Portland has discovered what Kingsport has known for 106 years

For the past three decades, I’ve been trying to explain why Kingsport is called “The Model City”. Many think it’s because of the city’s physical plan that was laid out on a drawing board in Cambridge, Massachusetts by pre-eminent city planner John Nolen. In reality, it’s because Kingsport was the first city in Tennessee–and one of the first cities in the nation–to adopt the “Model City Charter” which created a city manager that serves under the council-manager form of government.

The city manager is the general manager of all city operations, including public safety, finance, budget, human resources, planning & development, and parks & recreation, among others. All department heads report directly to the city manager. All hiring (and firing) decisions are ultimately the responsibility of the city manager. The unified, balanced budget is presented by the city manager to the Board of Mayor & Aldermen without direct appeal by department heads competing for resources.

A Board of Mayor & Aldermen is elected at-large to represent the interests of the general populace. They do not have salaries. They are paid a very small stipend that hasn’t been increased in decades. They aren’t eligible for benefits, like health insurance or retirement. The reason for all of this is to illustrate that elected officials have no reason to run for office other than their love for their city and willingness to volunteer their time. They set policy and approve (or disapprove) the city manager’s recommendations. And they have the final say on hiring (or firing) the city manager, but no other employee.

This is the now the most common form of government–particularly in fast-growing Sunbelt cities of the southeast and west, but it was considered a radical change in the early 1900s. At that time, cities were political machines full of graft and corruption. Strong mayors hired employees based on loyalty rather than credentials. Favors were handed out to neighborhoods that ‘voted right’ and withheld from those who didn’t. Politicians used their positions for their own economic benefit.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard not to know what’s been happening in Portland, Oregon. The once ‘it’ city of the 1990s and early 2000s has devolved into a state of homelessness, crime, retail theft, and high taxes. Downtown office vacancies are twice as high as the historic average. Even Walmart has completely exited this major U.S. City

During my career, Portland was the poster child for new urbanism. As an urban planner and city manager, I looked to Portland for inspiration for how to build a walkable downtown with cool, local shops and loft living. I never saw it as a ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ issue. Everybody loves a cool downtown, right? And Portland was at the top of its game.

But it has become a social experiment on governance and the desire to balance supportive services for issues like homelessness and free day care with police reform and grappling with how to pay for it by dramatically increasing taxes on individuals and businesses. Business taxes have increased 32% since 2019. More than 12,000 people have fled Multnomah County and its high taxes, many moving across the state line to Clark County, Washington, which has no income tax.

The discontent reached all new highs last November, when Portland voters opted to “radically reshape government” by replacing their cumbersome commission form of government with a strong city manager after 109 years.

Anyone who understands government knows that it takes something big for voters to willingly change.

“The proposal will end Portland’s unique approach of having individual City Council members act as administrators over the city’s many bureaus and turn most of that responsibility over to a professional city manager overseen by the mayor.”

Sometimes we have to view things through a different lens to understand just how well we have it here. For 106 years, Kingsport has been a professionally managed, fiscally conservative city that wins national awards for academic village, innovation, development, recreation, greenbelt, drinking water, robotics, music, and keeping our city clean, green & beautiful.

Unfortunately, many don’t think it’s possible to have high quality of life coupled with low cost of living. But here we are. Perhaps it took a pandemic to cause people to rethink their priorities. Even Realtor.com and the Wall Street Journal, Zillow and Wallet Hub are taking note of our desirability.

So, Portlanders have now discovered the value of city management, something Kingsporters have known for 106 years. Come on in, Portland, the water’s fine.

Read more at Portland’s Curious Case of Urban Discontent (governing.com)