At City of Portland
Labor opposes ‘strong mayor’ form of government
Organized labor is lining up in op-
position to a May ballot measure that
seeks to change how the City of Port-
land is governed.
A Charter Review Commission ap-
pointed by Mayor Tom Potter is rec-
ommending that the current “commis-
sion form of government” be replaced
with a “strong mayor” form of govern-
ment.
The Portland City Council had to
approve moving the Charter Review
Commission’s recommendations to
the ballot, which it did 3-2. Commis-
sioners Erik Sten and Randy Leonard
cast the dissenting votes.
It is those two commissioners who
are leading the campaign against Mea-
sure 26-91, although last week Com-
missioner Sam Adams said he opposes
the measure.
The Committee for Accountable
City Government has been created and
political strategist Mark Wiener has
been called on to help with strategy.
Joining the opposition campaign
are the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council, Portland Fire Fighters Local
43, Portland City Employees Local
189, an affiliate of the American Fed-
eration of State, County and Municipal
Employees; and Laborers Municipal
Employees Local 483.
The Fire Fighters contributed
$35,000 to the campaign, the Laborers
kicked in $10,000, and AFSCME will
donate cash and open its office for
phone banking and other campaign as-
sistance.
Portland voters have been asked
seven times since 1913 to vote on re-
placing the commission form of gov-
ernment. Each time it has been re-
jected.
“It really doesn’t make sense,” said
Richard Beetle, business manager of
Laborers Local 483, which represents
900 blue-collar employees at the city.
“It wraps all the power around one
person, with a layer of protection by a
chief administrative officer.”
Measure 26-91 proposes to strip all
city bureaus away from commission-
ers and put them under the control of a
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PAGE 4
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
chief administrative officer appointed
by the mayor. The CAO must be con-
firmed by the City Council, but cannot
be fired by the Council. Commission-
ers would be relegated to legislative
oversight, strategic planning and pol-
icy development.
A key argument for reforming the
system is that most other cities the size
of Portland operate under a “strong
mayor” format.
“Just because other cities do it,
doesn’t mean it’s right for Portland,”
said Judy O’Connor, executive secre-
tary-treasurer of the Northwest Oregon
Labor Council. “Maybe we’re the ones
that have it right.”
O’Connor was one of 26 citizens
Potter appointed to a charter review
committee in November 2005. The
committee was charged with review-
ing the city charter and recommending
changes. O’Connor opposed the
strong mayor format.
James Hester, a business represen-
tative of AFSCME Oregon Council 75
assigned to Local 189, said that pass-
ing such sweeping structural changes
to city government requires a “thor-
ough and thoughtful” process.
“This can have a very serious im-
pact on the whole city, not just union
employees,” Hester said. “Citizens
need to be informed of what these
changes mean. That hasn’t happened
at all.”
In testimony prior to the City Coun-
cil vote to refer the ballot measure, Ed
Hall, a firefighter and another union
member on the Charter Review Com-
mission, asked City commissioners
not to do it. “The effort and time the
(Charter Review) commission put in
deserve a full public debate,” he said,
adding that there isn’t enough time to
have that debate before May 15.
Beetle agreed that more public fo-
rums are needed to allow citizens to be
able to make an informed decision.
“Fast-tracking this to a May elec-
tion, which guarantees a low voter
turnout, with no public process and
created by a select group of people ...
it sounds like they’re trying to pull
something on the public,” he said.
Commissioner Sten, appearing be-
fore the Executive Board of the North-
west Oregon Labor Council on Feb.
26, said that a strong mayor political
structure “is a very corporate model —
you deal with the CEO, that’s it.”
Sten said under a strong mayor sys-
tem elected officials rarely are held ac-
countable if something goes wrong.
Under the current system in Port-
land, citizens at least have an elected
official they can contact if they don’t
like something. Sten said no one sup-
porting the strong mayor reform has
defined specific problems with the
current system.
The Charter Review Committee ac-
tually forwarded four amendments to
the May ballot. The three others are:
Measure 26-89 would require the
City to review its charter at least every
10 years. A 20-member commission
would be formed to review the charter,
with super-majority authority (15 or
more votes) to forward changes to the
ballot box without Council approval.
Measure 26-90 would change Civil
Service language by increasing the
number of classifications that could
serve as “at will” employees.
Measure 26-92 would increase
oversight of the Portland Development
Commission by requiring PDC to ad-
here to the City Council’s vision,
goals, budget process and performance
measures.
The aforementioned unions and la-
bor council oppose all but the PDC
oversight measure, which they
strongly support.
Ballots will hit mailboxes starting
April 27. Election day is May 15.
Machinists, Teachers, Steelworkers
unions plan conventions in Portland
Hilton Portland & Executive Tower,
a unionized hotel and meeting space,
will be the site of three major union
conferences in the next month.
The 100,000-strong Aerospace Di-
vision of the International Association
of Machinist (IAM) will hold its con-
ference there March 27-31. More than
200 delegates from the United States
and Canada will take part in the five-
day meeting, which will include train-
ings and discussions of how to expand
membership and protect North Ameri-
can aerospace-industry jobs. Oregon
Governor Ted Kulongoski and Labor
Commissioner Dan Gardner are ex-
pected to address delegates.
The 160,000-member Higher Edu-
cation Division of American Federa-
tion of Teachers (AFT) will hold its
annual issues conference March 29 to
April 1. Over 300 local leaders are ex-
pected to attend. This year’s confer-
ence will focus on a campaign to re-
verse the decline in pay and job
security that college teaching faculty
have suffered in recent years.
And the 42,000-member District 12
of the United Steelworkers will hold
its conference April 11-14, drawing
250 to 300 delegates from 11 Western
states. The conference is held every
three years and includes several days
of training for officers and elected del-
egates. This will be the district’s first
conference in Portland. The Steel-
workers Union has branched out from
the steel and aluminum industries in
recent years and added workers in pa-
permaking, the rubber industry, health
care and the public sector.
MARCH 16, 2007
