The Curiously Strong Mayor
It’s a subject I once spent some time examining, both on Portland Communique and the short-lived Portland Charter Review (which I probably should put back online for archival purposes), and now that Charter revision is heading to Council, I return to it briefly to ask why the Mayor would get a slush fund.
For the time being, since I’m still reading through the recommendations (pdf), I’ll just offer this single comparison between the current Charter and the changes being suggested.
Amongst the recommendations is the following addition to the powers granted the Mayor under a Strongish Mayor system:
Section 2-306 Promotion of Industry. The Mayor shall have authority to promote industrial growth and assist in securing additional business and industry within the City, and to that end may make expenditures from the General Fund within the budget for advertising the advantages of the City, for assisting private industry and business enterprises in obtaining contracts or business, for assisting new business or industry to find locations in or adjacent to the City, and for such other promotional activities as the Mayor may find appropriate. The City may cooperate with any non-profit organization or other governmental agency in carrying out the purposes of this Section.
(For what it’s worth, the PDF of the recommendations made available via the City website appears to be password protected, disallowing the ability to copy and paste from it. I had to type all of that out by hand.)
Why am I bringing up this particular item? Not to argue that the City should not be addressing the matter of promoting industry within its borders. That power in fact exists today in the Charter. But it’s granted to Council as a whole, not just to the Mayor.
It seems strange to me to cede the authority to “make expenditures from the General Fund … for assisting private industry and business enterprises in obtaining contracts or business” (for example) to a single individual rather than to the entire Council. Wouldn’t this change in essence establish a Mayoral slush fund that could be funneled to friends and associates at whim, as long as it arguably also “promoted industry”?