WW: Portland’s charter reform measure reaches far beyond addressing city government’s most glaring shortcomings and fails to achieve its stated goals

Rarely has the appetite for change been stronger. But a volunteer committee tasked with the once-a-decade job of reviewing the city charter did its surgery with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel.

Rather than focusing on the most effective way to streamline and professionalize city services, the 20-member Charter Commission proposed a novel government structure untested in any other city in America.

Portland would lurch from one form of government that no other large city uses—the commission form, with elected officials overseeing the management of bureaus—to another that no other large city uses.