Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Cascade CounterPoint
Episode: QP: Portland’s all-or-nothing city charter ballot measure may add up to no reforms at all
Description: Full Text: Too much, all at once.
Portland’s city charter is long overdue for some rewrites. Few people deny that. Last month, the city’s Charter Review Commission announced its proposal to overhaul the city’s charter, with the reforms going to the voters on the November ballot.
A central part of the reforms is shifting Portland to a “City Manager” form of government. But, the proposed changes do much more than just that. Stuffed into the ballot measure is also a reformation of the City Council into a 12-member body, which would be divided am...