As expected, Portland City Council voted 3-2 last Wednesday, December 21, to approve Commissioner Sam Adams' plan to make lobbyists report their activities if they spend 16 hours or more a quarter lobbying city officials.
Commissioners Erik Sten and Dan Saltzman voted (and co-sponsored the ordinance) with Adams. Sten had gone on record weeks ago as a supporter of the regulations, but Saltzman's vote remained an unknown a week before the vote, when it was announced that he was signing on as a co-sponsor. With Saltzman on board, the passage of the ordinance was a foregone conclusion before last week's vote.
Although the rhetoric was ratcheted up in the few days leading to the vote—with allegations of "horse trading" and backroom dealing—Commissioner Randy Leonard and Mayor Tom Potter praised Adams' intentions before casting their dissenting votes.
"[Adams] worked very hard to create an ordinance that increases transparency," Potter said at last week's meeting. "Unfortunately, I don't think this particular ordinance does that."
Specifically, Potter's complaint was that the ordinance exempts too many organizations. He said his staff poured over his calendar from the last three months, and found 25 to 40 meetings with representatives from groups that wouldn't have to report their lobbying—because they either don't exceed the 16 hours per quarter or are specifically exempted, like neighborhood associations.
"I'm voting no because I want citizens to know this isn't enough," Potter added. "But since it's going to pass, I'll do everything I can to make it work."
For his part, Leonard has been very clear that he opposes the exemption of neighborhood associations from the regulation.
Even Sten and Adams admitted that the ordinance as written probably has some flaws. But, Sten said, "It's time to not let 'perfect' be the enemy of the good."
Built into the ordinance is a six-month evaluation period, after which the council will revisit the regulations to determine what changes need to be made.
"That's the good news in this," Potter's communications director, John Doussard, told the Mercury. "We'll know six months from now, when we'll see which groups qualified for the ordinance."
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