The Portland Charter Review Commission has identified nine provisions of the City Charter that it believes should be amended or repealed, and the Council has referred the proposals to the voters. These appear on Portland ballots as measures 26-126 to 26-134. Portland voters can comfortably vote in favor of all nine.
Several of these amendments repeal ancient provisions of the Charter that conflict with later interpretations of state law, for example provisions that prohibit exhibiting deformed persons on the street and that allow the City to require vagrants to accept employment. The two most interesting measures are 26-127 and 26-131. The Charter allows the mayor $2000/year for a "secret service fund" and allows the council $5000/year for a similar fund, and says that the mayor and council do not have to account for how they spend the money. Measure 26-127, if adopted, will require the mayor to account for the $2000/year, and Measure 26-131 will require the council to account for the $5000/year. I have to admit that I'm curious not just how the mayor might have been using the $2000, but also about what (or who) $2000/year was supposed to buy way back when the provision was adopted.