Parting shots from the cool kids

As if they haven't done enough harm with their goofball happy meal ballot measure that will render the Portland City Council permanently hopeless, the obnoxious naïfs on the city charter "commission" have some more ideas that we all have to listen to. You can read all about them here. 

The one serious thing we're apparently going to get to vote on, in a couple of years, is creation of "an Independent Portland Elections Commission." The charter children probably all think they're going to be on it, if they don't get themselves elected to the new 12-member book club that the City Council is scheduled to become.

Then there are their recommendations to the current City Council, most of which one hopes quickly find their way to the round file:

Remove the 5% cap on the City’s transient lodgings tax.  

Create an article dedicated to environmental issues that includes environmental justice as a core value of the City, requires the City to assess the climate impact of its decisions and establishes a right to a clean and healthy environment.  

Establish meaningful public engagement as a core value of the City.  

Require the City to create by ordinance a participatory budgeting program open to all residents.  

Expand right to vote in City elections to the fullest extent allowed by law. 

Create an Office of the Transparency Advocate. 

We're never going to give up on letting noncitizens vote around here, are we? But the "Office of the Transparency Advocate" – now, that's comedy gold. We already have an Office of Transparency Prevention. It's called the city attorney's office. Maybe they and the new bureau can duke it out on Fourth Avenue – "Meet me out back."

Anyway, the one bright light is that the commission's two-year term is over. Meanwhile, the dopey version of a city government they sold to the sheep will be regretted for many years  to come. Instead of having two out of five City Council members being utterly unqualified, we'll now have five or six out of 12. It's for "equity," don't you know.

They had a golden opportunity to make City Hall a better place. And they failed. A blew-ribbon panel, as it were.