This email is being sent on behalf of Walter Weyler, Chair of the Downtown Neighborhood Association
To: DNA Members and Friends
Fr: The DNA City Charter Committee
Re: Charter Review Process Underway – Stay Tuned In
Date: July 12, 2021

Can Portland’s Form of Government be Changed?

Former Portland mayor Tom Potter spoke about the need to replace the City of Portland’s Commission-form of government with a more effective structure at the April DNA meeting. Former mayor Sam Adams echoed that need at the May meeting. How such a change could be made is the reason that the June DNA meeting featured Julia Meier, the project manager for the Charter Review Commission. The Charter is effectively the Constitution for the city and spells out how the City operates. Her presentation is attached to this email as a PDF.

More About the Charter Review Commission

This appointed body will consider possible changes to the City Charter on issues such as how we elect council members, what responsibilities they have, how the city operates to ensure transparency and equity, and other key issues for Portland. Final approval of changes requires voter approval, most likely in the November 2022 election. The Charter Review Commission is meeting now in public meetings and accepting testimony.

How is the DNA involved?

The DNA Board approved the following testimony of Chair Walter Weyler, which subsequently was presented to the Charter Review Commission on June 28th in public testimony stating our priorities:

I am speaking on behalf of the Downtown Neighborhood Association. We are a dense, diverse neighborhood, housing not only the downtown business core, but PSU and about 15,000 residents.

We are very aware of problems our Portland City Commissioners face due to the current Commission form of government. As residents of the city we are impacted by these problems too. Problems become intractable and hard to resolve in the siloed structure that exists because Commissioners are bureau administrators with budgets to defend.

We believe that for this city to work, an appointed, non-political professional city manager must be hired and given day to day responsibility for operational management, oversight and coordination. Elected officials must give final approval to the City’s budget and operate as a legislative body.

We believe that there are too few Commissioners and that geographical representation is vital. Each part of this city has distinct needs and deserves an elected official who answers to them at the ballot box and can take their concerns to the Council as a whole.

We are following your work and are grateful that you have volunteered to do this very important task. We support you, and are ready to assist in providing input, educating our membership on your work and helping to get out the vote when you have referred new Charter language to the ballot.

How Can You Get Involved

The DNA Portland Charter Review Committee encourages you to become informed about the Charter Review Commission’s work by visiting their website. We also encourage you to educate yourself on what is working well with city government and what is not, to identify the problems a new structure should address, and to let us know what is of particular interest to you on this topic. We are planning input for upcoming meetings. We welcome your involvement.

Informed Citizens – Ready to Vote

Our goal is that when election day, November 2022, comes we have done all we can to make sure that the recommendations of the Charter Review Commission for Portland’s structure of government are worthy of our support; and that we all feel knowledgeable, ready to vote and ready to encourage others to vote.

We hope this information is helpful to you and look forward to your ongoing involvement in the DNA’s response to the Charter Commission’s work.

Walter Weyler
Chair, Downtown Neighborhood Association

DNA City Charter Committee
Chris Neilsen
Linda Mantel
Darlene Garrett
Hank Schottland

All Charter Review Commission meetings are open to the public. A full listing as well as minutes of previous meetings can be found on their website. Upcoming meetings include:

July 14 Charter Learning Session
July 20 Operations Meeting
July 22 Information Session with Public Comment