Amanda Fritz (born April 1958) is a British-American politician and retired psychiatric nurse from the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. Before being elected to Portland's City Council in 2008, Fritz was a neighborhood activist and seven-year member of the Portland Planning Commission. She was also the first candidate to win public financing under Portland's

Clean Elections A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate-funded campaigns. In 1974, following the Watergate scandal, the U.S. Congress revised the Federal Ele ...

system in 2006, though she lost to incumbent

Dan Saltzman Dan Saltzman (born 1953/54) is a politician in the U.S. state of Oregon who served as a commissioner (city councilman) on the City Council of Portland in Portland, Oregon, from 1999 through the end of 2018. He was the second longest serving comm ...

in the first round of that year's election. She was elected to City Council in the November 2008 election. She succeeded Commissioner

Sam Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolu ...

, who vacated the seat to run for

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Early life and education

Fritz was born in England and grew up in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

. After graduating from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where she earned a bachelor's and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Biological Sciences. She moved to the United States in 1979, where she attended

nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

school in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, Pennsylvania and then moved to

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

. She relocated to Portland in 1986.

Career

Upon moving to Portland from New York, Fritz began working at

Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public university, public research university, research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded ...

(OHSU) as an inpatient nurse in the hospital's psychiatry department. In 1996, she was appointed to the city's Planning Commission, and served on the Commission until 2003. In 1999, Fritz was noted as a Planning Commission member who valued an emerging online list for contributing to the discourse on planning in the city.

City council

In 2008, Fritz became the first non-incumbent to successfully run under Portland's public financing system. She took the most votes in the May primary election (43%) in a field of six candidates, and faced second-place finisher Charles Lewis (13%) in a November

runoff election The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

. Fritz and Lewis were among the candidates who each qualified for $150,000 in public financing by collecting over 1,000 five-dollar contributions, and pledging to accept no other campaign contributions. Each received an additional $200,000 for the runoff election. Fritz defeated Lewis with 70% of the vote in the runoff. Fritz was also the first candidate to qualify for public funds under the program, in her first race, when she challenged incumbent

in the 2006 election. In the 2008 race, her decisive victory in the primary enabled her to reach out to new classes of constituents; she was noted for expanding her appeal from neighborhood activists to the business community, and placing a strong emphasis on fiscal responsibility. She has been an advocate of the public financing system since that first race, and wrote in support of it after winning the 2008 election. Voters overturned it via referendum in 2010. Fritz credits the Public Campaign Finance system for allowing her the independence that led to saving Portland ratepayers $500 million by changing policy choices in the Portland Water Bureau in 2009. In June 2013, a shuffling of bureaus among the commissioners by new Mayor

Charlie Hales Charles Andrew Hales (born January 22, 1956) is a former American politician who served as the 52nd List of mayors of Portland, Oregon, mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 2013 to 2017. He previously served on the Government of Portland, Oregon, Port ...

saw Fritz assigned the Parks Bureau and the Bureau of Development Services, in place of her previous assignments. Fritz won re-election in 2016. During the city's fiscal year of 2017-2018, she cast the deciding vote on the Council to adopt the campaign financing reform program "Open and Accountable Elections", which would award public matching funds to candidates who agreed to not take large contributions, or any contributions from corporations and PACs. The system was launched in the 2020 election cycle. On April 5, 2019, Fritz announced that she would not seek re-election to Portland City Council, saying that she hoped a larger field of candidates would run for her seat using the Open and Accountable Elections system. She retired in January 2021.

Personal life

Fritz's husband, Steve, whom she married in 1982, died in a car crash in September 2014. Steve Fritz had worked for 27 years as a psychiatrist at

Oregon State Hospital Oregon State Hospital is a public psychiatric hospital in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the state's capital city of Salem, Oregon, Salem with a smaller satellite campus in Junction City, Oregon, Junction City opened in 2014. Founded in ...

in Salem. The couple had three children.

References

External links

Commissioner Amanda Fritz
on City of Portland website {{DEFAULTSORT:Fritz, Amanda People from Leeds Portland City Council members (Oregon) Oregon Democrats American nurses American women nurses 1958 births Living people British emigrants to the United States Women city councillors in Oregon Alumni of the University of Cambridge 21st-century American women