Clark County residents are justified in gawking amusedly at Portland mayoral elections. Such events always remind us that Portland’s unique commission form of government (it’s the only large city in America with such a system) is chaotic at best. By contrast, cities in our county enjoy multiple benefits of the council-manager and mayor-council forms of municipal management.Portland is having another mayoral election this year. The field was narrowed in Tuesday’s primary as Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith emerged as finalists from 23 candidates. Each appears to be capable and properly motivated to become Portland’s top politician. But even the nonexistent perfect politician would find Portland about as manageable as a nap-deprived, sugar-stuffed kindergarten class.
That’s because Portland’s commission form of city government allows politicians to become department heads. Superior forms include the council-manager system (our favorite) used in Vancouver, Battle Ground and Ridgefield; and the strong-mayor system used in Camas, Washougal and La Center.
In the council-manager form, skilled experts wield the key administrative powers. Vancouver City Manager Eric Holmes has two decades’ experience in public administration; a bachelor’s degree in planning, public policy and management; and a master’s degree in public administration. His predecessor, Pat McDonnell, held the post for 10 years and consistently drew rave reviews on his performance evaluations. In this “weak mayor” form of government, the mayor’s position is largely ceremonial with not much more power than city councilors.
Among the 7,400 or so largest cities in the country, about 3,600 use council-manager systems and about 3,200 have strong-mayor forms of government. Only about 140 cities (and solely Portland among cities with 500,000 or more residents) use the commission plan. It’s easy to see why.