Bud Clark - Mayor of Portland

Mayor of Portland

In 1984, Clark ran for mayor when no other candidate would come forward to challenge Francis J. Ivancie. Clark won in the primary with 54.6% of the vote. He was re-elected in 1988 after defeating 11 candidates in the primary and beating former Chief of Police Ron Still in the general.

Upon taking office in 1985, Clark found that the previous mayor had reduced the city's reserves of $27 million down to a few thousand dollars. Firefighters and police had just received a 10% wage increase, which meant the budget had to be redone in his first months in office.

As mayor, Clark created the nationally recognized 12-Point Homeless Plan, supported the growth of mass transit, including the MAX Light Rail line to Gresham, Oregon, aided downtown development, and initiated and led the campaign to build the Oregon Convention Center.

Bud Clark also sanctioned The Mayor's Ball, an annual charity event featuring independent musicians from all over the Pacific Northwest. The Mayor's Ball ended after the election of Vera Katz. A spokesperson for Tom Potter (Portland Mayor 2005–2009), said that the event cost Bud Clark's office $45,000. Potter later admitted that it also pulled in nearly $80,000.

Due to $71,650 in campaign debt (mostly to U.S. Bank with a $52,000 lien against his personal home) from his 1988 campaign, Clark needed to raise money in 1991. A $100-per-plate fundraising event ended up significantly undersold, and the "Oregon Political Party" fundraiser in the South Park Blocks actually lost money; as The Oregonian quipped, "Now that takes some doing."

Managing the city resources with the Portland City Council, Portland had $20 million in reserves at the end of his second term and earned an award from the AMBAC Corporation as the best managed city of its size in the United States. Clark retired from public life and resumed his career as a tavern owner. In 2011, he wrote the foreword to Portland's Goose Hollow, a book about the neighborhood's history.