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!
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.
‘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.
Multi-member districts seem to work well at the state level, but not at the city level
Rank choice voting has many methods, some of which make sense, some of which that don’t
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
We’ll be voting on “regular” RCV at the county level in Multnomah County, which is probably fine!
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
Mingus Mapps’ Ulysses PAC
Mingus Mapps - Rose City Reform (this entire Substack is a great, unbiased look at charter review process as a whole, FYI!)
Jessica Elkan - Rose City Reform
NW Examiner - Allan Classen
Terry Harris
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
Follow him on Twitter for great knowledge & resources that he shares
He was very involved in Portland charter review but commission refused his input and offers of assistance
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.
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.
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
School reopening - objective data, bipartisan, no emotions - mentioned in The Oregonian endorsement
Portland facing historic crisis in livability - many people asking, “is this where I want my kids to grow up?”
Addiction & mental health illness are #1 & #2 issues found in homelessness data
Mental health - what can the city do?
County & state issue - we need to be advocates / be LOUD
Addiction - what can city do?
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
Housing First philosophy
Build permanent shelter first then do services after - needs to be simultaneous
Emergency shelter / parking at the top of to-do list
More humane than current state
Enforce existing laws - environmental catastrophes occurring also
Addiction - we are a compassionate city but it has become enabling
1/3 of people came here homeless w/ no place to land upon arrival
Attracting addiction to city of Portland
Doesn’t mean we will stop offering services to current people on the street
Fund the police - city has grown exponentially
There is more than one cause of crime
Stop demonizing police - that doesn’t mean stop accountability or oversight
Portlanders wondering what city will be coming out of the pandemic
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
How do we create deterrent to outsiders & stop the migration?
Why do Portland taxpayers have to pay for those migrating here?
Homeless defined as permanent victim even if they commit crimes
Jail beds limited in Multnomah County
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
Experience as a gov’t performance auditor, reviewing contracts w/ 2.5 million people; $3.5 billion
Not accountable to anyone but the voters
Services we voted for need to be delivered!
Environmental leader - West Multnomah Soil & Water District Director
Worked with agricultural industry throughout the state
Knows our economy via agriculture
Metro - large claims on how to address carbon emissions
Methods & data - how are you going to do that?
Metro - regional planning agency
Recently moved into housing
Building supplemental housing & wraparound services
Metro needs to be accountable - local implementation plans
Full name count - who is on the street and what do they need?
Domestic violence victims need certain types of care
Some just need rent help
Mental health & drug issues - what % of folks need this help so we know how many service providers are truly required?
Metro needs to take a leadership role
Multi-million dollar budget
Create programs that will work with data based in science
Metro not necessarily rooted in best practices
Need to be innovative in responses
Metro policy advisory committee member
Not working with jurisdictional partners they way that they could be
Not taking advantage of knowledge or sharing information w/ cities affected
Not listening to what’s working
Stopped picking up trash in public areas during pandemic
Ramp up services & get trash off of the streets
Metro can fix the issue of who it belongs to - city / county / ODOT
2023 updating regional transportation plan
TriMet responsible for implementing but Metro is the funding
We need to bring federal funding to the region
Able vs disabled bodies using current system
Isn’t working for everyone right now
Terri has experience & network w/ disabled community advocates to update access to natural areas & parks regardless of age or ability
Opponent works for a nonprofit receiving Metro funding and sees no issue with this
Terri is GM of a nonprofit for refugees and ensures no Metro money goes towards it - there are other funding sources
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
Our dysfunctional government has caused the current crises we see in Portland right now - we can do better for both housed and houseless
60% of small businesses burglarized or vandalized in last 6 months
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
Don’t let anyone tell you there’s not enough money to fix these problems
City, county, metro, nonprofits - all have different policies
Need to bring them together to ensure we have effective solutions
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
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
Portland / Multnomah County - general homelessness we are doing well in - down 3% - people in between permanent living situations
Rent vouchers, etc.
Chronic homelessness - individuals living in tents for over a year - went up 58% between 2017 - 2019 and still going up
Policies - what are we doing for chronically homeless?
Mental health and drug addiction issues
We’re not doing what other cities are doing that are proving to be successful
Need to enforce our laws and provide people the help they need - we can do both
Fire department instructed not to stop outdoor fires / fire hazards
PBOT instructed not to enforce parking laws
Experience
National policy for federal governement
Labor employment laws / unions
Managed two federal offices for federal government, overseeing large staff and budget
Giving up wonderful job that pays more than council seat but wants to clean up the city and help fix things
How are you different from Rene? See recent City Club Debate
Seen as farther to the right candidate
Cheerleader for police & cleaning up the streets but doesn’t understand the need for an experienced and nuanced approach to appease all parties
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:
Two large Housing Bond Measures passed in 2016 & 2018
The (now made controversial by People for Portland) 2020 Homeless Services Measure
Incumbent Lynn Peterson
Part of the (MultCo) Jessica Vega Pederson / (PDX) Jo Ann Hardesty trio of lack of urgent response
Transportation Bond Measure 2020 failed and ruined progress for our region
Alienated businesses by offering zero government funds
Led Regional Economic Development Strategy
Nobody seemed worried about losing businesses and what that means for the region
Experience in land use planning and transportation
Consulting firm helping communities align these projects with equity and sustainability goals in mind
Peterson is Housing First absolutist
Until election season started, nobody has been talking about mental health and drug addiction issues tied to houslessness
Portland has no staff with boots on the ground like Gresham
50 residents along Springwater that have a special phone number to call and report
METRO’S JOB IS TO CONVENE ALL PARTIES AND RESOLVE ISSUES - what’s working in one place should be implemented elsewhere
Metro is ineffective
Basic information - challenge staff / ask questions
Not meeting metrics? Why are we funding?
People for Portland ballot measure shows that we have a breakdown of regional government - we should not be ruling by ballot measure
People support this because we don’t trust Metro
Private sector and government are not talking to each other; talk to people who know how to get it done and want to help
Oversight Committee - some members have conflicted interest as their organizations are funded by the bond measure
People for Portland wants to change this structure
Metro President can appoint new committee members
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
It is impossible to build enough publicly subsidized affordable housing
We must increase the overall supply, otherwise housing prices will only continue to increase
Do we need to talk about expanding the Urban Growth Boundary?
Data Resource Center was dissolved
This was supposed to be a tool to give voters accountability
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?
Sheriff
Auditor - sets the county budget
County Commissioners - “senators”; decide how to spend budget
“Power of the purse”
District Attorney
How do the city, county & METRO work together?
Very unique structure - joint offices between multiple cities (Gresham, Troutdale, etc.), & county
Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) is one big example
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:
Move people into sanctioned campsites
List of 60+ public lots acquired already
“State of the County” address - not just boring reports people don’t want to read
Digital dashboard to show results
Tri-county effort to digitize and count the homeless
Clackamas, Washington & Multnomah
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good!
London policy - Population 9 million, 400 homeless
Someone has to vouch for you (ie: someone knows you - family / friend)
Periodic progress reports from non-profits we are paying