I’m grateful to 2020-22 Portland Charter Commission members Peter Eglinton and Shay Stewart-Bouley for their very thorough opinion piece (“Commentary: Why we’re opposed to the Charter Commission’s governance proposal,” Sept. 27, 2022).

Eglinton and Stewart-Bouley make a strong argument for why they and two other commission members, Dory Waxman and Marpheen Chann, are not in support of a shift away from the council-manager system. They detail reasons why the proposed council-executive mayor system goes “too far, too fast,” citing research and several municipal government national experts that warned against this proposal. Despite those warnings, the commission refused to put forth an amended and more productive proposal to voters.

The costs associated with the 13 referendum questions on the ballot are enormous, and are driven largely by political activist groups and special interest groups that can’t get their policies passed through our elected city councilors. Please join me in voting “No” on all referendum questions on Nov. 8.

Sarah Maloney
Portland