Nominations Announced for 13 Portlanders Who Will Draw Boundaries of New Voting Districts

The 13 members are still subject to City Council approval on Jan. 25, though are likely to pass with flying colors.

REFORMATION: Supporters of Measure 26-228 celebrate its passage on election night. (Michael Raines)
By Sophie Peel

Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office has nominated the 13 Portlanders who will draw the boundaries of the new geographic voting districts for the new form of government that debuts in 2024. Those appointees are subject to City Council approval Jan. 25, though little resistance is expected.

By September, the committee must carve up the city into four contiguous regions, in which three City Council members will be elected per region in the fall of 2024, when the new form of government Portland voters approved in November will take effect. (Other changes will include using ranked-choice voting, hiring a city administrator to oversee bureau functions, and scrapping the commission form of government so that city bureaus are no longer managed by elected commissioners.) At least nine of the committee members must approve the final map in order for it to become codified.

WW wrote about the importance of the boundary-drawing committee last year. Two hundred seventy-nine people applied for the volunteer job, according to the city.

The appointees are: Amanda Manjarrez, Arlene Kimura, David Michael Siegel, DaWayne Judd, Edie Van Ness, Joshua Laurente, Kari Chisholm, Lamar Wise, Melody Valdini, Neisha Saxena, Paul Lumley, Sharon VanSickle-Robbins and Steve Fleischman.

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