Everyone understands that the person who has the power to fire a subordinate is the BOSS. Portland mayor Sam Adams and only Portland mayor Sam Adams has the power to fire the entire board of the Housing Authority of Portland and fire the commissioner he appointed to oversee Portland's Bureau of Housing from that job. This unique and statutory power makes the mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, the unrivaled and undisputed Multnomah County Public Housing Boss.

Everyone understands that as long as a subordinate does the Boss's bidding they will not be fired. This means that if Multnomah County Public Housing Boss Sam Adams does NOT dismiss or publicly criticize the decisions and actions taken by the nine members of the board of the Housing Authority of Portland and Nick Fish, the commissioner Adams - not the voters - assigned to manage the Bureau of Housing then Adams approves of their behavior.

Everyone understands that when mayor Sam Adams executed his stealthy and swift confiscation of forty-two employees and more than a hundred million dollars in public housing funds from the Portland Development Commission he effectively gave HIMSELF total and complete authority over the lion's share of taxpayer dollars, about $200,000,000, spent in Multnomah county every year on public housing. Now that is the definition of a powerful Multnomah County Public Housing Boss.

So what does Sam do with all this statutory, economic and personnel power to completely control public housing policy and spending in Multnomah county? NOTHING.

Reporter Jim Redden writes in the Portland Tribune - http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=123119589848267600

Consultant and longtime North Portland activist Richard Ellmyer also complained that the city was overloading the area with low-income housing projects, saying their residents do not have enough disposable income to support local businesses. Although Adams did not agree or disagree with Ellmyer, he admitted that the city frequently does not have enough information to know whether any part of town is bearing more than its share of such projects.

Sam Adams evaded the issue of disposable income and then outright lied when he said the city "frequently does not have enough information to know whether any part of town is bearing more its share of such projects." After spending sixteen years working in city hall Sam Adams knows full well that the city NEVER has enough information to know whether any part of town is bearing more than its share of such projects because the Portland city council REFUSES to ask for that information. This is known as self-inflicted ignorance.

Despite being the undisputed Multnomah County Public Housing Boss, Sam Adams doesn't say a single word about public housing in his published first 100 days plan.

Despite being the undisputed Multnomah County Public Housing Boss, Sam Adams doesn't have a single person on his staff assigned to public housing.

Despite being the undisputed Multnomah County Public Housing Boss, Sam Adams sat mute and unfazed when Richard Ellmyer testified before the Portland city council on January 6, 2009 and said:

1. The council’s indefensible and appalling support for the discredited and abhorrent public policy of UNLIMITED neighborhood concentration of public housing must stop.

2. The council’s refusal to support a policy of equitable distribution of public housing must stop.

3. The council’s failure to hold the Housing Authority of Portland accountable for providing public housing statistical data must stop.

[Eight Years of Madoffs By FRANK RICH Published: January 10, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/opinion/11rich.html?_r=1

To make the policy decisions ahead of us in the economic meltdown, we must know what went wrong along the way in the executive and legislative branches alike... As the financial historian Ron Chernow wrote in the Times last week, we could desperately use a Ferdinand Pecora, the investigator who illuminated the history of the 1929 meltdown in Senate hearings on the eve of the New Deal. The terrain to be mined would include not just the usual Wall Street suspects and their Congressional and regulatory enablers but also the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a strangely neglected ground zero in the foreclosure meltdown. The department’s secretary, Alphonso Jackson, resigned in March amid still-unresolved investigations over whether he enriched himself and friends with government contracts.] [HAP receives the bulk of its taxpayer funding from HUD. HAP claims that only HUD need know what it is up to NOT elected officials, voters and certainly not taxpayers.]

Despite being the undisputed Multnomah County Public Housing Boss, Sam Adams has no comment on the following recommendations which Adams solicited from Richard Ellmyer at a public meeting to discuss the city's lobbying effort in Salem and Washington D.C.:

In opposition to the current indefensible, discredited and abhorrent public policy of UNLIMITED neighborhood concentration of public housing and in support of Equitable Distribution of Public Housing, I recommend that the council:

A. Instruct the city's Salem lobbyist to identify bills involving any type of government financial contribution or tax subsidy for public housing ( PUBLIC Housing = Means Test + Government Subsidy + Rental Agreement ) and support an amendment to each bill which REQUIRES the recipient entity to affirm that no portion of the funding for that bill will be used for new public housing in any neighborhood which already has more than 15% public housing clients as a percentage of the total population of that neighborhood.

B. Instruct the city's Salem lobbyist to support a bill that requires the Housing Authority of Portland to produce the following public housing statistical data on a monthly basis:

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 January 1, 2009. 

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 January 1, 2009, with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date.

Without this constantly updated information it is impossible to make credible, reasoned and defensible decisions in support of a public policy of Equitable Distribution of Public Housing and to hold HAP ACCOUNTABLE for their annual spending of more than $80,000,000 of taxpayers money.

C. Instruct the city's Salem lobbyist to support a bill which transfers complete authority over the Housing Authority of Portland from the city of Portland to Multnomah County. HAP's mission and authority is countywide. All voters in Multnomah county MUST have the ability to vote for or against the person most responsible for nominating, appointing and dismissing (ORS 456.110) HAP commissioners.

D. Instruct the city's Salem lobbyist to support a bill which funds the preliminary steps necessary to establish the Metro regional government as the future recipient of all government funds and tax subsidies related to public housing in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties. Metro's charge will be to establish Equitable Distribution of Public Housing throughout its area of authority.

Four years ago at this time Sam's predecessor, Tom Potter, publicly promised to gather public housing statistical data from HAP then not only reneged but refused to even talk about or use the words "public housing" for the remainder of his term. Multnomah County Public Housing Boss Sam Adams will NOT be allowed to get away with that.


Richard Ellmyer