Radio talk show host, Cam Parry, abandoned any pretense of being an appointed interim commissioner and channeled his inner Billy Mays and PT Barnum at Wednesday’s LOWV governance change forum. [Begins 51:00] Speaking on behalf of the governance ordinance, 6-144, Parry began wearing his sincere face and stumping warmly about democracy and threw in some syrup about how great it was everyone could be there but his hands are visibly shaking and apparently his feet were also pounding under the table because pro charter panelist, John Shank, eventually wearied of it and scolded him. Parry answered questions that were not asked or focused on fragments of questions and statements while ignoring others. One example relates to a charter requirement for 85% of property owners to approve a LID (local improvement district) and Parry seemed to imply 85% voter approval was across the board. Another was when Parry deflected a possible statutory requirement for voter approval when changing the number of commissioners. While I still have my own reservations about the charter, he wound up helping the ARRRG people make a good case for adopting charter measure 6-143.

Meanwhile, CCAP is spending big to promote the ordinance and oppose the home rule charter. OreStar reports indicate $1,989.40 spent opposing the charter and $5,514.10 to support hiring an administrator and converting to a volunteer commission. Some of that appears to have been spent correcting ballot numbers when the group of “businessmen” spent almost $2,000 on signs and banners with the wrong numbers.