The Charter Commission "Listens"

...but not everyone gets heard

One would have thought that the Charter Commission, after serving up the bolus of a proposed new city charter, would have folded its tents and gone out of business.

No such luck.

The kids on the Commission, none of them with any apparent qualifications beyond the yowls of their various non-profits for…

More for us, less for them!!!!

…are now working on amendments to the proposed charter, on the assumption that it will pass in November. Given the track-record of the Portland electorate, it probably will.

Now the Commission is going through the usual play-acting so beloved of our progressive masters…”listening” under the helpful guidance of the Coalition of Communities of Color (which is set to pour $200,000 into jamming the charter down voters’ throats, which ought to balance the books on what they were paid to run the PR show).

In a mad moment, I decided to enlist in the latest “listening” session, this one run by the Climate & Environmental Justice Committee. Not that “environmental justice” is any easier to define than that old stalwart, “equity.” You know it when you see it.

But just to give everyone a basis for discussion, the Commission gave out this handy crib sheet…

Guess who is not invited into the tent?

The committee has already thought up a bunch of amendments that will stop the planetary apocalypse—at least within city limits. To cherry pick a few eyebrow-raisers…

• Amend the City's emission reduction targets to at least 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions before 2050.*

• Expands community ownership of renewables and drives down emissions from commercial and multi-family residential buildings.*

• Commits the City to adopt new policies that prevent further expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure and speed up the transition to clean, renewable fuel options.*

• Directs the City to require "demand management" and close collaboration with BIPOC communities before any future freeway construction or expansion.*

• States the City Council's expectation that PGE and PacifiCorp deliver 100% clean, renewable electricity to all Portland residents and businesses no later than 2030, and calls on NW Natural to fully decarbonize its gas pipeline no later than 2050.*

Note just a few of the key concepts. F’rinstance, what does it mean that the utilities will “decarbonize” their natural gas pipelines? Or what about “community ownership of renewables?” Or “prevent further expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure?” What about that passing reference to “drives down?” Or “speed up the transition…?”?

You get the idea.

It’s a wish-list, authored by kids who have absolutely no background in anything that might be called “real-world engineering” or “technology.” More than one jockeying for a career in the progressive machine. Members of a commission that has lost some of its elder, smarter members and is now down to the hard-core. And has anyone heard a peep from Debbie Kitchin recently?

On to the “listening!”

It was on Zoom (isn’t every public meeting these days), thus giving the “moderators” control over the proceedings. It presented the usual screen full of little faces peering out of little boxes. Everyone looked appropriately grim—after all, we’re dealing with the end of the world here!

There was the usual scrum of non-profit folks from community organizations that have lobbied the commission with their wish-lists. An earnest young man tucked away in a corner was wearing a Sunrise PDX t-shirt. The group’s wish list…

….adding a binding climate test; requiring a fossil fuel phase-out; and requiring prior and informed consent for tribes on all legislation which impact them.

(“Binding” is a key prog-word, as we shall see.)

The group’s colorful web page says it’s…

…young people working to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.

…although it was a player in some BLM protests and actively campaigned to recall Mayor Wheeler. And, typically, the web page courts donations but doesn’t divulge its financials (which it will probably take the IRS two years or more to post).

One couldn’t be sure, but it was probable that the two other community—make that “community”—groups submitting demands to the Commission were there as well: the Portland Employees Act on Climate Emergency (PEACE), which wants, among other items…

…protect rights of nature, right to nature; regenerative circular economy; and expanded representation for youth…

…and 350PDX, lobbying for…

…creating a climate assembly; adding Portland's environmental rights and responsibilities; and requiring participatory budgeting.

Busy beavers! We’ll talk later about “participatory budgeting”—you have been warned.

The session launched with a mind-numbing recitation of the Commission’s goals and history and other arcana, recited in a near-drone with frequent fluffs—which prompted recollections of boring Sunday School recitations of “begats.”

Then the group was split up into little discussion groups, each moderated by a Commissioner staffer (prompting the question: how many staffers does it take to write a city charter?)

Everyone was in total and complete commitment to the “emergency” and totally, completely commited to doing somethig right now. One of the participants (I won’t embarrass anyone, except for myself, with direct quotes) even managed to connect her LGBTetc. identity and asthma to the changing climate; everyone agreed that all that recent wacky-weather and forest fires was proof that we’re at a “tipping point.”

Much was made of the dastardly energy businesses; and there was quick agreement that climate vows and pledges must be “embedded” in the city’s charter and would keep the conniving pols from welching on their promises to de-carbonize. One elderly (and, it must be said, white) gentleman said everything would be better if all deliveries in the city were made by electrified trikes…and on…and on…until the moderator asked if anyone else had anything to add and your friendly neighborhood dissenter shot off his mouth…

Does anyone have any numbers about what the impact on the global release of CO2 will be if these local measures are implemented? What about those Third World countries that want more energy so they might live like us…and will build coal-fired plants to do it?

You will be unsurprised that the atmosphere grew…a bit frigid.

The moderator quickly jumped in and admonished us that we were not supposed to ask questions.

Someone got in a dig about “old, retired men.”

And then someone muttered something about “trolls” and shut off her tiny picture.

You get the idea. But, truthfully, it was weird fun to poke at the people who want to determine how much energy we’ll use (whatever we give you!) and what we’ll use it for (no more gas heat!), and when we’ll use it (when the sun shines!), and who will get to determine these policies {embed ‘em!), and who await the savior-genius—yet unknown—who will actually invent all these “clean, renewable” forms of energy.

There’s actually some serious stuff lurking under the kimono. It’s being kept quiet—but then the Charter Commission was able (thanks to local media) to toil in near-total obscurity for two years before presenting the truly bizarre Charter—which even the biggest cheerleader for doing away with the century-old Commissioner form of government, city Commissioner Mingus Mapps, now opposes.

Perhaps we should take seriously this muttering about things such as a “Climate Commission” and “embedding” a climate vow into the charter (assuming the place doesn’t incinerate) and, most stomach-churning of all, “participatory budgeting.”

“Citizen Commissions” are all the rage these days. There’s even a commission of 20 kids who will hand out $1-million of our money to…who knows? Why were they appointed? No idea. Can we get rid of them if they shovel money to pals? Not a chance.

Also consider: the Commission appointed to dole out the gusher of money from the city’s Clean Energy Fund was the target of a city audit that found—surprise!—no one had a clue about monitoring or evaluating any of the dozens of the multi-million-dollar grants. And now City Commissioner Carmen Rubio, who “oversees” the program, is going to reform it, by…

…proposing changes to the City Code that will broaden the scope of eligible recipients, enable the fund to award contracts as well as grants, increase the fund's administrative cap, and add and define new funding areas.

…none of which was even hinted at in the ballot-measure that the voters fell for back in 2018. See how that works?

So: who do you suppose will be appointed to a future Climate Commission? (One guess: not “old, retired white men” who ask inconvenient questions.) Maybe—just maybe—the kind of people who confuse “weather” with “climate.” Or who might accept a little token of gratitude from some climate-scam business. Or who think screwing around with complex systems might alleviate their asthma?

They’ll be there. Count on it.

Meanwhile, most of the insiders at the Zoom session perked up when the words “participatory budgeting” were mentioned. Numbers floated around like prices at a Mideast bazaar: 5-percent was a working number—but of what? The idea of submitting even a small chunk of the city’s budget to the same voters who created a deluge of hard drugs, not to mention approving bond issues for various mega-projects that our grandchildren will still be paying off should get any proponent sent to the showers.

Well, be warned: it’s bubbling away on the back burner (as long as the gas stays on).

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*How? Who knows?