In 1932, presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt delivered a message of civic empowerment to the citizens of Portland, Oregon. “Where a community – city or county or a district – is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility,” the New York governor told the crowd, “it has the undeniable basic right, as one of its functions of government, one of its functions of home rule, to set up … its own governmentally owned and operated service.”…