[What you are about to read is written by someone who supported candidate Potter, voted for him and had not one but two lawn signs urging passers by to cast their ballot for Tom Potter. The writer also publicly offered to coach, tutor, advise or be hired to make sure his winning mayoral candidate could deal successfully with public housing policy in Multnomah county.]

Mayor Tom Potter's 29 Housing Commissioners spent $100,000,000 of our money on public housing in Multnomah county during Potter's first six months in office and Tom doesn't have a clue how or where it went.

Mayor Potter gave city bureau managers six months, a semester, to get with the program. Some didn't make it. Neither did Potter. I don't know if Jim Francesconi would have done any better but he certainly couldn't have done any worse.

Tom Potter Makes His Own Enduring Prima Facie Case For Failure Of Public Housing Policy 101
It is not possible for Tom Potter or any mayor of Portland to succeed in their statutory role as Multnomah County Public Housing Czar without a staff person whose portfolio includes liaison duties with HAP, HCDC and PDC. As of June 30, 2005, the six month marker of the Potter administration, an examination of the available public evidence exposes Potter's disturbingly significant failure to assign these crucial responsibilities to any single member of his staff.

None of the 700,000 people who live in Multnomah county, especially those that work in Portland's city hall, will believe for a minute that the mayor of Portland, who must have someone to keep his calendar straight, could possibly fulfill his responsibilities to guide, monitor, supervise and coordinate the activities of twenty-nine public housing commissioners without a staff person to regularly brief him. Since neither Potter nor his chief of staff have yet to understand this fundamental necessity they perpetuate an enduring prima facie case for failure of Public Housing 101. The profoundness of this failure bodes ill.

Potter promised, then ordered, yet still he failed to deliver public housing data by neighborhood.

Potter has never called a meeting of the twenty-nine public housing commissioners that are only responsible to him and serve at this pleasure.

It doesn't matter what else Tom Potter has or hasn't done with regard to public housing policy. If the mayor can't do these three essential things then he fails.

Failure to Indite
ORS 456.110 gives the mayor of Portland the power to dismiss any of his public housing commissioners for, "Neglect of duty or Misconduct in office or Inefficiency." The case against HAP's Chair, Kandis Nunn, was sufficiently substantive for Potter to acknowledge in September 2004 that it, "warranted investigation." Since then the list of dismissible charges has grown. After six months in office Potter has mistakenly choosen to follow the well worn evasive footsteps of his predecessor, Vera Katz, and completely ignore the abundance of documented legitimate accusations of malfeasance. One can only wonder what level of misdeed, murder?, rape?, kidnapping? it would take for the Multnomah County Public Housing Czar to acknowledge that something was amiss among those who serve at his pleasure.

The High Cost Of Failure
There is a cost to failing this course. First, because Potter is the Multnomah County Public Housing Czar he will have no choice but to be continually enrolled in public housing policy courses until the end of his term. Since he failed PPH 101 he will not be allowed to move on to PPH 201. He must take the course over again until he passes. Tom Potter will also have the same professor who will continue to publicly grade his performance. However, unlike the goodwill and credibility which accompanied the "honeymoon" of his first semester, he starts the repeat class with none, zero, nada. Here's what that means.

Every day Potter goes to work at City Hall every public employee he meets, including all of his staff, will know that he failed Public Housing Policy 101. They may not say it to his face but they know he failed and Potter knows they know he failed.

Every journalist in Multnomah county knows that Tom Potter failed Public Housing Policy 101. When he talks to any member of the Multnomah county press, a cynical bunch to begin with, he will know that his interviewer is quite certain that he is a failure at handling public housing policy. 

Every neighborhood leader of every neighborhood in Multnomah county knows that Potter failed Public Housing Policy 101. Since producing public housing data by neighborhood was his first test at fulfilling his promise to provide neighborhood data from various bureaus and he failed, neighborhood leaders will have much less trust in anything he says with regards to his so-called interest in the importance of neighborhoods. Potter's choice to control the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, ONI, will be seen as something of a joke.

The leadership of the Portland City Club knows that Tom Potter failed Public Housing Policy 101. They are not going to invite him to speak about and certainly not debate Richard Ellmyer on the topic of the role of Portland's mayor with regard to public housing policy in Multnomah County.

There will be literally thousands of voters and political activists who are concerned about good government in Multnomah county who now think considerably less of mayor Potter than before he failed to prove that he could handle his oversight responsibilities with regard to the annual spending of $200,000,000 of their money on public housing.

Behind Potter's back many will now justifiably snicker, "There goes the WIMP - Willfully Irresponsible Mayor Potter." or "There goes the WIMP - Willfully Ignorant Mayor Potter."

Where Are You Hiding Them Tom?
Tom Potter has decided to borrow an alien tradition from some far away African village in which adults passing each other use "how are the children?" as a greeting. Mayor Potter likes to start city council meetings with that question then invites local school kids to say a few words to the council. The questions we should be asking as we greet mayor Potter in the corridors of city hall are:

In what neighborhoods are you concentrating the children who are public housing clients?

In what neighorhoods are you overloading the local schools with at risk kids?

In what neighborhoods are you concentrating children prone to seek solace in gangs?

Tom, we can't tell you HOW the children are until you tell us WHERE the children are?


Richard Ellmyer
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 3500 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 6% solution neighborhood, North Portland
* http://www.goodgrowthnw.org

P.S.
Tom Potter's next take home midterm will be due September 30, 2005. The questions and correct answers remain the same. If you are as disappointed as I am in Potter's performance with regard to public housing policy then please try and help him out. Thanks.