Despite receiving an overwhelming mandate from voters for structural changes to city government, the Portland City Council is considering pushing the election of a commission to reform the city charter into next year, which critics say is a deliberate attempt to dilute the call for reform.
Seventy-two percent of Portland voters backed the referendum to open up the city charter for revision in the July primary, after organizers with Black Lives Matter Portland threw their support behind the ballot question.
The question called for the formation of a charter commission, which would allow for significant changes to the way the municipal government operates, including eliminating official positions or changing the way that elections are run.
From the streets to the ballot box
After organizing anti-racism demonstrations that drew thousands of people in Portland, BLM organizers issued a series of demands calling for structural changes, including the dissolution of the unelected city manager position, which they see as a major barrier to direct democracy. This office, which holds outsized administrative powers, was created in 1923, with backing from the Klu Klux Klan, to insulate the functions of city government from popular control by marginalized communities, which at the time were mostly Catholic and Jewish immigrants.
The charter commission, governed by state law, will be composed of members appointed by the city council and directly elected by residents. Those involved in the process had expected candidates for the commission to be on the ballot in November, when there is likely to be high voter turnout because of the presidential election, but the city council has recently signaled it may be delayed.
“I think their hope is if they wait some of the outrage that led to the protests in the summer will diminish and they may get a more favorable slate of people elected than they would get this November,” said Joey Brunelle, a Portland web designer and activist who has run twice for city council.
The idea of postponing the commissioner race surfaced on July 23 when Portland’s corporation counsel, Danielle West-Chuhta, released a legal memo citing city law that says candidate petitions must be available 127 days out from an election, as they are for city council elections. Already having passed that deadline, West-Chuhta advised that the election of commissioners could not take place on Nov. 3.
During a discussion of the memo on Monday, city councilors agreed with counsel.
When Governor Janet Mills moved the primary election from June 9 to July 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they said it further shortened the time frame to organize an election of commissioners.
“There simply aren’t 127 days between July 14 and Nov. 3,” said Mayor Kate Snyder during a council meeting on Aug. 10.
“I think we just need to be very clear with the public that there’s not a lot of discretion here for the council,” said Councilor Justin Costa. “We are just sort of performing a ministerial duty here on behalf of the voters who enacted something.”
If city councilors follow West-Chuhta’s advice, the commissioner election could be pushed to the next scheduled election in June 2021, unless they decide to hold a special election sometime before then.
Giving the runaround a runaround
But not all residents accept that the councilors’ discretion is as limited as they say. Ben Gaines, an attorney representing Fair Elections Portland, said the city could have even held the referendum and commissioner elections at the same time.
“State law is very clear: this election is supposed to be held at the same election as the referendum or at the next election. The intent is to allow — as much as possible — the same will of the voters to be expressed at both elections,” said Gaines.
The origins of the July’s charter commission referendum are convoluted. Before community groups like BLM Portland focused on it as a means to create systemic change, several councilors said they did not expect it to pass. Snyder said she voted against it.
This was after a majority of councilors called for it last fall after Fair Elections Portland led a successful petition drive for a ballot question on publicly-funded municipal elections. Rather than putting the question on the November 2019 ballot, the council — again on the advice of West-Chuhta — voted last fall to pursue the lengthy charter commission process instead.
Fair Elections Portland filed a lawsuit against the city council for delaying the will of the voters. Now, nearly a year later, Gaines said the council has been slow to prepare for commissioner elections, even after being alerted to the shrinking timeframe in late July.
“Now that they still haven’t acted, there’s an argument it’s too late. This really needed to be addressed weeks ago when we tried to sound the alarm. That’s on them, and especially on the mayor for not getting this on the agenda,” Gaines said.
If Nov. 3 is not possible, Fair Elections Portland is asking for a special election before the end of this year.
“When we are having what is essentially a constitutional convention for the city, it is so important that the most people possible are able to participate in every part of that process,” Anna Kellar, chair of Fair Elections Portland, told councilors during the Aug. 10 meeting, noting that the November election could draw as many as 40,000 Portland voters, whereas the last charter commission election, done by special election in June 2009, drew only 3,000 voters.
Reforms could be delayed by years
The time between the clean elections signature drive and any tangible policy change could now stretch to years.
“We might not even get to elect people to the commission until next year. Then the commission has nine to 12 months to complete its work. That puts it into the summer of 2022,” said Brunelle. “Then, the people of Portland have to vote on the proposals. We’re looking at November 2022. They are really slow-walking this thing.”
Brunelle believes this is a deliberate tactic. He said the council is using procedural arguments to not only slow down the campaign for clean elections, but now to diffuse the energy of the George Floyd protests that BLM Portland and other community groups channelled into the charter review process.
“We’ve seen this time and again, when the people of Portland want some sort of structural change, the city manager, corporation counsel and the city council resist it tooth and nail. Then things get mired in a lawsuit,” Brunelle said. “I think this is just another way that they are resisting the change that the people of Portland vote for.”
Top photo: BLM Portland organizer Mariana Angelo leads an anti-racism march down Congress Street in Portland on June 5. | Dan Neumann, Beacon
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