January 21, 2003
City and County Press Forward on Levy
Apparently, the City of Portland and Multnomah County have reached an agreement on the process of enacting the children's levy passed by Portland voters during the last election:
The draft agreement calls for the county board to review a five-person oversight committee's spending plan and provide advice to the City Council on it.
The council must approve the entire plan or send it back to the committee. The committee will consider any changes, with recommendations by the county board and resubmit the plan to the council.
[Kathy Turner, Chief of staff to Multnomah County Board Chairwoman Diane Linn,] said that setup will safeguard against individual groups lobbying for or against specific spending items before either the council or board.
If the council does not approve the entire resubmitted plan, then the council will adopt its own plan. The county will enter into contracts recommended by the committee and approved by the city.
It sounded a little convoluted until I read it a few times. At which point the element that stood out is how the Portland City Council will be allowed to dictate whatever plan it wants simply by rejecting any plan resubmitted by the committee.
I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong with such a structure, but given my continuing education on the cultural divide between how City Hall views public process and how Portland residents view public process, I guess I'm just a little cynical about such things.