The Charter Commisson—or was it the Coalition of Communities of Color—held their “affinity group” Zoom session on Monday. That’s the one that started out as, basically, no whites allowed; then morphed into the usual progressive ploy of moving POCs to the head of the line. Not that the 70-odd people who turned up seemed terribly interested in participating. When the moderator asked for a “show of hands” to speak out, no one answered.
I managed to stay awake for the whole 90 minutes. It was a challenge.
The usual panoply of progressive procedure was on full display: everyone gave personal pronouns, the moderator recited a lengthy declaration of the various tribes that once occupied the Willamette Valley (we stole it, fair and square); and presented cute Power Point slides about city government straight out of 9th grade civics class.
Finally, there they were, four of the 20 folks who, it is alleged, will be presenting a new city charter to the voters.
Each of the “commissioners”—Amira Streeter, Becca Uherbelau, Robin Ye, and Salomé Chimuku—were on hand to answer questions and listen (they just love “listening,” just not to you-know-who’s) and to talk about the brand new government that will make Portland’s problems evaporate in the mist of “diversity, inclusion, and equity.”
There’s a recording of this performance somewhere, but to save you from the drudgery of listening to it, I’ll sum it up:
They haven’t really decided anything of any great importance…
…beyond not wanting the present form of city “commissioners” to continue. Everyone hates it, every other big city has a different form of government, and that’s that. That the city’s terminal problems (the usual troika of drugs, guns, homeless) are big problems elsewhere with city managers or a mayor-council lash-up wasn’t worth noting. Our charter is a century old! Trash it!
What’s next? Here’s where the going gets tough.
The commissioners were a little coy about the form of voting…
…although you could get an even-odds bet “first past the post” is out and avant-garde stuff like STAR (used nowhere in the US) or ranked-choice voting is going to be on the ballot. The latter assumes that your average (ie, not very bright) Portland voter can meticulously rank five or six candidates. Remember, these are the people who voted to decriminalize hard drugs and put Mike Schmidt into the DA’s office. Ranked-choice is weird, and more than little suspicious, and has been used in 49 elections, which isn’t much of an endorsement considering how many thousand elections are held nationally. So…good luck.
When asked if the charter vote should be ranked-choice, the commissioners looked a trifle startled; Commish Ye ducked answering (not for the only time) and said that because the ballot will be binary it will be yes or no. So there.
Commish Streeter seemed a tad skeptical: “I can only speak for myself,” but she suspected that it might be difficult to educate folks on these mathematical nuances at the same time voters are being sold the new form of government. Which speaks to the above observation about voters walking and chewing gum at the same time.
There will be districts…
…the “let’s get someone from east of 82d elected” idea. Ominously, while mouthing happy-words such as “collaboration,” the commission envisions a possibility that more than one person will represent each district. Imagine, for a mad moment, Jo Ann Hardesty “sharing” a district and you’ll glimpse a grim future.
When asked about where these districts will be, things got murky. The Commission will probably ask the voters to decide on districts—how many is still uncertain—but here’s the beauty part: they won’t tell voters where they’ll be. Which, as any politician will tell you, after a couple of martinis, is the bedrock of all politics. Who gets paired-up with Felony Flats? Gerrymanders, anyone?
Commish Ye had a rambling answer to that: “Because we don’t want to do a rushed job. I think Portlanders can appreciate that.” This particular Portlander doesn’t appreciate that 20 people have spent a year-and-a-half thinking about this stuff. Time to cough it up.
Time is running out for the Commission: To qualify for the November 2022 ballot, the Commission’s recommendations need to be finalized no later than early July 2022 to get on the ballot. If 15 members vote for the package, it bypasses the City Council; if there’s any dissent (not a chance, given how carefully the commissioners were selected for proper racial/political views) then the Council gets to hack and bludgeon. Won’t happen. (But, still, it would be entertaining.)
Our local media are four-square behind getting rid of the nasty old charter; Commissioner Mingus Mapps is lobbying furiously and getting lots of air-time and ink. They’ll sell whatever the Charterites come up with.
Voters? They’ve never approved a new charter in the city’s history. Maybe our luck will hold.
To paraphrase, “One must have a heart of stone to read of Portland's failures and dilemmas without laughing.”
Fortunately, we have proven that this will never happen here:
https://neveryetmelted.com/2022/03/24/bad-news-for-parents/