Last Wednesday, February 6, City Commissioner Sam Adams did
an about-face, ditching his plan to enact a new fee that would pay for
$464 million in street improvements and announcing that he
would—at the mayor’s behest—ask the council to put the
package to a public vote.
The day before, Mayor Tom Potter sent out a memo, expressing his
annoyance with the political volleyball played over the street fee.
(Recap: First it was one ordinance, then Adams split it into three to
thwart a legal challenge, then he put it back into one when opponents
pledged to back down, and the council passed it. But opponents still
launched a challenge, and Adams responded by putting it back on the
agenda in three parts for the February 6 council meeting. Got
that?)
Though he had already voted to enact the fee the week before, Potter
flipped—and said he wouldn’t support it now. He urged the council
to send it to the ballot, echoing the line opponents had been
using.
Despite having four votes to enact the fee—and after months of
saying enacting it was the right thing to do, repeatedly using the line
“it’s a question of leadership”—Adams yanked the measures.
“I believe that an enactment of a major new fee requires unanimous
support,” Adams said. “The corrosive influence of special interest
lobbyists have taken their toll on this issue. I still have four votes,
but I no longer have unanimous support. I propose that the Portland
City Council send to this to the November ballot.” After the meeting,
he acknowledged that this was “plan B,” but said he trusted voters to
“make the right decision.”
Not everyone agreed with Adams’ new plan. Commissioner Randy Leonard
read from a dog-eared and highlighted paperback copy of The
Federalist Papers, saying that the initiative and referral systems
“according to our Founding Fathers, are perversions of our form of
government” that have “a direct impact” on problems like crumbling
transportation infrastructure.
Caving to “the passions of the minority… marginalize the interests
of the whole,” Leonard argued.
“I’m prepared to vote and make a decision here today to fund our
roads,” Leonard said. Sending the measure to the ballot means it will
“be subjected to tens of millions of out-of-state dollars from oil
companies that have no interest in the safety or welfare of
Portlanders, but only have an interest in their bottom line.
“Stick with what the Founding Fathers say we ought to do, and make
decisions. Then let the voters decide if they like your decision,”
Leonard said.
In the week since Adams pulled the measures (the council also
repealed the earlier measure they’d passed), stakeholders who helped
craft the plan have largely “taken a breather” before they potentially
reassess the package. The $464 million plan may go to the voters as-is,
or could be tweaked to be more ballot friendly. Adams signaled that he
plans to return to the city council on February 27, possibly with a
resolution directing transportation staff to prepare a measure for the
November ballot.