May 31, 2005
City Council Members State Their Bureau Preferences
Potter Expected To Make Assignments By July
Last week, Isaac Laquedem asked for people's picks on Mayor Tom Potter's bureau assignments to members of City Council. That post was picked up by BlueOregon and then volleyed back by Laquedem.
In response to a question at a brown bag lunch discussion late last week, Commissioner Sam Adams listed his bureau preferences. With that in hand, we emailed the other Council members or their offices to find out what bureaus they would prefer, if the choice were theirs.
After explaining that the assigment of the City's many bureaus was "honestly and truly up for the Mayor to decide", Adams listed a series of bureaus consistent with his desire, expressed throughout his campaign, to be the so-called "jobs commissioner".
In addition to saying he would "love" to have the Portland Development Commission, Adams cited the Office of Transportation because of its impact on both jobs and neighborhoods, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council because "innovation" is a "key part" of Portland surviving and flourishing as a City.
Adams also said that he was pushing the Mayor to create two new liaison responsibilities and assignn them to him. First, a liaison to higher education because it needs to be considered a "targeted industry" in the City, and a liaison to neighborhood and small businesses because they play such an important and significant role in the City's employment base.
Commissioner Randy Leonard, in his reponse to us, focused on the City's permitting functions, drawing on his experiences running the Bureau of Development Services. "I think our permitting system at BDS has improved dramatically," he said.. "However, I have learned that a permitting system can only be as good as its weakest link."
To that end, he says that all of the City's permitting functions should be brought together under one roof at BDS, citing as examples permitting responsibilities in the Water Bureau, Bureau of Environmental Services, Office of Transportation, and Parks & Recreation.
"We can take our permitting process to a better and more efficient level with some of the changes I have mentioned here," he said. "I would be interested in being assigned that responsibility."
Commissioner Erik Sten told us he's "very open" when it comes to the bureaus he's assigned, saying he'd be "happy to continue" his previous assignments of Fire & Rescue, Housing & Community Development, RACC, and the responsibility for the City's pursuit of Portland General Electric.
"[I] would be ready and eager to serve as PDC Commissioner, but I expect the Mayor will keep it," Sten added. "[I] would also be interested potentially in Transportation or Parks."
With the "caveat that the answer might change if the question was asked at a different time," Commissioner Dan Saltzman's chief of staff Jeff Cogen said that as of this morning, if Saltzman got to choose his own bureaus, he would take the Office of Sustainable Development, Parks & Recreation, responsibiltiy for the Children's Investment Fund, and the Bureau of Environmental Services.
"His reasoning," said Cogen, "was that these focus, each in its own way, on his two biggest passions: fostering environmental sustainability and helping children thrive."
Cogen added that whatever bureaus Potter decides to assign to Saltzman's office, they will "be happy to have them".
Potter himself, according to various press reports over the past several months, may be keeping PDC, the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, and the Bureau of Planning for himself. It's also expected that the tradition of the Mayor keeping the Police Bureau will be maintained.
According to Adams, Potter has said that he expects to make dole out the bureau assignments to City Council members by July 1.
Comments (3)
pdxkona on 31 May 2005
Nice! This was great reporting....
I like how although a few overlap, all of them seem to have one or two unique preferences. That's good, and if so assigned, they will all get at least one personal interest.
Knowing all of them, having a personal interest in their bureau is in no way necessary for them to be able to do their work competently, thoroughly, and happily. However, it sure is nice and can be a positive incentive; the interest can push one to think outside of the box for solutions. Also, because of this and the fact that they all have good work ethics, this will then also push them that much more with their 'non-favorites' to be fair. Win-win in my opinion.
Lily on 31 May 2005
I sincerely hope that Potter will keep the Police Bureau and I'd love to see Commissioner Leonard get the PDC. Leonard is probably the only commissioner with enough guts to ride herd on the PDC. Heads would roll and rightly so! Go, Randy!
allehseya on 31 May 2005
"Adams also said that he was pushing the Mayor to create two new liaison responsibilities and assignn them to him. First, a liaison to higher education because it needs to be considered a "targeted industry" in the City, and a liaison to neighborhood and small businesses because they play such an important and significant role in the City's employment base."
I see this "liaison" as the role of the person overseeing ONI. Does this mean that Adams would basically take on ONI as his bureau?