The dream of those Charter Commission candidates who want to establish a powerful executive mayor of Portland will be a nightmare for the city.

If the candidates promising to support an executive mayor succeed, the elected City Council will be weakened, politics will contaminate city management, the city’s tradition of mostly balanced, nonpartisan leadership will end and critical decisions will be made behind closed doors. A powerful mayoralty will be a shiny trophy for ambitious politicians – left, center or right – seeking power, influence and higher office.

To find out for yourself what the candidates have promised about the allocation of power in the city, take a look at the guides posted by the Press Herald and Vote411.

Representative democracy is alive and well under the current charter, which definitively empowers our elected representatives – not the city manager – to decide all important policy matters. The only way to increase the mayor’s power over policy is to reduce the council’s role in policymaking. Doing so will transform city government into the political fiefdom of the newly empowered mayor.

Proponents of a powerful mayor claim they want to shift power from the city manager, not the council, to a powerful elected mayor. But the city manager emphatically does not make policy; the manager (see Article V of the current charter) only implements the policies made by the elected council. If the manager’s implementation of policy is off base, then the remedy lies with the elected council.

If you have doubts, just read Article I, Section 2 of the city charter. It grants the nine-member elected council, including the mayor, the authority to administer all the fiscal and municipal affairs of the city (other than education, which is governed by the school board).

The council decides, for example, zoning, housing and development issues. It sets the city budget, and thus its tax rate. It regulates businesses that affect public health and welfare, such as restaurants and bars. It enacts ordinances on human rights and fair employment.

The council, in fact, makes policy every time it adopts an order. Article II, Section 11 of the charter gives the council – not the city manager – sole power to enact ordinances and to revise them or supplement them at any time. This council-made code of ordinances regulates land use, elections, police, human rights, parks, street, and marijuana businesses, to name just a few important areas.

Critically, the council deliberates and makes policy in public. We all have the right to attend and to be heard at council meetings. But a mayor’s deliberations are exempt from the public meetings law; the mayor’s discussions with advocates and interest groups will take place behind closed doors. The city government will become, at best, far more politicized, and at worst, more vulnerable to unethical conduct and corruption.

The city of Portland has an annual budget of over $250 million and more than 1,300 employees (not including school employees). Its daily operations must be managed, consistent with the policies and priorities set by the elected council, by a highly qualified individual who has education and deep experience in management, finance and public administration. No elected mayor will have these skills.

Worryingly, some Charter Commission candidates think that the mayor, not the city manager, should appoint all department heads. Inevitably, mayor-appointed department heads will be supporters, allies and friends of the mayor; qualifications will count for less, and their independence will be compromised by political loyalties and debts. Continuity and the benefits of experience will be lost as department heads turn over after each mayoral election.

Please vote for candidates who have not promised to empower a mayor to make policy and manage city operations. Rather, let’s elect thoughtful charter commissioners who start with open minds, a readiness to learn and support for a government that will work best for the greatest number of people in our city.