Wonk Level 4: Super Wonky

Even though he was on the losing side of two of the four Charter Review Commission recommendations, Commissioner Erik Sten came out as the clear political winner at yesterday’s council hearing.

First, he scored a victory with the commission’s recommendation for periodic charter review, which would set up a commission to review the charter every six years, and could forward changes to the ballot by bypassing city council. The CRC’s original recommendation was that a simple majority on future commissions—11 out of 20—could send recommendations to voters. After nudging from Sten last month, though, the final language requires a supermajority—anything less would have to go before council first. Sten used this battle to point out that not even a majority of the original Charter Review Commission voted for the current form of government change (out of the original 26 members, only 20 were left at the end, and only 13 voted for the recommendations).

Second, Sten managed to broker a compromise on the form of government ballot question, leading to language that more clearly shows what city council would be losing than what the mayor proposed.

Third, he got a 5-0 vote on tightening up city council’s relationship to the Portland Development Commission. Last summer, Potter and Dan Saltzman rebuffed any attempts by Sten, Sam Adams, and Randy Leonard to assert more control over PDC, and the Charter Review Commission responded by recommending that the relationship change very little. But then, last month, Sten and Potter co-wrote a memo to the commission, asking them to make city council the “budget committee” for PDC. The commission declined, so Sten introduced an amendment to the recommendation, and scored a unanimous victory.

Fourth, he used the hearing to deliver a fiery stump speech lambasting the form of government change and championing the existing commissioner form. From where I was sitting, that speech kicked off—and set the terms for—the coming campaign, and made the mayor’s following pro-reform speech sound tired and impatient (especially when he yelled at an audience member to “shut up while I’m talking”).

Boiled down, it was a debate between the longest-serving politician at city hall, who’s learned a thing or two about how to control an argument even when you’re losing it, and one of its newest, who had almost no political experience before becoming mayor.