounds good, huh? Measure 26-90 would delete this section entirely. The proposed new Chapter has no Policy and Purpose statement. Which part of the current Policy and Purpose statement do the proponents of 26-90 find outdated, conflicting, or confusing?

The Charter is Portland’s Constitution. Please, Portlanders, don’t vote to gut our Constitution because someone tells you it needs to be “modernized”. The facts in Measures 26-89, 26-90, and 26-91 are very different from the claims in the ballot titles. Please vote No on all three of these measures.“

My letter isn’t on the online version of the Trib today, which is especially unfortunate since last night at the forum in Parkrose, moderator David Ashton read Mayor Potter my card listing the current Purpose statement and asking exactly the same thing – “Which part do you feel is outdated and needs to be modernized?”.

The Mayor’s answer was, “I understood this forum was going to focus on Measure 26-91. I didn’t bring my paperwork for Measure 26-90, so I can’t answer that question. Whoever asked the question, please talk with members of the Charter Review Commission who are here tonight.” Well, I already posed the question to Bob Ball and David Wang, at the Buckman Community Association forum last Thursday. Bob’s response was to search frantically through his paperwork to check my facts. The facts are as stated.

Measure 26-90 deletes this excellent Purpose statement, and doesn’t replace it. The proponents of Charter change say they want it to be more of a broad Constitution, outlining values and principles and leaving details to be worked out later in Administrative Rules. But in reality, Measure 26-90 eliminates the values and principles statement. Check for yourself, here (pdf). Even with the outrageous method of showing “changes” by underlining all the new chapter, while putting strikethough on the entire old chapter, you’ll see there is no new overall policy or core values statement for the Civil Service under Measure 26-90. Without any Purpose statement for the Civil Service in the Charter, how will those writing and adopting the Administrative Rules check to see if they meet the goals?

And I ask again, what part of the current Purpose statement do the Mayor, Charter Commissioners, and change proponents find outdated and in need of streamlining and modernizing? What part of it do YOU want to toss out, as unnecessary in City policy? Please vote NO, if you support the values in the current Charter. Otherwise, they’re gone.