Hall Monitor

City Commissioner Amanda Fritz drew barely concealed ire in
city council last week by proposing a pay freeze next year for
non-union employees. The move came weeks after Fritz’s fellow
commissioners, Randy Leonard and Dan Saltzman, voted to
give themselves a 2.8 percent raise this year, along with the city’s
other 1,500 non-union employees. The raise fell in line with an earlier
similar raise awarded to union employees, but coincided with a city
budget cutting 112 jobs.

Fritz’s idea got a chilly reception from her fellow
commissioners: After exhibiting some memorable disgruntled expressions,
Leonard accused Fritz of trying to divide the city’s workforce and also
of sexism—since the majority of non-union employees are
women working for male managers, he said. “I’m not going to go there on
the gender issue,” Fritz responded.

Meanwhile Nick Fish proposed what I’ve christened a “fuck
you amendment,” suggesting Fritz’s ordinance should be “postponed
indefinitely” until the next budget cycle. “It’s premature,” Fish said,
and Mayor Sam Adams agreed. Snap.

Since that meeting, I’ve been trying to figure out if Fritz’s idea
was foolish or exceptionally smart. On the one hand, Fritz burned
through political capital with her colleagues without winning a single
vote on her resolution. On the other, she showed she’s not afraid to
break with city hall’s cautious traditions, or step on a few
(giant) egos to make points about saving taxpayers’ money. Hmmm.

Winston Churchill once said a person with enemies must have stood up
for something, sometime in their life. And like Churchill, it seems
Fritz did an exceptional job last week of identifying her audience. As
a publicly funded candidate, she’s accountable to the taxpayers of
Portland, not campaign donors or her council colleagues, and her
unusual new approach is likely to win more fans, albeit strictly
outside city hall.

“I was elected by the people of Portland to make prudent decisions,”
Fritz said in council. “I believe the ongoing financial crisis demands
making prudent choices throughout the fiscal year to avoid
layoffs later on.”

Saltzman also spoke in support of Fritz’s resolution. “We did vote
for our 2.8 percent [cost-of-living] raise,” he admitted. “And we took
a lot of flack for that.”

If nothing else, Fritz and Saltzman score points for striking the
right tone on this issue. Plus, if Fritz is drawing Leonard’s
attention to fiscal issues then there must be something good in her
efforts.