Transforming Portland City government to enhance democracy
Channel: Populist Dialogues
Date: 2017-08-30

We speak with Kristin Everhard, Senior Researcher with the Sightline Institute.  Kristin works on how we can make democracy work.  Today Kristin talks specifically about Portland's government and its commission system.  In its place, Kristin talks about creating a system which elects commissioners by district , instead of at-large, and has a weak mayor. In addition those districts could be elected by a multi-district system.  Such changes would likely result in elected officials spread throughout the city with many more women and people of color. 

Another idea is enlarging the council , which would give voters more opportunities to have their voices heard.  Other ideas include single transferable votes and use of ranked choice voting, reasons for elimination of the primary to engage more voters during the general election.  Lastly, we talk about the importance of providing public funds to candidates.