Potter and Public Housing Policy - Your Views 5/31/05

To: Journalists of Multnomah County

Sometime after July 1st I will be writing a HAP Watcher commentary focused entirely on mayor Potter's record regarding public housing policy during his first six months in office. I would like your help in pulling this article together.

If any of you will have written or broadcast a story by June 30th describing Tom Potter's activities as Multnomah County's Public Housing Czar in a positive light, especially if you used the words, " Potter and twenty-nine public housing commissioners" or "Potter and public housing policy" please point me to the URL of the piece or send me a copy.

If any of you have an off-the-record positive comment to make in defense of Potter's six month record of his stewardship of $100,000,000 in public housing funds and how he is both encouraging and enforcing Portland's official public housing policy of distribution not concentration of public housing clients into a few select neighborhoods in Multnomah county I would be very interested to hear or read what you have to say.

As always, I am open to being influenced by a good argument substantiated with evidence.

Below is a copy of an email I recently sent to Potter and his staff. I want all of you to understand that I am trying very hard to have a conversation with the mayor's office before I write another commentary on Potter's public housing policy activities.

Thanks for your interest and support.


Richard Ellmyer
Writer/Publisher HAP Watcher commentary
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 6% solution neighborhood, North Portland
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org


From: Richard Ellmyer <ellmyer@macsolve.com>
Date: May 31, 2005 12:47:43 AM PDT
To: Sara Culp <sculp@ci.portland.or.us>
Cc: Tom Potter <tpotter@ci.portland.or.us>, Sanjeev Balajee <sbalajee@ci.portland.or.us>, John Doussard <jdoussard@ci.portland.or.us>, Nancy Hamilton <nancyh@ci.portland.or.us>, Elizabeth Kennedy-Wong <ewong@ci.portland.or.us>, Hannah Kuhn <hkuhn@ci.portland.or.us>, Rochelle Lessner <rlessner@ci.portland.or.us>, Amanda Lowthian <alowthian@ci.portland.or.us>, Charlie Makinney <cmakinney@ci.portland.or.us>, Austin Raglione <araglione@ci.portland.or.us>, Jessi Rhodes <jrhodes@ci.portland.or.us>, Carmen Rubio <crubio@ci.portland.or.us>, Hanh Ta <hta@ci.portland.or.us>, Veronica Valenzuela <vvalenzuela@ci.portland.or.us>

Subject: So, Are We Ready To Move On?

Hi Sara:
I hope that you and the rest of the mayor's staff will forgive me for including all of you in this communication but since the last person assigned to deal with me, Jamall Folsom, "disappeared" without notice and no one spoke up to tell me they were taking his place, there is, as I like to say, ample evidence to justifiably lead me to believe that this could happen again. So, just in case you, "disappear" before my next HAP Watcher deadline on July 1st, I'm placing my bets on the entire staff believing that someone will be around to get the message.

My question to Tom and all of you is this: What are you people up to when it comes to public housing policy? I don't know. Do you know? Really. Does Tom or anyone on his staff have a plan that is substantially different than mine? If you do why won't you tell me?

On September 3, 2004 I spent an hour and a half with candidate Potter. During that conversation Tom agreed that: A) Gathering public housing data by neighborhood was essential B) The mayor needed to meet with all twenty-nine public housing commissioners on a regular basis to provide guidance and build relationships C) A conversation with Metro councilors needed to start to begin the process of regionalizing public housing policy and operations. Nine months have passed. Tom is mayor. But he hasn't accomplished a single one of the most important items on the public housing policy goals agenda. I don't get it. What in the Hell are you waiting for?

None of my HAP Watcher commentary readers, which includes all of the Multnomah County press, nor anyone else will believe that Tom Potter, can possibly guide, monitor and supervise the twenty-nine public housing commissioners that serve at his pleasure without a staff person whose portfolio includes liaison responsibility for HAP, HCDC, PDC and Metro's public housing policy group. Assigning this task and then publishing it on the mayor's website is the very first thing that must done to bring some credibility to the mayor's decision making on the issue of public housing policy.

It should be clear to all of you that after several appearances before the city council and more than eighty HAP Watcher commentaries over more than a four year period that I not only know what I'm taking about but that I also have a high credibly with my readers and I have no intention of letting the mayor slide away from his public housing policy responsibilities unnoticed.

When Tom and I talked in September I left believing that we were on the same track. Now I'm not so sure. I voted for Tom. I supported Tom. I had not one but two lawn signs in my yard. And now I'm stumped. Did the man I talked to in September morph into some other being? Even his public attempt to tell HAP to produce their public housing data by neighborhood was a failure. If you were sitting at my desk how would you read, again what I like to call, "the available public evidence?"

I have said and written time and again that I want Tom to be successful. But it is very hard to do this when I can't get an appointment to talk to him nor anyone else on his staff. You are failing Tom and the citizens of Multnomah county, yes, not just Portlanders but 700,000 citizens of Multnomah county by not talking to me and telling me what you're up to. It is a losing strategy, for everyone.

The mayor and his staff are judged everyday by what they do and what they don't do on a myriad of issues. When it comes to judging what the mayor and his staff and all twenty-nine public housing commissioners are doing with public housing policy decisions and the annual spending of $200,000,000 of taxpayers money, thousands of voting, politically active Multnomah county citizens rely on Richard Ellmyer's reporting and commentary to help them form an opinion. There is no other source that's even in the game. And that's a fact.

On July 1, 2005 the Potter administration will have been in office for six months. On or after that date I will publish a HAP Watcher commentary devoted entirely to the Potter administration's performance with regard to public housing policy and the expenditure of $100,000,000 of tax moneys during his watch. I will write about it as the semester final. The grade this time is not just for an exam but for Public Housing Policy 101 and will go only to the mayor. Staff failures are now his failures. Failing an exam is one thing. Failing the class is quite another.

The questions (see below) are the same as they have been since January 2005. They are a way of both outlining what needs to be done and measuring how well you are along the path to achieving these goals. As a reminder: With the lone exception from the mayor's office, not a single HAP Watcher reader of thirty-five hundred challenged or complained about the questions, the form, the time frame or the grade the last time you were given this questionnaire. They are also more than willing to accept the legitimacy of, "available public evidence" if the respondent remains mute.

Are We Ready To Move On? I hope so. Because we haven't even gotten to the really hard stuff yet. That's the 3-6-9 resolution. But we can't get to that until we get the public housing data by neighborhood and that needs to start being delivered on a monthly basis ASAP. 144 weeks and counting.

Call me. We really need to talk, in person. Thanks.


Richard Ellmyer
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 6% solution neighborhood, North Portland
* http://www.goodgrowthnw.org



Your response to these questions is due June 30, 2005.
1. Has the mayor met with or officially announced a meeting to be held with all twenty-nine housing commissioners from HAP, HCDC and PDC to give them guidance in their joint annual spending of $200,000,000 of taxpayers money on public housing in Multnomah county?

2. Have you asked for and received public housing data by neighborhood from HAP, HDCD and PDC?

3. Have you directed HAP, HCDC and PDC to use the neighborhood public housing data they provided to the mayor's office as the basis to publish maps and tables, modeled on those found here - http://www.goodgrowthnw.org , on their respective websites?

4. Has the consolidated neighborhood public housing data provided to the mayor's office by HAP, HCDC and PDC been converted into maps and tables modeled on those found here - http://www.goodgrowthnw.org and then published on the mayor's website?

5. Has preparation begun for a series of town hall meetings, city council work sessions, HAP/PDC/HCDC public testimony and work sessions, etc. to discuss the meaning of the neighborhood public housing data and its impact on the 3-6-9 resolution?

6. Has the mayor publicly announced that the Bureau of Housing and Community Development, BHCD, will remain permanently in the mayor's portfolio?

7. As the person in the mayor's office responsible for monitoring the activities of public housing commissioners have you collected evidence that demonstrates that Shar Giard, Catherine Such and all other nominees to HAP, PDC and HCDC made by mayor Potter have supported and advanced the mayor's public housing policy agenda?

8. How many official meetings have been held among mayor Potter and or his staff with any Metro councilors to discuss regionalizing public housing policy and operations?

9. From Jan 1, 2005 to June 30, 2005 list the dates and names of all twenty-nine public housing commissioners at HAP, PDC and HCDC with whom you had a conversation that began, "I'm Sara Culp, public housing policy liaison from Mayor Potter's office. I'd like to talk to you about the mayor's positions and your views on public housing policy especially concentration versus distribution of public housing in Multnomah county's 117 neighborhoods" and give a brief summary of their responses. [Even more points if the mayor had these conversations.]

10. Does the person assigned as the: HAP, PDC, HCDC, Metro public housing policy committee liaison have that portfolio designation appear on his or her staff web page?

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