Wheeler Versus Potter - Place Your Bets

Will Wheeler or Potter take longer to fill their vacant HAP seats?
[Though Wheeler is in the lead don't discount Potter. Tom has managed not to discuss PUBLIC housing or even use the word "PUBLIC" housing for three years. If he runs out the clock without an appointment until the end of his lame duck term then he wins.]

Will Wheeler or Potter publicly solicit candidates for the job?
[Potter's willingness to let mayor-elect Adams publicly solicit PDC candidates gives Potter the clear edge here.]

Will Wheeler or Potter have a credible public vetting process?
[Current odds are heavily against both changing the status quo, private, backdoor, no public housing policy vetting selection process.]

Wheeler 7
It is now seven months since the last official presence at a HAP board meeting of one of two HAP board members purportedly representing the interests of Multnomah county. The other HAP seat is held by Lee Moore whose refusal to provide me, Multnomah county commissioner Jeff Cogen and all 700,000 residents of Multnomah county with public housing statistical data is de facto evidence the Mr. Moore is NOT representing the interests of Multnomah county and during the public process in which I get to state my case for the HAP seat I will make that point. My hat has been in the ring publicly since March and not a peep of recognition from Ted's office. Very strange. Not a good sign. 

Since it appears that all the bridges will be fixed and Wapato full of customers before Wheeler and his staff come to grips with developing a public process and recommending a candidate to fill Multnomah county's vacant HAP seat I suggest the following:

1. Follow the advice I have been giving for months and the lead taken by mayor-elect Adams in his quest for PDC candidates and make many and loud public announcements calling for those willing to serve the interests of Multnomah county on the HAP board to contact you.

2. Declare July 20, 2008 the deadline for interested parties to submit their names. A deadline tends to focus attention on resolving issues in a timely manner. Otherwise, this as yet defined process could go on indefinitely.

3. Set a date during the last week in July for an informal, open to the public, Q & A/ discussion among the potential candidates and the commissioners that allows mutual questioning of all parties by all parties. Make sure to invite commissioner-elect Deborah Kafory and candidates Mike Delman, Diane McKeel, Carla Piluso and Judy Shiprack. Leave lots and lots of time.

4. Put forward a name at a commission meeting during the first week in August with an explanation of why that person represents the interests of Multnomah county for approval by all commissioners.

Potter 2
It is now two months since the last official presence at a HAP board meeting of one of four HAP board members purportedly representing the interests of the city of Portland. Five of the six candidates for city council position 1 who ran in the May primary asked HAP for authentic, accurate, complete and timely public housing statistical data. Not one of them got what they asked for. As a city commissioner, Sam Adams asked twice for this same public housing statistical data and he was no more successful than the candidates running for his vacant council seat. Sam Adams voted against confirmation of a HAP nominee from Gresham, Nathan Teske, because he refused to tell Sam that he would get him the public housing statistical data Sam needed to make informed, educated, reasoned and defensible decisions regarding public housing policy and expenditures.

Potter has rightly acknowledged that mayor-elect Sam Adams should recruit and nominate the next two PDC commissioners that will be seated during Sam's term of office. Potter needs to give mayor-elect Sam Adams the same opportunity to recruit and nominate the citizen who will serve the interests of the city of Portland on the HAP board. That interest, as clearly defined by commissioner Sam Adams now mayor-elect Sam Adams, includes providing authentic, accurate, complete and timely public housing statistical data.

Unlike Ted Wheeler, mayor-elect Sam Adams will need no advice on how to publicly recruit and publicly vet prospective HAP candidates.

Get On With It
Thanks to all of you who have sent these in. For the rest of you, what are you waiting for? And if you want to get in the game yourself by all means please jump right in. The more the merrier. I hope Dewey Ackers, Chair of the Lents neighborhood association can be persuaded to express an interest. It would be quite "interesting" to have HAP commissioners from Portsmouth and Lents, two neighborhoods with serious public housing issues making decisions instead of only HAP appointees from places, shall we say, less challenged by the social and economic effects of overloading public housing in their neighborhoods.

To: Ted Wheeler<ted.wheeler@co.multnomah.or.us>
CC: Richard Ellmyer<ellmyer@macsolve.com>
Subject: Filling The HAP Vacancy

Dear Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler:
Seven months is more than sufficient time to recruit, hold public discussions, debate and vote to send a recommendation to the mayor of Portland to appoint a citizen who will represent the interests of Multnomah county on the board of the Housing Authority of Portland.

The interests of Multnomah county are served when authentic, accurate, complete and timely public housing statistical data from the Housing Authority of Portland is regularly placed on the public table for consideration by elected policy makers and the citizens of Multnomah county.

The interests of Multnomah county are served when property owners, business owners, neighborhoods and tax payers have their voices heard and interests acknowledged in the competition for public housing policy decision making at the Housing Authority of Portland. 

The interests of Multnomah county are served by a policy of equitable distribution of public housing throughout all of Multnomah county's neighborhoods.

Richard Ellmyer has demonstrated seven years of commitment to these policies. I encourage the Multnomah county commission to immediately recommend him to the Portland city council for the position of HAP commissioner representing the interests of Multnomah county.

Sincerely,

Multnomah county voter

******************************************************************

To: Portland City Council Clerk Karla Moore-Love <kmoore-love@ci.portland.or.us>
CC: Richard Ellmyer<ellmyer@macsolve.com>
Subject: HAP Candidacy

Dear Mayor Potter/Mayor-elect Sam Adams:
A position on the HAP board allocated to a citizen who will represent the interests of the city of Portland has been vacant for two months. It is your responsibility to expedite the process of filling this vacancy. Your obligation is to recruit, hold public discussions, debate and then send a nomination to the Portland city council for confirmation.

The interests of the city of Portland are served when authentic, accurate, complete and timely public housing statistical data from the Housing Authority of Portland is regularly placed on the public table for consideration by elected policy makers and the citizens of the city of Portland.

The interests of the city of Portland are served when property owners, business owners, neighborhoods and tax payers have their voices heard and interests acknowledged in the competition for public housing policy decision making at the Housing Authority of Portland. 

The interests of the city of Portland are served by a policy of equitable distribution of public housing throughout all of Portland's neighborhoods.

Richard Ellmyer has demonstrated seven years of commitment to these policies. I encourage you to immediately nominate him to the Portland city council for the position of HAP commissioner representing the interests of the city of Portland.

Sincerely,

Portland voter

Richard Ellmyer

P.S. For consideration of the Portland city council, the Multnomah county commission and the public record here are Richard Ellmyer's public housing policy positions:

1. The term Public Housing is defined as any government administered housing program that requires all three of the following conditions, means test + government subsidy + rental agreement. I promise to do everything in my power to assure that all documents generated by the Housing Authority of Portland will use the term Public Housing where those conditions are met.

2. The citizens of Multnomah county have a right to public housing statistical data from all public entities that administer public housing programs. I have often asked the HAP board for the following public housing statistical data without success. If confirmed I pledge to make every effort to ensure that this data is available on the HAP website and updated monthly.

Report #1. HAP Public Housing Program
A tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL clients in this database.

Report #2. HAP Section 8 Housing Voucher Program
A tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL clients in this database.

Report #3. New Columbia in North Portland's Portsmouth Neighborhood Program
A tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL HAP public housing clients (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement) living in New Columbia as of April 1, 2008. 

Report #4. HAP Affordable Housing Program
A tab delimited text file, including the total number of public housing (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement) HAP clients living in all of HAP's 32 properties in Multnomah county as of April 1, 2008, with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date.

3. I strenuously oppose the discredited and abhorrent public policy of unlimited neighborhood concentration of public housing.

4. I vigorously support a public policy of equitable distribution of public housing.

As a consequence of this general housing policy position:
A. I support the details and the ideas expressed in the ICURAAC letter to PDC below which sets a cap of 15% neighborhood public housing concentration on new PDC funding for public housing projects. This would include opposition to any HAP involvement in the Hacienda CDC project on N. Newell street in the Portsmouth neighborhood as well as opposition to the addition of any new public housing by the Portland Hope Meadows Corporation on the surplus city property known as the former John Ball School site.

November 7, 2007

Dear Portland Development Commission:
We, the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee, support a public housing location policy of equitable distribution of public housing (defined as requiring three components: means test + government subsidy + rental agreement). This is consistent with the public housing location policy of the Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development's published public housing location policy which is:
1. Maximize housing choice, especially for low-income people who have traditionally been limited in the location of housing that they could afford; 
2. Discourage the concentration of low- or no- income households in any one area of the city; 
3. Encourage the creation of additional housing resources for low-income households integrated throughout the community.

Much of the work of the citizen volunteers on the ICURAAC involves advising the PDC on how to spend public funds on public housing. Acknowledging equitable distribution of public housing as a policy gives us the foundation upon which we can make reasonable, justifiable and defensible decisions.

As an operational imperative of a public housing location policy of equitable distribution of public housing, we have set 15% as a cap on the percentage of public housing clients in any of the 10 neighborhoods included in the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area which would allow future PDC funding for public housing projects. The Portsmouth neighborhood, which has more than 30% public housing clients, is indisputably in this category. As a result, we, the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee, exercise our advisory responsibility by advising you, the Portland Development Commission, to stop all future funding for pubic housing projects in the Portsmouth neighborhood and redirect those funds to other Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area neighborhoods with a population of less than 15% public housing clients.

Thank you for your support of this recommendation by the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee.

Sincerely,
Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee

B. I support the Standards of Equitable Distribution of Public Housing Resolution below and will endeavor to promote appropriately reworded versions of it to HAP and all the other public entities that administer public housing in Multnomah county.

Declare 5-10-15 Neighborhood Percentages As Transparent, Understandable and Accountable Distributive Public Housing Policy Goals - Provide Compensation To Neighborhoods Above 15%
WHEREAS the city of Portland has an established policy that public housing clients should not be concentrated into a few select neighborhoods but rather distributed throughout Portland’s neighborhoods,
WHEREAS it has become necessary to quantify the policy of distribution of public housing clients in order to assure that public expenditures are being spent in furtherance of these objectives,

WHEREAS it is necessary to adopt neighborhood map based accounting as a reporting and decision making tool regarding public housing policy and expenditures.

WHEREAS it is necessary to compensate neighborhoods that shoulder greater social responsibility than other neighborhoods by including more than 15% public housing clients.
WHEREAS for purposes of this resolution public housing shall be defined as requiring means test + government subsidy + rental agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the city of Portland shall establish as its primary public housing client goal in each Portland neighborhood a target of ten (10) percent of that neighborhood’s population. Goals for minimum and maximum shall be established so that no neighborhood shall have fewer than five (5) percent and no neighborhood shall have more than fifteen (15) percent of its population as public housing clients.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the office of the Portland City Auditor shall coordinate the collection of data and report annually on the status of accomplishment toward the 5-10-15 goal.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the city council shall fund the City Auditor’s 5-10-15 related activities by whatever combination of funding sources from HAP, PDC, BHCD or other revenue sources it may chose.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, all appointments for PDC, HAP and HCDC commissioner shall be made during the regular city council calendar.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the mayor shall determine that all nominees to become HAP, PDC and HCDC commissioners agree to support the 5-10-15 policy goal before being formally nominated for council approval.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, during the confirmation proceedings the mayor shall publicly instruct the appointee of his or her obligation to use the office to which they are appointed to further the 5-10-15 policy goal.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, neighborhoods with more than 15% public housing clients shall be considered “overloaded” and subject to compensation according to the following schedule:
$1,000/client/year from 15%-16%
$1,100/client/year from 16%-17%
$1,200/client/year from 17%-18%
Increasing $100/client/year for every additional percentage point.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, payments for compensating 15%+ “overloaded” neighborhoods shall be made annually to the affected neighborhood associations. Compensation funding may only be used for Arts related activities e.g. purchases of artwork, performances, classes etc. Compensation funding may not be used for any social services activity or purpose.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Office of Neighborhood Involvement shall annually issue a Neighborhood Art Card to every address in those neighborhoods which qualify for “overload” compensation. The card will allow four persons to participate in any activities sponsored by the neighborhood named on the card. The card shall contain the neighborhood budget for the year of issuance and an explanation of why it has been issued.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, this resolution is binding city policy.

5. I support legislation that will transfer the power to approve HAP nominees from the Portland city council to the Multnomah county commission.

6. I support legislation that will transfer the power of the mayor of Portland to dismiss appointed HAP board members (ORS 456.110) to the Multnomah county chair.
The Housing Authority of Portland has operational status throughout all of Multnomah county. It is politically indefensible to allow Portland's mayor and its city council, who are unconnected to citizens outside Portland, to have power for which they cannot be held directly accountable by voters affected by their decisions. This political circumstance is an un-American, unacceptable variant on the theme of taxation without representation.