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In Our View: Perplexed in Portland

Commission form of city government creates continual crises

The Columbian
Published: May 16, 2012, 5:00pm

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.

Here’s just one example of the political shenanigans that seem to keep Portland’s city government in a constant crisis mode: In May 2010, Mayor Sam Adams (survivor of two recall efforts) fired Police Chief Rosie Sizer two days after she criticized his budget and two months before her retirement. Adams also named himself to replace police commissioner Dan Saltzman, one week before Saltzman was to go before voters in an election.

We’re not saying Hales or Smith will resort to such awful behavior, but under Portland’s form of city government, there’s nothing to stop it.

Understandably, a reform movement arose several years ago in Portland. But the wrong solution was tried. Instead of the council-manager form of government, voters were offered the strong-mayor form, and in 2007 they rejected it. Yakima voters turned down the same offer in 2011.

After each city election in Portland, municipal management is thrown into turmoil. Election winners fight over commissioner posts, with the outcome typically leaving people with no experience or expertise in charge of large city departments.

On this side of the river, when city elections are held, the political upheaval can be dramatic, but the general administration of cities continues relatively unaffected by partisan politics.

This is just one more thing that Clark County does better than Portland, ranking right up there with pumping our own gas. And we repeat two points made in an editorial two years ago: First, managing a city is too crucial to be put in the hands of amateurs. Professional experts should prevail. Second, by definition a politician is not an expert.

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