Survey: Homelessness, crime top issues

Published 12:00 am Monday, January 31, 2022

The survey also found a majority of voters want to change the city’s form of government. Portland is the only major city in the country without a professional manager, where the members of the council oversee bureaus assigned to them by the mayor, and where all members run citywide.

A citizen Charter Review Commission is expected to refer a measure to the November general election ballot to change that. According to the survey:

• 56% of Portland voters (56%) support a switch to a unified city government with a professional city manager that reports to council, with only 8% of voters opposing.

• Stronger majorities support district elections of city commissioners. Annual polling over time reveals that, for the last three years, 70% or more of voters have consistently supported moving to electing commissioners by geographic districts.

Surveys were conducted by phone and online of 500 Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington county voters, including an oversample of Portland voters (n=250), from December 9—15, 2021. Respondents were contacted by a live interviewer from a list of registered voters, with quotas set and data weighted by age, gender, and political party to ensure a representative voter sample.

More details about the survey can be found here.