Oregon is a special place for many reasons. The one we will focus on today does not make the top ten lists of reasons to move here, but sometimes we wonder if it should! In Oregon, incorporated cities and counties are allowed to create and amend their own charters–the document that outlines a local government's systems and structures–without state approval, so long as the charter does not conflict with the state constitution. This arrangement means that Oregon residents have considerable power in shaping the places where they live and vote. In fact, the only thing that can change a city or county charter is a vote of the people, which is what happened in Portland's November 2022 election. Voters approved Measure 26-228(which proposed three amendments to our city charter) with approximately 57 percent of the vote.
There is an excellent overview of how the City Charter review and amendment process works and how it came to be this way in Oregon here. One critical development in this process came in 2005 when the City Council convened a Charter Commission tasked with reviewing the city's charter and making recommendations for amendments to put before voters. One of those amendments (later approved by voters) stipulated that there would be a regularly scheduled review of the charter by a commission of volunteers no less than once a decade. Beginning in December of 2020, the most recent of these charter reviews was conducted over 18 months.
The Charter Commission (a diverse group of twenty volunteers) proposed three amendments to Portland's City Charter. Because over 75% of the Commission's members approved the proposed amendments, they went directly to voters in the November 2022 election rather than to Portland's City Council for approval.
With voter approval of Measure 26-228, the City of Portland is making three connected changes:
Allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference using ranked-choice voting.
Establish four geographic districts, with three city council members elected to represent each district – expanding the city council to a total of 12 members.
Establish a city council that focuses on setting policy and engaging with the community, transitioning day-to-day oversight of bureaus to a mayor elected citywide and a professional city administrator.
It's a lot of change! And naturally, there has been some debate about and resistance to these changes. Though we cannot predict how these changes will change the City of Portland, we can assure you that Portlanders will continue to have ample opportunities to participate in shaping it. The charter reform process is evidence of that!
We encourage you to engage in this process and encourage others to learn about it, too, so we can continue to exercise and amplify voter empowerment!
Check out the detailed timeline of the entire transition plan>>
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