PORTLAND, Ore. — An initiative pushed by Portland's police union in an attempt to water down a forthcoming oversight board's authority has failed to qualify for the November ballot, city officials said Friday.
The petition was declared "void" because it was not turned in with sufficient signatures by the July 5 deadline. An initiative petition needs at least 40,748 signatures to qualify in this year's election.
Since voters overwhelmingly approved the new police oversight structure in 2020, the Portland Police Association has fought tooth-and-nail to either suspend it or scale it back. The union sued soon after the ballot measure passed, but that attempt was unsuccessful.
After commissioning a poll of Portlanders late last year to gauge if public sentiment had shifted, the PPA came forward with two ballot measures of their own — including one that would dramatically scale back the oversight board's authority, keeping accountability measures much the same as they were before.
But the PPA's measures were challenged in court by the ACLU. In May, a circuit court judge struck down one of the measures, which would have required the city to increase and maintain its number of patrol officers, as well as create and maintain a 24-hour drug detox center. The judge ruled the measure unconstitutional on the grounds that ballot measures are supposed to change policy, not mandate administrative decisions like officer levels.
After being held up in court for months, a judge later ruled on the PPA's oversight board measure; deciding that it could move ahead with some changes to the ballot title. But the timing of that decision meant that the PPA only had six weeks to gather sufficient signatures, something they either failed or did not attempt to do.
Independent oversight
At the end of June, the new oversight board cleared another hurdle. Portland Mayor Wheeler said that the city had emerged with a revised version of the city code after consulting with the public, police unions and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The city of Portland remains under a Justice Department consent decree, part of a 2015 settlement agreement stemming from allegations that police exerted a pattern of excessive force on people in mental health crises. As a result, the city has sought DOJ sign-off for some major policing-related policy changes, including the adoption of body-worn cameras.
Under the proposal adopted by Portland City Council last November, the Community Police Oversight Board will consist of 33 members and a director that they hire. Each board member will be appointed by the city council and serve a three-year term, and the body will have a budget equal to 5% of the Portland Police Bureau budget in a given year.
Members of the board are required to have roots in Portland, and city code requires a "diverse membership," including people who have experienced systemic racism or are familiar with issues of behavioral health. But a major sticking point for the PPA has been the requirement that no current or former members of law enforcement sit on the board.
The Portland Police Bureau already has several attached oversight bodies, but the new oversight board — which will replace the former ones — will no longer make disciplinary recommendations to the chief of police for consideration. Instead, it will have authority to send disciplinary decisions directly to city council for approval.
The mayor's office will host a community forum on the latest revised proposal July 15 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The public can attend virtually or in person in the Leah Hing Room of the Portland Building, first floor Room 108.