The Portland Public Schools Board is legally obliged to offer so-called "surplus" property to the city of Portland before placing it on the market for sale in order to keep the asset in continued PUBLIC USE.
In 2004 the PPS board sold the Washington Monroe High School to the city of Portland. The Buckman neighborhood's legitimate interest in using the land for a continued PUBLIC PURPOSE, namely, a community center, was in keeping with the PPS board's legal obligation to keep the asset in continued PUBLIC USE. After proper due process the Portland city council voted to abide by the requirements for sale of public property from the PPS board and the needs and interests of the Buckman neighborhood and declared the former Washington Monroe High School a community center. Today, mayor Adams is supporting neighborhood involvement in a $600,000 federally funded design review process.
In 2006 the PPS board sold the John Ball School to the city of Portland. At that time commissioner Sam Adams, commissioner Randy Leonard, long time Portland Planning Commissioner and neighborhood activist Amanda Fritz and the Portsmouth neighborhood association et. al. testified AGAINST the giveaway of the John Ball School PUBLIC Property to the private interests of the Portland Hope Meadows Corporation. All of the arguments included variations on the same theme, there was NO DUE PROCESS in this decision. It was a back room political deal involving coconspirators Tom Potter, Erik Sten and Dan Saltzman. No other players were allowed or necessary. They had three votes. In addition, the leasing for one dollar a year to a private corporation for a private use was a dismissal with extreme prejudice against the PPS board's legal obligation to offer so-called "surplus" property to the city of Portland before placing it on the market for sale in order to keep the asset in continued PUBLIC USE.
So the obvious question arises: How is it that Sam Adams, Randy Leonard and Amanda Fritz, whose arguments in 2006 AGAINST the transfer of public property to a private corporation remained UNCHANGED and UNCHALLENGED, in 2009 "forgot" their arguments and quietly, very quietly, switched sides? The answer lies with Sam Adams.
There were no pet political projects in the Portland city council competing for the Washington Monroe High School site so there was no need to deny due process and neighborhood input. Buckman is also a highly organized, well to do, politically savvy neighborhood. However, that was NOT the case with the John Ball School property. Commissioner Dan Saltzman did have a personal pet political project for this public property in the Portsmouth neighborhood so there was a NEED to Deny Due Process and neighborhood input. Very few people in the Portsmouth neighborhood, which has the highest total and the second highest concentration of public housing clients in Multnomah county, have the time, experience and ability to fight city hall. It's always easier to take advantage of those who can't fight back. After sixteen years at the heart of power in city hall, often playing the role of "enforcer" as Vera Katz's chief of staff, Sam Adams knows this all too well.
Mayor Adams, like his former boss mayor Vera Katz, has an inexplicable penchant to build sports stadiums with Portland's money no matter what the political and budgetary cost. Adams cleverly brought his pal Randy along in a deal to get Saltzman's vote to pay for a soccer stadium in exchange for their flip-flop on the John Ball School issue. Adams anointed freshman Fritz queen of Portland's rivers to buy her silence. And so, three votes that should have brought DUE PROCESS, as it was practiced in an exactly similar situation with the Washington Monroe High School, back to the public table turned silently, stealthily and without explanation into a repudiation of the PPS board's legitimacy and credibility as well as democratic due process.
Sam Adams discriminates against the weak and follows the law only when its personally convenient. Sam Adams nullifies and disgraces Portland's reputation for open, fair, honest, progressive government. Shame on you Sam Adams
Richard Ellmyer