The Government of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

is based on a

city commission government City commission government is a form of local government in the United States. In a city commission government, voters elect a small commission, typically of five to seven members, typically on a plurality-at-large voting basis. These commissione ...

system. Elected officials include the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

, commissioners, and a city auditor. The mayor and commissioners (members of City Council) are responsible for legislative policy and oversee the various bureaus that oversee the day-to-day operation of the city.

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

began using a commission form of government in 1913 following a public vote on May 3 of that year. Each elected official serves a four-year term, without

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s. Each city council member is elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...

. In 2022, Portland residents approved a ballot measure to replace the commission form of government with a 12-member council elected in four districts using

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

, with a professional

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief execu ...

appointed by a directly-elected mayor, with the first elections to be held in 2024.

Current members

History

The Portland Charter was the subject of much debate circa 1911–1912. Rival charters were drafted by four different groups, including the "official charter committee," appointed by the mayor; the "people's charter committee," constituted under the auspices of the East Side Business Men's Club; another citizen's committee which drafted the Short Charter; and the "people's committee," led by W.C. Benbow, which drafted the Benbow Charter. The Short Charter was unusual in that it would have used

Bucklin voting Bucklin voting is a class of voting methods that can be used for single-member and multi-member districts. As in highest median rules like the majority judgment, the Bucklin winner will be one of the candidates with the highest median ranking o ...

to elect the mayor and implemented

interactive representation Interactive representation is a proposed governance system in which elected officials have the same number of votes as the number of people that voted for them. It was proposed in Oregon in 1912 by William S. U'Ren and in Virginia in 2001 by Bill ...

of the people through the commissioner system; each commissioner's vote would have been weighted according to the number of votes he received in the election. The city council appointed a committee to draft a compromise charter. This charter, along with the Short Charter, were defeated in referendums. The following year, the city council submitted another charter to the people, which was accepted. The

form consequently came into use in 1913, with H. Russell Albee being the first mayor under the new system.

2022 Charter Reform

Ballot Measure 26-228 in the November 2022 election is an amendment to the city charter that will move away from a city commission system of government. It expands the council from four at-large council members to 12 councilors, who will be elected via ranked choice voting from four geographic

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

(with three council members from each district). The mayor will no longer be a voting member of the council, except when needed to make a tie-breaking vote. It also removes responsibility for direct management of city bureaus from commissioners to a

overseen by the mayor and confirmed by the council. Previous attempts to reform the city charter had been defeated seven times since 1913, including as recently as 2007. The first city council elections under the new districts will occur in 2024. In preparation for transitioning management of city bureaus to a city manager, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced he would group city bureaus into five related service areas.

City Council

Weekly Meetings

The City Council convenes on Wednesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons in the council chamber on the second floor of Portland City Hall, and meetings are open to the public.

Composition (since 1971)

Terms are staggered, with the mayor and the commissioners in positions 1 and 4 elected in the same years as presidential elections, and the auditor and the commissioners in positions 2 and 3 elected in the same years as gubernatorial elections.

Notable former commissioners

Neil Goldschmidt Neil Edward Goldschmidt (born June 16, 1940) is an American businessman and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who held local, state and federal offices over three decades. After serving as the United States Secretary of Transportat ...

, who went on to serve as Mayor, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and Governor. * Mildred Schwab *

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Earl Blumenauer Earl Francis Blumenauer ( ; born August 16, 1948) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1996. The district includes most of Portland east of the Willamette River. A member of the Democrat ...

served on the Council before his election to the House. *

Mike Lindberg Mike Lindberg (born January 1941) is an American politician who served on the Portland, Oregon City Council from 1979 until 1996. His tenure of 17 years, three months was the longest of any city commissioner in the past 40 years, as of 2009; Lind ...

– member of council for 17 years (1979–1996),Parente, Michele (December 29, 1996). "Urban pioneer Mike Lindberg takes a final bow". ''The Sunday Oregonian'', p. 1. a longer tenure than any other commissioner in the 40-year period up to 2009 (and until surpassed in 2016) * Gretchen Kafoury *

Charlie Hales Charles Andrew Hales (born January 22, 1956) is a former American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 2013 to 2017. He previously served on the Portland City Council from 1993 to 2002. Early life and education Charl ...

– on the council 1993–2002 and againthis time as mayorfrom January 2013 through 2016 *

Jim Francesconi Jim Francesconi (born 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served on the Portland, Oregon City Council from 1997 until 2004. In 2004 he raised $1.3 million in his bid for mayor of Portland, more than doubling the previous fund-raising ...

Dan Saltzman Dan Saltzman (born 1953/54) is a politician in the U.S. state of Oregon who served as a commissioner (city councilman) on the City Council of Portland in Portland, Oregon, from 1999 through the end of 2018. As of 2017, he had served longer on the ...

– member of council for 20 years (January 1999 – December 2018), longer than any person since 1969

Elections

City Council seats, as well as the City Auditor, are non-partisan, elected positions; each carries a four-year term. As with all non-partisan positions in Oregon, candidates face off in a

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

(typically in May of even-numbered years); if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers face off in a

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

election (typically the following November.) Three Council seats, including the Mayor, were up for election in 2008; the other two seats, and the Auditor position, were up for election in 2010. From 2006 to 2010, Portland used a publicly financed election system, allowing candidates to qualify for public funding of $145,000 if they could gather 1000 five-dollar contributions by a certain date (for Mayoral candidates, 1500 contributions of $5 were required for a $160,000 grant). Two candidates availed themselves of this system in 2006: incumbent Erik Sten, who won the primary election, and Amanda Fritz, who lost out to incumbent Dan Saltzman but won a seat two years later (utilizing publicly financed election money). The November 2010 elections saw Portlanders rescind their support for this publicly financed election system.

Neighborhood government

Portland's neighborhood system, the Office of Community and Civic Life, is made up of 94 recognized neighborhood associations and seven neighborhood district coalition offices located throughout the city. These offices provide support and technical assistance to the volunteer-based neighborhood associations, community groups and individual activists.

City bureaus and services

Emergency services

The

Portland Police Bureau The Portland Police Bureau (PPB), officially the Portland Bureau of Police, is the law enforcement agency of the city of Portland, the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. While oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City ...

is the primary policing agency in the city and currently reports to the mayor, while Portland Fire & Rescue is assigned to a separate commissioner (Jo-ann Hardesty as of 2022). The city also has an office of

emergency management Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...

planning for mitigation of natural and manmade disasters.

Utilities and energy infrastructure

Portland Water Bureau The Portland Water Bureau is the municipal water department for the city of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. The bureau manages a water supply that comes mainly from the Bull Run River in the foothills of the Cascade Range east of the city a ...

manages municipal water services through the city, while the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) manages sewer and

stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...

systems. Waste collection and recycling is managed by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which also runs the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund investing in renewable energy development.

Transportation

Public transit within the city is primarily the responsibility of

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

, not the city government, but the

Portland Streetcar The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. The NS Line runs from Northwest Portland to the South Waterfront via Downtown and the Pearl District. The L ...

and

Portland Aerial Tram The Portland Aerial Tram or OHSU Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon, that connects the city's South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is one ...

are exceptions; both are owned by the city. The aerial tram is managed by

Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medi ...

(OHSU)

Education

Portland Public Schools operates more than 81 schools and is one of the largest pre-kindergarten through high school districts in the state. As of 2022, Portland also provides tax-payer funded

universal preschool Universal preschool is an international movement supporting the use of public funding to provide preschool education to all families. This movement is focused on promoting a global, rather than local, preschool program. The goal is to provide equ ...

, after voters approved a city measure in 2020.

Housing, camping and homelessness

The city runs a number of bureaus focused on housing, development, and programs to address homelessness. The Portland Housing Bureau manages programs aimed at increasing

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

Joint Office of Homeless Services

Since 2016, Multnomah County chair

Deborah Kafoury Deborah Kafoury (born August 19, 1967) is a politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Walla Walla, Washington, Kafoury received her bachelor's degree from Whitman College. She is the chair of the Multnomah County Commission, where she suc ...

and Portland mayor Ted Wheeler have paired the city and county together to the Joint Office of Homeless Services. In September 2020, frustrated with tents downtown, Mayor Wheeler expressed the intent to withdraw the City of Portland from its partnership with county on JOHS. The intergovernmental agreement between the city and county on the JOHS has an expense of $32.5 million to the Portland City Government and expires in June 2022. Partially using federal funds from the

American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, is a economic stimulus bill passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, to sp ...

, the Joint Office of Homeless Services uses city-owned land to site Safe Rest Villages, which are managed temporary housing that augments the homeless shelter system.

Controversy over illegal-camp cleanups

Multiple news outlet reported on the city auditor's report on the city's handling of illegal campsite clean ups by the Homelessness/Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program. Since 2015, the City of Portland implemented a streamlined campsite complaint intake. City contractors then removed tents, items and other items and stored them. The database was to prioritize cleanup based on "biohazards, garbage and other factors, such as whether campers are aggressive or openly using drugs". ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'' summarized that the auditors found little evidence prioritization was occurring and no clear indication of what criteria were invoked in selecting which camps are to be removed or not removed and auditors documented the city often ignored hundreds of complaints made by residents. The newspaper commented "That non-response doesn’t comport with the crackdown on illegal camping instituted by Mayor Ted Wheeler earlier in his term." The audit conducted in summer and fall of 2018 reported that the city needed to improve communications to illegal campers as well as complainants. The auditor recommends providing complainants with a status update. In 2019, the city announced they intend to do that with a new app that helps people "better record and understand HUCIRP" As of June 2020, the status update for reporting party has yet to be implemented per city's own status update.

Parks and recreation

Portland Parks & Recreation Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) is a Bureau of the City of Portland, Oregon that manages the city parks, natural areas, recreational facilities, gardens, and trails. The properties, which occupy a total of more than . The bureau employs a total ...

manages 11,760 acres of public park lands in the city, including large natural areas like

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China *Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fores ...

and public recreation facilities such as municipal playgrounds, pools, golf courses, and the

Portland International Raceway Portland International Raceway (PIR) is a motorsport facility in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is part of the Delta Park complex on the former site of Vanport, just south of the Columbia River. It lies west of the Delta Park/Vanpo ...

Related government entities

Portland is the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...

, and the core of

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

, a regional government primarily concerned with

land use planning Land use planning is the process of regulating the use of land by a central authority. Usually, this is done to promote more desirable social and environmental outcomes as well as a more efficient use of resources. More specifically, the goals ...

. Both of these government entities have a strong impact on Portland policy.

References

* List of notable Commissioners from ''Willamette Week''
25th Anniversary issue
(1999)

External links

City Government Structure
at City of Portland website
Official Web Site for the City of Portland, Oregon
{{Portland, Oregon Politics of Oregon City councils in the United States 1851 establishments in Oregon Territory