This seems familiar.

Back in December, a group hoping to formally force city leaders to take care of the city’s water supply pulled its initiative and refiled the measure with updated language.

The group said it wanted to clarify some points, but also that the Portland City Attorney’s Office had looked over important details when drafting the language that would go before voters. Rather than challenge the city’s version in court, as the group initially planned, members decided to simply revise and refile and trust the city attorney would change its tune.

The city attorney’s office came back with its take on the new measure today. It’s almost exactly the same.

Here’s the city’s first take. Here’s the second.

No word yet on whether the group behind the petition, the Cascadian Public Trust Initiative, will challenge this time around.

I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

2 replies on “Is This The Easiest Ballot Language the City Attorney’s Ever Had to Write?”

  1. Not really sure what the issue is here – why did CPTI think the city’s position would fundamentally change just because CPTI tweaked its own language? The end effects of the initiative haven’t changed, have they?

  2. Since when does the City get to say what the People get to vote on? Fuck the City. If the petitioners don’t have a lawyer to check their vague initiative, then if it gets passed, it won’t be enforceable anyway. Actually, the City Attorney is doing these Bozos a favor. They ought to get a clue and fix what they are too stupid to understand.

    A trust is a bad idea, to begin with. Vote in legislators that will do the voters’ bidding.

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