There are signs that Kandis Brewer Nunn MAY be moving HAP's board in a more open and accountable direction

Kandis Brewer Nunn is now the public official in charge of the Housing Authority of Portland. Ms. Nunn is Chairperson of a quasi-governmental organization that affects the lives, property values and businesses of 700,000 residents in 117 neighborhoods of Multnomah county and 35,000 HAP clients. Ms. Nunn presides over a $90,000,000 publicly funded budget which is larger than 70% of the counties in the state of Oregon (25 of 36). Ms. Nunn presides over a $90,000,000 publicly funded budget which is larger than 95% of the cities in the state of Oregon (229 of 240). Ms. Nunn, an appointed public official, has more budgetary power than about 1,000 elected officials in the state of Oregon. Any public official, elected or appointed, with a $90,000,000 checkbook of taxpayer dollars must be held accountable.

Kandis has informed me that sometime in April HAP's web site will contain email and postal addresses for all board members by which they may be contacted directly. If true, this would be a welcome repudiation of her predecessor, Howard Shapiro's, outrageous and indefensible policy of censoring citizen communication with HAP's board.

Kandis has informed me that she is seriously investigating neighborhood map based accounting of HAP's clients to replace zip code map based accounting of HAP's clients. Once again, if true, this would be a welcome repudiation of her predecessor, Howard Shapiro's, outrageous and indefensible refusal to use neighborhood map based accounting as a tool to prove that the results of HAP's practices are not in conflict with its public policy goals.

Commissioner Erik Sten - Hidden Hinderance?
Although HAP is a stand alone public agency, it appears as though Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten may be exerting undue, behind the scenes pressure that is preventing HAP's new Chair, Kandis Brewer Nunn from moving toward neighborhood map based accounting of public housing clients. Sten and the entire Portland City Council need to come out of the shadows and publicly declare their support for neighborhood map based accounting of public housing clients for the Portland Bureau of Housing and the Housing Authority of Portland. And they need to do it NOW.

Fernandez Joins Fish in Lying to the Press
Oregon Public Broadcasting and reporter Rob Manning have done a great public service by airing a story related to the rights of Americans under the first amendment of our constitution and spam. Following Nick Fish's lead in lying to Oregonian columnist Renee Mitchell about his "support" for neighborhood map based accounting, HAP Commissioner and Treasurer Richard Fernandez lied to Manning about his willingness to accept email from the public on matters of HAP public policy.

Fernandez complained that he didn't want to be contacted at his work email ( rfernandez@guardian-mgmt.com ) but then never offered an alternative contact. Fernandez had no trouble responding to me and others using his work email address. Fernandez supported Howard Shapiro's censorship proclamation. Fernandez never offered to put an email contact next to his name on HAP's web site. Fernandez never responded to any of my thirteen emails forwarded to him by HAP staff over a sixteen month period. Chief crime scene investigator Gil Grissom, of television's popular C.S.I. program, might say, "Mr. Fernandez, your words go one way but the EVIDENCE all points in the opposite direction. You are a liar."

Public officials, like Richard Fernandez, violate the civil rights of Americans as guaranteed in the first amendment of the US Constitution when they try to prevent any American citizen from accessing the government (this includes HAP and Frenandez) for "redress of grievances."

Political free speech via email is as protected under the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America as any other form of free speech. No government, federal, state, county and city nor certainly any commercial ISP has the right to restrict political speech via email. It's the law. The Can Spam Act of 2003 specifically prohibits ONLY certain kinds of unsolicited COMMERCIAL email.

OPB reporter Manning contacted Can Spam Act of 2003 coauthor Senator Ron Wyden whose office revealed that the Can Spam Act of 2003 does NOT prohibit the right of Americans to express political views via unsolicited email. Complaints received by American Internet Service Providers from people like Richard Fernandez (who did complain) involving political speech should be responded to with Internet URL pointers to the Constitution and the Can Spam Act of 2003.

Responsible American ISPs need to post declarations on their web sites alerting visitors and clients to the fact that political speech is NOT spam and is protected by the U.S. Constitution. ISPs need to educate their clients and the public about the difference between unsolicited commercial email - which can be against the law, and unsolicited non-commercial political email which is specifically protected by the law.

It is more important for an ISP to protect the political free speech email rights of its clients than it is to protect them from commercial email abuse.

Responsible American ISPs will have to adjust their abuse departments to reflect the free political speech rights of their clients. A standard form response should be sent to any complainant, such as HAP Commissioner and Treasurer Richard Fernandez, alleging email abuse that cannot prove that the "offending" email is commercial rather than political in nature. The message should affirmatively support the right of American citizens to express political thought via email and every other method protected and guaranteed by both the US Constitution and the Can Spam Act of 2003. Internet pointers to both of these documents should be included.

If HAP Commissioner and Treasurer Richard Fernandez needs help sorting all this out he should call Senator Wyden's office. I'm sure Senator Wyden would be more than willing to explain to him why email political free speech is essential to our American democracy. American ISPs should be proud to defend, indeed encourage, free political speech via email. After all, isn't that part of what our country, America, is about - the freedom to express political views?


Richard Ellmyer
Portsmouth neighborhood, North Portland
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org

[ Political views expressed in email are intended to inform and persuade not harass. It is counterproductive to send political email to those who won't be persuaded, aren't interested or just don't want to be bothered. As has always been the case, anyone - public officials excepted - receiving HAP Watchers may request to be eliminated from any future HAP Watchers' mailing. Please allow for human error and a reasonable amount of time for this to be accomplished.

Other Solutions For Dealing With Unwanted Email
First, there is always the Delete key. Next, try setting the "rules" in your email program to automatically delete or divert into a "Junk" folder any email received from an address which will not take you off a list. (I have three of these) The Mail component of Macintosh OS X makes this very easy. It is likely that other email applications have similar functions.]