Ann Sanderson, Street Fee Foe, Also Files to Run Against Amanda Fritz

"City council says they listen, but they don't really hear us," she says.

By Beth Slovic

Ann Sanderson, the hairstylist and small business owner who helped lead the fight against Portland's 2014 street fee, is running for the Portland City Council.

But she's not running against Commissioner Steve Novick, who shepherded the ill-fated street fee from the drawing board to its death bed.

Instead, she has filed to run against Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who helped defeat the street fee proposed by Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales as the swing vote on the council.

Until late last month, Fritz had no opponents. As of Monday, one day before the filing deadline, Fritz had one: single-issue candidate David Morrison, who opposes Wi-Fi facilities in schools and neighborhoods. By comparison, Novick has eight opponents.

Sanderson, though, says her motivation to challenge Fritz stems from a desire to make sweeping change at City Hall.

"City Council says they listen, but they don't really hear us," she says. "This is an opportunity to make wide-scale change."

Interestingly enough, Sanderson doesn't oppose Novick's new gas tax proposal, which will also be on the ballot in May, now that a Multnomah County judge has dismissed a challenge about the ballot measure's title. Sanderson says the gas tax addresses several concerns she had about the street fee. It has a sunset clause, it must be approved by a popular vote, and the city won't have to create a new bureaucracy to collect the money.

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.