Halloween is just about three weeks away, so if you’re looking for a costume, you should consider going as an “elected mayor.”
It’s something that some people in Portland find frightening. And as with most spooky stories, the scary part is mostly in their imaginations.
Any good “elected mayor” costume has to have a “ranked-choice-voting cape.” That’s to symbolize the Portland Charter Commission’s proposed election system, which opponents claim would be confusing and easy to manipulate.
All that it would really do is save money by having the primary and the general election at the same time.
On Election Day, voters would rank the candidates on their ballot in order of their preference.
If no one got a majority in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated and his votes redistributed. If that doesn’t give anyone a majority, the process continues.
It’s true that the eventual winner may not have been the first choice of a majority of voters, but so what?
When we vote for governor next month, 66 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans will be casting second-choice votes because their first-choice candidate lost the primary in June.
The result of a ranked-choice vote could be that the second- or third-place winner in the first round goes home a winner.
But the process also protects the city from having an energetic crank, with limited but passionate support, from winning a plurality in a multicandidate race.
And the qualities that make someone an attractive second-choice candidate could also make him or her a good mayor in a system that requires cooperation.
The fact that ranked-choice voting is an idea put forward by members of the Green Party is enough to convince critics that it is some kind of plot. But somehow, that radical group the Portland Regional Chamber is also on board. Maybe it got manipulated, too.
And the well-costumed “elected mayor” should carry a really scary bag to hold all the money the office would cost.
The proposed charter change calls for a mayoral salary that works out to about $66,000 (or 1.5 times the median income in Portland). But the opponents say it would cost much more than that.
They claim that in addition to salary and benefits, the mayor’s office would eventually have to include a staff, travel and other sundries that would push the real cost up from $300,000 to half a million dollars. What they can’t say is how that would really happen.
The mayor’s salary is in the charter, but none of those other costs are. Any office expenses would have to be in the city budget, which the mayor would influence but not control.
Ultimately, the budget would have to be approved by the City Council, and why its members would vote to create a staff for a mayor when there already is a city manager, a planning director, a corporation counsel and other city employees is not part of the opponents’ nightmare scenario.
As for the mayor’s salary, there is room inside the $180 million budget for another city employee.
If you want to really scare people in your elected mayor costume, jump out from behind a tree and yell, “I’m too weak!”
The argument that we should vote down the directly elected mayor because the Charter Commission has not given the position enough power usually comes from people who would be just as opposed if we were voting on a truly strong mayor.
It’s like the old Woody Allen joke about the two women in a restaurant (“The food here is terrible,” “And such small portions!”).
It’s true that, as outlined by the Charter Commission, the mayor would have few direct powers.
But he or she would run for office citywide and have to have at least some support from a majority of voters. The term would be four years, instead of three for a councilor or one for the current mayor.
Longevity and support of the voters would give the mayor standing. The mayor would be the first point of contact for developers who want to do business in the city and would represent Portland in Augusta and Washington.
But no mayor would be able to do much without a good relationship with the city manager and a majority of the City Council.
And this would be bad because why? Because he can’t give jobs to his friends or force dead people to vote?
The reality is that an elected Portland mayor would only be as strong or as weak as the political skills of the person who holds the office.
Look out – the thing that will ruin the effect of your “elected mayor” costume is the fact that all of these provisions are easy to get rid of, so keep that under your cape.
If a majority of people don’t like ranked-choice voting, for instance, they can circulate a petition and vote it down in a future election.
If the mayor can’t find enough to do all day, the council could draft another charter change that gives the office more power and send that out to the voters.
The Charter Commission plan may not be perfect, but it’s better than what we’ve got now.
So have fun on Halloween, but leave the costume home on Election Day.
Greg Kesich is an editorial writer. He can be contacted at 791-6481 or at: gkesich@pressherald.com
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