Charter reform fail: Who's to blame?

The kids at the Weed, who are becoming almost as insufferable as the kids at the Merc, can't understand why, oh why, the goofball hash that's been put together by the city's amateur charter revision commission isn't getting overwhelming universal support. They have a spin, though, and it's the usual:

What we found was a stalemate that could have been avoided because its dynamics are so familiar to even a casual observer of Portland politics: idealistic progressives who want to redistribute power to the silenced, quarreling with politically connected traditionalists who think the city is squandering its best virtues.

What’s worse is the inattention of Mayor Wheeler and other city leaders that has allowed values that ought to be harmonious—diversity and functionality—to be used as weapons against each other.

I'm not sure what most of that means – "Ted Wheeler bad," I get – but the Weed's critique has a strong odor of "Stick It To The Man" to it. And ironically, that's the root of the problem with the charter reform "package," of which the "reporters" (opinion writers, really) are so fond. 

The charter proposal was slapped together by a gaggle of young people with time on their hands – mostly cronies of politicians and drawn from various government agencies and the nonprofit shadow government. These commissioners were selected, by the existing City Council, to check various boxes and look as "equitable" as possible. If you want "politically connected," they're veritable poster children.

There were 20 members. Number of political science experts included? Zero. Number of political consultants? Zero. Number of people who have actually run something at City Hall? One. Number of people with gray hair? Two or three.

And like so many I've-got-an-idea-let's-put-on-a-show advisory panels, they quickly became intoxicated with their own opinions and decided to flex. Stick It To The Man, all or nothing. 

That, folks, is why nothing is going to pass, this time around at least. You see, The Man has votes.

Take just one aspect of the commission's proposal: ranked-choice voting. What the heck is that all about? It's a solution in search of a problem. Supposedly it's going to create a more diverse City Council, but I'm looking at the one we have now, which is 60 percent people of color and 40 percent women, and the city's in the worst shape it's been in 50 years or more. It's bad enough that we, the taxpayers, are actually paying fringe candidates and their entourages millions of dollars every election cycle to run for office. That kind of "redistribute-power-to-the-silenced" business we're already doing, and it's causing more harm than good.

More fundamentally, there's this thing called "one person, one vote," and in a democracy, it's kind of sacred. The charter reform proposal hinges on adopting a crazy vote-counting experiment that gives the most out-of-touch voters two or three bites of the apple. That pretty much dooms the whole enterprise to failure among some people, me included.

The right way to reform Portland City Hall is going to have to be incremental. Start by doing the one thing that everyone agrees needs to be done: Ditch the commission form of government, and replace it with a city manager. Leave the four at-large City Council members and the mayor in place for now, with the same votes they have currently; just stop having them run bureaucracies they have no business running. 

Then stop. Take a breath.

Step 2 can come later: election by district. And not just four districts, and not three bobbleheads from each district. I'd argue for six districts, or even eight, with one council member per district, all up for election at the same time. And I'd go ahead and draw the damn district maps and let the voters approve them, or not, instead of leaving it all up to some suspicious gerrymandering process to be named later.

That would pretty much be the end, for a long time.

The charter commission's misguided package may go down in flames, as it deserves to, but there's no need to wait another 10 years to try something smarter. I believe the City Council can offer change to the public any time it wants. And if the Council won't, I believe that a citizens' petition can go over their heads. If people care enough, the right thing can happen.

In the meantime, if you don't want the fries, the diet Coke, and the toy, you don't have to buy the whole happy meal. Hold out for just the burger.