after 25 years of service in the police force. He served as interim director of the Oregon State Department of Safety and Standards and as the director of New Avenues for Youth, a service provider for homeless youth in Portland. He also consulted with police bureaus around the country on the topics of community policing and strategic planning and was considered for the job of Top Cop in the Clinton Administration to head up their COPS Office. In 2003, he decided to run for mayor of Portland, based partly on a desire to help reform the Portland police department. He built a platform on the issue of community policing, a police strategy that involves active engagement with neighborhoods with such tactics as getting police officers out of their patrol cars. Political career Mayoral campaign When Potter announced his campaign for mayor in October 14, 2003, running in a field of 22 candidates, he was not widely considered as a likely contender because Potter limited his individual campaign donations to 25 dollars per person. His slogan was "It's not about dollars, it's all about sense." He worked by the moral guidelines of "listen, listen, listen," and people according to Potter told him he listened too much as a leader. He believed that all residents should have equal access to their politicians. Political insiders considered this a crazy move that made him unelectable. Nevertheless, he won the primary in 2004, having raised only $65,000 in campaign funds, versus other candidates who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. For the runoff election, he raised the limit on his contributions to 100 dollars per individual. In the months following the 2004 primary election, Potter maintained a 2-1 lead over City Commissioner Jim Francesconi in polls with roughly 25% of the electorate still undecided through October of that year. Francesconi, who raised a city-record $1 million and outspent Potter 6-to-1 during the campaign. Potter won the general election in November 2004 over Francesconi with 60% of the vote. Potter was inaugurated on January 3, 2005, succeeding Mayor Vera Katz (who had served for three terms, but did not run for a fourth). Actions as mayor Portland is unlike most large United States cities, in that the Portland City Council performs many duties that are more typically in a mayor's purview. That is sometimes called the "weak mayor" system, in which the mayor and the four