Portland prepares for government reform in 2025

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland is set to be the first to undergo political change next year, and Mayor Ted Wheeler is working hard to prepare as much as possible in advance. He selected Michael Jordan, the city's longtime chief administrative officer, to serve as city administrator in this mock version of the new administration.

While Jordan is committed to facilitating this transition, he has made abundantly clear that he does not intend to serve as Portland City Administrator any longer than necessary. That said, he may be doing the majority of his job until his permanent replacement comes along and takes over the reins.

Related: Portland City Administrator Michael Jordan outlines the city's progress in transitioning to a new form of government

Portland voters approved the change in November 2022, agreeing to change the city's form of government for the first time since 1913.

Under the old system, four city commissioners and the mayor were responsible for policymaking, but they also oversaw the day-to-day operations of multiple city departments and hundreds of their employees. So it's a pretty big job for elected officials, people who don't necessarily have experience in government or the portfolio they're serving, and with millions of dollars at stake.

Over time, and now almost everyone agrees, this commission-style system created silos between departments, resulting in poor communication and cooperation. City officials were beholden only to the commissioner in charge of their department, not to the mayor or the government as a whole.

Portland's bureaucracy became disjointed, cumbersome, and often inefficient.

Under the new system passed by voters, city commissioners would focus solely on creating and passing policies. They would be completely disconnected from the city department. Instead, a professional city manager will take over administration with the support of six councilors.

The existing 33 bureaus and offices will be consolidated into six fields. Meanwhile, the mayor will be responsible for administrative oversight and will have the authority to appoint and dismiss the city manager and police chief.

The ranks of city commissioners will expand to 12, or three from each of the city's four quadrants. They will be elected in November and will take office in early January 2025.

However, the merger of city departments is set to take place on July 1, as the current government looks to move into overall shape next year. While the current city commissioners will technically remain in charge, deputy city managers will begin running six different departments under the direction of interim city manager Michael Jordan.

The transition coincides with the city of Portland's new budget starting July 1. Jordan told The Story's Pat Dooris that this gives the city something of a six-month runway to get this new form of government off the ground.

“On July 1, we will begin practicing how the city will operate in the future under a new mayor and a new city council in January 2025.” “There are a lot of questions that need to be answered that amount to the next level of detailed questions. What the City Council adopted in November is actually a big framework for the whole city. But a bunch of detailed questions are buried. This framework needs to be resolved in the next change cycle.”

Related: Portland Committee passes major government reform plan, but debates when to start devolution

Getting even that overall framework through the Portland City Council was a difficult process, and the fight continues. As Willamette Week reported, Commissioner Carmen Rubio and Commissioner Mingus Mapes were at odds because they both oversee departments that handle permits. Under the new system, they would all be under one umbrella. They probably would have been consolidated even without charter reform, due to long-standing complaints about Portland's byzantine permitting process.

He said Maps wanted to slow the integration process due to concerns from bureau officials who felt it was unclear who they would report to. Rubio flatly refused.

Jordan said the consolidation is an example of the changes that need to happen in city government.

“It's a little bit awkward, but it's also an example of looking at the way we do business, and I think it's going to be easier under the new structure where there's one person who's responsible for the whole thing.” “There’s one place that costs money,” he said. “This work that we did in the reorganization permit, which will take effect on July 1, involves seven different bureaus reporting to all five different commissioners and is very fragmented. Trying to manage this kind of change with top leadership has its own complexities.

“When we do something like that in the future, there will only be one city administrator making decisions, and while there may be multiple councilors involved, they will all be ultimately accountable to one city administrator.” The mayor will also be responsible to the government officials of the city. ”

There is a reason why the permitting process was so divided in the first place. When someone applies for a development permit, Jordan explained, the Portland Fire Department handles life and safety, and of course the Water Department handles water. Environmental Services was responsible for stormwater drainage and environmental reviews, and the former Development Services Agency was responsible for state building codes and inspections.

Since each bureau has its own focus, it kind of makes sense for each bureau to oversee permitting under its authority. However, that structure created long challenges that developers had to perform on a single project and caused failures everywhere.

Related: With new bureau, Portland attempts to streamline residential, commercial permitting process

Jordan said the permitting issue “has been known for decades.” “But this commission…this commission has four people running and everything that goes with it, to change this permitting process and get everyone involved in the building. It is commendable that there has been a great focus on working in one bureau and allowing one director to be responsible for all of those issues.”

Jordan acknowledged that things won't necessarily be smooth sailing going forward. Bundling permissions introduces other potential problems. Either way, the idea is that cities will become more responsive to everyone's needs, especially those who aren't used to operating a bureaucracy like this.

“Historically, cities have had a lot of people doing development, and they've always done it, and they've got lawyers, they've got planners, they've got engineers who do this work on their behalf. And They understand the process,” Jordan said. “But I think where we struggle the most are moms who want to expand their business, but they only do it once in their life, and they don't know what to do about this process. And we have to find a way to get them through what could be a very complex set of decisions that they have to make. ”

Jordan added that most of the permits the city gets are of the “mom and pop” variety, so the city needs to be careful about what it needs.

Once the city's silos are broken down, Jordan and others in this interim government will try to figure out where the inefficiencies are. Part of that will require layoffs, which could result in job losses.

As an example, Jordan said city departments are ramping up their own internal communications teams because they are not sharing memos. In total, he believes there are at least 80 people doing this type of work across the city.

First, you need to understand how these communication teams can integrate and start working together.

“There are probably 20 or more communications people in the three major infrastructure departments, Public Works, Transportation and Water, and Power, but none in budget or finance,” Jordan said. “This is just one example, but you may need to think about how you allocate these resources, and by consolidating them under one authority, one person, you can make them more fluid. Let's say we need to manage a communications crisis in one of our organizations. We don't have the capacity to move people around and say, “Okay, these are the three things. You can say, “For a month, you'll be working here, so I need to solve this problem.'' As a result, we struggle with fluidity in how we utilize our human resources. ”

Jordan said he wasn't here to suggest layoffs, but some open positions could be eliminated as people leave or take other jobs. I expect there to be. This is part of the new city government's long-term efforts to “right-size” it.

But Jordan admits it's a process of discovery. He serves as the city's chief administrative officer, which is different from the city manager. He knows about his department, the Department of Management and Finance, but he doesn't know much about his neighbors, the Department of Transportation, Fire, Police, and Parks.

“We're going to find a lot of things in each other. We're going to do this together,” he said. “It's not just the six (deputy) city administrators. We have to work with the director and also work with experts in the field. Depending on what the field is, whether it's communications or not. And then we work with those people and stations to figure out, “What are we doing? How much work is it going to take?” Then you start thinking, 'Okay, let's start thinking about how to right-size talent and deploy talent in the best way possible.' ”