Thank you, Bob Weinstein, for clearly making the case for the Mayor’s tie-breaking authority. These 6-6 votes are gridlock and frustrating. A tie vote prevented my common sense public safety budget amendment from passing last week.
City attorneys can be wrong! And the council could have rejected and ignored his opinion. Please contact council members, esp. Clark and Zimmerman in District 4, and urge them pool funding for a joint judicial action.
While he's at it, the Mayor can fire whoever it is in the city attorney's office that has enabled the practice of paying out a fortune in go-away money to incompetent high level city officials instead of advising the city to fire them for cause and defend the case zealously should they sue for wrongful termination.
Yes, I agreed to help fund Councilor Smith’s effort to obtain another opinion but we’ve been caught up in the budget. I don’t think his opinion can be “overturned” but we can still move ahead. It is really a matter of different legal opinions. I’m of a mind that the City Attorney’s interpretation of the city charter is wrong.
The frustration of living in Portland, is watching our elected leaders struggle with these simple, basic problems. It becomes increasingly hard to watch. Having the Mayor break a 6-6 council tie, becomes a tangle of legal opinions that will stretch for months. Don’t give drug addicts, drug paraphernalia in front of schools takes years and we still dont have an answer. Don’t cut the police department when safety on our streets is a big issue. Come on!!! Mayor Wilson …step up, be a leader.
Sadly, this is yet another example of Portland disfunction. If you saw this in a movie you would think it was too far fetched to be true, but once again, here we are. Honestly, it breaks my heart.
Mr. Weinstein did a thorough, and easily verified, assessment of the city's budget stalemate I stipulate that I have no knowledge of these processes but it seems patently clear that the mayor and the city attorney are the keys. If a mayor thought his city needed a decision, he would enthusiastically vote; he would relish the opportunity to put his "brand" on policy.
Mayor Wilson is not a man of action. Portland cannot move forward with weak ineffectual leaders. We need a passionate and fire-breathing advocate for policies that can move the city forward.
Which is exactly what we would have had if Rene Gonzalez had been elected instead of Keith Wilson. I have no doubt that Gonzalez would have seized the bully-pulpit and stood up to and spoken out against, gross stupidity.
I am sure Mayor Wilson is livid about being handcuffed and hope he speaks out about it in the press and to all Portlanders. Anybody who runs a business is just swearing to themselves about this BS. Are we kidding? Is this a city? I suggest firing the city attorney who authored the opinion and get another opinion from planet earth.
Thanks to Mr. Weistein for letting us know how many angels dance on the head of a pin. And for citing Rose City Reform, which was spinning radical ideas back when local media couldn't be bothered covering the charter commission's Zoom deliberations.
This was our capon-mayor's first and most serious failure of nerve, when the council deadlocked between proto-peacocks and the progressives--Wilson was sitting there in the council chamber and didn't simply stand up, fire the city's lawyer, and decide the council presidency. The socialists read that cowardice accurately, and it's been a downhill ride since then.
Rose City Reform was also all-in for ranked-choice voting and three-member districts (in fact, Rose City's Maja Viklands Harris was on the commission that foisted it off on the county); these are by far the charter's greatest offenses against common sense. The socialists exploited the voting scheme... and here we are. A council made up of 25-percenters, playing to their party (in a non-partisan election).
Mr. Weinstein should start a movement to correct those errors.
Thank you, Bob Weinstein, for clearly making the case for the Mayor’s tie-breaking authority. These 6-6 votes are gridlock and frustrating. A tie vote prevented my common sense public safety budget amendment from passing last week.
...but can the city attorney be overruled? What is the next move if we think the city attorney's ruling is wrong?
Exactly. If the city attorney is found to be wrong, doesn't that mean current legislation- like our budget- be discussed again?
City attorneys can be wrong! And the council could have rejected and ignored his opinion. Please contact council members, esp. Clark and Zimmerman in District 4, and urge them pool funding for a joint judicial action.
The mayor. could and should fire him.
While he's at it, the Mayor can fire whoever it is in the city attorney's office that has enabled the practice of paying out a fortune in go-away money to incompetent high level city officials instead of advising the city to fire them for cause and defend the case zealously should they sue for wrongful termination.
Olivia,
If the city attorney is wrong (about the mayor's tie-breaking vote and when it can be used), can his ruling be overturned by a judge?
Would you consider spending some of your office's funds on bringing the city attorney's decision before a judge?
Thanks,
Kara
Hi, Kara,
Yes, I agreed to help fund Councilor Smith’s effort to obtain another opinion but we’ve been caught up in the budget. I don’t think his opinion can be “overturned” but we can still move ahead. It is really a matter of different legal opinions. I’m of a mind that the City Attorney’s interpretation of the city charter is wrong.
Oh wow, thank you, Olivia.
6-6 tied votes again and again is just nonsense.
We voted for the mayor to have a tie-breaking vote.
Absolutely. Do it now. Do it quickly. Save us from ourselves. Make democracy work.
The frustration of living in Portland, is watching our elected leaders struggle with these simple, basic problems. It becomes increasingly hard to watch. Having the Mayor break a 6-6 council tie, becomes a tangle of legal opinions that will stretch for months. Don’t give drug addicts, drug paraphernalia in front of schools takes years and we still dont have an answer. Don’t cut the police department when safety on our streets is a big issue. Come on!!! Mayor Wilson …step up, be a leader.
Sadly, this is yet another example of Portland disfunction. If you saw this in a movie you would think it was too far fetched to be true, but once again, here we are. Honestly, it breaks my heart.
Hopefully all 12 city councilors have read this.
I can guarantee you that most of them have not. Nor would they be interested.
Mr. Weinstein did a thorough, and easily verified, assessment of the city's budget stalemate I stipulate that I have no knowledge of these processes but it seems patently clear that the mayor and the city attorney are the keys. If a mayor thought his city needed a decision, he would enthusiastically vote; he would relish the opportunity to put his "brand" on policy.
Mayor Wilson is not a man of action. Portland cannot move forward with weak ineffectual leaders. We need a passionate and fire-breathing advocate for policies that can move the city forward.
Which is exactly what we would have had if Rene Gonzalez had been elected instead of Keith Wilson. I have no doubt that Gonzalez would have seized the bully-pulpit and stood up to and spoken out against, gross stupidity.
I am sure Mayor Wilson is livid about being handcuffed and hope he speaks out about it in the press and to all Portlanders. Anybody who runs a business is just swearing to themselves about this BS. Are we kidding? Is this a city? I suggest firing the city attorney who authored the opinion and get another opinion from planet earth.
Wilson snapped the cuffs on himself.
What a mistake that was then.
Thanks to Mr. Weistein for letting us know how many angels dance on the head of a pin. And for citing Rose City Reform, which was spinning radical ideas back when local media couldn't be bothered covering the charter commission's Zoom deliberations.
This was our capon-mayor's first and most serious failure of nerve, when the council deadlocked between proto-peacocks and the progressives--Wilson was sitting there in the council chamber and didn't simply stand up, fire the city's lawyer, and decide the council presidency. The socialists read that cowardice accurately, and it's been a downhill ride since then.
Rose City Reform was also all-in for ranked-choice voting and three-member districts (in fact, Rose City's Maja Viklands Harris was on the commission that foisted it off on the county); these are by far the charter's greatest offenses against common sense. The socialists exploited the voting scheme... and here we are. A council made up of 25-percenters, playing to their party (in a non-partisan election).
Mr. Weinstein should start a movement to correct those errors.