Kandis Nunn. Provide The Data, Resign or Face Dismissal

HAP Chair's humiliating disregard of the mayor's instructions may be just the catalyst needed to awaken the Multnomah county press from their public housing policy coma.

To: Kandis Nunn, Chair, Housing Authority of Portland
On January 26, 2005 you were told by mayor Potter during a public Portland City Council meeting to provide HAP's public housing data by neighborhood. As of May 9, 2005 there continues to be no public evidence to prove that you have complied with that order.

The task you were publicly instructed to accomplish is technically trivial. It merely requires converting street addresses into neighborhoods. The software to do this has been available online for many years through ONI and now through Portland's mapping site. To run approximately 35,000 HAP records would take no more than a few minutes at most.

ORS 456.ll0 gives the power to mayor Potter to remove from office any appointed commissioner, "For inefficiency or neglect of duty or misconduct in office." To spend more than fourteen weeks trying to accomplish a task that requires only a few minutes is certainly "inefficient' by anyone's standards. Failure to accomplish this task after fourteen weeks is arguably "neglect of duty" and insulting the mayor by ignoring his public instructions is certainly "misconduct in office."

A tab delimited text file containing approximately 35,000 records each with two fields, one with a neighborhood, one with a HAP designation of median income (0-30,31-50,51-80%) must be available to the press and the public by Monday May 16, 2005 and revised monthly thereafter. Failure to provide this public information by May 16, 2005 will result in a formal request of mayor Potter to have you removed for just cause under ORS 456.110.

For several years you have vigorously refused to provide HAP's public housing data by neighborhood. Now, even with public instructions from the mayor you continue to belligerently withhold vital public information necessary to evaluate an official public housing policy of distribution throughout Multnomah county not concentration of public housing clients into a few select neighborhoods. If you "force" Tom Potter to coverup your failure and defend your indefensible behavior you will certainly cause a stain on his reputation. Do the right thing. Don't put Tom on the spot. PUBLISH THE DATA. NOW.

Richard Ellmyer
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 6% solution neighborhood, North Portland
* http://www.goodgrowthnw.org
Click to download (768Kb) and hear a short relevant message. http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/HAPCommentary5-2-05.mp3