A month after people pushing a new water and sewer board unveiled their first web ad for the measure, the opposition is hitting back.

In a slickly produced video—with strong notions about what “odd” and undesirable neighbors look like—the Stop the Bull Run Takeover campaign acquaints voters with its main contention: That the proposed water district is a takeover bid by big industry, which will raise your rates and slash its own.

“Industry lobbyists crafted measure 26-156 to take control of our water away from our elected representatives,” the ad intones. “The corporate polluters want a new board they can stack with their friends so they get lower bills while we pay more.”

In fact, elected representatives would still control the water, sewer and stormwater systems under the new proposal. They’d be elected solely for that purpose, and largely during off-year elections which could see low voter turnout.

Here’s the video:

It’s unclear just what Portlanders think of this measure right now—neither campaign has released polling data—but both sides are leading with their most palatable fear/anger-based narratives.

On the pro side: City hall is a den of cronyism, callously raising your rates to achieve its own profligate aims.

On the anti side: The One Percent wants to pervert your water system to achieve its own profligate aims.

Details surrounding rate policy, of course, are far more complex, but it’s tough to fit that into a snappy web video.

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...

9 replies on “Some Water Rhetoric for Your Afternoon”

  1. I wish they were not resorting to fear-mongering.
    I am not sure how I feel about this measure yet, really, but this sort of BS ad certainly makes me question their own motives for putting it out.

  4. It is sad that Portlanders actually think a largely efficient government body like a water district is the same as a corporate takeover. Sadder still that some of the same were probably all for the Trader Joe’s land giveaway. It’s just befuddled.

  5. I won’t stand for these shady corporations allowing me and all Portlanders to directly vote for our own water and sewer oversight! Allowing hundreds of thousands of average citizens a direct vote is an obvious “corporate take over!”

    Certainly the smartest thing to do is keep it in the hands of the same group that has repeatedly misused the money while raising our rates through the roof. They just need another chance!

    “He’s really a good guy! No one loves me like he does!” says the wife with a black eye.

  6. altogetherPDX, do you have any evidence to back up the assertion that a water district would be a “largely efficient government body?”

    Based on what I’ve seen, PUDs like this one tend to operate with inadequate oversight and an initial transition period that causes rates to go up. An investor-owned utility is one thing–there are people (investors) that demand efficiency and a high level of performance. But putting that sort of oversight in the hands of an under-informed, chronically under-voting public seems like exactly the kind of opportunity this ad purports it to be: the opportunity for some major water users to dig deep into their pockets to elect sympathetic officials to run the district.

  7. D&W, do you have any evidence to back up your assertion that “PUDs like this one tend to operate with inadequate oversight and an initial transition period that causes rates to go up.”

    Or that the City Council is a “largely efficient government body?”

  8. What I seem to remember reading when Sten was pushing the electric PUD was that the studies/training/infrastructure to shift the management of such an entity to an entirely new organization would cost a massive amount of money and take a long, long time. That being the case here, we would also need to have a special election to elect the board for it, which would add a cost to taxpayers in general, with no bearing whatsoever on how much water they use.

    No, City Council is not an efficient government body. But City Council also does not run the Water Bureau. We have a ludicrous commission form of government that is in desperate and long-overdue need of reform. This measure does not accomplish that.

  9. Wait until I wins me the lottery… every time a bird shits on Mt. Tabor ya’ll can flush a reservoir right into the back yard dolphin training tank at the 16 bathroom McMansion I put in when I buy Oak’s Bottom and pave it over.

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