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Paul Douglas's avatar

While I agree wholeheartedly that Multnomah County is redundant and the most poorly governed legislative body in our state, until Portland's so-called "Charter Reform" is gutted, until having a Mayor with some actual power is restored, and until the miasma of Ranked Choice Voting (where City Commissioners are elected with 25% of their district's vote +1)is removed, simply replacing MultCo with what we now have is like putting lipstick on a pig.

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Mattt's avatar

The good news is that consolidation could give us a second bite at the apple, so to speak. Because we'd be writing a new charter for the unified city-council government, the commission could take that opportunity to course-correct on any parts of charter reform that haven't worked out as we'd hoped.

I'm wary of entangling consolidation with charter reform, but that framing might play out well politically.

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Mattt's avatar

Thank you for writing about this, Allan!

I emailed our District 4 reps about city-county consolidation, and I'd encourage you all to do the same. I'm hopeful they'll take action when they hear how many of their constituents support this idea. There's a lot happening right now, but I believe we have a rare opportunity to fundamentally improve how our region works for generations to come.

Happy to answer any questions y'all have here in the comments or over email at unite@multnomo.org

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Linda Witt's avatar

Fantastic idea, Mattt. How soon could we make this happen?!!!

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JW's avatar

Let’s get rid of them!

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Sergio's avatar

We do not need MultCo that's clear, their effors to solve just about any issue in the County is always half-a...*×#, unplanned, poorly executed, confusing (and often contradicting the Cities).

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Scott Spencer's avatar

I've said the same for years. Absolutely no reason for Portland to be part of Multnomah County. East County can fund Multnomah Country of their own or join with Hood River / Clackamas County. Put it on the ballot and I'll vote yes.

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rich ovenburg's avatar

A really good idea…trying to solve problems in Portland with two Governments is not working out for anyone. Sooner the better

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Richard Perkins's avatar

No, we don’t. They have done a poor job at virtually everything they are accountable for: homelessness programs, behavioral health, public health, animal shelters and ballot accuracy. They have unclear goals on each of these, no good metrics for measuring success, poor data collection and lack of transparency. Audits bear this out. The Chair serves as CEO and does not engage her Board in solutions. But she does know how to keep her name in the news.

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