Jack,
Your ideas for the Water Bureau are right on target. That's how the Water Bureau was managed at the beginning. An elected water board had incentives to be fiscally responsible and they were. One more thing: how about an Administrator who does not have a cozy relationship with the engineering firm that has garnered all the "big" contracts and is lining a lot of pockets around town. One that was not a part-time policy advisor to Leonard who has no clue how to manage a water system. Where do I sign up?

RE: PWB

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

How about a petition to change the board of directors of TriMet to an elected board that may have some accountability to the riding public?

How about a petition to change the board of directors of TriMet to an elected board that may have some accountability to the riding public?

Or how about at least requiring Tri-Met board members to commute to work by bus (NOT MAX or streetcars) at least once per week.

How about seeing what happens to people's general political interest levels, after they have successfully exercised their right to recall a jerk who is widely disliked?

Like a horse when you let it eat on the ride, it wants to eat more, and might even buck you off if you don't let him/her.

Me recall petition is signed and returned. I'll keep an eye out for these others.

Adams may be widely disliked, but the recall campaign has at least two VERY big strikes against it (not including an apparent lack of funds):

1. It has steadfastly refused to put forward a replacement mayoral candidate, let alone one with plausible electability and liberal credentials. That omission alone is very likely fatal to the cause. No matter what people think of Adams, few will be willing to vote him out of office (or even sign a petition) without first having some idea of who is waiting to take his place. So far, there's no one.

2. It has visible connections with the far right wing, embodied most visibly by Lars Larson of KXL and Victoria Taft of KPAM. (It's true that few on the left personally listen to AM talk radio, but these shows are monitored closely by liberal activists who inform their communities about them via websites, e-mail, social networks, KBOO, etc.) One of Jasun Wurster's biggest mistakes was cozying up to Larson/Taft for the "free" publicity without realizing what it was really costing him. The current recall leadership, with its hiring of a rather notorious right-wing campaign firm (when it could have just as easily chosen to work with a liberal/Democratic one), is not showing any greater sophistication in such matters.

Lars is the kiss of death. Victoria is right behind.
I hate waste but I hate those 2 more.

Meg,

I know them both and they are perfectly fine people.

Your preferring the wholesale lunacy in city hall is just more lunacy.

In my opinion, the biggest strike against the success of a recall is that people including leaders in our community are willing to give a pass to not only
Adams but to Leonard, Saltzman and the rest of the council. A pass on just about every crazy thing they are doing and for those who have been watching, the list is a mile long.

I have mentioned before as long as we make this a left versus right battle, this is not going to help our community. This is about favors for some in order to stay in office at the expense of the rest of us. The finger pointing and fear or hatred of others who may not hold all our personal beliefs is preventing the citizens from working together on what we can agree on.

I believe what the city needs is fiscal responsibility and public interest first,
and that many from both sides could agree on that.
There are those on the left and right who disagree with the “liberal insiders” agenda in Portland.

The question of who would replace the Mayor should not stop the citizenry from holding officials accountable. Surely in this large city, we will find good leaders with integrity. I suspect right now, they want nothing to do with the dysfunctional arena. So we have to start with a successful recall and then on to the others who betray us. . . a cleansing in Portland.
As far as I am concerned a clean slate of elected officials and some bureau heads such as the Portland Water Bureau head would be part of this cleansing. This may not happen overnight, but we have to at least begin the cleansing process. Removing our compromised Mayor would be a good start.

What would it take to get an initiative on the ballot for the water and sewer bureau issues Jack is talking about?

The question of who would replace the Mayor should not stop the citizenry from holding officials accountable.

I heartily agree: it shouldn't. But it did last summer, and it will again. If forced to choose, most people will stick with the devil they know rather than risk the unknown.

Wouldn't Avel Gordly take the job?

There are many able people in Portland who would take the job(s), they just want to know first that enough Portlanders give a hoot about who their elected officials even are, let alone what they are doing.

Too many have reached a post-political state in Portland, city of unearthly beauty, roses, and hipsters.

We need leaders to keep our financial house in order, not carry on like there is no tomorrow. The devil we know may drive us over a cliff, and I would take
a risk to stop the path we are on. The corporate owned media keeps much of the information from the public, if informed, they might be standing in line to also take a risk. I would say for the most part what we the public have now is the “devil we don’t know”. Those who are watchdogs need to double efforts to stop the destructive agenda in our beloved city.

Unfortunately what we have now are too many devil’s advocates who will support Adams, as they appear to more interested in his career and/or perks than in our city’s well being.

Good ideas all. I think the first two could be addressed in a single charter amendment relating to utilities.

The only worry I have about the $10k debt per person ratio is that it would be another incentive for them to blindly promote density - e.g., "if we can just get enough new people to move to Portland, we'll be able to raise our credit limit".

Maybe a debt limit could have two working ceilings. One based on a per person debt and a second related to the amount of property taxes collected by for the City each year? I'd propose excluding property taxes collected for URA's from this amount.

UR proponents say they don't sap taxes from education or municipal services, so they shouldn't be able to borrow against them?