On February 28, 2007 PDC commissioner Sal Kadri publicly tasked PDC Housing Director Andy Wilch to gather information by neighborhood on the location of all public housing clients that are subsidized and administered by any government agency within PDC's area of influence. Commissioner Kadri's assignment involved requesting exported files from computers controlled by:
A. The Housing Authority of Portland
B. The Portland Development Commission
C. The Oregon Housing and Community Services department
D. Multnomah county
E. The Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development
F. The Portland Planning Bureau
The report by PDC Housing Director Andy Wilch to PDC commissioner Sal Kadri must include, at a minimum, a database of around 60 thousand records. Each record must contain, at least, a neighborhood designation field. Additional fields for income, age and gender would be very useful although they were not specifically designated as part of commissioner Kadri's February 28, 2007 public order.
On May 17, 2007, 78 days after commissioner Kadri's request, under an Oregon Public Records Law demand, PDC Housing Director Andy Wilch provided me with the results of his quest. The three tab delimited text files he sent me are the net sum of his PDC staff efforts of 11 weeks to fulfill PDC commissioner Sal Kadri's request for public housing statistical data. On May 18, 2007 I sent all of the data I received to the PDC commissioners, the Portland and Gresham city commissioners, Multnomah county commissioners, Metro councilors and Oregon's governor. If you are interested in getting a copy of these files ask any of these elected or appointed public officials.
Analysis of Andy Wilch's Performance
1. Not a single record was gathered from the Housing Authority of Portland.
2. Not a single record was gathered from Multnomah county.
3. Not a single record was gathered from the Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development.
4. Not a single record was gathered from the Portland Planning Bureau.
5. The records gathered from the Oregon Housing and Community Services department were out of date.
6. The records gathered from the Portland Development Commission were incomplete.
7. One of the files, an out of date yet easily updated download, from HUD was irrelevant.
8. An excuse for some of the incomplete records was made by claiming that Metro's new Regional Affordable Housing Inventory Team and a housing database that is under construction would provide the missing data sometime in the future. Although welcomed, the design of this Metro database and the data submitted by the public parties involved are in no way intended to nor will they satisfy any of the conditions required by PDC commissioner Sal Kadri's order to PDC Housing Director Andy Wilch on February 28, 2007.
Andy Wilch's failure is truly awesome in its scope and consequences. His failure goes far beyond incompetence and lands in the realm of the insubordinate. Wilch's incontestably deliberate, persistent refusal to follow the legitimate and reasonable order of a superior PDC commissioner is grounds for immediate dismissal. Wilch's incontestably deliberate, persistent refusal to follow the legitimate and reasonable order of a superior PDC commissioner marginalizes, trivializes and humiliates all five PDC commissioners. Wilch's incontestably deliberate, persistent refusal to follow the legitimate and reasonable order of a superior PDC commissioner damages the reputation of the Portland Development Commission, destroys his personal credibility and seriously diminishes his ability to do the job of Housing Director.
Since Andy Wilch had demonstrated his willingness to ignore and subvert orders given to him in public by his superiors why would any person doing business with him, especially those serving on the Urban Renewal Area Committees, trust him or the PDC staff that work under him?
When the Director of Housing for the Portland Development Commission publicly displays ignorance regarding the fundamental elements of section 8 housing requirements and flagrantly, publicly disobeys his superiors then it's time for him to go.
The beginning of the end of public entities withholding public housing statistical data from elected officials, candidates for public office, voters, taxpayers and citizens of Multnomah county is at hand.
Richard Ellmyer
Community leader coordinating a local effort to bring the Oregon National Guard to the Sharff Army Reserve Center
Community activist leading the campaign to Stop The Portland Hope Meadows Corporation From Adding To The Overload Of Public Housing Clients In The Portsmouth Neighborhood And North Portland
3-6-9 Resolution author and project champion
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watcher commentary - Published on the Internet and distributed to 13,000 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses. Located in Portsmouth, the neighborhood with the second highest concentration of public housing clients, 22% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.