Dear Elected Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Alicia Fuchs:
Federal judges are bound by a code that says they should not join any group that discriminates by race, sex, religion or nationality. Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, recently resigned from an elite women’s club, the Belizean Grove. It's time for you to follow judge Sotomayor's excellent example and resign from the board of the Bridge Meadows Corporation.
Voters evaluate elected judges' judicial fitness by the company they keep and the organizations they belong to. Candidates for elected public judicial office that are involved with organizations that discriminate against those with unacceptable religious views, ethnic background, gender or sexual orientation are not likely to be considered by voters as fit for the bench. You are a board member of a private corporation that has demonstrated its disregard for due process, distaste for corporate transparency, a propensity to misstate the truth and hostility toward legal and legitimate public gatherings in the political arena. It's time for you to follow judge Sotomayor's excellent example and resign from the board of the Bridge Meadows Corporation.
In October of 2006 the Bridge Meadows Corporation, aka the Portland Hope Meadows Corporation, joined mayor Tom Potter, commissioner Dan Satlzman and commissioner Erik Sten in a conspiracy to deny DUE PROCESS in the disposition of the publicly owned John Ball School property. [A mere month after every commissioner's office denied the existence of a public process to dispose of the John Ball School property, September 2006, the council was coerced by the coconspirators to vote on this issue (see details below) despite the fact the no public process was ever defined nor executed.]
In October of 2006 the Bridge Meadows Corporation mislead the Portland city council and the public by giving public testimony which defined the Kellogg Foundation as a major supporter.
1. Recent collaboration with the Kellogg foundation in development and foundation funding of this project.
2. The kellogg foundation has recently gotten involved and is very committed
3. Ted chin from the kellogg foundation flew out here, walked the ball school site, was very excited about Portland being the first urban model
4. We have obviously been working very closely with the kellogg foundation to validate how we're adapting the model for Portland.
5. The highly respected kellogg foundation donated $4 million to create a fund for Portland -- for hope meadows. Proceeds from this fund can be used to replicate other sites and we'll have access to this funding. Should we secure the land, our schedule is to begin construction late 2007 or early 2008. Our strategy was too have all the units reserve prior to completion to ensure optimal cash flow and the achievement of project goals. Again, we're replicating the hope meadows model, so we're confident of the sustainability of our operation. We estimate from 2009 to 2011 the first three years we're operating, that our expenditures will be $650,000. 64% of this will be covered from rent, and d.h.s. Payments. The remaining balance will be raised through fund-raising. Our goal is to achieve a $7 million endowment within five years to -- because we believe an endowment is essential to our long-term success.
[The Kellogg Foundation is not supporting the Bridge Meadows Corporation. It has neither made a grant nor a loan to the Bridge Meadows Corporation. The financial viability of the Bridge Meadows model in Illinois had been challenged. None of the projections in statement 5 have been accomplished as stated. These are either deliberate misrepresentations - decidedly dishonest behavior - or gross incompetence.]
Since October of 2006 the Bridge Meadows Corporation has repeatedly refused to provide the taxpayers who own the John Ball School property with contact information about its board and funders. [This is a decidedly dishonest and hostile action.]
In February of 2007 the husband of the Bridge Meadows Chair attended a public meeting that included a discussion of the Bridge Meadows project. He did not identify himself and acted as an agent provocateur. [This is a decidedly dishonest and hostile action.]
In March of 2007 Bridge Meadows Chair, Rhonda Meadows, filed a criminal complaint against Richard Ellmyer because he had written in HAP Watchers (sent to thousands of readers) a challenge to her and the Bridge Meadows Corporation to be prepared for political battle. [Apparently Rhonda Meadows did not attend fifth grade when figures of speech were being taught as a literary device. Ellmyer and his writing style were uncharged with felonious assault upon the english language and he remains at large exercising his American constitutional right to freedom of figurative speech in his political battle with Rhonda Meadows and the Bridge Meadows Corporation. This was a decidedly unwarranted, unjustified, uneducated, provocative and hostile act.]
On October 25, 2008 the Bridge Meadows Corporation failed its contractual obligation under Resolution 36449 as amended to : return with a complete financial plan within one year and full funding commitments within two years. [The failed funding projections made in October 2006 (see statement 5 above) and this failure were either deliberate misrepresentations or gross incompetence leading to disrespect for the legal obligation agreed upon in Resolution 36449 as amended. Both disqualifying attributes.]
At 6 PM Tuesday April 28, 2009 the Bridge Meadows Corporation tore down a sign that invited the public to a meeting on Friday May 1st intended to explain and discuss the meaning and process of the conditional use hearing on May 11th which was announced on a sign next to it. When asked by me the Bridge Meadows Corporation refused to admit destroying the sign until forced during the May 11th conditional use hearing. [Trying to prevent neighborhood residents from participating in a community discussion is not only bizarre behavior it demonstrates a corporate character that is disrespectful of the democratic process and hostile to the neighbors in the neighborhood into which it intends for force its will.]
Prior to and since October 2006 these two relevant legal issues remain unaddressed:
1. The Portland Public Schools board sold the John Ball School site to the city of Portland under its legal obligation to give the city the right of first refusal based on the premise that the land in question would be kept in public use. Essentially giving this public property to the private Bridge Meadows Corporation violates this condition of sale.
2. The city of Portland cannot dispose of its real public property without four votes. The disposition of the surplus public John Ball property was done not only without demonstrable and defensible due process but also with only three votes.
Since October 2006 the Bridge Meadows Corporation has ignored and dismissed:
A. The twice given public testimony of the Portsmouth Neighborhood Association opposing the Bridge Meadows Corporation plan.
B. The twice given public testimony of the North Portland Business Association opposing the Bridge Meadows Corporation plan.
C. The twice given public testimony of the 195 member/voters of the Portsmouth Residents Action Committee opposing the Bridge Meadows Corporation plan.
D. The October 2006 testimony of commissioner Sam Adams, commissioner Randy Leonard and soon to be commissioner Amanda Fritz opposing the Bridge Meadows Corporation plan.
E. The indisputable need to add market rate housing to Portsmouth/North Portland neighborhoods.
F. The statement by the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee that with the highest total and second highest percentage, 30%, of public housing clients in Oregon, the Portsmouth neighborhood was overwhelmed with social services delivery and should not receive any more funding for public housing (see below).
G. The public safety issues raised by Portsmouth home owner Patricia Kane, supported by PRAC and NPBA.
As a board member of the Bridge Meadows Corporation you not only knew everything that I have mentioned above, you condoned these activities if not advocated for them.
Elected Multnomah county circuit court judge Alicia Fuchs is a member of the board of directors of the private Bridge Meadows Corporation that:
1. Trampled on the truth during public testimony regarding the disposition of the John Ball School property.
2. Trampled on the rights of Portland citizens to DUE PROCESS in the disposition of the John Ball School property.
3. Trampled on the rights of Portland citizens to gather public information about the members and funders of the Bridge Meadows corporation.
4. Trampled on the rights of Portland citizens to gather in a public meeting to discuss public business.
5. Arrogantly dismissed the concerns of the overwhelming majority of Portsmouth/North Portland citizens and businesses.
If you can persuade your fellow Bridge Meadows Corporation board members to immediately withdraw their interest in the John Ball School site, recommend to them relocating their project somewhere else in Oregon and explain that DUE PROCESS is a professional responsibility of yours then you should remain. Otherwise you should immediately resign.
Voters expect elected judges on the public payroll to be activist advocates for and passionate practitioners of due process, fairness and honesty both inside and outside the courtroom.
Richard Ellmyer