Anonymous Anonymous

Vote for Jessie Burke

Multnomah County District 2 Commissioner

We are supporting and endorsing Jessie Burke for Multnomah County District 2 (N / NE PDX) because we were inspired by her early outspokenness that’s continued over the last few years regarding the deterioration of the societal contract with the open camping and drug use running rampant all over Multnomah County.

Jessie questioned why the small businesses that pay into the downtown Clean & Safe program did not have a seat at the table in the decision-making of how those dollars were being spent as she started to try and help clean up Old Town. She went further in her advocacy by speaking out several times, and eventually holding a press conference, so that elected leaders would come and see for themselves what everyday people were dealing with outside their doors with regards to public safety. She’s become infamous for requesting electeds meet outside her business in Old Town so they can face what they’ve let the county become. And as a resident of Kenton (North Portland), she’s well aware of how inundated certain neighborhoods have become with low-income housing, shelters and public services and how that affects livability.

Her actions sparked a 90-day reset in Old Town, which guided a similar reset in the Central Eastside. These ideas were then folded into the Governor’s Central City Task Force, which she also participated in, and more recently, decorative street lighting to increase visibility and deter criminal activity in Old Town. This is a pilot program we will soon see spread across the entire city.

Jessie knows how to think outside the box and come up with rational solutions to problems. She wants to see increasing accountability and transparency of our taxpayer dollars, and faster action on seemingly simple solutions - like a shelter bed application that would help system users find open beds in real-time. Her solution? Hotel reservation software, something folks from the Silicone Forest have been telling the county for years now. If you want to see less studies and more action, vote for Jessie! www.jessieburke.com

Jessie questions spending of taxpayer dollars on Clean and Safe program (2021).

Jessie calls a press conference in Old Town over public safety concerns, prompting 90-day reset (2022).

Jessie is chosen for Governor Kotek’s Portland Central City Task Force (2023).

Jessie & the Old Town Community Association celebrate new permanent lanterns in Old Town (2024).

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Anonymous Anonymous

Vote for Vadim Mozyrsky

Multnomah County District 1 Commissioner

We support and endorse Vadim Mozyrsky for Multnomah County District 1 (SW, NW & Inner SE PDX). Why? Well, mainly because of his background as a federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) administrative judge. This means his day job was helping people jump through hoops and paperwork to try and get them their deserved status from the federal government. He understands the cracks in our systems and is demanding accountability and oversight of our tax dollars and the programs we are funding to help our most vulnerable residents.

Multnomah County is the health and human services authority, in charge of handling addiction, mental health, and homelessness. When Vadim ran for Portland City Council two years ago, he realized all of the questions voters were asking him were regarding those topics, and they are not the city’s job to deal with. They’ve been trying to fill in the gaps where the county is failing, and Vadim recognizes that and understands the systems.

Vadim also helped the ADA plaintiffs find a lawyer that would help them sue the City of Portland pro-bono when Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) refused multiple times to help these people who were being denied their federal right to clear sidewalks. Vadim’s strongest opponent, Meghan Moyer, is the Director of Public Policy for DRO, who opposed Portland City Council’s ‘camping ban’ ordinance and also testified in opposition to the Oregon State Legislature’s House Bill 4002, the bill that “fixed” the Measure 110 drug law. Meghan is more of the status quo. If you want to see meaningful change in Multnomah County, please vote for Vadim!

www.votevadim.com

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Anonymous Anonymous

Why We Support Dr. Sharon Meieran for Multnomah County Chair

Dr. Sharon Meieran is not in politics to be a politician. She’s an ER doctor who volunteers with Street Medicine. Dr. Meieran saw the crises on our streets and determined the County is the de facto public health authority. She decided that’s where she could use her field expertise to help guide the county in the right direction when she first ran for District 1 Commissioner in 2016.

Commissioner Meieran has made some changes, but not as many as she’d like, which is because the County Chair has full executive power over the county budget and heads of agencies,such as the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS). Dr. Meieran has been trying to get detailed information and data about County programs so we can see what’s working and what isn’t. She–like her constituents–wants to know where all of this taxpayer money is going?

All we hear is “we housed 4500 people last year!” But details are lacking; were these people chronically homeless (outside for more than a year) or were they temporarily couch surfing? Have they remained housed? We hear so many stories of people returning to the streets because something fell through the cracks.So, we need real data to ensure the folks we are managing stay housed.

Commissioner Meieran worked with City Commissioner Dan Ryan to get the county to adopt Built for Zero, a proven database system that tracks houseless folks by name, so we have a true count of who is on the streets and what their barriers to housing are (the Point in Time count is not a real count and it is estimated that the real number is at least double what they say). The County will boast that they have adopted it, but they are not truly implementing it (see Vancouver, WA’s Built for Zero dashboard HERE).

Commissioner Meieran also wants to fast-track public-private partnerships like the two tiny villages she helped create in partnership with local churches. We’ve seen repeated news articles and even recent testimony at City Hall that the private sector is on standby to help where needed. Commissioner Meieran also believes the City and County must work in partnership, and that all cities in Multnomah County should have a seat at the table at the JOHS (currently the City of Portland simply disburses significant funding to Multnomah County, which manages how it is spent).

Commissioner Meieran also wants to immediately locate small, sanctioned camping and parking areas throughout the entire county. Mayor Wheeler’s proposal for three large 100-125 person sanctioned sites is commendable, but is at least a year or more from implementation and will barely put a dent in the issue. Commissioner Meieran knows that today there are numerous locations where the houseless could be legally relocated to enable immediate cleanup of our city streets.

Commissioner Meieran will also declare a public health crisis, which will enable more resources to help immediately. On her first day as Multnomah County Chair she would begin fixing our situation in a transparent manner, i.e., giving the public insight into what’s actually going on with our tax dollars.

Please join us November 8th in voting for change that only Multnomah County can provide. The inaction of the Chair the past eight years has put us in the position we see ourselves in today. 

Commissioner Meieran’s opponent would do nothing but continue the ducking from blame and leave us to rely on the inept City to make meaningful progress. Regardless of whatever charter reform measure passes, we won’t have any change until 2024 at the City level, whereas the county can enact impactful changes IMMEDIATELY.

Vote for Dr. Sharon Meieran for Multnomah County Chair!

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Anonymous Anonymous

Why I’m Voting for Rene Gonzalez

Submitted by a Portland Party member / volunteer

The 2022 election will be critical to Portland’s future. I’m voting for Rene Gonzalez because he brings the skills, experience, courage, and disciplined leadership our City Council needs to transform Portland from its current status as a place of rampant crises, into a civil city that all Portlanders are proud to call home.

Will Portland move forward with accountability, urgency, clear priorities, effectiveness, and a sense of community? Or, will our city leaders continue stuck — overwhelmed by political infighting and the challenges of unprecedented levels of gun violence, citywide crime, addiction, mental illness, and homelessness, all during a period of (at best) economic uncertainty?

Gonzalez is a business owner, attorney, and long-time community organizer who makes decisions with an analytical bent. He understands that affordable housing alone will not solve the current homeless crisis. Rampant mental health issues and serious drug addiction solutions will require teamwork within and across agencies, and new approaches based on effectiveness supported by data. For example, we have had behavioral health and substance abuse services in Portland for years, but have lacked leadership commitment to intra- and inter-agency coordination, value-based tracking (of funding, outcomes, and service quality), and analytical decision-making.

Regarding Gonzalez’s community-building skills, he is a Portland public school parent who was frustrated by pandemic school closures that kept students out of school and off sports fields longer than needed for health and safety — to the detriment of student learning. In response, he co-founded Oregon’s ED 300, organizing parents statewide and helping develop data-driven, persuasive arguments to pressure state and school leaders into school re-opening.

Rene’s priorities are guided by livability: restoring public safety and civility, cleaning up the city, providing safe and supportive temporary shelters, increasing affordable housing, and providing effective, equitable services.

I’m voting for Rene Gonzalez because he’s the best candidate to ensure a thriving future.

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Anonymous Anonymous

‘No’ on Portland Charter Reform - Resources

The Portland Party supports a ‘no’ vote in November so that we can vote on a better ‘yes’ in May 2023.

  1. Multi-member districts seem to work well at the state level, but not at the city level

  2. Rank choice voting has many methods, some of which make sense, some of which that don’t

    1. All comparisons you are seeing to other RCV elections are ‘apples to oranges’ - they are not ‘Single Transferable Vote’ method that will be on Portland ballot, nor are they also in multi-member districts

    2. We’ll be voting on “regular” RCV at the county level in Multnomah County, which is probably fine!

  3. Charter commission ignored key poll results and have since removed many key documents from the city website for voters to refer back to

Vadim Mozyrsky from Partnership for Common Sense Government

  1. Rational in Portland Podcast (Spotify version)

  2. Interview on KGW

  3. Rose City Reform interview

Mingus Mapps’ Ulysses PAC

  1. Mingus Mapps - Rose City Reform (this entire Substack is a great, unbiased look at charter review process as a whole, FYI!)

  2. Jessica Elkan - Rose City Reform

NW Examiner - Allan Classen

  1. Charter Reform Poison Pill

  2. It Could Be Worse

Terry Harris

  1. Baltimore lawyer who helped low & middle class families to get rid rid of multi-member districts - results after dissolution were more diverse, young and less likely to be incumbents

  2. Follow him on Twitter for great knowledge & resources that he shares

  3. He was very involved in Portland charter review but commission refused his input and offers of assistance

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Anonymous Anonymous

Just Say “No” to Re-electing JoAnn Hardesty for Portland City Council

We applaud JoAnn Hardesty’s successful record as a social justice activist. Her experience as such is why many of our Portland Party members voted for her in 2018 (including one of our founders, who you can hear speak about this topic among many others in a recent Rational in Portland podcast episode).

We who voted for Ms. Hardesty did so with high hopes that she would help reform the police department while performing other functions she was assigned as a City Commissioner.

In 2020, Ms. Hardesty gained oversight of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Fire Department when Mayor Wheeler reassigned bureau management responsibilities. (We understand that oversight of City bureaus by commissioners with no related experience is an issue, which is why we fully support charter reform; but NOT the proposal up for voter approval in November—rest assured, a better charter reform option is coming in May 2023.)

However, our current system is what we have to work within, and we believe Ms. Hardesty has failed to successfully run the bureaus assigned to her. For the alleged purpose of “equity,” Ms. Hardesty instructed PBOT to stop enforcing laws that are in place for EVERYONE’S safety. It is not equitable to pick and choose when to enforce laws and as a result, the citizens of Portland have suffered.

These laws include no RV or trailer parking on city streets except for loading and unloading, and no parking in one location for more than 24 hours. Which makes perfect sense given that many accidents have been attributed to motorists’ inability to see around these vehicles and subsequent collisions involving bicyclists and pedestrians. Garbage trucks, emergency vehicles and even TriMet buses have difficulty maneuvering through certain neighborhoods due to this illegal parking.

Almost every Portland-adjacent municipality has established “safe sleep areas,” i.e., secure RV/trailer parking areas that give peace-of-mind to nearby residents that they can go to work without fear of their possessions being stolen. Why hasn’t Ms. Hardesty set aside PBOT properties or worked with other agencies to secure similar secure parking areas for the same types of transient vehicles?

The Fire Department made history this year because, for the first time in recent memory, they refused to endorse their own boss. And the reasons are obvious. We’ve heard countless stories of neighbors in fear of their homes burning down because of fire hazards at nearby camps. But all too often they are told that the Fire Department has been instructed to “stand down” until a fire is raging out of control. This is unacceptable.

There is no reason a houseless campers shouldn’t be told to move hazardous materials or relocate their campfire for everyone’s safety, including their own. But for the past two years the reality is we have seen too many campsites go up in flames; outcomes that easily could have been prevented under pragmatic leadership.

Mayor Wheeler’s new emergency orders have lifted some of the burden; perhaps you’ve noticed that PBOT has started towing derelict cars and RVs. But this positive development has occurred in no thanks to Ms. Hardesty. And because the City waited so long to clean things up, there’s obviously a huge backlog.

Within PBOT’s purview lies the Graffiti Removal Program, Leaf Day Program, and Street Sweep Program. Every City-funded effort that is needed to clean-up Portland is within Ms. Hardesty’s oversight. But as anyone who’s joined any meeting with her will attest, Ms. Hardesty spends her time complaining about an inherited backlog of issues instead of proposing actionable solutions. Sure, the leaf and street cleaning programs have always performed poorly—but why didn’t Ms. Hardesty attempt to improve them? In a city that prides itself on its tree canopy, is it equitable to say only certain neighborhoods are eligible for free leaf pickup? And only one day out of the year? We can and must do better.

As a candidate who was elected to bring change and diversity to the police, why has Ms. Hardesty not pushed for such improvements within the bureaus she oversees? Recent reporting indicates diversity issues within the Fire Department, as well as a lack of staffing and excessive forced overtime—which likely would be mitigated by equitably enforcing the fire safety laws discussed previously.

While we support the efforts of Portland Street Response (PSR), the program is riddled with issues. Citizens are hesitant to call 911 for PSR action because they’re leery of further burdening the already overwhelmed 911 system.

But recently we learned about a successful tri-county program called Project Respond that is unheard of beyond those who work in that field. Project Respond offers a dedicated phone line with live responses 24/7. But assuming Ms. Hardesty knew about Project Respond, why didn’t she work to work in parallel with such a successful, existing program?

We believe JoAnn Hardesty’s heart is in the right place and that she’s destined to benefit society; but as a City Commissioner, she’s in over her head. After four years of headline-grabbing rhetoric, Ms. Hardesty has achieved little progress within the purview of her oversight. ACTUAL job assignments for us to let her have another four years. In a perfect world she would be able to pursue her social justice activism in addition to her regularly assigned, voter-mandated duties, but clearly, she is unable to do so in Portland’s current political climate. Ms. Hardesty cannot be allowed another four years in office as a City Commissioner.

Just say ‘No’ to JoAnn in November.

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Anonymous Anonymous

Why We Support Sharia Mayfield for MultCo Chair

For 8 years, the current Chair of Multnomah County, Deborah Kafoury, has opposed any spending of funds on temporary housing measures over permanent housing funding. As permanent housing takes time to secure, permit and then of course build, people have languished in the streets. She’s been able to keep the other commissioners in line with her way of thinking (with the exception of Sharon Meieran) and we are on track to elect what many are dubbing “Kafoury 2.0” with current commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson. Two other current commissioners, newcomer Lori Stegmann, and the aforementioned Meieran, are also running for a promotion to the Chair position.

While we support Sharon Meieran, she has not been able to rally support from the other commissioners to get their votes on temporary spending. The county has recently spent money on temporary measures, but that was all federal COVID aid and budget surplus from the city. The County Auditor sets the budget amount, but the Chair proposes what to spend it on and the other commissioners vote on the proposal. If Sharon were to win the Chair position, there would have to be a special election to backfill her current role, and we would have no way of knowing the person who succeeds her would be for or against temporary housing measures while we await permanent housing to be built. If Sharon loses, she will keep her current role, so we will still have her much needed vote. If Sharia was to win the Chair position, we would have two solid votes and they would only need to sway one more person to get things accomplished.

One of Sharia’s biggest slogan’s is “don’t let perfection be the enemy of good”. She knows she doesn’t have all of the right answers, but she is willing to listen to what the voters have to say and look at the data and what’s worked other places (and she is running a fully grassroots volunteer driven campaign, so she answers to no big interests). We need to stop waiting around for studies and look at what is working elsewhere and what isn’t and get the private sector involved so we can get this issues tackled together and quickly.

Sharia is also a civil rights and privacy rights lawyer, so she understands the rights of the people living in unsafe conditions on the streets are not humane or healthy. She has argued in front of the 9th District Court (Martin vs Boise - sleeping outside can’t be illegal if there aren’t enough shelter beds), and has also dealt with civil commitment cases. She supports building a dual diagnosis treatment center in every city within the county to combat the crises people are experiencing.

Sharia has raised over $20k in donations, yet most large organizations have not considered her a viable candidate and have therefore left her out of invitations for endorsement interviews, candidate forums and other media coverage of the election. Most people do not know who she is so if you like what you’ve read here today, please spread the word, donate, and reach out to her through her website - she is responsive and honest which is just another reason we support her for this important position.

www.votemayfield.com

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Anonymous Anonymous

Rene Gonzalez & Terri Preeg Riggsby Candidate Meetup

The Portland Party was able to host a candidate meeting with Rene Gonzalez running for Portland City Council Seat #3 and Terri Preeg Riggsby running for Metro Council District #6. Here are some takeaways from the event!

Rene Gonzalez for City Council

Rene is considered the ‘further right’ Democratic candidate in this non-partisan race for council seat against incumbent Jo Ann Hardesty. He has raised the most money and hit the maximum amount for the donor matching election funds program already, and has recently won endorsements from The Oregonian and PPB. www.reneforportland.com

  1. School reopening - objective data, bipartisan, no emotions - mentioned in The Oregonian endorsement

  2. Portland facing historic crisis in livability - many people asking, “is this where I want my kids to grow up?”

  3. Addiction & mental health illness are #1 & #2 issues found in homelessness data

    1. Mental health - what can the city do?

      1. County & state issue - we need to be advocates / be LOUD

    2. Addiction - what can city do?

      1. Measure 110 dollars moving way too slowly through the system

        • Poorly constructed and implemented - addiction services providers were against it

        • Unintended consequences

          • Sent the message it is OK to do drugs in Portland

          • No punishment for crime

  4. Housing First philosophy

    1. Build permanent shelter first then do services after - needs to be simultaneous

    2. Emergency shelter / parking at the top of to-do list

      1. More humane than current state

      2. Enforce existing laws - environmental catastrophes occurring also

  5. Addiction - we are a compassionate city but it has become enabling

    1. 1/3 of people came here homeless w/ no place to land upon arrival

    2. Attracting addiction to city of Portland

    3. Doesn’t mean we will stop offering services to current people on the street

  6. Fund the police - city has grown exponentially

    1. There is more than one cause of crime

    2. Stop demonizing police - that doesn’t mean stop accountability or oversight

  7. Portlanders wondering what city will be coming out of the pandemic

    1. Make space for those who want to live here and work remote; make Portland an attraction to those who can invest in our city instead of Bend, for example

  8. How do we create deterrent to outsiders & stop the migration?

    1. Why do Portland taxpayers have to pay for those migrating here?

  9. Homeless defined as permanent victim even if they commit crimes

    1. Jail beds limited in Multnomah County

    2. DAs & prosecutors are low in number, too

Terri Preeg Riggsby for Metro District 6

Terri is running against short-term incumbent Duncan Hwang for Metro Council Seat in District 6. District 6 includes areas of Portland between the south of I-84 between the Willamette River and roughly 112th Avenue, areas of South and Southwest Portland between US 26 and I-5, and a small portion of Washington County in the West Hills. www.terriformetro.com

  1. Experience as a gov’t performance auditor, reviewing contracts w/ 2.5 million people; $3.5 billion

  2. Not accountable to anyone but the voters

    1. Services we voted for need to be delivered!

  3. Environmental leader - West Multnomah Soil & Water District Director

    1. Worked with agricultural industry throughout the state

    2. Knows our economy via agriculture

  4. Metro - large claims on how to address carbon emissions

    1. Methods & data - how are you going to do that?

  5. Metro - regional planning agency

    1. Recently moved into housing

    2. Building supplemental housing & wraparound services

    3. Metro needs to be accountable - local implementation plans

  6. Full name count - who is on the street and what do they need?

    1. Domestic violence victims need certain types of care

    2. Some just need rent help

    3. Mental health & drug issues - what % of folks need this help so we know how many service providers are truly required?

    4. Metro needs to take a leadership role

  7. Multi-million dollar budget

    1. Create programs that will work with data based in science

  8. Metro not necessarily rooted in best practices

    1. Need to be innovative in responses

  9. Metro policy advisory committee member

    1. Not working with jurisdictional partners they way that they could be

    2. Not taking advantage of knowledge or sharing information w/ cities affected

    3. Not listening to what’s working

      1. Stopped picking up trash in public areas during pandemic

      2. Ramp up services & get trash off of the streets

    4. Metro can fix the issue of who it belongs to - city / county / ODOT

  10. 2023 updating regional transportation plan

    1. TriMet responsible for implementing but Metro is the funding

    2. We need to bring federal funding to the region

    3. Able vs disabled bodies using current system

      1. Isn’t working for everyone right now

      2. Terri has experience & network w/ disabled community advocates to update access to natural areas & parks regardless of age or ability

  11. Opponent works for a nonprofit receiving Metro funding and sees no issue with this

  12. Terri is GM of a nonprofit for refugees and ensures no Metro money goes towards it - there are other funding sources

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Anonymous Anonymous

Vadim Mozyrsky & Alisa Pyszka - Candidate Meetup

The Portland Party was able to host a candidate meeting with Vadim Mozyrsky running for Portland City Council Seat #3 and Alisa Pyszka running for Metro President. Here are some takeaways from the event!

Vadim Mozyrsky for City Council

Vadim is currently viewed as the main opponent against incumbent Jo Ann Hardesty for City Council Seat #3. Rene Gonzalez is also very close in the race with regards to support and fundraising efforts as well. www.votevadim.com

  1. Our dysfunctional government has caused the current crises we see in Portland right now - we can do better for both housed and houseless

  2. 60% of small businesses burglarized or vandalized in last 6 months

  3. Change form of government via Charter Commission - let a professional manage the large bureaus and let the commissioners lead the needs of the residents who they represent

  4. Don’t let anyone tell you there’s not enough money to fix these problems

  5. City, county, metro, nonprofits - all have different policies

    1. Need to bring them together to ensure we have effective solutions

  6. Recent Oregonian article found that 66% of homeless individuals had not been contacted by service providers and 75% of those who had first contact never heard back from them again

    1. People are trying to help but we are not able to reach them where they are at - we need them centralized to provide them services & outreach

  7. Portland / Multnomah County - general homelessness we are doing well in - down 3% - people in between permanent living situations

    1. Rent vouchers, etc.

  8. Chronic homelessness - individuals living in tents for over a year - went up 58% between 2017 - 2019 and still going up

  9. Policies - what are we doing for chronically homeless?

    1. Mental health and drug addiction issues

    2. We’re not doing what other cities are doing that are proving to be successful

  10. Need to enforce our laws and provide people the help they need - we can do both

    1. Fire department instructed not to stop outdoor fires / fire hazards

    2. PBOT instructed not to enforce parking laws

  11. Experience

    1. National policy for federal governement

    2. Labor employment laws / unions

    3. Managed two federal offices for federal government, overseeing large staff and budget

    4. Giving up wonderful job that pays more than council seat but wants to clean up the city and help fix things

  12. How are you different from Rene? See recent City Club Debate

    1. Seen as farther to the right candidate

    2. Cheerleader for police & cleaning up the streets but doesn’t understand the need for an experienced and nuanced approach to appease all parties

    3. Vadim has served on various city committees for many years speaking to hundreds of people from multiple communities and understands the pushback and how to form partnerships to navigate issues - experience matters

Alisa Pyszka for Metro President

Alisa Pyszka is seen as the top contender against incumbent Lynn Peterson. Metro oversees a lot of money we voted to give them to fix things, much of which is still unspent. www.alisaformetro.com. Measures passed by Portland Voters:

  1. Incumbent Lynn Peterson

    1. Part of the (MultCo) Jessica Vega Pederson / (PDX) Jo Ann Hardesty trio of lack of urgent response

    2. Transportation Bond Measure 2020 failed and ruined progress for our region

      1. Alienated businesses by offering zero government funds

  2. Led Regional Economic Development Strategy

    1. Nobody seemed worried about losing businesses and what that means for the region

  3. Experience in land use planning and transportation

    1. Consulting firm helping communities align these projects with equity and sustainability goals in mind

  4. Peterson is Housing First absolutist

    1. Until election season started, nobody has been talking about mental health and drug addiction issues tied to houslessness

    2. Portland has no staff with boots on the ground like Gresham

      1. 50 residents along Springwater that have a special phone number to call and report

      2. METRO’S JOB IS TO CONVENE ALL PARTIES AND RESOLVE ISSUES - what’s working in one place should be implemented elsewhere

  5. Metro is ineffective

    1. Basic information - challenge staff / ask questions

    2. Not meeting metrics? Why are we funding?

  6. People for Portland ballot measure shows that we have a breakdown of regional government - we should not be ruling by ballot measure

    1. People support this because we don’t trust Metro

    2. Private sector and government are not talking to each other; talk to people who know how to get it done and want to help

    3. Oversight Committee - some members have conflicted interest as their organizations are funded by the bond measure

      1. People for Portland wants to change this structure

      2. Metro President can appoint new committee members

  7. We need 48,000 units added in the region and Metro is funding the construction of 3,900 affordable housing units with a $650 million bond

    1. It is impossible to build enough publicly subsidized affordable housing

    2. We must increase the overall supply, otherwise housing prices will only continue to increase

      1. Do we need to talk about expanding the Urban Growth Boundary?

  8. Data Resource Center was dissolved

    1. This was supposed to be a tool to give voters accountability

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Anonymous Anonymous

Sharia Mayfield for MultCo Chair - Parkrose Town Hall

March 11, 2021 - The Parkrose Community Alliance held a virtual town hall Q&A with candidate for Multnomah County Chair, Sharia Mayfield. The following are my notes from the event.

How does the county government work with regards to elected officials?

  1. Sheriff

  2. Auditor - sets the county budget

  3. County Commissioners - “senators”; decide how to spend budget

    1. “Power of the purse”

  4. District Attorney

How do the city, county & METRO work together?

  1. Very unique structure - joint offices between multiple cities (Gresham, Troutdale, etc.), & county

    1. Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) is one big example

  2. METRO is its own thing

Domicile Unknown Report - record of those who have died on the streets

Increase funding to Project Respond - mobile crisis services

JOHS & METRO - $40 million to spend on homelessness issue

NO TAXES RAISED WITHOUT RESULTS!

First 100 Days:

  1. Move people into sanctioned campsites

    1. List of 60+ public lots acquired already

  2. “State of the County” address - not just boring reports people don’t want to read

    1. Digital dashboard to show results

Tri-county effort to digitize and count the homeless

  1. Clackamas, Washington & Multnomah

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good!

London policy - Population 9 million, 400 homeless

  1. Someone has to vouch for you (ie: someone knows you - family / friend)

Periodic progress reports from non-profits we are paying

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