Time will tell whether Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s power grab on Thursday portends a recurring problem or amounts to a rookie mistake for the city’s newest council member.

But Hardesty’s decision to sabotage a new ordinance requiring owners of unreinforced brick buildings to post signs alerting the public to seismic hazards reflects terrible judgment regardless. Hardesty, who serves as the commissioner in charge of the Portland Fire Bureau, said Thursday that she has directed inspectors to simply not enforce the ordinance, which has generated blowback by owners fearful of the financial impacts of posting such signs. By refusing to enforce the ordinance, Hardesty has decided that her opinion alone – not a decision by the City Council – is the only thing that matters. Hardesty should reverse herself and recognize that such actions diminish her own credibility and undermine the legitimacy of the council as a whole.

Certainly, it’s fair for Hardesty to point out concerns with the ordinance that many have expressed – including the Portland chapter of the NAACP, of which she previously served as president. Owners understandably fear how their business will be affected, decry the lack of public funding for retrofit financing and worry that such information will result in some owners just selling their property.

But she should also recognize the research, thought and consideration that city commissioners already devoted to this issue when they passed it 3-0 months before she joined the council. The ordinance smartly delays the effective date for different groups of building owners to give them and the program time to adjust. The information that these buildings are unsafe in an earthquake isn’t new – it’s already listed in a database that is publicly available, provided people know to find it on the Bureau of Development Services website. Many of the claims about potential consequences of a placard are overblown. But most important, there is a fundamental public interest in informing customers, employees, congregants and tenants that the buildings in which they visit, worship or live would likely collapse in a major earthquake. Hiding such information helps no one and does nothing to change Portland’s collective denial that a major earthquake is long overdue.

Hardesty didn’t have to unilaterally suspend enforcement. Rather, she could have brought the matter to council for further consideration. But “I was elected to lead,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board. Leadership, however, involves lighting the way for others to achieve a common goal. This is acting as a one-person roadblock.

But this problem of commissioners acting beyond the scope of their role isn’t limited to just Hardesty. It’s endemic to our form of city government, in which the mayor and four commissioners serve dual roles as legislators who set policy and executives who manage their assigned city bureaus.

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A single elected official should not be able to hijack the will of the other four by simply ignoring decisions with which they disagree. And that power cuts five ways.

Hardesty wants to pull Portland Police out of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and is seeking a vote by City Council later this month. But Mayor Ted Wheeler oversees the police bureau. If a majority vote to withdraw, would he be justified in ignoring a council decision? Hardesty said she would “strongly object” and that Wheeler would have to answer to the community. But she also said that as head of the police bureau, Wheeler would have such authority. For the good of the city, Portland bureaus should not be set up as fiefdoms, but Hardesty seems fully comfortable with such an approach.

It’s unclear what consequences Hardesty’s action will have on the ordinance. The Bureau of Development Services, led by Wheeler, also has authority for enforcement and is looking at how to respond, a spokesman said.

But the decision will likely carry consequences for Hardesty who, in one fell swoop, revealed a lack of respect for the decisions made by her colleagues after a public process, public testimony and public vote. She would do well to recognize that achieving her goals will require the collaboration and trust of her fellow commissioners – trust that comes when you accept the legitimacy of council decisions, even when you disagree.

Portland voters should recognize this incident as one more data point – among many – showing that we must change our city form of government. For example, a non-elected city manager, who answers to the City Council as a whole, would be responsible for carrying out City Council policies. That could be the one good consequence coming out of a bad decision.

-Helen Jung for The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board