Portland Mayor Tom Potter says his city's government is structured so inefficiently, it's losing up to $15 million each year in redundancies and missed opportunities.

Campaign photo

Portland Mayor Tom Potter.

The lunchtime announcement to business leaders in the Lloyd District riled some of Potter's colleagues on Portland City Council, who say Potter is misleading citizens into voting for a pet proposal to change the city's form of government.

That vote -taking place in May- would give citizens a chance to transform Portland's long-standing commissioner-style form of government into a so-called 'strong mayor' form of government.

The changes would take administrative power away from commissioners and give it to the next elected mayor and his appointed administrator.

Potter said the audit proves such changes in government are necessary.

The independent audit was funded by the city and performed by the Hackett Group back in February, 2006.

It points out redundancies in computer systems, purchasing activity and paving, for example.

The study blames Portland's form of government for the waste because it forces city bureaus to compete with each other for resources, instead of working together to streamline services.

Commissioners Randy Leonard and Erik Sten blasted the mayor's use of the one-year old study, claiming the council had already decided not to act on the report because it's recommendations for change were weak.

Leonard says Potter's use of the study is misleading, and indicative of the mayor's struggles to prove change in government is necessary at all.

Sten questions why the mayor isn't working with commissioners to fix such inefficiencies instead of spending time and energy on government reform.

The campaign against Potter's proposed changes is funded predominantly by union contributions, while the proponents of the change are backed largely by funding from the business community.