From: ellmyer@macsolve.com
Subject: HAP Public Data - By Neighborhood Or Not
Date: November 14, 2005 6:52:29 PM PST
To: ShelleyM@hapdx.org
Cc: jbeason@ci.portland.or.us, tpotter@ci.portland.or.us, sculp@ci.portland.or.us, samadams@ci.portland.or.us, board@hapdx.org
Hi Shelley:
Thanks for the prompt reply. I just received an email from Jesse Beason which included a copy of a letter you presumably intended to send to me along with a copy of the "moving to work" document. I received the document but no letter. I remember receiving it and thought at the time it a bit unusual since I didn't remember asking for it. So I assumed that I was on some HAP mailing list and it was sent out to everyone on the list. If I had received your letter dated October 11, 2005 you can be certain that I would have replied.
The letter's language is still dancing around the same old tree. We need to move on. I do not hold you in any way responsible for this dilemma. You are staff. You do what you are told by your boss, Steve Rudman, and he does what he's told by his boss, Kandis Nunn and she does what she's told by our mayor, Tom Potter. This data standoff is really between Richard Ellmyer - and the 700,000 citizens of Multnomah county that he represents in this matter - and Tom Potter. In the end, Potter will either order, again, Kandis Nunn to deliver public housing data by neighborhood or he won't. It's that simple.
For whatever reason I cannot understand, Tom has not yet come to grips with the fact that he is the Multnomah County Public Housing Czar and he is responsible to guide, supervise and coordinate the activities, including the annual spending of $200,000,000, of 29 public housing commissioners. I have not had a conversation with his housing liaison, Sara Culp, so I don't know what sort of advice she is giving him or if she has enough knowledge, experience and clout to actually give him advice, good or bad. But I'm working on finding that out.
Of course, I am just as bewildered by why HAP won't make the data I have asked for available. What's the big deal? It's technically trivial. And please, tell everyone at HAP to stop repeating this useless mantra that federal regulations prohibit HAP from releasing personal client data. I have NEVER, NEVER, NEVER asked for any personal HAP client data. There. That's an end to it. That red herring is now dead and buried. And I have no interest in HAP unit data. Useless. The only data that is meaningful is that which contains client by client by client records. Everything else only clouds and obfuscates the true picture. Maybe over coffee and off the record you could explain to me the reasoning behind the HAP board's refusal to provide public housing data by neighborhood. I really don't understand. But I will continue to do my best to get it.
I will also do my best to keep this issue on the public agenda especially as it involves the numerous candidates running for public office in Multnomah county. I fully expect that pressure from candidates, Sam Adams and perhaps a city commissioner or two from Gresham will eventually force Potter to instruct, again, Kandis Nunn to direct HAP staff to make available HAP's public housing data by neighborhood. It is the nature of competitive elections to put controversial items on the public table. I believe it is only a matter of time before candidates realize that whatever data HAP is currently willing to give them won't be good enough for public debate and discussion and certainly woefully inadequate to the making of good public housing policy.
I fully expect that tomorrow night I will take my three minutes to ask two questions to which there will be no response. I will take that as a No we won't give you any HAP client data in the form of a tab delimited text file by neighborhood or otherwise. It is necessary for me to make an appearance for the public record. Then, as I have said, those that indicate to me that HAP client data in the form of a tab delimited text file will not be forthcoming will be listed in a petition to mayor Potter for dismissal. Despite Tom's assurances as a candidate to look into previous charges I have made against the HAP board, as mayor he seems to have ignored that part of his housing oversight responsibilities as he has just about everything else related to public housing policy. As a result of Tom's unwillingness to do his job and the abysmal history of his predecessor, Vera Katz, I am proposing a serious counterbalance of power to be held by the Multnomah County Auditor. But more of that later.
In all of our communications since January 26, 2005 I've noticed a lack of any reference to Potter's directive of that date to provide public housing data by neighborhood in anything you have written to me. Why is that? Do you have anything in writing from Potter that rescinded his public instructions to provide public housing data by neighborhood?
I would and possibly will make the following argument should I chose to file an official request for data under the Public Records Law. On January 26, 2005 mayor Tom Potter, during a regular meeting of the Portland city council announced that he had asked the Housing Authority of Portland if it could produce public housing data by neighborhood and its answer was yes. He then, in the presence of HAP's chair, Kandis Nunn, announced that he would write a letter to HAP directing them to make available public housing data by neighborhood. That public act defined the floor or minimum data that citizens could expect as a matter of rightful, legal public access. My request for an authentic, accurate, complete and timely record for every public housing client in the form of a tab delimited text file with the following four fields: neighborhood, median income range (0-30,31-50,51-80%), age and gender is merely a technical definition of Potter's general order. In time we may find out if District Attorney Mike Schrunk agrees with me. I'd prefer to remain in the political arena to resolve this issue but I think I have a pretty good argument if I need to take this to the legal system for resolution.
Thanks for your help. See you tomorrow.
Richard
On Nov 14, 2005, at 3:05 PM, Shelley Marchesi wrote:
Hi Richard:
I just wanted to let you know that I have received your request. I will poll those who handle our public records requests in our different departments, and let you know what requests we've met over the period of time you specified.
I should be able to provide an answer by early next week.
Shelley
Shelley Marchesi
Director, Policy and Public Affairs
Housing Authority of Portland
135 SW Ash St.
Portland, OR 97204
503-802-8427
shelleym@hapdx.org
>>> Richard Ellmyer <ellmyer@macsolve.com> 11/14/2005 1:18:54 PM >>>
Hi Shelley:
Please send me the names and contact information of every citizen, candidate, public official or their staffs that has received, free or at some cost ($?), any HAP public data within the last 53 days. Include the nature of the content and data format.
Thank you.
Richard Ellmyer
3-6-9 Resolution author and project champion
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses.
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watcher commentary - Published on the Internet and distributed to 4000 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 8% and rising solution neighborhood, North Portland
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org