The merger
So let's do it like the big boys do in California. The City and County of Portland. We'll figure out what to do with Gresham; maybe Hood River County wants them.
The guy spearheading the merger effort is named Mattt (not a typo) Zmuda. He needs 22,000 valid signatures over the next six months to get the idea on the ballot. He'll surely have my John Hancock.
Zmuda, a Pittsburgh native who moved to Portland in 2014, says urban blight drove him to start the effort. “Every time you go out, you’re rolling the dice on whether it’s going to be a traumatic event or not,” he says.
But getting the ball rolling on a merger would be just the beginning of a herculean effort. We'd have to make sure that the idea isn't handed over to a charter commission as disastrous as the one that produced the hideous new version of the Portland City Council. Thirteen months in, all those birds have achieved is a consensus that half of them hate the other half.
With luck, a merger could rejigger the City Council setup. But even if it didn't help there, it would at least rid us of the likes of Chevy Vega and the current seat-warmers on the Multnomah County commission. They are an absolute mess.
You write:
ReplyDelete"We'd have to make sure that the idea isn't handed over to a charter commission as disastrous as the one that produced the hideous new version of the Portland City Council."
Since the current clown car of municipal governance would nominate a new Charter Commission, it will be WORSE than the last time...and the voters won't get a say about who's on it. The only power the voters will have is to accept/reject whatever they produce. Given the track record of Portland voters for the last 25+ years, I am not hopeful. You shouldn't be either...
You also write:
"Thirteen months in, all those birds have achieved is a consensus that half of them hate the other half."
At least this keeps them from legislating... However, at $154K/yr per, City Hall is about the most expensive day care center around.
Read before you write erroneous info: ORS 199.725 says the charter gets written by members appointed: 2 by the state senators from Multco, one of whom must live outside a city; 3 by the state reps from Multco one of whom must live in unincorporated area (also); 3 by Multco Commission; 3 by Portland city council; 1 by Gresham city council; 1 by mayors of Wood Village, Troutdale and Fairview. That means 13 total, with at least 4 from non-Portland (given that the non-Portland mayors and Gresham council are unlikely to appoint Portlanders), and 6 appointed by the disfunctional Multco and Portland bodies. So the remaining 3 appointed by the state legislators would be the deciding votes.
DeleteIt could easily create a workable charter, especially because the city council would have all its members fighting each other for the positions (neutralizing a number), and the county has at least one sane member.
I went to the kick-off event and it is not the usual hacks driving the process. It seemed to be citizen driven, and if that is true, the appointing authorities would be wise to heed the frustration of the citizenry, because they will want to stay in office.
Let's do away with both. Scrap the mess and start over, just like they did in 1787--that didn't end so badly. No one who currently is in government will be able to nominate anyone to the Portland Constitutional Convention; nor will anyone who has ever marched in a demonstration. Anyone serving in the convention will have to offer proof (1) they've been under fire (2) have witnessed actual revolutionary violence (3) have been subject to rule under a dictatorship. Under these rules, only naturalized Russians and Ukrainians will serve.
ReplyDeleteWay back in the day there was Portland and East Portland with different governments and police forces. Brothel operator Nancy Boggs put a house on a barge and set up camp on the Willamette between the two cities. If the police raided, she would move it to the other side of the river, where they had no jurisdiction. One time they did a dual raid from both sides. Nancy kept them at bay using the steam hose to keep them off the barge. Later at night they cut the line and the barge floated down to Swan Island. By the end of the day, she got a tug boat to tow it back in place. Good times.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for a merger, but as pointed out, the devil is always in the details. Perhaps the new city council cluster fluck currently going on will serve as a guide for what to never attempt again, but we will see. I'm pretty sure most Portlanders have no idea what is going on at city hall, and even less so with the county- so it will be a huge uphill battle.
https://offbeatoregon.com/1007d_floating-bordello-in-portland.html
The merger would be worth it in the very least because there wouldn't be dueling incompetency's playing off of each other. There is so much posing on both sides that everything would go better with X if only the other side would pull their fair share/release money/agree to what they promised, etc. Often, both sides are slow walking ill thought out strategies that have no metrics built in, agreed upon end games or even definitions of success. Both agencies are mostly just job creation programs and blame and accountability diffusers. Frankly, they might as well throw Metro in the hopper too with them.
ReplyDelete