Last week, we asked every city council candidate to introduce themselves to Blogtown. This week, we ask the next logical question:

If elected, which bureau would you most like to head up? How do you feel that bureau is currently being run, and what changes, if any, would you make as commissioner of that bureau?

Candidates got the question a week ago, and had until this morning to respond. Got an idea for a future question? Put it in the comments, or email me.

Incumbent City Commissioner Randy Leonard was the first to answer last week’s question, and the first responder to this week’s question—he’s up first, followed by his opponents, then those running for the open seat.

The shorthand version:
Leonard loves the Water Bureau, which he currently oversees. Ed Kill “decided to run for City Council because of Police abuse” and would love to head up the cops.

In the open seat race, John Branam has his eye on the Office of Sustainable Development (OSD), with plans to “[roll] back our impact on the planet.” Transportation advocate Chris Smith would like—you guessed it—the Office of Transportation, and took this opportunity to unveil his transportation platform (it includes a “a carbon footprint analysis” of all transportation investments).

Howard Weiner’s interested in the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI), which he thinks is currently “underutilized and misdirected in it’s approach to civic engagement.” Amanda Fritz, surprisingly, names the Police Bureau as her top choice, to “revitalize Portland’s movement toward community policing.” Jeff Bissonnette lays out his “dream portfolio,” which includes OSD, the Office of Cable Communications, ONI, and the Water Bureau. And Charles Lewis treats us to another video answer, and says he’d like to “arm wrestle” Commissioner Erik Sten for the privilege of running the Bureau of Housing and Community Development.

Randy Leonard
Position sought: Commissioner #4
Website: randyforportland.com
Public financing status: Not participating in program

I have been fortunate since arriving on the city council to have been given excellent bureau assignments. My current portfolio is comprised of the Bureau of Development Services, the Bureau of Emergency Communications (aka the 911 center) and the Water Bureau.

I have to admit that the assignment I was initially most skeptical of was the Water Bureau, given its tumultuous history. I’m happy to say that I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. As the commissioner-in-charge of the Water Bureau, and with the outstanding public service ethic of the women and men of the Portland Water Bureau, I have had a wide variety of opportunities to deliver the kinds of services Portlanders want. Here are some examples of how I run the Water Bureau:

When I was first assigned the Water Bureau in July of 2005, I discovered a number of fenced off properties throughout Portland, owned by the Water Bureau, that each played a vital role in delivering water to our citizens. The size of those properties ranged from one to five acres. Although the entire properties were fenced off, the infrastructure that actually needed to be protected occupied only a small footprint within each piece of land. I believed that we could better utilize the property to allow parks in neighborhoods where none existed by removing the fences and opening up the property to the public.

Today, we have five new “HydroParks” (a park operated by the Portland Water Bureau) throughout Portland that provide recreational opportunities in neighborhoods that previously had no parks. These HydroParks are home to a range of amenities that reflect what each particular neighborhood said they wanted: Some have walking trails, a community garden, playground equipment and all have picnic tables.

I have also been pleased to bring my passion for sustainability to the Water Bureau. I’m developing a project wherein the Water Bureau will install five acres of solar panels in our back-up well field along the Columbia River. When completed, it will be one of the largest solar fields of any public agency in the United States. I also directed that all diesel vehicles within the Water Bureau use B-99 biodiesel fuel whenever possible. The result is that the Portland Water Bureau is the largest fleet in the United States that uses B-99 biodiesel.

The main source of water for Portlanders is located within the Bull Run Watershed about 30 miles east of Portland in the foothills of Mt. Hood. There is no purer water in the world than Bull Run water. It is a treasure I can honestly say I took for granted until I visited the Bull Run Watershed after first being assigned the Water Bureau two and one half years ago. In an attempt to have as many Portlanders as possible have the experience I did, I have directed an expansion of the Bull Run tour program that includes guided bus tours from Portland through Bull Run.

I also initiated the first “Blog” of any bureau in the city with the creation of the Portland Water Bureau’s blog. You can find it at either BullRunWater.com or PortlandWaterBueau.com.

If re-elected I would like to keep all of my assigned bureaus. However, given how far the Portland Water Bureau has come, I would be especially disappointed to lose that assignment. I have the highest respect and admiration for the outstanding work the women and men of the Water Bureau perform 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Ed Kill
Position sought: Commissioner #4
Website: none
Public financing status: Not participating in program

I decided to run for City Council because of Police abuse. Naturally, when I’m elected I would prefer to take charge of the Police Bureau with the intent of reforming Police procedures and replacing the complaint review process. I would make myself directly available to the public and would review every single complaint Myself. If necessary I would get directly involved and investigate a complaint personally. The complaint process would be simple, secure and run by civilians.

I don’t believe that a society can be free if it’s government is keeping secrets so I would release all records except those containing personal information. This would include all the statistical data compiled by the bureau. I firmly believe that the best oversight for government is the press and the people. I would give them the information and let them come up with questions. Questions are how we keep governments under control, we should be questioning our government every day.

I would like to make it clear that I am not a politician I’m a technocrat. I will apply the same analytical process to any bureau I’m put in charge of. I will analyze the situation from top to bottom, find the problems and set about fixing them with the people.

Emily S. Ryan
Position sought: Commissioner #4
Website: emilysryan.com
Public financing status: Less than 100 signatures & contributions

Did not respond by the deadline. -Eds.

John Branam
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: john4pdx.org
Public financing status: 635 signatures & contributions as of today, he says

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about Portland's bureaus; these questions have been great. It's exciting to have this early opportunity to exchange ideas with my co-candidates and to share my thoughts with Portlanders.

The question about which ONE bureau I would most like to head up is challenging. A primary thrust of my campaign - and, for that matter, my past professional experiences - has been strong leadership. No matter which bureaus I'm assigned I look forward to providing leadership that is both visionary and collaborative.

In truth, being a commissioner of any of our bureaus is appealing to me. Each plays an important role in Portland and offers a unique way to connect with and support Portlanders. For example, having been a neighborhood association chair, I am drawn to the role ONI plays in connecting neighbors and neighborhoods to City Hall and our city's many resources.

But if I had to chose just one bureau the one that most interests me is the Office of Sustainable Development. Portland has a unique opportunity to demonstrate extraordinary leadership in rolling back our impact on the planet, and the Office of Sustainable Development can play a key role in our doing so.

Among the many ideas I have to preserve and improve Portland's quality of life, below are a few that relate specifically to this bureau:

The number one contributor to greenhouse gases is vehicle emissions, especially those coming from combustible engines. To address this serious issue Portland should increase its efforts to acquire a full fleet of low/no-impact vehicles. An exciting and relevant opportunity would be to partner with Honda to become the second region to pilot their newly-released zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

Further, the City of Portland must redouble its efforts to move towards purchasing only renewable energy - such as wind energy - to power its infrastructure.

The second major contributor to environmental degradation is construction. Without question I am excited about Portland's growth and its commitment to being a global leader in green building. Critical, then, is our ability to pioneer building practices the compliment Portland's vision for having green structures, and for building those structures utilizing innovative, green techniques.

While not considered by many to be an environmental issue, public housing is a key driver of suburban sprawl, whereby individuals and families move outside city centers (often seeking less expensive housing) and commute to their jobs still inside the city center (and, hence, creating more emissions). Suburban sprawl does unimaginable harm to the environment each year, and preventing it should be a top concern. As Portland continues to grow and experience economic success, we need to ensure Portlanders of all income levels can live inside the city - where they can bike and take mass transit to accomplish their daily needs.

In addition to these idea I look forward to spending the first several months in office listening to the experts - bureau employees and passionate Portlanders - about their ideas for the Office of Sustainable Development and how we can, together, be more aggressive about preserving our beautiful natural surroundings and our amazing natural resources.

Many thanks for the opportunity to share my ideas. For more information about my platform or to join my campaign for city council please visit my website @ www.John4PDX.org

Chris Smith
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: citizensmith.us
Public financing status: Passed the 500 signatures & contributions mark on December 17

I suspect your readers would be shocked if my answer were anything other than “Transportation.” (For those who don’t know, I have been a transportation advocate for more than 10 years.)

The Portland Office of Transportation (often known as PDOT) has made some significant changes in recent years. Under tremendous budget pressure due to declining gas tax buying power, the bureau has trimmed its budget significantly (which I assisted in, as a member of the budget advisory committee) while still maintaining critical services and working to making transportation in Portland more sustainable. My objective as Commissioner of Transportation would not be so much to change direction as to push further into sustainability.

This is a good opportunity to launch the transportation policy for our campaign. Readers can find the full policy on our web site (http://www.citizensmith.us/downloads/transportation_policy.pdf), but here are the highlights:

- Insist that all transportation investments be subject to a carbon footprint analysis
- Make safety the first priority for investment
- Maintain our existing transportation assets
- Use the system we have more efficiently through new technology
- Invest strategically to support growth in population more sustainably

Howard Weiner
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: howardforportland.com
Public financing status: Less than 100 signatures & contributions as of early December

I would most like to head up the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.

I believe this bureau is underutilized and misdirected in it’s approach to civic engagement through no fault of staff or it’s Director but by direction or lack there of. I applied for the position of Director of this bureau two years ago and was the finalist along with the current Director.

Much has changed since this bureau was started 1n 1974 as the Office of Neighborhood Associations. Citizens lacked a voice on land use issues that affected their neighborhood and this was the bureau that the city council created to give citizens a role in land use policy decisions.

It is now time to reenergize this bureau and move in a new direction

I would expand the role of ONI to building relationships between business, interest groups and neighborhood associations and put resources back into these communities through seed money grants that nurture relationship building.

I would change the name of this bureau to the Office of Community Engagement and create an entrepreneurial enterprise aimed at soliciting and promoting our best ideas and brightest activists.

I would insure that the community was at the table at the front end of any process that would affect their lives not at the tail end being sold on decisions already made.

I believe this bureau has the potential to bring all of us together in building our future with citizen driven participatory government for all.

Howardforportland.com

Amanda Fritz
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: amandafritzforcitycouncil.com
Public financing status: 973 signatures & contributions, according to her site

I would like to be the Commissioner for the Police Bureau, and revitalize Portland's movement toward community policing.

As a psychiatric nurse for 25 years, I truly empathize with public safety officers about the dangers involved when interacting with mentally ill and drug addicted people, while working overtime due to understaffing. I know the value and importance of mutual respect, too. I will work for 95 safe, strong, healthy Portland neighborhoods, whose residents and businesses assist in crime prevention. I will listen and respond to both officers' and neighbors' concerns. Portland should be a place where our police officers are honored, valued, and connected with the community in every neighborhood.

As the Police Commissioner, I will support Chief Sizer by pushing for increased training that reduces the need for the use of force, and by streamlining recruitment to fill the current backlog of open positions. I will review the Police Bureau's policies, require accountability in practice, and increase public understanding of the Bureau through transparency of all its processes.

I will lead every bureau that the Mayor places in my portfolio with the democratic principles of transparency, accountability, and increased public involvement. As Commissioner, I will make it easier for citizens to both understand the work of all my bureaus, and to obtain the highest level of City services no matter which bureau is responsible, or which part of town they live in.

For a more complete discussion of this question, please visit the blog on my web site. I plan to open the blog for comments soon, after I finish collecting the 1000 donations of $5 from Portland voters needed to qualify for Public Campaign Financing.

Jeff Bissonnette
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: portlandersforjeff.com
Public financing status: Nearly 400 signatures & contributions

There is a wide range of bureaus that I would be interested in administering as a city commissioner. However, I do have a "dream portfolio" to which I would request being assigned if elected:

the Office of Sustainable Development, to take advantage of my experience with clean energy and energy efficiency policies;
the Office of Cable Communications and Franchise Management, to take advantage of my experience with telecommunications and community media issues;
the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, to take advantage of my background in community and grassroots organizing; and
the Water Bureau, to take advantage of my consumer advocacy background.

For the purposes of this question, I'll focus on my goal to administer the Water Bureau. I believe the bureau is currently being run well overall. There has been an effort in recent years to make the bureau more responsive to citizen concerns, leading to the bureau's highest satisfaction ratings from residents and businesses in over a decade, according to the Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) Report issued recently. The bureau has worked to upgrade the billing systems so that improvements like monthly payments are possible. The bureau has also been at the forefront in challenging the federal government's water treatment requirements that would force additional treatment of Bull Run water and/or potentially covering or retiring our reservoir system, all coming at a high expense to water ratepayers.

Because of challenges from outside entities, like the one highlighted above from the federal government, as well as other proposals, such as the one to add a street maintenance fee to water and sewer bills, Portlanders are concerned about the upward pressure on already high bills for these essential services. This concern is also shared by residents in other communities that receive water service from the City of Portland. As ratepayers, Portlanders and other customers need to understand how rates are developed and how charges end up on their bills.

As commissioner-in-charge of the Water Bureau, I would prioritize increasing the bureau's accountability in this area in order to maintain, and hopefully improve, the bureau's already strong satisfaction rating. To that end, I would develop and implement a public ratemaking process to allow a thorough examination of rate design and charges. The bureau should have to defend its recommended rates for water service and respond to questions from and analysis by outside parties. This process will include an independent third party whose primary role is advocating for the interests of ratepayers. This independent third party advocacy would be additive to the merely advisory role currently played by the Mayor-appointed and Council-confirmed Portland Utility Review Board (PURB) in these issues. The PURB would also provide a key coordination link to sewer rate-related issues, which are proposed separately by the Bureau of Environmental Services.

Portlanders must feel increasingly assured that their water rates are set responsibly and accurately. A public ratemaking process will further Portlanders understanding and acceptance of the rates they pay for water service and for future investments to ensure continued availability of clean water for the city.

Charles Lewis
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: charleslewis.com
Public financing status: About 800 signatures & contributions

[Charles responded with a video. -Eds.]