Saying he was inspired by former Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s “Reset Report” and a 1980s report from the City Club of Portland, Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Northwest Portland, has introduced a bill that could lead to a merger of Metro and the three Portland-area counties into one larger regional government.
Greenlick’s House Bill 2645 and House Joint Resolution 6 would form a task force to prepare a charter for a single county for the Portland metro area, look at the financial impacts of such a merger and send a proposal to voters for approval.
“I looked at the shagginess of the urban reserve/rural reserve question — how the counties kept having very parochial views of the world, and I started thinking about a more rational form of government,” Greenlick said. “We’re looking at hard times. We have fewer resources coming from the state to counties. With much more complicated questions in front of us, this county approach is just absurd.”
This isn’t the first time that dramatic changes to Metro have been proposed in Salem. Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro, has put forth bills in prior sessions to remove Forest Grove and Cornelius from Metro’s jurisdiction. And Rep. Matt Wingard, R-Wilsonville, has a bill in this year’s session to study merging all of the state’s municipal governments.
Greenlick, a former Kaiser Permanente researcher and a professor emeritus in public health at OHSU, emphasized that the proposal would not have Metro taking over the three counties.
“I see it turning into new Willamette County,” he said. “That county would then take over the land use functions Metro has.”
Metro Council President Tom Hughes said a similar proposal was shot down in the late 1970s. He said he didn't think it would fare any better today.
"I don't see the folks from Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties voting to become a county. I think they would see that as an opportunity for everything to be directed out of Portland," Hughes said.
A metropolitan county could decentralize services, Hughes said, "But I think the question is, if you decentralize, don't you give up any advantage you have to consolidation?"
Washington County Chair Andy Duyck suggested a study of costs and benefits might be better than a task force.
“Because of his background, Rep. Greenlick has always approached these issues with a scientific mind. We would hope and expect that he will develop evidence to prove that consolidation saves money and increases citizen representation,” Duyck said in an e-mail. “This is too big of an issue to advance without factual evidence.”
In a statement, Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen said he's open to reviewing whether there are better and more efficient ways to deliver services to constituents.
"However, it is worth noting that these four different governments have different roles, structures and constituencies, so it is far from a given that consolidating them will provide better services or save money," Cogen said.
But Greenlick, in an interview Monday, had plenty of examples of inefficiencies in having three governments, ranging from the way the counties handle mental health issues to the three police departments — Portland Police Bureau and sheriff’s deputies from Multnomah and Washington counties — that show up to crime scenes in his Skyline Boulevard neighborhood.
“We’re not going to get through the next 10 years with business as usual. We need these kinds of discussions,” Greenlick said.