Two weeks ago, I wrote a letter to Mayor Potter, which I hand-delivered to his office, making a special trip downtown. I e-mailed it to his office before posting it on this blog, and followed up with an afternoon e-mail correcting my initial requests in response to informed reader comments here. I received a nice e-mail from a member of the Mayor's staff after hours that Friday, promising a response on Monday.

The Monday before last.

I've heard nothing since that initial reply two weeks ago.

Readers of that post will remember one of my requests was for the Mayor's campaign appearances scheduler to contact me as invitations came in, so I could offer to event organizers a complementary speaker from the committee opposing the changes. For balance. For the "community conversation" the Mayor promised when sending the measures to the ballot with such haste that he's already admitted at least one follow-up referral to correct unintended mistakes will be needed, should they pass.

In the meantime, the Mayor has made solo appearances at the Rotary Club, at Elders in Action, and at the Southwest Hills Residential League Neighborhood Association, giving only the proponents' view of the proposed changes.

I'm going to have to take both his silence and those solo appearances, as his answer to my request. In a word, "No". Except apparently, "No" takes too much effort to actually say. Lots of luck getting an answer from a future Mayor if s/he has all city bureaus to watch over, folks-outside-the-power-loop.

As of today, there is ONE forum scheduled in the City of Portland, that promises to have representatives of both sides of all four issues speaking. One. Mark your calendars, folks - The League of Women Voters' forum, April 10, 7 p.m., Multnomah County Building at 501 SE Hawthorne. If you happen to have a prior engagement that night, for instance Cully Association of Neighbors' monthly meeting (attended by up to 100 active citizens in recent months), sorry, you're out of luck.

Some conversation, Mayor Potter.

This whole process is so discouraging. The people in power in Portland obviously have no intention of sharing it. And by "people in power", I mean not only some elected officials, but also those of the Inner Circle whose phone calls and e-mails generate an immediate response. The power brokers, the power funders. The Deciders. The proposed change would make it even easier for The Deciders to ignore citizens, even harder for outsiders to share any power. The Yes on 26-91 campaign is demonstrating that, but people are buying it.

Last night at the SWHRL neighborhood meeting, observers report the audience lapped up the Mayor's one-sided presentation. Questions from the floor were submitted on index cards, but it seemed to some that only those not challenging the proposal were read to the Mayor. Some members seemed surprised when a neighbor who has been volunteering on the opposition campaign spoke up, and pointed out that the request to participate to balance the discussion was denied.

When you disagree on substance with a Mayor with high personal popularity, the cards are stacked. And I while I believe the aces (the facts) are in opponents' hands, the Mayor has all trumps, and as dealer gets to play them at will. Viva Las Vegas - a city with a form of government similar to that being proposed, except that after the first stage of getting rid of the Commission form, they went to district representation for Councilors. Hope that's working out for them.

This isn't the Portland way I've grown to love over the past 20 years.