Willamette Week| News| Politics

In Portland's peculiar form of city government, the mayor doesn't have much more power than city commissioners. Except in one big way: The mayor decides which city bureaus each commissioner will supervise.

The retirement of Gretchen Kafoury prompted the latest bureau shuffle last week. "Everyone's a winner," claimed Mayor Vera Katz about the shake-up that assigned new bosses to two of the city's largest bureaus.

But the city's annual performance audit--also released last week--points to something different. While Portlanders feel their city is safer and cleaner than in recent years, the auditor's report on city government makes it clear that challenges--and potential political booby traps--lie ahead for the city council.

Streets are deteriorating, housing costs are rising and certain areas of the city, such as outer Southeast, feel neglected. So who really won and lost? Let's just say Charlie Hales better watch his asphalt, and Dan Saltzman's future is in the toilet.

Mayor Vera Katz: In doling out bureau assignments, the mayor added to her already bustling portfolio by giving herself the Regional Arts and Culture Council. The move not only suits her passion for the arts, but it keeps the bureau from Charlie Hales, who could have used it to ingratiate himself with wealthy patrons for his possible mayoral campaign in the year 2000.

Katz kept the city's largest agency--the Police Bureau--for the sixth straight year. The good news for the mayor: Citizens feel safer walking in their neighborhoods now than they have during any other time in her tenure. The bad news: Portland still has more crimes than similarly sized cities such as Denver, Cincinnati, Charlotte and Sacramento.

Commissioner Jim Francesconi: In his sophomore season the volatile lawyer emerged as the mayor's chief ally on the City Council. Katz complimented Francesconi at a recent ribbon-cutting in outer Southeast Portland, declaring him "the mayor of Lents." The upcoming year looks even better; Katz just assigned him the Fire Bureau, which means that Francesconi now controls the city's two most popular agencies, parks and fire. The firefighters' 650-member politically active union could serve as a potent campaign supporter in Francesconi's future.

On the down side, the Parks Bureau suffers from nagging problems that go beyond voters' rejection of a $64 million maintenance bond in November. According to the auditors' annual report: youths pay too much, and adults too little, for recreation programs; satisfaction with park maintenance has declined slightly; and parks administrators lack information to assess their own performance.

Commissioner Charlie Hales: The mayor made no substantive change in Hales' portfolio--for now. Katz suggested, however, that she might take responsibility for land-use planning away from Hales. That would put planners and the mayor's development agency under the same thumb, which might help Katz execute her vision of urban livability. Of course, Hales might also be tickled to get rid of planning. It's been synonymous with growth, and that's been a political liability: Only 39 percent of city residents believe that new residential development has improved their neighborhood.

Hales' main focus is the Transportation Bureau, the city's second largest in number of employees. The road ahead looks bumpy: 70 percent of Portland commuters drive alone. The backlog of streets in need of repair reached 495 miles, a 10-year high. People are more unhappy about congestion and traffic safety than any other city issues. Even the city's street sweeping has decreased in recent years.

In the hope of getting more people out of their cars, the city will break ground on a new $40 million central city streetcar line this summer. But tearing up downtown streets could create a new traffic nightmare for Hales.

Commissioner Erik Sten: The Boy Wonder must have thought it was Christmas morning again after the mayor handed out assignments. The 31-year-old commissioner got his top wish: Katz gave him Kafoury's Bureau of Housing and Community Development. Sten had better get busy. Housing costs are becoming burdensome, auditors say, as the number of residents paying more than 30 percent of their income for shelter is increasing.

Sten also unloaded the Bureau of Environmental Services while keeping the sexiest part of the city's environmental portfolio. The mayor left him in charge of the city's response to the Endangered Species Act listing of steelhead salmon. That puts Sten in touch with the region's top environmental regulators. It may also be great stuff for his resume--imagine if he can say he rallied the city to save a species.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman: The rookie got his wish--the Bureau of Environmental Services. Saltzman, an MIT grad trained in environmental engineering, was a logical choice. But some think BES is the political equivalent of a turd. The city's sewer, garbage and recycling agency is well-regarded by citizens. But for how long? BES budgets have swollen, increasing 147 percent over 10 years. Portland sewer bills are 36 percent higher than those in six comparably sized cities. Sten kept the rates at bay for two years, but they'll soon climb higher to pay for a massive pipe-replacement project. And a different city audit, released last month, pinpointed some alarming flaws in the way the agency has been managing contracts for a $933 million sewer overhaul. "My advice to Dan was that issues raised by the audit were very legitimate," says Katz. Another City Hall insider joked that Saltzman should have resigned before he took the oath of office this week.

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Willamette Week | originally published January 6, 1998